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In the past month alone, a number of retailers have jumped aboard the cryptocurrency and blockchain bandwagon, considering the related technologies for everything from supply chain transparency, to shipping, and even retailer rewards programs. Both Walmart and JD are implementing blockchain solutions, while Amazon’s Eastern counterpart Rakuten are launching their own reward-based virtual currency. Many are watching and waiting to see how the current leader in the online retail space implement these emerging technologies - most notably, is Amazon.
Amazon, known as the world’s largest online retailer has yet to announce any plans related to blockchain and cryptocurrency - but most agree it is simply a matter of when. Rather than watching and waiting for Amazon, customer education and financial resource website LendEDU took it upon themselves to survey Amazon’s customers to gauge their interest and openness to use an Amazon-created cryptocurrency. The survey was conducted to understand Amazon customer’s interests in a variety of sectors, including lending, banking, insurance, and more.
The response from consumers was a resounding “Yes” to cryptocurrencies. According to LendEDU’s survey, over 51% of Amazon customers say "yes" they would be open to the idea of using an Amazon-created cryptocurrency for future purchases on amazon.com, while only 21% said "no." 26% remained unsure if they would be open to it, likely due to how new cryptocurrency is to the masses. Amazon Prime users made up the bulk of the users who answered yes - a whopping 58% of those who said yes are Amazon Prime subscribers. Amazon Prime subscribers are those most invested into Amazon’s ecosystem and are the most likely to use such a virtual currency.
Hopefully, Amazon themselves see the results of the survey and take notice that their users are open and willing. Amazon already may be working on their own cryptocurrency, according to website domain names registered by the company. In January, Amazon registered the domain names amazoncryptocurrency.com, amazoncryptocurrencies.com, along with amazonethereum.com. Amazon previously registered the domain amazonbitcoin.com as well.
When major players such as Amazon get involved with blockchain and cryptocurrency, it will be further legitimized in the public eye, as well as from the rest of the retail landscape.


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Too rushed to stop and pick up a bottle of wine for your dinner hosts--so you arrive empty-handed?
That's not a problem in California, in the South or even in Kansas, where some thoughtfully accommodating liquor stores have drive-up windows where shoppers can buy a six-pack or a bottle without leaving their cars.
Just like fast-food restaurants, or banks, or dry cleaners.
In the continuing quest to offer consumers convenience--to save them from having to get out of their vehicles (or even out of their pajamas)--more businesses are adding drive-up windows to new store designs.
Walgreen Co.'s "drive-thru" service has been so successful that 400 of its 2,141 stores now offer this convenience. And drive-up windows are now part of all Walgreens new store designs.
The management of Dominick's Finer Foods has indicated it might look into drive-up windows "to accommodate consumers short on time," according to its president and chief executive, Robert Mariano.
Asked by a developer about drive-up windows during a recent conference, Mariano said Northlake-based Dominick's has no plans for drive-ups but added, "We look at many ideas, and we would consider anything innovative to help customers save time shopping."
Dominick's spokesman Cory Hedman, by way of clarification, said: "Mr. Mariano was letting the audience know that no idea is too remote to consider if it makes food shopping easier and faster." But "a small item like a prescription and five bags of groceries are far different things." Grocery pickup, he indicated, would entail shopping, packaging, loading and maybe even traffic control.
On the other hand, supermarkets that devote a good portion of their business to prepared foods could indeed make use of drive-through windows, said Joe Siegel, vice president of retail services for the National Retail Federation.
"It would be very simple for supermarkets to do," he said.
"They could first offer a menu of prepared foods, which could be ordered ahead, then they plastic-wrap them and they're ready to be picked up at the drive-through window."
The idea's more than feasible, he said, wondering aloud why a store like Dominick's wouldn't have it on the drawing boards.
Mariano told the conference that new store designs will have more food-preparation space at the expense of general groceries and that Dominick's growth "is going after the entree food dollar."
No supermarket or grocery chains currently offer drive-up windows, said Pamela Rucker spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation.
However, Dale Riley, president and chief operating officer of Minneapolis-based Byerly's, said: "We tried a drive-up window for our deli back in 1971 in our St. Paul store. It wasn't that successful, but we know now that it was ahead of its time."
Drive-up windows at supermarkets pose too many logistical problems--primarily space and refrigeration--said Riley, but "some day, someone's going to solve such problems."
For Deerfield-based Walgreens, the idea of convenience and drive-up windows "came from an internal committee's brainstorming session," said spokesman Michael Polzin.
Walgreens, which has 25 drugstores with drive-up windows in the Chicago area, tested the first window in 1991 in Apple Valley, Minn. In 1992 seven Walgreens stores opened in Indianapolis, all with drive-throughs.
The decision to include the windows--all for prescription orders only--in all future stores came in 1994, based on consumer reaction.
"In the beginning, the idea was to benefit the elderly and parents of small children--small sick children," said Polzin, "especially in inclement weather. "But we're finding that busy people are using it just as much or more."
Polzin said customers can call ahead or can pull up and drop off the prescription, then pull over to the side and wait--or perhaps pull up to their bank, grab a burger at another drive-through and then return to Walgreens.
Rucker said the drive-up concept is not unusual for liquor and convenience stores, and Smith's Retail Liquors in Topeka is finding the service extremely popular.
"They just drive up to the window and tell us what they want, and we run around and get it," said one of the guys who runs around and fetches the brews and bottles.
Smith's started the drive-through service last year. Now, practically all of the sales are made this way, the company said.

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BOWLING GREEN A Perrysburg Township woman accused of putting medicine into a half-gallon of milk, then claiming it was tainted, pleaded not guilty yesterday in Wood County Common Pleas Court.
Stephanie Wood, 25, of 9564 Mandell Rd., was indicted last month by a Wood County grand jury on one count of making false alarms.
Judge Reeve Kelsey scheduled a pretrial hearing for June 26.
Ms. Wood called police about 3:30 a.m. March 13 and said she found a container of prescription medicine in a half-gallon of chocolate milk she bought at the Kroger store on Carronade Drive. Upon investigation, police said they found the same medicine, prescribed to her, in her apartment.
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Just as you started to believe the “Beats by Dre” era was at a standstill, the company receives a huge investment from a private equity firm. The popular line of headphones and other electronic products owned by Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine received a $500 million investment from the The Carlyle Group. The Carlyle Group will now take two of the six seats on the Beats’ board.
The popular company is now valued at over $1 billion and is expected to bring in nearly $1.2 billion in revenue. Wondering what the billion-dollar company plans on doing next? Beats is planning on buying back 25 percent of their stake owned by smartphone company HTC.
This investment is a huge boost for the company that already claims 64 percent of the headphone market.
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Dr. Dre’s ‘Beats By Dre’ Gets $500 Million Investment was originally published on theurbandaily.com


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JPMorgan Chase (New York, $1.16 trillion in assets) has introduced ACH Distributed Payment Capture, a remote deposit capture solution that allows businesses to convert consumer payments to either Automated Clearinghouse (ACH) transactions or to substitute checks.
Checks that are converted to ACH transactions can do so either using the Accounts Receivable Conversion (ARC) or point of presentment (POP) codes. For those checks that cannot be converted to ACH, the provisions of Check 21 allow for the creation of a substitute check.
The combination of ACH conversion with Check 21-enabled remote deposit capture makes for a promising combination. "Prior to Check 21, if we didn't have a local presence, our client would say, 'We'll do business with you 80 to 85 percent for ACH, but we're going to have to hire a local bank,'" says Alan Koenigsberg, vice president and Global ACH senior product manager, JPMorgan Chase. "Now, we can turn that 15 percent on, and we can handle those remotely."
Furthermore, JPMorgan Chase's ability to offer a single solution for both ACH and check conversion has its advantages in head-to-head competition with other banks. "Some of our competitors in the industry have their check folks compete with the ACH folks," says Koenigsberg.
But in the emerging business of distributed payment capture, it's not just the banks that are in the running. "I'm competing against Purolator [Courier Ltd., of Mississauga, Ontario] and companies you would never expect to compete with," says Koenigsberg. "The whole value chain is becoming unglued."
With banks such as JPMorgan now having the ability to go "out-of-footprint" to serve business customers, smaller banks face a difficult decision: Either invest in the imaging and ACH technology required to compete, or outsource. As it happens, JPMorgan Chase has the capability to provide back-office services to support regional corporate treasury players with strong local business ties. "They have the relationships and, potentially, the credit relationships," says Koenigsberg. "We'd potentially want to white-label as the utility behind the bank."
Yet shifting back-office infrastructure to a former competitor could be a difficult move for bankers still fixated upon the need to "fill the factory," or "to be the last guy around on the block processing checks while everybody else is out of it," notes Koenigsberg. "When you get beyond that, it could be a very good business."


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An Australian Federal Court judge has ruled that hotel booking website Trivago misled customers into believing they were getting the best price on hotel rooms. In 2018, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) alleged that Trivago, which is owned by Expedia, created a false impression that customers would be shown the lowest price when searching through … [Read more...]
Travel Lifestyle is a popular topic at the Australian Frequent Flyer. In this category we provide tips, tricks and chat about Travel Lifestyle. This includes Airports and Lounges, Travel Money, Travel Tools and Technology, Car Hire, Wine and Cruises.
Part of living the "Travel Lifestyle" is to make use of travel debit cards such as the Qantas Travel Money card or credit cards such as the popular 28 Degrees card for lower forex transaction fees.
Qantas has joined TSA PreCheck, meaning eligible Qantas passengers departing from the United States can now access fast-track security lanes. This service is available at all US airports served by Qantas, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas/Fort Worth, Honolulu and New York JFK. Qantas signed up for the service on 17 December 2019, becoming one of 73 participating … [Read more...]
Santiago is the gateway between Australia and South America. All flights between the two continents arrive in Santiago, the Chilean hub of LATAM Airlines. So if you're headed to South America, chances are you'll have a Santiago stopover at Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport. Santiago is perhaps not the most exciting city in South America, but there's plenty to do … [Read more...]
Chile recently removed the reciprocity fee it charged to Australians when entering the country. This is great news as it makes Chile a more affordable and attractive destination to Australians, and will likely stimulate the country's tourism industry. But, sadly, this goes against a recent trend of countries that have decided to introduce or increase tourism taxes. Tourism … [Read more...]
The Chilean government will remove the reciprocity fee charged to Australians upon arrival in Chile from Monday, 16 December 2019. However, Australians will be required to apply for an eVisa before travelling to Chile from 16 May 2020. This means that, from tomorrow, Australian citizens arriving at Santiago International Airport will no longer be required to pay USD117, … [Read more...]


