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Apple released the third beta of iOS 12 for developers on Tuesday, July 3. The update comes exactly two weeks after the release of the second developer beta, which introduced a variety of fixes as well as new issues, and just one week after the release of the public beta. Public beta testers received this iOS 12 update on Thursday, July 5, labeled as public beta 2.
Apple has been testing iOS 11.4.1 for just over a month now, and so far, there's nothing to show for it except unknown "bug fixes" and under-the-hood "improvements." And that still rings true with the release of iOS 11.4.1 beta 5 on Monday, July 2, which comes exactly one week after beta 4. Now the question is, when will the stable update be pushed out to everyone?
Hours after iOS 11.4.1 beta 4 was released on Monday, June 25, Apple's webpage for its public beta software programs was unavailable because of an "update." Sure enough, that meant the public beta for iOS 12 was being prepped to drop shortly thereafter, which is exactly what happened. In other words, you can now install iOS 12 on your iPhone without a developer account!
Apple's on a roll with once-every-week releases for the iOS 11.4.1 beta. Exactly seven days after beta 3 came out, beta 4 has been pushed out to developers and public beta testers on Monday, June 25. Just like before, there are no new features or any known enhancements or bug fixes. Apple confirmed that iOS 11.4.1 is for under-the-hood improvements only, since iOS 12 beta is already out.
Right on the heels of the iOS 11.4.1 beta 3 release, Apple pushed out iOS 12 beta 2 to registered developers on Tuesday, June 19. Public beta testers received the same version, labeled as iOS 12 public beta 1, six days later on Monday, June 25. Last year, the iOS 11 public beta opened up just five days after the release of iOS 11 developer beta 2, so iOS 12 is pretty much right on track in that regard.
Another beta for iOS 11.4.1 was released on Monday, June 18, exactly one week after iOS 11.4.1 beta 2 was pushed out. Like the second beta, iOS 11.4.1 beta 3 has no new features or any known enhancements or bug fixes. It's likely Apple is simply using iOS 11.4.1 to add under-the-hood improvements only, since iOS 12 beta is already out.
The iOS 12 beta has already earned admiration for its superior performance to last year's controversially buggy iOS 11. That doesn't mean it's free from problems, however. The latest from Apple has plenty of bugs and glitches of its own to contend with, many of which, unfortunately, affect the apps we use every day.
Apple released the second beta for iOS 11.4.1 on Monday, June 11. The company seeded the update 12 days after the release of the first 11.4.1 beta on May 30. The initial beta brought no new features to iOS 11, just bug fixes and stability updates, and beta 2 appears to be the same case.
For the second time in a row, Apple pushed out a new iOS 12 developer beta on a Monday, and for the first time this round, they've done it only one week after the last one. While the August 6 release of iOS 12 developer beta 6 doesn't contain a wealth of updates, there are still a few things you'll want to know about.
Apple released the fourth public beta for iOS 12 to public beta testers on Tuesday, July 31, just one day after the company seeded the fifth developer beta to eligible users. Both releases are surprising, as Apple had appeared to stick to a two-week release schedule for the iOS 12 beta season, and these updates both came one day earlier than expected.
Apple released the fifth developer beta for iOS 12 on Monday, July 30, only 13 days after the release of dev beta 4 and 12 days after public beta 3. Until this release, Apple kept a consistent two-week schedule for developer beta updates, so we were a little surprised to see this one drop one day early.
The updates just keep on coming. Apple released the third beta for iOS 12 to public testers Wednesday, July 18, just after seeding the fourth iOS 12 developer beta to registered developers the previous day. This update comes thirteen days after the release of the second public beta, which itself came hot on the heels of the third developer beta.
As the official release of iOS 12 nears closer each day, Apple continues to update its betas. The company released the fourth beta of the upcoming software to developers Tuesday, July 17, exactly two weeks after the release of the third developer beta which came out just a few days before the second public beta.
With each year that we anxiously await Apple's next big version of iOS, there comes the sad reality that the eldest iPhones will not continue to receive support. That's not the case with iOS 12, however, as the software will be compatible with all iPhones currently running iOS 11, going back as far as the iPhone 5S.
Apple released iOS 11.4.1 beta 1 to developers on Wednesday, May 30, just one day after the official release of iOS 11.4, which brought Messages in iCloud and AirPlay 2 to the public for the first time. There does not appear to be any new features in this first iOS 11.4.1 beta, instead focusing on "bug fixes and improvements" only.
Apple released the sixth beta for iOS 11.3 on Friday, March 16. It comes as a surprise, considering the company released the fifth beta only four days ago — an unexpectedly short time between updates. This new beta, much like beta 5, appears to bring minor patches and bug fixes.
Apple released the fifth build of the iOS 11.3 developer and public beta on Monday, March 12. The update comes exactly one week after the March 5 release of beta 4, which mostly introduced bug and stability patches. At this time, this new beta appears to do much of the same.
The fourth beta for iOS 11.3 was released by Apple to developers and public beta testers on Monday, March 5. The update comes just under two weeks after the company released beta 3 on Feb. 20, which mostly added bug and stability patches. It appears that beta 4 is much of the same, but we'll learn more as we sink our teeth into it.
Apple just released the third beta for iOS 11.3 on Tuesday, Feb. 20, which comes exactly two weeks after the release of iOS 11.3 beta 2 that brought battery health data and performance-throttling controls. At first glance, iOS 11.3 beta 3 seems to be mostly under-the-hood improvements, but we'll know more as we dive into it.
Apple released the second beta for iOS 11.3 on Tuesday, Feb. 6. The update comes two weeks after the original announcement and release of the iOS 11.3 beta, which brought new Animoji, Messages on iCloud, and Apple Music Videos, among other features. One glaring omission was the promised battery health tool, but iOS 11.3 beta 2 just introduced it.


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Click Fraud Less Than Expected, Monitoring Firm Says
The average click-fraud rate across search-advertising industries is around 14%, substantially less than the expected 20% to 35%, according to a new report.
Click fraud that inflates the cost of online advertising occurs at a rate that's lower that expected among advertisers, a monitoring firm said Monday.
The average click-fraud rate across search-advertising industries is 13.7 percent, which is substantially less than the industry-expected 20 percent to 35 percent, Click Forensics said in releasing its first Click Fraud Index, a service the company launched in March.
The firm also reported that click fraud was far less on tier one search providers, such as Yahoo and Google, than on tier two or tier three providers. The first category had a rate of 12.1 percent, while the remaining two were 21.3 percent and 29.8 percent, respectively.
"One of the most interesting discoveries from the first round of data reported by the Click Fraud Index is the lower-than-expected rate of overall industry click fraud," Tom Cuthbert, president and chief executive of Click Forensics, said in a statement. "People in the industry have previously pegged the click fraud rate at anywhere from 20-35 percent. However, we've found that the level is actually on the lower end of those estimates."
The click-fraud monitoring firm, which claims to have more than 400 advertisers using its service, said more than 90 percent of click fraud originated within the United States and Canada. Outside those two countries, China and France were the biggest originators of click fraud.
The average cost per search term in the first quarter was $4.75 for the top key terms across the five biggest search-advertising industries: retail, financial services, health and fitness, technology and entertainment, Click Forensics said.
Click fraud comes in two major forms: competitive and network. The former is when a competitor clicks on a business's ad to drive up the cost of the advertisement, and the latter is when a third-party site hosting the ad manufactures phony clicks in order to get more money from the search engine.
The Business of Going DigitalDigital business isn't about changing code; it's about changing what legacy sales, distribution, customer service, and product groups do in the new digital age. It's about bringing big data analytics, mobile, social, marketing automation, cloud computing, and the app economy together to launch new products and services. We're seeing new titles in this digital revolution, new responsibilities, new business models, and major shifts in technology spending.
What The Business Really Thinks Of IT: 3 Hard TruthsThey say perception is reality. If so, many in-house IT departments have reason to worry. InformationWeek's IT Perception Survey seeks to quantify how IT thinks it's doing versus how the business views IT's performance in delivering services - and, more important, powering innovation. The news isn't great.

