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Tata Motors has expanded its ambulance portfolio, as the demand for ambulances has been going up through the pandemic. Tata Motors has seen a doubling of its ambulance sales in FY21 and it is expected to grow in FY22 because of the second wave and on the back of the recent cut in GST from 28% to 12% for ambulances till September 2021. The company has reduced prices which are expected to fuel demand further.
The company launched two new ambulance models this year. The LP 410 ambulance was launched in June 2021, while the Magic Express ambulance was launched in March 2021. The Winger BS-6 facelift ambulance was launched last June. The Winger ambulance has been in the market since August 2007. The company also offers the Xenon 4×4 ambulance for the defence forces.
Vinay Pathak, vice president, product line – Small Commercial Vehicles, Vans & Pick-Up, Tata Motors, says sensing an urgency, the company started the Pune plant to manufacture ambulances. The company had already developed the BS-VI Winger so they could start manufacturing immediately. Since then, the demand for ambulances shot up across the country.
The Winger ambulance is priced in the `15 lakh to `23 lakh range. During the first wave of the pandemic, Pathak said, they realised that the market was looking for smaller ambulances. So they worked on the Magic Express, which is priced in the `7 lakh to `8 lakh range and met this emerging demand. Governments remain the largest customer in the country’s ambulance market but during the pandemic, the demand from the private markets grew at a faster rate, says Pathak. The total market for ambulances is very low compared to the geography and population and remains an underserved segment in the country, says Pathak.
Anand S, head – sales & marketing, passenger commercial vehicles, Tata Motors said they now have three different products with Magic at the base level, Winger at the next level and the LP 410 at the high end. The last 12 months, they saw an increase demand for ambulances with advanced equipment and life saving devices. During the second wave, the need for oxygen increased and the ambulance with room for cylinders were in demand. There has also been an increase in demand from tier-2 and tier-3 cities, says Anand.
Tata Motors makes the Magic Express ambulance in Pantnagar, Winger in Pune and the LP 410 ambulance comes at Dharwad.
Post-GST reduction, the Magic Express (Type B) price has come down to `7.05 lakh from `8.06 lakh; Winger ambulance AC (Type B) is down to `14.20 lakh from `16.23 lakh while the LP 410 Ambulance AC (double stretcher) price reduced by ` 3.05 lakh to `21.35 lakh (ex-showroom Pune).
There would be around 30,000 to 40,000 ambulances running in the country. The demand pattern so far had been driven by few large government orders, but now it is a more steady demand of 300 to 500 units per month, Anand said.
While demand is growing, the ambulance segment is still at a nascent stage in the country. The company expects that the government would continue to play a big role in this segment.
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TORONTO — Industry leaders at an annual retail pharmacy conference in Canada got a look at a kiosk that allows patients to order prescription drugs through an Internet connection.
TCE Group announced the introduction of its Pharma Kiosk, or PK+ terminal at the annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Chain Drug Stores in Toronto.
"Many of the high-level leaders we spoke to during the conference embraced this type of industry change by using technology to increase customers' confidence," TCE Group president Amr Bannis said. "Many influential leaders understand that customers are so busy with work and other family obligations, it is often difficult to find the time to stand in line at traditional pharmacies and wait while their prescriptions are being filled."
The kiosk is designed to be located at any site, including such remote locations as office towers and shopping malls.
"By offering a PK+ terminal on site where customers work or shop, drug stores can offer yet another way to help them save time and money by filling their prescriptions via PK+ and receiving related healthcare services and information," Bannis said.

domain: news


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The global narcolepsy drugs market has been under the spotlight recently as the awareness about sleep disorders grows. The pandemic brought with it a sudden wave of sleeping disorders as many found their daily schedules disrupted. Psychological distress added to the gamut of issues, which has raised awareness about narcolepsy too. As the focus on improving lifestyle in the post-pandemic world continues, analysts at Fairfield Market Research estimate the sentiment will drive the global narcolepsy drugs market.
According to the research report, the global narcolepsy drugs market is expected to be worth US$6,588.0 Mn by the end of 2026 from US$3,875.1 Mn in 2021. As the market grows with the positive sentiment of awareness and acceptance of drugs, it is poised to register a CAGR of 11.2% between 2026 and 2021.
Get a Sample Copy of Narcolepsy Drugs Market: https://www.fairfieldmarketresearch.com/report/narcolepsy-drugs-market


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Target has joined Oak Brook-based McDonald's in ditching a Midwestern egg supplier after undercover video showed employees abusing hens.
The hidden camera footage made by a group called Mercy for Animals shows hens at Sparboe Farms locations being crammed into wire cages, workers burning the beaks of young chicks without pain killers, live chicks thrown into plastic bags and workers tormenting the animals.
Minneapolis-based Target said late Friday it was discontinuing its business relationship with Sparboe Farms and was in the process of pulling the company's eggs from Target shelves.
"Target is committed to delivering outstanding quality and uncompromising safety with every owned-brand food product. We expect and rely on our vendors to operate facilities that meet industry standards and regulatory requirements," the company said in a statement.
McDonald's, in announcing that it was dropping the supplier, said the "behavior on tape is disturbing and completely unacceptable."
Sparboe Farms President Beth Sparboe Schell agreed, and said in a video posted to a new company website that the actions are "inconsistent with out values as farmers and violate our animal care policies and procedures."
Sparboe Schell said the employees identified in the video, first obtained by ABC News, have been fired. She said an internal investigation was ongoing.


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Since going electric, Trek’s BCycle is booming, and the coronavirus crisis isn’t hurting business a bit.
In fact, company officials say, it’s fueling the bike share’s popularity.
“Bike sharing as a whole has seen increased ridership since the COVID-19 pandemic began,” said BCycle spokesman Tyler Britz in an email, “in part because people were looking for an alternative to traditional, crowded, public transit options and ride sharing.”
It's part of a national trend. When cabin fever from the lockdown set in and commuters began to fear contracting the COVID-19 virus on public transportation, bike sales in general exploded, causing worldwide supply shortages. According to the business analytics firm NPD, bike sales have seen double- and triple-digit increases this year.
But not everyone wants to buy, and some think that bike share programs, and cycling in general, will gain a stronger foothold in the American transportation system because of the pandemic.
BCycle has taken measures to ease concerns about sharing bikes during the COVID-19 era by regularly sanitizing bikes and bike stations, "as a way to reassure riders that we were taking further precautions to keep our community safe," Britz said.
It was a year ago that BCycle made Madison the first of the 37 cities it serves to go all electric. BCycle users embraced the new bikes, racking up 231,000 rides in 2019, compared with 103,000 in 2018, and adding 7,000 riders for a total of 17,000.
So far this year, the company reports nearly a threefold increase in trips compared with last year. Britz said the company plans to meet the growing demand by adding 50 to 100 new bikes to its current fleet of nearly 300 by the end of the season.
BCycle is also adding bike stations, which now number 46. The company recently added a new facility at the Marling Apartments in the booming East Washington Avenue corridor, and reinstalled a station on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard that had been removed because of construction. The station at Memorial Union on the UW campus is being expanded.
Britz said other stations are in the planning stages.
Nationally, the company plans to add Santa Barbara, California, to its list of cities by the end of the year.


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Raisins and foreign garlic banned to be imported by the Agriculture Ministry
The Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation has instructed to prevent the import of raisins and foreign garlic during the production season in Yemen.
The Deputy Director of Marketing and Agricultural Trade at the Ministry of Agriculture, Ali al-Harib, told Saba on Friday that the ministry prevented the import of raisins and imported garlic aimed at encouraging, supporting and protecting local production of these crops.
He called on importers of raisins and foreign garlic to abide by the circular and hold them responsible in the event of a violation, pointing out that the decision to ban import comes within the framework of avoiding the farmer’s loss as a result of unfair competition with the foreign product.
Al-Harib stressed that the Ministry of Agriculture seeks to protect and encourage local agricultural products, to cover the needs of the market, and to prevent the depletion of foreign currency in importing foreign products and goods at the expense of the local product.


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Accord enables Turkish seafarers to work in Danish-flagged ships
Denmark and Turkey have signed an agreement to give mutual equivalence to seafarers of the two countries.
The agreement paves the way for Turkish seafarers to work in Danish-flagged ships, Adil Karaismailoglu, the Turkish transportation and infrastructure minister, tweeted on Thursday.
“We serve Turkish maritime as one of the countries that train the most seafarers in the world,” he said. Both countries are NATO allies.
Data shown as of June 2018, there are 669 Danish companies operating in Turkey in various fields such as wind energy, construction, manufacturing, health, trade, tourism (hotel-hostel) and food.
Main Turkish exports to Denmark are machinery and equipment, meat and meat products, dairy products, fish and medicines. Main imports from Denmark are machinery and spare parts, raw materials, semi-finished products for industry, chemicals and agricultural products.


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The deal will see the supermarket’s Express format rolled out across EG Group’s 356 petrol stations, taking Asda’s convenience store estate up to 478.
It accelerates the move into the £62bn foodservice market, with the transfer of 462 Greggs, Burger King and Subway outlets as franchise agreements.
The supermarket said the transaction will create a group with expected combined revenues of nearly £28bn.
Co-owner Mohsin Issa said: “With the deal complete, we can focus on delivering the growth opportunities.
“That means lowering the price of fuel for more motorists, bringing Asda’s great value and quality to more communities, offering greater opportunities to our supplier partners and creating sustainable job opportunities for colleagues in our stores and depots.”
The supermarket has committed to opening a further 300 standalone convenience stores by the end of 2026 as part of its long-term ambition to become the UK’s second largest grocer.
It builds on its earlier acquisition of 119 outlets from Co-op in xx, which it started to convert into its Express format last month.
Chair Lord Stuart Rose added: “As families continue to face into cost-of-living challenges, bringing Asda’s long-standing value in groceries and fuel to even more communities is a win for UK consumers.
“The combination of Asda and EG UK will only create more opportunities for Asda to bring that focus on value to even more communities – as well as driving the sustainable growth of the business through a convenience offer of genuine scale and substance.”


