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While Tenceent claims that a technical issue has prevented him from airing the Game of Thrones episode, HBO has disputed this assertion. In a statement to CNN, the premium cable TV service said "no problem of content delivery". A spokesman for the company also said at the the Wall Street newspaper Tencent was prevented from broadcasting the final of the series by the Chinese government because of trade tensions. Tencent has promised to inform its users of available broadcast time, and HBO has not been able to provide additional brightness to its viewers in China.
The Trump administration has been conducting its trade war against China for nearly a year now. Things got worse last week when the president signed a new decree effectively banning the sale and use of products from Chinese telecom companies. Companies like Intel, Qualcomm and Google have stopped their activities with Chinese companies following the blacklisting. The Trump administration would consider easing the restrictions to prevent service disruption for some networks using Chinese hardware.


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A prototype of what appears to be the BMW X7 has been spied for the first time.
The full-size SUV was spotted parked on a street somewhere in Bavaria, Germany hiding its identity with a camouflage pattern that we have seen on previous BMW prototypes. Most likely this is the already confirmed X7 set to come out in 2017 or 2018 as a competitor for the Mercedes-Benz GL-Class and will ride on the same platform as the next generation 5- and 7-Series.
It will be manufactured at BMW's factory in Spartanburg, South Carolina where the automaker plans on investing 1 billion USD. The X7 is expected to adopt a seven-seat layout and judging by these spy shots it will have a longer hood, an elongated rear overhang and a bigger rear quarter window. The roofline is almost flat so there should be plenty of headroom for those sitting in the back.

domain: news


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The highest marginal rate for federal income taxes peaked in 1944 at 94 percent. It dropped in the ’60s and again in the ’80s. In 2017, tax cuts signed by President Donald Trump set it at 37 percent — around the average of where it had been for the previous 25 years.
So what is the ideal top tax rate? The classic argument for lower rates holds that they decrease incentives to hide wealth and encourage the rich to save and invest. On the flip side, advocates of bringing back higher rates say they would maximize tax revenue, which could be used to reduce economic inequality.
However, Charles Jones, a professor of economics at Stanford Graduate School of Business and senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), argues that this long-running debate isn’t fully considering an important factor: how taxes affect innovation.
This overlooked force sharply constrains the benefits of higher taxes on top earners, Jones finds in a paper published recently in the Journal of Political Economy. If high taxes slow the creation of the new ideas that drive economic growth, they would undo any redistributive effects and reduce everyone’s income, not just the richest. “This paper contributes to research that shows why we might be worried about jumping to that high tax rate too quickly,” he says.
Jones finds that if innovation is ignored to maximize revenue, the top tax rate could be as high as 91 percent. (Gabriel Zucman, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, who has advised Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, has suggested that the ideal top rate should be 75 percent.) But Jones concludes that the optimal rate should be much lower — anywhere from 50 percent to 9 percent, or even lower.
Rather than calculate the optimal rate, Jones’ main aim is to consider the effect of top income taxation on the creation of new ideas and to explain how it affects our current economic situation. “The U.S. economy is on an unstable path, and we’ll have to lower the deficit by raising taxes or cutting spending, or a combination of the two,” he says. “How one does that is really going to matter greatly for economic growth.”
Ideas as the engine of growth
Jones, who studies economic growth, contends that the massive increase in living standards over the past century is the result of new ideas discovered by a relatively small number of people.
“The reason why innovation matters so much is that it multiplies,” he explains. “If you want to make a billion workers better off by giving them computers, you need a billion computers. If you want to make a billion people better off with ideas, you just give them one new idea, which is infinitely usable.”
He cites the invention of the iPhone, which did more than just enrich Apple and Steve Jobs: It created entirely new industries and spurred other new ideas. Or take COVID-19 vaccines, which were invented by a few firms yet saved countless lives. As he notes in a recent paper in the Annual Review of Economics, ideas aren’t like goods or capital. “Each new idea can be used by any number of people at the same time, so every improvement has the potential to benefit everyone,” he writes.
Traditional arguments about taxes focus on the link between economic growth and tax rates. However, Jones notes that the evidence here is murky. High top tax rates have been correlated with higher economic growth as well as the reverse. Jones says that drawing firm conclusions from these observations is impossible because there are no counterfactuals. “It is entirely possible that had we not lowered tax rates, growth would be even slower,” he says. “We just don’t know.”
What is clear is just how sensitive innovation is to taxation. Jones cites research that measured the impact of tax incentives on patents for new inventions. Increasing the “keep rate” — the amount left in one’s pocket after taxation — by 10 percent raised rates of innovation by more than 20 percent. “There is extensive empirical evidence that innovation responds to tax incentives,” Jones says.
If income taxation distorts innovation by deterring entrepreneurs, it will also depress the incomes of everyone else. “When the top 1 percent produce fewer ideas, it reduces their income and tax revenue but also consumption of the middle classes,” Jones says. Think of any number of recent innovations that started with a few people — the iPhone, Google, COVID vaccines — if they hadn’t been created, the U.S. economy as a whole would be worse off.
To be sure, higher taxes would fill federal coffers. By Jones’ calculations, raising the top marginal tax rate from 50 percent to 75 percent would raise about 2.5 percent of GDP in revenue. However, this tax hike would reduce innovation and lower GDP per capita by around 7 percent in the long run.
This would hurt living standards. Even if the increased revenues were redistributed to lower earners, they would be worse off on average since incomes would decline. “If you want to maximize worker welfare, you might want a lower top rate of tax,” Jones says. “If you let the rich create ideas, that makes the middle class better off.”
More R&D isn’t enough
Could social welfare and innovation be boosted by simultaneously taxing top incomes and subsidizing R&D? Not so fast, Jones says. He points out that a federal subsidy cannot perfectly target innovation because much of it occurs beyond formal R&D. For example, about 70 percent of measured R&D is in manufacturing, and only 15 percent of workers are employed by firms that conduct any official R&D. Walmart and Goldman Sachs, on the other hand, report zero spending on R&D, even though they commercialize new ideas.
“Research subsidies miss the important stuff,” Jones says. “Think about the creation of new firms like Amazon or Uber, or the application of machine learning and artificial intelligence to all sorts of business and consumer problems. This is often not covered under formal R&D.”
He argues that measured R&D as a definition is too narrow, but he also underscores the difficulty of correctly identifying research that leads to the creation of new products and services. “If you make the definition too broad, the risk is that people will label everything as R&D even though it’s not, in an attempt to get the subsidy.”
Ultimately, Jones concludes that subsidizing the discovery of new ideas through lower top tax rates may be an effective tool for stimulating economic growth. It’s possible that this is a better way to improve the welfare of a wide range of people than higher top tax rates and direct redistribution — food for thought as policymakers look to repair America’s finances in the years ahead.
This story was originally published Sept. 28 by Stanford Graduate School of Business.


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UPDATE: Sanofi's likely blockbuster insulin Toujeo wins FDA approval
- The FDA on Wednesday granted approval to Sanofi's insulin glargine Toujeo, the successor to its flagship blockbuster insulin Lantus.
- Toujeo has been approved for type 1 and type 2 diabetic adults.
- In a statement, the company said that the drug will launch in the U.S. in Q2. A Sanofi spokesperson told BioPharma Dive that the company is aiming for a launch sometime around April.
“Sanofi is proud of its long heritage in diabetes and insulin therapies, including Lantus which has supported patients in the management of their diabetes for more than a decade," said Sanofi Global Diabetes SVP Pierre Chancel in a statement. "With the FDA approval of Toujeo, Sanofi builds on its strong legacy and looks forward to bringing a new treatment option to people living with diabetes."
This is a huge deal for Sanofi. Lantus, grappling with patent expiration and competition from biosimilars, will no longer be able to provide the company the sky-high revenue stream that Sanofi's become accustomed to, making Toujeo's launch particularly critical.
The company said as much during the JP Morgan Healthcare conference last month, asserting that Sanofi would be putting its full marketing force behind Toujeo—not too much of a surprise considering that's what is necessary to carve out a space in an increasingly crowded diabetes field and staunch the bleeding from flagging Lantus sales. One analysis by EP Vantage predicts that Toujeo sales could near the $1.7 billion mark by 2020, while Credit Suisse pegs it at a more optimistic $2 billion by 2018.
One bit of news that may make Sanofi feel more confident about Toujeo's chances? Eli Lilly's announcement earlier this week that the company would be delaying regulatory filings for its long-acting insulin candidate for several years due to adverse effects. But it will still face plenty of competition from companies like Novo Nordisk, which has already been eating away at Lantus sales.


