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Mohsin Qureshi joins Cheetay as chief operating officer
LAHORE - Mohsin Qureshi, former Commercial Director at Foodpanda, has joined Cheetay as Chief Operating Officer (COO).
Qureshi previously led a strong commercial team at Foodpanda and was pivotal in the company’s successful expansion into Pakistan. He was also one of the founding members of EatOye!, Pakistan’s first food delivery portal.
“We are very excited to have Mohsin spearhead our new development and expansion strategy,” said Majid Khan, CEO of Cheetay. “Mohsin’s unmatched expertise in the consumer market and unique business insights are coveted assets that will propel the next phase of growth at Cheetay.”
“I enthusiastically share Majid’s vision of making Cheetay the dominant NOW-Commerce player in Pakistan and the first unicorn in the country,” said Qureshi, who has more than 12 years of business development and sales experience.
“In the next two years, we will expand our operations to all the major cities as well as launch a variety of new products and services. Exciting new developments are underway and we look forward to making some major announcements in the very near future.”
Cheetay is Pakistan’s largest and fastest growing tech-enabled, last mile logistics company that recently raised $7.8 million in a Series A round.
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VRJAM unveiled new project – supported by Epic Games
VRJAM has announced a brand new project to support upcoming artists that aim to perform in the metaverse. To accomplish this, VRJAM is supported by Epic Games, along with being a previous supporter of the company through the Epic Megagrant.
The megagrant was made available to the company to help build out its software stack to make live performances on the metaverse a reality, particularly through its 3D graphical apps and games – making VRJAM’s tech readily available to developers on Epic’s Unreal Engine SDK.
Previous Megagrant recipients include Pixar Studios, The Jim Henson Company and the University of Cambridge.
At present, Epic Games’ support for VRJAM comes after recent announcements of partnerships with some major brands like Animal Concerts, the Polygon Protocol, Mars4, among others. With Epic Games, VRJAM also heralds the launch of its native crypto – VRJAM Coin – which is launching today (30th November).
The software solution that VRJAM is building with Epic’s support is a live performance toolset that empowers content creators to publish real-time computer graphical content on various platforms using advanced motion capture and CG avatar technology. By combining the power of Unreal Engine’s suite of photoreal asset tools with VRJAM’s creators and partners, the project will engineer experiences that rival reality in every way.
In the future, the company aims to engage with a wide range of high-profile developers in the Epic community, enabling them to plug into the platform easily and a new opportunity for interoperability for games and apps within web3.

domain: news


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Charging into the Super Bowl for the first time, Kia Motors is discovering that buying a 30-second ad during the game, which will air on
this Sunday, is opening a few doors, namely a deeper relationship with a very big company:
is working closely with Kia and nearly all Super Bowl XLIV's 40 Super Bowl advertisers, offering them exposure far beyond the TV. The marketers that are paying up to $2.8 million for each 30-second spot can upload the ads on Google's Super Bowl Ad Blitz page, as they have in the past. But this year Google has added even more features including social media buttons that will make it easy for viewers to pass them along or "tweet" them on Twitter. There are also overlays that give more information about the products and companies featured in the spots and overlays that let viewers vote on their favorites. Google offers this to marketers free. It does, of course, promise them more exposure if they pay for video, search and display ads.
Google promises Super Bowl advertisers, including Audi,
, that a presence on the Web can help their ads build upon the exposure of their TV star turn. By cozying up to these deep-pocketed advertisers, Google hopes to get more money from them this year, when Web advertising is expecting to total $24.4 billion, a 7% increase over 2009, says GroupM, a
-owned media investment management company.
When YouTube started posting Super Bowl ads four years ago, the system was ad-hoc, says Jim Lecinski, Google managing director of U.S. sales. "Now it's a program; it's a way of integrating the client," he says.
Right after the game, Google will feature a big banner ad on the YouTube home page pointing users right to the commercials. There, they will be able to vote on their favorites. The ad that gets the most votes will get a free spot on the YouTube home page later in the month.
Last year Super Bowl ads pulled in 10 million YouTube views in the first 30 hours following the TV event and a total of 27 million views in the week after the game. The automaker, part of Hyundai, sponsored Google's Ad Blitz page in the week prior to the game and is buying a takeover ad on the day after the game for the mobile version of YouTube.
, the online financial services company in New York, bought a front-page video placement on YouTube's home page on Wednesday and has increased its paid search buys in the weeks surrounding the Super Bowl. It's also buying in-banner video units, featuring the Super Bowl ad. The company used a similar strategy last year and drove 2 million views of the ad just days before the game.
This year's Super Bowl is expected to create even more of a splash on the Web than in previous years, says Jeff Brooks, co-CEO of Euro RSCG New York. "It's the first year when social media has matured to a point that earned media will interplay with paid media at a massive scale," he says.
Google's YouTube and the new sharing functions built into it are likely to push advertisers' return on investment far more than any other Web company. But many of the Super Bowl ads will also be shown on sites such as AOL's,
, and the Forbes.com CMO Network.
will show all the ads on MSN. The Seattle company is expecting more traffic after the game, says Robin Domeniconi, vice president of Microsoft's US advertising sales, publishing and marketing. "A search engine is one of the first places people go after watching the Super Bowl," she says.


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- Accord was again the most popular car in America1 in 2014 based on retail registrations
- Civic finished 2014 more than 44,000 units ahead of its nearest competitor2
- CR-V was the #1 SUV in America and best-selling SUV of the decade3
- Retail car buyers choose Odyssey more than any other minivan in America4
Final retail registrations for 2014 are now available, and, once again, four Honda models led the industry in retail registrations in their respective segments, according to Honda analysis of data from IHS Automotive. Repeating their 2013 performances, the Accord, Civic, CR-V and Odyssey were the top choices of individual U.S. car buyers in their respective segments in 2014. Based on retail registrations, Honda has three of the top six best-selling passenger vehicles in America. Honda’s registrations to individual buyers as a percentage of total registrations was 98 percent, the highest of any mainstream brand in the U.S.
“Retail sales are simply a better yardstick for measuring real-world product appeal, and Honda’s focus on retail sales translates to higher resale value and lower lifetime ownership costs for our customers,” said Jeff Conrad, senior vice president and general manager of the Honda Division. “We’re looking to build on our retail sales momentum in the light truck category in the year ahead with innovative new products including the new Honda HR-V crossover and redesigned Pilot SUV.”
Accord, CR-V, and Civic led retail registrations in the three highest volume passenger vehicle segments in the U.S. Excluding full-size pickup trucks, Accord, CR-V and Civic rank first, third, and fourth, respectively in retail registrations in 2014.
For the second year in a row, Accord, CR-V and Civic – Honda’s top three selling models – accounted for more than one million in registrations in 2014. Each of these three models achieved retail registrations of more than 300,000 units. Overall, the Honda brand set an all-time annual sales record with sales of 1.37 million units.
Honda brand highlights, based on Honda’s analysis of IHS Automotive newvehicle registration data for 2014, include:
- Excluding full-size pickups, the Accord, CR-V and Civic continue to hold three of the top four slots – first, third and fourth, respectively – in retail registrations in 2014.
- With retail registrations of 382,535 units in 2014, the Accord easily outpaced the competition as the most popular car in America for the second straight year.
- CR-V was America’s retail and outright best-selling SUV of 2014, and the best-selling SUV of the past decade. On a retail basis, CR-V registrations rose 10.5 percent to 331,706 units compared to 2013, giving CR-V a more than 80,000-unit lead over the #2 selling vehicle in the segment in 2014.
- Civic retail registrations of 317,025 units in 2014 led all compact cars, besting the nearest segment competitor by nearly 45,000 units.
- Odyssey retail registrations of 119,615 units continue to make it the top choice among retail minivan customers – with a 32 percent retail segment share.


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The first car ever to wear the Porsche badge is in the building… for the 2018 Goodwood Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard. The Porsche Museum has let 356 roadster number one from 1948 come to West Sussex – its first-ever visit to the UK – to take part in the birthday celebrations this weekend.
919 Evo, the first ever 356, new Speedster concept and more to celebrate 70 years of Porsche at FOS
Subscribe to Festival of Speed news
Our email newsletter contains all the latest news, stories and event information about the Goodwood Estate


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The President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has says his refinery will eliminate fuel scarcity and transform Nigeria’s economy for decades when it comes on stream.
Dangote was represented by the Group Executive Director (GED), Strategy and Government Relations, Engineer Mansur Ahmed, at the Dangote Special Day during the just concluded 40th Kaduna International Trade Fair.
The foremost Industrialist said his other businesses including Dangote Cement, Salt, Sugar and refineries as well as food products will ensure food security and improve lives.
“The refinery, located in Lekki, Lagos State, is expected to produce 65.4m litres of Petrol (PMS), Diesel (AGO), Aviation jet fuel and Kerosene (DKP) daily, in huge volumes.
“The petroleum products are planned to meet most of the needs of Nigeria, and the African continent, thus making life much easier for the people.
“Already, the gains of the huge investments in the different sectors by Dangote have moved the nation’s economy forward and complimented government’s efforts in no small measure.”
He further said the Group will continue to be the largest employer of labour in Nigeria, with hundreds of thousands direct and indirect employment opportunities.
He noted that the rice mills established in some states including Kebbi, Jigawa, Sokoto, Enugu, Zamfara, Kano and Niger, will also ensure self-sufficient in rice production.
“We are doing everything possible to ensure Nigeria moves from an importing country to an exporting country and we have succeeded in making Nigeria an exporter of cement and earning hard currencies for the country, and contributing in lifting the country from recession.
“The feat is achievable because of the three Dangote Cement factories at Obajana in Kogi state, Gboko Cement Factory in Benue state and Ogun state, because they are not only producing enough cements for local consumption but also for export,” he said.
Speaking earlier, the President of Kaduna Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (KADCCIMA), Dr. Farida Muheeba Dankaka, lauded Dangote Group for its contribution to the nation’s economic growth.
Farida said the huge investment by the conglomerate is responsible for over 10% of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP) saying, “KADCCIMA is proud to be associated with the conglomerate.”


