text:
With the release date of DriveClub looming closer every day, how many of you were wondering which wheels the game would support? With Logitech’s G27 out of the race since August, which would be the endorsed company?
Evolution Studios has confirmed that that is not the case; you will have to get one of two new models by Thrustmaster namely the T80 or the T300RS.
The community manager for developer Evolution Studios, Jamie Brayshaw took to the official PlayStation US Blog with the announcement and also shared a couple of images showcasing the two models of wheels that are going to be compatible with DriveClub:
We’ve been working really closely with Thrustmaster on their new T80 andT300RS wheels, to make sure that they’re perfectly tuned for DRIVECLUB and the PS4. Who doesn’t love to lock their thumbs into a good racing wheel and get lost in the moment, believing that they’re pro drivers?!
So what is this, a deal with Thrustmaster for exclusive rights so that the companies can reap some benefits out of it?
I don’t think so, because in the comments’ section, the official Sony representative have confirmed that they will ‘continue to add support for other manufacturers’ wheels as and when they become compatible with the PS4.’
How exactly do they plan on this, is still a question; and one which many of the fans doubt even now.
That being said, DriveClub is slated for a release to PlayStation 4 in the North American region on October 7, in the European Union on October 8 and separately in United Kingdom on October 10.
If you are interested in either Thrustmaster T80 or T300RS, you may go to their official website for a detail analysis on them.


text:
Each year, corporations pack the shelves with pink ribbon products, surrounding us with “breast cancer awareness” messages. These products help to raise billions of dollars in the name of breast cancer, yet more than 40,000 women in the U.S. still die of the disease every year. Worst of all, many corporations are selling pink ribbon products in the name of breast cancer that contain chemicals linked to an increased risk of the disease. We call those corporations “pinkwashers.”Take action now to end pinkwashing once and for all through regulation of the toxic chemicals that are making us sick in the first place.
Pink ribbon culture distracts from meaningful progress on breast cancer
This post content is published by FromPinktoPrevention, a new breast cancer campaign that exposes the barriers to achieving ‘primary prevention’ ie stopping the disease before it starts.
OCTOBER – BREAST CANCER PREVENTION/AWARENESS MONTH
In the forthcoming Breast Cancer Awareness Month we ask if you can remove the Pink Ribbon ‘Blindfold’ and ask the Breast Cancer Charities this BIG QUESTION:
WHY do they persist in refusing to acknowledge the role of environmental and occupational toxicants by ignoring decades of evidence up to the present day on the link between our lifelong (womb to grave) exposures to toxics and the escalating incidence of breast cancer?
Why do Breast Cancer Charities continue to focus solely on ‘lifestyle’ risk factors such as diet and exercise, while ignoring the potential 60% of breast cancer cases for which they have no explanation. What about the role of chemical, environmental and occupational exposures in this?
Better diagnostics and treatment is not mutually exclusive with looking at how our profoundly polluted environment, homes and workplaces impact on our bodies and health, while also taking into consideration the ‘precautionary principle’ – ie better safe than sorry.
The World Health Organisation states that prevention (which is not the same as early detection) offers the most cost-effective long-term strategy for the control of cancer. So why do we not see this reflected in our cancer plans and strategies? Why is primary prevention (stopping the disease before it starts) not equally addressed along with better treatment and care? Why are those with the power to influence decisions on breast cancer policy not acting on what we already know?
Write to your Breast Cancer Charity to ask them the big question. Please send us a copy of their response. See an example letter – this is suggested text only – please feel free to adapt and personalize.
#PinkWashing is the act of appearing to support the fight against breast cancer by slapping a pink label on a product that most likely contains ingredients or elements linked to causing cancer. Many companies even raise the price of products or create a limited edition product to boost their profits, while only donating a meager portion of that profit to research treatments.
#RethinkThePink: stop buying products from companies that engage in pinkwashing as they stock your stores full of toxins – and profit off this deadly disease.
#ThinkBeforeYouPink: a campaign as a direct call to STOP THE DISTRACTION of pink ribbon marketing and culture.
JoinMamavation and The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and The Breast Cancer Fund on Wednesday, Oct. 15th 6pm PST/9pm EST to learn more about pinkwashing, breast cancer prevention and how you can #RethinkthePink.
Sources and more information:
#RethinkthePink: Stop Companies Profiting Off Your Charity While Breast Cancer Still Kills, Mamavation, September 30, 2014.