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Vehicles run at the Central Business District (CBD) in Chaoyang District in Beijing, capital of China, on June 6, 2022 (XINHUA)
In the wake of a fruitful year of achievements in many fields, Beijing Municipality has set economic targets for 2024, aiming for a year-on-year growth of approximately 5 percent in its regional gross domestic product (GDP), according to Beijing Mayor Yin Yong.
Highlighting the booming digital economy and vowing to spur consumption and improve the business environment, Yin delivered a government work report at the annual session of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress on January 21.
The Chinese capital's targeted economic indicators for 2024 also include maintaining the surveyed urban unemployment rate within 5 percent and ensuring the consumer price index (CPI) growth remains around 3 percent. Additionally, general public budget revenue is expected to increase by 5 percent year on year. Yin emphasized the city's commitment to keeping resident income growth in sync with overall economic expansion.
In 2023, Beijing's GDP soared to nearly 4.4 trillion yuan (about $618.26 billion), showcasing a robust year-on-year growth of 5.2 percent, read the government work report.
Among the major GDP contributors is the digital economy, contributing 42.9 percent to the regional GDP in 2023. "Beijing is striving to build itself into a global benchmark city for the digital economy," said Yin.
Official statistics unveiled during the legislative meeting highlighted Beijing's prowess in digital infrastructure development. The city erected 30,000 new 5G base stations in 2023, securing the top national spot with 49 5G base stations per ten thousand people.
Furthermore, 24 generative AI products became accessible to the public, representing nearly half of China's total. The high-level autonomous driving demonstration zone in Beijing, covering 160 square kilometers, facilitated the testing and deployment of 775 autonomous vehicles across eight scenarios.
In 2024, Beijing will accelerate the construction of a global benchmark for the digital economy, actively strategize in key sectors of the digital economy, and comprehensively transform production methods, lifestyles, and governance through digitization, Yin added.
"Beijing's digital industry continues to explore new frontiers, achieving a series of new accomplishments and breakthroughs, emerging as a crucial driving force supporting the city's economic growth," said Qu Ziheng, a senior executive of 58.com, one of China's major online marketplaces for classifieds, and a deputy to the Beijing Municipal People's Congress.
Beyond the digital realm, Beijing is poised to shift its focus from post-pandemic recovery to sustained expansion, with plans to boost consumption potential. As one of China's five pilot international consumption center cities, Beijing will deploy strategies such as the transformation of traditional business districts, the creation of international consumption experience zones, the stimulation of bulk consumption, and support for service consumption.
Data revealed that Beijing's total market consumption surged by 10.2 percent year on year in 2023, with total retail sales of consumer goods reaching 1.45 trillion yuan, marking a 4.8 percent year-on-year increase.
The continuous efforts to enhance policy effectiveness, unleash domestic demand potential, and boost confidence have resulted in a sustained recovery in Beijing's consumer market.
Retailers, such as the Hanguang Department Store, have played an important role by enhancing shopping environments and collaborating with financial institutions to offer competitive discounts.
"People are more inclined to resume offline activities after the pandemic," said Wang Xiaoyu, chairman of Hanguang and a deputy to the Beijing Municipal People's Congress. "In 2023, offline activities at the shopping center were much more vibrant than online activities."
Wang added that the shopping center rides on the city's initiative of promoting the integrated development of diverse business models and caters to consumers' needs for consumption with culture, sports, or leisure factors.
Meanwhile, Beijing plans to establish the "Beijing Service" brand to boost a business-friendly environment in 2024, said Yin when delivering the government work report.
Beijing will implement comprehensive measures to optimize the business environment and align with the World Bank's new framework to assess the business environment in 2024, aiming at creating a world-class business environment characterized by market orientation, rule of law, convenience, and internationalization.
The city will formulate standardized procedures for administrative licensing matters and deepen reforms, including "one integrated license" policy and "All-in-One-Go" government services.
It will also advance comprehensive supervision through integrated approaches, increase the proportion of non-onsite supervision, and enhance a pilot program on digital market supervision.
Beijing witnessed a 20.3 percent growth in newly established businesses in 2023, bringing the total number to over 2.11 million.


text: Piper Sandler thinks electrical automobile maker Rivian wants to handle funding headwinds to compete with Tesla. The agency downgraded Rivian to impartial from chubby Thursday. Piper additionally slashed its value goal to $15 per share from $63 per share. The brand new goal factors to marginal upside from Thursday’s shut. “We nonetheless like Rivian’s technique, which makes use of vertical integration to seize profitable after-sales income (e.g. software program, service, and charging),” analyst Alexander Potter wrote. “The issue is, this technique is expensive. To ensure that RIVN to justify its value construction, the corporate should unfold its funding over thousands and thousands of models (identical to Tesla does), and in an effort to finance such aggressive enlargement, RIVN will want capital.” Potter added that, for Rivian to enhance its money burn, the corporate should handle excessive prices related to controlling each facet of auto manufacturing from begin to end — as rival Tesla does. He says the corporate has the model to compete with the higher-end phase of the business, however might want to minimize prices and outsource some manufacturing like batteries and software program. The agency’s downgrade largely stems from Piper Sandler evaluating Rivian at e book worth versus a valuation primarily based on discounted money circulate. Potter mentioned his earlier score was primarily based off of the corporate producing greater than three million autos yearly, whereas the corporate is at present making roughly 500,000 to 700,000 autos per 12 months. “Given money constraints and disobliging capital markets, we predict most buyers are at present unwilling to pay for RIVN’s long-term prospects,” Potter mentioned. Rivian shares fell greater than 3% following the downgrade. The shares has struggled this 12 months, dropping 22%. Over the previous 12 months, it is down 64.6%. — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.


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(From io9) It’s been almost 21 years since Toy Story made it totally okay to miss all the toys you grew up playing with; it’s one of those rare perfect movies that’s impossible not to love. But is there room in your heart for this forthcoming line of Toy Story-themed sneakers from Vans as well?
The answer is obviously yes, since Vans has been killing it with the pop culture partnerships lately, including both its Nintendo and Star Wars collections.
So far styles inspired by characters like Buzz Lightyear and Woody have managed to make their way online, complete with ‘Andy’ scribbled across their waffle sole bottoms. The Vans Twitter account also recently posted another teaser showing off additional styles, including sneakers with character montage patterns, including the beloved alien squeaky toys from Pizza Planet.


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Starbucks launches gifting via Twitter in Canada
As of today, customers can send tweet gift cards.
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Twitter won’t actually brew a Tall, Grande or Venti bold and hand it to you.
But Starbucks has adopted a new way of using Twitter to send coupons, turning the social media platform into a gifting platform.
“This will literally be the first time you can do it instantly. You don’t have to leave the site,” said Starbucks Canada spokesperson Carly Suppa.
“You can tweet a gift to virtually anyone. It’s really simple.”
Starting today, Starbucks customers in Canada can sign up at www.starbucks.ca/tweetacoffee to link their Starbucks account and Twitter accounts using a credit card.
Then they can gift others on Twitter simply by typing @tweetacoffee, followed by the person’s Twitter address.
The person receiving the gift gets a link to a coupon which can be printed or downloaded onto their mobile phone using the Starbucks app.
The service is available in $5 increments for now, but Starbucks is hoping to expand into different denominations. Canadians will be able to send a gift to anyone in Canada or the U.S.
The feature launches in Canada at 8 a.m. on Thursday.
The service was launched in the U.S. at the end of October and is exceeding expectations there, said Suppa.
“It’s a really fun, easy way to send a small gift and continues to do well.”
Mashable.com wrote about companies trying to use Twitter the same way in 2010, but the companies were not well known and failed to gain wide attention with the idea.
Starbucks has the advantage of an existing customer base, putting it in a much better position to succeed with the concept.
“If you’re going to Tweet something it has to be something that is recognizable to the person receiving it and it also has to be something that has critical mass to have someone sign up. Starbucks has both,” says retail consultant Alex Arifuzzaman, partner, Interstratics Consultants Inc.
“I think it’s a very interesting idea. All the payment is done in the background. The hurdle is getting the people to sign up, but once they’re signed up, then it’s very simple.
“Who knows how it could expand?”
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Yahoo! posted third quarter earnings of $0.52 a share on revenue of $1.09 billion. Wall Street analysts were looking for $0.30 on sales of $1.04 billion. Last year, the online media provider earned $1.08 per share on revenue of $1.08 billion.


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Less than one percent of companies survive to their 100th year in business, according to some estimates. Even fewer continue thrive up to and beyond their centennial anniversary. Federal Ammunition joins this extraordinary group in 2022 and the company has plans to celebrate all year long. Its official date of incorporation was April 27, 1922, but the festivities start now.
“The entire staff of 1,500 hard-working Americans in Anoka, Minn., is extremely proud to celebrate a full century of continuous and successful operation,” said Jason Vanderbrink, president of Federal ammunition. “We appreciate those who came before us to make this possible and look forward to taking Federal into its next century.”
Federal kicked off the year by lighting a 100th Anniversary sign on top of one its silos in Anoka and will continue to tout its accomplishment with limited availability throwback packaging, special merchandise available on its website, an exhibit at the Anoka County Historical Society Museum and much more.
“Our workforce and business have never been stronger than they are today, and we owe it to a century of continuous innovation across every department in the company,” Vanderbrink added. “Many people and partners have contributed to our success and I’m proud to join the current team in making sure that tradition of excellence continues.”
The company launched in 1922, when founder Charles Horn stumbled across a closed factory—while shopping for machinery—and recognized its potential. Today the plant covers 700,000 square feet, and its 1,500 employees behind state-of-the-art technology produce millions of centerfire, rimfire and shotshell rounds each day.
Federal is one of the Vista Outdoor companies, which also owns Remington Ammunition, Hevi-Shot, CCI, Speer, Independence, Alliant Powder and more in the outdoor industry. All ammunition brands, however, fall under the supervision of Vanderbrink. who explained, “We don’t just buy parts and put them together, or have other companies load stuff for us. We do it all on site, and every day our manufacturing facilities consume tons of plastic beads, lead, brass strips, copper, steel and chemicals.”


