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Category: Tech News
BlackBerry teases Bold-like Classic smartphone; coming later this year
Toronto: BlackBerry Chief Executive John Chen penned an open letter to current and former BlackBerry users on Wednesday in a push to create some buzz for the company's new BlackBerry Classic device, which is set to debut later this year. The Classic ...
Report Says; Mystery of "Space Weather" Uncovered
Scientists are struggling really hard to unveil the mystery of “space weather”. It seems like the interest of researchers in this particular area is increasing day by day. Space weather has a very significant impact on the lives of human being; therefore everyone ...
Researchers Found the Physics of Space Weather
Physics of space weather explains cell phone service disruptions and satellite ...
Space weather secrets unlocked by physicists
HP Multi Jet Fusion 3D Printer: 10X Faster Speeds
NEW YORK - HP has long been a household name in traditional ink printers, and now the company is going 3D. At a special event in New York, HP today (Oct 29th) announced its new Multi Jet Fusion technology, which is designed to allow for low-cost 3D ...
HP Reveals New, Ultra-Fast 3D-Printing System
HP embraces 'blended reality,' dives into 3D printing
A desktop for Dali: Meet HP's wildly innovative Sprout
Microsoft watch beats Apple to market
Investors will watch the clock Thursday as Microsoft (MSFT) is launching its smartwatch, beating Apple (AAPL) to the market for the critical holiday season. A Microsoft-branded smartwatch has been rumored for months — but the company Wednesday ...
Microsoft's Band Strives to Watch You More Closely
Microsoft Tackles Health with $199 Fitness Band
Microsoft officially announces wearable after early app release
Microsoft unveils a wearable device that can track a user's sleep and exercise as well connect to a fitness tracking service on smartphones.
New York Times
Antares Rocket Explosion Leaves Questions and Dead Mosquito Eggs
New York Times
The Wallops Island, Va., launch facilities a day after Tuesday's explosion of an Antares rocket. Credit Terry Zaperach/NASA. Continue reading the main story. Continue reading the main story. Continue reading the main story Share This Page. Email; Share ...
NASA Panel Warned About Risks of Budget on Cargo Missions
Unmanned US rocket Antares explodes during launch
Antares Rocket Explosion Destroyed These Kids' Science Projects
Twitter, IBM, in deal to create brainy Big Blue Bird
IBM and Twitter have assembled their buzzwords, ranked them into a regiment, and jointly set them loose to march upon a waiting world, by announcing that the avian network will feed data galore to Big Blue's cloudy enterprise big data analytics offerings.
Twitter Inc (TWTR) And International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) To Come ...
UPDATE 3-IBM, Twitter to partner on business data analytics
Credit Illustration by The New York Times
CurrentC System Attacked Soon After Some Merchants Block Apple Pay
NEWS ANALYSIS: It didn't take long for someone to launch a cyber-attack on CurrentC, a merchant-backed payment system that's touted for its security defenses for consumers. As security breaches go, the attack on CurrentC was small potatoes. According to ...
Big Retail: We don't hate Apple, just the credit card companies
Wal-Mart and allies in face-off with Apple Pay over mobile payments
Businesses remain on Apple Pay sidelines
HP unveils Sprout 3-D scanner/PC aimed at creative professionals
Silicon Valley Business Journal
Hewlett-Packard has unveiled its Sprout 3-D computing product, aimed at creatives such as architects, artists and musicians. It'll begin selling sometime in November. Pacific Heights View LEED Platinum Residence 15 photos ...
HP tries something new with 3D scanning computer
HP launches Sprout -- A Windows PC unlike any you've seen before
Samsung Electronics sees its quarterly operating profit fall to its lowest level in more than three years because of slowing smartphone sales.


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As 2021 draws to a close, it’s safe to say that this year has been full of ups and downs. With the world very cautiously emerging from the global pandemic, one thing has remained constant: the innovation and growth the fintech industry continues to bring. While the year has been a whirlwind for most, the fintech sector has seen many challenges and opportunities that will no doubt continue into the next 12 months.
This December, The Fintech Times is asking industry leaders for their ‘View from the Top’ to gain an insight into the decisions behind the last 12 months. Today, we hear from Romi Savova, Cormac Leech, Gabi Slemer, Alex Reddish and Billy Murray on their 2021 thoughts, plus a look ahead to 2022. Will there be a Happy New Year? Read on…
Romi Savova, CEO at PensionBee shares her thoughts on 2022:
“Next year, I’d expect to see more distinction between the companies that have scaled and are scaling, and the emergence of profit or lack thereof. This may lead to more M&A activity, and potentially more incumbents snapping up the competition.
“On the 3rd of December, new FCA public market rules came into effect – aiming to boost growth and innovation in UK stock markets, by enabling growing businesses to float a smaller amount of shares (now 10% instead of 25%). Given stable market conditions in 2022, I would expect to see flotations continue, now that this key barrier has been removed.
“In 2022 we’ll see an intensifying payments battleground with Amazon challenging Visa, and Open Banking penetrating large financial services providers. Over time we can expect to see more technologisation of the payment system, which will hopefully lead to better outcomes for consumers.
“In the realm of ESG we’ll see a tipping point for women in senior leadership roles, with fintech continuing to lead the way on other diversity initiatives that are yet to hit the mainstream agenda, such as ethnic diversity and social mobility.”
Cormac Leech, Founder and CEO of AxiaFunder thinks that alternative finance and blockchain have been hallmarks of the year.
“In 2021 we have seen a steady increase in demand for income products that have the potential to beat inflation that has been rising almost everywhere, driven by QE, covid-related supply chain constraints and the economic rebound. As everyone knows, bank deposits and fixed income products offer interest rates well below the inflation rate. Even a buy-to-let property portfolio in the UK is unlikely to beat inflation after deducting tax. So, fintech platforms that make alternative finance products accessible to high-net-worth and sophisticated retail investors that typically would only be accessible to private equity institutions have been of increasing relevance to retail investors.
“Another trend within alternative finance, clearly visible in 2021, has been the push towards tougher regulation of fintech alternative finance firms. In the UK, we’ve seen the FCA layout clear plans to better protect mass retail investors from potentially unsuitable alternative finance products. While somewhat challenging to adapt to in the short run, these changes are likely to make alternative finance fintech more sustainable in the UK in the years ahead.
“More broadly, in 2021 we have all seen fintech become more mainstream with contactless payments and buy-now-pay-later products seamlessly embedded into our daily lives.
“In 2022, I expect further improvements in the fintech infrastructure that supports alternative finance. One key area that seems poised to accelerate is the blockchain crypto sector that enables investors to conveniently invest in a diverse range of alternative investment products from fine art, to wine and litigation investments. Other infrastructure will continue to improve such as the rating agencies that help investors identify which products are of good quality.”
Gabi Slemer, founder of Finasana said one of the more significant trends seen this year has been the “Increased interest around investing from younger generations.”
She continued: “It’s gone from being something largely reserved for older and wealthier individuals (usually male-dominated) to attracting the attention and interest of Gen Z. Interest in financial markets, cryptocurrency, and personal finance has sky-rocketed, prompting an increased presence of YouTubers, social media “finfluencers”, and financial companies (both established and start-ups) who are vying to gain their trust. Self-directed investing is growing in steam – individuals are understanding the benefits of investing much earlier, however often taking outsized risk as they are betting on riskier assets without focusing on their own risk tolerance or different assets’ relative riskiness. Memestocks, cryptocurrency, and trading accounts that promote frequent stock trading, combined with the reliance on social media for financial advice and a lack of qualified financial guidance, pose a real cause for concern.
In terms of the future, she said: “We can expect to see an increased focus on products (especially investing related) aimed towards younger generations. Both educational resources, financial guidance, and trading platforms, from both newer digital banks and non-banking fintech firms, as well as incumbent financial institutions looking to attract younger clients.
“2020 and 2021 saw an increased focus on mental health resources offered by employer benefits, largely as a result of the pandemic. 2022 will focus on financial health and the employers’ role in helping individuals with their personal finances. Money is the #1 cause of stress today, and employees are looking for their employers to help as the onus is on the individual to manage their finances, invest money, and prepare for retirement. Corporations are beginning to respond to this by offering financial wellness benefits that go beyond traditional retirement accounts or “check the box” webinars and into more accessible and engaging alternatives with real-world applications.”
Alex Reddish, Managing Director at Tribe Payments thinks “the person will become the payment.”
“The acceleration of fintech disruption has been tangible this past year. In a matter of months, we’ve seen a transition that in many markets, that would normally have taken years. And this is just the beginning.
“As bank branches continue to close, mobile payments will be the global standard, and physical payment cards will disappear. The rise of e-commerce, digital wallets and card innovation, coupled with high smartphone penetration has meant that the UK has also been fast to adopt mobile payments. In 2022 the next wave of competition in UK payments will not just be between international card providers and cash, but also with new payment methods and digital wallets.
“Payments will become increasingly embedded into other technologies and less visible, we will then reach the point where customers won’t think twice about the way they pay at all. We will see the start of innovation that will fundamentally change our relationship with the act of payment. As the person becomes the payment, the simple financial functions will be transformed into nuanced, data-rich relationships. The intelligence from these relationships is a great opportunity to those who will make the best use of this innovation.”
Billy Murray, Head of Intertrader Prime’s thoughts revolve around ETFs and the uptake of electronic trading.
“The surge in electronic trading has been fostered in previous years by two significant developments: the availability of more accurate price data, and huge growth in the number of ETFs that track a wider range of indices,he said. “In 2021, extended market volatility has truly tested the mettle of electronic trading, but the technology has generally proved to be resilient, and facilitated high volumes of seamless transactions day in, day out. The growth in electronic trading is another result of the accelerated shift to digital-first behaviours that the pandemic has brought about.
“With the pandemic further accelerating uptake of electronic trading, it’s natural to expect providers to further capitalise on these developments in the next year to ensure their systems can handle greater capacity. Despite traders increasingly executing larger trades electronically in volatile market conditions, a factor they are becoming more mindful of is stability. Beyond purely executing trades, electronic systems can be harnessed to source data and asset prices, communicate with dealers, track positions and analyse a trade once it has been completed. With more sophisticated, algorithmic measurement tools alongside AI, data is becoming easier to interrogate and more reliable as a result.
“While the capabilities of these advanced trading systems develop, clients’ thirst for different products will grow even more. There is a risk that analytic tools within these systems may not keep up with client demands. If the market is to develop and innovate further, this technology needs to be upgraded, to include the likes of portfolio scanning systems. This upending of the trading ecosystem raises the question of regulation for the year ahead, with regulators likely to continue to keep a close eye on how novel technologies should best be leveraged.
This article is part of our 2021 December series, View from the Top, to see others like it and our special edition from December 2020, please click here.

