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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Dec. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Altitude is a multifunctional energy tonic focused on healthy, sustainable energy. That’s why, when the folks behind the label see synthetic ingredients thrown into other energy options, it makes them cringe. The potential for harm hardly offsets the benefits. Case in point: synthetic taurine.
Taurine is a naturally occurring amino acid. The body creates it and uses it for the function of both the brain and the liver. It can also be found in mother’s milk. In forms such as these, taurine can be a powerful and effective part of one’s daily life.
However, one area where taurine has been used in a less-than-satisfactory manner is in energy drinks. Many brands include taurine as a complement to the various other stimulants in their formula.
In its natural form, this could be a great addition that helps to deliver a quality pick-me-up. The problem is that these drinks don’t use natural taurine — they use a synthetic version.
In fact, when Red Bull came under fire for adding bull sperm to their drinks, the company came out and publicly declared that they didn’t include the unsettling ingredient. The issue centered around the inclusion of taurine, with Red Bull clarifying (on more than one occasion) that their use of taurine wasn’t from bull sperm. It was synthetic.
That’s great for those who don’t want to ingest bull spermatozoa. But for the energy tonic brand Altitude, the announcement highlights another important issue, namely the use of synthetic taurine in energy drinks.
Synthetic taurine is a largely unstudied substance. It has several suspect concerns, such as creating a negative nitrogen balance in the body. The dosage is also unrestricted and little is known about how taurine can interact with other drugs. In addition, the first case of synthetic taurine drink induced anaphylaxis was already recorded all the way back in 2013.
For the folks at Altitude, the risks of synthetic Taurine are hardly worth the need to include the supplement in an energy drink, especially when so many other options abound. For their own formula, Altitude proudly uses all-natural ingredients — they even openly list them right on their website.
These include effective nature-based stimulants such as Kola nut and Guarana seed extracts. In addition, ingredients such as Great yellow gentian, Black carrot, and acerola are added to boost the digestive, anti-inflammatory, and immune-boosting aspects of the drink, respectively.
For the team at Altitude, synthetic taurine is a shortcut to unstable energy that has the potential to do much more harm than good. By fueling the body with healthy, clean energy, one can ensure optimal, safe functionality throughout their day.
About Altitude: Altitude is an organic energy tonic owned and produced by the Austrian/Italian company PilotsFriend. The brand has operations in Europe and Canada and recently entered the U.S. marketplace under the direction of Ali Asghari, co-founder and president of the brand’s Canadian wing PilotsFriend West. Originally created to help keep jet pilots awake at the controls, the drink has become a popular source of energy for professionals across the globe. Its quality ingredients work together to offer an organic, natural, long-lasting, crash-free way to achieve peak performance in any and all circumstances. Learn more about Altitude at pilotsfriend.ca.
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Tesla and Elon Musk are having a terrible time getting basic, neutral, balanced press coverage. They’ve achieved enormous results in ramping up the Tesla Model 3 production faster than any new model car in history, they are outselling their competitors massively in North America and Europe, they still have hundreds of thousands of $1,000 pre-orders for the Tesla Model 3 more than any car ever anywhere, Teslas continue to win raves from teardown analysts and test drivers, its autonomous features continue to be the best of any production vehicles, its market capitalization is 10 times what it was 5 years ago, and the Model 3 itself is on track to soon be the fifth or sixth best selling car in the USA of any make, model, or price point (note: this doesn’t count pickup trucks and SUVs, just cars). In a normal world, this string of successes would lead to incredibly positive coverage.
But this isn’t a normal world. Media outlets of all types are disproportionately covering every negative story, distorting the narrative around neutral stories and reporting any rumor about Elon Musk they can find. News sentiment is often negative despite the positive news. It doesn’t take much reading of Musk’s actual tweets or Tesla’s actual results to see the massive disparity between how Tesla and Musk are increasingly portrayed and what they are actually doing.
Why is the media getting Tesla and Musk so wrong right now? There are three major problems which have led to this situation:
- anti-electric car PR campaigns by elements of the fossil fuel industry
- anti-Tesla PR campaigns by firms which are shorting TSLA stock
- the ongoing challenge legacy and new media has in terms of reduced revenue and increased costs
Let’s start with the Koch brothers
Over 2015, their network of fossil fuel CEOs worked together to support and create a new advocacy group, created with $10 million of funding in February of 2016. It launched in August of 2016 as Fueling U.S. Forward.
One of the two primaries in the group, James Mahoney, is a Koch company board member, has been a Koch Industries executive for over 20 years, and is a long-time confidant of the billionaire brothers. The other, Charlie Drevna, is a long-term lobbyist for the fossil-fuel industry, with positions as Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Institute for Energy Research and as a board member of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers.
This is not a particularly surprising development, as the Koch Brothers and their network have been funding disinformation campaigns for decades. They have been funding legislation-twisting groups, Libertarian think tanks, and climate-change denial groups in order to advance their vision of the USA and the world. While they talk about liberty and freedom, oddly, everything they do is directly in aid of Koch Industries’ bottom line, and as one of the two biggest privately held firms in the USA with an annual revenue of $100 billion, it’s a big bottom line.
The EV efforts included targeted events in black evangelical communities, documented extensively in the New York Times. They have also purchased space in major journals pretending to be articles and YouTube videos designed to spread disinformation. Some in the EV- and cleantech-oriented press as well as watchdog groups such as DeSmog Blog have spent a fair amount of time documenting the disinformation in inserted articles and video after video after video that Fuel U.S. Forward released.
The organization lasted for only a little over a year, shutting down in October of 2017, but Koch-funded attacks on electric vehicles continue through Koch network-affiliated think tanks like the Institute for Energy Research (and its sister org, the American Energy Alliance), through political advocacy groups like Americans for Prosperity. These groups have been funding anti-renewables and climate-change disinformation campaigns globally, with their money washing up on the books of Australian right-wing lobbying groups such as the IPA.
These are sophisticated and connected PR organizations, a large part of whose efforts are to insert their version of reality into press outlets of all types.
What about TSLA shorters?
In April of 2018, TSLA became the most shorted stock in the USA, with almost $12 billion in short positions held by “investors.”
Here’s a collection of headlines from different months in the last year from 5 different outlets.
- Tesla short-sellers lose $2.5 billion in tug-of-war
- Tesla’s Stock Success Has Cost Short Traders $3.7 Billion This Year
- Cumulative Tesla Short losses now at 18 Billion?
- Tesla Short Sellers Lost Nearly $2 Billion In A Few Days
- Tesla (TSLA) shorts have lost $2 billion in June as stock continues rise
- Tesla Has The Largest Short Position Of Any Stock Followed By The FAANGs
So, they have a ton of money invested and they keep losing it. But what does this have to do with why media outlets keep saying bad things about Tesla? Well, the lengthy report “What to Do When Short-Sellers Attack” from an organization devoted to the PR industry has some good insights.
“‘Short sellers have historically been some of the savviest media folk around,’ says Elliot Sloane, president of New York’s Sloane & Company. ‘They are always willing to speak to the press and will be very clear about their convictions on a certain company. This is quite different from the traditional large-cap buy side players like Fidelity, which have rules about not promoting their portfolio holdings. The shorts understand the demands of the press and know how to work the system.’ […]
“Adds Ferris, ‘Certain members of the media have made a heyday with professional shorts, and have been used by certain short selling firms to help them feather their nests. The pros are most adept at working their perspectives into stories, or generating stories. After all, they know that a negative story, or one with negative or questioning overtones, often has a deleterious effect on market price, and properly timed, can create a windfall for the short seller.’”
Recently, Elon Musk pointed out the links between one of the most aggressive of Tesla muck-raking journalists, Linette Lopez who publishes regularly in Business Insider and Jim Chanos, one of the most aggressive of Tesla shorts.
Business Insider and Seeking Alpha are both business- and investment-oriented sites which have a strong anti-Tesla bias in their reporting. And one of the most prominent Tesla-bashers at Business Insider has been clear about her relationship with one of the strongest of the Tesla-shorters.
As another Twitter user recently highlighted, 100% of Business Insider’s many Tesla articles from reporter Linette Lopez since November 2017 have had negative headlines. They are often dramatic in language, sensationalistic, and insinuate poor morals and even criminal intent.
Personally, I have found Musk’s tweets to be reasonable and fairly mild-mannered. I try to read them all and have found his tone to be reasonable and his use of Twitter well within bounds. Similarly, I read all of the threads around the Thailand rescue and found all but one to be reasonable, humble, full of praise for the rescue team and grounded.
But the media reacted as if he’d had a meltdown, a thread of attack which continues today with headline after headline questioning his sanity. Shorters’ PR campaigns are feeding that line to press organizations time and again.
But why are the media falling for it?
This is the age of the internet. Anyone who reads this is reading it on a screen of some sort. Legacy media has been gutted, with newspaper after newspaper folding. There have been a variety of successful and unsuccessful attempts to shift to non-paper formats, a shift which puts them up against new competitors without any print legacy costs emerging. Advertisers all went to Google. The 2008 economic downturn was a nail in the coffin of a transforming media landscape. They are now competing with clickbait, listicle, and aggregator sites for eyeballs. They are competing with Facebook and YouTube. They are competing with CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News.
Media outlets are doing what they can to survive. They are laying off seasoned journalists with strong fact-checking instincts. They are laying off fact-checkers. They are laying off editors. They are rethinking how they write headlines.
The bean counters are quite reasonably trying to keep their businesses afloat. And that means that aggressive and sophisticated PR campaigns such as the Koch brothers and the shorters have fertile soil into which to sow their disinformation. The media are desperate for content, desperate for sources, desperate for “breaking” news, and desperate for headlines that sell eyeballs.
And Tesla and Musk are big eyeball grabbers and have been for 5 years as this Google Trends graph on the right shows. The publisher of CleanTechnica has pointed out to me in the past that anything with Tesla or Musk in the headline is likely to perform better than average, providing anecdotal confirmation for this. (Editor’s note: This also explains why there’s headline after headline about a new “Tesla killer” or linking Tesla in the headline to a non-Tesla story in some other way.)
But there is also the old and well proven adage that if it bleeds it leads. While I find that headlines about shorters losing billions more lighten my mornings, they are still negative headlines. In the 24/7/365 news cycle we find ourselves in, it’s necessary for media to fill the headlines and airwaves with something, and fear, uncertainty, and doubt sell better than sunshine and puppies.
As one tiny example of how little critical thinking goes into modern press articles, I spent some time recently reviewing a series of articles on magnesite as a CO2 sequestration mineral. A geochemistry conference’s PR group had done a press release about a presentation by a Canadian Professor. They had sent it to the useful media outlets and aggregator sites. It made 25 sites or so, which isn’t bad for a nerdy science thing.
And none of the sites put the effort in context, the vast majority just pushed the content as they received it and the ones that changed it basically just wrote some words around direct quotations of the content. They all repeated the false overstatement in the original press release headline which wasn’t in the body of the release at all. It was sloppy, disheartening journalism by sites devoted to science journalism about global warming, one of the most important topics facing us today.
And so, here we are. Two different groups with billions and billions at stake are pouring money into disinformation campaigns at a time when media is facing the 20th year of an existential crisis that doesn’t appear to be ending. Well funded fear-mongering PR machines are taking advantages of the vulnerabilities of the press and other media and Tesla and Elon Musk are at the intersection of their attacks.
Which is part of the reason why taking Tesla private would have been a good idea. Unfortunately, the trifecta of issues will continue to deliver overly bad press on a regular basis now that Musk and the Tesla board decided to keep Tesla public.
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China is not lovin’ it. That is the takeaway from a recent McKinsey & Company report that shows a 16 percent drop in Western fast food consumption in China.
The management consultancy surveyed 10,000 people from 44 Chinese cities between September and November 2015. Fifty percent of their respondents said they were focused on eating healthy and nutritious food, which might explain why they're not eating McDonald's. China also saw a 21 percent drop in carbonated soft drink consumption, 15 percent drop in chewing gum consumption and 7 percent drop in ice cream consumption.
- America’s Soda Consumption Is Low and Dropping
- Fast Food Packaging: Are Chemicals Leaking into Your Food?
- Fish Sauce Is a Healthier Way to Get Your Salt Fix, Says Study
With 72 percent of Chinese consumers worried that the food they eat is harmful, people are looking for healthier options. It seems that Chinese consumers are more attracted to food branded as “organic” and “green” because they deem it safer, although there is no credible organic certification in China.


