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Ubisoft's creative team captured quite a bit of influence from the heavy amounts of civil war and child soldiers that helped shape the history of the areas surrounding the Himalayas.
Minecraft is so huge, so popular, so big that it manages to find its way into other popular games in ways you don't always imagine. The latest bit of news involves a mostly functional recreation of Minecraft in the game Trials Fusion, Ubisoft's side-scrolling, physics-based motorcycle game.
Ubisoft's CEO recently made some inflammatory comments about the Wii U, noting that the system just isn't much of a carrier for mature-rated games and that the audience isn't there to support them.
Ubisoft released a new trailer for The Crew detailing a list of the game's features, game modes and some of the skill challenges that players will be able to partake in throughout the open-world of The Crew.
There are still plenty of videos and promotional content coming out of Cologne, Germany from the past week's GamesCom event. In addition to Ubisoft recently releasing the trailer about the various sections of Kyrat, a new gameplay video has surfaced for Far Cry 4 featuring actual play through by a real gamer... not a very good gamer, but a real gamer nonetheless.
A new trailer for Far Cry 4 has surfaced featuring a glimpse into the game's expansive and massive open-world play-scape. The video details a look into the game world and some of the locations that players will explore throughout the play experience.
Ubisoft unveiled a brand new video for Assassin's Creed Unity, featuring 11 whole minutes of gameplay and the new “Black Box” approach to mission structures that enable players to explore and complete mission parameters in a more free-form way.
It's really hard to like Assassin's Creed Unity when eight minute videos featuring some nifty naval gameplay taking place in the Arctic make Assassin's Creed Rogue look like the definitive AC game due for release this year.
Assassin's Creed Rogue is coming to Xbox 360 and PS3 this fall, but could it make its way to other platforms as well? Ubisoft addressed the possibility of porting the game to new-gen consoles in a new interview.
No one was surprised when Ubisoft announced a new Assassin's Creed game today for PS3 and Xbox 360. What is shocking, though, is that this last-gen game actually looks better than the new-gen Assassin's Creed Unity.
The first trailer for Assassin's Creed Rogue has leaked. Rogue is a brand-new title in the series being developed for PS3 and Xbox 360.
If you want to see more of Assassin's Creed Unity's depiction of Paris, Ubisoft has just what you need. They've sent out a new batch of screenshots with diverse locations throughout the city.
This weekend Assassin's Creed Unity voice actor Dan Jeannotte answered questions about his character Arno. The Q&A gave us a lot of information on the French Assassin players will become.
Ubisoft recently released a new trailer to demonstrate the new capabilities of the game engine powering Assassin's Creed Unity. We learn a little more about the improved combat mechanics, the upgraded parkour abilities, as well as the game's day and night cycle that has been upscaled to fit the needs of new generation hardware.
Ubisoft wanted to change their image as the company who puts out amazing stage demos but fails to deliver on the gameplay front, by releasing an actual gameplay video of Rainbow Six: Siege.


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It is not quite a year since Porsche launched the second Cayenne generation onto the market in February 2007. The new models with their higher-performance engines are equipped with direct gasoline injection, and their fuel consumption is up to 15 per cent lower. Customers are showing a corresponding degree of interest: in the first half of the business year
2007/08 (January 31, 2008), unit sales are expected to have risen to approximately 20,340 vehicles, doubling the equivalent figure for the previous year.
The USA is still the most important market for the Cayenne, with about 30 per cent of vehicles being sold there. Thanks to the Cayenne, Porsche continues to achieve high growth rates in China, Russia, Latin America and the Middle East countries.

domain: news


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Morrisons and Ocado continue online dating discussion but it's not a done deal
A patnership between Morrisons and Ocado, which could see Britain’s fourth-largest grocer make its debut online through the upmarket internet-based supermarket, is edging closer.
The pair have been in talks since March and sources say that a number of different options are still being considered.
‘There are many ways to skin a cat,’ said the source suggesting that an agreement is still not imminent, adding: ‘Morrisons could still walk away from the talks and go it alone.’
Internet dating: Morrisons and Ocado have been in negotiations about a possible merger since March.
The supermarket is the only remaining grocer of any scale without a website offering home delivery, and analysts have long speculated that Ocado could be a quick, if expensive fix. The talks have primarily been over sharing technology.
However, Ocado which sells Waitrose items, has also started selling its own products. The talks could include Ocado sourcing its fresh produce from Morrisons, which owns a farm and abattoirs. Another option being considered is that Ocado would provide the delivery backbone for Morrisons’ products.
This speculation, at the end of last week, sent shares in Ocado up 12 per cent but they came down as much as 5 per cent yesterday, recovering to close down 3.1p to 165p after Ocado issued a denial.
It confirmed it was in discussions with Morrison which ‘may lead to an agreement to license certain of Ocado’s... intellectual property and operating knowledge’.
But it added: ‘The arrangements under discussion do not involve Morrisons acquiring either the whole of, or an equity stake in, Ocado.’
Morrisons has struggled over the past year with, experiencing its first drop in annual profit for six years.
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The U.K. Should Be Wary of a Trump Trade Deal
President Donald Trump tweeted on Tuesday that he was working on a potentially "very big & exciting" trade deal with the U.K. that would shame the "very protectionist" European Union. He's right that such a deal could be politically advantageous for both governments. For U.K. consumers, though, it might deliver little more than chlorinated chicken.
U.K. International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, whose talks with U.S. trade officials prompted Trump's tweet, estimates that a deal could boost trade between the two countries by 40 billion pounds ($52.2 billion) a year by 2030. That's ambitious but not outlandish: Back in 2013, when the U.S. was negotiating the ill-starred Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the EU, a U.K.-commissioned study found that it would increase trade between the two countries by some 38 billion pounds a year by 2027.
The TTIP is a logical template for any new deal. The U.K. hasn't negotiated a trade agreement since it joined the EU, so piggybacking on the experience of the bloc's master negotiators makes sense. That said, achieving Fox's trade-volume goal will require going to the limit of what the TTIP contemplated. That means removing all tariffs and 50 percent of all "actionable non-tariff barriers," including 75 percent of restrictions on chemicals, vehicles and business and technology services. Among the highest non-tariff barriers are those for food: They increase U.S. importers' cost of accessing the U.K. market by an estimated 46 percent.
The food issue is likely to be the most controversial. The TTIP died in part because Europeans -- Germans in particular -- feared a drop in quality standards and the growing power of U.S. multinationals. In the U.K., EU membership has raised the quality of local produce and -- at least in London -- improved the availability good food from Italy, France and Spain. Anyone who has had a chance to compare the food in the average European store -- including a Tesco in the U.K. -- with its U.S. counterpart knows how obvious the quality and taste gap is.
Understandably, the public discussion of a potential deal with the U.S. has focused on food, and specifically on the American practice of washing chicken carcasses in a chlorine solution (banned in the EU since 1997). Pressed by pro-EU campaigners to eat chlorinated chicken on his U.S. trip, an irate Fox remarked that the media were "obsessed" with an issue that wouldn't come up until a late stage in the talks. But Brits can be forgiven for worrying about U.S. chicken flooding their supermarket shelves: Even if it is is safe and 20 percent cheaper than poultry produced in the U.K. to EU standards, many Britons would rather stick with the kind of food to which they have become accustomed. And no matter how many scientists defend genetic modification and the various additives that are permissible in the U.S., freeing up the markets for these imports won't be popular.
Meanwhile, the balance of power in the negotiations doesn't bode well for the U.K. side. It's the smaller market, accounting for less than 3 percent of U.S. trade, and the government of Prime Minister Theresa May needs a quick success with a major trading partner. Fox has already been building up expectations: In a recent article in The Sunday Times, he promised that the U.S. deal would be "just the beginning" of opening up post-Brexit U.K. to global trade.
Trump, by contrast, is in no hurry. A deal makes sense for him only if he wins in zero-sum terms. U.S. negotiators might not take Trump's urge to stick it to the EU too seriously, given that annoying the world's largest economic bloc isn't in the country's strategic interests. But they won't be able to ignore Trump's desire to do only deals that improve the U.S. trade balance. Trump likes imagining trade in terms of tangible objects, such as cars or, yes, chickens. So, perhaps for a better deal on services, the U.K. will need to give on things like cars and food -- and the U.K. government won't rule out changing some quality regulations to do a deal.
Weak as the U.K. may be in the Brexit talks, it has a stronger hand than with the U.S. It's a bigger trading partner, absorbing between 8 and 17 percent of the exports of the remaining 27 EU nations (depending on the measurement method). And EU negotiators haven't attended the Trump school of economics: They aren't aiming to increase their trade balance with the U.K. at any cost.
The U.K. ought to concentrate on the more important trade relationship with the EU. With the right concessions, it can still get a good deal. Hoping for a victory with the outwardly friendly Trump administration is delusional.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Mark Whitehouse at email@example.com


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Garmin has acquired Alphamantis Technologies, a company that designs and develops aerodynamics testing equipment for the cycling industry.
“Alphamantis is on the leading edge of aerodynamics analysis in the cycling world, and that makes the company a perfect fit for our robust suite of bike products,” said Cliff Pemble, Garmin’s president and CEO, via press release. “Aerodynamics is another way for cyclists to measure and improve their performance – something our customers crave.”
We interpret that to mean they’re working on equipment and data sets that’ll use your speed, power and other on-bike metrics to determine your drag. And then figure out an easy to understand number that shows just how aero you are. Could be similar to what Velocomp’s PowerPod does, could be different, but will no doubt be interesting.
At the Specialized Turbo Vado commuter e-bike launch, they hinted that Garmin would soon have new data fields available on their GPS cycling computers. Now they’re here, letting you control the e-bike’s settings directly from the Garmin device. It should work for both the Vado and existing and upcoming Levo eMTB bikes. From the press release:
“Specialized launched the Turbo Levo data field for Edge cycling computers in March of 2016, and it has been downloaded by thousands of users since then,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of worldwide sales. “Our cycling customers have consistently requested to have the same data fields they can get on their Edge available from their wearable as well, so we took that valuable feedback and are happy to announce these latest updates.”
With the updated data field, cyclists can view their power output setting on their eBike directly from the Garmin wearable on their wrist. Users can also view their battery level from their wrist, with the number turning red when the remaining capacity is below 30 percent. The assist level – turbo, trail and eco modes – will be saved in the activity file, making it easily viewable on Garmin Connect.


