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Thailand’s auto sales in July totaled 72,902 units, an increase of 3.76 per cent from the previous month and an 11 per cent increase year-on-year, according to Surapong Paisitpattanapong, auto industry spokesman for the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI).
Auto sales took an upturn in July due to the robust domestic economy and automakers were able to resume production at full capacity, so more cars could be delivered to customers.
Moreover, compact cars attracted a new group of customers. In the first seven months of this year, total auto sales reached 504,914 units, a 19.5 per cent increase year-on-year.
The auto production in July totaled 147,236 units, an increase of 1.01 per cent, compared to the same period last year and a 4.17 per cent drop from the previous month. Auto production in the first seven months of this year accounted for 957,843 units, an increase of 4.71 per cent from the same period last year. Most auto production — 51.41 per cent, or some 492,000 units — was for export, but dropped by 3.59 per cent, compared to the same period last year.
Motorcycle sales in July hit 178,050 units, an increase of 13.75 per cent year-on-year, but dropped by 19.763 per cent from the previous month. Motorcycle sales in the first seven months of this year was 1.2 million units, a 15.5 per cent rise year-on-year while motorcycle production in July totaled 291, 894 units, an increase of 20.1 per cent from the same period last year. The motorcycle production from January – July 2011 totaled 1.9 million units, an increase of 26.73 per cent year-on-year.
The FTI projected that automobile production in the next three months will be about 510,000 units, a 17 per cent increase year-on- year, while motorcycle production is expected at 499,240 units, a 5.12 per cent drop from the same period last year, said the spokesman. (MCOT online news)
via Thailand’s auto sales and production robust in July.
fter a brief slowdown earlier this year, Thailand’s automotive industry is back near top speed, resuming progress toward the goal of becoming the world’s 10th biggest automaker. Rising steadily by one notch in 2009 and by another in 2010, Thailand currently ranks as the 12th largest auto manufacturing country.
Industry experts predict the country will enter the global top 10 on output of 2.3 million units in three or four years. Looking further, on the strength of its good fundamentals and untiring optimism, the Thai automotive industry is projected to keep advancing and turn out 2.5 million units by 2020.
In the wake of the temporary slowdown, Thailand’s automotive output for the whole of 2011 will likely be limited to between 1.65 million and 1.80 million units. Still, the former matches last year’s output and the latter figure would represent impressive growth considering the brief down period.
Showing the resolute nature of the local industry, during the parts shortage many automakers in Thailand acted to turn adversity into opportunity. For example, Toyota Motor Thailand, the biggest maker in the country, kept all of its workers on-shift while production was cut back temporarily. The company provided intensive skills-enhancement training courses for all personnel, strengthening operations even during the downtime.


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Chicago-based Rise Gardens announced the closing of the seed investment fund and after the startup company has secured $2.6 Million in seed funding. The company’s $2.6 Million secure funding was led by the prominent Chicago-based business leaders and San Francisco-based True Ventures.
Rise Gardens is basically a smart indoor gardening system that enables users to grow food and vegetables in their indoor homes. The company has designed the system with simplicity in mind to attract customers. The company’s indoor gardening system is fully capable of growing a variety of herbs, fruits, vegetables and roots with ease. The company further claims that no other system in the world allows much variety to its customers than the system provided by the company.
Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Rise Gardens, Hank Adams said, “Thanks to the hard work of a passionate team, we have built a productive and easy-to-use indoor gardening system that consumers love.”
“We’re thrilled to have True Ventures, with their amazing track record and capabilities, choose to invest in us. I’m also very grateful for the support of incredible tech leaders who’s backing helped get us to this important milestone. Together they will help us achieve a tangible social impact by improving nutrition for all of our customers,” Hank Adams further added.
Co-Founder of the True Ventures, Jon Callaghan said, “At True, we aspire to work with entrepreneurs like Hank who are focused on changing the way society works in positive ways.”
“The Rise Gardens team is building an inspiring product that makes indoor farming simple and accessible, which enables customers to grow their own food and take more control of their own food supply chain. We are impressed by their growth and look forward to helping them scale,” Jon Callaghan concluded.

domain: news


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VOV.VN - Despite the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam’s inflation for 2020 is projected to fall between 3.5-3.9% to ensure social security and stabilise local people's lives, experts say.
VOV.VN - Despite enjoying a large degree of economic openness, the Vietnamese economy is facing a range of challenges in the upcoming quarters and has been negatively influenced by many aspects of the turbulent global economy, according to Nguyen Bich Lam, director of the General Statistics Office (GSO).
The European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA), scheduled to become effective in July, will help improve Vietnam’s business and investment climate and boost its institutional reform, thus contributing to fostering its growth in a long term, according to an official.
VOV.VN- If Vietnam continues to contain the Covid-19 epidemic at its current level or better, the country will improve further its already-impressive FDI attraction.
Local authorities and businesses are making efforts to promote domestic consumption of agricultural products, which are piling up due to the impact of novel coronavirus outbreaks in China.
The Vietnamese workforce reached 55.8 million last year, and increase of 417,100 compared to 2018, reported the General Statistics Office.
The manufacturing and processing industry drove economic growth in 2019 with production volume increasing 11.29 percent over the previous year, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).
The revision of the size of Vietnam’s gross domestic product (GDP) for 2011-2017 is in line with international practices and serves as a foundation for the country's development path in the next 10 years, an official has said.
Phones and components lead in Vietnam’s export turnover in the first nine months of this year, with a value of US$38.6 billion, marking a year-on-year increase of 5.1 per cent and accounting for 19.9 per cent of total exports.
Vietnam’s GDP expanded 6.98 percent in the January-September period, the highest nine-month growth rate over the past nine years, said General Director of the General Statistics Office (GSO) Nguyen Bich Lam on September 28.
The consumer price index (CPI) in September rose 0.32 percent over the previous month, said General Director of the General Statistics Office (GSO) Nguyen Bich Lam.
Vietnam’s total gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 25.4 percent per year for the 2011-17 period after calculation was revised.
GDP growth based on high productivity is the way forward for Vietnam to maintain rapid and sustainable economic growth, said head of Vietnam’s General Statistics Office.
The Government needs to establish a national strengthening productivity committee to better labour productivity, thus promoting the economic growth, said Director General of the General Statistics Office of Vietnam Nguyen Bich Lam on August 7.
Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung has stressed the urgent significance of improving labour productivity in promoting growth, overcoming the middle-income trap, avoiding falling behind and narrowing down development gap with other countries.
The nation's total revenue from retail sales and services saw a significant growth of 11.5 per cent to more than VND23.9 quadrillion (nearly US$102 billion) in the first half of this year.
The national industrial production index (IIP) saw a year-on-year increase of 9.2 per cent in the first quarter of this year, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).
Manufacturing and processing were the major contributor to Vietnam’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 7.08% in 2018, the highest level in 11 years, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).
Most firms in the manufacturing and processing industry were optimistic about their production and business activities for the first quarter of 2019, according to a survey by the General Statistics Office (GSO).
The Vietnamese economy grew 7.08% in 2018, the highest growth rate for the past 11 years, fuelled by an improved business climate, positive economic structure transformation and impressive exports, the latest updates from the General Statistics Office (GSO) revealed.


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BARC unveils new logo & brand visual identity
The logo is inspired from the Rubik's Cube for solving the structural problem of moving the parts independently without the entire mechanism falling apart
As the nation awaits the launch of a new broadcast audience measurement system, the BARC INDIA team, as part of its build-up strategy just announced its new Logo and brand visual identity.
Trying to deal with a puzzle that has been vexing our industry for decades, a puzzle that has been attempted in the past, the BARC India team has taken inspiration from a Rubik’s cube to solve the puzzle uniquely, vibrantly and transparently.
The new logo and brand visual identity, inspired from the Rubik’s Cube for solving the structural problem of moving the parts independently without the entire mechanism falling apart, now looks like an intelligent puzzle waiting to be solved!
Attempting to engage every customer with robust, intelligent, solid, comprehensive, accurate, reliable, transparent and accountable processes and possibilities, BARC INDIA’s new brand identity aims to add that extra punch of fun and challenge to all its users, associates and partners in India and across the Globe.
Partho Dasgupta, CEO of BARC INDIA said, “It’s the process of solving the puzzle which adds to the excitement and challenge of finally getting it right, which is exactly what we want our new brand identity to reflect. The idea is to enjoy every milestone in creating history while in the process of designing, commissioning, supervising and owning India’s Broadcast Audience Measurement System, which unarguably will be globally the largest and most modern system.”
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Later this month, Sony will be launching PlayStation Vue in three major US markets. New York, Chicago and Philadelphia will receive access in the next two weeks, and the service will supposedly roll out to the rest of the US later in 2015.
Premium gaming services like Xbox Live Gold and PlayStation Plus have done very well on consoles, but they’ve largely been absent from the world of PC gaming. Multiplayer is almost always free (except MMOs), and Steam sales have kept the cheap games flowing at a constant rate. But now Microsoft is considering bringing Xbox Live Gold to the PC, and finally giving Valve a run for its money.
Windows 10 is headed to devices this year, and the first major unveil and feature preview have significant enthusiast-oriented improvements. With a free upgrade offer, will Windows 10 finally shake off the doldrums that have haunted Windows 8?
Less than a week before the PS4 was due to launch in China, Sony has been forced to slam on the brakes. Executives remain positive that the launch will resume eventually, but the timeframe remains ambiguous for now.
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Apple invites developers to submit 64-bit apps for iPhone 5s
Developers can now submit 64-bit third party applications for iPhone 5s, allowing their software to leverage the power made available with the new A7 processor and iOS 7 operating system.
Set to release this Friday, the iPhone 5s ships with the A7 CPU as well as a new version of iOS 7 compiled in 64 bits. Apple on Monday issued a note to developers, inviting them to now submit their 64-bit apps ahead of the iPhone 5s launch.
Currently, developers who wish to continue supporting iOS 6 will need to build their apps in 32-bit only. But Apple has promised that next month, changes will be made that will allow developers to support 32-bit on iOS 6 and both 32- and 64-bit on iOS 7 with a single binary.
"Xcode can build your app with both 32-bit and 64-bit binaries included so it works across all devices running iOS 7," Apple said.
When Apple announced the iPhone 5s last week, the company revealed that its custom A7 chip would be the first major 64-bit smartphone processor available on the market. The company has touted the A7 as a "desktop-class" chip with over a billion transistors.
The A7 is also twice as fast in raw processing power and graphics performance, and is a whopping 40 times faster than the chip found in the original iPhone. To take advantage of the 64-bit capabilities of the A7, Apple's iOS 7 mobile operating system has also been updated with a 64-bit kernel, libraries and drivers.


