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NEW YORK — After years of flirting with Manhattan, the bull’s-eye has landed in East Harlem.
Target’s first store on the New York island officially opens Sunday — with merchandise tailored to the neighborhood, including Spanish-language greeting cards, multicultural dolls, religious candles and renowned Southern food produced locally. It’s a key step in the discounter’s push into urban markets to fuel its growth.
“This is the (company’s) largest single investment on any single project,” John Griffith, executive vice president of property development for Minneapolis-based Target Corp., said during a media tour Wednesday.
Griffith expects the new store to produce Target’s strongest return — eventually — and to land among the top five revenue generators of its 1,700 stores. The store is projected to generate $90 million in the first year; a typical suburban store does about $25 million in sales the first year, he said.
The new Target joins a Costco wholesale club, a Best Buy electronics emporium and other stores at the East River Plaza on East 117th Street, about a 15-minute walk from the nearest subway stop. More than half of the 400 people hired to work there live in the neighborhood, Griffith said.
With revenue of $65.4 billion in its latest fiscal year, Target is no newcomer to cities. It opened in Chicago in 1994 and now operates about 150 stores in cities and 50 more that have more than 100,000 people within two miles.
Target arrived in New York City’s outer boroughs in the late 1990s and now has nine stores in the region. It plans to open another one in Manhattan, but not for at least three years. And it will be smaller — 60,000 to 80,000 square feet, less than half the size of the new 174,000-square-foot store, which is about average for the chain.
Real estate executives say crossing into Manhattan is a big deal.
“It’s not about the baby boroughs,” said Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of real estate firm Prudential Douglas Elliman’s retail leasing division. “This is going to plant Target firmly in the urban market. If you succeed here, there’s no market you can’t own.”
Griffith confirmed the chain plans to use a smaller format in its densest markets but didn’t offer details.
Target should be a magnet for consumers because it sells such a wide variety of products, from toothpaste to fashion apparel, but its biggest challenge will be handling crowds, Consolo said. With that in mind, the new store has 26 cash registers, compared with the typical 18.
Company executives said they won’t put local stores out of business because the store carries only 65 percent of a typical household’s grocery needs. But don’t expect Lisa Echevarria, 30, an East Harlem resident with two children, to visit local bodegas anymore.
“Target has everything,” said Echevarria, a restaurant worker. Stopping by the store Wednesday, she said Target charges half as much for milk as her neighborhood store.


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Posted at: 07/24/2013 7:49 AM
Updated at: 07/24/2013 7:52 AM
By: Ellery McCardle
(ABC 6 NEWS) -- There are a lot of historic buildings in downtown Faribault. A block or two away, there's something that's likely been around longer than the shops and restaurants.
It's a system of caves. There, well-known brands of cheese are made at the Caves of Faribault.
From the outside it looks like a giant hill. But don't be mistaken, there's caves there and inside sits stacks of cheese.
"There's a lot of folks out there who do know who we are. There's a lot of folks who don't," said Elvin Uhlenhopp, plant manager.
He gave us a tour inside.
The cave was discovered in the mid-1800's by two brothers. They used it to brew and chill alcohol. Then the prohibition hit and the humid walls sat empty.
It was re-discovered in 1933 and that's where the cheese chapter of the story begins.
Cheese curds are the only kind made here that don't age in the cave. But gorgonzola, gouda and its well-known AmaBlu cheese do.
"There's a lot of science when you're making cheese," said Uhlenhopp.
Milk gets shipped in. About seven semi loads a week. Once the cheese is made, it's hand-salted. A special kind of salt we're told.
Then it's pierced by a machine, cured for a few weeks and then aged for at least 60 days in the cave. In that time the mold develops.
What makes these caves so unique is its made of St. Peter sandstone which is very rare. But its breathes well which is good for making cheese.
Once it's done, the crumbles of cheese are packaged, sent out to stores across the country and just down the street to the Cheese Cave.
"That I'm aware of, there's no one out there producing the amount of blue cheese that we do and doing it in a natural cave," said Uhlenhopp.
There's no mistaking this landscape, this formation of Minnesota history isn't going anywhere, literally.
"We're not the least expensive cheese on the market, we probably won't be the least expensive cheese. Our goal is to be the best blue cheese on the market," said Uhlenhopp.
Caves of Faribault has won numerous national awards over the years.
Part of the cave sits directly beneath the chapel at Shattuck-St. Mary's.

domain: news


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With the introduction and rising popularity of many digital platforms freeing up the world’s second largest population, OTT entertainment is threatening traditional television’s existing supremacy in India.
Audiences have seen a seismic shift in terms of number and quality of substance from Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayana (1987) to Hwang Dong-Squid hyuk’s Game (2021). Brand marketers are utilising in-demand OTT content to promote interaction on digital media, as the influence reaches many strata of society.
According to the size of the OTT market in India, consumption minutes have increased from 181 to 204 billion minutes in 2021. It’s impossible to deny that OTT is taking control. But what is the cause of this expansion, and how does it affect India’s diverse population? The Satta Matka staff at Betway is eager to find out.
In recent years, digitalization has accelerated. The epidemic, on its own, resulted in a large spike in OTT watching in India, with consumption of the OTT spectrum being highest among the 15-35 age groups.
The ease of use of OTT is one of the main reasons for its widespread adoption. All you need is a compatible device and a high-speed Internet connection. The enormous trip to get five million Netflix users in India, on the other hand, was rocky. While metropolitan regions were well-versed in the digital world, rural communities were still clamouring for access.
In a broader sense, OTT has had distinct effects on rural and urban communities. According to Ascent Group India, about 65 percent of OTT content consumption in India occurs in rural regions where just 40% of people have access to the internet. It defines the extent to which regional linguistic content has an influence on local residents.
Casting various unique projects in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Bangla, and other languages has ushered in this potential for content producers and platform developers. Channel providers like as Zee TV, KPMG Eros Now, and Sun TV have created their own OTT platforms in response to the strong demand for regional programming.


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Land Securities to extend product search across all its centres
Commercial property company Land Securities
says visitors to all of its shopping centres will soon be able to search for the product they’re seeking from their mobile devices.
The developer has signed an exclusive agreement with Google Product Search to take the service to all of its centres, and is also extending free wi-fi, provided by public access provider The Cloud, across its properties. So far eight have gone live, with plans accelerated in the lead-up to Christmas to cover centres including Cabot Circus (pictured) in Bristol, as well as Princesshay and Lewisham Centre. The remainder of its 24 shopping centres will follow in the New Year.
The company first introduced Google search to its Leeds White Rose
shopping centre in April.
The move to extend the service comes after Land Securities found a growing trend among its customers to research online and buy offline. Customers using the service can see which retailers in the centre stock a particular product that they are looking for.
Sean Curtis, head of business marketing and brand partnerships at Land Securities, said: “We are delighted to be able to offer these services in time for Christmas, a key period in the retail calendar. We have seen the volume of customers accessing our centre websites increase steadily, and as we will be the first landlord to offer free Wi-Fi across the entire centre portfolio we expect that to increase even further in the months ahead.
“Just as brands are creating omnichannel environments, it is the responsibility of every landlord to explore ways to embrace digital technology to help their retailers succeed.”
Based on the estimated combined annual footfall of all Land Securities shopping centres, The Cloud expects to provide wi-fi to nearly 300 million visitors every year.
Curtis added: “This is about delivering the best answers for people searching for products and helping connect merchants with the right customers. The customer experience is enhanced with complementary wi-fi, enabling shoppers to access the search facility via their tablet or smartphone and find the most relevant results in-centre, creating a win-win for the customer and retailer.”
Todd King, digital marketing manager at Land Securities, said: “Providing shoppers with the option to click and collect, browse and buy or simply to offer inspiration during their visit to our centres, Google Product Search is an excellent example of our commitment to supporting our retailers by embracing the latest technology.”
King said 24 retailers had now signed up to use the service, including M&S, Boots, Topshop, Oasis, Bhs, Superdrug, Argos and Schuh.


