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Ripple’s Legal Win Jeopardized as SEC and TerraForm Labs Clash
Summary of Ripple’s Legal Triumph
- Ripple, a distributed ledger technology and payment provider, is currently involved in a legal dispute with the SEC and TerraForm Labs.
- The case centers around whether or not Ripple’s XRP cryptocurrency is considered a security under US laws.
- The outcome of this case will have major implications for the entire cryptocurrency industry.
Background on Ripple
Ripple is a distributed ledger technology (DLT) and payment provider that has become increasingly popular over the last few years. The company was founded in 2012 with the mission to make financial transactions faster, more secure, and more cost-effective. To accomplish this goal, Ripple created its own digital currency called XRP. Since then, XRP has been adopted by many banks and payment providers as an efficient way to send money across borders.
SEC vs. TerraForm Labs
Ripple’s success has recently attracted the attention of two powerful entities: The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and TerraForm Labs. The SEC is investigating whether or not XRP should be classified as a security under US law. If it is determined that it is indeed a security, then Ripple could face significant penalties from the SEC. On the other hand, TerraForm Labs has filed suit against Ripple alleging that they are illegally selling unregistered securities in violation of federal law.
Implications for Cryptocurrency Industry
The outcome of this legal battle could have major implications for the entire cryptocurrency industry. If XRP is deemed to be a security, then it could set a precedent for other cryptocurrencies as well. Additionally, if any penalties are imposed on Ripple by either entity, it would set an example that other companies should follow when dealing with digital assets in the future. As such, this case carries great significance for all involved parties and will undoubtedly shape how cryptocurrencies are regulated going forward.
Ripple’s legal dispute with both the SEC and Terraform Labs could have far-reaching implications for both Ripple itself as well as the broader cryptocurrency industry at large depending on how things turn out in court.. This case serves as an important reminder of just how complex these issues can be and why regulation needs to keep up with technological advancements so that everyone can benefit from them safely and responsibly


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$11.7m judgment against Spamhaus slashed to $27,000
A federal judge has handed a major victory to anti-spam crusaders Spamhaus, slashing an $11.7m verdict to just $27,002.
NHS still rubbish at caring for data
The Information Commissioner's Office has again warned the NHS that it is not doing enough to safeguard patients' data.
NASA: Civilization will end in 2013 (possibly)
In 2013, the earth will be attacked from space, with one possible outcome being mind-bogglingly severe disruption to our tech-centric way of life.
Ten Essential... 500GB Portable Hard Drives
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Ubuntu's Koala food mixes with Windows VMs
Eucalyptus Systems — the open source outfit that mimics Amazon's so-called compute cloud inside private data centers — has released a major upgrade to its commercial product, Eucalyptus Enterprise Edition.
AMD shoots low and wide with Opteron 4100s
The x64 server chip refresh cycle may feel done, but there's still one more to go to finish the work that Intel and Advanced Micro Devices started in March. AMD is getting ready to launch its "Lisbon" Opteron 4100 processors, which are slated for delivery sometime in the third quarter.
Nuke lab tests flashy HPC server cluster
It's Flashturbation of a different kind. US nuke lab Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has tapped longtime HPC cluster partner Appro International to custom-build a 100 TB flash-based storage system for its Hyperion x64 testbed cluster.
NetApp improves SANscreen for virtualised environments
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Feds block sale of crooks' favourite messaging client
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New crew pursue ISS
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Virident's tachIOn SSD flashes by
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Microsoft justifies lost Office 2010 upgrades
Microsoft has briefly explained why it's killed a tried and tested way for loyal consumers to obtain a new edition of Office for a low price.
Cops collar 178 over £17m credit card crimes
Cops across Europe, the US and Australia have collared 178 people in an operation to smash an international fake credit card production network turning over more than £17m.
Nintendo shows off 3D DS
Nintendo has introduced the - not unexpected - 3D-enabled version of its DS handheld console.
AT&T iPad 'hacker' arrested for 'drugs possession'
One of the hackers behind the AT&T iPad security breach has been arrested after police allegedly discovered cocaine, ecstasy and LSD during a search of his home.
Virtual management? It's complicated
Sysadmin BlogVirtualisation is complicated. I am not talking here about implementation, or even the concepts or technologies underpinning virtualisation. I am talking about the realities of managing and maintaining a virtualised infrastructure.
Adaptec disappearing down rabbit hole
The remnants of adapter company Adaptec, having sold its RAID adapter business to PMC-Sierra, is leaving storage further behind as it becomes a Steele Partners shell for financial operations.
iPad beats BlackBerry for browsing
Apple's iPad is now generating more web traffic than RIM's BlackBerry in North America, though at least a BlackBerry can do other things too.
iSoft shuffles board as shares continue to fall
iSoft shares continued to fall yesterday despite a supposedly reassuring update from the health provider.
Easy-peasy science GCSEs binned
Science GCSEs set to replace the pack of dumbed down current exams have been rejected for being too easy.
Did the iPad just save Wired, and Conde-Nast?
Saving the whole of the newspaper industry is a big ask, even for a "magical and revolutionary" device, but there might just be hope for the magazine business. The rapaciously-priced ($4.99 for this month's issue) iPad edition of Wired has comfortably outsold the somewhat cheaper print edition, and it's not even ad-free. On the contrary...
Sony prices up PlayStation Move
Sony's PlayStation Move motion controller will arrived on UK shop shelves on 15 September, debuting at €30 (£25).
Philippines declare war on cyberlingo
The government of the Philippines has declared "all out war" on what it considers a major threat to the purity of English - the "jejemon" invasion of social networks and mobe text messaging.
Twitter promises to stay up for World Cup
Twitter admits it has had its worst month since last October for downtime but promises it will do its best to stay up and running for World Cup games.
Sony confirms subscriptions coming to Playstation Network
Sony is to start charging for access to the PlayStation Network.
Opera pushes out 10.6 preview
Opera has released a public beta of its next browser release, 10.6 - featuring support for royalty-free WebM video and HTML5 offline web apps. This will be the next major milestone for Linux and BSD users, since Opera is skipping an official 10.5 release for those platforms.
BT signs first smart meter deal
BT has joined the gathering feeding frenzy around smart metering of utilities with its first ever deal to provide the necessary internet connectivity, to a minimum of 10,000 meters.
Lightning bolt smites 60ft Jesus statue
The faithful of Ohio were left contemplating a message from above this week after a bolt of lightning hit a 60 foot high statue of Jesus, reducing it to a smouldering steel skeleton.
Wannabe Jedi drool over potent laser 'lightsabre'
Those of you who fancy playing Star Wars or who have a currently unarmed shark knocking about the house might be interested in the Wicked Lasers Spyder III Pro Arctic - a real-life "lightsabre" capable of inflicting some serious damage:
Breaking Google's last taboo
Google has traditionally charged into other business areas with all the subtlety of a bull in a china shop. This isn't always a bad thing: there are plenty of cosy industries that are ripe for a shake-up, and advertising is one of the cosiest. But there's one area that's been strictly taboo.
Radiation warning labels for deadly mobes!
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has passed an ordinance that will require warning labels on mobile phones, indicating their radiative output especially for the scientifically-illiterate and paranoid.
Currency moves cost small biz dear
Small business owners in the UK blame currency movements for threatening their ability to export goods - or at least to export goods profitably.
Orange outs iPhone 4 pricing
Orange has posted its iPhone 4 tariffs, but you'll need to spend big to get one of the handsets for free.
Alleged Biden threat spoofer drops plea deal
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Sony Ericsson unveils yoof-oriented Xperia
Sony Ericsson has introduced its latest Android-based Xperia smartphone: the X8.
Developers twitchy as wait for Symbian^3 goes on and on
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Police complaints body gets a kicking for FOI law-breaking
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has been given a truncheoning for ignoring Freedom of Information requests from the public.
HTC speaks out on Hero Android 2 update
Still awaiting the promised Android 2 update for your HTC Hero smartphone? Here's what HTC has to say about it:
Burger van busted offering free takeaway porn
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Dot Hill: Troubles and prospects
CommentDot Hill sold 125,000 entry-level array subsystems - good news. The bad news is it's restructuring and sacking a tenth of its workforce to staunch losses - and it's partnering with Xiotech in an opaque technology agreement with no clarity over which of them will deliver product. So what on earth is going on?
Violin Memory gobbles up Gear6
Violin Memory, which makes network-attached flash memory arrays, has bought Gear6, a web and NFS caching technology company. We might see a flash NAS as a result.
Android and iPhone bite into Nokia Q2 results
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Street View snooping sparks new watchdog site
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Bigfoot Networks Killer 2100 gaming network card
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HP bulks up software for hybrid infrastructures
HP has revved its BSM (Business Service Management) product - software which, HP says, provides a two-way lens through which line-of-business (LOB) managers and IT staff can each understand the other's view of business service priorities and IT infrastructures supporting those services.
Got an iPhone 4 yet? No? You're gonna have to wait now
iPhone 4 wannabes who blinked, or most likely were hit with an error message, will now have to wait until next month before they can get their hands on one of the coveted talking lightboxes.
Apple apologizes for iPhone 4 gaffe
On Wednesday morning, Apple released a straightforward apology for Tuesday's series of iPhone 4 pre-order cock-ups.
TomTom slashes LIVE subs
TomTom is offering new TomTom LIVE sign-ups free services for a year - and is halving annual subscription costs to £47.50.
IDC: 2010 PC sales will top 2008 peak
Happy days are not only here again in PC Land for 2010, but apparently the party is going to continue for the next five years as far as the forecasts coming out of market researcher IDC are concerned.
Inevitable Mac OS X 10.6.4 update problems surface
There are scattered reports of problems with Apple's Snow Leopard update that was released yesterday. Ah, tradition.
Firefox's oldest friend dumps it for Google Chromium
Flock — the so-called social web browser — has dumped its traditional Firefox core in favor of Chromium, the open source incarnation of Google's Chrome browser.
Eastern European banks under attack by next-gen crime app
Banks in Russia and Ukraine are under continued siege by criminal gangs wielding a sophisticated, next-generation exploitation kit that hacks the financial institutions' authentication system and then hits it with a denial-of-service attack.
IBM buys Coremetrics for web analytics
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Privacy watchdog pack demands Facebook close the 'app gap'
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Oracle's Java police derailed by Google TV
While the authorities governing Java fiddle, the power is passing to another: Google.
Mega ISP Verizon punts sky-high storage
Mega ISP Verizon has unveiled its own on-demand storage service, dubbed — in predictable fashion — Verizon Cloud Storage.
Microsoft inks search pact with...Opera
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domain: news


