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The next time you get caught scrolling the Facebook news feed while on the job, you just might get…a promotion? Well not quite, but you surely will not be condemned for using social media during office hours. The reason behind this is actually quite simple – the social media frenzy has found its way to the supply management chain and according to some, this just might be a new stepping stone in the business sphere. So, how is social media actually changing the supply chain management system and in what ways can it alter the future of doing business as a whole?
What Are The Advantages?
The sole goal of doing any kind of business is to make profit. This being said when it comes to supply chain management, this goal can be achieved through increased efficiency, improved customer satisfaction and lowered organization costs. This is where social media steps in. Given the fact that worldwide, more than 2 billion people use social media on daily basis, the opportunity to conduct business more effectively and efficiently has never been so expressed. First and foremost certain online platforms can greatly improve the communication between the supplier and the customer.
This way the supplier is in a position to get direct feedback regarding its services and the customers’ demands, resulting in an improved customer service. On the other hand, social media enables better communication within the supply chain. This can greatly contribute to the complete management system, increase the productivity and save not only time but money as well. Last but certainly not least, social media networks are a great way to become more visible on the internet and to promote your business worldwide. It also helps in sourcing potential suppliers or business partners for that matter.
Unfortunately, the reality is somewhat different. According to a recent survey conducted among 77 companies whose primary field of work are wholesale, distribution, manufacturing and retail, only 1% of said companies rely on social media for organization and planning. Considering the fact that the advantages of using social media in the supply chain management are humongous, it is safe to claim that these numbers are quite alarming. Of course, these kinds of technological innovations require a certain amount of time in order to become fully implemented into the business sphere, so it is likely that certain supply chains will start introducing these modern technologies in the not so distant future.
What does the future hold for the world regarding the role of social media in the supply management chain? One thing is for certain – the impact of technology on today’s economy and business is enormous and it is only going to continue increasing. Many supply chains that operate globally have already introduced social media into various spheres of their business, taking for example Dexion pallet racking services which are widely recognized by virtue of these internet platforms. Social media has already made a huge impact on the supply chain management and it is only a matter of time until all corporate chains are going to switch from their out-dated management systems to new advanced ones that incorporate and take advantage of social networks for all manner of services like customer service, source new clients and communicating effectively as well as promoting company brand and image.
Every day we are witnessing advanced technological systems which are changing not only the way we conduct business but the way we live as well. Social media has been present for some time now, but lately it started gaining mass recognition regarding its influence in the business sphere. While there are still no certain facts on how social media will impact the future of supply management, it is clear that it can seriously benefit the development process and business growth.
This guest post was written by Lana Hawkins, an architecture student from Sydney who’s hobbies include cooking and crafting, she regularly blogs for Smooth Decorator.


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Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune's departure from Capcom last week created a bit of a stir in light of his 23-year history at the company and the load of upcoming projects he was associated with. Nevertheless, he's explained why he believes he made the right move and why the current state of the game industry in Japan motivated him, and Capcom has elaborated on their side of the situation.
"In short, it's like a communist state," Inafune said in an interview with 4Gamer, as translated in a NeoGAF post. "Working as hard as you can is your own loss. Not working hard becomes more advantageous. But doesn't that get in the way of making games? You can't make good games by just taking it easy."
Inafune blamed increased competition, as well as rising development costs and publisher attitudes for the environment he wants to escape. He also expressed a desire as a creator to continue to innovate.
"If you succeed, you don't get credit, and if you fail, it's your fault," he said. "Nothing can be done about it. The game industry isn't at a level where it can value creators and raise them up. It's the same at Capcom."
Capcom, meanwhile, addressed Inafune's decision in an investor relations Q&A posted on Capcom.co.jp, and in it alluded to "radical reforms" for R&D operations while confirming that they "accepted" Inafune's resignation understanding that he wished "to continue working as an independent creator."
Inafune's already impacted the history of video games as much as almost anyone in his field. Assuming he stays true to his ambitions right now, it sounds like the industry and gamers alike can only learn and benefit from whatever he opts to do next.
Do you think Inafune made the right choice to leave Capcom? What would you like to see come about as a result of his decision? Share your opininions with us in the comment section below.

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The FIDO Alliance is getting ready to kick off its inaugural Authenticate event. Authenticate will run from November 9-20, with a virtual expo hall and nearly two full weeks of programming that will address the subject of authentication from a variety of angles. The Alliance is offering free registration to anyone interested in its virtual event.
MORE FIDO in the News
CPO Magazine: What US$10M in Losses Each Day Tells Us About Cryptocurrency Account
Interest i...12月 3, 2021


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No Near-Term Separations For Pfizer, But Business Model Will “Evolve”
This article was originally published in The Pink Sheet Daily
Beyond the sale of its nutritionals business and spin-out of animal health into Zoetis, no additional separations are planned for Pfizer in the near-term. But CEO Ian Read discussed how he sees the company’s Established Products and Emerging Markets businesses evolving over the long-term, including the potential for an eventual breakout, during a year-end financial call Jan. 29.
You may also be interested in...
Although the company beat estimates and executed on an ambitious late-stage pipeline, analysts on Pfizer’s earnings call were focused on palbociclib, Prevnar, and the pharma’s plans for its established products business.
Pfizer top management hasn’t yet decided whether it will divide in two or stop at a “virtual split.” Plus updates on Lundbeck/Otsuka, Shire/SARcode, AstraZeneca/Actavis, and more.
FDA approved use of the pneumococcal vaccine in children and adolescents aged six to 17 years; uptake in adults 50 and older has been impacted by the delay in getting an ACIP vote on treatment, which is expected later this year.


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Meatless Farm, a Leeds-based vegan meat producer, announced to vegconomist in April it had plans to expand internationally with its popular plantbased mince, sausage and burger products. Now the British company has announced an exclusive 6 month distribution deal with Whole Foods USA, to enter into a market which is hyped for vegan meat products after the phenomenon of the Beyond Meat stock market success.
According to CNN, the company which already enjoys success throughout the UK and Canada, Hong Kong, Sweden and the UAE, is now planning to establish an office in New York. The Meatless Farm sets itself apart from the majority of plant meat on the market, in that it focuses on retail through grocery stores rather than hospitality. Founder Rob Woodall says that the average consumer of his products is a parent seeking healthy ingredients for meals such as spaghetti Bolognese, noting the family oriented packaging.
The company also heads an initiative called the Meatless Consumption Target, where UK households are encouraged to exchange swap one meat-based meal for a plant-based alternative once a week to help cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 50 million tonnes per year.
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Emil was a reporter for The Next Web between 2012 and 2014. Over the years, he has covered the tech industry for multiple publications, incl Emil was a reporter for The Next Web between 2012 and 2014. Over the years, he has covered the tech industry for multiple publications, including Ars Technica, Neowin, TechSpot, ZDNet, and CNET. Stay in touch via Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
If a company could give telekinetic powers to everyone and allow them to move one type of object with their mind, what would it be? A Car? A Plane? Each Other? Nah, apparently it would be a Skittle.
Skittles’ parent company Wrigley recently hired marketing agency Clemenger BBDO to create an interactive experience, and boy did it deliver. Here is how “Telekenize the Rainbow” was built:
Okay, so this isn’t exactly mind control. It’s really just tracking eye movements with users’ webcams, which are then translated into commands given to Wi-Fi-controlled robots that are attached to individual Skittles. Still, that’s a huge undertaking just to move a few skittles across the screen.
There isn’t much out there on how this multi-user experience was built, likely because it was done in Australia and New Zealand. We do know, however, that the countries’ residents could visit Skittles-Telekinize.com.au to move their own Skittle. Unfortunately, the campaign is no longer available; the page merely redirects to the company’s Facebook Page since the Facebook app for it has been taken down.
Paul Nagy, executive creative director from Clemenger BBDO Sydney explained the thinking behind it all to Campaign Brief:
Until now, telekinesis has only ever existed in science fiction movies. By adding a heap of Skittles awesomeness to some new state-of-the-art technology, some of which we developed ourselves, we’re enabling people to move Skittles in a way they’ve never been able to before.
At the time, the marketing campaign was apparently quite successful. “Skittles worldwide has won over millions of fans over by dramatising what happens at the intersection of real and imaginary,” according to Chris Blayney, Wrigley’s marketing director.”
That’s enough for Wrigley to bring the campaign worldwide. We hope they do as we’d love to play with the technology for a bit. I’d try to get my Skittle to jump through my screen.
Image credit: Gabor Kalman
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2 months ago
Of all the innovations taking place in the economy, I’m probably most excited about the ones in healthcare. The medical startup GRAIL is a good example of why.
This year, for the first time, the internet is expected to overtake television as the advertising industry’s biggest revenue source.
3 months ago
Here’s why early investors were the big winners in Snapchat’s recent IPO.
In an earlier post, I gave you five signals to identify revenue potential in these early-stage companies. Here are five more.
It’s still early, but crowdfunding is showing some distinct advantages over venture capital investing.
It may not be the most exciting sector, but like almost every other sector, agriculture is under pressure to increase efficiency and cut costs.
Last week, we held a live show-all/tell-all webinar with one of our original recommendations, DSTLD, EXCLUSIVELY for members of First Stage Investor. In case you missed it or were unable…


