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Target Corp. said Monday that it will aggressively cut prices to give consumers bargains during the holiday season, after weak sales of its apparel and home offerings led third-quarter earnings to fall 24 percent.
The discount retailer also said sales in established stores have been weak so far in November, and if that persists it expects fourth-quarter earnings below analyst expectations. The company also cited higher write-offs in the company’s credit-card business, where profit fell 83 percent.
Target has fared worse than its chief rival, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., as consumers cut back on discretionary spending and shop mainly for necessities. More than 40 percent of Target’s revenue comes from nonessentials such as fashions and housewares.
Last week, Wal-Mart said its third-quarter profit rose 10 percent, ahead of analyst expectations, as sales increased 7 percent. During the holidays, Target will remain “keenly focused” on offering low prices on national brands and its own products and will match Wal-Mart prices on identical items in local markets, said Kathryn Tesija, Target’s executive vice president of merchandise.


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Retail rents plummet across New York City, as America’s glitzy shopping districts turn into ghost towns
Fifth Avenue is empty of traffic as people remain at home to stop the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic on March 31, 2020 in New York City.
Noam Galai | Getty Images
High-end handbag maker Valentino is suing to get out of its lease on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, a vacated Barneys New York still sits empty on Madison Avenue just a block over, while bankrupted luxury department store chain Neiman Marcus is shutting its doors for good on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach.
As the coronavirus pandemic brings tourism to a temporary standstill, leaves consumers holed up at home and puts millions out of work, America’s glitziest and most expensive retail districts are losing tenants, and rents are in a free fall. The pressures from the Covid-19 crisis will likely have a lasting impact on shopping streets …continued .
[Source: CNBC News]

domain: news


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The campaign will focus on four main issues:
- Stopping taxpayer subsidies going to Big Ag polluters;
- Protecting and improving anti-hunger programs like SNAP;
- Increasing federal investments in organic agriculture; and
- Expanding federal programs to revitalize land and reduce food waste.
The new initiative will deploy grassroots and online tools and tactics to raise awareness about farm and food policies, and show why consumers must demand their right to healthy food as Congress begins crafting a new Farm Bill.
Source: InsuranceNewsNet, 2/22/17, Plate of the Union


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Data theft and fraud risk from popular online shopping site
Would you leave a bottle of milk in the fridge for two years, and expect nobody else to notice? In what could be an own goal for Walmart’s UK operations, a recent report has prompted a security alert on ASDA’s online shopping site. It turns out that groceries.ASDA.com, their e-commerce site has had security vulnerabilities for two years.
ASDA has the second largest market share of all UK based supermarket chains, behind TESCO. The last quarter has seen the American owned company lose market share to ALDI and LIDL and poor trading figures over Christmas 2015. The report by UK security expert Paul Moore, is hardly going to instil any confidence in the beleaguered chain.
In March 2014, Mr. Moore alerted ASDA about the security risks on groceries.ASDA.com. He noted several holes in their e-commerce site, which the ASDA Service Team said would have been rectified. Almost two years on, he noticed that little had changed. In a YouTube clip, we see how Mr. Moore exposes the site’s vulnerabilities:
After entering your debit or credit card details, a typical e-commerce site would see your payments being handled by a third party merchant’s site like Worldpay or Sagepay, on a secure server. From ASDA’s website, we see in the Command Line Interface (bottom of the clip) how your credit and debit card details are being transmitted publicly. Which is akin to your browser posting on Facebook, “Mr. Howarth has bought four pints of semi-skimmed milk. Here’s his card details and account number.”
As a result, any unscrupulous Tom, Richard and Sally could pick up your card details and go on a spending spree. Sayonara to your spondulicks.
Why is it possible to lose your lucre on what is the online shopping site of the UK’s number two supermarket chain? As well as issues with payment handling, the TLS/SSL protocols aren’t enforced, making for an insecure shopping experience. Their reticence, exposed by Paul Moore, is another good reason to take your business elsewhere.
With a degree of insouciance over security concerns, ASDA has suggested using the Chrome browser. Paul Moore on the other hand suggested, as well as taking your business elsewhere, setting your browser to incognito mode if you’re happy with ASDA’s site.
You can read the full version of Paul Moore’s report on his own website, which is paul.reviews.]
Independent Merchant Services, 22 January 2016.


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What did you search for on Google in 2013? Were you curious about “twerking” like the many others who pushed that search query to the top of Google’s “what is” search list? Or perhaps you wanted to learn more about Nelson Mandela who garnered the No. 1 spot in Google search this year.
Whatever you searched, we lived, and Google once again made memories come alive in its end-of-year Zeitgeist video.
Curious what people on the other side of the globe or in your hometown were searching for this year? Find out what searches trended worldwide each month in 2013 with this interactive 3D globe:
Here’s what made the Top 10 list worldwide:
- Nelson Mandela
- Paul Walker
- iPhone 5s
- Cory Monteith
- Harlem Shake
- Boston Marathon
- Royal Baby
- Samsung Galaxy s4
- PlayStation 4
- North Korea
By the way, the Harlem Shake at No. 5 had more than 1.7 million video versions uploaded on YouTube in 2013, according to Google.
The Zeitgeist portal takes us down memory lane with images that represent the Top 100 global searches of the year. Click on an image to discover the search.
This is always fun: Check out what was on the minds of searchers each year, starting in 2001, in the Google Trends Zeitgeist.
And Google invites us all to share what made our year memorable on Google+ with the #my2013 hashtag, which shows up on both Google+ and the Zeitgeist site.
You can learn about the 2013 search trends in Bing, Yahoo and Ask, here.
This article was originally published on http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/news/2319927/google-reveals-top-searches-of-2013-from-nelson-mandela-to-twerking.
It probably won't come as a surprise that 2016's Cyber Monday has earned the distinction of being the biggest online sales day in US history.
Black Friday is here, but just how important is the day that has historically been the most watched of the holiday shopping season?
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are right around the corner, but the world's biggest online shopping event, Singles' Day, occurred last Friday, November 11 in China.
Black Friday can be a great commercial opportunity for brands, but how can you create a successful strategy for the big day? Black ... read more


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Cosm has partnered with the National Basketball Association to present a new live game-viewing experience for fans.
The Playa Vista-based technology, media and entertainment company will produce and present select games from NBA League Pass, the league’s streaming service, in 8K resolution on large-scale LED-dome systems at its soon-to-be-opened venues, according to a release from Cosm.
In early December, the company broke ground on its first venue at Hollywood Park, the 300-acre entertainment, retail and residential project being built by Stan Kroenke, the owner of the Los Angeles Rams.
The Cosm venue is adjacent to SoFi Stadium and Intuit Dome, the future home of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team, which is scheduled to be completed next year.
The NBA and Cosm will partner on select NBA League Pass games in “Shared Reality,” an “immersive” experience that Cosm calls CX System. The technology “seamlessly” bridges the virtual and physical worlds, according to Cosm.
Jeb Terry, chief executive of Cosm, called the deal one of the most transformational ones to come to sports in recent history.
“Our team has created an entirely new experience, driven by industry-leading technology, to give fans a new way to watch the game,” Terry said in a statement. “We have an incredible opportunity to work with a partner as innovative as the NBA, to combine our collective know-how, and to rewrite the playbook on how leagues, broadcasters, and brands can bring fans closer to the action than ever before.”
Teddy Kaplan, associate vice president at the NBA, said the league was excited to bring games to Cosm’s venues and further their common goal of enhancing the fan experience.
“Cosm’s Shared Reality technology offers a new and exciting way to bring fans together in person and closer to the game,” Kaplan said in a statement.
Peter Murphy, head of business development and partnerships at Cosm, said the company couldn’t ask for a better partner than the NBA to show off the future of fandom.
“We look forward to leveraging Cosm’s experience in experiential technology to distribute live NBA games in a way the world has never seen before,” Murphy said in a statement. “Through our partnership, NBA games will be a pillar in Cosm’s venue programming for years to come.”
In addition to the Hollywood Park venue, Cosm will open a location in Dallas at Grandscape, a retail, entertainment, residential and dining project, and has plans to expand to additional cities.


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This week Kendall and Kylie Jenner released a new line of T-shirts with a unique marketing strategy; pasting their own faces over the most influential rap and rock artists of all time.
The Tees were released on the sister’s online website last Wednesday and retailed for $125. They feature iconic images of Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls, Black Sabbath, Metallica, Pink Floyd, the Doors, Kiss and Led Zeppelin overlaid with Instagram shots of the model/reality star siblings. The sentence “Repurposed in the USA” was printed on each piece. After facing scathing backlash, the shirts have been taken down from the site.
Most of the images on the shirts were taken without authorization from the artists’s estates. On Thursday afternoon, the Jenner sisters posted identical tweets apologizing for their mistake. “These designs were not well thought out and we deeply apologize to anyone that has been upset and/or offended, especially to the families of the artists. We are huge fans of their music and it was not our intention to disrespect these cultural icons in anyway [sic]. The tee shirts have been pulled from retail and all images have been removed. We will use this as an opportunity to learn from these mistakes and again, we are very sorry.”


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Subprime auto loan approvals for both new and used vehicles have increased over the past six months and are up again in March, according to data from CNW Research. Lenders continue to be more comfortable extending auto loans to shoppers who have less-than-perfect credit scores.
CNW says that about 12.7 percent of subprime auto loans (FICO score of 670 or less) for new cars are finding approvals in March, which is a 28.5 percent increase compared to March 2010. The average FICO score for new-car buyers is now 688.15. Just last month, it was about 690, while in January 2010, the average new-car FICO score was about 730.
Used car shoppers are finding similar thawing in auto lender credit criteria. Almost 39 percent of subprime used vehicle shoppers (FICO 670 or less) are being approved for an auto loan this month. CNW’s early March data shows that the average FICO score for used vehicle buyers is 615.29. This is down from about 618 in February. In January 2010, the average FICO for used car buyers was about 670.
Although the credit scores required to get an auto loan for a new or used vehicle are nowhere near where they were before the recession, this is good news for consumers who may have gone through a foreclosure or paid a bill late during the recession. Auto lenders seem to be less stringent with their criteria and are more willing to lend to consumers who have dinged their credit.


