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A moment of silence, please, for the grubby old days of music festivals: contorting into the backseats of friends’ cars, skipping showers, camping in rain-doused dirt.
Fans heading to Coachella this weekend can eschew the grime (the dirt, not the music genre) in favor of amenities such as private jets, boutique cycling classes, and air-conditioned tents—all sponsored by the types of large corporations that likely would’ve caused Woodstockers in 1969 to throw their hands up in disgust.
An explosion of both interest and competition is to blame for Coachella’s swelling resemblance to a luxury resort. With music festival lineups getting more homogenous—thanks to the ever multiplying number of them, as production companies rush to capitalize on modern fans’ eagerness for “experiences” over products—the 18-year-old fest has gone from a humble single-day event in the rustic California desert to a two-week extravaganza complete with holograms, fingerprint scanners, and a giant roving caterpillar. Opulent amenities are now Coachella’s next attempt to remain unique.
Let’s start with how the revelers will get to the affair. Instead of carpools, the new way to attend Coachella is via private flight.
Private jet company XOJet said private-jet activity into three airports near the venue during the festival dates rose 40% in 2016 from a year earlier. Competitor JetSuiteX is offering flights for the first time this year from Burbank, California, to Jacqueline Conchran Regional Airport, a 20-minute drive from the festival grounds. ”We’ve created a schedule that helps people get to and from the desert at prime times,” a spokesperson tells Quartz, adding the flights are 50% booked already.
Then there’s JetSmarter, a new company that bills itself as the “Uber for private jet travel,” providing flights throughout the Coachella region as well; rides are free for people already signed up for the subscription service, but non-members can book one through the company’s app for $599.
Coachella’s lineup this year includes Lady Gaga, Radiohead, Bon Iver, Lorde, Kendrick Lamar, and dozens of others; glitzier than the celebrity musician in the daytime, however, are the posh facilities for guests at night.
Furnished safari tents have been offered for several years as VIP perks for those willing to shell out a few extra thousand dollars and “glamp” rather than stay in a cheap hotel (or—heaven forbid—rough it out in the hot desert). But this year Marriott, the world’s largest hotel chain, is getting in on the action.
The company recently auctioned off eight air-conditioned tents each set up to look like a real Marriott hotel room, which were only allowed to be bid on using hotel loyalty points. Marriott is even tacking on parking, on-site concierge, and private restrooms, ostensibly for people to completely forget the fact that they came to attend an outdoor festival.
Of course, no luxury experience would be complete without American Express, the Jay Z of the financial services world. The credit-card company—which has been partnering with Coachella in recent years to offer special discounts and promotions for cardmembers—is this year setting up the “American Express Platinum House” at the nearby Parker Palm Springs hotel, open to holders of its $550-a-year Platinum card.
Billed as the “perfect spot to hang out before hitting up the festival grounds,” AmEx’s hotel experience will offer premium snacks and beverages, as well as SoulCycle spinning classes and merchandise from the cult fitness chain that’s become a synonym for all the interests of the fervently young and wealthy. Which, as it turns out, is Coachella’s primary demographic.
A hungering for aesthetics plagues not only the stage, but the crowd standing in front of it. While all music festivals take their inspiration from Woodstock, dressing like a hippie isn’t exactly enough.
“Festival attire” has come into the norm—or rather, the necessity. Behold Vogue’s dozens-strong archive of articles explaining how to dress for Coachella; Cosmopolitan’s best-dressed festival round-ups; Condé Nast Traveler’s pastel-heavy guide; Esquire’s male wardrobe template; and Harper’s Bazaar’s collection of favorite high-end looks.
The frilly, boho, and occasionally offensive festival aesthetic is distinctive enough that retail companies have also launched entire lines of festival wear, heavily promoted during summertime festival season, but now available year-round.
Such a phenomenon recalls the “resort wear” trend of years past. Characterized by loose, laid-back clothes in bright shades, the trend emanated a certain attitude that grew beyond its physical designation; resort wear was worn by people on the street, not just while on vacation, and it was instantly recognizable for the lifestyle it conveyed.
Festival attire—like the ubiquitous athleisure—promotes a distinctive culture without supplying any evidence of it. The beads and feathers adorning Coachella-goers’ shirts immediately say: I am a person who loves music! (Yet that regularly proves untrue, as demonstrated by the television hosts who’ve made a sport out of tricking attendees to cheer on fake bands.)
Last month, Coachella’s organizers revealed perhaps the true extent of its corporatization, when it filed a lawsuit against hipster retail brand Urban Outfitters. The crime? Urban Outfitters had named several items of clothing after the festival without seeking its permission.
According to Coachella, Urban’s ”unauthorized apparel” interfered with the festival’s official merchandise sales and brand name—concerns less befitting of a niche music celebration than, say, a money-grabbing corporation. That, in the end, is Coachella’s new soul.


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Twyford-based Millgate Homes entered just two properties in this year’s Evening Standard 2010 New Homes awards – but won the three top prizes.
Four weeks of food festivities in Reading have begun with the first heat of Reading Steady Cook! at the farmers’ market on Saturday.
Suppliers and special guests celebrated the arrival of Reading’s first True Food Community Shop at the weekend.
The multimillion pound revamp at Winnersh Triangle reached its first major landmark last week when agents and businesses were invited to see the initial phase of the new look.
While firms were battening down the hatches to fight for survival during the recession, Gareth Thomas went looking to start a business that would have a market whether there was a downturn or not.
Small firms in Reading say the Government must support them in the Chancellor’s upcoming emergency budget.
Station Hill developer Sackville expects to announce a joint venture partner within weeks that will help take the multi-million pound development a step nearer reality.
Nominations for the stars of customer service in Reading’s restaurants and stores have been pouring in with more than 300 so far.
A sizzling new pan-Asian restaurant is to open in The Oracle.
Reading will be serving up a celebration of the town’s amazing food expertise from this weekend.

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Tech Time Podcast Episode 3 – Russian Fake News
Trump Accuses Google of Rigging Search Results To Favor ‘Bad’ News About Him. Russia fake news
- President Donald Trump says Google search results for “Trump News” show only negative coverage about him.
- Tweet this morning on Tuesday 8/28/2018
- Trump tweet, “96% of results on “Trump News” are from National Left-Wing Media”
- He said it’s a “very serious situation” that “will be addressed!”
- Google denies the claims and says it’s search engine, “is not used to set a political agenda and we don’t bias our results toward any political ideology”.
- Shares of Alphabet fell 0.8% to $1,245.86.
- Does google/facebook/twitter alter the way we vote and think about issues
- YouTube, Apple and Facebook removed content from Alex Jones’ site Inforwars. Conspiracy theorist. Twitter also temporarily deactivated his account.
- Fake News out of Russia? Was mostly pro Trump.
- Where do you draw the line? How do you police that?
Xenophobia and automation:
- As the Trump administration continues to advance its hardline stance towards immigration, legal or otherwise, businesses are increasingly turning to automation and robotics to fill jobs previously held by humans.
- Japan has a notoriously difficult immigration system. You have to do a 6 month course in Japanses culture/language before immigrating.
- Their population is getting older. Instead of opening up immigration they are turning to robotics.
Rights groups are demanding that google stops production on their censored search system for china:
- More than a dozen tech NGOs and human rights groups have issued an open letter calling on Google to stop work on a censored search engine project in China.
- Organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Access Now and others released the letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Tuesday,
- The tech giant’s plans to release a censored version of its search engine app to users in China represent an “alarming capitulation by Google on human rights.”
LCD 2018 ‘A12’ iPhone expected to dominate sales, two dual-SIM models exclusive to China
- Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has slightly refined predictions for the 2018 iPhone lineup
- reiterated his belief that the two new OLED iPhone models will be available in September. However, the widely anticipated 6.1-inch lower-cost LCD iPhone model will be made available to consumers a bit later.
- Kuo continues to maintain that the new 6.1-inch LCD and 6.5-inch OLED iPhone models will have single-SIM and dual-SIM versions. At present, it does not appear that the dual-SIM models will be available in the United States.
- The less expensive LCD model is not expected to have the A11 processor as found in the iPhone 8 and iPhone X. Kuo believes that the it will equipped with the “A12,” the same as the OLED model
- Will the iphone SE 2 come out too? (I love my iphone SE)
- The 6.1-inch LCD phone is expected to cost around $600-700, while the 5.8-inch model slots in at between $800 and 900, with the 6.5-inch model coming in at least $999.
- They might also remove 3D TOUCH: Barclays says it’s “widely understood” that 3D Touch will be removed from iPhones with OLED displays in 2019—aka the third-generation iPhone X and second-generation “iPhone X Plus.” However, they caution that the plans aren’t finalized yet, so they could change. (Did you use 3D touch with your iphone?)
XBox all access:
- 2 year commitment. 22 dollars a month. ($528 in 24 months)
- XBox One S + XBox Live Gold + XBox Game Pass
- Comes with an XBox One S [If you want the XBox one X it’s $35 a month ($840)
- XBox One S is $280 on Amazon.
- XBox One X is $480 on Amazon.
- Comes with 100 Games (via streaming)
- What happens after the 2 years? Do you need to give the XBox back? Do you just lose the streaming games?
Speaking of XBox: Apparently they’ve shelved a VR headset.
- Have you used the playstation VR?
- What about occulus? What did you think?
Until next week.