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US stocks mixed after snapping 3-day losing streak as trading slows and investors assess Omicron spread
- US stocks were mixed on Wednesday, after Tuesday's strong gains, as investors assess the spread of Omicron.
stock marketis seeing thin trading volumes in the shortened holiday trading week.
- Tesla stock jumped 4% after CEO Elon Musk said he sold another $548 million of the EV maker's shares.
- Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell.
US stocks were narrowly mixed on Wednesday as investors assess the swift spread of the Omicron variant ahead of the holiday weekend.
Stocks snapped a three-day losing streak on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq jumping 2.40%. But thin trading volumes due to the shortened holiday week, uncertainty about President Biden's legislative agenda, and little company news helped contribute largely flat trade on Wednesday.
Here's where US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. ET open on Wednesday:
- S&P 500: 4,650.67, up 0.03%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 35,517.00, up 0.07%
- Nasdaq Composite: 15,322.62, down 0.12%
Tesla stock jumped 4% after CEO Elon Musk said he sold another $548 million of the EV maker's shares to finally reach his target of selling 10% of his stake.
FTX and Crypto.com plan to run Super Bowl ads next year after both bought the naming rights to professional sports arenas.
Sales in the NFT
One skeptic of the Web 3.0/metaverse space is Elon Musk, who trashed the idea that people want to strap a screen to their face for the entire day.
Gold rose as much as 0.33% to $1,794.60 per ounce.
- Here’s a list of stocks that can benefit from the festive season
- New Airtel and Reliance Jio prepaid plans compared
- Mobile accessories company Balaji Solutions files initial papers for public listing
- Ratan Tata launches Goodfellows which helps senior citizens make friends
- Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed Concord Biotech files for an IPO
- Ather 450X Gen 3 vs Ola S1 vs TVS iQube S – price, specs and features compared


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Italy-based global confectionery major Ferrero Group has announced that it will acquire Eat Natural, the maker of high-quality cereal bars, toasted muesli and granola. The value of the deal has not been disclosed, according to a report by news agency PTI.
The deal is expected to close in the coming months, said a joint statement adding that the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
As part of the transaction, Ferrero Group will take over Eat Natural’s production facilities in Halstead, UK, and plans to retain the management and the employees of the businesses.
“Eat Natural are an excellent strategic fit for the Ferrero Group as we continue to expand our overall footprint and product offerings into the healthier snacking market segment,” Ferrero Group Executive Chairman Giovanni Ferrero was quoted by PTI as saying.
Eat Natural Co-founder, Praveen Vijh told PTI, “Ferrero is a fabulous company and we are proud that they would like us to be part of their family. We have many shared ethics, and both have a vision to make healthier snacking available for everyone.”
On December 17, Ferrero Group announced that it will enter into a definitive agreement to acquire Eat Natural.


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The leading facial recognition firm launches new video analytics to enhance security and safety in the new post-pandemic era
BARCELONA, Spain, July 13, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Herta [http://www.herta.ai/], the Barcelona based facial recognition company, has recently launched a new range of solutions that will help businesses and industries adapt to the new normality.
Awarded with the COVID-19 Response Seal of Excellence by the European Comission [https://www.hertasecurity.com/en/news/herta-awarded-highly-competitive-covid-19-response-seal-excellence-european-commission], Herta's new applications allow the monitoring of social distancing, occupancy control, mask detection, and facial recognition, even when people wear masks.
Herta's technology is characterized by having the best reputation, with real and large-scale security projects worldwide. By expanding their product range, the company aims to reinforce their mission: increase the world's safety by building user-friendly computer vision solutions. With these new applications, Herta will surely help organizations comply with the new COVID-19 safety regulations as well as covering the needs that arise in this new normality.
Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1213066/COVID_Solutions_Herta.jpg [https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1213066/COVID_Solutions_Herta.jpg]
CONTACT: Laura Blanc, CMO, firstname.lastname@example.org, +34-936-020-888
Web site: https://hertasecurity.com/


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Controversial Shirt Sports SS Logo in PatternGerman MEP raises issue of SS resemblance in viral post; company 'regrets' outrage over design.
'Parsons Values Anti-Semite Over Jewish Students'NY students have launched a petition aimed at imploring fashion design school to repeal its teaching invitation to alleged anti-Semite.
Anti-Semitic Fashion Designer to Teach in NYFashion designer John Galliano, who was convicted in France for a public anti-Semitic rant, is set to teach at top NY design school.
Israeli Eurovision Contestant Barred From GallianoIsrael’s contestant in the international Eurovision music festival was barred from wearing a dress by designer John Galliano.
Galliano's 'Hassidic Garb' a ‘Complete Distortion’New York Post story accusing fashion designer John Galliano of dressing in Hasidic garb, is “a complete distortion,” says ADL.
A Year After Anti-Semitic Outbursts, New DesignerFrench fashion designer Dior named Raf Simons to succeed John Galliano who was fired over a year ago for racist and anti-Semitic outbursts.
Jerusalem: Who is Defacing Ads with Women?Jerusalem police have been asked to track down the vandals who are defacing ads in the capital that feature women.


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On Thursday I participated in a press conference with Chittenden County Vermont Senator Virginia Lyons. She has introduced a bill to the Vermont legislature that would require electronics manufacturers to fund or partially fund a statewide ewaste recycling program. The bill is still “on the wall” and has not been brought before the legislature. Remarkably, she received a letter from the People’s Republic of China pressuring her to drop this electronics bill. This has happened in other industries, notably toys (states regulating lead in toys), and in agriculture (certification of “organic” food exported from China.)
The ewaste issue is very important to our company. We strongly support the concept of Senator Lyons’ bill. Such a bill could be good for the environment, fair to consumers, and fair to businesses that make, sell, and service electronic goods.
Small Dog has underwritten an ewaste recycling program for about a decade. We’ve recycled over 215 tons of ewaste. This program costs our business tens of thousands of dollars annually, but the success of the program shows that consumers know and care about the issue.
Right now, with our current system, the cost of ewaste recycling in Vermont is unfairly placed upon consumers, local governments, and a few retailers who choose to do the right thing. It can cost $15 or more to recycle an old TV; that’s a steep fee for many people and businesses. It’s almost a penalty.
Electronics are unique because they can contain hazardous elements, which, in quantity, are toxic to our environment. In similar industries, producers are responsible for the cost of recycling their products when they become obsolete. We believe the consumer electronics industry needs to catch up, but they won’t do it unless it’s mandated.
We support this bill because it endorses a “shared responsibility” between electronics producers and the general public. It levels the playing field. Mandated producer responsibly that includes recycling makes it much easier for consumers to do the right thing. It’s worked in other states, it’s worked in other countries, and it can work in Vermont.
A couple of years ago, Apple started an optional computer take-back recycling program in all of their Apple Stores (we like to say that they were catching up to Small Dog).
Almost as soon as Apple had to bear the cost of recycling their own products, their products became greener, cleaner, and easier and cheaper to recycle. During the same timeframe, Apple’s revenues and market share have shot through the roof. [Apple has realized a billion dollars in profits every quarter during that timeframe.]
This shows that when manufactures have a stake in recycling their products, they become motivated to design them for an entire life cycle. This does not need to harm the bottom line.
Equally important, it means the cost of recycling is shared by the entire marketplace.
Again, we support Sen. Lyons bill and hope to see it pass without any further foreign interference.


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Being a die-hard Mustang enthusiast here in Southern California has its advantages and disadvantages. Sure, we are lucky enough to have great weather, a plethora of windy roads to enjoy, and of course, plenty of beach cities to explore.
But it’s no secret that we are often subject to some very tight restrictions when it comes to upgrading our vehicles to match our unique build styles.
While the rest of the country may think that SoCal drivers are so hampered by emissions compliance that they are just driving around in stock vehicles, this simply isn’t true. The muscle car community here in Southern California is very much alive and well with no plans of going anywhere anytime soon. And a perfect example of this was proudly on display this weekend in San Diego, California.
This past weekend marked the 40th Anniversary of the Mustangs by the Bay Car Show. The annual event, which is brought to you by the Mustang Club of San Diego, brings like-minded crowds of muscle car enthusiasts from all over the West Coast together to celebrate America’s favorite Pony car.
The annual event takes place on the historic Embarcadero Park in San Diego, California, with many of the vehicles on display just inches from the scenic walking path that surrounds the San Diego bayfront.
This year was completely sold out with nearly 350 Mustangs of all makes and models on display for enthusiasts and visiting tourists to enjoy.
While we have covered this event many times in the past, this year, we decided to experience the annual event not as journalists, but as everyday car enthusiasts.
So just like all of the other 300+ Mustang entries this year, we applied and entered our latest project vehicle, our Magnetic Metallic 2019 Shelby GT350, into the show.
We also signed up to attend all of the pre- and post-event activities that go along with this show to get a first-hand look at what your everyday Mustang enthusiast goes through to get their vehicle ready in time for the big day.
Meet and Greet at JBA Speed Speed Shop
Unless you are entirely new to the Southern California car scene, most SoCal muscle car enthusiasts have either heard of or have attended a Coffee and Cars event at JBA Speed Shop in San Diego, California.
The team’s burnout box is legendary, and owner J. Bittle and his team are always on hand to answer any questions you might have about taking your build to that next level of performance.
This year, the JBA Speed Shop team hosted a Meet and Greet event the night before the car show, to give enthusiasts from out of town a place to break the ice and show off their hard work in a familiar car guy environment.
We cruised into the JBA Speed Shop event right around 4 pm when it was scheduled to start. Right away, we were immediately surprised by just how many cars were already on display in the designated parking spots! If we had arrived about 15 minutes later, we probably would have had to park outside in the overflow parking area!
The event featured an all-you-can-eat style buffet courtesy of STP Bar-N-Grill, with plenty of BBQ-style dishes for enthusiasts to enjoy.
The team at JBA Speed Shop also gave enthusiasts full access to both buildings to show the crowd what vehicles were being worked on in the shop.
What made the Meet and Greet such a success was that it gave people participating in the car show a much smaller area to discuss their builds before the actual event.
Early Morning Cruise-In With Immortal Stangs Car Club
Now we all know if you are participating in a car show or club meet in your city, that usually means there is going to be some kind of car club cruise-in, right?
Well, as we mentioned earlier, because we were attending this event as Mustang enthusiasts, we wanted to get in on that action as well. So we spent a reasonable amount of time on the local SoCal Car Clubs social media pages to find a meeting place that was in our area. We found that the Immortal Stangs Car Club was rallying up at around 6:30 am here in San Diego to convoy out to the event at 7:00 am.
Having attended a couple of these particular clubs events in the past, we simply showed up at the required time to see if we could cruise with them to the event.
When we arrived in our brand new 2019 Shelby GT350, they immediately recognized the driver and were more than happy to host us for the day. This particular early morning meet was also a special occasion as, unknown to us, the car club was introducing two new members to the group.
We were able to watch as they each received their custom-made Immortal Stangs Car Club T-shirts to wear proudly at the event. Then at 7:00 am sharp, we all lined up our vehicles and rolled out onto the 5 South Freeway heading into downtown San Diego.
The total cruise only took about 10 minutes, but it was really cool to see a diverse sea of Mustangs participating in the cruise. We had classic Fox-bodies, EcoBoost Mustangs, and even the latest S550s and Shelby Mustangs all cruising together in style.
Having Quite The Day In America’s Finest City
Once we arrived at the venue, the event coordinators had each class of vehicles assigned to a specific area at the park. And it became immediately apparent to me why the Immortal Stangs wanted to head out so early; it was already jammed packed!
Arrive early, and you get a good spot for your car. We got lucky and were able to park our Mustang in the front row of the Northern section of the park, right next to the walking path which was the closest row to the waterfront!
But if you ask me, there really were no bad spots to park your vehicle. There were nearly 350 vehicles on display, and I counted at least 100 S550s in my area alone.
In the center of the park was a large sponsorship venue, which included JBA Speed Shop, Kearny Mesa Ford, and of course, the Mustang Club of San Diego, to name a few.
The Boy Scouts of America were also on-hand with plenty of food and drinks throughout the day. The Mustang Club of San Diego did a great job handing out a ton of different trophies for the different classes of vehicles, and many of the event sponsors had some cool prizes they were raffling off throughout the day as well.
Mustangs by the Bay Is A Must See Event In San Diego
If you happen to be in the SoCal area during the month of October, we highly recommend marking this one down on your calendar next year. The event is entirely free for the public to attend, and when you combine plenty of cool cars with the breathtaking views of the San Diego bayfront, you get an event that is hard to beat.
We had a blast attending this year as just your “average” car enthusiast. Special thanks go out to the Immortal Stangs Car Club for inviting us to hang out with the crew for the weekend.
If you didn’t get the chance to attend this year, here is a large photo gallery that we captured from the weekend-long event.


