text:
The king of search introduces a tool that can respond to questions with text summarising data gathered online in response to ChatGPT’s challenge. The search engine giant revealed today at its annual I/O conference that it will leverage generative AI technology, like ChatGPT, to enhance results. The business is releasing a test version of its renowned search engine that includes text generation like that used by ChatGPT and other cutting-edge chatbots.
Google’s redesigned search still requires users to enter a query, and it still returns connections to other websites, content snippets, and advertisements as results. However, in other cases, the top of the page will have text created by AI that compiles data from many online sources and links to those sources and web pages. A user can ask trailing questions to get more explicit information.
A few paragraphs summarising the coronation of Britain’s new king is the answer received when asked about the same. When asked a question regarding motorcycles, Google’s algorithms can provide a list of bullet-point summaries of product reviews from various websites and links to online shops where a customer can buy. A new tool called Search Labs will make the updated version of search available to users in the US, but it will not be turned on by default or for everyone who uses Google.
Compared to ChatGPT, Google’s AI generative search is far more subdued, forgoing an anthropomorphized avatar and steering clear of potentially divisive subjects like politics and expert medical or financial advice. Some questions were denied by the tool answer, like, whether Joe Biden is a good president or not and the information about different US states’ abortion laws. Google’s generative AI product denied resolving any such queries.
It’s time to watch and compare, which one comes on your priority list, a leading search engine that works on genuine and trusted paraments, or a smoother, faster yet not-so-reliable mode of searching content.
Do let us know in the comment box!


text:
Konami’ annual Football simulation game will see a complete revamp for next year’s PES 2022.
HRevealed through a new trailer for the next-gen football game, PES 2022 will not be powered by the developer’s proprietary FOX Engine, created by Hideo Kojima, instead opting for the use of Epic’s Unreal Engine.
Konami assures players that the switch to Unreal Engine will allow them to “dazzle you with staggering improvements to all areas of the game. Expect more realistic player models and animations, enhanced physics, photorealistic visuals, and much much more.”
PES 2022 will enter testing in mid-2021 with the game internally scheduled to launch that Holiday season. The title will presumably be released for current and next-gen consoles due to the series’ prior reliance on cross-gen support, much like EA’s FIFA series.

domain: news


text:
The ASX 200 also closed flat on Monday amid a fresh outbreak of the pandemic in Sydney, following a fall on Friday
Losses from miners and major banks caused Australia’s stock market to finish lower on Tuesday, after a reportedly new strain of COVID-19 in the UK hit European stocks and Sydney battles with its own resurgence of the virus.
The S&P/ASX200 finished 1.05 per cent lower on Tuesday at 6599.6.
BHP Group was down 1.8 per cent to $42.89, Rio Tinto fell 2.7 per cent to $115.41 and Fortescue Metals Group dropped 2.3 per cent to $23.48.
The bottom performing stocks at close were Silver Lake Resources down 6.79 per cent and Ramelius Resources down 5.97 per cent.
The ASX 200 also closed flat on Monday in the face of a fresh outbreak of the pandemic in Sydney. That followed a fall on Friday.
Bio-tech company Mesoblast closed 5.7 per cent lower at $2.17, off the back of the company’s announcement last week that its COVID-19 treatment trial was not living up to expectations.
Meanwhile, oil prices plunged as tighter restrictions and fresh travel curbs sparked worries about a slower recovery in fuel demand.
As a result, the Australian energy index tumbled more than 2 per cent to hit its lowest since November 23.
A2 Milk company was the market’s best performer, closing almost 5 per cent higher. And superannuation management company Netwealth closed the second-best performer, adding 2.9 per cent to its share price on Tuesday.
Preliminary retail data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics for November has shown a massive surge in sales of 7 per cent.
That data shows the surge in shopping as Melbourne was released from its second lockdown and Victoria’s borders started to reopen with other states. Black Friday sales were another sweetener.
Overall, Victoria saw a large rise of 21 per cent. Excluding Victoria, retail sales rose 2.7 per cent. Overall, turnover increased 13.2 per cent when compared to November 2020.
The articles are for information purposes only and Precise Investors shall not be held responsible for any errors, omissions or inaccuracies within it. Any rules or regulations mentioned within the website are those relevant at the time of publication and may not be the most up-to-date.
Precise Investors does not endorse any of the products or services that appear on it or are linked to it and are not liable for any action that you may take as a result of the content of this website, or losses or damage you may incur doing so.
There is no obligation to purchase anything but, if you decide to do so, you are strongly advised to consult a professional adviser before making any investment decisions.
Please remember that investments of any type may rise or fall and past performance does not guarantee future performance in respect of income or capital growth; you may not get back the amount you invested.


text:
לקראת החגים: זינוק בביקוש לסלי מזון בירושלים
עמותות הסיוע ברחבי העיר מדווחות על עלייה בביקוש מצד משפחות מתקשות – השנה יחולקו לקראת ערב ראש השנה אלפי סלי מזון. העמותות פונות לירושלמים לתרום ככל יכולתם. הפרטים בפנים
For the Holidays: A surge in demand for food baskets in Jerusalem
Aid organizations across the city are reporting an increase in demand from struggling families – this year, thousands of food baskets will be distributed for New Year’s Eve. The NGOs appeal to Jerusalemites to contribute as much as they can.
This year, ahead of Rosh Hashanah, which will take place in 10 days, September 29, 19, thousands of Jerusalemite families will have difficulty turning to nonprofits and aid organizations throughout the city. About 45 percent of Jerusalem residents are below the poverty line, of which about 25 percent are from the Jewish sector – according to data from the 2017 Jerusalem Institute for Policy Studies. For the holiday, many nonprofits have embarked on a campaign to distribute thousands of food baskets to families in need for the holiday season. One of the non-profit organizations in Jerusalem that does not stop working for the holidays day and night is “Naomi’s Grace.” This year, the association will distribute thousands of food baskets to families in neighborhoods around the city. The association says that in the last week there has been an increase in the number of referrals and they expect that in the coming week they will receive more requests for assistance. This year, the organization distributes a food basket that includes products that families need for the holiday – such as honey, pomegranates, wine, honey cake and more, along with the basic products that exist in a food basket that the organization distributes throughout the year – flour, salt, sugar and more. Along with the products the association distributes purchase coupons to the various supermarket chains. The association, it should be noted, will distribute 250 food baskets this year to Holocaust survivors in Jerusalem. The “Naomi’s Grace” association can be contacted at the national hotline: 4549 *.
The “Tachlit” charity, which distributes food baskets in Jerusalem all year, is stepping up activities for the New Year and the holiday season. Founded 21 years ago, the nonprofit says they distribute more than 1,500 food baskets every week to needy, single-parent families, patients, orphans, widows and residents who are facing financial problems. The association receives thousands of inquiries via email, fax and telephone. The “Tachlit” basket is made up of 14 kg of fruits and vegetables, with some families also receiving basic products such as oil, rice, sugar, legumes, canned goods and baked goods, and some receive chicken and fish. “For the holiday we are in a division marathon,” says a conversation with “All the Town” Aaron Cohen, CEO of Tachlit Association. Alongside the distribution of food baskets, Tachlit is working to help families in need with various home products. Volunteers in the organization work to transport patients to hospitals across the country. The “Tachlit” association can be contacted at the national hotline: 6031 *.
Helping Hand Coalition Israel works to help people in need, especially Holocaust survivors. This week, the association says that the distribution is done in advance and includes the distribution of thousands of food baskets filled with various products such as basic products, gift packages including wine, food labels, hygiene and toiletries, kitchen tools and more. These days, the association is giving away free food to thousands of Holocaust survivors and shopping bags. The operation lasted for about a month also in the Mevaseret Zion and Meta Yehuda area. Recipients of assistance include needy families, single mothers, as well as single seniors. “We are amazed and saddened by the plight of thousands of Holocaust survivors each time and love to help them otherwise, without our assistance, they will not be able to celebrate Rosh Hashanah,” said Luke Gasiorowski, director of Helping Hand Coalition Israel, the son of the organization’s chairman, Andre Gasiorowski.
Helping Hand Coalition Israel is an organization that works to help Holocaust survivors across the country through a variety of actions and measures, including the Shalom House project operated by some 25 local authorities and allows Holocaust survivors to enjoy a hot meal and social gathering, importing containers with private clothing that is distributed free to survivors, food coupons for use by Holocaust survivors, documenting Holocaust survivors’ memories, calling for medical help, initiating Bar Mitzvah celebrations for Holocaust survivors who did not celebrate it as a child, assisting and participating in the parade of life, and more. The Helping Hand Coalition Association can be contacted on 04-6897030. Be Peace: Assistance to Multiple and Single Parent Families Another nonprofit that handles food baskets for families in Jerusalem for New Year’s Eve is “Be Peace.” This week, the “Be Peace” organization said that they are expected to distribute some 250 food baskets for needy families in the Jerusalem area, Netivot and central areas before the New Year with a target of 1,500 people. The food baskets are packed with a variety of dry products and they also come with 15kg of fruits and vegetables and food coupons that families can buy for chicken and fish for the holiday. About a week ago, “Hayal Shalom” opened its registration to receive food baskets for families in need on New Year’s Eve. The “Hayes Shalom” association can be contacted at 058-4021443.
The organization that helps families in need throughout the year, the “Sakhi” organization, is expected to work full force this coming week. The organization states that they are conducting a food basket distribution campaign across Jerusalem, with about 500 volunteers, mostly youth, participating. About 2,000 baskets for the Jerusalem families. Avraham Hayon, CEO of Sakhi, notes that “as long as it depends on Sakhi’s youth – they will not leave a single family without food on the holiday. This year, too, all of Sakhi’s mercy patrols are recruiting to make sure families can sit around the holiday table. The teens, who come from the social and geographic periphery, help thousands of families in Israel every week. They choose the giving way – and that changes their lives completely. In Sakhi boys and girls – they won’t leave a single family without food at the holiday table.” The SAHI not only distributes food to families in need, but also developed a unique educational model a decade ago, in which teens living in neighborhoods in the geographic and social periphery in Israel set up a patrol to help those in need in the neighborhood. Local assistance actions as needed, such as home improvement, event organization, disability assistance, etc. The youth develop a sense of ability and community affiliation, while helping hundreds of families in the neighborhood. SAHI operates in dozens of cities across the country, with 37 different units comprised of boys and girls ages 13-18, the centers of activity are Jerusalem, the center of the country and the southern region. SAHI Organization: 054-7192926 www.sahi-israel.org
Written by: Hadassah Schneider


