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This spring, Ashland University's Accent Room will use a new menu with new food and a new philosophy. The menu features many foods grown in Ohio.
The new menu focuses on using foods grown within 45 miles of AU, such as chicken from Gerber Poultry and apples from Moreland Fruit Farm.
"A lot of restaurants and institutions are focusing on locally grown products," said Fred Geib, general manager of dining operations.
One item on the menu, a pork loin chop sandwich, features pork and apple slaw, both made from Ohio-grown foods.
According to Geib, efforts have been made to incorporate more locally grown foods in student dining. He explained that the plan is to "utilize the Accent Room menu to focus those efforts more.
"This area is really rich with its agriculture," Geib said.
Other local food comes from Smucker's as well as Smith Dairy. Warmer weather may bring even more Ohio foods onto the menu.
"Once (it is) closer to summer, almost all of the items could be from Ohio," Geib said.
The Accent Room menu has been designed by Ashland's award-winning team of chefs. The culinary team has been professionally trained and brings an educational and practical expertise to the university.
Located in the lower level of John C. Myers Convocation Center, the Accent Room is open 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. A Sunday brunch buffet is served 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. For reservations, call 419-289-5759 or reserve online at www.ashland.edu/accentroom.


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By NAN Staff Writer
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Thurs. July 22, 2021: A Barbie doll created to honor a Caribbean roots celebrity as a “Role Model” is already out of stock within days of its launch.
The Barbie Role Model Naomi Osaka Doll, created to honor Japanese-born, Haitian roots record-breaking professional tennis player and champion, Naomi Osaka, is “temporarily out of stock” on Amazon, just days after Mattel and Osaka announced the launch.
The collectible Barbie doll is sculpted to Osaka’s likeness and features flexibility for endless posing possibilities. It also comes ready “to hit the court” in a Nike tennis dress with brushstroke print, inspired by a look Osaka sported at a major match in 2020.
Light blue tennis shoes, a Nike visor and a replica of her Yonex racket complete the doll’s look. It is 11.5 inches with curly brunette hear and is recommended for kids ages 6 years old and up.
“I want young girls everywhere to feel empowered to dream big and to know that if they believe in themselves that anything is possible!,” Osaka said in celebrating and recognizing the Barbie® Role Model.
From advocating for Black lives to mental health support for athletes, Osaka has been a voice and inspiration for people all over the world. The first day sales numbers prove that fans were excited about Osaka’s addition to the Barbie collection.
Mattell says it’s “ working hard” to have the doll back in stock as soon as possible.

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Broncos fans are certainly ready for a great football game on Sunday — but frankly, we could do without the sexist Super Bowl ads. When will advertisers catch on that women watch football, too?
Colorado was the first state to give women the right to vote through popular election, and we’ve been progressive on women’s rights ever since. After the 2012 election, we boasted the highest percentage of female lawmakers in the country.
Our feminine power extends beyond politics. Based on our higher-than-average education rates, and the fact that 30 percent of our businesses are female-owned, Denver was ranked by Intuit as one of the 10 best cities for female entrepreneurs.
As women, we control 80 percent of the nation’s consumer purchasing power. Combined with our earning power, that makes women the largest economic force in the world, according to the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce.
We also like football — which is no secret to the thousands of female Broncos fans who will be glued to their TVs this Sunday. In fact, about 46 percent of the Super Bowl viewing audience is now female, and more women watch the big game than the Oscars, Grammys, and Emmys combined, reports Adweek.
Add up all these factors and this Sunday could be the perfect storm for a feminist smackdown of sexist Super Bowl commercials on the biggest ad day of the year.
No more models giving sloppy kisses to nerds.
No more waitresses on stripper poles.
And, please, no more naked women covered in Doritos.
If companies are going to spend some $40 million on a minute of advertising, let’s help them make a better investment by letting them know sexism doesn’t sell.
Here’s one way to send the message: Female Broncos fans can download a free “Not Buying It” app from the Representation Project, a group that challenges gender stereotypes in the media. Or, just use the hashtag #notbuyingit to call out sexism in real time on social media while you watch.
Did I mention that women also use more social media than men — and are 59 percent of Twitter users? Advertisers would be wise to listen up.
Helping to amplify the message is Kat Gordon, founder of the 3% Conference, a group that addresses the fact that just 3 percent of top positions in advertising are held by women. She’ll be hosting a group of female creative directors on Sunday who will live-tweet responses to the best and worst ads during the game. And she’s inviting creatives across the country to add their voices with the hashtag #3percentsb.
“The rate at which women are amassing wealth and exerting influence is unprecedented,” Gordon writes on her website. “Yet the work that is supposed to motivate them springs almost entirely from a male perspective.”
It’s not just that sexist ads featuring scantily clad, objectified women are misguided, or off-putting to women (which they are). The messages these ads send are also harmful for our next generation of Broncos fans. Our teens average about 10 hours of media usage a day in a digital environment where cyberbullying, dating violence, and online sexual harassment are prevalent.
Broncos fans of both genders can take a stand to stop sexism before it starts by sending a strong signal to advertisers during this Sunday’s game about the types of messages we do — and don’t — want to view during the commercial breaks.
“You can’t be what you can’t see,” said Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund. So let’s say “no” to sexism and give our girls a better picture of the smart, empowered, football-loving women they can grow up to be.
Lisa Wirthman of Highlands Ranch is a frequent contributor to The Denver Post.


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MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ID Insight announced today that Jack Sundstrom has joined the company as its Chief Product and Marketing Officer. He comes to ID Insight from Aimia (formerly Carlson Marketing), where he was Vice President of Decision Sciences.
Sundstrom brings to ID Insight over twenty years of experience in building data strategies and developing advanced analytics solutions on behalf of clients across several industries including financial services, retail, telecommunications, consumer packaged goods, and automotive. His career includes senior product development positions with Aimia and FIS as well as hands-on, data analytics roles with GE Capital, Fingerhut, and the US Air Force.
“I am thrilled to join ID Insight at such an exciting point in the company’s history. ID Insight has been growing quickly over the past few years and I look forward to leading the delivery and launch of the next wave of innovative solutions,” said Sundstrom.
“We have worked hard over the past decade to become a leader in providing industry leading solutions to the financial services industry,” said Adam Elliott, President of ID Insight. “Now is the time for us to further grow our business and begin investing in new technologies and products. Jack Sundstrom is the right person to lead this next level of innovation.”
About ID Insight
Twin Cities-based ID Insight, the innovator in Access-Point Intelligence, combines its massive collection of data on people and access points with cutting-edge analytics and solutions to help companies prevent fraud, reduce costs, research the competitive landscape and capture more business. ID Insight provides next-generation market research, verification, authentication, and fraud solutions to financial services companies, credit issuers, retailers, online merchants and broadband providers nationwide. For more information, visit www.idinsight.com.


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Those who read the previous Westside Pioneer article (in the March-April edition) will recall that it ended in a cliff-hanger, with Arthur and Kelly Klipple, the owners of the 27-year bookstore in the Red Rock Canyon shopping center, needing to find a new location by the end of May.
Specializing in used tomes, it's the only bookstore on the Westside, outside of the regional history collection at the Old Colorado City History Center.
“We are overjoyed to find a new place to be,” Kelly enthused, reporting that the new address starting June 1 is 631 W. Colorado Ave.
She credited store manager Steffany Boucher with spotting the “for lease” sign and contacting the landlords, long-time Westside property owners Dennis and Jeanie Sharon.
Asked about the Bookman, Jeanie Sharon commented, “We're happy to have them. It's funny, I was just mentioning this to a couple of friends, and they said that's where they go for books.”
Kelly elaborated that the store will remain open at Red Rock (3163 W. Colorado Ave.) until May 31, but books are already being transferred to the new address.
The rent is far more affordable than what the Klipples have been paying at Red Rock, not to mention a 25 percent rate increase that would have taken effect in June, Klipple said.
At just under 2,000 square feet, the new site will require “downsizing” the store's 100,000-plus book collection, which now fills tall shelves in the 3,000 square feet at Red Rock. But “that's fine,” Kelly said. “We have a lot of books with a long shelf life now. We'll be able to take advantage of this opportunity to go through what we have and move what we want to.”
What will happen to the books that are culled? Numerous sales are being planned at the Red Rock location in the weeks ahead. “We'll try to get those books in somebody's hands,” Kelly said.
No need for eatery to change its sign
There's a new Susie at Susie's Westside Café.
The breakfast-lunch restaurant at 1686 S. 21st St., which opened in 2009, has been owned and operated since November by Susan Light and her husband, Scott Johnson.
The founder was Susan McGregor-Hrdlichka (pronounced herd LICH kuh), who has moved her focus to real estate.
“We joked about it, having the same name,” Light laughed.
Located near the top of the 21st Street hill, just north of Lower Gold Camp Road, the café is open daily, offering inside and outside seating and specializing in home-made food.
Before buying Susie's, Light worked as a server at the long-time Mason Jar restaurant on West Colorado Avenue.
Light credited Mason Jar owner, Tim Payne, with teaching her about restaurant management. “He trained me how to run the back of the house,” she summarized.
The Mason Jar was also where she and Johnson met six years ago. He was a fry cook.
After getting together, the couple started thinking about a restaurant of their own. In the meantime, they ate regularly at Susie's.
“We fell in love with the location,” Johnson said. “We're Westsiders ourselves” (him for 34 years, Light for 20).
Then one day, the duo asked Hrdlichka to let them know if she ever wanted to sell the business. Johnson recalled the founder's reply starting with, “As a matter of fact…”
The couple took over after a transition period in October. Light oversees the food preparation, her husband the ordering. Two of the previous employees remain, including the cook, Fredy Quevedo.
Hrdlichka said she enjoys real estate - she's had a sales license since 2006 - but admits to mixed feelings about leaving the restaurant she started. “I miss my customers and employees, but I was just getting burned out and tired,” she said. “It's hard work.”
Her real-estate phone number is 351-8242.
Urban farmer biz moves down avenue
Buckley's Homestead Supply, which offers services and supplies for urban farmers, recently relocated to 701 W. Colorado Ave..
The new site “has much more space in the retail area, which allows us to expand current lines of products, as well as bring in brand-new items,” explained Allison Buckley, who founded the business six years ago with her husband Ed.
As before, on-street parking is available in front of the store, but 701 also has off-street parking off Seventh.
Another plus is having separate classroom space, “so that teachers and students don't have to compete with the noise of the store on a busy day,” Allison said.
There's also the capability of remodeling for a kitchen, which will allow classes related to food preparation, such as canning, Ed pointed out.
The business specializes in animal feed and supplies, and equipment/materials for canning, fermenting, beekeeping and making soap or cheese.
Baby chicks are seasonally available.
The couple have an urban homestead of their own on the Westside, where they raise chickens and have a large organic garden.
Buckley's is open Tuesdays to Sundays.
For more information, call 358-8510 or e-mail email@example.com.
Westside Pioneer article


