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Its milkshakes bring Gen Y to the yard.
Shake Shack might have received a lukewarm, neutral rating in the wake of its January IPO, but according to a new Goldman Sachs report released Tuesday, the burger chain has managed to amass a dedicated army of millennial fans. And a big reason for that, according to the report by analyst Karen Holthouse, is that its social media game is on fleek.
Shake Shack “does essentially no traditional marketing, but has a strong presence on social media, which speaks to its relevance among Millennials,” the report says. It cites both Vine and Instagram as examples, where its presence is massive relative to even social media heavyweights like Taco Bell.
In terms of pure numbers, Shake Shack doesn’t have the largest following on most of these social platforms. Its advertising budget is also relatively tiny: In 2013, Shake Shack spent only $800,000 in advertising and promotions. But it has the biggest audience for its size — it has only 40 stores nationally compared to the thousands that both McDonald’s and Taco Bell have, for instance.
For example, Shake Shack — a beloved New York-based chain founded by celebrity chef Danny Meyer in 2004 — has only 155,000 followers on Instagram, compared to McDonald’s, which has nearly 500,000. Taco Bell has almost 490,000 followers, and KFC has about 250,000. It is also active on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Google Plus and YouTube.
Analysts suggest that Shake Shack’s social media prowess has contributed to the brand’s overall success. “The success extends beyond just a creative Vine or highly stylized ‘foodtography,’” said Mary Beth Keelty, CMO at digital marketing agency PM Digital. “It is this level of dedication to understanding their core audience, and speaking to them in a native fashion, that has resulted in such success.”
Just ask Rebecca Ziegler. The 23-year-old self-described struggling actress was waiting to order her favorite burger at the eatery’s Battery Park location on Wednesday when she mentioned that her own loyalty to the brand increased tremendously when it interacted with her on Twitter.
— SHAKE SHACK (@shakeshack) August 28, 2014
“I have always loved Shake Shack but was thrilled when they retweeted me a few months ago,” she said. “Today, I’m using a coupon my mom bought me for Valentine’s Day, because she too knows how much I love it.”
That coupon will come in handy: with burgers averaging around $6, Shake Shack’s price points are higher than the rest of the industry. But even if it can be a little steep for some millennials, the company engages elsewhere. Shake Shack holds frequent contests and sweepstakes, for example, that it thinks fans will actually care about and want to participate in. One such contest, called “Burger Beats,” invites musicians to submit their music for a chance to be played at more than 70 Shake Shack locations in nine countries across the world.
“The secret to our outsized social media growth is simply this: constant engagement,” Edwin Bragg, the director of marketing and communications at Shake Shack, told Digiday. “Social media allows us to actively hear fans rave, complain or just tell us what’s on their mind — we want to hear it all. And we take the same hospitable approach on social media that any of our team members would take in person at a Shack with a guest.”
According to the report, several factors beyond social media skills have contributed to Shake Shack’s popularity among 18-32-year-olds — including the fact that it uses natural meats and displays its sourcing clearly, pays its employees a rate well above the minimum wage and partners with local partners and charities.
“Shake Shack rides on the wave of quality – quality ingredients, great tasting products, well-trained staff (with benefits), cool environments and, yes, word-of mouth accelerated by millennials on social media platforms,” Ken Runkel, partner at brand consulting firm Vivaldi Partners Group, told Digiday. “It’s all of these things together.”
Shake Shack’s look is itself edgy, with modern interiors and flat wooden tables. “There is something so ‘New York City’ about going there,” said Marika Washchyshyn, 24, who is originally from Canada. She added that she frequently makes the trek down to its flagship location in Madison Square Park whenever friends visit to give them that “New York” experience.
It’s an experience that, increasingly, is familiar to members of her generation all over the world.
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Recently Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated 3 new High Facilitation Centers for screening of Covid-19. Which of these cities is not included in it?
How many years of the Government's MyGov initiative have been completed on 26 July 2020?
On which day is Kargil Vijay Diwas celebrated every year?
Recently which meeting of the Joint Economic and Trade Committee between India and Britain was held?
Recently for which country container train service has started from India?
Where is Mylab Discovery Solutions located?
Which of the following statements is not true?
Both 1 and 2
In which state will the fourth edition of Khelo India Youth Games be held?
New rules and regulations for e-commerce companies have been notified.
Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 will be applicable only to all electronic retailers registered in India.
Accordingly, it has been made mandatory to display the country of origin on its products.
All of the above are correct.
TRIFED has signed an MoU with which IIT for the UNNAT BHARAT ABHIYAN?
In which year was the Kumhar Sashaktikaran Yojana started?
SWAMIH is related to which of the following?
Hazardous Residential Project
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Unscrupulous businesspeople are counterfeiting the Digital Tax Stamp, one of the measures launched by the government to crackdown on smugglers and frauds of fast-selling imported and local products.
The stamp is an electronic machine-readable mark stamped on the targeted products, to authenticate their origin, manufacturer and tax-payment status. The system, jointly implemented by Uganda Revenue Authority, URA, and the Uganda National Bureau of Standards ensures quality standards, protects government revenue as well as protect genuine manufacturers from counterfeiters. Violation of the regulation attracts a 50 million Shillings penalty.
The URA Enforcement team has been tracking suspects for some weeks following information that some products had stamps which were not readable by the machines. The alerts on the prevalence of fake digital tax stamps were mainly concentrated in Southwestern Uganda with Star Waragi being the most pointed out brand.
Four officials attached to Parambot Distilleries have now been arrested after being found in possession of products affixed with the fake digital stamps. “Not before long into their search, the team landed on a batch of Royal Vodka with fake stamps in a shop in Kinyamaseke Trading Centre.
The team probed the shop attendant who frantically divulged information pertaining to the supply of these goods carrying fake digital stamps,” says the URA. The URA team in Mbarara posed as buyers and arranged to collect the products from the culprit in Mbarara for delivery to Kasese. The unsuspecting suspects loaded the cargo onto their delivery van registered UBF302V, which was later intercepted in Rwebikoona, Mbarara City with the products. The case has since been forwarded to the intelligence and legal teams for further management.
URA says that while on the whole there has been good compliance with the DTS system, there are some people who have started counterfeiting the stamp to dodge the regulations, hoping that it is more profitable than getting the products stamped.URA Acting Commissioner for Public and Corporate Affairs, Ian Rumanyika says there are two categories of persons violating the regulations, with some operating without the stamp while others are using fake stamps.
When the DTS system was introduced, it faced a lot of resistance from the manufacturers of the targeted products saying it would increase the cost of doing business. The Uganda Manufacturers Association then demanded that the government foots the cost of installing the equipment for processing the stamp, and the whole process.
Following a grace-period and negotiations for a year, the business community agreed to comply. So far, URA has enrolled 232 businesses on the system including 185 manufacturers and 47 importers.
The had expected to register 107 manufactures and 33 importers in the first phase. Rumanyika says the resistance was due to lack of sensitization about the benefits of the move that includes protecting the genuine manufacturers, importers and distributors from counterfeits.
He, however, says that the stamp has also helped the consumers to gain confidence in the products because it is easier to prove that the product is authentic. The delays caused by the opposition from the business community saw the enforcement of the strategy take efforts only in October 2020.
So far URA has collected more than 3 billion Shillings in penalties on violators of the system, which so far is gazette for six types of products, mainly the fast-selling ones like beverages and tobacco. Rumanyika says following the successful implementation in the last for months, URA plans to expand it to cover more products, especially sugar and cement.
In a related development, the URA intercepted a truck in Kora, between Gulu and Omoro districts, with assorted contraband products. The Karuma team gathered intelligence about a truck that was about to load assorted contraband items at a consolidation centre in Kora.
After two days of monitoring the truck, it was intercepted and verification revealed the products that included Lato Milk, Nodo Milk Powder, Al Mudhish Super Instant Milk Powder, Cerelac Nestel Infant Milk and other food foodstuffs. URA adds that following the increase in taxes on imported garments on January 1 to about 35 per cent there has been an increase in smuggling of the imports, which necessitated the enforcement team to target them too.