domain: news


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Tractor Supply donates to animals impacted by Laura
Tractor Supply Company has pledged support to Gulf-area pet and animal organizations impacted by Hurricane Laura.
The Brentwood, Tenn.-based farm and ranch retailer is donating $100,000 to facilities in Louisiana and Texas, including shelters, humane societies, and animal rescues, among other organizations.
Hurricane Laura made landfall on Aug. 27, sustaining winds around 150 mph. The strong wind gusts resulted in widespread structural damage to homes and businesses.
As pets and animals are left homeless or stranded, the animal organizations tasked with caring for them are also grappling with their own cleanup efforts. Tractor Supply’s donation will assist with the cost of restoration as well as the purchase of pet food, animal feed, along with products such as beds, crates, and cleaning supplies.
“Pets and animals are incredibly important to us at Tractor Supply, and they are often overlooked in the aftermath of a storm like Hurricane Laura,” said Christi Korzekwa, Tractor Supply senior vice president of marketing. “With this donation, we hope to assist these organizations as they recover from the devastation of the storm and focus on their important work of caring for animals.”
Tractor Supply operates more than 1,880 stores in 49 states along with 180 stores in 25 states.
During the COVID-19 crisis, Tractor Supply stores remained open as an essential retailer while gaining strong sales from pet and animal products.


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RACINE, Wis. — SC Johnson has announced the release of a new campaign designed to emphasize the company's commitment to disclosing the ingredients in its products.
SC Johnson said its Honesty campaign will debut Nov. 25 during the Thanksgiving Day Parade on CBS and run during daytime and primetime national programs and on several cable networks, including but not limited to Discovery Health, Hallmark, Animal Planet, HGTV, National Geographic Wild and The Weather Channel. The spot also will run during primetime on NBC and ABC on programs like "The Biggest Loser," "Parenthood," "America's Funniest Home Videos" and more, as well as during other holiday specials such as "Christmas at 30 Rock" and It's a Wonderful Life, the company reported.
In addition, Honesty will be supported through a digital campaign on various online platforms including Yahoo!, CNN, People and MSN, according to the company.
"The truth is, companies often don't have to tell you everything that's in their products," said chairman and CEO Fisk Johnson, the fifth generation leader of SC Johnson. "But we're a family company that believes in working hard to do what's right for the families who buy our products — and one of the things that means is being transparent with what's in our products."


text: Reports of toy shortages at stores across the nation are making headlines this holiday season and it's not just the hottest toys like Fingerlings and L.O.L. Surprise! Even supplies of old standbys like Hot Wheels are running scarce in certain stores. Richard Gottlieb is a toy expert and says Christmas 2018 is the first since Toys R Us shut its doors. Combine that with brisk online sales, the result is brick and mortar retailers are left not knowing how much toy inventory to order.


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Now waking up is not an easy job. I mean you have to get up from your sleep, sigh. And top that with the news of Real Madrid FC getting knocked out of the Champions League in a thrilling match adds to you woes. And guess what you see when you open up the newspaper (yeah I read the newspaper, it has some interesting news too)? You see your Favorite Automotive Company drop 2 places in the Luxury Car Segment to 3rd. I am talking about BMW. Times of India reports that its German rival, Audi, overtook it in the Jan-Mar 2013 sales figure to take the No. 1 position. And what can be worse, even Mercedes overtook BMW to become 2nd.
Audi, BMW and Mercedes have been in a close battle for the last 5-6 years. People have stopped thinking about the Mercedes name and have started taking the Cars seriously. BMW and Audi, in my opinion, are better than the Merc, with BMW being a tad better than the Audi.
Now Audi makes the most awesome looking cars in the market, but BMW makes both good looking and ultimate driving machines. BMW has the 3-series, which is a dream to drive. And the 5-series has the Best-Close-To-Perfect-Car title in my opinion. The car is awesome. Audi has the A4, which is a good rival to the BMW's 3, and A6 gives the 5-series a run for its money. I have rarely seen the new C-Class on road, and the E is getting a bit old now. So how was this possible? Was it the S-Class vs. 7-Series?
Now I don't hate the Mercedes, but the cars I love are the SLS AMG, C63 AMG and cars like that, which don't find buyers in India that easily. Even the E-class is a looker, and the new launches they have lined up look promising.
Well, the Merc people launched the B-class in India. It is a clear indication of Mercedes' future plans. Although, I haven't driven the car but I have seen many on the road. Also, the Audi has the Q3, which people are buying like crazy. Also the new R8 has seen quite a lot of buyers in India. BMW went without a new recent launch, although the launch of the new ULTIMAT3 3-series did give its sales a boost.
Now BMW are riding on the success of the new 7-series they launched, which hopefully will bag them their King position. Until then, I did like Audi becoming no.1, but BMW on 3rd, overtaken by Mercedes, a little hard to digest. Hopefully, BMW will at least overtake them, because their cars can do that easily.


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Production of ears remains in high gear for Walt Disney World. The trademark Disney headgear – a sartorial shout-out to Mickey Mouse since the 1950s -- is getting new variations, some of which can be seen at the revamped World of Disney store that officially debuted at Disney Springs last weekend.
That’s when I talked about the future of earwear and other merchandising trends with Stefanie Whitmore, director of merchandise strategy and product development.
The retro look remains on point, and Disney didn’t tinker with traditional too much. “We didn’t want to mess with a classic,” Whitmore said. Instead, a red liner was added with words from the theme song for the Mickey Mouse Club: “Who’s the leader of the club?” and more. Names can still be embroidered on the back.
A second style is a more straightforward ballcap with mouse ears on the side and a bill up front, topped by a Mickey Mouse Club patch. It’s black except for type on the back that says “Official Mousketeer.”
“The back of the merchandise has become almost as important as the front,” Whitmore said. (Another example: Spirit jerseys with big type across the shoulder blades.)
A third version falls into the headband category. Onto the strap is a tiny, shiny mouse-ear hat, attached at a jaunty angle.
“She’s a bit sparkly for your selfies,” Whitmore said.
These three pieces of headgear are part of the new Mickey Mouse Club Collection and tied to Mickey’s upcoming 90th birthday. The collection debuted at World of Disney stores and eventually will be available elsewhere. There’s a retro athletic feel to the collection, including a letterman jacket.
Now for the bad news. There’s a fanny pack in the mix.
“This has been a huge trend in retail for a while now,” Whitmore said. “So with the nostalgic, kind of vintage feel of this collection, it felt right to do a mini fanny pack.”
Meanwhile, back at the headband ranch, there are three holiday versions – one with an official Christmasy plaid, another with furry pompons. The elegant headband could be for upscale holiday parties.
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“We’ve changed the fit completely,” she said. “They’re a lot more comfortable. They have a lot more give.”
Another change for ear hats involves shelf life, she said.
“Historically, we might develop a pair of ears and you might see them for five, 10, 15 years. That isn’t the case anymore,” Whitmore said. “Now it’s get them while you can because they will not be here forever, particularly our big trend items.
“We’re going to celebrate the trend, we’re going to be on it, then we’re going to move on to the next,” she said.


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LONDON (Reuters) - Morrisons (MRW.L), Britain’s No. 4 grocer, has proposed changes to its store management structure that will involve around 2,600 redundancies, it said on Tuesday.
The firm, which trails market leader Tesco (TSCO.L), Wal-Mart’s (WMT.N) Asda and Sainsbury’s (SBRY.L), issued a profit warning in March and set out a plan to combat a loss of trade to discounters as well as a weak overall food market.
That plan called for investing 1 billion pounds in price cuts over the next three years, financed by cost savings of the same amount.
Morrisons said it had begun talks with store staff and their representatives about a new management structure, which would reduce in-store management tiers and simplify responsibilities.
The firm currently trades from 511 supermarkets and 117 M local convenience stores.
It said that in the current year 1,000 jobs would be created in convenience stores and an additional 3,000 in new supermarkets. Colleagues affected by the cutbacks would be offered the opportunity to work in these businesses.
Morrisons posted a 7.1 percent slump in first quarter sales, while this month the strategy of Chief Executive Dalton Philips came under attack from Ken Morrison, the son of the grocer’s founder and a former boss
Shares in Morrisons, which have lost 29 percent of their value this year, were up 1.5 percent at 191 pence at 1306 GMT.
Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle and Mark Potter


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UK's largest drug-maker, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has infused more capital in its Indian subsidiary to increase its stake from 43.2 per cent to 72.5 per cent.
The additional investment in the Indian unit indicates that the company is looking to expand its presence in the emerging Indian market. David Redfern, GSK's chief strategy officer pointed out that the move will allow the company to increase its exposure to the Indian market.
"It is a significant vote of confidence in the long-term growth prospects of our consumer healthcare business in India," he said.
The leading drug-maker had announced its plans to increase stakes in both its units in India and Nigeria in November in the previous year. The parent company offered Rs. 3,900 per share to increase its stake in Indian-based GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Ltd from January 17 to January 30. The payment for the deal is due before February 13.
The Indian unit of the company sells popular brands such as health drink Horlicks, malt-based drink Boost and a multi-vitamin drink VitaHealth. Shares of the company were 2 per cent lower at Rs. 3,750 after the parent company announced the open for acquiring shares.


