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Listen, you’re just not going to win any hearts in Texas by not having queso on your taco joint’s menu. That hasn’t stopped Chipotle Mexican Grill from maintaining a presence in the Lone Star State, however. Their guac is famously extra. Queso? Invisible.
Now, we know why the burrito chain hasn’t added liquid gold to their arsenal of toppings and side dishes.
"Queso is something that we do get requests for from time to time, but it’s very difficult to do it in a way that is consistent with our food philosophy," Chipotle communications director told Vice’s Munchies food website last month. Arnold went on to explain that making queso fit for a service line requires artificial ingredients like stabilizers to keep the consistency, well, consistent.
Fine, guys. Fine.
Chipotle also answered the question last month in a YouTube video, holding firm to the line that adding queso to the menu would necessitate the use of food stabilizers that are not the chain’s jam. "Do you think it’s a magical cow that squirts queso out of its udders, Larry?" a character in the video asks a hapless, cheese-seeking, fictional marketing brainstormer.
As Munchies pointed out, Chipotle has had a rough foil-wrapped go of it lately, including a PR-disaster E. coli outbreak, dropping carnitas from their menu for failing to meet animal-welfare standards and declining sales. Nothing wrong with sticking to your guns. But even Chipotle would have to admit: A famous queso recipe on the menu sure hasn’t hurt restaurants like Austin-based Torchy’s Tacos in the pocketbook.
So, no molten cheese on the menu at Chipotle, gang. But as you well know, your queso options in Austin are nigh limitless, anyway.
Texas: home to weird food combinations galore. You’ve got your doughnut milkshakes. You’ve got your brisket kolaches. Heck, you’ve even got your brisket ramen. And now, you’ve got your ramen-flavored beer.
This summer, Fort Worth brewery The Collective Brewing Project unleashed Cup O’ Beer upon the world, which is exactly what it sounds like. The Gose-style beer is brewed with 55 lbs. of ramen noodles, lime, lemongrass, ginger and a seaweed-cured sea salt.
According to the Houston Chronicle, the beer can be purchased at the brewery’s taproom, with some distribution around Texas. In June, Collective Brewing Project hosted a release for Cup O’ Beer, with bottles going for $7 each. Before the beer’s release, the brewery heralded its arrival with a cryptic Instagram post of enough Maruchan to feed all of the University of Texas’ Jester dorm.
Beer lovers seemed ready to slurp it up, if the brewery’s Facebook fans are any indication. Comments ranged from "I NEED THIS" to "It’s probably a pain to brew, but please keep making it."
If you thought ramen and beer are a strange pairing, think again. On July 18, the brewery will team up with two Fort Worth restaurants for a private dinner pairing beers with Asian dishes. Cup O’ Beer will be paired with a shrimp hiyashi tsukemen ramen, a cold dipping ramen. A little light googling also uncovers some tasty-looking ramen dishes made with beer in the broth.
Will this noodle oddity whet your appetite like, say, Ramen Tatsu-Ya? Probably not. But Cup O’Beer definitely deserves points for creativity.
Bury the hatchet and bottoms up
Need a way to work out some pent-up frustration? Austin’s newest bar is giving you the opportunity to throw around giant wooden axes — no, seriously.
According to CultureMap Austin, Urban Axes is set to open in East Austin later this summer. Urban Axes’ website says Indoor Competitive Axe Throwing is a sport that’s taken off in Canada and it’s played similar to darts, except you’re throwing 1.5-pound hatchets at wooden targets.
And yes, it’s safe, they say: Each person gets his or her own throwing lane and is paired up with a coordinator or throwing coach who will help keep score and ensure safety protocols.
The Austin location is set to open at 812 Airport Blvd. with five ax-throwing arenas. Groups between eight and 20 people will be able to register in advance for a 2.5-hour time slot, which costs $35 per person. Walk-ins, which are reserved for set times during the week, will be $20 per person.
The best part? It’s BYOB. Drink (and throw axes) responsibly.
— Katey Psencik, American-Statesman staff
McDreamy dreams of pies
Patrick Dempsey, aka McDreamy of "Grey’s Anatomy" fame, reportedly bought a home on Lake Jacksonville several years ago. He’s been splitting his time between Texas and California ever since. He’s not immune to Texas’ charms, falling in love with a little restaurant in Jacksonville called Sadler’s Kitchen. In particular, he’s fallen in love with their pies.
Dempsey posted a photo on his Facebook page last week with Jan Godwin, the woman who bakes the pies at the East Texas restaurant. Dempsey wrote in the post that Godwin’s creations were "the best pies in Texas."
While we’re talking McDreamy, let’s talk about another "news" story you may have seen about him lately: a post claiming that he’s moving to New Braunfels. It’s been posted online by a satire website masquerading as a local news site and shared widely on Facebook. The article says Dempsey told an unnamed magazine that he’s "tired of the L.A. lifestyle" and has decided to move to New Braunfels because the people are "genuine for one and… real. They’ll tell you what they think and I honestly find that refreshing."
Sorry, folks, Dempsey never said that, and he’s not moving to New Braunfels. But he still loves Texas, and isn’t that all that really matters, anyway?
— Katey Psencik, American-Statesman staff
Green, without the gills
You don’t have to choose between conservation and an entree at New Braunfels restaurant the Downtowner. In an effort to help protect coral reefs, the restaurant has started serving invasive and venomous lionfish, KSAT reports.
The Downtowner’s new dish is part of a growing movement to "eat our way out of a problem" by keeping the lionfish population in check. Chef Chad Niland told KSAT that "pretty much they’re going to be everywhere unless we start eating them." Fortunately, the white, flaky fish "take to many different styles of cooking very easily," he told the news station.
According to the National Ocean Service, lionfish are non-native to the U.S. coast and the Gulf of Mexico, and they are most likely introduced to those areas by humans dumping their home aquariums. Because they aren’t native to the area, the species, which eats numerous species of reef and commercial fish, has very few natural predators.
Minus some hungry Texans, that is.
— Amanda O’Donnell, American-Statesman staff


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Declared data platform company supports growth with Twitter partnership and strategic additions to team.
Jebbit is a Twitter Partner!
The partnership allows advertisers to create a mobile-first Jebbit experience that consumers can swipe up to and engage with.
Jebbit, the world’s first declared data platform, raised $6.8M to fuel growth.
Our inaugural customer conference was a lively, educational event. At Hotel Commonwealth, we had attendees listening to Jebbit clients and industry leaders.
Less than three weeks away from our first annual customer conference, it’s safe to say “excited” is a huge understatement.
Speakers include Boston Red Sox CMO and Jebbit clients from LifeLock, Regent Seven Seas Cruises.
Jebbit is pleased to announce the addition of several speakers for its customer conference, including clients from Tribune Media and Gannett.
We’re just as excited for our Customer Conference as the customers are! We got some one-on-one time with a few Jebbit team members to dish on major conference details.

domain: news


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Technically Incorrect: The Chinese gamer reportedly told paramedics to not bother him and to turn his computer back on, so that he could recover.
A new bicycle helmet design aims to take the awkwardness out of carrying it around when you're not under pedal power.
The world of aerial drones is about to get a lot more accessible with the successful funding of the Pocket Drone microcopter on Kickstarter.
Australian scientists are fitting bees with tiny sensors so they can monitor and study the insects' drastically diminishing populations.
The CSIRO is fitting bees with tiny sensors so that it can monitor and study the drastically diminishing bee population.
Scrutiny from regulators proves too much for a proposed $45 billion deal to combine the two biggest US cable operators. However, the merger frenzy may start back up, thanks to Charter Communications.
The campaign is cooperative and the multiplayer mode has specialists with unique abilities. Read up on the steps Treyarch is taking to keep Call of Duty vital.
More than a year ago, the massive bitcoin exchange collapsed. Now users will have a chance to file a claim in hopes of getting their cash back.
Queue up the sites you want to read from your social streams with Flynx for Android.
For the first time, an MRI video has been taken of cracking knuckles, answering once and for all what makes the audible pop.


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Electric Daisy Carnival Drops An Incredibly Epic 2015 Trailer
Trailers have become a huge part of the EDM festival hype. A goose bump-inducing video can whisk fans away to their favorite festivals and get them prepared for the best year yet. The trailers for EDC Vegas rank among some of the best music festival trailers around, but that comes with the territory for such an esteemed event. With a month until the 2015 edition of EDC Vegas, Insomniac has just released an official trailer for its flagship event. The seven-minute trailer is captivating to say the least.
EDC Vegas hits the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on June 19-21, 2015. Check out the epic 2015 trailer below:


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Union Colours Appoints Oliver Pfefferkorn New Sales Director
Union Colours announced the appointment of Oliver Pfefferkorn as sales director. Oliver Pfefferkorn is based in Hamburg, Germany.
He was previously managing director of distributor Raimund Mueller GmbH & Co. KG in Germany. Oliver Pfefferkorn brings 20 years of experience in sales and marketing to the inks, paints and plastics market to Union Colours Ltd.


