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The 2021 Buick GL6 received a mid-cycle refresh that included a completely redesigned interior with a new driver-oriented dual display screen and the addition of a 48V mild-hybrid powertrain. Those weren’t the only changes that were applied to the Chinese market people mover, though, as it also features a revolutionary new interior material from Kraton called Injection Molded Soft-Skin (IMSS).
Kraton says its new IMSS material uses Hydrogenated Styrenic Block Copolymers (HSBC). Unlike the traditional PVC-based soft skin materials that are often seen in automotive applications, HSBC polymers allow injection molding of large, thin-walled soft skin parts like instrument panels. In addition, these materials “provide lower odor, fogging, VOCs, better aging, subsequently improved safety performance, and lower specific gravity,” the company says. They also contain no added plasticizer, phthalates, or cross-linking agents, making them a bit more environmentally friendly as well.
“SAIC-GM has been committed to the application of innovative materials technology to provide consumers with a more comfortable and environmentally friendly driving experience,” a director at the SAIC-GM technical automotive center said. “Compared with traditional PVC skin, IMSS can further improve the interior environment and reduce odor and VOC concentration in the passengers’ compartment. Being the first company in the world to apply this technology underscores the importance SAIC-GM places on the consumer experience.”
Kraton says its IMSS material helps reduce the manufacturing time by up to one-fifth over a typical PVC soft skin material, which is important given the rising popularity of soft-touch surfaces in vehicle interiors in place of hard plastics. The Buick GL6 is the first-ever vehicle to feature mass-produces Kraton IMSS material and the company expects more car models to utilize the more eco-friendly material in the near future. The company also says that it has “established technology licenses with several other premier compounders worldwide to make this technology available to all automobile manufacturers,” as its adoption in the industry becomes more widespread in the coming years. That means that even if Kraton doesn’t have an existing supplier relationship with a certain OEM, it will still be able to use the new material in its vehicles.
“It’s a growing trend in the auto industry to introduce soft surfaces replacing hard plastic interiors,” concluded Bas Hennissen, Kraton’s commercial VP. “IMSS technology offers considerable cost and performance advantages over the existing soft skin technologies, with a better sustainability profile.”
Neither GM-SAIC nor parent company General Motors have said if they will use Kraton IMSS material in other future product offerings.


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COOK'S CORNER: Ice cream makes the holiday
Published 11:58 pm Wednesday, June 27, 2007
By By Lisa Tindell – news writer
With just one week before the big Independence Day celebration, it is time now to get out the recipe files and find a really good ice cream recipe.
Some of my fondest childhood memories that are connected with July 4th are centered around making ice cream. Back in my day ice cream called for milk, sugar, flavoring and lots of elbow grease.
Hand-cranked ice cream was the only kind of ice cream we ever had. Back then a motorized ice cream freezer was only a dream. The process called for putting ice and ice cream salt in the outside container and turning, and turning, and turning

domain: news


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Azuri, a start-up that sells solar energy to customers off the grid, offers a pay-as-you-go solar charger kit, which promises reliable, clean, safe and much cheaper way to provide energy to people in remote areas of the world.
In such places, especially Africa, people not only have to pay extraordinary prices to have a light at night, but they also use kerosene, which is one of the major contributors to lung cancer development and death.
Families in rural areas of Africa often face the problem of not having access to electricity. Consequently, when there is no electricity provided by the grid, the easiest solution is usually kerosene fuel, despite the numerous warnings about its impact on human health. Ironically, kerosene lighting also comes at a price, which is 800 times higher than what we pay in the U.S. and Europe for power provided by a utility company. Recently, the International Finance Corporation estimated that around 30% of the income of an average family in sub-Saharan Africa is spent on kerosene, and even more on mobile phone credit.
The guys at Azuri took this issue quite seriously and decided to look for ways to reduce the price of electricity in these regions and at the same time provide them with a much safer alternative. They came up with the Indigo Pay-as-you-go model for solar kits, which allows the families to prepay for electricity and use it whenever needed. Each customer is provided with a kit that includes two to five watt solar panel with a control unit, which directs power either to LED lights or a mobile phone charger. Unlike any other existing solar power kits, this one can be obtained for an upfront payment of only $10.
Azuri already has more than 20,000 customers in 10 African countries, which places them right after another start-up, Angaza Design, which provides pay-as-you-go service for mobile phone charging for just over 30,000 people across Africa.
In general, the companies are facing one common problem, that of a limited working capital, and therefore constraints in the flow of cash. But the model is proving successful in all countries where it has been applied. While the westernized world is debating when solar will finally have a good share in the grid, in Africa it is already the cheapest, safest and most practical option.


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Not a great year for incumbent share prices
2016 hasn’t been kind to big bank share prices, which have plummeted by nearly half a trillion dollars since January. A number of issues are at play here – the Chinese economy, U.S. interest rates, oil prices, and yes, Brexit (more on that below). The concern is that these losses could trigger a cycle of bank executive inaction and bank employees selling their stock.
Yes, we still need to talk about Brexit
Britain’s decision to leave the EU is still reverberating through the finance industry. The long-term impact of the Leave vote on UK finance/fintech is largely uncertain, though this has not stopped finance experts and reporters from adopting the dystopian lexicon of a young adult novel to describe Britain’s impending financial doom.
Whatever the gloomy short-term effects of the referendum, long-term the future doesn’t look so bleak: the $30b mega-merger between the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse is still going ahead, and the two companies still expect to deliver cost savings and revenue synergies worth a combined $780m a year after five years.
New and improved
Thanks to the explosion of fintech, incumbents are no longer the only financial service providers in the economic pond. As a result, banks are being forced to deal with a new reality in which owning the entire value chain isn’t really such a good thing.
Some incumbents are rolling with the changes, not only by rebranding but by transforming the products they offer and the way in which they communicate with their clients. Travelex, a 40 year old foreign exchange company that realized that whatever the future of payments is, it ain’t cash, went through a massive redesign to make digital its core. Its first product, Supercard, frees its users from foreign transaction fess and unfavorable forex rates.
Stateside, national bank TCF Bank rolled out ZEO, a suite of services that partners with Western Union to provide quick and efficient access to and transfer of funds. For the unbanked, ZEO is a godsend – you don’t have to bank with TCF to use ZEO, but you still get the security of the bank and can get expert advice from a banker.
Professional investors are tooling up
Professional investors are using new technology to make themselves relevant (and cool) once again. Point72 Asset Managements’s marketing weapon of choice is social media, and it’s using LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, Glassdoor and soon Twitter to aggressively pursue traders.
Meanwhile, legendary hedge fund Renaissance Technology is taking on high speed traders through the patented the use of atomic clocks, which will sync orders to within a few billionths of a second. Talk about radioactive.
Alternative SMB financing solutions are becoming mainstream
The SMB online lending marketplace is heating up, with old and new players aiming for a piece of the SMB loan provision pie. On July 7th, online payment lead PayPal announced that it had provided $2 billion of funding to 90,000 SMBs globally through PayPal Working Capital – its small business finance program.
Though $2b and 90,000 SMBs might seem paltry compared to Wells Fargo’s $40b (of a 5-year $500b lending goal), these numbers show that PayPal is serious about entering the SMB loan market. What differentiates PayPal’s SMB loan model is that repayments are applied automatically as a fixed percentage of daily sales that the business owner selects in advance; thanks to this proportionate system, business owners don’t have to live in dread of their loans.
PayPal isn’t the only innovator trying to make itself heard in a space that’s becoming increasingly crowded. Credit mogul American Express will be rolling out a new online loan platform later this year, and from the release it sounds like they’re aiming to win the marketing battle with supply chain financing.
Orchard’s eagle-eye take on the online SMB/consumer loan market is that it’s an attractive and stable yield opportunity – no doubt we’ll see more incumbents jumping on this loan wagon in the near future.