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There’s little doubt that the online video world is a bit messy. There’s a reason why the broadcast networks’ full-episode video experiences command ad premiums, and most everything this side of Hulu does not. Clients and agencies aren’t always sure what they are getting when they buy Web video inventory — basic things like where a brand’s ads will run and whether they’ll actually appear in a place where the can be viewed are unfortunately not a given.
And to hear most folks in the industry tell it, verification technologies, which have become a standard precaution for many display advertisers, don’t cut it when it comes to video.
That’s where ClearStream, a 10-month-old startup, sees an opening to become the cavalry that cleans up the Wild West of Web video. The company claims it has a superior answer to verification, a proprietary product aimed at providing clients with some peace of mind when buying Web video advertising.
“It’s a real issue, and everybody’s just ignoring it,” said ClearStream founder Brian Mandelbaum. “This really needs to be addressed. Our mission is to make online video way more transparent.”
ClearStream claims it can help advertisers identify what sort of content appears within a Web video player during the time their ad is set to run. Mandelbaum claims that his technology can “ingest” millions of videos across the Web — essentially screen them, identify what kind of content is being delivered (sports, food, etc), fingerprint those videos, and quality score them. ClearStream can score all this video in near real time, says Mandelbaum, providing brands a read on where their content is running just minutes after their ads are delivered.
Plus, ClearStream says it can address all those fundamental, nagging questions brands worry about with Web video campaigns: Are my ads being delivered within video content or being auto-streamed within a banner? Are they above or below the fold?
“This allows the advertiser to understand what they are advertising in,” said Mandelbaum, a former ad agency executive. “Everybody is focused on the audience in this business. The who. We’re focused on what, when and how. And we’re equally focused on the context. This is a lean-forward, engagement medium. We’re not going to get the Procter & Gambles of the world to invest if they don’t understand [or feel comfortable with what they are buying]. We’ve got to be more like TV.”
Mandelbaum expects brands and advertisers will push to use ClearStream’s technology, with publishers most likely picking up the check. Sure, but doesn’t ClearStream add yet another middleman to the overloaded ad process? And won’t publishers balk at paying another charge?
Well, for one, if ClearStream delivers on its promise, verification costs will become less necessary, argues Mandelbaum. Plus, he think he’ll be able to help publishers by better valuing their inventory, creating more tiers based on ClearStream’s content-scoring system. “We’re here to help publishers,” Mandelbaum said.
The jury is still out on the effectiveness. Mandelbaum says that he’s got one advertiser and one agency on board testing the product and plans to begin introducing the product to the rest of the industry over the next few months.
How chef influencer Tue Nguyen works with the BuzzFeed Creator Network
BuzzFeed's Creator Network has been valuable from an audience and production education standpoint, but Nguyen still drives most of her business on her own.
Dentsu’s new Web3 readiness tool shines light on the tech’s potential to complement AI
Dentsu's Innovation Initiative is launching a web3 readiness index next month — at a time when the industry is obsessed with AI. Could the two technologies actually make a good pair?
Digiday+ Research deep dive: Publishers large and small put their resources into first-party data
Eighty-two percent of publishers overall say they're already using first-party data to prepare for the end of the third-party cookie, and nearly half are requiring users to register and integrating first-party data segments into DSPs – indicating that first-party data is the clear path forward for publishers heading into the post-cookie world.
SponsoredHow enterprise-grade CDPs are enhancing data processes and improving customer experiences
Produced in partnership with Marketecture The following article highlights an interview between Martin Kihn, Salesforce’s senior vice president of Marketing Cloud, and Ari Paparo, founder and CEO of Marketecture Media. Register to watch more of the discussion and learn how brands are making the most of enterprise-grade CDP technologies. As brands expand across channels and […]
Media Briefing: Why publishers hope chatbots will be the latest retention tool
Publishers hope the chatbots they are developing will be the latest retention tool to keep readers onsite and to get them to consume more content.
Why podcasters are selling subscriptions through third-party vendors
Many podcasters are turning to third party platforms like Supporting Cast and Supercast to launch or grow their subscription businesses beyond Spotify or Apple.


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We already know the Xperia S will be updated to Jelly Bean and that day looks to be edging closer as screenshots appear online.
Tech deals, prizes and latest news
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10 best mobile phones in the world today
Why you should avoid hotel Wi-Fi like the plague


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MOBILE, Ala. - Taking group pictures with your smart phone just got fancier! A new iPhone app is letting the photographer "get in" on the group shot.
It's called "Groopic ". Using the app, the photographer snaps a group picture. Then, one person from the group steps out and takes another picture with the original photographer in the shot. That's when the Groopic app does its magic and combines the two pictures into one. It's $1.99 in the app store.
Apple is being accused of price-fixing. A federal judge ruled that Apple was the ring leader in a plan to raise the prices of e-books, by letting publishers set their own prices, and giving Apple 30 percent of the online sale. Apple says it will appeal the ruling.
This is one of those smart-phones-gone-wrong stories! A family in Oregon ended up with a 51-year-old classic after their 14-month-old toddler bought a car on Ebay. Little "Sorella" was playing around with her dad's phone when she opened the Ebay app. She was clicking around and ended up buying a 1962 Austin Healey Sprite for $225 dollars. Her dad got an email notification congratulating him on his new purchase.
He says he'd like to restore the car, and give it to Sorella for her 16th birthday or graduation.
That's your Daily Tech.
The Spanish Fort Toros won their second consecutive 5A State Championship, defeating Muscle Shoals 35-14.
Global civil rights icon Nelson Mandela, whose legacy is ending South African apartheid, has died.
Mobile County Sheriff's Office arrested 27-year-old John Hicks and 22-year-old Amber Trawick for a number of meth related charges including chemical endangerment of a child and trafficking illegal drugs.
Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson returned to the Port City Thursday, December 5 after spending several days in Hamburg, Germany for the Aviation Forum 2013.
Students at Council Traditional School had a lot to cheer about Thursday, December 5.The US Department of Education named Council a “National Blue Ribbon School.”


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Sony Corp and Panasonic Corp are in talks to develop the technology to mass produce next-generation OLED televisions, sources close to the matter said on Tuesday, but may already be running to catch up with South Korean rivals in a technology widely seen replacing current LCD TVs.
Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics plan to sell 55-inch OLED televisions, which are as slim as 4 millimeters and consume less power and offer sharper images than liquid crystal display sets, by the year-end.
Sony pioneered the technology with the world’s first OLED TV in 2007, but halted production of the $2,000 screens three years later because of the global downturn. Sony still makes OLED screens costing as much as $26,000 for high-end customers.
Japanese firms that dominated the global TV market in the 1980s and 1990s have been battered by their aggressive Korean rivals, along with weak demand for the TVs they make and a stronger yen that makes their exports more expensive. Sony, Panasonic and Sharp Corp reported a combined net loss of more than $20 billion in the year to end-March.
Those Japanese woes coincide with a battle in the TV market between credit-card-thin organic light emitting diode (OLED) and ultra-high definition sets. Shipments of OLED TVs may grow to 2.1 million sets in 2015 from just 34,000 this year, according to research firm IHS Inc.
Mass producing affordable OLED TV screens – the technology is used on smaller smartphones and tablets – will be key to future growth, and already the Japanese may be late to the game.
“Overseas competitors have gotten a head start in this area and I feel like they’re stepping into this too late,” said Masayuki Otani, chief market analyst at Securities Japan. “There’s no question OLED TVs are going to be the mainstream. The issue is price and size of the displays.”
“Japanese makers haven’t been able to produce OLED TVs that are as large as Samsung’s … I think there’s an element of Japanese pride to this – the fact that Panasonic and Sony will work together to produce OLEDs to beat their Asian rivals. But I do have serious doubts on whether they can catch up,” he said.
Shares in Sony, which makes Bravia TVs, and Panasonic, which sells TVs under the Viera brand, fell sharply on Tuesday – with Sony down as much as 3.3 percent and Panasonic off 4 percent – continuing a slide that has seen both drop to their lowest levels in more than three decades as investors doubt they have the strategy to turn around their loss-making TV businesses.
“Both Sony and Panasonic would not be successful if they were to develop and sell OLED televisions alone. They have no choice but to find a partner,” said Makoto Kikuchi, chief executive officer at Myojo Asset Management. “It (tie-up) is a plus, but their earnings wouldn’t be rosy in the short-term because of this.”
TALKING WITH TAIWAN
As a way to spread development costs, Sony has been in talks with Taiwan’s AU Optronics Corp on a possible tie-up to produce OLED televisions, an industry source said last month.
“I think the (Sony-Panasonic) tie-up is to make sure they can stay ahead of the Korean rivals in terms of technology because Samsung and LG have expanded very quickly and have the capacity ready. AUO is also under financial pressure and a technological bottleneck in OLED,” said H.P. Chang, head of research at Taiwan-based LCD industry research company Witview.
“If Sony and Panasonic need to have a partner to enlarge production scale, AU is likely their only choice,” he added.
Panasonic plans to invest about 30 billion yen in its Himeji plant in western Japan for a test production line of OLED panels, the industry source said, and outgoing Panasonic President Fumio Ohtsubo said last week the company was unlikely to do all necessary investment in OLED panels on its own.
“It’s important to reduce investment risk by finding the best partner,” he told a news conference after releasing full-year results.
The Nikkei business daily reported earlier on Tuesday that Sony and Panasonic were in talks on OLED technology development.
“The content of the report is not announced by Panasonic, said Kyoko Ishii, senior coordinator of global corporate PR for Panasonic. “Panasonic will continue its development and verification of OLED based on the result of research the company has been doing at its laboratories. The timing of the commercialization of OLED has not been decided yet.”
Sony declined comment on Tuesday.
The cost of insuring Sony’s debt against default has more than doubled in the past two months. Five-year credit default swaps have widened by more than 180 basis points to around 340 basis points – meaning it costs upwards of $340,000 a year for five years to insure $10 million of Sony’s debt. Sony has around $5.5 billion of bonds outstanding, Thomson Reuters data show.
Source : Reuters


