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AlertMe, the smart home tech company has sealed a deal with British Gas to provide a personalised energy efficiency advice service to UK customers with smart meters. So, The Jetsons‘ home of the future is not so far away after all.
Smart meters are a replacement for traditional gas meters in the home which have a display that shows customers how much energy they are using. The AlertMe service breaks down the information for comparison with similar households, actionable recommendations (like getting insulation or double glazing to help keep in heat) and generally suggest ways in which customers can save money and not waste so much energy.
The free service is being trialled with up to 10,000 homes during the summer and rolled out widely from the autumn. Smart meters from British Gas will be rolled out to all homes in the UK over the next seven years. Interestingly, the Alertme system can also be added to older gas meters so you don’t have to miss out while waiting for the arrival of the new.
British Gas is the largest supplier of domestic energy and it serving 10 million homes and 15.0 million energy accounts so the deal for AlertMe is a pretty solid one with that many possible customers hoping to monitor their usage and learn more about their own habits.
AlertMe CEO Mary Turner took on the lead role with the company following a successful run with Tiscali until after its sale to Carphone Warehouse.
In her time with Tiscali she grew sales from less than half a million dial-up customers to being the third largest DSL provider in the UK. She now hopes to bring AlertMe to a similar level of ubiquity and sees similarities between the growth of the two markets.
“This is a big movement, way beyond just a single individual,” says Turner. “Part of the reason I joined AlertMe was that I could see this sector ready for transformation. In the last ten years the whole telecommunications industry has transformed. I’m really excited becuse I see this as the beginning of huge amounts of services that come into the home.”
AlertMe looks to be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to living in the retro-futurist ‘home of the future’. The infrastructure for people to interact with their immediate surroundings is already consolidating and Turner believes that it will not be long until we are all accustomed to conversing with the places in which we live.
“People are so connected; to each other, to banks and shops but the one area that they have very little information and insight is in the home. We are at the beginning stages of the quantified home. I believe that in the next few years there will be an acceleration,” says Turner. “The way that people use their mobile phones is already there and the way people connect to the home is just a whisker away for convenience and where the internet of things will the next big consumer technology wave.”
If there was any question about Turner’s dedication to the internet of things, then have a think about the way her own home runs. Not only is she having it fitted out with AlertMe meters, the arrival of her son coming home from school sends her an alert at work and when he gets there, the heating is adjusted to suit his preference.
AlertMe was founded in 2006 to provide home energy management and connected services to consumers and through partners such as energy utilities, telecommunications companies and retailers. The service rests on a single cloud-based platform and an AlertMe hub in the home.
The company is venture-backed by Good Energies, Index Ventures, Chrysalix SET Venture Partners and VantagePoint Capital Partners.
Originally the company’s pitch seemed a tough one to get these items into the homes of a wider consumer market rather than just early adopters or people who like to tinker with gadgets.
The agreement with British Gas could prove to be the tipping point that gets us more familiar with running our homes from a computer or mobile device. In which case, the delivery of hover boards is not too far away, right?


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Facebook made further changes to detect, remove, and preventing paid content on the social media platform.
Facebook suspends 16000 accounts buying and selling fake reviews
Changes in Facebook Application
Britain’s contest guard dog said on Friday social media company Facebook removed 16,000 accounts that were selling and buying fake reviews of different products and services, the second time the regulator had to get involved.
What said Contest and Markets Authority (CMA)?
Facebook made more changes for detecting and removing paid content which could lead astray users on its platforms, including the famous photo-sharing app Instagram, the Contest and Markets Authority (CMA) said. “We have tied up extensively with the CMA (Contest and Markets Authority) to address this issue. Fraudulent and illusory activity is not allowed on our platforms, including contribution or trading fake reviews,” a Facebook representative said.
CMA (Contest and Markets Authority) abolition on false reviews
The CMA began a abolition on false reviews from 2019 when it first asked Facebook and e-commerce platform eBay to check their websites after it found proof of a growing marketplace for deceiving customer reviews on the platforms.
Facebook has also been under inspection by the CMA (Contest and Markets Authority) for antitrust concerns over the technology company’s accession of GIF website Giphy. It has been under coercion the world over for its data sharing practices as well as fraud news and hate speech.
CMA Chieftain Executive Andrea Coscelli said,
“The epidemic has meant that more and more people are buying online, and millions of us read reviews to qualify to make informed choices when we shop around. That’s why fraud and deceiving reviews are so harmfully,” said CMA Chieftain Executive Andrea Coscelli. CMA’s (Contest and Markets Authority) abolition on Facebook coincides with Britain’s efforts to set up a devoted digital markets unit within the regulatory sovereignty to especially look at governing digital platforms.ou
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To mark the filling of its eight millionth barrel of bourbon since Prohibition, Buffalo Trace Distillery is offering one lucky bourbon lover the trip of a lifetime.
On the heels of “National Ditch Your New Year’s Resolution Day,” Buffalo Trace Distillery is asking fans to ditch their resolutions and go for bourbon…or rather, run for bourbon instead. It’s also okay if fans walk, jog or cheer someone else on, too.
One fan who “runs” a mile for bourbon will win a first-class trip for two to stay at the secluded Stagg Lodge on the distillery grounds, dinner prepared by the distillery’s private chef, private tours of the grounds and distillery, and an $800 gift card for gift shop merchandise. Buffalo Trace Distillery, whose portfolio includes the 2022 Antique Collection, will also donate bourbon, in the name of the winner, to a mutually agreed upon 501(c) charity. The entire prize is valued at $10,000.
“Unlike our previous milestones which took an average of 12 years to achieve, the eighth millionth barrel comes just four years after the seventh millionth barrel, due to the $1.2 billion expansion efforts at the distillery over the last several years,” says Sara Saunders, chief marketing officer for Sazerac.
“This is the first milestone to come as a result of the investment we made and our expansion efforts,” she adds. It’s absolutely a moment to celebrate. Over the past few years, we’ve doubled our fermenters, added more grain cookers and more barrel warehouses, all in an effort to make more bourbon.”
The distillery’s team was looking for an innovative way to celebrate their fans when it was noted that January 17 is “National Ditch Your Resolutions Day.” “So we knew this would be a great moment to invite bourbon lovers to set aside their resolutions and run for bourbon instead,” Saunders says. “We won’t actually be checking to make sure our fans complete their mile, but we trust that our bourbon-loving patrons will participate for the chance to win the bourbon experience of a lifetime.”
Bourbon fans should visit www.willrunforbuffalotracebourbon.com between January 18 and February 18 for details and to enter. One fan – and a guest – will get to bask in a specially curated bourbon experience. The experience includes one night in Louisville and then one night at Stagg Lodge on the distillery grounds.
“Buffalo Trace Distillery’s Stagg Lodge is our private guest house nestled on the edge of Whiskey Farm overlooking the distillery, the Kentucky River and historic downtown Frankfort,” Saunders says. The Stagg Lodge was built in 2020 and is currently a private cabin, which fans normally cannot access.
Right now, this stay is a “one-time offer,” Saunders says, but the brand is always looking to honor its fans, but fans should follow the brand at @buffalotracedistillery on Facebook or Instagram to see what other intriguing promotions come up.
“We don’t want to give everything about the experience away, but the winner will be offered some incredibly exciting opportunities during their visit,” she says.


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Rumour: Nintendo opening the Wii U up to smartphone app developers
by Matthew Diener 6/5/2013
Product: Nintendo news
Format: iPhone, iPad
Nintendo's been pretty cagey about entering into the world of smartphone games and apps - but there are signs and rumours that this might be changing.
After opening up its Miiverse social network to smartphone and tablet traffic, it appears that Nintendo is looking to lure mobile game developers into releasing games for its struggling Wii U.
ZDNet reports (via The Japan Times) that Nintendo is in the process of modifying its game consoles so customers can use "smartphone applications" on them.
Plumbing the depths
If the rumour is true, this isn't the direction that many expected Nintendo to move in terms of the mobile game integration.
With a host of older titles available, many anticipated Nintendo to release ports of them for the then-emerging iOS and Android markets. But when Nintendo unveiled the eShop for the 3DS in the summer of 2011, those older titles found a new home in the Nintendo ecosystem.
Still, the Wii U has been struggling since its launch and opening up its hardware to mobile developers would be a great way to pad the somewhat economical selection of games currently available for the embattled console.
We'll follow this rumour closely and will report any updates to it when we have them.
©2014 Steel Media Limited
Get even more pocket gaming goodness online at www.pocketgamer.co.uk


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FARGO — Some local bars got a special delivery Wednesday by some of the world's most famous animal-drawn transportation.
The Budweiser Clydesdales took part in a beer delivery parade in downtown Fargo as part of a lead-up to the Anheuser-Busch Growers Days at the Moorhead Malt Plant in an effort to connect regional growers. The parade made 12 stops at bars along Broadway.
"The horses are beautiful," said Nikki Zahradka, who is the Midwest agronomy manager for Anheuser-Busch. "They represent great excellence and our ambassadors in our quality, and so it's just really great to be able to share that with the community and our barley growers in the region."
Grower Days is expected to start at about 12:45 on Thursday afternoon at the Moorhead Malt Plant.


