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WORKSPACE CONCEPT – TANGENT™ at WESTIN
On the Heels of Successful Pilot the Highly Functional, Technology Driven Flexible Space is Rolling out to More than 40 Hotels Around the World
STAMFORD, Conn. – March 18, 2013 – Today, Westin Hotels & Resorts announces the global roll out of Tangent™ (formerly known as Project Hive), an innovative workspace concept that meets the changing needs of today’s mobile business traveler. The new flexible workspace reinvents the small meetings model and has proven highly successful – receiving rave reviews and high usage from both guests and neighboring businesses in pilot hotel locations. Tangent is currently available at The Westin Boston Waterfront, The Westin Arlington Gateway Hotel and made its debut at The Westin Grand Munich this month. The offering will continue to roll out to more than 40 hotels worldwide this year including The Westin Resort Nusa Dua, Bali and The Westin Copley Place, Boston.
“Tangent’s unique offering is really striking a chord with today’s mobile workforce and driving demand for more locations across our global portfolio,” said Brian Povinelli, Global Brand Leader for Westin Hotels. “In our efforts to meet the needs of today’s mobile traveler, we are changing the way we do business to better customize the guest experience. While a hotel room or lobby is a place where you can do work, Tangent was specifically designed as a smart room and personalized work space that enhances productivity and can be booked on demand.”
In the U.S. 75% of the workforce is mobile and by the end of this year one-third of the global workforce will follow suit. In Westin hotel’s in-depth guest research, more than 70% of business travelers said an environment that better suits their work objectives would significantly improve their business travel experience. Forty-
The brand’s signature new workspace features:
· media:scape by Steelcase technology that offers an interactive space for participants to access and share digital information quickly and seamlessly. Video conferencing is also available at a four person seated workspace.
· Televisions, printers, sound systems, Xbox 360® for games or DVDs.
· Floor-to-ceiling white boards and fully stocked office supplies offer convenience and promote collaboration.
· Wired and wireless internet for no additional fee. Flexible outlets are also located throughout the space allowing devices to power up regardless of location.
· Privacy for groups of up to four to conduct small group meetings or hold calls and teleconferences.
The Westin brand’s design team worked to create a space that also embraced the trend of “co-working”
For further information, please contact:


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A pub landlord who has run a cash-only business for more than three decades has said he’s determined to continue, despite a surge in card usage.
Douglas Whitney, landlord of The Chequers Pub in Essex, said he thinks card payment companies “charge a fortune” in fees.
Doug says not having to pay these charges means he can “save money”.
It also reduces the risk of pouring products only to find someone’s card payment hasn’t gone through, and has no other option to pay.
WATCH NOW: Pub landlord Doug explains benefits of being cash-only
Doug told GB News’ Lisa Hartle: “With cash, I know exactly where I stand. If you serve somebody and then their card is declined, and they’ve got no cash, what happens? You lose out.”
The cash-only pub has signs around the bar, stating: “Sorry we do not accept credit/debit cards or cheques.”
If you've got a money story you'd like to share, email the money team at firstname.lastname@example.org.
If customers don’t have any cash on them, Doug said they often simply tend to ask where the nearest cash point is.
“Generally, they come back. Some don’t but that’s alright – they’ll go down the road and pay more. It’s their choice," he said.
“A lot more people are carrying cash because they know what they are spending and with cards, they don’t know what they’re spending – especially when they’re tapping their phones and tapping the card and tapping this and tapping that. They haven’t got a clue [what they’re spending].”
UK Finance research from earlier this month found last year, the number of cash payments rose for the first time in a decade.
It found half of all payments in the UK (50 per cent) were made using debit cards last year, but the volume of cash payments increased to 6.4 billion payments – up from six billion in 2021.
Adrian Buckle, head of research at UK Finance, said: “We’ve seen a very long trend of reducing cash payments year on year but last year we did see a small increase in the number of cash payments made.
“We think that that’s mainly due to some people finding cash helpful to them to manage a limited budget when the cost of living increasing.”
Damien, a customer of the pub, said: “I just bring cash – I’ve usually got cash on me anywhere to be fair.

domain: news


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NEW ORLEANS -- News with a Twist has teamed up with the Historic New Orleans Collection to bring you a unique find each week from the museum's vaults.
Did you know that the first digital camera had a quality of 1.4 megapixels? And a price tag of $10,000?
We've certainly come a long way in photography. Today, we take you back to a world when amateur photography was new.
The year was 1888. A bank clerk in Rochester, New York, invented the first Kodak camera -- a milestone for the amateur photographer. The slogan was, "You press the button. We do the rest."
"You would load the film and then send it off, and you didn't have to deal with all the chemistry that goes along with that," explained Mallory Taylor, associate curator for the Historic New Orleans Collection.
As popularity spread across the country, it made its way down to the Victorian age of New Orleans.
This remarkable photo album -- now a piece at the HNOC -- includes about 300 gelatin silver prints, the most common type of black and white consumer print during the 20th Century.
So, what might a novice photographer take pictures of between 1908 and 1915 in New Orleans?
"It highlights daily life in New Orleans and it has some really monumental highlights from New Orleans history," Taylor said. "There's the hurricane of 1915. There's our earliest photo of Mardi Gras Indians."
But who's the man behind the lens? He's George Durr.
Durr was born in New Orleans in 1888. Among the intriguing photographs in Durr's collection was a picture of his father-in-law's business, Odenwald&Gros -- a cigar, soda and ice cream shop on Canal Street.
Other photos of his include the Rex parade of 1915, the same year Zulu rolled for the first time.
You can see all the Historic New Orleans Collection has to offer by visiting either one of their campuses. The Royal Street campus, including The Shop at The Collection, is open Tuesday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and on Sundays, 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Learn more about the Historic New Orleans Collection here.


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Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Dec.9 / Trend, D.Azizov /
Uzbekistan will spend $74.1 million to upgrade and increase of production facilities and organization of new enterprises in the sphere of food industry in 2012-2015, a source in the Uzbek government told Trend on Friday with reference to this sector's development program, approved by the government.
In particular, it is planned to implement more than 70 projects in 33 enterprises of oil and fat industry to increase production of margarine products by 27.8 percent - up to 23,000 tons in 2016, butter - 54.8 percent - up 6,500 tons, vegetable oil - by 7.6 percent - up to 274,400 tons.
It is planned to construct and reconstruct 104 enterprises, including construct 78, reconstruct 26 enterprises in accordance with modern standards as part of measures to expand and develop fruit and vegetable industry.
This will help to commission enterprises for processing of 63,100 tons of fruit and vegetable products and grapes annually.
In total by 2016 the country plans to produce 610 million conditional cans of fruit and vegetables compared to 460 million conditional cans in 2011, 155,000 tons of dried fruits (123,000 tons in 2011), 220 million conditional cans of fruit juice (155 million conditional cans) and 35 million cans of tomato paste (30 million conditional cans in 2011).
The program is envisaged to be financed at the expense of foreign investments and loans totaling $36.5 million, domestic banks' loans - $19.2 million and enterprises' own funds totaling $18.4 million.


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Wingard’s Market – 49 Years and Still Growing!
One of Lexington’s oldest and most storied and successful businesses recently celebrated its Greater Lexington Chamber membership with a ribbon cutting ceremony and a business after hours.
Wingard’s Market, located at 1403 North Lake Drive, has been in business for almost 50 years, but the business doesn’t rest on its past success.
“We have been around 49 years and survived the “box stores,” which is a testament to customer satisfaction,” said Delores Wingard Steinhauser, who owns the business with her husband Wally Steinhauser. “I don’t believe there is another garden center in the Midlands with that much history.”
The Wingard family dates back to the 1700’s in Lexington, and the business started with a few azalea plants in 1968.
Is a yard truly Southern if it has no azaleas? pic.twitter.com/2al1YEU80X— Wingard's Market (@wingardsmarket) March 23, 2016
The business has experienced constant growth and change during the past five decades, including several name changes and tremendous expansion. But one major constant has been customer satisfaction.
“We take educating our customers seriously,” Delores said. “We not only sell them plants, we teach them to care for their plants through the many workshops and seminars or educational videos we offer, or through print material at point of purchase.”
That relationship with the customer leads to the most gratifying aspect of the job, according to Wally.
“Our customers, plain and simple,” he said. “We have great customers that have become friends that we enjoy seeing.”
Those customers enjoy everything Wingard’s Market has to offer.
Patrons are able to take a leisurely stroll along a meandering path through a myriad of unique outdoor garden art, trees, shrubs and more. The business also offers landscape design and installation, plant fertilizers, and pest and disease control products. Wingard’s Market also includes a gift shop and fresh produce, fresh meat and gourmet food products, all of which set it apart from the competition.
Wingard’s Market employs six people full-time, along with three permanent part-time employees and up to 10 season employees.
The Steinhausers want to make sure fellow Chamber members realize the business is “more than plants,” and they plan to continue serving their customers and innovating the business as they strive to fulfill the business mission: to provide quality products and services with a connection to nature within an enjoyable, local market environment and experience.