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Xiaomi has perhaps done too good a job building a budget brand. We asked experts whether the company can upgrade its image into premium territory.
You know Weibo and WeChat...QQ and Baidu..perhaps Douyin and Pinduoduo. But do you recall the significance of BiliBili, Kuaishou, Momo, Zhihu and Paipai?
A victim of its own success, the 20,000-square-meter supermarket closed early after being overrun by eager—and in some cases overly eager—consumers.
Triwa is planning the launch of a Brexit watch with British politician Boris Johnson on it.


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‘They realized the world has changed’: How Foot Locker suddenly became hot again
Foot Locker isn’t letting the death of the mall brand seal its fate.
To turn around slipping sales, Foot Locker has made investments in moving product more quickly and devised a way to drive online customer in stores, and vice versa. The retailer has also generated a lot of buzz over the past year for its investments in digitally native consumer startups, including a $100 million investment in sneaker resale platform GOAT, $12.5 million in children’s apparel company Rockets of Awesome, a $3 million investment in children’s footwear brand SuperHeroic, and a $2 million investment in Pensole Footwear Design Academy. Foot Locker also invested $15 million last year in women’s activewear company Carbon38 and announced on Friday that it was so confident in the brand that it had invested an additional $10 million into it at the start of the year.
These investments are meant to give Foot Locker more data into what consumers are buying through other channels, and gives the retailer apparel brands whose inventory flow it has more control over.
As a result, Foot Locker has avoided what other mall brands have faced, from declining relevancy to bankruptcy filings. It’s proven itself willing to work strategically with DTC companies — a new phase that has put it in the same conversations as the likes of Walmart and Target — and has several channels that it can turn to for insights into what digitally native consumers are looking for in footwear and apparel.
“[Foot Locker] realized the world has changed,” Christopher Svezia, a footwear and apparel analyst for Wedbush Securities, said. “They want to know more about what the consumer likes, and knowing what trends change very quickly.”
During the company’s fourth-quarter earnings on Friday for 2018, Foot Locker announced that comparable store sales in the fourth quarter increased 9.7 percent. Last year, they decreased by 3.7 percent. Foot Locker also hit a record total for annual sales in 2018 with $7.9 billion. On the earnings call with investors, Foot Locker CEO Richard Johnson pointed to August 2017 as the time when the retailer realized “we need to change the way we did business. We started the evaluation process both in internal and in external view of capabilities we might be lacking.”
Foot Locker makes most of its money through the sales of sneakers and apparel from other major brands — most notably Nike, which accounts for about 70 percent of Foot Locker’s product. In 2017, Nike sales fell in the U.S., while Adidas rose in popularity. Foot Locker wasn’t able to foresee the downturn in Nike’s popularity, and as a result, sales took a hit.
Over the past year, Foot Locker has cleared out inventory by continuing to close stores, and by recognizing, as Johnson said during the company’s first-quarter earnings call this year, that “the peak of product receptivity of our customers is much, much faster from the old days of seed to scale.”
In terms of the in-store experience, Foot Locker this year added “Nike Pro Athlete” employees to its stores — employees who are trained specifically on Nike equipment who can help push Foot Locker’s most popular products.
Foot Locker is also experimenting more with what it calls “off mall” retail spaces as it closes more stores in malls. One example is its new “Power Stores,” which are meant to serve as more of an event space, and a “hub for local sneaker culture, art, music and sports.” Foot Locker plans to launch more than a dozen of these stores in 2019.
Matt Powell, a sports industry analyst for NPD Group, says Foot Locker has also improved this year in blending its digital and in-store experiences, by pushing more customers to order online but pick up their orders in store. Foot Locker also redesigned the mobile apps for many of its stores, including Kids Foot Locker and Lady Foot Locker.
This year, Foot Locker also redesigned its loyalty program so that members can redeem credit at any of the stores under the Foot Locker brand — which includes Kids Foot Locker, Champs and Eastbay.
Nike still accounts for the majority of Foot Locker’s inventory, so if Nike experiences another downturn in popularity, Foot Locker may find itself in a similar position that it was a year ago, which may explain why Foot Locker made so many investments this year in apparel and footwear startups.
Apparel, and specifically children’s apparel has been one of the retailer’s fastest-growing categories for the past several quarters, which is where Foot Locker’s investment in Rockets of Awesome and Carbon38 may give it an advantage. The investment in GOAT can also help give Foot Locker more insight into how long certain types of sneakers remain popular in the resale market.
“I think the idea here is that the traditional label of retailer vs. brand is gone. Nobody is one or the other today, and so a great retailer has to have good brands they control,” Powell said.
More in Marketing
TikTok has officially launched its new e-commerce platform, TikTok Shop, earlier this month on August 1. Using the new e-commerce platform, brands and creators can sell products directly on the platform, potentially creating new revenue streams, and tap into the short-form video platform’s growing popularity.
‘The influencer industry can be really vile’: Confessions of an influencer marketer on the industry’s unfair hiring practices
While the influencer industry might sound exciting and like it’s full of opportunities, one marketer can vouch for the horrific scenarios that still take place behind the scenes.
After a tumultuous 12 months, marketers are getting a clear picture of how they really did during a time of true uncertainty. And, as it turns out, it wasn’t all that bad.
Ad position: web_bfu


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Microsoft Extends SkyDrive Mobile Support to iPhone, iPad
In an surprising move, Microsoft on Tuesday made its consumer-oriented SkyDrive cloud storage service available for Apple mobile devices, as well its own Windows Phone devices.
While Microsoft had previously promised a version of SkyDrive with Windows Phone 7.5 (previously code-named "Mango"), the support for Apple's mobile products was a bit unexpected. Microsoft also offered mobile client support for non-Microsoft platforms on Monday, when it released released Lync 2010 for Apple's iPhone and iPad, Android smartphones and Symbian devices, in addition to Windows Phone.
Version 1.0 of the SkyDrive app for Windows Phone is available for download at the Windows Phone Marketplace here. The app works with the Windows Phone 7.5 release. SkyDrive 1.0 for iPhone, iPad and touch-based iPod is available at the online Apple Store here. It can be downloaded in 32 language versions, according to Microsoft.
SkyDrive offers up to 25 GB of free storage space in the Internet cloud. It's long been available for Windows 7 and Vista PC users, who can use it to store documents with Office Web Apps or with the free suite of Windows Live Essentials 2011 applications.
Users of SkyDrive get access to storage space hosted by Microsoft in a datacenter, which is accessed over the Internet. However, SkyDrive also can be used as a part of applications. For instance, Windows 8 enables developers to build access to SkyDrive within their applications.
More broadly, Microsoft sees personal cloud storage services, such as SkyDrive, falling into three categories. One approach allows user access to the traditional file-and-folder user interface, which Microsoft calls "file clouds." A second approach, called "device clouds," only enables a device-centric view of storage. Lastly, some applications are designed to use cloud storage from the onset, which Microsoft describes as "app clouds," according to this Windows Live blog post.
For this release of SkyDrive for Windows Phone, Microsoft has added traditional file management capabilities for the first time. Instead of just using the Office Hub or Pictures Hub in Windows Phone to organize files, whole file collections can be organized.
The SkyDrive app for iPhone uses Apple's user interface. It allows users to create folders and delete files, as well as share files and folders via the mail app.
Microsoft explained late last month that it has made sharing via SkyDrive more "app-centric." For instance, a Word document can be shared on SkyDrive when the user is running Word, typically with minimal steps. Microsoft already enables document collaborations via some of its Office Web Apps, although its "coauthoring" feature used with the Word Web App doesn't exactly work in real time.
Other improvements made earlier this year to SkyDrive include simplifications to accessing folder directories and a speeded-up photo browsing experience, as well as the use of AJAX and HTML 5 technologies to improve the user experience. Microsoft has explained that some of the SkyDrive features it built earlier were just too complex, but it is listening to customer feedback and making improvements.
SkyDrive is a potential competitor in the mobile consumer space with Apple's iCloud, which is available for free with iOS 5. Microsoft's SkyDrive efforts appear to be part of its general market push into a world of connected devices that will increasingly be mobile. It also squares with the "three-screens and a cloud" vision laid out when Ray Ozzie was Microsoft's chief software architect. The idea is to synchronize data across devices. SkyDrive is already facilitating that, in part, by enabling single sign-on capabilities across devices.
The personal cloud storage competition is still at the early stage. In October, Microsoft measured SkyDrive use on the basis of file storage, file uploads and connected devices. The company reported 17 million stored files per month on SkyDrive. Uploaded and shared content hit 360 million files in October. Five million devices tapped SkyDrive in October, according to Microsoft.
Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.