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by Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
Do you market your ag operation on social media? If you do, the quality of your content greatly affects its efficacy. Ashlie Woods, account manager with J. Scott Marketing, presented “Pro Secrets to Killer Social Media Ad ROI” as a recent webinar on the topic.
Woods began by asking, “Why should you consider Facebook and Instagram ads?” Cost is a big factor, as these are cheaper than other forms of advertising. They also reach more people, as “organic reach” continues to decrease, meaning fewer people repost things they see on social media.
Woods added that social media ads allow marketers to target the right people. Plus, the competition is advertising on social media.
“They’re getting in front of your customers and potentially stealing them away if you don’t have social media ads,” Woods said.
Social media ads offer plenty of benefits. You can set your budget and get tons of data on ROI, Woods noted. The real-time data can show how ads are helping or not helping the business.
“Ads can drive website traffic, capture leads, build your email list and remarket to your website visitors,” Woods said.
A good ad has a clear, strong message; a quality, compelling image; a descriptive headline (for Facebook ads only); and a call-to-action (CTA) button which leads users elsewhere, such as to your website.
The layout of the ad is important. “If you have too much of your image with text overlaid on it, Facebook will reject your ad,” Woods said. “They want you to be succinct with your text.”
Woods advised creating a sense of urgency on any action that users should take, such as a limited-time offer for something the users want – a sale that ends in a week or a gift-with-purchase for buying a certain amount of items during the season. But make the benefit clear.
“Make sure the content you’re spending money on has a clear message. What do you want to tell the viewer?” Woods asked. “And a clear call to action – what do you want the viewer to do?”
She said ads should use quality images, correct spelling and information and promote topics that affect the bottom line.
“If you go to your Facebook business page, you’ll see a bright blue button, ‘Boost Posts,’” Woods said. “Sometimes it says ‘Promote.’ You’ll then choose your objective, like sending people to the website, or getting people to like, comment or share. It could be creating a new audience.”
Targeting for boosted posts can break down the audience by gender, age and location and further by demographics, interests and behaviors. For example, if the target market is local women aged 25 to 55 who have children at home and are interested in wholesome, local food, a producer can target them with pinpoint accuracy instead of randomly advertising to everyone.
Woods said the ads manager structure begins with the campaign: What is the objective? Next are the ad sets. Who are the targets? For a farm, the objective may be to raise awareness of its CSA shares. The targets of the ad sets may be families interested in eating local foods and organizations interested in supporting local businesses.
“You want people to recognize your brand or reach a lot of people,” Woods said. “The reason why Facebook has you choose that objective is their algorithm chooses who will see the ad.”
The Custom Audiences feature works like Google Analytics and tracks activity on the website. Woods said this can offer remarketing possibility, insights into who is visiting the website from Facebook and Instagram and it will work with or without ads.
“You know they’re interested in your product because they’ve been to your website,” Woods said. “You can also create a lookalike audience from your customer list. That will find people on Facebook who are most similar to the profile of your business shared data like your email list. You can upload your email list to Facebook to find people in the same demographics and behavior. That’s how Facebook builds the lookalike audience.”
By engaging with followers, businesses can reach people who have connected to the business in the past.
For those new to social media, Woods said to wait on running ads until they’ve posted content for three to six months. “Facebook won’t know enough about your audience” before that, she said. She noted it takes Facebook at least 24 hours to populate a Custom Audience.
Once an ad posts, “let it run a couple of days, go back in and tweak it a little bit. We see a huge drop in the cost of running these ads,” she said. Changing it too soon will not allow time for user response.
“It’s critical when you’re investing in Facebook marketing that you build in time to analyze your results or you’re leaving money on the table,” Woods said. “You’re empowering your team to get better results at a lower cost.”
Results of an ad can be measured in reach per impression, click-through rates and engagement. Engagement may include likes, shares, comments or clicks. “Click-through rate is a good measure of ad quality,” Woods added. (This shows who clicks on an ad.)
“Engagement is really important for the social media algorithm,” Woods said. “The average for Facebook is 0.9%. If you have 1% or higher, you’re above average. You want a lower cost for results.”


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Paris Climate Agreement: Lost at Sea?
The maritime shipping industry hauls roughly 90% of global trade every year. If the shipping industry was a country, it would be the world’s sixth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, coming in below Japan and just above Brazil and Germany. According to the International Maritime Organization, shipping accounted for 2.5 percent of world greenhouse gas emissions in 2016, and a report released by the European Parliament estimates that the maritime shipping industry’s share of global CO2 emissions could increase to as much as 17 percent by 2050 if changes are not made.
Though initial majority support existed for addressing shipping in the recently finalized Paris Climate Agreement, a coalition led by China, Brazil, South Africa, and Russia—all economies heavily dependent on shipping—blocked it. As a result, despite the magnitude of the shipping industry’s role in greenhouse gas emissions, it was omitted entirely from the Agreement, the deal meant to comprehensively grapple with emissions.
This preliminary failure, as well as comparison to an industry of equal size and influence, evidence the need for new international regulation of the maritime shipping industry. The global aviation industry is a similarly large emitter, also accounting for approximately 2 percent of world CO2 emissions. Yet the aviation industry is tightly regulated by national governments to ensure safety and reliability. Moreover, it is composed of large, high-profile carriers subsidized by their home governments and conscious of their public images. National governments can thus use this institutional infrastructure and high visibility to regulate and incentivize emissions reductions in the same way they promote safety.
The maritime shipping industry, on the other hand, is an opaque web of shell corporations and flags of convenience. Ostensibly, ships are subject to the laws of the country they are registered with, but many ships fly numerous flags over the course of their operating lives. A ship’s country of registry is often unrelated to the nationality of the company that owns the ship thanks to the use of shell corporations, and the ease of shifting a ship’s registration undermines the potential effectiveness of national regulations. If a country raised the emissions standards for all ships bearing its flag, the owners could simply transfer the ship to a different company based in a country with more lax regulations.
This network of holding companies also protects the shipping industry from scrutiny from a public already largely blind to how their clothes and electronics find their way to their doors. The only opportunity for public pressure to incentivize good behavior would be for retailers to conspicuously make use of low-carbon shipping companies. With the ease of shifting ships between anonymous companies based out of tax havens, however, shippers do not have to live with bad reputations for long. Owners can close a company that is a known offender and shift their assets to a new company with a clean reputation.
The solution to this complex legal and environmental dilemma is to address maritime emissions in the 2020 update to the Paris Agreement. The Agreement’s signatories, which comprise an overwhelming majority of the world’s nations and economic activity, will be submitting their expanded national pledges, and a widespread commitment to reduced shipping emissions must be among them.
Even if an emissions standard for world shipping is not adopted by all nations, a significant impact could still be made if most of the major economies sign on. All ships flying the committed nation’s flag or entering its ports should be subject to inspection to ensure that they meet emissions standards, with the possibility of being impounded or simply turned away if they do not. It is the second part, the prohibition against unloading cargo for ships that don’t pass inspection, that would give such a commitment real bite. While changing the flag of a ship is easy, a ship that cannot deliver cargo to the major economies of the world is a bad investment, and shipping companies would thus be required to update their fleets to maintain access to major world markets. Exact specifications for this standard should be discussed at the 22nd Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC this November in Morocco, providing clear signals to the shipping industry of changes to come as consensus is built between November and 2020. This will give industry officials adequate opportunity to prepare for the changes well before they go into effect.
Ultimately, however, international regulations must proceed whether or not these officials are prepared for them. The sheer volume of emissions from shipping means that the international community can no longer sit idly by as this industry stalls or further obstructs the goal of overall emissions reduction.


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SCARBOROUGH — The big white box at Oak Hill that will soon be a new Walgreens is raising a few eyebrows – and questions.
Some residents and owners of nearby businesses are saying the 20,000-square-foot structure rising on the site of a former fast-food restaurant and bank seems too large and too tall for the property, and too close to the corner of Route 1 and Route 114.
Town Planner Dan Bacon last week said he has heard from several people expressing their concern over the building’s size and proximity to the road. Because the structure has been erected using insulated concrete forms, at this stage of construction, there is no indication of windows, roof lines or the building’s facade, he said.
“I’ve told people to stay patient with the building; it will blend in,” he said.
According to Bacon, a building may be constructed as close as 35 feet from a road. Walgreens is nearly 40 feet from Route 1, he said.
Planning Board Vice Chairman Cory Fellows last week said he has heard critical comments about the building. Though he brought up the topic to emphasize that design “really does matter” to Scarborough residents, Fellows said Wednesday that someone remarked that the building was “turning its back on the intersection of Route 1.”
“It may appear out of scale early on because of the big, white mass, but at the end of the day, people should be happy with it,” he said.
When the Planning Board considered the design last winter, Fellows said, it wanted the building to “relate to the intersection” and to evoke a town-center feel with a design that has the look of two stories. To anchor it to the road and to include the shops in Oak Hill Plaza, the board required parking only in the rear, which would bring Walgreens customers in more direct contact with nearby plaza stores.
Fellows said the comments he’s heard remind him of comments made when Bessey Commons was being constructed – a project he said is now regarded as an attractive addition to Route 1.
For the most part, owners and managers of the plaza shops are looking forward to Walgreens’ arrival.
Felicia Webber, assistant manager of Family Dollar, said the size of the store doesn’t surprise her. And Paws Applause owner Diana Locke said the construction and torn-up parking lot has been a nuisance, but she is looking forward to the new neighbor.
“I think it will clean up the corner; clean up the parking lot,” Locke said. “It’s going to increase visibility and increase traffic to the plaza.”
Ace Hardware Office Manager Anne Johnson and Oak Hill Florist owner Jenny Thomas said they are also counting on Walgreens generating more business. But, while she likes the idea of more customers, Thomas said she’s still concerned about the building’s size.
“This is supposed to be our town center and to me this building is going to be a giant eyesore,” she said. “I think it’s warped Oak Hill Plaza and makes the rest of us look tiny and insignificant.”
Thomas said the concern she has is access to the plaza.
But Bacon said new and improved signs, which will include two or three updated business directory signs, as well as directional signs, were included in the board’s approval. The sign ideas came from a master planning exercise with the Planning Board and plaza manager Steve Berg, of Alpha Management. Bacon said sidewalks will also be installed throughout the plaza.
In the last few days, the large white Walgreens mass has started to undergo a transformation. Workers have started creating the variations in roof lines, and exterior brickwork has begun.
Peggy Roberts can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 125 or email@example.com.