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In 2005, Wal-Mart and Netflix teamed-up to ward-off Blockbuster: Wal-Mart ceased renting DVDs online, and Netflix promised never to sell physical DVDs. According to a court case, that agreement violated antitrust laws—which means Netflix customers are owed money.
Wal-Mart chose to settle the case, and will gift Netflix customers who become class members of the case a Walmart.com gift card, or maybe even a check. They're said to be spending between $29 million - $40 million making this issue disappear. Only those living in the US are eligible, but taking into account there's 16 million Netflix customers in the US and Canada, that's still a lot of people who could be in for a lump-sum. [PaidContent]
UPDATE: Readers, please stop emailing me asking for a gift card. I am not Wal-Mart, nor Netflix.


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Covid-19 safety pledge from Port of Cromarty Firth ahead of visit of first cruise liner to Invergordon since 2019
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THE return of a cruise ship to an Easter Ross port this weekend for the first time since 2019 has been hailed "a major milestone" in the coronavirus bounce-back bid.
But port bosses have accepted the "anxiety" felt by some over the gradual return of the business to Invergordon – worth an estimated £18m a year to the Highlands – and pledged everything will be done to make the transition as safe as possible.
The arrival of the the Marella Explorer 2 on Sunday will be the first of four visits it will make to the port throughout the season, carrying British passengers and calling at British ports only.
Governments and the cruise industry have put in place a range of strict protocols and procedures to ensure the safety of passengers, crew and the public as the industry resumes activity.
Safety measures include a negative PCR test prior to embarking for all passengers and crew and consent to testing during the cruise.
Shore excursion bubbles are in place and passengers will only be permitted ashore on an organised ships excursion. This is subject to review by the Scottish Government at the end of the month.
Bob Buskie, Port of Cromarty Firth chief executive, pledged safety was the priority as a "major milestone" was marked. Cruise operations ground to a halt in March 2020 as the country went into lockdown. He said: ""Cruise tourism restarted in England in the middle of May. Nevertheless, we appreciate that some people may have concerns as restrictions are eased and we will work in partnership with them to address and alleviate any worries that they may have."
The port says it has has worked with Highland Council, Invergordon Community Council, Invergordon Development Trust, Police Scotland, Stagecoach and local tour operators to agree solutions to enhance management of cruise traffic and passengers.
Mr Buskie acknowledged anxiety over the transition to level zero and the opening up of society to pre-Covid working arrangements: "Rest assured the Port and its customers, employees and supply chain are doing everything possible to manage this transition phase as constructively and safely as possible.”
Cromarty Firth councillor Maxine Smith said: "It’s been a strange two years with no cruise ships coming into the Invergordon port. It’s good to hear there’ll be a few British ships coming in now. It’s far from a normal season but I’m sure the shops and attractions will welcome this anyway. We look forward to 2022 which I understand will be a bumper season for cruise ships coming to the Highlands and will help to return our economy to normal."
Highland economist Tony Mackay carried out the original feasibility study advising diversification into the cruise liner business.
He said: "This is very good news. The cruise liner business has become very important for the Cromarty Firth and the wider Highland economy, particularly since the downturn in the offshore oil and gas industry. Invergordon port has successfully diversified into the business and the cruise liner passengers visit and spend money in many other parts of the Highlands."
He said: "It is undoubtedly an encouraging sign that the tourism industry is recovering."
David Richardson, Highland development manager of the Federation of Small Businesses, called it "one more step back on the road to recovery for the Highland visitor economy" and said it would be welcomed by many businesses.
He said: "We need to see more joined-up thinking, co-ordination, leadership and investment if we are to gain maximum, sustainable benefit from the opportunities afforded by this important market."


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A report from the 21st Century Business Herald says that Foxconn may be ramping up its process of replacing human workers with robots. The company reportedly had 10,000 robots last year and is hoping to have 300,000 robots working in its factories this year. All of this is leading to the company’s ultimate plan to have 1 million robots working by 2014.
The process of replacing human workers with robots is reportedly taking longer than expected though. The company hasn’t yet reached the 300,000 mark this year, and the report says that they’ve only been able to reach one-tenth of that amount so far. The robots that have been introduced to the assembly line are being used for simple processes in iPhone and iPad production. More complicated jobs still require the dexterity of human hands.
The switch to robot labor has come at a time when Foxconn has been forced to start paying its workers more. Due to FLA audits and riots, Foxconn has agreed to raise the wages of its human workers. With robot workers, Foxconn would not only save money on wages, as the company could save even more money on not having to pay for food, housing or other amenities.
It’s tough to say if Foxconn will be able to replace 1 million workers with robots in two years. It’s unlikely, but it could have a devastating effect on the economy if it comes to pass. Foxconn already employs a little over a million workers in mainland China. Many people are actually moving away from the country to the cities to work at these factories. Replacing them could increase the number of poor and homeless in China’s urban centers.
Besides, Foxconn is missing the major point here. What if the robots start a riot? Tear gas and nightsticks won’t work on them. They might even enlist their noodle slicing brethren to start stabbing everything in sight.
[h/t: The Next Web]


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TPL Trakker has partnered with Yayvo and Daraz to launch an exclusive Big Friday Campaign for the month of November. The campaign will facilitate customers to buy the Big Friday Package which will include Free Vehicle Analytics; Driver Scorecard and Trip Analytics. The solutions will be available exclusively on TPL Trakker’s online store Yayvo and Daraz.
On its website TPL Trakker, will be offering discounts on all TPL Trakker packages including Basic, Plus, Premium and Bike Trakking from 1st to 15th November. Moreover, the company will be running a lucky draw directly on the website where all customers will have the opportunity to win incredible giveaways including televisions, Apple watches, X boxes, Play Stations and more!
The Big Friday Package features include round-the-clock Call Center Assistance, Stolen Vehicle Recovery (SVR), Anti Jammer, Geo Fencing Alerts, Vehicle Immobilization, Battery Tamper Alerts and Vehicle Analytics.


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NEW DELHI, MARCH 24, 2022
Riding on a sharp increase in buying activities by different ministries and departments, procurement of goods and services from government portal GeM has crossed Rs 1 lakh crore during the current financial year registering a 160 per cent growth as compared to the previous fiscal, GeM CEO Prashant Kumar Singh said on Thursday.
The Government e-Market (GeM) portal was launched on August 9, 2016, for online purchases of goods and services by all the central government ministries and departments.
Earlier, the portal had crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore mark in about four-and-a-half years but now this was achieved during the current fiscal, Singh informed.
He expressed confidence that during the next fiscal, the procurement value may cross Rs 1.5 lakh crore.
Referring to the share of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs), Singh said that approximately Rs. 43,000 crore worth procurement was done by CPSEs on GeM, showing an approximate growth of 508 per cent as compared to the previous fiscal. He also asserted that States continued to be an important stakeholder with approximately 30 per cent contribution to total Gross Merchandize Value (GMV).
Highlighting the role played by GeM in ushering in inclusion in government procurement, Singh said that GeM has taken a host of steps to onboard products of Self-Help Groups (SHGs), tribal communities, craftsmen, weavers, and MSMEs. 57 per cent of the total business on GeM has come through the MSME units and over 6% has been contributed by female entrepreneurs. It may be noted that the number of women sellers and entrepreneurs on GeM has grown 6 times in a year.
GeM is integrating with Panchayati Raj Institutions to allow online buying and selling by the Panchayats at the grassroot level. The pilot in Gurgaon district panchayats has been successfully completed. Gem is in an advanced stage of integration with IndiaPost for extending logistics services at the grassroot level.
GeM SAHAY is an initiative to facilitate small sellers to avail credit financing from various integrated Lenders for the Orders received on GeM Portal.The Forward auction module has been launched facilitating government Auctioneers to auction assets using multiple auction modes and monitor the complete selling life cycle of their assets.
GeM platform supports advanced analytics framework to identify anomalous behaviour and transactions, market intelligence, demand/price forecasting and procurement planning/monitoring. GeM now has integration with 24 CPSEs ERP systems for post order information exchange. In total over 3 Lakh orders worth Rs. 42,000 Crore were exchanged via the integration.


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SHIPPING company Trans-Asia Shipping Lines has unveiled MV Trans-Asia 21, its brand new cargo and passenger vessel serving the Cebu-Cagayan de Oro route.
Sheila Fay Sy, general manager of Trans-Asia, said the movement of goods and cargo in the gateway between the Visayas and Mindanao is crucial.
“There is so much business between Cebu and Cagayan. This big vessel can easily support that need. This route has always been the major one for Trans-Asia ever since and this is a tribute to the loyal Cebuanos and Cagayanons patrons,” she said.
MV Trans-Asia 21 is believed to be the country’s biggest brand new vessel built in Japan and the third brand new ship for Trans-Asia.
Chelsea Logistics president and chief executive officer Chryss Alfonsus Damuy said the situation remains challenging for the shipping industry due to the coronavirus pandemic.
However, Damuy said they are looking for signs of recovery in the next few months.
“Business would be better considering that the vaccination program has been progressing. Our purpose is to position the company to be ready and to be there in serving the riding public and cargo customers with the best ship available during the recovery,” he said.
Every area of MV Trans-Asia 21 is built with the company’s slogan, “At Home Ka Sa Byahe,” in mind. It can carry about 1,051 passengers.
The vessel can also fit 35 buses and 11 10-wheeler trucks.
Damuy said the company is hoping the government will achieve its target herd immunity by the end of November for shipping activities to fully resume and recover.
“By the first quarter next year, when the country’s herd immunity is achieved, then it should be one of the indicators that business or the economy will be better towards the latter part of this year, progressing to 2022,” he said.
Realistically, Damuy said, 2022 may just be the start of recovery. To return to pre-pandemic levels in 2019, he said they’re looking at two to three years.