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Hutchinson said to be readying £9 billion bid.
Analyst claims Cupertino readying special pen for large scale iPad.
Rumours flooding in ahead of March due date.
Farewell, Google Glass. We barely knew ye.
Gossip-mongers already chattering about next–gen iPhone.
New tool should cut down on having to give directions to aimless pals.
Report suggested Samsung was ready to buy out ailing Canadian mobile-maker.
Latest attempt to breathe life into new mobile operating system.
The discovery of Apple's Companion iPhone app has yielded a trove of fresh info.
Apple’s plans laid bare in massive leak.
Join our email list to get the inside line on the latest phones and money-saving offers. And we’ll help you make informed buying decisions with handset reviews and consumer guides too.


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Originally posted on CBS Minnesota:
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Caribou Coffee is being taken private by a German holding company in a deal valued at about $340 million.
The coffee chain, which has 610 locations in the U.S. and overseas, said Monday that it will continue to operate as an independent company with its own brand and management team once the buyout by Joh. A Benckiser Group GmbH closes. The German investment firm had also purchased a majority stake in Peet’s Coffee & Tea Inc. earlier this year.
Joh. A. Benckiser Group GmbH will pay $16 per share, a 30 percent premium to Caribou’s Friday closing price of $12.32.


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The company behind ‘The World’s Best Cornish Pasty’ is expanding its network of Cornish pasty shops across England after securing a six-figure funding package from Clydesdale Bank.
Pasty Presto runs 28 Cornish pasty shops across the country, predominantly in the South West, with openings in two new locations including its first in the Lake District.
The company, which employs around 300 people and has its headquarters in Bath and shops in Bath and Gloucester Quays, has opened shops in Fowey in Cornwall and Windermere in Cumbria after securing around £450,000 of funding from Clydesdale Bank’s Business and Private Banking Centre in Gloucester. The openings have created around 20 new jobs in total.
The expansion comes hot on the heels of Pasty Presto winning ‘The World’s Best Cornish Pasty Award’ at the World Pasty Championships held at the Eden Project in March.
Steve Grocutt, owner and founder of Pasty Presto, said the support from Clydesdale Bank has enabled the business to move forward with its expansion plans.
Steve opened the first Pasty Presto shop in Mevagissey in 1994 and says he is excited to not only be growing the company’s presence in the south west but also moving into a new market place.
Steve said: “Pasty Presto is a well-known name in the West Country and we’re delighted to be in a position to move forward with the expansion plans and open a new shop in Fowey.
“Our shops are predominantly located in high end tourist locations and we’re extremely excited about opening our first shop in the Lake District, which is a natural fit for the business.
“We’ve been customers of Clydesdale Bank for around five years and they’ve given us great support during this time. The Bank has always listened to our plans and shown a great understanding of what we are trying to achieve and we value the backing they’ve afforded us.
“After what has been a tough market over the last couple of years, trading conditions have picked up again recently, and with summer approaching, the new openings and winning the award for the World’s Best Cornish Pasty, it’s been a great period and we are well-placed to kick on and continue our expansion plans.”
John Cary, relationship manager at Clydesdale Bank’s Business and Private Banking Centre in Gloucester, said Pasty Presto has established a strong brand and is well placed to grow even further.
John said: “Pasty Presto has established a strong reputation across the South West and a number of successful shops in the South West, Midlands and at motorway service stations.
“The opening of a new store in Fowey and its move into the Lake District is exciting news for the business and Clydesdale Bank is proud to have provided funding to support this venture.
“The Bank’s Growing Business package has been launched to support businesses that are looking to expand with access to funding; well-managed businesses like Pasty Presto.”


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NZIN Corporation Looks to Add 17 New Games in 2016
Namgoong Hun, the former CEO of CJ E&M, is planning to release 17 new games in 2016 for his new company NZIN Corporation. CJ E&M works in partnership with mobile game studio Netmarble, which means Hun is no rookie in the industry.
So far, the short video clip reveals a handful of the upcoming mobile games, and most of them don’t look much different from what’s already on the market. There are puzzle games, RPGs, side-scrollers, shooters, and a few others.
Some might question whether or not there is even room left in the mobile market for these types of games, but it actually makes a lot of sense. Generally, people only stick to a mobile title for a few months, or less, and then move on to the next big thing. This is true even if the newest wave of mobiles games are almost the same as the last ones. However, developers use trial and error to find the best mechanics for these games and then implement the popular ones into newer titles.
This leads to a constant cycle and need for newer mobile titles. Developers put out a game, players consume it for a short amount of time and then move on to the next big thing. It’s unfortunate that such a major game industry is so shallow right now, but it’s also very young and limited by technological constraints. Hopefully, if the future we will see more games with lasting designs that aren’t created as a cash-grab.
Guild Wars 2 PvP League Season Begins
The first competitive PvP season for Guild Wars 2 is now underway for the entire player popular. Although the Guild Wars 2 ESL Pro League began a couple of weeks ago, players have been without a ranked PvP mode since the launch of Heart of Thorns on October 23.
This gap of ranked play caused a few concerns within the Guild Wars 2 community, especially with the influx of new players due to the game going free-to-play. With only one main form of PvP, competitive and casual players were crammed into the same queue, which removed any outlet for those looking for serious PvP action.
Starting on December 1, ArenaNet reactivated ranked PvP and implemented the new ranked leagues. These leagues range from Amber to Legendary, in similar fashion to League of Legends, and players are rewarded with gold and crafting material as they level up. There are, however, still many concerns about PvP balance, which will be addressed in an upcoming patch.
“I do want to reinforce – we absolutely plan to do a major quarterly balance updates every 3 months (with a short period after each update to make small tweaks before the next PvP league season begins). The next one is due to arrive after this current PvP season ends,” game designer Colin Johanson posted.
Additionally, the third week of the Guild Wars 2 Pro League begins next week for both NA and EU. All eyes will be on the currently undefeated teams: The Abjured, Spoookie, Apex Prime, Vermillion, and Rank Fifty Five Dragons.
Delays and Layoffs for Gigantic
The upcoming MOBA hybrid developed by Motiga has run into a series of problems lately. Gigantic was revealed as a new type of PC MOBA in 2014 by combining the gameplay of a third-person shooter with MOBA mechanics. Initially, the game planned to have a 2015 launch, but that has now been pushed back to 2016.
“We’ve received lots of valuable feedback throughout our testing phases, and as we reflect on the things we must accomplish to meet the expectations we have set for ourselves, it is clear that we need to move the launch window for Gigantic into 2016,” a Motiga representative said in a statement.
Not only that, but the studio has also laid off a number of employees. Apparently, the delayed launch date has caused an increase in production costs and the company can no longer afford to keep the entire team intact. According to the statement, 16 Motiga employees were let go, but they received severance packages and help with job placement.
“Unfortunately this change in schedule has meant Motiga had to make some difficult decisions this week. As a pre-revenue startup, our resources are finite. Stretching Gigantic development milestones over more time requires that we stretch those resources in the same fashion.”
An updated roadmap for the future of Gigantic is planned to be released at a later date.
Fiesta Online Turns to its Community for Ideas
The most recent update for Fiesta Online has made use of the game’s greatest assets: the players. It’s very rare for a game studio to take direct input from the player population, unless it’s some type of game-breaking bug, but gamigo AG took suggestions from key players and popular guilds for this update.
“The new content did not come out of the blue, but from the most versed experts in the game: the players themselves! Innumerable wishes, suggestions and ideas of individual players and entire guilds were animatedly discussed over the past weeks. And a lot of them are now found in the virtual magical world of Fiesta Online.”
A few of these changes were rather interesting, such as changing the spawn points for monsters and the requirements for quests.
- Increase of XP rewards
• New spawn points for various monsters
• Lowering of quest requirements for numerous monsters and items
• Rebalancing of the Archer class
• Donkeys (mounts) are now available at the item merchant in Elderine and Uruga.
• Plenty of bug fixes
• Winter and Christmas decorations in the cities of Fiesta as well as Ski Event
In addition to balance and gameplay changes, holiday decorations and Christmas trees have come to many major cities in Fiesta Online. Furthermore, the Fiesta Ski event is now available as well.
Apparently, these updates have also led to a few problems within the game, and the community has been asked to make an effort to report all bugs that they find.
That concludes this weekend’s news. For more on MMOs, stay tuned to MMOGames.com.ArenaNet, Fiesta Online, Gigantic, Guild Wars 2, MMORPG, Mobile, Motiga, NZIN


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Geekulcha VacWork comes to Soweto, Tshwane in March
Check Point outlines new channel partner programme
The cyber security solutions firm announces its new channel partner initiative at its CPX 360 event in Vienna, Austria.
Networks Unlimited Africa sponsors ITWeb Security Summit
Start your disruption engines for the ITWeb Security Summit, says diamond sponsor Networks Unlimited Africa.
How to build a high-performance BI and analytics team
Don't look for the ideal analyst or technical person, as they don't exist, says BI expert.
The art of telling stories from data
Data workers must learn to be story tellers, says Weynand Diesel, head of BI at FNB.
Entersekt's Sherif Samy recognised as a top influencer in digital identity
Sherif Samy, senior VP of Entersekt's North American operations, has been recognised as one of the key global voices on identity by One World Identity, an independent strategy and research company.