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Game delays happen all the time and they are always disappointing. But this week’s announcement of two Bethesda title delays and Xbox console exclusives – star field, from Bethesda Game Studios, and red fallfrom Arkane — hit particularly hard.
Both games were given 2022 dates during last summer’s Xbox showcase and represent the first real fruits of Microsoft’s $7.5 billion acquisition of Bethesda. These will be the first Bethesda games since the takeover not to release on PlayStation and to be added on day one to the Xbox Game Pass library. star fieldin particular, was highly anticipated, being the first major RPG from the creators of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and Fallout 4 in seven years.
Both have now been pushed back to the first half of 2023. Crucially, that leaves Xbox without any significant releases from its internal studios scheduled for 2022. Fans are, understandably, not happy; Last year, Microsoft promised it would bring “at least one” first-party game each quarter to Game Pass.
Xbox chief Phil Spencer took to Twitter to offer support for the delay as well as some contritional help. “These decisions are difficult for the teams that make the games and our fans. While I fully support giving teams time to release these great games when they are ready, we hear the feedback,” he wrote. “Quality and consistency are expected, we will continue to work to better meet these expectations.”
These decisions are difficult for the teams that make the games and our fans. While I fully support giving teams time to release these great games when they’re ready, we hear the feedback. Quality and consistency are expected, we will continue to work to better meet these expectations. https://t.co/mIfXGd3rui
—Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) May 12, 2022
But what are these expectations, and why is the conversation around them so strained? A delay for a title as complex and ambitious as star field is hardly unprecedented, and such announcements are usually met with a fair proportion of resignation and “a delayed game may eventually be good, but a bad game is forever bad” quotes Miyamoto. This was certainly the case with the recent and similar delay of what had been Nintendo’s flagship 2022 title, a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This was less the case with star field and Redfall.
The problem here is that Xbox’s empty 2022 calendar is indicative of just how far Microsoft has to go to turn Spencer’s years-long studio acquisition spree – which culminated this year in a stunning 68.7 buy. billions of dollars from Activision Blizzard – in actual software. In the space of four years, Microsoft’s games arm has grown into a constellation of studios of unprecedented size and scale, and there are legitimate questions to be asked about the ability of the Xbox organization to manage this huge development pipeline.
The games — whether from studios acquired since 2018 or more established parts of the Xbox empire — simply aren’t coming out. Very little has been seen or said about Playground Games. Fable and ninja theory Infernal Blade 2both of which were announced years ago. Undead Laboratories state of decay 3, Coalition perfect dark, and rare always wild would all be wading through development hell or deep reboots. The inXile, Tango Gameworks and Double Fine acquisitions have not yet passed the “still contractually required to release games on PlayStation” phase.
Even Turn 10 Studios, which previously could be relied on to crank out a new Forza Motorsport every other year like clockwork, hasn’t released a game since 2017. (Its reboot of the series is the only possibility for a late release. 2022 for Xbox, but that’s by no means a given.)
While neither of these incidents is surprising or even necessarily worrisome in isolation, together they don’t paint a healthy picture of project management within Xbox Game Studios. Anxiety over this could explain why Xbox made the – in hindsight, reckless – decision to set a firm date of November 2022. star field last year, despite widespread pandemic-related disruptions to development schedules, the project’s ambition and Bethesda Game Studios’ slightly shaky track record of polishing and bug-fixing its games.
Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier mentioned that he had heard that this release date had made star field developers “extremely worried” that it could become the “next cyberpunkreferring to the botched and unfinished release of the CD Projekt game.
Last spring, before E3, I spoke to some folks at Starfield who were extremely worried about committing to a date on 11-11-22 because of the progress they had made so far. now. (“Next Cyberpunk” was the floating term.) Kudos to Bethesda for delaying even after announcing this specific date. https://t.co/QdWFf0zGIY
—Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) May 12, 2022
This eventuality has hopefully been avoided and the strain on Bethesda staff alleviated by the delay – in which case that can only be a good thing. And it’s true that Microsoft has amassed so much talent and so many enviable properties during its acquisition spree that it will inevitably be able to present Xbox owners and Game Pass subscribers with an abundance of long-term games.
But the delays of star field and red fall shed a harsh light on Xbox’s ability to manage its sprawling development empire, whether or not they are symptomatic of it. No wonder Spencer feels that when it comes to delivering “quality and consistency,” his teams still have something to prove.
#Phil #Spencer #Apologizes #Bethesda #Delays #Raises #Xbox #Pipeline #Questions


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A lot of products ‘made in Quang Nam’ have become well-known in the market.
The Quang Nam provincial People’s Committee has had several activities to encourage the locals to use the products ‘made in Quang Nam’, such as introducing Quang Nam products to the public through fairs, supply and demand connection, and trade promotion.
Nian gao (bánh tổ in Vietnamese) is one of the traditional Vietnamese foods. It is often made in the Tet holidays. The brand name ‘Hien Pham’ is loved in the market across the country thanks to its quality.
Another product ‘made in Quang Nam’ is pickled pork “Bà Ba The” (Madame The). It is also popular with consumers all over the country.
The products ‘made in Quang Nam’ with high quality appear in most of the supermarkets in Vietnam, so they become familiar to consumers.
Besides pickled pork “Bà Ba The” and Hien Pham nian gao, there are a lot of different products ‘made in Quang Nam’ popular with consumers such as fish sauce, peanut oil, chicken, eggs, cereal flour, cassava noodle, fresh vegetables among others.
One more advantage of the products ‘made in Quang Nam’ is the combination between different sectors in advertising. It includes the fair for OCOP products held by the Quang Nam Farmers Association at the provincial Cultural Center, a large scale for Quang Nam products at Co.opMart, Big C, VinMart, and other places nationwide.
In the time to come, the products ‘made in Quang Nam’ will be supported to take part in several fairs in Ha Noi, Da Nang, Thua Thien-Hue, Ho Chi Minh city… in order to introduce them to consumers all over the country.


