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US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster (centre) arrives with Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Christopher Wilson (right) and Brendan Lynch for a meeting with Indian officials in New Delhi. Associated Press
When US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sits down with India’s prime minister on Wednesday he will be trying to chart a path that keeps the Asian ally onside politically even as the two countries are at loggerheads over trade.
China’s factory activity shrank more than expected in June, an official manufacturing survey showed, highlighting the need for more economic stimulus as US tariffs and weaker domestic demand ramped up pressure on new orders for goods.
The White House said on Friday that President Donald Trump is delaying a decision by up to six months on whether to impose tariffs on imported cars and parts to allow for more time for trade talks with the European Union and Japan.
China on Saturday increased tariffs on billions worth of US goods as it prepares to unveil a blacklist of “unreliable” foreign companies that analysts say aims to punish US and foreign firms cutting off supplies to telecoms giant Huawei.
Emaar Properties announced on Friday it would fully acquire Dubai Creek Harbour, the major development located along the historic Dubai Creek waterfront,
The total value of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi’s non-oil foreign trade reached Dhs124 billion during first half of 2022, compared to Dhs110 billion and 313 million,
As part of its efforts to enhance the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in the Emirate, the Competitiveness Office of Abu Dhabi (COAD), part of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED),


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Chito Aclon’s first encounter with a cat café in Singapore, where he was working at the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort in 2014, left him a little disappointed. “There were only a few cats, most of them sleeping, and there were many of us who visited,” he recalled.
However, that inspired him to plan to put up a cat café in Manila, vowing to do much better in ensuring customer satisfaction. When he finally opened his shop in March 2015, he had up to 14 cats or rare and imported breeds to make sure customers had their fill of interacting with the felines. “When they come to my cat café, they’ll be able to not only touch but to experience cats in a very good way,” said Aclon.
Now, Aclon’s café has up to 18 cats and nine dogs. He added the canines when he renovated the store after a strong typhoon damaged the shop’s interior in December 2015. When he relaunched the business, he had a new name, a new logo and a new brand ambassador. That was also when he added a new section for dogs.
“I was a dog lover first before I was a cat lover,” Aclon said of the decision to introduce dogs into his café. “So I thought of incorporating the dogs together with the cats and build another theme—a pet café.”
Called The Pet Café by Velvet Friends, Aclon’s store hosts the animals in two adjacent but separate areas. These rooms are sectioned off from the main dining area of the café, and customers can choose to visit either the “cat haven” or the “dog garden” at a fixed hourly rate.
Aclon thought of the move as a way to appeal to more customers. “Our business is really multi-faceted in a way that we attract different walks of life—different ages, different genders and different market classes,” he explained.
Many of Aclon’s customers are condominium dwellers who are not allowed to keep pets in their units. However, even those who have pets also come to the café for one reason or another. Some dog owners, for example, want the experience of interacting with cats while cat owners look forward to playing with dogs. “Dog lovers and cat lovers are fascinated with different breeds of dogs and cats in one place,” he explained. “That magnetizes people to come to our place.”
Judging from their social media posts, Aclon’s customers seem more than satisfied with the place. "Couldn't get anymore ecstatic than what I feel as soon as we get inside the cafe and until we got home," says one on Facebook. “Cats and dogs seems to be very happy, healthy and well taken care of. Staff were very friendly and helpful as well,” says another.
The Philippines is one of the world’s largest pet owning nations. Australian pet insurer Petsecure lists the Philippines as one of the top 10 countries with the biggest dog population. The US government said the Philippines was the 10th biggest importer of dog food from America.
This fascination with pets is what makes the animal café business lucrative in the Philippines, according to Aclon. Though he didn’t mention specifics, he said the business was “gaining a lot of revenues,” and that the main revenue stream of his business was from the entrance fees to his “cat haven” and “dog garden”.
In its first year of operations in 2015, Velvet Friends Cat Café Co. reported a revenue figure of Php566,000, according to the company’s financial statements on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Aclon estimates there are at least 10 other animal cafés in the country, each with its own identity, and he is confident that there will be more popping up in the future. “I would love for our industry to grow,” said Aclon. “Filipinos are pet lovers, so there’s a big chance [it will].”
Indeed, Aclon is already preparing to open another animal café south of Manila. Located near Tagaytay and Nuvali in Laguna, the new store would be a multi-level home-based café, emulating the style of animal cafés in Japan and South Korea. Scheduled to open later this year, Aclon shared that similar to his current setup, his second café will first feature cats, and then he will add corgi dogs later.
“This is my bread and butter,” Aclon said of his pet café business. “So one place for me would not be enough.”
Lorenzo Kyle Subido is a staff writer of Entrepreneur PH

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Goodie Girl Tribeca LLC announced on Monday it is voluntarily recalling 389 cases of a single date code of 7 oz. Goodie Girl Magical Animal Crackers, with a “best by” date of Jan 11, 21A3, after learning that the product may contain undeclared wheat ingredients.
According to a statement released by company officials, individuals who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to wheat run the risk of allergic reaction if they consume the product contained in the recalled boxes.
Offcials say there has been an individual with a wheat allergy that was treated for a wheat allergen reaction.
**This recall affects only 389 cases of the following product, which were distributed in retail stores nationwide:**
Description; Goodie Girl GF Magical Animal Crackers
Size; 7 Ounces
Best By Date; Jan 11, 2021
Distributed between 4/17/2020 – 5/7/2020
According to officials, the recall does not apply to any other “best by” dates, sizes, or varieties of Goodie Girl Tribeca LLC. They have not confirmed if any of the cookies were sold in NJ but have said the affected product was found in a warehouse in Pennsylvania.
This recall was initiated in cooperation with the FDA and the third-party co-packer that produced the product.


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Wireless carriers are facing a conundrum: They have invested billions of dollars into improving network capacity, but only a small number of users are responsible for the majority of the network's total data traffic. And while there has been some discussion about usage-based pricing as a solution, there are a range of roadblocks facing operators that chose to travel down that path.
Metered pricing is a simple-sounding solution that has many complex parts. It's technically possible, but how carriers implement the service will depend on their individual business situations.
"I think that it is inevitable for the industry to move toward this, otherwise the business model is not sustainable," said Rafi Kretchmer product marketing manager for revenue management at billing systems vendor Amdocs. He noted that low-volume data users are essentially subsidizing heavy data customers. "In order to address this conflict, they realize that to not leave money on the table, they must differentiate the pricing."
Others agree. "It's a necessary consequence of rising usage of mobile data," said Alastair Hanlon, director of product management at Convergys, another billing vendor. "As usage grows to a level where you're filling all of the available capacity, you're going to see a need to somehow control that usage. And price is a good way of doing that."
Momentum is growing
The introduction of 3G networks in the United States coincided with the widespread use of flat rates for unlimited data use. Carriers sought to entice users by removing the often-confusing per-megabyte pricing of second-generation networks. Today, most wireless carriers offer unlimited data access for around $30 per month for smartphones or $60 per month for laptops.
(Most carriers also impose a usage cap--typically 5 GB per month--in the fine print in order to prevent network overloading, though Sprint Nextel pointed out that its mobile WiMAX service, branded Sprint 4G, currently does not carry a cap.)
However, due to recent, skyrocketing interest in apps and smartphones, carriers' move to simplify the world of data pricing has turned into a liability, rekindling discussions about metered, usage-based pricing.
And carriers seem to be warming to the idea. In January, Verizon Communications CTO Richard Lynch hinted that when Verizon Wireless launches its LTE network later this year, it will introduce a usage-based pricing model, charging customers by how much bandwidth they use.
"The problem we have today with flat-based usage is that you are trying to encourage customers to be efficient in use and applications, but you are getting some people who are bandwidth hogs using gigabytes a month and they are paying something like megabytes a month," Lynch said in an interview with the Washington Post. "That isn't long-term sustainable. Why should customers using an average amount of bandwidth be subsidizing bandwidth hogs?"
In December, AT&T Mobility President and CEO Ralph de la Vega confirmed at an analyst conference that about 3 percent of AT&T's smartphone users generate about 40 percent of its data traffic. De la Vega said the carrier would consider ways to educate users on their data usage, with the intention of preventing excessive use. However, AT&T has not come out explicitly in favor of usage-based pricing.
"Given the dramatic increase in mobile broadband data usage, there needs to be a long-term model that best balances the finite amount of available frequency, the disparity in usage patterns among customers, and the investment and innovation required to make it all happen," AT&T spokeswoman Jenny Bridges said. "There are many ways to address this explosion in data usage to ensure that everyone is able to share the benefits delivered by mobile broadband. We'll continue to explore the best path forward."
T-Mobile USA declined to comment on its pricing plans.
Convergys' Hanlon said there are no technical reasons carriers cannot move from a flat-rate pricing model to a usage-based one, explaining that carriers have been metering voice for a long time and are currently charging customers when they exceed soft data caps--usually 5 GB per month. One challenge, he said, is migrating carriers' older legacy billing systems to ones that are more flexible...Continued


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in the vicinity
Steven Mnuchin talks trade war fears, the stock market tremors
Finance Minister weighs in on President Trump the tariffs, threats of a trade war, and falls in the stock market.
President Trump has not promised too much when he ordered $ 60 billion in tariffs on China, to impose in an obvious attempt, the balance of trade between Nations, and he fully intends that the surcharge on imports, the Minister of Finance of Steve Mnuchin, said Sunday.
“We will go with our rates. We are working on it,” Mnuchin Fox News Sunday said, “” in an exclusive interview that the United States is also trying to a trade deal with China, in the country, a reduction in tariffs and further opening its markets.
“We are at the same time negotiations with the Chinese to see if we can find an agreement,” he said. “As the President has said, we want to cut the trade deficit by 100 billion dollars over the next year. … I’m cautiously hopeful that we will reach an agreement, but if not, we will proceed with these plans. We are not to keep you.”
China has the second largest economy after the United States, in the world market.
Trump announces measures to level the trade playing field
Mnuchin on Sunday also shut down the stock played markets fluctuating sharply since at least the beginning of March, when Trump imposed tariffs on imported steel, and aluminum.
“I think what we do is for the long term good for the econony,” he said. “Free and fair trade.”
PRESIDENT TRUMP ANNOUNCES NEW ROUND OF TARIFFS, INVESTMENT RESTRICTIONS AGAINST CHINA
China fights back against the President, Trump – in tariffs
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 400 points in the last week, in the Trump to the imposition of duties on China vows for allegedly violations of intellectual property rights and China, in turn, to apply, to at least $3 billion in duties on U.S. exports.
“There are a lot of different things, the impact on the stock market, but I think to focus on the most important thing is the market will go up and down in the short term, the really important question is, where will it be, the long-term. And the market is still a huge effort, since the said since the election,” Mnuchin.
“I don’t expect to see a big impact on the economy,” he added. “We were very careful how we do this and what we do.”


