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US: Doctors urge caffeine limits on energy drinks - report
Doctors want caffeine levels to be restricted in energy drinks
A group of doctors has called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to bring in a limit on caffeine content for energy drinks, according to reports.
The 18 public health experts wrote in a letter this week that energy drinks makers have failed to prove their ingredients are safe, especially for children and adolescents, the New York Times reported. The group wants regulators to limit caffeine content and for manufacturers to display caffeine content on labels.
Asked to comment on the report, the American Beverage Association told just-drinks yesterday (20 March) caffeine is a safe ingredient and most energy drinks consumed in the US contain less caffeine than home-brewed coffee.
“If their issue is caffeine, then these doctors should look at all sources of dietary caffeine, because it is a widely available ingredient found in many foods and beverages and certainly not unique to our industry’s products,” a spokesperson said.
Earlier this year, Canada's health regulators capped energy drinks at 180mg of caffeine for a single serve container.
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More than 100 truck drivers will rally at Coles in Sydney's CBD to protest over the retailer's supply chain practices.
The group, headed by the Transport Workers Union (TWU), will march about 10.30am on Thursday to protest over "relentless pressure" from the retail giant.
A TWU spokesman said evidence would be revealed that shows systematic breaches of Heavy Vehicle laws in the Coles supply chain.
At the protest, truckies will release 330 balloons to commemorate those killed every year in truck crashes on Australian roads.
© AAP 2021

domain: news


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Blue Donkey Intelligent Telemarketing is one of the first local businesses supporting the Cambridgeshire Chambers of Commerce’s local business champion initiative, which aims to rebuild the region’s economy, help local business and global trade.
The initiative is open to all businesses – from the smallest independent micro-business to the largest exporter – whether they are a chamber member or not.
Sureya Landini, founder and managing director, said: “Being recognised as a local business champion is very important to us – especially since we have employed people in the region for 22 years.”
Find out more here.
The post Blue Donkey signs up to Cambridgeshire Chambers of Commerce’s new programme appeared first on Blue Donkey.


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While Apple is being its usual secretive self when it comes to the new iPhone's specs, top Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo from KGI Securities released a note on Monday with his top predictions for the new model and for the two updated models. However, he does not clarify on whether the Touch ID sensor will be placed in an alternative location, or won't be around at all.
The rumor about Apple's next iPhone hero being able to scan one's face is not entirely without precedent. The technology is described as super-speedy, scanning a person's face and unlocking the iPhone in a matter of "a few hundred milliseconds".
The analyst predicts that the iPhone 8 will also feature a virtual Home button, but not a fingerprint scanner.
In addition to the face unlock feature, Apple is testing next-generation iPhone prototypes that include a dedicated chip for processing artificial intelligence tasks and screens that can display content at a higher frame rate.
Lastly, a separate report from the Korea Herald claims that Apple is close to striking a deal with LG to make OLED displays for iPhones in the future. Much debate has ensued with regard to where the Home button's displaced Touch ID fingerprint scanner will end up.
Chicago PD, ATF team up to stop spread of illegal guns
Meanwhile, Chicago police say crime in the city has decreased from 2016, when there were 4,331 shooting victims and 762 homicides. A law enforcement official told CNN Friday that the eight Federal Bureau of Investigation employees have left the city.
Apple is said to be seeking to ideal an in-display fingerprint sensor in time for the iPhone 8, but recent reports have suggested progress is may not be ready in time, without causing long delays.
This adds credibility to other reports that showed that Apple has been working on a variant that features a fingerprint reader relegated to the back of the phone, below the Apple logo.
Apple will bring three new models to market this year. The analyst says Apple plans to release three new iPhones in 2017, including 4.7- and 5.5-inch models with LCD displays and a completely redesigned 5.8-inch iPhone with an OLED display.
To replace the Touch ID sensor, this 3D scanning feature would need to be faster and more accurate than its predecessor.


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The India Internet World (IIW), an annual exhibition of Internet industry held in Delhi this past week, displayed all this and much more.
From netpreneurs to venture capitalists (VCs) to financial analysts to management gurus there was an amazing unanimity on the emerging thumb rules of Internet business:
- The Net is not a new business, it's a new way of doing old business.
- New economy (loose term for IT and Internet) will not survive without some handholding by the old economy (traditional businesses).
- A good idea is no more the most important ingredient for success. It's a good execution team.
- The Net has made consumers infinitesimally more powerful than producers. Markets will have to come to customers, and not vice-versa.
|In the Net business, futurists become historians in less than a year.|
But when it came to talk of the industry - as a whole, the verdict was indisputable. As India Today, and many others, predicted some four months ago, less than 10 percent of India's B2C portals - portals selling things directly to consumer - will survive by 2002. Indiainfo.com is widely reported to be in dire straits. Footforward.com, one among India's 20-plus women's portals, sold itself out to rediff.com.
"The shake-out has already begun. I get at least one offer a month for buyout of a dotcom mired in financial mess," says Andrey Purushottam, managing director of asiacontent.com, a company running portals for global giants like Cnet and MTV across eight Asian countries. Indya.com CEO Sunil Lulla agrees: "The process of flushing out has begun. The days of lavish and foolish spending by dotcoms are over."
"Old economy companies are moving into dotcom at the rate of knots."
Ranjit Limaye, CEO, IBM India
But Net pundits aver that the number of dotcoms ready to exit is far more than the number ready to enter. This is exactly the opposite of the situation just six months ago.
Says Arvind Mahajan, partner (corporate strategy) with consultancy firm Price water house Coopers: "Many dotcoms in India are eager to exit, it's just that they don't have an exit option." The conclusion is inescapable. More Internet companies will shut down rather than be bought over or acquired.
In this milieu, mergers - in the real sense of the word - will be even more rare. Reason? A merger implies coming together of two companies having complementary synergies. Whereas in India, explains Pradeep Kar, chairman of Microland Group, "It's the financial necessity, not the business complementarity that is driving the acquisitions right now."
"I get at least one offer a month from a dotcom ready to sell itself."
Andrey Purushottam, Managing Director, asiacontent.com
But then matching the deluge of dotcoms was the profusion of VCs. Any businessman having spare cash in hand became a VC, unmindful of whether or not they understood or could evaluate Internet business. Says Arun Jethmalani, an Internet observer: "Not only there were too many dotcoms, there were too many VCs as well."
The result: fears of overvaluations have transformed to - believe it or not - fears of undervaluation. Says Purushottam: "If earlier the haste was to show higher user base - called eyeballs in Net jargon - now there is an undue rush to show profitability." Whatever may be the cause, there is little dispute that at least 50 percent of dotcoms will not survive beyond the year 2000.
"The flushing out has begun. The days of lavish spending are over."
Sunil Lulla, CEO, Indya.com
Of course, the fatality rate will vary across the dotcom spectrum which currently covers B2C, B2B, C2C and C2B ("Doubt Com", July 24), but almost every single notion related to the dotcom business will be altered.
Take, for instance, e-commerce, till recently touted as the safest of all Internet businesses. The claim seemed plausible. Put lots of product details on your website, tie up with a company or a dealer, offer a freebie or two, and orders will pour in. After all, you are saving people the hassle of running round the market and checking out different models and prices.
But the concept hasn't taken off, not because of the apparent reason of minuscule Internet-user base, but because of a fundamental behavioural hurdle. Most Net surfers are using the Internet to check prices and select models. When it comes to buying the product, they go out to the shops. Professes Mohanbir Sawhney, head of technology and e-commerce at the US based Kellog Graduate School of Management: "Human behaviour doesn't change as fast as technology does. Many Internet businesses ignored this fact at their peril."
Then there is the phenomenon of the empire striking back. The giants of the so-called old economy are expanding into Internet in a big way, steamrolling some of the pure dotcom companies and blurring the distinction between the old and the new economies.
If a portal existed simply as an intermediary between producers and consumers - say, a website selling different brands of television - it can easily be snuffed out if the producer sets up its own portal and reaches the consumer directly. Warns Ranjit Limaye, CEO of IBM India: "The old economy companies are moving into dot com at the rate of knots."
Many dot com companies are already adjusting to the reality by exploring and expanding the common ground with brick and mortar companies. India properties.com, which defines itself as a real estate e-market, is working aggressively with property brokers, construction firms and architects to create a community of all those involved in real estate. Explains Naresh Malkani, e-managing director of the portal: "We provide a new means of doing old business. We complement, not substitute, the existing players of the real-estate business."
Star TV has recently bought a 20 percent stake in India properties, which along with the promoters' money, should suffice for the next 18 months. By then Malkani hopes to start making profits. That may be a tall order in the Internet business where six months define a generation and, as Sawhney says, futurists turn historians in less than a year. But then that's the lure of a business so refreshingly powerful as the Internet.
"Net companies forgot that habits don't change as fast as technology."
M. Sawhney, Professor, Kellog Graduate School of Management
The big Net players are now betting on year 2003 when the Internet is expected to reach 20 million people in India, up from less than three million now. Aiding such expansion would be the spread of the Internet outside the personal computer and into television, cellular phones, palm tops and other hand-held devices.
Predicts John Sculley, the marketing czar who had led Pepsi and Apple Computer to trailblazing success: "The Internet will empower consumers, redefine work and revolutionalise technology, all at digital speed."
The combination of technology and high user base will generate enough income - and hopefully profits - to justify millions being poured into the Internet businesses. If that sounds like a big gamble, remember the Internet right now is 90 percent gambling, 10 percent planning.