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Start-up of the week: Boozey ice pops dreamt up in Mare Street
- Credit: Archant
The Gazette hunts high and low each week to bring you news of the most interesting new businesses in Hackney. This week we speak to the man making ice pops for adults.
We all remember walking home from school on a hot summer’s day with no fewer than three ice pops stuck in our pockets.
And thanks to Alex Situnayake, we can all relive that memory as adults with no justification needed. That’s because the Brummie bartender came up with the idea for Wavey Ice – a boozey ice pop. And he did it while working at Rita’s in Mare Street three years ago.
“I used to make cocktails and would have to make fruit syrups,” said Alex. “I spoke to my friend about going round parks to sell ice lollies and thought why not just make our own.
“We’ve had a great response and last year we did festivals. This year we’re doing Lovebox and we want to sell them online too.”
Alex has launched a crowdfunder to raise £5,000 to get the website started, and in three weeks has already received half that total. He continued: “We’ve made a solid start, collaborating with brands like Jack Daniels – but we need more support.”


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The Comcast and NBC merger has finally been approved. The FCC was cautionary, stating that such a deal could threaten “the development of innovative online video distribution services.” Comcast will lose its management rights of Hulu and neither company can restrict “unreasonable” online distribution of its video. In other news, Apple just reported their best ever quarter, citing revenue of $26.7 billion. A profit of $6 billion set a new record for Apple, along with the sale of 7.3 million iPads and 16.2 million iPhones. With the Verizon iPhone and iPad 2 around the corner, Apple won’t be resting any time soon. And finally, Kaplan Test Prep questioned over 2,000 students and found that 61% are Facebook friends with their parents. 38% of the students simply ignored the requests, but a large majority admitted high parent involvement in their academic lives. Facebook is now a cornerstone for connecting the new generation and parents want to see those status updates.


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India Plans $50 Billion Push to Supply Piped Water to All Homes
India will spend $50 billion to supply piped water to all households, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday.
“Water stress related issues are now a serious concern across the country,” she said in her budget speech in parliament.
India is one of the world’s biggest users of ground water and its depleting levels are the main reason for the country’s severe shortages. About 600 million Indians are facing high-to-extreme water stress and the situation is set to worsen as water requirements rise, according to a 2018 report by NITI Aayog, the government’s policy-making body. About 75% of the households in the country do not have drinking water, it said.
The move will boost sales of companies involved in the water business. Shares of Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd., which makes micro-irrigation equipment and plastic pipes, gained 4.9% at the close in Mumbai, the most since Dec. 26. Shakti Pumps India Ltd., a manufacturer of steel submersible water pumps, surged 20%, the highest since Sept. 27.
“The people who will be gaining the most are manufacturers of water pipes, water fittings and water meter,” said M.S. Unnikrishnan, chief executive officer of Thermax Ltd., a manufacturing company that also makes water treatment plants.
SOURCE on BLOOMBERG By Ragini Saxena


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A bill designed to protect consumers from hazardous drywall was passed by Congress this week and is ready to be signed by President Barack Obama. The legislation bans high-sulfur building products and makes it easier for victims to take Chinese manufacturers to court to recover costs, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune said.
The bill includes language that would diplomatically pressure Chinese manufacturers to submit to U.S. law. It also directs the Secretary of Commerce to arrange a meeting between Chinese drywall manufacturers and U.S. officials and urges the Commerce Department to make sure that Chinese companies are liable in U.S. courts, the Herald-Tribune said.
Last year, Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co., a German maker of Chinese drywall, reached a settlement that could require as much as $1 billion in repairs on 4,500 properties believed to contain tainted drywall, mostly in Florida, the Herald-Tribune reported.


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Nicola Peltz & Hailee Steinfeld Are W Magazine's It Girls
Nicola Peltz, Hailee Steinfeld, and Dakota Fanning are chic as can be in their short dresses while attending W Magazine‘s Celebration of the It Girls on Thursday afternoon (September 10) at a private club in New York City.
Hailee had to do some phone interviews that day and she tweeted about a funny mishap.
“I told someone I was from Northern California during a phone interview… #NotTrue #ImFromSoCal #WhenYoureSoTiredYouCantFormSentences #Me,” Hailee said.
FYI: Nicola is wearing a Saint Laurent dress. Hailee is wearing a Miu Miu dress. Dakota is wearing a Dior dress and bag. Allison is wearing an Antonio Marras dress, Casadei shoes, and Ara Vartanian jewelry. Emily is wearing an H&M romper. Isabelle is wearing a Brandy Melville t-shirt, an H&M leather bra, a Suno skirt, Paul Andrew shoes, and Verameat jewelry. Ciara is wearing a Topshop top and skirt with a Coach bag.


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New Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 Coming to Detroit in January
Not to be outdone by Toyota’s announcement of an all-wheel drive Prius at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Ford issued a teaser promoting the most capable variant of one of its own iconic models — the Mustang Shelby GT500.
However, the car isn’t coming to LA. According to Ford’s social media accounts and a new display in California, the vehicle won’t be on display until January 14th of 2019. As you might have guessed, that’s in the midst of the North American International Auto Show.
Leading up to NAIAS 2018, Ford launched a teaser video claiming the new GT500 will arrive with over 700 horsepower. The automaker was less forthcoming at the actual event, though we at least learned the model was in the works. Since then, camouflaged test mules showed up everywhere and Ford’s marketing team issued a few teasers detailing the Mustang’s new look. But there wasn’t an official reveal date announced until this week.
Those teasers have already given us a pretty good idea of what the model will look like, but we’d be speculating if we told you what was under the hood. Whatever it is, Ford is supercharging it. That’s not much of a revelation, as Ford has been doing so for years. Our best guess is that the manufacturer plans to upgrade the 5.2-liter, flat-plane V8 currently found in the current Mustang GT350 and slap a snake on top.
The unit’s output is also up for debate. After promising at least 700 horsepower at the start of 2018, Ford scaled back its claim to “over” 650 hp. Unconfirmed leaks suggest Ford is still aiming for the moon, though. We’ve heard everything from 670 to 750 ponies and would imagine the truth will be somewhere in the middle. Those same leaks also claimed a hefty curb weight of 4,200 pounds and a top speed just shy of 200 mph. Info on the rest of the GT500’s hardware has been tougher to pin down. While a fully independent suspension is basically guaranteed, we don’t even know if Ford will offer a manual variant.
Fortunately, we should be able to find out in January, when The Blue Oval slaps us in the face with the model at the 2019 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
[Images: Ford Motor Co.]
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- Slavuta One can put a secret breaker that will disable the starter or spark plug supply. Even disabling headlights or all lights will bring more trouble to thieves than they wish for. With no brake lights, someone will hit from behind, they will leave fingerprints inside. Or if they steal at night, they will have to drive with no lights. Any of these things definitely will bring attention.I remember people removing rotor from under distributor cup.
- Slavuta Government Motors + Government big tech + government + Federal police = fascist surveillance state. USSR surveillance pales...
- Johnster Another quibble, this time about the contextualization of the Thunderbird and Cougar, and their relationship to the prestigious Continental Mark. (I know. It's confusing.) The Thunderbird/Mark IV platform introduced for the 1971 model year was apparently derived from the mid-sized Torino/Montego platform (also introduced for the 1971 model year), but should probably be considered different from it.As we all know, the Cougar shared its platform with the Ford Mustang up through the 1973 model year, moving to the mid-sized Torino/Montego platform for the 1974 model year. This platform was also shared with the failed Ford Gran Torino Elite, (introduced in February of 1974, the "Gran Torino" part of the name was dropped for the 1975 and 1976 model years).The Thunderbird/Mark series duo's separation occurred with the 1977 model year when the Thunderbird was downsized to share a platform with the LTD II/Cougar. The 1977 model year saw Mercury drop the "Montego" name and adopt the "Cougar" name for all of their mid-sized cars, including plain 2-doors, 4-doors and and 4-door station wagons. Meanwhile, the Cougar PLC was sold as the "Cougar XR-7." The Cougar wagon was dropped for the 1978 model year (arguably replaced by the new Zephyr wagon) while the (plain) 2-door and 4-door models remained in production for the 1978 and 1979 model years. It was a major prestige blow for the Thunderbird. Underneath, the Thunderbird and Cougar XR-7 for 1977 were warmed-over versions of the failed Ford Elite (1974-1976), while the Mark V was a warmed-over version of the previous Mark IV.
- Stuart de Baker This is depressing, and I don't own one of these.
Who needs 200 MPH? I'd put 4.10:1s in the rear, should it come with that option. If not I'd have it done, shims and all, and never turn the T.C. off.
5 years after this generation came out. About time...


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Some 1,400 Michigan communities have opted out of allowing licensed marijuana companies to set up stores, despite adult-use legalization.
“The Michigan market is very competive on real estate and it’s not easy to find locations,” Skymint Chief Executive Officer Jeff Radway told Benzinga. “There’s really a limited number of muncipalities that are allowed to have stores. Metro Detroit, [with] just under 4 million people, is highly competitive, and very few municipalities have opted in.”
This created a problem for Skymint, which had been unable to set up shop in metro Detroit — until now.
Skymint’s Hazel Park Dispensary Launches: As of Thursday, July 30, the brand is officially open for business just outside Detroit city limits.
“We’re super relieved,” Radway said. The store — the company’s tenth in Michigan — was supposed to debut earlier this year.
“COVID, of course, threw a wrench into it,” the CEO said.
The coronavirus pandemic delayed the overall approval process, since municipalities were not able to conduct business in person. But for Radway, there are “no complaints at this point.”
Located just north of 8 Mile Road on John R Road, Skymint Hazel Park will be one of the closest recreationally licensed dispensaries to downtown Detroit.
To commemorate the grand opening, patrons will receive 40% off their full order. The sale will take place through Wednesday, Aug. 5.
What’s Ahead For Skymint: More Skymint stores are on the way, Radway told Benzinga.
“By the end of the year, we’ll have 12 to 13 [stores] open and another 12 in development for about 25,” he said. That also makes for a lot of job openings.
Skymint stores, depending on the size, typically have between 10 and 20 employees. In total, the company has about 300 employees, including those in production, marketing and other front office positions.
Many of those employees were hired during the crisis caused by COVID-19 — and given a 20% bump in pay.