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UN Says Eating Insects Will Solve World Hunger, Global Warming, Pollution, and Create Jobs The latest weapon in the U.N.'s fight against hunger, global warming and pollution might be flying by you right now. Edible insects are being promoted as a low-fat, high-protein food for people, pets and livestock. According to the U.N., they come with appetizing side benefits: Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and livestock pollution, creating jobs in developing countries and feeding the millions of hungry people in the world. More
King, Messiah: New baby names suggest high hopes Talk about high expectations for a newborn: King and Messiah are among the fastest-rising baby names for American boys. They're just a little behind Major, the boy's name that jumped the most spots on the Social Security Administration's annual list of popular baby names. More
'Pink slime' critics fight ammonia-treated meat ALBANY, N.Y. • In less than a week, "pink slime" — the stomach-turning epithet for ammonia-treated ground beef filler — has become a potent rallying cry by activists fighting to ban the product from grocery shelves and school lunch trays. Though the ... 03/14/2012 - 5:58 pm | View Link
'Pink slime' critics fight ammonia-treated meat In this undated image released by Beef Products Inc., boneless lean beef trimmings are shown before packaging. The debate over “pink slime” in chopped beef is hitting critical mass. The term, adopted by opponents of “lean finely textured beef ... 03/14/2012 - 12:26 pm | View Link
"Pink slime" critics fight ammonia-treated meat "Pink slime" just went from a simmer to a boil. The stomach-turning epithet for ammonia-treated ground beef filler has suddenly ... The National Meat Association also has joined the fight, refuting that the product is made from "scraps destined for pet ... 03/14/2012 - 8:36 am | View Link
"Pink slime" critics fight ammonia-treated meat ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- "Pink slime" just went from a simmer to a boil. In less than a week earlier this month, the stomach-turning epithet for ammonia-treated ground beef filler suddenly became a potent rallying cry by activists fighting to ban the product ... 03/13/2012 - 5:00 pm | View Link
"Pink slime" critics fight ammonia-treated meat ALBANY, New York (AP) -- "Pink slime" just went from a simmer to a boil. The stomach-turning epithet for ammonia-treated ground beef filler has suddenly become a potent rallying cry by activists fighting to ban the product from U.S. supermarket shelves and ... 03/13/2012 - 5:00 pm | View Link
Turbografx-16 Reviews A-D by The Video Game Critic You can get better shooters for your Turbografx, but this one isn't too shabby, especially since two people can play cooperatively. You and a friend will fly through ... 07/26/2014 - 8:49 am | View Website
Life Healthy Oshkosh: Lifestyle choices key to managing your cholesterol. Molly Yatso Butz is the Community Health and Wellness Director for the Oshkosh Community... 07/25/2014 - 11:16 pm | View Website
Food Fraud-Yummy! Ammonia-Treated Pink Slime Now in Most U ... And to emphasize: this pink slime isn’t just in fast food burgers or free lunches for poor kids: With the U.S.D.A.’s stamp of approval, the company’s ... 07/25/2014 - 3:31 pm | View Website
Ghostbusters II (1989) The discovery of a massive river of ectoplasm and a resurgence of spectral activity allows the staff of Ghostbusters to revive the business. 07/25/2014 - 6:27 am | View Website
'Pink Slime' Makes Comeback as Beef Prices Spike Business 'Pink Slime' Makes Comeback as Beef Prices Spike Surging U.S. Beef Prices Revive Ingredient That Nearly Disappeared Two Years Ago 05/23/2014 - 2:44 pm | View Website
While corporations like Hobby Lobby have been battling to take away women’s choices when it comes to contraception, the Gates Foundation and MicroCHIPS Inc. strive to give women full control over their own reproduction. MicroCHIPS is in the process of developing a contraceptive implant that can be controlled wirelessly and, unlike contraceptive implants like IUD’s, would only need to be replaced every 16 years or so.
(Hammerin Man)We’ve told you before about the idiotic loophole in some banks’ stop-payment policies that can allow a supposedly blocked check from being cashed after six months, but here’s a story about a Wells Fargo customer who got written confirmation from Wells Fargo that it had stopped payment on a check that had already been processed.
Our colleague Karin Price Mueller has the story in her latest Bamboozled column for the Newark Star-Ledger.
It all began in early 2013, when the Wells customer made a costly mistake.
This article is by staff writer Holly Johnson. A few weeks ago, I was browsing the Internet with my morning coffee when a link to a write-up at USA Today caught my eye. It read “Price tag for the American dream: $130K a year.” The article, which is based on a study conducted by researchers at Cornell University, claims that the rising costs of everything from food to housing have resulted in a new American dream that is out of reach for all but the one in eight American families who earn at least $130,000 per year.