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Seventeen of the world’s top fishing manufacturers were honoured at the 30th anniversary of EFTTEX in Amsterdam over the..
Strike Pro has been celebrating victory in the most competitive category at the EFTTEX Best New Product Awards. Its Twin Minnow won the Best New Hard Lure Award in Amsterdam after being described by the judges as the ‘most innovative lure in a..
Rapala, Shimano and Ockert notched up success in the three line categories at the EFTTEX Best New Product Awards. For..
Rapala’s first product in its new Eco-Wear range was voted Best Apparel at..
Two of the world’s most iconic rod makers are celebrating after scooping top awards at EFTTEX in Amsterdam. Sage, part..


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Elon recently floated possibility of having a successor at Tesla, a board member says
Testimony came after Mr. Musk said he expected to find a new person to run social-media company Twitter
Elon Musk recently floated the possibility of someone succeeding him as Tesla Inc. chief executive, a board member said Wednesday while testifying in a trial over the CEO’s pay package at the electric-vehicle maker.
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With the launch of the Ducati Monster 821, the dilemma just got sweeter. The Monster 821 is not an all-new model. Rather, it is a new engine variant.
In August, Urban Ladder launched 'UL Labs', an initiative for digital startups to develop virtual reality technology for them.
We did everything for the world. Why then, do the bankers of the world, the wretched ingrates, harass Greece?
Monster is launching ‘Love What You Do’ - a campaign that aims at provoking and inspiring people to love what they do and pursue their passion.
Tech company, Apple, hits back after Monster CEO Noel Lee accused them of engineering a sham acquisition of the headphones brand.
Twitter can help more job-seekers than any other traditional platform if it incorporates a formal job board, say experts.
After a two-year hiatus, Pixar has made a sensational return to the Cannes Film Festival with "Inside Out" - a fresh take on animation.
Elon Musk, Tesla's founder, once said, "If there was a way that I couldn't eat so I could work more, I would not eat."


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Colitech Exhibition 2018 Sept. 26/27
Pegaso Cablaggi Industriali will be in Colitech exhibition in Pordenone on the 26/27 September like every year. Colitech is the most dinamic and international exhibition concerning coil winding. It's the most qualified world meeting point of the electromechanic sector. The exhibitors offer a widw range of products, covering all the productive passage of the electronic motors, tranformers, generators and electric pump. 370 companies exhibit in 2018, for that reason Colitech grow up more and more respect to the previous editions.


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The second Czech Startup Leaders event on Clubhouse is here! After the first (and successful) discussion in which we’ve talked about fuckups and fails in entrepreneurship, we’ve decided to host another one. And this time we’re gonna discuss startups with social impact.
Czech Startup Leaders is a series in which we talk with Czech entrepreneurs, founders, and leaders from the startup world. Czech Startup Leaders: social impact startups will be held on Wednesday 24th of February at 8.30 PM CET. Among the speakers will be leading founders and CEOs of startups, which change and save the lives of people on an everyday basis – Jan Beránek (CEO of TRNSHMN), David Stančík (founder Daruju Krev), Dita Formánková (founder Czechitas), Pavlína Louženská (mentor Google for Startups) and Patrik Juránek (CEO of Startup Disrupt).
You can join the conversation and ask the speakers about their experience with social impact startups here!
The event will be in Czech.
Pavlína Louženská – Mentor Google for Startups, Founder #HolkyzMarketingu
Jan Beránek – CEO U+, CEO TRNSHMN
David Stančík – Founder Daruju Krev
Dita Formánková – Founder Czechitas
Patrik Juránek – CEO Startup Disrupt


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[THE INVESTOR] Some 200,000 units of Samsung Electronics’ latest flagship Galaxy Note 9 were shipped to those who had made preorders in Korea on Aug. 21, according to industry data on Aug. 22.
The nation’s top three mobile carriers -- SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus -- started delivering the Note 9 on Aug. 21 to those who preordered the Samsung phone earlier this month.
Official sales are scheduled to begin on Aug. 24.
The first shipment figure for Note 9 is 10 percent higher than that for Galaxy S9, which hit the store shelves in March this year, and similar to that of Galaxy Note 8, first released approximately a year ago.
Meanwhile, the number of mobile subscribers of the three telecom firms who have switched mobile carriers reached 29,738 on the first day of the shipment, according to a different set of data compiled by Korea Telecommunications Operators Association, an organization that promotes the local telecom industry,
On the first day of the S9 sales earlier this year, 24,225 subscribers ported their numbers while 38,452 Galaxy Note 8 users did so.
The number of subscribers porting their mobile numbers is used as a barometer for the Korea Communications Commission, the nation’s telecom watchdog, when judging if the market is overheated. It also shows the popularity of a newly released phone.
The KCC considers the mobile market is overheated when the number of carrier switches surpasses 24,000 per day.
By Kim Young-won (firstname.lastname@example.org)


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China’s 90s generation is racking up debt on installment apps. A new report by Ant Financial’s Huabei Credit 花呗 shows that the average user born between 1990 and 1994 is carrying debt 18.5 times their monthly salary. Based on an average wage of RMB 6,917 (USD 1,023) per month, that shakes out to around RMB 120,000 (USD 17,760) per user. 2018 numbers show that one in every four of China’s post-90s consumers is on the platform.
Why it matters
China is bidding farewell to its culture of thrift
A decade ago, the numbers painted a consistent picture of the frugal Chinese consumer. In 2008, China enjoyed a household debt-to-GDP ratio of just 17.8% (CEIC Data), just as the US was hitting an all-time high of 98.6% for the same metric in the same year (which of course was a major contributor to the severity of the Global Financial Crisis that unfolded that year). Similarly, China’s savings rate was one of the highest in the world, with “40 cents of every dollar of disposable income saved,compared to 3 cents of every dollar in the US” (CNN).
Now, though, the pendulum has swung in the other direction, with household debt rising steadily, and hitting 48.9% of GDP in 2017 (compared with 78% in the US that same year). Installment apps aren’t the only driver of the debt increase, of course – traditional credit card issuances is also way up, from around 150,000 in 2009 to over 600,000 in 2018 (CEIC Data).
Brands are collaborating with installment apps to boost sales
In 2017, Michael Kors became the first luxury brand to collaborate with Huabei Credit (Jing Daily):
- “From August 15 to 18, fans could place pre-order requests on Huabei’s platform, and the credit company froze part of their Huabei money as a deposit to reserve the bag.”
- “As a result of the exclusive offer and credit payment, Michael Kors saw a boost in sales. Within the first 300 seconds of the start of the promotional event, 150 Selma bags were sold.”
Consumer credit is one key development helping to further unlock the Chinese consumer machine. Brands need to consider installment app partnerships to fully tap into the trend.
- Rong360: 人均负债12万，第一批90后已经穷哭了！
- CEIC Data: Household debt to GDP
- CNN: Chinese credit card debt mounts
- Jing Daily: Michael Kors Collaborates with Huabei


