text:
Drew Barrymore's Pokémon Party is Gonna Be the Very Best
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
Shops around the country are preparing for tomorrow's Pokémon Day celebrations with exclusive goods and themed activities. Charlie's Angels actress Drew Barrymore is throwing her own swank Pokémon Day party in Los Angeles at the Sunset Tower penthouse, specifically to celebrate the franchise's unisex fashion items.
"I'm immersed in branding and brand expansion every day with my own companies and I think what Pokémon has done here is so smart and such a perfect way to expand their footprint," said host, Drew Barrymore.
The high-end soiree is inviting "the most highly sought after stylists, bloggers and influencers" to enjoy Pokemon nail art and in-depth conversations with Nintendo bigwig Pikachu himself. Products will be given away at the event including specially curated bags for the "elite guests."
If you didn't get an exclusive invite, you can watch the hashtag "#PokemonAfternoonSoiree."


text:
OnePlus Confirms To Launch OnePlus 10 In Early Next Year
Pete Lau, Co-Founder, and CEO of OnePlus, announced that the company will launch OnePlus 10-series phones in January. Reportedly, the launch would take place in Las Vegas and it would be a physical event. The series is expected to feature Android 12-based OxygenOS 12, a 48-megapixel primary camera, a 6.7-inch QHD+ display, and 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM. Besides, it may offer a 5,000mAh battery under the hood.
Tags: oneplus, OnePlus 10, lunch, Las Vegas, Qualcomm Snapdragon
Courtesy: NDTV Gadgets 360
Realme To Launch New GT Edition Mobile Phone In India
Following releasing in China, Realme is set to launch Realme GT 5G and Realme GT Mater Edition in India on August 18. The GT 5G is likely to be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset and 12GB + 256GB storage. It is expected to be equipped with a 64MP rear camera and a 16MP selfie shooter. The phone may be priced at around Rs 30,000.
Tags: Realme GT 5G, Realme GT Master Edition, New mobiles, Qualcomm Snapdragon
Courtesy: Telecom Talk
Nokia 5.4, Nokia 3.4 Launched In India; Priced At Rs 11,999
Nokia’s licensee brand HMD Global has launched low-end smartphones Nokia 3.4 and Nokia 5.4 in India. Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 SoC and Android 10, both phones come with 4GB+64GB storage with a 6.39-inch HD+ display. Equipped with a 4,000mAh battery, Nokia 3.4 comes with a 13-megapixel camera and Nokia 5.4 features a 48-megapixel camera. The phone will go for sale from February 17 through etailers and Nokia's official site.
Tags: Nokia, Nokia 5.4, Qualcomm Snapdragon, Nokia 3.4

domain: news


text:
The e-way bill was introduced along with the new Goods and Services Tax last year as an anti-evasion measure in bulk consignment transports.
In April, the state had implemented the first leg of the anti-evasion measure by rolling out e-way bills for inter-state transports of goods.
Maharashtra moved into the second leg of Electronic-way or e-way bill implementation on Friday by rolling out e-way bills for intra-state transport of goods. This means that e-way bill will be generated and has to be carried by transporters for moving any goods worth more than Rs 50,000 within the state.
Under the GST regime, a common portal was created for e-Way Bill generation where a unique e-Way Bill number is assigned to the dealer, the recipient and the transporter — leaving no room for tax evasion.
In April, the state had implemented the first leg of the anti-evasion measure by rolling out e-way bills for inter-state transports of goods. Within two months of implementation, Maharashtra has seen 1.75 lakh dealers registered on the e-way bill portal, according to A Shaila, joint commissioner of state tax border check post. Over 3,700 transporters in the state, too, are registered on the portal.
“The process of generating an e-way bill is very simple. It can be done on the website in a few simple steps. Transporters only have to fill in simple details such as mode of transport and vehicle number. Only in case the dealer has not generated the e-way bill, the transporter has to generate one,” said Shaila. Currently the state records over 1 lakh bills generated a day on an average, which she says is one of the highest in the country. However, it is lower than the daily average of neighbouring states which have fewer transporters enrolled on the portal. In April, Shaila had issued letters to dealers asking them to adhere to the e-way bill process or face action in case of evasion.
When asked about the teething problems in the implementation of e-way bills, Shaila said the state department of Goods and Services Tax had set up helpdesks for dealers as well as transporters on registration, enrolment and generation of e-way bills. “Regular training and massive camps are held across the country by the department as well as the traders’ associations,” she said.
The e-way bill was introduced along with the new Goods and Services Tax last year as an anti-evasion measure in bulk consignment transports. Earlier, under the Value Added Tax (VAT) regime, bulk transports were monitored by Way bills — it was mandated that every consignment was to be accompanied by a ‘Delivery Note’, which were issued from the VAT offices, which were reconciled at the end of every month through a utilisation statement. However, massive evasions were recorded and in many cases consignments were detained at check posts on frivolous grounds.
Source : http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/whats-the-e-way-bill-the-issues-facing-transporters-5193705/


text:
Green Bay beer to be served at White House
Here's an insider tip for beer drinkers planning Super Bowl parties:
A Green Bay craft beer from Hinterland Brewing Co., will be served at the White House Super Bowl party, according to a blog that tracks White House food initiatives "and other bipartisan bytes of food politics."
The White House ordered three cases of Hinterland beer from the small artisanal brewer right after the NFC Championship Game, Washington, D.C., blogger Eddie Gehman Kohan reported this week on her Obama Foodorama blog.
Hinterland beers sent to the White House, according to the blog, include: Pale Ale, the brewery's signature beer; Amber Ale, which has a caramel flavor; and Luna Coffee Stout, a bold, rich, and creamy beer.
The beer is sold in four-packs of 16-ounce bottles, and typically retails for $9.49 to $9.99. It's on sale this week, along with many other Wisconsin brews, at grocery stores and liquor stores. Otto's has it for $7.99, as do several Sendik's stores.
Hinterland's presence at the White House was news to Jason Pawlak, an employee of Otto's Wine Cask in Brown Deer, who noted Saturday morning that Hinterland is among the higher priced Wisconsin beers because it is brewed in small batches at a gastro pub.
Pawlak said he was going to make a note of its White House appearance on the beer display to boost Hinterland sales Saturday.
In other White House related Super Bowl party news, Obama Foodorama reports it is unlikely Obama will wear one of the Packers jerseys he was given during a Wisconsin visit days after his beloved Bears lost the NFC Championship Game.


text:
Azamara Club Cruises has expanded its range of shore excursions from 500 to around 1,200. The cruise line’s signature ‘AzAmazing’ evenings will remain but new excursions have been added including ‘taste local’, ‘walk local’ and ‘eco local’.
The 686-passenger cruise ships will cruise to events across the world including the Cannes Film Festival, the Monaco Grand Prix and New Year’s Eve in Sydney.
Richard Twynam, Managing Director, Azamara Club Cruises, UK & Ireland, said “We know that Azamara Club Cruises guests love longer stays and more overnights. They also love getting more time in port for local events and exclusive experiences. Our goal as we evolve our positioning is to move from enabling experiential travel to now truly delivering experiential travel. Azamara guests this year would enjoy 197 late-night stays around the world."


text:
COVID-19 storm cuts Belgian ports’ turnover by 10.5% in 2020
Brussels/Antwerp/Ghent/Ostend/Zeebrugge/Liège, 6 May 2021 — According to a new economic impact study from the National Bank of Belgium, the spread of COVID-19 and the stringent containment measures imposed by governments hit Belgian international maritime trade volumes. Export and import flows through maritime transport with non-EU countries declined respectively by 5% and 4% in 2020, while the aggregate turnover of Belgian ports dropped by 10.5%. This was quite a limited impact in view of the scale of the crisis. Before the pandemic outbreak, direct employment at Belgian ports was still growing – and for the fourth year in a row in 2019. Employment numbers rose by 2% to 254 009 direct and indirect full-time equivalent jobs. Direct value added rose by 1.4% in 2019, while indirect effects fell slightly (-0.3%), totalling €32.2 billion in current prices in 2019.
Belgium’s international trade volumes by sea declined in 2020
Even though only a limited share of exporters and importers in Belgium use trade by sea, this mode of transport is by far the most important in terms of volumes. As expected, trade volumes through maritime transport declined significantly in 2020, by respectively 5% for exports and 4% for imports. The drop in exports was particularly marked during the first lockdown, while the fall in imports was also observed during the second lockdown. When we investigate the impact of the pandemic, captured by the death rate due to COVID-19 in the population of trading partner countries, we show that bilateral trade flows with the hardest-hit countries were the most affected.
Ports see drop in turnover in 2020
Belgian ports were hit by the impact of COVID-19 as well. The strict lockdown imposed by the Belgian authorities in mid-March 2020 with a gradual easing from May and June led to a sharp drop in aggregate turnover figures in April and May 2020 with a year-on-year change of respectively -19% and -28% for the port sample considered. The second lockdown imposed in late October 2020 resulted in a new drop in aggregate revenue in November 2020, although the decline was smaller, with a recovery in December as companies adapted more easily to re-imposed restrictions thanks to experience from the first lockdown. The size of the shock to a median port firms’ turnover in April 2020 (-14% on a year-to-year basis) was much smaller than the fall (-32%) visible in the revenue of a median non-financial Belgian corporation. The impact of COVID-19 was not evenly distributed across sectors. Estimated turnover of a median car manufacturing company fell the most (-86%) in April 2020 compared to April 2019. In the same month, the revenue of a median fuel- producing company dropped sharply (-46%) as well. In the shipbuilding and repair segment and among trading firms, the extent of the shock in 2020 was more heterogenous. The magnitude of the shock to turnover was smallest in the food industry.
Before the outbreak of COVID-19, Belgian ports boosted employment and value added in 2019 …
Based on the full set of all available annual accounts for the accounting year 2019, the National Bank of Belgium’s annual study on Belgian ports has been updated. Direct and indirect employment grew by 2% in 2019 to 254 009 full-time equivalents, accounting for 5.9% of Belgian domestic employment. All Belgian ports except for Brussels generated additional jobs. The increase in direct employment was mainly due to extra jobs in cargo handling. Other branches created news jobs too. At the port of Antwerp, employment also grew in the chemicals industry and in other logistic services. At North Sea Port Flanders, employment expanded in car manufacturing, while in Ostend and Liège, this was the case in the metalworking industry and other logistic services. Extra jobs were created in the other logistic services, trade and shipping agents and forwarders at the port of Zeebrugge.
In 2019, direct value added at Belgian ports rose by 1.4%, while indirect effects fell slightly (-0.3%), leading to a total value added figure (including direct and indirect effects) of € 32.2 billion in 2019, representing 6.8% of Belgian GDP. Direct value added was up in all Belgian ports. The increase was relatively more evident in the ports of Antwerp and Liège owing to a wider capacity at nuclear power plants. At the port of Antwerp, shipping companies also generated higher value added due to the rise in forward charter rates, while the chemicals industry suffered a sharp decline coming from a huge drop in the operating profit of the biggest chemicals company. At the inland port of Brussels, growth in value added was driven by other logistic services and trade. Zeebrugge experienced a rise in its value added as well, mainly thanks to the energy sector and cargo handling. The energy sector benefited from a higher net allowance for expansion investment in liquefied natural gas plants. The expansion in value added at the port of Ostend was fully driven by the metalworking industry, construction and other logistic services, while the growth at North Sea Port Flanders was the result of more value added in trade and car manufacturing.
… while the pattern of investment was linked to projects and therefore highly volatile
After a high investment volume in 2018 influenced by a merger in shipping companies, direct investment by all Belgian ports taken together bounced back by 22.9% to € 4.8 billion in 2019, a level quite similar to that seen two years earlier. If that merger investment figure is deducted from total investment by Belgian ports in 2018, the adjusted change still shows a decline in 2019 compared to 2018, albeit less drastic (-3.6% instead of -22.9%), due to lower investment in the chemicals industry, energy, cargo handling, other logistic services and fuel production.
 Considering the sample of port firms for which monthly figures on turnover are filed at VAT registration, for each month, a median value for the year-on-year growth rates in turnover for port firms is calculated. These medians make up a fictitious median port company. The same exercise is done for different activity branches available in the sample of port firms.