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As Americans continue to debate what the future of their health care system should look like, some who can't afford treatment — or just don't want to deal with doctors — are turning to an unlikely source of medicine: antibiotics purchased online and at stores that are designed to treat farm animals, pets, and even fish.
“They help my bones heal up real good,” said Chris, a 27-year-old man with disabilities who lives in Mississippi and recently began self-medicating with fish antibiotics he buys at a local store to treat his heel pain. (Chris asked that his last name not be used for this story.) "The only thing I don't like about them is that they're a lot smaller dosage so I have to add them up to see how much I should use."
Chris, who said he earns about $700 a month, couldn’t afford the roughly $150 in medication his doctor prescribed him.
"The fish antibiotics cost me $15," he said. "Doctors tell me it's all right ... stuff's going to happen to us anyway."
Seth, who lives in rural Iowa, said he began buying animal antibiotics when he lacked health insurance about a decade ago from a nearby veterinary drug company on the advice of its employees. (Seth also asked that his last name not be used.) “It was fine, as long as you have the right dose,” he told BuzzFeed News. “It’s part of the culture — they all kind of do it, they have it all written down on sheets of paper.”
“It’s one of those things where you take a risk and hope it works out,” he said.
The trend has alarmed medical experts, who say the practice is unsafe.
Maria Brömme, a veterinarian at Pacific Animal Clinic in Santa Monica, California, warned that the difference in species’ metabolisms could lead to accidental overdoses when taking animal antibiotics, and that any sort of self-dosing of antibiotics could create a resistance to the drugs in the future.
"It is not just dangerous for people, but dangerous for the entire world," she said.
Brömme said fish antibiotic use was "silly and dangerous" for a number of reasons: They're not controlled the same way as human antibiotics, self-medication of any prescription drug is extremely risky, and building a resistance to antibiotics through overuse will make it harder to treat infections in the future.
Reacting to this trend, pet supply chain PetSmart decided a few years ago to no longer stock fish antibiotics in forms that could be easily consumed by humans. “This allows us to provide fish medication to the customers who need it for their aquariums while helping to prevent misuse,” a spokesperson told BuzzFeed News. Petco, another pet supply chain, also refuses to stock fish antibiotics.
With physical stores clamping down on the misuse of animal drugs, buyers are instead turning to online vendors, including sellers on Amazon and eBay.
Earlier this month, a viral tweet from writer Rachel Sharp featured just a few screenshots from an Amazon listing for fish antibiotics.
Many of the reviews praised the drugs for healing their sick "fish" of very human conditions, such as mouth infections, wisdom tooth pain, and sore throats. "My fish got a bad case of bronchitis or something like that," read one review. "We decided to give him some meds and boom! Within two days he was all new again and just kept swimming."
There are dozens of online forums dedicated to discussing the use of veterinary pharmaceuticals. On Facebook, people openly claim that sheep and fish antibiotics are interchangeable with prescribed medication. On Twitter, people share how they were compelled to take animal drugs due to the high cost of visiting a doctor and purchasing prescribed medication.
One online community is particularly devoted to espousing the so-called benefits of veterinary pharmaceuticals: doomsday preppers. Survivalists, as they are also known, have been using the internet for years to trade tips on dosing and stocking things like fish antibiotics.
Speaking to BuzzFeed News on a closed Facebook group, several preppers said they're attracted to the value for money that comes with purchasing the drugs in bulk.
Wary of the federal government, some preppers also believe the FDA is only regulating antibiotics to prop up the pharmaceutical industry. “There is no reason to need a prescription [for antibiotics],” said one prepper. “They are not addictive or opioids or anything like that.”
The stockpiling of animal drugs has also been helped by “prepper educator” YouTubers, including the Patriot Nurse, who runs a channel with over 180,000 subscribers. In one video — which has been watched more than 200,000 times — she discusses the safety issues surrounding fish antibiotics: “They are the exact same thing as the ones that are labeled for human consumption, mainly because the company [that] produced it — Thomas Labs — is the same.”
“They are produced at the same place [as human antibiotics] and just labeled for different things,” she says in the video.
(A representative for Thomas Labs — a manufacturer of fish antibiotics — told BuzzFeed News they cannot recommend the use of their drugs on anything other than fish. They declined to comment further.)
The Patriot Nurse, who did not respond to requests for comment, did also warn viewers to listen to their doctors. “You could screw it up,” she said in her video. “Antibiotics are not front-line treatment, they are the last resort.”
The spread of self-dosing information online has been a boon for stores like eFishMox, which labels itself as “America’s favorite place to purchase fish antibiotics on the web.” The company’s owner, Glen Scott, told BuzzFeed News that while he was aware of possible human use, there was no way of policing it. “We can’t control it,” he said, “but we also discourage people from just willy-nilly taking antibiotics.”
Until recently, eFishMox sold fish antibiotics in packs of four labeled “survivor packs” — a term Scott said was pure coincidence and not directed toward the survivalist community. Last year, the eFishMox Facebook page, which Scott said someone else managed, shared an invitation to join a group called “Deep Survival,” described as a community for “survival, prepping, and tactical discussion.” (After BuzzFeed News interviewed Scott, the “survivor packs” branding was changed to “Essential 4 Pack” and the Facebook invitation was deleted.)
Another company that sells fish antibiotics in bulk, Super Happy Thriving Fish, has packs ranging from $160-$770 and was promoted in one video by the Patriot Nurse. SHTF also shares an acronym with a phrase used extensively by preppers: “shit hits the fan.”
A SHTF employee told BuzzFeed News the company sells to the “pet enthusiast market” and said the drugs should only be used as prescribed. A line on the SHTF website’s “About Us” section says that while the products are for aquarium use, “they are manufactured to the same strict standards as those manufactured for humans.”
Nathan A. Everson, assistant professor at Virginia Tech and a doctor of pharmacy, told BuzzFeed News self-medicating with any antibiotic could ultimately lead to drug resistance. "Use of an antibiotic unnecessarily or without the proper guidance of a pharmacist or physician could put people at significant risk of acquiring drug-resistant bacteria or superinfection," he said.
Everson's comments were echoed by Dr. Brad McKay, who practices out of Sydney, Australia. "Sidestepping your physician to save money can mean you are treating the wrong condition with the wrong medication at the wrong dose," said McKay.
Still, the allure of cheap medicine proved attractive for Kathy Köhn, an elementary school aide from Wisconsin, who told BuzzFeed News she had recently ordered fish antibiotics.
“If you're sick and you feel like you have strep throat or something, you want them right away, you don't want to have to wait,” she said.
She and her husband have also taken Terramycin, a sheep antibiotic, to treat themselves in the past, she said. To do so, they cut up the large caplets into jagged chunks and make estimates on how much they should take.
“It's so much of a pill per pound of sheep," said Köhn. "So we just pretend we are sheep and weigh ourselves accordingly."


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Now, guests at Brick River Cider can pair one of the cidery's off-dry ciders with a Farmtruk burger.
The craft cidery, which opened in Midtown St. Louis in February 2018, has announced that Samantha Mitchell of Farmtruk will be taking over food service at the taproom. Previously, Brick River operated a full-service restaurant serving shareable plates, flatbreads, salads and larger entrées.
"I think Samantha’s focus on fresh, local and free-range food is a great fit for us and our brand, and we’re excited about the partnership," owner Russ John said in a statement.
Whereas the former menu was inspired by "classic country or peasant cooking from England and France," Brick River's new menu will highlight several fan favorites from Farmtruk alongside new dishes. To that end, look for menu items like the Farmtruk burger and brisket mac 'n' cheese with Red Hot Riplets crumbles to make a return. The menu includes a mix of shareable items like beignets, deviled eggs, deep-fried sweet corn hush puppies and fried cheese curds alongside main courses including a roasted half chicken with rosemary-apple pan sauce, cider-brined chicken wings and a cheese and charcuterie board.
"Brick River’s focus on making whole-fruit juice hard ciders while supporting Midwestern fruit growers couldn’t be more on target with our values," Mitchell said in the statement. "We’re excited to bring some fun concepts to life that weren’t possible in the food truck format."
Fans of Farmtruk can still expect to see the food truck roaming around town, and plans are still underway for Mitchell to open Crop Circle at the upcoming City Foundry STL food hall.
Brick River Cider is open Tuesday through Thursday from 4 to 10pm, Friday and Saturday from 11am to 11pm and Sunday from 11am to 9pm.
Brick River Cider, 2000 Washington Ave., Midtown, St. Louis, Missouri, 314.224.5046, brickrivercider.com


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Earlier this week, 505 Games and Remedy released some new gorgeous screenshots for Control. And today, the publisher released the game’s E3 2019 teaser trailer, featuring similar scenes to those found in the E3 2019 screenshots.
Control is described as a sandbox-style, gameplay-driven experience that promises to challenges players to master a combination of supernatural abilities, modifiable loadouts and reactive environments while fighting through the deep and mysterious worlds Remedy is known and loved for.
Remedy’s game will also take advantage of real-time ray tracing effects as the dev team will be using DXR Ray Tracing for Ray Traced Indirect Diffuse, Ray Traced Indirect Specular and Ray Traced Contact Shadows.
Control will be a timed-exclusive on the Epic Games Store and is currently scheduled for an August 27th release.


