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Based on information from three separate sources, we are now confident that Google has shelved plans to release one of its upcoming Pixel phones. The device, codenamed 'muskie,' was intended to succeed the Pixel XL. While we know very little about muskie, and now likely will never learn much else, we are confident that this phone was supposed to be the second-generation Pixel XL.
We rate this information 9 out of 10 on our rumor confidence scale. We have corroborated this story with several sources we deem reliable. The good news? That doesn't mean there won't be a new Pixel XL - just that it's not going to be muskie. Read More
The image you see at the top of this post is the OnePlus 5, the next smartphone to be launched by OnePlus. The phone, as announced today, will be fully detailed on June 20th. We have corroborated this information with a second source and are highly confident this is an accurate image. This also debunks an earlier alleged live image of the phone, which we can state confidently is not representative of the production device.
The image tells us a lot about what the phone looks like, but aside from a dual-camera array and what appears to be OnePlus's trademark mute switch, we really can't glean too much else in terms of features here. Read More
Amazon famously misread the market when it launched the Fire Phone in 2014 without any Google apps. Scarcely a year later Amazon had abandoned the device in the face of minuscule sales figures. Now, it's rumored to be prepping a new smartphone, but unlike the Fire Phone, this one will apparently run a version of Android with Google services. Read More
LG has been one of the manufacturers who has stuck with LCD panels on its smartphones. While they look great, they still can't hold a candle to what Samsung puts in its Galaxy S and Note phones. Likely hoping to change that, the smaller Korean OEM (in terms of smartphone market share) is planning to ship its first smartphone with an OLED display in Q3 this year. Read More
According to a trusted source, Google plans to announce that the Google Assistant will be launching on iOS soon as a standalone app. The announcement could come as soon as Google's I/O conference this week, but it's unclear exactly what Google's plans are at this time. The app would likely feature a blend of the "chat" style functionality in the Google Allo version of Assistant and the voice-controlled version found on Android, but again, details are scant.
We do know that the Assistant for iOS will only be available in the US at launch, and that Google plans to make the announcement in fairly short order. Read More
The Moto Z Play was probably the best of Motorola's first round of modular Z phones. It wasn't the fastest, but it was reasonably priced and got amazing battery life. It was a bit on the chunky side compared to its brethren, but Motorola is reportedly looking to rectify that. However, that means it won't have the same amazing longevity. Read More
A trusted source has told us Motorola is currently working on a new tablet device - its first in years. Our source was able to provide the screenshot you see at the top of this post, illustrating one new feature of the tablet that we, for now, know precious little about. We are highly confident in the quality of this information. Read More
Google announced an interesting product last year called YouTube Accelerator that aimed to do away with buffering by caching YouTube videos on local networks. Accelerator initially launched in a handful of locations in the Philippines, but now Google is rumored to be dropping Accelerator. Instead, it's just going to work on rolling out faster WiFi in public spaces as part of the Google Station program. Read More
British smartphone maker Wileyfox has been using Cyanogen OS since it launched its first phone a few years ago. Thus, the demise of Cyanogen Inc. is a big problem for the company. A report making the rounds on the internet claims that Wileyfox has upped its game by hiring former Cyanogen employees as in-house devs, including former Director of System Engineering Ricardo Cerqueira. This claim is based on some very weak evidence, so we've reached out to get the real story. Read More


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Audio Quality is Not Negotiable in UC and Conferencing
One of the biggest issues holding back unified communications (UC) and conferencing from reaching their full potential is quality. Particularly when it comes to voice calls, dropped syllables, static and background noise can all render a conference unsuccessful in seconds.
Despite the technical issues, the UC market is expected to grow at a very healthy 18.5 percent CAGR through 2020, according to BCC Research, reaching $62 billion. What will ultimately propel growth and bring UC to the next level of adoption will be improved audio quality. A recent article from Alan MacLeod, VP of product at Revolabs, which specializes in audio quality solutions for businesses, discusses how improvements may be achieved.
“When it comes to conferencing, the considerations need to be sound, sound, sound, content and video—in that order,” wrote MacLeod. “The first three translate to room sound, equipment sound and infrastructure sound. Get them wrong, and the last two are far less important because the experience is already poor for the users.”
MacLeod offers some guidelines for achieving better sound quality, including using a room or space without excessive background noise and artifacts like echo and reverberation for conferencing. The area should be enclosed and optimized as much as possible by adding elements like wall and window treatments to combat unwanted artifacts. Conferencing and audio products should also be chosen based on the specific environment where they will be used and should offer wideband or ultra-wideband audio to enable the full range of human sounds.
This is where companies like Revolabs come in, providing solutions like wired and wireless conferencing phones, microphone systems and accessories. Revolabs’ offerings are specifically designed to meet the needs of corporations along with vertical markets like healthcare, financial services, government and the education sector.
“Because we’ve been used to inadequate audio quality on remote calls for so long, many of us don’t realize it doesn’t have to be that way,” wrote MacLeod. “Face-to-face quality communication is now achievable within a realistic budget and we should expect it. The challenge is selecting the products that meet that expectation.”
High-quality audio is a non-negotiable component of any conferencing solution and is simply too important to overlook. By carefully researching product features and specifications and ensuring their conferencing environments are properly designed, organizations can achieve high levels of audio quality with their UC and conferencing solutions.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi

domain: news


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ANGRY officials of Golcar Lily Day are counting the cost of vandalism.
A yob has slashed the first of several large banners (above) being put up around the village to promote the community event.
Sue Starr, one of the organisers, said: “We only put up the banners on Saturday so you can imagine our dismay on Sunday to see someone had slashed it almost in half.
“So many people work so hard to raise money for Golcar Lily Day to be a day of celebration and this feels like a real smack in the face.
“We had a book sale recently and sold each book for 50p. That means we have to sell another 300 books to pay for a replacement banner.”
West Yorkshire Police are investigating.
Golcar Lily Day is on May 12.


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Rakuten, the owner of Kobo, has acquired OverDrive, a leading library ebook vendor. The implications of this deal will ripple through the industry and require many players to reevaluate their strategies.
Lack of information about how books are actually used has resulted in a set of actions that don’t make solid economic sense. Now that more end-user information is becoming available, the book business is likely to adjust its practices.
Bookish is a new online bookstore and discovery service. It is a joint venture of three publishers and presents a useful model for what scholarly publishers could do in building their own online bookstore.
A recent incident involving Amazon and a Norwegian reader has highlighted the sad state of ebook distribution on many levels.


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Good morning fans! I hope you got your coffee and breakfast because today I bring you good news from Kingdom Hearts III. Square Enix revealed last night/early morning an extended trailer of the once released Big Hero 6 trailer. The new trailer reveals more combat in the Big Hero 6 world and we do get to see more of the story of Kingdom Hearts III such as Organization XIII, Sora and his friends and Roxas.
We also finally get reveal on the official box art for Kingdom Hearts III. The art was done by the famous artist Tetsuya Nomura and the cover has all the main heroes from the past games.
The game is available for pre-order for PS4 and X1. The game is set to be released in January 29th. Hikaru Utada is coming back as well with a new song called Don’t Think Twice.


