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SuperRare, a digital art market on the Ethereum blockchain powered by the RARE token, opened its first pop-up gallery on May 19 in SoHo, the historic New York City neighborhood known internationally for its affinity for artists and their artwork.
The gallery's opening is a prime example of the metaverse, a digital reality that exists both in people's collective imaginations and in a network of computer nodes. It, too, seeks to leave its physical footprint on art history.
The brightly lit, two-story exhibition, curated by An Rong and Mika Bar-On Nesher, focuses on works by 15 SuperRare artists that explore sci-fi and cyberpunk, themes essential to the idea and concept of the "metaverse." The gallery, which is open to the public through August 28, aims to revolutionize the way we interact with art in an increasingly digital age.
SoHo's child, SuperRare's first.
Before SoHo welcomed a virtual world, it rose to fame in the 1960s, when artists flocked to the neighborhood, lured by its open spaces, large windows and cheap rents. In the decade that followed, the area, once known for its industrial workforce and influx of businesses and artists, was plagued by displacement, forcing some of its residents to move out.
Despite turbulent conflicts and divisions, this did not stop SoHo's development. Today, the coveted neighborhood is an ideal place to explore the meaning of art.
Visions from Remembered Futures is the first marketplace to take place in the real world. In the past, SuperRare's artwork was on display in a seventh-floor gallery in Decentraland's Metaversum, a 3D-based platform where users can buy virtual properties.
The digital marketplace has come a long way since it was once run by a four-person startup in a coffee shop in Brooklyn, New York. Before the gallery found a home on the bustling streets of SoHo, Jonathan Perkins, chief product officer, and John Crain, CEO, traveled Europe with backpacks full of iPads, building DIY gallery pop-ups wherever they could.
That experience gave them the impetus to take it a step further.
Perkins told CoinDesk at the gallery opening that "while digital is great and the metaverse is exciting, it's important to have physical places where people can come together and enjoy art."
"It makes the whole thing feel much more real," Perkins said.
But it's not just about the art, Crain adds. Physical spaces, and especially first-time exhibitions, give the public a chance to interact with the artists and learn more about them. "It humanizes their artistic process," he says.
While the duo did not disclose the cost of the gallery or the cost of the exhibition itself, Perkins noted that it is "certainly the most beautiful and highest quality exhibition."
NFTs Participate in Art Revolution.
Mika Bar-On Nesher, the exhibition's curator and production manager, sees a shift in the way non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are being used.
She compares this shift to her background in traditional art and explains one of the biggest misconceptions: For traditional art systems, combining NFTs with digital art "can actually be quite scary." In part because it empowers the artist.
"It revolutionizes existing structures in a way that has implications for the future," Nesher says. "It's not a trend, it's a revolution in the way we monetize and experience art."
Nesher's remarks come at a time when the burgeoning industry is shifting the conversation about what ownership can look like, what it can mean, and the ways in which cryptocurrencies play a role in disrupting the financial status quo.
Flowty founder Michael Levy recently alluded to a similar point during the CoinDesk Road to Consensus "The Future of NFT Investing" Twitter Spaces. Levy notes that "it can be dangerous to take old-school valuation approaches from older technologies or from previous generations of collectibles and commodities and apply that kind of valuation thinking to future projects."
An Rong, the exhibition's lead curator, found that new technologies associated with NFTs were more of a reason to organize the exhibition.
Her first experience with NFTs came after she graduated with a degree in museum studies earlier this year. She jokingly recounts a conversation with a friend and Ethereum researcher who said that "blockchain could solve everything."
We're moving into the future.
The NFT industry in general is expected to continue expanding in droves.
In January, banking giant Jefferies revised its market capitalization for NFTs to more than $35 billion for 2022. It predicts the industry will be worth more than $80 billion by 2025.
Data from blockchain analytics firm Nansen shows that the total number of users buying and selling NFTs per week in 2022 is generally higher than the number of users in 2021.
While users can be classified as both buyers and sellers within the same week, the number of wallets that traded NFTs per week in 2022 was over 300,000, with the exception of the week that ended on May 16, 2022, possibly due to the lingering effects of the collapse of Terra's UST stablecoin.
In comparison, the week ending December 20, 2021, was the only week in 2021 in which the total number of users trading NFTs exceeded 300,000 wallets.
The increase in wallet activity in 2022 compared to wallet activity in 2021 indicates continued enthusiasm and interest in NFTs.
Meanwhile, an estimated $240 million worth of NFT-based digital artwork was bought and sold on the SuperRare marketplace. Artists earn from both the original sale and the resale.
Getting in meant changing the narrative.
When NESSgraphics finished his digital studies at the University of Connecticut, he felt stuck in a repetitive cycle. He wanted out, often skipping class for days at a time. But for good reason, which his professors, though tired, supported.
"I realized that if I just keep doing what I'm doing, I'm going to get spit out with everyone else and basically be just another number," NESSgraphics told CoinDesk at the gallery opening.
He turned to social media and began posting his artwork on Instagram, where he caught the attention of music industry executives. At the time, creating graphics for pop-rock band Imagine Dragons seemed more his thing. And so he pursued the unknown.
But the unknown was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic that destroyed the live music industry. And although NESSgraphics helped produce art for other prominent artists like Megan Thee Stallion, "streaming shows weren't the same." In 2020, NESSgraphics stumbled upon SuperRare and dove in.
Instead of creating visuals based on someone else's ideas, as he had done in the live music industry, NESSgraphics was able to work on projects for longer periods of time while earning a higher income through NFTs and SuperRare.
Five weeks of work creating images for Imagine Dragons, for example, earned him $18,000.
In terms of annual income, NESSgraphics was making six figures a year, or about $120,000, before he joined NFTs.
Sure, that was good, but NFTs are more lucrative. "You can make that in a day," he said, in addition to back-end royalties.
Take, for example, "R4G3QU1T," a unique NFT that NESSgraphics coined on SuperRare a month ago. A user calling himself "artifaction" bought it nine days ago for 55 ETH, about $115,032.
NESSgraphics' story is unique in that there is no other NESSgraphics, nor is there any other "R4G3QU1T." NFT, and yet his experiences in both the physical and digital worlds reflect the general mood of empowering and celebrating artists who specialize in digital creations.
"This is a new chapter in galleries," Rong said after the exhibition.


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Brazilian developer Flux Game Studio has released a new trailer for their upcoming fighter GUTS
ahead of its imminent release on PC. While we have to wait a bit longer for the game itself, we can check out that trailer.
The half-a-minute long trailer focuses on the game's hazards that can be used by the player against their opponent, and vice versa, naturally.
release on PC next week, the game will make its way to console early next year.
We don't have them yet, but we'll publish a story as soon as we pick up the GUTS trophies.

