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McAfee Labs 2017 Threats Predictions November 2016
What started as a fun toy for kids and a slightly expensive hobby for enthusiasts has really taken off, if you’ll forgive the pun. Drones are well on the way to becoming a major tool for shippers, law enforcement agencies, photographers, farmers, the news media, and more. It is hard to deny that drones have become a lot more valuable to many types of businesses and government agencies. Recently, we saw an example of a drone outfitted with a full hacking suite that would allow it to land on the roof of a home, business, or critical infrastructure facility and attempt to hack into the local wireless network. In 2015, a proof of concept hack was demonstrated at DefCon that showed how someone could easily take control of a toy drone. Although taking over a kid’s drone may seem amusing and not that big of an issue, once we look at the increase in drone usage potential problems starts to arise.
How will these attacks take place? Various researchers have found many consumer drones shipping with open ports and weak authentication methods, allowing a person with the right equipment to send commands to the victim’s drone. So far, this has been a fairly manual process but, as we’ve seen in the past, new exploits typically appear sooner or later in easily reproducible format. The majority of the vulnerabilities discovered on commercial drones can be easily fixed with a software update. Of course, this requires the manufacturer to release a patch. While high-end drones will most likely be patched quickly, cheap drones will most likely fly a long time before a patch is available. As we have seen with other IoT technology, once a device is connected to a network, people quickly start looking for ways to hack it. This effort is made easier by the general rush to market for IoT devices, including drones, that have little or no security. What makes drones potentially easier to hack is they are designed to have a quick and easy setup, often using unencrypted communication and many open ports. We predict in 2017 that drone exploit toolkits will find their ways to the dark corners of the Internet. Once these toolkits start making the rounds, it is just a matter of time before we see stories of hijacked drones showing up in the evening news. Even without a dronejacking toolkit in hand, we will begin to see an increase in drone-related incidents. In 2017 we will see a local news report about a person getting fed up with one of the neighborhood kids flying a drone over his back yard. But instead of using a shotgun loaded with birdshot, the drone will be taken out of the sky by software running on a laptop with a directional antenna. Given the viral nature of the Internet, this will soon show up on Facebook walls all over the world with arguments for and against the action, causing heated debates and snarky memes.
During 2017, we will also see more drones used by law enforcement agencies to monitor crowds. Initially protesters will react by throwing objects at police drones, but drone takedown hacks will be launched by protesters as a way to quickly remove surveillance drones from the equation. How will policymakers respond to these incidents? Already the US Federal Aviation Administration is scrambling to put rules into effect that govern when and where commercial drones can fly, but there are still a lot of uses that need to be addressed and surely some we have not yet thought of. Whereas commercial aviation grew slowly over time, commercial drone usage is on a steep flight path that will leave regulators struggling to get off the ground.
SAPRITALIA RPL Remote Pilot License Specific operation risk assessment SORA


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Our cool capital has cultural cred this autumn with a blockbuster exhibition and plenty to keep you captivated.
Julietta Jameson Receive $300 a couple off airfares when you book an Active Travel package to the Northern Territory by April 3.
Julietta Jameson New for 2015, Extreme Bike Tours’ Western Mongolia tours have booked out on five of the six departures this year, leaving space on just the May 25 departure.
Julietta Jameson Hotels.com is offering 20 per cent off stays at Esplanade Hotel Fremantle.
Julietta Jameson Save $1000 a couple on a 17-day cruise package from Dubai to Singapore via India and Malaysia onboard Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas.
Julietta Jameson Go Christmas crazy at multiple festive season markets as you sail from Basel to Cologne on Uniworld’s eight-day Rhine Holiday Markets cruise onboard the S.S Antoinette.
Julietta Jameson Intrepid Travel has launched a range of Expedition trips, with itineraries in a southern Mexican jungle, Georgia, Kosovo and Papua New Guinea announced, and more off-the-map trips to come in 2015.
Take a look at some of our top travel photos of the week, including the Tide of the Century in France and new year festivities in India.
Mark Chipperfield Take to the road, the rails or bicycle tracks for nature's finest show on earth.
Mark Chipperfield Traveller’s editors and senior writers are frequent visitors to New Zealand’s Canterbury region and its gateway city, Christchurch. The region’s wealth of new experiences, backed by its natural attractions, is a key drawcard for independent travellers.

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There seems to be no stopping Nintendo despite the fierce competition. During the GameStop Managers Conference in Las Vegas, the tech company revealed a new Nintendo 3DS that will launch in the U.S. on September 25.
The handheld console will come in a bundle, which includes the game “Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer,” as well as two cover plates and an amiibo card. The bundle costs $219.99. The New Nintendo 3DS, which is described as more compact compared to previous incarnations of the console, comes after the New Nintendo 3DS XL was released on February 13 this year.
That’s not all. GameStop will exclusively sell a Hyrule Edition New Nintendo 3DS XL starting October 30 for $199.99. It should be noted that on October 23, the latest Zelda game, “The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes,” will be released.
Speaking about the new DS consoles, Scott Moffit, Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing of Nintendo America, said in a press release, “These new models offer additional fun ways to experience some of the great upcoming Nintendo 3DS games launching in the next few months.”
The official Twitter account of Nintendo of America also gave fans a glimpse of the New 3DS package.
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) August 31, 2015
So why all the love for U.S. gamers? According to Nintendo’s consolidated sales figures as inspected by region, America comprises a huge portion of the company’s 3DS sales. Japanese gamers contribute to 19 million worth of sales, but America trails close at 17.9 million. Nintendo also boasts that their sales increased by 50 percent in 2015.
Lauren Hockenson notices this trend by writing for The Next Web, saying, “It indicates that the gaming company is no longer concerned about fragmenting sales across its handheld hardware devices. And, with the interchangeable plates of the 3DS, it means that the company understand America’s desire for customization.”


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Apple: Rumors point to two new iPads and AR glasses
Apple is working on virtual and augmented reality projects.
Apple always keeps us on the lookout for its new products, which is why these rumors interest us all so much. It seems that Apple has a couple of surprises in store in the form of new iPads with larger screens. And yes, this also includes the iPad mini.
Good things are on the way
Like everything good in the industry, the following information comes from leaks and rumors that have been published on MacRumors, which involve a note for investors.
As part of the strategy that this company has planned for the year 2022, it seems that Apple is preparing to launch a new iPad and an iPad mini but with larger screens.
The iPad screen would measure around 10.8 inches and we could see it on the market in the second half of this year.
For its part, the new iPad mini would have a screen with dimensions between 8.5 and 9 inches. We may see it reach the market during the first half of the year 2021.
It is not yet known how these products could fit into what Apple is already selling, but it seems that we will have to wait to see if they will replace the old iPads or if they will come as new models that are sold together.
But if you thought that Apple would stay with these two things (or that the rumors were only about this) then we have one more surprise, because apparently we could be looking at Augmented Reality glasses and an Augmented Reality headset. These would hit the market in 2022 (for the headset) and, although the release date is not exactly known, the lenses could arrive in 2023.
Without a doubt this could change the way we see the technology company and, if all this is true, we would be facing a very interesting future from Apple itself.


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The market for Adventure tourers in India is on the rise and there are a few options available in this segment with one of them being KTM. The Austrian bike maker recently launched the 2022 model tagged at Rs. 3.34 lakh, ex-showroom, New Delhi. The new 2022 KTM 390 Adventure is offered on sale in India in a total of two different colour variants. So, in this article, we will be sharing with you the 2022 KTM 390 Adventure colours. Let’s check out all the colours of this Adventure tourer and have a closer look at them.
2022 KTM 390 Adventure Colours
The 2022 KTM 390 Adventure will be offered in two colours namely –
- Dark Galvano Black
- Racing Blue
2022 KTM 390 Adventure Black Colour (Dark Galvano Black)
Check out the detailed image of the Dark Galvano Black Colour variant of the new KTM 390 Adventure below:
2022 KTM 390 Adventure Blue Colour (Racing Blue)
Check out the detailed image of the Racing Blue Colour variant of the new KTM 390 Adventure below:
The bike is powered by a 373cc, 4-valve DOHC engine that pumps out 43.5 PS of power and 37 Nm of torque. The company claims that the chassis has been updated with Dakar rally-proven architecture and settings.
Also read – 2022 KTM 250 Adventure Launched At Rs. 2.35 Lakhs
KTM has commenced bookings for the 2022 Adventure 390 and interested customers have the option to purchase the bike through a finance scheme with EMIs starting from Rs. 6999/-.
What are your opinions on the shades of the new KTM 390 Adventure colours? Do let us know in the comments section below.
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Thursday’s Supreme Court decision granting states greater ability to collect sales tax from online purchases marks a win for Michigan’s retail community and state coffers, according to real estate executives and business groups.
The 5-4 ruling in South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc. aims to close the loophole that allowed online retailers without a physical presence in a state to withhold sales tax, instead leaving taxpayers the option to do so when they file taxes.
The majority decision, authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy, marks the culmination of a more than decade-long fight by Earl Clements and other retail stakeholders.
Clements, a senior vice president and retail team leader in the Grand Rapids office of Colliers International Inc., had taken up the fight as part of his work with the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), a New York City-based trade association for the retail shopping center industry.
Clements is a former state director for ICSC and currently the association’s Michigan ambassador.
“It’s major,” Clements said of the Supreme Court ruling. “We’ve been fighting as an industry (for over a decade) to get the playing field leveled so that brick-and-mortar stores in our community that pay taxes and hire locally can compete with the internet that doesn’t pay sales tax.”
Estimates vary somewhat on how much the lost tax revenue has cost a state like Michigan. Clements said the state’s ICSC chapter estimates the figure at between $250 million and $300 million annually.
A 2016 report from the Michigan Department of Treasury put that number at closer to $500 million for the 2017 fiscal year.
Other business groups also weighed in on the decision with similar sentiments, including the Michigan Retailers Association.
“This was a major victory for brick and mortar retailers, who have had to compete with online stores selling the same merchandise for a little less because they haven’t had to play by the same rules,” Meegan Holland, the organization’s vice president of marketing and communications, wrote in a statement to MiBiz on Thursday following the SCOTUS decision. “This ruling brings commerce into the 21st century by ensuring that all retailers will be treated equally. It’s a fairness issue.”
The impact of the Supreme Court ruling on e-commerce companies remains somewhat unclear. Online retailers like Wayfair, Amazon.com Inc. and eBay Inc. saw their stocks dip on news of the decision, but some had recovered by Friday morning.
Clements argues that those large companies will experience little burden in their remitting of sales taxes to states. The Supreme Court also decision omits online retailers who deliver under $100,000 of goods or services into a state or engage in fewer than 200 transactions, meaning that small-time sellers on sites like Etsy will not have to comply with the law.
While lower costs long drove customers to buy online, a column published by Bloomberg on Thursday notes that lower prices are no longer the main driving force for e-commerce consumers.
“Increasingly, Amazon’s value proposition to shoppers is as much — if not more — about its vast selection and its speedy delivery than it is about rock-bottom prices,” Bloomberg retail columnist Sarah Halzack wrote. “This decision does nothing to alter the convenience of shopping at Amazon, meaning it leaves Amazon’s most important advantage intact.”
Local attorneys see a mix of good and bad in the Supreme Court decision, noting that the playing field will be “somewhat” leveled for businesses with a physical presence in Michigan and already paying sales tax.
Mid-sized online businesses that weren’t paying sales tax will lose based on the decision, according to Andrea Crumback, a tax attorney with the Grand Rapids-based firm of Mika Meyers PLC. And those mid-sized businesses aren’t necessarily alone, she said.
“However, the real ‘losers’ are ultimately Michigan consumers purchasing items from mid-sized online businesses because the price of online products will increase for them,” Crumback said in a statement. “The websites of mid-sized online businesses where consumers have always enjoyed not paying sales tax will now, in most instances, begin charging sales tax.”