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For Steve Siozios, the Grand Prix is the most important weekend of the year.
“This is our prom,” says Siozios, who owners Stogies Cigar Lounge and the London Pub and is the president of the Crescent Street Merchants’ Association. “We prepare for this, we renovate, we paint, we get ready to showcase our bars and hopefully it translates into a good summer.”
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Sales are around three times higher during the event than they are during the average summer weekend, he says.
“That’s a very, very important amount of money in terms of our going into the black,” he says.
It’s a common refrain. For tourism-focused businesses in Montreal, the Grand Prix means more customers and more sales, but not everyone thinks that the millions of dollars in government money used to support these sorts of events is the most effective way to promote tourism.
“It is to the hospitality industry what Black Friday is for retail, it is really the most important weekend of the entire year,’” says Eve Paré, the president of the Hotel Association of Greater Montreal, which represents 82 hotels.
Almost 90 per cent of rooms at those hotels were booked by May 31, she says, at an average daily rate that is more than twice as high as the standard rate for this time of year.
While there are other events, like Osheaga, that result in occupancy rates of more than 90 per cent, she says that none of them come close to generating the same amount of revenue for hotels that the Grand Prix brings in.
Airbnb also sees an increase in bookings.
In 2016, 14,600 people stayed in Airbnbs during the Grand Prix weekend, says Alex Dagg, Airbnb’s public policy manager for Canada.
“It was a big spike over the week before and the week after,” she says.
While Toronto and New York City were the top two cities of origin for Airbnb’s Grand Prix weekend customers in 2016, Montreal was number three.
People “want to stay downtown, they want to stay close to the track or close to Crescent St.,” Dagg says.
This year, the company expects around to host around 17,000 people.
Crescent St. won’t be the only street blocked off because of the Grand Prix, St-Laurent in Little Italy will also host its annual event.
At Porchetta, a restaurant on St-Luarent, sales during the street festival are around 10 times higher than normal, says Jonathan Agnello, the restaurant’s owner.
He says it’s one of his two busiest weekends of the year (the other being the Italian Week Festival, when St-Laurent is blocked off).
Uber also expects to see a boost in business.
“It’s one of our busiest weekends of the year,” says Jean-Nicolas Guillemette, the general manager of Uber Quebec.
He says the ride-hailing company has preparing for the weekend for two months.
Drivers have been receiving special training, so they’ll know how to get around road closures and the company plans to set-up a facility for drivers to have a snack, take a rest and get their car washed.
Montreal's Grand Prix romance: It's complicated
Grand Prix traffic wreaks havoc on downtown Montreal
But not every business sees an increase in sales during the big weekend.
Rob de Koninck, a salesman at Son Idéal, an audio store that was located on Bishop St. for three decades before moving to Côte-des-Neiges this year, says that while the nearby Grand Prix events increased the number of visitors to the store, it had no impact on sales.
The Palais des congrès also doesn’t see a Grand Prix bump, says spokesperson Amélie Asselin. With high occupancy rates at hotels, there’s not a lot of space for the business travellers to attend conferences.
All told, the Grand Prix is estimated to generate around $42 million in economic benefits for the city, according to a 2016 report commissioned by Quebec’s tourism ministry, Tourism Montreal, the City of Montreal and Octane Racing Group, the promoter of the race.
Governments stand to make around $10 million in tax revenue on that spending.
That does come at a cost. All three levels of government provide a combined subsidy of almost $19 million a year to the race. As part of a 2014 deal, the City of Montreal has also pledged to spend at least $50 million on track repairs and upgrades.
Measuring the actual return on investment from subsidies like that can be complicated.
Roderick Campbell studied the economic impact of the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne for Economists at Large, an economic consultancy. He says the tourism benefits of that race are often oversold.
There, the Victoria State government spends around $60 million on race subsidies every year. In return, the race generates around $33 million in tourist spending, he says.
“That’s not free money, they don’t just come here and hand over the cash, we have to provide goods and services to them for that money,” says Campbell, who is now the director of research at The Australia Institute, a left-leaning think tank. “There’s costs in getting that $33 million.”
The actual profits generated by tourist spending associated with the race are closer to $6 million, Campbell says.
There’s little evidence that large events generate long-term increases in tourism, he says, and that subsidizing those large events isn’t a cost-effective way to attract visitors.
“If they came out and said, ‘we can afford it, it’s a bit of fun, the motoring fans like it, we’re going to lose some money on it and that’s ok,” he says, “that would be fine. The thing that annoys me is when it gets sold to us as ‘it’s important for our economy,’ it’s not.”
But Crescent St. bar owner Siozios disagrees.
“I don’t think there is any amount of money that Tourism Montreal or Tourism Quebec can spend around the world that can bring as big of a spotlight, other than bringing the Olympics, perhaps, to Montreal,” he says. “Not even the Jazz fest brings the spotlight to Montreal, internationally, that the Grand Prix does.”
He says that people discover — and decide to visit — Montreal because of the Grand Prix.
“I think we get a bargain,” he says, “if you actually divvy up the money we spend versus the publicity Montreal gets as an international city.”


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Tyler, The Creator’s 2021 album Call Me If You Get Lost topped this week’s Billboard 200 chart, an achievement that was fueled by record-breaking vinyl record sales after the album became available to purchase physically earlier this month.
Call Me If You Get Lost, which was released in June of last year, sold 49,500 vinyl LPs last week.
It’s the largest sales week for a hip-hop album on vinyl since data became available in 1991, according to Billboard.
It’s also the largest vinyl sales week for an album by a solo male artist since 1991.
The vinyls are only sold on Tyler’s website, Billboard noted, and are not available through any major retailers.
On last week’s Billboard 200, which tracks the commercial success of albums, Call Me If You Get Lost ranked 120th.
114,000. That’s how many vinyl LPs were sold during the biggest vinyl sales week ever, in November 2021 when Taylor Swift released Red (Taylor’s Version), according to Billboard.
Vinyl record sales have been steadily increasing for over a decade, according to Variety and Billboard. Kid Cudi previously held the hip-hop vinyl record, selling 41,500 records of Man on the Moon III: The Chosen in December, according to Billboard. In 2021, revenues from vinyl sales increased 61% from 2020 to $1 billion, according to data from the Recording Industry Association of America. The last time vinyl sales crossed $1 billion was in 1986. Vinyl sales accounted for 7% of 2021’s total music revenue. Though vinyl was more popular last year, CD sales also increased. In 2021, one out of every three albums sold were vinyl records, according to MRC Data, Billboard reported.
Vinyl Sales Soar — and Even CDs Rebound — as U.S. Recorded Music Industry Posts $15 Billion Year-End Revenue (Variety)
1 Out of Every 3 Albums Sold in the US in 2021 Were Vinyl LPs (Billboard)
Vinyl Release Pushes Tyler, the Creator’s ‘Call Me If You Get Lost’ Back to No. 1 on Billboard 200 Albums Chart (Billboard)


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I wrote recently on New York indie devs, Golden Ruby Games, and their new space-themed runner game, Worm Run. Since then. the Golden Ruby team has been pretty busy, developing a new game, Hermit Crab In Space as part of a Sony-sponsored game jam at IndieCade East. The game jam asked developers to create a mobile game, specifically for play on the Vita, and gave developers the theme of “evolution” to spark game creation.
Golden Ruby created an 8-bit game about a hermit crab, in a detailed universe where hermit crabs in space totally make sense. (That is, um, not exactly my understanding of how evolution works, but the game looks like a space shooter with a cute retro aesthetic.)


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Terry Nyquvest is pretty chill about the prospects for the four marijuana stores his family-owned company wants to open in Edmonton this fall.
“Our hope is we can get a couple of development permits and we will make some money at it,” said Nyquvest, whose firm runs liquor stores, a pet-food company and owned the now-demolished Cromdale Hotel.
“We know so little, and nobody else seems to know a lot unless you go down to Washington (state) … We’re going to get into it like we got into the liquor business — open the doors and see what happens.”
Nyquvest is among the applicants for 242 city development permits to open retail pot operations once the drug becomes legal Oct. 17.
Real estate executive Kerry Rempel of Liquor Depot is seeking 25 locations. The company is partly owned by Aurora Cannabis Inc. and intends to convert some stores to dope from booze as well as open new sites.
There’s also Stephanie Tan of Canopy Growth Corp., setting up the Tweed chain, John Radostits, whose family business became Canada’s largest Sobeys franchisee, and Mark Fitton of Urban Sparq Hospitality, owner of The Pint and Knoxville’s Tavern.
Other applicants include representatives of such firms as Tokyo Smoke, Fire & Flower and Canna Cabana as well as numerous individuals.
Nyquvest, who’s considering such names for his stores as Pot Shop or Pot For You, isn’t too concerned about trying something new at commercial bays in real estate they already own.
“Basically, the retail business is the same, no matter what business you’re in. It’s having the product the customers want and service when they get there.”
A map of the Edmonton locations sought for cannabis stores.
But experts say this budding industry will likely go through a shakeout period.
Paul McElhone, former dean of management at Concordia University of Edmonton, thinks the first year will see many companies consolidate or leave the market.
“There are some really big players coming in and making huge footprints. These are the guys who are going to dominate, because they can operate on smaller margins,” said McElhone, senior consultant at McElhone Consulting.
“The mom-and-pop liquor stores are everywhere, but if it’s not a family operation where the family is in there working around the clock, then they just can’t make a go of it.”
James Heaps, a Calgary-based vice-president of real estate firm Avison Young, said stores will likely cost $300,000 to $450,000 for improvements and inventory, so landlords must be sure prospective tenants are financially sound and well managed.
A recent Avison Young study indicated most Canadians prefer legal pot to black market pot as long as the price is right, and Heaps says considerations for locating stores include demographics, traffic and good alignment with nearby businesses.
One good sign for Alberta dope retailers is the strong medical market, he said. December figures show the province had 104,000 of Canada’s 270,000 registered medical marijuana users.
But weed dispensaries need licences from the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission (AGLC) as well as municipal development permits before they can open their doors.
The AGLC has received 586 licence applications, but none have been issued yet, a spokeswoman said.
The organization, which will handle online sales, estimated there would initially be about 250 stores across the province.
Although there were complaints about Edmonton’s decision to choose which development permits to handle first through a random draw, Canopy Growth’s Jordan Sinclair said the system is fair.
He doesn’t know if they’ll get all the eight Tweed locations they want because of zoning restrictions and separation distances from places such as schools and parks, but he expects the pot from Canopy and 10 other producers to be popular.
“Especially in the early days, there will be interest from youngish people … but we’re hearing an incredible amount of excitement from baby boomers who might not have a current supplier.”