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The energy regulator Ofgem has unveiled new standards of conduct to make the energy market simpler and fairer for customers.
Its guidelines says that customers have to be told the fairest and cheapest deal available for gas and electricity in a clear and “jargon-free” way. The reform also forces energy companies to offer a maximum of four tariffs for each category of fuel.
The new standards of conduct came into force this week, but suppliers have time until the end of the year to implement the Ofgem’s plan.
Ofgem chief Andrew Wright said, “Suppliers have already taken some steps to make the energy market simpler for customers and we welcome that, but our package of reforms means they must go further. The standards of conduct we have introduced require suppliers to go through a culture change in the way they treat consumers.
“They have to make sure they are embedding simplicity, clarity and fairness into all their dealings with consumers to tackle the lack of trust that has blighted the market. The standards of conduct will also enhance consumer protection as they are backed by Ofgem’s power to levy fines.”
In June, the energy regulator proposed measures to level out the market, in order to allow smaller suppliers to compete with the ‘big six’ energy firms – Centrica, E.ON, SSE, Npower, EDF and Scottish Power – by making them declare the price at which they buy and sell wholesale electricity.
The move came after Ofgem had fined energy firm SSE for £10.5m in April for deceiving its customers about the true costs of its services.
Welcoming the new measures, Angela Knight, chief executive of trade body Energy UK, said, “Energy companies only have control over about a fifth of the customer bill, the remaining 80% is made up of the wholesale price of energy and the costs that others add to the bill such as the wires and the pipes that distribute the energy and the additions because of energy policy.”


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Toyota is recalling 1.5 million vehicles in Japan, 670,000 vehicles in the United States and 496,000 vehicles in Europe over a problem in the steering intermediate extension shafts, which could be damaged at slow speed, a spokesman said.
The problem, in cars such as the second-generation Prius and certain Corolla models can be fixed in under an hour.
Separately, Toyota is also recalling 630,000 vehicles worldwide, including 350,000 in the United States and 175,000 in Japan, to fix water pumps in hybrid vehicles, Tachikawa said.
Some vehicles are target of both recalls, making the total number of vehicles to be recalled at 2.77 million, he said.
Toyota has sold about 3.3 million Prius hybrid vehicles globally since the car went on sale in December 1997.
More top news
The General Data Protection Regulation will give users more access to their personal data and more greatly punish mishandling.
the couple will join guests at a Dawn Service and later at the Westminster Abbey event.
The new EU laws come into force on May 25.


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(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Turkey will make it harder to import goods except for strategic products and those that cannot be produced domestically, Finance Minister Berat Albayrak was quoted as saying yesterday, after Ankara imposed additional tariffs on hundreds of products.
'Imports will not be easy, he was quoted as saying by state-owned Anadolu news agency, adding that domestic production will be prioritised.
He said Ankara will implement long-term lira financing programmes for the industry sector.
A sharp decline in exports during the coronavirus pandemic has lead to renewed concerns about Turkey's current account, while a fall in central bank reserves has added to worries about Turkey's ability to service external debt.
Recent moves suggest that Turkey is turning to import compression to offset the risks of external debt, as well as moves towards 'soft capital controls, said Jason Tuvey, senior emerging market economist at Capital Economics.
Ankara on Wednesday imposed additional tariffs of up to 30% on imports of more than 800 items including work and agriculture machinery, according to a statement in the Official Gazette, a move that could limit the current account deficit.
Last week, it announced additional tariffs on dozens of goods of up to 30%.
Turkey's trade deficit widened 13.4% year-on-year to $3.4bn in April, with exports falling more than 40%.
The current account deficit widened sharply to $4.92bn in March, central bank data showed, due to the larger trade deficit, lower tourism income and portfolio outflows.
Albayrak was also quoted as saying Turkey will carry out swaps in local currencies more effectively.
Turkey's consumer confidence index rose to 59.5 points in May, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute showed yesterday, climbing from April's 54.9, its lowest level since the data was first published in 2004. The coronavirus outbreak has slowed the economy and sapped consumer confidence.
Separately, the Turkish Treasury said yesterday that it will issue one-year fixed-coupon euro- and US dollar-denominated sukuk and bonds to corporate investors on May 27.
In a statement, the treasury said the euro-denominated sukuk and government debt security will have a 1.25% periodic rate every six months and the dollar-denominated debt securities will have a 1.75% six month rate payment for investors.
The treasury will issue debt instruments to diversify financing tools and widen the investor base, it also said.
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.


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Driverless cars are being displayed at the world's biggest technology show in Las Vegas.
Google has been trailing its driverless cars for over two years but now the likes of Lexus, Audi and Volvo have produced their versions, bringing the technology one step closer to the roads. Lewis Vaughan Jones reports:
Car makers are all showcasing their latest driverless models in Las Vegas. But will consumers be tempted to let a computer take the wheel?
With an increasing number of us living in to old age and wanting to stay independent, technology has some novel answers to keep us healthy.
2013 looks set to be a tough year for Cambridge-based ARM as competitors fight for a slice of the mobile market.