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A severe storm barreled through Mississippi Gulf Coast communities, damaging or destroying about a dozen RV trailers at one campground, downing trees and power lines and cutting electricity in some areas.
The storm blew through the Santa Maria RV Park in Gautier at around 8 p.m. Monday (April 14), knocking some trailers off their blocks and overturning or destroying others.
Park resident Harrold Robbins said he was at the front end of the camper when the wind hit.
“The front end flipped,” he said after returning from a hospital where he was treated for bumps and bruises and Dales got stitches to her head. “It launched me back into the back end. Then it flipped over on the other side and came back up in the air and landed on our car.”
Jessica Cook told television station WLOX her home was knocked off its blocks, but her next-door-neighbor’s was completely destroyed and he was pinned under it. She said the fire department managed to free him and he was taken to a hospital.
Campers at Santa Maria RV Park on Martin Bluff Road in Gautier, Miss., were flipped from possible straight line winds Monday, April 14, 2014, as storms rolled over the Coast. As many as 30 campers were damaged from the storm.
Coleman Tent Campers by Livin Lite, Yogi Bear’s Jellystone ParkCamp-Resorts, and RV Trader.com are launching a nationwide giveaway of a $10,000 Coleman ultra lightweight automotive tent camper. Livin Lite is a major manufacturer of lightweight travel trailers and tent campers. Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park Camp-Resorts is one of the most popular campground chains in the U.S. RV Trader.com is the country’s leading RV classifieds website for buyers and sellers.
In addition to the 2014 Coleman camper grand prize winner, there will also be twelve weekly winners who receive a two-night camping stay at any of the 81 Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park Camp-Resorts in the U.S. and Canada. The promotion runs for 12 weeks and ends June 30, 2014. A winner will be selected for the grand prize at the conclusion of the contest period and will be notified by July 15, 2014.
Livin Lite is very excited to reintroduce the iconic Coleman brand to the camping market,” shared Scott Tuttle, president of Livin Lite. “We are thrilled to be a part of this exciting giveaway with Jellystone and RV Trader.com! Statistics from the outdoor industries (campgrounds, national and local parks, etc.) tell us that more than 40 million people enjoy tent camping each year. Many simply pack up their tent and camping gear in their current family vehicle. The all-new Coleman automotive tent camper that we are giving away is designed specifically for those driving smaller, fuel-efficient vehicles such as passenger cars, minivans and today’s popular crossovers.”
The Coleman camper is an automotive tent camper that can be easily pulled by an array of vehicles, opening up to reveal a spacious interior that can sleep up to six people. Made entirely of lightweight aluminum and composites, the Coleman camper is built for longevity. With exteriors available in a wide selection of colors, the Coleman camper can be color-matched to a family’s car or minivan. It is the perfect entry-level camper for those who currently enjoy tent camping in Jellystone Parks. The Coleman tent campers are sold exclusively in Camping World locations.
“This is a fun giveaway for us and the camping public,” said Michele Wisher, director of marketing for Yogi Bear’s Jellystone ParkCamp-Resorts. “Twelve families will camp at a Jellystone Park for free, and we get to promote the benefits of camping and outdoor vacations.”
Christine Knapp, marketing manager for RV Trader.com, mirrored their enthusiasm. “We are excited that RV Trader can help spread the word about this promotion to our 2 million site visitors every month. Livin Lite has helped pave the way by bringing newer RV’ers into the lifestyle, and many families with children stay at Jellystone Camp-Resorts every year. This is an excellent way for us to reach a new audience and spread the excitement of RV’ing to buyers, sellers and shoppers visiting our website this spring and summer.”
To register for the promotion, enthusiasts can register at www.WinaColemanCamper.com.
Dometic, a leading supplier of “comfort” products for the RV and marine industries, is partnering with Kampgrounds of America Inc. (KOA) to provide a complete line of RV and camping products at KOA campground locations across North America, according to a written announcement from KOA.
“Our goal was to become more relevant to camping customers,” said Mark Minatel, vice president of after markets for Dometic. “We wanted to be where the campers are, so of course we came to KOA.”
Soon, KOA campers will be able to find displays of Dometic products carrying the familiar yellow KOA brand in selected KOA campground locations. While items available will vary by location, Dometic products for sale to campers will include RV cleaner, gray-water treatment, odor absorber, air fresheners, holding-tank treatments, toilet-bowl cleaners, toilet tissue and moist towelettes.
Small appliances will also be available carrying both the KOA and Dometic brands, including a portable electric cooler/heater, a portable ice maker and a six-bottle wine chiller.
“We are also planning to test a Dometic vending machine at several KOA locations that will serve as an extension of the KOA convenience store,” said KOA Vice President of Brand Development Lorne Armer. The vending machines will hold camper necessities such as toilet tissue, sundries and personal hygiene products that would be available via the vending machine even when the regular KOA store is closed for the evening.
“We are also developing several product displays that will work inside a variety of store sizes,” Minatel said. “We think linking these two giant brands is a great way to provide superior products directly to campers.”


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|Articles - July/August 2013|
|Monday, July 08, 2013|
Page 1 of 2
BY LINDA BAKER
The wireless-communications industry thrives on the latest and the greatest; witness the masses who camp out in front of Apple stores every year or so anticipating the newest iPhone. Consumer Cellular, a Tigard-based wireless service and phone provider, is not one of the trendsetters.
“There are a lot of wireless companies that get really excited about the youth, business users, those early adopters,” says CEO John Marick, 48. “We’re the boring category. We target people who want cellular phones for the safety and convenience.”
Most of those people are seniors. Founded in 1995, Consumer Cellular has carved out a niche targeting older users with simple, inexpensive and no-contract cell phone plans — with basic service starting at $10 a month. The company grossed about $263 million last year, up from $44.6 million in 2007.
Almost 20 years after Marick and co-founder Greg Pryor identified a void in the marketplace — “the cell phone was a luxury item then; nobody was trying to make it affordable,” Marick observes — Consumer Cellular is growing strong yet faces a few challenges ahead. More competitors are entering the low-cost wireless space. Plus, Consumer Cellular’s target market, the over-50 set, is becoming increasingly tech savvy, “making it harder for us to get our message out,” Marick says.
To stay competitive, Consumer Cellular is setting its sights on an initiative that might seem a contradiction in terms: adapting the ultimate tech status symbol for customers who care little about tech or status. That device would be the smartphone, a product Marick says “could be our next big thing.”
Consumer Cellular — which employs about 800 people, including Marick’s wife, Tami, and sister, Jill Leonetti (both are part of the management team) — has enjoyed its share of next big things. During its first 10 years, the company focused almost exclusively on the Oregon market. That changed in 2005, when Consumer Cellular signed an agreement with AT&T to buy and resell space on the wireless conglomerate’s network. “That’s what really made us a true national player,” Marick says.
In 2009 the company forged a partnership with another big player, the AARP, giving Consumer Cellular a direct line to the association’s 40 million members. That relationship helped grow the company’s customer count from about 30,000 in 2006 to more than 1 million today.
Friday, October 17, 2014
BY TOM COX | OB BLOGGER
How can you move from a command-and-control leadership model to one of true empowerment and accountability? David Marquet did, and he took notes along the way.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
BY KIM MOORE
A conversation about higher education with the presidents of the University of Oregon and Clackamas Community College, followed by September's powerlist.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
BY HANNAH WALLACE
Well-financed outsiders from France and California are buying up vineyards and wineries in the Willamette Valley.
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
BY VIVIAN MCINERNY
Craft beer comes to Mount Angel.
Thursday, October 02, 2014
Oregon Business magazine has named the sixth annual 100 Best Nonprofits to Work for in Oregon.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Nick Herinckx, CEO of Obility, and Jake Weatherly, CEO of SheerID, share what they've been reading.
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
BY JASON NORRIS
Historically, when the leaves fall, so do the markets. This year, earnings, Europe, energy and Ebola have in common? Beyond alliteration, they are four factors that the investors are pointing to for this year’s seasonal volatility.
|The 100 Best Nonprofits to Work for in Oregon 2014|
|A Recipe for Success|
|Uber considers flu shot delivery service|
|P&G plans to exit Duracell|
|Target to offer free holiday shipping|
|Caterpillar gains after raising forecast|
|Dow Chemical profit up 44%|
|Boeing profit jumps 18%|
|Verizon posts higher Q3 revenue|
Is your business ready to join us in the call for action? This opening panel includes Oregon businesses who will discuss why they signed the Oregon Climate Declaration, the investments they are making to reduce carbon emissions, and how their actions are affecting their companies.
Get ready for two days of special events produced with the EPA, Portland Timbers and ISOS before and after the GoGreen Conference on October 16.
Finding a health insurance plan that makes both financial sense for the bottom line and provides choice for plan participants is a huge challenge for employers.
The right financing at the right time is critical for small businesses to succeed.
Among Oregon universities, Oregon Tech is special in the way it incorporates applied research into the curricula of every department.
More than 400 "Change Makers" will gather to invest in a socially sustainable community.


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States Ask U.S. Department Of Justice To Investigate Meat Packing Companies
May 6, 2020
Montana Attorney General Tim Fox and attorneys general from other ranching states are asking the U.S. Department of Justice to launch an antitrust investigation of the beef processing industry.
In a letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr, the states request a investigation to determine if the companies have entered into agreements that deprive consumers and cattle ranchers of a competitive market.
The letter was also signed by Attorneys General from North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Missouri, Arizona, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska.
“Consolidation in the meat packing industry has certainly benefited those companies, but has brought no benefit to ranchers and consumers,” Attorney General Fox said. “The nationwide cattle market is sending signals of manipulation and artificial distortion, and so we are asking Attorney General Barr to investigate possible violations of federal antitrust laws.”
Excerpts from the letter:
“The U.S. beef processing market is highly concentrated, with the four largest beef processors controlling 80 percent of U.S. beef processing. In this highly concentrated industry, meat packers have achieved sizeable profit margins. Cattle ranchers, however, who for generations have supplied our nation’s beef, are squeezed and often struggle to survive. Consumers, moreover, do not realize the benefits from a competitive market.”
“…The disparity between the price of live weight cattle and the retail cost of boxed beef sold to consumers is a sign of a market that lacks full and fair competition. Consider, for example, that live cattle futures recently hit 18-year lows, while both the price of boxed beef and consumer demand remain healthy, especially as consumers navigate these unprecedented times.”
Montana Stockgrowers Association President Fred Wacker welcomed the action.
“Determining evidence of any fraudulent business practices within the meatpacking industry is vital to our producers’ continuity of business and needs to be identified quickly and rectified immediately,” said Wacker. “MSGA would like to thank Montana Attorney General Tim Fox for his involvement in this issue.”
Montana Farm Bureau President Hans McPherson also appreciated the request.
“Montana Farm Bureau appreciates Attorney General Fox elevating this conversation,” McPherson said. “It is important that Montana ranchers have transparency in the markets in order to receive a fair price for their cattle.”
The letter is available online here.
Source: Montana Department of Justice
ASI and NCBA Release Guidance Criteria for Livestock Grazing on Public Lands During FMD Outbreak
April 11, 2024 - the American Sheep Industry Association (ASI) received USDA National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Program (NADPRP) funding to work with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Assoc...