domain: news


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Digiday Research: Are publishers making money from Facebook video?
At the Digiday Video Anywhere Summit last November, we sat down with 76 industry leaders from major U.S. media companies to discuss the future of video monetization on Facebook. Check out our research on the enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation here. Learn more about our upcoming events here.
- Sixty-one percent of digital media companies believe Facebook can provide either no value to publishers or incremental revenue at best.
- Only 7 percent make the majority of their video revenues off Facebook.
- Fifty-six percent distribute video across social platforms in an effort to reach new audiences.
Video is a megatrend for Facebook, but not for publishers on Facebook
Early in 2017, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg boldly declared that video would be a “megatrend” for Facebook and that it would prioritize video across all of its apps. Some publishers heeded this call, increasing the amount of videos they published to the platform. But overall, publishers have yet to see clear monetary returns from Facebook’s video initiatives. Despite Facebook’s overtures about promising new ad formats, 86 percent of publishers make 25 percent or less of their video revenue off the platform.
Facebook’s sweeping change to its news feed has thrown publishers into a state of flux. The days of media upstarts amassing audiences through viral news-feed videos appear to be over. In fact, Facebook has already stopped paying publishers to create news feed videos. While news feed videos with mid-roll ad breaks will still generate revenue, Facebook could increase its reliance on Facebook Watch to drive video ad dollars. There’s just one problem: Facebook is using unproven mid-roll ad units on Watch videos.
Most publishers aren’t as bullish on Facebook as Facebook is on video. When asked before the announcement of the news feed shift if monetizing on Facebook through video was a viable business strategy, few respondents said they thought it could be a significant part of a company’s revenue. Additionally, no one believed a company could survive solely from revenues generated from Facebook video.
Companies distribute video mainly to find new audiences
The graveyard of companies that tried to pivot to video serves as a stark reminder of how difficult it is to fund companies through digital advertising. So, one might expect that companies distribute video to bring in additional ad revenue. In fact, more than half of publishers view distributing video on platforms like Twitter and YouTube primarily as a means to build their audiences. Only one in eight respondents used video distribution mainly to generate ad revenue.
Publishers’ views on the advantages of video distribution could change. Carlos Watson, CEO of Ozy Media, admitted that while Facebook video is a significant part of Ozy’s strategy, the financial reward is lacking. Ozy views Facebook as a component of a multichannel strategy. In 2016, Ozy worked with Wired and Facebook on a live show on the night of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, which drew millions of views. Ozy Media also produces a show for Facebook Watch that receives hundreds of thousands of views per episode. Watson predicts that publishers will start to see increased returns from Facebook for premium content due to market pressure, as companies like Hulu, Netflix and Amazon make aggressive plays to court content producers.
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Bitcoin has been dominating the headlines in the news. You may have seen the following in the media recently:
– “Bitcoin mining ‘is using so much energy that it is causing electricity blackouts’ amid fears it will consume more power than the world by 2020”
– “Experts say Bitcoin mining is consuming more power than used by 159 countries”
– “It is creating a ‘colossal’ carbon footprint as the value of one-coin surges to more than $18,000 amid violent swings in the cryptocurrency market”
The words alone sound like a science fiction novel: Bitcoin … cryptocurrency … electricity blackouts.
What is Bitcoin?
How is it impacting the financial markets today?
And what is its impact on the future market of tomorrow?
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, which means it is used in the digital realm as a form of currency online. It has value: it is being traded under futures contracts on the Chicago Board of Trade, and, you can use it as a method of payment in many stores such as the clothing retailer the Gap and the satellite provider DISH Network. It is the quintessential “future is now” online curiosity – a unit of exchange where the transaction does not include a U.S. dollar or some other form of national, physical currency. It’s price-to-dollars has surged in the last year, and it has become more and more prominent with the online market and those sophisticated in the digital sphere.
However, can a currency not sanctioned by state truly compete with the dollar, euro, gold, or more traditional forms of exchange in the marketplace? And is this price surge a market reality, or the classic case of the “bubble” asset.
Coindesk.com Bitcoin Valuation July 2010 to 12/12/2017
Is Bitcoin the Currency of the Future?
- Huge price run-up in 2017 suggests avid interest. From 2010 to 2013, Bitcoin was valued in a range of $100 U.S. dollars. There was a surge in 2013 to a valuation range in $900 U.S. dollars. As of January, the price of one Bitcoin has surged all the way to over $17,000 U.S. dollars. For a currency you cannot hold, or touch, but can only use on a digital screen, this has been a unique surge in value, with global implications.
- It works without a central bank and a printing press – this seems like the ‘future is now’. Bitcoin is the world’s first digital currency, and the one most commonly used as of this date. It works as a “peer-to-peer” transaction. There is no bank to store the money in, no need for a governmental central bank to manage and print the currency. You mine for bitcoins online, you transact business using a bitcoin software program and it is recorded in a non-governmental system of storage known as a blockchain. It can sound technical, but for those familiar with the digital landscape, it is a fairly simple system to use. No central bank makes it a favorite among many who want less of the government involved in economic transactions.
- Futures trading, GDAX trading, and old line Wall Street is all the way in.: Perhaps not all the way in – the NYSE has rejected trading Bitcoin futures because of “wild price discrepancies” making it difficult to create an equitable marketplace. Nonetheless, the Chicago Board of Trade has opened futures contracts on Bitcoin, and it has been firmly established in the global currency exchange.
Bitcoin is a Classic “Bubble” Investment.
- 1800% increase in value … in one year??? You go from a digital currency that can be purchased in $900 U.S. dollars to over $17,000 … and that’s not a bubble? Investors have made money, and you can make money betting on futures, but it is payment mechanism that will be in direct competition with the U.S. dollar as backed by the U.S. government – historically, competing in the Feds space has not been a long-term strategy for success.
- No price transparency. Bitcoin is traded on several exchanges, and the price valuation is widely divergent from one exchange to the other. This was the principal reason the New York Stock Exchange hesitated on allowing futures contracts on Bitcoin from being traded on the market. You cannot get an accurate bid with such price discrepancy. Furthermore, despite its digital nature, the attempts to “mine” for the bitcoin – find it on the internet grid – makes it a not very liquid currency. For these reasons, the price appreciation looks more like speculation and risk than sound investment strategy. Most notably, the price of Bitcoin has seen an 80% correction 5 times in the last 4 years – hardly the model of a stable price climb. For many analysts, all of this makes it a bubble.
- Governments will not accept currency competition they don’t control. Couldn’t governments simply ban digital currency? Yes, and China already has for transactions involving start-up businesses. Many analysts celebrate the attempts at banning, saying that the digital currency would simply move to an open market – and that is the beauty and greatness of free markets and capitalism! But that assumes that more governments, and the biggest one of all – the U.S. – won’t follow suit and attempt to regulate and/or ban competing currencies such as Bitcoin in the future. Because the U.S., and most countries, will not allow any competition to their currency, there will naturally be a limitation built into the system regarding Bitcoin’s market cap and potential growth.
Bitcoin has had a huge run-up in value. But even as we go to press, it is well off it’s highs. It is a tradeable asset in the marketplace: it can be held as a store of wealth, it can be used as a digital payment source, and it can serve as a hedge like gold or government bonds. But the crypto-asset, the crypto-currency, is not a competition to national currencies. Like anything else in the stock market, it can go up, and therefore, it can go down.
“Tulip-mania” – which occurred in the Dutch Republic in the 17th century – was the original “bubble asset” having a huge run-up in value on tulips and then a complete collapse in 1637. It was memorialized in a famous 19th-century book by author Charles Mackay – the title speaks for itself: “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.”
Whether Bitcoin is a bubble or not, it certainly will go up and down in the market. How can you avoid those potential losses and that roller coaster ride? Call your Ty J. Young Inc. advisor today and learn how you can have your money completely protected from stock market losses and growing at the same time! 877-912-1919.


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Tags: Jim Israel
Deere & Company is introducing a new name – John Deere Financial - for its business unit that offers credit and other financial services. The change is being made to better represent the full breadth of products ...
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Bentley will be making a big impact on the eco-friendly scene when they finally release the Bentley Continental Supersport. It will be the the company’s first FlexFuel car and one of the most powerful too.
The Bentley Continental Supersport is powered by a W12 engine that produces a 621hp and a speed of 0-60 time of 3.7 seconds, and a overall top speed of 204 mph. Special features includes a 6-speed Quickshift ZF transmission, 20-inch, 10-spoke alloy wheels and an advanced ESP system. Prices to be announced soon


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YouTube continues its warfare on advert blockers, slowing efficiency for customers who go to the positioning with ad-blocking plugins enabled.
Stories started surfacing that YouTube was forcing customers to attend for 5 seconds earlier than loading a video when utilizing Firefox with advert blockers enabled. The studies sparked an uproar, with many believing YouTube was concentrating on Firefox and exempting its personal Chrome browser from the slowdowns.
In line with an announcement supplied to Android Central, nonetheless, YouTube says it’s making use of the slowdown to all browsers that use advert blockers, together with its personal Chrome.
“To help a various ecosystem of creators globally and permit billions to entry their favourite content material on YouTube, we’ve launched an effort to induce viewers with advert blockers enabled to permit advertisements on YouTube or attempt YouTube Premium for an advert free expertise,” the corporate mentioned in an e mail to the outlet. “Customers who’ve advert blockers put in could expertise suboptimal viewing, whatever the browser they’re utilizing.”
YouTube clearly has each intention of constant its efforts to creating utilizing advert blockers as painful as attainable.


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Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has ordered a crackdown on counterfeit alcohol products and equipment for their production, in a bid to tackle a rising tide of illegal liquor in Russia.
A government decree published Monday tasks the country's alcohol market watchdog with destroying unlicensed products with an alcohol content above 25 percent and related manufacturing paraphernalia. The watchdog is yet to determine how any seized items will be liquidated.
The decree is intended to tighten a failing system. Until now, the Interior Ministry has been charged with repressing the illegal liquor trade. The ministry used to send seized products to chemical plants to be plowed back in to production, but they would often simply reappear on the black market. So it abandoned the practice and now keeps confiscated goods in warehouses, where they are destroyed only after a court decision.
But despite these measures, over the past several years the amount of illegally produced, imported or sold liquor has risen sharply. In 2014, up to half of the alcohol consumed in Russia was made or distributed on the black market, the RBC newspaper reported earlier this year, citing the Federal Service for Alcohol Market Regulation — the watchdog now in charge of the crackdown.
The increase in demand for illicit alcohol followed the introduction of higher excise duties that made drinks more expensive. According to RBC, this quickly led to more illegal imports of cheaper vodka from Belarus and Kazakhstan, two neighboring countries that are part of a Customs Union with Russia.
Over the past several years, the price of a liter of vodka has more than doubled to 220 rubles ($3), Vadim Drobiz, director of the Research Center for Federal and Regional Alcohol Markets, told The Moscow Times.
That may appear cheap, but compared to the average wage, the cost of alcohol in Russia is 5-8 times higher than in many other countries, Drobiz said.
Counterfeit alcohol is manufactured in Russia by both legal and illegal alcohol producers.
More than half of Russia's liquor plants have closed since 2007, but their equipment has often been left intact and they have continued to produce alcohol products either without excise duty stamps or with fake ones, Drobiz said.
According to Pavel Shapkin, head of the Center for the Development of a National Alcohol Policy, around 300 liquor plants in Russia have been stripped of their licenses for sanitary violations, failure to comply with regulations and other reasons, yet are still involved in alcohol production.
Yet half of the illegal alcohol in Russia is still manufactured by legal liquor plants that are not happy with high excise taxes and are trying to make money by selling products on the side, Shapkin told The Moscow Times.
The production of one bottle of illegal vodka helps producers save 120 rubles ($2) by not paying the taxman, he said.
The new powers given to the Federal Service for Alcohol Market Regulation allow not only for the destruction of confiscated products, but also of the equipment used to manufacture and distribute them.
This is meant to inflict a serious blow to the industrial production of counterfeit alcohol.
The equipment will be seized both from illegal factories and legal producers caught manufacturing for the black market, Shapkin said.
However, the new measure has a reverse side. Many Russians can't pay for more expensive drink, and incomes are now falling thanks to a deep economic slump. But people's need for the alcohol remains, Drobiz said. As a result, more people will turn to spirits and alcohol-based liquids, or start producing alcohol themselves.
Rising prices have already led to a boom in demand for alcohol-making equipment.
According to Igor Chuyan, the head of the Federal Service for Alcohol Market Regulation, sales of alcoholic drinks last year dropped by 14.5 percent compared to the previous year, while sales of moonshine brew kits rose by 3-4 times, the Interfax news agency reported in April.
Alongside the redoubled efforts to destroy illicit alcohol, officials are calling for a toughening of penalties for the production or use of fake excise stamps for alcohol.
Vadim Tyulpanov, a senator in Russia's upper house of parliament, this week proposed a bill increasing the prison sentence for such violation to 12 years, the RIA Novosti news agency reported. Under current legislation, introduced last year, counterfeiters face up to 5 years in prison.
Yet despite the increasing attention from law enforcement, the illegal alcohol business is still growing fast.
In the first five months of this year, 21 million bottles of alcoholic drinks marked with forged excise stamps were intercepted by the alcohol market watchdog — almost 3 times more than in the same period last year, when 7.2 million bottles were detected, Tyulpanov said, according to RIA Novosti.
Apart from bringing losses to the economy, counterfeit alcohol poses a big threat to the health and life of Russians.
Statistics shows that a surge in illegal alcohol on the market is always followed by an increase in deaths from alcohol poisoning, according to Shapkin.
According to the Rosstat state statistics data, 15,400 people were poisoned by alcohol in Russia last year.
There is no record on how many Russians died specifically from illegal alcohol, but in most cases fatal alcohol poisoning is a result of drinking counterfeit products, Shapkin said.