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NETFLIX has vowed to plough a record £12billion into programmes this year after a slowdown in new subscribers saw its shares plummet.
The streaming giant, which enjoyed a bumper 2020 due to the pandemic, signed up only four million new customers between January and March this year. This was about two million off its target, company figures showed.
And billions of dollars were wiped off the company’s value, with shares plunging by as much as 11 per cent.
Netflix, which still enjoys a total 208million subscribers, blamed the numbers on production delays due to Covid.
It estimates it will add just one million new streaming customers this quarter - its slowest growth on record.
However, the service added that it is is planning to spend $17billion (£12.2billion) on content this year, predicting a much stronger second half to the year.
This will see the return of hit shows such as Sex Education and Money Heist as well as new films such as Don’t Look Up starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Meryl Streep.


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(Image source from: Economía Digital)
The most popular freeware instant messaging app globally confirmed its prior announcement that, as of Monday, any users who have not backed up their chats and stored data on Google Drive, file storage and synchronization service developed by Google, will lose their chat histories.
The Facebook-owned WhatsApp had reached an agreement with Google last August to store user content on the Google Drive cloud storage service without said data affecting the user's maximum memory limit, Efe reported.
Moreover, WhatsApp warned that any backups that had not been updated in over a year would also be automatically removed from the Google Drive storage.
This will as well let users to effortlessly reload their data on different or new Android smartphones. Android users can update their copy and configure its update frequency as long as they have a personal account on Google.
Earlier this year, WhatsApp's Chief Executive Officer and co-founder, Jan Koum, announced he was leaving Facebook.


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GRI has grown its presence in the USA, expanding the operations of its tire service arm, GRI Fit, into Cincinnati, Ohio. The company has already established itself in the neighboring states of Indiana and Kentucky, hence substantiating its competence and facilities to serve more customers in the USA.
GRI Fit provides on-site and off-site experienced technicians who are able to fit tires and carry out other servicing functions.
“GRI Fit is continuing to look for potential markets as this model is scalable and within our strategic corporate plans,” said Tony Lugioyo, head of global sales for GRI.
“Due to the increase in demand for our tires, GRI Fit will soon be opening a new warehouse in Cincinnati for the distribution of GRI tires, by mid-October,” added Dr Mahesha Ranasoma, CEO of GRI.
Last month, the company also announced its acquisition of the Nortire Group in Northern Europe.


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TOKYO — Fast Retailing Co. Ltd. said Thursday it has signed the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh.
The announcement marks a turning point for the Japanese company, which had held off on signing the agreement in favor of conducting its own factory checks in the country.
The accord, an initiative of IndustriALL Global Union and UNI Global Union, has garnered widespread support from some 80 retailers and brands, mainly European ones, such as Inditex, Hennes & Mauritz, Marks & Spencer, Carrefour, C&A, Primark, Puma and Benetton. PVH Corp., Abercrombie & Fitch Co. and American Eagle Outfitters Inc. have also signed on to the agreement, which took shape after the April collapse of the Rana Plaza factory near Dhaka that killed more than 1,100 people and injured hundreds of others.
Fast Retailing said it had reviewed the terms of the accord and “confirmed that it effectively ensures the safety of garment workers in Bangladesh.” The company said it reached this conclusion after the full details of the accord were released July 8.
“Fast Retailing’s priority is working across the industry to improve conditions for garment workers in Bangladesh. We signed the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh based on ongoing communication with its management and their sharing of the information that we required to make a decision,” said a Fast Retailing spokesman.
The retailer, the corporate parent of Uniqlo, said it started its own independent investigation into fire and building safety at the facilities run by its manufacturing partners in Bangladesh on May 27. The company said this investigation is now complete and follow-up confirmation of building safety is planned. Fast Retailing said full results of the investigation will be released in November.
“In 2004, Fast Retailing introduced a code of conduct for all of its manufacturing partners, and today continues to work with outside experts to monitor conditions at its partners’ facilities to ensure compliance. Fast Retailing’s current independent investigation is an aspect of this process, aimed at strengthening building and fire safety,” the company said.
The Accord on Fire and Building Safety requires that companies mandate and pay for renovation and repairs to ensure factories in Bangladesh are made safe. The five-year pact is a legally enforceable contract between companies and unions that will use binding arbitration to resolve disputes.
A group of North American retailers and apparel brands called the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, unveiled its alternative agreement in July. This rival group, which includes Wal-Mart Stores Inc., The Gap Inc., VF Corp. and Target Corp., has formed a binding five-year worker, fire and factory safety pact that will provide a minimum of $42 million in funds to improve factory safety conditions in Bangladesh.
“We believe that the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety will also significantly benefit garment manufacturing in Bangladesh and foresee synergies with the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh,” the Fast Retailing spokesman said.
Fast Retailing considers itself the fifth-largest private-label apparel retailer in the world behind Inditex, H&M, the Gap and Limited Brands in terms of annual sales volume. Fast Retailing is not disclosing how much it produces in Bangladesh but a spokesman said it is a “very small percentage” of the total and Uniqlo, the company’s biggest brand, manufactures about 70 percent of its goods in China.
Taking the final spot on the mens’ portion of New York Fashion Week calendar next month will be none other than @tomford. Though he’s shown his men’s wear in New York in the past, this will mark the first time the designer has shown his men’s collection alone during New York Fashion Week: Men’s. His runway show will debut on February 6 at the Park Avenue Armory. #wwdfashion
London-based couture house @ralphandrusso has certainly been in the spotlight, having its dresses worn by @beyonce, Angelina Jolie, Meghan Markle in her engagement photos and more. For couture, Tamara Ralph focused on ornamentation — think: feathers with chain mail, jet embroidery and clusters of pearls and crystals. See the rest of the collection on WWD.com #wwdfashion #couture (📷: @giovanni_giannoni_photo)
Minnie Mouse celebrated her 90th birthday by getting her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. For her celebratory luncheon, @coach’s creative director @stuartvevers dressed her in a custom made prairie dress, complete with Vever’s take on the polka dot – black sequined versions – under a cropped motorcycle jacket. The designer also put his own mark on Minnie’s classic red shoes, infusing the color with sparkles and adding some Coach crystals. “We chose colors that were very Minnie and also represented quintessential Coach elements,” said Vevers. #wwdfashion #nationalpolkadotday (📷: George Chinsee)
@nickjonas is unveiling his first-ever apparel collection through a partnership with John Varvatos. The limited-edition capsule, which makes its debut in spring, also marks the first time the designer has collaborated with anyone on a line. “The process in working with Nick is amazing. It’s inspiring to be around someone who is not only connected with the trade that they do, but also with what’s happening in the environment around him, and how that connects to what we do with style,” said Varvatos. (RG: @johnvarvatos) #wwdfashion
@margotrobbie steps out onto the red carpet wearing @miumiu. The actress is nominated for “Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role” in “I, Tonya” at the #SagAwards. (📷: Stewart Cook) #wwdfashion
For @massimogiorgetti of @msgm, the Nineties are his favorite decade. “They had a huge impact on my personal growth. What I like of the Nineties is that they are not so precise in terms of style as other decades…there was actually a bit of everything,” he said. As seen on MSGM’s Spring 2018 show: tie-dye and a bit of grunge, two styles that are synonymous with the decade #wwdfashion #wwddecades (📷: @kukukuba)


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Some things come, some things go, but do you know what’s inevitable? Microsoft’s quarterly reports. And yes, taxes. What’s new on LinkedIn and how these old sayings refer to the network – read along, it’s the 66th LinkedLetter.
LinkedIn’s engagement hit a record high in the last quarter of 2021, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a conference call with analysts and investors on Tuesday. The professional network’s revenue increased 37% year-over-year and Marketing Solutions grew 43% year-over-year, as Microsoft’s Q2 FY22 Earnings report states.
“Last quarter, we once again saw record engagement. And LinkedIn has become one of the world’s largest platforms for professional events, with more than 24,000 events created and 1.5 million RSVPs each week,”Nadella said, according to a transcript.
Moreover, LinkedIn Sales Solutions, the portfolio that combines Sales Navigator and LinkedIn Sales Insights, surpassed $1B in revenue over the past 12 months. See more data on LinkedIn’s Newsroom as the member list consists of 806+ mln. users worldwide.
LinkedIn Kicked Off ‘Welcome, Professionals 2.0’ Integrated Brand Campaign, AdWeek reported. LinkedIn worked with McCann and the first TV spot, “Conversations,” debuted during CBS’s coverage of the National Football League Divisional Playoffs Sunday night. “[Members] are creating new spaces and narratives to reflect our individual journeys. These are the kinds of conversations we see every day on LinkedIn, sparking new connections, possibilities and creating opportunities for more people,” LinkedIn vice president, global brand and consumer marketing Minjae Ormes told Adweek. Well, let’s see:
After the warm welcome, it is time to say goodbye to LinkedIn’s Lite app as it will be deactivated on 15th March 2022 for all Android users.
“We have heard from our members in developing markets that our full version app and mobile web experience now better serve their needs,” Ajay Datta, Head of Product at LinkedIn India, explains in a blog post. The app was launched in August 2017 and was available in more than 60 countries.
The Linked Blog is here to help you or your brand have the best possible LinkedIn presence, so feel free to contact us if you need help! See what else we can do for you here.