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Still dominating home electronics, lithium batteries are constantly pushing into new markets. Just nine years ago, the small batteries defied skeptics by making the jump from laptops to the revolutionary Energy Storage System of the Tesla Roadster.
As global EV sales grew, lithium batteries also started showing up in home storage, grid storage, and powering buses in smoggy mega-cities like Los Angeles, London, and Shanghi.
During the battery's next evolution, a lithium-powered ship (still in CGI) will deliver freight to ports around Norway for Yara International, Norway's largest chemical and fertilizer producer, which just announced it will build and float the world's first autonomous, battery-powered container ship by 2020.
Since Norway uses hydro to generate most of its electricity, the ship's short, emissions-free day-runs will be a milestone for a industry choking on carbon-intensive bunker fuel (read the press release).
Yara is especially important after the Paris agreement exempted two of the world's biggest CO2 emitters, global shipping and aviation, from oversight. Shipping throws off 18-30% of all the world's nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution and 9% of the sulphur oxide (SOx). Airborne, both chemicals cause 60,000 deaths a year as medical costs top $330bn treating lung and heart diseases (read the spec sheet).
Shortchanged in Paris
After Paris, many shippers worried their industry could derail the 1.5°C best-case scenario.
The Maersk Group, owner of the world’s largest containership fleet and a member of the Sustainable Shipping Institute, was disappointed. “Maersk acknowledges the need to regulate shipping," said John Kornerup Bang, its Advisor on Climate Change. GCaptain listened as Bang explained the complex issues that thwarted the negotiations, "We're ready to compete in a carbon constrained economy, (but) any future regulation needs to be global, flag neutral, and reward early movers.”
Essentially, no one could agree how to fairly link emissions to specific countries of origin, with so many ships registered in sketchy jurisdictions, all traveling to and refueling in different countries.
Unfortunately, 90% of world trade travels by sea, producing 2.2% of global CO2 emissions every year. As shipping grows along with the global middle class, analysts predict that the Paris failure means emissions could balloon to 17% by 2050. Why so drastic? According to a Guardian article from 2009, data from industry insiders showed that the 100,000 horsepower engines of:
15 of the world's biggest ships emit as much pollution as 760m cars.
Magnify that by 6000 of the largest container ships and 85,000 smaller cargo ships and it's pretty much game over.
Emission control zones
Several months after Paris, the airlines grudgingly agreed to offset emissions by buying carbon credits, but the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) dithered and decided to wait until 2020 before capping sulphur in bunker fuel at 0.5%, down from levels as high as 3.5%.
So after a long two and a half year wait, the sulfur burned by the world’s cargo ships will be cut down 86 percent.
Refusing to wait until 2020, the US, the EU and China, which has seven of the world's most polluted container ports, set up their won 200 mile Emission Control Zones (ECZs). Now, whenever docked ships run their engines for power in port, they're using low 0.5% sulfur fuel.
So although CO2 emissions still get a pass, stringent standards have forced shippers to decide whether to install scrubbers or consider newer fuels and technologies.
Emitting no NOx or SOx, drop-in biodiesel provides up to 90 percent fewer CO2 emissions than bunker fuel. By also eliminating the cost of infrastructure retrofits, the alt-fuel has attracted a lot of attention.
Maersk conducted a biofuel trial on the Maersk Kalmar, which used 35,000 gallons of fuel a day. Even though the test was considered a success, high feedstock costs and an unreliable supply chain made the biofuel too impractical to be deployed throughout a 600 ship fleet.
About the same time, after the war in Iraq had made energy reform a strategic imperative, the Navy created the Green Fleet, an alt-fuel showcase where a 50/50 blend of chicken fat and conventional diesel powered two destroyers and a cruiser for two days during month-long maneuvers off Hawaii. Using 450,000 gallons of biofuel — at a cost of $12 million — it was the largest single purchase of biofuel.
Lately, the Navy's interest in the Great Green Fleet has waned. Last year, only three ships were deployed. Their engines were powered by a thin 10 percent blend of rendered beef fat and 90 percent standard diesel.
Nevertheless, the Navy still procured 80 million gallons for 2016. And it was still expensive. The Pentagon managed to pay $2.05 a gallon — after generous government subsidies — which got the cost close to standard diesel.
LNG floods the zone
Since infrastructure plays of major part in a fuel's success, the globalization of LNG promises the same ubiquity as bunker oil. It has already powered LNG carriers on the boil off.
Still, while LNG is an excellent technology for reducing SOx and NOx emissions, it only reduces CO2 by about 20 percent over bunker fuel. If there is a one percent methane slip, the GHG reduction could be a wash.
Nevertheless, by 2015 there were already 63 small LNG-fueled vessels operating in the world. Next year, Sovcomflot, Russia’s biggest oil tanker operator, will commission the world's first oil tankers that run on LNG. The Aframax ships will transport 600,000 barrels of oil through Baltic Sea to be refined in the the port of Rotterdam.
Analysts predict that the number of LNG-fueled ships will more than double to 200 by 2020 from 77 last year, but that's a blip in the global fleet.
But that will still ramp up LNG bunkering demand to 1 million tons in three years and as much as 5 million to 7 million tons by 2025.
While new the Russian ships will modestly help ease the glut, they won’t soak up the excess. Ultimately, Bloomberg reports, LNG marine fuel will make up less than 2 percent of total demand by 2025.
Yara goes autonomous
YARA's battery-powered ship offers completely emissionless shipping.
It reduces NOx and CO2 two ways. First, 40,000 truck deliveries stop once the ship starts hauling containers from its Porsgrunn plant to the port cities of Brevik and Larvik about 12 miles away down the coast. From there the products are shipped around the world. "By changing to the sea, Yara will reduce road noise and traffic congestion," said Yara CEO Svein Tore Holsether.
While in port, the ship will reduce even more NOx emissions, because it won't have to burn bunker fuel. Ultimately, the switch to batteries should cut about 675 tons of CO2 a year.
After the ship is delivered in 2018, it will be manned by a small crew for the shake down cruises. Afterwards, if those are successful, remote operation will begin in 2019, followed by fully autonomous mode in 2020.
During remote or autonomous operation, thousands of sensors, radar and lidar will send data to three satellite-linked centers, making every aspect of the operation transparent.
The YARA battery-powered ship should create huge changes in the shipping industry. Having land-based technicians manage ships remotely will completely disrupt the operation of global supply chains, creating new services, along with more-efficient ways to lease and pool vessels. Ultimately, an online marketplace for cargo delivery by sea is not far behind.


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COLLEGE PARK, Md., June 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) today announces that four companies in its venture acceleration and incubation programs were selected as finalists for the 2010 Maryland Incubator Company of the Year awards.
Winners will be announced at a ceremony at the Center Club in Baltimore, Md., on June 15, 2010.
"The selection of four finalist companies out of the University of Maryland is validation of the innovation ecosystem model Mtech has created to spur commercialization of the most promising research at UM," says Dean Chang, director of Mtech's venture programs and director of the Technology Advancement Program (TAP) incubator. "All four companies have flourished by following similar paths from initial discovery at Mtech's Entrepreneur Office Hours and Faculty Venture Fairs, to preliminary business validation as winners of Mtech's UM $75K Business Plan Competition, and now to company acceleration and incubation through Mtech's VentureAccelerator and TAP incubator programs."
The four finalist companies include two companies currently in the TAP incubator and two companies currently in TAP's fast-track, early admission program called VentureAccelerator:
- FlexEl LLC is developing thin-film battery technology that is higher in charge storage capacity than market-leading alternatives; completely flexible in form factor, enabling "battery cloth," inexpensively manufactured via low-cost printing technologies, rechargeable at low voltages, and environmentally friendly. FlexEl won the high tech category in the 2009 UM $75K Business Plan Competition and graduated from VentureAccelerator to TAP in October 2009. FlexEl's patent-pending technologies were developed by electrical and computer engineering professors Martin Peckerar and Neil Goldsman, as well as research associate and alumnus Zeynep Dilli.
- Omnispeech LLC is developing speech extraction technology for cellular and other communications. Omnispeech's technology solves a major problem—background noise in cell phone conversations—with cost-effective software, while current solutions require bulky, cost-intensive hardware. The company won the high tech category in the 2010 UM $75K Business Plan Competition and is currently in the VentureAccelerator program. The company was founded by Carol Espy-Wilson, a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering.
- Remedium Technologies Inc. develops hemostatic (blood-clotting) technologies that use patent-pending nano-hooks to stop severe bleeding much more effectively and safely than existing products. Remedium won second place in the faculty and graduate student category in the 2007 UM $50K Business Plan Competition and is currently in the VentureAccelerator program. The company's technology was invented by doctoral candidates Matthew Dowling and Peter Thomas, as well as associate professor Srinivasa Raghavan, all in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering.
- Resensys LLC develops self-powered, energy-harvesting, wireless, distributed sensors for monitoring structures such as bridges, buildings, and pipelines. The company's patent-pending technology, invented by electrical and computer engineering assistant research scientist and alumnus Mehdi Kalantari, will detect strain, deformation, and cracks forming in structures, and provide early warnings when problems arise. Resensys' sensors attach to existing structures. Resensys won the high tech category in the 2008 UM $50K Business Plan Competition and graduated from VentureAccelerator to TAP in March 2010.
Since 2008, TAP has had 10 finalists and four winners of the prestigious Maryland Incubator Company of the Year awards. Historically, previous TAP winners include: Martek Biosciences, Digene Corporation, DataStream Content Solutions, Lurn, TRX Systems, Zymetis, and AccuStrata.
Sponsored by The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), RSM McGladrey, Maryland Department of Business & Economic Development (Maryland DBED), and Saul Ewing LLP, the Maryland Incubator Company of the Year awards are chosen in several categories by a selection committee of regional industry leaders and early-stage investors. Award recipients benefit from publicity and gain greater credibility in the business, technology, and investment communities.
Selection criteria for a winning company includes: success in achieving its objectives, its technology or product development; growth in revenue or earnings; number of customers and significant customers; technology transfer; attraction of outside investors; and impact on the region. Award recipients were chosen based on their nomination form, onsite visits, and interviews with references.
Awards will be made in various categories. Previous years' categories included Life Science Company of the Year, Information Technology Company of the Year, Technology Service Company of the Year, Homeland Security Company of the Year, New Incubator Company of the Year, Technology Transfer Company of the Year, and Graduate Company of the Year.
About the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) (www.mtech.umd.edu)
The mission of the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) is tri-fold: educate the next generation of technology entrepreneurs; help entrepreneurs create successful technology-based ventures; and connect Maryland companies with university resources to help them succeed. Founded in 1983, Mtech has had a $22.5 billion cumulative impact on the Maryland economy through its programs. Mtech is a unit of the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland. For more information about the Technology Advancement Program (TAP) incubator, the VentureAccelerator Program, the University of Maryland $75K Business Plan Competition, Entrepreneur Office Hours, and Faculty Venture Fairs, visit www.mtech.umd.edu.
SOURCE University of Maryland, College Park