domain: news


text:
On Tuesday, April 21, Google rolled out another algorithm update, and the entire online world was shaken.
Desktop and tablet searches are not affected, but since mobile makes up about half of all Google searches, the impact is undeniable.
The algorithm update, which takes into account how mobile-friendly a website is, has affected many non-smartphone-ready websites typically owned by small businesses and local establishments.
But even giant brands could end up missing on the top spot of SERPs. Websites like The Daily Mail, American Apparel, Kellogg’s UK, Versace, and Danone were tipped to fall down the rankings if they choose not to redesign their websites. However, since Google admitted that this update could take days or weeks to reach full effect, there’s no news yet if these websites adhered to—or suffered from—Google’s newest law or not.
This signals a new era for Google, as it is now looking at user experience as one of the essential aspects in making it on top of its results pages. For a long time now, Google has been resolute on the importance of content and its relevance to its niche.
“We will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results,” said Takaki Makino, Chaesang Jung, and Doantam Phan in a blog post for Google webmasters.
But Google does not have to prove itself when it comes to being true to its promises. From Panda to Penguin down to Hummingbird, it has already proven that it can and will punish those who go against its rules.
So brands should take it seriously.
Google controls two-thirds of the U.S. search market, and when Google updates its algorithm, it surely means business. In the past, we’ve all witnessed how giant websites ended up nowhere to be found on the SERPs when they ignored the search engine’s notice. Companies shutting down operations and people losing jobs are also part of the punishment, especially for companies who make money solely through online data.
For ad agencies across the globe, adhering to Google’s rules is one of their top priorities. Google is the leader of the search industry and breaking its rules is like self-inflicting damage to your own brand, as well as to your clients’.
ITCraft, a global IT and Web developing service provider, has been an advocate of “mobile-responsiveness” long before Google announced its newest update. For the company, a website campaign’s success lies both in their deep knowledge of their craft and adherence to different search engines’ algorithm, especially Google’s.
The thing is, it’s already a tradition among companies to re-optimize their sites for Google’s search each time there’s an alteration in the algorithm, however ‘minor’ it is. Everyone knows that Google’s words are the unspoken law in the online world.
Surprisingly, as some experts noticed, Google has toned down its severity a bit these days. Google said that the update will be rolled out over the course of a few weeks, so the changes might not immediately be noticeable right away. It was different from the past, when updates were capable of affecting a bunch of giant websites in a single day.
This article may include forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words “believe,” “project,” “estimate,” “become,” “plan,” “will,” and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks as well as uncertainties, including those discussed in the following cautionary statements and elsewhere in this article and on this site. Although the Company may believe that its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, the actual results that the Company may achieve may differ materially from any forward-looking statements, which reflect the opinions of the management of the Company only as of the date hereof. Additionally, please make sure to read these important disclosures.
Increase in Airport Opportunities Mirrors Rebounding Passenger Travel
The conference focused on collaborative efforts by public owners, private sector investors, and contractors. Experts were on hand to discuss...
BlackRock Launches First Liquid ESG Equity Alternative Fund in Europe
The Systematic ESG Equity Absolute Return Fund (SEEAR) alunched by BlackRock is designed for Liquid Alternatives investors seeking a global...
El Cesar has the Conditions to Enter the Medical Cannabis Market in Colombia
Municipalities such as San Alberto, San Martin, Gonzalez, among others, have the conditions to grow medical cannabis, a bet of...
Analysts Forecast a Bitcoin Price Between $51,000 and $1 Million
if you look at the Bitcoin price forecasts of other well-known faces from the crypto industry, Alfred is not alone...
Forget Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL): Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) Investors Should Snap Up XRApplied (CSE: XRA) Instead
It’s no secret that AR, VR, and MR are hot investments right now. Facebook’s throwing the weight of 10,000 full-time...
Business7 days ago
Nine Ways to Make Your Blog More Engaging
Biotech6 days ago
Claris Ventures, €85 Million Closing for the Turin-based Sgr Focused on Early-Stage Biotech
Featured5 days ago
Why Gold Continues to Struggle
Business5 days ago
Is Augmented Reality (AR) the Best Thing to Happen to Education? Yes, it is!


text:
Here’s What OS X Yosemite Optimized Apps Would Look Like [Images]
When Apple announced OS X 10.10 Yosemite at WWDC last week, the Mac finally received a version of its operating system that more closely resembles some of the design philosophies that iOS 7 brought to the iPhone and iPad. Just like when Apple updated its mobile operating system last year, Yosemite will usher in a new look for all of Apple’s first-party apps, which means that third-party developers will need to start looking at making their own apps fit the overall look and feel of the new OS.
That major shift in interface design took a while on iOS, and that is sure to be the case on the Mac too, but that doesn’t mean that we have to wait for popular apps like Dropbox and Tweetbot to get their official updates before we can get an idea of what they may look like once they’ve been completely Yosemite-ified from the ground up.
Keen to put their design chops to the test, Zinx has set about taking some of our favorite Mac apps and giving them a lick of paint that makes them look right at home on OS X Yosemite. The list of apps includes Tweetbot, Dropbox and Skype as well as a new Calculator widget, too. All look absolutely stunning, and while it’s true that these are all mockups, we can only hope that the folks who are actually working on these apps take some design cues from what the folks at Zinx have managed to come up with.
Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite is currently in its early beta testing phase, with developers having only had their hands on the operating system for a little over a week. It’s going to take quite some time for new app updates to start rolling out, and with Yosemite not due to be released for a good few months at best, they needn’t rush the process just yet.
Except the folks at Tapbots that is. Can we have a new version of Tweebot for the Mac sooner rather than later, please?


