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By Paul Wiseman, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON Economic growth slowed last quarter as consumers continued to pinch pennies in the aftermath of the worst recession since the 1930s.
Economic output rose at a modest annual rate of 2.4% in the second quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Friday, short of the 2.5% economists were expecting, and down from 3.7% in the first quarter and 5% in fourth quarter 2009.
"It looks like we had our peak last year, and now we're trailing off," says Mike Materasso, senior vice president of the fixed income group at investment firm Franklin Templeton. "It's going to be a slow struggle and a slow recovery."
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The ' second-quarter report on gross domestic product was bleak news for an economy struggling to gain momentum with unemployment at 9.5%.
Christina Romer, head of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers, said the fourth straight quarter of economic growth "indicates that the process of steady recovery from the recession continues." But Romer added on her blog that "faster growth is needed to bring about substantial reductions in unemployment."
Sapping strength from the recovery last quarter:
• Consumer spending grew at a lackluster 1.6% annual rate in the second quarter, down from 1.99% the first. "Consumers have to live much more within their means," Materasso says. "They're making (bill) payments instead of going out to dinner."
• Companies restocked shelves at a slower pace.
• The U.S. trade deficit widened.
Materasso doubts the economy will slip into a double-dip recession, noting that the Federal Reserve is still keeping interest rates low and government spending remains high.
Paul Ashworth, senior U.S. economist for Capital Economics in Toronto, says the second-quarter numbers "are not half as bad as they look at first glance." Two of the biggest reasons for the disappointing growth — business inventories and trade — are notoriously volatile, he says. A better indicator of the economy's underlying health, Ashworth says, is final sales to domestic purchasers — a broad measure of how much U.S. consumers, businesses and governments spent — which rose 4.1% in the second quarter, up from 1.3% in the first quarter.
But consumers aren't the ones out spending: "Businesses appear to be buying into the recovery," Ashworth says, "but households remain unusually cautious. Investment in housing shot up 27.9% from a 12.3% drop in the first quarter. Investment in non-residential buildings rose 5.2%, first increase since second quarter 2008.
Other positive signs: Disposable personal incomes — adjusted for taxes and inflation — rose 4.4%, up from 1.7% in the first quarter. And state and local governments, whose budget cuts have been a drag on economic growth, increased spending and investment 1.3%, first rise since second quarter 2009.
The second-quarter figures are an initial estimate and will be revised.
The overall 2.4% growth rate in the April-to-June quarter was the weakest since a 1.6% rate in the third quarter last year, when a record streak of four straight losing quarters ended.
With the economy growing at a subpar speed, the 9.5% unemployment rate is not expected to fall.
It takes about 3% growth in gross domestic product just to create enough jobs to keep pace with the population increase.
Growth would have to equal 5% for a full year to drive the unemployment rate down 1 percentage point. Neither the Obama administration nor the Federal Reserve expect that to happen.
Gross domestic product measures the value of all goods and services — from machinery to manicures — produced within the United States. It is the best gauge of the nation's economic health.
Friday's report, which included extensive historical revisions, also shows that the recession was deeper than the government previously thought.
Commerce estimates the economy shrank 2.6% last year — steepest drop since 1946 and worse than the 2.4% decline originally estimated.
The economy's plunge underscores why the unemployment rate surged to 10.1% in October, a 26-year high.
The periodic revisions in gross domestic product, or GDP, now show zero growth in 2008. That compares with a 0.4% gain previously estimated.The economy also grew less in 2007 (1.9%) than earlier thought (2.1%).
For all three years, consumers spent less and home builders cut more deeply than had been thought. Those factors help explain the downward revisions on the economy.
The revisions also show that struggling state and local governments cut spending more last year than previously thought. And they spent less in 2007 and 2008.
From the start of the recession in December 2007 until the April-to-June quarter of 2009, the economy sank 4.1%. That was deeper than the 3.7% decline previously estimated for the recession.
The Commerce Department's latest revisions reach back to 2007. They're based on more complete data and on methodology thought to be more accurate.
Contributing: Associated Press
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LiveLike, an audience engagement platform transforming online customers into engaged fans through customized, interactive experiences, today announces a strategic partnership with Polygon Studios, the team onboarding brands, developers, and creators to Web3 through investment, marketing, and community support.
The strategic partnership will unlock the ability for LiveLike’s partners — including sports organizations and media companies — to easily mint NFTs on Polygon’s carbon-neutral blockchain and provide additional utility on top of Polygon’s minted tokens. These new capabilities are a natural extension of LiveLike’s expertise in helping its partners convert passive audiences into active, engaged fan communities.
LiveLike also now provides utility to NFT holders, whether they own NFTs minted via LiveLike or come from an entirely different ecosystem. LiveLike can recognize a user’s possession of an NFT on Ethereum Blockchain and use that to create token gated experiences — such as an AMA session with their favorite sports star — or reward users with discounts and retail loyalty points.
LiveLike has connected fans to some of the biggest live events worldwide, from the Daytona 500, NBA playoffs and NCAA March Madness, to concerts, festivals, and the U.S. presidential debates.
For example, during the 2020 debates between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, digital watch parties enticed around 1.75 million viewers to interact with real-time expert chats, trivia quizzes, polls, and insights.
Similarly, in live sports, one example of LiveLike’s collaboration with partner Canal+ generated engagement of 54% of unique users who participated with the more than 20 interactive features during a PSG-Rennes soccer game. Likewise, 61% of viewers interacted with more than 40 of LiveLike’s features during a boxing match between Tony Yoka and Christian Hammer. LiveLike has seen similar results with partners ranging from the Golden State Warriors and NASCAR to MSG Networks and Turner Sports.
Polygon recently achieved carbon-neutral status, meaning that NFTs created on the Polygon blockchain become carbon-neutral by default. Polygon has also pledged to attain carbon-negative status by the end of 2022.
“Our mission at LiveLike has always been to create communal experiences by empowering our partners to engage their fans and users with interactive features and the ability to reward them for their loyalty. This naturally extends to Web3, and working with Polygon Studios will allow us to ramp up our efforts on the blockchain as we look to help the crypto-curious figure out a fan-focused strategy that drives further engagement,” commented Miheer Walavalkar, Co-Founder and CEO, LiveLive.
“NFTs have moved past hype and are entering a new phase based on utility, with interactivity and gamification as drivers,” Walavalkar added. “Through partnerships with smart companies like Polygon, LiveLike is now set up to drive growth in this sector and bring Web3 applications to sports, live events, and anywhere else seeking innovative ways to grow their communities.”
Steven Bryson-Haynes, VP of Business Development, NFT & Gaming at Polygon Studios, said: “LiveLike’s goal to provide greater utility to brands through NFTs aligns perfectly with Polygon studio’s goal of onboarding legacy IP into Web3. We’re excited to work alongside LiveLike to help foster greater engagement for their partners.”
LiveLike initially developed its pioneering approach to audience engagement and gamification through working with the world’s top sports organizations and media companies, which use LiveLike’s platform to bring interactive experiences to fans through live chat, watch parties, games, rewards programs and more.
The audience engagement platform’s new NFT suite is a key milestone for its product offering, adding blockchain-based digital collectibles as a component of its gamification stack. LiveLike provides low and no-code support for adding NFT minting into native applications on the Ethereum blockchain, abstracting away the complexity of writing any on-chain code. LiveLike’s minting service can also be integrated with its engagement features to offer rewards for successfully interacting with experiences such as polls, chats, or quizzes.
About Polygon Studios
Polygon Studios aims to be the home of the most popular blockchain projects in the world. The Polygon Studios team is focused on supporting developers building decentralized apps on Polygon by providing Web2 and Web3 teams with a suite of services such as developer support, partnership, strategy, go-to-market, and technical integrations. Polygon Studios supports projects from OpenSea to Prada, from Adidas to Draft Kings and Decentral Games to Ubisoft.
LiveLike is a technology company dedicated to empowering digital experiences that enable deeper fan engagement, increased retention rates, and new monetization opportunities. LiveLike’s audience engagement platform and gamification engine help top sports organizations and media companies enhance the fan experience, increase the time spent interacting with their content, and unlock the power of first-party data. Through customized interactive and social features, LiveLike has connected fans to some of the biggest live events worldwide, from the Super Bowl, FIFA World Cup, and NCAA March Madness, to concerts, festivals, and the U.S. presidential debates. Additionally, the company is actively expanding into new industries, bringing its technology to ed-tech, fintech, Web3, e-commerce, and publishing, with more to come. Headquartered in New York, LiveLike also has offices in India, Europe, and Canada, with staff located worldwide. For more information about LiveLike technology, partnerships and more, visit www.livelike.com.

domain: news


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Australian cinema advertising executive Terry Savage is the new occupant of the hottest of hot seats – chief executive of that ego-fuelled cauldron of volatility, the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.
Formerly the executive chairman of Sydney-headquartered cinema advertising group Val Morgan, Savage fills the gap left last September when incumbent Franz Prenner abruptly quit after just eight months in the job. Savage has represented Australian interests at the Cannes circus for over fifteen years.
Like his predecessors, he will be London based and has referred to his new job as “about as an exciting role as you can get”. [Or might that be a misprint for ‘exacting’?]
Not so, Savage insists. “The blueprint is working extremely well. Fundamentally the Cannes Festival is understanding and tapping into the extraordinary convergence issues relating to all media and marketing communication.”
Data sourced from: AdAge.com; additional content by WARC staff


