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IBL News | New York
Course-creation platform Thinkfic announced that it raised $22 million in new funding led by Rhino Ventures, which was already an investor. Previously, the Canadian startup raised $3 million.
Vancouver–based Thinkific claims that over 50,000 users have earned over $650 million by building and selling online courses through its platform. The startup company also reported a 200% increase in people making courses since March.
“We have been profitable for many years [since 2018], but we chose to raise this additional funding to accelerate innovation, and scale our team,” wrote Greg Smith, CEO & Co-Founder at Thinkific in a blog-post. The plan is to grow from a current team of 180 employees to 500 people within a year or so. “We want to help one million knowledge entrepreneurs grow successful businesses in 5 or 10 years.”
The company – which competes with Udemy, Teachable, and Skillshare, among others – highlights “stories like those of John Michaloudis, who was able to grow an Excel course to $20,000/month in just 6 months, or Tim Vipond, co-founder and CEO of Corporate Finance Institute (CFI), who’s been able to train 600,000 financial advisors.”
“Our users want control over their brand, own customer relationship, and build their own sustainable businesses,” explained Greg Smith. The firm doesn’t take a cut of the revenue from creators nor charges transaction fees, contrary to its competitors.
“Thinkific’s business model, user numbers, and ~ 150% year-over-year revenue growth tracks, by stage, very closely to Shopify which is now Canada’s most valuable public company,” stated Rhino Managing Partner, Fraser Hall.
The company was built out of a need for Greg Smith when he wanted to offer an LSAT class online as an instructor. Along with three more co-founders [in the picture below], he created Thinkific to enable entrepreneurs to build and commercialize courses of their own.


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Horizon Media, the largest U.S. media agency according to the AdAge Datacenter, has named Latraviette D. Smith-Wilson to the newly created role of chief marketing and equity officer, a position the agency claims is an industry first. Smith-Wilson will report directly to Bill Koenigsberg, the agency's CEO and founder.
Smith-Wilson will lead Horizon's marketing along with its diversity, equity and inclusion and impact efforts, a blended role that would have traditionally been the domain of two executives: the chief marketing officer and the chief diversity officer. A key goal of fusing the two positions is to facilitate Horizon’s growth strategy via its people and culture, client value propositions and agency identity, according to Smith-Wilson. The CMO role was previously held by Steven Hall, who left the agency.
Fuel for business
On the marketing side, Smith-Wilson will help architect the future strategy of Horizon Media, from product development to expansion. From a DE&I perspective, she will lead the internal inclusion effort. "DE&I is still far too often seen as a complement to business rather than as fuel for business,” she said. “I want Horizon to be a model for transforming how DE&I is viewed at-large from a marketing lens, its value in the business and its role in driving growth.”
Koenigsberg says that diversity, culture, equity, fairness and behaviors are closely connected with marketing and believes that DE&I is a part of the agency’s DNA, so it “just made all the sense in the world to combine them.”

domain: news


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Earlier this year, renowned leakster Evan Blass had revealed that two Samsung smartphones carrying the model numbers SM-J737V and SM-J337V would launch on Verizon sometime later this year. The SM-J737V has now made an apperance on the popular Geekbench benchmark database, revealing a few key details. According to Blass, the smartphone will be marketed as the Galaxy J7 Aero when it goes on sale at Verizon Wireless in the US.
Galaxy J7 Aero: Geekbench Listing Reveals Exynos 7885 SoC, 2GB of RAM
According to the Geekbench listing for the Galaxy J7 Aero, the smartphone will be powered by an octa-core Exynos 7885 SoC. The Exynos 7885 is a relatively new mobile SoC that was announced in January this year. It uses two Cortex-A73 cores clocked at up to 2.2 GHz and six Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.6 GHz. Powering the graphics is an ARM Mali-G71 MP2 GPU. Manufactured on a 14nm process, the Exynos 7885 has so far been seen on the Galaxy A8 (2018) and Galaxy A8+ (2018) mid-range smartphones. What seems a little strange, however, is that Samsung has decided to couple the powerful SoC with just 2GB of RAM on the Galaxy J7 Aero. In terms of the actual performance, the Galaxy J7 Aero prototype managed a single-core score of 1170 points and a multi-core score of 4042 points. The Geekbench listing has also confirmed that the smartphone will be running on the Android 8.0 Oreo operating system out of the box at launch, with Samsung’s Experience UI running on top.
Galaxy J7 Aero: Expected to be a Verizon-Exclusive
As we mentioned above already, the Galaxy J7 Aero will be available exclusively via Verizon Wireless in the US. The smartphone is expected to be a variant of the Galaxy J7 (2018), which was made official in the US last month, along with the Galaxy J3 (2018). In terms of design, the Galaxy J7 Aero is expected to be more or less identical to the Galaxy J7 (2018) with a physical home button on the front. The Galaxy J7 (2018) features a 5.5-inch 720 x 1280 HD resolution display, 13MP rear camera with an f/1.7 aperture, and a 13MP selfie camera with an f/1.9 aperture lens.


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Till recently, Sukhramani was with Levi Strauss & Co as director, merchandising global hub, based in the US. Earlier he served as director hub merchandising at Hong Kong and before that he was director marketing at Levi Strauss India.
With almost two decades of experience in the retail and fashion industry, Sukhramani has worked with Levi Strauss for over a decade. He is a graduate in chemical engineering from Bangalore University.
Sukhramani said, "Brand to consumer e-commerce is relatively nascent in India and a great starting place for Sher Singh. This will develop into a vibrant space in the near term and a great way to reach aspiring consumers with limited access to branded apparel."
Sunjay Guleria, CEO and co-founder, Sher Singh, "As we focus our complete attention on building the world's first great global Indian lifestyle brand, we continue to strengthen our leadership team to ensure we have the right foundation as we grow internationally. We believe Sukhramani's in-depth retail knowledge in the marketing and branded merchandising domain will enable him to have a significant impact on the success of the Sher Singh brand."
Earlier in an interview with Techcircle.in, Guleria said, "Sher Singh contributes about 50 per cent of the total business earned by Exclusively.in and Sher Singh. By end of this year, the site may actually churn out 80-90 per cent of our revenues."


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Diamonds that are "clean" will have a new label after key players in the business introduced the "5th C" stamp.
About 2% of diamonds are from conflict zones
The new "ethical" label for diamonds from a conflict-free origin will come into force at the end of the year.
An agreement was signed by Antwerp's federation of diamond dealers, Global Witness, and the association of miners and diamond-cutters (ICM).
Diamonds are already certified by four Cs for carat, colour, clarity and cut, giving an overall measure of quality.
The fifth C will guarantee the stone is not a "blood" diamond, funding war or one that has been mined using child labour.
"It is an important turning point but there is still a lot of work to be done in stamping out illegal trafficking in diamonds," said Alex Yearsley, a spokesman for Global Witness, a non-governmental organisation.
Sales of the stones have dropped from between 15% to 20% in Europe since 1994.
Professionals in the business have been concerned about its image and competition from synthetic diamonds.


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China has increased its main interest rates for the third time this year to try to curb inflation. Chinese central bank, the People's Bank of China, said its one-year lending rate would rise to 6.56% from 6.31% and its one-year deposit rate to 3.5% from 3.25%.
The country's consumer price measure of inflation hit 5.5% in May, the highest rate for almost three years. The higher interest rates will take effect from Thursday.
Beijing has made tackling inflation its top priority. Food prices are of particular concern as they are rising much faster than general prices.
Stabilising the general level of consumer prices remains the top priority of our macroeconomic regulation, said Premier Wen Jiabao on Tuesday.
The price of pork has risen by more than 50% in the year to the end of May. This has been blamed on supply problems and the rising cost of feed. Speaking on a visit to a market over the weekend, Premier Wen promised that pork prices would begin to fall in the coming months.
With the implementation of government measures, price rises will be curbed effectively, he said.
Most economists had expected the central bank to increase rates this month and some think this may be the last move for some time. But all will depend on June inflation figures to be released next week.
A report from China's CCBIS bank released earlier suggested that inflation would peak at 6.2% in June.


