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Israeli Firm’s Autonomous Tractors Are Transforming The Agriculture Industry
Other autonomous systems developed by Israel's Blue White Robotics are used for urban mobility and smart farming solutions
October 27, 2021
Will Tesla’s Driverless Car Be Powered By Israel’s Mobileye Technology?
Premium electric car manufacturer Tesla is reportedly using Israeli company Mobileye's technology to launch driverless cars within a decade. Mobileye's system can identify the proximity of other vehicles, as well as other possible collision triggers.
April 23, 2014
Unmanned Flying Vehicle May Become Ambulance Of The Future
Imagine an unmanned flying ambulance that can reach otherwise inaccessible areas, pick up the wounded and make its way to a hospital. As unbelievable as that may sound, it is already being developed by Israeli company UrbanAero.
January 13, 2014
Israeli Company Mobileye Developing Driverless Cars
The driverless car is becoming a reality, with power players such as General Motors and Google working on the technology. Israel also has a candidate in the game – Jerusalem-based Mobileye - which is developing a car that can drive itself for a for short periods of time.
October 20, 2012


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Distribution Lists Would like to know which media points are included with your press release distribution. The Foundation of Acupuncture Traditional Chinese medicine infers that Qi is the power stream that regulates the body. I got one of my best friends and my partner to come into the bathroom with me, I walked in backwards, took a deep breath and saw my face.
The car has tons of power, sounds great, and is a pleasure to drive as long as you don\'t mind the attention. 0 Black Popular Search Shoes Store UK Sandals Flats , Designer Sunglasses, Cheap Sunglasses Copyright ??2015 www. Why not look at the Best Wedding Event Team category too and enter your amazing team of coordinators too.
If you have a website and are interested in protecting it in a similar way, you can sign up for CloudFlare. It is a consummation devoutly to be wished, especially by those of us who see the Republicans as having been cruising for this particular bruising ever since it so greedily ate the monkeybrains in the 1980s. Win Blogs Charity News Latest Headlines London News London Close Up Sports News Entertainment News Business News Weird News Traffic and Travel Weather Hatton Garden Heist Party Conferences The News Explained Tube Strike Travel News Podcasts LBC Podcasts Mobile Apps Why Subscribe.

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They both stripped down to their smalls and were the epitome of body confidence in Girls. Now, Lena Dunham and Jemima Kirke are the new faces of a body positive lingerie brand. In a photoshoot for New Zealand-based company Lonely, which never uses Photoshop in its campaigns, the writer and actress appears alongside her co-star in her underwear. The photos are part of the company's Lonely Girls Project, a series of "candid portraits of inspiring women in their own spaces wearing Lonely, their way". The brand says it caters to "women who wear lingerie as a love letter to themselves". In one of the photos, Lena casually reclines on the edge of a bath in an apartment in Brooklyn, New York, wearing seafoam green lingerie. Kirke sits beside her on a chair with her head on her hands, with her enviable IDGAF attitude, in a light blue lingerie set. In another image, the pair wear black lingerie while Kirke puts red lipstick on Dunham. The two women have long practiced what their preach when it comes to being comfortable in their own skin. Dunham is reportedly a fan of the body positive brand and has worn its lingerie on Instagram in the past, the Daily Mail reported.
She also caused a stir earlier this year when she mistakenly called out the Spanish magazine Tentaciones for photoshopping her body in a cover shoot. “This is NOT what my body has ever looked like or will ever look like,” Dunham said in an Instagram post. “The magazine has done more than the average photoshop”.
She was then forced to backtrack after the magazine released the original shots as proof that they hadn't used Photoshop. “I don’t recognise my own fucking body anymore,” she wrote in an essay for Lenny. “And that’s a problem.” She then announced that she would never allow any subsequent images of her to be retouched. The Lonely campaign shows she's sticking to her word, and we can't be more grateful.


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CARBONDALE, Ill. (Legal Newsline) - Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced on Thursday that she has filed a lawsuit against a home repair and remodeling contractor who allegedly defrauded state consumers.
Brad Peters, doing business as Custom Design contracting in Irvington, Ill., allegedly took down payments for repair work but never completed -- or in some cases, even started -- the work. He also allegedly didn't provide correct detailed and itemized proposals.
"Rather than providing honest service, this contractor took advantage of his customers," Madigan said. "My office intends to hold him accountable and seeks to stop him from doing business in Illinois."
Two consumers filed complaints with Madigan's office claiming that Peters had taken more than a combined $16,000 from them for work never done.
The lawsuit alleges that, as a result of this, Peters violated the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act and the Illinois Home Repair and Remodeling Act.
Madigan is seeking to have the court prohibit Peters from engaging in any further home repair trade in the state. She also wants Peters to pay $50,000 for each violation that was committed with the intent to defraud and for him to pay all costs associated with the litigation.
"Home repair, remodeling and construction complaints consistently rank among the top consumer grievances my office receives each year," Madigan said. "Consumers need to protect their substantial financial investments in home projects by carefully checking on contractors before any money changes hands."


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The chip maker partners with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research to use wearable devices and data analytics to help monitor patient treatment.
The most important things to know when shopping for a new laptop, hybrid, or Windows tablet.
The world's biggest PC-chipmaker and Luxottica, the world's biggest eyewear maker, join forces to make new wearables.
The tech giant spent three years collaborating with the renowned scientist on his new communication platform.
Microsoft researchers develop a prototype of an app-shielding technology called Haven, which builds on top of its previous Drawbridge operating system work.
Despite a rocky start in mobile, the chipmaker forged ahead with its second major mobile partnership in China this year.
The company is trying to bring the cost of smartphones down to as little as $50.
The hectic shopping season isn't just about finding perfect gifts. It's also prime time for identity thieves to snag your info. Here's five tips from security experts on staying safe online.
The chipmaker, which first announced plans for the bracelet in January, is expected to unveil the wearable in the coming weeks, a person familiar with the matter told CNET.
The chipmaker continues its push into wearables with a new collaboration with rapper Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson's headphone company and a set of fitness-focused earbuds.


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Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA) reported fourth quarter 2022 earnings results today.
Revenue totaled $32.1 billion, up 9% year-over-year, driven mainly by revenue growth in the China commerce segment.
Net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders was $2.56 billion. Adjusted net income dropped 24% year-over-year to $3.12 billion.
Diluted loss per ADS was $0.96 while adjusted earnings per ADS fell 23% year-over-year to $1.25.
Both the top and bottom line numbers beat estimates.
Due to the impact from COVID-19 on its businesses and the related uncertainties, Alibaba is not providing guidance at present.
Looking for more insights on the earnings results? Click here to access the full transcripts of the latest earnings conference calls!
Shares of FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) were up 1% on Tuesday. The stock has dropped 44% year-to-date and 34% over the past 12 months. The company delivered mixed results for
After a soft start to the year, the IPO market has witnessed muted activity so far though a few big companies entered the stock market. On the heels of AIG
After a prolonged slowdown, the restaurant industry is returning to normal patterns but macroeconomic uncertainties and high inflation are currently playing spoilsport for it. While the pandemic-related slump forced many


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The new Chevy Aveo will obliterate the current car's econobox image. Today, workers at the car's Orion assembly plant previewed it, seen showing the covered teaser above. We'll tell you all about it next week at the Detroit Auto Show.
It can't just obliterate the current car's econobox image. It has to be better than the upcoming Fiesta. The problem with a lot of new cars General Motors is celebrating about (the new Malibu comes to mind) is that they're only sufficient. You can't only be acceptable, you have to be extraordinary. Sure you'll sell a couple more cars and your reputation won't necessarily be harmed, but you aren't going to become a world-class automaker known around the globe for its fine products.


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Maruti Suzuki Nov Sales Fall 9.1% YoY; Shashank Srivastava Shares Insights On The Road Ahead
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01 DECEMBER 2021 04:15 IST | ENGLISH | GENERAL AUDIENCE
Maruti Suzuki, the country’s largest passenger car manufacturer reported total sales of 1.39 lk units in November 2021, down 0.6% from 1.38 lk units sold in October. The company’s sales declined 9.1% YoY. In an interview with ETNOW, Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Director (Marketing and Sales) Maruti Suzuki India said that the company is seeing strong demand and the semiconductor supply was getting better. Total vehicle production volume in December across Haryana and Gujarat plants could be around 80% to 85% of normal production, he added. Watch his views on price hikes and new launches going forward.


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Elev8 Cannabis founder Seun Adedeji created a growing cannabis empire with a small stake and endless grit. Also: Why you should be planting cannabis seeds this weekend. The post The Roll-up #183: Plant seeds and get that Elev8 mindset appeared first on Leafly.
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November 11, 2012
Kenya’s mobile telephones. A report describes the sacrifices the poor make to keep a mobile phone
Africa's “mobile decade”, when telephones at last reached most corners of the continent, has meant a huge improvement in the lives of the poor. But quantifying it is hard. How useful can a mobile phone be to someone living on less than $2.50 a day, the World Bank’s standard benchmark of poverty? Researchers in Kenya have given a partial answer. They find that people will skip a meal or choose to walk instead of paying for a bus fare so that they can keep their phone in credit. The Economist reports.
... Almost half of those surveyed were using internet-enabled smart or “feature” phones. The scratch cards that many Kenyans use to charge their mobiles have recently begun to advertise their value in terms of data rather than talk time. Meanwhile, mobile-phone operators have been giving free access to sites such as Wikipedia to entice customers.
Still, only 16% of respondents said they were using their phones to browse the internet. The real breakthrough in the Kenyan market has been in people’s ability to send and receive money, with more than two-thirds doing so by phone.
Read full article.
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- This event has passed.
Boom! Studios Launches New Site!
July 17, 2017
Boom! Studios is proud to announce the launch of their new site! At Play Creative has developed a site that truly captures the essence of the Boom! brand as it features the “Discover Yours” brand campaign.