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Sea Limited (SE -1.54%) competes in three high-growth industries: e-commerce, digital payments, and video games. Those tailwinds have sent the stock skyrocketing 1,190% over the last three years. In this Backstage Pass video, which was recorded on Nov. 16, 2021, Motley Fool contributors Trevor Jennewine and Brian Withers discuss Sea's third-quarter financial results, highlighting the opportunity for long-term investors.
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Trevor Jennewine: I imagine a lot of viewers are familiar with Sea Limited, but it is a holding company that primarily operates across seven markets in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. Though it has expanded in the Latin America and Europe, and we will touch on that in a moment. But if you're not familiar with Sea, it's a holding company that basically owns three businesses: Shopee as an e-commerce marketplace, Garena is a video game developer and publisher, and SeaMoney as a provider of digital financial services. Three high-growth markets.
If you took a look at the stock, it was down about 3% today. Let's take a look at the recent quarterly results. Revenue came in at about $2.7 billion. That was up 122%; another quarter of triple-digit growth for Sea. Beat on the top line. Then to break that into the three segments: Garena's revenue was up 93% to $1.1 billion. And within this segment, Garena is best known for Free Fire, a battle royale mobile game. It is the highest-grossing mobile game in Southeast Asia and Latin America, and it's held that title for the last nine quarters. It is also the highest grossing mobile game in India, and it's held that title for the last four quarters. So very strong competitive edge there in its gaming segment.
Shopee, the e-commerce marketplace, revenue was up to $1.5 billion, and that was up 134% over the prior year. And again, the company has a strong competitive position here. This is the most popular shopping app in Southeast Asia by a wide margin; it receives twice as many monthly views as the next closest competitor. It's also the second-most-popular shopping app in Brazil, so that's going to put it right behind MercadoLibre. Then in the third segment, SeaMoney, digital payments, revenue here was $132 million and that was up 818% from the prior year, so that platform is growing very rapidly.
Looking at the bottom line, the GAAP loss is $0.84 per diluted share, and that was a significant miss. That is primarily, I think, why the stock fell today. A miss on the bottom line. On the bright side, cash from operations through the first nine months of the year came in at $513 million, and that was up 39%. So at least generating positive cash flow.
In terms of the highlights, there's a few things I wanted to point out here. First is that its video game publishing and developing segment, Garena, is actually profitable; it operates at a profit. The operating margin was 55.6% in the most recent quarter, and that's actually higher than it was last year. It was 49% in the same quarter last year. So becoming increasingly profitable, and that provides Sea with some cash flow that allows it to invest in its other businesses.
On a negative note, Shopee's operating loss more than doubled. This, I think, has been something that's been a concern for investors. Shopee is losing more and more money over time. But I think if I could offer a few counter arguments as to why that would be a problem, Sea already has a strong competitive position in Southeast Asia. Like I mentioned, it receives twice as many views as the next closest marketplace. And it is expanding aggressively into areas like Latin America, and then Europe more recently launched, and it started recruiting sellers in Poland back in September. It's also mentioned moving into India, and more recently, Spain and France are apparently on the company's radar.
It has announced that it's providing free shipping in Europe, and so the logistics costs associated with that expansion, that's going to hit the company. Then it specifically mentioned increased marketing incentives and an increase in marketing expenses. They're providing deals, they're trying to generate interest with consumers and sustain or grow their market share. Generally speaking, I think that makes a lot of sense. E-commerce is a tremendous market opportunity. It's still growing quickly and it makes sense to try to maintain that strong competitive position that they've built. Generally speaking, I'm not too worried about Shopee's operating loss more than doubling. It's definitely something to pay attention to. But I think they have a profitable segment in Garena, and I think they have plenty of opportunity in e-commerce, and I think it makes sense to invest aggressively right now.
Brian Withers: Trevor, do you mind if I wanted to double-click on that operating loss a little bit with you, too. Just so that our members understand, Sea Limited is primarily a third-party platform. If you look at the e-commerce revenue, the e-commerce revenue this quarter was $1.3 billion, and those were just for its third-party sales. It also is starting to get into the first-party business, which means they'll buy goods and then resell those goods. They'll buy them wholesale business-to-business, then sell them out business-to-consumer. That was about $279 million, so a sixth of the size. So the goods portion of it is actually profitable as well. They made about $30 million of gross profit from those $279 million goods and sales. Also the e-commerce business is profitable from the goods and services, but it's the marketing piece where they end up losing the money. I think about it, Trevor, as they have a great infrastructure. It's really just attracting folks to the platform, I think, is where they're spending that extra money.
Trevor Jennewine: Do you think it makes sense to be investing in marketing the way that they are, Brian?
Brian Withers: Yeah. They're starting to get into more and more countries. When you're going up against MercadoLibre that's been in the region since the 1990s, you need to do a little bit of advertising. Now, all of that money isn't advertising in Brazil, but they're expanding into more countries around the world. That's going to be part of the deal for a while.
Trevor Jennewine: Yeah, I agree. I read something recently that mentioned they might be looking at Argentina moving in. They're in Brazil and Mexico, and they might be looking at Argentina as well.
Brian Withers: At first I thought Sea Limited had reported a great quarter in Brazil [laughs] because I saw MercadoLibre took a stock hit today, but it was more related to, they were offering stock for raising cash. The timing was quite suspicious, but, you know ...
Trevor Jennewine: The last thing I'll mention is they did raise their e-commerce guidance. They're looking for $5 billion to $5.2 billion for the full year. That would be 135% growth.
All things considered, I think this was a fairly good quarter from Sea Limited. They are still losing money, but they have about $6 billion in cash on their balance sheet versus $1.8 billion in debt. The positive cash flow is a good thing. Then more broadly, there's still a lot of opportunity in their core Southeast Asia market. Internet penetration is still in the mid-70% range in Southeast Asia, compared to about 94% in North America. So there's plenty of room for that to grow. I was looking at a report earlier today that's forecasting that online spend is going to grow between four- and sixfold in Southeast Asia by 2030. It's going to grow from about $175 billion today to potentially $1 trillion by 2030. I think investing in their business the way that they are makes sense, that market is growing quickly, and I think it makes sense to stay on top of that opportunity.
Brian Withers: I'm a shareholder and just a fan of the report. Losing a couple of percent today on the stock -- five years from now you're not going to remember our discussion.


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User feedback prompts new 'offline maps' card and 'where's Latitude' button
When Google launched its new Maps app for some users yesterday, it was criticized by some for the way offline maps had been handled. The feature, accessible via menus in earlier Maps versions, could only be activated by searching for "OK Maps" in the new app, in a sort of Easter egg.
Today the app has been updated once again with an easier way to download offline map caches — tap the (empty) search bar and you'll find "Make this map area available offline." It's perhaps not the most obvious place to put this feature, nor the most elegant-looking card, but we can't fault Google's fast turnaround on this issue. (The "OK Maps" shortcut will continue to function in the new version, Google says.)
In addition, there's now a "Where's Latitude" button in the main menu area linking to Google's support page on Latitude's retirement. The service, which is absent from the new Maps app, will be closed entirely on Aug. 9.
If you're running the new version of Maps, you should see an update to your app this morning. As an aside we're now starting to see the new Google Maps 7.0 on more of our devices, so if you're not updated yet you might want to check your Play Store app for updates.


