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Leaks on future microprocessors often come in bunches and on Monday rival chip makers Intel and Advanced Micro Devices both saw their secrets revealed by a Taiwanese technology journal.
Intel, headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., will be releasing a Core i5 and a Core i7 processor "shortly," according to Digitimes. But it was Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD that had the most to fume about Monday as the technology journal reported prices and specs for the smaller chip maker's highly anticipated six-core Phenom II X6 processor lineup.
Code named Thuban, the first Phenom II X6 desktop processors are scheduled for a second quarter release. The 45-nanometer parts include the Phenom II X6 1075T (3.0GHz, 125W), Phenom II X6 1055T (2.8GHz, 95W) and Phenom II X6 1035T (2.6GHz, 95W), according to Digitimes' unnamed motherboard maker sources.
The Digitimes list also named another 15 AMD processors due for 2010 release and included quad-core Phenom II and Athlon II processors, triple-core Athlon II chips, and dual-core and single-core parts from the Athlon II and Sempron series of products.
Meanwhile, Intel seems to have got off a bit easy in this latest round of product roadmap leaking, with just two imminent processors named by Digitimes. The chip giant will soon be serving up its 32nm, dual-core Core i5-680 processor for a bulk price of $284, and the 45nm, quad-core Core i7-870s, priced at $560.


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New manager starts at four-star hotel
- Credit: Archant
A four-star hotel in North Somerset has just welcomed a new operations manager through its doors.
Brady Smith, aged 26, has begun the role at DoubleTree by Hilton, Cadbury House in Congresbury and he has described its potential as ‘endless’.
Mr Smith has been in the hospitality industry since the age of 14 when he was an apprentice at a hotel in Great Yarmouth.
But he will now be overseeing the 200-strong team at the venue, which has just undergone a £500,000 renovation to improve its conference and events facilities.
Mr Smith said: “Joining DoubleTree by Hilton, Cadbury House is a perfect fit for me. It benefits from being a high-quality branded hotel while remaining independently-owned, meaning that the potential is endless.
“Getting stuck in here is a really exciting prospect. It’s a home-grown brand but there are so many development opportunities.”

domain: news


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Mastermedia is a Polish trading company exporting food products to the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Ireland.
We are one of the biggest wholesaler of Polish food in the mentioned above countries.
At the beginning of 2020, Mastermedia implemented a new ERP system from Sente from Wrocław. For over a year Mastermedia has been preparing a new so… On June 19th, 2019, during the Awards Gala, Mastermedia was awarded the Best Company of the Lublin Province and was ranked 8th in the Golden Ten ran… At the beginning of February 2019, we have opened a new handling warehouse in Dublin. The cross-dock will deliver goods to our clients in the Republ… During the gala on Friday, October 19, 2018, twelve companies won the competition for the Economic Award of the Mayor of Lublin. The 11th edition of…


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For Amazon, the future of the company is in its financial sector. With over one million employees, most of which are based out of Seattle, it is no wonder that Amazon invests heavily in hiring finance specialists and banking professionals to support their fast-growing business. In this blog article, we will look at what could be in store for Amazon’s finance sector in the future.
What Can Amazon Do to Widen Its Finance Sector?
Over the past few years, Amazon has been aggressively expanding into new industries, including retail and consumer electronics. With its formidable retail and consumer electronics presence, it’s not surprising that Amazon is also looking to bolster its financial sector.
There are several ways in which Amazon could bolster its finance sector. For example, Amazon could create a new venture capital subsidiary or joint venture with financial institutions. It could also partner with existing players in the finance space to offer additional products and services. Alternatively, Amazon could acquire a financial institution outright.
Whatever route Amazon chooses, it will be important for the company to navigate regulatory hurdles. There are several federal laws and regulations that Amazon will need to comply with if it wants to expand its finance sector.
Creating a New Amazon Finance Job Category
With the recent news that Amazon is looking to hire a vice president of finance, it’s clear that they’re serious about this sector and its potential. Here, we take a look at what the future might hold for Amazon’s finance sector.
1. Increasingly integrative finance products and services
One thing that’s sure to continue in the future for Amazon’s finance sector is the increased integration of products and services. As the company continues to grow, it’ll likely need more specialized financial tools and support to keep up with its ever-growing expectations from customers. This could include things like Loan origination, trading, and investment analysis.
2. Expansion into new markets
Another trend that’s likely to continue in the future for Amazon’s finance sector is expansion into new markets. With its expansive reach and customer base, it makes sense for the company to look beyond its current marketplaces and explore opportunities that may be available elsewhere in the world. This could include areas like China and India, which are currently seeing explosive growth in their respective economies. If Amazon can get involved early on in these markets, they could have a lot of success both financially and culturally.
How Much Does it Cost to Start a Finance Job at Amazon?
Amazon has made a big splash in the finance sector in recent years, and it’s not hard to see why. The company is one of the most well-known and popular online retailers in the world, and its Finance arm has quickly become one of the most important parts of its business.
If you’re interested in joining Amazon’s Finance team, there are a few things you’ll need to take into account. First, the pay is good: median salaries across all departments at Amazon Finance hover around $130,000 annually. Second, the hours are long: average work weeks range from 40 to 50 hours per week, which is significantly higher than many other finance jobs. Finally, Amazon is known for its dynamic and fast-paced environment: if you’re looking for a career that will challenge you both intellectually and emotionally, this may be the right fit for you.
What Benefits Come With This Career?
In the past few years, Amazon has made a big push into Finance. They’ve hired some of the best talents in the industry and their focus on artificial intelligence and machine learning mean that they’re constantly evolving their approach.
1. You Will Beable to Work from Home
One of the main benefits of working for Amazon is that you will be able to work from home. This means that you can spend more time with your family or take care of your own business without having to leave home.
2. You Will Have Access to a Wide Array of Skills and Talents
If you want to work at Amazon, you need to be able to work with computers and have a good understanding of finance. However, Amazon also hires people who have expertise in other areas, such as customer service or marketing. This implies that you can locate a job that complements your qualifications and hobbies.
3. You Will Be Able To Travel and Change Locations Frequently
Another benefit of working at Amazon is that you will be able to travel and change locations frequently. This means that you can experience new cultures and meet new people while still maintaining a job. Additionally, many Amazon jobs allow for telecommuting so you can work from anywhere in the world!
The Future of Finance at Amazon
Amazon’s finance sector is expanding rapidly, and the future looks bright for the company. In this article, we take a look at what could be in store for Amazon’s finance sector in the future.
One of the biggest trends in Amazon’s finance sector is its expansion into new areas such as credit and debit cards and lending. This move reflects Amazon’s goal of becoming a one-stop shop for customers, offering them everything they need from a single location.
This strategy has already paid off for Amazon. The company now has a massive customer base that it can leverage to grow its other businesses. In addition, Amazon’s Finance arm is also profitable, which indicates that it is doing something right with its strategy.
Overall, Amazon’s finance sector looks very promising and there are plenty of reasons to believe that it will continue to grow rapidly in the future.


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Bandobras is the new golf towel company that creates original and exclusive designs for its customers. With well-known brands like Centurion Club, Make A Wish foundation, Lyle & Scott and Help for Heroes on their towels already, the company has made a big impact pre-launch.
The company was started by Lucas Lee in 2020 during the height of the pandemic and is now joined by golfing leader Niall Flanagan. Niall has previously been CEO at Loch Lomond and has also held senior positions at St Andrew’s Links Trust, Dubai Golf & Country Club, Celtic Manor and Wentworth Club.
“It’s great to have Niall come on board, adding years of golfing experience to the team. We have huge ambitions of being the number one towel in golf, and Niall’s blog and history will help us achieve that goal,” says Lucas Lee, Bandobras founder.
The designs that Bandobras create are printed directly onto their waffle fabric and are completely unique to each customer, opening up a whole host of creative possibilities. The company has ensured they’ve done everything possible to be sustainably aware, including using recycled materials for the towel itself, reducing any unnecessary labelling and using biodegradable packaging.
Niall Flanagan adds: “After sitting down with Lucas and learning more about his vision of turning what is normally a dull, uninspired product, into a creative accessory to show a players personality, I knew I had to get involved. We’re now talking with some of the most well-known clubs, organisations and travel companies in golf, and they’re all taken back by the designs.”
“These towels are designed specifically for our customers, so nothing we do is off the shelf, meaning they’re extremely exclusive. This is something Lucas has taken from his experience in men’s fashion, and I think it will be a great addition to any golfers bag.”
For more information please visit www.bandobras.golf or contact Lucas at email@example.com


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The U.S. State Department has submitted a proposal to add Ant Group, the fintech arm of e-commerce behemoth Alibaba, to a trade blacklist, Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the matter.
- The move comes as Ant, a global leader in digital payments, is readying to go public in what could be an offering worth up to a record $35 billion.
- While it's not clear when the proposal to put China-based Ant on the blacklist will be reviewed, it comes as trade hawks in the Trump administration want to discourage U.S. investors from taking part in the Ant IPO, Reuters noted.
- Why this matters in the crypto world: Besides being a global leader in digital payments, Ant has been working on its own blockchain operations while China is operating at full speed on its own digital currency and its Blockchain Services Network.
The leader in news and information on cryptocurrency, digital assets and the future of money, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. As part of their compensation, certain CoinDesk employees, including editorial employees, may receive exposure to DCG equity in the form of stock appreciation rights, which vest over a multi-year period. CoinDesk journalists are not allowed to purchase stock outright in DCG.