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The NPD Group announced tracking results for new U.S. retail video game sales in October, showing overall revenues for the industry dropping four percent compared to the same month last year.
The industry as a whole saw $1.07 billion in new hardware, software and accessory sales for the month, down from $1.11 billion in October 2009. For the year as a whole, the industry has generated $11.07 billion in new sales; that's roughly $900 million, or eight percent, behind the pace set by 2009.
A severe 26 percent drop in year-over-year revenue from new hardware sales drove the overall decline in the October report. Sales of home and portable consoles brought in just $280 million in October 2010, compared to $381 million for the same month last year.
While NPD no longer breaks down hardware sales for specific systems, the group did reveal that the Nintendo DS was the month's best selling system.
The Xbox 360 was the only system to increase unit sales on a year-to-year basis, however. Microsoft community manager Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb said the company sold 325,000 units in the month, bringing the system to 3.5 million sales for the year so far.
NPD confirmed that this number makes the Xbox 360 the best-selling home system so far in 2010, while the Nintendo DS remains the best-selling system for the year overall.
Sales of new, boxed software were up six percent year-over-year in October, representing $605 million in revenue in 2010. The increase wasn't enough to help 2010 software sales on an annual basis, however, which currently sit at $5.54 billion and still trail those at the same point in 2009 by seven percent.
Sales of online-enabled games seem to be driving the industry for the month. "Interestingly, unit sales of online playable console games were up 16 percent while sales of those that are not online playable were down 2 percent versus last October," NPD analyst Anita Frazier noted.
Sports titles made a strong showing in the month, with Take-Two's new release NBA 2K11
taking the top spot and EA Sports' previous releases of FIFA Soccer 11
and Madden 11
staying in the top 10 for another month.
Bethesda's October release of Fallout: New Vegas
took the month's second sales position. The Xbox 360 version of the game sold 679,000 units for the month to become the month's highest-selling single-system SKU, NPD reported.
EA's Medal of Honor
reboot, which some analysts expected to lead the sales rankings for the month, finished in third place, while other new October releases including Microsoft's Fable III
and LucasArts' Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
rounded out the top five.
"As compared to last October, new launches were more productive this year," Frazier said. "Average unit sales per new SKU were 23 percent higher than newly introduced SKU's last year."
Frazier also made special note of sales for Rock Band 3
, which ranked in 15th place for October across platforms despite only being available for the final six days of the month. "Based on solid reviews, this game has the potential to perform well over the holidays," she said.
Microsoft revealed that, in additional to New Vegas
, Xbox 360 titles represented six of the top-ten single-system SKUs for the month, including the top four titles. Fable III
, NBA 2K11
, Medal of Honor
, Halo: Reach
and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
were among the top-selling titles on the system, according to the company.
Microsoft also revealed monthly sales numbers for Fable III
and Halo: Reach
, as shown in the below sales rankings chart.]
Sales of new, retail games in the U.S. for October are ranked as follows:
1. NBA 2K11
(Take-Two Interactive, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, PC)
2. Fallout: New Vegas
(Bethesda Softworks, Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
3. Medal of Honor
(Electronic Arts, Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
4. Fable III
(Microsoft, Xbox 360) 580,000 units*
5. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
(LucasArts, Xbox 360, PS3, WII, PC, NDS)
6. Halo: Reach
(Microsoft, Xbox 360) 315,000 units*
7. Just Dance 2
8. FIFA Soccer 11
(Electronic Arts, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, PSP, NDS, PC)
9. Madden NFL 11
(Electronic Arts, Xbox 360, PS3, WII, PS2, PSP)
10. WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2011
(THQ, PS3, Xbox 360, PS2, WII, PSP)
* - Numbers provided by Microsoft
Accessories were the most-improved sector of the new boxed video game market for the second straight month in October, up 18 percent year-over-year to represent $142 million in total revenue across the industry.
For the year, accessory sales are actually six percent higher than at this point in 2009, at $1.66 billion in sales.
PlayStation Move items -- which include the PlayStation Eye Camera, wand controller and analog-stick-equipped sub-controller -- represented the top two best-selling specialty controller items for the month, according to Frazier, helping drive the average sale price for accessories up sharply for the month.
Microsoft's 3D camera-based Kinect controller won't show up until November's sales report, but reports from Microsoft
suggest brisk sales so far.
"Due to the success of the Move at retail, and the reported success of the Kinect early in its launch at retail, Specialty Controller items should contribute significantly to industry sales during the holiday," Frazier said.


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Bellevue to lose game studio
Owner closing Sierra Entertainment offices, ending some product lines
About 110 people will lose their jobs, although a few may be offered relocation packages to the company's Los Angeles headquarters.
The Bellevue offices, which are in the Eastgate neighborhood near Interstate 90, will be closed later this summer.
The Sierra Entertainment brand will remain, with Vivendi Universal Games continuing to publish titles such as "Leisure Suit Larry" and "Tribes."
However, the company said it will discontinue some products that are developed in Bellevue. Those include the Hoyle Card Games, Puzzle Games and Table Games. It is also shutting down its home productivity division, which created publishing software called Print Artist and Card Studio.
Former employees said the move was not a surprise, although they expressed concerns that it could hurt Seattle's computer game industry.
The layoffs in Bellevue are part of a larger restructuring at Vivendi Universal Games -- a struggling division of the French-based telecommunications and entertainment giant Vivendi Universal.
Yesterday, the game unit said it was cutting about a third of its North American work force, or 350 positions. About 50 employees will lose jobs in the Boston area as the Papyrus and Impressions game studios are closed. The company also is cutting about 180 jobs in Los Angeles.
Employees, who were told of the restructuring in individual meetings yesterday, will receive severance packages. Kelly Zmak, general manager of the Seattle office, will lose his job.
"Restructuring the organization and reducing our cost base are necessary to improve our operating effectiveness and profitability," Vivendi Universal Games Chief Executive Bruce Hack said in a statement. The layoffs will leave Vivendi Universal Games with more than 550 employees.
While Vivendi Universal Games maintains publishing rights for popular titles such as "Half-Life," "The Simpsons" and "Spyro the Dragon," it continues to lose money. Last year, it reported a loss of about $243 million. The first-quarter loss this year more than doubled to $54 million. The company, which has called 2004 a "transition year," hired a new management team in January to try to stem the losses.
Sierra Entertainment's roots run deep in the Seattle game industry. Although the company was founded in California in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams, it was moved to Bellevue in 1993.
By 1995, Sierra Entertainment -- known then as Sierra On-Line -- was the third-largest software company in the state with about 600 employees, according to the WSA. It was sold to CUC International for about $1 billion in stock in 1996.
Three years later, the company -- whose software titles had expanded to include sports games, flight simulator games and cooking recipes -- was sold to Vivendi Universal for $770 million.
Despite the mergers, Sierra Entertainment always maintained a presence in the Seattle area. In 2001, the company employed more than 475 people in Bellevue.
"They were an icon," Lewis said. "They were one of the first publishers out there."
Lewis, who worked for Sierra Entertainment's Dynamix studio for nearly 10 years, said the company suffered as it was passed from one corporate parent to another.
"Some of the large companies started seeing the potential for revenue, but they really didn't have the drive of the people who wanted to make games," he said.
Another former employee, who spent more than 10 years at Sierra Entertainment, said he was not surprised by Vivendi Universal's decision.
"It is their natural model. They want to be a publisher, they don't want to be a developer," said the former engineer who asked that his name not be used. "They have been failing on the development end for quite a while. They make no money on their in-house products."
Vivendi Universal Games is not the only game publisher to close offices in Seattle. In 2002, Electronic Arts shut down its operation in Bellevue. That closure cost the Seattle area about 40 jobs.
Despite those losses, the Seattle area still remains a force in the gaming industry, with Nintendo of America and Microsoft based in Redmond. Several smaller startup companies such as Mobliss, Mforma, Monolith Productions, Valve and WildTangent also are located here.


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Farmers’ markets have surged in popularity in the United States during the past 30 years.
Since the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) began collecting information on farmers’ markets in 1994, the number of markets increased from 1,755 to more than 4,385.
It is estimated that more than 3 million consumers shop at these markets, and about 30,000 small farmers and food entrepreneurs earn a partial or full living selling their local products at farmers’ markets
Farmers who engage in direct sales and consumers who buy directly with them was a win-win last year.
Consumers get the highest quality food, and farmers get a premium price for their products. Expect to see that at the Bristol Farmer’s Market with more vendors adding every year.
The Bristol Farmer’s Market runs from June 23 @ 10:00 am – October 27 @ 1:00 pm
Each Saturday morning from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. local farmers sell their goods.
This year the Market takes place on the parking lot of the former mall site across from the police station. Before it was held at the now unused Patch site on the corner of North Main Street and Riverside Avenue.
The move was needed due to the construction of a new road on the site and construction of a new Bristol Hosptial building on Main Street.
As previous years, patrons can get fresh fruits and veggies, as well as home-made soaps and local honey.
Mayor Ellen Zoppo-Sassu posted in part “Our farmer’s market has seen a lot of foot traffic. You can pick up your fresh locally grown produce, fresh flowers, baked goods, handmade soaps, beef jerky, and jams.”
The Roundup currently has over 5,700 subscriptions and a local social media following of over 95,000 readers across multiple social media sites, apps, pages, and groups.
The Roundup is also a proud member of WordPress. This affiliation offers readers more news from FOX 61 and CBS Connecticut on The Roundup.
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Alex Torres isn’t getting much sleep these days, “I have just had enough, I don’t feel comfortable sleeping at night,” he says. And his growing frustration led him looking for help. “I sent it out to all of the news organizations you guys (FOX61) were the only ones who contacted me back,” says Torres. Torres says in the past few weeks crooks have been creeping around his car looking to steel his wheels right from his Manchester driveway, a scene […]
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WASHINGTON DC — Rep. Steve King, whose history of making racist remarks has recently come under scrutiny, shared a Facebook post over the weekend that boasts red states would “win” a fight against blue states — and that they have “8 trillion bullets.” “Wonder who would win…” the Iowa Republican wrote in a post Saturday, adding an emoji with a smirk. Attached to the post is a photo depicting Democratic-leaning states engaged in a fight with Republican-leaning states. The photo’s […]