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Is it 'Depreciation' for Exporters?
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may keep the rupee at the current level so that the government can pass on the advantage to Indian exporters. Continuous fall of Chinese Yuan could have been an opportunity for Chinese exports if rupee did not depreciate at the same time. The rupee depreciation will now balance the western market demand in India and China.
The situation is Yuan may weaken further over next 12 months as Chinese policymakers are ramping up efforts to support the economy through further stimulus. Indian exporters may not face any repercussion from Chinese currency devaluation because rupee is simultaneously falling. Indian exporters are unlikely to witness increase in their profit margin due to the rupee fall. Moreover, the demand in the overseas market is sluggish and buyers also have China as an option.
Rupee volatility: a concern
Industry experts believe that the investment climate in India is improving vis-a-vis the government’s focus on the ease of doing business. India is going to become a major investment hub as international investors moving in search of potential growth partners. There is no need to worry as India’s economic resilience has strengthened during the recent times on account of factors, such as improving FDI inflows and forex reserves, reducing current account deficit and declining trade balance due to fall in commodity prices, favourable inflationary scenario and several measures undertaken to boost investment sentiments in the economy.
RK Gupta, Executive Director, Bank of Maharashtra, says, “The rupee depreciation is good for India because Chinese Yuan is devaluating. China is an export-oriented economy. The devaluation of their currency will push exports and growth in China. Currently, Indian currency is also devaluating so it will not impact exporters. It will balance the situation.
The reason for rupee fall is the lack of credit pick up. Although usually rupee depreciation helps in increasing exports output and generating potential employment, the current situation may not provide such benefits to exporters,” says Gupta. “Moreover, corporate investment is less but there is a huge potential of investment in the country. Many companies have the capacity but it is not well-utilised.
The demand will not shift to China due to Yuan depreciation. India will not face any difficult to maintain its exports growth,” he further says. “Such high volatility will not add competitiveness to exports as this exchange rate being volatile cannot be factored into prices, though it may increase the hedging cost for exporters. Only miniscule exporters, who have not hedged their risk and received their payment, may get windfall gain,” says SC Ralhan, President, Federation of Indian Exporters’ Organisation.
Recently, Raghuram Rajan, Governor, RBI, said, “The unnatural movements in other currencies do certainly impinge on us, and we would not want to take the route of making ourselves a less attractive destination for investments, which would be one quick and sure way of depreciating our own exchange rate.”
Keep it under control
However, the industry expects that the negative Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation numbers, which currently was registered at (–)4 per cent in July 2015, are expected to improve export competitiveness to further add to the expectation that rupee will enter into comfortable trajectory in the coming times.
There are certain concerns that need to be addressed to keep the value of rupee under control. Exports growth has been negative in the past few months and was registered at (–)10.3 per cent in July 2015. Thus, efforts are required to support export infrastructure and reduce transportation costs.
Rafeeque Ahmed, Chairperson, Farida Group, says, “It seems that India’s exports growth will be in difficult position in next six months. The world economy is not picking up. The exporters need to fight it. The demand is slow in the western market. The problem with current rupee depreciation is that it will not convert into profit.”
Vinnie Mehta, Director General, Auto Component Manufacturers’ Association (ACMA), says, “Fluidity in exchange rates is a matter of concern, and until a stable equilibrium is reached, it is a wait and watch situation.” The variation in the value of rupee against the US dollar in recent months has been due to supply-demand imbalance in the foreign exchange market, and the general appreciation of US dollar globally. The rupee is currently hovering at Rs 66 to a dollar.
(This article first appeared in the Indian edition of Entrepreneur magazine (October, 2015 Issue).


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free io game, fun io game, best io game
The game is expected to launch in Spring 2021
Square Enix has announced a new game called Balan Wonderworld, helmed by creative talent behind the Sonic The Hedgehog series.
Balan Wonderworld is a family friendly platformer and is expected to release for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Nintendo Switch in Spring 2021.
Director Yuji Naka and character designer Naoto Ohshima are both renowned for their work bringing Sonic The Hedgehog to life. Balan Wonderworld marks the first time in 20 years the duo have collaborated together.
The game takes place in a magical land where players will control characters Leo and Emma across many stages. They can discover more than 80 costumes to wear, each with unique perks.
The outfits will also change the characters’ appearances and offer them new abilities to use throughout the world. Skills such as freezing time walking in the air will help players navigate Balan Wonderworld‘s many platforming challenges.
Check out the reveal trailer, which showcases the game in-action:
The official description for Balan Wonderworld reads: “Entering a whimsical and bizarre land through a mysterious theatre, players will take on the role of Leo and Emma as they embark on an adventure like no other. Led by an enigmatic maestro named Balan, they must navigate through Wonderworld to restore happiness and balance the hearts and minds of all they encounter here.”
Square Enix stated in a shareholders meeting earlier this year that the company plans to announce multiple games throughout July and August, with Balan Wonderworld being one of the titles.
The company also recently announced that Dragon Quest XI: Echoes Of An Elusive Age is coming to PC and Xbox consoles with all the definitive edition content. PS4 owners will have to purchase the definitive edition separately to obtain the additional content and benefits.


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The return of the Victoria’s Secret’s Manner Demonstrate this fall will be a touch of the previous show regarded for as soon as famously crashing the web even though reflecting a transformed business that has moved absent from rail-skinny versions to a extra inclusive team.
There will be a major big difference from the past time the show was held five years back: It would not be dwell demonstrate.
Rather, Victoria’s Secret suggests the show will be a movie developed around 20 artists and artistic girls in four cities − Bogota, Columbia London Tokyo and Lagos, Nigeria − alongside with, of study course, highlighting Victoria’s Key types. The exhibit will be streamed internationally and debut in September.
“This movie is the greatest expression of the Victoria’s Solution brand transformation,” Raúl Martinez, the company’s government vice president and head resourceful director, claimed in a assertion. “It will be driven byfashion, glamour and entertainment with a nod to beloved iconography from the past but in a daring,redefined way.”
The film will a segments from each individual of the four cities that will be generated by the women of all ages − filmmakers, vogue designers, artists, musicians and other individuals who will choose viewers on a journey as a result of the driving-the-scenes craft and intimate stories they will be telling.
The women of all ages, dubbed by Victoria’s Mystery as VS20, occur from the vogue, movie, style, new music and visual fields. They will appear alongside one another to show their get the job done along with Victoria’s Mystery types.
Victoria’s Secret will generate a fifth chunk of the movie that will attribute the brand’s models worn by types. The section will consist of tunes and other performances comparable to Victoria’s Key displays of the earlier.
Victoria’s Secret will have a live party this slide when the film premieres.
The film marks the newest of what has been a extraordinary shift given that CEO and Chairman Leslie H. Wexner stepped absent in 2020 and the enterprise break up from Bath & Body Will work the next year.
The 1999 show’s reside webcast became famous as the occasion that “shut down the online,” drawing so many viewers that the site crashed. The viewers dwindled in its final several years and the demonstrate, alongside with the business, had been derided as out of contact with women of all ages and hypersexualized during the #MeToo movement. Wexner, in asserting a pause in the exhibit in 2019, mentioned the exhibit and the company desired to be reinvigorated.
Present day Victoria’s Top secret is a considerably distinct brand than the 1 then that was fronted by designs referred to as Angels with an emphasis right now on a lot more diverse versions and led by a nearly all-women board.
Victoria’s Top secret is calling the show the Victoria’s Key Entire world Tour that affirms what it claims is the dedication to winner women’s voices, perspective and ordeals. The retailer explained the gals to be featured in the motion picture as “emerging world trailblazers from a vary of creative disciplines, developing on their personal phrases.”
“We are energized to introduce a absolutely reimagined version of the style display, when bringing backthe quite best of entertainment and trend our clients have been asking for,” Chris Rupp, Victoria’s Secret’ chief buyer officer, reported in a statement. “We’re celebrating the iconic heritage of the brand via a new era of artists, and we just can’t wait around to amplify their eyesight by way of our around the globe platform.”


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A coalition headed by PokerStars has launched a radio advertisement campaign in California, urging the state’s residents to demand online poker legalization.
Californians for Responsible iPoker is a recently launched advocacy group formed by PokerStars in collaboration with three of the biggest card clubs in California and the San Manuel and the Morongo Indians. The group recently announced that the ad campaign forms “part of a statewide program to engage California citizens, businesses and others in a grassroots campaign to pass an online poker bill in California.”
In addition to requesting voters to take the initiative of pledging their names on its official website, the advocacy group has launched “Let California Play!” a PokerStars Pro Tour in collaboration with the above-mentioned card rooms. The tour is all set to start soon.
The ads depict the uncertainty regarding playing at unlicensed online poker rooms. The husband in the ads tells his wife patiently while making preparations to log into an online poker room: “There aren’t any sites based in California because the state hasn’t put any regulations in place. This one’s probably fine.” The wife is skeptical.
A voiceover then says that “consumers are at risk of fraud” as the state has not regulated online poker. Simultaneously, the ad points out that the state is “losing out on millions in revenues.” The voice further states: “Thankfully, California legislators have a plan to regulate it. This plan will protect consumers, enact strict safeguards to protect kids from gambling, and ensure only licensed, responsible companies operate here.”
The ads urge Californians to get in touch with their lawmakers and inform them that it is high time they regulate Internet poker.
Meanwhile, a hearing titled “The Legality of Internet Poker: How Prepared is California to Regulate It?” is scheduled to be held soon.
California is actually not very prepared to regulate online poker as various stakeholders are unable to come to a consensus.
Eric Hollreiser, the corporate communications head of PokerStars and Amaya Inc. says that California must update old laws and regulate Internet poker for the protection of consumers and the generation of revenue.
Lynne Valbuena, the chairwoman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, said that the tribe intends to pursue the issue to “the finish line.” She said that legalizing iPoker is “the right thing” for California to do, for the sake of its consumers.
Ultimately, California’s 38.8 million residents have to make up their minds.


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Saab could switch some of its production to China should its annual sales in the country reach 10,000 units.
New Saab boss Victor Muller is hoping to expand the business into China and will announce new distributors within the next few months.
Muller told Auto News Europe: “We hope to be selling 10,000 cars in China in the next three years. If that happens, we will talk to local manufacturers about production."
He also said he expects the firm to be “cash positive” by 2011 if “nothing strange happens in the world or the auto business”.
Muller said the firm’s target to sell 125,000 is entirely reachable with the launch of the new 9-5 and 9-4X, as well as a new 93 in 2012.
"Saab sold 98,000 cars globally in 2008. In two years we will have new products - the 9-5, 9-4X crossover and a new 9-3, so sales will bounce back," he said.
Muler said the firm’s break even point was 85,000 units per year, much lower than under General Motors' ownership.