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We want to hear your thoughts
Finally, a spare moment to take a breather. It’s been nonstop madness since Monday morning, not that I’m complaining — I adore the energy of E3. Hope you’re having fun.
So, which company won this year’s show?
Microsoft kicked the week off with a solid press conference featuring games — The Master Chief Collection, Phantom Dust, Crackdown, and Scalebound, to name a few — and not much else, as promised. A respectable but not necessarily stellar showing. It helped that Kinect is now optional.
Next was Sony, and while its press briefing went on for far too long as per usual, the games themselves delivered: Bloodborne, Uncharted 4, LittleBigPlanet 3, No Man’s Sky. That said, gosh, not much in the way of PS Vita love. Some Gravity Rush 2 would’ve been nice.
Finally, Nintendo aired its prerecorded Digital Event this morning, which I found to be a nice mix of silliness and fun-looking games. That’s all I ever want from Nintendo, anyway. For games, we had Xenoblade Chronicles X, Yoshi’s Woolly World, Mario Maker, and talk of a new Zelda. There’s also amiibo toys for Smash Bros., Mario Kart 8, and other titles.
Who won? It’s a total cop-out, but I’d say we all did.
Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo had new software to get excited about for their respective consoles. We’re a customer base with a diverse taste in games, and we’re always wanting more — especially when it comes to “surprise” announcements — but this has been a good E3. Very good indeed.


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THIS WEEK IN FISH – MARCH 2, 2020…
1. MARINE ALGAE GROWN IN NEBRASKA TO FEED FISH AROUND THE WORLD! One of the biggest complaints about most current fish aquaculture practices is that we “kill fish to feed to other fish to grow fish”. A company based in the Netherlands called Veramaris, has pioneered the development of a unique strain of marine algae containing both EPA and DHA omega-3 fatty acids. They recently built a brand new $200 million facility in Blair, Nebraska to grow commercial amounts of this marine algae. The algae is then fed to trout and salmon on farms in France and the resulting fish have been well accepted by the buying public. The point of this is that we can now grow fish, a very nutritious protein, to feed the world WITHOUT killing more fish in the process.
Veramaris’ Global Business Development Director, Gaëlle Husser sums it up correctly, “Using algae oil is helping to decrease the demand on wild-caught fisheries to supply fishmeal rich in omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA. With the well-known benefits of eating a diet rich in omega-3s, the alternative source that we provide complements the finite supply of fish oil from wild-caught fish, and trout and salmon consumers have access to sustainable and healthy fish.”
2. MARYLAND ROCKFISH SEASON CLOSED – VIRGINIA IS OPEN – The drift-gill net season has ended and all Maryland waters of the Chesapeake Bay are now closed to the commercial harvest of wild rockfish until June 1, 2020. The Potomac River is open for wild rockfish as are the Virginia waters of the Chesapeake. Traditionally in years past, tons and tons of gigantic rockfish (20-40 pounders) were landed in March as they ran in from the ocean, answering Mother nature’s call to reproduce. It was a shame to kill all these big spawning fish and dump them on the market for cheap money. Now, as the spawning stock biomass of rockfish hits 20 year lows, we are finally changing our management of the species. Virginia has instituted a 7″ mesh net law that will only catch fish up to about 10 lbs. That will save a lot of jumbo fish (of the ones that are left). Maryland has cut their recreational limit from 2 fish per day to 1 fish per day. The Maryland recreational “trophy rockfish season” (absurd to even have one) has been pushed back to open May 1, giving most of the spawners a chance to spawn unmolested, and leave the Bay, heading to their next stop on their journey, the New England ocean waters off Massachusetts.
3. SPRING IS ALMOST HERE! MARYLAND CRAB SEASON OPENS IN 30 DAYS – It seems hard to believe, but in only 4 weeks, pots go in the water for Maryland crab season. All indications are that there will be lots of crabs crawling around to start. Picking houses should crank up meat production sometime in the first week of April, HOWEVER, the H2B visa program (everyone’s sole source for crab pickers) has been severely cut back and there is tremendous uncertainty whether or not certain picking house will get any pickers. It is very tough to pick fresh crabmeat without crab pickers!
4. VENZ JUMBO AN EXTREME VALUE FOR THE THIRD WEEK IN A ROW – The fresh Venezuelan jumbo lump market remains at around $1 per ounce again this week. Usage is way up but production is keeping pace with sales. Keep promoting where you can because next week looks like more of the same.
5. SKREI COD AT ITS FINEST POINT – When the wild cod in the Barents Sea migrate off Norway during their spawning run, the fish are in “peak condition”. These beauties are 10-20 lbs. each and head off, still in rigor. You have never tasted a cod this good. Try some this week.
6. MAHI MARKET SPIKES – After being undervalued for months, the combination of Carnival celebrations across South America, the full moon and the beginning of Lent all came together to jump mahi prices by 40%. How long it will stay at this level is an open question but if you want to eat mahi this week it will cost you 75 cents an ounce.
7. FRESH HADDOCK IS A HIT! – We started bringing in fresh, hand cut haddock fillets from fish right off the New Bedford Fish Auction last week to see if we could introduce a new item to the masses. What started as an experiment quickly turned into a new inventory item for our customers. These fish are processed daily right after they get bought off the auction floor. We are stocking only LARGE, Skin on, scaled fillets packed in 10 lb. boxes. With a price under $10, this is a great fish to run as a special during Lent.
Thank you and have a great week!


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KYMCO USA announced it will team with Ford Motor Co. to produce an ATV to complement the automaker's 411 hp, 4X4, F-150 Raptor pickup truck.
The ATV, a 2011 MXU500i, features KYMCO’s 498cc, four-stroke, 36 hp engine, four-wheel drive, and four-wheel independent suspension. The limited-edition package includes a custom metallic blue finish with Ford F-150 Raptor graphics, Built Ford Tough badging and special alloy wheels.
The Limited Edition MXU500i will debut Aug. 19-21 as part of the Ford F-150 display at the Woodward Dream Cruise in Detroit, an event expected to attract more than 100,000 visitors.
During the promotional period the Limited Edition MXUs will be on display at participating Ford Truck dealerships; purchases, however can be made only through the Ford Collection website, www.fordcollection.com. Participating KYMCO dealers will handle delivery of the purchased ATVs.
John Nens, director of Ford Global Brand Licensing, says, “This KYMCO ATV is a perfect brand extension for our F-150 Raptor customers who have an affinity for outdoor adventure, and it’s built to help them practice their adrenaline-filled activities.”
Posted by Mike Vaughan


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New government data shows U.S. consumer spending in July grew by a lackluster 0.3 percent, a far slower pace than the 1.1 percent pace of growth in the prior month and a sign that the economic recovery may be losing steam in the third quarter as the Delta variant spreads.
The Commerce Department said in a release Friday that consumer spending, which accounts for around two-thirds of U.S. economic growth, rose $42.2 billion in July, or a modest 0.3 percent over the month. A separate sentiment gauge from the University of Michigan showed American consumer confidence fell sharply in August.
Still, the foundation for the economic recovery appears solid, with the Commerce Department report showing wages rising and a boost in savings, giving American consumers more spending potential to unlock going forward, even as the rise in infections clouds the outlook.
“There are clear downside risks to spending if more events and trips are canceled and more products are delayed getting to shelves,” said Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto, in remarks to Reuters. “But it’s a bit early to throw in the towel on the economic outlook given supportive wage and saving trends and a likely boost from business investment, inventories, and trade in the third quarter.”
Besides the resurgence of the pandemic, another cloud on the recovery horizon is a sharp drop in consumer sentiment. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index fell to 70.3 in August, the lowest level since 2011.
“Consumers’ extreme reactions were due to the surging Delta variant, higher inflation, slower wage growth, and smaller declines in unemployment,” Richard Curtin, the survey director, said in a statement. “The extraordinary falloff in sentiment also reflects an emotional response, from dashed hopes that the pandemic would soon end and lives could return to normal.”
Along with the dip in spending and the plunge in sentiment, inflationary pressures eased a bit in July. The core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge for calibrating monetary policy, rose by 0.3 percent in July, after rising 0.5 percent in June and 0.6 percent in May, suggesting inflation may have peaked and will now begin to soften—a view held by Federal Reserve officials.
Fed chair Jerome Powell said in a speech Friday that, while there’s been a “sharp run-up” in inflation, there are signs that it’s moderating.
“Inflation at these levels is, of course, a cause for concern. But that concern is tempered by a number of factors that suggest that these elevated readings are likely to prove temporary,” he said, arguing that the current spike in inflation is largely driven by a relatively narrow group of goods and services that have been directly impacted by the pandemic and the reopening of the economy, effects that “should wash out over time.”
Powell also made a case for the persistence in disinflationary forces like technology and globalization, arguing that there is little evidence these have suddenly reversed or abated, saying that “it seems more likely that they will continue to weigh on inflation as the pandemic passes into history.”
The Fed’s baseline economic outlook is for the economy to continue progressing toward maximum employment, with inflation returning closer to the Fed’s goal of averaging 2 percent over time, Powell said.
While the spread of the Delta variant has led economists to trim their forecasts for growth in the current quarter, analysts still believe if COVID-19 cases fall in the final months of 2021, the country will experience its strongest growth this year in decades.