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Wednesday, January 19 2022
EU data protection fines reached a record 1.1 billion euros in 2021 From DLA Piper.
NFT games will occupy 90% of the market in five years From Reddit co founder
Digital RMB pilot opened 260 million personal wallets, with a transaction volume of more than 87.5 billion From People’s Bank of China
2021 Shipping Container Industry Research Report From Guohai Securities
The cumulative shipment of realm number series is 40.6 million units From Strategy Analytics
Consumer research From The Indian smartphone market is now dominated by online channels
2021 coal report From IEA
Artificial intelligence report 2021 From Boston Consulting
CEO Research Report in 2021 From IBM
Operation analysis report of domestic mobile phone market in December 2021 From China Academy of Communications
China audio visual big data viewing annual report in 2021 From CVB
Viewing of prime time TV dramas from January 1 to January 7, 2022 From China audio visual big data
It is estimated that the 4K TV market in the Asia Pacific region will be valued at USD 56.990 billion from 2020 to 2025 From Technavio.
Current situation, users, value, advertising operation From Q2 Internet TV media report in 2021
Q2 Internet TV media analysis report in 2021 From CTR
Viewing of prime time TV dramas from November 13 to November 19, 2021 From China audio visual big data
In the third quarter of 2021, global TV brand shipments reached 52.51 million units, with a quarterly increase of 8.3% From TrendForce
Disney + subscriptions are forecast to surpass Netflix in 2027 From Digital TV Research
Squid game was watched for 1.6 billion hours in the first four weeks From Netflix updates the ranking of popular film and television works
D2c brand and global technology company TV advertising investment report in 2021 From The Global TV Group
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ASOS Creating 1,500 new UK jobs
ASOS CREATING 1,500 NEW UK JOBS
Monday, December 12, 2016
ASOS, the world’s leading fashion destination for 20-somethings, today unveils plans to hire an additional 1,500 people over the next three years to work at its London headquarters in Camden. ASOS will be looking for talent from a wide range of disciplines, including technology, marketing, content and retail. ASOS currently employs 2,500 people at its London headquarters.
To house the increased size of its workforce at Greater London House – the iconic building in Camden – ASOS has taken an additional 40,000 square feet in the building, growing its overall space there to approaching a quarter of a million square feet. ASOS is completely renovating the entire space by investing £40 million, creating a cutting edge, tech driven working environment for the future. The new space has been designed by architects Spacelab with a ‘work anywhere’ ethos and state of the art technology solutions that allow employees to find their own ways of working flexibly, on any device, communicating easily with the business globally. This will be a true lifestyle workspace with ASOS people at its core.
“Our people are what make ASOS special. We are creating a workspace that fosters creativity, where they can enjoy what they do” said Nick Beighton, ASOS CEO. “Greater London House is such an important part of the company’s history, as well as Camden’s, so I’m thrilled that we get to stay in our home, while building a workplace for the future.”
Bespoke mobile-first technology is being developed to allow easy movement of ASOS team members within the building. Spacelab used their specialist software to map the people and product flow to ensure that the new space will allow people to move freely, facilitating increased cross-functional interaction.
The plans for Greater London House include new staircases and light wells whilst maintaining the building’s iconic design features, most notably the Egyptian black cats, which will continue to welcome guests as they have since 1929.
Renovation plans include top of the line health and workout facilities, an ASOS training academy, a quiet zone library, multiple cafés and eating areas, as well as an auditorium for company-wide gatherings. A Tech Bar and Concierge service will help ASOS employees with their non-work related needs. A workspace that truly reflects the young ASOS staff ethic of “work hard and play hard”.
“ASOS is a global, tech driven phenomenon. ASOS customers are 20-somethings and so are most of its employees. ASOS gets that a smart, young workforce needs a workspace that celebrates their needs and their talents,” said Nathan Lonsdale, Partner from
Spacelab. “Flexibility and mobility are incredibly important when maximising collaboration in a dynamic working environment like at ASOS. The space will reflect the personality of the company and its bold ambitions for the future.”
The space is being designed to be fully welcoming for employees and guests with disabilities – including complete accessibility for wheelchair users, meeting room facilities for hearing impaired employees and braille signage throughout.
ASOS has offices around the world and a growing distribution capability. It invested £81 million in its Barnsley warehouse where 4,000 people work, over the past five years. A further £23 million investment there is earmarked for this year.
ASOS + CAMDEN
•Founded in 2000, ASOS has grown into the UK’s largest online fashion and beauty retailer, with an annual turnover of over £1bn
•Global headquarters have been in Camden’s Greater London House (GLH) for 10 years
•ASOS started in the building with 120 staff. Today more than 2,500 are based in GLH with the office plans making it possible to expand that number to 4,000
•ASOS is one of Camden Town’s largest employers
•Indirect employment and opportunities will be generated due to the growth of the workforce in ASOS, across highly-skilled sectors, including design, retail, marketing, digital and IT
•An additional £500,000 is expected to be generated in business rates following expansion
•ASOS’ business presence spans across five continents and its Camden headquarters welcomes international visitors each day, raising the profile of the Borough as a place of international business
•‘Fashion with Integrity’ – the ASOS corporate responsibility strategy includes programmes specifically targeted to Camden
•ASOS works in close partnership with Centrepoint – supporting residential facilities, including mental health services for neighborhood residents
•ASOS also supports the Prince’s Trust, providing opportunities for young people in fashion, web design and technology
•ASOS and its employees donate clothing to Camden schools and charity shops each year, including C4WS, Oxfam and Scope
•ASOS’ 2,500 employees are entitled to one paid day of volunteering each year. Recent examples include local hospital wards (Kiss it Better), assisting elderly residents (Good Gym) and workshops for teenagers (Roundhouse Coding Club)
GREATER LONDON HOUSE HISTORY
•Interest in Egyptian history was wide spread in 1927 when the building was designed
•800 men built the House of Carreras as it was then called after a well-known tobacco brand
•The modern factory designed after the Egyptian goddess Bast, the Cat Goddess, is guarded by two bronze cats of ancient Bubastis ten feet in height
•The combination of the Egyptian theme and the Black Cat, led to the Egyptian Cat Goddess, Bast and helped decide the system of decoration. Local people still call the building the Black Cat Factory
•On Christmas Eve, a party often started in the factory. Any musicians were encouraged to bring their instruments. At 3pm the band started at the top floor and formed a conga chain, dancing through the factory, floor by floor, until it emerged at the main entrance as an excited throng and held up the traffic in the Hampstead Road
•In 1939 the factory was camouflaged to reduce the risk of bomb damage. After the War the camouflage was removed and the Egyptian decorations were restored
ASOS is a global fashion destination for 20-somethings. We sell cutting-edge fashion and offer a wide variety of fashion-related content, making ASOS.com the hub of a thriving fashion community. We sell over 85,000 branded and own-brand products through localised mobile and web experiences, delivering from our fulfilment centres in the UK, US and Europe to almost every country in the world.
We tailor the mix of own-label, global and local brands sold through each of our eight local language websites: UK, US, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia and Russia. ASOS’s websites attracted 123 million visits during June 2016 (June 2015: 98 million) and as at 30 June 2016 had 12.0 million active customers1 (30 June 2015: 9.7 million), of which 4.6 million were located in the UK and 7.4 million were located in our international territories (30 June 2015: 3.8 million in the UK and 5.9 million internationally).
1Defined as having shopped in the last twelve months


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Contracap Inc., a Wilmette-based medical research firm, said Wednesday the People`s Republic of China is investigating for possible use there Contracap`s ``custom-made`` cervical cap contraceptive device.
Contracap`s agreement is with China`s State National Family Planning Commission.
``China contacted Contracap and several other companies that make contraception devices at the end of last year,`` said Donna James, Contracap`s director of operations. ``The government expressed an interest in learning more about these devices, and we told them what we had to offer.
``They`ve indicated that they are interested in doing a large-scale study. Approximately 800 women will be tested. An impression of the cervix is made, and the device is custom-made to fit,`` James said.
The product is designed for long-term use, but insertion of the cap is not a surgical procedure. Documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission show the product has been tested for safety and acceptability since 1980.
However, the device has not received approval for commercial production from the Food and Drug Administration.
``Although we`ve had preliminary meetings with the FDA, the device has not reached the approval stage,`` James said. ``The custom valve is subject to different regulations, because it is custom-made, rather than a one size fits all.``
Contracap was founded eight years ago.


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CLEVELAND — A Shark Tank-style pitch competition in Northeast Ohio is hoping to help folks with good ideas turn them into real businesses.
The mspire competition, hosted by local nonprofit MAGNET, is for entrepreneurs in Northeast Ohio who have an idea for a physical product.
The competition is entering its 4th year. The deadline to apply is June 30.
Last year, there were 50 applicants, 15 finalists, and five winners.
Prizes include one fully subsidized $20,000 project, $5,000 cash award from Bank of America, and much more.
MAGNET also helps finalists with marketing, engineering, and other resources.
“We’re just inviting anybody who is in the process of building a new business and that could from be an idea on a napkin and they're excited to tell us about it, to having a physical product they’re ready to sell,” said Brandon Cornuke, vice president of startup consulting at MAGNET.
News 5 sat down with past winners Russell Horner and Lisa Oswald, who took their ideas and turned them into successful businesses in less than a year.
Horner created the game Battle Toss, which is a mix between corn hole, beer pong, and Connect 4. The product has a patent pending and has been sold in nearly every state in America and even overseas.
By day, Horner is a CPA and licensed private investigator. By night, he builds Battle Toss.
“I wish I would’ve did it 40 years ago,” Horner said. His advice for an aspiring entrepreneur? “You really have to go for it.”
Oswald and her husband created Bud’s Resin Remover, which removes resin from plants and is marketed toward the growing cannabis industry.
“We’d never launched a product before, certainly not start to finish,” Oswald said. “So definitely if you’re willing to listen, learn, and put the time in, it’s certainly attainable.”
To apply for the mspire pitch competition or to learn more, click here.
The event is open to any entrepreneur or small business with an innovative product idea in the 21 counties of Northeast Ohio, including: Ashland, Ashtabula, Carroll, Columbiana, Crawford, Cuyahoga, Erie, Geauga, Huron, Lake, Lorain, Mahoning, Medina, Portage, Richland, Stark, Summit, Trumbull, Tuscarawas, and Wayne.


