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Hello there and welcome to issue 20 of #TheStream! Let’s look back at some of the key points from last weeks news in tech, marketing and social.
Vimeo Launches Creator Services – Tip Jar and Pay to View
In an effort to help video creators make more money Vimeo have launched two new features in the form of ‘Tip Jar’ and ‘Pay to View’. Both work exactly as they sound with viewers now given the opportunity to tip a video maker or the video maker can choose to put their video behind a pay wall. Time will tell if these initiatives work out, Vimeo have also promised that more creator services will be coming soon.
Introducing Vimeo Tip Jar and more Creator Services from Vimeo Staff on Vimeo.
Yesterday Apple held their latest event unveiling the iPhone 5, a new iPod Touch, a new iPod Nano, iTunes 11 and… some new earphones. Below we have some of the key points for you but if you want to watch the event for yourself go here.
- 84 million iPads sold by the end of June
- 68% share of the tablet market
- 91% of tablet web traffic comes from iPads
- 700,000 apps in the App Store
- 90% of apps in the App Store are downloaded every month
- 400m iOS devices sold by the end of June
- 4G LTE (HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA)
- A6 chip, 2x faster CPU and 2x faster graphics
- Wideband audio
- 8mp camera upgraded for faster and clearer pictues
- Panoramic photos
- FaceTime HD (front facing camera 720p)
For an outline on the other details about the new iPod Touch, iPod Nano and iTunes 11 check out this article from TheNextWeb.
Welcome to another edition of #TheStream. For those of you in the UK hopefully it’ll be a welcome distraction from looking out the window at the terrible weather. For those of you in hot and warm climates across the globe…can we come join you?
MNDR Release Facebook Powered Music Video
MNDR have released this very cool new music video. It takes you on a journey with the band from your hometown to New York and makes it personal by using data from Facebook. Check out a demo of the app below:
This is the work of interactive video creators fourclops and is a great example of how it is possible to create unique experiences for individual people. Get your own version of the video here. This is fantastic implementation of the Facebook platform however it just needs to go that little extra step to be more intelligent with the data. In my case it dragged up friends who I haven’t spoken to in a long time which slightly spoiled the illusion.
It’s been busy busy busy here in the Headstream office this past few days so we apologise for this edition of #TheStream being a bit late. We’re back now and its been another great week of announcements from the world of tech and social to dissect. Check out the stories below and let us know what you think.
Just over a year ago (June 7th 2011 to be exact), whilst working for our sister agency Five by Five, I wrote a post about the then just announced Twitter integration into Apple’s iOS 5. In it I spoke about the very apparent absence of Facebook and speculated what it might mean for Twitter. The past 12 months have seen no end to the speculation surrounding Facebook and Apple and whether or not they would be able to figure a way forward with their differences of opinion around privacy. We know however that both Mark Zuckerberg and the late Steve Jobs shared a mutual admiration so there was a certain inevitability over when the two tech giants would come together.
“You know we talk about social networks in the plural but I don’t see anybody other than Facebook out there. It’s just Facebook–they’re dominating this. I admire Mark Zuckerberg. I only know him a little bit, but I admire him for not selling out. For wanting to make a company. I admire that a lot.” – Steve Jobs, excerpt from the autobiography by Walter Issacson


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In the next five years, General Motors said it would spend $27 billion on the production of electric vehicles and autonomous technologies, a 35% rise that exceeds the investment of the automaker in gas and diesel and is an attempt to get goods to market faster.
The company said more than half of the capital investment and product development team of GM would be committed to electric and electric-autonomous vehicle programmes. The U.S. automaker is also speeding up its timetable for the go-to-market and adding more EVs to its portfolio plans. GM set out an ambitious strategy on Thursday to add 30 new electric vehicles to the global market by 2025. By 2023, the firm had previously committed to 20 EVs. More than two-thirds of those launches will be available in North America and every one of GM’s brands, including Cadillac, GMC, Chevrolet and Buick, will be represented, according to the automaker.
The acceleration of GM’s plans, which include moving forward nine months to the first quarter of 2022 for the launch of its Cadillac Lyriq SUV, comes amid a whirlwind of EV activity in the automotive industry. Numerous start-ups have announced mergers to become publicly listed firms with special purpose acquisition companies, a step aimed at attracting the resources needed to scale. Legacy car manufacturers such as Ford and VW Group are ramping up their own EV plans.
In order to boost production and add more vehicles to its portfolio, Tesla, the existing electric car manufacturer in this region, is building a factory in Austin and another in Berlin. Consumers will have more EV options than ever before by the end of next year, including the Lucid Motors Air, the Rivian R1T pickup truck and the Mustang Mach-E by Ford.
“We don’t just want to participate, we want to lead,” said Doug Parks, GM’s Global Product Growth, Purchasing and Supply Chain executive vice president, during a pre-announcement call with reporters. It’s a good leap for Tesla, and they’ve done amazing things, and so they’re great competitors. There’s a lot of start-ups flooding the room, and everyone else and we’re not going to secede leadership there.
The strategy of GM is to condense the conventional 50-month growth period by scrapping traditional approaches and implementing a less hierarchical approach focused on teams, Parks said. The design to market timeline for the electric GMC Hummer, for instance, will be 26 months, he said.
As a response, Parks said GM is shifting three GMC electric vehicles and four Chevrolet EVs, including a pickup and a compact crossover, as well as four Cadillacs, all of which use its new Ultium battery. GM said two Ultium-based EVs would be included in Buick’s lineup.
In a bid to keep momentum and eventually exceed its rivalry, GM is also on a hiring spree. The company said 3,000 electrical systems, infotainment software and control engineers were recruited earlier this month, plus developers for Java, Android, iOS and other platforms.
GM also has a joint venture for the production and supply of battery cells for its modular architecture with LG Chem. This modular architecture, dubbed ‘Ultium,’ (same as the battery) would be capable of 19 different configurations of battery and drive units, 400-volt and 800-volt storage packs ranging from 50 kWh to 200 kWh, and configurations of front, rear and all-wheel drive. The large-format pouch battery cells manufactured at this new factory will be at the centre of the new modular architecture.
The two companies had previously committed to investing up to $2.3 billion in the new joint venture, as well as setting up a battery cell assembly plant that will generate more than 1,100 new jobs at a greenfield development site in the Lordstown region of Northeast Ohio.
The plant, which is already under construction, will have an annual capacity of 30 gigawatts per hour. To put that in perspective, the 35 GW-hour potential of Tesla’s factory in Sparks, Nevada, which is part of a collaboration with Panasonic.
ICAV Cluster is Smart City and CAV news aggregator. To add your Smart City or CAV related news, please email our editorial team on firstname.lastname@example.org

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The leaders of Canada and Colombia have reportedly signed a new Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to open up the Colombian market for Canadian potatoes, beef, pork and other products in a deal which could take at least a year or more to be ratified and finally implemented.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Alvaro Uribe signed the pact just ahead of the annual leaders summit for the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum, which began on Saturday 20 December, according to Colombia Reports.
The two leaders also signed side deals that will hold companies operating in either country to international labor standards and encourage the use of voluntary codes to protect the environment.
The FTA has been welcomed by Canadian officials as exporters struggle through the economic downturn.
Last year, Canadian companies sold approximately US$600m worth of goods and services to Colombia while importing around US$400m worth of goods, primarily coffee, bananas, fuel and coal from the South American nation.
Colombia’s tariffs on about 98 per cent of all Canadian imports by value will be phased out over a five-to-10-year period after implementation.
Canadian trade officials say their goal is to have implementing legislation approved by Parliament by January 2010.
The Canadian government also has a free trade deal with Peru waiting for ratification by Parliament.


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Foxtail orchids can be used for decorative purposes and in skincare products, Kung Tai-wen (龔泰文), director of a Pingtung-based orchid association, said.
Kung, who advises the orchid and vanilla research club at North Pingtung Community University, said that he has over the past 18 years helped about 300 students develop an interest in growing non-toxic foxtail orchids.
The students are growing about 1,500 orchids in a greenhouse, where they use natural fertilizers and biological pest control methods, he said.
Over the past few years, orchid exports have flourished, with producers in the Netherlands and Southeast Asia increasing their market share, he said.
Taiwan must promote orchids for many occasions if it wants to become an “orchid empire,” he added.
Kung said he and his students are working with a biotechnology company to develop beauty and skincare products made from the plants.


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Google Open Source VP8 Video Codec
Google have announced that they will open source the VP8 video codec for HTML 5 video, representing another blow to Flash video as the primary format for online video distribution.
“Google will soon make its VP8 video codec open source, we’ve learned from multiple sources. The company is scheduled to officially announce the release at its Google I/O developers conference next month, a source with knowledge of the announcement said. And with that release, Mozilla — maker of the Firefox browser — and Google Chrome are expected to also announce support for HTML5 video playback using the new open codec.” [Read More]Share this Article:


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from the we're-just-friends-honestly dept.
CWmike writes "Advanced Micro Devices has shot down rumors that it is pursuing an ARM license, saying it will stick to developing chips for tablets around the x86 architecture. 'We've made a big bet on APUs, which are x86,' said John Taylor, a marketing director at AMD, referring to accelerated processing units. AMD has been criticized for a lethargic approach to entering the fast-growing tablet market, which is dominated by ARM."
"The eleventh commandment was `Thou Shalt Compute' or `Thou Shalt Not
Compute' -- I forget which."
-- Epigrams in Programming, ACM SIGPLAN Sept. 1982