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Union minister Paswan says panel to look into Jaypee homebuyers’ issue
Homebuyers have filed 400 complaints against the company through the National Consumer Helpline of the consumer affairs ministry.india Updated: Sep 09, 2017 16:20 IST
Consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Saturday said his ministry has so far received 400 complaints from aggrieved homebuyers of Jaypee Infratech and an in-house panel has been set up to look into the matter.
Jayee Infratech, which is developing about 32,000 flats and plots across various projects in its township project ‘Wish Town’ in Noida, has been facing protests and litigation from homebuyers due to huge delays in completion of projects.
“The panel to be headed by the consumer affairs secretary will study and submit a status report within three days. We will see if there is any jurisdiction...We want to protect the interest of homebuyers,” Paswan told reporters.
Homebuyers have filed 400 complaints against the company through the National Consumer Helpline of the ministry. These complaints have been forwarded to concerned departments/ ministries for redressal, he said.
Around 141 homebuyers have filed cases against the real estate firm in consumer courts. IDBI Bank has also filed an insolvency petition before the National Company Law Tribunal, which the Supreme Court stayed recently, he added.
Currently, there are 60 National Consumer Helpline centres (NCHs) in the country.
Paswan said six regional consumer helpline centres will be operational from October 10 this year. Each region would have ten helpline centres.
The state-operated consumer helpline centres are about 24, which are being updated with new software and integrated with the national centres, he added.
First Published: Sep 09, 2017 16:20 IST


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Beekman 1802 looks to TikTok for first-ever brand ambassador
On July 16, 12-year-old Beekman 1802 signed its first brand ambassador. But instead of a Hollywood celebrity face, the clean and goat milk-focused beauty brand opted to work with TikTok star Kat Stickler.
Beekman 1802, which previously set a goal of $100 million in sales by 2021, could have opted for a traditional ambassador figure in its efforts to gain larger brand awareness across both digital and physical retail. After all, Beekman 1802 is sold through largely traditional points of sale like QVC, HSN and Ulta Beauty, as well as its DTC e-site. The brand’s founders, Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell, were allowed to act as micro-celebrities and brand ambassadors in their own right, thanks to their regular appearance on TV shopping networks. After the brand’s Ulta launch in July 2020 where it was exposed to a younger set of customers, the brand needed to build a TikTok presence in Dec. 2020 to reach them directly. It is currently just shy of 80,000 TikTok followers. After gifting Stickler the brand’s hero product Bloom Cream, she posted about it on June 26. Product sales increased by 300% over the following 48-hour period, attesting to her power as a bonafide influencer among that customer cohort.
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The U.S. government said 277 shipments to Afghanistan had false shipment receipts.
Despite presence of federal mediator 'no further agreements have been reached.'
ILWU sends PMA proposals, as Congressman Bill Shuster writes to president about West Coast Longshore negotiations.
Carriers are benefiting from lower oil prices, but face capacity overhang.
Hueneme CEO says port could offer relieve valve for congestion.
Analysts from IHS Maritime & Trade predict continued increases in fatal incidents in both the shipping and passenger sectors.


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Bank of Thailand has greenlit the country’s top Bitcoin exchange
In August 2013, the Bank of Thailand stated that it did not recognise Bitcoin as a currency in Thailand. Following that, all transactions by Bitcoin.co.th were subsequently suspended and Bitcoin trading came to a halt in the region, much to the dismay of Bitcoin users in the country.
Things took a turn for the better earlier this year when in January, Bitcoin Co. Ltd released a letter from the Bank of Thailand stating that as long as foreign currencies are not included in the exchange (all transactions have to be converted to/from Thai baht), Bitcoin exchange operations do not fall under the scope of regulation by the Ministry of Finance. Therefore, the exchange could operate without the ministry’s license restrictions.
Bitcoin.co.th resumed all Bitcoin transactions and trading starting 15 February this year. There is, however, no guarantee that the Ministry of Finance will not revise their current regulations.
[Image: Antanacoins - Flickr]


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More so than the people we know, our phones are our real constant companions. We take them everywhere. Think I’m kidding? In a recent survey, 75% of Americans admit to taking their phones into the bathroom. A lot of those phones get dropped on the floor, or worse, into the toilet. These phones need protection -- from us. LifeProof (now owned by former rival Otterbox), has been making waterproof phone cases for a while, but its latest device, the Nüüd for iPhone 5 case, performs a new trick.
The iPhone 5 is a predicted name for the next generation iPhone. Apple will hold an event presumably for the iPhone 5 on September 12, 2012.


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A new law makes it legal to have dogs in the outdoorareas of restaurants in New York.
Past health and safety laws made it illegal to bring dogs to any restaurants in New York. This was to prevent the spread of diseases.
State lawmakers voted in May to let people bring dogs to restaurants that have tables outdoors. These areas are often called patios.
Not one lawmaker voted no.
Late Monday night, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the law. New York joins California, Florida and Maryland in the list of states with similar laws.
In many European countries, bringing dogs to restaurants is common. Paris has allowed dogs to accompany their owners in restaurants for a long time.
Several special rules are included in this law. The dogs must be on a leash. Dogs must not share water bowls. Also, restaurants can choose to let people bring dogs or not.
But, not all New Yorkers are happy about this new law. Christopher Miller is the spokesmanfor the New York City Department of Health. He told the New York Daily News that letting dogs in restaurants could cause problems.
"The Health Department loves all dogs, but just not at restaurants where they can create a risk to the health and safety of diners, restaurant workers and other dogs," Miller said.
New York City is often the source of new trendsand attitudes in the US. A law forcing some restaurants in the city to show the amount of caloriesin the food they served passed in 2009.
Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg tried unsuccessfully to stop the sale of large amounts of soft drinksin 2012. Cigarette smoking was made illegal in restaurants in 1993.
Governor Cuomo believes that this new law will help businesses grow by attracting dog owners. He also said this law "strikes the right balance" between health laws and flexibilityfor businesses.
I'm Pete Musto.
Words in This Story
outdoor– adj.done, used, or located outside a building
leash– n.a long, thin piece of rope or chain is used for holding a dog or other animal
spokesman– n.someone who speaks for or represents a person, company or organization
diner(s) – n.a person who is eating dinner in a restaurant
trend(s) – n.a way of behaving or proceeding that is developing and becoming more common
calorie(s) – n.a unit of heat used to show the amount of energy that foods will produce in the human body
soft drink(s) – n.a cold drink that is usually sweet, does not contain alcohol, and is often sold in bottles or cans
flexibility– n.the ability to change or try different things


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News By Tag
News By Location
CellSolo – A Secondhand Market for Cell Phones
Just a few weeks ago, Washington DC area-based CellSolo launched to the public, a peer to peer cell phone marketplace web application.
Everyone has encountered a time when they have lost a cell phone, broken a cell phone, or had an older cell phone that could potentially be sold. CellSolo has discovered that there hasn’t been an efficient application that provides an easy way to buy and sell phones from other wireless subscribers and aims to solve that problem; CellSolo’s user interface is now functional, checkout just a few core features below:
List your phone for sale on CellSolo and the web app will find you a buyer. Just add the condition, a general description, how much money you want, and don’t forget to upload pictures! Listing your phone is free on CellSolo.com!
Check out CellSolo today: http://www.cellsolo.com
Follow CellSolo on Twitter: @CellSolo (http://www.twitter.com/
Like our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/
Founded in July 2011, CellSolo is a convenient, web app that enables buying and selling secondhand cell phones in your neighborhood and with people around you. Based in the Washington DC area, CellSolo seeks to change the way people search for and exchange used and new cell phones by adding elements of mobility, location, timeliness, pricing tools, and social user experience.