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Beginning today, the price of a stamp has increased by two cents to a grand total of 49 cents. Any new purchases of Forever Stamps will now cost customers 49 cents each although any Forever Stamps bought before today will increase in value and cover the cost of mailing a letter — requiring no action by you.
This stamp price increase clocks in at 4.2%. Although 2 cents and a few percent don’t sound like much, when Forever Stamps are purchased in rolls of 100, the increase will cost consumers and businesses an extra two dollars. Organizations that depend on mailing standard letters and consumers who buy lots of stamps will be impacted the most.
Other postage prices are changing too
Discounted “metered mail” letters will actually go down by half a cent (this is usually reserved for businesses and bulk mailers). First Class mail “flats” will increase by 4 cents and settle at 98 cents. Postcards will remain the same price and the cheapest way to send mail at only 34 cents.
The price of a stamp before today’s increase
The price of a stamp has actually been exactly this high before. In a strange and unprecedented move, the price of a stamp actually went down in April of 2016. It was 49 cents at that time too and the change last year caused the price to settle at 47 cents after pressure in Washington forced the U.S. Postal Service, which controls the price of a stamp, to move the price down. In other words, just before this increase, the price of a stamp was 47 cents.
Here’s a summary of the recent changes:
- As of January 22nd, 2017: 49 cents per stamp
- As of April 10th, 2016: 47 cents per stamp
- As of May 31st, 2015: 49 cents per stamp
The last time our stamp price was 49 cents was considered an “exigent” increase permitted by regulatory agencies largely due to the U.S. economic recession. We’ve explained the larger history of stamp prices in a previous post.
Why is the price of a stamp changing so much?
This stamp price hike has been inevitable and we’ve known about it ever since the USPS announced it in October. The U.S. Postal Service is allowed to raise the price of a stamp to keep pace with inflation. That’s the rationale the USPS cited in their press release explaining the price change.
But behind the scenes, the USPS has been eager to make price changes upward because of the rising cost of maintaining their business. The huge burden that makes the mailing service challenging to maintain is a ballooning retiree health benefits program that costs billions per year. For bureaucratic reasons, their retirement health program isn’t integrated with Medicare and hasn’t been revised by Congress. Additionally, technology like email, unpredictable oil prices and the increased competition from other services like Amazon and FedEx have made it hard for the USPS to balance their budget. In 2016, they posted a massive $5.6 billion net loss. Any price increases, including adjustments of just a few cents, can help make up for this loss.


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High Speed Trains Will Run to Dunhuang since September 20, 2018
Published on Sep.19th, 2018
According to the latest press conference, high speed trains will start to run to Dunhuang from September 20, 2018 on. The planning starting cities include Lanzhou, Jiuquan, and Jiayuguan. The open of these bullet trains will bring great conveniences to passengers traveling to Dunhuang.
||Ticket Fare for Second Class Seat
|Lanzhou – Dunhuang
|Jiuquan – Dunhuang
|Jiayuguan – Dunhuang
High Speed Train Tickets to/from Hong Kong on Sale since September 10, 2018
Published on Sep.11th, 2018
From September 10, 2018 on, the tickets of high speed trains to/from Hong Kong have been on sale in both Hong Kong West Kowloon Station, railway stations in Mainland China and 12306.cn, the official website of China Railway Corporation. TravelChinaGuide has started providing the booking service on the same day. Those bullet trains will start running since September 23 of 2018, connecting Hong Kong with Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Kunming, Guilin and many others in Mainland China.
Since the tickets were released, more than 6,000 tickets had been sold out on the first day. What's more, the tickets in early October are in short supply due to the Chinese National Day holiday lasting from Oct. 1 to 7. Passengers who want to experience these high speed trains are suggested to book tickets as early as possible.


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NFT metaverse game The Sandbox nets $93 million in a new funding round
The Sandbox, an Animoca Brands subsidiary and an Ethereum-based NFT metaverse platform, has secured $93 million in its Series B funding round. A report unveiled this news earlier today, noting that the Hong Kong-based company seeks to use the funds to expand its metaverse economy beyond gaming. Reportedly, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 spearheaded this funding alongside other notable investors.
According to the report, this funding round became SoftBank Vision Fund 2’s second investment in a company that generates its own crypto. Other investors in the financing round included Animoca Brands, True Global Ventures, Galaxy Interactive, SCB 10X, Polygon Studios, Liberty City Ventures, LG Technology Ventures, and Samsung Next, among others.
Explaining why SoftBank Vision Fund 2 decided to invest in The SandBox, Aaron Wong, an investor at SoftBank Investment Advisers, said the company uses the blockchain and decentralized governance to offer its users control. He added that SoftBank believes The Sandbox is creating an open universe, which unlocks new economic opportunities by empowering people to monetize their creations.
While The Sandbox declined to disclose its valuation after securing the $93 million, the platform’s native token, SAND, has been making moon shots and currently has a market cap of $2.49 billion. At the time of writing, SAND is changing hands at $2.74 after gaining 27.05% in 24 hours and 228% over the past week.
Big plans ahead
Detailing how the company seeks to spend the funds obtained from the Series B financing round, The Sandbox’s COO, Sebastien Borget, said the investment would be instrumental in helping the Sandbox creators’ economy expand from gaming into fashion, architecture, and virtual concerts.
Borget added that,
We are creating this open metaverse. We are positioning the Sandbox against those giant tech companies who are claiming the metaverse to be theirs, offering an alternative where users are first.
The Series B financing round came after The Sandbox completed its Series A funding round a little over a year ago. Since then, the company has recorded significant growth in various verticals. According to the company, the platform has recorded an NFT transaction volume of $144 million despite the game not being live yet.
Apart from the transaction volume, The Sandbox has 12,000 unique LAND plot owners and 500,000 users who have connected a crypto wallet to its platform.
Forging strategic partnerships along the way
With the game’s alpha testing version set to drop before the end of the year, the company has already partnered with several celebrities, including ardent NFT collector Snoop Dogg. These celebrities will host an exclusive party for 1,000 users within the game. The Sandbox has also teamed up with The Walking Dead, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Atari, and cryptocurrency exchange Binance.


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Specifically in the logistics industry, several so-called mega-deals led to a near year-on-year doubling of M&A value to $173bn, according to data from PwC. And the deals are likely to continue.
Prominent among the 2015 deals: FedEx’s $4.8bn grab for TNT; XPO Logistics’ acquisitions of Norbert Dentressangle ($3.5bn) and Con-Way ($3bn); Japan Post’s $5.1bn purchase of Australia’s Toll Group; and Kintetsu World Express buying Singapore’s APL Logistics for $1.2bn from shipping line owner NOL, which was itself bought out a few months later by France’s CMA CGM in a $2.4bn deal.
Yes, deals are going to continue over the next few years. Driven by necessity as margins continue to fall, there is still room for consolidation in the industry and at least three or four of the top 50 companies are engaged in discussions right now. Money coming out of Asia, especially China, to buy developed market assets is likely to be a rising phenomenon. And as well as more small and mid-sized M&As, the last mile fulfillment and the logistics technology and software sectors will see increasing deal activity.
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The PSVR2 is Sony’s latest foray into virtual reality, but its arrival on the market hasn’t gone exactly to plan. Worse still, PSVR2’s authentication tools have been hacked, opening up new possibilities for gamers who want to use PSVR2 with their PC.
One of its major downsides to PSVR 2 is that it doesn’t work with desktop computers as smoothly as some of its competitors, such as the Meta Quest. That’s where iVRy comes in, a Steam app that lets you force the use of various VR headsets in other programs, including the first PSVR, your smartphone, and more.
A NeoGAF thread has revealed that the hardware authentication tools for the PSVR2 have been completely hacked. This means that PSVR2 can now be used on PC, although there are a few hurdles to jump through. iVRy posted a tweet showing a small “PSVR2 Authenticated!” message, but noted that they couldn’t reveal how they got there because Sony would be within its legal right to hunt them down.
Read also – The best games for VR headsets in 2023: our selection
PSVR 2 may soon be compatible with PSVR 1 games
The iVRy team also indicated that if the encryption has been broken, it will take some time to create a hardware driver. which will allow PSVR2 to retroactively work with VR titles outside of the PS5 natively. This process is complex, which is why you will have to be patient. Team comments suggest that if hardware compatibility is possibleit will take some time to understand and implement.
In the meantime, this development opens up new possibilities for gamers who want to use the PSVR2 with their PC. It remains to be seen if Sony will release a driver that allows the new PSVR2 to work with VR titles other than the PS5 natively. or if the support will be provided by hackers ready to overcome a large number of obstacles.
Unfortunately for Sony, its headset is already a real commercial failure, so we imagine that the manufacturer could finally give in and open up backwards compatibility to attract more players.


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Instagram Introduces Option To Hide Likes
Giving users more control over their online experience.
Instagram now allows users to hide public “like counts” on their posts. The app officially announced the move after months of testing the feature on select accounts, a change that left the internet divided.
“We tested hiding like counts to see if it might depressurize people’s experience on Instagram,” the Facebook-owned platform explained in a blog post. “What we heard from people and experts was that not seeing like counts was beneficial for some, and annoying to others, particularly because people use like counts to get a sense for what’s trending or popular, so we’re giving you the choice.”
To apply the feature to your posts, simply tap the three dots next to a photo of video you’ve shared and select “Hide Like Count.” To turn off likes on other users’ posts, visit the new “Posts” section in Settings and toggle “Hide Likes and View Counts.”
Head to Instagram’s blog to learn more about hiding likes.