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An article from The New York Times claims that Uber was fingerprinting iPhones, making them traceable even after the Uber app and its data was deleted.
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These past few months have not been very great for ride-hailing company Uber and its Founder & CEO, Travis Kalanick. The company has been reeling under multiple scandals lately - illegally evading authorities, tracking customers without permission, creating fake accounts on competing cab-hailing services, stealing confidential data from Alphabet’s self-driving car project, mistreating employees and then some.
Now, in a shocking new revelation, The New York Times has reported that Uber’s bad business practices did not even spare the world’s most valuable company - Apple. According to the publication, Uber had been “secretly identifying and tagging iPhones even after its app had been deleted and the devices erased — a fraud detection maneuver that violated Apple’s privacy guidelines.”
The practice called ‘fingerprinting’ was and is against Apple’s regulations, and to hide the practice from the company, Uber had geofenced Apple’s Cupertino HQ, thereby creating a digital fence around the area so that Apple’s employees could not see what Uber was up to. As per NYT, “Uber would then obfuscate its code for people within that geofenced area, essentially drawing a digital lasso around those it wanted to keep in the dark. Apple employees at its headquarters were unable to see Uber’s fingerprinting.”
However, Uber’s trickery would not remain hidden for long. Apparently, Apple CEO, Tim Cook, had a meeting with Kalanick at the time, confronting him for breaking Apple’s rules. Cook had reportedly even threatened to remove Uber’s app from the App Store. This would have been a huge disadvantage to the service, which would have ended up losing a large chunk of its iPhone consumer base.
The article goes on to describe how Kalanick has “openly disregarded many rules and norms, flouted transportation and safety regulations, bucked against entrenched competitors and capitalized on legal loopholes and grey areas to gain a business advantage.”
Reacting to the article, an Uber spokesperson said, “We absolutely do not track individual users or their location if they’ve deleted the app. As the New York Times story notes towards the very end, this is a typical way to prevent fraudsters from loading Uber onto a stolen phone, putting in a stolen credit card, taking an expensive ride and then wiping the phone—over and over again. Similar techniques are also used for detecting and blocking suspicious logins to protect our users' accounts. Being able to recognize known bad actors when they try to get back onto our network is an important security measure for both Uber and our users.”
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Uber has announced it’s giving users in selected US cities the option to hire drivers by the hour, so you can get a feel for what it’s like having your own personal chauffeur on call.
The new feature will set you back $50 (about £41/AU$75) per hour, with a variable add-on fee if you cover a lot of miles. Passengers will be matched with a vehicle that fits the Uber Comfort guidelines, with more headroom and legroom.
Uber Hourly is going live on Tuesday, June 2, in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Seattle, Tacoma, Tampa Bay, and Washington DC, with a wider roll out planned eventually.
“We built this feature for riders that anticipate needing additional flexibility when taking care of essential tasks, and for drivers so that they could access an additional earning opportunity,” says Uber in a blog post.
Apparently the hourly option has already been attested in cities across Australia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East, so presumably it will eventually make its way to most or all of Uber’s markets. As yet there’s no word on pricing internationally.
Uber will be hoping to ramp up ride numbers as countries across the world emerge from self-isolation and lockdown, and has been putting new safety measures in place to protect drivers and passengers.
Both drivers and passengers are being asked to wear face masks or covers, while passengers are also requested to sit in the back seat and to keep the windows open. The maximum number of suggested passengers for an UberX ride is now three rather than four.
Uber says it has been providing face masks and sanitizing kits for drivers, and will continue to do so over the coming months.


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Local Business owners reflect on the past year
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn (WDEF) – One year ago the Coronavirus Pandemic hit the United States and forced all businesses to close their doors to the public.
Since then, it’s been a bumpy road for businesses as they respond to guideline changes, mask mandates, and limited store capacities.
Chattanooga businesses say they remember the moment they were first told they had to close.
“It was like WHATTT. I don’t think we ever could have imagined it would happen like that. It’s not something we ever would have considered to happen. It was crazy,” says Rebecca Angel, No Baked Cookie Dough Employee.
“We had to cancel all the easter dresses. Cancel all the white graduation dresses that come in in May. We had to start from scratch and start thinking our whole world is about to change here,” says Cindy Jayne, Owner of Belle Rive Boutique.
Most businesses say they have had to depend more on online sales, delivery services and rearranging how they do business.
“ I haven’t had the people connection that I normally have when I am in the store. That’s the joyous part of it. It really makes you put your nose to the grindstone and dig deep into what’s important to you. What do you want to represent. I have always thought you have to be unique or you wont make it,” says Jayne.
Though this year has been challenging, local businesses say they are finally seeing an uptick in sales and are hopeful for the future.
“Business is actually really good right now. With the weather warming up so many people are walking at Coolidge and downtown. We are really excited for this summer too,” says Angel.
“Stay hopeful and stay positive. Please shop local. Please stay with us. Help us through this. We can do it but we can’t do it without you,” says Jayne.


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JAPAN 'QUAKE: Global supply chain could be re-thought - US expert
Parts shortages and consequent production shutdowns caused by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami could cause the global motor industry to rethink how it sets up its supply lines, a top industry economist has said.
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Put Safety First this July 4th!
Fireworks are dangerous and can cause serious burn and eye injuries. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), fireworks were involved in an estimated 10,500 injuries treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments in 2014. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) reports that sparklers caused 41% of fireworks injuries! Sparklers burn hot enough to cause third degree burns! Sparklers can quickly ignite clothing and many children have received burns from dropping sparklers on their feet. This graphic from the Fireworks Information Center at the CPSC demonstrates the most injured body parts.
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) reports that fireworks caused about 1,200 structure fires (not including outside fires). They are strongly opposed to any consumer use of fireworks. The NFPA states that four states have banned access by the public to all fireworks; Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York.
Check out this video from the Alliance for Consumer Fireworks and National Fire Protection Association which highlights the dangers of consumer fireworks with a demonstration at the Massachusetts Fire Academy in Stow, MA.
Just because fireworks may be legal in your state, that doesn’t mean they’re safe. Fireworks are dangerous and unpredictable! According to the National Safety Council, the best safety tip is to leave the fireworks to the experts!
If fireworks are legal to buy where you live and you choose to use them, be sure to follow the following safety tips from the National Safety Council:
- Never allow children to handle fireworks
- Always have adult supervision when children are around fireworks
- Anyone using fireworks or standing nearby should wear protective eyewear
- Never light them indoors
- Only use them away from people, houses and flammable material
- Only light one device at a time and maintain a safe distance after lighting
- Never ignite devices in a container
- Do not try to re-light or handle malfunctioning fireworks
- Soak unused fireworks in water for a few hours before discarding
- Keep a bucket of water nearby to fully extinguish fireworks that don’t go off or in case of fire
The safest way to enjoy fireworks is to attend a public fireworks show put on by the professionals so grab a blanket and a patch of lawn, and let the experts handle the show.
And… don’t forget about your pets safety during this time! The American Humane Association reports that July 5 is the busiest day of the year for animal shelters! The day after the July 4th holiday, shelters are “inundated with pets that panicked at the noise of firecrackers and fled into the night, winding up lost, injured or killed.” Here are some safety tips from the American Veterinary Medication Association (AVMA):
- Leave your pets at home when you go to parties, fireworks displays, parades and other gatherings. Loud fireworks, unfamiliar places and crowds can all be very frightening to pets, and there’s great risk of pets becoming spooked and running away.
- Consider putting your pets in a safe, escape-proof room or crate during parties and fireworks.
- Keep horses and livestock in safely fenced areas and as far from the excitement and noise as possible.
- If you’re hosting guests, ask them to help keep an eye on your pets to make sure they don’t escape. Placing notes on exit doors and gates can help both you and your guests remain vigilant.
- Keep your pets inside if you or your neighbors are setting off fireworks.
- Keep sparklers, glow sticks, fireworks, charcoal and kabob skewers away from curious pets.
- Don’t let pets get near your barbecue grill while it is in use or still hot.
- Avoid the urge to feed your pets table scraps or other foods intended for people. Be especially careful to keep them away from these common foods that are actually toxic.
- Remember that too much sun and heat (and humidity!) can be dangerous to pets. Keep them inside when it’s extremely hot/humid; make sure they have access to shady spots and plenty of water when outdoors; don’t leave them outside for extended periods in hot weather; and know the signs that a pet may be overheating.
- Never leave your pet in your car when it’s warm outside. Vehicle interiors heat up much faster than the air around them, and even a short time in a locked car can be dangerous to pets.
- If you’re travelling out of town for the holiday, consider leaving your pets at home with a pet sitter or boarding them in a kennel. If you need to bring them with you, be sure you know how to keep them safe.