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You could spend the next few hours trolling the web for all the reviews or just read the summaries here. Given that Apple provides review units to journalists they trust, it’s a sure bet they’ll like it. And why not? The iPad is far and away the market leader and this year’s iteration builds on that — either you’re in the market or your not and here are some good reasons to get the best.
John Gruber of Daring Fireball fame gets grief for being Apple fanbois number one, but you’d have to be an unthinking troll to believe he is. Nevertheless, Gruber loves the 2012 Apple tablet and, again, why not? There’s certainly nothing better out there, not even close.
50 grams and six-tenths of a millimeter are minor compromises, but compromises they are, and they betray Apple’s priorities: better to make the iPad slightly thicker and heavier than have battery life slightly suffer. And keep in mind that the new iPad 3 remains far thinner and lighter than the original iPad. The retina display is amazing, everything in the UI feels faster, and the price points remain the same. What’s not to love? It’s that simple.
On the subject of big-brained guys that love Apple, Macworld’s Jason Snell doesn’t get the credit he deserves for calling out Cupertino when they deserve it. But, this isn’t one of those occasions, because the 2012 is a solid, solid product.
The new iPad is just that: The iPad, updated for a new year and millions of new iPad users. It’s not smaller or lighter, but it’s got a remarkable screen, a much better rear camera, and support for cellular networking that can run at Wi-Fi speeds. It’s the iPad that millions of people have embraced, only one year better
Loop Insight’s Jim Dalrymple has assumed the role of Apple “eminence beard” in recent years, debunking and anointing the rumors that pass beneath his fickle nose. In his review, he touches on the zeitgeist of the moment — how to describe the ineffable quality embodied in the new iPad’s “resolutionary” Retina display.
I’ve been using the iPad for a week now and I’m so impressed. From the first time I turned it on and saw the Retina display, I was in awe of how good it was. Trust me, even if you watched the introduction video, you still have no idea how good this display is. You really do have to see it to believe it.
BusinessWeek’s Rich Jaroslovsky knows a winner, actually two, when he sees them and the new iPad is better than last year’s model, which in turn is the second best tablet available, period.
The new iPad’s 2012 enhancements — not to mention its wide lead over all rivals in terms of the number and quality of available apps — keep Apple easily ahead of all other tablet makers. In fact, by keeping the iPad 2 alive and cutting its starting price by $100, to $399, Apple has instantly made it the second-best tablet you can buy.
Picture a tall, lanky geek in New York City. Whether you meant to or not, you probably called The Verge’s Joshua Topolsky to mind. How did the “Pete Townsend of tech” get on Apple’s safe journo list? Probably because he’s thorough, really thorough.
In all, the new iPad lived up to my expectations on the performance and battery fronts — and I’m not sure how it might have surpassed them. It’s everything the previous generation was, and then some. Stable, reliable, speedy, and long-lived. What more can you ask for?
Among all journalists, who’s opinion did Steve Jobs value most? Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg and, unsurprisingly, Apple’s oldest friend has good things to say about the new iPad.
Using the new display is like getting a new eyeglasses prescription—you suddenly realize what you thought looked sharp before wasn’t nearly as sharp as it could be… Since it launched in 2010, the iPad has been the best tablet on the planet. With the new, third-generation model, it still holds that crown.
Lots of folks have pooh-poohed the new iPad’s “resolutionary” Retina display, but it’s something that the people who’ve actually seen it say you’ve got to see it for yourself. That said, get yourself to the stores on Friday to see and touch one…
What’s your take?


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Beating Down Your Biggest Fan
After losing round one in mediation, a fan site operator is going to court to stop DaimlerChrysler from getting ownership of dodgeviper.com.
"It's an enthusiast site and who on the Internet says I can't have an enthusiast site?" asked Brad Bargman, webmaster and owner of dodgeviper.com. "It's an outrageous case. I'm a Viper owner and I'm promoting their product."
A spokesman for the DaimlerChrysler Corporation said that the company doesn't encourage enthusiast sites and usually won't take legal action to shut them down. Bargman's case, he said, is different.
"We're not going to ignore someone who attempts to sell the Dodge Viper name on eBay," said spokesman Jay Cooney, adding that the company has spent millions of dollars promoting the trademark.
Bargman has been operating dodgeviper.com as a fan site for close to four years. He said that the site generates up to 4,000 visitors each day.
In March, DaimlerChrysler filed for arbitration under the Uniform Domain Dispute Resolution Process. The company successfully persuaded an arbitrator with the World Intellectual Property Organization's Arbitration and Mediation Center to award it the domain.
"I put in my own defense," Bargman said. "I couldn't afford to get an attorney."
After the arbitrator decided against him, Bargman said, he had to enlist an attorney or lose his domain name. He has filed suit in Virginia to keep ownership of dodgeviper.com.
In order to prevail under the UDRP, a trademark owner has to prove that the domain-name holder has no legitimate interest in the domain and that it was registered and used in bad faith.
At least one trademark law specialist says the WIPO mediator got it wrong on more than one point.
According to the rules, the bad-faith analysis has two prongs: bad-faith use and bad-faith registration of a domain name that includes a trademarked term, said Brett Fausett, an attorney with Hancock, Rothert & Bunshoft.
"It was not bad-faith registration and it was not a bad-faith use," he said. "Neither prong is met so it's doubly wrong."


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||Survey Finds Upswing in the Way Men Dress
When it comes to men, it's okay to judge a book by its cover: A new survey from Men's Wearhouse reports that 91% of Americans think that a man who dresses well seems more attractive than he really is, while 83% of women think a snazzy dresser is sexier than one with lots of dough.
And in what will surely come as a wake up call to all those 30-somethings running around in skater shoes and ballcaps, 65% of those polled believe you can measure a man's maturity level by what he has on.
"It is time to get back to business and make men look like men, whether that means a suit or dark denim jeans and a sports coat," David Lawrence, director of merchandising for the Fremont, Calif.-based chain, told Marketing Daily. "Men look better when they're dressed well."
The good news is that the majority of guys know how clueless they've become: 72% of men admit they feel underdressed most of the time, and 73% believe men don't dress as well as they did 20 years ago.
Retailers hope that with the economy recovering and the job market perking up, these guys will start putting their money where their mouths are. The NPD Group, a Port Washington, N.Y.-based market research company, reports that in the last 12 months, spending on men's clothing fell 1% to $51.38 billion, on top of a 5.5% decline in the previous year.
"Men's fashion is always the first thing to drop in a recession and the last thing to come back," Lawrence says. "But what we're starting to see is that men are beginning to view dressing well as something that is not an option, but something more important."
Indeed, men see their wardrobe as an integral part of career and financial success: Some 75% say they believe men in suits are more successful, and 22% even admit that they think they'd get paid more if they dressed better. And 42% say they would dress better if they knew how. (It's not that their partners aren't dropping plenty of big hints: 32% of the women in the survey have secretly thrown away some of their men's clothing without telling.)
Part of the issue, Lawrence says, is a shortage of generation-appropriate sartorial role models. "You think of George Clooney as being very dapper, but to a lot of young men, he seems older. There are a lot of professional athletes, especially in basketball, who dress really well for their post-game press conferences."
But for both Gen X and Gen Y, he says, "how to dress is a grey area."
(Source: Marketing Daily, 01/05/11)


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Eating candy isn’t a good choice for your aging relative’s health. Or is it? It actually depends on what kind of candy they are eating. Research suggests that eating dark chocolate in moderation has several health benefits. Past studies have shown dark chocolate has physical health benefits, but a recent study suggests it may also have mental health benefits.
Dark Chocolate and Depression
Researchers at the University College London recently looked into how dark chocolate affects depression. The researchers used data collected using the United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. There were 13,626 participants who were all adults aged 20 and older. They determined whether participants were experiencing depressive symptoms using the Patient Health Questionnaire, which is commonly used for assessing mental health problems.
To find out if the participants ate chocolate, the scientists used 24-hour dietary recall. The first time, they interviewed people face-to-face. The second recall occurred via a phone interview that took place three to ten days later. 1,332 people reported eating chocolate. 148 of them said they had eaten dark chocolate.
The researchers found that eating regular chocolate didn’t have a significant effect on depression. However, those who ate dark chocolate reported symptoms of depression 70 percent less than those who didn’t eat chocolate at all.
Other Health Benefits of Dark Chocolate
In addition to possibly being able to boost the mood of your aging relative, dark chocolate may also help them with other kinds of health problems. Some of the benefits of eating dark chocolate are:
Lower Blood Pressure: Eating dark chocolate has been linked to a reduction in blood pressure. It is believed to improve blood flow.
Nutrients: Dark chocolate is packed with nutrients, at least if you purchase high quality dark chocolate that has a high cocoa content (70-85 percent cocoa). It contains fiber, iron, magnesium, copper, manganese, and other nutrients the body needs.
Antioxidants: Dark chocolate is a good source of antioxidants that destroy the free radicals associated with heart disease, cancer, and other health problems.
Increases Good Cholesterol: Studies show that eating dark chocolate can increase HDL cholesterol levels.
Of course, the health benefits of dark chocolate don’t mean that your aging relative should binge on it. Instead, eating a little dark chocolate once per day is good for their health and safe to enjoy for most seniors.
Homecare providers can make sure your aging relative is able to keep some dark chocolate on hand by driving them to the grocery store and assisting them with shopping. If the older adult tends to overeat, a homecare provider can put the chocolate in a safe place and dole out a piece at a time. In addition, homecare providers can balance the extra calories consumed in the chocolate by preparing healthy meals that are lower in calories.
If you or an aging loved-one are considering Homecare Services in Michigan, please talk to the caring staff at Hope Senior Home Care today 313.881.3132.