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- Green Growth
- Your Consultant
Big C Vietnam has a network of 43 stores and 30 shopping centers and achieved a net sales in 2015 of €586 million ($666 million).
According to the press release, Central Group in partnership with the Vietnamese Nguyen Kim Group will continue the strategy of Big C Vietnam in particular concerning the supply of goods produced in Vietnam for Big C stores.
Casino continues its procurement of Vietnamese food, which will be distributed in France, Brazil and Colombia.
In December 2015, Casino Group had revealed plans to sell its Big C supermarket chain in Vietnam as well as Thailand and Colombia to pay debts. Casino sold Big C Thailand to TCC Holding for €3.1 billion ($3.4 billion) in February.
In Vietnam, the race for the retail chain includes Korea’s Lotte, Thailand’s Berli Jucker, as well as Central Group and Dairy Farm from Singapore. Vietnamese potential buyers Co.opmart and Masan Group were also in the running.
Earlier this week, Central Group was reported to be buying online retailer Zalora’s operations in Thailand and Vietnam.
Vietnam is considered a very potential market for retailers. According to the General Statistics Office, the retail revenue in 2015 was VND2,470 trillion ($111 billion), up 10.6 per cent on-year. However, modern retail, namely supermarkets and malls, only accounted for 25 per cent of all this. The percentage is a lot lower compared to that in other countries in the region, such as the Phillippines (33 per cent), Thailand (34 per cent), China (51 per cent), Malaysia (60 per cent), and Singapore (90 per cent).
The prospect has lured in many big international names in retail including Seven & I Holding, Lotte Group, TCC, Circle K, Berli Jucker Plc and Aeon, all of which are all planning expansion in number of outlets in the near future.
|What is Central Group's plan for Vietnam after its Zalora Vietnam acquisition?|
|Big C’s new owner to be finalised this week|


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Murphy Family – Capella (QLD)
Paul started using on-farm storage back in the 1990s as a way to manage grain marketing and have more control over prices, to place themselves as a price maker rather than a taker.
“But it’s not just a matter of storing the grain and waiting for prices to go up, there are a few hoops to jump through to get grain storage right and make a profit,” Paul said.
Having organic status, the Murphys need to be able to trace their grain back to the specific paddock it came from.
“Paddock traceability is really important for us as certified organic grain growers, Kotzur silos provide the ideal on-farm storage capacity for grain segregation to achieve this,” said Hannah
They’ve tried out different storage options over the years, but none have held up as well as the Kotzur silos in the tough Central Queensland climate. Gastight sealing has been especially important for disease and pest control since they are unable to use chemical treatments with their certified organic status.
“We need silos that can stand up in a storm, have been impressed with the sealing and durability of the Kotzur silos, which has motivated us to increase our storage capacity using further Kotzur products over the year.”
The drying and aeration technology used by Kotzur has also been a real game changer for the Murphy’s in managing grain quality. With the help of locally sourced aeration control systems, they’ve been able to further improve the efficiency of their on-farm storage. Hannah stated that reliability was a top priority for their operation, so they were excited to hear that Kotzur’s transportable range will soon be manufactured closer to their home in Toowoomba.


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The Devil's Spear is a short film created by Corridor Digital for Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag.
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag - Live Action Trailer
Ubisoft have released a live action trailer for Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.
The Crew - Launch Trailer
Unit Image have created this new CG trailer for The Crew.
Ubisoft Graduate Program
Ubisoft has unveiled its Graduate Program for college students, helping students get a head start in the games industry.


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Rice, oats and, more recently, almonds are providing alternatives to soy in the dairy-free food market sector. In particular, almonds featured in a rising number of new product launches during 2010.
‘The Packaging Supply Chain’ is the theme behind the fourth biennial AIP National Technical Forum, which will be held alongside Auspack Plus 2011.
Australian shoppers will be able to formulate a balanced diet and make healthier food choices following the launch of a new Daily Intake Guide consumer education campaign by the Australian Food and Grocery Council.
News that adding folic acid to bread flour is improving levels of folate in the Australian population is welcome, said Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing Catherine King.
Lactose-intolerant consumers around the world may soon be able to obtain the dairy nutrition they need from lactose-free products that are claimed to taste like the real thing.
AVEBE and BASF Plant Science start R&D cooperation on genetically optimised amylopectin starch potatoes13 January, 2011
The potato starch manufacturer AVEBE and the plant biotechnology company BASF Plant Science have announced a research and development alliance in plant biotechnology. The companies are combining their competencies in biotechnology discovery and genetically modified potato breeding with the aim of bringing farmers modern and fungal-resistant starch potato varieties.
Lupin seeds can be used to produce low-fat sausage products, allowing processors to replace animal raw ingredients with vegetable materials.
Four of Australia’s research institutions will collaborate closely over the next three years to fast-track development of new ‘healthier’ varieties of three of the world’s most widely cultivated cereal grains.
NIST researchers have developed new certified reference materials for measuring amounts of organic acids in dietary supplements formulated with Vaccinium berries - cranberries, blueberries and bilberries.
Vegetable juice powder could provide a natural source of nitrate to serve as a curing agent for pork products without affecting the 'natural' and 'organic' labelling. If other natural antimicrobials are added to the mix, naturally cured pork products are possible.
With selenium deficiency prevalent in South-East Asia, University of Adelaide researchers are studying the best biofortification for lowland rice production.
Coles has announced that it intends to broaden its sow stall-free fresh pork initiative to include all forms of the company's brand pork including processed ham and bacon products produced in both Australia and overseas from 2014.
It's 10 years since Taylors Wines started using the screw cap in preference to corks on its wines. The company has surveyed consumers to find out how their perceptions of screw cap v corks had changed.
A Johns Hopkins University study indicates that if you have to expend more effort to get a certain food, not only will you value that food more, it might even taste better to you.


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(Illinois News Network
) — With the soaring price of digital currency Bitcoin
, and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group set to launch futures beginning Dec. 17, one state representative says the technology is here to stay.
Bitcoin broke $19,000 per coin Thursday before dropping 20 percent and then settling at more than $16,000. That’s more than triple what it was just three months ago. Back in 2010, Bitcoin prices were around $30.
CME Group said on its website the value “of a Bitcoin has increased exponentially this year … as investors clamor to join the cryptocurrency stampede.”
“CME Group plans to launch Bitcoin futures on Dec 18, offering investors a secure and regulated platform to trade the virtual currency,” the derivatives marketplace said.
There will never be more than 21 million Bitcoins, unlike paper money and central banks that can print more dollars or add assets on spreadsheets. Blockchain.info
puts the current amount of Bitcoin in circulation at more than 16.7 million as of Dec. 5.
Erik Norland, executive director and senior economist of CME Group, wrote in a blog post to the group’s website, “[t]his feature makes supply almost perfectly inelastic.”
“Bitcoin’s limited and highly inelastic supply is also a major factor driving its price,” Norland wrote.” But he said rising transaction costs could cause a crash.
Illinois state Rep. Mike Zalewski, D-Riverside, is part of the Illinois Legislative Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Task Force. The blockchain is the decentralized, secure yet transparent digital ledger behind the digital currency Bitcoin. He said while some think the decentralized currency is a gimmick, it’s here to stay.
“I’m skeptical there’s a bubble and I’m skeptical it’s going to burst,” Zalewski said. “Anything’s possible. Just based on the testimony we’ve received, the agency input, I’m very skeptical this is going to go away anytime soon.”
Zalewski said Bitcoin and the blockchain is transforming monetary policy at the federal and state level.
“It’s just another piece of the evolution of Bitcoin and the blockchain into the mainstream of our markets, our economic activity and our commerce,” he said.
Zalewski said Illinois is embracing the technology, unlike other states.
“New York took a very harsh regulatory stand on Bitcoin and blockchain and it opened opportunity for Illinois to step into a vacuum,” Zalewski said, “and we’re taking advantage of that right now, and I hope it will continue.”
Zalewski said the blockchain isn’t just for digital currencies like Bitcoin. It can also be used for consumers to have better control over things like medical or other vital records without having to rely on centralized databases.
“Imagine having your health records on the blockchain,” Zalewski said. “You control who gets them. You control to what level they’re disposed to other providers and on a real anecdotal level you don’t have to go to the office to get your transcripts delivered from one doctor to another, you just give them a thumb drive [with an encrypted key] and say ‘here it is.’”
Zalewski expects a legislative report from the blockchain task force in the next month or two.
The Center Square -- formerly known as Watchdog.org and the Illinois News Network -- and their reporters represent 18 states across the United States as the taxpayers' watchdog, exposing the way government really works.


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Benchmark agreed to drop the lawsuit in return for Kalanick's board power being diluted but its co-operation depends on the Softbank investment going through.
Sources speaking to Bloomberg, Recode and TechCrunch have learned that Uber and SoftBank have finalized a deal that should see SoftBank and an investment group pour $10 billion into the company ($1 billion directly, $9 billion buying existing shares) while limiting the control of former CEO Travis Kalanick.
Softbank would buy $1 billion in new stock and purchase shares from investors and employees worth up to 14 percent of the ride-hailing company. Now, the company has confirmed that Uber has sealed a multibillion dollar investment round from Japan. Uber now is valued at $68.5 billion, but stock offers will be based on a lower valuation, so it's unknown just how much the total multibillion-dollar deal will be worth, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because details were not released.
Tamil Nadu rains: Schools shut in Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram
S Balachandran, Director, Area Cyclone Warning Centre, said the wind had weakened and changed direction. Northeast monsoon, which brings the bulk of rainfall for Tamil Nadu, has been active over the state.
"We believe this agreement is a strong vote of confidence in Uber's long-term potential", it added. Benchmark had alleged that Kalanick duped investors into allowing him to create three disputed board seats that it later wanted to delete, which action would dump Kalanick out of Uber altogether. The terms were signed on Sunday, although the tender offer would likely take weeks to complete.
This new funding deal will only be done once enough Uber shareholders opt to sell their shares.
Although Kalanick quit as Uber chief exec, he remains on the board, having previously created the seat he now occupies.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 gets Rs. 1000 price cut for three days
The Xiaomi Redmi Y1 is priced at Rs 8,999 and Rs 10,999 for the 3GB RAM+32GB storage version and 4GB RAM+64GB storage variants. Starting from today until November 15, the smartphone will be available at the discounted price via Flipkart and Mi.com.
SoftBank is sending tremors through the tech world with its massive new Vision Fund, a venture capital fund intended for startups and expected to dominate the industry before long. Kalanick appointed them in September without first consulting with the board.
Uber plans to run newspaper ads informing investors about the share purchase, and SoftBank will propose a price at which it will buy stock.
The deal gives early investors such as Benchmark, whose Uber stake is worth almost $9 billion, the opportunity to cash out a very lucrative investment.
Philippines leader wants Trump to return historic war trophies
That was when I was 16 years old, just because we just looked at each other", he added, prompting laughter from the audience. The Chief Executive also said he is excited to meet Trump. "You f**k with my countrymen, I won't let you off the hook".


