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Austin's Tiny Pies on National TV Friday, July 19
Mother/daughter entrepreneurs sit down with Katie Couric
By Virginia B. Wood,
4:40PM, Thu. Jul. 18, 2013
What could be more exciting for a small business owner than an invitation to pitch their product on national TV? Tiny Pies owners Kit Seay and Amanda Bates flew to New York earlier this week to shoot a segment where Mom entrepreneurs got the opportunity to pitch their products to Katie Couric and some real life experts.
"We gave the judges a brief overview of our business model and the concept behind Tiny Pies and discussed our future goal of opening store fronts across the state of Texas. The judges tasted our product during the show and each audience member went home with one of our Teeny Tiny Sweet Texas Pecan Pies," said Amanda Bates.
"One of the coolest things that happened while were there was that Helen Mirren was also a guest on the show and she sent someone to our dressing room to request a pie, so we sent two," Kit said with obvious pride.
For those who have yet to have the Tiny Pies experience, the mother/daughter team broke into the local pie scene in 2011 with a busy booth at the Barton Creek Farmers' Market. They no longer sell at the farmers' market, but Tiny Pies are now available at both Central Markets, Wheatsville Co-op, Thom's Market, Royal Blue Grocery on Nueces, Fresh Plus in Allandale,and by delivery through Coterie Market and Greenling, in addition to select stores in Houston, San Antonio, and the Metroplex area.
"Participating on the show was a fantastic experience and we hope the attention it brings will help us find an investor to help us reach the next level," said Amanda. Look for Kit and Amanda pitching Tiny Pies on Katie on ABC, Friday afternoon, July 19 at 2pm CDT.
Mac McCann, Feb. 5, 2014
Virginia B. Wood, June 14, 2013
Jan. 1, 2016
Dec. 25, 2015
local food on TV, Tiny Pies, Kit Seay, Amanda Bates, Katie Couric, ABC, Shark Tank, REbecca Minkoff, Sara Blakley, Spanx, Barton Creek Farmers' Market, Central Market, Wheatsville Co-op, Thom's Market, Royal Blue Grocery, Fresh Plus, Greenling, Coterie Market


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U.S. retail ecommerce growth is moving toward pre-recession levels, according to a new report from comScore, Inc., an Internet marketing research company. ComScore released its first quarter 2012 U.S. retail ecommerce sales estimates, showing that online retail spending reached $44.3 billion, up 17 percent from $38 billion in the same period a year ago. This represents the tenth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth, and sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, comScore reports.
“The first quarter of this year was especially strong for retail ecommerce, as we returned to year-over-year growth rates in the high teens, numbers we haven’t seen since 2007,” said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni. “While the economic recovery continues to be painfully slow, the channel shift to ecommerce appears to be accelerating. This presents opportunities for brick and mortar retailers, but also challenges, if they can’t hold onto their offline market share in the digital world. Ecommerce has reached critical mass in several product categories, and it will be important to monitor these sales trends by category, in order to correctly gauge the impact ecommerce is having on overall retailer performance.”
Top performing online product categories which increased revenues at least 17 percent over last year were Digital Content & Subscriptions, Computer Software, Consumer Electronics, Jewelry & Watches and Event Tickets. Notably, 48.8 percent of ecommerce transactions included free shipping, the highest percentage for a quarter on record outside of the holiday season. Only in the fourth quarters of 2011 and 2010 were the percentages of web transactions that included free shipping higher, at 51.8 and 49.3 percent, respectively. In addition, the comScore report revealed that 38 percent of tablet owners made a purchase on their devices in the month prior to the survey, with apparel the most popular category.

domain: news


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Sony has announced the uber set top box. PS2, PVR, Satellite Receiver, DVD recorder. If it has MP3 playback and picture display you’d have about everything you’d want in a TV device. Needs to be internet enabled too, but since the PS2 has that at some level this box should too.
We’re going to be buying a new game console this week for the youngest’s birthday, but this would be way cool if it were out in the US and worked with DirectTV.


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Aston Martin unveils its special editions
Great Britain's finest...
Aston Martin has recently released pictures of its two latest special edition cars that will be unveiled at the Geneva International Motor Show in March.
First up is the V8 Vantage N430, a faster version of the regular V8 Vantage – with the N it its name standing for 'Nürburgring', the legendary German racing circuit. The car is equipped with 430-horsepower and weight-saving measures like carbon-kevlar seats and forged alloy-wheel spokes, which help it power up to 60 mph in 4.6 seconds – with a top speed of 190 mph. The car also features new steering ratios, retuned suspension and a more aggressive exhaust, giving it a bolder race car feel.
Ian Minards, the brand's head of product development, said: "N430 is all about bringing track-honed excitement to the road in an accessible, emotionally engaging, and authentically 'analogue' way," adding, "The dynamic exhilaration of the Vantage is the perfect complement to the eye-catching looks of the N430."
Aston Martin's other release will be the Carbon Black and Carbon White editions of its DB9. Fitted with carbon-fibre trim throughout the car, the engine is still the standard model's 510-horsepower 6-litre V12 engine.
Marek Reichman, Aston Martin design director, commented on the new DB9 saying, "The classic DB9 Carbon Black and daring DB9 Carbon White special editions give this timeless GT a fresh and highly desirable new appearance."
Aston Martin's V8 Vantage N430 and Carbon DB9 editions will premiere at the International Geneva Motor Show this March


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Abu Dhabi: The Ministry of Climate Change and Environment has put a priority on increasing the use of hydroponic technology, which relies on nutrient-rich water to grow plants with the use of little or no soil, and organic farming as part of the 2017-2021 food security strategy, a top official told the Federal National Council on Tuesday.
Hydroponic farming is up to 70 per cent more water efficient than traditional methods and allows for a longer growing season.
“Hydroponics is one of the techniques that proved over the past few years as having excellent prospects for the UAE and the greenhouses grew from 50 in 2009 to 1,000 last year,” said Dr Thani Ahmad Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment.
Dr Al Zeyoudi added the technology helps a lot in conservation of water, which is a challenge in the UAE and the region.
Most farmers rely on groundwater to irrigate their crops but the amount and quality of the country’s reserves have been decreasing steadily after years of exploitation.
The minister said his ministry has also been promoting organic farming for a few years with 46,900 acres producing organic crops across the country.
Dr Al Zeyoudi was answering a question by Salem Ali Al Shehi, a member from Ras Al Khaimah, concerning the ministry’s efforts to boost food production through hydroponics and organic farming.
Al Shehi said the ministry should help more farmers switch to hydroponics and organic farming.
The member also demanded that the ministry help more farmers by providing hydroponic systems and fertilisers at subsidised prices to boost food production and make it more efficient.
The technique was first introduced in the country in 2009, when there were 50 such greenhouses, compared to 1,000 at the end of 2016.
Al Shehi said hydroponics saves some 80 per cent of irrigation water and can produce crops for 10 months of the year. “But the cost involved might hamper more farmers from changing to hydroponics,” he said.
He estimates that a hydroponic farm could cost around Dh250,000 to establish, because a greenhouse farm costs about Dh30,000 to Dh50,000.
The minister said quality seeds, greenhouses, laboratory tests, and research and development services are offered to farmers to encourage them to resort to hydroponics and organic farming to grow chemical-free products.
“Organic products bear a distinctive mark to enhance consumer confidence and the ministry is creating new marketing opportunities for organic products in cooperation with competent local authorities to encourage organic farmers,” Dr Al Zeyoudi told the House.
Among the country’s largest hydroponic agricultural producers is Emirates Hydroponics Farms (EHF) between Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Other UAE hydroponic specialists include Salata Farms in Ras Al Khaimah and regional operator Pegasus Agritech, headquartered in Dubai.
The water savings hydroponics offers are little short of dramatic. To produce one kilogram of lettuce, for example, it requires a little over 20 litres of water, while traditional methods are said to use almost 400 litres.
In typical hydroponic systems, up to 80 or even 90 per cent of the water can be reused — rather than simply allowing it to seep into the ground as with traditionally planted crops.
However, it is not just the water savings that make hydroponics attractive, Al Shehi argues if farmers grow crops in open fields, they will require a large land area, while with hydroponics, they would require a smaller footprint area to produce more crops.
“With hydroponics comes the improved growing rate because it is easier to create perfect conditions for growth such as light, temperature, carbon dioxide and nutrients.


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Shares in Premier Foods fell almost 12 per cent on Tuesday after the maker of Hovis bread and Mr Kipling cakes reported that group sales in the first quarter fell by 5.1 per cent.
Non-branded sales were down 12.9 per cent as consumers switched to branded products that were on promotion rather than buying private label goods.
Adding to the company’s gloomy report was the news that sales of Premier’s core brands, such as Oxo and Bisto, had declined by 1.1 per cent.
“The consumer environment is not necessarily getting worse but it’s not getting better. We remain cautious,” said Jim Smart, finance director.
Premier also warned that an increasingly competitive environment could hurt its Hovis bread brand, which last year contributed 28 per cent of group revenues.
Premier Foods relaunched Hovis with a new recipe and TV advertising campaign in 2008, and it has gained market share since. But competitors Warburtons and Kingsmill have now started their own promotions in response.
Premier said that by raising its own promotional activity in the second half it will be able to return the brand to growth by the end of the financial year.
“When trading at Premier is as marginal as it is, any sort of reverse is going to disappoint the market,” said Martin Deboo, an analyst at Investec. “Hovis was the one star in its portfolio last year, so this is obviously not helpful.”
Robert Schofield, chief executive, said that the full year outlook remained unchanged and that net debt, which is currently £1.4bn, was expected to fall by £100m year-on-year in the first half. Analysts are forecasting 2010 pre-tax profits of £196m from revenue of £2.7bn.
Mr Schofield added that talks on a successor to the chairman, David Kappler, who announced in February that he would step down this year, were “well progressed”.
Shares closed down 3.55p on Tuesday at 26.6p.