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Aug. 6—July 10 marked the start of LGTBQ+ Pride Week in the Northern Indiana town of Goshen, and Fables Books was ready to help kick off the event.
The shop invited three writers to read their work, sign books and talk writing and LGTBQ issues with readers. There was fiction and non-fiction writer Dawn Burns, poet Mary Catherine Harper, and J.R. Jamison, of Muncie, author of the memoir "Hillbilly Queer," a story about growing closer to his politically opposite father on a road trip during the 2016 election.
The gathering was not unlike any other you might see at a locally-owned bookstore across the state of Indiana — a group of people discussing their recent book club read, a story time for children and Bible study.
Locally-owned bookstores, as it turns out, are community hubs. Not only is a bookstore a place for new ideas, education, exploration and adventure, but they grow strong roots in the towns and cities they call home.
Bookstore origin stories vary across the state but usually come down to two common threads: a love of books and community.
"Independent bookstores are important because they are typically run by people in the community," said Brian Alford, who co-owns Between the Pages, 2350 N. Lebanon St., in Lebanon with his wife Cathy. "We participate in a lot of community events that a big box store just isn't going to do because they are just a big corporation that is there to open their door. We are invested in the community and we really want to see it thrive and bring our own spin to it. Not just open a store every day and sell books."
In Goshen, local bookstore Better World Books was going out of business. Kristin Saner, a former employee, along with several friends who also had retail experience at the store, reached out to the community to see if Goshen would welcome a new bookstore in its place.
The answer was a resounding yes.
So Saner and her colleagues (her husband Mark, Veronica and Gary Berkey and Brad Weirich) bought the business and renamed it Fables Books, located at 215 S. Main St.
"Independent bookstores are a place of community because they provide community gathering space," Saner said. "People come in not only to shop but to find places to gather with friends and family."
Being in the heart of downtown Goshen allows the bookstore to participate in First Friday. They stay open late and engage with the monthly theme.
It doesn't have to be First Friday to find something happening at Fables Books, however.
There are author talks, books and cocktails, there's even a silent book club, the perfect set up for introverts, Saner said. Just bring a book and read with others.
Mickey's, 624 Vincennes St., a bookstore and coffee shop in New Albany, recently celebrated their one year anniversary. It's a small shop that has quickly branched out as an active member of the community.
Sunday, July 31, they held their first community exchange event, inviting local produce sellers, nonprofits, local businesses and more to open booths in in a vacant lot by the bookstore. It was an idea that grew out of their one year anniversary event. They chose to highlight other organizations and businesses in New Albany as part of the celebration.
"So many people were seen who never got the opportunity, and a lot of people are going now to these businesses and supporting the nonprofits," said book shop owner Mickey Ball.
The shop partners with the literary journal samfiftyfour to hold open mic nights that often fill the shop to capacity. Ball said the shop is located near a school and in the afternoons students come to study, read or just hang out with friends.
Locally-owned bookstores are "a little spot of enjoyment where (people) can find adventure or gifts or something to just encourage the community in a positive way," said Angela Britt, owner of Angela's Bookstore, 103 W. Washington St., in Monticello.
"In communities, bookstores are a safe haven for so many and also for adults to find books and stories that they can see themselves in," Jamison said. "But also to find books and stories where they can escape and also to have events where the community can come together and talk about books. They know their community and the needs of the community. I find independent bookstores to be a vital part of the overall fabric of the community."
New or used?
Walk into Chapter 2 Books, 107 E. Sycamore St. in Kokomo and there will be plenty of reading options to make a book lover smile. But if they knew there was a backroom filled with thousands of books that aren't ready to sell, that might be pure torture.
"It takes a long time to process (used books)," said store owner Jennifer Marden.
Many of the state's independent bookstores chose to start with used books.
"Particularly, cost-wise there is a little bit of advantage starting out with used books," Marden said. "There are a lot of stores that do both. And we do a little bit of new with our local authors."
Working with used books has several advantages, she said. A lot of the time people are just willing to donate them. This creates instant profit for the bookstore if those books sell. Then there is the ability to work with store credit.
At Chapter 2 Books, the store gives customers who bring in used books store credit. The customer can then use that credit to purchase books. If they so choose, they could later trade in those books for more store credit. It's a continual loop that benefits both business and customer.
Used books also create a level playing field. With prices for a new book ranging from around $10 for a paperback to sometimes over $30 for a hardback, a used book store gives lower and middle class families opportunities to enjoy owning books.
Angela Britt sells both new and used books, with used books starting in price at $1. There is always something in her shop for every budget, she said.
Between the Pages also began with a focus on used books, however, they later decided to incorporate new books as well so they could have a good representation of both past and present releases in their inventory selection.
"We were kind of hesitant that the price would shock people because we went from used books that were in the three to six or seven dollars range to having hardback books that are $28 dollars," said Alford. "We were worried that would shock some people. But they didn't hesitate. They have actually been very receptive to it. It's been a good addition to the bookstore."
At Fables Books, the five co-owners want to give readers of all ages the opportunity to do what they love to do: read.
"Not only are we providing windows into the world for all people but we are also providing affordable books for all people," Saner said. "Books provide such wonderful connection to the world around us but they can be expensive. Used books are accessible to everyone to have that connection."
Many people want to talk to Kokomo's Lisa Fipps about her middle grade book "Starfish," a novel-in-verse about bullying.
Fipps, on the other hand, has wanted to talk about independent bookstores this summer.
Fipps is a member of The Renegades of Middle Grade, a group of middle grade writers founded by James Ponti, author of the "City Spies" series. They decided to spend some time over the summer promoting 500 independent bookstores across the nation via a social media campaign called #indie500books.
They post pictures of the shops and provide details about what make the bookstores unique on their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
A teacher in Ohio, Fipps said, has been trying to visit the promoted bookstores near her, including those in Indiana and Michigan.
"What it's doing is making people aware of indie bookstores and their special features," said Fipps, adding she was getting ready to post about a California bookstore called The Book Bar, a shop where book lovers can grab a book and a glass of wine.
There is a campaign among Indiana bookstores called the "Hoosier Indie Bookstore Tour." Customers can purchase a small wooden Indiana token that has the names of participating bookstores on it. The goal is to then visit each bookstore. When visited, a shop will cross their name out on the Indiana token, creating a multicolored keepsake when the campaign ends.
Customers are encouraged to take pictures at the Indiana bookstores they visit and post on social media with the hashtag #hoosierbookstoretour.
"Booksellers are great at selling ideas," said Marden, whose shop is a participant in the tour. "Everyone is in it together. We're all competing against the Evil A (Amazon). That's what we call them in the bookseller world. And we are all kind of banded together to defeat the bad guy who is out there selling books for so cheap we can't even get them for as cheap as they sell them."
Where everybody knows your name
Fipps recalled working as a journalist at a small newspaper whose office was inside a mall. Across the way was a flower shop, and the owner would greet everyone in a way that showed she knew them as friends and neighbors instead of customers.
"It's all about relationships: creating, building, sustaining relationships," Fipps said. "A chain store cannot do that. They cannot get to know you as a person like an independent bookstore can."
Relationship building is a big goal for Marden.
"Honestly, I feel like they are friends, our regular customers," she said. "They know me. Some of them have been to my house and gone to a graduation party for my step-daughter. There's a personal touch you aren't going to get (at a chain store)."
Jamison said he often felt overwhelmed when walking into a big box store with their large selection of books and overstuffed floor space. He prefers the quaintness an independent bookstore provides.
"That doesn't mean that they don't have as many titles, but it's a more intimate experience," he said. "Typically the bookseller knows their customers because they are all local and they have their finger on the pulse of the community, and it feels like more of a community atmosphere than going into a big box store."
Sarah Layden, a creative writing professor at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and author of upcoming 2023 short story collection, "Imagine Your Life Like This", said the community atmosphere in independent bookstores is a draw for her as a customer.
"I think the thing I love the most is the connection that you can make, not only with the booksellers but other customers and readers, with people who are part of the bookstore community — whether they are coming in for readings or they are just there browsing," she said. "There are a lot of organic conversations that happen in that space. And a lot of times, it's booksellers recommending things and telling you about authors you have never heard of before or books you haven't discovered yet."
Poet Mitchell L.H. Douglas, also an IUPUI professor whose 2018 poetry collection "dying in the scarecrows arms: Poems" was reviewed by U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith in Oprah Winfrey's "O Magazine," said that walking into an independent bookstore was like a homecoming.
"I'm shopping with someone who could live next door to me, someone who knows the challenges of my community, and supports local writers," he said. "It makes the decision to shop local very easy."
Book sales have soared over the past few years, both physically and digitally, thanks to the downtime the COVID pandemic created.
Inflation and gas prices have wreaked some havoc on book sales of late, but they still remain higher than at this point in time during pre-pandemic 2019.
Not everyone has easy access to a bookstore, be it chain or local, however. Some smaller cities and towns have library options, but if someone wants to purchase a book, Amazon is the most likely option.
It doesn't have to be.
Jill Christman, a memoirist and Ball State professor, whose new book "If This Were Fiction: A Love Story in Essays" arrives Sept. 1, 2022, said purchasing online is the best option for her. She bypasses Amazon, however, and goes instead to BookShop.org.
BookShop.org launched in January 2020 and partners with independent bookstores. Customers may select a bookstore to support with their purchase, and that bookstore will receive a portion of the funds from each sale. If no bookstore is chosen, money will be added to a general fund and split between all the bookstores affiliated with the website.
BookShop.org says it has raised nearly $22 million for independent bookstores since it opened.
"In the last five to 10 years there has been a movement to support local businesses and also local artists," Saner said.
Jamison said he is unable to get chain stores to carry his book, even those located in the same town as he. However, when he reaches out to an independent bookstore they almost always begin selling his memoir.
Many of the bookstores work to support local writers, hosting book signings and readings. Between the Pages hopes to go as far as creating a little in-store library so their customers can check out books and sample local and unknown authors, creating a try-before-you-buy option.
"There's just something about a bookstore," said Marden. "It's not like 'here's another place to eat' or whatever. I've had people say 'I feel like this is the hope for our community. This place is hope that we are gonna be OK.' There's something about that knowledge, or idea that people are going to be OK if we can support a place like this."


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Android phones with 5.5-inch or larger screens are now cheap enough to buy a smartphone with, with the Samsung Galaxy S5 selling for just $500, and the iPhone 6S selling for about $1,000.
The S5, however, was only available in India on sale until May 23.
Samsung’s flagship handset was the only phone that could be pre-ordered in India, and pre-orders were limited to just 500 units, making it more expensive than its US counterparts.
But its release was a resounding success, with more than 200,000 units sold by May 30, and Samsung expects to sell up to 300,000 of its devices this year.
For many smartphone enthusiasts, the iPhone 5s and 6s have been their top smartphone for years, and it’s a shame the Galaxy S6 is a complete washout in India.
The Galaxy S7, a phone with a 4.7-inch screen and a $750 price tag, has been a popular smartphone for many, with many people willing to shell out for a device that’s smaller and cheaper than its big brother.
While the S6 has some nice specs and an impressive camera, it’s hard to recommend it over a phone that’s only marginally better.
But, the fact that Samsung is selling its phone for less than $500 and the Galaxy 6s for less still doesn’t seem worth $1k for a phone, so that’s not really a big deal.
It seems to be a very expensive smartphone to own, and if you’re looking for a great deal on a great phone, look no further.


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Britain’s Next Top Model has taken 11 cycles to bring in a trans gender model. Tallulah-Eve Brown, who is the current Miss Trans Gender Birmingham, has modelled in the past, being an ambassador for Marie Claire’s Break Free campaign in 2016.
— Talulah-Eve???? (@BNTMTalulahEve) February 7, 2017
Trans models are gaining recognition in the modelling world, with Isis from America’s Next Top Model fronting an Amercian Apparel campaign a few years ago, and current model Hari Nef making waves in high fashion.


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It’s not been a pleasant few months for many UK listed retailers. Fears over squeezed consumer spending and Brexit have led investors to move away from the sector. Clothing retailers, in particular, have been hit hard, with the share prices of even market darlings such as boohoo.com falling heavily.
With this in mind, I was drawn to today’s latest update from small-cap, omnichannel-based women’s fashion retailer Quiz (LSE: QUIZ).
Strong online sales
Interestingly, it would appear that the positive trading momentum highlighted in January has continued.
Revenue rose by 30% to £116.4m in the 12 months to the end of March with sales in its UK stores and concessions increasing by 12% to £64.6m (thanks to a combination of “strong like-for-like performance” and new store openings).
The biggest jump in sales, however, was seen online. Thanks to “increased and effective marketing spend” and growth in the product range (e.g. bridalwear and the plus-size Curve range), revenues here rocketed 158% from just under £12m in the previous financial year to £30.6m in 2017/18. Having hitherto benefited from selling its wares on third party websites, the company now believes that the launch of own language international websites will help drive growth going forward.
Any negatives? There was mention of higher operating costs as a result of “earlier than anticipated” investment in “central functions“, including recruitment for its buying, merchandising and marketing teams. Money was also spent on expanding the company’s distribution centre and IT resources. Nothing too concerning though.
No, the main problem with Quiz still seems to be its rather steep valuation. Despite the aforementioned negative sentiment towards retailers, the company’s stock still traded at 24 times forecast earnings before today’s statement. Sure, that’s not as high as online giant ASOS but it’s still a fair bit higher than, say, Superdry or Ted Baker, both successful brands that have an established presence in overseas markets. I also still need to be convinced by CEO Tarak Ramzan’s assertion that the company has a “distinct USP“, or at least qualities that make it a safer bet than its peers.
Quiz shouldn’t be ignored, in my opinion, but it’s still not a screaming buy.
If you want an example of a stock that fully warrants the fall in its share price, look no further than Debenhams (LSE: DEB). Despite selling the aforementioned small-cap’s clothing, the department store group continues to underperform and remains one of the most shorted companies on the market.
Trading over recent months has been awful with price slashes and clearance sales failing to bring shoppers to its doors. With this in mind, February’s announcement that 320 jobs would be cut as part of a management shake-up wasn’t entirely unexpected. Arguably more surprising was March’s news that Mike Ashley-led Sports Direct had increased its holding in Debenhams to just under 30%, stating that it saw “huge value” in a strategic partnership between both companies.
While a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of just 6 for the current financial year may attract bargain hunters, I remain convinced that the shares are cheap for a reason. Traders may profit from any hint of a reversal in fortunes and shorters closing their positions (interim results are out next Thursday) but with online competitors continuing to steal custom, I find it difficult to see how Debenham’s long-term prospects can be anything other than bleak.
Following Brexit, fear and indecision could hurt share prices in the coming months. That's why the analysts at the Motley Fool have written a free guide called "Brexit: Your 5-Step Investor's Survival Guide". To get your copy of the guide without any obligations, click here now!
Paul Summers has no position in any of the shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has no position in any of the shares mentioned. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.