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One of the most exciting parts of the State of the Union address last week for me was the proposed partnership between businesses and community colleges to build the skills of workers to match the jobs that are vacant. I thought it was brilliant (and have been contemplating ways to get involved in helping to make that happen here in North Carolina).
Pair this with recent statements by the GOP candidates that the Obama administration has been a terrible failure at creating jobs, and it hit me: the entire conversation is wrong.
Creating public sector jobs is not the job of the President. Gutting regulations also doesn’t make that happen; but that has been what Congress has been doing with their time. The biggest lie of the recession is that we are powerless to do anything about it and need to somehow have the government save us. The recovery is in our hands.
The solution lies with the Chamber of Commerce. Local Chambers can hold meetings and round-tables to open up this dialog between business owners and community colleges or officials in local government to air their problems, find a voice for solutions, and build a team to make it happen. If there are true barriers to job creation in local businesses, this is the place for those barriers to break down.
Business owners can focus on how they can bring jobs to the US instead of shipping them overseas. There may be companies that are innovative with product creation but completely lacking in imagination when it comes to filling jobs stateside (I’m looking at you, Apple). The community college partnership is just one example. How about partnering with devastated manufacturing communities to build solutions together? Cities across the nation would love the opportunity to build a viable solution. If business owners stop taking the so-called easy way out and work for an economically sustainable solution, no one would be complaining about regulations or what the President isn’t doing.
Businesses can also become consumers of US products wherever possible. There’s a contractor, for example, who decided that he would use 5% more American-made products to build homes than he had previously and predicts he’ll create nearly a quarter of a million jobs this way. This is the kind of ingenuity business owners need to exercise to build their customer base back up. Because it’s not the richest 1% who can dig us out from a recession; it’s only through rebuilding the middle class.
The solution also rests with consumers. Everyone who buys anything has a chance to build the economy at home. Every swipe of your debit card is a vote for a company and its practices. If you check where products are made and choose the one made in the US, then you’re voting for more jobs in the US. If you own stocks, investing in companies that keep jobs in the US is voting for jobs staying in the US. It’s quite a contradiction to hear people complain about the foreign aid the government gives out when the majority of your discretionary spending goes to products made in China.
It’s not easy. It takes some forethought and focus to get there, but we do have options that don’t depend on subsidies and bailouts. We have options that are our own making. Are we going to make that future we want or hope that some politician does it for us?
My 2 cents. What do you think we can do to build the economy?


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Second-hand items: Expert gives advice on selling online
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A study by H&T Pawnbrokers has revealed which watches could see households earning hundreds on the resale market days before Christmas. Buying into watch, fashion or accessories as a form of investment has been said to provide investors with more stability that generic investment types. As the year draws to an end, the 2021 Watch Report from H&T Pawnbrokers suggests which brands and designs to look out for.
Watches have often been seen as a symbol of luxury and wealth, and rightfully so as it’s one of the few consumable assets that appreciates in value unlike items like cars that decrease in value as it is used.
Brands like Rolex have also garnered somewhat of a cult following, as individuals purchase their products more for the name than the actual items, but there are more affordable brands that can offer the same high resale value.
H&T Pawnbrokers analysed their second-hand sales data to see which watches brought their owners big bucks this year.
They accounted for the recommended retail price, average actual sale price, resale price and the stability of each brand and model in the past, showing watch collectors how their investments have grown and the potential for 2022.
Casio G-Shock x NASA
The recommended retail price for this Casio model is £33, whilst the average sale on the resale price is four times more.
G-Shock owners could see their timepiece selling for £187 more on the resale market, earning them £154.
H&T Pawnbrokers also noted that while the average resale price is £187, they have noted models advertised for over £1,000.
They believe this is due to Casio’s increasing popularity in its vintage styles and advised collectors to keep their eyes out for limited editions or special releases.
Timex x Noah Waterbury model
The second highest resale price goes to this limited edition watch from menswear brand NOAH.
The extreme high demand for the watch during its launch has seen its resale price skyrocket to 260 percent due to its current rarity, with H&T Pawnbrokers sharing that it is: “one of the most in-demand watches on the market right now.”
The original £80 watch now sells for roughly £288 on the resale market.
This low-cost watch originally sold for only £39, but H&T Pawnbrokers said: the model “Made it into the top five due to its high resale value of 225 percent.”
The crystal watch face on this model has seen its demand greatly increase for its aesthetic and owners can see their Citizen selling for roughly £87.
Casio G-Shock x BAPE
This watch was released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of BAPE, which has collaborated with Casio multiple times.
The 2018 model now sells for around £604, earning it the rank of most expensive second-hand Casio model as its original price was £191.
Casio G-Shock Analog-Digital
The third Casio on this list, and rounding off the top five, this model sells for 179 percent more on the second-hand market.
Originally priced at £72, owners can see their timepieces fetching roughly £200 when selling second-hand.
Source: Read Full Article


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WITH on-line and interactive media businesses across the country scrabbling to stay in business, the bells and whistles of multimedia on the Internet may well be covering the groans of those who have discovered the realities of digital commerce.
Increasingly, for example, media companies on the World Wide Web are providing site visitors with 2-by-3-inch windows of jerky digital video that have been snipped from films or television broadcasts -- a science-fair application of technology that seems superfluous even when everything works as planned, which it almost never does.
Granted, this is not a very kindly observation on the very day that one of the truly visionary Internet companies, Progressive Networks Inc., intends to announce its first video-on-the-Web product: Real Video. But as on-line companies grapple with sheer survival, someone needs to ask the question: Why should we care about video on the Web?
It is tempting to give a short answer: ''You shouldn't; don't bother.'' But the longer answer is as complex as the Internet itself. With today's announcement, Progressive adds its name to a growing list of companies -- including VDOnet Corporation, Vivo Software Inc. and VXtreme Inc. -- shipping what are called ''streaming'' video products. These deliver video and other types of media to desktop computers via the Internet, in a transmission stream that approximates instant playback.
Progressive pioneered streaming media over the Internet with its Real Audio software for transmitting sound. Before Real Audio, computer users had to copy entire sound files from the Internet onto their computer's hard drive before playing them. This was necessary because the Internet transmits information in tiny packets that are reassembled on the receiving end before a document can be read, a video clip viewed or a sound file heard.Continue reading the main story
Before Progressive's engineers figured out a way to ''stream'' packets across the Web, copying a five-minute digital sound clip could easily take 25 minutes using a modem and a standard phone line. Rob Glaser, a former Microsoft executive who is the chairman and chief executive of Progressive, contends that this ability to ''stream'' media -- in combination with the network's explosive growth -- is turning the Internet into a real broadcast medium like television.
Mr. Glaser seems to have some mighty allies for his point of view. Already professing support for the technology are media movers like ABC, CBS News, Warner Brothers, the Discovery Channel, Bloomberg, the BBC, Atlantic Records, Geffen Records and Sports Illustrated.
But why these companies care about video on the Net today is one of the industry's great mysteries. Even Mr. Glaser acknowledges that Real Audio was a hit because people could listen to audio from the Internet while doing other things at their computers, while video requires undivided attention.
Common-sense facts like these must be faced if the Internet is ever to become a mass medium. Nick Donatiello, president and chief executive of Odyssey L.P., a firm that studies consumer behavior, has long said that to reach a mass audience, both computer and Internet technology will have to become as easy to use, and as good looking, as television.
''Right now, the Web is a stagnant medium,'' Mr. Donatiello said. ''And a 2-by-3-inch square of video doesn't get you anything.'' What is interesting about video on the Net, he said, is that ''it will be a stepping stone to whole new categories of entertainment.''
Mr. Donatiello is convinced that entertainment is the only road to mass media status for the Internet. But an even more central issue, astonishingly, is virtually ignored by most Web site providers:
No matter what drives acceptance, at some point someone has to start thinking about creating something of real value for people who spend time on line.
The Internet can ''be'' anything from a family photo album to a global distribution medium for software, games, music and, yes, video -- anything that human beings can create in or convert to digital form. And yet, today a consumer can find precious little on the Web that he or she cannot get better, faster or cheaper on television or from a bookstore, video store or catalogue.
''I harbor no illusions,'' Mr. Glaser said. ''People don't figure out how to use a new medium at the speed of Moore's Law,'' he said, referring to the famous industry axiom that the processing power of computer chips doubles every 18 months or so. ''The challenge here is to focus on what makes this compelling,'' Mr. Glaser said, ''and raising people's awareness of the possibilities.''
One of the richest possibilities, ironically, is that video software like Progressive's can provide alternatives to the distribution channels established by some of Mr. Glaser's partners today. Thus, Progressive asked the film maker Spike Lee, who created three short films for the occasion, to help introduce Real Video. (See them at www.real.com).
In fact, Mr. Glaser said the company was already trying to figure out how to use the Web to deliver conventional television signals straight to a TV, so that viewers could get ''cable channels you can't get from your cable provider,'' he said.
The potential of the Web as an independent distribution system gets the juices flowing even for wary technology watchers like Mr. Donatiello of Odyssey. He recalled all the hoopla earlier in the decade over so-called ''interactive television,'' in which viewers with a remote control device would control the outcome of what transpires on screen.
''The Web may in fact become interactive television,'' Mr. Donatiello said. ''But the most important thing isn't controlling what's happening in the story, it's the choice of watching what you want. If we go there, that will change the meaning of entertainment in the American home.''Continue reading the main story


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MacCoffee wins Product of the Year 2020 National Award
MacCoffee once again triumphed at the Product of the Year 2020 National Award ceremony held on 17th November 2020 in Moscow, Russia. The most trusted brand among Russian consumers was awarded with 53 nominations. Despite the challenging year, everyone at MacCoffee is very pleased for the brand winning the “Product of the Year 2020” award in the “Сoffee with milk / sugar / creamer” category. We would like to thank our most valued consumers for their continuous support and trust in MacCoffee!