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Egypt and Korea signed Thursday a cooperation agreement on making benefit of Korean expertise to enhance and develop Egyptian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) sector.
The agreement was signed by Egyptian trade and industry minister Tarek Qabil and his Korean counterpart Joo Hyunghwan.
The agreement includes forming Egyptian-Korean group to discuss means of executing the suggestions to develop textiles, information technology, and car components fields. Additionally, the Korean side is to participate in training and developing employees’ skills in those sectors besides exchanging expertise and technologies.
Qabil and Hyunghwan held bilateral discussions in which they showcased the mechanism of deepening mutual trade and economic cooperation.
They also discussed removing restrictions and obstacles facing trade movement and investments between Egypt and Korea as well as solving problems that investors face in both countries.


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Data security is far bigger an issue today than it was just a year ago, and tomorrow, with the introduction of GDPR, it will become an even more important topic as firms begin to receive huge, potentially crippling, fines for non-compliance.
The UK Government revealed the findings of their Cyber Security Breaches Survey in the Spring where it found that just under half (46%) of all UK businesses identified at least one cyber security breach or attack in the last 12 months.
Despite three-fifths (61%) of firms holding personal data on customers electronically, only 37% of businesses have any rules around its encryption. What’s more, only a quarter (26%) of businesses reported the most disruptive breach externally to anyone other than a cyber security provider, a statistic that will undoubtedly change when the EU GDPR is enforced in 2018.
What is worrying end users?
Well, nearly half of companies identify data loss protection as the number one cloud security priority.
In their Cybersecurity Trends 2017 Spotlight Report, security firm Alert Logic explores the latest cybersecurity trends and organisational investment priorities among companies and says that while cloud adoption is on the rise, the top concern is how to secure data in the cloud and protect against data loss (48 per cent). The next two biggest priorities for security professionals were threats to data privacy (43 per cent) and regulatory compliance (39 per cent).
The study also examined the top constraints faced by these organisations in securing cloud computing infrastructures.
Worryingly, and especially in the light of the new GDPR regime that comes in to force across Europe in May 2018, the study found that 42% of organisations lack internal security resources and expertise to cope with the growing demands of protecting data, systems and applications against increasingly sophisticated threats.
It gets worse. With a third of firms already wanting to reduce the cost of security, concerns over a move to continuous 24×7 security coverage, improving compliance and increasing the speed of response to incidents we would say there is no hope whatsoever of reducing the cost of security and compliance any time soon.
Alert Logic makes a good, valid and accurate point when it reminds us, “Public cloud platform providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform offer many security measures, but organisations are ultimately responsible for securing their own data and the applications running on those cloud platforms.”
According to Verizon’s recent security report, attacks on web applications are now the source of choice for data enterprise breaches, up 300 per cent since 2014. Similarly, the report found cybersecurity professionals – more than half of survey participants – to be most concerned about customer-facing web applications introducing security risk to their business (53 per cent). This is followed by mobile applications (48 per cent), desktop applications (33 per cent) and business applications such as ERP platforms (31 per cent).
Application related breaches have negative consequences and can lead to revenue loss, significant recovery expense, and damaged reputation.
“Web applications are the most significant source of breaches for organisations leveraging cloud and cloud hybrid computing infrastructures,” said Oliver Pinson-Roxburgh, EMEA Director at Alert Logic. “They are complex, with a large attack surface that can be compromised at any layer of the application stack and often utilise open source and third-party development tools that can introduce vulnerabilities into an enterprise.”
Organisations can implement incentives to prevent gaps in the security policy of an application or to avoid vulnerabilities in the underlying system that are caused by flaws in the design, development, deployment, upgrade, maintenance or database of the application. Additionally, many businesses turn to cloud security vendors with a ‘products + services’ strategy rather than technologies alone to fight web application attacks. Businesses increasingly find that a combination of cloud-native security tools provided in combination with 24×7 security monitoring by security and compliance experts is the best way to secure their sensitive data – and the sensitive data of their customers – in the cloud.
“A multi-layer web application attack defence is the cornerstone of any effective cloud security solution and strategy,” said Pinson-Roxburgh.
Brian Chappell, Senior Director, Enterprise & Solution Architecture at cyber security solutions firm BeyondTrust, calls a spade a spade when he says anyone selling solutions in the data security and privacy space has a minefield to navigate.
“Trying to match products to frequently changing regulatory requirements to deliver robust, reliable solutions for your customers can seem a never-ending challenge. New regulations, such as the GDPR, come with a significant sting in their tail that makes selecting the right solutions more urgent.
Each new regulation or change to a regulation seems to bring a flurry of new and existing products claiming to solve the latest concern. We believe the solution starts with simplicity. Data security is not going to stop being a challenge anytime soon and technology alone will not solve the problem. We need people to change and evolve as well, it’s hard for people to change when the way forward is obscured by poor information or limited visibility. The more you can do to help you simplify your customer’s security landscape, the better they can see where they are and what’s needed next. Customers who can quickly and easily join you in understanding their next steps will result in a shorter sales cycle and ultimately a better the solution.
Good product vision is essential; focus each product on a specific security space and ensure that the product interacts well with others. The adage that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts was never more poignant. Each product helps simplify the security model by moving from the difficult scenario of managing implicit privileges down to granting explicit privileges cuts complexity dramatically. Training partners through extensive on-line and instructor-led learning also help ensure that the message of simplicity can be achieved.
A simple security model is easier to manage and easier to identify where it fits or doesn’t with new or existing regulations. Don’t confuse simple with less secure, the ability to effectively manage while able to quickly adapt and evolve leads to greater security.
Simplicity isn’t easy, as Steve Jobs once said, ‘Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains’.”
Tom Sime, Managing Director of Glasgow based Exchange Communications, told us that with changes to data protection law afoot, companies are getting their houses in order to ensure compliance ahead of time. And with D-day set for 25 May 2018, data security is one of 2017’s hottest boardroom topics.
“The introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will see stringent rules enforced surrounding the collection and storage of personal data and its scope will be far-reaching, covering all ‘personally identifiable information’, known as PII.
This is where we come in.
As well as adhering to the new legislation here at Exchange Communications, we also have an additional role to play in supporting other organisations adopt best practice in relation to their telecommunication systems.
While telecoms fraud is primarily concerned with selling on airspace, security breaches of this sort can create the perception that customer details are not safe. Indeed, network insecurity can make it easier for fraudsters to collect PII.
So, what should you do to protect your business from telecoms fraud?
There are five simple steps you can adopt today.
It will sound like common sense to most, but it is vitally important that you protect your passwords. So, update yours from the default system passwords if you haven’t done so already, then, be sure to change them regularly, and again when staff members leave the business.
You should also be aware of who has access to your systems and what they’re using them for. With an understanding of this, you can limit access where necessary, putting restrictions in place to prevent international and premium rate outbound calls.
Thirdly, be sure to turn off unnecessary high risk features, such as those which allow the auto-creation of new extensions. You may rely on the likes of Direct Inward System Access (DISA), but be sure to monitor it closely.
Another simple step you can take to better protect yourself is to review your call logs and bills regularly. It’s not the most exciting task, but it is an opportunity to spot unusual activity.
And last, but not least, book in a thorough audit of your systems to identity areas of weakness – don’t leave them unlocked.
Help is out there. As part of our managed services package, we offer fraud alerts, and an audit can be carried out free of charge.
Telecoms fraud costs businesses tens of billions of pounds every year in the UK, not to mention the reputational cost of a breach. And with tighter data protection regulations on the way, act now to secure your business.”
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Gilts open higher ahead of further UK government package of tax hike and spending cut measures
Gilts have rallied at market opening – with yields down significantly more than 20bps across the curve – ahead of the announcement by new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt of further plans for fiscal tightening. The measures will reportedly initially be announced at 11am BST, before being presented to the House of Commons at 15.30 BST. The measures were hastily put together over the weekend after the Friday afternoon press conference by hapless Prime Minister Liz Truss – during which she announced a U-turn on her plans for corporation tax, which would have cost the taxpayer more than £12bn in the coming fiscal year and around £18.7bn by FY26/7 – clearly failed to assuage market concerns. So, while Hunt was himself only appointed as Chancellor at the end of last week, expect cancellation of even more of Truss’s tax plans today, including the decision to bring forward a 1ppt cut in the main income tax rate to April (which would have cost a little more than £5bn), and perhaps also more substance on new plans for cuts to public expenditure too. While the measures might well help to halt the rot in the Gilt market, they will further highlight that Truss’s authority is completely in tatters, and will raise expectations that she’ll be gone from Downing Street before long.
Japanese tertiary firmer than expected in August, while IP on track for solid rebound in Q3
Japan’s tertiary activity figures reported stronger-than-expected growth in August, up 0.7%M/M, reflecting a notable increase in medical care services (3.2%M/M) and improvements in wholesale trade (2.8%M/M). But this followed two months of declines in overall tertiary activity to leave it trending merely flat compared with the Q2 average. And despite a further improvement in hospitality – accommodation services (up 11%M/M) and eating out (up 3½%M/M) – activity was still well down on the Q2 average. But manufacturing output rose a stronger-than-previously-estimated 3.4%M/M in August, to leave it trending in the first two months of Q3 almost 6% higher compared with Q2 and suggesting a solid contribution to GDP growth last quarter. Looking ahead, September’s goods trade report (Thursday) will provide greater insight in net trade over the past quarter. Meanwhile, Friday’s CPI release is expected to show that headline inflation eased back slightly in September, by 0.1ppt to 2.9%Y/Y on the back of softer energy and fresh food prices. Indeed, when excluding both, core inflation is forecast to have risen 0.2ppts to 1.8%Y/Y.
Euro area final CPI inflation might bring a slight downwards revision, but still remain at a record high
It should be a relatively quiet week ahead for top-tier euro area releases, with the final inflation figures for the region on Wednesday arguably of most interest. The flash estimates showed headline HICP inflation jumping to double-digits for the first time, up 0.9ppt to 10.0%Y/Y, with the core rate up 0.5ppt to 4.8%Y/Y. Depending on the latest Italian numbers (due later today), there is a risk that the headline rate will be revised a touch lower to 9.9%Y/Y, nevertheless still a record high. This release will also provide more granular detail, along with the ECB’s other measures of underlying inflation including the super core and trimmed mean estimates. A raft of October sentiment indicators are due this week, including the German ZEW investor survey (tomorrow), INSEE business survey (Thursday) and European Commission flash consumer confidence index (Friday). n terms of ECB-speak, Chief Economist Lane is due to participate today in a roundtable discussion on a New European Fiscal Framework, while Executive Board member Schnabel is due to speak tomorrow.
UK CPI inflation set to rise back above 10%Y/Y, leaving retail sales and consumer confidence weaker
In terms of UK economic data, Wednesday’s CPI inflation report for September is most noteworthy. Despite an anticipated easing in energy inflation as petrol prices fell again, headline inflation is expected to rise back above 10%Y/Y as the components for food, other goods and services maintained a steady uptrend. Indeed, we forecast core inflation to rise a further 0.2ppt to a new series-high of 6.5%Y/Y. Meanwhile, Friday will bring retail sales data for September, which seem likely to report a further drop last month not least as most retailers shut or reduced opening times on the additional bank holiday for the Queen’s funeral. But these data are also likely to illustrate the deterioration in households’ purchasing power, with reduced spending on non-essentials and big ticket items. The latest GfK consumer confidence survey (Friday) seems bound to offer a gloomy outlook for near-term spending prospects too. In terms of BoE-speak, Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe and Executive Director for Markets Andrew Hauser are due to appear before the Treasury Select Committee on Wednesday to testify on the recent gilt market intervention, with the BoE’s plans for active gilt sales also likely to be discussed.
IP and housing indicators the main data focus in the US this week
In the US, following today’s Empire Manufacturing survey for October, tomorrow will bring September’s IP report, which is expect to show only very modest growth – our economists in Daiwa America forecast a rise of 0.2%M/M – merely offsetting the drop in August. Focus in the second half of the week will turn to the housing market, with housing starts figures (Wednesday) likely to report a sizeable drop in September (Daiwa America team expecting a decline of around 5%M/M) following a surge in August and reflecting waning demand amid a jump in borrowing costs. The latest existing home sales figures (Thursday) are likely to report the eighth consecutive monthly decline, consistent with the weakness in mortgage applications and pending home sales. Separately, FOMC members Kashkari and Bostic will speak publicly tomorrow, followed by Evans (tomorrow) and Jefferson and Cook (Wednesday).
Chinese Q3 GDP expected to report post-lockdown bounce in growth
In China, while focus will be on the 20th Communist Party Congress, tomorrow’s Q3 GDP report is expected to report a rebound in growth over the summer as Covid-restrictions were relaxed somewhat – our China economist Kevin Lai forecasts growth of 3.3%Y/Y, up from 0.4%Y/Y in Q2. That would imply quarterly annualised growth of about 2.8%, following the drop of 2.6% in Q2. But while the monthly activity figures are expected to show that IP continued to recover at the end of the quarter, retail sales growth is expected to have moderated slightly in September.