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- .hack//G.U. trilogy getting HD treatment with Last Recode for PC, PS4
- Cave Story+ released digitally, physically for Switch
- Strategy role-playing game God Wars Future Past out for PS4, PS Vita
- Castle of Shikigami brings supernatural shooter action to PC
- Call of Duty: Black Ops III Zombies Chronicles out for console, PC
Fancy A Date?
Daily Archives: April 9, 2014
Age of Wonders III received its first patch today. Triumph Studios noted that their goal with the update was to improve performance, fix hardware-specific issues, address problems with registration, adjust balance, and improve the AI. The full change log can be found below, but some of the highlights include the ability to adjust difficulty when restarting on the campaign map, lowered difficulty on squire, guest profile settings are now saved, and tactical AI is less likely to sally when defending. Quick saves and native high-resolution support were also added.
Eden Industries’ “citizen-collecting” role-playing game Citizens of Earth has been picked up by Atlus. The publisher announced today that they will be releasing the title for 3DS, PC, PS4, PS Vita, and Wii U. After failing to reach its Kickstarter campaign goal, the title has found new life as a download-only release and is slated to launch later this year. As Vice President of Earth, players must find out what’s caused the populace to suddenly go crazy … by sending other citizens to fight them. Forty-one citizens—the last being a user-created citizen as part of a new contest—each with their own unique abilities, from slick car salesmen to overly caffeinated baristas, can be recruited and sent to fight the raucous hordes. The game will also feature a day-and-night cycle, weather effects, optional side quests, and modes for short and extended campaigns—oh, and apparently, no actual politics.
Killer Instinct’s first season wraps up today with the release of its eighth and final character, Fulgore. The killer cyborg, sporting an updated look but still slinging about a pair of massive blades, is available for $4.99. A general game update has also gone live, adding a new Arcade Mode, a Spectator Mode, and eight-player online lobbies. The end of season one also marks the transition of development duties from creators Double Helix to the new series stewards Iron Galaxy.


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Armada Hoffler Properties to invest in West Midtown's Interlock development
Virginia-based Armada Hoffler Properties Inc. (NYSE: AHH) said Monday it will invest in the office and retail components of The Interlock, a new mixed-use public-private partnership with Georgia Tech on an 8.8-acre tract located at the corner of Howell Mill and 14th Street in West Midtown Atlanta.
The Interlock will offer 200,000 square feet of office space, 90,000 square feet of retail space, 350 apartment units, 70 single-family townhomes, and a 125-room boutique hotel.
Tech will participate as both the ground lessor and anchor office tenant. S.J. Collins Enterprises is serving as master developer with Armada Hoffler. Armada Hoffler's investment will be in the form of a mezzanine loan for the office and retail components of The Interlock, which the company expects to be approximately 60 percent pre-leased before breaking ground including a 50,000 square foot office lease with Georgia Tech. Armada Hoffler will also serve as the general contractor of the project.
“The Interlock represents the latest in our portfolio of investments in high-profile, mixed-use, public-private partnerships in the Southeast," said Louis Haddad, president and CEO of Armada Hoffler Properties, in a statement. "We look forward to expanding our geographic reach into West Midtown Atlanta and starting construction by the end of the year.”
Atlanta Business Chronicle reported last year that an affiliate of Georgia Tech, Georgia Advanced Technology Ventures (GATV), had selected S.J. Collins to lead development of the site, which sits in a rapidly transforming industrial area amid some of intown Atlanta’s new and trendiest stores and restaurants.
In addition to its investment in The Interlock, Armada Hoffler just announced a new development project at Wills Wharf, a site in the Harbor Point area of Baltimore, Md. The company plans to develop a 325,000 square foot mixed-use building with an estimated development cost of $117 million.


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Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi today announced that it had shipped 26.1 million smartphones in the first half of 2014. This is a staggering 271 percent rise from last year, and also four times the 7.03 million devices shipped in the first half of 2013. Also Read - Best wearable gift ideas under Rs 5,000 for Father's Day 2021
To put this number in better context, Xiaomi has now shipped more smartphones in the first six months of 2014 than the total number of devices it sold in 2013. Xiaomi sold 18.7 million smartphones last gear, which too was a 160 percent rise from the year before.
The Chinese company also revealed that revenues for the first half of 2014 had touched 33 billion Yuan ($5.3 billion). This is a 149 percent rise from last year, when its revenues had hit 13.3 billion in the same time period.
Xiaomi now plans to ship 100 million devices by the end of next year, and it plans on doing so by expanding into other markets like Brazil, Russia and India. The company has been rapidly setting up a base in India, and BGR India exclusively reported, it is planning on launching its first phone later this month in partnership with Flipkart. Last month, it launched its Indian website and also hired Jabong co-founder Manu Kumar Jain as the head of its India operations.
Xiaomi will first launch the entry-level Redmi 1S in India later this month, followed by the flagship Mi 3 sometime in August. The former is an entry-level smartphone featuring a 4.7-inch 720p IPS display, a MediaTek 6589 quad-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz, 1GB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage along with a microSD card slot. It comes with an 8-megapixel rear and 1.3-megapixel front-facing cameras. The Redmi 1S runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean with Xiaomi s MIUI V5 on top.
The flagship Mi 3, on the other hand, features a 5-inch 1080p IPS display, a 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal memory. It comes with 13-megapixel rear camera with dual-flash and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, both capable of shooting 1080p videos. The Mi3 also features dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and Wi-Fi Direct. It has a massive 3,050mAh battery as well.


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Over the years, sugar has become an indispensable ingredient in American cuisine. Nearly all foods, especially the processed ones, have sugar in it. While this ingredient sweetens our palates, it adds risk to our health. Aside from diabetes, doctors blame high sugar content in our diets for the rising incidence of obesity.
In an article published in Telegraph, researchers found out that poor diet will more likely lead to obesity than being a couch potato. Simon Capewell, a University of Liverpool professor of clinical epidemiology, said a diet loaded with sugar and carbohydrates causes 34.6% of the diseases globally. Capewell added physical inactivity caused only 3.1% of diseases.
For University of California San Francisco Pediatric Neuroendocrinologist Dr. Robert Lustig, sugar is an addictive poison. For him, eating high-sugar-content foods both boost fat storage and tricks the brain to believe it is hungry. For Lustig, this “vicious cycle” leads to obesity.
The growing number of evidence linking sugar and obesity has prompted a group of health experts, known as Action on Sugar, to conclude that “the obesity and diabetes epidemic” is not being tackled extensively. They also blame the continued misinformation of the public on the effects of sugar on health to contribute to the epidemic.
With the obesity epidemic in full swing, doctors recommend checking the ingredients that make up your meal. Some food manufacturers are hiding the word ‘sugar’ from their ingredients list. They have replaced the term sugar with as many as 56 names. There are the obvious ones, such as cane sugar and confectioner’s sugar. But who would have thought that barley malt, golden syrup, treacle, diastase, and fruit juice are just a few of many pseudonyms for sugar?
What’s in sugar that makes you obese? The chemical composition of sugar produces unwelcome reactions in the body that contributes to obesity. Here are four ways how sweets can destroy our body:
- Leads to insulin resistance – Diabetics are well aware of the hormone insulin. Secreted by the pancreas, insulin signals cells in the body to produce insulin. Insulin enables your body to use glucose. Excessive glucose in the blood is toxic, so the pancreas produces more insulin to get glucose from the bloodstream to be absorbed into the cells. During constant high levels of glucose, the cells will develop resistance to insulin. This condition will drive the pancreas to produce more insulin. Aside from regulating sugar levels, insulin also signals the cells to absorb fat from the bloodstream, store the fat and avoid burning the fat that the cells already contains.
- Develops resistance to leptin – Leptin is a hormone responsible for appeasing hunger. Previously, scientists believe obese people have a shortage of leptin. But Lustig challenged this and pointed at sugar-loaded foods as the culprit. He found out that consistently high dose of sugar in the body produces leptin resistance, a condition when the brain can no longer detect the hormone, making us incapable of perceiving hunger.
- Difficulty to get satisfaction from food – The body processes fructose (especially high fructose corn syrup used in sweetened drinks and processed foods) differently from glucose. In one study, volunteers who took with fructose-sweetened drinks were less satisfied as compared to those who drank glucose-sweetened variants. One probable reason is glucose intake lowers ghrelin—the hunger hormone—while fructose intake does not.
- Sugar is addictive – Sugar works like addictive drugs such as opium and cocaine. It releases opiates and dopamine in nucleus accumbens, a section of the brain that responsible for making us cherish rewards.
As we can see, sugar wreaks havoc on the body by triggering insulin and leptin resistance while not reducing ghrelin. Add to sugar’s addictive property to this vicious chain and we have a recipe for obesity. No wonder some doctors, including Lustig, termed sugar as a poison because of the many damages that it can bring to our body, especially to those in advanced age.
Given that sugar is a staple ingredient in the modern American diet, we should be aware of its health risks if it is ingested without control. Dieting is all about being mindful on the foods you take in and how you eat them.
Tony Miller is a freelance writer who loves health, diet and fitness. He writes for Genemedics Health Institute and a regular guest post contributor.