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Image Comics will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2022. That's right, it's been nearly 30 years since the bastion of creator-owned comics was launched by seven prominent Marvel Comics creators who had a vision to work for themselves, and own their own comic book creations. So just what is planned?
While the full breadth of the plans are being held back to a later date, Newsarama has confirmed two projects - and the hint of some long out-of-print comics possibly coming back.
Although the actual 30th anniversary of Image Comics won't be until April 2022 (the month Youngblood #1 debuted), co-founder/vice president Jim Valentino is working on a book, The Official Image Comics Timeline, to be published in February 2022.
Valentino has also talked about reviving his Shadowhawk series in 2022, but the specifics haven't been given.
This also brings up the availability - or lack thereof - of the first wave of Image Comics from the founders. While the first issues of Spawn, Savage Dragon, and even Wildc.a.t.s. and Wetworks (thanks to DC) have been made relatively available in print collections and/or digital editions, other Image Comics' launch titles such as Youngblood #1, Shadowhawk #1, and Cyber Force #1 are only available in back issue bins.
That's before mentioning other early Image Comics from the '90s.
We brought this up to Stephenson, who broke into comics as an assistant to Valentino back in the early '90s, about the potential for those early Image Comics becoming available again - and without going into specifics, says that some is underway.
"Some of that stuff is in the works, but if a creator is no longer associated with Image, we don't manage their back catalog," Stephenson tells Newsarama. "We don't own that stuff, the creators do, and if you look at something like…. Keith Giffen's Trencher, well, yeah, it would be cool to have a trade paperback of that stuff and it would be cool if it was available digitally, but that's Keith's call, not ours."
Boom! Studios collected the first four issues of Trencher back in 2005, but that volume is out of print and not available digitally.
As Newsarama has learned, the ability for some older comic books to be reprinted - digitally or even for a print re-release - is stymied by the simple fact that in some cases, the original art, the files, and/or the film for those original printings are no longer available. In those cases, scanning and restoring the comic from the actual comic books is the only realistic method - a time-consuming and expensive process.
But that being said, Stephenson tells Newsarama that keeping classic comics available for future generations (and those of us who want to buy it in another format) is on his mind.
"Yeah, I think that's important," he says. "As we head toward our 30th anniversary next year, it's something that has come up, and hopefully, we'll get to a point where all of that material is available in some format."
And remember, a celebration of 30 years of Image Comics wouldn't just be the domain of the characters from 30 years ago - but also the potential return of the greatest from those thirty years. We already know The Walking Dead is returning with new comics in Tillie Walden's Clementine series, and the return of Bryan K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples' Saga is still on the horizon - after originally debuting back on Image's 20th anniversary.
If that's not enough, Image Comics & Skybound Entertainment are also looking into a possible comic convention on a cruise ship in 2022.


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Donate to help Black entrepreneurs and help us reach our goal of empowering 100,000 Black entrepreneurs with free access to the knowledge, tools and support they need.
While we undertake the essential task of reworking our justice system, we can unlock the talents of every black man and woman and impact their economic justice. Entrepreneurial skills are no longer a “nice to have,” they are now key skills to help individuals realize their potential. As Professor Darrick Hamilton, founding director of the Institute for the Study of Race, Stratification, and Political Economy at The New School, said in a national town hall on equality in America:
“We need to stop exploiting, extracting and managing economically vulnerable people, but rather give them the resources so they can be self-determining and achieve the goals they define for themselves and be empowered.”
More than ever, Black businesses need our help as nearly 50 percent are destined to close as a result of COVID-19 and many Black Americans are becoming entrepreneurs as a matter of necessity. We can’t change social justice overnight, but with your help we can have an impact on Black economic justice by empowering current and aspiring Black entrepreneurs today.
The Lonely Entrepreneur (501c3) – through our Black Entrepreneur Initiative – enables our partners to empower current and aspiring black entrepreneurs with the knowledge, tools and support they need to start or grow a business. We do this by providing our platform – called The Lonely Entrepreneur Learning Community – free to Black entrepreneurs through sponsorships and support of corporate and philanthropic partners.


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'Out today!'Despite a showy launch set for later today, a new generation of tablet PCs is not likely to make much of a mark in the mainstream notebook market, according to a pair of studies. A report issued on Wednesday by Gartner Dataquest predicts the machines, based on a new version of Microsoft's Windows XP operating system, will account for just 1 per cent of worldwide notebook shipments in 2003, for a total of about 425,000 tablet PCs. Although they may find wider adoption in the niche markets that are currently using pen-based tablets, "only the bravest" will be using tablet PCs widely by the end of 2003, Gartner Dataquest VP Leslie Fiering said in a release. Market researcher IDC also predicts tablet PCs will get off to a relatively slow start, selling about 575,000 units in the United States in 2003 and about 1 million units in 2004. The total US notebook market will be about 13 million units in 2003, IDC predicts, about 8 per cent of which will be ultraportables. Acer, Fujitsu, HP and Toshiba are among the companies that will offer the systems. The tablet PCs run on Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, designed by Microsoft to handle pen input. The new tablets will come in two basic models: laptops with screens that can be folded around to make a tablet, and pure tablets, which look more like an Etch-a-Sketch toy. Most of the devices weigh between 3 and 4 pounds and cost $2,000 or more. "A lack of application support, clumsy hardware designs and a price premium will be barriers for most users," Gartner VP Ken Dulaney said. Most companies that buy them will make purchases of one to 10 systems to test them out. Gartner is predicting customers will need a six- to nine-month evaluation period before making any volume purchases. At a Gartner symposium in France on Tuesday, Jean Phillipe Curtois, president Microsoft EMEA, conceded that addressing those challenges might take "some time". Later on Tuesday, Microsoft's director of marketing for the EMEA mobile devices group, Robbie Wright, argued that using a tablet PC in a business meeting is more socially acceptable than using a notebook. In a customer meeting, he said: "It is not really appropriate to pop out your laptop and start typing away - however, when you are writing notes, it looks like you are at least paying attention... So we think the tablet PC is a replacement or upgrade for a laptop that makes a lot of sense in terms of increasing productivity." Still, one of the foremost considerations for potential buyers will be price, analysts said.
"If pricing is kept low, compared to other ultraportables, then we'll see some unit shipments... mainly into the commercial market," said Alan Promisel, an analyst at IDC. Tablet PCs will likely go to people like high-level executives, who spend their days running between meetings, he said. Margaret Kane writes for CNET News.com. News.com's John G Spooner and ZDNet UK's Eugene Lacey also contributed to this report.


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Facebook's stock went up after the news of a record $ 5 billion FTC bot for various privacy violations broke today.
What, like New York Times Mike Isaac points out, is the real story here: the US government spent months penalizing Facebook's long list of privacy-related misconduct and the best it could doing was so weak that Facebook's share price went up.
From some other perspectives there are $ 5 billion fines, of course: it's the biggest fine in the FTC story, far greater than $ 22 billion of fines charged to Google in 2012. And $ 5 billion is a lot of money, for to be sure . It's just what everything else that comes into contact with Facebook's scale is still too small: Facebook had only $ 1
The largest FTC final in the history of the country basically represents a month with Facebook's revenues, and the company did such a good job of telegraphing it to investors that the stock price went up.
Here's another way of saying it: the biggest FTC finals in US history increased Mark Zuckerberg's net worth.
What lesson would you learn from it? Want someone?
"breaks the law once and breaks it again after you are under a mammoth scale consent order, then breaks so many times that we all lose track of what's happening and you get a relatively modest and get to continue breaking things "- FTC to SV today.
– Lindsey Barrett (@LAM_Barrett) July 12, 2019
There are other elements of the settlement, such as Tony Romm at Washington Post has reported: Facebook must document how it plans to use data before launching new products and performing as Zuckerberg must promise that the company has protected the user's privacy, but none of these conditions prevent Facebook from collecting and sharing data, and will probably not affect Facebook's insanely lucrative advertising activity, which relies on the data.
And as Peter Kafka notes, the cost of regulatory compliance is also not deterrent: Facebook pays fines, eats diets the bottom line for a few lawyers and PR people to ensure compliance with this new order, and continue with the business of, uh, issuing a new worldwide currency while revealing underpaid contractors to cruel videos of people being murdered for $ 15 an hour .
FTC just gave Facebook a Christmas gift five months early.
– David Cicilline (@davidcicilline) July 12, 2019
Members of Congress are already opposed to this settlement – Rep. David Cicilline calls it a "Christmas present" while Senator Ron Wyden says The FTC has "failed bad" Senator Richard Blumenthal says that the decision is "inadequate" and "historic hole", and senator Mark Warner says "It's time for Congress to act."
Facebook made $ 5 billion per avits in just the first three months of last year. The company is too big to monitor, and this drop-in-the-bucket sanction confirms it. The FTC should break Facebook up, clean and simple. Enough is enough.
– Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) July 12, 2019
There will surely be many more declarations and strongly formulated condemnations of the FTC in the coming weeks, as the settlement goes through the Ministry of Justice's review and inevitable approval. But words are just words, really. In fact, if our government is to hold Facebook accountable for its ruthless and irresponsible behavior, it must make it, and in such a way that Mark Zuckerberg learns that actions have consequences.