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Unfortunately it looks like those in Europe will have to wait a month longer to get hands on with the Sony Xperia Tablet Z. The official Sony website now cites a “middle of May” launch date, despite the fact that just days before, it was still expected in the middle of April.
However, when adding the tablet to the basket on the Sony Store website, it states that the expected delivery is 28 May to 29 May – doesn’t sound like the middle of May to us. Third party retailers such as Expansys and Clove are expecting stock from the week commencing 20 May. No reason has been given for the delay so it looks like we’ll just have to suck it up and wait.
Thanks Piran and Vignesh!


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Cion Digital has been operating in stealth mode for several months as it quietly introduced the Cion Blockchain Orchestration Platform. It is engineered to speed integration, provide optionality, prevent technical debt from the onset and remove friction from creating blockchain-based real-time payment and financing solutions.
The orchestration platform facilitates real-time money movement using blockchain technology. It offers both ready-to-use solutions and rapid integration to leading crypto exchanges, cutting edge DeFi protocols and aggregator services that create a bridge from DeFi to traditional finance.
“We wanted to create a simpler way for institutions to quickly and seamlessly connect with the complex and ever-changing world of decentralized finance,” said Cion Digital’s founder and CEO Snehal Fulzele. “We brought together very senior FinTech leaders who’ve helped banks, payments and lending institutions adapt and evolve as digital and cloud have transformed finance systems. Our leaders understand payments, banking and lending incredibly well, and know institutions need solutions that quickly evolve their existing financial systems for the new digital economy and prevent them from being disrupted.”
Fulzele was co-founder and CEO of Cloud Lending Solutions, which he led from inception to its acquisition by Q2 Holdings, and as senior vice president and GM of Cloud Lending at Q2.
Cion Digital’s co-founder, Fred Brothers, is a 25-year fintech executive with roles including EVP, CIO and chief strategy officer at FIS, VP eCommerce Strategy at CheckFree (now Fiserv) and a Cardlytics board member. Other executives include CMO Katie Robinson (Alliance Data, FIS), EVP Engineering and GM India Arpit Agrawal (Blockchain Simplified), EVP and GM APAC Chris Boas (Q2/Cloud Lending, Misys) and EVP and head of US Sales Jim Donatell (Q2/Cloud Lending, JPMorgan Chase).
In the coming days, Cion Digital said it expects to announce numerous new clients and launch Pay-With-Crypto and Buy-Now-Pay-Later solutions on the Shopify and Ecwid eCommerce platforms. According to Markets and Markets, in the next five years crypto assets are expected to grow at 24 per cent CAGR, versus five per cent CAGR for traditional assets.
“Because we’re experienced fintech industry leaders, we understand the need for institutions to continue driving shareholder value by capturing this untapped market in a controlled and secure manner,” said Fulzele.
Institutions can request Cion Digital’s latest whitepaper to learn more about their Blockchain Orchestration Platform and how they’ve used it to create a Vehicle Financing Solution at www.ciondigital.com/whitepaper.


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Jobs: I'm OK, Butt Out
Jobs: I'm OK, Butt Out
by , 8:10 AM EDT, July 28th, 2008
In a rare move Apple CEO Steve Jobs commented publicly on his health over the weekend to say that he doesn't have cancer, and that his well being is a private matter despite what the media says. Mr. Jobs shared his personal health secrets with Joe Nocera of The New York Times where he confirmed that he had been dealing with something more serious than the "common bug" Apple originally reported, and that he is not suffering from a life-threatening illness.
Public concerns over Mr. Jobs's health increased after The New York Post claimed "many" people were worried about his current condition. The article was published on the same day that Apple held its third quarter earnings report conference call, and Lehman Brothers analyst Ben Reitzes asked the company to comment on the article and Mr. Jobs's health.
Apple COO Tim Cook responded "Ben, Steve loves Apple. [Mr. Jobs] serves at the CEO at the pleasure of Apple's board and has no plans to leave Apple. Steve's health is a private matter."
Those health worries, coupled with Apple's secrecy, may have played a part in the company's sharp drop in stock value later in the day.
Mr. Jobs didn't seem pleased with the extra focus on his health status, and wasn't exactly congenial when he called Mr. Nocera. Their phone conversation started with Mr. Jobs saying "You think I'm an arrogant [expletive] who thinks he's above the law, and I think you're a slime bucket who gets most of his facts wrong."
Despite his attitude, concerned investors finally got the information they were looking for. The way they received it, however, may not have left them happy. Instead of addressing investors directly, Mr. Jobs released the information through a journalist under an agreement that kept almost all of their conversation off the record.
Mr. Jobs isn't the first public figure to keep health issues from the public. U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, for example, went to great lengths to hide his ailments.
Right or wrong, the odds of Mr. Jobs breaking from his history of keeping his personal life private are very slim, which means that public concern over his health isn't likely to subside any time soon.
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Getting Affected By The Venezuelan Crisis And Rising Up
If you somehow feel overwhelmed or frustrated, pause for a second and think of ways on how you can build a company in Venezuela. The challenges you make for setting a business in this country may not be what you expect. According to the World Bank, it’s easier to set up a business in Syria. The country is poor and really needs help and will thank philanthropists like Leonardo Gonzalez Dellan.
If you like to be an entrepreneur in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, you can deal with fellow entrepreneurs and know their style of running a business here. Some may even have apprehensions for travelling to this area, especially that the country is experiencing humanitarian crisis.
Caracas is experiencing scarcity in basic goods and critical medical supplies. Many of its citizens need to line up for hours just to receive their necessities, which are taken for granted in the rest of the Latin America. Currency in the country has also collapsed. If you needed to buy items, bring with you a shopping bag to carry all the loads of what is equivalent to a few hundred dollars. This is why Leonardo Gonzalez Dellan is sad about what’s happening to his country.
The Venezuelans’ challenges include struggling to find food and medicine. Caracas is seriously a badly affected area where there is also scarcity in water and electricity. What makes it even worst is having the city ranked as the world’s most dangerous city.
In the absence of a functioning economy, it’s really not a surprise to find a business dealing with all the challenges. Luckily, Leonardo Gonzalez Dellan has managed to set up some businesses here like restaurants and real estate properties. However, if you’re a small startup business, you’ll find it hard to hit big due to the absence of tremendous wealth in the country. If you really want to push through, you’ll just have to be aggressive and make your business work in this country.
If you want to know what’s really happening in Venezuela especially from its capital Caracas, you can read or watch the news. Being a new entrepreneur here may entail a lot of challenges especially with the current conditions of the country. But somehow, you can be like Leonardo Gonzalez Dellan where he made it big in this country.


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Online gambling operator LeoVegas had a “record strong” December to close out 2018, a year the company’s CEO called “the most challenged” in the company’s seven-year history.
On Tuesday, LeoVegas released its Q4 and full-year 2018 report card, which showed revenue rising one-quarter to €84.5m in the final three months of the year. Earnings were up nearly one-third to €8.1m as margins improved 0.6 points to 9.6%.
LeoVegas CEO Gustaf Hagman celebrated his company having returned to sequential growth in Q4 following a Q3 slowdown. October was the weakest month of the quarter, but the company enjoyed all-time high gambling turnover and record-high customer activity in December.
However, Q4’s organic growth in local currencies was a more modest 7%, thanks to “a weak development in the UK.” The company’s UK-facing brands faced some “technical problems” but made “gradual improvements in both revenues and key figures” during Q4 and these improvements continued into January. Celebrating a UK revival might be premature but Hagman remains confident in LeoVegas’ turnaround plan.
Excluding the UK market, organic growth was 14%, thanks to a particularly strong showing in Germany (where growth was “well above 200%”) and good results in Canada, Denmark and Finland.
LeoVegas’ overall revenue in January 2019 totaled €28.7m, a 16% improvement over the same month last year, while its depositing customer base is up 42%. The company, which recently celebrated its seventh birthday, has high hopes for the current year, during which it plans to launch its Spanish-licensed online gambling operation.
LeoVegas was among the first companies to receive licenses in Sweden’s newly regulated online gambling market. Hagman said the company saw its Swedish depositing customer base improve 28% in January, but Swedish revenue was “somewhat lower” due in part to new customers playing with welcome bonuses.
The Swedish slowdown was also blamed on “certain trimming challenges” in the first two weeks following the January 1 regulated market launch, as well as players “getting used to certain modifications in the gaming experience.”
Hagman’s caveat came the same day that fellow Swedes NetEnt reported their game-win down 5% in 2019, partly due to lower volumes in the new Swedish regulatory environment.
Hagman cautioned that it was “still difficult to fully predict” the new Swedish market’s short-term dynamics. As a result, LeoVegas is pushing out its financial targets of achieving €600m in revenue and €100m in earnings from 2020 to 2021.


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With a new baby in tow, and the fourth season of her reality television show, The Rachel Zoe Project, hitting households across the continent, the fashion industry had no shortage of things to say about the celebrity stylist as she prepared for the ritzy, anticipated look at her Spring 2012 collection. With all of the buzz around Zoe's fall 2011 line hitting stores (it's ba-nanas), we were dying to see what RZ had in store for the upcoming spring season. Our Editor-in-Chief, Brittany Law, was in attendance at the intimate soirée, and snapped a gallery full of photos that will give you a very fashionable head start on your shopping! [See FLASH gallery below]
January 05, 2014
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week: Rachel Zoe Spring 2012 Presentation (Behind-the-Scenes)
Brittany Law is currently the Editor-in-Chief at Style Republic Magazine (www.stylerepublicmagazine.com). Since founding the online fashion, beauty, entertainment and lifestyle publication in 2008, Law has worked aggressively to make Style Republic Magazine a power player in the digital media industry.