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After releasing the new and improved Facebook app for iOS, the social networking giant has released another update in the App Store. This time the update is for it’s official Messenger app that allows users to chat with their online Facebook buddies. The update brings emoji keyboard support to the app allowing users to add smileys and other shapes to their messages. The update also brings timeline support to the app allowing users to view Facebook Timeline of their friends by tapping on their name from the conversation page.
Perhaps the most important feature that this update brings is it shows the user when their friend was active on Facebook last time. The app now shows ‘active 2 minutes ago’ tag line right below friend’s name so that the users could know when was the last time a person was online or active on Facebook.
The update brings several bug fixes along with an improved new message sound too.
Facebook app for iOS devices is available in the App Store for free.
Download Facebook Messenger
- Facebook Messenger for iPhone gets updated to add typing indicator, location, message indicator, and more
- Facebook for iOS updated to version 5.1, adds new features and improvements
- Appdates: Facebook Messenger and Gmail for iPhone 5, Digg for iPad Now Available
- Facebook app for iPhone and iPad updated to bring Chat Heads, Stickers and new interface
- Facebook messenger for iPad and Facebook video chat for iPhone leaked [Screenshots]
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Bryan W. Alaspa Press releases1 - 10 of 25 Press Releases
Apr 04, 2013
Horror novelist Bryan W. Alaspa has announced that his bestselling novel RIG: A NOVEL OF TERROR is now available as an audiobook at...
Mar 11, 2013
Horror novelist Bryan W. Alaspa has announced that the Young Adult novel he announced he was working on last year will now be published by SalGad Publishing. This is Mr.
Jan 24, 2013
Horror novelist an e-publishing indie author Bryan W. Alaspa is announcing that a new edition of his bestselling horror novel RIG: A Novel of Terror will be published on January 25, 2013 for Kindle.
Jan 21, 2013
Author Bryan W. Alaspa has now announced that his bestselling horror novel RIG will be re-published in 2013 and have new scenes and features. The new edition will be out in February of 2013.
Jan 11, 2013
Horror and thriller novelist Bryan Alaspa is giving away his bestselling horror novel VICIOUS to Kindle fans starting January 18 through January 22, 2013.
Jan 05, 2013
Horror author and digital indie publishing advocate Bryan W. Alaspa has announced that 2013 will feature the release of his first Young Adult novel and his first novel with a heavy romantic element.
Jan 01, 2013
Horror novelist and digital publishing pioneer Bryan W. Alaspa thanks his fans for a great 2012 and promises an audiobook, Young Adult novel and more for 2013.
Oct 25, 2012
ICT Holdings, Inc., in Glendale Heights, IL, has opened a branch office in Arkansas to improve safety and on-time delivery for drivers. Plus, their state-of-the-art repair and party facility in Glendale Heights has been opened up to the public.
Sep 05, 2012
Chicago author Bryan W. Alaspa has signed a publishing agreement with SalGad Publishing Group that will publish his new horror novel "Vicious" in ebook and print formats in October and December, 2012.
Aug 21, 2012
Author Bryan W. Alaspa's new novel, and first hard-boiled detective novel "Deklan Falls: One Against Many" is officially published today, and available for Kindle and Kindle App users for a limited time.


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Some 46 per cent of overseas pensioners don’t get the annual state pension increase? Why? Because they live in the wrong country
When tax-free investments were first launched in 1987, you could only put £2,400 into them. Now you could be sitting on a million-pound worth of savings
Do you spend wise or foolishly? Enjoy lavish meals or holidays or have simple frugal repasts? Find out which consumer category you fall into if you’re over 50
While six-month old TSB is rapped by customers for poor service, FirstDirect remains a favourite
Financial institutions don’t do hand-outs, so treat any offer with healthy scepticism
A government-run advice service is failing people, according to MPs. What could replace it in ensuring people get the financial help they need?
Energy firms are ‘cutting’ bills by £50 a a year, but it won’t help those forced to choose between heating and eating
The bill for the banking misselling scandal is climbing at around half a billion pounds a month
Almost half of Britain’s disabled people have been forced to use credit cards to pay for clothing and food.
Plymouth has become the latest council to take action against high-cost credit companies
Latest from Independent journalists on Twitter


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Retailers officially launch holiday shopping season the day after Halloween
This year’s holiday shopping season was off and running Thursday, right after Halloween ended.
Target Corp. and Kohl’s Corp. were among the retailers running “Black Friday” preview sales on selected items in stores and online, an early promotional tease to the traditional heavy shopping that occurs the day after Thanksgiving. Black Friday is Nov. 23 this year.
Research from Adobe Analytics released Thursday projects that online shopping will reach a record $124.1 billion this holiday season, a 14.8% surge from last year, as American consumers increasingly make their purchases on the internet rather than in person.
That shift, which has been occurring for several years now, is one reason many longtime brick-and-mortar retailers have closed stores or filed for bankruptcy, including most recently Sears Holdings Corp.
Still, having a physical store remains an advantage for retailers because 47% of consumers visit stores to see and touch products they want to later buy online, Adobe said.
Three of the busiest online shopping days this season — Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and “Cyber Monday,” or the Monday after Thanksgiving — will show sales gains of 16.5% to 17.6%, Adobe estimated.
Retail sales overall this holiday season are expected to climb between 4.3% and 4.8% compared with last year’s holiday season, to a range of $717.5 billion to $720.9 billion, the National Retail Federation said last month. The figures exclude autos, gasoline and restaurants.
The expected gain tops the average annual increase of 3.9% over the previous five years, the trade group said.
“Thanks to a healthy economy and strong consumer confidence, we believe that this holiday season will continue to reflect the growth we’ve seen over the past year,” NRF President Matthew Shay said in a statement.
That strong demand has led to a jump in seasonal hiring among retailers, logistics firms and others this year, according to the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.
Companies led by Target, Kohls, Amazon.com Inc. and Macy’s Inc. had announced hiring a combined total of 704,000 seasonal workers for the holidays as of mid-October, surpassing the previous high of 696,000 in 2014, Challenger Gray said.
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Apples and oranges only part of the health equation
As we begin hearing of outbreaks of H1N1 flu, many of us are looking for ways to stay healthy this fall and winter.Being a nutrition writer, I naturally figured food has got to help. Indeed, Googling “foods that boost immune system” turns up lots of lists: lists of the 8 foods, 10 foods, 12 foods, even 21 foods that promise to build your body’s immunity. The idea is that consuming certain foods or particular nutrients helps your body protect itself from getting sick, no matter what nasty germs come its way.If only it were so simple. If fending off infections were as easy as gorging on blueberries (for the antioxidants) or gobbling yogurt (for its helpful bacteria, or probiotics), many of us could sail through cold and flu season with nary a sneeze.But experts agree that it’s a lot more complicated than that. There’s no single food – or even group of foods – that can be counted on to do the trick.”The immune system is the result of an extremely complex interplay of various functions within the body,” said Darwin Deen, senior attending physician in Montefiore Medical Center’s department of family and social medicine in New York. “We know that if the system is deficient, you’re susceptible to infection. That’s the case with HIV. But we also know that if the system is hypersensitive, you’ll have allergies, and if it’s turned toward the wrong tissue, you have autoimmunity” – where the body turns on itself. So efforts to “boost” the system, even through diet, might produce unintended consequences.It’s not reasonable to expect that one food will substantially enhance your immune response, Deen said.”We haven’t done a very good job of identifying nutrients that boost immunity,” he added. “To say that there are nutrients that are important to the immune system implies that there are nutrients that are not important to the immune system.”
In fact, more useful than eating certain foods is to eat “on a regular basis,” Deen said. “Every time you eat something, you’re asking the immune system to respond to what you put in your mouth.” The idea is to “keep the immune system busy” so it’s ready to leap into action when you need it most.In particular, Deen said, eating protein encourages the body to “generate antibodies used by the immune system.”In any case, good hygiene is far more important to fending off a virus than eating certain foods. “You can’t drink a glass of orange juice before school and say, ‘Now I don’t have to wash my hands,'” Deen said.Christine Gerbstadt, a physician and registered dietitian in Sarasota, Fla., and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, says the familiar prescription of a well-rounded, healthful diet can provide the central nutrients your body (including the immune system) needs to stay healthy.She suggests “quick, small combinations” of a variety of useful foods: “Have some whole-grain bread with vegetables and low-fat cheese, add some cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms, cabbage or red pepper, and it’s easy to get all the building blocks.” And don’t be swayed by immunity-boosting claims of the latest super-foods, be they almonds or blueberries, pomegranates or strawberries. They’re generally backed by trade groups, she says, whose focus is narrow – and self-serving.
Finally, Gerbstadt notes some recent interesting research: In one study, overweight rats whose calorie intake was severely restricted experienced improved immune function. In another, mice that consumed a high-fat, high-sugar diet saw that function reduced. Those findings, if replicated in humans, could provide yet another reason to lose weight and eat less junk food.In the meantime, food remains just part of the equation. Aside from flu shots, “living right, washing hands and taking care of yourself are the best immune defenses,” Gerbstadt says.Mark Kantor, an associate professor of nutrition and food science at the University of Maryland’s College of Agriculture & Natural Resources, agrees with Deen’s and Gerbstadt’s approach.”My feeling is that you need to have a healthy diet in general to have a generally healthy immune system,” he says. “Sure, there are some nutrients known to play a role,” including the antioxidants Vitamin E and Vitamin C, the minerals selenium and zinc, Vitamin D and fish oils containing omega-3 fatty acids. “Yes, these nutrients are important, but that doesn’t mean that eating lots of them will necessarily boost your immune system.”While Vitamin C and zinc, for instance, clearly are vital to the immune system, Kantor said, “we don’t have widespread deficiencies” of those nutrients, so most of us don’t need to intentionally consume more. Plus, he said, “I don’t think there’s any evidence that higher doses of these reduces the risk of getting sick.”Kantor suggests that we look instead at “which key nutrient you’re not getting enough of in the first place.” For most people, he said, those include the omega-3 fatty acids (found in fish oils, they help protect against inflammation, which Kantor said is closely linked to immune response) and Vitamin D, in which recent research has shown most people are deficient.”Really, there’s not that much you can do in terms of your diet to protect yourself against the H1N1 virus” or any other such bug, he said. “As much as people want to believe otherwise, if you catch it, you’re going to get it.”