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As Monty Python lampooned, the drive to conquer mountains, endure extreme weather and put yourself in the jaws of death may seem like madness to many people—which is why The North Face brand is marking its 50th anniversary with a global campaign called “Question Madness” that flips that notion on its head by celebrating athletes’ life-affirming stories.
When it opened its first store, on October 26th 1966 in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood, The Grateful Dead played the opening party (above) and a poster of Bob Dylan hung in the window (below). What a long, strange trip it has been since then.
Now, in advance of celebrating 50 years of pushing boundaries – equipping and inspiring in the pursuit of exploration — on Oct. 28th, the brand this week opened two new retail experiences: an Urban Explorations concept pop-up in San Francisco for its premium streetwear collection and a permanent flagship store on New York’s Fifth Avenue that offers an immersive brand experience.
“QUESTION MADNESS” CAMPAIGN
In honor of its 50th anniversary, the VF-owned brand on Friday unveiled its new global brand campaign, “Question Madness,” and announced the opening of its first ever New York flagship store, located on Fifth Avenue.
According to a press release, the campaign and flagship store are “the next evolution in The North Face’s rise as a global market leader from humble beginnings as a single storefront in San Francisco in 1966.”
Over those five decades, the brand is proud that its commitment to exploration – from the peaks of the Himalayas to the sidewalks of Manhattan – has remained unchanged, and continues to drive the brand’s work across retail, advertising and customer engagement.
Its mandate continues to be: “To inspire and enable athletes to push their limits – to seek new routes, new lines or new distances and to Never Stop Exploring.”
Against that backdrop, the brand’s #QuestionMadness campaign’s digital content series showcases emotional stories by athletes from throughout the brand’s history “finding joy and fulfillment along their own paths of exploration as they break perceptions, redefine success, and inspire others to do the same.” The campaign features raw emotion and breathtaking imagery captured from remote places around the world, with much of the footage shot by the athletes themselves while on expedition. The hero video’s soundtrack is the Cat Stevens tune, Miles From Nowhere.
“Question Madness” examines individual motives for exploration and the gratification that comes from pushing norms and boundaries. As a brand, The North Face is challenging how achievement is defined – and hoping to inspire consumers to do the same – while promoting the notion that exploration is about moving forward as individuals and as a society.
“This campaign comes at a time in our brand’s history when exploration – of all kinds – matters more than ever,” says Todd Spaletto, President, The North Face. “As a society, we are questioning traditions, systems and institutions. What was considered beyond the norm yesterday, even impossible, is commonplace today. We rally behind and celebrate those who have the courage to take on the unknown and define success in their own way.”
“We have the unique benefit of having these amazing athletes as part of our brand, and in addition to being amazing athletes, they’re really great storytellers who have done things that only a handful of people in the world have done,” says Tom Herbst, the company’s vice president of global marketing, to Fast Company.
“They are a really important part of our overall brand DNA. The North Face is a brand that is true to its core. It has real stories to tell, and not only do I think that’s important for today’s marketing world, it also builds a lot of belief in the product itself.”
Stacy Peralta, a legendary skateboarder, surfer and filmmaker, and Director of the campaign’s digital shorts, explains, “The fine line between progress and madness is something athletes cross and re-cross daily. I’ve spent time around athletes and in my opinion they’re really misunderstood. The rest of us assume it’s madness, but what they’re chasing isn’t a tangible reward – it’s greater than that. It’s about using every single fiber of your being to pull something off, and when you finally get there, it’s unbelievably liberating. When everything else is stripped away, and it’s just you and the moment – that’s the greatest feeling on earth.”
The “Question Madness” campaign will launch on Facebook and YouTube and be distributed globally throughout the fourth quarter in more than 16 markets including the United Kingdom, Germany, France, China, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand. It will appear on online media around the world, as well as via out-of-home executions.
“Question Madness” features The North Face athletes Xavier De La Rue, Emily Harrington, Alex Honnold, Angel Collinson and Renan Ozturk. To accompany the anthem, The North Face also created a handful of digital shorts featuring their stories.
— Gabriel Kinder (@gkinder) October 14, 2016
The #QuestionMadness athletes also participated in an event in New York this week that was co-hosted by its new flagship and the brand’s Upper West Side store on Broadway and its Soho store on Wooster Street — a partnership with The Lowline to celebrate its first anniversary and The North Face’s 50th and Fifth Avenue location opening. A panel featured athletes from the campaign’s digital short films.
Consumers are invited to share the stories of how they are pushing their own boundaries in the pursuit of exploration on social channels using #QuestionMadness. The poster and print campaign also highlights the opposite emotions that could be applied to each athlete, depending on how you view it: Crazy/Calculated, Cult/Community, Devoted/Obsessed, Fear/Free, Freaks/Family, Madness/Progress, Pain/Perspective, Pioneers/Freaks, Weirdo/Visionary.
NEW YORK CITY FLAGSHIP
In honor of the brand’s legacy, The North Face is celebrating its path forward by opening its first-ever New York flagship at 510 Fifth Avenue. The new store offers consumers an immersive brand experience including an interactive climbing wall, community seating and a Lot, Stock and Barrel custom embroidery service.
The store will also feature touches like a climbing wall; custom product available only at the Fifth Avenue location, including a limited edition Original Daypack collection; a collaboration with lifestyle brand, New Era; and, on-site product customization featuring vintage and new collectible patches in partnership with Lot, Stock and Barrel.
The New York City flagship arrives as The North Face earlier this year restructured its business around four specific consumer usage occasions, resulting in four new business units: Mountain Sports, the brand’s heritage approach featuring its most technical gear; Mountain Culture, an outdoor lifestyle focus; Mountain Athletics, its training category; and Urban Exploration, which aims at the outdoorsy city resident.
On the company’s second-quarter 2016 conference call, Steve Rendle, president and COO of VF Corp., said the four business units will give The North Face leverage to reach higher price points. He added, “What you’ll also see is real thoughtful line segmentation covering those key price points in those key categories for those channel partners that we do business with across the globe.”
Cue the arrival of the brand’s take on the great outdoors to the old Manufacturers Trust Company building on Fifth Avenue, a New York City landmark of modernist architecture.
As Chain Store Age notes, “Though the canyons outside the expansive windows on the second floor of store are formed by skyscrapers and not rock bluffs, North Face’s VP of direct-to-consumer retail Erik Searles finds the airy atmosphere a fitting backdrop for the high-end camping and climbing gear being merchandised there.”
“This is our biggest full-price brick-and-mortar store outside of Chicago and Anchorage, and it is meant to showcase the North Face brand. We expect people to walk into the store and experience how they will engage with North Face in the outdoors,” said Searles during a pre-opening tour.
To ensure the brand-authentic experience, most of the items in the store were created using the same high-quality materials The North Face products are designed with, down to the nylon and aluminum poles used to build the changing rooms. Architects collaborated with The North Face equipment team on the design to ensure consumers feel comfortable and inspired from the moment they walk in the door.
The flagship is a natural extension of the brand’s expansion into urban exploration. As of the 2010 US Census, 80 percent of the US population lives in an urban area. The next generation of explorers are likely to live, or grow up, in or near a densely populated urban environment and The North Face is committed to outfitting its consumers for any aspect of their daily journeys, whether protecting against elements in the city or prepping for adventures on the mountain.
Passersby on Fifth Avenue, where the new store has taken over from previous retail tenant Joe Fresh, are engaged before crossing the threshold by a sight that harkens back to the brand’s origins—tailors embroidering designs onto down coats. As Chain Store Age notes, “The first thing one sees in the front window when approaching the shop from the north are embroiderers on sewing machines weaving intricate designs into pricey down jackets.”
“We have 20 designs we’ve created that can be sewn into the garment without compromising its functionality. We want people to be able to customize the product, to go a little wild with it,” Searles told CSA. According to the report, “North Face will debut its new high-performance Summit Series at the store, and intends to use the high-street New York platform to debut other new products as they emerge.”
Friday marks a soft opening for the 20,000-sq.-ft. store, with a grand opening planned for Oct. 26, the official 50th anniversary. The location’s landmark status also posed a challenge, according to the publication.
“While the apparel, equipment and footwear leader is not allowed to make any changes to walls or floors at 510 Fifth because of its landmark status, it’s capitalizing on the situation to treat the space like a natural outdoor setting and use it to display its gear as it would in the wild.”
What’s more, “When finished, the second floor will feature a ‘base camp’ patterned after the kind set up by top climbers and a ‘campsite’ where visitors can relax with a cup of coffee and access Wi-Fi. Fitting rooms sit mid-floor and are constructed of pipe and the same fabric used in North Face tents. ‘You’ll come up the escalator and you’ll feel you’re in the outdoors,’ Searles said.”
SAN FRANCISCO “URBAN EXPLORATION” POP-UP CONCEPT STORE
The New York store opening follows a pop-up brand activation in San Francisco earlier this week. On Monday, also celebrating 50 years after its first store opening in the city’s North Beach neighborhood, The North Face opened a pop-up concept shop in San Francisco aimed at the city explorer.
Celebrating its premium streetwear collection, it’s come a long way since The Grateful Dead played at its opening party in North Beach, where a poster of Bob Dylan hung in the store window.
50 years later, a discreet storefront in the Jackson Square neighborhood is the first of its kind in the US, and will focus exclusively on the label’s premium streetwear range. A similar space is featured in The North Face New York Flagship store on Fifth Avenue.
Open for a limited time, the Urban Exploration shop will be devoted to protective gear suitable for the modern urbanite. New product will be regularly dropped in-store in the coming months, including collaborations and curated pieces from the brand’s Japanese and Hong Kong collections.
The shop will feature exclusive and limited edition product like the Original Daypacks and Soft Duffels reissue. In honor of the company’s 50-year tradition of making handcrafted outdoor gear, The North Face revived some of its first-ever packs that were sewn and sold at the company’s original location.
Made entirely in the US, The North Face worked with a third-generation factory in Chicago and the Horween Leather Co., one of the oldest tanneries in the nation. The throwback bags were crafted for durability down to the last detail and feature 17-ounce waxed cotton canvas, double reinforced panels, riveted stress points and premium leather trims. The collection (left to right, below) includes the ’78 Duffel – Large ($300), ’68 Daypack ($225) and ’78 Duffel – Small ($250). Available in limited quantities at the San Francisco shop, these reissues will be sold online and at the Fifth Avenue location.


