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The actors and writers strikes hobbled Hollywood studios for half of 2023 and left disarray in many corners of the business, none more so than that always odd annual gathering of self-congratulation known as awards season.
Among the questions facing the industry: how much will the traditional studios spend on awards pushes this year, given their need to dramatically curtail costs and make profits on their streaming operations? How long will deep-pocketed Netflix, Amazon and Apple continue to rely on awards as a quality signifier as they build out their streaming and other ventures? The many questions set this awards season up for a lot of shifts and changes.
The most strike-related dislocation hit the Emmys, the biggest night in television. Normally held in the first 10 days or so of September, the strike pushed the Primetime Awards all the way to Jan. 15, in the middle of what’s mostly movie awards.


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The self-proclaimed bot is a fake, but has garnered attention after telling off various brands and celebrities including the Pope, 10 Downing Street and Donald Trump for using the official #Rio2016 hashtag on Twitter.
One of several giveaways that @official_rule40 is a fake is the fact that Twitter has more than 200 official hashtags and emojis related to the Olympics, all of which are free to be tweeted by users.
And though the account claims official status, it is not a verified account, nor does it actually explain what Rule 40 entails. Twitter has listed key official Olympics accounts on a blog and verified them. The bot also didn’t target every user tweeting the #Rio2016 hashtag, instead focusing primarily on brands and celebrities.
That the account is clearly fake did not stop users from falling for the prank.
Twitter would not comment on the suspension but it is, ironically, likely that the account itself is in violation of Olympic brand guidelines by pretending to be associated with the Games.
Tim Crow, chief executive of Synergy Sponsorship, said this might reflect poor public perception of the International Olympics Committee – but added he did not think the IOC would be so petty.
"The last thing the [official] sponsors would want would be to do something like this – they want people to feel part of it," he said. "[Rule 40] is about catching campaigns."
Even then, the IOC is unlikely to come down hard on offenders, Crow said. He pointed to a case in Australia, where non-sponsor Telstra won a court case brought by the Australian IOC for its "I go to Rio" campaign.
"As soon as you do that, it becomes a much bigger story," he said. "And they lost – that tends to happen more often than not."
This article was first published in PRWeek sister title Campaign

domain: news


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Endeavor Launches New Offices in Kenya and Tunisia
April 5, 2017 – Endeavor is announcing the launch of two new offices in Kenya and Tunisia to promote growth and development driven by high-impact entrepreneurship in those regions. The offices will support entrepreneurs and companies that have passed through the initial startup phase, and who demonstrate the potential for rapid expansion.
Read more about the launch of Endeavor Kenya and Endeavor Tunisia at the links below:
Click here to view the Endeavor Kenya launch blog post


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Weichai Hosts 2024 Global Partner Conference in Indonesia
Tan Xuguang, chairman and general manager of Shandong Heavy Industry Group and chairman of Weichai Power, delivered a keynote speech on "Collaborating to Create Higher Value for Customers" and presented awards to 14 strategic partners.
During the conference, Shandong Heavy Industry formally signed new agreements with Indonesia's MNC Group and Meratus through its China National Heavy Duty Truck division, a move aimed at strengthening its financial leasing and manufacturing business in Southeast Asia.
Indonesia is the third stop for Shandong Heavy Industry - Weichai Power's Global Partner Conference, following similar events recently held in Central Asia and the Middle East. Indonesia is also a strategic market for Shandong Heavy Industry where it began its overseas business some 30 years ago.
Shandong Heavy Industry Group, headquartered in Jinan, China, is a leading manufacturer of heavy machinery and equipment, boasting an annual revenue of RMB 50 billion. The group owns many well-known brands including Weichai Power, China National Heavy Duty Truck, SHACMAN, Weichai Lovol Intelligent Agricultural Technology, Shantui Construction Machinery and Zhongtong Bus. Besides, it has acquired significant stakes in several international firms, including Italy's Ferretti, Germany's KION Group and Linde Hydraulics, the US's Dematic and PSI, and France's Moteurs Baudouin. With technology innovation centers setting up in more than 10 countries around the world, it is capable of providing products and service solutions to more than 150 countries and regions. 6 Key segments in operation are power systems, commercial vehicles, agricultural equipment, construction machinery, smart logistics, and marine transportation equipment.
In recent years, the company has been expanding its global layout. In 2023, its export revenue was up 57% yoy to 85 billion Yuan, with an increase above 50% for 4 consecutive years. At present, Shandong Heavy Industry has set up 287 overseas offices, has 905 channel partners, 10 joint venture plants, and 1,500 personnel stationed overseas.
Shandong Heavy Industry has built up a good reputation in the Southeast Asian vehicle market. The vehicle brands under the group showcased a total of 29 products, including high-end tractor unit, dumper, light-duty cargo truck, pickup and NEV buses. It is projected that its total sales in Southeast Asia in the past five years will reach an estimated 100,000 units.
Engineering machinery, as a strategic part, has saw rapid growth due to its overseas expansion. Powered by Weichai Power + Linde s hydraulic system + independent electronic control system, its machinery equipment like loaders, excavators, bulldozers, graders can provide an integrated solution for customers.
The geographical advantages and the appeal for accelerating development of agricultural mechanization in Southeast Asia provide enormous opportunities for Shandong Heavy Industry. During the conference, Shandong Heavy Industry also displayed more than 10 units of tractors, crawler harvesters and rice transplanters.
During the conference, Shandong Heavy Industry introduced its new products to be launched in 2024, including high-end heavy trucks, NEV buses, generator set and large bore engines, demonstrating world-class product competitiveness.
Source : www.chinatrucks.com
Editor : Linda
Views : 6348


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Microsoft-GitHub acquisition quid pro quo
Microsoft will acquire software development platform GitHub.
Originally, they considered a joint marketing campaign worth just $35 million, but discussions had reached investment and/or acquisition last week.
And on Monday, the tech giant announced that it would buy GitHub for $7.5 billion. This will be Microsoft’s second-largest acquisition, following its purchase of LinkedIn for $26 billion.
Reports previously showed that GitHub was valued at $2 billion and their asking price would be around $5 billion; needless to say, they cashed out on Monday.
GitHub hosts 23 million users, who use the platform to store and post updates of their code. It is also a discussion forum where users can ask questions about their code. Even companies like FiveThirtyEight and the New York Times use the platform to store their data.
The acquisition will supply Microsoft with a massive world of developers that it can court to develop programs. Essentially, this is the perfect human resources hiring tool for Microsoft. It also helps grow their computing cloud business Azure significantly.
Furthermore, this will also be beneficial to GitHub. After CEO and founder Chris Wanstrath stepped down last August, GitHub has struggled to fill this leadership hole. If the acquisition goes through, Microsoft executive Nat Friedman is said to be the next leader of the software development platform.
Microsoft’s purchase of GitHub will be beneficial to both companies. In a time where Microsoft, Apple, and Google are all closely competing with one another, every business decision is crucial. This may give Microsoft an edge over its tech rivals.
Featured image via Flickr/othree


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EghtesadOnline: The new approach adopted by Iranian and Emirati authorities toward deescalating tensions and protecting regional security could help improve trade between the two neighboring countries in the current fiscal year (2019-20) compared with last year.
Masoud Taherimehr, an expert on Arab affairs at Iran Trade Promotion Organization’s Arab-African States Department, however, said, “We can’t declare a specific objective for exports to the UAE. We need to wait to see if positive signals continue.”
His remarks echoed those of the chairman of Iran-UAE Chamber of Commerce who recently said bilateral trade relations are improving, while adding that there is a long way to go to restore full ties, IRNA reported.
“In the current situation, economic and political relations are improving,” Farshid Farzanegan was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
According to the official, the UAE knows that it depends on peace in the Persian Gulf and that tensions in the region will slow down its own economic progress, Financial Tribune reported.
He further said that the Iranian Foreign Ministry and Trade Promotion Organization have placed promotion of relations with neighboring countries on top of their agendas, stressing that the Iran-UAE Chamber of Commerce and the private sector need to help the two bodies expand the country’s trade ties.
Farzanegan underlined that Dubai’s economy depends on trade relations with Iran, adding that both sides are eager to continue and expand bilateral trade ties.
“Out of Dubai's 3.5 million population, 600,000 are Iranians,” he said, putting the number of Iranian companies operating in Dubai at 6,000 and the number of Iranian merchants working with the major Emirati city at 8,000.
Farzanegan described Expo 2020 Dubai as a great opportunity for Iranian companies to showcase their products.
A maritime security delegation from the UAE arrived in Tehran on July 30 to resume bilateral coast guard meetings between Iran and the Arab country after a six-year hiatus to increase joint efforts on enhancing maritime security in the Persian Gulf.
During the Tehran meeting, the two sides discussed issues of mutual interest, including shared borders, the travel of citizens and ways of facilitating maritime links between the two countries.
Iran traded 17.57 million tons of non-oil commodities worth $12.52 billion with the UAE during the last Iranian year (ended March 20, 2019), registering a 30.07% and 25.6% decline in tonnage and value respectively compared with the year before, data released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration show.
The UAE was Iran's second biggest trading partner during the period under review after China.
Iran’s exports to the UAE stood at 13.75 million tons worth $5.95 billion, down 24.53% and 12.06% in tonnage and value respectively year-on-year.
The UAE was Iran’s third biggest export destination during the year last year and the second biggest among Iranian neighbors after Iraq.
Iran mainly exported gas condensates, low-density oils and mineral oils to UAE during the 12-month period.
This is while the UAE exported 3.82 million tons of goods worth $6.56 billion to Iran, down 44.68% and 34.71% in tonnage and value respectively YOY.
Imports included steam turbine parts, cellphones, butter and turbojet parts.
The UAE was the second biggest exporter to Iran last year after China. It was the biggest among neighbors.