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Two years ago, law firm Jenner & Block tapped Mary Ellen Callahan, the former chief privacy officer of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, to create the firm’s first formal privacy and data protection practice .
The practice has since grown to include five partner-level attorneys and eight associates who spend much of their time working on privacy issues such as advising corporate clients on data breaches and the collection of customer data. Data security is considered a relatively uncharted — but potentially lucrative — area within the legal industry, and many firms are seeking to brand their services to distinguish themselves. Callahan, whose clients include companies in the retail, financial services, technology and entertainment and media industries, shares insights into how Jenner is expanding its burgeoning data privacy business. Below is an edited transcript of Callahan’s interview with Capital Business.
Capital Business: How has your practice grown since you started?
Mary Ellen Callahan: They say to build a practice, it takes three years. This year, my second year, I will hit the metric I hoped to hit at three years. I’m ahead of the growth curve. I worked on 15 data breaches this year. Some were consumer-facing, the credit card [information theft] scenario. Some were employee information [breaches] including Social Security numbers, and in some cases our client was a service provider [to a company that was breached] where the data exposed wasn’t their customers’ data, but it was their customers’ customers whose information was exposed.
CB: Where do you see the greatest potential for growth within the data privacy legal practice?
MEC: I see three big buckets where privacy is going to grow. Education privacy is one area. As we move to cloud-based services [and massive open online courses], they’re going to be considering privacy in ways education hadn’t in the past. There are education privacy laws, but for some of the online services and online use of information, you also have unregulated use of information about students. . . . There are going to be technologies that look to make schools and universities more efficient, and you want to make sure privacy protections are going to be built with it.
I also think that companies that intersect with the government — government contractors — and others that provide services to the government, like cloud providers, are going to have some real privacy opportunities. The third area is the “Internet of Things” — Internet-enabled devices and what are the privacy protections for that.
CB: What type of work takes up most of your time? Preventive counseling or damage control after a breach?
MEC: It depends on the month. For the year, it was probably 50/50. One month I had five breaches, I didn’t do any counseling that whole month. As I expand the group, I’d like to have some of the more reactive work spread among members of the group and have me work on bigger picture strategic privacy angles, helping [companies] think about information governance in a more wholistic way. That means integrating privacy into the way companies operate — product development and technology development, having privacy be part of the development of the product itself, rather than a separate track or process.
CB: Do you see any trends in data that cut across industries?
MEC: There are three big themes I see across disciplines. One is ‘big data’ and how do we leverage the information we have more effectively, how to be more efficient in understanding your customers. Another is the desire to understand mobile data. Our mobile devices are our alter egos. Consumer-facing companies are very interested in understanding the mobile customer. The third is concern about security, making sure you have your data protected and that you understand your breach notification obligations.
More from Capital Business:


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are a Gionee fan, you’ll attest to the fact that Gionee smartphones normally
comes with huge battery. The Gionee M6 and M6 Plus stood the test of time because
of the security encryption chip added to it.
but are about to unveil a successor to Gionee M6 range code name Gionee M6S
place on April 24th in Beijing China. Though no specification is
given aside of the fingerprint ID sighted on the invite pack.
6020mAh capacity and run Android Nougat out of the box since the “M”
series from Gionee, previously also known as “Marathon”, has always
been about cramming huge batteries into mid-range smartphones.
ram found on the M6 Plus. Come April 24th 2017, a new monster device
will be added to Gionee table.


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Volvo Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication Services Promise Improved Safety
October 23, 2012 10:07 AM
comment(s) - last by
Car 2 Car Communication would alert a driver to a fast approaching vehicle entering an intersection.
(Source: Volvo Cars)
System will allow vehicles to communicate speed and position among other details
Volvo is famous for
safety features used in its vehicles
. The company has now announced its intention to support new methods for improving safety with cars that are able to communicate with each other and the
. Volvo says the system allows vital information to be shared and exchanged to create a safer and more comfortable driving experience.
To jumpstart these efforts, Volvo has joined the Car 2 Car Communication Consortium. Volvo and other members of the consortium are aiming for a common platform for Car 2 Car communications that will be ready within five years.
"In the future we will have advanced exchange of vital information between vehicles such as their position, speed and direction," says Erik Israelsson, Project Leader Cooperative ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) at Volvo Car Corporation.
Volvo and other members are aiming for car communications that is able to function between all cars regardless of the vehicle make.
Vehicle to vehicle communications will be conducted via a wireless network said to be similar to a Wi-Fi network utilizing existing systems. The existing systems that Volvo and the other members hope to take advantage of include things like the GPS navigation system. Car 2 Car was granted a separate frequency to allow cars within a given radius to automatically be linked together and exchange information such as position, speed, and direction. Volvo says that by installing transmitters in the road infrastructure such as on road signs and traffic lights the communication network can be extended further.
Vehicles would be in communication with each other and traffic signals [Image Source: Volvo Cars]
"There is considerable potential in this area as well as opportunities for many benefits in many spheres over and above road safety, such as a more uniform flow of traffic and additional comfort for road users," relates Erik Israelsson.
The system has the potential to provide drivers with information such as how long it will be before the traffic light turns green and to help optimize traffic lights to allow vehicles to go through multiple intersections without stopping. The system can also be used to warn drivers of the presence of emergency vehicles and to warn about roadwork ahead. Car 2 Car Communication also has the potential to warn drivers of slow vehicles or stopped vehicles on the roadway and of traffic jams.
Another interesting safety feature that the system can provide is a “motorcycle approaching” indicator to help drivers know when the motorcycle is nearby.
This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
RE: Makes a Police State Look Like a Bed of Roses
10/23/2012 7:10:24 PM
Yep.. privacy is constantly being eroded but you just watch 99% of the general public lapping it up like the dumb$hits that they are.
RE: Makes a Police State Look Like a Bed of Roses
10/24/2012 11:06:30 AM
Why do you have any expectation of privacy in public?
"I mean, if you wanna break down someone's door, why don't you start with AT&T, for God sakes? They make your amazing phone unusable as a phone!" -- Jon Stewart on Apple and the iPhone
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Microsoft buying LinkedIn for $26 billion is a major surprise--but it may be a sign that technology's giants are finally looking to spend their massive cash hoards. That could mean big exits for a number of companies whose stocks took a hit earlier this year, including Twitter, Box, Tableau, and Pandora.
Remember: at the beginning of this year, many young public tech companies were in trouble, including LinkedIn. The social network for business users lost 40% of its value overnight after reporting earnings in February. Few dispute LinkedIn's potential, but its business model has lurched back and forth, attempting consumer advertising, business-to-business services, content marketing, and recruiting services.
This $26 billion Microsoft deal lets LinkedIn escape public market pressure on its monetization strategy. But it also provides a huge return to its remaining investors. It seems unlikely to be a coincidence that the agreed upon price, $196, is just above where LinkedIn traded before its stock collapse in February.
Others may be looking for a similar face-saving escape from the public market turmoil, and larger companies may be willing to pay at reduced prices--especially in enterprise technology. Just earlier this month, we saw Salesforce spend $2.8 billion on DemandWare at a similar 56% premium that returned DemandWare to its peak value from 2015.
Potential enterprise targets: storage company Box's stock price has slid since its IPO 18 months ago to a more reasonable 4.7x sales multiple and $1.35 billion market cap. Just like LinkedIn, data visualization firm Tableau lost nearly half its value in February. It still has a fair premium, trading over 6x sales, but it's significantly cheaper than it used to be, and could be an attractive target for an IBM, SAP, or others.
Twitter is of course another, much hyped option. Its performance has been terrible recently, with declining users, but that's what makes it available in the first place. The stock is down 36% this year so far. Music streaming site Pandora has also been discussed. Way down from its 2014 heights, Pandora now trades at less than half the multiple of Netflix. It could be attractive for companies looking to compete with Apple Music and Spotify.


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Non profit Green Electronics Council (GEC) put out a report today that suggests its eco-computing initiatives are starting to work. Yeah, it’s a
their way to justify their program and budget ($800,000 for 2007), but we appreciate them getting us some numbers to check out. (EPA funded both the GEC and the study).
The Green Electronics Council implements the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT), which evaluates and registers electronics and computing products based on 52 environmental factors. GEC says that based on the first 6 month of sales of EPEAT registered computers compared to non-registered computers, EPEAT has been delivering some significant environmental benefits:
- Saves 13.7 billion kWh of electricity (they say enough to power 1.2 million U.S. homes for a year)
- Saves 24.4 million metric tons of materials (they say equivalent to the weight of 189 million refrigerators)
- Prevents 56.5 million metric tons of air pollution, and 1.07 million metric tons of global warming gases (they say the equivalent of removing 852,000 cars from the road for a year)
- Prevents 118,000 metric tons of water pollution
- Reduces toxic material use by 1,070 metric tons (they say equivalent to the weight of 534,000 bricks and enough mercury to fill 157,000 household fever thermometers)
- Avoids the disposal of 41,100 metric tons of hazardous waste (they say equivalent to the weight of 20.5 million bricks)
Update: So we thought the study didn’t sound so independent because the EPA funded both the GEC and the study. Scot Case of the GEC (see comments) disagrees. What do you think?