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Date: Mar.28, 2015 11:30
Weihai News Network (reporter car ting), fishing tackle industry in my years of unremitting efforts finally bear fruit: Weihai is Chinese Light Industry Federation and the Chinese stationery and Sporting Goods Association awarded the "Chinese tackle the title of". Yesterday, "Chinese fishing tackle of all" award ceremony was held at the Weihaiwei Hotel Weihai, China Light Industry Federation President Bu Zhengfa, honorary president of Pan Beilei of Weihai City Award, city leaders Sun Shutao, Dong Jinyou brand. Dong Jinyou gave nameboards ceremony speech.
The city is the country's largest production base of fishing tackle, fishing tackle industry cluster has been identified as one of the ten major industrial clusters of small and medium enterprises in the "Twelfth Five Year Plan" period focused on cultivating. At present, the city has more than 1200 fishing tackle manufacturing and supporting enterprises, annual production of more than 40000000, the annual export volume reached US $300000000, leading products, fishing rod accounted for over 60% of global market share, production of all kinds of fishing products and production capacity ranks first in the country, has formed a relatively complete industrial chain, scale effect is obvious, the construction specialized division of labor of industry cluster.
In order to speed up the convergence with the world leisure industry, and guide our fishing industry to accelerate the transfer and adjustment of structure, to build Weihai international influence of fishing production and gathering base, the city to Chinese Light Industry Federation and the Chinese stationery and Sporting Goods Association named Weihai as "China fishing tackle of all" application. In 2011 July, China stationery and sporting goods association to visit the city the development of fishing industry cluster, and the establishment of Chinese fishing base, to create "Chinese fishing tackle of all" and other related matters and I carried out docking. After two rounds of investigation and expert evaluation group evaluation, in December 12, 2011, Chinese Light Industry Association officially awarded the "Weihai city Chinese tackle the title of".
Dong Jinyou said in his speech, the China Light Industry Federation and the Chinese stationery and Sporting Goods Association awarded the city "China tackle the title of", to further enhance the image of Weihai, promote industrial restructuring and upgrading, to better explore the market, to create "blue Leisure City, the world livable city" brand will have a positive impact. Weihai will take this as an opportunity, to further strengthen the construction of public service platform, to better play the role of industry associations to guide enterprises to go fishing, not to move or retreat of transformation and upgrading, quality and efficiency of the road, the Weihai built with international influence of fishing production and gathering base.
Bu Zhengfa said, set up the Weihai fishing industry for the development of the fishing industry, especially in the development of new materials, to promote the industry innovation and development has made outstanding contributions. Weihai hopes to make persistent efforts, accelerate the transformation and upgrading, efforts to promote the brand, scale,cluster and high-tech development, expand domestic and foreign markets, to build Weihai into a international influence of fishing tackle and gathering base for China's fishing industry, from made in China to created Chinese development and make greater contributions
Email: email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.org
Add: Economic & Development Zone, Weihai, 264200,Shandong China