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Striker Entertainment’s Russell Binder talks Five Nights at Freddy’s, shifts in attitude at retail and building fandoms that are under-serviced.
For our annual overseas round up, LicensingSource.net asks a selection of licensing industry insiders in key territories to tell us about their takeaways from 2023 and the challenges and opportunities they expect to encounter in 2024, and for a single word to sum up each year.
Today, we head to the US, with Russell Binder, founding partner, Striker Entertainment.
“2023 was another solid year for Striker. Five Nights at Freddy’s was a big win for our client and for us, with a record-breaking box office and a growing global business for the brand across virtually all product categories. Next year is the 10th anniversary of FNaF, which we will be announcing key product and experiences around soon.
A big challenge is balancing increased licensee and retail interest for the brand among companies that want to capitalise on the opportunity but may not be intimate with the IP and fandom, against a long-term sustainable business where we both nurture the IP and prevent its over-harvesting.
We continue to hear about reductions in square footage in department and a heavy push towards online and marketplaces. While we used to have to rely heavily on the big box retailers to justify hard goods and tooling expenses, we’re seeing a shift in attitude towards discount retailers who are making serious endeavours into licensed goods at accessible prices.
We continue to keep our eyes open for projects that have begun organically building fandoms that are under-serviced. Horror continues to be a growing 24/7/365 genre so we are leaning into that, as well as content born out of newer content delivery platforms.
My 2023 phrase is game on! 2024’s is limitless.”


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By Leslie Albrecht, MarketWatch
They’re both billionaires with a taste for the Golden Arches, but their similarities end there.
President Donald Trump and billionaire investor Warren Buffett both eat regularly at McDonald’s /zigman2/quotes/203508018/composite MCD -1.82% , and their menu choices seem to mirror their vastly different approaches to business.
“ Let Trump Be Trump ,” the campaign tell-all by former Trump staffers Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie, reports that, while campaigning for president, Trump routinely ordered a McDonald’s dinner of “two Big Macs, two Filet-O-Fish, and a chocolate malted.” McDonald’s prices vary by region; that meal would cost $23.91 at a McDonald’s in New York, according to one online calculator.
Trump consumed the entire meal himself, but Lewandowski told CNN this week that Trump never ate the sandwiches’ buns, so Lewandowski didn’t worry about the meal’s nutritional impact.
The calorie-laden feasts aboard “Trump Force One” stand in sharp contrast to Buffett’s trips to the McDonald’s drive-through window. The “Oracle of Omaha” tailors his breakfast order according to how the market is doing that day, according to the HBO documentary “Becoming Warren Buffett.” If the market’s down, Buffett opts for the $2.95 sausage McMuffin instead of the $3.17 bacon egg and cheese biscuit.
“I tell my wife, as I shave in the morning, I say, ‘Either $2.61, $2.95 or $3.17.’ And she puts that amount in the little cup by me here [in the car],” Buffett said in the documentary .
Though Trump, 71, is now the more widely known billionaire, his estimated fortune of $3.1 billion pales in comparison to Buffett’s projected net worth of $73.9 billion .
The reasons for Trump and Buffett’s sharply contrasting wealth may be found in their daily habits.
Buffett methodically analyzes companies to find under-valued stocks and regularly touts low-cost index funds. So the detail-oriented penny-pinching at McDonald’s seems to be in line with his investing philosophy.
Meanwhile, Trump’s over-the-top dinner seems to reflect his impulsive nature and an appetite for risk. Eating 2,430 calories and 111 grams of fat in one sitting could be considered a health gamble for someone like Trump, who doesn’t exercise . One could argue that the meal choice parallels Trump’s high-stakes maneuverings in the world of New York real estate and casinos.
Nissan testing self-driving taxis in March
Nissan Motor Company said it would start testing robotaxis on Japanese streets.
But Victor Ricciardi, a finance professor at Goucher College, and co-editor of the book “Financial Behavior: Players, Services, Products, and Markets,” says Trump’s “risky” fast food dinner doesn’t seem to follow his more recent business strategies.
In recent years Trump has pursued a more lucrative strategy of building a global brand.
“His eating habits don’t tie in with his investment philosophies,” Ricciardi said. “In the 1990s he nearly went bankrupt and the lesson he learned was he took on all the risk himself.” Since then, he diversified, lent his brand to buildings and other products, and taken on third party investors. “It seems like maybe he learned his lesson in the past.”
Trump helped promote his brand, and McDonald’s, in an early 2000s TV ad for the fast food chain’s value menu.
Ricciardi also noted that there’s generally a relationship between mood and risk . The better mood you’re in, the more likely you are to engage in risky behavior, and vice versa. So perhaps Trump’s big dinner orders during the campaign were a reflection of campaign’s rising momentum.
McDonald’s was in heavy rotation on Trump’s campaign plane, along with KFC /zigman2/quotes/209029767/composite YUM -1.88% and pizza, according to “Let Trump Be Trump.” The book also reveals that Trump has a taste for Oreos, but will only eat them from an unopened package because of his fear of germs.
Buffett, 87, also likes junk food, and once said he eats like a six-year-old, often pairing Utz potato sticks with Coca-Cola.
Coke /zigman2/quotes/209159848/composite KO -2.15% is one area where Buffett and Trump seem to share common ground. Trump washes his McDonald’s meals down with Diet Coke, and Buffett has said he gulps down several Cokes daily. Of course when he does that, he’s helping his own bottom line. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway /zigman2/quotes/200060694/composite BRK.B -1.67% owns about a 9% stake in Coca-Cola . Good news for non-billionaires who want to eat like Trump and Buffett: McDonald’s is launching a new value menu next month featuring $1, $2 and $3 items.


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Designer of 2002’s virally popular mobile game Flappy Bird, Dong Nguyne, has reportedly received a 12 million dollar bill from the developers of the Unity game engine, due to new retroactive installation fees they’ve implemented.
“This doesn’t make any sense at all,” said Nguyen, who famously delisted the word-of-mouth hit after its popularity soared to unexpected heights. “I never wanted the trouble that came with having the most popular game of a given moment, and that was before these idiots started talking about charging someone every time their game was downloaded. Please just leave me alone! Also, I didn’t even use the Unity engine.”
Executives from Unity defended the controversial decision to apply arbitrary fees to things like downloaded demos and reinstallations of previously played games.
“You have to understand,” said Unity executive Marc Whitten. ”We’re trying to make as much money as possible here. We’re glad the kids are enjoying their hobby for children, but it’s paramount to all of our success that you stand back and let the grown ups manipulate the thing they’re passionate about in a way that prioritizes shaking people down for every fucking cent we can. We’re sorry if our dedication to capitalism has upset any of our developers. We’re very sorry you feel that way. We feel really bad about it.”
As of press time, Unity had apologized for charging the Flappy Bird guy 12 million dollars, and also went ahead and released their next few public apologies pre-emptively, to stay ahead of things.


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Photo GallerySorry there are no photos!
Despite the current mad rush for fuel-efficient vehicles, sales of the most popular hybrid car, the Toyota Prius, are unlikely to mushroom this year. In fact, most dealers in Toyota’s western region—encompassing California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Arizona—are out of stock. Customers should expect long waiting lists for the Prius, and in some cases, big dealer premiums, for the rest of 2008.
“Unless Toyota sends a lot more cars, we’re going to see Prius wait lists spin out again to about six months,” said Toby Parks, sales manager at Toyota of Berkeley, Calif., in an interview with HybridCars.com.
As recently as four weeks ago, Toyota of Berkeley had 60 Priuses on the lot and ready to sell. “We were offering $2,500 off on fully loaded Prius packages and the rest were selling for right around invoice.” Parks was even selling Priuses to customers from out of state that were unable to find the vehicle—which is rated at 48 mpg in the city and 45 on the highway.
Then, two things happened at almost the same time. First, gas prices soared well above $4 a gallon. Next, according to an inside company source, Toyota dramatically reduced production of the Prius sedan when it began retooling its production line for the 2009 model year. The new model is expected to be slightly bigger, faster and more efficient than the current version. In addition, company sources confirmed that Toyota is preparing to offer a wagon version of the Prius in either 2009 or 2010.
The crunch between high demand and diminishing supply is leaving Toyota dealerships in Northern California—one of the most popular regions for hybrid cars—with a current allocation of only about 400 Priuses to share among 65 stores. That equates to an average of approximately five Priuses per dealership per month.
Parks said, “If things don’t change, the current wait of 6 to 8 weeks will continue to grow. I would not be surprised to see buyers waiting as long as five to six month waiting list soon,” HybridCars.com’s “Price Pulse,” which allows hybrid buyers to report and track waiting lists across the country, shows a waiting period of 13 weeks in Fayetteville, Ark., 5 weeks in Germantown, Tenn., and 4 weeks in Newport News, Virginia. These waiting durations were common for much of 2005 and 2006, but subsided in 2007, when Toyota ramped up production and gas prices were relatively low.
Dealerships are responding to the shortage of Priuses with different strategies. Some wait for Priuses to arrive on the lot and then offer the vehicles on a first come, first serve basis to walk-in customers. This is typically when dealerships charge big premiums. Others dealers ask sales staff to keep individual lists of interested buyers, and begin making calls from that list as soon as vehicles arrive. These dealers are also prone to applying extra charges.
Finally, a number of dealerships use a chronological inventory management system with up-front deposits. In this way, the sales person can tell the customer more precisely when the Prius will arrive with specific information about the car including colors and option preferences. “Babysitting the order is a pain. And there’s lots of customer interaction,” said Parks. “But it’s the only equitable way to make the sale when the market heats up like this.”


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Title: Burberry’s Evolving Role as a Media Company
Article by: Lauren Indvik
Last week Burberry truly showed how it has become equal parts fashion house and media house. At a fashion show in London last week, Burberry staged a “Tweetwalk” in which they showed every look on Twitter just before the models walked the runway. This moments-before sneak peek generated a lot of buzz on twitter- both #Burberry and #ChristopherBailey trended worldwide on Twitter
Mashable notes that part of the success of the Burberry “Tweetwalk” came from “Twitter Takeovers” on Burberry’s global accounts.
“Among the participants were Işın Görmüş, editor in chief of Elle Turkey, who tweeted on behalf of @Burberry_Turkey; Daria Shapovalova of Vogue Russia for @Burberry_Russia; and Julia Juyeon Kang, editor in chief of Elle Korea who tweeted for @Burberry_Korea.”
Mashable reports that:
“When Burberry debuted a 3D holographic runway for a show in Bejing earlier this year, Chief Creative Officer Christopher Bailey said that “Burberry is now as much a media-content company as we are a design company” — something, we feel, became even more apparent at the runway show Burberry staged this week.”
These multi media events have allowed Burberry to deliver its story in directly to consumers on multiple platforms. This ultimately allows Burberry to lead its community of followers and set up a real dialogue with their followers.
According to Mashable:
“When asked if there was any clear brand benefit in positioning Burberry as a digital pioneer, Bailey said that it had little to do with positioning. “Digital communication and technology are part of the way everybody lives. We’re a 155-year-old company, but a very young team. It would almost be weird if we didn’t do it,” he said.”