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As 2023 draws to a close, TWM asks figures from across tissue’s global supply chain for their retrospectives on the year … and predictions for 2024.
Solving South Africa’s energy crisis will have a massive impact on the local economy
Jonathan Sher, Managing Director, Universal Paper & Plastics, South Africa
In the past year, there has been quite a lot of activity in South Africa with some paper mills putting in new machines. These have started to come online in the fourth quarter, and we are yet to see the impact on the market of this extra capacity. Right now the parent roll pricing in South Africa is similar to imported parent rolls, so it would definitely be nice to see the local capacity being discounted to be more competitive with imports.
Pulp prices are always top of mind for us and all producers, as this is our main input cost. We are both fortunate to have a local supplier manufacturing pulp for the tissue market in South Africa, however this supplier bases their pricing on the European PIX index and the Rand/Dollar exchange rate. So in most cases when pulp prices start to rise, we get a double whammy of an increase as the dollar price for pulp goes up, and our local currency devalues against the dollar. Our immediate concern is whether the pulp pricing will remain constant and we are hopeful our government will put in the right measures to improve the state of the economy in South Africa.
We as Universal Paper have taken proactive steps in reducing our carbon footprint as well as reducing our reliance on the already strained electricity grid, by putting in 3 Mw of solar panels which has reduced our total electricity consumption from the grid by 25%.
Generally across the tissue market here, we are expecting to see oversupply in the local market in 2024, and producers fighting for shelf space leading to more price cuts on finished products in the market. As always, we are looking to innovation and new products to bring to the market, to differentiate ourselves from our competitors. This year alone we have introduced two new products to the market that have never been made before. The first being a 3ply household towel product, and the second being a 4ply bathroom tissue product. Both offer customers an even more luxurious and premium experience with tissue products.
Of course, our market is still growing well, and we foresee double digit growth in the retail market. This bodes well for us as we are a big player in the retail sector and are looking to increase our market share in the years to come.
Another hot topic in the South African market is energy. It has been a talking point for some years now but exacerbated in the last three years as we have seen a massive spike in load shedding, caused by strains on the ailing electricity infrastructure. This has a substantial impact on all manufacturers, and we are all trying our best to survive and come up with innovative ways to keep operating at the best levels we can. The rising costs are also playing a big part, and this is where we have been proactive by installing large scale solar panels to reduce our electricity costs.
New capacity is likely to outpace demand growth and will force rationalisation of the manufacturing base.
Mark Christopher, Sr. Market Development Manager, Technology and Marketing, Buckman
The first part of the year saw a lot of requests from our global customer base looking
for ways to help them deal with high pulp costs. As such, many of our 2023 projects were focused on maintaining quality while substituting less expensive pulp sources or reducing basis weights while maintaining caliper.
The most common approaches taken have been optimisation of the creping process
and the application of enzyme technology to modify the fibre surface characteristics. It’s been a very rewarding year with customers banking millions of dollars in savings in this respect despite pulp prices having retraced over the course of the year. As 2023 ends, it looks like the slide in pulp prices may be over as we see price increases of $50 a ton announced for both North America and EMENA last month.
In terms of the main tissue trends expected for 2024, the trend towards digitisation will continue. Most tissue producers still have poor data integration with their key suppliers, and even between their own internal systems at times. As quality, process and operational data streams become integrated and secure data sharing protocols are adopted, they will be able to leverage new unique operational insights and benefits not available to them otherwise. We are working through some of these challenges with both the OEMs and tissue makers.
Growth of tissue production capacity is slated to continue in Latin America, North America, and EMENA. I think the area where this new capacity is going to have the greatest impact is in North America, since the announced capacity is likely going to outpace demand growth and will force rationalisation of the manufacturing base.
For the immediate future, as always pulp pricing is our largest concern and second to that would be the energy crises in South Africa. If we can combat the energy crises and the state utility can improve the uptime of the generation plants, we are confident this will have a massive impact on the local economy and allow for much better growth rates. This in turn will strengthen our local currency which will then help us combat pulp pricing increases.
The machines in the old-and-slow quadrant are going to be placed under even greater cost pressures as these newer assets come online. Many customers are driving cost and efficiency initiatives to prepare for the expected market pressure, and these align very well with our technological offerings, so we know that the next few years are going to place a lot of demand for our field support teams.
Inflation is another hot topic. We face similar challenges on the inflation side as our customers do with respect to inflation. Significant resources and capital have been allocated internally towards improving our own efficiencies and cost position to ensure we can maintain our competitiveness. Looking outside, our Maximyze fibre modification technology has become hugely popular across Europe given the asymmetric energy costs they suffer. A tissue refiner can be the single largest draw of electricity on a tissue machine and brings with it many undesirable side effects. Tissue makers want to minimise refining intensities to avoid the high cost of power and negative side effects on quality and operations, and we continue to invest in product development in this area.
For a supplier to the industry such as Buckman, cost of service is a big part of our spend. Given the complexity of the tissue process and its variability in nature across each asset, there is often no way around sending a subject matter expert to the site to assist with troubleshooting and continuous improvement. But as technology evolves within the monitoring and control space, it is becoming increasingly clear that tremendous insights can be garnered from afar with the right data.
Solutions are hard to find, so bring on AI and quantum computing
Dr Phillip Lawrence, Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney
World, are you ready? Get ready to blast off. That will be the catchphrase for the next few years as the world stands on the precipice of either one of the most creative periods of humanity or the end of us on earth. According to the developers of the new wave of artificial intelligence, AI may become ultimately destructive unless we can put urgent controls on it. On the other hand, in the recent Foreign Affairs journal, an article by James Manyika and Michael Spence claims it harbours an economic revolution, adding trillions of dollars to the global economy. AI already plays a significant part in our life, and most of us would hardly recognise it. That is the insidious part of AI. One minute, you hear about it; next, you cannot do without it.
BING, the Microsoft search engine, has surpassed Google Search. It has elevated searching the internet to the next level, and there is no doubt Google will soon have something much better.
Following up close behind AI is Quantum computing. Only a few years ago, most of us believed quantum computers were still decades away. Now, it is perhaps months or weeks. Imagine a single computer that is a trillion times faster than the world’s fastest supercomputer. (That was NOT a typographic error; BTW, a trillion times faster). The world’s leading technology firms are hell bent on releasing their version first: Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, etc. They all have quantum computers now in development. Imagine modelling the most complex scientific, medical, environmental, political, and business problems in process monitoring, microbial control, boiler and cooling tower management and asset protection. We have a PhD scientist and engineer staffed lab monitoring our online digital systems 24/7. They are looking for specific anomalies and alarms from our digital systems at customer locations, and they alert our field reps in real time. This approach allows productive, real-time discussions with customers remotely. This can allow quicker action by the customer before the arrival of the subject matter expert (SME) or, in some cases, negating the need for the SME to travel to the site. As these approaches are adopted, they will reduce the cost of service to our customers and improve both the speed and quality of service by a fraction of a second. Intractable, diabolical, and wicked problems with no solution can be solved in less than a second.
Modelling solutions to disputed state territories, negotiating international relations between states, developing new drugs for the next pandemic (it will happen), new manufacturing techniques and opening new markets. At the end of every decade, 90% of jobs did not exist at the start of the decade. We just need to last a decade to see it.
The geopolitical situation is just as perplexing. Some years ago, American political scientist Francis Fukuyama called the fall of the Berlin Wall the ‘end of history’; he meant the international system of capitalism had won the ideological war for our hearts and souls (actually, dollars, pounds, and Euros). Perhaps nobody told Putin and Xi Jinping. China is now technically the world’s biggest economy and the largest polluter, but remarkably, it is still classed as a developing country. China is legitimate; that’s a lot more than can be said about Russia.
Perhaps Fukuyama meant that the world has entered a new history, one characterised by what economists now call ’The Great Acceleration’. From around the mid-1970s, but more likely early 1990s, with the wide release of the internet, globalisation boomed, inviting into the college of capitalist states countries like China and Russia, arch enemies of capitalist ideology. But now it is all about money.
At the same time, the US is in decline; that is what Trump based his campaign on. It’s a country in decline, and I alone can fix it, (I paraphrase Donald here.) So, the next few years will see the intensity of the economic tussle between China and the US. But they are both too aware of the consequences of true conflict. Many smart people behind the scenes will not let things get out of hand. It’s the rogue states we all need to worry about. They are left out of globalisation, (The Great Acceleration) and all the benefits of investment, and knowledge sharing. They have nothing to lose.
What will become more interesting is that for 2024, the best book to read will be one written by a 17-year-old woman 206 years ago – Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus. Concepts in Mary Shelley’s iconic work has come to fruition in almost every conceivable interpretation that has been discussed since it was originally published. In the story, when Dr. Frankenstein sees his creature come to life, he runs out of his laboratory, goes to his bedroom, and paces up and down, panicking about what he has created. A group of AI developers fronted the US Senate in 2023 to say: “…the risks of AI should be a global priority alongside other societal scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war”, or rather, ‘oh no, what have we done?’ Mary Shelley’s book offers some hope for dealing with AI. The creature wanted to be loved and useful, but society only focused on his negatives.
Embracing AI appropriately might add trillions to the global economy and benefit many people worldwide. AI could be used to solve intractable problems such as climate change, pandemics, and nuclear war.
Private label – both in AfH and Retail – continues to grow, accelerated by a consolidation in distribution, a direct result of M&A within
Nishant Grover, Chief Executive Tissues International, Asia Pulp & Paper
While our business was largely resilient due to our local presence in core markets, we came out stronger from the prevailing adversities. We are set to post strong double-digit growth for our global tissue business in 2023. During times of turbulence, we maintained razor-sharp focus on four core areas, which was made possible by our committed workforce: –
1.Investing and optimising production – our latest state-of-the-art production facility in Indonesia – OKI became operational. We took initiatives to right size and modernise our operations in Australia. We have a brand-new facility coming up in New Zealand. While we have three strategically located manufacturing sites in the USA, our plants in Asia provide very efficient back-up support.
2.Strengthening our product offering – we developed the first carbon-neutral tissue, which has just hit the shelves in New Zealand. Several other premium products were also launched, improving the overall category, like micro capsulated facial tissue, 4-ply toilet rolls in many markets, TAD toilet rolls in Australia, and kitchen wipes, etc.
3.Enhancing customer and consumer engagement – we optimised our route to market in many markets in order to bring our superior products most efficiently to the consumer. We increased our branding activity in several markets like Singapore. We believe that we are closer than ever to our strategic partners in key markets, while we continue developing new ones. This dual approach of consolidation and expansion has not only helped secure our position in the market but also contributed to the growth and resilience of our operations.
There is a wide spectrum of trends across the world but we can point out some common ones for the near term. Private label in both AfH and Retail continue to grow. In some markets like the USA, this trend is being accelerated by consolidation in distribution, a direct result of mergers and acquisitions within the industry. In other mature markets like Singapore, private label leads the industry, including innovation.
Sustainable tissue products are growing in demand. This trend is not just a passing phase but a fundamental shift in consumer behaviour. Retailers are now adopting a holistic approach to sustainability, encompassing everything from sourcing to the total carbon impact and lifecycle assessments of products, from production to end-of-life. This comprehensive view underlines the growing importance of environmental considerations in consumer choices.
Finally, regional and global legislation regarding plastic use is set to have a significant impact. An example of this is the mandate by the Australian government that by 2025 all wrapping must be non- plastic, recyclable, or compostable.
The local tissue market continues to exhibit growth potential, presenting us with several opportunities. The AfH tissue market, in particular, has been consistent since the Covid-19 pandemic. While office occupancy rates have been slow to increase, other sectors such as hospitality, healthcare, and manufacturing have mostly rebounded to pre- pandemic levels. This rebound signifies a recovery in significant portions of the market and presents anopportunity for targeted growth strategies.
North America still offers considerable opportunities. Our understanding of these markets’ dynamics allows us to identify and capitalise on specific growth areas. We see Mexico as a promising opportunity. The evolving demographics of the Mexican consumer base present a unique landscape for growth. As consumer preferences and demands shift, there is potential to introduce new products that resonate with the changing demographic profile. Our global manufacturing footprint enables us to navigate through issues like labour and energy. We maintain the supply resilience of our products to customers through more than one manufacturing unit.
This is coupled with our ability to adapt, innovate, and collaborate. It ensures that we remain a reliable and competitive player in the ever-evolving tissue industry, capable of navigating through challenging economic conditions while still delivering quality and value to our customers.
As we approach the end of 2023, we see a number of disruptions like supply chain, energy costs, inflation of commodities etc ease out. However, macroeconomic factors remain a major challenge. World tissue market growth in 2023 has slowed over 2022 and several parts of the world remain in high inflation/ economic distress. This environment generates a lot of headwinds for growth.
Another major challenge to the business is the inflation of raw materials. The prices have just started to stabilise in the middle of 2023 and any spikes pose a significant risk.In response to these challenges, we have become more proactive and agile in our approach to competing for market share. Staying closely connected with our customers is imperative as we navigate the uncertain terrain of the tissue market. Understanding and responding to their evolving needs and preferences is crucial.
Our ability to proactively address these issues, maintain a close rapport with customers, and adapt to evolving market dynamics will be key in charting a successful course in the years to come.
By embracing these challenges as opportunities for innovation and growth, we are positioning ourselves to not only overcome current obstacles but also to capitalise on new prospects in the tissue market.
More new tissue paper mills will result in more competitive pricing in India
Sumit Khanna, Chief Executive of New Dehli-based Beeta Tissues, India
Rising pulp costs in the past year have had the most impact on our industry. In India, virgin tissue paper grade is priced more in comparison to recycled tissue paper, so there was a shift in the preference of usage by the institution consumer – and the household consumer too!
The main tissue trend in our industry that I foresee in 2024 is that exports may decrease as China has opened up very aggressively with good discounts in almost every industry. Worldwide, there are low sentiments among consumers due to war and war-like situations everywhere.
The rise in inflation around the world has also substantially impacted our business as the prices of raw materials have gone up too significantly resulting in the high price of finished goods resulting in low sales. It has created a shift in the preference of paper from virgin to recycled.
The main challenges for the immediate future that I see for the Indian tissue market is that our tissue paper prices are much higher compared to prices globally. The other challenges are E-commerce competition, and sustainability issues.
However, there are also many opportunities to take advantage of and create. One of the main opportunities we have is to increase the number of new tissue paper mills making recycled paper and using virgin paper. This will result in more competitive pricing in India, resulting in more sales and consequently increasing the tissue paper market size.