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Marc Bolland under pressure after M&S finance chief leaves for rival Tesco
Second blow for Bolland after M&S boss revealed food sales fell for the 12th quarter in a row earlier this week
Thursday 10 July 2014
Marks & Spencer chief Marc Bolland was dealt a huge blow today as his trusted ally and highly rated finance director Alan Stewart quit the retailer and defected to rival Tesco.
The poaching is a huge coup for Tesco, and gives chief executive Philip Clarke the extra retail experience on the board that shareholders have been calling for as the company continues to lose customers to rivals Aldi and Lidl.
But the news leaves Bolland under extreme pressure to steady M&S, and is embarrassing as it comes just weeks after he handed Stewart responsibility for the company’s property portfolio.
It is the second disappointment this week for M&S. Bolland revealed on Tuesday that non-food sales fell for the 12th quarter in a row while web sales slid 8.1 per cent. Shareholders called for Bolland’s head at a hostile AGM, although he was re-elected with 96 per cent of the vote.
Stewart, pictured, is expected to join Tesco in the next few months, although no date has been set. He will receive a £1.7 million golden hello in compensation for lost share options, and is set to see his basic pay jump 30% to £750,000 compared with his M&S salary. However, it is 15 per cent down on predecessor Laurie McIlwee.
Stewart, who was previously finance director of WH Smith, must convince the City that Tesco can grow without cutting its margins too far in the midst of a price war.
McIlwee, who stepped down earlier this year, came under pressure for committing to a 5.2 per cent margin rate for Tesco, which later proved unsustainable.
At the annual meeting last month, chairman Sir Richard Broadbent said he was “looking at” seeking board members with retail experience.
Stewart joined M&S four years ago, shortly after Bolland’s arrival. He has overseen three years of falling profits but many of the problems, including poor stores and clothes ranges, have been laid at Bolland’s door.
Clive Black, retail analyst at Shore Capital, said: “Alan’s appointment at Tesco comes as a big surprise. He is well-regarded in the City. As such, it is a welcome boost to Tesco and will be seen as a disappointment for M&S.
“What the move most certainly shows is that Alan likes a challenge.”
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H. Östberg AB is pleased to announce the appointment of Neovent Sp z.o.o. Spółka Komandytowa as its exclusive distributor of our products on the Polish market.
Neovent Sp z.o.o. Spółka Komandytowa is a company within Iglotech Group. The products will be distributed to Iglotech distribution companies and also to other Polish distributors and customers.
Iglotech Group, Headquarted in Kwidzyn, has successfully operated on the Polish HVAC market for 25 years, offering full service solutions within the Air Condition, Ventilation and Cooling segments.
Iglotech has been a distributor of Östberg Fans and Air Handling Units on the Polish market since 2014 – and the exclusivity agreement with Neovent is a natural step to further enhance focus and service level in Poland.
“High service level and to stay close to the customers are of highest importance, with 13 stockholding branches and full-service capabilities for our entire product range, Neovent Sp z.o.o. Spółka Komandytowa is the perfect partner on the Polish market for us” says Peter Jakobsson, CEO Östberg
Peter Jakobsson, CEO Östberg Group AB and Jarosław Józefowicz, Commercial Director Iglotech Sp Z o.o shake hands after signing the exclusivity contract


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If Arizona’s economy were a hospital patient, she would be out of intensive care, but still in the hospital. In other words, the economy is doing better and certainly on the road to recovery, but it isn’t recovered yet. And the patient is not likely to feel healthy again for another couple of years: the economy won’t be back to normal until at least 2015 or so.
That was the assessment shared by Lee McPheters , director of the JPMorgan Chase Economic Outlook Center at the W. P. Carey School of Business, and real estate expert Elliott Pollack, president of consulting firm Elliott D. Pollack and Company. The two gave their patient prognoses December 7 at the 48th Annual Economic Forecast Luncheon, co-sponsored by the economics department at the W. P. Carey School of Business and JPMorgan Chase.
Arizona’s real estate market: “agonizingly slow” recovery
Arizona’s real estate market, said Pollack, will continue its “agonizingly slow recovery” in 2012, which is likely to be better than 2011. “You don’t go from having a heart attack to running a marathon overnight,” Pollack explained. “The problem is on its way to being resolved, but it’s not resolved yet.” Elliott Pollack’s slides
Pollack said the root of the problem in the housing market is excess inventory — and the solution will come from a depletion of that excess inventory. “Think of what’s going on in the housing market as what would be going on at any manufacturer or retailer who found themselves with a substantial oversupply of a product (in this case, 50-55,000 housing units in Greater Phoenix). The product would be put on sale. If it didn’t sell at a certain price, the price would then be lowered until the seller found a market clearing price.”
“That’s exactly what’s going on in the housing market at the moment,” Pollack said. “Think about what happens, though, once the excess supply is sold. If there is a normal demand for the product, prices would jump up rapidly and new production would increase. That’s exactly what will happen to the housing market.” When? “Somewhere around 2015.”
Moving from single-family housing, Pollack called the apartment market the “brightest spot we’ve had in many years.” Vacancy rates fell from 14 percent in 2010 to 10 percent in 2011. “And while there are a lot of apartments in the planning stage, there are only 1,177 under construction at the moment. Thus, vacancy rates are likely to decline farther, putting significant upward pressure on rents. This will bring forth new construction.”
Pollack’s assessment of the other commercial sectors was not as optimistic. “Roughly one out of every four square feet of office space in the metro area is vacant,” he said. “Given the outlook for employment (slow growth), there will be no serious improvement in 2012 or 2013 and a full recovery will probably not take place until about 2016.”
Pollack said that the market for industrial space looks better than for office space, but only by a bit. “Vacancy rates fell to 12.2 percent in the third quarter from 12.8 percent at the end of 2010,” Pollack said. Build-to-suit projects make up 87.5 percent of industrial construction activity.
The retail real estate market is having problems, too, which Pollack said is not unexpected — given low population growth and the relatively modest recovery in retail sales. At the end of the third quarter the retail vacancy rate was 12.4 percent, up a bit from the end of 2010. “The recovery will be slow here too, extending to the middle of the decade,” Pollack said.
Like the housing market, the commercial real estate markets are “in the process of getting better,” Pollack said. “The good news is that they’re not getting worse.”
Arizona employment: job growth positive, but still below average
According to McPheters, Arizona will end 2011 as a top ten growth state, now adding jobs faster than the national average, after a weak start in the first half of this year. But that doesn’t reflect a roaring recovery — Arizona’s job growth is still below its long-term average (3.7 percent), and lower than during previous recoveries. Lee McPheters’ slides
The jobs that Arizona’s economy has added since employment bottomed out represent just twenty percent of the 324,000 jobs Arizona lost since the peak in late 2007. “Neither this year’s job growth, nor next year’s job growth, will be sufficient to effect a large change in unemployment or in consumer confidence,” McPheters said.
Not recovered yet, but the patient is getting better: Arizona employment is expected to increase by 45,000 jobs — 1.8 percent — in 2012. That compares to a 1.0 percent growth rate (23,800 jobs) in 2011. And some industries, of course, will fare better than others. “Industries expected to expand employment in 2012 include health care, transportation and warehousing, trade, and activity related to leisure and hospitality,” McPheters said.
“Arizona health care employment has been particularly recession resistant, adding more than 50,000 jobs in the past five years. Arizona currently ranks second among all states in the rate of growth in the health care industry,” McPheters explained. Manufacturing jobs were up too, he said, for the first time since 2006. Manufacturing employment grew 1.5 percent in 2011 and is forecast to grow another 2 percent in 2012.
Government jobs, on the other hand, decreased in the past three years (for the first time since 1981). “Government jobs are usually a source of stability, but now they are subtracting from growth,” McPheters explained. Those declines can be attributed to slower rates of population growth (many local government jobs are tied to population), as well as “cost cutting and leaning” at the federal and state levels.
“When population recovers, local government employment will rise. But federal and state jobs are not likely to be future source of employment growth,” McPheters said.
A different kind of consumer
In cycles past, consumers drove the economic recovery. But where consumers used to be the driving force in the economy, McPheters said, they won’t be in the years ahead.
Pent-up demand for purchases like motor vehicles pushed retail sales up significantly. Arizona retail sales rose 7.5 percent in 2011 and are forecast to increase by 8 percent in 2012. But otherwise, consumer expenditures “have not been robust in this recovery either at the national level or in Arizona,” McPheters said.
McPheters added, “Instead of spending, consumers have sought to deleverage, paying down debt and increasing saving beyond the near-zero levels of the mid-decade. Falling home prices and stock market gyrations have reduced consumer net worth and consumer confidence has been persistently low.”
“In the 1970’s, women entered the workforce to boost family income, which allowed the middle class to spend more,” McPheters explained, “but then real wages per worker stopped increasing as much. So over the last decade consumers offset weak wage growth by borrowing, in large part against their homes. Now that’s much harder to do. Families now have to make ends meet with the resources they have, so they’re saving for the larger expenditures like vacations and even autos.”
McPheters said that part of the “new normal” is that consumers are not as willing to go into debt. Which means, for now at least, less spending.
Population growth a “key catalyst” for economic recovery
What Pollack described at the housing market “problem” he said boils down to two factors: “There are still too many vacant units and there are too few new households.” The excess inventory he talked about as the root cause of the housing market’s ills won’t dissipate until population growth speeds up.
Pollack’s prognosis was this: “The good news is that the patient is getting better. But he will not get better rapidly, he will get better slowly. It could take another three plus years for a full recovery. By that time, prices will be up substantially. How quickly this happens really depends on population growth and employment growth.”
Indeed, McPheters said that population growth has historically been “a key catalyst” for economic expansion in Arizona. “The typical pattern of recovery has seen population flows to the state increase in response to job opportunities, very often accompanied by a boom in housing and commercial construction.” Not so this time around.
“In the current cycle, inflow is affected by stagnant real estate markets across the nation. Newcomers cannot sell their homes and relocate to Arizona.” Population is projected to increase by 1.5 percent in 2012 — far below the 3.3 percent population growth Arizona experienced in the boom years of 2005 and 2006. Again, recovering, but still sick.
Arizona and the West shall rise again — but not tomorrow
It used to be that Arizona led the nation in economic recovery — in large part driven by population growth and construction activity. But not so this cycle, McPheters said. “All of the headwinds restricting growth at the national level apply to Arizona. Although the Arizona recovery is tepid at best, every key indicator is expected to be improved in 2012 compared to 2011, including jobs (up 1.8 percent), incomes (up 6 percent), and retail sales (up 8 percent). But no indicator will be sharply better until the national economy moves onto a faster growth path.”
That’s not, however, to say that Arizona won’t once again be a leading growth state. “In every other recovery Arizona was a top five growth state 3-4 years after the end of the recession. Arizona will be again,” McPheters explained.
“For now, Arizona is just following along the national trend. But nothing fundamental has changed. Arizona is still attractive (in fact, Arizona once again has relatively affordable housing). There is pent up demand to move here. As home prices stabilize nationally and job opportunities in Arizona improve, then population inflows to Arizona will accelerate.”
Then — and it’s not likely to be before 2015 — we might discharge the patient from the hospital as having fully recovered.
- In Arizona’s real estate market, 2012 is likely to be better than 2011, but the recovery will continue to be slow. Prices for single-family houses and new construction starts likely won’t be significantly better until 2015.
- Apartments are the lone bright spot in commercial real estate, with vacancy rates down to 10 percent in 2011 from 14 percent in 2010. The office space market might improve by 2014, with full recovery in 2016 or so. The market for industrial space is only a bit better, with build-to-suit projects representing most of the activity. Retail vacancy rates were actually up a bit from 2010. Not recovered yet, the commercial real estate markets are in the process of getting better.
- Arizona employment is expected to increase by 45,000 jobs — 1.8 percent — in 2012. That compares to a 1.0 percent growth rate (23,800 jobs) in 2011. But it’s still below Arizona’s long-term average employment growth (3.7 percent), and lower than during previous recoveries.
- Pent-up demand for purchases like motor vehicles pushed retail sales up significantly. Retail sales rose 7.5 percent in Arizona in 2011 and are forecast to increase by 8 percent in 2012. But where consumers used to be the driving force in the economy, they won’t be in the years ahead.
- Population growth has historically been “a key catalyst” for economic expansion in Arizona. Not so this time around. Population is projected to increase by 1.5 percent in 2012 — far below the 3.3 percent population growth Arizona experienced in the boom years of 2005 and 2006.
- It used to be that Arizona led the nation in economic recovery. But not so this cycle. While every key Arizona economy indicator is expected to be improved in 2012 compared to 2011, including jobs (up 1.8 percent), incomes (up 6 percent), and retail sales (up 8 percent), no indicator will be sharply better until the national economy moves onto a faster growth path.