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The gay senior vice president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has lashed out at Lady Gaga for wearing fur.
‘Many of your gay fans, I among them, have long admired what you told Ellen: “I hate fur and I don’t wear fur”,’ said PETA’s Dan Matthews in an open letter to the international popstar, referencing an interview on the Ellen deGeneres show in 2007.
‘By wearing those dumb furs in a heat wave, you’re making yourself a target just like the mindless Kim Kardashian.’
Lady Gaga was photographed wearing an Armani hot pink fur jacket in New York last week and a voluminous grey knee-length coat in Bulgaria yesterday.
Gaga has not confirmed whether the fur is fake. ‘For those press and such who are writing about whether or not my fur is actually real, please don’t forget to credit the designer HERMES. Thank You! LOVE, gaga,’ she said on Twitter yesterday.
Many of her fans were disappointed. ‘I would try find the funny side if i didnt think the fur industry was such a disgusting trade…’ commented one. ‘How could you? That’s so messed up, I thought you stood up for better values than fashion at the cost of animal suffering,’ said another.
The performer, who is about to start her European tour, also posted a short art film she made called ‘dressage’ which ends with her wearing the grey fur coat. In a voiceover she says she is making films to challenge herself and that ‘I have to start breaking the rules that I made about fame’.
Matthews is no stranger to attention-grabbing celebrity stunts. He was behind the successful ‘I’d rather go naked than wear fur’ campaign with supermodels Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford (whom both later wore fur) in the 1990s.
In an interview with USA Today in 2007 Matthews said that going fishing after he had been a victim of gay bashing taught him to empathise with animals. He said:
‘Around the time I got beaten up for being gay, gasping for breath, surrounded by people looking down at me laughing, I caught a very big fish.
‘When I pulled him on the boat, it was just an ugly flounder, and he was gasping for breath, too, and in that instance, the flounder was the only creature I could relate to. I had turned into the bully.’


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"We made machines for the masses," said Jack Tramiel, the founder of the company that gave the world the Commodore 64. Then he nodded to the man sitting beside him, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. "They made machines for the classes."
The year was 2007, and Tramiel was on stage at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Commodore 64, a machine that debuted in August 1982 with a price tag of $595 and was soon selling for a mere $199. That made it several hundred dollars cheaper than the Apple II offered by Wozniak and fellow Apple man Steve Jobs — not to mention the IBM PC — and according to Tramiel, Commodore sold nearly half a million machines a month before he left the company in 1984.
All told, Tramiel said that night, somewhere between 22 million and 30 million Commodore 64s were sold, which likely makes it the best-selling home computer of all time. "We sold half that many," said ex-IBM exec William Love, referring to the original IBM PC.
Tramiel passed away this past April at the age of 83, and though he may not have been a household name, the Commodore 64 certainly was.
He was just one of several tech titans who died over the past year. None had the name recognition of a Steve Jobs -- who passed in 2011 -- but they may have moved our world in bigger ways. Among those that passed in 2012 are the IBMer who invented the bar code and the Zenith engineer who devised the first wireless TV remote -- not to mention one of the physicist who helped build the atom bomb dropped on Nagasaki. Click on the images above to remember them all.
Jack Tramiel, Founder of Commodore Computers
Jack Tramiel was born to a Jewish family in Poland in 1928, and during the war, he was sent to Auschwitz, before he was moved with his father to a labor camp in Germany. He was freed in 1945 and emigrated to the States two years later, and in the mid-1950's, he founded a business called Commodore.
At first, it dealt in typewriters, but then it moved to adding machines, calculators, and, yes, home computers. After he was forced out of Commodore in 1984, Tramiel bought the consumer division of game outfit Atari and reformed it as Atari Corporation, which he ran until the end of the decade.
Photo: Sal Veder / AP


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Some 1,900 members of the Unite Union are set to go strike from 21 – 28 August at the Port of Felixstowe after talks between employers and the union broke down a week ago. In late July 92% of union members voted for strike action over Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company offering a 5% pay increase to its workers.
With workers now set to walk out of the UK’s largest port on 21 August Russell Group has used its ALPS Marine analysis to calculate the value of goods that will be impacted by the strike action.
The total impact was put at $800m in trade, with clothing accounting for some $82.8m of that figure, and electronic components a further $32.3m. The figures are based on analysis of previous August trade flows at the Port of Felixstowe.
Suki Basi, Russell Group MD said: "The disruption at Felixstowe spells more uncertainty for businesses, consumers and governments alike. Ports across the globe are facing congestion, due to a large backlog caused by the pandemic.
“As our analysis has shown today, these strikes could increase the backlog and in doing so, create even more delays, and the effects of this will only be registered in the coming weeks and months."
Disruption has dogged the global supply chain since the onset of the Covid pandemic over two years ago and this year in Europe has been exacerbated by port worker strikes in major ports such as Hamburg.
Felixstowe not only handles large volumes of UK imports but also exports with $108m moved to Rotterdam and $138m to Hamburg. Smaller ports in the UK are seen as potentially benefitting from the strike with volumes and services diverted to other terminals in the country
Copyright © 2022. All rights reserved. Seatrade, a trading name of Informa Markets (UK) Limited.


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- Lucid stock gained as much as 16% Wednesday as the EV maker began producing its first vehicles.
- The Air Dream luxury sedan rolled off the company's Arizona assembly line on Tuesday.
- The Tesla rival will begin delivering vehicles in late October.
Lucid stock jumped Wednesday after the company said it has started producing its flagship electric sedan and will start delivering vehicles to customers late next month.
The first Lucid Air vehicles rolled off the assembly line in Casa Grande, Arizona, the company said late Tuesday. The first vehicle in its lineup is Air Dream. The limited-edition sedan has a price tag of $169,000 and an EPA-determined range of 520 miles on a single charge, which Lucid said is more than 100 miles over its closest competitor. Tesla's flagship Model S Long Range Plus has an EPA-rated range of 402 miles.
Lucid stock gained as much as 15.7% to $28.39 before paring the rise to 10%. Shares have more than doubled from around $10 at the start of 2021.
Lucid, which Bank of America recently called the next Tesla or Ferrari of EV makers, said Air Dream reservation holders will begin receiving their cars in late October. Deliveries of Grand Touring, Touring, and Air Pure models will follow.
More than 13,000 reservations for Air vehicles have been placed, and the company plans to increase the total production of Dream vehicles to 520 units. In July, the company said it had more than 10,000 Air vehicle orders.
California-based Lucid has also started expanding its factory in Arizona to add 2.85 million square feet which will support the production of its Gravity SUV as well as increased Air production.


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In the season of festivities, we the petrolheads have reason to rejoice again, as in a few days 2016 edition of the Indian Auto Expo will be organized at New Delhi from 5th to 9th February, 2016. This is certainly the biggest automobile convention of Asia, organized by Society of Indian Automobile Manufactures (SIAM) jointly with the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) the 2016 edition of the prestigious biennial event will be bigger and better.
More than 65 automobile brands including Indian and international companies, are expected to showcase their exciting car models in the 13th edition of the event. Incidentally, in 2014 nearly 55 brands showcased their products at the event. Sadly, there will be few major brands missing this time. We will get to see some exciting new models, some new launches including world launches and hopefully a few concepts at the upcoming event.
The organizers are expecting more than 6 lakh footfall at the India Exposition Mart Ltd (IEML) in Greater Noida, resulting a 20% rise in the number of visitors. The total floor space for the event has been increased by 37240 square metres with six completely new air conditioned halls, alongside the already available eight halls, resulting the total floor space to around 79000 square metres.
Before you prepare yourself to visit the upcoming Auto Expo, we will give you a lowdown on the facts and frequently asked questions like – how to get there, timing of the show, which are the participating brands, which are the brands to miss, floor plan, hospitality, major launches to watch. Keep reading the article.
The countdown has begun. We are about to leave 2015 and start our journey in the year 2016. Like every year, 2015 too brought us some stunning cars. We observed some completely new models, some new generation models and several facelift cars launched in our country. In a few months we are about to see some spectacular car launches in the country. In the meantime, when we are counting down the last hours of the 2015, let’s take a look back at the hottest car launches of 2015.
In the year 2015, we have seen some gorgeous German luxury utility and sports models like new Audi Q7, BMW I8, and Mercedes Benz AMG GT made entry into Indian automobile market, while Swedish automaker Volvo has launched XC90, which can be called an epitome of luxury and undoubtedly one of the safest cars of the world at present. American automaker Ford has launched a rejuvenated Ford Figo, which looks absolutely stylish. Hyundai launched a stylish SUV Creta, which became an immense hit among Indians. Mahindra, undoubtedly the most popular SUV maker of the country has been at the losing end of the battle because of steep competition from other automakers. They tried to bring back their good luck by launching TUV300, a rugged looking revolutionary SUV inspired by a battle tank design. In the hatchback segment the most profound entry was in form of Renault Kwid. So many things in so little budget; imagination is possible now with Kwid.
Well, the list goes on and on. We choose 10 hottest cars among so many, which were launched in the year 2015. Here are those hottest 10s presented in an alphabetic manner. Check out.
Be it recession or crisis that does not really stop people from fulfilling their dreams right. It’s true that almost the whole of 2014 was definitely not the best year for the auto manufacturers of the Country but has it really stopped them from surprising the Indian car enthusiasts and customers with brand new products? Atleast I don’t think so because we have witnessed some of the exclusive launches from manufacturers like Maruti, Hyundai, Tata and even some luxury car manufacturers like Mercedes Benz, Audi and even BMW.
So definitely Indian customers cannot complain that they have been deprived of the new cars and unfortunately they have to remain satisfied with the same old products. Now as the year 2014 is coming to an end and we already have started our preparation for Christmas, it is time we take a peek into the future and take a glimpse of what the automotive industry have stored for us in the year 2015. This will perhaps also give those customers a heads up and fix their budget and decide which car they want to get for themselves or their family in the year 2015.
So without any further due let us get straight into the details of the vehicles that will be launched in the Indian market in the year 2015.


