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K’Nex has released the first line of building toys based on Respawn Entertainment’s upcoming video game “Titanfall.”
K’Nex is getting a jump start on licensing one of the most highly anticipated video games of 2014, Respawn Entertainment’s “Titanfall.”
PopCap Games has tapped K’Nex for a line building toys based on its “Plants vs. Zombies” game apps.
The K’Nex Limited Partnership Group has tapped Big On Toy Innovation to bring its construction toy line to Europe.
©2017 UBM. All rights reserved. A UBM Company.


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Apple Releases Minor Update to White MacBook
Apple today quietly bumped the specs on the white MacBook
. Changes to the base specs include:
- Processsor speed bumped from 2.0 GHz to 2.13 GHz.
- RAM speed bumped from 667 MHz to 800 MHz.
- Hard drive capacity increased from 120 GB to 160 GB. Build-to-order options up to 500 GB are now available, up from a previous maximum of 320 GB. Notably, the aluminum MacBook and MacBook Pro continue to offer maximum hard drive capacities of 320 GB.
In addition, Apple now advertises battery life of "up to 5 hrs wireless productivity", an increase over the previous advertised battery life of 4.5 hours. Finally, the new MacBook is advertised to meet new Energy Star Version 5.0 requirements and is rated EPEAT Gold, compared to a Silver rating on the previous model.
Base pricing remains at $999.
Notably, the unidentified "Mobile Computing" device that appeared in Best Buy's inventory system earlier this week was in fact this updated white MacBook.
Leaker Jon Prosser today shared ostensibly accurate renders of the iPhone 14 Pro, providing the most accurate look yet at what the device could look like when it launches later this year.
In the latest video on YouTube channel Front Page Tech, Prosser revealed renders of the iPhone 14 Pro made by Apple concept graphic designer Ian Zelbo, highlighting a range of specific design changes...
Last year's iPhone 13 Pro models were the first of Apple's smartphones to come with 120Hz ProMotion displays, and while the two iPhone 14 Pro models will continue to feature the technology, their screens could well boast expanded refresh rate variability this time round.
To bring ProMotion displays to the iPhone 13 Pro models, Apple adopted LTPO panel technology with variable refresh...
Amazon is marking down a wide variety of 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models this week, with prices starting as low as $749.00 for the 11-inch tablet. You'll find the full list of sales below, all of which can be found on Amazon.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep...
Apple appears to have recently updated the Wallet app to allow users to add an Apple Account Card, which displays the Apple credit balance associated with an Apple ID.
If you receive an App Store or Apple Store gift card, for example, it is added to an Apple Account that was previously visible in the App Store and Apple Store apps. As of today, the Apple Account balance can also be added to...
Apple in February unveiled a new "Tap to Pay on iPhone" feature that will allow compatible iPhones to accept payments via Apple Pay, contactless credit and debit cards, and other digital wallets, with no additional hardware required.
Apple began testing the feature at its Apple Park Visitor Center earlier this month, and now Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has tweeted that the feature will begin...
Apple today confirmed that the keynote event for the Worldwide Developers Conference will begin at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time on June 6, the first day of WWDC. The keynote will be an online-only event, though a select number of developers have been invited to the Apple Park campus for a viewing event.
In addition to confirming the keynote date and time, Apple has shared the full WWDC 2022...

domain: news


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Following a thorough review, Vodacom will discontinue its M-Pesa product in South Africa with effect from 30th June, 2016, the company said in a statement on Monday.
Speaking about the decision, Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Chief Executive Officer, said, “Vodacom’s decision is based on the fact that the business sustainability of M-Pesa is predicated on achieving a critical mass of users. Based on our revised projections and high levels of financial inclusion in South Africa there is little prospect of the M-Pesa product achieving this in its current format in the mid-term.”
In other markets where financial inclusion is limited and where there is a more supportive macro environment, M-Pesa continues to gain solid traction based on exponential growth in customer acquisition. Kenya and Tanzania are prime examples of this. It is important to note that this decision does not affect M-Pesa customers in Tanzania, Lesotho, Mozambique and the DRC, where the product continues to grow exponentially.
With regard to customers, Joosub says: “Vodacom is fully committed to mitigating any inconvenience to customers impacted by the decision and assures all M-Pesa South Africa customers that their funds remain safe and readily accessible. We remain of the opinion that opportunities exist in the Financial Services environment and we will continue to explore these.”[related-posts]


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The tech industry is in the midst of a subscription war, with apps constantly vying for our attention and implementing features that mimic those popularised by their rivals.
Now, Spotify has joined the race, unveiling its redesigned app as part of an effort to create a ‘TikTok-style’ user experience. But will this be enough to keep users hooked? Let’s take a look at how Spotify and other tech giants are attempting to capture the attention of users.
Apps and Their Reinventions
In fairness to Spotify, it is by no means alone when it comes to apps trying to reinvent themselves. Instagram has taken its Stories feature from Snapchat, while YouTube has launched Shorts in 2021 – yet another endless vertical feed of snappy clips. TikTok has also joined Facebook in “nicking” the novel “one image a day” approach taken by the upstart app BeReal and labelling it “TikTok Now”.
this is Spotify's new homescreen. It's like a mix of TikTok and Instagram with vertical scrolling for albums, video podcasts, and more. What do you think? https://t.co/euHSez7wYg pic.twitter.com/LwwONEbJIS— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) March 8, 2023
Why a Transformation?
So why are so many apps so desperate to adopt the same features and aesthetic? According to Joshua Bilney, it’s all part of an attempt by tech companies to piggyback on the success of “micro-attention apps”, keeping users hooked by funnelling a huge amount of content past them in a short space of time.
Plus, with the rising calls to ban TikTok over privacy concerns, it may be a smart move for Spotify, Instagram, and YouTube to have the groundwork already in place to mop up some of its user base.
Gustav Soderstrom, co-president of Spotify, has said that today’s world “pulls us in a million different directions”, and with new features popping up all the time it seems tech companies are determined to keep us there.
Oh no. No no no. There’s *zero* need to turn Spotify into a TikTok-like experience. We need a moratorium on whatever the hell is happening to tech CEOs. https://t.co/rypOJ1VTLB— Tony Webster (@webster) March 9, 2023
New Changes to Spotify App
So what has Spotify changed? For one thing, it ditched its ‘flat’ aesthetic in favour of a more vertical format, which will display featured playlists and podcast episodes on the home page. When you open Spotify after the redesign, your home page will be filled with possibilities! Not only could a video podcast autoplay for you, but if you choose to explore new music or audio content, an endless feed of interesting and engaging options awaits. Instead of just seeing rows of recently played tracks and playlists that are familiar to you, this vertical scrolling feature is designed to keep users engaged by introducing them to something fresh.
It’s clear that Spotify, along with other tech giants, are making a concerted effort to increase their user engagement – whether it’s through micro-attention apps like TikTok or the resurrection of the annoying Clippy mascot.
But whether these tactics will be enough to keep users hooked remains to be seen. In the end, it will come down to whether or not these platforms are providing enough value for customers – and if they can capture our attention long enough to make it count.
The subscription war is far from over – and tech companies would be wise to continue innovating in order to stay ahead of the competition. How will Spotify and others rise to the challenge? Only time will tell.


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The first quarterly report as a public company issued by United States based ride-hailing firm Uber has revealed a loss of $1 billion as the company is now investing heavily in building up its food delivery and freight businesses.
The report however showed a 20 per cent rise in its revenues at $3.1 billion which was the same as the upper end of the range for revenues as forecast by the company for the quarter.
Following a conference call with executives, there was a 2.6 per cent rise in the shares of the company. During the conference call, company’s chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi described 2019 as an “investment year” even though he also stressed on a number of business such as fewer consumer promotions in the second quarter.
The share price of Uber have fallen below more than 10 per cent of the initial public offering price of $45 and analysts say that it investors of the company would have to be convinced by Khosrowshahi that it is possible to make a profits. There are concerns about the profitability of the company because of its dependence on rider incentives and increasing competition in all parts of its business – starting from its core business of ride hailing to its business of food delivery to freight.
“Our story is simple. We’re the global player,” Khosrowshahi told analysts on his first earnings call after the company’s IPO earlier this month. “Our job is to grow fast at scale and more efficiently for a long, long time.”
Analysts however said investors can get some assurance because the quarterly results of the company have shown that as a public company, Uber has been able to hit its own financial targets.
The quarterly reports also showed that the company incurred higher costs with a 35 per cent increase in the quarter because of heavy spending by the company just before the launch of its IPO earlier this month. The company however also reported an increase of 34 per cent year-on-year in its gross bookings at $14.6 billion. Gross booking brings out the total value of rides before deduction of driver costs and other expenses. There was a 3.4 per cent increase in bookings during the quarter compared to the previous quarter which indicate that the company is facing a challenge in recruiting new riders in saturated markets.
Improvement in take rates and accelerating revenue growth were impressive, said Ygal Arounian, an analyst at Los Angeles-based financial firm Wedbush. “Take rate” is the money that is taken home by Uber after deduction of costs for driver or restaurant payments and any incentives offered.
“We’re still a while away from profitability, but Uber is expecting strong signs of improvement across many of its key metrics and that is an important sign for investors,” he said
The expansion of rides into suburbs of cities in Uber’s home market of US and a generational wave, where in much lesser interest in owning a car is showed by millennials , were the two drivers of growth, Khosrowshahi said.
(Adapted from TheNational.ae)