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Less than a year after leaving Allergan, Brent Saunders has a $1.1B deal to take his SPAC public
Brent Saunders has found a buyer for his SPAC — and the end result is a deal worth over a billion dollars. Saunders’ Vesper Health Acquisition Corp. is reverse-merging with HydraFacial Co., a company that makes skincare products sold by retailers, in a move valued at $1.1 billion.
Though the news concludes the roughly three-month search for a partner after Saunders announced the launch of the SPAC in September, that likely means Saunders isn’t finished wheeling and dealing. He’s moving in as executive chairman and bringing in his close associate, Manisha Narasimhan, as chief strategy officer.
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Indian clothing retail chain Arvind Fashions has inked an MoU with IoT and blockchain venture, Nucleus Vision, for a pilot project across its GAP, Nautica and U.S. Polo Assn. stores. This will aim to boost personalisation efforts via Nucleus Vision’s blockchain and real-time sensor technology.
“We see tremendous interest from customers for a more evolved and personalised shopping experience. Nucleus Vision’s revolutionary technology will give us valuable insights into our customer behaviour, which will help us improve customer satisfaction and increase revisits,” says Rukaiya Rangwala, COO, Digital Centre of Excellence, Arvind Fashions.
“We look forward to expanding the scope of our relationship with Arvind Fashions. This is a big step towards our goal to associate with the leading players in the Indian retail market to help them create better shopper experience,” adds Abhishek Pitti, Founder and CEO, Nucleus Vision.
Adventures in blockchain
Grocers are taking a lead on blockchain technology in the retail sector. 20% of the top 10 global players will use it for food safety and traceability by 2025, according to Gartner.
“Blockchain can help deliver confidence to their customers, and build and retain trust and loyalty,” says Joanne Joilet, Senior Research Director at Gartner. “Grocery retailers are trialling and looking to adopt the technology to provide transparency for their products. Additionally, understanding and pinpointing the product source quickly may be used internally, for example to identify products included in a recall.”
Walmart, for instance, is now requiring suppliers of leafy greens to implement a farm-to-store tracking system based on blockchain. Others, such as Unilever and Nestlé, are also using the technology to trace food contamination.
“As grocers are being held to higher standards of visibility and traceability they will lead the way with the development of blockchain, but we expect it will extend to all areas of retail,” says Joliet. “Similar to how the financial services industry has used blockchain, grocers will evolve best practices as they apply blockchain capabilities to their ecosystem. Grocers also have the opportunity to be part of the advancement of the technology as they develop new use cases for important causes for health, safety and sustainability.”
The post Arvind Fashions taps blockchain tech for personalisation pilot appeared first on Coin Rivet.


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With all of the hype and news about bitcoin and other alternative crypto currencies lately, a common question that arises is if bitcoin is legal in the United States? Although the digital currency has been around since its creation by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009, people still ask the question. The bottom line, is that it is 100% legal to use bitcoin in the U.S…keeping in mind that it is not like the Simpson’s episode from back in the day where they made a play on anything goes in international waters…the same tax and reporting requirements apply to bitcoin for U.S. residents and citizens as any other form of currency.
How is Bitcoin Different from Regular Currency?
Unlike traditional currency as we think about it, with bitcoin there is not a physical currency similar to the Euro, Pound, or Dollar. The crypto currency is saved in either an online or offline wallet that stores the private security key that enables the transaction. Consumers use a ledger that is known as a blockchain that is used to keep track of the full record of all of the bitcoin transactions allowing the currency to be sent to anyone who has a bitcoin address via a peer-to-peer transaction. The currency is also traded on various crypto currency exchanges throughout the world that contribute to setting the value of the currency.
What are the Legal and Regulatory Issues with Bitcoin?
Since there is not a central issuing authority for bitcoin, it exists in a deregulated marketplace. One does not require any personally identifying information to open a bitcoin account similar to a bank account; however, as the currency matures many locations like Coinbase are requiring additional identity verification in order to increase one’s limits on taking money out of bitcoin and converting it to cash. All bitcoin payments made in the United States fall under the same anti-money laundering rules that apply to regular cash as well as payments to and from banking institutions.
Is Bitcoin Accepted Worldwide?
Bitcoin has quickly gained worldwide acceptance with federal authority approval varying by the country. Consumers are able to transfer bitcoin from one country to another without any impediments. The exchange rates between countries and the bitcoin can vary significantly depending on the country. Some countries do place limitations on the use of bitcoin. In Iceland, the currency is prohibited since the 2008 financial crisis. China also places some restrictions on the ability of banks to hold the coin.
How Can You Start Buying Bitcoin Today?
One of the easiest ways to get started with buying bitcoin, bitcoin cash, and other major crypto currencies is to signup for a free account at Coinbase here. If you buy or sell $100 or more of digital currency then you will get $10 free of bitcoin (and we will too for a full disclaimer) until the company discontinues their offer. The company allows deposits from debit/credit cards and checking accounts. You can withdrawal to a Paypal account, but only use the Paypal debit card for deposits. Enjoy! Enjoy the ride, and remember to only invest monies that you can afford to lose due to the volatility of the crypto currencies markets.


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First Contact Entertainment, the developers of Firewall Zero Hour, will showcase their new game Solaris Offworld Combat with gameplay tomorrow during the UploadVR Showcase.
Solaris: Offworld Combat is, like Firewall Zero Hour, a first-person online shooter in VR. Unlike Firewall Zero Hour through Solaris: Offworld Combat is set in a futuristic sci-fi setting. This arena shooter will allow you to be able to play against friends online in a 5 verse 5 battle arena. First Contact Entertainment has already achieved an excellent online VR shooter with Firewall Zero Hour, so we have little doubt Solaris Offworld Combat will be any different.
Solaris Offworld Combat will be coming to PlayStation VR sometime after 2020. The game will also support crossplay between Oculus platforms and PSVR. For now, you can watch the reveal trailer for the game below:
We hope a concrete date will come during the Upload VR Showcase, but it will release on Oculus platforms first. The showcase will be broadcasted on YouTube and we will be covering everything coming to PlayStation VR.
Solaris Offworld Combat releases for PSVR at some point after 2020.
Source – [PlayStaion VR News]


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The Automotive Research Association of India formulates regulations for automotive recalls
A few weeks back, we reported that the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) plans to set up a new crash test facility at Chakan, near Pune. Alongside the new facility, the ARAI is also in the process of putting in place new regulations. These will pan across the various aspects like safety, emissions, fuel efficiency, manufacturing etc. A part of these is a set of regulations for automotive recalls as well.
In the past few years, automobile manufacturers like Nissan, Renault, Honda, Ford, Toyota, and more recently, Maruti Suzuki have been in the news for recalling their vehicles over various issues and concerns. From addressing minor software glitches to rectifying major manufacturing defects or design flaws, the automakers seem to be taking recall policies seriously to improve the customer satisfaction for their brands. However, there aren't many laws or regulations to ensure the identification of such issues, the enforcement of recalls and/or their proper execution. The ARAI aims to fix that with the new regulations.
- Near-production Skoda Slavia spied ahead of early 2022 launch
- Shopping on Indian Highways
- Top 10 best selling cars in India 2021 - Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai dominate
- Audi India start local production of Q5 SUV
- Lifetime replacement spares and labour covered under Volvo Cars' new lifetime parts warranty scheme


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Sigma has announced three new cine lenses to its FF High Speed Prime Line, introducing the 28mm T1.5 FF, 40mm T1.5 FF and 105mm T1.5 FF.
The new Sigma cine lenses are compatible with a full-frame image circle and built for capturing 6K-8K footage.
Each of the Sigma 28mm T1.5 FF, 40mm T1.5 FF and 105mm T1.5 FF are compatible with Canon EF, Sony E and PL mounts.
The Sigma 28mm T1.5 FF price tag has not yet been determined, but the lens will be released in early 2019.
Nor has the Sigma 40mm T1.5 FF price tag been confirmed, but it will be released at the end of this year.
Sigma says the 105mm T1.5 FF price will be £4749 for the standard version lens, or £5649 for the fully luminous version.
The Sigma 105mm T1.5 FF will be available in October 2018.


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Epic Games’ ultra popular video game series Gears of War will be licensing its gameplay platform to government contractor Applied Research Associates. The FBI and other U.S. government agencies will be using the platform to train new recruits and employees.
Epic’s Unreal Engine 3, or UE3, will be used to create training tools such as “a multi-player crime scene training simulation” for the FBI. This protocol is part of a new federal government initiative entitled the Unreal Government Network, or UGN. Epic Games is partnering with Virtual Heroes, a simulation/training video game developer.
“We recognize the growing market needs of our government customers and are excited to have Virtual Heroes provide a full spectrum of focused services and support using our game engine technology,” said Epic Games president and board member Dr. Michael Capps. Capps is a former professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. and the head programmer, designer, and producer of the U.S. Army’s popular recruitment video game, America’s Army.
The first installment of Epic Games’ well-known Gears of War series was released in 2006. Gears is only available on the Xbox – and has sold over 5.88 million copies worldwide.
The partnership between Epic Games and Virtual Heroes will cover future development projects for a variety of hardware and software platforms, such as the PS3, the Wii U and PCs and Macs.
“Virtual Heroes is committed to providing world-class support to our licensees to ensure that all UE3 solutions achieve the best possible results across multiple platforms,” said Jerry Heneghan, founder of Virtual Heroes and the director of ARA’s HumanSim product development, in a statement. “Our technical and creative staff is uniquely qualified to provide a new standard of responsive, personalized service to government customers worldwide.”