text:
The Australian Cyber Conference, Melbourne 2023
The NSWCBE hosted 10 NSW SME Cyber businesses to co-exhibit at AISA’s Australian Cyber Conference in Melbourne 17-20 October 2023. The program assists businesses to grow and to support this goal the NSWCBE secured a prime stand location offering participating cyber businesses the opportunity to display and present their product/service at the booth. Many opportunities to network with potential customers were attended by the group which included attendance at the prestigious AISA Awards Dinner and Block Party. A highlight included a media profile through interviews with Sky News.
Held over 3 days the conference is attended by over 5000 delegates. The partnering businesses included:
Risk Associates Europe Ltd
Risk Associates is a client-centric cybersecurity firm supporting businesses in securing their information systems and data through achieving compliance with industry standards, strengthening their security posture, and ability to respond to cyber threats and breaches.
GuardWare products provide deep-level data protection, visibility and control, reducing the risk and building our cyber resilience.
Cyber Command Centre that helps leaders make business-driven decisions and meet regulatory compliance.
Truuth solves the problem of ID fraud with market-leading solutions for identity verification, fraud detection and password-less authentication.
We bring Security to Cyber
Augment your cyber team’s AppSec function with autonomous AI capable of triaging, correlating, and reasoning about your development security posture.
Janusnet Pty Ltd
Janusnet is Australia’s world-leading data classification developer - offering foundational zero trust capabilities, prevention of accidental disclosure: in document handling, in email transmission and web-conferencing.


text:
Facebook: The Word on Sponsored Posts
Continuing on a familiar theme – Social Media – this week I implore you to consider another article published in Melbourne’s ‘The Age’, this time specifically towards Facebook and the recently pushed ‘promotion’ of your status, page, event, etc.
Most of us already know that changes to the Facebook algorithm recently have vastly reduced the amount of updates you receive from the Pages which you have ‘liked’ – a concerning trend for musicians and artists whom relied on these such updates to inform their fanbase of pending events and milestones.
Nick Bilton did a bit more research into this trend, and despite the denials from Facebook that anything has changed as a result of their advertising revenue, Nick seems to have uncovered a different truth about the way advertised promotions are now spread in favour of, well; anything else.
The price of Facebook promotion, as opposed to our physical friends in Street Press and Posteirng, is much more worth the investment. Why? Everything is precisely targeted to friends of friends and networks beyond which you normally reach, yet still have some sort of Kevin Bacon, 7 Degrees of Separation type deal going for you. $10 can help you reach up to 8,000 people – depending on your number of initial ‘likes’.
However, many feel it is a matter of principle, that something that has been free and easy and beneficial for so long, is slowly but surely being taken from us.
Something is puzzling on Facebook.
Written by Nick Bilton; The Age, Melbourne: March 4, 2012
Early last year, soon after Facebook instituted a feature that let people subscribe to others’ feeds without being friends, I quickly amassed a healthy “subscriber” list of about 25,000 people.
Every Sunday morning, I started sharing my weekly column with this newfound entourage. Those garnered a good response. For example, a column about my 2012 New Year’s resolution to take a break from electronics gathered 535 “likes” and 53 “reshares.” Another, about Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and chief executive, owing me $50 after the company’s public offering, quickly drew 323 likes and 88 reshares.
Since then, my subscribers have grown to number 400,000. Yet now, when I share my column, something different happens. Guess how many people like and reshare the links I post?
If your answer was more than two digits long, you’re wrong.
From the four columns I shared in January, I have averaged 30 likes and two shares a post. Some attract as few as 11 likes. Photo interaction has plummeted, too. A year ago, pictures would receive thousands of likes each; now, they average 100. I checked the feeds of other tech bloggers, including MG Siegler of TechCrunch, and reporters from The New York Times, and the same drop in interaction has occurred.
What changed? I recently tried a little experiment. I gave Facebook $7 to promote my column to my friends using the company’s sponsored advertising tool.
To my surprise, I saw a 1,000 percent increase in the interaction on a link I posted, which had 130 likes and 30 reshares in just a few hours. It seems as if Facebook is not only promoting my links on news feeds when I pay for them, but also possibly suppressing the ones I do not pay for.
Facebook proudly informed me in a message that 5.2 times as many people had seen my post because I had paid the company to show it to them. Gee whiz. Thanks, Facebook.
This may be great news for advertisers, but I felt slightly duped. I’ve stayed on Facebook after its repeated privacy violations partly because I foolishly believed there was some sort of democratic approach to sharing freely with others. I feel as if the company persuaded us to share under that premise and is now turning it inside out by requiring us to pay for people to see what we post.
Facebook takes a different view, saying that it is still finding the right balance for the algorithm that decides what people see in their news feeds.
“The two aren’t related; we don’t have an incentive to reduce the distribution that you send to your followers so that we can show you more ads,” said Will Cathcart, product manager for Facebook’s news feed.
“The impact ads are having on engagement is relatively low, and we’re really pleased with how low that is,” Cathcart said. “Over time, we’ve shipped a number of changes to our algorithm that may cause content to go up or down. We don’t feel we’re anywhere near done on making that algorithm work well.”
Facebook said in a statement that “the median amount of feedback on posts (likes, comments, shares) from people who have more than 10,000 subscribers is up 34 per cent from a year ago.” But the math does not add up. Facebook is seeing a 2 per cent drop in interaction on the news feed, and is now replacing free content with paid content, which means a large number of free posts will disappear from people’s feeds as sponsored ads float to the top.
Eben Moglen, a professor at Columbia who specialises in internet law, said that although Facebook’s decisions to prioritise paid content could be seen as unethical, the company is not breaking any antitrust laws, yet.
“While the effort that is being characterised is problematic, no one has defined Facebook as dominant in a market,” he said, adding that the competition among social networks leaves Facebook open to operate of its own devices.
In the past, lawmakers have gone after big companies that favor their own products and suppress others.
Microsoft in the late 1990s took advantage of its hold on PCs to force internet Explorer onto people. Recently, Google has caught the attention of the US Federal Trade Commission and a number of European regulators for highlighting its own products in search results. But in both instances, the companies were monopolies. Although Facebook has 1 billion users, there are plenty of other social networks and billions of people still not on the site.
“Certainly Facebook has changed its policies and adjusted its products in order to squeeze as much revenue out of all of the openings of the business model in a way that they didn’t have to do before they went public,” said James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research and author of the book Digital Disruption. “It’s very possible there’s now a giant pendulum swinging within Facebook, where every division is under pressure to find revenue and advertising solutions.”
But for those who use Facebook for business needs, like restaurants, news outlets and local mom-and-pop shops that rely on the site to update customers, the changes could be damaging.
“It’s not just that people will feel nickeled and dimed by this, it’s that ultimately the value of the product disappears as the stream of information in your social network, one that used to be rapid and friction free, is no longer there and now consumed by advertising,” McQuivey said.
When I asked Avichal Garg, another product manager for Facebook’s news feed, why my interaction count dropped so sharply, he said the company clearly needed to improve its algorithm.
“It’s really not in our best interest to take out the most engaging stuff and replace it with ads,” he said. “We want to make sure we show the right content to the right people.” Facebook’s ability to control the algorithm puts it in a different position from its competitors.
Twitter has the same type of advertising module, called the sponsored tweet, but although the company might highlight the ad within a user’s stream, it does not suppress other people’s content in the process. Everything just falls into a time-based stream.
Facebook may become dominant enough that its actions vex regulators, then it may be forced to change what it highlights in news feeds. Or, maybe the people who use the service will grow so tired of what seems like another bait-and-switch that they will decide to stop sharing, even if it seems to be free.
Josh Forner is a Melbourne-based singer/songwriter and NMIT Music Business Graduate, volunteering with Melting Pot as a Social Media Manager, Freelance Writer and Industry Analyst. Any opinions expressed are solely expressed by the author not necessarily those of the Melting Pot music community.
The views expressed in this article are the views of the author and not necessarily the views of Melting Pot.
Author DetailsJosh Forner
Josh Forner is a folk/pop songwriter from Melbourne, Australia and Virginia, USA. Forner was born in Melbourne on July 2 1988, and spent the first 18 months of his life there before moving with his parents to the town of Reston in Virginia, USA. At the age of 3, Forner and his mother returned to Melbourne, where he has stayed ever since.
Josh sings of love, primarily (wow, what a shock right?), but also on his list of ‘hot topics’ are politics, famine, poverty and - of course – landscapes: the folk writer’s favourite.
He’s played with some of Melbourne’s stalwarts including Timothy Cannon, Bridget Pross, Mr Brady, Pro Rata, Gabriel Lynch & Kyle Taylor, and has contributed two of his tracks to non-profit compilation CDs in the past.
Josh’s repertoire continues to grow. He released his first album, a 10-track LP entitled ‘Leading to Nowhere’ at The Workers Club on May 28th, 2013. Forner has since returned to the studio to begin work on a 5-track solo EP to be released by the end of 2013. Following that, he has plans for album number two in 2014.