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Payhesap Kütahya Esports entered the esports scene very fast and now announces its official sponsor. The official sponsor is The Coffee Warehouse.
For the first time, a coffee brand has entered the esports sector in the World with the agreement in Turkey. It is necessary to celebrate both sides for this success.
The terms of the agreement announced as one-year, but the president of PayHesap Kütahya Esports said in his statement that he hoped the agreement would extend into the coming years. In addition, PayHesap Kütahya esports special gamer coffee packages will take their place in stores soon.
As the Esport Times family, we wish Payhesap Kütahya Esports success with its new official sponsors and congratulate the Coffee Warehouse, the first coffee brand to step into the esports sector!


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Burkina Faso, Senegal and Togo look hard at e-commerce opportunities
Representatives of West African countries are gathering in Burkina Faso to consider their e-commerce future and what needs to be done to realise it.
Burkina Faso, Senegal and Togo need far-reaching reforms of their infrastructure and legal systems to benefit from e-commerce, new studies of the West African countries by UNCTAD have revealed.
The reports will be presented at a regional e-commerce workshop organized by UNCTAD and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on 9-10 October.
“Studies carried out by UNCTAD show that vast reform projects are needed for Burkina Faso, Senegal and Togo to seize fully the development opportunities offered by e-commerce, and that they will require ambitious actions on the part of governments. UNCTAD is here to help them,” UNCTAD Deputy Secretary-General Isabelle Durant said.
“This is a win-win strategy, which must be pursued because e-commerce is now a key gateway to foreign markets.”
The workshop, the first step in the preparation of a regional plan, will be inaugurated by Ms. Durant in the presence of the ECOWAS agriculture, water resources and the environment commissioner Jonas Gbian and Daouda Ouedraogo, a representative of Burkina Faso’s commerce, industry and handicrafts ministry.
While taking account of each country’s specific circumstances, the UNCTAD evaluations highlighted the common obstacles they face.
Although each is committed to building a digital ecosystem, none currently have a dedicated e-commerce strategy. And low-levels of internet accessibility and service quality, due to a lack of competition in the telecommunications sector, is a significant obstacle to the digital growth.
Weak and costly hard infrastructure, and logistics services that are not well integrated by operators, make deliveries of consumer good bought or sold online to “the last mile” often impossible.
Despite increased dynamism in the development of electronic payment systems, competition remains limited and online payments remain marginal. Cash payments on delivery are standard.
Although legal frameworks comply with ECOWAS regulations, their implementation remains insufficient and takes little account of the emerging aspects of the digital ecosystem.
Meanwhile, a significant gap remains between the needs of businesses and the knowledge of students, with schooling oriented towards traditional commerce.
Finally, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Togo share difficulties accessing finance to support e-commerce ventures.
Burkina Faso: starting start-ups
The assessment found that e-commerce expansion is taking place mainly in the informal economy, through private classifieds sites and social networks, while a small number of professional operators have developed platforms covering sectors such as agribusiness, clothing, IT and household appliances.
“Burkina Faso must capitalize on the strengths identified by the study: the process towards the digitalization of public services, a competitive telecommunications sector, the development of broadband internet infrastructure, a science park and dynamic start-ups. The proposed roadmap will enable us to accelerate the country’s digitization,” said Burkina Faso’s commerce, industry and handicrafts minister Harouna Kabore.
Under the aegis of Burkina Faso’s Plan National de Développement Économique et Social, the “Burkina Start-Ups” programme financially supports start-ups. But their growth and structuring as companies often remain uncertain.
Senegal: relatively dynamic
Dakar has become a laboratory of tech start-ups. Fintech players are already trying to penetrate the local market by forming strategic partnerships.
The e-commerce sector in Senegal is relatively dynamic, compared to many of its West African neighbours. Internationally renowned firms, such as Jumia, have established a strong presence by relying on the local market and the Senegalese diaspora abroad. Others, on a smaller scale, are trying to find a place in a market destined to grow.
However, apart from a small number of operators, e-commerce is developing mainly in the informal economy, through private classified sites, aggregator sites and social networks.
“The impact of the development of e-commerce in the structural transformation of the Senegalese economy is well established. This is why, thanks to UNCTAD’s assessment of Senegal’s readiness for e-trade, efforts will be more focused on mobilizing stakeholders, the state, the private sector and eTrade for all partners to remove obstacles, identify and implement its flagship recommendations,” Senegal’s investment, partnerships and teleservices minister Khoudia Mbaye said.
Several factors have contributed to the development of e-commerce: broadband internet (mainly in the big cities), a legal framework set up in 2008, electronic means of payment via mobile telephony, and people trained in information and communications technologies. However, there are several logistical and financial challenges to overcome before these favourable conditions can be exploited.
Togo: powerful potential
The potential for the development of e-commerce in Togo is limited: there is a weak internet infrastructure, few online payments, and it is difficult to make or receive deliveries outside of the capital Lomé. However, tech start-ups are bursting with innovative solutions that make it possible to work around existing problems.
“My ministry is strongly committed to making e-commerce a powerful engine for economic growth, inclusive trade and job creation in Togo. This new assessment has identified the development of e-commerce as one of the strategic sectors that should promote trade and remove barriers to trade,” said Togo’s commerce minister Essossimna Legzim-Balouki.
eTrade for all
The German government funded the Rapid eTrade Readiness Assessments as part of its support to UNCTAD’s eTrade for all initiative.
This initiative provides countries with capacity-building solutions for e-commerce and optimizing synergies between different partners.
It has 29 partners, seven of whom will participate in the Ouagadougou workshop: the World Bank Group, the African Development Bank, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the International Trade Centre, the World Trade Organization, Universal Postal Union, and the Africa Civil Society for the Information Society.
UNCTAD has conducted e-commerce assessments for developing countries since 2016, recognizing that policymaking will need to move quickly if least developed countries are to capitalize on rapidly changing economics.


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Honda has showcased a Civic Type R Pickup Truck concept in England roughly a year after a launch of a customary highway car.
Built by a dilettante group from a Product Engineering dialect during a Honda of a UK Manufacturing (HUM) bureau in Swindon and codenamed ‘Project P’, a Civic Type R Pickup Truck has been mutated and grown from a customary highway automobile to emanate potentially one of a fastest pickup trucks on UK roads.
To emanate a Project P concept, a group used a pre-production chronicle and blending a pattern rearwards from a B-pillars of a car, with unconditional lines from a roofline to a behind stealing a flatbed loading area in a centre of a automobile where a back seats and foot space would routinely be.
Finished in Rallye Red, a judgment retains a iconic back wing compared with both a FK2 and FK8 Civic Type R, which, in a crafty square of engineering, is mobile to concede approach and unobstructed entrance to a back of a truck.
Using a same powertrain, cessation and gearbox as a customary highway car, it is estimated Project P will finish a 0-100 km/h scurry in underneath 6 seconds and strech a tip speed of over 165 mph.
It also possesses a same pushing modes of comfort, Sport and +R, Project P charity both float comfort as good as a singular racing capability on track.
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AddressDoctor opens US operations company
AddressDoctor, a data quality services provider, announced this week it has opened up a US operations company in the North Carolina Research Triangle Park, with plans to add additional jobs over the course of the year.
The Germany-based company recently invested in marketing, sales and customer support initiatives throughout the United States.
The company has been delivering technology via Web services over the past eight years, which prompted the opening a US office location as a base for customer and partner relationships, said AddressDoctor COO and director of US operations Bill Spruill.
“We've seen a large growth in business on the direct sales side, about 50% each year over the last four years,” he said.
Spruill said many of AddressDoctor's US customers are retailers who are expanding into foreign markets. The company has about 100 clients in the US and 500 worldwide.
“Providing customers the ability to perform address cleansing for over 240 countries and territories on a per click model allows customers to scale their use according to their specific needs,” said Spruill.
AddressDoctor also works as a Web service to deliver real-time results, using data collected and validated from the 240 countries and territories.
The company currently has six employees in its North Carolina office, and plans to expand to 12 within a year. It also has remote employees in Austin, Texas.