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Perth’s Orbital Corporation has announced booming sales of $19 million in the first six months of the 2021 financial year as it gears up production of two small drone aircraft engines for Boeing offshoot Insitu Inc.
The company revealed revenue of $19 million, up from $11.4 million in the previous corresponding period, as it ramped up production in Australia and the United States of two unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) engine types.
Orbital UAV and Insitu have a long term agreement that makes Orbital prime engine supplier to the company.
Five engine types are covered by the agreement, and a third engine model is now under development at Orbital.
The production line for the third typoe will be located in Perth.
CEO Todd Adler said: “Throughout 2020 we proactively managed the additional risks brought about by Covid-19, managing our global supply chain and distribution network and implementing measures within our operations to keep our teams safe while continuing to manufacture.
“With the outstanding commitment of our people in Perth and Hood River we have been able to deliver a solid financial result for the half year, an increase of 67 per cent on the same period last year.”
Orbital’s first half revenues, only $2.2 million two years ago, have risen spectacularly as it cements its position with Insitu.
The company is also pursuing other customers including Northrop Grumman and a major Singapore defence contractor.
Orbital said Insitu has signalled a slower pace of engine purchases, and it now expects full year revenues to be between $30 million and $40 million.
Orbital’s shares fell on the ASX on the announcement and were down 19.6 per cent to 90 cents by mid-morning.
Picture: Orbital UAV
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|Bid||203.78 x 900|
|Ask||203.80 x 800|
|Day's range||202.52 - 204.15|
|52-week range||142.00 - 233.47|
|Beta (3Y monthly)||0.91|
|PE ratio (TTM)||16.82|
|Earnings date||30 Apr 2019|
|Forward dividend & yield||2.92 (1.54%)|
|1y target est||193.12|
An effective tech CEO does not need computer programming expertise, said former Google CEO Eric Schmidt in a new interview.
Apple wants to add more iOS features to macOS according to a report from 9to5Mac’s Guilherme Rambo. While Siri has been available on macOS for a while, it feels like a scaled-down version of Siri. You can’t send a message on WhatsApp, you can’t send some money using Square Cash, you can’t order an Uber.
Qualcomm Surges on Apple Settlement and Intel's 5G Chip Exit(Continued from Prior Part)Qualcomm rise after settling a dispute with Apple Qualcomm (QCOM) stock has gained 38.3% and added $30 billion to its market value since it resolved its legal
Qualcomm Surges on Apple Settlement and Intel's 5G Chip Exit(Continued from Prior Part)Apple’s concerns with Qualcomm Qualcomm (QCOM) was a major supplier of chips to Apple’s (AAPL) smartphones until the release of the iPhone 7 in September 2016.
BAML Survey: How Are Global Fund Managers Positioned?(Continued from Prior Part)Biggest tail risk In Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s April 2019 survey, the slowdown in China and the trade war tied for the biggest tail risk according to the
Qualcomm Surges on Apple Settlement and Intel's 5G Chip Exit(Continued from Prior Part)Intel’s exit from the 5G phone business On April 16, Intel (INTC) announced that it is planning to exit the 5G smartphone modem market, as it wants to put its
The Schall Law Firm, a national shareholder rights litigation firm, announces the filing of a class action lawsuit against Apple Inc. (“Apple” or “the Company”) (NASDAQ: AAPL) for violations of §§10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Investors who purchased the Company's shares between November 2, 2018 and January 2, 2019, inclusive (the ''Class Period''), are encouraged to contact the firm before June 17, 2019. We also encourage you to contact Brian Schall, or Sherin Mahdavian, of the Schall Law Firm, 1880 Century Park East, Suite 404, Los Angeles, CA 90067, at 424-303-1964, to discuss your rights free of charge.
The Latest on PINS, AAPL, IBM, and NFLX(Continued from Prior Part)Uber Eats now has Apple Pay support in nearly 20 marketsRide-hailing giant Uber has announced that it has added Apple Pay support to its food delivery service, Uber Eats, as well in
Berkshire-Backed StoneCo Tumbles after ITUB Ups Ante(Continued from Prior Part)BuffettApple (AAPL) was Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK-B) biggest holding at the end of the fourth quarter. Markets were surprised when Berkshire’s 13F revealed that the
The smartphone industry has been losing steam for the last few years, with negative growth in 2018. Consumers don???t feel as strong of a need to replace their smartphones when the improvements made on the new models are becoming increasingly marginal.
Qualcomm Surges on Apple Settlement and Intel's 5G Chip ExitQualcomm stock rose Qualcomm (QCOM) stock soared ~12.3% on April 17 to $79.08 as investors continued to celebrate the chipmaker’s announcement on April 16 that it had settled its
Global Economic Indicators Paint a Mixed PictureRetail sales According to the US Department of Commerce, US retail sales soared 1.6% in March compared to February, their highest pace of growth since September 2017. Another encouraging piece of news
Sirius XM's (SIRI) first-quarter 2019 results are expected to benefit from its varied content offerings that include music and sports.
Daisy, one of Apple's most valued resources, eats iPhones. It won't surprise anyone to hear that Apple is pretty good at making iPhones. Daisy, the robot built to do that, is an efficient and developed iPhone destroying machine, and she is being revealed in detail by Apple for the first ever time.
Apple said Thursday that it will open a "Material Recovery" lab to investigate new techniques using robotics and machine learning to rip apart its devices and recover valuable materials such as copper, aluminum and cobalt. The lab is part of Apple's broader goal to make all of its products from recycled or renewable materials. Apple has not set a date for when it will reach that goal, though some products such as the MacBook Air already feature aluminum made from melted down iPhones traded in to Apple.
Apple® today announced a major expansion of its recycling programs, quadrupling the number of locations US customers can send their iPhone® to be disassembled by Daisy, its recycling robot. Daisy will disassemble and recycle select used iPhones returned to Best Buy stores throughout the US and KPN retailers in the Netherlands. Customers can also turn in their eligible devices to be recycled at any Apple Store® or through apple.com as part of the Apple Trade In program. Apple has received nearly 1 million devices through Apple programs and each Daisy can disassemble 1.2 million devices per year. In 2018, the company refurbished more than 7.8 million Apple devices and helped divert more than 48,000 metric tons of electronic waste from landfills.


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More than 1,100 occupations, from interior designers to contractors, require licenses in at least one U.S. state. But consumers care more about online reviews and prices than license status when it comes to choosing a service provider, according to new research from MIT Sloan professorand his co-authors.
As consumers increasingly go online to hire service providers, the researchers found that more stringent licensing regulations result in less competition and higher prices but do not boost customer satisfaction, at least when it comes to home improvement services. This suggests well-functioning online measures, like ratings and reviews, could be an effective substitute for professional licenses as a form of quality control.
Brynjolfsson and his fellow researchers — Harvard University professor Chiara Farronato, Stanford University professor Bradley Larsen, PhD ’13, and Boston University professor Andrey Fradkin— studied a large online labor market and conducted a nationwide survey. Their working paper, “Consumer Protection in an Online World: An Analysis of Occupational Licensing,” was published in January.
Licensing exists to protect consumers from poor service and offer a minimum standard of quality and safety. To gauge how licensing affects how people make hiring decisions, Brynjolfsson and his fellow researchers analyzed data from a large U.S. online platform that matches consumers with service providers in different categories, like painting, home renovation, or interior design. (The researchers kept the company anonymous.) Consumers post a job, and service providers respond with a quote.
Consumers are able to see the service provider’s reviews and their starred rating, as well as a badge showing whether the provider is licensed. The badge is only displayed if the provider offers proof of licensing that is verified by the platform. For the study the researchers looked at more than a million requests by consumers in hundreds of categories over eight months.
They found no significant change in providers’ popularity before and after they received the badge signaling a verified license. But researchers did find an increase in the probability of someone getting hired after they received their first review.
Reinforcing this finding, the researchers surveyed 5,219 people who recently purchased home services. Less than 1%, or fewer than 40 people, listed licensing as one of the top three reasons they hired a service provider. Instead consumers said they focused on factors like price, quality of work, reviews, and recommendations.
While 61% of the survey respondents were sure their service providers were licensed, 52% found out only when they signed a contract.
More than 1,100 occupations require licenses in at least one state.
Licenses may factor little in consumer decisions, but requiring them has market costs. By measuring licensing stringency in different states (things like fees, required exams, and age, experience, and education requirements) and comparing it to consumer demand and transaction prices, the researchers found that increased licensing stringency is associated with higher prices and less competition. Yet stringency does not significantly affect the probability of someone getting hired in that area, nor is it associated with higher customer satisfaction.
A cost-benefit analysis tips toward reducing licensing regulations, the researchers said, because low-quality providers can be identified through online feedback, consumers pay more attention to online reputation measures than licensing, and licensing laws impose costs on consumers, like higher prices.
This could change how licensing regulations and digital platforms are designed, the researchers said.
“In particular, the increased availability of alternative signals of quality, such as online reviews, has probably reduced the level of regulatory scrutiny needed for service providers,” they wrote. “Furthermore, these signals may be useful in designing a more data-driven set of licensing regulations and enforcement mechanisms.”


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We will continue the trend of discussing social media within the Fizzback Blog this week by having a look at a recently published article in The Independent
, “Corporate Britain joins the social network”
. The post explores how “companies are becoming more tuned into the potential of social networking” by searching for and responding to customer comments on online social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
While social media analytics is nothing new within the retail sector, the article highlights the fact that the practice is now common place, and something every company should be doing. Research also reinforces the value of adopting this strategy; according to Neilson 90% of internet users trust the opinions of friends online and 70% trust those of strangers posting online.
Another report cited in the article is from Conversocial who looked into the top “liked” retailers on Facebook; they discovered that some of the top retailers in terms of “likes” had the worse customer service in terms of time to respond to comments on their own page. So is having a successful Social Media strategy actually having a negative effect on companies, as detractors are allowed to freely vent in a very public space?
On top of this social media can be an unreliable and sometimes inaccurate tool, allowing customers to vent in the moment, neither giving full nor helpful accounts of the good or bad service they received. I will though not go into details about this, as my previous post on the London Riots
tackled this issue.
Yet with all this said, negative posts complaining about (or complementing) the service customers received cannot be left unanswered and companies must have a strategy in place to deal with responding to and recording each relevant comment, wherever they may be online.
What the example above of popular retailers struggling to react to customer comments demonstrates is the difficulty companies’ face in having teams manually trawl through social media sites. The two retailers were struggling to respond to customers on their own Facebook page, let alone other sites such as Twitter and online forums.
Fizzback’s Natural Language Processors (NLP) offers a genuine solution to this problem, gathering all comments relating to a brand, accurately categorising and scoring them into one simple yet insightful dashboard. Particularly negative comments create email alerts, highlighting issues and routing them to the correct team to deal with them effectively. All the gathered feedback is processed in a way that enables the companies to act on what their customers are saying, and drive real performance improvement.