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The Asian site confirms the rumors that Apple will eliminate the EarPods and the charging adapter from the packaging of the new iPhone models arriving in the autumn.
his morning, Nikkei published a new report on the upcoming iPhone 12 line , confirming much of the rumors that we have already read in the previous days.
Nikkei says that the iPhone 12 will consist of four new models and each will be equipped with an OLED display . This will be the first time that all Apple’s flagship phones have used OLED technology that offers real blacks and better contrast ; for example, the cheaper iPhone 11 models use LCD displays. The Asian site also confirms what has previously been reported on the lack of accessories in the iPhone packaging.
Kuo’s report last month, which claimed that Apple would remove the EarPods and the charging adapter from the iPhone 12 package, sparked much controversy. Nikkei says Apple is not bundling these accessories to save on production costs and is motivated by the fact that most iPhone users already have a rich collection of chargers and headphones.
As for the display, the iPhone 12 line will present new screen sizes as part of the new device design. The iPhone 12 will be available in a new 5.4-inch version , in two du 6.1-inch variants and in a new 6.7-inch version . The industrial design of the device will be very similar to that of the iPad Pro , with flat edges.
The 5.4-inch models and one of the 6.1-inch models will be positioned as low-end devices, while the 6.1 ″ and 6.7 ″ “Pro” variants will have many more features, including the LiDAR scanner . Many expect high-end models to also feature a 120Hz ProMotion display.
Finally, Nikkei says that Apple will mainly rely on Samsung for the supply of OLED panels for iPhone. The giant from Cupertino has tried to add BOE to the supply chain, to increase competition between its suppliers, but the company has yet to comply with Apple’s strict quality controls. Although BOE will not be part of the iPhone 12 launch, it is possible that it will be added to the supply chain after a few months.
Apple is expected to officially announce the iPhone 12 series at a virtual event in September. Many analysts have reported delays in production due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, delays are now expected to be a maximum of a month or two, which means that all iPhone 12 models will be launched before November.


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Google is trialing its GPT-4 alternative, Gemini, among a small group of companies, according to a report from The Information. While the company is dominant in search, it has been caught off-guard with respect to generative AI and has been trying to respond to OpenAI and Microsoft’s partnership.
According to reports, Gemini is a collection of large language models (LLMs) that perform tasks people are already familiar with such as content creation, coding help, and more. Google has apparently given companies access to a large version of Gemini, but not the largest which is on par with GPT-4.
While Gemini is only being tested among businesses right now, it is expected to be available for all consumers in the near future. It’s expected to be integrated throughout Bard, Google Docs, and Slides. Over time, it could be baked into more products; a sensible candidate would be Gmail.
According to Android Authority, Gemini could be capable of more than just generating text. It could possibly create contextual images, analyze charts, create graphics with text descriptions, and control software with text or voice commands.
One of the issues around generative AI that has caused a stir in recent months is access to training data. One advantage that Google has is that it has YouTube. It has been using the transcripts from videos to train Gemini so that it can provide advice based on videos. Apparently, it’s avoiding copyrighted videos, though, so that it doesn’t get into hot water afterward.
While many search engines such as Bing and Brave Search have already started using AI features in their search results for all users, Google has been less keen to mess about with its search experience so users don’t feel alienated.
It has launched Search Labs in the United States where users can turn on experimental generative AI features in search and elsewhere. However, in most of the rest of the world, Google Search is still without any generative AI features. Hopefully, once Gemini is done, Google will speed up the rollout of some of these features.


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Super Ubie Land Will Recieve Another Name Change Before Hitting The Wii U eShop
Posted by Damien McFerran
What's in a name, anyway?
Super Ubie Land has already seen one name change — it was originally called Super Ubi Land, but publisher Ubisoft understandably took issue — and now developer Notion Games has revealed that the Wii U eShop platformer will see another title adjustment before it becomes available.
No details on what the new title will be, but hopefully all of these changes won't impact the game's success.


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Media I.M. has also signed a two-year pact with fashion apparel company, Hot Springs, for “Sunny Bunnies”-branded outerwear. The deal includes T-shirts, shorts, dresses, tops, sleepwear and swimwear for infants, toddlers and babies, which it will distribute across Australia and New Zealand. The agreement covers all retail, including e-commerce and grocery. The first retail launch has already been confirmed with Australia’s Best & Less chain for a range of sleepwear to launch next year.
In addition, under a deal with toy and gift company, Jasnor, toy manufacturer Posh Paws' appointed distributor in Australia and New Zealand, the “Sunny Bunnies” range of plush toys will be available in Australian stores to coincide with the apparel launch.
“The fact that Australia's leading apparel licensee, Hotsprings, has agreed
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Bungie the developers of the first three Halo games and other side Halo titles (like ODST) had pretty good run but they had announced that Halo 3 will be their last title and they hung their gloves after that and moved on to other projects.
343 has released a video that they will be carrying forward the Halo franchise forward with Halo 4.
For the first time ever, see Halo 4 in action as we take you behind the scenes with the developers at 343 Industries. Enjoy your first in-game look at the Master Chief, the updated Battle Rifle, and the exciting multiplayer spaces coming your way holiday 2012.
“Halo has a magical feel to it, which is unlike any other game” says 343i’s Creative Director Josh Holmes, obviously confident that they have stamped their own authority on the Halo franchise since taking over development from Bungie. 343 Industries are keen to preserve the legacy that the Halo franchise has already set, while trying to build and making the game bigger and better for fans. Holmes makes a bold statement, which is sure to excite gaming fans, “one of the things we wanted to do, was really introduce a threat that is beyond anything that Master Chief has faced before“.
I am sure PC fans who got to play the first two version of the game wish Halo 4 wasn’t just a XBOX exclusive Title.