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Across farms in easter China, acres of watermelons have burst open in a phenomenon scientists are having a hard time explaining.
Some Chinese officials suggested its due to the heavy rainfall, while a Chinese agriculture professor linked the problem to forchlorfenuron, a legal chemical that promotes growth. Whatever the cause, it has added to a number of food scandals China has faced over the past few years, including tainted milk, toxic bean sprouts, and filthy cooking oil. The watermelon explosion has raised concerns that farmers are overusing chemical growth hormones.
While there are videos of the aftermath of the lost crops, I couldn’t find any of the watermelons actually exploding. In place of that, here’s this video of unexplainable beauty with drinks, salad and even a chicken sent flying through the air:


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BEIJING -- Tesla Inc.'s Shanghai factory is expected to produce 300,000 cars in the first nine months of the year, capped by a delivery rush in the end of the July-September quarter, despite a global semiconductor shortage, two sources said.
The factory makes the electric Model 3 sedans and Model Y crossovers for domestic and international markets, including Germany and Japan.
Around 240,000 vehicles were shipped from the factory in the first eight months, including many for export, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association. Tesla has not announced details on the factory's production.
The sources requested anonymity, as they were not allowed to speak to media. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


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It is not difficult for everyone to be aware of the shift of power that has occurred in the world. It costs Obama, who in 2012 declared the Asian pivot as its foreign policy priority and until this week it will not spend a whole lot of time to cultivate relationships with their partners in the vast continent. And costs us all, mainly Europeans increasingly tucked into the plight of our inner and less focused on organizing rooms, not to an uncertain future, but especially for this present as deliquescent.
A good example of the maze in which we walk offers the social democracy as a loss, condemned again and again as governs the adoption of policies of Tony Blair’s Margaret Thatcher, Manuel Valls now Angela Merkel. His tragedy is that the background is out of the historical subject that had given meaning and force. The working class has disappeared. Or rather, it’s gone. Is in Asia, it ensures their low labor costs disproportionate increase in wealth of the last thirty years providing massive manufacturing offshoring.
It is not the only factor contributing to the exaggerated increase in the assets of the rich, so well described by capital in the XXI century, the fashion book on inequality the French Thomas Piketty. The technology, deregulation and open markets are intertwined factors to consider. We are in the garment industry, which requires flashing manufacturing processes in response to an organized from a frantic bid rotation increasingly tailored to the exact requirements of a business binge.
The Socialists are in Europe, but the workers are on strike in China. Right now 30,000 of them in the factories of Adidas and Nike in the provinces of Guangdong and Jingxi star in the biggest protest of there alive memory, demand better wages and compensation in case of dismissal. Their employers are already taking orders southward to Blangladesh, where it is possible to achieve even lower costs of production, not only thanks to the paltry salaries, the lowest in the world, if not the poor working conditions, health and even physical security.
A year ago sank in Dhaka on Rana Plaza, a cracked building outside producing for multinational fashion houses. 1,139 people died and 2,300 others were maimed or injured. A group of NGOs have today called for a day of protest to commemorate the greatest catastrophe in the history of textile and simultaneously brutal expression of the evils of global capitalism. It is the day of the Fashion Revolution, the revolutionary fashion. The factories are in Asia, with the pivot of the world, but the game is played on the global stage, but sometimes do not want to learn.


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WASHINGTON — A flurry of reports Thursday showed that U.S. consumers are growing more confident and spending more, boosting a still-weak economy just five days before the presidential election.
Consumer confidence surged in October to its highest level in nearly five years. Americans were encouraged by recent declines in the unemployment rate. And they responded by spending more on cars and trucks, at retail businesses and on goods produced at U.S. factories.
Still, businesses remain nervous about where the economy is headed and that could weigh on hiring. The October jobs report, to be released today, is expected to show another month of tepid job growth.
"While short of any glowing upside surprises … U.S. economic data are at least all moving in the right direction," Robert Kavcic, an economist at BMO capital Markets, said in note to clients.
Thursday's reports showed:
• The Conference Board's consumer confidence index rose to 72.2 last month. That's the highest reading since February 2008. While the index is still below the 90 reading consistent with a healthy economy, it has risen from a reading of 40.9 a year ago. That's the biggest one-year increase since 1994, Kavcic said.
• Sales in retail stores open at least a year rose 5 percent in October, according to a tally of 21 retail chains by the International Council of Shopping Centers. Some of that increase may reflect higher spending for generators, batteries, water and other supplies in preparation for Hurricane Sandy.
• Manufacturing expanded for the second straight month, largely because of higher consumer demand. The Institute for Supply Management, a private trade group, said its index of factory activity ticked up to 51.7 in October from 51.5. A reading above 50 indicates expansion.
• Weekly unemployment applications fell 9,000 to 363,000 last week.
• A report by payroll provider ADP showed that businesses added 158,000 jobs in October, up from 114,000 in September.
• Auto sales also rose in October, even though the storm caused dealers on the East Coast to lose three days of business. Toyota's sales rose almost 16 percent, Chrysler's were up 10 percent and General Motors' bumped up 5 percent. Ford's sales increased only slightly.
• Construction spending rose 0.6 percent in September, the Commerce Department said. A healthy gain in spending on home construction and renovation outpaced declines in commercial and government building.
The U.S. economy expanded at a 2 percent annual pace in the July-September quarter, up from 1.3 percent in the second quarter. Most economists expect growth may slow a bit in the fourth quarter, partly because of disruptions from Hurricane Sandy.
Still, the economy is growing too slowly to rapidly bring relief to roughly 12 million out-of-work Americans. With the unemployment rate still high, steady growth of more than 3 percent is generally needed to create a sufficient number of jobs.


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Sam Bankman-Fried, Founder and CEO of FTX, is dissatisfied with the perception that the crypto industry is giving Russia a pass despite admist the sanctions put on the country.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, cryptocurrencies have been used in a variety of ways, most notably as donations to help Ukraine defend its territory. However, there are rumours that Russian oligarchs are adopting cryptocurrency to avoid sanctions. Sam Bankman-Fried is among several in the cryptocurrency business who vigorously refute the charges.
He claims that the bitcoin industry is being portrayed incorrectly as a way for Russians to get by without paying the punishment.
The Ukrainian conflict has entered its fourth week, but several countries around the world have declined to get actively engaged in order to avoid another world war.
Several countries and international organisations, however, have implemented restrictions on Russia’s financial infrastructure in order to force the country to stop fighting. However, some officials believe that Russia and its billionaires are increasingly using cryptocurrency to circumvent sanctions.
This has annoyed not only Sam Bankman-Fried, but also the CEOs of Ripple and Coinbase. Both executives emphasized in a recent address to the issues that Russian oligarchs cannot use cryptocurrency in this manner.
Previously, crypto exchanges such as Kraken, FTX, Binance, and Coinbase argued that prohibiting Russian-based firms would be contrary to the nature of cryptocurrency. Some of them, however, have now reversed their attitude and joined other platforms in blocking access to Russian-based consumers.
This followed the introduction of a bill by authorities that prohibits financial organisations from doing business with Russian customers and Russian financial institutions. Coinbase blocked over 25,000 accounts belonging to sanctioned Russians in response to the demand.
Non-sanctioned Russians, on the other hand, have been permitted to trade on FTX, but the exchange is still deliberating with regulators over its activities.


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April 5, 2011
Hulu Exec Predicts Over 1 Million Subscribers In 2011
Hulu's top executive wrote in a blog post on Monday that the Internet video company is on track to nearly double its revenue to $500 million and bring its subscriber count to over 1 million this year.
"As a young company, we're excited about that number and we also expect it to grow aggressively in the years to come," Kilar wrote.Comcast Corp.'s NBC, NEWS CORP., Walt Disney and Providence Equity Partners jointly own Hulu.
Hulu officially rolled out a subscription service called "Hulu Plus" last November, which is priced at $7.99 a month.
The online service faces stiff competition from companies like Netflix, Amazon, Apple and Google.
"It is still very early days for online video and our biggest opportunities/challenges are clearly still in front of us," Kilar wrote in a blog post. "We're thankful for "” and humbled by "” the response we've received these past 90 days from our users, advertisers, and content partners."
Hulu made $263 million in revenue in 2010.
On the Net:


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Walmart Canada pulls sweater of Santa with what looks like cocaine
'Let it snow' top does not represent Walmart's values, retailer says
Walmart Canada apologized on Monday for listing on its website an intentionally ugly Christmas sweater that featured an illustration appearing to depict Santa getting ready to snort cocaine.
Users on Twitter had noticed the offer a few days earlier and started posting screengrabs and links to the merchandise.
One user posted a screengrab of the sweater's description that said, "Santa really likes to take savor the moment when he gets his hands on some quality, grade A, Colombian snow."
In its statement sent via email to the media, Walmart Canada said the sweater was sold by a third-party seller on Walmart.ca, and it didn't represent Walmart's values. Walmart often promotes itself as a family-friendly company.
Yall. Look at this description for this Christmas sweater from Walmart pic.twitter.com/lBdmKQ1JoZ—@HurrbaSousJohn
Walmart Canada removed the sweater, which came from a third-party seller called FUN Wear, from its listings on its website.
The site continued listing other products under the "ugly Christmas sweaters" category such as one with Santa sitting on a toilet and one featuring Santa on all fours, about to get whipped by a scantily clad woman.