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Mintec, the leading independent provider of global pricing data and intelligence for the food industry has announced the launch of its algorithmic commodity price forecasts that cover over 533 commodities for agrifood, industrial materials and energy commodities.
These new price forecasts further expand procurement and investment professionals' capabilities to understand future prices and inform their buying and investment decisions.
Mintec's algorithmic commodity price forecasts are generated using advanced algorithms that leverage vast amounts of market data, analysis, and historical trends. By using statistical techniques to identify patterns and correlations between price movements for similar commodities and different regions, they provide accurate price predictions for multiple specifications and markets. Ultimately, these forecasts provide the granularity that enables Mintec customers to act on expected changes to global commodity prices.
Luana Clapis, Mintec’s Chief Data Officer, said, "The launch of these algorithmic forecasts extends Mintec's credentials as a leading data software business with growing capability in cutting-edge data science".
These algorithmic commodity price forecasts are delivered via Mintec’s best-in-class platform, Mintec Analytics, to complement a set of robust core forecasts, generated by a team of experts in fundamental, technical and macroeconomic analysis. Combined, these forecasts provide procurement and investment professionals with critical information regarding future commodity prices to improve their decision-making, increase cost savings, and mitigate risks for their business in a rapidly changing market.
Mintec enables the world's largest food and manufacturing brands to implement more efficient and sustainable procurement strategies. We do this through our cutting-edge SaaS platform, Mintec Analytics, which delivers market prices and analysis for more than 17,000 food ingredients and associated materials. Our data and tools empower our customers to understand prices better, analyze their spending, and confidently negotiate.


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Dear friends and colleagues,
In case you missed it, last week The Data Center released a new brief shedding light on the number and quality of jobs in New Orleans’ tourism industry. This brief included details about jobs in hotels and full-service restaurants, which account for the vast majority of the tourism industry’s jobs.
To ensure transparency, today we’re releasing an easy-to-use spreadsheet with the detailed data presented in the brief. The spreadsheet includes:


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Financial executives at transportation companies are more pessimistic about the economy than their counterparts in other businesses, and few plan to hire workers in the next six months, according to a
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Ford Motor Co. is introducing what it calls the industry’s first pursuit-rated gasoline-electric hybrid police vehicle that more than doubles the fuel economy of the current Ford police interceptor.
The Police Responder Hybrid Sedan is based on the Ford Fusion midsize sedan and can be ordered this spring and will be delivered next summer. It is rated at 38 mpg combined. It features an Atkinson-cycle 2.0-liter engine paired with an electric motor and lithium-ion battery.
Ford says it can run in battery-only mode up to 60 mph.
The hybrid Fusion police sedan is one of 13 new electrified vehicles Ford is adding to its portfolio by 2021. It previously announced plans for the sedan, along with a second hybrid police vehicle, a fully electric SUV, a hybrid F-150, a hybrid Mustang, a hybrid autonomous vehicle and a Transit Custom plug-in hybrid earlier this year.
“Electrifying our next generation of vehicles is core to our unwavering commitment to sustainability,” Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s President of the Americas, said in a statement. “By being a leader in electrified vehicles, we remain committed to delivering cars, trucks and SUVs that are better not only for our customers, but for the environment and society as well.”
The automaker is investing $4.5 billion in the 13 electrified vehicles. Additionally, Ford said last week it will electrify 70 percent of its Ford brand portfolio in China by 2025.
Ford hopes the hybrid police car will give it a larger slice of a market it already dominates. The Blue Oval owns a 63 percent market share of the police vehicle segment and has sold vehicles to law enforcement since 1920.
Ford said the hybrid sedan will help cities save about $3,877 a year in fuel costs, based on gasoline priced at $2.50 a gallon.
The company planned to unveil the sedan Monday in New York in advance of the New York International Auto Show. It will hold a simultaneous reveal in Los Angeles.
“Our mission to create safe and healthy communities in Los Angeles is achieved through sustainable approaches in community policing, and that includes embracing new technologies,” Charlie Beck, Los Angeles Police Department Chief, said in a statement. “Patrol vehicles are a police officer’s office, and we expect them to not only be economically and environmentally efficient but also an effective tool for fighting crime in major metropolitan areas.”
"Ford Fusion hybrid police sedan rated at 38 mpg combined city, highway" was originally published at Automotive News on 4/10/17.


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The Italian based automaker Ferrari is planning to launch the so-called F150 from a price of 1-million euros, which is before taxes.
With just a couple of weeks away from the official presentation of the Ferrari F150, scheduled for the 2013 Geneva Motor Show, probably in the first press day, on the 4th of March, the supercar is ending up in our news once again, this time with the “help” of some rumors. According to the guys at Europe Automotive News, the final production version of the Ferrari F150 will carry a price tag of 1-million euros. This will be before taxes and this means that the supercar will cost approximately 1.21 million euros in Italy.
Rumors are saying that just 499 units of the Ferrari F150 will be produced and sold, which is basically 100 more than the number of Enzo supercar. The Ferrari F150 has an increased demand coming from Asia and especially China. The F150 is the most powerful road-going model ever made in Maranello and also the supercar will also get a powerful engine under its hood, the same one used on the F12 Berlinetta, producing 800 HP, helped by a KERS and its extra 150 HP. More details on the Ferrari F150 are limited for the moment and will be announced during the Swiss automotive event next month.
Source: Europe Automotive News


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Jetblue has unveiled details of its all-new Mint business class product which will debut on the carrier’s flights to London from this summer.
There will be 24 private suites with sliding doors, featuring a customised Thompson Aero Vantage Solo seat in a herring-bone configuration, with a 17-inch tilting IFE screen, wireless charging capabilities, an integrated phone ledge “for multitasking”, in-seat power, and laptop, shoe and handbag storage.
The carrier said that the seat would feature “Tuft and Needle’s proprietary T&N Adaptive foam and a breathable cover to create a cool and comfortable sleep experience unlike anything in the sky”.
The brand will also be providing sleep amenities including a convertible blanket with a built-in foot pocket, a memory foam lined pillow with a pillowcase, and a snooze kit with a matching eye mask and earplugs.
Jetblue also confirmed that the front row of the aircraft will be taken up by two Mint Studios, which will offer an extra side table “for added productivity”, a 22-inch tilting IFE screen, and a guest seat which can be used by another passenger when the aircraft is at cruising altitude.
It says that when reclined, the bed in the Mint Studio will be “the largest lie-flat bed of any US carrier” (based on total reclined bed surface area). Indeed the carrier says that “customers will even be able ‘starfish’ in this bed”.
Other design features of the new Mint experience include:
- Residential textures, such as flannel-covered privacy dividers, concrete lampshades, woodgrain table patterns and soft, vegan leather-covered seats and headrests, make customers feel at home in the air.
- Custom-created suite gradient panels bring light into the cabin, while patterned door shrouds with the signature Mint leaf make a bold brand statement in a functional way.
- First-of-its-kind mood lighting enhances the inflight experience, and a welcoming blue floor arc helps direct the customer boarding flow.
The new products will be fitted to Jetblue’s single-aisle A321 LR aircraft which is set to operate the London route.
No details have yet been given on the configuration of the rest of the aircraft – Business Traveller has asked for more information on this and will post any response here.
And there’s still no firm date for the launch of the carrier’s transatlantic flights – in November we reported that Jetblue had secured slots at Gatwick and Stansted airports, but when pressed on this the carrier responded simply that “Jetblue has applied for multiple slots at various London airports and remains committed to launching service in 2021”.
Commenting on the news Joanna Geraghty, president and chief operating officer, Jetblue, said:
“Mint was an idea to make premium travel across the US less stuffy and more affordable, and its performance has exceeded even our most optimistic expectations of going beyond New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
“It’s remarkable how Mint’s thoughtful design has resonated with customers as we successfully grew it to more than 30 routes. We put our heart into this redesign of Mint and were inspired by our original vision of offering customers an exceptional experience at a lower fare – which is what JetBlue is all about.”
Jetblue first launched its premium Mint product on transcontinental flights in 2014. The revamped product is also set to debut on a selected flights between New York and Los Angeles this year, in a 16-seat configuration.