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Bio-Synergy is taking edible strip technology into a new arena with the launch of a trio of Mouth Strips designed as an alternative to vitamin pills.
The company has made use of its heritage in sports nutrition and supplements to produce starch-based strips that dissolve on the tongue and come in resealable packs of 24 for £1.99.
Vitamin C strips featuring Bart Simpson are aimed at parents who can't get their children to eat fresh fruit and vegetables or vitamin pills, while Vitality and Energy strips, which combine caffeine and green tea and guarana, target adults leading a hectic lifestyle.
Multivitamin strips have a wider audience and contain vitamins C, E, K and B6, the vitamins the company claims are hardest to get from a "dodgy diet".
Soluble breath-freshening strips have been around for about five years in the US, and arrived here in 2003, with Extra Thin Ice and Listerine Actives introduced by Wrigley and Pfizer respectively. The technology has also extended to candy strips, other 'energy' lines, as well as dog treats and soaps.


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British officials say the new coin will be harder to fake — as many as 45 million, or 3%, of the pound coins now in circulation are said to be counterfeit.
The Royal Mint announced plans Wednesday to replace the weighty flat piece with a 12-sided coin made with two separate metals. It resembles a "threepenny bit" — a coin that circulated in Britain from 1937-1971.
The new coin, which will circulate beginning in 2017, will feature a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II or whoever the monarch is at the time.
Royal Mint chief executive Adam Lawrence says the goal is to "produce a pioneering new coin" that will boost confidence and cut fraud.
he side of a new one pound coin announced by the British government.(Photo: The Royal Mint/ AP)
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Want to bring out the shine in those old coins your parents or grandparents gave you? Think twice before cleaning them. If the coins are collectible or valuable, cleaning will almost always reduce their value — sometimes by as much as 90% — and cleaning won’t improve their grading (the standards used by coin collectors and dealers to evaluate a coin), so you should usually let them be. If, however, you’ve just got some old coins around that aren’t worth much more than their face value, but which you would still like to make more presentable, you can usually clean them up pretty nicely without damaging their surfaces too noticeably.


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If you purchase an item from a physical retailer on its website while standing in the store and perhaps even working with a salesman did you just have an online or an offline shopping experience? The same question can be asked for a purchase made online that's picked up in a brick-and-mortar store.
In general the line between online and offline commerce has blurred and consumers are using physical stores to help their online shopping while retailers with physical locations are using their online presence to enhance the in-store experience.
United States retail e-commerce will continue its growth in 2014, with sales forecast to rise 15.5% to $304.1 billion. Although e-commerce sales will account for just 6.4% of the $4.73 trillion in total U.S. retail sales expected this year, their true impact will be much bigger, according to a new eMarketer report, U.S. Retail Ecommerce: 2014 Trends and Forecast.
The full story however is not about where a sale is made but all of the components that go into causing a consumer to make a purchase.
"Consumers may not buy online all the time, but they are shopping through digital channels constantly. Of the 219.4 million Internet users in the U.S. ages 14 and older, eMarketer expects 196.6 million, or 89.6%, to shop online this year, compared with 163.2 million who will go on to complete a purchase digitally," the report says.
This means that to survive physical retailers will have to get smarter about how they integrate e-commerce and online retailers will have to find a way to overcome the disadvantage of not having a physical store. That may sound a little silly -- not paying for actual locations has long been an advantage that allows online stores to have lower prices -- but if physical retailers integrate online stores into their sales process that advantage could become a liability.
Showrooming goes both ways
Showrooming -- the idea that people use brick-and-mortar stores to look at items they then purchase online -- has been blamed for the troubles facing a number of retailers, with Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) being the most prominent example. A customer comes into a Best Buy store, spends time with a salesman, decides what he wants to buy, leaves, and makes the purchase later on Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) or another online retailer. Best Buy has laid out the money for the store and the salesperson while Amazon has done nothing, but still makes the sale, whether because the item is cheaper or it's a hassle to get the product home.
While showrooming has hurt some retail stores, others have benefited from "webrooming" -- when people do their research online but purchase in a store. According to a November 2013 survey of U.S. digital shoppers by consulting firm Accenture, 78% of respondents reported webrooming. At the same time some store visits eventually led to a digital purchase. The same Accenture study found that 72% of respondents showroomed or purchased online after seeing a product in a store.
For retailers -- be they online or offline -- the challenge is finding a way to make customers complete the sale and companies on both side of the fight are trying different tactics. Best Buy, for example, matches online pricing. Amazon offers a price check app that lets a customer scan a UPC code in order to see how much that item costs on Amazon. That tool could actually work in both directions. It might lead to a sale for Amazon because even if Best Buy matches the price Amazon offers free shipping on many items over $35. It could also lead to a sale for Best Buy as the consumer would know they are paying a fair price and the physical store has it now.
Stores need to adapt and evolve
Digital retailers have led the innovation charge while traditional stores have seemed largely rooted in the practices of the past. This has doomed chains like Borders, Circuit City, and others but the survivors don't have to resign themselves to that fate. Instead they must learn how to integrate digital opportunities into their physical presence.
"The majority of stores are just learning how to [sell] online," Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at The NPD Group, told eMarketer. "However, once they figure that out, the next step is how do they take the online and meld it in with the store experience to enhance them both."
While digital retailers like Amazon have been spending big developing apps and tools while exploring ways to improve delivery times, most physical retailers have been largely standing pat. Another sales flyer, "door-buster sale," or whatever traditional retail tactic used to work are not viable in a world where most people can buy nearly anything in a few clicks from their phone. Stores have an inherent advantage in that no matter how fast an online retailer delivers it can't equal the speed of picking up an item off the shelf and having it now.
That's not enough though and physical retailers that want to survive will likely have to sacrifice margin and find ways get customers to complete sales that are more innovative than hoping they can't wait a day or two.


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Increasing focus is being directed to developing Li-ion battery technology, particularly in view of the expected surge in uptake of electric vehicles (EVs) in the near to short term. It is not hard to imagine a future where battery powered EVs have replaced many, if not all, of the internal combustion engines on our roads. However, a number of concerns arise when looking towards this battery powered future, and highlight the need for robust recycling practices and technologies.
Insights: October 2020
The United Kingdom’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) recently released a report on sectors of the economy which make the most intensive use of intellectual property (IP) rights, and how much these sectors contribute to the UK economy.
Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs): How will the border solution between Ireland & Northern Ireland affect SPCs post-Brexit?
The United Kingdom (UK) left the European Union (EU) on 31 January 2020. It’s been business as usual during the current transition period, but all that will change from 1 January 2021 when “post-Brexit” reality dawns. We still do not know how the issue of the border between Ireland (part of the EU) and Northern Ireland (part of the UK) will be resolved post-Brexit.
Amazon’s intellectual property (IP) policy is designed to protect sellers by preventing the sale of counterfeit or knockoff goods on Amazon’s various websites. But, what can you do, as a seller, if you think one or more of your product listings has been unfairly removed because of an existing registered design (or design right)?
Concise guide to Brexit and intellectual property
Brexit and intellectual property – a guide
Brexit and intellectual property – FAQs in detail
Last week, the European Patent Office (EPO), together with the International Energy Agency (IEA), released a detailed report on patenting activity in electricity storage between 2000 and 2018. An EPO press release is available on the EPO website along with the full report.


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Just so you know, this is not the first accusation against Facebook.
It appears that the social media giant could be resorting to dirty tactics to remain on top – This is according to Hike Messenger, an India-based instant messaging platform. The company is accusing Facebook of blocking its ads thereby preventing potential customers from visiting.
According to a Hike spokesperson,“Advertisers have, among other options, the option to ‘send people to your website’. A few weeks back we were suddenly blocked from using this option while we were able to use other non action-led options.” When they contacted Facebook about this, the response from the social network was, “There are specific products and services that cannot be advertised on Facebook – looks like Hike is one of these. Unfortunately, you will not be able to run these ads.”
I am not sure if this is a bug, but bear in mind that we have two Whatsapp rivals – the first is telegraph – complaining about the same thing!
Now, let’s assume it’s not a bug, is it right for Facebook to block these ads?
Also bear in mind that this is their platform and they can choose to do whatsoever they want to, the same way Nairaland can do whatsoever it wants to.