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It's a frequent and uncomfortable question: Is it time to hang up the keys?
Read This Article
With luxury makes downsizing — from the BMW 1 Series to the upcoming Mercedes-Benz B-Class — it was only a matter of time before a U.S.
General Motors has announced pricing for the 2013 Buick Encore will start off at $24,950, including a $750 destination charge.
The 2012 Buick LaCrosse will arrive later this summer, and it’s coming with updated options under the hood.


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Google launches earthquake alerts system in Phi…
Janvic Mateo (The Philippine Star) – June 18, 2021 – 12:00 am MANILA, Philippines — Technology company Google has launched in the Philippines its earthquake alerts system feature using Android mobile devices. Google Philippines country director Bernadette Nacario said the system, which uses accelerometers in active Android smartphones to detect seismic activities, is part of their mission to bring helpful products and services to Filipinos. “Our country, being located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, is prone to natural calamities and this update will play an important role in disaster preparedness… → Continue reading
Philstar.com is a Philippine news and entertainment portal for the Filipino global community.The website covers local news, sports, entertainment, lifestyle and opinion.
Wikipedia related words
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FRANKFURT/PARIS - Apple Inc , the world's most profitable mobile phone maker, has denied working on a plan to market communications services directly to consumers and bypass the telecom companies on which it has long relied to sell its products.
Recent Technology News
- A U.S. appeals court upheld a jury verdict that Marvell Technology Group Ltd infringed two hard disk drive patents held by Carnegie Mellon University, but said a $1.54 billion damages award against the chipmaker should be reduced significantly.
- Sprint Corp reported a much smaller-than-expected quarterly loss on Tuesday, and majority owner SoftBank Corp assuaged investors' concerns by saying it had no plans to sell its stake in the wireless carrier.
- U.S. cable company Charter Communications Inc reported a slightly higher-than-expected quarterly revenue as addition of more Internet subscribers offset the impact of a fall in its video customers.
SEOUL - For four years Samsung Electronics Co Ltd has basked in the success of its Galaxy smartphones, making billions of dollars competing with Apple Inc in the premium mobile market.
- United Continental Holdings Inc Chief Financial Officer John Rainey has left the fourth-biggest passenger air carrier in the United States to take up the same role at PayPal Holdings Inc , the companies said Tuesday.
- Apple and interest rate jitters weigh on Wall Street
- Drugmaker Shire bids $30 billion for Baxter spin-off Baxalta
- Greece and lenders strike upbeat tone, deal seen on bailout
- U.S. factory orders rebound on strong demand for aircraft
- Pfizer wins EU approval for $15 billion Hospira buy
- Exclusive: UBS was warned of Puerto Rico loan practices, e-mails show
- ATM fee lawsuits against Visa, Mastercard, banks revived on appeal
- U.S. judge rejects American Express class action settlement
- Brazil presents another hurdle in Monsanto's bid for Syngenta


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The European Central Bank needs to issue a digital euro as yielding the space entirely to private sector initiatives like stablecoins could endanger financial stability and weaken the role of the central bank, ECB executive board member Fabio Panetta said.
The ECB has been working on designing a digital currency, a direct claim on the central bank much like in the case of cash, but the project could still take around five years before an actual currency could be launched.
“Just as the postage stamp lost much of its usefulness with the arrival of the internet and email, so too could cash lose relevance in an economy that is becoming increasingly digital,” Panetta said in a speech on Friday.
“If this scenario were to materialise, it would weaken the effectiveness of central bank money as a monetary anchor.”
Central bank digital money, while still going through commercial banks, would be a central bank liability, giving people an additional level of safety that is not impacted by the health of individual lenders or payment service providers.
But Panetta rejected the argument that private sector stablecoins – a form of cryptocurrency usually pegged to a traditional currency so it maintains its value – would make digital central bank money superfluous as private initiatives carry inherent risk that are often amplified in times of crises.
“History shows that financial stability and public trust in money require a widely used public money alongside private monies,” he said.
For a central bank digital money to work, it needs to be widely used so people are continuously aware that it is an option on the table.
“To this end, a digital euro would have to be designed in a way that makes it attractive enough to be widely used as a means of payment, but at the same time prevents it from becoming so successful as a store of value that it crowds out private money and increases the risk of bank runs,” he added.


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Etisalat named world's strongest telecom brand with US$12.5 bn portfolio
ABU DHABI, 26th January, 2022 (WAM) -- Etisalat has been ranked as the world's strongest telecom brand and is the first in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region to achieve this milestone recognition by Brand Finance, the world's leading brand valuation authority.
With a telecom portfolio of well over US$12.5 billion, Etisalat retained not only its AAA brand rating but also its position in MEA as the strongest brand across all categories and the most valuable brand portfolio. These accolades underline the UAE's leadership position globally in its cutting-edge telecom infrastructure and strategic advances in digital transformation.
Speaking on the occasion, Hatem Dowidar, CEO of Etisalat Group, said, "To be recognised as the world's strongest telecom brand and as the most valuable telecom brand portfolio in MEA underline the success of our strategic initiatives to build a robust telecom infrastructure that creates added value for our customers wherever we serve. With our relentless focus on being customer-centric, we continue to push our horizons by investing in next-generation technology that enhances our service offering and helps shape the digital future."
He added, "In this digital-first era, our focus is to be agile to meet the evolving requirements of our customers and deliver relevant and flexible services. Since our inception in 1976, we have been led by a vision to create a world-class telecom infrastructure central to economic progress. We are inspired by the support and guidance of the UAE leadership to stay innovative and future-focused so that we can continue to empower communities and enrich lives."
Brand Finance also named Etisalat Group CEO to the Elite List of Brand Guardians globally. This recognises the ground-breaking initiatives launched since he joined Etisalat in September 2015, which played a key role in propelling Etisalat's business growth.
Assuming the role of Group CEO in 2020, he stewarded the company's growth through the fast-changing telecom and technology landscape following the COVID-19 pandemic. His astute brand stewardship served as the foundation for enhancing Etisalat's brand reputation and employee engagement.
David Haigh, Chairman and CEO of Brand Finance, said, "Guided by the vision to 'drive the digital future to empower societies', Etisalat is the world's strongest telecoms brand of 2022, as well as retaining its status as the strongest brand in the Middle East and Africa for the second consecutive year.
"Etisalat's brand focuses on togetherness and plays its part by providing a first-class telecoms infrastructure across its footprint. Exceptional rollout of 5G technology has also meant that the Etisalat Group's portfolio of brands is the most valuable amongst telecoms organisations in the Middle East."
With the UAE leading the world in fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) penetration rate, Etisalat's robust fibre-optic infrastructure enhances the customer experiences across all business operations. Etisalat raised the benchmark as the world's fastest network by delivering the best 5G experience at Expo 2020 Dubai as its official telecommunication and digital services partner, surpassing the expectations of millions of visitors.
Etisalat has built a dedicated network for Expo 2020, the first 5G commercial site in MENA with more than 8,000 Wi-Fi access points, 8,500 mobile access points, and 700 km of fibre-optic cable.
As the UAE celebrates its 50th anniversary, Etisalat has leveraged its 46 years of telecoms experience and its investment in telecom infrastructure to enable the progress of the people and business alike and support vital sectors such as healthcare and education especially following the pandemic. Through its 'Stay at Home' campaign, over one million students across the UAE completed their studies online seamlessly.
As the telecom sector continues to evolve at breakneck speed, Dowidar focuses on strengthening Etisalat's strategic role in empowering the communities it serves in global markets.
Etisalat's digital arm has already made great strides in its digital B2B services, particularly in cybersecurity, the Internet of Things (IoT), and cloud connectivity. Help Ag, Etisalat Enterprise Digital's cybersecurity arm, protects customers against identity theft and serve as an effective digital transformation vehicle.
Brand Finance is the world's leading independent branded business valuation and strategy authority. Founded in 1996 and headquartered in the City of London, it aims to 'bridge the gap between marketing and finance.' Brand Finance evaluates over 5,000 brands across all sectors and geographies every year. The 500 most valuable brands are included in the Brand Finance Global 500 report.