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Samsung seems to be planning a significant upgrade to the front camera unit of its anticipated S23 smartphone. While we're a pretty long way away from the release of this flagship, rumored to be expected in January 2023, it will almost definitely be followed by a 'Plus' and 'Ultra' version of the model with higher resolution sensors.
The proposed upgrade will see an extra 2MP added to the front selfie camera, an improvement on the current 10MP resolution that the latest released Samsung Galaxy S22 and 22 Plus models are fitted with.
• Samsung Galaxy S22 vs S22 Plus vs S22 Ultra: which camera phone is best? (opens in new tab)
This upgrade speculation comes from early information that has been provided to Dutch publication, GalaxyClub (opens in new tab), which if true would mean that the Samsung Galaxy S23 will have the first front camera resolution upgrade in three years! That's if the Ultra models are not included in this equation of course, as they all boast a much higher resolution front camera, with the latest Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (opens in new tab) fitted with an impressive 40 MP, f/2.2 front camera. Could the Ultra model's front-facing camera resolution also be getting a boost, up to 60MP?
When Samsung first released the Galaxy S10 (opens in new tab) in 2019, this smartphone had a front camera with a 10-megapixel resolution, which was an improvement over its predecessor, the Galaxy S9, which can take only 8MP selfies. Though, it's important to note that megapixels aren't everything, and some of the best camera phones (opens in new tab) available today only have a 12MP main as well as front camera, such as the iPhone 13 Pro Max (opens in new tab), that we rated as one of the best iPhones for photography (opens in new tab).
There's a lot that we don't yet know about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S23, including whether the front camera will be housed under the display, as was the case with the Moto Edge X30 (with a 60MP selfie snapper!), or placed inside a punch hole design or the widely unpopular notch design feature.
There's hope that we may be lucky enough to see 4K video optimization introduced for the front camera of the Galaxy S23, along with the boosted resolution, with social platforms such as TikTok and Instagram reels amping up the demand for high quality smartphone video performance. Our best camera for TikTok (opens in new tab) guide may come in handy if you need a secondary camera when your smartphone just isn't cutting it.
As with all rumors, this information is not set in stone, and until speculation has been confirmed by Samsung, it should be taken lightly with a pinch of salt. Check out our Phone Rumors (opens in new tab) hub for more speculation on what we can expect from the latest upcoming handsets in late 2022 and early 2023.
• Read more:
Best Samsung phone
(opens in new tab)Best Samsung Galaxy S9 deals (opens in new tab)
Best phones for video recording (opens in new tab)
(opens in new tab)Best budget camera phone
(opens in new tab)Best Android tablet
(opens in new tab)Best Samsung monitors (opens in new tab)
iPhone 13 Pro vs Samsung S22 Ultra – is Apple or Android best for photography? (opens in new tab)


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Tag: Dell Streak
News | Phones
by Lucian Armasu, 2 years ago
I don’t know how Samsung pulled it off, but some people can’t wait to get their hands on the upcoming 5.3″ smartphone. This has never happened with the Dell Streak which actually has a smaller…
News | Tablets
by Aerol Bibat, 2 years ago
Well, we’ve been expecting this for a while – but Dell has finally done it. The company has just fired its opening salvo in the Chinese market and has exclusively released its newest 10-inch Android…
The Dell Streak 7 is one of the current crop of dual core NVIDIA Tegra 2-powered tablets on the market. The big difference is that it doesn’t come with the usual Honeycomb Android build….
Copyright © 2013 AndroidAuthority.com
AndroidAuthority.com is not affiliated with Google or any of the device manufacturers listed on this site. We are an Android Enthusiast site.


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If you are looking for an answer to the question What is Artificial Intelligence? and you only have a minute, then here's the definition the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence offers on its home page: "the scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying thought and intelligent behavior and their embodiment in machines."
However, if you are fortunate enough to have more than a minute, then please get ready to embark upon an exciting journey exploring AI (but beware, it could last a lifetime) …
Huawei Consumer Business Group (CBG), the global smartphone giant, has announced the launch of its new HUAWEI nova 3 and HUAWEI nova 3i in the UAE. Both smartphones are powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) in its overall functioning and camera features. With dual front camera (24MP 2MP), users can expect the best-in-technology'selfie' that a smartphone can offer. HUAWEI nova 3 series was initially designed with the younger and trendier consumers in mind, for whom a smartphone is not just part of their lifestyle but also represents their personal style. The series is designed to offer an AI-enhanced lifestyle, which includes a huge focus on an outstanding selfie experience with its AI beautification features and front camera that allows one to capture AI selfies.
Digital Surgery, a health tech startup based in London, today launched what it's calling the world's first dynamic artificial intelligence (AI) system designed for the operating room. The reference tool helps support surgical teams through complex medical procedures -- cofounder and former plastic surgeon Jean Nehme described it as a "Google Maps" for surgery. "What we've done is applied artificial intelligence … to procedures … created with surgeons globally," he told VentureBeat in a phone interview. "We're leveraging data with machine learning to build a [predictive] system." Well-funded hospital systems have shown an interest in automation.
In an exclusive arrangement with Slice ICS, The Co-operators will create new insurance products to meet growing customer needs for easy, on-demand insurance solutions that satisfy emerging digital economies. Launching later this summer under the brand name duuo by Co-operatorsTM the first product will provide pay-per-use homeshare insurance underwritten by Co-operators General Insurance Company, for hosts using home sharing platforms like Airbnb, HomeAway and VRBO . The duuo by Co-operatorsTM brand reflects The Co-operators commitment to working together with clients to provide peace of mind in a way that is easy, fast, fair and affordable – a commitment made possible through the Slice platform. "We were founded in 1945 by a small group of farmers and social pioneers who found that their needs were not met by traditional insurance offerings, so they found a new way of protecting their financial security in a time of need," said Rob Wesseling, President and CEO of The Co-operators Group Limited. "Our new business partnership with Slice is the 21st century version of this mindset, it will allow us to meet the underserved insurance needs of Canadians participating in a highly innovative digital economy.
Zoox, a once-secretive self-driving car startup, is closing a $500 million raise at a $3.2 billion post-money valuation, Bloomberg Businessweek reports. Prior to the deal, Zoox was valued at $2.7 billion, Zoox confirmed to TechCrunch. The round, led by Mike Cannon-Brookes of Grok Ventures, brings its total amount of funding to $800 million. Zoox's plan, according to Bloomberg, is to publicly deploy autonomous vehicles by 2020 in the form of its own ride-hailing service. The cars themselves will be all-electric and fully autonomous.
Intuit said it has sold its largest data center to H5 Data Centers as it aims to speed up its move to the cloud. The company said that it is selling its data center in Quincy, Washington to H5, which operates data centers. Intuit is among the higher profile software vendors moving to Amazon Web Services. Intuit noted that AWS was able to handle peak tax season traffic and that gave it confidence to get out of the data center business. Related: The data science life: Intuit's Ashok Srivastava on AI, machine learning, and diversity of thought Intuit to use AWS as its standard artificial intelligence platform The hit to earnings will be offset by tax benefits from the sale.
Light cofounder and CEO Dave Grannan raised $121 million for his imaging platform on the promise of its value to robotics, drones, and, especially, self-driving vehicles.Courtesy of Light In February, Dave Grannan, cofounder and CEO of imaging startup Light, flew to Tokyo to meet SoftBank's Masayoshi Son for the first time since beginning conversations with the Japanese billionaire's venture-capital arm. After two more meetings, in Tokyo and Silicon Valley, Son agreed to lead a massive $121 million investment in Light, through his SoftBank Vision Fund. Leica Camera also joined the deal. A big reason that Light was able to attract so much funding is the promise of robots, drones and, especially, self-driving cars. Light uses complex algorithms to combine images from multiple camera modules into a single, high-quality image with depth.
In the broad sweep of AI's current worldly ambitions, machine learning healthcare applications seem to top the list for funding and press in the last three years. Since early 2013, IBM's Watson has been used in the medical field, and after winning an astounding series of games against with world's best living Go player, Google DeepMind's team decided to throw their weight behind the medical opportunities of their technologies as well. Many of the machine learning (ML) industry's hottest young startups are knuckling down significant portions of their efforts to healthcare, including Nervanasys(recently acquired by Intel), Ayasdi (raised $94MM as of 02/16), Sentient.ai With all the excitement in the investor and research communities, we at TechEmergence have found most machine learning executives have a hard time putting a finger on where machine learning is making its mark on healthcare today. We've written this article, not to be a complete catalogue of possible applications, but to highlight a number of current and future uses of machine learning in the medical field, with relevant links to external sources and related TechEmergence interviews.
Let's be real: you are most certainly never going to be as good as Steve Nash, Chris Paul, James Harden -- or really any professional NBA player. But it probably won't stop you from trying to practice or model your game around your favorite players, and spend hours upon hours figuring out how to get better. And while there are going to be plenty of attempts to smash image recognition and AI into that problem, a company called NEX Team is hoping to soften the blow a bit by helping casual players figure out their game, rather than trying to be as good as a professional NBA player. Using phone cameras and image recognition on the back end, its primary app HomeCourt will measure a variety of variables like shot trajectory, jump height, and body position, and help understand how to improve a player's shooting form. It's not designed to help that player shoot like Ray Allen, but at least start hitting those mid-range jumpers.
According to CNET, Nest has announced today that Marwan Fawaz will no longer be its CEO. As part of his departure, Nest will now be folded into Google's home and living room products team. In a joint interview with Fawaz, Rishi Chandra, vice president of product management for Google's home and living room products, said that the combination would make it easier for Google to integrate some of its machine learning technology and artificial intelligence into Nest products. This move comes six months after Nest merged with Google's hardware division. Nest co-founder Matt Rogers left soon after as well.
Alice Zhang appeared on Forbes' 2017 list of the 30 Under 30 in Science.Jamel Toppin for Forbes Alice Zhang, 29, was a graduate student at UCLA when she decided there was a tremendous opportunity to speed up the process of drug development. "I started becoming frustrated with how drug discovery was done. I viewed it as a guessing game and largely focused on single targets. In our lab, we were finding that literally hundreds of targets were causing disease. We could start taking the guesswork out of drug discovery."