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As part of an effort to keep its supply chain moving, Walmart is offering new truck drivers a starting salary range of $95,000 to $110,000 for their first year.
"Drivers who have been with Walmart longer can earn even more, based on factors like tenure and location," Walmart's senior vice presidents of transportation and supply chain people, Fernando Cortes and Karisa Sprague, added in a blog post on Thursday.
A Walmart spokesperson told FOX Business that new truck drivers could previously make an average of $87,500 in their first year.
The retailer has also launched a 12-week private fleet development program, where its existing supply chain workers in Texas and Delaware can earn their commercial driver's license (CDL). The program covers the cost of earning a CDL, which can typically be between $4,000 and $5,000.
According to Walmart, the program has had a total of 17 graduates to date. The company hopes to train between 400 and 800 new drivers this year and eventually make the program available to all Walmart associates.
A truck enters a large regional Walmart distribution center on June 6, 2019 in Washington, Utah. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)
Walmart has approximately 12,000 truck drivers in its workforce after hiring about 4,500 people last year. In addition to its hiring efforts, the company has tested autonomous trucks to help fulfill online orders.
"Drivers are in high demand today – a fact exacerbated by COVID," the ATA said in a March 25 release. "To attract and retain drivers, fleets must increase pay, which is now happening at extraordinary levels."
The trade group notes that weekly driver earnings are surging at a rate of more than five times their historical average. Long-haul truckers have seen a more than 25% increase since the beginning of 2019. In addition, some fleets are offering five-figure sign-on bonuses and full benefits to attract talent.
In December, the Biden administration unveiled a Trucking Action Plan to increase the supply of truck drivers, which includes $57 million in funding to help states expedite the process for earning a commercial driver's license. Since January, states have issued more than 876,000 CDLs, and license processing in January and February increased 112% year-over-year.
In addition, the Department of Transportation launched a 90-day trucking apprenticeship challenge, which has seen over 100 employers across trucking, food and grocery, and the oil and gas industries launch registered apprenticeship programs.


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Leasing as a whole took a dive in Canada for a few years following 2008, but the plunge only significantly affected the captive finance arms of U.S. brands, experts say.
Chrysler and General Motors essentially pulled out of leasing, taking captives’ overall auto finance share from 82 per cent in 2008 to 45 per cent in 2012, according to J.D. Power.
Ford does not publish its loan-versus-lease penetration, but it also “rebalanced marketing support to favour retail sales to a greater degree,” while still making both loans and leases available throughout the financial crisis, said Paul Monjanel, president of Ford Credit Canada.
“Leasing is a key product so together we make sure that we use it in a way that is sustainable over cycles,” he said. “Our present lease mix is consistent with that of the industry at around 25 per cent of Ford sales.”
Other captives, such as Toyota and Honda’s finance arms, were less affected.
“Looking back over that last 10 years we have evolved, but we haven’t had significant differences like competitors [have],” said Darren Cooper, president of Toyota Credit Canada. Toyota’s Canadian captive’s lease penetration has been above 50 per cent for a long time, he said.
Leasing brought Toyota’s customers back to the dealership more quickly and increased dealerships’ inventory of late-model used vehicles.
In 2008, Toyota Credit Canada even took on a relationship with another automaker. It began working with Subaru to support both its loans and leases, Cooper said. Toyota has acquired a minority equity stake in Subaru, beginning in 2005 when it bought shares from GM.
Domestic captives’ leasing levels, on the other hand, completely diminished in some cases. For example, GM abandoned the lease market, entirely.


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Every year the Tour de France inspires fans to take to their bikes, but not everyone has the stamina of professional riders, who this year will cover more than 2,275 miles in 21 days for the 101st race, scheduled to start in England on July 5.
For enthusiasts who seek a little of the camaraderie, adventure, exercise and a chance to take in the French countryside, there are a growing number of tours infused with the spirit of the famous race.
Cycling vacations “offer a way to experience a new destination that you can’t enjoy by bus,” said Mark Thomsen, marketing manager for Trek Travel, founded by Trek Bicycle, which offers five French biking vacations. He attributes the surge of interest to the trend for a more active lifestyle; technology developments that make cycling easier, like GPS, computer touch screens preloaded with maps and electronic shifting; the desire “to be taken care of” (important for those with limited vacation time); and the fact that biking holidays cater to couples or groups with different fitness levels and interests.
Guests can smell lavender in Provence, tour castles, taste wine, soak up local biking culture, and tackle challenging terrain, like Alpe d’Huez in the Alps with its 21 switchbacks, said Thomsen, who guided Trek Travel tours for seven years. “We provide the opportunity to experience what the pros experience, to ride the roads the pros ride,” he said, but “it’s a fully supported vacation.”
One highlight is Mont Ventoux, referred to as "The Giant of the South,” which is the site of a memorial to Tom Simpson, a British cyclist who collapsed and died there while competing in the 1967 Tour. “It’s an incredible climb through the forest then into the moonscape and up to the top,” he said. “From a cycling fan’s perspective, it’s kind of like going to Mecca.”
“French towns and villages take great pride in the race visiting them and go to great lengths to decorate in readiness,” said Hannah Reynolds, co-author of “France en Velo,” an illustrated guide to traveling across France by bike published earlier this year. The book details a new 1,000-mile cycle-touring route that winds its way from Saint-Malo on the coast of Brittany. “The food is fantastic and the scenery stunning,” and the intimacy of bike travel allows for unexpected discoveries, she said. “You can often slip down a side street and find a perfectly preserved medieval church.”
“Our book has been designed to make it accessible for every type of cyclist, from families to the super fit racing cyclist,” said Reynolds, whose co-author, John Walsh, has guided cycling holidays in France for many years for UK-based tour operator Saddle Skedaddle. The book features illustrated maps, detailed directions, itineraries, and suggestions of where to eat and sleep. For travelers who can’t take the time for the entire route all at once, the book presents itineraries for 32 smaller stages of between 17 and 48 miles that can be experienced individually on a long weekend or combined for longer, more challenging getaways.
“It’s the World Cup of cycling. The buzz it generates in North America about the sport is unparalleled.”
The popularity of cycling vacations is not tracked, according to Atout France, the French Tourism Development Agency, but interest in the race from Americans has grown over the past years and France has experienced “an undoubtedly positive impact on biking tourism.” A recent government study found that from 2011 to 2012 there was a 19 percent uptick in the number of tour operators offering bike tours in France, and several companies that specialize in biking tours reported strong growth. VBT, a tour operator of biking and walking tours, told the agency overall sales for France this year were up 46 percent compared to the same period in 2013. (The figure also includes its walking tours.)
DuVine Cycling and Adventure Company experienced a more than 20 percent increase in traffic to its website during last year’s Tour de France, said Andy Levine, president and founder. “It’s the World Cup of cycling,” he said, so many people watch the event on television. “The buzz it generates in North America about the sport is unparalleled.”
Discover France, which offers self-guided bicycle tours in France, said since becoming the official operator of the Tour de France in 2011, it experienced a 120 percent increase in clients taking its Tour-related trips, including packages for spectators only and for various levels of fitness, ability and challenge. The company attributed much of the growth to its packages offering VIP access. Clients, for example, can ride the final kilometers of the Tour route and cross the finish line, just before the pros. They also can access the podium for photos, meet “some legends of cycling,” and garner a spot on the finish line. From January to July this year, total sales were greater than for all of 2013.
“We are expecting this trend to continue since more people are interested in sustainable, slow travel that offers authentic and immersive experiences,” said Thomas Boutin, the chief executive. “There is nothing more satisfying than reaching a destination on bike, after having pedaled through back roads of the loveliest landscapes, filled with vineyards and tony villages, and sites of serious historical and cultural value.”


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FISON'S NASALCROM CONSUMER PRINT ADS IN USA TODAY
FISON'S NASALCROM CONSUMER PRINT ADS IN USA TODAY appeared in the May 3 and May 5 editions of the nationally distributed newspapers. The first consumer ad for the prescription anti-allergy product poses the question: "Are you happy with your allergy medication?" and advises consumers to "Ask your doctor about the 'allergy blocker' Nasalcrom (cromolyn sodium)." The advertisement also includes a coupon for a free pamphlet called, "Your Allergic Nose." The full-page ads cost the company approximately $ 125,000. Fisons hired Sandler Communications, a New York City-based advertising agency, to manage the campaign. Fisons says that it will evaluate the response to the USA Today ads before deciding on further marketing strategies. Both the newspaper advertisement and the free pamphlet were pre-cleared by FDA's Drug Advertising & Labeling Division, according to FDA. Nasalcrom is the second prescription allergy medication to appear in a consumer ad that included a brief summary. Sandoz ran newspaper advertisements for its Tavist-1 (clemastine fumarate) prescription antihistamine in September 1987. FDA also pre-reviewed the Tavist-1 ads applying its direct-to-consumer criteria; however, FDA later wrote to Sandoz that the company's "low drowsiness" claim in the ad was "false and misleading" and asked that the ad be canceled. A number of companies are stepping up direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription products, including Lexis, with print and TV ads for its generic oral contraceptive, (see T&G-3), Riker, which is promoting the cosmetic advantage of its Minitran nitroglycerin patch, and Pfizer, which recently ran a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal touting the company's "Healthcare" consumer education series. Pfizer's April 27 ad may be the first of a series of "celebration of life" newspaper advertisements promoting the medical information campaign, the company said.
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Filed under: Performance
It would seem that some of the rumors surrounding the upcoming Porsche Cajun
were greatly exaggerated. Porsche
CEO Matthias Müller
has announced that his company won't be producing a new small SUV based off of the Audi Q5
in China or anywhere else, for that matter. Müller said that while the future may force his company to consider moving production of one or more models overseas, right now the automaker will stick to cranking out vehicles in Germany. Previously, Porsche had said that it was taking some time to consider a new manufacturing facility in China - one of the fastest growing car markets on the planet.
Interestingly enough, Porsche hasn't said that the Cajun is dead all together. Müller simply made it clear that the vehicle wouldn't be based on any bones currently bumping around the Volkswagen
family tree. The vehicle is intended to land just below the current Cayenne
and allow younger buyers to jump into the exclusive Porsche brand at a more accessible price point. Early reports have the Cajun landing in show rooms no sooner than 2014.
[Sources: The Truth About Cars
]Report: Porsche CEO denies Chinese SUV rumors
originally appeared on Autoblog
on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 18:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds
| Email this