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QSR Automations, Inc., an industry leader in kitchen and guest management systems, announced Tuesday that it has partnered with Darden Restaurants for a nationwide roll out of its DineTime guest management platform to more than 1,300 LongHorn Steakhouse and Olive Garden locations over the next year.
Darden Restaurants announced Monday that Todd Burrowes was named President of LongHorn Steakhouse. The move will take effect on Tuesday. Burrowes is rejoining the brand after spending the last two years as President, Ruby Tuesday Concept and Chief Operations Officer.
LongHorn Steakhouse is recognizing America's first responders for dedicating their lives' work to helping others and their devotion to assisting those in need. On Oct. 6, all firefighters, police officers, and Emergency Medical Service workers will enjoy a complimentary appetizer from LongHorn's Bold Bites menu.
Sales at Darden grew to $8.76 billion in fiscal 2014, which ended May 25, 2014, up 2.4 percent from 2013. While LongHorn Steakhouse, Yard House, and the Specialty Restaurants group posted sales gains, cornerstone brand Olive Garden saw a 3.
According to Technomic’s Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report, the foodservice consultancy’s annual update on the top U.S. chain restaurant organizations, U.S. systemwide sales for the group grew to an estimated $264 billion in 2013, up more than $8.
Darden Restaurants today reported that it anticipates lower earnings for the third quarter, ending February 23, 2014, citing diminished sales and higher direct costs associated with more severe winter weather.
Darden Restaurants, Inc. announced it has signed an area development agreement with Secret Recipe, a leading restaurant operator in Asia. The company will initially develop 13 units under Darden's Red Lobster, Olive Garden, and LongHorn Steakhouse brands in Malaysia with the option for additional brands and locations in the future.
Judging the Gold and Silver Plate awards for more than 15 years has afforded me the opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at many of foodservice’s most talented individuals.Reading the nomination forms is insightful and inspiring, and the judging process is equally so.
VeeV Açaí Spirit is now available at one of the most popular U.S. restaurant groups, Longhorn Steakhouse, at more than 370 locations of the upscale-casual dining chain specializing in American West grilling.
Darden Restaurants Inc. will host its Fiscal 2012 Second Quarter conference call next Friday, December 16, at 8:30 a.m. EST . The conference call will be broadcast live over the Internet.Clarence Otis, chairman & CEO, and other senior management will cover subjects including forward-looking information, such as the outlook for the current month or quarter, and the company's previously announced earnings guidance.
Darden Restaurants Inc., operator of the Olive Garden and Red Lobster dining chains, agreed to work with the Partnership for a Healthier America to cut calories and salt in its meals.Darden will reduce calories and sodium by 10 percent in the next five years at its six different restaurant chains, Rich Jeffers, a company spokesman, said today in an interview.
There’s a sizzle in the air these days. Steakhouses are stealing the spotlight with fired-up earnings reports, expansions and hot new menu items that are stoking consumer appetites. They’re even taking over reality television as chefs compete on the current season of Gordon Ramsay’s “Hell’s Kitchen” to win the head chef position at BLT Steak.


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Payment service provider GlobalCollect has announced the formation of The Global Retail Insights Network (GRIN), an integrated coalition of companies seeking to reduce the complexity for retailers wanting to rapidly expand beyond their domestic borders into global markets.
Other participating companies in GRIN currently include E4X; Kount; Pitney Bowes; Edgar Dunn & Company and Translations.com, all bringing specific expertise on advising companies on international expansion and offering many of the technology and services required to do so. Other organisations will be added in the future, said GlobalCollect, based on retailer needs.
According to figures from eMarketer, the global business to consumer (B2C) electronic commerce (e-commerce) market surpassed US$1 trillion in 2012, and is expected to grow 18.3% this year reaching US$1.3 trillion. The global market is expected reach US$2 trillion by 2016. In the so-called BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), even greater rates of growth are forecast, with the total market growing from US$153.7bn in 2012 to US$522.3bn in 2016.
“Selling overseas is a huge and very real opportunity, but it brings real challenges with it,” said Carl Miller, GlobalCollect’s global market director for retail. “Localised marketing, payments, logistics, currency exchange and tax and duty compliance are just a few of the issues cross-border retailers have to deal with, and GRIN was formed to create a strong coalition of proven experts to help retailers address those challenges.”
On day one of SIBOS, panellists unanimously agreed that doing nothing to modernise payments was no longer safe bet for transaction banking.
Rising interest rates, excitement around blockchain use cases and cross-border payments were all hot topics at this year's AFP conference in San Deigo.
Today CGI and GTNews have announced the launch of the fifth annual Transaction Banking survey report, which offers which offers critical insight into the corporate-to-bank relationship.
The US dollar and debt yields falling on the North Korea missile test, treasury being a top target for cyber criminals and why treasurers aren't into real-time payments all hit the latest headlines in the world of treasury this week. Don't miss our ten top news stories from around the world.


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Porsche has announced its plans to recall its flagship sports vehicle 911 GT3 for engine replacement after the automaker has received reported incidents of the moving coupe bursting into flames. The initial investigation revealed that the incidents have occurred on the 2014 manufactured vehicles. The Stuttgart based automaker has stopped delivering the GT3 variants last month … Read More
Porsche 911 is a flagship performance oriented sports car manufactured by Porsche since 1963. The Porsche 911 has seen three new platforms and many model upgrades. The current generation Porsche 911 was launched in 2012. In terms of styling, the Porsche 911 carries forward the iconic design language of the original Porsche 911 but looks modern at the same time. The Porsche 911 is available in three body styles – 2-door coupe, 2-door cabriolet and 2-door Targa. The Porsche 911 is a rear-engined rear-wheel drive sports car with 2-wheel drive and 4-wheel drive layout options. The Porsche 911 is available in the Indian market with a starting price of Rs. 1.30 crores.
While celebrating the completion of half a century of its existence and 40th anniversary of its trump car – Porsche 911, the Stuttgart based sports car manufacturer, Porsche, unveiled the new 911 Turbo S. The fresh offering brings together cosmetic upgrades on the outer carcass and interiors, and performance upgrades where the horses live. Porsche … Read More


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Survey finds optimism around the 2014 U.S. export goal projected in the National Export Initiative.
The economy is still a drag on businesses today, but there seems to be hope for the future of high-tech exports from the United States, with growth pegged to rising demand from emerging markets.
In its annual survey focused specifically on exporting -- "
Change in the (Supply) Chain" -- logistics company UPS, working with IDC Manufacturing Insights, found a "sizable increase" in optimism around the 2014 US export goal projected in the National Export Initiative. Of the 125 US-based high-tech executives polled, 85 percent believe the export goal is ultimately attainable, and 21 percent believe it is "very likely" to be achieved.
[Get a 10% discount on ARM TechCon 2012 conference passes by using promo code EDIT. Click here to learn about the show and register.]
The study also found that "among executives who expressed optimism in the long term growth of exports, nearly one in three attribute this to the steady increase in disposable income in emerging markets." More importantly, though, the survey respondents also picked key factors they believe will drive change in the high-tech supply chain over the next three to five years. These include costs, lead times, and responsiveness.
And, interestingly, 81 percent of them also anticipate that recent free trade agreements in Asia will increase their companies' imports and exports to and from the region. What's noteworthy, too, is an expected shift in the end-consumer market. According to UPS, while North America will remain the largest high-tech consumer market in the next three to five years, demand for high-tech products is expected to decrease by 7 percent in the region.


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Think 830 billions. That’s how many apps Aussies downloaded in 2020, according to new research by Hootsuite and We Are Social.
Zoom took out the honours for the most downloaded mobile app. The other apps that stood out in the Hootsuite & We Are Social’s Digital 2021 Report were YouTube, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, Twitter and Snapchat.
YouTube was Australia’s favourite social media platform, with 78.2% of Aussies using it in the past month. Facebook closely followed at 77.7%, followed by Facebook Messenger (65.4%), Instagram (55.3%), Whatsapp (38.8%), Twitter (30.2%), and Snapchat (29.3%).
Tik Tok has particularly captured everyone’s imagination with Aussie users scrolling on 16.8 hours per month, in comparison to the average Aussie Netflix user, who watches on average only 5.3 hours per month.
“Even though the lockdown period in Australia was shorter than in most other countries, this report shows how much of an impact COVID-19 had on our digital life and the way we socialise, get our entertainment fix, and shop, among many other things,” says Suzie Shaw, managing director at We Are Social Sydney.
“New social platforms, like TikTok, are growing exponentially, and social gaming is proving to be a prominent presence in the digital diet of most Australians, representing a unique and broadly untapped opportunity for many brands. It’s never been more important for marketers to understand online and social media cultures in order to reach and engage people in a meaningful way.”


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Skechers Sees Higher Freight Costs Keeping Gross Margins Flat
For Skechers, higher Average Selling Prices (ASPs) being generated by the brand will be eaten up by higher freight costs this year, company management said last week. The brand is projecting the severe supply constraints it experienced in Q3 to continue for the remainder of FY21 and H1/FY22. FY21 total revenues for Skechers are now pegged at $6.15-$6.2 billion.
COO David Weinberg told analysts last week that the company continues to invest in distribution centers and infrastructure, opening new DCs in the U.K. and China in Q3 and narrowing down location possibilities for a new DC in India. Additionally, Skechers intends to expand its North American DC to 2.6 million square feet in 2022.
Meanwhile, the company confirmed that constraints on its Q3 business were more related to shipping container shortages, port congestion and last-mile transportation delays than Asian factory shutdowns. During Q3, Skechers’ domestic wholesale business rose 10 percent, bolstered by its women’s GO WALK product and men’s sport and work styles. Overall U.S. sales increased 20 percent with domestic ecommerce up only 3 percent year-over-year, largely due to limited product availability.
The day after Skechers’ Q3 results were released, Bloomberg reported that the Manhattan Beach, CA company is considering several strategic options for its Asia business, including an Initial Public Offering that could raise as much as $1.5 billion.