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Indianapolis-based Angie's List is the latest company to demonstrate its concern with Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The comsumer review service and digital publisher announced Saturday it is withdrawing its proposal for a multi-million dollar campus expansion on the near east side from City-County Council consideration.
"We are putting the 'Ford Building Project' on hold until we fully understand the implications of the freedom restoration act on our employees, both current and future," said Angie's List CEO Bill Oesterle. The council was expected to vote on the proposal Monday.
"Angie's List is open to all and discriminates against none and we are hugely disappointed in what this bill represents," said Oesterle.
The company says it will begin reviewing alternatives for the expansion of its headquarters immediately.
Earlier this year, Angie's List asked the city to chip in $18.3 million to help pay for the project. The company promised to spend an additional $40 million on the expansion that it said would add 1,000 new jobs and shift 800 more workers to the near east side headquarters.
Indianapolis would in return spend $2 million on streets and infrastructure, and up to $16.3 million in tax-increment financing funds to build a parking garage and move a school warehouse from an old Ford assembly plant in the 1200 block of East Washington Street that's part of the company's expansion plans.


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US government and ZTE sign agreement to lift supplier ban.
The Chinese are denying everything.
Multi-billion dollar deal is expected to pass before 2019 kicks off.
Hardware giant employed third-party investigation firm to look into accusations.
Project Dragonfly was an 'internal' project, Sundar Pichai says.
President says he will do 'whatever was good for the country'.
Now is a perfect time to understand why companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon are fiercely trying to beat CSPs at their own game.
New research has established that the average salesperson experiences 20 lost sales each year because of problems associated with poor use of CRM systems.
Moving to the cloud is not a be-all end-all security solution for NHS organisations.
The European Union believes that regulating IoT devices can solve this problem.
Loon and Wing make the move from moonshots to other bets.
本节简单描述了一个Application在YARN上的执行流程，希望对初识YARN的同学提供一些帮助。图1 Application执行流程客户端提交作业到RM。 RM在调度器中创建一个新的AppAttempt，维护该作业的信息。
I love to see talented people crafting objects. This is a good example: How to make a dragon egg from Game of Thrones "using the technique of repousse, chasing and metal spinning." Mesmerizing.Read more...
ericgoldman writes Some businesses are so paranoid about negative consumer reviews that they have contractually banned their customers from writing reviews or imposed fines on consumers who bash them. California has told businesses to stop it. AB 2365--signed by Governor Brown yesterday,
《Windows Azure Platform 系列文章目录》 最近一直想总结Azure IaaS和PaaS的区别与比较，写个博文详细说明一下。建议读者在阅读之前，先熟悉微软PaaS和IaaS平台的基本概念，再参考本文。 1.
At its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, Apple just announced the latest iteration of its desktop operating system. Apple senior vice president Craig Federighi took the stage to debut the update, focusing on updates to Spotlight, the operating system’s built-in apps,
圖片來源： Xperia Blog先前就已經傳聞 Sony Mobile 將在八月份推出一款具備前閃光燈的中階機種 Lavender ，也就是 Xperia C5 Ultra ，而最近這款機種的說明書搶先曝光，從這些曝光的資料中可一覽這款新機的外觀設計，從示意圖可看到這款機種採用了超窄的邊框設計，在視覺上已經做到幾乎無邊框。


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The city of Anaheim, residential population 360,000, greets about 25 million visitors each year, give or take. These numbers might be shocking for an Orange County suburb if not for its biggest attraction: Disneyland. When Walt Disney picked Anaheim, a town once populated by orange groves, as the destination for his utopic amusement park, he single-handedly put the city on the map for most American tourists.
In the decades since, Anaheim and its shops and restaurants have generally benefited from this public-private partnership (although Disney has, on more than one occasion, sought to leverage its corporate power to negotiate deals with local politicians). The city has consistently broken visitor and spending records over the past six years, fueled by Disneyland’s ever-expanding magical empire, annual conventions like VidCon and Anime Expo, and live music and sporting events at the Honda Center.
Then, the pandemic happened.
In Anaheim — a city that has structured its economy around tourism — small business owners were hit hard when their largest attraction closed virtually overnight. Disneyland has closed only twice before in its history: the day after the September 11 attacks in 2001 and for President John F. Kennedy’s funeral in 1963. What no one expected in March was for a closure to last beyond the summer and into the fall. While the parks were given the green light to open in early July, California saw a surge of infections in late June, and unlike Florida, which plowed ahead with Disney World’s reopening, Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered Disney’s reopening be delayed again, this time indefinitely.
With many cities instituting caps on lodging and public attractions, tourism-aligned businesses are, for lack of a better word, screwed without visitors. Hotel bookings have sharply fallen, restaurants have lost consistent tourism dollars, and Americans overall have been less inclined to shop and splurge in the midst of an economic crisis brought on by the pandemic. Municipalities could lose up to $134 billion this year and more than $360 billion through 2022, according to an analysis by the National League of Cities. That translates to declining sales tax revenue and inevitable budget cuts at a city level.
“Our city, our businesses, and our people are very dependent on tourism coming through,” said Jay Burress, the CEO of Visit Anaheim, a tax-funded hotel and resort advertising promotion group. “The city has become dependent on those transient occupancy hotel tax collections, which make up over 55 percent of our general fund every year.”
Anaheim, which is set to face a $100 million deficit, isn’t alone in its financial struggles. A Bloomberg data report found that Hawaii’s beach towns, California’s wine country, and some of Colorado’s ski towns have been similarly impacted.
For these local tourism-driven economies, the big, unanswerable question is: What happens to jobs when throngs of people no longer show up? What happens to the local businesses built around the tourism influx, which can’t be sustained for months by local residents?
To say some store owners and managers are worried is an understatement, especially in locations that haven’t seen a strong recovery. There’s a larger looming question in their minds: When visitors do come back, will the businesses still be there to serve them?
“In large cities with a lot of tourism, like New York City or Washington, DC, when travelers stop showing up, there’s still the rest of the economy to pick up the slack,” said Pamela Caskie, an expert in tourism and municipal economic development. “For tourism economies in smaller towns, they’re entirely dependent on visitors coming in.” In partnership with the US Cluster Mapping Project, Caskie, who has spent two decades working as a regional manager from Colorado to Vermont, created an index that measures a county’s dependence on tourism.
According to her index, Orange County is ranked 46th out of 3,140 counties. While the city of Anaheim is primarily dependent on Disneyland and its convention center as tourism “anchors,” the county has a very diverse population and economy otherwise. “I’m sure the city of Anaheim is hurting more than the county,” she said.
“When Disney opens” is a phrase I commonly heard in conversations with hospitality workers and small business owners in the area. A Disney reopening is a potentially dangerous dream: The Daily Beast reported in early September that Disney has been hiding information about coronavirus outbreaks in its Downtown Disney shopping district, only disclosing to unions when their workers fell ill.
To some, a reopening would reflect a step closer to “normalcy,” translating into a bump to business that’s been sorely lacking for the past six months. The fate of the city of Anaheim — and its business owners and residents — is tied to the fate of Disneyland, because the attraction employs about 32,000 workers and is the largest and most influential employer in town. However, the entertainment giant is planning to lay off 28,000 employees across its parks, experiences, and consumer products division, although not all these workers are based in Anaheim.
“We are dependent on large gatherings in a lot of ways with Disneyland and the Convention Center,” Burress told me. “Now that sports and concerts are held off, we’re planning to start our marketing efforts with Disneyland but it depends on when Disney opens.”
The time for recovery is now.https://t.co/mgLvz0MRhB— Harry Sidhu (@MayorHarrySidhu) September 18, 2020
While The Ranch Restaurant and Saloon, a fine-dining establishment with a banquet and dance venue, doesn’t exclusively cater to Disney visitors, park attendees account for one-third of their year-round client base, which also consists of corporate convention attendees and Orange County locals with disposable income. Now that conventions have stalled, the restaurant is relying solely on their “loyal customer base” who have the extra money to spend, said Michael Wildey, its director of operations.
Like most service establishments, The Ranch had to furlough part of its 160-people team in the spring, but it is slowly bringing back workers depending on demand. Without their go-to Disney client base in the summer, Wildey is hopeful that things can change in the fall. “We typically see conventions from late September through the end of April, but my feeling is that corporate business isn’t going to come back anytime soon,” Wildey told me. “So we’re trying to attract families who want something special during the holidays.” But he remains hopeful for a potential Disney reopening that would likely bring in extra business.
Local politicians are similarly bullish about how Disney could bring a boost for city revenue in the fourth quarter. Anaheim’s mayor recently called on Gov. Newsom to discuss statewide theme park reopening guidelines, arguing that the move would support “hundreds of small businesses [and] tens of thousands of jobs,” reported the Voice of Orange County.
For Anaheim, though, a suburban hub of now-closed attractions doesn’t seem to offer much to tourists, unlike the national parks, beaches, and mountain towns that travelers are gravitating toward. A few areas, particularly those that are accessible by car and close to public lands, are experiencing an unexpected boom compared to the regions that typically rely on visitors to fly in. Americans are still traveling a significant amount, but towns that attract more guests also risk increasing the rate of infections in the region.
In Telluride, Colorado, which is best known for its ski resorts and seasonal festivals, business has held surprisingly steady through the summer, although locals aren’t sure how long this streak would last. Visitors, some of whom are second homeowners, have flocked to public lands nearby, exploring the area’s trails, rivers, and campsites.
Early on, residents were not just worried about the likelihood of increased infections, but also the lasting damage a sudden influx of travelers could have on the environment. (San Miguel County tested almost all 8,000 Telluride residents in April, and the town has a relatively low infection rate.)
“The area is experiencing ‘steady flow,’ which is the word we’re all using to describe how things lately are quite steady and consistent,” said Daiva Chesonis, co-owner of Between the Covers bookstore. “Before Covid, there was just no way to know how important our festivals were, but what we’re seeing now is even without these festivals, we’re actually surviving with locals or people passing through buying.”
According to the tourism board’s occupancy analytics, bookings are up by 4.8 percent, although owner occupancy plays a large role. “The shift of second homeowners coming more often and staying for longer was a consistent trend throughout the summer,” Telluride News reported, which likely fed into the local economy.
Telluride, with its mountainous views and small-town appeal, has historically relied on external visitors and second homeowners who come for its many cultural festivals (it has hosted events on film, jazz, bluegrass, beer, and yoga) or the winter ski season. In short, tourism is a year-round business, except for a few weeks in the spring during the off-season.
“From the looks of it, it does seem like Telluride beat the odds, and we did that too back in 2008 during the financial crisis,” said Kristin Holbrook, co-owner of the Two Skirts boutique. “A lot of people are just passing through since our lodging is capped at 50 percent. It looks like houses owned by people who used to live here part-time are being filled up too, and they’re all buying stuff.”
For the hospitality industry, though, the financial stakes are still dire, even though Telluride as a whole appears more crowded. Hotels and other lodging units are still only at 50 percent capacity, and the county expects to cap this amount since demand might decrease through the fall.
Chesonis believes that the bookstore’s current “steady state” is a result of many factors: Shorter business hours, a “skeleton crew” of workers, and consistent book-buying from guests. “We’re down 20 percent in sales, but we’ve been managing because we’re balancing less payroll,” she said. However, she’s unable to anticipate what the winter holds and beyond that, despite working at the bookstore for over a decade. “When we wake up and it’s winter, we don’t know what’s going to happen.”
The striking uncertainty that plagues Anaheim and Telluride, however, has largely escaped Sevierville, Tennessee, a town that’s within a day’s driving distance of multiple states and boasts a range of attractions, from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to the Dollywood theme park. (It also ranks first on Caskie’s tourism economic development index.) Although Sevier County has recorded more than 2,000 Covid-19 cases, Sevierville has seen a roughly 23 percent increase in bookings compared to 2019, which translates to an average of 60 additional guests a night, Bloomberg reported.
However, there was a moment in mid-March when Jessica Hale, co-owner of Ridge Outdoor Resorts in Sevierville, felt strikingly uncertain about the town’s outlook. She knew that people were going to travel again — eventually — but Sevierville’s unemployment numbers were rapidly spiking. The situation appeared to be nearly as bad as the Gatlinburg wildfires in 2016, which devastated the local economy and caused about $500 million in damages.
“We’re totally dependent on tourists,” Hale told me. The region is typically filled with tourists starting from spring break season in April through New Years’, but this year, the pandemic arrived on the cusp of spring.
By May, it seemed like Sevierville was on the road to recovery for some businesses. Most of what Hale’s resort offers — RV campsites, luxury tent camping, and tiny cabins — are naturally socially distanced activities, which led her visitor numbers to “grow tremendously.” It helps that the county is car-accessible. Hale commonly hosts guests from Carolinas, Virginia, Ohio, and Florida, but recently, she’s noticed travelers from Washington and even California.
“I’m booked all the way through November at this point, but of course, everything feels different,” she said. With so many tourists arriving and leaving town every week, an outbreak could prove disastrous, but according to Hale, “we can’t eat if we close down.” A minority of locals are worried about the influx of travelers, but tourism is “what feeds Sevierville,” she said.
Most small business owners in the region — who’ve inherited family shops or are long-term residents — feel grateful for the hand the town has been dealt. “It’s almost eerily normal if you looked at the town in terms of visitor rates and number of operating hotels and businesses,” said Bill Lucey, the 20-year owner of Rainforest Adventures and Discovery Zoo. “If anything, there’s a significant number of ‘help wanted’ signs, since we’ve been pleasantly surprised with the number of tourists coming back.”
Lucey kept using the phrase “consistently decent” to describe the bump in tourism that Sevierville has experienced. Local businesses weren’t sure what to expect when tourists started flooding back in, and the pandemic has been uncharted territory. But for every “recovering” town like Sevierville and Telluride, there are still many factors at stake — namely how the US will handle the coronavirus leading into 2021. So far, the federal government’s haphazard management of the crisis in 2020 does not inspire much confidence.
“We can’t predict the future,” said Wildey of The Ranch Restaurant in Anaheim. “A lot of us are hoping we’ll be able to resume regular operations sooner, but we also have to listen to the guidance of experts and the governor to bring the infection numbers down.”
It’s a precarious time for businesses, even if revenue is currently up or holding steady. “I can’t even think ahead to next summer,” Chesonis, the bookstore owner in Telluride, told me. “When Covid just hit, we were thinking hourly. Then it got to weekly and now monthly. But I can’t think that far ahead right now. I mean, how can we?”