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The world’s biggest ad agency no longer considers Twitter as a “high risk” platform now that Linda Yaccarinoc — NBCUniversal’s former head of advertising — is lined up to replace Elon Musk as Twitter CEO. According to sources speaking to the Financial Times, WPP-owned GroupM removed its “high risk” classification on Monday, and has informed its clients that the company is “cautiously optimistic” about Yaccarino’s appointment.
GroupM designated Twitter as “high risk” last November and warned its clients against buying ads on the platform following Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover. At the time, the ad agency cited concerns like the numerous “verified” users impersonating high-profile Twitter accounts, and the exodus of Twitter executives leaving or being fired from the company. Other advertising agencies like IPG and Omnicom Media Group similarly recommended that their clients pause spending on Twitter ads during this time.
According to the Financial Times, GroupM has been waiting for Twitter’s senior leadership team to be repopulated and for the level of harmful content on the social media platform — which increased under Musk’s leadership — to “return to normalcy.” GroupM is reportedly working with Twitter to improve “brand safety” to prevent ads from appearing alongside problematic content.
GroupM denied the Financial Times’ request for comment. We have similarly reached out to confirm details within the report and will update this story should we hear back.


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Nissan’s Ghosn is the turnaround king
Nissan president Carlos Ghosn is being hailed in the US for masterminding the car maker’s first profit in seven years.
Nissan president Carlos Ghosn is being hailed in the US for masterminding the car maker's first profit in seven years.
Nissan lost $12.4 billion ($US6.4 billion) during the 1999 fiscal year but is due to post what industry analysts believe will be a $4.4 billion profit for the fiscal year ended March 31.
If the predictions are correct, Nissan will have made a turnaround of more than $15 billion in just one year. And Ghosn (pictured) will get even more media attention.
US stock market analyst Morgan Stanley already has named the car maker its stock performer of the year.
More good news for Nissan is that its mid-size Altima sedan - unveiled at the New York motor show in March and due on sale in the US later this year - has been well received by the motoring press and it is being likened to Volvo's "coupe-sedan" S60.
Nissan says the Altima is "the first alternative to a (Toyota) Camry or (Honda) Accord" among buyers who have become loyal to its Japanese competition. The car maker hopes to sell 190,000 Altimas in the US a year.
Also on the cards for Nissan are new vehicles due to come from the new plant it is building in Canton, Mississippi. There, the car maker will build a full-size "truck" to take on Toyota's new, big Tundra pickup, and a pair of SUVs (sport-utility vehicles) sharing their underpinnings with a new people mover.
Nissan is said to be keen to get the people mover to the market as a direct competitor for Honda's fast-selling Odyssey.
- with Associated Press


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Former NAG editor turned megastar indie-developer-with-a-proper-beard-and-everything Geoff Burrows has announced that his debut game, Among the Innocent: A Stricken Tale, will be out at rAge in Joburg this October. GET HYPE.
The game’s a first person, point-and-click adventure set in the Free State, and the first part of a planned five-episode series, “each exploring a stage in the Kübler-Ross model for dealing with grief and loss”. So you know it’s going to be lank snot en trane, ek sê.
“When struggling writer Peter York becomes trapped on a remote farmstead in the eastern Free State, South Africa, he is forced to confront a dark history in his bid for freedom,” reads the blurb on the game’s official website. It also features “a mature story for players who long for intrigue”.
I’m… intrigued. It’s already working.
Among the Innocent: A Stricken Tale will be selling for R150 at the expo, with a “very limited physical edition” available for purchase.
“This will be a relatively simple boxed copy with a game disc inside,” Geoff explained in a recent update on his blog. “It’ll be DRM-free – you can take it home, pop in the disc, install and play.”
There’s also a beta scheduled to go live “very soon”, but in the meantime, you can download the alpha from the game’s website, linked up top.
The annual rAge expo is happening 7-9 October at the TicketPro Dome in Northgate.
Sign up for the NAG Weekend Edition, and get a super-special curated list of what's cool and trendy this week, delivered to your inbox every Friday. Plus, each month, one subscriber can win a prize sponsored by Apex Interactive!


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Yahoo confirms this could be the largest security breach of all time
Lost confidence? You’re not alone. By right, you should be prepared to loose anything that you’ve saved online or in the cloud. This isn’t the first and won’t be the last major challenge for cloud storage players. While it does provide greater convenience and benefits for consumers at large, we still need to be weary of the potential threats.
These days, it is inevitable for us to use cloud storage. Providers such as Yahoo Mail and Google Mail, provides free emailing service. While they’re doing their best to protect our information, we need to do our part by applying ‘Best Practices’. At most basic level, we need to use strong passwords and 2FA turned on. This will make it slightly harder for hackers.
A recent investigation by Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) has confirmed that a copy of certain user account information was stolen from the company’s network in late 2014 by what it believes is a state-sponsored actor. The account information may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords (the vast majority with bcrypt) and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers. The ongoing investigation suggests that stolen information did not include unprotected passwords, payment card data, or bank account information; payment card data and bank account information are not stored in the system that the investigation has found to be affected. Based on the ongoing investigation, Yahoo believes that information associated with at least 500 million user accounts was stolen and the investigation has found no evidence that the state-sponsored actor is currently in Yahoo’s network. Yahoo is working closely with law enforcement on this matter.
Yahoo is notifying potentially affected users and has taken steps to secure their accounts. These steps include invalidating unencrypted security questions and answers so that they cannot be used to access an account and asking potentially affected users to change their passwords. Yahoo is also recommending that users who haven’t changed their passwords since 2014 do so.
Yahoo encourages users to review their online accounts for suspicious activity and to change their password and security questions and answers for any other accounts on which they use the same or similar information used for their Yahoo account. The company further recommends that users avoid clicking on links or downloading attachments from suspicious emails and that they be cautious of unsolicited communications that ask for personal information. Additionally, Yahoo asks users to consider using Yahoo Account Key, a simple authentication tool that eliminates the need to use a password altogether.
Online intrusions and thefts by state-sponsored actors have become increasingly common across the technology industry. Yahoo and other companies have launched programs to detect and notify users when a company strongly suspects that a state-sponsored actor has targeted an account. Since the inception of Yahoo’s program in December 2015, independent of the recent investigation, approximately 10,000 users have received such a notice.
Additional information will be available on the Yahoo Security Issue FAQs page, beginning at 11:30 am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) on September 22, 2016.
What you need to do?
Update all passwords. Not just for Yahoo Mail. Based on track records, having Two Factor Authentication (2FA) turned on have already tighten security by a couple of times.
At Krome, we specialise in website design and development services. If you or your client are interested in creating a site, it’s time to tell us about your project or have a chat about what we can do. You can contact us here.


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Rooh Afza Sharbat: It is very hot these days for a sorbet. The matter is of India-Pakistan, in which the American company Amazon has also joined. It is actually a matter of RoohAfza. Roohafza is a very popular soft drink consumed by people across the country for generations. However, its consumption is not limited to India. People of Pakistan and Bangladesh are also crazy about it.
Recently, the Delhi High Court directed Amazon India to remove ‘Rooh Afza’ manufactured by a Pakistani company from its listing. The order comes after a petition filed by Hamdard National Foundation, an Indian social welfare NGO, contended that ‘Rooh Afza’ listed on the Amazon e-commerce site in India is not manufactured by India-based Hamdard Laboratory. But it is not mentioned on the packaging of RoohAfza manufactured by Pakistani companies.
The history of RoohAfza dates back to the partition of India.
Interestingly, the history of this sweet drink predates the partition of India. When there was neither Pakistan nor Bangladesh. Hamdard was founded in 1906 by Hakim Abdul Hameed. His grandson Hamid Ahmed, CEO and Trustee of Hamdard Laboratories-India, Food Division, says that the trademark of RoohAfza is with Hamdard Laboratories, India. They have stated that this product cannot be sold by any other enterprise in India directly or through other channels. But Pakistan-made RoohAfza was being sold on Amazon. We discussed the matter with Amazon and other e-commerce sites. But he showed his inability to remove it. We then had no option but to go to the High Court.
Ahmed pointed out that in 1906, there was only one sympathizer. But after 1947 his great-grandfather’s second son – Hakim Mohammad Sayeed went to Pakistan. He started sympathizing there. When Bangladesh came into existence in 1971, there was a sympathizer there too. These three make up Rooh Afza.
Roohafza is older than the birth of Pakistan and Bangladesh
Ahmed says that RoohAfza is older than the birth of Pakistan and Bangladesh. This is an Indian product. We want to protect the Indian market from gray market penetration. He said that Rooh Afza was originally a medicine. It has cooling properties, which is why it is always in demand in summers. Today it is crafted with state-of-the-art. He uses cold vegetables, fruit juices and aroma extracts to prepare it.
However, the Delhi High Court has directed Amazon to remove the listing of Pakistan-made RoohAfza from its e-commerce site in India. The court has said that RoohAfza is a product that the Indian public has been consuming for more than a century. Its quality standards will have to comply with the applicable regulations laid down by the Food Safety and Standards Act and the Legal Metrology Act. It is surprising that an imported product is being sold on Amazon without disclosing the full details of the manufacturer.