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- What countries is QNet banned in?
- Why is QNet banned?
- Is QNet is banned in India?
- Is Network Marketing legal in Saudi Arabia?
- Is QNET illegal?
- Is QNET safe to invest?
- Why is QNET banned in countries?
- Is QNET banned in Dubai?
- Can we get money back from QNet?
- Should I join QNET?
- How does QNET make money?
- Is MLM legal in India?
JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia has banned Qnet, a network marketing company, and said it would punish those involved in the suspicious business venture.
“This network marketing activity involves deception of citizens and has been banned in a number of countries,” the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said.
What countries is QNet banned in?
QnET is banned/shutdown in many countries
- Afghanistan (2008)
- Rwanda (2009)
- Iran (2005)
- Sri Lanka (2004)
- Syria (2009)
Why is QNet banned?
Kuna also said that QNet has not been banned in any country. “In Saudi Arabia, the government issued a ban on direct selling and network marketing industry as a whole. On tapping the digital platforms for its business, the QNet chief said it adopted the e-commerce model way back in 1998.
Is QNet is banned in India?
It operates legally in some countries, but has been charged with Ponzi scheme and multi level marketing in countries such as India. The government of India and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India banned the site in India after a protest spread in Bangalore.
Is Network Marketing legal in Saudi Arabia?
Saudi Arabia, Ministry of Commerce & Sector stated ” This network marketing task involves deception of residents and has been banned in a number of countries”. The ministry advised Saudis and expatriates not to take part in the events of such network marketing business.
Is QNET illegal?
No, QNET is not banned in India. It actually operates through Vihaan Direct Selling India for the last seven years in India. Yes, there are some legal cases ongoing but they are due to baseless complaints. The company is fighting them and no court of law has convicted the company of any crimes.
Is QNET safe to invest?
Is Qnet safe to invest? – Quora. QNET is a network marketing business and it is a viable way to start a part-time home-based business. Qnet is not a investment.
Why is QNET banned in countries?
QNet was first started in 1998 with the name GoldQuest and made numismatic coins, but later changed the name to QNet, when they faced accusation of being a pyramid and a money circulation scheme in India and also at other countries. From time to time, QNet got banned in many counties, such as: Afghanistan (2008)
Is QNET banned in Dubai?
According to sources, the V-UAE 2018 was cancelled after Saudi Arabia declared QNet as haram and activities of the MLM company as ‘misleading activity’. On 1 September 2018, the ministry of corporate Affairs in Saudi Arabia issued a warning against QNet saying that its activities are prohibited in the country.
Can we get money back from QNet?
In case you paid the money already or partially and want to quit the biz because of any reason, then you can raise a cancellation request within 7 days and 30 days of purchase.
Should I join QNET?
Multi-level marketing opportunities are a good source of income once you have laid the grounds of a solid foundation.More than monetary benefits, QNET also provides their members with continuing training and support. QNET business can be the real deal and should you join QNET or not depends only from you.
How does QNET make money?
Opportunity to Make Money-QNET pays you to sell its products and also pay you a certain amount per people that you get to join the network. Unlimited Earning Potentials-: you earn a percentage per sales you make, the potentials of making money is unlimited when compared to a fixed salary job.
Is MLM legal in India?
Due to this, the government of India has identified a few types of network marketing fraud strategies as illegal in India in order to protect consumers. These network marketing schemes are not legal in India under the Direct Selling Guidelines 2016 and Prize Chits & Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act 1978 (pdf).


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Have you been looking for that perfect excuse to eat chocolate all day, every day? Well, what if we told you that it would make you smarter, and there's medical research to back that up?
FOX's Colleen Cappon reports in today's "Housecall for Health":
More great news for chocolate lovers: They may have a better chance of receiving a Nobel Prize. A unique report from the New England Journal of Medicine finds the higher a country's chocolate consumption, the more Nobel Prize winners, per capita.
Who's in the lead? The Swiss, who eat an average of 120 chocolate bars per person every year. Eating dark chocolate in moderation has its benefits.
Housecall for Health. I'm Colleen Cappon, FOX News Radio.


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Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite that last month launched its own Epic Games Store to challenge Valve Software's dominant Steam platform, has moved to match Steam's refund policy. Now, disgruntled...
5G will kill insects and 4G has the same carbon footprint as aviation, according to MPs
European Commission claims that Broadcom is abusing its market dominance to lock-out potential rivals
Dark patterns use interface design to coerce, steer or deceive users into making decisions that benefit the site but not necessarily the user
Drive.ai had been looking for buyers since February


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California Pools Opens Dallas Office, The Company's 5th Texas Location
California Pools - Dallas marks the company's 36th U.S. location
California Pools was founded in 1952, and after building more than 80,000 pools and counting, it is considered an industry leader by homeowners and experts. Because of its vast experience, the company can boast that it completes 98% of its projects on time and within budget while delivering custom pool and backyard renovations that last for generations. The Dallas North office is now its 36 locally-owned franchises in the country and will serve these areas: Justin, Krum, Denton, Highland Village, Lewisville, Aubrey, Pilot Point, The Colony, Frisco, McKinney, Plano, Wylie, Weston, Blue Ridge, Royse City, Flower Mound, Prosper, and Celina.
California Pools prides itself on its custom design services that are matched precisely to the homeowner's taste, desires, available space, and budget. They also guide each homeowner with complete transparency through the entire build process, from onsite consultation to the final walkthrough and maintenance.
For 70 years, California Pools has installed every type of pool imaginable, using best practices honed over decades, innovative technology, and top-rated customer service. Comprehensive services include design and construction for new custom residential swimming pools and spas, residential swimming pool and spa remodeling, and custom outdoor living.
"The Dallas area is an exciting and fast-growing metroplex that we couldn't wait to establish roots," says Steve Terry, President at California Pools Franchise, Inc. "We believe our newest Texas office will give Dallas-area residents a superior option to increase their home value and get the most out of their investment."
California Pools partners with each client to develop creative ideas on the best ways to utilize their outdoor space while setting the right expectations. The company provides virtual and/or in-home consultations, 3D designs, detailed pricing, and vast project material choices. Keeping their client's lifestyle and budget in mind, the team finalizes the design and builds the finished product with full transparency throughout every stage. California Pools has raised the industry bar, completing 98 percent of its projects on time and within budget.
"Our Dallas North office opens up new opportunities for our local team to wow homeowners with a smoother process and better end results than they may expect from other pool builders," says Jim Bellamy, franchise owner of California Pools of Dallas North. "No other pool builder in the world has more experience, and we bring every bit of that experience and knowledge to each project. We are committed to delivering the highest quality product and an exceptional customer experience."
About California Pools
California Pools is a national pool building company with dozens of local offices throughout the country that are led by a team of professionals with decades of experience. The company was founded in 1952 and has since built more than 80,000 pools, earning multiple national awards for design and customer service. Beyond custom pools and spas, California Pools designs and builds outdoor kitchens and bars, fire pits and fireplaces, fountains, outdoor sitting and dining areas, and other outdoor entertaining areas equipped with audio-visual technology, automation and innovative lighting.


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Woolies’ mammoth task: meet the workers helping to fight plastic
A feel-good story of job satisfaction, reduction of plastic waste and, most importantly, preserving livelihoods
I do so love a factory visit.
I was 16 when I toured a commercial bread plant for the first time. Not with a school group — I tagged along with my friend and her mother, the formidable KZN-based consumer journalist Colleen Shearer, who had been invited to witness the process after taking up a consumer’s complaint about finding a foreign object in her loaf.
No doubt that fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse had a lot to do with my career choice. To this day I leap at the chance to see how things are produced and interact with the people who get the cars, infant formula, organic veggies, milk or made-from-plastic fabric to the factory exit.
2020 has not been a good year for that, of course, so my visit to a Cape Town bag factory last week was a biggie, in many ways. It’s an unassuming little black carrier bag, retailing for just R6.49 at Woolworths — and all its competitors are selling versions of it as an alternative to their “cheap” thin plastic bags — but its story and its significance is huge.
Some Woolies customers have not appreciated being dragged into the retailer’s plans to phase out their yellowy-green single-use plastic carrier bags, and thus remove up to six tons of plastic a year from SA’s waste streams.
We’ve had a whole lot of “new normals” to get used to this year. For many Woolies’ customers, that includes not being able to buy those “single use” thin plastic bags any more. If you don’t take your own, you have to spend that R6.49 on one of those black carrier bags. It’s part of the bid to curb the severe environmental impact of single-use plastic, and it’s been the norm in several countries for some time.
Some Woolies customers have not appreciated being dragged into the retailer’s plans to phase out their yellowy-green single-use plastic carrier bags, and thus remove up to six tons of plastic a year from SA’s waste streams. “I didn’t budget for this,” is a common complaint from customers in the week a store stops selling them altogether. And, “not fair!”
The idea is to get shoppers to take their own reusable bags to the supermarket to stem the single-use plastic tide, of course; something government has been trying to encourage since 2003 when it put an end to free carrier bags. But for some reason, most consumers, both rich and poor, have carried on buying new carrier bags every time they shop. The “autopilot” way in which many cashiers grab the store-issue thin bags and scan them bears this out.
Woolworths trialled its “no single use plastic carrier bags” policy two years ago at its Steenberg store and added four more stores last year before going big this year, with 20 more stores joining the list in August and another 120 this month. That brings the grand total of thin bag-free stores to 145 — that’s about 20% of their stores countrywide.
This year’s dramatic roll-out has been a boon for Isikhwama, the BEE company which produces 95% of all Woolworths’s reusable bags from its factory in Montague Gardens in Cape Town. A decade ago the company was producing 20,000 coloured recycled plastic bags a week for Woolworths — now, thanks to the retailer’s fast-track phasing out of single-use plastic bags, that number stands at 500,000 a week. They recently moved to bigger premises, and employed 30 more people, bringing the staff complement to 148, many of them semi-skilled women from Khayelitsha, Du Noon and Atlantis, who had lost their jobs with the collapse of Cape Town’s clothing industry.
Then Covid-19 happened and for a while Isikhwama founder Jason Stroebel’s dream of reducing throwaway plastic and creating more jobs in the process looked set to be derailed. The company lost seven full weeks of production and 70% production over 16 weeks. The four big machines they had imported from China to meet their clients’ growing demand for those black carrier bags were delivered shortly before the March lockdown.
“Only three of them had been set up when the Chinese engineer was forced to leave the country, leaving us to try to figure the rest out on our own,” says Stroebel. “Rough times.” But all the workers kept their jobs, Stroebel deliberately choosing to limit the Chinese machines’ bag making functionality to allow for his workers to complete them by hand, and preserve jobs. If not for that, the bags would sell for less than R6.45, he says, but he and his client believe it’s a worthy trade-off.
When chatting to some of the plant workers, the word most of them uttered, independently, was “proud”. Proud to be playing their part in curbing single-use plastic waste, proud to be employed, and proud to see “their” bags being used by all sorts of South Africans in all sorts of ways.
A fantastically feel-good plastic story, for sure.


