text:
Online marketplaces are crying foul and claiming big box retailers are attempting to cripple competition from the Internet through legislation aimed at curbing the sale of online fenced goods. Brick-and-mortar retailers counter they routinely find hot goods for sale on sites like eBay and Overstock.com.
Increasingly, big box retailers claim, the goods showing up online are part of efforts by organized retail crime groups to expand their black markets beyond pawnshops, flea markets, garage sales and classified advertising. “Clearly, these [online] products have been either stolen or fraudulently obtained,” the Coalition Against Organized Retail Crime told the House Judiciary Committee last year.
To counter the threat of fenced goods, retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target, Safeway, Best Buy and Walgreens are pushing Congress to approve legislation that would effectively allow the retailers to skip the police and simply issue take-down notices to sites such as eBay.
The legislation, which is a package of three bills (H.R. 6713, 6491 and 3434) that will be debated at a Sept. 22 hearing of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, would also require online sellers who gross more than $12,000 a year to keep detailed records on those they do business with.
“Granted, most sellers utilizing Internet auction sites are honest individuals who are not trafficking in stolen or fraudulently obtained goods, but a significant number of sellers are clearly not reputable,” maintains the Coalition Against Organized Retail Crime. “If just a very small percentage of sales from Internet auction sites involve stolen or fraudulently obtained merchandise, that’s thousands of illicit transactions each and every day of the year, which illustrates the magnitude of this problem.”
Blaming the online marketplace for brick-and-mortar businesses that can’t control their inventories is “like blaming the back seat of cars for causing teenage sex,” said Steve DelBianco, executive director of NetChoice, a coalition of consumers, e-commerce merchants and trade associations.
“All this blame-shifting has only one objective: taking law enforcement out of the loop,” said DelBianco. “These bills would impose extraordinary and discriminatory restrictions on Internet marketplaces that help millions of people to legitimately buy and sell products every day at big discounts.”
Currently, brick-and-mortar merchants must file a police report about suspected hot goods and law enforcement agencies do the follow-up. The proposed legislation would make it a crime if an online marketplace doesn’t pull listings when a competing retailer claims it has evidence of theft. The bills would also require online merchants to conduct investigations if a brick-and-mortar merchant provides a police report dated any time within the past 12 months claiming theft.
The legislation would also target the “high-volume” sellers of online goods by requiring them to keep detailed records about where they obtained the goods. The proposed laws define a high-volume seller as anyone who in the past 12 months has made or offered to make transactions aggregating at least $12,000.
“These bills are blatantly discriminatory against online business models,” said Catherine England, a spokesperson for eBay, noting the legislation would not apply to flea markets, classified advertising or pawnshops. “Selling stolen goods anywhere, online or on the street corner, is already illegal so the point of the proposed legislation is more about limiting competition.”
As for the reporting requirements for high-volume sellers, England said a recent eBay survey of its members showed 750,000 people who are “making all or a significant portion” of their income through online selling.
“Small, independent sellers do compete with large retailers and they do put pricing pressure on them,” she said. “They should be subject to harassment for doing that. In our view, organized retail crime can only thrive only to the extent they’re allowed to walk out the front door.”


text:
Cointelegraph By Jordan Finneseth
The popularity and sale of NFTs have exploded over the past few months as many artists and collectors have been consistently selling entire NFT collections for millions of dollars.
One platform that has emerged as a fan favorite is Axie Infinity (AXS), a blockchain-based trading and battling game inspired by games like Pokémon and Tamagotchi. In the game, players collect, breed, raise, battle and trade token-based creatures known as Axies.
In the past two months, the market cap for AXS has increased 600% from $19.25 million to its current value of $115 million as users rush to the platform for a chance to win a rare and valuable Axie.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that the price of AXS has surged 74% over the past 24-hours, going from $1.78 on March 3 to a new all-time high of $3.10 on March 4 on the back of a 1,000% surge in the 24-hour trading volume.
While AXS has been in an uptrend for months, the altcoin really started to gain momentum at the beginning of February following the launch of Ronin, an Ethereum (ETH) network sidechain designed to help AXS users escape high transaction costs and network congestion on the Eethereum network.
Since Ronin’s launch on Feb. 1, the number of active users on the platform has skyrocketed as NFTs began to explode in popularity and mainstream news channels reported on record-setting sales for one-of-a-kind pieces of digital art.
Digital land in Lunancia, the player-controlled virtual realm of the Axie universe, is also attracting increased attention with one user recently spending a total of $1.5 million to purchase nine digital land plots.
Is this real life?!
9 Genesis plots. 888.25 ETH!
The. Largest. NFT. Sale. Ever
— Axie Infinity (@AxieInfinity) February 8, 2021
VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for AXS on March 3, prior to the recent price rise.
The VORTECS™ score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historic and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.
As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ score for AXS reached a high of 76 on March 3, just hours before the price began to rise from $1.84 to its new all-time high at $3.10.
Despite the recent pullbacks experienced in the wider cryptocurrency market, key on-chain metrics like Glassnode’s Reserve Risk indicator show that the Bitcoin rally is still in its early, suggesting that there is plenty of room for BTC to appreciate before it reaches the peaks seen in previous bull markets.
Continued strength for Bitcoin price is likely to translate into an increased interest in NFTs and as the nascent sector expands, projects like AXS could continue to rise in popularity.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
How to make hodling worthwhile, explained
Cointelegraph By Connor Sephton
Working with a licensed crypto company offers clients legal rights and helps ensure that they don’t run into regulatory trouble.
Financial regulators and international banking bodies around the world are cracking down harder and harder on crypto companies that do not follow regulations, and it’s not just securities law violations they’re looking for anymore. Most notably, any firm dealing with crypto could face serious consequences if it doesn’t have Know Your Customer and anti-money laundering standards in place.
One of the best ways to ensure that your cryptocurrency is in the hands of a company that won’t run into legal trouble is to choose one that is licensed by an internationally respected financial regulator. In addition, entrusting your crypto to a regulated entity can afford you some protections in the event that something goes wrong.
Holdnaut has been certified by the Singapore Fintech Association, an accreditation that in turn has been recognized by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Executives at the business are now seeking to become the first licensed and regulated entity within the crypto borrowing and lending space in Singapore.
The company has now been in operation for two years, and it has entered into a number of partnerships to enhance its offering further. A new collaboration with Jumio, which provides AI-powered, end-to-end identity verification and KYC solutions, ensures that Hodlnaut customers can quickly and easily get onboarded on the platform.
Hodling takes patience, nerves of steel, and discipline. Saving it safely can create a powerful incentive for staying on the rollercoaster.
Disclaimer. Cointelegraph does not endorse any content or product on this page. While we aim at providing you all important information that we could obtain, readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company and carry full responsibility for their decisions, nor this article can be considered as an investment advice.
DOGE out of control? Social media and whales sway Dogecoin price action
Cointelegraph By Anirudh Tiwari
Dogecoin (DOGE) has been the talk of the crypto town in the month of April. On the first day of the month, it was trading in its usual $0.05 range. On April Fools’ day, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted about the coin yet again. His tweet read, “SpaceX is going to put a literal Dogecoin on the literal moon” — SpaceX being the aerospace company that Musk also founded. Although the tweet was intended as a joke, it set the Shiba Inu-themed meme token on a rally like no other.
Within two hours, the price rose by more than 35% to a peak of $0.07 before cooling off temporarily but still holding on to its gains. The next spike in price came on April 14, with the value of a single token doubling within a single day to break the $0.10 mark. This led Musk to again turn his attention toward the coin, tweeting a picture of the famous painting by Spanish artist Joan Miró, saying “Doge barking at the moon.” This tweet, along with the rising social sentiment, pushed the price to a high of $0.45 on April 16.
Kristin Boggiano, president and co-founder of CrossTower — a digital assets exchange — gave several reasons behind the surge in a conversation with Cointelegraph: “First, Coinbase listing has generated interest and buzz about crypto in general. Second, the popular Reddit forum ‘r/Wallstreetbets’ changed their rules for a day to allow discussion of crypto, which included DOGE.”
The price surge took Dogecoin all the way up to ranking fifth in the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. The market cap also briefly passed the $50-billion mark, which is a high figure for a coin that was conceived as a joke. At the time of writing, it has now slid down to rank seventh among the top 10, with a market capitalization of $36.45 billion. The price is also currently in correction trading at $0.28.
Eric Berman, senior legal editor, U.S. finance at Thomson Reuters, commented to Cointelegraph regarding Dogecoin’s retail demand: “The sentiment seems to be: Bitcoin is for the wealthy, Ethereum for the middle class, and Dogecoin is for the people.”
Doge Day marks a historical moment
Dogecoin fans celebrated April 20 as Doge Day with a symbolic push of the coin’s price to $0.420. It also wasn’t lost on the community that 4/20 was also associated with the marijuana day. Even though it was just for a brief moment, the community did seemingly come together to push the price of DOGE to its all-time high.
The rise in retail interest in Dogecoin even led to a system outage in Robinhood’s trading app due to the overload of orders. To make the coin more accessible to retail investors, on April 21, Robinhood even reduced the minimum order size of DOGE from 10 to 1. This entails that investors can now stack DOGE one coin at a time.
Joshua Frank, co-founder and CEO of The TIE — a social media analytics platform for cryptocurrencies — revealed that the social media sentiment for Dogecoin still holds strong, telling Cointelegraph:
“Long-term sentiment for DOGE went outside the standard deviation and posted a record 139 sentiment score on Jan. 28, 2021, after Redditors from r/SatoshiStreetBets discussed making Dogecoin the cryptocurrency equivalent of GameStop. Sentiment still holds strong at 72, and tweets from Elon Musk about Dogecoin on April 14 have helped fuel the surge.”
Since Dogecoin was founded in 2013, it’s essentially one of the older coins in the cryptosphere. The listing of the token on exchanges like Binance and OKEx has strengthened its presence in the cryptocurrency community with better access to liquidity, thus creating more stable trading flows and interest in coin accumulation.
OKCoin announced on Doge Day that the exchange would be listing the token in the last week of April. Speaking further about DOGE, Jason Lau, chief operating officer of OKCoin, told Cointelegraph:
“DOGE is relatively well suited for payments. It’s extremely fast and efficient — transactions cost less than a cent. Though it has less nodes than others, it is secured by proof-of-work and has never had any security issues.”
DOGE is currently used as a payment method for merchandise of NBA franchise Dallas Mavericks, which is owned by renowned investor Mark Cuban. He pointed out on Twitter that merchandise sales have grown 550% since the club announced that it would be accepting payments in Dogecoin. He also stated that the sports team will not be selling any of its accumulated Dogecoin from the sales and will be hodling it for the long term.
However, the sustainability of this rise in adoption is yet to be seen. Lau further said: “It’s important to point out that the Dogecoin codebase has not had any update in years and is not actively maintained.”
Boggiano further said that for some traders, the fact that Dogecoin was created as a joke becomes a fun experiment to see if they can gamble against other traders and come out ahead, thus essentially being used as a competitive tool:
“It may also be the crypto community ‘reclaiming’ their story. For people in the crypto community, we know that DOGE was created as a joke. It was created to mock Bitcoin. However, it’s turning out that Bitcoin is a legitimate asset class. Therefore, this could be a means to redefine the dialogue and understanding of cryptocurrencies in general.”
Could this be yet another pump and dump?
Dogecoin has been an instrument for pump and dump schemes in the past, so could this instance be yet another example of such activity? DOGE is a hugely inflationary coin by design without a decided maximum supply, which entails that there are 5 billion new coins entering the circulating supply each year. Due to the high supply, there is always an endless downward pressure on the token.
On the possibilities of this being another instance of a pump-and-dump scenario, Frank further stated that the rally has been controlled by a single entity that has accumulated at least “$1.3 billion worth of Dogecoin and abused the futures market by baiting shorts into creating a negative funding cycle that led to a derivatives blowout in excess of $760 million of liquidations.”
According to Twitter user Lightcrypto, the player marked up the price of the token many times while feeding into the social media narrative surrounding the meme token. Apparently, the player liquidated their spot holdings, creating over $760 million worth of liquidations in the derivatives market. On the contrary, Berman opined further on the surge in interest:
“The Dogecoin phenomenon seems little bit reminiscent of the Reddit/GameStop conversation from a couple of weeks back. While its popularity could be attributable in part to the recent Coinbase IPO, most cryptos would be experiencing a similar bounce. […] People [who] may feel like they missed out on the upside of Bitcoin are thinking that perhaps this is their shot.”
Although the price of Dogecoin is currently in a decline in what could be seen as a market-wide correction, it’s becoming clear that the token has found a use beyond the meme-coin status and is now seeing real growth within the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
At its height, its market capitalization even went past long-existing multi-national companies such as Barclays and Ford. Speaking on the sustainability of the coin, Lau further stated: “I would not underestimate DOGE’s staying power. For many, it was the first crypto they owned or the first one they heard of. Plus, it’s one of the few tokens that have deeply penetrated beyond the crypto community.”
Poor infrastructure stops farmers taking advantage of blockchain
Cointelegraph By Samuel Haig
While the agricultural industry stands to reap enormous efficiency savings through the adoption of distributed ledger technologies, many farmers lack the digital infrastructure to support the integration of blockchain solutions.
Speaking as part of Australian Blockchain Week on April 21, Bridie Ohlsson, the CEO of digital agricultural infrastructure provider Geora, discussed the challenges associated with fostering DLT adoption within primary industries.
“In ag tech, it’s been a problem of not having enough infrastructure, not there not being a use case,” she said. “As long as we have farmers calling up and saying, ‘Hey, your product looks great, but I don’t have internet on-farm’, that’s an infrastructure problem. And so we definitely need to be investing more in simply access to technologies.”
“In 2016, when we started piloting some of the applications of blockchain for [agriculture], we were moving people off pen and paper, and our biggest competitor was Excel.”
Ohlsson also argued that agriculture has failed to realize the promise of blockchain technology as a force for democratization so far, with the majority of DLT pilots being executed by large corporate entities:
“Blockchain has been a world of multimillion dollar pilots for vertically integrated companies. It hasn’t held true to its promise necessarily of democratizing access to technology, and it’s been too technical and too expensive for 570 million farmers globally to access.”
However, Ohlsson believes this is now changing, asserting the technology can now be offered at an affordable price, “rather than starting with a huge pilot agreement, a whole lot of legals, and hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank.”
“I think that it’s shifting, and I think that puts us in a good position now to capitalize on what we haven’t been able to deliver previously,” she added.
With Australia losing billions annually to food and wine products fraudulently claiming Australian origin in the global markets, an increasing number of firms are trying to use blockchain to certify provenance and drive savings across the agricultural supply chain. BeefChain, AgChain and VeChain are just some of the providers offering solutions.
Last year, Mastercard, Visa, and AliPay were revealed to be involved in the newly launched APAC Provenance Council, which focused on supply chain tracing pilots in the Asia Pacific region.
In 2018, Australia’s National Transport Insurance announced a trial in partnership with BeefLedger to bolster the supply chain integrity of beef exports.
Market3 days ago
Stiegler: as BTC Skyrockets, So Go Miners
Ethereum3 days ago
PayPal-owned Venmo launches cryptocurrency trading
Regulations2 days ago
ICO fraudster pleads guilty to $7m Covid-relief loan scam
Cryptocurrency3 days ago
Paypal’s Venmo Launches Crypto Trading for 70 Million Users to Buy and Sell Cryptocurrencies – News Bitcoin News
DeFi3 days ago
Crowny Is Redefining Billion Dollar Ad Industry
DeFi16 hours ago
Ethereum Price Hits All-Time High Close to $2,600
Regulations2 days ago
Congress passes digital asset innovation act to clarify crypto regulations
DeFi3 days ago
Stiegler: as BTC Skyrockets, So Go Miners

