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IN the last few weeks there have been riots in Zimbabwe. In Beitbridge, on the border with South Africa, furious cross-border traders set fire to a warehouse in protest at import bans recently imposed, while in Harare taxi operators protested against the cost of continuous police road blocks, where spot fines are extracted.
Both these incidents highlight how Zimbabwe’s economy has changed dramatically, and why the state has to accommodate, encourage and support the informal sector, not control, suppress and ignore it. Formal unemployment runs at 90 percent or more, but this doesn’t mean that all these people are not doing things. They are, but not in the jobs of the past. Livelihoods are improvised and flexible, combining ways of earning income – farming, trading, dealing, manufacturing, mining, selling services and a host of other distributive activities, reliant on deeply embedded social relationships.
New networks of economic activity have emerged, as has a vibrant spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship. This is in the context of extreme hardship for sure, as the economy continues to plummet due to lack of investment. Informal economies are built on relations. Many operating in the informal sector are reliant on patrons and support from others; sometimes this is through relations of kinship, or through the church, and very often political patronage plays a part.
If you want to secure a spot to trade in town, someone inevitably has to be paid off. Informal activity is tough, precarious fragile, sometimes illegal, and often is subject to arbitrary taxation from those in authority – as in the case of the road blocks affecting informal transport operators across the country.
The informalisation of the economy is a pattern across Africa, as James Ferguson eloquently describes. The improvised livelihoods of the poor are creating a new distributive economy, and with this a distributive politics, he argues. This is having a major impact on the way we understand African political economy – and not only in Zimbabwe.
The shock is perhaps greater in Zimbabwe, as in the past the ‘formal’ sector was larger and stable, where ‘jobs’ and ‘wages’ were expected, especially for men at a certain age. But the post-structural adjustment growth of informality is a phenomenon everywhere; and is accelerating, especially in countries where reliance on a core commodity sector was the economy of the past.Advertisement
Thus the informal sector – a huge and massively varied category – represents a very substantial proportion of Africa’s economic activity. In the rural areas this has always been the case – small-scale farming dominates and rural dwellers have always engaged in a bricolage of activities, both on and off farm.
Today such complex livelihoods are the norm in town too. The jobs of the past – in the factories, mines, farms and so on- no longer exist – or may do so only temporarily – and the alternative is a set of activities that don’t fit the past expectation of a ‘job’ or ‘employment’, and are so not counted as such.
In Zimbabwe, the informal sector is the economy today: it cannot be ignored, wished away. It is what the 90 percent live on, but we know little about it, and policies often upset and disrupt, rather than support and nurture.
So it is no surprise that the arbitrary import controls imposed were resisted when the blunt Statutory Instrument 64 that appeared to ban the import of everything from mayonnaise and coffee creamer to body lotion and building materials – was imposed (although hurriedly amended later). In the name of domestic manufacturing protection, the livelihoods of many thousands of traders who bring goods from South Africa were affected; no wonder they were angry.
Ever since Keith Hart wrote about Africa’s informal economy long ago, many people have pointed to its importance. In recent years, there has been a growth in scholarship that has attempted to grapple with the economic, social, cultural, political and geographical dimensions of informal economies, such as the excellent work of Kate Meagher in Nigeria and more broadly.
But in public policy, statistical data collection and media commentary, the new real economy in so many places has been ignored, or dismissed and berated. Responses have been inappropriate too. Formalising the informal is not the point, and attempts at converting everything into a projectified ‘small enterprise’ are misguided. Controlling and regulating will not work, and will be resisted, sometimes violently.
And yes, while much activity is outside the ambit of the state, and not taxable, it is the lifeblood of the economy – and certainly is in Zimbabwe. Yet glorifying and romanticising the informal is not the solution either. Living in the informal sphere is tough – incomes are small and highly variable, and the costs of patronage, coercion and control can be high, economically and psychologically.
The events of the last few weeks in Zimbabwe point to the need for a new accommodation between the informal and formal and between the economies and livelihoods of the 90 percent and the state. A new political economy is emerging, where the class relations of the past are no longer relevant, and state-economy-citizen relations must be rethought. Rather than imagining the informal economy as somehow outside, and needing to be brought in, it has to be thought of as central to development.
Providing support, generating legitimacy, assuring accountability and preventing exploitative predatory, patronage relations are all roles for the state; ones that the Zimbabwean state is failing on currently. This means attempts at controlling, regulating and incorporating have to be avoided, despite the knee-jerk temptations. These are the key lessons from rioting in Beitbridge and Harare. The 90 percent after all are the electorate, and will protest in many ways if livelihoods in increasingly difficult circumstances are jeopardised.
This does not mean that attempts to rebuild the formal sector should cease. Far from it. Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa was in London making that case for Zimbabwe recently to the usual howls of protest. But the refinancing that will hopefully flow from the International Financial Institutions and other private investors will need to find its way to the new economy, and not just prop up the old.
For in the longer term, it is the informal entrepreneur, the niche market trader, the small-scale artisan and manufacturer and the smallholder farmer who will scale up and multiply the massive, but uncounted and perennially unsupported informal economy; in time graduating into larger businesses and operations that become increasingly formal.
Managing and supporting such a transition is the central economic challenge of the future. The standard models and forms of expertise derived from the old economy are inadequate: a new politics and economy of the informal urgently needs inventing.
This post was written by Ian Scoones and appeared on Zimbabweland


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CK CALVIN KLEIN NAMES TOM MURRY
NEW YORK — Tom Murry, president of Tahari Inc., has been named president of the CK Calvin Klein division of Calvin Klein Inc.
He succeeds Denise Seegal, who, as reported, has become president of Liz Claiborne Inc.
Murry, 45, has been president of Tahari since 1991, prior to which he was president and chief executive officer of Paula Saker and Intuitions. Earlier, he was senior vice president of marketing and sales at the College Town Corp.
“Elie [Tahari] has been great to me and it’s been one of the most difficult decisions I’ve ever made,” Murry said Monday. “Not only has he been my employer, but a very good friend. After six years, I think this a very exciting opportunity with unlimited potential.”
Murry, who assumes his new post next week, will report to Gabriella Forte, president and chief operating officer of Calvin Klein.
“This is an important time for our CK Calvin Klein division as we add new products to the CK lifestyle and roll out a global network of freestanding CK retail stores. We are therefore very pleased to have attracted someone of Tom Murry’s caliber and experience to this position,” said Forte in a statement.
Forte was unavailable for further comment.
Murry said his first order of business will be “to see what’s going on and evaluate the situation.”
“Gabriella has a very strong point of view and I will partner up with her and get the job done,” said Murry. He said the CK business “is doing OK and has the opportunity to do better.”
“We have to do the fundamentals right,” he added.
For 1996, Tahari’s wholesale volume is expected to be between $75 million and $80 million.
Tahari said that Murry had brought in a lot of talent during the past year, including three division presidents who will now assume more responsibility.
They are Wendy Waugh, president of the private label division; Ellen Levy-Ganz, president of the sportswear division and Steven Anastas, president of suits and dresses.

domain: news


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Amazon has begun accepting applicants for the first Alexa Prize SimBot Challenge, a new iteration of Amazon’s contests for voice..
Monthly Archives: October 2021
Apple introduced the world to its new voice assistant Siri 10 years ago when former senior vice president Phil Schiller..
Amazon Web Services has picked 10 digital health startups to join its new AWS Healthcare Accelerator. The month-long program is..
YouTube has begun testing, connecting its suggestions for videos made by Google Assistant to its Android app. Premium subscribers can..
Amazon just announced a custom voice assistant deal with Disney and a bushel full of new products including a smart..
Zoom will no longer acquire Five9 after the cloud contact center’s shareholders rejected the $14.7 billion all-stock offer. The stock..
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has taught its social media-based @AskTSA virtual assistant to converse in Spanish. The popular chatbot..


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Tell us if you’ve heard this before.
Apologies to those of you who were hoping he’d help out your new silver bets, and to Twitter, which has now managed to lose its two most enthusiastic and disconnected from reality blue checks in less than a month. It’s just that there’s not a ton going on right now as far as Elon is concerned.
Tesla Inc. is recalling roughly 135,000 Model S luxury sedans and Model X sport-utility vehicles over touch-screen failures, one of the electric-car maker’s largest-ever safety actions.
The move comes after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requested a recall last month, saying the touch screen in some models can fail when a memory chip runs out of storage capacity, affecting functions such as defrosting, turn-signal functionality and driver assistance….
“It is economically, if not technologically, infeasible to expect that such components can or should be designed to last the vehicle’s entire useful life,” Tesla said in the letter.
The European Union last week approved a plan that includes giving state aid to Tesla, BMW and others to support the production of electric vehicle batteries and help the bloc cut imports from industry leader China…. Business Insider quoted German government sources as saying Tesla would get subsidies of more than 1 billion euros from the federal government and the regional state of Brandenburg, where the Tesla factory is being built.
Good to see Tesla really diversifying its ancillary revenue streams, which are after all so much more valuable than its primary business lines.
Elon Musk says he’s taking a Twitter break ‘for a while’ [USA Today]
Tesla Recalls Roughly 135,000 Vehicles Over Touch-Screen Failures [WSJ]
Tesla set for at least 1 billion in German subsidies – Business Insider [Reuters]


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Amazon Inc. says Cyber Monday was the biggest shopping day in the company’s 25-year history. The Seattle-based retailer also says it had its best Black Friday ever.
Amazon didn’t provide sales figures, but said “hundreds of millions” of products were purchased worldwide between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday.
Amazon says customers worldwide purchased more toys on Black Friday and Cyber Monday than ever before. Whole Foods Market, which Amazon purchased more than two years ago for $13.7 billion, set a record for turkeys sold during the Thanksgiving season for the third consecutive year.
Though many retailers expressed concern because there are six fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year than last, consumers are spending at record levels. Adobe said that Cyber Monday sales overall reached $9.4 billion, a record high and almost 19% higher than last year. The National Retail Federation predicted in October that holiday retail sales would grow between 3.8% and 4.2% this year over 2018 to a total of about $730 billion.
Twenty percent of consumers will take on debt this holiday season, according to another report by LendEDU, a website that helps consumers compare financial products. Forty-seven percent of consumers will do their Christmas shopping on Amazon, where items are cheaper than identical Walmart items by 0.89% overall.