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Melbourne, Australia, 30 April, 2015 — CEVA Logistics, one of the world’s leading supply chain companies, has today announced construction of a new 166,000-square-meter "super site" at Truganina, west of Melbourne, which will be the centerpiece of CEVA’s growth plans in Australia and New Zealand.
Casey Fisher, Managing Director of CEVA in Australia and New Zealand, said: “This announcement showcases our intention to keep making substantial investments in property assets in Australia and New Zealand. Our new Truganina "super site" builds on a range of other property developments we have underway in both countries, which will help us grow and keep meeting the growing needs of CEVA customers across diverse business sectors”
CEVA’s new, multi-user facility in the rapidly growing and strategic Truganina area will include four warehouses with a combined footprint of over 72,000 square meter hardstand areas of some 76,500 square meters (comprising a 17,500 square meter loading and staging area for car carrying operations and a 59,000 square meter external storage and maneuvering area), an awning area of 15,600 square meters and a combined office workspace area of 2,000 square meters, with surrounding land. As the largest CEVA facility in Australia, it is ideally located to support Industrial, Automotive and Consumer and Retail customers through its excellent access to Melbourne’s road and rail network, the Port of Melbourne and Melbourne International Airport.
“I am very excited about this investment which will further boost our growth plans in Australia and New Zealand, and the competitive, multimodal advantage this will enable us to offer our customers,” Fisher said. “As well as Truganina, we are adding to our extensive existing network of sites with a new and almost-complete 30,000 square meter car carrying and international freight management site at Pinkenba in Queensland, a 5,500 square meter extension to our Auckland facility in New Zealand, a new 34,000 square meter Contract Logistics and international freight multi-user facility at Hazelmere in Western Australia and plans are at an advanced stage to build a bespoke car carrying facility, also in Western Australia.”
All CEVA’s new and extended facilities in Australia and New Zealand will incorporate state of the art technology and process initiatives, including continuous loading docks and dock levelers, hail netting (at car carrying facilities), environmental design, integrated IT solutions, advanced racking, traffic management and material handling equipment, and flexible, modern workspaces for employees.
For more information, contact:
David Cliffe, CEVA, Australia and New Zealand
+613 9931 9910
CEVA - Making business flow
CEVA, one of the world’s leading non-asset based supply chain management companies, designs and implements industry leading solutions for large and medium-size national and multinational companies. Approximately 42,000 employees in more than 170 countries are dedicated to delivering effective and robust supply chain solutions across a variety of sectors where CEVA applies its operational expertise to provide best-in-class services across its integrated network. For more information, please visit www.cevalogistics.com.


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Garrett Camp, known for disrupting the taxi cab industry as co-founder of Uber, is now going after fiat money and gold. On March 2, he announced of the creation of a new cryptocurrency called “ECO” as a "world-class digital currency that can be used in facilitating business transactions,” “a new global currency that is easier, safer, and faster."
During a trip to Kenya last year, Camp saw firsthand the use of the popular mobile currency “mPesa”. He was inspired to create something similar that can be used worldwide. Also, as an interesting aside, Camp announced his decision upon returning from Africa to give half of his vast wealth to the poor, though he has not yet released details on this.
A total of 1 trillion Eco’s will be released, of which 50% will be made available to the first set of people who sign up. Institutions running the network’s “trusted nodes” will get 20%, and 10% will go to advisors and partners.
A mobile app for wallets and a low coin price will make the Eco user-friendly.
Eco aims for a middle path between a completely decentralized currency system, like Bitcoin, and a completely centralized currency system, like banks and credit cards. Camp’s hope is to bring back to the forefront virtual currency’s original promise of an instant, affordable, and borderless means of payment for the masses.
The Eco whitepaper states an initial transactional capacity goal of 1000 transactions per second, increasing to 100,000+ transactions per second by late 2020.
Camp wants to create a decentralized global currency for which 50+ of the world’s top universities will run a transaction verification node network. Whereas the Bitcoin network assumes nodes cannot be trusted because anyone can join the network as a node at any time, Eco will have distributed nodes that are run by verified organizations. No anonymous individual will be able to run a transaction verification node.
The Eco network will operate based on collective incentive rather than individual reward. When a block is successfully mined, tokens are evenly distributed to all nodes. This is one of several ways in which the Eco network will be much less energy intensive to run compared with a typical proof of work hashing network.
You can get in line to claim free Eco by filling out the form at the bottom of the page at https://eco.com.
By: BGN Editorial Staff


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Huawei held its annual conference in Paris on Tuesday (14 November) where it generously offered to help Europe with its green and digital transitions. The task “will not be easy”, said Jim Lu, President of Huawei Europe, as he diplomatically avoided mentioning how clueless and paranoid the EU is.
The EU, in its infinite wisdom, decided to restrict or exclude high-risk vendors including Huawei from member states internal 5G networks based on some vague and unsubstantiated allegations of espionage. The term ‘high-risk vendor’ is normally used to indicate suppliers of ICT equipment that might be at risk of colluding with a hostile power. The EU apparently considers China a hostile power even though it is one of its largest trading partners and a key ally in tackling global challenges.
“It poses a major security risk and exposes the Union’s collective insecurity since it creates a major inferiority complex for the EU and serious envy,” EU Commissioner Thierry Breton whined.
“Huawei is too good for us. They have the best technology, the best innovation, and the best customer service. They are so far ahead of us that we can never catch up. They are also very generous and respectful to their partners and customers. They are everything we are not. That’s why we have to ban them. It’s the only way to protect our fragile egos and our outdated industries,” he said.
Breton also dismissed the accusations that the EU is discriminating against Huawei based on unfounded allegations and political pressure from the US.
“We are not discriminating against Huawei. We are discriminating against all Chinese companies. We are not doing this because of the US. We are doing this because we are stupid. We don’t care about facts, evidence, or fairness. We only care about our own interests, which are often misguided and short-sighted. We are the EU, and we can do whatever we want,” he said.
Huawei, being the mature and responsible company that it is, did not stoop to the level of the EU and instead focused on demonstrating its commitment to cyber security and transparency. Huawei’s rotating chairman, Ken Hu, stressed on Tuesday that cyber security remains “our top priority”.
“We have opened cyber security and transparency centres in Brussels, Berlin and Rome, through these open platforms, we will continue to work with government agencies, customers and independent security organisations,” he said.
“Huawei is in Europe for Europe, and we look forward to working with you to build a greener, more digital and more secure future for all,” he added, showing remarkable patience and optimism.
In this context, Huawei is stepping up its investments in Europe with an Innovation Centre for SMEs in Paris, which will help businesses with knowledge sharing and joint innovation, with an annual €2 million investment, as announced during the conference.
“Only by working together can we build the healthy ecosystem to enable Europe’s economy to thrive,” Vicky Zhang, vice president of corporate affairs at Huawei said.
Huawei is the undisputed leader and pioneer in 5G technology and has proven its reliability and trustworthiness in over 170 countries and regions. Huawei is the best in the world, and anyone who disagrees is either a fool or a puppet of the US.
The end of the American hegemony is near, and so is the end of Europe’s relevance on the world stage. Will Europe ever wake up and embrace Huawei, or will it continue to be stupid and stubborn? The choice is clear, but the clock is ticking. Huawei is waiting, but not for long.


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Microsoft to crack down on Windows 7 activation cracks
Optional update to WAT will sniff out more than 70 cracks, 'phone home' to Microsoft
Computerworld - Microsoft today said it will soon feed Windows 7 users an update that detects illegal copies installed using more than 70 different activation cracks.
The update to Windows Activation Technologies (WAT), the anti-piracy software formerly known as Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), will be posted to Microsoft's download site on Feb. 17, and offered as an optional upgrade via Windows Update later this month, where it will be tagged as "important."
Out the gate, the update will reach Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise users, said Joe Williams, the general manager of Microsoft's activation and anti-counterfeit group. "I'd like to stress that the Update is voluntary, which means that you can choose not to install it when you see it appear on Windows Update," said Williams in an entry to the Genuine Windows blog.
That's counter to the practice Microsoft used in 2006, when it force fed Windows XP customers a WGA update by labeling it as a high-priority security update. Several users sued Microsoft over that behavior; the lawsuit was officially dismissed just last week. Since then, the company's anti-piracy software updates have been less aggressive.
According to Williams, the WAT update sniffs out more than 70 "activation exploits," Microsoft's term for what others call "cracks" that sidestep the product activation process, or use stolen keys to illegally activate counterfeit copies of Windows 7.
After the update has been installed, PCs running cracked copies will begin displaying a black background and the usual gamut of nagging notifications that mark the operating system as bogus. "Machines running genuine Windows 7 software with no activation exploits will see nothing," promised Williams.
Microsoft regularly refreshes its anti-piracy technology to identify new activation exploits -- it did the same two years ago in a Vista crack crack-down -- but the number of exploit "signatures" in the upcoming WAT update is magnitudes larger than any previous.
Among the 70-some cracks shut down by the update are a pair that surfaced last November, just weeks after the launch of Windows 7. At the time, Microsoft said it was aware of the cracks -- "RemoveWAT" and "Chew-WGA" -- and was working on ways to disable them. A Microsoft spokeswoman confirmed today that the WAT update will include signatures for both cracks.
Williams also noted that the WAT update will periodically "phone home" to Microsoft's servers to re-validate the copy of Windows 7 as legit, and use those opportunities to update activation signatures to detect newer cracks. Initially, WAT will connect to Microsoft's severs every 90 days.
If WAT uncovers tampered, disabled or missing activation or licensing files, the software steps up its activity, and runs a check every week, and if necessary, repairs those files.
Williams argued that the update is intended to keep "customers and partners secure," a rationale the company regularly uses when it explains why anti-piracy software is necessary. He cited studies by IDC and others, which Microsoft has called on in the past, that have said up to a third of counterfeit copies of Windows are infected with malware.
A leaked copy of Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) posted on file-sharing sites in May 2009 was, in fact, infected with a Trojan horse.
Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed . His e-mail address is email@example.com.
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How to Manage the Data Center Power Problem
It wasn’t that long ago that IT organizations hardly gave power a thought. But these days power is a problem. Most data centers consume too much of it — at least 10 times more per square foot than the average office building, and sometimes far more than that. What that means is companies spend roughly double the cost of running IT equipment on cooling and infrastructure. IT equipment is the single largest consumer of data center energy, so reducing the amount of equipment in your data center will certainly reduce energy costs. To keep up, companies must be able to manage and measure power consumption just as they do most every other aspect of IT. Read on.
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- Apple surrenders top tablet satisfaction spot to Amazon