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A new article reviews the many types of safety systems that can be found on all sorts of higher end vehicles. However, some wonder about the efficacy of such technologies when their high price point discourages all but the wealthiest of consumers from purchasing the vehicles equipped with the systems.
For instance, one can buy a Lexus that includes a radar and high definition cameras that may be used to help a driver identify upcoming obstacles. The system can then react before the driver does by pressing the brakes or making the steering more responsive. But this system comes with a price: $6,500, and the vehicle itself will run a consumer about $70,000.
The Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board worries that safety technologies will become the purview of our nation’s richest citizens, a concern somewhat refuted by a Toyota representative who says that the development process is a costly proposition. Over time, he says the technology will become cheaper.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is currently looking into a rule that would require crash avoidance technology on all new vehicles, but the Administrator of the agency says they need to study the data to determine how valuable such systems truly are. Until that time, one can expect things like the Lexus system, Honda’s Lane Watch technology, and GM’s centers airbags to only be found on higher end vehicles.
Electric vehicles are becoming increasingly common all along the roads, and such automobiles are largely seen as a safe and efficient way to get to one’s destination without busting the bank on gas or contributing to the deterioration of the environment. But there’s one assumedly positive factor that has been increasingly looked upon as a negative: the relative silence of these vehicles.
When an electric vehicle travels along the road, it’s hard for pedestrians and cyclists in the area to discern its presence. We tend to take for granted how much we rely on audible cues to pick up on our environment.
In 2010, the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act was passed, and thanks to that law, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been able to put together a rule that would mandate noises in otherwise silent electric vehicles. The proposal would make it so that any electric automobile going less than 18 miles per hour would have to emit noise so that people in the area would be clued in to the vehicle.
Some vehicles, such as the Nissan Leaf or the Fisker Karma, already have such safety measures, but the NHTSA figures that making noises mandatory across the board would cut the number of yearly injuries by the thousands. Automakers will have a choice of what sounds they want their vehicles to make.
A new article discusses the prevalence of companies touting the latest and greatest safety features of automobiles at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. One such company that looks to revolutionize vehicle safety is QNX, a software firm. That company is looking into the possibility of placing a GPS on the dashboard as opposed to the central console so as to minimize the possibility of distraction. Distraction would be similarly curtailed with the company’s Bluetooth syncing system currently in development. Subaru was on hand at the trade show to talk about Eyesight, which aims to alert drivers to the presence of nearby obstacles thanks to onboard cameras.
For more about the safety features on hand, click here.
When we’re in the midst of traffic and another automobile suddenly imperils our safety, we have recourse: the car horn. All a driver has to do is slam down on the horn (and maybe the brakes), and the other driver will hopefully be alerted to the presence of another vehicle and instinctively adjust their driving behavior accordingly. But one section of the population that doesn’t have the option to honk their horn is cyclists.
That could all change, though, now that a research engineer based in the Boston area has introduced something called Loud Bicycle. This is basically a horn that can be attached to bicycles so that the persons on the backs of those bicycles can alert drivers when they are about to collide with them. The inventor said that many times, a driver won’t notice a cyclist until it’s too late, and simply yelling isn’t sufficient to get the motor vehicle operator’s attention.
The inventor thus set out to create a prototype that would act for bikes how other horns act for cars. A high and low pitched tone combine to alert other drivers similar to how a horn on a compact car would operate. The low pitch allows it to travel through windows and alert the driver effectively.
The state of California is set to consider new rules that could change the way regulators perceive e-hailing services and the safety of such.
The proliferation of such services has been ongoing every since smartphones and tablets have become a part of our daily lives. Uber, SideCar, Lyft and other services like them work by way of something referred to as e-hailing. Basically, persons in need of a ride can look to their phones to see if a qualified driver is in the area. If there is, they can hail that nearby driver and receive a ride.
Until now, the California Public Utilities Commission, which oversees charter-party carriers, has looked unfavorably upon the services. The recent months have seen the agency submitting cease and desist letters to the companies and citing them for violations with fines in the tens of thousands of dollars.
That perception could now change, though, as the CPUC has vowed to revisit the issue, seeking to strike a balance between progress and ensuring rider safety. They will seek comments from the public for the next month and then take these comments into account while they attempt arrive at a decision, which will likely be issued in the following months. New York and Washington DC have similarly looked at the issue recently and changed their laws accordingly.
The e-hailing service companies have long stated that they are safe.
Event data recorders, or as most people might know them, black boxes, have been a fixture of airplanes for years due to their ability to give investigators an accurate representation of the events that led to a crash. A couple years ago, Congress looked into the possibility of passing a law that would mandate these systems on all new automobiles, but a consensus could not be reached.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration thus took up the matter, and the White House Office of Management and Budget has just given its approval to the proposed measure. The move paves the way for regulations to be enacted in the early part of 2013.
There are certain privacy issues that must first be taken into consideration, according to a spokesperson with the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. Many states currently require approval from the court before data can be obtained from the recorders, and many would like to see such measures kept in place to ensure privacy once the devices are made mandatory.
Privacy considerations aside, though, consumers should realize that these black boxes already come standard on most new automobiles. Vehicle manufacturers typically have to put in a request with the car owner before they can access the recorded data.
The benefits of black boxes should not be underestimated. When reports of Toyotas accelerating out of control were circulating through the news, for instance, many of the incidents were reportedly found to result from driver error.
A cardboard bicycle was unveiled not long ago, but apparently that was just the tip of the iceberg. Now, a student from the Royal College of Art has designed a cardboard bike helmet that might even be safer than helmets currently on the market. Drawing inspiration from the head structure of a woodpecker, the creator has put together a device that can reportedly absorb three times as much energy and weighs an average of 15% less than most bicycle helmets. The helmet uses a honeycomb-like design in order to achieve these kinds of specs. Whereas most helmets can’t flex in order to receive more of the impact of a crash, the cardboard structure has no such limitations. The hope is that the helmet will be available for sale by the end of the year.
Click here for more about the cardboard bike helmet.
The ninth annual Design Challenge was hosted at the Los Angeles Auto Show, and it provides a unique glimpse into what the future of automotive technology may hold. The big takeaway from this year was the number of people who believe that the future of traffic law enforcement will hinge on autonomous vehicles, basically drones that can monitor California roadways as soon as 2025. Honda came up with a concept known as the California Highway Patrol Drone Squad, wherein different types of four wheel and two wheel drones could be used for various enforcement and rescue purposes. BMW came up with a system where an officer could deploy a ground or air drone to chase after vehicles and bring them to a halt via electromagnetic pulse.
For more about the contest, click here.
A new report details an app that aims to impede a driver’s ability to send and receive text messages behind the wheel. Known as TextBuster, the app requires a module placed beneath the dashboard. The app works in conjunction with this module to use Bluetooth signals to stop any texts from coming in or going out while a person is driving. Such technology reportedly only affects the driver of the vehicle. In addition, the app keeps track of driving habits and history, and even lets parents know if their teen has attempted to turn off the app. The app has a price tag of at least $179.
Click here to learn more about the technology.
Highway safety remains vital as we enter an age where technology can protect us in ways that haven’t been possible before. However, some of those systems have not been implemented in a rapid enough manner, and the National Transportation Safety Board would like to see that change.
The NTSB just released a list of the ten safety improvements they would like to see made by new vehicles. This list is compiled each year by the organization, but what’s unique about this year is the fact that never before has the NTSB directly addressed lawmakers and government officials and called upon new technologies to be implemented on every new automobile to come off a production line.
A letter sent to the current administration detailed the NTSB’s concerns. Among those systems they they could prove beneficial are those that might be available in certain high-end automobiles now but are not commonplace across the country. The systems include things like forward collision warning, electronic stability control, lane departure warnings, and other things that the NTSB says could cut down on numerous highway accidents. According to them, 60% of traffic fatalities are the result of lane changes, lane departures, and rear end collisions, the very types of accidents that would be limited with the tech.
Whether your car has these systems or not, safety should remain paramount on the road. You can’t always rely on safety systems, especially with older models, so be sure that you’re always aware of your surroundings so as to protect vehicle occupants.


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Irvine, CA, USA, Aug, 2020 -- Alorica Inc., a global customer experience solutions provider, has announced the expansion of its digital support offerings to meet surging client demand. As the world adjusts to evolving COVID-19 guidelines—closures, stay-at-home orders and social distancing—Alorica’s suite of services is tailored to digital CX including social media customer care, content moderation, online reputation management and online fraud protection. To manage the influx of these programs Alorica is making significant investments, which includes the hiring of 33,000 employees to keep consumers and brands connected in this digital economy.
"In a feedback economy where brand reputation is defined by public opinion, Alorica helps companies engage, be discovered and recommended online," said Chris Crowley, Alorica’s Chief Commercial Officer. "We help increase impressions, engagement and ultimately spend on behalf of our clients. For social media customer care alone, we manage more than 54 million interactions annually."
"Our job is not only to protect our clients’ brand equity and their customers’ trust, but also to keep the internet safe. As digital interactions continue to grow at a tremendous rate, this responsibility becomes even more important, explained Crowley. "Based on our ability to deliver on the overwhelming need so far this year, we have experienced 128% growth in managing these social CX programs, and we’re looking forward to seven-fold growth in this space by 2022."
Posted by Veronica Silva Cusi, news correspondent
At Alorica, we only do one thing – we make lives better. How? By creating insanely great experiences for customers — online, on the phone and through social media. From acquisition and sales to customer care and support, Alorica provides a host of world class services, including customer relationship management and back office support. We’re proud to passionately serve clients as diverse as we are — including communications, financial services, healthcare, retail and tech companies, many in the Fortune 500. We call the OC home, headquartered in Irvine, CA, with more than 100,000 employees across the globe.
Published: Wednesday, September 2, 2020
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TOKYO (AFP) – Tokyo on Wednesday warned that radioactive iodine over twice the safe level for infants had been detected in its tap water due to the disaster at a quake-hit nuclear plant northeast of Japan's capital.
The news compounded fears over the impact of the crippled Fukushima power station that also led the government to ban farm produce from areas near the charred complex, where emergency crews were battling to prevent a meltdown.
Workers were evacuated from part of the nuclear power station on Wednesday after dark smoke was seen rising from one of the reactors, plant operator TEPCO said.
The United States blocked imports of dairy and other produce from areas near the plant, which has been belching radiation since it was hit by a powerful quake and tsunami on March 11, followed by a series of explosions and fires.
France urged the European Union to also control Japanese food imports.
In one Tokyo ward, a water sample contained 210 becquerels of iodine per kilogramme, more than double the legal limit, a city official said at a press conference -- news that triggered a 1.6 percent dive on the Tokyo stock market.
"Under government guidelines, water containing a radioactive substance of more than 100 becquerels per kilogramme should not be used for milk for babies," the city official told reporters.
The government advised residents throughout the city to avoid using tap water to make infant formula until further notice.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan earlier ordered a stop of shipments of untreated milk and vegetables including broccoli, cabbage and parsley from areas near the Pacific coast plant, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) northeast of Tokyo.
Farm produce shipments were halted from Fukushima and three nearby prefectures -- Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma -- while radiation monitoring of farm and seafood products was stepped up in six others, officials said.
The new inspection zone extends to Saitama and Chiba, part of the greater Tokyo urban sprawl that is home to more than 30 million people.
The health ministry said radioactivity drastically exceeding legal limits had been found in 11 kinds of vegetable grown in Fukushima.
Radioactive caesium at 82,000 becquerels -- 164 times the legal limit -- was detected in one type of leaf vegetable, it said.
The ministry said that if people eat 100 grams (four ounces) a day of the vegetable for about 10 days, they would ingest half the amount of radiation typically received from the natural environment in a year.
"Even if these foods are temporarily eaten, there is no health hazard," said top government spokesman Yukio Edano, following reports that some products may have already entered the market.
"But unfortunately, as the situation is expected to last for the long term, we are asking that shipments stop at an early stage, and it is desirable to avoid intake of the foods as much as possible."
Even if the short-term risk is limited for now, scientists pointing to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster warn that some radioactive particles concentrate as they travel up the food chain and stay in the environment for decades.
The US Food and Drug Administration said it had placed an import alert on all milk, dairy products, fresh vegetables and fruits from four prefectures.
"In addition, FDA will continue to flag all entries from Japan in order to determine whether they originated from the affected area," it said. "FDA will test all food and feed shipments from the affected area."
France urged the European Commission to impose "systematic controls for all fresh produce reaching Europe's borders" from Japan, while stressing that it was not calling for a total embargo on Japanese food products "at this stage".
Around Asia, many Japanese restaurants and shops are reporting a decline in business and governments have stepped up radiation checks on the country's goods. Tainted fava beans from Japan have already cropped up in Taiwan.
Japan -- a highly industrialised and mostly mountainous island nation -- is a net food importer. According to the European Commission, the EU imported 9,000 tonnes of fruits and vegetables from Japan in 2010.
In Japan, any further food shortages threaten to compound the misery for hundreds of thousands made homeless by the 9.0-magnitude quake and the jet-speed tsunami it spawned that erased entire communities.
The confirmed death toll rose Wednesday to 9,408, and Japan holds out little hope for 14,716 officially listed as missing.
Japan estimated the economic cost at up to 25 trillion yen ($309 billion).
As grieving survivors huddled in evacuation shelters amid the rubble of their former lives, their fate was overshadowed by the struggle to avert another massive catastrophe -- a full nuclear meltdown at Fukushima.
Fire engines and giant concrete pumps have poured thousands of tonnes of seawater onto its reactors and into spent fuel rod pools, to cool them and stop fuel from being exposed to the air and releasing large-scale radiation.
Engineers hope to restart the cooling systems of all six reactors that were knocked out by the 14-metre (46-foot) tsunami, and they have already reconnected the wider facility to the national power grid.
As the engineers forged on with their dangerous and complex task at the 1970s-era plant, more nerve-jarring aftershocks hit nearby.
In Vienna, the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency said radiation continues to leak from the site.
"The question is, where exactly is it coming from: from the primary containment vessels or from the spent fuel ponds," said James Lyons, IAEA head of nuclear installations safety.
"Without the ability to go up there and actually poke around, it's hard to determine."