text:
You already know it. Windows 11 is out for beta testing in both the Beta and Dev Channel of the Windows Insider Program right now. But did you ever wonder what went into developing the operating system? That’s what a cool Windows 11 portal is offering a look at.
There’s a couple of videos on this portal that you Windows Insiders might find interesting. One video is from Panos Panay, thanking Windows Insiders and discussing how feedback shaped Windows 11. Another video showcases a look at the story behind the new touch keyboard, voice typing, and tablet posture experiences. And a third talks about the accessibility in Windows 11.
Other videos on the Windows 11 portal get into the Widgets feature, and some of Microsoft employees’ favorite Windows 11 features. There’s even a set of videos offering an inside look at the redesigned Taskbar and Start Menu and the inclusivity of Windows.
Overall, this Windows 11 portal is pretty nice. It offers a grand view of WIndows 11 for those who are interested in beta testing the new Microsoft operating system. Check it out now and let us know what you think!


text:
Affected by the market, the profit of the company's industrial electric heater sales declined in 2012, and the sales of ordinary electric heaters have decreased significantly. The performance of the three quarters of 2013 will gradually increase year-on-year. With the introduction of new products such as explosion-proof electric heaters in special operating conditions, customer sales have gradually picked up, and industrial electric heaters have expanded into oil and natural gas fields. The company is going through a low profit, and its performance is rising in 2013.
Sales of heaters for water heaters, PTC and other products picked up. The company's electric heaters accounted for more than 50%. Swan Refrigeration, Xuchang Xu Ji, and Hefei GM were the top three customers. At the same time, the company vigorously expanded the market for water heaters, marine electric heaters, explosion-proof electric heaters, desulfurization electric heaters, and high-speed rail electric heaters. Substantial results have been achieved in the research and development of high-speed rail car heaters and electric vehicle PTCs.
Industrial electric heaters have successfully switched from ordinary electric heating to the oil and gas market. Industrial electric heaters used in petroleum, petrochemical, natural gas and other fields mainly use well-known foreign brands. However, the actual conditions of oil and gas extraction and transportation are much better than the polysilicon purification process, and Yuxing Electric products are fully capable of meeting its technical requirements. Most of the customers in the oil and gas and petrochemical fields are large state-owned enterprises. Enterprises are less sensitive to sales prices and have higher requirements on technology and security. At present, only a few domestic companies have international explosion-proof electric heater qualifications, while the technology of other domestic companies has a large gap compared to Yuxing Electric. Entering the petrochemical and oil and gas fields is mainly due to the competition between the company and international competitors. The gross profit margin of heaters in the oil and gas industry is expected to remain at a high level. Optimistic about the company's broad market for industrial electric heaters in the oil and gas industry.
Promote and reform, enter the oil and gas equipment in order to seek long-term growth space.According to national industrial policies and local government support, the company finally selected oil and gas processing and offshore equipment as the main direction of product structure transformation and upgrading. In the field of industrial equipment, we will realize the transformation and upgrading of our main business, and transform our oil and gas equipment suppliers from the leader of the ordinary electric heating segment.


text:
By Sami Zaptia.
London, 6 June 2016:
The Tripoli-based Central Bank of Libya (CBL) today revealed that it has provided a total of . . .[restrict]US$ 1.62 bn of hard currency in the way of Letters of Credit (LCs) and Cash Against Documents (CAD). It has facilitated US$ 720 million in LCs and US$ 900 in CADs.
In addition, it revealed that it has provided hard currency for air carriers, medical treatment, education and the transfer of foreign workers’ earnings.
The CBL admitted that the process of opening LCs, CADs and obtaining hard currency at the official exchange rate has been slow as local commercial banks and companies took a while to get used to its newly introduced foreign exchange monitoring system.
With regards to CADs, the CBL reminded importers today that it is extending the period for the import via CADs until 30 June on the condition that final payments are made by 5 July. The CBL had introduced the use of CADs as a temporary measure to mitigate the crises of rising food prices with the fasting month of Ramadan approaching.
It will be recalled that the CBL had introduced a new centralized system to process and monitor requests for foreign exchange in April to counter financial corruption and rationalize its diminishing hard currency reserves.
It will be further recalled that after the arrival of the Faiez Serraj-led Presidential Council/Government of National Accord (PC/GNA) on 30 March, the CBL had held a meeting with the PC/GNA during which it had agreed on a five-point plan of urgent action to rectify the ailing economic situation.
These included a pledge to make available US$ 500 million of CADs available specifically for food imports. CADs enable Libyan importing companies to enjoy credit terms offered by exporters but also make the whole importation process faster.
The CBL today stresses, however, that it expects Libyan importing companies to enforce the strict regulations it had stipulated in January for providing foreign exchange. It will be recalled that the CBL had come in for some criticism for introducing these new strict regulations.
Some business leaders had complained that it wasvirtually impossible to implement them. The CBL had been forced to introduce them in reaction to increasing financial fraud and accusations that it was not doing enough to counter financial fraud.
It will be recalled that the two Tripoli and Beida-based CBLs have attempted to unite and rise above the polarized Libyan politics which is adding to the country’s economic woes in their latest meeting held in Tunis.
Equally, since the signing of the UN-brokered Libyan Political Agreement (LPA) signed in the Moroccan city of Skhirat in December 2015, the PC/GNA becomes the Governor of the CBL.
The official exchange rate for the US$ is 1 to LD 1.37 whereas the black market rate is US$1 to LD 3.90. [/restrict]