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December 31st, 2021 5:22 PM
On Monday, PBS played a Christiane Amanpour interview from CNN with Boston Celtics basketball star Enes Kanter over the controversy caused by his activism against China, which cuts against the usual “social justice warrior” vein. It’s worth watching to see his takedown of Nike as “one of the biggest hypocrite countries in the world.”
Amanpour read him Nike’s denials that they exploit slave labor in China, and he wasn’t having it. Studies show otherwise.
AMANPOUR: Why do you keep criticizing them if they’re — if that’s what their public — their response to that is?
KANTER: I will just say you this. Nike obviously is the one of the biggest — the biggest sponsor for NBA. And two years ago, right, when all this Black Lives Matter happened, Nike was one of the first company out there was standing with Black Lives Matter, Nike in America. Nike stands with stop Asian hate. Nike stands with LGBTQ community. Nike stands with Latino community.
But when it comes to China, Nike remains silent, because they — China is the big boss for Nike. And, I mean, obviously, they are not going to be able to answer because they know what they’re doing wrong. They’re one of the biggest hypocrite companies in the world.
AMANPOUR: But you’re not accusing them. You’re not accusing them in this case of profiting from slave labor or using any products from them? Because they deny it.
KANTER: Well, they — it’s a total lie. Everyone in the world knows that there are so many slave labor camps in — over there in China and many other countries that they are — that Nike is profiting from. So that was one of the biggest reason that I put on my shoes modern-day slavery and hypocrite Nike, just because of they’re profiting from slave labor camps.
Kanter then went after Nike athletes like Colin Kaepernick: “And it’s just disgusting to me see all the Nike athletes standing up for — and they are calling themselves a social justice warrior, and still can wear these items on their shoe, on their feet, or on their back, where, on these items, there is so much blood and sweat and oppression. And, to me, if you’re a Nike athlete, to me, you’re a hypocrite.”


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Ars Technica reports: Microsoft will cut the price on Xbox 360 models by as much as one-third, starting Friday. Expect $50 to be cut from the Pro and Elite models of the hardware (that's about 11 to 14 percent off), and a big $80 off the Arcade model, nearly 33 percent. That carefully plotted discount puts an Xbox system on the market at $50 less than the Nintendo Wii.
"We are thrilled to be the first next-generation console on the market to reach $199, a price that invites everyone to enjoy Xbox 360," said Microsoft SVP Don Mattrick in a statement. "Xbox 360 delivers amazing performance at an extraordinary value with the leading online service and best lineup of games, downloadable movies and TV shows available from a console. The majority of consumers make the decision to buy consoles once the price falls to this mark, making this an important milestone for consumers and the industry."
Mattrick also confirmed that Microsoft's goal is beating out Sony for second place in the US market. "I'm not at a point where I can say we're going to beat Nintendo," Mattrick told Business Week. "We will sell more consoles this generation than Sony."
Being the first console this generation to come in under that magical $200 price point is no small feat, and Microsoft is hoping that such a low price will give its sales a kick in the pants, even if less tech-savvy consumers don't realize they'll have to purchase an expensive hard drive to get the most out of their new system. Microsoft is also getting ready to completely revamp the system's user interface this fall with a new, clean look, as well as "avatars" that are the spitting image of Wii's "Mii" characters. These changes should make it easier than ever for casual gamers to get into the system, even if they never use its more advanced features.
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The open banking revolution has been fuelled by the needs of digital-savvy customers yearning for more sophisticated services than legacy banks could offer. Now, as open finance emerges as the next step in this journey of innovation, digital currencies are
naturally set to play a significant role. There are plenty of indications that digital alongside cryptocurrencies are approaching a mainstream adoption phase, and that this will change the payments landscape.
PayPal began allowing consumers to use their cryptocurrency holdings to pay at millions of its online merchants globally in March, while car maker Tesla bought $1.5 billion in Bitcoin. Meanwhile Diem, Facebook's rebranded Libra crypto project, is set to
launch its US dollar stablecoins this year, despite several setbacks and the big networks, Mastercard and Visa, are embracing crypto.
We are also witnessing the dawn of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The Sand Dollar, the first nationwide central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the world, launched in the Bahamas in October 2020, China has launched the digital yuan and the British
government has asked its central bank to look into launching a digital currency to co-exist with Sterling, nicknamed the Britcoin.
For CBDCs to have a mainstream future and to be accepted and adopted by consumers globally, central banks will need to spread the message that CBDCs offer safe and efficient payments backed a robust policy framework. They should also conduct stress tests
regarding payment habits to ascertain how a CBDC can perform reliably in extreme situations such as the coronavirus pandemic.
To achieve a scalable and trustworthy CBDC, central banks must set the highest operational and technological requirements while also considering where the private sector can bring its their expertise and market abilities to the table.
As CBDCs move from planning and pilot stages to real-world use, it also seems that we are heading for a tipping point where crypto moves from being considered as an asset to hold or trade to a legitimate funding source. This is occurring just as the era
of open finance is upon us, with customers’ entire financial footprints being opened up to trusted third party APIs in order to bring a wealth of beneficial, tailored customer experiences.
The convenience and innovations of open finance, also known as DeFi (de-centralised finance), will naturally bridge the gap between the blockchain space and the traditional world of finance in terms of payments. As cryptocurrency payments increase, they
will rapidly become more significant for industries offering large ticket and high-volume goods and services. This is one of the reasons why we added cryptocurrencies to our portfolio of payments methods and acquired Simplex, to offer fiat payments infrastructure
to crypto companies which ultimately reduces complexity for merchants and consumers via a single-integration approach to payments, driving growth and innovation.
All of this helps bridge the gap between the blockchain space and the traditional finance world. However, regulators around the world are still adapting and changing. It will take time before crypto is completely accepted as a standard payment facility.
At the same time and thanks to fierce competition from challenger banks, legacy banks have realised that they can no longer serve up a basic user interface if they want to maintain and grow a loyal customer base. Instead, they must offer a data-driven, customised,
and personalised experience.
Open finance is at the foundation of this experience, acting as a catalyst for this new era of banking. While open banking is a transaction of data between a bank or credit union and a third-party consumer finance app, open finance extends data sharing across
a range of services both within and beyond the financial industry.
This means less friction for consumers as their financial service providers conveniently help them to take care of many different aspects of their lives. This powers services including fraud monitoring on e-commerce sites, tracking spending and managing
This also helps to improve financial literacy among consumers, and that effect only increases the likelihood of cryptocurrencies becoming an integral part of the open finance ecosystem.
We often hear the word ‘disruption’ in the tech world, but that is not really the goal of the open finance movement. The goal should not be merely to uproot one system, centralised finance (CeFi), and replace it with another, DeFi. It rather should be a
future where value is created so that it improves more lives and increases financial wellbeing in general.
However, key foundations will have to be in place for open finance to enjoy mainstream success. There must be a focus on value exchange to drive customer education and awareness so that they understand how it can enrich their lives and improve their financial
wellness. It could also be necessary to embrace further regulation, to see this as a business-enabler, a chance to go above and beyond to deliver valuable and fair solutions to consumers rather than a tick-box exercise.
This focus on adding value, choice and convenience to the customer experience must also include cryptocurrency. This not only aids the infrastructure of the system, especially as much of the DeFi offerings already in existence are powered by Ethereum. It
also plays to the tech-savvy nature of the customers being targeted who are more likely than most to be aware of crypto.
Consumers are quite rightly at the epicentre of this change. Their desires for innovation and convenience will accelerate the provision of open finance solutions fuelled by cryptocurrencies.