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| Apple |
Daily update ⋅ August 23, 2015
Tesla Engineer Joins Apple's Growing Team of Automated Car Experts
Consumer electronics company Apple has hired a senior engineer from electric car maker Tesla Motors, according to a LinkedIn posting, as part of ...
9 Features Apple Music Needs To Win Over Power Users
Some iPhone 6 Plus devices have faulty cameras, says Apple, as it offers free repair
Apple said "a small percentage" of 6 Pluses have a faulty component that affects image quality, and that the company will replace the iSight camera on ...
Official Apple Watch smart bands rumored for 2016
Filed today under "rumors of questionable authenticity" is a whisper that Apple has plans to bring out a range of smart bands for its Apple Watch ...
Apple Responds After Dr. Dre's Apology to Women He's 'Hurt'
Apple said it supports Dr. Dre after the rapper apologized "to the women I've hurt" via a statement to The New York Times. Dre's statement came after ...
Revealed: the first hydrogen-powered battery that will charge your Apple iPhone for a week
Does Xiaomi pose a threat to Apple's iPhone empire? Not even close
Apple iPad Pro: Release Date, Specs, And Everything We Know So Far
Initial reports claimed the size of the device, and that it would be announced by Apple on its upcoming event in Sept. 9. Several reports about the tablet ...
Apple and Dr. Dre address the rapper's contentious past
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Lowe's has tapped Publicis Groupe's Starcom handle media planning and buying duties after a review that began last fall.
The company spent an estimated $370 million on ads in 2015, and around the same amount from January through November of last year, according to Kantar Media. Omnicom’s PHD and WPP’s Mindshare also participated in the review. Incumbent OMD did not.
The firm hired a new CMO, Jocelyn Wong, while the review was in progress. She issued this statement today: “Lowe’s continues to explore the most compelling and efficient ways to reach consumers in a dynamic and ever-changing marketplace. We were impressed with Starcom’s capabilities and their digital first, omnichannel approach to media and believe they will help us remain innovative and well-positioned to connect with home improvement consumers.”
The home improvement chain has been struggling lately. Earlier this year it confirmed that it would lay off “less than 1%” of its 285,000-person workforce as part of a plan to rejigger the staffing model in its stores. The rejiggering is designed to boost productivity and increase staff-to-customer facetime.
The company missed earnings and revenue expectations from analysts in the third quarter of 2016 and the firm acknowledged at the time that store traffic was down. It is scheduled to release full-year 2016 numbers next week.


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As part of its month-long World Environment Day celebrations, the Builders’ Association of India (BAI), Mysuru, is organising its third edition of MyGreen exhibition from July 1 to 3. MyGreen is an exclusive exhibition of eco-friendly products.
The exhibition, to be held at Jayamma Govinde Gowda Convention Centre, is expected to bring under one roof all eco-friendly construction materials, sustainable and renewable products, technologies and organic food products.
Speaking to mediapersons here on Wednesday, BAI district president N Subramanya said that MyGreen exhibition was intended at creating awareness among people about eco-friendly practices to be adopted during the construction of their houses.
The exhibition will be inaugurated by the former CFTRI Director Dr V Prakash on July 1 at 9:30 am.
The three-day exhibition will have around 50 stalls from various reputed companies promoting eco-friendly products. The exhibition will have on display manufactured sand, landscaping, terrace gardening, clay products, slag cement, PVC doors and windows, eco-friendly steel buildings, bamboo roofing, solar water heaters, prefab buildings, water treatment equipment, organic food products and vegetables, etc.
The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) will be showcasing concepts of rain water harvesting, bio gas, solar energy and renewable energy. The Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited (KREDL) will also put up a stall displaying various concepts of renewable energy.
The exhibition will be open from 10 am to 8:30 pm on all the three days.


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If the recent onslaught of spy shots is any indication, development is well under way for the successor to the Pagani Zonda. AMG is once again developing the engine especially for the supercar – tentatively known as the C9 – which means that the new Zonda has to undergo the same exhaustive battery of tests as any new Mercedes. Just as well, because the new C9 is expected to be produced in far greater numbers than its extremely exclusive predecessor.
To gear up for that kind of production, which, aside from the engine, is built entirely in-house, Pagani is preparing to open a brand new factory. The new facility in Modena, Italy, the heartland of supercar country, will be three times larger than the existing factory and is slated to begin operation in 2010 when the new C9 will hit the streets.
[Source: evo magazine]


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In the last few years, we have seen a rise in episodic games. It is becoming quite normal for games to be released in episodes rather than in one go. Well, Hitman can now be added to that list.
It has been announced that the upcoming Hitman title, Hitman, will be releasing in episodic form. Hannes Seifert, Head of Studio at Io-Interactive said, “we decided to take the full leap and publish Hitman as a truly episodic game experience.”
Hitman will be one of the first AAA titles to be released in episodic form followed by Final Fantasy VII, both from Square Enix.
The first episode will be released on March 11th, the second episode will come around in April and so on.
For fans not keen on episodic releases, Hitman will be released on disc at the end of 2016, however, this will lead players to miss out on weekly events that occur during the game’s initial run.
Also announced is the Hitman Collector’s Edition. The Collector’s Edition will contain a full game download code, hardcover 60-page art book, curated by Art Director, Jonathan Rowe, 10” Agent 47 “Chessmaster” Statue, Agent 47 Iconic red tie and clip set and Premium Collector’s Edition packaging (aka the box).
Hitman Now a Fully Episodic AAA Game
Io-Interactive today released further details for Hitman which launches on March 11th for the PlayStation 4 computer entertainment system, Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, and Windows PC.
A change to the release structure, sees Hitman become a truly episodic AAA game experience, with a major live component. Where players will perform contract hits on powerful, high-profile targets in exotic locations around the world.
Starting with a Prologue Mission and a Paris location on March 11th, followed by the next location, set in Italy releasing in April and then Morocco releasing in May. From there Hitman will deliver regular monthly content updates, including three additional locations; Thailand, the US and Japan until the season concludes in Japan later in 2016. With weekly live events and additional planned content in between the monthly updates.
“We decided to take the full leap and publish Hitman as a truly episodic game experience,” said Hannes Seifert, Head of Studio at Io-Interactive. “Part of that decision is for that little bit of extra time to ensure every location we release is at the quality level fitting for a Hitman game. But the main driving reason is that this will allow us to create a living game that will expand and evolve over time and establish a foundation for the future – this is the first game in a storyline which will continue and expand with future Hitman games.”
A new Intro Pack now contains Prologue and Paris levels and will release at the new price of $15 (or local equivalent). Each subsequent location will be priced at $10 as an add-on item to the Intro Pack. Alternatively, players can buy the Full Experience up front for $60. This includes all of this year’s content as it’s released, and guarantees them not to miss any live or bonus content.
The disc version of Hitman will ship at the end of 2016.
PlayStation users will also gain access to The Sarajevo Six. 6 Bonus Contracts, one of which will be released with each location and sees Agent 47 travel the world in pursuit of six former members of a paramilitary unit called CICADA in this self-contained side-story exclusive for PlayStation 4 users.
For players wanting to get into the game early, the Hitman beta starts on February 12th on PlayStation 4 and February 19th on PC. Players can guarantee access to the beta by pre-ordering the Full Experience or the new Intro Pack.


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now that marshmallow (Android 6.0) has been around for several weeks, it is not surprising that there is already an update 6.0.1 suggest some devices. In this particular case, said devices are select an Android handsets. According to reports, only a limited number of users have received the update, but so far. Take a look:
after a Google search, the model number is listed, H220 is the cherry mobile Android G1 for the Philippines. Strangely enough the Android Security patch level is from 1. December 2015 Despite today not only November 22, 2015. Provided that the roll-out is not a mistake, it seems to imply that Google has already finalized the updated integrated voice patch despite this month, just over one week left.
There is currently no information as to what this 6.0.1 update brings with it, but the general assumption about the Internet is that it closely with fixes and improvements of stability.
Phone Arena has reported that "HTC ROM Developer @LlabTooFeR has it, after 6.0.1, Google plans to roll out Android 6.1 Marshmallow, although this is likely to happen from next year." Assuming this is true, it would raise the question of whether Google release 6.0.1 to other equipment (e.g. the Nexus series) simply directly to 6.1.
We have more to this story as it develops, but now let us all our eyes open for any updates that may be the country in the next few weeks.


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Delta Is Adding First Class-Like Perks to Economy Cabins to Make Flying Suck Less
When you splurge for a premium class airline ticket, you're paying to be wined and dined like royalty...
When you splurge for a premium class plane ticket, you're paying to be wined and dined like royalty. But for those of us on a more economy cabin-caliber budget, flying coach often feels like riding in steerage, stripped of any special perks. That's about to change for those who fly Delta, which announced on Tuesday it's adding some first class-esque touches to its economy cabin service on some of its flights.
In a move to make flying suck a bit less for those of us in the cheap seats, Delta is preparing to upgrade its main cabin experience on international flights to include some seriously cushy perks, including free welcome cocktails, hot towel service, and improved "bistro style" dining options. The new offerings will roll out on long-haul flights starting in November, according to the company.
As for the specifics of the new perks, every Delta passenger flying coach on long-haul international routes (flights 6.5 hours or longer) can expect a "Welcome Aboard" cocktail (a peach bellini) shortly after departure, followed by a hot towel service. The new meal service will include upgraded mix-and-match appetizers and larger entrees, plus dessert (and complimentary wine) -- all served with upgraded cutlery on custom dinnerware and placemats. Folks will also be treated to a hot towel service and free chocolates before the flight wraps up. Yes, there will be two hot towel services.
“This is about investing in every single customer who chooses Delta, no matter where they sit on the plane,” Allison Ausband, Delta's senior vice president of in-flight service, said in a statement. “The thoughtful touches we’re investing in throughout the new Main Cabin experience were designed by flight attendants with one goal in mind -- delivering an exceptional experience that our customers will rave about and one that our team, the best in the business, is proud to deliver.”
The changes come as part of a new Delta initiative to make flights more comfortable for everyone. Back in April, the world's second largest airline announced it was cutting how far back people can recline their seats on domestic flights to reduce legroom cramping. It also recently upgraded amenity kits across all cabins for international flights (they now include cleansing towelettes, face masks, a dental kit, and ear plugs), according to Travel & Leisure.
Compared to other major airline offerings in the economy cabin on international routes, Delta's will be industry leading. For example, United coach passengers on long-haul trips get free beer and wine and a three-course meal, while hot towel service, pre-flight cocktails, and departure chocolate are not standard. On American, passengers simply get a meal and beer and wine.
Of course, if you're only concerned with getting where you want to be safe and reliably, a hot towel and a little chocolate probably aren't going to sway you if you can find a cheaper flight elsewhere. Then again, next time you see a good transatlantic Delta deal, consider a three-course meal and take-off bellini an added reason to pull the trigger.