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Is the honeypot still as sweet as hoped?
With the markets in Europe and the US still trying to recover since the financial crisis of 2008, China has been the main beacon of hope for retailers looking to deliver strong growth to offset lackluster sales elsewhere. In stark contrast to the prevailing gloom in the west, the macro-economic indicators of China have presented a compelling picture for retailers who have responded in kind with ambitious roll-out programs. However, recent retail sales in China have shown signs of slowing.
In the hypermarket sector, for example, Home Depot intends to close its big box stores in China and Tesco is cutting four of its underperforming stores. The malaise has even spread to the luxury sector, with Hugo Boss recently reporting a slowdown in sales and Burberry announcing ten weeks of flat sales during 3Q 2012. However, other retailers like Hermès and Prada are still recording strong growth. So the question is whether the problems are inherent to individual companies in a specific trade category or whether there is a widespread cooling throughout the retail market.
Knight Frank recently issued a paper which looks at some of the recent developer and retailer activity and highlights some key issues facing the industry going forward. Building shopping centers that are aligned to end users’ needs remains an issue and finding enough good quality space continues to frustrate many retailers’ expansion plans. The paper also examines the rise of internet shopping in China and how clicks and e-retailing are increasingly merging with more traditional bricks-and-mortar operations.
On the developer side, we analyzed the amount of new supply between 2Q 2011 and 2Q 2012 in 11 major cities. A total of 50 shopping centers over 50,000 square meters (sq m) opened in these cities during this period, including 27 centers over 100,000 sq m. Most of the development occurred in the Tier 2 cities, particularly Tianjin, Shenyang and Chengdu. Many domestic developers are still building very large shopping centers. Of the 27 new centers larger than 100,000 sq m, 21 were built by domestic developers. Our data shows major domestic operators build centres on average around twice the size of Hong Kong developers. We are concerned that many of these shopping centers are oversized.
On the retailer side, many international retailers announced ambitious expansion plans for China in the earlier part of this year. As economic growth in Europe and the US has continued to stall, retailers have focused on increasing their presence in Asia, and China in particular, to make up for falling profits elsewhere. Asia as a region is now expected to generate a greater share of many retailers’ total global sales, and as a result, is very much in the spotlight from shareholder interest.
Many luxury retailers are continuing to expand, particularly adding new Tier 2 cities to [PS1] their network of store locations. While plans vary from one luxury retailer to another, the typical annual store growth rate for those already well-established in China is approximately 15–20%. The most aggressive growth rates are found in the mass market sector, particularly fast-fashion and F&B, with retailers aiming to take advantage of the expanding middle class. Some of the plans are eye watering in their growth rates. We are of the view that these expansion plans could be stifled. Supply of retail floor area is not in question, but there may not be enough well-planned and well-located shopping centers to allow these retailers to achieve their store network aspirations.
Turning to internet shopping, it is clear that online shopping platforms in China are proving very popular and represent a growing influence on consumer behavior. The transaction value of online shopping as a proportion of total retail sales in China rose from just 0.6% in 2007 to 4.4% in 2011 and is projected to reach 5.4% for 2012. It is predicted that the Chinese online shopping market may exceed the American online market by transaction size as early as 2013.
It appears that Chinese are embracing online retailing with even greater relish than many western countries. In a consumer shopping survey covering a range of international markets, it was found that Chinese consumers were shopping online around two to three times as much as their European counterparts. Moreover, many products are researched online and then followed up by a purchase in-store. Rather than two different business silos, online and in-store operations are increasingly merging.
The key issue is what this means for a retailer's real estate portfolio. As yet, the two streams have generally operated separately, but new formats of retailing may emerge. One of China's biggest online retailers, Yihaodian, recently announced plans to open 1,000 virtual supermarkets in China which contain no real products, but allow shoppers to see pictures of items available to buy using their smartphone.
Despite concerns on overbuilding of retail centers and the uncertainties associated with the growth of online sales, prime retail rents continue to perform well. In the first half of 2012, average prime rents in Tier 2 cities rose 10% to RMB865 per sq m from 2011, while Tier 1 cities saw an 8% growth in the same period. This tells us that well-placed retail is still very much in demand.
Thomas Lam is Director of Research for Knight Frank Greater China


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This Definitely Not the Daily News special report is dedicated to Azahar of casa az fame, who is today celebrating the start of her third year of blogging and who a few weeks back in the midst of a tech consumption frenzy stopped to ask me, “What’s an iPod mini?”
by Elmer Schmedlapp
Seattle (DNTN) A team of archaeologists is attempting to decipher the contents of a recently discovered iPod mini to see if knowledge contained on the ancient device can give scientists insights into lost technologies and long-forgotten music listening practices.
The mini, which apparently fell behind the bookshelf of Walla Walla, Washington resident Wanda Woodsworth while Woodsworth was out walking one wet Wednesday in winter, 2005, had been given up for lost ever since.
Woodsworth recovered the long-dead Apple product last week while moving furniture.
“It had been so long, I didn’t recognise it for what it was at first” said Wordsworth, “so I phoned the university. They got really excited, told me not to touch it until experts could identify it, then evaluate its contents. ”
The mini was a sleek, brushed-metal device which first appeard in January, 2004. It was suddenly pulled from the market 20 months later by iPod maker Apple because its relatively small 4 or 6GB size and miniature hard drive storage system was deemed “so last Thursday” by a bunch of 20-something shitheads sitting around a table at Silicon Valley focus group session.
“It was like, meh, whatever, get rid of it, you know?” said Charles “Chuck” Biscuits, a group member. “We thought, hey, like, you know. Yeah.”
Apple abandoned the mini barely six months after releasing a second-generation model amid cries of protest from Apple store salespeople, who this reporter can assure you once told him the mini was the best iPod ever produced.
“It was such a perfect design, easy to read display, great heft to it in the palm of your hand,” said Apple store owner Filbert McNutt. “Sure their battery life sucked, but if it died, you still had one great-looking paperweight. We were selling them so fast, we couldn’t stock ’em, and then – Bang! Gone. I forget what they even looked like.”
One scientist at the university lab where the mini is being dissected said her team is excited at what they might find on the ancient personal audio player.
“The world has just so moved on since 2004,” said researcher Marla Baverstock. “To think that the ancients were actually willing to pay good money for iPods with monochrome displays, no video capability, and a spinning hard drive! How utterly desperate those times must have been.”
Cultural anthropologists are also looking forward to analysing the song selection stored on the mini’s drive. They say it’s an artefact which will give clues as to how the world might have been enjoying some down time while contemplating the horror of another four years of the George W. Bush administration.
“It was a unique time for music, pop culture, and world history in general,” said ET cultural and sexual deviations beat reporter Adda Dictomy.
“The number of people with a close-up view of Britney Spears’ and Paris Hilton’s crotch was still in the low four figures instead of the billions now thanks to the Internet, Anna Nicole Smith was still trying to convince everybody that her years of wiping the bum of a billionaire 70 years her senior was out of sheer love, SUV drivers were bitching about gas prices half the level they’re at now and people living in trailer parks and working at Burger King were being flim-flammed into half-million dollar mortgages so they could live in their dream home for a few months, then have it pulled out from under them.
Gosh, those were the days.”
© 2008 lettershometoyou


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SNOHOMISH — Do want to see your recipe on the grocery shelf?
The Snohomish Business Network is sponsoring a free event to help budding food entrepreneurs enter the prepackaged food market.
The FOODpreneuer meetup will feature experts from the food, financial and grocery industries, including Scott Wetzel, owner of Fresh Bread Designs; Craig Doan, chief food scientist, Impact Washington; Darin Leonard, director, OneAccord Capital; and Denise Breyley, local coordinator, Whole Foods Pacific Northwest.
The event will be Thursday, Jan. 24, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Double Barrel Wine Bar, 108 Avenue A in Snohomish.
The event is free, but participants must register at bit.ly/2H1ouHP.
It is intended for people who want to get started in the packaged food industry — not food trucks or restaurants.
Participants need not be Snohomish residents to attend.
For more information about the Snohomish Business Network, contact Wendy Poischbeg at email@example.com or 360-282-3176.


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FUNAI NB500 Blu-ray Players For $298
Wal-Mart is reportedly selling a $298 Blu-ray player in select stores, roughly $100 off the previous entry-level price of the high-def disc player.
According to the web site, Blu-ray.com, $298 Blu-ray players are showing up on shelves of certain Wal-Mart stores under brand names such as Magnavox and Sylvania.
However, the players apparently are coming from manufacturer Funai, which has been rumored for months to be working on a low-cost Blu-ray player.
Funai, a Japanese company, is known for manufacturing low cost electronics products, which often pressure the industry to lower prices for name brand devices.
A message thread at Blu-ray.com says the $298 player supports the Profile 1.1 BD standard, which offers Picture-in-Picture features, with HDMI 1.3a, DeepColor, a "high-bit-rate audio stream out," CEC and output of SD card video footage.