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Moments after Steve Jobs announced the new Apple TV yesterday, I sent out a status update that said…
"Time to pre-order the new Apple TV. DLNA needs to worry, right freakin' now. And I'm a HUGE DLNA fan."
I made it nearly an entire minute before my phone rang; that call was shortly interrupted by another, followed by a slew of e-mails, tweets, and Facebook comments.
Pretty much everyone wanted to know, what the heck did I mean? The more I thought about it, the more I decided that the best response DLNA could make is in the form of a press release. So, here we go--the release *I* might write if I were in a position to do so…
DLNA Welcomes Apple to the Living Room
Congratulates Apple on Decision to Enable Content Enjoyment in a Social Setting
Portland, OR -- September 2, 2010 -- The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) today welcomes the Apple ecosystem to the digital living room. By the end of September 2010, Apple users will be able to enjoy their photos, video, and music in a social setting, on the ideal display for social interaction--the television, rather than the small screen setting of iPhones, iPads, and iPods.
Steve, we know you've been busy, but what took you so long?
Since its founding in 2003, more than 7,500 products have been DLNA Certified®, giving consumers the interoperability they need within a full range of products including digital cameras, PCs and laptops, printers and televisions. Such a wide range of products means that by 2012, more than a billion DLNA devices will have shipped, according to ABI Research. Apple's recognition that consumers enjoy content in a twelve foot setting is an important milestone for our industry. The current two-foot user interface where Apple users typically consume content is ideal for touch screen devices, particularly when sharing photos of grandchildren with fellow airplane travelers, blaring music at inappropriate volume on trains, and nodding one's head at a visual voice mail message.
However, the explosion in social networking enabled by high-powered mobile platforms such as the iPhone has created the dichotomy that in a world of oversharing, the actual consumption of content has never been more solitary. When silver halide still played a part in preserving memories, doing so meant to capture, to share, and to enjoy--together. Unfortunately, as first-world economies have morphed into always-on, all-digital lifestyles, the actual act of enjoying shared memories in a social environment has gone the way of Jarts and the Oldsmobile.
Today, content is most often consumed by individuals on mobile devices; DLNA members Nokia, Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson shipped a combined 1.21 billion mobile phones worldwide in 2009, so we understand that mobile is a huge market for capture and consumption. But, one of the big challenges the entire consumer electronics industry continues to face is how to keep people truly connected in an ever-more-connected world, a world where a family of five can sit around a dinner table and avoid face-to-face conversation, courtesy of the very devices that our members ship in tremendous volumes.
We're certainly not against shared virtual enjoyment of content--Facebook has revolutionized the lives of technology users in a manner not seen since Google, and before that, well, Apple. But, there's more to life than photos that spend their lives locked up in a Facebook account, even if tens of millions of the cameras taking those photos are produced by our members. When we started DLNA in 2003, we believed that the right way to enable consumers to enjoy their content was in a connected environment; that's even more true today. Technologies like high-speed wireless, network-attached storage, and high-resolution HD video cameras one can shove in a pocket largely didn't exist seven years ago; if they did, they were the exclusive domain of the earliest of early adopters, at price points out of reach for all but the ultra-affluent, and at a technology integration cost only a geek could love.
We set out to change that, to get ahead of the technology curve, to standardize in a multi-vendor environment all the things that made this type of content sharing a five- or six-figure investment. In 2003, a number of us got together and chose to think different. What that's meant over the last seven years is a lot of heavy lifting, an enormous amount of time and investment, to ensure that consumers are able to connect and enjoy their content in a multi-vendor environment, one where content can be captured, stored, shipped, and consumed. Consumers buying DLNA Certified® devices can be confident they're purchasing solutions that work together and can be networked, regardless of manufacturer. That's why more than 200 companies have joined DLNA, and continue to collaborate to ensure that our products will work together to deliver content sharing which our users can enjoy.
That type of shared, truly shared, content enjoyment was challenging for Apple users until yesterday's announcement. As Apple mentioned, Apple TV has been little more than a hobby since its introduction in 2006. The new Apple TV offers a compelling value proposition, one which we're confident will motivate the entire industry to develop and deliver products which interoperate even better, at even lower cost, delivering even more value. Ultimately, in doing so, we all stand to benefit, particularly as we get people back in front of the big screen, together. Maybe, just maybe, the new Apple TV will promote a few more families to gather around the television to enjoy a shared content experience together, to set aside their iPhones, iPods, and iPads for a few minutes or a few hours. Whether viewing a high budget movie from a major studio delivered over a high-speed Internet link, or simply enjoying family photos served off of a personal computer in the home, we think there's real benefit for those families and friends gathering to connect and enjoy; that's the motivation for all of us to keep at it, to keep delivering products our customers want, at a range of price points, in a truly multi-vendor environment.
We've learned a lot about the art and science of content sharing over the last seven years. One of the most important things we've learned is that this race is a marathon, not a sprint. We'd like to take this opportunity to welcome Apple to the race.
See you on the couch.
I'll clarify a few more of my thoughts over the coming days, and try to answer a number of questions that've already come in from some of you. The point is, Apple's entry to the market is a huge challenge to DLNA, a challenge to move beyond the vernacular of DMPs, DMCs, and DMRs, to deliver a clearer message to the average consumer. DLNA's value proposition has always been solid; the challenge has been, how to get an alliance of more than 200 members to agree on a single message, one which resonates with the average consumer. Apple's entry into this market now gives them an end-to-end solution that looks suspiciously like a DLNA architecture--iTunes as the digital media server (DMS); the new Apple TV as the digital media player (DMP); and the iPhone, iPod, and iPad as digital media renderers (DMRs) or digital media controllers (DMCs).
DLNA's always had the architecture right; now it's time to get the message right. Ironically, Apple's announcement may've been the best possible kick in the pants for DLNA and its members. Personally, I have a foot in both camps; I ordered the new Apple TV today, which will be the DMP in an all-Mac content flow (Mac Mini as DMS, iPad as DMC/DMR, Apple TV as DMP). But, I also firmly believe in DLNA; today I picked up the Samsung Epic 4G, which serves as a DLNA DMC/DMR, to go with my Promise DLNA NAS (DMS). I think I have a DLNA DMP floating around here somewhere, but that'll have to wait...