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- 1 min read
GM Canada lays off 700 employees
Due to ongoing UAW strike against General Motors, about 700 employees have been temporarily laid off in Canada.
This is about 64 per cent of the total 1,100 workers at the St Catharines, Ontario, Propulsion Plant. The workers have been asked to stay home this week, according to a media report.
There is no need for the V6 and V8 engines they build and export to the United States as 46,000 UAW members struck the carmaker’s US operations, reported Automotive News.
As per GM Canada spokesman David Paterson, St Catharines and Oshawa are open, supporting CAMI.
The company assembles its Chevrolet Equinox at its CAMI plant in Ingersoll, Ontario. The Equinox is the GM’s fourth popular vehicle in Canada, other than the Chevy Silverado, GMC Sierra and Chevy Blazer.
GM Canada spokeswoman Jennifer Wright agrees to the disruption of their vehicle assembly work at the Oshawa Assembly Plant due to the UAW strike. The company plans to resume these operations as quickly as possible upon resolution of the UAW strike, the report said.
The strike will further take a toll on suppliers’ job. Jerry Dias, national president for Canadian union Unifor mentions that anyone supplying one of those 30 assembly plants shut down in the US or GM lines shut down in Canada will lay off temporarily.


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Smash-and-Grab Thefts Are on the Rise Amid the Holiday Season
In Valencia, California, a high-end sneaker store is seeking the public's help in identifying people that stole thousands of merchandise from his store.
Smash and grabs and thefts are on the rise, especially during the holiday season.
In Chicago, a duo got away with more than $1 million in watches from a car dealership that also displays luxury watches. In a video captured of the moment, one of the guys stands on guard as the other smashes the case and grabs the watches. It all happened in under 20 seconds.
Regular theft is on the rise as well as Christmas decorations are being stolen directly from people’s front yards, specifically inflatables. Richard Anderson told Inside Edition that he had two of them taken from his home in Houston, one of them being a blowup of Olaf from the movie “Frozen.”
“I don’t understand why anyone would steal them,” Anderson said. “I think they were $30. I mean what could used Christmas decorations go for these days?”
Officer Ryan Railsback of the Riverside Police in California said for many people it’s not just the theft, it’s the threat of invasion that people feel they’ve had on their home. Railsback recommended people install motion detection lights on their property.
“When they are coming up to a piece of property and all of a sudden several lights start shining on them, that could make them think twice about what they are going to do,” he said.
He also suggested securing decorations with cables or wires to make it harder for people to steal them.
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Hyundai Considering Turbocharged V6 Says Powertrain Boss
With the debut of a new 5.0-liter Tau V8 in the Genesis Sedan R-Spec and rumors that it will find its way under the hood of the Genesis Coupe, Hyundai isn’t necessarily committed to eight-cylinders. That’s not surprising as the industry moves towards forced induction options like turbocharging and supercharging in order to deliver ideal power levels with reduced fuel consumption.
At a recent product preview and engineering tech session at Hyundai Motor America’s technical center in Ann Arbor, MI, powertrain boss John Juriga admitted that a turbocharged version of the company’s 3.8-liter V6 (offered in both the Genesis coupe and sedan) is a possibility for the future. “The 3.8 is a contender for turbocharging for some high-output applications,” he said. In fact, Juriga did one better, going on to comment that such an engine already exists and is undergoing testing. Speaking with AutoGuide, Jurega qualified that statement, commenting that the Hyundai engineering team is constantly exploring new engine options and that the existence of a prototype is no guarantee that such an engine will make it into production.
Expanding on Juriga’s comments, HMA CEO John Krafcik indicated that the Korean automaker is currently at a crossroads as to its future engine plans for its high-performance and premium models. Krafcik referenced the brand’s two SEMA Show Genesis Coupe concept cars, one powered by a 5.0-liter V8, the other by a supercharged 3.8-liter V6. The two cars, he explains, were built to generate feedback, to see which method of power delivery is preferred, with the more traditional high-displacement V8 versus the forced induction option.
“We’re looking for feedback from you folks,” said Krafcik, speaking to the assembled journalists. AutoGuide was obviously more enamored with the V8 option when we got a chance to see both cars at the SEMA Show, although a turbocharged V6 option, versus a supercharged one, might change that. Let us know what you’d rather drive in the comments section below.


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The battle between Apple and Samsung over smartphone design returns to a Silicon Valley courtroom next week as the companies fight over how much Samsung should pay for infringement of five Apple patents in 13 of its smartphones.
With the arrival of the iPhone 5s, Apple regained its spot among the top five smartphone makers in China during the third quarter.
Samsung has officially announced the Australian launch of its Galaxy S4 Zoom smartphone, but the device will not be sold through traditional telco carriers.
LG is flexing its muscle in smartphone technology with a new handset that boasts a curved touchscreen, along with a special "self healing" technology that the company claims can prevent scratches on the phone's casing.
Well, no wonder we haven't seen too many people sporting the Galaxy Gear since its debut. People keep returning them.
Samsung gets criticised for copyingApple's design techniques,colour choices, and even unannounced products, but the iPhone maker isn't the only company Samsung is willing to imitate. The Korea-based electronics maker has apparently set its sight on c...
Samsung Electronics' net profit in the third quarter was up 25.6 pe rcent year-over-year on record revenue driven by sales of its memory chips and smartphone products.
Taiwan has slapped Korean electronics giant Samsung with a fine for fabricating Internet forum posts that praised the company at the expense of rivals including its home-country handset competitor HTC.
Months after Apple apologized to consumers in China, Korean rival Samsung is doing the same after the country's state media criticized the vendor for failing to fix glitches in several of its phone models.
SamMobile is reporting that an unnamed "insider" says that the Galaxy Round is only a prototype with a strictly limited run for the Korean market.
Fresh off the heels of Samsung's new Gumby-y handset, the Galaxy Round, we've gotten our purported first look of the curved G-Flex phone from LG that is widely expected to be unveiled next month.
It's been rumoured for quite some time, but Samsung has become the first manufacturer to officially launch a smartphone with a curved display.
Breaking away from the flat screens found in so many smartphones, Samsung is releasing its Galaxy Round handset with a curved display.
SBS has today announced the availability of its catch-up TV application, On Demand, for Android smartphones and tablets, but the app is initially exclusive to Samsung devices.
Telstra will offer Samsung's new Galaxy Gear smartwatch for free to customers who pre-order the Galaxy Note 3 smartphone on selected 24 month contracts.
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Over the past two years, the security industry witnessed the tremendous growth of web malware exploitation kit as efficient platforms for serving client-side exploits and malware to unaware end and corporate users.
The trend, largely driven by the professional work done on behalf of the cybercriminals behind these kits, is largely attributed to the standardized model behind the release of these kits. On a periodic basis, copycat cybercriminals will basically rebrand a well know web malware exploitation kit, introduce a new layout template, combined with a unique mix of exploits, and start advertising it within the cybercrime ecosystem.
On the other hand, sophisticated cybercriminals will do their best to stay beneath the radar of security researchers and security vendors, and will only serve a dedicated market segment within the underground economy.
This is exactly the type of web malware exploitation kit that researchers from SpiderLabs recently spotted. Meet the RedKit, a private web malware exploitation kit, exploiting popular and already patched Java vulnerabilities, next to having an embedded QA (quality assurance) element embedded into it.
What's so special about RedKit, and how does it differentiate itself from the rest of the exploit kits currently observed in the wild? Next to exploiting CVE-2010-0188 and CVE-2012-0507, the cybercriminals behind the kit also offer legitimate traffic that will be later on converted to malware-infected hosts as a managed service.
Moreover, in order to evade detection by security vendors, the cybercriminals behind the kit have introduced an API feature, helping customers of the kit acquire a new exploits-serving URL on an hourly basis. The next, and perhaps most important quality assurance element in the kit's propositions, is the fact that the malicious binary will be pre-scanned against 37 different antivirus vendors such as:
in order to ensure that the malicious binary has a low detection rate before serving it to unsuspecting end and corporate users.
Thanks to the fact that this is a private kit, not actively advertised across popular cybercrime-friendly web forums, it will never manage to gain the market share of publicly obtainable exploit kits such as the market leading BlackHole web malware exploitation kit.
Rather surprisingly, researchers from SpiderLabs, have already intercepted an increase in attacks using the RedKit, indicating that the invite-only business model seems to be working.
What happens once an exploit kit gains a high market share? Once an exploit kit becomes well known within the cybercrime ecosystem thanks to its high conversation rate -- trafic-to-malware-infected-hosts -- international cybercriminals will localize these kits to their native languages, once again confirming that cybercriminals across borders are increasingly cooperating and working together.


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The Hair & Barber Council have responded to HMT on behalf of our industry relating to a new potential Online Sales Tax (OST)May 20th, 2022
The Hair & Barber Council have responded to HMT on behalf of our industry relating to a new potential Online Sales Tax (OST)
HMT released a consultation and call for evidence back in February this year on whether the UK should implement an Online Sales Tax. The consultation has been lengthy with a wide scope.
If adopted OST would not be a revenue raiser but would instead be used to rebalance the tax system by reducing business rates for high street businesses including salons and barber shops.
No decision has yet been made as the Government wanted to hear businesses views.
Salons and barber shops occupy 16.2% of high streets, the largest occupier so this would be a positive step towards a fairer tax system and benefit salons and barber shops everywhere who are weighed down by business rates, especially with operational costs increasing. We are all very aware that online retailers benefit from reduced tax burdens unlike high street salons, and barber shops, so we welcome OST.
Why this has not been implemented before now is very concerning as whilst online businesses have thrived over many years and more so during the pandemic, high streets have been weighted down with increasing costs.
We welcome any reduction in business rates and a fairer tax system for our industry and will continue to challenge and lobby Government to this end. Our industry needs a level playing field and the opportunities given to other sectors, said Collette Osborne of the Hair and Barber Council
The Hair & Barber Council working in the industry for the industry.