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MoonPay and Julie Pacino Partner on First Film Inspired by NFT-Native Photography
MoonPay, a crypto payment platform, has partnered with filmmaker and producer Julie Pacino as co-executive producer for her upcoming feature-length film, “I Live Here Now”, based on her 2021 NFT photo collection of the same name. This production is the first NFT-native photography intellectual property to inspire a film. Funded in part by Pacino’s follow-up collection named “Keepers of the Inn”, the film release date has not been announced yet but is expected to drop soon. Pacino, a long-time proponent of NFTs and Web3, has directed several short films at her production company, Tiny Apples. The psychological horror story behind “I Live Here Now” focuses on a struggling actress facing childhood trauma and exploring a remote hotel in the woods. Pacino supports using Web3 technology in the film industry to finance creative work outside large production studios and crowdfunding platforms, particularly for underrepresented artists. MoonPay’s involvement in the project could potentially help raise brand awareness and support its goal of onboarding more people to Web3. Head of Entertainment at MoonPay Tom Capone expressed being thrilled to support Pacino’s vision, and Pacino’s new NFT portrait series “Hollywood Mornings” is set to drop later this year in collaboration with MoonPay.
#MoonPay #Julie #Pacino #Partner #Film #Inspired #NFTNative #Photography


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Canada Post raises ante in high-stakes poker game with Canadian Union of Postal Workers
In a media release posted on its website Tuesday, Canada Post said it as notified the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) that it will be changing the terms and conditions of employment for all employees represented by the union starting Friday, July 8, 2016.
Canada Post said the reason is the uncertainty caused by the prolonged negotiations and the union’s strike mandate is having a negative and escalating impact on the postal service.
Canada Post said customers are already looking to avoid the risk of a work disruption.
The company said examples of the impact are being felt across the network:
- Nearly all of our largest e-commerce customers have already moved most or all of their parcel volumes to other carriers, resulting in a volume decline of at least 75 per cent from these customers.
- The number of parcels arriving at our largest plants via transport trucks has declined to the point where there often are not enough parcels to last an entire processing shift.
- Lettermail is down in many facilities by as much as 50 per cent and over the weekend, commercial customers deposited half the mail they usually deposit.
Canada Post said the corporation must now respond to the rapidly deteriorating volumes and the financial impact to the business, using the means provided in the Canada Labour Code.
“As of Friday, July 8, 2016, the terms and conditions of the current collective agreements will no longer apply,” the media release explains.
“Under the new terms and conditions, employees will continue to receive their regular pay and some benefits such as applicable prescription drug coverage. Other items will be cancelled in line with the statutory minimum conditions established under the Canada Labour Code. The Corporation will also have the flexibility to adjust staffing according to the amount of work required.”
In order to take this step, Canada Post said the corporation has followed the procedural requirements and issued a 72-hour notice to the union. The issuing of the notice does not necessarily mean that Canada Post will not be operating on Friday.
It allows the Corporation to take measures that are necessary to respond to the changing business reality.
On July 4, 2016, Canada Post informed CUPW that the offers the Corporation presented on June 25, 2016 are considered final, as they represent a fair and reasonable framework for settlements.
The company also informed CUPW that the union’s more than $1 billion in demands were unaffordable and therefore rejected.
CUPW president Mike Palecek responded Tuesday, “we knew this was their game all along.”
“They are sabotaging the public review of the post office,” Palacek said.
“They refused to negotiate fairly with us and now they ‘re locking the doors and will try to starve us into submission.”
Palecek said the union has been attempting to negotiate pay equity for its female-dominated workforce of rural carriers and stave off the profitable Crown Corporation’s demands for massive rollbacks.
Canada Post has tabled just one offer since negotiations began and is now shutting down Canadians’ postal service across the country.
“This is brought to you by the men who wanted to take away home delivery,” said Palecek.
“They wanted us to sell out the next generation of Canadian postal workers for a quick deal, but we stood firm. Now they’re going to hold the public hostage until they get what they want.”
Canada Post has said should a full work disruption begin now mail will move or be accepted.
But the Federal Government has deemed Old Age Security, Canada Pension Plan, Working Income Tax Benefit and the Canada Child Benefit cheques “essential” — even during a labour disruption.
Canada Post has said delivery for one day a month would be arranged.


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Realme has shared a press note with the Malaysian media, stating that the company is ready to bring Realme C11 to market. The company has also sent a teaser photo which shows the back of the phone and the camera is hidden in it.
- Tease to launch Realme C11 in Malaysia
- In India too, the company is going to launch 25 Zune with 2 phones and one earbud.
- Unannounced MediaTek will be equipped with Helio G35 chipset
Realme C11 is going to be launched very soon. This smartphone, which works on the MediaTek Helio G35 chipset, will be announced in Malaysia. However, the launch date is yet to be revealed. There is also a possibility that Realme C11 be launched before Malaysia in any other market. Considering that Realme C11 is going to be a completely new phone, there is still a lot to be revealed about the phone. The phone was reportedly spotted on Thailand’s NBTC certification website recently, but there was no information about this upcoming reality phone.
According to a report by Lowyat, Realme has shared a press note with the Malaysian media, stating that the company is ready to bring Realme C11 to market. The company has also sent a teaser photo which shows the back of the phone and the camera is hidden in it. Reality has also shared that Realme C11 will work on MediaTek’s Helio G35 chipset. The MediaTek Helio G35 is an unannounced chipset, so we don’t know anything about it yet.
In addition, Lowyat claims that Realme C11 will be equipped with a 5,000mAh battery with 10 watts charging support based on the China Quality Certification Center listing. Gadgets 360 was unable to independently verify this listing.
Meanwhile, Reality is getting ready to introduce at least two phones and one earbud in India on 25 June. The Chinese smartphone company will launch Realme X3, Realme X3 SuperZoom, and Realme Buds Q in India. The Reality X3 Superzoom has been launched in China earlier, but the other two devices have not yet been introduced anywhere in the world. It is possible that Realme C11 will be introduced in India on June 25 with the Realme X3 series.


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Apple wwdc 2009
After rumors about specs and screenshots, the long awaited next gen iphone has finally been revealed at Apple's WWDC conference by Phil Schiller.
Everyone looks forward to the D-day of their choicest preferences.
Amid all other big announcement WWDC, Apple launched the public version of Safari 4.With the new improvements Safari is now a serious browser for Windows and its Mac version has also improved.
Previously we have covered Apple WWDC, 2009: The obvious and the speculations and Apple WWDC 2009: Can we be surprised again? But all grapevines on Apple's new releases came to end at World Wide Developer Conference on Monday.


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U.S.-based Babcock & Wilcox has completed a new boiler auxiliary equipment manufacturing facility for Diamond Power International Inc. in Hubei.
Sandvik has reached an agreement with the owners of Shanghai Jianshe Luqiao Machinery Company Ltd. to acquire 80% of the equity interest in Jianshe
According to China's National Bureau of Statistics, the entrepreneur confidence index in China increased to 120.1 in the third quarter of 2009: an increase
Guangdong province will certify door and window products by matching their energy-conservation characteristics to their proposed application.
China RuiTai International a producer and distributor of cellulose ether products in China has announced that its production has increased to normal levels following
China's "Technical Requirement For Environmental Labelling Products – Kitchen Furniture" was brought into effect on July 1, 2008.
DuPont says its partnerships with China's public and private sectors will help increase farm productivity in the country and increase total global supply of
Deere & Company has signed a definitive agreement to own 50% of Xuzhou Xuwa Excavator Machinery Company, a subsidiary of Xuzhou Bohui Science and
A new DuPont fluoropolymer production plant has begun operations in Changshu.


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Food printing is the most recent hype in the world of 3D printing. This production method 3D prints food layer-by-layer, and several companies are working on techniques to print out proper meals. 3dprinting.com is keeping an eye on the world’s developments and we bring you the ones worth following in 2014.
Last year’s December, we asked ourselves the question whether our future food would become 3D printed. Obviously, it’s hard to give a proper answer to this question, as the technique is still in its developing phase. However, the first signs of food printing are already entering the market. Companies such as Choc Edge and Pic Chocolates are offering services to 3D print people’s self-designed chocolate figurines. In the long term, Natural Machines is a more relevant company to mean something for the overall food sector. The company works on a 3D printer to produce anything that’s made of dough, paste or stiff liquid, such as all pastas and breads.
A lot of new developments have entered the radar since the start of 2014, with Insects au Gratin as the most interesting one. British scientists are working on a way to produce appetizing meals from insects, using 3D printers. Insects will be turned into flour, after which a 3D printer turns the flour into protein-rich products, such as bread. The flour is a combination of crashed insects and larvae and chocolate, cream cheese or spices. The project might initially turn your stomach upside down, but noting that the world population is expected to grow, new ways of producing food will be necessary.
Not as healthy as the insects project, but definitely worth mentioning is a project by 3D Systems. The company will deliver two new food printers at the second half of 2014. The ChefJet and ChefJet Pro are designed to produce 3D printed candy. Users will be given the possibility to design their own sweets on their computers using any shape they want to. Douglas Cobb from The Guardian checked out a demonstration of the printers during CES 2014 and reported that some of the sweets looked more like origami than actual candy.
And then there’s NASA, who wants food printing to solve its terrible space meals. In 2013, Anjan Contractor received as much as 125,000 dollars to design a food printer to print out pizzas in space. Contractor has stated that it only costs about 70 seconds to cook a pizza after it’s being printed. Probably a big relief for cosmonauts – and more than forty years after having sent the first man to the moon, the time now seems right for the first 3D printed pizza on the moon.
Image credits: Janne Kyttanen/ Ivo de Bruijn (photographer).