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Shuttered fashion stores feel January pain, but online reaches highest ever sales
The UK’s retail sales fall was worse than expected last month, official figures showed on Friday. And the Office for National Statistics called out clothing stores as the key sector that saw “strong declines”.
First, the headline figures. Retail sales volumes fell 8.2% compared with December and their monetary value fell 7.8%, much bigger than the roughly 2.5% volume dip analysts had predicted. Sales volumes were 5.5% lower than before the pandemic in February 2020 and values were down 6.5%. This may be bad news but indicated that the impact of restrictions on the retail sector wasn't as big as that seen in April 2020. Back then, in the first full month of retail restrictions, sales volumes had plunged 22.2% when compared with levels before the pandemic.
Feedback from retailers was clear — enforced closures affected sales, but anecdotal evidence suggested that in January, improved online capability and click & collect purchases helped to lessen the impact.
And online really was the star channel last month. The proportion spent online soared to 35.2% in January, the highest on record. This compares with 29.6% in December 2020 and 19.5% reported in January 2020. And all store types reported an increase in their proportion of online spending.
Now for the fashion sector figures. Clothing saw monthly declines of 35.6% in the amount spent and 34.7% in the quantity bought. Ouch. Those consumers who were buying fashion went online or to supermarkets — after all, they had little choice unless they wanted to forego fashion purchases altogether, which many of them clearly did.
Given that department stores also suffered last month — and they’re big sellers of clothing — that simply adds to the fashion sector’s pain.
Jace Tyrrell, chief executive at New West End Company, which represents 600 businesses on Oxford Street, Regent Street, Bond Street and Mayfair, highlighted just how much of a problem lockdowns continue to be.
“Six weeks into the new year, and the retail sector has already had to forego vital trading moments such as the January sales, Chinese New Year, and Valentine’s Day,” he said.
He’s hopeful that “visitors will come back to the West End once lockdown is eased” but seems to be frustrated as “retailers must wait with bated breath for the Prime Minister’s roadmap out of lockdown on Monday”.
Boris Johnson is due to announce plans after the weekend but hints and leaks so far suggest they’ll be less clear cut than retailers might hope. Schools are due to go back from March 8 and the reopening of the economy seems to depend very much on how that goes.
But Tyrrell said that what retailers want is “clarity and decisiveness to ensure that there are no further lockdowns, and assurance from the Government that support will be made available to retailers in bridging the gap until sales can properly resume”.
Copyright © 2021 FashionNetwork.com All rights reserved.


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The pledge by 250 organisations included numerous world's biggest packaging producers, leading consumer brands, retailers and recyclers, as well as governments and NGOs.
"We know that cleaning up plastics from our beaches and oceans is vital, but this does not stop the tide of plastic entering the oceans each year", said Ellen MacArthur, founder of the United Kingdom -based Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
"This Global Commitment is a step-change we urgently need in order to move from a linear to a circular economy".
New Zealand revealed this week that it signed the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment declaration in an effort to work with worldwide partners to cut down on plastics and become a "circular economy".
The Commitment pledges to create "a new normal" for plastic packaging by eliminating problematic or unnecessary packaging and a move from single-use to reuse packaging models.
Brands that have signed the commitment will report their progress every year, as targets become more ambitious.
If current trends continue, there could be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050. "We are committed to achieving 100 percent recyclable, compostable or biodegradable packaging by 2025", PepsiCo spokesman Gian-Carlo Peressutti told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The pledge is part of a larger goal to curb plastic waste pollution, which has become a unsafe concern.
Hundreds of big brands have said they will work to get rid of single-use plastic and other unnecessary plastic waste from their operations.
Echoing his sentiment, Ian Cook, chairman and CEO of Colgate-Palmolive, and CGF Board co-chair, added that the challenge of plastic waste can be "best addressed through specific actions that CGF companies can take individually and collectively in partnership with governments, NGOs and the recycling industry". More than 99 percent of these plastics are produced using chemicals from oil, natural gas, and goal which are non-renewable.
Greenpeace wants a stronger emphasis in reducing the amount of plastic put in circulation.
The New Plastics Economy was an initiative originally launched in 2016 by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and backed at launch by major companies including Amcor, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Dow Chemical and Mars. "In the next few years people who use our products will be looking for packs that are recyclable or use recycled content, and we will be telling them on the packaging when that's the case".


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India has appealed in opposition to a ruling of WTO's commerce dispute settlement panel on home sugar subsidies
New Delhi: India has appealed in opposition to a ruling of the World Trade Organisation's commerce dispute settlement panel on home sugar subsidies, stating that the panel has dedicated "certain errors of law" in its report, the WTO mentioned on Tuesday.The enchantment was filed by India within the WTO's Appellate Body, which is the ultimate authority on such commerce disputes."India has notified the Dispute Settlement Body of its decision to appeal the panel reports in the cases brought by Brazil, Australia and Guatemala in 'India - Measures Concerning Sugar and Sugarcane," the WTO mentioned in a press release.It mentioned that given the continuing lack of settlement amongst WTO members relating to the filling of Appellate Body vacancies, there isn't a Appellate Body division obtainable on the present time to cope with the enchantment.The panel in its ruling on December 14, 2021, really useful India to withdraw its alleged prohibited subsidies underneath the Production Assistance, Buffer Stock, and Marketing and Transportation Schemes inside 120 days from the adoption of this report.Ruling in favour of Brazil, Australia, and Guatemala of their commerce dispute in opposition to India over New Delhi's sugar subsidies, the WTO panel has acknowledged that the help measures are inconsistent with WTO commerce guidelines.In its submissions to the Appellate Body, India has appealed and requested the physique to "reverse, modify, or declare moot and of no legal effect, the findings, conclusions, rulings and recommendations of the Panel", with respect to sure "errors of law or legal interpretation contained in the panel report".India has sought evaluate of the panel's discovering that the scheme for offering help to sugar mills for bills on advertising and marketing prices, together with dealing with, upgrading and different processing prices and prices of worldwide and inside transport and freight prices on the export of sugar for the 2019-20 sugar season (MAEQ Scheme), is inside its phrases of reference."The Panel grossly errs in holding that the MAEQ Scheme is of the same essence as other alleged export subsidies identified in the complainants' requests for the establishment of a panel. India considers that the Panel has cherry-picked a few broad similarities while ignoring the differences between MAEQ and the other alleged exports subsidy measures," in response to a communication of India, circulated to members.New Delhi has additionally mentioned that the panel has erred find that India's honest and remunerative worth and state suggested worth represent market worth help underneath the WTO's settlement of agriculture.In 2019, Brazil, Australia, and Guatemala dragged India into the WTO's dispute settlement mechanism alleging that New Delhi's home help measures to producers of sugarcane and sugar and export subsidies are inconsistent with international commerce guidelines, together with numerous provisions of the WTO's Agreement on Agriculture, Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, and the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT).


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Rapper Kendrick Lamar scored the biggest debut album of the year this week as his latest album “Damn.” sold more than 600,000 copies, eclipsing Drake’s “More Life.”
“Damn.”, the third album from Grammy-winning Lamar to top the Billboard 200 chart, sold a total of 603,000 album units that comprised 340 million streams, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan.
The Billboard 200 album chart tallies units from album sales, song sales (10 songs equal one album) and streaming activity (1,500 streams equal one album).
Lamar’s “Damn.” outpaced Canadian rapper Drake’s “More Life,” which debuted on the Billboard 200 chart in March with 505,000 album units sold in its first week.
At No 2 this week is singer-songwriter John Mayer’s latest album “Search For Everything,” which sold 132,000 album units, while Drake’s “More Life” dropped one spot to No 3 with 87,000 units sold.
The soundtrack to Universal Pictures’ blockbuster action film “Fate of the Furious” was the only other new entry in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart this week, entering at No 10 with 37,000 copies sold.
On the Digital Songs chart, which measures online single sales, electro-pop DJ Zedd and singer Alessia Cara’s dance track “Stay” jumped from No 10 to No 1, selling 91,000 copies
Meanwhile, massive growth in online streaming of artists such as Drake and David Bowie saw music industry revenues grow in 2016 at their fastest rate since records began, a global industry body said on Tuesday, even as physical sales fell again.
The global market for recorded music grew by 5.9 per cent in 2016, the quickest pace since industry body IFPI began tracking the market in 1997.
It expanded for a second straight year after losing nearly 40 per cent of its revenues in the preceding 15 years, with the recovery driven by a 60 per cent rise in income from streaming.
In all, digital income accounted for half of the music industry’s revenue for the first time.
The industry initially struggled with the demise of the market for physical sales, as the advent of the Internet facilitated illegal downloads that crimped profits.
However, the rise of subscription-based services such as Spotify has helped it recover, even as the market for physical formats has continued to shrink and download revenues have fallen too.
“As an industry, we’ve had years of investment in innovation to make (growth) happen, and we’re starting to see the shift... from adapting to the digital age, to actually driving the digital age,” Frances Moore, the CEO of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), told reporters in London.
Total revenues for the industry were $15.7 billion in 2016, aided by 112 million users of paid music streaming subscriptions by the end of the year.
The growth in streaming more than offset a 20.5 per cent decline in downloads and a 7.6 per cent fall in revenue from physical sales.
The top-selling artist was Canadian rapper Drake, while the death of David Bowie spurred purchases to make him the second most popular artist of the year. Prince, who also died last year, was ninth on the list.
Despite the improvement, industry executives cautioned against complacency.
“We’re only two years into our recovery. We must remain alert, resourceful and ambitious,” said Stu Bergen, CEO of International and Global Commercial Services at Warner Music Group.
“We’re no longer running up a down escalator, but that doesn’t mean we can relax.”