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In which more competition and choice is somehow bad for consumers.
By Jared Newman, TechHiveAug 24, 2017 3:00 am PDT
TV and tech pundits have for years derided cord cutting with bogus arguments. They’ve claimed, for instance, that dropping cable TV won’t really save you money, that it will ruin quality television, and that it might even break the internet. These claims almost always ignore the evidence to the contrary, whether it’s the sky-high average cost of cable TV, the glut of prestige programming on streaming services, or steady advancements in online video technology.
Now the cord-cutting naysayers are trotting out a new argument in favor of cable, and it’s even more absurd than the old ones: Having too many high-quality, standalone streaming services, they say, is actually bad for consumers, who are apparently helpless at using technology or making sound purchase decisions.
Here’s Anurag Harsh at Huffington Post, describing the horror of having multiple, reasonably priced options for high-quality drama:
What is agonizing for consumers is the endless list of “must watch” TV shows, that are speckled across an incredibly fragmented marketplace. Whether it be Game of Thrones (HBO), House of Cards (Netflix), or The Man in the High Castle (Amazon Studios), the cost of juggling these services can quickly add up for a consumer.
What initially sounded like a great idea for consumers is now looking like a great deal for everyone but the viewer. The appeal of streaming or subscription video on demand (SVOD) services was the ability for consumers to only pay for what they watch. The reality, however, is having to manage multiple subscriptions to experience a degree of choice.
A similar story turned up at the Washington Post, where Hayley Tsukayama and Sintia Radu wax nostalgic for the days of limited choice and competition:
In the old days of video streaming—that is, not so long ago—consumers could cut the cable cord and subscribe to one or two services, enjoying a vast array of movies and television programming at a rate far less than the monster cable bill.
It’s not so simple anymore. …
[T]he move toward streaming—though consumers have been demanding it for years—is proving to be a more fragmented experience than many have anticipated. Entertainment companies are now running services with increasingly narrow offerings, looking to hit consumers up for more subscription revenue wherever possible.
Meanwhile, the New York Post’s Johnny Oleksinski concluded that all those sneering hipsters who’ve had the nerve to ditch cable are about to get their comeuppance—in the form of additional services to choose from:
Remember when streaming services were youthful and rebellious? Smug even? If you cut the cable cord and became a follower of the Church of Netflix, you were seen as practical and forward-thinking. You were saving money (spending just $8 instead of somewhere in the ballpark of $100), reducing space (no bulky cable box), and, oh, what impeccable TV taste you had.
“Oh, no, I don’t have cable anymore—just Netflix,” you’d brag and take another sip of Sancerre.
And, at first, you were right. Netflix was a killer deal: an inexpensive trove of TV shows, movies and burgeoning original content that made for a perfect couple hours of vegging out after work. Taken on its own, it still is.
But the same people who hate corporate oppression love prestige programming. And in the past three years, every major streaming service has added to its roster at least one must-watch show for the culturati.
By now, anyone who’s actually cut the cable cord should be screaming out in unison: No one’s making you subscribe to all these services! You can pick the ones you care about most, rotate between services, or occupy your screen time with a growing number of other digital distractions. This point is so well-worn that I won’t belabor it anymore.
Instead, I want to focus on a more insidious contention in these pieces, which is that more competition among streaming services equates to less value for consumers. Like all the other bogus claims we’ve seen about cord cutting, this one just isn’t backed by evidence.
Competition: Still a good thing
Our misguided pundits all point to Disney’s streaming plans as a major loss for Netflix, and an example of how streaming services will become worse whenever they lose a licensing deal.
For what it’s worth, Disney movies were never a Netflix fixture; they only arrived on the service about a year ago. But Netflix has weathered this kind of loss before, only to come out stronger. Starz pulled its films from Netflix in 2012, and Epix departed in 2015, but along the way, Netflix has been dumping more money into original TV shows, movies, documentaries, and standup specials. People have rewarded Netflix for those decisions, as the service now has more than 50 million subscribers in the U.S. alone.
The race to build better streaming services has also made Netflix’s competitors stronger. JPMorgan estimates that Amazon will spend $4.5 billion on video licensing this year, and Hulu has said that its own spending will be close behind. Both services will have better catalogs as a result, without the annual price hikes you get from cable.
But what about “fragmentation?” Isn’t it a problem that all these services are creating their own must-see TV? Not really, unless you believe a single company should have a monopoly on pop culture, or that older, licensed movies and shows are inherently more valuable than new creative works. If consumers actually felt that way, these services wouldn’t be drawing in ever-greater numbers of subscribers. (Also, doesn’t the ability to choose between these services represent the type of “a la carte” TV people have been wanting for years?)
Meanwhile, the pundits braying about streaming being “as bad as cable” seem to be suffering from selective memory loss. When you look back to cable’s heyday 15 years ago, scripted original series were almost exclusively the domain of major broadcast TV networks, while cable was a hotbed of low-cost, low-quality reality TV. Without competition—first from premium channels like HBO, then from streaming services like Netflix—basic cable channels had little incentive to spend heavily on prestige TV. And even after cable channels got around to making better shows, subscribers still had to deal with commercials and DVR. On-demand, ad-free streaming is a clear leap forward.
I will concede that if you want to use multiple streaming services, trying to sift through them all can be confusing. But even this concern is blown entirely out of proportion by naysaying pundits, who seem to ignore solutions that already exist. Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Apple TV all offer universal search across services like Netflix and Hulu, while features like Roku Feed and the Apple TV TV app demonstrate how system-wide browsing is getting easier. Besides, using a handful of apps to get what you want isn’t that burdensome—especially for the growing audience of people who’ve been raised on smartphones.
What’s behind these stories?
Whenever I call out these kinds of stories on Twitter, I get responses wondering whether there’s some kind of conspiracy at work, as if major media companies are forcing their publications to put out cord-cutting hit pieces. (I’ve seen some writers peddle this conspiracy theory as well.)
Instead, the best explanation is probably Hanlon’s razor. A writer who’s looking across the entire streaming business might get overwhelmed sorting it all out, which in turn germinates a story idea about how consumers will get confused. This in turn becomes a story based on preconceived notions, perhaps padded by a couple analysts and man-on-the-street interviewees willing to help make the argument.
Consumers, however, likely see things differently. They subscribe to one or two services—Netflix and Hulu, perhaps—and come to understand that they don’t need much more to satisfy their viewing needs. They may consider additional services on occasion, like HBO Now, or Amazon Prime, or whatever Disney comes up with in 2019, but they’re not trying to decipher the entire streaming landscape on a deadline. Instead, they’re enjoying what’s on TV and saving lots of money in the process.
Put another way, consumers are smarter than they’re getting credit for. That’s why cable subscriptions continue to plunge, even as these bogus stories keep popping up like clockwork.


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Perhaps you will soon be able to control the air conditioning, radio, seats, instrument cluster and much more in your car with your iPhone. This can supposedly soon be possible with AutoPlay Functions in cars. According to a report on Bloomberg, Apple is working on a new technology, codenamed IronHeart, that will allow you to use CarPlay in a number of ways other than just taking calls and playing music.
The technology is still evolving and, according to the report, IronHeart will require the involvement of automakers as well. The report further suggests that the technology could use Apple’s Smart Home Push with HomeKit, an API accessed by cars with support for sensor communication and control. Surprisingly, in iOS 15, the company removed several API functions from SiriKit that may have helped control several things in the vehicles.
With BMW being the only major automaker to date to support Apple CarKey, it’s likely that the tech giant will get limited support.
While the new technology may not be part of the long-rumored electric car strategy, it can enhance the company’s expertise in vehicle technology. If the reports are to be believed, IronHeart technology can adjust things like temperature, humidity levels, speakers, equalizers, tweeters, subwoofers, armrests, speedometers, tachometers, seats, armrests and a few others depending on the vehicle and the features offered.
Apple’s rival Google may be a step behind on technology like this, but it has already closed the void by partnering with many major automakers like Ford, Honda, GM, and Polestar to add Android Automotive as the base for their user interface . While Google may be lacking in the above features, it has recently added a lot of new features as well Android Auto.