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- Five Democratic senators asked Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to answer questions about how its home security system Ring retains and secures customers' data and videos.
- The senators raised concerns about Ring's reportedly lax rules around how employees in Ukraine could access customers' videos.
- One of the senators who signed the letter, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., released findings of an investigation into the company on Tuesday.
Five Democratic senators called on Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to explain how his home security company Ring retains and secures customers' data and videos.
In a letter Wednesday, Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Chris Coons of Delaware and Gary Peters of Michigan raised concerns that Ring's data could be hacked or accessed by foreign actors. If accessed improperly, Ring's products, which include internet connected video doorbells and alarm systems, could pose a risk not only to individual Americans, but also U.S. national security, the senators said.
"Personal data can be exploited by foreign intelligence services to amplify the impact of espionage and influence operations," the senators wrote.
Amazon bought Ring in February 2018. It now operates as a subsidiary of Amazon. A Ring spokesperson said the company is still reviewing Wednesday's letter but provided comment on Markey's earlier letters to the company and pointed to a blog post explaining how Ring works with law enforcement.
"Ring users place their trust in us to help protect their homes and communities, and we take that responsibility very seriously," the spokesperson said in a statement. "Ring does not own or otherwise control users' videos, and we intentionally designed the Neighbors Portal to ensure that users get to decide whether or not to voluntarily provide their videos to the police."
The lawmakers referred to reported incidents of Ring's vulnerabilities being exploited, including one last week that said Ring doorbells left users' Wi-Fi passwords exposed in unencrypted text. Amazon fixed the problem in September, although the vulnerability wasn't disclosed until last week, TechCrunch reported.
The letter also pointed to a report from The Intercept earlier this year that found Ring employees in Ukraine were granted "virtually unfettered access" to videos from Ring cameras around the world that they could access with "little more than a click."
"These reports raise serious concerns about Ring's internal cybersecurity and privacy safeguards, particularly if employees and contractors in foreign countries have access to American consumers' data," the lawmakers wrote.
The letter comes one day after Markey released the findings of an investigation he led into Ring. Markey concluded that Ring does not have security requirements for law enforcement offices to gain access to users' footage, does not restrict those offices from sharing footage with third parties and does not commit to refrain from selling users' biometric data.
"Amazon Ring's policies are an open door for privacy and civil liberty violations," Markey said in a statement announcing the findings. "If you're an adult walking your dog or a child playing on the sidewalk, you shouldn't have to worry that Ring's products are amassing footage of you and that law enforcement may hold that footage indefinitely or share that footage with any third parties. Amazon's Ring is marketed to help keep families safe, but privacy rights are in real danger as a result of company policies. Amazon is not doing enough to ensure that its products and practices do not run afoul of our civil liberties."


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RIM Brand Dropped Now Known As Blackberry
Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) renamed itself BlackBerry and unveiled the new BlackBerry 10 lineup at an event in New York this morning, aiming to lure back customers who have defected to Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co.
Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins took the stage to introduce a touch-screen phone called the Z10 and a model named the Q10 with a qwerty keyboard, both of which will run the new BB10 software. The Z10, which starts at $199 with a wireless contract, will be available on Jan. 31 in the U.K., on Feb. 5 in Canada, and in March in the U.S.
The Q10 will follow in coming weeks, the company said.


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Insyde Software has announced the delivery of UEFI BIOS and engineering services to customers designing ultra-thin laptops, tablets and mobile internet devices based on the ARM-based OMAP 4 platform from Texas Instruments (TI).
Insyde said it will ensure that InsydeH2O has complete support for the OMAP platform features, complies with the most current UEFI specifications , and offers customers the ability to easily customize their OMAP firmware for product differentiation.
Insyde indicated that earlier this month at the Computex Taipei trade event, Microsoft disclosed details of the next version of Windows code-named "Windows 8." Among this disclosure, Michael Angiulo, corporate vice president of the Planning, Hardware and PC Ecosystem team at Microsoft stated that UEFI is an important area of engagement for the next-version Windows, as it represents a major shift in the direction for all PCs and is required on ARM.
"TI's OMAP platform is relied upon to deliver superior user experiences. As consumers shift to tablets and ultrathin laptops for their mobile computing needs, they expect that instant-on access they've come to love on their smartphones to shift with them. The introduction of Insyde Software's UEFI technology enables the OMAP platform to meet that expectation," said Deepu Talla, general manager, OMAP mobile computing, wireless business unit, TI.
"Combining the OMAP platform's high-performance and ultra-low power consumption with InsydeH2O's stability and robust feature set gives our mutual mobile computing customers new levels of design opportunity and innovation potential, all with a software development environment with which they are already familiar," said Aven Chuang, SVP and GM, Personal Computing Group, Insyde.


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Microsoft had a huge press event earlier this week in Cologne, Germany for the start of Gamescom 2015, where it announced a bunch of new games and features coming soon to Xbox One and Windows 10 gamers. Now, Microsoft is about to begin live streaming the first of two editions of Xbox Daily from Gamescom, with even more announcements and surprises planned.
The show begins soon at Noon Eastern time (9 a.m. Pacific) and will be hosted by Microsoft's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, Graeme Boyd (Xbox Live's AceyBongos), and Julia Hardy. Hryb states that the show will feature "breaking news, exclusive announcements, trailer reveals, game demos, and interviews with game creators". He adds:
"We'll be joined by special guest stars and industry elites, including Head of Xbox Phil Spencer and guests from top game studios that are creating amazing games for Xbox One and Windows 10."
You can watch the stream up top or fire up your Xbox One or Xbox 360 console and watch it on the big screen in your living room. Another edition of Xbox Daily will be live streamed on August 6.
Source: Major Nelson (YouTube)


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Electric car retailer Oxygen Group has launched Oxy-Taxi, the first electric car taxi service in Ukraine. The company provides clients with electric taxicabs, and says it will expand its fleet to 50 vehicles over the next three months.
The eventual goal is to have 500 cars, including ones manufactured by U.S. company Tesla Motors, and to make an initial public offering (IPO) in three years, says Oxygen Group and Oxy-Taxi CEO Alexandr Vovk.
“We’re going to build a proper business,” Vovk told the Kyiv Post.
“Ninety-five percent of Ukraine’s taxi market is in the shadows. So a legal taxi business with electric cars and gree energy is going to interest a lot of people,” he added.
Oxy-Taxis in a Kyiv street (photo credit: Oxy-Taxi)
At the moment, all of the electric cars are Nissan Leafs. Each vehicle offers free Wi-Fi, the use of a tablet, payment terminals for paying fares, and even the use of an umbrella from the vehicle to the client’s door, if it’s raining.
To provide round-the-clock services, each Oxy-Taxi car has to recharge at least two or three times a day. To speed up the process, all of the cabs will use two high-power chargers installed by Oxygen Group in Kyiv. Three more chargers are ready to be installed in outlying parts of the city.
This story first appeared in the Kyiv Post, a syndication partner of Ukraine Digital News.


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Cars in the UK are set to become too big for the average parking space in just over a decade, according to new research.
Only four countries (South Korea, the USA, Vietnam and Ethiopia) will outgrow their spaces before the UK.
Therefore, it will be May 2034 when this will occur if car sizes continue to slowly increase.
Top 10 countries that will outgrow their parking spaces the fastest
1. South Korea - One year, six months (Average parking space size: 5.3 x2.5m)
2. USA - One year, nine months (5.5 x 2.6m)
3. Vietnam - Three years, six months (5.3 x 2.5m)
4. Ethiopia - 11 years (5.3 x 2.5m)
5. United Kingdom - 11 years, three months (5 x 2.8m)
6. Turkey - 15 years, 4 months (5.3 x 2.5m)
7. Argentina - 15 years, nine months (5.3 x 2.5m)
8. India - 20 years, three months (5m x 2.5m)
9. Poland - 29 years, five months (5.3 x 2.5m)
10. Phillippines - 34 years, 10 months (5 x 2.5m)
Alongside this, Vanarama looked into how many extra miles of car park tarmac are required to maintain the same number of parking bays.
The UK was in third place on this list as it will need an additional 33 miles of car park tarmac for every 100,000 bays by 2030.
Applied to the estimated 11.3 million bays, that’s a total of 3,729 miles of extra parking needed – just to maintain the UK’s current number of spaces.
If you were to line all of that tarmac up, it would run from Land’s End to John O’Groats and back twice.