domain: news


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In 1958, a physiologist from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health observed that incidents of coronary heart disease were more common in middle-aged Americans than their European counterparts living in Mediterranean countries.
Ancel Keys postulated that a correlation existed between people’s risk for heart disease and their eating habits and lifestyle.
You can make extra virgin olive oil part of a (Mediterranean) dietary pattern to improve your health acutely and reduce your risk of severe coronavirus infection.
This observation led Keys to launch his seminal study, with participants from seven countries around the world – the United States, Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia, the Netherlands, Japan and Finland – to verify the hypothesis.
Consequent research showed a large discrepancy in the incidence and mortality of heart disease among the monitored populations.See Also:Olive Oil Health Benefits
Participants from Italy and Greece, especially Crete, who had similar eating habits, had the lowest heart disease rates among other participants. The same was true for their Japanese counterparts, whose diet was also plant-based, but lacked the unsaturated fat that Mediterranean populations were receiving mainly from olive oil.
Participants from Finland and the United States, on the other hand, had the highest rates of heart disease due to their high intake of saturated animal fat, the research concluded.
The Seven Countries Study demonstrated that low rates of heart disease can occur both with a low and a high intake of fat, depending on its nature and the dietary habits of the participants.
This revelation led to the formal definition of the Mediterranean diet in 1980 after the first results of the study were published by Harvard University.
On the fortieth anniversary of the publications of these results, experts from various fields spoke with Olive Oil Times about the characteristics of the diet and its future.
Markos Klonizakis, a clinical physiologist at Sheffield Hallam University, in England, said one of the benefits of the Mediterranean diet is that there are many variations, making it adaptable across cultures.
“My team tried to apply a MedDiet closer to the Greek type, containing fruits, vegetables, legumes, fish, olive oil and more,” Klonizakis said. “Our research has repeatedly shown that the MedDiet can act defensively, providing short-term and longer-term benefits, either on its own or in conjunction with mild exercise.”
”Recently, we found that a Mediterranean-style eating pattern can quickly lessen the impact of Type 2 diabetes on microvessels, but more time is needed to ease the impact of aging on people,” he added.
Klonizakis argued that the eating preferences of people can be shaped by many factors and the current pandemic may be one of them.
“Unhealthy food is easier to prepare. Maybe the coronavirus pandemic is a chance for us to start eating better,” he said. “Of course, eating patterns are also a matter of trend, for example, the vegan regime has many adherents even though its benefits are not widely established, but nutritional tradition usually endures through time.”
David Katz, a doctor from Yale University and the founder of the True Health Initiative agrees. He told Olive Oil Times that part of the reason the Mediterranean diet is able to endure and remain popular is due to its cultural importance. It is not just a passing fad.
“It has been making and keeping people healthy for generations,” he said.
Katz added that supplementing the MedDiet with extra virgin olive oil makes it more pleasurable and enhances its health benefits. Following a healthy diet helps to improve the immune system.
“You can make extra virgin olive oil part of a dietary pattern to improve your health acutely and reduce your risk of severe coronavirus infection,” he said.
Mary Yannakoulia, an associate professor of nutrition and eating behavior at Harokopio University of Athens, named some of the traits of the Mediterranean diet demonstrated by numerous scientific studies.
“Many studies have shown that higher adherence to the MedDiet, leads to lower risk for coronary disease, cancer, dementia and Alzheimer’s,” she told Olive Oil Times. “In my opinion, the MedDiet is a healthy dietary pattern that can be used in Greece to promote the citizens’ health, and even prevent various diseases, given the availability of the staple Mediterranean food and its direct connection with the tradition and the culture of our country.”
In 2013, the MedDiet was named as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity for both its health benefits and its cultural importance to the Mediterranean region.
In spite of all this, Yannakoulia remains skeptical about the long-term adherence of consumers in Greece to the MedDiet.
“It is a question of how much we have moved away from the MedDiet,” she said. “No easy answer exists, considering that eating habits change over time, as do societies.”
“Basic elements of the MedDiet continue to exist in the dietary patterns of people in Greece, such as the everyday use of olive oil and the frequent consumption of fruits, veggies, legumes and grains,” she added. “On the other hand, many people in Greece nowadays have started to consume more meat and processed food.”
However, on the other side of the Atlantic, Lizzy Freier believes the Mediterranean diet will continue to gain popularity with younger consumers. Freier works at Technomic, a foodservice research and consulting company in Chicago, and said that the diet is linked to many current healthy eating trends.
“These health trends include the growth of vegetable-forward diets and a focus on unprocessed foods — both of which are core attributes of Mediterranean fare,” she told Olive Oil Times. “Emphasizing health benefits of Mediterranean items especially appeal to younger consumers who are conscientious, are increasingly changing their diets to limit animal products and are looking to include more natural foods.”
There aren’t any strict rules, instead it’s based on a set of guidelines such as including more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, beans and nuts.
Freier cited some market research statistics to back up her observation and said that 42 percent of consumers have tried and liked Mediterranean cuisine. An additional 37 percent have not yet tried a Mediterranean eating plan, but would like to do so.
“As health and diets evolve and consumption of ethnic food continues to expand, the Mediterranean diet is poised to grow as a popular cuisine that appeals to diners with flavorful, healthy dishes,” Freier said.
Brynn McDowell, an American dietician and blogger, agrees that the Mediterranean diet is likely to continue growing in popularity in the U.S. She said the flexibility of the diet plays a big part in making it an easy eating plan to follow.
“There aren’t any strict rules, instead it’s based on a set of guidelines such as including more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, beans and nuts,” she told Olive Oil Times. “Emphasis is placed on what you should add to your diet for health. While some foods, such as red meat and sugary desserts and pastries, are recommended to be enjoyed in moderation, they aren’t forbidden. This makes the Mediterranean diet easily customizable to your lifestyle.”
McDowell sees this flexibility as a way to prevent consumers from getting frustrated by the limitations of the diet, which is one of the key reasons why people find more strict diets harder to follow.
“I feel like people are starting to get frustrated with the newest fad or restrictive diet and instead, getting back to falling in love with good food and healthy, fresh ingredients again, which is what the Mediterranean diet is all about,” she said. “It’s my opinion that the Mediterranean diet is here and popular for the long haul.”
The Mediterranean diet has been selected as the best diet of 2020 by the U.S. News and World Report. It was the third consecutive year that the eating plan was selected as the top diet.


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Pretoria - New vehicle sales for the month of August continued on a downward trend, according to the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA).
NAAMSA on Wednesday reported that the new vehicle sales for August, at 29 667 units, reflected a decline of 10 519 vehicles or 26.2 percent compared to the 40 186 units sold during the corresponding month last year.
"Factoring in aggregate vehicle sales reported by the AMH/AAD Group, the year-on-year decline amounted to 23.2 percent," said NAAMSA in its monthly release of vehicle sales in the country.
Last month vehicle sales fell by 27.4 percent.
Out of a total industry sales of 29 667 vehicles, 76.5 percent represented dealer/retail sales, 14.5 percent represented sales to the car rental industry, 5.3 percent represented sales to government and 3.7 percent represented sales into auto industry corporate fleets.
Sales in August showed a decline of 6 509 vehicle or 25.7 percent in comparison to the 25 298 new cars sold in the same period last year.
"Factoring in aggregate new car sales reported by the AMH/AAD Group, the year-on-year decline had amounted to a fall of 21.1 percent. This was an improved performance in relation to previous months," said the association.
It said it was encouraging that the selling rate of new vehicles improved in August 2009 by 9.8 percent compared to July 2009.
New light commercial vehicles, bakkies and minibuses at 9411 units during August showed a decline of 2641 or 21.9 percent vehicles compared to the 12052 units in August 2008. The year-on year decline taking into account sales by the AMH/AAD Group comes to 2870 or 22.3 percent units.
Vehicles in the medium and heavy truck segments with the exception of buses, also showed declines in August.
The sale of medium commercials at 527 units and 940 units had registered a fall of 361 vehicles or 40.7 percent in medium commercials.
For heavy commercial units the fall was at 51.7 percent while in the case of heavy and extra heavy trucks and buses compared to the corresponding month last year.
"Continued weakness in medium and heavy truck sales reflected lower investment spending as well as difficulties experienced by truck operators in accessing loan finance.
"On a positive note, there were indications recently of a more accommodative stance by financial institutions in credit extension," said the association.
Since the beginning of the year, aggregate industry new vehicle sales showed a decline of 31.6 percent, compared to the 378 103 vehicles sold during the corresponding eight months of last year.
NAAMSA said that export demand continued to be low contributing to a record decline of exported vehicles in August 2009. Export sales at 9030 vehicles reflected a decline of 18053 vehicles or 66.7 percent compared to 27 083 vehicles exported last August.
"The extent of the decline reflected the impact of the global financial and economic crisis on the South African automotive industry. Little or no improvement in export sales is anticipated in the short term," said NAAMSA.
It said that the operating environment for August remained "extremely difficult" with all sectors of the country's automotive industry continued to experience sustainability challenges.
It said that the industry's domestic operating environment would only be revived if consumer spending picked up and this depended on a more favourable inflation outlook, lower interest rates and stimulatory government expenditure.
"Improvement in vehicle exports would depend on a recovery in global economic conditions and a return of confidence in international financial markets," said NAAMSA.
Investment Solutions senior economist Chris Hart told BuaNews that low interest rates were yet to contribute to the revival of sales
"We have been experiencing negative growth. The low interest rates have not yet contributed to the revival in sales. Consumers are still under extreme pressure with debt while the banking sector is reeling from repossessions. Banks are reluctant to lend to finance vehicles," said Mr Hart.
He predicted that vehicle sales will swing into positive territory by the end of the year.


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Technology start-up VMob has undertaken a back-door listing on the NZAX in an attempt to attract overseas investors.
The Auckland-based firm builds software for mobile companies allowing them to distribute vouchers from big brands - like fast food chains - to their customers.
Founder Scott Bradley says the location-based software is also designed to learn what a particular mobile user is interested in and target vouchers at them individually.
VMob was founded in 2010 and is looking to expand into developing markets such as Indonesia and India where telcos have 100 million customers.
Its reverse listing - also known as a back-door listing - on the NZX Alternative Market, via an acquisition by shell company Velo Capital, would help it attract "strategic offshore investors", Bradley said.
"We're a small New Zealand start-up going out to a global stage," Bradley said.
"We've got an office in Indonesia already and [are] dealing with some of the largest telcos in the world.
"So for a small New Zealand start-up to be publicly listed just really gives us a lot more profile ... it definitely makes capital raising easier."
Velo Capital announced the acquisition yesterday and will change its name to VMob Group on the NZAX this Friday.
VMob posted a loss of $699,000 in the 12 months ended March 31, its first full-year of trading, on operating revenue of $28,000.
- additional reporting BusinessDesk


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Wayfair, a Boston-based network of retail sites that focuses on home decor, has raised $36 million in its second round of funding amid rapid expansion of its third retail branch: a flash-sales site called Joss & Main.
Joss & Main, which offers a curated shopping experience similar to sites like Fab and One Kings Lane, has grown over the course of a year to have about a $100 million annual revenue run rate, said Wayfair CEO and co-founder Niraj Shah.
In total, the Wayfair network has a $600 million in projected annual sales based on its sales figures in recent months. Wayfair’s previous funding round amounted to $165 million in June last year.
It’s raising the funding to support its newest site in an attempt to capture a more significant chunk of the $30 billion online market for home decor goods. It’s similar to One Kings Lane, but that site focuses on high-end goods while Joss & Main focuses on more accessible prices.
“This is not an easy market to master due to a number of factors ranging from the complexities of shipping over-sized and fragile items to establishing a broad enough supplier base to offer shoppers the selection and prices they expect in online retail,” said Neeraj Agrawal, an investor and general partner at Battery Ventures.
We caught up with Shah to find out more about the funding round and his hopes for the company. Here’s an edited transcript of the interview.