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With the upcoming launch of Filecoin, a lot of people are wondering — why does decentralized storage apply to me?
Decentralized finance might be all the rage right now, but there's another blockchain use case that has been quietly gaining momentum: decentralized storage.
A decentralized storage system allows users to store their files (and sensitive information) without relying on massive data centers, such as those run by Amazon and other cloud storage providers.
Each decentralized storage solution has their own way of doing things, but the method is not too dissimilar to that used by the peer-to-peer network Limewire.
The opportunities associated with decentralized storage networks have come into focus in light of the long-awaited launch of Filecoin, which raised $205 million in its 2017 ICO. At the time, that princely sum broke records.
1. It Can Help Content Stay Online
2. No Single Point of Failure
This could help prevent some of the embarrassing outages that some of the world's biggest websites have seen in the past — disruption that often becomes headline news.
3. No Censorship
This could also make it harder for countries around the world to restrict information to their citizens by blocking news websites and online portals such as Wikipedia.
4. A Better Experience
Those in favor of decentralized storage also argue that there's a lot of redundancy in cloud computing, and say blockchain technology delivers a much more efficient way to store data.
Cloud storage platforms can end up using a lot of bandwidth, especially when they are being used by many people at the same time — and storage costs are high. Decentralized storage could allow files to be downloaded faster because there are multiple copies to choose from. This could be particularly useful for people in countries where internet access is unreliable.
5. Ownership of Data
Last but not least, let's not forget the risk of data breaches when it comes to centralized cloud services. Although many of the companies that offer storage space do have security standards in place, they can fall susceptible to attacks.
You may not instinctively think of Facebook as a file storage provider, but many users depend on the site for hosting photos and videos that stretch back many years. Unfortunately, the social network has suffered controversies in the past — and the Cambridge Analytica scandal resulted in vast amounts of data being stolen and misappropriated.
Are Decentralized Clouds the Future?
The question now is whether decentralized storage will catch on. Will this open-source form of data storage mount a big challenge to Amazon, Dropbox and others?
One downside is how many startups in this space make things extremely technical — a flaw seen across many crypto projects and DApps. The public may only be tempted to start using such a storage service if it's as simple to us as what mainstream competitors provide.
But there are reasons to be excited. People with spare hard drive space could end up being rewarded in cryptocurrency for storing files belonging to others — without compromising privacy. And given how many web pages and files that existed in the early days of the internet have now fallen offline, decentralized storage could help prevent our digital lives from vanishing without a trace in future.


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In domestic jobs, highest number of offers was made by Oracle, American Express and Bajaj Auto.
Academics from Said Business School, University of Oxford and University of Edinburgh Business School argue the scandal is the latest in a series of car industry crises to stem from a 'perfect storm' of challenging conditions
Calling the apex technology and management institutes in the country to document their innovations by patenting them, Amitabh Kant said that 22% of the patents filed from India are done by Indian companies while 78% were done by multinational companies operating from India.
Despite high level of safety concerns about equipment failure, a majority of drivers in India and China have high expectations from autonomous vehicles
After a prolong period of declining growth and sluggish investment, the industrial activities seem to be picking up and green shoots in manufacturing sector are finally visible.


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Nerium is not just about the company or the product; Nerium is about the people.
Dallas, TX (PRWEB) April 15, 2013
Jeff Olson, Founder and CEO of Nerium International, will be speaking in Las Vegas, NV, at the West Coast Spring Bash, about the rapid growth of the recently founded relationship marketing company. The Spring Bash will be in Las Vegas, NV from April 18, 2013, through April 20, 2013. Olson will speak on Friday, April 19, 2013, at 10:30 a.m. PST, and his speech will be broadcast live on http://www.thelastrunclub.com.
A strong, rising force in the direct marketing industry, Nerium International reported $100 million in sales in its first year and is on pace to exceed $250 million in its second. Nerium recently received the Global 100 Bravo Award from Direct Selling News for record-breaking business growth in 2012. Nerium International is the only company to receive this award in their first full year of operation. Unlike many other direct marketing companies operating in the beauty industry, Nerium International has a “breakthrough product that is not only unique to the beauty space, but is also globally exclusive to us,” says Olson.
Olson comes from an extensive marketing and personal-development background. He started his career at Texas Instruments and Sun Aire, founded The People’s Network, which produced 900 television programs and seminars, and has authored a best-selling book on achieving personal success, The Slight Edge. Olson has been featured on the cover of publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur and SUCCESS magazine.
Nerium International focuses on real science and real results, and is a maverick among other direct marketing companies because of the transformative impact they have on the personal development and professional lives of Brand Partners. With innovative, rewarding incentive structures and a dedication to improving the quality of life for all Independent Brand Partners, the company generated 3900% growth in one year. Hear Olson’s vision for the expansion of Nerium’s product line and international footprint live on April 19, 2013.
“We are blessed to have one of the highest quality direct sales forces in the industry. Nerium is not just about the company or the product; Nerium is about the people. We have laid the perfect foundation for unprecedented global growth in the next decade,” says Olson. “As excited as I am about what we have already accomplished, it is just the beginning for us. We have big plans for our future growth.”


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Tag Archives : Maruti R3
OnCars.in has reported that Suzuki will launch the eagerly awaited Innova killer R3 in Japan before dispatching it to Maruti Suzuki dealer showrooms. The production.
CarWale.com/AutoBild have posted images of a Maruti R3 caught totally undisguised. There is an image from every angle that reveal the car completely. What does.
The biggest launch from Maruti Suzuki this year is going to be the Swift on August 17. The next biggest is going to be the.
The Toyota Innova has been the kingpin of the MPV market since the time it was launched. Never had a car dominated a segment so.
Team-BHP reader car_crazy1400 has posted spyshots of the Maruti R3's rear. We've shown you a speculative rendering along with an interior snap on a previous.
At long last, we've seen the Maruti R3 through the form of spy shots posted a few weeks back. As any fan of Maruti Suzuki.
If you have been hiding under a rock since this morning, you would have missed seeing the images of a family Maruti MPV posted on.
Bloomberg reports that the three-row R3 MPV from Maruti Suzuki will be set afloat this year. Quoting a senior financial officer, the R3 targets customers.
Maruti Suzuki has confirmed development is taking place on two products. The first will be sold locally and the other will also be sold in.
Maruti engineers are working hard on the R3, a three-row multi-purpose vehicle that will try diverting Toyota Innova customers into Maruti Suzuki showrooms next year..
The MUV market is on a growth in India with vehicles like Bolero, Innova being the current champions. Tata will also enter the fray by.
The Maruti R3 MPV could be a stylish vehicle with diesel and electric powertrains Photoshop man SRK is back to pace delivering drawings of vehicles.


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Almost. The burgers won't really be falling from the sky -- more like descending, courtesy of the Vittleveyor, an overhead conveyer belt that transports food from the kitchen to car windows in seconds. The Vittleveyor is the centerpiece of Preiss's eight-restaurant McDonald's operation, a well-oiled, supercharged machine delivering Big Macs to hungry Wyoming residents so fast it'll give you whiplash.
Preiss has always been the quintessential drive-thru competitor. Several years ago he broke the world record for a single-lane drive-thru, serving 327 cars in an hour. But that wasn't fast enough. Like a race-car driver, Preiss realized he'd need to change lanes in order to rocket past the competition.
The solution came from a group of Brazilian franchise owners who visited Preiss's restaurants. To his surprise, they said they were serving upwards of 300 drive-thru customers every hour. "They're doing it with a tin can, a bucket and a walkie-talkie," says Preiss. More important, they're doing it with two lanes of traffic.
Almost every drive-thru restaurant has a single drive-thru lane. Having two lanes would increase speed, but how do you get the food to that second line of cars?
Preiss thought about it and came up with the Vittleveyor. The contraption involves two conveyer belts, each running through an enclosed metal tube out of the restaurant, over the first lane of cars and down to a second lane. One shuttles customers' cash and change back and forth in a small plastic case; the other whisks burgers and fries through the air in a hanging plastic basket. While one lane of drive-thru customers get their food through a window, the second get theirs through the Vittleveyor. With this technology, several years ago Preiss was able to blow his old record out of the water, serving a screamin' 407 customers in an hour, by far the world record for a double-lane drive-thru. Then again, there aren't a lot of double-lane drive-thrus to challenge it.
There's more to Preiss's operation under the hood. His restaurant staff operates with the precision of a Formula 1 pit crew. Cashiers get change out before customers arrive at their window; if an order is $4.43, 57 cents will be waiting. In the kitchen, amid the sizzling of the grills and the blur of the burger-assembly lines, managers rally the crew. "Kick it down!" they yell excitedly. "This is what it takes if you want to move it!"
And at the single drive-thru window, they're all about HBO -- short for "Hanging the Bag Out." Before a customer gets to the window, an employee is already hanging out of it, a bag of food in hand and an "All-American smile" plastered on his mug.
"Don't let the wheels stop," urges Preiss, watching his drive-thru. He seems satisfied -- almost. It could be he sniffs a little competition in the air, possibly wafting up from Colorado Springs. Maybe his world record isn't so untouchable after all.
"We can do it again," he says. "We probably need to."