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While traces of Cortana, the digital voice assistant for Windows Phone, has been spotted in the Windows 10 Technical Preview before, Microsoft is yet to officially announce Cortana’s arrival on PC. The latest release of Windows 10 Technical Preview, build number 9879, however, gives us a concrete proof of Cortana’s imminent launch on the desktop.
Last week, Microsoft released Windows 10 Technical Preview build 9879 to those who have opted for a fast release cadence. If you roam around the zPC settings app (Check the ‘privacy’ section of the settings app), you will see a reference of Cortana there. The description below ‘Cortana and speech personalization reads, “When you use Cortana or speech, your personalization data is used to improve speed recognition, dictation, and text-to-speech. You can go to Bing to manage your cloud data and also clear your local data below. Turn off Cortana and speech to disable personalization.”
There’re a couple of more references of Cortana here and there. For instance, there is a “CortanaUI” shortcut which would supposedly help you launch the personal assistant. As you would hope, there is nothing much you can do with these settings just yet — that is, Cortana isn’t functional yet. But be rest assured that the company is planning to add the voice assistant to the PC.
Microsoft will release the Windows 10 sometime next year. The company will, until then, keep adding new features to the operating system and roll them out to users who have signed up for Windows Insider Preview Program. Interestingly enough, earlier this week, Microsoft software and services chief Julie Larson-Green hinted at the company’s plans to introduce Cortana on “other platforms.”


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Chase has changed some terms on their site that will have a huge impact on the Sapphire Reserve's travel credit for new cardmembers.
Chase sent out emails this morning to some people, myself included, with a great increased offer on the Chase Ink Preferred card.
Chase sent out emails earlier today with a new offer for referral bonuses to get people to sign up for their new Chase Ink Preferred business card.
The United MileagePlus Explorer card has an increased targeted bonus of 75,000 United miles plus a $50 statement credit.
The Chase Hyatt credit card has an increased offer that matches the highest ever public offer on the card.
A new survey reveals that Chase is considering adding two exciting new 5X categories to their massmarket Freedom card.
There might be some hope for many of us who are way over 5/24. It's not guaranteed but there's a chance that you can...
Chase has brought back the popular 100K bonus on their co-branded British Airways credit card. It hasn't been around probably in more than a year.


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APPLE VALLEY • Pizza sales are booming for one local pizzeria as hundreds of Southland soccer families converge on the town to participate in weekend tournaments.
Kathie Martin, the town's spokeswoman, said the tournaments held at the Lenny Brewster Sports Center on Otoe Road flood the town with visitors ready to shop, eat and fill up their tanks.
Nathan Clark, 20, supervisor for Round Table Pizza on Dale Evans Parkway, said the recent tournaments have impacted sales tremendously and have prompted the restaurant to open an hour earlier.
"We've had to bring in extra employees to do prep work and to help out during the tournaments," Clark said. "We usually sell about 40 allyou-can-eat buffets, but we sold 190 on Sunday."
Clark, who loves the extra business and the ability to give employees more hours, said by the end of the day everybody has put in a solid day's work.
"It's not just us — the entire shopping center is busy," Clark said. "These tournaments are good for all the businesses in Apple Valley."
Round Table began seeing the increase the first weekend in January, and could continue to have healthy sales through April.
Joseph Ramos, recreation supervisor for the town's park and recreation department, said this year's tournaments are operated by Cal South and hosted by the High Desert Youth Soccer League and Apple Valley Soccer League's Apple Valley Storm club.
"Besides the local hosts, we have teams coming in from all over the High Desert and Inland Empire," Ramos said. "We estimate about 4,000 people a weekend."
Because of the increase in traffic, Martin said the town notifies local merchants to prepare them for additional business.
The cost to rent the sports facility, with its 11 soccer fields, is $557 day. A portion of the collected fee goes to the host league and toward park improvements, Ramos said. Parking is $5 per vehicle.
Over the past six years, tournaments at Lenny Brewster have grown from one to 10. Ramos said he believes the sports park itself is the drawing point.
"The facility and the amount of quality soccer fields, which are in fantastic condition, are the reasons we have so many people asking to play here," Ramos said. "We also have parking available around the park, unlike some places where you have to walk quite a way through a residential neighborhood to get to the fields."
Orlando Acevedo, the town's economic development manager, said the soccer tournaments add to the long list of events that bring people to Apple Valley.
"Statewide swim meets and summer concerts at Civic Center Park, coupled with the growing number of training programs at the Victor Valley College Public Safety Campus in north Apple Valley, demonstrate Apple Valley is emerging as a destination location," Acevedo said.
Acevedo said if anyone were to ask the soccer players or the public safety officers where they stay, many would reply that they are traveling 25 minutes for overnight accommodations, which would probably include shopping and dining.
Martin said visitors and their spending habits are factors considered in local-market surveys, which may call for the building of a hotel and other accommodations.
"The numbers of visitors we are seeing, upwards of thousands, and the consistency of the events throughout the year are just some of the data points we share with prospective retailers and hospitality groups as we market Apple Valley for commercial development," Acevedo said.
Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at 760-951-6227 or at RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com.
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Persona 3 and Jet Set Radio remakes reportedly leaked on Twitter
Uh oh, it appears a pair of upcoming SEGA remakes have been revealed on Twitter of all things.
A tweet, from user AVtoGAMEnoYAMI was posted on the long-running GamingLeaksAndRumours subreddit, and it certainly looks convincing.
Persona 3 and Jet Set Radio Remakes Leaked
The footage, which shows a much more graphically intense version of Persona 3's combat with Yukari attacking with a Persona behind her, was followed up with another tweet from the user suggesting that the footage was from a 2021 internal meeting at SEGA Japan.
How it's found its way onto the internet is anyone's guess, but the extended version that follows also includes a look at Sonic Frontiers (which has since been released) as well as what appears to be a Jet Set Radio Remake, too.
Are the Persona 3 and Jet Set Radio leaks to be believed?
Aside from the whiplash of the three soundtracks back-to-back-to-back, there's always a question over the veracity of these leaks - but (as reported by VGC), several outlets are confirming similar information, and one Twitter account has even spotted a P3RE.jp website domain that's registered to the same domain owner as Persona 5 Royal's official site (again, thanks VGC).
SEGA has reportedly been working on reboots, with a Crazy Taxi one likely according to reports around this time last year.
Persona 3 originally launched in 2006, and has since been ported to multiple consoles - including PS4, Switch, PC and Xbox versions early this year.
Jet Set Radio, on the other hand, saw ports to Xbox 360, PS3, Windows and Vita (along with mobile) back in 2012 - meaning it's certainly long overdue a comeback.


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Clare Machine Works Ltd. in Meteghan Centre is getting federal funding to develop an innovative tool for the oil and gas sector.
“It’s a re-bevelling and re-facing lathe,” Vince Stuart, the company’s owner, said Friday.
Stuart said the new lathe, which is in the prototype stage, is a hi-tech upgrade of a portable lathe he developed a few years ago to repair drill pipe collars on site.
“It uses smart technology,” he said of the new model.
The federal funding, through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, will be announced Monday by West Nova MP Greg Kerr at the Meteghan Centre business.
Stuart and ACOA spokesman Alex Smith wouldn’t disclose the amount of federal funding until Monday’s official announcement.
Stuart is the inventor of the Bait Savour, a time-delayed bait release box that fits inside a lobster trap.
Designed to reduce costly trap checking trip by fishermen, the invention won a $100,000 innovation prize in 2012 from Innovacorp, a provincial Crown corporation that helps finance Nova Scotia entrepreneurs.
Clare Machine Works was founded in 1972 by Stuart’s father, Arthur.
The company’s products include lobster and crab pot haulers, scallop drags and winches.
It also does general machine work, welding and hydraulic installations and troubleshooting.


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But Amazon has been testing its drones for years and performed the first public demo delivery in the US last year. Meanwhile, it continues to submit outlandish patents about its vision for the future of drone delivery, including one for a self-destructing drone that disassembles itself in an emergency and a delivery drone mothership of sorts that would act as a city’s central hub for package-carrying UAVs.
Twitch started in 2007 as a 24-hour live stream of co-founder Justin Kan’s life (he coined the term “lifecasting”) called Justin.tv, but it became very clear very quickly that live gaming content was more popular than pretty much anything else. In 2011, Twitch spun off gaming-centric channels as Twitch.tv, and it grew exponentially as online games and the technology to broadcast them live on the internet became more widespread and popular.
Bezos and those he’s hired over the years have been prescient about a vast number of shifts in how people spend money, buy products, and use the internet. But none of their predictions may have panned out quite as lucratively as Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud computing division that loans server space and other computing resources at massive profit margins.
Shop according to product. Woroch urges shoppers to wait to buy winter apparel and accessories until closer to the holidays or in early January. “Toys are best to buy in the first two weeks of December, based on price histories,” she says. “Gift wrap, decor, and other seasonal merchandise like pre-lit Christmas trees are a better buy after the holidays.”
That same year, the company launched Dash buttons for instant reordering of products like laundry detergent, and it’s more recently been investing in new services that let package-carrying couriers unlock the truck of your car and even your front door. Most recently, Amazon has signaled an intention to disrupt health care by purchasing online pharmaceutical startup PillPack. All of this has helped Amazon grow its North American retail operation at an unbelievable pace; annual sales for the division more than doubled from $50.8 billion in 2014 to $106.1 billion last year.
Amazon.com, Inc., doing business as Amazon (/ˈæməˌzɒn/), is an American electronic commerce and cloud computing company based in Seattle, Washington, that was founded by Jeff Bezos on July 5, 1994. The tech giant is the largest Internet retailer in the world as measured by revenue and market capitalization, and second largest after Alibaba Group in terms of total sales. The Amazon.com website started as an online bookstore and later diversified to sell video downloads/streaming, MP3 downloads/streaming, audiobook downloads/streaming, software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and jewelry. The company also owns a publishing arm, Amazon Publishing, a film and television studio, Amazon Studios, produces consumer electronics lines including Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, Fire TV, and Echo devices, and is the world's largest provider of cloud infrastructure services (IaaS and PaaS) through its AWS subsidiary. Amazon also sells certain low-end products under its in-house brand AmazonBasics.
According to an August 8, 2018 story in Bloomberg Businessweek, Amazon has about a 5 percent share of U.S. retail spending (excluding cars and car parts and visits to restaurants and bars), and a 43.5 share of American online spending in 2018. The forecast is for Amazon to own 49 percent of the total American online spending in 2018, with two-thirds of Amazon's revenue coming from the U.S.
Even so, the first infomercial of the same type we see on TV today, aired in 1982 and was for a hair growth supplement called “New Generation” which was marketed by entrepreneur Robert E. Murphy Jr. It was such a success that other companies quickly began following suit and purchasing program-length commercial air time. At this time infomercials used to commonly be shown during late night/early morning hours, although stations discovered success showing them at other times when they learned that the majority of purchases were made in the morning, during the day, and around primetime.