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[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Kun-hee and his wife Hong Ra-hee’s stock assets have risen more than 1.6 trillion won (US$ 1.44 billion) this year, industry data showed on July 31.
According to Chaebul.com, a website specializing in South Korean conglomerates, the value of the stock’s in Lee’ portfolio jumped 1.26 trillion won, while that of Hong rose 361.7 billion won since the beginning of the year.
Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Kun-hee (center) with his wife Hong Ra-hee (right) and daughter Lee Boo-jin. The Investor
Lee’s stocks are currently valued at about 12.46 trillion won, while the figure for Hong stands at 1.67 trillion won.
Much of the rise was fueled by soaring Samsung Electronics shares, which reached 155.7 million won on July 29. On Jan. 4, Samsung Electronics shares were 120.5 million won.
In contrast, Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-yong
saw the value of his stocks fall 717.6 billion won to 6.89 trillion.
Lee’s daughters, Hotel Shilla
CEO Lee Boo-jin
and her sister Lee Seo-hyun
– president of Samsung C&T's fashion business – also saw their assets drop in value. The combined assets of the two businesswomen came to 1.89 trillion won, down 14.8 percent since the beginning of the year.
The fall in the assets of Lee Kun-hee’s children was mainly brought on by the drop in Samsung SDS
shares, which has lost 37 percent since the beginning of the year.
By Choi He-suk (firstname.lastname@example.org


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Spring has arrived and with it we are ditching the layers – this year of sweatpants and hoodies – and welcoming a new line of clothing. However, as fashion trends evolve, we’re already looking months ahead – until fall / winter 2021 to be exact.
Another virtual fashion month has passed and you might be wondering what fall / winter 2021 fashion trends you can already wear this spring / summer season. (Because besides being a fashion geek, we’re all about efficiency and sustainability, which means prioritizing trends that you can wear throughout the seasons.)
To find out what will be trending until the end of DST and beyond, we spoke with trend forecaster Agus Panzoni. If you’re into TikTok or “TrendTok” fashion, as Panzoni likes to call it, you’ve probably stumbled upon its #content on your FYP. With 160,000 subscribers (and growing!) On @thealgorythme, Paznoni is focused on sharing trends research with TikTok users, trends to avoid and, of course, trends to watch out for.
Long before algorithms governed our daily lives, this Argentinian-born fashion lover actually moved to the United States to study economics in Boston. However, it wasn’t until Panzoni studied abroad in Australia and was invited to Sydney Fashion Week that she was introduced to the world of trend research via a WGSN presentation.
“It seems many didn’t even know the industry existed, but resonated strongly with the concept of it. It’s crazy to think that my TikTok created this “aha!” »Moment that I experienced during Sydney Fashion Week for many other people! My account is called @thealgorythm to shed some light on the importance of algorithms in growing trends. With people spending more time indoors due to COVID 19, the fashion stimuli are coming from the online world, which is ruled by algorithms, ”Panzoni shared with Vogue teens.
“After graduation, I applied dozens of times for different positions in the company without success. Finally, I connected with a fellow economist on LinkedIn who worked in the industry and she opened the door for me. Unfortunately, my stay at the agency was cut short due to a visa delay, ”Panzoni explained to Vogue teens.
Fortunately, that didn’t stop Panzoni, and her love for trends led her to create her TikTok account. “My goal is to highlight sustainable small businesses and ultimately change the narrative of trends to something more sustainable. The best advice Panzoni has for anyone trying to break into the world of trend forecasting? You need to be able to spot stylistic patterns while seeing the narrative that connects people to those design choices.
Below, write down the top three fashion trends that Panzoni spotted for fall / winter, how to adapt them with the seasons and where to buy them!
1. Cloud clothing
Comfortable clothes don’t go anywhere, Panzoni says, they only become more dreamy.
“In 2020, we saw the rise of quilted / upholstered accessories such as the padded sandal and the quilted bag. As these coins make a comeback in 2021 – with the addition of quilted scarves from Holzweiler – this is the season when quilting and down are take back the clothes. We have seen it everywhere from quilted skirts by Eckhaus Latta at Quilted coats from Vaquera. If you like maximalism, a brand to watch out for is Dingyun Zhang. “


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You’ve probably noticed that hurricane season coincides with the summer travel season when school is out of session. Travel during hurricane season – just like travel during the winter season – comes with a unique set of risks and cautions. Air flights far from the hurricane zone can be significantly delayed – affecting air travelers across the country and even around the globe. Cruise ships may be diverted from scheduled ports, ruining your personal travel agenda.
To help consumers of travel insurance understand the risks of hurricane season travel and know what type of travel coverage they need, we put together the Hurricane Resource Center 2011, a comprehensive Traveler’s Guide to Hurricane Season.
It includes new information and timely topics, such as
- Top islands and U.S. cities for hurricane strikes – do you know where the ‘hurricane capital of the world’ is?
- Worst 3 months for hurricanes – and the slightly safer months as well!
- Cruise safety and cruise line hurricane protocols – are cruise ships safe during a hurricane?
- 5 Caribbean islands most likely to miss a hurricane – are one of these islands on your travel plans?
In addition, we’ve also provided information and reviews on useful hurricane season travel tools, including websites, iPhone apps, and a new twitter feed from theÂ National Hurricane Center. Plus, we provided some essential hurricane maps detailing where hurricanes originate, their typical travel paths, and major hits through history.
If you’re planning to travel this hurricane season – even if you will be far from hurricane alley – take a look at this hurricane resource to understand the residual risks of a hurricane event.
In case you’re curious, you can also read the Hurricane Resource Center press release.


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“Staffing has become the greatest challenge to every restaurant in the Napa Valley,” said Redd’s former general manager, Guy Rebentisch. “First it’s too expensive to live here for many — two of my staff drove in from Sacramento four or five times a week.”
“Restaurants have to compete with so many wineries that are now offering food pairings and lunches, with in-house chefs creating menus to keep their visitors engaged. Tourists aren’t necessarily interested in a big dinner or fancy lunch when they can have a food experience at the winery. It’s really tough on restaurants now.”
Napa Valley restaurants are finding it increasingly difficult to hire and retain qualified personnel. The causes are partly driven by the high cost of living but also appear linked to broader trends: lack of affordable housing, higher-paying alternative careers (e.g., construction) and slowing local population growth. These trends are exacerbated when coupled with the increasing number of Napa Valley tourists, resorts, restaurants and wineries.
“Everyone is dealing with staffing issues — it’s unsustainable,” said Richard Reddington, whose popular Yountville Redd restaurant closed in October.
These local challenges appear to be part of a broader national phenomenon. In 2017 the National Restaurant Association reported that nearly 40 percent of its members listed labor recruitment as their top challenge, which was up from only 15 percent in 2015.
However, the impact is perhaps hitting independent Napa Valley restaurants the hardest: So far in 2018 five well-liked eateries have closed with each of their owners pointing, at least in part, to the difficulties of finding and retaining qualified staff.
Beyond the closings, new restaurant openings have been delayed, and some eateries are scrapping or have modified their business models toward less-labor-intensive alternatives, while some of the valley’s finest expert culinarians have packed their bags.
The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) reports that Napa County had 62 Type 47 restaurant permits in 2008. In 2018 there are 82 such permits, a 32 percent increase. However, these are not the only permits that allow the sale of food, and so according to the Visit Napa Valley website, there are actually now 188 places to dine in the valley.
Since 2010, wineries can serve food to pair with their wine offerings. There were 557 Type 02 winery licenses in Napa County in 2008, according to the ABC, and a total of 1,616 such licenses in 2018 (a 190 percent increase). Some wineries have multiple 02 licenses — one for their winery and others for their tasting room(s). There are also hundreds of “caterer” licenses currently issued in Napa County.
According to a recent City of Napa Economic Development Division report, in 2017 there were 2,365 total hotel/resort rooms already existing in the city of Napa and the surrounding area. The report says lodging applications in process or in the conceptual design phase will increase that number to 4,783 (a 102 percent expected increase). Most of these hotels and resorts are also building new restaurants to serve their guests.
House prices are out of reach: according to Zillow, the median sold-price of a single-family home in Napa County in 2011 was $361,000 but in 2018 reached $706,000, a 95.5 percent increase. Compare that to the median sold-price of a single-family home in the United States in 2011, which was $152,000 and today is $235,000 — only a 54 percent increase.
The Napa Valley had about 2.9 million visitors in 2012, according to a Destination Analysis report, but that number grew to 3.5 million visitors in 2016, according to Visit Napa Valley data — a growth of more than 20 percent in four short years.
California census data reports the population of Napa County fell from 141,784 on Jan. 1, 2017, to 141,294 on Jan 1. 2018 — a 0.3 percent decrease.
What these numbers point to is a staggering increasing need for restaurant laborers while at the same time there is a stagnant or even shrinking pool of local talent.
Turnover in the restaurant business is nothing new, but here it’s different. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2016 the annual national turnover rate within the restaurant and accommodations sector was 72.9 percent, compared to 46.1 percent in the total U.S. private sector. However, Eater reported that a local study suggested that in 2017 Bay Area turnover for cooks was as high as 120 percent per year.
“Finding and keeping staff in the Napa Valley is at crisis levels,” said Tamer Hamawi, co-owner of Napa’s newly opened Gran Electrica. “We’ve given up placing ads because there is no point — it costs money and we don’t get any responses. Whereas in New York I get hundreds of applicants for a job opening, here I am lucky to get one or two.”


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Jack Dorsey, the co-founder, and CEO of social media service, Twitter, and mobile payments company, Square, has in a tweet confirmed his arrival to Ghana.
Dorsey made the announcement today, November 11 on his official Twitter account with the caption; “Hello Ghana” accompanied by an emoji of the Ghanaian flag.
Expected to arrive with other Twitter executives, Dorsey first visited Ethiopia and Nigeria and is expected to be on the continent for the whole of November to meet with local entrepreneurs.
Dorsey earlier posted a tweet regarding his visit last month saying Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa are the countries he plans to visit during his time in Africa.
One of the many speculations is that Dorsey plans to introduce his mobile payment company Square to various entrepreneurs and the African market.
Twitter was launched in 2006 and rapidly gained worldwide popularity.
In 2012, more than 100 million users posted 340 million tweets a day and a year after that it emerged as one of the top-ten most visited websites in the world.
In 2018, it was estimated that some 9.2 million Ghanaians are said to have access to mobile internet and a huge number of them are ardent social media users.
Internet penetration in Ghana is quite high with more new users getting connected every day.
This indicates an opportunity for internet businesses and that perhaps explains why the internet entrepreneur will consider Ghana to visit and interact with its entrepreneurs.