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A total of 102 Democratic lawmakers, consisting of 37 Democratic Senators joined by Independent Senator Bernie Sanders and 65 House members, have signed on to letters sent to Director Cordray expressing support for the CFPB’s proposed arbitration rule. The proposal would prohibit covered providers of certain consumer financial products and services from using an agreement with a consumer that provides for arbitration of any future dispute between the parties to bar the consumer from filing or participating in a class action with respect to the covered consumer financial product or service. The proposal would also require a covered provider that is involved in an individual arbitration pursuant to a pre-dispute arbitration agreement to submit specified arbitral records to the CFPB.
Both letters tout the benefits of class actions for consumers and urge the CFPB to proceed “quickly” to finalize its proposal. However, they rely heavily on the CFPB’s March 2015 empirical study on consumer arbitration, which actually contradicts their position that class actions benefit consumers. The study showed that individual arbitration is faster, cheaper and far more beneficial to consumers than class action litigation. For example, according to the CFPB’s study, while the average payment to consumers from class action settlements was a mere $32.35, the average arbitration award to consumers was $5,389.00, and the dispute was resolved in a few months rather than several years.
Comments on the proposal must be submitted by August 22.


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I’m not going to lie. I’ve never heard of Google Shopper until now. However, the app has been downloaded over 10 million times across mobile OS platforms. So out of that amount, to the active Shoppers, this news may come as a downer.
Google has announced on Friday that their Google Shopper app will reach extinction on August 30. The company encourages users to instead use Google’s Search app in lieu of Shopper, which helped users find product information, organize shopping lists and even link to places where items can be purchased. A direct link to the product search feature (though it’s a clickable tab on Google’s main page) is www.google.com/shopping.
There is no word on whether Google will be introducing a replacement for their Shopper app, which is available still here from Google Play and here from Apple’s App Store. Chances are we won’t be seeing any. That’s if Shopper will be going the same way as Reader (R.I.P.)
<Source: Google Commerce>


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Maharashtra crop crisis: Farmers’ response to chana procurement remains poor
Even as the government’s procurement of chana under the minimum support price (MSP) commenced from Monday, farmers’ response to online registration has been very poor.
Senior government officials said that farmers are yet to receive money from the government for tur sold in the last season and therefore the response has been very poor this time. Market sources said that farmers prefer selling it to traders at lower prices as the guarantee of getting money is less under the MSP scheme. Chana prices are currently ruling at Rs 4,100 to Rs 4,300 per quintal while the MSP has been fixed at Rs 4,620 per quintal.


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Zynga Names EA's Barry Cottle Executive VP
He brings to the newly public social gaming company more than 20 years of experience at such companies as Walt Disney, Palm and, most recently, Electronic Arts.
NEW YORK - Social gaming giant Zynga said Thursday that it has hired Barry Cottle as executive vp, business and corporate development.
He brings to the newly public Zynga more than 20 years of experience in entertainment, technology and games with past positions at the likes of Walt Disney, where he served for nine years as senior vp of marketing at Disney Televentures and chief marketing officer of Americast, Palm and, most recently, Electronic Arts where he served as executive vp of EA Interactive.
"It’s rare that you find someone who possesses a deep operational background and also has the vision to see where your business and your industry are headed," said Zynga founder and CEO Mark Pincus. "Barry is one of those executives, and I’m very excited to have him join the team. His skill set, combined with his deep understanding of the games, technology and entertainment spaces will help us accelerate our mission of connecting the world through games.”
Zynga shares on Thursday closed up 1.4 percent at $8.45. Since the company's IPO in mid-December, the stock has traded between $7.97 and $11.50.
The company's Facebook games include the likes of CityVille, Mafia Wars and FarmVille.


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Greece police: Door-to-door book sales aren't legit
Door-to-door hucksters purporting a book sale to benefit Greece's Holmes Road School aren't legit, police warned Thursday afternoon.
In a news release, Greece police Sgt. Jared René said the Greece Central School District has fielded numerous calls from worried residents complaining of salespeople on their stoops hawking "Around the Town" books and saying the tomes are aimed to raise funds for the neighborhood school.
"There is NO such fundraiser going on for Holmes Road School; it is a hoax to obtain money from residents under false pretenses," he wrote.
District spokeswoman Laurel Heiden said there were reports of a mother-son team visiting residences near the Holmes Road school, telling their targets they were selling coupon books and asking for a $20 payment up front.
The police department is asking anyone who's been contacted by the sellers to call 911.
It is illegal to sell items door-to-door in Greece without a solicitor's permit. Rene said this group of sellers does not have a permit.


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Ed Jernigan tells a story from the book, “Who Moved My Cheese?” In the book, the mice in the story went to the same spot everyday to get cheese. Then somebody moved the cheese. “A couple of mice kept going to the same spot and they starved to death,” says the president and CEO of Globecot and the Jernigan Group.
Drawing the analogy to cotton, Jernigan says the “cheese has been moved. If everybody wants to keep going to the same spot, it’s going to cost somebody a lot of money.”
The standard of quality has largely changed in the world, reflecting China’s dominant position in the market.
Jernigan made the comments at a FiberMax Field Day, standing at the edge of a cotton field in Sellers, S.C.
He pulled few punches in saying that the U.S. premium-discount schedule is out of touch with the marketplace, the farm bill is meant for a different time and a different place than today and, like it or not, this is the Chinese Century.
“Quality is going to be a huge deal, whether anybody likes it or not,” Jernigan says.
There is hope, however. Those growers who produce high-quality cotton that differentiates itself will be rewarded. Those growers who produce commodity-type cotton, however, will be the losers.
The “cheese” has changed. China came courting for cotton on the world market last year, following a crop disaster. They were looking for 1 1/8 cotton, but found 1 1/16 cotton. They were not happy with the selection they found from the U.S., despite buying more than 36 percent of the U.S. crop last year.
Predicted to use more bales than they produce again this year, China will again be on the import market. Analysts predict some 28 million bales of cotton production in China, with a demand of 36 million bales, “which means they’ll import the same volume or greater this year” than they did last year, Jernigan says.
It is anticipated that China will remain the largest customer of U.S. cotton.
“The question is, will the United States have the right quality?” Jernigan asks.
To answer his question, he returns to the Chinese market. There, the top grade is called Type 129. It is the equivalent of 1 1/8. In late September, the price for that cotton was 78 to 81 cents per pound. The Chinese quote a low grade 1 1/16 at around 63 or 64 cents per pound.
“That’s a 15-cent discount,” Jernigan says. “What does that matter to the U.S. farmer?”
Look to the loan schedule for the answer, he says.
Chinese discounts for 1 1/16 cotton are twice what the U.S. loan schedule is. There’s about a 7.15 cent difference between low middling 1 1/8 and low middling 1 1/16. That means it is going to be very difficult to sell 1 1/16 — except on price.
In actuality, U.S. 1 1/16 is now discount cotton on the world market, Jernigan says. In China, it is used in open-end yarns and is a discount. “The world, unfortunately, or fortunately, has changed now that the U.S.’s largest customer is not domestic mills,” Jernigan says.
He blames the U.S. premium-discount schedule for not offering enough premiums for staple length, strength and micronaire and not enough discounts for lower grades.
“Quality does matter,” he says.
Speaking on the quality crisis in Georgia, Jernigan says, “The bottom line is, Georgia is an example of producing for the loan. They produced for the loan and did not pay attention to quality.
“A couple of weeks ago, someone e-mailed me an article that said growers are better off producing for the loan than they are for quality,” Jernigan says. “I almost stopped and called the guy and said, “Let’s go debate this somewhere.”
Last year, almost 64 percent of Georgia’s cotton crop was 1 1/16 or shorter. “A lack of fiber uniformity...will bring discounts,” Jernigan says.
“Now, nobody wants to buy Georgia cotton,” Jernigan says, “and more than 75 percent of the remaining domestic mills will only buy it under specific quality parameters.
“I’m not always going to be right about the price,” he says, “but I do feel strongly about the quality issue. Quality does matter and it will matter more as we go forward in the next several years.”
Moving through prepared remarks on index cards, Jernigan next came to the farm bill. Referencing the recent WTO ruling that the cotton program violates trade rules, Jernigan said, “I believe the farm bill was designed for a different place and a different time.
“If the U.S. produces 21 million bales and uses only 6 million domestically, it only exports on one level — price,” Jernigan says.
“If I’m sitting in Brazil, then I’m crying about the U.S. farm program,” Jernigan says. “They’re crying because the U.S. is driving cotton into the world market at the world price. That’s the U.S.’s right, but the bottom line is, there are going to be some changes.”
“Those changes will be that growers who produce high-quality cotton that differentiates itself will win,” Jernigan says. “Those growers who produce commodity-type cotton will be the losers.”


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House Speaker John Boehner's suggestion that he was open to including higher tax rates on the wealthiest Americans has been described as "progress" by the White House. President Barak Obama responded to the offer with his own compromise on both tax increases and spending cuts.
With few major economic or corporate reports on the agenda Tuesday, investors will be looking for further evidence that a deal is being hammered out in Washington.
Those fiscal cliff hopes boosted Bank of America(BAC) shares, which were up 2.8% in premarket trading, and JPMorgan(JPM), which gained 1.1%.
After the closing bell Tuesday, tech giant Oracle(ORCL) will report quarterly results.
Late Monday, Apple(AAPL)lost an important ruling when a federal judge denied its request for a permanent ban on 26 Samsung products that Apple charged -- and a jury ruled -- had willfully infringed Apple's patents. However, Apple shares were trading 1.4% higher in premarket.