text:
April 9, 2010
FREDERICTON (CNB) - New Brunswick is sending a delegation to Biloxi, Miss., to attend a conference of the Southeastern Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers. Business New Brunswick Minister Victor Boudreau will lead the delegation, which will include representatives from seven New Brunswick companies and business organizations.
The objective is to boost trade relations, raise awareness of the advantages of doing business in New Brunswick and highlight Fredericton as the conference's host jurisdiction in 2011.
"As the most export-dependent province in Canada, it is important for New Brunswick to reach beyond our traditional markets in Canada and New England," said Boudreau. "We are happy to be joined by six dynamic New Brunswick companies that are excellent ambassadors for our province's leading-edge businesses."
The minister will be joined by representatives from J.D. Irving Ltd.; Remsoft Inc.; Enterprise Chaleur representing the Port of Belledune; HSM Systems Inc.; CLS Communication Holding Ltd. (Lexitech); Professional Quality Assurance Ltd.; and Enterprise Moncton.
"To achieve self-sufficiency, we must show the world that New Brunswick is open for business and is open for new partnership opportunities that will shape the way governments and companies around the world do business." said Boudreau.
A highlight of the mission will be the New Brunswick closing lunch, to be held Tuesday, April 13. Delegates will enjoy authentic New Brunswick fare ranging from fiddleheads to smoked salmon supplied by New Brunswick producers.
Boudreau will also give conference delegates a snapshot of what to expect when New Brunswick hosts the fourth annual conference in 2011.
"Eastern Canadian premiers and southern United States governors will have a chance to meet New Brunswick's best and brightest companies, some of the world's finest entrepreneurs and globally recognized companies led by business veterans," he said.
MEDIA CONTACT: Brendan Langille, communications, Department of Intergovernmental Affairs, 506-444-4594.


text:
Prompt measures and legal actions taken by the Indian government and PNB helped in securing the extradition of diamantaire Nirav Modi by the UK on... ...http://www.rediff.com/money/report/finmins-promptness-helped-nirav-modi-extradition-case/20210416.htm
Odisha requests MHA to direct railways to stop passenger service from Chhattisgarh for 15 days Odisha requests MHA to direct railways to stop... ...https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/odisha-requests-mha-to-direct-railways-to-stop-passenger-service-from-chhattisgarh-for-15-days/articleshow/82106607.cms
The Centre on Friday directed the states to ensure uninterrupted movement of medical oxygen carrying vehicles along their borders, and said they... ...https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/ensure-free-movement-of-medical-oxygen-carrying-vehicles-along-inter-state-borders-mha/articleshow/82103313.cms
In view of the "unprecedented rise" in number of COVID-19 cases in Delhi, the Union Home Ministry Thursday said its officers up to the level of... ...https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/mha-orders-50-attendance-in-work-staggered-timing-at-its-offices/articleshow/82088698.cms
Leading online retail platforms, including Flipkart, Amazon and Reliance JioMart, have suspended orders for non-essential products in Maharashtra,... ...https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/flipkart-amazon-suspend-orders-for-non-essentials-in-maharashtra/articleshow/82062801.cms
I mHa FINAL SEM IN KOLKATA, I WANT...
i MHA final sem,in kolkata but want...


text:
San Francisco, March 29 (IANS) The US Department of Justice (DOJ) scraped its request for Apple Inc.’s assistance to hack into the phone of a terrorist killer.
The federal government department, on behalf of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), made the move on Monday at a US court in Central California, Xinhua reported.
The two-page court filing said that the FBI had accessed data stored in the iPhone 5c.
A week ago, a day before the DOJ and the Silicon Valley technology company were scheduled to appear at a hearing at the court, the government said it was trying a new way to unlock the phone used by Syed Farook.
Farook, together with his wife Tashfeen Malik, shot dead 14 people on December 2, 2015 in San Bernardino, California, before being killed by police.
The smartphone has a feature that erases data after 10 unsuccessful unlocking attempts.
Successfully bypassing Apple in its efforts to look into the phone for information probably helpful in the terror attack investigation, the DOJ did not make public on Monday any details about who did help and how did it make through.
Apple had been resisting the order by Judge Pym since February 16, when she ordered the manufacturer to provide the FBI with specialised software to disable the security feature.
In an earlier TV interview, citing privacy protection for customers as a reason, Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook suggested that he would fight the case all the way up the US Supreme Court.
The argument was heated, as the government side fought on the ground that it was a work phone owned by the San Bernardino county, and the software would be in the possession of Apple rather than in the hands of FBI agents.
Both sides seemed to have failed to win full public support.
However, the DOJ’s decision not to go after Apple’s assistance effectively put the dispute to an end, at least for now.
And it is now Apple’s turn to figure out, and for iPhone users to wonder, how secure is the phone and data on the device.