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Various journalists, economists, and the central bank of Estonia have voiced concerns that bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme. In April 2013, Eric Posner, a law professor at the University of Chicago, stated that "a real Ponzi scheme takes fraud; bitcoin, by contrast, seems more like a collective delusion." A July 2014 report by the World Bank concluded that bitcoin was not a deliberate Ponzi scheme.:7 In June 2014, the Swiss Federal Council:21 examined the concerns that bitcoin might be a pyramid scheme; it concluded that, "Since in the case of bitcoin the typical promises of profits are lacking, it cannot be assumed that bitcoin is a pyramid scheme." In July 2017, billionaire Howard Marks referred to bitcoin as a pyramid scheme.
If you decide to invest in cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin is obviously still the dominant one. However, in 2017 its share in the crypto-market has quite dramatically fallen from 90 percent to just 40 percent. There are many options currently available, with some coins being privacy-focused, others being less open and decentralized than Bitcoin and some just outright copying it.
Monero is the most prominent example of the CryptoNight algorithm. This algorithm was invented to add the privacy features Bitcoin is missing. If you use Bitcoin, every transaction is documented in the blockchain and the trail of transactions can be followed. With the introduction of a concept called ring-signatures, the CryptoNight algorithm was able to cut through that trail.
In March 2013 the blockchain temporarily split into two independent chains with different rules due to a bug in version 0.8 of the bitcoin software. The two blockchains operated simultaneously for six hours, each with its own version of the transaction history from the moment of the split. Normal operation was restored when the majority of the network downgraded to version 0.7 of the bitcoin software, selecting the backward compatible version of the blockchain. As a result, this blockchain became the longest chain and could be accepted by all participants, regardless of their bitcoin software version. During the split, the Mt. Gox exchange briefly halted bitcoin deposits and the price dropped by 23% to $37 before recovering to previous level of approximately $48 in the following hours. The US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) established regulatory guidelines for "decentralized virtual currencies" such as bitcoin, classifying American bitcoin miners who sell their generated bitcoins as Money Service Businesses (MSBs), that are subject to registration or other legal obligations. In April, exchanges BitInstant and Mt. Gox experienced processing delays due to insufficient capacity resulting in the bitcoin price dropping from $266 to $76 before returning to $160 within six hours. The bitcoin price rose to $259 on 10 April, but then crashed by 83% to $45 over the next three days. On 15 May 2013, US authorities seized accounts associated with Mt. Gox after discovering it had not registered as a money transmitter with FinCEN in the US. On 23 June 2013, the US Drug Enforcement Administration listed ₿11.02 as a seized asset in a United States Department of Justice seizure notice pursuant to 21 U.S.C. § 881.[better source needed] This marked the first time a government agency had seized bitcoin. The FBI seized about ₿30,000 in October 2013 from the dark web website Silk Road during the arrest of Ross William Ulbricht. These bitcoins were sold at blind auction by the United States Marshals Service to venture capital investor Tim Draper. Bitcoin's price rose to $755 on 19 November and crashed by 50% to $378 the same day. On 30 November 2013 the price reached $1,163 before starting a long-term crash, declining by 87% to $152 in January 2015. On 5 December 2013, the People's Bank of China prohibited Chinese financial institutions from using bitcoins. After the announcement, the value of bitcoins dropped, and Baidu no longer accepted bitcoins for certain services. Buying real-world goods with any virtual currency had been illegal in China since at least 2009.
Any services that are centralized can be decentralized using Ethereum. Think about all the intermediary services that exist across hundreds of different industries. From obvious services like loans provided by banks to intermediary services rarely thought about by most people like title registries, voting systems, regulatory compliance and much more.
As with other cryptocurrencies, the validity of each ether is provided by a blockchain, which is a continuously growing list of records, called blocks, which are linked and secured using cryptography. By design, the blockchain is inherently resistant to modification of the data. It is an open, distributed ledger that records transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way. Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum operates using accounts and balances in a manner called state transitions. This does not rely upon unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs). State denotes the current balances of all accounts and extra data. State is not stored on the blockchain, it is stored in a separate Merkle Patricia tree. A cryptocurrency wallet stores the public and private "keys" or "addresses" which can be used to receive or spend ether. These can be generated through BIP 39 style mnemonics for a BIP 32 "HD Wallet". In Ethereum, this is unnecessary as it does not operate in a UTXO scheme. With the private key, it is possible to write in the blockchain, effectively making an ether transaction.
Ether is a token whose blockchain is generated by the Ethereum platform. Ether can be transferred between accounts and used to compensate participant mining nodes for computations performed. Ethereum provides a decentralized virtual machine, the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which can execute scripts using an international network of public nodes. The virtual machine's instruction set, in contrast to others like Bitcoin Script, is thought to be Turing-complete. "Gas", an internal transaction pricing mechanism, is used to mitigate spam and allocate resources on the network.
^ Mooney, Chris; Mufson, Steven (19 December 2017). "Why the bitcoin craze is using up so much energy". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 9 January 2018. Retrieved 11 January 2018. several experts told The Washington Post that bitcoin probably uses as much as 1 to 4 gigawatts, or billion watts, of electricity, roughly the output of one to three nuclear reactors.
“If the trend continues, the average person will not be able to afford to purchase one whole bitcoin in 2 years. As global economies inflate and markets exhibit signs of recession, the world will turn to Bitcoin as a hedge against fiat turmoil and an escape against capital controls. Bitcoin is the way out, and cryptocurrency as a whole is never going away, it’s going to grow in use and acceptance as it matures.”
Despite bringing a number of benefits, decentralized applications aren’t faultless. Because smart contract code is written by humans, smart contracts are only as good as the people who write them. Code bugs or oversights can lead to unintended adverse actions being taken. If a mistake in the code gets exploited, there is no efficient way in which an attack or exploitation can be stopped other than obtaining a network consensus and rewriting the underlying code. This goes against the essence of the blockchain which is meant to be immutable. Also, any action taken by a central party raises serious questions about the decentralized nature of an application.
If the private key is lost, the bitcoin network will not recognize any other evidence of ownership; the coins are then unusable, and effectively lost. For example, in 2013 one user claimed to have lost 7,500 bitcoins, worth $7.5 million at the time, when he accidentally discarded a hard drive containing his private key. About 20% of all bitcoins are believed to be lost. They would have a market value of about $20 billion at July 2018 prices.
In May 2018, Bitcoin Gold (and two other cryptocurrencies) were hit by a successful 51% hashing attack by an unknown actor, in which exchanges lost estimated $18m. In June 2018, Korean exchange Coinrail was hacked, losing US$37 million worth of altcoin. Fear surrounding the hack was blamed for a $42 billion cryptocurrency market selloff. On 9 July 2018 the exchange Bancor had $23.5 million in cryptocurrency stolen.
Blockchains are secure by design and are an example of a distributed computing system with high Byzantine fault tolerance. Decentralized consensus has therefore been achieved with a blockchain. Blockchains solve the double-spending problem without the need of a trusted authority or central server, assuming no 51% attack (that has worked against several cryptocurrencies).
Wallets and similar software technically handle all bitcoins as equivalent, establishing the basic level of fungibility. Researchers have pointed out that the history of each bitcoin is registered and publicly available in the blockchain ledger, and that some users may refuse to accept bitcoins coming from controversial transactions, which would harm bitcoin's fungibility. For example, in 2012, Mt. Gox froze accounts of users who deposited bitcoins that were known to have just been stolen.
Though transaction fees are optional, miners can choose which transactions to process and prioritize those that pay higher fees. Miners may choose transactions based on the fee paid relative to their storage size, not the absolute amount of money paid as a fee. These fees are generally measured in satoshis per byte (sat/b). The size of transactions is dependent on the number of inputs used to create the transaction, and the number of outputs.:ch. 8


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Microsoft today launched a $250,000 contest for researchers who develop defensive security technologies that deal with entire classes of exploits.
Google patched 30 vulnerabilities in Chrome today, paying out the third-highest bounty total ever for the bugs that outsiders filed with its security team.
Facebook's move today to follow Google, Mozilla and Hewlett-Packard in offering bounties for bugs got a unanimous thumbs up from security researchers.
Almost anyone can snoop the secure data traffic of unpatched iPhones and iPads using a recently-revised tool, a researcher said today as he urged owners to apply Apple's latest iOS fix.
A Mac security firm today criticized Microsoft for warning Mac users of new malware, saying that the threat simply wasn't worth mentioning.
Randy Vickers, the director of the U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT), has resigned from his position without any official explanation for the abrupt move.
Google removed more malware-infected applications from its Android Market last week, according to a security researcher who reported the rogue software to the company.
Scareware makers on Friday again changed their fake security software scam, while Apple issued the third signature update in as many days to combat the con.
Hacking group Pakistan Cyber Army Friday claimed it had broken into an Acer server in Europe and stole personal data on about 40,000 people.
Apple on Wednesday updated the malware engine included with Snow Leopard to detect the newest version of MacDefender, the fake antivirus program that's plagued users for the last month.
When I saw the Computerworld article about Square touting how it is going to replace cash registers with iPads, I was dismayed that there was no discussion of security. And Square's app isn't the only payment app that makes me anxious. While I admit ...
Recent attacks against two major defense contractors are fueling concerns about the extent to which RSA's SecurID two-factor authentication technology may have been compromised in a breach the company acknowledged in March.
The gang responsible for a month-long plague of fake Mac security software has already updated their "scareware" to evade defenses Apple put in place late Tuesday, a security company confirmed today.
Honda Canada has issued a warning that a data breach exposed the personal data of an unspecified number of customers.
Google on Tuesday patched several vulnerabilities in Chrome, including two a French security company said could be used to bypass the browser's anti-exploit technology.
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INSPIRATION: Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne founded the specialist food company. Picture: Stewart Attwood
Founded by Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne after she developed a special bread for her gluten-intolerant son, Genius agreed to buy the Free From business from Finsbury Foods to help maintain its rapid growth.
The deal will give Edinburgh-based Genius control of the United Central Bakeries' operation at Bathgate and a plant in Hull where its products are manufactured.
This will allow the company to speed up the development of products like cakes as it looks to cash in on growing demand for gluten-free foods. It will also gain a capability to produce own-label goods for retailers.
"Lucinda has some fantastic new bakery innovations," said chief executive Roz Cuschieri. "She created something remarkable four years ago. You put that manufacturing experience together with that creative genius and you have something that's very special."
Ms Cuschieri said shareholders, who include Sir Bill Gammell, the Scottish oil and gas tycoon, see great scope to develop Genius in the UK and in overseas markets.
The company already sells in North America and Spain. Ms Cuschieri said Genius is set to move into other European markets and a new continent, without giving details.
The acquisition is being part funded with around £10m raised from private investors and a £7.5m package from HSBC.
Ms Cuschieri said the fundraising was supported by existing shareholders and new investors, whom she did not name.
Sir Bill, Ms Bruce-Gardyne and former
Scottish & Newcastle and C&C Group chief executive John Dunsmore have the biggest shareholdings.
The founder of Cairn Energy, Sir Bill is a coeliac so can not digest gluten. He chairs Genius, while Mr Dunsmore is deputy chairman.
"We have a really committed shareholding base who are very interested in supporting the global development of this brand," said Ms Cuschieri.
She added: "Could future acquisitions be on the radar for us? They absolutely could."
Ms Cuschieri said a flotation is not on the agenda for Genius, which has spurned a number of takeover approaches. She said the company intends to remain based in Scotland saying: "This is a Scottish growth story."
An experienced chef, Ms Bruce-Gardyne spent 18 months developing a gluten- free bread so her son Robin could enjoy a diet that included sandwiches.
Turnover at Genius has grown from £1.4m in 2009 to around £20m last year.
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Latest news and insight on how logistics, transportation, port, and supply chain organizations are implementing sustainable practices in an effort to become better stewards of the environment.
Posted 04/28 · 11:45 AM · MMH Editorial
The winning machine produces the right-sized box for every product as needed.
Posted 04/27 · 08:23 AM · SCMR Editorial
In this exclusive interview with Navis senior vice president, Andy Barrons, SCMR presents an overview of the recently-concluded Navis World 2015 in San Francisco.
Posted 04/14 · 08:40 AM · SCMR Editorial
Container lines must accelerate their internal-transformation efforts and extract more value from their alliances in order to restore profitability, according to a new report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Posted 03/31 · 09:15 AM · SCMR Editorial
Despite great strides in mechanization and technology, many U.S. ports and terminals remain challenged by political conflicts, internecine competition, and internal communication issues.
Posted 03/24 · 10:36 AM · MMH Editorial
The companies that will flourish in the face of rapid change and tough competition are those driven by a higher sense of purpose and that practice what’s best for their employees, suppliers, customers and other stakeholders, said John Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market, at Tuesday’s keynote address.
Posted 03/11 · 03:21 PM · LM Editorial
LadeAS, led by legendary speed sailor, Terje Lade, has introduced “Vindskip,” (or “wind ship”) designed to take advantage of the wind for propulsion, along with advance computer technology enabling weather forecasting and route optimization.
Posted 03/10 · 08:05 AM · SCMR Editorial
While Maersk and a few other innovative titans of the ocean carrier industry are at work developing more fuel-efficient and “greener” vessels for the future, the most striking plan to date has come from a Oslo, Norway where a ship design company is incorporating aerodynamics for its beta model.
Posted 01/27 · 10:16 AM · SCMR Editorial
New standards and maturing market approaches provide tools to manage some of the biggest uncertainties and trade-offs of alternative fuels.
Posted 01/08 · 02:07 PM · MMH Editorial
Hillary Femal named the association’s first female chairperson in its 16-year history.
Posted 01/07 · 04:04 PM · MMH Editorial
Serialization, adaptive robotics and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) among key takeaways.