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Coronavirus: More than 100 outbreaks tackled a week, says Matt Hancock
"Targeted action" means outbreaks are being swiftly dealt with, the health secretary says.
Coronavirus: Florida sets new state daily case record of 15,299
A 24-hour tally of 15,299 new coronavirus cases eclipses the worst rates seen in New York in April.
'Breakthrough' cancer study adds to Super Strong Sophie's legacy
The father of a five-year-old who died from cancer says he is proud she could help researchers.
Coronavirus: South Africa bans alcohol sales again to combat Covid-19
It is one of several restrictions introduced by President Ramaphosa amid rising infection rates.
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Dippin’ Dots, leader in the flash-frozen ice cream and frozen treat market, continues to realize surging growth as a result of a focus on developing a strong franchisee base, pursuing strategic par
Doc Popcorn, a growing international franchise specializing in fresh-popped, kettle-cooked flavored popcorn, completed 2015 with robust retail and franchise sales and a number of agreements to open
Following last year’s acquisition of Doc Popcorn, the world’s largest franchisor of fresh-popped popcorn by Dippin’ Dots, maker of iconic flash-frozen ice cream treats, dual-branded locations offer
Just seven months after the snack franchisor was acquired by Dippin’ Dots Franchising LLC, Doc Popcorn is joining forces with Dippin’ Dots to debut its first dual-brand location.
For years, Richard Pink mused about expanding his family’s iconic Pink’s Hot Dogs beyond its famed Hollywood location.
Dippin’ Dots Franchising LLC, the franchising arm of the flash-frozen ice cream maker Dippin’ Dots, announced that it has acquired snack franchisor Doc Popcorn.
Dippin’ Dots, the maker of iconic ice cream and frozen treats, announced the signing of a joint master licensing agreement with Wellness Hanshin in Osaka, Japan, for the exclusive marketing and dis
Dippin’ Dots, LLC, a newly-formed company based in Oklahoma City and funded by private capital, has finalized its acquisition of Dippin’ Dots, Inc, the Kentucky-based manufacturer of the popular fl


text: Camber is essential for a withering variety. When, as indicated by an investigation distributed in 2019 by the American Apparel and Footwear Association, 97% of attire sold in America is made abroad, Camber actually makes the entirety of its items in its rural Philadelphia manufacturing plant utilizing American-made yarns. Mr. Schwartz said that organizations in Pakistan, China and Sri Lanka oftentimes reach him expecting to deliver his merchandise for a fourth of the expense, yet he is focused on American creation. He's "maintained the conviction that we truly need to make the best and make it here in the vintage swimsuits United States," he said. As per Mr. Schwartz, Camber creates approximately 200,000 pullovers per year, around 10 to 15% of which are private mark items requested by brands like Lqqk Studio in New York. The organization's general deals, he said, develop around 10 to 15% every year. Japan is perhaps the greatest market. Camber makes its garments from size little to 7XL tall "so everyone's glad," he said. The actual items have scarcely changed since Camber originally presented them. "I don't have a spring line and a fall line," said Mr. Schwartz, who hasn't went to a career expo to sell his products in longer than 10 years. Camber has likewise never taken out a promotion of any sort. Purchasers understand what Camber does, and they simply continue to arrange it. The organization's difficult way to deal with configuration is critical to its clique achievement. Basile Khadiry, the proprietor of Beige, said he discovered Camber in the wake of asking companions where he could discover a hoodie that repeats the "thick material" of 1970s Champion pullovers. The hoodies and crewnecks Champion makes presently—like most of pullovers you'll discover at retailers from Walmart to Bloomingdale's—aren't as burly or as square shaped as they were nearly 50 years prior. For certain obsessives, those outdated, thick-employ, blocky hoodies are the sacred goal. Elliott Atkinson, 27, a business visionary in London, has worn Camber for a very long time. He appreciates the hoodie's "enormous and puffy" sleeves, which are "simply really agreeable" he said. He's so stricken by Camber that he's simply started selling the pullovers through Hennerton, a little men's clothing store that he and a companion opened last week. The sturdiness of Camber's thick pullovers prevailed upon Mr. Davison of New York. "The development appears to be really strong," he said. He figured that for $70 or so he could purchase a Nike hoodie "that is going to last me, similar to, three years and afterward tear," or he could purchase a Camber, which he's certain will last him 10 years. Robert Wilson of New York prefers how Camber's hoodies break in and get gentler with each wear. Photograph: ROBERT WILSON Robert Wilson, 39, an internet clothing vender in Farmingville, N.Y., said Camber's thick material "improves with age." With each low maintenance, the hoodies break in to get milder and gentler. Mr. Wilson additionally has started selling Camber through his retro-inclining internet clothing shop, first and 44. In the weeks to come Mr. Wilson intends to take out Instagram advertisements to advance Camber's pullovers through his store. Mr. Wilson's painstakingly made promoting photoshoots out of Camber products—and ones as of late done by Mr. Atkinson for Hennerton—are the kind of determined showcasing Mr. Schwartz himself has never tested. As he said, he simply prefers to allow the item to represent itself with no issue.


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UK: JD Sports confirms "advanced" Blacks talks
On Friday, Blacks announced that it will go into administration as part of plans to sell the business. The pre-pack arrangement will allow a buyer to cherry-pick the company's best assets, but leave its costly distribution warehouse and head office, as well as shed unwanted shops from its 300-store estate.
Blacks Leisure has 98 Blacks outlets and 208 Millets outlets. It also owns the Peter Storm and Eurohike brands.
In a statement to the London Stock Exchange, JD Sports said: "JD notes the press speculation in relation to a potential offer for the assets of Blacks Leisure Group and the recent announcement made by Blacks, and confirms that it is in advanced discussions with Blacks in relation to an offer for certain of its assets."
Bidders were thought to include Dragon's Den TV star Peter Jones, JD Sports and Sports Direct, according to Reuters. However, on Friday, Peter Jones denied that he was planning to buy the retailer through his Twitter account.
Retailer JD Sports Fashion recorded a 1.5% increase in like-for-like sales in the 19 weeks to 9 June, but margins came under pressure as offers continued to drive the market....
UK sportswear retailer JD Sports has seen its full-year pre-tax profit hit by its acquisition of Blacks Leisure, the UK's largest outdoor clothing and equipment retailer, earlier this year....
- Why China 5-year plan won't change garment-making
- ‘Fixing Fashion’ one stitch at a time
- Navigating a turbulent sourcing landscape
- Supply chains under pressure as Black Friday looms
- Jordan garment sector strong amid regional unrest
- US Q3 in brief: Burlington Stores, Guess, Chico's
- Global clothing and footwear trade to drop by 1.5%
- Cambodia living wage campaign kicks off
- Adidas has greenest textile supply chain in China
- New Balance launches first 3D printed running shoe
- Wearable technology: The future market potential for smart garments and e-textiles
- Practical Brand Sourcing Strategy
- Statistics: Trends in Global and Regional Man-made Fibre Production - 2015
- Myanmar's Garment Sector in 2015 - now with updated members' directory
- Technical Textile Markets: Product Developments and Innovations - 2nd Quarter 2015


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Dr Roebuck’s, a Sydney, Australia-based skin care brand, closed a financing round with Unilever Ventures.
The amount of the deal was not disclosed.
The company intends to use the funds to scale its direct retail operations globally, accelerate its market growth, enhance the infrastructure and strategically invest in product innovation and R&D.
Launched in 2016 by sisters Zoe and Kim Roebuck, Dr Roebuck’s is a skin care brand powered by clean, effective, multi-benefit ingredients, many of which are native to Australia. Products are cruelty-free, suitable for all skin types, and free of parabens, sulfates, gluten, fillers, synthetic fragrances, harmful chemicals and dyes.
The brand recently expanded to 20 countries globally and is today sold in over 2,000 doors and online via strategic partnerships with Sephora, Shopper’s Drug Mart, Cult Beauty and SpaceNK. The products are available for purchase at Sephora stores nationwide and Sephora.com, as well as DrRoebucks.com.


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Join Mercury News staff writer Howard Mintz as Apple and Samsung square off over patents in San Jose federal court, with Samsung seeking to have a jury’s $1 billion judgement overturned.
More in Technology
The group’s performance would have been even better but Apple’s declining sales and profits dragged it down.
Google already monitors your online shopping — but now it’s also keeping an eye on what you’re buying in real-world stores as part of its latest effort to sell more digital advertising.
U.S. stocks rose Monday as the market bounced back from a turbulent week. Defense contractors made gains and technology and consumer-focused companies also rose. Ford shares climbed after the automaker replaced CEO Mark Fields, while chemicals maker Huntsman rose after it agreed to combine with Swiss competitor Clariant.
The company’s survey of employees and job-seekers exalts Alphabet, Facebook, and one you’ll probably never guess.


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By more than a 2-to-1 margin, California voters favor an initiative to require food manufacturers and retailers to label fresh produce and processed foods that contain genetically engineered ingredients.
With less than six weeks until election day, Proposition 37 is supported by 61% of registered voters and opposed by 25%, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll. An additional 14% were undecided or refused to answer.
The poll showed broad support among voter groups, but the interviews took place before Tuesday's start of a major television advertising blitz by opponents aimed at changing voters' minds on the issue.
So far, the opposition campaign has raised more than $32.5 million, collected mostly from businesses affected by the measure.
The first 30-second television spot complains that passage of the labeling initiative would foster more government bureaucracy and send food prices spiraling. The commercial features Central Valley farmer Ted Sheeley, who grows corn, cotton, tomatoes, pistachios and other crops. He warns that "the people least able to pay are going to be forced to pay more" for food. It calls the...