text:
Apple has done it, so you can expect pretty much everyone else to follow sooner or later. The latest report out of Reuters suggests the Korean electronics manufacturer will look to create a smartphone with a fingerprint scanner at some point in 2014. Fingerprint Cards’ CEO Johan Carlstrom let that much slip, noting that his company hoped to be one of the players OEMs looked to for components and development for the fingerprint scanners.
We are obviously taking the report with a grain of salt, but it wouldn’t be difficult to believe such a thing is in the works. HTC didn’t take long to get on the fingerprint bandwagon with the launch of the HTC One Max, and other OEMs have been talking up the use of the technology in upcoming devices for quite some time.
Fingerprint scanners provide another layer of security that many paranoid security buffs will appreciate, but most companies will want to find a way to differentiate their own solutions for purposes of marketing. HTC’s One Max does this with the ability to launch into different apps depending on which finger is scanned. It will take that level of innovation and ingenuity for companies to make consumers believe that their fingerprint scanner is the bee’s knees compared to the competition.
If Samsung does, in fact, introduce a smartphone with a fingerprint scanner next year, it’s not a foregone conclusion that it would be available to us in the Samsung Galaxy S5 or the next Galaxy Note. Samsung typically introduces new features in off-shoot devices, such as the metal chassis of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active, the optical zoom lens inside the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom, and the curved body of the Samsung Galaxy Round.
We wouldn’t be surprised to see something like a “Samsung Galaxy Swipe” or some other weird device launched with the purpose of testing out the technology. We’re getting a bit too far ahead of ourselves, though — we’re not even 100% sure that this will come to fruition.


text:
- Subscribe NowLimited Time Offer
Tennessee House, Senate leaders say wine in grocery stores not a lock for 2013
- Staff Nashville Business Journal
Tennessee Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey and House Speaker Beth Harwell both support legislation to allow the sale of wine in grocery stores. But both say they won’t make their 2013 committee appointments based on helping passage any one bill, reports the Knoxville News Sentinel.
The wine sales legislation has failed to emerge from the committee level in recent years.
Both speakers plan to announce committee assignments on Jan. 10, two days after the 108th General Assembly convenes.
If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.
Cost Analyst Creative Financial Staffing | Nashville, TN
Unassigned District Manager Leslie's Poolmart, Inc. | Brentwood, TN
Pharmacy Tech I - Certified / Saint Thomas West Plaza West / FT Days Saint Thomas Health | Nashville, TN
Housekeeping Aide Marriott | Nashville, TN
- Most popular
- Ikea: Why of course, we'd love to be in Nashville
- Hemlock permanently closing Clarksville plant
- Southwest announces new nonstop flight to Bay Area
- Don't get mad Nashville, but Memphis is getting an Ikea
- Michael Burcham leaving Entrepreneur Center
- Could Peyton Manning save the Titans?
- Hotel deal on First Baptist Church site falls through
- New renderings of Bellevue Center mall redevelopment revealed
- NBJ announces its Newsmaker of the Year
- Haslam unveils plans for Medicaid expansion
Get business news stories compiled from media outlets around Nashville and delivered for free, directly to your inbox.


text:
U S West (NYSE: USW) topped consensus estimates Wednesday with fourth quarter earnings of $425 million, or 83 cents a share, on sales of $3.49 billion. First Call was expecting a profit of 78 cents a share.
The company, which reported revenue growth of 6.3 percent, said data and wireless products drove sales. U S West said 78 percent of its revenue growth came from wireless and data.
EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and other) grew to $1.45 billion, up 5.3 percent from the fourth quarter of last year.
U S West was originally going to merge with Global Crossing (Nasdaq: GBLX), but the deal was scrapped when Qwest Communications (NYSE: Q) entered the fray with a better offer. As a result, U S West had to sell 24 million shares and lost $259 million, or 51 cents a share. Of the loss, 44 cents a share is related to depreciation of Global Crossing shares with the remainder attributed to other agreements between the companies.
U S West, which is merging with Qwest now, said its major initiative is transforming the company into a high-growth telecommunications concern.
"Exceeding our 1999 targets in the emerging data, Internet, wireless and even video growth areas of our business is a significant milestone for U S West,'' said Sol Trujillo, chairman, president and CEO of U S West, in a statement.
In the key areas, data revenue was up 36 percent to $486 million in the fourth quarter and wireless revenue was up 71 percent to $78 million. The company also said it had 35,000 subscribers for its video services.
U S West said it has nearly 960,000 "growth subscribers," which are defined as customers for the company's PCS, Digital Subscriber Line and Internet access service.
These growth plans, however, hit the bottom line. U S West said investment in new areas cut fourth quarter earnings by 27 cents a share. For the year, these growth areas cut 81 cents a share from the bottom line.
Among the company's traditional areas of local phone service, U S West said it had strong growth in caller ID, call waiting and voice messaging services.
For the year, U S West reported earnings of $3.23 a share on sales of $13.1 billion.


text:
FOP Lodge 128 is happy to announce that its partnership with the Wixom Meijer will continue this year on Tuesday December 12th, 2023 at 6:00 pm. Members from FOP Lodge 128 will be taking kids form the area shopping for Christmas. The kids have been identified by the Lakes Area Youth Assistance, Huron Valley Youth Assistance, and the Novi Youth Assistance. This will provide a positive interaction with law enforcement these kids and help to make their holiday season brighter.
FOP Lodge 128 thanks the Wixom Meijer for their continued support that makes this event possible.