text:
Indian Youths Are Getting High From Flavoured Condoms
Indian youths are shocking the rest of the world as they reportedly get high from flavoured condoms.
As a result, the demand for flavoured condoms has shot up in the Asian country, and most stores fail to keep up.
OP India reported that one shop owner was surprised by the increased demand for flavoured condoms and inquired.
He asked a young man who is a regular customer at his shop. The young man reportedly told the shop owner that he regularly buys condoms to get intoxicated.
The shop owner said:
Earlier, three to four packets of condoms were sold daily. And now packs of condoms are disappearing from a store,” a shopkeeper of a medical store told the outlet.
When flavoured condoms are soaked in hot water, some alcoholic compound, polyurethane, is released. The liquid is then left for hours, sometimes overnight, before the youths drink it.
Officials claimed that the concoction gives the students a high for almost 10 to 12 hours.
Dheeman Mandal, who works at Durgapur Divisional Hospital, located in the Indian town where this strange phenomenon is rampant, said:
Condoms contain aromatic compounds. It breaks down to form alcohol, and it is addictive. This aromatic compound is also found in dendrites glue. So many people use dendrite for addiction also.
Drinking this water can cause intoxication and addiction. If consumed repeatedly, it will negatively impact the lungs and kidneys and harm the body’s nervous system.
Long-term use of this can lead to mental abnormalities, including violent behaviour, unconsciousness, and [in some instances] even death.
Many people have been experimenting with unusual substances to create drugs that keep them high.
In South Africa, people mix low-grade heroin, cannabis products, antiretroviral drugs and other materials to create nyaope which they smoke.
In Zimbabwe, young people make crystal meth and mix it with substances from energy saver bulbs.
People snort, swallow, or even inject bath salts in some countries to get high.


text:
After Simon Property Group gave up trying to buy its biggest mall-owning rival, attention shifted to its $2.3 billion purchase of Prime Retail Outlets.
The owner of Tyrone and Gulf View Square malls, Simon will land the teeming Prime Outlets Ellenton and Orlando in a deal sealing control of 77 of the nation's 217 outlet mall properties.
Antitrust regulators are still combing the deal struck seven months ago, but likely not with the same zeal as when Simon had a second offer out to grab General Growth Properties Inc., too. That $11 billion deal would have added 158 more top-tier malls to Simon's 380-mall trophy case, or a third of all the regional malls in the United States.
But it wasn't a lack of cash or regulators that put the kibosh on Simon. It became evident General Growth didn't want Simon once the management and creditors took a lower offer, said David Simon, chief executive.
Locally the Manatee County outlet would bookend Tampa Bay with Tampa Premium Outlets, a counterpart Simon has planned for years at State Road 52 and Interstate 75 in Pasco County.
The Pasco mall was supposed to open in 2008, but was put off until 2011 by the economic collapse.
The inactivity energized the rumor mill about sites closer to town. One had Sierra Properties wooing Simon's Pasco project south as part the sprawling Cypress Creek development at SR 56. Meanwhile, a Washington, D.C., developer appeared with plans for a mall-size hotel-retail development at the Florida State Fairgrounds. That harks back to a mid 1990s attempt to put an outlet mall there to feed off the tourists drawn to the Seminole Hard Rock Casino.
It's too late for Simon to open in 2011. The players will not comment on rumors or when the market might recover enough for another outlet mall.
"We are still very committed to Tampa-St. Pete and think it would be an outstanding market for our Premium Outlets concept," said Michelle Rothstein, a Simon spokeswoman. "We hope to have an announcement in the near future."
Shailendra Group, the Atlanta developer that wants to fit the Premium Outlets mall into part of 950 acres it acquired in 2002, heard the rumors.
"I cannot comment," said Ron Weaver, Shailendra's Tampa attorney. "But we do have the best site."
• • •
Two retailers chose different ways to find a new fashion face for their brands.
Talbots signed 45-year-old model-mom Linda Evangelista as the face for a fall ad campaign.
Stein Mart Inc., the Jacksonville off-price chain, is staging a contest among customers, offering $500 gift cards to those chosen as models. Stein Mart urged hopefuls to post 30- to 45-second videos on the chain's Facebook page by Friday. Winners will be invited to auditions followed by a fashion shoot in Orlando.
• • •
The Limited is no longer part of Limited Brands, the retail conglomerate that Les Wexner, the son a Columbus, Ohio, haberdasher, parlayed into one of the great retail fortunes of the late 20th century. Since 1963 Wexner made the Limited a wellspring that begot Victoria's Secret, Pink, Bath & Body Works, White Barn Candles and Henri Bendel.
Along the way Limited spawned and spun off other influential nameplates: Limited Too (now Justice), Express, Lerner New York, Cacique, Structure and a revival of once-moribund Abercrombie & Fitch.
Limited Brands unloaded its last 25 percent stake for $32 million to Sun Capital Partners, a Boca Raton investor group that took the rest for $50 million in 2007.
After turning an operating profit last year, the first since 1993, Limited had shrunk to 220 stores. Three are in bay area malls.
No word if Limited Brands will change its name.
Reach Mark Albright at [email protected] or (727) 893-8252.


text:
The region’s rapidly developing tourism sector received a further boost this week with the launch of the new Mourne Coastal Tourism website. The website (www.come2mournes.com) which is designed to promote the best of the Mournes and Carlingford Lough was created by the local tourism businesses following a public meeting last year in response to frustration at the lack of marketing of the region. Speaking at the launch whiuch was held in the Whistledown Hotel last week , South Down MLA Karen McKevitt (SDLP) said th at working together on a voluntary basis local tourism providers were making a massive difference to their industry. “Last June my office set about to bring local businesses together to take ownership of our tourism industry,” she said. “The Mournes Coastal Tourism Forum has already exceeded my expectations having implemented great initiatives to promote the area with more planned for the future.” The launch came in the same week as it was revealed in the Assembly that there are currently 53 premises offering a total of 435 rooms of tourist accommodation in Newry and Mourne. The information was made available by Tourism Minister Arlene Foster following a question by south Down MLA Catriona Ruane (SF) on the matter. According to Mrs Foster there are currently six hotels in the district offering 231 room units, five guest houses offering 41 room units, 32 B&Bs offering 87 room units and five hostels offering 38 room units. These figures are expected to increase considerably in the coming months and years as a number of projects designed to increase the number of tourist beds in the district come to fruition.
13th March 3013


text:
With Google now expected to announce the Pixel 7a at its Google I/O developer event on May 10 we're starting to see more rumors about what that will actually entail including what it will mean for the current Pixel 6a.
Normally, when Google releases a new version of the Pixel it immediately discontinues the current model. That's what happened with the Pixel 4a and Pixel 5a, but a new report suggests that won't be the case this time around.
That's according to leaker and YouTuber Jon Prosser who shared some details about the as-yet-unannounced mid-range phone. According to him, Google will not only announce the Pixel 7a during that May 10 event but it will also make it available to buy immediately following that event. There won't be any pre-order windows or anything, he says, which is worth noting if you're keen to pick yourself up a new phone.
The Pixel 7a will apparently be offered in Charcoal, Snow, Sea (light blue), and Coral. The last one will only be available to buyers who pick their new phone up via the Google Store, however. That's the color that we think we'd choose, just FYI.
But perhaps most interesting is the news that the Pixel 6a will not be discontinued. Prosser's tweet was followed by pricing information leaked by 9to5Google, with a $50 increase over the Pixel 6a suggesting that buyers will need to pay more than was previously the case. The Pixel 7a will start at $499, we're told.
That would not only mean that Google can charge more for the new Pixel than the old one, but it also leaves a bit of wiggle room for Google to also sell the Pixel 6a at a slightly lower price point as well. We don't know what that price point will be, but a Pixel 7a selling for $499 does suggest there could be a space for a $399 Pixel 6a just beneath it in the lineup.
As for why the Pixel 7a is increasing in cost, that's likely down to the main camera's 64-megapixel upgrade as well as the Tensor G2 chip that'll power the whole thing.
The Pixel 7a isn't the only phone that will be announced during the Google I/O event of course. We've been told to expect the Pixel Fold to finally debut, while the Pixel Tablet is also expected to be properly unveiled alongside who-knows-what-else Google might have up its sleeve.
The Google I/O event will kick off on May 10 and the opening keynote will be streamed live online.