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NEW YORK Copper and brass shipments from service centers fell 8.6 percent month on month in November to 20.5 million pounds, according to the Copper and Brass Servicenter Association (CBSA).
Shipments for the first 11 months of 2012 dipped slightly to 244.8 million pounds from 245.9 million pounds in the same 2011 period.
November alloy shipments totaled 10.8 million pounds, down 11.5 percent from the previous month, while copper shipments fell 5.2 percent to 9.8 million pounds.
Meanwhile, 200-series brass sheet shipments fell 11.7 percent in the same comparison to 3.8 million pounds, and 300-series rod and bar dropped 9.8 percent to 4.7 million pounds.
Copper sheet shipments fell 5.2 percent to 3.9 million pounds, while copper rod shipments dropped 5.3 percent to 5.1 million pounds, according to the Overland Park, Kan.-based organization.
Service center suppliers expect incoming orders to increase over the next three months, with 83 percent of respondents polled predicting a rise, while 41 percent of service center sources also see a pickup.
A majority of service center sources (78 percent) said that they no longer had workers on short time or layoff, while 57 percent of suppliers reported the same trend.
An increasing number of suppliers said inventory levels fell in November, the CBSA said.


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An advert for an unusual, scary job in Edinburgh has had to be taken down after the employer said he was flooded with responses.
City of the Dead Tours advertised online a few days ago looking for some brave souls to work as guides on their tours of Edinburgh graveyards and spooky underground passages.
But manager Jamie Corstorphine said the business was overwhelmed by the response, especially considering the fact that applicants might have to fight off a poltergeist as part of their day-to-day duties.
He explained he posted online advertising for three new guides, saying: “we decided to put the ad out on our website and social media asking if anyone fancied doing something different and come on board with us.
He added: “It does take a special kind of person to be a guide with us and you have to be prepared to possibly come face to face with the "MacKenzie poltergeist".
Jamie explained City of the Dead Tours, which started running its famous ghost tours again last week (now with social-distancing), had been overwhelmed by the response.
He said: “usually we would get maybe 10 or so applicants, however I had to stop taking CVs when I hit 35 as we only have three positions available at the moment so its been really successful.
“Whether that is down to the climate just now or just got to the right people at the right time but it worked.”
But perhaps applicants wouldn’t be so quick to send in their resumes if they knew what lay in store for them.
“Since 1999 we have been taking people into the locked Covenanters Prison area in Greyfriars where a poltergeist likes to "interact" with people and guides and is widely documented and in excess of over 3000 eye witness accounts,” explained Jamie.
“This thing is very real and interactions on visitors and staff sometimes include scratches, burns, bite marks and people being knocked out cold (not fainting).
To receive one WhatsApp message a day with Edinburgh Live's headlines, as well as breaking news alerts, text NEWS to 07899067815. Then add the number to your contacts as 'Edinburgh Live'.
“So guides take on this job entirely at their own risk and we have had guides that have made it through training and suddenly the poltergeist decides to say hello to them and they just go to bits and we don’t see them again.”


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Bungie has a lot to prove with Destiny, and the news that player progress in the upcoming shooter will be capped at level 20 wasn't met with enthusiasm. In existing MMOs hitting the level cap usually means the game is about to get boring, after all.
There is an explanation for the low cap, however. In Destiny, a new breed of MMO that could kickstart the genre for the next generation of games, the idea is that players will hit the highest level quickly so that their friends are never too far ahead.
After that point, progression is meant to be "horizontal" - you'll seek out better equipment and try out different builds without actually leveling up.
No matter what kind of fancy labels Bungie slaps on Destiny, the truth is that it really is an MMO. And these changes to genre conventions could mark a paradigm shift as more and more new Xbox One and PS4 games begin to borrow various aspects from the massively multiplayer.
But Bungie Head of Community Eric Osborne told TechRadar at E3 2014 that there's more to Destiny's end-game content than that. "In Destiny, when you complete the campaign, you're really just getting started," he said.
Circle of Life
The game's longevity apparently hinges on its cyclical nature. Every aspect of the game is connected, and that will keep players moving around and not getting stuck in a rut, Osborne said.
Multiplayer is linked directly back to the rest of the game For example, "reputation" credits earned in deathmatches can be used to purchase weapons in the hub area. It's all "rooted in story," Osborne said.
"It sounds like light storytelling, but once you start experiencing it, it's a driver to keep you moving around the world in a really cool way," he explained. "It creates these cool cyclical experiences where you sort of become omnivorous."
But there's more to it than that, and Osborne said there's a lot of end-game content that Bungie has yet to reveal to the public.
"We've named a raid, but that's just one of the examples of the kind of stuff we want to give player," he said. "Once they reach what they believe is the peak in the game, then we really just want to blow their minds with a whole bunch of crazy, like, 'Now go try that!'"
Under the surface
The Halo games were rife with mysteries, from the Halos themselves to the long-dead Forerunners. The world portrayed in those titles went far beyond the games.
Bungie is hoping to recreate that in Destiny with a web of mysteries that won't be wrapped up in a single game, Osborne revealed.
"We have a pretty good understanding of that full arc," he said. "It certainly isn't completed in the first entry to Destiny. We want to make sure that there's a great introduction to the world and you get a sense of completion as you finish the game, but we certainly want to leave a lot of mysteries out there and a lot of things for the player to do."
At the center of that web is The Traveler, an enormous spherical craft floating directly over Earth's last city. Questions about it will pervade this game and future entries in the Destiny series.
"We want people to sort of wonder what it is," Osborne said. "Is it good? Is it evil? Is it, you know, benevolent, as the people of the world believe it to be? Or is it something else? We want to preserve that sense of mystery across the world."
"And it's a fine line to strike," he continued. "You have to give people good storytelling and good characters and information about what they're doing, you know - make them feel like they have agency in the world, like what they're doing is important and going to drive to a conclusion.
"In the same sense you want to leave a lot of that mystery out there, because it drives that interest in that intrigue and sort of becomes captivating in its own right. It also sets the stage up for stories later down the line."
With Activision and Bungie's partnership spanning a full decade, there's no doubt there will be plenty of those.
The future of MMOs
games, including Star Wars: The Old Republic and many others, have struggled to find footholds in a post-World of Warcraft industry.
But with a new generation of game consoles might come a new breed of MMOs, and Destiny could lead the charge.
These games could be story-driven and well-produced, and their mechanics won't be limited by what's been possible in past MMOs - just look at Destiny's solid shooting gameplay. And, perhaps most importantly, it will be easier than ever to play with your friends.
Whether Destiny will inspire a new generation of MMOs or these qualities will simply be incorporated in upcoming games of many genres is unclear, but for now it's enough to know the future is full of new possibilities.


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London: Uber will offer discounted travel to health professionals in the UK from Wednesday as the service expands its range of services based in Madrid last month to 4 million front lines fighting COVID-19 in more than 20 countries of workers.
The ride services company said it is partnering with governments and medical institutions around the world to establish Uber Medics to provide employees with free and discounted ride services to and from hospitals, health centers and nursing homes.
Uber said that after linking the NHS email address to an account or registering through their nursing home, 1.2 million UK National Health Service (NHS) employees and 1.3 million Uber-funded rescuers will receive 25% Discounts on traveling.
CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that Uber is proud to play a small role in the tremendous efforts of medical personnel to protect and treat people affected by COVID-19.
“We stand ready to work with governments and healthcare providers around the world to support their efforts to tackle the pandemic,” he said on Monday.
Uber said Uber Medics was developed in Madrid last month and was developed at the request of the Madrid Ministry of Health to support medical personnel as a basic service.
It has since expanded to more than 20 countries, including France, Italy, Germany and India.
Uber said earlier this month that it will provide 10 million free rides and food delivery services to health professionals, seniors and those in need around the world.
In Britain, it is providing 200,000 free rides and 100,000 free meals for NHS staff.


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Samsung is going to announce an Android device namely Galaxy Tab S3 at MWC 2017. It is the successor of Galaxy Tab S2 that was announced in 2015.
Today, an image of Galaxy Tab S3 hits the web. So, we can see the image the Galaxy Tab S3 doesn’t look too different from the Tab S2, though there is one notable novelty: the new tablet is accompanied by an S Pen stylus. Tab S3 expected to be a thin, high-end tablet running Android 7.
According to the rumored specifications: –
Beside S Pen stylus aside, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 will feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor. The device will also feature a 4 GB of RAM, up to 128 GB of storage space. In the rear side of the device it will have a 12 MP camera and in the front side it will have a 5 MP camera for selfie.
It is expected that the device will have a 9.7-inch, 1536 x 2048 pixels display will be released – in Wi-Fi, and Wi-Fi + LTE flavors. According to a report a US carriers are planning to sell the LTE model for about $500. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 will be announced on February 26.
For more info stay with us…


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Next Sidmouth Repair Café – Saturday 29th July!
Simply google ‘news about repair cafés’ and you get hundreds of hits, just for the UK and just for this month!
The media is more and more interested in what now seems an obviously good idea – for example, from the craft magazine Prima on ‘How to fix damaged items for free and learn new skills’:
Instead of taking tired items to the dump or recycling centre, a new foundation called The Repair Cafe is opening its doors worldwide to offer the public an opportunity to fix and transform their lacklustre items with a group of specialist volunteers. The Repair Cafe – originally launched in Amsterdam by founder Martine Postma – is a free meeting place encouraging visitors to bring in their broken household items to fix themselves alongside volunteer repair experts.
It is a truly international effort – with the Repair Café organisation growing by the day.
And that includes the Sidmouth Repair Café – with a very active social media page and an even more active group of volunteers who meet up on the last Saturday of the month – including this coming Saturday 29th July.
So, if you have any item that needs a little tlc, bring it along for the team of fixers to help bring it back to life!
In the meantime, the Herald carries regular pieces on the Sidmouth Repair Café – if you’d like to do a search for more news about our local repair café!