text:
Triton Systems has awarded an ATM that represents a milestone in the company's manufacturing history to Access to Money, a Cherry Hill, N.J.-based independent ATM deployer.
"Triton has shipped the 200,000th unit produced in its state-of-the-art facility," said officials of the Long Beach, Miss.-based manufacturer. "This solidifies the company's position as the world's leading retail ATM supplier. To celebrate this milestone and to show appreciation to their customers, Triton has awarded a full-featured RL 2000 to Access to Money."
Triton has manufactured ATMs from its Long Beach plant since 1979, and the company has installations in more than 24 countries.
The RL2000 is used for deployment in small convenience stores, restaurants, retail chains and hotels. The prize includes a Bullhorn, ATM alarm, Raminator, an electronic security system, Graphic Wrap, Power Conditioner, a $1500 in-store credit from atmgurus.com, custom screen graphics and EMV. Triton said the entire gift is worth $10,000.
Doug Falcone, Access to Money chief operating officer, said his company has worked with Triton a long time.
"We've been working with Triton for at least 13 years," Falcone said. "What has kept us with them over the years is the people behind the brand. They've made it through some difficult times and have come out with some exciting new products so we foresee continuing a long relationship with our friends at Triton."
Access to Money has deployed more than 10,500 ATMs nationwide with banks, credit unions and major chains.


text:
BRP recently unveiled its 2012 Ski-Doo lineup to dealers, including a look at what it believes is a state-of-the-art rear suspension system.
The new rMotion rear suspension, the company said, features a progressive motion ratio rear shock, the most travel in the industry, a wide performance window, easy adjustability and controlled transfer. The new suspension will be available on the MX Z X-RS and MX Z X models for 2012.
Other news on the 2012 lineup include:
• Summit Freeride models: BRP added to this emerging market by offering new models with three different track length packages.
• Wider track: The Skandic SWT sled moves to the REV-XU platform, making the entire Ski-Doo lineup built on the REV-X platform. The new Skandic SWT model boasts a 156-by-24 inch track (391-by-61 centimeters), 6 percent more fuel capacity and 52 fewer pounds.
• Expanded engine offerings: BRP is offering a choice of three engine options with the GSX SE model: the 4-TEC 1200, E-TEC 600 H.O. and the E-TEC 800R engines.
“BRP’s focus on the consumer experience is at the core of the 2012 Ski-Doo line-up,” Yves Leduc, vice president and general manager for BRP’s North America division, said in a press release.
- For more of the latest news, click here.
- To see the contents of the current print issue of PSB, click here.


text:
After years of rumors and speculations, Microsoft has finally decided to put an end to them and to officially reveal Xbox Project Scarlett. Microsoft started the E3 2019 press conference by launching numerous world-premier trailer for some of the world’s most highly anticipated games such as Cyberpunk 2077 and now, Microsoft has taken things to the next level and it revealed the next-generation console that is codenamed “Scarlett”.
Official Release Date
Microsoft announced that the official release date for Xbox Project Scarlett is in the window of Holiday 2020. As if this wasn’t enough to get fans excited about the next-generation console, Microsoft also announced that Xbox Project Scarlett will be bundled with the latest entry in the Halo franchise (Halo Infinite). We should note that Halo Infinite was also shown off during Microsoft’s E3 2019 panel.
Even though there are lots of critical details about Xbox Project Scarlett that Microsoft didn’t want to reveal during its panel, it did talk about the incredible performances that the next-gen console is going to offer on launch day.
According to Microsoft, Xbox Project Scarlett is going to be four times as powerful as the Xbox One X which currently holds the title for being the world’s most powerful gaming console.
In addition, Xbox Project Scarlett is going to be equipped with SSD and hardware components that support 8K resolution and 120 FPS. This means that the loading times in games is going to be super fast and that console games will finally deliver high resolutions as powerful gaming PCs do.
Other Xbox Project Scarlett Models
The last thing that we want to note is that Xbox Project Scarlett is probably not going to be the only next-generation console that Microsoft is planning to release. Previously leaked documents have shown that Microsoft is also working on different models of Xbox Project Scarlett called “Lockhart” and “Anaconda”.


text:
If you’ve been waiting for Samsung’s new Galaxy Note 7, you’re going to have to wait a little longer.
Upon release, the phone was met with praise by gadget reviewers and tech journalists (including this reporter). But now a serious safety concern has forced Samsung to temporarily suspend all sales of the phone. After 35 cases of exploding batteries reported globally prompted an internal investigation, Samsung announced this morning that it has officially taken the phone off the market until further notice.
For customers who already have the Galaxy Note 7, Samsung will introduce a trade-in program in the coming weeks.
Here is Samsung’s full statement:
Samsung is committed to producing the highest quality products and we take every incident report from our valued customers very seriously.
In response to recently reported cases of the new Galaxy Note7, we conducted a thorough investigation and found a battery cell issue. To date (as of September 1) there have been 35 cases that have been reported globally and we are currently conducting a thorough inspection with our suppliers to identify possible affected batteries in the market. However, because our customers’ safety is an absolute priority at Samsung, we have stopped sales of the Galaxy Note7. For customers who already have Galaxy Note7 devices, we will voluntarily replace their current device with a new one over the coming weeks.
We are working with our carrier partners to announce the details of the U.S. product exchange program as soon as today.
We acknowledge the inconvenience this may cause in the market but this is to ensure that Samsung continues to deliver the highest quality products to our customers. We are working closely with our partners to ensure the replacement experience is as convenient and efficient as possible.