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Nearly three billion square inches of silicon wafer were grown, sliced, polished, and shipped out in the second quarter this year to semiconductor suppliers, which etch computer processors and other types of circuitry onto the blanks.
In this year’s second quarter, manufacturers shipped around 2,798 million square inches of silicon wafers, irreplaceable in the global electronics supply chain. That has risen 4.2% from the first quarter this year and 10.1% from the same period last year, according to latest report from SEMI, a global microelectronics industry association.
“For the fifth consecutive quarter, global silicon wafer volume shipments have shipped at record levels,” said Chungwei Lee, vice president of corporate development for GlobalWafers, in the quarterly report. These results “are being driven by both 200mm and 300mm shipments,” he added.
More wafers have been delivered to semiconductor suppliers as the market undergoes a surprising surge. Industry analysts predict that soaring prices for memory chips could drive the global market over $400 billion for the first time this year, up from $339 billion in 2016. That growth has also been spurred by the digitization of cars and factories.
In response, companies are doling out billions of dollars on new manufacturing equipment in factories, particularly for etching chips on 8 inch wafers. That machinery is favored in China, as that country’s companies buy used equipment from bigger corporations that have upgraded to silicon printing presses that spit out 12-inch wafers.
The silicon wafers, shipped to every semiconductor manufacturing plant, start out as tiny silicon crystals. These seeds are placed inside a crucible and cultivated into ingots. Specialized machinery draws out the ingots into rods, which are sliced into wafers that serve as substrate materials on which semiconductors are fabricated.
The average selling price of these glossy silicon plates has fallen over the last few years, which has triggered industry consolidation. Last year, Taiwan’s GlobalWafers closed its $683 million deal for SunEdison Semiconductor, which gave it around 17% market share. Shin–Etsu and Sumco hold two-third of the entire industry’s supply.
But the falling prices could start reversing with growing wafer sales to Chinese factories, experts say. Doris Hsu, GlobalWafers’ chief executive, said in a recent earnings call that the company – one of the five major firms that hold around nine-tenths of the total market – expects prices to rebound after last year hitting record lows.
In a recent report, SEMI said that it was tracking the construction of more than 20 semiconductor fabs in China. In February, GlobalFoundries announced a $10 billion project in the Chinese city of Chengdu as part of a major initiative by the local government to boost the country’s domestic production of chips.


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This is a story about an unusual, yet extremely well-kept secret.
The mascot of an automotive shop in Melbourne’s west has been in a different location for decades, but he is still in his original spot.
But when it comes to car hoists, the original location is gone.
It was only when the shop was rebranded and reopened that a new one was constructed.
Car hoists in Melbourne are a specialised hobby, and the iconic orange and blue moustache has remained in the shop since it opened.
“When we first started, we had to do a lot of research on the car,” Mr Gull said.
“We went through a lot, we took lots of pictures, we went back and looked at the photographs and found that this was not the same shop.
We were very, very proud of the original, but the shop is gone, and now we just have to make it look brand new.”
The shop is still standing today, but it is no longer a car shop.
The new shop is a vehicle and accessory shop.
It is called the Tanaka Shop, and it is currently open every day, and there is currently a new car in the queue for the new car hoisting station.
Mr Gull is confident that when the new shop opens, the old shop will be gone.
“The car hoisers are very popular and they do get a lot more people in and out of the shop,” he said.
This story has been updated to include the new owner of the car hoiser.
Topics:business-economics-and-finance,business-news,cars,community-and,lifestyle-and_leisure,melbourne-3000,vicsource Google News


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September 3, 2019
FALL’S BEER BARS AND BREWERIES GO BIG
New York will get a two-story brewery, a maritime-themed brew pub and more.
By Joshua M. Bernstein - The New York Times
Now that New York City’s beer boom has brought thriving breweries, taprooms and beer bars to every borough, new places may have to offer a little something extra to get attention. Some of this fall’s openings will do just that: a sprawling food-hall bar with a long, global beer list; a maritime-themed brew pub with a community events space; a two-story brewery with a cocktail lounge and live music; and a brewery using a yeast strain found in a Brooklyn park.
Inside the Market Line food hall and marketplace on the Lower East Side — a 150,000 square-foot space, opening in October as part of the Essex Crossing development — the Grand Delancey is the first New York City bar from Neighborhood Restaurant Group, which operates beer bars in Washington, D.C., including ChurchKey. The Grand Delancey will have a menu of 50 draft beers from local breweries like Grimm Artisanal Ales in Brooklyn and respected producers like Hill Farmstead in Vermont. There will also be British cask ales and European pilsners, lagers and saisons that are rarely seen on this side of the Atlantic.
“We’re aiming to show the full spectrum of beer flavor,” said Greg Engert, the group’s beer director and a managing partner.
Each beer will be served at its ideal temperature — 42, 48 or 54 degrees — in one of a dozen styles of glasses, accentuating aromatics and taste. Given the large, diverse list, the Grand Delancey’s bar staff will offer recommendations and steer patrons toward marketplace food pairings. Customers can bring in food from Market Line vendors, including dim sum from Nom Wah and sausages from Schaller & Weber.
“It’s almost like a beer-and-food pairing lab,” Mr. Engert said.


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S2014-10-08 for the annual fall food drive for the Stettler Food Bank.
Before the boxes and bags started to flow into the food bank, located at the United Church, the shelves in the food bank’s rooms were nearly empty. The back store room was barren as well.
“It’s the lowest I’ve ever seen,” one volunteer said as she rushed by, a box of food in her arms.
The fire department was joined by volunteers from ATCO, which sent out 10 trucks to take the food donations collected by the firefighters and run them back to the church. There, an army of volunteers from the food bank, the Church of Latter Day Saints, Heartland Youth Centre, and members of the community – including several who have had to turn to the food bank for assistance – marched the boxes, crates and bags full of food inside and sorted them for quick storage downstairs.
According to Birch, the local grocery stores have been great assistance to the food bank, donating baked goods for distribution. Money donated to the food bank goes to paying for things like milk, margarine, and other staple products that the food bank runs short on.
One thing Birch said she hopes to see in donation bins is coffee.
“Most people like to have their cup of coffee in the morning,” she said.
Even instant coffee can be out of reach for people relying on a food bank to help keep bellies full, and as it’s not a staple food, the food bank itself won’t purchase it. But having it and being able to give it out to people in need is something that is always warmly received, Birch said.
On average, each family that comes to the food bank for help receives five bags of groceries, an estimated value of $117. Most only come once a month, but some families are in such tight times that they will come more than once.
“It’s not an easy thing for people to do,” Birch said.
When the Independent went to the food bank on Tuesday to interview volunteers, there were several people present, all of different ages, sexes and ethnicities.
None would speak to the paper, even anonymously, about the experience.
“It really hurts to have to go for help,” Birch said.
Though the shelves at the food bank are full, there are some items the food bank could still use to help round out the hampers provided to people in need.
“Healthy food is the most important,” she said. “While everyone, even people relying on food banks for help, deserves treats, there’s only so many meals one can make out of a treat.”
Food like canned fruit and vegetables, non-sugary cereals, and basic meal staples make the best donations.
Right after that come food items that can be made into kids’ lunches.
“Cheese spread is so expensive, and we didn’t get a lot of it (during the drive),” Birch said. “But it’s so popular and it’s great for lunches.”
She also said juice boxes would be a useful addition to the food bank’s larder.
“Complement foods” are also needed. These foods round out a meal, and often when people are donating food they don’t think about what they’d need if they were making that for a meal themselves.
Spaghetti and pancake mix make good examples of a need for complement foods. Both are frequently donated, but spaghetti sauce or syrup less often.
“We find ourselves buying spaghetti sauce,” Birch said.
It’s still possible to donate to the food bank, either at local grocery stores or at the food bank itself.
Though Birch said the shelves won’t be bare by Christmas, the volunteers will be needing to purchase food to augment shortcomings.
The final thing Birch suggested when trying to decide what type of food to donate is a very simple question.
“Would I eat this?”
Healthy food is hard to buy
For families on a tight budget, the quality of food coming into the home suffers. It’s often less expensive to buy cheap, processed food rather than fresh produce and longer-to-cook meals, and health can suffer.
Statistics show that people in a low-income situation have higher incidents of obesity, Type II diabetes, and heart-health issues that are rooted in the food they eat.
When people donate food like cake mixes or sugary cereals donate these items to food banks, they do it with good intentions, according to the Put Food in the Budget, a grassroots organization that tries to draw attention to the cost of living when it includes healthy food.
The problem is these less healthy treats can come to make up an unhealthy proportion of a family’s meal, especially if the family is especially reliant on a food bank for meals.
It doesn’t help that so many of the foods that are non-perishable are high in carbohydrates.
Statistics from the University of Alberta reveal that one of the first costs a family slashes in the face of rising expenses and lower income is food. It starts with eating out but the cuts can go even deeper.
Healthy food donation ideas
Meat & Protein
Vegetables & Fruit
Low-sodium canned vegetables
Vegetable soups and chilis
Feminine hygiene products


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SunTrust Banks has released an update to its mobile banking smartphone app to include mobile deposits, the Memphis Business Journal reports.
Using a smartphone camera, SunTrust (NYSE: STI) customers can now take a picture of the front and back of checks to submit them for deposit.
The update adds more depth to SunTrust’s mobile banking options, which already include mobile fund transfer and bill payment for some customers. The app is available for iPhone, Android and Blackberry users.
SunTrust ranked No. 4 on the Business Journal's list of the top 25 banks in South Florida with $11 billion in deposits and 102 branches in the tri-county area.


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The FIFA fever
AdFreak reports Yahoo! and MSN are getting ready for the 2006 World Football Championship in Germany. Yahoo is sponsoring the official FIFA website, while MSN has signed some top players (Brazil’s Ronaldinho, England’s Michael Owen, Italy’s Gianluigi Buffon etc…) to post their diaries online. Furthermore, MSN will integrate World Cup content into MSN Messenger and launch an interactive soccer game.


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Today, the country announced a drop in wholesale prices, boosting both retailers and banks, report Alexander Ragir and Paulo Winterstein for Bloomberg. Citigroup strategists say the economy is growing and inflation expectations have peaked.
Is it so? Could be, but we recommend you wait until Brazil moves back above its trend line to be sure instead of trying to make predictions.
iShares MSCI Brazil Index (EWZ) will be in a good position if inflation calms down, and the recent blend of yen to real creates a cash surplus for the economy.
EWZ is down 8.7% year-to-date, while BZF is up 4.7% since its May 23 inception.