text:
For today’s Trending Thursday post, we’re taking a look back to 2011 where we first identified indoor gardening as an emerging trend.
Though the concept of owning and maintaining indoor plants wasn’t new, we began to recognize that houseplants had more than just a pretty face - they were also keeping us healthy in a variety of ways.
Continue reading to learn more about the indoor gardening trend.
In 2011, people extended nature’s influence by bringing the outdoors in with houseplants.
With “steampunk” Victorian hipster décor popular with everyone from young urbanites to upscale suburban homes, orchids, ferns and palms were wildly popular. People flocked to plants like orchids because they were chic, easy-to- grow and worked hard to clean indoor air from volatile organic compounds.
Consumers learned more about the health benefits of indoor houseplants from campaigns like O2forYou from Costa Farms. From cleaning the air, to helping improve concentration, indoor houseplants were easy on the eyes, mind, body and spirit.
Flash forward to 2016, and indoor gardening now takes many forms. The health benefits of houseplants are now as popular as the plants themselves. New research has strengthened the idea that plants are good for you.
Studies from the US Environmental Protection Agency have found that levels of indoor air pollution can be two to five times higher — and in some cases 10 times more polluted — than outdoor air.
Houseplants such as bromeliads, spider plants and dracaena, remove the harmful compounds frequently found in homes and offices, produced by cleaning supplies, paint, furniture glue and nail polish remover.
New technology has allowed Indoor gardening to evolve to a point where Mother Nature isn’t in charge. Hydroponic products and systems like the GrowBox and GrowWall from OPCOM Farm make it easy to produce high yields of plants and food 365 days-a-year. Growing hydroponically without soil is slated to be the new norm.
As indoor growing technology becomes more sophisticated, gardens will continue to pop up in unexpected places.


text:
Baptist Convention kids grown up, now running their parents’ businessesJune 27, 2017
Each Summer, Christians within the Baptist Denomination meet up for the annual Congress of Christian Education. It’s a week of classes, workshops, preaching, and teaching to help cultivate Christian principals, Church protocol, and Bible education. The congress week is sponsored by the National Baptist Convention USA, which launched in 1895.
While the daily classes and worship services are the foundation of the convention, a big extension of the convention are the vendor spaces. Christian business owners and churches promote their products, ministries, and their brands all week.
As the convention celebrated it’s 107th Congress Week most recently in St. Louis, participants noticed a difference in the exhibition center. Many of the booths, which have been traditionally operated by longtime adult business owners of the convention, were being managed by their children.
The adults who attend the Congress of Christian Education Week can remember when it was called the “Sunday School and BTU” convention back in the 70’s. Many of those adults were raising young kids while kickstarting their businesses. Due to the financial strain of building a company while raising a family, most of them had to bring their children along with them to the annual Summer conventions.
This year, it was quite noticeable. Many of those kids from the 70’s and 80’s are now adults and they are still coming to the convention with their parents, except now… they run the business.
Debbie Williams (Atlanta, GA) have been bringing her three kids to the convention with her since she first signed up 30 years ago. Williams owns Debbie’s Fashions, a traveling women’s clothing boutique based in Atlanta.
“I wanted my kids with me. I dont believe in dumping my kids on anyone for a whole week. So, in the beginning… while it was work, it also became a family vacation.”
Her daughter, Erica Williams, began attending the convention when she was 5 years old. Erica is now 30 years old. “I remember getting fussed at for riding up and down the escalators in the convention centers. Each year mom would give us the rules but as soon as we set the booth up we’d take off running,” she laughed as she remembered her childhood years attending each Summer.
“I remember being in Detroit one year and seeing fireworks. I remember walking around seeing stuff I like in other booths and begging my mom to buy it for me,” she said.
Debbie, like most parents, made pallets under her booth tables and made her kids take naps during the day. It was very common for the vendors to lay blankets and pillows down on the floor behind their counters to give their kids a play space rather than running unsupervised throughout the convention center.
The kids would still sneak out to find kids from other booths. The little posses would roam all over the building together and wouldn’t return to their parents’ booths until they were hungry.
One of the kids Erica saw every year was Demetrius Jones. His grandfather is Dr. H.L. Jones, owner of Christian Goldmine. The company sells Christian books and bibles. Demetrius has been coming to the convention with his “Paw Paw” since he was 6 years old. Today, Demetrius is 27.
“When I was a kid it was fun going to the different cities each year with my grandfather. I couldn’t wait to go chase the girls up and down the isles,” he laughed and smiled. “The convention was just a big playground for me.”
Demetrius says as he got older he learned important business principals at the convention.
“When I turned 16, I realized the importance of my grandfather’s business. A pastor told me my grandfather had blessed him with books to help him get his ministry started. I found out later my grandfather had been doing it for a lot of people. I’ve learned that our business was not just about making money. We supply the products that help pastors and churches build the kingdom of God,” he said.
“It is serious and important and I am grateful for a grandfather who was patient enough to teach these principals to me,” he said.
Erika Williams is now part of her mother’s management team and Demetrius now owns his grandfather’s bookstore. “My grandfather has even gone so far as putting the title to the store in my name.”
Not only does Demetrius own the bookstore but he has expanded it to T-Shirt pressing as well and began his own brand called “Dedicated Grind”.
Dwight Scott has been working at the convention with his mother, Sharron Scott, for 21 years. He began coming when he was just 11 years old. His mother owns, SD Designs Embroidery Service. It’s one of the signature booths of the convention. “When I was 15 she taught me the paperwork side of the business. That immediately evolved into floor leadership,” said Dwight. He is now the COO of their company and he helps keep it altogther for his mother back in East Chicago, IN. “I was given the role so my mother could concentrate on sewing and embroidery,” he says.
Scott recently stepped down from a full time position in Corporate America and he says he is “never going back to that.” He realized working with his mother at the convention each year was preparation for him to help build their family business. “Being involved from day one has taught me how to start and grow a business. The convention life is fast with long hours. It taught me how to persevere through long work hours and never quit until the job is done.”
One of the first souvenirs convention participants buy are the Congress T-shirts. The shirts have the Congress year on them with scenery from whatever city hosts the convention. Those shirts are usually made by Bethel Global Network of Riverside, California. Patricia Tokoto has been selling these shirts for 15 consecutive years. She started bringing her son, Josh, with her when he was just 4 years old. Today, Josh is 18.
“I want my son to know you can do business in an environment of people who believe in the same Spiritual Principals as we do,” said Mrs. Tokoto. When he turned 15, she started giving him more responsibility. “He handles the booth by himself now,” she said.
Not only does he operate the booth alone but he also keeps up with the books, updates the accounting, and stocks the shelves. “Selling T-shirts at the convention has inspired me to begin my own clothing line. I want to make clothes that people are proud to wear because they believe in what the brand stands for,” said Josh.
This Fall, Josh will begin studying Computer Science at Georgia St. University.
Rev. Roosevelt Wright, Jr. has been a lecturer for the convention for 40+ years. He began attending the convention in 1979. He and his wife, Joslyn, own Wright’s Publishing, Co. It is the umbrella for their newspapers, books, and their featured product… “Sermon Ideas”.
“Sermon Ideas” has been a vendor at the convention for four decades. The booth offers sermon guides and study materials for ministers. It is one of the largest booths at the convention. When Rev. Wright first attended the convention, his wife was in the middle of her fourth pregnancy. They can remember having all their kids with them each year.
One of those kids was Rev. Wright’s oldest son, Pastor Roosevelt Wright, III, commonly known as “Ro Wright”. Ro is now the National Marketing Representative for Wright’s Publishing, Co. and has a been writing contributor for books and sermon materials which are now carried under his father’s brand name.
“I was maybe 5 when I first started coming with my parents. For my brothers and I, it was a chance to see the world. We knew every Summer we would get to stay in hotels in different cities. That was exciting and we waited all year for it,” said Ro. He is now 40 years old and is also the Pastor of Metro Assembly of Faith in New Orleans, LA.
“It has always been my vision to build a company that my kids could carry further one day. Bringing them to the convention was an easy way of teaching my sons our family business. Now, they all have equal responsibilities in our company according to their skillsets,” said Rev. Wright.
“My dad taught me the fundamentals of business growing up at the conventions. I have learned you can do business honorably if your heart is rooted in the principals of God,” said Ro.
One factor all the young business leaders agree on is the convention leaders should consider talking to vendors about ideas which would boost convention attendance. “Many of us grew up in this convention. We remember when there were traffic jams trying to find parking spots. We remember when it was hot in the exhibition center due to how many people were in there. This is no longer the case,” said Ro.
The attendance decline in the convention has increased for various reasons. One major factor is the emergence of other conventions. Now there are several Baptist conventions, not to mention the Full Gospel Baptist Convention. They are all generally planned around the same time of the year.
“We do have ideas and we do care about the future of the convention. Our voices shouldn’t be taken for granted when events are being planned. Our families’ livelyhoods depend on the success of the convention. We are deeply invested in the convention and we all want to see it prosper and evolve,” said Ro.
Wright believes a delegation on behalf of the vendors should be included in the planning stages to help increase revenue for the convention and also the involved businesses. They know it won’t be long before they are passing the family business down to their own children.