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CBD products have experienced a surge in popularity in the West over the last four years. However, it now looks like it could be Asia’s turn to experience rapid growth in its CBD markets.
While CBD products remain restricted in many parts of Asia, the laws seem to be changing and becoming more favorable in some regions. In addition, attitudes among the public also seem to be shifting, and the stigma surrounding CBD-related products is gradually fading.
Today, we’ll look at the countries and regions in Asia that look most promising and why they will likely drive the rise of the CBD market in Asia.
Many of the locations we list today, such as Hong Kong and Japan, already allow CBD products to be bought and used legally and freely. Others have some restrictions in place but are moving in a positive direction in terms of CBD adoption. Let’s get started.
Cannabis originated in Asia and was used in textiles, medicines, and more for centuries. However, despite this history and tradition, cannabis was widely banned in Asia following the global outlawing of it as a narcotic in the 20th century.
Despite the availability of hemp and CBD products containing virtually no THC, most Asian countries do not differentiate them from other forms of cannabis and put them in the same category, hence there’s stigma associated with even CBD products compliant with local regulations.
However, now that there is a growing amount of scientific research emerging on the potential health and other benefits of CBD, attitudes have started to change worldwide, including in parts of Asia.
In addition, some Asian countries are seeing CBD’s economic potential, causing lawmakers to rethink their approach. This is likely spurred on by the fact that the highly developed CBD market in the USA is worth billions of dollars alone.
And finally, as people in Asia become more knowledgeable on what CBD really is and how it could help them, they are naturally calling for restrictions to be eased. Whether it’s medical use, beauty, and cosmetics, or pet CBD products, there are many reasons why Asian consumers would like greater access to CBD products.
While the laws and regulations vary from one jurisdiction to the next in Asia and can change quickly, certain regions look set to be the main growth drivers.
These areas include Hong Kong, Japan, India, and Thailand. Let’s look at each in more detail and explain why they look most promising.
Hong Kong has different regulations surrounding CBD due to its special administrative status. In Hong Kong, all types of CBD products are legal, including edibles, cosmetics, pet products, and more. However, they must not contain any THC, so CBD-isolate is the preferred and safest raw ingredient to use in CBD products in Hong Kong.
In addition, hemp cultivation is still not legal in Hong Kong, so CBD products compliant with local regulations are imported into the area. This means Hong Kong presents a good opportunity for Western brands wanting to expand into Asia.
People in Hong Kong and China have traditionally used natural remedies for skincare, pain relief, and other common health issues. This connection to herbal remedies means people in Hong Kong are more open to buying and trying CBD products.
The CBD industry is already starting to take off in Hong Kong, with the presence of brick-and-mortar CBD retail stores, conferences and events, and online CBD eCommerce platforms.
CBD products are also legal in Japan, but they must not contain any THC. Growing hemp is also allowed if a business obtains a license. Like other parts of Asia, Japan has a long history of hemp cultivation and use.
Attitudes are also changing, as many in the country now believe it’s time to relook at how the cannabis plant can be used in beneficial ways rather than solely label it as an illicit drug.
The number of people using CBD in Japan is rising, and the market is maturing. You can easily purchase CBD products online or in retail stores in most cities. You even have CBD coffee shops popping up and some prominent brands emerging, like HealthyTokyo.
The CBD market in Japan is forecasted to be worth more than USD2 billion by 2024.
Hemp has been a traditional medicine in India for centuries, forming part of the Indian Ayurvedic system. However, there is still some social stigma surrounding the cannabis plant and CBD products nowadays.
Nonetheless, CBD containing less than 0.3% THC is legal to use in India because it’s extracted from the leaves and not the flower of the cannabis plant.
India presents a huge market opportunity, and if there was greater clarity regarding the rules and regulations, it could really take off as a market. India’s CBD market is forecast to be worth USD555 million by 2024.
Despite Thailand having some of the strictest drug laws, it has recently changed its attitude towards CBD and cannabis. As a result, you can now buy CBD legally in Thailand, and the market is quickly growing in size.
Thailand has already removed certain parts of the cannabis plant from its narcotics list, including the leaves, stems, and roots, making them legal to use. Next year, the Ministry of Public Health will push for the legalization of all parts of the cannabis plant, but they must contain low levels of THC.
This means hemp’s full use and commercialisation will be able to proceed, and all CBD products, including oils, cosmetics, and supplements, will be legal. The CBD market in Thailand is forecast to be worth USD671 million by 2024.


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Biodegradable plastics were first introduced in the 1980s and are made from renewable raw materials and petrochemicals containing biodegradable additives which enhance biodegradation.
Many people think terms like ‘bioplastic’, ‘biodegradable’, and ‘compostable’ mean the same thing. But there’s a huge difference between ‘biodegradable’ plastic (essentially taking decades or centuries to break down) and a totally ‘compostable’ material (something that turns into harmless waste after composting in the correct environment).
Confusing jargon hampers our general understanding. We are led to believe that ‘biodegradable’ breaks down faster and is the more sustainable choice in terms of plastic as a material. Research has raised questions about biodegradable products being marketed to shoppers as alternatives to non-recyclable plastic. The question is, is biodegradable plastic, ‘biodegradable’? And to what extent?
Biodegradable plastic is claimed to pose less of a risk to wildlife and the environment. Yet a study carried out by PhD student, Imogen Napper and Professor Richard Thompson at the University of Plymouth has revealed that biodegradable plastic bags were still very much intact after a three year period. Some of these bags were as strong as the day they were produced, still able to hold 2kg of shopping.
Their research involved testing ‘compostable’, ‘biodegradable’, ‘oxo-biodegradable’ and ‘polythene’ plastic bags in three environments. 1. Exposed to the air and sunlight, 2. Buried in the ground and 3. Submerged at sea. After the three year period, none of the bags had broken down and ironically, the biodegradable bag was completely intact. The scientists at Plymouth question how effective biodegradable materials are as a long-term solution to the problem of single-use plastics.
Much of our single use plastic ends up in the ocean where the water is usually too cold to break down, so they either float forever on the surface (just like conventional plastics) or, if they do break down, produce tiny plastic fragments that are harmful to marine life and humanity.
The only way to completely break down biodegradable plastic is via an industrial composting plant. These facilities provide the necessary conditions for balance of moisture, air and microorganisms to efficiently compost plastics. Heat is also required to temperatures ranging 50/60C. Biodegradable plastic will not simply break down in the ground, in a compost heap at home, or indeed, in the ocean.
Our oceans and sea life are literally suffocating in plastic. The spread of everything from large plastic debris such as fishing gear which dolphins can become entangled with, to fragments smaller than 5mm in diameter known as microplastics, is having profound ecological effects.
- Conventional plastic bags can take between 500 to 1000 years to break down. Source: biologicaldiversity.org
- Approximately 13 billion plastic bottles are used each year in the UK. Source: plasticfree.co.uk
- The world’s annual consumption of plastic materials has increased from around 5 million tonnes in the 1950s to nearly 100 million tonnes today. Source: reducereuserecycle.co.uk
- 13 billion plastic carrier bags are used in the UK each year. Source: recycle-more.co.uk
- Shoppers worldwide are using approximately 500 billion single-use plastic bags per year. Source: oceancrusaders.org
- There are believed to be 46,000 pieces of plastic in every square mile of ocean. Source: oceancrusaders.org
- There will be more plastic by weight than fish in the oceans by 2050. Source: onegreenplanet.org
The only true solution to plastic pollution is to remove the material completely and to find a reusable option. Or alternatively, create a material that really does degrade within the realms of our planet’s natural environments.


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VOLVO TRUCKS’ CAMPAIGN TRIUMPHS AT WORLD’S TOUGHEST AD CONTEST – WINS COVETED BLACK PENCIL
The Live Test campaign for Volvo Trucks’ new truck range received a ‘Black Pencil’ and three ‘Yellow Pencil’ awards at the revered D&AD Awards – the world’s toughest advertising competition. The honours are the latest accolades for the campaign which also received ‘Best in Show’ at The One Show and ‘The Black Cube’ award at the ADC Awards advertising competition.
At a ceremony held yesterday (May 22nd) in Battersea, London, Volvo Trucks’ Live Test ad campaign took home top honours at the D&AD competition including a ‘Black Pencil’ in the Online Branded Films category and ‘Yellow Pencil’ awards in the Integrated, Online Branded Films and Cinema Commercials categories. D&AD’s awards are recognised throughout the world as setting the standard for creative excellence.
Judged over five days by 200 of the world’s leading creative minds, entries at the D&AD Awards are put through three rounds of deliberation making it one of the most rigorous competitions in advertising. The Black Pencil is reserved for truly ground-breaking work within advertising and design. Each year only a few entries are awarded with the prize, if any.
“The strong competition and thorough judging process make D&AD’s Black and Yellow Pencil awards among the most difficult prizes to win in advertising, so we are naturally delighted that they decided to honour the campaign in this way,” said Amanda Hiatt, Marketing Communications and PR Director for Volvo Trucks UK & Ireland.
The campaign includes six Live Test videos for YouTube, which demonstrate innovative features in Volvo Trucks’ new truck range in different spectacular ways, but also a range of other material to support the campaign, including print ads and an interactive website. In total, the campaign has been viewed more than 100 million times on YouTube.
“The truck industry is not usually represented at events like this, so that makes this win doubly exciting. It shows that the Live Test campaign really was successful. Through it we have been able to reach and engage not only truck drivers and our customers, but everyone else as well,” added Amanda Hiatt.
On 9th May the campaign won nine ‘Pencil’ awards including six golds and the ‘Best in Show’ prize at The One Show in New York. This year the campaign has also won eighteen awards in the ad competition New York Festival and three ‘Golden Egg’ awards at the Golden Egg gala, a top Swedish advertising competition. The campaign also earned the prestigious ‘Black Cube’ award at the ADC Awards in Miami, another prestigious global ad competition.
“When surveyed, nearly half of the truck buyers who have seen the live test films indicate that they would be more likely to choose a Volvo the next time they buy a new truck. For us this is another strong sign that the campaign has been successful,” says Per Nilsson, Director Public Relations at Volvo Trucks.