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We know it’s not easy buying holiday gifts for children. You don’t want to be the person who buys socks for the kids every year. You want to make sure the children in your life enjoy the gifts that you give them.
That being said, you also have the responsibility of giving kids gifts that are safe and won’t cause injuries later on in the year.
That’s a lot of pressure!
Luckily, with online resources like internet recalls, you can begin to narrow down your search.
The 10 Most Dangerous Toys of the Year
Let’s start by looking at the 10 most dangerous toys of 2016 according to WATCH.…
With all the commotion over the iPhone 7’s new features, Samsung rushed to release its newest phone, the Samsung Galaxy Note7. The release of the Galaxy Note7 was exciting: waterproof protection and an iris scanner are just some of the phone’s new features. Very quickly after its release, however, stories started covering one accidental new feature – an exploding battery.
One of the victims of this exploding battery is Jonathan Strobel, a Palm Beach County resident. Strobel was holding his phone in his right pocket on September 9 when the battery ignited. The battery caused severe burns to his thigh, as well as extreme shock and pain. Seeking compensation for his injuries and related financial losses, Strobel decided to sue Samsung for damages in excess of $15,000.…
Cigarettes are bad for you. It has been proven over and over again. And yet, people still need to get their nicotine fix. So e-cigarettes were developed.
E-cigarettes – including e-pens, e-pipes, e-cigars, and e-hookah – are known as electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). They are devices that allow users to inhale vapor containing nicotine or other substances. Some of them are designed to look like real cigarettes, while others are a bit more decorative.
The vapor from an e-cigarette comes from e-liquid contained in cartridges. To create an e-liquid, nicotine is extracted from tobacco and mixed with a base – usually propylene glycol – which often includes different flavors, colors, and other chemicals.…
Recent statistics show that a typical American spends 101 minutes per day driving—that’s an impressive average of 37,935 hours per year if you begin driving at 17 and stop at 78 years old.
When you consider how much time we spend in our cars annually, it makes sense that drivers would want to go to reasonable lengths to keep their cars are clean, comfortable, and as safe as possible. For many Florida residents, routine car repairs are inevitable necessities. But what happens when your car repairs go wrong?
When you leave your car with a mechanic for repairs or service, the two of you enter a bailment relationship.…
Recently the Huffington Post ran a rather ominous article about the negative effects of diet soda on your teeth. The piece was accompanied by a disturbing picture, and stated that diet soda could have just as bad an effect on your teeth as crystal meth , which has long been known to wear down enamel and create terrible tooth decay..
Dr. Mohammed Bassiouny, a dentist at Temple University, ran a study, comparing diet soda drinkers, methamphetamine addicts, and cocaine addicts and found similar patterns of tooth decay in all three subjects.
This leads us to wonder: Could soda manufacturers be the next target for personal injury attorneys?…


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Good morning, Apple fans. It's only the second day of 2014 and here's the early morning news.
- MacNN reports that the Mac Pro won't hit Apple Stores until March or April. It looks like you'll be ordering online for the foreseeable future.
- "Lucky Bags" go on sale in Japanese Apple Stores. This New Year's tradition lets customers buy bags of secret items for 36,000 yen, or about US$345. Contents vary, but one configuration includes an 11-inch MacBook Air with a Power Support Air Jacket, an Apple Magic Mouse and a Beats by Dre Pill Bluetooth speaker.
- 4.6 million Snapchat numbers and usernames have been leaked. Website SnapchatDB, run by an anonymous person(s), lists details of users and their locations. Gibson Security has said that the data was acquired through "a recently patched Snapchat exploit."
- Google shutting down Bump and Flock. Oh, how we hardly knew ye. According to developer David Lieb's blog, both Bump and Flock will shut down so that Lieb can focus on other Google projects. Both iOS apps will be available until Jan. 31, and users have until then to download their data via an in-app export link.


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Malaysia’s Economy Grows 5.8% in Q2, Likely to Grow Higher In 2017
Malaysia’s economy is expected to record a higher growth this year, exceeding the initial target of between 4.3 per cent and 4.8 per cent on the back of the strong first-half performance. Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) Governor, Datuk Muhammad Ibrahim said that a new target would be announced in the upcoming Budget. “We at Bank Negara are working with the ministry and our forecast is that it will certainly be more than 4.8 per cent,” he said during the announcement of the country’s second-quarter (Q2) Gross Domestic Product (GDP) performance. Malaysia’s economy has remained on an upward momentum since Q2 2016, with a GDP growth of 5.8 per cent in Q2 2017 compared to 4.0 per cent in the same quarter last year. For the six-month period, the economy expanded by 5.7 per cent.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank announced that Malaysia’s economy recorded a robust expansion in the second quarter (Q2) of 2017, recording a 5.8 per cent growth in GDP compared with 4.0 per cent in the same quarter last year. The expansion in Q2 2017, which is better than the 5.6 per cent registered in the first quarter of 2017, was boosted by solid growth in gross export, services and manufacturing sectors, as well as private investment. From the supply side, the improvement was driven by a broad-based expansion across all major sectors. The Central Bank said domestic demand was projected to underpin this expansion while on the external front, exports were expected to benefit from the stronger-than-expected improvement in global growth.
Malaysia’s E-Commerce Now A RM24.6 bln Industry
The Malaysian e-commerce industry has grown steadily after its boom in the mid-2000s and is now a RM24.6 billion business, said iPrice Group. iPrice Group is a meta-search e-commerce website which enables Malaysian shoppers to connect with hundreds of e-commerce merchants and discover products, compare prices and get the best deals. In a statement today, iPrice said Lazada ranked as the top e-commerce company in Malaysia, followed by Zalora and 11 Street, based on their online traffic, staff numbers and followers on social media applications such as SimilarWeb, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. It said Lazada’s website received an average of 29 million visitors on a monthly basis while 11 Street received nine million visitors monthly. “These three top e-commerce companies were all founded in Southeast Asia.
Alibaba profit nearly doubles on robust revenues
In Shanghai, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba said its net profit almost doubled in the latest quarter on the back of solid revenue growth in its core shopping business and in cloud computing. Alibaba has seen its New York-listed shares soar 80 percent since last December on perennially robust earnings. With those shares at all-time highs, the company’s market worth has been fast approaching that of industry leader Amazon. Alibaba said net income in the quarter which ended Jun 30 was 14.7 billion yuan (US$2.2 billion), a year-on-year increase of 94 per cent. Alibaba thoroughly dominates e-commerce in China mainly through its Taobao platform, and its continued strong earnings performances have underlined the strength of the sector even as the country’s broader economic growth has slowed.
Bank Negara Malaysia to Issue Framework to Address Medical Insurance Inflation
Bank Negara Malaysia will come out with a framework to reduce the inflation of medical insurance, which now stands at 12 per cent. BNM Governor, Datuk Muhammad Ibrahim said the current inflation rate is quite high, thus measures needed to be taken to address the issue. He said rising medical claims had increased pressure on medical insurance premiums. “On average, medical insurance claims rise 14 per cent annually,” Muhammad said. Net claims paid to policyholders had increased to RM4.9 billion in 2016 compared with RM4.5 billion in 2015, of which these claims were driven by demand for better healthcare, ageing population and higher prevalence of chronic and lifestyle diseases.


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Rihanna centre stage as Bono rolls out big guns for Ali's NY show
Rihanna lent Bono a helping hand to launch wife Ali's latest clothing line under the label Edun.
Hanging out in the front row together at New York Fashion Week was the U2 frontman, his wife Ali Hewson, their actress daughter Eve and the Barbadian singer.
And sandwiched in between Bono and Rihanna was Laurie Anderson, the wife of the late Lou Reed.
The A-Listers took up the best seats in the house for the first showing of Edun's spring collection for 2015.
Edun, which spells nude backwards, is an ethical clothes company that was founded by both Bono and Ali in 2005.
The celebrity endorsement should do the fashion business good because according to its latest accounts it could do with a boost.
Figures lodged with the Companies Office show that Edun Apparel Ltd recorded a loss of $6.4m (€4.87m) in the 12 months to the end of December 2013.
The loss last year followed losses of $7.88m (€6m) in 2012 and $8.5m (€6.5m) in 2011.
The couple set up the clothing brand to promote fair trade with Africa and to join the world of fashion with a contemporary label.
Edun sources its fabrics in countries like Tunisia, Uruguay and Uganda.
Also at the show was band-mate Adam Clayton and new wife Mariana Teixeira.
Bono and Ali's daughter Eve (23) took time out of her busy acting schedule to lend her face to the front row for the label's spring launch.


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Wagga’s Naomi Stuart is packing her bags ahead of a 10-day masterclass with the world's brightest startup minds.
Soaring through a competitive selection process, her grain sales management platform FARMpay will head to Israel, the beating heart of global innovation, for the Tel Aviv Landing Pad.
“There are some really incredible companies focused on agtech over there, so we hope to meet startups focused in the agtech space and tap into that fintech ecosystem,” Ms Stuart said.
Just 10 startups were chosen from the entire state to participate in the masterclass, sponsored by the NSW Government and Austrade.
“It really validates for FARMpay that our platform is not only relevant for the Australian economy but also on a global stage,” she said.
FARMpay has gone from strength-to-strength since its inception last year and growth through the SheStarts incubator.
Ms Stuart jets off on August 28 to spend 10 days networking and learning from global leaders in the startup scene.


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March 19, 2021
Yarraman could get a new service station if Toowoomba Regional Council approves plans submitted to it this week.
SJS Fuels Pty Ltd has lodged a proposal to build a seven-day servo on a vacant block at the corner of Toomey and Margaret streets.
The block has been vacant for many years and is currently used by the Yarraman Progress Association to host their weekly Yarraman Markets.
According to the planning report, the new service station would be a boost to Yarraman’s CBD.
The site would be accessible from both the D’Aguilar and New England highways and offer five fuel pumps.
It would have 12 parking bays – including a disabled parking bay – plus a loading bay.
The service station’s shop would have a floor area of 308sq m and would sell a number of convenience products along with coffee and hot and cold foods.
If approved, SJS Fuels plans to operate the service station from 5:00am to 8:00pm daily, providing some new employment opportunities.
The application included a variety of extra reports into which examine traffic impacts, noise, lighting, air quality, landscaping and engineering issues.
Toowoomba Regional Council is assessing the proposal but has indicated it supports the idea in principle.