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Credit crunch, but banks still make £4.3bn
The major banks have made nearly £500m more from UK customers in six months despite the credit crunch.
Crying wolf?: High St banks have made £500m more in the first half of year
Critics attacked the rise last night, accusing the banks of taking advantage of account holders by charging more for mortgages, loans and credit cards.
Figures show five of the country's biggest banks - Lloyds TSB, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, HSBC and HBOS - made combined half-year profits of £4.294bn, nearly £500m more than the £3.808bn raised during the same period last year.
The results are likely to shock British families, many of whom have been forced to pay more for their bank's financial services while at the same time struggling to cope with the rising cost of living.
Tim Newhouse, of price comparison website moneysupermarket.com, said: 'The UK's big five banks are crying poor globally, but doing well locally.'
The figures reveal the Royal Bank of Scotland increased its profits from its UK businesses by 9.2%.
This is despite the global company announcing losses of £691m last week - one of the biggest in banking history.
Bank mortgage rates have increased compared to last year. While home loans were available at more than 0.25% below the Bank of England base rate last year, they are now 0.75% above the base rate.
A spokesman for the British Bankers' Association said: 'UK banks offer a unique variety of services which are fee-free to customers but which cost banks to provide.
'High Street account holders are not losing out to prop up business elsewhere where customers routinely pay for every transaction they make. Bank profits depend largely on wholesale rather than retail customers.'
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A few months soon after two of the premier cryptocurrency trading exchanges, Bitfinex and GDAX, last but not least adopted the bitcoin SegWit protocol, transaction expenses for the forex are last but not least back again to sensible amounts. Bitfinex, on February 20 2018, introduced help for bitcoin deposit and withdrawals employing P2SH Segregated Witness (SegWit) addresses when GDAX, on February 23, introduced a phased rollout for all its clients. By early March, both exchanges experienced successfully transitioned their full infrastructure from legacy bitcoin addresses to SegWit suitable types.
Importantly, the adoption of SegWit by exchanges arrived only soon after the full cryptocurrency community clamored for it in a bid to lower bitcoin expenses. However, soon after disregarding much of the need for transaction batching and SegWit considering that the latter’s launch in August 2017, it appears as if the exchanges are last but not least getting person feed-back much more critically.
In a site write-up dated February 20, 2018, Bitfinex introduced that its up grade to SegWit wallets was enthusiastic by the potential for lessen withdrawal expenses and enhanced processing time for transactions on the bitcoin network. Paolo Ardino, the CTO of Bitfinex, mentioned,
“As a premier exchange, Bitfinex is fully commited to increasing its industry-leading presenting for our loyal and discerning clients. SegWit provides not only an fast gain for consumers, but also a foundation for potential Bitcoin development.”
He further additional,
“By supporting SegWit addresses, Bitfinex is tackling three of the largest crypto fanatic concerns: transaction expenses, transaction pace, and full network capability. We are delighted that by this implementation we can supply our clients with bitcoin withdrawal expenses that are up to 20 per cent lessen, as very well as more quickly than at any time transaction speeds.”
For sending and acquiring bitcoin, Bitfinex consumers have been presented with SegWit enabled bitcoin wallets.
Coinbase’s GDAX also made a comparable statement, with the product or service supervisor at the organization, Alex Sieke, publishing a site write-up of his possess. As of now, all bitcoin shifting in and out of Coinbase and Bitfinex comes about by a SegWit enabled address, allowing for scaled-down transaction dimensions overhead and therefore, lessen expenses to be accomodated in a mined block.
Aside from these exchanges, ShapeShift, a popular company applied to trade just one cryptocurrency for a further, also rolled out help for transaction batching on February 22, 2018. The organization was presently just one of the only big scale SegWit adopters in Oct 2017, when adoption for the characteristic was virtually non-existent. Support for both, transaction batching as very well as SegWit, signifies that ShapeShift is presently employing the most efficient signifies of transferring bitcoin amongst wallets.
As predicted, increased SegWit adoption has experienced a impressive effects on bitcoin network expenses. Even though expenses were presently lessen than they experienced been during 2017, thanks in element to falling transaction quantity, the migration to the enhanced protocol enhanced the condition further still. For occasion, as of the time of creating this article, transfers can be accomplished for a number of cents just about every, a significantly cry from the astronomical tens of dollars noticed very last calendar year. A Reddit person even claimed to have transferred $16,000 value of bitcoin (~2 BTC) for as tiny as $.20 in expenses.
Perhaps enthusiastic by the lowered network congestion, cryptocurrency exchanges also started competing to provide the lowest bitcoin withdrawal expenses. On March 1, 2018, Binance tweeted a 50 per cent reduction to .0005 BTC per withdrawal, a go that was quickly matched by Kraken. The subsequent day, Bitfinex made the decision to stick to match as very well and slashed its withdrawal payment by 33 per cent, bringing their sum to .0004 BTC.
ShapeShift, nevertheless, presently delivers the lowest withdrawal payment out of all exchanges, at a mere .0001 BTC.
The bitcoin mempool, an mixture dimensions of all pending transactions ready to be mined, also observed a apparent reduction in dimensions at the time the exchanges experienced successfully migrated their infrastructure above to SegWit. Because mempool dimensions has a instead big affect on transfer prices, this occasion has authorized transactions with expenses as tiny as 1 satoshi/byte to also be cleared fairly promptly.
Cryptocurrency expenses were arguably a hotly debated and contested subject matter during 2017, as is evidenced by the delivery of a number of new cryptocurrencies by tough forks. Main amongst these was Bitcoin Funds, that observed a group of bitcoin supporters create a forex identical to bitcoin with the exception of a larger block dimensions, from 1MB to 8MB. Several core bitcoin developers and followers, on the other hand, have opposed this ideology, stating that the go would direct to centralization.
SegWit, along with the forthcoming Lightning Community, could be negative news for bitcoin forks and other cryptocurrencies that were otherwise identical clones. For scaled-down transaction measurements, Bitcoin Funds expenses have presently exceeded that of bitcoin because of to the shrinking mempool. It is very clear that Bitcoin Funds developers will have to uncover a option to compete. On the other hand, if transaction expenses are by some means connected to bitcoin costs, as proposed by coinmetrics, not much can be mentioned about the current condition until finally the forex breaches its former all time superior at the time once more.
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If you haven’t heard the news already, Blitzen has been chosen to be Canada’s only representative at Startup Nations 2014 in Seoul Korea!
Co-founder Josh Wright will take flight for Seoul Korea on an all expenses paid trip thanks to Startup Canada and Startup Nations. Upon landing, he’ll get right to work, preparing to pitch for $100k cash and the reputation of Canada’s burgeoning startup ecosystem. He’ll also have a chance to meet with some of the most impressive global brands headquartered in Seoul Korea – brands he’d like to make our happy customers!
By the way, a significant chunk of the competition is based on public vote. As a country with a tiny population, we’re at a disadvantage here. We are truly thankful for anyone who takes a minute to give their vote, and we want you to know that it makes a difference.
- Click here.
- Then, hover over “Blitzen” and click “vote”. You’ll see a popup that asks you to sign up first. Click “Ok”.
- Register with your Facebook or Google account. Follow the instructions. None of the permissions are malicious. They won’t post anything to your accounts on your behalf.
- Vote for Blitzen and Canada!
- Then, take to Twitter and LinkedIn and tell the world you voted for Blitzen & Canada! If using Twitter, we’re @BlitzenApp.
While surprising, this opportunity didn’t come out of left field – it’s been a crazy and successful year. We’re tackling a huge and expensive problem in SaaS fragmentation, and it’s being recognized. Still, Canada is pumping out some amazing companies with world class talent, so to be singled out really is an honour.
Techvibes showed us some love here. Also, as a result of being chosen for Startup Nations, we were also chosen for the Techvibes 20 October 2014 Edition which features Canada’s hottest and most promising startups! Communitech, our first home, did an awesome piece as well – see it here. Finally, Betakit hit out of the park with their coverage here.
Again, a special thank you to Startup Canada for pumping our story out to their thousands of Twitter followers!
If you only do two things today, vote and share this story with anyone that might be interested.


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There's a reason Apple's /*iTunes*/ has become the number one retailer for music.
"The iTunes music store -- it's the most successful and easiest place to buy music," says iTunes customer Robert Caffese.
"iTunes because I don't have to pay for, like, the taxes and stuff," says iTunes customer Erica Quini.
But that tax-free status could change soon. An east Los Angeles lawmaker wants to make anything downloadable, from music to videos, subject to a sales tax. He's asking the state Board of Equalization to redefine what a tangible item is, so that i-products are included.
Right now, only things you can touch or feel are taxed.
"Everything has moved to the information age, and the question is, should we ignore products that would otherwise be taxed if they were in a tangible form?" asks Democratic Assemblyman Charles Calderon of Los Angeles.
Critics question if he's trying to circumvent the process. The controversy is over whether this is really a tax proposal. Assemblyman Calderon says he's just asking for a definition change.
The distinction is important because tax hikes are more difficult to pass through the Legislature, needing a two-thirds vote. Everything else, like a definition change, needs only a simple majority.
"If he thinks this is really a right tax and this is for California, he should go through the regular route and get two-thirds of the vote," says Michelle Steel, member of the California Board of Equalization.
Whatever elected leaders want to call it, most iTunes customers don't like the idea of paying an i-tax.
"It's kind of smart to try and target something that everybody is using. However, I feel that going after music and charging for downloads is pushing it," says iTunes customer Vernon Bennett.
The first committee hearing is mid-April.


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"FarmVille Toys Are Coming: Zynga and Hasbro Sign Licensing Deal".
Org In 2009, Zynga started a nonprofit organization, Zynga.
" Zynga's Wild, Wild Western FrontierVille Launches." June 9, 2010.
158 Zynga founder Mark Pincus has dismissed the criticisms, saying that competing video game makers have always released similar titles for each genre of game."Zynga Goes To The Mattresses 22 Lawsuits Filed This Year And Counting".167 Night Owl Games has also filed a lawsuit for declaratory judgment that its game Dungeonville does not infringe any Zynga trademarks after Zynga protested Night Owl's registration of the Dungeonville trademark.Zynga Brings Words With juegos gratis de tragamonedas sin descargar ni registrarse nuevos Friends To Android, Still Waiting On Farmville.
17 Customer acquisition edit Customer acquisition is key to Zynga's business.
A net loss of 435 million included a one-time 510 million employee stock compensation expense that was triggered by the company going public.
180 Zynga priced at 10 per share and began trading on nasdaq under znga on December 16, 2011.
65 On January 30, 2014, Zynga announced it has agreed to purchase NaturalMotion.
Poker Blitz shut down December 14, 2010.Masnick, Mike (January 19, 2011).33 Zynga also announced the Zynga API, intended to help developers build social games.Zynga Elite Slots shut down April 30, 2015.Finally, Facebook agrees to help Zynga reach "certain growth targets for monthly unique users of Covered Zynga Games".The Mobile Wave: How Mobile Intelligence Will Change Everything.It the main that means that you wont ever have to pay the expensive cash and coins with your money and usually it is not possible to play without them, but for sure it will also give you a lot more of fun.Facebook facing legal action over unauthorised payments from The Telegraph Gelles, David; Joseph Menn (November 25, 2009).


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If you haven’t yet discovered The Ordinary skincare collection, you’re missing out. It’s a no-fuss, no-fancy brand that does exactly what it promises and is fantastic value for money.
We’re delighted that The Ordinary has launched into Harvey Nichols, confirming it as a name that’s here to stay.
To celebrate the launch, Harvey Nichols has an exclusive collection called The No-Brainer Set, which at £24 is a saving on the £27.50 it would cost to buy the products separately. The set includes three products that will have an impact on any skin type, and it’s a great way of trying out the products.