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10,000 Stores Doomed To Close In 2021, Coresight Projects
About 10,000 stores will close nationwide this year, according to a new report by Coresight Research. That would set a record for retail closures in a calendar year, besting the 8,741 closures in 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic accelerated already-grim circumstances for the retail industry.
The 2021 closures would represent about 138.5M SF of retail space vacated, Coresight estimates.
The drumbeat of closures has already gotten off to a strong start. As of Jan. 22, U.S. retailers announced 1,678 closures, Coresight reports. These include larger stores, such as JCPenney, Macy's and Bed Bath & Beyond, but also a contraction in small locations like 7-Eleven, which will close 300 stores, and Family Video, which will close 250.
"Store-based retail was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, particularly in discretionary categories, resulting in widespread closures," the report notes, adding that Coresight expects that the fallout will be even greater in 2021.
“It seems inevitable that there will be more retail bankruptcies in the months ahead, including some household names,” Allen & Overy partner Dan Guyder told Forbes. “Some of these were bound to happen with or without the pandemic, but that disruption accelerated the process.”
Last year saw 33 major retailers file for bankruptcy, each precipitating closures. So far this year, three major retailers have filed: Christopher & Banks, which will close most of its 449 locations; Godiva Chocolatier, which will close all of its 128 North American stores; and department store Belk, which hasn't announced closures yet.
Last year, 3,151 closures were in the apparel, footwear and accessories sector, far more than any other kind of retail, according to Coresight data. The second-hardest-hit sector was home and office retailers, with 1,428 locations shuttered, and just below that were department stores, 1,347 of which closed.
Ascena Retail Group accounted for the largest number of closures by a single company in 2020, with 1,156 of its stores vanishing. The company's brands include Ann Taylor, Catherines, Justice and Lane Bryant. Other major closures last year came from Modell's Sporting Goods, Tuesday Morning, Foot Locker and Gap.
Even though a massive number of stores are expected to close this year, there will continue to be openings to partly offset them. Coresight estimates that between 3,500 and 4,000 new U.S. stores will open in 2021. In 2020, there were 3,304 openings.
"In 2021, some retailers are likely to be more confident (relative to 2020), given improvement in the economy and consumer confidence and the rollout of vaccines," the report stated. "As such, we estimate a slight increase in openings this year, albeit weighted toward the second half."
The openings will reflect a shift in consumer habits, however. That was the case in 2020, when more than half of the new stores (1,669 locations) were discounters, which includes dollar stores. Last year, Dollar General, the largest dollar store chain, opened 986 locations, while Dollar Tree and Family Dollar opened 319 and 177 stores, respectively.
Though badly hit as a sector, there were apparel store openings in 2020 as well, and they tended to be discounters too. In that sector, Ross Stores and Burlington Stores opened more locations than any other brand: 66 and 62, respectively.


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Ibec: Healthy November suggests shift in Christmas shopping trends
Retail Ireland has suggested that the latest CSO retail sales figures for November highlight a shift in consumer spending patterns for the Christmas season
6 January 2017 | 0
Retail Ireland, the Ibec group that represents the retail sector, has suggested that CSO retail sales figures for November highlight a shift in pre-Christmas consumer spending patterns. Heavy promotional activity around the “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday” periods have persuaded consumers to make their Christmas purchases earlier in the festive shopping season.
The figures showed the total value of retail sales (excluding sales of cars and sales in bars) rising by 1.9% when compared to November of 2015, with the volume of sales up by 5.1% over the same period.
Retail Ireland director Thomas Burke said: “While encouraging, the growth in retail sales in November is further evidence of the increasing importance of the early festive shopping period to Irish retailers,” said Thomas Burke, Retail Ireland director. “Traditionally, the Christmas shopping season would have begun in earnest in early December, however an increasing proportion of Irish consumers now make a significant number of their Christmas purchases in November in order to take advantage of the deep discounts available through promotional activity around Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
“What is also evident from today’s numbers is the depth of discounting in the market at present. This will inevitably put pressure on retailer’s margins at year end,” Burke continued.
“Later this month we will receive confirmation of the performance of the retail sector over the crucial Christmas period. Despite the shift in spending patterns in recent years, December remains the single most important trading month for the sector and it remains to be seen if the sector can realise pre-Christmas forecasts of a 3% growth in sales when compared to Christmas 2015.
“These numbers will be crucial in determining the overall performance of the sector in 2016.”


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Students of California’s Stanford University have publicly demonstrated, quite brilliantly, that it is not necessary to launch multi-million dollar ICOs in order to create successful working blockchain related products and solutions.
The ICO space has massively and vigorously been targeted by companies from the financial and tech sectors in the last year and a half, approaching it as an apple pie of a fundraiser to generate substantial profits in a relatively short duration of time. Without even legitimate working prototypes of products, developers working on blockchain can release an ICO to sell just an idea, and raise tens of millions of dollars in a matter of days to start the process of development. Given that, multi-million dollars often lead to conflicts and discord between the founding members of a project, prolonging and delaying, and at times even scrapping the development of the network.
At Stanford’s CS 359B program ‘Designing Decentralized Applications on Blockchain’ this week, student developers were able to create 16 blockchain-based DAPPs on the Ethereum protocol, creating applications to maximize the p2p potential of digital asset trading and transaction processing.
The official description of CS 359B program reads
“Alongside lectures, there will be a quarter-long project where students design, implement and evaluate a novel distributed application on a modern blockchain, such as the ones of the Ethereum or NEO cryptocurrencies.”
Stanford’s projects were about creating applications that require the blockchain and which maximize decentralization, in contrast to many ICOs whose fundamentals are based on nothing but blockchain buzzwords, including ‘high-performance protocol’, ‘transaction fees and speed’, and ‘proof-of-stake’ and lack any genuine innovation and uniqueness.
The Ethereum community expressed great optimism towards the initiative by Stanford and appreciated the students for devoting themselves to creating applications that are in absolute need of decentralisation, rather than generating ICOs and making a ton of money, turning the community into an investment scheme.
Given the fact that Blockchain technology is highly inefficient and expensive as a storage database, it is a greatly positive development in the sector when developers focus particularly on the products that can only exist on the blockchain, like India HouseChain, instead of selling every little idea of decentralisation and putting a ridiculous amount of money into its realisation.


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The recurring onion price rise after every two or three years follows a set pattern. A set of similar measures – raising the minimum export price, announcing imports, and warning the hoarders -- are announced every time to bring down the prices. And the game goes on.
In the past few weeks, onion prices had hit the roof. From Rs 15-20 per kg, prices had gone up to Rs 70-80 per kg in various parts of the country. While the high prices cut a hole in your pocket, the arguments defending the price rise were the same. We are told by the trade that unseasonal weather conditions -- rains in May and June, followed by drought in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh – had reduced production and also hit the supplies. Blaming the freak weather in the kharif season has been a set excuse that has been thrown around time and again by unscrupulous traders. This had happened in the past too.
But what is not being told is that there is no shortfall in onion production this year. Against last year’s harvest of 19.4 million tonnes, onion production this year is 18.9 million tonnes, a drop of just 0.5 million tonnes. With a drop in production by less than one per cent how can the retail prices zoom by 400 per cent or more remains unexplained. There is no plausible justification therefore for the rise in onion prices that we are witnessing except that a well-oiled system of organized hoarding, speculating and black-marketing is ripping us off.
Two years back, in 2013, onion prices had gone on a high. Prices had gone up to Rs 100/kg and the high prices had prevailed for a longer period -- July to September. Again there was no justification for the stupendous price rise. Production had fallen short of the target by just 4 per cent whereas retail prices had jumped by 600 per cent. This is simply not possible unless large scale hoarding had taken place. Such was the extent of price manipulation that an investigation by a newspaper had shown how the traders made a neat Rs 150-crore in just four days when prices peaked at Rs 4,500 per quintal on Aug 13, 2013.
Again, the solutions to address the price rise were no different than what have been spelled out this year. Hiking the minimum export price, placing orders for imports and warning the hoarders of stern action. The government had also promised to streamline the supply chain. You have heard it a number of times.
Let’s now go back to 2010 when onion prices had shot up to Rs 80 per kg rather unexpectedly. Production had exceeded the demand by 20 per cent, and yet a phenomenal price rise was observed. This happened in December, and had the backing of the government which wanted the onion story to justify the approval for FDI in retail. It was said that the prices are zooming because the middlemen were exploiting both the producers as well as the consumers. The entry of big retail like Wal-Mart would remove the middlemen bringing relief to everyone. But what the government did not tell was that Wal-Mart was also a middleman, which would only remove the small players from the game.
If there is no shortfall in production and still the prices go through the roof then there is something more than what meets the eye. Let’s be clear that the onion price raise in 2013 (and also 2015) happened at a time when elections were due. I am not trying to link the onion prices with ensuing elections but it certainly is baffling to find onion prices going up unexpectedly for no reason. Perhaps it is a good research topic for political economy students.
Source: The Onion game: Playing to the rules. ABPLive.in Aug 25, 2015


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For 20 years, Google has worked to put the world’s information at your fingertips. Instant delivery of that information is made possible through our data center and network capabilities, and now we’re using that technology to change how you access and enjoy video games.
Stadia is a new video game platform, delivering instant access to your favourite games on any type of screen—whether it’s a TV, laptop, desktop, tablet or mobile phone. The goal is to make those games available in resolutions up to 4K and 60 frames per second with HDR and surround sound. It be launching later this year in select countries including the US, Canada, UK and much of Europe.