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Wow, was just listening to music and searching web. Found out some pretty interesting stuff going on in electronics. First off, Half-Life 2 and Halo 2 have gone gold. This is a big surprised considering these games were predicted to never come out. On top of that there is a new PS2 console being released. This console is the size of two DVD cases stacked together. I saw a picture of it being compared to an Xbox controller and the controller was almost bigger! On a computer-science note, Sony also said they are working on PS3 planned for release this time next year. It will be using Blue-Ray technology. This technology says it can fit up to 64 GB of information on one disk, blowing away what a DVD can hold.
- - Dan


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In a longer period of time, the owners of the very popular Ford Kuga Plug-In Hybrid not had the opportunity to let their car up so it could run on clean power.
An error on the battery, which in extreme cases could give fire, got back in september Ford to recall thousands of cars sold in Denmark.
the Owners have had to wait a long time for a solution, but now has Ford finally one ready. It informs Ford of Denmark, Ekstra Bladet.
- We have now identified that the celleforurening in the Kuga Plug-in Hybrids højspændingsbatteri has been the cause of the technical problem. As a solution for this we will replace the battery pack in all the affected cars, informs Ford Denmark.
the Cars the most sold car hit by problems: 2900 Danish cars can break in brand Cars the most sold car hit by new problems: Now withdraw all the cars.
It will say, then, that batteripakkerne need to be replaced in all affected cars, and it applies to cars sold until 18. september 2020.
- to switch the battery pack is expected to start around the new year. Customers will be called in the order in which the cars are registered in. Owners of the earliest supply of the cars will be called first, inform the Ford Denmark.
Customers can expect that the work to replace the batteripakkerne will be done by the end of april 2021.
Besides, 960 danes already ordered a Kuga Plug-In Hybrid, which is produced, but which cannot be disclosed because of the error. Here it also applies that the battery pack needs to be replaced, before the customers can get their cars delivered.
Cars, Serious problems still not solved: car Owners miss the answer
the ongoing negotiations on The car tax rates for 2021 has given rise to concern among customers who already have ordered a car and agreed a price, but that potentially may not get the product dispensed before the year 2021, which right now is the prospect that the cars are rising in price.
But this, too, Ford is now a solution.
- Ford covers the customer agreed the price on their ordered Kuga Plug-in Hybrid, which is otherwise expected to increase due to the new registration fee per 1. January 2021.
Ford, thus ensuring that customers get their ordered Kuga Plug-in Hybrid at the agreed price regardless of the tax changes, and it applies to cars sold until 18. september 2020.
Cars of This model, the danes are absolutely crazy about


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Stocks dropped after Donald Trump ordered that U.S. manufacturers find alternatives to their operations in China.US Marketsread more
Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard Clarida said Friday the global economy has deteriorated in the past month.Marketsread more
The latest escalation in the trade war ups the odds the economy will fall into recession and that the Fed will aggressively cut rates.Market Insiderread more
Here are the products that stand to be the most affected by China's new tariffs on $75 billion worth of U.S. goods.Marketsread more
"We don't need China and, frankly, would be far better off without them," Trump tweeted.Politicsread more
"My only question is, who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powell or Chairman Xi?" Trump wrote amid a series of tweets that rattled markets Friday.Politicsread more
The death comes as federal and state health officials investigate a slew of lung illnesses in connection to e-cigarette use.Health and Scienceread more
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has completed a three-week course of radiation therapy for cancer, the top court said in a statement Friday.Politicsread more
Multinationals that rely on the supply chain from China are tumbling after President Donald Trump ordered them to find alternatives to their Chinese operations.Marketsread more
Lowe's is vying for a category of customer that Home Depot has traditionally dominated — the professional contractor.Retailread more
Epstein, a former friend of Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, was arrested by FBI agents in New Jersey in early July as he stepped off his private plane, which had...Politicsread more
Speculative cryptocurrency investors are negatively impacting on experimentation with the nascent technology, an executive at Singapore's central bank said Monday.
Sopnendu Mohanty, chief fintech officer of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), told CNBC that he did not want speculative investing in the digital currency space to "destroy the experimental value of cryptocurrency."
MAS is currently working on its own blockchain, or distributed ledger technology, project called "Project Ubin," and expects to complete a trial with a digital version of the Singapore dollar this year. Blockchain, the technology that underpins virtual currencies, maintains a continually growing record of transactions across a decentralized network.
Voicing his concerns about speculators in the market, Mohanty said: "That's a key part because we are going to continue to experiment on this fabulous technology and find the use case, hopefully, in the long run.
"But the speculators and the people who are making money out of this speculation of the cryptocurrency (market) are perhaps negatively impacting the whole experimentation of cryptocurrency."
A number of established banking giants, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citi and Credit Suisse, are involved in MAS' blockchain project.
Concerns over speculative trading, extreme volatility and illicit activities in the cryptocurrency space have led regulators to step up pressure on the market.
Last month, South Korea introduced measures to tackle speculation in the sector, banning the use of anonymous bank accounts in cryptocurrency trading. This followed fears of a more far-reaching clampdown due to comments from government officials that suggested the country would move to ban cryptocurrency trading via exchanges.


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As recently as a few months ago, it was hard to imagine anything successfully smashing through the status quo of Ontario's liquor retail regime. But things are suddenly looking up. Chris Selley and NOW's Jonathan Goldsbie discuss the sudden and potentially seismic shift in public sentiment.
The events kick off on Jan. 9 at the Niagara Fallsview Casino that will play host to the first Icewine Festival that started it all in 1995, the Niagara Icewine Festival Xerox Gala. Wine enthusiasts, foodies, and music lovers unite to experience several Icewine related events, from formals, to outdoor Ice village settings, intimate winery settings, and vineyards covered in a winter wonderland.
Making it easier for Ontarians to buy booze is popular and makes more money for the government, but it'll probably kill some people. Ottawa's top public-health doctor is frustrated that nobody talks about the second part. It never comes up when the province boasts about letting wine be sold at farmers' markets, or promoting craft breweries.
The latest obstacle is a shake-up in B.C. liquor regulation that will see a new markup structure kick in April 1.The new markup structure will establish a single wholesale price for all retailers and see the per-liter markup shift to 89% on the first $11.75 of value and 67% on any additional value.
"The wind is pretty brutal, but it's rare we get to do this during the day," Paul Speck, president of Henry of Pelham, said Monday afternoon just hours after the winery started to haul in its estimated 150 tonnes of reisling, cabernet franc and vidal grapes. "We're going to go around the clock to get this done."
Jamie Slingerland of Pillitteri Estates Winery has been harvesting frozen grapes in his Niagara-on-the-Lake vineyards for 16 hours straight: "This is the week to do ice wine and think everybody's going to get their ice wine wrapped up this week."
What I think it means is that provincial liquor boards require a certain percentage of Canadian wine to be used in this category of wine. That the LCBO website lacks transparency to advise us what this category is sends shark attack flags to be raised on my beach.
As B.C.'s first winter storm of the year continues to plow through the province, the snow has piled up in the Okanagan, prompting Twitter users to hashtag the wine-growing region #Snowkanagan instead. The storm hit the southern interior Sunday night, and is expected to bring more snow and possible freezing rain west of the valley on Tuesday.
Beer, wine and liquor consumers, mark your calendars: May 12, 2015 is when new purchasing options may start opening up for you. That's the date that was set last week for the trial of New Brunswick resident Gerard Comeau to commence.
The wine industry is filled with tales of wineries starting because a hobby got out of hand, but Kettle Valley Winery owners Bob Ferguson and Tim Watts took it way beyond what most would consider viable - or sane.
Justice Minister Suzanne Anton will announce yet more changes to provincial wine sales on Friday as part of her government's makeover of the liquor industry. But industry insiders say consumers will still be hit with higher prices and less choice for quality wines as a result of the Minister's tinkering
Corcelettes Estate Winery is set to start the new year off with a bang. Having recently acquired Herder Winery and Vineyards, 2015 marks the start of a new era for Corcelettes Winery. Early in the new year, the Corcelettes team will begin the move from their current location in Cawston to their new location, the previous home of Herder Winery in Keremeos.
Encore Vineyards Ltd, spearheaded by British Columbia's most renowned wine industry pioneer, Harry McWatters, is offering an ownership opportunity to people interested in becoming a part of a fully-integrated wine company.
Oenophiles will have another way to celebrate their favourite beverage in the new year with the inaugural Niagara Icewine Festival events in Niagara Falls, Ont. A three-day event is being held at the Scotiabank Convention Centre from Jan. 23 to 25.


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The University of Miami is looking to return to their glory days in athletics and to start with a fresh slate, the Hurricanes are starting over. Ending a 27 year relationship with Nike, the University of Miami has decided to leave their deal with Nike and take on a new 8 year deal with Adidas.
According to reports, the U and Adidas have agreed to deal that will last 8 years and be worth near $30 million dollars. The University of Miami and Nike were up for negotiations this year as their contract was up on August 31, 2015.
This was a big move for adidas as a whole. Currently Nike outfits 45 of 65 power five conference schools while Adidas comes in second with eleven. Following them Under Armour has eight and Russell Athletic has only one. What do you think of this move for the U? Let us know below.