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Millions of connections are coming online every month and the types of devices being connected extend into realms far beyond the telecoms ecosystem, including (but not limited to) energy, healthcare, transportation, retail, IT, security, banking, industrial and the connected home.
Almost all products that use electricity, from cars to white goods, now possess inherent data processing capabilities and with them the potential to become network-enabled. But in order to connect these increasingly diverse and critical assets, the reliability, security and performance of the networks used to carry this traffic takes on new level of importance. A dropped call is rarely life threatening, but loss of connectivity to a heart monitor is a different story.
An operator’s traditional portfolio of services and products tends to be horizontal and relies on price as a key differentiator, but the ecosystem for M2M applications is very focused on specific needs for vertical markets. The need for specialist capabilities is driving a diverse community of vertically-focused players and the question now is where the carriers fit in the value chain.
There are some big numbers flying around. Ericsson is predicting an Internet of Things in the region of 50 billion connections by 2020, whereas other estimations are more reserved. Informa Telecoms & Media is forecasting just over 145 million global M2M connections by the end of 2012, based on a quarterly increase of nearly five per cent and generating revenues of around $1.5bn worldwide. By the end of 2014, the number of connections is expected to grow to 217 million, with revenues of $2.5bn worldwide.
The biggest opportunities for end user services are in the long tail niche applications backed up by value added services. That’s not a territory that many operators want to get involved in, which is what makes the wholesale model so appealing.
Gösta Kallner is CTO of Net1 and Ice.net, Nordic-based operators with networks in Denmark, Norway and Sweden that specialise in M2M connectivity. In Kallner’s own words the focus is “Less about numbers and more about profitability.”
The markets Net1 and Ice.net operate in are relatively small, one with a population of ten million and two at half that. “So in general we don’t look at the potential of millions of subscribers, instead we look at getting up to a couple of hundred thousand,” Kallner says. “But we’re looking at expanding the business to other markets around the world.” Net1 doesn’t do any integration of M2M apps and services. It provides access and devices only and caters almost exclusively to nonurban markets with its CDMA450 network. Whereas other operators are focusing on smartphone and handset connectivity, Net1 focuses on M2M and portable fixed wireless broadband.
“We leave the cities to our rivals and focus exclusively on the rural areas. There’s too much competition otherwise. In urban areas we have below one per cent market share, but in rural areas we have around 30 per cent of market,” Kallner says.
“Around 70 per cent of our user base is consumers (wireless broadband) and 30 per cent is businesses, but the business side is growing faster than consumer. About 20-30,000 Swedish businesses that operate outside of cities have no alternative but to buy service from us. And about another 50,000 see the potential for getting a better service from us than from our rivals.”
As the smallest operator in a market of five licensees, Net1 has had to be pretty innovative to find its niche, but there are unique characteristics to Sweden and other Nordic markets that make the business model viable. In Sweden alone there are more than 500,000 second homes as well as 200,000 boats that act as holiday homes, 150,000 caravans and a population of around two million that live in remote and rural areas, all of which form a target audience.
The company itself is only around 60 people, outsourcing as much of its business processes as possible, so it can focus solely on connectivity. “You’ve got giants like Apple now taking lots of market share from the operators in terms of value added services. So we are probably more prepared in that we don’t have any value added services to lose. We’re already the bit pipe that many carriers are thinking about becoming in the future.”
Kallner says that what the operator actually provides to its customer segments isn’t so different. It’s the apps that run on top of the network that provide the diversity. Net1 already has about 25 different CPE devices for M2M purposes that it will lease, €4-5 per month is a typical rate, but many customers bring their own and simply require wholesale connectivity.
“We are mainly looking at quality of service and priority of traffic as the service part of our portfolio, as well as closed networks that use our transport infrastructure,” Kallner says. “There is a really strong ecosystem of companies providing services and applications on top of the access network. So if you look at the spread of different markets where we play with M2M, if you are going to learn about every different business segment and their requirements you are going to need a lot of people. R&D is the part of our operation we keep on low expenditure. I think it’s better that we are humble and provide just what we provide best.”
In Sweden about 70-75 per cent of energy meters are already ‘smart’. They are currently based on GPRS although all are about to be upgraded, because the sheer volume of devices is beginning to weigh on the network. Kallner sees this upgrade as a clear opportunity. Meanwhile in Norway, government legislation states that by 2014, all public utilities have to be ‘smart’.
Aside from the smart meters, Net1 already counts all the major utilities as customers, as typically power companies use fibre to connect up big stations with wireless as a backup, while in small stations wireless is the prime and the backup. The key benefit being that with private networks, customers can supply their own dumb end user devices, and let the modem handle all the encryption.
Forestry is a big deal in the Nordics and SCA is Net1’s biggest customer in Sweden, with over 1,000 access devices supported. The forestry firm connects everything from several hundred harvesters to a fleet of trucks, enabling employees to know where to offload, where to pick up and how much to carry. The aim is to help the SCA prevent lost timber as well as avoid under-capacity truck rolls. All of this can be achieved with less than a 1Mbps connection, and so far Net1 has helped SCA increase productivity by 25 per cent. Sweden also has around 16 large mines and, as with forestry, the mining industry connects all their machines such as big trucks to monitoring solutions. Such machines might be manufactured in Japan and the monitoring software will have a client where the end user can get remote assistance via the web direct from the manufacturer. There are also a lot of consultants going into mines during the weekday who need connectivity, as well as those workers who may be at the mine for extended periods and need to have a connection back home.
Air and sea transport also forms a large part of Net1’s user base. The company has a deal with a Norwegian ferry company worth £2m that offers wifi on board and therefore consumes a lot of data but not many subscriptions, while the Swedish coastguard has a fleet of about 50 boats equipped with QoS connectivity and VoIP. There’s also a significant helicopter fleet, of over 100 machines, with use cases ranging from weather reporting to the air ambulance.
Farmers, fishermen, broadcasters, independent petrol stations and public safety services all form the rest of Net1’s subscriber base, whereas M2M providers in other markets have carved niches in areas like healthcare and consumer telematics like the DriveCam.
As the cost of enablement falls and end-users realise new benefits from M2M applications, the market for services will grow on top of the market for connectivity. Kallner is seeing more dual mode routers, with two radios HSPA+ and CDMA Rev B to provide redundancy, in markets of critical connectivity like public safety where long time incumbent technology Tetra doesn’t provide the necessary bandwidth.
The ecosystem is then big enough to support lots of specialist companies that aggregate connectivity across devices to provide backup and failover. “We just concentrate on selling M2M connectivity modules and bit pipe access as we find that enterprises would rather have the one provider of M2M services,” he says. “We don’t need to bring the management layer or the application, other companies bring this as a value add.” And the connected world, it seems, is big enough for everyone.


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NATIONAL REPORT — Tobacco legislation and regulation is constantly under review at the local, state and federal levels. In this monthly roundup, Convenience Store News highlights the latest proposals and approved changes happening across the United States.
Mill Valley — The Mill Valley City Council voted to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products. The measure also prohibits the sale of tobacco products at pharmacies.
San Mateo — The San Mateo City Council approved the first reading of an ordinance that prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco products, as well as the sale of electronic cigarettes. In addition, the measure would prohibit pharmacies from selling tobacco products. The council will hold a second reading of the ordinance in October. If approved on second reading, the measure goes into effect on Jan. 1.
Fridley City — The Fridley City Council approved legislation restricting the sale of flavored tobacco products to adult-only tobacco stores. The new rule includes menthol. The council also updated the tobacco ordinance to meet state requirements that raise the tobacco sales age to 21.
Brentwood — Suffolk County Legislator Sam Gonzalez wants the county to raise the legal minimum age to buy tobacco products to 25 years old. The statewide tobacco buying age is 21; however, localities have the option to raise it even higher.