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San Francisco: Carmaker Nissan Motor on Monday said it is not in talks with Apple following a report that the iPhone maker approached the Japanese company recently about a tie-up for its autonomous car project. According to Financial Times, Apple had approached the Japanese automaker about a potential partnership "in recent months." Nissan, Datsun to Hike Prices of All Vehicles in India by Upto 5% From January 2021.
The contact was brief and the discussions did not advance to senior management levels following divisions over branding for the iPhone maker's electric vehicles. Nissan is not in talks with Apple. However, the carmaker said they are always open to exploring collaborations and partnerships to accelerate industry transformation, reports The Verge.
Earlier, Hyundai Motor and its affiliate 'Kia' said they are not in talks with Apple over an electric car manufacturing project in response to reports of their suspended discussions. In separate regulatory filings, Hyundai and Kia, which together form the world's fifth-biggest carmaker by sales, said they are "not in talks with Apple over developing an autonomous vehicle".
Earlier, reports mentioned that Apple was also discussing similar plans with other automobile manufacturers besides Hyundai. The first Apple electric car is expected to be built on Hyundai's electric vehicle platform and the initial model could lead to new vehicles built in association with General Motors and European manufacturer PSA.
In a note to investors, TF Securities Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Apple's deep collaboration with current automakers (Hyundai Group, General Motors and PSA) who have extensive development, production and qualification experience "will significantly shorten the Apple Car development time and create a time-to-market advantage".
Kuo believes that the earliest possible date for an Apple car to hit the market is 2025. The Apple car is rumoured to feature LiDAR technology which could add a lot of depth to onboard Artificial Intelligence (AI) functions. The vehicle is expected to use a "C1" chip based on the A12 Bionic processor with in-cabin AI capabilities such as eye-tracking.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 16, 2021 08:56 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).


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Can the LS-2?? R get back the mojo for Lightning?
To become the fastest production motorcycle.by Sagar, on
Countering to the deals that lurk all around the use of combustion fuel and its effects on the environment, a greater deal of thought is gone into using alternative sources to power our vehicles, and one such company is Lightning Motorcycles. It has been involved in manufacturing electric motorcycles for almost a decade now and beams with superior efficiency, performance, and affordability than current gasoline alternatives.
Their first mass production model, the LS-218, was the fastest and most brutal machine running on electric power currently. It held three land speed records at the Bonneville salt flats including a 218 mph stint (hence the name) and many others until came the mighty Kawasaki Ninja H2R track only bike that did two mph more than the LS and snatched the throne.
Now, the company wants to get back its mojo with its second production bike, the LS-2?? R. Yes, there are two ‘question marks’ in the name but don’t worry, you’ll not have to call it so. At least not until it sets a new top speed figure at this year’s Bonneville Speed Week.
“Electric vehicles are the future” is what you will see under the banner of every automotive manufacturer now. They are moving away from the addiction to liquefied dinosaurs in a bid to a cleaner alternative to protect the environment. Time and again it has been proved that electric/hybrid vehicles have an overwhelming advantage especially to ride within the town and this evolution has been a gradual process for some – and an exciting start for others like Lightning.
The Lightning LS-218 is the fastest production electric motorcycle since the time it was launched in 2014. Weighing only 495 lbs and equipped with the latest electric technologies in the business, the new LS-218 is powered by an IPM liquid cooled, 150kw+, 10,500 rpm electric motor that generates an equivalent of 200 hp and 168 ft/lbs of torque.
It took the two-way average at Bonneville at 215.96 mph and crossed the timing lights at 218.6 mph. It costs $38,888, which is far lesser than the Ninja H2R track only edition that clipped the LS-218 from being the fastest at Bonneville. To regain that title back, the folks at Lightning have come up with the LS-2?? R which will showcase their land speed run at Bonneville this year.
The makers say that the LS-2?? R currently produces a whopping 250 hp, and they are working on increasing that somewhere in the ballpark of 300 hp. The company has already tested this bike on the mile long stretch at the El Mirage, and the bike did an impressive top speed of 212 mph. With further alterations in the engineering aspects and the vastness of the Bonneville, the folk hope to hit the 220 mph mark.
Lightning founder and CEO Richard Hatfield says “if we manage to go faster than we did before, I’ll consider it a success. If we get into the 220s, I’ll consider it a big success, and anything over that will be whipped cream and ice cream on top of it."
The 2017 Bonneville Speed Week will take place on August 12-18 and along with the LS, There is another motorcycle manufacturer who is full burst into setting a new land-speed record - Triumph. Triumph is attempting to break the land speed record in a 1000 bhp rascal. A feat of engineering and guts that will see the machine break the 376.3 mph record in an attempt to set a new outright motorcycle Land Speed World Record in 2017.
Check out the LS-218 doing the salt run at Bonneville:


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Although I think the likes of Altium Limited (ASX: ALU) and WiseTech Global Ltd (ASX: WTC) are worth considering despite the premium their shares trade at, not all investors are comfortable buying shares on such high PE ratios.
For those investors, here are three growth shares which I think look cheap right now:
Aristocrat Leisure Limited (ASX: ALL)
This gaming technology company’s shares are currently priced at a reasonable 17x estimated FY 2019 earnings. At this level I think Aristocrat Leisure’s shares offer a compelling risk/reward given its strong growth potential thanks to its exposure to the high growth social and digital gaming markets. At the end of FY 2018 its Digital segment had 8.1 million daily active users each generating 40 U.S. cents of revenue per day. With the company due to release several new games this year and increase its user acquisition spend significantly, I believe the segment could underpin the company’s profit growth in FY 2019.
Bellamy’s Australia Ltd (ASX: BAL)
At 19x earnings I think Bellamy’s Australia could be worth considering with a long term view. While FY 2019 is likely to be a year of minimal growth due to delays in gaining the necessary paperwork to sell its products in China, management remains focused on its medium term growth story and expects to increase its sales to at least $500 million by FY 2021. If it delivers on this then I believe its earnings will grow at an above-average compound annual growth rate over the next three years which could lead to a re-rating of its shares.
Bingo Industries Ltd (ASX: BIN)
This leading waste management company’s shares have been crushed over the last couple of months after the ACCC voiced concerns over its proposed $577.5 million acquisition of Dial A Dump Industries. While it would be a major blow if the acquisition didn’t go ahead, it certainly is not the end of the world for the company and its long term growth prospects remain solid. So with its shares now changing hands at just 15x earnings, I think it could be worth taking a closer look at Bingo this month.
Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of Altium and WiseTech Global. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.


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Amendola Family Cigar Company, a cigar company based out of Durham North Carolina, has announced it has entered into a partnership with Tabacalera G. Kafie y Ciia to handle its production. Tabacalera G. Kafie y Cia is located in Danlí, Honduras and is owned by Dr. Gaby Kafie.
“We chose Tabacalera G. Kafie y Cia because we are quickly selling out of our current stocks and they have the ability to meet our substantially increased production demands. They are renowned for their ethical treatment of their workers and their commitment to quality control,” said Jeffrey Amendola, founder and president of Amendola Family Cigars, in a press release. “This is a unique opportunity for us to indirectly invest in the economy of Honduras by engaging in a long-term partnership with a debt-free business that shares our worldviews.”
The first production out of Tabacalera G. Kafie y Cia is being released this month. This production will go across the company’s 11 lines.
A driving force for searching for a new factory is that the company had goals to meet increased demand for its product without sacrificing quality. Amendola Family Cigar Company said it produced 30,000 cigars last year, and with the new factory move it plans on increasing that number by 30 percent to meet its demand.
Kafie moved into the world of cigar production in early 2017 and launched Tabacalera G. Kafie y Cia, a 5,500 square foot facility that employs 20 staff members including 12 rollers, two master blenders, a leaf buyer, and a maestro.
Prior to moving to Tabacalera G. Kafie y Cia, the company had been producing cigars in the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua.


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Metropolis has listed on the bourses with a 10 percent premium. Discussing the outlook and the plans of the company with regards to the funds raised, Ameera Shah, MD, Metropolis said currently they are a debt free company, generating good amount of cash.
Internal cash flow can take care of capital requirements and small acquisitions, and there is no challenge in terms of money for growth, she said. Last year, the company generated around Rs 115 crore free cash flow.
However, as and when the company decides on doing larger acquisitions then they would require funds.
She said revenue growth in the last three years has been 16.3 percent CAGR and for the first 9 months of FY19, it has grown over 18 percent. “We are outperforming the industry and some of the competitors in terms of growth,” she said.
The company is comfortable at current growth rate and at average margins around 27 percent. – CNBC TV18