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The researchers pointed out that the same anxieties applied equally to lost or stolen laptops, tablet computers and other digital devices.
The researchers found that a few active and security-conscious users were aware of countermeasures but many users were either not aware of "time bomb" data deletion settings and remote device locks or were simply in denial of the risk of their losing their phone.
The study is published in
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It started in 2000 as a company lead by that iconic mantra, “Defenders of Awesome.” A little more than a decade later, CAPiTA had established itself as a design-based snowboard company operating out of Seattle, Washington. It was then that Blue Montgomery decided he wanted to flip the switch on how the brand did business. He wanted CAPiTA to also produce the products they sold. Instead of going the tried and true route, however, CAPiTA stayed close to its ethos, dreaming up a clean-energy, sustainable model for a shiny new facility in Southern Austria called The Mothership.
Feistritz a.d. Gail, in the Carinthia State in the Southern Alps of Austria, is the small, unassuming village The Mothership calls home. The area was home to the legendary Elan Factory where some of the industry’s top skis and snowboards were manufactured for generations. When the factory closed down in 2013, CAPiTA acquired all assets as part of the transition. Today, The Mothership facility is a scaled-down and more efficient version of the original factory. It’s Montgomery’s clean-energy dream come true.
The location just opened this past November 2015, and with it the brand has received an outpouring of support and interest from the industry about the process of making snowboard manufacturing “cleaner.” The facility puts out zero carbon emissions, is hydro-powered, with an ozone depletion and global warming potential of zero. It has a coefficient performance score of “5”, which means for every unit of energy the facility’s system draws in, it produces five units of usable energy. Sounds like a clear step into the future, if you ask us.
“A production facility isn’t going to be something for two years or five years, it’s going to be for 50 years,” Montgomery says. “I mean it’s possible that this production facility could potentially outlast our company or ourselves. So, down the road—20, 30, 40, 50 years from now—what does a production facility look like? I don’t believe you are going to be allowed to have smokestacks in front of your factory 40 years from now. You can either make a decision to address those changes and expenses down the road someday, or you can do it now, and our shareholders decided we wanted to do it now.”
Read more from TransWorld Business.


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Olympic Games Act is Putting off Potential Sponsors says Survey
A survey conducted by Ipsos MORI reveals that marketers are confused by legal restrictions governing the Olympic Games.
[UKPRwire, Thu Jul 23 2009] The latest Marketing Trends Survey from The Chartered Institute of Marketing, conducted by Ipsos MORI, reveals that many marketers still lack awareness about the legality of Olympic-related marketing activities three years after the relevant Act was passed.
The London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act was published in 2006. Yet today, 43 per cent of marketers polled said they had “no understanding” of the Act. The same proportion — 43 per cent — said they had only a “very poor” or “poor” understanding of the Act. Just 13 per cent of respondents described their knowledge as “good”.
As a result, interest in undertaking marketing activities connected to the London Olympic Games in 2012 is at its lowest since September 2006. Only 18 per cent of respondents say they are “certain” or “very likely” to undertake some activities, down five percentage points from 12 months ago.
The findings do not come as a surprise to direct marketing guru Drayton Bird of Drayton Bird Associates and expert contributor to Marketing Donut, the essential website for SMEs. “I am deeply cynical about many promotional opportunities — especially those linked to events of universal interest,” he says.
“People get involved in these things because of the glamour and excitement. When times are hard, they're rather more interested in results. But I have seen very little intelligent analysis of the relationship between investment and return on such investments — and to me that's all that matters.”
Bird questions the relevance of large events like the Olympic Games to SMEs. “What makes marketing succeed is relevance,” he says. “That is well known. Mass events like the Olympics are only — in my view — relevant to people selling things that appeal to everyone, or products to do with sport or athletics.”
Not surprisingly then, the research shows that those most willing to take on Olympic Games-related marketing activities are larger companies, those with over £100 million turnover and those based in the South.
Commenting on the findings, David Thorp, director of research and professional development at The Chartered Institute of Marketing says, “The 2012 London Olympic Games should be a fantastic opportunity for UK marketers to participate and raise their profile worldwide but with sponsorship limited to a select few global brands, the vast majority of UK plc is likely to miss out.”
And Thorp has a warning for any businesses that plan Olympic Games-related promotions. “Those marketers planning activities must be fully aware of the Olympic Games Act, otherwise we are likely to see a string of court cases brought against the ill-informed.”
• Become a Marketing Donut expert by visiting the BHP Information Solutions website www.bhpinfosolutions.co.uk/Who-we-are/Experts.aspx
• Register for Marketing Donut here www.marketingdonut.co.uk/user/register?destination=node%2F27
• Find out more about Drayton Bird here www.draytonbird.com
BHP Information Solutions Ltd
0044 (0)117 904 2224


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A lot of people like to start their day with a tall glass of cold milk, and some Michigan drivers will soon be able to start their cars with one. In a roundabout way.
The Michigan Milk Producers Association (MMPA) is collaborating with Canada’s Dairy Distillery to build a factory that turns byproducts from milk production into ethanol, which will be blended with gasoline for use in automobiles.
Dairy Distillery currently runs a facility in Almonte, Canada, that already uses the process to make a vodka it calls Vodkow.
MMPA CEO Joe Diglio told Fox News Digital that when milk is separated into skim and butterfat for use in making dairy products like ice cream and cheese, it also creates a byproduct called milk permeate whey that is high in lactose sugar, which is filtered and concentrated.
“Fermented lactose goes back to the time of Genghis Khan, who would drink kumis, fermented mare’s milk,” Dairy Distillery founder Omid McDonald said.
Dairy Distillery’s current facility in Canada makes vodka. (Dairy Distillery)
The idea to turn it into a motor fuel gained traction during the energy crisis of the 1970s, but the more cost-effective corn-based ethanol took over. The only two factories currently making ethanol this way are in Ireland and New Zealand, according to a USDA report promoting it to dairy cooperatives.
This time around, a big part of the appeal is lowering the carbon footprint of dairy production, as the permeate whey-based ethanol works as a carbon offset.
Unlike the Vodkow, which still has a hint of milk flavor, the motor fuel is 100% ethanol and identical to that made from other sources.
The factory is set to begin production in 2025 and will sell the ethanol to local blenders through brokers, which opens up a much larger market than vodka sales could support.
“We’ve gotten some interest from other dairy cooperatives around the country and think it can take off,” Diglio said.


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Pharma Majors Offer Smartphones, Foreign Trips, E-Vouchers to Doctors to Push Products: Study
New Delhi: Calling for stringent marketing regulations for pharmaceutical companies, a report by a health rights organisation has brought to light some startling aspects of the tactics deployed by these companies to put “tremendous pressure” on medical representatives to push their products in the market via doctors.
“From high value gifts like smartphones costing ₹80,000, microwave ovens, tablets, silver items, gold jewellery to petro-cards, credit cards, e-vouchers for online shopping are trends in promotional practices among doctors,” the study said, as reported by Hindu Business Line. The study, which surveyed medical representatives across six cities, even suggested women being offered by some pharma companies, says a Times of India report.
In its report on pharmaceutical marketing practices, Support for Advocacy and Training to Health Initiatives or SATHI, which works on health rights issues through civil society partnerships, such marketing malpractices by pharma majors are rampant in India
What’s more, the medical representative respondents also disclosed that the pressure on them was “tremendous” adding to their stress levels as they were “tracked by their supervisors using iPads.”
Medical representatives also cited that only 10-20% doctors follow the MCI code of ethics, while in some cases doctors even demand “incentives” to push a product.
Noticeably, all this is happening even as the Union government still sits on a 2016 proposal to enforce a uniform marketing practices code for pharma companies, entailing stringent penalties.
“A year and a half ago, a draft of regulatory codes which was sent to Law Ministry to reign in unethical practices under Essential Commodities Act was rejected. Yet, the Ministry of Health in a reply to a Right of Information (RTI) report said that the draft was being discussed,” Amitava Guha, co-convenor of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, told Hindu Business Line.
As per the SATHI report, medical representatives of not just allopathy, but even ayurvedic and homeopathic companies, reported being under massive pressure to meet high sales targets.
“Though the code of ethics of the Medical Council of India (MCI) bars doctors from accepting any gifts, cash, travel facilities or hospitality from pharma companies, there are no laws to deal with such corrupt marketing practices,” said the ToI report.
Raising a flag on such unethical marketing practices, the report pointed out the health threat posed to millions of unsuspecting people, who fall prey to irrational prescriptions pushing drugs that may be hazardous for health.
Highlighting how deeply ingrained such marketing malpractices by pharma companies are, the report cited medical representatives as saying that that company officials even monitor business generated by doctors on whom they have ‘invested’ money.
The SATHI report also noted how pharma companies holding training workshops or sessions for medical representatives, focused more on salesmanship and ‘managing customer (doctors) relations’, instead of enhancing their technical knowledge about the product they are handling.
The report also noted a new trend – the propaganda-cum-distribution companies these days float new entities that are franchisees of the pharma companies who buy drugs in bulk from manufacturers, give their own brand names and directly sell them to retailers and doctors at huge discounts and incentives including gifts, cash, hospitality and travel facilities, the HBL report said, citing the study.
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Daimler Recall - NAFTA Talks - Lithium Bonanza
German automakers Daimler and BMW have agreed to merge their transportation services businesses. The move will expand their offerings in car sharing, ride-hailing apps and systems for parking and charging electric cars.
The US president will on Friday address the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, where he's rubbing shoulders with the globalists his 'America First' rhetoric has long since railed against.
After authorities found major irregularities regarding final vehicle inspections, Nissan has announced a recall of 1.2 million cars sold domestically over the past three years and apologized for the "inconvenience."
The sports carmaker has become the latest Volkswagen subsidiary to be dragged into the group's emissions cheating scandal, after the German Ministry of Transport ordered a recall of thousands of Cayenne diesel models.
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- Amazon said it launched a new internal $2 billion venture-capital fund.
- The new fund will seek investment opportunities in clean and green energy companies.
- The fund is on top of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' $10 billion pledge from his personal wealth.
E-commerce giant Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) created a new internal venture-capital fund and will allocate $2 billion towards clean energy and green investments, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Amazon’s environmental record has come under criticism from multiple watch groups and even its own employees. Most notably, a group named Amazon Employees for Climate Justice delivered an open letter to management which urged the company to commit towards generating 100% of its electricity from clean energy sources.
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While the company announced in 2019 a plan to become carbon-neutral within 20 years, Amazon is taking its commitment to protecting the environment one step further with its new fund called The Climate Pledge Fund.
Goals and objectives
The Climate Pledge Fund will seek companies in the transportation, energy generation, battery storage, manufacturing, and food and agriculture sectors, WSJ reported. Amazon will invest in companies that share its vision to create a more sustainable future and help it achieve its carbon-neutral goals.
Amazon is looking to transform its facilities to be fully powered by renewable and clean energy within five years from its wind and solar projects. Encouragingly, the company previously guided to achieve this milestone by 2030.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement the fund will consider any company across the world of any size from pre-product startups to profit-generating enterprises.
Bezos, the world’s richest person, already pledged $10 billion from its personal fortune towards grants and other initiatives that will help scientists and activists “help preserve and protect the natural world,” according to WSJ.
Bezos is also a board member and private investor in Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a $1 billion fund that focuses on companies that offer potential breakthroughs in experimental energy technologies.
Interested in buying Amazon’s stock? Here is a helpful how-to guide.
Amazon has the experience
Amazon’s $2 billion commitment would make it a large player in the fast-growing venture-capital space, according to WSJ. Global venture capital along with private equity investments in the green energy segment rose 6% in 2019 to $10.5 billion.
Amazon has the necessary experience and knowledge to operate an internal venture-capital arm. The “Alexa Fund” was launched in 2015 to seek investment opportunities in companies that have unique expertise in voice technology.
The company most recently took a leadership role in a $700 million financing round of an electric-vehicle company called Rivian. Amazon already placed an order to purchase 100,000 of its electric-delivery vehicles that are expected to hit the road by 2021.