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Denham acquired by two former Tommy Hilfiger Europe executives
Denham has been scooped up by an investment fund. The Dutch brand specializing in premium denim is now under the control of Amlon Capital, which announced it had acquired a majority stake in the jeans label. Launched in 2008 in Amsterdam by British designer Jason Denham, his namesake brand will reap the benefits of its new owners, who boast a strong fashion pedigree. Amlon Capital, which has invested in Karl Lagerfeld and the children's clothing brand Vingino, was recently created by Ludo Onnink and Fred Gehring.
The two managers were the founding partners of Tommy Hilfiger Europe in 1996. At the time, they were at the helm of Pepe Jeans Corporation when it signed the license for Tommy Hilfiger. They then went on to expand the Tommy Hilfiger business and served as COO and CEO until 2014. They now intend to use their experience to develop Denham. Ludo Onnink has been named CEO of the brand and Fred Gehring non-executive chairman.
"Ludo and I have had a longstanding business relationship and friendship since the mid-90s, and we share a vision for how we can continue to evolve Denham into the future – including a three-year plan to double the size of the business," said Jason Denham in a statement.
"I am also incredibly pleased to welcome Fred as Non-Executive Chairman; he has exceptional expertise and an incredible track record in building global brands."
Amidst all these changes, the brand's founder Jason Denham has been named Chief Creative Officer and will focus on the product itself.
"Jason and his team have built a strong, aspirational and pure brand that is about quality and incredible attention to detail," said Fred Gehring. “Our vision for Denham is to continue to develop its global success, leveraging the significant momentum it has seen already in The Netherlands and Japan. In many ways, we feel Denham can be the next big thing’. In many ways, we feel Denham can be the next big thing."
Denham is always very reserved about its financial performance, but did say it plans to leverage its joint venture Look Inc. to grow in the Japanese market, where it already has 22 stores. The brand, already very prominent on Dutch high streets, has fifteen stores in other markets. It also has plans to move into Germany and has named Marco Frenzer as head of sales for Germany, who will be based at the brand's German headquarters in Dusseldorf. The brand will likely also explore the Chinese market in 2017.
Copyright © 2023 FashionNetwork.com All rights reserved.


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A funeral home. What better place is there to share the drama of life with the ones you love?
“OutKast is everlasting” –Big Boi says so in “The Way You Move”
Put your gaming pants on, get your thumbs warmed up, and dig up that Mario hat from Halloween. Are you ready for the invasion? The Louisville Arcade Expo lures gamers all across Kentucky and Kentuckiana this weekend.
EPIC kickoff to the Reflektor Tour
The March Flea Off Market Rockets Louisville into spring with over a 100 vendors from fashion to food and art to antiques. Come out on Sunday for square dancing.
Tonight will be bittersweet for George Strait fans as they hear the sound of twin fiddles and a steel guitar; Opry music on a Friday night in Louisville. The performance will sure to bring a tear to the eye of attendees.
The Belle of Louisville is 100 years young this October, and according to those close to her, has another 100 years to go.
The King of Country, a fish fry, antique auto swap, a children's fair and MORE!
Adventure, heroes, and disguises in The Scarlet Pimpernel, which Floyd Central High School opens this weekend.
Spring forward this weekend. Set your clocks forward one hour on Sunday, March 9 and get set for spring around Louisville.
Dress up, get weird, let's do this!
Get your kids' spring and summer apparel today through Saturday at the Southern Indiana KidStuff Sale.


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Acquisition challenge: 100 new starts in 2004-08. (Washington Pulse).
As they settle in their new digs, these acquisition workers will need to get busy very quickly, because the Marine Corps has challenged them to field at least 100 new products between fiscal years 2004 and 2008. "It's a new rule at the Marine Corps," Feigley told a recent industry conference. "Our goal for POM 2004 [the five-year spending plan that begins in 2004] is 100 new starts," he said. What that means is that "we have to start delivering products within that POM cycle."
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|Article Type:||Brief Article|
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Looks like J. Cole is diversifying and growing his empire. Today is has been announced that the Dreamville rapper will be expanding into more than a record label with Dreamville Ventures and Dreamville Studios.
The new media companies will produce original content for TV, film, music, publishing, apparel and live events, which include the annual Dreamville Festival.
Here’s what Cole had to say about the news:
“Dreamville has always been a mom-and-pop operation with grand ambitions and ideas that extend far beyond music. The hiring of Damien and Candace not only expands our family business with two of the smartest and most capable executives in the industry, but allows us to take a massive leap towards turning those big ideas into reality.”
Former Complex Media editor-in-chief Damien Scott will oversee the dealings for Dreamville Ventures, and former Senior VP of Development at Wilmore Films, Candace Rodney will be in charge of Dreamville Studios.


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Pat Rabbitte, the minister for communications, said last week that work had begun on a national high-speed broadband network, as promised in the programme for government. However, super-fast internet access is already a reality in urban areas. UPC has raised its entry-level speed to 25Mb, with the option of upgrading to 100Mb. Eircom retaliated last week, offering free upgrades to some customers and price reductions to others. We guide you through the options.
HOW FAST IS HIGH SPEED?
Most broadband providers have a current standard of 8Mb, fast enough for watching television, such as the catch-up RTE Player service, or YouTube videos online.
Niall Kitson, the editor of PC Live! magazine, said: “The big selling point of 24Mb or 25Mb broadband is that you can…


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Truett-Hurst Inc (THST) said Friday it has named Paul Forgue as chief financial officer and chief operating officer, effective June 16. Forgue succeeds James Bielenberg who resigned to pursue other interests.
Before joining the company, Forgue was a senior director of Alvarez & Marsal, a financial advisory services firm.
Truett-Hurst is a holding company and its sole asset is the controlling equity interest in H.D.D. LLC., a super-premium, ultra-premium and luxury wine sales, marketing and production company based in the acclaimed Dry Creek and Russian River Valleys of Sonoma County, California.
by RTT Staff Writer
For comments and feedback: email@example.com


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Set in motion in 2015, DigiLocker App available on Android, iOS and web allows its users to carry their documents in soft copies. The initiative was launched by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, under the Ministry of Communications and IT.
It is a platform for issuing and verifying important government put out certificates and documents. The users can store their documents such as insurance, medical reports, PAN card, passport, marriage certificate, school certificates and other documents in the digital format. DigiLocker can be accessed on Google Play Store on Android phones.
This new App avails cloud storage space up to 1 GB freebie and cut down the use of physical documents, thus making e-documents legitimate. This measure would further boost up the Green Economy by ruling out the paperwork.
How does DigiLocker work?
- Lack of Internet access and digital education
- India still have states and administration that do not even have basic digital skills which will need the physical production of documents for a long time.
The DigiLocker team is striking out to improve user experience, according to Debabarta Nayak, Project Director and Chief tTechnical Architect of DigiLocker. Till now, over 17 million users have registered for the DigiLocker service, according to the government’s website.


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By ROY FURCHGOTT
The International CES in Las Vegas is not only filled with shiny gadgets. There are also some products displaying software with advances to authentication, which could potentially make all those gadgets safer to use.
Published: January 8, 2014 at 12:00AM
from NYT Technology http://nyti.ms/19TZfkv


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Six months ago, the world looked on in horror as a Bangladeshi garment factory collapsed into rubble taking the lives of more than a thousand workers. Western retailers promised to do more, to pay more, to keep their workers safer. But, the global spotlight of outrage comes and goes, and while it was focused elsewhere, how much has changed? Bloomberg revisits the country with a grim update:
Today, not a single Bangladeshi garment factory has been inspected under any of the three programs that sprang from those promises, according to officials at the programs. Nor has danger ceased in the $19 billion industry: Two weeks ago, a fire ripped through a factory in a Dhaka suburb that provided material for plants supplying clothing to companies including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) Nine workers died.
The slow implementation comes against a backdrop of worker unrest that has stalled production in factories and led to massive street demonstrations over safety conditions and wages, which are set at $39 a month before overtime. One, on Oct. 15, was quelled by the Industrial Police, a rubber-bullet-firing riot force set up two years ago to bring protesting garment workers under control.
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More shtick than honesty in Not That Kind of Girl.


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Neil Diamond‘s “Sweet Caroline” has long been associated with baseball, but now his unmistakable voice will be part of Sunday’s Super Bowl — courtesy of an ad for Volkswagen.
A two-minute extended cut of a 60-second ad that’s going to run during the third quarter of the game on February 11 has just been released. Called “An American Love Story,” it’s soundtracked by Diamond’s 1971 top five hit “I Am … I Said.”
The commercial traces the journey of the Volkswagen brand in America, from its arrival in the U.S. in 1949 to the present day, and shows how the brand has become a part of the fabric of American culture over the years.
We also see some of the brand’s iconic appearances in movies and TV shows, including the 1968 movie The Love Bug and a clip of Bart and Lisa Simpson playing “punch buggy” during a car trip.
In addition to being available on YouTube, the two-minute version of the spot debuted on February 9 at the 2024 Chicago Auto Show Media Preview and to current owners via the Volkswagen myVW app.
“I Am … I Said,” from Diamond’s album Stones, is a highlight of the current Neil Diamond Broadway musical, A Beautiful Noise.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.


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Tara Lynn, Candice Huffine, and Robyn Lawley have landed where plus-size models are rarely seen, on the cover of a major fashion magazine. They grace Vogue Italia’s July issue and appear in a stunning nude photo spread.
The feature is part of editor Franca Sozzani’s campaign against pro-anorexia Web sites and demands by major fashion houses for ultra-thin runway models.
Photographer Steven Meisel was enlisted for the feature, entitled “Real Beauties,” and stylist Edward Enninful doesn’t conceal their bodies in billowing dresses.
Instead the models pose in sexy lingerie or almost nothing at all.
“Curvy women are back in all their splendor,” said Sozzani in a statement. “The exuberance of a body with rounded lines is much more alluring and sexy.”
“A growing number of readers are now asking to see – even in fashion magazines – a real world, made of real people who are not obsessed with staying thin, but are able instead to naturally accept and respect their bodies as they are,” she added.
“Fashion has always been blamed as one of the culprits of anorexia, and our commitment is the proof that fashion is ready to get on the frontline and struggle against the disorder,” said Sozzani, who is circulating a petition to shut down anorexia Web sites.
The fashion industry has produced horror stories about models who subsist only on lettuce or eat cotton balls soaked in orange juice to stay super thin.
“Many of the women who have a few extra kilos are especially beautiful and also more feminine,” said the editor.
Just check out the video and photos. Click to enlarge. And, be sure to follow TheImproper on Twitter for all the latest fashion trends from around the world.