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SBANE Hosts Panel on Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ New Data Protection Rules
Massachusetts General Counsel for the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulations Among Speakers on Data Security Laws to Take Effect in March 2010
(Waltham, MA, December 1, 2009)—
Panelists from the worlds of information technology, data security and internet law joined Massachusetts General Counsel for the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulations Diane Lawton in discussing the Commonwealth’s new protection rulesat the Smaller Business Association of New England (SBANE) Profitable Connections event held today in Waltham titled “Data Security: Truth or Consequences.” The rules go into effect on March 1, 2010.
“What we were hoping to accomplish with this event was to encourage small businesses to get ahead of the data security issue, in advance of March 1, 2010 when the new regulations will go into effect,” said Bob Baker, President of SBANE. “The more educated small businesses can become about data security, the less risk they will have to face. The headaches of dealing with a data breach and the potential loss of customer trust can be significant obstacles to overcome, so being proactive to prevent them from happening in the first place is of the utmost importance to our members and small businesses throughout the commonwealth.”
“Businesses need to assess their data security risks and their ability to handle a security breach,” said Lawton. “While there is not one set rule on how much security is enough, businesses should know that the regulations are open to the fact that technology changes and security updates will need to be made by business owners.”
The new regulations state that any business or person that owns, licenses, receives or otherwise has access to personal information (PI) of a Massachusetts resident must safeguard that information in both paper and electronic formats. Businesses will now have to provide the following:
· A Written Information Security Program (WISP)
· Encryption of all PI stored on laptops or other portable devices
· Encryption of all PT records and files that are transmitted across public networks, and that are transmitted wirelessly
· Employee training, and monitoring of employee compliance.
The Massachusetts regulations will differ from the federal regulations in a couple of key areas. First, the rules will apply broadly to all businesses as opposed to federal regulations like Sarbanes Oxley or Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) which only apply to financial and healthcare data respectively. Second, encryption will be required of laptops or other portable devices, and when data travels over public networks. There will also be greater computer system security requirements.
“The time is right now for businesses to conduct a security risk assessment, to establish a comprehensive Written Information Security Program, to train their employees and talk them through the organizations security practices,” said David Wilson, Esq. from Hirsch Roberts Weinstein, LLP who spoke at the event and provided history on data breach law in Massachusetts. “At the end of the day the new regulations are good for businesses and will help prevent identity theft, which for anyone who has had this happen to them can tell you it is a terrible thing.”
“When analyzing their current security protocol, companies need to say to themselves, ‘What would my customer say about our level of protection?’” said Panelist Jacob Braun, President of Waka Digital Media Corporation, a technology and security services provider serving the needs of small business across the commonwealth. “Businesses should realize that they have an ethical responsibility to protect their clients in the manner outlined in the new state and existing federal regulations.”
“Assuming that since your company’s data has never been hacked into before, it will not be attacked in the future, is foolish,” said Panelist Frank Vincentelli, Chief Technology Officer of Integrated IT Solutions, a computing services company serving businesses and organizations in the Eastern Massachusetts area. “The methods of data intrusion are constantly changing, but then so are the methods to defend against attacks, and the regulations around data security. Business need to educate themselves as to the latest security technology available so they can ultimately protect their data to the best of their ability.”
For more information on the new regulations, businesses can go to the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulations website at http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=ocatopic&L=3&L0=Home&L1=Business&L2=Identity+Theft&sid=Eoca
About the Smaller Business Association of New England (SBANE)
The Smaller Business Association of New England is a nonprofit organization established in 1938 to promote and protect small businesses. Its 1000 member companies in six states range from sole-proprietorship service businesses and growing high technology firms to 200-employee manufacturing plants. SBANE's programs and services address the shared interests and needs of its diverse membership.


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“This announcement marks the end of the solely combustion engine-powered car. Volvo Cars has stated that it plans to have sold a total of 1m electrified cars by 2025. When we said it we meant it. This is how we are going to do it.”
Volvo CEO Håkan Samuelsson made it official, the Geely-owned manufacturer will never again build a car without some sort of electric propulsion comes 2019 (also see news above). The more electric, the better, we’d say.
“We do not have the problem of ‘Made in China’ or ‘Made in Germany’. We hope to utilise global resources to provide consumers with the best products.”
Says Zhang Hui, general manager of NextEV. The firm operates a design centre with more than a 100 employers in Munich but will build its electric cars in China together with JAC. “Designed in Germany” could be the catchphrase to use.
– ADVERTISEMENT –


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COVID-19: Flattening the food insecurity curve
To avoid societal collapses and their many potential ripple effects on world security, we must act now to flatten the food insecurity curve.
This blog was originally published on the agCelerant website. agCelerant is a value chain orchestrator for smallholder farmers and CCAFS partner.
COVID-19: the domino effect
The COVID-19 pandemic is already affecting the world on an unprecedented scale. Yet, the unfolding health crisis is only the most visible part of the iceberg. The impending global recession coming in its wake will likely be the most challenging event mankind has faced in recent history. Given the considerable difficulties experienced by developed nations in their struggle to contain COVID-19 and manage its impacts, one can easily imagine the potential for catastrophic scenarios in the developing world, and most critically on the sustainability of its food systems.
A risky dependence on food imports
Today, 80% of Africa’s agricultural production relies on smallholders. Their productivity is among the world’s lowest, capped at 30% of their potential due to lack of financing and market integration. To feed their rapidly increasing populations, sub-Saharan African countries thus have to rely on massive food imports, projected before the onset of the pandemic to grow from USD 35 billion (2017) to USD 110 billion (2030) .The COVID-19 crisis is already accelerating the prospect for a dramatic increase in Africa’s dependence on food imports for the following reasons:
- Assuming that national agricultural and agri-food industry workforces will be affected in proportions similar to those observed in the developed world, one can expect a brutal drop in Africa’s food production;
- Financial institutions have started contracting. Banks will increasingly turn towards less risky investments, significantly reducing agricultural lending, particularly to smallholder producers;
- The price of major food security commodities such as rice, wheat and maize will increase commensurate with spiking demand on world markets. This will severely constrain the financing of imports by countries that are already highly indebted.
Flatten the food insecurity curve
These extraordinary circumstances herald food crises of unique magnitude for the world’s most vulnerable nations, with direct implications on hunger, poverty, social unrest and stability. After the 2008 financial crisis, countries and financial systems adopted a reactive, demand-driven approach to provide the means to sustain the status quo, wages, purchasing power, etc. Such simple interventions cannot be afforded in the time of COVID-19, as the uncertainty grows as to where food will indeed be available at all. Ensuring the sustainability of supply itself will require marshalling a much more profound intervention on the world’s food systems.
The immediate emergency for appropriate curative and preventive solutions to COVID-19 should therefore not hide the concurrent imperative to prioritize and fast-track sustainable mitigation strategies to contain the massive emergent food insecurity brought about in vulnerable regions by the imminent global economic crisis. To avoid societal collapses and their many potential ripple effects on world security, we must act now to flatten the food insecurity curve in the same way flattening the COVID-19 infection curve will help preserve the integrity and function of national health systems.
Orchestrate food sovereignty
Food aid will obviously be critical to address symptoms of food insecurity, but not any more sufficient than ICU patient transfers to address symptoms of hospital saturation under COVID-19. We need a more transformative, orchestrated approach to food production, resulting in food systems that are both more integrative, more inclusive and hence more resilient. In Africa as elsewhere, COVID-19 presents us with the opportunity to accelerate agricultural transformation through orchestrated value chains that honorably promote (i) food sovereignty, traceability and quality and (ii) valuable participation on international markets, hence reducing trade balance deficits, improving food and nutritional security and reducing exposure to future shocks for individuals and entire societies alike.
The utmost priority is to immediately strengthen, in each target country, national support capacity for the next 2020 agricultural season with a triple trigger intervention that includes:
- A direct smallholders’ financing mechanism implemented through partner banks to (i) ensure accessibility and affordability of inputs to manage a minimum safety acreage allotment for food security purposes and (ii) provide technical backstopping to increase productivity by up to 60%;
- Simultaneously, direct support to agro-industries to enhance their capacity to absorb and transform the expected increase in smallholder throughput;
- Support to transactions between agricultural value chain stakeholders to help (i) aggregators and transformers purchase smallholders’ production and (ii) retailers purchase transformed food items for commercialization on the market.
Read the full blog on the agCelerant website.
 Only 11.32% of African smallholder producers have regular access to agricultural credit (source: Manobi Africa, 2019. Data from 15,850 smallholder farms of Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Senegal).
 Adesina A. 2017. Betting on Africa to feed the world. Norman Borlaug Lecture, World Food Day, Des Moines, IA, USA
 Given average production costs estimated at USD 600/ha in Africa (source: Manobi Africa, 2019)
About agCelerant: Developed by Manobi Africa PLC with technical support from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS) and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, agCelerant is an advanced value chain orchestration and business development ecosystem connecting smallholders with credit, insurance, input and output markets. Learn more here.


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If you are anything like me, then this has likely happened to you plenty of times!
Impulse buys are hard to avoid in this day and age, especially since the boom of online shopping.
And now, new research has revealed that it’s the popularity of tech devices, such as smartphones and tablets that have led to UK consumers making more impulse purchases.
With the rise of online retailers like eBay and Amazon offering consumers reduced price items with cheap parcel delivery, it really is no surprise that many of us are making impulse buys now more than ever.
Rackspace Hosting, an open cloud company, surveyed over 2,000 consumers and discovered that impulse purchases in the UK may have increased by as much as £1.1 billion a year due to the rise in the number of people using smartphones and tablets.
Rackspace found that;
- 48% of British adults using smartphones and tablets to shop online admit they impulse buy more frequently when using their portable devices
- 17% believe that the availability of internet on the go has increased the likelihood of them making impulse purchases.
- 71% say that ease of use and user-friendliness are the reasons behind the trend
- 27% prefer shopping on smartphones and tablets ( which explains why they are more likely to impulse buy)
- The average spend by those polled was approximately £329 a year.
- 32% give into impulse buys when they are offered promotional codes to save money
Fabio Torlini, vice president of cloud at Rackspace, said: “This is good news for retailers in general of course, but our study provides some additional insight here”
The retail trade still has work to do in order to convince the majority of the British public that using mobile devices to shop online is a safe, preferable and attractive alternative to logging on from their PC or visiting a store.”
Are you more likely to make an impulse purchase when shopping via a mobile or tablet computer?