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Both of these devices have a few tricks up their sleeves with the aim of standing out from the Samsungs and Googles of the world. However, a mix of hand-based biometrics and dual-display add-ons might not be enough.
The days of mounting the projector in the middle of your space have come to an end with the advent of ultra short throw (UST) projectors. These devices can sit closer to the projection surface, and LG’s new CineBeam Laser 4K projector gets closer than ever.
A few years ago, every phone manufacturer was racing to offer the highest megapixel count in its cameras. Now, it’s increasingly about how many cameras you can cram into a phone. It’s common to have two on the back now, but LG is reportedly going a bit crazy with the upcoming V40.
Starting today, you can pre-order the Moto G6 on Project Fi. In the coming weeks, you’ll also be able to get the LG G7 ThinQ and LG V35 ThinQ on Fi.
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November 10, 2023: Novo Nordisk plans to invest 42 million Danish kroner ($6 billion) in Denmark to create new capacities for making active pharmaceutical ingredients and expand its portfolio within serious chronic diseases.
A portion of this investment is included in the 25 billion Danish kroner capital expenditure announced in connection with Novo Nordisk’s full-year financial results in February.
The additional amount will be invested through the next six years, according to a company statement.
The new API facility will be designed as a multi-product facility, with flexibility to accommodate current and future processes.
The investment comes as Novo Nordisk marks the 100th anniversary of its founding in Denmark, where more than 23,000 employees still work today.
The company will expand existing manufacturing facilities in Kalundborg, Denmark, for the current and future product portfolio.
The investment will create additional capacity across the entire global value chain from manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) to packaging, with the majority invested in API capacity.
The investment, which includes GLP-1 products or glucagon-like peptide-1 amino acid, peptide hormone, will increase Novo Nordisk’s ability to meet future market demands.
“The significant investment announced today confirms the importance of utilising our existing sites, including in Denmark, as cornerstones for not only the growth we see but also to expand as fast as possible by utilising all the infrastructure, knowledge and competencies we already have,” said Henrik Wulff, executive vice president, Product Supply, Quality & IT, Novo Nordisk.
“Our continued investment in global capacity demonstrates the belief we have in our current and future product portfolio and its relevance for people living with serious chronic diseases.”
The new API facility will have a footprint of 170,000 m2. The construction projects will be finalised gradually from the end of 2025 through 2029.


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Virtually Blooming Animation
This year’s Venice International Film Festival was a boon to virtual reality (VR) content providers worldwide: The time-honored festival announced the first-ever competition for films made in VR. A total of 22 VR movies were nominated, including two VR animated films from China—Free Whale and The Dream Collector. The nominations helped the creators of these films attain greater popularity in their home country and the films be more widely enjoyed. Despite ups and downs in recent years, producers are still riding the VR wave in hopes of emerging as one of the first heavyweights of the new medium.
Melding Tech and Art
“When the whale jumps out of the water, it looks so real,” exclaimed Lou Yanxin’s parents after watching Free Whale. The animated VR film was the first production of Sandman Studios, which Lou founded. Most of the 11 people in the company were born in the 1990s and accrued rich experience in areas like gaming and dramatic production. However, lacking experience shooting live-action films, they decided to create VR animation with computer graphics (CG) technology.
According to Lou, it is hard to explain the VR experience; one must personally experience it. “My colleagues and I went all-in on the industry after our first VR experience,” declares Lou.
The 3D content produced in VR can have much greater potential than 2D and provide more space for creators. “Traditional movies provide a comparatively fixed angle of view since each shot focuses in only one direction,” explains Lou. “A VR film is more like a theatrical play in which four or five characters move simultaneously. Moreover, spectators feel like part of the play rather than removed from it.”
The immersive VR experience can enhance sensory pleasure, but at the same time, divert the audience’s attention. Shooting and editing techniques of traditional films are no longer applicable to VR animation. Filmmakers are still working hard to explore new techniques and rules for VR movies.
Free Whale features a single shot throughout the entire animated film, which allows viewers to closely track the motions of the lead character. The Dream Collector adopts a three-act structure, and the screen goes black at the end of an act.
The development of a more interactive experience has made VR more immersive, but such technology hasn’t yet been seized by VR animators due to their need for a consistent storyline. At first, Free Whale was designed to let the audience touch the whale on the screen to switch to a first-person point-of-view as the lead character meets the whale for the first time. However, the feature only confused the audience. Ultimately, the final version abandoned interactive elements altogether.
“The interactive experience must be considered when the screenplay is written,” notes Lou. “Instructions are also necessary, just like how computer games have tutorials.” Taiji, another animated VR film in the Sandman Studios pipeline, will provide an interactive experience throughout the film, in which characters’ movements and surroundings on screen will change based on the audience’s viewing angle.
Typically, a VR animated film stretches only up to a dozen minutes. Constant updating of the necessary tools and hardware is hindering filmmakers from attempting a feature-length VR film. Sandman Studios must completely reinstall its design software every two months in order for it to function optimally.
“After we update the software, work that might have taken two weeks before can be accomplished in two days,” Lou says. “Every time it’s a no-brainer.”
Furthermore, most VR headsets remain heavy and cumbersome and lack ultra-high resolution. Users can get dizzy after extended usage. Such concerns have also quashed hopes for feature-length VR films. In the eyes of Lei Zhengmeng, producer of The Dream Collector and cofounder of Pinta Studios, the ideal length of a VR film should be about 10 minutes, so VR animation is suited to tell a “short but moving story.”
The Dream Collector tells the heartwarming story of an old man who collects and fixes discarded objects before giving them to others, through which the dreams preserved in those objects are also passed on. Director Mi Li drew inspiration from a real-life encounter he had with an elderly scavenger he met on the street. With the animated film, he hopes to remind people of dreams they have abandoned.
Another VR animated film soon to be released by Pinta Studios is Shennong: Taste of Illusion, a fairy tale about Shen-nong, the legendary father of Chinese herbal medicine, who is known for tasting herbs to discover their qualities. According to Lei, a scene in which Shennong fights illusory monsters after eating a poisonous herb is particularly breathtaking in VR.
Big VR Business
In mid-September 2017, The Dream Collector, which cost 2.5 million yuan (about US$378,170) to make, was released through online VR platforms and received a million views within 27 hours of its release. The animated film affords viewers a 360-degree panoramic video on their smartphones. Moreover, using a VR headset, viewers can see different images as they move their heads or eyes, which greatly enhances the experience.
However, a VR headset and a computer that can handle VR videos can cost over 10,000 yuan (about US$1,510), a price point that has kept VR removed from ubiquity in ordinary households.
Only a handful of public theaters have attempted to screen VR films. The overwhelming majority of VR experience centers around China focus on providing VR games. Not until June 2017 did Beijing welcome its first VR cinema. However, domestic business giants including Gome and Wanda have begun sinking more money into construction of VR cinemas.
Since 2016, China’s VR market has undergone explosive growth followed by a sharp decline. In this context, many VR content producers were left on the brink of bankruptcy. Even when investors were bullish on VR, most capital ended up with hardware manufacturers rather than content producers. Compared to its peers, Pinta Studios enjoyed a smooth start. When Mi Li, who had served as executive director of the famous Chinese animated film Monkey King: Hero Is Back, joined, the company found itself with a sharper competitive edge. Still, co-founder Lei Zhengmeng visited dozens of investors before eventually securing an angel investment of six million yuan (about US$906,820).
Pinta Studios is already looking at more diversified operations. Capitalizing on its fame earned at the Venice International Film Festival, The Dream Collector has generated revenues through copyright sales, built-in advertisements and derivative product development. Pinta Studios has collaborated with more than 20 makers of products such as liquor, nuts and umbrellas to engage in crowdfunding. It joined hands with the Chemical Industry Press to publish a children’s picture book, and almost all of the 6,000 available copies have sold out. The online version of The Dream Collector has built-in advertisements for 13 brands. Lei hopes that such monetizing attempts will boost the confidence of his partners.
Lou Yanxin is promoting VR content production in his own way: by organizing film exhibitions. Since 2016, he has organized three VR film exhibitions under the banner of “Sandbox Show,” which have not only offered a communication platform for industry insiders, but also helped the public better understand VR. He plans to hold a large exhibition of VR works from around the world in June 2018, flanked by forums, workshops and trade fairs. Because he knows China’s VR industry remains immature, Lou hopes that such an exhibition will provide a platform for VR filmmakers, investors and distributors to exchange ideas with each other.


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Sony has finally (officially) announced its plans to acquire popular company Gaikai, who specializes in cloud-based services. While rumors surrounding the acquisition have been making the rounds for quite some time, after Sony failed to mention it during their E3 2012 Press Conference many figured it was purely speculation.
For quite some time the industry has been shifting towards a cloud-based and digital business model, although it has failed to truly catch on, leading many to think that would be the future for next-gen consoles. The official indication that companies like Sony and Microsoft were leaning in that direction was this Gaikai rumor.
Now that Sony has officially announced its plans, it’s only a matter of time before speculation once again runs rampant with the idea that the next-generation consoles won’t just be about faster processors and more RAM but a completely digital selection of software that can be accessed anywhere, at any time.
According to Sony, the acquisition of Gaikai will result in gamers being able “to instantly enjoy a broad array of content ranging from immersive core games with rich graphics to casual content anytime, anywhere on a variety of internet-connected devices.” This sounds more like Sony plans to implement the cloud-based service in its current generation of devices, like the PS3, Vita, and current smart phones, but they do leave the future open.
CEO of Gaikai David Perry says that with his company Sony will be able to “harness the power of the interactive cloud and to continue to grow their ecosystem, to empower developers with new capabilities, to dramatically improve the reach of exciting content and to bring breathtaking new experiences to users worldwide.” Sounds like if the gaming communities respond well to the idea of cloud-based services (granted, gamers haven’t exactly flocked to OnLive) that there is room for their relationship to become stronger and stronger.
The acquisition hasn’t officially gone through though — the usual legal rigmarole must still be survived — but for all intents and purposes Sony has purchased Gaikai, and plans to use their cloud-based services very soon.
What do you think will be Sony’s first announcement after purchasing Gaikai? Will the next generation of consoles be based purely in digital software?