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In spite of growing disillusion with the SPAC strategy to goose the IPO market, Arogo and Eon Reality announce a deal worth $655 million. Eon lays out big plans in Istanbul.
Arogo is a special-purpose acquisition corporation (SPAC). It is joining with Eon Reality to form a publicly traded company called Eon Reality, Inc. and will trade under the symbol EOXR. Eon Reality was founded 20 years ago in Sweden and has grown through acquisition, with offices all over the world. The company will be led by founder Dan Lejerskar, the current CEO.
The company says it has seen substantial growth in recent years with its shift to the education and training market. The company says knowledge is a human right, which should be available, accessible, and affordable for every person on the planet. Further, the company believes its new product Eon-XR, a SaaS platform for content creation and training, has the potential to be the primary product and content delivery vehicle for XR education and industry solutions. As a cloud-based product, Eon-XR can deliver content to all clients—mobile, tablet, desktop, and even immersive domes, the company said. Its goal is to enable its customers to easily build, deploy, and scale XR applications to support employee training and increase productivity.
Eon-XR was released in 2016 as a mobile application that lets users create, share, collaborate, and publish AR and VR content on their devices without having to know how to program. In 2022, the company launched its Eon-XR SaaS project for education and training, and has announced plans to concentrate on this aspect of its business.
The deal with Arogo, says Lejerskar, will help Eon grow, thanks to the Arogo management team’s experience in scaling similarly sized companies.
Specifically, the new company will have an enterprise value of $655 million and the deal will provide Eon with $101 million in cash proceeds, to bring $101 million in proceeds to its balance sheet (assuming no redemptions and before the payment of transactional fees and expenses).
The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2022.
Eon-XR has enabled the company to build a library of over 2 million assets and growing. They have also built an international development network with more than 20 locations. The company says there are over 8,000 applications and over 40 million users worldwide, and has a Web page with sample applications that have been built with Eon-XR.
Eon is already spending money. Most recently, Eon threw itself a big conference and festival in Istanbul and announced new development directions and an expanded marketplace.
The new Eon Marketplace will enable users and institutions to buy experiences and sell their own. Lessons will be available for sale, as well. The store will use Stripe as a payment system.
In 2023, Eon plans to introduce hardware agnostic content through its Eon Universal. They’re starting with support for the Meta Quest (1 and 2), HTC Vive Pro, HoloLens (1 and 2), and Magic Leap 2. Plans also call for multi-user sessions between different types of devices.
Eon Knowledge Worlds will enable the creation of entire digital worlds where users can buy, sell, and trade land and objects, and fill these worlds with their own content and experiences. The Knowledge Worlds plan will also integrate NFTs.
Eon’s tools will enable persistent tracking through Eon Illuminate. Users will be able to create specific experiences to specific locations so everyone in the world can see them. The coming Illuminate technology will allow people to join the same sessions and experience the same content together.
The company’s coming EON Interact technology will advance Eon’s content interaction abilities. Currently, users can interact with objects in Eon’s immersive environments, but the company’s Interact, now in development, will enable different locations, parts, triggers, and conditions to be added to objects having unique behaviors.
Eon says its Metaverse Builder tool is already extremely powerful, but the process of building content can sometimes require as many as 60 clicks for users to get the experience they want. The company is using AI and automation to reduce the number of clicks and thereby reduce the time of development. Related to this initiative, Eon says it is planning to roll out the Eon AI platform in the third quarter of 2023.
Finally, Eon announced the Eon-XR Modernization program, which will update the interface, add new social features, offer a personalized home page to users, and introduce new interaction for experiences.
At the Istanbul event, Lejerskar promised the arrival of Human 2.0, which he defined as “a way for all of us to augment ourselves and reach new heights with the help of technology and artificial intelligence.”


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- The entire worth locked in DeFi protocols has simply hit a brand new all-time excessive of $34.2 Billion
- That is partly as a result of Bitcoin, Ethereum and several other Defi tokens similar to Uniswap, gaining worth this week
- In line with the workforce at Weiss Rankings, the potential for development in DeFi is gigantic
The DeFi realm has hit a brand new milestone when it comes to whole worth locked. In line with DeFiPulse, DeFi protocols have set a brand new all-time excessive of $34.2 Billion in whole worth locked. This milestone may be seen within the following screenshot courtesy of DeFiPulse.com.
Ethereum, Bitcoin and DeFi Tokens at All-time Excessive Ranges
Key to the full worth locked in DeFi reaching $34.2 Billion is the appreciation within the worth of Ethereum, Bitcoin and several other DeFi tokens. This previous week alone has seen Ethereum and prime DeFi tokens similar to Uniswap hit all-time excessive ranges.
On the time of writing, Bitcoin – which is on the core of WBTC – is buying and selling at $38k. Moreover, Ethereum has confidently damaged the $1,700 ceiling and is buying and selling at $1,720. With respect to DeFi tokens, AAVE is buying and selling at $527; Uniswap at $20.75; Maker at $2,660; simply to call a number of.
DeFi’s Potential for Progress is Monumental
With respect to the way forward for DeFi, the workforce at Weiss Crypto Rankings is optimistic that the present ranges above $30 Billion are just the start. Nonetheless, within the brief time period, they warning that a few of the DeFi tokens are at present overpriced thus warning ought to be undertaken when buying and selling them.
There’s $30 billion in whole worth locked in #DeFi. That is subsequent to nothing. The potential for development is gigantic and there’s ample room to development till we’re within the trillions on that key metric. Having mentioned that, within the brief time period not less than, costs look a bit over-stretched.


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SAN FRANCISCO —E-cigarette maker Juul Labs said it is evaluating its resources to further secure its business for the long-term and to ultimately end the era of the combustible cigarette.
Part of this initiative includes making a “significant global reduction in force,” the company said on its website, and exploring the possibility of exiting a variety of markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and Asia-Pacific.
Throughout the past year, the category has endured tough conditions and the global coronavirus pandemic and ongoing economic crisis added a level of uncertainty around the world for which Juul needs to prepare, the company said. To better serve its mission, it must prioritize its resources.
“This will allow Juul Labs to continue to invest in science and evidence capabilities, access control technologies and future products in core markets that make up a vast majority of our business,” San Francisco-based Juul said. “While those investments will not provide short-term revenue, they will help us earn trust and build a company for the long term to advance the potential for harm reduction for adult smokers and combat underage usage. Additionally, and under the right conditions, this provides the option to expand into potential new markets.”
A Juul spokesperson told CSP Daily News that no final decisions have been made as of Sept. 8 as to how many employees may be laid off.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.
Theme of This Year’s Kwik Trip Holiday Sweater: Glazers
Matching beanie also among seasonal merchandise from convenience-store chain
2023 Retail Leader of the Year: Forging Her Own Path
Morhous leads RaceTrac into the next generation of convenience retail


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The barrage of new flagships is coming to a close, and now it’s time for the mid-range devices to shine. Today Sony is introducing its sleek new Xperia T3, an Android device that features some decent specs. It sports a 5.3-inch 720p Triluminos Bravia display, 1.4GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor, 8-megapixel camera and 2500mAh battery. Also included is a ... Read More »
Remember those recent leaks that suggested that the Sony Xperia Z2 will be making its way to Verizon? Well according to a new rumor, that’s not the only new Sony device that’ll soon be making its ... Read More »
Two months after Sony began pushing Android 4.4 to devices like the Xperia Z1 and Xperia Z Ultra, the company is now treating some older members of the Xperia family to a taste of KitKat.
Sony announced this morning that it has begun rolling Android 4.4 ... Read More »
Most Tweeted This Week
Remember earlier this month when a Verizon-branded Xperia Z2 showed up on Sony’s official Google+ page? At the time, Sony said that the image was a mockup that was posted mistakenly. If that’s the case, though, apparently someone at Sony didn’t get the memo about that mistake, because another Verizon-branded ... Read More »
Sony recently confirmed that the Xperia Z2 would be coming to this US this summer, but the company would only say that it plans to sell the Z2 through its own online shop, saying that its discussions with carriers were ... Read More »
The Sony Xperia Z Ultra is huge, with a 6.4-inch display, but it’s a powerful device. It was top of the line until recently, with the new wave of Snapdragon 801 device. Despite that, it still holds up very well. To add some appeal to the device, Google and Sony have dropped the price of ... Read More »
When Sony took the wraps off of the Xperia Z2 back in February, the company teased that its new flagship smartphone would begin rolling out around the globe in March. Now we’re here nearing the end of April and the Xperia Z2 is nowhere to be found in the ... Read More »
Pretty much everyone is jumping on the bokeh bandwagon. Camera phones may be impressive in some regards, but they just can’t produce that beautiful bokeh effect that comes from a large aperture lens on a high end camera. Naturally, that is. Of course, the solution is to try to replicate it! HTC, Google, Samsung and ... Read More »
Following its official announcement at the end of February, Sony today revealed when the Xperia Z2 Tablet will go on sale in the US and how much it’ll cost when it does.
Sony is now accepting pre-orders for the Wi-Fi-only Xperia Z2 Tablet, with pricing set at $499.99 ... Read More »
Google hasn’t made any official announcements regarding Android 4.4.3, but lately there seems to be an increasing number of leaks and references that tease the update.