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Oct 29, 2010 (LBO) – Consumer prices in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo rose 6.6 percent in October from a year earlier, accelerating from 5.8 percent in September, the government’s statistics office said. It was the sixth straight monthly increase in inflation and was driven largely by price increases in food and beverages.
During October prices rose 1.2 percent. The so-called annual average inflation, a lagging indicator averaged across two years, rose to 5.4 percent from 5.0 percent in September.
The Colombo Consumer Price Index was at 223.3 points up from 220.7 points in September 2010.
“The contribution to the monthly increase of 1.2 per cent in the Index originated mainly from price increases in the sub category of food and non-alcoholic beverages (2.2 percent),” the central bank said in a stateemnt.
Within the Food sub category price increases were registered for rice, wheat flour, bread, vegetables, coconut, coconut oil, big onions ,red onions and meals bought from outside.
Price increases of rice, coconut and vegetables were mainly due to seasonal factors, the bank said.
“Meanwhile, prices of fish and fresh fruit declined.”
Prices in the sub categories of c


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New UK consumer research from Intersperience has found that 17% want to use a mobile wallet in the future but 44% are worried about a lack of security software on mobile phones. 24% of people said using a mobile for payment “feels less secure but I don’t know why” and a further 24% are concerned their mobile is more likely to be stolen than their wallet.
- Guide introduces how Android Pay works
- Samsung Pay launches in Sweden and the UAE, enters early access in Hong Kong and Switzerland
- bPay contactless wearables enable automatic donations to UK charities
- UK restaurant chains test digital mobile banking receipts tied to customer purchases
- Apple marks Earth Day with Apple Pay donations


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You’ll remember the recent Subaru Viziv Performance concept; the one that previews the next WRX. Well, they’ve only gone and beefed it up for an STI version.
We already knew it was planned, but now there’s a teaser image of the concept’s sharp lines and fiercer bodywork.
The updated concept will be on display at the Tokyo Motor Show. It has a new front bumper, new side sill extensions, a traditional STI big rear wing and a few hidden secrets.
Prime among those is what the engine will be like. It’s going to be a hybrid, sure, but with what kind of internal combustion element? We understand the engine will be downsized, but that it should maintain the flat-four configuration.
Either way, we’re going to miss the rudeness of the current one.


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This semi-serious conspiracy theory gets stronger every year.
As if a ‘comprehensive’ smoking ban and some of Europe’s most extortionate alcohol taxes were not enough, we have had late-night levies, cumulative impact zones, cack-handed attempts to do over the pubcos and more.
The Covid-19 pandemic has given politicians an opportunity to drive in the final nail.
Despite a conspicuous lack of evidence that pubs are a significant source of infection, they have borne the brunt of every policy change. At the first sign of trouble, opening hours were restricted to 10pm.
When the tiered system was introduced in England, pubs were allowed to open in tier two but only on the business-destroying condition that people from the different households could not associate with one another. Tier three didn’t allow them to open at all.
In Scotland, the legislation might as well been written by the temperance movement. In the regions where pubs are allowed to open at all, they can only serve food and soft drinks – and even then only until 6pm. Hotel restaurants are permitted to stay open to serve their guests, but, again, they cannot sell alcohol.
On Thursday 5 November, every hospitality venue in England will be forced to close for at least a month.
This will surely seal the fate of many pubs, but even that is not enough for our lawmakers who couldn’t resist adding a vindictive new clause banning pubs from selling alcohol for consumption off the premises. The new guidance says that pubs are allowed to ‘provide takeaway and delivery services’ but adds – almost as an afterthought – that the ‘takeaway of alcohol will not be allowed’.
This is a kick in the teeth to all pubs, but especially to those that do not sell food. You will recall that this was not a feature of the previous lockdown. Many people, myself including, bought alcohol from pubs in the spring, partly to show our support but mainly because they were the only places to get draft beer.
Since off licences will not be closed, it is difficult to see any logic for the ban beyond a malicious desire to stop wet pubs making money. It is as if the Presbyterianism that oozes out of the Scottish legislation has drifted south of the border.
The Welsh Government recently became a laughing stock for banning the sale of ‘non-essential’ items (such as clothes) in supermarkets. As daft as that law was, there was a discernible logic to it insofar as shops which only sold ‘non-essentials’ had been forced to close. Banning pubs from selling alcohol while alcohol can be freely sold elsewhere is just perverse.
Many pubs will have to literally pour beer down the drain when lockdown begins. With their businesses hanging by a thread, banning them from selling unused stock borders on the insane.
The time has come for pubs to fight back.
Every MP who backs this legislation should be barred for life. No more photo opportunities. No more pictures of them pulling a pint in the local newspaper at election time. No more swift halves in the Westminster Arms between votes. Zero tolerance for temperance. Enough is enough. Hit them where it hurts.


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“Generally, everyone is looking for more efficiency in advertising and technology is making it more possible for brands to take control of this,” Sutton said. “They are investing in ad-management and delivery functions to manage their costs more directly.”
One piece of Adstream’s platform in particular, AdBank, serves as the end-to-end “digitizer” for video campaign creation and delivery. It essentially captures digital asset exchanges between brands, agencies, production houses or media companies. This is analogous to the bridge Adobe is trying to make between Marketing Cloud and its Creative Cloud software.
Although Adstream does not claim to be a creative organization, Sutton said having ongoing access to digital material that translates globally (with the ability to repurpose content for language translation and cultural nuances) is a crucial tool for the “in-house” marketing organization and even agency.
As for Comcast’s video and cross-platform delivery interests, “I will tell you we’re interested in this relationship to enable trailblazing between platforms, whether that’s video, mobile, display, linear TV, etc.,” commented Todd Porch, VP and GM of Comcast AdDelivery, formerly executive director of display ad ops at Yahoo. “We are planning for that convergence and want to answer the question, ‘How do we enable that?’ whether it’s plumbing, transport or analytics/insights.”


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Microsoft has joined big Internet service providers, America Online, EarthLink and Yahoo against spamming
. The companies announced they are filing three new antispam lawsuits protected under the CAN-SPAM federal law.
The members of the so-called Anti-Spam Alliance have filed separate lawsuits in various states, some of which seek damages and court orders in order to have spammers cease their activities and give up on their profits.
"Collectively, these four ISPs continue to change the economics of spam by identifying and targeting top alleged spammers," said Aaron Kornblum, Microsoft's internet safety enforcement attorney.


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With a record 97.4 million viewers tuning into Super Bowl XLII on Sunday, every game advertiser could be considered a winner.
But drill down to finer data — such as which marketers got the biggest bump in online chatter and which commercials were most remembered — and it's clear some commercials delivered more bang for the big bucks than others.
An Anheuser-Busch bud ad that showed a Dalmatian who coaches a Clydesdale to make the Budweiser beer-wagon team took on a second life online after it finished first in USA TODAY's Super Bowl Ad Meter consumer ranking in real time.
Also "buzzworthy": an E-Trade etfc ad with a talking baby who unexpectedly spits up, and a Tide to Go ad with a chatty stain.
With Super Bowl ad time costing up to $2.7 million per 30 seconds, any extra return is a boon.
Some advertisers scoring extra points, according to several ad metrics:
•Online enthusiasm. A-B got the most next-day buzz on blogs, community forums and social networks, according to tracker Cymfony. Users gabbed about the brewer's Clydesdale ad, as well as its funny Bud Light ads, at nearly twice the level of the next-most-discussed advertiser, Audi. Audi's ad parodied the horse-head scene from mob film The Godfather.
Domain name company GoDaddy.com ranked fifth for online conversation, but a lot of it was negative, Cymfony noted.
GoDaddy aired a teaser ad with Danica Patrick in the game that directed viewers to its website to see the supposedly risqué ad with the race driver that was rejected for TV use. A lot of online users apparently thought it did not deliver.
•Recall. On average, Big Game viewers recalled 39 of the 54 commercials, according to TNS Media and Entertainment. The most remembered, with 70% recall, was the E-Trade ad with the barfing baby.
Tied for second place were a Bud Light ad featuring Will Ferrell in his upcoming Semi-Pro movie role and a SoBe LifeWater ad in which Naomi Campbell danced with animated lizards, with each recalled by 67% of viewers.
A second E-Trade commercial, where the baby hires a creepy clown, came in fourth with 66% recall.
•Website traffic. Victoria's Secret got the biggest bump in its daily website traffic from Sunday to Monday among game advertiser sites tracked by Nielsen Online. The lingerie retailer's daily traffic was the fastest-growing among the game's product advertisers, rising 86% to 364,000. The game ad showed a model in a slinky black camisole and pitched Valentine's Day giving.
•Brand favorability. The Tide to Go commercial took the top spot in a survey of which Super Bowl ads most boosted viewers' opinions of the brand. That ad was 64% more effective than the average Super Bowl ad in "greatly" or "somewhat" improving viewers' positive feelings for the advertised product, according to IAG Research.
Coming in second was a Coca-Cola ko ad that showed Thanksgiving Day parade balloons — cartoon characters Charlie Brown, Underdog and Family Guy's baby Stewie — fighting over a giant balloon bottle of Coke. It was 57% more effective than the average Big Game ad.