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The Covid-19 crisis and fuel shortages have significantly reshuffled the cards of global freight. Thus, since the second half of 2020, the logistics chain has been suffering the consequences of successive lockdowns, port strikes, congestion on maritime routes, the lack of truck drivers, etc. These result in the increase and multiplication of the price of transporting goods, especially when they use the seas and oceans.
State of play of the freight transport market
The transport market faces several challenges. It must make its ecological transition in order to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions while responding to the constant pressure of demand, itself supported by the considerable growth of e-commerce. Online sales are also leading companies to review their logistics and delivery methods.
The transport of goods thus beats all records of activity. However, the sea route remains privileged for international trade. But since the end of 2020, the price of transporting a container has multiplied by 5. According to the Freightos Baltoc Index, the average cost of renting a container rose from $2,240 in 2019 to $9,950 at the end of 2020.
This inflation is even more pronounced on the most strategic trade routes, namely those linking the east of the Asian continent to the American west coast.
The reasons for the increase in sea, air and road freight prices
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the price of renting a standard container has increased by 650%. There are several reasons for this record rise in the cost of maritime freight transport, which is also leading to a surge in prices. Among them, the COVID-19 crisis, which has led to the slowdown or even the outright shutdown of several ports of global importance, particularly in China. The country’s largest port terminal, Yantian, ceased all activity for 2 weeks in May 2021, permanently curbing international trade.
Also, this sector has been strongly impacted by the rise in fuel prices and inflation, which has been particularly harmful for transport. In addition, this price increase is also explained by the increase in vehicle ownership costs (8% in 2021) and by the surge in toll prices for road transport throughout 2022. This phenomenon is observed throughout the euro area where inflation has reached a record level of 8.6%. (source: auto-info)
An average cost increase of 8.8% in 2023
Despite the economic uncertainties, the CNR risks forecasts for 2023. It anticipates an increase in the full cost price of heavy goods vehicles of around +8.8%, on an annual average.
The reasons? The increase in the personal driving position, the cost of which is estimated at +12.7% on average annually (salaries and expenses), the probable growth in maintenance (+6.6%), the increase in tolls of +4.6% and the costs of holding equipment: +4.3%.


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Volkswagen motoring milestone one in 150 million
PUBLISHED: 09:45 05 September 2017 | UPDATED: 09:45 05 September 2017
Volkswagen has motored to a milestone production anniversary by building its 150-millionth vehicle since the brand was founded.
Volkswagen has reached a milestone production anniversary – 150 million vehicles, including icons such as the Golf or the Beetle, built around the world at more than 50 production sites in 14 countries since the brand was founded more than 80 years ago.
The milestone car, a blue Golf GTE, rolled off the assembly line in Wolfsburg. The plug-in hybrid is a symbol of the future of mobility at Volkswagen – and at the same time, it is testimony to a powerful team performance.
Dr Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen, said: “150 million vehicles – that means we have made the dream of owning a car come true 150 million times for customers all over the world.”
This year alone, Volkswagen is launching more than 10 new models worldwide. There will be 19 new sport utility vehicles in total by 2020. The I.D. family with the new electric architecture (MEB) then marks the start of the Volkswagen brand’s electric offensive from 2020. One million electric Volkswagens are to hit the road by 2025.
Bernd Osterloh, chairman of the Volkswagen Group and General Works Council, said: “150 million vehicles – that is a truly incredible number. It is 150 million Volkswagens that have taken their drivers hundreds of thousands of kilometers, commuting to work, enjoying leisure time, going on vacation, or travelling on business.”
The series production of the Volkswagen brand began on December 27, 1945 with the Type 1 Käfer. In the post-war era, it was the Volkswagen Beetle that initially shaped the automobile industry. All in all, 21.5 million examples of this much-loved small car were built before production finally ended in Mexico in 2003.
The Golf topped the Beetle record. The 25-millionth Volkswagen Golf left the assembly line in Wolfsburg in 2007, by 2013 the number had already risen to 30 million. Today, the best-selling Golf is in the seventh generation and production has reached more than 34 million worldwide.
The Volkswagen brand’s product portfolio currently includes more than 60 models worldwide. Apart from the Beetle and the Golf, more than 20 million Passats, 19.5 million Jettas and almost 17 million Polos have been produced.
The workforce at the main plant in Wolfsburg in particular has made a key contribution to today’s anniversary, building more than 44 million vehicles since production began 72 years ago.