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A couple of weeks ago, the Business Buzz reported on a gold card that was actually made of gold.
Now, MSN Money reports that there is a Starbucks gift card that will cost the buyer $500.
Starbucks isn't selling the card itself. It's being offered by a gift-giving website. The lucky recipient, however, only has $450 to spend, because $50 goes toward making the card, the article says.
Regardless, it does come with a number of benefits, not the least being that it's something that you can wave in front of your envious friends. There is a downside: It probably won't make it through airport security.
Read the entire story on MSN Money.


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European Commission approves Apple’s purchase of Shazam
It launched an investigation into the deal in April.
'Eve Online' studio acquired by Korean MMO maker
CCP Games is under new ownership.
Pepsi buys SodaStream for a future beyond cola
The soda brand wants to explore healthier drink options.
Best Buy bought the company behind senior-friendly JitterBug phone
The $800 million acquisition also gives Best Buy the company’s 900,000 service subscribers.
Blue Microphones sells to Logitech for $117 million
Your favorite podcaster or streamer probably has their stuff.
Qualcomm gives up on buying chip giant NXP
It didn't expect the deal to survive Chinese regulators.
Facebook's latest AI acquisition is focused on natural language
Bloomsbury AI uses machine learning to understand natural language.
AT&T quietly hikes customer fees to pay for Time Warner deal
The move gives AT&T $800 million in additional revenue.
Corsair buys Elgato's gaming business to get into livestreaming
Elgato's smart home team is going it alone.


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Samsung gains 52 percent third 2020 quarter, boosted by smartphone sales and Huawei chip restrictions - Samsung accelerates in smartphone sales.
The South Korean company, which in the second quarter of the year was overtaken by China Huawei as the world's first manufacturer according to the consultancy Canalys, has achieved in the third quarter an operating profit of 12,35 billion sukorean won (9.282 million euros) 52% more than the previous quarter (59% more over the same period of 2019).
In this increase, smartphone sales have been particularly prominent, which increased by 50%, a growth that Samsung blames on new launches and an "improved cost control", but which is also due to the difficulties of its main competitor, Huawei, which is seeing its chip manufacturing affected by the restrictions of the US government chaired by Donald Trump.
Last year, the White House blacklisted Huawei that prevented US companies from doing business with it, implying, among other things, that Google stopped supporting the Chinese company's phones and also prevents it from receiving the US components that use the company's chips.
The president of Huawei's consumer division, Richard Yu, came to recognize it in August. "In this second round of US sanctions, our chip suppliers only accepted orders until May 15. Production will end on September 15." "This could be the last year of high-performance Kirin chips," he said in statements collected by The Associated Press. The brand also shuffles sell its second brand, Honor.
The negative situation for Huawei has, as expected, a winner-Samsung.
The South Korean company has seen its mobile sales improve by 51% compared to the previous quarter (22.425 billion euros), it has also seen its sales in screens improve by 55% (6.2 billion euros) compared to the previous three months, driven both by the sale of screens to other manufacturers and by the confinement that have led many users to increase their time at home.
However, Samsung admits that the bull run will not be indefinite, as it expects a "weakening of chip demand" —a sector in full consolidation with company purchases by large manufacturers such as AMD or Nvidia— and an "intensified competition in mobile phones and consumer electronics".
Samsung gains 52 percent third 2020 quarter
"The mobile communications business will see smartphone sales fall and marketing costs increase due to greater market competitiveness," the company notes in its results statement, in which it also trusts in a "demand recovery" in 2021 although it admits that this will be marked by the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Samsung will also fish in the business of 5G networks, which Huawei has been forced to abandon, with an agreement with the American Verizon to provide them with technology to extend 5G coverage.
The company collects these results just four days after knowing the death of its president, Lee-Kun Hee, driver of the company from the 80s and owner of the largest fortune in the country, with a wealth of about 16.860 million euros according to Forbes, led Samsung to become an empire equivalent to 20% of South Korea's Gross Domestic Product. Removed from management since 2014, the company has since been run by his son, Lee Jae-yong, the heir theorist whose track record includes a bribery conviction and a recent arrest warrant.
Samsung gains 52 percent third 2020 quarter
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Having more than 5 coronavirus symptoms is a sign that you could suffer from persistent COVID-19, according to new research
For a select group of coronavirus patients who suffer from the disease for months, the onset of symptoms is the beginning of a long battle. Many COVID-19 patients develop weeks-or months-long illnesses that researchers now call "persistent COVID-19."
These individuals are difficult to study, as not all received an adequate diagnosis initially due to the scarcity of tests or the abnormal nature of their symptoms. Some simply do not report persistent ailments, making it difficult for researchers to follow up.
But a barrage of preliminary studies are beginning to point out the first signs that a patient will not recover immediately.
A recent study by King's College London, which is still awaiting peer review, examined more than 4,000 coronavirus patients in Sweden, the UK and the US asking them to record their symptoms on an app. About 20% said they felt better after four weeks, the threshold at which researchers mark a case of long-lasting COVID. At eight weeks, about 190 patients reported persistent symptoms. And at 12 weeks, almost 100 patients said they had not yet recovered.
The study found that patients who experienced more than five symptoms during the first week of their illness were significantly more likely to develop persistent COVID-19. That was so in all sex and age groups.
Researchers have also identified five symptoms that herald a persistent case more than others: fatigue, headache, shortness of breath, hoarse voice, and muscle or body aches. This could offer clues about the goals of future COVID-19 treatments.
"It is important that we use the knowledge we have gained from the first wave of the pandemic to reduce the long-term impact of the second," says Dr Claire Steves, the lead author of the study, in a statement. "Thanks to the diligent registration of our collaborators so far, this research could already pave the way for preventive and treatment strategies for COVID in the long term."
Nearly 98% of patients with persistent COVID in the study reported fatigue, while 91% reported headache.
"We know that fatigue is a huge component, so I'm very glad that your research has caught on," Natalie Lambert, an associate professor of Medicine at Indiana University who was not involved in the study, tells Business Insider.
Lambert is also studying symptom patterns among patients who have been with COVID for a long time. All of the roughly 1,500 long-distance travelers it surveyed in July said they had experienced fatigue at some point in their illness. About two-thirds said they had experienced muscle or body aches. The same amount said they had difficulty breathing, and about 58% said they had developed a headache.
The results of the King's College study, Lambert explains, coincide with his observations so far.
According to the King's College study, the best indicator of a long-term COVID case is age. About 22% of participants 70 years of age or older reported long-term symptoms, compared to 10% of people 18 to 49 years of age.
Participants with a higher body mass index (BMI) were also more likely to develop persistent COVID-19.
Although sex is not such a strong predictor for a prolonged COVID case, it has been found that women in the younger age groups were more likely to suffer this outcome than men. About 15% of women in the study had long-term symptoms compared to almost 10% of men.
This finding is unexpected, as men are, on average, more vulnerable to severe COVID-19 outcomes than women. Scientists have not determined exactly why, but studies have shown that women can develop a more robust T-cell reaction or a faster immune response to the virus. Other scientists have pointed out behavioral factors such as that men eat less nutritionally than women, are more likely to smoke cigarettes, or are more reluctant to wear masks or wash their hands.
However, one explanation for the surprising trend in long-term cases could simply be that more women than men recorded their symptoms on the app in the first place.
"I've had the same experience where many more women who have long-lasting symptoms participated in my survey than men by a huge margin," Lambert notes. "Is it because more women are experiencing long-term symptoms? Is it because women are more likely to take these surveys and share their health experiences? We won't really know until we have enough data on everyone."
It is important to note, he adds, that anyone is vulnerable to long-lasting symptoms.
"It can happen to absolutely anyone, no matter how healthy he was before," warns Lambert.
Surveys in which people are asked to report their own symptoms are imperfect, as people may have trouble remembering each symptom or may associate it with something other than the virus.
"With COVID, the symptoms are so numerous and so wide-ranging that sometimes people don't recognize it as something related to COVID until they're asked about it," Lambert explains.
But even imperfect data can be useful, he says, since very little is known about the long-term effects of the virus.
Most studies on coronavirus have focused on hospitalized patients, who may be more likely to develop certain symptoms, such as fever.
Dunster House Garden Building Specialists


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Quorn says that tasty resolutions are easy to keep in its latest advert, promoting the brand’s range of products.
The spot, created by adam&eveDDB and directed by Bjorn Ruhmann, features Tommo, a meat-loving wrestler dad who has made a resolution to eat more healthily, but without compromising on taste. While frying some Quorn sausages in a pan, he shares with viewers his experience with New Year’s resolutions and says that he didn’t manage to stick to any of them in the past. He would have wanted, for instance, to tone down his entrances, have no more feigning injuries, and rip his shirt less, but he hasn’t fulfilled those resolutions. However, thanks to Quorn, he did fulfill his resolution to eat more healthily because “tasty resolutions are easy to keep”.
The advert, part of Quorn’s “Helping the Planet One Bite at a Time” campaign, is set to run until the end of February 2022 across TV, BVOD, online and social.
The brand’s range of products includes sausages, mince and pieces – all of which are high in protein, low in saturated fat and a source of fibre. The offering also includes the recently launched Quorn Brilliant Bangers and the frozen favourite Quorn Swedish Style Balls.
Quorn offers, on its website, a collection of recipe inspiration, from meal prep winners to delicious dishes under 500 calories and midweek dinner recipe ideas, and meals made with just 5 ingredients in 5 simple steps.