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Blink to deploy 8 DC fast charging stations across Massachusetts
Miami Beach, FL, March 16, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Blink Charging Co. (Nasdaq: BLNK, BLNKW) (“Blink” or the “Company”), a leading owner, operator, and provider of electric vehicle (EV) charging equipment and services. For they announced to be awarded Massachusetts EV charging grants. All from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) to install 8 dual-port 75-175kW DC fast-charging stations across the state of Massachusetts.
The Blink award, totaling $800,000, were awarded under the Massachusetts Electric Vehicle Incentive Program (MassEVIP). All which provides grants for installing DC fast-charging stations at strategic locations around the state. The grants are also part of a significant effort by Massachusetts EV efforts to create a reliable EV infrastructure. Those that supports the Commonwealth’s energy future and emissions reduction goals.
In addition, Massachusetts has announced a goal of ending the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035. The Commonwealth will also seek to have 30 percent of all trucks and bus sales be zero-emission vehicles by 2030. Thereby hoping to reach 100 percent of sales by 2050.
In addition, Blink will install eight dual-port DC fast chargers. All most importantly in strategic locations. All to further develop the state’s charging corridors and convert more drivers to EVs. The chargers will also fill existing gaps. Especially in EV charging access along major highways. Finally and be hosted by familiar consumer brands. All along Route 90, Route 95, and Route 20.
In conclusion, the installation of Blink’s DC fast charging stations are part of this grant. It is aware to aware include the following locations:
Sunoco, 454 Harvard Street
Sunoco, 702 Neponset Street
Burger King, 500 Pittsfield Road
Burger King, 344 King Street
Sunoco, 117 Pond Street
Sunoco, 525 County Street
Burger King, 727 Boston Road
Sunoco, 527 Southwest Cutoff
Source: BLINK CHARGING https://www.blinkcharging.com/.


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Galaxy Tab 3 Lite might be coming soon
Samsung is planning to release Galaxy Tab 3 Lite in Q1 2014
2014 is already promising to be one of the most exciting years for the digital world. We are expecting to see breakthrough technologies, advanced smartphones and tablets and extraordinary wearable computing devices among others. In 2014 we will also see a lot of new low-end handsets and tablets that will boast basic capabilities at very affordable price. Rumors suggest that Samsung will be one of those companies. Apparently the Korean manufacturer will be focusing on both, advanced and low-end smartphones and tablets to satisfy the needs of their users. Just recently we shared with you the leaks revealing the existence of Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Lite and Samsung Galaxy Grand Lite. Both models are expected to be more modest variants of the original devices in terms of specs.
The latest leak reveals that Samsung is preparing more “Lites” for the next year. Sources close to the company shared the information for the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Lite that will be unveiled in the beginning of 2014. The new slate with codename SM-T11 will carry a price tag of €100. If rumors turn out to be true, the Galaxy Tab 3 Lite will be the cheapest tablet made by Samsung until now. The sources do not unveil information about the specs of the affordable slate.
It seems that Galaxy Tab 3 Lite will be available in two versions. One of the models will arrive with Wi-Fi support, while the other will be 3G enabled. The first color variant that will hit the markets is Cream White. It is scheduled for arrival in the second week of January. The next model is Ebony Black coming soon after the Cream White tablet. Even though the specs of Galaxy Tab 3 Lite are still up in the air, the expectations suggest that the slate will boast a decent package of features and capabilities. With the price tag of €100 it will easily compete against some of the most famous models tablets by the Chinese manufacturers.


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March 15, 2016
US Homeland Safety has accused Costa Rica-primarily based on line bookmaker 5Dimes of instructing US athletics bettors to use Amazon present playing cards to fund their on line betting accounts.
In a seizure warrant submitted with the US District Courtroom in Philadelphia, the Department of Homeland Safety (DHS) sought the seizure of 15 Amazon accounts that DHS investigators claim are joined to 5Dimes.
The warrant statements the accounts at present hold a combined $159k but allege that practically $1.9m has handed by way of these accounts in the earlier few yrs. Re/code claimed that Amazon has shut down a single of the accounts, which was outlined beneath the identify GC Lover.
DHS says 5Dimes has been working with the playing cards “in violation of Amazon’s conditions of service” to aid payments to and from US athletics bettors. The warrant alleges that 5Dimes compensated out winnings to US bettors via the present playing cards, or via products the customers selected from the Amazon.com web page.
5Dimes’ use of the Amazon playing cards was no fantastic secret, as betting community forums routinely cited the playing cards as a single of the company’s most well-liked fiscal alternatives. Buyers were instructed to acquire the playing cards domestically in income, then to submit digital pics of the card data to 5Dimes. Buyers who opted to get their winnings in present card type were made available ten% bonuses.
5Dimes was not long ago singled out in Costa Rican media reports of a cash laundering investigation involving the company’s area supervisor and cash transferred from organizations in Malta and Dubai. US federal businesses are also reportedly investigating the use of Costa Rica-primarily based Western Union retailers to aid on line gambling payments with US customers.
5Dimes’ rising legal headaches only provide to underscore the preposterous degrees of subterfuge that on line betting organizations and their US customers have to engage in to take pleasure in what is a flawlessly legal type of entertainment in the condition of Nevada and numerous other jurisdictions around the world.
Offered the income that the US federal government could derive from taxing athletics wagering – as well as the personal savings the federal government could take pleasure in from putting a halt to this King Canute-like throwback to the unsuccessful policy of liquor prohibition – it is time for politicians in Washington to have a major conversation about putting an finish to this farce.


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GM's CEO says its EVs will come to market faster than what had been planned.
General Motors is shifting its EV product plans into warp speed as it competes with other major global automakers to carve out a niche in the burgeoning segment. Responding to a question from an analyst during a Q3 earnings call this week, GM CEO Mary Barra said the company "will definitely bring EVs to market faster than what the plan was a year ago."
She remarked that GM has "learned a lot in the last year, and the speed at which we're developing the [Cadillac] Lyriq and the [GMC] Hummer are evidence of that."
The Cadillac Lyriq is a forthcoming battery-electric crossover from GM's Cadillac luxury brand, revealed this past August, while the GMC Hummer, unveiled late in October, is a rugged, high-riding off-road truck that picks up where its thirsty gas-powered forebears - the Hummer H2 and Hummer H3 - left off. They're just about on polar ends of the product spectrum.
The timelines for those two products probably won't see much of a shift as GM accelerates its EV onslaught, but there are plenty of other battery-electric vehicles we're aware of that could well see their release dates moved up. GM's flexible, cost-effective Ultium battery technology "is going to allow [GM] to have vehicles in high volume segments," Barra said this week. "We will have entries across our brands and across our segments."
Those high-volume products will include the hand-built flagship Cadillac Celestiq sedan, along with another three Cadillac models; a Chevrolet pickup and two crossovers; a pair of Buick utility vehicles; and the autonomous Cruise Origin. If Barra's comments are taken at face value, it means we could be seeing each of those hit the road sooner than GM had originally planned.
Even still, the clock is ticking, as Ford prepares to deliver its first examples of the new Mustang Mach-E before the end of the year, and EV newcomers like Rivian, Lordstown Motors, and Lucid Motors all inch toward production.


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By Philip Michaels, MacworldAPR 25, 2011 9:16 am PDT
Should you have an iMac of recent vintage that suffers from booting problems, help is on the way in the form of a firmware update from Apple.
iMac Hard Drive Firmware Update 1.0, released Monday, promises to tackle a hard drive issue that prevented some iMacs from properly booting.
The affected models include
21.5- and 27-inch iMacs released in mid-2010.


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Confirming the long-circulating rumours, the Jumpman has been promoted to the home shirt for PSG’s 21/22 kit, marking the fourth year of Jordan Brand and Paris Saint-Germain’s partnership.
Four years of football-culture-changing moves, and now Jordan brand and Paris Saint-Germain bring the Jumpman home. It’s a huge move for the basketball brand, who take the reigns from parent company Nike on the 21/22 home shirt for the first time. The move confirms leaks and reports that have been circulating in recent months, culminating in a PES kit design pretty much hitting the nail on the head in terms of look.
The navy-blue, red and white colour scheme of the PSG 21/22 home shirt preserves the club’s DNA. While the Jumpman takes its place on the front of the shirt, the rest of the design shifts from recent looks synonymous with PSG. The classic navy base is still present, but the red and white that completes the famous tricolore is switched on to the collar and cuffs, abandoning the traditional look of the Hechter centre stripe. Not that it’s gone entirely mind; look closely and you can still see it in place in a tonal execution.
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Carmakers are gearing up for the upcoming festive season by stocking up their dealerships. The wholesale delivery of cars to dealerships has seen 9 percent growth in September.
With the festive season starting from the 13th of October onwards, dealerships are getting ready to meet customer demands which goe up during this period. This will be a good time for carmakers to register high sales, and the recent cut in interest rates by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will also help.
The wholesale deliveries according to data by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) in September 2015 stood at 1.7 lakh units, as compared to 1.5 lakh units during September 2014.
Sugato Sen, the Deputy Director General of SIAM said, "Companies such as Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Honda have been doing good due to new product launches, which is driving growth in the passenger car segment."
A few models such as the Honda Jazz and the Hyundai Creta have received good response by customers and another car to look out for during this festive season is the Renault Kwid, which has been recently launched.


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AccorHotels has announced its latest addition in the South of Phu Quoc — Premier Residences Phu Quoc Emerald Bay.
AccorHotels has continued to expand its portfolio in Vietnam with the signing of two new sea-facing properties slated to open in Q4 of 2021.
Part of AccorHotels, the boutique hotel brand, MGallery, has announced the opening of Legacy Yen Tu on the sacred mountain of Yen Tu, a resort that pays homage to Vietnam’s ancient…
AccorHotels brings the first Fairmont luxury property to one of the Maldives’ largest resort lagoons with the opening of Fairmont Maldives Sirru Fen Fushi.
AccorHotels has revealed the extent of the downturn of its Thai business in the wake of last week's Bangkok bomb, but said it believes the city's hotels can recover quickly. Addressing…