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Hewlett-Packard continues to rue the day it bought Autonomy.
A deal that was controversial before the ink even dried, just got even more controversial as the PC giant took an $8.8 billion write-down.
The deal was already seen as a key reason former, and short-tenured, Hewlett-Packard CEO Leo Apotheker lost his job. Now H-P has started throwing around accusations of accounting issues.
Amazingly it is H-P’s second $8 billion writedown this year, following pretty closely on the heels on August’s $8 billion mark against the 2008, $13.25 billion purchase of Electronic Data Systems.
But even with over $18 billion of goodwill written down in just the final six months of its fiscal year, H-P remains packing a hefty amount on its balance sheet. There remains $35.6 billion on the company’s books as of the end of the quarter.
Shares are slumping 9.4% to $12.05 in premarket trading.


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In one of the dumbest right-wing media news cycles in recent years (and that is saying something), right-wing figures spent recent days attacking Vice President Kamala Harris for purchasing cookware during a diplomatic trip to Paris. The story even lept to “straight news” anchors at Fox.
The vice president’s purchases were reported last week by the right-wing Washington Free Beacon. Others have pointed out, however, that by all appearances Harris spent her own money, and she is also an avid cook who would use those items herself. And while a Marketwatch headline called the items “pricey,” the piece notes that they're recommended by chefs.
Of course, this sudden concern with spending rings hollow from the network aligned for years with Donald Trump. Even putting Trump's personal spending aside, these facts also contrast sharply with all the government money that Trump as president reportedly funneled to his own properties.


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Yahoo makes second CMO appointment inside three months
By Sarah Shearman, marketingmagazine.co.uk, Tuesday, 28 August 2012 12:00PM
Yahoo has appointed former Amazon vice president Kathy Savitt as global chief marketing officer, replacing Mollie Spilman, who had been in the role for just three months.
Spilman, previously head of marketing for the Americas at Yahoo, was appointed chief marketing officer by the company’s former interim chief executive Ross Levinsohn in May, as part of an internal reshuffle at the business.
Yahoo has not announced what new role Spilman will take up, but a spokesman confirmed she will remain at the company.
Savitt joins next month from social commerce company Lockerz, which she founded three and a half years ago.
Her appointment has been overseen by new chief executive Marissa Mayer. Savitt will report directly into Mayer, and will be in charge of all worldwide marketing and branding.
She has experience in consumer marketing, both in retail and technology, having previously held the role of executive vice president and chief marketing officer for US clothing retailer American Eagle Outfitters.
Prior to that she was vice-president of strategic communications, content and initiatives at Amazon.
At the start of this year, Yahoo shook up its European marketing function, parting ways with James Tipple, vice-president for marketing at Yahoo EMEA, and Andrew Cocker, marketing director for EMEA.
Yahoo has been ramping up its consumer marketing in the UK, and in July returned to TV after a three-year hiatus with a campaign to promote its coverage of sport.Follow @shearmans
This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk
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Is there going to be a iPhone 12?
Our best guess is the iPhone 12 will be released in September 2020. Although no official announcement has been made by Apple, it is largely expected that the next generation iPhone (following the iPhone 11 series, we assume it will be called iPhone 12) will be unveiled at an autumn event in 2020.
How much will the iPhone 12 cost in 2020?
iPhone 12 pricing
It will start at $699 for the regular model while the Pro and Pro max models will be $999 and $1099.
Should I buy iPhone 11 or wait for 12?
You should wait for the iPhone 12 . When the phone is released and you think that Apple didn’t do a huge upgrade from 11 to 12, you can buy the iPhone 11 as it is one of the best phone in the market . And if you think the iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 have vast differences you can go for the iPhone 12.
Will the iPhone 12 come with AirPods?
The iPhone 12 will boast an iPhone 4-inspired design, 5G and a 120Hz display. AirPods 3 will refresh the most popular wireless earbuds in the world. The Apple Watch Series 6 will finally add sleep tracking, get faster and be able to go deeper than ever before.
Should I wait iPhone 12?
Should I wait for the iPhone 12? The iPhone 12 release date is still half a year away, if the September 2020 launch window stays constant, so you should probably consider the discounted iPhone 11 if you need a new iPhone in the next days, weeks or even months.


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The Old Country Buffet restaurant in the plaza at 3048 Sheridan Drive in Amherst has closed.
The restaurant, at the corner of Sheridan Drive and Niagara Falls Boulevard, is a casualty of parent company Ovation Brands’ bankruptcy filing.
In a press release to announce the bankruptcy Monday, the company said it would close “certain weaker restaurants and recapitalize its business.” That resulted in the closure of more than 90 buffet restaurants under various brands across the country. Last month, Ovation abruptly closed another 74 other underperforming locations.
Old Country Buffet has one remaining local restaurant at 4401 Transit Road in Amherst.
The contents of the restaurant will be auctioned off online Wednesday at AuctionNation.com. Included in the auction will be kitchen equipment, dishes, furniture and decor. Interested bidders can begin bidding on items online now, and can inspect auction items in person Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the restaurant.


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May 04, 2022
A New Jersey law barring grocery stores from giving customers single-use paper and plastic bags went into effect Wednesday, marking a long-sought victory for environmentalists even as some call for the state to create more exemptions.
The measure, signed into law by Gov. Phil Murphy in November 2020, exempts food retailers with less than 2,500 square feet in store space from the paper bag prohibition, though they are still barred from dispensing single-use plastic bags.
"It is exciting and challenging," said Ed Potosnak, executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters. "It doesn't come easily, but we have the nation-leading law."
Violators first face a warning, then a $1,000 fine that jumps to $5,000 for their third breach and any thereafter.
A prohibition on polystyrene food service products — that can include food containers, disposal plates, and single-use foam cups — also went into effect Wednesday, though certain polystyrene products are exempted from the ban for an additional two years. That means milkshake spoons, raw meat and fish trays, foods prepackaged with polystyrene, and certain small portion cups will remain available until May 2024.
The Department of Environmental Protection can add plastic items to the list of exemptions if it finds there is no non-plastic replacement that isn't cost prohibitive. Such exemptions last for one year and can be extended.
The agency can also issue yearlong blanket exemptions to the bag and polystyrene food product bans to individuals, government entities, and businesses with less than $500,000 in annual gross income if replacement products are unaffordable or commercially unavailable. It can also issue exemptions if replacement products simply do not exist.
"It's a good day for New Jersey and a good day for the health of New Jerseyans," said Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex), the bill's prime sponsor. "People have a tendency — when they think about plastic problems — to think about first this new continent of plastic that's in the Pacific Ocean, or the litter on the street. The message that hasn't gotten through to people yet is the impact on their health."
The law has already curtailed the use of single-use plastic straws. While they are not explicitly barred, the law since November 2021 has required restaurants to give plastic straws only to customers who request them.
Each of those provisions supersedes regulations enacted by local governments.
The law requires the DEP and Department of State create an educational campaign and, among other things, hand out free reusable bags.
Smith, who chairs the Senate's Environment and Energy Committee, said he expects New Jerseyans to finish adjusting to the new bag rules in about two months.
Linda Doherty, president and CEO of the New Jersey Food Council, an industry group, said the 18-month runway to the law's implementation gave the state's grocery stores enough time to prepare. Retailers cooperated with a series of state agencies on a public information campaign that included radio and in-store announcements, she added.
It remains to be seen how the new rules affect an economy still strained by high inflation, rising gas prices, and unemployment that has yet to fall to pre-pandemic levels. Some businesses have planned ahead for the shift.
Elias Bitar, the owner of Norma's Eastern Mediterranean Cuisine and a small adjacent grocery store in Cherry Hill, said his businesses stocked up on compostable and non-plastic containers in the months leading up to the bag ban but is still searching for suitable reusable takeout bags and might end up using reusable polypropylene bags allowed by the law.
"If that's the only solution, that's the only solution. We have to continue to do business," Bitar said. "But I would always prefer to do something that's actually going to make a difference, and not something that's just paying lip service."
Businesses are likely to face some higher costs, especially as a surge in demand for non-plastic containers and bags nudges up prices, but leftover inventories of single-use bags could also come with a price tag. Some large multi-state retailers have begun offloading disposable bag inventories to locations in states with looser restrictions, but that's not an option for small businesses.
"What can we do with those? Put them over our heads? I don't know," Bitar said. "They're just going to be put in storage. If there is an acceptable way to recycle them prior to use, we'll do that. I think it's just kind of a waiting game to see what happens."
At least in the short term, the ban is likely to slightly hike prices for some residents who get their groceries through a delivery service because of added surcharges for reusable bags.
Though the Legislature in March approved an additional six-month grace period for food banks and pantries, no provisions have directly addressed delivery services.
Smith said he doesn't believe lawmakers should rush to change the law again, noting only two state residents had reached out over the issue and adding retailers could use cardboard boxes to ferry out groceries, as bulk retailer Costco already does.
Assemblyman John McKeon (D-Essex), another prime sponsor, said grocers could have come up with a better solution than charging delivery customers for reusable bags with each order.
"I don't think they tried very hard to address this themselves, and quite frankly, it's frustrating and disappointing. That's just my own view," he said. "The Band-Aid, so to speak, needs to be ripped off, and we need to open up this next chapter in our state and hopefully in our nation's future as it relates to single-use plastics as well as paper."
The Legislature will take another look at the bag ban, but that examination is years away, not months, Smith said.
"We're going to give it two years," he said. "You have to see how it operates first, but two years from now, we're going to have a lot of data and information from New Jersey citizens, and I'm hoping that what we're going to do in two years is get more plastics out of the stream of commerce. They're killing us."
New Jersey Monitor is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence McDonald for questions: firstname.lastname@example.org. Follow New Jersey Monitor on Facebook and Twitter.