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SMBs who survived the recession are now wondering if we’re headed for another dip into recession territory, or how viable their business will be over the next few years. But the Canadian market is, generally speaking, fairly healthy, with plenty of growth opportunities – both for SMBs to improve their productivity, and for resellers to help them get there.
In Canada, the SMB market overall is healthy, since the economic uncertainty hanging over the world has had a greater direct impact on the U.S. and Europe, said Paul Edwards, director of research for Info-Tech Research Group. “That being said, Canadian SMBs in specific industries – notably the manufacturing and resource sectors – have been negatively impacted by the high Canadian dollar against the U.S. currency.”According to Industry Canada, Canadian business bankruptcies have been on the decline since the fallout from the recession of 2008, which indicates at least a growing stability in the market.
“The continued health of the SMB market in Canada will be determined by how long global economic uncertainty remains,” said Edwards. “The longer it lasts, the more it eats into consumer confidence, thereby negatively impacting the ability of all SMBs to sell their products and services, and by extension impacting their ICT budgets.”
Canadian businesses also lag behind their comparable global counterparts in productivity, which impacts their ability to compete internationally – which is why productivity is still the No. 1 area of improvement for the SMB sector in Canada, said Edwards.
According to IDC Canada, SMBs with fewer than 500 employees will spend approximately $10 billion on IT in 2011, accounting for 27 per cent of total IT spending in Canada (not including telecommunication services spending).
While the health of SMBs depends on the industry they play in and the economic conditions of their market and suppliers, the overall picture for SMBs (and general business for that matter) is tied to indicators such as consumer confidence.
“And we’ve seen it fluctuating over the past year,” said Tony Olvet, group vice-president of research for IDC Canada. “This has implications especially for SMBs selling products and services to consumers. The higher Canadian dollar can punish export-oriented firms, so those SMBs counting on foreign markets need to improve productivity to stay competitive.” So a key message for IT vendors, he said, is to show how IT investments directly improve productivity.
IDC’s Canadian Small and Medium-Sized Business IT 2011-2015 Forecast Summary predicts that for small businesses (from one to 99 employees), IT spending will grow by 1.7 per cent (CAGR) over the next five years. For medium business (from 100 to 499 employees), it will grow by 3.7 per cent.
Just as much as the recession caused small business owners to shut doors, it also caused new ones to open, said Michelle Warren, president of MW Research & Consulting. “The Canadian SMB market is always strong – albeit challenging. Purchasers tend to opt for larger companies, thinking that they will be around a bit longer than the smaller ones, but they are usually surprised by the resilience and creativity of Canadian entrepreneurs,” she said.
According to IDC Canada, the top spending categories for SMBs right now include networking hardware (an area of high priority spending across all SMBs); outsourcing and operational services (more likely seen in medium businesses where economies of scale can be achieved); application development and deployment software (pockets of strong growth where “big data” exists); and data warehousing (where analysis and integration are required). Cloud services can overlay or play a role in each of these areas.
“Mobility is of course another important trend in business, not just phones and devices but also mobile device management software and services,” said Olvet.
There are a number of key areas where SMBs will be steering their attention over the next year, said Edwards, including business intelligence, mobile applications, SaaS and IaaS, as well as desktop virtualization.
SMBs are becoming much savvier around understanding the potential of technology in helping their businesses perform better, said Edwards. But the key to making sense of business data is deploying software that allows for standard and on-the-fly analysis, whether it’s provided in reporting tools or simply for quick data access.
Understanding the dirty details of the business is important in decision-making, he said, but there is a wide selection of BI, from the very simple to the most complex, and the SMB market should look to source BI that fits the best price and functionality metrics. This may even include upgraded versions of Excel for some base-level capabilities.
Another big trend is applications for mobile devices. “SMBs are generally good adopters of consumer technology, either by force as younger employees bring in their own devices, or because the highest-level executive wants to have the same mobile functionality at the office as at home,” said Edwards.
Mobile device success is related to the apps that run on them, and since mobile devices will be ubiquitous across many SMBs, there will be a need for applications that meet business requirements, which will differ across industries. “Of course this opens up the need for mobile device management capabilities, but that’s maybe a topic that will gain ground in SMBs next year,” said Edwards.
Just as we’ve become accustomed to tweeting 140 characters, 99-cent commerce is becoming big business, said John Reid, president and CEO of CATAAlliance. And you don’t have to be a big business to design a 99-cent app. “Those are some of the ways [SMBs] have to reorient their thinking.”
One growing trend that CATA sees is in the area of smart vehicles, which is due to the transformation of the industrial economy through the use of technology, “so the area of auto design or design engineering is very much a growing market,” said Reid. That’s part of the green revolution, he said, where we’re pushed not only to reduce carbon emissions, but we’re also affected by the politics of oil, and there’s an overall realization that we must shift. “All of those technologies are moving down in price and representing significant market segments.”
Challenges for SMBs
Improving productivity is always a challenge for SMBs and is the No. 1 driver for technology adoption, he said. The state of the economy will also continue to be a challenge. “But I think most SMBs find it challenging to find a balance in their businesses, regardless of market dynamics, where business goals and imperatives can be supported by technology, and where growth or at least long-term sustainability is a byproduct,” he said.
Access to growth capital is fundamental, said Reid, as is having access to talent that understands some of these new modalities of doing business – that represents a cost and in some cases can be a scarce resource. There’s also a need for leadership in that business owners have to know how to build flexible business models – maybe teaming up with a multinational or understanding how to set up a distribution network. If you take a misstep in legal or privacy, you can find yourself out of business pretty quickly.
The biggest challenge for SMBs moving forward, said Warren, will be staying alive and finding funding. Cash requirements are challenging to manage, and moving forward into new opportunities without daily cash flow can hinder and close a business.
Challenges such as “data management” sound expensive to an SMB owner, she said, so channel partners must be able to communicate the benefits in a cost-effective manner that won’t hurt the SMB’s pocketbook.
Challenges and opportunities for the channel
One of the biggest challenges for the channel will be evolving its offers to align with new delivery models, such as SaaS and IaaS, said Olvet, as well as continuing to move upstream in delivering value while remaining cost-competitive as larger-scale volume channel partners encroach.
In terms of a cloud-based channel, however, it’s still early days and it’s taking on different shapes. “I expect there to be new relationships formed between large service providers and VARs. But not all traditional resellers will survive in the new cloud world. Storefront dealers and retailers may also have new life if they can cost-effectively serve the ‘prosumer’ inside businesses to deal with the support issues related to BYOD,” said Olvet.
He advises the channel to watch for opportunities in machine-to-machine (M2M) technology and services in specific industries such as utilities, transportation and healthcare.
The channel comprises, by and large, SMBs, so they face many of the same types of challenges as their customers. However, the channel is also a unique group of SMBs that is experiencing other market challenges to business models and future success, he said.
And the biggest challenge is the cloud. “It’s a foregone conclusion that the delivery of IT or business functionality via the Web is here to stay, and that it’s both a driver and inhibitor for the channel,” said Edwards. On the one hand it offers the opportunity to benefit from recurring revenue, but has the challenge of being significantly different than on-premise, revenue and profit, so integrating it into a legacy partner business creates barriers – not to mention the fact that it has the potential of reducing SMB on-premise infrastructure and software spend, thereby reducing the channel’s core business.
“There are already channel players in the U.S. that are basing their businesses solely on cloud-based solutions, so I would expect the same to happen in Canada,” said Edwards. “But for the most part I see many channel partners creating separate groups that support the sale of cloud.” As customers begin to adopt cloud-based solutions they won’t be jettisoning their entire on-premise solutions, which provides opportunity for these partners to ensure the smooth integration of both.


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Oxford University has decided to forgo further funding from Chinese tech giant Huawei as scrutiny grows in Europe Within the telecom company’s relationship with the Beijing government.
Huawei has been under fire in recent weeks with the arrests of a leading executive in Canada and a worker in Poland, along with a global campaign by Washington to blacklist its equipment.
“We now have two such ongoing projects, using a combined funding from Huawei of GBP 692,000 ($898,000),” a university spokesman said Thursday, adding that Huawei had been advised of this choice to turn off prospective funding.
Oxford said it had decided in”light of public concerns raised lately surrounding UK partnerships with Huawei.”
But a Huawei spokesman said the company had not been advised and would”await the University’s full explanation.”
“We’ve operated in the UK since 2001, employ 1,500 people here and also have long standing research collaborations with 20 other UK universities working to develop the technologies of the future,” he said.
Huawei faces unprecedented challenges for its business amid a global effort by Washington to push nations to rethink using the telecom giant’s gear in their mobile networks over safety concerns.
Australia and New Zealand banned its equipment this past year along with a top British operator proceeded to eliminate its current equipment, while concerns grow in Canada, Japan, France, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and other nations.
Huawei’s reclusive founder Ren Zhengfei stepped out of the shadows this week to provide a rare media meeting, forcefully denying accusations that his company participated in espionage on behalf of the Chinese authorities.
The business fired the Chinese worker in Poland who was arrested on espionage allegations.
Ren’s daughter and Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou was detained in Canada a month on US fraud charges associated with Iran sanctions violations.