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“Sebastian Faulks’s masterpiece Birdsong will be released online in a brand new specially made production on 1 July 2020.”
With a star cast including Max Bowden, Stephen Boxer, Tom Kay, Madeleine Knight and Tim Treloar and narration by Sebastian Faulks himself, this uniquely made production marks a one of a kind special event to mark the 104th anniversary of The Battle of The Somme.
Told using video technology, live performance, sound design and music all woven together to create a unique portrayal of one of the greatest love stories in modern literature. Birdsong Online will be raising money for The Royal British Legion.
The show will be released online at 7pm on 1 July and be available for 72 hours.
Follow them on the Stagedoor app to get notified when they have a new show.


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Poteau Red-White Scrimmage tonight at Costner Stadium; admission is bottles of Gatorade, Powerade
Football is back in Poteau, at least the preseason that is.The 2014 Red-White Interteam Scrimmage will be at 6:30 tonight at Costner Stadium. Admission is bottles of Gatorade and/or Powerade.Tonight will be the first game-like situation since the 2013 Class 4A state title game last December and the spring game in May.“Anytime you turn the lights on and have a chance to get out there, it’s always a kind of a neat feeling,” Poteau coach Greg Werner said. “Hopefully, the folks will come out and watch, see what’s going on and get their first taste of football.”Werner said there still are tickets remaining for the season opener at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 4 against Alma, Ark., in the Hooten’s Classic at Fort Smith [Ark.] Northside High School.“We’re also going to have a table set up, selling tickets to the Alma [Ark.] game [in the Hooten’s Classic] as folks still have a chance to buy some,” he said.


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Sky sneaks out warning that TV package prices could be hiked 10 per cent in September
Millions of Sky TV customers face a price rise of up to ten per cent in September in the latest blow to cash-strapped households.
A warning that prices could possibly rise was sneaked out in small print on its website, where the TV giant said it may push up costs ‘in accordance with our standard terms’. It is possible prices will rise by a lower amount, but Sky would not confirm by how much.
Hike: Sky revealed that it could may push up costs by 10 per cent in September for millions of TV customers.
Sky would not confirm whether this will apply just to new customers or if it will include existing ones too, or whether the price rise will impact prices where TV is bundled with internet or homephone.
Sky offers four main TV bundles ranging from £21.50 a month to £42.50 a year. A ten per cent hike would mean its ‘Family Bundle’, which currently costs £31.50 a month, would increase by £3.15 to £34.65 a month.
Its most expensive package, the 'Sports Bundle' would increase from £42.50 a month to £46.75.
Sky last pushed up its costs in December when it hiked line rental for its homephone customers from £12.25 to £14.50 – an increase of 18 per cent. It also increased the costs some of its calls.
It was the second time that Sky increased line rental for new customers and call charges following an earlier rise in September.
Last week BT said it was hiking the price of its line rental saver plan by 10 per cent – from £129 a year to £141.
BT said its line rental is frozen until 2014, suggesting a rise next year.
HOW COSTS COULD INCREASE
|Package||Monthly cost now||Monthly cost if increased by 10% ||Extra per year |
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A painting from Claude Monet’s iconic haystack series went for a record $110.7 million at an auction on Tuesday night.
The 1890 painting, titled “Meules,” was sold at Sotheby’s sale of Impressionist & Modern Art. The auction house said that the high price tag broke the world record for any work by Monet, and also became the first work of Impressionist art to cross the $100 million threshold at an auction.
“Meules” was one in a series of 25 haystack paintings that Monet created in the 1890s. Eight reside in private collections, while the 17 others are housed in museums like the Art Institute of Chicago, according to the auction house. Only four of them, including the work auctioned on Tuesday night, have been brought to auction this century.
The auction for the painting lasted eight minutes and involved seven bidders. Sotheby’s did not provide any details about the winning bidder, who remained anonymous.
On Tuesday night, the painting also became the ninth most expensive artwork ever sold at auction, according to Sotheby’s. (At the top of that list is Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi,” which sold for a staggering $450.3 million in 2017.)
“It was a fantastic night for classic Impressionist art,” said August Uribe, Sotheby’s head of Impressionist & Modern Art, “highlighted of course by the extraordinary work by Claude Monet that made auction history both for the artist and for any Impressionist work of art.”
Uribe continued: “One of the most recognizable images in art history, Monet’s ‘Haystacks’ series has long served as an inspiration to countless artists since its creation in the early 1890s.”
Source: Read Full Article


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Held at the iconic Chicago Athletic Club, this two-day conference brought together a broad spectrum of supply chain experts, academics, vendors and senior-level executives to discuss what’s coming around the next corner for supply chain management.
With a focus on what’s coming next in the supply chain and aimed at an audience of C-level executives, the first annual NextGen Supply Chain Conference took place at the Chicago Athletic Association April 16-17. Held at one of the city’s landmark hotels, the two-day event brought together an impressive lineup of industry experts, speakers and academics—all of whom came to answer the question: What’s next in supply chain management for senior-level supply chain management professionals?
Over the course of two days, the conference featured case studies from six industry leaders who are putting artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, predictive analytics, 3D printing and robotic process automation to work in their supply chains. The event also featured a two-hour block on robotics in the warehouse and DC—with two panels of experts sharing their experience and expertise in this growing area—and the first-annual Supply Chain Management Review NextGen Supply Chain Awards, sponsored by IDC.
Sponsored by Honeywell Intelligrated, ASCM, Locus, PINC, IDC, Dematic and other organizations that are helping to advance the NextGen supply chain, the conference also featured cutting-edge technical sessions. Other highlights included nearly a dozen keynotes, sessions and panel discussions on the most important emerging technologies geared to senior level executives, and networking opportunities with peers, consultants, academics and leading providers of supply chain solutions.
For those who could not attend, here’s how the conference played out over the two days.
Day 1 highlights: AI, blockchain, and analytics
Ron Castro, IBM’s vice president of supply chain, kicked off the conference with the keynote. Castro took the stage to talk about how his company is applying augmented intelligence, blockchain and predictive analytics to expand end-to-end supply chain visibility while also improving operational efficiency. Calling data the “next natural resource for supply chain leaders,” Castro offered examples of how visionaries are using new technologies to “drastically reimagine their operations to deliver exceptional value.”
Ron Castro Speaking at the NextGen Supply Chain Conference in April 2019
Pointing to the hybrid Cloud (i.e., a platform for applications and infrastructure, built on two or more components from public Cloud, private Cloud and on-premises IT, according to IBM), Castro said this is one example of how organizations can build data networks in order to establish a secure record of truth. It also enables an understanding of true demand signals and helps supply chain leaders make sense of real-time data.
“When these elements come together,” Castro said, “they cumulatively allow for an efficient supply chain ecosystem that boosts productivity.”
Castro said that trusted transactions in IBM’s supply chain include Customs declaration, parts provenance, supplier trust, responsible sourcing (i.e., conflict minerals tracking), contract labor management and precision logistics. He pointed to algorithms and a new data model as the engines that are making these trusted transactions happen, and noted that “most companies don’t know what algorithms they have and are not managing them as strategic assets.”
Up next, George Bailey of the Digital Supply Chain Institute explained how today’s supply chains are operating under extreme margin pressure and being asked to do more with less. When it comes to technology adoption, he said that transformation is needed on a massive scale. “Most companies are not galloping,” Bailey urged, “and they need to move faster.”
Acknowledging that nearly all organizations have more data than they know what to do with right now, Bailey said the ability to manage algorithms to exploit new data models is a must-have for any company that wants to create an efficient digital supply chain.
Next came the robots. Led by John Santagate of IDC, this segment of the conference included a presentation plus two different panel sessions—one on piece-picking robotics and the other focused on mobile robotics. Santagate began the block with an overview of the real value of robots and explained how early adopters are already benefitting from their capabilities, power, and autonomy. “Robotics is hitting cruising altitude,” he said, “and it’s not just about autonomous robots moving pallets around anymore.”
Santagate estimates that the amount of venture capital pouring into the robotics R&D space rose to $12 billion last year, up from $348 million in 2014. As part of that push, he expects flexible robot-enabled automation for companies that wouldn’t have otherwise automated as a major growth area. “It’s about more than automation,” he explained. “It’s about the non-value-added movement of materials and taking the human-enabled movement out of the equation.”
The robotics panel discussion spanned numerous topics, including piece-picking robotics, the convergence of AI and robotics and how to create an “automation-readiness roadmap” for your own company. Participants included MIT’s Jeffrey Lipton, Dematic’s Crystal A. Parrott, Karen Leavitt of Locus, and Matt Wicks of Honeywell Intelligrated.
During the discussions, Leavitt focused on the selection process and planning that should go into any investment in automation or robotics. “Robots are cool, but cool doesn’t pay the bill,” he pointed out. “The question is, will this investment really drive both the top and bottom lines? That’s what companies need to answer.”
Pick a solution that’s right for your business, 6 River Systems’ Fergal Glynn added, and try to avoid pilot purgatory (i.e., where pilot projects travel at a snail’s pace, never reaching their full potential). “In the end,” Glynn added, “be sure to ask yourself whether mobile robots will really provide the value that you need.”
Next on the agenda was a case study on Rochester Drug’s implementation of mobile piece-picking robots in its DCs. The session was co-presented by Gary Ritzmann, Rochester Drug’s director of operations, and IAM Robotics’ John Cameron. They discussed the drug company’s high staff turnover rates (40% to 60%) thanks to the fact that the modern job market is pushing employees to “seek options that have little to no physical demands, with alternative jobs offering better pay,” according to Ritzmann.
Using IAM’s robots, the company was “able to stabilize the workforce and train it for new skillsets,” said Cameron. Other key wins included fast integration with its current enterprise resource planning (ERP) system; robots that pick at or above human speeds; one operator for multiple robots (thus enabling easy ROI), and little or no disruption to existing operations and infrastructure.
To wrap up the first day of the conference, Scott Schiller and Lee Dockstader of HP 3D Printing shared their experiences using 3D printing in the supply chain, with an emphasis on how the company’s equipment can create “lighter parts faster, and with the same functionality,” Dockstader said.
After receiving their first-ever Supply Chain Management Review NextGen Supply Chain Awards, representatives from Geodis, IBM, Johnson Controls, DHL, Cisco and IDC participated in a closing award panel that was moderated by Bob Trebilcock and touched on a host of topics of interest to senior-level supply chain executives.
Day 2 highlights: Digitizing the supply chain
“I feel like I’m living in a science fiction novel all of the time,” said Cisco’s Jack Allen, a veteran supply chain management expert whose second-day keynote focused on the digitization of the supply chain. “Things are happening now because we imagined them a long time ago,” he added.
Jack Allen of Cisco speaks to the attendees about NextGen Supply Chain Technologies
Pointing to the increasingly demanding customer as a key driving force behind supply chain digitization (“customers want to know where their stuff is”) Allen spoke to attendees about the criticality of cyber security. He pointed to the recent cyber attack on Maersk as just one example of why security is so important, cited a lack of interoperability as a sticking point and discussed a number of different technologies (AR, blockchain, AI) and how far they’ve come in the supply chain.
Allen also talked about the circular economy (an economic system aimed at minimizing waste and maximizing resources) and discussed how “failure is learning” in the technology world, noting that “we should all be teaching the management chain that every failure puts you closer to success.”
In his presentation on how AI is transforming the supply chain, Vineet Sinha of Johnson Controls discussed the complexity of the modern-day building, calling it an “ecosystem that we have to keep up and running.” A lot goes into making that happen, he said, and AI can play a crucial role in helping people interact with touchpoints and make a difference in the building maintenance world.
Sinha also talked about the connected equipment business and explained how a typical service request works (e.g., it’s time consuming, expensive, reactive in nature). He shared some real-life stories with the audience and discussed how AI helps avoid phone calls, predicts problems before they happen and prevents downtime and repairs.
Up next, three experts presented 30-minute B2B sessions focused on different aspects of supply chain management. Procurant’s Eric Peters talked about blockchain’s role in the food supply chain and walked attendees through the basics of how the technology works. He discussed blockchain’s immutable nature (“you can’t break it,” he says), its limitations and its future prospects for supply chains.
The other two short presentations centered on machine learning and autonomous logistics, and DSC’s logistics strategies for using technology to improve employee retention in today’s tight labor market. To round out the day, TCU Neeley Business School’s Morgan Swink talked about how to roadmap your way to digital supply chain maturity; Flex’s Marcin Fic used a case study to show what the intelligent supply chain looks like in action; and ASCM’s Peter Bolstorff discussed how to accelerate return on digital investments.
With the inaugural event a wrap, planning is already underway for next year’s conference.