text:
Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany’s international broadcaster, has recently appointed Media Specs Corporate Solutions, the media and business solutions specialists, as its distribution and marketing agency in GCC.
The appointment came as a result of a successful event that took place in Dubai which was part of DW’s television re-launch for the Middle East market.
“We are very excited to work with a brand like DW. We believe there is a lot of communication potential for the brand and we are looking forward to supporting DW’s content and media platform’s strategy in the region. This partnership will allow us to deliver more efficient, consistent, and urbane support for the distribution and marketing activities,” said Raghid Eid, CEO of Media Specs.
“Media Specs have proved their level of creativity and professionalism during the re-launch of DW in the UAE market and we are looking forward to more successful collaborations. This is the debut of many activities to come, as DW plans to increase awareness among its target audience and to expand its platform’s contribution to the local market through new programs and content, which will be distributed using various platforms,” said Dr. Naser Shruof, DW’s Head of Distribution for Africa / Middle East.
DW (ARABIA) was re-launched in the Middle East on September 12, 2011, with a new grid and content, offering a diverse range of magazines and programs in Arabic during primetime, and focusing mainly on establishing a dialogue between Europe and the Arab world. So far, the success stories have started to add up with in the first few months.
Media Specs Corporate Solutions (MSCS) is based in Dubai, UAE, specialized in providing strategic and tactical solutions for media, business marketing and communication companies. The company aims to offer a different level of services, by helping its clients with identifying, creating, and implementing their strategic goals, as well as supporting them to achieve their overall growth plans.


text:
Recently we have seen the vinyl media platform making a bit of a comeback as sales begin to climb again after years of falling, which has been helped with quality turntables still available. Now we have news that the platform that begun the demise of Vinyl compact discs, could be killed off next year.
There are now reports that EMI, Sony, and Universal may be thinking of doing away with the platform by the end of 2012 in favor of digital downloads. TechRadar are reporting via Side-Line that sources from inside the record labels say the end of the platform is in sight. Currently though the major labels have not officially commented on the rumor.
It is being claimed that the only CDs to remain after 2012 will be special editions, and will be sold mainly by online retailer Amazon. These will only be available from the biggest of artists as well. The remaining retailers that sell the platform such as HMV in the UK will take a further knock.
If true it will be good news for Amazon though as it continues to take on Apple with its iTunes service. It already has an online music store, but with the promise with limited edition discs it will offer consumers something Apple can’t.
There will be many consumers who won’t be happy though as not everyone uses an iPod or something similar. Other people who do own such a device may still want to purchase hard copies of their music though.
If digital downloads do replace CDs you have to wonder what will be the next media platform to take center stage next? Do you still purchase CDs?
*Identifying Monetised Links - outgoing links that we monetise are marked with an '*' symbol.


text:
Earlier this month we reported that Messenger was working on and testing HTML5 games on Messenger. Now, Facebook is rolling out the feature to 30 countries on iOS and Android!
Instant Games are what Facebook calls “a new HTML5 cross-platform gaming experience.” Designed both for Messenger and Facebook News Feed, optimised for mobile and web. In other words, if you just want to play a simple game, you will be able to “easily discover” and play one on Facebook and Messenger, without actually downloading any additional apps.
Its Messenger integration also gives players the ability to share and play games with their friends. To go to Instant Games on Messenger, you need to tap the “game controller” icon below the text field.
In the blog post announcing the feature, Alissa Ju, explained that Instant Games will offer
[quote]a fun and social experience featuring score-based games, leaderboards, and group thread conversations to challenge and compete against anyone on Messenger.[/quote]
Instant Games can be played on Facebook News Feed as well. This allows “a seamless cross-platform experience” for people to find and play games, either through their own searches, but also through recommendations and challenges.
[quote]a dedicated Instant Games bookmark is also available; where people can view and instantly replay all their favorite titles they previously enjoyed across both platforms.[/quote]
Instant Games is now available in 30 countries and can be found on iOS version 8 or later, and Android version 5 or later. At the moment, there are 17 Instant Games for you to search for and play, including “popular titles from arcade classics to action to other modern favourites.”
Rest assured that there will be many more soon. With legendary gaming companies like TAITO or Konami partnering up with Facebook to bring titles to Instant Games, we are sure there are interesting times ahead.
Koichi Ishii, President at TAITO CORPORATION commented on Instant Games, saying
[quote]We are very happy and excited about this partnership to let game players around the world play SPACE INVADERS again,[/quote]
Instant Games is in closed beta, so game developers can register here.
You might also like
More from Facebook
Facebook Hotline is a slightly different take on Clubhouse that puts more power in the hands of attendees who can …
The Rise Initiative Facebook began in Brazil to aid ad agency professionals is now expanding to Canada, Italy, Singapore, and …
Netflix Bangers, the Facebook community run by, global publisher LADbible Group, has today hit the milestone of one million members.


text:
June Almond Market Shipment Report
Posted On July 12, 2012
The NASS Objective Estimate for the 2012 California almond crop was released on June 29 at 2.1 billion lbs. Given the trend of steady growth in global almond consumption, supplies will once again be tight in the 2012 crop. In the 2011 crop year, shipments of California almonds increased by 14%, following a 13% increase the prior year. Shipments will be at or above 1.9 billion by this year’s end. A 2.1-billion-lb. crop will provide no more than ~2.05 billion net lbs., restricting global growth opportunities.
The 2012 crop harvest is shaping up on a more normal pace than the last two years, when crops were harvested late. Even so, industry capacity will be thoroughly taxed well into 2013 to keep up with continued growth in the U.S., Europe, China, the Middle East and the rest of Asia. Last year, capacity for prompt deliveries was tight until spring.
The ABC Position report was released on July 11, with shipments for the month at 141.3 million lbs., an increase of 4.7% over last year’s crop of 135 million lbs. The bigger increase will come in July, when shipments will significantly exceed the 109 million lbs. shipped the prior year.
Market activity was light last week, as the U.S. celebrated Independence Day mid-week. With a little time to digest the Objective Estimate, buying interest is beginning to pick up and should be at full throttle before the end of July.


text:
Here’s your morning roundup of the biggest marketing, advertising and media industry news and happenings. Send tips, suggestions and complaints to email@example.com
KOHL’S CHANGING UP MEDIA STRATEGY: Kohl’s Corp. will change up its media strategy and partner with AwesomenessTV for a new clothing line and Web series in the hopes of reaching coveted teen eyeballs, WSJ reports. Kohl’s move is far more than just a media buy. AwesomenessTV has made a scripted video series featuring two of its stars that will highlight the clothing line and whose name “Life’s So. R.a.d.” echoes the “S.o. R.a.d.” name of the clothing line. Plus, Kohl’s will buy ads promoting the “S.o. R.a.d” line on AwesomenessTV’s 54 million subscriber-strong network of YouTube channels. Kohl’s, which has struggled with declining sales recently, is clearly trying to seize on AwesomenessTV’s appeal to the young female audience. For AwesomenessTV, which was purchased last year by Dreamworks Animation, the deal helps diversify its revenue into merchandising and branded content. Creators on YouTube have to stomach the platform’s sizable cut of their ad revenue, giving creators a good reason to look elsewhere for cash.