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While the iPhone made the jump to OLED a few years ago now, Apple has been sticking with LCD and Mini-LED displays for its iPad Pro line-up. That could change soon though, as Apple has been tipped to release an OLED-equipped iPad Pro in 2021.
As spotted by 9to5Mac, Korean supply chain news outlet, The Elec, recently reported on some changes in Apple's supply chain. According to their sources, Samsung Display has begun revamping one of its production lines to produce OLED displays for a future iPad.
The reason for this revamp is due to Apple “requiring higher specs” for the OLED used in its next-gen iPad Pro, which is expected to launch in the second half of 2021. Samsung Display is a regular partner for Apple, so this news also confirms that this partnership will continue next year.
How much these new iPads will cost, or specific launch dates remain to be confirmed. Given that this is a late 2021 product though, there is plenty of time for Apple to continue finalising its plans. We'll likely see many more leaks surrounding this in 2021.
Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.
KitGuru Says: As a 2017 iPad Pro owner, I've been long awaiting Apple's switch to OLED for the iPad. Do many of you currently use an iPad? Would the jump to OLED displays tempt you into upgrading next year?


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The second edition of Lenovo K3 Note flash sale received a positive response from the Indian public as all the units were sold out in a few seconds.
The company (via Twitter) confirmed that around 30,000 K3 Note black units, which went on sale on Wednesday, 15 July, at 12pm, ran out of stocks within 3.9 seconds, whereas 19,800 white models were sold out in 4.3 seconds.
Those who could not get their hands on the Lenovo phablet can try again next week. The company has announced that the registration window for K3 Note flash sale 3.0 on 22 July will open at 6pm on Wednesday, 15 July, on Flipkart and closes on 21 July midnight (11:59pm).
Lenovo has also confirmed that prospective buyers can register for flash sale of both the variants on Flipkart (HERE).
K3 Note sports a 5.5-inch full HD display and run on the Android 5.0 Lollipop OS powered by the MediaTek Octa-core SoC (System on Chip), 2GB RAM, 16GB inbuilt memory and a 3,000mAh battery.
Key Specifications of Lenovo K3 Note:
|Model||Lenovo K3 Note|
|OS||Android 5.0.2 Lollipop (with Vibe v2.5 UI)|
|Processor||64-bit class1.7GHz Mediatek [MT6752] Octa-core (ARM Cortex-A53) CPU|
|Storage capacity||16GB, expandable up to 32GB|
|Camera||Main: 13.0-megapixel camera with Dual LED flash, HDR, full HD video recordingFront: 5.0-megapixel camera|
|Add-ons||Dual-SIM (micro) slots, Bluetooth v4.0 (A2DP & LE), Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), A-GPS. GLONASS, microUSB v2.0, FM Radio, Dolby Atmos audio system with surround sound feature|
|Dimensions||152.6 x 76.2 x 8.0 mm|
|Colours||White and Black|


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Becoming the most powerful motorcycle of any kind ever to enter the race, we’re exclusively revealing that Chip Yates will be racing his 240bhp, 365lb/ft electric superbike at Pikes Peak on June 26. Chip’s bike is currently set up for … Continued
When AMG announced it’d be sponsoring the Ducati MotoGP team back in November, it was unclear, beyond AMG logos on Rossi and Hayden’s bikes, what the partnership would involve. Aside from those logos, this ad is the first visible instance … Continued
Keira Knightley, a Ducati 750 Sport, a matching cat suit. Those three things form an idealistic expression of European motorcycling that’s nearly perfect.
Valentino Rossi debuted his new helmet today at practice for the Qatar GP. The AGV GP-Tech incorporates his number 46 on the rear, surrounded by a crescent moon in Italian flag tricolore, also notable is the inclusion of sponsor Monster … Continued
“Obviously HRC is not using anything illegal, but it’s true that we have something new on the transmission that currently allows for faster gear changes,” says HRC vice president Shuhei Nakamoto. “We are not talking about a DCT, but I … Continued
Yesterday, the Isle of Man TT announced that it had begun “a feasibility study” into holding its own international championship series, tipping the US, Asia and the Far East as potential locations. The Isle of Man is awesome, so any … Continued
Ducati is ramping up for racing at Pikes Peak again this year. Last week it released the Ducati Multistrada 1200 Pikes Peak special edition ($2,000 for paint) and now it’s finally gotten around to releasing a proper video from last … Continued


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Facials and bubble baths are important components to any self-care regimen, but sex experts believe there are other ways to make me-time more satisfying. A recent report delivers all the pleasurable details, and in good news, it encourages using the best vibrator to amp up your habits.
TENGA, a company that aims to get rid of the stigma surrounding masturbation, is not only famous for its sex toys, but its Self-Pleasure Report. In the wake of the pandemic, its most recent study uncovered new behaviors.
According to the findings, over 80% of Americans now consider masturbation to be a form of self care, and an important one at that. It was considered a coping mechanism during lockdown. What's more is that the discoveries indicate that a year of isolation has caused people to change their views on masturbation; nearly 30 percent of the study's participants feel more comfortable with the idea and over 60 percent plan to continue increased their sex toy usage.
Talk about a pampering experience. Plus, a little self-love is said to have its benefits. Annabelle Knight, a sex and relationship expert at Lovehoney, believes it not only helps women feel empowered—in the bedroom and beyond—but masturbation also helps improves vaginal health and makes you less susceptible to colds. We're all for the multitasking, after all.
These results prove it's time for women to prioritize their orgasms and have a satisfying experience every time. In more good sex news, we've provided step-by-step instructions for explosive pleasure whether you're alone or with a partner.
And, whether you're alone or with a partner, these online erotic sex stories online will be a satisfying addition to that self-care day. (Fear not—we're doing all the dirty work for you and figured you've already seen Bridgerton a few times.)
Sign up to our free daily email for the latest royal and entertainment news, interesting opinion, expert advice on styling and beauty trends, and no-nonsense guides to the health and wellness questions you want answered.
Danielle is a writer for woman&home and My Imperfect Life, where she particularly enjoys covering lifestyle and entertainment news. She was previously the editor of Time Out New York Kids and a news editor at Elite Daily. When she's not working, you can find her reading a good book and enjoying a cup of coffee. Follow her @dvwrites.
The new 'Kitschen' trend is taking over 'as people look to elevate retro style' reports a Pinterest expert
Step aside minimalism, retro 'Kitschens' are the new interior trend on the block and it's all about the retro pastels
By Emily Smith Published
Kate Middleton's cosy khaki St David's Day outfit proved skinny jeans and turtlenecks are a style fail-safe
We're still inspired by the Princess of Wales's St David's Day outfit from 2022 and this is a combination that's so easy to recreate
By Emma Shacklock Published


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September 20, 2017 marks the launch of Wilcon's anniversary promo. Hosted by Johnny Litton, Wilcon executives, invited industry partners, and media partners gathered at Marco Polo Ortigas Manila to witness the official unveiling of the promotion, where up to 1.6 Million Pesos worth of prizes will be given away.
Marking its 40th anniversary in the construction supply industry, Wilcon Depot is giving back to their valued customers through Wilcon 40 Years Raffle Promo.
Wilcon President and CEO Lorraine Belo-Cincochan said that this is one way of keeping and fulfilling their promise in building big ideas for Filipinos. They give the customers assurance that they are committed in carrying their products and experiences with the same amount of passion and service that they have for the past 40 years.
“This is our way of giving back to our customers for their unceasing patronage that can certainly add thrill and excitement in their home shopping experience. We always look forward and think big in conceptualizing to give only the best kind of promo offerings to our clients,” Wilcon SEVP-Chief Operating Officer Rosemarie B. Ong said as she expressed her gratitude towards the attendees for the continuous support the company has been receiving through the years.
Starting October 1, 2017 to October 31, 2017, forty (40) lucky Wilcon customers will get a chance to win P40,000 worth of Wilcon e-GCs. To join, simply shop at any Wilcon branches nationwide and earn one raffle entry for every single P5,000.00 cash or card purchase. Customers can register at Wilcon website URL: www.wilcon.com.ph/upload/Wilcon40yearspromo where they can submit multiple entries per log-in session. Registration is one-time only. Electronic raffle draw is scheduled on November 7, 2017.
Learn more of this promo by visiting any Wilcon stores near you or log on to www.wilcon.com.ph. Follow and like their social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram @wilcondepot.ph.


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WOULD you like black pepper coffee, black pepper cafe latte, or black pepper milk tea?
This question may seem odd but don’t be surprised if someone poses it to you soon.
Pepper – or black pepper in this case – is more than just a spice as it is also known for its medicinal value. So adding it to coffee or tea is not a bad idea, especially for the health-conscious.
Entrepreneur Awaeang Kwasin has taken the brew a step further by coming up with premix Black Pepper Coffee with Tongkat Ali, premix Cafe Latte with Honey, and premix Black Pepper Milk Tea with Dates.
The result of this innovation is a pleasant healthy drink. Added to this mixture are ingredients such as dietary fibre inulin and prebiotics to aid in weight loss.
“I believe this is something never done before. Maybe it’s the first time anyone has come up with such a concoction. I want to make a drink that’s not just nice but also helps weight loss in a healthy manner.
“Black pepper isn’t just a spice. It also has medicinal value such as expelling wind from body, controlling appetite, removing toxin from body and improving blood circulation,” she told thesundaypost.
The three new products were launched on June 14 at Suria KLCC in Kuala Lumpur.
Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry (business development) director Ismainur Hadi Amat Bakeron officiated at the event held in conjunction with International Borneo Fest 2019 at the popular shopping mall.
For Awaeang, who comes from Kampung Bratan, Jalan Puncak Borneo, not far from Kuching, but now lives in Selangor, the products are new milestones in her quest to bring more innovation to pepper, a commodity widely cultivated in Sarawak.
Like others in the business, she started by selling white and black pepper powders and other forms of spices (from pepper), but branched out last year and subsequently came up with a pepper-based massage oil and gel which are now gaining popularity.
The 41-year-old, fondly known as Awin, comes from a family of pepper farmers, and together with her siblings, she used to help their parents pick pepper berries, soak them by the river and dry them in the sun.
It is now three years since she has been producing pepper-based products, a venture she started following a challenge from friends to market the commodity on her own.
She is also the first Bidayuh woman to obtain an export licence from the Malaysian Pepper Board, and is now looking to market the world-renowned spice in Hong Kong and China.
“Many people are surprised when told the pepper from Sarawak isn’t used just as a spice but can also be processed into other products such as massage oil and gel. And now, my company has come up with pepper-based coffee and tea drinks.
“To have a Sarawakian identity, Nang Ori was chosen as the brand name. It’s a Sarawak Malay word which means ‘really original’. We package the products with Sarawak tribal designs.
“This is what drives me – to come up with innovations and products based on Sarawak pepper. And hopefully, these new products will make Nang Ori not only popular domestically but also enable it to penetrate the international market,” she explained.
According to Awaeang, her brand now has more than 650 agents under the Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) concept to sell the products.
At first, there were just 30 agents but the number increased after the massage oil and gel were launched in August last year.
“We also train the agents to help them succeed and earn extra income for their households,” she said.
Awaeang revealed the company is expected to come up with more Sarawak pepper-based products by the end of this year through collaboration with the Research and Development Section of Sirim Berhad.
Though she has been living in Selangor for almost 20 years, she makes sure the company’s headquarters is in Sarawak. Presently, it’s located at Kota Samarahan.
The management office and distribution centre is in Puchong, Selangor, while the processing plant is in Melaka Halal Hub.
“Now, our pepper products are being sold in Aeon, Mydin and Giant hypermarkets throughout Malaysia,” she said.