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MassRoots Inc. (MSRT): Softened Stance from Attorney General Regarding Cannabis a Positive Driver
From MicrocapResearch.com – Researching The Best Microcap Stocks
March 16, 2017 - 2:05pm
MSRT shares lost 30\% in recent weeks due to uncertainty in how the new administration in Washington will deal with the rapidly growing legalized cannabis industry in the U.S. However, Attorney General Jeff Sessions took a much more pragmatic stance on the cannabis industry in the U.S. just yesterday Expect shares of MSRT to rally in the coming days/weeks on… Continue reading →
The post MassRoots Inc. (MSRT): Softened Stance from Attorney General Regarding Cannabis a Positive Driver appeared first on MicrocapResearch.com - Researching The Best Microcap Stocks.
Continue reading this article »


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Billie Eilish is slamming “bozos” who leave unsavoury comments on her Instagram about her fashion choices.
The Grammy-winning singer hit social media over the weekend to clap back at people who called her a “sellout” for switching up her style to a more feminine look, BuzzFeed reported.
“Letter to some comments i be seeing sometimes … ” she began the message on her Instagram Story, which is no longer available.
“I spent the first 5 years of my career getting absolutely OBLITERATED by you fools for being boy ish and dressing how i did & constantly being told i’d be hotter if i acted like a woman,” she recounted.
Over the years, Eilish, who became known for playing by her own fashion rules, has been seen sporting everything from purple space buns to bleach blond pinup looks.
She continued, “and now when i feel comfortable enough to wear anything remotely feminine or fitting, i CHANGED and am a sellout ... and ‘what happened to her’ oMg iT’s nOt thE sAmE biLlie she’s just like the rest bla blah… you guys are true idiots. LOL. i can be BOTH you fucking bozos. LET WOMEN EXIST!”
“FUN FACT! did you know that women are multifaceted!!!!!??? shocking right?? believe it or not women can be interested in multiple things,” Eilish wrote. “Also that femininity does not equal weakness???!!!! omg?! insane right? who knew??”
“Suck my absolute cock and balls you women hating ass weirdos,” the Happier Than Ever artist said in conclusion.
Back in December, the crooner got candid with NME about how sticking to the same style for so long “haunted” her, so she switched it up because she wanted to “have range and to feel desirable, and to feel feminine and masculine.”
Eilish — who first hit the music scene with her signature green tresses and loose-fitting outfits — also told The Sunday Times last June that only being known for her baggy clothes was “driving me mad.”
She also addressed naysayers three years before in a Calvin Klein campaign, sharing that she wears baggy clothes because she never “want[s] the world to know everything about me.”
“I mean, that’s why I wear big baggy clothes: Nobody can have an opinion because they haven’t seen what was underneath,” she said in a video for the brand.
Eilish’s recent Instagram comments aren’t the first time the star has had to defend herself against haters and their unsolicited opinions about her style.
When the Ocean Eyes singer outraged fans after appearing in a lingerie-clad British Vogue cover in June 2021, she dished out a word of advice to anyone dealing with backlash.
“Dress how you want, act how you want, talk how you want, be how you want,” Eilish said in a Vanity Fair interview in November 2021. “That’s all I’ve ever said. It’s just being open to new things and not letting people ruin it for you.”


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Yes, you read it right as one of the world’s largest cellphone manufacturer Xiaomi might finally be going public sometime next year in 2018; with the company according to reports seeking a valuation of at least $50 Billion.
According to a recent report from Bloomberg’s sources, the company Xiaomi is in talks with investment banks and might start off its initial public offering also called (IPO) in Hong Kong. The alleged valuation would be higher than valuation that the company received back in the year 2014 as part of its funding round which is $46 Billion.
Since the company is famous for selling gadgets at razor-thin margins along with software ecosystem depended on to provide additional revenue hence the investors according to a survey are skeptical because of company’s business model. The basic issue is that Xiaomi has a highly diverse portfolio of (when it certainly comes to) gadgets and the software ecosystem isn’t nearly as prominent as Google’s or Apple’s.
The company is reportedly confident that it will successfully fetch a valuation of at least $50 billion. Moreover, the company has also been massively investing in offline retail, in simple words a flight from the company’s previous dependence on an online-only availability thing so basically an emphasis on an offline presence is relatively new territory for Xiaomi.
According to a spokesperson at Xiaomi the company does not comment on matters related to a possible IPO but reports show that it could happen as early as the second half of coming year.
That’s all for now, you can share your thoughts related to the topic in the comments below or you can also write to us at email@example.com for any queries, suggestions or feedback. Stay connected for more news, reviews and updates coming your way!
Also Read: Xiaomi officially ends support for these six (06) devices


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BTS has created a song for a car commercial that could be a crowd favorite.
BTS has partnered with South Korean automaker Hyundai for promotional efforts before, but they did their best for the latest campaign.
Hyundai is launching a brand new electric vehicle lineup, IONIQ, and they got BTS to write a song, “IONIQ: I’m On It,” and shoot a video for it.
Although it’s a commercial song, the group took the track seriously and the result is a fun disco-inspired tune that stands out evenly alongside their beloved discography.
Hyundai notes that each member of the group has “lyrics that reflect a new future.” These are “time of novelty” (V), “time of adventure” (Jungkook), “time of the inner self” (RM), “time of hope and encouragement” (Suga), “time of excitement” (Jimin), “Time of creation and inspiration” (J-Hope) and “time of continuous effort” (Jin).
RM said of the song, “For this special project, we have all focused on individual moments that are important to us. For me, time for the inner self is extremely important, I think we all need time for reflection in order to grow.
Suga added, “We hope this song inspires everyone to find time for what’s most important and that they can do the right thing for a cleaner future.”
Jimin also said, “Individually, we all seek different things in life, but collectively we come together for a better future.”
BTS is a brand that dominates the market
The famous South Korean group has collaborated with various international brands, since carrying out any promotion or publicity with the K-Pop band is a guaranteed success for the product or service, and this time it was no exception.
The official video that was shared on the official Hyundai channel already has more than 3 million views on YouTube and more than 800 thousand likes. Would you buy a product just because the BTS guys promote it?


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Further to reports of time-consuming mandatory bag searches at Apple’s retail outlets in the US, two former employees have now launched a class action against the company. The case was filed on 25 July 2013 at the United States District Court Northern District of California. The nature of the complaint is grounded in the extra time employees are required to spend waiting for the bag searches and not receiving the correct renumeration for doing so. This practice breaches the Fair Labor Standards Act and state laws in New York and California, the plaintiffs claim.
The complaint states, “Apple has engaged and continues to engage in illegal and improper wage practices that have deprived Apple Hourly Employees throughout the United States of millions of dollars in wages and overtime compensation. These practices include requiring Apple Hourly Employees to wait in line and undergo two off-the-clock security bag searches and clearance checks when they leave for their meal breaks and after they have clocked out at the end of their shifts.”
The named plaintiff’s in the class action are Amanda Friekin from Los Angeles, California, who was employed by Apple between 2010 and April 2013, and Dean Pelle, a New York resident who worked in various Apple stores around the US from 2007 to March 2013.
The class action file states that the amount of time Friekin was forced to wait in line amounted to approximately “US$1500 in uncompensated ours worked and overtime” and an estimate of US$1400 was quoted in Pelle’s case.
The exact number of class members is unknown at this time, but it is believed to be several thousand. The lawsuit is seeking an unspecified amount of damages.
by Macworld Australia staff


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Press Release – Beef And Lamb NZ
New Zealand grass-fed beef has become an anticipated treat for runners competing in the giant Naha Marathon in Okinawa, Japan, run last week. Beef + Lamb New Zealand has again had a stand offering New Zealand beef to marathon runners and spectators …13 December 2011
Japanese marathon runners lap up New Zealand grass-fed beef
New Zealand grass-fed beef has become an anticipated treat for runners competing in the giant Naha Marathon in Okinawa, Japan, run last week.
Beef + Lamb New Zealand has again had a stand offering New Zealand beef to marathon runners and spectators near the finish line of the 42 kilometre run.
Beef + Lamb New Zealand Market Manager, Japan, John Hundleby said the beef had developed a real following at the event which this year attracted around 24,000 runners.
“We’ve been running the grass-fed beef stand at the marathon for three years and it’s by far the most popular food on offer at the event.
“Japanese people clearly understand the health and nutritional merits of the grass-fed beef and there’s no doubt they also love its taste.”
Another feature at the marathon was four runners, including a Tokyo-based TV announcer, who wore New Zealand grass-fed beef branded shirts during the race.
Hundleby says Okinawa has for many years been a key market segment for New Zealand grass-fed beef. San-A, one of the two major supermarket chains in Okinawa, has carried New Zealand beef as its main imported beef product and is the largest single retail customer in Japan for chilled New Zealand grass-fed beef. New Zealand beef is also regularly available at restaurants and other supermarkets in Okinawa.
Beef + Lamb New Zealand runs events like this on behalf of sheep and beef farmers to encourage consumers to choose New Zealand grass-fed beef.
About Beef + Lamb New Zealand:
Beef + Lamb New Zealand Ltd is the farmer owned industry organisation representing New Zealand’s sheep and beef farmers. Beef + Lamb New Zealand Ltd invests farmer levies to help develop a growing sheep and beef industry providing sustainable returns for future generations. Beef + Lamb New Zealand has four programmes – Farm, Market, People and Information – to deliver innovative tools and services to support informed decision making, and continuous improvement in market access, product positioning and farming systems for New Zealand’s sheep and beef sector. www.beeflambnz.com