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AimBrain, the Biometric Identity as-a-Service platform, has today raised the bar in user authentication by introducing optional audio and lip synchronisation into its facial authentication module to create AimFace//LipSync.
AimBrain steps up fight against spoof attacks by combining audio, lip sync and facial authentication for new module
Designed to prove liveliness and counter even the most sophisticated spoofing technologies, AimFace//LipSync provides AimBrain customers with stronger user authentication by combining facial recognition with a spoken challenge and lip movement analysis.
Traditionally, defences against facial biometric fraud - that the user is genuine and not a photo, video or computer-generated simulation - have been to train algorithms to process images at low levels, searching for fraud signals such as chromatic anomalies, textural differences, Moiré patterns or screen exposures. This low-level processing has, however, made the algorithms sensitive to subtle changes in camera, projection means and external environments, resulting in high accuracy but only within the limited parameters in which they were trained.
“We decided to take a different approach to the problem,” said Efstathios Vafeias, Lead Scientist at AimBrain, who led the project. “We have developed an algorithm that uses both visual and audio data to detect a real person, not a presentation attack. By asking a user to say a randomised number to the camera, our technology now not only authenticates their face against a template but verifies that the numbers match the prompt and analyses the synchronisation between the voice and lip movement. So, as well as providing a step-change in security, this method maintains accuracy while being less susceptible to hardware or environmental changes.”
AimBrain is first to market with this unique combination of visual and audio syncing, which can be used across any industry in place of any process that uses passwords or two factor authentication. An enterprise’s user or customer authenticate themselves by saying a randomised number to camera when prompted, whereupon the algorithm behind AimBrain’s new feature (AimFace//LipSync) assesses three components:
1. Facial recognition: Does the face match the template?
2. Liveliness detection: Do the lips move in response to the voice challenge?
3. Anti-spoofing technology: Is the sound synchronised to the lip movement?
“Many of today’s anti-spoofing technologies can be fooled using the simplest of measures,” said Andrius Sutas, CEO and co-founder at AimBrain. “We have all seen the high-profile hacks that have beaten new smartphone biometric security systems within days of their release. Our lip sync technology means that to beat it, an attacker must be human, look exactly like the user and correctly say a random number, while we analyse the lip movements, within a limited timeframe. The level of sophistication required for an attack goes far beyond ordinary capabilities.”
Alesis Novik, CTO and co-founder at AimBrain, believes that the fight against fraud is one that will never end, and his product roadmap does not stop with lip syncing. “We are in the late stages of developing an integrated solution that combines facial authentication and voice authentication, and assigns an automatic weighting of the two, depending on the environment and context. If a user is in a noisy environment, the weighting will be on the visual side. In a dark environment, for example, the audio authentication plays a stronger part. We are nearly there and expect to launch later this year.”
AimFace//LipSync is now ready to pilot.


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Kylie Jenner has left fans with their jaws on the floor after recent snaps showed the makeup mogul wearing just a black bra.
In the first snap, Kylie posed with her arm up on the sofa as she leaned to the side and placed a finger in her mouth.
Her long brunette hair cascaded over her shoulders and framed her face perfectly as she flirted with the camera.
READ MORE:Kim Kardashian fans baffled as she looks unrecognisable in ‘chav’ makeover
She wore minimal makeup that showed off her stunning features – a simply cat eye and nude lipstick highlighted her already gorgeous face.
The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star wore a simple black bra that showed off her assets as she held the camera out in front of her face for the selfie.
In the second picture, Kylie switched up positions and pulled the camera in for a close up as she pulled her cheeks back with her hand.
The sunlight bounced off her cheekbones as she stared down the camera while the third picture really turned up the heat.
Jenner placed her camera at a low angle to emphasise her curves as she placed her finger back in her mouth.
Kylie’s final snap showed a small section of her face, which she snatched back with her hands, as she soaked up the sunlight coming in through the window.
She took to Instagram to share the pictures and In the caption, Kylie wrote: “Don’t be f***ing ruuuude.”
Fans went wild for the Jenner sister’s sultry lingerie shoot and took to the comments to shower her in compliments.
One kind fan typed: “I’m not rude, I’m just obsessed.”
Another added: “Mamma mia [flame emojis] truly radiating beauty.”
A third simply wrote: “Kylie, you are perfect in every detail.”
Other fans flocked to call her a “bombshell,” brand her look a “serve” and label the mother-of-two a “baddie”.
The stunning selfies come after Kylie was recently caught up in a “feud” with her big sister Kim Kardashian over a social media error.
Jenner forgot to tag Kim’s brand Skims when she shared snaps of herself wearing her sibling’s clothing and Kim jokingly called her out on the blunder, publicly asking her to tag the Skims account.
London unrecognisable as Canary Wharf transforms into Chicago for The Crown finale
Margot Robbie admits to behind-the-scenes ‘genital room’ on Wolf Of Wall Street
Bella Hadid parades hourglass figure in teeny bikini with pal for sizzling snaps
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Source: Read Full Article


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Martinique’s cruise passenger arrivals have increased 631 percent since 2010, and its efforts to strengthen the cruise sector continue to grow.
The Martinique Tourism Authority hosted a delegation of Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) officials at the end of May as the FCCA is working on a new study of cruise passenger behaviour and spending in Martinique.
“While the cruising industry in the Caribbean is facing increasing competition, Martinique is registering the fastest and most important increase in the world as a cruise destination,” said FCCA President Michele Paige.
Martinique’s cruise sector is showing no sign of slowing down in the upcoming year and the Martinique Tourism Authority projects a 31 percent increase in passenger arrivals over the previous year.
“Cruising has certainly been on the rise in Martinique in recent years, but we’re not resting on our laurels,” said Muriel Wiltord, Director of Americas for the Martinique Promotion Bureau.
Wiltord also pointed to continued improvements and new features for Fort-de-France and the Pointe Simon port area, including a new 94-room hotel and new retail shops


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Ahead of today's kickoff of CES 2018 in Las Vegas, which runs through Friday, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich last night introduced show-goers to a number of new technologies and initiatives his company is rolling out. They include partnerships for autonomous driving, electric air transport, 3D and immersive-reality video, advanced drones, neuromorphic computing, and quantum computing.
Krzanich's talk on "How Data is Shaping Innovation of the Future" covered the gamut of applications being enabled by advanced computing that can quickly handle huge volumes of data. The next several years will bring "a rush of breakthroughs using data and AI, according to Krzanich (pictured above). "I think we're just beginning to push the envelope here," he said.
Patch Impacts and Securities Questions
At the start of his Monday evening keynote, Krzanich also acknowledged and thanked industry researchers who recently reported the major security vulnerabilities known as Meltdown and Spectre. Teams of researchers are still working to issue fixes for both bugs.
Meltdown, which affects mostly Intel processors, opens up the possibility for malicious actors to access memory anywhere on a device, while Spectre affects a wide range of Intel, ARM, and AMD chips manufactured since the 1990s. Publicly revealed last week, both bugs were identified last year but kept under wraps while programmers worked to develop fixes.
"As of now, we have not received any information that these exploits have been used to obtain customer data," Krzanich said. "For our processors, products introduced in the past five years, Intel expects to issue updates for more than 90 percent of them within a week and the remaining by the end of January."
Meltdown and Spectre are both hardware-based, system-level vulnerabilities connected to how processors access kernel memory or execute instructions to perform tasks and run programs. Researchers initially warned that patches could slow the performance of some devices by as much as 30 percent. However, last week, Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft said that the fixes they'd been applying so far weren't creating major device slowdowns.
"We believe the performance impact of these updates is highly workload-dependent," Krzanich said yesterday. "As a result, we expect some workloads may have a larger impact than others, so we will continue working with the industry to minimize the impact on those workloads over time."
However, left unacknowledged was the fact that Krzanich reportedly sold more than $39 million of his personal Intel stock in November, before news of Meltdown and Spectre became public. Yesterday, the securities litigation firm Block & Leviton said it was investigating the CEO's stock sale for possible securities fraud. Whether the timing was related to knowledge of trouble about to be announced remains to be seen.
49-Qubit Quantum Chip
Krzanich's CES keynote included on-stage demonstrations of several innovations being enabled by advanced Intel chips and technologies from partner companies. They included an instrument-free musical performance by an "algorithm-and-blues" band, an autonomous driving demonstration by Intel partner Mobileye, a flight demonstration of the electric Volocopter, and a Guinness record-breaking show of 100 drones operating without GPS control.
Intel's CEO also announced that the company has shipped the first 49-qubit quantum computing test chip to its partner QuTech. Krzanich added that more news about a new neuromorphic research prototype processor will be announced to research partners later this year.
Other news announced during Krzanich's keynote include the launch of Intel Studios for advanced, 3D video productions; support for Intel-powered virtual reality broadcasts during the coming Olympic Winter Games; and autonomous driving technology partnerships with BMW, Nissan, Volkswagen, SAIC Motor, NavInfo, and Ferrari North America.
Image credit: Walden Kirsch/Intel Corporation.
Read more on: Intel
, Brian Krzanich
, Quantum Computing
, Self-Driving Cars
, Top Tech News