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The dark web's biggest illegal marketplace, DarkMarket, has been taken down. Cyber-crime is big business. Which is a big reason to improve your business's. Guild summaryfor the Horde guild 'Dark Market' on Moon Guard - US. Cutillo and William Swanson team up with Libbitcoin/Dark Wallet developers Amir Taaki and Pablo Martin to. German prosecutors say DarkMarket was probably the largest many other illegal goods were traded on 'DarkMarket'," the prosecutors said. Popular darknet marketplace DarkMarket,which hosted an estimated half million users, was shut down by German police authorities in a raid. Since the recent bust of DarkMarket the darknet community is in fear that more darknet markets admin were caught and market seized. CME ETH futures launch.
Make four arrests in Netherlands after shutting down Dark Market. traders on DarkMarket, one of the largest dark web marketplaces. The site, known as darkmarket link DarkMarket, was shut down on Monday, prosecutors in the south-western city of Koblenz said. All sorts of drugs, forged money. Gear Westend61 via Getty Images A string of data breaches is causing headaches for DarkMarket, the world's largest illegal marketplace on the dark web. DarkMarket - luxsocks, validcc, yalelodge, benumb, unicc!. DarkMarket, Europe's largest darknet marketplace for drugs, has been taken down by German authorities following an internationally. Darkmarket is a darknet market that specializes in all different kinds of goods, including drugs, digital goods, and jewelry.
The darkmarket 2022 last big dark market left online may already be compromised. Buyers are panicking that the dark-web marketplace Dream Market may already be. The FBI said it had infiltrated online "carder" forums hosted on the darkmarket Web site, which was widely used by online scammers to buy. DarkMarket, which had nearly 500,000 users and more than 2,400 vendors, allowed anyone with a Tor browser and some cryptocurrency to buy and. Make four arrests in Netherlands after shutting down Dark Market. traders on DarkMarket, one of the largest dark web marketplaces. The average life span of a dark web marketplace, or dark market an online shopping site on an encrypted and anonymized network such as Tor. He has now pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud at Blackfriars Crown Court. Another DarkMarket member, John McHugh, who used the online.
Discover DarkMarket as it's meant to be heard, narrated by Jonathan Cowley. Free trial available. DarkMarket, which had nearly 500,000 users and more than 2,400 vendors, allowed anyone with a Tor browser and some cryptocurrency to buy and. Australian arrested in 220m dark web sting. International operation shuts down DarkMarket. By Casey Tonkin on Jan 13 2021 02:05 PM. Print article. Darkmarket. Darkmarket. SKU: darkmarket to darkmarket. Product Type : New Used. Ship. Pickup in Store - FREE! Select Store to check availability. Quantity. Publishers Weekly on Darkmarket. Darkmarket By exploring the rise and fall darkmarket 2021 of the criminal website DarkMarket he has uncovered the most vivid. Darkmarket: DarkMarket: Cyberthieves, Cybercops and You (Audible Audio Edition): Misha Glenny, Jonathan Cowley, Random House Audio: Audible Books.
The German prosecutors said DarkMarket came to light in the course of major investigation against the web-hosting service Cyberbunker, located. While DarkFox Market uses Eckmar script (same script as darkmarket Dark Market) it does not mean the security is not as good as other markets. The DarkMarket daemon incorporates a library of commands for peer-to-peer networking known as ZeroMQ, which allows the user's PC to become a. Read "DarkMarket How Hackers Became the New Mafia" by Misha Glenny available from Rakuten Kobo. "This extraordinarily powerful book demonstrates how utterly. DarkMarket : cyberthieves, cybercops, and you / Misha Glenny. Format: darkmarket: darkmarket 1st darkmarket. ed. Published: New York : Alfred A. Knopf. Darkmarket: DarkMarket: Cyberthieves, Cybercops and You (Audible Audio Edition): Misha Glenny, Jonathan Cowley, Random House Audio: Audible Books.
Cypher Market Darknet
We will continue to follow this case and publish updates darkmarket as we receive them. The vendor below, CalSource, is one of the top vendors on CannaHome and has also received a lot of positive feedback from customers. The order process is manual and via PGP encrypted E-mail. Whatever remains then (which is going to be in much lower volume) can be dealt with later. GDP is one of the most widely accepted metrics for measuring the overall darkmarket economic strength of a country, and is used to broadly measure a country’s annual growth rate, domestic production, and overall total economic value. The cryptocurrency has, since its very earliest days, been a highly unstable one, its price surging and collapsing much like that of a penny stock. When configured correctly, Tor will mask your IP address, but it remains your responsibility not to dox yourself by doing dumb stuff on the darknet.
“Tokenized stocks provide the around-the-clock availability and permissionless nature of crypto to traditional stock markets.”
Cypher Market Link
This is most trusted dark web marketplace, that have more than 1 Lakh listed items, products or services and these are related to Drugs, Digital Goods, Services, Electronics, Carding, Hacking, Porns Accounts, Counterfeit, Malware, Virus, Exploit and much more. Bachelor's degree, preferably in economics, engineering, or a similar field, with experience in energy markets. DNeT bulletins providing details on trends in darknet markets over time are available at the Drug Trends website, with the next bulletin due for publication at the end of March 2016. The baby-faced drug dealer told the court he has lost 25 kilograms while in custody. Facebook sites, the search engine DuckDuckGo has site, the New York Times has site that you can navigate with Tor. Border Patrol Casa Grande Station Mountain Team and Homeland Security Investigations Native American Targeted Investigation of Violent Enterprises (NATIVE) Task Force are recognized for their Investigative & Prosecution efforts to arrest and indict nearly 3 dozen Sinaloa cartel members operating in the U. Harmon began shutting down Grams-Helix around December 2017 and announced the platform's closure in a Reddit thread under the GramsAdmin handle. Seit März 2019 richteten sich die Ermittlungen gegen die drei deutschen Staatsangehörigen, die als Tatverdächtige identifiziert werden konnten. Flow is a blockchain designed to support consumer collectible ecosystems for collectibles, games, and related consumer applications. As darkmarket experts have noted, "[s]earching on the Internet today can be compared to dragging a net across the surface of the ocean.


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Billie Eilish Hits Back After Taylor Swift Fans Slam Her On Social Media
Billie Eilish has responded to criticism from Taylor Swift fans after her comments on the environmental impact of releasing multiple vinyl versions of albums sparked controversy. In an interview with Billboard, Eilish expressed frustration with the industry’s practice of creating numerous vinyl packages to boost sales. A sentiment that led Swift’s fans to interpret her remarks as a veiled criticism of Swift herself.
Billie Eilish Taylor Swift
Eilish’s statement, which didn’t name specific artists, was perceived by Swift’s fan base, known as Swifties, as an alleged direct attack on Swift, who is known for releasing various versions of her albums. This perception led to backlash from Swift’s fans, who defended their idol and criticized Eilish for what they viewed as a “shady diss.”
In response to the backlash, Eilish took to Instagram to clarify her stance, emphasizing that her comments were not targeted at any individual artist but rather addressed broader industry practices regarding sustainability. She acknowledged that she, too, has released multiple album variants but highlighted the need for greater awareness and accountability within the music industry regarding environmental concerns.
It looks like Eilish was not directing her frustration with the industry’s practice of creating numerous vinyl packages toward Swift, as some fans allegedly thought.
Eilish’s concerns about the environmental impact of excessive album variants are rooted in her commitment to sustainability. She pointed out the wastefulness of producing numerous vinyl versions with different packaging, especially when more eco-friendly options are available. Despite her own album’s release in multiple vinyl versions. Eilish emphasized her efforts to incorporate sustainable practices, such as using recycled materials for production.
The controversy surrounding Eilish’s comments reflects ongoing debates within the music industry about environmental responsibility and consumer behavior. Eilish’s advocacy for sustainability, coupled with her acknowledgment of industry-wide challenges, highlights the need for collective action to address environmental concerns in music production.
It’s worth noting that Eilish’s stance on sustainability is not limited to her comments in this interview. Her actions demonstrate a commitment to environmental activism beyond mere words.
Ultimately, the exchange between Eilish and Swift’s fans underscores the importance of open dialogue and education regarding sustainability issues in the music industry. Eilish’s call for industry-wide changes invites reflection and action, encouraging artists and fans alike to consider the environmental impact of their choices.
Published by: HOLR Magazine
Image credit: @billieeilish Instagram


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Machine learning is making decision-making more intelligent at speeds and volumes that are setting a new bar across virtually every industry. It’s allowing businesses and consumers alike to make in-the-moment decisions, see real-time trends, and be predictive in a way that wasn’t possible just 5 years ago.
From the same company that revolutionized media buying with programmatic advertising, AppNexus is once again redefining the industry with machine learning. Through real-time decisioning technology, choices that used to take marketers days to make can now be automated and executed in a matter of milliseconds.
And by creating a seamless feedback loop between a brand’s decisioning logic and its consumer touchpoints, AppNexus is combining data and machine learning to build campaigns that actually grow smarter over time. The result is hyper-personalization at scale, a world where marketers can deliver targeted ads to tens of millions of users, spread out across billions of interconnected devices, all over the world.
It’s the future of advertising, available today.


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Suzuki is set to wow the crowd at the 2014 Paris Mondial de l’Automobile with the global debut of the all-new compact SUV, the Vitara.
This five-door small and stylish SUV is based on the iV-4 concept, which was first seen at the Frankfurt Motor Show last year.
The all-new Suzuki Vitara will be available in the UK market by early next year and will come with the optional ALLGRIP intelligent four-wheel drive. A petrol and diesel engine that offers low CO2 emissions and outstanding fuel economy will also be available.
Suzuki promises that it ‘will have a striking road presence with distinctive design.’ It will also come with personalization options, various colors and other trim customization options.
More details will be released by Suzuki closer to the public launch.