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Over the weekend, rumors that Apple’s next generation iPhone (iPhone HD?) had been uncovered due to someone leaving it in a bar in San Jose had been running rampant. Images made their way to the Internet, claims that it was a Japanese fake were made, only to be taken back later. Nothing was decisive—until this morning when my pal Jason over at Gizmodo published a complete breakdown of the phone. Yeah, it seems Gizmodo paid someone a pretty penny to get the phone into their hands, and as a result, we pretty much know all about the major features in the next iPhone, which should drop in June. Here are the immediate, obvious feature additions:
- Completely new enclosure, with a flat back that is seemingly made of glass or ceramic
- Front-facing camera (finally!)
- Higher-resolution camera on back
- Flash for camera on back
- Higher resolution, albeit slightly smaller, display
- Separate volume buttons (likely also double as dedicated camera buttons when taking photos)
- Noise cancellation mic
- Battery has 16% higher capacity
- 3 grams heavier than iPhone 3GS
- Uses a micro-SIM
It’s obvious that Apple has definitely been listening to the complaints and requests from iPhone customers, and they’ve definitely done a lot to make the next iPhone stand out from the pack. In fact, this really looks and feels like the first true step up in the iPhone line, with previous new models introducing few hardware changes over previous models.
This is a big deal, as it is the first time that we can remember a major piece of Apple hardware falling into the hands of a company outsider, let alone press, in advance of it being officially unveiled and announced - especially in this manner. We think that Apple’s chief designer said it best on Twitter earlier this morning, with a simple “This isn’t good.”
Gallery: Next Apple iPhone revealed!
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A new Huawei Phone has just appeared on TENAA for the usual certification in China.The device alleged to be the Huawei Enjoy 8 is of two variants with the model numbers LDN-TL10 and LDN-TL20.The device in terms of designs and its internals appears to be the same as the alleged Honor 7C that was recently certified in China, hence we are forced to believe it could be the Honor 7C with the Huawei Stamp destined for different markets.With a dimension of 158.3 x 76.7 x 7.8mm, and weighing just 155g, the alleged Huawei Enjoy 8 features a 5.99-inch display with 720 x 1440 pixels resolution.Under the hood is an unknown Octa-core processor with a clock speed of 1.4 GHz coupled with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage and 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage, expandable up to 256GB using MicroSD slot.Elsewhere, the Huawei enjoy 8 comes fitted with a 13MP+8MP dual rear camera with LED flash, while a pair of an 8MP sensors sits above the display.
Employing sophisticated scams involving social engineering, email phishing, and the harvesting of employee passwords, attackers have pilfered millions from some of the world's largest corporations—all while bypassing traditional hacking safeguards by simply avoiding the use of malware.A new report from IBM Security sheds light on ongoing campaigns being waged by “cyber con artists” employing a known scam called Business Email Compromise (BEC).These attacks take on many forms, but typically include fraud involving fake invoices, impersonation of high-ranking corporate officers, and the targeting of accounting or human resources staff to gather sensitive financial information, such as tax statements.The threats tracked by IBM’s global threat intelligence service, known as X-Force (insert Marvel Comics joke here), began by harvesting mass amounts of business user credentials, which in studied incidents enabled attackers to impersonate corporate officers authorised to make large fund transfers.The targets were directed to a fake “DocuSign” website where they were first asked to log in using their email credentials.The attack targeted primarily personnel working in the company’s accounts payable department, the report says.
The European Space Agency's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) is to conduct its final aerobraking manoeuvre this evening prior to starting its mission of sniffing for Martian methane.TGO should finally settle into its proper orbit tonight, 400km above the red planet.It was launched nearly two years ago aboard a Russian Proton rocket, along with the Schiaparelli lander (which created its own crater on the surface of Mars in October 2016).The aerobraking technique uses tiny amounts of atmospheric drag on the orbiter’s 17.5m solar panels to adjust the orbit and carry out some bonus science on the dynamics of the Martian atmosphere.It is the first time ESA has attempted to use aerobraking as the primary method to get into a science orbit around a planetary body, although the technique is not entirely novel, having been used by NASA for missions such as Mars Global Surveyor and Magellan.Starting in March 2018, boffins will use data received from spectrometers and infrared instruments (NOMAD and ACS) onboard the 3,732kg orbiter to search for traces of methane and capture snaps from a camera, capable of taking images at a resolution of 5 metres per pixel, to give context to the readings.
Deezer has improved on its offerings in Singapore after announcing a partnership with Singtel Music to provide subscribers with unlimited music without local data charges.The music platform will be offering music lovers access to its different music packages through Singtel’s platform, as well as access to 53 million songs, 40,000+ pieces of audio content and its signature feature Flow.“Singtel Music has been offering its customers a wide array of music in the past two years,” said Diana Chen, vice president for mobile marketing, consumer Singapore, at Singtel.“Through this latest partnership with Deezer, we’re making music streaming even more accessible to fans who are increasingly using their mobile devices to listen to their favourite songs.Singtel Music customers can enjoy unlimited data-free music streaming anytime, anywhere, at their convenience.”The Drum spoke to Daud I. Aditirto, vice president of Asia Pacific at Deezer in early February, on the company's plans to capture Asia Pacific’s ‘healthy competitive market’ for music streaming, after the platform announced an extension of its major deal with Hutchison 3.
An analytical article based on the study of morphologic and chemical composition of particulate matter in motorcycle engine exhaust was published in the respected scientific journal Toxicology Reports.The group of authors was supervised by Aristidis Tsatsakis, a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Doctor Honoris Causa of the Far Eastern Federal University, and Kirill Golokhvast, doctor of biology and Provost for Research at FEFU.The study was supported with a grant of the Russian Science Foundation.Taking into account the growth of manufacture and sales of motorcycles all over the world, especially in Asia and Africa, residual products that do not disintegrate in the course of internal combustion become a major factor impacting the environment.Even the engines with an afterburning system become the source of emission of numerous particulates with high contents of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) less than 10 micrometers in diameter (see Table 2).Particulate matter of such size, depending on chemical composition, is considered the most dangerous both for people's health and the environment which is confirmed by studies.
Bitcoin price continued its steady rise this morning as several major bits of cryptocurrency news came to light.Perhaps most disturbing was news that the South Korean head of economic policy at the Office for Government Policy Coordination, Jung Ki-joon, was found dead in his home on Sunday.As yet it would seem that his death was due to a heart attack in his sleep, but police have not ruled out foul play.Jung Ki-joon was in charge of “devising measures against cryptocurrency speculation” in South Korea’s majorly heated cryptocurrency market.Yonhap suggested the official was also “in charge of coordinating the opinions of different ministries and offices to prepare for the weekly meetings of Hong and relevant vice ministers.”In hopefully unrelated news, Choe Heung-sik, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service in South Korea, suggested the government would “active[ly]” support “normal transactions” of cryptocurrencies.
A game called Super Seducer just oozed onto the Steam market.It’s a game in which a self-proclaimed “seduction guru” shows men the way to a woman’s heart through the use of a Mass Effect dialog wheel and a whole fuckton (no pun intended) of mumble-y acting.I hope you like looking at La Ruina’s face, because you’ll be seeing a lot of it as you watch him use his moves on a variety of in-game women.A game called “Super Seducer” was always going to be laughed at no matter what.The game could be a gold leaf-covered sundae of positivity, consent, and tasteful nudity and it would still get laughed right off the figurative stage.Unless the game stars the free-swinging muscle boys from Mount Your Friends with giant SSes painted on their chests, it couldn’t possibly be tongue-in-cheek enough to justify that title.
Last summer, we heard that Elon Musk and The Boring Company received “verbal” approval to begin preliminary work on a Hyperloop tunnel between Washington DC and New York.Verbal approval, however, doesn’t really mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, but today The Boring Company has something a little more tangible to show us.The local government in Washington DC has given Musk and The Boring Company an early permit to begin some excavation work in an abandoned lot in the city’s NoMa neighborhood.The Washington Post says that this parking lot is located at 53 New York Avenue NE in Washington DC, and that we could one day see this become a station for a Hyperloop tunnel that allows for trips in between New York and DC in just 29 minutes.It’s important to note, however, that this is also a “vague” permit, and that it only covers “some preparatory and excavation work,” so we’re still a ways off from the dream of such a network being realized.Still, as early as this permit may be, it’s much more valuable than verbal approval.
We talked about the Aspark Owl electric hypercar when a concept form of the vehicle debuted last year.The car promised incredible performance and many wondered if the company would be able to deliver on its claims.A new video has turned up of the car making a run from naught to speed insanely quickly.The video shows some Japanese gents closing the door and then standing back.Without warning the car positively vaults off the line and is across the parking lot behind some buildings and nearly into the weeds in seconds.The builder claims that the 0-60mph time for the Owl is 1.92 seconds.
In the search for sustainable energy solutions, no idea is too big or too small to consider.In the past couple of years, we’ve seen genetically engineered algae serve as biofuel, cellphones harness energy from radio waves, and even toilets that convert urine into electricity.Engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have now developed a small device that captures energy from changing air temperatures.Called a thermal resonator, the device exploits the temperature fluctuations that occur throughout the day-night cycle.This offers promise as a longterm power source for remote operating systems, according to the researchers, who recently published a paper in the journal Nature Communications.“Ambient temperature fluctuations are a ubiquitous and mostly untapped energy resource,” Anton Cottrill, an MIT graduate student and first author of the study, told Digital Trends.
Glued to the couch, controller in hand, the average teen morphs into an extra from The Walking Dead for about six hours each week.But that’s okay; there are worse ways to kill time than playing PUBG.Besides, gaming has some positives too: it’s been shown to improve hand-eye coordination, ward off the onset of dementia, and enhance memory and concentration.It’s not helping anyones waistline, but I digress.Long story short, there’s nothing wrong with plugging in and tuning out the rest of the world by blasting baddies in Destiny 2.But, as parents, we’re always on the lookout for ways to squeeze in a learning opportunity by utilizing our kids’ hobbies against them — we suck, we really do.
Amazon's smart assistant is making her way into playtime, with Mattel and other toymakers adding Alexa voice commands to products to enhance game play.Several such toys are due this fall, and this weekend some will be on display at the ginormous New York Toy Fair.In an age when parents are accustomed to syncing toys with smartphone apps, it's not much of a leap for companies to want to leverage smart speakers.Why make your own voice recognition system and battle privacy worries when you can use one already trusted in millions of homes?"We know that more than one in five parents of connected children own a voice-controlled internet-connected smart speaker," said Sven Gerjets, Mattel's chief technology officer.Mattel's first dip into Alexa isn't geared toward young kids, though.
When CNET editors issued these tweets, we weren't really being serious:But just tell that to Pad & Quill, the company that's selling a purpose-built leather coaster for the Apple HomePod -- just $19.95 each.(Just yesterday, Apple admitted that the HomePod's silicone base can indeed leave a noticible ring on oiled wooden surfaces, but suggested it's a fairly common thing for silicone bases.We're already seeing reports of the Sonos One and Amazon Echo creating similar stains.Sonos tells CNET that it's looking into the issue.)According to Pad & Quill President Brian Holmes, the company leapt on the idea: "We thought of the idea about 25 hours ago.
R/GA announced today the promotion of Richard Ting, an 11-year employee of the agency, to executive vice president and the new role of global chief design officer.The shop said in a statement it is placing all design disciplines under one hood, “fostering even greater integration.”Ting will be responsible for the growth and evolution of the agency’s data and AI-driven design capabilities while also continuing in his previous role as a partner of R/GA Ventures, a division opened in 2014 that holds the investments the agency makes through its accelerator programs.Ting has served in various roles during his time at R/GA including executive creative director (on the Nike account), global head of mobile and social platforms, R/GA Ventures partner and global chief experience officer.This year, Ting will partner with all of R/GA’s global offices and creative leaders to “reshape [its] design talent” and “ensure that they remain world-class and are ready for a world that is increasingly driven by technology,” according to the agency’s statement.“I believe that the designer of the future will increasingly have to integrate multiple aspects of design—design, research, experience strategy, experience design, service design, visual design, prototyping and behavioral science,” Ting said.
The 4GB variant of the Nokia 6 has been launched in India by HMD Global.Earlier the Nokia 6 was launched in June 2017 with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of ROM in India.Come 2018, it has received an upgrade and will be available for sale starting February 20th exclusively on the e-commerce website, Flipkart.The Nokia 6 2018 doesn’t differ a lot from its other variant.It sports a 5.5 inch IPS LCD display having a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels.Under the hood lies the Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 chipset coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of ROM which is expandable via microSD card.
A solar storm is forecast to hit Earth early Thursday after the sun unleashed a powerful solar flare — a burst of high-energy radiation — Sunday night.NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory Satellite captured a solar flare on the sun releasing a coronal mass ejection (CME) around 8:25 p.m.“[CMEs] are huge explosions of magnetic field and plasma from the Sun’s corona,” the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) explained in a post online.“When CMEs impact the Earth’s magnetosphere, they are responsible for geomagnetic storms and enhanced aurora.”The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOA) issued a G1 (minor) geomagnetic storm watch for Thursday.Here’s what you need to know about solar storms — and how they can impact the Earth — before one hits the planet on Thursday.
The new Ogilvy Group UK chief executive Michael Frohlich talks about being a PR veteran and explains how he will be transforming the group towards a One Ogilvy integrated operating system.The newly installed UK Group chief executive admits it’s “corny” but he really does want to “deliver the impossible.” Michael Frohlich is probably allowed more than most to be slightly sentimental about his life-long ambition to be at helm of Ogilvy UK.After all it was his first choice, when he stepped out of university.“I didn’t quite know what I wanted to do when I got out of uni, so decided to apply for a graduate trainee scheme in advertising.Not only did I not get an interview, but got no response back.This is absolutely the best job in the (Ogilvy) network.”
While the recently-released Apple HomePod is impressing with its audio quality, an early assessment from non-profit reviewing organization, Consumer Reports, claims that the Google Home Max and Sonos One slightly edge it out with their audio chops.In a short video, Consumer Reports mentions that, despite being “one of the best-sounding smart speakers they’ve tested”, the HomePod didn’t sound as clear as Google’s larger competitor or the more audio-centric Sonos One.The early review claims that the HomePod suffers from overemphasized bass and a muddier sound overall.However, the organization has yet to complete its full evaluation, so whether or not they’ll alter their assessment in this field is yet to be seen, but we should find out in the coming weeks when the full results are released.This could spell trouble for Apple, as its $349 (£319 / AU$499) device was largely lined up to compete with Google’s $399 Max smart speaker (around £300 / AU$510), with its audio quality being touted as a prominent selling point.But for those already engaged in the Apple ecosystem, the HomePod will still likely please.
They reflect and refract light, making possible the imaging systems that drive discovery through the microscope and preserve history through cameras.In a paper published Feb. 9 in Science Advances, scientists at the University of Washington announced that they have successfully combined two different imaging methods -- a type of lens designed for nanoscale interaction with lightwaves, along with robust computational processing -- to create full-color images.The team's ultrathin lens is part of a class of engineered objects known as metasurfaces.A metasurface-based lens -- or metalens -- consists of flat microscopically patterned material surfaces designed to interact with lightwaves.But the UW team's metalens -- in conjunction with computational filtering -- yields full-color images with very low levels of aberrations across the visual spectrum.If properly laid out at these minuscule scales, these structures can interact with individual lightwaves with precision that traditional lenses cannot.
The Oumuamua interstellar object has been tumbling through space for billions of years due to a violent past, according to researchers with Queen’s University Belfast.The object was first announced late last year; it has the distinction of being the first (known) interstellar object to visit our solar system, though it was shrouded in mystery.Much of that mystery remains, but researchers are beginning to unravel it.Researchers first spotted the interstellar object back in October, first believing it to be a comet.Upon further evaluation, experts realized Oumuamua is an asteroid, one with an unusual, elongated shape.Scientists with Queen’s University Belfast and colleagues around the world have been studying the object since.