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Gradually, Tiger Woods is rebuilding his endorsement portfolio that was depleted after a series of controversies related to extra-marital affairs led to the end of his marriage and a deterioration of his public image.
Woods has signed an exclusive endorsement deal with Fuse Science, Inc., a Florida-based sports nutrition company. This comes five weeks after the 14-time major champion became an endorsement ambassador for Rolex.
"Tiger Woods redefined the game of golf and wants to have a positive impact on people worldwide. Fuse Science has proprietary technology that will fundamentally enhance the way consumers take medicine. It's a natural partnership," Chicagoan Andrew Stroth, an adviser to Fuse Science, told the Tribune on Thursday.
The deal gives Woods an endorsement for his golf bag.
Woods will not display the company on his bag, however, until the Chevron World Challenge that starts Dec. 1 in California. He is playing the Australian Open this week, then travels to the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne.
"When I learned about Fuse Science's groundbreaking technology, I immediately understood that this will be a game-changer in how we live our lives every day," said Woods in a release. "We will improve energy, nutrition and medication delivery in several global categories and we will enhance every athlete's ability to perform at their natural best."
Woods had lost endorsement deals with AT&T;, Accenture, Tag Heuer, Gatorade and Gillette since his personal problems. Two of the three new deals he has signed since July are related to health products.
Woods also has a deal with a Japanese company that makes a heat rub product. The market for that deal is mainly in Asia.
"This is a very big day for our company," president and chief operating officer Brian Tuffin said in the release. "Our partnership with the world's best is an enabler to have a worldwide impact sooner than later. Tiger recognizes the significance of the journey we're on as a company, and wants to be part of our growth."
email@example.com Twitter @kicker34


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South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa will visit Qatar on Wednesday to meet Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Emir of Qatar, for bilateral talks.
During their meeting, the two leaders are expected to deliberate on various geopolitical issues, including the Israel-Hamas conflict and investments, a statement from Ramaphosa's office said.
The two-day trip will be Ramaphosa's first visit to Qatar, which is South Africa's fifth-largest trading partner in the Middle East.
"Both parties are committed to enhancing their economic ties and focusing on improving economic relations including trade, investment, and tourism," the statement said.
South Africa exported $206 million worth of goods and services to Qatar last year. The bulk of the exports were in the manufacturing sector, accounting for about 56% of total exports.
Africa’s most developed economy has witnessed a surge in its imports from Qatar between 2017 and 2022, primarily due to the import of petroleum oils, the statement said.
South African imports from Qatar amounted to $252 million in 2022.
Ramaphosa will be joined by a high-level business delegation and is expected to engage the Qatari business community on energy, mining, agro-processing, retail, healthcare, tourism, and shipbuilding.
South Africa is already a significant investor in Qatar, especially in the petrochemical-related sector, with a total investment of around $9 billion, the statement said.
Fuel producer Sasol has a 49% shareholding with Qatar Petroleum in the world's first commercial-scale gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant located in Qatar.
The Gulf state has a 51% stake in the plant named Oryx GTL located at Ras Laffan Industrial City. Sasol's technology is used to convert natural gas into liquid fuel and chemical products.
(Editing by Seban Scaria email@example.com)


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Earlier this year Resident Evil 5 found its way onto the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game featured a very well done co-op campaign as well as an online co-op mode called Mercenaries. Capcom has announced that console gamers aren't the only ones who get to follow the adventures of Chris and Sheva as PC owners will get their keyboards covered in blood later this year.
It appears that the PC version of the game will only support online play, no split screen, but will be getting a brand new 3D mode. To utilize the 3D effects players will need to have a pair of NVidia's GeForce Vision glasses. No released date has been set, but we expect the game late this summer.
Be sure to check out our full review of Resident Evil 5.


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Biden proposes spending $174 billion to promote electric vehicles and install 500,000 charging stations across the U.S.
Plans for a national electric-vehicle charging network were mostly repeated details from the Biden administration Wednesday, but the announcement still sent already elevated charging-company stocks higher.
The headlines also left Americans wondering how soon a complex network to rival traditional gas stations — one that analysts say will need state and city buy-in and private-sector help — will fully come online.
Biden proposed spending $174 billion to promote EVs and install 500,000 charging stations across the U.S. as part of a sweeping infrastructure announcement. Broadly, Biden wants Congress to approve $2 trillion to re-engineer America’s infrastructure and expects the nation’s corporations to pay for it.
Most charging companies have yet to report an annual profit and are counting on widespread EV adoption to meet future financial forecasts. Analysts stressed the challenges in linking a national charging network across states and municipalities and incentivizing more homeowners to outfit their garages for a home charge. Costs for EV chargers vary based on the “level” of charger. The higher the level, the quicker the charge and the more expensive it is to install.
“Charging is the big challenge,” said Joe Wiesenfelder, executive editor at Cars.com, in an interview with MarketWatch earlier this year.
“People will want to charge at home, overnight, then unplug and drive. At-home charging doesn’t work in every home without modification. And once on the road and needing a charge, even fast-charging batteries aren’t as fast as the five minutes consumers are used to spending at a gas station,” he said.