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A 44-year-old Milwaukee man who led officers on vehicle and foot chases and broke a Wauwatosa police officer's hand in a struggle - all to get away with deodorant he had taken from a Walgreens store - has been charged with a felony count of eluding an officer and misdemeanor counts of retail theft and resisting an officer.
After Darin Lee Lloyd was arrested April 10, he said he planned to sell the hygiene products and use the money to buy cocaine. He had concealed 18 deodorant items in his pockets and walked out of the store on Mayfair Road.
If convicted, he faces up to $30,000 in fines and five years in prison. Because he has been convicted of prior felonies, the penalties could be increased.
He is scheduled to appear in Milwaukee County Court for a preliminary hearing Friday.
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Diamond Foods denies Kettle Chips unit is for sale
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Diamond Foods said it has no interest in selling its Kettle chips operation despite an industry report last week saying the unit was on the market.
"Traditionally, it's our policy not to comment on rumors, but we want to clarify recent news stories about Kettle brand. The speculation about a potential sale of Kettle, either here or in the U.K., couldn't be further from the truth right now," a Diamond spokeswoman said. "We love the brand just as much as Kettle's fans do."
Last week, the Grocer, a U.K. publication, reported that Diamond was laying the groundwork for the sale of Kettle Foods, speculating that a bevy of suitors would emege.
San Francisco-based Diamond Foods (NASDAQ: DMND) purchased Kettle from Lion Capital in 2010.
Mark covers banking and finance.
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Apple’s A-series of SoCs continue to lead the smartphone market with unrivaled performance, but the yearly gap in those leaps has reduced. That is because the technology giant has witnessed a massive brain drain, with engineers and executives of the firm’s chip division leaving in search of better opportunities and an improved working environment. This makes the current situation extremely difficult for Apple’s Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies, Johnny Srouji, according to one report.
Apple has attempted to spike confidence in chip engineers that the firms hiring former employees will not remain in business
An earlier report said that an earlier A16 Bionic iteration had ray tracing support but consumed too much power and could not be used in the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. This might be why there is evidence that Apple’s latest top-tier iPhone SoC uses a GPU architecture similar to the A15 Bionic, with a previous die shot comparison showing fewer differences between the two custom silicon.
The Information states that Apple’s Srouji will continue to face problems as more chip engineers leave for greener pastures, which includes the likes of CPU designer Gerard Williams III, who left to start Nuvia in 2019 and was acquired by Qualcomm, which later introduced Oryon. Though he was later replaced by Mike Filippo, he resigned too earlier this year to go work for Microsoft, and quite surprisingly, Apple has yet to name his replacement.
To prevent more engineers from leaving the company, Apple has made presentations in an attempt to convince its employees that a career at the California-based giant is more rewarding and stable, as there is an immense amount of risk attached to startups that focus on chip development. Given that many industry experts and economy watchers have predicted a severe economic downturn, many of these engineers will likely prefer working at Apple.
However, it does not change the fact that now, companies like Qualcomm can gain an edge against Apple’s A-series of chipsets. According to one multi-core benchmark leak, the newly announced Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 manages to close that performance gap, and if the A17 Bionic launching next year disappoints in performance metrics, perhaps Qualcomm’s or MediaTek’s flagship silicon will overtake Apple’s next-generation offering for the first time in 2023.
News Source: The Information


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The Kroger Company makes Stickyeyes, a Leeds & London based digital marketing agency its digital partner. Stickyeyes will hold the leadership of Kroger’s products in the US. Not only that, Stickyeyes will also manage Kroger’s crucial areas like search engine optimization, digital strategy, content marketing, and web design.
The key reasons for this collaboration is to elevate and support for the success of Kroger Money Services and concentrate on displaying the wide range of products, money transactions, check cashing, money orders, debit card cashing and giving a helping hand to customers access store locations, and helping by providing necessary information.
Sara Shelton, head of money services for the Kroger Co. said: “We have been impressed by Stickyeyes’ skills, talent and ability to partner with us on some of our most critical digital marketing, design and SEO efforts. We see a tremendous opportunity ahead as we partner to transform our digital presence and customer offerings.”
She also added that Kroger money services will provide cutting-edge products to consumers and will continue to do so. And it expects Stickyeyes to play a major role in this success; the major reason to partner with Stickyeyes is their strong finance market.
Kroger Co. Money Services amalgamated with Stickyeyes clients namely: Enova International, MBNA, TD Direct Investing and Leeds Building Society.


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A big part of a showroom designer’s job is to know his or her customers and anticipate upcoming market trends. One change that’s coming to a boiling point is the emergence of Generation Y – as many as 87 million young consumers ranging from their upper teens to their early 30s. This new generation of shoppers is now entering the market for big-ticket items such as homes – and kitchens.
Having been raised in an era where technology changes daily, the next dominant generation of kitchen consumers isn’t about to settle for yesterday’s traditions: They’re not looking for their mother’s kitchen.
In sheer market power, the number of Generation Y births topped their Generation X and Baby Boomer predecessors, arguably giving them more market clout than their parents’ generation.
And they’re just now beginning to flex their muscles.
Nikki Trivisonno, CKD, sales designer at Somrak Kitchens, in Bedford Heights, OH, says almost one-third of Somrak’s customers are now in their 30s.
“In the past I worked mostly with customers in their 50s, 60s and 70s,” Trivisonno points out. “Over the last two or three years, we’re seeing a much younger customer.”
Defining Generation Y
Generation Y is defined by immediacy. They want it now – and with advances in digital communication, they can have it.
Their parents were awed by the convenience of being able to check their answering machines for messages when they returned home. Generation Y doesn’t wait to get home and check their messages. They’re in touch with friends, family and business partners via email, texting and social media – all accessible through mobile phones.
Because Generation Y demands instant information, we have to provide it while they peruse our showrooms. While inspecting the faucet in one of your displays, the Generation Y consumer may be simultaneously price shopping it on the Web from their iPhone.
Many Generation Y consumers are buying homes as early as 26 years old. For them, convenience and low maintenance are key.
“Previous generations were willing to wait for what they wanted,” Trivisonno says. “Generation Y wants it now. They may not be able to afford the really expensive products, so they’re price shopping so they can get it now, but at a price they can afford. We deal with this through the design and ordering processes. We call it value engineering – custom engineering their kitchen based on the product line to fit their budget.”
Clean and Simple
One of the hallmarks of Generation Y is an attraction to clean, simple design that contrasts earlier generations’ fondness for intricate detail. Showrooms around the U.S. are adding new displays with cleaner lines and a transitional approach.
“We’ve been continually adapting our showroom to that generation,” Trivisonno says. “They’re looking for a straightforward, no-frills look that trades a fancy appearance for the practicality of easy maintenance and easy cleanup. They want products that won’t easily show damage. They don’t want things that they have to be careful around because, in life, things happen. We’re trying to bring in more displays like that.”
Generally, Generation Y consumers aren’t looking for ultra contemporary styles, but rather a more transitional look.
“They’re not looking for styles with a lot of detail that brings the price up,” Trivisonno says. “They don’t want all those details and moldings.”
Kitchen and bath product manufacturers are well aware of Generation Y and are designing products to appeal to them.
“We’re seeing manufacturers who have been very traditional, with a lot of carvings and moldings, start to swing over to designs with a more transitional to modern look,” Trivisonno says. “They’re making an effort to appeal to the younger market, but at the same time they don’t want to lose their older market.”
With Trivisonno’s observations in mind, I say you make sure at least 20 to 30 percent of your display items have a transitional feel as opposed to the customary 10 percent.
Real Life Feeling
You might consider expanding on home displays that demonstrate space versatility. At Somrak, a laundry room display evokes the versatility that Generation Y seeks. The space looks like an office, with a desk being the most noticeable feature. The washer and dryer are hidden behind paneled doors.
“This has become very popular among our younger buyers,” Trivisonno says. “The young consumer is looking to maximize space, using a single room for dual activities. The primary driver isn’t saving time by multi-tasking, but rather saving space [by] making two rooms out of one.”
Additionally, many forward-looking showrooms feature displays that accentuate life activities, rather than design features. Mobile phones are charging on the countertops. Laptops are open and powered on. Toys in a corner depict a child’s play area. It’s a real-life vignette that Generation Y shoppers can relate to.
A generation ago, kitchen desks were popular. “Kitchen desks were a trend that came and went,” Trivisonno says, noting that these limit a kitchen design. “A desk is all you can use them for and they tend to create clutter. You can use a laptop anywhere, so if somebody wants to work in the kitchen, they can sit at an island, or if they want to designate office space, we design it at the same level as the counters or islands to enhance versatility. Some people want a filing cabinet or drawers, so they are designed to look like part of the kitchen.”
With the use of portable computers and communications devices, charging stations have become important.
“We design charging stations to be a part of the kitchen but not a part of the clutter,” Trivisonno says.
Generation Y embraces hands-on decision making, and technology is making it simpler. Prepare yourself for more interactive designing with Generation Y customers. Design programs like Google’s SketchUp are allowing consumers to lay out a kitchen using the same software that some professional designers use, says Mark Johnson of Masco Cabinetry.
“There are tech savvy Generation Yers who have downloaded the free version of SketchUp and modeled the layout of their home,” he says. “They can download building products and furniture to experiment with designing their own kitchens and bathrooms – all for free. This is an emerging trend of consumers planning and thinking in 3D.
“How will the retail showrooms address this trend in their business processes? Consumers will be expecting this in the near future.”
Generation Y also embraces individuality, and our industry is well suited to address that need.
As Generation Y consumers walk through your doors, you would do well to plan your showroom to capture their attention. Demonstrate the convenience you can bring into their lives. Cater to their need for immediate information while ensuring you have products that meet their budget needs. The next wave of opportunity is here. Make sure you’re ready!