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More photos of Galaxy S8, scheduled for release on March 29, have been released.
The two images of the press release image and the real image have the same front view.
Left: Galaxy S8 press release image (Source: Evan Blass Twitter), Right: Galaxy S8 device image (Source: BGR)
Like the pre-release information, Galaxy S8 will be equipped with dual edge display,
As you can see, the front physical home button, which is considered trademark of Samsung, has been removed.
There are four buttons on the side,
Volume button, power button, and a Samsung’s AI assistance button are likely to be one one of the buttons.
The Galaxy S8 is expected to launch with 5.8 inches display and the Galaxy S8 Plus at 6.2 inches,
It is likely to be equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 or Samsung’s Exynos 9 as AP.
The specifications of the Galaxy S8 are as follows.
AP: Snapdragon 835 or Axis 9
Display: 5.8 inches Super AMOLED (1440 * 2560)
Camera: 12MP (rear), 8MP (front)
– Rear fingerprint sensor
– Rear, front f / 1.7 bright aperture camera
– Machine vision function (artificial intelligence to recognize objects)
– Bixby virtual assistant calling with side-only button
– 3.5mm earphone jack
– Haman audio technology applied
– USB Type C
– Can be used like a computer by docking with PC
– IP68 waterproof/dustproof
– Samsung Pay
– Wireless charging
According to rumors,
Haman audio technology, waterproof and dustproof, wireless charging, bright camera, and new features such as machine vision and PC docking will also be added to the S8.
Although estimated price for S8 is over $1,000, many enthusiasts are waiting for the release of the Galaxy S8


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Salvation Army's 99-cent sale returns Friday
All clothing and shoes will be 99 cents at the Salvation Army from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday.
Somerset store manager Libby Albright said she has received calls nearly every day since last year’s 99-cent sale.
“Last year, when we opened the door, it was insane,” she said. “People were lined up to Save-A-Lot.”
She said the sale returned last year after a short hiatus and was brought back early this year to get a jump on the back-to-school rush.
“We have 400,000 to 500,000 pieces of clothes in our store,” Albright said. “Name brand clothes that cost $100 and all that will be 99 cents.”
Proceeds from the sale will go to the Salvation Army to help homeless people, addicts and others in need.
“If someone needs help, we’re here to help them,” Albright said.


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In case you missed it, the Wall Street Journal reported right before the holidays that Google, along with the engineers from Motorola Mobility it acquired back in May 2012, are hard at work on a homegrown smartphone meant to compete with the iPhone, and surprise surprise, the top Android handsets out on the market.
Engineers at Motorola Mobility are hard at work on a sophisticated handset—known internally as the “X phone”—but the Google unit is running into some obstacles in its effort to provide more potent competition for Apple said people familiar with the matter.
According to the report, Google is experiencing a few hurdles with regard to manufacturing and supply-chain management. The fact that Google is working on a homegrown device at all, though, is rather interesting. While we’ve grown accustomed to flagship Android devices that Google develops in conjunction with partners such as HTC and Samsung, a Google branded device is an entirely new beast altogether. One can only wonder how companies like Samsung feel about Google’s rumored hardware foray into the smartphone market.
Dennis Woodside, a former Google top sales executive who is now Motorola’s chief executive, declined to discuss products under development. But he said in an interview that the company is “investing in a team and a technology that will do something quite different than the current approaches.”
For the X phone, an initiative being led by former Google product manager Lior Ron who worked on the Google Maps team, Motorola wanted top-notch features for the phone’s camera and photo software, such as better color saturation and the ability to take panoramic shots, two people familiar with the situation said.
But as the report goes on to state, some of the more noteworthy features the folks at Google were looking into either drained the device’s battery life or had already been implemented by competitors.
Interestingly enough, Google and co. reportedly looked into implementing a bendable screen and utilizing different types of materials.
One thing’s for sure though, with Larry Page at the helm, you can bet that the company is doing all it can to push the envelope, even if it means pissing off partners like Samsung in the process.


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Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Twitter lost $270 million in the quarter that ended in June, falling short of revenue expectations for the second quarter in a row, the social network reported Friday. The company cited uncertainty surrounding Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company and advertisers nervous about the economy.
One bright spot in the social networking platform’s report, however, was the number of users — an increase of nearly 9 million. Twitter attributed the growth to product improvements and global interest in current events. The company also added users the previous quarter.
The company did not elaborate on its release, citing the pending deal with Tesla CEO Musk.
This year has been a wild one for Twitter. In April, Musk made an unsolicited offer to buy the company for $54.20 a share. That was 38% more than what Twitter’s stock was valued at just a day earlier — and well above the current share price.
After a back and forth between Musk and Twitter’s board, they struck a deal less than two weeks after Musk first announced he wanted to buy the company. Under it, he’d pay about $44 billion.
But since then, Musk has publicly shared his concerns about the prevalence of spam and fake accounts on the platform. Earlier this month he made it official: he was breaking off the deal.
Twitter quickly sued Musk to force him to abide by the legal agreement he signed. The company argues that the billionaire’s concerns about bots are pretext to cover a change of heart that came as the economy has worsened.
The trial is set for October.
During a court hearing earlier this week, Twitter lawyer Bill Savitt argued that the uncertainty hanging over the deal “inflicts harm on Twitter every hour of every day.”
Twitter expects to hold a shareholder vote on the deal later this summer.
The maker of the social network Snapchat similarly announced disappointing second-quarter results. Snap said on Thursday that sales grew at the slowest pace since it became a public company five years ago. It cited a number of factors, including inflation, rising interest rates and the war in Ukraine — all of which have led companies to slash their advertising budgets.
Other major tech companies, including Meta, Google and Apple, announce their quarterly earnings next week.
NPR’s Shannon Bond contributed to this story.


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The majority of contact centers plan to invest in AI or automated technologies, especially those focused on customer-facing AI for self-service, according to a study by enterprise software company Nice inContact.
The number of businesses using at least one AI channel reached 66% in 2020, an increase from 50% in 2019.
The annual study comprised a survey of 1,000 contact center decision makers in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, in companies with at least 25 contact center agent stations.
In 2020, 71% of contact centers said chatbots and virtual assistants make it easier for customers to get issues resolved, up from 63% in 2019.
However, these technologies are not considered to have reached maturity, with 90% of businesses saying chatbots and virtual assistants need to get smarter before customers start using them regularly. The number was was almost the same a year ago.
Larger contact centers have a higher degree of customer trust in AI, with 31% reporting high trust in AI, compared to 17% overall.
Contact centers continue to move forward with IT deployments, with 42% planning to invest in new contact center technology, up from 38% in 2019.
Investments in AI and automation include 52% of businesses planning to use AI to improve customer service with predictive forecasting, 40% for customer-facing AI for self-service, 39% to identify customer sentiment, and 38% using agent-facing AI for better efficiency.
Overall performance of AI channels was found to compare almost exactly to the performance of self-service channels overall.


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Friday's HOT MIC
I see that my controversial piece on the "Amazon Washington Post" was listed on Real Clear Politics Wednesday, which is always nice. It's also part of my conversation with NPR's tech editor, Lauren Silverman, which just got posted today. Have a read and a listen:
This week Amazon became the fourth company in the U.S. worth half a trillion dollars. The online retail giant is in the exclusive club with Apple, Microsoft and Google's parent company, Alphabet. Americans clearly love Amazon: one of every two dollars spent online goes to the e-retailing giant. But customers and lawmakers are also spending more time picking on Amazon these days. As the online shopping company branches out, it's rubbing some people the wrong way.
Conservative author Michael Walsh has a different bone to pick with Amazon. He says it's killing mom and pop shops and speeding up the "couch-potatoing" of America. "I've gotten a lot of heat on the Right with my stance on this," Walsh says. "I'm called a luddite, a buggy whip guy (...) Well, I've got a moral issue with putting my neighbors out of business."
Walsh says in small towns across the country, like his in rural Northwest Connecticut, e-retailing has wiped out local businesses. "Do we really want to live in the world where we wait for the postman every single day?" Walsh asks.


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While retailers say they welcome the province's first steps to bring beer to supermarkets, some big chains are struggling with restrictions that will limit beer sales in each store to about $1-million a year and keep package sizes to six-packs.
Wines of British Columbia, Tourism Calgary and the Alberta Culinary Tourism Alliance Showcase the Best of the West in a Winery & Chef Collaborative Lunch and Dinner at the James Beard House in New York for the Very First Time
Recently, the owners, Michael Lightfoot and Jocelyn Allen, started the development agreement process for their Lower Wolfville land. They want permission to build a tourist commercial operation at 11137 Highway 1. The proposal includes constructing a banquet hall that will hold 150 people, a commercial kitchen and wine tasting rooms.
By now you've seen and heard about the April 1 launch of BC Wine Institute's first "wine on grocery shelves" BC VQA wine store: Wines of British Columbia Save-On-Foods South Point in South Surrey. It represents the first time in BC that a BC VQA wine store operating agreement has been granted to a grocer, which we believe is a positive step forward in enhancing the effectiveness of these unique, direct from farm retail sales licences.