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The first time I met Prasoon Joshi (seven years back), he was not already an award-winning lyricist or someone whose poetry (the one word I think describes Joshi’s writing the best) had made a strong mark across India. He was someone who had given us ‘Thanda Matlab Coca Cola’, amongst other such outstanding work, in the advertising domain. He headed McCann Erickson India and he was amongst the top three names that were taken in the same breadth when it came to reigning creative geniuses from India.
The DSC Jaipur Literature Festival is all set to enthral literary enthusiasts from January 21-25, 2011. Managed and produced by Teamwork Productions, the annual festival will be held at the Diggi Palace in Jaipur, a heritage property, and will involve debates, discussions, readings, music and workshops.
Print ad volumes of hair care sector saw a growth of 59 per cent during January-November 2010, as compared to the same period in 2009. Shampoos was the top category under hair care sector in print. Among new hair care brands, Pantene Pro V Nourished Shine was the most advertised in print.
“Advertisers do not want to go beyond their set platforms of media planners and buyers. But this divide (between English and Hindi news channels) is ending. Today, an aware person does not mean that he has to be an ‘English’ person. Media planners and buyers have to get out of this misconceived notion,” says Anurradha Prasad, Chairperson & MD, B.A.G. Films & Media Ltd.
Skoda Auto’s extensive outdoor campaign for the launch of two of its car brands – Fabia and Yeti – has been grabbing eyeballs. The objective is to create an impact and break through the clutter, reinforcing Skoda as a new category creator. The outdoor campaign has been executed by Kinetic’s Portland, while Saints & Warrior is the creative agency.
After making a strong comeback by the end of 2010, Timex Group India is now focused to kick off the New Year with aggressive marketing plans and is all set to capitalise on the digital medium for the very first time by early 2011. VD Wadhwa, CEO, Timex Group India, shares the company’s plans for the coming year in an exclusive conversation with exchange4media.
Indian states seem to be pulling up their socks to take their tourism business to a higher scale as there’s yet another addition to the list of those who have called for creative pitch. Close on the heels of Haryana Tourism calling for a creative pitch, Uttar Pradesh is now on the lookout for creative agencies. According to senior sources in the industry, the account on pitch is a mid-sized one.
Pitch, the marketing monthly from the exchange4media Group, has roped in Dr Prafulla Y Agnihotri, Professor of Marketing, IIMC, to answer the questions of readers and marketers regarding marketing, brands, communications and more in Pitch’s new segment – ‘Pitch Q&A’.
High Definition is the new direction for broadcasters as audiences are ready to be enthralled. With the launch of Movies Now on December 19, 2010, Times Television Network has widened its English channel bouquet by entering the English movies space. But in the cluster, this is not just another movie channel as it will be telecast in the HD format. Will its differentiator of ‘Hollywood in HD’ be enough to get the channel the eyeballs? exchange4media finds out...
Ogilvy India’s Mumbai office was high on unusual energy most of last week. Reasons: the agency’s annual internal bash and this time also attending was Ogilvy Worldwide’s CEO, Miles Young. Young, as usual, is gung-ho about Ogilvy’s India operations and in a conversation with exchange4media shares the agency’s big focus on digital, the importance of consultant services, integration to fusion, and more…


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California-based lens manufacturer Veydra has officially shut down its business. Despite the praised price-quality ratio and a successful Kickstarter campaign for MFT cine lenses, internal conflicts have sent the company out of business.
Veydra’s co-Founder Ryan Avery posted this weekend on the company’s official Facebook page. He notified users that Veydra has gone out of business “due to the conclusion of ongoing litigation between the founders of the company.”
In March 2017, Veydra headquarters in California was robbed and more than 200 lenses were stolen. However, the company seemingly jumped back on its feet. Its cine lenses even won out over Zeiss in LensRentals’ tests in 2018. Still, the company had trouble meeting the supply demands. In December same year some users noticed that Veydra lenses were no longer available at any online retailer. Apparently, the downfall had already begun for the company.
A Reddit user made an assumption in April 2019that there has been a dispute between Veydra’s CEOs. “The founder Ryan Avery said in a post on their Facebook page toward the end of last year that he was still committed to Veydra, however he’s also working for Tokina USA.” Apparently, the internal conflict is exactly what happened and what brought the company to its end.
[via Mirrorless Rumors]
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Mojang has announced that its dungeon crawler Minecraft Dungeons is getting support for cross-platform saves in the cloud. Progress needs to sync manually, though, and DLC purchases don't carry over.
Windows 10 November Update out for Release Preview, ISO also available
windows 10 21h2
Build 22000.282 fixes for Ryzen L3 cache performance issue, and more
windows 11 insider preview
Cloud saves RSS
The new cross-platform save support for Hades brings PC and Nintendo Switch version players the ability to pick up the roguelike's latest run from where they left off from either platform.
After some users recently noticed the ability to save data to the cloud in some games on the Epic Games Store, Tim Sweeney has confirmed that the ability to do so is being added gradually.
Initially added in the 1.2 release of GOG Galaxy back in March, Universal Cloud Save-compatible titles have been growing since. The storefront has just announced the addition of another 30 games.
The 1.2 Update for the GOG Galaxy client is bringing cloud saves, scheduled updates, an in-game overlay, as well as desktop notifications among many other features, marking the end of its beta period.


text: Over the weekend, the New York Times reported that Walmart allegedly covered up an internal investigation proving its Mexican subsidiary bribed officials in the country. The retail giant's stock fell sharply Monday following the expose. Should the market be really that surprised? Over the years, Walmart has made headlines for behaving badly even as executives work tirelessly to maintain its all-American image. Here, take a look at Walmart's blunders.


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Capcom of Japan has announced that it has an all-new racing game in the works at its central development studio in Japan.
In a break from the cel-shaded antics seen in Capcom?s first racing outing, Auto Modelista, this new game is reported to be a realistic simulation-type affair, featuring a Gran Turismo-inspired roster of some of the world?s best motors.
Carrying the title Circus Drive, the game will feature cars from Europe and Japan?s greatest marques and will include offerings from the Lamborghini stable. We can exclusively reveal that this will not be the title of the game when released in Europe and the US.
The game will be made exclusively for Xbox, triggering more talk of a Microsoft buyout of Capcom. Although all buyout rumours have been vehemently denied by both parties, this does at least illustrate more strong support for the Xbox at Capcom HQ.


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The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) draft report on carbohydrates and health published last week should be a wake-up call to the Government, food industry and consumers.
The SACN report made it clear that as a population we consume too much sugar and too little fibre. Its draft advice is for the population to lower consumption of free sugars (those added to foods and naturally present in syrups and unsweetened juices) to around 5% of daily energy intake. This means 5-6 teaspoons a day for a woman and 7-8 teaspoons for a man.
Across all population groups, we are failing to meet the current advice, let alone this stricter target. More specifically, SACN recommended that the consumption of sugar sweetened beverages, such as fizzy drinks and squash be minimised in both children and adults.
Apart from the serious health consequences, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and certain cancers linked to weight gain and tooth decay, there are enormous economic costs. Overweight and obesity is estimated to cost the NHS £4.7 billion per year and tooth decay £3.4 billion. Public Health England is now assessing what measures can be taken to reduce sugar intakes.
Too much sugar and too little fibre
Discussions through the Responsibility Deal have been ongoing but not enough progress has been made on this important issue. While there is a calorie reduction pledge, which 39 companies have signed up to, it is vaguely worded and leaves it to individual companies to determine the level of action they want to take – whether reformulation of their products or information initiatives. More specific action is now needed on sugar in several key areas, addressing both the breadth of companies committed to act and the scale of action they take.
Much clearer industry-wide reduction targets are needed across the key product categories that contribute free sugars to most people’s diets. This includes soft drinks, confectionery, biscuits, cakes and breakfast cereals for example. These should be developed in a similar way to the salt reduction targets, encouraging incremental reductions while taking account of quality and taste.
A much more concerted effort is also needed to tackle promotions. This includes looking at the balance of products that are included in supermarket price and other in-store promotions, but also making sure that there is a much more responsible approach to marketing to children, including teenagers. This is the group that consumes 50% more sugar than is recommended on average, with soft drinks the largest single source.
All population groups are eating too much sugar and much more needs to be done to help people reduce their intake and ultimately tackle the obesity crisis. This includes a far more ambitious approach to the Responsibility Deal, with greater direction from the Government to ensure meaningful change.
While information alone will never be enough, it is now clearly time for those manufacturers who have yet to commit to using traffic light labelling to adopt the national scheme and make it much clearer to people which products are high in sugar.
This post first appeared on The Grocer.