text:
Last month, as part of BakerHostetler’s “Look Back, Look Ahead: Advertising and Marketing Law in 2021 & 2022” webinar series, partners Craig A. Hoffman and Victoria Weatherford presented on recent trends and predictions on state attorney general enforcement. The following summarizes our 10 predictions for state attorneys general enforcement in 2022.
Prediction No. 1: Upcoming Attorney General Elections Will Induce High-Profile Investigations
In 2022, 30 states and one U.S. territory will hold elections for attorney general. We expect the large number of elections to increase the public profile of state attorneys general in 2022, and expect state AGs seeking reelection to use their offices as a pulpit from which to increase their visibility in the press and the media. We expect to see an increase in state AGs using the media to showcase “wins” as a way to jump-start campaign efforts. Likewise, there is an expectation that attorneys general — especially those up for election this year — will embark on more high-profile enforcement and litigation against well-known companies and take on more “hot button” issues. Companies facing state attorney general scrutiny in 2022 will want to carefully consider the potential public relations repercussions and opportunities for collaboration with state AGs to craft the public narrative in any resolution or settlement.
Prediction No. 2: More Federal-State Partnerships
Both FTC Chair Lina Khan and CFPB Chair Rohit Chopra recently emphasized in public comments the importance of state attorneys general in enforcing federal consumer protection and consumer financial laws and their intent to share more resources with state attorneys general in 2022. Khan and Chopra also stated their intent to partner more with state AGs; we expect this partnership to occur with both Democrat-led AG offices and bipartisan coalitions of state AG offices.
Chopra, at the end of 2021, also encouraged direct enforcement by state AGs of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA), which would permit state AGs to collect civil penalties from $5,000 to $1 million per day for certain violations. We expect state AGs to act on the green light provided by Chopra to file new CFPA enforcement actions in 2022. Recent history suggests that the state attorneys general will use federal consumer financial laws to pursue deceptive marketing and advertising claims against companies that provide banking services, student aid services, and mortgages and reverse mortgages, among other services.
Prediction No. 3: Republican-Led Attorneys General Go It Alone
Republican-led attorneys general will lead new robust enforcement both as independent states and with partisan and bipartisan coalitions. These attorneys general will continue to challenge the Biden administration, emphasizing what they perceive as its overreach in combating COVID-19 and its underreach in combating illegal immigration.
The state of Texas, for example, has already filed multiple high-profile enforcement cases in 2022. Notably, in January, Texas independently sued Google for allegedly false and misleading endorsements of its Pixel phone. Texas filed this first-in-the-nation suit before any federal or multistate attorneys general coalition could initiate a similar action. Texas also led a bipartisan coalition of state AGs in another lawsuit against Google related to alleged “dark patterns” and misleading features to induce consumers to permit location tracking. Both lawsuits are pending and, as they unfold, will illuminate how Republican-led state AG offices approach enforcement in 2022.
Prediction No. 4: Connecting Consumer Marketing to Antitrust
Khan and the head of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division recently discussed the connection between consumer marketing violations and antitrust harms. Khan expressed her view that false and misleading advertising leads to improper market consolidation and antitrust issues, and vice versa. Khan’s novel views of marketing harms may foreshadow how federal and state attorneys general will work together in 2022 to pursue novel types of consumer marketing law and antitrust violations.
With or without federal collaboration, states have direct federal antitrust law enforcement authority as well as state antitrust law enforcement authority. We expect that new iterations of antitrust and marketing harm will likely begin with enforcement against larger market participants and companies with a history of antitrust scrutiny.
Prediction No. 5: Focus on Technology and Platforms
We expect to see state attorneys general across the country focus on allegedly deceptive uses of technology. Not only do we expect to see investigations and enforcement against well-known technology companies, but we expect to see state AGs look beyond search and social media to target smaller and lesser-known companies as well.
We expect that online platforms that facilitate third-party sales will also see increased state AG enforcement related to allegedly false or misleading sales that are facilitated through those platforms. Several state attorneys general highlighted consumer protection concerns in a recent letter to the CFPB in which they insisted on stronger consumer safeguards for electronic payment applications.
Prediction No. 6: Use of Artificial Intelligence and Algorithms Showcase Dark Patterns
Numerous state attorneys general across the country have expressed concern with and advocated for investigative scrutiny of businesses that use artificial intelligence and algorithms to inform their marketing and advertising practices to consumers.
Without sweeping federal laws on this topic, we expect to see states pass legislation in the coming years that restricts the use of such algorithms — creating yet another patchwork of regulation for companies to comply with. We may also see state AGs bring more direct CFPA enforcement actions related to consumer financial products that allegedly offer different financial terms to consumers based exclusively on credit risks.
Likely areas for potential state attorneys general investigation and enforcement include the insurance, banking, and consumer goods and services industries.
Prediction No. 7: Robocalls and Auto Renewals
State attorneys general have prosecuted Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) claims for many years now. Indeed, state AGs held a 2021 Robocall Virtual Summit, and this business practice is reported to be the No. 1 consumer complaint to state AG offices. Given strong public support for enforcement, we expect to continue to see aggressive enforcement of the TCPA in 2022 and beyond.
A similar yet new trend may receive more investigation and enforcement attention in 2022: automatic subscription renewals (i.e., negative option marketing). Indeed, Delaware and Colorado recently passed laws that forbid companies from auto-renewing subscriptions without consumers’ consent. Expect to see more states pass similar laws in the future.
Prediction No. 8: Online Account Takeovers Will Continue
Unauthorized access to a customer’s online account — or ATOs — is often driven by credential stuffing (a botnet using credentials stolen from other companies to test them against a company’s account login page). Access to the account is then sometimes monetized.
The New York Office of the Attorney General (NY OAG) in 2021 investigated 17 companies after credentials for online accounts of customers of those companies were identified as available through online forums. The NY OAG, acknowledging that ATOs are prevalent and unavoidable, issued its Business Guide for Credential Stuffing Attacks in January 2022, which identified four areas of safeguards to protect customers.
Prediction No. 9: Data Breach Enforcement
This is a relatively safe prediction: Security incidents will continue to be disclosed, and state and federal regulators will continue to enforce them.
Prediction No. 10: Continued Privacy Patchwork
Expect to see more states enact privacy laws, each combining some mix of provisions based on its unique state approach, other state laws and international laws like Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation. Practitioners will continue to lament the challenges of complying with laws that are not easy to harmonize and talk about how a comprehensive federal law would fix that (while also saying that they have been saying the same thing for years).
As states have the opportunity to observe the successes and shortfalls of other states’ privacy laws, we expect to see new state privacy laws expand beyond the commonly implemented “notice and consent” regime. Indeed, some state enforcers already have criticized this legal framework of privacy rights as inadequate. We expect to see states discuss new possible privacy paradigms, such as laws to cover the collection and use of data to address the perceived negative consequences of artificial intelligence and algorithms.


text:
The price of stolen user credentials varies depending on the popularity of the Internet service or application for which they could be used
So warned data security specialist Imperva. According to the firm’s chief technology officer, Amichai Shulman, the price of a file of user credentials – known as a ‘dump’ in hacking circles – depends greatly on the Internet service(s) where they can be used.
“Just five years ago, the illegal trade in credit card details was a rising problem for the financial services industry, as well as their customers, with platinum and corporate cards being highly prized by the fraudsters,” he said.
“Today, however, there are reports of Twitter credentials changing hands for up to $1,000 (£628) owing to the revenue generation that is possible from a Web 2.0 services account. This confirms our observations that credentials can fetch a high sum according to both the popularity of the application, and the ‘popularity’ of the account in question,” he added.
According to Imperva, the “going rate” for various web applications and services can vary widely. For example a Hotmail account is worth $1.50 (94 pence), whereas a Gmail account is worth $80 (£50).
Shulman believes that the disparity between the two prices is because Hotmail (as a service) “has fallen out of favour of serious Internet users, while Gmail’s all-round flexibility means it is central service for business users.”
Shulman said that this means that Gmail credentials can also give access to a range of Google cloud services, including Google Docs and Adword accounts.
“Google Docs,” Shulman explained, “can contain valuable additional information on the legitimate owner, while an Adwords account can allow criminals to manipulate existing and trusted search engine results.”
And Shulman believes it is a similar story with Twitter accounts, “but with the added dimension of the immediacy of a rapid-fire social networking connection.”
This was almost certainly the reason why it was reported that Twitter had blocked the accounts of some users, whilst they changed their passwords.
“Twitter accounts are so valuable to criminals that they will use almost any technique to harvest user credentials, including targeted phishing attacks. Once a fraudster gains access to a Twitter account, they can misuse it in a variety of ways to further their fraudulent activities,” he said.
“If this isn’t a wake-up call to anyone with multiple IDs that use the same password, I don’t know what is. Internet users – especially those with business accounts – need to use different passwords for different services, or they could face the disastrous consequences of taking a slack approach to their credentials,” he added.


text:
WorldTrademarkReview.com published an article about an upcoming auction of over 900 trademark regs in Latvia. Michael Gleissner has filed approximately 6800 trademarks according to the article. I have sold and brokered domain names to Mick in the past. There was never any mention of trademarks or any problems. I was surprised when all the trademark registrations started happening.
From the article:
The existence of an auction of Gleissner-related trademarks will be a significant blow for the multimillionaire. As WTR has extensively reported on, Gleissner is the filer of approximately 6,800 trademarks and owner of 6,900 domain names across the world in a disruptive portfolio-building exercise that began around 2014. In that time, the businessman has claimed ownership of hundreds of terms – usually generic single-word terms and sometimes related to major brands – resulting in legal disputes in various jurisdictions. While there are hundreds of trademarks related to Gleissner found in the United States (1,117), Benelux (1,010), the United Kingdom (995), Canada (861), Portugal (453) and the EUIPO (316), the most popular destination is Latvia, with approximately 1,570 applications in total.
See the original post at: https://www.thedomains.com/2021/03/18/trademark-auctions/?rand=13941


text:
Discovery Communications, in a significant consolidation in the digital media sector, is investing $100 million into a new digital media holding company that will merge Thrillist Media Group, NowThis Media, The Dodo and Discovery’s digital network Seeker and its SourceFed Studios.
The new company, Group Nine Media, will be headed by Ben Lerer (pictured above), formerly CEO of Thrillist. The deal is expected to close by the end of 2016.
Discovery will own a 35% stake in Group Nine. German media conglomerate Axel Springer, a minority owner of Thrilist, will maintain its investment as the second-largest shareholder of Group Nine. According to the companies, the merging of the millennial-focused properties will immediately make Group Nine one of five biggest U.S.-based digital-media companies, generating more than 3.5 billion global monthly video views.
“Today marks the start of a strong new company with tremendous brands, reach and scale,” said David Zaslav, president and CEO, Discovery Communications, in a statement. “The merger of these assets will bring together best-in-class management, led by Ben and his team, expertise in data analytics technology and global reach to create one of the world’s largest digital-first content companies attracting young passionate enthusiasts that advertisers want to reach.”
The deal combines Discovery’s San Francisco-based digital networks with three ventures backed by seed-stage VC fund Lerer Hippeau Ventures, headquartered in New York City: lifestyle publisher Thrillist, founded in 2005 by Ben Lerer (son of Ken Lerer), which focuses on food, drink and travel; news aggregator NowThis, founded in 2012 by Ken Lerer and Eric Hippeau; and The Dodo, dedicated to animal lovers and advocacy, founded by Izzie Lerer (daughter of Ken Lerer) in 2014.
Under the terms of the pact, Discovery has an option to buy a controlling stake in Group Nine Media in the future. In addition, the deal encompasses a commercial agreement between Discovery and Group Nine under which both will be able to sell advertisers packages that span linear TV, digital and social content, and live events.
The agreement forming Group Nine will let Thrillist, NowThis and The Dodo remain independent while benefiting from Discovery’s backing, according to Ben Lerer.
“Each of our brands has found great success independently, but with consolidation of digital content companies around the corner, there is extraordinary value in all existing under one multi-brand roof,” Lerer said in a prepared statement.
Discovery’s foray into digital video kicked off with the 2012 acquisition of Revision3, followed a year later with its purchase of DeFranco Creative, the online channels and ventures of YouTube star Philip DeFranco. Now called Seeker and SourceFed Studios, those businesses will become part of Group Nine Media. Discovery also led rounds of funding in The Dodo in 2014 and 2015.
Thrillist has about 250 employees, while NowThis has 120, Seeker and Sourcefed Studios have a combined staff of 125, and The Dodo employs 45 people.
While each brand in the Group Nine portfolio will remain editorially independent, they will share services at the corporate level. Under the proposed combo, Thrillist’s sales team and content studio, The CoLab, will combine with NowThis Studios, The Dodo and Seeker’s branded-content team to create a core advertising solutions group across all Group Nine Media brands.
Group Nine also will combine Thrillist’s Pinnacle and NowThis’s Switchboard publishing platforms for all the brands. In addition, the new company will create a centralized, long-form video unit responsible for creating digital and linear TV programming across all properties.
Axel Springer was an investor in NowThis Media in addition to its stake in Thrillist. With the formation of the new company, Jens Müffelmann, president of Axel Springer USA and CEO of Axel Springer Digital Ventures, will become board member of Group Nine.
For Group Nine, LionTree Advisors was financial adviser and Cooley LLP acted was the legal adviser on the transaction. For Discovery, Proskauer Rose LLP was legal adviser.