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Launched at MWC 2016, Samsung has finally confirmed when they’ll be releasing their little golf-ball shaped Samsung Gear 360 camera.
Bam! Mobile World Congress 2016 passed by like in just a blink of the eye and now we’re suffering from post-congress withdrawals. Not without good reason, by the way. Three (big) smartphone makers released their flagships for this year including the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge. On a less than positive note, it’s rather sad that we won’t be getting the standard Galaxy S7 in Malaysia.
Although we pretty much knew everything about the two smartphones prior to the South Korean manufacturer taking the MWC floor, we didn’t know how good the camera on the follow-up to the Galaxy S6 flagships would be.
We were eager to find out so we pit the edgy Samsung number against other formidable smartphone cameras.
|Apple, huawei, iPhone, Mobile Accessories, Mobile Devices, Nexus 6P, Samsung, Sony|
|best smartphone camera, camera, camera comparison, camera shootout, galaxy S6 edge, Galaxy S6 edge plus, Galaxy S7 edge, Google 6P, Google Nexus 6P, huawei, Huawei 6P, Huawei Malaysia, Huawei Nexus 6P, iPhone, iPhone 6S, iPhone 6s Plus, mobile world congress 2016, MWC 2016, Nexus 6P, Nexus 6P Camera, Nexus 6P Malaysia, Samsung, Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, Samsung Galaxy S6 edge Plus, Samsung Galaxy S7 camera, Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, Samsung Galaxy S7 edge Malaysia, Samsung Galaxy S7 Malaysia, sony xperia, Sony Xperia Z5 Dual, xperia z5, Xperia Z5 Dual|
You know those times when you’ve accidentally dunked your smartphone in water and proceed to charge it shortly after? Nope, us neither. But still, once you’ve made a device water resistant, it doesn’t hurt that you’d prompt your customers that charging is imposible (yes, say it with a Spanish slang) – when it feels that your smartphone is a little on the wet side.
Competing in South Korea would easily offset any other major tech manufacturer but LG keeps on trucking despite having Samsung looking high and mighty.
LG’s smartphones of late have come short of the other flagships in the market – the V10 had a nice trick, with its ticker display and dual-FRONT cameras; and the G4 had a great camera overall. Smartphone cameras are getting good with the Microsoft Lumia 950 (XL), Nexus 6P, and Samsung Galaxy flagships leading the charge.
So what does LG have to bring to the table?
|Android, LG, Mobile Devices, Mobile OS|
|camera, camera comparison, camera specs, Comparison, dual camera, dual camera module, dual camera setup, G5, HTC, HTC One (M8), HTC One (M8) UltraPixel, lens, LG camera photos, LG G5, LG G5 camera, LG G5 camera photos, LG G5 camera specs, LG imaging, mobile world congress 2016, MWC 2016, Photos, sample shots, Sample Video, sensor, specs, test, ultrapixel, wide-angle, wide-angle lens|
Technological accessibility is something we take for granted. Most of us are blessed with the tools that we rely on to connect ourselves with the world. An idealistic view would be equal opportunity for everyone in the world.
Who knows the unlocked potential and opportunities of these individuals that stand outside these privileged circles.
The Android One program wants to realise a dream that people all over the world will have access to a smartphone and this is the highest specced smartphone yet to come out of the program. This is the GM Plus 5 and with it, people are going to be ready to take on the technological world.
|Android, Mobile Devices, Mobile OS|
|4G LTE, affordable smartphone, Android, Android 6.0, Android M, Android One, cheap smartphone, Corning Gorilla Glass 4, DxOMark, General Mobile, GM 5 Plus, google, Marshmallow, mobile world congress 2016, MWC 2016, Qualcomm, Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, Quick Charge 3.0, smartphone, Snapdragon 617, Turkey, USB Type C|
Interactions happen every day on every level. We use our senses to navigate the world around us but are often too preoccupied and stuck on our screens to experience life. Our reliance on these screens at all times of day are disruptive (not in a business sense) – they destroy some relationships and friendships; they sometimes are a matter of life and death and overall is just a nasty habit.
The disruption stops here with Sony Mobile’s Xperia smart products that’ll help you be more hands-free, eyes-free and voice smart when interacting with these devices. Smart assistants if you will.
Acer has unveiled a brand new flagship device in the Mobile World Congress 2016, the Liquid Jade 2. Not just your regular flagship, this new Acer smartphone features a new feature up its sleeve — over 1TB of storage.
UPDATE: Sony Europe has released prices for all three devices and we’ve added them to the post.
In recent times, Sony has failed to capture the magic of their glory days when the Xperia brand is seen as a leader in the smartphone market. Today, the brand struggles to produce phones than are on par with its competitors.
Sony needs to do something drastic and start making devices that consumers can look forward to if they want to stay relevant. Their Marshmallow concept is the first step in the right direction but the devices that Sony come up with have to be really special. However, if the three new Xperia phones Sony revealed at MWC16 is anything to go by, the brand still has a long way to go.
Let’s see what the new-for-2016 Xperia X range has to offer and you tell us if these three devices are capable contenders against the competitors.
|Android, Mobile Devices, Mobile OS, Sony|
|Android, Exmor, mobile world congress 2016, MWC 2016, Predictive Hybrid Autofocus, Sony, Sony Camera, Sony imaging, Sony Mobile, Sony Mobile World Congress 2016, Sony MWC 2016, sony xperia, sony xperia X, Sony Xperia X Performance, Sony xperia XA, Xperia X, Xperia X Performance, Xperia XA|
Lenovo‘s on a roll this time at MWC 2016, releasing a brand new line of Android tablets under their “TAB3” line. There’s a total of three relatively affordable devices, all running off Android 6.0 and there’s even one for business users.


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From gluten-free diets to Hollywood's juicing craze: The 'healthy' habits that could be causing you to GAIN weight
- Dietitians believe only those intolerant to gluten should avoid it entirely
- Many manufactured gluten-free foods have added sugar and fats to compensate
- Juices are also packed with sugars that won't leave you feeling full for very long
- And cutting out carbs and healthy fats could lead to hunger - and eating more
- Australian nutritionist Lyndi Cohen says carbs can also help stabilise your mood
From bread and pasta to sweets and red meat, for decades we have been trying to find the 'dangerous' foods in our meals that we need to delete.
Now diets free of gluten, fat or carbohydrates have become the norm, but dietitians are increasingly warning the public that it has been misinformed.
Following these strict guidelines could be stripping your fridge of important nutrients that curb your appetite, help your mood and, yes, keep you looking good.
The war against gluten has been waged with increasing intensity thanks to diets spruiked by the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Gisele Bündchen.
Juicing may be all the rage in Hollywood, but this Instagram-friendly fad could actually be causing you to intake more sugar and calories in your diet as you try to shed kilos
But dietitians and nutritionists have long claimed that the only people who should be completely cutting out the protein found in wheat are those with an intolerance.
Studies, including a recent one by Harvard University, have shown that diets that include a normal amount of gluten were linked to a lower risk of Type 2 diabetes.
Whole grains with gluten are also high in vitamins and minerals also linked to helping decrease the rick of heart disease and certain types of cancer.
Plus, a number of manufactured gluten-free foods may have added sugar and fats as compensation that strip them of added health benefits, according to Body+Soul.
Carbs have long been seen as the devil when it comes to weight loss, but there's nothing healthy about cutting out these energy boosters.
The key is to pick good carbs, like brown rice and oats, that will help you feel fuller longer, curbing your appetite in the long run.
Numerous studies have shown that people who avoid carbs tend to try and find that energy elsewhere, inevitably consuming unhealthier quick-fix options high in sugar.
A number of manufactured gluten-free foods may have added sugar and fats as compensation that strip them of any added health benefits
Carbs got a much needed boost, at least when it came to people's attitudes, thanks to a recent studying that proved the benefits of eating pasta.
The study, naturally conducted in Italy, found that a consumption of pasta was actually associated with a decrease in body mass index.
It summarised, after examining more than 23,000 people, that people who enjoyed pasta were less likely to experience both general and abdominal obseity as well.
And though few would deny the joy that comes from a big bowl of spaghetti or pizza pie, science has also proven that carbs can help your mood.
Research has linked carbohydrates to the production of serotonin, a natural mood stabiliser linked to low levels of depression.
Dietitians and nutritionists have long claimed that the only people who should be completely cutting out gluten from their diets are those with an intolerance, such as Coeliac disease
Australian nutritionist Lyndi Cohen makes sure to incorporate carbs into her own diet to help cope with the clinical anxiety she was diagnosed with in 2010.
'Lots of vegetables and legumes [will provide] slow burning carbohydrates, which help to keep your mood and hormones more stable,' she told Daily Mail Australia.
Ready for some more good news? Fat is also a key component of a well-balanced diet, as long as it's the good kind.
Those frozen meals and packaged snacks advertised to be 'low in fat' are packed with hidden sugars to help boost missing flavour.
Carbs have long been seen as the devil when it comes to weight loss, but there's nothing healthy about cutting out these energy boosters
The key is to pick good carbs, like brown rice (pictured) and oats, that will help you feel fuller longer, curbing your appetite in the long run
Instead it's better off to eat foods that have healthy sources of fat that will keep you feeling satisfied, whether that be avocado on your toast or Greek yoghurt.
Then there is the myth that sometimes eliminating food completely, albeit temporarily, is the best way to get lean quick.
Juicing is yet another diet craze we have Hollywood to thank, but don't be fooled by the pretty pictures of plastic containers in bright greens and yellows.
Most of these juices, especially those heavy with fruit, are packed with sugar that won't leave you feeling full for very long at all.
They also lack the nutrients that will help keep your body working at its highest potential.
If you don't want to let go of juices completely, though, have no fear. Just keep them simple, add yoghurt for protein, and trying to stick to vegetables for less sugar.
Healthy sources of fat, like avocado, will help keep you fuller for longer and lead to curbing your hunger - and calorie consumption - throughout the day
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Tamworth announce Macron kit dealEverton consider Tanzania match as part of expected shirt sponsorship dealPortsmouth agree exclusivity agreement with former Disney CEOEverton expected to announce new stadium plansStaveley MW announce plans to install 3G pitchTOWIE star set to buy 20% stake in non-league clubLeyton Orient get winding up extentionSondico launch super sale with end of season in sightManchester City become first Premier League side to announce new sleeve sponsorArsene Wenger puts Arsenal future in doubt
The FA Womens Super League 2Information and contact details for football clubs in the FA Tesco Womens Premier League.
Aston Villa LFC
Barnet FC Ladies
Doncaster Rovers Belles WFC
Leeds United LFC
Milwall Lionesses LFC
- Website: www.milwallfc.co.uk/ladies


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AutoNation announced along with its second-quarter earnings it had struck a deal to buy captive finance company CIG Financial, and Lithia hailed the progress of its captive Driveway Finance Co. in its quarterly discussion of results.
However, the earnings season also saw major publicly traded rivals Penske and Group 1 refusing to follow suit.
AutoNation announced in July it will buy indirect lender CIG Financial for $85 million and convert it into a captive finance company. The deal was expected to close in 90 days, AutoNation said.
CFO Joe Lower called CIG "complementary to an already strong piece of business." It originated $195 million across 12,000 loans last year.
CEO Mike Manley said he sees the acquisition providing "significant upside" over time to the group's strong finance-and-insurance revenue.
AutoNation, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., ranks No. 1 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., with retail sales of 262,403 new vehicles in 2021.