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Discounting may seem like a tried-and-true tactic for driving online sales, but there’s a growing community of industry professionals challenging this idea. Recent data suggests selling products for a discounted price can actually degrade the value of your brand. As a result, some brands are seeking alternative ways to incentivize purchases.
On a recent episode of the Own Your Commerce podcast, Bold Co-Founder Jay Myers interviewed Andrew Forman, Co-Founder of Givz, a new Shopify add-on that is truly disrupting the discount. The Givz mission is clear: Create Donation Incentives to Drive Sales without Discounts.
For example: “Spend $100 and we’ll give you $20 to donate to charity.”
To be clear, Forman doesn’t think you should never have a sale again. Givz has been developed as an alternative to discounting that still drives conversions while speaking to today’s conscious consumer.
Let’s look at some key reasons why this may be the right approach for your business.
Discounting can degrade your brand
Today many business professionals and entrepreneurs are wondering: Will discounting hurt my brand?
Profitwell’s Patrick Cambell, who appeared on the Own Your Commerce podcast in Season 1, says the higher the discount, the lower the LTV (customer lifetime value).This is based on data from over 4.2k subscription brands and makes a compelling case against over-discounting.
Forman said he has also seen a lot of studies where continuing to discount ultimately degrades the relationship between the consumer and the brand; the customer is trying to get the lowest price possible and it becomes a race to the bottom. So while discounting may get customers in the door with an initial purchase, they may be less likely to become loyal, longtime customers as brands are unable to keep up with consumers expectations while maintaining healthy margins.
On the other hand, Forman has observed brands offering donation incentives have customers that are more engaged and are quicker to become repeat purchasers. They are higher lifetime value customers — one case study saw a 22% increase in NPS score for people that donated versus people that did not.
What Forman has noticed since launching Givz, is that donation incentives cause customers to be more engaged and increase the likeliness of become repeat customers.
Donation incentives can outperform discounts
The idea that over-discounting can degrade a brand is nothing new for marketers. Discounts have long been seen as a quick-win approach that won't necessarily guarantee customer loyalty or repeat purchase behavior. There’s a reason most premium brands rarely discount, and when they do it’s by small amounts or for special occasions.
One surprising finding Forman has noticed since launching Givz, is that the donation incentives brands are able to offer are actually outperforming discounting in terms of conversion rate and overall revenue.
Forman said, “we went in with the hypothesis that we could perform just as well as discounts and what we have come out on the other end finding is that oftentimes we are outperforming discounts…We actually tried a 50/50 AB test with tens of thousands of emails where half the email list got a 30% off coupon code, and the other half the email list got a 20% off coupon code, plus 20% to give back to a charity of their choice, and it converted in terms of revenue output 58% better.”
These results may be linked to the rise of conscious consumerism as customers look for ways to make a positive difference with their dollar.
“We believe that everybody, every brand will need to be using Givz in the next five years, and the main reason is because consumers are changing.” – Andrew Forman, Co-Founder and CEO, Givz
Donation incentives appeal to today’s conscious consumer
More than ever today’s consumer is motivated by decisions that will have a positive social, economic, and environmental impact. Slogans like “locally produced” and “ethically sourced” have become fixtures on just about every type of product, particularly across food and beverage verticals.
Another study suggests as many as 88% of consumers would like brands to be more environmentally friendly and ethical.
For Forman it all comes back to the importance of personalized purpose — the idea that a brand with purpose is a profitable brand.
“That is where I Givz comes in and that's where personalized purpose comes in. Personalized purpose is going to be the message of the future and Givz is personalized purpose, and that is what I'm excited about.”
Are donation incentives enabled by Givz right for your brand? If you’re considering this tactic you’ll want to listen to the entire conversation below:


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' Sony's Alpha A33 (SLT-A33L) is a new type of interchangeable lens camera — not a digital SLR — that aims to give you better overall focusing performance than traditional interchangeable lens cameras. '
ReviewGist helps you find the best products to buy by making sense of online reviews.
We are currently aggregating 367,752 reviews
covering over 29,136 products. See what the press says about ReviewGist here.


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YouTube’s opening up ads for ‘edgy’ videos signals shift in brand-safety sentiment
Over the past couple of years, YouTube raised the guardrails around questionable content after a series of high-profile brand-safety snafus. But the advertiser-friendly approach was closely followed by uproar from its creator community, who vocally complained their videos had been “demonetized.”
Recently, though, YouTube has been running a test with advertisers who are comfortable appearing next to more “edgy” content. In her quarterly letter to creators published last week, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said, “In its first month, this program resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in ads on yellow icon videos.”
So-called edgy videos are signposted in the Creator Studio with a yellow icon, indicating that they are not fully demonetized and are eligible for limited advertising. A yellow icon used to signify that the videos wouldn’t receive ad revenue at all because they were only suitable for mature audiences.
While there are no details yet for when the test might expand to more advertisers, the move suggests the initial pull-down-all-the-shutters-style panic surrounding brand safety may be calming into a question of brand appropriateness instead.
“I think this is a pretty big deal because I think that after the brand-safety backlash that we’ve seen over the past couple of years, we’ve seen some evidence that the pendulum has kind of swung too far over to the advertiser side,” said Nicole Perrin, principal analyst at eMarketer. “I think that it’s nice to see acknowledgment and an attempt to address brand appropriateness. … Not every brand has to be family-friendly or G-rated.”
YouTube declined to offer further comment beyond Wojcicki’s letter.
Since The Times of London ran its 2017 “Big brands fund terror” front-page splash, detailing how major brands were unwittingly running ads on YouTube channels devoted to extremist content, many marketers have taken a blunt approach to online brand safety to avoid any potential adjacency embarrassments. While many of those who boycotted YouTube at the time have since returned, some advertisers still rely on broad keyword or category block lists. That’s proven to be a headache for online publishers in verticals like news and politics or even those that cover sports, who can’t avoid using often-banned words like “shot” and “fight” in their content. Some advertisers are enlisting the help of third-party firms like OpenSlate to ensure that suitable content doesn’t get caught up in the web and inadvertently blocked.
Joshua Lowcock, chief digital and brand safety officer at ad agency UM Worldwide, said, “The immediate beneficiary will be the entertainment and streaming industries: movies, television and music [brands] who have content that caters to a broad array of tastes.” UM Worldwide was offered an opportunity to take part in the recent beta test of advertising on “edgy” YouTube videos but declined.
And even though some advertisers might not want to participate — “edginess” is in the eye of the beholder and there’s always the risk some content could overstep the line — YouTube’s move does signal a statement of intent.
There’s no shortage of “edgy” content on YouTube — from YouTubers one-upping each other in the prank department, to popular video game commentary channels that inevitably feature some in-game violence. (Wojcicki also said in her letter that YouTube is reworking its policies to better differentiate between real-world and simulated gaming violence.) YouTube will be hoping to turn a page from the recent “adpocalypse” and encourage creators who fled to other platforms in protest to return.
“The move from YouTube to attract more ‘edgy’ advertisers to the platform will primarily benefit the struggling influencers that have stopped uploading due to videos being demonetized,” said Christos Constantinou, director of operations at social video company Brave Bison. “This is a good move from YouTube as it will help to retain these creators, many of which have huge numbers of loyal subscribers that bring the platform high rates of engagement.”
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The New York Times’ Ben Smith saw the alt-right’s rise and sees a new era for social platforms
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Fortnum & Mason appoints Iain Roberton as chief operating and innovation officer
Luxury department store Fortnum & Mason has appointed Iain Roberton to the newly created role of chief operating and innovation officer.
Roberton will join the British retailer in February 2022, and will be responsible for supply chain and logistics.
His move marks the end of his 17-year stint at Burberry, where he is currently senior vice president of global planning and inventory.
Roberton led the transformation of the luxury fashion house's supply chain model and supported customer-focused transformation programmes, and was co-chair of Burberry’s Strategic Innovation Council, where he was critical in driving innovative and disruptive customer initiatives.
In a statement the company said, Roberton would enable Fortnum & Mason to build more scalable operational and logistics capabilities to enhance customer experience, embrace leading edge thinking in operational efficiency and warehouse management and enable the growth of Fortnum’s business worldwide.
His new role includes taking leadership of the retailer's innovation agenda, which aims to deploy new ideas and initiatives designed to improve the experience of the company’s customers and people.
Tom Athron, Fortnum & Mason Chief Executive, said: "Ian has shown incredible innovation in his time at Burberry. I see how he works with supply chains and logistics teams to further transform what he is doing in Fortnum. As our first Chief Operating and Innovation Officer, we look forward to leveraging his amazing experience in the luxury sector."
Roberton added: "I am excited to be coming on board to such an iconic British brand, one that I have long admired from afar. Come February, I’ll be diving into the behind the scenes at Fortnum’s and working with Tom (Athron) and the wider team to continue the ambitious plan to better serve our customers around the world."


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An upgraded version of the $35 Raspberry Pi Linux computer is now available.
The new board has 512MB of memory, double that of the existing model, but will sell for the same price. It is available through electronic distributor Premier Farnell through its element14 brand.
Doubling the memory should help the device run more demanding mobile apps and future versions of the Android 4.0 OS, according to Premier Farnell. A working version of the Ice Cream Sandwich version of the Android OS has already been ported to the device.
The specs for the rest of the board remain the same, with a 700MHz ARM chip inside a Broadcom BCM2835, a single USB port and 128MB of memory, with an additional $10 buying a souped-up version with two USB ports and 10/100 Ethernet.
Despite its budget price, the Raspberry Pi still packs a punch, with the multimedia capabilities of an original Xbox console, 1080p video playback, and general processing power of a Pentium II or III.
The board is being manufactured in the UK by Sony UKTec, as part of the multimillion-pound manufacturing deal that was announced last month.
Owners of the Raspberry Pi board are putting it to an array of uses, from piloting drones to controlling homes. For any new owners of the Pi there is already an ecosystem of accessories and add-ons to complement the board.