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W. Maui hotel occupancy still mostly residents
Occupancy rates down but room revenue, daily rates highest in state
Occupancy at Maui County hotels in September was down only 3 percentage points compared to the same time last year, but hotels in West Maui were almost exclusively occupied by fire-displaced Lahaina residents and relief workers, the Hawai’i Tourism Authority said.
According to HTA’s recent Hotel Performance Report for September, Maui County’s occupancy rate was 62.7 percent, down 2.8 percentage points from the 65.5 percent occupancy seen in September 2022. Hotels in the Lahaina/Kaanapali/Kapalua area saw a 66.2 percent occupancy in September, down 3.1 percentage points compared to the 69.3 percent occupancy at the same time last year.
Wailea hotels were not immune either from the apparent setbacks from the fire, as those hotels saw a 50.6 percent occupancy in September, down 2.5 percentage points from the 53.1 percent occupancy at the same time last year.
After tourism slowed and multiple flights were canceled in the wake of the fire, Gov. Josh Green announced in September that West Maui would reopen to visitors on Oct. 8. Maui County set the reopening in phases with Kapalua to Kahana Villa first. The county accelerated the second and third phases, with the area spanning Kahana to the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa in Kaanapali opening today.
Even as occupancy numbers were lower, Maui County still led the state in revenue per available room “due to comparatively higher” average daily rates, HTA said in a news release last month.
Maui County’s average daily rate in September was $533.86, the highest in the state and an increase of 2.6 percent compared to $520.43 in September 2022. Wailea hotels’ average daily rate was $645.93, which was down 21 percent from the same time last year when rates were $817.40.
The average daily rate in the Lahaina/Kaanapali/Kapalua region in September was $534.51, up 14.2 percent versus September 2022 when the average daily rate was $467.93.
After Maui County, Kauai had the second-highest daily rates in the state but still trailed well behind at $398.
Maui County’s revenue per available room in September was $334.60, which was 1.9 percent less than September 2022, which saw revenue per available room at $340.92.
Wailea hotels’ room revenue was also down at $327.15 in September, a decline of 24.7 percent compared to $434.34 at the same time last year.
Lahaina/Kaanapali/Kapalua hotels had room revenue at $354.05, which was up 9.1 percent versus $324.46 in September 2022.
Again, Kauai came closest to Maui County with a room revenue of $322.
Statewide, revenue per available room in September was $261, which is up 5.8 percent from last year. The average daily rate was $346, up 3 percent from September 2022, and occupancy was 75.5 percent, up 2 percentage points compared to the same time last year.
Oahu had the highest occupancy among all the counties in September at 82.7 percent, or a 5.1 percentage point increase from the 77.1 percent occupancy seen in September 2022.
A separate Vacation Rental Performance Report by the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism said many vacation rental units continued to be unavailable in West Maui because of the wildfires.
It added that unit night supply and unit night demand were inactive for the entire month of September in West Maui.
For Maui County in September, the vacation rental supply decreased to 148,400 available unit nights, which is 33.5 percent less than the same time last year. Unit demand was 71,700 unit nights, or down 49.8 percent from 2022, resulting in 48.3 percent occupancy.
The average daily rate was $266 in September, down 20 percent from the same time last year.
* Staff Writer Melissa Tanji can be reached at email@example.com.


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I’m not sure what this will ultimately mean for the Comic Book industry, but short term things will look pretty bleak as far as getting our hands on physical copies of comics. This is being reported across most news sites and one such article is linked & quoted below.
"Diamond is the comic book direct market’s largest distributor, responsible for shipping books from publishers such as Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, Dynamite, BOOM! Studios and much more. However, because it’s no longer receiving new shipments, only the product it currently has on-hand can be distributed to retailers.
Coronavirus has already taken a massive toll on the comic book industry. Most notably, this year’s annual Free Comic Book Day event, typically held the first Saturday of May, has been postponed until summertime. Meanwhile, publishers such as Image Comics, BOOM! Studios, Marvel and Dynamite Entertainment have been doing their part to assist retailers by offering steep discounts on products and providing full returnability in some cases.
Diamond also attempted to ease the pressure on retailers by allowing stores to put their accounts on hold. “If you are in an area where your store will be closing or significantly impacted, you may contact Retailer Services and request that your account be placed on hold until you’re ready to begin receiving product again,” Diamond said in a statement. “You can also request a different delivery address, should that be necessary at some point.”
At the time of this writing, it’s unclear what this means for digital releases."
Thankfully we have our DC library to call on in the meantime.


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Although there has yet to be any official word, all signs are that the iPhone 4 will be available for pre-order this week in Thailand and will go on sale in the shops from 24th September 2010. Of course, these are just rumours, but the chatter on the Thai forums is becoming more specific with many clues suggesting that the official release is imminent.
The iPhone 4 will be sold in Thailand simultaneously by True Move, DTAC and AIS. In theory it sounds great that we will have more competition this time. When the iPhone 3GS came out last year, only True Move were selling the handset. However, don’t make the mistake in thinking we will be getting a better deal as the prices are expected to be fixed by Apple. All three will sell the iPhone 4 in Thailand at the same price. However, what will vary is the price of the data package.
At the moment, there has been no official news about the prices of the iPhone 4 in Thailand. However, if you take a look on the citibank website, they have just started a promotion where you can get an iPhone 4 for free! They even include a price as you can see above. According to Citibank, the iPhone 4 (16GB) will be sold for 22,000 baht. I doubt this price includes VAT so expect final price to be 23,540 baht. This is about 4,000 baht cheaper than what it is being sold for in the grey market in MBK. From this price, we can speculate that the iPhone 4 (32GB) will be sold for about 27,000 baht (including VAT). This is about 5,000 baht cheaper than the present price at MBK.
Follow me on Twitter for all the latest news about the iPhone 4 in Thailand. I will also tweet about the official release of the iPad and the new iPod touch which is expected soon.