text:
The Asda blood test: Beat hospital queues... get your health checked while you shop for groceries
Controversial: Asda is offering blood tests to shoppers to cut NHS waiting times
Patients are being offered blood tests at a supermarket in a bid to cut hospital waiting times.
The in-store clinic, funded by the Health Service, will carry out checks for a wide range of illnesses.
About 30 patients attend each session of the clinic at an Asda outlet in West Bromwich.
They need only bring a referral form from their doctor.
Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust launched the scheme to help process its 38,000 blood tests a month.
Sukvinder Atkar, of the trust, said: 'The Americans have been offering this kind of service for about five years and it has proved very popular.
'It was a natural step forward for us to expand our service and provide a greater choice of location for patients who don't wish to come into hospital, find a parking space and then have to queue for what is such a quick procedure.
'Already we have seen a wide range of patients who visit us before they buy their groceries and the feedback is very positive.
'We have a blood collection service which operates three times a day, taking the blood back to the lab for immediate testing and results are returned to patients' GPs very quickly.'
If it proves popular, the supermarket clinic could be extended from its Thursday slot to five days a week. The trust is also planning to offer blood tests in the evenings and at weekends.
The scheme's critics, however, say it is a frivolous waste of money.
Fiona McEvoy, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: 'This money would've been much better spent improving provisions and relieving the pressure on existing NHS practices.
'Such a low take-up from the public - who presumably don't fancy combining personal medical tests with the weekly grocery shop - suggests that this is just another costly and frivolous waste of time.
'Taxpayers would be justified in feeling that this is more like free advertising for Asda than a genuine NHS service.'
Pit stop: Asda has set up a clinic at its Great Bridge store in West Bromwich where the sick can be tested for a wide range of illnesses
Simon Brown, a 25-year-old engineer from Birmingham, also questioned the scheme. He said: 'I have seen posters in City Hospital which are promoting the service. To me that is just giving Asda free advertising. Surely the NHS shouldn't be doing this?
'This is just another step towards the privatisation of the NHS. What's next - minor operations in supermarkets?
'This scheme may be convenient for some, but important tests like these should be carried out in the hospitals, not a place where you can also pick up a loaf of bread.'
The store clinic idea is being studied by other health bodies, including Coventry Teaching Primary Care Trust.
Viv Bennett, the trust's director of strategy and redesign, said: 'People may want to have a test at the supermarket while they are doing their shopping on a Saturday morning.'
Most watched News videos
- Adam Boulton caught swearing on ITV News Downing Street live stream
- Driver who crashed a car into pub crowd is jailed for 12 years
- Paedophile attacks girl 10, before being stopped by passer by
- Billionaire delivers supplies to stranded Malibu residence
- Shocking moment two women in Bradford brawl in the street
- Shocking moment flowers are taken from family grave in Hull
- Did Kim Kardashian photoshop daughter North to look thinner?
- Shake that brass! Trombone player goes crazy for football team
- Jacob Rees-Mogg reveals Brexit deal has 'dented' his confidence in PM
- Cell phone video captures men dancing with bikini clad women
- Daughter carried inside like a shopping bag after refusing to move
- Coroner's van seen leaving house of model Kim Porter


text:
General Mills To Double Organic Acreage Sourcing To Meet Growing Demand For Natural And Organic Foods
|MINNEAPOLIS, March 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — General Mills today announced it will accelerate its commitment to more than double the organic acreage from which it sources ingredients. The company now expects to meet its goal of 250,000 acres by 2019.
The increased acreage is directly linked to the company’s goals to grow net sales from its natural and organic products. In February at the Consumer Analysts Group of New York conference, Jeff Harmening, General Mills executive vice president and chief operating officer for U.S. Retail, said the company expects to reach $1 billion in net sales from natural and organic products by 2019, a full year ahead of its previous target.
Since 2009, General Mills has increased the organic acreage it supports by 120 percent and is now among the top five organic ingredient purchasers – and the second largest buyer of organic fruits and vegetables – in the North American packaged food sector.
“To achieve the growth we anticipate for our natural and organic brands, we will need a more robust pipeline of organic growers,” said John Church, executive vice president, General Mills Supply Chain. “We’re building strategic relationships directly with farmers for our products and are dedicated to working with growers to optimize production and quality, adopt standard practices and accelerate supply.”


text:
Prosecutors asked that Cho Sung-jin, head of LG Electronics' home appliance division, be sentenced to 10 months in prison for damaging its rival Samsung Electronics’ washing machine ahead of the IFA electronics show in September.
Uber Technologies Inc., the company behind the smartphone application that connects riders and drivers, announced today its participation in a Seoul Metropolitan Government project to address the difficulties riders have in catching taxis late at night.
On November 16, the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) unveiled “the Top 10 Data Protection Technologies Deserving of Attention from Businesses” as industrial demand for the top 10 data protection technologies
South Korean industrial conglomerate, Hyosung, said on Thursday it would dispatch a medical peace corps dubbed "Smile expedition" to Dongnai area in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh city in partnership with charity
LG Display, the world’s leading innovator of display technologies, announced today that it will invest KRW1.84 trillion to begin building a new panel plant in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, Korea, with production expected to commence in the first half of 2018.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., announced today that it is mass producing the industry’s first “through silicon via” (TSV) double data rate-4 (DDR4) memory in 128-gigabyte (GB) modules, for enterprise servers and data centers.
South Korean builder Samsung C&T said on November 25 that it has clinched a $390 million deal with Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA) to construct Marine Parade MRT station (T307 section) on the 43-kilometer
President Park Geun-hye attended the first session and second session of the APEC Economic Leaders` Summit. At the first session has discussed "Inclusive Growth through Regional Economic Integration."on Nov,20.


text:
We cannot yet be sure how many lives have already been tragically lost to the coronavirus outbreak, nor how many are still to be lost until the epidemic is brought under control — if that proves even possible.
At the time of writing, the estimated death toll is over 1,000.
What we do know is that the outbreak is wreaking havoc on the Chinese economy, and on international trade, hitting global markets and industries across the world.
Viruses can be considered true globalists. They know no borders. They do not discriminate by age, gender, race, religion, or anything else. It is ironic that such easy globalists have shown up the weaknesses of the human form of globalisation.
Borders are being shut everywhere, from Australia to the US. Travel has been curtailed across China and beyond. Supply chains are in disarray. While the extended Lunar New Year holiday has ended, factories in China continue to be closed, and those in other countries may be shut as components cannot reach them.
My son tells me that he no longer wants to buy stuff from Ali Express — previously his favourite source of low-cost consumption of all sorts of tat — because he is scared.
The coronavirus outbreak should therefore make us stop and wonder about the weaknesses of our current model of globalisation. We have created highly complex supply chains that span the globe. We have chosen to demolish our own domestic industries in favour of lower cost production that is overly concentrated in one country — China.
The idea of maintaining at least some degree of self-sufficiency has been thrown out of the window in pursuit of a system of globalisation that is driven by one particular economic ideology with almost religious fervour, and by the relentless (some would say mindless) pursuit of a penny off. Keynes’ entreaties in the 1930s to “let goods be homespun whenever it is reasonably and conveniently possible” have been utterly ignored.
This warped ideology was on show some months ago when some suggested that, post-Brexit, the UK should simply throw its doors open to zero-tariff food imports from anywhere in the world. It wouldn’t matter if that totally destroyed local production because it would be inconceivable, claimed the authors, that the UK would ever have problems importing enough food.
But as the coronavirus outbreak is starkly showing, in obsessive pursuit of economic efficiency, we have given up a huge amount of resilience. As a result, the global community has a limited ability to cope with unpredictable events — or even with events that are predictable but infrequent.
Some time ago, I was giving a talk to a number of senior business executives. There was initial bewilderment when I mentioned that there was a trade-off to be had between efficiency and resilience. “What do you mean by that?” “Can you give us some examples?” were some of the questions raised.
That senior executives no longer understand such basic concepts about their own businesses is concerning, as is the naive belief that shiny technology can plug the gap and solve all problems.
The natural world has survived for millions of years, prospered, and evolved into a wonderful diversity for one reason only: because it is highly inefficient — and therefore both very resilient and extremely innovative.
Plants and animals produce a multitude of offspring because it is clear that only a proportion will survive and make it to adulthood. Redundancy is essential.
Yet, in our own economic systems, we have become so convinced of our own cleverness that we believe everything we do will work, so redundancy simply becomes unnecessary inefficiency. Hence Boeing’s management decides against having back-up sensors on its 737Max aircraft — resulting in crashes that tragically kill nearly 400 people.
Nature’s process of evolution can be considered an exercise in letting millions of small experiments bloom. Most of them don’t work. But some randomly do, allowing new species and new varieties to evolve.
The global business community, on the other hand, has increasingly created top-down “managed” systems. Management — be it in government or in private enterprise — knows exactly what to do and how to direct everyone’s activities. Experimentation out of the managed system is killed because it is seen as wasteful or disruptive to the overall master plan — inefficient, in other words.
We should hope that, if nothing else, the coronavirus epidemic’s devastating impact on the globalised economy forces us to develop some humility.
It is time that we realised that our top-down, planned, highly efficient systems are neither innovative nor resilient — and that we risk becoming trapped in a mindset that deifies efficiency to an extent that we create a stagnant house of cards ready to be blown over by the slightest breeze.
Main image credit: Getty