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SCF: You say tomato, I say tomato, let’s call the whole thing off?
Is it time for supply chain finance to be rebranded? Looking 10 years out is a good way of focusing the mind. Even though there’s a big industry around SCF, will we still be looking at it in the same way in 2029? Katharine Morton looks at what may need to change.
You say potato, I say potato, potato potato, tomato tomato, let’s call the whole thing off? Gershwin’s classic, first sung and danced (on roller skates) by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (backwards on skates in her case!) in the film ‘Shall We Dance’ (1937) doesn’t look so good on paper, but it has been playing on my mind. What’s in a name? Financing the supply chain of the future may not involve the term supply chain finance (SCF). So, for many reasons (some of which I’ll consider here), is it ripe for a rebrand?
At the keynote ‘21st century vision for trade’ session at the ICC’s Trade and Supply Chain Finance in London on 14 November, I asked whether we will still be speaking about SCF in the same way in 10 years’ time, will it even exist as a concept.
“I hope not,” says James Binns, managing director, global head of trade and working capital at Barclays. He thinks it will be all about cross-border trade and working capital management. “I try and encourage [companies] to think about understanding what the cost of funding is in their supply chain and how that's impacting the unit cost of what they're buying from their suppliers and how, in a more transparent world, and a fairer world, in terms of risk allocation and capital allocation across those supply chains, you can actually start to bring down the cost of production.”
Both buyers and suppliers can start to share from those types of considerations. Supply chains in the future that are good or better at doing that will be the ones that thrive over other supply chains. “While I've used the words supply chain or the words supply chain finance liberally in my explanation, personally, I hope that the current connotation of supply chain disappears and people start talking about ‘what's the cost of funding’, ‘what's the efficient cost of allocation of capital across ecosystems’, and ‘supplier ecosystems’,” Binns says.
Technology is lending a hand. Michael Vrontamitis, head of trade, Europe and Americas at Standard Chartered, adds, “the evolution of credit models will lead to banks improving their product suites. Machine based learning is improving our ability to extend credit. That will enable us to offer cheaper credit, further down the supply chain over a period of time, by understanding the interaction between the buyer and seller.”
All that will be critical to help close the trade finance gap, bankers argue. Accurate pricing of risk is at the heart of this. The ICC Trade Register is one resource the banks are using to help demonstrate the quality of assets they are putting on their books that ultimately should have an impact on the capital models applied to trade to help with developing new products.
Skating backwards: reverse factoring in the spotlight
Rewinding a little (skating backwards in roller skates, if you like), SCF has always struggled with its identity. An umbrella term for a series of financing processes along the supply chain, whose specific standard terms were defined (at some considerable length) by the ICC in 2016.
Some argue that it’s not SCF per se, but one specific tool within it – reverse factoring – that’s a concern. Arguably, the processes around the clumsily-named reverse factoring (widely still called ‘confirming’ in the Spanish speaking world) are what most think of when they say SCF.
Moody’s put out a report on 19 September that reverse factoring’s popularity comes with high but hidden risks, that few corporates reveal their use of it, and both corporate users and investors may not be able to see their exposure in the absence of disclosure. The defaults of Abengoa (whose extended payment terms in its SCF programme created ‘debt-like features’ according to Moody’s) and UK construction firm Carillion are both frequently cited as examples of where SCF may have weakened the companies’ liquidity, and contributed to their downfall (not forgetting the effects on their suppliers).
Mark Evans, MD Transaction Banking at ANZ, doesn’t think there needs to be a wholesale rebrand. “Part of the reason why we [at the ICC] put the standard SCF definitions out there was to draw a line between supply chain finance versus someone financing someone’s supply chain, which is still a loan, rather than rebranding the whole SCF term.”
Evans is keen to note how low risk payables financing is. “SCF, including payables financing, has been included in the ICC Trade Register for the first time this year [for the 2018 register] and the products have proven to be no worse risk than trade business, and in some cases, better,“ he says.
What about banks’ response to headline events at Carillion/Abengoa or the controversial use of SCF in Vodafone/GAM Greensill SCF Fund? By coincidence, Greensill’s CEO, Lex Greensill, puts his positive point of view on reverse factoring in AFR on 20 November.
Nonetheless, as one senior banker says, “There’s still a lack of understanding of trade, and there’s a grey area in open account, what documents do I have, short term sales, pricing liquidity properly, people need to know what’s going on and where SCF fits in. Some programmes are pure funding vehicles.”
Weird markets mean weird outcomes
The criticism that some programmes are pure funding vehicles hits home with a head of trade at a US bank. “SCF has replaced commercial paper (CP) programmes on one level for some companies and banks,” he says. “It’s taking the place of CP in some players’ minds, corporates are generating funding from operating free cash flow.”
But the way risks are measured and priced are fundamentally different. And that’s all very well for highly rated anchor corporates, but if their ratings soften (as happened with GE before it ported its GE Capital-backed SCF to MUFG) and for other early creators of large SCF programmes), things can get weird. Weird markets – with central bank interventions driving low/negative interest rates aren’t helping.
Another criticism persists that many reverse factoring programmes are not catering for the needs of smaller suppliers and that many bank-led programmes don’t engage with onboarding the long tail of smaller suppliers.
All the bankers I’ve spoken to on the subject agree that, at the very least, education is important. “I don’t think it’s time to rebrand, but ongoing efforts are needed to reflect the technology used and encourage banks and non-bank investors not to loosely use supply chain finance [as a term] – it’s more a need to educate rather than rebrand. Things have become too complicated in some people’s eyes and the brand ‘supply chain’ has been allowed to be diluted,” says Evans.
What can help? “Thought leadership, making sure key messages get through and the opportunity to contribute to the communities in which we operate through values-based solutions,” Evans says. “For instance, we’re exploring sustainable financing opportunities in supply chains through anchor clients that are financially sound to enable and reward risk-managed and compliant activities.”
“Similarly, when done properly there can be real benefits for suppliers to work with their customers to ensure they mutually leverage their respective ‘buying’ power, ensuring the end- to-end costs of supply are managed as efficiently as possible,” Evans adds. “There is a misconception in some areas that this only results in additional fees or interest costs being incurred by SMEs who supply to larger companies but this is not the basis nor intent of the product and that needs to be better understood. We are working with industry participants and bodies such as ICC and BAFT to help get the message out there.”
Actions at industry level
That’s encouraging, and other banks and non-bank SCF providers such as Orbian are working with some corporates to incentivise their suppliers on sustainability via their SCF programmes. TXF will be looking more closely at financing sustainability along supply chains shortly.
Nonetheless, the unease about the term SCF among some banks persists and is palpable. As one senior banker at another US bank says, “We’re talking at an industry level in organisations such as BAFT to look to signing up to supply chain principles as the industry is looking to define what we’re calling supply chain finance. That means creating a set of principles to adhere to rather than bandying around SCF – and if you don’t adhere to them, we won’t call it SCF.”
But, you say potato, I say potato. Another senior banker at a Japanese-domiciled bank points out: “The question is if you rebrand SCF, would you change it?” He continues, “If you change the label from red to blue the flipside is still visibility [of the underlying], regulators are asking banks to know where trade is coming from and going to, but they also need to know what’s under the bonnet and what’s going on. Don’t pretend. It doesn’t need rebranding but risks need to be understood better. You can’t abdicate responsibility as people got burnt, for instance, with Carillion, but you need to share information more effectively.”
Articles on SCF, you may think, are like buses, and David Gustin, contributing author at Spend Matters doesn’t pull punches. “SCF is balance sheet manipulation with a smiley face,” he says in a thought-provoking recent article. To be fair, he does also note the good things SCF can do.
I do not expect SCF to be rebranded any time soon, and there’s a whole industry, both in the bank and non-bank financial services sector that come under its ample umbrella. So, to quote the song, “We’d better call the calling off, off”…for now. Ask me again before 2029.
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How to get the most from CPRI: TXF talks to Boris Jaquet
Boris Jaquet, EMEA Head, distribution, Deutsche Bank talks to TXF’s Katharine Morton about his views of the state of play of the Credit and Political Risk Insurance (CPRI) market and how to get the best from CPRI ahead of the TXF Conference in London on 4 December 2019
Expert briefing: EU trade agreement with Mercosur, trade and sustainability
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KPMG puts in lowest bid for Bahrain Metro advisory
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Clenergy closes on Ganzlin solar financing
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NLNG train seven debt out to banks
Nigeria LNG (NLNG) is out to banks with the debt package for its train seven project. The deadline for responses is December 10.
ENH to start raising $1.5 billion for Mozambique LNG project next week
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Gulf PD signing nears
Gulf PD – a joint venture between Gulf Energy Development (GED) and Mitsui – is expected to sign a $1.5 billion dual-currency facility for its 2.5GW gas-fired power project in Thailand next week.
Ithaca closes RBL to acquire Chevron's North Sea assets
Ithaca Energy, a subsidiary of Israeli energy and infrastructure company Delek, has announced that its acquisition of Chevron’s North Sea fields for $2 billion has been completed, following the close of its $1.6 billion RBL.