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Telegram群聊机器人:Inari to increase production ahead of US smartphone launch
Inari Amerton factoryTelegram群聊机器人（www.tel8.vip）是一个Telegram群组分享平台。Telegram群聊机器人导出包括Telegram群聊机器人、Telegram群组索引、Telegram群组导航、新加坡Telegram群组、Telegram中文群组、Telegram群组（其他）、Telegram 美国 群组、Telegram群组爬虫、电报群 科学上网、小飞机 怎么 加 群、tg群等内容。Telegram群聊机器人为广大电报用户提供各种电报群组/电报频道/电报机器人导航服务。
KUALA LUMPUR: Chip assembly and testing firm, Inari Amertron Bhd is preparing to ramp up its radio frequency (RF) business for a smartphone launch in the United States in September.
Following Kenanga Research’s recent visit to Inari’s production facility, the research house said the group’s utilisation rate is expected to gradually increase to around 90% closer to the launch date, compared with the current 75%.
“Interestingly, Inari has also brought in more RF testers on customer’s request, which will be fitted in the P55 plant while the P13 plant is already fully occupied.
“We deem this a positive sign, indicating that the US smartphone manufacturer is confident of the upcoming model’s marketability,” it added.
Furthermore, Kenanga Research saw a positive change in the facility, which was the integration of its proprietary electromagnetic interference (EMI) machines with each RF tester.
It said this further widens the gap between the company and their competitors, increasing customer’s dependency on Inari.
“A difference we noticed during the plant tour compared to a previous visit before the pandemic, is the integration of the EMI shielding equipment with each RF tester,” Kenanga Research said in the report.
“While the RF filters from Inari are still used for the sub-6 Gigahertz (Ghz) bandwidth in the end-product, the group interestingly pointed out that the filter’s capability could actually be extended up to a range of 20 Ghz.,
“Hence, the need for EMI equipment to ensure that the test results are obtained in a controlled environment,” added Kenanga Research.
Moving forward, the group is confident that its direction is in line with customers’ needs and expectations as “the double-sided moulding (DSM) allows for higher chip density per printed circuit board (PCB), slimmer design and reduction in PCB usage.”
Inari is also two years ahead of mass adoption with regards to its venture into double-sided moulding (DSM) process for radio frequency, the research house noted.
As such, Kenanga Research is keeping an “outperform” call on Inari with an unchanged target price of RM3.30 at 28.5 times price-to-earnings ratio for financial year ending June 30, 2023 estimate.
“This represents a slight premium to peers’ forward average of 26 times, justified by Inari being the closest proxy to 5G adoption, able to sustain strong margins while expanding its revenue stream with new businesses,” it said.
However, the risks to its call include less aggressive orders from its key customer, delay in 5G roll-out and higher input costs.
“I have huge sympathy for those who are struggling.”妥妥的好文
The United States could still secure a commitment that OPEC will boost production in the months ahead in hopes that it will provide a signal to the market that supplies are coming if necessary.我是铁杆粉眼熟我！！


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In 2021 the cryptocurrency market experienced rapid growth, and many unfamiliar faces were introduced to the world of blockchain. Elon Musk endorsed Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and Shiba Inu memes became a cultural phenomenon, and non-fungible tokens
Want to learn how to grow your social media followers? Grow your social media marketing skills with us and make more out of it.
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Did you know that only 21 million Bitcoins exist in the market? That means people who own Bitcoin must carefully decide what to do with their Bitcoin. But, trading with Bitcoin isn’t as easy as with other
We are living in the technological era, where everything is getting digital. Even the banking system, payment methods, and currency are digital now. If we talk about online trading, it includes cryptocurrency, binary options, bitcoin,
While conspiracy theorists and attention-hungry commentators continue to misrepresent the so-called ‘Great Reset’, this simply describes the global drive to improve and redefine the world for the better in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.


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It’s no big secret that Blizzard ends up killing about half its games before they ever see the light of day. That amounts to 14 titles to date, most of which fans never hear about. Former Blizzard Entertainment head and co-founder Mike Morhaime opens up about the high cut rate along with the company’s highs and lows while speaking at the Gamelab conference in Barcelona, where is being honored.
The talk was hosted by Dean Takahashi from GamesBeat and covered by Eurogamer. It mostly involved Blizzard’s ups and downs and the legacy that Morhaime helped establish before he stepped down as the company’s president last April. While discussing the past, Morhaime explained why the company ended up axing 50 percent of the projects it has in development.
“I’ve gone back every few years and checked the math on that, and it’s pretty consistent,” said Morhaime. “It’s like half the titles we work on never make it.”
Reasons for cutting a game vary according to the title. They include being too expensive or not appealing to a large enough audience size. But things ultimately came down to preserving Blizzard’s reputation for making high-quality games.
Morhaime said, “There’s a saying that ‘perfect is the enemy of great’ because if you strive for perfection you’ll never ship. But I do think that there’s so much competition out there.”
This philosophy applies to games that are ready to launch, with the original Diablo as a prime example. It was delayed past Thanksgiving, which is “the most important retail weekend” of the year and even missed Christmas. The game hit store shelves on December 31, 1996, and went on to become one of the bestselling games of 1997.
“The lesson that we took from that is that it’s way more important that the game is great – it’s way less important that you hit the date,” said Morhaime.
Axing the Auction House
Blizzard had to struggle with successful launches too. This was demonstrated by the introduction and eventual closer of the Diablo 3 auction house.
Morhaime described Diablo 3 as “a really tough launch for us.” Fans gave Blizzard plenty of feedback about the game and how the auction house impacted it. However, it was developed as a way to help regulate item trading seen in other games, particularly Diablo II.
“People are going to do this anyway – why don’t we provide them a safe and secure way to trade items?” Morhaime said. “But the problem was that we didn’t design the loot model with that in mind. We designed it without an auction house initially, and when you have an auction house in a game that’s dropping tons and tons of loot, it’s way cheaper and easier to get second-hand items from the auction house.”
As a result, the reward loop “completely destroyed” the game, and its players ended up getting their loot from the auction house instead of playing.
Morhaime recalled asking the development team, “If you could do what you wanted and snap your fingers to make it happen, would you remove the auction house?” They replied yes, and they did it despite it being a tough move to justify on paper. But looking back, Morhaime believes it was the right call.
Dealing with Diablo Immortal
The conversation later switched to Diablo Immortal’s icy reception at last year’s BlizzCon. Fans who were expecting to learn more about Diablo 4’s development did not take kindly to the announcement of a mobile game spin-off.
“It’s sort of like when you have a group that’s really passionate about a franchise like Diablo, really excited about a project that hasn’t been announced – Blizzard tried to manage expectations that they weren’t going to announce Diablo 4 at BlizzCon, but I’m not sure that got through,” said Morhaime.
He added, “Most of the audience did not get that memo. Maybe there should have been more discussion around: ‘Blizzard is not abandoning the PC.’”


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As of today, Mecenat students receive a student discount on the talk of the town; the electric scooter from VOI. This is the result of a new collaboration between Mecenat AB and VOI Technology.
During the two-week launch campaign, Sweden’s students can try a VOI scooter at no cost. They will then receive SEK 50 in bonus each time they charge SEK 100 in their VOI account.
VOI has made a quick journey since its launch in Stockholm last year. From nowhere, electric scooters in a short time became a clear feature of the city and are now an obvious means of transport for a lot of people. What started in Stockholm was followed by Göteborg, Malmö, Lund and Uppsala where they now are available with student discount.
-This cooperation means that the students get a chance to try out a new, flexible and environmentally friendly way to get around town free of charge. Students have always liked flexible solutions and with VOI they can go when they want and where they want with student discounts, says Jonas Levin, CEO of Mecenat AB.
-Since we at VOI recently were students, we are very happy to finally be able to offer student discounts at VOI! A lot of students have asked if they can get cheaper rides so it feels great that it will be a reality through Mecenat, says Fredrik Hjelm, CEO and founder of VOI.
To test the electric scooters, the students get a discount code at mecenat.com that they use in the VOI app. In order to continue to use the scooters with student discount, they go through a link at Mecenat and fill in their account with bonus.


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After two years in restaurants, Impossible Foods’ flagship product the Impossible Burger will hit stores next year, the company announced.
An exact release date has not been announced.
According to a statement by Impossible Foods’ CEO and Founder Dr. Patrick Brown, the retail launch is in response to overwhelming demand.
“By far the No. 1 message from fans on social media is, ‘When will I be able to buy and cook the Impossible Burger at home?’” he said in a statement. “We can’t wait until home chefs experience the magic and delight of the first plant-based meat that actually cooks and tastes like meat from animals —without any compromise.”
The Impossible Burger was birthed out of the Rutgers Food Innovation Center in Bridgeton. It made its restaurant debut in July 2016 at Momofuku Nishi in New York, and today is in about 5,000 restaurants nationwide. A year ago, it was in only 50.
Since graduating from the Rutgers Food Innovation Center, the Impossible Burger has been produced in Redwood City, Calif.


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Out-of-home (OOH) advertising firm Outfront Media, which operates billboards, transit posters and digital displays throughout Canada and the U.S., has hired Joel Melby as chief technology officer (CTO).
Melby’s experience spans 30 years of system engineering, software development and product management, including the deployment of video delivery network technology. He was most recently CTO of Clypd, which developed a programmatic TV platform for broadcasters and distributors. In his new role, he will oversee the team behind Outfront’s new On Smart Media platform for buying and delivering digital OOH (DOOH) campaigns. He reports to Andy Sriubas, executive vice-president (EVP) of strategic planning and development.
“We are adapting technology from other industries to our business,” Sriubas explains. “Adding a proven leader like Joel will help us maximize the results of these initiatives.”