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“We are in a period of fashion overdose right now. There’s too much pressure,” designer Dries Van Noten told the New York Times in an interview marking his 100th show milestone. That may be the case, but as always, his collection—this time featuring models who had walked in previous Dries shows, including many over…
Belgian visionary Dries van Noten always has a strong point of view, one accompanied by perfect tailoring and architectural takes on power dressing. Today at Paris Fashion Week, his collection invoked old money and yachting clubs viewed through a murderous lens—very Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, if its sequel were …
Have you guys seen the new Dries?!?! Could you die?!?! Could you pee all over yourself?!? Could you swim in those brocades until you literally suffocate?!??
You always wanted to see Pennywise, the scary clown from It, wearing McDonald's-inspired Moschino. Right?
Sweatshirts are the hot trend for fall, you know, the time of year when you’ll probably be wearing sweatshirts anyway, because the air is crisp and long-sleeves are helpful. I, as a fashionable lazy person, am thrilled about this news. Et tu?
The Dries Van Noten show was terrific. Colorful, fun, interesting, fresh-feeling...in short, an antidote to a lot of what we've seen so far!
The Dries Van Noten show was like Working Girl goes to Tokyo. And if that sounds intriguing, it was.
Well, a really expensive, subversive military charm school that most of us can't actually get into. But still! There were some seriously gorgeous duds at the designer's Paris fashion show earlier today.
Why should you like Dries Van Noten? Because the man does not believe in advertising. So is the shit expensive? Well sure. But this member of breakaway, brilliant Belgian designers known as the Antwerp Six ain't gonna hustle for your hard-earned dollars. Love. We also love his fantastic eye for textiles and…


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You may have read the news over the weekend that cyber thieves raided Sarkozy's bank account and began stealing small amounts of money frequently. This marks the second high-profile online account break-in in recent weeks where an e-criminal broke in through the user name and password security function (the Palin email hack was the other). Consumers need to take full responsibility and control of their online accounts by securing them with an added layer of security, beyond a username and password. With more and more consumers putting their identities online, this type of account break-in will continue if we continue to use simple usernames and passwords. One such way to strongly secure an online account is the use of one-time passwords, also referred to as two-factor authentication. Some banks have already started rolling such measures to their customers. The recent news about Sarkozy's account being raided serves as yet another example of why consumers should sign up or ask their financial institutions to offer two-factor authentication for their accounts.
Sr. Product Marketing Manager, VeriSign Identity Protection Services


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It’s just the most suitable platform right now.
While it might seem like Ninjala could potentially generate a lot more interest on systems like the Xbox, PlayStation and PC – you know, platforms without a game called Splatoon, GungHo Online Entertainment isn’t really interested (at least for now) in releasing the team-based bubble gum brawler elsewhere.
In an interview with GamesBeat, GungHo president Kazuki Morishita was asked about the possibility of the game coming to other platforms in relation to the possible addition of cross-play. While the team doesn’t necessarily want to limit Ninjala to one platform, right now they feel the Switch is the most suitable platform. It’s also got “a lot of drive” from Nintendo, apparently:
Read the full article on nintendolife.com


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Spitzer No Likey Pharm Parties
The outcome of an investigation by the office of [New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer] is lots and lots of cash—$10 million to be exact. Cardinal Health Inc., one of the U.S. prescription drug fat cats., is paying up to avoid further exploration into a secondary pharmaceutical trading market.
On Tuesday, Spitzer announced that this settlement is the first step in cracking down on a practice in which wholesalers trade drugs among themselves after they’re sold by manufacturers but before they are bought by pharmacies and hospitals.
According to Spitzer, Cardinal bought drugs from “alternate” sources (hopefully not that nice gentleman in Washington Sq. Park because he’s vital to the fabric of our city) to take advantage of higher profit margins, and then sold drugs to customers despite evidence that they may have been illegally diverting the drugs.
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Mondi Consumer Packaging has developed a new, environmentally-friendly paper packaging solution that features a customizable transparent window.
According to the company, the transparent window can be adjusted in both size and shape. The paper packaging features a plastic film, which the company says improves the package’s durability and barrier properties. Mondi noted that this feature is particularly useful for food products because it provides protection and preserves freshness.
Innovation Head Thomas Groener said:
“During lamination, the customized window is lasered into the packaging. The shape and design of the window can be adjusted and modified exactly the way our customers envision it, to make the product inside the packaging visible to end-consumers.”
According to the company, the new option can be used for pre-made stand-up pouches or paper-based bags, as well as reel material for FFS applications.
Mondi said that the transparent window makes a product stand out and increases brand awareness at point of purchase.
The UK-based flexible packaging company plans to demonstrate the new solution at FachPack in Nuremberg, Germany, and at ScanPack in Gothenburg, Sweden.


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China’s Cyberspace Regulator Proposes Strict Limits on Youth Internet Usage
China’s Cyberspace Regulator Proposes Strict Limits on Youth Internet Usage China’s cyberspace regulator has introduced a set of proposed regulations aimed at limiting the phone and internet usage of individuals under the age of 18. Under these rules, young users would be allowed a maximum of two hours of screen time per day. The regulations outline even stricter restrictions for children under 8 years old, capping their device usage at just 40 minutes. The responsibility of enforcing these regulations falls on platforms, although specific penalties for violations are yet to be detailed.
New Regulations Suggest Maximum Daily Usage for Under-18s, with Stringent Rules for Young Children
Proposed Usage Limits for Youth
China’s proposed regulations signify a significant step towards controlling the digital habits of young users. The two-hour daily usage cap is designed to ensure that children and teenagers maintain a balance between online and offline activities. By encouraging limited screen time, the regulations aim to address concerns related to excessive internet use, potential addiction, and its impact on physical and mental well-being.
Stringent Rules for Young Children
The proposed regulations reserve the strictest limits for children under the age of 8. These young users would be permitted to use electronic devices for a mere 40 minutes per day. This emphasis on restricted usage at an early age aligns with developmental considerations and the potential impact of extended screen time on cognitive and social development.
Platform Enforcement and Responsibility
Platforms, which encompass a wide array of apps, websites, and digital services, will play a pivotal role in enforcing these regulations. The cyberspace regulator, China’s Cyberspace Administration (CAC), has tasked platforms with ensuring that users under 18 adhere to the usage limits. While specific penalties for non-compliance have not been outlined, platforms are likely to face consequences if they fail to enforce the regulations effectively.
Balancing Regulation and Digital Engagement
The proposed regulations underscore the Chinese government’s effort to balance technological advancement with responsible digital engagement, particularly among young users. While digital platforms provide numerous educational and recreational opportunities, they also come with potential risks that need to be managed, especially for vulnerable age groups.
Global Implications for Youth Digital Usage
China’s approach to regulating youth internet usage may have wider implications, sparking discussions about the need for similar regulations in other countries. As societies grapple with the impact of technology on the younger generation, the balance between unrestricted digital access and safeguarding children’s well-being remains a critical consideration.
China’s proposed regulations on limiting internet and phone usage for individuals under 18 reflect the government’s commitment to shaping responsible digital behavior among its younger population. As digital technologies continue to shape modern lifestyles, striking a balance between embracing innovation and ensuring the well-being of children and teenagers remains a pressing challenge that governments and societies worldwide must address.


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This is the rare article you will read this month — maybe in all of autumn — about bipartisanship, which seems to have gone the way of the Cuban ivory-billed woodpecker or the handshake. I stay away from politics in this column, but on the occasion of September drinking, it can’t be avoided. That’s because on Aug. 2, 2007, Congress ratified a bill that designated September National Bourbon Heritage Month. More notable, however, is that it passed unanimously. Thus, history shows that amid the countless issues and places and opinions that divide us, nothing unites Americans like bourbon.
The bill is a sequel, of sorts, to a 1964 act that declared bourbon “America’s Native Spirit,” making it the only spirit distinctive to the United States and creating legal provisions around how it’s produced and bottled. It also locked in bourbon’s geographic indication. To be called bourbon, it must be distilled from at least 51 percent corn (the rest can be a mix of other grains, like rye, wheat, or more corn), aged in brand-new charred American oak barrels, and bottled at no less than 80 proof (40 percent ABV). Flavor and color additives are prohibited.
Bourbon is just one type of whisky, a broad category defined as any spirit distilled from grains, and it’s often erroneously thought to be a product of Kentucky exclusively. Not so. As long as it sticks to the provisos, a whiskey made anywhere in the United States can legally be labeled bourbon.
According to the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S., a trade group., bourbon sales generated almost $4 billion in revenue in 2019. And as of early 2020, there were more than 8.5 million barrels of bourbon aging in Kentucky alone, or nearly two for every state resident. Seems there’s enough to get us through for a while. So, at this extreme moment when it seems like the nation couldn’t be more divided, I take solace in knowing there’s at least one American tradition that’s supported and celebrated outside the partisan lines. Just be sure to wash your hands if you’re sharing a drink with your socially distanced friends.
Liza Weisstuch can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter @livingtheproof.


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Ronan Harris, the managing director of Google UK, said it was "working closely" with advertisers, following revelations in The Times last month about how ads from big brands had appeared in front of jihadist videos and other unsuitable content on YouTube.
Critics have blamed programmatic media-buying for ads appearing in inappropriate places as brands have used technology to buy audiences without context.
Harris insisted advertisers wanted the freedom to reach audiences across the media landscape.
"In the conversations we have with agencies and marketers, they want choice – they want to be able to maximise their reach," he told the Deloitte/Enders media conference yesterday.
But Harris added: "The distribution chains when you go through the industry have become quite complex.
"I’m not sure we’ve done a good enough job to get the balance right between making sure we give everyone maximum choice and educating everyone down through the distribution chain where and when they might show up."
Last month The Times reported that brands are unwittingly funding Islamic extremists and white supremacists with online ads that appear on their websites and videos.
Blacklists designed to prevent such ads from appearing on extremist sites are not fit for purpose, according to an analysis by the newspaper. It cited a YouTube ad for the new Mercedes A-Class that ran next to a pro-Islamic State video which was viewed more than 115,000 times.


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Embattled miner Silvercorp Metals Inc., caught in a maelstrom of anonymous fraud allegations, said on Thursday it's pushing ahead with a share repurchase plan.
Silvercorp, which has shed over $1.5 billion in market value in the past five months, said it has acquired nearly four million of its outstanding shares since June 17, when its board authorized a buyback of up to 10 million shares. It paid an average price of C$7.97.
The Vancouver-based company, which operates silver mines in China, is the latest China-focused and North American listed company to fall into the cross-hairs of short-sellers who have published scathing fraud allegations against numerous China-focused companies with North American listings.
It denies the allegations.