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The adult entertainment industry is seemingly always the media early adopter of new technologies, such as faster streaming solutions, virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and now, blockchain.
A stark difference from most attention and dollar-starved media companies, adult entertainment sites are thriving.
At an initial glance, one might scoff at the idea of the same companies producing videos ranging from [expletive redacted] to [expletive redacted], and even the occasional [expletive redacted] being viewed as technological leaders, but it’s a reality that shouldn’t be overlooked.
The average consumer of adult media is biologically primed, if not addicted, to consuming a particular site’s content. They’re loyal, repeat customers that would disable their ad-block in a heartbeat to consume content– a dream that makes non-adult media site owners salivate.
Adult media companies are traffic powerhouses.
Pornhub ranks #7 on Similarweb’s list of top websites in the United States and gets more traffic than Instagram, Wikipedia, and Reddit. Instagram! How many times have you personally checked Instagram today? Instagram has over a billion users. Pornhub beats it.
The second and third top-ranking sites take #11 and #13, beating out Netflix, LinkedIn, Pinterest, CNN, ESPN, Foxnews, Yelp– even Coincentral.com.
On the international traffic front, the top three adult sites hold three spots in the top 11.
Every user earns the site ad money. Some users purchase premium subscriptions. Some even buy merchandise. Adult sites leverage their massive user bases to invest in creating new content,
While Wikipedia was begging users for spare change to stay alive, Pornhub was crowdfunding money to send people to have sex in space. The campaign ultimately missed its target for $3.4 million in 60 days but received pledges of $236,086.
Many adult entertainment companies are allocating a significant amount of capital towards exploring new technologies to keep their edge over the cut-throat and often shady competition. From artificial reality holograms (link NSFW) that make porn stars magically pop up in your living room on stripping poles to artificial intelligence “deepfake” porn that seamlessly superimposes non-performer (celebrities, people of interest, maybe even you) faces in sexual scenes, the adult entertainment space appear to be miles ahead of not only other media sites, but of full-on film production companies.
Some companies have even taken to blockchain monetize, protect, and further distribute their content– potentially serving as future excellent case studies for all content production companies struggling to monetize.
Enter Naughty America CEO Andreas Hronopoulos
We got a chance to interview adult film studio Naughty America’s CEO Andreas Hronopoulos on how the company has been exploring and innovating new technology to make a better overall experience for its customers. Find out the impact blockchain for adult entertainment can have on the overall media industry, and how a leader in the space plans to prove it.
Why are adult entertainment companies always on the innovative edge?
It’s in the essence in that adult entertainment fulfills a need, like breathing air. There’s always a demand for [our content]. For people creating products around that need, there’s a fast process of iteration and you can see if there’s an interest in the new product or not.
It’s very binary. If you work in the adult entertainment space, you know you’re going to be doing cutting edge stuff all the time. Pushing the envelope; how we can help people find their fantasy? Linking tech and sex. There’s the demand, and we want to apply the tech and see if there’s a fit or not.
Could you walk us through a day in the life of Andreas Hronopoulos? What are the typical daily decisions that need to be made?
Simply just finding new ways with tech and finding how Naughty America can help people in the adult entertainment industry. For us, we’re going in line with where blockchain is.
This is a great era for our organization because we’ve always looked at how our content can help other companies. How can we take our library of content and help other companies with their business? I bring Naughty America to the table, and how can we help you? It’s about the simple idea of trading.
The blockchain industry seems to be ripe for partnership with a content-rich company like Naughty America. So many projects are working on solutions that require some volume of users and content.
My daily to-do list revolves around our brand and our content can help other people grow their companies. We want to bring our assets to your ecosystem. That’s the beauty of Naughty America, it travels. We’ve invested a tremendous amount over 20 years in content, and we’ll continue to invest in it.
We’ve been very welcomed by everyone in the space to bring our content into their ecosystem. It’s an exciting time, blue ocean, it’s a new day, it’s so different than where we were 12 years ago. We’re [digital media companies] in such a radically different world from just around a decade ago.
We’ve always seen ourselves as a media company that utilizes technology. The adult entertainment industry has always been ahead of the curve. Being a media company is where we want to be. We don’t want to be a tech company. There are a lot of brilliant engineers out there, and we want our media to be there to support them.
Could you tell us more about Naughty America’s relationship with blockchain?
We first started accepting bitcoin as payment in 2014. We had a big uptick of people using it, but then that number declined. We were getting Bitcoin for our content and we just didn’t understand it. I didn’t understand it. To me, it was like someone paying with Apple Shares for a cup of coffee.
That’s the fun of working with all these blockchain ecosystems now. We have companies hit us up all the time to accept their payment coin, but that’s not really how it works. We provide our content as an ecosystem – as far as payment solutions there’s nothing better than accepting Visa/Mastercard.
In 2016, we started investing time and energy to go about leveraging the value of our digital asset, our content library.
The first company we talked to was Decent. The ability to aggregate people’s content they’ve provided to us and provide them a record using blockchain to show that when content is being broadcast helped establish transparency.
In an unregulated Internet, having a blockchain record allows us to give our partners their ability to see when we’re aggregating their content for royalties and compensation, helping increase trust. We weren’t looking to accept Decent as a payment solution. This was purely an internal solution for accounting and records.
The second company in the blockchain space we got involved with was Ara Blocks, to help us in putting our own content out there on a Video On Demand basis. We come in from this in a few ways, one was aggregating content in the premium membership. The second one was to allow content to be individually smart contracted and allow people to pay with Ara.
The third company we want to do involves non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for Naughty America and content. We’re going to be utilizing some form of blockchain to track the content. People coming into Naughty America can buy NFTs that are tied to specific pieces of content.
What are some of the largest technical challenges the adult entertainment industry faces?
For us, it’s always trying to find creativity and how to create a more entertaining and memorable experience with whatever medium we’re using.
That’s what’s interesting about what we’re doing with these holograms. Our current challenge is finding out how to make the next best hologram out there. Holograms are the new tech for media, along with other advanced forms for entertainment. For example, I’m anticipating Netflix to get into video games.
You’ll see media companies focused on making better content, then utilizing something like the blockchain to syndicate that content.
Adult entertainment and blockchain make as good a pair as any content site and blockchain. As the conversation about blockchain’s practical uses in any environment heat up, companies like Naughty America are taking the discussion beyond pure theory. Blockchain for adult entertainment may end up being the successful data point that other media sites can leverage to make the most out of their content.
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Increased Port Charges Sydney and Melbourne:
DP World (DPW) a major port operator in Sydney and Melbourne have announced they are implementing a “Port Infrastructure Charge” effective from 3rd April 2017 covering all import and export containers moving through both ports.
Melbourne port already has an infrastructure charge as part of the port charges paid to the shipping lines however the DPW charge is an additional cost that is being blamed on critical infrastructure investment, terminal upkeep and general operating expenses that have been absorbed by DPW over the last few years.
The DPW charge is expected to be $ 32.60 per container and same will be collected from the trucking companies via the electronic container booking system and will apply to all containers collected or delivered by road and rail at the port. As this cost will be an out of pocket expense GPSM will be forced to add these costs to each invoice raised to all clients.
Melbourne Toll Charges Increases:
The heavy transport industry is facing significant toll charge increases on trans-urban roads in Melbourne of up to 225% effective from 1st April 2017. The increases will apply to CityLink, Tullamarine Freeway and Monash Freeway to and from the Port of Melbourne.
The increases will only be applied to trucks, cars will not face the increased tolls. The toll increases will be used to fund the Citylink Tulla Widening (CTW) project.
Toll charges in Melbourne have generally been absorbed by trucking companies but given the huge impending increases, the Container Transport Alliance Australia (CTAA) the container transport industry body, have advised that this will no longer be the practices and all members will now be passing on the new tolls to all clients.
CTAA have advised that a truck leaving Melbourne port on a return day trip to Dandenong area will face tolls of close to $ 60.00 per trip. Similar costs will also been incurred for movements to/from other major supply chain areas in Melbourne.
We regret the need to pass on these increased tolls to GPSM clients, however, we are confident you understand that trucking rates have not been increased in Melbourne for some years and these added costs cannot continue to be absorbed.


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- AFP/Getty Images
- A booth assistant demonstrates Sega Corp.’s “Power Smash 4″ using Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.’s PlayStation Move motion controller during the Tokyo Game Show, Sept. 2010.
Sony and Microsoft both made big plays for gamer families over the holidays with their respective devices for controlling games with body motions, the PlayStation Move and Xbox 360 Kinect. Sony thinks it now has an edge on Microsoft as it goes after diehard gamers with its motion device.
In an interview, John Koller, director of hardware marketing at Sony’s U.S. games division, says Sony is “layering on more and more core titles” in the coming months, referring to games aimed at “hardcore” players who are the most avid purchasers and players of games. Those players tend to favor more immersive games, often shooters and other titles with especially intense, realistic action.
Continue reading on Digits Read More »


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Women and men’s clothes, food and jewelry made by women were put on display in the exposition.
Some women, who have put their products on show, say that local authorities in the province don’t support them and that their sales are not satisfying.
In the meantime, Zofnon Husam Natiq, Head of Women’s Affairs Department in Badakhshan states that launch of such exhibitions is actually an effort to present women’s handicrafts to the public and that they have been effective in the past.
Ms. Natiq also says that they need greater backing to introduce women’s handicrafts in foreign markets and that currently Women’s Affairs Department doesn’t have those capabilities.
Craftswomen in Badakhshan say if marketing is made for their handicrafts, their work can create employment for many women which will prove to be effective in lessening poverty and improving economy of families.
Reporter: Mohammad Sharif Shayeq