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California concludes BPA is toxic to women's reproductive health, follows expert scientific panel
Yesterday, California officially placed bisphenol A (BPA) on its list of chemicals known to cause reproductive harm (California's "Proposition 65" list). The listing does not ban BPA, but could result in warnings on consumer products which contain the chemical. BPA is a toxic chemical found in plastic products, canned food and beverages, and paper receipts.
The State acted on the unanimous May 7 recommendation of its designated scientific expert panel to list BPA as a chemical that is clearly shown to harm women's reproductive health, despite strong chemical industry opposition orchestrated by the American Chemistry Council (ACC), the main industry lobbying group, that refuses to acknowledge that this chemical is not safe. As panel members noted, the chemical industry continues to rely almost exclusively on outdated methods to assess harmful effects and fails to grapple with the latest science and methodologies. The State's experts looked past industry attempts to manufacture doubt, and followed the extensive literature showing BPA's harmful effects.
The experts' recommendation is based on their review of substantial new research, summarized in a recently published review, which evaluated the many studies finding a long list of adverse health effects associated with BPA. The review, conducted by nearly a dozen scientists, concluded that there was strong evidence that BPA can cause harm to the reproductive system and exposure to BPA is involved in reproductive diseases. NRDC and its partners submitted substantial comments strongly supporting the listing of BPA as a chemical known to cause reproductive harm.
We applaud the State and the scientific panel for recognizing BPA's adverse effects on women's reproductive health. But there is much that remains to be done. The next step in the process is for the State to decide which products will need warnings labels. We can be sure that industry will be arguing for as little labeling as possible, and it will require continued engagement from the public health community.
We hope the State will move as quickly as possible on the regulatory process for warning labels. The labels provide critical information for consumers and can be powerful motivators for manufacturers. By notifying consumers about the presence of harmful chemicals in products, the warnings allow consumers to make more informed choices when shopping. It also creates incentives for manufacturers to remove the harmful chemical from the product--in the past, many manufacturers have done exactly that. And California is often an important leader on these issues--warnings in California can translate into labels elsewhere and improvements to products usually mean improvements across the country because manufacturers don't typically manufacture separate lines of products for different states.
In the longer term, California must also do more to ensure the safety of "BPA-free" products - to respond to new science which shows that the chemicals used as replacements for BPA may pose similar health risks. But right now, it's time to appreciate the listing. It is an important step forward in protecting public health.


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Your question is timely. A newly released report from Sweden addresses the issue by describing how switching to a diet of organic foods affects levels of 12 pesticide residues stemming from earlier consumption of conventionally produced foods. The Swedish Environmental Research Institute carried out the experiment with a family of five: the parents and three young children. Earlier research had shown that pesticide residues were present in the urine of 90 to 100 percent of Swedes tested.
During the first week of the study, all the food family members ate was conventionally produced. For the following two weeks, they consumed only organic food, including meat, fish, vegetables and fruit. Throughout the three weeks family members submitted urine samples every morning that were tested for residues of 12 pesticides.
Because the family had used detergents containing triclocarban, an antibacterial agent, this exposure had to be considered independently, since the chemical degrades in the body into the metabolite 3,5-dichloroaniline (3,5-DCA). For this reason, the family switched detergents during the organic phase. They also agreed not to wear new clothes or use new bedding or towels, all of which can contain chemicals that could be absorbed. The father used snuff, which the researchers replaced with an organic version. The family already used environmentally friendly shampoos, conditioners, and skin care products.
The results of the switch to organic foods were dramatic. On average, the pesticide loads of all family members dropped significantly, and the researchers reported that some of the chemicals fell to undetectable levels after only a day or so of organic eating. They also found that, on average, pesticide levels dropped slightly more in the children than in the adults.
The researchers also reported that levels of pesticide residues found in urine while the family was eating conventionally produced foods were “well within acceptable levels,” meaning that a single substance is unlikely to pose an immediate health risk to humans. What we don’t know is the risk posed by repeated or prolonged exposure to low levels of these compounds. It’s also unclear if residues of multiple chemicals could interact each other, leading to a stronger (or weaker) effect than they would have individually. So far, we have no reliable methods to assess risks, if any, posed by this so-called “cocktail effect” of combined chemicals.
While this was a small, pilot study, the results should prove persuasive for those considering a switch to organically produced foods. And they should provide food for thought for those who don’t see any benefit to making the change.
Andrew Weil, M.D.
Jörgen Magnér, Petra Wallberg, Jasmin Sandberg, Anna Palm Cousins “Human exposure to pesticides from food A pilot study.” Coop Sverige AB, https://www.coop.se/PageFiles/430210/Coop%20Ekoeffekten_Rapport_eng.pdf, accessed May 18, 2015


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Lunch in the Big Apple didn't get "lighter" after New York City started requiring fast food chains to post calorie content, Tamara Dumanovsky and colleagues reported online in BMJ.
But the one in six customers surveyed who did use the calorie counts cut 106 calories from their lunch purchase on average compared with those who either didn't see the calorie information or who simply ignored it, wrote Dumanovsky, an independent consultant who used to work for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Saving that many calories on a daily basis would mean losing (or not gaining) one pound a month, explained coauthor Cathy A. Nonas of the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Read this story on www.medpagetoday.com.
On a public health scale, it could translate to 150,000 fewer cases of obesity in New York City alone, she said in an interview monitored by media relations for the department.
"Small changes make a big difference," Nonas told MedPage Today.
New York City rolled out legislation in 2008 requiring any restaurant with 15 or more franchises across the country to post calorie information on its menus.
Chain restaurants across the nation will have to follow suite once provisions of the 2010 Affordable Care Act go into effect. Some areas, including Seattle, Philadelphia, and all of California, already have similar regulations in place.
Evidence for efficacy is "good news," according to Marion Nestle,a food politics expert at New York University in New York City.
"Calorie labeling is working for people who pay attention to it. That's all anyone can ask," she wrote in an email. "The next trick is to get more people to pay attention."
In the study, which surveyed New Yorkers who purchased food at 168 randomly-selected locations of top fast food chains in the city during lunchtime, just 15 percent of customers reported using the calorie information in 2009.
Nonas urged physicians to join the effort to boost these numbers by talking to patients about using the calorie labelling.
While a good first step, tackling obesity may require more, argued Susan A. Jebb in an editorial accompanying the BMJ paper.
People make food choices in a wider context of taste, price, and social norms, so further long-term advances may require "a transformation of the food supply too," noted Jebb, co-chair of a voluntary British program for calorie labeling in restaurants.
After the New York City program went into effect, register receipts overall showed no change in calories purchased for lunch (mean 828 in 2007 versus 846 in 2009).
Women, older adults, and customers in the wealthiest areas were more likely to have relied on the calorie labelling for their lunch decisions.
After adjusting for these factors, type of purchase, restaurant chain, and inflation, there was a small effect across the board as average calories fell from 847 in 2007 to 827 in 2009.
More substantial calorie cutting occurred after the calorie counts were posted at three chains, accounting for 42 percent of the lunchtime crowd surveyed:
McDonald's purchases dropped from an average of 829 to 785 calories
KFC diners reduced their calories from 927 to 868
Au Bon Pain purchases declined in average calorie content from 555 to 475
Subway was the only chain that bucked the trend, going from an average of 749 calories for lunch in 2007 to 882 in 2009.


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After being forced to shut down when its license expired in August of last year, PhilWeb Corp. is now back in action. The company was given the go-ahead to become a service provider after being reinstated by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR).
According to agbrief.com, Philstar reported that the company has been given the approval to become a service provider of Electronic Gaming Systems after PAGCOR provided the company with the Provisional Certificate of Accreditation. With the certification, PhilWeb will be able to offer software and additional service options to operators who are licensed by PAGCOR.
PhilWeb must now wait for their gaming facilities and servers to be inspected before they will receive a notice to operate. Andrea Domingo is the CEO and Chairman of PAGCOR reportedly stated that the new process of accreditation will give operators more choice when it comes to service providers. The CEO stated that with more choice, operators will be able to choose which provider will better assist them in the operation of their outlets.
Dennis Valdes is the President of PhilWeb who thanked regulators for the approval. Valdes stated that PhilWeb is grateful for Chairman Domingo and the Board of Directors of PAGCOR for having faith in their company and giving them the opportunity to deliver services to operators of electronic gaming once again.


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China's LeEco abandons $2 billion deal to buy U.S. TV maker Vizio
Tuesday, April 11, 2017, 4:48 PM
LeEco has scrapped a planned $2 billion acquisition of U.S. consumer electronics company Vizio (VZIO.O) due to regulatory issues, a fresh setback to the cash-strapped Chinese conglomerate's expansion drive. The deal was first announced in July, with LeEco agreeing to acquire the Irvine-based manufacturer of LCD/LED flat panel TVs. A LeEco representative cited a "Chinese policy factor" for abandoning the proposal.


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DotNetNuke 6.1 out soon Created by on 12/03/2014 17:32:56
DotNetNuke v6.1 will be out soon and the most exciting feature of this new release is core support for Mobile devices.
DotNetNuke v6.1 will be out soon and the most exciting feature of this new release is core support for Mobile devices. This will allow skin and module developers to tailor their designs to suit the platform viewing the site - it will even be able to tell if it's a touchscreen device. This takes DNN to a whole new level, allowing for easy development of one website to suit mobile and desktop platforms - no more maintaining multiple sites!
Pure Systems has been involved in several large web projects where mobile device support has been crucial to the success of the sites - this new addition to DNN will mean there's core support for mobile devices which will lead to better integration and more robust and flexible solutions for our clients.


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- Sep 14, 2007
Jeep helping Chrysler retain market share
Although Chrysler-brand vehicles lead the way among the Big Three in incentives, Jeep has placed little reliance on them. The numbers mean that Chrysler's market share has actually improved a tiny bit, from 12.85 in the US. It's a minuscule improvement to be sure, but for a company that has been through the wringer over the past few months (years, some would say), it's still a great statement.