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Recent research from E-Business Review found that many traditional UK household names are still at an early point in their Web development efforts, maybe just reviewing their first Web site.
For many, the mere mention of e-business or e-commerce - and some still do not make a distinction between doing business with partners and suppliers, and offering trading over the Web - elicits fear, trembling and anxious looks.
Apparent lack of progress has almost become a corporate hang-up, more worthy of a Woody Allen film. In many companies, dealing with the Web is just having to take second place to normal business. In one company, which has gone through a merger, there are 120 things on its to-do list, and e-business is not one of them.
For some companies, however, just giving Web access to their staff could be a risky business. That's because staff abuse of the Internet has become rife. It is easily done -a few minutes surfing here, the odd Amazon purchase there.
Now, according to a recent study from Websense and the US Centre for Internet Studies, workplace Internet abuse has gone far beyond accessing adult sites. It is now as much about employees shopping, investing and watching sports online in rising numbers.
Websense, whose software automatically bars use of pornographic sites, conducted its [email protected] survey among 1,500 workers at companies across the US.
According to Andy Meyer, Websense's vice-president of marketing, companies need to be aware that employee Web abuse goes beyond the obvious. But he added, companies don't need to take hard-line stances. Many of Websense's customers, he suggested, had adopted a flexible filtering solution, allowing for some personal surfing during work hours. But, you might wonder, what is "some"? And if you allow some Web surfing, don't you open a Pandora's Box?
Some key findings from the survey include:
To some, perhaps the easiest happy medium will continue to be not allowing any access at all. If you want to keep productivity up, keeping Web access away from staff will probably help. What they don't know about won't hurt them, is one attitude.
People are naturally curious, and a few minutes Web surfing can suddenly become a half hour shopping trip, especially with Christmas looming, and the window for practical e-fulfilment already closing. Within the next few weeks, expect the number of times your staff access Amazon's site to soar, together with a string of incoming "confirmed order" e-mails.
A happy balance has to be struck. The most advanced companies in e-business have encouraged their staff to 'digitise' their jobs. That means giving them Web courses to improve their familiarity, rather than barring Net access altogether.
David Bicknell is managing editor of E-Business Review


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UK: Online boosts John Lewis full-year profit growth
- Group FY pre-tax profit up 4.1%
- John Lewis sales passed GBP4bn mark
- Fashion sales increased 5%
John Lewis sales passed the GBP4bn mark for the first time last year
UK department store operator John Lewis has recorded an increase in full-year profit, driven by strong online growth and innovation.
The group today (6 March) said pre-tax profit rose 4.1% to GBP329.1m (US$550m) for the 52 weeks to 25 January, compared to the same period in the prior year. Sales increased 6.6% to GBP10.17bn, but operating profit fell 6.6% to GBP423.6m.
Excluding the company's Waitrose supermarket chain, John Lewis department stores saw operating profit rise 4.3% to GBP226.1m. Sales increased 7.5% to GBP4.06bn - passing the GBP4bn mark for the first time - while like-for-like sales grew by 6.4%.
Fashion sales were up 5%, helped by the expansion of its Kin label and the success of brands such as Somerset by Alice Temperley and John Lewis & Co.
John Lewis said omni-channel capability and innovation was key to its success. During the year, its stores significantly outperformed the high street and online sales were up 19.2% to GBP1.1bn.
Chairman Charlie Mayfield said: "This has been another good year for the Partnership."
He added: "Innovation in product and service continues to be vital in today's market and there have been great examples of that in Waitrose and John Lewis.
"We have improved our omni-channel offer significantly with new online platforms for both brands and expansion of the hugely popular Click & collect service."
The current year has started well with good trading momentum, the company said. During the first five weeks, overall group sales grew 5.3%, while John Lewis reported a 5.7% increase, with like-for-likes up 5.3% on last year.
"There are more encouraging signs for the economy as a whole and, although this has not yet come through as a significant increase in consumer spending, I am cautiously optimistic that we will see improvements this year," Mayfield added.
"I am confident that however quickly the UK economy emerges from this prolonged period of slow growth, the Partnership is well positioned to continue to strengthen its competitive position and to grow market share in both Waitrose and John Lewis."
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A Sportbike from Harley
Cyber-whispers are making their way around the internet over a surprise addition to the American line-up of 2009 motorcycles from Harley-Davidson. As with most of the interesting stories, it started with a posting on a blog and has gained some solid footing from a confirmation by another website. If the standards of reporting from the recent political election were to be followed, the story is as factual as they come. Originally posted on Chopper Daves blog, an excited post announced the Harley-Davidson dealership in Westminster California was taking pre-orders for the XR1200. The website Autoblog, confirmed the offer with a telephone call to the dealership who reportedly said Harley-Davidson sent out an email over the weekend with news about the models availability in the United States. The XR1200 is a version of its popular Sportster which was launched for (and until last weekend only available in) Europe. Featuring an air-cooled, modified 1203cc Evolution V45 engine, a larger air-box, downdraft fuel injection and a performance-biased exhaust system its considered by many as the closest Harley Davidson has come to making a sportsbike. With the additional performance gained from this configuration, a plastic tank and the unique aesthetic look of the dulled silver, squared off engine, the XR1200 is a different and much anticipated addition to the Harley-Davidson line-up. Many were initially disappointed when it was originally decided the motorcycle would only be available in Europe earlier this year. The good news of the XR1200 being made available in the domestic market does come with a caveat however. According to Harley-Davidson of Westminster’s website, only 750 will be made available nationwide at this time, with pre-orders being taken through December 15th and an expected delivery in February 2009. Would-be buyers can have any color as long as its orange and the answer to many performance riders dreams carries an MSRP of $11,179. Harley-Davidson has yet to publicly confirm or deny the offer. Adding rumors on top of rumors, supposedly the model will be more widely available next year in black as well as silver. Industry experts often comment on Harley-Davidson’s ingenious marketing methods and if a whisper campaign was in fact the company’s true intention, it could be a bright spot in an otherwise challenging year. Offering a limited number of models is a popular method for motorcycle manufacturers to create demand with the most recent example being Ducati and its racing standard replicas made available recently. If trends were to repeat themselves from that marketing campaign, Harley-Davidson could mysteriously find more motorcycles available if demand became frenzied enough.


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One of the toughest challenges at the moment, noted Sherry Chris, CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC, in an Inman News interview during last year’s Real Estate Connect in San Francisco, is the big demographic shift in the homebuying crowd.
With a third of the real estate market occupied by baby boomers and another third represented by their children, the echo boomers, it’s difficult to serve them both well, as they have different needs and purchasing habits, she said.
"How do we continue to service the customer of today — those baby boomers who have driven the real estate market for the last 30 years — and also service the consumer of tomorrow?" she asked. "That’s a challenge, but it’s also a great opportunity."
Chris noted differences in what prospective homebuyers are looking for. "We noticed that consumers are looking for lifestyle and community above the actual dwelling itself," she said, and noted her company’s online "lifestyle search" feature.
"Today, people are thinking, ‘Where’s the nearest Starbucks?’" said Chris. Consumers want to see what the community looks like first, she noted, and not just the home itself.
Real Estate Connect NYC 2012 is just one week away. More info.


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“Microsoft is working on personal assistant for work ‘
Microsoft is working on a new personal assistant for work. The program would be designed for Windows Phone and Microsoft would have been internal testing, Friday became clear.
The program is called ‘Work Assistant’ and as a prototype in the Windows Phone Store appeared . According to the usually well-informed Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet assistant helps the Windows Phone users to perform business tasks. It’s just not clear what it is.
Information provided by the Microsoft watcher comes forward that a separate software business, Microsoft is working on the assistant. In this development would also founder Bill Gates are involved. He reported recently on Reddit that he is working on a ‘personal agent.
Microsoft has been working on for some time personal assistant, who will be Cortana functionality to Office apps as Jo Foley. The app only works on Windows Phone 8.1 or higher and requires at least access to things like the calendar and contacts.Viewing:-212
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Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs took the stage Monday at the Consumer Electronics Show to try to fill the keynote vacancy left by Microsoft. But he would get a helping hand from some big names from tech, sports, and entertainment -- including the chief executive responsible for delivering the keynote for the last couple of years.
Jacobs is joined on stage at CES 2013 by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who used to give the main keynote at the conference. Ballmer showed off two of the newest Windows RT devices, the Samsung ATIV and Dell XPS. Both are powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors.
Jacobs unveils the Snapdragon 600, which Qualcomm says sports performance up to 40 percent better than its older chips. He also unveiled the 800 series, which is said to have up to 75 percent better performance.
Jacobs was also joined on stage by Nascar Sprint Cup champ Brad Keselowski, who showed a demo of new Nascar-enhanced broadcast app.
Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs with movie director Guillermo Del Toro, who offered a preview of his new movie "Pacific Rim" on a Snapdragon tablet.
Big Bird stopped by Jacobs' CES 2013 keynote to demonstrate "Wordoscope," an educational app created on Qualcomm's Vuforia. More than 40,000 developers have signed on the build apps on the platform.
Jacobs highlighted a companion app for the forthcoming Star Trek movie "Star Trek Into Darkness" that taps Qualcomm's context awareness tech.
Jacobs was joined on stage briefly by an electric-powered Rolls-Royce that was charged using the Qualcomm Halo wireless charging system.