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Florida-based professional investor Karl Denninger comments on a rumour that Japan is considering selling U.S. government bonds ("Treasuries"). He reflects that such a move could begin a run on U.S. Treasuries, and the largest holder by far is China, who some think may have up to $1 trillion of U.S. debt.
A selloff would put pressure on the U.S. to raise interest rates, and this could have a domino effect in other countries. Higher interest rates make businesses' finance tougher, as well as hitting their customers' disposable income and therefore reducing demand for goods and services. So a crisis of faith in America's ability to repay its debts, and to maintain the exchange value of the dollar, could plunge the world economy back into recession. The investment outlook in this scenario would not be positive.
Denninger is a long-standing Cassandra on the U.S. economy, but he has a fairly sizeable following in the American personal investment community and despite his tendency to express himself in stark terms, his views and information should not be lightly dismissed.
A further reason to take him seriously is what has been happening between China and its U.S. debtors. It's been said some time ago, that China has been selling the debt of U.S. States and corporations in favour of U.S. Treasuries, because the latter are fully backed by the American Government. In retrospect, this seems to have been a very prudent move, since a number of U.S. States are now having significant difficulty in balancing their budgets, owing to a shrinking tax income and rising bills for unemployment benefit. It's understood that China has also been selling longer-term Treasuries to buy shorter-dated ones, because the latter offer an earlier exit should America's credit rating and currency weaken. So the notion that China might suddenly need or want to sell off Treasuries, is not entirely implausible.
On the other hand, America is China's best customer and if the dollar fell sharply or consumer spending reduced even more severely than it has already done, this would hit Chinese exports and increase unemployment in China, which is already a significant problem. It is in both parties' interests to manage the situation. The wider picture, many believe, is a long economic decline in the West as the East develops markets closer to its home, but at this stage everyone will prefer an ebbing tide to a tsunami in reverse.
Perhaps we should instead expect a slowing in the rate at which U.S. debt to China is increasing; and maybe an increasing reluctance on the part of the Chinese to purchase new Treasuries when the old ones mature.
DISCLAIMER: Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog.


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December 22nd, 2011
The Secret to a Merry Christmas? Skip the Mall, Go to Church
By Derek Thompson
A study finds that families who focus on buying and receiving gifts report more stress and less satisfaction during the holiday season
To call Christmas “commercialized” today isn’t a criticism so much as a statistical observation. One in every six dollars in retail spending is exchanged in the five weeks between Thanksgiving and the end of the year. Analysts now expect us to spend approximately $450 billion this month, or around $700 per family—equal to a typical month’s rent.
But according to a 2002 study we surfaced for our Santanomics series, spending money won’t make your Christmas any merrier. In fact, putting too much focus on buying and receiving presents might be ruining our holidays.
Read more: http://bit.ly/tX8KLJ


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The annual Coffee Pot football rivalry is set for Friday, Aug. 28 at Wilkins Stadium in Tullahoma. As Thunder Radio sports reported to you last week, due to stadium capacity limitations due to COVID-19 restrictions, Coffee County has only been allotted 500 tickets to sell.
Tickets are $7 each and there is no student discount.
On Tuesday, Aug. 25, and Wednesday, Aug. 26, tickets will only be sold to the varsity football team, cheer squad, dance team and band. Each student may purchase no more than two tickets. Students or a parent of a student can purchase tickets at the Central High School main office between 8 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
On Thursday, Aug. 27, any remaining tickets will be sold to the public in the CHS main office from 8 a.m. until noon. There will be no tickets sold on Friday or at the stadium.
TACA and TSSAA passes will be accepted at the Pass Gate.
If you can’t attend the game, you can listen to every Red Raider football game all season long on Thunder Radio. Game broadcasts begin with the Friday Night Thunder pregame show at 6 p.m. and kickoff at 7 p.m. on Thunder Radio – 107.9 FM, 106.7 FM, 1320 AM and streaming at www.thunder1320.com and the Manchester Go smartphone app.


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Following an investigation that found low levels of asbestos in a sample of baby powder purchased online, Johnson & Johnson issued a voluntary recall on baby powder "out of an abundance of caution." The recall is limited to one lot of baby powder, which includes around 33,000 bottles.
The voluntary recall was initiated after a test conducted on a sample by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found "sub-trace levels of chrysotile asbestos contamination," which were no greater than 0.00002%, the company said in a recall statement on Friday, Oct. 18.
The sample came from an online retailer, according to Johnson & Johnson, though it's not clear where exactly it was purchased and if the bottles from the recalled lot were also sold in stores. Those details may become known soon, though, as the company stated that they're still in the "early stage of the investigation."
"Despite the low levels reported and in full cooperation and collaboration with the FDA, JJCI is initiating this voluntary recall of Lot #22318RB of Johnson’s Baby Powder, from which the tested sample was taken," the recall notice states.
The lot #22318RB will be listed on the bottle and if you find that you have a bottle from the recalled batch, the company is advising customers "to discontinue use of the product." Consumers can also contact Johnson & Johnson for a refund by phone at 866-565-2229 or online at www.johnsonsbaby.com.
Because Johnson & Johnson is still investigating the findings of the FDA's test, the company said it can't yet confirm several details, such as "if cross-contamination of the sample caused a false positive," if the tested sample "was taken from a bottle with an intact seal or whether the sample was prepared in a controlled environment," and if the sample was "authentic or counterfeit."
Baby powder is often made with talcum powder, which comes from talc, a naturally occurring mineral and "in its natural form, some talc contains asbestos," according to the American Cancer Society. Exposure to asbestos is known cause a number of cancers, according to The Mesothelioma Center. In fact, one study published in The Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine earlier this week found that talcum powders — which are also used in products like blush and other facial powders — that were contaminated with asbestos may be linked to a mesothelioma, a rare cancer.
Johnson & Johnson said that the company has "a rigorous testing standard in place to ensure its cosmetic talc is safe and years of testing, including the FDA’s own testing on prior occasions — and as recently as last month — found no asbestos. Thousands of tests over the past 40 years repeatedly confirm that our consumer talc products do not contain asbestos."
With this recall in place and until more details are known, parents can turn to their trusted medical professional for more guidance or concerns. And, of course, if you have a recalled bottle of baby powder at home, stop using it immediately and contact Johnson & Johnson for more information.


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CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Charlotte-Mecklenburg police say the number of car breaks-ins and car thefts is on the rise and it's only expected to get worse during the summer months.
- As the temperature rises, so do car thefts and break-ins.
- There have been 4,700 car break-ins and 1300 car thefts so far this year.
- More firearms are also being taken from cars.
According to police, most of the time, it is the result of people simply forgetting to lock their car or leaving their keys behind.
CMPD says there have already been 4,700 car break-ins and 1,300 car thefts so far this year.
Police also said they’ve seen more and more firearms being taken from cars. In fact, one-third of the guns taken from vehicles were from cars that were unlocked.
CMPD said, often times, car break-ins are a crime of opportunity and, as the weather heats up, people are leaving their car windows unrolled, which makes it easy for the thieves to strike.
The easiest thing people can is to take your valuables and lock your cars before you head anywhere.


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Published 24 November 2020
Celebrity singer-songwriter Billie Eilish and her parents recently attended vegan rescue center Farm Sanctuary.
The non-profit posted a picture of the star cuddling a rescued turkey.
“It was an honor hosting Billie Eilish, Maggie Baird, and Patrick O’Connell at Farm Sanctuary!” the organization said.
“They know, as we do, that turkeys are sentient, emotional creatures, and don’t deserve to end up on anyone’s plates.”
Farm Sanctuary encouraged its followers to sponsor one of their rescued turkeys this year for Thanksgiving ‘instead of eating one’. It also praised Support + Feed, an initiative founded by Eilish’s Mother Maggie Baird.
Support + Feed provides plant-based meals prepared by local restaurants and businesses to people experiencing food insecurity.
It aims to nourish those in need, provide education, support small businesses, and positively impact the climate crisis.
Earlier this year, Eilish, her family, and core team members of Support + Feed, delivered vegan food and flowers to a women’s center and hospital in L.A.
Moreover, Baird said: “We had an incredible mother’s day today. The whole family and some of our core Support + Feed team [made] deliveries today to honor mothers and nurses for nurse appreciation week!
“First to the downtown women’s center and then to the staff at MLK hospital. Thank you to everyone donating to Support + Feed who makes this possible! You made a difference today!”
Original Article > by Liam Gilliver, Plant Based News
Analysis also found the lowest impact meat was still far more damaging than the worst plant foods
Make a fresh start in 2021 by taking the 30 Day Vegan Easy Challenge and do a world of good!
Going vegan could not only lower your risk of severe Covid-19, if enough of us do it, it could lower the risk of future pandemics.
For people who may wish to lose weight, plant-based diets could be the best solution thanks to the way in which they influence metabolism.
What do you get when you combine one part MasterChef to two parts enthusiasm for delicious plant-based food? Approximately two weeks' supply of crave-worthy recipes that are fun, simple, and chock-full of fresh Australian produce!
New research shows that labels for plant-based products using terms usually associated with animal products, e.g. "oat milk" and "plant-based beef", do not lead consumers to become confused about whether they are buying animal products.