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The first smell is the deep, rich smell of coffee, reminiscent of lazy, warm winter mornings.
The second is the sweet smell of cookies, recalling old-world holidays and childhood.
The walls are lined by sporadic bookshelves, which hold classics like “The Iliad,” “Romeo and Juliet,” and “The Scarlet Letter.” Little green plants line the windows and sit on top of the bookshelf next to the door.
Welcome to Ad Astra, a once-a-week market at 105 N. Broad Street in Hillsdale, which hosts vendors selling coffee, pastries, spaghetti, fresh bread, and any other odd assortment of goods, and is run by Patrick and Kristi Whalen every Saturday from 9 a.m. till noon.
While the two constants at the Market are always cookies and coffee, there were as many as six vendors for the last two weeks during their Valentine’s Day market.
Giana Green, who sells cookies and spaghetti at Ad Astra, had always wanted to be a vendor at the farmers market but was never sure what she should sell.
“I made fresh pasta for my husband and he was like, ‘Wow! I can’t believe people haven’t eaten this before,’ and I was like, ‘I’m bringing pasta to Hillsdale.’”
Green started her company, Mangia Italian Bakery, selling spaghetti and cookies at the Farmer’s Market in Hillsdale last summer. When the Farmer’s Market closed for the season, Kristi Whalen invited her to sell her products at Ad Astra.
As a 2017 Hillsdale grad, Green always knew she wanted to stay in Hillsdale and serve the community.
“I just fell in love with Hillsdale and just wanted to serve the people of Hillsdale,” Green said. “Everything about Hillsdale, I truly love.”
After twelve years in the Marine Corp, Kristi and Patrick Whalen came back to Hillsdale, which they said they consider home.
“We’ve spent the last twelve years in fourteen different places, and he got out, and it’s always been our dream to move home,” Kristi said. “When an opportunity came up for him to work at the college, we totally took it.”
When they moved to Hillsdale from Kansas, they brought Ad Astra and their love for coffee with them.
“I developed a taste for a quality of coffee I couldn’t afford to buy,” Patrick said. “I got into really expensive coffee while I was in the military because I could afford it. And then I got out and went to grad school and wasn’t able to afford it anymore, and was like, ‘Well, this isn’t gonna work.’”
A friend introduced them to the roasting process, which they initially began in a popcorn maker. Now they are producing between 30 and 50 pounds of coffee a week — five pounds of coffee roughly every twelve minutes.
The quality and taste of coffee depend on where the bean is from, and on the roast of the coffee.
“It’s a lot like wine, where the grape is from, depending on how much rainfall, the altitude, the soil the plant was actually grown in. Those impart to the bean — to the seed — a unique flavor,” Patrick said. “Which is why a bean from Guatemala tends to taste different than, say, Ethiopia.”
The Whalens primarily focus on producing light roast coffee, which tends to bring out the flavors naturally occurring in the bean.
“My goal is to unlock the flavor potential in the bean then to get out of the way and let the bean do the talking,” Patrick said.
The light roast coffee sold at Ad Astra is different from dark roast coffees typically bought at stores.
“A lot of the coffee that you’re buying in the store is dark roast because they don’t want you to have the flavor of the bean, so they just roast the crap out of it and then sell it for cheap,” said Kristi. “They’re also taking coffees from all different regions, throwing them all together and roasting them all.”
While the consumers have developed a taste for the burnt flavor of dark roast coffees frequently found at large supermarkets, there are ethical problems associated with the market.
“Our coffee is probably pricier than what people are used to buying. Part of that is we’re doing specialty coffee — the top 20% of coffee quality in the world,” Kristi Whalen said, “And we’re making sure people are actually getting paid for it.”
Coffee can be an exploitative business that may use child and slave labor. Coffee workers who are not getting paid enough frequently turn to produce drugs like cocaine on the side to make ends meet, Kristi said.
“What we’re trying to do is part education and part business,” Patrick said. “If what happened to me happens to more people, then more people will discover, wait a minute, there’s so much more to coffee than just McDonalds or Starbucks. I need to find a specialty coffee roaster, especially a local one that engages in ethical sourcing, so we’re not exploiting farmers in the third world. And, here we are.”


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On Monday night's Tonight Show, Michelle Obama mentioned that her outfit was a "J.Crew ensemble." We could hear the Web clicks as the words escaped her mouth, so it's understandable that J.Crew's Web traffic has soared since then.
WWD: Michelle Obama may very well be the new Oprah Winfrey when it comes to Midas-type on-air mentions. Dressed head to toe in J. Crew for a chat with Jay Leno on Monday’s “Tonight” show, Obama told the talk show host she was in a J. Crew ensemble. Needless to say, that plug sent scores of shoppers to J. Crew’s Web site looking for the $90 color-blocked cardigan, $100 Deco tank and $148 dot Camilla skirt she was wearing. The Web page featuring the latter was the most viewed page on jcrew.com the next day. Traffic to the site was 464 percent higher than it had been the previous day, and 64 percent of the online visitors found their way to the company’s Web site through search engines.
Creative director Jenna Lyons said the company is trying to figure out its next move, since the skirt was already a popular item before Obama wore it and the sweater was introduced in August. “It’s an honor. Not only did she wear our clothes and wear them beautifully, but she could go anywhere. And she actually called it out,” Lyons said, adding that she couldn’t get over how blogs pieced together Obama’s outfit and offered links to its site.
Google was also quick to cash in on the phenomenon, unveiling an ad directing Web surfers to a page selling Michelle Obama's Tonight Show skirt.


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Mercedes-Benz Wagon Range
Thinking of buying a new Mercedes-Benz Wagon? Here are all Mercedes-Benz models available in a Wagon bodystyle.
Mercedes-Benz Wagon Reviews
Latest Mercedes-Benz Wagon News
The new cars, SUVs and people movers that are dominating their segments in 2020
Geneva motor show 2020: The best new cars that missed out on a big reveal
New Mercedes-AMG E53 2020 revealed: New Mercedes-AMG E53 2020 detailed: Audi S7 competitor gains fresh looks
Mercedes-Benz agrees to court-enforceable undertaking with ACCC after failing to initiate Takata airbag recalls on time
Think you know where your new car comes from? Think again!
Where new cars sold in Australia in 2019 came from
No car is perfect, so we've gathered everything relating to the Mercedes-Benz reliability here to help you decide if it's a smart buy.


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Co-owner | Parnassus Books | Nashville,Tenn.
Ann Patchett is a warrior for books.
Just a few years ago, Nashville was starving for brick-and-mortar bookstores, but it didn’t know it. With e-readers galore, many could have assumed the hardcover and paperback were dead.
But not Patchett.
She recognized Nashville’s affinity for all things local, and fought back against the corporate book world by partnering with former Random House sales rep Karen Hayes, opening up shop while most others were shutting their doors. The store is dubbed Parnassus, after the Mount Parnassus of Greek mythology, which is a haven for literature, music and learning — exactly what Patchett desired the shop to be.
But Patchett isn’t just your average bookstore owner. She’s also a world-renowned author of seven novels and three nonfiction books, and has the awards to prove it — including the Orange Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award for her novel “Bel Canto.”
Since Parnassus opened in 2011, it has become a hub for creatives and local authors, and Patchett isn’t stopping anytime soon. Her brand-new novel, “Commonwealth,” hits shelves in September, and she recently launched Parnassus’ mobile library, Pegasus, a traveling, bright blue truck crammed with books — further proof that independent bookstores can thrive among corporate giants.
“You may have heard the news that the independent bookstore is dead, that books are dead, that maybe even reading is dead,” Patchett wrote in The Atlantic in 2012. “To which I say: Pull up a chair, friend. I have a story to tell.”
— EMILY BILLS


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A slew of fashion stars won big with a legion of prestigious gongs at the 2021 Fashion Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Monday night.
In front of the great and good of the fashion world, a number of designers were awarded with sought-after wins, with Kim Jones leading the way.
Kim, 48, was bestowed with the Designer Of The Year Award and a nod in the Creativity category, while fashion legend Tommy Hilfiger received the top prize and the late Virgil Abloh got a posthumous nod days after his death.
He's a winner! Kim Jones (pictured) and Tommy Hilfiger are the night's big winners with prestigious gongs while Virgil Abloh receives a posthumous nod at 2021 Fashion Awards
Kim was the big winner of the night as he walked away with the prestigious Designer of the Year award for his work with Dior Men and Fendi.
The award was presented by Demi Moore and Tom Daley.
The Leaders Of Change category saw recognition for 15 designers, brands, creatives, and individuals who created positive change within the fashion industry under the categories environment, people and creativity.
Kim was named in the Creativity category for his Dior and Fendi. Also in Creativity with a posthumous nod was Virgil for Louis Vuitton Men & Off-White.
Proud: Tommy looked delighted with his Outstanding Achievement Award as he posed with Kris Jenner, who presented him with the gong
Yay: Kim was the big winner of the night as he walked away with the prestigious Designer of the Year award for his work with Dior Men and Fendi. The award was presented by Demi Moore and Tom Daley
On Sunday, Louis Vuitton chief executive Bernard Arnault confirmed Virgil had passed away aged 41 following a secret three year cancer battle.
His family also issued a statement