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The growth of Artificial Intelligence and smart products in the European market is proving to be a complex challenge for EU law. In the face of new technologies, there has emerged a need to adapt existing regulatory schemes to ensure a consistent level of market security and consumer protection despite the different commercial contexts.
As such, in addition to the Artificial Intelligence Act, which has been designed a systematic and comprehensive intervention in the AI sector, European lawmakers are now focusing on the issue of civil liability.(...)
The Proposal for an “AI Liability Directive” (the “Proposal”, previously reviewed by us here) introduces a detailed liability system for the sector. In particular, the Proposal sets out uniform rules to alleviate the burden of proof for those who have suffered damage due to an AI system failure whilst also setting out broader protections for individuals. These changes, however, only apply to liability for wrongful behaviour and do not cover risks arising from the production or consumer use of smart products (save for violations of ex ante safety regulations).
"The increasingly widespread availability of smart products makes sectoral harmonisation measures insufficient and requires a full-scale review of market rules to ensure the delicate balance between consumer protection and incentives to invest in new technology."
As a result, the regulatory turmoil of the past few months has not affected s AI specialists alone, but all market participants, who are required to adapt to the constant regulatory upheavals in order to avoid liability and penalties that could damage them both economically and reputationally.
Full story here


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XBIZ | Sex Toy News | Adult Novelty News
The 'Handie' Crowdfunding Campaign Ends Oct. 30
Oct 27, 2014 10:00 AM PDTMakers of the “The Handie’ men’s masturbation glove announced that its Indiegogo.com crowdfunding campaign ends on Oct. 30.
Tantus Introduces 'Perfect Plug Plus' Anal Toy
Oct 27, 2014 8:00 AM PDTTantus, Inc. introduced today its Perfect Plug Plus designed for anal play.
Female Ivy Leaguers Launch Dame Products Sex Toy Company
Oct 24, 2014 2:30 PM PDTAlexandra Fine, who holds an M.A. from Columbia University, couldn’t find the vibrator of her dreams — so she set out to create it herself.
'Fantasy X-tensions' Now Available From Pipedream
Oct 24, 2014 1:30 PM PDTPipedream Products announced today that its Fantasy X-tensions range is now in stock and shipping.
Good Vibrations Celebrates 'Sexy at Every Size' With Abundance Event
Oct 24, 2014 12:30 PM PDTSex-positive retailer Good Vibrations celebrated body positivity with its recent event, “Abundance: A Sensual Exploration of Plus-Size Pleasure."
Jade Vixen Performs at Headquarters’ Halloween Party
Oct 24, 2014 11:15 AM PDTFetish and pin-up model Jade Vixen will be hosting and performing three live latex shows at Headquarters Gentlemen’s Club in New York City on “Mischief Night,” October 30.
Male Harness Available From MoysToys.com
Oct 24, 2014 9:00 AM PDTMoysToys has announced the addition of Strict Leather House's cock and ball harness for men to its product line.
MoysToys Offers SMP Nipple Enlarger Set
Oct 24, 2014 8:30 AM PDTNew Jersey-based online sex toy shop, MoysToys.com, has announced the addition of the latest SMP nipple enlarger set for $75.
MoysToys.com Offers SMP Nipple Enlarger Set
Oct 24, 2014 8:30 AM PDTNew Jersey based online sex toy shop, MoysToys.com, has announced the addition of the latest SMP nipple enlarger set for $75.
NS Novelties Adds New Products to Ashlynn Brooke Signature, Renegade Lines
Oct 23, 2014 4:45 PM PDTNS Novelties announced that it is rolling out several new diverse products in its Ashlynn Brooke Signature and Renegade lines.
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Monday, November 29, 2010
Here's the deal: Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga and a host of other famous Tweeters will soon abandon their online social profiles, and they're hoping you'll pay them to return.
It is, of course, abandonment for a good cause. Under the Digital Life Sacrifice campaign, these charitable celebs will stop updating their Facebook and Twitter accounts on Wednesday, World AIDS Day, until the Keep a Child Alive charity raises $1 million. The money will help families affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India.
To promote the venture, Kim and company have posed for advertisements that feature the celebs in their coffins, symbolizing their digital deaths and making a stark and powerful reference to the cause at hand. Leigh Blake, the co-founder of Keep a Child Alive, told People magazine, "We're trying to sort of make the remark: Why do we care so much about the death of one celebrity as opposed to millions and millions of people dying in the place that we're all from?"


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It’s Monday and in addition to that, many of us might be in a post-Academy Awards sleepiness state. So, here’s some news on the local real estate front that might wake you up.
For starters, a new restaurant has brought the Avalon Park Town Center retail space to fully leased. Casa Mofongo, a popular franchise from Puerto Rico, signed a lease for 1,769 square feet of retail space in the Towncenter II building. Plans are to open a new 60-seat eatery by the end of March.


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In Louisiana, a man ended up arrested for one of the most-bizarre crimes. Brandon Tyler Durrant, age 27, was stopped by the police, while riding his bicycle, in West Monroe, Louisiana. The police stopped him and arrested him for suspected shoplifting from a local Walmart.
Over the past thirty years, Walmart has become the go-to place for everything. Some of the craziest things happen at Walmart, due to the store having everything. Until last year, it was also open for 24 hours, which increased the likelihood of bizarre things happening.
Brandon Tyler Durrant, age 27, is accused of going into a Walmart, in West Monroe, Louisiana, and shoplifting. He was picked up by police, following a shoplifting complaint. When stopped, he admitted to stealing sweet tea from the store, and then he was arrested.
Source: Hanna Pub


text: PlayStation users warned each other last week to set their messages to private—meaning only their trusted friends could send them messages. “There is a new glitch that basically bricks your console and forces you to factory reset it,” Redditor Huntstark explained on the PlayStation 4 subreddit.Sony officially responded to the glitch Monday via its Ask PlayStation UK twitter account. “We've since fixed the issue, and it wasn't bricking consoles, just sending them into a crash loop that can be quickly fixed in under 5 minutes,” Ask PlayStation UK wrote on Twitter. “Delete the message on the PS mobile app, go into Safe Mode, use Option 5, console back to normal.”Huntstark said that he and his team received the message from from a rival player during a game of Rainbow Six: Siege, and that it crashed all of their systems. The only teammate to survive the encounter had their messages set to private. Other redditors told similar stories and speculated that rival teams were using the glitch to kick competitors out of multiplayer games such as Rainbow Six: Siege and Rocket League to easily win matches. Motherboard was not able to independently confirm players were doing this.The offending message seemed to contain a indecipherable bit of unicode that crashed the PlayStation.This wouldn’t be the first time people have used indecipherable unicode to crash a system. It’s a recurring problem on the iPhone. In 2015, trolls discovered that sending a string of Arabic characters to iPhones would overload their memory and crash the devices. In February, a new glitch using the Indian Telugu language and got the same result. Then, in March, another unicode glitch made the rounds, this time spreading a “black dot of death.” The black dot crashed both Apple and Android devices.In all cases, the glitch works the same. A malicious actor sends a bit of unicode the device can’t process, it overloads the system’s memory, and the whole thing crashes. The only way to fix the device is to remove the offending unicode from the memory and, typically, the only way to do that is to factory reset the device. The PlayStation glitch is just an old prank on a new system.


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After fully immersing in the wearable technology market releasing the Gear Smartwatch family, Samsung decided to turn its attention to smart glasses. A recent report from Business Korea brings into public attention that the Korean company is working on a Google Glass competitor dubbed Gear Glass.
The new device is expected along with the launch of the upcoming Galaxy Note 4 phablet. There is no surprise that Samsung will adopt such a marketing plan as the already old Galaxy Gear smartwatch was released alongside with the Note 3. It now seems that Samsung has learned a lot after releasing the original Gear smartwatch. Poor sales due to a even poorer marketing strategy forced the company to release new models just a few months later in Barcelona in order to get back on track.
The new Google Glass competitor namely Gear Glass is rumored to be powered by Tizen OS that also brings life into the Gear 2 smartwatches. As for the design, thanks to Google’s efforts and innovation we won’t see something very different. According to a recent patent the entire front side resembles a design we’re all already accustomed to.
Good integration with the Galaxy family is also to be expected, but further details still remain uncertain. If we take a look at other patents Samsung has recently filled a virtual keyboard for the Galaxy Gear would not be that far-fetched while voice commands as well as other functions related to the front camera represent a must. As for the price things remain uncertain also but it would come as no surprise if the South Korean company will chose to retail Gear Glass somewhere near the $1500 price tag. If there is money to be made and Google already proved that many folks are willing to throw that much on wearable tech, why not?


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The Apple Store at Lakeside Shopping Center in Metairie has moved to a much larger location.
The store is now at the end of the mall’s Macy’s wing, in a 7,832-square-foot space across from Express. It opened at the end of October.
Apple’s previous 5,260-square-foot store was closer to Dillard’s, at the other end of the shopping center.
One of Lakeside’s newest retail tenants, Psycho Bunny, also recently opened. The 1,300-square foot men’s clothing store is located next to Free People, near Center Court.
Lakeside announced in October that Habaneros restaurant would be opening this year. Other developments this fall include Lee Michaels Fine Jewelry expanding to a new freestanding building adjacent to the shopping center on Causeway Boulevard.