domain: news


text:
Sign up for 2015 Sussex membership
Buy Now »
2015 tickets are now on sale.
Buy now »
See Sussex's 2015 fixtures
View Fixtures »
The Young Start-up Talent scheme was launched at The PROBIZ County Cricket Ground recently with over 30 local businesses present. There is a ..read more »
Sussex County Cricket Club are delighted to confirm that Scott Styris will be returning to The PROBIZ County Ground, Hove next season as an oversea..read more »


text:
NetCents Technology Inc. recorded great strides in the month of August. To start with, NetCents is one of the most reputable next-generation online payment processing platforms. To emphasize, the platform aims at deploying blockchain to exploit the global drift from traditional payment means to digital payment processors. Of course, August was a remarkable month for the platform, as it registered a lot of enviable successes.
By August 23rd, NetCents entered into a remarkable collaboration with a leading streaming video services company. With this merchant agreement, this streaming video company will avail itself of the NetCents Merchant Gateway to facilitate crypto payment for its subscription-based service, as well as for its advertising services. This is a landmark success story for the platform, as the latter company already boasts more than 120 million unique daily visitors scattered all across the globe. Its ad network alone rakes in more than 3 billion advertising impressions every day.
Achievements upon Achievements for NetCents
In most cases, many companies would rest on their oars, but not this one. As early as August 24th, the platform dazzled us again by announcing it was unleashing a branded cryptocurrency credit card into the European and Canadian markets. In light of this, this revolutionary NetCents Card will be adopted by more than 40 million merchants globally. Such adoption will be anywhere Mastercard and Visa are already in use.
However, this new card comes with the added benefit of being unique. Quite in an impressive contrast to existing credit cards, it won’t be mandatory for cardholders to pre-load cryptocurrency onto their card. This is because the card directly links to their NetCents wallet. Was that all for August? Certainly not!
Not Finished Yet
By the 28th of August, NetCents shocked us further by announcing its glorious entry into the video game industry. The platform was ambitiously exploring fusing cryptocurrency payments into gaming in the form of a payment processor. Hence, it will find use as an Asset Management System. In addition to this, NetCents will provide support for smart contracts, especially on the Ethereum blockchain. Thus, this will see the platform providing support for the ERC 721 as well as the ERC 20 tokens. Be that as it may be, you could already be yawning at the seemingly endless list of August achievements from NetCents. Too much success begins to bore right?
Back on August 16th, the platform pelted the market with five fresh coins. This massive induction of new coins into the NetCents ecosystem was a result of the Partner and Merchant requests which were to come. These five added coins included Horizon (HZ), Verge (XVG), NEM (XEM), TRON (TRX). and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).
Join our Telegram Group To Stay Up To Date With Crypto News