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Partner Mobile, one of Nigeria’s smartphone brands, has launched PS3 to celebrate its one-year presence in the Nigerian mobile market.
According to Partner Mobile, PS3 is coming into the market to consolidate on the “ingenuity of the brand,” following the success of PS1, PS2 and PS Power.
“The Partner PS3 is an Android OS 7.1 mobile phone that comes with a whooping deca-core 2.6GHz processor. With a 5.5inch FHD IPS LCD, the phone comes with an innovative dual 13MP back camera and an 8MP front camera. It has a 3350Mah battery and comes with a RAM of 4GB and a ROM of 64GB,” a statement by the company read.
Describing the performance of the brand in the in the past 12 months, the Chief Operating Officer, Partner Mobile, Simon Klepper, said the brand had been successful despite the challenging Nigerian economy, the decreasing value of naira and the political change.
klepper attributed the success of the brand to true commitment and perseverance shown by the company, saying Partner Mobile in the coming years would deeply penetrate the Nigerian market and establish itself as a reputable company in the country.
He said, “Partner Mobile’s first year in the Nigerian market has got to be viewed as a success. The last year has been a challenging one for the whole of Nigeria with the current dwindling economy, the decreasing value of the naira and political change.
“For any company to launch itself under such conditions it has to show true commitment and perseverance, Partner Mobile has displayed these qualities.”
The Marketing Manager, Partner Mobile, Ifeoluwa Akerele-Molokwu, said the brand name had been marketed largely.
“Partner Mobile devices have been made to fit into every social and economic class; we have our gadgets currently in major stores across the country and we are still working towards reaching more customers by partnering with other dealers,” she said.
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Contact: [email protected]


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Investors willing to bet on Twitter Inc will have to overlook mounting losses and slowing user growth – and have faith that the eight-year-old Internet messaging company can transform a household name into advertising dollars.
Fund managers who were optimistic about Twitter’s financial prospects shrugged off its latest $65 million quarterly loss as standard for startups chasing growth, pointing instead to revenue growth that more than doubled.
tap here to see other videos from our team.
But others warned of the risks of investing in a company with a management that has yet to prove it can generate a profit.
“It’s worth having exposure to a name like Twitter, although you have to take a conceptual leap of faith with regard to valuation, and say it’s a unique franchise that isn’t likely to go away,” said Karl Mills, president and chief investment officer for private investment adviser firm Jurika, Mills & Keifer in San Francisco.


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Garmin Earnings Preview: First Quarter 2009
Garmin [[GRMN]] is scheduled to report their first quarter 2009 results after the market closes on Thursday, May 7. Based on our analysis, we at EarningsPreviews.com are expecting GRMN to report mixed results with earnings that will likely exceed Wall Street’s consensus expectations.
We are forecasting revenues of $528.7 million and EPS of $.44. This would represent a 20% decline in revenues from last year’s $663.8 million in the same period. The current analyst consensus estimates calls for revenues of $531.6 million and EPS of $.42. Due to the current market “uncertainties and dynamic conditions”, Garmin has chosen to not offer specific guidance for 2009 until the outlook for the year becomes clearer.
We are anticipating further deceleration in Garmin’s top line sales, but believe there is a possibility for an earnings beat on better than anticipated costing cutting. Last week, TomTom also reported better than expected earnings results despite falling sales numbers.
The global economic recession appears to be only magnifying Garmin’s product issues. The company continues to rely heavily on automotive sales to drive sales of its GPS products. Our view is that without vastly-improved, new products customers are going to defect to lower-cost and more convenient cell phone applications.
Since the beginning of the year, Garmin’s shares are up over 32%. In 2008, Garmin’s shares fell an amazing 80% as the one-time tech high flyer saw its price fall from over $100 per share to less than $20 per share.
Shares are now trading at 11x consensus 2010 EPS estimates. This is a discount to the relative valuations of their peer group. We believe that the recent run-up in Garmin’s shares (up over 50% in the last two months) has been totally driven by increasing optimism in the market and does not reflect improvements in the fundamentals of Garmin’s business. Long term, we believe that demand for Garmin’s products will continue to decline and would not recommend owning at these prices.
Recommendation: Sell with an $18 price target.


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Made in Athens: E&E Manufacturing
By: Latricia Thomas
An Athens, Tennessee company is stamping out success as a supplier to the automotive industry. Each piece inside your car helps keep you on the road and out of harm's way. A journey that starts inside E&E Manufacturing.
"We supply parts to the seating industry so our parts our going in multiple vehicles," says Larry Joy. The steel employees use comes into the plant on large coils, but doesn't stay there for long.
"When people walk in here," owner Wes Smith says, "our customers even walk in here and are amazed at what we have inside at this facility." And it's easy to see why, the steel is unrolled and fed into these 15 hundred ton presses.
On the day of our visit, E&E's presses are stamping parts for a Ford Escape, two at a time inside the massive machine. Matt Frazier says, "it really makes you stop and look at a car and think maybe I made something inside that."
Each arm inside the press adds another piece of the car part puzzle, going from a flat piece of steel to these support pieces in just under a minute. "We can take those higher tech processes and use it as a cost reducer so we can compete with the parts being made overseas," Joy says.
E&E is so competitve they ship their parts to Mexico and China, as well as auto manufacturers in Tennessee, helping to keep the local economy pumping and gaining speed. "It's not only the job itself," Smith says, "but it's the people who supply us. and the local restaurants and stores and services that create jobs for the community."
Jobs that are multiplying today, even after the automotive slump that threatened so many just a few years ago. "I never experienced anything like that," Smith says. "It was a tough time, but yes we're fortunate. We're growing and we see a lot of opportunity and hopefully we've got all that behind us."
E&E is starting to use a higher strength alloy steel that makes cars more crash-safe and increases fuel efficiency.
Click here to learn more about the company.
IMF: Up to $3 trillion in over-borrowing in emerging markets
LIMA, Peru (AP) -- The International Monetary Fund says the biggest risks to the global economy are now in emerging markets, where private companies have racked up considerable debt amid a fifth straight year of slowing growth.
WEST PALM BEACH, FL -- (Marketwired) -- 03/21/14 --
Companies that pride themselves on being eco-friendly may have conflicted
ideas between marketing with ad specialties and maintaining their green
BILL COSBY - SEXUAL ASSAULT LAWSUIT
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- First she called the police on Bill Cosby.
LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Take this job and -- well, you know the rest.
IN THE NEWS: CYBERCRIME COSTS
NEW YORK (AP) -- The cost of cybercrime is going up.


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Brighton Jones LLC acquired a new stake in Sysco Corporation (NYSE:SYY) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 4,613 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $232,000.
Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Sysco Corporation by 2.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,910,943 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,968,336,000 after purchasing an additional 1,064,162 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. grew its position in shares of Sysco Corporation by 2,088.2% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 32,207,618 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,672,219,000 after purchasing an additional 30,735,711 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Sysco Corporation by 1.2% in the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 9,837,807 shares of the company’s stock valued at $510,776,000 after purchasing an additional 118,939 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of Sysco Corporation by 6.1% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 6,688,003 shares of the company’s stock valued at $347,241,000 after purchasing an additional 385,492 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of Sysco Corporation by 47.6% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 5,054,930 shares of the company’s stock valued at $254,415,000 after purchasing an additional 1,629,990 shares during the period. 79.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
A number of brokerages have recently commented on SYY. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Sysco Corporation in a research report on Monday, August 14th. Zacks Investment Research downgraded Sysco Corporation from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 11th. BMO Capital Markets set a $60.00 price objective on Sysco Corporation and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 3rd. BidaskClub downgraded Sysco Corporation from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 21st. Finally, Bank of America Corporation reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $61.00 price objective on shares of Sysco Corporation in a research report on Monday, June 26th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. The company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $56.17.
In related news, Director Trian Fund Management, L.P. purchased 889,561 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 19th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $53.68 per share, with a total value of $47,751,634.48. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 5,529 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $296,796.72. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO William J. Delaney III sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.92, for a total transaction of $1,497,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 406,725 shares in the company, valued at $20,303,712. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 524,714 shares of company stock worth $27,628,142 over the last ninety days. 8.81% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.
ILLEGAL ACTIVITY NOTICE: This piece was originally published by Chaffey Breeze and is owned by of Chaffey Breeze. If you are accessing this piece on another site, it was stolen and reposted in violation of United States and international trademark & copyright legislation. The correct version of this piece can be accessed at https://www.chaffeybreeze.com/2017/09/20/brighton-jones-llc-takes-position-in-sysco-corporation-syy.html.
Sysco Corporation (SYY) opened at 53.92 on Wednesday. Sysco Corporation has a one year low of $47.15 and a one year high of $57.07. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $52.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $52.57. The firm has a market cap of $28.46 billion, a PE ratio of 25.92 and a beta of 0.52.
Sysco Corporation (NYSE:SYY) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 14th. The company reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.71 by $0.01. Sysco Corporation had a net margin of 2.06% and a return on equity of 53.25%. The business had revenue of $14.40 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.64 earnings per share. Sysco Corporation’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Sysco Corporation will post $2.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 6th will be paid a $0.33 dividend. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.45%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 5th. Sysco Corporation’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 63.16%.
Sysco Corporation Profile
Sysco Corporation (Sysco) is a distributor of food and related products primarily to the foodservice or food-away-from-home industry. The Company’s segments include Broadline, SYGMA and Other. The Broadline segment includes its Broadline operations located in the Bahamas, Canada, Costa Rica, Ireland, Mexico and the United States.
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Pacific Plaza Hotel
Sheraton Dallas Hotel has introduced a new outdoor event space under its new event programming, Dare to Outdoors. The hotel’s catering team has partnered with Pacific Plaza Park, a 3.7-acre green space in Downtown Dallas. The park features a 31,950 square-foot lawn space and permanent seating, as well as night-sky friendly lights for star-watchers. Three food truck power outlets are available and standard outlets are located throughout the park.