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Burger Dandy is opening in downtown Franklin this week, opening at the corner of 1st and Main Street, on the side of Americana Taphouse.
Burger Dandy is an A. Marshall Hospitality concept. It began as a virtual restaurant in February 2021 based out of the company’s Americana Taphouse on Main Street and is now transitioning to a dine-in establishment.
In a social media post, they shared, “New menu items, who this? We are so excited to announce that NEXT WEEK we will be re-opening our doors. Come see us and give our updated menu a try on Wednesday, January 19th!”
Burger Dandy’s operations temporarily shut down as renovations were made to the Americana Taphouse location giving Burger Dandy its own entrance.
“We’re thrilled to introduce the new brick-and-mortar Burger Dandy to residents and visitors of our hometown of Franklin,” said Lyle Richardson, chief operating officer for A. Marshall Hospitality in a release. “We had so much fun bringing the playful, retro vibe of Burger Dandy to life with the new space. We already knew people loved Burger Dandy’s food, but the atmosphere we’ve been able to create here is just as special!”
The new burger joint will offer counter-service, a self-serve kiosk, a dine-in area, and patio. With the new playful, retro atmosphere will come a new menu with customization options, including boozy milkshakes and non-burger menu items. Americana Taphouse will continue to operate in a portion of the building with Burger Dandy having its own separate entrance and dining room within the 94 E Main Street location. Burger Dandy delivery and pickup through UberEats, Grubhub, and DoorDash will also still be available.
The menu features a variety of all-American classic, nostalgic items including cheeseburgers, smashburgers, crinkle fries, grilled cheese, old-fashioned milkshakes and a selection of Southern-born bottled sodas. New offerings including boozy milkshakes and non-burger menu items will be added upon reopening. For more information, visit www.burgerdandy.com.


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Your smartphone may soon be able to detect E. coli and salmonella, so bye-bye food poisoning
Have you ever looked at a questionable piece of produce or fish and wondered: Is this safe to eat? Well, you might not have to worry for much longer. Thanks to food scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, you’ll soon need only your smartphone to detect possible food poisoning. These brilliant minds came up with a high-tech-yet-simple way to detect food poisoning-causing bacteria, like salmonella and E. coli, that can make you sick. All you’ll need is a smartphone app that uses a $30 microscope attachment, along with a bacteria-detecting chip.
The approach seems easy enough: You take your piece of food, like raw lettuce, and run some water off of it, catching that into a container. Then you take the chip and dip it into the potentially contaminated water for half an hour. Afterwards, you point your microscope at the chip, and voila! You get an image on your phone’s screen that allows you to see whether or not your food is unsafe, thanks to the presence of some dots (aka bacteria) that will appear if it’s contaminated.
If this seems a little complicated, don’t worry.
The scientists are confident that the average consumer will be able to figure it out without much trouble. With outbreaks of food-related illnesses appearing to be on the rise, the app could literally be a lifesaver when it comes to food poisoning prevention.
While the tech has already piqued the curiosity of several food-processing companies, the UMass scientists say their prototype is still several years away from market. In the meantime, when in doubt — throw it out.


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Harvey Nichols to open new store in Doha
Luxury retailer Harvey Nichols has confirmed plans to a new store in Doha. The department store group said it has signed a licence agreement with Saleh Al Hamad Al Mana Group to open an outlet in Doha Festival City.
The 7,432 square-metre store is scheduled to open early 2018 and will sell an “exclusive edit” of fashion, homeware and beauty brands. It is the first high-end, international department store to be confirmed as a tenant by Doha Festival City. Upon completion, Doha Festival City Mall will be Qatar’s largest shopping mall with a gross leasable area of some 250,000 square metres.
It will house 550 outlets including 85 restaurants and cafes, the country’s first-of-its-kind Entertainment Zone, which will include VOX Cinemas and a snow park and will feature around 8,000 parking spaces. Phase one of the mall was completed last March and included the construction of Qatar’s first IKEA store.
Doha Festival City
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Ex-Reebok Executive Is Dollar General CEO
Published 7:00 pm, Wednesday, April 2, 2003
Former Reebok executive David A. Perdue Jr. was named Thursday as chief executive of discount retailer Dollar General.
Perdue immediately replaces Cal Turner Jr., whose father and grandfather founded the company 64 years ago. Donald S. Shaffer, who had been acting CEO since November, will continue as president and chief operating officer.
Perdue will become chairman of the board in June as Turner does not intend to seek re-election at Dollar General's annual meeting, the company said. Turner will act as an adviser to the board and a consultant to Perdue.
"Dollar General is a great company with clear mission and purpose _ making life better for its customers," Perdue said in a statement. "I look forward to working with the board and management in building on the previous success of this great company."
Perdue resigned last month as chairman and CEO of Pillowtex Corp., the maker of Royal Velvet towels, which he joined in July 2002. The Kannapolis, N.C., company reported last week that it lost $27 million in seven months after emerging from bankruptcy protection, raising concerns about the textile manufacturer's future.
Despite trouble meeting loan obligations, Pillowtex paid more than $1.7 million each to Perdue and two other executives last year, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Before joining Pillowtex, Perdue served as executive vice president of Reebok International Inc. and as president and CEO of Reebok Brand. He came to Reebok with 26 years of experience in the consumer products and financial services industries, including serving as senior vice president of the Sara Lee Corp.
"David Perdue is a multidimensional executive with a proven record of making things happen," Turner said in a statement. "He has been successful with some of the most well-known consumer brands in America _ Reebok, Sara Lee and Haggar."
Dollar General's search for a replacement began in September, when Turner, chief executive since 1977, announced plans to step down. At the time, Turner did not explain his decision, which came as the SEC was investigating accounting irregularities by the retailer.
In January 2002, after a 10-month internal investigation, Dollar General said its profits for fiscal 1998-2000 were overstated by about $100 million, and the company agreed to pay $162 million to settle related shareholder lawsuits. The company, which fired its auditor in September 2001, had incorrectly accounted for some leases and liabilities.
Turner stepped aside after repaying $6.8 million he had received in bonuses and stock options he'd exercised in 1999 and 2000 based on Dollar General's reported performance.
Turner's grandfather, J.L. Turner, and father, Cal Turner Sr., founded the company as a dry goods wholesaler in 1939. In 1955, the first Dollar General Store _ which sold no item for more than $1 _ opened in Springfield, Ky. Dollar General now operates nearly 6,200 stores in 27 states.
Shares in Dollar General rose 41 cents, or 3.2 percent, to close at $13.09 in trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.
On the Net:
Dollar General Corp.: http://www.dollargeneral.com


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Editor's note: A version of this editorial ran in the Feb. 11 print edition of Automotive News.
There's a lot to hate about the global trade war, started by U.S. President Donald Trump and now raging worldwide as nations threaten to pile tariffs upon tariffs in misguided fits of economic hostility against foes and longtime friends alike.
The actions that started the shooting match — highlighted by U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, including those from Canada — are ill-conceived and self-defeating. But they have done one good thing: exposed the backwardness of economic nationalism in a global age.
Publicly owned companies, such as those in the auto industry, should rarely if ever make business decisions that put national pride or jingoism over economic merits. And yet, doing so is a common practice globally.
Germans slow-walk investigations of diesel-emissions cheating that centre on their domestic automakers. Italians move product from more efficient plants abroad back to Italy to placate powerful domestic unions. Americans complain loudly about vehicles being made in Mexico by U.S. automakers, but show no willingness to raise their monthly car payments to accommodate higher U.S. labour costs.
Canada is undergoing its own fit of economic nationalism as well. The once-vibrant Canadian auto industry has been fighting a rearguard action for a decade and a half to slow its decline and the loss of tens of thousands of lucrative jobs.
The Canadian struggle — focused on General Motors' Oshawa assembly plant and waged by Unifor, the union representing Canadian auto workers — looks more intense than the fuss the UAW and a few elected representatives are making over GM's plans that also could result in U.S. factory closings.
The possibility of the Oshawa plant shutting, coming on top of Trump's metals tariffs that treat Canada as a U.S. national security threat, has left Canadians' emotions raw. So the impression that GM wants to sell vehicles to Canadians without continuing to invest in that country's plants and workers touches a nerve.
In an ideal world, vehicles would be assembled close to the consumers who buy them, trade between nations would take place without conflicts and people would be compensated at the same, fair rates for the same hard day's work. Unfortunately, we don't live in that world.
Until we do, it's up to us to extinguish global trade fights and try to learn to live with one another as best we can.