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Demand for lithium batteries to surge over 5-fold; EVs to fuel more
From smartphones to laptops, from medical equipment to electric cars, lithium-ion batteries are providing portable electricity across electronic gadgets and power tools, and their demand is only going to surge.
Called “White Gold”, Lithium is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal that is highly reactive, incredibly light, and low in density.
Though it had a diverse range of applications throughout history, in recent years, it has become a critical component of lithium-ion batteries due its reactivity, lightness and ability to be recharged.
The global lithium market size was valued at $6.83 billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12 per cent from 2022 to 2030, according to Grand View Research.
Electrification of vehicles is projected to attract a significant volume of lithium-ion batteries, thus anticipated to drive the market over the forecast period.
Government subsidies for EVs, along with investments in this space, are acting as an additional booster to the growth of the market.
According to public-private alliance Li-Bridge, the global demand for lithium batteries is expected to surge more than five-fold by 2030.
Global lithium production totalled 100,000 tonnes (90.7 million kg) in 2021, while worldwide reserves stand at about 22 million tonnes (20 billion kg), according to the US Geological Survey.
In 2022, reserves of lithium in Chile amounted to an estimated 9.3 million metric tonnes, the largest worldwide.
Australia comes in second, with reserves estimated at 6.2 million metric tonnes in 2022.
The US had total lithium reserves of approximately one million metric tonnes.
India has now joined the Lithium superpower club, with the discovery of 5.9 million tonnes of lithium at Salai village in the Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir.
The US holds major significance in battery production after China, which makes it one of the key lithium-consuming countries in the world.
According to Grand View Research, the consumer electronics application segment is estimated to register the fastest CAGR of more than 15 per cent in terms of revenue, from 2022 to 2030.
The segment is projected to grow owing to the increasing sales of electronic devices, such as mobile phones, laptops, cameras, portable radios, speakers, and MP3 players, which make use of Li-ion batteries.
Batteries account for the largest share of lithium end-usage. Propelled by the growth in the electric vehicle market, powered by rechargeable lithium batteries, global lithium demand is forecast to reach one million metric tonnes by 2025, and surpass two million tonnes by 2030, according to statista.
However, the world could face lithium shortages by 2025, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
About 2 billion EVs need to be on the road by 2050 for the world to hit net zero, according to the IEA.
Global EV purchases jumped to 6.6 million in 2021 from 3 million a year earlier, meaning that EVs made up 9 per cent of the market.
“Sales of petrol and diesel cars are projected to slide even more quickly in the coming decade, as more countries pledge to phase them out. At last year’s COP26 climate talks, 30 governments said they would stop sales of new petrol and diesel models by 2040,” according to a recent World Economic Forum report.
In a move to boost the transition to electric vehicles (EVs), the European Parliament has approved the law to ban the sale of new gas and diesel cars in the EU, starting in 2035.
Source – IANS


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On or after Jan. 1, 2013, businesses in Concord will be prohibited from selling non-sparkling, unflavored drinking water in single-serving polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles of 1 liter (34 ounces) or less. The bylaw provides an exemption for emergencies and allows the ban to be lifted by the town if an emergency is officially declared. Businesses in town will still be able to sell non-sparkling water in plastic bottles that are larger than one liter.
The Town of Concord received notice from the Massachusetts Office of Attorney General Martha Coakley that the office has approved the ban of single-serving plastic water bottles in Concord under this year's Town Meeting Article 32, making Concord the first town in the country to implement such a ban.
Should other towns follow suit?


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We had news this morning that CPI inflation went through 10% in the UK – bad news, as this surely means further increases to interest rates over here. That won’t help businesses such as online clothing retailer, AIM-listed ASOS (ASC) and I sense that the company’s difficulties don’t end there, for this morning the CFO/COO Mr Mat Dunn is to leave at the end of October. But the statement is, I fear, highly disingenuous.
I may have told you the story before that I thought I was so smart when I doubled my money in the then As Seen On Screen (and now ASOS) (ASC) shares the thick end of a couple of decades ago…but I sold way too early. However it is better to make money than not…as any ASOS investors over the last five years know, with the stock down a mere 80% since 2017. And as any trendy 15-30 year olds will tell you, there have been plenty of fashion brand changes over recent years way beyond whether clothes should be bought online or not. And on this front, onto today’s noteworthy two updates…
If you are into corporate updates it is an interesting day today and loads to write about. Here is the exciting news: it is going to be like this for over the next couple of months. It has always been thus over the last twenty-five plus years I have been looking at the U.K. markets. I guess I should start with ASOS (ASC), which may have formally talked about a four month trading update to the end of December, but a second headline it gave, observing that the company ‘announces intended move to London Stock Exchange’s main market’, is kind of interesting too.
A week into January and I see that the weekend press has plenty of stories about the European Central Bank executive who ‘warns green energy push will drive inflation higher’, as well as the UK's former vaccines minister who said it would be ‘helpful’ to cut the self-isolation period to five days. Otherwise there is the apparent hassle of the wealth of the top 1% is 230 times higher than the poorest 10%. Such analytical excitement (not).


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To survive the current global economic crisis, Nissan Motor needed to shed some excess weight. About 8.5% of its entire work force, 20,000 jobs, will be cut worldwide after the automaker on Monday forecast a net loss of 265.0 billion yen ($2.9 billion) for the current fiscal year.
The bloodletting, which will trim
"The global auto industry is in turmoil, and Nissan is no exception," Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn told a press conference in Tokyo. Nevertheless, Nissan has no plans to close any factories, he added.
Credited with turning around Nissan within a year when he first joined the company as chief operating officer in 1999, Ghosn is now facing another huge challenge. Nissan's caution about recording a group net loss for 2008 would signal its first red ink in a decade under the stewardship of Ghosn.
The maker of GT-R sports car and March compact vehicles has already posted a loss of 83.2 billion yen ($810 million) for the October-December quarter, in contrast to the 132.2 billion yen ($1.3 billion) profit it made in the equivalent period the previous year. Net sales for the Oct.-Dec. period were also down, by 34.4%, to 1.8 trillion yen ($17.7 billion).
The impact of the strong yen and a sharp falloff in consumer spending and availability of financing in all major markets contributed to the loss, Nissan said.
"In every planning scenario we built, our worst assumptions on the state of the global economy have been met or exceeded, with the continuing grip on credit and declining consumer confidence being the most damaging factors," Ghosn explained.
Nissan sold 731,000 vehicles worldwide in the quarter ending December, down 18.6% from the comparable period a year earlier.
Shares of Nissan Motor dropped by 16 yen (18 cents), or 5.8%, to a 52-week low at 261.00 yen ($2.85), following the loss warning.


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Home sales in Orange and Sullivan counties have finally rebounded to pre-recession levels, according to a new batch of industry data, but prices have been slower to recover.
In Orange County, 3,479 detached single-family homes sold last year, a 27 percent increase from the 2,746 sold in 2015, according to the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors.
Last year was the busiest year for buyers since 2005, when 3,685 homes sold.
The Sullivan County Board of Realtors reported 554 single-family home sales in 2016, up from 446 the year before.
It was the highest sale total since 558 homes sold in 2007.
While sales jumped in 2016, prices stagnated. Orange County’s median sale price – the level at which half of homes sold for more, and half for less – was $229,000, up less than 2 percent from the 2015 median of $225,000.
That’s a far cry from Orange County’s peak of $322,500 reached in 2007.
In Sullivan County, the median sale price fell 8 percent last year, to $127,550 from $138,980 in 2015.
Sullivan County’s peak median sale price was $185,000, also reached in 2007.
These results only include sales reported to the boards of Realtors. Ulster County data was not available Monday from that county’s board of Realtors.


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Latest Joshua Pearce Stories
It’s old news that open-source 3D printing is cheaper than conventional manufacturing, not to mention greener and incredibly useful for making everything from lab equipment to chess pieces. Now it’s time to add another star to the 3D printing constellation: Fair Trade.
Not only is manufacturing goods using a 3D printer far cheaper than purchasing items, new research appearing in a recent edition of the Journal of Cleaner Production reveals that it can actually help preserve the environment.
Until now, 3D printing has been a polymer affair, with most people in the maker community using the machines to make all manner of plastic consumer goods, from tent stakes to chess sets. A new low-cost 3D printer developed by Michigan Technological University's Joshua Pearce and his team could add hammers to that list.
A new study finds that 3D printing of plastic products is not only cheaper, but also greener, because it releases less carbon dioxide than producing things en masse in a factory and shipping those products to a warehouse.
Twelve teams of Michigan teachers are visiting Michigan Technological University (MTU) this week to get some hands-on experience with 3D printing technology.
With some 3D printers priced upwards of $2,000, some may assume the days of printing everything one needs from their den are too far off.
Just as the power of the open-source design has driven down the cost of software to the point that it is accessible to most people, open-source hardware makes it possible to drive down the cost of doing experimental science and expand access to everyone.
The future of 3D printing is still being determined by researchers in laboratories, and one new project is helping to shape that future, with trash.
The public is being kept in the dark about the viability of solar photovoltaic energy.
Canadian and provincial governments could spend $2.4 billion to build a large scale solar photovoltaic manufacturing plant and then give it away for free and still earn a profit in the long run.
- A hairdresser.


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Apple’s new credit card, Apple Card is now available to the days of the issue.
Apple will release iOS 12.4 5th beta as of today. The iOS 12.4 beta 5, which is thought to be the first version of iOS to offer Apple Card related software support, heralds that the company’s new credit card will be available in the US this summer.
According to Bloomberg, Apple, employees in stores in the United States began to make the first information and tests about Apple Card. This 5th beta will be one of the company’s latest versions of iOS before iOS 13, revealing estimates that Apple Card will be available for use next month.
Today Apple will also release watchOS 5.3 developer beta, and we will see how the new credit card Apple Card will achieve success. Who will be successful in these days when technology companies are slowly stepping into the financial sector?