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Born in the USA, Reproduced Elsewhere
The declining state of manufacturing in America is a reliably hot-button political issue. Though industries such as finance and real estate have gradually grown to employ more workers than manufacturing, it’s still difficult to grasp just how many products are no longer made in the U.S. They include the Apple iPhone 14, which is now being made in India in addition to China. Apple of course isn't alone; some of the best-known U.S. companies — from apparel to automakers — have moved the bulk (or all) of their manufacturing overseas.


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Interswitch Group, Africa’s premier technology-driven firm focused on payments digitization, has announced the launch of Interswitch rewards in collaboration with ThankUCash, Nigeria’s first and largest rewards, and discounts platform.
Co-founder and CEO of Connected Analytics Inc, Mr. Simeon Ononobi made the announcement in a press statement made available to Vanguard Newspaper.
Mr. Ononobi said Interswitch will be able to keep its promise to empower businesses of all sizes by improving the relationship between merchants and customers, resulting in increased customer loyalty and retention.
He explained that the agreement has the ability to integrate ThankUCash Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) into other Interswitch solutions, such as cards and loyalty, POS terminals, and card loyalty processing.
According to Ononobi following the launch, merchants on Quickteller Business will be able to build up loyalty points for their clients, who will be able to redeem their points for items ranging from groceries to fuel, among other things.
In his words: “Our goal as a company is to develop relationships that will stimulate growth for businesses and customers alike.
“ThankUCash was created out of a desire to assist merchants in reaching as many customers as possible, allowing customers to get the most out of their buying experience.”
Ononobi further explaned that partnering with Interswitch is a dream come true for most entrepreneurs: “We are thrilled to be working with Interswitch, and we are looking forward to providing the greatest solutions for her consumers and merchants. Merchants and customers stand to gain the most from a relationship like this”, he said.
Continuing: “Imagine a network where a customer buys a product from an airline online, earns cash back on the transaction, and then uses the points obtained to view a movie’
He noted that the reward system is the first of its kind and a true loyalty infrastructure that will help businesses thrive and people get enthusiastic to spend money on things they need.
Managing Director, Digital Commerce and Merchant acquiring Paymate at Interswitch Group, Muyiwa Asagba said:“This relationship with ThankUCash is aligned with our business and merchant empowerment objective.“We will continue to use our experience to create creative solutions that assist businesses in growing, keeping in mind the critical role that SMEs play in boosting socioeconomic progress across the country.”
Also speaking, the company’s co-founder and chief operations officer, Madonna Ononobi said : “ThankUCash is on a mission to build additional partnerships, according to as it strives to expand its reach by delivering cutting-edge consumer purchasing capabilities to aid businesses and merchants alike”
“By the end of 2023, we will have connected 10,000 enterprises to over 10 million clients across Africa.”


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SINGAPORE, Aug 01, 2009. Singapore’s Banyan Tree, a developer of luxury resorts, said it will build a large resort near the historical Vietnamese city of Hue at an estimated cost of $ 900 million.
When fully developed, the 280-hectare beachfront resort will comprise seven hotels with a total of 2,000 rooms, a golf course, residences and convention facilities.
The first phase of the project, comprising two hotels, the golf course and residences, is expected to open in 2012 and will cost around $200 million, the Singapore firm said in a statement.
Banyan Tree manages or owns 26 hotels and resorts in Asia, most of them under the Banyan Tree and Angsana brandnames.


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US hot-rolled coil index passes $670/t; mills hoping for $700/t
Hot-rolled coil prices in the United States have crossed the $33.50-per-hundredweight ($670-per-short-ton) threshold, and most signs indicate that they will continue to march upward, market participants said.
Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated $33.54 per cwt ($670.80 per ton) on Tuesday October 20, up by 0.4% from $33.39 per cwt on Monday October 19 and up by 3.2% from $32.50 per cwt a week earlier on October 13.
The price stands at its highest since the index was calculated at $33.80 per cwt on April 23, 2019 – approximately 18 months ago.
Heard in the market
Inputs were received across all three sub-indices – producer, distributor and consumer – in a range from $32-35.50 per cwt. The lower end of that range represents higher-volume transactions (thousands of tons), and the higher end represents smaller volumes (hundreds of tons).
The higher end of the range also reflects pricing from certain domestic mills that have increased spot tags to $35 per cwt or higher – up by at least $2.50 per cwt from prior list prices of $32.50 per cwt – even in the absence of official price rise announcements, market participants said.
And some producers are charging more than $35 per cwt for material available on a shorter lead time. Domestic mill lead times have stretched out as far as December or January 2021, which means mills with lead times of five to six weeks can charge more from customers with lean inventories that are buying only as needed, sources said.
While there remains concern that prices could correct downward in the first quarter of the new year, most sources contacted by Fastmarkets predicted that tags would continue to trend upward at least through the US Thanksgiving holiday, celebrated in late November.
Some sources think prices might then inflect lower during the traditionally slower year-end holiday period and as lead times move deeper into the first quarter of 2021. Supplies should increase in the next few months as a result of Brazil’s Section 232 slab quota resetting, new capacity entering the market and idled capacity restarting.
But others – including some who were initially skeptical of higher prices – think prices might have more staying power than expected. Those sources pointed to strong end-use demand in the automotive sector in particular, historically low customer inventories, firm prices abroad, limited import competition – and the potential, however remote, for the Brazil slab shipment quota to be reduced again.
Quote of the day
“If these guys [original equipment manufacturers] consume what they think they are going to consume in the first quarter, I don’t think the giant falls,” one industry source said.
Grace Asenov in New York contributed to this report.
Fastmarkets’ flagship global steel event, Steel Success Strategies, is running as an online conference on October 26-28, 2020. Register today to hear directly from Fastmarkets’ pricing experts and analysts, as well from some of the most important CEOs in global steel.


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Soft Robotics, which makes soft end effectors for robots that need a gentler touch, has developed a product line specifically for Universal Robots, the biggest player in collaborative robotics. It's the first plug-and-play Soft Robotics customizable gripper system designed specifically for Universal Robots, and the alliance suggests a new phase for the broader collaborative robotics (cobot) market, which has seen rapid year-over-year growth and is expected to exceed $4 billion USD by 2023.
That growth has come with increasing competition and shifting alliances between technology providers.
Collaborative robots (cobots) have made a huge impact on industries like components manufacturing in the last decade. Able to operate outside cages and alongside human workers, cobots are generally task-agnostic, comparatively less expensive than traditional industrial robots, and can easily be programmed for a variety of repeatable tasks.
But task-agnostic platforms can't do everything equally well and often require additional components for specialized jobs. Grippers and end effectors suited to manipulating a screwdriver may not be well-equipped to pass a beaker full of liquid to a scientist.
Soft Robotics creates soft robotic systems that can manipulate items with extraordinary dexterity and, when needed, requisite gentleness. Use cases include food and beverage and e-commerce. One of Soft Robotics' customers is a large pizza retailer.
"Our goal is to make Universal Robots easy for our customers to implement in any industry, for any application," says Anders Bo Rasmussen, Senior Product Manager at Universal Robots. "Soft Robotics shares this same philosophy, and bringing Soft Robotics technology to Universal Robots is a great solution for our customers looking to automate processes that require manipulation of items with the same dexterity as a human hand."
The technology partnership follows a three-way merger in the "robot hands" market. Perception Robotics (US), OptoForce (Hungary), and On Robot (Denmark) came together to form OnRobot. That company is led by former CEO of Universal Robots, Enrico Krog Iversen and has a stated goal of leading global development of end-of-arm tooling for the cobot industry.
Much like Apple and Android have found that their developer ecosystems and app marketplaces to be battlegrounds for market share, future cobot dominance may be defined by which company's platforms can perform the most tasks. The number of available end effectors for a platform is a rough corollary for how specialized it can be made.
The shifting alliances and new partnerships suggests a maturation of what's been a wild west sector. Because cobots are task agnostic, manufacturers like UR and its competitors, including Rethink Robotics and Fanuc, have had a lot of elbow room.
Those days may be coming to an end as the sector exhausts first adopters and focuses on growth across targeted industries.