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New Zealand scientists plan to tackle the thorny problem of ewes producing more lambs than they have nipples to accommodate, by simply upping mum's teat-count, Stuff.co.nz reports. Apparently, NZ's ovine population has become more fertile over the past 10 years and females often drop triplets. AgResearch Invermay scientist …
lol, trust a kiwi to think up a excuse to get paid to look at sheep nipples
If it works with sheep ...
Crackpot utopian commune, anybody?
- Updated HIDDEN packet sniffer spy tech in MILLIONS of iPhones, iPads – expert
- RISE of the Jesus Phone MOUNTAIN: 80 MILLION 'Air' iPhone 6s ordered
- Students hack Tesla Model S, make all its doors pop open IN MOTION
- BBC goes offline in MASSIVE COCKUP: Stephen Fry partly muzzled
- PROOF the Apple iPhone 6 rumor mill hype-gasm has reached its logical conclusion


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Health department on alert after possible vaping-related disease reports
COLUMBIA- The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services is monitoring cases of lung disease related to people who vape or use e-cigarettes.
This comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report of nearly 200 cases of lung illness and one death, in 22 states, all potentially related to vaping.
According to a newsletter from the CDC, patients affected had symptoms like cough, shortness of breath and fatigue. Symptoms worsened over the days or weeks before patients went to the hospital, and all patients reported vaping in the weeks or months before visiting the hospital.
Jacob James is the manager of Retro Active Alternative Smoke Shop in Columbia. He said part of the problem is when people buy products from unregulated sources.
When customers buy cartridges and other products from friends or illegal businesses, James said, it can increase the risk of someone unknowingly ingesting dangerous substances.
"There is no regulation in that market," James said. "Not necessarily the legal market, but in the clandestine market where we just don't know what's in the cartridges because nobody's regulating that."
The CDC newsletter also reported many of the patients affected by illness had used products containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). However, they are not pointing to any specific product or ingredient as a definitive cause across all cases yet.
Dr. Joy Sweeney, executive director of the Council for Drug Free Youth in Jefferson City, said she's not surprised by the report, because it's not new information. What is new, she said, is the possibility of illnesses related to vaping.
She's working to spread the word about the potential new realities caused by this habit.
"We're doing everything we possibly can to educate people," Sweeney said.
Sweeney said, in Cole County, the number of young people vaping and using cigarettes has increased in the past several years. She said these statistics are "alarming" because of how much work has been done to stigmatize smoking and nicotine usage.
James said the CDC report has not changed the way he feels about vaping or smoking. He said it's important for people to make their own choices, as long as they are educated beforehand.
"You should read as much literature as you can about the scientific methods behind the stuff, and use the safest methods that you can to smoke your tobacco," he said.
Sweeney said her organization will continue to work to keep substances out of the hands of young people.
"This is a challenge, especially for young people," she said. "The younger you start using things like this, the more harmful it's going to be."
The CDC said its next steps will be to work with state health departments to provide assistance in following the issue and testing causes.


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Crowne Plaza is said to be the first global hotel network to install Tesla Destination Chargers at all of their properties across Australasia.
US aviation giant, American Airlines, and Australia’s Qantas have filed an application with US Department of Transportation seeking approval to form a joint business better serving customers flying between North America, Australia and New Zealand.
Emirates plans to launch a new daily service from Dubai to Auckland, New Zealand via the Bali, Indonesia, starting from June 14.
Following a multi-million dollar refurbishment at Cordis, Auckland, Hong Kong-based Langham Hospitality Group has announced fresh expansion plans that will make the hotel New Zealand’s largest, in terms of room count.
Scott Barber has been appointed as Travelport’s managing director for Australia and New Zealand.
Tourism New Zealand’s official visitor information network, i-SITE, released a Chinese version of its popular touring map, designed to support the 400,000 annual tourists arriving from China each year, with key targeted driver safety information.
Tourism Tasmania is holding its new trade event, TasTalk, in Hobart in late June, a two-day happening combining the previous Tasbound and Tassie Specialist Conference events to create a broader and more dynamic travel trade happening.
Auckland will welcome, what are described to be the world’s toughest sailors, in 2018, when the Volvo Ocean Race stops over in the region in February 2018.
The course overview for the revamped Pioneer Mountain Bike Stage Race to take place on November 25 – 30, 2018, has been revealed, now starting and finishing in Queenstown, with stop offs in Central Otago towns, Alexandra and Bannockburn taking place in between.


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Hewlett Packard released a range of new desktop PCs yesterday Tuesday, with CD-RW (CD-rewriteable) drives fitted as standard from top to bottom in its Pavilion line. HP is also adding DVD-ROM drives to most Pavilion models.
"This is the first time we have been able to push CD-RW drives into entry level PCs," said Tom Markworth, product marketing manager for Pavilion PCs at HP. "The feedback from consumers was that CD-RW is something that needs to be a standard part of the PC package."
This follows other manufacturers, such as as Apple, who realise that CD-RWs are no longer seen as luxury items by PC users.
HP announced five new Pavilion desktops, and a high-end 1.7GHz P4 system that will ship in May.
At the low-end, the cheapest Pavilion 6835 comes with a Celeron 800MHz processor, 128MB of SDRAM, a 30GB hard drive and a CD-RW drive.
HP's also offering a Pavilion 7875 using an AMD Athlon processor running at 1.3GHz. The beefier processor is complemented by an 80GB hard drive and 128MB of DDR (double data rate) memory.
With the Athlon chip and an Nvidia GeForce2 MX graphics card, this PC lends itself to graphics-intensive applications. It also comes with a USB optical scroller mouse.


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Alibaba has actually declared a primary reshuffle of its own management crew as it encounters boosting competitors in the general public cloud holding facilities service provider room.
In an announcement (opens up in brand new button), the firm disclosed that existing chief executive officer Daniel Zhang are going to come to be acting head of state of Alibaba Cloud Cleverness.
He switches out Jeff Zhang, that are going to right now concentrate on the Alibaba DAMO Institute, consisting of a number of the firm’s IoT efforts.
TechCrunch (opens up in brand new button) documents that the firm’s Hong Kong web servers had actually lately endured a “major outage” that left behind several solutions, like preferred crypto swap OKX, offline for around eventually, creating it some of the most significant Mandarin records facility failings in latest past history.
Various other adjustments feature Wu Zeming’s session as CTO, as well as founder Jane Jiang’s advertising to Principal Individuals Policeman.
Alibaba states it wishes that routine function adjustments are going to assist the firm to keep active.
“As the nation gets in a brand new phase of coping with Covid as well as policymakers have actually offered path to the potential growth of the system economic condition, our company are actually even more certain than ever before that carried on growth is actually the crucial to fixing the problems our company deal with today,” Zhang recorded an interior e-mail to workers.
Alibaba continues to be a primary gamer in the records facility sector as well as is actually effectively installed to proceed its own development, nevertheless the firm carries out still deal with numerous significant problems.
Previously this year, our company disclosed that the United States authorities had actually positioned Alibaba Cloud under testimonial to figure out whether it presented a danger to nationwide surveillance.
- These are actually the ideal cloud back-up companies


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[Stay on top of transportation news: Get TTNews in your inbox.]
TuSimple, a developer of autonomous-driving technology for trucking, and Traton Group, Volkswagen AG’s heavy-truck unit, announced a partnership to develop SAE Level 4 self-driving trucks, calling it a first in Europe. Traton also took a minority stake in TuSimple.
The two, initially, will apply Level 4 technology on Traton’s heavy-duty Scania trucks traveling a hub-to-hub route in Sweden between Södertälje and Jönköping — a one-way distance of about 200 miles.
Level 4 trucks are those in which the vehicle can travel without driver input or backup assistance, at least within specific areas and conditions.
“Innovative future technologies that provide additional value to our customers represent a key part of our strategy,” Traton CEO Matthias Gründler said in a release.
TuSimple’s self-driving technology will be tested on Scania S500 trucks in Sweden in a new partnership with Traton Group. (TuSimple)
Traton’s broader goal is to test driverless truck fleets on roads throughout Sweden, Germany and other countries, according to the Munich-based company.
“I think some of the same dynamics are also happening in Europe as in the U.S.,” TuSimple President Cheng Lu told Transport Topics. “I think there is a driver shortage and an aging driver population. On the demand side, e-commerce and the pressure for one-day or two-day delivery is driving truck freight. That’s a global trend.”
The companies noted there is an estimated shortage of around 60,000 drivers in Germany alone.
The latest partnership comes after TuSimple in July partnered in the U.S. with Navistar Inc. to co-develop SAE Level 4 self-driving trucks targeted for production by 2024.
Traton has offered to buy Navistar for $3.6 billion, but Navistar called the amount inadequate. Traton already owns a 17% stake in the Lisle, Ill.-based company .
Asked if TuSimple partnerships with other truck makers were likely, Lu said, “I don’t think I can give you a definite answer yet. But I would say that I think if, you look at who are the credible technology developers of autonomous driving for trucks, there’s really not that many, and less and less. So we really have built a quiet leadership in the market from both software, hardware and business models. So I think we will have opportunities to partner, absolutely.”
Lu said TuSimple will be very selective.
What does it take to be a commercial driver, and what are schools doing to train them? Host Michael Freeze speaks with Chris Thropp of Sage Truck Driving School and Don Lefeve of the Commercial Vehicle Training Association. Hear a snippet, above, and get the full program by going to RoadSigns.TTNews.com.
“What we are doing is designing, basically a new truck. The brains, what the body looks like, where you put the sensors, how you get the power. They’re not just buying a component from us. So you can imagine the amount of work that takes. It is something we have to be very selective about in terms of partnerships,” he said.
In the U.S., San Diego-based TuSimple has developed what it calls the Autonomous Freight Network. The company described it as an ecosystem consisting of autonomous trucks, digital mapped routes, strategically placed terminals and TuSimple Connect, a proprietary autonomous operations monitoring system.
“Currently while our technology is in development, we need to operate the autonomous trucks ourselves. In the future when commercialized self-driving trucks are available, shippers and fleets will be able to purchase TuSimple-enabled Navistar vehicles and operate them on the Autonomous Freight Network,” Lu said.
He said the company is discussing with Traton establishing a similar network in Europe. “But it is too early to say.”
Its base business model in the U.S. is that a customer buys a truck from Navistar, “then you’ll pay as part of this package a per-mile subscription fee to operate the truck autonomously,” he said.
He added: “There needs to be ongoing service and support to operate these trucks where the trucks can go. There’s dispatching, post-trip and pre-trip planning. Over-the-air updates. These are all ongoing. So it is unlikely that we can just give somebody a truck and that truck can drive anywhere. That would be more of next-generation type of product, but not for today.”
In addition to Scania, Traton’s brands include MAN, Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus and RIO. In 2019, Traton Group’s brands sold 242,000 vehicles in total — including light-duty commercial vehicles, trucks and buses that are produced at 29 facilities in 17 countries.
Want more news? Listen to today's daily briefing:


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InnerWorkings, Inc. announced that the company has received significant new work from two of its long-term clients. These new wins will add approximately $20 million of annualized revenue for the company at full run rate, bringing the total awarded to $105 million through the first eight months of 2018. One of the new expansions comes from one of the world’s largest producers in the beer, wine, and spirits vertical, a client that InnerWorkings has been supporting for more than 10 years. The legacy solutions primarily involve luxury packaging in Europe and point-of-sale materials throughout Latin America. The new contract announced today is for their largest market, the United States, as well as Canada, and covers a broad range of marketing materials, including point of sale, value-added packaging, and promotional items. The other expansion announced today is with one of the world’s leading manufacturers of consumer goods, specializing in cleaning products. InnerWorkings has been supporting this client since 2014, managing promotional items and printed marketing collateral in the United States and Canada. The new contract expands the relationship to include permanent retail displays. Click Read More below for additional information.
Publishers’ revenues were up Feb. 2016, compared to Feb. 2015. Despite gains in Childrens/YA Books and Religious Presses, a decline in Adult Books meant an overall decline for Trade books of 0.9% Feb. 2016 vs. Feb. 2015 and 8.2% year-to-date vs. 2015. Also within trade, downloaded audio and print formats continued to grow as eBooks declined.
Big Picture Data
•Publishers’ book sales for Feb. 2016 were $662.2 million, up 4.2% from $597.4 million in Feb. 2015. These numbers include sales for all tracked categories (Trade – fiction/non-fiction/religious, PreK-12 Instructional Materials, Higher Education Course Materials, Professional Publishing, and University Presses.) ◦Year-to-date, sales were down 3.0% to $1.68 billion vs. the same two months in 2015.
•Trade (consumer) books sales were $418.1 million in Feb. 2016, down 0.9% from $422.1 million in Feb. 2015. This includes Childrens/YA Books, Adult Books and Religious Books. ◦Adult Books had $281.5 million in sales in Feb. 2016, down 6.6% from $301.2 million in Feb. 2015.
◦Childrens/YA Books had $101.2 million in sales in Feb. 2016, up 17.0% from $86.5 million in Feb 2015.
◦Religious Presses had $35.4 million in sales, up by 3.2% from $34.3 million in Feb. 2015.
◦Year-to-date, trade sales are down 8.2% to $907.2 million vs. the same two months in 2015.
Format Trends for Trade
•Trends appeared to continue from 2015. In Feb. 2016 vs. Feb. 2015: ◦Paperback books grew 9.8%
◦Downloaded audio grew 42.9%
◦Hardback books grew 4.6%
◦eBooks were down 18.7%
Educational Materials and Professional Books
•Educational Materials had gains of 5.5% for K-12 Instructional Materials and 58.5% for Higher Education Course Materials, in Feb. 2016 vs. Feb. 2015. Importantly, education sales in Feb. are typically low, relative to the rest of the year.
•Professional Publishing was down 19.0% in Feb. 2016 vs. Feb. 2015 which includes business, medical, law, scientific and technical books and journals.


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The semiconductor industry is acting quite young for its age.
And that’s just not me saying it; over and over again during SEMICON West 2017 I heard some variation of the phrase “We’re just getting started.”
What was it that accounted for the upbeat and buoyant mood at SEMICON West 2017 this month, despite Moscone South Hall being a gaping hole clear down to the basement as a result of South Hall’s demolition and reconstruction?
Maybe it was that, not having the South Hall available, SEMI squeezed and rearranged the show floor from the configurations of prior years and, with everyone packed a little tighter, and with the crowd a little disoriented as to where familiar exhibitors and show services were to be found, it seems like the event’s complacency was shaken up a bit, in a good way.
That, and it being the record year for semiconductor capital equipment ($49B estimate for CY2017, topping the last high-water mark, in CY2000), could be the other factor accounting for the show mood.
My observations, after three days at the show (and the previous day at the Heterogeneous Integration Roadmap Committee all-day working meeting on Monday the 10th), are that a few major themes dominated: Heterogeneous Integration / Advanced Packaging / Fan-Out Packaging; Artificial Intelligence; Autonomous Vehicles; China’s Rise and its Future Importance to the Semiconductor Industry; Smart Manufacturing; and Sensors and the IoT. (Shades of the ASMC 2017 panel discussion!)
(Kudos btw to @SEMIexpos for the excellent and useful #SEMICONWest 2017 smartphone app – good stuff! Daily schedules, #SocialMedia, speaker bios, etc., all in one convenient place.)
As a nod to the kind of importance advanced packaging is now being accorded, the SEMI awards at SEMICON West 2017 went to Micron Technology and the HMC Consortium for commercializing the Hybrid Memory Cube 3-D stacked DRAM product, and also went to AMD for their Fiji SiP product, which utilizes a 2.5D silicon interposer and stacked DRAM. Both the Micron and the AMD products rely crucially on Through-Silicon-Via (TSV) process technology, long in development, and now widely deployed.
For Dr. Babak Sabi, Corporate Vice President, Director of Assembly and Test Development Technology, Intel, heterogeneous integration is not an “If” – rather, it’s a “Must.”
Dr. Sabi said that “Fan-Out packaging will eventually come around” to the point where fan-out is capable of creating the smaller-geometry lines and spaces that can currently be done on silicon interposers (think 0.5µm lines and spaces), and that fan-out panel level packaging will come around too, perhaps three years behind wafer level, maybe as a result of implementing process steps like CMP-based planarization to improve panel flatness and, thereby, photolithography resolution.
And all Dr. Sabi wants is processing tools capable of front-end performance, at back-end equipment prices … We’re just getting started.
A quick take by Bob Johnson, Gartner, is that “Heterogeneous integration with fan-out packaging gets you all the way to the 5nm silicon technology node through the year 2026.”
Future trends for advanced packaging are thought by Jan Vardaman, TechSearch International, to be these:Broadly, for AI, the consensus is that with the 10B+ transistor GPU products now available from NVIDIA, AMD, and others, along with the dedicated-architecture processors from Google and others, and with the concurrent availability of very high bandwidth memory in the form of stacked DRAM from Micron, SK Hynix, et al., we are just about to crack the barrier to seeing the widespread proliferation of commercially available products employing some useful form of Artificial Intelligence.
Terry Higashi, Tokyo Electron, in his keynote talk went so far as to assure us that, ten years hence, human beings and AI would be coming together in some kind of spectacular way to produce a kind of Singularity in which humans are empowered by AI, not enslaved by it.
Other SEMICON West talks in which AI was mentioned didn’t go quite so far out as Higashi-san, but the speakers did bring forth practical examples of how AI, aka Machine Learning, or Deep Learning, is making life easier in semiconductor manufacturing to the point where trained Machine Learning systems have created, for Micron Technology, a 25% improvement in time-to-yield ramps for new products and new fabrication technologies. According to Micron the 25% time-to-yield improvement, which they think is huge, is the result of only 3 years of effort with their Deep Learning project. Watch for more, they said, because “We are just getting started.”
Kathy Winter from Intel, in her keynote talk on “Big Data in Autonomous Driving,” brought in the same kind of thinking, which is that the huge amounts of data being generated by the embedded sensors (cameras, radar units, inertial measurement units, etc.) in ready-for-autonomous-operation vehicles can only be processed and interpreted by highly advanced silicon processors. These vehicles not only need to do their own heavy lifting for onboard data crunching and subsequent action; they also need to be in direct communication with vehicles around them, and the transportation grid as a whole, via the soon-to-be-rolled-out 5G wireless communication network.
It’s going to be a “Just let go of the wheel” future for us, which could be the start of the “Passenger Economy” or, at the least, a world in which “There’s no way it (autonomous driving) is not safer” than the distracted driving environment we as humans tolerate today.
We’re just getting started.
And then there’s China …
From the perspective of OSATs, Jan Vardaman presented this:
Dan Tracy, SEMI, has China in 2019 as “The key driver moving forward for semiconductor device fabrication and also for advanced packaging applications.”
Lung Chu, President, SEMI China, has it this way, with a deep-pockets Sino IC Fund of RMB 300B making strategic investments (please to note: not strategic subsidies) in the Middle Kingdom:
Word on the street at SEMICON West was that the China story is either going to be a boon for our industry, or that it will result in a debacle, just as China’s investment strategies in Solar PV, and in LEDs, have proven to be debacles for the supply chains in both those industries (albeit being boons to the consumers of those products!).
China and semiconductors: We’re just getting started.
CY2018 is expected to top the ’17 numbers by an additional ~$4B for the semiconductor capital equipment industry overall, thanks in no small part to investments by China, so, according to some of the Bulls and Bears panelists, the Age of Cycles isn’t expected to return until 2019, if return it ever does.
I’m going to take that to the bank … in my Autonomous Vehicle, of course.
We’re just getting started indeed.
From Santa Clara, CA, thanks for reading. ~PFW


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The Victorian Government will provide funding to creative industries across the state to help drive the sectors recovery.
Minister for Creative Industries Danny Pearson made the announcement at Footscray Community Arts Centre on Friday, and announced that more
than $85 million in funding will be allocated to 113 Victorian creative entities including the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio.
Mr Pearson said that Victoria is home to many organisations that fuel the states creative economy, which not only provide jobs but also deliver a range of creative experiences for Victorians.
“From internationally acclaimed companies to grassroots collectives, social enterprises, fashion labels and festivals, we’re making sure Victoria’s outstanding arts practitioners have the support they need.”
“This is an investment in the future of our creative industries and the thousands of jobs they support that reflects the diversity of Victoria’s talent and our communities.”