text:
HRG’s Wendland joins GMDC Education Leadership Council
Hamacher Resource Group’s vice president of strategic relations, Dave Wendland, has been invited to join Global Market Development Center’s Education Leadership Council .
The ELC provides strategic direction for retail insights and next practices and is made up of wholesaler, distributor, retailer, supplier, and service company representatives.
[caption id="attachment_584364" align="alignright" width="150"] Dave Wendland[/caption]
“Dave was nominated to join GMDC’s Education Council due to his long history with the association and strategic partnership across many of our ‘next practice’ reports that inspire retailers to activate against future trends. He is an integral part of our mission to educate GMDC members and deepen trading partner relations. As a thought leader and author of GMDC’s Selfcare Roadmap initiative, Dave will deliver vision and experience as a complement to the other council members,” GMDC’s vice president of insights and communication Mark Mechelse said.
“I’m honored to be asked. This is an elite group of retail supply chain leaders and I look forward to collaborating with them. HRG is a strong supporter of GMDC’s unique position in the industry and we are aligned in our thinking about the future of health care, self care, and innovation across the retail supply chain,” Wendland said.


text:
May 6, 2014
Fungus Cripples Coffee Trees in Central America
Elisabeth Malkin, New York Times
A plant-choking fungus called coffee rust, or la roya, has swept across Central America, withering trees and slashing production everywhere. As exports have plunged over the last two years, the effects have rippled through the local economies.
TAGGED: Coffee, Coffee Rust, Central America, La Roya


text:
Does money make a person happier? Yusaku Maezawa is trying to find out.
The Japanese billionaire and online shopping mogul is repeating a version of an experiment that he tried around this time last year, when he gave 100 million yen (a little over $900,000) to be shared among 100 Twitter users who retweeted his promise. The possibility of free money made Maezawa’s tweet the most RTed tweet ever, with 4.3 million.
Maezawa raised the pot on New Year’s Eve, promising 1 billion yen (about $9 million) to be divided up between 1,000 users who retweeted before Jan. 7. That tweet, which has hit 4.1 million RTs, gave him the top two most retweeted tweets of all time.
Maezawa is something like the Japanese Elon Musk — an eccentric, impossibly rich person whose musings on society’s problems and lavish spending habits have earned him a massive following on Twitter. In 2017, Maezawa’s $110.5 million payment for a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting set a new record for American artists, and he’s scheduled to be the first private passenger on SpaceX’s planned flight around the moon in 2023.
The 1,000 winners of 1 million yen each will be decided by a lottery and notified via DM by Maezawa. In the announcement explaining the contest, Maezawa asked winners to use the money how they like, and also hoped that they would answer questionnaires about it to provide data that could potentially support theories about universal basic income.