text:
CarbonLite Holdings LLC plans to build a PET recycling plant in Pennsylvania, the Los Angeles-based company announced May 22. The plant will be the company's third, and will increase its capacity by more than 50 percent.
CarbonLite claims to be the world's largest producer of food-grade post-consumer PET. The company is ranked No. 12 in Plastics News' 2018 ranking of North American recyclers, which is based on volume. The company reprocessed 200 million pounds of PET in 2017.
The $60 million plant is scheduled for startup in late 2019. Primary customers are Nestle Waters North America and Pepsico.
“With the addition of the Pennsylvania plant, our three facilities will save more than 180,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year,” Chairman and CEO Leon Farahnik said in a news release.
The company's existing plants are in Riverside, Calif., and Dallas. The company said it recycles 4 billion beverage bottles annually. The 230,000-square-foot Dallas plant started production last year.


text:
Happy Singles’ Day!
This is a time of year replete with holidays and traditions. Some celebrated more globally, such as Christmas and Halloween, others more local such as Thanksgiving and Guy Fawkes night. And others, still, that might not be so well known but which nonetheless register highly on the commercial scale of interest.
The holiday we are thinking of here is Singles Day. It’s a relatively recent Chinese celebration with its roots in universities in Nanjing in the 1990s where bachelors would celebrate that they are proud of being single in an anti-Valentine’s Day celebration.
Held each year on the 11th of November (11/11 as the number 1 represents an individual that is alone) and it began to grow in popularity throughout China.
In 2009, the Chinese online giant, Alibaba, spotted an opportunity to share in Singles Day by offering discounted items. November is a lull period in China’s shopping calendar, falling between the seven-day Golden Week holiday in October and Christmas.
Today, the online shopping bonanza of Singles’ Day puts Black Friday into the shade..
Last year alone Alibaba generated $14bn worth of sales on Singles Day, compared to the $10bn generated by all retailers in the US on Black Friday.
International brands are increasingly getting involved in Singles Day with Apple, Nike and others using the event to launch new products and lines.
And, although it is still, primarily, Alibaba’s event, other retailers are trying to get a slice of the action too.
China’s affluent young middle class is constantly looking for big ticket western consumer goods and the companies who can offer these on Singles’ Day are the companies who will make the most out of this holiday.
The brands who understand the market and target them accordingly by localising websites and accepting payment the way that Chinese consumers want to, will make the most profit. It is worth bearing in mind, for instance, that payment cards and PayPal aren’t widely used in China. What is widely used is Alibaba’s own payment system, Alipay. So, the smart merchant has to accept this method.
In terms of how shoppers shop, much like in the UK and US, mobile is becoming increasingly dominant around the world, and China is no exception, with 42% of online purchases on Singles’ Day coming from mobile devices. This growth and development is to be welcomed, of course together with appropriate secure authentication in order to both fight fraud and make the transaction convenient.
With more and more global companies engaging in Singles’ Day, the need for strong mobile authentication will become ever more pressing.


text:
With over 1.2 million Facebooks fans, 30A (www.30A.com) covers life in small beach towns along Florida's Gulf Coast. The brand is inspired by a beach-front road named "Scenic Highway 30-A" that runs across the region. In addition to 30A.com, there are also free 30A iPhone, Android and iPad apps, a 24/7 digital radio station (www.30Aradio.com), and retail sales (www.30Agear.com).
30A® celebrates the small-town beach life enjoyed along Florida’s gulf coast. But “30-A is more than just a road in Florida,” said ABC. “A website that started to promote a small stretch of coastline is fast becoming an international brand.” The 30A Company has given away over 1.6 million of its famous 30A stickers, and with over 1.2 million Facebook fans around the world, “30A.com has exploded" (Southern Living). The 30A Company has raised over $1.6 million for local charities and is a founding member of The Sonder Project. 30A was recently invited to speak about the hyperlocal brand's success at the "3D Journalism" conference in Moscow, Russia.
With over 1.2 million Facebook fans, 30A's social media presence is a powerful resource. Our new digital radio station has also created a new dimension to our stories and brand, allowing for music and in-depth community interviews (www.30Aradio.com).
Florida's northwestern Gulf Coast
Freelance writers and local PR professionals


text:
Farm incomes buck the trend to recover from disastrous 2009
FARM incomes have soared by 46pc this year as rising world prices for milk and grain benefit Irish farmers and food exporters.
In one of the few economic success stories this year, Irish food output increased by €763m, with dairy farmers alone receiving an extra €427m, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The radical improvement comes after a disastrous 2009 when farm incomes plummeted by 31pc. The recovery even exceeded expectations and more than made up for last year's decline.
It has largely been export-driven, helped by a weakening euro, as food prices in the supermarket have fallen due to intense competition.
The value of food sold from farms increased from €4.7bn in 2009 to €5.5bn this year, according to the CSO's advance estimates for the year.
Once farming costs of more than €4bn and subsidies of €1.8bn were factored in, farmers were left with an operating surplus or income of €2.278bn, up from just €1.56bn last year.
Cereal farmers saw the biggest improvement, as world prices soared due to shortages in Russia. The value of crops grown in Ireland almost doubled to €202m.
Dairy farmers saw the value of milk output rise by 38.8pc to €1.52bn -- up from just €1.1bn in 2009, when prices hit the floor.
The amount paid for beef was up by €178m to €1.63bn.
The Irish Farmers' Association said that based on these new figures, the average farm income now stood at €17,500.
However, it added that the single farm payment and other schemes made up a very big share of this.
"From a point 12 months ago where farm incomes collapsed, this improvement is very much needed by farming families, whose livelihoods were badly affected in 2008 and 2009," said IFA president John Bryan.
The recovery augured well for the planned expansion in the sector which would drive exports and jobs and contribute to Ireland's economic recovery, he said.
However, he warned that retailers were still taking excessive margins on the food they sold and would have to pass more of these back to farmers to reflect the escalating costs of animal feed, fuel and fertiliser.
Finance Minister Brian Lenihan noted the contribution of the agrifood sector to the expansion in Irish exports during his budget speech this week.
Bord Bia said Irish food and drink exports had performed well so far this year, rising by almost 8pc from January to August to reach €4.78bn. This was due to rising world prices, recovering demand for meat and dairy products and a better exchange rate for exporters.
It added that all major categories of food had seen higher exports, led by dairy, meat and beverages, and further growth was expected for the end of the year.


text:
The potential spillover effects on Cambodia’s tourism industry stemming from the bomb blast in Bangkok this week has drawn a mixed response from industry insiders.
On Monday, a bomb exploded in the Thai capital at a Hindu shrine that is popular among foreign visitors. The blast killed 20 people, including tourists, and injured more than 100 others.
Ho Vandy, managing director of World Express Tours and Travel, said any downturn in Thailand’s tourism due to the bombing is likely to have short-term effect on Cambodia’s industry.
“Because the majority of tourists travel to Bangkok and Thailand as a package, a cancelled visit to Thailand will impact Cambodia,” Vandy said.
But Sinan Thourn, chairman of the Pacific Asia Travel Association, dismissed the idea of any spillover into Cambodia’s tourism sector.
“I don’t think it will have any effect on tourism in Cambodia because Bangkok is Bangkok and Cambodia is Cambodia; it’s two separate countries,” he said
Meanwhile, Cambodian authorities yesterday announced they have tightened security at local tourism hot spots following the Bangkok explosion.
“Until this hour, we have not seen any problems, but Thailand is our neighbour country, therefore we cannot ignore the situation,” Kirt Chantharith, National Police spokesman, said yesterday.
Chantharith said that an explosive device discovered yesterday near Cambodia’s largest tourism site, the Angkor Wat temple complex, was unrelated to the Bangkok bomb blast.