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Budget 2023: A chance to strengthen the competitiveness and independence of our MSMEs
India surpassed the United Kingdom to become the fifth-largest economy in the world in 2022, and it is on course to reach PM Narendra Modi‘s goal of a $5 trillion GDP by 2026–2027. India has emerged as a bright spot, expanding more quickly than most other significant emerging countries, despite worries about an impending global recession, supply disruptions, and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
This spirit of resiliency has been proven by the 6.3 crore micro, small, and medium-sized businesses, which account for 30% of the GDP and employ approximately 11 crore people. The MSME sector’s sales in a number of industries have risen to 90% of their pre-pandemic levels, and India’s small firms are directing a turnaround.
The government deserves a lot of credit for this recovery due to its pro-active measures, which include expanding the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme, revamping the Credit Guarantee Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises, and launching the Pradhan Mantri Employment Generation Programme to increase self-employment. Nevertheless, the mainly disorganised nature of our MSMEs, rising interest rates, and a deteriorating external environment necessitate constant attention to their problems.
The Union Budget 2023 offers our forward-thinking administration the chance to step up its efforts to make our MSMEs competitive and independent.
One such solution is to simplify the input tax credit for suppliers to online retailers. At the moment, vendors who sell their goods on e-commerce platforms must purchase input services like logistics, which are taxed at 18%. There is an accumulation of input tax credits if an online retailer sells clothing, which is subject to a 5% or 12% GST.
This causes valuable working capital to be stopped without any indication of future revenue, which can deter suppliers from using e-marketplaces. Due to this inverted duty structure, 2.9 lakh Meesho dealers selling goods subject to a GST rate of less than 18% observed an accumulation of input tax credits totaling Rs 265 crore between April and November 2022.
A small firm must have enough operating capital to cover all of its fixed costs, including paying rent, energy, and employee salaries as well as making investments in expansion. The government will help online retailers’ finances and advance their road toward digitisation by reducing the GST rates on the input services they use. In addition, receiving refunds for accrued input tax credits will help their financial flow.
Additionally, the GST relaxation for small online enterprises needs to be expedited. The GST Council announced a loosening of regulations for small businesses wishing to go online in a historic move last year. Small online merchants with a turnover of less than Rs 40 lakh for goods and services, and Rs 20 lakh for services, were exempt from the requirement to register for the GST, among other measures. These modifications, which were intended to achieve parity between online and offline merchants, were initially scheduled to take effect in January 2023 but will now be put into effect by October 2023.
Only 10% of our MSMEs are now online, so swift adoption of these new standards is essential to maximising their potential. In anticipation of the advantages of digitization, such as a significantly larger target market, better efficiencies, and simpler access to funding, millions of small businesses are waiting in the wings.
Our MSMEs may become competitive by leveraging the National Logistics Policy. The National Logistics Plan (NLP) intends to reduce logistics costs as a proportion of GDP from 13–14% to 8%, on par with developed countries. More MSMEs will adopt tech-powered logistics services as a result of decreased prices, but they will need assistance to meet the growing e-commerce demand from smaller towns and semi-rural areas.
To do this, the government may enlist India Post as a technologically advanced last-mile delivery partner who can make cash-on-delivery transactions possible at reasonable costs. Similar to this, it is possible to ship goods rapidly and affordably to the farthest reaches of the nation by utilising Indian Railways’ unmatched reach.
I have faith that the budget will address the aforementioned issues for MSMEs and move us one step closer to the goal of an Atmanirbhar Bharat because we have a visionary government laying out the country’s growth trajectory.


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Nacon Unveils Terminator Survival Project Along With A Cool Trailer
Nacon is a video game company that is involved in development along with releasing premium peripherals. Thus far, the company has been involved in the release of Roguebook, Warhammer: Chaosbane and Vampire The Masquerade: Swansong. Today, Nacon along with Nacon Studio Milan has unveiled a Terminator game, currently known only as Terminator Survival Project. It is set to be an open-world game set in the post-apocalyptic world of the popular Terminator franchise.
The twenty-four second trailer was unveiled by Nacon yesterday during its Nacon Connect 2022 Showcase. The trailer was described simply as, “Just a tease for the future, but if you couldn’t tell, we’re big fans of 80’s movies, and our team at Nacon Studio Milan is working on the first survival game set in the Terminator universe.” Furthermore, the developers stated that fans can look forward to more information and that the game will be available on PC and consoles in the future. Furthermore, the company is yet to confirm a release date for the title.
In the trailer, players get a first-look at the T-800 in all its glory as it seems to be on the hunt for someone in a burning warehouse. The trailer closes by zooming in on its eyes as it focuses on a potential target. Therefore, fans can look forward to a unique, open world survival game. Additionally, fans have stated their initial interest in the title based on the trailer and the Terminator universe.
What are your thoughts on Terminator? Are you a fan of the franchise and previous video games? What do you think about the reveal trailer? Are you interested in this kind of games set in the Terminator universe? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter and Facebook.


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2012 has been an unforgettable year for us Brits with the Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee… but 2013 doesn’t look like it’s going to be too shabby either.
Not only do we have the highly anticipated arrival of the royal baby to look forward to, but it’s also been announced that the Queen will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of her coronation by hosting a catwalk show during an epic four-day celebration.
A catwalk will reportedly be built in the gardens of Buckingham Palace as part of the Coronation Festival, and it will showcase the work of companies that have supplied the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales with goods or services for five or more years. We can expect to see the likes of Savile Row tailors Gieves & Hawkes and Dege & Skinner to be among those showcasing their products during the show.
Best of all, the event – which takes place from July 11th to July 14th – will also be open to the public. Tickets start at £30 and are available to buy right now at the coronationfestival.com website. See you there!


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Whilst the ‘gin revival’ has been in full swing for a number of years, younger consumers are now really ‘be-gin-ning’ to drive this spirit to new heights. Indeed, new research from Mintel reveals that although over half (56%) of white spirit and RTD (ready-to-drink) drinkers think that gin is an older person’s drink, it is younger consumers who are the most likely to drink gin. Over two in five (42%) Brits aged 18-34 have drunk gin in the past 12 months, compared to just over a quarter (27%) of over-45s.
Indeed, Mintel research shows that these younger drinkers in particular should help to boost sales of gin to more than £1 billion for the first time in 2015 (£1.04 billion), up by 25% since 2012 when sales stood at £829 million. Brits are expected to drink 29 million litres of gin in 2015, with one third (33%) having drunk it within the past year. Mintel forecasts that gin sales will continue to rise and reach £1.31 billion by 2020.
And it seems that sales of gin could be just the tonic for the white spirits sector overall. While 60% of Brits drink white spirits, and 17% drink four or more types, volume sales of white spirits and RTDs have stagnated in the past four years and are estimated to stand at 217 million litres in 2015.
Chris Wisson, Senior Drinks Analyst at Mintel, said:
“The strong performance of gin continues to stand out within the spirits market, and is widely seen as the most sophisticated type of white spirit by category users. One of gin’s sobriquets is ‘Mother’s Ruin’ and the drink still has certain associations with older drinkers, contributing to it being likely to be seen as an older person’s drink and the least likely as a young person’s drink. However, our research indicates that gin is in fact now most likely to be drunk by younger consumers, suggesting that it has a chance to forge a dynamic image and move into even more innovative areas.”
While gin has helped to raise the spirits of the category in recent years, white rum is in the midst of stormy waters. Over the past year, sales are expected to have declined by 6% to £411 million in 2015, and are forecast to sink further to £378 million in 2020. One third (34%) of Brits have drunk white rum in the past 12 months, with Mintel research finding that just 11% of white spirit/RTD drinkers see white rum as value for money.
Elsewhere in the drinks cabinet, vodka sales have shot up by 8% over the past five years to reach £3.46 billion in 2015. Indeed, vodka is still the most popular white spirit sold, with its sales accounting for 61% of the total white spirit market’s value. Almost half (48%) of Brits have drunk vodka over the past year, with two in five (39%) white spirit/RTD drinkers seeing vodka as good value for money and half (47%) agreeing that it is ideal for using in cocktails. Mintel research shows that white spirit/RTD drinkers are most likely to say that vodka is their favourite type (30%), followed by gin and white rum (20% and 17% respectively).
“Vodka continues to dominate sales within the category and the beverage enjoys a number of favourable associations, namely its mixability, unisex appeal and value for money. While vodka and gin have thrived, white rum has found recent years altogether more challenging. Our research shows that white rum fails to stand out in a competitive spirits market and this is one of the likely reasons why it has struggled in recent years,” Chris adds.
Meanwhile, with the season for gift-giving now upon us, drinks such as spirits are well placed to capitalise. While only 15% of white spirit/RTD drinkers state that they would not buy any types of white spirits as a gift, budgets appear to be tight among those who are willing to do so, as half (49%) of white spirit/RTD drinkers say that they are not willing to spend over £20 on a white spirit bottle as a gift.
More encouragingly for the sector, Mintel research shows that there is a willingness among consumers to trade up when purchasing white spirits. A third (32%) of those who drink white spirits/RTDs agree that they would be prepared to pay more for craft white spirits, such as those made by smaller producers, rising to 45% of men aged 25-44.
“Gifting is a good way of encouraging consumers to trade up within the market. However, gifting is leveraged less effectively within the white spirits category than it is in markets such as whisky, which sees a significant spike in volume sales for occasions such as Father’s Day and Christmas. There are opportunities for brands to stand out from the pack and tap into this opportunity, for example via eye-catching packaging, limited editions or small batches and interesting flavour innovation,” Chris concludes.