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for our list of September’s hottest selling smartphones to see how the iPhone fared against the competition, or here for our top 10 list of best smartphones in 2013 (so far).**
Industry analysts are wondering if Apple made a mistake by offering two new smartphones at once last month following news that production for the iPhone 5c is already being cut in half.
The Wall Street Journal went as far to say that the less-expensive 5c isn’t selling as well as Apple had hoped, calling the multi-device strategy into question; yet, execs from one of the company’s parts suppliers said orders for the new flagship 5s are increasing.
I dont read too much into this report,” noted Yankee Group VP of research Carl Howe. “Back in January, Apple CEO Tim Cook warned reporters not to read too much into their supply chain checks because they cant see the whole thing, and I think this set of articles is a perfect illustration of that problem.”
Howe says Apple continues to focus on its high-end iPhone that gives it an excellent profit margin, but has also adopted a strategy that gives customers an option of a “good/better/best” family of products.
“The glass-based iPhone 4S is the good entry-level iPhone, the iPhone 5c offers a better, more colorful iPhone with 4G LTE service, and the iPhone 5s offers the best iPhone experience,” Howe added. “While a lot of the analysis has been that iPhone 5S has sold quite well initially, I expect to see 5c sales strengthen over time as the early adopters become satisfied and more mainstream purchasers come into the market.”
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Consumers are turning to tea, coffee and energy drinks as they reduce their alcohol intake, Prinova research has shown.
The report also suggests more consumers – younger ones in particular – would cut back if a wider range of healthy non-alcoholic beverages were available.
To explore trends in the beverage space, Prinova conducted an online survey of 1,277 physically active consumers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. More than four in ten (42.5%) said they had reduced their alcohol intake over the past three years, compared to just 15% who reported drinking more. Consumers ages 25-34 were the most likely to say they were consuming less alcohol.
Among those who had cut down on alcohol, most were turning to healthier beverage options including coffee, tea, still water and juices/smoothies, with preferences varying by age, gender and location. Consumers over the age of 65 were five times more likely than average to have increased their consumption of dairy beverages, while alcohol-free beer was more popular with older age groups than Gen Z.
Over a third (35%) of men who had cut down on alcohol were drinking more energy drinks as a result. Energy also emerged as the top wellness benefit sought in healthy beverages, ahead of hydration and post-exercise recovery.
In the cohort who had not reduced their alcohol intake, over half said they would be likely to do so if a wider range of healthy beverages were available. This was particularly true of millennials (64%).
When asked which ingredients they most looked for in healthy drinks, 65% of respondents picked vitamins and 48% chose minerals. Plant protein also scored highly as a desirable beverage ingredient, ahead of both fruit and whey protein. Other purchase drivers for healthy beverages included affordability, natural ingredients, trusted brand and scientifically proven ingredients.
“Consumers are increasingly re-evaluating their relationship with alcohol, whether that means embracing the ‘sober-curious’ trend, or simply moderating their intake,” says James Street, global marketing director, Prinova. “However, our research also suggests that many more would be persuaded do so if they could replace booze with appealing healthy alternatives. Given the scale of this market need, and the increasingly wide range of on-trend functional ingredients available, it’s clear that there are still huge opportunities for innovation in the functional beverage space.”


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Target saw an improvement in its overall market share across all five of its main merchandising categories and surpassed Wall Street expectations in terms of revenues. However, inflation continued to play spoilsport for the retail industry and Target was no exception to this as it missed out on earnings expectations. With the growth in the low double digits, Food & Beverage led the way in the quarter, demonstrating broad strength across numerous subcategories. High single-digit growth was seen i
Companies: Target Corporation
Target delivered a mixed result to start the new fiscal year with revenues outperforming Wall Street expectations but earnings ending up being significantly below par. Inflation has played spoilsport and unusually high costs hampered the company’s growth, resulting in profitability well below what the management expected and where it expects to operate in the future. They also saw a much higher rate of increase in transportation costs than expected and a more dramatic shift in their sales mix th
Target Corporation delivered a strong 2021 and the full-year comparable sales of the company were up a solud 12.7%. The company has performed well over the past couple of years, meeting the fast-growing consumer demand from the Covid-19 pandemic. Its digital strategy has also materialized well and around 19% of Target’s total sales are from digital avenues. The management was able to pass on the impact of the inflation and mitigate supply chain issues and its earnings per share grew by a stagger
Target Corporation has grown well over the past couple of years, meeting the explosive consumer demand that materialized during the pandemic. Its digital strategy has also materialized well and around 19% of Target’s total sales are from digital avenues. It delivered a strong 2021 and the full-year comparable sales of the company were up a remarkable 12.7%. The management was able to pass on the impact of the inflation and mitigate supply chain issues and its earnings per share grew by a stagger
Target Corporation's third-quarter results are consistent with what its team has been delivering for years. The management continues to demonstrate the extraordinary level of engagement that the company is experiencing from its guests, both with its brand and team. In Q3, their comparable sales increased 12.7%, following a nearly 21% increase the previous year which is truly phenomenal. The company’s recent results reflect a level of guest engagement far beyond what many would have predicted a f
Target Corporation experienced a strong second-quarter performance, and went past the target price from our last report as a result of its highly resilient operations, and a passionate, top-notch team. Their second-quarter total sales have increased by over $6.6 billion or 36% over the last two years and the company also witnessed an 8% margin expansion at the bottom-line level. The company’s strong performance was largely driven by excellent comparable digital sales, which grew by 10% in the se
Research Tree provides access to ongoing research coverage, media content and regulatory news on Target Corporation.
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Leavers: Brewin Dolphin Holdings has left the Main Market.
Caretech Holdings has left AIM.
What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen?**
Streaks Gaming plc, a UK-based provider of conversational gaming products intends to join the Standard Segment of the Main Market this autumn. The flotation is expected to value Streaks at approximately £10.2m (pre-money) and will make it the first LSE-listed "pure-play" conversational gaming company. Raising between £5-10m.
Companies: ZIN SKL EMAN RBD BGO BOO BOD
Companies: ScS Group plc
Hostmore delivered a marginally better than expected H1, but it’s not been a great start to H2 and the cold reality is that the consumer environment has worsened, putting pressure on revenue, with cost inflation – especially energy – also rippling through the P&L. Sensibly, Hostmore is slowing its opening programme to protect cash; it’s highly cash generative with plenty of financial headroom, and this should put it in a good position to exploit market opportunities when the time is right. We ar
Companies: Hostmore PLC
Companies: Tortilla Mexican Grill Ltd.
Companies: NTQ MORE POLB BILN
In the September edition of Zeus’ Video Games quarterly report, we review sector M&A activity in 2022 alongside our regular valuation and performance analysis.
Total 2022 YTD deal volume across the US and Europe (186) is at elevated levels, already second only to 2021. The total number of video games deals rebounded significantly to 81 in Q3 from 28 in Q2, according to our transaction screening. US average deal value reached a record high of £209.5m (joint with that achieved in 2020) on a re
Companies: DEVO GILD TBLD
Brighton Pier Group (BPG) performed strongly during the 12 months to June 2022, which resulted in the company beating forecasts that had already been twice upgraded (FY22E Adj EBITDA of £6.5m originally forecast vs £10.8m ultimately achieved). All divisions performed well, with trading boosted by pent-up consumer demand and government support packages. The outlook appears more muted, however, driven by elevated inflation and the widely documented ‘cost-of-living crisis'; consequently, we lower o
Companies: Brighton Pier Group Plc
Companies: XP Factory PLC
Companies: City Pub Group PLC
*A corporate client of Hybridan LLP
** Arranged by most recent first
*** Alphabetically arranged
Dish of the day
No joiners today.
Leavers: No leavers today.
What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen?**
Streaks Gaming plc, a UK-based provider of conversational gaming products intends to join the Standard Segment of the Main Market this autumn. The flotation is expected to value Streaks at approximately £10.2m (pre-money) and will make it the first LSE-listed "pure-play" conversational gaming co
Companies: MEX RBBS BBSN JADE LTG PCIP
Guild has signed its largest sponsorship agreement to date with Sky UK Ltd (Sky). The three-year global sponsorship is one of the largest ever esports sponsorships signed in Europe and is Sky’s first agreement with an esports organisation. We estimate the new contract could drive Guild into cash profitability before payments to Footwork Productions. In addition, the sponsorship’s high profile may accelerate the signing of other deals in Guild’s growing pipeline. Sky follows other premium brands
Companies: Guild Esports PLC
Pendragon’s interim results show underlying PBT of £33.5m (H1 2021: £35.1m), in line with the numbers flagged in a trading update on 20 July. This is a strong performance given the removal of £8.3m of government support and £7.0m of incremental marketing spend to grow the used car proposition. FY22 trading is expected to be in line with Management’s expectations, despite macro uncertainty and supply shortages, so Zeus headline forecasts are unchanged. We remain comfortable with our 38.6p per sha
Companies: Pendragon PLC
easyJet’s Q3 trading update should be defined as mixed as we see severe negative impacts from the airport chaos, but the encouraging traffic figures, good hedging and further improved liquidity and net debt positions are worth noting. We might downgrade further our estimates to a small extent for the current FY and a further cut for the next FY is not impossible as Heathrow warns of a potential passenger cap for summer 2023.
Companies: easyJet plc
The warmer weather and return to social events has boosted the demand for summer clothing. Next has slightly raised its FY22 guidance for both top-line growth and profitability on the back of better-than-expected full-prices sales in Q2 22.
The group still expects an inflation impact on consumer spending to worsen in the second half.
Companies: Next plc