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For the time being, Australian gamers will no longer be able to pick up copies of Grand Theft Auto V in Target. The store has elected to remove the game from its shelves in Australia, both online and physically.
Target of Australia released a corporate statement regarding its decision to pull the game. They say it was born out of general customer concern. The word comes from Jim Cooper, GM of Corporate Affairs.
“We’ve been speaking to many customers over recent days about the game, and there is a significant level of concern about the game’s content…We’ve also had customer feedback in support of us selling the game, and we respect their perspective on the issue…
…However, we feel the decision to stop selling GTA5 is in line with the majority view of our customers.”
As VG247 points out here, Target of Australia will still continue to sell other restricted content, both below the film and video game genres. Smells like a witch hunt to me.
Games like Far Cry 4, Far Cry 3 and Watch_Dogs are still available. Each of those offers violence against women and strong drug use, with the Far Cry series in particular featuring specific moments where the main character falls under the influence.
“While these products often contain imagery that some customers find offensive, in the vast majority of cases, we believe they are appropriate products for us to sell to adult customers…However, in the case of GTA5, we have listened to the strong feedback from customers that this is not a product they want us to sell.”
Grand Theft Auto V received an R 18+ rating from the Australian Classification board. That body cited “high impact themes and drug use” as its reasoning for the rating.


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Along with the USDC announcement, Coinbase also announced a major global expansion, adding 50 more jurisdictions to its coverage, including such countries as Brazil, South Africa and Taiwan, among others.
USD Coin is the first stablecoin listed for trading on Coinbase platform: the exchange first listed USDC back in October 2018 for customers in selected jurisdictions in the U.S..
By adding USDC coverage in 85 global jurisdictions, Coinbase aims to “improve the lives of people in countries where inflation is eroding wealth,” according to the blog post. The company stated that stablecoins like USDC could provide an opportunity to protect against high inflation in newly added countries like Argentina and Uzbekistan, where consumer prices are expected to inflate by 10–20% in 2020.
Earlier this week, a startup backed by Coinbase, Reserve, announced that it would soon be launching a Venmo-style app in Venezuela for crypto-fiat payments, specifically targeting the country in order to help citizens get around the rising inflation.
A stablecoin is a digital currency designed to have minimal price volatility due to its 1:1 peg to a certain fiat currency or cryptocurrency holding. At press time, there are 348 million USDC circulating with a daily trading volume of around $250 million, according to data from CoinMarketCap.


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Everyone is anxiously waiting for Rockstar to deliver news on the next GTA V update. However, we can also assume that the GTA V 1.16 release date is likely to come within the next 24 hours thanks to the average time between updates passing.
As most of you are well aware, Rockstar did not provide a new GTA V update last week when many gamers were expecting the 1.16 patch to arrive 7 days ago. Skip forward another week once again and now Rockstar are under pressure again to give gamers some new content to play.
We are not even expecting the GTA V Heists release with 1.16 anymore, but another piece of free DLC to keep gamers happy in between – this could end up as the High Roller or Casino updates.
What we wanted to remind you though, is that time is seemingly against Rockstar. A clever video provided below has counted all of the days that Rockstar has taken in-between each update, whether that be the Beach Bum update or the more recent Independence Day special.
His analysis has concluded that Rockstar actually takes an average of 27 days to deliver each GTA V update and now we have moved past this average from the GTA V 1.15 to GTA V 1.16 update waiting period.
That suggests that tomorrow, ie Tuesday July 29 will either be the day when Rockstar goes live with the GTA V 1.16 release time or at least provides an update on their Newswire informing users that a new update is on the way for the following week – Tuesday August 5.
We all know that Rockstar loves to follow patterns so we would say that tomorrow is the big day on when we should be expecting some big GTA V info or updates to drop.
What are your thoughts on this – are you also expecting GTA V 1.16 to land on Tuesday since it has been a month from the last update? Do you agree that Heists anticipation seems to have died now due to Rockstar’s constant delays?
*Identifying Monetised Links - outgoing links that we monetise are marked with an '*' symbol.


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Using data from short-term rental analytics database AirDNA, Digital Third Coast ranked the best cities to invest in property to rent out through Airbnb .
Pasadena, Texas one of the best in the nation for return on investment as an Airbnb host.
Digital Third Coast researcher Collin Czarnecki said when it comes to cities with 150,000 people or more...bet you didn't think Pasadena would rank up there with Orlando, Miami or Las Vegas.
"In terms of profit and return on investment, anywhere from several thousand dollars a year, upwards to 20 or 30 thousand, depending on your location, what you're going to charge for your average daily rate," said Czarnecki.
He said guests are looking for more affordable stay than hotels near the airport.
"Obviously, a Houston airport, a huge hub, a lot of people coming in potentially staying short stays and Airbnb's a really great alternative to a hotel," said Czarnecki.
According to the analysis, Pasadena properties has a potential profit of more than $29k a year.


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in the news!
WHAT THE BLUEGRASS STANDARD READERS ARE SAYING
Great publication. We love the articles and photos.
The Bluegrass Standard may not change the entire music industry , but it will surely affect it by bringing Bluegrass, Americana, Folk, and New Grass sounds to its many readers and supporters. Thanks to them, everyone around the world will know that bluegrass tradition is alive and the new bluegrass sounds thrive.


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Insights from Farming in 2019
In a diverse group of ag industry professionals, “AI” might mean: artificial intelligence, avian influenza, or artificial insemination.
This was the case during a panel discussion between producers of poultry, beef, and grains at the eighth annual Women in Agribusiness Summit. The event brought together 850 attendees to network and share knowledge on key topics affecting agriculture today.
The panel featured:
- Katie Brenny, fifth-generation farmer and owner of Brenny Farms, a Charolais and Angus cow-calf beef farm in southeast Minnesota
- Deb Gangwish, owner of PG Farms Inc. & The Diamond G. in Nebraska, a corn, soy, and cow-calf operation
- Amy Syester, co-owner of a poultry and grain operation in Delaware, raising more than 1 million birds annually
Pressure to Adopt Sustainable Practices
For Deb Gangwish, whose farm started out small and has now grown to 8,000 acres of corn, 2,000 acres of soybeans, plus a 2,000-head backgrounding lot, it has always made sense to adopt sustainability. “We look for ways to take care of ranch and resources and do more with less because those resources are our future.” While there does seem to be more of a push to adopt sustainable practices, Gangwish notes that there is a great opportunity now to communicate the farm management practices that incorporate sustainability through technology and conservation.
Just as AI means something different among us, so does sustainability, and it can’t be dictated from a marketing or communications department. To Katie Brenny, it means giving back to the environment that has given to her, so she can continue to grow beef.
In the Delmarva Peninsula that Amy Syester calls home, she’s keenly aware and proactive to adopt practices that protect the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, her family’s future, and the chickens in the poultry houses. “We’re able to monitor the poultry houses’ temperatures to a tenth of a degree. We have more energy efficiency in our new houses so our footprint is small there, but we’re constantly looking for ways to improve.”
Misperceptions Farmers Face
“I want folks to know that my heart and soul is in everything we do,” says Gangwish. Even if her farm looks different than others, with different technology and equipment, the level of care in the operation every day is just the same. She continues, “I really want consumers to know that there are many different ways of bringing food to the table. I respect every farmer, whoever they are, and their labor of love. We don’t have enough of us to be divided. Anyone who knows what it’s like to tend an animal, take care of crops, or have soil underneath their fingernails, understands what it takes to grow and nurture life, no matter if it’s urban farming or any other type.”
Syester echoes that working in the poultry industry is truly a commitment, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. She sometimes hears people outside the industry label her operation as a “factory farm” because of the number of birds in each flock. “My farm is managed by my husband, me, my son, a brother-in-law, and one employee. That’s how we get it done.”
In livestock production, misconceptions are easy to come by if animal activists promote the wrong message about the industry. Syester says, “It’s not in our best interest to do things that are harmful to our operation. We have to make sure we’re doing everything to get the most out of what we’re doing, because our profit margins are small. It’s critical to understand that organizations have put a lot of restrictions on our industry and our work can’t just be accomplished by automation.”
“We don’t do anything that’s going to cost more money or that’s going to harm our food because we all have to eat. I buy my groceries at the grocery store, just like everyone else,” says Brenny. The unique opportunity all people have, across the supply chain, is to connect over food and remember that there is a chain of people with processes to bring that food to the table.
Recommendations for Ag Business Decision-Makers
While stakeholders in the supply chain may have different goals, at the end of the day, it takes working together as a team to understand how decisions actually affect producers.
The relationships that Gangwish has built between her seed dealer, chemical supplier, and agronomists have given her a team of people to rely upon. “We’re always looking for more ways to grow and be more efficient, more effective, but we want to share the risk.”
Brenny, who also works as climate business manager for Bayer Crop Science, has a unique perspective on how industry decisions are made. “I would encourage those who get to make decisions in a boardroom to really socialize the idea. Take it to your field team or find a group of farmers and ranchers and pick their brain about it.” In the end, the team approach will provide more value to farmers and ranchers, be more profitable to the business, and better adopted.
The Future Farmer
The generational changes in agriculture pose challenges for younger farmers looking to start out on their own.
Brenny didn’t have the opportunity to go home to a farm, but she and her husband were able to secure an operation while working full time elsewhere. “I see it as a work balance. Can you get your job done and can you still farm?” She recommends that companies think about their future employees who do have a passion for agriculture and incorporate the flexibility they need to manage the unpredictability of farming plus their corporate responsibilities.
On the other hand, Syester sees the poultry industry struggling to attract people to work in poultry operations. “It’s not a fun job, it’s not a clean job, and it’s hard to make an income and have the farming lifestyle. We love what we do or we wouldn’t be doing it, because at the end of the day, it’s stressful, you’re tired, and financially strapped at times.”
Agriculture faces challenges, yet opportunity still exists. As Deb Gangwish says, “Sometimes I feel like ‘I’m just a farmer – who am I?’ But I have a voice and the industry needs to hear from us.”