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Amazon, Walmart, Macy's, Office Depot, MLB called out for bad password policies
Amazon, Walmart, Macy's, OfficeDepot and Staples have the worst password policies out of all the nation's top 100 online retailers, according to a study released Friday.
By contrast, Apple is the poster child for Internet security as the only company in the study with a perfect score.
"The danger with a weak password policy is that it leaves users’ personal data vulnerable. The weaker the password, the easier it is for hackers to break into an account. Therefore, sites with lenient password policies are leaving their users exposed to greater risk," said Internet security firm Dashlane, which conducted the study.
The firm examined password requirements and features of the top 100 e-commerce retailers in the United States.
Each company was evaluated based on 25 criteria. Most of the weight was placed on the account creation process (when new customers sign up) on the companies' websites. When a criterion added security, it was noted as a positive. When it added risk, a negative was noted. This resulted in rankings from -100 to +100.
Of the 10 most used retailers online, the worst for password security were:
- Amazon (-40)
- Walmart, Office Depot, Macy's (-35)
- Staples (-30)
The top rated were:
- Apple (perfect 100)
- BestBuy (40)
- OfficeMax (25)
- Dell, Sears (tied at 19)
Companies received positive points if password strength was assessed during account creation (+30,) the site provided advice on how to create a stronger password (+25,) alpha-numeric passwords were mandatory (+20,) and at least one upper and one lower case letter were required in the password (+20.)
Negative points were given when the account creation confirmation email displayed the password (-25,) the new password was visible in the confirmation email (-25,) when the password was visible during the account creation process (-5) and when the account creation confirmation email displayed the person's password and user ID (-5).
Minimum password length could be positive or negative depending if it was under five or over eight characters.
Of the 100 retailers, 64% have "highly questionable password practices" and received a negative total score in the study, Dashlane said.
Two online retailers -- 1-800-Flowers.com and Northern Tool -- allow users to have passwords as short as one character. Urban Outfitters will accept three characters while Victoria's Secret will take four.
Some of the retailers not only allowed weak passwords, such as "123456" and "password."
More than half of the retailers did not lock users' accounts after as many as 10 failed access attempts. The top e-retailers who allow login attempts after 10 incorrect passwords were Amazon, Dell, BestBuy, Macy's, Williams-Sonoma, HSN, LL Bean, Toys"R"Us, Overstock and Vistaprint.
"One of the easiest methods hackers use to break into an account is the automated entry of commonly used passwords," Dashlane wrote in its news release. "When the two issues above are combined, it becomes easy for hackers to access many accounts because they can repeatedly try the most commonly used passwords without being blocked."
Among the most dangerous practices is sending passwords in plain text by email, Dashlane said.
"Thankfully this practice was not prevalent but the study found that several sites, including Toys"R"Us, J. Crew and 1-800-Flowers.com still email users' passwords in plain text."
Major League Baseball (MLB) was the worst of all 100 retailers examined. It even allows users to use the word 'baseball' as their password, the Dashlane release said.
Of all the 100 companies on the list, these had the best password security:
- Apple (100)
- Newegg, Microsoft, Chegg (65)
- Target (60)
- Williams-Sonoma (55)
- CDW (50)
- Amway, Musician's Friend, Nike (45)
The bottom 10 were:
- MLB (-75)
- Karmaloop (-70)
- Dick's Sporting Goods (-65)
- Toys"R"Us, Aeropostale (-60)
- J Crew (-55)
- Vitacost, NutriSystem, American Girl (-50)
- 1-800-Flowers.com (-46)
Dashlane says the solution is simple:
- Require passwords that contain at least eight characters and a combination of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers and symbols.
- block account access after four failed logins.
- provide users on-screen advice on how to choose a strong password when they sign up. Only 39% do this now.
- and provide users with an on-screen assessment of password strength while they're choosing a password. Only 7% do this now, according to the study.
"All of these practices can be implemented cheaply and quickly with readily available open-source technology," Dashlane said.
You can see a list of the most commonly used (bad) passwords in 2013 in this Public Investigator blog post.
- 70 Wisconsin scam victims get refunds for Rachel's 'Cardholder Services' robocalls
- More consumers complain about department stores, fewer about cable TV, to BBB in Wisconsin
- Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield credit monitoring sign-up instructions coming Friday
- Better Business Bureau survey questionnaire is a scam, BBB warns
- McDonald's to offer free food for customers who "Pay with Lovin'" starting Monday
- Frozen dog food from J.J. Fuds recalled because of listeria
- Wisconsin gas stations targeted in phone scam involving Green Dot cards
- LCD flat-screen settlement checks worth half a million dollars remain uncashed, Wisconsin officials say
- Park 'N Fly data breach likely affects few Milwaukee airport parking customers
- Park 'N Fly airport parking confirms data breach; company affiliated with two lots at General Mitchell airport in Milwaukee
Do you have an issue with government or a local business or a story idea for Public Investigator? Contact us:
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Recent recalls and product safety news from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
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Drink driving or not, Delhi’s 'car-o-bars' always open
Drunken driving may be illegal but that hasn’t stopped Delhiites from turning their car into a bar on wheels. With the heat soaring and price of liquor in pubs skyrocketing, the car-o-bar of modifying vehicles with mini bars is brisk in Karol Bagh market — the city’s biggest car accessories hub.delhi Updated: May 10, 2015 17:12 IST
Drunken driving may be illegal but that hasn’t stopped Delhiites from turning their car into a bar on wheels. With the heat soaring and price of liquor in pubs skyrocketing, the car-o-bar of modifying vehicles with mini bars is brisk in Karol Bagh market — the city’s biggest car accessories hub.
Shopkeepers in the area claim to receive at least two orders each day, mainly from young and first-time owners. From mini-fridges in the boot and armrest that are internally wired to keep the liquor chilled to air-cooled beer cup holders, the car can be revamped in less than an hour. “And don’t worry about the wiring, it will be concealed,” says a shopkeeper.
While a beer cup holder costs between Rs 350 and Rs 1000, arm-rest refrigerators can be fitted for Rs 6,000-8,000. And for those with deep pockets, a 24-litre fridge, which can easily accommodate 15 beer bottles, can be fitted to the boot for around Rs 10,000.
“All you have to do is connect the plug to the mobile charging or lighter socket. It uses less than 12 volts battery,” says a mechanic before rushing off to tend to a customer.
“Beer remains chilled for at least 4-5 hours. Cans are better as they are easy to open, occupy less space and remain chilled longer than bottles,” says another.
And what bar is complete without neon lights. “We will design the lighting in such a way that your car looks like a real bar. You can serve alcohol from the boot like a real bartender. You can also light up the car ceiling,” says a shopkeeper.
“It will all be concealed so it is expensive,” he adds. Though a five-metre neon light costs only Rs 500, the labour charge ranges from Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000.
Last year, over 29,500 people were prosecuted for drunken driving in Delhi. Shopkeepers, however, don’t fear a ban. “Look at the packaged covers of these refrigerators. It has images of soft drinks and water bottles. Who would have thought it will be used to make a car bar? We also get customers who get these fitted to stock food and water for long trips,” says a mechanic.
According to former Delhi traffic police chief Maxwell Periera, the fad is another import from the West. “When I went to the US, I saw limousines with well-designed bars. But there was a partition between the driver and the passengers. As Indians, we are good at imitating the West. As long as the driver does not drink liquor, I see nothing wrong here,” he says. Periera, however, adds: “The laws have to be followed. Cars with bars should not be driven to places where alcohol is prohibited.”
For some, it is a worrying trend which could lead to more accidents on city roads. “Any modification that can hamper the safety of others should be treated a crime… Drunken driving is a crime and should be treated likewise irrespective of whether it is behind the wheels of a motorbike or a luxury car,” says sociologist Shiv Viswanathan.
First Published: May 10, 2015 10:27 IST


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In view of the increasing impact of drone technology in the world, now India is also ready to be a part of this race. To promote this technology in the country, a 2-day India Drone Festival started in Delhi from today. PM Narendra Modi inaugurated the country's largest drone festival. During this PM Modi made drones and Along with the drivers, the farmers also interacted with the drone drivers.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday inaugurated the two-day Drone Festival 2022 at Pragati Maidan in Delhi. During this he also inspected the exhibition. The Prime Minister said, I am impressed by the drone exhibition. By 2030, India will become a drone hub. He said, in every stall I went to today, everyone used to proudly say that this is Make in India.
The Prime Minister said, this festival is not just about drones, it is a celebration of New India - New Governance. The enthusiasm that is being seen in India regarding drone technology is amazing. This energy is visible, it is a reflection of the quantum jump in the drone service and drone based industry in India. The PM said, this energy shows the potential of an emerging large sector of employment generation in India. This was the time eight years ago, when we started implementing new mantras of good governance in India, he said.
India has the potential of becoming a global drone hub. Speaking at Bharat Drone Mahotsav in New Delhi. https://t.co/eZEMMQrRsF— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 27, 2022
The PM said, 'India has the potential to become a global drone hub. The enthusiasm that the country is showing for drone technology is amazing. Giving the example of PM Swamitva Yojana, Modi explained how drone technology is becoming the basis of a big revolution. The PM said, 'For the first time under the PM Swamitva scheme, digital mapping of all properties in rural areas of the country was done and 65 lakh digital property cards were also given to the people with the help of drones.
The Prime Minister said, Drones are being used in every sector. Today farmers are also using drones in agriculture. He said that with the help of this development works are being inspected across the country. I do surprise inspections of development works across the country with the help of drones. Over 1600 delegates including government officials, foreign diplomats, armed forces, central armed police forces, PSUs, private companies and drone startups will participate in the two-day festival.