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Readers name Culley’s BBQ Vicksburg’s best barbecue
Published 5:20 pm Thursday, December 31, 2020
A new Vicksburg business has managed to thrive despite the challenges of 2020.
Culley’s BBQ opened in March 2020, just one month before in-person dining was shut down in April because of restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite the obstacles, Culley’s BBQ continued to satisfy customers and was voted “Best Barbecue” by readers of The Vicksburg Post in the newspaper’s annual Reader’s Choice Awards.
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Owner Brian Culley said he had not been aware that he had won the award until a friend congratulated him while he was shopping at the grocery store one day.
“I was shocked,” Culley said.
Culley’s is located at 3046 Indiana Ave. next to Corner Market.
While surprised, it seems Culley has had a niche for opening businesses at less than optimal times.
In 2007, he bought Cuz’s Barbeque, which was just before the recession hit in 2008.
He operated that business for two years.
After closing in 2010, Culley then began managing multiple chain restaurants, which included Waffle House, McDonald’s and Sonic. Those managerial experiences, he said, helped him develop his ideal business.
“I wanted to open my own restaurant and see where I could take it,” he said.
Running his own business is tough compared to working with the cushion of a “multi-million dollar restaurant,” but, Culley said, it has been worth it.
“You have to be strict on yourself, which is tough,” Culley said. “It’s challenging, but it’s really rewarding.”
Culley gets to work each day at around 6 a.m. and does not leave until 8 p.m. As the owner, he has the flexibility to see his family during the long workday. His wife, Paige, and their children, Madalyn and Mason, will occasionally pop in for a visit.
“That’s nice. It’s my restaurant, and if I want my kids to come in and visit me during the day, they can,” Brian said.
One unique thing about Culley’s BBQ is that Brian skips the step of soaking the meat in barbecue sauce. He said he wants to let the customer have the say in how much sauce they want on their meat.
Culley said business has been steady outside of the lunch hour, but figures that’s because there are more people who are working from home and not eating lunch out.
With a thriving new business, and now being named “Best Barbecue” in the 2020 Readers Choice Awards, Culley said, he plans on continuing to serve Vicksburg with his unique style of barbecue.
“I enjoy getting up early, cooking food, and feeding people,” Culley said. “There’s not much more to it. I enjoy it when people tell me they enjoy their food.”


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Blockchain in Public Policy. Artem Kalikhov, Product Director at Waves Enterprise will Speak at Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference Moscow 2021
Blockchain technology has become a tool used by not only commercial players, but also by the government. Rostelecom and Waves Enterprise have developed a blockchain voting system that has already passed technological testing in August 2020.
On September 29, Product Director at Waves Enterprise Artem Kalikhov will speak at Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference Moscow 2021, talking about the use of blockchain in the national system of remote electronic voting.
Artem has 13 years of experience in the field of information technology. He grew up from the position of System Engineer to Technical Director and a Product Director.
The expert has a successful experience of designing, creating and launching technologically complex information products and systems on the market.
Artem has implemented more than 20 projects to create information systems that were developed for such large companies and government agencies as the Federal Treasury, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Rostelecom, MOESK, Sberbank, Alfa-Bank.
For the past four years, the speaker has been working in the field of distributed ledger technology. During this time, Waves Enterprise was created and launched under his leadership. It is currently a leading Russian blockchain business platform.
Join Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference Moscow 2021 and learn how blockchain technology can help address government issues and implement public policy.


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The RCA was founded in 1990, and its membership comprises 90 retail general contractors from around the country. The group aims to improve business practices within the retail construction industry by promoting education, ethics and overall excellence in the industry. The group also serves as a forum to share information and ideas, as well as voice concerns.
"Contractors suffer from well-earned bad press, and yet people view contractors as a commodity. We're trying to differentiate our group as people who do competent, quality work and have integrity," says Michael Ratner, RCA president and a principal of Maspeth, N.Y.-based Richter + Ratner Contracting Corp. "We would like the industry to be aware of the fact that there are competent people they can do business with and rely on."
The RCA pre-qualifies its members, then promotes the quality of the group as a whole to developers, architects and owners. "The qualifying of companies in the organization is very important," Ratner says. Prospective members are required to meet criteria that range from having appropriate state licenses to submitting letters of reference.
The association has addressed key industry issues such as education and safety. Despite the importance of skilled and knowledgeable supervisory personnel, the construction industry spends a smaller percentage of its gross volume on training than any other major industry in the United States. It also allocates far less time to supervisory training than to craft training.
RCA hopes to correct the disparity by encouraging participation in its Supervisory Training Program, which was created in 1996.
The RCA also has launched a college scholarship program, which awards multiple scholarships to America's top construction management students at universities throughout the United States. This year, the RCA has pledged 12 scholarships to different universities across the country. The group is working closely with the Associated Schools of Construction to make those selections.
"We're trying to encourage more education, especially at the managerial level," Ratner says.
In addition, the group stresses the importance of industry safety. The RCA has sold more than 450 manuals and posters to its member companies to be posted and used at all job sites. "Safety is not only an economic thing to do - it's a human thing to do," Ratner says.
The RCA is pursuing new programs to address other industry issues. "We're constantly looking at new things," Ratner says. The association created a forum to disseminate information and discuss issues such as building codes, operations and the tight labor market.
"It's a great place to network and get a sense that the people you compete against are not necessarily ogres but people who are trying to do things right," Ratner says.


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Why we shouldn’t celebrate the tough times that the big four supermarkets are going through
Tim Downs, director of Aberfield Communications, looks at the Big Four supermarket brands and argues that the knock-on effects of the current retail climate will be damaging for UK consumers.
I wrote last year about the problems that the big four supermarkets are facing from changing consumer habits and the rise of the discounters. I also predicted that there was the potential for a major casualty if they didn’t adapt to those changing habits and the market forces at play.
Excluding Tesco’s ability to compound its problems with some spectacular self-inflicted injuries, the biggest casualty so far has been the removal of Dalton Phillips after five years at the helm of Morrisons, following another “disappointing” Christmas.
With only Asda left to announce its results and despite president Andy Clarke hailing “record footfall”, all of the main supermarkets are expected to post a decline in like-for-like Christmas sales.
Whilst all this is going on consumers have never had it so good. Prices are tumbling, weekly shopping bills keep falling and we seem happy to think of Aldi and Lidl as the plucky underdogs fighting against the big multi-nationals, despite them having combined sales of around £10bn.
But this isn’t a new story, it’s been dominating headlines for over 12 months. What is noticeable in the way the woes of the big four are reported and commented on is the complete lack of sympathy for them as employers, as businesses or as an industry.
If any other UK sector were facing similar pressures questions would probably have started to be asked in Parliament and arguably you could see this becoming a hot election issue.
It’s easy to think that the big four have had it coming ahead of what is already being heralded as UK retailing's toughest year yet, but the knock-on effects of the current climate will be far-reaching and ultimately damaging to many UK consumers.
Asda has announced a ‘management restructure’, with lots of very senior roles and people disappearing, Sainsbury’s is cutting 500 jobs from its store support centres and Morrisons is closing 10 stores.
Unfortunately this will be the tip of the iceberg. It’s estimated that the brutal price war we are witnessing has put more than 100 food and drink businesses at risk of collapse, with the number in “significant distress” increasing by 92% in the last quarter of 2014 according to a report by Begbies Traynor.
With 3.6 million people employed in the UK food supply chain this has the capacity to become a real crisis for the UK economy.
Alongside this the rate at which the retailers are building new stores has slowed dramatically, having dropped by 20%. There are only 2.8m sq ft of new stores actually under construction, leaving 43.81m sq ft of land owned by the supermarkets which is currently unused. That is not healthy for the UK construction industry, again affecting employment.
So whilst we might be congratulating ourselves on our canny consumerism and ability to get more for less, which in some respects is a monster of the supermarkets’ own creation, the influence of our price-conscious decision-making is having a huge effect on the wider economy.
Unfortunately, while the economic picture remains unstable and with salaries and disposable income unlikely to change dramatically, there isn’t a solution on the horizon, but we ought to be aware that our desire to chase the cheapest now might ultimately damage the position of consumers in the long run.


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Salesforce and Amazon’s cloud arm, AWS, have had a pretty close relationship for some time, signing a $400 million deal for infrastructure cloud services in 2016, but today at Dreamforce, Salesforce’s massive customer conference taking place this week in San Francisco, they took it to another level. The two companies announced they were offering a new set of data integration services between the two cloud platforms for common customers.
Matt Garman, vice president of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, says customers looking to transform digitally are still primarily concerned about security when moving data between cloud vendors, More specifically, they were asking for a way to move data more securely between the Salesforce and Amazon platforms. “Customers talked to us about sensitive data in Salesforce and using deep analytics and data processing on AWS and moving them back and forth in secure way,” he said. Today’s announcements let them do that.
In practice, Salesforce customers can set up a direct connection using AWS Private Link to connect directly to private Salesforce APIs and move data from Salesforce to an Amazon service such as Redshift, the company’s data warehouse product, without ever exposing the data to the open internet.
Further, Salesforce customers can set up Lambda functions so that when certain conditions are met in Salesforce, it triggers an action such as moving data (or vice versa). This is commonly known as serverless computing and developers are increasingly using event triggers to drive business processes.
Finally, the two companies are integrating more directly with Amazon Connect, the Amazon contact center software it launched in 2017. This is where it gets more interesting because of course Salesforce offers its own contact center services with Salesforce Service Cloud. The two companies found a way to help common customers work together here to build what they are calling AI-driven self-service applications using Amazon Connect on the Salesforce mobile Lightning development platform.
This could involve among other things, building mobile applications that take advantage of Amazon Lex, AWS’s bot building application and Salesforce Einstein, Salesforce’s artificial intelligence platform. Common customers can download the Amazon Connect CTI Adapter on the Salesforce AppExchange.
Make no mistake, this is a significant announcement in that it involves two of the most successful cloud companies on the planet working directly together to offer products and services that benefit their common customers. This was not lost on Bret Taylor, president and chief product officer at Salesforce. “We’re enabling something that wouldn’t have been possible. It’s really exciting because it’s something unique in the marketplace,” he said.
What’s more, it comes on the heels of yesterday’s partnership news with Apple, giving Salesforce two powerful partners to work with moving forward.
While the level of today’s news is unprecedented between the two companies, they have been working together for some time. As Garman points out, Heroku, which Salesforce bought in 2010 and Quip, which it bought last year were both built on AWS from the get-go. Salesforce, which mostly runs its own data centers in the U.S. runs most of its public cloud on AWS, especially outside the U.S. Conversely, Amazon uses Salesforce tools internally.
By Ron Miller