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Papyrus Australia, which is based in Adelaide, South Australia, has watched its share price triple this month after announcing L39 as a cornerstone investor and reporting that its Egyptian factory has become profitable for the first time.
The company has developed technology to process banana waste into a range of products including veneer for furniture and musical instrument manufacture, moulded products such as food containers and plates, liquid fertiliser and garden peat.
It now aims to increase production in the Sohag factory, hire key staff and embark on a significant capital raise with the help of L39 Capital, which will allow it to manufacture ‘turn-key factories’ and sell them to banana plantations in developing countries around the world.
Papyrus Australia was founded in Adelaide in the mid-1990s after Ramy Azer moved to Australia with his Adelaide-born wife Phoebe to complete a Masters in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Adelaide.
He soon developed a technique for producing veneer from banana tree trunks and has since expanded the technology to include all parts of the waste banana plant.
“The question is always asked ‘what is an Adelaidean company doing in banana land’?” Azer, the company’s managing director said.
“But we are not banana processors, we are machine builders and technology makers so what the Adelaide company is actually doing is designing and building machines for export and commissioning in banana producing countries.”
Unlike other fruit trees such as apples and oranges, a banana palm takes 6-8 months to grow to maturity, producing one large bunch. The tree is then cut down and left to rot and a new shoot is grown in its place.
This creates a lot of waste but Azer said it also created a lot of opportunity as it provided a constant supply of fresh feedstock.
“There is plantation waste ready to be taken away from the farm every day of the year so when we set up our factory next to the banana plantation we are guaranteed to have a quality and quantity of raw materials coming to us all year round, which is a massive advantage compared to any other residual crop,” he said.
The company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2005 and spent the next five years building two prototype machines.
A machine was initially set up on a banana plantation at Walkamin near Mareeba in Far North Queensland.
However, Azer said the remote location on the Atherton Tablelands, an unreliable backpacker workforce and huge transport costs made that project unsustainable.
“The transport cost from Mareeba to the Brisbane port was higher than the transport cost from Brisbane to Italy where we were exporting at that time,” he said.
“We also needed to demonstrate that it was a viable industry and technology to operate in developing countries that produce 99 per cent of the bananas.
More than 160 countries in the world produce bananas commercially, with Australia one of the very few developed nations among them.
The company began setting up Papyrus Egypt, a joint venture with the Egypt Banana Fibre Company, in 2011 but political unrest in the region meant it could not commission its machines until 2017.
Azer spent most of this year in Egypt, producing commercial products at its factory in Sohag, adjacent to a 500-acre banana plantation.
Products so far include decorative veneer sold in Egypt for furniture manufacture and for laminate use in kitchens; veneer exported to Japan to be used in the manufacture of an environmentally friendly range of Yamaha musical instruments; the manufacture of construction industry products such as panelboard and mdf; organic liquid fertiliser for agriculture; fibre pads for the manufacture of deoderisers; organic Bokashi compost for agriculture and, banana fibre peat blocks known as Cairo peat.
In a statement to the ASX this month, Papyrus Australia reported its September sales increased by 43 per cent on August and a further 34 per cent in October to about $A22,500 (256,000 Egyptian pounds).
“We can’t keep up – we have no issue with selling, no issue with pricing, our issue is just producing enough. We need more machines and more trained people,” Azer said.
The second Egyptian factory will use fibre produced by Papyrus Egypt to make about 20 million lunch boxes and moulded trays such as egg cartons and pizza boxes a year.
“It will take about 6-12 months to complete the model in Egypt and have all of the financial verification of it done and audit it properly so its profitability is known and can be proven,” Byrt said.
“In the meantime we’ll start gearing up for 2022, which will be the year of design and assembly of the new machines here that will go off to fill the orders we are getting,” Byrt said.
Azer said despite the difficulties posed by COVID-19, 2020 crystalised 25 years of work.
He said the next phase of capital raising was now a priority.
“To convert science into technology and convert it into a production line involving real people in the real world takes time and there are lots of issues that needed to be resolved,” he said.
“We’ve been running production trials at other people’s factories using our fibre and our technology but now it’s time for us to build our own factory next to our existing factory so that when we sell the model, we sell the complete model of bringing in the waste and producing liquid fertiliser, soil conditioner, food packaging and veneer.
“We want to sell this complete model so people can take the banana waste and very quickly produce millions of food packaging products to displace a lot of the plastic that’s killing this planet.
“Our company needs good strong relationships and joint ventures with big companies – strategic alliances with machine builders who can really produce lots of machines, install and commission them and train people, move products from place to place and introduce them to global markets.”
Azer said while much of the manufacturing would take place overseas, the control modules for the technology involving the intellectual property and the assembly would likely be done in Adelaide.
“I think we will leave the heavy lifting to bigger manufacturers like China and we will do the clever bits,” he said.
The first Egyptian factory already employs about 30 people directly and many more indirectly through the harvesting and transportation of the banana waste.
However, he said there were also huge opportunities just in Egypt.
“We only collect raw material from less than 500 acres of banana plantations around the factory – this is about 300,000 trees that are harvested every 7-8 months,” Azer said.
“The state we are in has more than 10,000 acres of banana and Egypt as a whole has about 100,000 acres of plantations so if we just stay in Egypt there is a potential to put in up to 200 factories and Egypt is not even in the top 10 banana producing countries.
“The old European idea of knocking down forests to produce fibre on a large scale to produce paper, timber, wood, packaging and everything else doesn’t have a place in our existence anymore.
“Now we value the forests for producing oxygen and providing natural habitat for wildlife and catchment areas to regulate rain yet our appetite for packaging is increasing.”
Papyrus Australia has a market capitalisation of $19.43 million. Its share price has jumped from $0.02 on November 5 to close at $0.063 on Friday.Jump to next article


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Sheffield city centre pub, The Bessemer, known for its hugely popular motown and soul party nights, is to re-open this week following a £300,000 makeover.
The pub which was acquired by Stonegate Pub Company from the administrators of previous owner, Bramwell Pub Company in November is one of the first pubs by new parent company to be refurbished. The pub, now temporarily closed for building work, will swing open its doors to showcase a brand new look on Wednesday 26th March, creating ten new jobs in the process.
“The pub is being totally re-designed with new décor and furniture throughout, as well as a bigger dancefloor to accommodate our fantastic party nights”, said General Manager Andrew Baker. “The Bessemer has always been one of Sheffield’s favourite destination pubs but it’s been in need of refurbishment for a while, so with this makeover we couldn’t be more thrilled.”
The first floor mezzanine area which can accommodate up to 100 people, gives a bird’s eye view of the entire pub, making it an ideal private hire area, suitable for parties, receptions or business functions.
Open daily from 10am serving breakfasts, The Bessemer will introduce a brand new menu when it launches featuring traditional pub classics alongside dishes that give a contemporary twist such as Roast Beef Yorkshire Wraps and Curry Lover’s Pie, a combination of the great British pie with an Eastern flavouring. Also new will be a selection of dishes, all under 500 calories for those wanting to enjoy dining out without worrying about the waistline! Food will be a big focus for the Bessemer with a new buffet menu and Sunday lunch choices introduced too.
The pub will open its doors from 5pm on Wednesday 26th March. To celebrate, general manager, Andrew Baker and his team will be offering complimentary prosecco and canapés for locally invited business customers and VIP guests taking a first sneaky peak at the new Bessemer. Throughout the evening customers will be entertained with the best of northern soul and Tamla Motown, all from vinyl.
As a special treat for cask ale enthusiasts, the pub will be hosting a mini beer festival during its opening weekend featuring a selection of nationally and locally sourced ales including ones from local brewers Bradfield, Abbeydale and Sheffield.
“One aspect of the Bessemer that is definitely here to stay will be our Friday and Saturday party nights where we stay open until 2am and featuring non-stop golden oldies from the 50s 60s 70s and 80s”, added Andrew Baker. “We are also launching a new Thursday evening 80s night that’s destined to get the dancefloor rocking and will of course, continue to host our Soul on Sunday event from 3pm until 9pm the last Sunday of each month.”
The Bessemer is the second investment by Stonegate Pub Company in the City this year. In January £220,000 was spent on the refurbishment of The Cavendish on West Street, into a brand new student concept, which resulted in the creation of eight new jobs.