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We offer the most secure runescape account For Sale, we are the only site that understand runescape players, we sell cheap runescape account among all sites, and we know what people really need, for someone who only consider price to buy Cheap runescape gold ,the company’s hugely popular free-to-play massively multiplayer online game, has been a persistent target for criminals looking to turn cybercrime into hard currency. However, as the first part of what is said to be an ongoing campaign against this brand of theft, Jagex’s cooperation with police appears to have yielded results, and an arrest has been made in the Avon and Somerset region.
Several runescape account holders were tricked into releasing their details by way of a targeted phishing scam. Mark Gerhard, chief executive of Jagex, stated that the affected numbered a “few thousand” and that the resulting arrest had been the end product of a long-term investigation.
Account theft and the use of phishing websites is a problem facing the entire online games industry and Jagex maintains a specialist team to combat any law breaking within our games .Players invest years of time and effort into developing their runescape character, so the theft of a runescape account shouldn’t be treated differently to the theft of any other valuable possessions such as a games console, television or car.”Gold farming, the process of building unreasonable wealth by endlessly repeating profitable activities within the game, was recently addressed by Jagex via changes to RuneScape’s underlying code. Gerhard believes that because they eliminated this unfair method of gold acquisition, criminals were forced to find an alternative way to aquire loot.
People who seek to destroy others’ online gaming experience could be committing criminal offences, leaving themselves liable to prosecution. The PCeU will continue to work with the industry and investigate these allegations where appropriate. I’ll introduce you a website -runerich.com. Things for runescape gold are really very cheap on this website. Well, on this website that won’t be just a dream. much cheaper than that on other websites.


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TORONTO — Ensemble Travel’s ONEnsemble Virtual conference is wrapping up after several days and a long list of sessions with suppliers, not to mention numerous networking opportunities.
ONEnsemble Virtual, which took place this week, has focused on restarting and recovery, with live sessions and speakers from a custom designed virtual studio, as well as pre-taped sessions plus breakouts and Zoom rooms.
Coverage from the Nov. 17 live Ready, Set, Sail panel session included straight talk and advice from top executives from Holland America Line, Celebrity Cruises, RSSC and AmaWaterways.
Meanwhile the Nov. 18 highlights included two panel discussions: ’The Travel Journey: What Will it Look Like?’ with AmaWaterways’ Kristin Karst, Delta’s Scott Jordan and Globus family of brand’s Scott Nisbet; and ‘The Power of Partnerships’, which looked at commissions amid COVID-19 with Globus’ Paula Hayes and Stephanie Bishop, Steve Smotrys with Cunard and Seabourn and Randall Soy with RSSC.
Here’s what ’The Travel Journey: What Will it Look Like?’ panel had to say about reasons for hope as this COVID-19 year starts to wind to a close …
KRISTIN KARST – AMAWATERWAYS
“Our engagement with travel agents has never been stronger. Since March we’ve hosted more than 2,000 virtual agents to help travel agents prepare for an eventual return to river cruising. We know how hard you’ve been working and this trust and confidence will grow and blossom in 2021 and beyond.”
AmaWaterways has three new ships on the way: AmaSiena, AmaLucia and AmaDahlia. Karst reports that AmaDahlia’s first season in Egypt is 70% full already. “We are very optimistic about the future of river cruising. Whatever unfolds in the month ahead, we will adapt.”
SCOTT JORDAN – DELTA AIR LINES
“I know the industry is hurting. Delta is hurting too. We will get through this. And we will need your support and your energy to do that. We want to install confidence. This is what the industry needs … it’s our obligation to get some encouragement out there. As crazy as it sounds, at the start of the pandemic we were burning through US$100 million in cash per day. By the end of this year we hope to get that down to $10 – $12 million per day. That’s through cost cutting and we’re also seeing some demand coming back.”
SCOTT NISBET – GLOBUS FAMILY OF BRANDS
“You have a lot to be proud of. You’re really making a difference. Globus recently restarted its tours with a trip in the Canadian Rockies and it was a success, and we’ve even had to add departures. Next year is off to a strong start and we’re estimating that we’ll do half of what we did in 2019, and we’re already 60% towards that goal. Two-thirds of our FTCs haven’t been rebooked yet. Our BDMs would love to create a plan with you to help you lock in that business. We’re also optimistic about the safety of group touring. We can help travellers maneuver around the hassles.”
And here’s what ‘The Power of Partnerships’ panel said about commissions and survival strategies …
RANDALL SOY – REGENT SEVEN SEAS CRUISES
“We’re getting great feedback from agents about our commission policy. We paying on the cancelled cruise and then again when the rebooked cruise sails. It’s not about cash flow, it’s rewarding their earnings on what they sold on our product. Their role has been crucial. We’re not giving it – they’re earning it. Survival strategies? Don’t be too proud to ask for help. There is a solution that’s right for your business and we’re hear for you to help you on that path.”
STEVE SMOTRYS – CUNARD & SEABOURN
“At Seabourn and Cunard we’ve always had the policy to pay commission at full payment. We urge agents to tap into that pent-up demand that’s out there. Going forward, there will be a lot of changes in the cruise and travel experience, but people will embrace it because people want to go on vacation. That’s not going to change.”
PAULA HAYES – GLOBUS FAMILY OF BRANDS (U.S.)
“We’re one of the few [suppliers] paying either if deposited or under full payment. We will continue to do that for the future. We’re also paying early commission on 2021 bookings. We started that in August 2020, we paid retroactively on anything that was on the books for 2021 or 2022. That was huge for our advisers. They really appreciated that cash flow. We will extend that policy through Feb. 28, 2021.”
STEPHANIE BISHOP – GLOBUS FAMILY OF BRANDS (CANADA)
Globus pays commission at time of final payment as well as on future travel credits. “We’ve always paid commission to agents at final payment. On new bookings we’ll do the same as our colleagues in the U.S., with advance commission on deposit. We are in this for the long haul.”


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Commissioner's Blog: New law to stop online resellers from misleading ticket buyers
It can be disappointing missing out on tickets to a favourite artist or sports team. Some ticket buyers may even be willing to fork out hundreds of dollars extra to an online ticket reseller just to be able to go to the event.
There is some good news for consumers and their wallets with the Australian Government introducing a new event ticketing standard to help ticket buyers make informed decisions when purchasing tickets from online resellers for events across Australia.
Under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), online ticket resellers are now required to clearly disclose that they are a reseller and not a primary ticket provider, as well as the original price of tickets. They must also clearly display this information prominently on their website.
These new changes will complement the WA Ticket Scalping Act which came into effect on 10 September 2021, making it illegal for online resellers to sell most tickets to Western Australian events for more than 10 per cent over the original price. They also have to identify the location of the seat or viewing spot for each ticket.
Consumer Protection’s role over the last year since the new WA laws took effect has been enforcing the new measures by issuing notices to online resellers and investigating complaints received from consumers. Fines range from $20,000 for individuals and $100,000 for companies, with even higher penalties applying to those using ‘bots’ to purchase bulk tickets which is also illegal in WA.
Earlier this year, online ticket reseller Viagogo was named as being under investigation for possible breaches of the WA Ticket Scalping Act due to tickets on their website being sold illegally for more than 110 per cent of the original price.
While this investigation into Viagogo is ongoing, the introduction of the new Australian standard means WA ticket buyers can have more confidence that they are purchasing tickets for events across the country from online resellers at a fair price, and their usual consumer rights under the ACL will apply.
The best advice is to do your homework before purchasing tickets from an online reseller to ensure you will gain entry to the event. Buying tickets from overseas resellers can be risky. It is much safer to buy through an authorised Australian website using your credit card as it may be possible to get a chargeback if you do happen to buy a dud.
If you see WA tickets for resale that exceed the permitted 10 per cent mark-up or have any issues with tickets you have purchased, contact Consumer Protection on 1300 30 40 54 or email@example.com
Commissioner for Consumer Protection


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A jury in federal court in Wisconsin ordered Walmart to pay $125m in punitive damages to a former employee with Down’s syndrome in a disability discrimination lawsuit, US employment officials announced.
Related: US justice department charges four Chinese nationals in Microsoft Exchange hack – live
Marlo Spaeth, who began working as a sales associate in 1999, was fired by the retail giant in 2015 for what they said was excessive absenteeism after she repeatedly asked Walmart to return her to normal work hours.
Spaeth, who consistently received positive performance reviews, originally worked from noon to 4pm. But after Walmart implemented a computerized scheduling system in November 2014, she was required to work from 1pm to 5.30pm.
The new schedule caused Spaeth difficulty owing to her disability and she struggled to keep up with the new routine. Because of Spaeth’s need for a rigid schedule, her lawsuit said, if she did not have dinner at the same time every evening, she would get sick.
According to her lawyers, Spaeth asked for her start and end times to be adjusted back to her original schedule. Despite her pleas, Walmart fired her in July 2015 for excessive absenteeism.
Though Spaeth’s termination letter said she could be rehired, Walmart refused to do so when she requested it. The jury found that Walmart turned down the request “because of her disability or because of their need to accommodate her disability”, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
“The jury here recognized, and apparently was quite offended, that Ms Spaeth lost her job because of needless – and unlawful – inflexibility on the part of Walmart,” said Gregory Gochanour, the EEOC’s Chicago regional attorney.
In addition to the $125m in punitive damages, the jury awarded Spaeth $150,000 in compensatory damages for emotional pain and mental anguish. Walmart said the verdict would be reduced to $300,000, which under federal law is the statutory maximum for punitive and compensatory damages.
Walmart spokesperson Randy Hargrove said the company was reviewing its legal options, as “the EEOC’s demands were unreasonable”.
“We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind, and we routinely accommodate thousands of associates every year,” Hargrove said.
“We often adjust associate schedules to meet our customers’ expectations and while Ms Spaeth’s schedule was adjusted, it remained within the times she indicated she was available.”