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Wedbush reissued their outperform rating on shares of Zendesk (NYSE:ZEN) in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, The Fly reports. Wedbush currently has a $103.00 price objective on the software maker’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $95.00.
A number of other analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of Zendesk in a report on Thursday, January 24th. They issued a market perform rating and a $71.70 price target for the company. KeyCorp reissued a buy rating on shares of Zendesk in a report on Tuesday, February 5th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Zendesk to $90.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Co increased their price target on shares of Zendesk from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, February 6th. Finally, Deutsche Bank increased their price target on shares of Zendesk to $88.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, February 6th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. The stock currently has a consensus rating of Buy and an average target price of $91.46.
NYSE:ZEN opened at $86.66 on Thursday. Zendesk has a 1 year low of $45.60 and a 1 year high of $90.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.54, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.66 billion, a P/E ratio of -91.22 and a beta of 1.64.
In related news, SVP John Geschke sold 2,500 shares of Zendesk stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.02, for a total transaction of $205,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 21,353 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,751,373.06. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CMO Jeffrey J. Titterton sold 503 shares of Zendesk stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.16, for a total transaction of $44,344.48. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 16,141 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,422,990.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 84,882 shares of company stock valued at $7,225,838 over the last ninety days. 4.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.
A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. TIAA CREF Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Zendesk by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. TIAA CREF Investment Management LLC now owns 807,879 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $57,359,000 after purchasing an additional 39,199 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc boosted its holdings in Zendesk by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc now owns 8,930,795 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $634,087,000 after purchasing an additional 360,069 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Zendesk by 3,529.4% in the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,085 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $180,000 after purchasing an additional 3,000 shares in the last quarter. Strs Ohio boosted its holdings in Zendesk by 16.5% in the 4th quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 4,528 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $264,000 after purchasing an additional 640 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Calamos Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Zendesk during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $13,488,000. 97.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Zendesk Company Profile
Zendesk, Inc, a software development company, provides SaaS products for organizations. Its flagship product is Zendesk Support, a system for tracking, prioritizing, and solving customer support tickets across various channels. The company also offers Zendesk Chat, a live chat software to connect with customers on Websites, applications, and mobile devices; Zendesk Talk, a cloud-based call center software; Zendesk Guide, a knowledge base that powers customer self-service and support agent productivity; Zendesk Sell, a sales force automation software to enhance productivity, processes, and pipeline visibility for sales teams; Zendesk Connect that manages customer communication across channels; and Zendesk Explore, which provides analytics for businesses to measure and enhance the customer experience.
Further Reading: Insider Trading
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A beef producer in Kansas has proposed testing all its cattle for mad cow disease so it can resume exports to Japan, but it is encountering resistance from the Agriculture Department and other beef producers. [...]
Creekstone Farms of Arkansas City, Kan. wants to use rapid diagnostic tests that are routinely used in Japan and many European nations. But no rapid tests have been approved by the United States Department of Agriculture, and department officials pointed out yesterday that it was against the law for any company to sell or market any unapproved diagnostic test. They said they would not respond to Creekstone's request until they evaluated the legal, regulatory and trade implications raised.
Other meat producers are upset by the company's request, saying it has broken ranks in an industry besieged by bad news. Dan Murphy, vice president for public affairs at the American Meat Industry, said American beef was so safe that widescale testing was unnecessary. [...]
"We have been looking at the idea of testing all our animals for some time," Mr. Stewart said. "This moved to the forefront with the most recent episode in Washington State. The problem we're having now is that the U.S.D.A. is not wanting to do this. They don't want to test. They don't want to recognize B.S.E. is a problem. They are not going to allow anyone to test until they decide how or when. We believe that may be never." [...]
According to a statement from J. B. Penn, the under secretary for farm and foreign agricultural services, the Agriculture Department will respond to Creekstone when it has completed its evaluation. A press spokesman, Jim Rogers, said that the reply will "take some time" and that anyone interested should "check back in future."
Charlize Theron will star in Aeon Flux, an SF movie based on the MTV animated series, Variety reported. The film will shoot near Berlin in July. Karyn Kusama (Girlfight) is directing a script by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, the trade paper reported.
Incidentally, I just love this style of reporting:
The animated series was created by Peter Chung, the trade paper reported.
They couldn't just say who created the series, you see -- that would require them to actually verify their facts. Maybe fire up Google or something. Any time you see the phrase "the paper reported", it means "I'm not actually a writer, I'm a paraphrase-bot."
phosphor -scale 2 -geom =1280x1024 -program 'top'
phosphor -scale 4 -geom =1280x1024 \
-program 'mtr www.kernel.org'
phosphor -program 'xemacs -nw -q -f life'
phosphor -scale 5 -geom =1280x1024 \
-program 'xemacs -nw -q --eval "(hanoi 5)"'
apple2 -text -fast -program 'xemacs -nw -q -f life'
apple2 -text -fast \
-program 'xemacs -nw -q --eval "(hanoi 5)"'
"Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can."
Rodolfo Esqueda removes solid silver nails from the mold used to make one of the pieces of jewelry in the 'The Passion of Christ' line of jewelry at the Bob Siemon Designs plant in Santa Ana Calif., Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2004. The film opens Wednesday. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
"Robert Rodriguez is already at work directing a big-screen version of Frank Miller's black-and-white comic-book series Sin City, according to Variety. The trade paper reported that Josh Hartnett [The Faculty] and Marley Shelton [Valentine] are starring in the film and have shot the opening sequence in advance of a full shoot slated to begin in March, with Miller on board as co-director."
Two Bosnian brothers who say they can drink as much as they want without feeling drunk have been told they each have a spare set of fully functioning kidneys.
Josip Galic, 69, from Kucetine in Bosnia said: "I had a car accident and doctors discovered I had four kidneys. That surprised me, but at least it explained why I could drink all my friends under the table, and never had a hangover."
He added it was a further surprise when his brother found out after a visit to the doctor that he had four kidneys as well.
"Pruno, a prison wine created from fruit, sugar and ketchup, is such a vile and despicable beast in the California state penal system that prisoners can't eat fresh fruit at lunch. Back in December 2002, the warden at Lancaster prison in Los Angeles County removed fresh fruit from box lunches in the maximum-security lockup, as an effort to reduce violence. Apparently, sober, scurvy-addled felons are much easier to control than drunken, violent convicts."


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An outstanding business opportunity for professionals and enterprises engaged in the animal protein production in China and abroad is being arranged in Beijing, from 20 – 25 September 2014.
The China International Livestock Industry Week will feature a week of events relating to the upgrading of animal protein production systems and knowledge. The industry will be on full display in the VIV China International Summit (VICS), followed by VIV China 2014.
About one-third of visitors to the show are expected to come from outside China, keen to explore the potential for sourcing new products, trading with Chinese partners in Asia or selling technology to China’s animal protein producers.
“China’s market is big and still growing,” says VIV market manager Ruwan Berculo, “but we structure it for our visitors, breaking it down into easily digestible pieces. In this way the business week in Beijing provides an ideal gateway to understanding what China needs and how to be part of that industry growth going forward.”
VICS 2014: poultry, aquaculture and pigs
“Our international visitors would be well advised to plan on spending at least five days with us, beginning with the sector-by-sector conferences that make it easy to have more topic-based conversations about each animal protein segment before moving on to VIV China. The VIV International China Summit (VICS) features three days of conferences, workshops and seminars, grouped by sector. There will be a two-day International Poultry Forum, the Aquatic China conference for China’s aquaculture industry, China Pork Outlook 2015 presentations and several all-specie Feed to Meat walk-in sessions.
Top-level Chinese producers
Ruwan Berculo: “In promoting VIV China 2014, we have targeted especially the top-level producers from the seven largest provinces of China for the production of pork, poultry and fish. In this way we aim to receive and welcome the top 20% of the country’s larger farmers, traders and associated specialists.
Every one of the worldwide VIV events has the same Feed to Meat theme, but only the one in Beijing places it so decisively in a Chinese context. The theme is illustrated at VIV China 2014 by the early calculation that about 50% of all exhibits will relate to matters of animal health and nutrition. Another 30% to the housing and breeding or rearing of the animals and the remaining 20% to the area known generally as processing, which in this case refers to the manufacture of livestock feeds at the start of the feed-to-meat chain as well as the processing of meat and eggs as final products.