text:
CHICAGO (CBS) — The City of Chicago is teaming up with the soda industry to help city employees make healthier choices.
Major soda makers, like Coke and Pepsi, and the American Beverage Association are launching a wellness challenge.
Next year, city workers will have access to soda machines that include more low-calorie drinks. The machines will display calorie information so people can make healthier choices.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel applauds the move saying it will help workers make smarter choices and help combat obesity and other health problems.
“If you basically put aside personal responsibility, you’re missing the core ingredient for improving health care outcomes,” he said.
American Beverage Association president Susan Neeley doesn’t deny this initiative comes has New York City bans large-sized sugary drinks and other cities consider new taxes.
“We think these kind of things are going to get a lot further faster than bans or fights over discriminatory taxes, which there is research that shows will not work,” she said.
The new wellness challenge also will pit Chicago and San Antonio against each other to see who can be the healthiest city and lose the most weight.
The beverage industry is putting up a $5 million prize.
The ‘healthy choice” vending machines will eventually be made available nationwide.
LISTEN: WBBM Political Editor Craig Dellimore Reports


text:
EVANSVILLE - Carpet One Floor and Home on North Green River Road in Evansville celebrated its 60th anniversary Saturday with an attempt to set a record for the world's largest pie fight and prove to the world that any stain will come out of Lee's carpet with only water.
In 1951, Elmo Walker began a flooring store in downtown Evansville. Now store manager Zach Below, Walker's great grandson wanted to celebrate its 60 years in a big way.
"Great grandpa was larger than life, and we wanted to honor him with a big gesture. We thought, what's bigger than a world record, and before we knew it we were filing paperwork with the 'Guinness Book of World Records.'"
For each person that signed up, Carpet One donated $1 to the Vanderburgh County Humane Society. Below said giving back to a community is important, and that is why they included the VHS.
"My grandpa Bill loved animals. People would always say that his dogs lived and ate better than the family did," Below said.
Carpet One chose to attempt the pie fight record because the event coincided with a giant Lee's Spillabration sale. They held the pie fight over a section of "Relax, it's Lee's carpet" to prove that any stain will come out. In addition, they had a Spill Bar at the front entrance of the store where they hosted stain demonstrations.
The main event included two long strips of carpet, 700 chocolate oatmeal pies and trash bags to cover the many people who participated. The group made two lines behind the two carpet strips, and Below laid down one rule: "you can't cross the carpet."
Several family members took part in the event, including Tammy Arnold, Walker's granddaughter, her two daughters and three grandchildren.
"I've been telling literally everybody about the event. My granddaughters were so pumped up, they couldn't wait to get here," Arnold said, who came to support her family and help in the cause.
"My father, Bill, loved animals and anything with helping them is a great cause," Arnold said.
Andrew Lobacz of Lobacz chiropractic in Evansville heard about the pie fight on Facebook and decided he had to come.
"It just sounded like something you couldn't hardly miss out on," Lobacz said.
Below's wife, Jaime, took front stage at the fight, aiming most of her pies at her husband. She said all week he has been posting messages on Facebook about warming up his pie fighting arm.
"I told him to work out his face instead, because that's what is going to get hit," Jaime said. Sure enough, after the fight, Zach's smiling face was hidden behind a layer chocolate and oatmeal.
To break the world record, more than 648 pies had to be thrown. Unfortunately, during the event, only 600 pies were thrown, but this didn't discourage Below.
"We didn't make the record, but we had a lot of fun getting close," Below said. Coming so close to breaking the record also gave Below the idea to make it an annual event.
"Each year, we can keep getting more and more until we finally do break it."
As for the carpet, to ensure the stain is fully set, they will leave it alone until Monday morning when they will clean it off with only water and display it in the store window.
Need Help? Call us at 1-877-304-7771.
Monday-Friday: 6am-5pm / Saturday: 6am-11am / Sunday: 7am-Noon


text:
Now accessible in India, Twitter Blue costs Rs 900 per month for mobile devices and Rs 650 per month for the web. Moreover, the social media platform is providing a discounted annual package for Rs 6800 or Rs 567 per month.
Twitter’s Pay-For-Blue-Tick subscription service, TwitterBlue, has officially debuted in India. Twitter Blue is one of the most expensive memberships in India due to the costs associated with it. Before introducing Twitter Blue in India, according to Twitter CEO Elon Musk, the business will take buying power parities (PPPs) into account.
It hasn’t happened, though. TwitterBlue is significantly more expensive than Netflix on a monthly basis, making it one of the most expensive recurring subscriptions available in the country for many consumers, especially when compared to Netflix’s rivals, who typically price between Rs 999 and Rs 1499 per year.
Twitter Blue Charges:
For those who use it through the Twitter website on their desktops, laptops, or the Safari browser on their Macs, the business has announced a new subscription at a cost of Rs 650 per month.
However, users must pay Rs 900 on both Android and iOS to sign up using the mobile app, which is how the majority of people access Twitter anyhow.
For those who sign up on the internet for an entire year, the business is providing a discounted rate. Users would have to pay Rs 6,800 if they opted to pay for their Twitter Blue subscription annually.
Subscribing to Twitter Blue:
Users must open the app on their mobile Android and iOS smartphones and slide right to view the menu. They will find the “TwitterBlue” option there. After users click it, Twitter will direct them to a page where they must enter their information, pay Rs 900, and wait for their cell number to be confirmed.
It follows a similar method on a desktop. After logging in, select “TwitterBlue” from the left-hand column of your profile. You can select your desired plan from a pop-up before completing the payment. Only the website will have access to the annual plan.
Benefits of Twitter Blue:
Users will have access to a ton of cool features if they choose to subscribe to TwitterBlue. Users can update your tweets for up to 30 minutes after posting them in addition to seeing a verified blue check on your profile. Twitter gives TwitterBlue users priority in “replies,” “mentions,” and “search.”
You can also link your NFT wallet and set your NFT as your profile picture if you hold NFTs. New features are also made available to TwitterBlue subscribers as soon as they are released.
Longer videos in 1080p quality can be uploaded by content producers that want to post videos on the site.
What is Elon Musk’s promise of Purchasing Power Parity?
Elon Musk said that the purchasing power parity of the nation will decide regional rates when TwitterBlue was first introduced in November. That doesn’t seem to be the situation. Twitter’s monthly membership to Twitter Blue costs customers in the US $8 (website). This is about 660 rupees. The price of a subscription for Android and iOS is $11, which is equivalent to Rs 910.
Also, Search by People
Blue subscribers can tweet up to 4,000 characters with longer Tweets. Longer Tweets can also be composed as a quote tweet or reply. Using hashtags, polling, and sharing media are all still standard functions. Longer Tweets can only be sent by Blue subscribers; however, everyone will be able to view them.
Is Twitter Blue a good investment? It varies. Because they might not use all of the capabilities offered by a monthly membership, casual Twitter users might not see the benefit of doing so. Since they use the app more frequently, super-users or brand accounts may find Twitter Blue’s capabilities to be more helpful.
With a monthly fee of Rs 650 on the web and Rs 900 on mobile devices, TwitterBlue is accessible in India. Moreover, the microblogging service provides a cheap annual plan for Rs 6,800 or Rs 566.67 per month.
It’s easy to subscribe to Twitter Blue.
· Open the Twitter mobile app on your iOS device.
· Navigate to the Profile menu.
· Tap Twitter Blue.
· Tap the blue Subscribe for $/mo button.
· Follow the in-app payment prompts to complete your purchase.
TwitterBlue subscription is also available in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain.


text:
Dowell is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and has invited customers from all over the world to come and join them in a five-star hotel in Beijing for an enjoyable day with the management and staff. Many entertainments will take place and a good time is assured.
A spokesperson said, “The PV industry is volatile and many companies arrived and closed and did not make it to the ten-year mark. We at the company celebrate our anniversary every year but ten years is extra special so we decided to invite customers to join us in it.”
Talking about the company’s change in direction, she went on to say “We pride ourselves on being able to see market opportunities early and being flexible enough execute them. The pivot to system integration was a huge move for the company but thanks to all concerned, it went smoothly and we have established ourselves in that sector.”
Dowell was formed ten year ago for the manufacture and sale of photovoltaic string inverters. At that time, it was early days and a boom industry, with demand outstripping supply. Dowell supplied units all over the world and made technological advancements in the design of these units. The company grew quickly from only 10 people in the beginning to 120 people now in both Changzhou and Beijing. The PV business was very active with many small companies joining the business and crowding the marketplace.
It was at this time that management decided to pivot the business from manufacture and sale of inverters to system integration projects. The company was very successful in this business in China and last year formed an international division.
Taking part in some of the biggest projects in China and now looking to the international market, Dowell is set for even bigger success in the next ten years.
20th Mar 2019


text:
Samsung Electronics hit with quarterly profit slump
Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest smartphone and memory chip maker, reported a slump in first-quarter net profits Tuesday, in the face of a weakening chip market and rising competition.
The result is the latest bad news for the tech titan, which last week was forced to delay the release of its much-hyped $2,000 foldable smartphone owing to problems with the screen.
Net profits in the January-March period were 5.04 trillion won ($4.3 billion)—the lowest since the third quarter of 2016 and down 56.9 percent year-on-year.
Operating profit also plunged 60.2 percent to 6.2 trillion won, while sales fell 13.5 percent to 52.4 trillion won.
The firm is the flagship subsidiary of the giant Samsung Group, by far the biggest of the family-controlled conglomerates that dominate business in the world's 11th largest economy, and it is crucial to South Korea's economic health.
It has enjoyed record profits in recent years despite a series of setbacks, including a humiliating product recall and the jailing of its de facto chief.
But now the picture is changing, with chip prices falling as global supply increases while demand weakens.
It also has to contend with increasingly tough competition in the smartphone market from Chinese rivals like Huawei—which in 2017 surpassed Apple to take second place—offering quality devices at lower prices.
Samsung had warned investors of a 60 percent-plus fall in first-quarter operating profits, citing weak display and chip sales.
"Mobile displays suffered slower demand and intensifying competition with LTPS LCDs," the company said. "Large displays also took a hit from a continued decline in LCD panel prices amid weak seasonality."
Samsung shares ended down 0.65 percent in Seoul.
"Growing competition in the mature TV and smartphone markets is expected to pose a challenge in the second half (of this year)," Samsung said in a statement.
Samsung launched its top-end S10 5G smartphone earlier this month, after South Korea won the global race to commercially launch the world's first nationwide 5G network.
But it last week made a high-profile decision to push back the release of its new Galaxy Fold phones after reviewers provided with early devices reported screen problems within days of use.
While Samsung's device was not the first folding handset, the smartphone giant was expected to help spark demand and potentially revive a sector that has been struggling for new innovations.
The South Korean firm had spent nearly eight years developing the Galaxy Fold as part of its strategy to propel growth with groundbreaking gadgets.
The move comes after Samsung was forced to announce a worldwide recall of its Galaxy Note 7 devices in 2016 over exploding batteries in 2016, dealing a blow to its reputation and costing it billions of dollars.
The quarterly figures come after South Korea's SK Hynix, the world's second-largest memory chip maker, said operating profits plunged more than two-thirds in the first quarter.
Greg Roh of HMC Securities & Investment projected Samsung's operating profits to continue falling in the second quarter of this year.
"Things might change in the third quarter when memory chip demand increases," he told AFP.
Samsung supplies screens and memory chips for its own smartphones and Apple, and server chips for cloud companies such as Amazon.
It once had a 20 percent market share of China's smartphone market but has seen that tumble to less than one percent owing to a rise in competition from local firms in that country.
Samsung's reputation took another hit after the bribery conviction of Lee Jae-yong—the son and heir of the group's ailing current chairman Lee Kun-hee.
The 50-year-old scion was a key figure in the scandal that ousted former South Korean president Park Geun-hye following nationwide street protests, and was sentenced to five years in jail.
But he was released in February last year after several of his convictions were quashed on appeal.
Ratings agency Fitch said it expects Samsung's operating performance to start normalising by the end of this year, with the recovery of its semiconductor business—the firm's main profit driver.
"The impact on Samsung from the (chip) downturn is also likely to be smaller than for peers because of its investments in advanced DRAM production capacity, which gives the company cost advantages that allow it to sustain profitability during periods of weak margins," it said.
© 2019 AFP