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DAA Raises Concern About Default "Do Not Track" Browser Setting
On May 31, 2012, the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA), a coalition of the nation's leading media and marketing trade associations and companies, raised concern about Microsoft's decision to embed Do Not Track (DNT) functionality as a default setting in version 10 of its Internet Explorer (IE) browser. The DAA made the following statement:
Over the last three and a half years, the DAA has worked with a broad set of stakeholders with significant input from businesses, consumers, and policy makers to develop a program governing the responsible collection and use of web viewing data. The DAA has championed a balanced approach that accommodates both consumers' privacy expectations and the ability of online products and services providers to provide a sustainable business model for these services while enabling them to continue innovating with new services. Consumers enjoy the diverse range of Web sites and services they get at no charge thanks to relevant advertising. Recognizing that DAA members must also provide consumers with appropriate transparency and clear choices, it has spearheaded the self-regulatory process, in which Microsoft has been an active participant since its inception.
The DAA's work culminated in an event in February at the White House where the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, the Secretary of Commerce and members of the White House publicly praised the DAA's cross-industry initiative. At that event, the DAA committed to honor browser settings that enable the use of data to continue to benefit consumers and the economy, while at the same time providing consumers with the ability to make their own choice about the collection and use of data about them. The overwhelming majority of the advertising ecosystem follows the DAA program today, and consumers have responded favorably to the increased transparency it has enabled. The Internet economy is fueling Internet growth and innovation while providing ongoing benefits to consumers.
Advertising has always been about connecting consumers to products and services that are likely of interest to them, said DAA General Counsel Stu Ingis. While new Web technologies deliver more relevant advertising to consumers, comprehensive industry self-regulation is also providing consumers with meaningful choices about the collection of their data. The Administration and FTC have praised these efforts. Today's technology announcement, however, threatens to undermine that balance, limiting the availability and diversity of Internet content and services for consumers. Microsoft's technology announcement appears to include requirements that are inconsistent with the consensus achieved over the appropriate standards for collecting and using web viewing data (and which today are enforced by strong self-regulation). The DAA is very concerned that this unilateral decision by one browser maker - made without consultation within the selfregulatory process -may ultimately narrow the scope of consumer choices, undercut thriving business models, and reduce the availability and diversity of the Internet products and services that millions of American consumers currently enjoy at no charge. The resulting marketplace confusion will not benefit consumers, and will profoundly impact the broad array of advertisingsupported services they currently enjoy.
Heard on the Hill
Congressional Committees Hold Hearings on White House and FTC Privacy Frameworks
Committees with jurisdiction over privacy issues in the Senate and House of Representatives have held hearings focused on the privacy frameworks released earlier this year by the White House and Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The first hearing to examine the frameworks was convened on March 29, 2012 in the Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade (CMT) Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The hearing was entitled Balancing Privacy and Innovation: Does the President's Proposal Tip the Scale? Representative Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) chaired the hearing, which was attended by numerous Republican and Democratic subcommittee members.
The hearing's first panel was composed of two government witnesses: Jon Leibowitz, FTC Chairman, and Lawrence Strickling, Assistant Secretary for Communication and Information at the Commerce Department, who discussed the reports issued by their respective agencies. Both witnesses spoke in favor of baseline privacy legislation that would set national regulations applying across industries. While some members " including Subcommittee Ranking Member G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) " voiced support for such legislation, other members " including CMT Subcommittee Chairman Bono Mack and full Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) " expressed concerns that new legislation may be unnecessary and could negatively affect the Internet.
The second panel at the CMT Subcommittee hearing featured industry and nonprofit representatives, who provided a range of perspectives on the privacy frameworks. Several witnesses discussed the merits of industry self-regulation.
The Senate Commerce Committee held its own hearing on May 9, 2012, entitled The Need for Privacy Protections: Perspectives from the Administration and the Federal Trade Commission. Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) chaired the hearing, which was also attended by Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) and several Democratic committee members. In his opening statement, Chairman Rockefeller stated that he does not believe industry self-regulation is sufficient to address consumers' privacy concerns. Senator John Kerry (D-MA) also delivered an opening statement, in which he suggested that his privacy legislation (coauthored with Senator John McCain (R-AZ)) could be a starting point for a baseline national privacy bill.
The sole panel at the Senate Commerce hearing featured FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz; FTC Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen; and Cameron Kerry, General Counsel of the Commerce Department. Similar to the CMT Subcommittee hearing, both Chairman Leibowitz and Mr. Kerry supported baseline privacy legislation. Commissioner Ohlhausen stated that she needed more time to review the proposals because she joined the FTC after the release of the framework.
House Judiciary Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Geolocation Privacy
On May 17, 2012, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security considered the issues of geolocational privacy and surveillance at a hearing on Representative Jason Chaffetz's (R-UT) H.R. 2168, the Geolocational Privacy and Surveillance Act. A companion bill, S. 1212, has also been introduced in the Senate by Senator Ron Wyden, but the Senate has yet to hold a hearing on that bill.
H.R. 2168 would provide a framework for commercial and government entities as well as private citizens on how they may access and use geolocation information. The bill would prohibit them from collecting, using, or sharing the information except for in certain circumstances, such as when they have obtained consent. The bill, which includes a private right of action, would impose fines and imprisonment for violations.
Subcommittee Chair Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) chaired the hearing, which was attended by members of both sides of the aisle. Representative Chaffetz, who is a member of the Subcommittee, explained that the purpose of his bill was to establish a process for guaranteeing privacy protections and to help ensure that the government had a clear reason for obtaining geolocation information regardless of its legal authority to do so. Subcommittee Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-VA) commended the bill as a good starting point for addressing technological advances not yet addressed by current laws.
Witnesses from the Computer & Communications Industry Association and the American Civil Liberties Union also expressed support for the bill, noting that the bill would extend Fourth Amendment protections to reflect the digital age. On the other end of the spectrum, representatives of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association and National District Attorneys Association voiced concern that the bill could hamper law enforcement efforts.
Around the Agencies
FTC Raises Data Security and Children's Privacy Claims in RockYou Settlement
Regarding the COPPA Rule, the FTC charged RockYou with violating the Rule when it obtained 179,000 children's email addresses and associated passwords, and allowed children to post information online without parental notice and consent. The FTC further alleged that RockYou failed to adequately secure children's personal information as required by the COPPA Rule.
To settle the FTC's charges, RockYou agreed to pay a $250,000 civil penalty and agreed to injunctive provisions barring deceptive claims regarding privacy and data security. Similar to other FTC cases involving data security, RockYou also agreed to implement a comprehensive data security program and submit to security audits by independent third-party auditors every other year for 20 years.
FTC Hosts Workshop on Mobile Payments
On April 26, 2012, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) hosted a workshop, entitled Paper, Plastic ¦ or Mobile? An FTC Workshop on Mobile Payments, to examine the use of mobile payments in the marketplace and how emerging technologies affect consumers. The workshop consisted of presentations and panels with representatives from business, law, finance, and consumer advocacy organizations. David Vladeck, Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the FTC, delivered opening remarks stating that the purpose of the workshop was to understand and identify [mobile payment] issues before they become widespread, and to build best practices for adoption by the mobile payment industry.
Mobile payment systems allow consumers to make purchases using their mobile devices, as opposed to using cash or plastic debit or credit cards. The industry is growing at a dizzying pace"mobile payments in the U.S. totaled $240 billion in 2011 and are expected to rise to $670 billion by 2015.
As was discussed at length during the workshop, mobile payment technology is in a state of innovation and flux. Companies have already brought to market systems that allow consumers to pay using their existing cards stored in a virtual wallet on their phone, to pay by adding the charge to their mobile carrier bill, or to pay using virtual cash pre-purchased from the mobile payment provider and deducted from a stored account. As the panelists and presenters pointed out, the transactional stage has its own set of technological options. Depending on the mobile payment system chosen, consumers can pay by placing their phone next to a receptor (known as Near Field Communication, or NFC), by sending a text message to the merchant, or by scanning a bar code that appears on the screen of their mobile device.
On the other side of the counter, merchants are using mobile payment systems in a variety of ways. Electronic recordation of their transactions allows for easier implementation of loyalty programs, while location-based mobile services give merchants the ability to target discounts to potential customers in proximity to their store. With streamlined data collection across the transactional and social networking platforms, businesses gain access to high-level data analytics about their customers.
The workshop discussed the many benefits consumers will reap"and already are reaping"from mobile payments. Savings, in the form of synchronized discounts and loyalty programs, as well as the digitalization of receipts, are only a few that were mentioned at the workshop.
Panelists discussed the difficulties that consumers could face with mobile payment systems as FTC moderators steered the discussion to three specific areas: (1) privacy, (2) data security, (3) payment dispute resolution. Panelists, presenters, and moderators underscored the importance of developing a legal and regulatory framework that would encourage innovation in the industry while ensuring consumers remain protected in these areas.