text:
Earn UNLIMITED income! Quit your job! Change your life!
Do we have your attention? Good! Are you rolling your eyes? Even better. That means you’ve heard warnings about illegal pyramid schemes that masquerade as legitimate multi-level marketing (MLM) businesses and promise life-changing income, but take your money instead.
The FTC’s latest case charging a company with operating a pyramid scheme concerns “Success By Health” (SBH), a venture that the FTC alleges has bilked consumers who joined its sales network as “Affiliates” out of more than $7 million.
According to the FTC, SBH tells consumers they can replace their job income in six months and gain “financial freedom” in 18 months by selling its coffee, tea, and dietary supplements and recruiting other people to do the same. In reality, the FTC says, the vast majority of SBH Affiliates pay SBH more than they earn.
The complaint alleges that SBH pushes Affiliates to max out their credit cards, borrow from family, get bank loans, and sell or mortgage their homes to buy inventory and attend costly “training” programs. But, according to the FTC, the amount Affiliates earn is based on how many new Affiliates they recruit and how much inventory they and their recruits buy, not on their sales of SBH products to retail customers.
At the FTC’s request, a federal court has ordered SBH to halt its allegedly unlawful activities while the case is pending.
If you’re planning to buy into an MLM plan, get the details. Start by searching online for the name of the company and words like review, scam, or complaint. Be skeptical of portrayals of lavish lifestyles made possible by participating in the program. And, if promoters emphasize recruiting as the real way to make money, head for the nearest exit. That’s a hallmark of a pyramid scheme.