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eBay CEO Devin Wenig tweeted that the company paid its first cash dividend today. eBay had announced in January it would issue a dividend after experiencing stagnant growth in the fourth quarter of 2018 and facing pressure from activist investors.
In today’s tweet, Wenig wrote, “Today eBay paid its first cash dividend of 14 cents per share to stockholders. This is the first dividend program in eBay’s history and marks a significant milestone for the company. We are delighted to share the company’s ongoing success with our fellow shareholders.”


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Fully listed Chill Brands (LON: CHLL) is the best performer on the London Stock Exchange today with a 27.1% jump in the share price to 11.375p. The CBD products supplier has signed a deal with The Vaping Group to launch nicotine-free vapour products.
UK sales of Chill Zero vapour products are expected to start in the summer. The Vaping Group has access to specialist and independent convenience stores in the UK. The UK vaping market is expected to grow to £4.5bn in 2027.
The Vaping Group will then help to launch the products in other European markets. The products are already being sold in the US and on the Chill.com ecommerce platform.
At the beginning of April, Chill Brands raised £1m at 4p a share. It also issued £1.6m worth of loan notes convertible at 8p a share and offering a coupon of 12%.


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19th February 2015
Distributor for South Korea
Last week, we were very happy to host Mr Lee and his translator, Mr Lucas, from South Korea. It was their first trip to Bangladesh. They visited our finishing centre in Notun Bazar as well as flying down to Cox’s Bazar to visit the new centres there. Travelling around Bangladesh has been difficult for the past couple of months because on ongoing political disruptions and so it has been more safe for visitors to fly to Coxs Bazar rather than take the long road trips that are needed to many of our other centres.
Image: Mr Lee, the Pebble distributor for South Korea and Golam Morshed, Chairman of Hathay Bunano ps.
Mr Lee was happy to see the centres and had never seen areas like this before. It was great to see how committed he was to introducing Pebble to the Korean market after having visited the new centres that we are setting up in Cox’s Bazar in partnership with CREL, a Winrock International programme funded by USAID.
Image: at one of the joint venture training and production centres in Cox’s Bazar
It was also really good timing because we were just opening two new preschools in this area which have been funded by Shopping for a Change through their programme of reinvesting profits into communities where the products have come from. So Mr Lee was able to help in giving out the books to the children and in officially opening the schools.
Image: Mr Lee handing over the new books to one of the students at the new preschool funded by Shopping for a Change
We already have a couple of retailers in South Korea who sell Pebble toys but the appointment of a distributor there who will be holding stock of the products in country, will make it much easier for Korean retailers who want to stock Pebble and we are really happy to see the plans that Mr Lee has for promoting and marketing Pebble in Korea. We are really hopeful that South Korea will be a very good market for Pebble and are happy to see the toys reaching more and more countries.
Image: one of the centres in Cox’s Bazar
All the details for Mr Lee and the South Korean distributorship will be on this website shortly. In the meantime if you are a retailer in South Korea and would like to sell Pebble toys then please contact us at email@example.com and we will connect you directly with them.
Image: wherever you go in Bangladesh the women are happy to be making Pebble toys and excited about the opportunity it brings to them


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WI Vs IND | 1st Test Aug 22, 2019
IND 68/3 (24.0)
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SL 85/2 (36.3)
ENG Vs AUS | 3rd Test Aug 22, 2019
AUS 92/2 (23.2)
NAM Vs BOT | 3rd T20I Aug 22, 2019
BOT 96/10 (18.1)
CAY Vs CAN | Match 7 Aug 22, 2019
CAN 0/0 (0.0)
HT Vs BB | Match 13 Aug 22, 2019
BB 116/7 (18.3)
Latest News on Blackberry 10 Apps
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The New York Times
Date: DEC. 9, 2015
By HIROKO TABUCHI
Imports from China by Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer and
biggest importer, eliminated or displaced over 400,000 jobs in the United States between 2001 and 2013, according to an estimate by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive research group that has long targeted Walmart’s policies.
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The jobs, mostly in manufacturing, represent about 13 percent of the 3.2 million jobs displaced over those same years that the study attributes to the United States’ goods trade deficit with China. Walmart’s Chinese imports amounted to at least $49 billion in 2013, according to the study, which was based on trade and labor data. Over all, the United States’ trade deficit with China hit $324 billion that year.
“Walmart is one of the major forces pulling imports into the United States,” said Robert E. Scott, an economist at the institute and the study’s author. “And the jobs we’re losing are good-paying manufacturing jobs, which pay higher wages and provide better benefits.” [FULL STORY]


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Echoing the craft beer craze, hard cider is exploding into the adult beverage market as Americans are expressing a thirst for variety and different flavors. Also, adding to its rapid growth is the gluten-free phenomenon as consumers are looking to healthier lifestyles. While relatively new for millenials, the alcoholic drink, made from fermented apple juice, dates back to early colonial times when the Pilgrims drank cider as they journeyed to America aboard the Mayflower. Not to mention it was the drink of choice among our founding fathers.
According to market researcher Mintel, the growth in hard ciders has been driven largely by the highly coveted millennial generation, 47% of whom consume the drink. Not unexpectedly, all this action has grabbed the attention of some heavy hitters, with recent launches of bottled hard ciders by MillerCoors and Anheuser-Busch. Also, nearly 55% of all beer drinkers say that they like to try new alcoholic drinks like craft beer or hard cider, and 18% of those aged 22-24 report drinking more hard cider in the past six months, the largest increase amongst any alcohol type across all measured age groups.
To capture this burgeoning market, I’ve singled out several exciting packaging designs that boast everything from masculinity and unisex, adventure, locale and authenticity to simplicity.