In a separate presentation not scheduled on the official program, staff from the FTC Mobile Technology Unit revealed that they had conducted a study of 19 mobile payment providers to observe what disclosures are made to consumers regarding these companies' dispute resolution policies. While FTC staff emphasized that the Commission was not drawing any conclusions from the study, the slides emphasized consumers' total liability for fraudulent or unauthorized purchases, as well as the sharing of consumers' personal information with third parties.
FTC Explores Dotcom Disclosures
On May 30, 2012, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) convened a day-long public workshop to discuss updating its Dot Com Disclosures guidance on presenting online advertising disclosures. The FTC is considering whether it should overhaul this guidance, which dates to 2000, to address current trends such as social media and mobile advertising. The workshop also included a panel devoted to mobile privacy disclosures. Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen kicked off the event by explaining that the FTC does not intend to expand its Section 5 authority, but wants to shed light on how existing legal principles should apply to new technologies.
Mary Engle, the head of the FTC's Advertising Practices Division, told participants that new technology platforms should adapt to existing legal principles, not the other way around. But discussion at the workshop highlighted the challenges of reaching this goal in a way that is technically feasible and does not detract from users' experiences.
One obvious challenge is the space limitations of mobile devices and certain social media platforms, which give advertisers less room to provide disclosures. Numerous panelists opined that, despite these limitations, disclosures should still be placed near advertising claims. A few panelists suggested that ad campaigns that require extensive disclosures should not use platforms where such disclosures are not feasible.
To cope with space limits, some panelists endorsed the concept of standardized icons, labels, and other shorthand signals that give consumers access to disclosures. The mobile privacy disclosures panel featured several presentations by programs that are developing such offerings. Other panelists, however, expressed concern that these signals may not be understood by consumers, or saw a need for more consumer education to promote understanding. Numerous panelists also advocated for the FTC to retain flexibility for companies and for social media users.
Another challenge identified during the workshop is the fact that digital content can easily be relocated in cyberspace, potentially losing or altering disclosures in the process. For example, the panel on social media disclosures discussed the challenge of ensuring that disclosures travel with promotional messages when blog content is repurposed or syndicated. Disclosures presented in a sidebar will be lost if the blog is viewed in an RSS feed. Translating webpages from desktop to mobile environment can also affect how consumers see disclosures.
The FTC now faces the task of distilling these and other workshop discussions, as well as comments solicited last year, into concrete guidance for the business community. Ms. Engle, the Advertising Practices chief, pledged that the FTC will seek to turn these shades of gray into as many ¦ blacks and whites as we can. To that end, the FTC will be accepting comments until July 11 and expects to issue its new guidance as early as the fall.
FCC Requests Comments on Privacy and Security of Information on Mobile Devices
On May 25, 2012, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that it is seeking comments on the privacy and security of information stored on mobile communications devices. Comments will be due 30 days after the notice is published in the Federal Register, and reply comments are due 45 days after the notice is published.
The FCC has long focused on protecting the privacy of customer information under section 222 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended. Five years ago, the FCC sought comments on how carriers protect customer proprietary network information (CPNI). In the interim, many technological advances have been made and the FCC would like to update the administrative record. Commenters are encouraged to provide feedback on how wireless providers' treatment of customer information stored on mobile devices has since evolved. Additionally, among other topics, the public is encouraged to comment on the role of privacy by design, the role of consumers in protecting their data, and wireless providers' obligations to protect customer information.
FCC Releases Report on Location-Based Services
The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released its anticipated report on location-based services, entitled Location-Based Services: An Overview of Opportunities and Other Considerations (Report).1 The Report follows the FCC's examination of locationbased services (LBS) at last year's FCC workshop on LBS and privacy issues they may raise.
The Report highlights the many ways in which innovative LBS are providing value to consumers, but also underscores the challenges of ensuring that people enjoy such services without placing their confidential information at risk. The FCC reiterates its goals with respect to privacy, including: (1) ensuring personal information is not misused; (2) requiring transparent information practices; and (3) providing consumer control and choice. The Report notes that some members of industry have stepped up to meet these goals, but industry responses vary.
The FCC provides its perspective on key privacy issues associated with LBS, stating that transparent notice is one of the most important aspects of commercial data privacy practices, and that such notice should be clear, concise, and accurate. At the same time, the FCC recognizes the challenges of providing notice with regard to LBS, due in part to small screen sizes. The FCC takes the view that companies may derive competitive benefits from offering transparency to consumers.
The FCC acknowledges the challenge of deciding whether choice should be optout or opt-in, but identifies a developing consensus in the LBS industry that opt-in is appropriate for location data.2 Another challenge is to ensure that choice does not interfere with the user experience. The FCC suggests that uniform language for privacy choices could address this challenge. Finally, the Report identifies children's use of mobile technology as a challenge for LBS providers.
The FCC states that third party access to data also creates challenges for LBS, such as the existence of many industry players in the LBS environment, including app developers who may not have experience or resources to address privacy. The FCC reports that companies are taking steps to ensure that associated third parties are attentive to privacy but acknowledges that companies have a limited ability to control third party practices.3
Finally, the FCC states that because location data is perceived as sensitive, heightened security requirements reasonably can be expected of LBS providers.4
In the Courts
California Court Decision Provides Guidance to Email Marketers on Proxy Domains
The recent California appellate decision in Balsam v. Trancos, Inc. provides a caution to email marketers who use proxy services to send commercial emails on their behalf. The defendant, Trancos, is an email marketing company who sends marketing emails on behalf of its clients. As part of this service, Trancos generates the domain name used in the from line of the email. For the emails in question, it generated fanciful names for the domains used, which were legitimately registered to Trancos through a proxy server. The physical address provided in the body of the email also belonged to Trancos.
Despite these facts, the California appellate court determined that these emails violated California's state Anti-Spam law. Similar to the federal CAN-SPAM Act, California's Anti-Spam law prohibits commercial email which contains or is accompanied by falsified, misrepresented, or forged header information. Earlier precedent in California had held that a commercial emailer did not misrepresent its identity when it used multiple, randomly-named, but traceable domain names in order to avoid spam filters. The key difference in Trancos, in the court's reasoning, was that the proxy domain names used here were not traceable. Any consumer who attempted a WHOIS search of the domain names in the commercial emails would not be led back to Trancos, but would instead be directed to the proxy service with whom the domain names were registered. This lack of traceability, which would potentially prevent a consumer from determining the sender's identity or whether the sender was acting in good faith, drove the court's ruling.
The court also ruled that on this issue, the federal CAN-SPAM Act does not preempt California's statute. The California statute would apply to any entity that either sends commercial emails from California or to California consumers.
UK Begins Enforcing Cookie Consent Provisions
At present time, a number of European member states have passed laws implementing the Directive including France, Ireland, the United Kingdon (UK), and Spain. Many European member states, however, including Germany and Italy, have failed to enact a law. The collective effect of the mixed record on compliance across the EU is that some countries are, in theory, already enforcing the requirements while others have not taken the necessary affirmative steps to do so.
The UK became the first to announce its plans for implementing the Directive. The press release accompanying release of guidance to the business community noted a one-year grace period on enforcement of the consent provisions, which pushed the enforcement deadline to May 26, 2012.
The UK issued additional guidance to coincide with the commencement of enforcement (May Guidance).7 While the May Guidance is largely consistent with previous recommendations, it now reflects that provided that implied consent is a freely given, specific and informed indication of the individual's wishes, it would be sufficient to meet the terms of the law. The May Guidance encourages businesses to look at the context of the transaction with the consumer in order to determine whether implied consent would be sufficient.
Important factors to consider include: (1) the nature of the intended audience of the site; (2) the way in which users expect to receive information on the site; and (3) making sure the language is appropriate for the audience. Specifically addressing web analytics, the May Guidance recognizes that gaining explicit optin consent for analytics cookies is difficult and that implied consent might be the most practical and user-friendly option, but they urge sites to give more and better information about cookies and the facility for users to make choices about cookies.
Both guidance documents inform businesses that they are obligated to do three things: (1) inform web users of cookies; (2) explain what the cookies are doing; and (3) obtain users' consent to store a cookie on their device. Consent must be obtained prior to setting the cookie; for websites that set cookies as soon as a visitor comes to a website, the website should wherever possible delay setting the cookie until users have had the opportunity to understand what cookies are being used and make their choice.8
The Guidance also provides practical advice, for companies seeking to start the compliance process, summarized as follows:
- Audit cookies currently in use"analyze which cookies are strictly necessary and clean up web pages with unnecessary cookies;
- Determine a solution for obtaining consent.9
The Guidance suggests that a variety of notice and consent options may be sufficient under the UK regulations.
1 Federal Communications Commission, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, Location-Based Services: An Overview of Opportunities and Other Considerations, (May 2012), available at http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2012/db0530/DOC-314283A1.pdf (hereinafter, FCC Report).
3 FCC Report, p. 30.
5 The Guidance is available from the UK's Information Commissioner's Office webpage, here: http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/privacy_and_electronic_communications/the_guide/cookies. aspx.
6 Guidance, p. 4.
7 The May Guidance is available here: http://www.ico.gov.uk/news/blog/2012/updated-ico-adviceguidance- e-privacy-directive-eu-cookie-law.aspx .
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.