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According to recent news, the UK’s top companies are being pushed towards appointing more women to their boards. The initiative is spearheaded by the so-called 30% Club, a lobby group founded over one year ago with the intention of lifting the proportion of women on boards to 30% by 2015.
So what? Helena Morrissey, founder of the 30% Club, argues: “There is growing evidence that adding women to the board does have an impact on the financial performance of a company.”
While in the US, diversity in corporate settings, whether it’s on the C-level, through the wider organisation or in the supplier pool, is a topic that is taken quite seriously. On European territories, it remains a concept that has received little to no attention so far. Food and beverage giant Pepsico sources more than US$1 billion in goods and services from minority- and women-owned suppliers, and consumer goods company P&G has even stepped over the US$2 billion threshold.
And it is not necessarily for altruistic reasons that their procurement organisation are going through the effort of establishing a supplier diversity program. In fact, minority suppliers are held to the same standards in terms of pricing, quality and supply assurance as all other suppliers. And during fiddicult economic times, the spending with minority-owned businesses are more challenging to maintain as these type of businesses naturally require the buyer’s support and development opportunities. But because of their niche expertise, these types of suppliers can and do contribute to the buying organisation’s innovation pool.
So why is it that many European organisations have missed that boat to running more diverse businesses, when north America is making it an integral part of running business on a day-to-day basis, and even China, yes China, is rapidly embracing the concept of supplier diversity these days?


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WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama received a cool reception from business executives Monday, who welcomed his first appearance before them since he took office but turned icy as he defended government regulation as crucial to the nation's well-being.
The executives applauded only sporadically during Obama's speech, in which he urged them to tap into their huge stockpiles of cash and start hiring.
"Now is the time to invest in America," the president said during the peacemaking visit to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, across Lafayette Park from the White House.
Noting that U.S. businesses are sitting on nearly $2 trillion in cash, he acknowledged that most of them have been waiting for the recovery to take hold and for consumer demand to rise before expanding again. But now, he said, economists predict a "healthy increase" in demand, and he urged them to accelerate the recovery by hiring more people.
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Obama made the plea during his first visit to the chamber since he took office in 2009, part of a growing effort to reach out to business.
As a symbolic gesture, he walked across the park to the chamber's imposing headquarters, and joked about his relationship with business.
"I’m here in the interest of being more neighborly," he said. "Maybe if we had brought over a fruitcake when I first moved in, we would have gotten off to a better start."
Obama said his administration was working to help business by promoting the sale of U.S. goods and services overseas, tax breaks for investments, a proposed overhaul of corporate income taxes and a planned reorganization of the government to make it more efficient, starting with consolidating 12 offices that deal with exports.
He pitched his proposals to spend more on education and infrastructure as key to helping business by providing better-trained workers and more reliable and less costly ways of shipping goods and information.But he also launched a full-throated defense of government regulation, including his oversight of Wall Street and his new health care law.
"Few of us would want to live in a society without the rules that keep our air and water clean; that give consumers the confidence to do everything from investing in financial markets to buying groceries," he said.
He suggested that warnings that government regulation is automatically bad for business were wrong.
"Auto executives predicted that having to install seat belts would bring the downfall of their industry," he said. "The president of the American Bar Association denounced child labor laws as 'a communistic effort to nationalize children.' "
Business leaders reacted politely, but said afterward that they were skeptical at best.
Scott Holman, the CEO of Bay Cast Inc., a steel foundry in Bay City, Mich., said it was really all about demand.
"As a small business owner, I don't, and can't, go out and hire people just to hire people," he said, lauding Obama's outreach but adding that he didn't hear anything new.
"The proof will be in the actions, not in the words. We've got to see some regulations go away . . . so that we can in fact get back in the hiring mode," said Harold Jackson, the CEO of Buffalo Supply Inc., a medical supplies distributor from Lafayette, Colo.
Barbara Windsor, the owner and president of Hahn Transportation, liked Obama's pitch to work with the private sector to improve roads and bridges.
"I’m thrilled to hear that we're going to spend some money on the infrastructure and crumbling bridges, because that helps us quite a bit in the trucking industry," said Windsor, whose company is headquartered in New Market, Md.
Right now, she said, the problem remains a lack of customers. "If we had more freight to haul, we'd be doing more hiring," she said.
The president of the National Retail Federation said more scrutiny of regulations — not more defense of regulations — was what was needed.
"There is a whole host of policy issues and regulatory issues that need to be thought about,” said Matthew Shay, the head of the influential group.
The federation wants Obama to push for relief from the swipe fees that merchants must pay credit card companies and big banks. Last year's revamp of financial regulation allowed the Federal Reserve to order those fees lowered.
"The swipe-fee issue costs merchants and consumers $48 billion annually. Speaking very parochially, that is the big issue for us, but we think that's one that would be helpful for the economy," Shay said.
Bruce Josten, who's an executive vice president at the chamber and its chief lobbyist, said Obama extended an olive branch.
"The real question is what's next," he said, disputing the notion that the chamber is hostile to the president's agenda. "I've got a long list, I’ve got three pages of legislation we've supported. Everybody tends to focus on a couple of high-profile disputes."
Some liberals and labor unions criticized Obama's outreach to big business.
"Two weeks ago the president promised that he would work to rebuild people’s faith in government _ meeting with the biggest lobbyists in the country is hardly a step in the right direction," Erica Payne, the founder of the Agenda Project, a liberal group, said in a statement.
MORE FROM MCCLATCHY
For more McClatchy politics coverage visit Planet Washington


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Bell response to illegal access of small-business customer information at third-party supplier
MONTREAL, Feb. 2, 2014 /CNW Telbec/ - Bell today announced that 22,421 user names and passwords and 5 valid credit card numbers of Bell small-business customers were posted on the Internet this weekend. The posting results from illegal hacking of an Ottawa-based third-party supplier's information technology system.
In line with our strict privacy and security policies, Bell is contacting affected small business customers, has disabled all affected passwords, and has informed appropriate credit card companies. We continue to work with the supplier as well as law enforcement and government security officials to investigate the matter.
Bell's own network and IT systems were not impacted. The issue does not affect Bell residential, mobility or enterprise business customers
With more than 21 million customer connections, Bell is Canada's largest communications company, providing consumers and business customers with leading TV, Internet, wireless, home phone and business communications solutions. For more information, please visit Bell.ca .
SOURCE Bell Canada
Jean Charles Robillard


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In a tweet, U.S. President Donald Trump has slammed 3M Co for its business practises.
The tweet comes in the wake of Trump’s earlier announcement of invoking the Defense Production Act to get the company to produce face masks.
“We hit 3M hard today after seeing what they were doing with their Masks. ‘P Act’ all the way.’ Big surprise to many in government as to what they were doing – will have a big price to pay!” tweeted Trump.
“Hopefully they’ll be able to do what they are supposed to do,” said Trump without elaborating.
St. Paul, Minnesota-based 3M did not immediately respond to requests for comments.
At a news briefing, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said, “We’ve had some issues making sure that all of the production that 3M does around the world, enough of it is coming back here to the right places.”
These developments come in the wake of N-95 face masks produced by 3M as well as by other companies, being in short supply among healthcare workers treating the COVID-19 patients.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to announce guidelines in the coming days and could tell Americans to wear face masks when leaving home.


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Downfall in UK flight Searches
Normally there is an increase in searches in the weeks just after Christmas but this year they were down 42% compared to last year. Travel-websites saw a decline of traffic of 16% in the same period.
According to Hitwise the weak pound is part of the reason why people are searching less and different. Searches to all popular European holiday destinations went down. Only Norway, Brazil, Cuba, Denmark and Morocco saw a growth.
Hitwise also said UK searchers are becoming more efficient when it comes to using search terms. They are more and more searching for specific towns and resorts.
Change in UK Internet searches for flights to popular destinations between 05/01/08 and 03/01/09:
Destinations with the biggest increase (or smallest decrease) in flight searches between 05/01/08 and 03/01/09:
Tagcloudfunny ppc a4uexpo sea google twitter search engines mobile russia search seo streetview google maps search engine strategies viral ses advertising google wave images spain marketing tools street view interview yahoo event maps indonesia europe research iphone facebook blogger business google earth app adwords matt cutts social microsoft