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Disruptions in the global and national supply chain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which limited the movement of not only people but also goods, caused a sharp drop in Philippine exports and imports in March, the government reported on Wednesday.
Preliminary data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that sales of Philippine products abroad fell 24.9 percent on-year to $ 4.53 billion, while imported goods fell 26.2 percent faster to $ 6.91 billion in March.
As the drop in imports outweighed the decline in exports, the goods trade deficit narrowed 28.6 percent to $ 2.38 billion that month.
“The sharp contraction in March trade data reflects the early start of COVID-19, mainly in its effect on the country’s main trading partner: China. The Philippines, as part of the global supply chain, experienced a sharp pullback in export demand orders as China, Japan, and South Korea battled the virus. Imports for March fell, reflecting the negative performance of government construction efforts as raw materials were unable to arrive in time as supply chains were disrupted, “said ING Bank Philippines senior economist Nicholas Antonio Mapa , in a note to customers.
“Meanwhile, the March 15 shutdown cut off the Philippines from the rest of the world, and congestion was noted in ports immediately after the quarantine was implemented, as the logistics details had not yet been established. We expect months of sustained contraction in the immediate term, as the closure hinders manufacturing and commercial activity. Moderate global demand should ensure that trade in 2020 is disappointing, “added Map.
Total foreign trade in March contracted 25.7 percent on-year to $ 11.44 billion, which the state planning agency, the National Authority for Development and Economy (Neda), said was the lowest monthly value of exports and imports combined in two years.
In a statement, Neda blamed “the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide and the resulting restrictions on production supply chains and global trade flow” for the Philippines’ weak trade in foreign goods in March. At the end of the first quarter, Philippine exports decreased 5.2 percent year-over-year to $ 15.72 billion, while imports fell 13.6 percent to $ 23.26 billion, reducing total foreign trade in three months by 10.4 percent to $ 38.98 billion.
However, the first quarter trade deficit narrowed by 27.1 percent to $ 7.541 billion.
Kajal Khatri is one of our senior news editors. Kajal graduated from IGNOU in 2010 with a degree in Business Management. She likes social media trends, being semi-healthy, and trying new foods. When she isn’t writing, Kajal loves to travel. She recently visited NYC in America.


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Flexsteel's profit jumps 20% on 11.9% sales gain
Larry Thomas -- Furniture Today, October 17, 2012
DUBUQUE, Iowa — Flexsteel Inds. said its sales rose 11.9% in the quarter ended Sept. 30, while profits rose more than 20% to $2.87 million - a record for its first fiscal quarter.
Sales totaled $91.2 million, up from $81.5 million in the same quarter last year. The total included residential furniture sales of $72.3 million, a 16% jump from the comparable period.
The upholstery and case goods manufacturer and importer said the quarterly profit, which equals 40 cents per share, is up from $2.38 million or 34 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
In a statement announcing its earnings, Flexsteel said it is expecting "moderate top line growth" through the end of the calendar year.
"The company is confident of its ability to advantage of market opportunities as they present themselves. However, our optimism is guarded due to the uncertainty that the upcoming elections and economic factors have on the consumer's confidence and willingness to buy," the statement said.
The company said it remains committed to its core strategies, including offering "a wide range of quality products and price points to the residential and commercial markets, combined with a conservative approach to business."


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Good news for food buffs.
American diner chain Denny's is finally coming to the UK – beginning in Wales.
Known for their tasty breakfast items including pancakes, the company teased its imminent arrival across the Atlantic with a few posts on social media.
A website is already up as well.
"Starting off in South Wales," Denny's wrote on Twitter, when asked where the first UK location will be. "Then will be all over the UK shortly after, so be ready for us!"
If anything, it's kind of surprising that Denny's hasn't tried to take over the UK until now.
At present, the chain has more than 1,600 restaurants combined in countries including the US, Canada, Mexico, Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines, Qatar, and more.
And it's safe to say that people are very, very excited.
"So excited that @dennys_dineruk are coming to UK and even better I LIVE IN SWANSEA!!" one Twitter user posted.
"Please make sure you dominate all of the UK and not just a few places, we need you everywhere !!!!!" said another person, who clearly (and sadly) doesn't live in Swansea.
Sign us up!


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Dutch architects are using a giant 3D printer to construct a prototype house in a bid to pave the way to a sustainable, environmentally-friendly, future for construction.
DUS Architects of Amsterdam began construction of the house in 2014 and the prototype walls can already be seen - and touched - on site by curious visitors.
The house structure uses a plastic heavily based on plant oil that co-founder Hans Vermeulen, who initiated the project, says is waste-free and eco-friendly. Vermeulen says the building industry is one of the most polluting and inefficient around, whereas with 3D-printing, there is no waste, reduced transportation costs, and everything can be melted down and recycled. The idea is that homes could also be easily taken apart and put back together at another location if its occupants want to move area.
Vermeulen says the 3D printed house won’t necessarily be the most beautiful home, but will act as a pioneer for future environmental construction. “It doesn’t mean that everything needs to be round or curved or crazy form but it is possible and in that way we are now discovering a new technique of the wall integrating all kinds of necessities, let’s say, like water systems, installations, strength, and doing that in a very smart way we can reduce the material we need and in that sense make the house more smart,” he said.
The current material is a bio-plastic mix, containing 75 percent plant oil and reinforced with microfibres. Speaking at the small canal-side plot in north Amsterdam, Vermeulen compared his prototype to the CD player which had a major role in digitizing music.
He said: “The interesting thing about digital fabrication, of which 3D printer is one technique, is that it actually is the...we often say: it’s a CD player of the building industry - so how did CD-player digitalized the music industry, and that’s why we now have iPods and now Spotify where we share online and everything is streaming, the building industry is a little bit more conservative at the moment but digitalization can totally transform that industry into a more agile industry as well where you can actually share online and upgrade your neighborhood online, and share world-wide good ideas and then send it to the machine, the fabrication technique which can make a connection between the social networks on one hand and physical making industry on the other hand.”
By 2017 the 3D printed building blocks will have been constructed to form a 13-room complex, modeled on a traditional Dutch gabled canal house. The KamerMaker, or Room Builder, a scaled-up version of an open-source home 3D-printer prints each block. It was developed with Dutch firm Ultimaker.
Vermeulen says the technology will eventually allow householders to make custom-built 3D homes. “Digital fabrication allows us and allows customers to tweak designs into their own personal needs,” he said.
Last April Chinese firm WinSun displayed at the Suzhou Industrial Park a five-storey apartment building and a 1100 square meter villa it said it had 3D printed using recycled materials. But the technology remains in its infancy.


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The Newton, New Hampshire Fire Department recently released a public warning about charging cellphones and tablets on your bed. With most families owning multiple hand-held devices, it’s not uncommon for both parents and children to sleep with cellphones, tablets, and other forms of technology in the same room. In fact, over 50% of teens report falling asleep with their cellphones actually charging in their beds, often under their pillows or sheets.
Phone Charging Fire Hazard
As one New Hampshire family found out the hard way, this habit can pose a fire threat to the entire family. Chargers for phones, tablets, laptops, and gaming devices generate excessive heat; without enough ventilation, fires can break out.
Incidents like this are reminiscent of the recent Samsung Galaxy Note 7 recall (2). A faulty battery increased the risk of fire hazard, leading to at least 112 unsuspecting Samsung customers waking up to a fried phone (or worse). While it’s important to pay attention to product recalls like this, making the habit of keeping your phone away from flammable sheets and bedspreads regardless of the type of tech you’re using can help protect your family.
Additional Risks of Charging Your Phone In Bed
The added benefit of keeping your screen away from your bed is reducing the negative effects it can have on your sleep cycle.
Your body’s natural “clock” is regulated by light; for the majority of human existence, this was mainly the sun. Today, however, scientists have found that looking at blue light (the type of light emitted by cellphone, tablet, and television screens) can influence your body’s circadian rhythms so that the natural release of sleep-inducing hormones is disrupted. (3)
Not only does blue light ruin your quality of sleep, the effect extends to your risk of serious diseases like diabetes and even cancer. According to a Harvard study, when people’s sleep cycles are regularly changed, their leptin hormones decreased (so they didn’t feel full after eating) and their blood sugar levels increased. (3) Multiple studies have also linked working at night and nightly exposure to lights to cancer, heart disease, and obesity (3).
What might be the most concerning factor, however, is that new technologies have a notable element of addiction. In the following video, Simon Sinek discusses the very real and serious implications of the modern overuse of technology:
How to Reduce Your Risk
Harvard Medical School has released the following guidelines to the public for safe screen time (3):
- Use dim red lights for night lights. Red light has the least power to shift circadian rhythm and suppress melatonin.
- Avoid looking at bright screens beginning two to three hours before bed.
- If you work a night shift or use a lot of electronic devices at night, consider wearing blue-blocking glasses or installing an app that filters the blue/green wavelength at night.
- Expose yourself to lots of bright light during the day, which will boost your ability to sleep at night, as well as your improve mood and alertness during daylight.
A Special Message From Our Founders
Over the past few years of working with health experts all over the world, there’s one major insight we’ve learned.
Most health problems can often be resolved with a good diet, exercise and a few powerful superfoods. In fact, we’ve gone through hundreds of scientific papers and ‘superfood’ claims and only selected the top 5% that are:
- Backed by scientific research
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We then put this valuable information into the Superfood as Medicine Guide: a 100+ page guide on the 7 most powerful superfoods available, including:
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- Simple recipes