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Apple spotlighted the best developers on its platforms with the 2021 App Store Awards, and gaming was a huge part of it with the likes of “Toca Life World” taking the honor of iPhone App of the Year and “Among Us!” earning a Trend of the Year honor. Video games are such a big deal that the medium has its own awards category.
“In 2021, apps played a more essential role in our lives than ever before,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook in a streamed announcement. “They helped keep us moving forward in a year that continued to challenge us in so many ways, as a global community and in our own lives. Apps helped us form deeper connections with one another, express our creativity, and engage with new people, experiences and cultures.”
When it comes to games, these titles took the top accolades:
iPhone Game of the Year: “League of Legends: Wild Rift” from Riot GamesiPad Game of the Year: “Marvel Future Revolution” from Netmarble CorporationMac Game of the Year:“Myst” from CyanApple TV Game of the Year: “Space Marshals 3” from PixelbiteApple Arcade Game of the Year: “Fantasian” from Mistwalker
“Fantasian” is the most notable project on the list for two reasons. The first is that it’s directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the hugely influential “Final Fantasy” series. His work shaped the genre as consoles grew more powerful across the generations, and his impact has been second to none. That’s why fans should pay attention to this game because it could be the final one.
“I approached this project as my last potential project and it’s worthy of that,” he said.
The second reason that “Fantasian” stands out is that Sakaguchi took a different approach to its creation. The developer worked with sprites at first and made the transition to polygons with “Final Fantasy VII.” For this Apple Arcade game, he went old school and used dioramas as part of the design to create the environments that would be home to computer-generated characters. It’s a combination of the analog and digital.
Sakaguchi said the dioramas remind him of working with sprites. He said back in the day of cathode ray tube TVs, the display technology made the work feel more round as the game info was broadcast on the screen and the images blended together. That contrasted working with polygons, which felt more angular and sharper, he said. The process of using dioramas and crafting the sets and accessories felt more akin to working with sprites.
Looking at the game, “Fantasian” is indeed distinct and players can appreciate the work of more than 150 different artists on 200 environments. The detail is so exacting players can see the keys on a piano that was made in miniature.
Recently, Sakaguchi’s studio, Mistwalker, released the second part of “Fantasian.” That essentially completes the game. He said there’s another update coming in December, but the project out now is the one he envisioned albeit with retuned bosses.
“I wanted the player to get the satisfaction of finally defeating the last boss,” he said. Even if players feel like “Fantasian” is harder toward the end, Sakaguchi said players should stick with it. “I encourage the players to not give up.”
NEW GAME FAMILIAR FACESAnother App Store Award winner was “Marvel Future Revolution,” a game that combines the appeal of the superhero genre with the massive multiplayer online role playing game. Think of it is the comic book version of last year’s App Store winner “Genshin Impact.”
In the game, players control one of eight heroes and they take the protagonist through a campaign on Primary Earth. It’s a planet that has been through the Convergence where different universes mold into a central point. That’s how players will encounter a diverse world with sections ruled by Hydra and one where Tony Stark is in control of a city. Other zones are part of universes where Asgardians take refugee on Earth and, similarly, Xandar survivors settle on the planet. It’s a diverse world to explore.
The appeal of “Marvel Future Revolution” lies in its visuals that, of course, pop on iPad, but its draw is also found in the idea that players get to craft their own superhero using gear they obtain through their adventures. Joe Lee, production head at Netmarble, said players have 400 million customization options.
That number is going to go up as Netmarble adds Magik to the hero roster. Like “Genshin Impact,” “Marvel Future Hero” is a game that is expected to grow and get bigger over time.
Although it may not be as well-known as the other accolade-winners, “Space Marshals 3” is a title that’s deserving of praise. The Apple TV Game of the Year winner by Pixelbite is the third entry to the top-down twin-stick action series.
What makes this franchise different from its peers is the emphasis on stealth instead of nonstop shooting. Players control the protagonist, Burton, through several story-driven missions, in which he’s often outnumbered and players will have to sneak by foes or eliminate them quietly by distracting them or hiding in the bushes.
It’s a more tactical approach, and one that looks great on the big screen. Co-founder Mattias Olsson said he was taken back by the honor. “We’re really excited,” he said. “We were completely surprised by getting recognized for this. It’s really great.”
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The consumer products sector is entering 2023 with both optimism regarding financial performance and concern over ongoing disruption, according to Deloitte’s 2023 Consumer Products Industry Outlook.
The report is based on a survey of 150 consumer products executives from an industry proportional mix of food and beverage, household goods, personal care, and apparel companies, as well as Deloitte’s economic outlook for the industry. The 2023 Consumer Products Industry Outlook identifies key challenges in the year ahead as well as how companies pursuing profitable growth are differentiating themselves for continued success.
Key takeaways include:
• Consumer product executives have two minds about the year ahead. Eight in 10 respondents say they are neutral or leaning pessimistic about the global economy and geopolitical stability. However, despite these headwinds, executives are optimistic about both their company's performance (74%) and its strategy (80%).
• Labor concerns linger, but many see progress. This year, 42% of companies surveyed say that higher-than-normal levels of voluntary attrition is an issue, which is down 13 percentage points from 2022. More than half of executives either think labor shortages will be over in 6 months or are already no longer a problem for them. Only 8% think workforce issues will be extremely challenging for their company in the year ahead.
• Supply chain is still a top concern. Despite improvements from the height of pandemic disruption, 62% of CPG executives still expect supply chain issues to be quite or extremely challenging in 2023. Almost half (48%) of companies think just-in-time as a supply chain strategy will need to be replaced, and even more (57%) are worried about the reliability of supply from once dependable markets (57%).
• Inflation cannot be ignored. Despite record-high CPG prices, eight in 10 executive plan to raise their prices even further in 2023. And while those higher prices are helping boost revenue expectations (83% expect higher revenue in 2023), 56% still say sales growth will be a challenge.
• Amid these challenges, five priorities will enable profitability. Deloitte’s analysis found that profitable growth companies are succeeding due to investments in five primary areas: 1) embracing a changing consumer; 2) going for market share; 3) creatively transforming; 4) driving data through supply chains; and 5) prioritizing ESG.


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J.D. Power Dependability Study
If you’re frustrated with car technology, you’re certainly not alone.
The number of owner complaints over vehicle communication and navigation systems is up this year, according to a new 2016 J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability study. The study ranks cars after three years of ownership, so the study involved 2013 models.
The top three ranked brands on the list are Lexus, Porsche and Buick, which received the least amount of owner complaints. Dodge came in dead last on the list.
Researchers say overall, technology is driving complaints up as drivers report continuing problems with their 2013 model year bluetooth, voice recognition and infotainment systems.
New 2017 McLarent 570GT
McLaren will debut the third member to its Sports Series lineup in Geneva next month. It’s the 2017 570GT that will go for around $200,000.
McLaren says that the new 562-horsepower 570GT is the most luxe and refined model it has produced to date. It’s part of its more “affordable” Sports Series that is so far made up of the 570S Coupe and 540C Coupe (the 540C isn’t available stateside.)
The 570GT isn’t a track car. The automaker says it’s designed to function as an everyday driver and sporty driving machine made for weekend getaways.
Acura Teases 2017 MDX
Acura’s best-selling vehicle is getting a sharper, sportier look for 2017. It will debut at the upcoming New York Auto Show.
The MDX is Acura’s best-selling model and the second best-selling midsize luxury SUV in the States. It helps that it’s priced about $10,000 grand less than its midsize competitors the BMW X5, Mercedes-Benz ML350, and Audi Q7.
Expect pricing to remain on point with the MDX’s current $43,015 starting price. The 2016 AWD bumps that up to $45,015.
Acura isn’t releasing updated powertrain details yet. The current model offers a 3.5-liter V6 engine with 290-horsepower and 267 pound-feet of torque. It uses FWD with a nine-speed automatic transmission and is also available with AWD.
Photo Credit: Lexus


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INMAN, S.C. – March 20, 2024 – TrueTimber, the world’s best-selling camo brand, will be attending the 2024 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Jockey Outdoors in Tulsa, Okla. March 22-24, 2024.
TrueTimber will be on-site allowing attendees to touch, feel and purchase a wide variety of featured apparel and gear. Attendees are encouraged to stop by Booth #631 in the Cox Business Convention Center to view the available product lineup. TrueTimber’s full line of apparel and gear is available for purchase from the TrueTimber online store.
“It is very exciting to attend an event as important to the fishing world as the Bassmaster Classic,” said TrueTimber CEO Rusty Sellars. “This tournament is an opportunity to meet and connect with our fans, customers and those in attendance who can expect top-quality gear and great styles to be on display.”
Widely known as the “Super Bowl of Bass Fishing”, this year’s tournament will be held at Grand Lake O the Cherokees with weigh-ins and other events taking place at the BOK Center on W. 3rd Street in Downtown Tulsa.
All events are free to the public, including the Kickoff Party from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday, March 21. The Bass Pro Shops Tailgate driven by Yokohama during the Classic and the Outdoors Expo are both held daily during the tournament at the Cox Business Center.
To learn more about the entire TrueTimber product line, and see all available gear and apparel, visit TrueTimber.com. Details about future product launches can be found on TrueTimber’s Facebook and Instagram pages.
Founded in 2005, TrueTimber is based in Inman, South Carolina and is the most realistic, performance-driven camouflage brand in the industry. TrueTimber offers a wide variety of clothing items and accessories, featuring 27 distinct camo patterns that perfectly blend with their surroundings. The company spends countless hours researching, testing and seeking new technology to produce the most effective and lifelike camouflage patterns possible. TrueTimber products can be found in retailers across the United States and Canada, and it continues to be one of the fastest growing camouflage companies in the world. For more information about TrueTimber, visit TrueTimber.com.