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Oben Electric, a startup in electric mobility, has raised $4 Mn in a Pre-Series A fundraising round that was led by US India EV Angels LLC. The fundraising round also included Dholakia Ventures and current backer We Founder Circle.
The firm will be able to fulfil its current orders, ramp up manufacturing, and broaden its distribution network with the aid of the funds.
“We are now heading towards the next milestone in our ongoing EV journey, while moving towards meeting the larger vision. These funds will be used to fulfil existing orders, ramp up production capacity, and expand our distribution network,” said Madhumita Agrawal, the founder and CEO of Oben Electric.
The news comes about a year after We Founder Circle (WFC), GVK Family Office, and a few private investors helped Oben fund $2 Mn in a seed round.
Madhumita Agarwal and Dinkar Agarwal established Oben, a manufacturer of electric two-wheelers, in August 2020. It focuses on EV component design, manufacture, and assembly as well as research and development.
Oben Electric claimed that its technical staff members have over 25 years of EV industry experience. It states that the 250 km range of its electric bike RORR, which has a top speed of 90 km/h, can be travelled on a single charge.
“Oben RORR has an excellent design with a great riding experience and makes a strong value proposition for the customer in its segment. We believe that after ‘Make in India’, it is now time for ‘Design in India for the World’ and Oben Electric is at the forefront,” said Dravya Dholakia, the founder and director of Dholakia Ventures.
The startup, which plans to raise $50 Mn via Series A funding round in the near future, is expected to begin deliveries of its electric bike in the first quarter of 2023. It said that RORR meets international standards and will enter the global market in the future.
In India’s electric two-wheeler sector, the startup faces competition from the likes of Motovolt Mobility, EMotorad and Toutche Electric.


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Crafts group to hold summer sale
Published 12:00 am, Friday, August 11, 2017
The Local Artists Crafts Group will hold a summer craft show Aug. 12 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in New Milford.
The group is made up of local artisans who make handcrafted in America goods.
The sale will be held at space at 25 Church St.
The group of artisans includes Linda Banks (fused glass), Lori Meehan (handmade artisan jewelry), Celeste Bellemare (hand woven clothing and hand painted silk scarves), Don Turner (photography), Kathy Kairowicz (pottery), Reese Piper (Ridge Runner hand crafted soap), Bill Wilson (wood turned items) and Christina Maschke (fine art drawing).


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Living in China, it’s taken for granted that every piece of produce and meat we put into our bodies is probably either chock full of growth hormones or just downright fake. It has become habit to assume everything we eat here is going to kill us. But what’s this? A new hope for the food industry in Shanghai? From Global Times:
“Supermarket chains Lianhua and Lotus plan to begin a new tracking system for fresh produce and meat products in August, a new pilot that aims to beef up food safety around Shanghai.”
“All 21 of Thai-owned Lotus stores in the city and more than 35 of the city’s State-run Lianhua stores will participate in the project that will enable fruit, vegetables and meat to be traced back to their point of origin, every step of the way – from where the items were packaged and grown, to which company purchased and shipped the products.
Sun Ming, a spokesman for Lianhua had this to say about the initiative:
The tracking system will not only help protect consumer rights, but also benefit supermarkets. The party guilty of problematic products will be able to be easily identified by using the tracking system, and that will improve the issue of food safety for everyone,”
If this program succeeds, the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce claims they will begin to implement the system in every grocery store in Shanghai.
No news yet on when they are going to implement the tracking system on our fruit lady who sits outside our apartment. But until Lianhua starts giving us a “best friend” price, we may just have to risk the chance of a tainted product. We’re pretty sure Mrs. Wang wouldn’t do that to us though.
By Patrick Keefe


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By Régis Arnaud
DECRYPTION – Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announces a mive new recovery plan to support the economy.
How do you say “whatever it takes” in Japanese? This is the question that hangs over the economy of Japan after Fumio Kishida announced Thursday a recovery plan amounting to 17,000 billion yen (106 billion euros). In free fall in the polls, the Japanese prime minister has been mulling over a new package for the economy for weeks.
“Wage increases do not follow price increases”, he lamented during a press conference. Correct diagnosis: the Japanese employee notices the flight of labels while his pay slip increases too little. In August (last known figure), the index of consumer price rose by 2.8% but the price of foodstuffs excluding fresh produce jumped by 8.8%. The media are now full of stories of young, penniless Japanese who happily left to seek decent pay. in the USAin Australia or South Korea.
But does the right observation allow us to prescribe the right treatment? “We hope…


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Other than raising awareness and money for breast cancer research and initiatives, one of the coolest things about October in the NFL is that the league is somewhat lax on its strict uniform rules.
The players are really allowed take the “think pink” idea and run with it if they so choose, which, for the most popular sport in America, is awesome.
Above are just a few of the pink items the Redskins will be wearing on Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons at FedExField and throughout the whole month of October.
Quarterback Robert Griffin III, for example, has promised that he’ll be wearing a pink sleeve on his left arm.
Injured longsnapper Nick Sundberg, meanwhile, has already had his doctor put a hot pink cast on his broken arm.
Included in the standard pink equipment above are the New Era sideline hat and skull cap, the Nike cleats and gloves, the Wilson towel and some NFL sweatbands.
You can also get your hands on your own Redskins pink gear at various team shops — including the Hall of Fame store at the stadium — and, of course, at RedskinsTeamStore.com.
And here’s another shot featuring all of the gear laid out for an appearance by Tanya Snyder, wife of Redskins owner Daniel M. Snyder, on NBC-4 this morning:
Tanya Snyder is a breast cancer survivor herself, and has been one of the leading NFL figures bringing awareness to the cause.
Tags: 2012 regular season, Atlanta Falcons, think pink, washington redskins
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »


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Activity will include promotion with Kellogg’s, while new licensees ready product.
The Elf on the Shelf brand is set to feature on even more shelves then usual in the run up to this Christmas.
As well as a swathe of licensing deals secured by Rocket Licensing, the brand is also teaming up with Kellogg’s for a special promotion.
Although details are being kept under wraps until closer to the start of the Christmas season, the deal goes a long way to underlining the popularity of The Elf on the Shelf within the UK market.
Last month, Rocket Licensing revealed a host of new partners for the property across multiple categories – click here to read the full story.
Chanda Bell, founder and co-ceo of The Elf on the Shelf, said: “We are so thrilled with the extent to which consumers in the UK and Ireland have gravitated towards The Elf on the Shelf brand.
“Retailers, our business partners and especially our fans are attracted to our family-friendly values, entertaining content and the way we bring the magic of the North Pole to life.”
Rob Wijeratna, joint md of Rocket Licensing, continued: “The hugely positive response we have received to The Elf on the Shelf from potential licensees and retailers has very quickly translated into significant signings and some really fantastic product entering the UK market this Christmas.
“All our partners really can see the benefits of this unique brand – the only elf that creates real family moments, cherished memories and traditions, and who reports directly to Santa.”
Want to read more news like this? Simply sign up to our daily digest in the box below. You can also follow @LicensingSource on Twitter.


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Rushcliffe Council Leader Opens New Offices
Driver recruitment and logistics company Route4 Solutions has moved into a unit treble the size of its existing premises which were officially opened by Councillor Simon Robinson, leader of Rushcliffe Borough Council.
The company was founded in 2014 by owners and co-Directors Mike and Carol Harris to provide qualified drivers for haulage and logistics operations of all sizes. In 2018, it was one of 15 businesses to move into the newly built Colliers Business Park in Cotgrave, Nottingham.
Since moving to Cotgrave, the company has grown considerably and launched three new businesses. These include Route4 Logistics which offers a complete logistics solution for palletised deliveries, including same-day deliveries, contract distribution and bespoke logistics solutions. Another recruitment consultancy called Fabric Recruitment which specialises in office-based and customer-facing roles for retail and industrial clients, and Little Bo-Tique, an online business selling baby and toddler accessories.
The move to a larger 2,500sqm unit on Colliers Business Park with ground floor warehouse space and office space on an upper floor mezzanine provides space for further expansion and enables all four businesses to operate under one roof. It will also enable the company to conduct candidate interviews and client meetings in private meeting rooms and provide professional facilities to conduct driver training and inductions.
The company has an impressive client base of major retailers and distribution companies and, over the last year, has won several new exclusive contracts to provide drivers and logistics services. Longer-term, as expansion continues, the company hopes to open satellite offices across the UK, and Cotgrave will become the company headquarters due to its close proximity to major transport routes such as the A46 and A52.
Commenting, Managing Director Mike Harris said, “The last seven years has seen many highs and lows and we are grateful to everyone that has supported us on our journey. Each of our brands are at various stages of development and it was important that we relocated in order to convey a more professional image, create space to improve business operations and provide a workplace where we can collaborate more closely together as a team.”
Councillor Simon Robinson, leader of Rushcliffe Borough Council added, “The rationale for creating Colliers Business Park was based on enabling local businesses to access spaces that could expand in line with their growth. I am delighted that we have been able to provide Route4 Solutions with a larger unit as this demonstrates that our policy is meeting the needs of local businesses. It is also creating local wealth as well as employment opportunities which in turn avoids people commuting into the City and therefore reduces traffic congestion.”
All 15 units on the Colliers Business Park are owned by Rushcliffe Borough Council and were opened in October 2017 as part of a larger £10.5m investment by the council to regenerate the former Cotgrave Colliery site with the hope of creating over 60 jobs.
How to become a Route4 Solutions HGV Driver
As a driver reading this article, we thought we would write an article outlining what it takes to become a Route4 Solutions HGV driver.
Route4 Solutions approved to deliver Driver CPC Training
Route4 Solutions are pleased to announce that we have been approved as a training centre to deliver Driver CPC training. This completes the portfolio of logistic services that Route4 Solutions can now offer, recruitment, courier services and now training.