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The two-day, 14th annual Salmon River Festival is set for downtown Pulaski Saturday and Sunday.
The event lasts from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day. Activities are scheduled at South Park and the newly renovated Kallet Theatre.
The Kallet Theatre will be the site of the Salmon River Sports Expo, featuring outdoors exhibitors and vendors from through the region. The Expo will run both days.
Saturday, a chicken barbecue is scheduled throughout the day at South Park. Commercial vendors will also sell food all day on Sunday. All sorts of craft and other types of vendors will also be featured each day. A total of six bands are scheduled to play during the weekend -- three each day.
There is no fishing derby this year. For more, see the Pulaski-East Shore Chamber of Commerce website.


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The retailer SPAR has been forced to close some of its convenience stores in the UK after a cyber-attack on its IT systems.
The digital assault occurred on Sunday and is being investigated by Lancashire Police.
SPAR has around 2,600 stores located across the UK. Because of the incident, 330 SPAR shops in the north of England were left unable to process payments made using credit or debit cards.
The cyber-attack also prevented the stores from using their accounting or stock control systems.
While some of the affected shops remain closed in the wake of the attack, others have reopened but are accepting only cash payments.
“There has been an online attack on our IT systems which is affecting stores’ ability to process card payments, meaning that several SPAR stores are currently closed,” SPAR UK said in a tweet.
“We apologize for any inconvenience this is causing our customers and we are working as quickly as possible to resolve the situation.”
The retailer said that the cyber-attack had impacted all of the company’s IT systems, including staff email accounts. Technicians have reportedly been working through the night to mitigate the effects of the incident.
A SPAR store on the campus of Hull University in Yorkshire was among the locations forced into closure by the incident. Stores located elsewhere in Yorkshire and others in Lancashire have also been impacted.
SPAR Oswaldtwistle said on social media that SPAR stores have also been affected by “an online attack” on the IT system of its primary wholesaler, James Hall & Co Ltd, of Preston, Lancashire. The website of James Hall was offline at the time of publication.
On Sunday morning, SPAR in Ribchester, Lancashire, posted on social media: “Due to a major & widespread IT failure across the entire Northern SPAR network, all Northern SPAR stores will be closed for an unknown period of time.”
In an update added today, the store stated: “Sadly the SPAR store side of our business remains closed today, however our Post Office is able to be open.”
Sarah Coble News Writer | INFOSECURITY MAGAZINE


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Intel adds a heatsink to its speedy Optane 905P SSDs.
If you're ready to jump on the PCIe 4.0 SSD bandwagon, we have some nice 1TB deals that will surely interest you.
Early units of Microsoft’s new Surface devices sport tiny 2230 SSDs from Toshiba and SK Hynix. But it’s not clear yet which you’ll get.
Twitter said phone numbers and email addresses used to secure accounts on its platform were "unintentionally used for advertising purposes."
Researchers from the U.S. and Switzerland have invented a new non-destructive technique that allows for the imaging of an entire chip, which could be used to identify hidden backdoors in chips or to verify if a chip's design matches the specifications.
Linksys is updating some of its mesh Wi-Fi routers with motion-sensing capabilities to power a home security system called Linksys Aware.
The Atari VCS' lead architect stopped working with Atari on October 4, leading some to question whether the product will actually reach consumers.
MSI spills the beans on its upcoming Creator TRX40 motherboard for Threadripper 3000 chips.
Intel is retiring its 7th Generation Kaby Lake Core, Celeron, and Pentium processors.
Intel shows off 'The Element,' a dual-slot PCIe card that houses a processor, memory, storage and among other things.
The Your Phone app, for making calls of your Android phone from your Windows 10 PC, finally arrived this week.
G.Skill launches new 256GB memory kits.
Police in the Netherlands have begun using AI to scan for drivers using their phones.
Google rumored to be developing a certification for gaming smartphones.
AMD announces the Ryzen 9 3900 and Ryzen 5 3500X with little fanfare, largely because you won't be able to buy them at retail.
Electronics Arts has unveiled the system requirements for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and the recommended specs are a doozy. Specifically, it calls for 32GB of RAM.
It's a ray-tracing party, and everyone's invited.
Noctua goes full blackout with its new chromax.black line of coolers.
MSI launches it blacked-out MEG X570 Unify motherboards.
Atari shared pictures of the upcoming Atari VCS gaming device on Medium.


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OSH, Kyrgyzstan -- Newly established fruit processing plants and cold storage facilities in Osh Province are enabling farmers to sell produce on better terms than in the past and to create processed fruit products for export, stakeholders say.
Two fruit drying plants will process more than 1,000 tonnes of produce per year, while a new warehouse can store up to 40 tonnes of apples, according to a November 13 statement from the US Embassy in Kyrgyzstan.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) partnered with several farmers to set up the processing lines, the statement said.
"The work of processing companies benefits more than 2,000 local families since they will be able to sell their harvest for storage or processing," said Aysalkyn Maksutova, a businesswoman from Osh.
"Thanks to USAID support, they have modern production lines that process the harvest and agricultural produce suitable for export," she told Caravanserai.
The new processing plants will be able to store, dry and process fruits as jams, compotes, juices, candied fruits and other products, she said.
"On the whole, these efforts aim to increase the income of small farmers by increasing their output and expanding access to local and international markets," Maksutova said.
It also benefits consumers who will have access to fruit products during the off-season, she said.
Domestic, international support
USAID support for the two processing plants included modernising the facilities, installing equipment, introducing an international system of quality control and providing other technical assistance.
One facility, operated by Orjemil LLC, "will process off-grade fruits like peaches, plums, cherries and other stone fruits that are not suitable for selling fresh in the market", according to the embassy statement. It will have a capacity to produce 600 tonnes per year.
"The second producer of dried fruits, Advantex LLC, will use its new Uzgen facility to expand its production by 500 tonnes per year," the statement said.
The Kyrgyz government is also focusing on aiding local farmers, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Food Industry and Land Reclamation Erkinbek Choduyev told Caravanserai.
Kyrgyzstan's exports are expected to grow this year thanks to the implementation of a government project that resulted in an increase in the number of farmers who received subsidised loans from domestic banks, he said.
"Now we will no longer lose part of our harvest that for one reason or another wasn't exported," he said.
'Major breakthrough' in agriculture sector
Fakhriddin Kasymov, a farmer from Kara-Suu District, Osh Province, said he had a good peach and grape harvest this year, which he had originally planned to export.
"But in order to export the harvested produce before it spoils, we have to spend a substantial amount of money on transport and other services," he told Caravanserai. "That's why it's now profitable for me to sell my harvest to processing plants at the market price."
"This is a major breakthrough in the sector," Daniyar Taychabarov, a businessman from Bishkek, told Caravanserai.
"Before, farmers suffered when they had nowhere to sell the produce they harvested," he said. "It sometimes happened that, for example, one-third of their apple harvest went to livestock fodder."
The fruit processing plants and storage facilities will increase agricultural output, Taychabarov said.
"Before, 80% of apricots were exported at fire-sale prices to neighbouring Tajikistan, or almost all cherries and black cherries went for cheap abroad," he said.
"Farmers will now begin expanding their fruit and berry orchards," he said. "It will benefit farmers to sell their produce to the new processing businesses."
We wanted fruits processed in the new [facility] in Uzgen too.Reply


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Chinese retail sales grew at the slowest pace in nearly 16 years in April while industrial output and fixed asset investment came in short of estimates as Beijing battles to reinvigorate the economy in the face of trade tensions with the US.
Retail sales grew 7.2 per cent year on year in April, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, recording the slowest pace of growth since 2003 as sales of consumer goods and cosmetics slowed. That was short of a Reuters poll of economists forecasting 8.6 per cent growth, which was just shy of the 8.7 per cent increase in the previous month.
Growth in industrial production slowed to 5.4 per cent, below the 6.5 per cent increase forecast and level with November’s figure, which was in turn the weakest rate since the financial crisis.
Meanwhile, fixed asset investment in the four months to April grew 6.1 per cent compared to the same period last year, coming in below the 6.4 per cent forecast and slowing from the 6.3 per cent growth in the previous period. Private investment grew 5.5 per cent for the year to date while state-owned investment grew 7.8 per cent.
China’s economy grew at a faster pace than forecast in the first quarter, with gross domestic product picking up from the final three months of 2018 as government stimulus took root.
The US-China trade war, which appeared on course for resolution, was reignited this month after Donald Trump raised tariffs on $200bn of Chinese goods and Beijing retaliated in kind.
Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist with Capital Economics, said the poor showing in April confirmed doubts about the “durability of March’s strength”.
“We had warned that economic momentum risked weakening again in the near-term as the prop from this year’s fiscal front-loading faded,” Mr Evans-Pritchard said. “The latest data appear to bear this view out and reinforce our expectations for more policy stimulus in the coming months. Given budget constraints on local governments, monetary policy will probably take the lead.”


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News & Events
We submitted 5 of our wine offerings to the San Francisco International Wine Competition in November and we are very proud to announce that all 5 received medals. And the 2014 Compilation – Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon was rated 90 points.
Gold Medal 2014 Compilation – Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
Silver Medal 2014 Bottom Line – Diamond Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon
Silver Medal 2015 Deduction – Napa Valley Petite Sirah
Bronze Medal 2014 Refund – Sangiovese
Bronze Medal 2016 Opening Entry – Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc


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All the news from the annual Google I/O event, including the latest on Android.
Destiny is a victim of the hype machine created around it. It's a refined console shooter that feels great during the action, but goes stale during just about every other component of the game.
Functionally, the iPad Air is nearly identical to last year’s model, offering only faster performance and better video chatting. But factor in design and aesthetics, and the iPad Air is on another planet. It’s the best full-size consumer tablet on the market.
Strong performance, high-end specs, and an ultra-affordable price make the Google Nexus 5 not just the best unlocked phone on the market, but the best Nexus phone by far.
Apple reaches new records for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus launch weekend, HTC is said to be working on the Nexus 9 tablet, and a 3D printer will build tools in space.
Watch Dogs manages to impress at times, but its overly ambitious promise is never fully realized. There's a lot of fluff baked into the experience that might leave some disappointed and wanting more.
A new report says HTC is set to make the new Nexus 9 despite a lack of experience in building tablets.
In addition to the rumored Nexus 8, HTC could be prepping two other Android tablets.
The latest update to the PS4 also improves the sound quality at 1.5x playback for both Blu-rays and DVDs.
Hope you didn't have other plans for your money this weekend.
Presenting author information in search results wasn't as useful as Google had expected.