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The auction of an original watercolor painting by famed marine artist Guy Harvey depicting 11 inshore and offshore gamefish common along the New Jersey coast will highlight what’s sure to be a special evening for fishing enthusiasts who will gather at 7 p.m. on Friday, April 20, 2012, for the 15th Annual Fund Raising Banquet and Auction hosted by New Jersey’s IGFA representatives including Pete Barrett, Bill Feinberg, Rich Keller, Jeff Merrill and Gene Nigro. Doolan’s in Spring Lake Heights will again be the venue for the event benefitting IGFA’s Junior Angler and Conservation Programs. Last year 175 guests attended and over $20,000 was raised for these IGFA programs. In 14 years this event has raised over $200,000 making it one of IGFA’s most successful fund raising events. “We’re proud to have five representatives of IGFA such as Pete, Bill, Rich, Jeff and Gene,” noted Rob Kramer, IGFA’s president. “They have set the bar for the IGFA Representative program world-wide and we are honored to have them as part of the organization. Our staff is looking forward to once again attending what has become one of the premier events on IGFA’s annual calendar.”
A deluxe hot and cold buffet dinner will be followed by the popular Fishing Tackle Bonanza Auction where thousands of dollars worth of fishing tackle including rods, reels, line and lures donated by major tackle manufacturers and local tackle shops, plus jewelry, marine artwork and other fishing related items and accessories will be given away. Numerous fishing trips have also been donated by charter boat captains from Sandy Hook to Cape May. Grand Raffle prizes include a Shimano Talica reel and Trevala rod combo plus assorted Butterfly Jigs and PowerPro line, a David Wirth sculpture and a limited edition striped bass print by Stanley Meltzoff. A silent auction will also be held and will include fishing trips and several high-value items. Every attendee will receive a commemorative limited edition Guy Harvey shirt beautifully illustrated with the artwork of the original watercolor Guy created specifically for the event.
Reservations are limited to the first 225 people and can be made by sending a check for $75 for each person drawn to IGFA and sent to: IGFA Banquet, c/o Jeff Merrill, 918 Houston St., South Plainfield, New Jersey 07080. For further information contact Jeff Merrill at 908-451-1110 or via e-mail at firstname.lastname@example.org.


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Shopping just got easier at the Walmart Supercenter in Silvis, which became the latest store in the chain to offer online grocery pickup service.
The store, located at 1601 18th St. in Silvis, launched the free pickup service Wednesday. It allows shoppers to order groceries ahead online and pick them up at the store without leaving their car.
"Our customers have told us that grocery pickup is a game changer," said Jeremy Esparza, eCommerce coach with Walmart. "They now are able to complete their grocery shopping in a matter of minutes — between errands or on the way home from an after-school activity — without even unbuckling their seat belts."
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To use the service, customers visit www.grocery.walmart.com online or use the Walmart Grocery mobile app, enter their zip code to select a store, and create a shopping list. During checkout, customers chose a pickup time.
Before shoppers arrive, trained personal shoppers will select their choices from the store's 30,000 items, including fresh produce and meat. Upon arrival, customers park in a reserved pickup space marked in orange and call a designated phone number to alert an associate.
The service first launched in Illinois in May in stores in Peoria, several Chicago suburbs as well as in the Iowa Quad-Cities at the West Kimberly Walmart in Davenport. It will expand to 12 Illinois stores in June for a total of 25 stores across Illinois. The service has been rolling out to stores nationwide for a few years. Walmart has said it will expand to an additional 500 stores in 2017.
According to Walmart, 90 percent of its online grocery pickup customers now are repeat users. Top items selected include after-school snacks, diapers and large bags of dog food.


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Infinix has launched two new products in India today. The Hong Kong-based smartphone was speculated to launch Smart HD 2021 smartphone but the company has surprised its fans by also launching the Snokor Soundbar along with the phone. The smartphone comes with a massive 5000mAh battery and a big display. The soundbar on the other hand comes with interesting features and an affordable price tag.
Infinix has launched smartphones, TWS earbuds, and even Smart TVs in the past but it has launched a soundbar for the first time in India.
Talking about the smartphone and soundbar, “Smart HD 2021 is a revolution in the budget smartphone category backed by a huge battery life and larger than life screen. From focusing primarily on utility, convenience to now on an immersive viewing experience, Smart HD 2021 will be a delight for the first- time smartphone users in this segment who are looking for phones for their prolonged media consumption and would expect the battery to last longer without compromising on the style quotient. Keeping in mind the current scenario where screen viewing time has reached an all-time high, it was a prerequisite for Infinix to address this issue by introducing Smart HD 2021.
“Apart from being value-driven, this smartphone offers some prominent features like the AI HDR+ composition, a powerful processor, audio experience enabled by DTS Surround Sound, and face unlock feature. The finger print sensor in Smart HD 2021 also comes as part of Infinix’s (FIRST IN SEGEMENT TECHNOLOGY) strategy to focus on optimizing security on the handset. After the recent launch of our flagship Zero 8i in the premium segment, Smart HD 2021 for entry level smartphone fans showcases Infinix’s capability to deliver at both ends of the spectrum for catering across a vast set of smartphone users in the country. We are also confident about our newly launched SNOKOR and believe that our fans will give this device the same acceptance that they have been giving to our other SNOKOR products,” he added.
Infinix Smart HD and Snokor Soundbar: Price and availability
The Infinix Smart HD was launched in India for Rs 5999. The smartphone has been launched exclusively on Flipkart. The smartphone will go on its first sale on December 24 on Flipkart at 12 am. Smart HD 2021 will be available in three color variants including Topaz Blue, Quartz Green, and Obsidian Black.
The Snokor Soundbar has been launched in India for Rs 4499. The audio device would go on its first sale on December 18 on Flipkart
Infinix Smart HD and Snokor Soundbar: Specifications and features
The Infinix Smart HD features a 6.1-inch HD+ Drop Notch display and comes with an 85 percent screen to body ratio long with a brightness of 500 nits. The smartphone is powered by a 12nm Helio A20 Quad Core processor coupled with 2GB RAM/32 GB storage. The device also comes installed with the Android 10 (Go Edition) feature that makes it lighter and runs on Android 10.
In terms of camera, the smartphone features an 8MP rear camera that has a dual-LED flash along with an f/2.0 large aperture. On the front, there is a 5-megapixel camera for selfies. The smartphone houses a 5000mAh battery.


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Annual St. Patrick's Day boxed lunch sale held a day early for Catholics
FLINT, Mich. - More than 2,000 lunches were sold Thursday for Catholic Charities annual box lunch sale.
The annual Saint Patrick's Day fundraiser sold out, selling 2,300 lunches this year.
The Flint tradition offers a lunch including a corned beef sandwich on rye.
"You know we all come down here and support this on St. Patrick's Day or the day before St. Patrick's Day and uh...I've been doing this like I said 10 years and it’s just fun. It's good food. I think it’s a win-win for everybody,” said boxed-lunch fan Bob Gardner.
The box lunch sale was held a day early this year since Saint Patrick's Day falls on a Friday.


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Obama Campaign Ad Deceptively Edits Romney on Taxes
It’s no hidden secret the left’s first go-to tactic of discrediting something put out by the right is to claim it’s “heavily edited” or “taken out of context” despite its accuracy. Fortunately for them, they have the luxury of hiding behind the liberal media.
But what about when they do it themselves?
Now, a campaign ad produced by Obama for America being aired on television has been heavily edited to take Mitt Romney completely out of context on taxes.
Take a look at this video with a side-by-side comparison between the ad and how the actual 60 Minutes interview went.


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About three weeks ago, Jersey City resident Oliver Flores got laid off from his job in the fast food industry. He saw it as an opportunity to start over in a booming field — transportation, distribution and logistics, otherwise known as TDL.
“I can see this as an opportunity to help my mother with the bills and everything,” said Flores.
“If you’re ordering anything from Amazon and eBay or anything these days through an online catalog, whether it’s Macy’s or Bed Bath and Beyond, a lot of that warehousing process, fulfillment process, happens through electronic transfer and people,” said Vid Bahadur, assistant director of continued education at New Jersey City University.
At an open house, potential students learned about a free TDL training program at the logistics center at NJCU. Organizers say the roughly four week course trains students on soft skills like learning to come to work on time, how to dress, communication with others, to hard skills like remaining safe on site, forklift operation, and basic Word and Excel training.
“This course will pursue some type of success in my life, especially in a time of hardship,” said Moises Davila.
In 2016, more than 380,000 workers were employed by the TDL industry in New Jersey. That accounts for about 11 percent of the state’s private sector workers with an average salary of roughly $72,000 a year, according to the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
“That tends to be the case in this industry where they generally start folks at $14, $15 an hour, maybe even $12. After certain months of working the five or six months, they become supervisors, they become area shift managers, so forth. And a lot of our students who are now managers have only been working for a year, year and half,” said Bahadur.
Over a 10-year period, warehousing and storage saw an added 13,000 jobs in the state. With New Jersey making Amazon’s top 20 list for its new headquarters, students at the open house see that as more potential employment. The company promises 50,000 jobs and a $5 billion investment in the city it chooses.
“We’re all hoping we’re part of that. We’re hoping we can train some of these people and place them particularly with Amazon, and we’ve done that already with Amazon that’s in South Jersey, but we’re hoping they can come up north a little closer to us,” said Bahadur.
Program officials say in about two years they’ve graduated 450 students and 70 percent gained full employment. It’s a statistic Oliver Flores hopes to join.