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Lexus brings luxury SUV, RX450hL, to India at Rs 99 lakh
RX 450hL is BS-VI compliant, and features V6 Atkinson Cycle engine.
From Interim to full Budget: Stocks that rallied up to 350% in just 103 sessions
As many as 32 stocks on NSE climbed between 50 per cent and 350 per cent in last 103 sessions.
Nikkei hits 3-month low as intensifying trade war hurts sentiment
Nikkei share average ended the day down 0.59 per cent at 21,067.23 after falling to as low as 20,751.45, the lowest since mid-February.
Smart rally in smallcaps lifts battered portfolio stocks of this value investor
Historical data hints smallcap underperformance against BSE Sensex may be nearing an end.
Nikkei rises as US-China trade deal hopes boost sentiment
The Nikkei share average ended 0.6 per cent higher at 21,431.49, the highest closing since Dec. 17.
Nikkei slides, weak US retail sales trigger profit-taking
The Nikkei share average dropped 1.1 per cent to 20,900.63, retreating from a two-month high of 21,235.62 hit on Thursday.
Smooth, solid and persistent: 2019 Audi A8 powered with smart-driving, crash-avoidance technology
It also includes a hybrid system hidden in the powertrain.
Stocks that let Big Bull, Porinju, Dolly Khanna and Anil Goel down in 2018
As many as 10 of Big Bull's portfolio stocks plunged over 50 per cent in 2018 till December 17.
Mazda recalls 270,000 vehicles over Takata airbags
Chemicals used to inflate the air bags can deteriorate in some conditions, causing them to deploy with too much force, blowing apart a metal canister that can result in flying shrapnel.
Locally-manufactured cars may face the salt spray test
The road transport and highways ministry wants to make it mandatory for automobile manufacturers to use 70% galvanised steel for car body panels.
Japan shares suffer worst weekly fall in 8 months as worry on earnings mounts
JAPAN-STOCKS/Japan shares suffer worst weekly fall in 8 months as worry on earnings mounts
Nikkei retreats after 8-day winning streak; Subaru gains as Japan dodges more tariffs
Nikkei share average fell 1.0 per cent to 23,796.74 in choppy trade
Japan's Nikkei on 7-day winning run, supported by tech shares
The Nikkei ended the day up 0.15 per cent at 22,848.22 points.


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On Friday Apple's stock price closed at $527.68 per share
, the lowest it's been in six months
. Since September, the company has lost about 25 percent of its value from its peak of $702 per share. So what's gone wrong?
Analysts say that Apple has had a string of misfortunes lately, ranging from missedearnings estimates
, missteps on mapping software
, supply chain problems
, and increased pressure
"I think it's the perfect storm for Apple," Van Baker, an analyst with Gartner Research, told Ars. "There's a combination of a lot of things, and add to that, people are starting to think that Apple won't bring out something that's truly innovative every few years."
Read 20 remaining paragraphs


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T-Mobile's subscriber wires crossed
GERMANY'S T-Mobile took the opportunity of strong second-half numbers from mmO2 to point out its own UK business, formerly known as One2One, had overtaken the one-time Cellnet to rank number three in this country.
T-Mobile claimed it added 659,000 customers in Britain in the latest quarter, making 11.76m. By contrast mmO2, branded O2, said that it added 278,000 customers in those three months, taking its total to 11.45m.
But the German firm is still some way behind Vodafone and Orange and failed to point out the benefits of its venture with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Mobile. It counts all those Virgin subscribers in its own numbers. Virgin added 232,000 customers in the last quarter and now has more than two million.
Virgin Mobile is a 50/50 venture so even if T-Mobile could claim half its customers, that still makes just 10.76m, leaving it way back in fourth spot.
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Created by JWT Hong Kong, the Indian edition of the ‘Take on the World’ global TVC has been specifically enhanced with Indian background music to connect with a wider audience
BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | October 11, 2013
American Tourister has launched its brand new campaign – ‘Take on the World’ – yesterday in the Indian market. The campaign highlights the brand’s fresh, energetic, youthful appeal, and showcases the technology behind its new Vivolite range. Created by JWT Hong Kong, the Indian edition of this global TVC has been specifically tweeked with Indian background music to connect with a wider audience.
Featuring American Tourister’s new ultra-light and durable Vivolite suitcases, the TVC shows young travellers navigating the streets of Paris with their Vivolite luggage with ease, pulling the luggage over cobble stones, riding it down steep streets, and banging it down cement steps.
The high-paced TVC brings to life the brand’s fun, lighted-hearted and colourful attitude, while highlighting the durability of the stylish, lightweight Vivolite. The campaign, which was launched in Korea in July and will roll out across Asia Pacific through the rest of the year, also features a series of print ads that show a mix of global landmarks and young travellers from different parts of the world.
“The ‘Take on the World’ concept captures the fun, young and international spirit of American Tourister. With this campaign we have attempted to break the Indian media clutter with some unconventional music. It’s a catchy, fun music score that resonates the brand personality also. We believe it will help us reach out to a larger audience in India and help with better brand recall,’ commented Anushree Tainwala, Director Marketing, Samsonite South Asia.
The JWT creative team worked alongside Schtung Music (Morton Wilson) and their team who helped to put together the track. Schtung Music is a Hong Kong based music production house.
The 2013 ‘Take on the World’ campaign is a sequel to the 2012 campaign, which also showed trendy, active, young travellers from all over the world excitedly running from one city to another, passing their colourful American Tourister luggage to each other as if they were passing on a fun adventure. Sales for the brand, especially the Prismo range featured in the campaign, soared through 2012, and remain one of their best-selling product ranges this year.
‘Take on the World’ is meant to evoke that rush of excitement we feel when we’re about to go on a great trip, especially from the perspective of today’s young and optimistic travellers who are eager to see the world,” said Lo Sheung Yan, Chairman, Asia Pacific Creative Council, JWT.
Vivolite is made with American Tourister’s new patented PressPro technology, which allowed American Tourister to create the lightest hardcase luggage they’ve ever produced, starting at just 2.5 kg for the 55 cm cabin-sized model!
The 2013 campaign marks a landmark for American Tourister, which celebrates its 80th anniversary this year. American Tourister was founded in 1933 in Rhode Island, New York, and made the world’s first moulded luggage in 1955, which quickly became known for its remarkable toughness. The brand is still trusted for its products’ durability to this day.
Location of the shoot: Paris
Agency: JWT Hong Kong Creative Team: Lo Sheungyan, Philip Lee, Barbara Fu, Gary Ng, Jason Lam Account Servicing: Dana Ho, Elaine Chow TVC Production House: Off-Lo-Hi TVC Director: Nick Lim Photography studio: Ki Workshop


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Kenya has secured safeguards to protect its primary industries from the European Union after it ratified a trade deal with Brussels allowing continued unrestricted access of its exports to the bloc.
The deal signed by Kenya offers insights to other East Africa Community members, notably Tanzania and Burundi, which have hesitated to sign the EPA for fear that it will derail their industrialisation plans.
Tanzania has asked for more time to assess the potential impact while Burundi insists it will not sign the agreement until the EU lifts economic sanctions against it. The sanctions arose from President Pierre Nkurunziza’s successful push for a third term amid protests over its legitimacy.
The EPA Kenya ratified on Wednesday protects sensitive products such as dairy products, fruits and vegetables, fish, textiles and clothing, footwear, and vehicles from competition from European exporters for 15 years.
Other products excluded from liberalisation include chemicals, plastics, wood-based paper, ceramic products, glassware, articles of base metal, and wines and spirits.
The EPA will see Kenya allow EU imports to compete across 80 per cent of its tariffs, going by value.
Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK


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Google and MIT have built a new home for App Inventor, the Android-programming-kit-for-non-programmers that was just jettisoned from the Mountain View mothership. On Tuesday, the two announced the creation of the MIT Center for Mobile Learning, which will be "actively engaged in studying and extending" App Inventor under the …
what are you trying to say?
That it was a software experiment, and now its still a software experiment...?
You seem to imply but not specify that you thought something different should have happened?
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George Heaton is the founder of luxury streetwear label Represent, which is stocked by Harvey Nichols and Selfridges. He tells Drapers how the business is reacting to the impact of coronavirus.
It all started for us at the beginning of March, when Italy began its coronavirus lockdown: store orders were inevitably being cancelled and our Italian factories started to close.
In the same week, we had to postpone our annual pop-store opening in London, a takeover of the menswear space at Harvey Nichols in Manchester and a brand launch at one of our stockists in Australia. We’d also started reconstructing our old warehouse as a new design studio, which has been put on halt.
Thankfully, the crisis has come at a time when Represent had a fantastic sell-through rate and a huge increase in wholesale accounts.
I’m overcoming the disruption by constantly being connected and active
Myself and my team have spent many hours completely re-strategising the next nine months of 2020, based on current data and instinct in response to the current climate.
Represent was originally built as a direct- to-consumer brand. We’ve gained a loyal following through the years by offering an amazing product at our best price point.
Represent’s spring 20 campaign with Lennon Gallagher
We are fortunate enough to be able to fall back on to this stream and put more energy into our direct-to-consumer platform because our dispatch centre is still shipping, and we have more stock because of store closures.
One of the key challenges amid coronavirus is maintaining a steady workflow throughout our supply chain. I’m overcoming the disruption by constantly being connected and active: a lot of Zoom calls, supply chain updates and constant communication.
My ability to make decisions that are right for the brand and how we push forward during this time relies on communication. Personally, I am taking in as much information as possible to be able to understand how we might be able to work around the matter.
We have delivered most of our spring 20 collections [to wholesale partners] and had just started to produce autumn 20. Calling buyers and hearing their thoughts and strategies helped my decision making on how to approach the future of wholesale.
Post-coronavirus, consumer behaviour will change and move towards essential pieces
The crisis has meant that for now, we lost our chance to be stocked at one of the UK’s biggest luxury online retailers for autumn. They have backed out because of business uncertainties. However, we have at least established a rapport with them and will hopefully work with them in the coming seasons.
Unfortunately, our main factories are based in Veneto, Italy, which was at the epicentre of the outbreak in Europe, so our production has really slowed down. We also produce in Portugal, which seems to be on the same course as other areas of Europe, and we are already finding factories in the country are starting to be affected, and closing.
Our factories in the UK are also closed for a minimum of three weeks, so we are looking at delayed lead times for production. We’re going to have to sit tight and wait for new deliveries.
Fashion weeks around the world have been cancelled or postponed. As a result, brand’s interaction with customers will become more digitised. We’d already pulled away from catwalk shows around four seasons ago, and instead have put our effort into content such as short films, mini-documentaries showing how collections are made and Q&As over Instagram Live, where consumers can ask myself and my brother ,Mike, who works closely with me, anything about upcoming collections.
Post-coronavirus, I believe we’ll see a shift in the traditional retail calendar for luxury brands. We’ll see a change in how products are displayed and released, which will be less seasonal, and collections will be smaller.
Consumer behaviour will change and move towards essential pieces.
And hopefully, manufacturing in the UK finally becomes the norm for British brands as they look to create more flexible supply chains.