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The news that a vaccine against Covid-19 had been found was welcomed with global relief earlier this autumn. Pfizer and BioNTech announced in November that they had developed a vaccine with a 95% success rate of protecting against the virus, giving people around the world a sense that there might be light at the end of this pandemic tunnel.
News of the Pfizer-BiioNTech breakthrough was swiftly followed by similar announcements by Moderna, and by Oxford/AstraZeneca shortly thereafter. With the Pfizer drug quickly approved by the UK health regulatory body, the new problem to solve became one of logistics.
The Challenge of Transportation
The Pfizer vaccine may have been approved for administration in the UK, but there was another significant hurdle to overcome. The vaccine must be kept at a temperature of -70°C (or -100°F) in order to maintain its effectiveness. Whilst Pfizer itself had developed a special packaging for the vaccine, which uses dry ice as a cooling agent, the distribution of the vaccines clearly requires special attention. The answer has come in the form of “cold chain” logistics, which is already being hailed as the latest great investment prospect.
Cold Chain Transportation: The Next Big Thing
Cold chain logistics uses the latest technology in order to create a seamless, completely trackable delivery process. Big Data is key to successful cold chain distribution. Advances in cloud computing, together with AI and Machine Learning, have transformed businesses’ ability to collate and analyse vast quantities of data and is used in cold chain distribution at the planning level.
Routes are fully analysed in advance, with the software looking at all possible risks or causes of delay, such as bad weather or traffic. This enables the logistics company involved to select the optimum shipment times, equipment and transport method in order to best ensure a seamless delivery process.
The development of IoT (Internet of Things) technology has also transformed the ability of logistics firms to transport temperature-sensitive products. The equipment within the trucks allows for real-time data feeds, including temperature updates, condition of the cargo, and local weather and traffic outlook.
This means that the delivery routes can be updated if necessary, making amendments based on the data received using cloud-based computing power, and staying ahead of any potential delays or disruptions. This data is collected by a deployment of sensors and cameras both inside and outside the truck and the packaging and sent via IoT technology.
The Next Big Thing?
Previous generations of cold chain logistics relied on Bluetooth sensors for collecting temperature and other journey data. With the latest sensors making use of IoT technology, the potential for exploiting cold chain logistics just expanded exponentially. This leap is due to the IoT and cloud computing giving cold chain logistics the ability to analyse and react to data in real-time, every step along the delivery journey.
Icelandic start-up company Controlant is harnessing GSM networks which connect to its IoT sensors to enable real-time data analysis, which can be then viewed via a web or mobile app. The technology has proved so impressive, Controlant has already been signed up to supply Pfizer for its U.S. vaccine roll-out, and work with several U.S. government departments.
Cold chain logistics has certainly taken advantage of the technology developments of recent years, which will transform the industry by saving money lost on wasted cargo, and reducing delivery times. Not only is it is set to be a key player in safe and efficient vaccine delivery, but also opens up more uses of these logistics capabilities worldwide. These new uses include safe distribution of pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs, and life sciences materials, and could reduce food wastage in developing countries.
It’s a journey that nobody will want to miss.


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Two Apple geeks were dating during Christmas 2007 when the young man of this story, Roberto Hoyos, made his girlfriend hand-sewn pillows that looked like Mac desktop icons.
A picture of the finished pillows went viral and orders began to flood Hoyos’ inbox. To meet the sudden demand, he started the company, Throwboy. To celebrate the company’s 10th anniversary, Hoyos has issued a second collection of icon pillows.
Throwboy: Not the story he imagined
The relationship eventually fizzled but Throwboy sizzled, growing into a global company that now produces emoji throw pillows and some apparel that celebrates self-expression in the digital life.
The emoji pillows became so popular, Throwboy scaled back on Mac icons. But Hoyos has decided to not only produce more plush icons, he is hand-sewing them himself.
“I’ve decided to roll up my sleeves, quite literally, and make some pillows just like the good ‘ol days,” Hoyos wrote on the company blog. “The icons celebrate our nerdy roots but bring an updated twist with designs by the technology we all use today.”
Hoyos operates Throwboy in Seattle not far from the house of his grandma, who taught him how to sew. Throwboy has also produced t-shirts and hats that Hoyos hopes stir conversation about Apple’s delay in upgrading Mac computers for creatives. He also created a plush Steve Jobs doll that quickly sold out.
Collect all seven
Throwboy’s Icon Pillow Collection 2, which will feature softer fabric with brighter colors, is available as a seven-pillow set for $249 for a limited time. Individual pillows are available for $39.
The first set of Mac icons in 2008 included iTunes, iMovie, Widgets, Photo Booth and the smiling Finder (the only one still available for sale).
This second collection will feature a mix of Mac and iOS apps: Mail, Safari, Health, Weather, Photos, Phone, and Messages.


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iOS 10 and macOS Sierra are Cupertino’s latest batch of changes to emerge over the next few months. Some of us even believe that these are the best improvements we’ve seen come from Apple in a very long time. The company’s photos app is seeing major changes, but some code information reveals just how major.
Reddit user vista980622 recently dissected a few code strings from within the app that reveal that the service is now capable of detecting a whopping 4,432 searchable objects, and up to 7 facial expressions as well. Siri Intelligence was mentioned as being a big deal in terms of how it’ll improve your use of the app, and it makes a ton of sense given how easy it is for anyone to flood an iPhone with photos and forget about these.
Changes to the photos app should reach devices this fall.


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A leader like Vipal Rubber knows that its products are constantly being evaluated in the most diverse markets in which it operates.
Power Retreads: Vipal’s Vulcanised Blocks Offer Better Mileage
However, when the results of these tests come spontaneously, it is even better, as they help to prove the superior quality of the brand. That is what has happened with Power Retreads, a retreader based in Hastings, New Zealand, who tested Vipal‘s vulcanised blocks, which are used to retread tyres on fertilizer spreaders in the relugging process. As partners, they obtained approval across the board, with the Director of Power Retreads, Dave Leicester, noting that there has been a 53 per cent improvement in the mileage of newly relugged tyres compared to a brand new tyre.
With such strong results Power Retreads has immediately made Vipal‘s vulcanised blocks available to its customers in the New Zealand market, offering a new and specific service for tyres used on small trucks that travel both on highways and in the field. The added benefit for this is that can be used to spread fertilizers on grass paddocks, on flat and hilly terrain. “The tests carried out on Vipal‘s relugged tyres, both on the rear and front axles, have shown excellent performance,” Leicester added, happily. He explained that the tyres provide good traction both uphill and downhill on slick grassy surfaces as, “They have also had good mileage performance on the road compared to new tyres.” Finally, he reported that drivers, who at first feared that the vehicle would vibrate said that “the truck works well and they are very happy with the performance of Vipal‘s relugged tyres…..”
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一个像Vipal橡胶那样的领袖知道，其产品将会不断地在其营运的多元化市场中被评估。然而，当这些测试的结果是自发的，那就更好了，因为它们将证实该品牌的卓越性品质。位于新西兰哈斯丁（Hastings）的翻胎业者 Power Retreads，测试了Vipal的硫化块状花纹。该花纹在翻新过程中用于肥料撒播机的翻新轮胎上。作为伙伴，他们获得了全面的认可，Power Retreads董事莱斯特（Dave Leicester）表示，相较于全新的轮胎，这款刚翻新轮胎的里程数改善了53%。