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October 31, 2011- OTM Partners earned a Silver Davey Award for the creation of a micro website launching “eLearning Center,” an online training system with an ecommerce front end. The Davey Awards are given to the best small firms worldwide that produce "outstanding creative work". The 2011 Davey Awards received nearly 4,000 entries from ad agencies, interactive agencies, production firms, in-house creative professionals, graphic designers, design firms and public relations firms.
OTM also won two Gold MarCom Awards for the work it did to produce a 20-minute highly interactive online training course and catalog – on behalf of a client.
OTM Partners' newest innovation, The Issues Widget, was recently unveiled as part of a larger effort to educate consumers about swipe fees. With research indicating consumers believe convenience store owners were making big profits on gasoline sales, OTM seized an opportunity to leverage a disorienting dilemma to generate transformative learning. By engaging users in a purchase at the fuel pump, The Issues Widget demonstrates that store owners actually make very little on gasoline sales. Armed with this new knowledge, consumers are urged to Take Action Today by completing a letter to their elected official. Applying adult learning theory, instructional design principles and interactive expertise, OTM Partners successfully converted learners into advocates in less than 90 seconds. To see our widget library, click here.


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Farmak has become a leader in pharmacy sales, in monetary terms, in the first half of 2017 among marketing сompanies in Ukraine.
These are the findings published by Proxima Research based on the data from the market research system PharmXplorer / Pharmstandard.
“Our main objective is to provide people with high quality and effective medicines. More than 2500 Farmak's employees in Ukraine work to achieve this objective day after day. The high rating result once again proves that we have chosen a right direction and it emphasizes the effectiveness of our work”, says Augustin Dubnička, Executive Director, Farmak.
It is worth to mention that in 2015 and 2016 Farmak was also a leader in pharmacy sales, in monetary terms, for the same period*.
*According to Proxima Research.
The book “Bude tobi nauka: ukrainski vcheni, yaki zminiuiut svit” (That’s science for you: Ukrainian scientists changing the world) and the corporate magazine Science inside won the Grand Prix of the competition “The Best Corporate Media of Ukraine 2020”. The competition experts also highly praised other projects of Farmak press service. The corp...
On November 5, 2020 the medicinal product was officially included in the List of Prequalified Medicinal Products by the World Health Organization (WHO) Prequalification of medicinal products is a procedure performed by the WHO to assess the quality, safety and efficacy of medicinal products. The inclusion of the medicinal product in the List of […]
Now eco-businesses can join the Eco-School and support students by funding their projects. The Eco-School continues to extend. An online platform has recently been launched where businesses can select and support students’ eco-projects, and the teams that have been trained and submitted their projects to participate in the competition but have not bee...