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Amy Schumer thinks she shouldn't have been included in Glamour's plus-size issue
Something has made Amy Schumer uncomfortable and she’s asking the world what to make of it. Glamour magazine featured the Inside Amy Schumer comedian in its plus-size only issue and used her name on the cover. But there’s one problem: Amy doesn’t identify as plus-size, says she is a size 6 or 8, and therefore wonders why she was included in the magazine at all. So she took to Instagram to get out her thoughts:
Amy also opened up the conversation on Twitter, looking to start a discussion about what happened, and about the concept of “plus-size” in general:
People have had a lot to say:
For the most part, Twitter users seem to agree with Amy Schumer’s concerns, bringing into question whether we even need terms like that to define our bodies. On the one hand, men and women who identify as plus-size very much want to fashion industry to recognize them and provide just as many options for them. (Amy said plus-size starts at 16, but some brands consider plus-size to be anything above a 12 or a 14. The San Fransisco Gate notes that the average American woman wears a size 14.) On the other hand, what does “plus-size” even mean if it’s applied arbitrarily to any actress who seems bigger what we are used to seeing from Hollywood? Or is the point that Hollywood does view a size 8 at plus-size?
Glamour’s editor-in-chief Cindi Leive addressed Amy’s concern over Twitter this afternoon:
Plus-size? Maybe, maybe not. One word that definitely describes Amy Schumer? Awesome, and just getting more awesome by posting important stuff like this.


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The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is wrapping up its case against Google’s search engine monopoly this week, setting the stage for Google’s defense against allegations that it paid up to $10 billion annually to maintain its search dominance while undermining competitors like Apple and Microsoft.
High-profile tech executives, including Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Apple’s Eddy Cue, have testified in previous weeks, supporting the DOJ’s contention that Google unlawfully monopolized online search and advertising. Current and former Google employees have also taken the stand.
As Google prepares to counter these accusations, it faces the challenge of justifying its significant payouts for search engine users. The company must also refute the DOJ’s claim that its dominant presence on mobile devices and web browsers deters users from seeking alternatives.
Additionally, the DOJ has accused Google of manipulating internet advertising prices and controlling online auctions in a manner that impacts how buyers and sellers connect on digital platforms.
The outcome of this lawsuit could have far-reaching implications for the tech industry and the future of online search and advertising competition. The tech community eagerly anticipates Google’s response as the case’s conclusion nears.
Source: Spice Works


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Microsoft yesterday made permanent the $100 price cut to its Surface Pro tablet that it ran as a temporary sale through most of August.
Surface Pro devices rely on Windows 8 Pro and Intel processors, rather than the stripped-down Windows RT and lower-powered ARM processors of the Surface RT. Surface Pro tablets can run traditional Windows software, often called "legacy" software, like the full-featured Office 2013 productivity suite.
Sale prices were first unveiled Aug. 4 and were to run only through Aug. 30, or until supplies lasted. The discounts were available only in the U.S., Canada, China and a few other markets.
According to Microsoft, the Surface Pro permanent prices will be the sales prices: $799 for the model with 64GB of storage space, $899 for the one with 128GB.
Touch Cover prices will start at $79.99, $40 off the former price, and Surface RT-Touch Cover bundles, which were also discounted, will start at $399, $50 lower than originally. The more keyboard-like Type Cover, however, will remain $129.99.
The cheaper prices will be extended to all markets where Microsoft sells the Surface.
"The customer response to recent Surface pricing and keyboard-cover promotions has been exciting to see, and we are proud to begin rollout of Surface Pro, Touch Cover and Surface RT bundles at even more affordable prices starting August 29," a Microsoft spokeswoman said in an email.
Late Thursday, however, the Microsoft Store did not show all the new prices.
The Surface Pro discounts followed even more aggressive Surface RT price cuts in July. Then, Microsoft slashed the price of the Surface RT by up to 30%, reducing all models by $150.
Although Microsoft is expected to unveil new Surface tablets this fall, it's had a hard time unloading the first-generation inventory. For the quarter that ended June 30, Microsoft took a $900 million charge against earnings to account for excess stock of the Surface RT, and unspecified components and accessories.
According to one analyst, that write-off was probably the precipitating event that pushed Microsoft's board of directors to shove CEO Steve Ballmer out the door.
Microsoft has also heavily discounted the Surface RT in offers to schools, and given away thousands of the tablets at various conferences this year.
The Redmond, Wash., company could revert to the earlier, higher prices with new models later this year, but that seems unlikely considering the difficulty it's had selling its tablets. For the period October 2012 through June 2013, Microsoft recorded just $853 million in revenue from its first foray into computing devices.
A 32GB Surface RT with a Touch Cover now costs $399, or 33% less than the price when the tablet debuted last October. The entry-level Surface Pro with a Touch Cover now runs $878, or 14% less than in February, when the more capable tablet-notebook hybrid launched.
Microsoft's August sale price for the Surface Pro has become the permanent price.
This article, Microsoft sets $100 Surface Pro discounts in stone, was originally published at Computerworld.com.
Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer, on Google+ or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed. His email address is firstname.lastname@example.org.
Read more about tablets in Computerworld's Tablets Topic Center.


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Google Overhauls Cookie Replacement Plan After Privacy Critiques
The company’s Chrome browser will distill a shortlist of interests based on a user’s recent browsing history, the company said.
The proposal is an outgrowth of Google’s plan to phase out a user-tracking technology called third-party cookies in 2023.
The plan met considerable pushback from the ad industry, which said it was less effective than using cookies to track users’ browsing histories to infer their interests and habits.
Google Senior Product Director Ben Galbraith said privacy concerns were the primary driver of the changes Google made for Topics.
Regulators have been looking closely at the Google plan to remove cookies.
Read full article here:
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Haggen Food and Pharmacy stores recently acquired 146 Albertsons, Vons and Pavilions stores across five states: Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada and Arizona. Since then, rumors have surfaced that the selling off of these properties was part of a larger scheme by Albertsons to unload underperforming stores.
Albertsons purchased Safeway last summer for $9.2 billion and was required to divest properties in order to be approved by the FTC. The company also said they would close 26 stores, Forbes reported.
According to the rumors, the stores sold to Haggen were understocked and had trouble paying vendors.
Last week Haggen sued Albertsons for more than $1 billion, alleging that its purchase of the 146 Albertsons and Safeway stores was part of the company's strategy to eliminate Haggen as competition in five states. Haggen also claims that Albertsons lied to the FTC about a seamless transformation of these stores into viable locations for Haggen. In other words, those behind the deal on Albertsons' side knew these locations would never succeed.
"Had Haggen known Albertsons' true intentions, Haggen would never have purchased the stores, nor would the FTC have permitted such a purchase," stated the lawsuit, according the Associated Press.
Albertsons is the second largest U.S. grocery chain, just behind Kroger, and operates more than 2,200 stores. The company announced an IPO filing in July.
-See this Forbes article
-See this Associated Press article
Albertsons finalizes $9 billion Safeway purchase
Albertsons, Safeway prepare for IPO
Safeway stock rallies on buyout rumors; debt concerns rise
Investors happy about Safeway shedding Dominick's
Safeway Canada sells out to Sobey's for $5.7 billion


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For inquiries call+91-22-6130-9999
For inquiries email@example.com
We're proud to announce that RKSV has taken a giant leap forward and is now Upstox.
NRI Trading in currency segment is not possible as per SEBI regulations. Only Resident Indians are allowed to trade in the Currency derivative segment.


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Ron Huneycutt has resigned as president and CEO of dealership chain Holiday RV Superstores Inc., which does business as Recreation USA, the company announced today (March 13).
Replacing Huneycutt as president is Marcus Lemonis, who has senior management experience at AutoNation USA, the car dealership roll-up after which Recreation USA is patterning itself.
“Lemonis will be responsible for assimilating Recreation USA’s 14 dealerships under a single management umbrella while reducing overhead costs,” according to a Recreation USA statement.
Meanwhile, Recreation USA founder and Chairman Mike Riley will add the role of CEO.
“By focusing on better assimilating our current dealerships, we will have in place a solid operating plan that will allow us to reap immediate financial benefits when we add a new dealership,” Riley said. “We plan to continue making acquisitions during 2001 and we feel that the current market will provide more favorable pricing opportunities for Recreation USA.”
Recreation USA had $152 million in sales during its fiscal year 2000, which ended last Oct. 31, but Riley continues to believe the company will reach $1 billion in annual revenue by the end of its fiscal year 2002.


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According to a report, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is planning to have its proposed digital currency designated “critical national infrastructure” in order to protect it from operational and cyber-security risks. In addition, the CBN will also apply regulatory and compliance mechanisms to prevent what it calls “disruptive competition for electronic money.”
Cost Versus Benefit
As a Thisdaylive report explains, the digital currency which will be known as the e-naira will initially co-exist with traditional payment systems. CBN hopes that this strategy will help it “address interoperability risks that might be associated with the implementation.”
With respect to the costs and risks involved, Thisdaylive, whose report is ostensibly based on a leaked CBN document, says the central bank is hopeful that the increased efficiency in operations will offset the initial costs of deploying the digital currency. On the other hand, the CBN reckons the risk of financial disintermediation will be addressed via the imposition of limits on e-naira holdings.
Public-Private Partnership Arrangement
The report also explains how the issuing of the e-naira will lead to the creation of a public-private partnership arrangement between the central bank and regulated institutions. As part of this arrangement, the CBN will be tasked with the design and distribution of the digital currency to regulated institutions. These institutions, in turn, “provide the digital cash to individuals and businesses.”
This latest report by Thisdaylive appears to buttress earlier reports that the CBN is planning to launch a trial run of the e-naira on October 1, 2021. The report also appears to be the first time that finer details about the workings of the proposed digital currency have been made public.
With just a few weeks left before launch, it now remains to be seen if the digital currency, which CBN officials insist will lead to cheaper and more efficient transactions, is going to come to life as promised by central bank governor Godwin Emefiele.
What are your thoughts on this story? Share your views in the comments section below.