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Business & Finance News
Saturday, August 07, 2004
Compiled by SDNP
The Daily Star, M Abdur Rahim
"Floods have come as a blow to hospitality business. Usually, business remains dull during this period of the year. To make the situation worse, the floods have led to 30 percent drop in occupancy rate in hotels and guesthouses," said Sadique Ahsan, president of Bangladesh Hotel and Guest House Owners Association.
He said foreign tourists do not take pleasure trips during floods. However, he hopes that the occupancy rate will gradually increase when floodwaters start receding.
Hasan Mansur, managing director of The Guide Tours Ltd, a leading tour organiser, said the floods will add to the nation's perennial image problem as a disaster-prone country that affects tourism industry.
"It will take time to restore tourists' confidence. The bad image is a big problem for tourism growth," he said.
According to unofficial sources, some 5,000 foreign tourists visit Bangladesh a year who spend some $1,000 each during their trips. Besides, about two lakh foreigners come to Bangladesh a year for business or other purposes.
Hotels are witnessing dull business as room occupancy rate drops. Dhaka's two five star hotels -- Dhaka Sheraton and Pan Pacific Sonargaon that largely depend on foreign guests for room occupancy-- are hit hard by the flood spell.
"The occupancy rate here is 65-70 percent but due to the floods the rate has come down by 5 percent. But we have little problem in reservation of programme venues as they are booked in long advance," an official of Pan Pacific Sonargaon told the newspaper seeking anonymity.
An official of Dhaka Sheraton Hotel admitted the business fall due to the floods. He, however, declined to give detailed information about loss. Sheraton Hotel cancelled Malaysian Food Festival, which was due to be held from July 28 to August 3 due to the deluge.
Tour operators usually have little business during this period of the year. But they are now completely out of business as they suspend all tours to the Sundarbans, Rangamati, Bandarban and Sylhet due to the floods.
"Outbreak of water-borne diseases and damaged infrastructure will surely discourage them to visit Bangladesh in the next season," Faridul Haque, president of Bangladesh Tour Operators' Association, said.
The government's hospitality business arm, Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC), is suffering huge loss due to dull business. "Room occupancy usually remains low during this time of the year but the floods have just deteriorated the situation," an official of BPC said. BPC runs 14 hotels and rest houses.
Abu Fazle Sobahani, general manager (Central Control) at Flight Operations Directorate of Biman, said Biman had to cancel about 20 flights during four days of suspension as floodwaters inundated runway of Sylhet MAG Osmani International Airport.
Though domestic flights resumed operation in July 23, international flights to Sylhet have remained suspended since July 19.
"Biman operates three to four domestic flights a day on average while three weekly flights from London and two from Saudi Arabia that connect Sylhet via Dhaka," he said.
Private GMG Airlines had to suspend 16 flights on Dhaka-Sylhet route when floodwaters entered Sylhet airport runway. "We suspended flights on July 19 and resumed with the evening flight from Sylhet on July 21. We are yet to estimate the loss due to the suspension," an official of GMG Airlines said.
The Daily Star, July 31-August 05, 2004
Call money rate was broadly stable with slight increase at the end of the week. The rate was 4.00-4.50 percent in the beginning of the week, then fell to 3.00-4.50 percent before closing the week at 4.50-5.00 percent.
The dollar re-tested a 6-week peak against the euro on Tuesday, boosted by a healthy US manufacturing survey the previous day, and gained against the yen as oil prices rose to a fresh record. A rise in the ISM manufacturing index for July, reported on Monday, suggested a recent soft patch in the US economy may have been a blip and was enough to keep markets focused on a key employment report on Friday. Oil prices rose to a fresh high, with US prices overshooting $44 a barrel after OPEC President Purnomo Yusgiantoro said the producers' cartel had no extra oil to supply the world market and bring prices down.
Later in the week, the dollar held fairly steady within recent ranges as investors remained indifferent to take aggressive position ahead of key US jobs data on Friday that could decided the pace of future Federal Reserve rate hikes. Investors were especially cautious after Wednesday's Institute of Supply Management non-manufacturing survey showed a weak employment reading, even though the report painted a fairly robust picture of the service sector as a whole. In Europe, the Bank of England is expected to raise interest rate by 25 bps, but the European Central Bank is unlikely to shift its stance. Sterling also traded flat but a touch lower against the euro. The sterling had softened a touch after official data showed British manufacturing output unexpectedly fell in June.
- Standard Chartered Bank
The Daily Star, Staff Correspondent
Addressing the children, the poet said it is not easy to do humanitarian work in such crisis and advised them to stand by the distressed in any crisis in future.
The World Vision Bangladesh and its USAID-funded Food Security project donated Tk 46,631,168 for distribution of relief materials among 100,650 families in 16 upazilas and for other projects in Dhaka.
World Vision Bangladesh's USAID-funded Food Security Project distributed 200 matric tons of food and 7,000 packages of items such as saree, lungi, jerry can, glass and plate.
Meanwhile, Oxfam GB Bangladesh yesterday launched an Emergency Flood Response Programme at a coast of Tk 16 crore to help out fifty thousands families affected by floods.
The first phase of the programme includes distribution of food, water purification tablets, soap, saree and lungi.
Seeds, agricultural tools, fishing nets and tubewells will be distributed in the second phase.
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Tag: Canada Business
eNewsChannels NEWS: -- Wondershare has released Recoverit Free, which can recover data of up to 100 MB for free. Recoverit by Wondershare is a popular free data recovery software that works on both Windows and Mac. It can recover lost and deleted content from a system or even an external storage unit in an extensive manner.
eNewsChannels NEWS: -- Today at Medica, the world's largest medical event, RoweBots, an embedded software company, announces the immediate availability of Unison MedicalOS, a real-time operating system (RTOS) for medical applications and wearable devices.
eNewsChannels NEWS: -- Today, RoweBots, an embedded systems software company, announces new Modbus communication protocol interface capabilities with its Unison RTOS, a real-time operating system that offers a complete component set for the development of IoT and M2M Communication Embedded Applications.
eNewsChannels NEWS: -- MiniTool Solution Ltd. today announced the release of MiniTool ShadowMaker Beta 2.0 - a brand new yet professional data protection solution. MiniTool ShadowMaker Beta 2.0 is an all-in-one disk partition backup and disaster recovery solution for PCs.
eNewsChannels NEWS: -- RoweBots, an embedded signal processing systems company specializing in wearables and IoT, today announces support for Microsoft Azure on its Unison RTOS product, a real-time operating system that offers a complete component set for the development of IoT and M2M Communication Embedded Applications. The Azure cloud computing service lets developers build, deploy and manage applications and services through a global network of Microsoft-managed data centers.


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Annual Award Luncheon
Center for Communication to honor
Matthew C. Blank
Chairman and CEO
Monday, November 11, 2013, NYC
Media News - www.iwantmedia.com
Apple remained the top U.S. smartphone maker in the October quarter, while Google's Android was the dominant operating system in that market, said comScore. Google was the top website on smartphones, with 88% of the mobile media audience, followed by Facebook with 84%.
Comcast's new Xfinity On Demand store is a success so far, at least according to one metric. "Despicable Me 2" became available for sale on Nov. 26, and Comcast said that its store was the No. 1 purchase destination during that first week of availability.
Disney aims to embrace the "second screen" and win children over at an earlier age. It introduced an animated series, "Sheriff Callie's Wild West," under its Disney Junior brand. But instead of launching on TV, the first episodes were available through an app and a related website.


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While Blizzard’s Hearthstone might typically be seen more as a multiplayer game, there are single-player elements to it that might interest gamers who want to complete quests/campaigns or who are looking to test out new decks and strategy without it affecting their rankings. Recently Blizzard has decided to detail the game’s latest single-player mode.
Dubbed “Monster Hunt”, this will be the latest single-player mode added to the game that will also be part of the Witchwood expansion that was released last week. Monster Hunt mode is expected to be similar to the Dungeon Run mode introduced in Kobolds & Catacombs except with some slight differences.
One of those differences is that players will not be able to pick a class, instead they will have to pick between four characters from the Warcraft franchise. It will introduce 45 new boss characters and a final boss that players will have to defeat, although it seems that this could be a co-op situation as Blizzard teased that it will require four heroes to beat the boss.
It is expected that defeating the final boss will unlock some kind of special reward, like achievements, new card backs, extra booster packs, or maybe a rare/legendary card. In any case the Monster Hunt mode will be made available on the 26th of April, so Hearthstone players will want to keep an eye out for it.


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Roku is planning to shake up the way viewers watch video, according to a new report.
CNBC cites five advertising, technology and media executives who had talked with the company. It says Roku is in talks with media companies to include their content in its app instead of leaving it in their own separate apps
In exchange, Roku intends to lead advertising sales on the companies’ shows, and take a larger share of the revenue.
Other apps will still be included on the platform, but would not be featured as prominently as they are currently.
One proposed plan would make the Roku-owned free service the home screen, where people would be able to access partner content without switching from app to app, says CNBC. Roku would recommend shows and films based on user data and pre-set categories.
Roku has declined to comment on the report.


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The second image reveals its rear-end styling, while the first teaser showed the car’s profile -- confirming that the Wraith is in fact the long-awaited Ghost coupe seen testing in prototype form for the past several months and reported on for more than a year.
Unlike the current Phantom Coupe, which features a boxy profile similar to that of the sedan on which it’s based, the new Wraith gets a fastback look that’s very sporting and sleek.
The bold new styling hints at the extraordinary power and dynamic promise of the Wraith, which Rolls-Royce has already confirmed will be the fastest and most powerful model ever launched by the marquee.
Power is expected to come from the Ghost’s twin-turbocharged 6.6-liter V-12 engine, which in its latest application may be tuned to deliver more than 440 kilowatts. Rolls-Royce describes the output as “more than ample.”
In addition to extra power, the Wraith will also benefit from a lighter chassis, stiffened suspension, and uprated brakes and tires. Sales of the new Rolls-Royce Wraith will commence in the fourth quarter of the year, and it’s almost certain a convertible version will follow the coupe.