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NEW YORK (AP) — Microsoft and Sony offered new details last week on the game consoles they will start selling before the holiday shopping season.
The Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 will join Nintendo's Wii U, which came out last year, in vying for shoppers' attention and dollars at a time many people are turning to phones and tablets for gaming.
Each machine has features designed to draw gamers away from rival consoles. There's one thing all three have in common, though: They are about more than gaming and include entertainment services such as television, movies and music.
Here's a closer look at the three systems.
Wii U (Nintendo)
In November, the Japanese gaming company launched the Wii U, the follow-up to its popular Wii.
That made Wii U the only new console out for last year's holiday season. The console features a tablet-like controller with a touch screen, called the GamePad, which can be used to control games on the TV set or to play games separately, as you would on a regular tablet computer.
It also allows someone with a GamePad to have a different experience with a game than someone playing it at the same time with a regular Wii controller.
The GamePad also serves as a fancy remote controller to navigate a TV-watching feature called TVii. The service groups your favorite shows and sports teams together, whether it's on live TV or an Internet video service such as Hulu Plus. And it offers water-cooler moments you can chat about on social media.
Unlike the Wii, the Wii U features high-definition graphics.
• Price: Starts at $300, but some retailers have offered it for less.
PlayStation 4 (Sony)
Sony shared some details about the PlayStation 4 in February, but it didn't show what the console would look like. That changed at E3, when the Japanese electronics giant showed off the slick new game machine.
Sony said the PS4 would essentially be a “supercharged PC,” much like the Xbox. That's a big departure from the old and idiosyncratic PlayStation design and should make it easier for developers to create games. But the adoption of PC chips also means that the new console won't be able to play games created for any of the three previous PlayStations. Players will have to stream older games over the Internet.
Other new features revolve around social networking and remote access. With one button, you can broadcast video of your game play so friends elsewhere can watch. You can also run a game on the PS4 to stream over the Internet to Sony's mobile gaming device, the PlayStation Vita, which debuted last year.
The PlayStation online network will have access to Sony's video and music services, as well as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon — if you have subscriptions. You'll also be able to access Facebook.
Sony said it would not try to restrict sales of used games and that the PS4 would not require a persistent online connection.
Microsoft has been criticized for being vague on whether Xbox One owners will be able to play used games. The company essentially leaves the decision to video game publishers, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said.
The PS4 will have a Blu-ray disc drive for movies, just like the PS3. The console will go on sale this holiday season, though Sony has not given an exact date.
• Price: $399.
Xbox One (Microsoft)
Microsoft's new console seeks to deliver the Holy Grail of home entertainment — an all-in-one device that lets you watch television, play movies, listen to music and browse the Internet as well as play video games.
The Xbox One lets you use voice commands to switch between watching TV and playing “Call of Duty,” or ask “What's on HBO” to view a TV channel guide. Just connect your cable or satellite set-top box to the game machine with an HDMI cable.
A new version of Microsoft's camera-based Kinect controller offers better motion and voice detection. The Xbox One will require Kinect, which will come with the package.
Xbox One will have to be connected to the Internet at least once every 24 hours and ideally would always be online.
Although Nintendo's Wii was the most popular of the three at first, the Xbox 360 has outsold its rivals in recent years largely because of its robust online service, Xbox Live, which allows people to play games with others online for as much as $60 a year with annual plans.
Activision Blizzard Inc.'s “Call of Duty” has been a driving force behind Xbox Live, and Microsoft said players will be able to download new content for upcoming titles in the series on the Xbox One before any other system.
The new console will also add the ability to play Blu-ray discs. What it won't play are games for the Xbox 360.
Microsoft said the system will launch in time for the holidays.
• Price: $499.
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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In another sign that the backlash against beer giant Anheuser-Busch’s disastrous choice to bring in transgender TikToker Dylan Mulvaney to pitch its popular Bud Light brand is spreading like wildfire, fans at a Riley Green concert went wild when the country music star changed the lyrics of one of his most popular songs in a shout out to a competitor.
During Friday night’s sold-out show at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium where he opened for Luke Combs, Green drew rousing cheers from the audience at the venue when he subbed Coors Light for Bud Light during the performance of his smash hit “I Wish Granpdas Didn’t Die” in recognition of the growing boycott of the product that has already inflicted major damage on the company.
During the chorus of the song, Green updated the lyrics to wishing that “coolers never run out of cold Coors Light,” as the crowd erupted, the moment was captured on video and posted to Twitter.
For those not familiar with the original version, the lyrics are:
“And I wish even cars had truck beds
And every road was named Copperhead
And coolers never run out of cold Bud Light”
Twitter users reacted to the updated lyrics in recognition of Bud Light’s dumping on conservative consumers by becoming evangelists for the transgender cult.
So @RileyGreenMusic wrote the song years ago.
singing he wished coolers never ran out of cold bud light.
He changed the song.. the crowd went nuts..
How can a beer company be this out of touch with their customers? https://t.co/38OqTvWfBw pic.twitter.com/1Fxr1VmYfn
— Frog Capital (@FrogNews) April 15, 2023
AT THE CONCERT: Riley Green just changed the lyrics from Bud Light… the crowed ROARED.
Man, I love Tennessee.
— Macy Petty (@macypetty0416) April 16, 2023
Went to Luke combs last night. Riley green opened. His song wish grandpas never died he said cold coors light instead of bud light. It was awesome
— Michael Calabrese (@mikecalabrese7) April 15, 2023
The fact that Riley green took the words bud light out of his song and replaced it with coors light gave me the most American boner imaginable.
— TYB TONY (@Thequeenscasket) April 15, 2023
We need more reactions like this. No more ‘silent’ majority! https://t.co/XMnpMt6mce via @whiskeyriff
— Kelly Dreslin Arena (@kellyarena) April 15, 2023
Somebody Get That Man a Beer
— danielmor (@danielM0RBZ) April 15, 2023
Other musicians have also come out against Bud Light including Green’s fellow country star Travis Tritt who reacted to the Mulvaney ads by deleting Anheuser-Busch products from his tour.
“I will be deleting all Anheuser-Busch products from my tour hospitality rider. I know many other artists who are doing the same,” the singer wrote on Twitter, encouraging other artists to do likewise. “Other artists who are deleting Anheuser-Busch products from their hospitality rider might not say so in public for fear of being ridiculed and cancelled. I have no such fear.”
Other artists who are deleting Anheuser-Busch products from their hospitality rider might not say so in public for fear of being ridiculed and cancelled. I have no such fear. https://t.co/YgjO9P03tR
— Travis Tritt (@Travistritt) April 6, 2023
Tritt also shared a list of all of the company’s other beers that those who are boycotting Bud Light should also stay away from so that the damage to the bottom line won’t be limited to just one of the many brands that AB is currently marketing.
Here they are. pic.twitter.com/dkGaNawNBa
— Travis Tritt (@Travistritt) April 6, 2023
While some correctly pointed out that Coors Light has consistently supported the LGBT community they fail to make the distinction that transgenderism is a completely different animal with practitioners of what not that long ago was widely accepted as a mental illness having a fondness for the seduction of young children as well as an alarming tendency for violence.
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FinTech lessons banks need to learn to be digital-first
Digital-first pressure for banks is well and truly on. Leading financial institutions know they must lead in both customer experience and operations en route to a digital-first future, while also recognising these as areas of strength for digital-native challengers and FinTechs.
by David Murphy, Head of Financial Services EMEA & APAC, Publicis Sapient
Today, almost everything is digital. The way we shop, interact, how we bank. A global pandemic made digital capabilities mission-critical, enabling banks to continue efficiently serving their customers remotely. And for the most part, this has been achieved with a great deal of success. However, before the pandemic, many banks were sceptical about their ability to pivot so quickly to a digital-first approach. They knew they needed to, but the ‘How?’ proved difficult as they were bogged down by legacy technology and cultural debt.
Banks have been aware of their digital-first future for quite some time, but many have simply struggled to get there, stalling at the first hurdle and giving away valuable market share to a wave of digital natives that are more agile, innovative, and free from the weight of traditional restraints; adapting and pivoting as required. So far, the market has been theirs for the taking, inspired by the likes of Amazon, Netflix and Airbnb which have disrupted entire industry sectors with their digital-first platform approach. They have successfully leveraged technology to create a superior customer value, offering slick and frictionless experiences that have appealed to a new generation of financial customers.
Recent research by Publicis Sapient showed that 83% of banks already have a clearly articulated digital transformation strategy in place, but the pandemic acted as a catalyst to act faster. According to the study, 81% of banks say the pandemic has made improving their digital skills and capabilities more urgent, and 70% say it highlighted weaknesses in their customer experience. Covid-19 has only served to reinforce the gaps in legacy banks’ customer experience and operational transformation. Banks are accelerating to compete with digital-first challengers like Monzo, Revolut, Chime and Nubank, while developing partnerships with FinTechs that can accelerate the provision of new customer propositions. Personetics, a firm that uses data and AI to enable banks to provide personalised insights to their customers is a great example.
Incumbent banks are however, far from complacent. Most say they must do more to keep up with these nimble, digital competitors while appealing to a new breed of digital-native customers. Leaders from the Global Banking Benchmark Study ranked digital-first challengers, FinTechs and consumer tech companies among the top five influencers of their own digital transformation strategy. “FinTech is the future,” as JPMorgan’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, wrote in a memo to shareholders ahead of the bank’s earnings numbers release.
Put simply, banks need to stop aspiring and start acting to counter the new competition ‘head on’ by transforming their technology, investing in appropriately skilled talent needed to make this technology work for them, and emulating the digital-first mindset and culture of the challengers. Crucially, they must digitalise and become truly customer centric. At the most basic level, they need to provide access to their services online and efficiently to customers entirely via digital channels. Not only basic services such as checking balances and making money transfers, but also more complex transactions such as mortgage lending. In this rapidly evolving environment, banks need to deliver superior customer experiences while being operationally agile enough to drive growth and give themselves a fighting chance to compete, which is not always easy. Look at N26, Starling, and Revolut, who have clearly demonstrated their ability to achieve a high level of digital maturity by creating digital-only propositions at speed while innovating on the product cycle in their area of specialization.
Banks need to optimise all areas of their customer experience and operations – from their business models and technology to their products and services and even their people in order to achieve both revenue growth and cost reductions in a post-pandemic world. This will also enable them to compete in an increasingly complex, digital-first financial services landscape. Banking of yesterday has gone, and to cement themselves for the future banks must innovate with customer experience top of mind.
How can banks learn from FinTechs?
Accelerate into a digital-first future. Know the competitive landscape. Banks need to understand their competition, then invest heavily in digital innovation to keep pace with them as digital-first challengers, FinTechs, and new entrants continue to reshape the financial services outlook.
Transform both people and culture. Leading banks recognise that investing in developing talent and skills to transform culture goes hand-in-hand with technology investments – they are not siloed. Lack of skills can be a key barrier to transformation.
Invest in a partner ecosystem and distribution network(s). Building partnerships will allow banks to scale and pivot at speed to compete with digital-first competitors.
Be agile to move and innovate at speed and scale. Leading banks have already grasped this shift and are now focused on building urgency – 40% of banks believe that agile product development is the key trait for digitally innovative financial services firms.
Move to a cloud-based model. Cloud is central to banks’ digital transformation strategies, whether for core modernisation, enabling personalisation or real-time payments. However, banks need to look beyond infrastructure and cost efficiency. Opportunities for customer innovation and cloud-enabled services must be seized. That said, adaptation will take time as sentiments steadily rise, 29% of bank leaders say cloud investment will be central to their digital transformation plans over the next 3 years.
Banks are aware of the impact that these new challengers and market entrants are having on the pace and priorities of their own digital transformation. In turn, flexibility is becoming increasingly important for digital competitiveness in the market. Banks need to prioritise investment in agile capabilities which will allow them to accelerate the rollout of new customer features and innovations.
While banks should not necessarily flock to follow the internal structures of digital competitors, it is crucial that they realise what has made them so successful: customer obsession. They have an established customer-led culture; a 360-view of customer data; they deliver omnichannel servicing and offer personalised experiences and products, but most importantly, they have a platform-based approach. The types of institutions that will be successful in the next 3-5 years are going to be institutions that integrate different parts of a large ecosystem into a platform experience. Banks must use data to deliver an in-depth understanding of the customer and their wants and needs, and banks must service those needs in a streamlined, seamless, ethical, and engaging way.
By learning from challengers on how to become customer centric, they can invest in and improve on their own CX. This requires investment into digital innovation to keep up. The good news is that it can be done. The pandemic has shown that banks can move incredibly fast when required and support their customers almost entirely digitally with no branch access. Customer needs and demands are constantly in flux. An iterative approach which works constantly to improve, update, and respond to customer desires is essential. This approach will see today’s banks best position themselves for the digital-first future.
December 08, 2023
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Drinks giant SABMiller Czechs in with new beer
DrInks giant SABMiller is to introduce to Britain a beer with a difference – it
counts a goat among its brewery staff.
The firm (up 40p to 2014.5p) said it was adding Czech lager Kozel – which means ‘goat’ – to its UK operation Miller Brands.
The beer has been brewed in the Czech town of Velké Popovice since
1874. Among its current ‘staff’ is a goat called Jaroslav, who is named
after the general manager of the brewery and is said to be fond of
SABMiller, dual listed in London and Johannesburg, said 4pc strength
Kozel would help it expand its portfolio of drinks and would also
satisfy demand for less alcoholic lagers. The beer will be sold through
a managed pub operator – as yet unnamed – in 100 drinking
establishments from the end of September, before a nationwide roll-out.
The move to sell a little-known beer from eastern Europe ties in with SABMiller’s strategy of buying small regional brands for sale in the UK, a model that has already served it well with Peroni and Pilsner Urquell.
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Dubai: Fortress Investments, a leading investment firm operating in the Middle East, says FDI investment in the UAE reached $12 billion (Dh44 billion) in 2013 and is projected to grow 20 per cent in 2014 to reach $14.4 billion.
The estimated growth rate in 2014 would represent a 260 per cent increase over 2008, which reflects huge future growth potential for the UAE economy, according to the investment firm.
“There is phenomenal investor interest in the UAE market. Dubai is now one of the most popular investment destinations among global investors. Many emerging sectors are attracting higher attention from investors, such as reality, ICT, education, tourism and entertainment,” said Hamed Mokhtar, Managing Director at Fortress Investments. “Dubai’s attraction as an investment hotspot was never greater.”
Dubai’s successful Expo 2020 bid will ensure the investment in UAE market is lucrative in the medium term, as Dubai and the UAE would benefit from an estimated $6.9 billion earmarked for infrastructure projects around the event.
Dubai’s construction industry would benefit from the heightened new activity, but other sectors like travel, tourism, hospitality and retail would also gain during the run-up to the event and thereafter.