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Project Blackout begins open beta
SG Interactive’s new MMOFPS, Project Blackout, is beginning open beta testing today.
Project Blackout lets players choose between either the paramilitary Ageis Inc or the civilian militia “the Corps,” and progress their character with customizable weapons and equipment. Currently, the game supports five gameplay modes across several battlefields.
SG Interactive (previously Ntreev) also publishes Grand Chase, Pangya, and Trickster Online.
Project Blackout Gameplay Screenshot
SG Interactive Fires Up the Open Beta of Project Blackout
Early Access Now Available to the Free-to-Play Online FPS
IRVINE, Calif. – Dec. 15, 2010
SG Interactive, a publisher of high-quality online games, today announced the start of the Open Beta for free-to-play online FPS Project Blackout. Players interested in taking the first shots in the fight for control over the divided country of Korogese can sign up for the open beta at http://pb.ntreev.net/ .
“For the first title released under the SG Interactive name, we wanted to offer our players a venue where they could really put their skills and reflexes to the test,” said Chris Lee, CEO of SG Interactive. “Project Blackout features everything a first-person shooter fan could ask for, and we hope everyone has a blast in the Open Beta as we prepare for the upcoming launch!”
Project Blackout tasks players with choosing a side and joining the fight for control over the bullet-riddled country of Korogese. Whether they decide to back the heavily-funded paramilitary group Ageis Inc or choose to support the civilian militia, the Corps, in their rebellious efforts, players will have a vast array of weapons to choose from as they shoot their way through five action-packed gameplay modes.
To learn more about the world of Project Blackout and the Open Beta Test, visit the teaser site at: http://pb.ntreev.net/ .
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|The feedback from all the exhibitors highlighted the fact that Securexpo is the market leading security event|
Securexpo East Africa took place for the first time this September at the Visa Oshwal Centre in Nairobi and has been hailed as a great success from both visitors and exhibitors alike. With 1724 trade visitors attending the three day event, the exhibition and conference instantly became the largest security event of its type in the region.
Positive Feedback From Participants
During the event, there were 857 different products on display from the 50 international and local exhibitors. One exhibitor, Hemil Patel from Magenta K Ltd said about the results they got from the show, “Securexpo was a great exhibition and fantastic for us and for the local market. We sell high-end integrated security systems and we received a lot on enquiries and have already confirmed business from people we met at the exhibition.”
The feedback from all the exhibitors highlighted the fact that Securexpo is the market leading security event in the region. 85% of space was confirmed at the event for the next edition showing peoples belief in the future of the exhibition. Subsequently, the organisers have doubled the amount of space available for next year by opening into the next door hall.
Expanding Security Market In Kenya
Alongside the exhibition ran a two day conference that was attended by over 100 senior delegates. With subjects on the regional security situation, counter terrorism and cyber security, amongst others, visitors has the opportunity to listen to top end speakers that only a handful of people have access to. One of the delegates, Terry Downes said about the whole event, “Securexpo was an inspirational event. As someone who truly cares about the industry in Kenya, it was jaw dropping to see the scope and quality of participation.”
"Securexpo was an inspirational event. As someone who truly cares about the industry in Kenya, it was jaw dropping to see the scope and quality of participation"
The security industry in Kenya is currently going through rapid and continual growth. With recent issues surrounding crime and terrorism, organizations in the region are taking their security situation increasingly serious by investing in security products. International exhibitors at Securexpo commented that with other African markets difficult to operate or some being saturated, they see Kenya as a huge opportunity for them. The combination of these factors result in huge investment and are helping the local industry to grow tremendously.
Montgomery ECO East Africa
Securexpo is another feather in the cap to organisers Montgomery ECO East Africa. The company is the largest trade exhibition organisers in the region running now five separate trade exhibitions. The company is also the largest organisers of security exhibitions in Africa and with this successful launch of the Kenyan event, now covers the whole of Sub-Sharan Africa with its security events.
Alongside Securexpo East Africa next year, Montgomery ECO East Africa will run K-OSH, an occupational health and safety exhibition that will be able to leverage off the success from Securexpo. With similar buyers, this event will increase the offering to the visitors and allow for increased results for all participants.
Securexpo East Africa is returning from 8-10 November 2016 at the Visa Oshwal Centre in Nairobi.


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Turnover to the end of March was up 21.4% on last year to £65m, with like-for-like sales up 3.6% and gross profit up by more than a third.
Mills, no 16 in The Grocer Top 50 independents, is disposing of several small stores to allow acquisitions of larger ones.
Its most recent acquisition was a 2,200 sq ft store in Sunderland. This year’s results were boosted by 27 stores acquired in the West Midlands.
The company is working on new fascias - Mills Local Store and Mills City Express - to affirm its position as a grocery retailer. These are set to roll out across the estate in the next few years with investment of up to £150,000 per store.
The chain currently has 82 stores with two of these on the market.


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At the end of September 2018, the Governor of California signed country's first Internet of Things (IoT) security law, calling for reasonable security features. This is the first cybersecurity bill governing IoT devices, making California the first state in the country to establish formal legislation.
At the end of September 2018, the Governor of California signed country's first Internet of Things (IoT) security law, calling for reasonable security features. This is the first cybersecurity bill governing IoT devices, making California the first state in the country to establish formal legislation. The news is quite timely given that earlier this year the FBI issued a warning about threat actors actively searching for, and compromising, vulnerable IoT devices to route cyberattacks.
The bill, SB 327 (Information Privacy: Connected Devices), mandates that any manufacturer of IoT or smart devices ensure that the appliance has “reasonable” security features that “protect the device and any information contained therein from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure.”
We are not surprised to see government intervention in Internet of Things (IoT) security, especially since the stakes are so high for privacy and safety. However, anyone reading the bill will find the wording to be open-ended and vague. A section of the bill specifies that default passwords must be unique to each device. This is an obvious reference to the Mirai Botnet, but the bill does not call for other safeguards like ensuring strong authentication based on digital identities.
Since the government is not in a position to prescribe specific technologies that could potentially be quickly outdated, this bill creates opportunities for companies to define and quickly bring to market next-generation security and authentication tools. For example, the removal and disabling of open ports like telnet or FTP, which would have its own authentication.
All IoT device manufacturers and consumers should read and educate themselves about SB 327. Here are some precautions for IoT vendors to consider before January 1, 2020, when the law goes into effect:
- Leave security to the experts and work with a proven security partner you trust
- Stop using static credentials for authentication like username and password and weak symmetric tokens
- Leverage strong authentication based on digital identities that are renewed (not static) and difficult to steal; this should increase trust and confidence within the supply chain and across the entire ecosystem including vendors and customers
With just over a year to go until the law goes into effect, our team will continue to innovate and develop the framework for IoT vendors to further increase the level of security they deliver to their customers. We will also be interested to see how other states react to this new California law and if other states will draw up similar legislature.
If you have any questions regarding how this law might affect your company, please contact [email protected].


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Brazilian Coffee manufacturing is predicted to succeed in 55.7 million baggage within the 2022 harvest. The estimate, if confirmed, represents a rise of 16.8% in comparison with manufacturing in 2021.
According to the primary survey of the 2022 harvest, launched final January by the National Supply Company (Conab), the anticipated manufacturing is 55.7 million 60-kilo baggage.
The manufacturing of the Arabica selection will enhance by 23.4% in relation to the earlier harvest, being estimated at 38.7 million baggage. As for Robusta (conilon espresso), a brand new report is predicted with a harvest that would attain near 17 million baggage.
For virtually 2 centuries, Brazil has been the biggest espresso producer and exporter on the earth, with a share of 32% in worldwide manufacturing and 23% in exports in 2020. In 2021 alone, Brazil exported about 42.4 million 60-kilo baggage of inexperienced espresso, with a income of US$6.4 billion.