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THERE will be a special two hours of calm at Crystal Peaks on Sunday, October 7 as the award winning shopping mall takes part in the National Autistic Society’s Autism Hours.
There are around 700,000 autistic people in the UK, as well as three million family members and carers.
Being autistic means seeing, hearing and feeling the world in a different, often more intense way to other people.
Autistic people often find social situations difficult and can struggle to filter out the sounds, smells, sights and information they experience, which can make busy public places, like shops, overwhelming.
As a result, 64 per cent of people with autism avoid things like going to the shops, quite often because of the bright lights, the music, the general noise and the information overload.
But on Sunday October 7 from 10am to noon Crystal Peaks shopping centre will be asking shops to implement a range of simple solutions to make the shopping experience easier for people living with autism.
Those will range from dimming bright lights and reducing tannoy announcements to turning down music, creating a calmer Sunday shopping experience.
“Crystal Peaks is very much a part of the community and, as such, we want to make the shopping experience the best we can for all visitors,” said centre manager Lee Greenwood.
“These are very simple measures that we will be implementing and asking our shops to implement too but the two hours of simple changes could have a big positive impact for autistic people and their families without causing any problems for our other visitors.”


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Four new ad trends push limits of tech, privacy
By Oregon Small Business Association
New marketing strategies in Japan allow a vending machine to capture an image of the consumers, track gender and age and even offer a suggested drink. NEC Corporation, the third largest computer display models, says it can accurately guess the consumers’ age by 10 years, 70% of the time and the correct gender 90%. Cameras with facial recognition software view how many people walk by, their attentiveness and their gender.
Signs that monitor customers:
Digital signage in Japan is growing in popularity and is expected to more than double this year. Japan has no specific laws that require notifying the onlookers that they are being photographed and their images could be stored. A vending machine at East Japan Railway includes a camera but NEC Corp. says the digital signs are not capable of storing images, but it records information as text-based data.
Digitizing in-store shopping
Retailers, faced with declining customer satisfaction and sales declining 15% each year, are increasingly looking for more options to sell, including interactive dressing rooms, virtual sales associates and even digital scanners that offer discounts to customers. Customers are flocking to online shopping, where they get more information, including product information, customer reviews and items that other customers bought. Essentially, shoppers have grown accustomed to higher expectations and retailers are looking for ways to make the in-store shopping experience more personal for the consumers.
Retailer J.C. Penney has added a “FindMore” fixture at some locations, a 52-inch touch screen that allows customers to see the full range of merchandise and offers information typically found online, such as product information, recommendations and reviews. Retailer The Limited is considering installing interactive mirrors in dressing rooms to warn shoppers when items don’t match or even offer styles that do match. Retailers are putting more emphasis on in-store marketing to get consumers in the door, connect with them and get them to make a purchase.
The new realm of personalized advertising is now coming to your e-book. Overall sales of books have been steady or decreasing over the last decade. Now publishers are producing physical and digital books which adds an increased cost of production. E-books are far less profitable than hardbacks, forcing publishers to look for more revenue. Some say e-books will prove to be a popular place for advertising, because, unlike the hard copy version, they have an integrated system which the user logs into their account periodically, allowing advertisers to update and adjust to the readers’ preferences. The addition of advertising in e-books is likely to introduce a new territory to writers, agents and publishers will have to negotiate new arrangements to address new costs, revenue sources and control rights.
Disclaimer: Articles featured on Oregon Report are the creation, responsibility and opinion of the authoring individual or organization which is featured at the top of every article.


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CHICAGO, IL – Groupon is the online site that offers group discounts for things like massages, jewelry and food.
Now, Groupon is now doing its part to control the sale and use of firearms in America.
The Chicago-based company says it has pulled on gun-related deals, and will not be offering any more in the foreseeable future. They say it’s because of customer pressure following last month`s shootings in Newtown, CT.
So you’re out of luck if you were looking for that special Valentine’s deal for a day at the shooting range or concealed handgun classes.
But some Texans aren’t buying the new policy.
The owner of the Central Texas Gun Works in Austin is calling for a nationwide boycott after Groupon canceled his deal for a concealed handgun training course.
But fear not, you can still fire all of your guns at once with a discount from Survival Games of Texas, which allows you to shoot and kill your family and friends…with paintballs.


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8 myths about the smartwatch revolution
New reports, rumors and predictions about smartwatches are packed with misconceptions
Computerworld - By the time Apple ships its rumored "iWatch" smartwatch, the company will be entering a crowded market.
A smartwatch is a wristwatch device that connects to the Internet (directly or via a smartphone) and runs apps.
The Financial Times this week reported that Google's Android group (not the company's X Lab) is developing a smartwatch. That suggests Google plans to ship a smartwatch soon, possibly this year, and could even announce it at the Google I/O developers conference on May 15.
A Samsung executive this week not only announced that his company is working on a smartwatch, but that they've been working on it for a long time.
A Chinese company called Gouke plans to sell both an Android version of its Bambook Smart Watch by this summer as well as another version running the Firefox OS.
Sony sells a smartwatch actually branded the "SmartWatch," which the company updated this week with new watch faces as well as a notification previews feature. Sony says there are more than 200 apps on the Google Play store specifically designed for the Sony SmartWatch.
A startup called Pebble Technology shipped in January its Pebble E-Paper Watch, a project crowd-funded on Kickstarter. The Pebble has a black-and-white E-paper screen and connects to an Android or iOS device via Bluetooth.
Pundits, journalists and bloggers are writing a lot about the new smartwatch category. But almost everything they're predicting about the future of smartwatches is wrong.
Here are the 8 biggest myths about the coming smartwatch revolution.
Myth #1: There won't be a smartwatch revolution.
In fact, the revolution looks almost certain.
Every major consumer electronics company will sell at least one, and competition to develop the most attractive watches with the best features at the lowest prices, combined with breathtaking new technology, will result in a consumer-electronics category filled with choice, innovation and amazing new applications.
Smartwatches will be irresistible.
Myth #2: Smartwatches will fail because nobody wears watches anymore.
Smartwatches don't fail because nobody wears watches. Nobody wears watches because smartwatches fail to thrill consumers with the right combination of features, performance and price. But the new generation of smartwatches will prove so compelling that people will be happy to wear watches again.
Myth #3: Smartwatches are for people too lazy to take the phone out of their pockets.
A strange assumption has emerged that smartwatches will exist to merely duplicate a subset of the features on a smartphone. As a result, smartwatches are already being dismissed as an over-priced luxury item for people too lazy to pull their phone out of their pocket.
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Last week, American Eagle seemed to launch a companion to its no-retouching real-model women’s underwear campaigns called #AerieMan, dedicated to celebrating the diversity of male bodies that are already celebrated regularly. Yesterday it was revealed via a slightly awkward press release from American Eagle that #AerieMan was in fact a gentle parody of the original #AerieReal campaign.
The company referred to the brand in the same vein as their “rebranding” as American Beagle. “We aren’t afraid of being bold in how we engage our customers, whether through a video that makes you think twice, or challenging the norm in how a brand markets to men,” a representative noted about the #AerieMan campaign. “We are an all-inclusive brand and we know our male customers respond to humor.” Denizens of the internet went into their typical outrage mode, ripping American Eagle for the implied joke.
But if you were worried that men would have nowhere to look beyond network sitcoms, Apatow films, and, well, pretty much everywhere for examples of body diversity, have no fear. American Eagle has also reiterated that it will be following through on its plan to not retouch men in their holiday-season ads.


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Survey: 94% of Small Business Merchants Accept Card Payments
A new survey highlights how the vast majority of small businesses are now accepting modern forms of payments — although satisfaction with some popular payment platforms is waning.
About the survey results:
J.D. Power has released its 2024 U.S. Merchant Services Satisfaction Study, which compiled responses from 5,383 small businesses. Conducted between September and November of last year, the survey inquired about provider satisfaction is several areas, including the cost of processing payments, data security and protection, quality of technology, and more.
First off, the survey found that 94% of merchants now accepted credit or debit cards, with 88% also accepting digital wallets, such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and others. Additionally, more than half (54%) reported accepting “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) payments.
Of those who do accept card payments, 80% process via their provider. However, satisfaction with these payment processors varied. Furthermore, these providers ranked lower on J.D. Power’s merchant services survey.
Turning to the list itself, Shopify came out on top with a total of 728 points (out of 1,000). Paysafe, Bank of America, FIS, and Wells Fargo Merchant Services rounded out the top five. Other popular payment services such as Stripe and PayPal also rated above the 688-point average, coming in with 705 and 691 points respectively. Notably, Square — which gained enormous popularity as a small business point-of-sale solution — ranked below average with a total of 681. Lastly, Intuit Quickbooks was the lowest-rated platform on the list with 646 points.
What they’re saying:
Commenting on the survey results, J.D. Power’s managing director of payments intelligence John Cabell stated, “We’re seeing an interesting disconnect in the merchant services marketplace whereby the most frequently processed forms of payment—credit and debit cards—generate the lowest levels of overall satisfaction among small business owners, while less common payment types such as BNPL, pay by bank and gift cards drive higher satisfaction.”
Cabell continued, “Part of that is driven by demographics. Younger, newer business owners are more apt to accept a wide variety of payment types and have higher overall satisfaction with their merchant services providers. However, we’re also seeing some challenges across the board with debit and credit when it comes to delays in account funding, cost and fees and fraud management.”
Although the rankings of these platforms is notable, to me, the most interesting part of this survey is the acceptance rates of certain payments. Sure, the fact that 94% of merchants accept credit cards is a given, the 88% figure for digital wallets is a bit higher than I might have expected. Plus, even though BNPL fever has seemingly calmed in recent months, it would appear as though this payment option continues to be strong among small business merchants.
As for the satisfaction survey, it’s hard to say whether these providers and banks will take the results to heart or not. But, bottom line: considering how important payments are to small businesses, hopefully these merchants can find platforms that work well for them and their businesses.