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If you have any investments in popular cryptocurrencies, chances are you’ve had a pretty unpleasant few weeks. While most of the news surrounding the current cryptocurrency market crash concerns Bitcoin, its collapse has also dragged down several other coins such as Ethereum.
At its peak, a single Bitcoin was worth nearly $64,400, which means that if you bought $1,000 worth of Bitcoin on November 12, 2021, it would currently be worth around $326 today. Likewise, the price of Ethereum has dropped to $1,112 this week, down from $4,600 in November, and that was the main currency still being mined using consumer graphics cards rather than application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miners. ).
This is bad news for cryptocurrencies, but potentially good news for other stakeholders who are praying for the market to go down, even if some people have nothing to gain from the Bitcoin crash. One such group is PC gamers and computer enthusiasts who have partially blamed cryptocurrency miners for the rapid inflation of graphics card prices in recent years – but will this continued market collapse provide a fruitful bounty of cheap GPUs?
It’s certainly a possibility, but not everything is black and white. Bitcoin itself has not been a real issue for the gaming community for years as it is completely unfeasible to mine using a consumer graphics card. Smaller cryptocurrencies have not had this problem, but the fame and popularity of Bitcoins seems to have dragged many of these smaller coins with it.
12-18 months ago, when I was reporting the rising cost of recently released GPUs like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, prices went up to almost 3x the MSRP for some of the most popular next-gen offerings from AMD and Nvidia, which made the boards impossible to find in stock and extremely inaccessible to most. Part of the blame was placed on cryptocurrency miners, from small-scale operations to large industrial farms, as they had the power to purchase all available stock from online stores using bots.
Covid-19 added additional frustrations as physical stores remained closed for many months, which forced potential customers to try to get new GPUs online, either from a retailer directly or by paying scalpers on third-party sites such as eBay or Facebook Market.
Wait, so cryptocurrency miners are to blame?
PC gamers and makers had an understandably depressing few months where it looked like prices wouldn’t go down and shortages were inevitable. Looking at the general “vibe” during this time, I was getting very tired of hearing about new graphics cards being released because few consumers were able to afford them at a reasonable price. Not surprisingly, there were people waiting for the cryptocurrency market to crash – even if it was more out of spite than a belief that it would fix the market.
Cryptocurrency miners certainly did not pose the biggest problem, but they caused competition for the little available stock. In the end, Team Green (Nvidia) implemented measures to make its consumer graphics cards less desirable for those hoping to use them to mine coins like Ethereum by installing anti-mining technology on nearly the entire Ampere lineup.
The fact is, the GPU market has been slowly recovering for months now, and the current crash likely only has a small part to play in that.
Asus announced during the company’s Q1 earnings call that the drop in demand was likely caused by the cryptocurrency industry’s intention to move away from GPU-based mining to Ethereum, the world’s second most popular cryptocurrency behind Bitcoin.
This is because Ethereum has started migrating to proof-of-stake, from the previous proof-of-work method previously used by Bitcoin. In simple terms, proof of work is a validation method where computers compete with each other to be the first to solve complex “puzzles” and the winner gets to update the blockchain with the latest verified transactions, being rewarded with some cryptocurrencies like payment .
This left validation open to miners using warehouses full of consumer graphics cards to solve these puzzles – massive amounts of electricity go in and cryptocurrency goes out.
Proof of stake uses validators to find a block based on the number of tokens they have, which eliminates the need to solve these “puzzles”. So while it was previously profitable to mine Ethereum on consumer graphics cards, it will soon be inefficient to do so.
Not only does the crash mean that people will make less money if they continue to mine, it can also result in some people abandoning mining altogether and selling large amounts of hardware to recoup some money. We could expect an influx of cheap, used graphics cards to flood the market, although you have to buy them at your own risk considering how long they’ve been in constant use.
Still, even without used GPUs flooding sites like eBay or Facebook Marketplace, we can expect PC gamers to find less competition from crypto miners in the coming months, which should make it easier to grab the GeForce RTX 3060 you’ve been eyeing.
Rejoice but be aware that our fortunes can change
We’re already seeing some of the current generations of graphics cards being sold at a discount to newer ones, although using the word “already” might rub salt in some sores as many of these cards are approaching their second birthday.
We’re just a few months away from seeing what AMD and Nvidia have to offer in terms of next-gen hardware, and Intel is already testing its desktop GPUs in the Chinese market. Arc Alchemist will be a generation behind Lovelace and RDNA3 when it launches, but its inclusion could help prevent a shortage.
All of this certainly sounds good to… well, anyone who isn’t a cryptocurrency miner. With the cryptocurrency tank, there will be less competition from miners jumping into the next-gen launch, as well as cheap used hardware for those on a tight budget. The biggest risk here is that there are still other coins available that use a proof-of-work system, so even when ETH eventually moves away from proof-of-work, mining could become profitable again if the cryptocurrency market recovers.
For now, it looks like PC gamers and builders can celebrate a victory over what many considered a significant thorn in their side. Cryptocurrency markets can recover, of course, but we can at least take advantage of some discounted graphics cards before the possible recovery.


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The U.S. Congress asked the Federal Communications Commission to investigate Huawei's smartphone ambitions in the country, Bloomberg reports, citing a letter a number of lawmakers addressed to Chairman Ajit Pai. The order was reportedly issued in December and it's currently unclear whether the FCC complied with the request that mentioned unspecified yet concerning findings of some congressional intelligence committees in regards to the supposed security threat the Chinese firm poses to the U.S. The scope of the investigation that the FCC was asked to initiate is also unknown. Verizon recently scrapped its plans to retail Huawei-made devices in the country, thus following AT&T's example, giving up on the idea of partnering with the company due to political pressure from Washington, according to the same source. Neither party confirmed the report that signals Huawei's ambitions to establish itself in the world's largest market for ultra-premium mobile devices are over for the foreseeable future.
The government and some Congress representatives previously pressured wireless carriers in the United States to cut all commercial ties with Huawei or risk losing lucrative federal contracts, recent reports suggest. Similar pressure was applied in regards to China Telecom and ZTE, though the latter still has its devices retailed by three of the four national carriers or their subsidiaries, albeit it only accounts for a couple of percentage points of the U.S. phone market, according to a number of industry trackers. Various government officials and politicians are understood to be opposing the idea of allowing the telecom giant to do business in the U.S. on a large scale due to spying concerns. Huawei's devices already work on both Verizon and AT&T's networks and have been available for purchase from online storefronts like Amazon for over a year now but the vast majority of annual handset sales in the country are made by wireless carriers, with Huawei's commercial prospects in the U.S. thus essentially being non-existent without support from big telecoms.
Smartphones are only a small part of the reason why Huawei is facing stiff political opposition on its road to establishing a major U.S. presence, many industry watchers believe, arguing that Washington is much more concerned about avoiding a scenario in which the Chinese tech giant plays a major role in the future deployment of 5G networks in the country. Fears of spying led to significant pressure on AT&T to put an end to its 5G partnership with Huawei, insiders previously claimed, whereas the White House even considered nationalizing 5G deployment efforts in recent months due to the same concerns, according to a National Security Council memo that was leaked on Sunday.


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STILL Game fans are in for an extra treat at The SSE Hydro after venue sponsors decided to transform part of it into some landmarks from Jack and Victor’s hometown.
To celebrate the record-breaking run of shows SSE will transform their exclusive lounge areas into the boys’ much-loved local The Clansman, so fans can enjoy some pre-show banter over a pint or two in Craiglang’s finest.
SSE’s Reward Desk will be transformed into another Craiglang favourite - Navid’s shop - and SSE’s Private Box will be kitted out as Jack’s flat, where media competition winners will be able to enjoy the show in the comfortable surroundings of Jack’s iconic Osprey Heights abode.
Still Game ticket-holders who are SSE customers will be given the first opportunity to upgrade their tickets for the chance to access The Clansman through www.ssereward.com and other ticketholders will have the opportunity to be upgraded on the night.
Still Game will run from September 19 to October 10, with an extra special celebration planned in The Clansman (SSE’s lounges) to mark the first birthday of The SSE Hydro on September 30.


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September 9, 2019 – Disruptive mobile gaming brand and platform BetWarrior has added content from leading casino games supplier MGA Games, as it continues to assemble the leading, fully native mobile casino experience.
MGA Games content, including more than 30 classic video-bingo titles such as Mariachis, Castle and Zeus, will now appear in BetWarrior’s fully native mobile application.
Katalin Horvath, Casino Product Manager at BetWarrior, said: “MGA Games has long been established as one of the leading casino content creators in Spain and beyond.
“With BetWarrior already live in part of Latin America, we very quickly identified this content as a must-have to ensure we offer the absolute best to our players.
“The MGA Games team has been a pleasure to work with, and the integration into our fully native mobile app has been seamless.”
Jose A. Giacomelli, General Manager at MGA Games, said: “MGA Games is always looking to partner with innovative new operators, and BetWarrior certainly ticks the box.
“Its product is already setting the bar for the mobile casino experience, so it was paramount that our content was part of this.
“We are thrilled our games are now live and look forward to building a long-lasting relationship with the BetWarrior team.”
BetWarrior was founded by former PokerStars executives Morten Tonnesen and José del Pino to create a truly legacy-free mobile gaming platform.
BetWarrior is a sports betting and casino operator and platform utilising the latest in machine learning and artificial intelligence to deliver a truly personal user experience. Founded by two former PokerStars executives, it aims to leverage innovative technology to place the customer at the centre of the action.
The operator launched in 2019, with an initial focus on regulated markets in Europe and Latin America. BetWarrior is licensed by the Curacao e-Gaming Licensing Authority and is in the process of acquiring additional licences in Europe and Latin America.
For more information, please visit http://www.betwarrior.com/.
About MGA GAMES
MGA Games is a pioneering company in Spain in the creation and development of online slot machine and video bingo productions.
Born from MGA’s New Technologies Division, it is dedicated to the development and marketing of attractive, high quality and certified successful online games that attract the attention of users and operators. The MGA Games product portfolio includes titles based on Spanish slot machines, as well as international slots and video bingo games. All of them are available for domestic and international operators. More info: https://mgagames.es/.