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BEIJING — China’s major industrial firms recorded slowed profit growth in the first nine months of this year, but their efficiency improved with higher profitability and lower costs, data showed on Oct 27.
Industrial profits rose 14.7 percent year on year to 4.97 trillion yuan (about $715.3 billion) in the first nine months, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said. That was down from a rise of 16.2 percent in January-August.
Profits in 34 of the 41 sectors surveyed rose compared with one year earlier, unchanged from that in the January-August period.
In September, combined profits at industrial firms with annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan rose 4.1 percent year on year to 545.5 billion yuan. The pace of growth slowed from 9.2 percent in August.
The slowdown in September was mainly driven by a pullback in the growth of industrial production and product prices as well as a high comparative base from last year, NBS official He Ping said.
According to the NBS, the steel, construction materials, oil and chemicals sectors, which contributed 72.4 percent to the overall industrial profit increase, posted strong profit growth in the first nine months.
Although industrial profits rose at a slower pace, He said industrial companies’ operating costs and leverage ratios both fell, while their profitability continued to improve.
During the January-September period, costs per 100 yuan of revenue dropped 0.29 yuan from the same period last year to 84.31 yuan. The debt-asset ratios of major industrial firms had dropped 0.4 percentage points from a year ago to 56.7 percent by the end of September.
The data released on Oct 27 was the latest in a slew of economic indicators that showed China’s economy remains resilient despite growing external uncertainties.
Earlier data showed growth in fixed-asset investment, retail sales and freight traffic all picked up last month, pointing to a firming real economy.
The country’s economy expanded 6.7 percent year on year in the first nine months, above the target of around 6.5 percent set for 2018.


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It's been 40 years since Mazda released its first rotary-engine production model, a twin-rotor coupe called Cosmo Sport in mid-1967....
It has already been one month since the official start of summer, and you might be thinking of heading to the service bays to get a tune-up before your big summer road trip.
Read This Article
After more than four decades championing the rotary engine—a powertrain that has become synonymous with Mazda—the Japanese automaker is shelving it in favor of its newer, Skyactiv engines.
Summer has officially arrived, which of course means warm weather.
Alfa Romeo is ramping up its lineup for when it re-enters the U.S.


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US regulators have ended their investigations into Hampton Creek's purchases of its own Just Mayo products.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly studying whether US firm Hampton Creek violated regulations by not revealing it was buying its own vegan mayonnaise Just Mayo from stores.
The global food industry is ripe for a "transformation" that will be driven by investments in food start-ups that use plant-based products, according to a co-founder of the Los Angeles-based venture capital firm Powerplant Ventures.
The CEO of Hampton Creek has hit back at claims the US eggless mayo maker used employees to support an undercover operation to buy hundreds of jars of flagship product Just Mayo while investors were sought to buy equity in the fledgling firm.
US eggless mayo maker Hampton Creek is reportedly looking to raise fresh capital to fund expansion plans.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is investigating the activities of the American Egg Board after emails came to light suggesting the board's chief executive was working to directly undermine egg-free spread producer Hampton Creek.
Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co. has invested in US egg-free spread maker Hampton Creek, the owner of controversial brand Just Mayo.
US firm Hampton Creek is looking to "accelerate" its expansion in Europe and Asia after raising US$90m in funding from investors.
Unilever has filed a lawsuit against US firm Hampton Creek, alleging its Just Mayo product is a fraud and damaging to the mayonnaise sector.
In a surprise agreement, the US Food and Drug Administration has said egg-free mayonnaise maker Hampton Creek can continue to use the Just Mayo brand.
- Danone's Q1: four things to learn
- Who will buy Danone's Stonyfield business?
- Interview: Sir Kensington's on sale to Unilever
- Nestle Q1 update: four things to learn
- Column: Why snacking is the new meal
- Tyson shops Sara Lee bakery, Kettle and Van's
- Nestle to cut UK confectionery jobs
- PepsiCo affirms full-year target as Q1 hits mark
- Icelandic to sell Saucy Fish Co. owner Seachill
- Tyson to buy burger-to-entree firm AdvancePierre


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Today, Facebook announced the Oculus Go and oh by the way, it's on sale right now!
It turns out they picked a game to put on the front of the store and it might look a little familiar to our players:
That's right, Catan VR is live on Oculus Go, featured on the store page, and playable cross-platform with Oculus Rift and Gear VR RIGHT NOW. Jump in, get a game going, and get ready for Catan VR Saturday!
See you online,
The Catan VR Team


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Dudhsagar Dairy in India to set up cattle feed plant
In a move that promises to cater to the rising demand and ease the prices of cattle feed, the Mehsana Dairy Milk Cooperative Union Ltd in India will lay the foundation stone of a new cattle feed plant on November 15.
The 1,000 tonne per day capacity plant is being set up with an investment of Rs 50 crore (€7.16 million).
Prices of cattle feed have increased by more than 30% according to the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), the price of cattle feed has gone up by over 30%.
GCMMF had recently written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to control the prices of de-oiled rice bran, rapeseed cake, rice polish fine, sorghum and molasses, which are the main ingredients of Indian cattle feed.
Experts say the new plant will help the state cut down on the shortage of cattle feed. The plant will cater to the demand of cattle feed for the state.
The Mehsana District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Ltd. Mehsana, popularly known as Dudhsagar Dairy, is a member of the state-level Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.
Dudhsagar Dairy is the largest dairy in Asia, processing on an average 1.41 million kilograms of milk each day.
The new feed plant will come up on a land where the Gujarat Co-Operative Oil Seeds Growers Federation Ltd, Jagudan once had an oil mill.
Due to deficient rains in some parts of Gujarat, there was fear that the rising prices of raw material will push the demand for cattle feed high. The plant will provide cattle feed to the cooperative milk societies through GCMMF.
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Don’t throw your expired food just Yet
Dry food may still be healthy to eat even after it has gone past its expiry date. If you don’t believe this, take it straight from the European Union which is considering to get rid of ‘best by’ dates for dry goods.
At present, expiry dates are stamped on food packages presuming that food may be unhealthy to eat past a certain time. This is very important to follow in ‘wet’ food like yoghurt, dairy products and other highly perishable good.
However, that is not always the case with ‘dry’ food like coffee, hard cheeses, rice, pasta and similar products. This is because some of these products remain just as healthy and delicious to eat after their best by dates.
Based on these considerations, the EU announced it will mull over removing best by stamps for certain types of food. Aside from saving money, the measure could also help curb food wastage in the EU.
Around 89 million tonnes of still-edible food end up as refuse in the EU.
Although there is considerable support among EU officials on this measure, Italy’s daily Corriere said it may take months and probably years before changes could take place. This means that, pending any new laws, it is up to people to make sure they don’t waste food that is still healthy to eat.
According to a study by Italian farmer’s association Coldiretti carried out by GFK Eurisko, around 36% Italians only stick to best by dates. These Italians also make it a point to personally check the condition of food before they throw them away.
Dutch Agriculture Minister Sharon Dijksma said that people can tell for themselves if food is still healthy to eat past their expiration dates. Some food that lose colour, texture and flavour are not necessarily unhealthy to eat, added supporters of the measure.


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BOLINAS, CALIFORNIA - A recent recall of 500 million eggs for potential salmonella contamination brought to light the crowded, filthy, and utterly unappetizing living conditions of most egg laying hens in the United States. What was not as widely reported was the likely cause of the outbreak: contaminated chicken feed. This raises questions about the safety of animal feed throughout the human food chain.
We all know the old adage that "you are what you eat." But it's no great leap to take a step back to the animals in our food chain and realize that for all the non-vegans, we are what they eat too. Consequently, the cattle my husband and I raise consume only mother's milk, grass and a small amount of hay. We base their diet on what they'd eat in nature. And we never feed anything that could be toxic to them, let alone to human beings.
This may not sound radical, but, as the recent salmonella-tainted-eggs crisis illustrates, it's quite different from the way most food animals are fed today. And although the list of animal feed ingredients would surprise most consumers, fish, meat, egg, and dairy companies do not have to tell us anything about the feeds they use. As a St. Paul Pioneer Press article once noted, the animal feed industry is "a $25 billion-a-year industry that's operated as a nearly invisible link in the U.S. food chain."
Feed ingredients are closely guarded secrets. I learned this while working as a lawyer at the environmental organization Waterkeeper, where we were combating water and air pollution from industrial-style hog, poultry, and dairy operations. None of the people we talked to who were raising the animals really knew what was in the feed. The farmers just fed their animals whatever was provided by the meat companies with which they were contracting. The book The Meat You Eat documents that every major sector of the animal food industry asserts that its feeds are "proprietary trade secrets."
A closer look at what's actually being fed to animals reveals a lot of bizarre stuff that most of us would not want in our food chain. This is most likely the real reason feed ingredients are such carefully protected secrets.
For example, meat by-products, ground-up bones, and chicken feathers are added to many animal feeds. Until a 1997 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prohibition, much of the conventional beef and dairy industry had been using ground-up cattle parts as feed even though cattle are strict herbivores in nature. In 2004, after a case of Mad Cow was discovered in the U.S., FDA expanded the scope of banned products from cattle feed, but still failed to outlaw adding cattle blood and other meat by-products, such as chicken feathers and feet. Bone meal and slaughterhouse wastes are still fed to pigs, chickens, and salmon. Because these animal parts may carry diseases, the Consumers Union argues that the FDA should also ban the feeding of all animal remains to food animals.
Arsenic is commonly fed to chickens and sometimes to hogs. These industries say they use arsenic to "improve feed efficiency" (reduce feed costs). But arsenic can get into the environment because most animal manure is eventually spread onto crop land. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health have studied the consequences of adding arsenic to poultry feed and believe that it may pose a cancer risk to humans and could contaminate soils and drinking water. Europe has outlawed arsenic in animal feeds because of environmental and human health concerns.
Antibiotics are routinely fed to farm animals to stimulate faster growth. Due to industry secrecy, official figures for this use are unavailable, but the Union of Concerned Scientists has estimated that 25 million pounds of antibiotics - half the antibiotics used in this country annually -- are put in animal feeds to stimulate growth. Legislation currently before Congress (the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act [PAMTA]) would limit this practice but is still a long ways from passage.
Such rampant antibiotics use has alarmed health organizations, who warn that it is contributing to the rise of antibiotic-resistant disease strains. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Medical Association, and the World Health Organization, among others, have called on the livestock industry to drastically reduce its antibiotics. The European Union adopted a ban of many antibiotics in animal feeds in 1997.
Poultry manure is often mixed into cattle and hog rations. After the Mad Cow scare and because of disease-transmission concerns, FDA announced it would ban chicken waste from cattle feed. But beef industry lobbyists resisted and FDA backed off the proposal. The practice is still allowed today. In justifying its about-face, FDA explained that putting chicken manure in cattle feed should be continued because it's an important disposal method for the chicken industry.
Dyes are added to feeds for fish and egg-laying hens. One is cantaxathin, a reddish pigment that is added to farmed salmon feed (even "organically" farmed salmon) to make the (otherwise gray) flesh pink, and to confined-hen feed, to make (otherwise too pale) egg yolks yellow. Cantaxathin was marketed, then withdrawn, as a human tanning pill in Great Britain in the 1980s.
We never feed any of these substances to our cattle because we know that what our animals eat affects both the food we produce and the natural environment. On top of that, we believe that most people simply do not want chemicals, drugs, manure, and slaughterhouse wastes in their food chain. Many such commonly-used feed additives should probably be banned altogether.
But at the very least consumers should be able to decide for themselves whether to eat products from animals that were fed things like meat by-products, arsenic and antibiotics. It's time Congress requires our food chain to be transparent by requiring the food industry to make this information publicly available. In the meantime, each of us can start to make this happen by simply asking retailers and restaurants the question: "What was this animal fed?"