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Blue Nun - the world's top-selling wine for 30 years - gets a makeover to tempt the female palate
Relaunch: Blue Nun fell out of fashion after being the world's top selling wine between the 1950s and 1980s
It was the height of sophistication. . . or a byword for tackiness.
Blue Nun was the world’s top-selling wine between the 1950s and 1980s, but became the butt of jokes and fell out of fashion.
It was the wine of choice for the appalling, cheesy, TV chat show host Alan Partridge.
However, it survived all the put-downs and even won the approval of style icon Victoria Beckham, who might be assumed to prefer Cristal champagne.
After a number of reinventions, the original version of the semi-sweet German creation in the blue bottle with a nun on the label is being relaunched as an ‘unpretentious’ and ‘contemporary’ wine.
The taste has been devised to suit British women aged 25-45, although German owner Langguth plans to sell it worldwide.
The move is part of a wider effort to build a new interest in German wine, which has suffered a disastrous slump since Blue Nun and Black Tower were the height of sophistication.
Blue Nun introduced millions of Britons to the intimidating world of wine. Billed as a wine that could be drunk throughout a meal, it solved the dinner party problem of not knowing what to serve with a particular food.
Surprisingly, the brand can trace its roots back to 1921, while it became the biggest selling wine in the world between the 1950s and 1980s.
Originally a Liebfraumilch and later a blended wine, it has become less sweet over the years.
The new version, in the shops next month, uses the Rivaner grape, a cross between Riesling and Gutedel. Wines are generally light with a flowery bouquet and less acidity than Riesling.
The taste of the latest version has been devised particularly to suit British women, however the plan is to sell it around the world.
Blue Nun is owned by the German company Langguth, whose winemaker, Heinz
Blümling, worked with British importer, Bottle Green, to develop the
new taste and image.
A spokesman for the firm said: ‘In addition to the Original being
re-crafted, the brand will also re-launch with a range of German
varietal wines such as Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Pinot Noir.
‘As well as improved wines, the packaging has been given a major
overhaul. The iconic Nun remains but is set within a bold, contemporary
Last year, the company produced a sparkling version of the drink that
contains flakes of 22-carat gold, designed to ‘highlight its natural
Blue Nun Gold Edition was positioned as ‘the perfect wine for
celebrations and special occasions’ and ‘For life’s golden moments’.
The existing Blue Nun range is selling more than 31,000 bottles every week in the UK, which is up by 14per cent in a year.
The company hopes the new version, which will go into shops in March, will see the figure take-off.
A spokesman said: ‘The Blue Nun brand has a strong heritage and holds a fascination for many consumers. We plan to tap into this latent affection and take the brand forward without alienating the existing fans of the brand.'
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Saturday, 20 July 2013
Thursday, 20 June 2013
eMarketer: Mcommerce Takes 15% of UK Retail Ecommerce Sales
Ecommerce sales to account for more than 11% of £383 billion UK retail market; retail mobile commerce sales expected to top £6.61 billion alone
LONDON (20 June, 2013) -- Shopping on mobile devices is helping drive retail ecommerce sales in the UK to new heights and a larger percentage of retail sales overall, according to new figures from eMarketer.
The UK has always registered relatively high online shopping and buying penetration rates. Based on eMarketer's first-ever forecast for UK retail sales across channels, digital sales in the country, including online and mobile, as a percentage of total retail sales, is among the highest in the world. eMarketer estimates that digital sales (excluding travel) will represent 11.5% of UK total retail sales this year, compared with 10.2% in 2012.
With retail ecommerce sales growing at double-digit rates for several years to come, as total retail sales remain all but flat, digital commerce's share of the total will continue to increase.
Nonmobile online retail sales will continue rising robustly in the coming years, even as a significant portion of digital's growth will come from mobile devices, as shopping on smartphones and tablets reaches record levels-driving much of the incremental growth in the market.
Tablet commerce will grow by triple digits in 2013 for the third year running, to reach £3.57 billion ($5.67 billion), while smartphone mcommerce sales growth will fall to 42.6%. Other mobile devices, such as ereaders, account for only a tiny fraction of mobile sales. The total mcommerce figure will reach £6.61 billion ($10.49 billion) this year and £17.24 billion ($27.36 billion) by 2017, with growth remaining robust throughout the forecast period.
Over the same period, UK retail mcommerce sales will increase its percentage of overall retail ecommerce sales from 15% this year to 26.5% by 2017, eMarketer estimates. Retail mcommerce sales include products and services ordered using a browser or app via any mobile device, regardless of where fulfillment occurs, but excludes travel sales and event tickets.
Factored into eMarketer's figures for UK retail ecommerce and mcommerce sales are the multiple ways in which mobile devices drive ecommerce sales. Growing use of smartphones and tablets as shopping and product research devices give consumers reasons to shift spending from stores to the internet, while additionally encouraging incremental purchases that stem from impulse buying. Smartphones and tablets also promote ecommerce by extending the shopping day and untethering consumers from the desktop or the store. eMarketer estimates 23.4 million people in the UK, or 58.3% of digital shoppers, will browse or research products on smartphones this year. Nearly 15 million will do the same on tablets.
eMarketer bases its estimates of online and mobile sales in the UK on the analysis of data from other research firms, historical trends, consumer digital buying trends, and macro-level economic conditions.
eMarketer is the authority on digital marketing, media and commerce, offering insights essential to navigating the changing, competitive and complex digital environment. By weighing and analyzing information from different sources, eMarketer provides businesspeople, marketers and advertisers with the most complete view of digital marketing available.
Corporate Spokesperson and US Media Contact:
Vice President, Communications, eMarketer
UK Media Contact:
PR Director, UK, eMarketer
Tel. +44 (0) 207 869 5151
Wednesday, 19 June 2013
Thursday, 13 June 2013
Designed by Mediacom, the “unzipped” campaign features a zip with statements such as “How do websites know which adverts suit your interests?” and “Find out what goes on behind the ads you see online.” The zip opens to reveal the blue triangular ‘AdChoices’ icon which has been appearing on behavioural ads in the UK and EU markets for over a year.
When the ad is clicked, it links to a landing page explaining the role of online advertising and how privacy can be safeguarded. The landing page also features a short video helping people to understand ‘interest-based’ advertising.
The icon is part of a pan-European self-regulatory initiative – supported by the European Commission and the UK government – to give consumers more transparency and control over targeted online ads. The icon links to information about how data is collected and used to serve these types of ads and ways consumers can control this, including via the Your Online Choices website.
Tuesday, 11 June 2013
Thursday, 6 June 2013
London, 6 June 2013 – Chocolate, crisps and the internet dominate the most liked brands amongst 16-34 year olds according to a new report “Generation Y and Brand Loyalty” from w00t! Media.
The report, which looks at the changing relationships Britons have with brands as they age from 16 to 34, reveals Cadbury is the most liked brand amongst UK 16-34 year olds (82%), followed by Amazon (78%), Pringles, Walkers and Heinz (all 74%).
The top ten is completed by Google, Coca-Cola, (both 73%), Galaxy (71%), Kellogg’s and Facebook (both 70%). See Editor’s notes for Top 100 and category winners.
Dan McDevitt, w00t! Media’s joint managing director says: “Despite all the media attention given to internet, technology and mobile brands, the top 100 overall shows Generation Y remain most fond of traditional food, drink and retail brands – which account for over half the entire list.”
Most liked brands by category
The BBC is the favourite media/entertainment brand at 14th overall. McDonald’s takes the honours in high-street retail (16th). Following the top four internet brands, Apple is the leading technology/mobile brand but ranks 19th in the overall list, just a few places ahead of Colgate (23rd) – the most liked personal care brand. Nike is the favourite clothing/fashion brand (40th) as is Smirnoff in the alcohol sector (46th).
Friday, 24 May 2013
How UK consumers are ready for a richer messaging experience : A survey carried out on behalf of Acision by Vanson Bourne
As we approach the bank holiday weekend, I wanted to send you an insightful infographic from the global leader in mobile messaging, Acision, uncovering how UK consumers are ready for a richer messaging experience. The full infographic can be found below and is also hosted online here.
The infographic is based on a survey carried out on behalf of Acision by Vanson Bourne that examined the trends, habits and views of 1000 Smartphone users in the UK. The stats the survey produced offer insight into UK mobile messaging trends, including:
· 80% of smartphone users in the UK currently use OTT services
· 76% of these smartphone users currently admit to using multiple messaging services to contact friends, families and colleagues
· 78% would be keen to try a rich messaging service such as the GSMA’s rich communications Service (RCS) Joyn
Thursday, 23 May 2013
Saturday, 18 May 2013
All about Marilyn Monroe-like pose, Mojiva, NEC display, Share a Coke, YunoJuno, Branded3 and Ryanair


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Aldi is advertising new jobs at its Croydon supermarkets – and the salaries on offer are pretty amazing.
The budget chain seems to be continuously growing in popularity with shoppers and a range of jobs are up for grabs at branches around the borough, from shop assistants stacking shelves to store managers.
You can earn up to £58,450 a year working as a manager for the supermarket, which is selling foot-long pigs in blankets this Christmas as well as gingerbread-flavoured gin and a wine advent calendar.
The supermarket chain is one of the fastest-growing with 700 stores in the UK alone, plus thousands more around Europe including Germany, Hungary, Switzerland and Slovenia.
According to its website, Aldi has the highest pay in the supermarket industry and is renowned for its training programmes.
It ranked third out of 100 in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers list.
Store manager roles are being advertised in Selsdon, South Norwood and Coulsdon. The salary on offer for the permanent positions is between £44,890 - £58,540.
The job advert says store managers are responsible for sorting out deliveries, placing orders, handling customer queries and carrying out till spot checks as well as maximising sales in the branch.
Assistant store manager jobs are being advertised at all three supermarkets as well, with salaries between £31,300 - £38,170.
Aldi is hiring deputy managers with a wage between £11.20 per hour to £11.89 per hour.
The Coulsdon branch also has store assistant jobs available, which could be ideal for someone looking to earn some money in the run up to Christmas, with a wage from £10.20 to £10.89 per hour.
You can take a look at all the jobs available and apply by clicking here or visiting aldirecruitment.co.uk