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Dangercustom silicone wristbands canada of sugar to children highlighted
Experts suggest policy moves to reduce intake of unhealthy drinks
As Chinese children consume more sugar-sweetened beverages, experts are advising authorities to impose a sugar tax to reduce the health risks that such drinks may bring.
The World Health Organization has long appealed to countries to levy a sugar tax to reduce obesity and diabetes among children, and where that has been done the results appear positive.
In Mexico, for example, a 10 percent tax on sugar-sweetened beverages was introduced in 2014. Two years later, the country saw a 5.5 percent drop in purchases of such drinks, followed by a 9.7 percent drop the second year. The largest declines were seen in the lowest socioeconomic groups.
"There are no related policies for sugar-sweetened beverages in China, and that"s a major policy gap that needs to be addressed," said Douglas James Noble, deputy representative of the United Nations Children"s Fund. "While children suffering from stunting and wasting are still present in China, obesity is steeply on the rise."
He strongly suggested that it"s necessary for China to impose mandatory regulations, such as a sugar tax, to provide a healthier environment for children.
Chinese children"s consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages almost doubled from 1998 to 2008, according to a report released on Friday by Peking University and UNICEF.
The survey found that children in China"s urban areas drank an average of 476 milliliters of sugary drinks daily in 2008, compared with 220 ml in 1998.
Ma Guansheng, chief editor of the report and director of the nutrition and food department at Peking University, said that even though the data are a decade old, they show a general trend.
Experts have warned that sugar-sweetened beverages might put children"s health at risk, increasing the possibility of obesity, tooth decay and Type 2 diabetes.
Ma said there is no doubt that drinking sugar-sweetened beverages will increase the chance a child will become obese.
"It will directly increase the energy intake of children, which will stimulate the kids" appetite," he said.
According to a 2015 survey published by the New England Journal of Medicine, China"s child obesity rate ranked highest among the 195 countries surveyed and is one of the fastest-growing in the world.
"It was also easy to connect the excessive intake of sugary drinks with children"s decayed teeth," Ma said.
The fourth National Oral Health Survey in 2015 showed that 5-year-old Chinese children had a 70.9 percent chance of tooth decay, an increase of 5.8 percentage points in 10 years.
Ma also advised staying alert to other foods that contain added sugar－for example, cakes and pastries.
There is no world standard for what a child"s daily consumption of sugary drinks should be. But the report said that daily consumption of such drinks by Chinese children far surpassed some other countries.how to make silicone bracelets charity wristbands 24 hour wristbands coupon design your own wristband glow wristbands
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Wednesday's Afternoon Update
What you need to know about Florida today
The online MBA comes of age
Some of the best business schools in the world now offer MBA degrees online. While videos, podcasts, animations, bulletin board discussions, and chat features are largely a given in online programs, each school has come up with a different approach to its on-campus segments. The University of Florida requires online MBA students to come to its Gainesville campus for weekend classes and projects every four months during the 27-month-long program. More at Fortune.
Write a book, start a blog to promote yourself
Today, efficient self-promotion is a critical component of success in any career. “You need to be top of mind,” says Michelle Villalobos, a Miami personal branding expert and founder of the Women’s Success Summit. “If you’re not shamelessly self-promoting, there are plenty of others who are.” More at the Miami Herald.
Defying odds, bicycle shops thrive in Orlando
Bucking a national trend, bicycle shops are hot in Central Florida, thanks to moderate weather, an extensive trail network and even Brazilian tourists who help keep sales healthy. "Our area is a great area because it's gotten very bike-friendly," said Jessica Kinnee, co-owner of Retro City Cycles north of downtown Orlando. And, she said, "we can do this 365 days a year." More at the Orlando Sentinel.
New $40M fiber-optics network runs through Jacksonville
A new network of fiber optic cables is being installed in Miami and will eventually run right through Jacksonville. Allied Fiber LLC started the first phase of its national project, and will run cables from Miami to Atlanta. More at the Jacksonville Business Journal.
Cuba to offer public Internet at salons islandwide
Cuban authorities said Tuesday that they will begin offering public Internet access at more than 100 cyber-salons across the island, though home Web service remains greatly restricted. Starting June 4, people can sign up with state telecom Etecsa for temporary or permanent accounts to use one of the 118 centers, according to a measure enacted with its publication in the government’s Official Gazette. More at the Miami Herald.
In case you missed it:


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who are best hackers? Russians or Chinese?
Russian 'methbot' fraud steals $180 million in online ads
Russian cybercriminals have built a new high-tech fraud enterprise: Showing real ads to fake people. The fraud has siphoned more than $180 million from the online ad industry, according to researchers. Dubbed "Methbot," it is a new twist in an increasingly complex world of online crime, according to White Ops, the cybersecurity firm that discovered the operation. "This is a very advanced cyber operation on a scale no one's seen before," said Eddie Schwartz, White Ops chief operating officer. Methbot, so nicknamed because the fake browser refers to itself as the "methbrowser," operates as a sham intermediary ... (full story)


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The Indian Commodity Exchange or ICEX has already become the world’s first exchange to start trading of diamond futures contracts in the world recently. ICEX has launched 1 carat diamond futures contract which is world’s first ever such trading. At the recent launch of world’s first diamond future contracts by ICEX, the contract was traded at Rs. 3,279/cent where one cent carries the value of the one-hundredth of a carat. This contract is up for its delivery in the month of November this year.
Now, the largest commodity derivatives exchange for metals and energy that also includes the precious metals, MCX or Multi Commodity Exchange, also wishes to join the league and therefore has also applied for the launch of futures trading in diamonds with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
As per the stock market news, MCX has two options available with them for the settlement price. The first option is to use the prices of SDiX. The MCX will contact the Securities and Exchange Board of India to allow them to use the prices settled on the SDiX. SDiX or the Singapore Diamond Investment Exchange is the world’s first and only commodity exchange which is trading in physically settled diamonds.
The second and the last option that lies with the MCX is to do the polling like ICEX had done to reach the settlement price. It had taken eight to nine months for the ICEX to do the polling of polished diamond prices. This polling prices from the actual market is treated as the benchmark for the settlement of the contract.
MCX had already signed a MoU or memorandum of understanding with Singapore Diamond Investment Exchange for creating the areas of cooperation between the two exchanges.
MCX wishes to launch the diamond futures contract because the exchange is hopeful and positive of the success of the diamond futures trading if at all they are allowed. The commodity exchange believes that the gold is already the most vibrant commodity for trading on the exchange and hence most of the traders who are dealing in gold currently will also deal in the diamond derivatives trading as they will be comfortable in understanding the same.
India is a leading global diamond polishing hub, catering to more than 90% of the world’s polishing market for rough diamonds. India imports rough diamond of value more than 19 billion dollars and exports the polished diamonds worth 24 billion dollars annually.
This diamond futures launch by ICEX came after a lot of effort by the exchange. It took two and a half of constant of persuasion and coaxing where several ministries were approached and convinced about the scope of this contract. We are yet to see such a commodity on the nifty futures index. Since diamond is not a notified commodity, it was important for the exchange to persuade the government officers about the need of such contract. Sebi also took some time to approve the contract as the board had to consult the physical market intermediaries in person.
For more on Business & Stock Market News, visit BloombergQuint.


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Travel and Tourism Industry response for next year’s ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) has been positive, with over 350 TRAVEX (travel exchange) booths contracted and some 550 applications for the Hosted Buyers Program.
The TRAVEX sellers, made up of suppliers of ASEAN travel and tourism products and services, come from the 10 member nations of ASEAN – Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – and together will take up 8,000 square metres of space.
ATF aims to promoting ASEAN as a single destination and hosting of the event is rotated among the member countries each year.
Participation from host country Myanmar is at an all-time high. U Phyoe Wai Yar Zar, Chairman of Myanmar Tourism Marketing (MTM), said, “The local hoteliers, tour operators and other players in the industry are very much looking forward to next year’s event, this being the first time that ATF is coming to Myanmar.
Accor, the world’s leading hotel operator and market leader in Europe and Asia Pacific, which is participating in ATF 2015 as a TRAVEX seller, is optimistic about Myanmar’s tourism future. Mr Philippe Battle, Accor’s Area General Manager for Myanmar, said, “Myanmar is a promising market and a new frontier for us in Asia. We have one hotel open in Myanmar – MGallery The Lake Garden Nay Pyi Taw, and a Novotel resort in Inle Lake scheduled to open by October 2014, followed by a Novotel hotel in Yangon. Next year’s ATF in Myanmar will help showcase the country’s potential and we are confident that we will see a rapid growth in bookings in the years to come.”
U Khin Aung Htun, Joint Secretary of Myanmar Tourism Federation, the organiser of ATF 2015, said, “We are very pleased to have the backing of the local private sector companies for ATF and are confident that together with the support of the Myanmar government and all other industry players, ATF 2015 will be a highly successful event and a milestone for our country.”
International standard MICE venue
The official venue for ATF 2015 has been confirmed as Myanmar International Convention Centre (MICC) 1. The key components of the official ATF 2015 programme, such as TRAVEX and ASEAN Tourism Conference, will be held at the newly completed 60,000 square metre exhibition and convention centre. The venue has hosted numerous national level meetings and international business events, including the recently concluded 24th ASEAN Summit.
Uganda Tourism news, Uganda safari news and gorilla trekking.


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Previously marked down for release in summer of this year, Remedy Entertainment has narrowed down the release date for its upcoming action adventure title, Control. After a leak from the Microsoft Store website seemingly revealed the date early, the developer has now confirmed when you'll be joining Jesse in The Oldest House.
Control comes to PS4 on 27th August 2019, ahead of the busy autumn months. This is probably a good slot, as it otherwise might struggle if it mingled with some of the year's larger releases. Are you looking forward to playing it on PS4? Maintain control in the comments below.