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Liverpool have just revealed our new third kit that will be used this season and now there has been a behind the scenes clip released, alongside the official release – featuring Fabio Carvalho.
One part of the video features the new No.28, seemingly having a great time in his bucket hat and sunglasses – alongside the rest of Jurgen Klopp’s squad.
Not only does the Portuguese attacker look very happy and relaxed alongside his new teammates, he also has a stark resemblance of ex-Red Philippe Coutinho.
It’s great to see all the lads getting along and let’s hope the good memories continue in this new kit.
You can watch the video of Carvalho and the new Liverpool kit via @LFC on Twitter:
Enjoy exclusive behind-the-scenes access as the Reds see our new 2022/23 third kit for the first time 😍🎬 pic.twitter.com/qgb6Q8QrQe
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) September 5, 2022


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SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — It’s almost October and the subject of brews and spirits is heating up, but for one local company, it has a whole different meaning — one that is award-winning.
Salt Flats Brewing Company has risen to the top in the alcoholic beverage space. This year the Utah brewery brought home gold medals in both beer classes and bourbon classes of the Beverage Trade Network (BTN) competition. In addition, Salt Flats was recognized as Brewery of the Year at the BTN USA Beer Ratings competition in San Francisco.
In a state long known for its aversion to spirits, these awards and the growth of craft beers and spirits in Utah, point to an upward trend of acceptance. An acceptance of high-quality products.
Salt Flats is owned by Steve Pruitt, a name many recognize from F1 racing. The brewery is located in his former racing facility with stills and equipment housed alongside race cars, tools, and trophies brought home by Pruitt. Now, they can add the awards brought home by the brew masters over the last couple of years.
Salt Flats has been working hard over the last year to make improvements to all aspects of the brewery according to JC Straub Operations Manager at Salt Flats.
“This award really is a tribute to the hard work that has been going on at Salt Flats and exemplifies the recent improvements over the last year. Eric Buehner took over as head brewer for Salt Flats at the end of last year and with his 20 years of previous brewing experience he has elevated all aspects of products and procedures,” said Straub. “Salts Flats recent equipment upgrades include a full on-site lab, a Centrifugal Separator for Filtration, and a new Dissolved Oxygen Meter for keeping our beer as fresh as possible. We have stepped into the next level of brewing and don’t plan on slowing down anytime soon.”
The Utah brewery saw its Kilted Harley Scottish Ale take home the highest ranking of any other beer submitted. Three other Salt Flat beers brought home additional gold, silver, and bronze medals.
One of the standouts produced by Salt Flats is their Bonneville Bourbon. The bourbon brought home a dark horse gold medal win in the 2023 USA Spirits Rating, garnering high praises from Forbes Magazine where they reported on the “World’s Best Bourbon.”
“There are plenty of surprises among the highest scores of 2023, but perhaps none of them are so singularly shocking as Bonneville Bourbon from Salt Flats Spirits. At 95 points, this American whiskey out of Utah bested all other bourbons in the race!”
Bonneville Bourbon earned its 95-point rating from expert judges from all over the globe. They assess all spirits with a 1-100 rating. Anything 70 – 79 earns a bronze medal, 80 – 89 silver, and 90 – 100 earns gold.
The industry has seen a boom in the production of high-quality bourbon in the state of Utah Bonneville finds itself at home on shelves with local products from Sugar House Distillery, High West, and Waterpocket.
Forbes makes note of the changing climate of spirit consumption and appreciation in Utah.
“Although the Beehive State has long been seen as an unfriendly environment for all things alcohol, the proliferation of these craft denizens in the modern era proves the outdatedness of that notion.” Salt Flats is definitely leading out in helping to change the way spirits are consumed for Utah residents and


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By Rod Griffin, Senior Director of Public Education and Advocacy for Experian
Experian is the world’s leading global information services company. During life’s big moments – from buying a home or a car, to sending a child to college, to growing a business by connecting with new customers – we empower consumers and our clients to manage their data with confidence. We help individuals to take financial control and access financial services, businesses to make smarter decisions and thrive, lenders to lend more responsibly, and organizations to prevent identity fraud and crime.
We have 20,000 people operating across 44 countries and every day we’re investing in new technologies, talented people and innovation to help all our clients maximize every opportunity. We are listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and are a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
We actively engage with people through social media, the Ask Experian blog, and more traditional ways to help share knowledge about credit reports, credit scores and other topics. And we provide innovative tools like Experian Boost and our newly launched Experian Go program, giving people greater control over their credit. Our goal is to help people improve their financial health and well-being.
Moving Financial Literacy Forward
Did you know nearly 50 million consumers have a nonexistent or limited credit history? These consumers are considered credit invisible.
As a result of their credit status, credit invisibles face many financial hurdles, including limited housing options, higher insurance premiums, employment challenges, higher interest rates, larger deposits, and they are more likely to find themselves caught in cycles of predatory lending. This problem more frequently impacts communities of color.
Last week, Experian announced the launch of Experian Go™– a free, first-of-its kind program that helps credit invisible consumers enter the credit ecosystem and begin building credit on their own terms.
Once a consumer downloads Experian’s free mobile app and enrolls in a free Experian membership, they’ll be asked to authenticate their identity using a government-issued ID, Social Security number and a “selfie.”
From there, personalized recommendations will help users add accounts, also known as tradelines, to their Experian credit report. Users may receive information about becoming an authorized user or be invited to apply for a credit card designed specifically for those new to credit.
Others may contribute their on-time bill payments directly to their Experian credit report with Experian Boost, a game-changing feature that’s helped nearly 9 million consumers instantly improve their FICO® Score. This option gives consumers the ability to build credit without taking on debt.
Additionally, every consumer will receive ongoing education and recommendations to further build their credit history as part of their Experian membership.
“Living with a nonexistent or limited credit history can be a significant barrier to financial opportunity in America,” said Craig Boundy, CEO, Experian North America. “We believe every individual deserves the opportunity to reach their fullest financial potential and we’re proud to be the only credit bureau with a program to help credit invisibles build their credit history in minutes. Innovations like Experian Boost and Experian Go help to ensure people can access the credit they need when they need it. This new program is a direct reflection of our mission to bring financial power to all.”
In 2021 Experian’s Consumer Education and Advocacy Team launched the Credit Essentials for Everyone flipbook. This free resource offers critical information about fundamental credit reporting and scoring topics, and it highlights Experian’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. We believe that making information about fundamental credit principles simple to digest and easy to access will empower consumers to overcome barriers and achieve financial success. We hope you will share this resource with your students, your family members and your communities.
#CreditChatLive ft. Rod Griffin and Laura Levine
Experian’s Consumer Education and Advocacy Team was honored to have Laura Levine join our #CreditChatLive video series with Rod Griffin this past November. Rod and Laura discussed the importance of financial literacy in the classroom and how we can empower teachers with financial literacy resources to effect change. Although the conversation took place in November, we think you will find the information is evergreen and relevant to the work we are all doing as members of the National Jump$tart Coalition. You can watch the full conversation here.
Connect With Experian
You can join us for live conversations about credit reporting, credit scoring, fraud and identity theft and other personal finance topics on Twitter, Twitter Spaces, Facebook, and Instagram.
Tweet this: “Experian hosts educational Twitter chats that cover a wide range of topics every Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET. You can view the upcoming topics here: ex.pn.creditchat #CreditChat”
- Twitter (@Experian) Join @Experian in its weekly #CreditChat on Twitter every Wednesday at 3 p.m. Eastern time. Experian’s public education professionals and personal finance industry experts will discuss popular topics and ways consumers can change their financial behavior.
- Facebook (@experian)
- Instagram (@experian, @experian.us)
Connect With Jump$tart
- FINRA Nominations Open for 2022 Ketchum Prize
- Tackling America’s Financial Literacy Crisis
- Getting Schooled on Financial Literacy
- Resources to Teach Your Child Financial Literacy Wherever You Live
- 7 Black Financial Influencers to Follow in 2022
Give the gift of information and share the love of financial literacy this Valentine’s Day! Visit our website to learn more about the work Jump$tart is doing to move financial literacy forward. Love is amplified when you give it away! The Jump$tart team is sending some love your way, so your cup is always full, and you always have enough to give. Thank you for your generous support of Jump$tart!


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Beyoncé reportedly got a hefty cheque for her upcoming performance in Dubai this weekend.
Per TMZ, Queen Bey’s scheduled to touch the stage in Dubai for her first concert since the release of Renaissance. However, it cost a pretty penny to host her in the United Arab Emirates city. The tabloid publication claims that organizers paid Beyoncé $24M for her upcoming private show.
Though it is invite-only, a few lucky fans caught a glimpse of Beyoncé in action during her sound check. Footage emerged online of Beyoncé performing a slew of hit records, like “Naughty Girl,” “Halo,” “Spirit” and “Freedom. Additionally, she rehearsed two of her biggest hits with Jay-Z, “Drunk In Love” and “Crazy In Love.” Perhaps, this indicates that Hov might pull up.
Beyoncé’s performance at the Atlantis The Royal resort during the grand opening is expected to draw in some significant A-Listers. The resort consists of 231 luxury apartments, 693 hotel rooms, and 102 suites.
The upcoming performance marks Beyoncé’s first concert in roughly five years. On top of that, it’s rumored that the Dubai show serves as a launching pad for the highly anticipated Renaissance tour. Beyoncé hasn’t confirmed dates for the tour but tickets will undoubtedly be costly.
In October, Bey confirmed that she’ll embark on a tour in support of her latest album. Attendees at the 2022 Wearable Art Gala bid five to six figures for tour packages including tickets to the show, travel accommodations, and a meet-and-greet.
We’ll keep you posted on any more news surrounding Beyoncé’s forthcoming tour.