text:
Imagine an Illinois economy so vibrant that companies felt they had to be in Illinois to reach their fullest potential. Imagine a tax environment so competitive that companies across the country battled to get a piece of Illinois real estate. Keep imagining, because this certainly isn’t a reality.
Lawmakers try to make up for Illinois’ shortfalls by steering resources to businesses they think will provide the greatest benefit to the state. State and local government in Illinois pretend they can create a vibrant private sector in the state. They do so by taking money from thousands of entrepreneurs and businesses, cooking up generous tax incentive packages and grants and then giving these handouts to businesses of their choosing.
More incentives and grants for a few companies, however, means higher taxes for all the rest. And higher taxes mean fewer businesses wanting to operate in Illinois. Lawmakers use special tax privileges and development programs to handle this by providing, ironically, even higher incentives.
It’s called cronyism. And it’s destroying economic growth and severely hindering job creation in Illinois by letting government pick winners and losers.
Here are a few examples included in The 2012 Illinois Piglet Book and some of our other recent work:
From the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity:
- $5.5 million to Boeing Co. for relocating to Chicago.
- $249,000 to Rolling Frito-Lay for the costs associated with training 920 existing employees.
- $200,000 to AT&T Inc. for the costs associated with training 280 new and 2,450 existing employees.
- $194,716 to Navistar International for the costs associated with training 150 new and 300 existing employees.
- $18,295 to Pepsi MidAmerica for training 60 new and 340 existing employees in the Marion facility.
- $29,737 to Armstrong World Industries Inc. to train existing employees.
From Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, districts:
- $21.5 million to MillerCoors for relocation costs.
- $1.25 million to Quaker Oats Company for development in Chicago. This is just part of the $13.1 million that Quaker Oats has received in TIF funds since 2000.
- $47,268 to Dr. Richard Altieri, a chiropractor in Schaumburg, for relocation costs.
- $40,000 to Jewelry and Coin Mart in Schaumburg for relocation costs.
- $35,000 to Bill Kay Nissan in Downers Grove for property tax reimbursement.
- $20,000 to Accurate Personnel in Schaumburg for relocation costs. The company ranked as one of the fastest growing staffing firms in 2010.
- $20,000 to Hair Clip Inc., a beauty salon in Schaumburg, for retail improvements.
- $10,000 to Peterson’s Ice Cream in Elmhurst for retail improvements.
- $10,000 to Edible Arrangements in Elmhurst for retail improvements. The company ranked first in its category in Entrepreneur Magazine’s Franchise 500 in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
- $27,145 to Gold Key Auto Sales, a used car dealership in Silvis, for redevelopment.
- $14,132 to Sluggers Pizza in Silvis for redevelopment.
Other examples from our recent work:
- $340 million to build a people-mover system at O’Hare International Airport. With a track length of nearly 3.1 miles, taxpayers are looking at footing a cost of almost $110 million per mile.
- $15 million to Sears Holding Corp. as a part of an annual tax relief package.
- $10 million to Motorola as a part of an annual tax relief package
- $8 million to the Chicago Board of Options Exchange as a part of an annual tax relief package.
- $3.5 million to Champion Laboratories Inc. as a part of an annual tax relief package


text:
15 July 2021
- Yong Bai, Zibo Liu, Richard Blewett, Carmen Puscas, Masafumi Shikakura, Itir Çiftçi
- Beijing, Brussels, Tokyo, Istanbul
Clifford Chance advises CVC on multijurisdictional merger filings for its US$1.5 billion joint venture with Shiseido in personal care business
Leading international law firm Clifford Chance has advised CVC on multijurisdictional merger filings for its US$1.5 billion joint venture with Shiseido, on the transfer of part of Shiseido's personal care business to a new company which is 65% held by funds advised by CVC and 35% by Shiseido. Shiseido is a global beauty brand that operates in more than 100 countries and regions.
Partner Yong Bai led the international team and was supported by senior associate Zibo Liu and associate Nan Lan in Beijing, partner Richard Blewett and associate Carmen Puscas in Brussels, counsel Masafumi Shikakura in Tokyo, and partner Itir Ciftci and associate Asli Kural from Clifford Chance's associate firm CIFTCI Attorney Partnership in Istanbul. Clifford Chance acted as international counsel and DaHui Lawyers acted as PRC counsel for filing in China.
Yong Bai said, "Our Beijing team was delighted to coordinate global merger filings for CVC on the CVC funds’ investment in one of Japan's most famous brands."
Clifford Chance's Greater China antitrust team has advised CVC on merger filings on a number of recent high profile transactions, including the privatisation of Hong Kong listed fashion retailer I.T Limited, as well as Partners Group on multijurisdictional merger filings for its acquisition of equity interest in Ecom Express.
本项目团队由高伟绅合伙人兼大中华区反垄断业务负责人柏勇牵头，北京办公室团队成员刘子博和蓝楠提供主要协助。此外，布鲁塞尔办公室合伙人Richard Blewett和团队成员Carmen Puscas、东京办公室Masafumi Shikakura以及高伟绅土耳其联营所CIFTI Law Firm的合伙人Itir Ciftci和团队成员Asli Kural亦为本项目提供协助。高伟绅担任本项目的国际法律顾问，达辉律师事务所担任本项目的中国法律顾问。


text:
Right now, the Geneva Motor Show would have been in full swing, and even though it has now been cancelled, carmakers have still been busy carrying out their plans, unveiling several production and concept cars over the past few days. The sole exception is Toyota, which has decided to postpone the reveal of its new B-segment SUV, according to Automotive News Europe.
The car was due to make its premiere by now, but a source close to the company said the reveal will now only happen “in the coming weeks or months.” The delay will likely be a blessing for Toyota, as it has already said that the car isn’t actually going on sale for another 12 months.
Its Geneva activities had already been reduced this year, its media briefing event – which involves senior executives – having moved from the eve of the show to January. Toyota also held what was effectively a private motor show in Amsterdam, showcasing the new Mirai hydrogen-powered sedan, the RAV4 Plug-in Hybrid and the fully-electric Lexus UX 300e.
The new small SUV would have been the star of Toyota’s Geneva stand and marked its entry into a booming segment – something the more upmarket, sophisticated and expensive C-HR probably didn’t adequately serve. Figures from market researcher JATO Dynamics showed that 1.9 million of these vehicles were sold in Europe last year, an increase of 20% over 2018 numbers.
Smaller and cheaper than the already petite C-HR, the car should get the same B-segment version of the Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA) as the European-market Yaris. They will be built at the Valenciennes plant in France and are expected to make up around 30% of Toyota’s European sales volume by 2025.
At launch, the car is expected to be powered by its hatch sibling’s parallel hybrid setup, consisting of a 91 hp/120 Nm 1.5 litre naturally-aspirated three-cylinder engine and a 79 hp/141 Nm permanent magnet synchronous electric motor. It will also be offered with all-wheel drive, rare in the segment.
Toyota expects plenty of orders for the new SUV. “We expect this to be a very successful car. Some cars you look at the styling and it just looks right. This is such a car,” said a Toyota source at the Amsterdam event.
Tags: 2020 Geneva Motor Show
Research Toyota Cars at
Related Cars for Sale on
Source: Read Full Article


text:
Friday, May 7
The New Mother's Day Card
Leave it to Hallmark to reinvent the Mother's Day Card!
In conjunction with its latest made-for-tv movie "Meet My Mom" which debuts tomorrow, Hallmark has added a tab to its Facebook page where "friends" (or I guess now "likes") can upload video testimonials about their moms. The tab has been up for quite a few weeks now, and has already been populated by many a military service-person, among many other sons and daughters.
A much more modern way to acknowledge and pay tribute to your mom. And a great example of leveraging one marketing asset ( tv movie) towards another (facebook page) as part of our culture (mother's day) within the core essence of a brand (making an emotional connection with a greeting card).
Bringing a classic brand and an American tradition into the age of social media.
Happy Mother's Day!
What's your experience? Jim.