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As a Least Developed Country (LDC), Bangladesh currently enjoys duty free market access to EU countries under the Everything but Arms (EBA) scheme
Bangladesh has sought Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) Plus trade facilities from the European Union (EU), after the country’s graduation to developing country status by 2024.
As a Least Developed Country (LDC), Bangladesh currently enjoys duty free market access to EU countries under the Everything but Arms (EBA) scheme.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed requested the GSP Plus trade facilities at the Fourth European Union-Bangladesh Business Climate Dialogue, held in Dhaka yesterday. An EU delegation and ambassadors of various EU countries were in attendance.
“Bangladesh will graduate to developing country status by 2024, and it will enjoy duty free market access under the EBA scheme till 2027 as an LDC,” the minister said.
“After graduation to developing country status, we will no longer be eligible for trade facilities under the EBA scheme. As such, I urge the EU to provide GSP Plus trade facilities for Bangladesh after graduation,” he added.
Tofail also urged the EU to invest in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Bangladesh, and said the EU- Bangladesh Business Climate Dialogue would be held every six months in order to resolve problems through dialogue.
Over 60% of Bangladesh’s export earnings come from 28 member countries of the EU. In the last fiscal year, Bangladesh exported goods worth $21.33 billion to EU countries, and imported products worth $3.5 billion.
Regarding the GSP Plus trade facilities, EU Head of Delegation and Ambassador to Bangladesh, Rensje Teerink, said: “Bangladesh enjoys duty free market access to EU under EBA. It is very important to look into that (GSP Plus) as the EU export market is crucial for Bangladesh.”
In addition, the EU envoy urged Bangladesh to ensure ease of doing business in the country, so businesses from the EU could increase investment.
“Through dialogue, we are resolving problems related to doing business, and bilateral trade between Bangladesh and the EU is increasing as a result,” she added.
On March 16, the UN Committee for Development Policy announced Bangladesh’s eligibility for graduation to developing country status, as it had met prerequisite criteria in terms of national income per capita, the Human Assets Index, and the Economic Vulnerability Index.
Bangladesh will have to pass reviews in 2021 and 2024 before being able to shed LDC status. After graduation, the country will be given a three year grace period before preferential trade facilities it enjoys as an LDC are withdrawn.


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Antonio Urcelay, chief executive officer of Toys R Us Inc., left, listens as Hank Mullany, president of Toys R Us Inc., speaks during an event at the company's Times Square store in New York, U.S., on Wednesday, March 26, 2014. Urcelay said the company's 2013 performance was "no doubt, disappointing, " and they see the need to right-size cost structure globally as well as change price perception.
(John Munson/The Star-Ledger)
WAYNE — Toys "R" Us's debt ratios returned to levels last seen following its $6.6 billion leveraged buyout in 2005, underscoring heightened concern among investors that the retailer may not be able to recover from its biggest loss in nearly three decades.
“It’s always there, you never get away from it,” Sean McGowan, an equity analyst who focuses on the toy industry at Needham & Co. in New York, said about the company’s debt load. “Something’s got to change, that’s for sure.”
Debt at the Wayne-based company has climbed to more than 8 times its cash flow, the same as when it was bought nine years ago by KKR & Co., Bain Capital LLC and Vornado Realty Trust, according to Moody’s Investors Service. The ratio is up from 5.3 times a year ago and compares with an industry average of about 3, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
A candidate for an initial public offering as recently as 2010, the toy seller is now struggling to reverse a billion- dollar loss last year in an environment where three specialty retailers have sought bankruptcy protection since December amid sluggish consumer spending. More than $850 million of its bonds trade at distressed levels, and Moody’s cut the company’s credit rating this month to six levels below investment grade.
“We made significant progress on important refinancings,” Kathleen Waugh, a spokeswoman, for Toys “R” Us wrote in an e- mail. “The company has a successful track record of refinancing and, at this time, has no material outstanding debt repayments due until 2016, providing a large window to grow and develop new strategic initiatives.”
The retailer’s $450 million of 10.375 percent bonds due in August 2017, traded at 81 cents on the dollar April 11, down from 110.5 cents in May, according to Trace, the bond-price reporting service of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. They yielded 17.5 percentage points more than similar-maturity Treasuries.
Those debentures along with $400 million of 7.375 percent notes due October 2018 are among the 154 securities considered distressed, Bloomberg data show. The measure tracks bonds that yield at least 10 percentage points more than comparable government debt.
Last month, Toys “R” Us announced a $1 billion loss for fiscal 2013, its worst performance since at least 1987, Bloomberg data show. Sales at stores open at least a year fell 5 percent at U.S. locations and dropped 3.3 percent internationally.
“They were out of stock, and that may be related to managing cash too tightly, but it’s inexcusable for Toys ‘‘R’’ Us to be out of stock,” McGowan said.
The retailer competes with giants such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. that attract a steady stream of customers with groceries and other basics.
And the one area where Toys “R” Us had distinguished itself in the past -- the breadth of selection -- is now challenged by Amazon.com Inc., McGowan said.
“What Wal-Mart, Target and Amazon can do is they can use toys to drive traffic to stores or online, and if not toys then they can sell other stuff,” Charles O’Shea, an analyst at Moody’s, said in a telephone interview.
On April 4, Moody’s cut the company’s corporate family rating one level to B3, six levels below investment grade. Standard & Poor’s has an equivalent B- rating on the debt. Moody’s analysts cited the toy seller’s inability to capitalize on its video business, an area that has been beneficial to competitors.
Toys “R” Us leverage, after having improved in the last few years, is back to post-buyout conditions after “one bad year,” he said. “It just shows how fragile the company’s credit metrics turned out to be given the highly leveraged capital structure.”
Toys “R” Us’s total debt of $5 billion compares with adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $588 million for the year ended Feb. 1, according to a March 31 regulatory filing.
The average leverage, or the ratio of debt to Ebitda for publicly traded U.S. consumer discretionary companies with at least $500 million in obligations is 3 times, Bloomberg data show.
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The company’s owners had looked to the equity markets to help it cut debt, filing for an $800 million initial public offering in May 2010. It shelved the plan almost three years later, citing poor market conditions and a pending leadership change.
Toys “R” Us named Antonio Urcelay, who served as interim chief executive officer after leading the European division, as permanent head in October. At the same time, it announced Hank Mullany, a former executive at Wal-Mart, as president of its U.S. business.
The company competes for a share of the global toy market, which has been flat at about $84 billion over the past four years, according to a Jan. 28 Fitch Ratings report. Traditional product categories have faced increasing headwinds with children expressing a preference for digital games, the report said.
It faces more than $1 billion of debt coming due in 2016 even as capital expenditures will exceed cash from operating activities by as much as $250 million over the next two years, Fitch analyst Isabel Hu said.
Coldwater Creek Inc., a women’s clothing retailer, filed for bankruptcy protection last week, following Dots LLC and Loehmann’s Inc., as consumer spending remains shaky.
“There is increasing business risk as well as liquidity pressure,” Hu said in a telephone interview.
While reviving an IPO might be a best-case option in two or three years, the key for the moment is to stabilize operations and then try to push out debt maturities, Steven Azarbad, co- founder of Maglan Capital LP, a New York-based hedge fund specializing in distressed securities, said in a telephone interview.
“I think everyone is just really looking at this right now as a show-me story,” Azarbad said. The owners “definitely want to buy themselves more time. Clearly a near-term exit on this investment is not in the offing.”
Wayne-based Toys 'R' Us to lay off up to 200
• After declining sales, new Toys R Us CEO and president reset retailer's strategy
• Enduring declining profits, Toys R Us gives itself a timetable for turnaround


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"We are deliberately reinvesting our profits. Even with these impressive results, we're not going to let up on the gas. We expect to reinvest our profits back into our products and tech, emerging markets like the Middle East and India, as well as big bets like scaling Eats and JUMP globally," Khosrowshahi added.
Besides, the company said it would hold a secondary stock sale for employees and existing investors.
"...a new third-party tender offer led by Coatue, TPG, and Altimeter Capital will launch next week. Eligible employees will be able to sell shares to these investors at $40 per share, which implies a valuation of approximately $62 billion," he said.
The improvement of the company's financial performance comes after months of controversies, including allegations of sexual harassment and lawsuits from drivers and employees.
Khosrowshahi, who took over the reins of Uber in August last year replacing founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick, has been focussing on turning around the company and has taken multiple steps in that direction.
In India, the company is locked in an intense battle for market leadership with homegrown player Ola. Interestingly, Uber and Ola have Japanese conglomerate SoftBank as a common investor.
Khosrowshahi has said the company is committed to investing further in the Indian market but is also keeping a sharp eye on "eventual profitability" as the US-based cab aggregator ramps up operations in the country.
India is already among the top three markets (besides the US and Latin America) for Uber. The company has been pumping in substantial funds to fuel its growth in India.
In 2015, Uber announced an investment of $1 billion in the country to expand its services. It has also set up a response and support centre in Hyderabad with an investment of $50 million.
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LG has today advised that the follow up to the high-end LG Watch Urbane 2, which just launched on carriers AT&T and Verizon in the US has been cancelled.
The watch was the first device released running Android 6.0 Marshmallow, with Google citing the watch yesterday in their note to developers to begin targeting the Android 6.0 API level 23. LG has confirmed to Android Central in an email that the watch has been cancelled due to ‘Hardware Issues’.
Customers in the US who have purchased the watch from AT&T will be able to claim a refund or swap for another connected watch (not a TAG ;)) in their range.
This is a pretty major development for LG. We’ve contacted LG Australia for comment, but haven’t heard anything back as yet. We’ll update as soon as there’s anything to add.