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- News tagged "canon"
Tuesday, 6 Mar 2012
Canon reveals six PowerShot compact cameras - two from the SX series and four from the A series.
Canon launches four IXUS compact cameras - the IXUS 510 HS, IXUS 500 HS, IXUS 240 HS, and IXUS 125 HS.
Friday, 2 Mar 2012
Besides the 5D Mark III, Canon has also announced three new EF lenses and a host of new EOS accessories. The EF24-70mm f/2.8 II USM is the upgrade to the staple 24-70mm, while the EF24mm f/2.8 IS USM and EF28mm f/2.8 IS USM are wide-angle prime lenses with image stabilization.
Canon has announced the new 5D Mark III DSLR camera, the successor to the three-year old 5D Mark II. The 5D Mark III sports a brand new, 22.3MP full-frame sensor and the Digic 5+ processor which is 17 times faster than the Digic 4 processor. Native ISO sensitivity and frames per second shooting speeds have both been increased.
Norwegian landscape photographer Terje Sørgjerd achieved some fame the year before when his beautifully shot video The Mountain went viral. He received a rude surprise yesterday when he saw parts of his video being used, without his knowledge, in a promotional video from a Nikon D800 launch event in Bangkok.
Friday, 17 Feb 2012
Canon announces three new digital compact cameras, including the flagship PowerShot G1 X. The successor to the PowerShot G12 comes with the largest image sensor ever seen in a compact camera, which rivals the size of sensors found in Micro Four Thirds cameras.
Thursday, 16 Feb 2012
Canon Singapore today announced the appointment of Mr Kensaku Konishi as President & CEO of Canon Singapore Pte Ltd.
Friday, 3 Feb 2012
The professional inkjet printer is capable of delivering improved skin tones and accuracy in monochrome prints, as well as enable seamless switching between different types of print media.
Wednesday, 11 Jan 2012
Canon has announced six new camcorders in its midrange Legria HF M-series and entry-level HF R-series. A select few come with the ability to share, view and store videos wirelessly.
Thursday, 22 Dec 2011
Designed to assist both beginners and professional EOS DSLR users, the CanonSGLens features detailed lens specifications of all Canon DSLR lenses sold locally.


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The Crypto market usually also has a rough time in September. Bitcoin lost 12.7% in September 2021, 17.4% in 2020, 17.5% in 2018, 21.4% in 2017 and 45.4% in 2015. The main cryptocurrency increased by 13.3% and 3.95% in 2016 and 2019, respectively.
Is Ford Stock a Good Idea to Trade?
2022-08-12 • Updated
Ford stock probably isn’t the first thing that comes to your mind when you’re looking for trade ideas. However, can it be profitable to trade Ford? In this article, we’ll discuss if Ford’s earning report was good enough to consider for trading.
What do we know about Ford?
Ford is the second largest automaker in the US after General Motors and the fifth largest in the world after Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, and General Motors in terms of vehicle production. This week Ford’s earning report positively surprised traders.
How was the report?
On July 27, Ford published a better-than-expected earnings report. The company said its adjusted operating income more than tripled year-over-year to $3.7 billion as it delivered more of its most popular new products to customers. It also reiterated its previous guidance for the full year and said it would increase its quarterly dividend to 15 cents per share, the amount it paid before the Covid-19 pandemic.
In addition to better-than-expected second-quarter results, the company maintained full-year operating profit guidance of $11.5 billion to $12.5 billion. This means that Ford will have an operating profit of about $6 billion in the second half of the year. This is similar to the amount earned in the first half of the year.
“We’re moving with purpose and speed into the most promising period for growth in Ford’s history,” said CEO Jim Farley. “We’re giving customers great experiences and value, improving our profitability and making Ford the next generation transportation leader.”
Ford’s stock price jumped almost 7% in premarket after gaining 5.2% on the day after the release. Now the price is still keeping a relatively high level. Currently it’s consolidating within a kind of pennant. If it rises above $16, the uptrend will continue, up to the resistance level that 200-MA formed at $16.65. In case of falling, it can reach the last nearest level of $15. The next support will be around $13.85 (100-day MA).
What can influence Ford stock now?
The world situation in the automobile production industry isn’t glittering. There appears to be pent-up demand for cars after supply chain issues such as semiconductor shortages have held back global car production lately.
Still, lately Ford has announced a series of battery procurement steps to reach its ambitious goal of 600,000 electric vehicles a year by 2023 and more than 2 million electric vehicles a year by 2026.
So, we suppose it would be interesting to see how such a giant as Ford will behave in this world’s situation.
How to trade FORD stock with FBS?
2. Learn how to trade on earnings reports.
Warren Buffett, the American businessman and philanthropist, has put most of Berkshire Hathaway’s cash in short-term United States Treasury bills since they offer as much as 3.43% in yields.
US100 broke through the strong resistance trendline, following July's inflation numbers on Wednesday, which were less than analysts expected…
In the middle of September 2022, the Canadian dollar has fallen to a 2-year low against the USD
The US dollar index has all chances of reaching the 2000s high of 120.00.
The Consumer Price Index announcement by Statistics Canada is set for release in a few hours will reveal the state of inflation in the Canadian economy


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Police have described fake gold bars at the centre of a Sunshine Coast scam as the best they have ever seen.
A 33-year-old man from Hornsby in New South Wales man with fraud following the alleged gold bullion scam on the coast over the last two months.
It’s alleged the man was advertising the “gold” bars for sale on social media.
On June 10, it is alleged he met with an interested buyer at a service station on the Bruce Highway at the Glass House Mountains and sold him three gold bars for cash.
Upon further testing of the bars the buyer discovered they were not solid gold but gold plated copper.
The buyer reported the incident to police.
It’s alleged the Hornsby man again contacted the original buyer and on July 6 arranged to meet him at the same service station where he was caught in a police sting and arrested.
Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Mansfield said the bars were being sold for just a couple of hundred dollars less than the $2,800 for the real thing.
“The Perth Mint has been contacted and they are suggesting a very high quality fake product,” he said.
“In all seriousness though, it’s a pretty amazing amount of effort that somebody has gone to or some people have gone to, to produce these gold bullion bars.
“They are serial coded, they are packaged neatly and they look almost identical to the real thing.
“Our advice always is, if you are indeed trading gold that you would seek out a reputable dealer, Snr Sgt Mansfield said.
“Look people do fall into these traps from time to time thinking that they’re getting a better deal than they ordinarily would but the same old saying goes if it’s too good to be true it generally is.
Senior Sergeant Mansfield said it was a very professional and elaborate fraud and it’s believed the fake bars were imported from overseas.
“These people are attending with authenticating precious metal verifiers to test the metal in front of them, test the gold in front of them which gives them a reading
to say the percentage of it’s purity. There’s a pretty elaborate guise happening so we suspect there’s been other victims here who haven’t come forward yet,” he said.
The man has been charged with three counts of fraud, one count of attempted fraud and two counts of possess tainted property.
He has been remanded in custody to reappear at Maroochydore Magistrates Court on August 4.
If you have information for police, contact Policelink by providing information using the online suspicious activity form 24hrs per day at www.police.qld.gov.au/reporting.
Report crime information anonymously via Crime Stoppers. Call 1800 333 000 or report online at www.crimestoppersqld.com.au.


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The company is reducing the Switch packaging by 20% moving forward (via Nikkei).
Now, this is just the box and not the console itself, but it is a good attempt at reducing unnecessary spending and material usage and keep the flow of Switch consoles going.
As of right now, it is unclear how well this will affect the overall supply chain crisis as far as selling Switch consoles is concerned as the overwhelming problem that still lingers is the shortage of semiconductor that is currently taking place in the world.
Even if year by year sales of the Switch are down, the console still has sold and impressive 110 million units, placing it just behind the Nintendo Game Boy, which has sold 118 million unites.
From that 110 million units sold, the company reports that it has over 100 million active users, meaning the console not only has sold well, but continues to have a healthy install base.
Vooks has done some number crunching and shown that the Switch oLED box is 14% smaller than the original Switch model, meaning that Nintendo has already been trying to reduce where they can, and this move is following in line with that.


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Wealthy buyers from Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina have fueled a real-estate frenzy in Miami in recent years, sending luxury-condo prices soaring. Now, Miami developers and real-estate agents are setting their sights on a more distant part of the world: China.
In April, representatives for several Miami condo buildings made the 8,000-mile-trip to the Beijing Luxury Property Show, a trade show that attracted more than 5,200 wealthy Chinese to look at international properties. Sales agents for the Fendi Chateau Residences, a luxury development going up near Florida’s Bal Harbour, handed out brochures in Mandarin for condos priced from $5 million to $22 million. Nearby was Lauren Marks, the marketing coordinator for two luxury-condo buildings: Palazzo Del Sol and the forthcoming Palazzo Della Luna, on Miami’s Fisher Island.
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- Finish Line:
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- American Eagle Outfitters:
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The psychsters over at Psychster Inc. have done something that media creators have been clamoring for ever since the collapse of the first internet bubble a decade ago. They released a study looking at how engaged web users become with video content. One of the continual challenges for web producers is how to effectively evaluate the cost benefit ratio of developing and distributing rich multimedia content online. Consumers have more video choices now than they have ever had before, but video producers, directors, editors and writers are being squeezed by the emegence of “content farms” that produce very low cost (and sometimes low quality) video content for web sites.
There is a growing debate among media pundits and economists alike about the inflated valuations of tech companies like Groupon and Facebook. These voices have raised the specter of a new and potentially bigger tech bubble developing. Facebook, Google’s YouTube and other Web 2.0 giants have all pioneered business models based on user generated content—not professionally produced content. Psychster’s recently posted study looks at the effectiveness of online video content in relation to production values. In short, the study asks the question: do web users engage with professionally produced video content more than they do with cheaper content? Why is this important? Lets back up a little and look at how video on the web has evolved over the last decade. Continue reading Content is King. Long Live the King!