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New York’s Insanely Popular Museum Of Ice Cream Is Headed To Los Angeles
The Museum of Ice Cream, the infectiously popular and heavily Instagrammed pop-up that hit New York City’s Meatpacking District in summer 2016, is headed to the West Coast.
At its NYC location, across from the Whitney Museum, the pop-up sold 30,000 tickets in just five days.
Although a definitive location has yet to be announced, Santa Monica and Venice Beach have been vetted as possible locations, and LA ice cream lovers may be able to visit the museum as early as March 2017.
Though the LA location will likely have its own sunny California touches, staples of the original museum, like the pool of sprinkles, edible balloons, and frequent ice cream tastings from local purveyors.


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Kadner: New tax on car buyers seems unfair
BY PHIL KADNER email@example.com November 13, 2012 5:10PM
Cook County now taxes auto sales between people outside of dealerships. | File photo
Updated: December 15, 2012 6:22AM
Steve Kelly, of Evergreen Park, bought an old Dodge Caravan for $500 in July.
“I mean this thing was a 2001 with 300,000 miles on it,” Kelly said.
Earlier this month, he received a notice from the Cook County Department of Revenue.
He was being hit with a $175 tax on his $500 vehicle.
This is called the Cook County Home Rule Use Tax for Non-Retail Transfers of Motor Vehicles.
In plain English, a person who buys a car from a friend, neighbor or through a classified ad in a newspaper now has to pay a tax.
It is a tax that’s going to hit the poorest folks in Cook County the hardest: Young kids with minimum-wage jobs looking to buy their first car. Single suburban mothers hoping to buy a vehicle cheap to get to their new jobs.
The tax rate depends on the age of the vehicle, not its Kelley Blue Book value.
A vehicle 5 years old or newer is taxed at $225; vehicles 6 to 10 years old at $200 and those 11 years and older at $175.
The tax is assessed by the Cook County Department of Revenue on the car buyer after a person files for a vehicle title change with the Illinois Secretary of State.
There’s a tax break for people who want to sell their cars, or simply transfer the title, to family members.
The tax rate is $25 for a purchaser who is the “spouse, mother, father, brother, sister or child” of the former car owner if proof of the family relationship is established.
Cook County long has had a tax on the sales of new and used automobiles bought from dealerships.
But this is a tax on people-to-people sales.
“This doesn’t seem right to me,” Kelly said. “I wouldn’t even buy a car for $500 if I knew I was going to have to pay a $175 tax.”
Bob Mankowske, of New Lenox, was hit with the tax even though he lives in Will County.
“I went to a currency exchange I do business with in Palos Hills to register the title,” Mankowske said. “This was months ago. I bought five used vehicles because I was thinking of expanding my business, A1 Services, which I run out of my home.
“Well, soon after I bought them, I realized I wouldn’t be able to expand so I sold them to another guy.
“And last week I get a tax notice in the mail. They want $225, $200, $175. I never heard of this.”
Mankowske said he went to the currency exchange and they told him a number of people who file for their state vehicle title through the exchange also had received letters in the last week or so.
“There’s no notice posted at the currency exchange. I had to go on the computer and find out about this non-retail use tax.
“I think it’s just awful for some poor working stiff who buys basic transportation for a few hundred dollars to be hit with what amounts to a 40 percent tax that he didn’t even know about.”
The Cook County Board passed the new tax a year ago and it took effect March 1. But apparently the county revenue department didn’t start enforcing the tax until the past month.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle spokeswoman Kristen Mack said the county and the state still are arranging for the state to collect the tax when the title application is submitted. Meanwhile, the county revenue department began collecting the tax “by issuing notices to the taxpayers directly after the transfer takes place. This is based on receiving taxpayers’ data from the state offices that are working with the county. Individuals are given an opportunity to inform the county of any discrepancies, exceptions or exemptions.”
Mankowske said he was calling the county revenue department for days and no one called back.
“I wanted to know how they could impose a tax on someone in Will County for a car sale that took place in Will County,” he said.
Mankowske did finally contact county revenue officials by getting a telephone number through a friend. Apparently, the tax he was assessed was a mistake.
“I paid for FedEx to deliver the titles and had them drop it off at the Palos Hills currency exchange in Cook County and apparently they saw that address at the department of revenue and decided it was subject to the tax.
“The guy I spoke with said if I could provide proof of my residence then I wouldn’t be taxed. I told him that they mailed the tax bill to New Lenox so they have the proof: Just look at the address the bill was mailed to.”
What’s really happening here is that Cook County is short of money because it’s rolling back a 1 cent sales tax increase that was very unpopular with voters.
Since Preckwinkle has assumed office she’s been cutting the county budget, but she’s also been proposing all sorts of new taxes and fees.
She wanted to tax residents of unincorporated Cook County for police services.
She’s proposed parking fees at suburban Cook County court buildings.
She’s proposed taxes on bullets and guns, raising the cigarette tax, and on and on it goes.
The fact is that Cook County needed that sales tax revenue, but former Cook County Board President Todd Stroger was an incompetent administrator who squandered the funds.
Preckwinkle, who won office by vowing to roll back the last half-cent of the sales tax hike, has been nickel-and-diming taxpayers ever since to recover some of that revenue.
Just to make the point clear, this is not a tax on retail sales outlets.
It’s a tax only on people who buy a car from another private party and register the title in Cook County.
At the very least, in my opinion, it should have been linked to the car’s value.
For example, there’s a $4,000 difference between the Kelley Blue Book resale price of a 2004 Lexus ES with 120,000 miles on it and a Chevy Malibu of the same year and with the same mileage.
One is basic transportation, the other a luxury ride, even if it is eight years old.
This is an issue of tax fairness.
It’s not fair to the little guy trying to avoid getting ripped off on a trade-in by a dealer.
And it’s not fair to the working stiff trying to buy a car cheap.
But at least you know there is a tax for non-retail transfers of motor vehicles now. I sure didn’t know about it before.


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Self-service smart lockers -- similar to the Amazon Hub Lockers that have been popping up around the country -- are now available for airmen at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia, the first base to install the secure package delivery system at its barracks.
Robins unveiled the new equipment during a March 30 ceremony, with senior installation leadership and the airman who initially came up with the idea in attendance. Seven other Air Force bases have scheduled the intelligent lockers to be installed at their facilities; they will eventually be available across the Air Force, according to a service press release.
Previously, troops at Robins had to wait two to three days for the base's post office to manually sort a package, notify the recipient that it is available for pickup and then hand it out, according to Senior Airman Ricardo "Noah" Morales, who pitched the locker concept to Air Force leadership. Now, technology is quickly replacing or reshaping service jobs typically carried out by human beings.
Read Next: Judge Blocks Air Force Discipline over Vaccine Objections
"This will improve life for Airmen because they can now retrieve their packages 24/7. Shift workers will now be able to get off their shift and retrieve their package at any time of the day without having to work around the base post office's limited hours," Morales said during the ribbon-cutting event.
The Robins post office operates from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday; it is closed during the weekend, giving service members a limited window to access their mail, according to Roland Leach, a base spokesperson.
With the new secure package system, service members will likely be sent an individual code when a parcel is delivered, allowing them to immediately retrieve it from a locker.
Morales secured the funding for Robins when he won first place and $235,000 to implement the smart locker venture in a 2021 Air Force innovation contest. The next competition, to be held in August, will give Air Force members another chance to win a share of $1 million for their inventive ideas.
Secure delivery lockers are growing in popularity across the U.S. and are now available everywhere from apartment buildings to grocery stores. The industry is expected to grow exponentially from a market of roughly $677 million last year to more than $1.6 billion by 2028, according to a report published by ResearchAndMarkets.com.
But as new technology expands, it also threatens to replace conventional service jobs. A recent report by research company Forrester projects 11 million U.S. jobs will be lost to automation by 2032.
Even the United States Postal Service has entered the parcel locker industry, testing its technology in limited locations across the country. With development of the secure locker system at Air Force bases still ongoing, individuals sending mail domestically or internationally to an APO, FPO or DPO should continue to keep in mind the specific guidelines set by the USPS.
-- Jonathan Lehrfeld is a fellow at Military.com. Follow him on Twitter @lehrfeld_media.
Related: 'Like He Came Back to Me': WWII Mail Received 76 Years Later