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Is It True That Coconut Milk Can Trigger Breast Cancer
Based on data from the Indonesian Ministry of Health, the incidence of breast cancer in Indonesia reaches 42.1 per 100,000 women with an average death rate of 17 per 100,000 population. These cells divide faster, accumulate, and form a lump or mass.Various factors can cause a person to suffer from breast cancer. One of the assumptions developed in society regarding the causes of breast cancer is the consumption of coconut milk.
Does the medical agree with this assumption?
Mixing coconut milk in cooking is a favorite of Asian people. Coconut milk adds a delicious and savory taste to food. A study conducted by the United States National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) in the Philippines said there was a correlation between consumption of coconut milk and the risk of developing breast cancer. Several women in the Philippines – where breast cancer cases are quite high – took part in the study.
As a result, boiling food in coconut milk was significantly associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. With details, OR (exposure factor) = 2.2 and CI (confidence level) 95 percent.However, dr. Arina Heidyana says coconut milk cannot be considered a major trigger for breast cancer.Cancer is a multifactorial cause. Indeed there are foods that can increase the risk of getting cancer, but (these foods) are not the main cause.
Until now, the exact cause of breast cancer is not known for sure. However, experts say, five to ten percent of the incidence of breast cancer is related to inherited gene mutations. According to dr. Arina, coconut milk itself is only one of the foods that can increase the risk of breast cancer. This is because coconut milk has a high saturated fat content.
Back to lifestyle. An unhealthy lifestyle can increase the risk of various diseases, including cancer. read more !


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FIFA player makes GDPR request for EA info, discovers he spent 16K in two years
A FIFA player made a GDPR request for personal info held by EA, and obtained over one hundred pages of data.
Last May, the General Data Protection Regulation went into effect across Europe. In brief, this allows EU citizens to request personal information from companies to see how it's being used.
This prompted a FIFA player named Michael to ask Electronic Arts for everything the publisher had on his account, as summarized in a report from Eurogamer. Michael ended up with a massive data dump - two PDFs that are over 100 pages long, 10 audio files of customer support calls, FIFA 18 statistics, device information, and more.
Of these, Michael's biggest surprise was the amount he'd spent on FIFA Points. His initial review of the data shows a grand total of $10,010. When he forwarded the information to Eurogamer, their data analysis revealed a second spending period that increased this figure to $16,154 over two years.
"Upon reflection, the figure EA stated would be correct," Michael told Eurogamer in an initial email, before the $16,000 figure had been verified. "Special events such as Black Friday, TOTY, FUT Birthday, TOTS, Futties, etc, I would have thrown in thousands upon thousands of FIFA Points without even a second thought."
Michael regularly uses FIFA Ultimate Team for downtime and as a hobby, playing anywhere from 30 minutes to six hours each day. It's not clear from the data how Michael's spending relates to other FIFA players, but he's likely in the minority - even admitting he and his fiancee have "a healthy disposable income". But he was still completely surprised to see such high spending patterns in a short period of time.
"I took the time to talk to my other half about this," Michael continued. "We have a healthy disposable income but you can imagine my shock that over the past two years, I had given EA just over $10,000. If anything, the data EA has provided me has made me realise that FIFA Points are just not worth it and $10,000 will be better spent over the next two years."
It's worth mentioning that not all data is covered in the GDPR request. While Michael blocked out personally identifying information, EA redacted certain figures of its own. "We have also withheld data impacting the security and integrity of EA products and services, data that, if disclosed, would affect the rights and freedoms of others, including EA, and any other EA or third-party trade secrets," EA wrote in an email to Michael.
Microtransactions are a controversial topic in today's games industry. While they can dramatically increase game revenue, they have also been accused of effectively being a form of unregulated gambling.
The matter is far from resolved, but with the GDPR in effect you should expect more spending data to become publicly available.


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After watching the brands such as OnePlus, Huawei, Honor grow in the affordable flagship segment over the last two years in India, Xiaomi has made the right decision to bring the Mi Mix 2 to India. The Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 will come out as the successor of the Mi Mix which was launched in 2016.
Overall, it measures 7.7mm thin and despite its giant display, Xiaomi claims its only as big as a regular 5.5-inch smartphone.
Aussie officials expecting Serena Williams to defend title
The 2018 Australian Open has been officially launched with the world's top tennis players committed to playing in the tournament. Tiley said the winners' prizemoney had broken a "barrier" that "has not been done by any other grand slam or any other event".
The display uses an aspect ratio 18:9 which was limited to 17:9 past year. The Mi MIX 2 will be available from the first week of November. The smartphone will be available from Flipkart as well as Mi.com, starting from October 17. We'll have to wait and see if Xiaomi launches multiple variants of the Mi Mix 2 in India. The Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 is coming up with more enhanced features. The phone comes with four-sided curved ceramic body along with aerospace grade aluminium alloy frame which is light, firm and resistant to corrosion. Given that most of the users give special attention to the top of the phone, this design change is a welcome move. The smartphone is backed by a 3,400mAh non-removable battery and supports Quick Charge 3.0 using the 9V/2A (18W) power adapter. Launched in India for a price of Rs 35,999, this is the first premium phone from Xiaomi to sport a full-screen display and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor.
In terms of optics, the phone comes with a 12MP rear camera with 18k gold-plated camera rim, Sony IMX 386 sensor and 1.25um pixel size. The Mi Mix 2 will go up for sale later this month for ₹35,999 for the variant with 6GB of RAM and 128GB storage, and will be available exclusively on Flipkart.
Dodgers Take Care of Business, Complete Sweep
The performance by Darvish provided more reason to believe the Dodgers might have the staying power, but his was not the only one. After Cameron Maybin entered as a pinch runner for Gattis, George Springer drew a walk off Kimbrel before Reddick's big hit.
The smartphone will run on Android 7.1 Nougat out of the box atop Xiaomi's custom Android skin MIUI9. Mi Mix 2 can be used globally in other markets and should not face network issues. However, unlike traditional phones, Mi Mix 2 does not have a front camera on the top, but has instead moved the 5 MP sensor to the bottom. It has a 4-axis optical image stabilisation, 5-piece lens, a f/2.0 aperture. The 64GB Mi mix 2 variant costs around Rs. 32350. It comes with an USB Type C port and loses the 3.5mm headphone jack. Connectivity features include 4G LTE, WiFi 802.11ac dual-band (2×2 MU-MIMO ), Bluetooth 5.0, GPS/GLONASS/Beidou, NFC.
Sears Canada set to close after failing to find buyer
The motion will be heard on Friday October 13, and if it is approved the liquidation is scheduled to begin October 19th. If the company gets the go-ahead, all of its remaining 130 stores will shut down, laying off 12,000 workers.


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Square's Cash App has officially been approved by the State of New York to handle cryptocurrency transfers after expanding the feature to other states last year.
Users will now be able to trade Bitcoin using the app, which is only the 9th company to receive a virtual currency license or "bitlicense" by the New York State Department of Financial Services. Only Xapo, Genesis Global Trading, bitFlyer USA, Coinbase, XRP II and Circle Internet Financial have received licenses and two more have gotten charters.
"DFS is pleased to approve Square's application and welcomes them to New York's expanding and well-regulated virtual currency market," said Financial Services Superintendent Maria Vullo. "DFS continues to work in support of a vibrant and competitive virtual currency market that connects and empowers New Yorkers in a global marketplace while ensuring strong state-regulatory oversight is in place."
SEE: Square Cash app (Download.com review)
The Square Cash app is battling Venmo and PayPal for finance app supremacy, shooting to the top of the App Store rankings recently. In addition to payments between friends or colleagues, the app will now allow customers to buy and sell Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
They are sure to gain more users following this recent announcement. Square, founded by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, has been a big backer of cryptocurrencies and announced back in January that the Cash App would soon be able to handle cryptocurrency transfers.
"The world ultimately will have a single currency, the internet will have a single currency. I personally believe that it will be Bitcoin," Dorsey told a newspaper in March.
Last fall, a Square spokesperson told Forbes that the company was looking into expanding access to cryptocurrencies and wanted to be able to facilitate all financial transactions, including those using digital currencies.
"We're always listening to our customers and we've found that they are interested in using the Cash App to buy Bitcoin. We're exploring how Square can make this experience faster and easier, and have rolled out this feature to a small number of Cash App customers," the spokesperson said. "We believe cryptocurrency can greatly impact the ability of individuals to participate in the global financial system and we're excited to learn more here."
Dorsey then officially announced the move in January, writing on Twitter, "Instant buying (and selling, if you don't want to hold) Bitcoin is now available to most Cash App customers. We support Bitcoin because we see it as a long-term path towards greater financial access for all. This is a small step." He also added in a link to a website explaining Bitcoin and its history.
The New York Department of Financial Services lauded the company for its efforts to help users "start, run, and grow their businesses." In addition to managing transactions, the company has both hardware and software that "manage inventory, locations, and employees; provide powerful business analytics; access financing; and utilize tools to engage with their customers."
FOLLOW Download.com on Twitter to keep with all the latest app news.
"We are thrilled to now provide New Yorkers with Cash App's quick and simple way to buy and sell bitcoin," Head of Cash App Brian Grassadonia said.
"Square and the New York State DFS share a vision of empowering people with greater access to the financial system and today's news is an important step in realizing that goal."
- Square's Cash App will allow users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in New York.
- The feature is available in many other states, but is only the ninth company approved for a virtual currency license in the State of New York.
- Cheetah Mobile's Coin Master launches Bitcoin tracking app for iOS and Android
- The 5 best Android password managers to keep safe your passwords
- Keep your files and message private with these encryption apps
- Android security and privacy start kit
- Apple Pay vs. Samsung Pay vs. Google Pay: Which mobile payment system is best? (CNET)
- Square Cash adds Bitcoin transactions for most users (ZDNet)
- Twitter CEO: Bitcoin will be world's 'single currency' within 10 years (TechRepublic)