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If you loved the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport, than I’m sure this Special Edition will rock your socks, especially in the bumble bee colorway shown at this year’s Dubai International Motor Show. Three colors were brought to the show, which also included a blue carbon and green/silver, the yellow and black carbon fiber Veyron’s colorway continues on the interior with seats finished in yellow leather with black stitching and a middle console, dashboard, and steering wheel all decked out in black. While the drivetrain remained untouched, which makes this car the fastest street legal convertible on the market, the Grand Sport still is capable of hitting 1,001-hp through its 8.0-liter W-16 engine and hitting 60mph in less than 2.5 seconds. With a price tag of $2,000,000 only 150 units will be produced. So make sure when your writing that check, that you have nerves of steel.No url attribute defined!
Win on Sunday, sell on Monday. It’s a marketing motto nearly as old as racing itself, but while today’s NASCAR stock cars may have about as much in common with the cars they represent as a Halloween superhero costume from Walmart will actually give your kid superpowers, NASCAR remains the biggest spectator sport in America. So you can imagine that participating automakers would think themselves foolish to pass up the opportunity to make the connection in fans’ eyes to cars they can actually buy at their local dealership.
That’s why the “stock cars” packing Chevrolet engines carry the name and tacked-on fascia of the Impala SS, Dodge racers that of the Charger, while Toyota models are made to look like theCamry and Ford makes its racers resemble the Fusion. The Blue Oval has gone with the Fusion since 2006, but before that it was the Taurus, and for the better part of two decades prior, the Thunderbird. Now that Ford has released a radically redone Fusion, however, it has updated its NASCAR racer to reflect its new look.
The 2013 Ford Fusion NASCAR Sprint Cup car is the product of a year’s worth of design and aerodynamics work, and it’s intended to bridge the widening gap between production and race car. It will undergo what you can bet will be rigorous testing throughout this year in preparation for its race debut at the Daytona 500 in February 2013. Via: autoblogNo url attribute defined!
- This is the first time a prototype of the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette has been caught on camera.
- The final production version is expected to debut at the Detroit auto show in 2013.
- The Corvette will retain its traditional front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout and feature a small-block V8.
KAPUSKASING, Ontario — Spy photographers have caught a glimpse of the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette undergoing cold-weather testing in Canada. It’s the first time that the seventh-generation Corvette has been spotted in public.
The heavily camouflaged prototype reveals a few minor details about the upcoming sports car. It will clearly retain the classic long-nose, short-deck configuration of its predecessors, but the profile of the car will feature a more distinct wedge shape. There are two different prototypes seen here, each with its own wheel design. Not sure if this is indicative of two different models or simply an easy way to try different tires in the snow.
Shooters on the scene described an exhaust note that was most definitely of the V8 variety. Although our earlier Corvette Intelligence reportsuggested that a small-displacement turbocharged V8 might be used, the sound of this prototype was more in line with a more typical normally aspirated, large-displacement V8. Most speculation suggests that this Corvette with get a roughly 5.5-liter V8 that uses direct injection and variable valve timing to develop around 500 horsepower. Sources have toldInside Line that the C7 Corvette will also feature a seven-speed manual transmission.
The official unveil of the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette is expected at the 2013 Detroit Auto Show early next year. : via insidelines.com
ElusiveMaG says: As the Corvette still remains to be one of the top high performance sports cars, I am curious to see if the C7 will remain elusive and carry refinement as well.No url attribute defined!
By all accounts, the original Air Jordan 10 “City Series” was a thing of beauty. Regional releases added local and team pride, while the on-court connection created hardwood memories. With the “Chicago” 10s set to return tomorrow, isn’t it time for a revamped City Series? We think so. Nice Kicks calls for and creates five new “City Series” colorways that coincide with Jordan Brand’s current roster.
- As Miami fans prepare to pre-order their Championship tees, they might want something special to match. Let’s shelve the South Beach shades and go with these.
- Part 2? Though the OG is far from broke, a new era of Knicks needs a new colorway. Let Melo and Bibby sport these on hardwood, while Spike hurts feelings from the sidelines.
- Lob City, Lob-Lob City, kicks. Chris Paul’s latest signature is crazy, but we still haven’t seen him in a retro PE since his first years in the NBA. We know the 13s are his favorites, but we’re thinking he’d go for a pair of these too.
- Did green and gold work on Ray Ray’s 11s? Yes. While the Air Jordan 11 still sits as untouchable for new colorway drops, theJordan 10 is certainly fair game.No url attribute defined!


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At E3 earlier this year, AMD made a huge splash in the graphics market with their new Fury and Fury X graphics cards. These new graphics cards would be the first on the market to boast the revolutionary new HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) technology which AMD is betting will be the future of graphics memory. Alongside the new Fury and Fury X, AMD also quietly launched the Radeon R9 300 series, but focused very little on the new graphics cards.
As it was later revealed, AMD’s upcoming Radeon R9 300 series lineup would pretty much be a re-badge of the Radeon R9 200 series lineup. As such I was honestly a bit disappointed. While I’m [...]
Late last year, AMD introduced the Hawaii based Radeon R9 290/290X along with the Bonaire based Radeon R7 260/260X which utilized AMD’s updated GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture. AMD’s updated GCN architecture, which we’ll refer to GCN 1.1, supported new features such as improved compute performance, on die audio processing, and improvements to AMD’s PowerTune technology to offer a faster, more power efficient chip than its GCN 1.0 cousins.
Unfortunately, AMD’s GCN update didn’t cover the mid-range GCN 1.0 based GPUs such as the Radeon R9 270/R9 270X or the Radeon R9 280/280X, which meant [...]
As an enthusiast hardware review site, we generally don’t review low end graphics hardware, but it’s understandable that not everyone needs to have the latest $500+ graphics cards and it’s always interesting to see just how far you could get with a sub-$100 budget.
Today we’ll be reviewing two entry level Radeon R7 series graphics cards from ASUS, the ASUS Radeon R7 240 and R7 250. In terms of specs, both the ASUS Radeon R7 240 and Radeon R7 250 are equipped with 28nm Oland GPUs with a choice between the Radeon R7 250 containing a fully unlocked Oland GPU (aka Oland XT) paired with faster GDDR5 memory, or the Radeon R7 240 with a [...]
Recently, we came away very impressed with the MSI GeForce GTX 750 Gaming GPU, which was our first opportunity to check out a graphics card based off of Nvidia’s new Maxwell based GeForce GTX 750 series GPU. The GTX 750 series GPUs are Nvidia’s first GPUs to use Nvidia’s brand new, highly efficient SMM architecture to replace the older SMX architecture used on Nvidia’s previous generation Kepler based GPUs.
At launch, we unfortunately only got the opportunity to check out the GTX 750, which was the entry level GTX 750 series GPU. Alongside the GTX 750, Nvidia also launched the GTX 750 Ti, which is very [...]
Four years ago Nvidia launched the 40nm based Fermi GPU, two years ago Nvidia launched the 28nm based Kepler GPU, and now, two years after Kepler’s launch, it’s now time for Nvidia to launch their latest and greatest GPU – Maxwell.
Back at GTC of last year, we first officially received confirmation of Nvidia’s Maxwell GPUs, with Maxwell’s main goal of continuing the trend Nvidia began setting with their Kepler GPUs – better performance yet not at the expense of increased power consumption. Prior to Kepler, Nvidia had traditionally not worried too much about power consumption as long as performance increased by [...]
Late last year along with the unveil of AMD’s flagship Radeon R9 290X graphics card, AMD also unveiled a lower cost offering, the Radeon R9 290, which promised only slightly lower performance at a significantly lower price.
Since then the Radeon R9 290 has been extremely popular, and due to high demand and a shortage in components, we haven’t really seen any custom designed Radeon R9 290’s on the market until late last January.
That said, today we’ll be reviewing a the MSI Radeon R9 290 Gaming 4G, which is MSI’s latest custom designed graphics card based off AMD’s Radeon R9 290 GPU. Given that the [...]
Membrane switches and high-end gaming keyboards don’t mix very well; they’re often overshadowed by the much more tactile and responsive mechanical switches. Although we tend to see membrane switches on budget end keyboards, we do encounter a company that tries to break the norm from time to time by putting them on high end gaming keyboards. Gaming peripheral giant ROCCAT is one such company. A couple months ago, we reviewed the ROCCAT Isku gaming keyboard and was fairly impressed by its beautiful styling, huge programmable macro count and great performance.
However, the Isku isn’t ROCCAT’s only trick in the bag; [...]
Last week we were blessed with the opportunity to check out MSI’s R9 270 Gaming, which is an excellent variant of AMD’s recently introduced Radeon R9 270 and this week we’ll be checking out a brand new graphics card from PowerColor, the Devil R9 270X. While the Radeon R9 270X and its variants have been released several weeks ago, PowerColor’s cards were unfortunately missing from AMD’s initial launch, but for those of you who waited, you’ll have the option of getting what may possibly be the best R9 270X variant out there.
Today we’ll be reviewing the PowerColor Devil R9 270X. As you may expect, the [...]
If you haven’t heard already, over the past couple weeks AMD has been on a graphics card launch frenzy launching a number of new graphics cards including the Radeon R9 270X, R9 280X, R9 290X and the R9 290. While impressive, with the exception of the R9 290X and the R9 290, most of the R9 200 lineup that’s been launched already is still based off AMD’s last generation GPU technology with the R9 280 series based off the Tahiti GPU found in the Radeon HD 7900 series and the R9 270 series based off the Pitcairn GPU found on the Radeon HD 7800 series. Given that AMD is expected to launch around eight GPUs for the R9 200 series before [...]
With Battlefield 4’s exclusive beta starting tomorrow and the open beta starting on October 4, both AMD and Nvidia have released updated beta drivers to ensure that their graphics cards will be able to handle the game at optimal performance.
On AMD’s side, AMD recently unveiled Catalyst 13.10 Beta 2, which includes among other enhancements features “…a 32-bit single GPU, and a AMD Crossfire™ game profile for Battlefield 4™”. Those rocking an AMD Radeon graphics card may download the Catalyst 13.10 Beta 2 here.
On Nvidia’s side, Nvidia recently unveiled the 331.40 Beta Driver, which among other enhancements features [...]