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- 10 Mar 2017 6:02 AM
The government will also propose a discussion about how retail stores could offset the environmental impacts of their construction of parking lots spanning thousands of square metres by creating more green spaces, he said.
The question of weekend shifts will also be subject to government discussions, Lázár said, adding that the government’s proposals were aimed at the protection of consumers and workers rather than “excessively taxing” retailers.
Meanwhile, commenting on the issue of documentation of Hungary’s communist era informants, Lázár said the government will hand over the magnetic tapes containing the files of secret service informants to the Historical Archives of Hungarian State Security Service by the end of June, and their classification will be reviewed afterwards, he said.
Reacting to news regarding judges’ protests against Tünde Handó, head of the National Office for the Judiciary, Lázár said that Handó deserves support in working against corruption within the judiciary.
Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.


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February 29, 2016 – Pictures: Ibinabo Fiberesima Now Selling Tomatoes At Creek Market In Port Harcourt Rivers State
Ibinabo was in Port Harcourt last week for the wedding ceremony of her friend and colleague, Monalisa Chinda.
She used the opportunity to visit the Creek Market in the city where she interacted with the market women freely and helped them to sell tomatoes.
The photo opportunity was tagged as humility by her fans while critics called her a chronic attention seeker. #lobatan


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Growing up in Antwerp, Belgium, co-founder of luxury jewelry company 77 Diamonds Vadim Weinig remembers visiting the diamond mines of South Africa as a child. From an early age, these trips not only inspired his appreciation for transformation and beauty, but also set in motion a desire to be a part of a diamond industry that is ethical and transparent — graces that have been historically ignored by the diamond industry who source from South Africa, whose practices are typically exploitive to indigenous communities and are environmentally harmful.
Alongside Weinig is co-founder Tobias Kormind, an online luxury industry aficionado, who through his experience, understands the “emotional significance and symbolism” of the jewelry that 77 Diamonds makes. Based out of London, 77 Diamonds has 5 showrooms all over Europe and works so that everyone near and far has access to timeless symbols of love, success and beauty in the form of diamond jewelry.
Recently, there has been a blowout in the demand for diamonds sourced from South Africa following the standstill of the COVID-19 pandemic. Kormind explains that this may in fact be due to “an interest in luxury goods as people have been unable to spend on experience and travel.” But, as 3,000 miners descended upon the mines of KwaZulu-Natal, a coastal South African province, what was found there did not turn out to be diamonds, but natural quartz.
“Discovering a diamond mine would have provided much-needed jobs for those in the area,” Kormind said in an interview with GRAZIA. “The recent South African diamond rush demonstrates how such sources are remain a rarity – and even if a new mine was found, it can take up to eight years to begin to produce a large quantity of diamonds.”
While the supply and demand for diamonds is going through what Kormind calls an “imbalance,” due to depleted resources and lack of new sources, another aspect of the diamond industry is changing as well; the customer demographic. The diamond jewelry industry for a long time has followed the tradition of gifting timeless pieces to someone in order to create a physical link and to create a sense of love and dedication for events like weddings, engagements and general life celebrations. Now, as independent women in the 21st century now have more purchasing power and seek to acquire luxury items on their own terms, the market is shifting.
“There are more wealthy women with significant disposable incomes, interested in buying luxury items,” Kormind said. “Women purchasing jewelry for themselves now represents up to half of global sales, and this has started to influence diamond sales, too, as they represent far more than engagement rings.”
Kormind said that this purchasing power helps move the market in a direction where the focus is on women rewarding themselves and looking for pieces that represent their personal success.
While the diamond industry may be a constant ebb and flow of market changes and resourcing, one aspect of the 77 Diamonds company mission has stayed concrete — an ethical and equitable approach to their industry. The Responsible Jewellery Council, which is the world’s leading standard-setting organization for the jewelry industry, oversees the ethics of sourcing, worker’s right and sustainability within the global jewelry industry. 77 Diamonds works alongside The Responsible Jewellery Council in order to set the company’s ethical, social and environmental practices.
“These steps help to reduce the prevalence of unethical diamonds, which are often mined in conflict zones,” Kormind said. “Ethical mining includes upholding human rights, treating workers and their communities with respect, encouraging a diverse workforce and providing a safe working environment.”
Additional parts of these guidelines include working with artisanal and small scale miners, as well as protecting biodiversity and reducing pollution.
Not a fan of diamonds but still looking to shop 77 Diamonds? Don’t worry, the company offers three additional gemstones on top of its diamond portfolio. 77 Diamonds includes collections in sapphire, ruby and emerald, to please any taste and storyline. Kormind said that these gemstones are loved not only for their vibrant colors, but also because they symbolize unique personality traits, making them more individual and characterful.
“Rubies are associated with courage and passion, emeralds are linked to love and rebirth and sapphires suggest wisdom and good fortune,” Kormind said. “These gems are timeless and durable, so they can be worn on an everyday basis but their rarity enables them to be passed down as family heirlooms.”
Whatever you’re looking for in the realm of luxury jewelry, that is sourced ethically and with contemporary tastes in mind, 77 Diamonds provides a diverse and expansive registry of collections that fit any celebration big or small, collaborative or independent. Taking inspiration from customers, 77 Diamonds creates pieces that represent innovation, pride, balance and artistry within the modern jewelry landscape.


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Acer NZ sales rise, while Insight Enterprises revenue falls
- 08 June, 2021 18:30
Like many of its peers in the computer hardware market, Acer Computer NZ saw demand for its products surge during 2020.
The company's financial statements for the year to the end of December 2020 show sales lifted from $45 million to $52.1 million, however, gross and net profit after tax both fell.
Higher cost of goods sold lowered gross profit from $3.6 million to $3.2 million. While profit before tax lifted to $539,574 from $491,074, a higher tax bill saw net profit fall slightly to $302,664.
Acer NZ's Taiwan-based parent was the victim of a high-profile ransomware attack in March after which the attackers demanded a US$50 million ransom.
A note to the New Zealand company's accounts says Acer headquarters immediately initiated security and precautionary measures.
"There has been no business nor financial impact to the company as a result of the cyber attack," the note said. "All systems have recovered as of the date of issuance of the financial statements."
Meanwhile, software and hardware reseller Insight Enterprises NZ also reported its results for the same period.
Revenue declined a shade from a bumper $24.9 million in 2019 to $23.3 million while net profit fell within a rounding error to $1.9 million.
Software revenue was $14.7 million, hardware was $1.2 million and services were $7.4 million.
Auckland Council is a major customer of the reseller, spending $4.7 million with Insight in the six months to 31 December 2020.
In the full year before that the council spent $7.1 million, making Insight the fourth largest ICT supplier to the council behind Revera, SAP and The Laptop Company.
Insight Enterprises is a US company based in Tempe, Arizona.


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Apparently, the updated iPhone SE 2 will not.
Apple should not expect the new compact smartphone, said an analyst at BlueFin Research Gordon Donovan. According to him, Apple has abandoned plans to release iPhone SE 2 because of the desire to focus buyers ‘ attention on the three latest smartphones in the style of iPhone X, which will be presented in September.
Over the past year about iPhone SE 2 have been a lot of rumors, many of which were supported by leaks. In particular, various sources published schematic image of the smartphone, and sometimes live shots of the new items. Analyst Gordon Donovan believes that some of the leaks were indeed true and Apple actually planned to launch the iPhone 2 SE.
But in the end Apple has a change of heart. Together with the launch of the iPhone 9, iPhone 11 and 11 Plus iPhone company has completely switched to the production of smartphones with the latest design in the style iPhone X. it is Expected that all three products will receive a full-length displays the minimum framework. On the old form factor, so Apple will forget.
Because of the decision to permanently move to a new design and Apple has abandoned plans to release iPhone 2 SE. New compact smartphone not only looked outdated, but would distract fans from small smartphones new models.
Earlier it became known that Apple plans to stop selling the original iPhone SE this fall. Amid leaks iPhone SE to cheapen the Russian retailers.