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In the rich tapestry of American music and culture, few bonds are as compelling and enduring as the one between Cypress Hill and the city of Detroit. Since their first visit in 1991, this legendary hip-hop group, which includes members Senen “Sen Dog” Reyes, nasally MC B-Real, percussionist Eric Bobo, and tour DJ, DJ Lord, has forged a profound connection with the city, rooted in mutual respect and shared experiences. This connection has grown stronger with each passing year, reflected in the group’s frequent visits and performances, including their upcoming concert at The Fillmore to celebrate 4/20, featuring fellow West Coast legends the Pharcyde and Souls of Mischief.
The Fire Station is teaming up with Ore Dock Brewing Company to host "Buds, Brews, and Beats," a fundraiser event aimed at supporting the Great Lakes Expungement Network (GLEN). The event is scheduled to take place at the Ore Dock on April 19th, 2024, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. In an effort to contribute to GLEN's mission of expunging cannabis-related records, the event will charge a $5 entry fee, with all proceeds directly benefiting the nonprofit.
Logan Stauber, Co-owner and co-CEO of The Fire Station, expressed enthusiasm about the collaboration, noting the significance of aligning the event with the cannabis industry's peak celebration period. "Partnering with Ore Dock, a like-minded ally in this cause, enhances our efforts to support individuals still impacted by past cannabis offenses," Stauber remarked.
The fundraiser will feature the return of Ore Dock’s Super Dank IPA, a specialty brew previously produced for The Fire Station’s 2022 Camp Cannabis event. The evening will also be animated by performances from three local bands: Ghoul for a Goblin, Realms, and No Expectations, promising an engaging mix of music and community spirit.
Amanda Courchaine, Ore Dock’s Curated Events Manager, shared her enthusiasm about the partnership. "Our previous collaborations with The Fire Station have been profoundly rewarding, and we are excited to continue this partnership through such a purposeful event," she stated.
This community-centric event not only seeks to aid in the expungement of cannabis records but also strengthens the bond between local businesses and the causes they support, fostering a more engaged and supportive community environment.
In celebration of the cannabis holiday on April 20th, Michigan-based dispensary Skymint has announced a special promotion, offering "free cannabis for a year" to one grand prize winner. The winner will receive a monthly stipend of $250 to spend on any Skymint-branded products, including merchandise and accessories.
The giveaway also includes prizes for other participants. Ten second-place winners will each receive a $100 DoorDash gift card, and fifty third-place winners will be awarded a limited edition Skymint T-shirt.
To enter the raffle, customers must spend a minimum of $75 at any of Skymint's 19 locations across Michigan, earning them one raffle ticket. Participants can increase their chances by entering daily until April 20th, with the winners being announced the following day.
"April 20th is our national holiday to celebrate legal cannabis in all its forms," said Beth Stone, Skymint's retail sales manager. "We are excited to welcome our customers across Michigan to join in the festivities and enjoy the Skymint experience. This day provides a perfect opportunity to show our appreciation to our customers in a significant way."
In addition to the raffle, Skymint is offering a 42% discount on all purchases made on April 20th at all its locations. Various stores will also host additional promotions and activities to mark the occasion.
House of Dank, a prominent cannabis retailer in Michigan, is gearing up to celebrate the annual 420 cannabis culture festival on Saturday, April 20th, 2024. All House of Dank locations across the state will engage in festivities from opening time until 6:00pm, welcoming customers aged 21 and over who possess valid government photo identification. These celebrations are set to be particularly special this year as they coincide with the grand opening of the 10th House of Dank outlet in Lansing, marking the beginning of the retailer's expansion with three new stores set to open throughout the year.
The day-long event promises a variety of activities and opportunities for patrons to enjoy. Each location will offer music, special product discounts, and the chance to win prizes through hourly raffles. Additionally, the first 50 customers at each store will receive a complimentary gift bag. Event details and store hours can be found on the retailer’s website at shophod.com.
Highlights of the 4/20 celebration include:
Moreover, attendees will have the chance to savor local cuisine from food trucks, enjoy music from some of Michigan’s top DJs, and explore merchandise from House of Dank’s own line. Over $20,000 in products and prizes will be distributed throughout the day.
Marvin Jamo, the owner of House of Dank and a known enthusiast of both cannabis and sunglasses, expressed his excitement about the event, describing it as a "cannabis family reunion." He emphasized the importance of celebrating the shared passion for cannabis within the community and showing appreciation for the retailer’s loyal customers.
House of Dank’s commitment to quality, expertise, and community well-being is evident in their approach to not only retailing premium cannabis products but also fostering a sense of community among cannabis enthusiasts in Michigan and beyond.
Last week, JARS Cannabis celebrated the grand opening of its latest outlet in Chesterfield Township, marking the establishment of Macomb County's third JARS location. The event featured a ceremonial ribbon-cutting attended by members of the township’s Board of Trustees and representatives from the Anchor Bay and Southeast Michigan chambers of commerce.
The new 3,100-square-foot retail space is Chesterfield’s inaugural recreational cannabis dispensary. Launched in February, this venue is part of the Troy-based company's expansion, being its 21st store in Michigan. The opening ceremony offered an array of activities including a food truck, exclusive giveaways, and significant discounts of 30% storewide, underlining JARS Cannabis’s commitment to nurturing an informed and inclusive cannabis community in the area.
The dispensary boasts a comprehensive product range, including a wide variety of flowers, pre-rolls, edibles, vapes, concentrates, topicals, and tinctures, catering to different customer preferences and price points. Additionally, it provides convenient shopping options such as curbside pickup and delivery services.
Historically, Chesterfield Township was among the numerous Michigan localities that opted out of issuing cannabis licenses following the statewide legalization of recreational cannabis in 2018. However, a successful petition initiated four years later swayed local opinion. The resulting referendum saw 57% of voters, from a total of 20,700 participants, supporting the legal sale and distribution of cannabis.
JARS Cannabis asserts that its operations contribute significantly to the local economy by generating employment opportunities and increasing tax revenues, thereby enhancing Chesterfield Township’s economic landscape.
Traverse City has reached the one-year milestone since the introduction of recreational cannabis sales, an event that was highly anticipated and, according to local stakeholders, well worth the wait. While many Michigan cities quickly launched recreational cannabis operations following the state's legalization in 2018, Traverse City took a more cautious approach, deliberating extensively on the best practices for implementation. The city's dispensaries only began selling recreational cannabis in March 2023.
The city manager of Traverse City, Liz Vogel, reported a significant financial boost from the state in the form of approximately $709,000, allocated from a 10 percent excise tax on statewide recreational cannabis sales. This payment, which equates to about $59,000 for each of the twelve active dispensaries in the city, will be an annual benefit. Currently, with no designated use for these funds, the city enjoys considerable flexibility in future spending.
The city initially granted 16 dispensary licenses, though several are still in the development stages. The decision on how to use the additional revenue will ultimately lie with the city commission. Discussions have ranged from enhancing local police resources to potentially earmarking funds for specific community projects, though no formal decisions have been made by the newly elected commission.
For local dispensaries, the introduction of recreational sales has been transformative. Justin Elias, president and co-founder of PUFF Cannabis, noted that while the delay in approving recreational sales impacted their finances, the new revenue stream has been robust, multiplying their income compared to medical-only sales. Elias emphasized the economic relief the new market has provided, helping to recoup losses from previous years.
Recreational sales have not only benefited established businesses but have also attracted tourists, further boosting the local economy. Traverse City, known for its picturesque setting and vibrant tourist industry, now offers another attraction for visitors who can easily purchase cannabis recreationally.
Local businesses have seen a positive response from both tourists and residents. Michael Thue, managing partner at Verts Neighborhood Dispensary, highlighted the enthusiasm from customers, particularly those visiting the city. His business focuses on locally sourced products, enhancing its appeal by supporting the regional cannabis industry.
Despite the success, some challenges remain. The market might face a potential contraction as competition intensifies. Both Elias and Thue predict a reduction in the number of operating dispensaries over time, suggesting that those with superior customer service and high-quality products are more likely to endure.
As Traverse City navigates the evolving landscape of recreational cannabis, stakeholders remain optimistic yet realistic about the challenges and opportunities ahead. The city and its cannabis businesses continue to adapt, aiming to sustain growth and support from the community.


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Money transfer network Western Union has launched a mobile payment app in Canada to enable domestic and cross-border money transfers. “The new app allows users instant, anytime, anywhere access to Western Union’s sophisticated physical and digital money transfer infrastructure, allowing them to send money to nearly every corner of the world in just a few clicks,” the company says. Consumers will also be able to view past and pending transactions and track money transfers from their mobile device.
- Garmin Pay expands to three new smartwatches
- Barclays files blockchain funds transfer and KYC patents
- More than half a billion Chinese consumers now use mobile payments
- Mastercard patent proposes combining blockchain with existing payments systems
- Shoppers prefer Apple Pay over Walmart Pay


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The European Central Bank is floating the idea of using instant payment rails to link up national card schemes as a means to break the duopoly enjoyed by Visa and Mastercard, who between them account for over 80% of all EU card transactions, according to finextra.com.
The ECB has for the past twelve years been seeking a mechanism to challenge the dominance of Visa and Mastercard in the European payments landscape. Interchange fee caps have brought a measure of control, but calls for banks to set up a rival third scheme to take on the might of the global giants and promote increased competition have so far fallen on deaf ears.
In a presentation at the American European Community Association in Brussels, ECB board member Yves Mersch lamented the bloc’s failure to implement a true Singe Euro Payment Area (Sepa) for cards.
„Cardholders cannot use their national payment cards to make payments across Europe unless they go through a global card payment scheme that can execute such intra-European payments,” he notes.
In this respect, the arrival of instant payments across the continent could be a game changer.
„The industry sees the implementation of a European infrastructure for instant payments as an opportunity to instantly clear and settle card transactions, which would offer a possible way of supporting the interlinking and interoperability of national card schemes,” he says. „Efforts to ensure the interoperability of schemes should be strengthened and should aim to foster a European identity, for example by using a common European logo to show users that their cards can be used across the EU.”
A more radical supposition entails the extension of instant payments to the point-of-sale, bypassing traditional card schemes altogether.
„For merchants, instant payments at the POI (point of interaction) could be a cost-efficient alternative to cards,” says Mersch. „Such solutions are currently emerging across Europe. It is important to ensure that they have pan-European reach so that end users can make and receive payments without restriction across national borders”
To this end, the Euro Retail Payments Board – set up by the ECB to help foster the development of an integrated market – has established a working group to analyse in detail the barriers to pan-European reach and usability and ways to overcome them.
„O singură provizie am făcut, de card, pentru că nu mai umblu cu banii în buzunar. Banii sunt cei mai periculoși când este vorba de răspândirea unei molimi. Am renunțat la cash. În rest, este o prostie să faci provizii. Dacă vine o molimă și nici nu știi când va ajunge, dacă ar fi să se întindă, pe cât timp să poți să faci provizii? Faci provizii pe trei săptămâni, pe patru săptămâni și mai departe?”, a spus consultantul.


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Foxconn Electronics, the manufacturing giant best known for making Apple's iPhone and iPad, has confirmed that it is looking to expand operations in North America, according to a new report.
"We are looking at doing more manufacturing in the US because, in general, customers want more to be done there," Louis Woo, a Foxconn spokesman, told Bloomberg Businessweek in a phone interview. He did not elaborate about which clients made the request, or reveal any specific plans.
The news comes after Apple chief Tim Cook confirmed this week that some parts of Mac production will come to the US starting next year. He conceded that Apple won't be working alone, and would be investing more than $100 million (£62.4 million) as part of the effort.
Word first spread back in November that Foxconn was mulling US.-based factories. The company was reportedly evaluating the possibility of setting up shop in several US cities such as Detroit and Los Angeles.
At the time, a Foxconn spokeswoman said that the company's chairman and CEO had only floated "the possibility of Foxconn providing opportunities for engineers in the US to visit the company's facilities in China for technical exchanges as part of a larger program to further develop and promote automation in the manufacturing sector."
The Taiwanese company, which has come under fire in recent years over labor rights issues, employs 1.6 million workers globally, and already has factories in California and Texas.
"Supply chain is one of the big challenges for US expansion," Woo told Bloomberg Businessweek."In addition, any manufacturing we take back to the US needs to leverage high-value engineering talent there in comparison to the low-cost labor of China."
Foxconn as of late hasn't exactly been depicted as a wonderful place to work, with various groups accusing the firm of worker abuses. Earlier this year, Apple ordered an audit of the Foxconn factories that produce its products, which showed excessive overtime and unsafe working conditions. Over the summer, it was reported that Foxconn was taking steps to rectify the problems.
Foxconn did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