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Beware Of Fake Ride Share Drivers.
West Palm Beach– Rideshare riders beware. The Better Business Bureau is warning that scammers are posing as rideshare drivers and tricking travelers out of big bucks at airports across the country. The BBB says scammers are pretending to work for Uber or Lyft, telling travelers they’re their driver. Then once the passenger gets to their destination the scam driver demands an excessive amount of money.
Several Airports in the US including Fort Lauderdale have specifics zones for rideshare pickup, so security can stay alert. However, PBIA does not. So the BBB says be extra careful.
The BBB offers several tips to make sure that you stay safe and avoid the scam. Uber and Lyft will tell you the make and model of the car coming for you, and will also use GPS to show you in real time where your car is located and how far away it is. You’ll also have the car’s license plate number, and the name and a picture of the driver. Make sure that the info from the app matches with the car picking you up.


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Merrick Ventures LLC
Watch breaking news videos and read news updates about Merrick Ventures LLC on Crain's Chicago Business
Merge Healthcare no longer for sale
company's chairman and largest shareholder is Michael Ferro, who also heads Chicago-based venture capital firm Merrick Ventures LLC and is chairman of the parent company of the Chicago Sun-Times.Shares closed at $2.62 today, down 58
In brief: Sachs steps down as CEO of Sg2
Merge's chairman and largest shareholder is Michael Ferro, who also heads Chicago-based venture capital firm Merrick Ventures LLC and is chairman of the parent company of the Chicago Sun-Times.Plymouth Place Inc. wants to refinance about
Merge's Michael Ferro: Should he pay or should he go?
share. Even if Mr. Ferro thinks the market's current valuation of the company is harsh, his investment firm Merrick Ventures LLC wouldn't lose in a sale.Mr. Ferro and Chicago-based Merrick control nearly 32.4 million shares, or
Michael Ferro's Merge Healthcare to consider sale, merger
health care IT company, said it has no timeline for the review and noted that no action may result. Mr. Ferro’s Merrick Ventures LLC invested $20 million in Merge in 2008 to acquire a controlling stake in the company. Merge said in May that it
Ferro's Merge increases disclosure
Securities and Exchange Commission. The payments are nearly half of the risky $20 million investment that his firm, Merrick Ventures LLC, made in 2008 when he acquired a controlling stake in the company.While related-party transactions are not
Fidelity sells off most of Merge holdings
announced a deal to sell 500 health information kiosks for $2.8 million to a company whose majority owner is Merrick Ventures LLC, Mr. Ferro's investment firm.The deal was just one of a series of transactions between Merge and Mr. Ferro
Charlie Trotter sued over charity dinner
Mexico. "You can hear the waves," the Emerald Ventures Inc. CEO says.And Michael Ferro, chairman and CEO of Merrick Ventures LLC and Sun-Times parent Wrapports LLC, has sold his home in Palm Beach, Fla.No worries that he's depriving
Sun-Times shuffles newsroom, stresses digital moves
Wrapports LLC, a partnership put together by Michael Ferro Jr., chairman of Chicago-based investment firm Merrick Ventures LLC.Wrapports has been shaking up the management ranks ever since. Yesterday, the Sun-Times announced that Executive
Merge executives scoop up shares amid stock drop
8 million deal to sell 500 health information kiosk to a venture controlled by Mr. Ferro's investment firm, Merrick Ventures LLC — and May 7. The same day, the medical imaging company said it was changing its pricing model, which would
Sun-Times parent buys Chicago Reader
transaction weren't disclosed by Chicago-based Wrapports, which is led by Chairman Michael Ferro, also CEO of Merrick Ventures LLC. The likely purchase was first reported by Crain's earlier this month .
Michael Ferro's dealings with Merge Healthcare raise questions
and Exchange Commission.The payments are nearly half of the risky $20 million investment that Mr. Ferro's Merrick Ventures LLC made in 2008 when he acquired a controlling stake in the medical imaging software maker. He started his investment
Sun-Times parent to buy Chicago Reader for $3 million
the deal. Wrapports purchased Sun-Times Media in December for about $23 million. A group of investors led by Merrick Ventures LLC CEO Michael Ferro came together to form Wrapports for the purpose of acquiring Sun-Times Media. Mr. Ferro declined
Sun-Times names Kirk editor-in-chief
Wrapports LLC, a partnership put together by Michael Ferro Jr., chairman of Chicago-based private equity firm Merrick Ventures LLC. Dan Hayner, 60, Sun-Times editor in chief for the previous three years, retired on April 12.
Sun-Times editor in chief retires
metro and managing editor.The paper won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting.A new company led by Merrick Ventures LLC CEO Michael Ferro and former Tribune Co. executive Timothy Knight recently bought Sun-Times Media Holdings.
Lightbank, Tullman fund sink $4M into SoCore as Wrigleys, Ferro hit the exits
doesn't include an undisclosed amount to buy out previous investors the Wrigley family and Michael Ferro's Merrick Ventures LLC. Mr. Kadens said much of the new investment will go to hiring staff, primarily engineers. It has 25 full


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Today we’ll discuss some secret dangers that are hidden behind that sweet refreshing diet soda.
Side Effects of Drinking Diet Soda
A new study has found that the artificial sweeteners in diet soda can cause weight gain, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and heart disease, adding to mounting research about the potential health risks of diet soft drinks.And that’s not all—the study also found that the artificial sweeteners in diet soda can interfere with your body’s normal response to sugar, deregulating normal blood sugar levels even more than regular soda.
Painkillers can increase risk of heart attack !
Side Effects of Drinking Soda :
Kidney Problems: Here’s something you didn’t know about your diet soda: It might be bad for your kidneys.In an 11-year-long Harvard Medical School study of more than 3,000 women, researchers found that diet cola is associated with a two-fold increased risk for kidney decline. Kidney function started declining when women drank more than two sodas a day. Even more interesting: Since kidney decline was not associated with sugar-sweetened sodas, researchers suspect that the diet sweeteners are responsible.
Rotting Teeth: With a pH of 3.2, diet soda is very acidic. (As a point of reference, the pH of battery acid is 1. Water is 7.) The acid is what readily dissolves enamel, and just because a soda is diet doesn’t make it acid-light. Adults who drink three or more sodas a day have worse dental health, says a University of Michigan analysis of dental checkup data. Soda drinkers had far greater decay, more missing teeth, and more fillings.
NeuroToxic: While artificial sweeteners may be a zero calorie alternative to sugar, they are in no way healthier. Diet sodas may use a variety of artificial sweeteners in place of sugar, including aspartame, which acts as a neurotoxin.
Aspartame, which is the common artificial sweetener has been linked to sleep disorders, high blood pressure, dizziness, fatigue, and in some, cause arthritis flare-ups.
How Vinegar could save 73000 women a year from cancer !
Other Effects include :
- diet soda drinkers are at a higher increase for heart attack and stroke.
- Research has indicated that typically, diet soda drinkers begin to increase the amount of diet soda they consume because it shows that it has zero calories. Zero calories can lead to binge eating and over eating.
- Some of the components used to make diet sodas can block certain things your body needs, like magnesium, calcium, along with blocking the excretion of certain hormones.
- Acid in the body also can lead to a number of health conditions such as inflammation and corrosion of body tissue. When your body is overly acidic your skin will not be as beautiful or youthful. It will contribute to looking older.
- Many diet sodas contain caffeine, which is an artificial stimulant and an addictive substance. Caffeine also excessively taxes the liver and can hamper its ability to cleanse and filter toxins from the body.caffeine can trigger stress hormones, which can result in chronic stress and weight gain.
- Carbonated water, Artificial coloring, Phosphoric acid, Potassium benzoate, Citric acid found in diet soda places a significant toxic load on your liver and can contribute to toxic sludge in your intestines.
How to survive A Heart Attack when you are alone !!