text:
Spotify appears to be removing controversial episodes of its wildly popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast from its service.
According to a report from The Wrap, 42 episodes of the podcast from the MMA commentator and comedian have been removed from the platform since it purchased the podcast for $100 million in May 2020, though some of the original uploads remain on YouTube.
Four episodes with comedian Chris D’Elia, who has been accused of pursuing underage girls on social media, are among the removed episodes, The Wrap reported. Another six episodes featuring conspiracy theorist David Seaman have also been removed.
Rogan has frequently made offensive statements, shared misinformation, and hosted problematic guests on his podcast. In 2020, he made the false claims that Caitlyn Jenner could have been transgender as a result of living with the Kardashian women, that the Portland forest fires were started by “left-wing” activists, and described transgender identity as a “social contagion.”
The most recent removal of content occurred on April 6, according to The Wrap, with two old podcasts being taken off the platform. One of those episodes, first released in 2013, featured Bulletproof Coffee founder David Asprey, who has shared controversial scientific misinformation, like that with stem cell injections you can live to be 180-years-old. Rogan himself did call out Asprey’s misinformation on his podcast, saying in episode #459 with Dr. Rhonda Patrick that “he gets s— wrong and I don’t know if he’s always so good at recognizing when he has done that and correcting himself.”
There are currently 1,632 episodes of the Joe Rogan Experience created since 2009, with less than 3% having been removed.
Some episodes recorded before the Spotify acquisition never made the move over to the streaming service from YouTube, as Variety reported, including those with conservative YouTuber Sargon of Akkad, Proud Boys extremist-group founder Gavin McInnes, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos.
During a February episode with guest Fahim Anwar, Rogan alluded to the fact that some of these episodes were taken down. “They haven’t given me a hard time at all,” Rogan said. “There were a few episodes they didn’t want on their platform, I was like ‘okay, I don’t care.'”
Spotify did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) announced on Monday that it was getting into crypto art by minting its own digital collectibles designed to commemorate the first public trade of six stocks.
The NYSE is not only the largest stock exchange in the world, but it is also the first to get into crypto art. The collectibles will represent the first trades of Spotify, Snowflake, Unity, DoorDash, Roblox, and Coupang. NYSE said it plans to launch more first-trade collectibles in the future.
The digital collectibles will operate as non-fungible tokens or NFTs. NFTs are digital collectible tokens that allow the buyer to connect their name directly to the creator via the blockchain.
While the NYSE appears to be getting in on the NFT trend, the exchange’s tokens are not up for sale. The NFTs are housed on Crypto.com, a less than month-old NFT trading platform that has already launched crypto art sales for several celebrities including Snoop Dogg and Boy George.
A source familiar with the matter told Insider NYSE does not plan to sell its NFTs, but has already gifted them to the respective companies. The NYSE also plans to mint future NFTs and gift those to the memorialized companies as well, according to the source.
The NFTs for each company feature a short clip containing information about the first trade, including the sale price, date, and a string of numbers representing the first trade quote code.
Stacey Cunningham, the President of NYSE, said the NFTs will help commemorate the very first moments a company joins NYSE by highlighting the data from a company’s very first trade.
“NYSE technology is processing over 350 billion order, quote and trade messages across our markets on our busiest days, more than any other exchange in the world,” Cunningham said in a LinkedIn post. “Only one of those messages marks the NYSE First Trade: the exact moment a company became public, creating an opportunity for others to share in their success.”
When the pandemic struck, the floor was promptly ripped out from under working musicians. With the closure of venues and touring off the table, the bleak reality of declining recording revenue – which has nose-dived in the streaming era – began to sink in as artists faced an uncertain future.
Although the recording industry has always been a predatory and exploitative force (especially to non white people and women), the inequalities within music have become more acute since the onset of COVID-19. According to The American Prospect, “Spotify has outperformed Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google between January 2020 and January 2021,” boosting CEO Daniel Ek’s net worth to $5.3 billion, and leaving musicians – who earn a paltry $0.00348 per stream – without a foothold.
As musician Damon Krukowski told the Prospect’s David Dayen, “Last year, the COVID year, [my band] Galaxie 500 had 8.5 million streams on Spotify. We also released a 2,000-copy, limited-edition LP. They raised the same amount of money. Neither is enough to live on.” Krukowski told Dayen that he added up the amount of monthly streams that would amount to each band member earning $15 an hour from Spotify. The number was 650,000. According to MIT, the living wage in Boston, where Krukowski’s band is based, is $19.17 an hour.
Streaming companies’ rapid devaluation of recorded music has been a long-term project. As music piracy took off in the late 90s and early 2000s, the music industry created a narrative that such platforms were stealing from artists, despite the fact that many indie musicians owed their careers to piracy. One North Carolina State University study even suggested the piracy boosted album sales. Krukowski told Dayen that his band was able to reach people through piracy and sell out shows in countries that they could never reach through traditional channels.
The Recording Industry Association of America worked tooth and nail to sue pirate sites like Napster and Kazaa out of business and mounted a counterrevolution to piracy that would eventually evolve into streaming. Of course the modus operandi of the tech industry is to “innovate” via consolidation, new technology and legal justifications that works to funnel wealth upwards to investors while devaluing labor. According to Rolling Stone, “65% of Spotify was owned by just six parties,” including the company’s founders and Wall St. firms like Morgan Stanley. Other owners include the major record companies, who, according to music writer Liz Pelly, use their leverage to promote their artists on the site at the expense of those with fewer resources.
As Joey La Neve DeFrancesco, a musician and organizer from Providence, Rhode Island, told me in a phone interview, “Streaming has simply seen an exaggeration of the trend of more and more resources being directed to an ever smaller number of people in the music industry.” Pelly noted in The Baffler magazine that “a study released by Citigroup showed that in 2017, only approximately 12% of the music industry’s revenue went to artists, which speaks to the financial precariousness faced by many musicians.”
DeFrancesco spoke to the similarities between Spotify and other tech companies. “What’s happening at Spotify is very similar to what we’ve seen happen in other industries, like with rideshare companies. …The companies themselves say, ‘Oh, we can’t pay people more, we’re actually operating at a loss,’ but it’s this confusing array of venture capitalist firms who are investing in these companies and artificially propping them up to create monopolies to drive down prices and to drive up competition, making it increasingly difficult for workers to mount in opposition.”
But with COVID, everything changed.
Organizing against Spotify
“Things were growing more and more unequal in our industry, and the pandemic pushed everything over the edge and allowed music workers the time to start talking to one another,” DeFrancesco said. Once off the road and grounded at home, DeFrancesco and other musicians began sharing their stories over Zoom about industry practices, streaming rates, and other issues facing artists.
From there, the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW) was born. Today, the group has 25 steering committee members and 80 subcommittee members that work on a myriad of issues facing artists such as labels, venues, immigration and police abolition. The group’s mission statement states: “UMAW has mobilized thousands of music workers to take part in our first actions around the COVID crisis, and we will continue to organize around issues such as demanding fairer deals from streaming services, ensuring musicians receive the royalties they are owed, establishing more just relationships with labels, and creating safer guidelines for venues.”
On March 15, masked-up musicians and their allies took to Spotify offices all over the world to hand deliver their demands to the streaming giant as part of the group’s Justice at Spotify campaign. They called for a raise to a penny-per-stream (approximately three times the current rate), the adaptation of a user-centric payment model that pays musicians proportionally to the amount of streams they receive, transparency about contracts and the removal of payola, proper attribution credits for work on recordings, and an end to “legal battles intended to further impoverish artists.” Nearly 28,000 signed onto the demands that were delivered in 15 cities around the world including in New York, Berlin, São Paulo, London, and Nashville, highlighting the Swedish company’s role in global music distribution and labor exploitation.
As soon as the campaign took off, Spotify quickly launched a website called Loud & Clear, which was designed to offer transparency about the company, or act as a PR smokescreen, depending on who you ask. As UMAW retorted, “This website answers none of our demands and even further obfuscates transparency. The company simply deflects blame onto others for systems it has itself built and provided no further information on their per-stream rate.”
DeFrancesco told me that although the company didn’t mention UMAW’s campaign directly, “the fact that they felt the need to [create the website] and move to the steps that we see a lot of companies do when confronted is telling. They moved from just ignoring protest to beginning to lash out back at the activists and workers. That means we are making inroads.”
UMAW plans to keep building their union. “The only way to counter the power of these major companies and venture capitalists is to build an opposing worker power,” DeFrancesco said.
“With new tech solutions, we’re just going to replicate the same power inequities, unless we actually organize power. So you know, we need to get musicians together and organized so we can, like the rest of the labor movement, demand power and resources from the people who own the means of production, which is these monopoly tech companies. This way we can build a political force so that we can lobby for regulation and get public resources to arts workers like they have in other industrialized countries.”
Will Meyer is a freelance writer and co-editor of The Shoestring in western Massachusetts. His writing has appeared in The Baffler, The New Republic, CJR, and many other publications. Find him on Twitter @willinabucket.
Many companies are preparing for employees to return to the office at some point this year, but that approach is by no means universal.
The deadly impact of the COVID-19 pandemic meant office-based workers were forced to rapidly shift to remote models. Now, both employers and employees are seeing the benefits and opportunities that such models can provide and are choosing to run with it over the long term. In some cities, this means more money for employees, a new study has found.
No doubt, when some people look for their next career move, they will consider remote work as a more attractive option due to its flexibility.
According to recent data from Harvey Nash, a tech recruiter, more than three-quarters (79%) of UK tech workers – the equivalent of more than one million people working in the sector – want to continue working from home for the majority of the week after the pandemic.
So, for those looking for a job change in a remote-working environment, where are the best places to look?
A new study by Swedish job search engine, Jobbland.se, found the countries that have the most remote jobs available relative to their working-age group. It also analyzed which industries have the most remote jobs advertised, and which cities are paying more or less for non-office jobs that are being advertised.
Which countries are offering the most remote jobs?
Based on jobs being advertised on LinkedIn in March 2021, those living in the US have a greater opportunity to find non-office jobs, where 113% of the jobs being offered are remote, relative to its working population.
Opportunities for remote work fall by nearly half in the UK, but the country still remains the highest non-office job advertiser among other European countries.
Which industries are most likely to offer fully remote positions?
With the option to work in a fully remote environment, the translation industry ranked number one as most likely to offer fully remote positions (91%). Editing and writing (56%), legal jobs (53%), and software development (47%) are also among the highest industries most likely to offer non-office jobs.
Sports and fitness (21%) and manufacturing (15%), however, are among the lowest.
Which cities are paying more for remote work?
According to the study, employees based in San Francisco can enjoy the benefits of high salaries for both remote and non-remote work. But, the tech city is offering higher average salaries for remote work jobs being advertised. Non-office work is presently paying $31,508 more in the California city.
In Ottawa, Canada, work-from-home jobs are paying $12,499 more than office jobs, on average. Meanwhile, Lyon pays the highest amount more for remote work than non-remote work in Europe.
In Sydney, there is also a difference in pay between remote and non-remote salaries but the Australian city is the lowest among some of the most populous cities, with only a 2% increase in remote jobs’ salaries.
Both have big catalogs but Spotify’s playlists and sharing options are the best fit for most people.
Music Unlimited (small)Music Service (small)Table of Contents: Masthead Sticky
There’s never been a better time to jump in and commit to a music streaming service than right now. The ability to save nearly any song to your library for on-demand listening at home or on the go is a game-changer. Spotify and Amazon Music are great services in this regard and both are well worth considering.
Each platform has around 70 million songs available, along with their own set of features. Both have apps for iPhones, Android smartphones, computers, and other popular devices so you’ll be able to listen in dozens of ways.
That said, there are a few differences that could make one service a better fit over the other. We compared the two across a variety of categories to help you decide which is right for you.
Amazon Music vs Spotify: which is better?
Spotify may be the world’s most popular streaming music service, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider Amazon Music. Both have a lot to offer in the unique features they provide.
In fact, Amazon Music appears to be trying hard to differentiate itself in the world of streaming by offering a plan with higher fidelity tracks, along with some nice perks for Amazon Prime members. Spotify, meanwhile, sticks to standard music bitrates and streamlined subscription offerings, which could make it a more convenient solution for people who just need a casual music listening service.
Let’s take a look at how each stacks up against the other in some key areas.
Song catalog size:
Around 70 million songs
Around 70 million songs
Coming later this year
X-Ray lyrics, Alexa voice assistant
Best in class playlists, podcast support
iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Web
iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Web
Pricing and plans
Both Spotify and Amazon Music can be used for free, but the free tiers are significantly limited and largely amount to Internet radio on mobile. As is common, both services allow for 30-day trials to test their paid versions.
The paid plans and pricing for Spotify are streamlined compared to Amazon. Plans include: Free, Premium, Premium Duo, and Premium Family, and Premium Student.
Spotify’s ad-supported plan is completely free. This option lets you listen to any song through the desktop app, but you do have to deal with constant ads. If you don’t want commercials, you can choose one of Spotify’s Premium plans. The more expensive options allow you to add more users, so multiple people in the same household can listen at the same time.
Spotify Premium Duo
Spotify Premium Family
Students can also take advantage of a discounted Premium rate of just $5 a month. As a bonus, this plan also comes with a complimentary Hulu and Showtime subscription.
Amazon Music plans
Amazon Music features a few more options than Spotify. Plans include: Free, Included with Prime, Unlimited, Unlimited Family, Echo, and HD.
Amazon Music’s completely free option doesn’t let you listen to specific songs on-demand. Instead it offers an experience more like streaming radio with ads.
If you have an Amazon Prime membership, you get access to an expanded music service, called Amazon Prime Music, as part of your subscription. This plan is ad-free and has on-demand access to around 2 million songs. For access to Amazon’s full library of songs, however, you need to upgrade to a Music Unlimited plan for an extra fee.
Amazon Prime Music
Amazon Music Unlimited
Amazon Music Unlimited Family
Amazon Music HD
Free with Amazon Prime
$8 with Prime, $10 without
$15 with Prime
$13 with Prime, $15 without
Select playlists and stations
Music Unlimited also offers the option to restrict streaming to a single Amazon device for a reduced fee. You can give a single, eligible Echo device access to Music Unlimited for just $4 a month (instead of the standard $10).
Spotify and Amazon Music both provide similar quality for their free and standard plans. Music streaming is compressed to reduce size and data requirements, but most people listening on mobile devices and earbuds likely won’t notice any major quality issues.
Where Amazon has an edge on Spotify, however, is with its Music HD plan. This higher priced option is designed for audiophiles and features CD-quality streaming that preserves the full range of the original recording. Some tracks are even provided in Ultra HD, which exceeds the specifications for CD-quality.
Amazon Music HD’s superior quality will be noticeable for some people, but to fully take advantage of the increased sound performance you’ll need expensive speakers or headphones.
Though Spotify doesn’t currently offer a CD-quality plan, the service will be adding that option, called Spotify HiFi, later this year.
The look and feel of both streaming services is similar. Amazon and Spotify each feature a navigation bar across the bottom of their mobile apps with a home screen, search, and collected library of music.
While most people use music services through their mobile devices, both Spotify and Amazon Music do offer desktop apps as well. This is where the two experiences differ. Spotify’s desktop app is decent and has been refined over more than a decade. In March 2021, the streaming service announced it updated its desktop app’s interface to allow offline downloads and give “more control” for creating playlists.
The Amazon Music desktop app, on the other hand, is very utilitarian. The interface on a Mac is unintuitive and completely unlike its mobile app counterpart. For instance, the design makes it difficult to use the listening queue mechanism.
Amazon Music’s web interface is better and simpler to use. In Spotify’s case, it’s definitely an advantage to have such a solid desktop app.
Performance and features
On a macro level, Spotify and Amazon Music are closely aligned. For example, the catalog of songs available to listen to hardly varies at all, and any exclusives are mostly negligible. Each service does have its own set of features to set itself apart though.
For Amazon Music, its mobile app includes its Alexa voice assistant built-in. This functionality means that all music controls can be performed via hands-free voice commands. The version of Alexa accessible through the music app can also perform other skills. For example, you can ask Alexa to control smart lights the same as you would through an Echo. Spotify does offer a “Hey Spotify” feature that lets its members use their voice to find artists and songs, but its functionality isn’t as robust as Alexa.
The Amazon Music app’s other main feature includes X-Ray lyrics. This is a neat and genuinely helpful feature that allows lyrics to scroll by as the song plays for a karaoke-like experience.
Merch pages are also now attached to select artists’ profiles on Amazon Music to make it easier to buy their merchandise right from the Music app. Amazon Music introduced Car Mode in April 2021, as well, to provide a simplified, minimal interface for commuters.
Though these Amazon features are appealing, Spotify still has a clear edge when it comes to its great music algorithms, which the service puts to use in the form of personal playlists. “Discover Weekly” and other playlists definitely set the music service apart from others. If you don’t know what to listen to, you don’t have to suffer through generic radio.
Spotify also allows filters based on genres and moods. Playlists have an “enhance” button too, which can add random songs that are similar to the ones you’ve already included. A “recently played” option is also in the works that will allow users to look back at their past three months of streaming.
When it comes to travel and commuting, Spotify features integrations with Google Maps and Waze, as well as a dedicated car interface with big buttons to keep your music listening safe on the road.
More so than any other music service, Spotify has become a social network over the years and allows you to follow friends and easily share songs back and forth. This works well because it’s the world’s largest music platform and has the most listeners who will gladly click on a link you share.
The bottom line
A few years ago, the question of whether you should use Spotify versus Amazon Music was an easy choice. Now in 2021, that choice isn’t as clear cut. The good news is that both services offer compelling features at reasonable prices.
Ultimately, Spotify is still the best choice for most people. While Amazon Music has a wider assortment of pricing options which may fit a specific need more than Spotify, those who just want convenient music streaming will likely be more than satisfied with Spotify’s simplified offerings. Amazon Music is an appealing option for people who are already Prime members, but Spotify is a better fit if you’re not interested in paying for other Amazon perks.
For the standard $10 a month price, Spotify provides a feature-rich experience that covers all you can listen to across mobile, desktop, and connected speakers.
If you find you are no longer using Spotify, you can delete your account. However, you can only delete your Spotify account on the Spotify website through an internet browser – not on the mobile app.
Before closing your account, make sure you’re aware of the repercussions. You can also cancel your subscription without deleting your account altogether, and only use the free version of Spotify.
If you do close your account, you won’t be able to use your current username with Spotify again; you can, however, create a new account with the same email address. Additionally, you won’t have access to your playlists and followers anymore and you’ll lose all the music you’ve saved to your library.
Here’s how to close your Spotify account and erase your saved music.
Ford has become the first automobile company to shift towards remote working on a permanent basis, according to CNBC, with around 86,000 employees being allowed to work at least partially from home.
The policy is aimed at office workers rather than factory workers, who number around 100,000 and have largely returned to work.
Hybrid work plans and remote working will depend on individual and managerial responsibilities.
“The nature of the work we do really is going to be a guiding element,” chief people and employee experiences officer Kiersten Robinson told CNBC. “If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the last 12 months, it is that a lot of our assumptions around work and what employees need has shifted.”
Ford’s new policy will be introduced in July when most employees are expected to make at least a partial return to the office after more than a year.
“The nature of work drives whether or not you can adopt this model. There are certain jobs that are place-dependent – you need to be in the physical space to do the job,” chairman and chief executive of Ford Land, David Dubensky, told The Washington Post.
“Having the flexibility to choose how you work is pretty powerful,” Dubensky added. “It’s up to the employee to have dialogue and discussion with their people leader to determine what works best.”
According to a survey conducted at Ford in June 2020, 95% of employees wanted a hybrid form of working and a number of them felt more productive at home.
The move from Ford comes after major companies including Google, Spotify, and Salesforce all announced that they were offering their employees the option to work from home permanently.
“These companies are all looking at each other,” associate professor at Michigan State University’s School of Human Resources and Labor Relations, Angela Hall, told The Detroit News. “And especially someone like Ford, who is a large, respected employer – people are going to model that behavior.”
The Washington Post also reported that General Motors and Toyota were looking at flexible options for a return to the office, although they are both yet to announce new policies.
If your phone is running Android 11 or later and your audio app supports it, you can now easily change your audio output destination with just a tap or two without the need to disconnect and reconnect playback devices. This lets you easily switch between Bluetooth earbuds and Bluetooth speaker, for example, in the middle of playing music on Spotify.