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Two Chinese engineer students in Oregon allegedly cheated Apple with hundreds of thousands of dollars to replace the iPhone and are now faced with criminal charges in the federal court, as initially reported by The Oregonian . The authorities claim that the students removed the intricate scheme in order to spin Apple in cash, using counterfeit devices and using Apple's return policy.
Since 2017, both men have allegedly smuggled thousands of counterfeit iPhone phones in the United States from China, and then sent them to Apple for repair or replacement, arguing that counterfeiters will not be included. In many cases, Apple replaced counterfeit goods with real iPhone, which cost the company about $ 895,800.
Jan Yang Zhou, who just graduated from the Oregon State University engineer diploma, allegedly was responsible for buying counterfeit goods in the United States and sending real iPhone to China. His accomplice, Kuan Jiang, who studied engineering at Linn Benton Community College, shared a Zhou address and brought counterfeit phones to Apple, either online or personally, to request a replacement. After the real iPhone was shipped to China to sell for profit, the employee transferred the money to Jiang's mother's mother, who subsequently contributed to the Jiang account used in the United States, explains the complaint.
According to federal complaints, both Jiang and Zhou claim that they did not know that the original phones were fakes. Both remain outside the guardianship, but Jiang, who was accused in 201
Jiang supposedly filed 3069 warranty claims, and as a result Apple provided 1,493 replacement iPhone. At an estimated cost of $ 600 per phone, Apple lost nearly $ 900,000 from this scheme. In June and July 2017, Apple sent Jiang to stop ordering Joe, telling Jiang that Apple knows that it imports false iPhone. Jiang did not respond to the remarks.
Duo is not alone in supposedly trying to make a profit from major technology companies. Last year, a Chinese citizen living in New Jersey, found himself guilty of selling a counterfeit iPhone and iPads to a student visa by attracting $ 1.1 million. And only last month, a Lithuanian man found himself guilty of fraudulent Google and Facebook with 100 million dollars by sending false e-mails to them and placing them for a Taiwanese company.


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Digital Lab Africa, a new platform organised by the French Institute of South Africa, DISCOP AFRICA and TRACE, is asking startups in the web creation, virtual reality (VR), serious gaming and digital music spaces to apply for incubation and funding in France.
The new initiative, for which applications are open until August 31, aims to provide a springboard for African talent in multimedia creation with the support of leading French companies.
The incubation ticket will include time of residence in France within digital clusters and a EUR3,000 (US$3,300) cash prize.
Successful applicants in the web creation and transmedia category – which is open to innovative concepts and to any type of content – will be mentored by Lagardère Studios, a leading audio-visual production group in Europe, and European cultural channel ARTE.
In the video game category, which is open to developers of serious games for purposes such as education, the mentor is CCCP, one of the leading French video game studios, while successful applicants in the digital music space will be mentored by digital distribution company BELIEVE DIGITAL and fair trade streaming platform 1D TOUCH.
The virtual reality category, which is open to anyone producing content which offers an immersive experience to the public on any type of device, will see selected startups mentored by Okio-Studio, the leading French production house in virtual reality contents.
The post Digital Lab Africa seeks tech startups for French mentorship appeared first on Disrupt Africa.
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The U.S. dollar slipped on Thursday after U.S. durable goods orders data showed weakness in business spending plans, while world stock indexes edged higher, extending recent gains.
Iconic Canadian brand Canada Goose, known for its popular luxury outerwear, said Thursday it plans to open its first retail stores this autumn.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Hulk Hogan's courtroom cage match with Gawker has apparently been bankrolled by a high-tech billionaire with a grudge against the news-and-gossip site.
The Labatt Brewing Company is targeting fast food chains and unlicensed food trucks with a new non-alcoholic beer dubbed “Budweiser Prohibition Brew.
TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's biggest banks on Thursday warned of further losses in coming quarters as energy companies struggled to repay loans, even as growth in wealth management and retail banking helped the banks report better-than-expected ...


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Italian apparel company Diesel recently released a badass collection that capitalizes on hate comments by converting them into fashion statements.
The company’s creative agency Publicis Italy released a star-studded anti-cyber-bullying ad campaign that features stars such as Nicki Minaj, Barbie Ferreira and Bella Thorne wearing pieces from the collection — aptly dubbed “Haute Couture” — emblazoned with hate-driven words that the stars actually received online.
“Hate comments are based on the fact that people are hiding themselves,” chief executive of Publics Italy Bruno Bertelli told Campaign. “The main thing is not to hide. […] If you keep [hate] inside, it grows and hurts and becomes bigger and bigger.”
Last week, a similar campaign attempt by Revolve focusing on body-shaming flopped because of an early release and faulty advertising. Revolve has since apologized for the incident, saying the intention was not to promote body-shaming but to empower women. After all, “The more hate you wear, the less you care,” Diesel’s ad says.
The “Haute Couture” set will be available on October 6 in 42 stores worldwide. Customers can customize their own pieces and turn those insults into mere accessories. Diesel will donate some of the proceeds to Only The Brave Foundation, which supports anti-bullying and cyberbullying programs in different countries around the world.
You may have noticed that Vogue Paris is like a personal mood board for Emmanuelle Alt. She is forever injecting her own personal style into the pages of the magazine (as well as its covers) and putting her favorite models on the front cover, like last month’s umpteenth Kate Moss cover and this month’s Kaia Gerber cover — her third for the French magazine. The 17-year-old American beauty first made her debut for Vogue Paris alongside mom Cindy Crawford in April 2016 and now, two years later, already has two solo covers under her belt. Returning eight months after her last appearance, the current face of Moschino is photographed by Mikael Jansson and styled by Alt wearing a Louis Vuitton tunic and a bold, playful makeup look.
The cover, however, did not appeal to our forum members. “I get the idea behind it — but for the cover, I wish they’d gone for the full-on face, because, yes, this looks like a child-clown to me, forced to dress up. It’s like seeing a mild psychological breakdown performed through the medium of makeup,” commented tigerrouge straight away.
One thing about Jeremy Scott is that he sure knows how to put out stellar advertising campaigns for Moschino. Our forums have admired Scott’s campaigns for years, with many thanks to legendary lensman Steven Meisel who effortlessly elevates Moschino’s collections like no other. Take, for example, this season’s current campaign, which pictures the likes of Kaia Gerber and Gigi Hadid as fashion-forward aliens who have landed from another planet, right into Meisel’s studio.
Per our forum’s recommendation, Jeremy ditches Giampaolo Sgura, who fronted his last disappointing fragrance campaign, and brings Meisel and Devon Aoki on board for the new scent, Toy 2. In the campaign, Aoki cradles an oversized version of the bear-shaped bottle in the black and white image, complete with styling from Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele.
Like it or not, Rihanna is newsstand gold and whether she’s making history on British Vogue, basking in the summer sun on American Vogue or going blonde for Harper’s Bazaar, she delivers the goods each and every time. Therefore, we cannot blame Allure for making the Barbadian songstress its cover girl for October 2018. The beauty-focused publication has been doing pretty well recently, with triumphant covers featuring Bella Hadid and Lily James. The magazine’s latest is also a winner, featuring Rihanna looking effortlessly beautiful and at ease on two covers photographed byNadine Ijewere.
Our forum members were immediately captivated. “What a beautiful and attractive cover for a beauty magazine. I mean… the colors,” said jeffandtheworld.
“It’s a lovely picture, I love the colors. Although she may be overexposed, she’s a chameleon so I don’t mind it too much. Her covers this year have all been quite different. It’s a nice change to see her on a cover with a big smile,” favored Morgane07.
“Two good covers in a row. What changed at Allure to suddenly decide they want to do good covers now?” asked SLFC.
After undergoing a makeover, Marie Claire is back on our radar with several gorgeous covers in recent months featuring the likes of Zendaya, Amy Adams and Emily Ratajkowski. In a bold effort to overhaul its image, the American fashion glossy is pulling out all the stops, landing Nicole Kidman as its cover star for October 2018. We’ve called out our fair share of Photoshop blunders over the years, but Marie Claire‘s latest takes the cake. Photographed by Thomas Whiteside, styled by Joseph Errico and drowning in an overload of red (from Nicole’s hair to the studio backdrop), the Aussie actress is barely recognizable in her latest cover appearance.
Our forum members were speechless — almost. “Who’s that?” asked KissMiss the minute the cover came to light.
“That’s like someone paying a camgirl to be Nicole Kidman,” snarked tigerrouge.
“I literally busted out laughing at first look. That… is… hysterical…,” said dfl-001.
Anna Ewers and Vogue Germany go together like Kate Moss and British Vogue. It’s a relationship that keeps on blossoming and the German native, who already has four cover appearances for the magazine under her belt, adds a fifth for October 2018. After a rather dull and uneventful offering for September, we were expecting some glitz and glam this month; instead, we get yet another tepid gray backdrop and not much else. Even Ewers looks bored with the cover as she sits on a stool wearing Ralph Lauren for photographer Giampaolo Sgura.
Members of our forums were divided on the cover. “Her again?! The casual styling isn’t doing her much favors, too basic,” remarked Nymphaea the moment the cover dropped.
“Doesn’t even look like a cover! Can’t believe [stylist Christiane Arp] would run with this. The styling is bad as can be expected from a Vogue Germany cover, but the art direction and image? It looks like an outtake from The Edit’s weekly features,” said Benn98.
“So it’s official? Magazines aren’t even trying anymore, this cover ain’t worth the paper it’s printed on!” slammed Miss Dalloway.