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US retail giant Walmart has joined more than 480 companies from across the global supply chain who have signed up to the Cotton Leads programme, which supports responsible production practices by cotton growers in the US and Australia.
The joint programme aims to raise awareness of characteristics common to the Australian and US cotton industries, including responsible production practices, strict regulations that protect the environment and people, the ability to affect positive change nationally, nationwide cotton research and development programmes, and sustainability benchmarking.
Among those who have already signed up are Gap Inc, Hugo Boss, Macy’s, Hanesbrands, Fruit of the Loom and Esquel Group.
“Cotton is a major ingredient in many of our apparel and home textile products,” explains Ken Lanshe, Walmart’s vice president, general merchandise, technical, quality and sustainability.
“Through the Cotton Leads programme, Walmart hopes to learn from and collaborate on efforts that US cotton farmers are taking to be responsible and sustainable producers. Our support for the Cotton Leads programme aligns with Walmart’s goal to sell products that sustain the environment.”
Mark Messura, senior vice president, global supply chain marketing at Cotton Incorporated, a founding member organisation of the Cotton Leads programme, adds: “Joining with Walmart in the Cotton Leads programme brings the scale and commitment of an industry leader together with the leaders in cotton sustainability and responsibly-sourced cotton.”
This is the latest in a line of sustainability commitments from Walmart, including launching a project to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its operations and supply chain. It is also the first retailer with a verified science-based target emissions-reduction plan and aims to make significant progress by 2025/2030, including reducing its absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 18% by 2025.


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By Dayanne Sousa
World’s biggest bean exporter is seen producing 42.7m bags of arabica coffee in the crop that will be harvested from May, analysts at Rabobank say in a report.
That compared with a previous estimate from February of 44m bags
Irregular crop conditions seen in biggest producing area in the south of Minas Gerais state
Heavy rain caused diseases to spread
Brazilian production of robusta variety seen at 23.3m bags
NOTE: A bag weighs 60kg
« Back to index


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From July 11 to September 27, 2020, the exhibition ‘Iconobelge II’ – featuring Belgian fashion photography – will be on display as part of this year’s AntwerpPhoto festival.
As part of the second edition of Belgium’s photography biennial, AntwerpPhoto director Kaat Celis has curated an exhibition that brings together the art forms of photography and fashion design. Titled ‘Iconobelge II’, the showcase comprises works by famous as well as emerging artists, including Stephan Vanfleteren, Lara Gasparotto, Harry Gruyaert, Laeticia Bica, Karel Fonteyne, Frieke Janssens, Kurt Stallaert and Domen Van de Velde. In addition, visitors will have the opportunity to see previously unpublished images by the late fashion photographer Marc Lagrange. The showcase will be displayed at the Antwerp Handelsbeurs – the world’s oldest trade fair building, which was recently completely refurbished.
AntwerpPhoto is an international photo biennial first launched in 2018. This year’s edition opened on June 27, and is set to continue until September 27, 2020.
For further information visit AntwerpPhoto


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Eurostar tickets can now be saved on Google Pay
18 Apr 2019 - by
Eurostar has added the ability to buy and save mobile tickets on Google Pay.
Travellers using Google Pay on Android L or higher devices can now simply save their mobile ticket to Google Pay from the Eurostar app, and proceed directly to ticket gates at Eurostar stations.
The new option for travellers aims to further increase the use of mobile tickets, as part of Eurostar’s plans to reduce paper usage by 50% by 2020.
Earlier this year, Eurostar made updates to its app to help provide users with a new ‘arrival’. The update added features including public transport maps for the destination city and the ability to book tickets to attractions.


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Diet Foods that Can Enhance Your Mood
Are you currently feeling blue? Do you want to become happy, energetic and relaxed? If that is the case, then you must include fruits and vegetables to your diet. It is not good to nurse a bad mood and continuously feel sad because this can lead to emotional eating. It’s a well-known fact that this practice can cause people to become overweight. Since you do not want that to happen to you, you must do whatever it takes to lift your mood. How true is it that diet foods like fruits and vegetables have the ability to elevate your mood? This claim was proven by a group of researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand. What they did was that they analyzed the food diaries of 281 young adults in a span of 21 days.
They found out that there is a connection of eating fruits and vegetables to and enhanced mood. According to the lead researcher, Dr. Tamlin Conner;”On days when people ate more fruits and vegetables, they reported feeling calmer, happier and more energetic than they normally did.” This only goes to show that these diet foods really do have a significant impact on the mood of those who eat them. Moreover, another thing was proved by the researchers. They have discovered that eating more diet foods like fruits and vegetables can provide dieters with an improved mood for the following day. This means that these foods can greatly affect a person’s well-being if he eats them on a regular basis.
You can read the study at the British Journal of Healthy Psychology because it was published there on January 24. This is not the only study that can support the claim that fruits and vegetables have a positive effect on a person’s mood. Another one was conducted at the University of Warwick in England. In this study, Kiwi scientists this time proved a claim that eating at least 7-8 servings of fruits and vegetables everyday can provide a positive change in a person’s body. This means that if you want to experience the same effect on yourself, simply fill up half of your plate with vegetables on every meal. In addition, you must eat fruits for snacks to enjoy a better mood on a daily basis.


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There's always something new and different happening with Royal Caribbean that it's hard to cover it all, but there were a few things over the last few days that I've summed up in a new post.
There are smaller updates from across the fleet that I think are kind of interesting, neat, or otherwise good to know.
If you ever have a news tip, feel free to email it to [email protected] for possible inclusion in a future update!
Royal Caribbean cancels Mariner of the Seas cruises in early 2023 to allow more dry dock time
Royal Caribbean informed guests with a Mariner of the Seas cruise booked in early 2023 their cruises have been cancelled.
Guests received emails today informing them that the ship will need more time for her scheduled dry dock, which impacts cruises between January and March 2023.
The specific dates cancelled are sailings between January 7, 2023 and March 27, 2023.
"Mariner of the Seas will need some extra time during its scheduled dry dock next year," the email said. "We known this news is disappointing and apologize for the impact."
Guests booked on a now cancelled cruise have the choice of rebooking to Jewel of the Seas sailings during the same time period:
- Nassau, Bahamas, Falmouth, Jamaica, and Labadee, Haiti on January 14th, February 11th, or March 11th
- Costa Maya, Mexico, Roatan, Honduras, and Cozumel, Mexico on January 28th or February 25th
- Nassau, Bahamas and Perfect Day at CocoCay of February 7.
If guests choose a Jewel of the Seas sailing, they'll receive their original stateroom price protected, as well as $50 onboard credit for interior, ocean view and balcony staterooms. $100 for suites.
Royal Caribbean will also cover up to $200 in change fees for non-refundable transportation costs.
Guests also have the choice to re-book on any other cruise, or a full refund if they decide to cancel.
Mariner of the Seas was last refurbished in 2018 when she received her Royal Amplification updates.
Typically, cruise ships go in every 5 years for a dry dock. Older ships can sometimes go in more often than that.
UPDATE: The plot thickened when people booked on Independence of the Seas received a similar email that they are being moved to Mariner of the Seas.
What does it mean and how can two ships be cancelled for same timeframe? Share your ideas in the comments.
Royal Caribbean trademarks something related to Icon of the Seas
Royal Caribbean filed a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office that sounds like it could be related to the new Icon Class cruise ships.
Two trademarks were filed on February 10 for:
- This is not a cruise
- This is Icon
Trademark applications are notoriously vague, and simply filed to cover the category of cruise ship services.
Canada drops PCR test requirement for fully vaccinated
It just got easier for someone that is fully vaccinated to travel into Canada.
The Canadian government announced this week it fully vaccinated travelers entering Canada will not need to take a PCR test, beginning February 28.
Instead, fully vaccinated people entering the country can take an authorized rapid antigen test taken no more than one day before their flight or arrival at the land border.
Currently, travelers entering Canada must show proof of a negative molecular test taken within 72 hours of their departing flight or planned arrival at the land border.


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Lipscomb University, elementary to host recycling events
Lipscomb University and Lipscomb Academy Elementary School will be hosting recycling events Nov. 14-15 to celebrate “America Recycles Day.”
Besides the basic recyclables such as paper and plastic, people also may recycle cellphones, batteries, computers and entertainment devices, as well as various other items. Mattresses and box springs may each be recycled for a $10 disposal fee.
Lipscomb Academy third- and eighth-graders will be on site to collect items not normally accepted by traditional recycling programs: potato chip bags, candy wrappers, drink pouches, empty personal care product bottles, empty glue sticks, ink pens and dried-up markers. They also will be offering a home-winterizing kit to recyclers Nov. 14 with energy-saving tips and devices.
Proceeds from donated cellphones, newspapers, aluminum cans and plastic bottles will benefit post-9/11 veterans programs and Made in the Streets, a job skills ministry based in Kenya.
The Nov. 14 event will be held on Lipscomb Academy’s campus, and the Nov. 15 event will be held on the school’s football field. Both events are 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.