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This past January Brooklyn record store and concert venue Rough Trade NYC announced that it would be relocating in 2021.
It has been revealed that Rough Trade NYC has officially moved over the east river and will now be located at Rockefeller Center (30 Rockefeller Plaza, on Avenue of the Americas between 49-50th Streets), nearby the world famous Radio City Music Hall.
A message from Rough Trade co-owner Stephen Godfroy reads, “Following the impact of COVID-19, Rough Trade’s decision to relocate reflects a wider reimagination of cities worldwide. Manhattan has a glorious history of great record stores. Now there’s an exciting present as well. The opportunities afforded by the pandemic in the reconfiguration of central city districts have brought us, counter-intuitively, to the heart of New York, an area barren of record stores for years. But Rough Trade’s instinct has always been to surprise!”
Here’s more info from a statement on Rough Trade NYC’s blog:
“Since opening our first NYC store in 2013, we followed in the footsteps of an illustrious list of iconic New York record stores, from Bobby Robinson’s Bobby’s Records, The Commodore Music Shop, Time Square Records, Record Mart, Disc-O-Mat, Crazy Eddie’s, Record Explosion, to Midnight Records, Venus Records, Rocks in Your Head, 99 Record, Other Music, Pantasia, and many more.
We loved our amazing Williamsburg store, but thousands of gigs and vinyl sales later, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to move over to Manhattan, downsizing on scale but upsizing on ambition and reach…
The new store will be typical Rough Trade, focusing on new and limited edition vinyl, with our staff on hand to share their passion for music. Despite having a smaller footprint compared to our giant Williamsburg store, the amount of vinyl to browse in our new store will be similar, so Rough Trade NYC will continue to offer what we strive to make the finest curated selection of vinyl in the city.
When it comes to events, we’ll be hosting more ‘artist signing’ events than you can shake a stick at, and in addition, we’re super excited at becoming Rockefeller Center’s latest programming partner, staging live events at the iconic (65th floor!) Rainbow Room and outdoors in the world-famous Plaza, showcasing exciting new talent as well as more familiar legends, in what are two remarkable locations.”
Rough Trade NYC have also announced that they will indeed be open for Records Store Day, which takes place across June 12th and July 17th, 2021 — get more info here.
Also Check Out: Inhuman Condition share “Euphoriphobia” music video


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Loui Blake, founder of the UK’s largest vegan restaurant Erpingham House, has turned his attention to upscaling their delivery business. During lockdown, Loui and his team have also launched a popular recipe challenge for thousands of their social media followers.
We caught up with Loui to learn a little more about how his restaurant has adapted over the last few weeks.
Tell us a little bit about your business?
After adopting a plant-based diet whilst living in London and travelling the world, I decided to open a venue that could offer the same food and drink I’d fallen in love with on my travels.
Erpingham House is a local business, built by local people. I really wanted to offer more people the opportunity to access and learn about plant-based foods in a creative space.
How have you adapted to the UK lockdown?
When the lockdown measures were put in place, the team and I were quick to respond. Within a few days we turned our restaurant into a takeaway kitchen – ensuring all the right safety measures were in place to account for the new social distancing rules.
This new way has affected us and many of our suppliers, which in turn has affected our menu and what we could offer customers via collections or delivery. I’m fortunate to have a dedicated team who worked around the clock to rewrite and relaunch our menu. Once the new menu was ready, we advertised it with marketing activity across social media.
On the operational side of things, we’re doing business through customer collections and deliveries via Deliveroo. Three team members are now working on the delivery side of the business, which helps with the increase in demand. This is also a way of us keeping as many people in employment as possible until this all blows over.
Another way we’ve pivoted is via social media. We have a clear mission to help people eat healthier and we wanted to continue instilling this mission even during lockdown: this is where our weekly recipe challenge comes in!
Every week, we release a random list of ingredients and challenge our 22,000+ followers on Instagram (and anybody else that wants to take part) to create a meal using these ingredients. We’ve had great engagement with this initiative and enjoy seeing what our followers have rustled up.
We reward their efforts as well! The best dish (and the cook) are rewarded with restaurant vouchers to use as soon as we open our doors again.
What are you doing to look after your wellbeing?
Our mission binds us as a team and we have a strong community at the heart of our business.
Local schools in Norwich closed before we did, so in the spirit of community, we offered free school meals to kids that needed them most, right until we had to shut shop.
The team at Erpingham House are also invited to weekly mediation sessions which would normally run in-house but we’re running them online for now. We get a great turnout, even during these turbulent times.
There’s also constant communication with two weekly team meetings, where we invite experts such as our Xero accountants to join us and help demystify government schemes and other helpful initiatives the team could get involved in.
We’re a creative bunch usually working in a creative space, so a number of us are running a skills exchange programme to teach things like art or yoga to the rest of the team. We’ve found this really helps keep our spirits up – especially for staff members that have been furloughed.
Visit our dedicated site for more inspirational stories, webinars and resources to help you navigate through this time.


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Getting What You Need: Who Owns the Cloud?
This region has been slower than others in adopting cloud, which means now cloud providers are now fighting for dominance. Investment in Asia’s cloud infrastructure reached US$98 billion (RM417 billion) in 2019, an amount expected to double by 2025. This investment is in large part due to expected demand from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Southeast Asia has seen top cloud providers grow their regional data centre presence by almost 70% over the past three years. In Malaysia alone, it is predicted the cloud market will grow 13% per year, and be worth US$3.7 billion (RM15.7 billion) by 2024.
Know the top players
While there are many cloud service providers of all sizes, the top three – Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud – command more than half of the world’s market share. They were also the only three companies placing as ‘Leaders’ in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) in 2019.
In the first three months of 2020, half of all spending on cloud infrastructure services went to Amazon (32%) and Microsoft (18%). Google’s cloud revenue for Q1 this year also soared 52% higher than its Q1 numbers in 2019.
In other words, if you are new to the cloud, starting with large, more established companies is a logical first step. These are the companies with the largest range of offerings, the longest list of success stories, and the ones constantly investing in providing you with the best service and security.
With a reputation for being the first cloud as we now know it, Amazon launched its cloud services in March 2006, giving it a considerable head start over its closest competitors.
Since its strong beginnings, AWS has expanded far beyond storage and basic cloud computing, and today is also well-known for its all-inclusive portfolio. Offering a wide choice of platforms, storage sizes, AI, application testing, databases, content management solutions and more, it has pretty much everything any company needs. Today, high profile companies that rely on AWS cloud technology include Netflix, Dow Jones, Facebook, Airbnb, Baidu, and the BBC.
AWS is known for being more democratic than its closest competitors. That is, it makes an effort to integrate with all solutions and providers, whereas other providers have been known to push users into working with solutions pushed by partners. AWS is not without its drawbacks, however, one being that its pricing structure can be difficult to understand. We will demonstrate how this can be easily solved in article 5.
Launched four years after AWS, Azure has gained a strong following, thanks in part to the established Microsoft brand. It naturally attracted businesses who were already using Microsoft Office products. In fact, for many, the move from physical software to Microsoft 365 was among the earliest introductions to enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS). In addition, Azure offers infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS), effectively making it the most wholistic cloud provider.
Microsoft’s reputation is likely among the reasons why, when the pandemic forced companies to make fast decisions about the cloud, Azure sales soared. Another likely reason for its popularity is cost: Azure proclaims that its cloud services are several times cheaper than AWS. It also offers the largest number of services – more than 600 – compared to AWS (more than 175) and Google Cloud, which offers less than 100. Malaysia Airlines is one of its countless clients, as are Pixar, Adobe, and Boeing.
In spite of launching in 2008, a full two years before Microsoft, Google Cloud is in distant third place among the three giants. Regardless, it still corners a respectable 6% of the global market and thanks to strengths that include superb embedded machine learning capabilities, Google Cloud is trusted by Twitter, Spotify, Paypal, Forbes, HSBC as well as being a favourite among small, web-oriented start-ups. In addition, Google’s premium tier customers ride on Google’s own established, low-latency global network, the largest network of any cloud provider. Like Azure, Google Cloud offers more competitive prices (especially for storage) and a flexible cost structure.
Which should you choose?
The differences between the three top providers tend to be more subtle than the similarities. They all provide limitless processing power, space and flexibility, scalable to your needs. As leaders, all three also stake their reputation on high levels of service and security. They even share a commitment to sustainability, each having made significant strides in eradicating their carbon footprint.
In other words, if you find yourself having to make quick decisions about cloud providers, you can safely narrow your choices from hundreds to these three. However, while it is tempting to simply go with one provider, a multi-cloud strategy is most likely to get you the best of all worlds – best price, security, and services.
In our next article, we delve into why multi-cloud has become the business trend of the future.


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GUILDERLAND, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Stuyvesant Plaza has announced it will waive rent payments for all retail stores and restaurants in the plaza for a two-week period which goes into effect Friday, March 20.
The announcement is in response to the current COVID-19 pandemic which has caused unforeseen challenges and loses for businesses and restaurants.
“Our success as a shopping plaza, which dates back more than half a century, is predicated on the success of our tenants. During this unprecedented time of crisis, it is our responsibility to do all that we can to support our retail and restaurant partners and provide them with some relief while we continue to work through these challenges together,” said Stuyvesant Plaza President Ed Swyer. “I am tremendously proud of the innovation our tenants are showing to continue to operate and serve the community, and I encourage everyone to do whatever they can to support their neighborhood businesses. By doing so, we will emerge from this crisis stronger than ever.”
Stuyvesant Plaza is reportedly monitoring the COVID-19 situation closely and is taking all necessary precautions to help protect shoppers.
Additionally, Stuyvesant Plaza is currently following all CDC and Prevention and International Council of Shopping Centers guidelines by increasing the daily cleaning of all spaces including a heightened focus on hight-touch surfaces, handles, and restrooms with a CDC-approved disinfectant spray.
Shoppers are encouraged to contact each store or restaurant for specific operating details.
For more information call (518)-482-8986 or visit the shopping center’s website here.