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The tax imposed on large retail premises in Northern Ireland will damage job creation in the province and do nothing to help struggling small businesses, local retailers have warned.
The Northern Ireland Retail Consortium today said the Large Retailer Levy, which aims to divert funds from major retailers to helping town centres, would primarily benefit banks and chains of betting shops.
The body made the claim in response to government figures that showed only half the funds generated would go to helping small retailers in town centres.
“The new tax is flawed from start to finish,” said NIRC director Jane Bevis. “Not only does it unfairly punish one of the sectors best placed to create jobs and attract investment, the funds raised won’t even reach their intended target.”
She added: “Politicians risk doing major damage to growth, investment and job creation in Northern Ireland by rushing into a poorly designed tax.”


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| Feb 18, 2014
| 11:30 AM
Apple Inc is looking at cars and medical devices to diversify its sources of revenue as growth from iPhones and iPads slow, according to a San Francisco Chronicle report.
Apple's head of mergers and acquisitions, Adrian Perica, met with Tesla Motors Inc...
| Jul 3, 2013
After tests found worrisome levels of arsenic in American rice last fall, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced it would test 1,000 additional samples by the end of the year and issue recommendations "promptly."
Nearly 10 months later, the...
| Sep 19, 2012
| 10:04 AM
Many name-brand rice and rice products contain varying levels of carcinogenic arsenic, according to the results of separate sets of tests announced today by the U.S. Food and Drug Administrationand Consumer Reports.
In conjunction with the Consumer...
| Jun 7, 2009
Natalie Fullerton's parents were thrilled to watch their year-old daughter bounce back from a double-lung transplant. Within months, she was mimicking her sister's ballet poses and gleefully repeating the word "purple."
Her father, Leslie, carefully...
| Jul 3, 2014
| 3:35 PM
MILWAUKEE When faced with intense criticism for her agency's approval of the powerful narcotic painkiller Zohydro, U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg turned to a sobering statistic:100 million Americans are suffering from...
| Apr 3, 2014
| 10:14 PM
Federal officials said Thursday they hoped a new "rescue pen" would help reduce the death toll from overdoses involving prescription painkillers.
The Food and Drug Administration approved the sale, by prescription, of the prefilled auto-injector of...
| Apr 3, 2014
| 2:10 PM
Opioid drug overdoses, the cause of some 16,000 fatalities and half a million emergency-department visits yearly, may have met their match: The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the sale, by prescription, of a hand-held auto-injector...
| Feb 4, 2014
| 12:12 PM
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration wants teenagers to know the “real cost” of smoking – and it’s not measured in dollars. Teens who pick up a cigarette habit will wind up paying with their skin, their teeth and even their...
| Feb 7, 2014
| 10:00 AM
Maryland has been a pacesetter on some important health care issues like hospital cost control. But on one matter that is seriously impairing patient care — generic drug shortages — Marylanders are facing the same crisis as everyone else....
| Feb 27, 2014
| 1:05 PM
First Lady Michelle Obama and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg announced Thursday that they are working to make nutrition labels more helpful to consumers who want to make healthier eating choices.
Ever notice how an...
| Sep 10, 2013
| 1:27 PM
Patients should not be prescribed long-acting or extended-release opioid pain relievers unless they need daily, round-the-clock treatment of their pain that can’t be managed by any other means, the Food and Drug Administration has told physicians....


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Spotify is taking action against “pirates” who are accessing premium account features without paying for them. This requires a hacked version of the mobile app; which is all that readily available and isn’t exactly widespread.
The music streaming service has been sending emails to those suspected of using the hacked apps; saying that “abnormal activity” has been detected on their accounts. The notice also warns that continued detection of the activity could result in the account being suspending or terminated.
What appears to be happening is that people are using hacked versions of the Spotify mobile app; which allows them to circumvent the minor inconveniences that are associated with using a free account. These are things like being subjected to advertisements and limitation on skipping songs. Most of which are designed to encourage people to make the leap to a paid premium subscription.
This action is unlikely to actually have any impact on the number of hacked accounts. Seeing that there is nothing stopping these people from simply opening a new one using a different email address.


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Send a Press Release Supporting Marketplace Fairness
Members of Congress and their staff keep a close eye on local and regional media outlets, because it helps them keep their fingers on the "pulse" of their districts and states. You can send a statement to your local media on the impact that passage of marketplace fairness legislation would have in your community using the template press release provided below.
Template Press Release
Representative [Your Representative's Name] Should Support Marketplace Fairness
[Your Town] - Each year, local businesses are put at an automatic five to ten percent competitive disadvantage to their online counterparts, who are not required to collect state and local sales taxes on their transactions. The businesses in our community provide [GIVE EXAMPLES OF ECONOMIC, EMPLOYMENT, OR QUALITY OF LIFE CONTRIBUTIONS MADE TO YOUR COMMUNITY]. However, they continue to do compete on an uneven playing field with online businesses because of Congress's failure to pass marketplace fairness legislation.
"I urge Representative [NAME] to work with [his/her] colleagues on Capitol Hill to pass a marketplace fairness bill this year," said [YOUR NAME]. S/he continued, "In the year since the Senate passed the Marketplace Fairness Act, businesses in our community have faced unfair competition with online business, as [AMOUNT] of sales tax goes uncollected in our state from online sales. Passage of a marketplace fairness act will level the playing field for the businesses that keep our community vibrant, while helping our city to provide the services residents need."
Marketplace fairness does not represent a new tax. Rather, it closes a current unfair loophole. By passing marketplace fairness, Congress will level the playing field for all sellers and will provide fiscal relief for state and local governments without any cost to the federal budget. Giving states and local governments the authority to require online sellers to collect and remit sales tax will support brick and mortar businesses as well as their communities, without imposing new taxes or affecting the federal budget.


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White Castle fans, listen up. There's now truly a way to become what you eat this October.
The Columbus-headquartered fast food chain has partnered with Spirit Halloween to offer a new way to showcase your enthusiasm for the brand through new Halloween costumes.
There are two new costumes available: the iconic White Castle Slider Costume and the Chicken Rings Costume.
The licensed, limited-edition costumes are available exclusively on Sprit Halloween's website this Halloween season.
“White Castle has been part of Halloween traditions for decades, and these costumes certainly take the Crave to a whole new level,” Lynn Blashford, chief marketing officer at White Castle said in a release. “Working with Spirit Halloween to develop these delectable costumes has been fantastic, and we know Cravers will love them, too!"
For more information and to purchase the costumes, visit www.spirithalloween.com.


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Egyptian craftsman turns Cairo's junk into funky furniture
CAIRO, Feb 22 In the heart of Cairo, a city all too familiar with environmental problems, Ibrahim Abougendy is doing his bit by converting discarded junk into innovative modern furniture.
ZURICH Nov 20 Swiss exports fell by 7.7 percent in October in real terms, dragged down by a negative trend in the machinery and electronics industry.
When adjusted for two extra working days in October, exports fell by 16.0 percent in real terms, the Federal Customs Office said on Tuesday.
Overall, Switzerland ran a trade surplus of 2.821 billion Swiss francs in October.
Exports in the important chemical and pharmaceutical industry grew by a real 1.1 percent. Sales of machinery and electronics slid by 8.8 percent.
Swiss exporters have been helped by a cap the central bank imposed on the red-hot franc at 1.20 per euro more than a year ago, even though many still see the safe-haven currency as too strong.
Swiss National Bank Chairman Thomas Jordan said last week the reasons behind the setting of the minimum exchange rate were still valid.
At its September policy meeting, the SNB cut its 2012 growth forecast to one percent from 1.5 percent after the economy shrank unexpectedly in the second quarter as the crisis in the euro zone dampened demand for Swiss goods and services.
($1 = 0.9229 Swiss francs)
Feb 22 CVS Health Corp said its pharmacy chain had removed artificial trans fats, which have been linked to rising rates of heart diseases, from its store-branded food products well ahead of a June 2018 federal deadline.
Feb 22 U.S. satellite TV provider Dish Network Corp reported a better-than-expected profit as it unexpectedly added pay-TV subscribers in the fourth quarter.