text:
Canadian carrier TELUS has confirmed that the HTC One will be receiving the Androd 4.3 Jelly Bean update before everyone else (except the Nexus devices) as early as next week. Residents of Canada and the US should be receiving the update in the next few days itself.
HTC has outdone themselves this time by delivering on software updates, a department that the Taiwanese company has been traditionally lacking for some reason (Sense UI is pretty heavy, and difficult to port to new Android iterations quickly). Mind you, the Android 4.3 udpate for the West will come with the same Sense 5.0 overlay, while the international HTC One Android 4.3 update (which is scheduled for sometime next month) will bring the updated Sense 5.5 UI.
Certainly an exciting time to be a HTC One owner.


text:
Mobile World Congress is the mobile industry event of the year. It takes place in Barcelona from 14th February this year – and The Fonecast will be heading there to listen to the keynote speeches, attend the briefings and interview many of the visitors.
Happy New Year! Iain, James and Mark are back for their first show of 2011. It's packed with mobile news headlines from the last couple of weeks - and there's also a review of 2010's biggest mobile-related stories, from Apple and Android... to Everything Everywhere.
Mobile News is reporting that Mark Mitchinson, former vice president of mobile at Samsung UK & Ireland, has joined The Carphone Warehouse.
Opera Software will be revealing a new browser for tablet devices at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week. It’s describing the new browser for tablets as ‘the smoothest tablet and netbook experience on the market’.


text:
- A Metaverse-based prototype for supplier registration was developed.
- The Ajman Payment Platform (AjmanPay) is the first unified platform.
His Excellency Marwan Ahmed Al Ali, Director-General of the Ajman Department of Finance (ADF), launched a suite of smart services in the presence of ADF executive directors and department directors as part of ADF’s participation in the Ajman Government Pavilion at GITEX Global 2022. These services included the first government payment platform on the Metaverse. And the first service to register suppliers; Tawreed, which is specific to the Ajman government.
ADF’s efforts to activate the digital transformation governance framework and realize the intended objectives for a digital future are supported by the introduction of these services.
HE Marwan Al Ali said:
“The launch of ADF’s services today represents an important step on our digital transformation journey by presenting innovative technical solutions that seek to serve customers and enhance the potential for sustainable growth across various business sectors, contributing to improving the quality of life in Ajman.”
Significant Step Towards Digital Transformation
When it comes to collecting payments for services provided by Ajman’s local government agencies in the Metaverse. The Ajman Payment Platform (AjmanPay) is the first unified platform to do so. Supporting digital transformation in the emirate, offering new payment channels that match consumer needs, and creating a one-of-a-kind user experience all according to the highest standards of simplicity, comfort, and safety are all goals of the ADF. And this move is in keeping with that plan.
In addition, a Metaverse-based prototype for supplier registration was developed. Al Ali said that the new Tawreed platform is part of ADF’s larger effort to enhance suppliers’ experiences by simplifying and speeding up their access to services such as registration and renewal, evaluating and participating in bids, and tracking their activities.
ADF also promoted the AjmanPay platform during the event, which serves as a centralized hub for government-issued smart payments. Moreover, digital payment platform built to the highest international standards was released by ADF in 2019. With the aim of improving the efficiency of government tax collection.
Recommended For You:


text:
When you think about Unreal Engine 4, the newest, shiniest game engine, you probably think about games that will require you to buy a new graphics card, not something that can run in your browser. But UE4 is built for both. Epic Games and Mozilla recently showed Epic Soul, a UE4 demo, running in Firefox at near-native speeds without plugins.
“We were blown away by what this Mozilla-pioneered technology achieved with Unreal Engine 3 on the web, so we had no hesitation in working with Mozilla to port Unreal Engine 4,” Founder and CEO of Epic Games Tim Sweeney said. “We believe the web has a crucial part to play in the future of game development and deployment, and Mozilla has proven it is the catalyst to make this happen.”
Epic and Mozilla will be at GDC 2014 next week, giving talks and demoing asm.js and other web technologies.
PC Gamer Newsletter
Sign up to get the best content of the week, and great gaming deals, as picked by the editors.


text:
Nextel/Sprint Complaint - Ridiculous Billing - Incorrect Billing/Phantom Numbers
FORT MYERS, FLORIDA -- In the last year, we have been billed over $4000 in fraudulent phone usage on phones/numbers we have disconnected as well as numbers we have no connection or knowledge of. Not only is Nextel/Sprint not crediting us for continuing to bill us for these phones/numbers that aren't ours, they refuse to let us close our account and take our used numbers to another phone carrier until we pay for the charges which they not only admit are fraudulent but claimed to have prior knowledge of. More than just a few of their service employees have admitted that it is a known issue with their company that employees in secondary contract locations are stealing numbers and personal information in order to set up these additional phone lines but they won't credit our bill for these charges.
Every month the bill amounts continue to increase and every month we spend hours on the phone trying to get them to remove the charges they have openly admitted are their issue and yet they continue to mount!!!! Shouldn't we be able to sue a company like this for these kinds of fraudulent activities? Who is worse, the criminals that have found a loop hole through their system or the company who allows it to continue to happen and punishes their long standing customers with the burden of hopelessly waiting for them to sort it out. What's worse is we are being held captive in their system...unable to cancel our service until it's resolved but can't resolve it because they are unable to keep it from happening.
I have never been so disappointed in a cell phone company in my life...or any company for that matter.


text:
Recession fears pressed on markets as equities pulled back from a mid-summer rally that many analysts suspect was short-lived. U.S. equities began August in rebound mode but reversed course to end the month in negative territory.
Crude oil and gasoline prices fell further in August, offering a reprieve for consumers and easing inflationary pressures slightly. Oil prices posted their largest monthly drop for the year, falling to $88.90 per barrel at the end of August, down over 30% from a high of $130 in March. Some analysts expect prices to follow historical patterns as decreasing demand in the fall and winter months usually brings lower prices.
Demand for homes continued to ease in August as rising mortgage rates and elevated home prices continued to make affordability a challenge for millions of home buyers. The average 30-year conforming fixed mortgage rate rose to 5.66% on September 1st, yet still below June’s high of 5.81%.
Concerns surrounding an impending recession mounted in August, as equity markets hesitated with further anticipated Federal Reserve rate hikes. Numerous factors continue to hinder economic growth both in the U.S. and internationally, including the invasion of Ukraine, food supply issues, monetary tightening, inflation, and falling corporate margins.
A drop in real wages and heightened layoffs added pressure to the already uncertain labor market, which seems to be cooling following a year of rapid growth. Many Americans are returning to work from the heights of self-employment in 2021 as uncertainty in the economy grows. Large sectors like technology and finance are seeing companies usher plans to return workers to the office, away from the popularity of remote work during the pandemic.
Analysts expect that a peak in inflation may help stimulate equity market dynamics, should the Fed reconsider a continued rise in rates. Modifications to Fed policy might include a halt to raising rates should economic conditions worsen.
The unemployment rate rose to 3.7% in August from 3.5% the previous month, making August’s unemployment rate the highest since February of this year. This indicates a slight slowdown in the labor market.
Retail stores continue to hold excess inventories, as consumers curb purchases. Too much inventory can hinder earnings for companies, especially heading into the holiday season.
China re-instated a zero-covid policy by extending a lockdown in the western city of Chengdu, slowing Chinese exports and economic growth. Such policies also lead to closures of factories and manufacturing facilities, which can affect supply chains globally.
Russia halted all gas supplies to Europe indefinitely, further complicating efforts for European consumers and raising fuel prices to new highs. Europeans are already experiencing broad inflation not seen in decades.
Sources: Freddie Mac, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Energy, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis,
PlanRock offers financial planning tools, investment portfolios, various levels of advice, and full-service support. Please contact 800-677-6025 or go to www.PlanRock.com for more information about how we can help you reach your goals.
© PlanRock Investments, LLC. The content above is available for use only by authorized subscribers, clients and where permissible as such. This content is not authorized for resale. Past performance does not guarantee future results. The sources we use are believed to be reliable, but their accuracy is not guaranteed.