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On Sunday, May 10, Egypt’s official statistics agency CAPMAS announced that the country’s annual urban price inflation rate increased to 5.9 percent in April from 5.1 percent in March. This is a rate higher than analysts had expected on the back of rising food prices.
Although being one of the African countries with the highest number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases, the African country has not witnessed panic buying seen in other countries. However, the demand for food and other services surged in April, ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadam.
Allen Sandeep, head of research at Naeem Brokerage told Reuters that the country expected a surge in Ramadan but the rate of increase is higher than anticipated. “In the two weeks preceding the holy month, there was a lot of buying activity and a demand push across the board. We could possibly see some easing in May,” he said, adding that the increase was still not a cause for concern.
For a while, Egypt has been witnessing a rise in month-on-month urban inflation, which accelerated to 1.3 percent compared with 0.6 percent in March, CAPMAS said. The agency also reported that core inflation, which excludes goods such as food, also increased to 2.54 percent year-on-year in April, from 1.89 percent in March.
Egypt is facing the economic impact from the spread of the new coronavirus. The country has recorded over 9,400 cases of the virus, 2,075 have recovered and 525 died so far.
In curbing the spread of the virus, the country imposed a nightly curfew, closed schools and universities, shut restaurants and cafes, and cancelled flights. The partial lockdown threatens the livelihoods of the country’s 100 million residents, one of three of whom are already living in poverty.
This has also affected the country’s revenue generation and has put a halt on exporting and importing goods and services while taking a drastic toll on the tourism sector which is also a major source of revenue.
Last month, Egypt asked the International Monetary Fund for financial assistance to help deal with the impact of the pandemic on its economy, and is seeking a Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) loan as well as emergency financing under a Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) loan.
According to analysts and information on the IMF website, Egypt is potentially eligible for as much as $2.78 billion under the RFI and about $4 billion per year under the SBA. Currently, the country’s currency is trading at around 15 Egyptian pounds to a dollar.


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Their plan to make eye exams cheap and accessible worldwide brought them to Haiti, where Marc Albanese and Yaopeng Zhou joined the pro-bono doctors of the Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity to check the eyes of locals without access to care. But when it was time to go home, Marc Albanese and Yaopeng Zhou found that the doctors in the mission wanted to conduct their exams by smartphone back home, too.
“That was when we knew we could really sell this as a product,” says Albanese. “This company’s for profit only because if it wasn’t, we’d be out of business.”
The cofounders’ device, the SVOne, promises to shave as much as 90% off the cost for comparable equipment that can run as much as $40,000. The SVOne costs $3,950 including a paired iPhone 5s and a year of support. While the name for its technology can sound daunting to the uninitiated—SVOne uses wavefront aberrometry, which it says is superior to existing autorefractors—what that really means is that a doctor can examine a customer’s eyes in just about five seconds by pointing an iPhone camera at them. More than 200 doctors use the tech so far in the U.S. and Canada (doctors span 41 states so far).
The market Albanese and Zhou are selling to hasn’t changed much in years, they believe, making it ripe for a mobile-first solution like this to beat out older vendors in sales when doctors make their next purchase. The hard part? Finding those doctors when they’re looking, since sales cycles are slow.
That’s why their company, Smart Vision Labs, has raised millions to ramp up sales.
SmartVision Labs announced Monday it’s raised $6.1 million in a Series A funding round led by TechStars Ventures, the multi-city accelerator for startups that also has a fund to invest directly in others. Heritage Group, Connectivity Capital Partners and Red Sea Ventures rounded out the raise.
“When you go to someone’s office and test their eye, that’s amazing and they can see the results. But then what do you do? We need to open access,” says Albanese, Smart Vision’s cofounder and COO. Smart Vision claims that of 200 million people in the U.S. who need corrective lenses, less than half get their eyes checked annually.
The startup plans to use the money to work on its product and hire staff in sales and marketing, but also to bring optometrists in-house to join its 13 staff today. In-house professionals will allow Smart Vision Labs to test new use cases for the startup’s products by using their expertise with actual patients, Albanese hopes. The company aims to double its doctor customers to 400 by the end of the year.
Smart Vision Labs had won a Verizon “Power Answers” award for $1 million in early 2014 to help it get started.


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SAN JOSE, Calif. — Swedish designer brand LELO has announced the upcoming summer release of the LELO HEX condom.
LELO says its R&D departments have been working on optimizing an “unprecedented” condom design since 2009. The new design has already received all relevant certifications for sale globally, and LELO is currently ramping up production to meet expected demand.
Steve Thomson, LELO’s chief marketing officer said, “LELO Pleasure Products are famous for helping millions enjoy healthier, more vibrant sex lives. Now we’re taking another step forward in launching the world’s first re-engineered condom. This landmark design looks set to become the most important innovation in the category for more than 70 years. We’re thrilled to bring it to market.”
Further details are still under wraps. To follow the progress of LELO HEX and its “aim to revolutionize the world of safe sex,” sign up for regular updates at LELOCondoms.com.


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The Philippines reiterated its request for Australia to provide market access on several agricultural products, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said on Tuesday.
In recent dialogue between the Philippines and Australia, Trade Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo expressed the country’s interest for the grant of market access for its fresh Cavendish banana shipments.
This is not the first time DTI pushed for wider market access for bananas—a major agriculture export product—as the Philippines is currently securing low to zero tariff for said produce with South Korea.
Last year, banana exports reached 3.595 million metric tons which is 18.35 percent lower than 4.403 MMT in 2019, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Revenues from banana exports fell by 20.6 percent to $1.552 billion last year from $1.953 billion.
Apart from bananas, the Philippines is also seeking market access for dragon fruit and durian. The DTI welcomed the first-ever shipment of frozen durian from Davao to Australia.
“It [Philippines] also requested the termination of the anti-dumping measure on Philippine canned pineapples,” the trade department said, adding that it would work with other government agencies and exporters to address the said requests.
Both countries share trade and investment opportunities as well in several areas. These include personal protective equipment, vaccine, pharmaceutical manufacturing, copper industry, electric vehicles, agriculture, defense, shipbuilding, renewable energy, education and development programs in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
“Australia highlighted its focus on building stronger and wider markets through investments and cooperation initiatives with its trading partners,” the DTI said.
With this, Sydney proposed collaboration with several government agencies, including the DTI, the Department of Budget and Management, Department of Foreign Affairs and Anti-Red Tape Authority.
Currently, over 300 Australian companies are employing about 44,000 Filipinos in mining, shipbuilding, energy supply, retail trade, accommodation and food service facilities, manufacturing, transportation and storage. At least 200 of these are in the information technology-business process management industry.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the countr’s export to Australia fell by 10.3 percent to $356.94 million in 2020 from $398.10 million year-on-year. Imports from Australia reached $766.42 million last year, which is 45.7 percent lower than $1.41 billion in 2019.


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He added that when he contacted the company, they refused to receive the complaint, but misbehaved with him.
Once a property is 10 years old, it falls into the Haryana Rent Control Act.
Licensee firm targets Rs 40 crore in retail sales in India in the next one year from DreamWorks Animation’s merchandise
As per the block deal data available with BSE, the ICICI group firm purchased 1 lakh shares, or 0.18 per cent stake, in the Ahmedabad-based e-commerce company.
The department issued the clarification amid reports of some consignments being delayed at ports for want of clarity on rules governing the GST regime.
With VAT still applicable to alcohol bills and GST to food bills in restaurants, Bhagwat said “one nation, one tax” premise did not hold good in this case
Top government officials said there's no clarity over whether the state can suo motu denotify national highways cutting through cities or if it requires the permission of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the ministry of road transport and highways.
The fact that alcohol still attracts VAT while food come sunder GST is one reason why restaurants are reluctant to directly decrease prices.
Food safety and drug administration (FSDA) officials said that sale of junk food, eggs and meat has been prohibited even on highways covered by the kanwar yatris.
"The number of 1.54 per cent is historically low and reflects the firm and ongoing consolidation of macro economic stability," Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian told reporters.
The investment assumes significance as it comes after the roll out of goods and services tax (GST) which is expected to fuel growth in the logistics sector.
Taxmen are scrutinising sudden spurt of activity in old companies and formation of few companies and fear these are specifically created to game GST.
However, retail outlets in Karnataka are not adhering to the rule. “Forget the stickers, manufacturers have not even supplied us the new inventory.
Three local whisky brands figure within the top 10 with Officer’s Choice continuing to be the second largest spirits brand in the world, according to a July IWSR report.
Hotel and Restaurant Association Of Western India (HRAWI) has organized a seminar on ‘GST Law – 2017’ on Thursday 13th July, 2017 at the Trident, Nariman Point.
(GST) rate of 12 per cent, a shade lower than 13.7 per cent in.
GST, which came into effect on July 1, subsumes 17 indirect taxes and 22 cesses at different rates across different states.
Thus, the losers are the medium class hotels. Business of these hotels has been hit by more than 25% post GST regime. Though, it is too early to reach a conclusion, but hoteliers say the initial trend during the first fortnight is disturbing.
The number of angel and seed investments made in the first half of 2017 (January to June) is down to 260 -a sharp drop from 419 in the first half of 2016, according to data from startup analytics firm Tracxn.
A statement issued by RB said the firm has “committed to be the behaviour change communications partner to spread awareness on the matter through the social campaign”.