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The Skin Renew Service has launched in one of Superdrug’s London stores before a planned rolled out nationwide.
Superdrug says it is only available following a phone booking and a consultation with a qualified nurse, and only for customers over 25 years old.
Medical experts have already come forward to voice their concern about the move.
The Royal College of Surgeons and the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS) have written to the CEO of Superdrug owner, AS Watson, to express concern at Superdrug’s decision to offer these services.
“Administering an injection of Botox® or fillers is a serious and potentially dangerous procedure, and it should only be undertaken by an experienced and fully qualified health professional,” they say.
They add that impulse decisions to buy fillers and botox, “with customers having them without undergoing a proper consultation with a trained health professional, and not having time to fully reflect on the pros and cons of such treatments”, may cause permanent disfigurement.
Previous attempts to launch
As the Evening Standard reports, Superdrug previously tried and failed to break into the cosmetic surgery market in 2007, offering injections carried out on the shop floor by a third party company.
Boots was actually the first to try to enter this space, with the major health and wellness retail having offered a similar service in 2002. This was withdrawn.
Popular culture playing a part?
It seems like Superdrug believes there has been shift in consumer demand when it comes to these kinds of treatments since its last attempt to take them to the shopfloor.
Some experts have linked these attitudes to the ever-rising popularity of reality TV shows, which predominantly feature people who meet a particular vision of ‘beauty’.
Male grooming in on the act
Male grooming trends have also been linked to the impact of pop culture in this area: Mintel recently released analyst insight on the potential link between current major TV shows popular in the UK, and British men’s grooming routines.
Love Island, a hit reality TV show that follows couples competing to win a significant cash prize while marooned together in a sun-splashed villa, has supposedly encouraged a move towards a ‘spornosexual’ look.
Jack Duckett, Senior Consumers Lifestyle Analyst at Mintel, explains:
“Spornosexuals – a portmanteau of “sports”, “porn” and “metrosexual” – are characterised not only by a hyper-athletic physique, but also by minimal, if any, body hair.
“While a number of factors have contributed to the evolution of the trend, reality TV shows such as Love Island and The Only Way is Essex have undoubtedly been the driving force behind the increasing fashion for this aesthetic.”


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Two major cereal manufacturers have made the decision to scrap halal certification.
Kellogg’s and Sanitarium have said their products don’t require the certification as their plant-based products are already fit for Muslim consumption.
They made the decision to stop paying third-party companies for the certification amid public campaigns against it due to growing concerns over where the money was going.
Appearing on Sunrise this morning, outspoken media commentator Prue Macsween told host Natalie Barr that she couldn’t foresee meat manufacturers and producers following suit anytime soon as meat exportation was too valuable to Australia.
“But certainly there are huge concerns about where that money is going and the tax that it’s imposing on the consumer,” she said.
“But those that aren’t affected like Sanitarium are smart to (get rid of halal certification).”
4BC Radio host Ben Davis also appeared on Sunrise and was quick to point out that cereals were plant-based.
“It’s a bigger story if our cereal has meat or alcohol in it but why would you get something halal certified when it’s a plant-based product?” Davis said.
Halal certification is in place to ensure that halal food has been prepared according to Islamic law.
This means the food is free pork products, alcohol and certain other ingredients but as Barr and Davis mentioned on Sunrise, cereals are plant-based.
Halal certification is big business in Australia and is projected to be worth $1.6 trillion worldwide by 2050.
In 2015, The Daily Telegraph reported that it generated an income of almost $6 million for the Islamic Federation of Islamic Councils, who were one of the biggest halal certifiers in the country.
And in November last year, The Courier Mail reported that Queensland LNP backbencher George Christensen had accused his own party of taking too long to crack down on halal certification and its alleged link to “funding terrorism”.
At the time, Christensen argued that nothing had been done one year on from when the Economics Reference Committee recommended the monitoring and compliance of halal certification of meat for export to the federal Agriculture Department.
“And the big question ‘Where does the money go?’ remains mostly unanswered,” Christensen said.
“This is an important question for which the general public wants an answer.
“The Australian Crime Commission told the inquiry they had not found any direct links between halal Certification and terrorism funding.
“And yet evidence of the indirect link was freely available on the internet, as well as an admission as to why an indirect link was used.”
Nestle has also said they’ll no longer pay for the halal certification that was once applied to its chocolate bars, including Kit Kat.
But rival Cadbury still carries the certification.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has declared the decision to scrap the certification by Kellogg’s, Sanitarium and Nestle a “victory” for “all those fighting to free Australians from having to pay extra into the halal certification scam’ which funds Muslim schools, mosques and religious activities.”
“One Nation has kept this issue alive and tried to educate people about unnecessary halal certification so it’s great to see progress being made,” she told Daily Mail Australia.
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text: Apple's AirTag is a small device designed to help people locate lost items, but it has also been misused by some individuals to track and stalk people. To address this issue, Apple added detection features to iPhones that alert users if an unfamiliar AirTag is nearby. Now, Apple and Google have announced that Android phones will also have this feature to warn users if they are being tracked by an AirTag. The new feature is expected to be completed by the end of 2022 and will be included in future versions of iOS and Android. Additionally, other lost item trackers like Samsung or Tile may be able to develop similar alert features for their products.


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County Executive Leopold Announces Wal-Mart Not Coming to Crofton
Annapolis, MD (May 3, 2007) - Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold announced that "the planned Wal-Mart store will not be coming to Crofton."
"It is an established principle of this Administration that economic development will not proceed where the infrastructure is not adequate to service that development," said County Executive Leopold. "I am pleased to have reached an accommodation with the project’s developer and Wal-Mart to forestall the construction of the project at this site, and commend Mr. Berkshire and Wal-Mart for their willingness to come to this agreement on this specific proposal."
The County Executive made the announcement after meeting this afternoon with William Berkshire, President of Lancer Corporation, General Partner of 1691 Limited Partnership and David Plott, Counsel for Wal-Mart.
"Wal-Mart appreciates the hard work of County Executive Leopold and Council Members during the review of this project. We are grateful for the current relationship we have with the Administration and citizens of Anne Arundel County and look forward to working on future projects," said Public Affairs Director for Wal-Mart Keith Morris.


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How the West will be won
- 06 December, 2006 14:32
In recent months, a number of vendors playing the IP telephony market have claimed they have a model suited to ruling the SMB market. But the results of a recent ARN survey suggest none have won a significant number of hearts and minds in the channel to date.
The story goes something like this. At the top end of the market, traditional telephony vendors such as Alcatel and Avaya and networking heavyweights including Cisco and Nortel are having a lot of success. At the other end, Skype is revolutionising consumer telephony and expatriates all over the world are calling home via pre-paid VoIP cards without even knowing they are using the technology.
But SMB, potentially the biggest market in terms of dollar value, is something of a Wild West with no vendor managing to build a dominant position yet.
In the survey I alluded to, we asked resellers to name a preferred IP telephony brand. While Cisco finished on top, with a number of respondents citing support as its key differentiator, it was selected by less than 12 per cent. In total, nearly 20 different brands were put forward as an answer. They included a host of different approaches from Asterisk, Ericsson, Grandstream, Mitel, ShoreTel, VegaStream and Zultys among others.
What that tells me is that plenty of resellers are dabbling in the technology and looking to differentiate themselves from competitors. It also suggests they are looking to find value for money because SMBs cannot afford enterprise solutions and have little or no interest in the advanced feature sets.
Integrators operating in the enterprise market are moving sales conversations away from dial tone in favour of winning deals on selling smart applications. The future-proofing of networks is also a key weapon in their armoury. But such strategic thinking will win few friends in the SMB market. For many users, any conversations about telephony are still solely about dial tone.
At a round table event ARN held last week, a collection of Cisco integrators made it quite clear that they find it very difficult to be competitive in IP telephony for any user with less than 150 seats. An edited transcript of that discussion will appear in next week's issue. But if they are unlikely to make much of a dent in SMB, what model is going to be successful?
The answer, it seems, is most likely to be managed services provided by the telcos. Last week's column suggested the telcos would become the biggest threat to traditional IT resellers as the market develops. As applications become increasingly smart and target particular verticals, the trend for telcos and other service providers to give hardware away when users sign on the dotted line will continue to grow. The convenience and ease of use this model will offer SMB users will be extremely difficult for anybody leading with hardware to compete against.