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For growth hunters, bowling behemoth Hollywood Bowl (LSE: BOWL) may not seem the most obvious stock choice.
The business is expected to endure a 20% earnings slide in the year to September 2017. But I believe Hollywood Bowl’s leading position in this niche leisure sector (controlling around a quarter of the country’s bowling lanes) should deliver rewards for patient investors.
It announced in last week’s market update that it “has traded well through the first half of the financial year,” with revenues leaping 7.8% year-on-year, or 1.2% on a like-for-like basis. This was despite Easter falling in the second half of the current fiscal period, unlike last year.
Hollywood Bowl’s perky half-time numbers underline the success of its site refreshment and expansion programme, moves designed to transform its centres into one-stop shops for amusement lovers.
The company advised that refurbishments at its recently-acquired Bowlplex centres “are continuing to trade ahead of our original expectations,” as are changes across the company’s other brands.
And Hollywood Bowl’s site expansion programme also offers plenty of earnings potential. The business expects to open three new sites in the current fiscal year in Derby, Southampton and Dagenham, and has six new centres in total in its pipeline up until 2020.
It is true that the economic implications of Brexit are likely to hang over the retail and leisure sectors for some time. But Hollywood Bowl’s position as one of the better value-for-money operators in the market should allow it to effectively hurdle these near-term troubles, while ongoing work to its estate should underpin splendid returns further out.
My enthusiasm is shared by the City, which expects Hollywood Bowl to recover from this year’s anticipated earnings drop with a 13% bounce in the next fiscal year.
And I reckon a P/E ratio of 15.2 times for 2017 is a decent level at which to hitch onto Hollywood Bowl’s exciting growth strategy.
Like Hollywood Bowl, medicines creator Vectura (LSE: VEC) is also expected to suffer its share of earnings turbulence in the near term. In this case, a 4% decline is anticipated by City brokers.
But in my opinion, any bottom-line trouble should prove short-lived as the merger between itself and Skyepharma in 2016 creates a leader in the fast-growing respiratory care segment.
Not only are sales of Vectura’s Flutiform and Ultibro treatments steadily catching fire — sales of the former jumped 29% during March-December — but new products like a generic rival to Advair also provide plenty of earnings opportunity. And the huge wads of cash thrown up by Skyepharma’s operations should provide the key to Vectura opening the vast potential of its drugs pipeline.
The Square Mile certainly believes so and predicts that Vectura will rebound from this year’s predicted earnings dip with a 49% bottom-line surge in 2018. While expensive on paper, I reckon a P/E ratio of 21.4 times for the current period is warranted given the firm’s increasingly-rosy revenues outlook.
According to one leading industry firm, the 5G boom could create a global industry worth US $12.3 TRILLION out of thin air…
And if you click here, we’ll show you something that could be key to unlocking 5G’s full potential...
It’s just ONE innovation from a little-known US company that has quietly spent years preparing for this exact moment…
But you need to get in before the crowd catches onto this ‘sleeping giant’.
Royston Wild has no position in any 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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Choosing the right battery technology Design How-To 7/31/2009 Post a comment Battery performance, as it relates to runtime and capacity, has become a key market differentiator for consumer electronics. A new line of batteries with technologies like lithium ion and lithium-ion phosphate that offer better performance make the choice of what battery to use harder.
Graphene nanoribbons lower power, cooler than copper News & Analysis 7/31/2009 1 comment Graphene nanoribbons below 20-nanometer widths will carry 1000-times more current, and run up to 12-time cooler, than copper interconnects according to carbon semiconductor researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology.
New E85 station opening in Arizona Product News 7/30/2009 Post a comment The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) announces the opening of the first E85 station in Coolidge, Arizona. E85 is a blend of 85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline, designed for flex-fuel vehicles.
Karlsruhe tram-train runs field trial on Ni-Cd battery system News & Analysis 7/30/2009 Post a comment The pioneering Stadtbahn Karlsruhe tram-train network in Germany has completed an extended field trial with a Saft MATRICS MRX battery system to demonstrate the potential reliability, performance and TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) advantages offered by using specialised rechargeable nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cd) batteries in a light rail application.
Nissan provides e-car technical details News & Analysis 7/30/2009 Post a comment Japanese car maker Nissan plans to introduce its electric volume vehicle for 2010 production start. The OEM already offered a glimpse to the car's electric drive and internal IT systems. Surprise: The driving range is 160 km not bad to start with.
Nvidia chief scientist to EDA: Give us power tools News & Analysis 7/30/2009 Post a comment Nvidia's chief scientist told the EDA community that chip designers need new tools to usher in a new era of computing, moving to "throughput computing" from an era of "denial architecture" that has seen the semiconductor industry squeeze more performance out of single-thread processors thanks to software.
Intuition for signal integrity Power DesignLine Blog 7/29/2009 Post a comment The design process is a creative process and intuition is the most important skill you rely on first. Once you have a design, then you apply your analysis skills to evaluate the cost-performance tradeoffs.
The TSMC Tsunami at DAC 2009 Blog 7/28/2009 Post a comment In a well-orchestrated and clearly scripted show of force, the CEOs of the three "largest" companies in EDA appeared together under the Big Top at the 2009 Design Automation Conference in San Francisco on Monday, July 27th, for a highly touted afternoon keynote panel purportedly addressing "Futures for EDA."
Power management bestows profits on Dialog News & Analysis 7/28/2009 Post a comment In the second quarter, fabless chip vendor Dialog Semiconductor (Kirchhein, Germany) continued its winning streak. The company managed to raise its revenue not only compared to the quarter before but also compared to Q2/2008.
Low power MCU selection criteria and sleep mode implementation Design How-To 7/28/2009 Post a comment Discussed are key MCU low power features such as low power capabilities, flexible clocking systems, event-driven resources that affect its performance and provides selection criteria to choose the right one. Also explored are hardware/software techniques to achieve intelligent power management using low power modes.
How Switched Reluctance Motors enable green designs Design How-To 7/27/2009 Post a comment The electronics industry continues to transition from designing with inefficient induction motors to Switched Reluctance Motors (SRMs) that offer high efficiency, elegant design and an ultra-compact size to accommodate the size and weight needs of today's electronics.
Atmel offers DDR2 for 400 MHz ARM9-based embedded MPUs Product News 7/27/2009 Post a comment Atmel Corporation has released the first member of a series of 400 MHz ARM926 embedded MPUs that support second generation Dual Data Rate DRAM (DDR2) and are optimized for industrial applications such as building automation, data loggers, POS terminals, alarm systems and medical equipment.
RF energy powers printed lighting device Product News 7/27/2009 Post a comment In a combination of RFID-like energy harvesting and organic electronics, a group of companies has powered a printed electroluminescence device wirelessly. The technology could be used for security applications and payment cards.
TU Dresden brings power efficient MPSoC to DAC News & Analysis 7/27/2009 Post a comment At the Design Automation Conference (DAC) that currently takes place in San Francisco, a group of researchers and chip designers from the Dresden Technical University present what they hope it could offer a solution for the challenge of modem signal processing for upcoming wireless communications generations.
Luxemburg lab drives PV efficiency News & Analysis 7/24/2009 Post a comment Scientists from the Luxemburg University Photovoltaics Laboratory have produced thin film solar cells in two different technologies both with very high efficiencies.


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Recently a Tesla Model S crashed into a gym in Florida. What happened? On the 9th of August, there was a Tesla S trying to park when it suddenly accelerated and crashed into the front corner of the gym located in Lighthouse Point, FL. The whole incident has been recorded on the gym’s camera. Luckily, no one was injured during the whole situation, but it was a close one. Just seconds before the accident, a person went into the gym through the front glass door.
This case reminded us of a similar one happened in June this year when a car crashed into a building. The interesting thing is that both crashed cars are made by the same manufacturer – Tesla. The one from June was Model X and it crashed in Irvine, CA. It also suddenly accelerated. The driver said that the vehicle accelerated on its own. After reviewing the logs, Tesla came out stating that the accelerator pedal was pressed and that it was driver’s fault.
Now both Tesla and the owner of the vehicle are having their side of the story. The driver in the video is a woman, the actual owner of the Tesla Model S is her husband. The owner posted on Tesla’s forum describing the situation: “I have owned several Model S Tesla’s and currently own 1 P85D and 1 P90D. Recently, my wife experienced a near fatal accident when she was slowly parking at her gym. The car violently exploded into full acceleration and could have easily killed people in the gym”. The post was deleted afterwards.
After contacting Tesla, they confirmed that the logs have been reviewed and the result is that the accelerator pedal was pressed during the accident. “I am amazed and wildly disappointed by the way Tesla has handled this and their complete unwillingness to even talk to me about it. Of course, they immediately blamed it on the driver and claimed their online computer tells them that” – the owner described in the same mentioned post. On the other hand, he did leave the option of the driver’s fault open: “Of course, it is possible that there could have been driver error, but we do not feel that is what has occurred and wanted to have it looked further into.”
Back to the first accident – the owner of the Tesla Model X that crashed into a building in Irvine back in June said something similar. He pointed out that people from Tesla were quick to blame the driver based just on the logs, without actually physically inspecting the vehicle.
NHTSA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration stated that around 16,000 crashes happen every year in the USA because of driver’s fault – mistaking the brake and accelerator pedals. Now, there might be a huge number of car accidents in the USA, but the number of 16,000 is not unimportant. It actually might mean something. Now, in these two particular crashes, both drivers are claiming that the vehicles accelerated on their own.
There were some other similar situations with Tesla vehicles suddenly accelerating and there should be a new report coming up soon.
Of course, the manufacturer came out with a statement defending their position and denying defect:
“Tesla’s cars do not accelerate without the driver instructing it to do so. In every situation where we have received a customer claim about this, the vehicle’s diagnostic logs have confirmed that the acceleration was the result of the driver pressing the accelerator pedal.”


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April Fools’ Day is among the most annoying web traditions, however this 12 months Google — infamous for its numerous elaborate pranks that sometimes contact on practically each main product the corporate makes — received’t be taking part because of the critical menace of the coronavirus that continues to impression your entire world.
In line with an inner e-mail obtained by Business Insider, Google will “take the 12 months off from that custom out of respect for all these preventing the Covid-19 pandemic. Our highest aim proper now’s to be useful to folks, so let’s save the jokes for subsequent April, which can undoubtedly be a complete lot brighter than this one.”
“We’ve already stopped any centralized April Idiot’s efforts however understand there could also be smaller initiatives inside groups that we don’t find out about,” the e-mail from Google’s head of selling Lorraine Twohill continues. “Please suss out these efforts and ensure your groups pause on any jokes they could have deliberate — internally or externally.”
Like or detest web April Fools’ jokes, it’s onerous to argue that Google’s resolution right here isn’t a clever one. With the seriousness of the well being disaster gripping the USA and the world, dedicating a day to deceptive folks and including extraneous, misinforming options to crucial merchandise like Google search, YouTube, Gmail, or Maps simply looks like a foul thought.
Hopefully different corporations will pay attention to Google’s lead right here and modify their very own April Fools’ plans accordingly. There’s a time and a spot for a very good joke — however this most likely isn’t it.