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For Zukhra Salamova, co-owner of Rasul’s Turkish Delights restaurant in Dayton, Ohio, it’s been a difficult few months.
Last Wednesday was the first day her restaurant’s doors opened in months and footfall has been scant since. “Maybe people don’t know that we’re open again,” says Ms Salamova, who is an Ahiska Turk. She emigrated with her family from the Krasnodar region of Russia to Ohio in 2006 and now runs the only authentic Caucasian eatery in the region.
Ms Salamova estimates that business at the restaurant, which opened in 2015 and serves shawarma, kebabs and lagman (a Central Asian dish of pulled noodles), is down 80 per cent.
Restaurants across Ohio were allowed to only sell takeaway until May 15 because of the pandemic, but Ms Salamova and her husband Rasul didn’t want to take any chances and stayed closed.
For Dayton’s 2,500-strong Ahiska Turk community it is just the latest blow after a tornado destroyed several of their freight and furniture businesses in May last year.
The National reported on the community following the tornado as their livelihoods lay severely damaged around them.
The stateless, ethnically Turkic group fled sectarian violence in Russia in the 2000s and later, war in eastern Ukraine after 2014 for sanctuary in the US. Many were settled in Dayton through an official refugee programme, but some moved from other parts of the US because of the low cost of living and to maintain their community bonds.
Over the past decade, they have come to be considered a migrant success story and have been welcomed by the city in part for their work renovating derelict buildings and for establishing a robust transport industry.
Rasul's Turkish Delights did attract customers from all over the region and while business pre-virus was never overwhelming, its owners enjoyed a steady stream of customers. But now, like the community’s other restaurants, barber shops and haulage businesses, the economic fallout from coronavirus has hit hard.
Following an initial, short-lived rise in demand for services at the onset of the crisis in March, the transport industry has been hammered by falling shipping prices. Though diesel prices remain low, the increasing number of retail and other businesses that are folding is bad news for transport companies.
For Ruslan Kilich, whose haulage warehouse and lorry fleet – a two-minute drive from Ms Salamova’s restaurant – were almost wiped out by last year’s tornado, things are difficult.
“When gas prices are cheap, [shipping] rates are low, too,” he said.
“If there’s no load, there’s no point sending your lorry 2,000 miles just to come back empty.”
Since several of his employees are from New York, the hot spot of the US’s Covid-19 outbreak, Mr Kilich has also lost part of his workforce as they have chosen to remain there with their families.
His company is yet to receive compensation for the damage caused by last year’s tornado, and the warehouse remains under construction. He suffered damage to seven trailers and eight lorries, while the roof and much of the furniture store was destroyed.
Now, local municipal offices are still shut due to the pandemic, meaning city engineers and architects can’t work and that in turn affects his business.
Aliser Bektash’s furniture store in north Dayton was also partially destroyed by last year’s tornado. He is now selling his wares from a warehouse and business is failing to recover as a host of weddings have been cancelled this year, meaning fewer couples are moving in together and demand for home furniture has plummeted.
He says he is now also thousands of dollars out of pocket from the non-returnable fees attached to a loan application, which has been stalled due to the pandemic.
Migrant workers like Ms Salamov frequently work in jobs such as hospitality and healthcare putting them on the front line when it comes to exposure to the virus.
A growing number of reports suggest immigrants are also fearful of reaching out to health authorities and other official organisations due to the government’s increasingly anti-immigrant stance, which could adversely affect their health.
Though Covid-19 fatalities in Dayton’s Montgomery county have remained relatively low, according to community leaders, several Ahiska Turk men have contracted the virus – thankfully, they recovered.
Still grappling with the fear they faced in the wake of the tornado, Ms Salamova’s family now face the worry of starting a new life all over again.
“Maybe someone comes here to buy something, catches the virus and blames us,” she said. With the difficulties the community is facing, coupled with her children now being grown up and setting out on new lives, Ms Salamova said the restaurant is likely to be sold soon.
It will leave a gaping hole in the heart of a neighbourhood that’s struggled to get back on its feet.


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**C4E 101: Series of Lectures in Innovation and Entrepreneurship APPROVED
IDEA Innovation Centre is an incubator-accelerator for Start-ups aspiring to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in Cyprus and supports young persons – entrepreneurs – who are determined to turn their innovative idea into a viable business. IDEA Innovation Centre has been awarded as the winner at a European level, surpassing 29 other countries, in the European Commission’s Enterprise Promotion Awards for “Investing in Entrepreneurial Skills” (https://www.facebook.com/ideacy/videos/507151453232512/). IDEA is the only non-profit, comprehensive innovation centre in Cyprus aiming to develop successful startups, create entrepreneurial culture and elevate Cyprus into a regional innovation hub.
IDEA has also been awarded with the Gold award for “Excellence in Public-Private Cooperation” and Silver award in “Cause Advocacy” by the Cyprus Responsible Business Awards.
Mrs Angela Panayiotou, Manager IDEA, will present us the work done at IDEA, hosting 48 start-ups so far and more than 100 entrepreneurs, along with the new call for applications to join IDEA. Two start-ups which are in the current cycle of IDEA will present us their work and experience.
Apply now on: here
* Photography, audio, and video recording may occur at a UCY public event. By taking part, you grant UCY full rights to use the audiovisual material for publicity purposes. If you do not wish to be a part of the audiovisual coverage, you are kindly requested to inform the event organizer. More info for the EU General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’) here.
Centre for Entrepreneurship
- IDEA Innovation Centre


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All students will now wear orange caps and gowns at graduation. Previously, only boys wore orange, while girls wore white. According to principal Dusty Johns, the change was only made so all students wear the official school color at graduation.
Although it was not the intention behind the decision, this change makes caps and gowns inclusive for all students. The new change eliminates separating students by gender.
Separating boys and girls at graduation creates a divide between the student body. Students do not look unified while walking across the stage. With all students wearing the same color, focus is drawn to the milestone students are passing, instead of the gender of each individual student.
More importantly, this change will help nonbinary students feel more included in the ceremony. The previous caps and gowns gendered whatever student put them on. The gowns placed nonbinary students into male and female categories against their will.
By making all of the gowns the same, nonbinary students are not forced to wear colors that are assigned to either males or females. Nonbinary students can focus more on their accomplishments rather than stressing about the color of their gowns.
In past years, anyone attending the ceremonies had an idea of a student’s gender even from sitting in the back of the arena. A student body wearing all orange removes preconceived assumptions from the minds of family and friends in the audience.
Additionally, the orange caps and gowns help include students of all incomes. Students required to wear white clothing underneath the white gowns. If students did not, the clothes worn underneath would be visible. If a female student did not have white clothes, she would have to buy some or select something from the Kemosabe Kloset.
Before, a low income student may have struggled to buy a dress or outfit to wear underneath her gown. Now, she can wear any color clothes she already owns underneath the orange gown, as it is not see-through.
When it comes to the Kemosabe Kloset, students may also have a wider variety of options available. Students would not have only a limited number of white items to choose from.
This decision falls behind other OCPS schools. Winter Park, Timber Creek and other schools in the district already made all students wear the same color. Although this change should have arrived sooner, the school made tremendous progress by making it now.
Seniors can order their caps and gowns with Herff Jones Orlando now. Multiple packages are available. Graduation takes place on May 18, 2022 at 2:30pm in the University of Central Florida Addition Financial Arena.


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A new book-length report entitled Music Industry and the Internet – Usage, Retail and Digital Distribution Projections, should interest anyone involved in new media design and development for the music industry. This comprehensive study from the US includes company profiles and strategies of labels, retailers, media companies and technology enablers, Web strategies, the development of digital distribution, cross-promotional opportunities and intellectual property issues. You can get more detailed information from publisher Jupiter Communications’ website at www.jup.com.
Sam Jacob Studio has been commissioned to design the exhibition spaces and interiors of the new Cartoon Museum, and will work with graphic design studio Fraser Muggeridge to create a
Kin Design has created interactive installations for the Eden Project’s new permanent show Invisible Worlds, which delves into the fascinating stories of miniscule micro-organisms, and the impact humans have made
Research shows that over half of designers have been to university, compared to a third of the UK workforce on a whole. We chat to Hilary Chittenden, senior foundation manager
The design consultancy has rebranded the alcohol subscription service, which sends its members a surprise bottle of gin plus other goodies every month.


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We keep getting more and more news on the planned $220 million redevelopment of St. Louis Centre into parking and retail space.
The Post-Dispatch provided a nice rundown on the project that mentions that not only is a movie theater being considered for the second floor, a fitness center is being considered as well.
Also featured in the article was Amos Harris stating that the redevelopment of the Dillard’s Building into apartments and an Embassy Suites hotel could be completed in early 2010.
Finally, Building Blocks came through with a rendering of the St. Louis Centre project, pictured on left.
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- SNL’s ‘Come Back, Barack’90s RnB Style ft Chance The Rapper - Sunday, November 19, 2017
- 3 Indicted In Death of DeSmet Coach, Jaz Granderson - Thursday, November 16, 2017
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Shiba Inu's community, which has rapidly increased its popularity among joke-themed crypto assets, focused on the big announcement to be made by the SHIB team.
The developers for the Shiba Inu recently signaled some positive developments to the community with tips and introductions. Although there is no clear information about the details of the development yet, various rumors about the subject are circulating.
Social media posts contain some clues about the March 30 announcement. It is thought that the announcement will be in the form of announcing the details of the sale of maps and virtual land related to the Shiba Inu Metaverse, where users can interact with each other. Other rumors suggest that virtual land sales can be integrated with the popular NFT platform OpenSea.
SHIB saw a 38 percent increase in value along with the overall market trend, from a low of $0.00002150 in March to $0.00002966 earlier this week. Shiba price, which has seen some correction from the weekly high, is currently changing hands at $0.000027 while maintaining an uptrend.
The most recent development regarding the Shiba Inu has included its listing on the Netcoins platform, a cryptocurrency exchange based in Vancouver, Canada. Netcoins allow Canadians to buy, sell and hold different types of cryptocurrencies. Besides, the biggest feature of the platform is that it is the first fully regulated public crypto trading platform in Canada.
Fashion designer John Richmond announced the SHIB and LEASH burning program for the online store in mid-March. The interest of a global fashion brand in the Shiba Inu was considered a significant development among the community.
In addition to these developments regarding the use case of SHIB, the interest of Ethereum whales in the Shiba Inu token does not fall off the agenda. Recent Blockchain data shows that $5 million worth of SHIB tokens were acquired last week.
Intotheblock data shows that major investors have increased their Shiba Inu trading activity by 350 percent in the last 24 hours. As a result of this increase in activity, which was linked to the March 30 announcement, it has been noted that since yesterday, the 3 largest Ethereum whales received 622 billion SHIB tokens worth $ 16.72 million in 4 transactions in total.