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In the last decades we have seen how many countries have been joining in blocs, and negotiating different trade agreements. In these decades we have seen the creation of the G8, G20, The Bric countries, the EU, ASEAN, NAFTA, the Pacific Alliance etc.; plus many other free trade agreements negotiated bilaterally. One of these blocs, which is usually not followed by western media, is Mercosur. Mercosur is an economic bloc formed by 5 countries: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Under the bloc rules they have to significantly reduce tariffs within member states, and they have agreed to talk on whether to create a common currency for the bloc. Trade within the region has expanded substantially; they are now working on signing a free trade agreement with the European Union. This is a very important treaty because trade within the bloc only represents 16% of these 5 countries total exports. This tells us that they are very dependent on trading with countries outside the bloc, and the EU is one of the main markets to export goods to, and import goods from.
The negotiations with the EU started in 2000, and were briefly stopped during the WTO negotiations as they had too many differences on how to structure the agreement. These differences were mostly explained by European unwillingness to expose their farmers to competition from the Mercosur bloc and Mercosur countries desire to protect their industry from better quality manufactured European goods. The current economic environment has convinced both sides that countries are better off trading than by keeping the current protective environment for many reasons. The most important reason is that Europe now sees a new market for its manufacturers in the middle class in most of the Mercosur countries. Austerity measures all across EU make very hard to keep the current farmers, and foods subsidies to make them competitive. Most European countries have cut these subsidies, and have chosen to rely a little more on the international market for food imports but they still have some subsidies in place. These subsidies still in place cost EU members around $70 billion a year, which are becoming more and more difficult to justify. Is also important to have in consideration that cheaper food, and raw material look very tempting to Politicians that are going to be blamed for the current lost of living standards in some European countries. For Mercosur countries is very important to export more, as they have received a lot of investment from foreign markets in the last decade, and are now in need of embracing globalization in order to keep their constant growth. This is why they are in need of placing their products in Europe with reduced prices given by reduced duties. This would also mean that they are in a much better position when it comes to competing with goods coming from Asia, which would represent Mercosur main competitor in the international market.
(Source: European Trade Commission)
Negotiations have not been easy as there is not central leadership in Mercosur, so decisions are based on consensus of the group. This has affected the treaty with the EU since countries such as Argentina and Venezuela are against these talks. These countries are governed by leftist parties against free trade, and are in favor of protectionism. The other 3 members of Mercosur have decided to move forward with the talks, and have told Argentina that they can join the talks later, and Venezuela is not invited as they recently joined the bloc. It seems like even with the opposition presented by Argentina and Venezuela, there might be a treaty at some point in the near future. It’s hard to now exactly when as negotiations are held secretly. It seems like they are not close to an agreement as spokesmen have said that they are now holding “technical meetings.” The Portuguese president has said that the EU wants to see whether “necessary conditions are in place for a formal exchange of offers and then that could take place very quickly afterwards.” This tells us that they are still not discussing the most important issues that need to be addressed in the agreement. If these blocs do arrive to an agreement, it would be a very beneficial reduction in cost for both countries, and would help them improve their population living standards.


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Cafe with coffee and cocktails to replace Flying Squirrel
Photos by Steve Lannen
Photo 1: Brown butcher block paper covers the windows at the former Flying Squirrel Pizza Co., 5701 Airport Way. It closed March 1. Photo 2: Burb's Burgers closed in February.
By Steve Lannen
The Covid-19 pandemic is in the rearview mirror for most, but it remains a painful reality for some businesses.
After 10 years in Georgetown, Flying Squirrel Pizza, 5701 Airport Way S, closed March 1. It followed the closure of two other locations in Seward Park (2020) and Maple Leaf (2022).
Changed dining habits and soaring food costs due to the pandemic hurt business. Revenue and sales were about 50 percent less compared to before March 2020, co-owner Mike Coury said.
“We kept hoping it would go back to some semblance of what it was before, but it never did,” he said.
Coury cited big, $700 lunchtime pizza orders for nearby offices prior to the pandemic. With more people working remotely, those orders largely stopped, he said. Higher wages for servers and food costs made dining out more expensive all over the city. Coury thinks some people cut casual dining from their budgets or got used to ordering different food from delivery dining apps.
“We had our regulars and good, loyal customers, but you go in on a Thursday and only three tables are filled. You can’t make it with that,” he said.
The space will be taken over by the owners of Capitol Hill’s Post Pike Bar & Cafe. Serving coffee, cocktails and sandwiches, they expect to open later this spring.
A couple blocks away, the popular Burb’s Burgers inside the blue box at 5825 Airport Way shut down in February along with four other Seattle and Bellevue locations. In an Instagram video and interviews, owner Josh Henderson said a rapid expansion followed by Covid-related debt drove him to search for a buyer and put the business into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
A challenge to draw people to Georgetown
However, the pandemic isn’t the issue for one departing Georgetown business. Cascade Cliffs Vineyard & Winery Tasting Room, 6006 12th Ave S, will close in April after opening in 2019. The tasting room will join other wine-related businesses in a mixed-use development in Woodinville expected to open at the end of the year.
Cascade’s tasting room manager, Kristen Deiner, said she and staff will miss the neighborhood, but she also pointed out challenges to operating in Georgetown. City regulations caused the tasting room to lose its sidewalk patio, rent on the 4,200 square-foot space is expensive, break-ins and graffiti persist, and it is hard to convince people from elsewhere to visit the neighborhood, she said. And the shop’s computer was stolen during a recent break-in.
“Georgetown has a great charm, but that charm doesn’t attract people from outside. They’re used to something shinier and brighter,” Deiner said. “There’s a great, internal support network here, but people from outside don’t see that.”
Instead, visitors see the nearby homeless encampments and ask her if the area is safe or if their car will be broken into, she said.
Georgetown’s residential population remains small. Most businesses can’t rely on local patrons alone. Georgetown could benefit from more external marketing to draw people from outside the neighborhood to visit and spend money, Deinert believes.
“Other business districts advertise,” she said. “When was the last time you saw a Georgetown advertisement outside of Georgetown?”


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Click For Photo: https://cnet1.cbsistatic.com/img/ok9uB1XhaNPEC598A4gSGRpFxcg=/756x567/2019/02/27/300ffd9d-bf35-4c43-8dcc-b5765075ee36/cybersecurity-hacking-16.jpg
Google Chrome now offers phishing protection in real-time, the company said on Tuesday.
Figuring out if the link you clicked on is legitimate can be extremely difficult -- if you don't think so, take this quiz and see how many phishing pages you can spot. For the rest of us, Google is offering real-time checks on potential phishing links through its Chrome browser, the company announced Tuesday.
Hacking - Method - Attackers - Usernames - Passwords
Phishing is a common hacking method in which attackers steal usernames and passwords by tricking victims into clicking on malicious links and then typing in their login credentials. The malicious pages can be an exact copy in some cases -- tricking even seasoned political operatives.
Between July and September, Google sent more than 12,000 warnings about state-sponsored phishing attacks targeting its users in the US. According to Verizon's annual cybersecurity report, phishing is the leading cause of data breaches, and Google said in August that it blocked about 100 million phishing emails every day.
Links - Emails - Advertisements - Messages - Apps
But phishing links don't just come in emails: They can also appear in malicious advertisements, or through direct messages on chat apps. For those of you using a Chrome browser, Google is launching an extra level of protection against phishing through real-time checks on site visits.
You can turn it on by enabling "Make searches and browsing better" in your Chrome settings.
Protection - Chrome - Safe - Browsing - Mode
This protection was already available for Chrome's Safe Browsing mode, which checked the URL of every website visited and made sure it was not on Google's block list. The block list is saved on devices and only...
(Excerpt) Read more at: CNET
Wake Up To Breaking News!
What's more plentiful, hydrogen or stupidity?


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ToyWorld, Paw Patrol and TerraCycle expand toy recycling program
Spin Master, the owner of the toy brand Paw Patrol, has partnered with TerraCycle and ToyWorld to expand a toy recycling program.
The addition of ToyWorld stores as collection points significantly expands the initiative that was first introduced last year. Consumers can now drop off damaged or outdated toys of any brand at any of the 40 Toyworld locations nationwide – or ship them directly to TerraCycle.
Jean Bailliard, GM at TerraCycle Australia, said he hopes the initiative will change people’s attitudes toward toy waste, which will benefit the environment.
“Toys are often made from several materials including metals, plastics, plush and rubber,” Bailliard said
“Items made from a complex mix of materials require manual sortation and special recycling technology, which is often too costly for kerbside recycling. Through our partnership, Paw Patrol is providing an end-of-life solution for toys that would otherwise take hundreds of years to break down in landfill”.
There are certain types of toys that cannot be dropped off for recycling, however.
These items include books, playdough and slime, pens, pencils, crayons, and big toys.
Participation in the program is also open to any individual, school, company, or community organisation.
TerraCycle is an international organisation whose mission is to eliminate the idea of waste. Businesses, government entities, and consumers work with the organisation to keep rubbish out of landfills or from incineration.