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New bakery set to open in McAdenville
Just as her husband, Greg, is a son of Cramerton, so is Kathy Ramsey a daughter of McAdenville.
Greg was reared just up the street from what is now Floyd and Blackie's Coffee Shop in downtown Cramerton, the business the couple launched seven years ago.
Kathy grew up across the street from what will next week become Floyd and Blackie's Bakery in downtown McAdenville.
In fact, her first job at the age of 14 was at the Village Restaurant, which occupied the spot where Floyd and Blackie's Bakery will swing open its doors on Tuesday, Feb. 12, at 9 a.m.
Just like the Cramerton coffee shop, the new bakery is named in honor of Greg and Kathy's grandfathers, J.B. "Blackie" Blackwell and Floyd Barnhill.
"I inherited my entrepreneurial spirit from my grandfather Floyd," said Kathy, pausing for a quick interview in the midst of last-minute preparations for the bakery's opening.
"He always told me, 'Don't be afraid to dream,'" she said. "But he also reminded me to always give back to the community. That's what I want to do."
Although Kathy has worked part-time at the Cramerton coffee shop since its opening, her "day job" for the last two decades has been working as a manager in the regional corporate offices of Coca-Cola in Charlotte.
"I'm stepping out with courage and in faith to pursue my dream, which I've had since I was a little girl, of owning my own business in downtown McAdenville," Kathy said.
She added that the new bakery will adhere to the same mission statement as the coffee shop — a statement which emphasizes God, family, and community.
"We're going to put 100 percent of our effort into what we do here," she said. "We want to provide the best products and the best service."
Assisting Kathy in the new bakery will be pastry chef Kelsey Greene.
Will there be a friendly rivalry between husband and wife, between a coffee shop and a bakery, as to which will be more successful?
"Oh, Greg's already told me that I'll never beat him," Kathy said, laughing. "We'll see."
Bill Poteat, who never met a bakery he didn't like, may be reached at 704-869-1855.
Want to go?
• Location: 127 Main St., McAdenville
• Opening: Tuesday, Feb. 12, 9 a.m.
• Hours: Tuesday — Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Items for sale: Brownies, cookies, muffins, eclairs, cheese cakes, cakes, and speciality cakes. Coffee from Floyd and Blackie's Coffee Shop. Retail and wholesale orders will be accepted.
• Telephone Number: 704-979-9490.


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Oct 23rd, 2018 by Zach Komassa
In Downtown, Walker's Point, East Side. Plus: new Bay View wine bar.
Oct 16th, 2018 by Zach Komassa
Nation learns of Webb's freebies, AJ Bombers' new burger, Burgerim comes to town.
Oct 9th, 2018 by Zach Komassa
Plus: Pizano's finally opening Downtown, Antigua moves and a Starbucks says goodbye.
Oct 2nd, 2018 by Zach Komassa
Plus: New Halyard Park taproom, East Side food hall and Bar Louie in Brookfield.
Sep 25th, 2018 by Zach Komassa
Three new restaurants, one new food truck, lots more to eat.
Sep 18th, 2018 by Zach Komassa
Celebrating National Cheeseburger Day. Plus: more BBQ. And two new Crawdaddy's!
Sep 11th, 2018 by Zach Komassa
Global Fusion restaurant and Maurer supermarket-deli opening.
Sep 4th, 2018 by Zach Komassa
Five Milwaukee chefs featured in upcoming episode of network's new show "Bite Club".
Aug 28th, 2018 by Zach Komassa
Plus: Two new Mexican places, East Side Korean spot and Walker's Point pizza place.
Aug 21st, 2018 by Zach Komassa
Colorado-based Cheba Hut has marijuana theme, will open several locations here.
Aug 14th, 2018 by Zach Komassa
Plus: new health food restaurant for Downtown, new diner in Walker's Point.
Aug 7th, 2018 by Zach Komassa
Plus: Snifters introduces brunch and FieriCon is coming to Walker's Point.


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To make matters more confusing, nine states (including California, Washington, and Colorado) let residents buy cannabis-based products with or without THC. Nearly two dozen other “medical marijuana states” allow the sale of cannabis, including capsules, tinctures, and other items containing CBD or THC, at licensed dispensaries to people whose doctors have certified that they have an approved condition (the list varies by state but includes chronic pain, PTSD, cancer, autism, Crohn’s disease, and multiple sclerosis). Sixteen more states legalized CBD for certain diseases. But because all these products are illegal according to the federal government, cannabis advocates are cautious. “By and large, the federal government is looking the other way,” says Paul Armentano, deputy director of the Washington, DC–based National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), but until federal laws are changed, “this administration or a future one could crack down on people who produce, manufacture, or use CBD, and the law would be on its side.”
For the large majority of average users though, a high-quality full-spectrum CBD oil will be the better, more efficient option. These concentrated oils have delivered incredible results so far, and have been observed to effectively treat everything from anxiety, to diabetes, to severe chronic pain. And with the inevitable continued research that’s to come, it’s expected that the quality of full-spectrum products will only continue to get better and better. (And of course, given that hemp products are legal in all 50 states, you don’t even need a medical marijuana card to purchase it).
Anyway, the research showed that in mice, CBD was much more effective when used along with other compounds of the cannabis plant, than when it was used by itself. While they haven’t yet figured out why exactly this is the case, it’s now generally accepted that full-spectrum CBD oil is more effective at treating the majority of medical conditions, than is CBD isolate.
Quality is a particular concern, because cannabis plants easily soak up heavy metals from pesticides and other contaminants, Marcu says. If you are buying online, look for a company that documents how it tests its products. (If the website doesn’t indicate this, call and ask.) “Buying from a reputable manufacturer is crucial, because it matters how the plant is cultivated and processed,” Dr. Maroon says. One clue that a company is cutting corners: too low a cost. Good CBD is pricey—a bottle of high-quality capsules is sold in Cohen’s office for $140. But for many, it’s worth the money. Roth spent $60 on her tiny bottle. But when her energy returned the day she started taking CBD, she decided that was a small price to pay.
There's also the question of CBD's legality – something that's a lot grayer than the black-and-white picture most companies paint. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration considers CBD, like all cannabinoids, a schedule 1 drug. That means it's just as illegal as heroin and ecstasy. Meanwhile, hemp – a variety of the cannabis plant regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture – is legal , so long as its THC content is negligibly low. But because the agriculture department doesn't test for CBD – only THC – in hemp, more companies are getting away with selling products they say contain CBD, says Sara Jane Ward, an assistant professor of pharmacology at the Temple University Lewis Katz School of Medicine who's been studying CBD in rodent models for more than 10 years. Needless to say, the legality of CBD is "very confusing and very gray," she says.
Sarah Jorczyk is an advocate for CBD products and one of the Administrators of the CBD Oil Users Group on Facebook. She strives to educate the public, and promotes the use of safe products while helping others throughout their CBD journey. You can also find a variety of her content, including reviews and educational videos, on the group's youtube page.
The reason so many people are interested in cannabis products that don’t make them high, proponents say, is that CBD helps with everything from pain and nausea to rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, Crohn’s disease, and dementia. CBD is anti-inflammatory, anti-anxiety, antibacterial, immunosuppressive, and more, says Joseph Cohen, D.O., a cannabis doctor in Boulder, CO.
There are more than 80 cannabinoids found in cannabis plants, with THC being the primary one, followed by CBD. However, in the hemp plant, which is a different strain of the species Cannabis sativa, CBD is the main active ingredient, and THC is barely present, making its use and legality more widespread. The reason that CBD is such an effective form of support for human health is due to the body’s endogenous cannabinoid system. This regulatory structure of the body has millions of cannabinoid receptors in the brain and nervous system, which react not only to plant-derived cannabinoids (such as hemp and marijuana) but also to natural cannabinoids produced within our body. When hemp oil is used and processed by the body, it is effectively boosting the function of the endocannabinoid system, helping our body regulate itself in many different ways.
You can also mix this full-spectrum hemp CBD oil into your favorite beverage. Keep the Bluebird Botanicals CBD oil refrigerated, and shake well before use. While most people find their sweet spot at around 15 drops, your serving size may vary according to your metabolism. Since there are no side-effects and there is no danger of overdosing, you can safely tweak your serving size to find the perfect amount of CBD your body needs. Below you’ll find CBD concentration conversions according to Bluebird Botanicals:
The Internet is lousy with the stuff, but for a safe and reliable source, talk to your physician, advises McLaughlin. She may be able to introduce you to a reputable practitioner who can offer CBD oils and related therapies—or she may know of a colleague who can make a referral. If you’re trying to treat a medical condition, it’s better to avoid the guesswork and find guidance from a practitioner who’s had experience in—and is knowledgeable about—the most reliable CBD products and doses for your condition. Here are 14 things you should never lie to your doctor about.
If you haven’t been bombarded with CBD marketing or raves about it from friends, get ready. This extract—which comes from either marijuana or its industrial cousin, hemp—is popping up everywhere. There are CBD capsules, tinctures, and liquids for vaping plus CBD-infused lotions, beauty products, snacks, coffee, and even vaginal suppositories. Already some 1,000 brands of CBD products are available in stores—and online in states that don’t have lenient cannabis laws. This is a tiny fraction of what’s to come: The CBD market is poised to exceed $1 billion by 2020, per the Chicago-based research firm Brightfield Group.
We have all seen the recent news articles showcasing CBD oil and many of us would like to get involved... but where do you start? In the event you didn’t already know, there are two sources for CBD oil and other CBD/Cannabidiol products: 1.) Hemp CBD products made from industrial hemp and 2.) Medical marijuana CBD products derived from medical marijuana. One is available widely online from sites like DiscoverCBD.com and the other is available at medical marijuana dispensaries across the US in states where medical marijuana is legal.
A study published by David Cheng, Postdoctoral Scientist, Neuroscience Research, University of New South Wales, NSW, Australia, says that CBD has a potential as a preventive measure against symptoms of Alzheimer’s. This presents yet another exciting development for medical researchers, given the persistent challenges to finding effective solutions for this condition.
"If it proved effective for anxiety, depression and panic disorder, it may have other effects as well that could be useful and beneficial [but] this is a really early stage," says David Shurtleff, the acting director of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. His organization's stance: "Take it one step at a time and do the work and really state where we are right now with the research," he says.