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The logo of Huawei Technologies is pictured in front of the German headquarters of the Chinese telecommunications giant in Duesseldorf, Germany. File photo/Reuters
SHENZHEN/HONG KONG: China’s Huawei Technologies, the world’s third-largest smartphone maker, reported a 25 per cent jump in 2018 net profit, buoyed by a solid performance in its home market and a booming smartphone Business.
Shenzhen-based Huawei raked in a net profit of 59.3 billion yuan ($8.8 billion), compared to a 28 per cent rise in 2017 and a big rebound from a 0.4 per cent increase in 2016.
The outlook for Huawei is clouded by US accusations that its telecoms network equipment could be used for spying by the Chinese government and calls to allies from Washington to ban Huawei from building next-generation mobile networks.
Huawei has repeatedly said Beijing has no influence over it.
Huawei’s revenue grew 19.5 per cent 721.2 billion yuan last year, in line with what it had earlier flagged.
That marked the fastest pace of Business growth in two years for Huawei, despite heightened scrutiny of its activities.
A senior company executive said earlier this week that the US campaign against Huawei was having little impact on the company’s sales and that it was unlikely many countries would heed the US call to ban its gear.
The company expects revenue to jump to $125 billion in 2019. ($1 = 6.7349 Chinese yuan)
US FedEx Corp on Friday again apologised and blamed Washington’s ban on Huawei for being “unclear” as Beijing deepened an investigation into why the delivery firm was holding up packages meant for the telecoms equipment maker.
China on Saturday increased tariffs on billions worth of US goods as it prepares to unveil a blacklist of “unreliable” foreign companies that analysts say aims to punish US and foreign firms cutting off supplies to telecoms giant Huawei.
European stocks slipped on Monday as concerns about an escalating fallout from a US crackdown on China’s Huawei Technologies offset a slightly more positive tone on trade.
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, on Monday visited the 25th edition of the Gulfood, which is hosted by the Dubai World Trade Center between February 16 and 20.
The attractive offers by the real estate market in Dubai continued last year to benefited investors, end users and tenants alike. This led to the continuation of momentum on these vital areas with competitive prices,
DP World’s parent company Port and Free Zone World has offered to acquire the 19.55 per cent of DP World’s shares traded on Nasdaq Dubai, returning the company to private ownership.
The Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) - key trade facilitator of DP World, UAE Region - is showcasing its incentives for companies as well as its sustained role as the leading contributor to Dubai’s F&B trade, at Gulfood 2020, which opened on February 16, marking its 25th anniversary.


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CHICAGO (CBS.MW) -- Shares of Home Depot were moving fast and furiously in active trading Friday after a Bank of America analyst urged clients to "buy" the home-improvement retailer's stock. In a note, Aram Rubinson said Home Depot has "corrected merchandising miscues" and that "sales are apt to show meaningful improvement." Home Depot HD, +2.69% shares rose nearly 3 percent to $33.29 and were the biggest mover among the Dow Jones Industrials components.
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BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 1. Kyrgyzstan encourages Emirate companies to invest in the country's priority sectors, such as energy, industry, agriculture, tourism, and healthcare, Trend reports via the National Investments Agency of Kyrgyzstan.
Director of the National Investment Agency Ravshanbek Sabirov during the Kyrgyz-Emirates business forum noted that :
"Kyrgyzstan is presently concentrating on improving the attractiveness of the business climate, which is based on a number of changes made in the country, including greater competitiveness and reforming the business environment's principles," Ravshanbek Sabirov said.
According to him, in order to create a favorable investment climate, the president signed a decree on protecting property and supporting entrepreneurs and investors.
“Today, the Emirati company Masdar expresses an active interest in the implementation of a project for the construction of a solar station with a capacity of 200 megawatts in Kyrgyzstan”, Sabirov said.
As a result of the B2B meetings, contracts were signed for the supply of meat and honey in the amount of $11 million, as well as Memorandums of Cooperation between the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Kyrgyzstan and the UAE on the establishment of a joint Kyrgyz-Emirati Business Council.


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Hong-Kong Broadband Network's NiQ Lai is one of the most fascinating executives in the broadb
I took this shot when I was in Hong-Kong last month.
This is the 1 Gb/s service sold by HKBN for $199/month.
Last week I spent an hour on the phone with New York Times columnist Randy Stross talking about Hong-Kong Broadb
HKBN’s ad creativity is a big part of the success. This new one ads a new twist, but it’s just as funny and
HKBN has done it again…
In November, they announced that they were lowering their 100Mb/s symmetric service price to HK$99/month, which resulted in a massive increase in customer acquisition. The price of this particular service level was previously HK$268. As
Yesterday HKBN made an announcement that they were lowering the price of their bandwidth guaranteed 100Mb/s symmetric fiber service in Hong-Kong to


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Cramer: Consumer doing better The "Squawk on the Street" crew reviews the retail sales for Macy's, JC Penney and Amazon. Cramer says the consumer is doing better and is being a "smart buyer."
Why the market is resilient Mad Money host Jim Cramer discusses reasons why the market hasn't yet been demolished by geopolitics, and the impact of sanctions on Russia to the U.S. economy, but most of all to Europe. Cramer says be patient.
Big tobacco's big drag: $24B jury award A Florida jury has slammed a tobacco company with $23.6 billion in punitive damages in a lawsuit filed by the widow of a longtime smoker.
Source: The Associated Press
Second half playbook: Pros hunt for value With the first half of 2014 coming to a close, investors are placing bets on how the second half of the year will unfold. Here are their picks.
| By: Michelle Fox


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Cashless economy boosts hiring in banking & financial services sector
The Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) sector posted 2 per cent rise in talent demand from Jan-Jun 2017. It posted a steep 15 per cent rise in May 2017. The sector posted 4 per cent drop in Mar and 3 per cent drop in Jan 2017 respectively.
The sector was among the top industries for creating employment opportunities, especially after demonetisation and GST, as reported by a series of surveys done by TimesJobs.
Currently, there is demand for IT professionals, especially at the senior level.Talent demand continues to rise in the digital banking and fintech space. Skills in analytics, data managemnt, wealth management is expected to witness increased demand in near future. Financial and credit analysts are also witnessing heightened talent demand. Hiring activities were highest in metros, however tier II and III locations are also witnessing increased recruitment, according to the RecruiteX Jan-Jun 2017 report.
On the growth front, Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft Corp, has stated that India will move quite rapidly to a digital payments economy in as little as seven years, based on the introduction of digital payment banks combined with other factors like direct benefit transfers, universal payments interface and Aadhaar, says a report by India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF).


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Anyone who buckles an infant into a car seat should be aware of a recent study from Consumer Reports showing that most of those seats fail in higher-speed car crashes. ...
The respected magazine tested rear-facing infant car seats in 35 mph frontal crashes and 38 mph side crashes. Those are the speeds at which the government tests cars for crash safety. The conflict is that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tests infant seats only in 30 mph crashes. ...
The Consumer Reports test found that in the higher-speed crashes, seven of 12 car seats failed.
One of the toughest things a new parent has to do is to buy the right car seat and install it properly. The NHTSA needs to move swiftly and perform its own review of infant seat safety standards and give parents the guidance they need.
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The above editorial excerpt is from The Tampa (Fla.) Tribune.


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ROCK HILL, S.C.- A South Carolina woman received the surprise of her life after placing an online order for a yoga mat.
The priority mail package that was shipped from Newport Beach, California not only excluded her yoga mat but the box was filled with illegal Oxycodone with a street value of $400,000.00.
No joke! There were more than 20,000 pills inside.
"Most of this is counterfeit," said Marvin Brown with the York County drug unit. "It comes from other countries, and it's being shipped in."
Apparently, the box was supposed to be sent to the woman's old apartment, which is now vacant. The post office knew she had moved and thought they would do her a favor by delivering it to her new address.
This is hardly a case of breaking bad!
All the woman wanted was her new mat. She immediately called police after opening the box. According to Brown illegal drugs are shipped to vacant homes all the time. "And someone's sitting outside tracking the package waiting for the trucks to make the delivery."
Now agents are trying to figure out where the package was really headed.


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The U.S. securities regulator has requested Lucid Group for documents linked to an investigation into its blank-verify offer, joining a increasing record of firms that have appear below scrutiny for their merger with shell corporations.
Shares of the luxurious electrical-automobile maker fell about 14% in pre-market trading on Monday just after disclosing that it had received a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Trade Fee on Dec. 3.
“The investigation appears to issue the company combination in between the Enterprise (Churchill Capital Corp. IV) and Atieva Inc and selected projections and statements,” Lucid said in a regulatory filing.
Lucid’s offer with veteran dealmaker Michael Klein’s blank-check out acquisition business had offered the merged organization a pro-forma fairness value of $24 billion and was accomplished earlier this calendar year.
It was a single of the most significant in a string of deals with Unique Objective Acquisition Corporations (SPACs) that included electric powered car or truck makers such as Nikola and Fisker.
The California startup joins numerous other electric-auto makers being investigated by federal companies and regulators as they hurry to meet production targets and catch up with Tesla which is developing just about 200,000 autos each individual quarter.
Nikola Corp is doing work with U.S. regulators to fork out a $125 million penalty to settle a charge versus its founder Trevor Milton for using social media to continuously mislead buyers.
Lordstown Motors is remaining investigated for automobile pre-orders and its merger with blank-check out business DiamondPeak Holdings.
Founded in 2007 as Atieva Inc by previous Tesla govt Bernard Tse and entrepreneur Sam Weng, Lucid is aiming to reach production focus on of 20,000 automobiles in 2022 and 50,000 in 2023.
Lucid experienced in September secured $4.4 billion it needed until the end of following year.
It was funded in the beginning by Chinese and Silicon Valley undertaking traders, with additional funding from backers like condition-owned Chinese automobile maker BAIC Motor and Chinese know-how corporation LeEco.