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As ultra-fast grocery delivery scales beyond New York, Chicago and San Francisco, Buyk CEO James Walker hopes this new speed and convenience persuades American shoppers to live like Europeans who typically buy smaller quantities at a time and focus on fresh ingredients they plan to use right away—leading to more pleasant shopping, fresher ingredients and, ultimately, less food waste.
Even though driving your Gallivanter to the Price Club and filling it with hundreds of dollars of food is the American norm, it isn’t hard to see a better way than this uniquely New World custom. Referencing time spent living in France years ago, Walker recalled talking with the proprietor of a Parisian grocery store confused by this young man prepared to buy a week’s worth of groceries.
“He was basically saying, ‘Why would you do this? We’ll be here tomorrow. Why would you buy bread today and eat it in three days? If you’re going to eat bread on Monday, come on Monday and buy the bread,’” Walker said.
Connecting that memory to the present, Walker suggested that way of living is a major opportunity as the grocery industry faces a delivery-driven revolution that enables a significant change in consumer behavior.
“The high level of convenience that Buyk offers customers in the U.S. allows it just to be part of their every day,” he added. “You don’t have to plan for it. You can order what you need, you can order what you forgot, and you can order what you’re hungry for, and I love that it moves us potentially closer to that European experience where we’re shopping with greater frequency in smaller amounts.”
Walker, most recently the senior VP of restaurants at Nathan’s Famous and, before that, Subway’s VP of North America, is a former chef who cares about food waste. He thinks life is better in a world where we’re all cooking with fresher ingredients, rather than schlepping home a pandemic’s worth of goods every week or two.
Buyk was founded in 2021 by Slava Bocharov and Rodion Shiskov, who Walker credits with developing a playbook and growth strategy that he is fortunate enough to implement, while helping to build a culture as the young brand grows its headcount and moves outside of the largest, densest cities that have been the focus of the instant-grocery category to date.
The logic makes sense, as ultra-fast grocery thrives in an ecosystem of dense urban neighborhoods with high-wealth, busy customers willing to pay for the convenience of nearly immediate delivery, compared to other grocery services that often delivery in an hour or two, at best, or within a quoted multi-hour window that Walker said is especially inconvenient for a grocery setting.
“We control the inventory, we control the technology so … if it says we have sugar-free RedBull, you’re going to get sugar-free RedBull, and you’re going to get it in 15 minutes,” he added. “That doesn’t have to be a planned purchase. Now, if I’m craving something, if I want to make dinner, if I forget something, Buyk is as easy as turning on a faucet—that’s what our founder says, and I believe that’s really going to become part of not only how Americans shop, but how they plan their day and how they manage their time.”
Asked to detail its growth plans, the CEO said the company is solely focused on the United States—clearly a jab at competitors like Gorillas and Jokr—and said there are a “large number of markets that absolutely can be executed” with the current business model.
Over the next two years, Buyk plans to enter additional urban markets ripe for ultra-fast grocery delivery and he suggested that growth rate will quickly accelerate as the platform tweaks its model to move beyond those textbook-perfect neighborhoods.
“We’re looking at scaling across the U.S. at a very rapid pace, but what you’re hearing from me on this call is we’re also looking to do that with the requisite amount of rigor and focus on making fiscally sound decisions,” he said, stressing that profitability will remain at the core of its expansion. “There’s money being invested in ultra-fast grocery and certainly we’ve benefitted from some of that and we’ll probably continue to do so.”
Looking at recent additions to the Buyk platform, it’s clear that private-label products are a critical part of the overall basket. Buyk customers now have access to its in-house breads, gourmet ice creams, smoked salmon, candy and coffee, among others—with more likely coming soon as the CEO stresses Buyk is a provider of products, not a delivery platform for other companies’ goods.
“Part of what Buyk is focused on within that dedication and commitment to profitability is controlling all aspects of the experience,” he said. “We are not a delivery service, we are really providing a customer experience, the last mile is part of that, controlling the inventory is part of that, as well.”
Like other instant grocers, Buyk is focused on providing “hyper-locality” in its assortment, not just through its own products, but also through partnerships like its recent deal with Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors.
Walker added that creating an inclusive, sustainable corporate culture is one of the pillars of his new role as the company’s leader. While he’s had prior experience working to shift corporate cultures that had been in place for decades, he said the Buyk opportunity is creating something that’s “truly unique, is guest focused, is employee focused, is shareholder focused, really from the very beginning.”
For employees, that translates into little things that, he hopes, add up to becoming the employer of choice in the category, rather than a good choice among many.
“That’s a really high bar,” Walker said. “Whether that’s ensuring our couriers have the best equipment, meaning the pedal-assist bikes they use, or the best jackets in the winter, the best safety equipment, the pay and benefits that really are best in class, all of that goes into a dedication to making this a great place for people to work.”


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NEW YORK — Working collaboratively is more important than ever along the food supply chain, said industry leaders at a recent conference. At the BMO Capital Markets Farm to Market Conference held May 19 in New York, representatives from Cargill, General Mills, Inc. and Kroger Co. were asked how their relationships with one another have changed over the last several years and what factors drove the change.
Marcel Smits, chief financial officer of Cargill, Minneapolis, said he sees “massive change,” with more people than ever interested in what is transpiring from farm to fork.
|Marcel Smits, c.f.o. of Cargill|
“At Cargill we actually have visibility on what goes on at the farm,” Mr. Smits said. “So we have visibility all the way back to the origin of the supply chain. And that means that we’re doing very different things with customers than we used to do a couple of years ago.”
As an example of the change, he mentioned a collaborative effort with Minneapolis-based General Mills.
“Rather than looking at different elements of the supply chain, what we control and they control, we work together and collaborate and try to come up with solutions that cut across the supply chain,” he said.
Mr. Smits also said Cargill prides itself on being one of the contributors to the growth of the deli segment of fellow panel member Kroger.
“Last year when avian influenza hit we actually helped them (Kroger) to find new sources of turkey,” he said. “So the fact that consumers are asking lots of questions as to what’s going on in food and the origin where does it come from and how is it made and is it healthy leads industrial and food service and retailers to come to us and say we need to provide those reassurances to customers and consumers, provide us help with how we can do that.”
Building on Mr. Smits’ comments, Don Mulligan, executive vice-president and chief financial officer of General Mills, said it all starts with the consumer.
|Don Mulligan, executive vice-president and c.f.o. of General Mills|
“I think a great deal of what is driving the increased partnership across the food chain is the evolving needs and the rapidly evolving needs and preferences of the consumers,” Mr. Mulligan said. “So whether it is with Cargill to create technical solutions to challenges we face such as how do we reduce sugar, how do we increase the whole grains in our products to co-creating with our retail partners in terms of what products, what merchandising programs are going to be most relevant and resonant with the changing consumer needs, that linkage in each point of the supply chain is important from a transparency standpoint and it's important from a speed-to-market standpoint.”
He said he couldn’t recall a time when consumers’ preferences and needs were changing as fast as they are today. Those needs range from understanding where food comes from to what ingredients are in the food.
“It’s important for us as a manufacturer in a consumer-driven company to respond to those,” Mr. Mulligan said. “We can’t do it alone. So partnering with Cargill and other suppliers in terms of understanding where the product comes from, reformulating products to meet those needs and then with strong partners like Kroger in terms of how do we actually get those in front of consumers in a way that works for both the retailer and for the manufacture and obviously for the endgame for the consumer.”
For Kroger, much of the groundwork has been laid by companies such as Cargill and General Mills. But there are still challenges, said Mike Schlotman, executive vice-president and c.f.o. at Kroger, Cincinnati.
|Mike Schlotman, executive vice-president and c.f.o. at Kroger|
“Our difficulty comes from having 50,000 or 60,000 items in the store from a variety of suppliers and the customer wanting our associates to be able to tell them those answers,” he said. “The interesting thing is while there is a huge trend toward this, there’s a lot of customers that frankly don’t care or ask. And we haven’t seen the ability or desire of the consumer to go one way or the other, which adds a level of (complexity) at retail but makes it no less important for our associates to understand the origin of the product and how the product is done.”
As an example of its collaborative effort in the supply chain, Mr. Schlotman mentioned Kroger’s 10-year partnership with Murray’s Cheese. Kroger has more than 200 Murray’s Cheese shops inside of its grocery stores, and the retailer requires its associates to work for a two- or three-week training session to learn all about where the cheese is made. The associates visit the caves and spend time with the Murray’s Cheese executive team.
Upon passing the “cheesemonger test,” the associates receive a red vest or a red smock to wear back in the store that signifies they’ve gone through the training class and have passed it. This becomes a symbol of pride for them, Mr. Schlotman said.“A lot of these folks haven’t even traveled before,” he said. “But it also becomes a source of solid information for our associates to know that that person has been trained to that level to discuss the product they are buying.”


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We gathered that changes would be happening internally at Google ever since CEO Sundar Pichai uttered the phrase “Don’t equate fun with money” as a response when fielding questions from concerned employees regarding the cost-saving measures that the company was taking. Some of these measures included tightening travel and other budgets, but more importantly, potential layoffs.
It seems like the company has had to resort to shortening or even doing away with entire teams, such as was the case with the Stadia team. More recently though, it was reported by the Wall Street Journal that Google will be merging the Waze and Google Maps teams, while still keeping the two apps separate. However, no changes to the end-user experience were revealed as part of this internal shift.
The tech giant plans to combine the efforts of its more than 500 Waze employees with those of Geo, the division of Google that is responsible for Maps, Google Earth, and Street View. Waze CEO Neha Parikh will step down after a transition phase, according to a Google spokesperson who talked to the WSJ. However, there are no plans to lay off any employees, which is good news.
This move comes on the heels of the company reporting a drastic decline in its third-quarter sales and previously dismantling its Area 120 startup incubator. Additionally, Google implemented a two-week hiring pause in July and said it would slow its hiring pace for the remainder of the year. However, Google isn’t the only tech company that is currently taking drastic measures to cut costs. Meta, for example, announced last month that it was cutting jobs due to a slump in its eCommerce revenue.
As long as Google doesn’t actually get rid of the Waze app, I think that reorganizing its team to all report to a single organization makes sense, especially if this means that laying off employees is off the table. Regardless, we should be ready for more changes ahead as things improve and stabilize, because we all know Google isn’t shy about removing a product from its ecosystem when it no longer makes business sense. I just hope that Waze survives this wave.