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Ready for Kings Island opening day? Here's everything you need to know
Mason's Kings Island will open for the 47th time this weekend. And we've got all the answers you need today to start planning your trip today.
What are the hours exactly?
The park officially opens Saturday, April 20. But there is a Gold and Platinum Passholder Preview from 5-10 p.m. April 19.
Daily hours vary throughout the season. It will be open from 10 a.m.-10 p.m. April 20. But hours only get longer throughout the summer. For instance, a weekday time of 10 a.m.-10 p.m. begins May 27.
Find more at www.visitkingsisland.com.
What's the weather gonna be like?
Check the full weekend forecast here.
Where can I get tickets?
Grab them online or at Kroger stores. Daily admission tickets start as low as $47.99. You can also grab a ticket for after 4 p.m. for as low as $33.
Your ticket includes all rides, live shows and attractions, and the neighboring Soak City Water Park. (It does not include the two paid attractions, Sling Shot and Xtreme Flyer.)
Oh, and children younger than 3 do not require a ticket.
Want access to all our Kings Island news? Subscribe to full digital access
How much is parking?
Parking is $20 per vehicle for regular and $30 for preferred. If you buy online, you can save $3.
Any other ways to save?
You can grab a two-day pass for as low as $70, meaning you get a second day at the park for $18 more.
And the days don't need to be consecutive: You'll just need to go to the park during the 2019 season, which is through Oct. 27.
Also, there are usually discounts if you buy your tickets at Kroger.
What's new this year?
Kings Island will feel a little different this year – as soon as you walk in.
International Street has gotten a huge renovation.
The entry into Kings Island has gotten its "first complete makeover since the park opened," according to park officials. Even the Royal Fountain got a makeover.
"No element of the street will be left untouched," officials said before the work began.
There's a new restaurant, Miami River Brewhouse, that will open across from Mystic Timbers. It will feature beer from local breweries alongside a selection of sandwiches and premium burgers.
The park has also been rebuilding roller coaster cars.
So, what about new RIDES this year?
Well, what's old is going to be new again.
Fourteen years after shutting down its antique car ride, Kings Island is bringing it back this month.
The new version of the classic vehicles ride will feature a two-thirds scale of the 1904 Model T. The track is located in Coney Mall across from the 1950s cafe, and next to the Racer roller coaster.
How tall do the kids have to be to ride the attractions?
That varies. You'll find the complete list at visitkingsisland.com.
When'sCoasterstock this year?
The annual Coasterstock celebration returns May 17-18.
The two-day event attracts hundreds of coaster fans from around the world and will feature exclusive ride time on attractions, as well as behind-the-scenes experiences and guest speakers.


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Lifestyle, Enterprise News
20 February 2017
British Land and Hercules Unit Trust (HUT) have begun construction of a multi-million pound leisure complex at New Mersey in Speke.
The £23m extension of the popular South Liverpool shopping park will create up to 300 full and part-time jobs once complete, with further jobs during the construction phase.
The project will occupy a 66,000 sq ft area on the former Curry’s site and will include an 11-screen Cineworld cinema and six new restaurants. TGI Fridays, Wagamama and Nando’s have already secured their units with discussions underway for the remaining three outlets.
The restaurants will significantly boost New Mersey’s dining offer and are scheduled to open in Spring 2018, with Cineworld following in the summer.
Speaking to B Daily, James Varley, asset manager at British Land, said: “The New Mersey leisure extension will significantly improve the centre’s leisure and dining options, enhancing our customers’ experience and creating Places People Prefer.
“Across our retail portfolio, we are investing to create outstanding places that are in line with people’s changing lifestyles.”
Cineworld property director Kevin Frost told B Daily: “Cineworld is thrilled to be opening a brand new 11 screen cinema at New Mersey with our state-of-the-art Superscreen projection and sound technology.
“The new extension will undoubtedly enhance the appeal of New Mersey as a regional leisure, dining and retail destination.”


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Canadian car buyers are a predictable lot.
Consider the top 10 bestselling vehicles so far this year. The Ford F-150 pickup series, which has been the No. 1 selling vehicle in Canada for two years, has led the pickup segment for 46 years. The Honda Civic compact has been the top-selling passenger car for more than 20 years. And, the Dodge Grand Caravan minivan has been the bestselling minivan for more than 25 consecutive years.
"We really like very conservative, tried and true vehicles," said Dennis DesRosiers, a Toronto-based auto industry analyst.
"We don't take risks." The fact that the top 10 list has changed little over the years, "speaks to the strength of a loyal customer base," Des-Rosiers added. "We get into a product and stay with that product. When you think about it, we're boring buyers."
With few exceptions, each of the top 10 passenger cars and light trucks have significant volume cushions above and below them, "so there is very little competition for position within the top 10 ranks," he said.
Compared with their U.S. neighbours, Canadians hang on to their cars longer, eight to nine years compared with five years across the border, said DesRosiers.
While Canadians gravitate toward smaller, more fuel-efficient passenger cars, they also have an affinity for SUVs, crossover utilities and minivans, said Timothy Cain, founder and editor of Good Car Bad Car, a website which tracks automotive sales data in Canada and the U.S.
The bestsellers list is dominated by SUVs and CUVs, noted Cain. We also continue to breathe life into the minivan segment - a trend that bodes will for the Windsor Assembly Plant, which builds the Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town and Country minivans on three full shifts.
Top 20 vehicles in Canada as of November 2012
1. Ford F-series
2. Ram Pickup
3. Honda Civic
4. Dodge Caravan
5. Hyundai Elantra
6. Ford Escape
7. GMC Sierra
8. Toyota Corolla
9. Mazda 3
10. Chevrolet Silverado
11. Honda CR-V
12. Chevrolet Cruze
13. Dodge Journey
14. Ford Focus
15. Volkswagen Jetta
16. Toyota RAV4
17. Hyundai Accent
18. Hyundai Santa Fe
19. Chevrolet Equinox
20. Jeep Wrangler
TOP 10 VEHICLES: PRICE AND POINT OF ORIGIN
1. Ford F-series: Average transaction price (at Windsor dealerships): $29,700. Assembled in Dearborn, Mich. The F-series is a family of full-size pickup trucks that has been sold for more than 60 years. The most popular version of the F-series is the F-150. The F-series is on track to become the bestselling truck in Canada for the 47th consecutive year and the bestselling vehicle in Canada for a third year in a row.
2. Ram pickup: Average selling price: $35,000. Assembled at Saltillo, Mexico, and Warren, Mich.
3. Honda Civic: Average transaction price: $18,945. The Honda Civic has held the top spot as Canada's bestselling passenger car for 14 consecutive years. Assembled in Alliston, Ont.
4. Dodge Grand Caravan: Average selling prices: $23,500. Assembled in Windsor, Ont., The Caravan is more than 37,900 sales ahead of 2ndplace Toyota Sienna, Timothy Cain of Good Car Bad Car said.
"The Caravan represents more than one out of every five sales at Chrysler Canada."
5. Hyundai Elantra: Average transaction price $21,179. Assembled in Montgomery, Ala.
6. Ford Escape: Average transaction price: $26,000. Assembled in Louisville, Ky.
7. GMC Sierra: Average transaction price: $30,000. Assembled in Fort Wayne, Mich.; Flint, Mich.; and Sila, Mexico.
8. Toyota Corolla: Average selling price: $18,990. Assembled in Blue Springs, Miss., and Cambridge, Ont.
9. Mazda3: Average selling price: $21,000. Assembled in Hiroshima, Japan.
10. Chevrolet Silverado: Average selling price: $30,000. Assembled in Fort Wayne, Mich.; Flint, Mich.; and Sila, Mexico.


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The Most Expensive Logo Design
Sales, Costs & Rebrands Ever along with Inexpensive recognizable logo designs
range from $1,280,000,000 (Symantec Brand & Acquisition) to $210,000,000 (British Petroleum Logo & Marketing down to hundreds of thousands of dollars for the London 2012 Olympics Logo ($625,000) and the Belfast Logo Design
went for $280,000 making it the top ten sale of a logo design
Saarah's logo design
conveys a futuristic and sophisticated look and feel.
The Logo design
competition titled 'Create the best ever logo to celebrate Pakistan's 70th Anniversary of Independence,'.
David Taylor is the Creative Director for Element Agency, and he says he started his graphic design career with a knack in logo design
. "That's what I loved to do; I loved to create these very simple symbols that represented these ideas." Taylor says Element is a brand development company, an extension of that passion.
Jack entered a logo design
competition through the college and after being named creator of the winning entry he was invited to join the team.
Dubai -- World Expo 2020 held a workshop for close to 200 designers and university students from across the UAE at the future Expo 2020 site in Jebel Ali, ahead of the once-in-a-lifetime Expo 2020 Logo Design
Competition that will be closing in a week's time.
"The50th anniversary logo design
competition offered us with a small opportunity to engage our customers and reward them for their creativity and loyalty," said Pudner.
The tagline is integrated into the logo design
and used whenever the brand logo appears -- in every marketing campaign and channel.
As the association moves forward and embraces the opportunities that social media and new digital marketing channels offer, the TLMI Board of Directors considered it a high priority to modernize and refresh the association's logo design
The logo design
was unveiled last December, and afterward the foundation contacted the city on behalf of a resident who complained about the religious imagery.
McKown told the association's National Board of State Directors at its meeting prior to the recent IIAA convention in Toronto, that recognition the logo has grown from 66 percent in 1983 to 74 percent in 1986 "due to IIAA'S advertising expenditures on national media in spite of the logo design
." He said that many agents experienced some trouble when they tried to re-produce the logo in a small format.
To get young people involved , pupils from schools were invited to take part in a logo design


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Nintendo Goes in For Closer Landing in New Screenshot of SSB Wii U/3DS Pilotwings Stage
Earlier in the month Nintendo provided an overhead look at the announced Pilotwings stage coming to Super Smash Bros for Wii U/3DS, but today Nintendo seems to be going in for a closer look with a new screenshot detailing what exactly the stage is all about.
With a new screenshot posted on Nintendo’s official page for the upcoming Super Smash Bros. games, the Pilotwings stage will have Nintendo’s rowdy mascots fighting on top of a biplane while circling and traveling along the island landing strip, with Wuhu Island noticeably in the background of the stage. It definitely seems like fans of the F-Zero levels (or like the Delfino Plaza stage in Super Smash Bros Brawl) will have lots to look forward to for some good ol’ Pilotwings action in the new games.
Super Smash Bros for Wii U/3DS will be scheduled for release in 2014.