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African investment statistics are not showing the trends of dropping off, however, the currency illiquidity appeared to be a big obstacle for both the region’s treasurers and for investors at the same time. The total number of currencies that serve the region is 44 however, the majority of them are rarely traded on the global markets. As a result, we see that, although the region has a big potential to drive and promote the economic development of the entire continent, the currency illiquidity among other problems, such as reduced access to cross-border payments infrastructure is deterring intra-regional trade. There are several options suggested that will help to overcome this obstacle for future economic development.
The 2013 period was hard for the whole region as the commodity prices fell, especially the one of oil, which increased the vulnerability of the whole region towards economic shocks. The fact that the market was not diversified resulted in exports, being weighted towards raw materials. However, from 2019 we can see the positive tendency of economies of many countries to become more sophisticated, more specifically they started diversifying the industries such as manufacturing of secondary goods. For example, in 2018 a car company that was operating in the global market signed a contract with the government of Ghana and is expanding the market in Nigeria as well.
Foreign direct investments are increasing in the country but the Chinese role is not replaced yet, since it is the biggest contributor in many industries, having bilateral as well as multilateral relations with many countries. After China comes Japan, with the increased number of investments in especially infrastructure and the amount of Official Development Assistance is majorly growing and the role of Latin America is worth mentioning.
Demand exceeds supply
Currency illiquidity can still present a challenge and even raise the demand, but it needs to overcome the obstacles such as cross-border remittance capabilities. The foreign involvement in the regional economy makes the demand for the currency increase even more. However, the majority of those 44 currencies are not traded on the global market and the illiquidity of local tender is quite understandable.
After the global financial market was facing the post-financial crisis, it made the situation even worse. Many international banks have withdrawn their funds from the African markets that finally resulted in the lost investment opportunities. However, the fact that the economic development is not going as it should be, might be because of the human impact, not only because of the currency concerns. The inability to obtain local bidders for assistance delivery, when the need is immediate and severe, has dire repercussions within communities – money does not always reach its target in a timely manner and too much is lost due to conversion or distribution fees.
The currency policy is mainly governed by domestic politics and global market conditions. It is some kind of paradox that while the local currencies are in very bad conditions, the forex market is thriving in the African region. We see that the number of traders and Forex brokers in South Africa, Nigeria, or Kenya are increasing very rapidly since the financial environment, meaning regulations and demand on the market is quite beneficial for the companies. However, in the attempt to manage the inflation rate and balance the social need on the market, countries across the region become more stressed by the currency volatility. To better visualize the currency volatility on the African market, the Zambian kwacha is depreciated by 42 % against the US dollar and has since rebounded, while the Angolan kwanza fell by more than 30 % and lead to the partial liberalization of the exchange rate regime since the beginning of 2018.
It is not a surprise that the currency illiquidity affected the foreign investments and it would have an impact on the proliferation of intra-African trade. This is considered to be one of the biggest factors that limit regional economic growth. According to the UN economic council, the lowest intra-regional trade proportion is the African region with a volume of 16% which is the lowest in the whole world. After the African countries decided to conduct the policy with a more diversified policy, this number is expected to grow.
The main reason for the low regional integration is the cost, even though there are cases of non-tariff barriers, the payment infrastructure is quite insufficient and it deters from accessing the liquidity to engage with other countries. Also, transactions are made at higher commissions that add to the additional costs.
The importance of Collaboration
There have been some suggestions from the West African Monetary Zone and the Eco that in order to solve this problem, it would be better to have a single African currency. However, some skeptics emphasize that the one currency to roll out in the 54 African countries, unilateral monetary policy would not manage to work properly, due to the fact that all the African countries have their own individual needs and demands.
Other collaborative ideas include the implementation of the Pan-African Payment system which will aim to reduce the cash dependency and transactions will be made easily, as it happens in the case of Transferwise, for example.
Also, there was the African Continental Free Trade Agreement signed by 44 African nations in 2018 which aims to reduce 90 % of the trade barriers between the countries. The exact expectations about this cooperation are still vague since it is difficult to make 44 countries agree on one policy, as they all have their individual needs and requirements, however, many financial experts believe that it will promote regional integration, but it will still need quite some time.


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Social media marketing continues to change the way we look at digital marketing as a whole on almost a weekly basis. With this communication platform offering new ways to interact with your audience and build a following, savvy marketers need to know the latest trends in the field.
We’re always coming across important social media marketing news as a direct result of our line of work, and we think it’s important to share what we come across with our partners. In our roundup this week, we cover Facebook’s soaring numbers during the coronavirus outbreak, LinkedIn’s announcement of Instagram-like stories and YouTube’s staff shortages.
Despite soaring traffic, Facebook struggles during coronavirus pandemic
With the ongoing 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic sending people online in response to the need for social distancing, Facebook has reported a 50% increase in messaging and a doubling of video calls in some of the places hit hardest by the virus. Since much of the traffic increase is on nonmonetized services, the social media giant claims it is being hit as hard in revenue as many other businesses during this time.
Right now, representatives say the company is focused most on keeping services stable and functional. However, with so much of the workforce currently working remotely, they are facing challenges with logistics. Any social media marketing efforts that are based on Facebook or its subsidiary Instagram should proceed with an awareness of these developments and expect potential delays and slowdowns to the service.
LinkedIn testing stories
Story-based sharing first originated on the Snapchat platform, but it quickly spread to Instagram and Facebook where it broke into the mainstream. As an alternative to traditional posts, stories give users a more informal and conversational way to share what’s going on.
Now, the professional networking site LinkedIn has announced it is currently testing a story function internally and is “excited” to share it with users. According to representatives from the company, they are experimenting with the different ways that this form of sharing can be adapted into a professional context.
YouTube automates video review process in response to staff shortages
Many companies are facing staff shortages, and YouTube is no different. In an effort to protect its workforce and allow for remote working, YouTube announced on its company blog that it would be automating its video review process. According to the post, this means that because they will be erring on the side of caution for its community guidelines, some users and creators may see an increase in removals.
Burg & Co. Marketing can help you understand and implement the latest social media marketing news and trends
Our team of digital marketing experts and storytellers are committed to keeping up with all the latest developments and news in the social media marketing world. Our depth of expertise can help your business stay nimble and adapt to the changes that are driving not just marketing, but the world at large.
To find out more about how we can help you achieve your marketing goals during these challenging times, contact us today. We’ll be glad to schedule a free marketing consultation.


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UK ban on junk food ads not working
By Julian Lee
November 8, 2007
A BRITISH system that is
being considered in Australia as a way to staunch the
flow of television junk food ads aimed at children has
failed, a leading consumer advocacy group says.
Six months after Ofcom, the British media regulator, introduced rules aimed at banning ads for foods that are high in fat, salt or sugar from being shown in children's programs, children are just as likely to be watching junk food ads as before, says Sue Davies, chief policy adviser to British consumer organisation Which?
The rules banned ads for foods high in fat, salt or sugar from being shown during or around programs made for, or with "particular appeal" to, children under the age of 10.
But the interpretation of what is meant by "particular appeal" is based on whether the majority of the audience watching at any given time is children aged under 16.
According to Which? food advertisers can continue to book space around programs watched by children but where adults make up the majority of the audience, such as soap operas and game shows aired in the early-evening timeslot.
"All the most popular programs that are watched by children aren't covered because of the way they are calculating it," Davies says. "So if you are a Nestle or a Kellogg you can still advertise to children on TV where you know you are guaranteed a large number of children will be watching."
Only six of the top 50 programs watched by children aged four to 15 on the leading commercial channel, ITV1, would be captured by the new guidelines, which are being extended to cover 10- to 15-year-olds next year. Junk food manufacturers would be barred from advertising around Bratz, for example, with 128,000 child viewers, but not from Britain's most popular soap, airing at 7.30pm, Coronation Street, which has 704,000 four- to 10-year-olds watching.
Which? is pushing for the British Government to step in and rule that no junk food ads should appear before 9pm.
Under the present rules, Ofcom estimates that the exposure of younger children to junk food ads would be reduced by 51 per cent and the exposure of older children by 41 per cent. Those figures would rise to 89 and 82 per cent respectively if a 9pm watershed were introduced.


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Shows & Events
Moreton Hire to Deliver Beef Australia 2018
Moreton Hire has announced its appointment as the preferred event supplier to the iconic Beef Australia 2018, which will be hitting Rockhampton from 6th – 12th May 2018.
Proudly supporting the event since 2006, Moreton Hire will provide temporary structures, furniture, fit out and equipment to service an expected 90,000+ attendees.
Beef Australia 2018 will host delegates from more than 40 countries and accommodate more than 4,000 cattle across a series of competition. The six-day event will house over 500 trade fair exhibitors.
Managing Director of Moreton Hire, Peter Morahan said he is thrilled to be working alongside Beef Australia once again for the 2018 event.
“Moreton Hire takes particular pride in delivering for Beef Australia, not only by executing a renowned Queensland event, but in supporting an industry we feel very passionate about,” he said.
Beef Australia is an integral event for Central Queensland with the triennial Expo resulting in a $74 million boost to the region in 2015.
The Beef Australia 2018 win comes off the back of Moreton Hire’s recent announcement that they have partnered with The Qantas Business Rewards program as the sole industry provider. For more information on Beef Australia Beef Week Expo visit beefaustralia.com.au
About Moreton Hire
Founded in 1969 Moreton Hire takes pride in delivering world-class, premium business events. Whether you're planning an exhibition, meeting, conference or major event, the Moreton Hire team is equipped and passionate in bringing your brand to life, and deliver. With offices in Cairns, Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Singapore, visit www.moreton.net.au.
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Nizar Zein, MD, Department Head of Liver Disease and Chairman of Global Patient Services at the Cleveland Clinic, spoke at the 2016 World Medical Tourism & Global Healthcare Congress’s Medical Director Summit. Afterwards, he sat down with Medical Tourism Magazine and discussed the changing medical tourism landscape how hospitals are adapting.
Medical travel dates back as far as ancient Greece, but over the years the landscape for medical travel has changed considerably due to a variety of reasons. Most recently, Dr. Zein told MTM, that changes are driven by economic growth and that, due to economic indicators, the destinations people travel to will change every so often.
In addition to economics, some changes in the medical travel industry today are driven by technology. More and more, people are able to resolve their health-related issues remotely with the use of telemedicine.
“I predict that medical travel will continue to evolve over time and will never be a static business. But the reasons that people travel for care and the markets they travel to will also change over time. It seems that right now the trend for medical travel is for the purpose of preventative health and wellness,” said Zein.
According to Zein, some of the existing challenges for medical tourism include the following:
- Travel issues, finances for travel and visa delays
- Money transfers to pay for medical treatments can be difficult, depending on the stability of the country
- High level of hospitality services not always available in the U.S.; this involves offering more than just a discount to medical travelers
- Creating an appropriate culture of empathy for foreign patients
One of the ways that the Cleveland Clinic is adapting to this changing landscape of medical tourism is by establishing hospitals outside of the United States.