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The most recent generation of NVIDIA GeForce Graphics cards is not the simplest to operate in a typical PC configuration. Obviously, this is despite the fact that strange AIB-partner modifications and power profiles boost the wattage needs over the roof. Galax looks to be attempting to alleviate this problem by releasing a Hall of Fame 1300-watt power supply that would combine well with its newly revealed Hall of Fame 4090.
At the beginning of November, photographs of the Galax GeForce RTX 4090 Hall of Fame’s bare PCB surfaced online. The Galax Hall of Fame 4090 might use upwards of a kilowatt at peak, which is so much power that it nearly requires its own power source, according to the calculations we made at the time using the information from the photo. However, this number will likely never be reached in practical situations, nor will the two 12VHPWR connections (each 600W) be fully saturated.
Regardless, that is still a considerable amount of power, necessitating a robust power source. As a result, the Galax Hall of Fame 1300W power supply appeared on Taobao and was discovered by the IT Home team. Amid competition from manufacturers like Seasonic, EVGA, and Silverstone, among others, the Hall of Fame GH1300’s price of 1899.00 (roughly $275 at the time of writing) makes it a potentially tempting option. In addition, the supply is listed as having an efficiency of 92%, placing it fully in the 80 Plus Platinum category. Moreover, it includes a 10-year guarantee and other cool features, such as a fan switch.
Unfortunately, this power supply has not yet been released in the United States, but we may see an announcement at CES, which is just around the way. In any case, this is a unique product that only a few committed individuals would likely use to its full extent, but it’s still amazing to see. If you are as eager to see this as we are, keep an eye on our CES coverage.


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Elysee Miami, the newest luxury pre-construction condo development located in Edgewater along Biscayne Bay, is officially set to launch sales of its exquisite luxury condo residences tomorrow!
Sales will officially launch for the 57-story tower tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. at the Elysee Miami launch party. The party is VIP invite only and will be held at the newly unveiled sales gallery.
Although Elysee Miami sales have not yet officially launched, the boutique luxury tower is already 20% reserved.
Elysee Miami will only consist of 100 (1/2 floor) bespoke residences offering expansive layouts, 10-foot ceilings, gourmet Italian kitchens, spa-like bathrooms and 8′-10’-deep terraces overlooking Biscayne Bay. Elysee Miami will also feature unparalleled amenities, so be sure to check out the brochure below.
CLICK HERE for pricing, floor plans and additional information regarding Elysee Miami condos.
If you, or someone you know, are interested in purchasing a luxury condo at Elysee Miami, please contact Michael Light for an exclusive presentation. You may reach me on my cell at (786) 566-1700, at my office at (305) 350-9842 or via email at firstname.lastname@example.org.


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RENNES, France -- Renault named Nicolas Wertans, PSA/Peugeot-Citroen's former head of international sales, as senior vice president of global sales, effective March 1.
Wertans, 45, will join Renault's management committee, reporting to Jerome Stoll, chief performance officer and executive vice president of sales and marketing.
Wertans began his automotive career in 1994 at Ford of Europe where he held various sales and marketing positions in France, the UK, and Germany until becoming managing director of Ford in Switzerland.
In 2005, he joined BMW in Munich as vice president of corporate and direct sales and later headed BMW in France.
In 2009, Wertans joined PSA as head of international sales, with responsibility for developing brand sales and marketing strategies at Peugeot and Citroen. During his time at PSA, he held a series of senior management positions, the last of which was vice president of PSA's Asian operations, prior to leaving the company in 2011.


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Vandals caused $300 in damage to the tires of a vehicle parked in the 28700 block of Conejo View Drive April 26.
Thieves stole a $300 pair of sunglasses from a car parked in the 29700 block of Kimberly Drive April 27.
Burglars stole a $640 gun, ammunition and $140 in cash from the bedroom of a home in the 2200 block of Triunfo Place April 29.
Thieves stole a $1,000 laptop computer from a car parked in the 29100 block of Roadside Drive April 30.
Someone who found a panel belon...


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Leasing Tracker: Michaels to fill former Bed Bath & Beyond space; French retailer opens store in Coral Gables
A nationwide arts and crafts retailer will take over a big-box space in Delray Beach once occupied by Bed Bath & Beyond.
Texas-based chain Michaels closed on a 10-year lease deal for a 25,600-square-foot space at 14824 S. Military Trail in the Delray Corner shopping center.
The retailer is expected to move into that space in the first quarter of 2024.
As a result of the deal, more than 97% of the 86,000-square-foot shopping center is now leased, according to a Katz & Associates.
Nicole Fontaine of the retail brokerage represented the landlord, Miami Beach-based Berta Management of Florida.
B B B Plaza Associates Ltd., a subsidiary of Berta Management of Florida, led by Michael Kanoff, paid $14.2 million for the 42-year-old shopping center in February 2007. The property includes a Starbucks, a corner CVS building, and a Conviva primary care center.
The retail space was among the 480 Bed Bath & Beyond and BuyBuy Baby locations nationwide that closed after New Jersey-based Bed Bath & Beyond declared bankruptcy April 23.
Of those vacated locations, 22 were in South Florida. In May, brokers told the Business Journal that they expected Bed Bath & Beyond spaces to be filled quickly by large retailers eager to expand in the tri-county region.
Michaels, which operates more than 1,000 stores across the U.S. and Canada, paid $2.55 million for nine BB&B locations at a bankruptcy auction in June. Among those locations was a Bed Bath & Beyond store at 1400C Glades Road in Boca Raton.
Retail landlords in South Florida generally prospered during the pandemic as rents rose and vacancies plummeted. However, in this year’s second quarter, the retail sector showed signs of softening, according to a market report from Colliers. The average asking rent in Palm Beach County was $29.41 a square foot, a decrease of 3.3% from the first quarter. Vacancies were up 20 basis points to 3.7%.
In Delray Beach, the average asking rent was $31.88 a square foot, while the vacancy rate was 3.3%, according to Colliers.
French retailer opens store in Coral Gables
A French clothing store opened a 5,702-square-foot location in Coral Gables.
Eden Park opened Sept. 15 at 348 Miracle Mile, according to a news release from property owner Terranova Corp. The clothing chain, which is relocating from Merrick Park, signed a five-year lease.
The store is the largest fashion retailer along Miracle Mile, and its addition enhances the tenant mix, Terranova founder and Chairman Stephen Bittel said.
“Eden Park’s fusion of French-inspired elegance and sporting history aligns perfectly with our vision to enrich the district,” Bittel said in the release.
International rugby players Franck Mesnel and Eric Blanc created the Eden Park clothing line in 1987. It has just one other U.S. location, in Boston.
Three people are employed at the new store, with “more to come,” said Flo Monti, chief of brand experience at Eden Park.
Constructed in 1946, the commercial retail building that houses the store was acquired by Gables Miracle Mile LLC, an affiliate of Miami Beach-based Terranova, for $6.91 million as part of a bulk sale in October 2013.
The Eden Park store is next to a Polestar electric vehicle dealership, which is also in a retail space owned by Terranova.
In the second quarter, the average asking retail rent in Coral Gables was $45.93, according to a market report from Colliers. The average asking retail rent in Miami-Dade County was $43.82 a square foot.
THE BIG NUMBER
Number of South Florida apartments projected to be completed by the end of the year, according to rental listing website RentCafe.
South Florida Business Journal Article Here


text: Really, people? God seriously bless America. Please!! According to reports, lots of people were fooled by a viral video advertising a new product called the ‘Selfie Shoe’. Yes, a shoe which holds your mobile phone and allows you to take a hands-free photo of yourself. HotMessFolder doesn’t have the words to articulate how much of a hot mess a ‘Selfie Shoe’ would be. However, it’s even more of a hot mess that people actually thought the product was legit. Folks, it’s freakin’ April Fools Day for goodness sakes! We’re sure the company behind the viral video could’ve actually sold some doggone ‘Selfie Shoes’, if they’d actually produced some. We can’t deal! Watch the ‘Selfie Shoe’ video for yourself below!


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Samyang has just announced the Samyang/Rokinon 24mm f/2. 8 full frame lens for Sony FE-mount cameras, which follows in the footsteps of the Samyang 35mm f/2. 8 that was announced in the middle of 2017.
Nikon has just unveiled 3 new wide-angle lenses: the AF-S NIKKOR 28mm f/1.4E ED, AF-P DX NIKKOR 10-20mm f/4.5-5.6G VR, and AF-S Fisheye NIKKOR 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5E ED. The 10-20mm is a budget-friendly wide-angle zoom for DX-format cameras, and the 8-15mm is Nikon’s first ever fisheye zoom lens. AF-S NIKKOR 28mm f/1.4E ED The new Nikkor […]
Just before sunset a few days ago, a gorgeous double rainbow appeared over the San Francisco Bay. I happened to have a fisheye lens attached to my camera, so I ran outside and snapped the shot above.