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Nokia 9 Penta Camera Flagship Renders Leak In Images & Video
The Nokia 9 renders have just surfaced in a new video and images. These CAD-based renders come from @OnLeaks and 91mobiles, which is not the first time the two partnered up to provide such information. In any case, the Nokia 9 is HMD Global’s upcoming flagship smartphone, and these renders actually resemble several leaks that we’ve seen in the last couple of months.
The Nokia 9 is rumored to sport five cameras on the back, not to mention that HMD Global actually acquired rights to use the PureView branding on its devices from Microsoft. Thanks to the provided video and images, you can take a look at the Nokia 9 from basically all angles, and presuming this leak is accurate, the Nokia 9 w…


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The digital news sensation has significantly transformed the way news is produced and consumed. It includes also altered the way media do their jobs. Various traditional news retailers have been forced to make alterations to stay in up with this technology.
In the usa, there are a a comprehensive portfolio of news media means. Some of them are online-only organizations, while others employ broadcast and print writing to nutritional supplement their digital offerings.
A lot of major media organizations own robust on the web presences, which includes ESPN, The Buenos aires Post and Fox News. These retailers have websites that make use of everything from an updated website to social media communications across the key social media platforms.
These stores are referred to as “digital indigenous media. ”
Digital native advertising have grown up online and typically rely seriously on durham contributors to provide content with regards to news websites. This approach is cost-effective and allows these organizations to publish a lot of new content without having to pay for stamping costs, online video production and other cost to do business.
Some digital native advertising also use a number of tools to reach their particular audiences, which includes updates and pod-casts. They may present apps intended for mobile devices or perhaps aggregation tools like Apple News or perhaps Flipboard.
Period management can be described as vital aspect of the news journalist’s job, whether or not they are confirming on television, car radio or on the web. They need to have the ability to effectively take care of their period so that they are able to produce the reports that their audiences look at here now demand, about deadline and within their wallets.
Journalists can now produce tales instantly, which has substantially improved all their productivity. That is a benefit designed for the public as well as for all their employers, since it saves all of them money and improves the caliber of their do the job.
In the past, reporters had to go the source for the news in order to report upon it. Today, they can do this slightly through a variety of video conferences software and other technologies.
Citizen journalists undoubtedly are a growing the main news industry, especially in free press countries. These press can record events and share them with additional journalists exactly who will then pick up the storyline. This allows information to spread much more quickly and widely than it could recently.
They are also an effective source of reports for many various other journalists and citizens equally, as they can talk about what they check out in their neighborhood communities. These types of citizen media are a essential resource for local government authorities, law enforcement and other agencies.
The slow writing movement attempts to protect the norms and ideas of professional news, especially in the context of the accelerating amount of misinformation that is circulating in social media. This kind of movement, which is supported by a diverse assortment of interests, provides the goal of preserving carefully reported, informative news.
Is considered important for some of us to recognize that there is a place for both equally digital and traditional writing in our culture. The two are very different and have very unique uses, but they perform have some characteristics that must be kept in mind even as consider the future of the news sector.


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A well-known tech blogger from China has shared a screenshot of a conversation with Jovi voice assistant on Vivo NEX smartphone. The conversation reveals that the Vivo will be debuting the Vivo X23 smartphone on Aug. 20.
In the below image, the Chinese tipster has asked two questions to Jovi. The first one is whether it knows anything about the new Vivo products. Jovi replied to it by saying that whether he was asking about Vivo X23. The tech blogger then asked about the release date of Vivo X23 and Jovi answered by saying. “8.20 will happen big.”
Even though Vivo has not released any information about the upcoming Vivo X23, its Jovi assistant has spilled the beans on it by not only confirming on its existence but also revealing its release date. It seems that the company could be skipping the X22 moniker for its next X series phone as it now seems to be working on the launch of X23.
Vivo’s sibling brand OPPO has already announced the OPPO R17 smartphone. Hence, there is a high possibility that the announcement of the Vivo X23 may not be far away.
As of this writing, the specifications of the Vivo X23 phone are under the wraps. The phone may sport a design similar to R17 which means it may come with a water drop notched display. Another reliable leakster has supported this claim by sharing a leaked image. The image seems to show two Vivo X23 handsets stacked on top of each other. According to him, the Vivo X23 will be arriving in two models featuring Snapdragon 670 and Snapdragon 710.
It could be the first smartphone ever to arrive with 10 GB of RAM that will be employed through 6 GB RAM + 4 GB RAM dual channel technology. Chinese leaksters have been claiming that Vivo could become the first company to launch 10 GB RAM smartphone.
Since the predecessor smartphones have featured in-display fingerprint scanner, it is very likely that the upcoming X23 smartphone will also feature it. In the recent past, two new Vivo phones with model numbers V1809A and V1809T were certified by 3C authority in China. The 3C certification of these phones have revealed that they will carry support for 22.5W fast charging. It is speculated that these two devices could be the variants of the upcoming Vivo X23 phone. If the handset is really launching on Aug. 20, the company soon release an official confirmation on in the next few days.


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Another Chinese automaker reported not-so-great second-quarter earnings.
In the first half this year, Great Wall Motor (2333.HK) generated 28.5 billion yuan revenue, an 8% rise from a year ago, but the growth was due to higher SUV product mix and hence pricing. Sales volume was actually down 6.5% from a year ago, driven by plummeting sedan sales.
Great Wall Motor reported first-half net profit of 4 billion yuan, a 3.3% decline from a year ago and the first time in the company's history to record profit decline. This is because a year ago, Great Wall Motor was the world's most profitable automaker, said Bernstein Research analyst Max Warburton, who pointed out that Great Wall Motor's operating margin in the second-quarter last year was a whopping 19.1%.
Great Wall Motor's operating margin has come down since, reporting 16.6% in the second-quarter this year. The company has spent a lot of money on technology and model upgrades. In the first quarter, research & development expenses almost doubled and was 4.1% of revenue, compared to management's guidance of 3% for the year and just 2.2% a year ago.
Shares of Great Wall Motor rose 3.7% at the open. The results above were in line with the preliminary results the company released on July 23.
Back in May, Great Wall Motor delayed the launch of its flagship H8 SUV model for the second time this year, after customers complained about "knocking noises" in the transmission system when driving at high speeds.
Now the question is: can Great Wall Motor go back to profit growth? "With the H1 almost ready, the H8 to be fixed eventually, and the H9, Coupe C and H7 to follow, on paper the company has the makings for a product cycle," noted the Bernstein analyst.
Nomura Securities analysts Benjamin Lo and Joseph Wong are optimistic and maintain their Buy rating:
Considering that: (1) profits appear to have found a bottom in 1H14 (which held up very well despite lower sales volume), (2) consensus earnings downgrades are mostly done, and (3) the near-trough valuations, we believe the current risk-reward is in favour of share price upside rather than downside as 2H14F sales volume and profits are likely to recover.
Bernstein Research is less certain, primarily concerned with market competition. Here are analysts Max Warburton, Robin Zhu, Bo Wen and Abbas Ali Quettawala:
We remain doubtful that Great Wall can sustain its current level of margin, and are cautious over its drive up market. Costs are rising, and competition from foreign brands will only increase over time. Essentially every mass market foreign OEM we speak with plans to target Great Wall's lower priced SUV segment in due course. Great Wall is trading on 10.4x 2014 EPS. This seems cheap at first sight. But the issue is not Great Wall's extraordinary multiple, but rather its extraordinary margins. If we "normalize" margins to 10%, Great Wall would be on 17x.
Also this morning, Geely Motor (0175.HK) fell 1%. Dongfeng Motor (0489.HK) was down 1.6%.


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Netflix has raised the cost of two of its three tiers in the first such increase in nearly two years.
Read the full article: https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/netflix-raises-its-prices-heres-what-youll-have-to-pay//
This article originally appeared on Digital Trends on 2020-10-30T02:30:58.000Z and was written by Trevor Mogg.


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Mike Sauer can’t remember ever going to the beach this early for a post-harvest getaway. But, then, he doesn’t recall ever picking his first grapes Aug. 6.
It’s been that kind of harvest for the owner of Red Willow Vineyard in Washington’s western Yakima Valley.
“We’ve been finished for about 10 days,” Sauer said as he was driving back across the Cascade Mountains from Grayland on the central Washington coast. “It seems like an ancient memory already.”
Across Washington’s vast Columbia Valley, harvest is wrapping up, and growers and winemakers would appear to be happy with the results so far.
“For the most part, it’s really quite nice,” said Kent Waliser, general manager of Sagemoor Vineyards north of Pasco.
Waliser, who farms about 900 acres of wine grapes at his four vineyards, sells fruit to more than 80 wineries – about 10 percent of the state’s producers. He will harvest his final grapes today.
“That’s the earliest we know of,” Waliser said. He’s been managing Sagemoor for more than a dozen years, but the vineyard dates back to the early 1970s.
Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, which uses two out of every three grapes grown in Washington, will finish harvest a week from Saturday.
“Everything’s ripe,” said Kevin Corliss, director of vineyard operations. “We’re thankful that the weather has been staying so good.”
With few exceptions, October in the Columbia Valley has primarily seen blue skies with highs in the 70s and 80s and lows in the 40s.
“It’s been pretty nice,” he said.
Expect record harvest
Corliss said Ste. Michelle still has between 10,000 and 15,000 tons of wine grapes left to harvest. The company owns such wineries as Chateau Ste. Michelle, 14 Hands, Columbia Crest, Northstar, Col Solare, Snoqualmie, Spring Valley, Seven Falls and Michelle Sparkling Wines.
He said pre-harvest estimates on white grapes have been about as expected, though he has seen a slight decline in tonnage with red grapes in the past couple of weeks.
“We’ve been a little light on reds, so we don’t know where we’re going to end up,” he said. “It’s still a little too early to tell, but I think we’ll end up a little light on Cab and Merlot.”
But that will be more than made up for with increased vineyard sources, Corliss said. Thanks primarily to new plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah in the Horse Heaven Hills, he anticipates overall tonnage to be up about 4 percent.
That would point toward another record harvest for Washington. Last year, growers harvested 226,000 tons of wine grapes. Just with Ste. Michelle’s additional fruit sources, that could put this year’s harvest around 235,000 tons. If this comes to pass, it would be the ninth record in the past decade for the Washington wine industry.
Sauer called this a heavy crop, thanks to some early planning. Because of the warm, early spring, Sauer decided to carry a little more fruit on his vines and leave a bit more canopy with the hope of slowing the ripening process.
“The hot season never let up,” he said. “Almost across the board, this was one of the heavier years we’ve had.”
Despite these efforts, Sauer still picked his first grapes – a rare red variety called Marquette – on Aug. 6, purportedly the earliest in Washington wine history. Sauvignon Blanc grapes were picked on Red Mountain that same day. With his last grapes coming in Oct. 4, it still made for a long harvest season.
“It just seemed like it dragged on forever,” he said.
Wineries run out of space
Sauer and Waliser said a few winemakers began to run out of places to put grapes as the season wore on.
“Normally, Merlots and Syrahs are out of the way and they are able to cycle through their fermenters at least two times,” Sauer said. “A few wineries got behind toward the end. There were definitely a few picking decisions based on tank capacity. I haven’t seen that in years.”
Waliser began communicating with his winery clients in May and June to expect an early harvest, but it still seemed to catch a few winemakers off-guard, he said.
“Winemakers were slammed because everything ripened at the same time,” he said.
As a result, wineries that have picked in the past couple of weeks have seen lighter yields primarily from grapes starting to shrivel and lose juice, he said.
Corliss said harvest has been fairly smooth for Ste. Michelle. He said that harvest typically lasts from Labor Day to Halloween, so the multi-week shift at the beginning and end has made it about the same length.
He mentioned that harvest actually stretched into the second week of November the past two years – something that won’t happen this year.
“We started three weeks early, and we’ll end two weeks early,” he said.