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FINCA Microfinance Bank participates in annual MAP Marcon Conference 2017 in Lahore
According to the organisers, the main objectives of MARCON were to keep the marketing professionals abreast of the developments in the field of marketing in terms of new marketing techniques and tools, new challenges and changing marketing trends around the world.
CEO FINCA, Mr Mudassar Aqil highlighted the new paradigm of marketing in the current era and how digital marketing is overpowering and surpassing the traditional marketing. "The aim was to put forward the marketing techniques, the rapid growth of digital marketing and the adoption of these digital marketing in the everyday business", he added.
We are excited to be a part of this event and represent FINCA as a corporate and social entity. "We are working hard on our end to highlight the importance of various marketing strategies and keep our pace by following the modern digital trends", Mudassar Aqil explained.
The event was also attended by Minister of Planning and development of Pakistan Ahsan Iqbal.-PR
- Today's gold rates in Pakistan — 17 September 202109:39 AM | 17 Sep, 2021
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We all know that Research In Motion is in some trouble and that it needs to do something bold to get back in the leadership position in the smartphone game. Could that bold move be licensing its BlackBerry software to the likes of HTC and Samsung?
That’s what Barron’s is reporting based on an analyst’s report and this also suggests that the Co-CEOs will be stripped of their chairmen position in favor of Barbara Symiest. With a new chairperson, RIM would finally be able to change leadership if it needed to and make a massive shift like licensing its software.
The specifics of the licensing aren’t spelled out but the analyst believes that some elements of BlackBerry 10, which won’t land until the end of 2012. The only reason I could think of for companies like Samsung and HTC to want to license BlackBerry 10 is to get a deeper foothold in the enterprise space, which RIM is still the leader in. Additionally, with Google soon becoming a full-fledged Android handset and tablet maker with the Motorola acquisition, this could give Android companies some more leverage.
Of course, we still don’t know if BlackBerry 10 will be any good or if it will be competitive with iOS 6, Android Jelly Bean and whatever version of Windows Phone is out by the end of the year. We know the PlayBook’s QNX platform had issues playing nice with RIM’s core enterprise services (e-mail, calendar, BBM), so if those bugs aren’t ironed out very, very quickly, any advantages of licensing RIM’s software would go out the window.
More than likely, is could just be an analyst speculating wildly but don’t be surprised if the chairperson piece of this story came through. What do you think friends? Does RIM need to license its software out? Would other companies even want it?


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Sri Lanka Design Festival 2012
This year's Sri Lanka Design Festival continued its focus on how brands and manufacturers can improve speed to market while maintaining their eco and ethical credentials. just-style visited the country, and saw a number of eco-factories, attended the South Asian Leadership Forum and a sustainability event. You can find all the articles from the trip here.
Collaboration, speed to market and building the 'Made in Sri Lanka' brand emerged as key themes at this year's South Asian Apparel Leadership Forum, held as part of last week's Sri Lanka Design Festival (SLDF).
Sri Lankan clothing producer Timex is expanding its own brands in Asia and Europe as part of plans to move into higher margin areas to offset rising costs in its domestic manufacturing operations.
Suppliers may need to undergo only one audit a year on their sustainability and environmental credentials if an eco-index initiative by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) takes off.
Sri Lanka is cementing its position at the vanguard of sustainable and ethical fashion production because "it's the right thing to do, and something we wanted to do," according to Nikhil Hirdaramani, director at one of the country's leading manufacturers.
The power of the fashion industry to induce consumers to become more sustainable was a key theme of today's Sustainable Fashion Symposium at the Sri Lanka Design Festival.
Clothing brands can improve their speed to market and sustainabilty through the development of shipping hubs near their sourcing markets, delegates at the Sri Lanka Design Festival were told today (16 November).
I'm in sunny Sri Lanka. Sadly, I'm not poolside sipping on cocktails, but hard at work bringing you the latest from the 2012 Sri Lankan Design Festival, which began tonight (15 November).
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Hancock Fabrics makes money
BALDWYN — During the third quarter, Hancock Fabrics Inc. accomplished something it has not done since emerging from bankruptcy — turn a profit. Net income was $3 million, or $0.16 basic earnings per share, compared to a net loss of $300,000, or $0.02 loss per share, in the third quarter of fiscal 2008.
EBITDA was $6.1 million, an increase of $3.5 million over the same period last fiscal year.
Net sales were $72.7 million, compared with $70.6 million in the third quarter last year, and comparable same store sales increased 4 percent, compared with a 2.1 percent increase in the previous year.
Hancock Fabrics recorded a net loss was $100,000, or $0.01 per share, in year-to-date for fiscal 2009, compared to a net loss of $16.5 million, or $0.87 per share, for fiscal 2008 year-to-date.
EBITDA for year-to-date fiscal 2009 was $9.2 million, an increase of $7.8 million over the same period last fiscal year.
Net sales year-to-date were $196.4 million compared with $198.2 million in the year-to-date last year, and comparable same store sales increased 0.9 percent, compared with a 2.9 percent increase in the previous year.
Jane Aggers, Hancock Fabrics’ president and CEO, said, “We are beginning to experience meaningful top line improvement in combination with significant operating cost reductions. Our strong quarter and year-to-date results are a testament to the hard work of all of our associates and management team. We are cautiously optimistic that we can continue to execute our business plan throughout the remainder of the year and into 2010.”
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Emilio Zaplana, councillor for outlying parishes for Orihuela, has detailed the works to be undertaken in the coming months which will “improve the resident’s quality of life”.
The Correntias Altas will be resurfaced and the pavements around the Cruz de Fajardo will be repaired at a total cost of €49,837.
Zaplana commented that these were the most requested by residents as they affected their daily lives.
Among the many other items was the question of the 1,000 square metres surrounding the sports area, El Mudamiento.
This will receive an upgrade to the tune of €8,860; this will be spent on improving the urban furniture and upgrading the pavements.


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Acklea, a Division of SHB Hire, will be launching its brand new red ‘X’ variable message sign into the market at the end of April.
SHB Hire has welcomed 20 new apprenticeships into the business, a figure that it expects to continually rise.
SHB will extend the working hours at some of its depots, with the change being implemented immediately at the company’s Airdrie branch.
SHB Hire has announced the renewal of its partnership with hardtop and accessory manufacturer Truckman.
Acklea, a division of SHB Hire Ltd, recently completed the build of a newly designed, highly specialised 18T ‘Special Treatments’ vehicle for Eurovia.
SHB has taken delivery of 176 Fiat Professional vans just a few months after ordering 30 Doblo Cargo vans.
Specialist vehicle hire and management company SHB Hire has acquired traffic management equipment supplier Acklea.
SHB Hire has ordered its first six new Eurocargo tippers.
SHB has opened its largest depot in the UK as part of the vehicle hire and management company’s expansion programme.
Rain Sturgeon, a third-year apprentice at SHB Hire has been commended at this year’s Iveco apprentice of the year competition.
SHB has invested in four 3.5 tonne Iveco Daily ‘buggy transporters’ to improve the delivery and collection of buggies to and from events.
A former depot manager at SHB Hire's Exeter branch has been jailed after fraud to the value of £246,000.
A new depot in Gloucester is the latest development in SHB Hire's current expansion programme.
SHB Hire's Heathrow depot has gained the Fleet Operation Recognition Scheme (FORS) bronze accreditation.
The RAC have announced they will be supporting motorists attending this year's Glastonbury Festival.
Auto Styling Truckman has supplied SHB Hire with pick-up truck hardtops and accessories for a bespoke contract at Heathrow.
Vehicle Hire and Management Company, SHB, now runs a national cleaning service.
Vehicle hire and management company SHB Hire have taken delivery of four two storey buggy delivery trucks.
SHB Hire has updated its fleet following a major intake of new Iveco vehicles spanning the 3.5, 5.2, 7.0, 7.5, 12 and 18-tonne sectors.
Following an in-depth review of their business the Hendy Group has decided that they will be withdrawing from the hire market to focus on their dealerships.


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Amazon’s smart speaker system – Amazon Echo – was unveiled in the UK on September 28, 2016.
The Echo, which is an artificial intelligence device, is a 23.5 cm tall cylindrical speaker – similar in appearance to the UE Megaboom – with a seven-piece microphone array.
Essentially a bluetooth speaker, Echo plays music, reads out the news and sports scores, and answers questions using Amazon’s integrated virtual personal assistant Alexa.
The Echo, which was launched in US in June 2015 and became a surprise hit in American households, was Amazon’s bid to take on Apple’s virtual assistant Siri. Siri is integrated in all iPhones starting at iPhone 4s.
Echo can be used to control other internet-connected devices, build shopping lists and link in to dozens of third-party services including Spotify, Uber and BBC News.
At a press conference in London, Amazon spokespeople announced that Echo would be available in three European countries starting September 28- UK, Germany and Austria
Meanwhile, Google has also announced a virtual assistant – called Google Assistant – which can be used to find information, play media and carry out tasks such as booking cinema tickets via a back-and-forth chat between the user and the software.
The firm also announced a voice-activated device with a built-in speaker called Google Home to deliver the tech to living rooms.
It will compete with Amazon’s Echo.