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Brace yourself guys.
Microsoft is going to release its Windows Defender ATP antivirus software for Mac computers.
Sounds crazy, right? But it’s true.
Microsoft Thursday announced that the company is bringing its anti-malware software to Apple’s macOS operating system as well—and to more platforms soon, like Linux.
As a result, the technology giant renamed its Windows Defender Advanced
Interested in reading the full article.This post first appeared on HackerNews. click here for original article.


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Whether the States will ever see the original director's cut of Bong Joon-ho's Snowpiercer, or only the hacked up version The Weinstein Company wants to screen, only time will tell. But the drama hasn't dampened our excitement for Tilda Swinton's lunatic villainess, highlighted in this new international trailer.
Twitter Is Shifting Right | Future Tech
The theatric release date for Snowpiercer is still muddled, however. The Film Stage has noted that Amazon.fr is now taking pre-orders for March 26th release of the Blu-ray. The full cut, allegedly.


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Instagram is now officially testing NFTs by enabling non-fungible token creators and collectors to display their tokens on the famous social media platform.
The new feature was introduced by Instagram head Adam Mosseri, while Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also confirmed that the company is testing NFTs and according to him a “similar functionality” is coming soon to Facebook as well.
As Mosseri pointed out, in this phase, a group of US NFT creators and collectors will have the ability to display their tokens on their stories, feeds, and messages.
“The creator economy is incredibly important to Instagram. Creators are incredibly important to Instagram. But one of the challenging things that we need to solve as an industry is how to help creators make a living doing what they love. Right now, there are several different ways for creators to make money, but a lot of them are unpredictable and changing rapidly” Mosseri said. “Now, we think the one interesting opportunity for a subset of creators is NFTs. The idea of owning a unique digital item. So, what we are starting with this week is the ability for creators and people to share NFTs that they have made or that they have bought, either in Feed or in Stories or in messaging”.
More features soon
Instagram is about to invest more in NFTs and during this testing process, the platform wants to collect users’ feedback to improve its interface and also to build more features and digital tools.
“It is a limited number of people start, and there is a lot more functionality that we are going to need to build over time, but we wanted to start small and learn from the community. Now, I want to acknowledge upfront that NFTs and blockchain technology, and Web3 more broadly, are all about distributing trust, distributing power” Mosseri noted and he also underlined that “Instagram is fundamentally a centralized platform, so there is a tension there. So, one of the reasons why we are starting small is we want to make sure that we can learn from the community. We want to make sure that we work out how to embrace those tenets of distributed trust and distributed power, despite the fact that we are a centralized platform”.
As the Instagram head pointed out, “we do think one of the unique opportunities we have is to make Web3 technology accessible to a much broader range of people. And NFTs specifically we think will be interesting not only to creators who create NFT art but also to people who want to collect it”.
NFTs to Facebook
Instagram isn’t the first social media platform that jumps on NFTs. Back in January, Twitter introduced NFTs by enabling users to display their tokens as hexagon-shaped profile pictures. As Zuckerberg announced, NFTs will soon be available to Facebook as well, as they are part of Meta’s plan for its Metaverse.
“This week we’re starting to test digital collectibles on Instagram so creators and collectors can display their NFTs on their profiles. Similar functionality is coming to Facebook soon, along with augmented reality NFTs on Instagram Stories via Spark AR so you can place digital art into physical spaces,” said Meta CEO. Both Mosseri and Zuckerberg emphasized that Meta aims at introducing NFTs technology to a broader range of people and that the company is about to invest more in Web3 and the process of developing the internet of the future.


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Core business sales can't support 220,000 new jobs monthlyStaff writer ▼ | December 11, 2015
October’s core business sales fell by -0.3% from September 2015 and were up by merely 1.3% from October 2014.
Analysis Private-sector might do well to average 165,000 new jobs
Even if core business sales post back-to-back monthly increases of 0.5% in November and December, the metric’s yearly increase would drop from Q4-2014’s 5.1% and Q3-2015’s 1.8% to 1.5% for 2015’s final quarter, writes John Lonski, Chief Economist, Moody’s Capital Markets Research.
The latter would be the worst such performance by core business sales since the -4.2% yearly plunge of 2009’s final quarter.
During the mature phase of the previous two economic recoveries, core business sales slowest annual rates of growth by quarter were the 3.6% of Q1-2007 and the 2.3% of Q3-1998.
Unless core business sales accelerate sufficiently, private-sector payrolls’ average monthly increase of 220,000 new jobs for the year-ended November 2015 will prove to be unsustainable. Private-sector payrolls might do well to average 165,000 new jobs per month during the year-ended November 2016.
Moreover, the well below-trend performance by core business sales warns of a notable increase in the number of high-yield downgrades that is already well underway. ■


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- Release Date
- To Be Announced, $10.49
Sorry, no DEATHRUN TV screenshots yet.
Wonder Boy Collection! Card Shark! Silt!
The latest Nintendo Download update for Europe has arrived, and it's bringing new games galore to the eShop in your region. As always, be sure to drop a vote in our poll and comment down below with your potential picks for the week. Enjoy! Switch Retail eShop - New Releases: Jigsaw Fun 3-in-1 Collection...
"The greatest game show on earth"
A little while back (nearly a year ago, in fact), we reported on the newly announced DEATHRUN TV, a twin-stick rogue-like game from publisher Merge Games and developer Laser Dog. After a long wait, the game has been confirmed to release on Switch on June 1st, 2022. The official announcement trailer is sadly...
Sorry, no DEATHRUN TV review yet.


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Tough Mudder’s Facebook Watch shows average nearly 500K views
Tough Mudder is one brand that is seeing its Facebook Watch investment pay off.
In October, Tough Mudder’s first Watch show — in which an instructor taught a live workout class — saw 37,000 views. Now, Tough Mudder is seeing hundreds of thousands of views on every video, with its latest video of another workout class generating 684,000 views. Tough Mudder’s most viewed show occurred in November when 1.2 million people watched the final moments of Tough Mudder’s Toughest Mudder race in Las Vegas.
The fitness brand has seen an average of 477,000 views on its 18 Watch shows. In total, the shows have generated more than 8 million views, according to Jerome Hiquet, CMO of Tough Mudder.
Hiquet calls the shows a “success” and said the number of views on Watch reaffirms Tough Mudder’s decision to put more focus on delivering its message of teamwork. “It’s videos consumers are seeking out,” he said. “The new generation wants to be connected to brands through emotion.”
Tough Mudder’s two Watch series cater to two types of audiences. “Tough Mudder Championship” livestreamed four events in which runners tackled Tough Mudder’s most difficult 10-mile obstacle courses. Tough Mudder used head cams, aerial drones and backstage commentary to capture the action.
The other series, “Tough Mudder Bootcamp,” is tailored to active lifestyle enthusiasts, who might feel more comfortable doing workouts from their own homes. In these weekly 45-minute live fitness classes, instructors walk viewers through different workouts.
The fitness classes are also meant as previews to Tough Mudder’s new boot camp studios. In February, Tough Mudder announced it would open its own line of workout studios in Massachusetts, Nevada and Texas in the Spring.
Tough Mudder began in 2010 primarily as an events company that hosted military-style obstacle courses where people run through fire, ice, electric fences and, of course, plenty of mud. Since then, it has evolved into a lifestyle and media brand that is not just for the hardcore athlete. Tough Mudder claims 3 million people have finished its races. To diversify its audiences, it had to diversify its messaging.
“The main point is to become more accessible,” said Hiquet.
Tough Mudder began building an in-house content team in its early days, but started to put more emphasis on doing so in 2015, said Hiquet, when the company realized this would help it be more cost-efficient. Today, Hiquet said the in-house content team is made up of 50 people between its New York and London offices. Out of those 50, 18 people focus on content and social media, and three people focus entirely on video. Hiquet added that Tough Mudder also hires several freelancers at one time to work on video content.
“We have a broad content marketing ecosystem from social media to TV, to ensure we can reach our existing and potential customers in multiple ways,” said Hiquet.
Member ExclusiveMarketing Briefing: ‘A lot of confusion and trepidation’: Marketers mull a ‘privacy-first’ approach amid looming Google, Apple changes
Marketers are left wondering how they will navigate the true loss of the third party cookie, especially after Google said it won't build an alternative.
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SponsoredHow publishers are maximizing retention after the COVID-19 subscription surge
Michael D. Silberman, senior vice president of strategy, Piano For many publishers, 2020 was a good year for subscriptions, and the trend has continued into 2021. For example, over the last month, The New York Times grew active news subscriptions by 48%, and Insider has doubled its subscriber base to just over 100,000 in the […]
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If achieving diversity and inclusion in the ad industry is a mountain then its one with the steepest of peaks according to the latest Digiday confessions.