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The latest data on U.S. electric vehicle (EV) registrations from January to October 2023 reveals a notable slowdown in Tesla’s market share growth. While Tesla still dominates, the competition is gaining momentum, especially from newer entrants like Rivian.
Market Share Snapshot: Rivian’s Surge and Luxury Brands Among the brands with over 1% market share, Rivian, a relatively newer player, has shown substantial growth. Luxury brands like BMW and Mercedes-Benz have also experienced surges, quadrupling and tripling their EV sales, respectively.
Tesla’s Market Share Growth and Global Trends While Tesla’s market share growth has slowed, it remains a significant player. The global trend of EV market share reaching 25% after passing the 5% threshold has been observed in various countries. However, the U.S. market’s trajectory appears more gradual, possibly influenced by economic factors.
Factors Influencing U.S. EV Adoption: Economic Environment Americans are facing challenges such as higher living costs and soaring interest rates, influencing a preference for lower-cost new vehicles. This shift has affected the adoption of pricier EVs, contributing to the slower-than-expected mass adoption in the U.S.
Positive Signals: Healthy Demand Amid Slowdown Despite the minor slowdown in overall EV adoption, the data highlights brands and companies that continue to surge and experience healthy demand. Rivian, in particular, stands out as a promising player heading into 2024, aiming to be gross-profit-positive and benefit from sustained demand.
Conclusion: Optimism for Rivian in 2024 Investors should view the minor slowdown in EV adoption as a temporary hurdle influenced by external factors. The positive news is the resilience and growth of brands like Rivian amid the economic challenges, signaling a promising outlook for the company in the coming year.


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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Robert Hill Jr. will assume the role of president and chief executive officer of Acosta Sales and Marketing Co. on Jan. 1, while former CEO Gary Chartrand has been named executive chairman, the national brokerage firm said last week.
Hill, who was also named to the company's board, will report to Chartrand, who will remain board chairman. “Robert's tremendous leadership, dedication and deep passion for Acosta make this decision the right one for the company,” said Chartrand in a statement.
Hill joined Acosta in 1994 when the company acquired Siler Brokerage Co., and was named president of Acosta Services in 2002. He began managing Acosta's day-to-day operations in March 2007, when he assumed the role of president and chief operating officer.
Hill will become responsible for overseeing operations; developing, communicating and executing strategic plans; and communicating progress to stakeholders.
GMA NAMES KENT, ANSELL TO BOARD
WASHINGTON — Grocery Manufacturers Association has elected to its board Muhtar Kent, president and chief executive officer of the Coca-Cola Co., and Jeffrey P. Ansell, CEO of Pinnacle Foods Group, GMA announced last week. “Given the current economic climate, effective board leadership is more important now than ever,” said C. Manly Molpus, GMA's interim president and CEO, in a statement. During his 30-year tenure with the Coca-Cola Co., Kent has served in a number of marketing and operations roles. He was appointed president and chief operating officer in 2006 and succeeded Neville Isdell as CEO in July. Ansell is a 25-year veteran of Procter & Gamble, where he most recently headed its global pet health and nutrition business. He was named CEO of Pinnacle Foods in 2006.


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Wroclaw, Poland's Big Deal
Union Investment recently bought the Magnolia Park shopping center in Wroclaw, Poland, for approximately $448 million from Blackstone. Built in 2007 and expanded in 2015, Magnolia Park encompasses more than 1 million square feet and is almost fully leased, with 241 retail stores. It is a premier shopping destination, with 11 million visitors annually, and is one of 10 shopping centers in Poland. This purchase is for Union Investment's real estate fund Unilmmo: Europa. In addition to Magnolia Park, Union Investment owns six other shopping centers in Poland's secondary market cities: Katowice, Lodz, Rybnik, Bielsko-Biala, and Gdynia Konin.
Online Shopping in Europe Accelerates
74% of Europe's population live in urban areas
94% growth in online sales by 2021
69% increase in parcel deliveries across Europe by 2021
Source: Cushman & Wakefield
Global Markets to Watch
Despite the cloud of Brexit, commercial real estate thrived in London during 2017, with 75 percent of the city's office transactions closed by global buyers. Of those international purchases, 90 percent were Chinese investors, followed by capital from the Middle East, according to U.K. Real Estate research report by CMS, an international law firm. “Transaction volumes in London have been steady over the past year, with a string of high-profile acquisitions and no sign yet of the exodus from the city that many predicted,” says Ciaran Carvalho, head of real estate at CMS U.K. in London.


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It’s not every day you hear about a business booming during the COVID-19 pandemic. For East Warren Community Market, community support has been so strong that the market is enjoying its most profitable spring to date.
“We’re actually doing a lot better than we have historically in these couple of months. We’ve had a much busier March and April than we’ve had in the past because of this,” said market manager Alycia Biondo.
The market is currently running via curbside service only, which involves taking email orders for groceries and fresh dishes, running credit card numbers or swiping store cards over the phone and then leaving orders out on the porch for pickup.
As a grocery store, the market could have kept its doors open to customers but decided not to do so for the sake of employee health. “When COVID hit, which feels like centuries ago right now, we were open for about two weeks,” said Biondo.
“It got to a point where we were concerned about the health and safety of our employees,” said Biondo. “I thought, if one of us gets sick, what’s going to happen to this place?”
This concern led Biondo and the board of directors to come up with a curbside pickup plan, which changed the business overnight. Implementing the plan was one of the two hardest parts of adapting to the pandemic, said Biondo. “The other hard part has been losing a couple of employees that we adored.” According to Biondo, the market lost several employees, since some immunocompromised employees were at risk.
Still, the market and its kitchen are chugging away, offering all their regular fare, from soups and salads to pastries to peanut noodles. The market has even started to offer prepared dinners. Biondo encourages people to check the market’s Instagram account, eastwarrencommunity, where updates are posted daily.
The market garden is also going full steam ahead, said Biondo. The store will be filled with organic produce from the garden as soon as it’s ready. Soon, even more organic produce will be hitting the shelves from Alpenglow Farm next door. “We are their primary purchaser so soon we will have a lot of local organic produce available,” said Biondo.
The relief fund is another way the market is giving back to the community in a way that extends beyond just those who shop at the store. The relief fund is a donation-based fund which gives store cards stocked with money to families in need. “We’re trying our best to still access folks that may not be regular shoppers here and to make groceries available to them and their families,” said Biondo. Those who want to donate to the relief fund can send checks to the market’s P.O. Box 426 in Warren. “If you have a friend in need, you can give us their contact info and we can give them a store card and tell them they received an anonymous donation,” said Biondo.
Although curbside service is flowing, Biondo misses the mask-free days. “We miss people. We miss being able to see our customers and smile at them,” said Biondo. “Customer service has been a huge part of why our market has stayed open for 10 years on this little corner of East Warren.”
Biondo pointed out that those who work at the market are united by a common mindset. “We all truly believe in the human spirit. We believe that people are good; they want to help each other and see each other through to the end of this. We’re drawing on that here in order to be a positive influence on everyone that works here as well as our customers. We want to show them that, no matter what it takes, we’re going to keep providing for our community.”


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This post was originally published on this site
It was reported earlier that the US Department of Justice had announced its first arrest and pending case against an individual that utilized insider information to trade digital assets. A former OpenSea manager has been charged with leveraging his position and insider knowledge at the firm to trade non-fungible tokens (NFTs) which were scheduled to be featured on OpenSea’s home page. The individual in question allegedly experienced financial returns of 2X to 5X with the information. The transactions were managed in anonymous wallets the individual controlled.
CI has received a comment on the arrest and allegations of insider trading in NFTs, from Jeffrey Alberts, partner and co-head of the Fintech Group at Pryor Cashman in New York. Alberts is also a former federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the SDNY (where the case will be heard), where he investigated and prosecuted a wide variety of white-collar criminal offenses.
Alberts told CI this is just the beginning with similar enforcement or criminal actions on the way as the Feds have now shown they will pursue possible acts of fraud within the digital asset sector – even beyond digital securities. Alberts had this to say:
“This prosecution could be just the beginning of a major sweep focused on the use of inside information relating to transactions in cryptocurrency tokens and other digital assets. The case is particularly important because the government’s insider trading charge is not based on the trading of securities. Many people who buy and sell blockchain tokens had assumed that the prohibition on insider trading applied only to tokens that are securities. The government’s aggressive use of criminal fraud statutes to apply insider trading concepts to purchases and sales of collectibles could implicate many large cryptocurrency companies who did not anticipate this move by the government.”
It will be interesting to see how far the Department of Justice will go. For many years, there have been rumors of front running or other nefarious trading actions taking place on crypto exchanges that frequently operate in multiple markets.