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GLM to Launch Sources With Events in N.Y., L.A.
August 30, 2012,
Sources will take place at the Jacob Javits Center next September.
Starting next year, GLM plans to launch Sources, an exhibition connecting international and domestic manufacturers, artisans and producers of materials, home decor, accessories, gifts, private label apparel and handcrafts, with U.S.-based importers, wholesalers, volume buyers, product designers and U.S. retail chains. The semi-annual event will first take place as SourcesNY at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center Sept. 18-19, 2013; SourcesLA will launch in February 2014, at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, Calif.
"Sources will provide GLM's 6,000 exhibiting companies featured at the New York International Gift Fair, National Stationery Show, International Contemporary Furniture Fair, and Surf Expo with a dedicated resource of the world's better suppliers," said Kevin O'Keefe, senior vice president, GLM. "Now our customers and the nation's importers need not search the globe for the best manufacturers and artisans; Sources puts them all in one place, all vetted by GLM."
Other Articles By Author
Von Tobel Cites Brass Textures Among Top Trends
HFN's DIGITAL EDITION
2017 State of the Industry Report
Cautious Optimism, Mixed Results
Many expected 2016 would be a banner year, but the political and economic climate softened consumer confidence. It was also a year consumers spent more lavishly on home remodeling rather than decorating.
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- TJX Unveils First U.S. Homesense Store - In a time when retailers are reducing store counts, TJX continues to get physical.
- Ikea’s Fluid Spaces - The retailer’s new intros reflect multifunctional rooms.
- N.Y. Home Fashions Market Preview - Textile textures get soft and cozy, colors warmer.


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Gap Widens Between High-Dollar, Lower-Priced Transactions
As U.S. real estate markets recover from the pandemic’s fallout, commercial property prices between higher- and lower-dollar deals started to diverge in May, according to the latest monthly CoStar Commercial Repeat Sale Indices.
The widening gap indicates property values in large cities such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles are recovering slower than markets with smaller populations, according to CoStar analysts.
CoStar’s value-weighted U.S. Composite Index, which reflects larger asset sales that are often found in the largest markets, declined 0.2%, stalling after gains in March and April. In contrast, the equal-weighted U.S. Composite Index, which reflects the more numerous but lower-priced property sales found in small cities, rose by a sharp 1.4%, the third consecutive monthly gain of 1% or more.
The slight divergence last month does not detract from strong performance in both indices over the past 12 months. The value-weighted index increased 8% in the 12 months that ended in May, while the equal-weighted index increased 12% over the same time.
The value-weighted index is more heavily influenced by the larger property sales common in urban markets that were hit hard during the pandemic because of the more intense effect of stringent lockdown measures, reliance on public transit, and their higher population density. In big U.S. cities, pricing growth momentum is lagging behind the more numerous, lower-priced property sales typical in smaller markets that are represented in the equal-weighted index, according to CoStar analysts.
Composite pair volume of 16,879 trades for the 12 months ended in May marked the highest trailing 12-month total since the pandemic hit in March 2020.
When a property is sold more than once, the price change from the pair of first and second sales is used to calculate price movement, and those sales pairs are used to create a price index. The number of transactions for the first five months of 2021 is 36% greater than the first five months of 2020 and 15% greater than the first five months of 2019, representing a good sign for the return to typical liquidity conditions.
Sign More Tenants Are Moving In
Over the 12-month period ending in June, net absorption of available space for three major property types — office, retail and industrial — is expected to increase by 131.7 million square feet in a sign that more square feet of property are getting rented rather than emptied.
The anticipated increase forecast by CoStar represents a shift from negative absorption amid the pandemic in 2020, when significantly more tenants were moving out of space than moving in.
Absorption of available space is expected to be roughly evenly split among market segments.
That's expected to slightly favor smaller, lower-priced properties, at 70.2 million square feet, compared to 61.5 million square feet for higher-value properties.
CoStar’s sales indices provide the market’s first look at commercial real estate pricing trends. Based on 1,468 repeat sale pairs in May, and more than 244,665 repeat sales since 1996, the CCRSI offer the broadest measure of commercial real estate repeat-sales activity.


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At MRC in Vegas, JT Buser of Bazaarvoice shares how device identification and iovation’s network of cross-industry devices, helps them stop fraudsters.
Don’t miss our device authentication webinar on Wednesday, February 25—learn how to use your customers’ devices as a second-factor of authentication to reduce friction and risk. Sign up today.
In the United States alone, 41.2 million people have tried online dating--find out what the top five fraud scams are on online dating sites and tips to stay safe.
With the rapid progression of technology, meeting people has never been easier. Gone are the days when you had to rely on random meetings in a bar, blind dates or hook-ups from friends. With the popularity of social networks like Facebook, it is easier to reconnect with people whom you have not ...
Valentine's Day is right around the corner and unfortunately, so is dating fraud. Find out what the top 5 frauds types are in the dating industry.
Article on TechNewsWorld today, written by John Mellow, includes expert perspective on FraudFox from iovation’s CTO Scott Waddell.
Save your seat at our webinar: The When, Why and How of Mobile Fraud Prevention on Thursday, June 11, 10 a.m. PDT and 2 p.m. BST
iovation helps online businesses stop 200,000 online fraudulent activities every single day through its real-time risk mitigation services.
At iovation, Elasticsearch and the ELK stack are a core part of the debugging, analytics, and data presentation layers throughout the product for our internal and external stakeholders. More so today than ever, Logstash empowers our engineers, developers, QA team, client management team, ...
Our March newsletter is out! Read this month's news to find out how our active-active architecture means no downtime for our clients and created positive organizational change. Also, check out our upcoming events and meet us in person to discuss how we can help you stop fraud.
The mobile dating app Tinder has been downloaded an estimated 40 million times. Where the traffic goes, we’ve seen consistently, that fraud will follow. In this post we share our own data on mobile growth and fraud in the dating industry.
You could say it's a match made in heaven. In our connected, smartphone-centric society, it makes perfect sense that there's been a significant shift from web-based to mobile dating. As pointed out by Molly Wood in the New York Times, digital dating has been transformed in the last two years by ...
When game developers don’t have the right tools to fight gold farming, they can end up banning good players and not adequately stopping the bad guys. We share some of the ways iovation stops gold farming.
Gold farming can wreak havoc on players' experience of a game especially when bots are involved. In Greek mythology, Hydra* was an ancient serpent-like water monster with more than one head. As the story goes, if you cut off a head, two would grow back in its place. Gold farming in massively ...
In the last few days, a number of tech magazines like Computerworld and PC Advisor have reported that FraudFox VM poses a threat to the security of online businesses—especially banks and payment services. FraudFox VM is a special version of Windows with a heavily modified version of the Firefox ...
Stopping Internet fraud and identifying good online customers by leveraging the world’s largest device reputation consortium.
iovation protects online businesses and their end users against fraud and abuse through a combination of advanced device identification, shared device reputation and real-time risk evaluation. More than 3,000 fraud managers representing global retail, financial services, insurance, social network, gaming and other companies leverage iovation’s database of Internet devices and the relationships between them to determine the level of risk associated with online transactions. The company’s device reputation database is the world’s largest, used to protect more than 10 million transactions and stop an average of 200,000 fraudulent activities every day. The world's foremost fraud experts share intelligence, cybercrime tips and online fraud prevention techniques in iovation's Fraud Force Community, an exclusive virtual crime-fighting network. For more information, visit www.iovation.com.
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text: Spending by Chinese visitors in the UK jumped in July, as the country’s shops and restaurants benefited from simplified rules on tourists applying for visas. Chinese tourists visiting the UK spent $78 million on their credit cards in July, up 45% from a year earlier, Visa Europe said in a press release. About 185,000 Chinese tourists came to Britain in 2014, and visitors from the country are now the second highest spending tourists. The surge in spending comes after efforts by the UK government to make it easier for the Chinese to visit. On July 1, Britain introduced a pilot program allowing Chinese citizens to obtain a tourist visa for the UK and the 26 European countries in the Schengen area simultaneously. The extra money spent by the Chinese went on eating out, trips to the supermarket and shopping. Find out more.


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TESLA MODEL X UNDER FIRE: Owners of Tesla's electric SUV, the Model X, have been complaining about poor quality and finish on their vhehicles. Image: AFP / Susana Bates
Detroit - Tesla Motors' shares have come under pressure after Consumer Reports questioned the quality of its new Model X SUV.
Sketchy build quality
Consumer Reports says owners have reported that the Model X's gull-wing rear doors don't work. Others have complained about paint quality, malfunctioning seats and issues with climate controls. Last week, Tesla recalled 2700 Model X SUVs because the rear seats can fall forward in a crash.
Tesla's shares fell 3% on Tuesday. The Model X went on sale in 2015.
READ: Tesla's new Model 3 for SA: 'Definitely a game changer'
Tesla says it had some issues with early Model Xs, but it is working to solve them quickly.
Tesla's quality has been improving. The company based in Palo Alto, California, recently reported that it spent less on repairs for Model S cars produced in 2015 than in prior years.