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Eva Longoria, Eric Schlosser, Smriti Keshari and I have been doing a number of private screenings of our upcoming documentary, Food Chains. The film has been screened to every possible demographic - from farmworkers in Florida to chefs like Alice Waters in San Francisco. It hits theaters nationwide on November 21st.
The film chronicles the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' (CIW) epic battle for better wages and working conditions in the tomato fields of Florida. Rather than focus on farmers for these demands as had been done in the past by organizers like Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, the CIW analyzed the recent metastasis of the food industry - from farmer-driven to supermarket-ruled.
Supermarkets now control the food system in the US. Their market power is so vast that one or two of the largest stores can effectively set the terms for the entire industry. Walmart does not have a monopoly, for example. It controls just 25% of the industry, but that stake gives them the power to effectively control farms across the US. Walmart and other large supermarkets can effectively tell farmers what they should grow, how they should grow it, what fruits and veggies need to look and taste like and lastly, how much farmers will earn for their work. If farms want to have a chance to sell to large buyers like Walmart, they need to follow their rules. Thus, the entire farming industry in the US has been conformed to the needs of just a few supermarket chains. This is called a monopsony.
As the supermarket sector has consolidated its power, farmers have seen their profits cut in half. And we're not just talking about the decline of the family farm. Large corporate farms are suffering too. Even if a farm is earning $100 million a year, they're no match for companies like Kroger, Publix or Walmart which earn approximately $96 billion, $28 billion, and over $300 billion from grocery sales, respectively.
After screenings of Food Chains, we are always clear to say - farmers are small fish in a big pond.
That's why the CIW began focusing their Campaign for Fair Food on large buyers of produce like supermarkets and fast food chains - demanding from them a penny extra per pound for tomatoes and to enforce a code of conduct in their supply chain. If supermarkets can set economic terms, why can't they set terms for how people are treated?
The result of this campaign is the Fair Food Program, hailed by the New York Times as the "the best workplace-monitoring program" in the United States. The Fair Food Program is a groundbreaking partnership between farmers and farmworkers in Florida's tomato industry that ensures that workers on participating farms are treated fairly.
This program is a testament not only to the determination of the CIW, but to the vision of some of the biggest farming corporations in the world, a vision given expression in 2010 when Jon Esformes, Chief Operating Partner of Pacific Tomato Growers, signed the first-ever Fair Food agreement with the CIW, followed by other large growers, including Lipman Produce, Gargiulo and Dimare. Consumers might not have heard of those companies, but they are responsible for supplying the vast majority of fresh tomatoes grown in the United States.
This partnership between farmers and farmworkers is entirely unique. The true power of this unique system came to full light last January, when Walmart, the world's largest retailer, joined the Fair Food Program.
I happened to be present at the signing ceremony in Immokalee, Florida, where Kent Shoemaker, CEO of Lipman, gathered with Walmart executives and members of the CIW to celebrate an historic achievement in the civil rights of farmworkers. On January 14th, 2014, Walmart joined the Fair Food Program, pledging not only to support the program in Florida, but to help it grow beyond Florida.
True, the program is a success because of the involvement of workers. Farmers play a critical role in that program, however. This multi-stakeholder initiative is, dare I say, the most progressive thing happening in agriculture anywhere in the United States.
And after screenings, when audience members ask what they can do to support farmworkers - we always say, "Buy a tomato from a Fair Food retailer and support the Florida tomato industry which is in large part supporting farmworkers." The more we support participating Florida tomato farms, the better it will be for farmworkers. Our support of the Fair Food Program will have nationwide ramifications as more retailers sign on and spread the program far and wide as Walmart has pledged to do.
Animal welfare, organic growing, integrated pest management - these are all great things. But none is closer to the heart of our nation's agrarian ideal than a system where people are treated justly and with respect.
Thomas Jefferson expressed it best when he wrote, "Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen people, whose breasts he has made his peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue. It is the focus in which he keeps alive that sacred fire, which otherwise might escape from the face of the earth."
Watch the trailer of Food Chains here.


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College Students Warned To Beware Of ScamsAs college students get ready to start a new year, they’re being warned to watch out for scams.
National Consumer Protection Week: Identity ThievesIf you believe you are a victim of identity theft, get your free credit report right away to ensure identity thieves have not opened additional accounts.
National Consumer Protection Week: PasswordsLet’s talk about the passwords to your various accounts. Some folks use the same password for all of their accounts. Not prudent the experts tell us.
National Consumer Protection Week: More FTC NotesHere are some more tips from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to help you avoid fraud.
National Consumer Protection Week: FTC NotesThe Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has some suggestions to help you avoid fraud.
National Consumer Protection Week: Scams, Spams & PhishingThis is National Consumers Protection Week, a national campaign to help consumers make better-informed decisions and avoid being scammed.
Tax Tips From The IRS: IRS Scam Calls & EmailsThe most common IRS scams are phone calls and emails from thieves who pretend to be from the IRS.
Those Holiday ScamsThis time of year it's easy to let your guard down to be open to scams. Scammers are everywhere!
More Medicare ScamsElders are often fooled by the Caller ID. A Caller ID can be set up to display whatever name or phone number the scammers choose.
Medicare ScamsMedicare scams occur all year but during the open enrollment period, which started October 15 and runs through December 7th, they occur more often.
How To Recognize Scam Phone CallsOur elderly are so vulnerable when it comes to phone scams. Hanging up is their best defense.
Why Are Older Citizens Targeted For Scams?Those over age 65 make up only an eighth of the U.S. population but according to AARP are a third of all scam victims.


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The White House on Saturday announced a 25 percent tariff on $1.3 billion worth of French merchandise, including cosmetics and handbags, after a digital service tax was levied against U.S. tech giants.
The Trump administration reportedly saw the tax as an unfair assault on American companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon.
“Retaliatory tariffs aren’t ideal but the French government’s refusal to back down from its unilateral imposition of unfair and punitive taxes on U.S. companies leaves our government with no choice,” the statement read.
The White House opened an investigation into the tax last year, before it was signed into law, to determine whether or not it “unfairly targets American companies.”
The Office of the United States Trade Representative found the tax to be “unreasonable or discriminatory” and said it “burdens or restricts U.S. commerce.” more here


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This is exactly why my next 'new' car will be an Austin Allegro or Escort Mk III from fleaBay.
Two unpatched vulnerabilities in BMW's ConnectedDrive web portal create a mechanism to manipulate car settings, a security researcher warns. The first (and more serious) vulnerability creates a means for a hacker to access another driver’s Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) before changing in-car settings such as lock/ …
Well, at least you won't contribute significantly to global warming.
Are you kidding me? The last Allegro I owned left a cloud of smog behind it that would put a VW to shame. That said, that was just before two conrods and associated parts exited through the side of the crankcase.
There was a reason they earned the nickname "All Aggro" ...
That was my point - few of them ever managed a high mileage.
My mother, while I was away, was persuaded to swap her beautiful Morris Minor with leather seats that I had kept in perfect mechanical condition for years, for an Agro. She's dead now and I've kind of forgiven her. I could not make her understand what she'd done. It got the driver's door kicked in by a horse, which proves that even horses have some taste.
"A VIN should not be used for the same reason that a social security number in the US or NI number in the UK should never be used as a primary key."
Seems a perfectly good candidate for a primary key to me - that's what they are by definition. They should not be used for authentication on their own.
If anyone of such persuasion was to change the delivery address and tie a new owner to the VIN, I can think of a couple of people that could do with a FREE car as payment for all that they have contributed to this Cuntery. The list would include people like the executives in HR at BMW plant Oxford and several politicians (whose names I have to look up 'cos I haven't been paying that much attention). Anyways safe to say that these twats deserve nothing less - oh yeah and they could also come with a chatty android (unpaid) driver named Tay for good measure, as an expression of their faith and confidence in UK govermins IT schemes.
Embedded World AMD is bringing to market a new generation of Ryzen chips for embedded apps promising more CPU cores, enhanced built-in graphics and expanded I/O connectivity to drive kit such as IoT devices and thin clients.
Crucially, AMD plans to make the R2000 Series available for up to 10 years, providing OEM customers with a long-lifecycle support roadmap. This is an important aspect for components in embedded systems, which may be operating in situ for longer periods than the typical three to five-year lifecycle of corporate laptops and servers.
The Ryzen Embedded R2000 Series is AMD's second-generation of mid-range system-on-chip (SoC) processors that combine CPU cores plus Radeon graphics, and target a range of embedded systems such as industrial and robotic hardware, machine vision, IoT and thin client devices. The first, R1000, came out in 2019.
QNAP is warning users about another wave of DeadBolt ransomware attacks against its network-attached storage (NAS) devices – and urged customers to update their devices' QTS or QuTS hero operating systems to the latest versions.
The latest outbreak – detailed in a Friday advisory – is at least the fourth campaign by the DeadBolt gang against the vendor's users this year. According to QNAP officials, this particular run is encrypting files on NAS devices running outdated versions of Linux-based QTS 4.x, which presumably have some sort of exploitable weakness.
The previous attacks occurred in January, March, and May.
Canonical's Linux distro for edge devices and the Internet of Things, Ubuntu Core 22, is out.
This is the fourth release of Ubuntu Core, and as you might guess from the version number, it's based on the current Long Term Support release of Ubuntu, version 22.04.
Ubuntu Core is quite a different product from normal Ubuntu, even the text-only Ubuntu Server. Core has no conventional package manager, just Snap, and the OS itself is built from Snap packages. Snap installations and updates are transactional: this means that either they succeed completely, or the OS automatically rolls them back, leaving no trace except an entry in a log file.
Forescout researchers have demonstrated how ransomware could spread through an enterprise from vulnerable Internet-of-Things gear.
The security firm's Vedere Labs team said it developed a proof-of-concept strain of this type of next-generation malware, which they called R4IoT. After gaining initial access via IoT devices, the malware moves laterally through the IT network, deploying ransomware and cryptocurrency miners while also exfiltrating data, before taking advantage of operational technology (OT) systems to potentially physically disrupt critical business operations, such as pipelines or manufacturing equipment.
In other words: a complete albeit theoretical corporate nightmare.
The botnet malware EnemyBot has added exploits to its arsenal, allowing it to infect and spread from enterprise-grade gear.
What's worse, EnemyBot's core source code, minus its exploits, can be found on GitHub, so any miscreant can use the malware to start crafting their own outbreaks of this software nasty.
The group behind EnemyBot is Keksec, a collection of experienced developers, also known as Nero and Freakout, that have been around since 2016 and have launched a number of Linux- and Windows-based bots capable of launching distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and possibly mining cryptocurrency. Securonix first wrote about EnemyBot in March.
Smart homes are increasingly becoming hackable homes, according to consumer research.
The report by consumer rights organization Which? paints a grim picture for people who have equipped their residences with gadgets, many from trusted tech names.
As with pretty much everything in IT, if you connect a device to the internet, ensuring it's patched and has a decent password is the very least owners can do. Even then, there are no guarantees that this is secure.
Comment Broadcom’s mooted acquisition of VMware looks odd at face value, but if considered as a means to make edge computing and the Internet of Things (IoT) more mature and manageable, and give organizations the tools to drive them, the deal makes rather more sense.
Edge and IoT are the two coming things in computing and will grow for years, meaning the proposed deal could be very good for VMware’s current customers.
An Ethernet switch that Broadcom launched this week shows why this is a plausible scenario.
A researcher at Cisco's Talos threat intelligence team found eight vulnerabilities in the Open Automation Software (OAS) platform that, if exploited, could enable a bad actor to access a device and run code on a targeted system.
The OAS platform is widely used by a range of industrial enterprises, essentially facilitating the transfer of data within an IT environment between hardware and software and playing a central role in organizations' industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) efforts. It touches a range of devices, including PLCs and OPCs and IoT devices, as well as custom applications and APIs, databases and edge systems.
Companies like Volvo, General Dynamics, JBT Aerotech and wind-turbine maker AES are among the users of the OAS platform.
Analysis Startup QuSecure will this week introduce a service aimed at addressing how to safeguard cybersecurity once quantum computing renders current public key encryption technologies vulnerable.
It's unclear when quantum computers will easily crack classical crypto – estimates range from three to five years to never – but conventional wisdom is that now's the time to start preparing to ensure data remains encrypted.
A growing list of established vendors like IBM and Google and smaller startups – Quantum Xchange and Quantinuum, among others – have worked on this for several years. QuSecure, which is launching this week after three years in stealth mode, will offer a fully managed service approach with QuProtect, which is designed to not only secure data now against conventional threats but also against future attacks from nation-states and bad actors leveraging quantum systems.
Some research into the potentially exploitable low-power state of iPhones has sparked headlines this week.
While pretty much no one is going to utilize the study's findings to attack Apple users in any meaningful way, and only the most high-profile targets may find themselves troubled by all this, it at least provides some insight into what exactly your iOS handheld is up to when it's seemingly off or asleep. Or none of this is news to you. We'll see.
According to the research, an Apple iPhone that goes asleep into low-power mode or is turned off isn't necessarily protected against surveillance. That's because some parts of it are still operating at low power.
Biting the hand that feeds IT © 1998–2022