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The online casino laws of the European Union are supposed to create fair and standard regulations throughout most of Europe. In reality, the EU has a hard time enforcing its standards with countries that aren’t always keen to comply.
When it comes to online gambling in Europe, the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) and the European Commission (EC) have each tried to impose their own will on the individual states in the European Union. While those regulatory agencies have had their share of victories, most national leaders continue to develop policy according to their own whims. On some occasions the European Union will get involved in the enforcement of international gaming standards (or at least it tries to), but most of the gaming laws are handled at the national level. The European Union is made up of 28 different countries, each of which has its own ideas about what online gambling in Europe should consist of.
European Gaming and Betting Association
The European Gaming and Betting Association is an organization created in 2007 to implement a regulated market for online gambling operators in Europe. The idea behind the EGBA was to create a fair and competitive gaming market with common laws governing each involved country. While some standardization has happened, there is still a long way to go before the EGBA is able to completely govern online gambling in Europe. The EGBA counts Sportsbook as one of its members, along with other recognized online casinos.
ARJEL in France
In France, the Autorité de régulation des jeux en ligne (ARJEL), which translates to the “Regulatory Authority for Online Games,” is the country’s regulating body for online gambling. ARJEL saw its inception in 2010 to create a set of regulations that online casinos must follow. When ARJEL began its activities, French ISP providers were reluctant to follow their directives. However, the Tribunal de grande instance de Paris (the High Court of Paris) explicitly told ISPs they must follow ARJEL’s regulations. In fact, many online casinos have tried to operate in France without adhering to ARJEL’s ISP rules and have seen their access to the country’s gamblers blocked by firewalls.
German Gambling Laws
In Germany, the laws are made by the complex federal system. Online gambling has been outlawed since 2008. However, EGBA challenged the law, claiming it favored German companies and was therefore a violation of international laws. This led to the 2012 Interstate Treaty on Gambling (ISTG) with one state, Schleswig Holstein, opting out and creating its own more liberal online casino laws. As of yet, online gambling in Germany has yet to be legalized with the exception of a few dozen or so operators who have license to operate in Schleswig Holstein. So, please be careful if you are a German citizen and want to visit an online casino. Make sure it is licensed, reputable and doesn’t violate any German online gambling laws.
Spanish Online Casinos
Online gambling in Europe involves online casinos for the Spanish market. The Directorate General of the Regulation of Gambling (DGOJ) is responsible for the most recent changes to Spain’s online gaming industry. In Spain, online gambling is legal with online casinos and poker sites from the EU being allowed to operate in the country as long as they are properly licensed.
Italy’s Internet Gaming Laws
Italy has one of the more liberal and regulated online gaming laws in Europe. The Agenzia delle dogane e dei Monopoli (ADM) is the sole regulator of gambling functions in the country. The Italian gaming market is still evolving but online casinos, as long as they are licensed properly, can operate freely.
United Kingdom Betting Regulations
Online casinos are big business in the United Kingdom. It’s such a major market that we gave the U.K. its own online casino page. Make your Brexit to the U.K. online gambling page here.
Dutch Gaming Laws
The Dutch are known for their liberal laws and views on marijuana and sex but when it comes to online gambling, it took them awhile to finally understand that online casinos aren’t hurting their economy. Online gambling is legal in the Netherlands and the government has recently dropped its tax rate on profits from online gambling from 29 percent to 20 percent, allowing the industry to flourish.
Scandinavian Online Gaming Laws
Sweden has an open attitude toward online gambling, for the most part. Swedish online software companies like NetEnt, Boss Media and Yggdrasil are active, while individual casinos like Sportsbook and Sportsbook are major players. A few other casinos such as Sportsbook & Co. are also gaining in the market.
In Finland, all gaming activities require a license, including online casino operations. Norway has a negative attitude toward gambling, including internet wagers. A couple of land-based Norwegian gaming companies are allowed a duopoly, with no one else legally allowed to take bets. Norsk Tipping is a government-sponsored legal online casino and one of only two sites that Norwegians can use to play online.
Casinos in the Baltic States
In the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, online casino gambling is a big hit. When the three tiny countries were part of the Soviet Union, all gambling was banned. Since then, Estonia and Latvia have taken a more pragmatic view toward gambling, though their pro-gaming laws only came about in the 21st century. Both Latvia and Estonia are home to live dealer gaming studios with many of the leading companies hosting their live blackjack, baccarat, roulette and craps from casino studios in those countries. Foreign online casinos can operate in the Baltic states as long as they are licensed.
Eastern European Gaming
In the former Warsaw Pact nations, gambling is a mixed bag. Hungary has been targeted for its protectionist laws when it comes to gambling. The EGBA might one day force changes but for the time being, international gaming companies have a hard time signing up Hungarians. As for Poland, their online casino laws only came into effect in 2017. The law states that licensed international sportsbooks can only offer sports betting, and casino games can only be offered by the country’s one designated gambling monopoly. Before that, online gambling was banned. Ukraine banned all forms of gambling in 2009. However, there are designated gaming zones that were created to give citizens and tourists some legal land-based casinos and poker rooms to play in. Finally, the Czech Republic allows foreign online casinos to operate in the country as long as they are licensed.
Online Gambling in Greece
Once a haven for online gaming companies, Greece has now adopted a prohibition-type stance against online casinos. With online casinos being banned in the country, several of the top gaming companies had to set up shop in other places outside of Greece. At first, the government seemed to be preparing for a Greek gaming monopoly that would allow online casinos to operate as long as they were licensed and not created by a foreign company. However, this never came to fruition and gambling is only permitted inside the walls of a casino. If you are caught visiting an online casino in Greece, the government considers you to be committing a criminal act, so please be careful.
European Gaming Jurisdictions
Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, Alderney and the Isle of Man are prime licensing authorities for online gambling in Europe. Most of these countries have ties to the British Empire or the Commonwealth of Nations. Each jurisdiction is supposed to comply with the European Market trading laws.


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The final word Guide To Olymp Trade Signals Telegram Channel
Issues with Your What Is Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency purchases and equilibriums are videotaped on a public digital ledger called a blockchain. People that are running software application as well as equipment focused on verifying transactions to the digital ledger are cryptocurrency miners. Addressing cryptographic problems to include purchases to the journal in the hope of obtaining coins as a benefit is cryptocurrency mining. Started equally as a meme, it is not as risk-telegram free crypto signals — bongsubeach.kr, as Bitcoin however acquired significant popularity as Tesla owner Elon Musk revealed his interest in DGC and also stated that he would certainly accept DGC as a transactional electronic currency.
Musk made use of the verses of viral Child Shark track from in 2014 and also used it to refer to Infant Doge. Currently, we have Infant Doge— one more meme cryptocurrency that has been brought under the spotlight by the Dogefather Elon Musk. Consumers can trade tens of hundreds of dollars at cryptocurrency Atm machines like this one. Because any kind of transaction wants to be validated by some quits, there’s hardly any opportunity to remove or change what has been made via this blockchain This appears Iike a huge possibility for the whole company field.
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For example, a hacker couldn’t alter the blockchain ledger unless they efficiently got at the very least 51% of the ledgers to match their illegal variation. The quantity of resources required to do this makes scams not likely free crypto telegram groups. «Evidence of job is a method of verifying purchases on a blockchain in which an algorithm provides a mathematical trouble that computer systems race to resolve,» claims Simon Oxenham, social media sites manager at Xcoins.com.
Considering that it is not supported by the federal government, customers do not need to undergo a bank to exchange it. Nonetheless, he includes the worth of cryptocurrencies can fluctuate daily. Some cryptocurrencies have instead tried to utilize a proof-of-stake approach, where nodes are validated in deterministic style, to help with this power situation.
Cryptocurrency Vs Financial Institutions
Those that confirm transactions by breaking cryptographic codes are called miners. Unlike financial institution debt, which stands for a centrally managed and also released fiat currency, cryptocurrency is decentralized and also hence not centrally managed. Possibly the most controversial component of cryptocurrency, nevertheless, is the energy. The proof-of-work process required to extract bitcoins eats a worrying amount of electrical energy, as well as the worry has actually grown as more and more people have actually taken up mining. This is much bigger than power bills; according to Ars Technica, the annual rate of power consumption from Bitcoin is the same as the price for every one of Denmark.
Other exchanges, peer-to-peer ones, use the capacity to put you in contact straight with the trade you are purchasing from. Do research not just to see what exchanges use what, but what their credibilities are; a p2p exchange with a seedy online reputation might be a one-way ticket to obtaining scammed. The boost in Bitcoin’s value was sluggish, but as the cryptocurrency gained a passionate following, others started to turn up also in the hopes of going after the crypto/blockchain pattern, known as altcoins.
It is unsubstantiated yet also a joke/meme transformed cryptocurrencies currently covers the market cap of more than over a billion bucks i.e. Every bitcoin deal uses sufficient energy to power 3 normal homes for the entire time_he financial system makes it possible for people crypto grower signals to obtain with each other as well as create as a nation. It’s something cryptocurrency proprietors need to be wary of, as well as why many choose to save them offline as quickly as they purchase any kind of electronic coins.
— MELISSA. T. SANCHEZ01 (@Sanchez01T) July 31, 2021
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Right here is a checklist of our companions that use products that we have associate links for. A cryptocurrency is a legal tender that is electronic, encrypted and decentralized. Buck or the Euro, there is no central authority that takes care of and also maintains the value of a cryptocurrency. Instead, these jobs are extensively dispersed amongst a cryptocurrency’s users by means of the net. Cryptocurrencies can be purchased via a broker or traded on online cryptocurrency exchanges. The technique behind these stands is to increase cryptocurrency’s reach to everyday consumers.
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WASHINGTON, April 24 (Reuters) - Democratic lawmakers said on Thursday new user fees and other proposals would help give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration much needed resources to improve the safety of the U.S. food supply, but critics said such measures could do more harm than good.
The move to bolster food and drug protection, included in draft legislation introduced in the House of Representatives last week, comes after safety concerns involving U.S.-made spinach and peanut butter, along with problems tied to contaminated ingredients made in China that were later used in pet food and the blood-thinner drug heparin.
"The agency is starved for resources and cannot meet its basic responsibility," Rep. John Dingell, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said at a hearing on the bill.
The measure, he said, "will focus on efforts to seek real legislative conclusions to what is, in fact, a public health crisis."
The FDA has faced intense criticism from lawmakers and consumer groups that it has been too passive in handling changes in the food supply -- particularly the surge of imports and growing consumer demand for fresh produce.
The agency is in charge of 80 percent of the U.S. food supply, mostly fruits, vegetables and processed foods.
The draft legislation, crafted by Dingell and other Democratic lawmakers, would require U.S. food manufacturers and those exporting goods to the United States to pay $2,000 for each facility they operate.
The fee would generate $600 million, more than doubling the agency's current food safety budget.
The proposal also would require country-of-origin labeling for produce and processed foods, and mandate FDA to inspect food plants and their food-safety plans every four years. FDA also would be given the authority to conduct mandatory recalls.
"Foodborne outbreaks and recalls in recent years have caused a dramatic loss in consumer confidence," said Caroline Smith DeWall, a director of food safety at the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest. "While each stakeholder may differ on the particulars, the ... act offers an unprecedented opportunity for Congress to pass strong legislation."
Republican lawmakers, the FDA and the food industry were quick to object to parts of the legislation.
Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said the agency was concerned the draft legislation spreads too much funding and resources across a broader area of inspection instead of allowing FDA to target high-risk foods.
"We have limited resources and we want to use those ... as judiciously as we can to target those products that we believe have the greatest potential to cause harm to public health," Sundlof said.
Republican lawmakers and the Grocery Manufacturers Association added that while they supported efforts to improve food safety, they strongly opposed user fees.
Cal Dooley, president of the GMA, said the fees would lead to "$1 billion in taxes on food products, which will show up in increased costs at the grocery store shelves."
The Bush administration issued a report last November that highlighted several of the changes proposed by Congress, including mandatory recall authority. (Editing by Walter Bagley)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.