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‘A Great Day Of Union Giving!’ - The National Association Of Letter Carriers-Led 30th Annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive ‘Is Back After A Two-Year Hiatus’ Due To The Coronavirus Pandemic, Takes Place This Saturday, May 14th
(ACROSS WESTERN NEW YORK) – This Saturday (May 14th), the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC)-led Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive - the Nation’s largest one-day campaign to collect food for distribution to needy families, is back for the 30th time.
The Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive - which returns this year after a two-year hiatus because of the Coronavirus Pandemic, provides residents with an easy way to donate food to those in need.
They can simply leave their donation of non-perishable food items next to their mailbox and NALC-represented Letter Carriers collect them on as they deliver mail along their postal routes.
Each year on the second Saturday in May, Letter Carriers across the United States collect non-perishable food donations from their communities - which has grown to well over 1.8 billion pounds of food.
In the 30 years since it began, the food drive has collected about 1.82 billion pounds of food for struggling residents, nationally.
According to NALC Stamp Out Hunger Coordinator Sallie Moore, the food drive relies on its Local and Rural Letter Carriers to carry out the event.
“We couldn’t do this without all the Letter Carriers who spend extra time that day to collecting food, in addition to delivering and collecting. We do it because we know it helps local families who are in need,” Moore said.
For example, the 2018 Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive resulted the collection of 71.6 million pounds of food from local communities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
“Food deserts” in cities, plus homelessness and urban and rural poverty, combined to produce a National Hunger Rate of 11.8% in 2017 - the last year for which data are available, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (ERS) reports.
That’s 15 million households where people were hungry all or part of the year.
And 4.5% - 5.8 million - of all households had “very low” food security, which is even more severe, the ERS added.
Food collected during the drive will be delivered to local community churches, food banks and food pantries for distribution.
While all non-perishable donations are welcome, donated foods that are high in protein - such as canned tuna, salmon, beans and peanut butter - are most needed.
Canned fruits and vegetables, whole grain, low sugar cereals, macaroni and cheese dinners and 100% fruit juice also top the list of most needed items.
Here in Western New York, it’s expected as many as 1,200 NALC Branch 3-represented Letter Carriers - from Niagara County down to the New York-Pennsylvania State Line - and several hundred volunteers will collect and deliver the donated non-perishable food items from across the region.
The National AFL-CIO, other Postal Unions, the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) and several private enterprises are NALC’s partners in the Stamp Out Hunger Campaign.


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Updated June 2, 2023 - 6:21 pm
A Henderson boat retailer is using his pocketbook to show his love and support for the Vegas Golden Knights to the potential tune of $50,000.
Dan Boyle of Proshop Motorsports and Marine, a huge VGK fan and season ticket holder, has a special deal for any Clark County resident who buys an in-stock 2023 Nautique boat before the Stanley Cup is awarded.
If the Knights win the Cup, buyers get a $10,000 rebate on their purchase.
He has five 2023 model wakeboard vessels that retail for about $300,000 each.
“We have one sold and another in the process,” Boyle said Friday afternoon of the promotion that began just the day before. “Three more are fully available.”
Boyle says the five boats are already priced below the manufacture’s suggested retail price and not marked up to handle the cost of the promotion.
“I think it’s going to be expensive and I think the Golden Knights will win (the Cup) in six games,” Boyle said.
Boyle’s entire crew are VGK fans and the idea of the promotion came a bit from Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale of Houston, Texas, who is famous for making multimillion-dollar sports wagers, usually on Texas teams, to hedge his potential losses on furniture promotions.
“We got together at the shop and wanted to do something for a promotion during the Cup,” Boyle said. “But I don’t have millions to hedge my bet. We just thought it would be a fun way to generate some excitement and celebrate the Knights. And if they win, everybody is happy.”
If the Florida Panthers prevail in the quest for the Cup, no rebates wil be given.


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KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI—I’ve been to a lot of unusual places in my long career as a journalist, but SubTropolis in Kansas City takes the cake. It’s the world’s largest underground storage facility, 6 million square feet 80 to 150 down in a former limestone mine. The limestone is 270 million years old, but the use of these caves for climate-controlled businesses only dates to 1964.
LightEdge maintains a naturally cooled data center at SubTropolis. (Photo: Jim Motavalli)
SubTropolis, owned by the wealthy Hunt family, is like an underground city, with the major benefit in hot-summer, cold-winter Kansas City of being a steady 68 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit. No wonder the place gets a 100 percent Energy Star rating — no heating or air conditioning necessary! The U.S. Post Office stores $6 billion in stamps down here, and LightEdge Solutions maintains a naturally cooled $58 million data center.
I’m down in SubTropolis for Automotive Alley, the newest addition. In 2011, Ford announced a $1.1 billion expansion of its Claycomo assembly plant, which makes the F-150 truck (America’s bestselling vehicle) and the Transit van. SubTropolis borders Ford’s property, so what better location for Ford suppliers?
On the surface here, Ford maintains a 29-acre logistics facility where it stages 1,800 Transits, 80 percent of which get shipped by rail from here. But a lot of them go underground, where three companies, Adrian Steel, Knapheide and Ground Effects, have only recently begun “upfitting” them for customers like Comcast, Duke Energy, Western Pest Control, Geek Squad and Halliburton.
First stop: Canada-based Ground Effects, where plant manager April Adams shows me rows of F-150s that are having bed liners sprayed in (a $475 factory option). Across the way, Transits are getting cargo spray floors, Kicker subwoofers and remote starts. The whole spraying thing gets me concerned about ventilation down here, but President and CEO Ora Reynolds and VP Mike Bell assure me that the place is naturally air conditioned through 17 openings. “We have the EPA down here,” Bell says. “Do you think they’d allow us to have bad air quality?”
Reynolds explained that the constant temperature is great for the suppliers, because they don’t have to wait for the trucks to cool down or warm up before getting to work on them.
The auto industry is booming, maybe headed to a 17-million car-and-truck year, and that means multiple shifts for the auto suppliers in Automotive Alley. Ground Effects, which is processing 800 to 900 trucks a week, is hiring. “We’re planning to add some spray robots,” says Adams, who started as an office administrator here.
At Knapheide, workers in dreadlocks were taking a lunch break amid rows of half-finished trucks. If going to work 100 feet underground and upfitting vans between giant limestone pillars struck them as odd, they sure didn’t show it. This company has had a symbiotic relationship with Ford forever, and once made wood flooring for Model Ts.
Emerging from SubTropolis (and into a local town’s notorious speed trap, with a waiting police car and 10 mph speed limits) was somewhat disorienting. It was hot and sunny, a perfect Kansas City day. There was one more supplier to visit, this one on the surface right outside SubTropolis.
“We’ve really been getting into volume in the last couple of months,’ Mark Jackson of Adrian Steel told me. The “Adrian” is for Adrian, Michigan, where the parts the company installs are made. But it makes sense to do that work here, right in the shadow of Ford’s operations. A whole line is just for Best Buy’s Geek Squad trucks, which get racks and other tools to install big-screen TVs and in-home networks. Twenty-five Geek Squad Transits come through here a day, spending 20 minutes at each station. Adrian does conversions to natural gas and propane as well.
SubTropolis is huge already, but Reynolds and Bell showed me a plan with up to 8 million more square feet they could add. I had an idea: classic car storage! People would pay $200 a month easy to store their antiques in a climate-controlled garage. There you go, another million square feet put to use.
Here's some Automotive Alley video:


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(KVOA) – As the holiday season approaches, Americans begin to plan for celebrations. However, celebrations this year may look different due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released its guidelines for gatherings this Thanksgiving.
The CDC says “travel increases the chance of getting and spreading the virus that causes COVID-19.”
High risk activities include:
- Going shopping in crowded stores just before, on, or after Thanksgiving
- Participating or being a spectator at a crowded race
- Attending crowded parades
- Using alcohol or drugs, which can cloud judgement and increase risky behaviors
- Attending large indoor gatherings with people from outside of your household
They recommend having a small dinner with members of your household, online shopping, and virtual dinners.
For more information about the CDC’s holiday guidelines, click here.


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“Back in the fall of 2006, the California Department of Food and Agriculture shut down Organic Pastures Dairy Co. after the state identified six children it said were sickened by E.coli O157:H7. Inspectors invaded the dairy and carried out hundreds of manure and environmental tests. The dairy was only allowed to resume productionsome two weeks later, after its owner, Mark McAfee, called a press conference to protest that the CDFA was dragging its heels in lifting its quarantine–he threatened legal action and consumer protests.
Five years later, and the story has unfolded in amazingly similar fashion. The CDFA shuttered Organic Pastures four weeks ago, after California health authorities connected the dairy with five illnesses from E.coli O157:H7 scattered around the state. Extensive testing of manure samples and the OPDC facilities was carried out. Continue reading


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AUSTIN, Texas — In an already built-up area of town, the Rainey Street District can soon expect another neighbor.
Construction on Natiivo Austin is set to begin in the fall. It's a hotel located at 48 East Avenue, two blocks from Rainey Street.
Robert Lee, CEO of Pearlstone Partners, said it is unlike any hotel in Austin.
"You've never seen anybody be able to own a piece of a hotel," he said.
Pearlstone is one of two developers behind Natiivo Austin. The other is Newgard.
The concept behind this: units that owners don't live in, but rent out instead on Airbnb. Also, owners can't use their units as primary homes. Rather, they're short-term rentals without the bad rap.
"One of the problems with short-term rentals is there's a lot of improper use going on right now. And that's where this backlash is happening, with a lot of short-term rentals where people are illicitly and illegally doing something on their own particularly buried in the neighborhoods," said Lee.
Lee said this home-sharing solution is a one-of-a-kind answer to Austin's booming real estate market.
Offering consumers another option between the $300,000 and $1.2 million price range for one of the 249 units in the 33-story building.
"It's a creative answer, we were the first to come up with this," said Lee.
PEOPLE ARE ALSO READING:


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Bark Social — a bar and park for dogs and dog lovers — is planning to open a 5,000-square-foot location in Downtown Columbia.
On a sunny fall afternoon, Kathy Killion enjoyed a takeout lunch in a small park at The Boro, a budding cluster of shops, restaurants, offices and apartments near the Silver Line’s Greensboro station in Tysons.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) will open eight new branches across Greater Washington by the end of the year as it nears completion of the first phase of its two-part branch expansion in the region.
It bills itself as “the most interesting store in the world,” and now, Showfields is planning to open a new location in Georgetown.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) will establish another 70 branches in D.C., Maryland and Virginia by the end of 2025 as part of a sizable retail banking expansion in the region, where it also opened its long-planned Mid-Atlantic headquarters.
Mid-Atlantic retail leasing and developments have picked up due to stability in the regional economy.
Throughout the pandemic, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) has been expanding its local footprint — a project that began in 2018 when it announced its first branch in Greater Washington. The bank now has 61 branches from Baltimore to Richmond and is a full year ahead of schedule to reach its target of 70… Read more »
The future of Downtown Columbia’s Lakefront District became more clear Tuesday with details of a $325 million investment to bring new office, retail and residential to the area around scenic Lake Kittamaqundi.
A new mixed-use development with 500+ housing units is coming to Parole. The 13-acre site will replace an office park near the town center.
The developers planning the huge North Woodbridge Town Center in Prince William County and moving ahead with the project.
Tysons has long been one of the mid-Atlantic’s largest retail hubs, with two major malls and a series of strip centers drawing shoppers from around the region.
If 2020 was a building year for Downtown Columbia, 2021 was the year of openings. A slew of new restaurants and eateries joined Howard Hughes Corp.’s Merriweather District, the growing urban-suburban development located between Broken Land Parkway and Merriweather Post Pavilion.
There was a time, not so long ago, when the idea of dining in the suburbs conjured up visions of fast food drive-thrus and shopping malls brimming with chain restaurants.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted yesterday (Tuesday) to approve a pair of rezoning applications that will expand the Tysons mixed-use community with 1.1 million square feet of housing, retail, and other amenities.
The developers behind one of the largest projects in Tysons are pulling the trigger on its next phase, the team announced Monday.
They’re the first of 1,800 planned units at the D.C. area’s largest active construction project.
“Property developer and investor Grosvenor Americas has announced a 10-year lease extension with Medium Rare at the popular steakhouse’s flagship location, 3500 Connecticut Avenue, NW. Washington, D.C
The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation has landed two new retailers for its major Fort Totten mixed-use project, and the shape of its second phase is changing.
Plans for the next phase of the The Boro development in Tysons are coming together, complete with new condos, apartments and a senior living facility — and one of the region’s biggest developers is getting in on the action.
The fast-food restaurant Shake Shack is set to open its doors in downtown Towson on Saturday, the first eatery to come online at the Circle East redevelopment.
The Buccini/Pollin Group has completed the $105.1 million project capitalization for the 13-story, 235-room Washington Marriott Capitol Hill / NoMa hotel in Washington D.C.
Howard Hughes Corp. will break ground this month on Downtown Columbia’s next mixed-use building, a seven-story complex within the developer’s emerging Merriweather District.
A year after breaking ground for Halley Rise, Brookfield Properties is still on schedule to finish the $1.4 billion project.


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CREWE’S new Poundland store has officially opened its doors to shoppers with the help of Hollyoaks star Jamie Lomas.
Poundland, Europe’s biggest single price retailer, has taken up its place in Market Street in the town centre.
Jamie Lomas, aka Warren Fox, got the store’s celebrations started by posing for pictures and signing autographs for shoppers.
Store manager Jane Johnson says: “It was a fantastic day, everyone was having fun! It was a great way to welcome shoppers in Crewe to the new Poundland.”
During the family fun day a DJ entertained the crowds and many lucky shoppers won vouchers to spend in the new store.
David Coxon, trading director at Poundland, said: “We are delighted to see that the shoppers of Crewe welcomed us into the community.
“Poundland offers amazing value on many household and branded products and we hope that local customers here will enjoy making us part of their weekly shop.”


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Small business lending continues to reach new heights. This is according to the latest Small Business Lending Index by Biz2Credit. The index classified the lending into two categories, small banks and big banks.
The former’s approval rates jumped to 49.8% in March from April while those at big banks reached a 27.5% high within the same period. This shows a steady climb in business loan applications, and this is all attributed to the rise in digital banking.
In this technological era, many banks are in a race to embrace the latest technology in order to woo more customers and retain existing ones. It’s for this reason that banks have partnered with fintech companies in a bid to streamline their online loan application process.
Therefore, it would be wrong and unfair to criticise banks by stating they don’t embrace technological innovations. As a matter of fact, both have been moving in tandem for the past few decades, at times a mile ahead of the others.
For example, take a look at the cashless payments almost everyone uses today. Credit cards, the most popular, have been in existence for the last 60 or so years, with debit cards coming in 30 years ago. Both forms of payment enable direct transactions.
Today, thanks to technology, the same services are available elsewhere making plastic cards almost unnecessary, especially with the introduction of smartphone technologies. However, even with the goodies’ technology comes with such as volume, speed, interoperability, scale, and security, regional banks and community banks have reasons to be worried.
The End of Community and Regional Banks?
According to Karen Mills, a former SBA Administrator, during an interview with the American Banker, the next banking evolution will be as a result of the partnerships between banks and fintech companies.
In addition, American Banker also hinted at the difficulties community and regional banks will face as a result of the big banks investing huge sums of money in technology. A good example is JPMorgan Chase, which is reported to have spent close to $11 billion in technology alone.
Mills said this move is aimed at taking advantage of the fintech’s platforms and technology, instead of the banks building them. With such resources at their disposal, the banks can determine the creditworthiness of a small business by looking at their eBay activity, Amazon purchases, and bank accounts.
The Rise of Fintech Companies
During and after the last financial crisis, it was next to impossible for a small business to secure a business loan, either for a startup or for expansion. Banks were in panic mode and didn’t want to end up with customers defaulting their payments.
Thus, they imposed hard-to-achieve terms in order to qualify. As a result, small businesses headed failed—until fintech companies surfaced.
They saw a gap in the lending market created by banks and came up with a revolutionary loan application process for small businesses looking for expansion and startup capital. Entrepreneurs flooded these fintech companies, and a chain reaction started.
Online applications went through the roof, and business owners didn’t have to wait for lengthy periods of time to get a decision on their loan applications. The decisions were super-fast, all courtesy of data analysis.
You see, banks relied on tons of paperwork which, in turn, resulted in a long waiting period. With fintech companies, entrepreneurs could submit online applications. That’s not all. The icing on the cake was that this was possible 24 hours a day, which meant no banking hours, a much-needed convenience.
A Win-Win Situation
After evaluating the marketplace, banks and other institutional lenders decided to get ahead of the curve by partnering with the fintech companies such as Biz2Credit, in order to tap into the large and growing digital lending market. This means everyone wins, the fintechs, borrowers and lenders.
This valuable partnership has also provided institutional lenders with an active role in small business lending. As a result, they get more in revenues and reduced default rates, both indicators of the advantages of this partnership.
Another indicator is the number of small business loan requests approved by institutional lenders in April alone. A whopping 65.3 percent. By all standards, this is an impressive and encouraging figure. In fact, this was evidence that the sky is the limit for small business lending after the recession.
Nevertheless, there’s one type of lender suffering under the rise of fintech companies and that is credit unions. This is evident from the reduction in post-recession loan approvals.
However, it doesn’t seem the situation will remain the same for long, especially after their quest to seek fintech partnership in order to remain competitive.
Millennials are today’s customers. They’ve grown up in the technological era, and they don’t have the time to make a physical appearance in order to fill out a form when there’s a fintech offering a digital solution (something they are accustomed to).
By digitizing the entire loan application process, customers can apply for nation21loans.com from their smartphones, and credit unions can turn around their fortunes in the process.
It’s no doubt that banking, similar to other industries, is in the middle of rapid change, all because of technology. In the past, change was slow, constant, and incremental values, but not today. It’s now a roller-coaster ride and every financial institution and the regulators as well are in a constant race to ensure they remain competitive.
It’s already happening in China and in other countries where there are few physical banking locations. In addition, this change in the banking sector may lead to reduced demand for specific job skills.
While this sounds like doom and gloom, plenty of good news lies ahead; for instance, small business owners can enjoy fast responses to their loan applications, easy access to business funding, and above all, a ripe economy to ensure business growth. This means entrepreneurs who shelved their ambitions of running a business can now join the process and apply for a loan with low rates.
However, institutional lenders will need to proceed with caution if they are to realise the full benefits of digitised banking. This means building on the strengths of their traditional methods which include understanding the product, brands, networks, and customer relationships. To do this, they’ll have to have a clear transition strategy which will ensure their core functions remain available, while they embark on innovation and growth.


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Obviously I don’t like sharing bad news but I think it’s better to tell you that a business has closed so you don’t try to visit only to be disappointed.
The last day in business for Jamie’s 14K Cupcakes is going to be Saturday June 2. The lease is up on their retail location and they’ve decided to focus on catering weddings and private events.
City Girl Farm Coffee has already closed. In an honest post on Facebook the owners said:
Unfortunately, the business did not grow quickly enough for it to be sustainable in the current economic climate. This was a very difficult decision and it saddens us that we were not able to keep going.


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The global and Indian electronics industry is now progressing at a rapid speed backed by billions of investments, imperative policies and also due to invention of innovative technologies, tools, and machineries. In India alone, the growth of the industry was projected to Rs 4.58 Lakh crore for the FY 2018-19, but it represented only 3.3 percent share in the international market. According to various experts, this marginal share is mostly due to lack of awareness of several policies, incentives, and most importantly, lack of sophisticated technology and cutting-edge machineries. In order to boost growth and make India globally competitive in electronics manufacturing, the country must implement top-notch technology along with latest equipment. In this regard, we spoke to Rajoo Goel, secretary general, Electronic Industries Association of India (ELCINA) about the various challenges of Indian electronics manufacturing service (EMS) cluster, the current technologies implemented, and why the growth of manufacturing is also related to acquiring state-of-the-art technology and latest equipment.
Q. Why ELCINA was formed and what is its current mission and vision?
The association was formed in 1967 by seven component manufacturers in Mumbai when the electronics industry was struggling to deal with several complicated policy issues, which required to be rectified. From the beginning, our main vision was to expand the electronics manufacturing cluster in the country and our focus was always on strong growth of electronics components and on value added manufacturing. Now, we shifted our focus to help build strong technology and equipment to boost the sector. In the last fifteen years, our focus has been shifted more on EMS sector, raw materials, and equipment manufacturing. Our basic intention is to promote the industry which during the late 60s was a fledgling industry. There is now a growth in the demand for components and electronics equipment.
Q. Currently, what are the various challenges of EMS sector and what are your key strategies to solve them?
By nature, the EMS segment is extremely competitive. They are now growing because a very high share in the manufacturing and production is now catered through the EMS companies, which work on low margins around 5-7 percent. One big challenge is that they have to import all their inputs and all their components. To prevent that we have to strengthen our own component sector and we need to ensure that the supply of component for EMS companies should be regular. Right now, there is a huge issue with the semiconductor devices, which is not available. We have to take tough decisions, invest, and take risks. The country still lacks global-sized EMS companies.
Electronics Manufacturing- Source: Pixabay
Q. Where does technology enhancement in India’s electronics manufacturing stand in the country?
Initially, our primary focus was mostly on value addition because if it is not strong then the country cannot develop any local technology. If a country constantly keeps on importing all its components and raw materials, it cannot develop the core technology, which is required for electronics manufacturing. Currently, a lot of cutting-edge technology are already happening in the country because we are doing a lot in semiconductor design and also, we are doing a lot of innovation in these areas. So, I think we are moving ahead but the problem we face is we don’t have so much funding for R&D for technology development. In fact, the revised National Policy on Electronics (NPE) 2019 focused more on developing latest technology for which investments are already happening. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is closely working with various organizations to develop e-waste management technology, recycle and reduce. But we have to produce more semiconductors in the country.
Q. How technology playing a key role in India’s electronics manufacturing and where is the difference when compared to China, Vietnam, and other European countries?
When compared with Vietnam, India is not far behind technology, but China is now far ahead because it started manufacturing very early. With extreme aggression China expanded its industry, which helped it become the world’s largest exporter of electronics. It has developed its own ecosystem and has got very large specialized industrial parks. In facts, its semiconductor industry is also becoming globally competitive like Japan, Korea, and USA. Although electronics manufacturing in India started long back, the nation failed to develop its high-added value ecosystem. It is not that India does not understand technology, our scientists and technologists are very sharp and they are doing a great job. The problem is India did not develop a healthy ecosystem and in the entire 90s we failed to keep pace with global industry in terms of technology.
Q. What kind of new technologies and machineries required to make this sector globally competitive?
For a sophisticated electronics manufacturing, PCB assembly, and manufacturing of components, a very wide spectrum of equipment and technology is required. A lot of new equipment is required for mechanical processing because there are many metal and plastic components where its molding is also required through wires. The high-tech equipment, which is now used in large numbers relate to PCB assembly and SMT equipment. These machines are not made in India and they are all driven by computers, and extremely precise because they can mount thousands of small components on PCB. We need to manufacture all these machines in India if we have to strengthen our own industry. Even there are specialized equipment required for PCB manufacturing. You need specialized equipment for specializing the film which is used in a capacitor for making ceramics resistor. It is a bit of a chicken and egg situation because once the industry grows, the demand for this equipment will grow. The global manufacturers now are not keen to come to India and develop them and we have to convince them that India is a potential market.
Smart Electronics Manufacturing- Source- Pixabay
Q. What is the role of robotics, AI, and IoT in current electronics manufacturing in the country? What is its potential in the coming years?
If you particularly look at robotics that can perform different works at the same time, it will have some severe impact on employment potential in India. The other angle is the cost aspect because the equipment driven by robotics technologies are going to be more expensive, and it requires specialized maintenance. In India, it is not going to be popular even in the coming ten years. There is now selective employment of such equipment. If you have very high precision equipment driven by robotics it will give you more output. Most of the current equipment used by the EMS and semiconductor industry are not very high-level electronics and it is mostly of software related than hardware. Secondly, if you look at IoT, it is a different subject. It is driven a lot on transmitter, sensors, receivers etc. It’s going to create more of wireless technology via hand-held device and is used in smart cities and industry 4.0. We are going to have a world, which is going to be connected wirelessly at a very high-speed coupled with AI and IoT. We need to invest more in these areas.


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Jack Wills Archives - Inside Retail Asia
Struggling UK fashion chain Jack Wills has been bought by Sports Direct for £12.75 million after being placed in administration.
Prospective suitors are lining up to bid for troubled fashion retailer Jack Wills.
A buyer is being sought for troubled fashion retailer Jack Wills, which looks like having to close stores to survive.
Creditors of fashion label Jack Wills under HSBC have ordered an assessment of the firm’s finances.
British clothing brand Jack Wills has made its Asian online debut on Zalora.
British fashion retailer Jack Wills has reported an unexciting Christmas
British apparel retailer Jack Wills has been sold after another set of dismal figures.
The founder of menswear brand Jack Wills has returned to its helm as the board postpones a planned IPO.
Shanghai might be inside China – but the modern, affluent, westernised city with its glitzy architecture, expensive cars and countless luxury retailers is not the real China. China is a tale of two economies: the fast, flashy city, and the hinterland where the majority of people remain relatively poor and eke out an existence waiting for their inevitable migration to the cities. Which explains why you can walk around a gleaming new mall packed with expensive brands like Burberry, Louis Vui…
UK fashion brand Jack Wills has opened two new stores in Asia within a week. Last Saturday it opened its first store in Singapore and this weekend it will open another in Macau. The new Singapore store is located in the Raffles City shopping centre. Bizarrely, the brand has not yet revealed the location of its Macau store, which opens today or tomorrow. Long queues were visible outside the Singapore store before the doors opened. Prior to the opening, Jack Wills built momentum and a…
British heritage-inspired apparel brand Jack Wills plans an Asian expansion to continue its growth. According to CEO Wendy Becker, Jack Wills is winning favour in Asia, helping it achieved 5.2 per cent sales growth to £129.3 million ($210.6 million) in the year to February 2. Capitalising on its brand appeal, the company plans to open its fourth shop in Hong Kong. And it will also debut in Singapore and Macau within the next three months. “There is strong demand for our brand and …
Two stores set to to open in Hong Kong.