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DLA Piper advises Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG on formation of production joint venture with Masterwork
DLA Piper has advised Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG ("Heidelberg") on the formation of a production joint venture with its long-standing partner and strategic anchor shareholder Masterwork Group Co. ("Masterwork").
With this joint venture, Heidelberg aims to further strengthen its leading competitive position in the growth market of China and will also benefit from the closer cooperation within the value chain of the two companies, particularly at its production site near Shanghai. Both companies also expect the expansion of the strategic cooperation through joint parts production by the joint venture at Masterwork’s new and innovative site in Tianjin to open up substantial opportunities for boosting efficiency.
Under the terms of the cooperation agreement, the joint venture will take over some of the machine parts previously manufactured by Heidelberg. The joint venture has already been approved by the relevant antitrust authorities and production is scheduled to start at the beginning of 2021.
The international DLA Piper Hamburg-based Corporate team was led by partner Dr. Benjamin Parameswaran and counsel Dr. Isaschar Nicolaysen and also included senior associate Dr. Diedrich Schröder. Other team members included partners Semin O (Antitrust, Frankfurt), Dr. Thilo von Bodungen (Commercial, Munich), Kerstin Schnabel (Corporate, Cologne), Dr. Roland Maaß (Capital Markets, Frankfurt), counsel Dr. Susanne Weckbach, senior associates Olga Blaszczyk (both Commercial, Munich), Dr. Gregor Schroll (Antitrust), Hubertus Neu (Corporate, both Cologne) and associate Alexander Rösch (Antitrust Law, Frankfurt). In China, a DLA Piper Corporate team led by partner Stewart Wang and consultant Ken Tang also advised on the transaction.


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The Latest Apple TV Rumors
While the ever-active Apple rumor mill hasn't pointed to any meaningful signs of a physical television from Apple this year, there are consistent signals that the company is planning to completely revamp its Apple TV set-top box in 2014. Apple CEO Tim Cook even said at a Feb. 28 annual shareholders meeting that it no longer considers the Apple TV business a hobby, suggesting the company plans to invest far more energy into the project form now on. What kind of changes can investors expect to be made to the Apple TV?
Apple TV. Image source: Apple.
Camera-less no longer?
Recent camera-related job postings on Apple's website discovered by AppleInsider include the Apple TV as one of the products listed in the job description that the hired engineer could be work on. While it's possible that the list of products is standard in many job postings, some of the camera-related jobs do not include the Apple TV, suggesting that it may have been included in the list of products purposefully.
But the biggest evidence that Apple may be planning to include a camera in the Apple TV is the company's 2013 acquisition of PrimeSense, the maker of 3D sensor responsible for the motion-sensing technology in Microsoft's first-generation Kinect.
A February report from the Financial Times said that the new Apple TV would include support for games. Including games could position a new Apple TV set-top box as a competitor to existing game consoles, expanding the device's addressable market.
An App Store?
Financial Times also said in the same report that the Apple TV will finally gain an App Store. While the company currently has third-party apps on the device, there is no store for users to choose additional apps. Further, developers are hand selected and currently have no software development kit to create their own apps. A move to include an App Store on the Apple TV would undoubtedly give the device a more prominent role in Apple's ecosystem.
While we don't know exactly what features the Apple TV will include, investors can now at least be certain the company is taking the project far more seriously. No longer considered a hobby for Apple, considerable new features will undoubtedly surface.
Apple's greater commitment to Apple TV is excellent news for Apple investors. Sure, Apple TV is a small business for the company; accounting for less than 1% of Apple's revenue, according to Cook's comment at the annual shareholder meeting that the segment brought in $1 billion in revenue in 2013, the product segment likely won't be meaningfully budging Apple's financials in the short-term. But it is a fast growing business that could have a longer-term impact on the business. Apple analyst Horace Dediu estimatesthat the Apple TV business is growing at about 80%, year over year -- that's faster growth than any other Apple segment.
Finding investment opportunities in the next tech revolution
Let's face it, every investor wants to get in on revolutionary ideas before they hit it big. Like buying PC-maker Dell in the late 1980s, before the consumer computing boom. Or purchasing stock in e-commerce pioneer Amazon.com in the late 1990s, when it was nothing more than an upstart online bookstore. The problem is, most investors don't understand the key to investing in hyper-growth markets. The real trick is to find a small-cap "pure-play" and then watch as it grows in EXPLOSIVE lockstep with its industry. Our expert team of equity analysts has identified one stock that's poised to produce rocket-ship returns with the next $14.4 TRILLION industry. Click here to get the full story in this eye-opening report.
The article The Latest Apple TV Rumors originally appeared on Fool.com.
Daniel Sparks owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple and Microsoft. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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BURGHAUSEN, Germany—Munich-based Wacker Group has announced a $28.4 million expansion of functional silicone fluid capacity at its Wacker Silicones facility in Burghausen.
The new expansion came online in early January of 2016, according to a Wacker press release. It increases the Burghausen plant's total production capacity by about 70 percent, the company said.
Rising global demand for specialty silicone fluids and emulsions in the construction, coating, paper, cosmetics and personal care industries drove the decision to expand capacity in Burghausen, according to Wacker.
“The completion of our polysilicon production site in Tennessee has essentially concluded our investment in full-scale plants for the manufacture of precursors,” Rudolf Staudigl, Wacker president and CEO, said in a statement. “We are now focusing on plants for intermediates, sales products and specialty products.”
The expansion at Burghausen is a good example of this strategy, Staudigl said.
One of the world's largest silicones manufacturers, Wacker Silicones manufactures more than 3,000 specialty silicone products including silicone fluids, emulsions, resins, elastomers and sealants as well as silanes, silane-terminated polymers and pyrogenic silica.


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Enter the Dragon: Swatch commemorates the Lunar New Year
The band of the blue-and-white watch depicts a smoke-breathing dragon and wave design with a geometric grid gracing the watch face. It is available now at the Swiss brand's stores and website for $65.
The new year also finds the brand adding three new California stores, with recently opened doors in San Francisco, San Diego and at the Topanga Mall in Canoga Park.
— Adam Tschorn
Photo: The Year of the Dragon Swatch ($65), available now, celebrates the Lunar New Year, which begins Jan. 23, 2012. Credit: Swatch


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It’s been a troublesome week for Zeneca after his Twitter account was mysteriously hacked. Accordingly, the assault occurred regardless of Zeneca’s 2FA authenticator and different security measures. The incident got here shortly after Yuga Labs warned the Twitter NFT neighborhood of a “risk group” concentrating on everyone out there.
How was Zeneca’s Twitter account hacked?
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The NFT influencer Zeneca had his Twitter account hacked lower than 48 hours in the past. As quickly as hackers compromised his account, they began sharing malicious hyperlinks.
“I’ve little or no thought of the way it occurred,” the collector wrote in a Twitter thread by way of ZenAcademy. The hackers allegedly managed to go previous Zeneca’s 2FA on Google Authenticator.
Quickly sufficient, although, Twitter locked down the account. In the meantime, the NFT neighborhood rang the alarm, warning customers to disregard the malicious hyperlinks.
Surprisingly, one entity may need predicted Zeneca’s incident by way of Twitter: Yuga Labs.
Did Yuga Labs predict the Twitter rip-off?
Sooner or later earlier than Zeneca’s Twitter account was hacked, Yuga Labs posted an attention-grabbing message. Principally, the staff warned customers of a “risk group” concentrating on the NFT neighborhood. As well as, they stated this mysterious group would quickly compromise many social media accounts of NFT influencers.
About 24 hours later, hackers certainly compromised Zeneca’s Twitter account.
In reality, the identical occurred to many different high-profile Twitter NFT accounts lately. DegenTown, Duppies, and @franklinisbored (the seventh largest BAYC collector) had their accounts hacked too. Surprisingly, even the British Military Twitter account was hacked by NFT scammers! Every time, the culprits began sharing malicious hyperlinks utilizing the sufferer’s Twitter feed.
To conclude, Yuga Labs may need predicted Zeneca’s Twitter hacking incident. Trying into the current incidents, the opportunity of a risk group concentrating on Twitter NFT customers is actual.
Undecided learn how to keep protected? Our NFT scams information explains one of the best methods to maintain your digital belongings protected. You possibly can test it out proper right here!
The journalist is a writer and digital nomad. Loves thinking, learning, and writing about all things Web3, particularly its impact on major creative industries.


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Japan household spending posts biggest rise in three years, signals steady recovery
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s household spending jumped in August at the fastest annual pace in three years as bigger bonuses boosted consumption, suggesting robust domestic demand could help offset ill-effects from escalating trade frictions.
Friday’s upbeat data may also moderate some analysts’ fears that the world’s third largest economy may slow or even contract in the July-September quarter, when Japan was hit by heat waves, heavy rain, typhoons and an earthquake.
Household spending rose 2.8 percent in August from a year earlier, confounding market expectations for a 0.1 percent fall and increasing at its fastest August 2015, government data showed. It was the second straight month of gains following a 0.1 percent rise in July.
“Consumption is doing fairly well thanks to brisk summer bonuses and steadily rising wages. Retail sales were good overall, despite bad weather,” said Atsushi Takeda, chief economist at Itochu Economic Research Institute.
“Household income is rising, so this is underpinning consumption.”
The government upgraded its assessment on household spending, saying that it was “picking up.” In July, it said spending was roughly flat.
Consumption was recovering from a slump seen in February as households spent bonuses on purchases of pricier items ranging from automobiles to air conditioners, a government official told reporters in a briefing.
Many analysts had expected spending to fall in August on the view that unusually hot weather and a string of typhoons were likely to discourage households from shopping or dining out.
A tightening job market has gradually increased household income and helped underpin household spending, which makes up roughly 50 percent of Japan’s economic activity.
But consumption has failed to gain enough momentum to prod companies into raising prices, keeping inflation distant from the Bank of Japan’s 2 percent target.
Solid growth in consumption is considered crucial for premier Shinzo Abe, who reshuffled his cabinet after winning a ruling party leadership race last month, to proceed with a scheduled increase in the sales tax next October.
While the strong household spending data offers some relief to policymakers, various risks cloud the economic outlook.
Multiple natural disasters slowed factory output and, together with escalating trade frictions, hurt business confidence in the third quarter.
Separate data showed Japan’s inflation-adjusted real wages fell in August for the first time in four months, suggesting that consumers may start to cut back on discretionary spending as rising gasoline costs push up living costs.
Many Japanese companies pay summer bonuses in June or July, which tend to inflate wage surveys in these months.
The government plans to compile an extra budget for disaster relief, though any spending likely would not be big enough to have a sizable impact on the economy.