text:
Industry is changing. We imagine it bound up with the environmental concerns that look at the piles of plastic disposables, animal consumption and unsustainable production. For a long time, environment and industry have been at odds with one another. But some companies are looking to change this. They don’t see the two as inherently hostile to one another; rather, they are trying to approach industry with a new perspective.
King of Shaves has had it with single-use plastics. The leading independent men’s grooming company has made a company-wide pledge: plastic free by ‘23. To this end, they have established a new brand: Code Zero. Zero plastic, zero waste. Given that the cosmetics industry produces more than 120 billion units of packaging every year, and that nearly all of them end up in a landfill, this move is a massive step in the right direction – and King of Shaves is challenging the rest of the industry to follow suit.
The Code Zero range is designed with sustainability and the environment in mind. The range consists of products made from aluminium and cork and made to last a lifetime. Rather than discarding a shave stick after use, King of Shaves is planning to sell products which, when they’re finished, can be easily refilled. The refills will be sold in 100% recyclable and compostable packaging – maintaining ease of use and purchase but getting rid of the whole disposable part of industrial manufacture.
Their first product, the Code Zero Shave Stick, will be available exclusively (at a preferential price) via Indiegogo for early backers before being rolled out across retailers and online in the UK later this year. And as an illustrative example of King of Shaves’ new philosophy, this first product is expected to reduce plastic consumption by more than 15 tonnes every year.
This move is the first in a company-wide initiative by King of Shaves to go plastic free, without costing the consumer a premium in either cost or convenience. It’s part of a long-term strategy by the brand to move towards responsible consumption – and as an extra bonus, you won’t need to keep buying new products and piling up waste.
Topshop is moving in a different direction. They have introduced their first ever line of vegan shoes, released across selected stores in the UK, US, and Germany, as well as online. The range consists of six different styles, featuring a neutral palette of snakes, croc, nude, toffee, orange and black across 12 different options.
All of the (PETA-approved) shoes are made from 100% non-animal and non-fish materials – even the glue is completely vegan. Additionally, all of the different shoes will be packaged in boxes that are also 100% animal free – these are shoes made for the ethical consumer, who’s as interested in looking good as making sure what they wear is animal free.
Topshop is excitedly waiting to see how consumers will respond to their new direction – they want to see how far they ‘can push vegan products across our accessories offering’ and this new collection of shoes is a first step in an exciting new direction for the brand.
So if you’re looking for a more environmentally friendly and ethically conscious way to shop, King of Shaves and Topshop have opened two different doors. Whether it’s about cutting out animal products from your fashion statement or being less wasteful in your everyday grooming, industry is starting to move ever closer to the responsible consumption that our future demands.


text:
(Photo: Daniel Lobo/flickr/cc)
Jan 27, 2015
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced on Tuesday it has approved the $9.2 billion merger of Safeway Inc. and Albertsons, clearing the way for the creation of the country's third largest grocery retailer (behind Walmart and Kroger) and, according to critics, leaving consumers vulnerable at a time of poverty, low wages, and food insecurity.
The Commission green-lighted the merger after the companies agreed to sell 168 of their stores. FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez claimed in a statement that the sales alleviate any concerns that the merger will lead to higher prices. "This settlement will ensure that consumers in those communities continue to benefit from competition among their local supermarkets," she said.
But the divested stores represent just seven percent of the chains' combined 2,400 stores, and in the words of Wenonah Hauter, executive director for Food and Water Watch, amount to "a paltry number of grocery stores in a handful of cities." The deal, therefore, allows the supermarkets to maintain their "stranglehold on consumers," said Hauter, almost certainly leading to higher prices and lower quality.
Furthermore, Hauter continued, "The FTC did not require the chains to divest a single store in twenty metropolitan areas where the merger combined local rivals. In these markets, the four largest retailers will sell two-thirds of all groceries, and 12 million consumers will face higher prices and reduced choices.
"The FT approved a divestiture plan that is simply inadequate to protect consumers," concluded Hauter. "It largely permits supermarkets to tighten their stranglehold on consumers at a time of rising grocery prices and stagnant wages."
A USDA study published in September found that nearly 50 million people in the U.S. struggled with food insecurity in 2013.
It is not immediately clear how the merger, which both companies say they want to complete withing five business days, will impact the tens of thousands of unionized workers at both chains.
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.


text:
The new Food Guide developed by Health Canada, which is soon to be released has removed milk and milk products from the original primary food groups. The previous Food Guide recommended Canadians to consume four servings of milk and milk products every day. But, recent guidelines have drastically cut down on dairy products.
The new Food Guide has recommended only one pint of milk intake every day, which excludes delicious products such as cheese and yogurt. Canadians are instead encouraged to make up the daily protein intake through healthy alternative vegetable sources such as legumes and unsalted nuts. As for beverages, the new guide promotes drinking water instead of milk.
But, the move has raised concerns among the dairy farmers. The Dairy Farmers of Canada warned the removal of dairy from the food groups as the choice of the guide will actively advocate Canadians to opt plant-based protein sources over milk and its products.
Isabelle Neiderer, Dairy Farmers of Canada's (DFC's) Director of Nutrition and Research, and a registered dietitian said: "There is no scientific justification to minimize the role of milk products in a healthy diet as they are a key source of 6 of the 8 nutrients that most Canadians already fall short of." She also said that according to scientific evidence, consumption of 2 to 4 servings of milk products has a beneficial role in promoting bone health and preventing many chronic diseases such as hypertension, colorectal cancer, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. She also asked for Prime Minister Trudeau to direct the ministry of health to take into account the available scientific evidence before the release of the new Food Guide.
However, much scientific evidence claims that even for people who aren't lactose intolerant, dairy has adverse effects on digestion, increase congestion, causes fatigue and acne. Cutting down on milk and its products offers the remedy.
Milk is not the only one removed from the list. Also gone, the rainbow format of Food Guide we all know. Instead, a list of 28 items is provided in the guide that should or could be eaten daily for a healthy life. The amount of each food item needed is also not mentioned.


text:
Watch: Rachel Parent is a 15-year-old activist. Her goal: mandatory labelling in Canada of all genetically modified organisms, or GMOs that are found as ingredients in food. Allison Vuchnich has part one of a four-part series on GMOs and labelling.
UPDATE: Rachel Parent has met with Health Minister Rona Ambrose. Global News reporter Allison Vuchnich will have details of their meeting on Global National at 6:30 p.m. AT/ET and 5:30 p.m. MT/PT, on Thursday, Nov. 6.
Standing in the grocery store aisle surrounded by processed and packaged food, examining ingredients and scanning labels: this is shopping with Rachel Parent, and it is a thorough process.
“About 70 per cent of the (processed) food on all our grocery store shelves is genetically modified or has GMO ingredients in it,” Parent told Global News as she reached for a container of relish and examined its ingredient list.
So for instance, glucose fructose is a derivative from corn and it’s high-fructose corn syrup basically, so there really is a 90 per cent chance that it is GMO,” she said.
“Of course, I would never know unless it was labelled.”
- Won the lottery? What to do if you take home the Lotto 6/49 jackpot
- A record $68M Lotto 6/49 Gold Ball draw is guaranteed tonight. Here’s how it works
- ‘People are freezing’: Hotel-turned-homeless shelter with empty rooms under scrutiny
- Renewed calls to take down Nazi-linked Ukraine monuments in Edmonton
Parent is a 15-year-old activist. Her goal: mandatory labelling in Canada of all genetically modified organisms, or GMOs that are found as ingredients in food.
“This isn’t a matter of whether you want GMOs or not, this is a matter of freedom of choice and our right to know,” Parent contends, also noting more than 60 countries already have GMO labelling.
Her interest in GMOs started at the age of 10 at the breakfast table, when she was eating cereal. “My grandmother pointed out that it may have GMOs in it and I kind of brushed it off,” said Parent.
“The thought of GMOs really stayed in my head and a couple years later, having to do a speech for school, I wanted to do something that would really impact a lot of people and how they really lived their lives.”
After that speech, Parent dedicated her life to mandatory GMO labelling, even starting her own foundation, Kids Right to Know, when she was 12.
Despite her age, she has become the face for the GMO labelling battle in Canada. Polling shows close to 90 per cent of Canadians want mandatory labelling.
Parent attends rallies, delivers speeches and for a year has been trying to meet with Health Minister Rona Ambrose.
During her tenure as health minister, Ambrose has worked on making food labels less confusing and more relevant for Canadians. Despite Health Canada’s own information that shows Canadians want information about GMOs on labels, the government is not budging on mandatory labelling.
“Currently, there is no… scientific evidence, that says genetically modified foods are unhealthy,” Health Minister Rona Ambrose told Global News. “It is impossible for us to mandate a label, because our labels have to be based on evidence that it is an unhealthy product for Canadians.”
Andrew Casey, President and CEO of BIOTECanada, a national trade association, agreed, arguing the scientific research is vast and sound and GMOs are highly regulated.
“Once you put a warning label on it, you are immediately identifying it as a negative and there is a danger in that,” said Casey. “There is no evidence to say that these things are negative that they are going to harm you, why would you label them as such, it’s just not right.”
Opponents, including Parent, disagree and believe the scientific research government regulators rely on, is often funded by the same companies that benefit from the sale of GMOs, arguing there is science that proves GMOs do pose a health risk.
After being asked by Global News why she has not answered any of Parent’s correspondence or requests to meet, Health Minister Ambrose agreed to a meeting.
“I would be happy to meet with her,” Ambrose told Global News, adding there is no scientific evidence that GMO foods are unhealthy for Canadians.
Parent looks forward to meeting the health minister and already knows what she wants on the agenda.
“I want to ask her for GMO labelling, and ask her for independent testing, that way, until proven safe, we have our right to know.”
Global News is airing a four-part series on GMOs and labelling, and the food fight over consumers’ right to know what they are eating. Allison Vuchnich’s reports air on Global National Oct. 6 – Oct. 9.