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Should developers create pet friendly estates?
Why allowing Fido is good for residents’ mental health13th Dec 2021
Most retirement homes have strict rules about keeping pets. But now there’s one retirement village that’s going against this status quo and allowing pensioners to keep their furry friends with them in retirement.
It’s called The Great Oaks Retirement Village and it will offer retirees the choice of luxury cottages and hotel-style apartments in the prestigious area of Constantia in Cape Town.
The Great Oaks Retirement Village will open for occupancy in late 2023. Hotel style apartments will start at R3.5 million while luxury cottages will be priced from R7.5 million.
Marketing and sales manager Lynette Harding told Cape Talk radio that the village will actively encourage pet ownership because ‘pets make for wonderful companions and offer immeasurable physical and mental health benefits.’
So, should other developers consider following this model? Here are six reasons why retirees should have a choice about keeping their pets.
1. They keep you active
According to Great Oaks, taking your dog on daily walks is good for you as you benefit from the fresh air and exercise. Great Oaks adds: “Studies have also shown that retirees with dogs are more likely to meet their recommended daily physical activity goals.”
2. They’re good for heart health
Stroking your pet can lower your stress, blood pressure and cholesterol levels. They also help to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
3. They’re good company
While limited studies have been conducted in South Africa, studies do show that older people are vulnerable to social isolation. Pets, however, can improve social health as they force owners to get out and about.
Great Oaks points out: “They foster a sense of connection and often act as icebreakers in conversation. And lifelong pet owners can attest to the fact that it’s quite normal to have a conversation with your pet even when they don’t answer back.”
4. They can boost happiness
Studies show that owning a pet can boost your happiness. Being in the company of your pet can trigger a rise in oxytocin, which is known as the “love hormone”. A rise in oxytocin will put you in a good mood.
5. They can help you find love
According to research conducted by pet food manufacturer, Purina, your dog could be the perfect wingman. Their survey showed that 50% of people felt that their pets were beneficial in helping to strike up a conversation with someone they were interested in.
“Pets are the perfect companion and can open many doors for their owners,” said Dr. Zara Boland, Purina veterinarian. “Knowing that they can positively impact our social and romantic lives is just another great example of why pets and people are better together.”
6. They can make you feel more secure
While some retirees live in secure gated communities, keeping a pet can make them feel even more secure. While many retirement complexes aren’t in favour of people owning big dogs, it’s breeds such as German Shepherds and Rottweilers that are said to be some of the best at deterring threats and make owners feel safe.


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Takata bankruptcy days away, report says; No hurry on NAFTA talks; EU fines lighting suppliers; Relief for truck-strapped Mercedes dealers; Musk, Barra make Top 100 CEOs list.
German luxury rivals BMW and Daimler have each made new investments in mobility companies, and Ford Motor Co. has opened a smart mobility office in the U.K.
Why didn't the microcar brand work out as expected in the U.S., and can it succeed with just EVs?
Volvo has analyzed 40,000 car accidents since the 1970s, underscoring how Volvo and other automakers gather voluminous data to make future vehicles safer.
GM charges up turbo lineup; FCA dealers told to stockpile Grand Caravans; U.S. to get Benz A class; Porsche hat trick at Le Mans; Turning accidents into crash course in safety.
Mercedes has confirmed to dealers that it will introduce the A-class sedan in the U.S. in 2018. It will become the brand's new entry-level model slotting below the CLA.
Mercedes leaders say the increase could move the brand closer to a 50-50 sales mix of cars and light trucks for the year, and get inventory more in line with consumer demand.
European automakers have put their money on diesels to meet regulations there. Thanks to fahrverbote, they could be in trouble.
One will stick with selling the two-seaters, hoping for an uptick in electric-car sales. The other says it’s time to say goodbye.
Its volumes remain roughly half those of BMW’s small-car brand Mini.
Daimler's investment in Careem will help the ride-hailing firm to move into new markets in North Africa, such as Tunisia and Algeria.
BMW's strategy in the upper-luxury segment will be led by its newly previewed 8-series coupe and the X7 crossover.
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Simplifydigital’s impartial experts take many hundreds of calls a week from confused consumers looking to switch or buy broadband (https://www.simplifydigital.co.uk/broadband.aspx), digital TV (https://www.simplifydigital.co.uk/digitaltv.aspx), or home phone services (https://www.simplifydigital.co.uk/homephone.aspx). Price has become the number one reason for switching broadband providers between April and June 2008. It is closely followed by the desire to bundle digital TV, broadband and home phone services, also to save money. Lack of service reliability has slipped to third place.
The following is a list of the five most commonly reported reasons for switching broadband providers from a sample of over 1,000 callers that our impartial experts spoke with over the last three months:
1. Price. The credit crunch has seen a big increase in switching in order to save money on monthly subscriptions
2. Deal bundling. Customers are increasingly aware of the deals to be had by bundling their broadband with phone and digital TV.
3. Reliability. There remains a steady volume of customers moving because of endemic problems with service reliability. Earlier in the year this was the most commonly cited reason for switching broadband providers and has now been overtaken by money saving considerations.
4. Customer service. The inability to get through to call centres, high cost of calling call centres and frustration that call centre agents are not empowered to solve common problems is a major reason for switching providers
5. Upgrade from dial up to broadband. There are still a significant number of customers who have dial up connections, who are now able to upgrade to a broadband and save money at the same time.
Note to editors
Simplifydigital’s (www.simplifydigital.co.uk) London-based experts help customers match their unique requirements to the best deals on the market and are then on hand to manage the install of the new services in the customers’ homes.
This list has been compiled from their experience of talking to over 1,000 customers over the last 3 months, with reasons for switch ranked by frequency of occurrence.
Simplifydigital is the first retailer of digital TV, broadband and home phone services to be accredited as impartial by Ofcom .
This press release was distributed by ResponseSource Press Release Wire on behalf of Simplifydigital in the following categories: Home & Garden, Consumer Technology, Personal Finance, Business & Finance, Computing & Telecoms, for more information visit https://pressreleasewire.responsesource.com/about.


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Salman Khan cycling in Bajrangi Bhaijaan https://www.youtube.com/watch-v=4nwAra0mz_Q The much awaited Eid song of "Bajrangi Bhaijaan" was... ...http://www.ibtimes.co.in/salman-khan-kareena-kapoor-starrer-eid-special-aaj-ki-party-song-already-hit-not-part-638087
So, what's the most distracting thing in the gym apart from the girl who never looks at you at all? Im not going to start the debate on that one,... ...http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/to-the-gym-and-back/article7383201.ece?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS_Syndication
The shining showstopper was Shruti Hassan. She was there at Shoppers Stop in Juhu at the fabulous fashion show that showcased the latest chic... ...http://www.afternoondc.in/town-about/chic-pick/article_142041
After featuring in several daily soaps, Riva Bubber is all set to make her debut in the mythological genre with Siddharth Kumar Tewary's... ...http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tv/news/hindi/Riva-Bubber-makes-her-mythological-debut/articleshow/47769327.cms
Actress "Hopefully in the future we can work together. But it has to be something which would be good for both of us. And it would be my honour to... ...http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/Shruti-Haasan-Itd-be-an-honour-to-work-with-dad/articleshow/47703236.cms
Efello offers latest ready made...
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It’s all systems go for Year 2 of the Ayala Lifestyle Fair with the theme “Celebrating Life’s Treasures.” Organized by the Ayala Business Club of Cebu, Inc. (ABCCI), the Ayala Lifestyle Fair will be held on August 26-28, 2016 during mall hours at the Activity Center of Ayala Mall. The three-day event will feature over 20 brands under the Ayala group of companies from various industries -- real estate, hotels and resorts, telecommunications, financial services, and automotive all in one venue.
All systems go for Year 2! Executives of the different Ayala group of companies during the first run of Ayala Lifestyle Fair.
Now on its second year, the Ayala Lifestyle Fair continues to focus on the core values of the Ayala Group of Companies, and that is maintaining the values of excellence and integrity in providing quality products and services, safe and secure communities, livable environments, and sustainability.
“With the success of last year’s Fair, ABCCI has worked closely together to fulfill its corporate social responsibilities (CSR) as well as staged business synergy projects to help contribute to Cebu’s economic and social growth.” says Cleofe Albiso, ABCCI President and Director of Sales & Marketing of Cebu City Marriott Hotel. “The concept of the fair goes beyond showcasing our brands. It communicates Ayala’s commitment in pioneering the future through quality products and worthwhile investments for our life’s treasures – our family and loved ones, the people we care for the most.” Albiso adds.
The Ayala Group of Companies is one of the oldest business groups in the Philippines spearheading many firsts and largely contributing to the country’s growth and development through its diverse brand portfolio.
This year, the Ayala Lifestyle Fair will highlight one-time exclusive deals and offers from Ayala Center Cebu, Ayala Land Premier, Alveo Land, Amaia, Avida, Bank of the Philippine Islands, El Nido Resorts, Cebu City Marriott Hotel, Globe Telecom, Honda Cars Cebu, Isuzu Cebu, Inc. and Volkswagen Cebu.


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Potential victims of bank transfer fraud are at risk due to delays to an account namecheck system, even though the technology already exists.
Confirmation of payee will, when fully operational, be a major step in preventing the scourge of so-called “authorised push payment fraud”. This type of scam, where a customer is tricked into sending money to criminals, is growing fast, with £354m being stolen last year.
Currently, consumers are asked to enter the payee’s name when they send money online, but this is not checked against anything, potentially lulling users into a false sense of security. The new system would check the name of the account holder and flag when there is a mismatch.
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UK credit cards issued by the Bank of Ireland, AA and the Post Office will be transferred to a new owner in 2020, under a new deal announced today.
If you hold a credit card from one of these brands, your account will be passed on to Jaja, a digital finance company. Yet Bank of Ireland is continuing to issue cards to new customers.
Which? explains how the sale will work and how customers are likely to be affected.
The Bank of Ireland currently issues a number of credit cards in the UK, including those branded as AA and the Post Office.
But this business has been sold for £530m to a group of investors, which include the Jaja Finance Ltd brand.
Jaja will be taking over these accounts from 2020, though an exact timeframe has not yet been confirmed.
The sale only affects credit card accounts in the UK, so Irish customers of the Bank of Ireland won't see a change.
AA stopped accepting new credit card applications from UK customers earlier this year, while Post Office withdrew its offers this week.
Bank of Ireland, on the other hand, continues to offer credit card deals. This includes the Mastercard Matched card, which has a 19.9% APR and 24-months 0% interest on purchases and balance transfers.
The Bank of Ireland told Which? it has no plans to withdraw its credit card offers.
If you have a credit card with one of these brands, you'll be able to continue using it as normal.
At some point in 2020, your account will be transferred to Jaja, and you may be issued with a new card. The Bank of Ireland has confirmed that you'll be written to well in advance of the transfer.
If you have questions, you can contact your normal customer support line for your card issuer.
The Bank of Ireland told Which? there were no plans to change customers' terms and conditions as a result of the sale.
Any promotional offers should also continue to apply as normal.
However, you should keep in mind that terms and conditions are generally subject to change, which could include your rate or repayment terms.
The Bank of Ireland confirmed that customers would be informed well in advance if there were any changes announced in future.
Jaja Finance is a London-based start-up focused on digital finance.
It's fully regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority as a payment services provider, though it does not have a full banking license.
The company announced in February that it would be launching a digital credit card, which would allow customers to use their app to make purchases. It claimed applying via its mobile app would take less than three minutes, though it would still carry out credit checks.
While customers were able to join a waiting list for the Jaja credit card, it hasn't been released yet beyond a limited test. So the purchase of the Bank of Ireland's credit card business marks its first major foray into the UK consumer market.