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Beverage company Hamdard Laboratories on Thursday said Rooh Afza, a popular rose-coloured beverage that it manufactures, was available at all major retail stores and grocery outlets across the country amid reports of a supply shortage.
Several users on social media had complained they were not able to find Rooh Afza in stores. The company, however, said the beverage – which is popular in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and served during the iftar evening meal when Muslims end the Ramzan fast – was being produced at “peak capacity” at factories.
“Due to Ramzan and peak summer season coinciding, there has been an unprecedented demand in the market,” Hamdard Laboratories said in a statement. “Hamdard was facing supply constraints of certain herbal ingredients which were not available due to a temporary shortage.”
The company said it was ensuring the beverage reaches shops across the country through “full-capacity production and a well-planned distribution infrastructure”.
“The organisation urges discerning consumers and the trade not to be misled by incorrect information being circulated online and in print about non-availability of Rooh Afza,” it added.
Usama Qureshi, the chairperson of Hamdard Pakistan, had said on Tuesday that the company would send its products to India via the Wagah crossing at short notice if allowed by the Indian government.


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Minister welcomes resumption of trade negotiations with KoreaTrade
Trade Minister Tim Groser welcomed Korea’s decision to resume formal negotiations toward a free trade agreement, following a meeting today in Bali with his Korean counterpart, Minister of Trade Yoon Sang-jick.
“The resumption of negotiations was discussed by Prime Minister John Key and Korean President Park Geun-hye during the Prime Minister’s recent visit to Korea in July. I am pleased that their shared determination to conclude a free trade agreement has led to this point,” Mr Groser says.
“This is an important step. Korea is one of New Zealand’s biggest and most important trading partners.”
In the year ending June 2013, total trade between New Zealand and Korea was $3.5b.
“The lack of a formal free trade agreement has been putting New Zealand at a disadvantage in the Korean market. For example, our beef and kiwifruit exporters face tariffs of 40 percent and 45 percent respectively, while some of our competitors are now entering the market tariff free or enjoying substantial preferences under their already concluded agreements with Korea. We are aiming in our negotiations to correct that imbalance.
FTA negotiations are a key part of the government’s Business Growth Agenda. Helping our exporters means jobs for New Zealanders.”
Negotiations are scheduled to resume in February 2014.


text: Life may get a little more painful. A federal advisory panel voted on Tuesday to ban Percocet and Vicodin, two of the world's most popular prescription painkillers, because of their harmful effects on the liver. The ingredient in question is acetaminophen--found in Tylenol, Excedrin and other over-the-counter drugs--which, in high doses, is a leading cause of liver damage. In 2005, Americans bought 28 billion doses of products containing the ingredient, and more than 400 people die and 42,000 are hospitalized every year in the U.S. from overdoses. The panel also voted to reduce the amount of acetaminophen in over-the-counter drugs and lower the recommended daily dosage. While the F.D.A. isn't required to heed its recommendations, they usually follow advisory panels' advice.


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Disney to hang up phone service aimed at families
It wasn’t the usual happy ending for a Disney project.
Walt Disney Co. said Thursday that it would end its Disney Mobile phone service at the end of the year, the second time in a year that the huge conglomerate has orchestrated a quick closing of a cellphone operation.
The service had been tailored to the communications needs of families and children, offering features designed to enable parents to stay in touch with their children and help youths learn to use cellphones responsibly.
The decision, coming a year after Disney suspended a similar niche offering, Mobile ESPN, illustrates the challenges of competing with national wireless carriers that own their networks. Disney, like many other so-called mobile virtual network operators, leased network capacity from one of the major carriers -- Sprint Nextel Corp., in Disney’s case.
“It’s a very expensive and formidable challenge, and it’s a losing proposition unless you can quickly get to scale,” said Mark Donovan, senior analyst with M:Metrics Inc., a Seattle-based mobile research firm.
Launched in June 2006, Disney Mobile enables parents to monitor their children’s phone usage or restrict the times of day or the days of the week when the phones would work -- eliminating potential abuse, such as children sending text messages to friends during class.
The phones also use a global positioning system that enables parents to track a child’s whereabouts.
“The stuff they were offering for families was right on target for what people want,” Jupiter Research analyst Julie Ask said.
Disney was counting on its brand name to attract customers, most of whom already had cellphones, but its added services were eclipsed by a rapidly changing market.
Major carriers, such as Verizon Wireless and even Sprint, stole its thunder by rolling out similar child-finder services and other family-friendly features.
“Some of the secret sauce of what Disney was trying to provide in a unique offering, some of the bigger carriers have also clued into,” said Charles S. Golvin, a wireless analyst for Forrester Research Inc.
Disney Mobile said it also struggled to get broad retail distribution of its phones. That left it relying heavily on the Internet to reach harried parents who didn’t invest a lot of time “hanging out on the Internet, looking for the cool new phone,” Donovan noted.
“Disney has a fantastic brand,” he said. “But if you’re not getting that brand in front of people walking in the mall, thinking about buying a cellular phone, or in big-box retailers, then you really are rolling a rock up a hill.”
Steve Wadsworth, president of Walt Disney Internet Group, acknowledged those obstacles. He said the giant wireless carriers, with their millions of subscribers, were tough to compete against in two key areas -- price and phone selection.
Wadsworth said Disney would have had to make a major investment to continue in the mobile business.
“Getting the right retail distribution, getting to scale, the rate plans we can offer, the customer support . . . that was going to take substantial investment to get to scale in order to make this great product available,” Wadsworth said. “That’s what drove our conclusion here.”
The service will continue through Dec. 31, and Disney has offered to reimburse subscribers who bought handsets, accessories and content through the company. A spokesman said the company had not determined how many of the 120 Disney employees who worked on the mobile service would lose their jobs.
Analysts said the failure of Disney Mobile showed that finding a niche market ignored by the major phone carriers could be challenging, even for a well-known brand trying to appeal to its own base of customers.
That’s one reason Virgin Mobile succeeded with a prepaid phone service that targeted customers shunned by major carriers as lacking creditworthiness, Golvin said.
Amp’d Mobile Inc. tried to win voracious media consumers by offering videos, music and games for cellphones, but it failed because those features weren’t compelling enough to attract a large number of customers, he said. Amp’d went bankrupt in June and was sold in August.
“There is one reason why people have mobile phones and mobile phone service: That is to be in touch with the people they care about,” Golvin said. “Everything after that -- downloading video and music -- is additional.”
Wadsworth said that, like Mobile ESPN, the Disney Mobile service might one day reappear as a service offered through the major carriers.
“We’re in conversations with carriers about that,” he said. “So we will pursue those conversations and try to put another model in place.”


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This week marks the opening of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance and Bentley plans to hit the place in style. Which, of course, is what the exclusive carmaker does best.
The display at the adjacent Peter Hay Hill Golf Course will include a chance for attendees to drive Cadillac’s performance cars such as the 2013 ATS 2.0 T and 2013 CTS-V Coupe.
So far, we have two teasers images of the upcoming Kia B-segment compact – one of the interior that seemingly reveals an interesting door design along with a strictly conceptual seating setup and a
The Los Angeles Auto Show is one of the most-anticipated in the nation.
For a decade or so, a tradition that many considered a highlight of the Pebble Beach Tour d'Elegance has been missing.
When the last BMW M3 rolled off the assembly line earlier this month in Germany it was a sad day for performance fans around the globe.
Growing to become one of the city's largest classic car shows, the New Orleans Classic Auto Festival is held every year in early August.
Before its official global debut in Indonesia in two month’s, Honda has released a teaser sketch of the all-new 2015 Honda MPV that will be launching in Asia.
The price of a used car just went up by a huge amount as a rare Mercedes-Benz racer sells for a record amount.
The new Jaguar C-X75 hypercar will be looked at as the model for high performance luxury sports cars in the future.
Day 1 on the Rocky Mountain Driving Experience - driving through breathtaking Colorado in beautiful cars
The first day of RMDE began with registration and breakfast at the headquarters hotel near the Denver International Airport.
While Lamborghini has acknowledged that a replacement for their Gallardo supercar will arrive soon, the Italian automaker hasn’t had much else to say about the new car.
A jury of 87 of the world's most well-recognized figures in the automotive journalism industry came together again this year to name finalists and winners for several of the most sought-after award
One of the nation's largest and fastest-growing events is the Hilton Head Island Festival & Concours d'Elegance, commonly called the Hilton Head Concours, which happens in November every year.