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"By helping to fund vital NRA programs," said Darrell Morrow, national sales director for Rio Ammunition. "By compelling our customers to sign up for an NRA membership, Rio is helping to ensure that the qualities of discipline, respect, good sportsmanship and loyalty, all key aspects of the shooting sports, are carried forward to the next generation of collectors, hunters and competitors."
The company's commitment to the Second Amendment doesn't stop there, though. In a separate approach, Rio Ammunition and NRA are working to provide a discount of up to $40 off, provided that consumers sign up through a special web URL contained on the company's ammunition packaging. This adds an incentive for consumers who are eager to support the NRA's mission and also provides another reason to pick up a package of the company's line of shotshells.
“We are grateful for Rio’s commitment to the Second Amendment.” said Todd Grable, executive director of membership for the NRA. “It is critical to have partners who stand with all of us in protecting our Second Amendment rights and preserving America’s shooting sports heritage.”
In its 105,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in Texas, Rio Ammunition is capable of producing up to 300 million shotgun cartridges annually. Both hunting and sporting options are found in the company's lineup, including target loads for 12-gauge, 20-gauge, 28-gauge and .410-bore shotguns. Among the company's multiple product lines are its Vintage 1896 paper-hulled shotshells, Royal Pigeon CD loads and a collection of Speed, Practice and Rabbit Spreader options.


text: One in four Brits have changed their 2011 holiday plans as a result of summer travel chaos this year, according to a new report. Of those who are changing their holiday plans to avoid travel chaos, one in three will stay in the UK for their 2011 annual holiday. One in five travellers will organise their transport and transfers well in advance and 40 percent said they will definitely research the credentials of the travel company before they book. The new research, commissioned by comparison site carhiremarket.com, also found that 21 percent of all Brits will not go on holiday at all next year. Anel Bruns, EMEA product manager at carhiremarket.com, said holidaymakers would be wise to adopt a prudent approach to holiday planning. “The only way to protect yourself financially should your holiday company or airline go bust is to make sure that the holiday you have booked is ATOL protected, ” Bruns added. “There are other bonding schemes, but make sure they include all the protection that ATOL provides.” On a more positive note for the travel industry, the online poll of over 2,000 adults found that 45 percent of holidaymakers said they will be planning their holiday as usual this year.


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Tariff incentives brought about by the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) have enabled Vietnam to increase its export of fruits and vegetables to the EU, - the world's largest market.
Before the EVFTA took effect, Vietnam’s vegetables and fruits exported to the EU market enjoyed preferential tax rates under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), but these were still at a relatively high level of 10-20 percent.
However, after this agreement came into effect, the EU offers a substantial reduction of about 94 percent out of the total 547 tax lines on fresh and processed vegetables and fruits, including those of Vietnam's strength. This brings about a huge advantage for Vietnam to compete against agricultural products of other Asian countries, especially Thailand and China that do not have FTAs with the EU.
Data from the General Department of Customs show Vietnam’s vegetable and fruit export turnover to Europe in 2021 hit 303 million USD, up 17.4 percent year-on-year.
Photo source: Dreamstime.com


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Shares of Mastercard Inc. MA, -3.15% jumped 1.6% toward a record high in premarket trade Thursday, after the payments and credit card company reported fourth-quarter profit and revenue that beat expectations. Net income fell to $227 million, or 21 cents a share, from $933 million, or 86 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, such as the negative one-time effect of tax-reform legislation, earnings per share came to $1.14, above the FactSet consensus of $1.12. Revenue rose 20% to $3.31 billion, beating the FactSet consensus of $3.25 billion. Gross dollar volume increased 13% to $1.4 trillion, switched transactions rose 17% to 17.7 billion and cross-border volumes grew 17%. The company said the increases were partially offset by an increase in rebates and incentives. The stock was trading at $171.75 ahead of the open, above the Jan. 26 record close of $170.34. It has soared 61% over the past 12 months through Wednesday, while the S&P 500 SPX, -1.97% has climbed 24%.
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Snapchat lost $443 million in one quarter
It's pretty hard to not relate Snapchat's public market woes to Twitter's early days: the company reported its earnings yesterday and it was, quite frankly, a disaster. In just one year the company's quarterly losses doubled from $124 million to $443.
That's right, Snapchat spent half a billion dollars in a single quarter. Not only did it spend that much, Snap also had more than $40 million in unused Spectacles hardware - that's devices sitting in warehouses rotting because it overestimated consumer excitement.
Look, Snap is in trouble here. Facebook's advertising machine, Instagram, is rapidly outpacing its growth while the company flounders in the market. Snap has just 178 million active users while Instagram Stories skyrocketed to 300 million - and Snap added just 4 million new users, half of what was expected.
There are a few things to pinpoint: Snap has made the exact same mistake Twitter did in its early days and pinned its IPO to 'active user growth' metrics rather than something more sustainable such as time spent. Twitter was punished for years by investors who expected it to match Facebook's billion active users despite there never being a way to reach that target.
Snap is also just well behind in monetization efforts. Most advertisements are manually sold and the company is dragging its feet on automated ads and - surprise - Snap found out that advertisers competing for automated ads means ad prices aren't as high.
What to do when your business is cratering then? Well, keep spending: Snap plans to redesign the entire app to make it "easier to use" and expects a material impact on its bottom line as users get accustomed to it.
Is that a good idea? Er, it feels a little soon, and it's hard to avoid drawing parallels to Twitter's repeated insistence that the issue was people just get confused by the product and that they could fix it by dumbing down the product (hint: didn't work).
Why this matters: Snap's IPO was probably the final shot across the bow for social networks on public markets. Do people need another publicly traded thing for messaging blobs of data to each other? Maybe not. If they flounder continually, investors won't want to play here anymore at all and we'll likely see the end of that type of product getting big.
Twitter rolls out 280-character tweets everywhere (except China, Japan, Korea)
280 characters are here, and it's a shitshow on Twitter this morning as people let loose with their newfound freedom. Let's take a moment to mourn 140-characters, which taught me the power of brevity and almost certainly how to write better.
iPhone X shows how Apple's hardware + software integration is compelling
Great post here from Stratechery discussing why the iPhone X is so compelling even if Apple's services are something of a garbage fire compared with competitors. The integration of Face ID is so tight that it melts away and it still sells.
Something is wrong on the internet
Insane post about a trend on YouTube - someone is systematically abusing the algorithm to create algorithmically similar content just to inflate numbers. Ridiculous post about a trend you might not have heard about - worth reading.


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Rumors swirled on Friday that Apple recently tried unsuccessfully to replace CFO Peter Oppenheimer with Laurence Tosi of capital management firm Blackstone Group, according to an anonymous source cited by Reuters. Mr. Tosi reportedly rebuffed the attempt, the source said.
Apple spokesman Steve Dowling told Reuters: “Peter is not leaving Apple. We are not conducting a CFO search. He loves the company and is extremely happy in his role.” Blackstone declined to comment.
Mr. Oppenheimer has been with Apple since 1996. News reports did not make it clear why the company might want to replace him.


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Drinks giant previously opposed the idea, but now says it plans to launch trial return scheme in Scotland
Hubbub's Trewin Restorick reveals the collaborative forces that helped deliver the charity's latest coffee cup recycling initiative
Bunzl's Joanna Gilroy finds some welcome inspiration in a handful of game-changing, waste tackling green projects
Team from MIT media labs captured pollution from exhaust pipes in India to create artists' ink
New KUNGBACKA kitchen front range manufactured using recycled PET-bottles and wood
Coffee chain kicks off coffee cup recycling push in over 2,000 stores with promise to recycle 'any cup'
Report argues steps need to be taken to ensure emerging materials such as carbon fibre composites and bioplastics are properly reusable and recyclable
Jonny Hazell from Green Alliance urges for design stage circular economy thinking to be given priority in industrial strategy
The government has said it wants to make the UK one of the world's most resource efficient economies, but can this admirable ambition survive the turbulence unleashed by Brexit?
From bio-based plastics to science-based targets, can Tetra Pak upend expectations to become a climate leader?
WRI's Liz Goodwin argues that despite a recent slow down in progress, the policies and techniques exist to slash food waste
European Parliament's environment committee votes to increase new EU recycling target to 70 per cent, with a five per cent cap on waste to landfill
Aldersgate Group warns UK may miss out financial benefits of circular economy post-Brexit unless it develops an ambitious reuse and recycling strategy of its own
From beach to bathtub: Procter & Gamble unveils world's first recyclable shampoo bottle made with beach plastic
Bottle will be used by consumer goods giant's largest shampoo brand, Head & Shoulders, in a pilot run in France later this summer
BMW, Shell, Total, Toyota, and Anglo American among corporate giants backing new global push to promote hydrogen technologies
Polman: 'To address the challenge of ocean plastic waste we need to work on systemic solutions - ones which stop plastics entering our waterways in the first place'
Green Alliance claims recycling in England has become 'dysfunctional' with local authorities given unfair share of responsibility for dealing with waste
Annual campaign sees the Woodland Trust plant one new tree for every 1,000 cards collected in M&S stores
Bunzl's Joanna Gilroy explores the questions firms have to ask as they mull whether to opt for recyclable or compostable packaging
Coffee chain says installation of dedicated cup recycling bins in over 2,000 stores could cut waste by 30 million cups a year
Following tie-up last year with Speedo, Italian materials manufacturer Aquafil announces new closed-loop swimwear collaboration with Volcom
Therese Coffey claims 5p charge is not warranted as industry and chains are already doing enough voluntarily to reduce waste
Logs made from recycled coffee are now available for Londoners to buy and burn in their own home as lower carbon alternative to wood
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall should wake up and smell the coffee, corporate trials are not always 'greenwash'
The broadcaster last week labelled a trial to tackle woeful coffee recycling rates as corporate 'greenwash' - such criticism is both unfair and counterproductive


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Today Twitter released new native functionality to help brands deliver faster customer service over this growing channel, and to help customers reach brands more easily.
Customer service interactions on Twitter have grown by 2.5 times over the last two years, and the major social network has invested heavily in social customer care functionality. Twitter has worked to shift more of those conversations from public to private messaging. Earlier this year, Twitter introduced CSAT survey features that enabled brands to measure the impact of true resolution, and public-to-private DM prompts that streamlined the private resolution process for customers.
Overview of new Twitter features:
1) Updated profile page with business support hours and more prominent Direct Message button. According to Twitter, users who receive a direct message link from a business send a message back 30 percent more often than those who are asked to message via text.
2) When searching for a business, users will be able to see a ‘Provides Support’ indicator to more quickly identify where they can get assistance.
To activate these new features:
Go to the new Customer support settings page on the Twitter Dashboard website. A business must first enable the setting to receive Direct Messages from anyone. All of these features are available for businesses to enable today. Once activated, users will start to see them in the app as Twitter expands their rollout over the next few weeks.
Conversocial is a Certified Partner of Twitter and is fully integrated with all of Twitter’s latest customer care functionality. Please reach out to your Account Manager or [email protected] for more information.