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Loot boxes – is it time to regulate?
By Oliver Rudgewick
Oliver Rudgewick reports on whether loot boxes should class as gambling and how regulators around the world are dealing with the issue
The video-gaming industry has become one the most prominent forms of entertainment available, generating worldwide revenue of $116bn in 2017 - a growth of 11% on the previous year, based on figures from the Association for UK Interactive Entertainment.
In-game transactions are a huge factor, with loot boxes now a dependable revenue stream for many gaming operators. Activision Blizzard, the company that developed Overwatch, Destiny 2 and Call of Duty: WWII, made a whopping $7.16bn in fiscal 2017. A total of $4bn of that came from “microtransactions”; in-game purchases such as loot boxes, downloadable content and in-app purchases.
But are loot boxes gaming or gambling? A loot box, popularised by games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and the FIFA series, is a group of virtual items given to players at random. The loot box may contain hero characters, victory poses or “skins” that can change the look of a character. On FIFA Ultimate Team, for example, players may be rewarded with a rare Cristiano Ronaldo item, or saddled with a virtual Peter Crouch.
Loot boxes are gained in two ways; either through playing the game or via in-game transactions using the player’s own money. Some players become addicted to the digital grab bags, however, paying for loot boxes with real currency rather than waiting to be rewarded.
Gambling Insider looks at how the US, European and Asian regulators are dealing with loot boxes and how their approaches differ.
NETHERLANDS & BELGIUM
The Netherlands has been active on the legislation of loot boxes. In April, the Dutch Gaming Authority (Kansspelautoriteit) ruled loot boxes were a game of chance and most importantly,
contained items that could be traded outside of the game.
A study found four in ten loot boxes in CS:GO contravened the law. This led to gaming giant Valve removing the marketplace system for CS: GO on the Dutch version of Steam. Dutch authorities are also keen to push for EU-wide regulation on loot boxes.
The Belgian Gaming Commission has also deemed loot boxes as a game of chance, and therefore gambling. This, along with the features targeting young people, saw them breach Belgian gambling laws.
In April, Belgium’s Minister of Justice, Koen Geens, called FIFA 18, Overwatch and CS: GO loot boxes illegal, and demanded their removal from the respective games. Publishers now risk a prison sentence of up to five years and a fine of up to €800,000. When minors are involved, those punishments can be doubled. "It is often children who come into contact with such systems and we cannot allow that,” Geens said.
Dr Mark R. Johnson, a Canada-based esports and gaming expert, told Gambling Insider: “I think these are striking decisions for a number of reasons. Most obviously, they continue to push the idea that loot boxes, or the ecosystems they circulate within, definitely constitute gambling. There has been a lot of careful language used by games developers, and this point remains contested on a global scale, but Belgium and the Netherlands have both made it very clear where they stand.”
In October 2017, a statement was issued from Tracey Crouch, Secretary of State for Sport, Tourism and Heritage. Crouch stated: “Where items obtained in a computer game can be traded or exchanged outside the game platform they acquire a monetary value, and where facilities for gambling with such items are offered to consumers located in Britain a Gambling Commission licence is required.”
A spokesperson for the Gambling Commission told Gambling Insider: “Our view on loot boxes was set out in our position paper, which was published in March last year. This paper explains how the playing of a game of chance for a prize of money/money’s worth is gambling under UK law.
“So, where in-game items that are derived from loot boxes can be readily exchanged for cash, the loot boxes themselves are likely to fall within the definition of gambling. The greater the availability, scale and sophistication of secondary markets where the in-game items can be sold, the stronger the case becomes that the in-game items are articles of money or money's worth.”
French gaming regulator ARJEL launched a study into loot boxes in early 2018. ARJEL stopped short of labelling them gambling, as there is no real-life value to the items. But ARJEL did say a “combined and coordinated” action plan was required to deal with loot boxes, according to translation and analysis of the report by media law associate Sebastian Schwiddessen.
The US has been quite vocal on trying to tackle loot boxes, with politicians in five states working on legislation. Hawaii State Representative Chris Lee has drafted four bills to deter young people from getting access to loot boxes.
The bills centre around two main points. First, loot box odds should be clearly labelled by the developer. Second, games with purchasable loot boxes should carry warnings on the box, so parents can make informed decisions on how the in-game transactions work.
At the time of proposing the bill, Representative Lee said: “These kinds of loot boxes and micro-transactions are explicitly designed to prey upon and exploit human psychology in the same way casino games are so designed.”
The states of California, Minnesota, Indiana and Washington are considering similar provisions.
The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) told Gambling Insider: “The ESRB continues to believe loot boxes do not constitute gambling. The items obtained in loot boxes are virtual, and can only be used in-game and cannot be cashed out.
"In April, the ESRB began assigning the In-Game Purchases label to physical, as in boxed, games that offer the ability to purchase any additional content within a game using real-world currency. This includes bonus levels, skins, surprise items, such as item packs, loot boxes, mystery awards, music, virtual coins and other forms of in-game currency, subscriptions, season passes, upgrades like ad blockers and more.”
Dr Johnson is sceptical of the ESRB’s approach, saying: “The ESRB's response to loot boxes, and micro-transactions as a whole, has been lukewarm at best. They have elected to add notices about ‘in-game purchases’ to their ratings system, but this both groups a tremendous number of phenomena under one label, and does not presently seem to affect the game's eventual rating. This means games running the full spectrum from potential player exploitation to almost total harmlessness have a single label, and that label is devalued when compared with other ESRB ratings.”
China’s approach to loot boxes has been to force developers to publish the odds of receiving a certain item, commonly referred to as “pack weights.” South Korea has adopted a similar policy to increase transparency in loot boxes, and this gives the player a better understanding of what they are getting for their in-game currency or real money.
South Korea also issued fines of close to $1m earlier this year to three games developers for deceiving customers about odds used in their loot boxes.
Nexon Korea, developers of Counter Strike Online 2 and the country’s largest games developer, received the majority of the penalties – about $890,000 – from the South Korean
Fair Trade Commission. Destiny Child creator NextFloor and Ys Online and Star Wars: Force Arena” developer Netmarble received the rest of the penalties. The fines were given out after each developer was told to rework the promotion of odds disclosure for loot boxes.
Australia’s Senate launched a loot box inquiry in June to examine whether loot boxes are gambling, with the inquiry to be headed by Greens Senator Jordan Steele-John. The investigation was launched following a Nature report, which found loot boxes in ten of the 22 games tested could be considered psychologically similar to gambling.
“The impact of gambling on people’s lives is such that we cannot afford to stay silent on this issue, and it is fantastic both the government and the opposition are supporting
the Greens on this issue,” Senator Steele-John said.
THE FUTURE FOR LOOT BOXES
The largest issue with loot boxes is the laws around gambling itself, and how legislation doesn’t apply to video games. Legislators need to be careful when identifying if loot boxes are gambling. “Loot boxes may well be gambling, but the context of ‘gambling’ within a video game, and the demographics of video game players, are a million miles away from the demographics and contexts more traditionally associated with gambling (e.g. casinos, sports betting, online card rooms, etc),” Dr Johnson said.
“Although it is easy to see why a hard line is a compelling political and legislative position, I fear it risks ignoring complexity and variation in favour of lumping everything under a single label, and deciding that everything should be regulated in the same manner.”
London-based gambling consultant Steve Donoughue argues loot boxes shouldn’t be classed as gambling, as there is no stake placed and people do not purchase the game to buy loot boxes.
Donoughue told Gambling Insider: “It strikes me that the people who are buying these games are buying these games to play them; I don’t think they’re buying these games for loot boxes.
“I’m wary that we have the UK regulator and the Dutch regulator seemingly on a crusade. I really don’t think there is rampant gambling going on by children and I don’t believe children are going to become problem gamblers by using loot boxes. I believe that this is partly an overreaction, and partly a desire to be seen to be regulating. It just strikes me that we are seeing a lot of knee-jerk reactions, and what we are not seeing is sufficient research.
“Regulation should be done on a case-by-case basis, and if the regulators see a breach, they should challenge the developers in court.”
Whatever their default stance, loot boxes are certain to pop up near the top of regulators’ to-do lists in the coming years.


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AURORA, Colo. — The Summit Event Center in Aurora sent one customer three $1,000 Visa gift cards as a deposit refund following the center's sudden closure in August.
A sign posted on the doors says "Available," much to the surprise of some of the customers who booked the event center for fall.
"The answer is simple. We're screwed," said Leonard Grimes, who booked the Summit Event Center for a mineral and crystal show that was supposed to happen this week.
Grimes put down a $10,000 deposit to reserve the space. But three weeks ago, he learned the owners had been "evicted from the property in two hours," according to a Facebook post.
"So in three weeks' time, I had to find a new location for our show and rearrange everything," said Grimes. "It's been a hectic three weeks."
Couple's wedding deposit refunded after event center suddenly shuts down
In the last three weeks, Contact Denver7 has reached out to owner Michael Schaefer several times after multiple customers asked for help in getting their deposits back. Not everyone has received a refund. But some, including Grimes, are getting an unexpected delivery.
After Contact Denver7 reached out on his behalf, Grimes received an unsigned letter in the mail with three $1,000 Visa debit cards. He is is still out $7,000 of his deposit.
"It's been really weird," said Grimes. "And I think the fact that these are totally anonymous cards, just like the totally anonymous letter — somebody's trying to hide from creditors, and this is their way to do it."
In an email to Contact Denver7, Shaefer wrote, "I'm afraid the well is dry. The company has been dissolved, and the bank account has been closed."
When a company officially dissolves, it can typically wind down its affairs, collect and liquidate its assets and pay the creditors of the company.
"A company that has been dissolved can still sue and be sued, but it’s usually a sign that the company has no money. Or sometimes it’s a sign that the owners want to tell everyone they don’t have money and don’t want to be sued," said Dan Vedra, a consumer protection attorney. "Either way, there is no stopping anyone from suing a dissolved company, but the results may not be great."
Grimes has no plans to take anyone to court.
"To go to court to try to collect $7,000 would probably cost you $10,000 to do it. That's not viable," he said. "Some is better than none. It's been really helpful."
Editor's note: Denver7 seeks out audience tips and feedback to help people in need, resolve problems and hold the powerful accountable. If you know of a community need we can address or have a story idea for our consumer investigates team to pursue, please email us at email@example.com or or call (303) 832-7777. Find more Contact Denver7 stories here. You can also use the form below to request help from Jaclyn Allen and the Contact Denver7 Team.


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"In the Benelux countries, more and more breweries are choosing cans for their beer packaging," said Colin Gillis, president, Ball Packaging Europe. "The Oss plant is the only beverage can manufacturing facility in the Netherlands, and this expansion will strengthen its position as a logistical hub for our business in the Benelux area and throughout Europe, the Middle East and North Africa."
Ball, already a major employer in Oss, will bring additional jobs to the region as a result of the expansion. The company also will continue to invest in training and education for its employees and in support of community projects.
Historical milestones of Oss can production site:
- 1953: Foundation of steel can factory by Thomassen & Drijver
- 1971: Implementation of first two-piece beverage can line in Europe
- 1997: Installation of first aluminium line
- 2005: Switch to aluminium only production
- 2008: Production of the 25th billion can
- 2012: First run of 20-centiliter and 33-centiliter aluminium sleek cans
- 2013: 60th anniversary of only Dutch beverage can plant
- 2014: Start of expansion project to build third production line and new warehouse