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Cyanogen and Qualcomm have jointly announced a partnership to ship Cyanogen created Android OS on some future Qualcomm Snapdragon reference devices.
Daqri is building the world’s first augmented reality hard hat, powered by Android.
Enter the ZTE Grand X, the newest 4G device to come to the popular prepaid network. It offers affordability, a good size and one heck of a price tag.
In this Back to Basics edition, we take a look at processors. Dual-core, Octa-core, SoC. All shall be explained. Read on for the full details.
The king of Qualcomm’s 2013 SoCs, the Snapdragon 800, is set for mass production in late May, although it’s not known at this time what smartphones will use it.
Qualcomm has released four side-by-side test videos, showing off the power of its new dual-core Snapdragon 400 verses a competing quad-core processor.
Qualcomm announced via a blog post that some of its Snapdragon chips have a technology called Quick Charge 1.0 that makes devices charge 40% faster.
If you’re looking to show off one particular game on your phone to your friend(s) – Rigonauts has that “wow” factor that can impress them. The thing is – you’ll need to own a Snapdragon-powered smartphone on Verizon Wireless. Why? Well, it’s because Verizon and Qualcomm have secured the exclusive right of Rigonauts until October 23.
Intel’s apparent absence from the American market points toward one thing: LTE. Or to be more specific, the lack of LTE support. That might soon change, though, as Intel has confirmed plans to support LTE in the near future.
The video compares usable performance in several areas, including gaming and simple web browsing — scrolling and zooming. It seems the Snapdragon processor does it better than Intel Atom. Qualcomm also touts compatibility as among the main advantages of its platform. Some apps and games simply won’t work on Intel’s platform. What’s even more interesting is that Qualcomm’s comparison uses a Snapdragon S2 from circa 2010!


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Posted on : 23-01-2016 2:30
Car Parking Company Gatwick Sky Parking Being Investigated By Sussex Police.
Sussex Police is probing a car parking company near Gatwick Airport after customers complained about their cars being damaged while on holiday.
Gatwick Sky Parking, who has no connection with Gatwick Airport, is being investigated after several customers complained to police over thousands of pounds worth of damage to their vehicles. The damage includes scratches and cars covered in mud.
A spokesman from Gatwick Airport who has an approved operator list of car parking companies has confirmed Gatwick Sky Parking is not on that list.
Gatwick Sky Parking
The company being investigated claim the cars are parked in a secure area. Customers who book their services meet a representative at Gatwick Airport where the car is then driven away until the customer returns from holiday.
According to one customer who has made a formal complaint to Sussex police, his car received £7,000 worth of damage, which includes scratches on both back doors and his driver’s seat covered in mud.
The customer, Ian Mullen said, “I’m almost certain it was not parked in a secure environment like they say it was with CCTV cameras, etc., and I also have some deep suspicions it had been used by individuals.”
Another customer who made a complaint to the police said her car cost her £2,000 to have repaired. She explained the car had four scratches on the bonnet.
Mirriam Nichols said: “When you pay your money you expect your car to be looked after and not returned in this state.”
The investigation by Sussex Police continues.
UK Airport Car Parks
We can assure all of our clients that every single one of the car parks we offer on our website have been vetted by the relevant providers. Also the on site car parks are vetted by the airport themselves.
Our advise to anybody booking a Meet & Greet service (or even any type of airport parking) would be to look out for the Park Mark award. See our blog post regarding this police accreditation.


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Latest eCommerce News - Inside Retail Asia
How biometrics in retail can create deeper customer engagement.
JD has developed a partnership with Chinese retailer Better Life as part of its Retail as a Service strategy.
Memebox is relaunching its e-commerce business in the US after a year on hold.
E-commerce will account for 31.4 per cent of total Asia-Pacific retail spending by 2020, predicts Mintel.
Southeast Asian online shoppers are leading the world when it comes to spending on shopping apps.
In a strategic move, Google buys into JD to boost its Asian influence.
Japanese used-goods trading app Mercari is seeking to raise up to US$1.2 billion via an IPO to fund overseas expansion.
“Embrace change,” Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang told delegates to the Consumer Goods Forum Global Summit in Singapore this morning.
Online fashion brand Pomelo has unveiled its first sustainable collection, Purpose by Pomelo.
As more South Korean consumers opt to buy through websites, complaints related to direct foreign purchases are also rising.
Spendless Cosmetics founder Leza Parker talks of her journey from stay-at-home mum to running a US$50 million online beauty business.
Tmall says it has extended its upcoming 618 midyear sales to several markets across the Asia-Pacific.


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The brand will appoint insolvency firm FTS Recovery to help secure an investor to refinance its debt or find a buyer for the business.
From Christopher Kane to S.S. Daley, the designers showing at the tail end of London fashion week found beauty in bleak times.
From Simone Rocha to Richard Quinn, key shows on either side of the Queen’s funeral grappled with darkness and light, writes Susanna Lau.
London Fashion Week was a more regional affair this season, but the city’s young talents held the fort, punching well above their weight, reports Susanna Lau.
How the trio behind the London label navigated a split with Kering and beat the pandemic by betting on merch line More Joy.


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HOYS organisers say they are “50-50” on whether to keep the new six-day format at next year’s event, writes Flora Watkins.
For the first time, HOYS started on a Tuesday this year (4 October) to accommodate the Express Eventing final.
But concerns have been raised that the addition of a sixth day diluted, rather than increased, the show’s audience.
One trader with a stand in the retail village told H&H that business was very quiet on the Tuesday.
“It was so dead, we might as well not have bothered,” she said.
But Helena Pettit, managing director of Grandstand Media – which runs HOYS – said the audience was up on last year.
“We don’t have the final figures yet,” she told H&H. “But we are ahead of last year.
“I would say that we have grown the audience from Wednesday to Sunday – and attracted a certain amount of new people on the Tuesday for the Express Eventing competition.”
Grandstand Media will now review this year’s show and seek feedback from competitors, members of the public and Express Eventing.
Ms Pettit said it would then make a decision on whether to keep the sixth day.
“It’s a great addition to the show. We need to look at the cost implications – but I wouldn’t rule it out,” she added.
This news story was first published in the current issue of Horse & Hound (13 October, 2011)