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Photo of Trump SoHo via Trump Hotels
Trump SoHo, a $450 million, 46-story hotel condominium at 246 Spring Street, has suffered from a sharp decline in corporate event bookings and an increase in staff layoffs. Documents reviewed by WYNC show the once $700-per-night hotel now offers rooms for under $400 a night, less than most of the city’s five- and even four-star rated accommodations. Plus, managers plan on laying off 12 room attendants out of the hotel’s 80 total housekeeping staff and removing turn-down service. While last year the hotel booked 29 large corporate events between January and mid-May, this year just 11 events were booked, with fewer well-known names.
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Photo of Trump SoHo via Trump Hotels
With its value nearing $30 billion dollars, it’s hard to deny Airbnb’s influence and disruption in the American hotel industry. Since its founding in 2008, the short-term lodging company has serviced about 150 million travelers, in three million listings in more than 191 countries. And as the New York Times reported, the hotel industry has launched a plan to take action against the company’s growing market share. The plan includes a national campaign at the local, state and federal levels to counter Airbnb by lobbying politicians and attorneys general to reduce the number of Airbnb hosts and fund studies that show they do not collect hotel taxes and are not required to follow the same safety and security regulations that hotels must follow.
Update 4/4/2017: 6sqft has been informed that Kara Mann’s design will likely not move forward because of changes with the development team. We will provide additional updates as we receive them.
While there’s no shortage of hotels to visit in New York City, some are more worthy of the trip than others, and the restored Hotel Chelsea will certainly be one of them when it reopens in 2018. The renovation of this famous hotel—known since the 1960s as a haven for artists, writers, and musicians, housing famous tenants including Bob Dylan, Stanley Kubrick, Jasper Johns, Patty Smith, Dylan Thomas and Leonard Cohen—has been in the works since 2011, with lots of drama, ultimately finding some direction following a $250M purchase by Richard Born and Ira Drukier of BD Hotels and hotelier Sean MacPherson, last year. Following the sale, the new owners announced they would redevelop the property as a hotel and condos, departing from previous plans of simply converting the structure into a high-end hotel. Now, with its re-opening just around the corner, the first few images of the glamorous new interiors designed by Kara Mann have emerged.
Proposed rendering of the Park Avenue foyer, via Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
On March 1st, the Waldorf Astoria closed its doors to the public so that its new owners, Chinese insurer Anbang (who just today backed out of an even larger project to redevelop the Kushner Companies’ 666 Fifth Avenue) can undertake a two- to three-year renovation to convert 1,413 hotel rooms into 840 renovated hotel rooms and 321 condos, as well as spiff up the public spaces. This last part was worrisome at first, but earlier this month, these iconic Art Deco interiors were designated an official city landmark, meaning Anbang will need to preserve them and receive approvals for any work from the LPC. Wasting no time, they’ve now released plans for both the interior and exterior renovations and announced that architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) and renowned interior designer Pierre Yves Rochon (PYR) will “protect [the] beloved spaces and restore original features of the Waldorf not seen for decades.”
New York City expected tourism from foreigners to fall after President Trump’s chaotic announcement of his first executive order in January which banned travel from seven majority-Muslim countries because it was unclear which travelers would be allowed into the country. However, as reported by Crain’s, it’s not just money-spending travelers that have avoided the Big Apple; it’s student and youth groups that are canceling trips to the city.
This 1960s guesthouse in upstate New York was recently transformed into a charming boutique hotel by the Brooklyn-based design firm Studio Tack. The Scribner’s Catskill Lodge boasts a modern yet rustic aesthetic, highlighting both good design and the property’s expansive mountain views. The hotel is located close to Hunter Mountain’s popular ski slopes, which are all visible from inside the cozy hotel.
After raising an additional $1 billion in a financing round that began last summer, Airbnb, the short-term stay rental company, is now listed as the second most valuable private company in the United States, following Uber, the ride-hailing business, as the New York Times reported. Airbnb, based in San Francisco, has raised more than $3 billion and secured a $1 billion line of credit since the company was founded in 2008. It is now worth nearly $31 billion dollars.
The excitement was palpable yesterday evening as New Yorkers packed into the SVA Theatre for a special presentation on one of the city’s most important rehabilitation projects: the redevelopment of Eero Saarinen’s iconic TWA flight center into a hotel. Taking the stage were the development and architecture teams who divulged a slew of new details regarding the design, the hotel’s offer, and even the pricing of the rooms.
Now here’s an opportunity to own something really unique, if you’re willing to decamp New York City to run a historic hotel upstate. The Pleasant Beach Hotel, at 14477 Fancher Avenue in Fairhaven, has hit the market for $975,000. Less than $1 million will get you a nine-room hotel, as well as a bar, restaurant, private pier, and an attached owner’s apartment. With incredible views out toward Lake Ontario, this hotel has been in business since 1910… and is looking for its tenth owner to carry on the traditions of the charming waterfront getaway.
The 20-story, 300-room project at 185 Bowery was constructed in Poland and shipped to New York in 210 pieces. Owned by Dutch hotel developer/operator Citizen M with Brack Capital Real Estate, the high-rise hotel at 185 Bowery is more than half done, reports the Wall Street Journal. It will be the largest permanent modular hotel project ever in NYC. Modular construction is more common in Europe; the developer already has nine hotels up and running and 14 in the works. They’ve used the technique of stacking sealed, factory-made units containing finished hotel rooms on the majority of those projects.
The shovels were out at JFK’s TWA Flight Terminal yesterday, as MCR Development and JetBlue broke ground on their project to turn Eero Saarinen‘s mid-century modern masterpiece into the high-end, 505-room TWA Hotel. According to a press release, Governor Cuomo attended the festivities, noting that the conversion “will preserve this iconic landmark while cementing JFK’s status as a crown jewel of aviation.” The news also came with two renderings that show the two, six-story, crescent shaped hotel buildings that will rise on either side of the existing structure.
Back in March, 6sqft reported that a new hotel/rental tower at 500 Metropolitan Avenue had risen above ground, but there was still a bit ambiguity surroundings its final design. Now, just as the Williamsburg building has topped out, CityRealty uncovered the final renderings from KBA Architects. The firm created a 14-story, ziggurat-like structure that will slope down from the adjacent site of longtime local haunt Kellogg’s Diner and offer a slew of trendy amenities.
After sitting vacant at JFK Airport for 14 years as a vestige of jet-age architecture, Eero Saarinen‘s iconic 1962 TWA Flight Terminal received a new life in the summer of 2015 when it was announced that the neo-futurist structure would be reborn as a high-end hotel. MCR Development teamed up with JetBlue and the Port Authority to develop a “505-room LEED-certified hotel with restaurants, 40,000 square feet of meeting space and a 10,000-square-foot observation deck,” as 6sqft previously described. Initial reports referred to the project as the “TWA Flight Center Hotel,” but the Times now confirms that it’ll simply be the “TWA Hotel.” And with construction four months in, Curbed noticed that signage for the hotel has gone up, preserving the airline’s logo and font.
The final checkout for hotel guests at the iconic Waldorf Astoria is March 1st, after which its new owner, Chinese insurer Anbang Insurance Group, will begin converting the 1,413 hotel rooms into 840 renovated hotel rooms and 321 luxury condos to the tune of $1 billion. Earlier this month, the developer filed these plans with the Department of Buildings, which also call for adding retail space, a restaurant, and a fitness center on the ground floors. They’ll retain the historic ballrooms, exhibition space, dining rooms, and banquet rooms, but will still need approvals from the Landmarks Preservation Commission for any work on these public spaces; the building has long been an exterior landmark, but the LPC recently calendared a request to landmark the Art Deco interiors. Though no designs have been approved or confirmed, CityRealty dug up renderings from architectural visualization firm ArX Solutions that show their vision of space*.
No matter how clean the apartment or how swanky the hotel, bed bugs don’t discriminate, and many New Yorkers know it’s just a matter of time before they’ll have to deal with an infestation. With hotel outbreaks rising more than 44 percent between 2014 and 2015, a new bill set to be introduced by the City Council on Tuesday aims to cut down on hotel infestations by requiring exterminator inspections every six months.


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The National Democratic Alliance government has proposed to rationalize electricity tariff categories, simplify slabs and make them more competitive for businesses in a push to its Make in India drive.
The government seeks to do away with consumer categories such as commercial, domestic, agricultural, industrial and institutional, according to the draft amendments in the tariff policy, which is available on the power ministry’s website. Effectively, all consumer categories will have to pay the same tariff for the same volume of electricity consumed, if they have the same load and voltage.
“In order to have a simplified tariff structure across all discoms, the tariff structure should do away with the concept of having different tariff for usage by different categories of customers. The principle adopted is paying a price for use of electricity as a commodity which should not be different for different category of usage like in domestic/commercial/industrial etc but it should be based on load used and energy consumed,” stated the draft. Read more


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The Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA) announced that tickets are on sale for the 2015 APEX awards gala event that is taking place on the 20 July 2015 at the Sandton Convention Centre. The annual event attracts more than 400 captains of industry from the advertising and communications sector, commercial business, industry stakeholders, key stakeholders from Government and members of the media.
The gala event is hosted by the ACA and event key partners SABC and the Sandton Convention Centre together with sponsors Millward Brown and Unilever and it is more than just an awards ceremony or networking event. Funds raised from the APEX awards fund much needed bursaries. Deserving students from the industry’s trade school – the AAA School of Advertising are awarded bursaries to assist in funding their tertiary education. The bursary recipients are selected against stringent criteria. Without the APEX bursaries, these students may not be in a position to pay for their tertiary studies or obtain a tertiary qualification.
The event is a celebration of talent, the communications campaigns’ success and the contribution of advertising and communications to business success. It is a showcase of work that works hard to deliver tangible and measured results.
Tickets for the APEX gala event can be booked online via www.acasa.co.za/apex.aspx
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Seniors switching on to Noosa's digital way of living
IN NOOSA, the age of the geek grans and gramps could well be at hand thanks to a $14,775 grant to council.
For the fifth year running, Noosa Library Service has secured funding from the Tech Savvy Seniors program to overcome any techno-phobia.
"If the only tablet you're familiar with is one you take with water, and you think browsing is something done only at the shops, you're not alone,” library literacy and learning co-ordinator Tracey King said.
"But Noosa Library Service can help you learn the basics with a wide range of free workshops on offer.
"Many seniors have embraced new technologies, but some are still overwhelmed or intimidated by the thought of getting online.
"We make the learning process easier by providing this free guidance in a friendly environment.”
Seniors learn how to use a tablet device, navigate social media, shop online and access government services.
"This year we've introduced a new suite of workshops teaching seniors how to design a 3D object and how to print it out on the 3D printer,” she said.
Beginning in February, the program aims to assist seniors to avoid internet scams and the pitfalls of online fraud when conducting business, shopping and banking.
The Tech Savvy Seniors Queensland Program - a partnership between the Queensland Government and Telstra with support from the State Library of Queensland and the Department of Communities - provides training at selected public libraries across Queensland to encourage more seniors to embrace information technology.
For more information, phone 53296555.