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Alberta feeder cattle prices were steady to $2 per hundredweight (cwt) higher last week while values in the eastern Prairies were slightly softer. Buying interest for grass cattle was noted at many auction markets which caused lighter feeders to trade with a stronger tone.
The cattle complex seems to be suffering from sluggish consumer spending patterns. Lower-priced pork and poultry is attractive to the average price-conscious consumer. Wholesale beef prices jumped $10/cwt, with choice product reaching $195/cwt, which is near yearly highs. In the past, these higher prices for wholesale beef have been short-lived as consumer demand tends to drop off considerably, especially for higher-end cuts.
A small group of mixed steers weighing 475 pounds sold for $174/cwt east of Edmonton, which was considered good value. Exotic steers with medium flesh weighing 630 lbs. sold for $156/cwt in central Alberta. Top-quality Charolais-cross steers weighing 882 lbs. were quoted at $126/cwt, landed in southern Alberta feedlot. Red Angus-cross heifers weighing 750 lbs. traded at $123 landed in the Lethbridge area.
Despite the weaker Canadian dollar, Alberta packers were buying slaughter cattle in the range of $112-$115/cwt, down about $3/cwt on average from last week. Feedlot operators appear to be holding back on sales in hopes the stronger wholesale prices will eventually translate into higher fed prices. Feedlot margins are now in red ink by approximately $6/cwt. The ongoing drain of equity has caused feedlot operators to lower buying ideas for feeder cattle.
Record-high feedgrain prices have caused feeder cattle to trade $15-$20/cwt below year-ago levels. Barley acres for 2013 are expected to be unchanged to down 10 per cent, so Western Canada will experience another tight year of barley supplies. However, record corn acreage and average yields would result in a tidal wave of U.S. corn and DDGS imports into Western Canada next fall.
I’ve softened my view on the feeder market, as prices could remain relatively stagnant until late summer, when new-crop feedgrains start to come on the market. Replacement cattle are not getting any help from the fed market with the summer months showing a discount to nearby delivery.
— Jerry Klassen is a commodity market analyst in Winnipeg and maintains an interest in the family feedlot in southern Alberta. He writes an in-depth biweekly commentary, Canadian Feedlot and Cattle Market Analysis, for feedlot operators in Canada. He can be reached by email at [email protected] for questions or comments.


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Exclusive – Pret receives £185m cash injection from shareholders, completes further refinancing: Pret A Manger, the JAB Holdings-backed chain, has received a cash injection of £185m from shareholders and completed another refinancing to support the business through the pandemic. The refinancing has extended the £150m revolving credit facility it secured in May 2020 until December 2021 with an optional extension, subject to lenders’ consent, for a further six months. A further waiver of existing covenants, which has been in place since the second quarter of 2020, has been obtained for the period until September 2022. No dividends will be paid during the covenant waiver period. In the third quarter of 2020, legal proceedings against the company by customers based on operational incidents were concluded, resulting in no further action being taken against Pret. As a result, a provision of £2m was released. Pret stated: “Throughout 2020 and until to date, the covid-19 outbreak has had a significant impact on the operations in all the group’s markets. During 2020, the group underwent significant organisational restructuring to reduce its cost base. This included closing 39 Pret and 33 EAT branded shops in the UK and 22 shops in the US and reducing the number of employees through 3,771 UK redundancies and 1,292 US redundancies with a cost of £15.3m. As the situation continues to evolve, it is not practicable at this date to quantify the potential full financial impact of the outbreak on the group. It is likely to have a significant impact on the carrying amounts of both shop and right-of-use assets; these are non-adjusting post-balance sheet events. Various initiatives were taken to continue to protect the group’s ongoing liquidity. In March 2020, the group drew down £55m of its revolving credit facilities to provide ongoing liquidity to the group; during the remainder of 2020, a further £8m was drawn down such that, at the end of 2020, £88.5m of the £100m revolving credit facility was drawn. In May 2020, the group entered into new bank facilities totalling £150m to provide additional liquidity to the group. In addition, the group had agreed a four-quarter covenant waiver with its lenders from the second quarter of 2020 to the first quarter of 2021. In February 2021, the group obtained an equity injection of £185m from its existing shareholders and underwent a further refinancing to extend the additional backstop facilities totalling £150m to December 2021 with an optional extension, subject to lenders’ consent, for a further six months. In February 2021, the group repaid £88.5m of the revolving credit facility. All the supply chain financing liability of £73.1m outstanding as at 31 December 2019 has been repaid. At the date of signing the financial statements, the supply chain financing liability is £24.4m. On 16 October 2020, the group entered a shareholder standby facility to provide additional backstop liquidity. On 5 March 2021, this has been increased to £100m and extended until September 2022. After the balance sheet date, the company received £115.3m in funding from its parent entity, Pret A Manger. The Pret leadership team recognised, early on, during the pandemic, it was up to Pret to decide its own future and the business must adapt to the long-term economic and social changes that the pandemic accelerated. Pret has since fundamentally transformed its business model, delivering significant change in one year to meet the changes in consumer demand. At the heart of this transformation was establishing eight new trading channels, which are providing new revenue streams including the UK’s first coffee subscription service, a significantly expanded online delivery offer, a new range of Pret consumer packaged goods available through leading retailers, and a new dinner delivery menu. The evolution of the Pret business model to a multi-channel business has, therefore, started to reduce business exposure to the likely shift towards more home working. Extensive measures have also been taken to reduce the group’s cost base and minimise cash outflows, alongside utilising government support schemes to furlough colleagues, defer tax payments and benefit from UK business rates relief. The group received funding during 2020 and 2021 from the UK government under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.” The details were revealed as Pret reported revenue for its UK business was down slightly to £708.4m for the year ending 2 January 2020, compared with £710m the previous year. Adjusted Ebitda grew to £141.2m from £91.4m the year before. It made a pre-tax loss of £26m, compared with a profit of £48.8m the previous year. Meanwhile, the company’s US business reported revenue for the year ending 2 January 2020 stood at £179.2m, compared with £179.7m the year before. Adjusted Ebitda was up to £25.5m from minus £3.8m the previous year. It reported a pre-tax loss of £38.4m, compared with a loss of £30.8m the year before.
Brands with big UK growth plans lead the updated multi-site database, only available to Propel Premium subscribers:
The updated Propel Premium multi-site database, which will be sent to Premium subscribers next Friday (30 April) at midday, has gained an additional 84 companies during the past month, many of which have big growth ambitions in the UK. Subscribers will receive a 4,600-word report on the 84 new brands, concepts and growth companies. They include: Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen
, founded in the US in 1972, has announced plans to enter the UK this year, as has Japanese udon noodles and tempura restaurant company Marugame Udon
, with a July opening planned for Spitalfields and a second site at The O2 to follow. Others include Australia’s largest Mexican quick-service franchise Zambrero
and South Korea’s leading fried chicken brand Pelicana
. Doppio Malto
has chosen Glasgow for its first opening in the UK, with the owner citing Italy’s connection with the city for the decision – it is the first of 100 planned sites. Miso Group, co-founded by Canadian chef Adria Wu, is planning a UK rollout of a technology-led Middle Eastern-inspired concept called Operation:Falafel
. Hero Brands-operated healthy eating concept Choppaluna
, has announced a UK rollout, with two London sites being looked at to complement its flagship site in Bloomsbury. The debut site for JiJi’s
, a new Israeli-Japanese dining concept, will launch in London’s Islington Square development in June. Meanwhile, Australian entrepreneur Dennis Turner and former Deliveroo global head of restaurant strategy Cengiz Rahmioglu are to launch a Thai-focused concept called Burning Rose
. The exhaustive database now holds the details of 1,713 companies – and is only available to Propel Premium subscribers, who will receive the updated list on Friday, 30 April. The go-to database has the most comprehensive multi-site operator information in the sector – it provides company names, the people in charge, how many sites each firm operates, its trading name and its registered name at Companies House if different, and what each business specialises in. In a new feature this year, there is a synopsis of what the business does and significant news associated with it. Companies can now have an unlimited number of people receive access to Propel Premium for a year for £895 plus VAT – whether they are an operator or a supplier. The regular single subscription rate of £395 plus VAT for operators and £495 plus VAT for suppliers remains the same. Premium subscribers also receive access to Propel’s library of lockdown videos and Friday Wrap interviews and now also have access to a curated video library of the sector’s finest leaders and entrepreneurs, offering their insights on running outstanding businesses in the sector. In today's (Friday, 23 April) Premium Opinion column, Propel insights editor Mark Wingett looks at EG Group’s deal for Leon, where the brand goes next and the fight for roadside revenue. At the same time, he looks again at the rent situation. Propel Premium subscribers also receive their morning newsletter 11 hours early, at 7pm the evening before our 6am send-out; regular video content and regular exclusive columns from Mark Wingett. Email firstname.lastname@example.org to sign up.
Tim Hortons to expand to north east of England: Canadian cafe and bake shop Tim Hortons is to expand into the north east of England. SK Group, which is leading the rollout of Tim Hortons in the UK, will open a drive-thru in Washington this summer, with a site in Boldon opening shortly after. Located at Galleries Retail Park, the Washington venue, which will create more than 50 jobs, will offer dine-in for up to 105 guests and drive-thru services. Delivery options will also be made available to the local area. Tim Hortons will also be launching a drive-thru venue in nearby Boldon, creating a further 40 jobs. The two launches form part of the brand’s plan to create more than 2,000 jobs across the country, bringing Tim Hortons restaurants to every major town and city by 2022. Kevin Hydes, chief commercial officer of Tim Hortons franchise in the UK, said: “The north east has been an area of interest to us for a long time and so we’re thrilled to bring our first Tim Hortons restaurants to the region. We have a huge fan base here and have had many requests to bring the brand to the area, so we expect it to be hugely popular with the local community and fans from neighbouring cities.” Tim Hortons currently has 27 restaurants in the UK.