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By Daniel Leussink
TOKYO, April 27 (Reuters) - Japan's Denso Corp, a leading supplier to Toyota Motor Corp, reported an 86.3% rise in fourth-quarter operating profit on Thursday, benefitting from stronger sales and weaker lockdown-induced headwinds.
The company, a major manufacturer of automotive parts and chips, projected operating profit for the current business year that started this month to hit a record, after the result for the 12 months through March also reached its highest ever.
But despite the rosy outlook, Denso said it was still seeing impact from a global chips supply shortage and gave a stark assessment of the situation in China, where its capacity utilisation rate has been lower than originally planned.
Competition in China, the world's largest auto market, has increased due to a rapid shift to battery-powered electric vehicles, which is posing a challenge for overseas automakers selling combustion-engine cars.
"Japanese makers have a little bit more inventory of new cars" in China, said Yasushi Matsui, Denso's chief financial officer. "So they are making adjustments."
Denso gets about half of its revenue from the Toyota group, which also includes Toyota truck unit Hino Motors and small-car maker Daihatsu, and counts Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda as a board member.
While drag from a shortage in the global supply of chips would continue until June, the risks were smaller than last year and likely to ease from the summer, Matsui told reporters.
The company posted operating profit of 158.1 billion yen ($1.18 billion) for the three months to end-March.
That compared to an average 161.51 billion yen profit estimated by 10 analysts, and 84.9 billion yen in profit earned a year earlier.
Denso reported a 426.1 billion yen operating profit for the full business year and projected that to come in at 510 billion yen this year.
Its shares recovered after initially retreating on the release of the results, last trading up 2.5% at 7,713 yen.
($1 = 133.5300 yen) (Reporting by Daniel Leussink; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Stephen Coates)


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Developments over the last 12 months have changed Rabobank’s view on the likely role of China and India in the world marketplace through to 2014.
Long an advocate of the likely self-sufficiency of these markets, Rabobank now believes that China faces a structural market deficit that will be difficult to erode in coming years, and even India is likely to call on the world market more frequently over the next three to four years.
“As we learned in recent years, when China and India come calling, the international market feels their presence,” Rabobank said in its global report released Nov. 16.
The arrival of these two giants on the world stage will impact many players, both inside and outside the countries themselves.
“In terms of the general market outlook, it broadens the basis for our medium-term story: another source of demand has arisen for internationally traded dairy products, and that demand will be difficult to fill without a sustained period of high prices to encourage more milk contributions from higher cost regions,” the report said.
“However, while improving the prospects for the continuation of high prices, it doesn’t mean that prices will be even higher—due to the simple fact that buyers’ willingness to pay ultimately limits price upside in dairy,” Rabobank added.
For processors, the rise of China and India -- in terms of both domestic growth and expanding trade requirements -- is a difficult opportunity to ignore. Both markets offer a range of prospects for companies with well-considered strategies, whether seeking export opportunities, selling know-how and services, or investing on the ground to generate milk or dairy products.
Processors will also likely see more of Chinese companies, particularly beyond the borders of the Middle Kingdom, as the Chinese continue to contemplate closer relationships and offshore investments to secure supply going forward.
For farmers, China and India are the new faces of a global market that has undergone substantial changes in recent years.
“Most evidence suggests that producers’ adjustment to this new operating environment will be very much an ongoing process,” Rabobank said. “Deleveraging and refocusing on returns apart from capital gain are likely to continue for several years, though it should yield a group of farmers that has evolved to survive and thrive in a world of high and volatile prices on both sides of their business.”
In the Northern Hemisphere, the structural increase in the price of dairy commodities (and inputs) is impacting the efficacy of industry support measures (in the US and the EU) and highlighting the costs of imperfect engagement with the world market (in the U.S.). “Careful consideration of how to best address these challenges is required, for responses now will shape industry fortunes for many years to come,” the report noted.
The year 2010 in perspective
“Recent years have brought such extraordinary gyrations in the global dairy market that the casual observer might be forgiven for concluding that there is no actual trend at all,” said Rabobank. “However, peering through the fog of market volatility, it soon becomes evident that some crucial structural shifts have in fact occurred.”
Notable among these are, said Rabobank:
• Global dairy commodity prices have indeed shifted to a higher average trading range.
• Higher dairy commodity prices have been manifest along the supply chain in higher prices at retail and farm-gate levels.
• Farmers in export-oriented regions have fared better, narrowing traditional premiums for raw milk prices in the United States (US) and the European Union (EU).
• Regional commodity markets are showing signs of convergence.
“As Rabobank foreshadowed in previous years, it appears we have indeed entered a new market era,” the report noted. “However, structural change does not herald the end of commodity market cycles, and 2010 has been no exception.”
The first half of the year brought what could be characterized as a supply-driven price recovery in world markets. In a lagged response to low milk pricing during the global financial crisis, milk production fell for the better part of a year from July 2009. And with existing stocks either not for sale or of the wrong product types, even the modest demand recovery evident in the first half of 2010 was sufficient to sustain high commodity pricing in international trade.
The cycle turned somewhat in the second half of 2010, as the supply tide started coming in again. Milk production began an expansionary phase from May 2010 as farmers responded to improved milk prices, US industry price signals began diverting product to the world market, and EU intervention stocks were put up for sale.
With demand likely to have softened over the same period, partly reflecting the pace of the global economy itself, international market prices softened again in the back half of the year.
“Only vigorous buying from Russia, in the wake of a savage drought, and the ongoing strength of Chinese imports looked set to save the market from a substantial price fall as 2010 was drawing to a close,” said Rabobank.
Outlook for 2011
While uncertainty remains high, Rabobank anticipates that the global dairy market will again remain tight in 2011.
Given the influence of higher feed costs, ongoing requirements for farmers to reduce debt levels and the likelihood of limited Southern Hemisphere growth beyond New Zealand, the current phase of supply growth may well prove relatively weak and short-lived by the standards of previous cycles.
Meanwhile, dairy consumption is expected to strengthen, supported by improving labor markets in the west, strong economic growth in import regions and strong buying from China.


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LG Smart TVs may be “spying” on their viewers by collecting information on viewing habits and online behaviour, it has been claimed.
The allegations were made on a blog by Jason Huntley, an IT consultant from Hull, who noticed that his LG Smart TV was displaying adverts which had been tailored to him by analysing channel preferences, online browsing, search keywords and other data.
Upon further investigation, Mr Huntley discovered an option in his TV’s settings, entitled “collection of watching info”, which was turned on by default. Mr Huntley also noted that the option was only visible after scrolling down the menu and that there was no “balloon help” icon to explain the option.
Mr Huntley continued to analyse the traffic going out of his TV to determine what exactly was being sent, and discovered that unencrypted information was seemingly being transmitted to LG regardless of whether the option had been switched off.
It even appeared that filenames from an external USB hard drive, including the names of Mr Huntley’s children, were being posted.
When contacted by Mr Huntley regarding the apparent data collection, LG said that because he had accepted the terms and conditions when he bought the television, Mr Huntley should contact his retailer. LG also said that it was unable to comment on their actions “for obvious reasons”.
However, when LG were contacted by the BBC, the electronics firm said that is was “looking into reports that certain viewing information on LG Smart TVs was shared without consent” and that they would further comment “shortly”.Reuse content


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It is being rumoured that Apple is going to launch the iPad 2, the next version of its fastest selling gadget Apple's iPad on Wednesday, March 2, in a special event in San Francisco.
IT IS rumoured that Apple is going to launch the iPad 2, next version of its fast-selling gadget Apple's iPad on Wednesday, March 2, during a special event at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. This was the same venue, where last year in January, Apple's Chief Executive Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad.
Apparently, in mid-February, Apple e-mailed invitations to some media houses and professionals for the special event on March 2. However, the email didn't say much about the details of the special event in the invitation.
In the event, it is diffcult to say whether Chief Executive Steve Jobs will make an appearance, considering that he's not in good health. Earlier, Jobs announced that he was taking a medical leave from Apple.
Apple's iPad is the fastest selling gadget of all times. In 2010, the Cupertino, California based company, Apple sold a record 15 million units of iPad worth $4.6 billion. If rumours to be believed, iPad 2 will compete with Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, HP TouchPad, etc. BlackBerry maker RIM is also expected to ship its latest tablet, PlayBook in March or April this year.
Now, media from across the globe set their eyes at the media event on March 2 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, where it will be likely to see about the Apple's next announcement.
Apple have always delivered many outstanding devices and its recent introduction in its family is ipad 2 Deals. it has got a very instant response from the users just after its launch as it was the most awaited phone till now.