text:
EchoSpeech: The Cutting-Edge AI Solution for Silent Speech Recognition
Enabled by acoustic sensing and powered by artificial intelligence (AI), Cornell University’s EchoSpeech interface is a breakthrough innovation in silent speech recognition.
For most people, eyeglasses are a way to see the world around them with clarity—however, Cornell’s researchers have developed a way to outfit traditional eyeglasses to communicate with other users by recognizing silent speech patterns.
EchoSpeech, powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and acoustic sensing technology can pick up on 31 distinct ‘unvocalized’ commands from the user by reading their lip and mouth movements.
The wearable interface works by utilizing a pair of miniature microphones and a set of speakers mounted on the glass frame of the spectacles to deliver and receive audio input. Enabled by this low-power acoustic sensing system, EchoSpeech glasses can recognize silent commands which can be executed through a smartphone.
The AI-powered interface relies on an AI-sonar system to transmit and receive sound waves, which are then deciphered by a deep learning algorithm to construe commands.
The silent speech recognition interface has been detailed in the paper “EchoSpeech: Continuous Silent Speech Recognition on Minimally-obtrusive Eyewear Powered by Acoustic Sensing”. According to the study, EchoSpeech is successful in identifying real-time commands with an accuracy of 95%.
“For people who cannot vocalize sound, this silent speech technology could be an excellent input for a voice synthesizer. It could give patients their voices back,” commented Ruidong Zhang, a doctoral student in Information Science at the university and the lead author of the paper.
The silent speech recognition technology solves the privacy concerns around using voice assistants in public spaces, which, according to the researchers, significantly affects user perceptions of voice-enabled technologies and their willingness to use them in their everyday lives.
The innovation may mark the first step towards wearable artificial intelligence tools that unobtrusively help a user perform functions on their smartphones without having to handle a mobile device—thus greatly enhancing user experience. Incidentally, this also takes accessibility and inclusivity in technology a step further by providing speech-impaired users with an alternative method to input commands and navigate through the digital age conveniently.
The future of wearable AI is shaping new human-computer interactions, with each innovation adding value to the world of technology.
What are your thoughts on wearable AI devices? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Subscribe to the Blog
Join for the latest tech, design and industry news straight to your inbox.
Our UX team designs customer experiences and digital products that your users will love.


text:
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Free DLC Revealed and Dated
Written Thursday, September 20, 2012 By Richard WalkerView author's profile
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is to get a bunch of free downloadable content starting next month, with the season of free add-ons set to include the six characters discovered last week. As well as offering up free fighters however, Namco Bandai will also be giving players new stages.
Commencing on October 9th, the free DLC includes Dr. Boskonovitch, Violet, Miharu, Sebastian, Slim Bob and the original Tekken Tag Tournament's boss, Unknown. Stages wil include Russia, Chile, Saudi Arabia and 'Magic Show'.
While the free DLC kicks off on October 9th, it's not known what exactly will arrive on that date and thereafter. However, the content will be apparently be released in several drops from the start date onwards. Free stuff! Hooray!
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is out now.


text:
Baxi’s new Safer Together campaign aims to keep its teams, gas engineers and their customers safe at all times.
It provides reassurance and support for Baxi’s sales and training teams, as well as gas engineers returning to work in customer’s homes, with detailed information packs, training centre signage, marketing communications and safety.
All Baxi training centres have new building signage to outline safe social distancing measures, and gas engineers who sign up for training will be emailed a safety video to watch before they attend.
The manufacturer has also produced a three-step safety guide for gas engineers working in their customer’s home. A homeowner version reassures customers and makes sure that they understand the process and the new ways of working.
Gas engineers who are registered to the Baxi Works loyalty scheme can use their points to order safety packs with hygiene essentials such as hand sanitiser, gloves, masks and wipes.
Sales director David Cooksays: “Safety in the workplace has always been our key priority, so it is important for us to make sure that this is always the case when working with Baxi. The entire industry has a responsibility to uphold and promote exemplary safety standards, in line with government guidance, and this is exactly what our Safer Together campaigns is all about.
“Above all, the safety of our customers and colleagues remains our top priority, and we are confident that the new campaign will provide the guidance and reassurance that we are doing everything we can to ensure safety throughout our business operations.”


text:
From the USA Today:
Wallet-watching travelers will be taking fewer trips, waiting longer to book them in hopes of a deal and downscaling vacations. Las Vegas will remain a big draw, and Mexico will be hotter than a chili pepper.
That’s the outlook for 2009, according to travel analysts and providers and a survey of 547 agents, managers and agency owners with Travel Leaders (formerly Carlson Wagonlit Travel Associates), out today.
Internationally, Caribbean cruises rule yet again, but dollar-stretching Mexico has five destinations in the top 10: Cancun, No. 2; Riviera Maya, No. 3; Puerto Vallarta, No. 4; Cabo San Lucas/Los Cabos, No. 9; and Mexican cruises (tied for No. 10). Additionally, some Caribbean cruises call at Mexican ports.“You’ve got so many” new resorts in Mexico, and there are some exceptional values, Loucks says. He also cites increased interest in China, Mediterranean cruising and European river cruises.
At Apple Vacations, famed for value getaways in the Caribbean and elsewhere, Mexico remains popular. Huatulco on the Pacific Coast is an up-and-coming destination, with lots of new hotel rooms, says Apple marketing vice president Sandy Babin.
Meanwhile, well-heeled travelers are “taking a step back” and downgrading, says Roland Largay, chairman of Southbury, Conn.-based Largay Travel, who recently was named agent of the year by Travel Agent magazine.
Other findings in the Travel Leaders 2009 trends survey:
•90.5% say customers are cutting back on travel compared with the same period last year.
•57.4% say clients are cutting back on the length of their trips.
•81.6% say clients are trading down when it comes to hotels.
•84.3% recommend Mexico as the best value outside the USA, followed by cruises (61.1%) and the Caribbean (43.9%). Agents were asked to pick up to three places.
•Despite the rise of the dollar against the euro and pound, 77% say bookings to Europe are even or down for 2009.
•71% say travelers are saving money by staying at all-inclusive resorts; 75.7% say vacationers are being more flexible with travel dates to get better prices.
2009 “is going to be a travelers’ market,” he predicts.


text:
Other platforms hosting posts from right-wing influencers, including CloutHub and MyMilitia – a forum for militia groups – recently updated their terms of service to ban threats of violence.
DLive has been pressured by Tipalti, a payment company that supports the operation. Tilpati said in a statement that it was ceasing to operate until DLive removed the accounts that broadcast the riots on Wednesday.
Those third party companies that support apps and websites, from payment processors to cybersecurity companies to web hosting providers like Amazon, have used their positions to influence how their customers deal with extremist or criminal activity. In 2019, Cloudflare, a company that protects websites from cyberattacks, delivered the death knell to 8chan, an anonymous online message board that hosted a mass shooter’s manifesto, by ceasing protection for the website. After Cloudflare pulled out of 8chan, the site made an effort to find other service providers who could keep them active.
Parler could face the same problem now as there was no way to host its website, especially as the company suddenly went pariah after Wednesday’s uprising, which was partly planned for Parler. Amazon had been under pressure from its own employees and at least one member of Congress before helping Parler, and other companies might fear unwanted attention if they went into business.
BuzzFeed News first reported on Amazon’s decision to end support for Parler.
If Parler is able to find a provider and resume service, it will still be difficult to find new users without a place in the major app stores. Apple’s decision prevents iPhone owners from downloading the Parler app. People who already have the app can still use it – once it’s back online – but their versions of the app will soon be out of date when Apple updates the iPhone software.
Google cut Parler out of its flagship Android app store, but it also allows apps to be downloaded from elsewhere, so Android users can still find the Parler app, just with a little more work. When Parler finds a new web hosting provider, their website will also be available through web browsers on phones and computers.
After Apple gave the company 24 hours to improve its moderation to avoid being removed from the App Store, Parler appeared to have attempted to remove some posts that appeared to be asking for violence.


text:
A commercial art gallery has announced plans to launch a new gallery and arts centre in Somerset offering exhibition, event and education programmes, supported by an artists’ residencies programme.
Hauser & Wirth, which represents artists such as Martin Creed and Ron Mueck, already has galleries in Zurich, London and New York. It plans to open the new site at Durslade Farm in Bruton in 2014, under associate director Alice Workman.
The centre will offer free admission to the public six days a week, with an estimated 40,000 visitors expected each year. The centre is expected to provide up to 30 new jobs.


text:
A dispute between rivals in the lucrative and highly competitive nutritional-supplement industry has given rise to allegations that a Fort Mill company is falsely marketing dangerous performance-enhancing drugs that have been banned by national and international sports agencies.
In a federal lawsuit, Total Fitness Warehouse has been accused by an Arizona company of claiming a larger share of the multibillion-dollar health-supplement market by engaging in unfair trade practices.
A Total Fitness spokesman said the company had no comment Thursday.
Nutritional Distribution LLC of Phoenix, which describes itself as a “cutting-edge sports supplement manufacturer and marketer,” says it has been damaged by the online marketing and sales of its Fort Mill rival.
The lawsuit claims that Total Fitness has targeted body builders and competitive athletes, advertising drugs as safe that actually pose serious risks to the liver, heart and other organs.
In particular, the lawsuit singles out the supplement “SUP3R-1 1-Andro DHEA,” which the Arizona company alleges contains a primary ingredient that metabolizes into the “dangerous and illegal” anabolic steroid 1-Testosterone.
The agent 1-DHEA helps deliver the testosterone to the body. But the lawsuit claims that because large amounts are often needed, the substance carries even more potential danger to consumers than the steroid.
Total Fitness, though, “markets the 1-DHEA product to body builders, gym users, fitness enthusiasts and athletes as containing clinically tested and safe performance enhancers, promising these consumers numerous purported physical benefits” without mentioning the risks, the suit claims.
According to the complaint, Total Fitness also sells synthetic drugs known as SARMs (Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators) that have similar effects – and risks – as steroids but are falsely advertised as a “dietary supplement.”
The stakes in the case are potentially huge. Almost 70 percent of Americans take health or dietary supplements. In an article cited in the complaint, Forbes estimates the supplement market will double in size, to $60 billion annually, within 10 years.
In its complaint, Nutritional Distribution claims to have developed a series of products to build body mass and improve athletic performance and recovery that are also safe. Yet it claims that it has lost market share to Total Fitness’ “continuing false, misleading, illegal and deceptive practices.”
The Phoenix company has called on the courts to stop Total Fitness from producing and marketing the targeted products and to award compensatory and punitive damages at a jury trial. It also wants all or part of its rival’s profits tied to the disputed acts and its “ill-gotten gains.”