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- Path of Exile: The Fall of Oriath launching this Thursday for Xbox One
- Battlefield 1: Revolution bundle out for console, PC
- Bungie releases launch trailer for Destiny 2
- Yakuza 6: The Song of Life editions detailed, new gameplay trailer up
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance story trailer released for gamescom
Fancy A Date?
Developer- and Publisher-specific Articles: Deathmatch Made in Heaven
The final DLC drop for Max Payne 3, Deathmatch Made in Heaven Pack, is now available for 360, PC, and PS3. The pack, detailed below, includes a host of new material for multiplayer: versus modes, co-op modes, Arcade Mode challenges, weapons, items, bursts, and grinds. Rockstar announced the pack last week but has only released the specifics, including screenshots, today.
Rockstar has announced the release date for Deathmatch Made in Heaven, the final DLC pack for Max Payne 3. The pack will launch on January 22 for all platforms, and include new co-op and competitive modes, new weapons, new bursts, and new items. Specifics are being held off on until closer to release.


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Industrial production in Colombia fell an estimated 7.3% during the first nine months of the year compared with the same period last year, according to a private-sector survey of industrialists released Tuesday.
Industrial sales in the first nine months of the year fell 5.7% on the year, dragged down by sales of cars, auto parts and products of glass, the National Association of Industrialists, known as ANDI, said in its monthly report.
According to ANDI, all the 18 industrial sub-sectors registered a decline in output and in sales in the first nine months of the year.
Production of auto parts registered the sharpest contraction during the first nine months of the year, at 32% on year, while the output of vehicles fell 27%. (Dow Jones)
In September, factories were running at an average capacity of 73.6%, lower than the 79.1% reported for September 2008.
In September, 33% of the business executives surveyed said they expected the situation would improve in the immediate future, up from a 29% average during the first six months of the year, the report said.
The country’s statistics department is expected to release retail sales and industrial production on Wednesday.


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Daily news, dev blogs, and stories from Game Developer straight to your inbox
Jason Dobson, Blogger
April 5, 2006
1 Min Read
In-game advertising network Massive Incorporated has announced a partnership with the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), MLB Advanced Media and 2K Sports to deliver dynamic advertising to Major League Baseball 2K6. In addition, the resulting agreement names Massive as an exclusive partner with MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM) for the purposes of dynamic advertising in certain MLBAM-licensed video games, and with the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA). "Sports games are ideal vehicles for in-game advertising, as the advertising adds an element of realism to the experience for gamers," said Steve Glickstein, Vice President of Licensing for 2K Sports. "Our sports properties attract top-tier, high profile advertisers and I'm confident Major League Baseball 2K6 will be even more appealing as the Massive Network allows seamless delivery of customized, real-time advertising campaigns." "We are thrilled to work with MLBAM, MLBPA and 2K Sports to leverage and fully extend the advertising potential of this great franchise," said Mitch Davis, CEO of Massive. "Major League Baseball has already brought significant innovation to advertising in live sports; together, we will now do the same for their video game properties."
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Of all the City Councilmembers, 2nd District member Paul Krekorian is the one community activists seem to count on most. However Krekorian's proposed draft of Neighborhood Council reforms has at least a few bloggers and activists displeased.
California, pushed by "pro-business" groups such as VICA, is seeking to disrupt the incredible economic engine that is online commerce by imposing draconian sales taxes on in-state purchases even though California's online retailers don't have the impact on the state nor the services needs that brick and mortar retailers do but contribute economically just the same. Even Bill Clinton knew it was smart not to tax the internet. A coalition of small business owners is pushing Governor Brown to veto this legislation.
The social networking site Just Spotted is tracking the whereabouts of Controller and Mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel. On Friday she was allegedly seen attending a meeting with Councilmember Jan Perry at a Miracle Mile office building. We have no idea what that was about. Some may call this stalking, others may call it transparency in government. What say you?
Former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has found his popularity slide drastically as noted by a recent Field Poll. Though 20% statewide still like the ex-Governator, his numbers are at only 10% here in Los Angeles County.


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IntelliVision Announces AI/Deep Learning Video Analytics on Ambarella S5L IP Security Camera SoC
Will Demonstrate with Ambarella at CES 2018
SAN JOSE, CA, Jan 5, 2018 – IntelliVision, a pioneer and leader in AI/deep learning video and audio analytics software for Smart Cameras, today announced availability of its full product line of intelligent video analytics software on Ambarella’s most advanced S5L IP camera SoC (System on Chip). The software will be demonstrated in the Ambarella booth at CES 2018 in Las Vegas.
“We have the most advanced AI and deep learning-based video analytics software in the industry so it makes sense to run it on the most advanced camera chipset,” said Vaidhi Nathan, IntelliVision’s CEO. “IntelliVision and Ambarella have been good partners for many years and this product combination strengthens our lead in AI and edge computing – the new computer vision battleground.”.
“IntelliVision is honored to be recognized as a disruptive technology company in the video analytics space,” said Vaidhi Nathan, CEO. “Our AI and video analytics software is in use in millions of cameras around the world in many of the leading industry brands, and is helping to power the rise of the Smart Home, Smart Enterprise, Smart Retail, Smart City and Smart Auto.”
IntelliVision’s AI/deep learning video analytics product line includes:
- Face Detection, Recognition and Search
- Intelligent Motion, Object Detection and Tracking
- Intrusion/Perimeter Watch
- Object Classification (People, Vehicle, Pet)
- License Plate Detection and Recognition (LPR/ANPR)
- Audio/Sound Recognition
IntelliVision’s video analytics products are in use in over 3 million cameras around the world. IntelliVision has been named a Red Herring 2017 Global Top 100 Company and has been awarded Entrepreneurial Company of the Year 2017 in Security and Video Analytics by analyst group Frost and Sullivan.
IntelliVision is a market leader in AI and deep learning-based video analytics software for smart cameras, providing video analytics solutions for several markets including Smart Home/IoT, Smart Security, Smart Retail, Smart City and Smart Auto/ADAS. IntelliVision technology has been recognized as the Brains Behind the Eyes™ for many applications deploying and using cameras to provide actionable insights and real-time alerts to other home, business and security systems. IntelliVision provides the largest suite of video analytic products in the market today. Its products are used by Fortune 500 companies, the US Government and many leading brands. IntelliVision is a privately-held company headquartered in San Jose, California with offices in Asia and Europe.
For more information, visit: www.intelli-vision.com Email: email@example.com Phone: 408-754-1690 ###


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Domestic Interest Pushing Development Of Chinese Contemporary Art World
A roundup of news from the Chinese contemporary art world, which continues to ride a wave of domestic interest following this spring’s record-breaking auction season in mainland China and Hong Kong.
Qiu Zhijie Launches First-Ever Solo Exhibition At Pace Beijing
Chinese contemporary art “Renaissance man,” Qiu Zhijie has launched his new exhibition, “Cell,” at Pace Beijing, his first-ever solo show at the gallery. Running from July 17-September 3, the exhibition displays the combination of theory, language and practice that has characterized Qiu’s work since his emergence on the Beijing scene in the early 1990s. From Pace Beijing:
Cell…explores [Qiu’s unique point of view towards art] through its works, consisting of unconstrained honeycomb-like units. Simple mediums and limitless combinations are evocative of a cell’s growth. This is a representation of growth, through which we have attempted to make a clear understanding emerge from the artist’s complex earlier works. The work’s simple weaving and growth explore the very possibilities of artistic expression.
798 Art District, No.2 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing
北京市朝阳区酒仙桥路2号798艺术区 8502信箱 100015
First CBD Affordable Art Fair To Be Held At Beijing’s Times Art Museum
Not every aspiring art collector in China can afford to drop millions on a Zeng Fanzhi painting or Zhan Wang sculpture. It’s with that fact in mind that the inaugural CBD Affordable Art Fair launches this week at Beijing’s Times Art Museum.
While the CDB fair isn’t the only economy-minded event in Beijing — Affordable Art Beijing (AAB) has been held for the past six years — clearly demand is rising among Beijingers for quality art that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.
According to the Times Art Museum, the event will include hundreds of works of art, from oil paintings and traditional Chinese calligraphy to photography, sculpture and installations, priced anywhere from a few hundred yuan to 10,000 yuan (US$1,546). The event is free to the public, and runs from July 18-24.
Times Art Museum
35-37/F, D Block, CITC Plaza
6 Jianwai St., Chaoyang District, Beijing
Nicolas Chow Of Sotheby’s Gives “6 Insights Into the Skyrocketing Chinese Art Market”
ArtInfo has posted a must-read interview with Nicolas Chow, Sotheby’s international head of Chinese ceramics and works of art, who shares this week six key insights into the booming Chinese art market. From ArtInfo:
1. PEOPLE DON’T JUST WANT TO BUY AN OBJECT, THEY WANT TO BUY A STORY
It’s not just about the object, the vase, or the seal. “Lost Treasures” was a high point for us, the greatest sale we ever put together. Handling a great collection is wonderful, but putting together a sale that tells a story is very exciting. Of all the sales I’ve witnessed I’ve never seen so much electricity in the room. That’s when you can really feel the excitement, when people aren’t just buying commodities.
2. THE NEW MAINLAND CHINESE COLLECTORS HAVE HAD A GLOBAL IMPACT
Where the Chinese have really impacted our market is that they have re-invigorated the interest of Western and Taiwan and Hong Kong collectors. For the finest things you now have top contenders competing from New York, London, Taipei, and Hong Kong. People want to buy in a field that is exciting. When prices go up everyone wants to buy. In our most recent sale the two top lots went to collectors from outside China. The Chinese have certainly pushed the boundaries in terms of price but it’s a very healthy market, very balanced.
Read the rest of Chow’s insights here.