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Taylor Swift fans in Tampa, FL are in for a treat during her concerts at the Raymond James Stadium. Here, vegan seafood provider The Ish Company is offering guests a taste of something fresh.
Throughout Swift’s concerts, select concessions at the stadium will be serving lemongrass and citrus thyme vinaigrette grain bowls topped with Shrimpish, realistic vegan shrimp made by the Ish Company.
The Ish Company
The Ish Company’s executive chef Charlie Ayers explains that these shrimp bowls are offered to better serve the musical artist’s fanbase. “The average Taylor Swift fan, likely Gen Z or Millennials, are the highest population of flexitarians and are looking for more plant-based options,” Ayers tells VegNews. “Specifically at a five-hour concert, it’s also important to have high-quality and healthy foods, which you usually don’t get at these types of events.”
“People want a higher-end experience, and rather than the typical hot dogs or other quick fried foods at venues, we’re stepping it up with a high-quality product that still satisfies the taste buds,” he says.
Sustainable fish for the next generation
Founded in 2020, The Ish Company is on a mission to give foodservice operators truly sustainable choices when it comes to seafood with its fish-free products. As such, when an operator orders 360 pounds of Shrimpish instead of shrimp, it is the equivalent of taking one car off the road for an entire year.
Ayers previously worked as the executive chef at Google where he established the employee food service program and joined the Ish Company to continue building a more sustainable food future.
“As a chef at Google, I created a new concept of ‘fine food for the fast crowd,’ innovating dishes that were healthy, flavorful, and planet positive, while also being fast-casual and affordable,” Ayers says.
“The ISH Company’s mission is the same, to create healthy, tasty, and sustainable plant-based products, and I’m happy to be able to continue refining high-quality, healthy, sustainable food in a casual setting,” he says.
Next to shrimp, salmon is the second most-consumed seafood in the United States and raising these animals for food comes at a hefty cost to the environment. Last month, restaurant operators nationwide got a new way to greatly slash their carbon footprint with Salmonish—the Ish Company’s third product.
The Ish Company
The carbon footprint of Salmonish vegan burgers is 5.6 times lower than traditional salmon and a whopping 44.9 times lower than beef.
“Salmon is one of the most popular fish in the US and has a bigger carbon footprint than chicken or turkey,” Christie Fleming, President and Chief Operating Officer of The ISH Company, previously told VegNews. “Given the demand for salmon and the potential to create a healthier product that drastically minimizes its carbon footprint, Salmonish Burgers were a natural next step for ISH.”
Vegan salmon makes a splash
The ISH company spent nearly one year developing its new Salmonish. The fish-free salmon patty is made from a blend of plant-based ingredients such as soy protein and algal oil to deliver a similar nutritional profile—including omega-3 fatty acids—as its ocean-dwelling counterpart. It also includes kelp, an ocean regenerating ingredient that is high in minerals, another improvement on traditional salmon.
“Salmon farming is known to negatively impact ocean ecosystems by causing pollution, sea lice infestations, and overfishing,” Fleming said. “Plant-based salmon alleviates the strain put on these ecosystems, offering a more sustainable option that is also better from a nutritional standpoint.”
In addition to cleverly indicating that its products are an alternative version of seafood products such as shrimp and salmon, the “ish” in the company’s name points to its innovative, sustainable, and healthy (“ish”) mission.
“Consumers can opt for Salmonish knowing they’re making a dietary choice that benefits the planet and their health, without sacrificing the flavor they love, which reflects ISH’s mission to deliver innovative, sustainable, healthy, and delicious plant-based foods to every plate worldwide,” Fleming said.
The Ish Company
While the Raymond James Stadium is the only stop on the Taylor Swift tour to serve its vegan shrimp, The ISH company recently partnered with DOT Foods, the largest food industry redistributor in North America, to get its products into the hands of many more foodservice operators.
“Today’s consumers expect innovative, sustainable products at their fingertips whenever they walk into a food establishment or engage with a food retailer,” Park Plank, Director of Business Development at Dot Foods, said in a statement. “By making The ISH Company products available to our expansive network of foodservice distributors, we’re ensuring operators can delight consumers with unique, delicious, and environmentally friendly shrimp alternatives.”
And the company—which has raised $10 million in funding to date—is forging ahead with the development of other plant-based seafood products to make as big of an impact as possible.
“We have a robust product portfolio in development with more than 25 products, including crab, lobster, and cod alternatives,” Fleming said. “In the future, consumers can expect a continued rollout of delicious alternative seafood products that are good for your health and the planet.”


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Fintech innovations are growing and being adopted
While financial technology companies transform the financial sector all over the world with their innovative solutions, they also offer alternative options to businesses. Fintechs, which effectively use data analytics and artificial intelligence technologies, facilitate and optimize the payment processes of businesses. It offers businesses the opportunity to reduce costs while increasing efficiency with various commercial solutions such as managing payment histories, automating invoicing, creating virtual cards, and tracking expenses.
Paynet Deputy General Manager Responsible for Sales Deniz Şensabah said: “In line with new regulations and technological advances, the scope of services offered by financial technology companies is gradually expanding, and the cost advantage they create is also increasing. More and more businesses are benefiting from Fintechs’ products and services that benefit from innovative solutions that maximize customer experience. Businesses need to develop a well-thought-out strategy to make the most of the potential of these products and services.”
Innovative solutions offer advantages
While fintechs offer businesses easier access to capital, crowdfunding platforms make it easier for businesses that want to grow and find financing through loans, payment services and digital banking. Easy access to finance enables businesses to seize opportunities that are difficult to achieve through the traditional financial system. It also promotes growth and economic dynamism. Automation and digitalization of financial processes allow businesses to be more efficient and reduce operational costs. Thanks to these innovative time-saving and cost-saving solutions, businesses can better allocate their resources and focus on their core activities and strategic initiatives. The topics that businesses that want to benefit from Fintech services and solutions should pay attention to are as follows:
- Seamless integration: Make sure fintech solutions integrate seamlessly into your existing systems and processes to avoid any downtime and best optimize the workflow.
- Ease of use: Make sure that user interfaces are user-friendly and your users can use the platform without any problems.
- Regular updates: Make sure the solutions are updated regularly to benefit from the latest technological advances and avoid any security issues.
- Training and support: Make sure that the fintech you plan to receive service from has sufficient training and support services for users.


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Whilst we continue to enjoy new entrants as buyers to ourmarket, the make up of the sellers is fairly constant.
The biggest seller of the year has been one fund manager, who continues to reposition their mostly retail portfolio and selling via a campaign that we have conducted alongside the Allsop Private Client Desk. This allows longer marketing periods with sales exchanged on auction contracts which has proved highly effective over the last six months.
Corporate sellers have also included a major bank, who have sold a portfolio of mostly vacant former banking halls. Ladbrokes/Coral have conducted two successful sale and leaseback programmes with assets across the UK.
Over 60% of sales are derived from Private Property Companies and Private Investors in an increasingly fragmented market.
Our Buyer’s Survey, asked at the point of exchange, picks up on trends and sentiment amongst buyers which helps us look forward.
The key findings are that buyers are seeking ever larger lot sizes, with 40% seeking lots over £1m against 35% last year. Geography has become less of a concern, as buyers are more deal driven, than local to the properties, there has also been a significant increase in overseas investors during the year perhaps taking advantage of the weakness in sterling.
We continue to attract new buyers with 17% not having bought at auction before.
Finance continues to be sought for these purchases, although the majority are in cash, 73% which is broadly in line with 2018. Finance looks to have become harder, with a reduction to 12% from 15% seeking LTV above 50% according to the survey.
This year, the survey was altered to capture the reasoning behind the buyers purchase. Income was stated as the main driver by 66% of buyers in the room, reflecting demand for the long income assets, the weight of the lease and it’s components in place.


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A few units of this limited edition Ducati Diavel will make it to India; standard Diavel to launch by month end.
Deliveries for the limited edition Ducati Diavel Diesel have commenced. Ducati is reintroducing the Diavel family in India after sales stopped during the switch from BSIII to BSIV emission norms. The first Diavel to return to our shores is the Diesel edition Diavel, which is limited to 666 units worldwide. Ducati has not confirmed how many will make it to India but we expect this to be a small number based on customer orders. The Ducati Diavel Diesel edition has been launched at Rs 21.7 lakh (ex-showroom, India).
The Diavel Diesel was launched back in March 2017, but had to be withdrawn on April 1 due to the more stringent emission regulations. At that point, the price was Rs 19.9 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) but the new GST regulations have pushed that up to the current Rs 21.7 lakh. Customers who had originally booked the Diavel Diesel were put on hold and will now get deliveries of the new BSIV-spec bike.
Unveiled at the Milan Men’s Fashion Week 2017, the Ducati Diavel Diesel is the product of a creative collaboration between the Ducati Design Centre and Andrea Rosso, Diesel’s licensing creative director. A standout feature on the Diesel edition is the hand-brushed stainless steel bodywork with visible welding and rivets. The brown leather seat is unique to this Diavel and features a pyramid emblem with the three Ds of Ducati, Diavel and Diesel.
The big cruiser also comes with red lateral intake covers with the Diesel logo. The red detailing on the motorcycle doesn’t stop there; it is also on the front brake calipers and the LCD dash. In a unique touch, five of the chain links get the red treatment too, but we suspect keeping that clean and visible on our roads will be a task in the long term. The Diavel Diesel also features a blacked out exhaust system with the same pyramid logo.
The Diavel Diesel is available at Ducati dealerships in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Ahmedabad, Kochi and Kolkata. The company has confirmed that the standard Diavel will return in BSIV-spec by the end of October 2017.
In other news, Ducati India has also launched special festive season offers on select motorcycles like the Monster 797, Multistrada 950 and Scrambler. These include exclusive finance schemes, exchange offers and apparel and accessory benefits of up to Rs 1 lakh for a limited period.
What do you think about this News
Need an expert opinion on your car and bike related queries?