text:
Stories tagged: Geocaching
Sat., Aug. 13, 2016, 2:28 p.m.
Connecting with kids: A prescription for ‘nature deficit disorder’
Most adults have fallen short of intentions for connecting youngsters with nature since school ended in June. Sports camps and family summer schedules can get in the way of expanding …
Fri., June 3, 2016
Summer reading opens doors to adventure
Author Rosanne Parry is sending families on a treasure hunt.
Sun., May 25, 2014
Field reports: Columbia tribal netters selling spring chinook
FISHING – If you haven’t been able to catch your own spring chinook in this year’s run, Columbia River tribes are selling them fresh from their nets this weekend for …
Mon., April 28, 2014
Write it Out: Tourists pursue their cache
Few tourists ever visit Culoo Head. Only a few local anglers casting for cod or pilgrims trekking to St. Brendan’s baptismal pool go there. But during the past 10 years, …
Sun., Nov. 10, 2013
Cache Cave geocaching store opens in Spokane
For avid geocacher Lisa Breitenfeldt, the jump from hobbyist to businesswoman all began in a tiny basement. Now, eight years later, Breitenfeldt is busy greeting customers and friends at her …
Sun., July 3, 2011, 6:59 a.m.
Adventure Day offers gear, help for public to try outdoor sports
The annual Sekani Adventure Day is built around the principle that no child should be left out of outdoor recreation. No adult, either. Especially in the outdoor mecca of the …
Sun., Dec. 19, 2010
Local geocaching guru nurtures hobby, sells gear
The evolution of hand-held GPS units has spawned a legion of modern-day treasure hunters lured not by riches, but to the thrill of the hunt. Geocaching, a game of hide …
Mon., Nov. 16, 2009, 5:11 p.m.
Man dies after fall from cliff in Spokane Valley
A 56-year-old Spokane Valley man died Monday after slipping on wet pine needles and falling over a cliff in the Dishman Hills Natural Area, authorities said.


text:
Michael Kalmanovitch, proprietor and buyer for Earth’s General Store, got in touch with me to let me know his suppliers are warning that consumers should expect higher prices for produce coming out of Mexico and California, due to freezing weather conditions. Expect products from beans to bok choy to be more expensive in the weeks to come.
Recent Posts From This Author
- American Thanksgiving celebration at Highlevel Diner on Thursday, Nov. 27Posted on Nov 26, 2014
- SPUD offers another source of organic groceries delivered to youPosted on Nov 24, 2014
- North 53 launches new menu on 124th StreetPosted on Nov 21, 2014
- Sexy Men of YEG Food calendar a fundraiser, and a lot of funPosted on Nov 20, 2014


text:
Google Lens now available on Sony Xperia XZ2 series
Google Lens on the Xperia smartphones can be accessed directly from the app.
Google rolled out the availability of its Google Lens features for Sony Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact smartphones.
Sony Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact users need to update their app to the latest version to get access to Google Lens. It can be accessed directly from the camera app of the phones.
The upgraded Google Lens is an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based platform that provides helpful features, links and instant details about whatever the user wishes to see in the viewfinder. Using Google Lens you can find products online, copy and paste text, learn more about landmarks, add events to your calendar, look up movie posters, identify popular plants and animals, and more.
At its annual I/O developer conference, Google had announced that Google Lens will be integrated directly into the camera app of Google-made devices and premium Android phones.
Google Lens was first announced in 2017. Initially, the AI-based camera app was rolled out to 10 Android smartphones from manufacturers including Google itself, LG, Motorola, Xiaomi, OnePlus and more.
Follow HT Tech for the latest tech news and reviews , also keep up with us on Twitter, Facebook, Google News, and Instagram. For our latest videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel.


text:
By Samuel Stephens, 2L
On August 16, 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act (“IRA”) officially became law in the United States (“U.S.”). One significant change among the many IRA provisions, which created and expanded various programs, is the modification to the Qualified Plug-In Electric Motor Vehicle Credit Program. The program allows a taxpayer a credit of up to $7,500 when buying a new hybrid plug-in or electric vehicle (“EV”). Specifically, to be eligible for the full credit, a hybrid plug-in or EV’s final assembly must occur in North America, at least 50% of the materials for the car’s battery must be sourced from North America, and at least 40% of the minerals for the car’s battery must come from countries that the U.S. has a free trade agreement with. Although the provisions were largely included to counter China’s EV and battery industry, these provisions have drawn criticism from U.S. allies across Asia and Europe. However, Mexico and Canada are already taking advantage of the increased pressure on international EV manufacturers to move operations and resources to North America to meet these new IRA requirements.
Recent developments in Mexico and Canada show how the IRA’s North American EV eligibility requirements are already benefitting the two countries. Canada is reaping the benefits of the new restrictions, as Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz recently signed agreements to source EV battery raw materials from Canada. Mercedes-Benz is also partnering with Rock Tech, a Canadian lithium mining company. Mexico has seen similar benefits, with GM continuing its $1 billion investment in its Ramos Arizpe plant in Coahuila, Mexico which will complete its transition to an electric-specific plant in 2023, making it the company’s fifth electric-specific plant worldwide.
The U.S.’s new North American EV requirements and subsequent announcements have clear benefits for the U.S.’s neighbors. Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Secretary, Marcel Ebrard, stated that the new restriction “means more jobs for Mexico, more integration.” In 2021, Mexico was the sixth largest automotive producer in the world and has recently increased its focus on lithium production, putting it in position to take full advantage of this new prioritization of North American EVs and batteries. Canada has also been charging full steam ahead with the Canadian government and several companies entering into agreements with European and Asian companies seeking to meet the North American production requirements. Following a meeting with an international automotive battery group, Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science, and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, stated “[i]t’s no longer why Canada. It’s how Canada.” These optimistic statements from Mexican and Canadian leaders highlight the positive outlook for the EV and battery markets across the continent. It remains to be seen what the impact of the IRA’s EV restrictions will be on countries in Asia and Europe; however, it is abundantly clear that the provisions are already spurring growth and investment in the electric vehicle production markets in North America.


text:
Made in Oman N95 Respirators and Surgical Masks Starts Production
Oman based, Al Farsi National Enterprises (alfarsi.me), have started manufacturing of surgical masks and will soon start commercial production of healthcare N95 particulate respirators and tie-on type surgical masks under the brand name TRUSTA. Apart from meeting national demand for surgical masks and N95 respirators, the company is also targeting export market for these critical personal protective equipment.
Issam Al Farsi, Chairman of Al Farsi National Enterprises commented “We are an Omani company supplying infection prevention and control supplies for hospitals for over 10 years. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we found it impossible to procure Personnel Protective Equipment (PPE) for our customers. Many had to get by with rationing and reusing these lifesaving supplies and had to compromise on the quality of the product due to unavailability. We promised ourselves that we will never be put in this positon again, so we started building our own manufacturing facility to make surgical masks and healthcare respirators.”
Mr Al Farsi added “The name “Trusta” was chosen to reflect confidence in the quality of the Omani product. We are striving to achieve the government’s directions of localization of industry and products”
Saju George, Managing Director talked about leading this project “Within weeks, we managed to successfully mobilize the machinery and raw materials, re-modelled part of our logistics facility and built our factory. The entire team worked night and day to transform our company from a distributor to a manufacturer. And this project also aims totransformOman from an importer to an exporter of surgical masks and N95 respirators. We hope to achieve this goal by end of this year”
He continued “We would like to thank Ministry of Health, Ministry of Commerce and Industry and other government entities for their exceptional support and encouragement during this time in providing approvals and valuable advice on the project”
The company which is part of a premier healthcare services group, said they are using its product know-how and customer understanding to create high quality products that protects people, comfortable to use and a brand they will be proud to wear.
alfarsi.me is a company specializing in Infection Prevention and Control products for hospitals and clinics. AFMS was founded during 2008 is headquartered in the capital city of Muscat at Al-Khuwair with logistics center and factory premises at Al Misfah Industrial Area. The company plans to continue to expand thier product offering and manufacturing capabilities to cover high quality PPE, medical equipment and healthcare consumables. Alfarsi.me aim to be the partner of choice for governments, communities and organizations work through the pandemic and other healthcare challenges.


text:
Time Warner is considering broadening its planned HBO Now online service to include shows from its Turner Broadcasting networks such as TBS and TNT, according to people with knowledge of the plans.
Executives at New York-based Time Warner are still debating whether HBO Now should include shows from a channel lineup that also includes Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, said the people. Turner won't be part of the debut of HBO Now, said one of the people. HBO, Time Warner's premium pay-TV channel, plans to debut the Web-only service on Apple products in time for the April 12 season premiere of its hit "Game of Thrones."
A wider array of shows would fortify HBO Now as it competes for young viewers with web-only rivals Netflix, Hulu and Amazon's Prime service. HBO CEO Richard Plepler said in October that HBO Now is aimed at 10 million or so broadband-only homes, consumers who will now have access to HBO without a cable subscription.
The discussions about adding Turner programming to HBO Now are part of a broader conversation at Time Warner about how to deploy its shows online, the people said.
As it stands, HBO Now will offer original HBO programs such as "Game of Thrones," "Silicon Valley" and "True Detective." It will also have movies from studios including Warner Bros., Universal Pictures and 21st Century Fox. HBO on Thursday expanded its partnership with Vice Media, the online news group, which will produce a daily newscast.
HBO will sell the online-only service for $14.99 a month, Mr. Plepler said this month. The company is negotiating partnerships with pay-TV providers that also offer broadband service. Cablevision Systems agreed to carry HBO Now last week.
Other media companies are experimenting with streaming products designed for younger viewers, as live viewing of traditional, or linear, television declines. They include CBS Corp.'s All Access, Viacom's Noggin and NBC Universal's unnamed comedy service.
~ Bloomberg News ~


text:
When Lisa Pearson joined Australian-grown BigCommerce as its global marketing chief, she faced a significant brand job spearheading the company’s push from SMB into mid-market. But heaven forbid the ecommerce software business’ staff see it as a rebrand.
- Netflix CMO Bozoma Saint John says she is recovering from emergency surgery during her first week in job
- T-Mobile says it's now the second-largest carrier. Forrester analyst says that's 'bunk'
- T-Mobile's says it's now the second-largest carrier. Forrester analyst says that's 'bunk'
- Your chances of getting COVID-19 from flying, how JC Penney is advertising amidst bankruptcy, and more: Datacenter Weekly
- The decade's 5 funniest brew ads, in celebration of International Beer Day


text:
Last year, Google's Pixel Buds instant translation demo stole the show at the company's October hardware event. However, the Pixel Buds themselves didn't get great reviews. Soon, you won't need to buy the overpriced Pixel Buds to get that feature. Google says instant translation is coming to all Assistant-optimized headphones.
With the Pixel Buds and a Pixel phone, you've been able to get immediate translations of words spoken to you in another language. The Pixel Bud support page was recently updated to change the way Google explained this feature. Rather than saying, "Google Translate on Google Pixel Buds is only available on Pixel phones," it now says, "Google Translate is available on all Assistant-optimized headphones and Android phones."
Just because you can access Assistant on your headphones, that does not mean they're optimized for Assistant. Devices like the Bose Quiet Comfort 35 II and Sony 1000XM2 are designed to talk to Assistant specifically. Opening the feature up to all Android phones is probably more important as few people in the general public actually own Pixels.