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Hundreds of Swiss queued at midnight to be among the first to purchase the new version of the iPhone, which Apple and its telecoms partners launched worldwide on Friday.
Around 600 people lined up for hours at a Swisscom shop in Zurich which opened its doors at one minute past 12 o'clock on Friday to become the first to sell the iPhone 3G in Switzerland.
There were complaints from consumers on Friday morning that some of the Swisscom and Orange shops were already sold out.
A Swisscom spokesman said the launch was "very successful", and confirmed that some of the company's shops may not have had sufficient supplies to meet demand.
By mid-afternoon, both companies said their entire stocks were gone.
Analysts expect the new iPhone to draw as many as 10.5 million buyers worldwide this year, and with six million of the older devices already in use, help Apple beat its target of selling ten million devices by the end of 2008.
The latest version of the phone has faster web links than the first, supports third-party software like games and instant messaging and is heavily subsidised by many phone carriers, some of which are giving it away to lure new users.
Industry experts say the iPhone's email capability squarely targets Research in Motion's Blackberry, popular with business people.
Last year, the Swiss spent SF60 ($58) per month on mobile phone services, or up to SFr38 more than people elsewhere in Europe.
While per-minute rates had decreased both in Switzerland and in the European Union between October 2005 and October 2007, the Swiss continued to pay 33 per cent more.
In compliance with the JTI standards


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Sony has apparently dusted itself off and is ready to take another crack at Apple's iTunes.
Sony has plans to launch a music and video subscription service, according to a report in The Financial Times. The Japanese conglomerate is expected to announce the service Wednesday at a technology show in Berlin, just ahead of Apple's media event in San Francisco.
According to the FT, "Sony would use its [Web-connected] PlayStation games consoles as the starting point for a new service that users will be able to use across a range of other Internet-connected devices. That could include Walkman music players, Vaio computers, Bravia TVs, Blu-ray players and Sony Ericsson mobile phones."
The service won't actually be ready to launch until next year, according to the paper. (Could it be that Sony wanted to piggyback on Apple's media event or at least muddy the waters?)
One can only hope that this effort is better conceived than Sony's last attempt to challenge iTunes, with the ill-fated Sony Connect.
Launched in 2004, Sony Connect was racked with software malfunctions and hobbled by the lack of consumer interest in Sony's digital music players. At the time, the iPod was running away with the market.
Analysts blamed Connect's problems in part on the different goals of different divisions, such as the desire of the content creators to protect their music and movies from piracy vs. the stake the electronics division had in technologies such as the MiniDisc and the Memory Stick.
Sonytwo years ago.
All the latest Apple news, featuring developments on the iPhone, iPad, Macbooks, OS X and much more.
Apr 24This is not the iPhone 8. But if it is, we are down
Apr 24Sling TV cloud DVR hits Apple TV
Apr 24Paris says bienvenue to Apple Maps transit mode
Apr 23Tim Cook reportedly threatened to pull Uber from App Store


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Blog: Promising outlook for holiday months
Leonie Barrie | 22 October 2012
More figures released last week show retailers on both sides of the Atlantic benefited from strong demand for clothing and footwear in September.
Over in the US, Commerce Department data sets a promising outlook for the critical holiday months ahead, with higher spending on clothing and back-to-school merchandise helping to lift US retail sales by 1.1% during the month - a rise of 5.4% year-on-year.
Retail sales in the UK were up 2.5% by volume and 3.2% by value in September, with the year-on-year increase driven by a recovery in clothing, textiles and footwear.
Fashion retail giant Gap has unveiled a new global structure designed to reflect the company's increasingly international footprint and to drive long-term growth. The firm is bringing together its North American, International, Online, Outlet and Franchise divisions under a single global executive for each brand from the start of fiscal 2013 - with a number of new roles for its management team.
The Mexican government has launched an attack at the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Chinese industrial policy regarding the textile and clothing sector - claiming almost all Beijing's support for the industry is illegal. Mexico City has requested formal consultations with China, which is the first stage of an official disputes case. But trade groups in other countries differ in their response to the Mexican initiative.
The threat of new risks to production in previously stable garment-making environments is the focus of this month's Flanarant on just-style. Labour disruptions, inflation, political unrest, mass illness, safety infractions are among the a raft of problems seen as more important than searching for new sourcing hot-spots.
And the Chinese government's policy of supporting the country's cotton growers with minimum pricing is making its mills increasingly uncompetitive, according to industry organisation Cotton Inc. However, the policy could be a boon to other producing countries, with India and Pakistan benefiting from record Chinese imports of cotton and yarn in July and August.
Meanwhile, the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) said recent pricing trends - up in China and down internationally -could be an indication of price directions for the months ahead.
Do you have strong opinions, insight and expertise in a particular area of the textiles and apparel industry?...
As if political tensions and strikes for higher wages by garment workers have not already caused enough disruption in Cambodia, new research has suggested they will continue to weigh on the country's ...
We're heading off for an Easter break here in the UK, which means there will be no site updates or email newsletters on Friday (18 April) or Monday (21 April)....
Beleaguered US department store retailer JC Penney is at last getting something right as it continues to try to turn around its business: its commitment to saving energy and fighting climate change....
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- Bangladesh industry development moving backwards
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- Gap issues mirror widespread industry challenges
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- Jeans in Italy


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NEW YORK - Rockin’ Refuel, a Shamrock Farms product, has signed on to become the “Preferred Protein Drink of the Columbia Lions”, Barry Neuberger, Associate Athletics Director for Sports Marketing, announced today. The 2012-13 agreement will include prominent visibility at Columbia University Athletics events at both the Baker Athletics Complex and the Dodge Fitness Center.
“We welcome Rockin’ Refuel to our growing lineup of corporate sponsors," said Neuberger. “In working with our strength and conditioning coaches, we identified Rockin’ Refuel as the favorite drink of many of our teams so it was a natural progression to build this sponsorship for them. We look forward to assisting our friends at Shamrock Farms in promoting this NCAA-compliant product to our audience.”
“We are very excited about this partnership with Columbia Athletics”, said Blake Atkinson, Brand Manager for Shamrock Farms. “The Lions’ student-athletes are already using Rockin’ Refuel as their preferred protein drink and this will allow us to bring the product to Columbia’s student population, alumni and fans throughout the Metropolitan New York area.”
Rockin’ Refuel is available at all GNC stores and a number of supermarkets throughout the area. More information can be found at http://www.rockinrefuel.com.


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Protecting IP rights has become a daunting task for pharmaceutical companies in recent years. WIPR spoke to Jörg Thomaier, chief IP counsel at Bayer, about the state of protection in emerging jurisdictions and the challenges the global company faces in asserting its IP.
In March 2012, global pharmaceutical company Bayer was dealt a blow which would mark a significant turning point for the entire industry.
In India, the Controller of Patents issued the country’s first ever compulsory licence, forcing Bayer to license its patented cancer drug Nexavar (sorafenib) to Natco, a local generics company, which could then sell the drug at a cheaper price.
The controller said that Bayer, which celebrated its 150th anniversary in August, had not made Nexavar publicly available at a reasonably affordable price or sufficiently “worked the patent in India”.
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Bayer, IP, Patents, trademarks, Nexavar, compulsory licence,


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STAFF at a Great Eccleston website company are definitely clicking with their customers – the firm has been voted into the finals of a prestigious national business competition.
Supplement Solutions heard this week that it is on the shortlist for the 2012 British Equestrian Trade Association Business Awards.
Now the company’s owner, Hannah Wild, must wait until later in February to see whether she and her team have taken the overall accolade in the contest.
If they do, it will be the second year in succession that they have gained the top spot in the award’s mail order and internet company category.
Hannah and her team specialise in providing nutritional and health supplements to horse owners via a website which features over 5,000 different products.
At the end of last year, Hannah’s company relocated to Great Eccleston from nearby Scorton, moving into premises near the centre of the village which are 10 times bigger than its previous base.
Hannah started her business from a laptop in her home seven years ago and currently employs four people, all of whom are as enthusiastic about horses as Hannah, who is a keen rider and teacher.
Although the nominations of customers took the business into the finals of the BETA awards, the judges will now be asking suppliers and other contacts for their candid views of Hannah’s business.
They will also carry out “secret shopper” tests on her website –www.supplementsolutions.co.uk
BETA say there were over 4,000 nominations for the competition and the winners will be announced at a glittering awards ceremony in February at the National Motorcycle Museum,Birmingham.
“The best part of getting this far is that it’s our customers who have voted Supplement Solutions into the finals, based entirely on their experiences in dealing with us,” said Hannah.
“Although we rely on the web for selling products, we’ve maintained a highly personal side to the business and are always keen to chat and offer advice. As we are just as big horse lovers as our customers, it’s a perfect mix of business and pleasure!” said Hannah who was brought up in North Lancashire.