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Singtel reported Thursday its fiscal 2Q swung to a net loss of S$668.1M from a year-ago net profit of S$667.2M due to an exceptional item related to Airtel.
Fraser and Neave reported Thursday its fiscal full year net profit increased 23.5 percent on-year to S$152.56 million on higher soft drink and dairy sales.
These are Singapore companies which may be in focus on Thursday, 14 Nov. 2019: Temasek, Yangzijiang, ComfortDelGro, Olam, Keppel and Eagle Hospitality Trust.
These are Singapore companies which may be in focus on Friday, 8 November 2019: Genting Singapore, SPH REIT, SIA, Dairy Farm, Thai Beverage and LMIRT.
These are Singapore companies which may be in focus on Wednesday, 22 October 2019: Keppel, Temasek, UOB, Mapletree Industrial Trust, Singtel and AA REIT.
OCBC will join Singtel’s VIA mobile payment alliance, allowing the bank’s customers to make QR code payments while traveling in Thailand and Japan, Singtel said Monday.
These are Singapore companies which may be in focus on Monday, 30 September 2019: Keppel, CityDev, Keppel Infrastructure Trust, OUE and Thai Beverage.
Fraser and Neave said Wednesday production of Chang Lager Beer was beginning at its Emerald Brewery Myanmar after an around US$70 million investment.
The Capital Group Cos., or CGC, said Tuesday it ceased to be a substantial shareholder of Thai Beverage, with its deemed interest falling to 4.949 percent.
These are Singapore companies which may be in focus on Monday, 23 September 2019: SGX, SingPost, POSH, Keppel DC REIT and UOL.
These are Singapore companies which may be in focus on Monday, 9 Sept 2019: Keppel Pacific Oak US REIT, Frasers Centrepoint Trust, Sembcorp and Singtel.
Fraser and Neave said Thursday its wholly owned subsidiary F&N Investments (F&NI) subscribed for 5.2M new shares of Emerald Brewery Myanmar at US$1 each.
OCBC is in talks with Singtel and others about seeking one of Singapore’s planned virtual banking licenses, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing sources.
Singtel said Wednesday its wholly owned subsidiary Singtel Group Treasury (SGT) has priced US$750 million of 10-year USD-denominated notes at 2.375 percent.
Moody’s said Tuesday it assigned Singtel Group Treasury’s (SGT) proposed 10-year U.S.dollar benchmark notes an A1 rating with a negative outlook.
Thai Beverage reported its fiscal third quarter net profit climbed 26 percent on-year. These are analysts’ calls on the results.
RHB downgraded Thai Beverage to Take Profit from Buy, saying share price has “performed well” so far this year and is now fairly priced.
Thai Beverage said Friday its subsidiary International Beverage Holdings incorporated two subsidiaries in Hong Kong: Chang HK and International Breweries.
Frasers Property (Thailand) has acquired 94.50% of Golden Land Property in its tender offer for the Thailand-listed company, Frasers Property said Thursday.
Thai Beverage reported Wednesday its fiscal 3Q net profit climbed 26 percent on-year on higher contributions from the food, beer and spirits segments.
Singtel posted Thursday its fiscal 1Q net profit dropped 34.9% on-year to S$541 million on losses from Airtel and higher depreciation and amortization.
Fraser and Neave reported Wednesday its fiscal third quarter net profit increased 9 percent on-year to S$54.83 million on higher soft drink and dairy sales.
Frasers Property said Wednesday it tendered its 39.92 percent stake in Golden Land Property, to Frasers Property Thailand for around S$350.6 million.
S&P Global Ratings revised Wednesday. the ratings outlook for Singapore Telecommunications and Singtel Optus to negative, citing deteriorating debt metrics.
These are Singapore companies which may be in focus on Wednesday, 31 July 2019: CRCT, Frasers Hospitality Trust, CapitaLand, Starhill Global REIT and F&N.
These are Singapore companies which may be in focus on Friday, 19 July 2019: Keppel, SATS, Thai Beverage, OCBC, Prime US REIT and AA REIT.
These are Singapore companies which may be in focus on Monday, 8 July 2019: ThaiBev, Singtel, CapitaLand, Frasers Hospitality Trust and Sunpower.
These are Singapore companies which may be in focus on Thursday, 3 July 2019: Olam International, F&N, Soilbuild REIT and Chip Eng Seng.
Daiwa downgraded Thai Beverage to Hold from Outperform, pointing to the Bank of Thailand’s forecast last week for the country’s economic growth to slow.
Thai Beverage’s indirect subsidiary, AIB (GD), has acquired all of LiTeng Foods, a China-based coffee bean processor, the Chang beer maker said Tuesday.
These are Singapore companies which may be in focus Friday, 21 June 2019: UOB, Cromwell European REIT, Keppel, Thai Beverage, Wing Tai and Straits Trading.
Airtel Africa set the price range Monday for its initial public offering (IPO) at 80 pence to 100 pence a share, the telco said in a filing to the LSE.
Singtel Optus’ wholly owned subsidiary Optus Finance priced 500 million euro 0-year fixed-rate notes at 1.0 percent, Singtel said Friday.
RHB tipped Thai Beverage as one of its top picks among Singapore’s listed consumer plays amid an upbeat outlook for Thailand’s beer consumption.
Airtel Africa plans to proceed with an IPO on the London Stock Exchange, aiming to raise US$750 million, Bharti Airtel said Tuesday.
Singtel completed its subscription to 170.10 million new shares of Bharti Airtel under its rights issue, the Singapore telco said Wednesday.
Airtel Africa plans to seek a potential IPO on the London Stock Exchange, India’s Bharti Airtel said in a letter to the Indian stock exchanges Tuesday.
Frasers Property (Thailand) announced Monday its intention to make an offer for all of Golden Land Property, valuing the company at 19.75B baht (S$855.38M).
Fraser and Neave’s deal to acquire Starbucks Coffee (Thailand) via a joint venture is a positive for Thai Beverage, Nomura said in a note Friday.
Fraser and Neave has injected around S$114.84 million into two JVs to facilitate the acquisition of Starbucks Thailand, the beverage maker said Friday.


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The iPad may have taken up many of the headlines these past few weeks but several companies semi-quietly launched 4G wireless service across Houston in early April.
Clearwire lit up its towers and began selling products and services for consumers and businesses to hit the web with DSL-like speeds. Sprint, among many others, utilize Clearwire’s network and sell its own branded services to allow for high-speed, wireless surfing.
I’ve been trying some of these services for about 3 weeks and still mostly receive 3G signals. Products like Sprint’s Overdrive Mobile Hotspot can receive both 3G and 4G signals. Still waiting for ubiquitous coverage throughout the area but I’m thinking something may be amiss with the demo unit I have…I traveled to Dallas this past weekend which supposedly has 4G coverage everywhere and I still only pulled in 3G.
I’ve been fielding many questions about 4G on my radio programs and emails these past few weeks. The speed is great – if you can receive the newly upgraded network signals.
Let me know with comments below if you have tried any of these products and what you think.
UPDATE: 4/21/10 10:34pm Just got back from the Sprint 4G launch event at the downtown Hyatt. Several Sprint execs there. Very “chic’ setting (never seen the Imperial Ballroom look so swank). Played with some of their new products including a 4G modem/router, videoconferencing and other industry-specific gear.


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Walmart Signs Deal with EV Startup Canoo 4,500 Delivery Vans
The company’s shares briefly surged to over $20 after its securities market debut in late 2020, however have declined since founder as well as CEO Ulrich Kranz departed in 2015.
Canoo notes the 3rd significant bargain authorized by Walmart for electrical vans. Early this year, Walmart scheduled 5,000 electric vans from General Motors subsidiary BrightDrop. It likewise bought 1,100 electrical vans from Ford E-Transit, several of which it is currently running.
The big-box store plans to utilize electrical vans from all three business for InHome and also other neighborhood distributions. It aims to raise the schedule of InHome from 6 million to 30 million houses by the end of this year, as it includes significant cities like Los Angeles and Chicago.
To expand those solutions, it needs more delivery vans. InHome is powered by an all-electric fleet.
Walmart is leaning on its countless stores to deliver online acquisitions swiftly and also at lower prices– as well as compete with Amazon, an on-line rival understood for its rate. It has actually turned out and also broadened ecommerce solutions, including InHome, which provides grocery stores straight to clients’ refrigerators and Express Delivery, which drops purchases at buyers’ doors in 2 hours or much less. Endless home delivery of grocery stores is likewise a vital perk of Walmart+, a yearly subscription solution that the big-box merchant intends to grow.
The shift likewise comes with a time when fuel is cutting into Walmart’s profitability as well as making online deliveries extra expensive. The firm claimed recently in a memorandum that it would certainly charge some vendors new rates to move goods to its storehouses and also stores.
As of noon Tuesday morning the stock was trading closer to $4 per share, reported by CNBC.
Canoo marks the 3rd major deal signed by Walmart for electric vans. Early this year, Walmart booked 5,000 electric vans from General Motors subsidiary BrightDrop. It also got 1,100 electric vans from Ford E-Transit, some of which it is currently operating.
Shares of Canoo were up more than 50% in mid-day trading after the information was revealed.
Electric lorry startup Canoo claimed Tuesday Walmart has concurred to purchase least 4,500 of its upcoming electrical shipment vans, in a substantial win for the embattled lorry manufacturer.
Walmart has signed a “conclusive agreement” to acquire at least 4,500, and also perhaps an option to purchase as many as 10,000, of its all-electric Lifestyle Delivery Vehicles, a tiny electric van made for regional delivery service, Canoo said.
Canoo’s vans will be developed at its Oklahoma factory and also are anticipated to start going into service next year. Terms of the service were not disclosed.
Walmart has committed to science-based targets for emission reduction, consisting of accomplishing zero emissions in our plan of action by 2040 and engaging vendors via our Project GigatonTM effort to decrease or stay clear of supply chain emissions by 1 billion metric tons by 2030. We intend to galvanize cumulative activity across the retail and durable goods industry via our campaigning for, provider engagement, philanthropy as well as advancement in product supply chain techniques, while taking actions to enhance the durability of our service against the impacts of environment adjustment.