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Published: June 9, 2016 FOND DU LAC, Wis. (WBAY) – Two years ago, we told you about a massive dehumidifier recall, after several units were linked to fires. Now today, the Fond du Lac Fire Department says one of those recalled dehumidifiers caused another house fire this morning.
Ora Karlstadt was one of several people in a Mustang Lane home this morning when the fire alarms started to go off.
She says, “I went to the panel to check, see what was going on. It said active fire basement. I hit the bottom of the stairs, I saw smoke, I grabbed the fire extinguisher, walked back and put out the fire.”
According to the Fond du Lac Fire Department, which responded to the call, this dehumidifier is to blame.
“We looked at the dehumidifier of course, you could tell it was that. There was nothing else. It was all by itself plugged in,” says Division Chief Troy Haase.
But, to the surprise of Karlstadt and the others in the home, the dehumidifier was on a list of recalled units, published by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than two years ago.
Ora Karlstadt says, “We’ve had this running in our basement for two years, never had an issue and all of sudden there you go, four foot flames that could have taken out the house if we had not seen it.”
And that’s why the Fond du Lac Fire department is using the incident as a teaching tool, since this type of dehumidifier is one of nearly a hundred that people are unknowingly using despite their dangers.
Troy Haase says, “These dehumidifiers are still out there. I’m sure there’s hundreds of them operating, possibly in Fond du Lac. So it’s just a matter of looking at it and determining, it takes five minutes to fix it and to make sure that you’re not going to have an issue.”
If your dehumidifier is on the list, unplug it and stop using it immediately. Because as Ora Karlstadt learned, “We have to take this serious. We really have to look at this. I’m definitely going to let all of my friends know. I have this model. If you have this model, you need to do something about it. You need to keep yourself safe.”
Action 2 News has been covering fires sparked by recalled dehumidifiers for years. Since 2013, about 2.5 million dehumidifiers have been recalled in the United States because they can overheat, smoke, and catch fire, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.


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Microsoft is the latest tech giant to lay off thousands of employees.
The company announced Wednesday that it is laying off 10,000 employees as part of cost-cutting measures, CNN reported.
The number equates to about 5% of its global workforce, The Associated Press reported.
Microsoft said in a regulatory filing that it has notified employees of the layoffs, some of which are effective immediately and were in response to “macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities,” the AP reported.
Speaking before the announcement of the layoffs, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company, like many others, was affected by a weaker global economy.
“No one can defy gravity and gravity here is inflation-adjusted economic growth,” Nadella said during a live stream from the World Economic Forum, CNN reported.
But while Microsoft announced layoffs, eliminating some roles, Nadella said the company is still hiring in “key strategic areas” including building a “new computer platform” using artificial intelligence, according to AP.
In a company blog post, Nadella said, We’re living through times of significant change” and that he has met with customers and partners who have started to scale back the spending they did during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re also seeing organizations in every industry and geography exercise caution as some parts of the world are in a recession and other parts are anticipating one,” he added.
Microsoft is the latest tech company to cut staffing.
The following companies already started layoffs before Microsoft’s announcement, according to CNN:
- Amazon — 18,000 workers.
- Salesforce — 10% of staff.
- Meta, the parent company of Facebook — 11,000 workers.
Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said that tech layoffs were up 649% in 2022 compared to 2021 levels. Overall there were 13% more layoffs across all businesses during the same time period.
©2022 Cox Media Group


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Relax Gaming secures partnership with Veikkaus
A selection of content from the supplier's Silver Bullet and Powered by partner studios will also be made available as part of the deal, including the latest releases from Big Time Gaming, Push Gaming, Kalamba Games and its recently extended deal with ReelPlay.
Over the past 12 months, Relax Gaming has accelerated the growth of its distribution network, signing a series of deals with tier one operators whilst broadening its appeal with mutually beneficial agreements with other aggregation platform providers to reach new casino brands and markets.
Daniel Eskola, Relax Gaming CCO, said: "Partnering with a Finnish brand as well respected as Veikkaus is a real milestone in our company journey and puts Relax Gaming on the map of the World Lottery Association.
"Our platform expertly collates some of the most coveted slot and casino games in the industry, featuring a vast array of titles which will appeal to the unique demands and preferences of the Finnish market."
Jan Hagelberg, Vice President of Casino Games, said: "We are thrilled to partner with Relax Gaming. This partnership helps our mission to serve our players with the best possible content and accelerates our journey towards our 2020 business goals for Veikkaus online casino.
"By gaining access to not only the high-quality proprietary content of Relax, but also to a growing number of other suppliers' games that our players have also asked for, we are well on our way to reaching our target."


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Canon Europe has moved into 3D printing by announcing a distribution agreement with 3D Systems.
Colour management firm GMG UK is offering a free ISO colour health-check in connection with its partnership at Duplo’s Northern Lights event, which is taking place in Manchester on 10 and 11 March.
Darlington-based Sense Creative has ceased production and looks set to close having filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators.
Xerox has unveiled its new small footprint Rialto 900 Inkjet Press at Hunkeler Innovationdays, which is being held this week in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Paperlinx has promoted the head of its Australia, New Zealand and Asia operations to chief executive following the departure of Andrew Price last week.
Mailmate Print has acquired the print and mailing division of Jersey Post and relocated the operation in a circa £300,000 strategic investment.
Unite has reacted angrily after administrators moved in to Aylesford Newsprint yesterday and immediately closed the mill and made 233 staff redundant.
Dutch label and packaging press specialist MPS Systems has announced an open house event to showcase the capabilities of its EB flexo press at its UK sales and service office in Wigan.
Signage firm Contract Sign Systems has invested in the UK’s first Canon Océ Arizona 6160 XTS wide-format flatbed printer.
Best Digital has invested in a Screen Truepress Jet W3200UV HS flatbed printer to enable the firm to increase throughput.
Industrial Inkjet (IIJ) has announced that it is to unveil its latest system, the XYPrint 300, for the first time at Fespa in Cologne, Germany, in May.
The PEFC has welcomed the results of a Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI) commissioned YouGov poll, which revealed that UK consumers prefer their groceries and fresh produce to be available in paper-based...
Xeikon has unveiled its new dry toner-based digital colour press, the Xeikon 9800, at Hunkeler Innovationdays, which is being held this week in Lucerne, Switzerland.