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- Warnshuis realizes dream of Utopia along Oregon’s tiny Ribbon Ridge
- Fidelitas promotes Will Hoppes, Mitch Venohr as part of transition
- New Alliance of Women in Washington Wine already stands at 200 strong
- Bullocks bid goodbye to Eye of the Needle Winery in Woodinville
- VineLines Dispatch #7: That’s a wrap
- Former Oregon car dealer gears up with Jachter Family Wines
- VineLines Dispatch: 6 Vineyards at Work
- L’Ecole Nº 41 to create wine bar at Marcus Whitman Hotel
- VineLines Dispatch: Harvest surrounding Lake Chelan
- Northwest restaurateurs purchase Basel Cellars in Walla Walla
More Grapes News
College Cellars vineyard instructor Joel Perez recruits technology
WALLA WALLA, Wash. — Grapes are swelling in the hot Walla Walla Valley summer,...
- Posted July 17, 2017
2017 vintage tracking just ahead of cool vintages
May has been a cool and soggy extension of April and March in Pacific...
- Posted May 13, 2017
Boushey takes over Klipsun Vineyard management
Dick Boushey, one of Washington wine country’s most celebrated grape growers, now is managing...
- Posted April 18, 2017
Washington Syrah continues to grow in popularity
Washington Syrah continues to defy conventional wisdom. Across America, Syrah is a tough sale,...
- Posted April 16, 2017
Red Mountain’s famed Klipsun Vineyard sold to Chicago firm
Klipsun Vineyards, long considered one of the top vineyards in Washington state, has been...
- Posted April 15, 2017
Bud break marks start of 2017 vintage for Washington wine
Across the Columbia Valley, the 2017 vintage is under way. The start of the...
- Posted April 14, 2017
Red Mountain vineyards pour 2016 wines for winemakers
BENTON CITY, Wash. — Even when Washington’s smallest appellation is wearing a wardrobe of...
- Posted March 15, 2017
California scientists share research with Walla Walla wine students
WALLA WALLA, Wash. — The official word from the Washington State Wine Commission is...
- Posted March 13, 2017
Cab rules massive 2016 harvest in Washington wine industry
As expected, the Washington wine industry’s 2016 harvest for grapes was a record. The...
- Posted March 2, 2017
Merlot remains force in Northwest wine industry
In the 1980s, Washington was white wine country. Red wine was considered somewhat exotic....
- Posted February 19, 2017


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Amit Midha, president of Asia Pacific & Japan at Dell, discusses the company's strategy.» Read More
Intel raised expectations on second-quarter and full-year revenue, as well as gross margins, based on a stronger-than-expected business PC demand.
U.S. chipmaker Intel lost on Thursday its challenge against a record 1.06-billion-euro ($1.44 billion) fine handed down by the European Union.
Some of the largest U.S. companies are looking to hire cybersecurity experts in newly elevated positions and bring technologists on to their boards.
Marius Haas, president of Dell Enterprise, says the company is "constantly on the lookout" for acquisitions as he discusses life after privatization.
Jobs is the easy choice, but Gates deserves equal billing, right? The reasoning behind our top picks--and why some didn't make the list at all.
Transforms reputation as corporate raider into shareholder activist by launching proxy fights to hold feet of under-performing boards to the fire.
Here’s how we picked the leaders who sparked the biggest changes in business over the last 25 years—and why you’ll hate the list no matter what.
Diversity alone isn't a reason to invest in a stock, but companies dominated by alpha males and old white guys may end up costing shareholders.
A U.S. appeals court is set hear a case whose outcome could make it harder to prosecute insider trading and may jeopardize some guilty verdicts.
Don't toss those old flip phones, unfashionable dresses and outgrown roller skates. They could make your spring cleaning spree profitable.
Amit Midha, President, Asia Pacific and Japan at Dell, describes the impact of taking the company's business private.
Catch a preview of this week's Managing Asia episode with Amit Midha, President for Asia Pacific and Japan at Dell.
The U.S. Supreme Court will delve into the hotly contested question of when software is eligible for patent protection.
COO Sheryl Sandberg is getting out in front of the allegations that Facebook was involved in a hiring conspiracy.
Carl Icahn excoriated eBay in an open letter, charging the online auction company of "multiple lapses in governance."
Two of Hewlett-Packard's most powerful executives, until they were sidelined by CEO Meg Whitman, are preparing to leave the company soon.
Computing giant Dell disputed reports that it is close to a massive layoff in what was described in at least one report as an "imminent bloodbath."
Lenovo is nearing an agreement to buy IBM's low-end server business for $2-2.5 billion, countering the shrinking personal computers market.
Sometimes Cramer tells a caller that he needs to do homework before he can make a decision on a stock. He's not kidding.
The Chinese company had the dubious honor of shipping the most PCs last year—the worst in the industry's history.


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Ski for two more weekends at Breck
It’s April in Summit County and it’s too muddy to mountain bike, not quite warm enough to whitewater raft and – bonus – late-season storms just dropped more than 17 inches of snow at Breckenridge Ski Resort. It’s the perfect time to get some spring turns in (keep those legs in biking shape) and take advantage of Breckenridge Ski Resort’s extended ski season.
The resort originally planned on closing for the season April 15, but decided to stay open two additional weekends as part of Breck’s 50 Wishes campaign. The resort has been granting wishes all season to celebrate the ski area’s 50th anniversary, fulfilling experiences of a lifetime submitted by guests from around the world.
Peak 8 lifts and terrain, including the Imperial Express SuperChair, will remain open these next two weekends, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, April 20–22 and April 27–29, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. each day.
The resort will have a special 50th season extension day ticket price of $50 for those without passes and free parking in the gondola lots.
Breck guests will also enjoy special lesson prices, with half-day adult lessons starting at $59 and full-day children’s lessons for $99. Breck Sports is also offering half off rentals at their Peak 8 location. Check out the full list of extended weekend services here.
Skiers and boarders should be cautious of late-season conditions on the mountain, keep an eye out for limited natural snow coverage and keep off closed trails. For the latest snow report and more, visit Breckenridge.com.
Stay right at the base of Peak 8 at One Ski Hill Place, A RockResort™ starting at $210/night. Additional rates and lodging deals are available here.
Save on 2012-13 Season Passes
Vail Resorts’ season passes are now on sale for the 2012-2013 winter season. Ski or snowboard eight world-class resorts across three states and 24,980 acres more than five to six days in one season and the passes pay for themselves.
Lock in early bird prices now through April 22, 2012 with a $49 down payment and the remainder of the balance due in mid-September 2012 for the best deal. Visit www.epicpass.com to find the ski pass that fits your needs.
— Lisa Pogue
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YouTube has decided to enter the already-jam-packed arena of subscription TV streaming services.
The Google-owned company announced they will launch a live, on-demand streaming television service called YouTube TV some time in the next few months. The service will cost $35 a month for a family plan of up to six accounts, and subscribers will gain access to 40 networks, including ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, FX, ESPN, Disney Channel and more. YouTube TV will also include original content created by the company itself, and allow users to store digital content.
At a press event, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said the move represented the natural evolution of television. “There’s no question that millennials love great TV content, but what we’ve seen is they don’t want to watch it in the traditional setting,” said Wojcicki. In other words, people like watching television shows, but they don’t want to pay for expensive cable services.
YouTube TV will join the ranks of what are known as “over-the-top” services, which theoretically allow consumers more options at a more affordable price. Of course, competition in this industry is intense, with Sony’s PlayStation Vue, DirecTV Now, Sling TV and Apple TV all vying for consumers’ attention, to say nothing of the massive popularity of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, HBO GO and others.
One advantage YouTube TV will have is that they already attract a huge and loyal audience. However, their bundle is also missing some key popular networks such as CNN, TBS, HBO and The Food Network. Their family plan does sound pretty sweet, though. It’ll be interesting to see how YouTube TV chooses to distinguish itself from the fray.
You can find out more about YouTube’s new service here, check out Paste’s Q&A on YouTube Red services here, and don’t miss “How YouTube is Using Censorship to Choose Advertisers Over Content Creators.”


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We are excited to announce that our company has achieved Skal certification for the year 2023! Skal is a leading certification organization for organic products, and their certification process ensures that products are grown and processed according to strict organic standards.
Achieving Skal certification is a testament to our commitment to providing our customers with high-quality organic products that are grown and processed in an environmentally sustainable way. It also demonstrates our dedication to transparency and accountability in our business practices.
At our company, we take pride in offering a wide range of organic ingredients that are sourced from trusted suppliers around the world. We believe that organic farming practices are essential for promoting environmental sustainability and supporting the health and well-being of both people and the planet.
Our Skal certification demonstrates our commitment to upholding the highest standards of organic farming and processing. We are committed to providing our customers with organic products that are free from harmful chemicals and are grown and processed in a way that is environmentally sustainable.


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The eighth edition of Amber Lounge in Singapore this year will feature over S$10 million worth of masterpiece Diamonds from World of Diamonds as well as Ted Baker’s Autumn Winter 2015 collection.
A fixture of the 2015 Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix, Amber Lounge’s past Lounge F1 models included Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas. International supermodels will parade down the iconic Amber Lounge runway to showcase the diamond masterpieces Previous supermodels included Petra Nemcova, Jessica Michibata and Victoria Silvstedt.
Karan Tilani, Director of the World Of Diamonds Group, stated “We envisage that having multi-million dollar jewellery pieces, coupled with one of the world’s most expensive perfume collection on display, elevates Grand Prix to a whole new level. Being a part of the glamorous parties which Amber Lounge hosts, reinforces our global presence.”
A World of Diamonds diamond encrusted fragrance valued at over S$190,00 will be on display. The fragrance is accompanied by a Fabergé egg embellished with intricate detailing and lambskin interior, and a statement blue diamond ring.
Amber Lounge Singapore will offer an action-packed weekend with haute couture fashion, live performances by international performers and six international DJ sets on 19 and 20 September 2015.