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SCOTTSDALE Ariz. Chris Prasifka has resigned as president of Kahala Franchise Corp. just four months after being promoted to the post.
Spokeswoman Kate Guess said Prasifka’s resignation was due to personal matters and that the position was “not being refilled at this time.” Kahala Franchise Corp. is the franchising division of Kahala Corp., which includes such concepts as Blimpie, Cold Stone Creamery and Cereality.
Prasifka was named president of Kahala Franchise Corp. in April. Before joining Kahala Corp. in October 2007 as executive vice president, Prasifka had been senior vice president of franchise operations and strategic development for the Compass Group’s Canteen division. He also had worked with the Carvel, Cinnabon, Seattle’s Best Coffee, Mrs. Fields and TCBY brands.
Guess said Kahala Corp.’s executive team was being expanded and would advise all the company’s brands and franchise systems. The executive team reports to Kevin Blackwell, Kahala’s chairman and chief executive.
Other Kahala concepts include Frullati Cafe & Bakery, Great Steak & Potato Co., Johnnie’s New York Pizzeria, NRgize Lifestyle Cafe, Ranch1, Rollerz, Samurai Sam’s Teriyaki Grill, Surf City Squeeze and Taco Time.


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Jun 10, 2021 (The Expresswire) -- The global over-the-top services market size is projected to reach USD 86.80 billion by 2026. The increasing number of smartphone users will have a positive impact on the growth of the market in the coming years. According to a report published by Fortune Business Insights, titled “ Over-The-Top (OTT) Services Market Size, Share and Industry Analysis, By Service (Online OTT Services, Managed OTT Services), By Type (OTT Communication Services, OTT Media Services, and OTT Applications Services), By Platform (Smartphones, Smart TV, Laptops Desktops and Tablets and Others), and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026,” the market was worth USD 30.23 billion in 2018 and will exhibit a CAGR of 14.3% during the forecast period, 2019-2026.
Request to Sample PDF Brochure: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/over-the-top-services-market-100506
Over-the-top services are digital video content providers over several platforms such as tablets, smartphones, and gaming consoles. The constantly rising number of smartphone users across the world will have a huge impact on the growth of the overall OTT services market in the coming years. The adoption of cloud, driven by its ease of availability of cloud services, will emerge in favor of OTT service providers. The huge adoption of OTT services across diverse industry verticals including education, information and technology, and e-commerce will create several growth opportunities. Moreover, the rising adoption of mobile commerce will contribute to the growth of the market.
The report provides an in-depth analysis of the global over-the-top services market. It highlights the latest product launches and labels major innovations in the market. In addition to this, it states the impact of these products on the growth of the market. The competitive landscape has been discussed in detail and predictions are made with respect to leading companies and products in the coming years. Forecast values have been provided for the market for the period of 2019-2026. The factual figures have been obtained through trusted sources. Moreover, these predictions are made on the basis of extensive research analysis methods, coupled with the opinions of experienced market research professionals.
To get to know more about the short-term and long-term impact of COVID-19 on this market, please visit :
Increasing Number of Company Collaborations Will Aid Growth
The report encompasses several factors that have contributed to the growth of the market in recent years. With a bid to establishing a commendable position in the market, several large scale companies are looking to acquire small and medium enterprises. In December 2019, Netflix, Inc. announced that it has collaborated with Abla Fahita. Netflix’s collaboration with Abla Fahita was aimed at producing its second Egyptian Original series. Through this collaboration, the company plans to expand in the Middle East market. Netflix’s latest OTT service will have a massive impact on the growth of the market in the forthcoming years.
North America Holds a Dominant Market Share; Presence of Several Large Scale Companies Will Provide Impetus to Market Growth
The report analyzes the ongoing over-the-top services market trends across North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa. Among these regions, the market in North America currently holds the highest OTT services market share. The massive investment by leading OTT service providers such as Netflix will aid the growth of the regional market. As of 2018, the market in North America was worth USD 12.97 billion and this value is likely to increase further in the coming years.
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A few of the leading companies that are operating in the global over-the-top services market are:
Telstra Corporation Ltd.
October 2019 Rokuten, Inc. has reached an agreement for the purchase of Dataxu, a a Boston-based video-demand platform. Through this acquisition Rokuten will look to strengthen its OTT advertising platform.


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HONG KONG (Reuters Breakingviews) - Coupang’s initial public offering package is proving hard to unwrap. The South Korean e-commerce darling backed by SoftBank’s Vision Fund reckons it’s worth as much as $52 billion. It boasts heady growth and hefty losses, but metrics such as delivery costs, reported by peers like Amazon, are missing. A lack of detail on new bets also makes the price tag hard to stack up.
Founder Bom Kim has transformed his decade-old shopping outfit into the country’s largest online retailer. Winning over some 15 million shoppers, roughly 30% of South Korea’s population, with low prices and ultra-fast deliveries invites comparisons to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. At the top of a mooted price range released on Monday, Coupang would be valued at just over 4 times 2020 revenue, in line with the U.S. goliath.
Some of the hype is justified. Coupang’s top line last year soared 91% to $12 billion. Its net loss, while still huge, has more than halved from $1 billion in 2018. And Coupang is squeezing more money out of its users.
The quality of its potential profit is hard to judge, however. While operating costs jumped 50% to $2.5 billion in 2020, the company doesn’t break out whether those relate to higher spending on deliveries, marketing or R&D.
To compare, Amazon and China’s $152 billion JD.com have high fixed costs such as warehouse leases and wages. As both have gotten bigger, they have benefited from size. For example, in the nine months to September, JD’s adjusted operating margin was 2.7%, up from 0.5% from two years earlier.
New areas of growth also get scant attention. Coupang Pay might offer more financial services but gets just two dozen mentions in the 200-page prospectus. Its new video-streaming arm isn’t referenced at all. Subscribers to Coupang’s premium membership service enjoy unlimited video access but the benefits and costs are unclear. By contrast, Amazon generated over $7 billion in subscription fees for its Prime shopping and entertainment offerings last quarter.
Kim’s stated mission is to create a world where customers wonder “How did I ever live without Coupang?” but investors should equally ask how they can live without fuller disclosure.
Reuters Breakingviews is the world's leading source of agenda-setting financial insight. As the Reuters brand for financial commentary, we dissect the big business and economic stories as they break around the world every day. A global team of about 30 correspondents in New York, London, Hong Kong and other major cities provides expert analysis in real time.
Sign up for a free trial of our full service at https://www.breakingviews.com/trial and follow us on Twitter @Breakingviews and at www.breakingviews.com. All opinions expressed are those of the authors.


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Having safe sex in China may be more dangerous than you might think with a recent government inspection finding that nearly one-third of imported condoms aren’t up to safety standards.
Inspectors recently conducted spot checks on 133 batches of imported condoms and found that 43 of the batches failed to meet China’s sanitation and condom quality standards, according to the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.
That’s a 32.3% failure rate. Good news for officials trying to promote Chinese families to have more kids.
Most of the condoms were imported in from Thailand and Malaysia. They included brands like Jissbon, Elasun, Okamoto, Sixsex, Donless, One Topeak, and True Sex.
While some of the condoms lacked proper labeling, others failed inspection or burst tests, which are designed to measure the consistency of the latex, meaning that they were in danger of breaking before their expiry date. Meanwhile, 7% of the faulty condoms simply had holes in them.
Chinese young people already have a very spotty record when it comes to safe sex and alarming issues with fake and faulty condoms are not helping the problem
In 2015, Shanghai police seized 3 million fake-branded condoms that were also found to be of poor quality and contain toxic levels of heavy metals. Underground distributors had reportedly been handing them out to cheap hotels.
The year before that, a small workshop in Jiangxi province was found to have distributed 2.7 million boxes of fake condoms to cities around China. That followed a similar bust in 2013 of a Fujian fake condom factory.
Again, buying condoms cheap in China is not the best way to save money in the long run.
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STELLANTIS AND FIH MOBILE CREATE A CONNECTED COCKPIT JOINT VENTURE
(Reuters) – Stellantis on Tuesday announced the creation with FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of Taiwanese group Foxconn, of a Netherlands-based joint venture that will provide innovative smart cockpit solutions to the automotive industry.
In a statement, the automaker resulting from the merger between PSA and Fiat Chrysler said the new joint entity, Mobile Drive, will be owned equally by Stellantis and Foxconn. The management team will be made up of executives from each company, he said.
“Ultimately, the smart cockpit offering will not only be available for all Stellantis vehicles, but also for third-party automakers,” the statement wrote. “This will expand the reach and impact of Mobile Drive, which aims to become a global leader in smart cockpit and connected vehicle solutions.”
Stellantis and Foxconn signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding on May 18 to create this joint venture.
(Written by Jean Terzian)


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Hacksaw Gaming has made a return to the Netherlands through an agreement with JOI Gaming， the online branch of JVH Gaming & Entertainment Group.
JVH was established 65 years ago and oversees over 86 land-based casinos across the Netherlands， which translates into 30% of market share according to the operator.
This deal aligns with Hacksaw Gaming’s aims to strengthen its foothold in the Netherlands， as it looks to hit targets in the fast-growing iGaming market in Europe.
A number of slot titles from Hacksaw Gaming have been integrated into Jacks.NL， including some of its most recent releases，Online Casino Games for Real Money Beam Boys， Feel the Beat and Fist of Destruction.
Hacksaw Gaming CEO Marcus Cordes said: "To be partnering with JOI Gaming means we are able to unearth a new and enhanced gaming experience for the Netherlands – it will be a hit!"
JOI Gaming Head of Gaming and Retention Sjoerd Kranz added: “We are happy to extend our successful portfolio with the games of Hacksaw Gaming. The exciting and innovative games like Chaos Crew and Wanted Dead or a Wild already are iconic games in our market which now are made available on Jacks.NL.
"We are looking forward to build on the strong relationship and give our players an opportunity to play this great content.”
Earlier this week， Hacksaw also partnered with Cristaltec Entertainment in Italy.