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November 06, 2020
This holiday season, many brands have had to adapt their traditional seasonal messaging to reflect the new normal as coronavirus cases still spike around the world.
October 24, 2016
Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts are prepping the arrival of their videogame Titanfall 2 on October 28 with a bold, cinematic campaign created out of San Francisco agency Argonaut, which won the business in June of this year.
July 12, 2016
It's a big, bright colorful party in Cricket Wireless' new animated spot promoting its broad, wallet-friendly and hassle-free coverage, created out of Argonaut.
January 07, 2016
Nearly a year after debuting its first global campaign, fitness tracker kingpin Fitbit is making a new push in 2016 that will focus on accessories and its latest wearable device, Blaze.
January 28, 2014
Apparently, Volkswagen has more vehicles on the road with 100,000 miles than any other car company. That was the kickoff idea for Argonaut when the less-than-one-year-old ad agency was tapped to work on the German automaker's Super Bowl spot.


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Rabbit TV Wants to Hop Into a La Carte
Rabbit TV is ready to make a big jump.
What started out as a video content aggregation service catering to cord-cutters wants to make the move to an a la carte model, convinced that major broadcasters will eventually agree to unbundle their channels to reach that demographic.
The two-year-old upstart believes it can create attractive offers to the likes of ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and even premium channels like HBO because it can help them forge a direct connection with its audience of more than 3 million registered users.
On top of that, Rabbit TV announced late last month that it is prepared to pay broadcasters the per-subscriber retrans rate they’re being paid by cable operators in New York, the nation’s biggest market, and also apply that rate to all DMAs nationwide.
It all sounds like a daunting task. If you’ve never heard of Rabbit, you’ve got company. CEO William Mobley said the brash firm once considered printing T-shirts that read: “WTF is Rabbit TV?”
Before getting into what Rabbit TV wants to become (something akin to a virtual multichannel video programming distributor), it helps to first know what it is now.
Rabbit TV, a unit of a company called FreeCast that sells products through the Telebrands “As Seen on TV” direct-marketing realm, aggregates video, music, radio and other media available legally and freely via the Internet, coupled with access to a range of electronic sell-through services and subscription- based video streaming options, including a mix of international live TV channels.
It wraps all of that into an “eMedia guide” that helps users search and discover content across all of those sources. Rabbit TV sells the product, which really amounts to an Internet video guide that provides direct links to some of those sources, for $10 per year.
“We’re Switzerland,” Mobley said. “We don’t ignore services like Hulu Plus. We assume as a cord-cutter, you’re going to pay us $10 a year to get everything that’s freely available and well-organized.”
And the product itself is undergoing a bit of a metamorphosis. Rabbit TV started off distributing the service via a small, USB-connected device that limited it to PCs and laptops. It has since begun to roll out a new version of the service, Rabbit TV Plus, that features a refreshed interface and app that gives its users the ability to use the service on iOS- and Android-powered tablets and smartphones.
Mobley said Rabbit TV will stop selling the USB-based hardware product in favor of the new software-focused option, which the company will tap to expand beyond the U.S.
The company also is planning the launch later this year of an IPconnected box with a quad-core processor that will enable Rabbit TV to run its services, as well as an integrated browser, games and other apps, on television screens. Users will control the box, which will sell for $99.99, through an app or via a separate $30 remote with a built-in QWERTY keyboard. Rabbit TV also wants to cut deals that will integrate its platform with Internet-connected TVs.
LONG PLAY: A LA CARTE
Rabbit TV’s hopeful, longer-term plan is to offer feeds from major broadcasters and cable programmers through its platform. Its pitch is that Rabbit TV has already collected a base of millions of people who fall into that cordcutter bucket but also includes consumers who still desire access to channels like ABC and ESPN and HBO on multiple devices, and would be willing to pay a premium price for it.
“Just pay us our commission,” Mobley said. “That’s all we want. We’ll live on that. We’ll either buy it and resell it, or you [the programmer] can provide it in whatever bundle you want to the consumer. We are just bringing you the consumers who want to buy it.”
But it’s not clear how receptive broadcasters and programmers have been to Rabbit TV’s proposal. Mobley said Rabbit has been talking with execs “below the Clevel.” Those execs, typically tied to digital and online divisions of those organizations, are “getting through the smell and taste test of what we’re doing because most people originally think that we repurpose their content, and we don’t,” Mobley said. “We create the guide that sends the consumer directly to them.”
Those conversations have led Mobley to believe that at least one programmer would be willing to dip its toe in the water within the next 24 months. “The networks are beginning to research their options,” Mobley said.
Although facing an uphill climb, the good news for Rabbit TV is that cracks are starting to form in the old business models. Its customer base appears to share traits with the one Dish Network will target with its coming single-stream service, which has locked in streaming rights with Walt Disney Co. and A+E Networks.
Speaking on an earnings call last week, Time Warner Inc. chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes said his company is open to over-the-top video service providers, so long as those deals are “additive” to its current distribution relationships.
But with a la carte access to broadcast and premium networks still a challenging and forward-looking goal, Mobley said, Rabbit TV is also looking to fill that broadcast TV gap by exploring partnerships with antenna providers.
Mike Farrell contributed to this report.
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Greenpeace Targets VW With Mini-Vader Ad Spoof
Turns hit Super Bowl campaign against the auto maker.
Greenpeace has spoofed VW’s “The Force” TV spot in an online campaign highlighting the auto maker’s alleged opposition to new European CO2 emissions standards. The effort plays on the Star Wars theme, suggesting VW has “turned to the dark side,” and is “threatening our planet by opposing cuts to CO2 emissions.”
A website dedicated to the effort at VWdarkside.com features a spoof video of VW’s own campaign, and prompts users to sign a petition to “join the rebellion” against Europe’s largest car firm. Users are also prompted to join the effort via Facebook, and to share the YouTube-hosted viral effort via Twitter and email.
As of 6pm Tuesday the video had received over 130,000 views, and the Facebook page had attracted 13,000 likes. The petition, meanwhile, had garnered more than 47,000 submissions.


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Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) has released its fourth cotton arrival figures, from November 1, on November 3. The Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) monthly report shows that around 76,06,263 cotton bales were sourced to ginners by November 1 which shows an increase of 11.02 percent than last year when ginneries received 68,51,056 bales. PCGA chairman Mukhtar Ahmed Khan Baloch briefed journalists on Sunday about seed-cotton (phutti) arrivals, sales and unsold stock of cotton.
He said that 56, 91,883 cotton bales were sold to the textile units and exporters bought 1, 91,657 bales. thus, overall 58, 83,540 bales were traded so far. He said that PCGA was expecting bumper crop up to 13.9 million bales. Baloch said that 1,086 out of 1,200 ginning factories are operational in Sindh and Punjab.
Baloch said Punjab contributed 45,78,634 bales which is 6.40 percent more than last year when Punjab contributed 43,03,099 bales Sindh, he said, contributed 30,27,629 bales which is 18.83 percent more than last year when it contributed 25,47,957 bales and Balochistan 47,655 bales.
After the total trading of 58, 83,540 bales, there are 17, 22,723 bales available with ginners as unsold stock. He said that cotton trading remained firm amid strong physical price and higher cottonseed prices.
District wise cotton arrival in Punjab: Multan 2,18,159 bales 43.35 percent more than last year, Lodhran 1,33,704 bales 15.77 percent increase, Khanewal 5,49,016 showing a decrease of 4.62percent, Muzaffargarh 1,97,056 bales 44.78 percent rise, Dera Ghazi Khan 2,02,068 bales an increase of 57.10percent, Rajanpur 2,17,364 bales showing an increase of 14.03percent .Layyah 1,33,050 bales 125.59 percent,Vehari 5,02,176 bales 13.01 percent fall, Sahiwal 3,33,232 bales short by 14.33 percent, Pakpattan 1,21,777 showing 27.39 pc less,Okara 31,200 showing a fall by of 20.81pc, Kasur 17,900, Toba Tek Singh, 1,50,928 bales ,Faisalabad 47,450 ,Jhang 92,077 , Mianwali 1,14,200 6,885 bales, Bhakkar 89,500 showing an increase of 35.71percent , Sargodha 20,900,RahimyarKhan ,4,55,053, Bahawalpur 4,48,124 and Bahawalnagar 5,03,700 bales.
Ginneries received 34, 03,893 bales during the Month of October 1 to November 1. Unsold stock is 17, 22,723 bales which is higher than that of last year.