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Southampton’s 2015/16 home kit went on sale on Friday, with supporters quick to get their hands on the new adidas strip.
Saints’ first three home games of the 2015/16 Barclays Premier League season have been selected for TV coverage.
Southampton’s August trips to Newcastle United and Watford will take place on Sundays due to the club’s involvement in UEFA Europa League qualifiers.
Southampton's 2015/16 home kit is now available from the Saints Megastore at St Mary’s and the club’s city-centre store at WestQuay.
It’s almost time to get your hands on Saints’ new home strip, which goes on sale at 9am on Friday.


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Professor Ben-Joseph's blog
In what appears to be a truly classic case of false advertising, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo call their artificially sweetened colas Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi.
NA stands for ribonucleic acid. It is an important molecule with long chains of nucleotides. A nucleotide contains a nitrogenous base, a ribose sugar, and a phosphate. Just like DNA, RNA is vital for living beings.
The 55-point headline in Slate blares, “Letter from Prominent Doctors Implies Columbia Should Fire Dr. Oz for Being a Quack.”
New research reveals yet another reason to head to the gym today
Once upon a time, if you were having trouble managing your diabetes that information was written down on a paper chart, stuck in a manila folder and locked in a cabinet.
By now you have probably heard that Tylenol (or, more specifically, acetaminophen) can damage the liver.
The vast majority of us spend hours at a desk in front of a computer every day.
It’s the one time parking yourself on your butt might actually benefit your ticker
Find out why it's not just a woman's disease


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Businesses breach advertising rules
A Sunglasses Hut, a Halfords outlet, Ryanair and an Organic food shop Co Dublin were among the businesses to fall foul of the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASA) in its latest report which was published today.
A Sunglasses Hut promotion offering "10 per cent Off All Sunglasses" was deemed to be misleading on the grounds that the offer did not include glasses from Ray Ban or Chanel while the Organic Shop in Blackrock fell foul of the authority on a number of grounds including a claim that food sold in the shop was "Healthy" with "More vitamins, minerals and detoxifying antioxidants."
A member of the public complained arguing that there was no scientific evidence to support this claim as not all organic food would have more vitamins and minerals than non-organic food.
The authority upheld the complaint and said that while it acknowledged that the claims featured on the website were similar to those on Organic Trust website it said that in amending or shortening the claims, their meaning had changed or lost clarity.
Another member of the public complained about a Halfords promotion which promised 40 per cent off selected Carrera bikes. The person could not find a brand of that bike with such a discount and as Halfords did not respond to the ASAI it was automatically found to be in breach.
Ryanair similarly failed to address the ASAI over a pricing issue and it too was automatically censured.


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Penske Automotive Group (PAG), the sprawling empire of auto racing legend Roger Penske, just placed a big bet on a surprising segment of the Japanese car market. PAG bought half of Japan’s Nicole Group, “a luxury dealership group with operations in Kanagawa and Tokyo, Japan,” as PAG said in a statement. The Nicole Group does a booming business trafficking products that, if you believe the words of Detroit automakers, can’t be brought into the island nation: Imported cars. More in Forbes.
Roger Penske Bets Big On “Closed Market” Japan
January 8, 2016 By


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Analysts and pundits often like to call the demise of a certain company or industry. I suppose it's because it gives them a certain air of authority if they can prophesize with conviction that things are about to collapse. For years now, this has been happening with the pending death of the PC industry. While the numbers certainly have slowed, some companies involved in the PC business have been unfairly pegged as doomed. Hard-drive manufacturer Seagate Technology
Hark! The PC is dead!
We know. Really, we do. PCs are not long for this world. They will, in time, enter the realm of beepers and 35 mm cameras. But why do certain analysts and CNBC squawk boxers keep saying Seagate is a dead business? Have they not been around for the 200% gain in stock price over the last year, which occurred despite natural disasters disrupting supply chains and the constant talk of PC-ocalypse?
Make no mistake, investors: Seagate is alive and well, regardless of diminishing demand for PCs. In the last month, investment banks and research shops have issued downgrade upon downgrade of Seagate and competitor Western Digital
The truth is, Seagate is well diversified and undervalued, making it a prime pick for the contrarian investor.
The rise of the tablet into the clouds
Seagate does not benefit directly from the increasing prevalence of tablets and smart phones. As you can imagine, the companies' hard-disk drives just don't fit in those products. But the company can benefit in a major way from cloud usage. (I know, I'm tired of hearing about the cloud, too.)
Many believe Seagate continues to push its HDD business even in the face of falling demand, but just take a look at the conference calls and see what management is spending its time talking about. In the third-quarter call, the cloud was just as big of a talking point as any other subject. In fact, the company pointed to its growth prospects: it singles out its rapid build-out of cloud infrastructure as a main growth driver in the coming years. So why do people think this is a dying business?
The other oft-mentioned killer for Seagate is the introduction of solid-state drives. As of now, they are far too expensive to completely replace normal HDDs in most devices, but I agree that one day the flash drives will take over the business. For the time being, though, DVRs, medical imaging devices, gaming consoles, and the relic PCs will still use HDDs -- likely from Seagate and a handful of other manufacturers.
Some more intelligent speculation has centered on the subject of Seagate acquiring an SSD company to increase its exposure in that arena. Priced-for-death SSD manufacturer OCZ Technology
I am not much of a tech investor, but I strongly believe Seagate is a no-brainer. For a look at a tech stock our analysts here at the Fool are believe is poised for major gains, check out this special free report.


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The XPR36 high-performance safety goggle from Encon is designed for protection against chemical splash, dust, and flying particles. According to the company, the 360° circuitous ventilation system combines with the QD2 easy strap adjustment system and the ENCOTE (anti-scratch and anti-fog) lens to set a new standard in comfort and durability.
Saddened by the damage plastics have incurred on the environment, one Japanese entrepreneur has developed a new machine that is capable of converting a variety of plastics right back into oil. This helps keep recycling costs down, and essentially creates another "home-grown" source of oil that could be used as gasoline in our nation's cars.
It's no surprise that in the last few decades, fewer companies have gained control over more of the meat Americans eat every day. CNN 's John King sits down with Food Inc. director, Robert Kenner, about how centraliziation has negatively affected our food supply. If you ask Kenner, salmonella has become an issue precisely because of our unsustainable food system.
Residents of Blue Springs, Mississippi spent years looking for a new automotive assembly plant in the region, and Toyota's plan for a 2,000-worker facility was a dream come true. But as Toyota's sales dropped, the plant was idled before it even began — and the recent recall issues haven't helped.
One California manufacturer, Role Models Railworks, has found a great deal of success making a quirky something that appeals to a select few consumers: fully-functioning model trains. Called "trainiacs," these enthusiasts spend thousands of dollars (sometimes up to $50,000) on miniature steam engines that are completely rideable.
The Supreme 10AOHT-LO adhesive from Master Bond is a single-component, no mix, thermally-conductive compound featuring electrical insulation and durability against impact, thermal shock, vibration, and stress fatigue cracking. It meets NASA low outgassing specifications and is formulated to cure at elevated temperatures between 250° and 300°F for 1 hour.
The Gates Rubber Co. industrial molded notch v-belts have been upgraded to a high-performance EPDM (Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer) material construction, which provides longer belt life at extreme temperatures, according to the company. The EPDM belts offer a 70 percent broader operating temperature range (-60° to +230°F), which improves resistance to cracking, a common belt failure.
The P612 Silicon Glass Fused Pressure Transmitter from Tel Tru is specifically designed to operate safely in hazardous areas, and is cCSAus Intrinsically Safe certified to Class I, Div.1, Groups A, B, C, and D, when used with approved zener barrier systems. The single-piece 316L stainless steel sensing element with a high-output silicon glass fused strain gauge maximizes cycle life even in the presence of pressure spikes, vibration, and aggressive fluid media.
The Douglas Model 1536,SPW is designed to efficiently wash, rinse, and sanitize scale buckets, weigh hoppers, chutes, and feeder pans. Racks are available for all types and sizes of scales and are designed to protect the parts during cleaning and extend their lifetime. According to the company, turnaround time is significantly reduced because the buckets and feeder pans of most 12 head scales can be cleaned in just one wash/rinse cycle of only six minutes.
The CribMaster Hybrid Accu-Cab combines two cutting-edge technologies: weight-sensing and RFID. The dual solution combines to accurately manage both bench stock and durable types of inventories all in a single device, and is driven by CribMaster software. The Hybrid Accu-Cab consists of a heavy-duty, double-walled cabinet equipped with highly-sensitive scales, four RFID antennae, and a secure door lock.
The Summit EnviroTech FGPL is a NSF-registered H-1 bio-based penetrating lubricant, formulated for use in the food processing and packaging industry. The biodegradable formulation is odorless, tasteless, fast-acting, and rapidly penetrates corrosion or carbon residue on equipment, according to the company.
The direct drive APW Panel Fan is available in diameters from 14” through 60”, with capacities ranging to 60,000 cfm. Continental Fan includes an adjustable pitch impeller for precise performance matching, and the airfoil axial impeller is constructed of spark-resistant die cast aluminum.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms, the two Iowa farms at the center of a salmonella outbreak and massive egg recall, have been visited by federal agents again. Spokeswomen for the farms said the agents who arrived Tuesday worked for the Food and Drug Administration.
NEW YORK (AP) — Harley-Davidson Inc.'s main ad agency for more than three decades has dropped the struggling motorcycle maker in favor of new business. Ad agency Carmichael Lynch, a unit of Interpublic Group, said many factors went into the decision, including the fact that the Milwaukee-based motorcycle maker has slashed its marketing spending in recent years amid slumping sales.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — H.J. Heinz Co.'s fiscal first-quarter net income jumped 13 percent, largely on stronger sales in Asia. The foodmaker best known for its signature ketchup said Wednesday that it earned $240.4 million, or 75 cents per share, for the quarter that ended in late July. That's up from $212.
SHANGHAI (AP) — Chinese manufacturing growth improved and auto sales rebounded in August, suggesting the world's second-biggest economy may not be slowing as quickly as feared. Two surveys released Wednesday showed production, new orders and purchasing prices all rose in August, with the HSBC purchasing managers index — a seasonally adjusted index designed to measure the performance of the manufacturing economy — rising to its highest level in three months, at 51.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hyundai Motor America said Tuesday it will shift manufacturing of its Santa Fe SUV beginning this fall from its plant in Alabama to one in Georgia run by Kia Motor Manufacturing, a move aimed at boosting production of Hyundai's popular Sonata sedan. The automaker plans to increase production of the Sonata at the plant in Montgomery, Alabama, said Hyundai Motor America spokesman Chris Hosford.
FRANKLIN, Ind. (AP) — The family of a woman who died after a pallet of bottled water fell on her at a Kroger store in central Indiana is suing the water bottler, arguing a new eco-friendly bottle design might have contributed to the accident. The lawsuit filed by the husband of 32-year-old Lori Keen is pending in federal court in Indianapolis.
ROACH DRY LAKE, Nev. (AP) — Not a light bulb's worth of solar electricity has been produced on the millions of acres of public desert set aside for it. Not one project to build glimmering solar farms has even broken ground. Instead, five years after federal land managers opened up stretches of the Southwest to developers, vast tracts still sit idle.
The Mustang Evo is TGW ’s single-mast automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS), and it offers a payload of 220 pounds and an optimum height of 39’, meaning it can meet the requirements of more than 70 percent of all mini-load AS/RS solutions. A new construction makes the new Mustang Evo 25 percent lighter, yet the mast is three times stiffer.