text:
205 South Main St.
Goodwill Industries of East Texas recently joined the Lindale Area Chamber of Commerce and received a ribbon cutting from LACC officials. Goodwill has two locations in the Lindale area, 1817 WSW Loop 323 in Tyler (phone, 903-581-5422) and 201 North Newsom in Mineola (phone, 903-569-3404).
The Nail Club, owned by Jasmine To and located at 2533 South Main in Lindale, recently joined the Lindale Area Chamber of Commerce and was given a ribbon cutting. The phone number for the Nail Club is 903-881-9989.
The Lindale Area Chamber of Commerce recently presented one of its newest members, Gramz Closet, with a ribbon cutting. The business is located in the Hideaway Lake Shopping Center at 17066 Interstate 20 West, suite C. It is owned and operated by Barbara Fletcher and Tammy McKinney. The phone number is 903-520-3188.
The Lindale Area Chamber of Commerce recently welcomed Southern Sisters Resale Shop as a new member and presented the business with a ribbon cutting. Owned and operated by June Griffin and Alelia Folker, the business is located at 412 South Main in Lindale and can be reached by phone at 903-881-5733.
Lindale, TX 75771


text:
Uh oh, it looks like two of euro zone’s top economies could have some bad luck in 2012. Economic seers channeled Nostradamus in trying to predict the fate of Germany and Italy for next year and unfortunately, the big bad R-word popped up in their crystal balls.
Let’s take a look at the numbers to figure out the chances of that happening.
Just recently, the land of pizza and pasta released its third quarter GDP figure, which turned out to be in the red. The report showed that the Italian economy contracted by 0.2% during the period instead of staying flat which was what many were expecting. It was also much weaker than the 0.3% growth seen in the second quarter of the year.
Although the annualized GDP figure still showed growth of 0.2%, market participants began to worry that Italy could be headed for an even larger contraction next year. Bear in mind that the Q3 2011 GDP figure doesn’t take the recent belt-tightening measures into account. Oh, and did I mention that the austerity measures were made even tougher lately?
You see, earlier this month, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti unveiled another set of austerity plans for the nation as they need to trim their deficit badly. He announced 34 billion EUR worth of tax hikes and spending cuts, which could further drag growth down in Italy. With that, economic seers forecast the Italian economy to contract by 0.4% in 2012.
And don’t think that the gloom and doom talks are only concentrated in Italy. Even the euro zone’s biggest economy, Germany, hasn’t been spared the negative vibes either!
Ahead the release of the official GDP figure, naysayers have already been speculating that Germany has already entered a “mild recession” in Q4 2011. They think that the debt crisis probably made businesses anxious about investing and demand for Germany’s exports from other EZ countries slowed.
But all hope isn’t lost! According to around 7,000 German companies surveyed by think-tank Ifo, business sentiment rose in December. The Ifo business climate index posted its biggest monthly increase since February in December, coming in at 107.2 from 106.6 in November.
It was the second consecutive month in a row that the report posted an increase and surprised expectations too!
Of course, this has gotten a few market participants giddy that maybe, just maybe, Germany would not fall in to the rut of recession in 2012. Some say that the German economy may expand around 5%-6% next year.
Sure, the debt crisis is still far from being solved which means that it could still weigh on Germany’s growth. However, we have to take note that the country’s domestic demand is looking A-okay.
It’s noteworthy to point out that aside from the positive Ifo report, Germany’s unemployment rate is at its 20-year low at 6.9%. On top of that, consumer sentiment according to GfK still remained upbeat at 5.6, matching its previous reading for November and topping the 5.5 forecast.
Both economies have dealt with the sovereign debt crisis fairly well for the past couple of years. But it looks like it’s finally starting to cause more serious damage to Italy and Germany. Does this mean the worst yet to come for them in 2012?


text:
Specialty media house CyberMedia, in partnership with CMP Media, has announced the launch of the inaugural issue of its ‘Global Services’ magazine. CMP and CyberMedia had announced a joint venture in September last year to build this global media portfolio.
Targeted at global buyers of business and technology services, ‘Global Services’ will be a monthly publication with readership across the world. The magazine will provide its readers with a framework for laying strategies for globally sourcing people, processes and technologies.
Hoshie Ghaswalla, Managing Director, CMP CyberMedia LLC, said, “The ‘Global Services’ platform has two objectives, the first one being facilitating global service delivery for the customers and service providers of outsourcing services. Our other objective is to provide cost effective marketing solutions to the service providers in this industry.”
The primary reader would be the customer of outsourced ITO and BPO services, with a predominant readership in the US and Western Europe. The readership would also include the provider of ITO and BPO services across supplier destinations.
The magazine comprises a blend of global outsourcing news and happenings, research backed analysis, trends, vendor issues and expert views. The first issue of ‘Global Services’ brings out a special report on the Global Services 100, the world’s most innovative providers of BPO and ITO services. The report is based on an in-depth study by neoIT spanning 15 countries across the world, including the US, India, China, the Philippines, the CIS, and Mexico.
A novel feature of ‘Global Services’ would be industry experts’ points of view along with columns by industry veterans as regular features. The inaugural issue carries contributions by Atul Vashistha of neoIT, Paul Schmidt and Jim Hussey of TPI, Rita Terdiman and Debashish Sinha of Conscient Partners, among others.
According to Rusty Weston, Editor-in-Chief, “‘Global Services’ is about world-class collaboration with our coverage spanning both onshore and offshore outsourcing. The vast majority of our coverage will explore point of pain and potential opportunities for buyers of business and technology services.”
A multi shore team spanning the US and India drives the ‘Global Services’ brand, which is an integrated media platform including the website www.globalservicesmedia.com and global seminars.
The magazine launch coincides with the first event, the Global Services Conference at New York on February 2, 2006.


text:
Investor interest in the cannabis industry is growing at an explosive rate, and the leading players continue to break through legal barrier after legal barrier, especially in the United States. More than 40 U.S. states legalized recreational and/or medical marijuana by the end of 2020. Now, companies are starting to…
see the opportunity in cannabis cultivation, marketing, distribution, and technology.
On CNN’s “State of the Union” this week, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy spoke about the incarceration of citizens for cannabis-related crimes saying, “When it comes to decriminalization, I don’t think that there is value to individuals or to society to lock people up for marijuana use. I don’t think that serves anybody well.” Murthy also mentioned that, when it comes to legalizing marijuana on a federal level, science should guide policy. More and more money is being infused into efforts to release those imprisoned on marijuana charges, especially in states when cannabis is legal for both recreational and medical usage.
Here is a quick roundup of major (and action-worthy!) cannabis stock news last week:
Tilray Inc (NASDAQ:TLRY) acquired Aphria Inc in a major acquisition last year and, in doing so, also acquired the SweetWater Brewing Company. While SweetWater had previously released a 420 brand in its line of craft brews, a new product launched this week on Tuesday, July 20. The new drink, the 420 Imperial IPA, joins the companies other drink in the 420 lineup, 420 Extra Pale Ale, which is approximately 24 years old. The 420 Imperial IPA will be available on draft and in cans throughout the United States this month.
Two brand new cannabis companies announced initial public offerings (IPOs) this week! First up was Clover Leaf Capital Corp. (NASDAQ:CLOEU) went live for trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market on July 20 with an IPO of $138.3 million. CLOEU is a blank check company targeting the cannabis industry. Silver Spike Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:SSIC) followed closely after Clover Leaf Capital in announcing SSIC began officially trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market also on June 20 with an IPO of $150 million.
As we reported last week, High Tide Inc. (NASDAQ:HITI) sold three KushBar retail cannabis locations to Halo’s subsidiary, Halo KushBar. This week, though, HITI announced it’s plans to be on the purchasing end of an agreement with DS Distribution Inc., operating as DankStop.com on July 20. The deal is projected to close for $3.85 million. According to DankStop’s Director Gabe Aronovich, “the synthesis of High Tide’s expansive e-commerce and manufacturing capabilities with DankStop’s vast subscriber base and social media presence will solidify High Tide’s position as the global leader in the online consumption accessory market, and I could not be more delighted to be part of the High Tide family.”
Clever Leaves Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:CLVR) received an infusion of $25 million in financing from an affiliate of SunStream Bancorp Inc. on Tuesday, in an initiative sponsored by…
Continue reading at SCHAEFFERSRESEARCH.com