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Audi: strongest sales growth ever
“2011 was an unprecedented year in the history of Audi: Never before have we gained so many new customers in a single year,” declared Peter Schwarzenbauer, AUDI AG Board Member for Marketing and Sales. “With our new models in very high demand, business proved better than expected, specifically in Europe and the United States. In the U.S. market we established new sales records in every single month and achieved another clear improvement in our financial result – mainly thanks to the very successful drive in the full-size category.”
Since the market launch of the new-generation A8 and A6 and of the A7 Sportback, more than one in four U.S. customers have opted for a full-size model. Within one year, Audi has thus increased the U.S. sales share of the top-end car lines by more than half. Across all models, Audi sold 117,561 automobiles in the United States last year, a further advance of 15.7 percent on the 2010 figure.
Worldwide, too, the full-size models were instrumental in driving Audi’s growth: Even before the appearance of the new-generation A6 in China, the sedan model’s biggest market, global sales of this car line rose by 12.2 percent to around 229,200 vehicles. The new A6 sedan appeared in its first markets in March, with the Avant, which is especially popular in Europe, following only in the fall. By contrast the A7 Sportback has now been on the market for its first full year, attracting over 31,300 customers worldwide. The brand with the four rings also increased its presence in the full-size category with the Q7, with sales up 21.4 percent on the previous year. Launched at the start of 2010, the brand’s flagship A8 model actually doubled its volume (+101 percent).
At the other end of the model range the Audi A1 brought additional customers into dealerships: In its first full year on sale, Audi delivered around 118,200 of its premium compact car, mainly to customers in Europe. Overall, AUDI AG clearly bucked the market trend in that region with sales climbing 12.2 percent to around 726,300 cars, further bolstering its position as the leading premium brand.
After China, the home market Germany brought the Ingolstadt company its highest growth in absolute terms. 254,011 new cars were handed over to Audi customers in 2011, 10.8 percent more than in 2010. The past year was also particularly successful for Audi in the United Kingdom and France: Unit sales in the UK gained 15.7 percent to 115,345, and Audi France sold 62,009 vehicles, a rise of 18.1 percent, taking it past the 60,000 mark for the first time. Moreover, despite the difficult market conditions Audi at least matched the previous year’s deliveries totals in Spain (+3.4 percent) and Italy (+0.03 percent). In all its other top-ten markets worldwide, the Company achieved a double-digit sales increase on 2010, with Russia, too, performing much more strongly than in the previous year with 25.6 percent growth and unit sales of 23,250 making it the growth leader in Eastern Europe.
Audi’s growth of 37.3 percent in China was attributable both to the surge in demand for the brand’s imported models and to the completion of the Changchun plant’s expansion midway through the year, creating extra production capacity. Audi sold 313,036 autos to Chinese customers in 2011, enabling the brand with the four rings to substantially increase its lead in the premium segment yet again.
Emerging growth markets such as South Korea (+30.9% to 10,346 cars) and South Africa (+20.4% to 14,523) have also continued to gain in importance for Audi over the past few months. These two markets combined now account for as many unit sales as the brand achieves in Russia. In South America, Mexico (+46.8%) and Brazil (+68.0%) stood out for their particularly high growth rates in 2011. Audi’s growth in India was even steeper: Sales there soared by 83.5 percent to 5,511 cars, the highest growth rate of any premium brand in the market.


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Rocket League‘s success hasn’t prevented developer Psyonix from experimenting with the rocket car meets soccer surprise hit. In fact, a new Rumble mode revealed Sunday during the Rocket League Championship Series appears to be pulled straight out of a Looney Tunes cartoon and shows the studio is willing to come up with even crazier car antics.
Rocket League Rumble will be added to the game in September with a collection of 11 zany power-ups. Players will be equipped with a random power-up during the match that will give them an extra advantage at scoring, stealing the ball or just taking out an opponent. For example, a grappling hook will pull a car towards a ball while The Boot will kick an opposing player’s car across the arena.
Psyonix is not being shy about sharing the new abilities and what each does. Here is the list shared on the game’s official website:
- The Boot(Kicks an opponent’s car)
- Disruptor(Forces your opponent to drive uncontrollably)
- Freezer(Freezes the ball in-place)
- Grappling Hook(Pulls you towards the ball)
- Haymaker(Punches the ball)
- Magnetizer (Attracts the ball to your car)
- Plunger (Grabs the ball via plunger and cord)
- Power Hitter(Allows you to hit everything harder)
- Spike(Attach the ball to your car when you bump into it)
- Swapper (Change positions on the field with your opponent)
- Tornado(Sweep up the ball and opposing cars into a giant funnel cloud)
The new Rumble mode will be completely free when it is released to Rocket League in September. It will join the “Hoops” and “Mutator” modes in online playlists for Private and Exhibition matches.
This is just the first part of the September update Psyonix is revealing for September. Vice President Jeremy Dunham teased more is to come in an interview with IGN.
“As we get closer to the Rocket League Championship Series,” Dunham told IGN, “around that time [August 6-7] is when we’re going to start promoting our next update – and wait ’til people see it. We’ve got something brewing that a lot of people have been asking for in different forms but is also very surprising. It’s going to be interesting, but it’s going to be cool too.”
One possible new feature has already been leaked and confirmed by Psyonix. A loot crate system similar to Overwatch and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is planned to give players the opportunity to spend either real money or in-game credits on a chance to win rare skins and other cosmetic items.
Money generated from the loot crate system will go towards funding the Rocket League eSports prize pools and events. Players will not be able to sell the crates to other players via the Steam Marketplace or gamble with them.
Whether the September update will add support for cross-play between the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One is definitely up for question at the moment. Psyonix previously confirmed it was ready to flip the switch to allow console owners from both platforms to play one another along with the PC. Sony hasn’t given any indication of giving the go-ahead, however, while Microsoft has already signaled it is all in.
“We’re literally at the point where all we need is the go-ahead on the Sony side and we can, in less than a business day, turn it on and have it up and working no problem,” Dunham explained. “It’d literally take a few hours to propagate throughout the whole world, so really we’re just waiting on the permission to do so.”
What do you think of the upcoming Rocket League Rumble mode and the September update? Sound off in the comments below.
[Image via Psyonix]


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Residents and visitors will have the opportunity to partake in '50s-inspired fun, according to City of La Porte Events Director Brett Binversie.
On Friday, June 16, from 6 to 10 p.m., the city will host its third annual '50s Cruise In at the corner of Lincolnway and Monroe. Part of the Friday Night Live event series, the evening will feature a classic car show, live entertainment by The Remedy Band, and artisan goods as well as local food and beverage vendors. Attendees are encouraged to dress up in their best 1950s attire. Binversie said this event offers something for the whole family.
"We have a jam-packed summer events calendar this year and are really looking forward to starting things off with a bang," Binversie said. "The Cruise In has been a huge success over the last couple years, so we anticipate a large crowd and lots of fun."
Binversie said this event is made possible by Centier Bank, as well as La Porte Events members. To learn more about upcoming events or to become a member, visit livinthelakelife.org.


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FS1 will be airing the 2018 WWE Survivor Series pay-per-view tonight at 8pm ET. That event featured then-WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar vs. then-WWE Champion Daniel Bryan, then-RAW Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey vs. Charlotte Flair, and then-Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins vs. then-U.S. Champion Shinsuke Nakamura.
– Global esports organization Gen.G today announced that Booker T will be a celebrity judge for a Minecraft Pocket-Edition Build Contest on Thursday, July 16, presented by Samsung. Fans and influencers from across the country are invited to participate in the contest. The theme of the build competition, “Building Connections,” encourages players to build the people, places and things that keep them connected (i.e. their home, favorite restaurant, a TV show, etc.). Top builders will be selected and have the opportunity to compete in ‘Building Connections presented by Samsung’, a live streamed event on Samsung’s Twitch channel on July 16 (6pm CT). Winners will be selected by a panel of celebrity judges which include Minecraft content creator Ryguyrocky, and Minecraft streamer Shubble in addition to Booker T. The prize pool includes a Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G, AKG N60 Noise Cancelling Headphones, Galaxy Watch Active2 and Galaxy Play Store Credits awarded to the top builds.
“I’m thrilled to be able to take part in such a unique event- it’s going to be fun, and this is going to be something we’ll be talking about for years to come,” said Booker T. “I’m looking forward to sharing this experience with my kids, who have been building some incredible structures, the other judges, and the Minecraft community.”
For more information, including sign ups and news, gamers can visit buildingconnections.gg.
– Lana has a new vlog with Mandy Rose at this link where the two share makeup tips. Lana and Rose also posted the photo below to plug the vlog, as well as a recent TikTok video of them dancing.
Rose also revealed her quarantine bikini in the Instagram post below, to which Lana replied, “You are perfect”: