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OnePlus has also refreshed its Android-based operating system ‘Oxygen OS’ that now features Google Pixel-like app drawer, which can be accessed from any window now, without going back to the home screen of the device. The company has also added to the OS a reading mode that adjusts the screen temperature setting automatically. The reading mode can also be activated manually from the notification area or settings.
The OnePlus 5 is powered by a 3,300 mAh battery that supports dash charge technology introduced first with OnePlus 3 last year. The device sports a 5.5-inch full-HD screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. The fingerprint sensor is placed under the ceramic-coated home button and, the company claims, it could unlock the phone in 0.2 seconds. On the connectivity side, the smartphone supports 34 global network bands and, therefore, could be used across the globe. There is Bluetooth v5.0 on board and Near Field Communication (NFC) chip as well.
The OnePlus 5 is priced at $479 (base model at Rs 30,970 by today's conversion rate) in the United States and euros 499 (Rs 35,876) in Europe. The smartphone would launch in India on June 22.
Watch the unveiling video here:


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Gem and Jewellery Sector Calls for More Liberalised Environment to Unleash Full Potential
Daily Mirror Online
- Advocates for reduction in current regulations, which act as a major impediment to boosting gem exports
Industry stakeholders highlighted that Sri Lanka possesses immense potential to serve as a hub for gem and jewellery in the South Asia region. However, achieving this position necessitates the creation of a conducive environment by the authorities.
“We are looking to increase our exports and for that we are expecting the State to facilitate us. It should be one in such a way that we (industry stakeholders and government) work hand in hand,” said Altaf Iqbal, Chairman of FACETS 2024 gem and jewellery exhibition, which is scheduled to take place from January 6 to 8, 2024.
He advocated for a reduction in the current regulations, which currently act as a major impediment to boosting gem exports.
Industry stakeholders have held discussions in this regard with relevant government officials. While their grievances have been acknowledged, effective solutions are yet to be delivered.
When compared with regional peers, the stakeholders of the local gem and jewellery sector have less liberty when it comes to trading.
When compared to their regional peers, stakeholders in the local gem and jewelry sector have less freedom in trading.
Sri Lanka’s gem and jewellery exports have shown positive growth when compared with 2022. As per Central Bank data, for the year so far, the industry has fetched foreign exchange amounting US$ 315 million, which is a 34 percent increase from what was recorded for the whole of 2022.
Last year, the gem and jewelry sector recorded export revenue worth US$ 230 million.

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text: A quality assurance official inspect a beer at EABL plant. Photo/FILE By MIKE MANDE The East African March 22, 2010 Shareholders of the Tanzania Serengeti Breweries Ltd are in final talks with the East African Breweries Ltd, in a move that will see the latter take over a stake in the brewing firm. Mark Bomani, chairman of Serengeti said the company will then produce five EABL brands - Tusker, Guinness, Pilsner, Malta Guinness and White Cap - by May, after a three month transition period which began on February 22 ends. The transition period was to allow the company to end a manufacturing and distribution agreement with Tanzania Breweries Ltd, a SABMiller subsidiary in which EABL holds a stake. SBL began operations in 1996 as Associated Breweries Ltd (ABL) before it changed hands in 2002, after three local businessmen, Vital Meth, Mark Bomani and Mwita Gachuma acquired the firm. Early in the year, the company injected over $40 million for the construction of a new plant with a capacity to produce 500,000 hectolitres in Moshi, Kilimanjaro region, in a bid to meet the local demand. Teddy Mapunda, the public relations and communications manager of Serengeti said the firm had, in the past five years grown by 10 per cent and that the partnership with EABL would create an opportunity for further growth. Ms Mapunda said during the 2008 financial year, Serengeti paid over $24 million in taxes, making it one of the largest taxpayers in the country. The company produces and distributes Serengeti Premium Lager, Serengeti the Kick, Stella Artois under license from Inbev and Vita Malt Plus, which add up to 180,000 hectolitres of beer per month. Vita Malt Plus is a non-alcoholic beverage produced under licence from Royal Unibrew of Denmark, northern Europe's second largest producer of non-alcoholic drinks.


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Startup Scripbox , a fintech player announced that it has raised $21 million in its Series D round via debt and equity. The company says it will use the funds raised in the round to acquire new customers, expand its product roll-outs, and strengthen its IFA (independent financial advisor) partnership strategy where it could partner with IFAs to provide users tailored investing advice.
Furthermore, Scripbox will also use the fresh capital to add new products like health insurance and retirement-related solutions to its portfolio. The startup was ounded in 2012 by Ashok Kumar and Sanjiv Singhal. While Ashok exited the firm in 2020, and Atul Singhal joined Scripbox as its CEO and founder.
The digital wealth management startup that helps retail investors make better, more informed investing decisions, has around Rs 5,000 crore in investments under management. Its revenue run-rate has increased 4X since FY20, it claims.
“We are on track to achieve operational breakeven before the end of this calendar year,” Atul stated
Of the $21 million Scripbox has raised, $8 million of it is in venture debt for the purpose of financing the IFA onboarding and executing the partnership strategy, Atul said.
Scripbox aims to widen high ticket customers base
“We are partnering with and onboarding like-minded businesses that are seeking succession planning for themselves and their customers. With an enhanced digital experience, Scripbox is able to cater to these higher ticket customers efficiently and at scale.”
The startup’s customers hail from over 2,500 cities and towns across India, and it has processed over 8.1 million transactions to date.
In 2020, the Bengaluru-headquartered startup forayed into the international market to target NRIs, especially in the UAE and Singapore. Using digital, paperless onboarding and new KYC, Scripbox has been able to attract a lot of users to its platform in India, and abroad.
The investment was raised from Accel Partners, and a bunch of other investors including Transpose Platform, the Sparkle Fund, InnoVen Capital, Trifecta Capital, KPB Family Trust, LetsVenture, and Kube VC, YY Capital.
A number of angels including MakeMyTrip’s Deep Kalra, Freshworks’ Girish Mathrubootham, Dell Tech’s Managing Director and President Alok Ohrie, and others participated in the round as well.


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BY D’ARCY PATRICK EGAN
The development of the Reef Runner lures more than 30 years ago in Scott and Betsy Stecher ’s Cherry Street garage on the Marblehead Peninsula helped to revolutionize the walleye fishing industry on Lake Erie, and around the country.
While Scott Stecher will continue to design Reef Runner fishing lures for the next five years, the Stechers have sold the lure company to the Acme Tackle Company of Fort Atkinson, Wisc.
Acme Tackle is well known by northern fishermen for its Little Cleo and Kastmaster spoons, ice fishing gear and bass tackle that includes the iconic Uncle Josh pork strips.
The Reef Runner line will be the first diving plugs, or crank baits, in its catalog.
“Betsy and I won’t be retiring from the lure-making business,” emphasized Stecher. “I’ve agreed to a five-year contract to continue working with Acme Tackle’s Research & Development team to develop new lures and lure colors, including 3-D printing technology.”
Stecher said he already has two new lure designs in the works that should hit walleye waters around the country in 2023.
Acme officials plan to continue the Reef Runner product lines that have proven popular, including the banana-shaped 800 Series, as well as the Li’l Ripper, .44 Mag and Cicada.
Acme Tackle’s President Robin Hancock has long been a fan of the Reef Runner product line.
“We have been talking to Scott Stecher about Reef Runner for a long time and this couldn’t be a better opportunity for both of our companies and customers,” said Hancock. “Acme has built a reputation of quality, innovation and producing lures that really work.
We are eager to bring our capabilities to Reef Runner. Our team is already hard at work designing new products for the brand.”
Reef Runner Lures started small, producing a traditional weight-forward in-line spinner called the Reef Runner, a popular style of lure for drift-and-cast Lake Erie anglers. But gradually the Stechers expanded production with new crank baits, or diving plugs, and innovative lure designs.
In 2008 they created a new company headquarters in Marblehead.
Putting Reef Runner lures in the spotlight in recent decades has been a Lake Erie walleye fishery that has been rated by the experts as the best in the world. Getting the message out was success in many of the top walleye tournaments around the country, especially on Lake Erie.
As tournament anglers transitioned from spinnerbaits and jigs to crank baits to catch trophy fish as fishing electronics let anglers take a new look at walleye habits and locations. Trolling for walleye has become the tournament standard, with Reef Runner Lures leading the way.
“But I still tested our new lures in the swimming pool at Danbury High School, just down the street,” said Stecher, with a laugh.
Living on the Marblehead shoreline of Lake Erie, Stecher had also taught biology at Genoa High School and had a passion for coaching high school football.
Matt Bichanich, Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Acme Tackle Company, said he was excited to add Reef Runner to their extensive portfolio of brands.
“Reef Runner is an iconic brand and crank baits are a product category we weren’t in. Now we can provide our customers with one of the best fish-catching crank baits available,” he said. “I have been using their lures for a long time and I am looking forward to introducing Reef Runner lures to more anglers.”
Acme Tackle’s Hard & Soft Fishing products has roots dating back to 1922, when their first brand, Uncle Josh, began manufacturing in Fort Atkinson, Wisc. They have grown to represent nearly every tackle category on the market for both ice and open-water fishing across their family of brands, which include Kalin’s, Beaver Dam and Uncle Josh.
All of Reef Runner’s products will soon be available at: www.acmetackle.com.


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“Although we support the need to advance renewable and alternative sources of energy, we strongly believe that it is time that the mature corn-based ethanol industry operates on a level playing field with other commodities that rely on corn as their major input,” the groups wrote in a letter to Michigan Congressmen Sander M. Levin and Dave Camp, the chairman and ranking Republican member, respectively, of the tax-writing committee. “Favoring one segment of agriculture at the expense of another does not benefit agriculture as a whole or the consumers that ultimately purchase our products.”
The groups noted their serious concerns over the negative economic effects that government support for corn-ethanol has had on animal agriculture, specifically the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) and the import tariff on foreign ethanol.
“While we support the need to advance renewable and alternative sources of energy,” said the groups, “we strongly believe that it is time that the mature corn-based ethanol industry operates on a level playing field with other commodities that rely on corn as their major input.
“The blender’s tax credit, coupled with the import tariff on foreign ethanol, has distorted the corn market, increased the cost of feeding animals, and squeezed production margins -- resulting in job losses and bankruptcies in rural communities across America.”
The groups pointed out that a September 2008 report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) stated that the dramatic increase in livestock production costs were attributed to higher costs for feed. The CRS report said that “the main driver was feed, which may account for 60%-70% of total livestock production costs in any given year.” Between 2005 and 2008, corn prices quadrupled, reaching a record high of more than $8 a bushel; a pattern that is unsustainable for our industries, the groups said.
“There is no safety net to protect against the volatility in the commodity markets, forcing all industries to pay higher prices for input costs due to the fluctuations in the corn market,” the groups wrote. “While there has been some recent relief in corn prices, current market prices are still 50 percent higher relative to pre-RFS conditions.”
The groups said animal agriculture has suffered serious economic hardship, including:
* The turkey industry has endured the deepest cutbacks of any in animal agriculture – a decrease in turkeys raised of more than 6 percent since 2007 levels and a near 9 percent reduction from 2008 levels – to adjust to these increased input costs. More importantly, the turkey industry eliminated nearly 3,000 jobs vital to rural America in 2008 and 2009 alone.
* The U.S. pork industry endured the two most challenging years in the industry’s history in 2008 and 2009. Total losses for the industry amounted to more than $6.2 billion and average farrow-to-finish operations lost nearly $23 for each animal marketed from October 2007 through January 2010. This financial disaster occurred despite near-record hog prices in 2008.
* From December 2007 to February 2010 the cattle feeding sector of the beef industry lost a record $7 billion in equity due to high feed costs and economic factors that have negatively affected beef demand.
* The cumulative additional cost on the broiler industry since corn prices began their rise in the fall of 2006 has been almost $15 billion, as of April 2010. This additional cost does not include the higher cost of other feed ingredients, such as soybean meal, whose prices tend to move in tandem with corn. Accordingly, broiler companies have suffered reduced profitability.
The groups reminded the committee that animal agriculture is united in its support for energy independence and the development of the renewable fuels industry.
“However, 30 years of support has created a mature corn ethanol industry that now needs to compete fairly in the marketplace and allow for the next generation of renewable fuels to grow,” they said.
John Soules Foods recognized for job creationJohn Soules Foods, a fajita processor and a leading producer of marinated, pre-cooked and other meat products, was recognized by Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade for the company’s steady contribution to job creation and economic development in the state of Texas. Secretary Andrade also commended the company and its employees for more than 23 years of positive community impact in Tyler.
When native Texan John Soules Sr. formed John Soules Foods in 1987, he sought to expand its reach and solidify its status as the region’s trusted provider of meat products. As the company grew, so did its commitment to the people of east Texas and the city of Tyler. The company’s Tyler facility tragically burned to the ground in 1994, and company leaders decided to re-build for growth, opening an 83,000-square-foot USDA-inspected meat processing facility on 67 acres of land just north of Tyler. At the time the new facility was built, John Soules Foods employed 65 people. In the years since, the company has completed two growth projects, expanding the plant to a total of 240,000 square feet containing two high-volume production lines. John Soules Foods now employs more than 500 people in full-time positions in Tyler.
In addition to employing hundreds of Texans, John Soules Foods is proud to contribute to the local economy through the purchase of meat, poultry, packaging materials and ingredients from companies statewide. John Soules Foods estimates that it purchases $50 million annually from Texas companies in order to service its customer base of major foodservice and retail customers.
“Our company has always felt an affection for and loyalty to the state of Texas, the east Texas region, Smith County and the city of Tyler,” says John Soules, Jr., co-CEO of John Soules Foods. “As we continue to serve clients nationwide and internationally, we appreciate the hard work of every employee and ongoing support of the city of Tyler, Smith County and the state of Texas.”
Source: John Soules Foods
Brunswick stew recalled due to allergensThe Murphy House, a Louisburg, N.C., establishment, is recalling 414 lbs. of Brunswick stew products because they contain cracker meal with undeclared allergens, wheat and milk, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service announced. Wheat and milk are known allergens, which are not declared on the label.
The products subject to recall include 5-lb. packages and 24-ounce cups of “Murphy House Barbecue Our Old Fashioned Brunswick Stew” produced on April 2, 2010.
Each package bears the establishment number “EST. 2135” inside the USDA mark of inspection. Cases and individual packages bear the sell-by date of 05/17/10. The beef stew products were distributed at the wholesale and retail level in North Carolina.
The problem was discovered during a Food Safety Assessment of operations at the establishment by FSIS personnel. FSIS has received no reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products.
Cattle futures rise, hogs declineCattle futures rose for the first time in three sessions as a decline in the dollar improved prospects for U.S. beef exports. Hogs declined.
According to Bloomberg reports, the dollar fell the most in more than two weeks against a basket of six major currencies. The U.S. sold 87 percent more beef to overseas buyers in the four weeks ended April 22 than in the same period last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today. Pork exports this year through February were up 1.9 percent from a year earlier, according to the most-recent data.
Beef exports “were good, so if the dollar can stay lower here, that should firm things up,” said Christian Mayer, a market adviser at Northstar Commodity Investments Co. in Minneapolis. “We do have help from the outside markets today, which are more in favor of beef and pork working higher.”
Cattle futures for June delivery climbed 0.45 cent, or 0.5 percent, to 93.875 cents a pound on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The price fell 2.2 percent in the previous two sessions as the dollar index surged to the highest level in almost 11 months. Feeder-cattle futures for August settlement gained 0.3 cent to $1.15825 a pound.
Hog futures for June settlement slipped 0.775 cent, or 0.9 percent, to 83.825 cents a pound on the CME, after earlier gaining as much as 0.4 percent. The most-active contract is up 26 percent in the past year, as losses spurred by high feed costs and swine flu forced farmers to cut herds.


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Now that Microsoft has unveiled some of the games that will be available for the Xbox Series X, attention turns to Sony and PlayStation 5, which has received very little information.
First of all, the Sony since April when it released the command Dualsense for PlayStation 5 has remained silent and previous news are not very favorable to the island compared to the Xbox X Series.
The final design for PlayStation 5 will be officially unveiled by Sony Interactive Entertainment on the PlayStation Blog on June 2, 2020 pic.twitter.com/YmBrVnjZ27— Iron Man (@PSErebus) May 5, 2020
Likewise, Jason Schreier , the former Kotaku journalist , known for having a wealth of information about the gaming industry, said in a podcast published on YouTube that Sony plans to have a PS5 reveal event from early June until in the middle of that month.
On the other hand, he also underlines that in the current world scenario, Sony’s plans may change due to Covid-19 .
Along with this, a user on reddit and another on Twitter stated that the console design will be released in June, on the Playstation blog , as well as DualSense , was announced. More precisely, the leak revealed that it will happen at the beginning of the month, on the 2nd.
In conclusion, Sony plans to launch the PlayStation 5 worldwide in late 2020.


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According to data from video advertising and marketing and animation platform Wyzowl, 86% of companies are utilizing video to achieve audiences and 92% of entrepreneurs say video is a vital half of their advertising and marketing plans. Against that backdrop, digital promoting platform Acuity has launched what it identifies because the top 10 retail sector video ads of 2021 measured by whole views. The winners spotlight some necessary themes, some of them pandemic-related.
Far and away the most well-liked video, with greater than twice as many views as the subsequent on the record, was PETCO’s “It’s what we’d need if we have been pets,” a hit readily defined by the expansion in pet purchases final yr, in addition to the elevated time spent with pets.
CarMax the web and in-store used automotive vendor, was additionally a winner by having no fewer than three ads within the top 10 (no different model had a couple of). According to Acuity, this displays a steeply elevated curiosity within the used automotive market throughout a interval when provide chain points have been making new automobiles laborious to acquire.
Indirectly pandemic-related was the looks of Dick’s Sporting Goods on the record. Their marketing campaign rode the large surge of curiosity in TikTok by partnering with in style younger TikTok creators.
Why we care. The success of PETCo and CarMax raises the fascinating query of whether or not pandemic-related wins are significant long-term. We’ve already seen development decelerate for a enterprise like Zoom that loved huge success with the nation in lockdown. Pet and used automotive buying are reversible developments too.
What is unlikely to be reversed is the urge for food for the sort of snack-sized, spontaneous, relatable video content material created for TikTok (in addition to Instagram Reels), particularly amongst Gen Z, a pattern sensible manufacturers have picked up on.
Get the every day publication digital entrepreneurs depend on.


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A few months back Xiaomi has announced its MIUI 9 update for its devices, and now it is reaching all the supported devices. In case you don�t know whenever Xiaomi realizes that there is a bug in the update, they simply roll out a new version of the software, so this time as well we have good news for all the Xiaomi lovers out there.
Xiaomi has released a new version of the MIUI 9 update which brings some refinements to the old version, let�s check out more about it.
Xiaomi has recently taken a step forward and has also announced that the name of the upcoming UI from them will be the MIUI 10 but we will talk about that some other time as this piece of information is dedicated to the new version of the MIUI 9. Xiaomi has rolled out the v8.1.25 version of the MIUI 9, in case you are wondering this is not the official update it is still lying in the Beta phase, and we are expecting it to go official soon.
However, there are no noticeable changes in the User Interface, but the major change which one will notice at first glance is the all-new Music App. The new update Mi Music app engulfs a redesigned home page and a new current queue layout. The new app has a purple and white theme, the first tab contains Recently played option, the second one has Favorites section, and the third includes My Playlist option.
With this new software update the existing issues like saved contacts appearing as numbers, etc. are fixed in this. It is based on the Android 8.0 Oreo and will take some time to arrive as an official OTA update.


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CBS Sports HQ deploys PORTL holoportation
February 10, 2022
PORTL allows people to be beamed anywhere, for life-sized interactions in 4K. The device has been used by stars like P. Diddy and Migos, as well as athletes like Usain Bolt and Lewis Hamilton. Among NFL stars, Marshawn Lynch and Robert Griffin III are investors in PORTL, as well as the LA Rams’ Sony Michel and Bengals’ Vonn Bell.
CBS Sports HQ is a 24/7 streaming sports network that offers news, highlights and analysis, easily accessible for free on connected devices. The digital network, which allows sports fans to watch full-day, live, anchored coverage featuring game breakdowns and the day’s top sports storylines, is part of CBS Sports Digital.


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Microsoft Corporation on Tuesday announced its financial results for the quarter ending March 31, 1999 and, as expected, the news was good. The company earned $1.92 billion on sales of $4.33 billion, a 43% increase in profits over the same quarter the year before. Windows NT Workstation, Office 97, and SQL Server 7.0 were cited as the biggest earners this quarter.
"Microsoft had solid performance across all product lines, but the brightest spots were the continued migration to Windows NT Workstation, strong demand for Office despite the impending upgrade, and the strength of our server applications. Results in Asia were also much improved," said Greg Maffei, CFO of Microsoft. "However, we remain guarded about growth in 1999, given the likelihood that organizations will lock down their systems infrastructures due to year 2000 concerns."
"Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 is off to a fabulous start," said Paul Maritz, group vice president of Microsoft's Developer Group. "Corporate customers and applications developers are choosing SQL Server 7.0 for their database server needs, and licenses of SQL Server increased more than 50% over the comparable quarter of the prior year."
One interesting note: Microsoft's earnings do not include over $400 million it made from the Office 2000 Technology Guarantee, where users could buy Office 97 and get a free upgrade to Office 2000, which is due in June. The company will realize that money in a future quarter this year


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Tenable stated that a group of scammers tried to sell fake cryptocurrencies to people and put them in Elon Musk’s name online. Commentary on Bitcoin and its importance rose sharply in the early 2010s, then fell again as the price plummeted, and the enthusiasm returned. Part of it can be traced back to our lives.
You are already addicted to online communication, even communication, shopping, and bank transfers. Naturally, the concept of currency will also find a foundation on the Internet. Current examples of cryptocurrency success can be found on Dogecoin. After SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted a tweet, the value of this joke soared, adding color to Dogecoin’s Internet origins.
Maybe cryptocurrency will not go anywhere now or in the near future. As a result, many people started to invest in them because they believed that cryptocurrency stocks were more abundant and therefore could be “safer” to bet. A successful form of currency on the Internet, scams will soon appear.
These specific scammers even chose to name their counterfeit currency “SpaceX Coins”, perhaps to increase the credibility of the entire operation. This strategy seems to have worked miracles: when scammers promoted their projects among YouTube users, they stole nearly $1 million from them. All the money was obtained by scammers in the form of Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and Ethereum.
The increasing use of cameras on the Internet forces people to pay attention to their safety and plans. Cameras are used more and more every day. Whether it’s a mobile application that misleads your personal information or a more sophisticated phishing attack, the online space is not necessarily safe. In such an attack, one can only hope to pay more attention to and question the statement.
Nevertheless, the situation may develop to this day at any time, and network fraud has become more differentiated, and the distinction between authenticity and falsehood will naturally become more difficult over time. We can only remain vigilant and hope to continue to admit these fraudulent attempts.
Tenable stated that a group of scammers tried to sell fake cryptocurrencies to people and put them in Elon Musk’s name online. The increasing use of cameras on the Internet forces people to pay attention to their safety and plans. In such an attack, one can only hope to pay more attention to and question the statement.


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Electric cars are known for being energy efficient, small and quiet. It’s the last part that has some public activists crying foul and the federal government stepping in to make these cars a little less quiet.
The problem is that these quiet electric cars produce no warning noise for pedestrians-especially blind or vision impaired pedestrians-who might not realize they are close and could potentially step in front of them.
Advocates for the blind have been pushing the federal government to do something about these hazardous situation, and the feds have finally agreed. The new federal government mandate will force electric car manufacturers to install a special noise production device which will alert everyone the vehicle is coming, until it reaches 17mph. What is so far unclear is what sort of “noise” will be considered effective and how much this noise device will cost manufacturers and ultimately the consumers.
There is also something to be said for the fact that the quietness of these cars is a selling point. People like quiet cars. The people who are buying electric cars are the same people who are intentionally avoiding ‘noisy’, gas guzzling cars. They think noisy is uncool and quiet is “in.”
Will noisy electric cars sell as well as the quiet ones did? And given that the quiet ones haven’t been selling as everyone had hoped they would be by now, will this spell doom for electric automakers? Only time will tell.
According to a new study by the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs, American new car buyers simply aren’t interested in electric cars, whether hybrid or plug-in. The new study does seem indicate that new car buyers in certain cities are embracing electric cars. Places like Chicago, Boston and San Francisco are showing strong growth in electric car purchases, but this is not enough to sustain the entire industry, the study says.
Given that electric automobile sales across the board have been steadily growing does not seem to influence the authors of this new study. They say that President Barack Obama’s plan to have 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015 is misguided at best.
However, it is important to note that the data for the just released study was collected in autumn of 2011, long before the most current fleet of hybrid electric and plug-in electric vehicles, with increased reliability and extended range hit the market. It was also before the new hybrid-electric Chevy Volt, with a range of nearly 400 miles hit the market.
Their study was also conducted long before the current crop of more than 11,000 electric charging stations were installed around the country. Cities such as Boston, New York, Los Angeles and Indianapolis have embraced electric vehicle technology and have begun installing hundreds of new electric charging stations around their downtown areas. Tesla Automotive has already begun installing a massive nationwide network which allow owners of their plug-in electric Tesla Model S vehicles to criss-cross the country without the need to rush home and recharge.
The Indiana University report data was also collected before Consumer Reports determined that electric vehicles have nearly the same depreciation rate as their fossil-fuel only cousins and began rating electric as higher value vehicles both for their reliability and quality craftsmanship.
Based on all the recent reports showing electric vehicle technology has so far surpassed gasoline technology and expectations, it seems way too early, and indeed shortsighted, to base a study on data collected before a new technology had hardly had a chance to begin.
One of the biggest drivers of consumer demand for electric powered vehicles has been the underlying belief that these vehicles are actually better for the environment. However, a new study conducted by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology seems to cast doubt on this belief.
The study was conducted to determine is electric vehicles simply shift concerns about the environment from one aspect to another. In other words, these new vehicles might not run on fossil fuels, which has been shown to cause global CO2 issues, but what about the toxic materials used in construction of the batteries and the production of the electricity used to power these vehicles? Do these factors outweigh any benefits gained from the fact they do not require fossil fuel to operate?
Perhaps not surprisingly to many, the study showed that yes, these vehicles do shift the balance away from fossil fuels and that the shift results in negative gain. In other words, are electric vehicles better for the environment? The answer is, no.
This does not mean that electric vehicles are bad and the technology should be abandoned. It simply means that consumers should be made aware that there are disadvantages to using electric vehicles and efforts should be undertaken to make them less harmful to environment, much as those same efforts made fossil fuel powered vehicles less harmful to the environment, such as the introduction of the catalytic converter and the elimination of the need for gasoline with lead.
No technology when first introduced is perfect. There is always a learning curve and always room for improvement when something new is rolled out. However, it is important for consumers to understand exactly what they getting before they commit to buy. If they are choosing an electric vehicle simply to decrease their dependence on having to stop at a gas station, then that’s ok. If they believe that buying an electric vehicle will somehow save the planet, well, that’s another story altogether.


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Facebook Video to Turn Up the Volume
Facebook is making several big changes to how it treats video on mobile devices. First, sound will fade in and fade out as users scroll past videos in their News Feed as long as the phone's volume is turned on. Videos will not automatically play sound when the phone's volume is set to off unless users tap on the video to hear it. People who never want to hear sound from News Feed videos can turn sound off entirely via the app's settings. Second, Facebook is taking advantage of mobile devices' form factor to make vertical videos look better. Moving forward, vertical videos will display a larger preview windows that fill more of the phone's screen. The larger format is available to all users on Android and iOS. Third, Facebook is making it easier to watch a video and scroll through the News Feed at the same time. People can minimize videos into a picture-in-picture format that will continue to play in one corner of the screen as they browse through their Feed. Facebook says Android device users will be able to keep picture-in-picture videos playing in the background even if they exit the Facebook app. Last, Facebook plans to bring its video to smart TVs and other big screens. The Facebook video app for TV will roll out soon to app stores for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Samsung Smart TV. Facebook says support for more platforms will follow. The TV app will let people watch videos from their News Feed, as well as those shared by friends, pages, or live broadcasts.
Apple Says iOS 12 Will Be Faster, Work Better On Older iPhones
Jun 4, 2018
Apple today announced iOS 12, its next-generation platform for the iPhone and iPad. Apple says it spent time improving the performance of the operating system, which in claims will work well on iPhones and iPads that went on sale as far back as 2013.
Latest Windows 10 Preview Targets Browser and Maps
Mar 18, 2016
Microsoft has made a new build of Windows 10 available to mobile phones and PCs alike. Build 14291 makes significant changes to several important features.
Apple Reveals iOS 10 Features
Jun 13, 2016
Apple today showed off iOS 10, what it calls the biggest release of iOS ever for both end users and developers. To start, the platform changes up the lock screen, making it easier to access the camera, notifications, Control Center, and widgets.
Facebook Makes Sweeping Changes to Data Collection Policies as It Admits Cambridge Analytica Breach Impacted 87M
Apr 4, 2018
Facebook today made significant changes to its platform as it continues to deal with the fallout from the Cambridge Analytica breach. To start, the company now believes Cambridge Analytica was given improper access to the data of as many as 87 million people, mostly U.S.


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For less than five euros, Yokai offers everyone to receive in a few hours five photos of you in the universe or in the style of your choice, produced by a system based on generative artificial intelligence techniques. This French company was born in 2019 from the association of Matthieu Bizien and Olivier Zetlers and has just launched an iOS application.
The two men had already collaborated on a first project dedicated to automatic copyright protection. Serving more than 5,000 authors, his start-up analyzed millions of web pages to predict which ones were infringing in order to remove them. “A passionate engineer, Matthieu told me about generative artificial intelligence and reminded me of my first professional experience in an advertising agency. We did photo sessions, multiplying the shots and involving a huge amount of post-production work”, remembers Olivier Zetlers.
A stable diffusion based tool
To develop their solution, Yokai uses Stable Diffusion. “This is one of the top three models, it was trained from an open source dataset.” Young Shoot has developed its technology so that, from a few individual images, a person finds himself injected into the desired environment, generated by artificial intelligence. The photographic universe can also place the subject in the series War of Thrones than at Woodstock in 1969.
“The success of the series of events wednesday adams follows the movement of the core of fashion, these unitary styles of clothing passed down by generation Z. We are currently creating a collection in this core of fashion so that people can get an extremely realistic picture of themselves in 80s punk or dark style Academy of Wednesday.” Yokai also plans to release new themes like California’s famous Burning Man festival.
The copyright issue
To place a Yokai user at the center of this American event, generative artificial intelligence will use Stable Diffusion’s macro model and billions of photos from the festival. “Theoretically, the great models of generative AI were built from a corpus of royalty-free images. To respect copyright, the AI must not copy without authorization, so the question is: when the AI produces an image, it is all or part of this photo taken from an existing image? Basically no!”, replies Olivier Zetlers.
Concerned with being transparent on the subject, he recognizes that 1 to 1.5% of the images generated are liable to copy elements. His defense: “These are AI accidents that the labs involved are working on. You can’t blame AI for copying when it learns from the existing one.” These systems just copy, that’s the basic principle of their operation. They mimic the works they were trained in and are especially capable of producing hybrid results from many different sources.
The co-founder believes that generative AI mimics the operation of an artist who is inspired by the work of another to make a painting in a similar but by no means identical genre. “The AI decomposes shapes into complex equations to generalize its understanding. The notion of copying is destroyed in its process.” It should be noted, however, that the question of the application of intellectual property in the scope of image generation has not yet been decided on a legal level.
From the general public to professionals
Yokai puts itself first at the service of individuals with the aim of gradually reducing the cost of its service to become free. “Our system requires powerful, expensive, power-hungry graphics cards,” justifies the co-founder. Generation Z is targeted first, but the start-up intends to open up to other markets in 2023, starting with influencers, professional photographic models and all those audiences that multiply shots and must quickly generate new images.
The co-founders will also look to the B2B market, first with photo printing services that can incorporate the Yokai solution to develop their next generation photo book offering. “We will also approach fashion and beauty brands to offer users the opportunity to generate photos of themselves in the brand’s environment and thus immerse the customer in its universe”.
In the long term, probably in 2024, Yokai will continue its rollout reaching advertising agencies. “Our solution still does not meet the expectations of this market in terms of flexibility and functionalities.” What about professional photographers? “The photographer who brings an artistic dimension will be preserved, he brings his eye to compose the final image, AI will help him.”
protect from deviations
At the same time, Yokai wants to protect itself from potential abuse and abuse of its technology. Some can, in fact, project an image from someone else’s photo. “There’s little risk because the editorialized environments and the imagery possibilities generated remain framed.” Additionally, Yokai makes a point of having a human verify each photo before sending it out to users. “The system is based on images taken decades ago, potentially carrying racist or sexist content from another era. It is programmed to avoid its presence, but the human verifies that the algorithm worked.”
Finally, to prevent an image thus generated from being presented as a photo taken in a real context, Yokai has implemented a content identification system capable of recognizing its own pixels and thus specifying whether the photo was generated by it.
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FILE - In this June 28, 2011 file photo, actor Patrick Dempsey attends the "Transformers: Dark Of The Moon'" premiere in Times Square in New York. Late Thursday night Jan. 3, 2013, Dempsey announced that his company, Global Baristas LLC, made the winning bid for Tully's Coffee. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, File)
Wednesday, January 09, 2013 11:41 pm
Other bidders contest Tully's sale to Dempsey
The Associated Press
AgriNurture Inc. said it's still willing to proceed with its combined bid with Starbucks of about $10.6 million. The bid from Dempsey's company, Global Baristas LLC, was for $9.2 million.
The proposed sale goes before a bankruptcy judge in Seattle on Friday.
Starbucks has said it wants to convert some of Tully's cafes to its own brand. AgriNurture, based in the Philippines, would run the rest under the Tully's name.
Cliff Burrows, who heads Starbucks' Americas business, said he's confident the company put forth the best bid with its companion bidder to give shareholders the most value.
Dempsey said he's confident the court will decide that Global Baristas submitted "the highest and best bid."
AgriNurture, which also does business in the U.S. as Earthright Holdings Inc., already operates Tully's franchises in Asia.
Another bidder has also filed an objection to the sale, saying the rules changed in the middle of the auction.


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KINGWOOD, TX – Ascentium Capital, a leading commercial lender, announced that it surpassed $1 billion in funded volume since its inception on August 4, 2011.
Tom Depping, Ascentium Capital’s President and CEO stated, “Three years ago we started witnessing a major shift in the industry toward the requirement for simplified financing that focused on delivering strategic business outcomes. We knew there was a significant opportunity to distinguish our brand as the preferred lender for business equipment financing, leasing, and loans. The growth over the last three years has been driven by the talent of our people, processes, and proprietary finance platform.”
Ascentium provides custom financing programs and specializes in several industries including healthcare, technology, energy, franchise, and other key markets. Executive VP of Sales and Marketing, Richard Baccaro, reviewed the actions taken in the past year to position the company for strategic growth. “Being the financier of choice requires on-going evolution,” Baccaro said. “Through carefully considered moves at every level of Ascentium, we made great progress in 2014. We’ll remain focused on organizational performance and continuous improvement.”
Ascentium Capital, as a direct lender, specializes in providing equipment financing, leasing, and working capital solutions for equipment manufacturers and distributors as well as direct to businesses nationwide. The company has obtained the ranking as the fifth largest private-independent finance company by volume in the United States. For more information, please visit AscentiumCapital.com.


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Larry Goodman’s ABP has secured the first contract to supply Irish beef to China, ahead of the widely-anticipated opening up of the huge Asian market.
The ABP Food Group has signed a €50m deal to supply Chinese restaurant chain Wowprime in what is a significant first for the sector here.
ABP has been assessing opportunities in the Asian markets over the past seven years, and has now confirmed it has struck a three-year agreement with Wowprime Corporation to supply beef to its restaurants, even before Irish exporters get the green light for access to the Chinese market.
The food group said the contract – estimated at €50m – would also extend to its joint venture partners Slaney Foods, but it remains dependent on Irish beef gaining access to the Chinese market.
China is already the world’s second-biggest beef importer and access for Irish beef would be a major win for their industry. Irish officials travelled to China recently in a bid to progress the long-running bid for access for beef.
read the full story – independent.ie


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Anne Longfield calls for action to curb young players’ excessive in-game spending The children’s commissioner for England has called for tighter legislation to protect young online gamers, some of whom
For more than 140 years, businesses, brands and even pop bands have put pen to paper in the hope of creating a distinctive trade mark that captures the public’s imagination. Since then millions of companies
On its blog today, Google talked up Game Builder, its sandbox for desktops that lets you create 3D games without having to write any code (though you can if you want to). It’s available now on Steam, Mac
Single sign-in can be super convenient — instead of creating a new username and password for each app and website you visit, just press a button to log in with your Google or Facebook account instead.
Over the past several beta releases, Gboard has been A/B testing a slew of new features. Gboard 8.3 enables many of the server-side changes, including Material Theme settings, trending GIF searches, and
Telecoms firm has gone through multiple identities since being privatised in 1980s It has taken years of development and delays, but BT is finally preparing to unveil its new logo – the letters “BT” in


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Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has signed a £65 million contract to build the UK’s first three Protector aircraft - the first UK operated system capable of strike missions anywhere in the world. After ...
We bring together the very latest drone news from hundreds of sources across the web! Product releases, reviews
& videos combined with help on finding some of the very best drone deals from stores and online outlets!
Constantly updated through the day - every day -
the site has everything for the beginner right right through to the seasoned drone professional!


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Are you digging the new Nintendo Switch OLED? Well, don’t worry if you’re not, because Nintendo’s manager of product marketing has advised to “stick with the current Switch” if the Switch OLED doesn’t light your fire.
Nintendo made a surprise announcement of its redesign of the popular hybrid console on Twitter on July 6, and while some were undoubtedly pleased about the model’s new 7-inch OLED screen, others haven’t been impressed by the console’s lack of technical upgrades, specifically that it won’t output at 4K resolution when connected to a TV.
When asked on Twitter by a user if the Nintendo Switch OLED runs games any better, Nintendo’s manager of product marketing said “Nope.
Vision Research has announced a new model in its Phantom TMX ultrahigh-speed camera lineup, the TMX 5010. The new camera Read more
31 Retro Review: Gordon Laing tests out Canon’s 21-year-old PowerShot G1 camera Gordon Laing, Editor of CameraLabs, has shared his Read more
Elon Musk has confirmed a normal wheel is not coming back to the Model S and Model X Love it Read more
POCO India has just shared a new teaser on its official Twitter handle. In this tweet, the company targetted the Read more
The Oculus Quest 2’s base model could soon boast double its storage capacity, based on a listing spotted on French Read more
If you assumed that the Steam Deck's hardware was going to restrict it to less demanding games like older releases Read more
Nvidia’s next-gen GeForce graphics cards, presumably RTX 4000 models, are codenamed ‘Lovelace’ (we’ve heard that name before, of course) and Read more
Playdate was given a pre-order time and date and some more information on how and why you’d want to get Read more
Intel’s Alder Lake flagship CPU has been the subject of another leak, specifically an illuminating benchmark result which backs up Read more
We now live in a world where cheap phones can get premium features like top chipsets and high-res cameras, and Read more
Project 007 is the working title for a brand new James Bond game from IO Interactive, the developer behind the Read more
Tomorrow, July 22, Epic Games will add an entirely new vehicle to its hit battle royale game: the Ferrari 296 Read more


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March 1, 2004
Holy heteros! "Queer as Folk" needs more straight people, Hal Sparks says. "It's the one thing missing in the show," says Sparks, who plays gay comic-book store owner Michael Novotny on Showtime's most popular original series. The fourth season, with 14 episodes, launches April 18. "If our show is building a bridge, it's important to see gay characters with straight friends," Sparks says. "If you're too isolationist, it's counterproductive. We should open doors and open dialogue."


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If, like thousands of others, you plan to use the month of January to kickstart your healthy-eating regime, then recent research from the University of Central Florida may be of supreme interest.
According to a new study, if you want to tone up and trim down, all you need to do is simply invest in a mirror which you position during meal and snack-times.
Researchers in the field of consumer behaviour and decision-making have established that watching yourself eat sugary or fatty foods greatly affects the quantity you consume and the regularity with which you indulge.
Using 185 students as part of her study, Professor Ata Jamie halved the group and placed one half in front of a mirror while the other were unable to see their reflections.
Providing broth groups with fruit salad and chocolate cake, researchers established that those who ate the confectionary in front of the mirror expressed less desire to try the cake again while those who ate the fruit salad in front of the mirror were happy to have more.
Commenting on the findings, Professor Jamie explained: “You don’t want to see yourself eating unhealthy products because that does not match with standards of healthy eating.”
“The disconnect makes people feel uncomfortable — even if they don’t realise why,” he continued while explaining the repercussions of seeing your reflection while indulging in junk food.
In that case, it looks like we can forget the faddy diets and detox programmes, and instead splash out on a new mirror for the kitchen!


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Muscadines, a variety of grape grown in the South, contains a form of vitamin E that may fight obesity. Scientists at the University of Florida found that muscadine grape seed oil contains an unsaturated from of vitamin E called tocotrienol that may reduce the formation of new fat cells.
There are eight forms of vitamin E —four tocopherols (alpha, beta, gamma, and delta), and four tocotrienols (alpha, beta, gamma, and delta).
Previous research published in the Journal of Nutrition found that tocotrienols can keep baby fat cells from turning into adult fat cells that store fat.
Until now, tocotrienols have been found in high concentrations in palm oil and rice bran oil. But the new research found that muscadine seeds also have high concentrations of the nutrient.
For the study, researchers extracted oil from muscadine seeds. They found the oil contained 85 to 90 percent unsaturated fatty acids of the total fatty acids.
"Consuming foods made with muscadine grape seed oil could curtail weight gain by reducing obesity," said Marty Marshall, a UF professor of food science and human nutrition.
Muscadine groups are grown in the South and used to make wine and juice. The seeds are often discarded as waste, although some are used for oil that is sold in specialty stores.
To be useful in foods in order to combat obesity and other diseases, however, scientists must help farmers figure out how to grow large amounts of the fruit.
Most research has concentrated on the tocopherols contained in vitamin E, especially the alpha form, and its use in fighting cardiovascular disease and cancer. But a study published last year in Stroke found that tocotrienols. like those in muscadines, slowed the formation of white matter lesions in the brain, which are connected to the development of neurodegenerative disease, such as Alzheimer's, and an increased risk of stroke.
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In their recommendation report published by the RBI on Monday, the committee listed a comprehensive set of regulatory interventions that will be needed to achieve New Delhi’s goal of a less-cash economy where the focus would be “pivoting the ecosystem from issuance to acceptance.”
Initiatives such as removing transaction charges on digital payments made to government, inducing a competitive Merchant Discount Rates (MDR) pricing structure and easing KYC costs to banks are amongst the key recommendations put forward by the committee.
“The committee noted the recent growth in volume of digital payments by a factor of 10 over five years and has set a target for additional growth of 10x in three years,” according to the Nilekani report. “This growth will be driven by a shift from high value, low volume, high cost transactions to low value, high volume, low cost transactions. Over a longer period, this will eventually lead to a decline in cash requirements.”
The five-member high-level panel headed by Aadhar architect and former Infosys chairman Nilekani was constituted earlier this year by the central bank tasked to submit a comprehensive report holding consultations with all the major stakeholders to strengthen the digital payments industry which has seen a ten-fold growth in the last five years.
The report has made policy recommendations to all major regulators such as RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and DoT with the objective to reduce cash based payments. Additionally, the committee has put the onus on government to be at the forefront of the transition by taking steps such as removing transaction charges on all digital payments made by customers to the government.
“The committee recommends that the Government, being the single largest participant in payments, take the lead on all aspects of digitization of payments… just as the Government budgets for accepting payments in cash, it is recommended that it also budget for accepting digital transactions, ensuring that no convenience fee is charged on C2G payments,” according to the report.
Further the committee has also asked RBI to set an interchange rate for transaction between customers and leave the MDR on competitive market pricing which would reduce the transaction cost for customers.
“…the regulator should adjust the interchange rate and let the market compete on MDR ultimately growing the acceptance ecosystem rather than inhibiting it.”
Special impetus on digitising mass volume channels such as recurring bill payments, toll and ticket payments at public facilities and digital onboarding of khirana store merchants has also been recommended by the panel in order to achieve the targeted growth.
The panel has also asked the government to set up special risk mitigation and complaint registering digital portals. A special data monitoring mechanism to garner granular district level data on consumer trends and payment behaviour has also been suggested by the committee for targeted intervention to improve the existing infrastructure.
“We support macro recommendations to shift focus from issuance to merchant acquisition, simplified KYC for wallets and other instruments and allowing sharing of KYC with PMLA amendment across regulated entities, overall risk based light touch regulation,” said Naveen Surya chairman emeritus, Payment Council of India. “Target of 10x growth in three years is achievable if all these recommendations are implemented in time bound fashion.”
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- FM on Adani Row: Regulators to Take Appropriate Action
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said financial market regulators will do what is “appropriate” on matters related to the Adani Group, which has been targeted by short seller Hindenburg Research.Headcount Falls in Q3 as Tech Hiring Frenzy Gets Real
The top seven IT services exporters listed in India together posted a fall in headcount as on December 31 from three months earlier, suggesting that the companies that were on a hiring frenzy for several quarters have become cautious amid concerns of a slowdown in their biggest markets.Surveillance Measures in Place to Deal with Volatility in Specific Stocks: Sebi
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said Saturday it has observed an “unusual price movement in the stocks of a business conglomerate” in the past week, without specifically mentioning the Adani Group, and added that it has put in place “surveillance measures to address excessive volatility in specific stocks”.
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text: Newly installed electronic parking meters that accept debit and credit cards will be activated Monday at nine downtown Chula Vista parking lots, city officials announced Thursday.The meters, which will also accept coins and pre-paid rechargeable gift cards, are intended to make parking downtown better, faster and more convenient, city officials said."Cities across the country have introduced these new machines and methods of payment," said Diem Do, the city's interim parking director."No one has to worry about searching for change anymore," he said. "People everywhere like the convenience of paying with a card." Volunteers will be out and about in downtown Chula Vista on Monday between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. to assist people with the new machines.The pre-paid parking cards are available for purchase at the Finance Department at Chula Vista City Hall, 276 Fourth Ave.


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Taking a Look at the All-New 2020 Toyota Highlander’s Features
Toyota has finally launched the all-new, fourth-generation 2020 Highlander SUV, and while we’ve already discussed its price and exceptional fuel economy, now it’s time to look at its many, many features.
To start, the 2020 Highlander benefits from being the first Highlander built using the Toyota New Global Architecture. The automaker says this allows the model to enjoy a number of performance upgrades, including a smoother and quieter ride, a tighter turning radius, and enhanced agility.
TNGA has also given Toyota designers more room to work with, and as a result the Highlander arrives with a fresh new look that will undoubtedly turn heads wherever it goes. It’s also more aerodynamically efficient, enhancing not only fuel economy and stability but also reducing wind noise.
The 2020 Toyota Highlander is offered in five new colors: Ruby Flare Pearl, Magnetic Gray Metallic, Blueprint, Opulent Amber, and a striking blue premium paint called Moon Dust. Celestial Silver Metallic, Midnight Black Metallic, and Blizzard Pearl carry over from the 2019 model.
The biggest changes, however, are inside. Everything about the Highlander has been improved, from the improved seat-folding features at the third row to the softer padded surfaces. Legroom is greater and there are up to 454 liters of space behind the third row, and up to 2,387 liters with all the rows folded down — for the Americans, that’s between 16 and 84.3 cubic feet.
Related: Compare the Highlander to the competition
The Highlander is offered at five trim levels: L, LE, XLE, Limited, and Platinum, with all but the L equipped with standard all-wheel drive. Heated front seats, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and an 8-inch touch screen are all standard as well.
You’ll have to upgrade to the XLE to get leather-like material and the full suite of Toyota’s remote and connected services. The Limited adds genuine leather-trimmed seats, a panoramic moonroof, and a 1,200-watt JBL surround sound system with 11 speakers.
On the top-of-the-line Platinum, a new trim level for the Highlander, you get 20-inch wheels, unique styling, a digital display rearview mirror, heated second-row captain’s seats, a massive 12.3-inch touch-screen display, a panoramic view mirror and even a 10-inch color head-up display. In other words, it’s a truly luxurious SUV.
Expect the 2020 Toyota Highlander to show up at your local Canadian dealerships in January 2020, with the Highlander Hybrid to follow later in spring.
Related: 2020 Toyota lineup updates improve style and efficiency
The News Wheel is a digital auto magazine providing readers with a fresh perspective on the latest car news. We’re located in the heart of America (Dayton, Ohio) and our goal is to deliver an entertaining and informative perspective on what’s trending in the automotive world. See more articles from The News Wheel.


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Burglar alarm company Direct Response Security Systems has promised watchdogs that it will not mislead customers.
The Office of Fair Trading and Leicestershire County Council Trading Standards, have secured undertakings from the Sutton Coldfield-based company and its directors David Price, Ranjit Singh Dhillon and Lee Hosking.
The action followed complaints from customers that when offered a "free" alarm system on a limited basis, they were not told of monitoring fees of up to £3,000 over five years.
Now Direct Response and its bosses have given undertakings that they will not:
*describe products as free of charge, or in similar terms, during pre-contractual negotiations with consumers, without disclosing any ongoing fees;
*falsely state that there are only a limited number of free alarm systems available or that the product or offer is a one-off;
*give the impression that the system generates a guaranteed direct or rapid response from the police or other emergency services;
*deceive consumers in relation to the prices normally charged by the company for the product, and installation costs.
Mike Haley, OFT Director of Consumer Protection said: "We are pleased to have worked closely with Leicestershire County Council Trading Standards to obtain undertakings particularly as this case involved consumers receiving potentially false information as they made crucial and sensitive decisions on the security of their homes. It is important that businesses provide upfront and accurate information when selling products and services."


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Second-quarter earnings at Potlatch Corp. fell 29% from he same period a year ago to $8.4 million due to decreases in both sawlog and pulpwood volume, the company announced today. Sales at the timber-harvesting company declined 13% to $112.4 million.
The Spokane, Wash.-based Real Estate Investment Trust, which owns approximately 1.5 million acres of timberland in Arkansas, Idaho, and Minnesota, announced a 53% decrease, to $2.8 million, in operating income for its wood products division. Sales fall almost 14% to $66.6 million.
Potlatch cited an 11% decrease in lumber sales prices over the past year as the reason for the segment's poor performance. Shipments decreased 4%. The segment did record a $2.4 million benefit from a lumber hedge it entered into in October 2010.
The company's resource segment, which covers harvesting operations, recorded a 50% drop in operating income to $7.5 million. Sales fell 32% to $34.3 million.
In a statement, company chairman, president, and CEO Michael Covey said harvest levels at Potlatch's Southern and Northern operations were low due to poor spring weather at its Northern operations and a decision to defer harvesting operations in Arkansas because of declining sawlog prices.
"Out regional diversity will allow us to shift harvest volumes in the second half of the year from the Southern to the Northern region to capture market opportunities," said Covey. "In our wood products business, the stronger prices for wood products we experienced during the first quarter did not continue into the second quarter, modestly impacting results."
Covey said the weak housing market has continued to hurt log and lumber demand, but that demand from China has helped to keep the industry afloat, especially parts of the industry with operations in the North.
The company's real estate segment performed much better than the other segments, however, more than doubling its operating income to $11 million on an 81% increase in revenues to $19 million.


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The paperless port clearance system has received endorsement from stakeholders in the shipping business, one year into its operation at the Tema and the Takoradi ports.
At a forum on the system in Accra last Wednesday, importers and exporters, freight forwarders, shipping lines and their agents, customs officials, port and shipping authorities said the paperless system had eliminated the various challenges that were impeding clearance and raising cost of operation.
They, therefore, pledged to work together to improve on the system by integrating the platforms of all stakeholders to help smoothen the rough ends.
The forum which was on the theme: ‘1-Year of paperless port system: Review of achievements, challenges and way forward,’ was organised by the Ghana Shippers’ Authority (GSA).
A former President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Dr Tony Oteng-Gyasi, who was also the chairperson for the event, lauded efforts by all stakeholders who ensured that the paperless initiative worked effectively at the ports for the past one year.
He said his company’s (Tropical Cable & Conductor Ltd) assessment had shown a considerable improvement in doing business at the ports with the advent of the paperless clearance system.
But he underscored the need for the system to be reviewed in order to further improve it.
The Director-General of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), Mr Michael Luguje, said an assessment by the GPHA had shown the need for the creation of a robust structure that would encourage key agencies to integrate their systems in order for the ports to have 100 per cent paperless operations.
Towards that end, he said the GPHA had begun discussions with the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) for the two institutions to integrate their systems.
“For instance, the GPHA is upgrading its information technology infrastructure to ensure that its systems are strengthened enough to ensure fast progression on the paperless when the integration is done,” he said.
In a speech read on his behalf, the Commissioner of Customs, Mr Isaac Crentsil, said since the introduction of the system in September 2017, the government had introduced several reforms to help better it.
Notable among the reforms, he said, was the reduction of the inspection agencies at the ports from 16 to three entities.
Ideals of paperless are achievable
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the GSA, Ms Benonita Bismarck, explained that the forum was organised to bring stakeholders in the shipping industry together to undertake a comprehensive review of the system after its first year of implementation.
“While commendable achievements are visible, the paperless system, one year after its implementation, cannot be said to be 100 per cent, as there are still requests for additional documents in hard copy,” she said.
In that regard, she indicated that the ideals of the paperless system were achievable because the necessary institutional structures had already been firmly established.
But she added that more collaborations among industry players were needed to encourage the system to work effectively.
Lauding the initiative, the President of the Association of Customs House Agents Ghana (ACHAG), Mr Yaw Kyei, asked freight forwarders to help the system progress rather than developing a means to sway it.
The First Vice-President of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), Mr Patrick Osei-Brogya, scored the initiative 63 per cent for easing business transactions at the ports.
He, however, said there was room for improvement.
The Vice-President of the Ship Owners and Agents Association of Ghana (SOAAG), Mr Adam Imoru Ayarna, said through the introduction of the paperless system shipping lines were now able to submit their manifest five days prior to vessel arrival at the ports.


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EA has just revealed their new marketing videos for Dead Space 2, by scaring mothers.
Watch as the moms are asked to give their reactions to the scary and violent footage of Dead Space 2.
Despite these negative reactions, Dead Space 2 is easily a great looking and promising game.
Dead Space 2 is set to be released on January 25.
Share Your Thoughts Below (Always follow our comments policy!)


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Melon: Brazil exports grow over 60% in OctoberNov, 18, 2022 Posted by Gabriel Malheiros
As expected, Brazilian melon exports rose in October. According to the country’s Foreign Trade Secretariat (Secex), the volume shipped last month reached 35 thousand tonnes, a 63% increase over September but a 23% decrease over October 2021.
According to agents consulted by the Hortifruti publication by Cepea, the increase from one month to the next was expected as the harvest is advancing in important producing states like Rio Grande do Norte and Ceará. However, the lower yield quality compared to last year is explained by logistics problems, such as high sea freight – which limits the exporter’s profitability – the need for more containers, and the poor quality of port services.
See below the track record of Brazilian melon exports (hs 08071900) from Jan 2019 to Sep 2022. The data is from DataLiner.
Melon exports from Brazil | Jan 2019 – Sep 2022 | TEUs
Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)
2022/23 crop partial – Brazilian melon exports plunged from August to October. The volume shipped was 58 thousand tonnes, down 24% compared to last year’s period. As a result, revenue was US$ 44 million (FOB), a decrease of 16% in the same comparison.
To read the full original article, please go to: https://www.agrolink.com.br/noticias/melao–exportacoes-crescem-mais-de-60–em-outubro_472879.html
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Mar, 09, 2020
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The EPA has identified a second illegal defeat device that's programmed in Audi, Volkswagen, and Porsche models powered by a 3.0-liter TDI V6 engine. 85,000 U.S.-spec cars built between the 2009 and the 2016 model years are affected.
Tesla is recalling every Model S built to inspect the front seat belt assemblies. The company stresses it is recalling the Model S out of an excess of caution, and that the seat belt issue is likely limited to a single car.
Fusar's Mohawk smart helmet device features a camera, GPS, Bluetooth communication, black box, emergency beacon, and tracking. It will be available for $550, but early birds can pre-order the kit for $300.
In the tech world, a lot happens in a week. So much news goes on, in fact, that it's almost impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of the top 10 tech…
Land Rover celebrates its Range Rover's 45th anniversary by driving the full-size luxury SUV over a paper bridge in China. Land Rover partnered with British artist Steve Messam and paper manufacturer James Cropper PLC to build the unique…
Chevrolet and the United States Army have designed an experimental Colorado truck powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. The army will test the truck for a full year to see how it holds up compared to conventionally powered vehicles.
Audi says that by 2025, electric cars will account for 25 percent of its U.S. sales. That likely includes both all-electric cars and plug-in hybrids, and represents an audacious commitment by the carmaker.


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Considering the many claims in terms of the uses of medicinal marijuana, is yet again another proof that the use of the said herb can be essential for us, more than what we thought. Researchers have recently found that certain cannabinoids do have the ability of reducing the spasticity in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. However, through the report that has been released by The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, it was shown that although cannabinoids have already proven its efficacy in other areas that may be important to MS patients, they are most likely to be linked to a number of health risks.
Marijuana Wonders For Multiple Sclerosis
According to reports revealed by Source, marijuana is noted to contain over a hundred types of compound. Experts have noted that the THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (Cannabidiol) do have the most medical relevance especially when it comes to multiple sclerosis. On the other hand, in terms of the right prescription, it was found that there is currently no information about the most effective ratio of THC and CBD, which form of ingestion, may it be through smoking or eating, or even how often people inflicted with MS should use cannabis products.
Cannabis Sheds Light As It Offers Hope For MS Patients
In one of her statements reported by Multiple Sclerosis News Today, committee chairwoman Marie McCormick, said that the landscape of marijuana use has been found to have rapidly shifted as more. Furthermore, she adds that more and more states are allegedly legalizing cannabis for the treatment of medical conditions and recreational use. Ultimately, the researchers have highly emphasized that the classification of cannabis as a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Schedule I substance is what makes it difficult for them to conduct further researches. At the time being, scientific efforts are also hindered by certain difficulties in obtaining the accurate access to the quantity, quality, as well as the type of products that are apparently needed to address specific research questions.


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The Financial Times’ Jess Barrett on Apple, Amazon and Facebook
AdslotFri, August 02, 2019
The Financial Times’ Jess Barrett on Apple, Amazon and Facebook AdslotFri, August 02, 2019
On this week’s episode of The MadTech Podcast, ExchangeWire’s Ciaran O’Kane & Lindsay Rowntree are joined by Jess Barrett, global head of programmatic, The Financial Times, to discuss the latest news in ad tech and martech.
On this week’s episode:
– Apple’s third quarter (FY 2019) results show services revenue hits an all-time high. What impact will Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade have on Apple Services? Can Apple compete strongly enough in these 2 areas, especially with so many DTC streaming platforms being launched in TV? What about Apple News and the charges laid onto publishers, with publishers and competing platforms fighting back?
– Amazon’s ad business grew 37% to reach USD$3bn (£2.46bn) in Q2 2019. In contrast to Amazon’s ad growth, the growth of Google’s core ad business has started to slow down, growing only 15% in the last quarter. Is Amazon starting to look like the more attractive option for brands? How can Amazon make this work in markets outside the US?
– EU Court of Justice rules sites jointly liable with Facebook for data processing when using plugins. Will we see a flurry of publishers removing Facebook’s social plugins from their sites? Will other social plugins, e.g. LinkedIn and Twitter also be called out in this? And what about Facebook’s tracking of non-users, to which they have twice lost court battles?
Original Article by Mathew Broughton


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March’s median sales price was $535,000, a 5.8% increase over last year’s median of $505,511 and the highest March level on record. The 778 March sales represented a 19.1% increase versus last year and far above the March five-year average of 631. Supply remains scarce relative to demand, continuing to drive a strong seller’s market in the District.
If you or someone you know would like buying or selling a home, I can help. 703-963-0132 or firstname.lastname@example.org


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God of War Ragnarok Devs May Unveil Release Date at Summer Game Fest
God of War Ragnarok fans may have a reason to rejoice later this week. According to a recent leak, devs are going to reveal the release date for the game at the Summer Game Fest.
“We are overdue for a date,” the leaker hinted on social media, also sharing an emoji of an axe. Fans of the franchise are well aware that Kratos’ main weapon is the Leviathan Axe. The timing of everything, including the axe emoji, seem to point to a possible God of War Ragnarok reveal at the said event.
The upcoming event may be a third-party showcase, but that does not automatically mean that PlayStation will not be handing off a major AAA reveal then and there. In fact, just last August, Guerrilla revealed the release date for Horizon Forbidden West at the Gamescom Opening Night Live showcase.
So far, the only thing that fans know about God of War Ragnarok’s launch date is it will be some time in 2022. Sony even reiterated this information earlier this year. The gaming community is well aware that the game was originally due for launch last year. However, devs decided to delay it to this year shortly thereafter. Former Director Cory Barlog took the blame for the delay.
Barlog also appeared in a quick video this April. “Something cool is coming,” he said at the time. Unfortunately, they were not ready to show off what this project was. It has been two months since the video. Now, fans are speculating that devs have done enough preparation for an official reveal. The showcase will start on June 9th at 11am PT.
Considering that Geoff Keighley had already previously reminded fans to manage their expectations for Summer Game Fest, fans are advised to take the latest God of War Ragnarok release date leak with a grain of salt.
Are you excited for the game? Let us know in the comments below.
God of War Ragnarok Guides:


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It may sound odd to some, but Square believes that the humble receipt can be a powerful tool because it is so closely linked to the transaction between buyers and sellers. Now, the mobile payments company has unveiled a new product that allows direct communications via digital receipts.
Known as Square Feedback, the tool lets buyers weigh in on their experience by clicking a button in their digital receipt and sending a message directly to a merchant. Square thinks the service, which will cost sellers $10 a month, will be a valuable conduit for customer service and allow merchants to build relationships with their clients.
Square Feedback has a number of elements, but one of the most important, the company believes, is allowing merchants to respond directly to criticism. Square processes 10 million digital receipts per month, so it thinks the opportunity to facilitate the building of those relationships is substantial. Square is expected to process around $30 billion in transactions in 2014, according to the Wall Street Journal.
But not all is going well at the company. On Monday, it announced the launch of a new service,, which lets people place advance orders at participating shops, cafes, and restaurants through their mobile devices. The feature appeared to replace Square Wallet, a service that allowed users to pay for all manner of items at participating merchants via their devices. Square Wallet had been seen as a crucial part of the company's overall service, and its demise -- the company will continue to support it for existing users, but will no longer make it available in either the iOS or Android app stores -- is not a good sign for the high-profile company.