text:
Scratch, the Aussie dog food company, is educating dog owners about the significance of dog gut health in its new ad.
Running across BVOD channels including Foxtel GO, TenPlay, and YouTube, and supported via social, content and PR, the “Scratch Loves Your Dog’s Guts” campaign aims to highlight Scratch’s commitment to providing premium nutrition for dogs.
“Research has shown that 70 per cent of a dog’s immune system originates from the gut, yet many traditional dog foods fail to address this crucial aspect of canine health. We developed our new campaign to educate dog owners on the lesser-known signs of poor gut health, such as red skin, itching, and irregular bowel movements, while also shedding light on the invisible long-term effects, including early disease and cancers,” commented Scratch co-founder, Mike Halligan.
Scratch’s three dog food recipes – Turkey, Beef & Lamb, Pasture-raised Lamb and Sensitive Kangaroo – have each been meticulously formulated to strengthen gut health and restore balance in dogs with an unbalanced gut flora. By emphasising the connection between nutrition and overall wellbeing, Scratch aims to empower dog owners to make informed choices that will positively impact the lives of their furry friends.
In a world saturated with mundane dog food advertisements, Scratch recognised the need for a fresh and engaging approach to convey the importance of gut health.
“We wanted to tackle the serious issue of gut health in a creative, captivating, and fresh manner that resonates with dog owners,” said Isabelle Mason, creative director at Scratch. “Our goal was to make people care about something they can’t see until it’s too late.”
The entire “Scratch Loves Your Dog’s Guts” campaign was developed and executed in-house, showcasing the brand’s commitment to innovation and creative excellence. The entire campaign was created for just $15,000 proving that great marketing doesn’t need to cost the earth. It made use of as many recycled materials as possible, as well as the team’s creativity and paper-mache skills.
“Our campaign encapsulates the essence of Scratch as a company, celebrating wild creativity, playfulness, and a commitment to quality. From concept to production, we’ve poured our hearts and souls into every aspect of this campaign,” Mason concluded.
Creative director: Isabelle Mason
DOP and video editor: Finnian Williamson Concepting & set/costume design: Chris Croker
Set Construction: Thomas Hoffmann
Costume Construction: Toni Croker
Talent: Jake Unsworth & Lyndy Clarke
Lighting: Corey Clement Sound: Kyle McLeavy
Head of marketing: Mike Halligan
Head of growth: Kevin Fernandes
Please login with linkedin to comment
Marc Collister (pictured) of P2 Content Creators spills the beans on his 2024 predictions drawing from two decades of experience in the advertising, film and television industry. I’m certain it will come as no surprise that in 2024, we can expect our industry to move at breakneck speed again. With even more rapid shifts in […]
Reddit’s annual Recap report has revealed the issues and moments that captured Australia’s collective mind over 2023 with, naturally, the Matildas featuring high on the list. The inaugural Australia-hosted Women’s World Cup saw Aussies glued to the footy (or, indeed soccer) with one enterprising user capturing the moment that Cortnee Vine scored the winner against […]
Zeno Australia has announced expanded creative design capabilities and the appointment of Jim Michell (lead image) to its senior leadership team. The new moves support strong growth in the region. Zeno Australia’s clients, including Abano Healthcare, Motorola and Yorkshire Tea, can now tap into a suite of creative design services to augment the agency’s work […]
Spikes Asia, APAC’s most prestigious and sought-after Award for creativity and marketing effectiveness, has revealed its 2024 Jury line-up today. The 93 industry experts from across 18 markets represent APAC’s leading talent from a diverse range of disciplines. 2024 sees the highest representation from brands, including Budweiser, Procter & Gamble, Unilever and, for the first […]
Assembled Media, is drawing upon the creative power of TikTok Creator Marketplace to help generate unique, impactful content for iconic stationery brand, BIC. The social activation campaign titled ‘A Pen for Every Side of You’ promotes the flexibility of BIC’s 4 Colours pen and is active nationwide on the BIC Stationery TikTok account. The campaign […]
Pinterest reckons jellyfish & moody cowboys will be big in 2024. Refused to be drawn on the return of shoulder pads.
IAB Australia has launched ‘Evolution in Market Mix Modelling’, the fourth module in its Marketing Measurement Innovation Series, which has been developed by IAB Australia’s Ad Effectiveness Council. The module explores what is driving the increased use of MMM and how the technique is evolving with advances in computing power and machine learning to provide […]
Scope3, the collaborative sustainability platform leading the decarbonisation of media and advertising, announced the addition of digital out-of-home (DOOH) to its emissions measurement. With DOOH ad spending predicted to grow from $17B in 2023 to nearly $24B by 2028, measuring this channel brings us one step closer to understanding the total impact of digital advertising […]
NRF 2024: Retail’s Big Show Asia Pacific, is now open for online registrations for the main conference. Jointly organized by the National Retail Federation and Comexposium, Retail’s Big Show Asia Pacific will take place from 11 – 13 June, 2024 at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Singapore and is expected to draw thousands […]
Following a period of significant client growth, leading auto marketing agency, DBC2 has appointed Jason Fisher (lead image) to the newly created role of CEO. The appointment is part of DBC2’s long term growth strategy ahead of the agency announcing a brand refresh and expanded proposition in early-2024. As a new shareholder of the business, […]
Don’t treat regional media as a charity, but a real growth opportunity: That’s the message from Boomtown’s final masterclass of 2023, attended by almost 100 media industry representatives from across the nation. The masterclass was part of a series of educational sessions, delivered by Boomtown, the media collective championing advertising in regional Australia. The sessions […]


text:
New Cape Coral grocery store will let you drink while you shop
A new grocery store is coming to Cape Coral, and it offers more than just your average goods.
Lucky's Market, which offers organic foods and lets you sip beer and shop, is scheduled to go up along Veterans Parkway and Santa Barbara Boulevard in 2019.
"It's been a long process," said Dan Creighton, with Creighton Development and Construction.
Creighton has been trying to develop the empty lot for the past 11 years.
It used to be home to the Cape Coral Fire Department Station 4, but now the grocery store, a fast food restaurant, and two other stores will take its place.
"There is really no reason to come to Cape Coral if you live in Fort Myers. This might be a reason," said Creighton.
In two weeks Creighton says they will add turning lanes and traffic lights to get into the store.
The cost to develop the lot is around $15 million and will add three to four hundred jobs in Cape Coral.
Copyright 2018 WBBH/WZVN (Waterman Broadcasting). All rights reserved.


text:
Fort Worth-Arlington, TX News Release Archive - Page 1
May 21, 2013 -- Rachel Parker of Resonance Content Marketing will present how the marketing world has...
May 21, 2013 -- Nifty-Nifty.com, announces Hip Klip (Hip Clip) Voted the #1 Passport Accessory for...
May 21, 2013 -- Carbon Dioxide and Natural Gas Converted to Valuable Industrial Chemicals
May 21, 2013 -- Mitscoots Socks has released their newest style in a continuing effort to assist the homeless and less fortunate by offering them socks and crucial employment opportunities.
May 21, 2013 -- National Court Reporters new site makes it convenient for users to request transcripts or depositions from courts in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
May 20, 2013 -- Healthy meal concept, My Fit Foods, is set to open a new retail location in the bustling suburban area of Las Colinas on Thursday, May 23rd.
May 20, 2013 -- With over 30 bags of clothing donated to the Montgomery County Women’s Center Resale Shop, Something Special, The Woodlands personal trainer and owner of Spring and The Woodlands Fit Body Boot Camps...
May 20, 2013 -- Mastery Technologies partners with Advanced Knowledge, Inc. and adds new courses to the business skills library at BusinessTrainingPower.com.
May 20, 2013 -- Community rallies to stamp out hunger.
May 20, 2013 -- 11th annual Stevie® Awards will be presented in Chicago and San Francisco
May 20, 2013 -- Laptopbackpacksource.com is currently building an entirely new website, which will be released in the near future to support its growing presence in the laptop backpack and carrying case industry....
May 20, 2013 -- Online electronic signature company creates channel partnership with highly experienced distribution partner.
May 20, 2013 -- Acquisition Expands Operation of Document Management Services Offering
May 20, 2013 -- Surface Decor is slashing prices in their One Year Anniversary Tent Sale with mega discounts at up to 60% off on many in-stock tile, stone, engineered wood, laminate and kitchen and bath mosaics....
May 20, 2013 -- A personal injury lawyer from the Stephens, Anderson & Cummings law firm in Texas says a new study underscores the need for changes in the way that distracted driving accidents are reported.
May 20, 2013 -- Sente Reverse Mortgage Supports The Reverse Mortgage for Purchase Program
May 20, 2013 -- Diet Doc’s new improved diet plans allow patients to take control of their impulsive personality traits that cause overeating and help patients lose weight fast through new healthy eating habits.
May 20, 2013 -- Techcess Group one of Houston’s leading Technology Companies has topped 3 lists including: Largest Houston-Area Technology Computer Network and System Integrators, Houston-Area Cloud Service...
May 20, 2013 -- Society’s Committee Asks Political Leaders to Reconsider Cutting Tax Breaks
May 20, 2013 -- CF MOTO Z6: Ready to play in the big leagues, CF Moto is a Chinese quad maker that has arrived on the big stage and is worthy of being compared with the giants of the industry. The company can easily...
May 20, 2013 -- Lucintel estimates Lithuania to record moderate economic growth over 2013-2018
May 20, 2013 -- Madison Rising completes Texas tour with a concert to benefit families affected by fertilizer plant explosion in west.
May 19, 2013 -- 6Webs.com announces their picks of the best DIY home security system providers. 6Webs.com speaks about what homeowners consider when buying a security system.
May 19, 2013 -- EmploymentCrossing.com has also found Texas to be a leader in job creation in the country.
May 19, 2013 -- Homes for sale in Dallas, Texas are now offered by the K-OS Home Solutions company. These homes are company owned and can be financed through other ways that do not require mortgage companies for...