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The Tesco Price Promise is a money-back pledge that compares the price of goods in a shopper's trolley at the checkout with prices at rival supermarkets Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons.
Any difference on comparable products is then refunded in the form of a Tesco voucher worth up to £10.
Sainsbury's believes the pledge misleads consumers because it does not make fair comparisons by, for example, matching products such as its Everyday Value Tea, which is not Fairtrade, with Sainsbury's basics tea, which is.
It added the pledge is also misleading on its basics water, which comes from a spring in Yorkshire, and is compared with Tesco's Everyday Value water, which Sainsbury's claims starts at the mains supply.
More top news
China's wild Panda population grew by 268 or 16.8% between 2003 and 2013 according to a nationwide survey on the highly endangered mammal.
Approaching Atlantic frontal systems will give a wet and windy night right across the UK with some heavy bursts of rain for everyone.
Police said 375 people attended a rally in Newcastle by the anti-Islam group Pegida, while 2000 people joined a counter-demonstration.


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When is 2% really 4.5% ?
Ask the Treasury or the Government what the current rate of inflation is and they will answer that it is about 2%, and falling.
But retail prices - the cost of real goods in the shops - is up by 4.3% since this time last year; a statistic that is rising- it was 3.8% in October.
Factory gate prices, the measure of wholesale costs is up by 4.5% on a year ago; and also has been rising; from 4.2% in the Autumn.
Factory raw material prices have been shooting up by over 10%, and fuel and heating bills have risen by a similar amount. Council tax, rail fares and most insurances have gone up by 5% or more, and petrol is up by nearly 20% on this time last year.
And probably the biggest direct cost for most households - interest charges, have risen massively. The monthly amount paid by most people on their mortgage is up by at least 10% and their credit card rates by much more, after a series of base rite rises and the now infamous credit crunch which has raised the real cost of borrowing to ten year highs.
So how come the 'official' rate is 2%? Simple, the rate is based on comparing a hypothetical shopping basket with a similar basket a year ago; so only the prices of certain products and services are included.
But increasingly the index has been, er, how shall we say, manipulated somewhat. Housing costs are now left out, so the increasing price of homes and the rising cost of the money used to buy them is excluded; and the index is adjusted and weighted by statisticians to exclude the profile of pensioner households and those earning over about £50,000 annually.
In reality inflation is over 4% and everyone -including the foreign exchange markets - know it; which is why current year wage rises top 4% as well.
Remember the advice: if inflation looks like 4.5%, if it feels like 4.5% then it probably is 4.5%; and at 4.5% we are at the highest rates for eighteen years and one of the highest inflation economies in the West.
And the really bad news is that the last time inflation hit these levels, interest rates had to rise into double figures to shore up the pound before the rate slowed.
The only people who still think that the country is enjoying low inflation are resident in No's 10 and 11 Downing street.


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Apple reportedly plans to release an iPad cradle with a built-in speaker. The device will function as a HomePod smart speaker, and when a tablet is placed in it will become a smart home hub with a touchscreen.
The company also allegedly continues work on a single device that will perform the same task.
A marriage of iPad and HomePod
Apple’s HomeKit is a home-automation system that lets users control smart switches, smart bulbs, etc., from iPhone, iPad, Mac and Siri. HomePods are designed to act as hubs for a smart home, but can only be controlled via voice commands. Rival companies offer home hubs with screens, providing additional control options.
One of Apple’s answers to these will be a smart hub and speaker that acts as a cradle for an iPad, according to Bloomberg. This would allow users to control their HomeKit accessories from a touchscreen. The screen also would prove convenient when setting up music to play through the dock’s speaker. It could work wonders for video conferencing, too.
No hardware details are available at this time, though the cradle could launch “as soon as 2023,” according to Bloomberg. There’s no word on a price.
Two more home-automation options
Reports that Apple is also working on a separate smart home hub with a built-in display have been around for well over a year. “The idea is to offer something that users can place on a kitchen counter, in the living room or on their nightstand,” notes Bloomberg.
The hybrid device would directly take on the Amazon Echo Show, substituting Siri and HomeKit for Alexa.
Apparently, Cupertino intends to introduce both smart home products: one smart speaker with an integrated screen and another that acts as an iPad cradle.
Apple is also supposedly developing HomePod 2: a larger smart speaker expected to provide better audio performance than the current HomePod mini.


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Australian businesses are using paid cloud services more than ever, but insufficient knowledge about cloud computing is still holding some back, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The ABS measured cloud use by Aussie businesses in 2017-18 as part of its Characteristics of Australian Businesses report.
The report found that 42 percent of businesses used some form of paid cloud computing across those two years, compared to 31 percent in 2015-16.
ABS’s definition of cloud computing was broad, covering “IT services that are used over the internet to access software, computing power or storage capacity.” In particular, ABS mentioned email, office, finance, accounting and CRM software, processing power to run their own software, or hosting and storing files. Or in other words, SaaS, IaaS and either the likes of Dropbox and OneDrive, or services like AWS S3 and its rivals.
At the same time, 17 percent of businesses said the biggest limiter to using cloud technologies was insufficient knowledge.
The report also found that 78 of “innovative businesses” said cloud was at least of some importance to their digital technologies, compared to 53 percent of “non-innovative businesses”.
ABS also measured businesses’ information security experiences.
While 92 percent of businesses with more than 200 employees said security was of some importance to their organisations, just 54 per cent of businesses overall offered the same response.
11 percent of businesses reported they had experienced security incidents or breaches. Manufacturing and wholesale trade industries were hit hardest with 18 percent of them reporting incidents.
While an 11 percent hack rate and just over half of companies caring about security appear concerning, the ABS data also revealed the happier statistic that more than half of businesses upgraded their cybersecurity software, standards or protocols in 2017-18. Previous ABS research found just 34 percent did the same in the previous two years.


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WILMINGTON, MA — Wilmington Community Television’s Wildcat TV recently caught up with Wilmington High School’s Interim Guidance Department Curriculum Team Leader Molly Dickerson to discuss the college application process and available scholarships. Dickerson offers some valuable advice to Wilmington juniors and seniors.
Watch the short video below:
Like Wilmington Apple on Facebook. Follow Wilmington Apple on Twitter. Follow Wilmington Apple on Instagram. Subscribe to Wilmington Apple’s daily email newsletter HERE. Got a comment, question, photo, press release, or news tip? Email firstname.lastname@example.org.


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Announcing our newest addition to our Woodworking Etsy Shop, the LVL Bench.
We have decided to branch off to our new Etsy shop, The Chicago Bench Co.which will focus on Furniture. Here's the link: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheChicagoBenchCo .
Our Embroider for u Etsy shop will be featured this coming Thursday on: http://www.greeneyed.com
Please make sure you stop by and check out the feature, as we are giving away a Reclaimed Firewood bench to one lucky person who leaves a comment, so spread the word!


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Retailers, consumers and prices
from Dhanya Skariachan:
Check outa mixed bag of results from the consumer world.
Investors looking for yet another clue to gauge the strength of the U.S. consumer spending recovery might find some solace in online retailer Overstock's results and women's apparel retailer Ann Taylor's strong first-quarter outlook.
Overstock, which sells excess inventories of clothing, accessories, furniture and other items, recorded a 42 percent rise in quarterly sales, while Ann Taylor forecast a same-store sales rise of 11 percent in its latest first quarter.
"Consumers are back in the malls and outlet centers...They are being lured to spend on nonessential goods by pre-planned promotions from retailers and greater confidence in their economic well-being," Wall Street Strategies' Brian Sozzi summed it up.
The U.S. consumer is certainly warming up to spending on more than essentials and maybe a tad more comfortable replenishing their wardrobes with news of an improving economy floating around. But just how far will they go? Will we see a simultaneous improvement in all sectors of retail?
We are in the heart of the earnings season and every day brings reports that offer grist for both sides of the argument about whether the recovery has begun.
For the optimists, we have sports clothing and footwear maker Under Armour, which posted a stronger-than-expected quarter and raised its outlook, and yoga clothing and athletic gear maker Lululemon Athletica, which raised its forecast.
A list of the top 10 companies from a “Hot 100 Retailers list” compiled by Planet Retail for the National Retail Federation showed that while a few companies grew organically, most grew as a result of a merger or acquisition.
Topping the list of companies that grew through a deal was DineEquity, which bought Applebee’s last year.