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Published: Friday, August 31, 2018 @ 9:41 AM
If you plan to shop at Walmart between now and Christmas, there are some big changes that you’re sure to notice.
After Toys R Us went out of business, Walmart has decided to expand its already large assortment of toys for people who shop in stores and on its website, Walmart.com.
In a news release, Walmart said there will be 30% new toys in select stores and 40% more toys online before Black Friday:
“Walmart has always been a destination for toys. Parents shop us for our wide selection of top brands and because we bring fun to stores in ways that only Walmart can,” said Anne Marie Kehoe, vice president of toys, Walmart U.S. “But today, we are making even bigger investments in the category to ensure we have the widest selection of toys at the best prices and an unmatched in-store and online experience to show customers the best place to shop for toys is Walmart.”
Walmart says “America’s Best Toy Shop” includes expanded aisles and the best selection of toys. New toy brands now available at Walmart include Pomsies, Fancy Nancy, Boxy Girls, Grumblies and Hairdorables.
Online-only exclusives include the DC Comics 6-Volt Justice League Batmobile and KidKraft Uptown Espresso Kitchen with 30 Piece Play Food.
Walmart is also adding in-store events and demos to help parents and kids test, play and shop for toys. This is something that Toys R Us tried during its final holiday shopping season before closing.
As for Walmart, it plans to host its first National Play Day on September 8 in more than 1,500 stores.
Walmart brings together hundreds of kids every year to play with toys and features their favorites in its Top Rated by Kids list. There are 40 toys on the list for this holiday season, up from 25 in previous years:


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The CNIL regulator told Google in a letter dated February 27 it would lead a European-wide investigation of the web search giant’s latest policy and would send it questions by mid-March.
The U.S. Internet company also said it will pool data it collects on individual users across its services, allowing it to better tailor search results and improve service.
Users cannot opt out of the new policy if they want to continue using Google’s services.
“The CNIL and EU data authorities are deeply concerned about the combination of personal data across services: they have strong doubts about the lawfulness and fairness of such processing, and its compliance with European data protection legislation,” the French regulator wrote to Google.
Google plans to put the changes into effect March 1 and has rebuffed two requests from European regulators for a delay.
The tussle over data privacy comes at a delicate time for Google, whose business model is based on giving away free search, email, and other services while making money by selling user-targeted advertising.
It is already being investigated by the EU’s competition authority and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over how it ranks search results and whether it favors its own products over rival services.
In a Tuesday blog post responding to CNIL’s letter, Google said it was happy to answer questions from Europe’s data protection authorities.
“As we’ve said several times over the past week, while our privacy policies will change on 1st March, our commitment to our privacy principles is as strong as ever,” wrote Peter Fleischer, Google’s global privacy counsel.
Under the proposed new EU rules, Internet companies like Google, Facebook and Yahoo would have to ask users whether they can store and sell their data to other businesses, such as advertisers, which is source of almost all their income.
Internet users can also ask for their data to be deleted from websites for good, the so-called “right to be forgotten.”
Eight U.S. lawmakers sent a letter to Google in late January expressing concern that a planned consolidation of user information endangered consumers’ privacy.
Japan’s trade and industrial ministry warned on Wednesday that Google must follow Japan’s privacy law in implementing its new approach, and that Google needed to provide explanations to address users’ concerns.
“It is important for the firm to be flexible by providing necessary additional explanations or measures to address actual user concerns or requests also after March 1...” the ministry said in a statement.
Reporting by Leila Abboud and Yoko Kubota; Editing by David Cowell


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244w ago - Last week, word spread that Microsoft would soon reach one million Xbox 360s sold in Japan... and that is what has been announced today.
According to sales figures from Famitsu publisher Enterbrain, lifetime sales for the Xbox 360 have crossed the million sold watermark in Japan with 1,001,191 units as of March 29.
The Xbox 360 went on sale in Japan on December 10, 2005.
Enterbrain has also released lifetime domestic sales figures for the PS3. The Sony console has sold 3,008,395 units since going on sale November 11, 2006. Wii sales figures were not released, however.
Stay tuned for more PS3 Hacks and PS3 CFW news, follow us on Twitter and be sure to drop by the PS3 Hacks and PS3 Custom Firmware Forums for the latest PlayStation 3 scene updates and homebrew releases!


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When their oldest daughter was born 11 years ago, entrepreneurs Catherine and JJ Jaxon followed the standard medical advice for infants: They didn’t give her peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, or other common food allergens. By the time their daughter was 3, they learned that she was allergic to most nuts.
In 2015, when their youngest baby was born, the advice was starting to change. A major new study showed that introducing peanuts to a baby, and keeping them in the diet for the next five years, could reduce the rate of peanut allergies by as much as 86%. “Basically, what we had been doing as Americans, and in some other countries, was really the worst thing we could possibly do,” JJ Jaxon says. Between 1997 and 2015, the rate of peanut allergies in the U.S. more than quadrupled.
The Jaxons wanted to give their newborn the best chance of avoiding allergies, but they struggled to find food that would work. “Nuts and nut butters are a choking hazard for a baby, so you can’t give them nuts and nut butters in their natural form,” Catherine Jaxon says. “And then the entire baby food industry was allergen-free, because the guidelines had been in place for years. So we were just really frustrated. I remember reading the study and thinking Wow, we have the potential to avoid another food allergy in our family. But why is there no product in the baby food aisle that makes this possible?”


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The Nintendo legend - famed for his work on the Mario and Zelda series - ruled out a new F-Zero game on current formats, but hinted at a return in the future.
"I think at the time it was a really big surprise, a new thing, a product that made sense. I don't see with current hardware how you could create a similar surprise," Miyamoto told Edge Online.
"But maybe with future hardware, with Wii U coming up, maybe we could create something that does make sense, either as a smaller game, or a fully-fledged title," he added.
The Wii U, which will reportedly be released in November, will herald the arrival of the Nintendo Network, a service akin to PSN and Xbox Live.
The service also offers competition and communication among users and supports the sale of digital content, making it the perfect platform for a "smaller" F-Zero game.
Miyamoto recently attended The Louvre museum in Paris to test out a new audio tour guide developed by Nintendo.
The Nintendo 3DS audio guide features more than 700 commentaries on the museum's works of art and an interactive map, as well as 3D images of the most famous pieces and displays.
Picture gallery - view images of Shigeru Miyamoto at The Louvre below:


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Sii Investments Inc. WI raised its stake in shares of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) by 6.2% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 100,036 shares of the chip maker’s stock after buying an additional 5,848 shares during the period. Sii Investments Inc. WI’s holdings in Intel Corporation were worth $3,608,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Sigma Planning Corp raised its stake in Intel Corporation by 0.5% in the first quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 64,672 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $2,333,000 after buying an additional 335 shares during the last quarter. RB Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Intel Corporation during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $858,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new stake in Intel Corporation during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $544,000. Wsfs Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Intel Corporation during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $280,000. Finally, Regentatlantic Capital LLC raised its stake in Intel Corporation by 10.9% in the first quarter. Regentatlantic Capital LLC now owns 495,518 shares of the chip maker’s stock valued at $17,873,000 after buying an additional 48,759 shares during the last quarter. 67.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Shares of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ INTC) traded down 0.540% during trading on Friday, reaching $35.945. 6,822,259 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged. Intel Corporation has a 52 week low of $33.23 and a 52 week high of $38.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $168.91 billion, a PE ratio of 13.719 and a beta of 1.01. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $34.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $35.73.
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. The chip maker reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.68 by $0.04. Intel Corporation had a net margin of 20.60% and a return on equity of 21.86%. The company had revenue of $14.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.39 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.59 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Intel Corporation will post $3.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 7th will be issued a $0.2725 dividend. This represents a $1.09 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 3rd. Intel Corporation’s payout ratio is 41.76%.
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Several equities research analysts have commented on INTC shares. BidaskClub raised shares of Intel Corporation from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 1st. Credit Suisse Group set a $35.00 price target on shares of Intel Corporation and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, July 29th. Macquarie reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of Intel Corporation in a report on Friday, July 14th. Jefferies Group LLC downgraded shares of Intel Corporation from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $29.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Monday, July 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Intel Corporation to a “market weight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have issued a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company. The company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $40.55.
In other news, CFO Robert Holmes Swan bought 13,888 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $36.31 per share, for a total transaction of $504,273.28. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,774 shares in the company, valued at approximately $318,583.94. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Brian M. Krzanich sold 72,173 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.69, for a total transaction of $2,431,508.37. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 534,746 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,015,592.74. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 91,921 shares of company stock valued at $3,130,162. Corporate insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.
Intel Corporation Company Profile
Intel Corporation is engaged in designing and manufacturing products and technologies, such as the cloud. The Company’s segments are Client Computing Group (CCG), Data Center Group (DCG), Internet of Things Group (IOTG), Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group (NSG), Intel Security Group (ISecG), Programmable Solutions Group (PSG), All Other and New Technology Group (NTG).
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Transfusions don’t stop the bleeding
— Louis E. Lataif is dean of the Boston University School of Management and a former Ford executive. The views expressed are his own. —
The federal government now wants to shore up ailing auto suppliers with a $5 billion bailout, despite a rising chorus of criticism against more government bailouts. The public is beginning to see bailouts as “transfusions,” rather than a closing of the wound, and is losing patience with them. The “wound” is falling housing values and toxic mortgage-backed securities which have paralyzed financial markets – not the auto industry.
The hastily approved $787 billion “stimulus package,” including aggressive spending programs unrelated to declining home values or the constricted capital markets, is tantamount to administering repeated, expensive blood transfusions rather than stopping the bleeding. Of course, if the blood flow at the wound eventually coagulates (one day the economy will rebound) then the transfusions can be claimed to have worked. But the delayed cure would have come at a crippling cost to the next generations of taxpayers.
Concerning help for “Detroit,” there may be no manufacturing industry more fundamental to the U.S. economy than the auto industry, accounting as it does for more than 10 percent of American jobs. Detroit is not without fault, but it has been dealt a lethal blow by the consumer credit crunch which it did not create. At a nine million-plus vehicle annual selling rate (three million below the scrappage rate), no auto company, American or foreign, can survive. But bailouts, a few billion dollars at a time, first to the auto manufacturers and now to suppliers, are both a political and business nightmare.
If the federal government is willing to spend trillions to “right the economy,” then it should reasonably serve as lender of last resort for critical industries. It should grant interest-bearing bridge loans to the ailing auto manufacturers — probably $150 billion for 18 months. The pent-up auto demand in 2010-2013 would be enormous. The companies could then be required to repay the loans with interest, making the taxpayers whole.
If these companies are “bridged” until auto demand recovers, their supply base will survive without separate bailouts. To let auto manufacturers fail, in this environment, will create untold collateral damage; the already weakened supply base, so intertwined among all the manufacturers, could shut down the entire industry. An auto bankruptcy would seriously deepen and lengthen the recession for us all.
But bailing out the industry a month or two at a time and a sector at a time is slow torture and an ineffective alternative to proper, interest-bearing bridge loans. If, in a normal economy, one or more auto companies can’t make it, so be it. But in this most abnormal economy, it would be a shame to lose the U.S. auto industry to poor, unrelated decisions made in the financial markets.
We can hope that the depressed stock markets and waning consumer confidence will re-focus Washington’s attention on collapsed housing values and constrained credit markets. We should avoid dangerously expensive transfusions unrelated to the root problem; instead we should close the wound. The normal market will then right itself. It always does.