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Nigerian commerce minister to visit India
Nigeria's Commerce Minister Chief Achike Udenwa will lead a delegation to India in September in a bid to strengthen economic ties and encourage investment in diverse areas of the West African country's economy.Updated: Aug 03, 2009, 10:52 IST
Nigeria's Commerce Minister Chief Achike Udenwa will lead a delegation to India in September in a bid to strengthen economic ties and encourage investment in diverse areas of the West African country's economy.
Udenwa tied his upcoming visit to new expectations by Nigeria in terms of commerce and trade with India.
"Today the face of commerce is changing and Nigeria is also changing her priorities on what we really expect from India. We are expecting the importation to Nigeria of mainly capital goods and not just the usual consumable," he told the visiting members of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) during a reception organised by High Commissioner of India to Nigeria Mahesh Sachdev in Lagos.
According to him, the current need is to have more of Nigerian non-oil exports going into India.
"I am sure with this type of development, Nigeria and India will strengthen their already very good relationship. I remember when we did the indigenization decree in 1972 to 1976 there were quite a lot of Indian products in Nigeria and that changed from just trading to the establishment of cottage industry," he said adding that the Indian business community should continue investing in diverse area like manufacturing and also move into solid minerals.
He explained that gold, copper, phosphate; limestones and variety of solid minerals are available in some parts of Nigeria for investors to put their expertise in.
He also encouraged the investors to take advantage of the agricultural sector where the climatic conditions will be amenable to their endeavours pointing out that the two countries have many food crops in common which would make it easier for investment in the sector.
The high-powered CII delegation brought together business and industry CEOs delegation to Nigeria and held their India-Africa Conclave, which will continue till August 4.
CII is an influential industry organisation that has been committed to development of trade and investment relationships with Africa.


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A Wilmington real estate group with ties to Chinese investors has committed to building a $15 million cold storage warehouse facility at the Port of Wilmington that state officials hope will attract more food companies shipping products overseas.
USA InvestCo. of Wilmington is planning to build a 75,000-square-foot facility at the port that will be able to store locally-produced pork, poultry, fruits and vegetables, according to an announcement from Gov. Pat McCrory’s office.
The facility is expected to employ about 100 people when it opens.
It will also be the first refrigerated storage facility at the Wilmington port and could be expanded to 300,000 square feet if there’s demand for it, says Chuck Schoninger, the principal of USA InvestCo. The group has hired storage industry veteran Charles McCarthy to operate and manage the facility when it opens.
USA InvestCo. is also getting some public financing assistance from the Golden LEAF Foundation, which recently approved an $800,000 grant for the project through the N.C. Southeast Regional Economic Development Partnership. The Golden LEAF funds will be used to buy equipment for the proposed storage facility.
“North Carolina exported nearly $4 billion worth of agricultural products in 2012,” stated North Carolina Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. “The cold storage facility is a vital piece of infrastructure that our producers have needed for a long time, and I’m happy that a public-private partnership will be able to make it a reality.”
USA InvestCo. is also a partner in the proposed $42 million Northern Riverfront Marina and Hotel project that’s planned on the Cape Fear River in downtown Wilmington.
Amanda Hoyle covers commercial and residential real estate. Follow her on Twitter @TBJrealestate


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Review: LG enV3
LG and/or Verizon have completely re-tooled the menu that users can interact with when the enV3 is closed. Because the external display has more real estate, it can do more. It has a carousel-style menu that can sort through the phone's music player, Bluetooth menu, key guard, contacts, messaging inbox, recent calls, and pictures. That's not bad at all. Each of these applications has a slightly stunted set of features, but users can get at the essentials, and that makes the enV3 far more user-friendly when compared to its predecessor.
When the enV3 is open, however, any seasoned Verizon Wireless customer is going to know exactly what to do. Verizon is including its set-up wizard on the enV3. This is a new tool that lets you quickly adjust a number of the enV3's features, such as the ringtone, wallpaper, and so on.
From the home screen, hitting the center of the D-pad opens up a standard grid menu. Selecting any of the items, and the entire menu reverts to that good old tabbed system that Verizon is in love with. The icons have all been refreshed, the animations are a bit different, and the colors have been changed, but the base code is the same.
AD article continues below...
The enV2 had a neat short cut key, which launched a list of short cuts to a number of different applications. For one reason or another, this key has been dropped from the enV3.
Review: BlackBerry Motion
The latest collaboration between BlackBerry Mobile and TCL is the Motion, a large slab that runs Android and boasts BlackBerry's powerful productivity tools. Mobile pros will be happy with features such as BlackBerry Hub and the Productivity Tab, while businesses that deploy the Motion will appreciate the DTEK security software.
LG Promises Faster Phone Updates, Starting with the G6
Apr 12, 2018
LG is making a renewed commitment to distributing software updates to its phones in a more timely manner. LG today said it officially opened a new Software Upgrade Center at its Magok-dong facility in South Korea.
New Qualcomm Tech Aims to Bring High-Quality AR and VR Mainstream
Aug 15, 2017
Qualcomm today announced a major expansion of Spectra, its effort to offer manufacturers a drop-in hardware and software solution for easily and affordably adding advanced camera technology to phones and other devices powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon chips. The expanded Spectra suite includes three new hardware camera modules.
Apple Extends iPhone Upgrade Program to Online Sales
Apr 26, 2016
Apple is now offering consumers the option to select its iPhone Upgrade Program when purchasing an iPhone via the Apple web site. Apple first rolled out the program last year with the debut of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.
Samsung's Galaxy S8 Active Heads to T-Mobile and Sprint
Nov 7, 2017
Samsung today said its rugged Galaxy S8 Active will soon be sold by T-Mobile and Sprint. The phone has been available from AT&T since earlier this year.


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Vandersanden bricks are a key ingredient in the success of the new home of the City, University of London’s Law School, designed by WilkinsonEyre.
Hand-formed Crème bricks from high quality manufacturer, Vandersanden, are core to the design vision behind Westbourne Park Baptist Church.
Keystone Lintels’ pioneering brick slip system has ensured the façade of a luxury apartment complex in Buckinghamshire is in keeping with its exemplary architectural design.
Imperial Bricks has announced an exclusive partnership with a brick manufacturer in Turkey. This will provide an assurance of quality and year-round capacity for seven of its most popular brick colours and styles.
Imperial Bricks now requires all of its manufacturing partners meet and evidence at least four key internationally recognised standards for product quality, sustainability and ethical supply.
Innovative brick design and manufacturing techniques are continuing to transform the creative building design possibilities available to architects. Brick manufacturer, Vandersanden, is at the forefront of this drive, unveiling a series of innovations.
Keystone Lintels provides a range of innovative, prefabricated brickwork solutions as part of the restoration and conversion of a series of barns into new homes along with the creation of nine new build houses.
Vandersanden recently won the prestigious golden accolade of Deloitte Best Managed Companies. This marks the fourth consecutive year the family business has won the Best Managed Companies award.
Brick manufacturer Vandersanden launches its first sustainability report: The Corporate Well-Being 2020 report. This contains an overview of the company’s most striking achievements and objectives.
Paul Graham, General Manager at IG Masonry Support (Ireland), explains in this piece why innovation is critical to ensuring the integrity of architecturally inspired facades.


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Even though Silicon Valley has had an often-contentious relationship with the US government's national security organizations, it's now time to be neighbors, one top official said Tuesday.
Microsoft on Tuesday said it will open its first flagship store outside the United States in Sydney, as the technology giant expands its physical footprint to take on global rivals Apple and Samsung.
Technology heavyweight IBM reported Monday lower profits in the first quarter following another drop in revenues, this time partly due to the strong dollar.
Technology billionaire Elon Musk pursued a sale of struggling electric-car company Tesla to Google in 2013, according to an excerpt of a book published Monday by Bloomberg News.
Ford showed off its new Taurus and Nissan unveiled a midsize sedan designed for China on Monday at a Shanghai Auto Show that highlighted the commercial resurgence of lower-priced Chinese auto brands.
Samsung has removed its corporate logo from its new smartphones sold in Japan, a company spokeswoman confirmed Saturday.
Apple Inc.'s cooperation with efforts to improve its compliance with antitrust laws after a federal judge concluded it colluded with electronic book publishers to raise prices five years ago took on an "adversarial tone" ...
Mike Hansen, a resident of this small, southeastern Wisconsin town, got a computer six years ago but has yet to set up an online connection.
Sony's hacking problems aren't over yet.
Microsoft and Yahoo have updated their search partnership to allow more flexibility in searches and end Yahoo's exclusive sales force role with advertisers.
In a quest to be more green, Apple says it is investing in Chinese solar power and preserving forests that make environmentally friendly paper.
Etsy priced its shares at $16 ahead of its Thursday Wall Street debut for the online marketplace known for handicrafts and strong social values.
Netflix on Wednesday reported an unprecedented jump in subscribers in the first quarter of this year, pushing the streaming television service membership above 60 million.
One startup founder is making his own effort to respond to the issue of income inequality—cutting his own pay while seriously boosting that of his employees.
French website BlaBlaCar said Wednesday it was swallowing up its German and Hungarian rivals, cementing its spot as Europe's king of ride-sharing as more and more cash-strapped travellers look to share car ...