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Striking an investment deal can be a challenging and daunting process that most brands like to keep private – at least until there is good news to share.
But sometimes it can pay off to take a high risk approach.
The founders of UK premium skin care and tanning brand Tancream learned just that, after applying to appear on hit business reality TV show Dragons' Den.
Gillian Robson and Katy Foxcroft walked away with £75,000 and the backing of two business magnates – for 12.5% of the business each – despite some initial criticism of their product.
Here Robson, who was inspired to create the SPF50 product after being diagnosed with skin cancer, talks to Cosmetics Business about the experience and what it took to succeed…
When did you apply to go on Dragons' Den and what was involved?
We applied in December 2018. We then heard back from them in


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AI Solution For Supply-Chain Management
Transparent Path is transforming the way food is delivered.
Simply put, it’s providing real-time transparency, visibility, and predictive intelligence to the food-supply chain — an industry expected to reach $30 billion by 2025.
To do this, the company has partnered with Intel to create cutting-edge sensors. With the help of Artificial Intelligence, these sensors inform food producers when something goes wrong. As a result, they enable those in the supply chain to fix issues in a timely manner, and even anticipate future problems before they occur.
Food waste is a bigger problem that many people realize. Most of us see the food we pick out from grocery stores or farmers' markets. But did you know that $1 trillion worth of food is sent from farms directly to landfills each year?
The main problem is that the food industry has under-invested in data support systems. Businesses lack data on product conditions during transport. And this lack of transparency results in massive food waste.
The food supply chain industry is far behind other markets with respect to data frameworks, standards, and visibility.
Businesses have spent millions of dollars trying to manage their operations and supply chains using fax machines, phone calls, and emails. But these tools are outdated, and they add to the lack of transparent data.
The bottom line: the food supply chain industry has a data problem.
To be fair, efforts are being taken to improve the situation. However, more problems keep popping up. For example:
• When food issues like contamination or damage occur, various links in the supply chain all shift blame onto one another.
• Companies are stuck using legacy systems built 25 years ago, leaving data largely in a silo.
• And imports/exports are dominated by manual input and paper-based systems.
It’s not all bad news, though. A series of four data improvements could significantly reduce waste and streamline the food supply chain process. These improvements are as follows:
1. Gathering more food data economically.
2. Connecting the systems that store that data.
3. Sharing real-time data with all supply chain participants.
4. And operationalizing the data using Artificial Intelligence.
This is what Transparent Path has set out to achieve.
This company has created a hardware and software platform to provide near real-time visibility into food products as they travel through the supply chain. The platform consists of Internet of Things sensors that feed a shared and secure data ecosystem, as well as a predictive analysis module to predict sourcing, transport, or supply chain issues before they happen.
As mentioned earlier, Transparent Path uses sensors sourced through its technology partner, Intel. These are highly sophisticated devices consisting of 4G LTE gateway radios that connect to small sensors.
In a typical shipment, one gateway connects with multiple sensors, enabling the supplier to place sensors at various locations within a shipping container or storage unit. These sensors then monitor temperature, humidity, light, and shock. The gateway gathers this information (along with GPS location) at predetermined intervals and connects via cellular connection with its cloud-based platform.
By 2022, Transparent Path aims to replace these sensors with ProofTags. Through its partnership with Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center, the company aims to create these printed sensors that can be scaled to attach to food packages at volume.
These tags will consist of two layers. The outer layer will have a printed QR code that provides the unique identity of the sensor. Using the code and a smartphone, anyone will be able to look up the origin and proof of transit for that item.
The inner layer will consist of an always-on temperature and humidity sensor powered by a printed battery. As long as a gateway is nearby to connect to the sensor, it will transmit environmental conditions to the system.
To complement this hardware, Transparent Path has a subscription-based software platform. It calls this a “Platform-as-a-Service.” This enables customers to create shipments, tag items, and trace custody of food. Customers can also see their product’s current location and if it will be delivered on time.
Transparent Path charges customers for monthly subscriptions of its software and sensors. The company also generates revenue through supply chain advisory services.
Transparent Path started in July 2018. Within a few months, the company partnered with Penta Global, a blockchain development provider, and began testing a number of sensor technology candidates.
In 2019, Transparent Path completed its first successful pilot, tracking apples for a large produce packer in Michigan. Soon after, the company expanded its team and brought on the former general manager of Expedia, a travel website, and a former global user experience lead for Amazon Last Mile logistics.
Most recently, Transparent Path was accepted into the 5G Open Innovation Lab, a Seattle-based incubator focused on computing and 5G connectivity startups.
Notably, the company’s advisory board includes a former senior executive and plant manager for KraftHeinz, Nabisco, and Pepsico, and a former executive with Target and Litehouse Foods.
Eric has guided more than 80 brands throughout his career, including Kraft Foods and Procter & Gamble.
He started as a software project manager with General Motors. From there, he became a community and content manager with America Online.
After that, he was Director of Digital Delivery for Possible, a marketing and advertising company. While there, his clients included General Foods, Kraft Foods, Procter & Gamble, and Johnson & Johnson.
As Vice President of Delivery for AKQA, a design and communications company, Eric then managed clients including FedEx, Mattel, and the Mayo Clinic. He then became Senior Vice President of Young & Rubicam, a marketing and advertising company, and managed clients including Ford, Taco Bell, and Clorox.
Just before starting Transparent Path, Eric was Vice President of Customer Experience at Xerox, a printing and IT services company, where he managed a $550 million marketing budget.
He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Communication Arts from Xavier University.
Lauren brings experience in food retailing, supply chain systems, and finance to Transparent Path.
Her career began at Merrill Lynch, an investment firm, where she served as a financial analyst and financial systems manager.
From there, she became a merchandising manager with Star Markets, a New England supermarket chain, where she managed a $28 million division.
Notably, Lauren spent nearly four years with Amazon, working as a replenishment manager and Director of Supply Chain Integration. She was responsible for implementing strategy to create supply chain transparency between Amazon and its suppliers.
More recently, she was Director of Client Services with ShipLogix, a transportation management software company. After that, she was President of Day2 Consulting, a company providing strategic merchandising and supply chain advisory services.
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Dartmouth University.
Mark has extensive experience in the food industry, marketing for large brands like General Mills and Pillsbury. He also serves on the board of Food Lifeline, one of Seattle’s largest food banks.
He began his career in marketing, serving as Marketing Director for Royal Caribbean, a cruise line. From there, he was Vice President of Global Marketing for Holland America Line, another cruise line.
For the next five years, Mark was General Manager of Cruise Marketing for Expedia, a travel website. He then was Vice President of Cruise Products for Virtuoso, a tourism company.
He earned his Bachelor’s degree in History from Duke University and an MBA from The University of Chicago.
Sunil is a technology veteran with experience in Artificial Intelligence and enterprise cloud computing.
He spent 17 years with Microsoft, working as a business development manager, product manager, and director. He also served in a senior leadership role with General Dynamics, an aerospace and defense company.
Most recently, he co-founded Zsolutionz, a software company focused on computer vision and machine learning projects.
Sunil earned a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Penn State University and an MBA from Pepperdine University.
Paule came to Transparent Path from Amazon Logistics, where they served as global lead for the “last-mile” user experience. Prior to that, they were a senior UX designer with Amazon, focusing on the company’s Kindle e-reader product.
Earlier in their career, Paule was a user experience designer for Microsoft, and held the same position with T-Mobile, a wireless phone company. Paule began as a creative director for IBM.
Paule earned a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design from the New York School of Visual Arts.
Maria is a leader in the organic food space, and has worked as a sales and marketing leader for top brands including Target, Great Harvest Bread, and Nature’s Path Foods.
She began her career as an account supervisor with Grey Group, a global advertising and marketing agency. After that, she spent nearly four years as a manager at Target.
She then spent nearly a decade as Director of Sales and Marketing with Great Harvest Bread Co., followed by seven years as Executive Director of Marketing and Communications with Nature’s Path Foods.
More recently, Maria was Vice President of Marketing and Communications with Litehouse, a consumer products manufacturer. She then became Vice President of Marketing and Sales with Numi Organic Tea.
She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Communications from the University of Minnesota.


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OnePlus 9RT & OnePlus Buds Z2 all set for launch, Check specifications & Price
This phone of OnePlus will get a 6.7-inch AMOLED screen, which has a refresh rate of 120hz.
New Delhi: OnePlus is going to introduce two of its products in India today, namely OnePlus 9RT Winter Editions and OnePlus Buds Z2. This phone can compete with Vivo X70. The phone launching today is an upgrade variant of OnePlus 9R, which is an affordable phone. On the other hand, Buds Z2 is an upgrade variant of the old OnePlus Buds Z. OnePlus 9RT has been launched in China long ago, which shows its specification. Let us know about the possible specification and leaked price about the product launched today.
OnePlus 9RT launch:
The OnePlus launch event can be seen live on the OnePlus India website. Apart from this, it can be seen on YouTube channels of OnePlus India. It can also be seen live on the brand's Facebook account. The starting of the live event will be on January 14 at 5 pm.
OnePlus 9A has been launched in China long back. The specifications of the device that will be launched in India can also be of the same type. This phone of OnePlus will get a 6.7-inch AMOLED screen, which has a refresh rate of 120hz.
Camera setup of OnePlus 9RT
Talking about the camera department of OnePlus 9RT, it will have a triple camera setup on the back panel. The primary camera in this is 50 megapixels, while there will be an ultra wide angle lens of 16 megapixels. It will also get a 2-megapixel macro camera. There will be a 16-megapixel front camera for selfie and video calling.
OnePlus 9RT battery
To give strong battery backup, the company will provide 4500mAh battery in it, which will also get 65W charging support for charging.
The price of OnePlus 9RT has not been officially covered yet, but India Today website has quoted Sangeeta Mobiles as possible price of OnePlus 9RT. The website claims that it will cost Rs 42999. It will get 8 GB RAM and 128 GB internal storage. Whereas 12 GB RAM and 256 GB internal storage can be purchased for Rs 46999.
Stay tuned with the newstrack to get fastest updates. Click @englishnewstrack to follow us on Facebook and @newstrackmedia to follow on Twitter.