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U. S. Economy has its worst quarter since 1947
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- The U.S. economy experienced its worst drop on record since the Coronavirus began.
The government released two key reports this morning that shows how COVID-19 is affecting our economy.
According to the commerce department, the gross domestic product, or the GDP fell by an annual rate of 32.9% in the second quarter.
The GDP is the total measure of the economy.
The report shows that even with businesses reopening, the second quarter was the worst since records started in 1947.
Chris Hopkins, the Vice President of Barnett and Company and a Financial Advisor, says, “We all see that more businesses are open and there’s more activity and that’s a good thing. But, the signs are, we kind of sprung out of the bottom but now things are flattening out and we may end up having another downturn in the fourth quarter and into the first if we have to do another semi shutdown.“
The GDP dropped 5% in the first quarter.
Some economists define a recession if there are two consecutive quarters of declining GDP.
Small businesses such as Nooga Shuttle started off 2020 very strong. Even seeing sales in January increase to up to 500%. But now, here in July, sales are down drastically.
David Alverson, the Owner of Nooga Shuttles says, “March hit and we went down to about 60 percent, April was to about 60 percent and May was 90 percent.”
Alverson says that he is just happy that his family owned business survived during these uncertain times.
“It was scary at first. We didn’t know if we were going to survive like a lot of businesses. We deal with a lot of limousine companies around the country and a lot of those didn’t survive”, adds Alverson.
20% of small businesses remain closed.
Economists expect that by the second quarter of 2021, the GDP could be back on track.
“We get back to the same growth rate we were at maybe a year from now. But, it’s going to take us another 7, 8, 9 years after that to make up everything that we lost”, adds Hopkins.


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No Always-On Display
One of the marquee features of the Apple Watch Series 5 when it launched last year was the addition of an always-on display, allowing you to see basic information such as the time without the need to always flick your wrist upright to light up the display.
In the Series 5, Apple accomplished this magic by dramatically slowing the refresh rate, so that the Apple Watch display updated much less frequently, thereby preserving battery life.
However, while Apple has actually improved the always-on display in the Apple Watch Series 6 — Apple says it’s now 2.5 times brighter than the Series 5 — it hasn’t brought that technology to the new Apple Watch SE, which looks like it’s basically going to have the same display technology as the 2018 Apple Watch Series 4.
It’s a surprising omission, as we basically felt that the always-on display was the way forward — how Apple believes that all Apple Watches should now work, rather than a premium or luxury feature — and with the Apple Watch Series 5 now discontinued, it means that if you want an always-on display, you’ll ultimately be shelling out for the new Series 6.


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Philip Hammond gets a £45bn budget boost as UK economy proves resilient following the Brexit vote
Chancellor Philip Hammond will be handed a Budget windfall of £45bn
Philip Hammond will be handed a Budget windfall of £45billion thanks to the resilience of the UK economy following the Brexit vote, according to experts.
In a report ahead of next week's Budget, accountancy giant PricewaterhouseCoopers said the Government is borrowing less than feared as tax receipts pour in.
The group said borrowing between 2016-17 and 2021-22 will total £189billion – some £45billion lower than predicted in the Autumn Statement in November.
The Chancellor is under mounting pressure to use some of the money to ease pressure on households and business facing a string of tax hikes and increase funding for social care and the NHS.
But with the Treasury still struggling to balance the books nearly a decade on from the financial crisis, the national debt is heading towards £2trillion.
Hammond has insisted there is 'no pot of money under my desk' to fund Budget giveaways.
John Hawksworth, chief economist at PwC, said: 'The chancellor may have some wiggle room to spend a few billion pounds more on political priorities but we don't expect a big giveaway.
'Instead, we expect him to use most of the potential windfall from lower borrowing to reduce the public debt faster than previously projected.'
PwC said it expects the economy to grow by 1.6 per cent this year and by 1.4 per cent next year.
The report predicted borrowing this year to come in at £58billion. The deficit, which hit £150billion in 2009-10 under Labour, is expected to fall to £10billion in 2021-22.
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BidaskClub cut shares of Tile Shop Hldgs, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTS) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Thursday, September 14th.
Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Piper Jaffray Companies set a $19.00 target price on Tile Shop Hldgs and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, July 18th. Zacks Investment Research raised shares of Tile Shop Hldgs from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, September 14th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a hold rating and issued a $15.00 price objective (down previously from $18.00) on shares of Tile Shop Hldgs in a research note on Friday, July 21st. Loop Capital started coverage on shares of Tile Shop Hldgs in a report on Wednesday, July 19th. They issued a hold rating and a $15.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group restated a market perform rating and set a $17.00 price objective (down previously from $21.00) on shares of Tile Shop Hldgs in a research note on Wednesday, July 19th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, Tile Shop Hldgs currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $16.33.
Shares of Tile Shop Hldgs (NASDAQ TTS) opened at 13.20 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $685.40 million, a P/E ratio of 33.00 and a beta of 1.80. Tile Shop Hldgs has a 12 month low of $12.05 and a 12 month high of $22.40. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $14.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $18.01.
Tile Shop Hldgs (NASDAQ:TTS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 18th. The company reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, missing the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.16 by ($0.01). Tile Shop Hldgs had a net margin of 6.11% and a return on equity of 17.45%. The company had revenue of $89.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.20 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.14 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Tile Shop Hldgs will post $0.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
In related news, CEO Chris Homeister purchased 9,000 shares of Tile Shop Hldgs stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 21st. The shares were bought at an average cost of $13.98 per share, for a total transaction of $125,820.00. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Robert A. Rucker sold 100,000 shares of Tile Shop Hldgs stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.16, for a total transaction of $2,016,000.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have purchased a total of 259,454 shares of company stock worth $3,710,115 in the last quarter. 24.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.
A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of TTS. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its position in Tile Shop Hldgs by 7.7% in the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 5,814 shares of the company’s stock valued at $120,000 after buying an additional 416 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA increased its holdings in shares of Tile Shop Hldgs by 13.2% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA now owns 6,867 shares of the company’s stock worth $132,000 after buying an additional 802 shares in the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue lifted its stake in shares of Tile Shop Hldgs by 79.3% in the 2nd quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 6,525 shares of the company’s stock valued at $134,000 after acquiring an additional 2,885 shares during the last quarter. Mason Street Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Tile Shop Hldgs by 6.8% in the 1st quarter. Mason Street Advisors LLC now owns 7,710 shares of the company’s stock valued at $148,000 after acquiring an additional 494 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Tile Shop Hldgs by 14.7% during the 1st quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 8,171 shares of the company’s stock valued at $157,000 after acquiring an additional 1,046 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.33% of the company’s stock.
About Tile Shop Hldgs
Tile Shop Holdings, Inc operates as a specialty retailer of manufactured and natural stone tiles, setting and maintenance materials, and related accessories in the United States. It offers approximately 4,000 products, including ceramic, porcelain, glass, cement, wood look, and metal tiles; and marble, granite, quartz, sandstone, travertine, slate, and onyx tiles primarily under the Rush River and Fired Earth brand names.
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