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Businesses are being warned by police to be aware of suspicious activity involving males attempting to buy high value items in shops.
A spokesperson said the purchases are ‘believed to be fraudulent’.
Shop owners are being urged to be on the look out for males entering their premises and attempting to buy expensive items with more than one payment method.
It is understood the men are sometimes using several cards to make a single payment.
Police say the transactions are suspicious because the ‘buyers’ are swiping cards on the machine and also pushing buttons on card readers.
Warning businesses, the spokesperson said: “Please be wary of this and inform staff. If you have persons you are suspicious of please phone 101 quoting crime CR/066373/19, or 999 if you believe a crime is taking place.”


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Earlier this week, Vivo Malaysia had announced they’d be launching their latest V19 via a livestream. Now, we know the official local prices and when the device will be available.
The latest V19 comes with a 6.44″ Super AMOLED FHD+ display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 processor, 8GB RAM, and 128GB storage. For their cameras, they’re sporting a dual camera setup on the front with a 32MP + 8MP shooters, and a quad-camera setup on the rear. This comes with a 48MP main shooter, 8MP ultra-wide angle lens, 2MP depth sensor and 2MP macros shooter.
Powering the device is a decently sized 4,500mAh battery, capable of a 33W fast charge with USB-C.
The Vivo V19 is now officially priced at RM1699, and will be available starting from April 25. This is essentially the same price as the V19’s predecessor, the V17 which started at RM1699 at launch.
There are also a bunch of pre-orders which have started, including a exclusive pre-sale with Lazada Malaysia, they have free gifts including a gift box, RM50 voucher, one-year extended warranty and one year screen protection, which equates to RM548. This will seemingly be available after launch, with wider availability starting on April 29.


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Top Purposes Of Employee Advocacy Programs [CHART]
Employee advocacy is one of the fastest growing social business programs, per a report last year from the Altimeter Group. A new study from Altimeter delves further into social media employee advocacy, finding that for brands, increasing awareness and brand health are the top business drivers for investing in such a program.
Among the 164 respondents to the study, each of whom are from companies with more than 250 employees, the top business drivers cited for investing in an employee advocacy program were:
- Increasing the reach of messages in social networks (awareness) – 54%;
- Driving increased understanding and brand health of the organization – 47%;
- Engaging employees more deeply in the company mission and their work – 43%; and
- Providing customers a better experience with the brand – 43%.
Some of those drivers are likely to be met with more success than others, per results from the report, which also surveyed more than 2,000 consumers. Read the rest at MarketingCharts.com.


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Christmas tree powered by hashtags — and you
There’s the traditional Christmas tree — with fancy ornaments and bulbs –– and then there’s the interactive holiday tree.
a&g labs, the Philadelphia research-and development-unit of the advertising agency Allen & Gerritsen, is putting the finishing touches on an interactive experience for holiday shoppers that will begin on December 14 in New York City.
An 8-foot tree made out of digital screens, colored lights and Beats Pills ––portable, wireless speakers –– will be displayed at the Beats by Dre flagship store in Manhattan. Beats by Dre (promoted and owned by hip-hop artist Dr. Dre) produces popular audio accessories such as headphones, ear buds and speakers.
When #BeatsArmy or #BeatsHoliday is mentioned in a tweet, red and green lights –– which are embedded into the speakers –– will blink. When #BeatsArmy or #BeatsHoliday is accompanied by a photo on Instagram, the photo will appear on the tree at the NYC store.
Why such an ostentatious tree? Interactive marketing techniques such as this place companies in a “different stratosphere,” said Chris Reif, senior vice president of creative and innovation at Allen & Gerritson.
Upon seeing their ‘selfie’ on the tree, people might think, “they get me, they get how I communicate” –– and possibly stay in the store long enough to look around and make a purchase, Reif said.
The tree is scheduled to stay on display throughout the holiday season. The company also plans to broadcast the video of the tree on a live, streaming webcam.
Zenovia Campbell covers technology, venture capital and education.
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The official sales price index of Dubai that was launched by Dubai Land Department (DLD) in cooperation with Property Finder, Dubai’s real estate market recorded 3,787 sales transactions worth Dhs7.43 billion in February 2021,
The Dubai Land Department (DLD) is all set to participate in the UAE Innovates Week 2021 that will be held from February 21 to 27, 2021.
Dubai Land Department (DLD) announced that its electronic Prestige Cards programme for VIP owners achieved exceptional performance success shortly following the initiative’s launch in December 2020,
The Dubai Land Department (DLD) completed over 1.4 million digital services for its customers during 2020 through its smart channels. This is part of the digital transformation process to support the Smart Dubai vision
Informa Markets, the organiser of Cityscape’s Real Estate Summit, has signed a strategic partnership for the 2020 event with Dubai Land Department (DLD) to revive real estate confidence and stimulate economic recovery.
The real estate bulletin showed that real estate transactions in Q1 2021 achieved a significant growth of 27 per cent and 47 per cent compared to Q1 2020 and Q1 2019, respectively.
Dubai Land Department (DLD) has issued 4,202 different real estate permits that includes 255,579 real estate ads in 2020 through the “Trakheesi” system on the department’s website.
Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTCM), part of Dubai’s Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism), has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU)
Dubai’s real estate market recorded a total of 8,897 sales transactions worth Dhs22.75 billion, the highest volume of sales transactions
Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed has hailed the success of the Dubai Paperless Strategy as a key accomplishment for the city of Dubai. A total of 88 Dubai Government services are now being provided through a single digital application, “Dubai Now.”


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Lenovo Executive: Talk of Nokia Purchase a 'Joke'
Chinese personal computer maker Lenovo on Wednesday quashed market speculation it was interested in buying struggling Finnish cellphone maker Nokia.
"This must be a joke," Gianfranco Lanci, who runs Lenovo's operations in Europe, Middle East and Africa told Reuters. "There's nothing ongoing."
Shares in Nokia earlier rose up to 17% in heavy volumes on market talk that Lenovo may be interested in Nokia, but gave up most of the gains after Lanci's comments.
They were 5.3% higher at 2.05 euros by 1141 GMT.
"Frankly, I'm quite surprised that people actually bought into the possibility," said a banker based in Hong Kong, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to media.
"It would have been spending so much money buying something that is not really Lenovo's core line of business. I would think a more likely possibility would be some form of collaboration or cooperation between the two," the banker said.
Nokia declined to comment.
Nokia shares have dropped more than 70% since it unveiled a strategy shift in February 2011 and speculation about a possible takeover bid have made the rounds through the year.
"Nokia is pretty close to the bottom ... Therefore the optimal window for any acquisition is closing," said Canalys analyst Pete Cunningham, adding he thought it was highly unlikely someone would buy Nokia.


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When it comes to event apps, planners have more choices than ever. Because it thinks its solution is the best, however, event app company SmartCrowdz has launched a new "Free Event Setup" program whereby it will set up any new user's first event on the SmartCrowdz event app for free. Many other solutions either charge for setup or require DIY setup by planners.
"Our goal has always been to simplify app development for the event community," said Mike Lanese, SmartCrowdz co-founder and managing partner. "By reducing this process to a few simple steps, and by making it a free service, we are offering a unique, risk-free opportunity for our customers to run their events on a professional, comprehensive, and easy-to-use platform."
Here's how the Free Event Setup program works: Planners download an event data sheet from the SmartCrowdz website, fill it out -- it includes less than a dozen fields that can be completed in just a few minutes, according to the company -- and submit it. Two business days later, the user's event app will be live and ready for attendees to use, with features such as email and social media marketing, event management, ticket sales, and online registrations, among others.
"Embracing technology is sometimes difficult but nevertheless and important step for event managers and planners," said Randy Smith, the company's other co-founder and managing partner. "We have established the Free Event Setup program to reduce those barriers and let part-time and amateur event managers take advantage of technology that previously has only been available to event professionals."
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