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Potash: Come back Baumgertner, all is forgiven
In July last year Uralkali CEO Vladislav Baumgertner blasted the global potash market wide open sending stock prices in the sector tumbling and projects back to the drawing board.
Baumgertner's breakup of the Belarus-Russia potash bloc – which cost him his job and some jail time – was supposed to move potash from a clubby system of tightly controlled global supply and set prices to an open market where volume and cost-based pricing is key.
Baumgertner forecast at the time the price of potash would fall 25% to below $300 a tonne in short order.
Fast forward 12 months and it seems Baumgertner's big move is playing out as predicted.
According to the latest commodity price index from Canada's Scotiabank global shipments of the soil nutrient rebounded significantly this year while prices are also creeping back up.
According to Scotiabank economist Patricia Mohr buyers have been making the most of lower prices and global potash deliveries could be on the high side of expectations at 58 million tonnes (+7%), boosted by strong
sales in North America, record fertilizer application in Brazil — linked to higher soybean plantings and robust coffee prices — and a modest pick-up in demand from palm oil growers in Malaysia and Indonesia.
At the same time spot potash prices (FOB Vancouver) edged up from $302.50 in June to $310 per tonne in July, after bottoming at $295 in January
Granular potash — preferred in Brazil — is in short supply, as is all grades of SOP (potassium sulphate, non-chlorine potash fertilizer). Brazilian potash imports surged by 26% to a record 4.6 mt in 2014:H1, though aggressive pricing by Uralkali probably contributed to this strong demand.
The net result according to the report is that producer inventories across North America fell 18% below the five-year average in June.
China will exercise a large amount of optional tonnage from Canada in 2014:H2 and Canpotex, the North American marketing and distribution arm of the big three producers & Potash Corp, have announced that they are sold out this quarter.
Granular prices in Brazil may increase from the current $355 – $360 to $380 CFR, given strong seasonal demand in the third quarter.
However, broad-based price increases may await negotiation of a new contract price with China for early 2015 — widely expected to be a 10% hike on today's $305 CFR China price — setting a new higher floor.
Potash is currently priced well below phosphate fertilizers, which are strengthening. Sulphur prices, used to make DAP fertilizers, rose to $155 at Metro Port Vancouver in July. That's up a whopping 18% month-on-month.
Uralkali expects global potash shipments to climb to 60 million tonnes in 2015, though this may be optimistic given softer crop prices and weaker farm economics, concludes the report.
$310 a tonne is of course a long way away from the $950 touched in 2009, but most metals and minerals producers today would settle for a rising price environment, however modest. Just ask any iron ore or copper miner.


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Saudi supermarket chains join Turkish imports boycott
Local supermarket chains have joined a boycott in Saudi Arabia against Turkish goods this week, Agence France Presse reported on Thursday.
Saudi Arabia is Turkey’s 15th biggest export market and the country is also used as a transit point for Turkish goods.
Some retail chains said they would continue selling the goods until current stocks were exhausted, the French newswire said.
The boycott is based on three No's – no investment, no imports, and no tourism – and comes as a response to statements by Turkish officials in the context of the case surrounding the killing of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which Saudi intelligence officials are suspected of carrying out at their consulate in Istanbul, and Riyadh’s role in regional issues.
The campaign started on social media and spread through the populace before local officials in the trade and industry sectors urged Saudi citizens to boycott Turkish imports this month. Products of international brands manufactured in Turkey are also included in the boycott, threatening foreign investment in the country.
The Saudi government has sought to distance itself from the boycott, wary of rattling foreign investors and the possibility that Turkey could lodge a complaint with the World Trade Organisation, AFP said. Authorities have denied placing restrictions on Turkish products and maintain that the campaign is led by citizens, it said.
Karen Young, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, called the campaign a “kind of political showmanship”.
“It's a tactic for Saudi domestic consumption, a signal by the state to citizens on how to perceive and construct an external adversary,” she told AFP.
Robert Mogielnicki, a resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, said Saudi-Turkish bilateral trade flows were “not significant enough to make or break the economies of either country”.
"Turkey stands to lose more in the short term from disruptions to bilateral trade relations. However, Saudi Arabia must tread carefully to minimise any reputation-related costs associated with global perceptions of its trade policy," he told AFP.
Political relations between Saudi Arabia and Turkey have been marred by Turkish support for regional rival Qatar and the 2018 Khashoggi murder. Turkey’s judiciary has recently begun trial proceedings against suspects in the killing and called on Saudi Arabia to hand them over. Saudi Arabia and Turkey also back opposing factions in Libya’s civil war.


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The "A-series" tagline hints at a more affordable price tag.
“The new Pixel Buds A-Series have arrived,” the official Android account tweeted on Tuesday. Except, they were never really meant to “arrive” this early. Someone, somewhere at Google probably got a little ahead of themselves accidentally scheduling what might otherwise be classified as confidential information at this point of time. The tweet was taken down within 10 minutes, according to media reports, suggesting this wasn’t one of those instances where Google simply tweeted out its next product. It was an actual mistake.
That is not to say that this is fresh information. This is in fact the second time that Google has let the Pixel Buds A-Series slip ahead of schedule after seemingly confirming their existence in a marketing email in early April. Only this time, their imminent launch seems all but inevitable in the days to come, quite possibly at the upcoming Google I/O 2021 developer conference that kicks off May 18.
While the previous leak confirmed the Pixel Buds A-Series truly wireless earbuds will come in a new green colourway, the latest reveal drops a few vague technical aspects such as “quality sound” and “quick Bluetooth pairing.” They look more or less like the second-gen Pixel Buds launched in 2020 though the “A-series” tagline hints at a more affordable price tag that is always something to be excited about especially since Google has built quite a fan following for itself through its value-focused Pixel A-series smartphones.
Speaking of which, the Pixel 5a 5G appears to be right on schedule. The phone will be announced in line with when last year’s a- phone was introduced, which means around late July-early August so chances are, we may not hear a lot about it at I/O. The Pixel 5a 5G will be available later this year in select markets — US and Japan only — and just like last year, Google isn’t planning to bring a 5G Pixel phone to India again.
In an ideal world, the Pixel Buds A-Series would have accompanied the Pixel 5A 5G but then again, these are remarkable times and with tech majors like Apple and Samsung starting to face the heat of a global semiconductor shortage due to the pandemic, the fact that Google is getting ready to launch new hardware (albeit with limited availability) comes as a ray of sunshine amid all that’s going around the world lately.


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President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, today announced the next home console from Japanese manufacturer: the PlayStation 4. Now all you need is a logo and conceptual materials, but surely this information will be expanded during the evening.
Mark Cerny, creator of legends like Marble Madness and Missile Defense 3D, has just declared during the event that the PS4 development began five years ago. Since then, Cerny has been researching how to evolve “PlayStation ecosystem”, paying attention to the limitations of the current PS3.
With this said, get ready for the real hit: Sony has decided to adopt an architecture x 86 PC type with 8 GB of RAM, but with a computer GPU “much improved”. 100% Proprietary hardware is over?


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Bail, bail, bail! That’s not something you want to hear shouted from the highest commander in the admiralty, especially when all that bailing will only keep the heads of the crew just above water.
Two-thirds of our economic engine depends on consumers consuming. The more we consume, the better the picture. So as people tighten their life vests and consume less, the economy goes down even more.
Still, no one is calling for change of lifestyle. But guess what? Economic circumstances are changing lifestyles in a big way. And why shouldn’t they? We’ve all heard how America, with less than 5 percent of the world’s population, produces nearly a quarter of the greenhouse-gas emissions and consumes nearly a third of the world’s electricity (mostly from coal), and 43 percent of the gas. Sounds like a shift in consumption habits might be in order.
They say that the rest of the world wants what we have (big cars, big houses, big TVs, hot tubs, etc.) We’ve all heard what an environmental and economic disaster it will be when India and China join the modern age with two cars in every garage. China is on track to sell more than 10 million cars this year, up 14 percent from 2008. Those cars run on gas, and the competition is going to get fierce to keep the pistons turning.
India’s car consumption is nearly 1 million per year. And this probably won’t surprise you, but our faltering American car companies are setting up shop in India.
According to Asia Times, 15 car companies, including GM and Ford, have set up out-sourcing offices in India with a combined budget of $1.5 billion. Why? Well it’s cheaper to design cars in India than it is here. Supposedly, the Indians can give the same quality design service for $60 per hour when that costs us fat cats more than $800 per hour to work in the U.S. It’s global economics.
But we have to ask why we did we bail, bail, bail? Saving pensions and getting the loan business back on track were two of the stated goals. Certainly we didn’t bail so we can keep on consuming, consuming, consuming as usual. Economic experts are basically saying that we need to keep buying all the junk that we usually do or the world will collapse.
When gas hit $4 a gallon Americans started driving less. What did the OPEC oil cartel do? They jacked up prices to go with less demand, making sure they were keeping the profits up.
I had the opportunity to interview energy expert Randy Udall. I asked him about energy independence and the Republican theme song, “Drill, baby, drill!” He countered that we are “drilling like crazy” already in the U.S. and we can’t really drill any faster than we are.
We live in a global economy and anyone who tries to sell us on energy independence is probably naïve or manipulative, or both. We are Americans. If oil is cheaper overseas, we’ll buy it there. If the Japanese car is better and cheaper, we’ll buy that.
To think that Uncle Sam is going to nationalize the gas industry by drilling everything in sight and then filling up our Suburbans on the cheap is hopelessly optimistic.
Here in the valley, from Aspen to Glenwood Springs, municipalities are wisely preparing for less sales tax revenue in the coffers than during the boom years.
Even here we are consuming a little less. Is it a good thing if there are fewer cars on the road and more people on transit? Is it a good thing that we as a world are going back to the drawing board with concepts like conservation and sustainability? Someone’s going to get hurt when the lights go on and it becomes clear that the party’s over. Instead of reaching for the bailing buckets, maybe we should start preparing for that now.
Steve Skinner is an American hypocrite looking forward to consuming less. Reach him at email@example.com.