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This week in moronic protests: the “complain first, think later” ethic of the imbecile fringe has even spread to once-common-sensical Midwestern cities like Chicago. The Target chain of department stores recently drafted a plan to build a shiny new store in the troubled ‘hood of Rogers Park, bringing jobs and low-income housing; all goodies the left supposedly wants for the little man. And yet the usual professional protectors of the welfare state came out howling anyway.
|These people have no idea why they don't want a Target. But they were lonely.|
This project is highly charitable of Target, if foolish: Rogers Park is a gang-blighted and retail-retarded shitpit where two of three restaurants don’t open till five, the dollar store is the only place to buy household supplies, and the Dunkin Donuts needs a plexiglas barricade at night to protect its employees from the local ne’er-do-wells.
The mini-Target will come coupled with a complex of new apartments, 60 percent of which are earmarked for Their Majesties the Public Housing Clients; aside from bringing in retail jobs, the Target would finally give locals a place to buy laundry detergent that doesn’t smell like a Mexican chemical factory. But it’s never enough. A diverse group of morons with nothing more productive to do—students and Baby Boomer retirees, in other words, along with a rag-tag band of SSI recipients—packed their smelly bodies into a Board of Commissioners meeting to wave signs and howl “Fuck you!” At least they didn’t set the commissioners on fire.
|The dirty Plexiglas window behind which Dunkin Donuts employees in Rogers Park cower at night. How dare Target try to improve our shithole? We're doing fine!|
The protesters failed to articulate why the Target will be literally Hitler, apart from taking business away from the single, independently-owned, always overcrowded grocery store in the neighborhood, whereby one guy profits from the crappy shopping experience of all of his neighbors. Never mind that this grocer’s single strong point is produce, which everybody knows you shouldn’t buy at Target anyway.
Instead, they went on waggling their scrawled signs righteously, in imitation of the Californian cretins who have made firebombing fabulous faggots the fashion in the champagne socialist set. The upside of the Internet is that we can fact check the mainstream press. The downside is that leftist zest for blubbing about non-problems can metastasize like pancreatic cancer.


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Lahore: 29 September, 2011
Samsung Electronics announced the start of bada developer day global tour to expand the use of ‘bada 2.0’. This event is held to directly introduce Samsung’s own mobile platform bada 2.0 globally, that was launched last month, to vitalize the development of applications. It features demonstrations and experiences of the capabilities of bada 2.0 Software Development Kit (SDK).
Starting from India, Samsung Electronics plans to start its bada developer global tour in over 18 countries including China, Russia, UK which are the target markets of bada platform. This innovation is expected to be a catalyst in expanding global distribution of the popular bada based smartphones.
Samsung Pakistan’s Managing Director, Mr. Hee Chang Yee said; “As we continue to hold this global bada developer day, we seek support from outstanding developers and expand the bada community. All these programs will enhance the competitiveness of bada as a globally leading platform, through aggressive support for app developers.
Borne of Samsung’s innovation, bada 2.0 brings; multi-tasking, Wi-Fi Direct, Near Field Communication (NFC) and voice recognition. It enables smartphone users to experience advanced services such as mobile payment, transport pass-card recharge and file sharing without Internet networking. It also supports HTML-5 and improved Flash functions. For more information, visit bada developer site (http://developer.bada.com/)
Samsung bada developer day
Samsung bada developer day is an event to enhance cooperative relations with developers and expand business opportunities by helping global smartphone developers to better understand about the whole mobile ecosystem including bada platform and Samsung’s app store called Samsung Apps. During the first half of this year, it had been successfully conducted in a total of 40 countries worldwide, and with the launch of bada 2.0, global tour was just commenced first starting from India.
About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2009 consolidated sales of US$116.8 billion. Employing approximately 174,000 people in 193 offices across 66 countries, the company consists of eight independently operated business units: Visual Display, Mobile Communications, Telecommunication Systems, Digital Appliances, IT Solutions, Digital Imaging, Semiconductor and LCD. Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones and TFT-LCDs. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com
For further information:
SHAMROCK Communications (Pvt) Ltd


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Stories tagged: pot licenses
Fri., Dec. 2, 2016, 5:15 p.m.
Pot harder for kids to buy than booze, even as prices fall
Washington’s licensed marijuana stores have a better record of rejecting underage buyers than stores that sell liquor or cigarettes.
Wed., Dec. 16, 2015, 10:06 p.m.
State could get 222 more pot stores
OLYMPIA — Washington will likely increase the number of retail marijuana stores to 556, to handle the demand for medical marijuana licenses.
UPDATED: Fri., April 10, 2015, 7:40 p.m.
House passes marijuana revisions
OLYMPIA — Medical marijuana patients would have to register with the state and pay taxes on the pot they buy from state-licensed stores under major rewrites of the state pot …
Mon., July 7, 2014, 10:42 a.m.
3 Spokane pot stores get licenses
Three stores in north Spokane are among 25 applicants who will get the first licenses to sell recreational marijuana as early as Tuesday.
Thu., June 26, 2014
Up to three marijuana stores could open in Spokane on July 8
Spokane will have, at most, three pot stores opening July 8 after the state’s first legal marijuana retailers get their licenses. But that would be three times as many as …
Wed., June 25, 2014, 11:25 a.m.
3 Spokane pot stores likely among first to open
OLYMPIA — Spokane will likely have three legal pot stores when Washington’s first retail marijuana outlets open in early July… which will be three times more than Seattle.
Tue., June 24, 2014, 2:03 p.m.
First pot stores to open July 8
OLYMPIA — Washington’s first recreational marijuana stores are expected to open on July 8, a day after the first licenses will be announced, state officials said today.
Sat., May 3, 2014
Pot entrepreneurs like sites near border
Some of the most popular locations for Eastern Washington’s new pot entrepreneurs are close to the Idaho border. Three Spokane County applicants receiving the green light by the Washington Liquor …
Fri., May 2, 2014
Washington state to name 334 who can try for pot store licenses
OLYMPIA – More than 300 businesses that get the first crack at opening the state’s recreational marijuana stores will be announced today. The state Liquor Control Board will publish a …
Thu., April 24, 2014
Washington likely to ban delivery of marijuana
OLYMPIA – Recreational marijuana purchases in Washington will be takeout but not delivery, proposed new rules say. The Liquor Control Board, which is overseeing the establishment of the state’s legal …
Thu., March 6, 2014
State gives first recreational marijuana license to Spokane man
OLYMPIA – Sean Green’s big plans for a nationwide manufacturing and sales empire got a boost Wednesday when the Spokane native received Washington’s first license to grow legal marijuana. Green, …
Thu., Jan. 9, 2014
Pot grower applications exceed supply of licenses
OLYMPIA – Washington is seeing a “green rush” of sorts in marijuana, with far more people wanting to grow and sell the drug legally than the state will allow. State …
Wed., Nov. 27, 2013
Washington applicants seek marijuana grow licenses more than retail
OLYMPIA – A tally of the first week of applications by would-be marijuana businesses shows a certain amount of creativity in coming up with names for what in most of …
Sat., Nov. 23, 2013
Washington marijuana license requests top 800 in first week
OLYMPIA – More than 800 potential new businesses have signed up to grow, process or sell legal marijuana in the first week Washington accepted applications for its new industry. Rick …


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Last year, following the footsteps of OPPO, Realme had announced its 125W UltraDart fast charging technology. However, since then, there has been no major development regarding that and the company has not yet launched any smartphone supporting this ultra-fast charging technology.
But now, we have more information regarding this. Folks at GSMArena talked with Madhav Sheth, VP of Realme and CEO of Realme India, Europe, and Latin America, who has confirmed that a new smartphone with 125W UltraDart technology support will be launched next year.
It has also been revealed that the Chinese company is planning to launch a new “ultra-premium flagship” smartphone but a specific timeline has not been revealed yet. There’s a possibility that the 125W fast charging technology could be a part of this unnamed ultra-premium smartphone.
Coming to the 125W UltraDART fast charging, at the time of announcing it, the company had said that a smartphone with a 4000mAh battery can be charged up to 33% in 3 minutes and 100% in 20 minutes.
It seems that Realme is using a three-way charge technology that simultaneously pumps step-down voltage to maximize the charging power and reduce heat dissipation. The entire charging process has been optimized for cooling, says the company, which results in an ultra-high conversion rate of 98 percent.
We should know more about this charging technology as well as the flagship smartphone teased by the company executive in the coming weeks or months.


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Stay up to date with IBIS Global Summit 2019 by visiting the news section, and our social media channels, frequently.
Bodyshop supremo to join speaker line-up at IBIS Global
IBIS announces alliance with best-selling author
IBIS Summit 2019 announces first headline speaker
AkzoNobel partner for IBIS Summit 2019
IBIS Global Summit partnerships takes shape
IBIS Global Summit 2019: Delegate place bookings NOW OPEN!


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Bookmark and share the address of UKRAINE ENGLISH NEWS on your social bookmarking website
Most users ever online was 229 on Sat Aug 08, 2015 11:03 pm
The malicious software has been found in at least 39 iOS apps, many of them aimed at the Chinese market, though the apps have customers in the USA.
The initial discovery was made by Palo Alto Networks, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based computer security company.
The malicious code is called Xcode Ghost and came hidden in a fake version of Xcode, popular Apple software used to create applications.
Apple began taking down the compromised apps over the weekend. The company did not respond to requests for comment.
The counterfeit code was uploaded to servers in China, where developers unwittingly used it to create apps.................
To read further go to this link: usatoday.com


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The Original FitFactory has acquired TruFusion, a US-based fitness and yoga franchise with 15 locations, as part of a mega acquisition spend.
The Glaswegian firm this year completed acquisitions of eight global companies for a combined transaction value of more than €128 million ($202.4 m), according to EU-Startups.
TruFusion has already opened its first international site, in October 2022 in Dubai.
According to EU-Startups the brand purchases completed over the last year include a global ecommerce sports nutrition and wellness business, nutrition and wellness product line, a virtual event business, a sustainable activewear brand and a military-style fitness program.
The Original FitFactory was founded in 2016 with TV.FIT Productions creating workout programs and TRUCONNECT a fitness community app.
Now the UK-based business has boosted its wellness portfolio and gained access to more than 10 million customers across 100 countries.