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U.S. President Donald Trump’s net worth fell by $400 million last year, down to an estimated $3.1 billion, causing him to plummet 222 places on Forbes magazine’s annual list of the world’s billionaires, released Tuesday.
Trump slipped from 544th richest in 2017 to 766th in 2018. It is the second consecutive year that Trump’s fortune has dwindled.
Trump’s slide down the rankings of the world’s wealthy comes as a record 35 people have joined Forbes list of billionaires.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was named the richest man in the world, with a fortune of $112 billion, up $39.2 billion from the year before. …read more


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JUST as Jamie Carragher is about to set new career goals, so his restaurant gaff is about to get a rebranding.
Cafe Sports Express, in Liverpool One, is to become Moments, a “high-end brasserie” which will launch at the end of this month.
Reflecting Carragher's role on the pitch, the Cafe Sports Express brand was all about promoting healthy food and lean and mean high protein dishes.
But what's this? Could it be that the WAGs have taken over?
Instead of dozens of plasma tellies pumping out wall to wall footie on Sky Sports, there will be a “wall of fame in tribute to Liverpool’s glamorous and fashion conscious women” which will be unveiled at the opening on 22 July.
“The new venue will serve luxury desserts the likes of which the city has never seen before.”
The Flanagan Group, which owns the Newz Bar and The Sir Thomas Hotel - under the name City Life Projects - is behind all this, a joint venture with the former Liverpool star, promising “a sophisticated, stylish and continental inspired environment”.
By night, it says here: “Moments will come alive as Liverpool’s most cosmopolitan bar offering an impressive selection of drinks from a comprehensive list of wine, champagne and cocktails”.
The man behind the concept, Paul Flanagan, says: “It reflects a demand for a quality brasserie at the heart of Liverpool One. I think it will appeal to Liverpool’s glamorous women and fashion conscious personalities and well as the many thousands of visitors the city continues to attract every year.”
For the moment, the original Cafe Sports England on Stanley Street, will be spared the “Moment” and will launch a new menu later this summer.


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WB Stock to Gain More from Evolving Product Strategy
Today’s stock represents another of my favorite investing strategies: playing the mobile revolution taking place around the world. At the moment, the attention seems to be on China, as a huge consumer class comes on board to spread the usage of mobile Internet. By investing in the stocks that gain from this trend, investors could reap triple-digit gains in a few years’ time.
Today’s stock, Weibo Corp (ADR) (NASDAQ:WB), is a social media platform for people to post, share, and explore Chinese-language content. The company provides the means for people and companies to publicly express themselves and stay connected with each other.
But haven’t we heard this before? Yes, this is because Weibo is a breezy mix of Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). But it is building itself into a unique platform by adding different features. The platform is continuously evolving, and its high-growth potential points toward higher returns for Weibo stock in the future.
Primarily it is a microblogging platform that can be used for posting multimedia as well as short videos. The platform has not only been attracting eyeballs, but also converting them into profits, which is what is making WB stock fly higher.
Despite having a large user base, the potential is huge for Weibo stock to gain in the future as more and more of the population gets access to the Internet.
As per the report from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), as of December 2016, the number of Internet users in China had reached 731 million, which is equivalent to the population of Europe. The Internet penetration stood at 53.2%, which is 3.1% points higher than the world average. But most importantly, the number of mobile Internet users in China reached 695 million, or about 95% of the total. This represents an annual growth rate exceeding 10% for three consecutive years. (Source: “Statistical Report on Internet Development in China,” China Internet Network Information Center, last accessed July 4, 2017.)
As the consumption and mobile Internet usage increases in China, companies like Weibo stand to reap tremendous gains. This is already evident from the stellar results posted by the company.
The social media company posted better-than-expected results for the first quarter last month. Weibo reported that it has 340 million monthly active users in March, which is an increase of 30% year-over-year. It further added that the average daily active users reached 154 million, an increase of 28% year-over-year.
The strong user growth and engagement were given a boost by the various marketing campaigns and live streaming of events undertaken in the first quarter.
Weibo has been successful in monetizing its user base, which is another reason that Weibo stock has been scaling new highs. Its customers continue to increase their ad spending on Weibo on account of its strong advertising product offerings. The content ecosystem has been becoming better and its multimedia features are becoming richer. It is becoming a primary distribution channel for top publishers and influencers who share content on the platform.
Moreover, as video content consumption increases on Weibo, an increasing number of customers are willing to try video ads. In the first quarter, the number of video ad customers went up by 50% from the previous quarter. The company is focused on developing new video ad products, which means more upside for WB stock.
The CEO of Weibo, Gaofei Wang, attributed the success to the company’s aggressive focus on building the best social media experience in the country. Moreover, the management is confident that the strong momentum will continue as the platform becomes better for the mobile, social, and video environment.
Hence, Weibo may have been a clone of Twitter in the initial days, but it has evolved and performed better than the latter. The following chart shows the phenomenal run of Weibo stock, which is up almost 64% year-to-date and 133% over the past year.
Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com
The Bottom Line on Weibo Stock
As Weibo continues to grow, there is a lot of room left for the company to monetize its user base, which has been showing impressive growth along with its products and monetization strategies. The upbeat Q1 results came about on the back of increased user engagement, which is likely to improve in the coming quarters.
Weibo is expected to expand its user base further as it plans to deepen its strategic cooperation with its partners like smartphone manufacturers and variety TV show producers.
Moreover, as Weibo begins to make video the central focus of its future products, both user traffic and engagement are likely to go up. Investors could add WB stock on any sign of weakness as the new strategy means more advertising dollars for the company and more upside for the stock.


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Published On June 12, 2018Bitcoin cryptocurrency has the attention of more than just investors. It now has the attention of cyber criminals.
When the bitcoin cryptocurrency briefly topped $19,000 in value last year, it got the attention of more than just investors and day-traders. It also caught the eye of cyber criminals.
They have responded as expected, stealing more than $1.1 billion in crypto currency during the past six months, according to a new report by Carbon Black. Their weapons of choice include good old-fashioned hacking and new breeds of malware that specialize in stealing from crypto currency exchanges, businesses and individual users. Security software firm Carbon Black has estimated that there are 12,000 marketplaces on the dark web selling more than 34,000 forms of this malware at prices beginning at just over a dollar.
There are two basic approaches to cryptocurrency theft, that attackers use to steal from their victims. Unlike a conventional bank account, money owners have the option of transferring funds to a local electronic wallet on a PC or mobile device. In many cases, these private vaults are protected by nothing more than a password. Malware harvests legitimate credentials from a victim’s computer to look for those that might unlock the wallet, using the same techniques criminals employ to steal passwords. If a crook gains access to a local wallet, funds can disappear just like that.
The most recent hack wasn’t an individual, however, but a crypto exchange. That’s an online platform that enabled crypto currency owners to trade virtual currencies with each other or for real cash. There are thousands of such exchanges, and regulatory oversight is light.
One of them, a Korean exchange called Coinrail, reported that $40 million worth of crypto currency was stolen, apparently by an attacker who was able to channel funds from the accounts of law-abiding customers into its own. That follows upon a much bigger hack in January, when Japanese crypto currency exchange Coincheck said it lost more than $400 million in tokens. The value of bitcoin plummeted 10% in a single day following the Coinrail revelation, dramatizing how sensitive the market is to even a small compromise.
The lesson: Never store crypto currency online or in a wallet that must be connected to the internet to work. Use offline storage media such as a thumb drive, employ two factor-authentication and make sure to limit the number of people who have access to the wallet. When using an exchange, minimize the amount of time your currency is out of your hands.
A less malicious, but also insidious form of crypto currency theft is mining malware. This takes advantage of a unique characteristic of many virtual currencies, which is that they can be earned. To do that, people solve complex equations in a process called mining, with rewards in cryptocurrency for every problem they solve.
The problems aren’t trivial. In fact, they’re so complex that it can take a single PC thousands of years to solve just one, so attackers use malware to hijack computers, federate them in a network and dedicate all or part of their collective processing power to crypto mining. Some recent attacks can even launch mining processes from individual webpages without the user’s knowledge.
Crypto mining isn’t stealing, but it still has an impact on victims. In addition to the costs of power, large-scale mining malware infections can slow computers to a crawl. Customer support reps can’t access account records on a timely basis and financial transactions may be delayed or canceled. That’s not to mention the productivity drain of having the performance of every computer in your company fall by half.
Given the huge run-up in the value of some crypto currencies over the last year, businesses may be tempted to invest or start conducting transactions with virtual money. Be aware of – and prepared for – the risks you’ll be taking with a form of currency that’s largely unregulated and mostly anonymous.