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Five years after Israel’s raid on the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara – the event that most analysts say led to the souring of bilateral relations – Israeli exports to the country have finally taken a turn for the worse.
- Gas Exports to Turkey Hinge on Palestinians
- The Ticker
- Can Israeli and Turkish Geeks Learn to Be Friends?
An analysis of Israeli exports undertaken by the quasi-governmental Export Institute found that with the exception of chemicals, all other Israeli exports to Turkey fell last year. The number of companies exporting to Turkey also fell to 515, although the number has been shrinking since at least 2010 when it reached 575.
The analysis, conducted by the institute’s chief economist Shauli Katznelson, found that Israeli exports to Turkey more than doubled in 2010-2014 to about $2.75 billion. But last year exports not counting chemicals dropped a sharp 8% to just $500 million.
Chemicals are Israel’s biggest export to Turkey by far, accounting for about 80% of the total, but Katznelson said that much of that was refined-oil products that were re-exported to third countries and therefore less affected by the ups and downs of political ties.
Israel and Turkey enjoyed more than a decade of close economic and military ties, which gradually deteriorated under the rule of Turkey’s Islamist Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Relations took a big setback after the Israeli army’s raid on the Mavi Marmara, which was among a flotilla of vessels seeking to break the Gaza blockade, and the death of nine Turkish nationals on board.
As recently as last July, Israel’s Economy Ministry said exports to Turkey were running ahead of 2013’s record level, with the figure climbing nearly 25% to $949.2 million in the first four months of the year.
Among the biggest sectors to show a decline last year was metals, which plunged 32% last year to $105 million, and machinery and equipment, which dropped 15% to about $40 million.
Among the 575 companies that reported exports to Turkey in excess of $20,000 annually, the institute found that 72% saw exports to the country drop in the following years. About a third of the companies that were exporting to Turkey that year had dropped out by 2014, it said.


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Published: Tuesday November 17, 2009 MYT 1:01:00 PM, By TEH ENG HOCK
The new low cost carrier terminal (LCCT) in Sepang will be ready on time although the project is currently behind schedule.
Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Abdul Rahim Bakri told the Dewan that the project status was delayed by two percentage points or 18 days.
“Right now, we are at the design stage. The project status is supposed to be 15.5% now, but in actuality it is at 13.5%,” he said in response to a supplementary question from Datuk Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (BN-Pasir Salak).
Abdul Rahim said the new LCCT project, worth RM2bil, was scheduled for completion by the end of 2011 and would have a capacity of 30 million passengers.
“AirAsia passengers are expected to breach the 15 million mark by 2015,” he said, adding that the new terminal included the development of the runway, taxiway, parking bays, terminal, control tower, fire station and related facilities like hotel, retail shops and food and beverage outlets.
The project will also link the main terminal of KLIA to the new LCCT via a 2km extension of the Express Rail Link, he said.
The existing LCCT had already breached its initial capability of handling 10 million passengers, he said.
This article is a verbatim copy of the original article from The Star.


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The sportswear chain has pledged to have an action plan in place within seven weeks, setting out programs and initiatives for both the eradication of hazardous chemicals from its supply chain and disclosure of its current chemical usage. Adidas also hopes to use its influence as a major sports brand to leverage other brands into eliminating dangerous chemicals in their supply chains.
The news from the German brand follows similar announcements by Nike earlier this month and Puma in July. All three sportswear companies were responding to Greenpeace’s Dirty Laundry campaign in which the activist group named and shamed a number of clothing brands associated with importing materials from a Chinese conglomerate that Greenpeace says is polluting rivers.
Last week Adidas said that it was trying to form a collective, industry-wide response to the allegations in partnership with Nike and Puma. At the time Greenpeace had pressed Adidas to first announce an individual plan.


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Honda Siel India has slashed INR150,000 (US$3,200) off the price of its facelifted Jazz .
The changes in the ‘new’ car are cosmetic but prices now range between INRR550,000 and INR610,000 compared with the 2009 launch price of around R7 lakh that, the Hindustan Times said, not only made it the most expensive small car in the country but also ensured a sluggish response from consumers. So far only 13,321 units have been sold, slightly more than rival Maruti Suzuki’s Swift [just redesigned] does in a month.
Honda said the price reduction was as much due to its efforts to cut costs by more efficient supply chain management as the increasing competition.
“It is a competitive market and competition is increasing day by day,” said Jnaneswar Sen, senior vice-president (sales and marketing), Honda Siel Cars India. “We have set up [manufacture of] the engine block and cylinder heads at our Tapukara plant in Rajasthan.
“The engine for Jazz and the upcoming BRIO small car is the same and we are expecting good sales volume for Brio. So, economies of scale has also played a role in passing on the benefit to Jazz customers.”


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The consumer price index’s 7.9 percent increase over the past year “is excessive inflation” and “primarily the result of unnecessary fiscal stimulus ($1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act)” that has been “bolstered by excessively accommodative monetary policy by the Federal Reserve,” said Maryland Smith’s Michael Faulkender in opening remarks to lawmakers in an April 5, 2022, Senate Budget Committee hearing titled “Corporate Profits are Soaring as Prices Rise: Are Corporate Greed and Profiteering Fueling Inflation?”
“Due to a fundamentally strong economy with rising wages and decreasing unemployment prior to the pandemic, Americans had aggregate balances in their checking and savings accounts of just under $11 trillion. Following ARPA disbursements, that amount had risen to over $14.2 trillion—nearly a thirty percent increase,” added Faulkender, dean's professor of finance at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. “The entirely predictable result was inflation, running the highest we have seen in 40 years.”
Faulkender, who served from 2019-2021 as the Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy and Chief Economist of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, also addressed a proposal to apply a 95 percent tax rate on any profits realized by large companies above their pre-pandemic five-year average profit level, adjusted for inflation.
“Any company that created new products, successfully entered new markets, or shifted their offerings in response to changes in consumer preferences following the pandemic would be punished,” he said. “Companies whose product prices rose with inflation, but who served more of their fellow Americans, would have their increased results deemed excess profits and taxed at 95 percent. If enacted, this proposal would nearly eliminate domestic economic growth.”
In his Treasury role, Faulkender advised the secretary on domestic and international issues that impacted the economy. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he assisted in negotiating the CARES Act and led the implementation of the Paycheck Protection Program. He testified to lawmakers yesterday alongside former Labor Secretary Robert Reich and interim Executive Director of the Groundwork Collaborative Lindsay Owens.
To view the hearing, in addition to Faulkender’s prepared, full testimony, go to the Senate Budget Committee website.
Media Relations Manager


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The North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) was set to hold its first summer event in 2020, but that was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. At first, it was expected that the NAIAS would return in the summer of 2021, but it was announced a while back that the big Detroit new car show was being shifted to September. However, with Covid-19 pandemic continuing, the organizers of the NAIAS have decided to cancel the indoor event altogether for 2021 rather than risk jamming a bunch of people into Detroit’s TCF Center.
Although the 2021 NAIAS is off, the folks at the Detroit Auto Dealers Association wanted a way to give automakers a chance to show off their new vehicles to the crowds of vehicle-loving Michiganders. That event, being called a “bridge to the future”, is named Motor Bella and it will be held in September at the M1 Concourse road racing facility in Pontiac, Michigan.
What is Motor Bella
If you are not familiar with the M1 Concourse, it is a road racing facility covering a large piece of land in Pontiac, Michigan, right along Detroit’s Woodward Avenue. The M1 Concourse has hosted the popular Roadkill Nights by Dodge events over the course of the past few years, so it is familiar to locals beyond the road racing crowd. In addition to the 1.5-mile road course track, the M1 Concourse has scores of multi-level private luxury garages.
It seems that at Motor Bella, the vehicles will all be sitting outside in open air, with plenty of room for people to avoid each other and reduce the chances of spreading Covid-19. Motor Bella plans to introduce the next generation of vehicle debuts on September 21 through 26, so the media and attendees will have less time to see all of the vehicles, but a short show is better than no show. It seems that in using a new name, the organizers are showing that this outdoor event isn't NAIAS and it is not replacing NAIAS, but instead, serving as a stand-in for the NAIAS until Covid-19 is under control.
With any luck, in addition to the static displays, a portion of the M1 Concourse will be used for live performance demonstrations, but in any case, it will be nice to get back to some form of big auto show. M1 is a beautiful facility with loads of space, so there should be plenty of room for automakers to spread out and showcase their new products.


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The new chip is cheap to manufacture because it does not require a vacuum to work and can operate in ambient conditions (Image: UCL/Adnan Mehonic)
The chip is made with oxides of metals that can remember the change in electrical resistance when they receive a discharge of electricity (Image: UCL/Adnan Mehonic)
UCL researchers have designed a silicon oxide-based memory chip that is faster than flash memory (Photo: UCL/Adnan Mehonic)
These days, Flash memory is almost the defacto standard for data storage in consumer devices, being found in everything from PCs and digital cameras, to smartphones and USB thumb drives. But a team of researchers at University College of London (UCL) has developed a new type of memory chip that is much faster than Flash memory, while also offering greater storage densities and requiring much less power. Could the days of Flash memory's dominance be numbered?
Other Images from this Gallery