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In the wake of new malls opening up in our dusty town, many business people saw several business ideas that could be executed in these lavish structures. While banks, spas, restaurants and boutiques scampered for one-room space to rent, Elvis Sekyanzi and company, were looking for the biggest space on the malls. The Silk Events boss managed to get space at the Village Mall in Bugolobi where he opened up a new bar-Liquid Silk. And no, this is not an extension of Club Silk, but a different idea altogether.
The state of the art lounge got a financial boost from Johnnie Walker and it stands out as probably the most-sophisticated bar in Kampala at the moment. And the story doesn’t end yet; we have it on good authority that Sekyanzi and company are already in an expansion drive. According to reliable sources, Sekyanzi and his partners have already secured more space at the Acacia mall and construction of another branch of Liquid Silk are underway.
And just like the maiden Liquid Silk at the Village mall, this one is getting a financial boost from Johnnie Walker too.
The source told us that the Acacia Mall Liquid Silk is most likely to open doors to the public by end of next month!
Meanwhile, just like you the person reading this, so many people have been wondering how Sekyanzi and partners have been able to raise such funds to expand easily. Well, another source told us that Sekyanzi and his partners sold off a bigger percentage of Club Silk and decided to venture into bars as nightclub business was becoming more complex!
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Norway has not legalized recreational cannabis but typically possession of less than 15 grams is punished with a simple fine.
Furthermore, in 2017 the Norwegian parliament voted in favor of a measure to decriminalize drug use, shifting the focus of drug policies towards treatment. In February 2021, Norway’s government proposed a bill to decriminalize possession, under which possession of up to 10 grams of cannabis would no longer be punishable under the law. But just two months later, the move was scuttled by Norway’s main opposition party.
Penalties for cannabis offenses in Norway
Though it failed for now, the entire decriminalization process is perhaps counterintuitive for a country that has what are on paper quite strict drug laws, that do not differentiate between hard and soft drugs. Under Norwegian law, anyone who is convicted of manufacturing, importing, or trafficking in illegal drugs can be imprisoned for up to 2 years, while in severe cases, the penalty can reach up to 15 years imprisonment.
Regardless, minor cannabis violations like consumption or possession are typically punished with a simple fine.
Medical cannabis in Norway
Since 2018, the Norwegian Medicines Agency allows doctors approved by the agency to prescribe medical cannabis for patients on a case-by-case basis.
According to the Norwegian Medicines Agency, the doctor must send an application for approval to the agency, but does not need to contact the Norwegian Directorate of Health for approval.
The agency does not have an official list of health conditions that are eligible for treatment with medical cannabis, but the doctor is required to provide justification for why conventional pharmaceuticals won’t suffice for the patient, and their assessment of why the patient may benefit from medical cannabis.
As of today, the only cannabis-based medication available for patients in Norway is Sativex, though patients can apply to use products like Marinol and Cesamet. It is unclear how many patients actually receive medical cannabis in the country, but the program is typically described as being very restrictive, with little to no actual access to cannabis.
According to Prohibition Partners, approved patients in Norway have used medical cannabis to treat conditions such as debilitating pain or discomfort, cancer, epilepsy, conditions that cause spasms, such as Tourette’s syndrome and MS.
How do Norwegians generally view marijuana?
A 2021 study took a nationwide sample of 49,688 university and college students and found that 15.3% reported past-year cannabis use, and 23% support the legalization of cannabis. In addition, 29.2% reported that they perceive cannabis as being “low risk.”
While cannabis (which is most-often consumed as hashish in Norway) is the most-widely used illegal drug in Norway, a 2019 report asserted that Norway and Sweden have the lowest rate of cannabis consumption in Europe. That said, a 2021 study found that “proportions of past year cannabis use have increased among Norwegian adolescents in recent years.”
When it comes to medical professionals, they may have a more positive outlook on cannabis than is suggested by the country’s restrictive medical cannabis regulations.
A survey of 102 physicians in 2019 found that 44.1% believe that medical cannabis is a legitimate treatment option and that 86% see it as a therapeutic agent for treating cancer and chemotherapy-induced side effects.
“This study found acceptance of cannabis as a therapeutic agent as well as acceptance towards MC being introduced by prescription in Norway,” the researchers wrote.
According to the Norway branch of NORML, “Strong voices among academics such as Willy Pedersen, a professor of sociology at the University of Oslo and Paul Larsson at the Police College officially support legalisation. So did recently deceased and internationally renowned professor of criminology, Nils Christie.”
Is CBD legal in Norway?
Cannabidiol products are regulated by the Medicines Agency, and can only be acquired with a doctor’s prescription, unless they have zero THC. It is illegal to privately import CBD products to Norway, even with a prescription.
As Norway is not a member of the European Union, it does not have the same legal stance on hemp as the rest of the EU, which considers industrial hemp legal as long as it has less than 0.2% THC.
Can you grow your own weed?
Cultivation of cannabis is illegal in Norway for any purpose – recreational or medicinal – and any arrested for cultivation could potentially face serious penalties, including a lengthy prison sentence.
Visiting Norway – can you buy or bring marijuana products?
It is illegal to bring marijuana into Norway, even if it is for medicinal purposes and you have a prescription in your country of residence. There are no legal cannabis retail outlets in Norway, and the only way to purchase marijuana is on the underground market, and at your own risk.
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Last quarter, HP comfortably beat Wall Street's estimates, boosted by better-than-expected performance in Enterprise Services and Printing, as well as savings from the firm's massive restructuring efforts and improved operations.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are looking for HP to report revenue of $27.29 billion and earnings of 86 cents a share, down from $29.67 billion and $1 a share in the same period last year.
"We believe HP has several levers to improve its operational performance in FY2014," wrote Keith Bachman, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets, in a note released on Wednesday. "We believe that it can report positive EPS growth in FY2014 even with declining revenues."Bachman, who raised his HP target price to $30 from $24, pointed to the potential profit impact of the company's restructuring. "We think HP's stock can grind higher," he wrote. "We are surprised that HP has not seen greater benefit from restructuring thus far." The analyst, who rates HP "market perform" also raised his 2013 earnings estimate to $3.59 from $3.52 and his 2014 earnings estimate to $3.85 from $3.60. The PC maker's stock has risen more than 78% this year, as Whitman attempts to get HP back on track. The CEO has earned praise for her efforts to turn around the tech giant, specifically her transformation of the company's balance sheet. The former eBay (EBAY) chief is 20 months into an ambitious five-year plan to revitalize HP, and recently said that the company's turnaround is "just a bit" ahead of schedule. Whitman has described fiscal 2013 as "a fix and rebuild year," with "recovery and expansion," "acceleration" and "industry-leading competition" characterizing the years 2014 through 2016. The CEO replaced the ousted Leo Apotheker in September 2011 and has worked hard to streamline the tech giant's vast operations and set a clear strategic direction. Key moves include nixing Apotheker's highly controversial plan for a possible PC spinoff and merging the company's PC and printer divisions in an attempt to combat falling hardware sales. In June, Whitman also shuffled the leadership of the firm's Printing and Personal Systems group (PPS).
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Rainbow Six: Siege has undoubtedly become one of Ubisoft’s greatest success stories. Though the game initially launched to a modest response due in part to a lack of content, the game has seen continued support from both Ubisoft and the game’s fans. Almost 6 years after its initial release, Rainbow Six: Siege has now surpassed 70 million players.
Announced during Ubisoft’s most recent earnings call, the publisher revealed that the tactical multiplayer first-person shooter had added 15 million new players over the course of 2020, bringing the total number of registered players to 70 million.
Commenting on this success, Ubisoft’s CEO Yves Guillemot said “What’s amazing about this game is that it continues to have robust growth”. While there is no denying that Rainbow Six: Siege is an incredibly successful title, Ubisoft’s reluctance to give exact details on actual copies sold does muddy the waters somewhat when trying to accurately detail just how successful the game is.
Regardless of whether ‘registered players’ means actual copies sold, or whether it includes all those that have taken part in one of the many free weekend trials, there’s no denying that Rainbow Six: Siege has proven itself to be a long-term success.
As reported by Dean Takahashi, Guillemot’s future hopes for Rainbow Six: Siege is that the game will receive a further “boost as it returns to physical esports events over time”. It will be interesting to see just how much longer Ubisoft plans to support Rainbow Six: Siege – especially with the recent release of the next-generation versions.
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KitGuru says: Do you play Rainbow Six: Siege? How many hours have you put into the game? Do you think the game will surpass 100 million registered players? Let us know down below.