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A well-known market research agency has published a new ranking of manufacturers of wearable devices such as smart watches, fitness bracelets, etc. It also housed our favorite brand and manufacturer Xiaomi.
Intelligent wearable elegance
Xiaomi is well known in the world as a manufacturer of quality and affordable smartphones. Most of us know that this brand focuses on a much larger portfolio of products than just the mentioned smartphones.
Xiaomi has an extensive portfolio of wearable products. Perhaps the best known are their fitness bands Mi Band, currently the latest and best-selling Mi Band 4.
In addition to fitness bracelets, Xiaomi produces various sports or elegant smart watches, as well as handy wireless headphones and much more. As a result, Xiaomi has become the second largest manufacturer of wearable devices in the world. They have overtaken technological giants such as Fitbit, Huawei and Samsung.
Deserved second place
As you can see in the table, according to market analysis from IDC, Apple holds the first place with its Apple Watch and a 31,7% share of the world market. Xiaomi's share is 12,4% of the world market, with a total of 41,7 million units sold in 2019. They recorded a great year-on-year increase of 78,8%.
Despite its success, Xiaomi's market share fell from 13,1% to 12,4% compared to last year. We dare say that this decline is due to the arrival of new manufacturers on the market who are trying to follow in the footsteps of Xiaomi and offer affordable equipment.
We believe in coming global version of the expected Xiaomi Mi Watch and also the new Xiaomi Mi Band 5, the brand's market share will grow again.
We also send news from the world to Xiaomi by e-mail. 👇


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Food prices dropped significantly in July, marking the fifth consecutive monthly decline since hitting record highs earlier in the year in the wake of the war in Ukraine, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) said Friday.
The UN agency has published its latest Food Price Index, the barometer that tracks monthly changes in the international prices of five food commodities: cereals, vegetable oils, dairy products, meat, and sugar.
The index averaged 140.9 points in July, nearly nine points down from June. The decline was led by double-digit percentage drops in the cost of vegetable oils but also cereals – with the recent UN-brokered deal on Ukrainian grain exports a contributing factor.
The decline in food commodity prices from very high levels is welcome, especially when seen from a food access viewpoint, Maximo Torero, FAO chief economist, said.
“However, many uncertainties remain, including high fertiliser prices that can impact future production prospects and farmers’ livelihoods, a bleak global economic outlook, and currency movements, all of which pose serious strains for global food security,” he added.
In July, FAO’s Vegetable Price Index decreased by 19.2 percent compared to June, marking a 10-month low. International quotations for all oil types fell, with palm oil prices declining due to prospects of ample export availability out of Indonesia, for example.
Read: PM: We have forex reserves enough to meet up to 9 months of food imports
Sunflower oil prices also dropped markedly amid subdued global import demand despite continued logistical uncertainties in the Black Sea region. Vegetable oil values were also pushed down by lower crude oil prices.
The Cereal Price Index also reflected an 11.5 percent decline last month despite remaining 16.6 percent above July 2021. Prices of all cereals in the index declined, led by wheat.
World wheat prices dropped by 14.5 percent partly in reaction to the Russia-Ukraine deal on grain exports from key Black Sea ports, and also because of seasonal availability from ongoing harvests in the northern hemisphere.
July also saw an 11.2 percent decline in coarse grain prices. Maize was down 10.7 percent, again due in part to the Black Sea Grain Initiative and increased seasonal availability in Argentina and Brazil. International rice prices also declined for the first time this year.
The Sugar Price Index fell by nearly four percent, amid concerns over demand prospects due to expectations of a further global economic slowdown, a weakening in Brazil’s currency, the real, and lower ethanol prices resulting in greater sugar production there than previously expected.
Read: Food and energy security, trade to get priority at D-8 Council of Ministers’ talks
The downward trend was also influenced by indications of greater exports and favourable production prospects in India.
Meanwhile, the hot and dry weather in European Union countries also sparked concerns over sugar beet yields and prevented sharper declines.
FAO said the Dairy Price Index decreased 2.5 percent amid lacklustre trading activity, yet still averaged 25.4 percent above last July.
While the prices of milk powders and butter declined, cheese prices remained stable, boosted by demand in European tourism destinations.
Meat prices also continued the downward trend, dropping by half a percent from June due to weakening import demands. However, poultry prices reached an all-time high, boosted by firm import demand and tight supplies due to avian influenza outbreaks in the northern hemisphere.
Source: United News of Bangladesh


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SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Electrical automobile maker Tesla (NASDAQ 🙂 Inc stated on Wednesday that cameras inside its automobiles will not be activated exterior of North America, in an announcement on its Chinese language social media.
Tesla is beneath shut scrutiny in China, the place the army in March banned Tesla automobiles from coming into its compounds, citing safety considerations with the cameras in its automobiles, sources instructed Reuters.
“Even in the US, automobile homeowners can freely select whether or not or to not activate its use. Tesla is provided with a community safety system with trade main ranges of safety to make sure the safety of consumer privateness, ”the corporate wrote on Weibo (NASDAQ :), the Chinese language social media website of Twitter kind. .
Fusion Media or anybody concerned with Fusion Media is not going to settle for any duty for loss or harm ensuing from reliance on any info, together with information, quotes, graphics and purchase / promote alerts contained on this web site. Be absolutely knowledgeable in regards to the dangers and prices related to buying and selling within the monetary markets, it is among the riskiest types of investing potential.


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The Hamburg-based Otto Group will cease operations of the toy platform Mytoys.de and will close all branches by February 2024. In the future, the Mytoys brand will only be offered on the Otto platform, the group announced. A reconciliation of interests is to be negotiated and a social plan drawn up for the approximately 800 employees affected in the Mytoys administration in Berlin and the 19 stationary shops.
"Of course, this decision was extremely difficult for us, especially in view of the committed and professional work of all Mytoys employees," explained Otto's e-commerce director Sebastian Klauke. But in view of the business model, which has been in deficit for years, there is no alternative.
Despite multiple strategic reorientations and high investments, the company has not achieved a solid economic performance and the required sustainable profitability, explained Otto. Against this background, the success of an absolutely necessary turnaround, combined with further high investments and increasing cost and market pressure, can neither be planned seriously nor realistically.
In addition, the competitive and low-margin toys segment is easier to manage profitably within Otto's marketplace. The group company Limango, which previously operated under the umbrella of the Mytoys Group, is not affected by the closure.


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Uber, the transportation company that rails against all forms of regulation and safety oversight, has received an ‘F’ from the Better Business Bureau.
The rating stems from 80 complaints filed in the last year alone.
The Better Business Bureau noted that the unaccredited ‘ridesharing’ company’s failing grade is prominently due to billing issues such as surge-pricing, as well as customer problems with the service. It said Uber was unresponsive to its request for “a response to the pattern of complaints.”
The Better Business Bureau concluded:
The Better Business Bureau rating is but a microcosm of Uber operations after several high profile problems. Those problems include an uberX driver who reportedly attacked a passenger with a hammer, fracturing his skull. Meanwhile, district attorneys in San Francisco and Los Angeles called the company “a continuing threat to consumers and the public” and called on the company to stop making false claims about its background checks, which have been proven to be inadequate.
‘Who’s Driving You?’ is a public safety campaign designed to educate the public about the dangers of unlicensed transportation companies. It is an initiative of the Taxicab, Limousine & Paratransit Association, an international non-profit trade association whose membership consists of 1,100 licensed transportation companies. For more information, visit www.WhosDrivingYou.org, follow us on Twitter (@WhosDrivingYou) and follow us on Facebook (facebook.com/WhosDrivingYou).


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ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — The CBD craze has hit the Capital Region.
Pharmacies, health stores, and even gas stations sell the popular products. Since the passage of the Federal Farm bill made it legal to grow hemp, which is what CBD oil is derived from, the market has been inundated with products.
“It’s exciting actually,” Erika Fallon, the supervising pharmacist at Fallon Wellness Pharmacy, stated.
While NEWS10 ABC cameras were at the pharmacy, three customers walked in back-to-back asking about CBD, short for cannabinoids.
One local woman, Sasha Smith, was sent by her doctor.
“I have MS, and my doctor suggested trying CBD oil,” Smith explained.
“Most people come in looking for most common problem is people in pain,” Fallon said.
“I deal with a lot of nerve pain,” she said.
CBD is marketed as a natural remedy with a laundry list of health benefits, including helping with chronic pain, anxiety, and sleep. Some companies even claim it’s good for your skin.
“We know CBD on its own interacts with several receptors in the body,” Fallon explained. “It interacts with CBD receptors. It directly interacts with serotonin receptors, dopamine receptors and opioid receptors. These are all things that have to do with anxiety, sleep, depression.”
But the market of unregulated products can be overwhelming for consumers. From oils to gummies to even CBD infused honey, Fallon had some advice.
“You want to make sure you’re getting it from a reputable company. Make sure it has third party testing,” Fallon recommended.
One of those companies sprouting up right in Scotia inside of an industrial warehouse.
“We grow organic sustainable hemp,” Chad Currin, of BioSoil Farm, explained. “This is our grow facility. We have research and a development license through the New York Department of Ag and Markets.”
Currin studies the plant root to stem.
“Market is brand-new. USDA doesn’t have regulations, yet. The FDA doesn’t have regulations,” he said. “Everybody is selling it now.”
Helping this budding business grow into a $20 billion dollar industry. The plant looks and smells like marijuana because they are in the same family. But, unlike its cousin, hemp has little to no THC.
“THC is the component in medical marijuana that makes people high,” Currin explained.
Harvesting the flowers is a 16-week process.
“Then it needs to be cured. This will get sent off for processing for high quality CBD oil,” Currin added.
But he warns, if you are looking for relief in a bottle, it’s still buyer beware.
“There is a lot of really bad CBD oil out there,” he said. “In fact, a lot of fake CBD oil. You have to be careful where you get it.”
The Food and Drug Administration has issues several warning letters to makers of CBD products after testing and finding many did not contain the levels of CBD they claimed.
“The science is just beginning’ we need to understand the science,” Currin stated. “A lot of people like us need to spend time working with the plant.”
That’s why, for now, Smith is planning on following doctor’s orders.
“If it can help my disease and its natural, I am all about it,” she said.
The FDA will hold a public hearing on Friday, May 31 on the topic of CBD. They will discuss safety and possible new laws to help regulate the market.