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Addressing thousands of execs at RFID World, Wal-Mart CIO Linda Dillman said the debate about whether RFID will happen is over.
Linda Dillman, CIO of the world's largest retailer with revenue in excess of $250 billion a year, is one happy executive. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which took little-known radio-frequency identification and made it the hottest supply-chain technology around, is on track to have RFID in 600 stores and 12 distribution centers by year's end.
"The best thing about being here today is we are now past January 2005, and I don't have to stand up here and debate whether it will happen, because it did," Dillman told thousands of executives attending this week's RFID World Conference & Exhibition in Dallas. Since revealing two years ago that it wanted its top suppliers to begin shipping RFID-tagged cases and pallets of goods in January, Wal-Mart has installed 14,000 pieces of hardware, has run 230 miles of cable, and is live with more than 100 suppliers. RFID is installed in 104 Wal-Mart stores, 36 Sam's Clubs, and three distribution centers.
Wal-Mart and other retailers say RFID will help them track goods throughout the supply chain and ultimately will help them get the right products in the right stores at the right time. It'll also help locate specific products anywhere in the supply chain, which should make recalls easier to manage. "Getting merchandise to the shelf is important to us," Dillman said. "Tracking recalls is one of the next projects Wal-Mart is working on."
RFID is not new. But before Wal-Mart revealed its initiative, the technology was used mainly for tracking very high-value assets. One analyst has called RFID "the oldest emerging technology," said Julie England, VP of Texas Instruments Inc. and general manager of its RFID business. England kicked off the opening of the show, which has grown from a mere 250 attendees two years ago in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to more than 3,000 attendees today.
Wal-Mart's RFID efforts to date have taught the retailer a lot about the technology, Dillman said. "The data is critical, and suppliers are starting to use the data in different ways," she said, citing benefits ranging from total supply-chain visibility, improved product in-stock rates, and protection against product counterfeiting.
Processes in the past year have changed, and Wal-Mart has learned what's needed for rapid deployment of RFID technology and how to minimize deployment costs. "The model we had a year ago you couldn't have deployed it in 104 stores," she said.
"The message I want you to take away is, it's working--we aren't doing it as an exercise," Dillman told attendees. "From the manufacturer to the suppliers to the customer there is a benefit. Start sooner than later. I don't know about you, but I don't like to be a follower. Start small. Our team in the first year had five associates that made this happen at Wal-Mart; today we have nine. If you have a small group that understands the business and have faith, you can make it happen. Recognize it's a journey. It's not a single step."
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Mat Piscatella, a NPD analyst for the US market, pointed out
that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild ranked sixth in
the list of best-selling games on Nintendo Switch last August,
noting that the game, since its launch in March of 2017, has
been at the top of the best list. 10 best-selling issues on the Hybrid.
The game, since its launch, has ranked among the first seven
ranks and is currently the tenth best game dedicated to
Nintendo Switch in the US market, and we mention that this
version is the best-selling in the history of the Zelda series with
more than 18 million copies.


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Louvain, France—It’s an easy thing to do: Get to New York, stay there, and forget about Paris, Paris, or Paris, France.
That’s the plan for many Americans, as the global financial crisis and slow economic recovery have pushed the cost of a one-way ticket to nearly $1,500 and put the city on pace to lose millions of jobs.
That will change in a few years, when the U.S. will be able to take a much closer look at the costs of a trip and its consequences.
The economic impacts of a New York trip, however, are not yet clear.
New York is not a major international financial center.
It’s a small city that has a population of just more than 12 million.
New Yorkers don’t tend to be well-versed in the economics of travel, nor do they tend to spend a lot of money on a trip.
It is one of the world’s wealthiest cities, but the costs and benefits of a big trip will depend on many factors.
How Much Does It Cost?
New York can be an expensive place to visit.
It averages about $8,000 a person for a two-night stay, according to a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers and The Travel Information Company, a travel information company.
For a four-night trip, that adds up to about $19,000, according a 2014 survey by TripAdvisor.
That includes hotels, meals, and transportation.
A hotel room at the Hyatt Regency in New York.
Reuters/Giacomo Garofalo The hotel industry is also grappling with a rising number of cancellations.
A survey by Hotel.com, which collects hotel and motel data, found that the industry was down nearly $10 billion in the first quarter, or 0.6 percent, as more and more Americans cut back on their stays because of the financial crisis.
That number will grow in coming months.
New Jersey, which has the most expensive hotel room in the country at $17,800, had the lowest number of hotel cancellations in the U!
New York has also seen a surge in the number of people visiting other cities.
Since January, more than 10 million people have been visiting other New York-area cities, including Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Miami, and Las Vegas, according for Hotel.co.
An even bigger jump is expected as the economy improves.
Some of the biggest new arrivals to New Yorkers are from the Philippines, which is now the largest city in the Caribbean.
As a result, there is a boom in people traveling from that country to New Jersey.
In February, the city added an extra 5,000 hotel rooms to its inventory.
With that surge in visitors, hotels are bracing for the possibility that demand for room rates will outpace supply.
For now, some hotels are doing just that, trying to accommodate the demand.
A new restaurant and nightclub in the Bronx called New York Café, for example, plans to expand its menu in New Jersey and Florida.
The restaurant will have three new food items: a fish sandwich and fries, a seafood cocktail and a steak tartare, according New York Magazine.
But the biggest change is the new menu items that are now part of the New York skyline.
The New York Cafe restaurant in the Financial District of New York in 2014.
Reuters A menu of sushi, sushi rolls, and other sushi options are set to debut in New Yorks restaurants starting next month.
The menu includes more than a dozen new items from New York restaurants, such as the Japanese restaurant Sushi Shoyu and the Italian restaurant Capitale in Brooklyn.
The new sushi options will be available to guests at the popular restaurants such as The Olive Garden in New Orleans, Olive Garden Bar in Brooklyn, and The Olive Gourmet in Manhattan, according Topps, a global marketer for sushi.
The chef will be responsible for developing the new sushi menu and cooking up the recipes, which will be featured in the menu.
Restaurants such as Olive Garden and The Grove have already begun preparing sushi rolls in New york, according TOpps.
There are plans to also serve the sushi rolls at Olive Garden, the Olive Garden Restaurant, and Olive Garden Market.
A menu with more than 60 new and seasonal dishes is planned for launch in New YORK, according the New Orleans Restaurant Association.
A look at some of the new seasonal dishes.
Reuters Restaurant industry analysts expect New York to become a destination for tourists in the coming years.
The number of Americans who are planning to visit the city for the first time in years is expected to climb to more than 3 million people by 2020, according data from the travel website Expedia.
The average price of a hotel room for a three-nightstay is expected be $17.50, according Pricewaterhill.
The industry expects to see the cost increase as the city’s economic recovery slows.