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Between posting 98% growth in Q4 direct sales, plans for Canadian and European expansion and a new analytics-driven catalog, Wayfair had a pretty good week. The company also announced plans to open its fourth customer service center in Bryan, TX. See what other news and events transpired this week in the world of direct-to-customer retail and ecommerce.
J.C. Penney posted strong Q4 and 2015 numbers, citing omnichannel tactics as a big part of its continuing turnaround, in a period when competitors stumbled. The return of popular private-label brands and the recent addition of appliances by customer demand are evidence that the company has been responsive to what shoppers want. Learn more about the retailer’s recent performance.
UPS took a big leap this week by investing in crowdsourced startup Deliv, getting a seat on its board and a front-row seat on its operating model. Stay tuned to see how the carrier is able to leverage this relationship to better understand and take advantage of the burgeoning sector of the on-demand economy.
A few questions went through my mind when I heard Ron Johnson stepped down (as the press release reads) as CEO at J.C. Penney. One was the Ron Burgundy line, … Continue Reading →


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Elon Musk's SEC drama is over almost as soon as it begun -- the entrepreneur has settled with the SEC over the securities fraud charge for his tweets about taking Tesla private. He'll get to keep the CEO position and won't have to admit guilt, but he'll have to step down as Chairman and let an independent person take that position. He won't be eligible for that position for three years, the SEC said. Tesla will also have to appoint a total of two new directors, create a committee of independent directors and establish "additional controls and procedures" for Musk's communications. Both Musk and Tesla will pay $20 million each in penalties, all of which will go toward "harmed investors."
The settlement tackles Musk's behavior by "strengthening Tesla's corporate governance and oversight," SEC enforcement co-director Stephanie Avakian said.
We've asked Tesla for comment, and the measure is still dependent on court approval. However, it's not surprising that Musk would settle with the SEC so quickly, even after reports that he didn't want to stain his reputation with a settlement or be "untruthful" to himself. If the SEC was successful, Musk faced the prospect of both a fraud conviction and losing all control of Tesla. For someone so heavily invested in his companies (Musk has slept at the Tesla factory to improve production), the prospect of letting go is likely difficult to imagine.
There's also a degree of irony to the settlement. Musk had considered going private out of distaste for short sellers who were counting on a decline in Tesla's stock price. He's now obligated to send money to some of the very short sellers he was so determined to avoid. Still, it's a relatively small price to pay given what could have happened if Musk had fought the SEC charge to the bitter end.


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Brands are taking Facebook video as seriously as YouTube. But what performs well on each platform differs, according to new data from digital video analytics company Tubular.
For a second week running, Air France’s “France is in the air” video soared on YouTube, racking up more than 17.8 million views on the platform from March 14 to March 20. That makes the playful, 45-second spot the current top brand video on YouTube. On Facebook, meanwhile, a clip from Marvel’s upcoming “Avengers: Age of Ultron” film topped the charts, attracting 9.4 million views between its Thursday upload date and the end of Friday.
“There was obviously significant spend behind [the Air France video], because you see there was only a tiny amount of [likes, comments and shares],” said Allison Stern, vp of enterprise at Tubular Labs. More paid promotion leads to a lower engagement rate, she said.
The top three YouTube brand videos last week — videos from Air France, Durex and Samsung — remained on the podium this week, thanks not only to continued marketing spend from those brands, but also the platform’s lengthier content shelf life. “On the YouTube side, you get repeat winners,” said Stern. “You see longevity in the videos.”
Several Facebook ad campaigns attracted significant attention this past week. The second- and eighth-most watched videos on Facebook were actually ads for Facebook. By advertising friendship, “Facebook has finally done something that makes sense,” said the often-critical Copyranter.
Generally, Facebook videos tend to attract far more engagement — likes, comments and shares — than their counterparts on YouTube. Not only are those social features placed front and center on Facebook, but the platform’s logged-in user base is conditioned to interact with content there, while YouTube video-viewing is often a more passive experience.
Despite the potential of Facebook video for brands, YouTube has more top-brand videos than Facebook. Of the top 100 videos on YouTube in January, 30 percent came from publishers and 17 percent came from brands, noted Stern. On Facebook, 25 percent came from publishers, and just 1 percent came from brands.
One key thing to note about the chart below: Facebook and YouTube don’t tabulate views exactly the same way. Facebook counts both organic and paid video views as at least three seconds of video viewership. YouTube is a bit more coy about how it tabulates organic views, using various signals to qualify intent, but for paid views, the platform requires at least 30 seconds of viewership to tabulate a view. That means most of those Air France video viewers stuck around for the bulk of the ad.
More in Marketing
Some content creators are using generative AI tools to spark new levels of creativity and innovation and are sharing their experiences online in how they’re using these tools to streamline their workflows and boost productivity.
In this edition of the weekly Digiday+ Research Briefing, we share focal points from Digiday’s recently released reports on marketers’ evolving social media tactics, including how they’re using Facebook less and diving into YouTube Shorts more.
In 2023, some brands’ executive boardrooms are still insulated from the chill of crypto winter, for better or worse. But the rising pressure of crypto skepticism has made it more urgent than ever for companies to figure out how to use blockchain technology to support their core offerings and customer base rather than simply dropping branded NFTs and hoping for the best.


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Handball: The German Handball Federation (DHB) has partnered with building materials retailer Eurobaustoff. The company’s i&M Bauzentrum brand will serve as an official sponsor of Germany’s national handball team for three years.
Basketball: Radosław Piesiewicz has been appointed president of the Polish Basketball League, the sport’s top flight in the European country. Piesiewicz, who previously served as vice president of the Polish Volleyball Federation, replaces Grzegorz Bachański in the role.
Golf: Two-time World Long Drive champion Jamie Sadlowski has become a brand ambassador for golf equipment brand Cleveland Golf. The Canadian, 29, won the RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship in consecutive years in 2008 and 2009, and has a personal best of 445 yards.
Soccer: Fourth-tier English soccer side Cheltenham Town have renewed their longstanding commercial deal with Mira Showers for a further two years. The shower manufacturer will remain the League Two club’s front-of-shirt sponsor for a further two years, retaining a role it has held since 2008.
Fishing: US technology company Garmin has agreed a deal to become the title sponsor of professional Bassmaster Elite series angler Jason Christie.
Flying disc sports: The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) has named Universe Point as its official footwear sponsor for two years.


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Since publicly revealing the spread of the coronavirus emanating from the city of Wuhan, the Chinese government has worked to bring “sizeable and targeted” economic aid to entrepreneurs, individuals, and businesses. This aid has particularly focused on companies making necessary equipment for the world to deal with the pandemic, write Chicago Booth’s Zhiguo He and Tsinghua University’s Bibo Liu, in a March survey of China’s responses.
China’s attempts to shore up liquidity, support debt and equity financing, and reduce fees and taxes have helped keep small and midsize companies in business, workers employed, and medical supplies and other necessities in production, He and Liu determine. Nevertheless, they write, the efforts haven’t been able to entirely stem the pain.
To help companies and individuals with liquidity, China ordered banks to extend loans or roll over debts without penalty or negative credit reporting. It eased rules for borrowers that use corporate stock as collateral, effectively loosening margin requirements so that these borrowers aren’t forced to sell equities while valuations are depressed.
On the financial front, the People’s Bank of China (China’s central bank) made sure some companies have access to borrowing by capitalizing regional banks and instructing them to “relend” the money to frontline companies manufacturing supplies or providing logistics used in the COVID-19 fight. Regulators also loosened listing standards for companies seeking equity financing. Finally, the government slashed value-added-tax rates for companies in the Hubei Province (where Wuhan is the capital city), exempted small businesses from paying into China’s social-security system for the time being, and suspended local tolls and tariffs.
In some ways, China’s actions set the tone for the global response to the crisis, as other governments used the same policy tools to confront the shock to their economies. One notable difference is that China didn’t make the same direct cash infusions to workers. The United States passed a $2 trillion relief package that included a one-time $1,200 direct payment to adults making up to $75,000, while the United Kingdom, Japan, and Denmark all promised funds to crisis-hit companies to help cover salaries.
While many economists have criticized China for not including worker payments, the critics are overlooking some important facts, He and Liu write. First, state-owned enterprises in China serve as a financial safety net for many workers. And second, unlike in the US, where many households and small businesses have little to no savings, about 60 percent of Chinese companies have cash on hand to sustain operations, and current employment levels, for three months. “This effectively buys some time for [the] Chinese government to launch a bigger wave of subsidies in the near future,” they write, adding that such subsidies could take the form of coupons, to get people to shop rather than add to their savings.
But the Chinese government’s efforts can’t prevent pain, a fact that almost all countries have to accept. “Chinese firms are largely paralyzed,” the researchers write, and the industrial value added (a measure of private companies’ contributions to GDP) dropped by 26 percent in February as unemployment rose.
The challenge is due in part to the space China occupies in the global economy. Even if the COVID-19 outbreak is contained in China, as the government has reported, the country is an export-heavy economy, and as such, is acutely vulnerable to how well the rest of the world is able to weather the pandemic. If the global recession outlasts the savings that Chinese companies and households have, China could be particularly badly affected.


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Indian National Cyber Security Advisor has claimed about 100 systems were attacked in the country
Turns out you may be at risk if you're running Windows 8.1 on a Samsung computer.
Microsoft is looking to inject a bit of nostalgia back into its latest version of Windows in the form of a much-beloved time waster.
The ecommerce company also announced that its reader will be EMV-compliant by this summer.
About 31 years ago today, Microsoft introduced the very first version of Windows, known as Windows 1.0. We've come a long way since then.
If your computer still runs on Windows XP, you're about to become an easier target for cyber thieves.
The free update offers customers more flexibility and customization, improved security and more robust cloud integration.
Despite a list of new features, the major thing that drove people crazy still exists in Windows 8.1.
The tech company has released a video previewing the changes it is making to Windows 8.
Listening to customer feedback, the tech giant expects to roll out changes to its latest operating system later this year.
Tap into Microsoft's touch-driven operating system with these Windows 8 devices.
How you can get up to speed with the desktop version of Microsoft's new operating system.
We've figured out the workarounds for three of Windows 8's most frustrating new features.


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Apple products discontinued in 2021
Apple is discontinuing its products in a very strange way. Sometimes the device has been in the lineup for several years, like the iPhone 11, which was released back in 2019, and is still on sale today. And sometimes the gadget is removed literally the next year, as happened with the iPhone X. With computers, the situation is not the best. Just recently, Intel-based Mac owners boasted of new machines, and now they are left with nothing, because the M1 slays them on the spot. Today I propose to sum up the small results of the year and discuss discontinued gadgets.