text:
- Subscribe TodayGet a Free Book of Lists
Sign Up for the TechFlash Newsletter
Send this story to a friend
Venture capital firm Fortify launches D.C.’s first tech accelerator
(Page 3 of 4)
“What we found is a lot of companies — a lot of hackers, a lot of designers — live and want to work in the city,” said Perrelli.
The terms “incubator” and “accelerator” are a bit squishy, meaning different things to different people. Some programs that invite those descriptors, such as Florida Avenue NW-based Geekeasy, offer affordable workspace and a sense of community without the funding. Others, like McLean-based Amplifier Ventures, provide capital and mentorship without consolidating the companies into a single physical space.
But the nationally known accelerator programs — the most vaunted of which is Mountain View, Calif.-based Y Combinator — offer each of those benefits in equal measure.
“The accelerator is a business model that is frankly widespread now, and really we’re about the only major tech market that doesn’t have one,” said Jonathan Aberman, managing director of Amplifier Ventures, who sees The Fort as “answering a market need.”
Just like a traditional venture capital shop, these programs take a slice of equity from their tenants — 5 percent or more — and depend on exits to sustain themselves. Those startups use their several-month accelerator stints to refine and launch their products and possibly prepare for a bigger institutional round of funding. Financially, the model is based on the premise that a company has a better chance to survive long enough to get acquired or go public if its founders are plunged into an ecosystem where they can work shoulder to shoulder with other founders and funders.
“At the end of the day, the challenge every venture investor has and what every angel investor has is to be something more than money,” Aberman said.
Bill Flook covers technology, biotech and venture capital.
- Most popular
- 18 gentrifying D.C. neighborhoods identified
- Arlington bracing for loss of Fish and Wildlife headquarters
- Union Market to host summer drive-in movie series
- Georgetown Park lands Pinstripes bowling alley venue
- National Science Foundation workers react to relocation
- More residential, possibly no retail for proposed Bloomingdale project
- Dean Foods shuttering Shenandoah's Pride Springfield milk plant
- Six D.C. food trucks make nation's best list
- Landmark Mall remake primed for spring 2014 start
- Howrey's art collection: Not so valuable after all
Do you think D.C. is gentrifying in a positive way?
- MANAGER CONSULTING SERVICES Corporate Risk Solutions, Inc. | Relocation not required, Company HQ in Lenexa, KS
- Senior NERC Consultant Corporate Risk Solutions, Inc. | Relocation not required, Company HQ in Lenexa, KS
- CONSULTING PROJECT SUPERVISOR Corporate Risk Solutions, Inc. | Relocation not required, Company HQ in Lenexa, KS
- Senior Tax Manager Stephen James | Herndon, VA
- Configuration Manager TEKsystems, Inc | Reston, VA


text:
The Duchess of Cambridge hit the red carpet for the National Portrait Gallery gala wearing an off the shoulder ink blue silk tulle gown with a black velvet belt from the British designer's AW13 collection. Always one to get the most out of her evening gowns, Kate also wore the gorgeous dress to a dinner in October.
The mother-of-one also raided the Queen's jewellery box to accessorise her outfit, picking out a dazzling diamond necklace that was given to HRH as a wedding gift, to finish her look. Could this be the beginning of Kate's couture makeover? Her Maj has made it clear that she wants her granddaughter-in-law to look more regal on her royal engagements, so what better way to start than with the monarch's diamonds?
Among the guests that joined Kate at the glamorous bash at the London gallery – of which the Duchess is a patron – was Elizabeth Hurley, artist Grayson Perry and Olympic gold medallist, Katherine Grainger.
Fresh from her holiday to Mustique, with Prince George and the rest of the Middleton's, Kate was glowing as she entertained guests at the reception. The Duchess was on hand to oversee the live auction of specially commissioned pen portraits – pieces of writing created by acclaimed authors to accompany artworks in the museum – which were sold to raise money for the National Portrait Gallery.
The 32-year-old's next royal engagement is at the (slightly less salubrious) Northolt High School in Ealing, where Kate will be opening a new branch of The Art Room – a charity which helps troubled children through art.
By Olivia Marks
Got a tablet? You can now download InStyle magazine straight to your iPad, Kindle (just search the store for 'instyle magazine'), Nook or Google Nexus.


text:
Practicality is mentioned as the main attraction, besides the promotions offered by retailers
Online supermarket shopping is here to stay. According to a survey conducted by the advertising area of the UOL portal, more than half of Brazilians (59%) state that they will continue to do their supermarket shopping online even after the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This behavior is the crystallization of a trend that has been growing since before the outbreak of the disease that paralyzed the world, and acted as the driving force for the digitalization of the sector. Among the main reasons for maintaining this shopping mode is practicality, mentioned by 37% of the study participants.
Another group of 32% states that they must keep online supermarket shopping because they do not want to go to the stores or because of the restrictions imposed by social isolation. On the other hand, a group of 29% states that they prefer this channel because of the promotions and advantages offered by supermarkets.
The UOL study also evaluated which products are the most purchased by consumers in online supermarkets. Non-perishable items lead with 38% of the mentions, followed by personal care and hygiene products (37%), cleaning products (31%), and in last place, perishable foods – 26%. This proves that for this category, consumers still want to have the purchase experience in physical stores and choose the products they want to buy.
As for the frequency of purchases in digital supermarkets, 33% of the participants said that they supply their homes through online purchases at least every 15 days. UOL’s survey had 500 respondents from all regions of Brazil, aged over 25, and from all social classes.


text:
Jeff Bezos to open a rocket-ship complex for his aerospace venture
Jeff Bezos is more popularly known as the person who revolutionized ecommerce on the internet. He is the founder of the worldâ€™s largest online retailing store Amazon which has also just reported highest holiday season sales this year. Interestingly, Bezos is now reported to be planning to open a rocket ship complex for an aerospace venture.
Reports in the media claims that Bezos is revamping an office and warehouse complex in the south Seattle suburb, which he wants to use for designing and developing spacecraft and engines. The venture is called Blue Origin and it has revealed little about its plans and future goals. Bezos recently said in an interview that he wanted to build spacecrafts, which can launch and land vertically.
The ultimate aim is to develop crafts capable of orbiting the earth leading to possible establishment of colonies in the space. Looks like another venture on the lines of what Virgin chief Richard Branson is planning for the future. Bezos has reported paid $13 million for nearly 25 acres of industrial land in the region and is spending another $8 million on the remodeling and renovation.
Blue Origin spokesman Bruce Hicks said that they were not releasing much details for now considering the project is in very early stages. Market experts believe that this could be the next big venture for the man who revolutionized online purchasing and ecommerce.


text:
Stealing a tablet took three seconds for a bodega customer who recently committed what was apparently a crime of opportunity.
Police released surveillance footage today of an Oct. 2 incident in which a forgetful bodega customer left his Verizon tablet computer sitting on top of the ice-cream case in a bodega, where it was quickly snatched by the next customer in line.
The victim, 29, was in the bodega on the 3400 block of G Street around 11:15 a.m. Oct. 2 when, apparently absorbed in conversation, he forgot his tablet, worth $550, on top of the bodega's frozen goods case.
- PHOTOS: A look back at Queen performing in the 1970s and 1980s 22 Pictures
- All of these celebrities have had their nudes leaked 35 Pictures
The suspect smoothly grabs the tablet and stuffs it in the back of his pants before buying what looks like a bag of Funyuns and casually walking out.


text:
SINGAPORE – The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) has put forward proposed amendments to federal regulations that would introduce new ingredients into infant formula and extend the use of permitted food additives.
These proposed changes aim to align Singapore’s regulations with international standards and ensure the safety and nutritional quality of infant formula and other food products.
The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) is considering amendments to allow the use of new ingredients in infant formula, including sodium salts of 3′-sialyllactose, 6′-sialyllactose, and 3-fucosyllactose. These ingredients would be permitted at specified maximum levels based on the infant’s age.
Additionally, the proposed changes involve increasing the maximum levels for already permitted ingredients like 2’-fucosyllactose and lactose-N-tetraose to levels comparable to those naturally found in human milk.
These proposed changes are backed by positive evidence of the safety and efficacy of these ingredients, with levels aligning with those permitted in other regions like the EU and the U.S.
In addition to infant formula ingredients, SFA’s proposed amendments extend to food additives regulations.
These amendments include aligning the permitted forms of steviol glycosides with Codex Alimentarius guidelines and extending the use of permitted food additives such as L-theanine and sucralose in specific food categories.
These amendments aim to enhance regulatory clarity and ensure consistency with international standards while maintaining safety and quality standards for food products sold in Singapore.
SFA is currently seeking public feedback on the proposed amendments until March 31, 2024. Stakeholders and the public are encouraged to provide comments and suggestions to contribute to the development of robust and effective food regulations.
Subscribe to our food and agriculture industry email newsletters that provide busy executives like you with the latest news insights and trends from Africa and the World. SUBSCRIBE HERE