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- ProductsDRAGON ENTERPRISEComodo introduced a new approach to endpoint protection, engineered to solve the issue of legacy security solutions.PLATFORM PRODUCTS
TECHNOLOGY & PROCESS
Impenetrable cybersecurity without sacrificing usability
Gain detailed visibility into all your endpoints activities
Reduce the attack surface to remediate and patch
Fortify mobile devices that exit and enter your network
- ServicesWORLDWIDE SERVICESNo one can stop zero-day malware from entering your network, but Comodo can prevent it from causing any damage. Zero Trust. Zero Breaches. Zero damage.THREAT SERVICES
- For Home
- ResourcesRESOURCE DISCOVERYComodo introduced a new approach to add managed cybersecurity and endpoint protection to your customers benefit, right into your existing programs.
FIREWALL PROVIDER COMODO IS PROUD TO SUPPORT NATIONAL CYBER SECURITY AWARENESS MONTH
National Cyber Security Division (NCSD) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is actively promoting cyber security in October as part of a month-long initiative and Comodo is participating by offering free desktop security solutions
Jersey City, NJ (October 18, 2007) – Comodo a leading security company announced today that it is participating with the National Cyber Security Division (NCSD) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) to support National Cyber Security Awareness Month. This effort is a national campaign focused on educating the American public, businesses, schools, and government agencies on ways to secure their computers against all forms of online threats and is an important initiative that helps protect people from malware and other online threats that undermine online security.
The goal of National Cyber Security Awareness Month is to educate everyday Internet users on how to “Protect Yourself Before You Connect Yourself” , by taking simple and effective steps. These steps teach Internet users how to safeguard one’s computer from the latest online threats and offers advice on responding to potential cyber-crime incidents. One important component of safe computing includes using prevention security software such as Comodo’s free suite of security products. This powerful security suite includes Comodo’s award-winning Firewall , Comodo Firewall Pro which was named an Editor’s Choice from PC Magazine. Comodo’s firewall has been tested by independent labs and found to be “leak proof” – a technical metric that tests the protection strength of the firewall.
” Our philosophy of empowering end users to be proactive in cyber security is very much in alignment with the National Cyber Security Division, ” said Melih Abdulhayoglu, CEO and Chief Security Architect of Comodo. ” We support these types of initiatives by offering a full array of free desktop security products that are often better protection than paid versions. There is no charge to use our solutions. To date, nearly 3 million users have downloaded our free solutions, but our goal is to protect every computer around the world. That way people can use the Internet as it was originally intended: to promote education, information, and commerce collaboration globally. We are proud to be actively working toward that goal. ”
Comodo Firewall Pro is a free solution that has been ranked as one of the most effective firewalls on the market today by independent sources such as PC Magazine, ComputerWorld and Matousec ( matousec.com/projects/windows-personal-firewall-analysis/leak-tests- results.php#firewalls-ratings ).
Comodo firewall is available for free download at
About The National Cyber Security Alliance.
A not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization, the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) is the go-to resource for cyber security awareness and education for home user, small business, and education audiences. A public-private partnership, NCSA partners include the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Trade Commission, and many private-sector corporations and organizations. NCSA provides tools and resources to empower home users, small businesses, and schools, colleges, and universities to stay safe online. For more information, and to see the top eight cyber security tips, visit staysafeonline.org .
The Comodo companies provide the infrastructure that is essential in enabling e-merchants, other Internet-connected companies, software companies, and individual consumers to interact and conduct business via the Internet safely and securely. The Comodo companies offer PKI SSL , Code Signing , Content Verification and Email Certificate ; award winning PC Security software; Vulnerability Scanning services for PCI Compliance ; secure e-mail and fax services.
Continual innovation, a core competence in PKI, and a commitment to reversing the growth of Internet-crime distinguish the Comodo companies as vital players in the Internet’s ongoing development. Comodo secures and authenticates online transactions and communications for over 200,000 business customers and 3,000,000 users of our desktop security products.
For additional information on Comodo – Creating Trust Online® visit Comodo.com
For more information, reporters and analysts may contact:
Office: +1 (888) 266-6361


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IT security company, AppSense, has posted record results for the first half of its fiscal year 2016.
The company said new orders in the six months, ended December 31, 2015, grew 20 per cent year-over-year marking a record for the company in bookings and revenue.
AppSense chief executive, Scott Arnold, attributed the growth to increased demand for endpoint security and the role partners played in driving sales, with 84 per cent of new orders coming from the channel.
The company increased its customer base by 230, and reported that the number of ‘seven-figure’ deals increased five fold during the latter half of 2015.
The security vendor reported that half a million instances of its AppSense Application Manager endpoint security solution were added during the company’s H1 fiscal 2016.


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By Shuli Ren
China slapped a record $200 million fine on 12 Japanese auto parts makers for anti-trust activities. Bloomberg has the names. These auto components are used in more than 20 models manufactured by Toyota Motor (7203-TKS), Honda Motor (7267-TKS), Nissan Motor (7201-TKS), Suzuki Motor (7269-TKS) and Ford Motor (F).
Starting July, Chinese auto makers has outperformed their foreign counterparts. As of yesterday’s close, Great Wall Motor (2333.HK) gained 9%. Geely Automobile (175-HK) rallied 12.1%. Brilliance China Automotive (1114.HK) was up 3.4%. By comparison, BMW (BMW.DE) was down 3.9%. Audi (NSU.DE) fell 5%.
China’s hawkish stance towards foreign auto and auto parts makers has helped the local manufacturers, said Nomura Securities:
Apart from a potential 2H recovery for domestic OEMs, we believe that the reversal might have been assisted by an industry investigation by the NDRC’s (National Development and Reform Commission) Bureau of Price Supervision and Anti-Monopoly, where it was collecting evidence of possible anti-competitive and monopolistic behaviour in the autos and auto parts market.
Separately, Brilliance China Automotive reported first-half earnings. Net income at Brilliance rose 79% from a year ago, a stellar performance, but it was already expected since its JV partner BMW reported earnings. The market rejoiced nonetheless, pushing Brilliance up 6.3% in Hong Kong in the morning. Dongfeng Motor gained 1.9%. In Tokyo, Toyota Motor was down 0.5%.


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The economic recession slashed jobs across the board, including those in the packaging function. Now a survey from executive search and leadership advisory firm Heidrick & Struggles Intl. Inc. “shows that talent tops the list of concerns for executives in the North American paper and packaging sector, with only 4% believing strongly that their talent management is prepared for the current challenges facing the industry.”
Tell me this doesn’t surprise anyone. Letting experienced packaging pros go to save short-term money doesn’t seem to be a good long-term strategy for companies looking to thrive when the economy heads north.
In his “Post-recession Planning” column in the Dec. 2009 issue of Automation World magazine, Jim Pinto writes, “Some companies risk their chance of survival and longer-term prosperity by losing people who would have been star performers in the post-recession growth stage. Companies with good, trained teams have the best chance of survival, and expansion after the worst is over.”
The worst does appear to be over. Paul Sturgeon, business manager at KLA Industries, a search firm specializing in the plastics and packaging industry for more than 10 years, believes 2010 will be a healthy year for employment in the pharmaceutical and medical device packaging sectors.