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10 The consumer price index rose 0.3% and notched its first yearly positive reading since December, though it was just 0.1%, as the energy price plunge eased. With the residential vacancy rate near a 22-year low as a firming labour market boosts household formation, shelter costs are likely to continue rising.
But core inflation, which strips out volatile items and is closely watched by the Bank of Canada, was less subdued at 2.3 percent, up from 2.2 percent in May. The core index climbed 0.2 percent in June, excluding food and fuel.
The Consumer Price Index released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that inflation rose 0.3% in June for all urban consumers.
The CPI is calculated by tracking the prices of “basket” goods and comparing it to their prices in a base year.
Consumers benefitted from a slight reduction in the cost of clothes and cars. About 650,000 prices are checked each year across Canada.
WASHINGTON – Rising gasoline prices pushed inflation up modestly in June.
A category created to track the rental value of owner- occupied homes also rose 0.4 per cent, the most since October 2006. The uptick in core prices also came in line with expectations.
Widely considered a long-term cause for inflation is the amount of money in circulation.
However, Commonwealth Bank of Australia economist Michael Blythe says the low Australian dollar, which on Monday morning was fetching US73.68¢, may force the RBA to revise up its inflation forecast. Those decreases were driven by lower gasoline prices. For example, more efficient production can result in price deflation, but that doesn’t indicate a shrinking economy.
While gains in construction of either type of home add to growth, economists such as Shenfeld pointed out multifamily projects tend to make smaller contributions. In the picture above, a woman protests hyperinflation by carrying around worthless notes in Serbia during its hyperinflation crisis in 1992.
The impact of the oil price drop has probably helped to quell what could otherwise have been an inflation environment now calling for Fed action.
In the long-biased and hopeful stock market, and the media that follows it, it seems to me that a great deal of the discussion around the Federal Reserve has to do with reasoning against a near-term interest rate hike.


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And while Facebook has the lure of a bigger audience, YouTube’s not going to give up its crown easily. In response to Facebook’s renewed push, YouTube has announced a range of new tools of its own, with a big focus on giving creators more ways to monetize their content – something Facebook's yet to master with its offerings.
Here’s what’s been announced:
First off, YouTube's rolling out a new channel membership option, which will enable creators to charge a recurring, $4.99 monthly fee to give viewers access to:
“…unique badges, new emoji, Members-only posts in the Community tab, and access to unique custom perks offered by creators, such as exclusive live-streams, extra videos, or shout-outs.”
It’s interesting to see social platforms moving towards subscription models – just this week, Facebook also announced a new subscription option for groups.
Subscriptions are regularly raised a potential option for the platforms themselves to make money, reducing the need for ads, but doing so would obviously impact growth - which most are not keen to do. By providing subscription options for creators within their platforms, they may open up a new path to monetization, through taking a cut from each.
At this point, YouTube will take a 30% cut of any sponsorship revenue (after local sales tax is deducted).
The option will no doubt be welcomed by creators, who’ve been calling on YouTube to expand its revenue generation options - and according to YouTube, it's already been generating solid results in beta:
“Creators who have been experimenting with this feature on YouTube have seen encouraging results. Since launching in January, comedy creator Mike Falzone more than tripled his YouTube revenue. And traveling duo Simon and Martina have built a closer-knit community and revamped a miniseries exclusively for their members, in more than 30 countries from Finland to the Philippines.”
Channel memberships will soon be available to all eligible channels with more than 100,000 subscribers (which, as you’ll see from the other announcements, appears to be a key threshold figure for the platform).
YouTube will also now enable creators to add a merchandise ‘shelf’ below their videos to help them sell related products.
As explained by YouTube:
“Merchandise has been a part of many creators’ businesses for a long time. We want to make it easier for more creators to sell merch directly from their channel. So we’ve built a product that allows them to do just that. From shirts with a logo to phone cases with a creator’s face, we’ve joined forces with Teespring so creators can choose from over 20 merchandise items to customize and sell via a shelf on their channel.”
The new merchandise shelf will be available to all eligible U.S.-based channels with over 10,000 subscribers starting today, with a plan to expand the tool further in the near future.
YouTube’s also looking to tap into the popularity of live-streaming by enabling brands to re-create the live experience with pre-recorded content.
The idea is that by scheduling a broadcast, even if it’s not live, you’ll be able to facilitate the engagement of a live video by getting all your fans into a virtual viewing party.
“When creators choose to release a Premiere, we’ll automatically create a public landing page to build anticipation and hype up new content. When fans show up to watch the premiere, they’ll be able to chat with each other (and with the creator) in real time via live chat. It’s as if a creator’s entire community is in one theater together watching their latest upload.”
If it sounds a little familiar, that’s because it is – Facebook announced the exact same option back in April, also called ‘Premieres’.
Note the indicator on the Facebook video above here says ‘Premiere’ not ‘Live’ – which YouTube is also doing (though their indicator is at the bottom of the screen). I guess everything is up for duplication these days, especially since Facebook so blatantly copied Snapchat.
The one extra benefit that YouTube’s Premieres will have over Facebook’s is that YouTube will also allow the use of their Super Chat live-streamer payment option on Premiere videos too.
Up till now, this option has only been available on live-streams.
Premieres is being rolled out to selected creators this week, and will be available more broadly soon.
There’s a heap to take in for video creators, a heap of new tools that will enable them to better monetize their channels and generate income from their work.
That’s a key strength for YouTube, and they're definitely playing that card – from their launch post:
“Thanks to advertisers, creators around the world have been able to build businesses, creating an entirely new global economy that’s seen incredible growth. The number of creators earning five figures a year is up by 35 percent, and the number of creators earning six figures is up by 45 percent.”
There’s no mistaking the potential of YouTube in this regard – and with competitors looking to steal away prominent creators, YouTube's clearly stepping up its game.
Can Facebook provide similar financial incentives? Will expanded reach be enough of a draw?
There’s definitely a lot to come on this front yet.


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Galeria Północna enriches its gastronomic offer. At the end of July, Winestory brand joined the group of tenants offering a wide selection of carefully selected wines, whisky, cognacs, liqueurs and other spirits.
Despite the holiday season and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Galeria Północna does not slow down and systematically makes the offer more attractive for customers. Recently, two new playgrounds, a large-format mural depicting a map of the world, have been created on the premises of the facility, and another shop from the catering industry has joined the tenants. This time, the offer of the shopping centre has been supplemented by the Winestory store. Its assortment includes carefully selected wines and a rich selection of whisky, cognacs, liqueurs, gin, vodkas and rums imported straight from Jamaica, Martinique, Cuba or Barbados. The salon is located on the ground floor of the gallery near the New Yorker store and its opening took place on Wednesday, 29 July.
- We are constantly trying to complement the Northern Gallery's offer with new brands that will enable customers to do their shopping in one place. Winestory will perfectly complement the assortment of other stores, giving customers the opportunity to buy carefully selected alcohols from different parts of the world. We are glad that Galeria Północna has been chosen for the first location of the Winestory store in Białołęka - said Katarzyna Żuchowska, Retail Leasing Manager, GTC S.A.
9. shop in Warsaw
Winestory is a family business, created from a passion for wine and the need to spread the culture of wine drinking and knowledge about the selection of alcohols for food. The brand has been cooperating with winemakers all over the world for years, thanks to which it can offer its customers carefully selected liquors at attractive prices. The winemakers also pay a lot of attention to customer service, that is why the salons employ professional advisors with specialist knowledge about wines and spirits. The newly opened Winestory in Galeria Północ is already the ninth store of the brand in Warsaw.
- We can see that customers visiting shopping malls are very eager to shop in our stores, so we decided to expand our chain. We wanted a good location. We chose Galeria Północna and already during the opening we found out that it was a good decision. We are glad that our new store has met with such great interest and we believe that it will attract many new customers - said Agnieszka Wolska, Vice President of the Management Board of Wineonline Sp. z o.o., owner of the Winestory brand.


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In what can be termed as a major technological achievement, Mara Phones, a Rwanda based smartphone manufacturer has developed two smartphones, Mara Phone X and Mara Phone Z, both of which are being manufactured indigenously in the capital of Rwanda, Kigali.
Mara X, the entry-level smartphone with a 5.5-inch HD+ display and Mediatek MT6739 processor retails for a super affordable $130. Other specifications of the phone include Android 8.1 Oreo, 16 GB Internal Memory, 1GB RAM, 13MP Rear Camera, and 5MP Selfie camera.
Mara Z, which is a premium offering in the segment has a 5.7 inches HD+ IPS Display with a Snapdragon 435 octa-core processor. The device ships with Android 8.1 Oreo and has a 13MP rear and a 13MP selfie shooter. The phone is priced aggressively at just $199.
The President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame expressed great happiness at the release of the smartphones. He was quoted “The Mara Phone joins a growing list of high-quality products that are made in our country”.
Interestingly the phone production factory has women as 60% of the total workforce which is a great achievement in itself. The CEO of the company Ashish Thakkar said that they aimed to produce high-quality smartphones at affordable prices to facilitate financial inclusion in the continent.