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By Chaitanya Mallapur
Just 62 individuals had the same wealth as 3.5 billion people- the bottom half of humanity- in 2015, according to a new report, An Economy For The 1%, by global advocacy Oxfam.
This figure is down from 388 individuals as recently as 2010. The wealth of the richest 62 people has risen 44 percent in the five years since 2010, an increase of $542 billion (Rs.24,66,100 crore) to $1.76 trillion (Rs.1,07,36,000 crore), which is 86 percent ($2.05 trillion) of India’s GDP in 2014.
The wealth of the bottom half fell by just over $1 trillion in the same period, a drop of 41 percent.
This scenario is a reminder of the aphorism “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”, a commonly used socialist criticism of capitalism. The findings provide some context to the forthcoming January 20 World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos with the theme: Mastering The Fourth Industrial Revolution.
“Had inequality within countries not grown during 1990 and 2010, an extra 200 million people would have escaped poverty. That could have risen to 700 million had poor people benefited more than the rich from economic growth,” the Oxfam report said.
“There is no getting away from the fact that the big winners in our global economy are those at the top,” the Oxfam report said. The poorest half of the world’s population received one percent of the total increase in global wealth, while half of that increase has gone to the top one percent since the onset of the 21st century.
In China, the richest one percent own a third of its wealth, while the poorest 25 percent own one percent, according to a recent study conducted by the Peking University’s Institute of Social Sciences.
“Our economic system is heavily skewed in their favor (the rich), and arguably increasingly so,” said the Oxfam report. “Far from trickling down, income and wealth are instead being sucked upwards at an alarming rate. Once there, an ever more elaborate system of tax havens and an industry of wealth managers ensure that it stays there, far from the reach of ordinary citizens and their government.”
How wealth is spirited away to tax havens
Nine of ten companies, of 200 analyzed, are based in at least one tax haven. Corporate investment in tax havens in 2014 was nearly four times larger than that in 2001, according to Oxfam’s analysis.
One recent estimate is that $7.6 trillion of individual wealth more than the combined gross GDP of the UK and Germany is currently held offshore, the Oxfam report said.
Similarly, around 30 percent wealth of Africa’s rich (around $500 billion) is held offshore, leading to a tax-revenue loss of nearly $14 billion to African countries.
The gender pay gap is also quite evident 53 of 62 world’s richest people are men. Women make up the majority of the world’s low-paid workers, concentrated in the most precarious jobs, the report said.
In India, the pay of CEOs skyrockets
The CEO of India’s top information technology firm makes 416 times the salary of a typical employee in the company, the Oxfam report said.
Indian lawmakers passed a disclosure mandate in 2013, requiring pay ratios of CEOs to be made public, according to this report by the PricewaterhouseCoopers consultancy. India’s stock market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), is now releasing the first set of such data, the Oxfam report said.
The top executive at ITC, the country’s largest cigarette manufacturer, for example, is paid 439 times the median salary for employees at his company, said the Oxfam analysis, quoting this report from Quartz, a portal.
India has only 42,800 people with a declared income exceeding Rs.1 crore; that is 0.1 percent of 35 million Indian tax payers, as then finance minister P. Chidambaram mentioned in his 2013-14 budget speech. India has 172 million people below the poverty line, IndiaSpend reported earlier; we also reported how wealth is increasing in India but so is inequality.
What the pharma industry one of the world’s most profitable has wrought
The pharmaceutical sector, one of the most profitable industries on earth, strongly protects intellectual property rights (IPR), which has paved the way for 90 billionaires.
The report explains how pharmaceutical companies in the US pressure their own government and through it, the Indian government and Indian pharma companies, to honor IPRs. For instance, pharmaceutical companies spent over $228 million on lobbying in Washington in 2014.
In India, patient groups, civil society organizations and government have challenged pharma giants for access to cheap medicines.
For instance, patient pressure groups claim that India has imported only small quantities of Onbrez (Indacaterol), a drug whose rights are owned by the Swiss multinational Novartis, whose drug could help as many as 30 million Indians suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder.
To meet the demand, Indian multinational company Cipla, based in Mumbai, began manufacturing its own version of Onbrez and selling it for a fraction of the original price. (IANS, IndiaSpend.org)
Great historic events that have shaped the world and changed the outlines of countries are often not recorded in memory, or so we think. Wars made sure to destroy evidence and heritage, and the ones who survived told the tale of what really happened. Folklore, albeit through oral tradition kept alive many such stories, hidden in verse, limericks, and rhymes.
Ringa-ringa-roses, a common playtime rhyme among children across the world, is an example of folklore that has survived for many centuries. It tells the story of the The Great Plague of London which ravaged the city between 1665-1666.
The Plague broke out from improper disposal of garbage and poor sewage conditions. Fleas from the rats that lived in the sewers spread the disease that killed more than half of London's population. Many people fled from their homes as there was no medicine available for those who were infected.
Beak-shaped masks worn during the Great Plague of London Image source: wikimedia commons
It was around this time that masks began to be invented. The first masks were shaped like beaks, and were worn not to protect the wearer from the disease, but to the prevent them from being able to smell the decay and death around them, which they called 'miasma'. The beaks were filled with floral herbs that allowed doctors and nurses to tend to the sick without being reviled from the smell.
Children are often seen forming circles by holding hands and reciting loudly,
Pockets full of posies
We all fall down"
An illustration of the Great Plague of London, 1665 Image source: wikimedia commons
When the last line is sung, they break the circle and fall down. The roses and posies are believed to be the preferred fragrances inside the masks, and a single sneeze (a-tishoo) was enough to infect the one who was exposed to the disease. Consequently, they fell down, ill, and later died.
An alternative version of this rhyme is sung about the fall of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the aftermath of World War II. The roses and posies are interchanged with geranium and uranium, to symbolise what was used in the atomic bomb. But this version is not as famous the original.
Keywords: Rhymes, Ringa-ringa-roses, Great Plague of London, WWII, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Folklore
In modern times, many social movements aim to bring reform to the society we live in, on the basis of certain existing patterns. Patriarchy is something that many aim to cleanse our cultures of, to usher in the era of social and gender equality. Despite all these so-called movements, in southern India, certain societies that patronise matriarchy have existed since before India's independence. The Nairs and Ezhavas of Kerala, and Bunts and Billavas of Karnataka are matrilineal societies that continue to thrive in a patriarchal country.
Kerala remains separate from the rest of India in many ways. Be it literacy policy, form of government, or cultural practices, this state does not always conform to the ideal that India is known for. Even so with their social structure. Certain tribes have remained matrilineal, where the decision-making power rests with the eldest female of the family.
The Nairs and Ezhavas of Kerala, and Bunts and Billavas of Karnataka are matrilineal societies that continue to thrive in a patriarchal country. Image source: wikimedia commons
A male member, who is the close confidante of the matriarch is chosen. He plays a crucial role in representing the male members of his family, and his opinion is highly valued. He is called karavanan. The men reside in separate rooms or in separate houses, and do not interfere in the upbringing of children. Property is also passed down along the lineage of the eldest female. Among the Nairs, matriarchy is more prominently adhered to than the Ezhavas, who have some patrilocal connections.
In Karnataka, the Bunts and Billavas belong to the Tuluva ethnic group. They are also a predominantly matriarchal society, founded on the belief in a legend. Their matrilineal descent is known as Aliyasantana.
The story is told of a demon who threatened to destroy a kingdom if the king did not sacrifice his sons, but the king's sister comes forward to offer her children in sacrifice for the sake of the kingdom. The demon is touched and does not destroy the city. Since then, the kingdom, or the property is inherited through female lineage.
In Karnataka, the Bunts and Billavas belong to the Tuluva ethnic group. They are also a predominantly matriarchal society, founded on the belief in a legend. Image source: wikimedia commons
In the recent past, many of these matriarchal societies have been reduced to matrilineal societies by certain governmental laws. They fall under the patriarchal scheme of the rest of the state but have reserved the right to pass on property and heritage through the female line. In the North east of India, matriarchal dominance is far more resilient than the south.
Keywords: Bunts, Billava, Nair, Ezhava, Aliyasantana, Matrilineal, South India, Karnataka, Kerala
Apple inc. Is an American multinational tech firm specialized in consumer electronics, computer programs, and internet services founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in 1976 to manufacture Wozniak's Apple iComputer. It is the world's top tech company in turnover (totaling $274.5 billion in 2020) and its most valuable corporation. Apple is the fourth-largest PC seller by unit sales and the fourth-largest smartphone manufacturer in the world.
Apple has revealed a slew of new products at a special launch event that has been long-awaited. On the day of the live event, Apple announced the iPad mini, Apple Watch Series 7, iPhone 13 mini, and iPhone 13, as well as the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max.
Apple has revealed a slew of new products at a special launch event that has been long-awaited. | Photo by Daniel Romero on Unsplash
In the first major product announcement during the event, Apple introduced the newest edition of the iPad and a 5G-capable iPad Mini.
iPad: The 10.2-inch iPad is equipped with a solid A13 processor that delivers 20 percent quicker performance than the preceding version. According to Apple, it is now three times faster than a Chromebook. A new 12MP ultra-wide camera with Center Stage, which utilizes machine learning to optimize the front-facing camera during FaceTime video chats, as well as more incredible accessory support, including compatibility with the first-generation Apple Pencil, are among the new features. For 64GB of storage, the iPad costs $329.
iPad Mini: In addition to reduced borders and more rounded edges, the 8.3-inch iPad mini also has improved front and back cameras. A liquid retina display, USB-C compatibility, magnetic support for the Apple Pencil, an enhanced speaker system, and new hues such as pink and purple are all features of the new Apple iPad Mini. The starting price is $499.
In the first major product announcement during the event, Apple introduced the newest edition of the iPad and a 5G-capable iPad Mini. | Photo by Leone Venter on Unsplash
The other major unveiled products include:
iPhone 13 and other variants: The iPhone 13 range is almost identical to the iPhone 12 lineup, with a 5.4-inch iPhone 13 Mini, a 6.1-inch iPhone 13, a 6.1-inch iPhone 13 Pro, and a 6.7-inch iPhone 13 Pro Max. It was also revealed that the Watch Series 7 has a smaller "S7" processor, which may allow for a bigger battery or other components to be housed in a smaller footprint. The gadgets have a revolutionary design that includes a dual-camera system, placed diagonally. Apple's iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini have longer-lasting batteries than the previous generation of devices. In addition, Apple claims that the iPhone 13 will have a battery life that is 2.5 hours longer than the iPhone 12, and the iPhone 13 mini will have a battery life that is 1.5 hours longer. A more energy-efficient display, an upgraded 5G chip, and functionality called "Cinematic Mode," similar to the famous Portrait mode function but is only available for movies, are among the other enhancements. The A15 Bionic chip present in the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini is also used in the 6.1-inch iPhone 13 Pro and 6.7-inch iPhone 13 Pro Max, also 6.1-inch devices. However, it also has a five-core CPU, which promises graphics that are 50% quicker than previous models. Other notable features of the Pro devices include a brilliant Super Retna XDR display with a higher refresh rate and long-lasting battery life. Now, for the price, it will start at $699 for the iPhone 13 mini with 128 GB of storage, $799 for the iPhone 13 with 128 GB of storage, and the Pro and Pro Max have starting prices of $999 $1,099, respectively.
Apple Watch Series 7: The new Apple Watch Series 7, which is smaller and has a larger screen than its previous model, was introduced by Apple on Wednesday. There is a 20% increase in screen size over Series 6 on the new watch. A complete keyboard that you can touch or slide to write out text messages can show 50% more text. It starts at $399.
Keywords: Apple, iPad, iPad Mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone Mini, Apple event 2021


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More old baseball imemorabilia is now under scrutiny as matches are found to items taken from the files of big city libraries.
The Boston Herald reported in its Thursday edition that an 1889 Boston baseball team photo sold in the auction of memorabilia from the famed collection of Barry Halper ten years ago was stolen property.
The Boston Red Stockings photo shows up on a Boston Public Library list of 40 items that turned up missing years ago. The photo sold for $6,235 in the much-publicized sale conducted by Sotheby’s.
Several pieces of vintage baseball memorabilia have surfaced recently that appear on lists of items stolen from libraries in New York and Boston years ago. There is no evidence thus far to tie any current or former hobbyists to the thefts.
The FBI began investigating how stolen memorabilia wound up in the auction market after letters tied to baseball pioneer Harry Wright were discovered among the listings at this week’s All-Star Fan Fest Auction. The letters were reported to have been among items reported missing from the New York Public Library.
Last week, the Herald also reported that E.B. Sutton’s 1879 baseball contract was among papers sold in the 1999 Halper auction that are on the list of pilfered items.
According to the newspaper, Halper had also claimed in news articles that he owned the will of Sox Hall of Famer Tommy McCarthy. The will was one of several stolen from a probate court.


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Hyundai domestic sales up 36.71 pc in April
The company's cumulative sales (including exports) during April were up 47.77 per cent at 40,001 units, compared to 27,069 units in the same month a year ago, Hyundai Motor India said in a statement.
Its exports for the month accounted for 18,500 units, compared to 11,341 units during the same month previous year.
HMIL sold 17,334 units of hatchbacks Santro, Getz and i10, 2,668 units of Accent and Verna, 3 units of Elantra, 50 units of Sonata and 9 units of its SUV during April.
"HMIL sales for April had been robust with a very healthy growth and we feel that the budget has been a contributory factor," company's Senior Vice-President (Marketing and Sales) Arvind Saxena said.
The company's 'i10' has done exceedingly well and it accounted for over 50,000 units in six months, he added.