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Russian heavyweight freight specialist AirBridgeCargo (ABC, part of Volga-Dnepr group) has passed a second audit reconfirming its compliance with the quality standards set by Cargo iQ, an IATA interest group.
The latest endorsement came after a two-day inspection of its Moscow operations in which the cargo airline was measured against a series of key performance indicators (KPIs) to guarantee that its services conform to the highest industry quality standards and are visible and transparent to all Cargo iQ members and supply chain stakeholders.
The audit, which was performed by Switzerland-based independent quality standards inspectorate SGS on behalf of Cargo iQ, working alongside a dedicated ABC team, confirmed no single non-conformances and a 99 per cent successful compliance rating.
“Air cargo transportation is a complex and multi-tiered process, which embraces all supply chain stakeholders and depends on a number of factors, both external and internal,” observes Sergey Lazarev, general director of AirBridgeCargo Airlines. “At ABC, we are determined to … the implementation of preventative and corrective actions to deliver the high level of service our customers expect from us, and even beyond that,” he adds.
“Being an active member of Cargo iQ, we feel that its transparency and visibility is the only solution for further development of the cargo industry, with understandable actions taken by all members of supply chains and a clear data-sharing approach to achieve the standards described in the Master Operating Plan,” Lazarev continues.
Cargo iQ upgraded its audit and certification scheme in 2017 to ensure it reflects its members’ serious dedication to continuous improvement of quality standards. “We designed the audit process to be as neutral as possible, which is why we outsourced the audit execution to SGS. We plan to have all our membership audited and hopefully certified by the end of 2019,” stresses Laura Rodriguez, manager of implementation and quality assurance at Cargo iQ. “We are excited to see that results like these by AirBridgeCargo reinforce our membership’s commitment to quality.”
ABC has been a member of Cargo iQ, formerly known as Cargo 2000, since 2007, supporting its initiatives and working continuously to help improve the quality of the air cargo industry together with the other 80-plus members of Cargo iQ, a list which includes airlines, ground handlers, IT providers and freight forwarders.
Furthermore, through its partnership with TRAXON CDMP, ABC is now able to compare planned and actual performance for its Freight Status Updates (FSU) messaging to identify specific areas for improvement.
In addition, ABC’s quality improvement stance has been further enhanced by the 2017 launch of its Control Tower 24/7 management system that monitors shipment movements, with particular attention given to special cargoes such as climate-controlled perishables and pharmaceuticals products. This step has facilitated the fast and seamless coordination and correction of any disruptions during the transportation process.
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There are fewer things more idiotic than claiming advances in technology will cause unemployment. But, alas, many people are stupid enough to parrot that talking point of the economic ignorance:
In the industrial revolution — and revolutions since — there was an invigoration of jobs. For instance, assembly lines for cars led to a vast infrastructure that could support mass production giving rise to everything from car dealers to road building and utility expansion into new suburban areas.
But the digital revolution is not following the same path, said Daryl Plummer, a Gartner analyst at the research firm’s Symposium ITxpo here. “What we’re seeing is a decline in the overall number of people required to do a job,” he said.
Plummer points to a company like Kodak, which once employed 130,000, versus Instagram’s 13. Gartner sees social unrest movements, similar to Occupy Wall Street, emerging again by 2014.
Through the miracle of technological advancement we now require fewer people to do most jobs. Many stages of automobile manufacturing are performed by robots. Infinite copies of documents can no be created with the click of a mouse. Letters can be transmitted instantly from one computer to the next. Auto workers, print shop employees, and postal workers are losing their jobs!
I’m sorry, I forgot to mention the number of people not employed as web developers, chip designers, chip manufacturers, infrastructure designers, infrastructure builders, flash memory designers, flash memory manufacturers, network designers, online marketers, database administrators, database programmers, system administrators, cloud infrastructure designers, cloud infrastructure implementers, data center constructors, etc., etc.
Technological advancements don’t eliminate jobs, they shift the playing field. Some skills become unnecessary while others become necessary. Sure, the invention of the light bulb put many candle makers out of work but it also created a need for light bulb manufacturers, electrical infrastructure builders, and a whole slew of other skills. Did I mention that the invention of the light bulb is what allowed our society to effectively remain active after the sun went down? As a resident of Minnesota I greatly appreciate that during the winter months when there isn’t enough sunlight to get anything of importance done.
Any one of us may be rendered irrelevant by technological advances. That doesn’t mean we’re no longer employable, it means we need to learn new skills. Just because you’re too lazy to learn a new skill doesn’t mean the entire species should be held back. If you’re bitching about technology taking your job then it’s time for you to get off of your lazy ass and learn something new. The rest of us aren’t going to stop improving peoples’ lives just because you’re too lazy to pick up a new skill. And, who knows, some day we may reach a point where everything is automated, and therefore super cheap. If that happens we can all enjoy a carefree life where we are free to follow whatever pursuits we want. Wouldn’t it be terrible if nobody had to work because everything we need became so cheap to manufacture that it could be given away for free?
One thought on “Dey turk err jurbs!”
I think they all forgot fewer people required to produce and sell a product means more products can be made for less money which means more people can have more things. Its a wonderful system.
Comments are closed.


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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Party City PCTY, -1.07% said after the bell Monday that first-quarter sales fell $202.3 million from $207.1 million a year ago. The company said same-store sales for company-owned stores fell 5.2 percent from a year ago, while same-store sales for franchise stores decreased 2.9 percent for the same period. Party City said it now expects sales for the first-half of 2005 to decrease by "low-to mid single digits." Previously Party City said it expected same-store sales growth in the low-single-digits for the first half of 2005.
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NUREMBERG: More than three-quarters of TV advertising campaigns in Germany during the last 20 years have delivered meaningful business results, a study has found.
Research firm GfK analysed 160 campaigns run by FMCG brands over two decades, using data from exposed and control groups of households, and reported the typical uplift in market share reached 20% if people viewed relevant spots for a brand.
"This rise was primarily generated because the number of customers also increased by approximately 20%," the company said.
While discovering the influence of commercials remained largely reliable between 2001 and 2011, it appears the fragmenting media environment has left a mark.
"The best TV spots over the past decade generated smaller increases in market share and penetration and were not able to maintain the success of the best TV campaigns of the earlier decade," GfK stated.
"Then again, an analysis of the tests from the past five years shows that the trend has meanwhile abated and that the top campaigns are now again able to deliver stable results."
Elsewhere, the company revealed 81% of TV campaigns yielded a "significant increase" in market share.
Within this, 73% of brands had been repeatedly successful, and 27% achieved excellent results despite boasting a lower budget than the norm.
For the 19% of campaigns failing to boost sales, a lack of resources was the primary cause on 72% of occasions.
"Both the budget for television advertising and advertising pressure have the greatest impact on market share and penetration," said GfK.
"However, other influencing factors, such as creativity and an ad campaign's message, certainly also play an important role."
Data sourced from GfK; additional content by Warc staff


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iOS 12 Now On 50% iPhones and iPads
Apple has revealed that 50% of users are now running iOS 12 on their devices. This is a comparatively good number as opposed to the iOS 11 which had seen a slow start and lesser acceptance. Apple also adds that on only counting the devices launched in the last four years, the number shoots up to 53%.
While iOS 12 is running on 50% of the devices, iOS 11 takes the second place with 39% share of all the devices. This is a much faster adoption rate as compared to many of the previous versions of iOS. The ribs because the latest version offers an improvement in performance for older devices, which makes them faster than before. This is seen on the iPhone 6 Plus, for example. After the update, apps launch upto 40% quicker and the keyboard appears over 50% faster on the iPhone 6 Plus. Along with this, animations are smoother and more responsive, along with scrolling in apps or entering the multitask view.
iOS 12 does bring along a few minor bugs which were a topic of discussion for many. The ‘charge gate’ and ‘beauty gate’ issue was a problem but a fix was provided by the iOS 12.1 update. However, a few issues have popped up due to the update. Apparently, devices are now sending iMessages to the wrong people, cellular reception is poor and some users are not able to receive calls. Additionally users are also complaining about the lack of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. Users are also reporting increasing battery drain with the iOS 12.1 update.
However, iOS 12 is being widely accepted by all its users and is available for almost all the devices released in the past few years. The Android OS on the other hand, is not doing so well in this sphere. As per last months reports, only 0.1 percent of Android Devices are running the latest Android 9 Pie. This means that over 99% of Android devices do not run the latest version of the OS. Only 19.2 percent of the devices are running Android Oreo. The slow spread of Android maybe due to the large number of devices present in the market. Additionally, manufactures continue to launch smartphones that are not running the latest variant of Android.


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While we sleep off this past weekend’s turkey dinner, organizers are hoping people will starting thinking about Christmas around the world.
Operation Christmas Child Shoebox is celebrating 25 years this year and local organizer Gail Maughan is hoping Wetaskiwin can help out.
tap here to see other videos from our team.
Last year the Wetaskiwin area sent 3,0002 shoeboxes to children around the word.
“I would hope we could get at least 3,200,” she said.
Organizers already have 900 packed and ready for shipping and Heather Doyle, who filled 151 boxes last year is continuing her tradition of working on the boxes throughout the year.
“I know she’s been working on it all year, but I don’t know what she’s done yet,” said Maughan.
Since 1993, more than 157 million shoeboxes have been delivered in over 160 countries by Samaritan’s Purse. There are 11 sending countries (USA, Australia, Finland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Japan, New Zealand, Canada, Spain, and U.K.). In 2017 Canadians provided 615,120 shoeboxes. In 2018, Canadian shoeboxes will be going into El Salvador, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, Costa Rica, Guinea, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Guatemala, Gambia, Nicaragua, and the Ukraine.
Boxes are going to local stores this week and can be found at the Wetaskiwin and Millet Public Libraries, the Dollar Store on Main Street in Wetaskiwin, Smitty’s, Safeway, Justice Café, the Fresh Marke in Millet, at big Stone Custom Cabinets in Millet, at Border Link and Agape Thrift Store.
Shoeboxes can be filled with school items such as pencils, pencil crayons, sharpeners, erasers, small scribblers, note paper etc. Hygiene items might include soap, wash cloth, small towel, comb, toothbrush but no toothpaste, shampoo or liquids. Other items might include toys, T-shirts, flip-flops, socks, underwear, stuffed animals but no candy or food items, nothing that can melt, freeze, leak or break, no used and nothing that will scare or harm a child. Samaritan’s Purse is asking for a $10 donation for shipping.
The packages collected here are shipped to a receiving Calgary and then gone through to ensure the boxes will clear Customs. If it is not on the approved list, the items will be removed and donated to other organizations like food banks or children’s hospitals.
Boxes will be collected from Nov. 12 to 17 for Wetaskiwin and area in the Wetaskiwin Mall Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday Nov. 12, 13, 14 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Nov. 15, 16, from 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. and Saturday Nov. 17 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. There is no collection Nov. 18.