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Apple held an event at its Apple Park headquarters today with Will Smith, Jaden Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. The conversation was moderated by the VP of environment, politics and social initiatives of Apple.
Sylvania HomeKit Light Strip
Tim Cook shared an image of the event on Twitter and said that "everyone deserves access to quality water." JUST WATER founded JUST WATER, an organization focused on bringing clean water to areas of need, such as Flint, Michigan. JUST WATER is promoted as of ethical origin and comes in a 100 percent paper bottle.
Today's event comes after a series of announcements from Apple about their environmental efforts before Earth Day. Last week, Apple announced that it has doubled the number of suppliers that run Apple's production with 100% renewable energy. This morning, the company announced that it had quadrupled its iPhone recycling program and had also published its Environmental Responsibility Report.
Apple has several events in Apple Park recently. Last month, for example, Octavia Spencer and Nichelle Tramble Spellman joined Lisa Jackson for a conversation about "equality, creativity and inner power". The conversations are generally open to Apple employees.
Everyone deserves access to quality water. Thanks for leading the load, @officialjadenand for sharing your pbadion for the environment with us today at Apple Park. Your enthusiasm is contagious! ? pic.twitter.com/2juv8zxMWT
– Tim Cook (@tim_cook) April 19, 2019
Three inspiring and formidable women, @OctaviaSpencer, Nichelle Tramble Spellman and @lisapjackson, leading us forward with a conversation about equality, creativity and inner power. pic.twitter.com/IN0ELFbh0l
– Tim Cook (@tim_cook) March 26, 2019
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Infinix Scorching 11S worth in India and specs have been revealed and the corporate has scheduled its launch for subsequent month. The upcoming telephone from Infinix will launch in two RAM choices and can be powered by the identical chipset that can characteristic within the Redmi 10 Prime, which can also be set to launch in India in September. Earlier this month, Infinix launched the Sensible 5A in India powered by a MediaTek Helio A20 chipset paired with 2GB of RAM.
Infinix Scorching 11S worth in India, launch particulars
The corporate has mentioned that the Infinix Scorching 11S will likely be launching in India round mid-September. It is but to speak a ultimate launch date. The telephone will likely be priced at Rs. 9,999 for the 4GB RAM + 64GB storage variant and Rs. 10,999 for the 6GB + 64GB variant.
It has additionally been confirmed that the Infinix telephone will likely be powered by a MediaTek Helio G88 SoC. The remainder of the specs are but to be revealed.
Which means the Infinix Scorching 11S will likely be powered by the identical processor that has very lately been additionally confirmed to characteristic within the Redmi 10 Prime. The upcoming Redmi smartphone is ready to launch in India on September 3. It’s alleged to be a rebranded model of the Redmi 10 that was launched globally earlier this month. The Redmi 10 Prime is confirmed to return with a hole-punch cutout for the selfie digicam on its show, adaptive refresh price, and twin microphones.
The Hong-Kong headquartered Infinix had lately launched the Infinix Sensible 5A (Overview) in India priced at Rs. 6,499. The finances telephone runs Android 11 (Go version) and sports activities a 6.52-inch HD+ show with a 19.5:9 facet ratio. Underneath the hood, it’s powered by a MediaTek Helio A20, paired with 2GB of RAM. Its 32GB of onboard storage will be expanded to 256GB through a microSD card. For optics, it will get a twin rear digicam setup with an 8-megapixel major sensor and an AI (depth) sensor. Its 8-megapixel selfie digicam sits inside in a waterdrop-style notch on the show. Infinix has packed a 5,000mAh battery within the smartphone.
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Apple AirTag Tracker Begins Receiving Firmware Replace, New Options But Unannounced: Report


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Study: Free checking accounts are still widely available
Free checking is alive and well at small banks and credit unions.
A recent survey by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group found that free checking accounts are available at more than 60% of small banks and credit unions.
The consumer advocacy group surveyed 250 banks and 116 credit unions in 17 states and the District of Columbia to compare fees.
While nearly two-thirds of small banks offer free accounts, just 24% of the biggest banks — those with more than $10 billion in deposits — offer fee-free accounts, the report Big Banks, Bigger Fees found.
Some 59% offer free checking when paired with regular direct deposits.
"Consumers should reject the myth that the days of free checking are gone," Ed Mierzwinski, the group's consumer program director, said in a news release. "Consider moving your money to a small bank or credit union to avoid those big fees at the big banks."
Our step-by-step guide will tell you what you should look for in your next checking account.
The PIRG survey found small banks often have lower monthly fees, overdraft fees, fees for using other banks' ATMs and balance requirements than big banks.
But the report recommends consumers use credit unions, which are a lower-cost alternative to banks and offer the same variety of service.
Bank Study Key Findings
|48%||Percentage of banks that provided researchers account fee information on first request, as required by law.|
|12%||Percentage of banks that refused to provide fee information after multiple requests.|
|63%||Percentage of small banks that offer totally free checking.|
|60%||Percentage of small credit unions that offer totally free checking.|
|59%||Percentage of big banks that offer free checking with a regular direct deposit.||Source: U.S. Public Interest Research Group|
It also recommends consumers shop around and examine any fees they currently pay.
Unfortunately, those fee schedules aren't easy to find.
PIRG said not even half of banks it visited provided fee schedules to its researchers, which is required by law, on the first request.
Only 72% complied with the law after two or more requests, and 12% simply refused to provide information, claiming they didn't have it or telling the researchers to "go online."
When it comes to finding fees online, 62% of big banks and only 29% of small banks provide fee information, according to the report.
In addition, "finding the fees was often a scavenger hunt," the study notes.
"The Truth in Savings Act is a simple law that helps consumers shop around," Mierzwinski said. "But compliance with it is poor, harming consumers who cannot learn the truth."
The PIRG report calls for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to enforce the Truth in Savings Act, which requires banks and credit unions to disclose all account-related fees. PIRG wants all institutions to post fees on the web in a searchable format.


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In Ready Player One there’s a healthy dose of digital graphics and a virtual reality universe. Certainly, the dazzling visuals can cast a spellbinding shadow over the theater-going public. On top of that, the auto enthusiasts are being treated to an extra helping of brilliance!
This autumn, JUSTICE LEAGUE, one of the most anticipated superhero movies of all time, will hit U.S. theatres beginning November 17, 2017 from Warner Bros. Mercedes makes a big screen impression with the AMG Vision Gran Turismo.
AutoDesignO’s flagship event, “Cars of Character”, redefines how professionals explore automotive design, bringing outside amazing concept and preproduction cars, and offering visual presentations on a theater big screen. The event at Warner Brothers Studios sheds light on the talent, technology, and inspirations in the clandestine world of automotive design.


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Auction near Turnersville has a lot in its basket
October 31, 2013 by Lisa
The Beef and Beer with Basket Auction is being hosted by the VFW1616 and is to act as a fundraiser, with all the proceeds to benefit veterans and their families. An “adults only” event, it will no doubt keep local printing companies busy over the next week, with flyer printing likely to be among the services sought to promote it.
The evening starts out with a dinner, accompanied by a wide choice of desserts. There will be door prizes, a basket auction, and a fifty-fifty draw, plus an entertaining D.J. Guests will enjoy food and drinks with more than 200 special baskets up for auction. On tap will be draft beer and soda.
Seating for this event is very limited, so tickets are best purchased early. As part of assisting with the holiday food drive for the less fortunate, guests are asked to bring canned goods and non-perishable food items to help kick off the upcoming holiday food drive. Every guest who donates a food item will be entered into the draw on a special basket.
Tickets for the event cost $20 per person and include dinner, dessert, soda, and draft beer. The event will take place on Saturday, November 9, starting at 6:00 pm at the VFW 1616 Hall located at 1940 N. Black Horse Pike in Wiliamstown, New Jersey, just a short drive from Turnersville. For additional information, or to purchase tickets, please visit the VFW 1616 website or call 856-728-0760.


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$5 Challenge promotes agricultural products from New Mexico
New Mexico Department of Agriculture press release
Do you have a favorite New Mexico salsa, wine or enchilada? Do you stock up on chili, beef, onions or New Mexico cheese? Maybe you like snacking on New Mexico pistachios, pecans, chili-infused chocolate, or peanut crunches. If so, this is your chance to complete the $5 challenge and raise the agriculture of New Mexico, while possibly earning some unique loot.
The New Mexico Department of Agriculture is launching its 2022 $5 Challenge campaign to support the state’s agriculture industry, including ranchers, farmers, processors, greenhouses and agritourism. The campaign encourages New Mexicans and visitors to increase their spending by $5 a week on locally grown and made goods in an effort to strengthen the state’s economy, while supporting the agriculture industry.
“Supporting local produce is as simple as buying plants and herbs at a New Mexico nursery or browsing your local farmers market for local produce,” said the New Mexico Secretary of Agriculture. Mexico, Jeff Witte. “You may already have a New Mexico product in your pantry or fridge, which you can simply take a picture of and enter it into the $5 Challenge contest for a chance to win some exciting prizes. It’s a win-win opportunity for everyone.
The general public competition – which runs from May 31 to July 5 – is open to residents of all 50 US states, the District of Columbia and US territories who are at least 18 years old. Simply take a picture of the New Mexico item you purchased or the item you already own and upload it to NM5Dollar.com. Each person and email address is limited to one entry per week. Two winners will be drawn each week. Prizes include New Mexico Wine Festival tickets, New Mexico Beer Enthusiast membership and New Mexico Brewers Guild “Drink Local Beer” shirt, New Mexico Chile Association fresh chili box, kits New Mexico Beef Council Grilling Board and NEW MEXICO – Taste the Tradition Gift Baskets and New Mexico Department of Agriculture Engraved Cutting Boards.
New Mexico Wine executive director Christopher Goblet said the $5 challenge is an engaging and affordable way for local businesses and value-added producers to leverage the media power of a larger campaign.
“In 2020, the New Mexico wine industry embraced the concept of the $5 challenge and incorporated a fun promotional element that positioned the program as a ‘stimulus fund’ for the local economy,” said Goblet. “The partnership with NMDA has generated the sale of 400 additional bottles of wine in one month. At an average cost of $20, the program had an additional impact of $8,000 amid the pandemic, which was a welcome addition to any company’s bottom line.
To search for local products by members of the NEW MEXICO–Taste the Tradition and NEW MEXICO–Grown with Tradition Logo Program, visit the Website ElevateNMag.com.
The $5 Challenge campaign also includes a contest for retailers. From May 31 through July 5, retail stores that sell New Mexico agricultural products can submit up to four photos of a single display featuring New Mexico grown or made produce for a chance to win prizes. weekly. Entries can be submitted online at NM5Dollar.com/5-challenge-retailers. Each retail store is allowed one entry per week for a total of five entries over the five-week contest. Entries will be judged by a panel of members of the NEW MEXICO–Taste the Tradition/NEW MEXICO–Grown with Tradition Logo Program.
Prizes for retail stores include a New Mexico Chilean Commission chili roaster, 20 hours of free in-store demonstration, and the opportunity to be featured in the NEW MEXICO–Taste the Tradition cooking demonstration video series for consumers. social media.
Visit NM5Dollar.com and NM5Dollar.com/5-challenge-retailers to read the contest rules in their entirety.
Find us on :
NMDA website: NMDeptAg.nmsu.edu
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @NMDeptAg
YouTube: NMDept Ag
LinkedIn: New Mexico Department of Agriculture