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The first charity shop was opened in Oxford in the year 1948 and has positively transformed high streets across the UK. It’s common to spot charity shops in every high street in England, but according to research published by the Charity Retail Association, 50% of the general public feel there should be less. But how could people feel negative about charity shops raising money for people in need?
Have you recently opened your own retail coffee shop? Or are you just browsing the market for insurance policies that your store would benefit from? At Alan and Thomas, we have a variety of different insurance policies that suit particular industries and retail stores. We recommend three main insurance policies for coffee shops that include legal liability, property damage, and equipment breakdown insurance.
After the beautiful sunny bank holiday the UK experienced last weekend, it feels ...
No one wants to think about the possibility of a plane you’ve ...
The Indian government have introduced a new ‘Adopt a Heritage’ scheme that allows companies to lease out historic monuments around the country. India currently has 3,700 historic monuments, that also include 31 Unesco world heritage sites. If large private corporations have the option to rent out these pieces of history, will this change the monuments’ elite status?
The GDPR deadline is approaching and it's going to have some serious effects on how retail businesses handle their customers’ data. Despite being less than a month away, the majority still aren’t ready for the new legislation, with 57% of 101 retailers revealing in a recent survey that they were not fully prepared.
GoFundMe one of the most popular crowdfunding platforms in the UK has announced they will be expanding their platform to allow crowdfunding for non-profit organisations.
NfpSynergy has recently conducted a study on behalf of ‘Remember a Charity’ that shows 27% of people who regularly donate money to charity, are more willing to leave a large donation included in their will.
In recent years it seems that the UK is catching up with America, in signing up for paid monthly subscriptions to services and products from retail businesses currently on the market. Research findings conducted by YouGov found 1 in 10 people in the UK are subscribed to at least one business’s services, and it has proved to be an important revenue opportunity for retail businesses.
The Government has appointed a team of experts to advise on the future of the maritime industry in the UK, it has been announced. The agenda for discussion include the development of new technology surrounding autonomous vessels and digital ports to ensure that the UK remains a world leader in the maritime industry.
According to research conducted by the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) the shortage of workers in bricklaying, surveyor and construction roles has reached a record high in the UK, and unless something is done the industry will not be able to keep up with Government demands for thousands of new homes per year.
Following a consultation and backed by ...
Following increasing pressure from the EU ...
According to BBC News, films in which white celebrities are filmed promoting on the behalf of charities are said to be getting the boot, with new campaigns instead being fronted by those that the charity intends to help. The change follows backlash that white-celebrity led campaigns to promote ‘poverty tourism’ and rely on unfair stereotypes.
Historians researching the stone structure, which has stood in Wiltshire for over 4,000 years, have uncovered new evidence to suggest that the building of Stonehenge may have been part of a huge celebration that was just as important to Neolithic people as the final result.


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RTTNews - South Korean manufacturers' expectation index climbed to 93 in September from 80 in the previous month, the Bank of Korea said Thursday. This is reportedly the highest in nearly two years.
Consumer confidence has also shown improvement in recent months. In August, consumer confidence rose for the fifth consecutive month and to its highest level in seven years, with the confidence index climbing to 114 from 109 in July.
For comments and feedback: contact email@example.com


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Lured by the promise of deep discounts on hot-ticket items such as home appliances, big-screen televisions and video game consoles, plenty of people will put away the leftovers and head to the store on Thursday as more retailers begin opening their doors on Thanksgiving rather than waiting for Friday.
Nearly 136 million consumers may participate in the busiest shopping weekend of the year, according to forecasts from the National Retail Federation. But in recent years, as more of them have reached for their keyboard rather than their car keys, many big-box retailers have adjusted, making more if not all of the same Black Friday deals available online and alleviating the need to camp out at dawn to snag a great deal.
Of those surveyed nationally who said they were likely to go shopping over the holiday weekend, nearly three-quarters reported plans to do it Friday, with less than a quarter ready to go out on Thanksgiving, according to the trade group’s preliminary count.
As a bonus for online shoppers, many retailers are advertising incentives such as discounted shipping or same-day delivery throughout the holiday season, likely in an effort to compete with Internet juggernaut Amazon.com.
Retailing giants Wal-Mart and Target are among those putting most Black Friday deals online Thursday morning, with stores opening in the evening. Target remains open through the night to Black Friday. As an added incentive to draw crowds on Friday, Target is dangling an offer of 20 percent off a future purchase for customers who spend at least $75. Macy’s, which is opening its stores at 6 p.m. Thursday, will offer deals on its website all day and also is open through the night into Black Friday.
Sears is among stores opening partial hours, from 6 p.m. Thanksgiving to 2 a.m. Friday and reopening at 5 a.m., with a fresh round of deals — including appliances, apparel, tools and jewelry — and, presumably, salespeople.
Meanwhile, some retailers have pushed back in recent weeks from the hoopla tied to the big weekend. To much fanfare, outdoor retailer REI — which has no Louisiana locations — announced it will close the doors to its 143 retail stores Thursday and Friday. Its website will be dark Friday, and the retailer plans to pay its 12,000 workers to take the day off.
“Black Friday is the perfect time to remind ourselves of the essential truth that life is richer, more connected and complete when you choose to spend it outside,” Jerry Stritzke, REI’s president and CEO, said in a statement
Locally, other big chain stores, such as Costco and Sam’s Club, will be closed Thursday but open Friday.
For many large retailers, deciding whether to open Thursday, Friday or not at all can be a tough call that plays out at the corporate level, said Pamela Kennett-Hensel, a marketing professor at the University of New Orleans.
“It’s a delicate balancing act between deciding whether you want to go for the profits or the opportunity to make money on Thursday vs. do you want to go the route of allowing or encouraging your employees and your customers to spend time with their family and waiting until Friday to really jump into it,” she said.
For shoppers, even those who cringe or scoff at the prospect of tramping out to the mall after a long day of cooking and eating with family and friends, sometimes the savings are too hard to resist.
“If you give people the opportunity to get something at a deal, at a better price, they’ll take advantage of it,” said Harish Sujan, a business professor at Tulane University. “They’ll push aside their turkey plates and go shopping. It’s too tempting.”
However, that doesn’t mean Sujan agrees with it.
“For all but this one day of the year and Christmas Day, we have these salespeople in retail stores serving us,” he said. “What about thinking about them? They need a break, too.”
Here’s what some major national retailers are doing on Thanksgiving and Black Friday:
DISCOUNT STORES: Target opens 6 p.m. Thanksgiving and stays open all night into Black Friday; Kmart opens 7 p.m. and stays open all night into Black Friday; Wal-Mart deals start at 6 p.m. Thanksgiving.
DEPARTMENT STORES: JC Penney opens at 3 p.m. Thanksgiving and stays open all night into Black Friday; Kohl’s opens 6 p.m. and stays open all night into Black Friday; Macy’s opens 6 p.m. and stays open all night into Black Friday; Sears opens 6 p.m. and closes 2 a.m. Friday, then reopens at 5 a.m.
ELECTRONIC STORES: Best Buy opens 5 p.m. Thanksgiving and closes 1 a.m. Friday, reopening at 8 a.m.; GameStop closed Thanksgiving, opens 5 a.m. Friday; hhgregg opens 4 p.m. Thanksgiving and closes 12 a.m. Friday, reopening at 7 a.m.; RadioShack opens 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thanksgiving, then 8 a.m. Friday.
TOY STORES: Toys R Us opens 5 p.m. Thanksgiving and stays open all night into Black Friday.
WAREHOUSE STORES: Costco closed Thanksgiving and opens 9 a.m. Friday; Sam’s Club closed Thanksgiving and opens 7 a.m. Friday.
SPORTING GOODS STORES: Dick’s Sporting Goods opens 6 p.m. Thanksgiving and closes 2 a.m. Friday, then reopens at 5 a.m.; Sports Authority opens 6 p.m. and closes midnight Friday, then reopens at 6 a.m.
CRAFT STORES : Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores closed Thanksgiving and opens 6 a.m. Friday; Michaels opens 4 p.m. Thanksgiving and closes 2 a.m. Friday, then reopens at 7 a.m.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Follow Richard Thompson on Twitter, @rthompsonMSY.


text: In the past Paris Police Department has worked fake money. Now Lufkin is reporting the same problem. Lufkin’s Police worked five cases of fake 20s since last weekend. They are turning up in convenience stores, and restaurants. Some unknown owners of the fake money pass the bill. Those with counterfeit bills like spending the money when the business is busy.


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Alibaba Group Holding Ltd founder and CEO Jack Ma expressed interest in joining hands with Sony Corp on movie franchises including “Ghostbusters.” Sony emails revealed by hackers show that Jack Ma discussed it during his meeting with Hollywood executives in October. The Hangzhou-based company also wanted to invest in Pixels, a 3D animated comedy starring Adam Sandler, reports Bloomberg.
Alibaba to compete against Tencent in online video market
According to Alibaba’s messages sent to Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton, the Chinese Internet company plans to produce 10 movies a year. During Ma’s visit to Hollywood, actors Jet Li and others accompanied him as advisers to talk to production houses and learn about co-investment opportunities. Sony was the only studio where Alibaba CEO met executives in person.
Jim Chanos has a new short target in his sights. Earlier this week, the hedge fund manager disclosed that he is betting against "legacy" data centers that face growing competition from the trio of technology giants, which have previously been their biggest customers. The fund manager, who is best known for his winning bet against Read More
Alibaba is strengthening its entertainment arm to compete against its arch-rival Tencent Holdings Ltd. in China’s digital video market. According to iResearch, the Chinese online video market will grow to $6.4 billion by 2017. Alibaba was also interested in co-producing a film about the best-selling Manga comic series One Piece. The company also explored investment opportunities in Spider Man villains such as Sinister Six and Dragon Raja, which is wildly popular among young Chinese.
Alibaba prefers investing in specific movies
According to the emails, Sony expressed interest in working with Alibaba on Dragon Raja rather than One Piece. Sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that the Chinese company preferred investing in specific films instead of studios. Alibaba spokesman Bob Christie said that securing licensing agreements for content distribution across its ecosystem was an important part of Alibaba’s long-term strategy.
What’s more, Alibaba is also looking to invest in Israeli market. According to Globes, the company officials met with Israeli mobile, Internet and e-commerce startups earlier this week. They met with Visualead, which is developing a QR code and has a presence in the Chinese market.
Alibaba shares gained 0.45% to $109.74 in pre-market trading Friday.