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This is the first in a series of profiles on Australia’s leading Fintech Entrepreneurs.
CEO of Tyro Payments, Jost Stollmann, is not your everyday briefcase wielding, cappuccino sipping banking executive. In fact, until he’d stepped foot on the shores of Australia, after circumnavigating the world from his homeland of Germany, he’d never worked a day in a bank in his entire life. Fast forward 10 years however, and Stollmann is one of the driving forces behind the success of local independent eftpos provider Tyro Payments. Along with remaining founders Andrew Rothwell and Peter Haig, Stollmann has navigated the fledgling fintech company through treacherous start-up seas – from securing scarce investment in a barren early-stage funding environment, to gaining an almost impossible to acquire banking license, right through to surviving the ‘Valley of Death’ during the Global Financial Crisis.
A vocal advocate for banking reform, especially when it comes to small business, Stollmann can often be heard publicly lamenting the lack of innovation and progress made by Australia’s staid banking oligopoly. The recent Financial Systems Inquiry saw Stollmann and his team call for a ban on interchange fees, who’s meteoric rise over the past few years through the proliferation of card types, or ‘gaming of the system’ has caused immense stress on local small businesses. These fees, incorporated into the charge each merchant pays to their bank when they accept card payments, has effectively allowed credit card issuers, Australia’s major banks, to use small business to subsidise the reward programs of Australia’s top income bracket, to the tune of $300 million dollars. The very same stratospheric interchange fees on platinum and premium credit cards have also been touted as one factor in the unpopular rise of surcharging by small merchants, desperate to recover costs in order to subsidise their ever shrinking margins.
Breaking into the banking sector in Australia is certainly not for the faint-hearted. Yet Stollmann’s love affair for mission impossible has proven a handy ace up the Tyro team’s sleeve, allowing them to do just that, and turn a profit. And rather than defend his hard-fought for outcrop from other challengers, Stollmann and his team have opened up their doors and arms to the local fintech community, launching Australia’s first ever fintech hub, one floor above their Sydney CBD offices. It’s just another example of an ingrained banking culture of secrecy and smoke and mirrors that Stollmann and his team are determined to turn on its head. And while the retail banking sector in Australia remains a formidable opponent, Stollmann’s drive to continue the technology driven, small business banking success story that is Tyro Payments looks set to continue well into the future.
This is the first story in my Fintech Founders series. You can read them all here.
I write for free and I don’t accept sponsored blog posts, despite being hit up all the time. If this article left you thinking a little differently about the world then please consider supporting me by becoming a patron here.
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COVID-19 has taken a toll on economies around the world as most businesses came to a halt. Consequently, Japan has now fallen into a recession, which has shed a light on the history of these economies.
Japan has the third largest GDP, following the U.S. and China, but as of May 17, the country declared a recession. This comes after two quarters of negative consecutive growth.
Yet, even though the pandemic was a historical downfall for most economies, it’s a symptom for what Japan has experienced for decades.
“Their [Japan’s] economic stagnation has been going on for several ‘lost decades’ due to aging workforce and related shrinking domestic market. The heavy welfare burden of its aging population worsens its economic outlook,” said Kathryn Ibata-Arens, a Vincent DePaul professor of political science at DePaul University.
Currently, the median age population of Japan is 48 years old, making it the oldest of any country. This puts a strain on the economy due to the workforce losing steam.
According to the World Economic Forum, almost a third of its population is above the age of 65 years old, two years older than the current retirement age of 63. Because the country is aging at a rapid rate, its population is shrinking as well. This caused Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to implement Abenomics in 2012, a plan to revitalize Japan’s economy after 20 years of deflation, while keeping fiscal discipline.
In 2013, a big step in Abenomics was executed as the Bank of Japan would buy ¥7 trillion of government bonds every month with electronically created money to bring back demand and increase wages and prices. This momentum saw bare growth and fluctuations in the GDP, but this momentum ended by the October-December quarter of 2019 as the U.S-China trade war and lack of global demand hurt Japanese exports.
“[With] Japan buying government bonds, Bank of Japan (BoJ)’s balance sheet size rose from about 40 percent of GDP in 2013 and reached about 104 percent of GDP at the beginning of 2020. However, this so-called Abenomics did not deliver the hope they had back in 2013, with the economy still struggling to gain momentum,” said Jaejoon Woo, an associate professor of economics at DePaul University and associate editor of the International Economic Journal.
Aside from a struggling economy, Japan is sitting in debt of 250% of its GDP, the highest in the world.
However, this isn’t new for Japan.
In the 1970s, the economy began to take off, and in the late 1980s, it became the envy of the world. The Harvard Business Review said that the model was to be emulated because of its industrial policy, management techniques and product engineering, yet this came crashing down by 1990 as inflation rates soared from real-estate.
This followed into the “Lost Decade”which included 10 years of ongoing stagnation. The 2000s saw some improvement, yet 2009 and 2011 endured negative growth. Even though bare improvement came in the following years, perfection is not always the result after a recession.
“The end of a recession does not necessarily mean a good economic recovery; the last US recession officially ended in 2009, but unemployment stayed high, and wage increases paltry, until just a couple of years ago,” said Animesh Ghoshal, an emeritus economics professor at DePaul.
This is what he predicts what could happen after the pandemic. For 2020, the GDP experienced a growth of -5.16 percent, but in 2021 is expected to rebound by 3.01 percent. Even though economies around the world are going to experience some growth by 2021, Ghoshal said that Japan’s model won’t experience similar growth like Canada, the U.S. and Britain because of its aging population.
He explained how the shrinking labor force makes the supply side diminish as well as a significant amount of people saving for retirement, which decreases demand. However, this comes with an eerie silver lining. As the population shrinks over time, a higher GDP per capita will arise, improving the quality of living.
Yet, the pandemic is still like no other recession seen before.
“This recession is different than any previous one, in that it was caused deliberately, as governments all over the world shut down economic activity. That makes it harder to predict when it might end,” Ghoshal said.
With that, Ghoshal predicted general worldwide outcomes that could arise after the pandemic.
“I expect to see three major changes in the world economy,” Ghoshal said.
First, countries will be more protected and barriers to international trade will strengthen, which is a bad effect. In addition, small businesses may continue to go out, which paves way for large firms to become more powerful. Yet, multinational firms will change their supply chains to get materials from closer to home. This is good in terms of security, but bad with cost.
“After months of online ordering, people may not go back to their previous habits of visiting retail stores, restaurants, etc,” Ghoshal said.
As much work had to be conducted on a software platform during the pandemic, it has played a role in what the workforce could look like in the future. Japan was already using automation as it would help with the labor shortage. The country is also well-known for its production in motor vehicles and electronic equipment, hence Japan’s use of technology was already underway. This could be one of the benefits that has risen from this ordeal, but it’s likely too early to tell.
“In the meantime, there will be winners and losers in the process. Overall, past technological revolution brought the creative destruction, and in the end, led growth, not depression, as loss of jobs can be offset by the job creation elsewhere,” Woo said.
This summer, Tokyo was supposed to host the Olympic Games, but it’s now postponed until 2021. Woo said that Japan assumed that the games would fare well with the economy, while spending a lot as well.
Even though Japan has dealt with economic hardships over the years, Woo said that the country could still remain the third largest economy in the world, but this might be overtaken by younger nations.
“We know that in the long run, India and other economies may overtake Japan, given their relative early stages of economic development, relatively young population and potential for further growth,” Woo said.
Some of Japan’s younger competitors are Brazil, Indonesia and Nigeria as they have median ages that are far below 48 years old. However, Woo also predicted if North and South Korea ever achieve unification, then their economy will be a strong rival for Japan as well as the United Kingdom and France as well as the population. Unified Korea would have a population of 75 million, which continues to grow, and Japan has 126 million, being on the decline. Though Woo, this won’t be the case right now.
“At this point, it is unlikely a peaceful reunification on Korean peninsula,” Woo said.
Correction: A previous version of this story listed Kathryn Ibata-Arens’ last name as”Ahrens.” The story has since been updated to reflect the correct spelling.


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How can the travel industry be more LGBTQ friendly?
According to the World Tourism Organization's latest barometer, international tourist arrivals grew 6% in the first six months of 2018 after a record year of growth in 2017.
City trips have grown four times as fast as total international holiday market over past 10 years globally overtaking Sun & Beach holidays.
Innovation and digitalisation are on the top of the European tourism agenda.
Scandinavian Airlines System has launched commercial service of its new high-speed in-flight Wi-Fi service on its short- and medium-haul routes between Scandinavia and Europe.
How is Chinese outbound tourism progressing in Europe, and what are the key trends? INTERVIEW with ETC CEO Eduardo Santander...
With direct flights from the UK to Langkawi from this December, linking with 14-day Asian cruise itineraries, TUI is launching a unique new tourism product.


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Q&A: Why China has become the Middle East's favorite customer
China’s stake in the Middle East is growing. It buys more oil and sells more goods in the region than any other country, including the US. So why did Beijing vote in favor of Iran sanctions?
The Chinese government needs oil to fuel its modernization and markets to sell its "Made in China" brand. Regional stability is crucial to getting both.Skip to next paragraph
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"Particularly since the Iraq war, the Chinese are more and more willing to sort of question whether ... [US] policy itself isn't becoming, in some ways, a threat to stability in the region," says Flynt Leverett, senior fellow at the New America Foundation.
As a result, China has become more involved in the region, particularly in Iran, from which China gets 11 percent of its oil imports. Mr. Leverett sees China becoming more concerned with "what they see as excessive US unilateralism in the region." Thus its interest in funneling the US desire for Iran sanctions through the United Nations Security Council, which would place some constraints on the US. A few questions regarding China's regional aims:
What's China's economic role?
Chinese trade with the Middle East has roughly doubled in the past five years. This year, China replaced the US as the top exporter to the region.
Chinese exports to the Middle East, including Turkey, were worth $57 billion in 2009, up from $28 billion in 2005. Chinese imports from the region stood at $61 billion, up from $34 billion in 2005. China's global exports for the same period grew 58 percent – from $760 billion to $1.2 trillion.
This rise in trade with the Middle East is not just oil-related. "It is small- time traders with their own shops or street stalls who are traveling between the two regions to either buy goods or sell goods," says Ben Simpfendorfer, of the Royal Bank of Scotland in Hong Kong and author of "The New Silk Road."
In addition, he says he's seen a marked increase in Chinese construction companies winning contracts across the region. Chinese banks continue lending to finance projects, so Chinese companies are able to bring not only their own labor and materials, but their own credit. "They're providing construction services that are at cheap prices compared to their competitors. They bring often the Chinese banks along with them," says Mr. Simpfendorfer.
How much Mideast energy does China consume?
China is the largest importer of Middle Eastern oil, buying just over a tenth of the crude oil exported by Gulf states. It's also Iran's top customer, taking 23 percent of Tehran's oil.


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To the editor:
In Massachusetts 95 percent of lightweight, two-handled plastic bags given out at the checkout end up in landfills and as litter on our land and in our water, harming our environment and wildlife.
In response to these issues, Citizens for Sustainable Bagging is promoting a local ordinance to ban the use of single-use shopping bags in Newburyport.
Since the winter we have conducted two surveys to gauge public opinion about this initiative.
First, CSB surveyed all the downtown merchants and major retailers in the city in order to understand how such a ban on single-use bags would affect local businesses.
We received responses from 104 businesses and found the following:
Only 25 percent of the businesses that responded currently offer only plastic bags to their customers (that is, they don’t provide an alternative such as paper bags), and 50 percent of those businesses would be willing to switch to another type of bag.
Almost three-quarters (74 percent) of the merchants who responded to our survey favor some change in their approach to plastic bag use.
Since completing that survey, we have held positive discussions with several major retailers in Newburyport. We look forward to continued good collaboration to reduce plastic grocery bag use.
More recently, we surveyed Newburyport residents to learn what individuals in the city think of plastic grocery bags.
This survey was administered online, in person and via mailings.
It was sent out to all households, so that all residents had the opportunity to provide their input.
We received over 400 responses to this survey, and the results were as follows:
Nine out of 10 respondents already bring their own bags to grocery stores at least some of the time, and more than half bring them to other kinds of stores.
When people surveyed do not bring their own bags with them, the biggest reason by far is that they forget or do not have time to do so. Nine percent of respondents said they do not have reusable bags, and only 5 percent said they do not think it is important to do so.


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The Rajasthan Police have detained a man for allegedly trying to dupe people by using photos of IAS officer Tina Dabi and asking for Amazon gift cards on WhatsApp. According to the police, the youth first registered a phone number on WhatsApp and used a display picture of IAS officer Tina Dabi.
Posing as Dabi, he would then send messages to unsuspecting people and ask them for Amazon gift cards of various amounts. What made his operational method seem genuine was that the messages he sent were all in impeccable English.
However, the youth’s luck ran out when he sent a similar message to Rajasthan Urban Improvement Trust secretary Sunita Choudhary. Much like his earlier messages, he sought an Amazon gift card pretending to be Tina Dabi.
Choudhary said she almost believed the message she received on Monday evening from the fraudster’s number since it was in flawless English. However, since she does not use Amazon, she decided to give Dabi, who currently serves as Jaisalmer Collector, a call.
According to Choudhary, Dabi was shocked when she learnt about the messages being sent in her name. She immediately informed the Jaislamer SP who then tracked down the number to a youngster in Dungarpur. The man was soon arrested and is currently being questioned.
Dabi also issued an appeal to people to be careful of messages from unknown numbers. She further said she has only one official number.