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Fresh Produce has announced the sale of its assets to Blue Stripe.
Fresh Produce filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on April 4. Now, with the approval from the U.S. Court, Blue Stripe—which includes the original founders of Fresh Produce and a group of brand enthusiasts—officially assumed ownership.
While cutting the underperforming stores, the brand will continue to sell via wholesale and online. In addition, 15 retail brick-and-mortar locations will continue to operate throughout the country.
"On behalf of all of us here at Fresh Produce, I want to say thank you to our employees, our customers, our wholesale accounts, and our vendors for their patience and support over the last few months," said Founder Mary Ellen Vernon. "We are very pleased to have been able to orchestrate a transaction for the company that will allow Fresh Produce to continue operations and to carry on our promise to add color to the lives of women everywhere."
As part of the deal, Tiger Capital Group acquired the assets of 12 underperforming stores that will liquidate over the next 60 days. The equity provided by Tiger enabled the investment team to acquire Fresh Produce's best assets and position them for the future.
Although it seems like Fresh Produce is down, it is certainly not out and will continue to operate. The retailer's story is similar to that of RadioShack (NYSE:RSH), whose brand was recently sold off to Standard General, saving more than 1,700 stores from liquidation, following a bankruptcy filing earlier this year.
-See this Fresh Produce press release
Standard General acquires RadioShack, appoints new CEO
Sprint opens 1,400 co-branded RadioShack stores
RadioShack selling brand and locations separately
RadioShack pushing for faster sale of assets
RadioShack may be down, but it's not totally out


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Russia’s state-owned energy giant, Gazprom, said Tuesday that it had filed proposals with the European Commission aimed at resolving charges of antitrust activity.
Gazprom, which supplies a third of the European Union’s gas, has been on the European Commission’s radar since 2012, culminating in charges last year that it had overcharged customers in Eastern and Central Europe and blocked rivals.
Since then, Gazprom has offered concessions aimed at staving off a potential fine of up to 10 percent of its global sales.
A spokeswoman for the European Commission confirmed that regulators had received proposed commitments from Gazprom and would assess “if they address, in a forward-looking manner, the commission’s competition concerns in line with E.U. antitrust rules.”
Gazprom’s deputy chairman, Alexander Medvedev, said in an email that the company was ready to take into account Europe’s criticism “where it is substantiated and possible.” The energy giant added it hoped for a resolution in the near future.
Gazprom did not elaborate on the details of its proposals.


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The Guernsey Venture Challenge is delivered in partnership with expert venture builders Blenheim Chalcot, with total backing of £65,000 available.
The top prize is £40,000, with £20,000 investment for second place and £5,000 to back an entrepreneur under the age of 25.
Each prize also includes a six-month business mentorship.
‘Access to funding and expert mentoring are two essential elements for a successful new business and so we are very pleased to be working with Blenheim Chalcot to launch Guernsey’s first Venture Challenge,’ said Digital Greenhouse director Lucy Kirby.
‘We have seen hundreds of great ideas and new businesses established over the past few years and hope this initiative will benefit Guernsey entrepreneurs at the early stage.’
Deputy Sasha Kazantseva-Miller of the Committee for Economic Development said: ‘New businesses are the engine for innovation and new thinking.
‘It’s great to see the Digital Greenhouse ramp up its efforts supporting start-ups through the launch of the first accelerator programme mixing intense mentoring and funding.’
Co-founder of Blenheim Chalcot Charles Mindenhall said the company was hugely excited to be supporting Guernsey’s increasingly innovative business environment through this opportunity.
Businesses can now apply on the Digital Greenhouse website and shortlisting will take place at the start of July. Selected businesses will take part in an intensive six-week support programme from an expert mentor to prepare for their final pitch to the judges in early September.
. More information and application forms can be found at www.digitalgreenhouse.gg/GVC.


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Wensleydale furniture maker Tom Addison has been able to expand the range of products he can supply through his fine furniture business thanks to a small business grant.
Tom, from Askrigg, used the £1,000 grant from Richmondshire District Council to help purchase a versatile band saw.
He said: “Being a small workshop I usually do most of the making processes by hand, but having this versatile bandsaw gives me different opportunities.
“I can now create curved pieces a lot more easily as well as cutting much larger pieces of timber.”
The next application deadline is July 25.
Find out more at https://www.richmondshire.gov.uk/…/grant-for-furniture…/


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Gold prices dropped to their lowest in 1-1/2 months on Monday, as a stronger U.S. dollar made bullion expensive for other currency holders, despite expectations of a large COVID-19 relief package in the United States.
* Spot gold fell 0.3% to $1,820.46 per ounce by 0048 GMT, having fallen to their lowest since Dec. 2, 2020 at $1,809.90 earlier in the session. U.S. gold futures eased 0.7% to $1,816.80.
* The U.S. dollar .DXY strengthened to its highest in four weeks against rival currencies.
* U.S. President-elect Joe Biden said on Friday he wants 100 million COVID-19 vaccine shots during his first 100 days in office, a day after unveiling a $1.9 trillion stimulus package proposal to jump-start the economy.
* U.S. retail sales fell for a third straight month in December, while U.S. producer prices rose moderately, suggesting that an anticipated pick-up in inflation in the coming months will probably not be worrisome.
* China's economic recovery likely accelerated in the fourth quarter, driven by stronger demand at home and abroad and policy stimulus, which is expected to provide a solid boost into 2021.
* Holdings of the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust GLD rose 1.4% to 1,177.63 tonnes on Friday. GOL/ETF
* Speculators reduced their bullish positions in COMEX gold and silver contracts in the week ended Jan. 12, data showed on Friday.
* Physical gold in top consumer China was sold at a small premium for the first time since early 2020 last week, as demand picked up ahead of the Chinese new year.
* Silver fell 0.6% to $24.57 an ounce. Platinum rose 0.4% to $1,078.19, while palladium shed 0.2% to $2,377.49.
DATA/EVENTS (GMT) 0200 China Urban Investment (YTD) YY Dec 0200 China Industrial Output YY Dec 0200 China Retail Sales YY Dec 0200 China GDP YY Q4
(Reporting by Sumita Layek in Bengaluru, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips) ((Sumita.Layek@thomsonreuters.com; Within U.S. +1 646 223 8780, Outside U.S. +91 8061822693; Reuters Messaging: Sumita.Layek.firstname.lastname@example.org))


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The FDA warns of a real water product linked to the outbreak of hepatitis
A warning from the U.S. The Food and Drug Administration is assisting when the agency, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Southern Health Nevada District, investigates reports of Nevada-free hepatitis C virus linked to alkaline water.
“The FDA is aware that the alkaline water in ‘Real Water’ is no longer available for sale by online retailers,” law enforcement officials said Wednesday. In a test of the company’s voluntary performance last month, the FDA also found that many distributors had not been notified by the memorial company.
“On March 31, 2021, Real Water Inc. continues to advertise the product on social media despite announcing its reinstatement,” the organization said. “Therefore, the FDA further states that it is important for consumers, restaurants, distributors, and retailers not to drink, cook, sell or supply alkaline ‘Real Water’.”
The organization also advises not to give water to livestock.
Five children were hospitalized in late 2020 in Clark County, but have recovered, according to a report by the Las Las Health Department of Las Vegas, which first received reports of five cases in November 2020.
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“Patients were living in four different homes. Six more people reported having mild symptoms including vomiting, nausea, loss of appetite and fatigue. These patients included three adults and three children,” the health district said.
The FDA has said the company, which has facilities in Henderson, Nevada, and Mesa, Arizona, is not cooperating with its investigation into the outbreak.
Commemorative products include 5-gallon and 3-gallon containers of Real Water for home delivery / registration, bottles of various sizes sold online and in stores, and concentrate sold online. The press release from the company includes 1.5 liter, 1 liter, 500 ml, and 1-gallon 1 drinking water bottles and 4 oz. focus.
Remembrance products are available nationwide, according to the company’s press release, but 5-liter containers were distributed in Nevada, California and Arizona.
Symptoms of all forms of hepatitis, including non-viral hepatitis, can include fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, dark urine, clay or gray bowel movements, joint pain, yellow eyes, and jaundice.
Real Water is marketed in blue plastic bottles as a rich and “alkaline” mineral and is “infused with negative ions.”


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A whole bunch of info came out about Sonic Frontiers today, and it’s not just what we got in the trailer. A pre-order bonus, an ”Adventurer’s Treasure Box,” will be available for anyone who pre-orders. Check out the image below:
In addition to this, the game’s Steam page has also confirmed that it will be using the infamous Denuvo anti-piracy software.
Finally, it appears anyone who signs up for the Sonic Frontiers newsletter will receive codes for free in-game content. You can sign up here.


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Crave's Eric Mack threw cold water on the iPhone 6 back in January 2013. While many of his predictions came true, he's a little shocked at how much he got wrong at the same time.
CEO Tim Cook has promised for more than a year that Apple will bring out new products and step into new categories. At this week's event to talk up larger-screen iPhones, fans are hoping he'll finally deliver the next big thing -- a wearable device.
A professor at UC Berkeley (in California's earthquake country) has created a prototype device that warns of pending quake-related rumbles and could be installed as easily as a home fire alarm.
Prominent venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital are expected to take part in the funding round.
The Internet giant buys another company, as Alibaba, the Chinese giant in which Yahoo has a large stake, moves closer to its blockbuster IPO.
On the heels of IFA and in the shadow of Apple and T-Mobile, Super Mobility Week has the makings of a quiet alternative show.
Having first installed microphones as well as cameras on its buses, Boston school officials decide that maybe they're a touch Orwellian.
Reports suggest Apple could unveil its own mobile-payments system and an NFC-equipped iPhone 6 at its September 9 event. If so, how would an Apple iWallet actually play out?
Sony says the decision not to feature 2K screens on its smartphones is a deliberate choice and is beneficial for consumers.
With a Raspberry Pi and USB gamepad controller letting you run riot on your sofa, this student project is couched in innovation.