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12.08.2019 (physicsworld.com) - The European Union’s drive to expand its bioeconomy has environmental impacts that are unsustainable and occur largely on other continents, researchers have found.
“I’d like to make people aware of the tremendous pressure we put on the most valuable ecosystems on Earth—in the tropics, for example—by shifting from a fossil-based to a bio-based economy without changing our consumption habits,” says Martin Bruckner of Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria. “I am concerned that current environmental policies do no more than problem shifting.”
Seeking to promote “green growth” while reducing reliance on fossil fuels and petrochemicals, the EU’s Bioeconomy Strategy aims to increase the use of bio-based materials such as textile and oil crops. But while there are some environmental benefits to this approach, e.g. biofuels could help make transport less carbon-intensive, replacing resources with cultivated alternatives is not necessarily sustainable.
Bruckner and colleagues from Austria, Germany and Sweden combined two resource-use models to identify the origins and final destinations of a range of non-food agricultural products. The EU is both the largest consumer and net importer of embodied cropland, they found.
The results demonstrate a way to monitor the environmental effects of bioeconomic policies and could help the EU achieve its sustainable development goals.
Bruckner and colleagues set out to measure the EU’s non-food cropland footprint by tracking agricultural products from the field to the end consumer. They started with a biophysical model based on commodities and land-use data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Although this model follows food products all the way to their final form, it accounts for non-food products only until they reach the industrial processing stage.
To complete the last part of the journey, the team correlated the output of the biophysical model with a database detailing the supply chains of hundreds of products across dozens of countries. In this way the researchers determined the cropland embodied in a range of agricultural commodities, and linked the country of consumption with the country of origin.
Although not the most intensive user of cropland per capita, in absolute terms the EU relies more on imported non-food biomass than any other region. Non-food products consumed in the EU embody nearly twice as much land as the EU uses for non-food agriculture within its borders.
Much of this biomass is imported from tropical countries—Indonesia in particular—where agricultural development comes at the cost of deforestation and biodiversity loss. Although such regions suffer the environmental damage of resource extraction, they do not necessarily gain the full benefit of the trade, as a large part of the value is added by industrial processing in the EU.
Quantifying the footprint of non-food agricultural products could lead to development strategies that share environmental harms and economic benefits more equitably between countries. It could also suggest opportunities to replace environmentally damaging products with more benign alternatives, but this alone will not be enough to mitigate the effects of the expanding non-food sector.
“Replacing palm oil with domestic rapeseed oil, for example, would require three times the land area,” says Bruckner. “Instead of problem shifting we need to focus on reducing consumption levels. This will be the only way we can really make a difference, reduce pressure on ecosystems, and mitigate biodiversity loss.”


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Oculus begins shipping the finished Rift to developers
Oculus has announced that it's shipping "early builds" of its Rift VRheadset to developers, along with the developer kit SDK 1.0. According to the company's blog, "the Rift SDK 1.0 and runtime include features tied to the consumer product, so we've currently limited the release to developers putting final touches on launch titles." Companies now getting the much-anticipated headset are technically not the first to have received it, since Oculus has already delivered engineering samples to privilegeddevelopers. It promised to ship more developer headsets "every week in the run up to the launch."


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ABT Security Systems release new wireless remote camera line
A new wireless remote camera from ABT Security Systems called Redeye allows its users to monitor remote locations anywhere there is a mobile phone network.
Management of the Redeye Camera is via security grade online hosting which ensures secure transmission and access to security images. The online platform allows users to view and manage the captured security images from their desktop and for added security the images can be digitally encrypted. The system can also be configured to send users email or SMS alerts.
Currently the system is mainly being used by New Zealand and Australian law enforcement agencies.
ABT Security Systems is also receiving interest for the product from the hospitality and retail sectors. With no cabling costs associated with installation, many hotels, clubs and retailers believe the device is as an affordable option to deliver security and workplace safety in areas where hard wiring was previously problematic. Further, the camera has a built-in infrared capability with night vision.
“The applications are endless,” says Reg King, CEO of ABT Security Systems. “We’ve recently set-up cameras for construction companies on building sites. Project managers can view construction progress off-site, monitor scheduled deliveries of materials, and ensure equipment and materials are secure.”
“We’ve also had interest from environmental agencies in regard to flood mitigation and the monitoring of sudden weather changes. The ease of deployment and the portability of the cameras is seen as a real benefit.”
Mining companies have also been quick to see the advantages, as have major Utility companies. Mining operations need constant surveillance to ensure operational efficiency and safety but the remoteness of the locations can make daily onsite inspections difficult. With the Redeye camera engineers and safety officers are able to conduct site monitoring in Northern Queensland from their offices in Sydney.
Electricity suppliers can see benefits for remote substation monitoring while water utilities see applications for holding pond and dam monitoring.
“The industrial sectors we’re currently talking to are genuinely excited by this product,” says King. “At half the cost and twice the quality, the Redeye camera is an affordable, easy solution.”
The Redeye camera has also purportedly solved problems associated with sending high quality images via mobile networks.
The camera is the first to incorporate PSIS, a technique where the surveillance camera operates between CCTV and digital still camera modes. Images are captured and stored in high resolution without the usual degradation in quality of CCTV still images. Importantly, PSIS allows for the speedy transmission of high quality images over the mobile network.


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Wisconsin Representative Robert Kastenmeier passed away earlier this year, leaving behind an extraordinary legacy that includes helping pass the 1976 Copyright Act.read more
Weekly copyright related summary of issues, congressional developments, judicial updates, administration updates, international updates and industry updates, provided courtesy of American Continental Group (ACG).read more
California is always ahead of the curve when it comes to rolling out new technology, but the laws that protect associated intellectual property often lag behind. That seems to be something that the state will try to remedy in the case of 3D printing, as copyright is considered and factored into new legislation around even its early uses.read more
Last Thursday, Senators Hatch and Wyden and Representative Ryan introduced the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015, commonly referred to as Trade Promotion Authority, or TPA. The bill provides a mechanism for Congress to establish negotiating objectives for US trade negotiators and is considered essential to concluding major agreements in the works such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). A hearing was held Tuesday by the Senate Finance Committee, and a markup is scheduled for today.read more
Last December, a few glasses of Rioja and I wrote a pretty grumpy rebuttal to Washington Post tech writer Caitlin Dewey, accusing her of cheerleading for media piracy. A few respondents, including Dewey herself, said that I was unfair, that her article about The Pirate Bay was merely reporting facts without editorial. Of course, with certain styles of communication, it can be very difficult to tell the difference between dishonesty in intention and ignorance of how one sounds.read more
On Thursday, April 16, Senate Finance Committee Chairman (R-UT) Hatch and Ranking Member Wyden (D-OR) introduced the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015, a bill that grants trade promotion authority to the Executive. An equivalent bill is to be introduced in the House Ways and Means Committee by Chairman Paul Ryan. The proposed language on IP and digital trade strikes the right balance for American creators.read more


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Uni-fail: Nike misspells Kentucky on John Wall’s jersey
From its seven national championships to its 49 NCAA tournament appearances to its sparkling 23-1 record this season, Kentucky has a lot to boast about when it comes to basketball pedigree. It seems that's not enough, however, for Nike to spell the name of the school right on its jerseys.
Full article at Rivals.com
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Alongside sequels to Control and the Max Payne remakes.
Nintendo gamers, Alan finally has arrived!
Ready to photo bomb Control?
What do you want to see Remedy do with the Alan Wake IP?
This looks pretty trippy!
This is a review roundup for Quantum Break.
Remedy have revealed the PC settings for Quantum Break.
It's almost time for us to get our hands on Remedy's game.
You'll be able to download the episodes in 1080p on Xbox One and in 4K on PC.
Remedy Creative Director Sam Lake has revealed that Quantum Break has gone gold.
Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg explains how they enabled Quantum Break connectivity on Xbox One and PC.
Remedy has taken us behind the proverbial curtain to show us some of the secrets behind the production of Quantum Break.
Remedy has revealed that they are themselves working on the Windows 10 port of Quantum Break.
There's also several ways to get a free copy of the PC version as well.
Apparently time travel is very GPU intensive.
Remedy's Sam Lake opens up about Alan Wake 2's development.


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When contract negotiations stumbled last month between the United Auto Workers and Chrysler, the automaker’s CEO Sergio Marchionne criticized his union counterpart in a public letter. When deadlines passed, he declared new ones rather than continue open-ended extensions. Now he wants to remove a cap on the number of entry-level workers.
UAW president Bob King has already reached agreements with General Motors and Ford this fall. Negotiations with Marchionne and Chrysler will likely be the most arduous yet.
“Chrysler is in a different situation because their balance sheet isn’t as beautiful and the profits haven’t started to fall in,” Kristin Dziczek, a labor analyst at Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Center for Automotive Research, tells Bloomberg News while explaining Chrysler’s harder-line stance.
According to her organization, Chrysler’s hourly labor costs, including benefits, averaged $49 per hour, compared with $56 at GM and $58 at Ford before the contract negotiations began, according to the Detroit Free Press. Chrysler has not yet returned to profitability since emerging from bankruptcy in 2009.
King said the UAW brings some leeway to the negotiating table, but that “we’re not going to give one company an economic advantage over another company,” he tells the Detroit News. “… But as flexible as we were at Ford and did some things differently, we’re flexible at Chrysler.”


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Acquisition part of flavor producer’s goal to provide solutions with sweet and dairy flavors.
August 25, 2022
North American flavor producer FlavorSum, a Kalamazoo, Mich.-based North American flavor producer, announced that it has added Meridian Flavors, a U.S.-based flavor manufacturer specializing in natural, non-GMO and organic flavors to the FlavorSum platform.
Despite all the changes that racked the world — and our corner of it — these past 12 months, as dairy developers survey the trends and technologies that will shape their R&D efforts in 2018, one theme looms above all others: clean labeling.
RiceBran Technologies announced today that it has engaged the services of Teak Media + Communication, LLC , and MarketPlace, the Food Marketing Agency, to launch a comprehensive branding and marketing initiative for the Company.