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Fast-fold poker is the latest trend in the online gambling world. Offering players the chance to instantly receive a new hand after folding, these types of applications are popular among poker players with a taste for fast-paced action. Now, players can take their fast-fold gaming with them on the go. PokerStars recently launched Zoom Poker on mobile and now, Microgaming has done the same with Blaze Poker.
Blaze Poker is Microgaming’s own fast-fold poker application. Once players fold their hand at one table, they are taken to a new table and dealt a new hand. Players can take part in hundreds of hands per hour, multiplying their profits.
The application has led to a 33% growth in profits over the course of the past few months. So, it seems only natural that the operator would want to expand its reach. Mobile Blaze has yet to hit the mobile market place but Microgaming is enthusiastic about the venture.
“Microgaming is gearing up for the imminent launch of Blaze Mobile, which will offer its popular fast fold poker game variant to players, and soon-to-be introduced Mobile Bingo,” reads a statement from the company.


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Porsche Reveals New Limited Edition 911 Speedster With Racing Genes
Go from zero to 60 in under four seconds with this six-speed supercar.
Bearing a a number of track-worthy components from the championship-winning 911 GT3, the new Porsche 911 Speedster made its debut at the New York International Auto Show.
Motor Trend notes that its hefty 4.0-liter flat-six now produces 502-horsepower thanks to individual throttle bodies transplanted from the performance racer’s engine. The Speedster also shares the GTR’s chassis, carbon-ceramic brakes and lack of air conditioning, which saves weight.
While the metal shell is in the style of heavier 911 Carrera 4 Cabriolet convertible, its manually deployed fabric roof and extensive carbon fiber components make for an even trimmer profile.
All of that dieting helps the Speedster get to 60 mph in 3.8 seconds and max out at 192 mph.
Our favorite part by far is its transmission: a GT Sport six-speed manual gearbox. Good luck finding a new sports car with one of those five years from now.
The only downside is that the 2019 Porsche 911 Speedster is limited to 1,948 units—a number that references the year in which the company was founded—and carries a slightly ridiculous price tag of $274,500.
Sure, you could get a faster roadster with a bigger engine, automatic roof and air conditioning—like the Lamborghini Huracan Evo Spyder—for about that much.
But who wants paddle shifters when you can have a stick?


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EAGLE, Idaho -- With accent lighting increasingly popular in supermarkets, scientists at the University of Idaho Extension here have conducted research to show some lights work better than others, at least at showcasing potatoes.
The study showed that certain bright overhead lights speed the rate at which potatoes turn green, and that's a consumer turn-off. On the other hand, the scientists were able to identify what type of lights flatter the spud, but without compromising its integrity.
The Idaho Potato Commission (IPC) said the study offers other recommendations for merchandising potatoes. Seth Pemsler, v.p. of retail for IPC, said the research is extremely useful because it helps the IPC understand every aspect of the potato. In this case, the lighting research helps the Idaho Potato industry educate retailers on how to maximize the quality of potatoes in their produce departments.
"We continually work with our retail partners to help them design optimum display conditions for Idaho potatoes," said Pemsler. "We pride ourselves on being the leading experts on potatoes and this type of research is invaluable to us. We applaud the efforts of the scientists and we appreciate the ability to practice what we learned. The ultimate benefit is that the consumer is going to be assured the consistent quality that is our hallmark."
The Idaho Extension potato specialists who conducted the study affirm that accent lighting works, but what might work for many fruits and vegetables does not promote good results for potatoes. The scientists evaluated fluorescent (two types), halogen, ceramic metal halide, fiber optic, and fluorescent lighting with filter. They measured the different light sources' effects on potatoes inside specially constructed "light rooms."
During nine days in light intensity comparable to retail levels, potatoes under fiber optic lighting turned green at the slowest rate. Spotlighted in the produce aisle, their shelf life would be a half-day to a full day or even longer, the researchers estimated. The study showed that fiber optic lighting -- or a combination of fiber optic accent lighting and standard fluorescent lighting -- will help retard greening in the retail store yet highlight the commodity for consumer eye-appeal.
"We recognize the conundrum that this research presents our retail partners, but there are several short-term and easy to execute recommendations that will significantly lower the potential for greening," said Pemsler. For instance, the IPC's retail promotion directors encourage produce managers to rotate the potatoes in the displays at night, and/or to cover the potatoes at night with a light-blocking material.


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Flipkart, India’s biggest homegrown e-commerce marketplace, today announced a partnership with eDAO, a Polygon-incubated organisation that designs and launches global art, media and entertainment IPs at scale into the world of Web3. The partnership will bring alive the first ever Big Billion Days (BBD) digital treasure hunt on Firedrops, Flipkart’s simple-to-use, KYC-compliant NFT platform for brands and creators to enter the universe of Digital Collectibles. The platform was launched earlier this year with the announcement of a partnership with Nothing for the first NFT drop on FireDrops. The digital treasure hunt will span 10 days leading up to The Big Billion Days in 2022 (over September 17 – September 26).
Earlier, with the launch of Flipkart Labs, the company announced its intention to explore digital collectables and the metaverse to redefine the shopping experience for its users and incubate solutions hosted on blockchain technology in the e-commerce space.
Naren Ravula, Vice President and Head of Product Strategy and Deployment, Flipkart, said, “Flipkart has always prioritised innovation across all facets of digital commerce. A key focus for us this year is to drive engagement during the run-up to Big Billion Days beyond the sale and discount-led constructs. By engaging with eDAO for the Digital Treasure Hunt, we are exploring an exciting avenue to add value to our customers and make the experience richer.”
The Firedrops treasure hunt will enable users to have access to limited edition collectables termed ‘Culture Sparks’ through a gamified interface. Users will complete daily tasks to win rewards sponsored by brands on Flipkart as they go further in their 10-day gamified experience journey (September 17 – September 26) during The Big Billion Days event based on the number of Culture Sparks they collect. The limited-edition collectables come from a host of artists, IPs and partner brands on eDAO’s roster. At the end of the 10-day celebration, shoppers will get exclusive access to ‘The Strand’, eDAO’s all-access passport to a global pop culture ecosystem, spanning art, sport, gaming, entertainment and more.
Adding more about the experience, Anand Venkateswaran, Chief Executive Officer, eDAO, stated, “Flipkart’s first-ever BBD digital treasure hunt will be an opportunity for Flipkart users to explore the world of Web3 based art, music and entertainment communities. This partnership provides access for users to find their communities and engage deeply with culture on Web3.”
Both Flipkart and eDAO are working together to explore opportunities where they can give users an immersive and extensive experience of the Web3 and metaverse world.
To enable the technology for FireDrops as a platform including the innovative Digital Treasure Hunt game, Flipkart has partnered with Guardian Link.
“GuardianLink is an NFT ecosystem firm. Brands and celebrities leverage our ecosystem to launch their NFTs! We believe that NFTs are not about monetization but perpetual value creation. NFTs represent true ownership in the digital space, and it is bound to be the core of digital asset revolution when it comes to ownership and provenance.
It made absolute sense, therefore, to tap into our resources and expertise and work on the launch of the FireDrops platform. We are certain that FireDrops will amplify shopping experiences and bring the next wave of users to recognize the value-potential of Web3 and consequently, democratise NFTs in India,” stated Ramkumar Subramaniam, CEO & Co-Founder, GuardianLink.


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Spied! 2013 Land Rover Range Rover
The 2013 Range Rover spied in the Alps had less camouflage on the front, revealing more of the grille and air intakes. As in the past, the camouflage is bizarre and extensive on these prototypes. There are fake body panels covering the hood, and at the rear, it's easy to see where the camouflage panels are hiding the true slope of the rear windshield. Previous reports have indicated that this new Range Rover will ride on an aluminum chassis being developed with the assistance of Jaguar. Due to this major change, it's said the 2013 model could be more than 500 pounds lighter than the current model. While it's too early to have powertrain details just yet, a hybrid and plug-in variant, based on the Range E Concept, are expected to be offered along with traditional offerings.
Sorry Folks, we can't show you the full images at the moment but you can see it in our upcoming March/April 2012 issue, set to hit news stands on January 24, 2012.


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Everybody likes a big-screen TV for their Super Bowl party, but Matthew Colleluori probably went a little bit overboard.
Police in Marple have fingered Colleluori for a heist involving big-screen TVs from the Wal-Mart store in the Marple Crossroads Shopping Center. But Colleluori didn’t just put the arm on one, according to authorities. He’s now charged with trying to rip off four big TVs. And he was apparently looking for a fifth when he was confronted by store security.
Colleluori was a busy guy yesterday. According to police, he pulled off a heist in the morning, putting a big-screen TV in his shopping cart, heading for the check-out, then picking it up and running for the exit. They say he went back to the store yesterday afternoon to pull the same stunt.
This time he was confronted by store security. He fled, but police got his tag number. A Springfield officer chased the car before giving up when they say Colleluori started driving erratically.
There’s no indication that he picked up any chips or dip in any of the heists.


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|Weekly News Digest
September 10, 2015 — In addition to this week's NewsBreaks article and the monthly NewsLink Spotlight, Information Today, Inc. (ITI) offers Weekly News Digests that feature recent product news and company announcements. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today. For other up-to-the-minute news, check out ITIís Twitter account: @ITINewsBreaks.
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New Database From SAGE Helps Business Researchers
SAGE Publications launched Business Stats, a collection of more than 4,000 data series on historic, current, and projected demographic and industry data points for business students and researchers working on business plan and market research projects. The data series come from proprietary sources such as Woods & Poole Economics, Inc. and project information through the year 2040. Topics covered include age and race breakdowns, earnings and employment by industry, patent and trademarks, private investment, personal income and households by income bracket, and retail sales and company revenue by industry.
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