text:
A couple of months ago, technology giant Apple was praised for disclosing supply chain issues in a candid annual report. The report included violations such as child labour that Apple discovered during 2009 audits of supplier factories.
What Apple did not disclose was that workers of its biggest supplier in China have been killing themselves inside or outside the factories. Foxconn, a Taiwanese-owned electronics supplier in Shenzen, China, produces iPhone and iPad for Apple. Foxconn is also the world's largest contract manufacturer for electronics products and has been in news for a spate of suicides by workers.
The media reported the 10th suicide by a Foxconn worker last week. Human rights activists blame harsh working conditions in the factory that push workers to commit suicide. Two other workers have made unsuccessful attempts to commit suicide in recent months. Last year in July a worker had committed suicide after being interrogated by the factory management over a missing iPhone prototype.
Other customers of Foxconn include Intel, Dell, Zoostrom, HP among others.
Activists point out to stressful working conditions in Foxconn factories.
Foxconn has said it regrets the incidents of suicides by its workers. The company is taking unusual steps to stop the spate of worker suicides. A media report says that the Foxconn management is asking "workers to sign letters promising not to kill themselves and even agree to be institutionalised if they appeared to be in an "abnormal mental or physical state for the protection of myself and others"."
A New York Times has quoted Foxconn executives as saying that the "company is planning to hire psychiatrists, counselors and monks, and intends to bring in 2,000 singers, dancers and gym trainers to improve life on its two sprawling campuses in Shenzhen."
Foxconn is also building tall fences at its dormitories to prevent workers from jumping to their deaths.
Here is another report on the suicide incidents involving Fixconn workers.
Last month, a National Labor Committee report alleged sweatshop conditions in a Microsoft's supplier factory in China


text:
Sprint Nextel has turned to a paperless transaction system from start-up Doxo as part of its commitment to reducing paper consumption by up to 40 percent by 2017.
The wireless telecommunications giant already has an electronic billing system in place, but it embraced Doxo because its customers can use the software to store and manage bills from multiple service providers in one location. In other words, your customers can have a single account where they manage all their electronic bills. I don't know about you, but that's a pretty compelling proposition for someone who loathes logging into multiple Web sites every month to check up on what I owe. Of course, Doxo doesn't have that many high-profile customers yet, so its electronic file cabinet will be kind of empty for a while.
Earlier this year, Doxo received $5.25 million in funding from investors including the investment fund backed by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos. Sprint is its first high-profile client. But it also has picked up another customer this week: Kansas City Power & Light.
When I talked to Sprint about the Doxo technology, Scott Rice, vice president of care and billing services for Sprint, says Doxo will extend not replace his company's electronic billing strategy. Approximately 23 percent of Sprint's customers have signed up for its current electronic billing option, and the company hopes to continue pushing that number higher. Adoption is accelerating, Rice says. To date, Sprint's electronic billing option has saved 2.4 million pounds of paper, 26.5 million pounds of waste water and 13.2 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions, the company estimates.
Clearly, the whole matter of reducing paper consumption is a big money saver for Sprint, as well, but Rice also sees electronic billing as a major customer service game-changer.
You'll notice that he is in charge of both care and billing services. Realistically, that's because the one guaranteed point of contact that a Sprint customer has with the company every month is the bill. It's why your envelope is stuffed full of special offers and other promotion materials, most of which you probably throw out. It clearly is in the company's interest to manage that relationship very, very carefully. So this is a pretty big endorsement for Doxo. And, who knows, maybe you'll pay more attention to the electronic version of Sprint's bill than the paper one.
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com


text:
The US dollar maintained stable rates against the Egyptian pound on Sunday morning, with an average exchange rate of LE17.80.
In the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), the US dollar sold at LE17.89 and was bought at LE17.79.
In Banque Misr it stood at LE 17.89 for selling and LE 17.79 for buying. At Banque du Caire, the dollar was sold for LE17.96 and bought for LE17.86.
Meanwhile at the Commercial International Bank (CIB), it was sold at LE17.96 and bought at LE 17.89.
At ALEXBANK, the dollar rate was stable at LE17.96 for selling and LE 17.89 for buying.
The rate at the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) was stable, LE17.96 for selling and LE17.91 for buying.
At the National Bank of Greece, it recorded LE17.96 for buying and LE 17.86 for selling.
Finally, in the Arab African International Bank (AAIB) it stood at LE 17.96 and buying at LE 17.86.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm


text:
Among all the news generated by comics publishers this weekend, one announcement opened a door to the fantastical worlds produced by the mind of Jim Henson -- as well as the potential for new properties carrying his name.
Beginning with a new Fraggle Rock comic starting later this year, readers will see new stories from properties like The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Mirrormask and The Storyteller thanks to a partnership between Archaia comics and The Jim Henson Company, now run by Henson's children.
"For us, it takes away a lot of restrictions both creative and budgetary on storytelling and allows us to tell these stories right," said Joe LeFavi, Director of Publishing and Development at The Jim Henson Company, who emphasized the stories will not be adaptations, but will instead tell new stories. "In features and on TV, you only have a set amount of time and a limited budget to explore that world. And if you think about worlds like that -- Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Mirrormask -- those are huge, vast worlds. So here, with a comic book, you can spend months there. If you wanted to see a $500 million Henson film, this is how you can do it. Do it through a graphic novel."
The choice of Archaia was a surprise to some comic fans because the Henson property Farscape is already being published by Boom! Studios. The Muppets, which were created by Henson, but have since been acquired by Disney, are also published by Boom.
Fans also remember that Archaia went through some growing pains last year and had to restructure as its readership and development grew beyond its previous capabilities. But as part of the restructuring process, Archaia hired Stephen Christy as its new director of development, hoping to expand its presence in Hollywood -- and that paved the way for the Henson partnership.
Christy, who had previously developed intellectual properties for Devil's Due, had met LeFavi before and decided to introduce him to the titles published by Archaia.
"I showed Joe a bunch of the Archaia books we publish, such as Mouse Guard and The Killer and stuff like that," Christy told Newsarama. "And he really liked them, and obviously, being a comic fan, he was already familiar with them. And the discussions just kind of went from there. At the end of the day, I think we all felt the quality of the Archaia brand made us a really good publishing partner for the kind of quality comic books Henson wants to produced."
"When Henson decided to take a more aggressive stance on publishing and use it as a platform to release new stories to the world," LeFavi added, "we wanted to find a partner that had that artistic integrity that will produce the level of quality that Henson fans expect from us. When we were going through Archaia's library, we saw their unwavering commitment to both story and the illustrations. They just had a very strong understanding of what it meant to be a visual storyteller. They just seemed like a really great partner for us."
The first comic being released this year will be Fraggle Rock, with a roll-out of comics based on other properties planned to ramp up through next year. The choice of "Fraggle" as the first comic accompanies what LeFavi calls a "new rejuvenation" of the property.
"There's a Fraggle Rock picture coming out in the near future, and there's going to be a whole new line of consumer products coming out -- everything from shoes and apparel to storybooks. Fraggle Rock is becoming a very big part of who Henson is and the stories we're going to put out there," said LeFavi, who will serve as story editor on all the Henson-Archaia comics. "So this is going to play a very big role in re-introducing Fraggle Rock to that new generation."
However, LeFavi emphasized that the Henson Company is not making comic books just so that they can be developed into other media.
"When we decided to go into publishing, it wasn't to use it as some back door to launch a film or TV show as a lot of people are using comics nowadays," he said. "For us, it's really just about opening up another creative outlet to tell the stories we've always wanted to tell."
Christy said more details on the roll-out of Henson properties will be announced at San Diego Comic-Con in July, when the two companies will hold a joint panel.
"We're definitely deep into discussions about all the different premises for the properties we're going to do," Christy said. "We're really going to be exploring those worlds in a new and fun way that we're hoping the fans of the originals will love, but also in a way that introduces new fans to the properties."


text:
NEW YORK, Aug 19 — Tile — the tiny device that allows users to find their keys, purse or phone — is getting an update starting today, according to The Verge.
Now, the beep on the device — to signal the location of a lost item — is three times louder and works up to 100 feet. In addition, the new Tile has added a feature to help with hard-to-find items: when a user loses something, he or she can notify the Tile network, which will activate every user's phone to look for the item.
The new Tile has also updated its app to help users who have lost their phone, allowing for the system to call a phone when lost, and has added an Apple Watch app.
The Tile is available for US$25 (RM103) or can be installed as an app on smartphones. — AFP-Relaxnews


text:
Golden Drive Teams Up With J2K To Help Homeless Kids In The Community
They want to help kids in need in the community.
ARGO, N.D.- J2K is a monthly craft and vendor fair that sells everything handmade.
They encouraged the community to bring clothing, food items, and hygiene products that will be donated to schools around West Fargo and other areas.
The proceeds made from the “Light Show on Parkway Lane” event will also be going to schools in the area.
“It’s just a beautiful thing when you see people wanting to come together with no agenda. You know, once again, you will always get more back when you give. And to see the smiles on many many children’s faces. It’s a great thing, it’s a beautiful thing, it’s golden,” says Golden Drive organizer Sue Baron.
Their last show is on April 4th at the Faith and Journey Lutheran Church.
They hope the community will bring more non-perishable food items and hygiene products for kids and families in need.


text:
Swedish retailer IKEA announced Tuesday it plans to build a store in Columbus near Polaris Mall.
Kasich Rolls Out First TV Ad In Campaign For Governor
John Kasich has delivered the first official salvo of the 2014 campaign for governor.
The incumbent Republican this morning released a television ad titled â€œDeliverâ€ that focuses on his humble western Pennsylvania roots, entering Ohio politics, and starting a family.
Kasichâ€™s Democratic rival Ed Fitzgerald sent an email this morning rehashing many of his recent attacks, and Kasichâ€™s support of collective bargaining limitations that were eventually repealed.


text:
real-time news and commentary for investors
Monday, May 21
2012, 9:39 AM
EMC announces a product refresh that its PR department declares to be focused on cloud and big...
EMC announces a product refresh that its PR department declares to be focused on cloud and big data environments. Some highlights: high-end VMAX storage systems that promise up to a 3x performance boost; a mid-range VNX system (previous) that promises lower flash memory costs; new backup and recovery software, and a partnership with 80%-owned VMware (VMW) to develop storage analytics solutions for the latter's systems management software.