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Apple shares jump as investigators probe 'sweat shop' claims
Apple shares hit an all-time high as the company announced it would investigate the alleged ‘sweat shop’ conditions in its supplier’s factories.
The shares broke through the $500 mark in early trading in New York, equivalent to £317 each, valuing the electronics monolith at just shy of £300billion.
It came as the Fair Labor Association began investigating the conditions in the facilities of Foxconn, the company that manufactures the iPad and iPod, at Apple’s request.
Probe: Fair Labor Association began investigating the conditions in the company that manufactures the iPad and iPod
Evidence previously emerged that workers at the Taiwanese firm’s factories were forced to work seven days a week in cramped conditions with limited safety protection.
Last year two explosions in iPad factories killed four people and injured many more, and in 2010 one of the plants, which employs 400,000 workers, saw a string of staff suicides.
‘We believe that workers everywhere have the right to a safe and fair work environment, which is why we’ve asked the FLA to independently assess the performance of our largest suppliers,’ said Apple chief executive Tim Cook.
Investigators will have ‘unrestricted’ access to Foxconn’s Shenzhen and Chengdu plants.
They will publish results in March before turning to assess conditions in the facilities of Quanta and Pegatron, two other Apple suppliers.
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High growth companies, tech startups, and companies forging markets that didn't exist five to ten years ago have all been faced with growing pressure surrounding any number of issues. Those are particularly acute when it comes to privacy and data protection.
The legislative debate surrounding that isn't showing any sign of letting up soon. In a year that's starting off with uncertainty due to an election let alone the impeachment trial, CQ News previews what might happen on data privacy this year.
For more than a year, technology companies and privacy advocates have been pushing lawmakers to pass a federal data privacy bill to protect consumers whose information is hacked, or used improperly by online companies. In the absence of one, companies and advocates have argued, a state-by-state patchwork will create confusion over the rules of online commerce.
Where It Stands
Wide swaths of the tech industry as well as privacy advocates have been urging Congress since the summer of 2019 to pass a federal data privacy bill.
Back in 2015 when the Obama administration tried to float a privacy bill, tech companies successfully scuttled the effort.
The recent push for federal legislation to protect the privacy of American consumers online gathered steam after the European Union began implementing data privacy rules known as General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, in May 2018, and then California passed a Consumer Protection Act that took effect Jan. 1.
The GDPR and California privacy laws offer affirmative rights to consumers about data being collected on them by online companies. These include the right to know what is being collected; to access such data; delete, correct, or erase data; carry one’s data from one company to another; and in California’s case, the right to opt out of one’s information being sold to other entities.
The California law is more expansive in its definition of personal information to include information collected by companies from members of a household. Among other remedies the state law also allows consumers to pursue a private lawsuit against companies.
After months of congressional hearings in both chambers, lawmakers have proposed as many as 35 bills that deal with various aspects of data privacy, and some key lawmakers have draft proposals that have yet to be formally introduced.
Key legislative proposals include a draft bill prepared by the staff for Sen. Roger Wicker, the Mississippi Republican who chairs the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and a bill sponsored by Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell (S 2968) that’s backed by fellow Democrats Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts and Brian Schatz of Hawaii.
The Wicker and Cantwell proposals join others from House members. In November, two California Democrats, Zoe Lofgren and Anna Eshoo, unveiled a data privacy bill (HR 4978) that would go further than other similar measures.
Most of the bills broadly agree on the kinds of data that would be included in the definition of private information, and give consumers rights both to opt in as well as opt out of specific online collection and dissemination practices.
Wicker’s draft and Cantwell’s bill also would require companies to conduct assessments of whether algorithm-based decision-making by companies creates bias against any categories of people, and require the Federal Trade Commission to publish periodic reports on such assessments.
Most bills also would address ways to expand the size and scope of the FTC to write new rules, supervise companies and hold them accountable for violations. Lawmakers generally agree that in addition to the FTC, state attorneys general would have the authority to enforce a federal data privacy law.
Some bills like the Lofgren-Eshoo proposal would create a new federal Digital Privacy Agency that would enforce users’ privacy rights, modeled along the lines of similar government entities in Europe. The agency would employ as many as 1,600 employees and be an independent entity, the lawmakers have said.
The key difference between Republican and Democratic proposals is whether consumers would have the private right to sue companies, as the California law provides, or whether the federal law should take away such a right.
Tech companies and their advocates are asking lawmakers to do away with private right of action while consumer advocacy groups are pushing to preserve it, arguing that consumers should have the right to sue in limited circumstances when a company flouts privacy protections in an egregious manner.
Democrats and Republicans have said a federal data privacy law is imperative. In early December, Wicker said, “it is clear that Congress needs to act now to provide stronger and more meaningful data protections to consumers and address the privacy risks that threaten the prosperity of the nation’s digital economy.”
A federal data privacy bill is likely to be one of the few bipartisan measures to emerge in the first half of 2020 after Congress is done handling President Donald Trump’s impeachment proceedings.


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A rare Porsche 918 Spyder Hybrid was razed after bursting into flames at an Esso gas station in Toronto this week. CBC confirmed that the owner of the vehicle, valued at $850,000, was none other than Michael Wekerle Dragons’ Den. The Porsche was less than a month old, according to CBC. A...read more
Demand for Apple's latest iPhones has been white hot, especially for the Plus, which has seen supply constrained on the...read more
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Spotify has launched in Canada.read more
Hackathons are a new way of creating and recognizing innovation.
The term, coined in 1999, has become ubiquitous with each passing day. Technologists collaborate together in an intense, short burst of creation to come up with a new innovation in less than a weekend.read more
Heeding demands by activist shareholder Carl Icahn, eBay is spinning off its PayPal division.read more
The Montreal-headquatered Real Ventures announced today an additional $25 million in commitments led by several major institutional investors.
The big move takes its latest web, mobile, and internet focused fund to $75 million.read more
If you're looking for advice on how to build a hyper-growth startup, starting with the president of the world's most renowned accelerator is probably a decent place to start.read more
Techvibes has now hosted three Tech Fest recruiting events—one in Toronto and two in Vancouver. Now it's time to head back to the East Coast.read more
Canadian business owners' confidence in the state of the economy and their business prospects has risen compared to earlier this year, with more than half of entrepreneurs expecting 2015 will be a better year for their company.read more
Are you ready for a day when your fridge can order more orange juice on its own when you run out, or where your car can automatically book an oil change appointment every five thousand miles?read more


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This week in the MacNN
forums, excited iPhone 5s owners converge in "The 5s Thread
" to converse about the features of the latest addition to the iPhone lineup. One frustrated Fresh-Faced Recruit took to the forums to find some answers after installing iOS 7
on their iPad and iPhone 4. They claim that both devices crash continually, and typing is "unbearable."
"Is there an iOS 7 Apple weather app for the iPad
?" asks Grizzled Veteran "PeterParker" earlier this week. Forum members discussed possible alternatives to a "Retina" monitor in the thread titled "Retina 24 inch LCDs out there?
" Forum Regular "Topaz" turned to the forums earlier this week looking for advice on how to burn a single VOB video file to DVD


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The controversial way that Apple offered a free new album from U2 in September didn't stop a ton of people from downloading it. In an interview this week, Eddy Cue, Apple's senior VP of internet software and services, said that the Songs of Innocence album has been downloaded 26 million times in full on iTunes since its release on September 9.
In addition, Cue told Billboard that 81 million people have heard songs from the U2 album since its release on Apple's services, including iTunes, iTunes Radio and Beats Music. He added, "Prior to this, 14 million customers had purchased music from U2 since the opening of the iTunes Store in 2003."
The free ride for Songs of Innocence is over on October 14. That's when a physical CD will go on sale with 10 extra tracks that are not part of the free iTunes release. Are you happy or sad the free download will end in a few days?


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Cannabis Industry Hall of Shame
The first inductees into our "Cannabis Industry Hall of Shame" are the founders of MedMen, Adam Bierman and Andrew Modlin.
MedMen fashioned itself to become the Apple of pot, the first mainstream, nationwide consumer brand for the product.
Then, it all began to unravel.
The company got hit with a class-action lawsuit from employees alleging labor law violations. Miffed investors sued the founders, accusing them of self-dealing and other underhanded tactics. A former chief financial officer filed a blockbuster complaint in a Los Angeles court accusing the founders of a slew of misdeeds, from manipulating MedMen’s stock price, to bank fraud, to seeking private intelligence groups to get dirt on their enemies, to calling an L.A. city councilman a “midget negro” and making an illegal straw man contribution to a Nevada politician.
The lawsuit alleged excessive spending as well as using company funds on the likes of a custom $160,000 Tesla SUV for Modlin, chauffeured Escalades for Bierman, chartered jets, safe rooms for its founders' homes, a $300,000 conference table, and a salary to Bierman’s marriage counselor.
The allegations in the suit also include the claim that the company would wire hundreds of thousands of public dollars to a ‘consultant’ in Canada to buy up the stock when it was "under attack."
Shortly after the company went public, both the 31-year-old Modlin and 37-year-old Bierman took millions in bonuses from the still-in-the-red company. From the day it landed on the stock market, MedMen drew derision and ire based almost entirely on the decision of its founders to lather themselves in hefty bonuses, hoard most of the voting shares, offer themselves enriching golden parachutes, and put themselves above the shareholders and the long term success of the business.
Meanwhile, Bierman and Modlin continued to profit enormously. Modlin purchased an $11 million dollar mansion, located in the same neighborhood as residences owned by celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio, Keanu Reeves, and next door to the estate of late comedian Rodney Dangerfield.
The home’s interior was reported to have a “resort-like master suite, dual showroom closets and disappearing walls of glass opening to the pool/spa combo and adjoining patio, a spacious lounge, gym, wine closet, and a media room with projector.”
As one investor said in a Reddit interview with Bierman, "It doesn’t sit well with investors seeing you and your partner buying 11 million dollar Beverly Hill homes next to Leo DiCaprio while the rest of us are taking huge losses."
Bierman reportedly purchased a home in trendy Marina del Rey in February, 2018 for $4.7 million.
Bierman and Modlin are now both out of MedMen. We say, good riddance. Get out and stay out of the cannabis industry. You are both a dark stain on an industry that it trying to gain acceptance into mainstream America. You have tarnished the industry while recklessly feeding your own personal greed.


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Mark Zuckerberg says that Facebook has slapped 50 million warning labels on suspect content landing on the social networking site since the start of the coronavirus outbreak.
The astonishing figure highlights the extent to which social media companies are battling misinformation on their sites during the pandemic.
The Facebook co-founder and CEO revealed the figure on Tuesday during an appearance on CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell in which he talked about the company’s work to tackle misinformation on the platform.
“There’s harmful misinformation, which is the type of thing that puts people in imminent physical risk,” Zuckerberg told O’Donnell. “So, if you’re telling someone that social distancing doesn’t work, or that something that’s proven to be a cure when it isn’t, we want to take that off our services completely.
“There’s other misinformation which is not generally going to cause physical harm, it’s just stuff that’s wrong. We want to stop it from going viral, and there we work with independent fact-checkers, which has led to us showing about 50 million warning labels on content that people have seen.”
The Facebook boss said his team believes the warning labels are effective “because 95% of the time, when someone sees a piece of content with a warning label, they don’t click through to it.”
A recent high-profile incident regarding misinformation on its site occurred earlier this month when Facebook removed the Plandemic viral conspiracy video for violating its policies. But the action only came after the clip had racked up 1.8 million views, including 17,000 comments, and nearly 150,000 shares.
In his TV chat, Zuckerberg also talked about Facebook Shops, a new tool that enables small-business owners to create an online storefront for free.
“Facebook Shops allows a small business to easily set up a shop inside our apps … and it will be a very fast experience for people to discover their products and be able to buy things directly,” he said.
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