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The global smart LED lighting market size is expected to reach USD 34.18 million by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. It is projected to expand at a CAGR of 24.6% during the forecast period. High demand for smart home appliances as a result of improved standard of living of working class professionals is expected to drive the market. Furthermore, the governments of various countries including U.S., U.K., Germany, and Spain are encouraging corporate houses and industries to use smart LED lighting as they can save up to 90% of energy.
Wireless product is expected to be the fastest growing segment, at a CAGR of 26.6% from 2019 to 2025. The usage of Internet of Things (IoT) based smart sensors for smart city applications has been increasing as a result of the advancement of wireless communication systems. Furthermore, product innovation in terms of introduction of voice recognized LED lights is expected to open new market avenues in near future.
Hybrid technology is expected to remain the leading segment in near future. The predominant use of smart LED lighting systems with hybrid technology in corporate houses, manufacturing industries, and government organizations on account of their easy availability from various distribution channels is expected to have a strong impact on the market growth. This technology is also very helpful in greenhouse farming for providing adjustable light intensity and heat.
Online channel is projected to remain the key distribution channel over the next few years. Amazon, Flipkart, and AliExpress are some of the e-commerce portals offering a wide range of products. Various value-added services including cash-on-delivery, discounted prices, and coupon benefits offered by e-commerce portals are expected to prompt the buyers to use offline channels as selling medium over the next eight years.
North America is anticipated to register the fastest CAGR of 28.4% from 2019 to 2025. Supportive government policies for energy conservation coupled with increasing per unit electricity cost in U.S. and Canada is expected to promote the product sales in the region over the forecast period.
To request a sample copy or view summary of this report, click the link below:
Further key findings from the report suggest:
Wired products segment generated a revenue of USD 6.02 billion in 2018
ZigBee technology is expected to expand at a rapid CAGR of 32.3% from 2019 to 2025
Europe led the global smart LED lighting market in 2018 with a revenue of USD 2.69 billion
Some of the key players operating in smart LED lighting market are Cree Inc.; Eaton Corporation; Koninklijke Philips NV; ABB Limited; Wipro Limited; TVILIGHT B.V.; The SSK Group; Digital Lumens, Inc.; Acuity Brands Inc.; Bridgelux, Inc.; and OSRAM Licht Group. Product innovation is expected to remain the key competitive strategy for the industry participants
Grand View Research has segmented the global smart LED lighting market on the basis of product, technology, distribution channel, and region:
Smart LED Lighting Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2025)
Smart LED Lighting Technology Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2025)
Smart LED Lighting Distribution Channel Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2025)
Smart LED Lighting Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2025)
Central & South America
Middle East & Africa
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Got a parent, or grandparent, who really could use a service like Uber to get around, but they’re completely baffled by the new-fangled smartphones, so don’t own one.
Well, a new service helps seniors take advantage of the popular app ride services, like Uber and Lyft, from a simple touchtone phone.
When Justin Boogard got out of college, he spent three years living with is grandmother “Betty” to save money. He said at the time it was a real learning experience for the both of them.
“I taught her how to use the TV, she taught me how to put the toilet seat down,” he said with a laugh.
Boogard also taught Betty about services like Uber, but there was a problem. The ride-sharing service works through an app and Betty is among the 70-percent of Americans over the age of 65 who don’t own a smartphone.
So with grandma in mind, Boogard developed “GoGoGrandparent,” a service that connects seniors to app services using a traditional touchtone phone.
A recording on the line guides the caller to the service they need and employees at a call center set up the Uber ride.
Joan Carney has a smartphone but only uses it for calls, she doesn’t know how to use the apps. She says she uses “GoGoGrandparent” all the time to go shopping.
Customers are charged an extra 19-cents a minute during the ride for the service. They pay the total cost of the ride through a credit card on file. Most people do not tip, except in the cases where they ask a driver to wait or lift something up.
“I’d really be house-bound I think without it I couldn’t just depend on friends and family all the time to get me here and there,” said Betty Lou Luce.
“GoGoGrandparent” has callers from 47 states, Puerto Rico and three provinces in Canada. All the call center employees, dubbed professional grandchildren were raised by or have lived with a grandparent. They eventually hope to add other app services, like grocery delivery.


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IT CAN be one of the most private and embarrassing problems that women face.
But a new technology has been developed that claims to tighten the skin around the vagina in less than an hour.
The so-called painless treatment has been developed in America but is on offer in several clinics around the UK.
But a full three treatment course will set you back £2,000.
It sees a ThermiVa wand, which emits radio generated heat, applied to sagging skin around the vagina.
The heat then stimulates the skin’s wound healing response by stimulating production of collagen and elastic, which tightens the skin.
Women can apparently notice a different in less than an hour after the treatment, which costs around £800 per session.
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And it is suggested that three sessions, which last 40 to 60 minutes, will give optimum results.
It’s aimed at women who are concerned about a lack of tightness, dryness, discomfort or incontinence after childbirth or menopause.
So far, it is only available within clinics and it is described as an alternative to kegel exercises.
But there is one Canadian company who created have wands that can be used at home at cost around £200. However, they can only be bought in Canada.
Last month, mums revealed the true effects of childbirth on their vaginas in a brutally honest video.
While a doctor called the ‘Vagina Whisperer’ revealed the growing tend for cosmetic surgery on female genitals.


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The company announced the AOL by Phone service along with a new, customizable AOL Anywhere page, which members will be able to refine with features such as news, stock quotes, movie listings, traffic reports, and address book and job listings. The telephone service will let members use offerings such as email, buddy lists, calendars and photos via ordinary telephones or Web-enabled wireless phones, using a handheld organizer and other mobile devices.
AOL on Wednesday also launched AOL 6.0, which has a new design intended to provide easier access to popular AOL features and content. Improvements to the service's email and instant messaging features include new "buddy" icons that add visuals to instant messages and the ability to send automatic "away" and "do not disturb" replies, the company said.
As previously reported, AOL has launched its satellite-based AOL Plus using Hughes Electronics' DirecPC service as the company looks to increase its high-speed offerings.
The news comes as Dulles, Va.-based AOL nears the completion of its megamerger with media powerhouse Time Warner. The two companies earlier this month got the go-ahead from the European Commission on the deal, crossing the first hurdle en route to full approval by regulators. The companies still need approval from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission to close their deal.
Like rivals Yahoo and Microsoft, AOL has made aggressive efforts to score in high-growth areas such as the wireless Web and interactive television. The company's Anywhere strategy is a significant bet on the ability of the Internet to extend its reach beyond computer networks into the heavily touted areas of wireless communications, traditional broadcast media and Internet-enabled appliances.
Those rivals are not sitting still. Microsoft took aim at AOL on Wednesday with MSN Explorer, an Internet service that bundles Microsoft's array of Web services into its Internet Explorer browser.
Portals including Lycos and Yahoo, meanwhile, have already introduced voice services. Lycos earlier this month launched a new voice portal that lets people access a range of free content over the telephone. That move came after Yahoo's announcement that it would offer free telephone access to its Web content, news and email.
A large component of the AOL Anywhere strategy, the AOL by Phone service lets members access news, stock quotes, weather and email by calling a toll-free phone number. For the next few months, the service will be free, and beginning in February, it will cost a flat monthly rate of $4.95.
Included in AOL 6.0 is an upgrade to the email system, which will begin accepting messages encoded in HTML format, the coding language of the Web. Members will also be able to sort their mailboxes by date, sender and subject.
Members can get version 6.0 on CD-ROMs or download it from the Net at no cost.
AOL members will also be able to use a new feature, called Groups@AOL, to establish Web sites that can be visited only by people who have been invited. AOL said the new feature is designed for planning events and sharing family photos.
The launch is accompanied with a worldwide marketing campaign. In the United States, retail outlets including Target, Circuit City and Sears Roebuck will offer co-branded 6.0 disks. In addition, some supermarkets, office-supply stores and bookstores will make copies of the free software available at their locations.


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FRANCE – Global dairy giant, Danone has reported 0.8% increase in first-quarter sales to US$6.89 billion (€6.13 billion), confirming 2019 full-year profit guidance.
The company expects like-for-like sales growth of around 3% and recurring operating margin of more than 15% in the year 2019.
Consolidated sales during the quarter were boosted by a 3% rise in value, premium innovations and resilient pricing.
The period was impacted by a slow business in Morocco, offset by a boycott that started in April last year while Argentina contributed to company reported growth by +0.3%.
The company said overall reported sales were up 0.9% including currency
impact of -0.2%.
“The first quarter showed a start of the year in line with expectations and further progress in our transformation journey,” said Emmanuel Faber, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
“This performance has coincided with continued action to deliver sustainable profitable value growth, including the sale of Earthbound Farm, alongside the roll out of value-added innovations across businesses and geographies to make our portfolio more local, more appealing to younger generations, and better suited to fast-changing consumer trends.
“We are pleased with the momentum of the business, which will become increasingly visible from the second quarter.
“This gives us every confidence that we will meet our full-year guidance.
“We also remain totally committed to creating a company aligned with the food revolution, harnessing the collective voice of our 100,000 Danoners and realizing the vision of One Planet. One Health.”
Danone has announced Essential Dairy & Plant-based Noram and International as a single EDP entity from the first quarter.
Under the new reporting structure, Europe and Noram represents around two thirds of the entity.
Essential Dairy & Plant-based segment reported o.25 rise in sales with North America contributing lower sales while the US yogurts market was boosted by investments in growing segments such as plant-based, probiotics and low-sugar yogurts.
In Latin America, Mexico posted strong sales growth while Europe was supported by value-added innovation in fast growing trends such as organic, probiotics shots, plant-based and on-the-go.
Specialized Nutrition reported sales up +0.4% led by Advanced Medical Nutrition, which registered a mid-single digit increase.
In Early Life Nutrition, growth was adversely impacted by decreasing sales in China compared with the very strong 50% growth in Q1 2018.
Danone Waters delivered a solid broad-based sales growth of 3.9% which was particularly strong in Poland and Denmark, also supported by Asia (Indonesia).
In the U.S., Evian delivered strong growth as a result of expanded distribution and market share gains in convenience stores.


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While many SME owners worry about their access to finance, a surge of new lenders and products is rapidly expanding the options available. And brokers have an important role to play for businesses, says the Productivity Commission.
Businesses across the country are purchasing new equipment and vehicles in record numbers, as companies big and small embrace the strongest market conditions seen in years, according to NAB data.
Who would take the reins of your family business if you had to take a step back from it? Turns out just one-in-six businesses have a proper plan in place. But rest assured you can develop your own succession plan fairly painlessly, with the help of a new guide.