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Quick evaluations made by qualified contractors could help Tennessee Valley Authority customers save energy and money. Changes are suggested by the contractor and possible reimbursement money is then issued to a customer when the home is reinspected. (July 6, 2010, Page 1a)
Flipping on your lights will cost you a few more cents next month.
Electric bills are set to rise in April by about $3.80 a month for typical residential customers now that the Tennessee Valley Authority has approved a fuel-cost adjustment to cover fluctuating fuel and purchased-power costs.
Despite the rise, customers will still pay less this April compared to April 2009, thanks to a continuous credit that’s been in place since October. (March 25, 2010, Page 1)


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Last week, the hits just keep coming for GoDaddy and the Toll Group and consumers are more ready than ever to walk away from companies that experience a data breach from cybercrime.
United States – Management and Network Service, LLC.
Exploit: Phishing scam
Management and Network Services, LLC.: Managed care provider
Risk to Small Business: 1.479 = Extreme
Hackers accessed several employee email accounts containing patients’ personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI). The cybercrime breach, which occurred between April and July of 2019, wasn’t discovered until August 21, 2019. Although they haven’t detected data misuse, this extended duration could make it more difficult for victims to recover. In response, the company is updating its email security practices and implementing two-factor authentication to prevent a future incident.
Individual Risk: 1.716 = Severe
Patients’ personal information was compromised in the breach. This includes names, medical treatment information, diagnosis and medical details, insurance credentials, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers. In some cases, the breach also exposed driver’s license numbers, state identification card numbers, and financial details. Those impacted by the breach should immediately notify their financial institutions of the event while taking steps to ensure that their data isn’t used in other nefarious ways
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business: Cybercriminals are capitalizing on the chaos of COVID-19 to send millions of phishing scams each day. Even one malicious message can have cascading consequences for your business, making employee awareness training a top priority for companies looking to keep their data secure.
United States – GoDaddy
Exploit: Unauthorized database access
GoDaddy: Domain service provider
Risk to Small Business: 1.805 = Severe
GoDaddy has reported an October data breach to California authorities after it identified an unauthorized individual operating within their platform. Although the company believes that files were not altered or modified, the company was forced to reset user account passwords and to provide a free year of its website security and malware service. It’s possible that the intruder is related to an earlier cybersecurity incident stemming from an employee who engaged with a phishing scam. The hosting platform often touts its small business services, and these organizations will now have to decide if a platform with multiple cybersecurity lapses is the best place for their digital services to reside.
Individual Risk: GoDaddy asserts that personal data was not compromised in this breach, but customers should carefully monitor their accounts for possible misuse.
Customers Impacted: Unknown
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business: This incident highlights the growing cybersecurity threat posed by third-party partnerships, which SMBs often rely on to power their platforms and services. To protect account security, even in the event of a third-party cybersecurity incident, companies should enact simple but effective data security standards, like enabling two-factor authentication and requiring employees to use strong, unique passwords on all accounts.
United States – Storenvy
Exploit: Unauthorized database access
Storenvy: Online retailer
Risk to Small Business: 2.281 = Severe
Hackers gained access to a company database containing customer information. This database was subsequently downloaded and posted online as a free resource. Making matters worse, the database contained plain text passwords and other personal data that can quickly be used by bad actors to execute cybercrimes ranging from spear phishing scams to malware attacks. This is the company’s second data breach in two years, undermining its credibility at a critical time. Online shopping is experiencing a boon because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but customers are increasingly unwilling to do business with platforms that can’t protect their information.
Individual Risk: 2.779 = Moderate
The compromised data includes shoppers’ account passwords, order details, and payment methods. However, shipping and card information were not impacted. Victims should immediately update their account passwords, and they need to be mindful that the compromised data could be used against them in future cyberattacks.
Customers Impacted: 1,500,000
How it Could Affect Your Customers’ Business: Both now and in the future, online retail is becoming the preferred shopping experience. This is a significant opportunity for many companies, enabling them to reach a bigger and broader audience than ever before. Unfortunately, for companies that can’t protect their platforms, many customers will take their business elsewhere.
1 – 1.5 = Extreme Risk
1.51 – 2.49 = Severe Risk
2.5 – 3 = Moderate Risk
*The risk score is calculated using a formula that considers a wide range of factors related to the assessed breach.
In Other News:
Consumers Seek New Options After a Cyberattack
While many organizations are focused on the bottom line during the COVID-19 downturn, cyber-readiness must be considered as a critical piece of the puzzle. According to a recent consumer survey, today’s customers are placing a high priority on cybersecurity, often requiring it as a prerequisite for doing business.
For instance, 90% of those surveyed consider a company’s trustworthiness when deciding to purchase a product, and nearly 60% indicated that they would avoid doing business with a company that experienced a cyberattack in the past year.
When cyberattacks cause a service disruption, 37% of survey participants indicated that they would switch to a competitor, and 66% were prepared to leave if operations weren’t restored within three days. The survey results were especially problematic for financial service providers and communications products, two industries that consumers are readily prepared to abandon in the event of a cybersecurity incident.
The global survey that included shoppers in North America, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany found that consumers overwhelmingly feel that businesses aren’t doing enough to protect their information.
80% of respondents noted that they shared negative ransomware-related brand experiences with family, friends, or colleagues, accelerating brand erosion and piling on to the long-lasting implications of a cyberattack. For companies navigating an already harsh business environment, it’s clear that customer retention may be contingent on their ability to defend their networks from an ever-evolving threat landscape.
A Note From Kobargo
Cybercrime Increased by 300% Since COVID-19 Pandemic Began
By now, many organizations are well aware of the increase in cybercrime since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The number of phishing scams have soared, popular virtual meeting platforms (like Zoom) have endured cybersecurity shortcomings and many more.
A report by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has quantified the increase in cyberattacks, detailing that the number of reported cybersecurity complaints have increased by more than 4,000 since the pandemic began. The information comes as tech platforms have similarly quantified cyber threats related to their platforms. Google says that it’s blocking 18 million COVID-19 phishing scams each day, and the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has recorded 18,257 fraud complaints related to the Coronavirus, collectively causing $13.44 million in losses.y.
These numbers are a reminder that companies need to remain vigilant about addressing the most pressing threats, especially phishing scams, during the pandemic. However, agencies are also speculating that the significant uptick in cybercrime could be the result of a yet undisclosed data breach, which means that companies need visibility into the Dark Web where stolen credentials or other information could be used in upcoming attacks.


text: The new iPhone 5 No YouTube app Yes you read it right, Apple has decided to remove the all-important YouTube app which has become indispensable to all of us who spend time viewing videos on our phones either for learning purposes or viewing pleasure, from its flagship iPhone 5 handset. YouTube has become an important educational tool for many, especially young students who rely on it for distant learning and tutorials. It seems Apple has extended its quest to stifle competition by hitting one of its biggest rivals right within its OS. But why this nasty war when its only obvious that the true victims are us the consumers? Well, it seems Apple could care less what we feel as long as it can lash out its own punitive action against all those who stand in its way to become the biggest and most versatile mobile tech company in the world. Apple needs to end the patent law suit adventure that continues to rob consumers of the right to choice. Apple cannot say it has never infringed the patents of others, but it continues to make it its commercial signature to pursue those who have become innovative in pushing mobile technology beyond our imagination. There needs to be serious collaboration with all these companies including Google, Samsung, Motorola, Nokia, Asus, Acer, Microsoft, Sony, LG and the rest, if consumers are to enjoy fantastic headways in technology without patent barriers. In other development, Apple has stopped using Google Maps to power its mapping service in the new iOS 6 operating system which powers the iPhone 5. In a statement, Apple said that its license to include the YouTube app in iOS has ended. Well, Apple did not indicate whether it would renew its license, but Google went to extra length in modifying its YouTube videos just to make them work with iPhones, since iOS platform does not support flash, an important web plug-in that Apple also rejected since launching the iPhone a few years ago. It is indeed disgraceful that a company would file a patent for simple aspects of technology that has been around for years and get away with suing others over stupid patents or intellectual property rights!! Playing the patent war over the media is indeed gross. And those who decide to go to war over patents should hang their heads in shame as they are guilty of stifling competition and denying customers the right to make choices.