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U.S. international trade had a disappointing first quarter. The gross domestic product grew slightly by 0.5 percent on an annualized pace, according to a report released last week by the Commerce Department. This is the slowest pace in the past two years. The U.S. economy is still suffering the effects of a strong dollar and a weak global economy, which makes American goods more expensive to the world at large. The U.S. International Trade report for March will likely reflect the nation’s modest growth. Here are five things to watch in tomorrow’s report released by the Department of Commerce.
- A decline in exports
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg predict a $41.3 billion trade deficit for the month of March, a narrowing of $5.8 billion. This is welcoming news since the gap widened to a six-month high of $47.1 billion in February.
“It will be encouraging to see a sharp narrowing,” said Brittany Baumann, an economist at Credit Agricole. “The details are going to be less positive though because it could mean another decline in exports.”
American imports remain unattractive compared to other imports in foreign markets because of an appreciated dollar, but an increase in demand of American imports is possible.
If the dollar continues to depreciate, Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, expects exports to stop declining, but not dramatically. “I wouldn’t count on any surge of exports,” he said.
- Ongoing deficits in global trade balances
A struggling global economy remains a drag on U.S. exports. China had the largest deficit at $32.1 billion in February. Canada, another important trade partner, had a deficit of $1 billion, the European Union held a deficit of $10.6 billion, and Mexico had a deficit of $5.1 billion.
These deficits are not expected to change drastically for the month of March. Canada’s economy continues to recover from a weak economy tied to oil. China raised its currency last week to 6.4589, the biggest exchange rate increase in 11 years, in a move to stay competitive in world markets. The European Union faces multiple uncertainties in dealing with Greece, a possible Brexit and a migrant crisis.
- A contraction of imports
In January, U.S. imports of goods and services dipped from $224.9 billion to $222.1 billion, nearing an all-time low in March 2013 of $221.3 billion. Based on the advance trade report, imports of goods plunged from $181 billion (seasonally adjusted) in February to $173 billion in March. Consumer imports is expected to have the biggest drop from $51 billion to $46.5 billion (preliminary). Cheaper import prices due to the strong dollar hasn’t seemed to increase spending on imports.
“Weakness in imports is a bad sign for the economy,” O’Sullivan said. “On a sustained basis, it’s a sign of weak domestic demand.”
- A surplus of services
Exports of U.S. services have remained steady from January to February and should be a bright spot on the trade report. Economists predict a surplus for the month of March. It has changed minimally for 2015 and has not dipped below $59 billion.
- An inaccurate gauge of the economy
The trade report is not viewed by economists as an accurate gauge of the economy’s status because highs and lows are to be expected from month to month. The deficit hit a six-month high in February at $47.1 billion, so a smaller deficit in March is encouraging but nothing to celebrate. Similarly, a decline in imports, a sign that consumer demand decreased, is no cause for alarm.
“The monthly numbers are so volatile that you really can’t read into one really weak month,” O’Sullivan said.
While exports remains a drag on trade, economists are hopeful that the nation’s economy is still on an upswing.
“It’s kind of steady as she goes,” said Russell Price, a senior economist at Ameriprise Financial. “The economy is growing but at a sluggish rate.”


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Sale of wine in Toronto supermarkets will have to wait
The latest in Ontario booze news is that beer sales are still a go in supermarkets but that wine will have to wait. The Star reports that the April 23rd provincial budget set to be tabled by the Liberals will outline a shift in beer sales involving some 300 odd supermarkets, as was initially leaked about a month ago.
Wine, however, has proven to be a more complicated matter. With beer, the government is able to auction off new licences to the highest bidding supermarkets, but the plan with wine has been to repurpose licences currently held by the Wine Rack and the Wine Shop, which total 268 across the province.
Apparently there are concerns that the expansion of these licences to accommodate supermarket sales could run into problems with international trade agreements (the Wine Rack, for instance, is a U.S. company). As the Star's anonymous Liberal source says, "wine needs some time."
In other words, it doesn't sound like the this hiccup has lead the government to stray from its plan of expanding wine sales across the province. It merely has to come up with a way to make this happen that won't lead to problems down the road.
Join the conversation Load comments


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In a groundbreaking achievement, a collaborative effort between Microsoft and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has leveraged artificial intelligence (AI) to unveil a revolutionary material poised to transform battery technology. Known as N2116, this solid-state electrolyte shows promise in diminishing the reliance on lithium within batteries, addressing a crucial challenge confronting the expanding energy storage sector.
Traditional lithium-ion batteries, prevalent in electric vehicles and electronic gadgets, are hindered by their dependence on liquid electrolytes, presenting safety concerns and limiting battery performance. In contrast, solid-state electrolytes offer improved safety, faster charging, and extended lifespans. However, the development of effective solid-state electrolytes has been impeded by their inadequate conductivity.
Enter N2116, a solid-state electrolyte discovered through an AI-driven approach that evaluated over 32 million inorganic materials in a mere week. This accelerated discovery, facilitated by Microsoft’s AI algorithms and PNNL’s supercomputing capabilities, has the potential to hasten the advancement of next-generation batteries. What distinguishes N2116 from other solid-state electrolytes is its ability to function with significantly less lithium. Scientists propose that the substance may have the capability to decrease lithium consumption by as high as 70%. This breakthrough has the potential to markedly decrease the demand for lithium, a resource becoming scarcer and more expensive. By utilizing more abundant materials, N2116 could enhance the sustainability and cost-effectiveness of batteries.
The researchers also successfully showcased the application of N2116 in a battery prototype, effectively powering a lightbulb. This proof-of-concept underscores the material’s promising potential for practical applications. Ongoing development aims to optimize N2116’s performance and compatibility with diverse battery chemistries.
The discovery of N2116 signifies a significant stride in the evolution of next-generation batteries. By lessening lithium dependency and improving battery performance, this material could revolutionize the energy storage industry. With continued research and development, N2116 and other AI-discovered materials may steer us towards a future of clean, efficient, and sustainable energy storage.


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Chip credit card deadline looms for area retailers
By Thursday, retailers are supposed to upgrade to anti-fraud credit card readers
Published 10:48 pm, Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Area retailers are focused on security as they upgrade to a new credit card payment process ahead of a Thursday deadline.
Those who don't make the deadline potentially could be held liable for fraudulent credit card charges.
The new card-reading system asks shoppers to dip a chip embedded in their cards into a machine instead of swiping.
These microchips are difficult to counterfeit, as they create unique data for each sales transaction. Locally and nationally, the transition is expected to extend well past the deadline set by MasterCard and Visa.
U.S. card owners are in the process of upgrading, too. About 63 percent of the cards belonging to eight financial institutions that represent about half of total U.S. credit card volume will contain chips by the end of 2015, according to a May news release from the Payments Security Task Force, a coalition of U.S. electronic payments industry organizations. Nearly all of these cards — 98 percent — will contain chips by the end of 2017, the task force said.
Several steps must occur for transactions to run smoothly, said Ted Potrikus, the president and CEO of the Retail Council of New York State in Albany. First, retailers must invest in the technology. Store owners and managers also will need to train all register operators. And consumers, he said, must learn a new procedure for paying by credit — the dipping process takes longer than swiping a magnetic strip.
"We're not used to that," Potrikus said. "It will be one of those things where in some cases the line may get a little longer or may move a little bit more slowly."
Potrikus said he could not estimate how many association members had adopted the technology, noting that council employees have been working for two months to help clients install their terminals.
"I think we'll still be sending them out for a long time," he said.
But some area retailers said they already use the chips.
Truman Jewelers in Albany transitioned to the new process about three months ago, and between a quarter and half of customers are accustomed to the dip process, said owner Paul Truman. He said it cost a few hundred dollars to transition to the new system. "Not a big deal," he said.
Between half and 60 percent of customers at Drome Sound Music Store in Schenectady have cards with chips in them, said manager Michael DeMarco. He said he expected more to upgrade soon, citing concerns about identity theft.
"It's valid, too," he said. "I think the chips are definitely a plus, and it really hasn't hindered our ability to process transactions quickly."
Angelo Maddox, the owner of Fresh and Fly clothing in Albany, said his current processing unit is compatible with chips, but no customer has requested that he dip a card upon checkout.
But if a thief tried to purchase goods with a stolen card, whether the thief swipes or dips, a store owner would have no knowledge that the card is not authentic, Maddox said. He said he remains worried about fraud.
Potrikus echoed this concern and advocated for linking chip credit cards with personal identification numbers, or PINs, a process that occurs in Europe. The new standards, he said, do not sufficiently safeguard against fraud.
Thieves will figure out how to make fake chips, he said, but linking stolen chip data to a PIN would be "close to impossible."
"It's like putting together paper that you put through a shredder," Potrikus said.
A May 2015 report from Barclays found that the absence of the chip technology contributes to disproportionately high credit card fraud in the U.S.
The Barclays report noted that just introducing the chip technology, even without a PIN, is a step to lowering fraud. The report characterized memorizing a PIN as a burden for consumers, who would need to adjust to a new way of paying.
Representatives from three other stores interviewed said they could not yet accept the new cards, citing needed technology upgrades that would come in the future.
Albanese said she was not worried about the slightly longer transactions brought by the chips.
email@example.com • 518-454-5018 • @lindsayaellis


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SAN JOSE, Calif. — A $5 million class action lawsuit filed on Friday in federal court in California claims Apple did not properly warn its users of a new iOS9 feature called “Wi-Fi Assist.”
The feature automatically switches the Internet connection from Wi-Fi to data when the signal is not strong. According to Apple, the intention of the feature is to avoid slow connections on Wi-Fi, but users have reported seeing their data charges soar.
According to AppleInsider, the lawsuit claims overuse charges exceed $5 million. The lawsuit also claims Apple mislead customers because the setting is enabled by default and is in violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law and False Advertising Law.
After receiving complaints, Apple posted instructions on its website showing how to disable Wi-Fi Assist:
“Wi-Fi Assist is on by default. If you don’t want your iOS device to stay connected to the Internet when you have a poor Wi-Fi connection, you can disable Wi-Fi Assist. Go to Settings > Cellular. Then scroll down and tap Wi-Fi Assist.”