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Beijing has announced more tax cuts and infrastructure spending this year, while Chinese banks lent a record USD 865bn in the first quarter. The details of March’s activity data suggest that China’s efforts to stabilize its economy are taking hold, with positive knock-on effects for the global economy:
- January-March Fixed Asset Investment growth accelerated to 6.3% y/y, from 6.1% y/y in January-February, driven by property and infrastructure. Policy stimulus is feeding through to credit growth – total social financing expanded 10.6% y/y in March, up from 10.1% in February – and now in turn is supporting investment growth.
- Industrial production grew 8.5% y/y (versus 5.9% expected) – the most since July 2014. The increase was broad-based across sectors and the 1% month-over-month rise the largest since August 2013. China is a significant global manufacturer but is a link in the supply chain that rarely makes a product from start to finish. Greater Chinese production signals greater production for other countries as well.
- March retail sales growth of 8.7% y/y (consensus 8.4%) was the fastest since last September and was fueled mainly by consumer staples and electronic appliances. Within the total, the auto component declined 4.4%, but the trend has improved from the 8.5% decline in December. Signs of improvement in the auto sector are important for a European recovery. On Tuesday, Germany’s ZEW survey of expectations for April increased by more than expected to 3.1, the first positive reading in more than a year.
We think proactive policy support is likely to continue in China, and we expect another 100–200bps in cuts to reserve requirement ratios this year. But a sustained macro recovery would likely preclude the need for major incremental stimulus. The rally in Chinese equities this year has stemmed chiefly from policy easing, sentiment recovery and valuation re-rating, in our view. Further equity market upside could be driven, we believe, by fundamentals and earnings growth upgrades. We prefer offshore Chinese equities within our Asia portfolios.
Main contributors - Christopher Swann, Sagar Khandelwal, Vincent Heaney, Jon Gordon
Content is a product of the Chief Investment Office (CIO).
Original report: Signs of policy traction in China, 17 April 2019.


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Francis, who celebrates working as a Bouquiniste for forty years this year, sets up his bookstall. (Photo by Kiran Ridley/Getty Images)
Bouquinistes are booksellers of used and antiquarian books along large sections of the banks of the Seine in Paris, France.
These open-air bookshops have lined the Seine for hundreds of years, but since Covid-19 has strangled tourism around the globe the iconic green sidewalk stands are struggling to stay open.
Below their story in photos by photographer Kiran Ridley.
VIEW THE PHOTOS HERE:
Customers browse the books at a Bouquinistes bookstall on the Left Bank of the river Seine on 3 January 2021 in Paris.
Francis, who celebrates working as a Bouquiniste for forty years this year, stands in front of his bookstall.
Francis talks to a customer at his bookstall.
Books for sale in a bookstall on the Left Bank of the River Seine.
Francis shows his ledger where he has sold €10 of books that day when he would normally sell €200.
George, who has been working as a Bouquiniste for over 40 years, sits at his bookstall.
Bernard Lefavre, who has been working as a Bouquiniste since 1967, sets up his book stall on the Left Bank of the river Seine.
ALSO READ: Some of 2020's memorable art books
(All photos by Kiran Ridley/Getty Images)


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Everything Has Led To This.
The countdown to The 150th Open at St Andrews is on, and to celebrate the phenomenal milestone of golf’s original major and the Championship’s return to the Home of Golf, The Open has commissioned 150 Commemorative 150th St Andrews putters.
With just over a month to go until the ticket ballot for The 150th Open closes, golf fans now have the opportunity to own a special piece of sporting history, as the putters go on sale today.
Matt Tomlinson, Head of Retail, Merchandise and Licensing for The Open, added: "As we build up to The 150th Open we are excited to look back at the journeys of the players, the Championship & the fans. Golf as we know it today can trace its storied lineage. This is the Championship that launched the journey of every player and every fan, and their journey is now part of its journey.
This exclusive and limited edition putter celebrates all those elements, detailing all the past Championships. Everything has led to this."
The limited-edition collectors’ putters are numbered from 1 to 150, and each one comes with a certificate of authenticity, acknowledging it as a genuine product created specifically for The Open. Packaged in a superb box featuring the name of every Open host venue up to and including The 150th Open at St Andrews, every putter is a piece of history that serious fans cannot miss.
The 150th Open, taking place from 10-17 July 2022 in St Andrews, is set to be a true celebration of golf and the long history of the sport’s original major, as well as the many golfing greats who have lifted the iconic Claret Jug, with this iconic putter epitomising the special moment in golf history.
Individual putters will be issued at random from our selection of 150 numbered pieces, and may take up to four weeks to be dispatched from date of purchase. Putters will be sold on a first come, first serve basis, and are now exclusively available at The Open Shop.


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The fall of users netflix This is a very important concern for the streaming service of films and series, but its leaders must digest an even more alarming fact: the age of the lost customers. As published Informationin the past two years the number of long-time subscribers who have decided to unsubscribe has increased significantly.
We’re talking about people who left Netflix after being part of the platform for more than three years. According to data provided by Antenna, a renowned research firm, 13% of the 3.6 million cancellations recorded in the first quarter of 2023 came from customers belonging to the said group.
This is undoubtedly a worrying fact, as it makes more evident a trend recorded since the first quarter of 2020. At that time, only 5% of cancellations corresponded to users with more than three years on Netflix; however, in Q1 2021, they already accounted for 10% of deleted accounts.
This clearly shows that the streaming platform is struggling to retain the interest of its oldest customers; which can also be translated into a loss of loyalty to your brand or proposition.
Another important point to keep in mind is that cancellations for the first quarter of 2023 were significantly higher than those reported by Netflix on previous occasions. Keep in mind that from the fourth quarter of 2020 to the same period of 2021, the average number of completed subscriptions was 2.5 million each.
Netflix is losing old customers and it’s not just for content, but for the economy
The economy has played a key role in Netflix’s rise in cancellations among its former audience, experts say. Price increases, coupled with the emergence of a growing number of competitors with cheaper subscriptions and more interesting content on offer, have been crucial in this story. “Consumers vote with their wallets every month and there are now more viable candidates on the ballot,” he said. Brendan Bradyof the antenna.
But if Netflix can salvage anything positive from the negative, it’s that the percentage of cancellations among subscribers with less than a year of membership on the platform has plummeted. Just as in the first quarter of 2020 they represented 69% of a total of 2.1 million unsubscribed subscriptions, over the same period of 2023 they accounted for 60% of the 3.6 million withdrawals, even if the latter represent a greater number of users.
For now, the movie and series streaming service has presented several plans to try to soften the blow due to the decline in users. One of the biggest involves launching a cheaper plan that will include ads; it was only expected within two years, but the company has reportedly decided to step on the accelerator and introduce it in the last quarter of 2023.
Separately, Netflix will also experiment with streaming live events, which will initially be used for unscripted shows and comedy specials. While the company also plans to change its original content production strategy, focusing on releasing fewer but higher quality titles.


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A 17-year-old boy has been arrested for hacking into mobile telecommunications company KPN in the Netherlands. He has also been accused of other breaches in Japan, Korea, and Norway. The teenager was arrested last Tuesday in the Dutch town of Barendrecht, where police seized an encrypted computer, two laptops and other storage media including external hard drives, DVDs and USB sticks.
The arrested teenager called himself "xS", "Yoshioka" and "Yui" online, is also suspected of breaching security of Tokohu University in Japan, as well as hacking computers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and at Trondheim University in Norway. Last but not least, he reportedly ran a website used for selling stolen credit card data.
KPN also noted the arrest is unrelated to a January hack which resulted in the company taking 2 million e-mail accounts offline as a precaution.


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Feeding Body and Soul with Thy Kingdom Crumb
On Saturday, February 18, Heritage’s proudly hosted Thy Kingdom Crumb’s food truck at its West Deptford store as the ministry kicked off its 2023 initiatives. Thy Kingdom Crumb exists to demonstrate the love of God and to infuse His hope by feeding all people and uplifting communities. The well-attended event was successful in feeding bodies and souls. More than 120 guests enjoyed high-quality meals, featuring Philly cheese steaks and Caesar salads.
To learn more about Thy Kingdom Crumb, visit https://www.tkctruck.org/.