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A Michigan-based startup called Sakti3 claims it has battery chemistry that doubles the energy density of today's best lithium-ion batteries.
Speaking to Scientific American, Sakti3's co-founder and CEO Ann Marie Sastry says the firm's prototype solid-state lithium cells have reached 1,143 Watt-hours per liter--a number that wouldn't just transform an electric car's range, but its cost too.
Should we get excited? Yes and no.
Technology like this would certainly be beneficial for electric cars.
Energy density is something of a holy grail for the genre, because it increases the one aspect of electric cars most people are still unsure about: range.
The more energy you can pack into any given area, the more there is for the car to use to travel down the road. But there's another benefit to greater energy density, which is cost.
Once your electric car hits, say, 300 miles, only a tiny proportion of drivers would realistically need anything more. Chances are, the battery doesn't need to be as big, and the less battery you can get away with, the cheaper it is per car.
Batteries have inherent cost of course regardless of how big they are, and Sakti3 is also working hard to bring down the all-important cost per kilowatt-hour. There are safety benefits too--solid state batteries are less volatile than ones with a liquid electrolyte.
Sakti3's battery is constructed using a thin-film deposition process similar to that seen in flat panel displays and photovoltaic solar cells.
As the solid-state definition implies there is no liquid electrolyte--a layer separates the anode and cathode and also acts as the electrolyte, through which ions transfer. The chemistry of this separating layer is currently a trade secret.
Which kind of sums up much of Sakti3's operations so far, and the reason we shouldn't be too excited just yet.
The batteries are, as yet, untested beyond the lab. Nor, as Scientific American points out, have the claims about energy density been independently verified. And most of the technical details are still a secret.
More positively, the company has caught the eye of General Motors, which has been looking closely into the technology for several years now. GM Ventures, the firm's technology investment arm, has even invested in the company.
GM's attention, or even money, is no guarantee of success--the recent failure of the nickel, manganese and cobalt cathode concept is evidence of that.
It does however give companies like Sakti3 a better chance of developing their technology. Sastry is confident too, saying that several internal tests on different cells have demonstrated the energy density numbers.
The company has reaped the benefits of advancements in other lines of technology, such as those solar cells and flat panel displays. Given the similarities in Sakti3's design, further developments in these differing industries could be advantageous. Not least in terms of cost.
Will this be the future of car battery technology? As ever, watch this space.


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By: Elena Grace Flores
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization or FAO is advocating on promoting healthy diet utilizing natural produce that can’t do any harm to humans and the environment when utilizing and processing them. However, it is common perception that it’s expensive to eat well – but it’s really not the case. It’s just a matter of educating people that that healthy stuff even found in our own backyard can look and taste good.
Since fast food advertisements are rampant these days, advocates must use visual strategies promoting healthy eating. Salads should look good to entice for example. Mixed of vegetables with bits of lean meat should be appetizing to see just like the crunchy fried chicken on TV. If the mentality of the general public changes for the better, spending on diet-related ailments which is 75% of the overall healthcare expenses will be minimized according to CDC. Not only that, greenhouses gasses contributors will be 24% less without the destructive farming techniques.
In 2050 when the world population is predicted to reach 9.3 billion by the United Nations, at least 3 billion more people will be competing with the resources available since the world population currently is at 7 billion. Therefore, further campaigns are needed for this project. If each responsible individual helps in advocating for this health cause – educating the rest of the population on healthy eating, this will not be a problem. On that note, we leave you with this question. In your own capacity, how can you promote cost-effective healthy diet that is not only sustainable for a long period of time but also environmentally-friendly?


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SECAUCUS, NJ– Hispanic food giant Goya Foods marked the Christmas season by conducting a series of Hispanic CSR programs to benefit charities in the Tri-State area. In keeping with its decades-long commitment of supporting local communities Goya partnered with the New York Mets to donate 5,000 pounds of products to City Harvest, an organization that distributes food to pantries throughout New York City. In addition to the food drive 3,000 toys were distributed to children in New York and New Jersey through Goya’s partnership with the Hispanic Federation, a Manhattan-based service oriented membership organization.
Goya Foods also sponsored the annual Posadas y Pastorelas, a singing holiday procession, and performance organized by Mano a Mano, an institution dedicated to promoting Mexican culture and traditions among immigrants, artists, educators and the general public. Also, Goya Foods served as title sponsor for the Virgen de la Guadalupe international run organized by Asociacion Tepeyac, a network of 40 community based organizations, whose mission is to promote the social welfare and Ehuman rights of Latino immigrants. The marathon began its journey at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City in early October and ended at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York on December 12th.
Working closely with the Salvadoran Consulate, and keeping true to its history of responding when countries are affected by natural disasters, Goya Foods donated two truckloads of food to the over 15,000 victims of Hurricane Ida in El Salvador.
“Goya Foods has traditionally participated in activities that give back to our local communities. During this Christmas season, we celebrate family and tradition, and what better time is there to reach out to those less fortunate,” stated Rafael Toro, Director of Public Relations at Goya Foods.


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WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) -- America Online outlined plans Monday for its first major online advertising effort this year in an effort to persuade broadband users to become AOL subscribers. The two-month AOL for Broadband campaign begins June 1, targeting broadband users at nytimes.com, washingtonpost.com and multimedia-intensive sites including rollingstone.com, mtv.com and abcnews.com.
"The campaign is designed to persuade prospective members that a broadband connection alone is not enough," said John Lane, vice president of online marketing. Elements of the service that will be highlighted include AOL Homework Help, Radio@AOL and parental controls.
The division of Time Warner TWX also announced new exclusive sports content for broadband users. Roy Firestone will contribute a two-to-four minute show each week featuring interviews with athletes and comment on sports topics.
AOL said its 14-month-old product for broadband has attracted 4 million users, up from the 3 million served in the fourth quarter.
The boss gets geeky
The days of chief executives taking pride in not using a computer are gone. A survey released by the Wall Street Journal reported 99 percent of company chairmen, presidents, CEOs and other senior-level executives use the Internet at work, up from 96 percent in 2000. Time spent online has also increased 20 percent, to 13.4 hours per week. Ninety-five percent of the respondents said they read business news online, and 25 percent consider the Internet their most important news source.
Roger Ebert investment gets thumbs up
Ahead of the Google's highly anticipated initial public offering, the movie critic for the Chicago Sun-Times says he was an early fan of the popular search engine -- and has a small share of stock to show for it. Roger Ebert told the New York Post, "I was a beta user of Google and liked it so much I wrote them, offering to invest." He said he and his wife, Chaz, were "allowed ...to send a (small) amount of money." Ebert thus is part of the roster of early Series B investors that also includes Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com and Larry Sonsini, a well-known attorney in Silicon Valley.
Blog readers, who are they?
Who's reading those millions of blogs? Henry Copeland, founder of Blogads, wanted to know, for obvious reasons. He wants to be able to tell advertisers using his network of Weblogs who's reading them. Last week, he used SurveyMonkey to collect information. Here's what he found: 61 percent of the responding blog readers were over 30 years old, 75 percent make more than $45,000 a year, 79 percent are male, and half of them have contributed more than $50 to a cause or candidate. Copeland makes no claim that his research is thorough or even reliable. Responses came from 17,000 volunteers. Nonetheless, "I conclude that blog readers are, themselves, a distinct and important new demographic cohort: blog readers." The survey results.
E-commerce sales rise
The government reported sales over the Internet rose 28.1 percent in the first quarter of the year, compared to the first quarter of 2003. Total retail sales were up 8.8 percent in the same period, according to the Commerce Department, Reuters reported. Purchases over the Internet, e-mail and other electronic networks held steady at 1.9 percent of all retail sales. The report excluded sales of tickets, travel, financial services and pornography.
Music labels speed singles sales
In the last six months, recording companies have begun releasing singles for online sale within hours of giving them to radio stations for airplay. In the past, music fans had to wait for the release of a CD to get the hit tracks. Or, they could download them from peer-to-peer networks after contributors recorded the songs off the radio and uploaded them. An executive at Universal Music Group
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The Südzucker AG, headquartered in Mannheim, is considered the largest sugar producer in Europe and one of the leading food companies in Germany. As an international group of companies, Südzucker has been supplying the food industry and other processing industries for almost 200 years. The company contributes with around 18,000 employees in over 100 production sites worldwide to a more sustainable world with plant-based products and solutions for nutrition, energy and other applications.
The Business School of the University of Mannheim is excited to welcome the new member to its partner network. Dr. Niels Pörksen, CEO of Südzucker AG, will represent the company in the partner association. Pörksen says about the new cooperation: “We are looking forward to a successful cooperation with the University of Mannheim, Business School. It is not only the same location and the international orientation that connect us. We have also recruited and successfully developed numerous Mannheim graduates. Therefore, it is a matter of concern to us to specifically promote business studies at the University of Mannheim with this partnership.” Dean Joachim Lutz, former CEO of Südzucker subsidiary CropEnergies has strong ties with the company and is pleased to bring the company and Mannheim business students together. “Young and committed people are looking with great interest at future challenges regarding development, production and provision of plant-based solutions for nutrition and energy. I am delighted that Südzucker AG will be providing strategic support to Mannheim's business students from now on.”, says Lutz.
Mannheim students can expect interesting events and guest lectures with the new partner company, where they can learn more about the Südzucker AG as a company and employer.
As soon as the dates for the events have been set, they will be published on our corporate relations page.


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China has reported better-than-expected exports and imports in January, pointing to a rebound in external and domestic demand, according to official data out this morning.
Exports expanded 25 per cent from a year earlier, while imports surged 28.8 per cent, indicating a healthy uptick in demand.
Other data showed that headline inflationary pressure was subdued. Consumer prices rose two per cent in January from a year earlier, bang in line with expectations and down from a seven-month high of 2.5 per cent in December.
China’s economy expanded at the slowest annual pace since 1999 last year, growing 7.8 per cent.
City A.M. Reporter