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by Staff Writers
Barcelona, Spain (AFP) Feb 15, 2011
Computer security expert Eugene Kaspersky predicted on Tuesday that Google's Android smartphone operating system will come to dominate the market, reducing Apple and BlackBerry to niche players.
Kaspersky, who founded the leading anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab, said there is only "one company, one operating system which follows Microsoft's strategy of the 1990s" when its Windows computer operating system became dominant on personal computers.
"I believe that if Apple, BlackBerry, Microsoft ... don't change their strategy very soon we will soon have the same mobile operating system landscape as we have with computers," he told journalists on the sidelines of the mobile phone industry's annual get-together in Barcelona.
Kaspersky predicted Android would eventually end up with 80 percent of the smartphone market, with Apple's iPhone and RIM's BlackBerry sharing the rest with 10 percent each.
Android dethroned Nokia's Symbian as the top smartphone operating system in the final quarter of 2010 by units shipped, according to market research company Canalys, with its market share leaping from 8.7 percent in 2009 to 32.5 percent last year.
Kaspersky's forecast comes amid a major shake-up in the smartphone market.
Nokia, which had difficulties mounting a response to the rise of Android and Apple's iPhone, announced last week it was phasing out Symbian and switching to Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 smartphone operating system.
Kaspersky said Microsoft was not repeating for mobiles the strategy of working closely with developers that ensured the success of Windows for personal computers but was instead keeping tight control over Windows Phone 7 like Apple does with its iOS.
"They are going the Apple way ... I don't really believe they will have success," he said. "Maybe Nokia will force them to be open."
Both Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer and Nokia's Stephen Elop have emphasised here at the Mobile World Congress they intend to work closely with developers to ensure that outside developers create lots of applications for Windows Phone7 to ensure its popularity with consumers.
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A Diagnostics & Imaging Week
Cytyc (Marlbourough, Massachusetts), maker of the ThinPrep cervical cancer screening system, said it "remains confident" that litigation filed by Ventana Medical System's (Tucson, Arizona) litigation against Vision Systems (Melbourne, Australia) will not impede its plan to complete its $374 million all-cash buy of Vision Systems and it reaffirmed its intention to complete the merger.
Ventana is the spurned suitor for Vision, a manufacturer of instruments and reagents used to detect cancer, whose $346 million offer was trumped by Cytyc earlier this month.
In response to Cytyc's offer, Ventana said it intended to go ahead with a lawsuit against Vision to "protect its intellectual property," a suit it had deferred filing this pending the outcome of its Vision scheme.
"We have carefully examined the patent litigation filed on Sept. 18, 2006, by Ventana Medical Systems against a subsidiary of Vision Systems," Cytyc said in a statement. "This litigation involves U.S. Patent No. 6,594,537. We are completely satisfied that this new litigation will not stand in the way of our intention to complete this tender offer — and to deliver the superior value of our offer to Vision Systems shareholders — as quickly as possible. Accordingly, we do not regard the filing of this litigation as a material adverse change in relation to the offer."
The company added that it is aware that the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission has begun an informal review of Ventana's proposal to acquire Vision Systems as well as Cytyc's tender offer.
The company said it "remains confident that our tender offer has no risk of antitrust issues because, unlike Ventana, Cytyc is not a competitor of Vision Systems."
Cytyc is still seeking a favorable recommendation concerning the deal from the Vision Systems board because it noted that its "offer is all cash, is at a higher price than the Ventana proposal, has fewer conditions than the Ventana proposal and therefore has greater certainty of payment."
In other dealmaking activity:
• AMDL (Tustin, California), a developer of tests for the early detection of cancer and other diseases, reported completing its purchase of Jade Pharmaceuticals and its two China-based subsidiaries for 13,715,000 pre-reverse split shares of AMDL common stock.
The merger is scheduled to close on Sept. 28, immediately after the filing of a certificate of amendment to AMDL's certificate of incorporation which will increase AMDL's common stock, and reverse split the outstanding shares on a basis between 1-for-5 and 1-for-7.
AMDL is a theranostics company, involved in the detection and treatment of cancer. It is maker of the DR-70 non-invasive cancer blood test, which it says "has demonstrated its ability to detect the presence in humans of up to 14 cancers 84% of the time overall."
• Medical Services International (MSI; Edmonton, Alberta) has agreed to sell a 25% interest in its resort in Anguilla BWI for an all cash transaction with real estate investors valued at $2.25 million.
Closing of the sale is expected to occur in October, and MSI said that it will use the funds for short and long term commitments related to the marketing of its VScan product line, a rapid test kit for the screening of HIV 1&2, hepatitis B&C, tuberculosis, Dengue fever, West Nile, syphilis, malaria and prostate cancer.
The company said it believes this that this sale will allow it to expand and implement its marketing plans related to the VScan products in Europe on a more aggressive timeline.


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Organized labor claimed one of its biggest victories at a U.S. tech company on Tuesday, gaining a foothold among about 300 employees at a video game maker owned by Microsoft.
The Communications Workers of America, which will represent the employees, announced the result, and Microsoft issued a statement recognizing the outcome.
“We look forward to engaging in good faith negotiations as we work towards a collective bargaining agreement,” the company said. Microsoft has no other unionized workers.
The unionization move at the video game maker, ZeniMax Media, which Microsoft acquired for about $7.5 billion in a deal that closed in 2021, did not involve a conventional union election run by the National Labor Relations Board.
Instead, the company allowed workers to express their preferences in two ways: They could sign a union authorization card, which some began doing in November, or they could vote anonymously through an online platform that was open during most of December.
Labor Organizing and Union Drives
The process was more efficient and less contentious than the run-up to a typical labor board election, which can involve extensive legal wrangling.
Microsoft agreed to remain neutral throughout the union campaign, avoiding the anti-union meetings and messaging that many companies engage in. The concessions came as the company has been trying to placate antitrust regulators who are scrutinizing its roughly $70 billion proposed acquisition of the video game maker Activision Blizzard.
“This is an empowering victory that allows us to protect ourselves and each other in a way we never could without a union,” Skylar Hinnant, a worker involved in the organizing campaign, said in a statement.
When workers at a vast Amazon warehouse on Staten Island pushed to organize last year, the company fought the effort aggressively. The union prevailed in April, but Amazon has challenged the results. Apple has also sought to persuade retail workers against unionizing, though workers at two stores have voted to do so.
ZeniMax employees involved in the campaign, which included only quality assurance, or Q.A., workers, said Microsoft’s neutral stance came as a relief. “It was nothing short of an absolute gift,” Autumn Mitchell, a worker active in the union effort, said during an interview last month.
In a further sign that unionization is gaining traction across the gaming industry, workers at a Boston studio owned by Activision announced last week that they had filed a petition to hold a union election.
Two other Activision studios have already voted to unionize — one in Wisconsin and the other near Albany, N.Y. But unlike those studios, the proposed union at the Boston studio, known as Proletariat, includes a variety of workers, such as animators, designers and engineers, not just Q.A. workers. A formal union with broader membership would appear to be a first at a major U.S. game maker.
The Communications Workers of America represents workers at the two Activision studios that have already unionized and would represent the Boston-based workers.
At ZeniMax, which includes the high-profile Bethesda Game Studios, maker of such hits as The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, workers said they hoped a union would improve their pay and hours. Q.A. testers and other workers in the industry have long complained that they must endure grueling stretches of work shortly before a title is released.
Microsoft has said it consults with employees to ensure they don’t take on too much work.
Those seeking to unionize at ZeniMax also said that they hoped to change the company’s approach to promoting workers and to assigning them more responsibility, which they said seemed arbitrary at times, and that they hoped to be able to negotiate more flexible policies on remote work.
In June, Microsoft announced a deal with the communications workers union in which it promised to stay neutral if any of Activision’s U.S. employees sought to unionize after Microsoft acquired the company. The video game maker has about 7,000 U.S. employees, most of whom are eligible to unionize.
Officially, the labor deal applied only to employees who joined Microsoft through the Activision purchase. But the tech giant indicated that it would be open to extending the terms of the labor deal to current employees as well.
The politically powerful communications workers union had voiced reservations about Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision, but it said the neutrality agreement addressed its concerns, and the union’s president later met with the chair of the Federal Trade Commission to urge support for the deal.
But regulators have not been appeased. The agency filed suit to block the Activision transaction in December, just as ZeniMax workers were deciding whether to unionize.


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2014 GMC Sierra Denali Crew Cab front three quarter view shows the bold honeycomb chrome grille 20-inch chrome wheels, body-color front bumper, and standard projector-style headlamps with LED signature.
General Motors plans to release the 2014 GMC Sierra Denali this fall, a few months after the redesigned 2014 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra full-size pickups hit the market.
The Sierra Denali, an upgraded version of the pickup, comes with a standard 5.3-liter, 8-cylinder engine. GM said it would offer a 6.2-liter, 8-cylinder engine, with about 420 horsepower and maximum towing capacity of 12,000 pounds, as an option.
About 20% of GMC buyers choose a Denali vehicle, GM said. These vehicles are among GM's most profitable. ...


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Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 30th November 2023 Issue no. 1091
Your industry news - first
The original and best - for over 20 years!
We strongly recommend viewing Cleanzine full size in your web browser. Click our masthead above to visit our website version.
Welcome to the Cleanzine
I’m grateful that my daughters have managed to avoid the pressures put on young people these days, to use far too much make-up along with the almost-obligatory surgery to ‘correct’ any real or imagined imperfections, while spending fortunes on fast fashion so the outfits can show off the new body. It’s partly because of these views that I’ve not been drawn into the global Love Island phenomenon, since I’ve assumed that it represents much of what I dislike about the modern world.
As a regular reader of the Waste & Resources Action Programme newsletter, I’ve started to wonder whether I’ve been overly judgmental though, since it was through this medium that I realised the producers of the dating show are trying to make a difference by encouraging folk to buy second hand clothes rather than new. Yes – thanks to a collaboration with eBay UK, this year’s British Islanders will be wearing pre-loved clothes sourced entirely through the online ‘exchange’ store. I did some digging and found a press release in which Jemma Tadd, head of fashion at eBay UK says: “The overwhelming response we’ve had to the initial announcement is testament to how much this change is needed, as well as the public appetite for this. We cannot wait to see all of the outfits come through on the show and remove any stigmas around pre-loved. We hope when people see this on the Islanders, it inspires them to either add a couple of pre-loved pieces to their wardrobes, or sell stuff they no longer use to keep things in circulation.”
Although the programme’s only been running for a couple of weeks, the searches being made on eBay are already showing that this new initiative is making a difference with people seemingly coming to realise that there’s something to be proud of when buying second hand, in terms of both saving money and helping save the planet. I understand that not enough reference is being made on the programme by these young influencers though, that what they’re wearing isn’t new, and I hope that this can quickly be rectified so that maximum impact can be achieved before the series ends.
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30th June 2022