text:
For example, essentially no experts believe that tax cuts pay for themselves, even though there are Stephen Moores out there who are paid to insist that they do.
So last month the IGM Forum weighed in on the issue of supply chains and trade war — the issue that the current trade war, unlike previous trade conflicts, is taking place in a world where much trade consists, not of shipments of consumer goods, but of shipments of inputs used in production. The panelists more or less unanimously agreed that the prevalence of global supply chains increases the cost of trade war. But is the consensus right?
Well, although I yield to nobody in condemning the stupidity and corruption behind Trump trade policy, I’m a bit skeptical about the supply chain concern. Or maybe the best way to say this is that there are three possible stories about how supply chains might increase the costs of trade war, and while two of them are right, I suspect that many economists are buying into the third, which isn’t.
So, what difference does a supply-chain trading system make?
One thing it does is create the possibility that protectionism will be bad mercantilism — that even in its first-round effects it will actually destroy more domestic jobs than it creates, because it creates a competitive disadvantage for domestic downstream producers. Given the Trump tariffs’ heavy loading on intermediate goods, that looks right.
Timely, incisive articles delivered directly to your inbox.


text:
Nintendo will be the third major console maker to present its pre-E3 media briefing this year in a Nokia Theatre event to be held at 9 a.m. PST on Tuesday, June 7.
The company recently confirmed
that the successor to its current Wii console will be available in playable form at the show, and discussion of the new hardware is expected to dominate the media briefing.
The new system is being targeted for a release in the 2012 calendar year, but not before the end of the 2011 fiscal year next March
Nintendo's 2006 pre-E3 event saw the memorable debut of the newly renamed Wii
, featuring Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto in a full tuxedo (pictured) conducting a virtual orchestra with the system's motion-sensing Remote.
Sony and Microsoft will both be holding media briefings
on Monday, June 6, before the Electronic Entertainment Expo officially begins at noon PST on June 7.


text:
Pokémon Go may only have launched last month but it’s already amassed a legion of followers, with downloads of the mobile app estimated to have already topped 100 million and breaking Apple Store records. Fans of the popular franchise can now demonstrate their passion for the game with the release of a new graphic design t-shirt from Shhplash Clothing.
The augmented reality app Pokémon Go has seen users walking the streets in search of pocket monsters in a bid to catch them all and take over gyms in cities and towns across the world. The original Pokémon game launched 20 years ago and the latest addition to the franchise has reignited its popularity with both new and old fans joining in the hunt.
The graphic t-shirt from Shhplash Clothing features popular Pokémon character Pikachu with a hipster vibe. The design illustrates the character with a dashing hairstyle, tattoos and some piercings, mixing together two aspects of today’s popular culture.
Chike C, Creative Director of Shhplash clothing, said, “We wanted to celebrate the renewed popularity of Pokémon while reflecting one of societies current trends – hipsters. There is a look, attitude and lifestyle when you’re a hipster and this Pikachu graphic perfectly captures the traits of hipsterism, from the beard to the stylish bow tie. Shhplash Clothing draws on modern trends and then gives them a twist to create unique and relevant pieces of clothing.”
Pokémon fans can get hold of the ‘hipstachu’ t-shirt by pre-ordering through the Shhplash Clothing website before the 31st August. The t-shirt is priced at £25 with free UK delivery and the product will ship from Monday 5th September.
Shhplash Clothing is a new fashion brand that draws inspiration from current trends in popular culture and social media platforms. In the online shop consumers can find a range of graphic t-shirts to purchase. The brand is set to release its autumn/winter 2016 hoodie collection online soon.


text:
The much-anticipated Sprouts Farmers Market has gone vertical, as the The Village at Hunter’s Lake center begins to take shape on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., directly across BBD from the main entrance to Hunter’s Green.
The completion of Sprouts will likely signal the end of the retail segment of the project, which includes still-to-come apartments and the New Tampa Performing Arts Center, which is still in the design phase.
Of the 19 retail spaces at The Village at Hunter’s Lake, 18 have already been leased. The remaining spot, a 3,530-sq.-ft. space in between the Fresh Kitchen and Via Italia Woodfired Pizza & Bar (see list), is likely to be a breakfast-oriented restaurant, according to Regency Centers senior leasing agent Mark Elias. A lease could be signed by the end of the year.
“We are working on the last place now,” Elias says. “Once that’s complete, we will be at 100 percent.”
Sprouts, the first green grocer to enter the New Tampa market, is the anchor of the retail strip and is expected to open around April of 2020.
While some of the other retailers and restaurants may open earlier – according to its website, Via Italia Woodfired Pizza & Bar is hoping for a January opening, for example – the majority of the smaller businesses may wait for the completion of Sprouts, since it is expected to attract a lot of foot traffic.
“We haven’t hit any major delays,” Elias says. “It looks like good weather for the immediate future, so we’ll be delivering to the smaller retailers soon.”


text:
The government is planning a crackdown on short-term holiday lets, which could mean that homes converted into short-term holiday lets require planning permission in future.
The motivation for the crackdown is to stop residents from being pushed out of their towns, the government says. Specifically, the government aims to target the practice of ‘industrialising’ online rental platforms, whereby entire apartment blocks are bought by investors to let as short-term rentals to tourists. The rules could introduce a new category for holiday lets and make them subject to local planning controls, which, the government hopes, will deter such activities.
Housing Secretary Michael Gove commented, “Tourism brings many benefits to our economy but in too many communities we have seen local people pushed out of cherished towns, cities and villages by huge numbers of short-term lets. I’m determined that we ensure that more people have access to local homes at affordable prices, and that we prioritise families desperate to rent or buy a home of their own close to where they work.” The government has stated that consultations on this plan and other proposals for short-term holiday lets will take place.


text:
- Subscribe NowLimited Time Offer
Brown Derby serves up new, less expensive menu to draw diners
- Pam Allen
The Brown Derby in Albany is trying to shake its image as a place to go for “special occasions.”
This week, the restaurant in the city’s downtown rolled out less-expensive menus and dropped “Hollywood” from the first part of its name.
“We’re hoping with our new pricing structure, we can have a place where people come back more often,” said John Mallozzi, whose family-owned Mallozzi Group owns Brown Derby, Villa Italia bakery in Schenectady, Mallozzi’s Ballrooms and Catering in Rotterdam and other restaurant holdings.
Brown Derby’s old name was too long and added a “glitzy” image that the company did not want to project, Mallozzi said.
The Derby opened in October 2008, in the heart of the recession. On top of consumers spending less on eating out, the restaurant was fraught with food, personnel and service issues for the first six months.
Customers have been happy with the Derby’s food and service for the last year or so, Mallozzi said. Still, the higher prices kept patrons from visiting regularly.
“With our old price points, people were coming for special occasions. We think this will bring them back more often,” Mallozzi said.
On average, entrees on the new menu are almost $10 less than the old menu. For example, three of the 20 dishes—15 percent—listed on the menu are $30 or more, compared with 65 percent on the old menu.
That was accomplished by eliminating some of the higher-cost proteins, Chef Larry Schepici said. Appetizers and desserts are $1 to $2 less, and there is a children’s menu for the first time.
Per-check averages are expected to decrease by 40 percent, but the restaurant expects to make up the revenue difference by attracting more customers, Schepici said
If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.
- Most popular
- Plug Power's CEO taking 'untraditional' tour to meet with investors
- LaPosta's new restaurant will open despite arrest, attorney says
- Joe Nicolla adds to large portfolio with $4.9M Menands buy
- Capitaland Taxi owner: Uber, Lyft would 'saturate' market
- 400 health care servicing jobs coming to Albany
- Costco Warehouse, Cabela's mum on Colonie store
- Center for Economic Growth appoints interim CEO
- No kidding: Businessman John Doe pays $1.7 million for Malta building
- From butcher shop to gluten-free bakery — minus the cow
- MVP Health Care names new executives
Advertising Consultant Buffalo Business First | Buffalo, NY
Advertising Consultant Albany Business Review | Albany, NY
Interim County Auditor County of Kaua'i | Lihue, HI
Professor of Practice or Lecturer in Accounting Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | Troy, NY
Luxury Goods Sales Professional Frank Adams Jewelers | Albany, NY


text:
Adrian Mizzi, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Weavr, took to social media to celebrate the company’s third anniversary.
Founded in 2018, the London-based fintech company specialises in embedding banking and payments in digital products.
“Two years ago to the day, Alex Mifsud and I were joined by a small team, including Matthew Cachia, Stephen Galea, and Gordon Farrugia in a small office in Malta,” Mr Mizzi wrote.
“We keep growing fast, and now we have 32 employees across the UK, Malta, Germany, Portugal, and Romania,” he continued.
Before founding Weavr, Mr Mizzi held a series of roles at a number of local tech companies. His last endeavour before Weavr involved a 14-year tenure at Ixaris Systems.
There he started out as a Java Developer and worked his way up to Head of Research & Development, Group CTO, and finally, Consultant.
“[It’s] worth sharing some of our recent achievements at Weavr,” Mr Mizzi added.
“[We were] named as one of the ’50 most innovative UK financial technology firms’ by Business Cloud, [and] Sifted [ranked us in] Europe’s ‘Top 25 most promising early stage fintech startups’,” he continued.
The Weavr Co-Founder went on to highlight how the company was “one of 40 fintechs chosen from 400 applications across 17 countries at the Paris Fintech Forum.”
The company’s other achievements include being named as one of “July’s hottest European seed investments” by Sifted, and getting “highly commended for the ‘Best SME Payments Initiative’” at the 2021 PayTech Awards.
Adrian Mizzi / LinkedIn
He takes over from Alejandro Gosttuski, who will now take on the role of an Advisor.
The company, set to launch soon, will seek to provide clients with ‘customer-centric and innovative’ financial services.
The Malta Stock Exchange recently joined other exchanges for the inaugural Ring the Bell for Climate initiative.
Family businesses account for more than 70% of Malta’s SMEs, and are hence vital components of the local economy.