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The Motorola Droid X update for Android 2.3 Gingerbread is getting closer by the day. Supposedly, Motorola sent the update over to Verizon Wireless and is waiting for further testing. Already,3 leaked versions of the update have emerged in the past weeks so an official release could not be far. And now it apparently is just around the corner. If Verizon has really gotten their hands on it, the OTA update will start rolling out and the end of this following week, possibly Friday the 13th of May. Let’s hope it’s not bad luck.
You must keep in mind that this is an unofficial release date and is subject to change. It will remain a rumor until mid-week when hopefully an announcement will be made by Motorola and Verizon.
If the Motorola Droid X will in fact receive the Android 2.3 Gingerbread update at the end of this week, it will make the Droid X the first smartphone to receive an OTA to Gingerbread in the US, apart from Google’s branded devices, Nexus One and Nexus S.
This is also probably Droid’s last major update, as its successor the Motorola Droid X2, seems to be just around the corner and is getting ready to be launched in the near future.
This should certainly be welcomed news from Droid X owners who have been looking forward to this update ever since Froyo finished rolling out back in September of last year. Some of them were too eager to get their hands on Android 2.3, so rooted “Xs” are running around powered by leaked OTA builds.
Update: Today, Verizon approved the 2.3 OTA submitted by Motorola, and the update will land on Friday, the 13th of May. You should see a notification status on your smartphone on that date or, to rush the process, just go to Menu – > Settings -> About Phone -> System Update and select Download.
- HTC Droid Eris receives a brief Verizon OTA update
- Motorola Droid and X to receive Android 2.2 ( Froyo ) update soon
- Verizon Motorola Droid will receive Android 2.2 ( Froyo ) update on August 3
- Verizon Motorola Droid X to receive Android 2.2 Froyo-Release date announced
- Milestone 2 will receive the Android 2.3 update in early Q4, says Motorola


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The Great Recession hit small business lending hard. According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), bank lending to small firms rose from $308 billion in June 1994 to a peak of $659 billion in June 2008. After the housing bubble burst, small business lending declined by almost 18 percent in June 2011 – and continued to fall.
Today, small businesses continue to struggle to find a traditional lender willing to offer their services and the loan amount these entrepreneurs need (big businesses apply for much larger loans, which banks are more comfortable with and willing to approve). One industry in particular has the biggest obstacle of all in securing working capital: the cannabis industry.
The cannabis industry probably has the least amount of funding options out of any industry at the moment. Even though countless new cannabis businesses are emerging and state legalization is being passed, there are almost no loans available to these entrepreneurs. A few financial institutions have braved the current restrictions and have serviced the cannabis industry, but credit is rarely available. Why? As of now, cannabis is still illegal at the federal level; the DEA lists marijuana as a Schedule I substance, alongside heroin, defined as “drugs with no currently accepted medical use and high potential for abuse”.
Where is current funding for the industry coming from?
“Unless you are migrating, leaving your career at Wall Street or Silicon Valley — which a lot of people have done, and have a nest egg, you will have to go through non-traditional routes to get your financing,” explained Super Bowl champion and cannabis entrepreneur Marvin Washington in a recent interview with Entrepreneur Magazine.
With banks and traditional financial institutions largely out of the question when it comes to funding, where are current and new cannabis businesses finding marijuana dispensary funding? A few of the main types of investors currently pouring money into the cannabis industry include: family offices, angel investors, high net worth individuals, business accelerators and incubators and industry-specific holding companies.
Alternative lenders like First American Merchant have also played a huge role in helping these businesses secure the cash they need to get up and running and operate smoothly. They also provide cannabis entrepreneurs access to capital in as little as 24 hours – much faster than a traditional lender would. Only time will tell if traditional lenders will choose to jump on board and support the industry with their lending services.
Author Bio: As an account executive, Michael Hollis has funded millions by using alternative funding solutions. His experience and extensive knowledge of the industry has become a true asset for First American Merchant.


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When the doors open at de Garde Brewing today, customers will be able to purchase two never before seen beers.
The first new release from the Tillamook, Ore.-based brewery is Dry Hop Premiere, a 6 percent ABV “tart wild farmhouse ale” that has been both fermented and aged in oak foeders before being dry hopped citra and mandarina hops. de Garde has released two other beers with the Premiere moniker: Nectarine Premiere (7.1 percent ABV), Saison Premiere (6 percent ABV).
The second new beer will be Beaucoup Berry Bu, a 4.5 percent ABV “berliner inspired ale” that has been fermented and aged in red wine barrels, then refermented with blackberries, boysenberries, red raspberries and black raspberries. There have been two previous Beaucoup releases: Beaucoup Desay (8.9 percent ABV), Beaucoup Violet (6.5 percent ABV.)
Both Dry Hop Premiere and Beaucoup Berry Bu are packaged in 22-ounce bottles ($10) and will have a limit of six bottles per person.


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The Bacara Resort & Spa near Santa Barbara has been acquired by Pacific… (Bacara Resort & Spa )
Plush Southern California seaside resorts suffered during the recent recession, but they are making a comeback as business and leisure travel picks up.
Now, Bacara Resort & Spa near Santa Barbara has been acquired by an Irvine hotel company that plans to upgrade the luxurious inn as well-heeled guests return to coastal resorts.
Pacific Hospitality Group bought Bacara from SB Luxury Resort, an affiliate of Ohana Real Estate Investors and Rockpoint Group, which have owned the property since 2011. The sale price was not disclosed, but real estate experts said the seller was asking for more than $150 million.
The 354-room hotel will continue to be known as Bacara, a name made up for the property that opened in 2000. It will be operated by Pacific Hospitality, which also acquired Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa in San Diego, Balboa Bay Resort in Newport Beach and the Meritage Resort & Spa in Napa during the last 15 months.
“We see this as a really dynamic hotel environment, which we have been lucky enough to take advantage of because we are an owner-operator,” said Kory Kramer, chief investment officer.
Pacific Hospitality will spend more than $5 million on improvements, he said, starting with refurbishments to guest rooms. The company’s strategy also calls for booking more conferences and meetings on weekdays.
“Our goal is to double that business,” Kramer said.
The hotel industry lost a lot of customers during the economic downturn in 2008 and 2009, said consultant Alan Reay of Atlas Hospitality Group. “Resorts suffered the largest drop in revenue of all hotel segments.”
Now the trend is reversing as companies book more out-of-town retreats and leisure travelers open their wallets again for top-drawer destinations, Reay said.
Things to see and do in Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara: The not-so-secret life of bees at Lotusland garden
Cartoonist Berkeley Breathed lists his home in Santa Barbara at $4.95 million


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As we step into the year 2024, the landscape of innovation sets to witness remarkable advancements and transformative trends that will shape industries, economies, and societies. This article highlights the top innovation trends and the key developments expected to dominate the global stage.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) have been at the forefront of innovation for several years, and 2024 will be no exception. AI can become even more integrated into our daily lives in the coming year. AI-driven personal assistants will become more sophisticated, and businesses will continue to leverage AI and ML for improved decision-making, automation, and enhanced customer experiences. Additionally, AI-driven healthcare solutions, from diagnosis to drug discovery, will significantly improve patient care.
Quantum computing promises to revolutionize the world of computing as we know it. In 2024, we can anticipate significant breakthroughs in quantum hardware and algorithms, making quantum computing more accessible and practical for various applications. Industries like cryptography, materials science, and logistics will benefit significantly from its incredible processing power.
Sustainability will remain a top priority in 2024, with innovation trends focusing on green technologies and eco-friendly solutions. Renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power, will continue to expand, while electric vehicles will become more affordable and widely adopted. Innovations in waste management, recycling, and sustainable agriculture will also contribute to a greener and more sustainable future.
Biotechnology and Genomics
The fields of biotechnology and genomics pose remarkable advancements in 2024. Gene editing technologies like CRISPR-Cas9 will continue to unlock the potential for treating genetic diseases, while personalized medicine will become more tailored to individual patients’ genetic profiles. Additionally, innovations in biomanufacturing will lead to more efficient and cost-effective production of pharmaceuticals and bio-based materials.
Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G
The Internet of Things (IoT) will experience substantial growth in 2024, driven by the widespread deployment of 5G networks. This combination will enable faster and more reliable device connectivity, leading to more intelligent homes, cities, and industries. IoT applications in healthcare, agriculture, and transportation will become increasingly prevalent, improving efficiency and enhancing our quality of life.
Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR)
AR and VR technologies will redefine how we interact with the digital world in 2024. The applications of AR and VR will extend beyond gaming and entertainment with advancements in education, healthcare, and remote work. These technologies will bridge physical and digital realities in new and exciting ways, from immersive training simulations to virtual medical consultations.
Cybersecurity and Data Privacy
As technology advances, the importance of cybersecurity and data privacy will grow exponentially. In 2024, innovations in cybersecurity will focus on AI-driven threat detection, blockchain-based data protection, and zero-trust security models. Stricter regulations and consumer demand for privacy will drive companies to invest heavily in safeguarding data.
Edge Computing and Decentralized Systems
Edge computing, along with decentralized systems, will gain prominence in 2024. As the volume of data generated continues to grow, there will be a greater need for processing data closer to the source (at the edge) to reduce latency and enhance real-time decision-making. Decentralized technologies like blockchain will be crucial in securing and managing distributed and trustless data, leading to innovations in supply chain management, financial services, and beyond.
The metaverse represents a virtual shared space where individuals can interact, work, play, and socialize in immersive digital environments. It goes beyond virtual reality and encompasses a broader digital universe, including augmented reality, virtual worlds, and interconnected digital ecosystems.
This trend is driven by advancements in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies and the growth of online communities, gaming platforms, and virtual commerce. Companies invest heavily in building metaverse platforms, and individuals increasingly spend time in these digital realms. However, it also raises questions about digital identity and the boundaries between the physical and virtual worlds.
With these trends at the forefront of change, 2024 promises to be transformative for innovation; these innovations, from AI and quantum computing to sustainability and biotechnology, can shape our future. Businesses, government bodies, and individuals must stay informed and adapt to these emerging technologies to fully harness their benefits and mitigate potential cybersecurity threats: privacy issues, skills gaps , and regulatory hurdles.
But the future is bright, and the possibilities are endless as we embark on this exciting journey of innovation in 2024 and beyond.
Jennifer Williams | Editor-in-Chief