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According to a leak on a German insurance website, Mercedes-Benz is planning a powerful diesel model in its G-Class lineup. Here's what we know about the new G400d.
When we think of the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, the... Read More
It's the perfect time to review Mercedes-Benz' new G-Class, seeing as the iconic off-roader turns 40 this month. But, in its latest iteration, and particularly G63 Edition 1 guise, does its off-roading... Read More
The once-utilitarian G-Class, previously known as the Geländewagen, is back for another round in 2018. We headed to Johannesburg to drive the mighty V8-whipped Mercedes-AMG G63.
The G-Class is the... Read More
The Mercedes-AMG G63 luxury SUV has arrived in South Africa! Here's how much the G63 AMG costs...
The Mercedes-AMG G63 is launching in South Africa this week and we're able to share pricing of the... Read More
Mercedes-AMG tuner, Brabus, has released an insane package for the all-new G63 AMG. It's not just a cosmetic kit either, as Brabus has substantially upped the engine power too.
Brabus has announced a new product... Read More
We at Cars.co.za think the Mercedes-Benz G-Class is already one of the most hardcore vehicles on the road, but this? This is just on another level. Meet the ultimate Mercedes-Benz G-Class.
The all-new... Read More
To the untrained eye, the new G-Class looks much the same as its predecessors. But don't be fooled by the newcomer's iconic silhouette: Mercedes-Benz has reinvented its mightiest off-roader. Our UK... Read More


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Netflix tests cheaper mobile-only plan in Malaysia
Netflix Inc is testing a mobile-only subscription plan in Malaysia priced at roughly half its current basic plan in the country, the global leader in video streaming said on Wednesday.
Netflix Inc is testing a mobile-only subscription plan in Malaysia priced at roughly half its current basic plan in the country, the global leader in video streaming said on Wednesday. Netflix's mobile only plan costs just 17 Malaysian ringgit ($4.05) a month, compared to its Basic plan which costs 33 ringgit ($7.87).
The company declined to give additional details about which countries it was testing in. Chief Executive Reed Hastings on Friday quashed speculation that the streaming video company would cut prices for the hotly competitive India market but other officials have suggested it could trial cheaper plans in small markets.
"We are testing to understand consumer interest in a mobile-only plan in some countries," Netflix said in an emailed response to Reuters questions.
India vs South Africa 2023-24: T20, ODI, Test Matches Full Schedule, Match Dates, Time in IST, Venues, Squad, Free Live Streaming Details
"Generally, we try out lots of new ideas at any given time, and they can vary in how long they last and who sees them. We may not ever roll out the features or elements included in a test."
Research firm Statista estimates that Netflix has 132,000 subscribers in Malaysia, making it one of the smallest markets for the streaming giant.


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Tom Ford is known for his seductive and lavish point of view—whether he’s a designer or a movie director. And yet, somehow, last night was the first time the world got to see men’s underwear (and luxury watches) from the designer. At the risk of sounding breathless, it was worth the decade-long wait. The man could make a paper bag aspirational. The new items debuted as part of Ford’s Fall 2018 men’s show, a 700-person affair above and beyond anything he’d ever done for his men’s line before. Celebs like Trevor Noah, Pusha T, and Sebastian Stan were there to see the show, which included snakeskin puffer jackets, neon sneakers, and—of course—an array of killer tuxedo jackets. But back to the new goodies.
Read the full article here.
The post Tom Ford Is Looking to Bring Back Silk Boxers appeared first on Vicious Candy.


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Pattanadesh Asasappakij, organizer of the Fast Auto Show Thailand & EV Expo 2023, expressed his satisfaction with this year’s event, citing its success in terms of visitor numbers, sales and overall interest in all activities.
He also added that the event, held from July 5-9 at BITEC, made a significant contribution to the Thai economy, signifying a positive return to normalcy following the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic for the past two years.
The show featured both new and used cars, along with a special zone dedicated to EVs.
Honda, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, Mazda, MG, Subaru, Toyota, and Volvo brought their best-selling models and introduced their latest offerings, some of which were unveiled for the first time at the event. Honda unveiled the facelift City while MG’s highlight was the Maxus 9 electric MPV.
BYD showcased its Dolphin EB while other electric cars present were the Mercedes-EQ EQS, MG4 and Volvo C40. Indoor test drive for customers were held at BITEC as the vehicles are all emission-free.
Additionally, this year’s highlights included special promotions from Krungsri Auto, offering the attractive financial deals.
Used car dealers present at the show included DDS Car Center, THE ONE Platform, Yo Rachada, Da Srinakarin, Sethi Premium Used Car, CarDeeSureOK, Best Service, Mercedes-Benz Certified by Keng Hong Thong, and Car Hero.
All used cars sold at the show have gone through inspection and passes strict requirements, with full buy backs being offered for customers if the vehicles do not meet the required standards.


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15. Hans Vestberg, President and CEO, Ericsson - Most Powerful People in Wireless
What makes him powerful: Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) has so far had a bumpy year financially, gaining in the first quarter on its sale of its stake in Sony Ericsson, while seeing its profits slip year-over-year in the second and third quarters due to weaker networks sales (and CDMA in particular). Some of these things are in CEO Hans Vestberg's control, others are not (it's unlikely that he can stop the decline in CDMA network sales as more carriers move to LTE, for example).
That said, Ericsson still remains the world's largest network infrastructure provider (just ahead of Huawei), and Vestberg seems intent on keeping the company there by positioning it for the future. That seems to be the explanation behind both the company's desire to make more money from its patent portfolio and its February purchase of Wi-Fi networking gear specialist BelAir Networks. The deal, Ericsson's most significant so far in 2012, allows Ericsson to add carrier-grade Wi-Fi offloading technology to its equipment portfolio. This deal is especially important because carriers are increasingly turning to Wi-Fi offloading to handle the increase in mobile data traffic.
At every turn, Vestberg extols Ericsson's vision for the future: the number of mobile broadband users will expand to 5 billion by 2016 and by 2020 there will be 50 billion connected devices, many of which will communicate automatically on behalf of their human owners. "Our society will be changed. Our lives will be changed," Vestberg said in his keynote speech at Mobile World Congress in February.
To capitalize on that future, Ericsson will need to keep winning LTE contracts, as it did when T-Mobile USA chose Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks as its primary suppliers for its network upgrade. For Ericsson, the T-Mobile deal completed a sweep of major LTE contracts with all four of the Tier 1 U.S. carriers.
The year was not without its blemishes though. Airvana Network Solutions filed a $330 million lawsuit against Ericsson, alleging that it collaborated with LG Electronics to sell an illegal "knock-off" of an Airvana product, threatening to put Airvana out of business. Ericsson slashed some of its North American workforce. Still, Vestberg has kept the ship upright and maintained Ericsson's market leadership, despite weaker carrier spending in many markets, especially economically troubled Europe.--Phil
- 1515. Hans Vestberg, President and CEO, Ericsson - Most Powerful People in Wireless