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As the spring homebuying and selling season gets into full swing, real estate brokerage firm Redfin reports that sellers’ confidence in being able to find a buyer has picked up significantly since the start of the year.
At the same time, BMO Harris Bank reports a big increase in the number of Americans who plan to buy a home in the next five years.
Redfin said 25% of respondents in a recent national survey who reported that their home was currently listed for sale or that they were planning to list in the coming year ranked “none” as their most common response when asked to select their top three concerns about selling.
In a similar survey conducted in January, this response was the eighth-most common, with 16% of sellers choosing it, according to Redfin.
Moreover, the number of sellers in the new poll who expressed concern about finding another home to buy fell from 24% in January to 18%.
“Despite strong sentiment among current home sellers, the numbers show prospective sellers have been very slow to list their homes,” Redfin chief economist Nela Richardson said in a statement.
“New listings dropped 2.3% in the first three months of the year compared to the same period last year.”
Richardson said would-be sellers were likely waiting for prices to peak, trying to time the market to capture the largest possible gain.
“Whether the confidence of the current cohort of sellers translates into more new listings in the coming months is the number one question that determines whether 2017 will be a good year or a great year,” she said.
Redfin’s survey was conducted in mid-April, and includes responses from 896 homeowners in 38 states and Washington, D.C. Of this group of respondents, 179 either said their home was currently listed for sale or would be within the next year.
Several other findings underscored sellers’ high level of confidence this spring.
Twenty-one percent of sellers said they would price high since negotiations were inevitable, up from 15% in January. Still, 51% said they would price in the mid-range based on comparable sales in their neighborhood, down from 54%.
When asked about the balance of power in their market, 20% said sellers had all the power, up from 13.1% in January, while 41% said sellers had a little more power than buyers, up from 36%.


text: Brazil is growing into a big cotton country in the world. In 2007, its cotton production increased significantly, and it is likely to have another bumper harvest in 2008. According to Matt Robbins, manager of the Queensland Cotton Management Agency, Brazil produced approximately 7 million bales of cotton in 2007, a 47% increase from 2005/06. He said that the cotton planting area is 1.1 million hectares, compared to 65,000 hectares in Australia this year. Dryland cotton yield is generally 6-7 bales per hectare. Robbins, an expert who wrote the Australian Cotton Outlook report, said that Brazilian cotton farmers have made great efforts to improve the quality of cotton in recent years. Therefore, this year's production will generally increase. Robbins estimates that exports this year are expected to reach 450,000 tons, and may reach 500,000 tons soon. Some major planting associations pay great attention to promotional activities. In this year alone, they visited Japan, China, Taiwan, India, Thailand and Italy. They will continue to conduct such visits.


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A report from the Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC) at Makerere University in Uganda, entitled “The potential of coffee to uplift people out of poverty in Northern Uganda”, maintains that “Northern Ugandan coffee-producing households are relatively better off economically compared to non-coffee producing households.” The report confirmed findings from a 2009/10 Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) study, which found that 56% of coffee households can afford three meals a day, compared to 48% of non-coffee producing households.
The report recommended that the government should “intensify the coffee expansion program in the sub-region to leverage the poverty-reducing effect of coffee”, address constraints on production and develop “processing infrastructure for value addition”, including moves into ready-to-drink coffee products, for domestic as well as export markets, given the rising import bill for instant coffee.
The current focus on raw bean exports is attributed to “the difficulties involved in accessing markets abroad for processed coffee”, according to stakeholders in the sector. The EPRC report also identified “price fluctuations, drought which affects yields, marketing and knowledge gaps” as major challenges.
Joshua Nkandu, executive director of Uganda’s National Union of Coffee Agribusiness and Farm Enterprises (NUCAFE), speaking at a national forum on agriculture and food security, commented that there is a need to improve the quality of Ugandan coffee as part of efforts to move into value-added processing. NUCAFE has called on the government to collaborate with the private sector in promoting local coffee consumption in order to “encourage players into processing”.
Overall, the Uganda Coffee Development Authority estimates that “about 1.3 million households” in the country are coffee growers. The government is supporting a programme to “plant 300 million coffee trees by 2016”, which forms part of the wider National Coffee Policy that the government is seeking to implement. Coffee “remains Uganda’s main agricultural export”, contributing on average 20% of total export revenues in the last decade.
Local press reports note that Uganda “currently produces 2–3 million 60-kg bags of coffee every year”, compared to 6.5 million in Ethiopia, 11 million in Colombia, 15 million in Vietnam and 42 million in the world’s leading producer, Brazil. Uganda, however, is the fourth largest global producer of robusta coffee beans.
In 2013/14, coffee prices fell, and Uganda’s 23% expansion in export volumes yielded only a 5.4% increase in export values in the year to March 2014. Exports to the EU accounted for 71.13% of total export volumes, a decline of 5,000 bags from the preceding year. Exports to Sudan fell by 6,174 bags, (down to 11.35% of exports, compared to 12.74% in 2013), while exports to India increased by 7,361 bags, (up to 4.54% of exports, compared to 2.27% in 2013).
In Tanzania, meanwhile, concerns have been expressed over the lack of “copyright” for Tanzanian coffee, which is seen as undermining efforts to secure price premiums through single-origin marketing of quality-assured coffee.
If the contribution of the coffee sector is to fully contribute to household food security, then it is apparent that strategies for managing global market price volatility will need to be built into Uganda’s National Coffee Policy. The different experiences of Ethiopia and Rwanda suggest that establishing high-quality storage capacity, along with improved market intelligence, could help to reduce the impact of price volatility on total coffee export earnings to the benefit of the primary producer. (See Agritrade articles ‘ Ethiopian coffee sector caught out by declining global prices in 2013/14’, 21 July 2014, and ‘ Investment in storage reduces Rwandan coffee sector vulnerability to glo...’, 14 July 2014.)
The development of value-added processing and the targeting of high-quality, single-origin coffee market components could also assist in reducing the effects of price volatility on total coffee sector export earnings.
Given that a number of ACP coffee exporters face similar challenges in this regard, it would appear that benefits could be gained from sharing experiences and knowledge across ACP coffee producing countries. Indeed, scope could even exist for the development of joint branding of single-origin coffee promotion programmes, particularly when targeting non-traditional markets (e.g. India and China). This could draw on the experience of programmes such as the Authentic Caribbean Rum label managed by the West Indies Rum and Spirits Producers Association (see Agritrade article ‘ Lessons from the Caribbean rum programme’, 4 July 2010).


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Nissan recently released two commercials positioning itself as a forward-moving brand, ready to take on all comers with lots full of cars from which to choose.
Read This Article
In Smyrna, Tennessee, Nissan is building up production capacity for the production of as many as 200,000 lithium-ion battery packs.
If you're looking at a 2013 Nissan 370Z, you'll likely have to consider the two extra car payments worth of cost the Japanese automaker has added to its entry-level sports car for the new model year.
If you're shopping for a new Nissan, you may have noticed a funny new barcode-like graphic on the window sticker.


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A Battlefield 2042 delay from the October 2021 release date could be imminent as multiple reports from respected sources today suggest development setbacks.
The rumor mill started off with Jeff Grubb tweeted today that more delays are coming this week and following it up with a tweet that clarifies that he was referring to a singular delay for 1 game only. From there, fans speculated that it could be Battlefield 2042, Call of Duty: Vanguard, or Elden Ring.
The tweet was followed by a swarm of rumors from industry insiders speculating the game that is being delayed is in fact Battlefield 2042. @Dealer_Gaming, a gaming YouTuber, said that he is been hearing of Battlefield 2042 delay. The tweet was later replied to by @Shpeshal_Nick, cofounder of XboxEra, confirming that he also has been hearing about this delay.
Another reason that has been fueling this online rumor mill is the fact that the game is supposedly releasing next month and there still hasn’t been any public betas for Battlefield 2042. The worries aren’t exactly unfounded given the fact that EA and Dice have previously promised a beta testing phase for those who pre-order the game to take place ahead of launch and in September, and since we are already halfway through September and the release date of October 22 is imminent, this highly signals that a delay might be inevitable.
It is worth mentioning, as damning as the aforementioned evidence might be for a Battlefield 2042 delay, EA and Dice have not yet confirmed nor denied any of the rumors or reports. October 22, 2021, remains the official release date of the game until it’s confirmed otherwise by EA.
Battlefield 2042’s official release date is set to be October 22, 2021, and is currently available for pre-order on PC, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.


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Temu, a Chinese shopping app that recently whizzed past Instagram, WhatsApp, and Shein in the App Store’s top downloads, has raised security, privacy, and national-security concerns because of its low prices. The app’s parent company, PDD Holdings, has a history of disregarding data protection laws to cheat competitors and harvest users’ personal information for profit.
Nevertheless, there are reasonable explanations for the platform’s low prices and discounts and, provided users take standard account security precautions, Temu operates as a legitimate ecommerce marketplace overall. The app’s security measures include robust app-level security and generous customer service policies. It also offers PCI-certified payment links to make it a safe place for consumers to shop online.
The app also collects a lot of user data, including Wi-Fi network info, Bluetooth, photos and videos, contact details, and more. Some of this data is manually inputted by users, but the vast majority of it comes from the app analyzing your device’s behavior. This includes monitoring other apps, reading notifications and messages, tracking your location, and changing settings.
While the app’s high levels of collection have raised concerns, it’s worth pointing out that US citizens’ personal data is not protected by any single law and can be collected without your knowledge or consent. This means that apps like Temu, Walmart, and Amazon can access your credit history, read your messages, or record your voice to improve their services. However, you can limit the amount of data these apps can access by staying skeptical of unbelievable claims, avoiding sketchy affiliate marketing tactics, and using a VPN when using the app.