text:
Should I buy a diesel car? Everything you need to know
Diesel cars are being demonised, but are they really as bad as they're being made to seem? Here's everything you need to know if you own a diesel or are thinking of buying one...
There has been a massive U-turn in the official opinion on diesel cars. They have gone from being the most favoured – and financially incentivised – models to some of those hit hardest by punitive levels of taxation.
Anti-diesel measures came into force on 1 April 2018, when the first-year road tax (VED) rate for diesel cars rose by one band and the company car tax rate went up from 3% to 4%.
That meant a first-year road tax increase of £20 for a Ford Focus diesel with CO2 emissions of 99g/km and a rise of £300 for a Volkswagen Sharan 2.0 diesel with a CO2 output of 136g/km. The extra fee was payable for cars that fail to meet the latest Euro 6 emissions standards under new real driving emissions (RDE) testing.
In the long term, the Government has also announced that only electric cars and vans will be sold in the UK by 2040. The move is part of a long-term strategy to combat air pollution, which the Government says is linked to 40,000 premature deaths a year.
A government-backed scrappage scheme to help owners of older, higher-polluting diesels has been suggested, and although this hasn't happened yet, a number of car makers have introduced their own scrappage incentives.
Read more – What does the petrol and diesel ban mean for me?
So, should you shun diesel cars, or is it still okay to buy one? We consider the background of the diesel engine story and look at the implications for existing owners and those who are considering buying a diesel.
Why has the Government turned against diesels?
Diesel-engined cars were promoted by successive UK governments for more than a decade because they have, on average, 20% lower CO2 emissions and 20% better official fuel economy than their petrol counterparts. These are important factors in helping to tackle climate change. Drivers appreciated the lower road tax and company car tax that were applicable to diesels and their popularity grew. Today, there are more than 10 million diesel cars on our roads and until recently they accounted for almost half of the new cars registered each year.
However, the Government now needs to address the levels of pollution in our cities, because it is being sued by the European Commission for repeatedly breaching air pollution limits. The announcement of the ban on petrol and diesel-engined cars from 2040 is part of a £3bn plan to tackle air pollution in response to the legal action.
The nitrogen oxides (NOx) produced by diesel engines are one cause of air pollution. So, as well as announcing the introduction of extra charges for the oldest, highest-polluting diesels if they’re driven in urban areas at peak times, the Government has changed the road tax banding system for new cars so that, after the first year, owners of petrol and diesel cars will pay the same rate.
How polluting are diesel cars?
Although diesel-engined cars emit more particulates than petrol ones, their CO2 emissions are generally lower. It’s also important to note that older diesels have far higher particulates and CO2 emissions than newer ones and that the European Union has been tightening up on emissions since 1992.
The first Europe-wide emissions standards, applicable to all new cars registered from January 1993, set an upper limit of 2.72g/km of carbon monoxide (CO) and 0.97g/km of NOx for diesel engines.
Significant improvements were made with the Euro 5 standard that applies to cars registered after January 2011. In order to comply with the limit of 0.18g/km of NOx, diesel-engined cars had to be fitted with diesel particulate filters (DPFs) that capture 99% of all particulate matter before it escapes out of the exhaust.
The latest diesel-engined cars (those sold from September 2015 onwards) comply with Euro 6 regulations and are the cleanest in history. As well as being fitted with DPFs, they have systems that convert most of the NOx from the engine to largely harmless nitrogen and water; by legislation, their NOx emissions cannot exceed 0.08g/km.
Read more – Euro 1 to 6. How clean is my car?
What other charges do diesel car owners face?
In London, drivers of diesel vehicles that do not meet Euro 6 emissions standards and petrol vehicles that do not comply with Euro 4 standards have had to pay extra to enter parts of the city since April 2019, when the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) was introduced. It is an additional fee of £12.50 that will is payable for vehicles entering the current Congestion Charge zone 24 hours a day, every day of the year. In general, it affects diesel cars registered before September 2015 and petrols registered before 2006.
Other cities around the UK are expected to follow London’s lead by introducing similar schemes.
What’s being done to help diesel car owners cope with the extra costs?
Although there is no assistance with the cost of road tax on new diesel cars, the Government has said it wants to help owners of diesels living inside the ULEZ and other areas where low-emissions zones are introduced.
Those living inside London's Congestion Charge area receive a 100% discount on the ULEZ charge until 24 October 2021 in order to give them time to change to a cleaner car. In addition, London Mayor Sadiq Khan introduced a scrappage scheme that provides eligible vehicle owners with a cash incentive to replace older cars and vans. A £2000 grant is paid for every car scrapped, and up to £9500 for a van that's replaced with an electric model.
What about other European cities?
There are more than 250 low-emissions zones in cities throughout Europe, so if you’re thinking of driving abroad, check such schemes along your planned route and at your destination.
Paris is among those to introduce a scheme to combat air pollution. Its Air Quality Certificate scheme bans cars first registered before 1997 from entering the city between 8am and 8pm on weekdays. It also bans motorcycles first registered before 2000 and buses and HGVs built before 2001.
Newer vehicles are rated on their emissions and will qualify for one of six different-coloured windscreen stickers that will allow access to the city inside the Périphérique ring road.
The cost of a sticker is €3.70 (£3.20) plus postage and they can be requested via the Air Quality Certification Service.
Should I avoid buying a diesel?
Despite the negative headlines, the impressive fuel economy of diesel cars means they still make more sense than petrol and hybrid models if you do a high annual mileage or cover a lot of miles on the motorway.
In addition, the recent slump in demand means discounts on new diesel cars are higher on average than for their petrol counterparts, often enough to offset the higher tax on diesels.
Just bear in mind that, if your driving is mainly town-based, diesels really are best avoided. A diet of constant low-speed urban motoring will clog a DPF filter, and the manufacturer's suggested regimen for unclogging them may not always work, leaving you with an expensive repair bill.
Electric cars are now entering the mainstream, and their rise is only going to accelerate as rules are introduced to limit the kind of vehicles allowed into major cities.
The main thing that has traditionally held them back is range anxiety – the fear that you won’t have enough juice to get to where you’re going. However, with plenty of models now capable of covering more than 200 miles between charges, this is becoming less of an issue.
So, which electric cars should you consider? Here, we count down our favourites and tell you the ones to avoid. And, remember, if any of them take your fancy, check out our What Car? New Car Buying to see how much we could save you.
10. Tesla Model X
On paper, Tesla's all-electric family SUV seems to be the dream all-rounder, combining the luxury of a Range Rover Sport with the green credentials of an electric car. In practice, its low running costs and practical interior are hard to fault, and even entry-level versions aren't short on pace, but parts of its interior do feel a little cheap given the price.
9. Seat Mii Electric
If you're looking for a small electric car to primarily use in the city, the Mii Electric should definitely be on your shortlist. It might not have the range to match larger electric cars, but that means costs are kept sensible, and we reckon 161 miles on a full charge should still be enough for most buyers.
8. Mercedes EQC
The EQC is a brilliant choice if you want to maximise the peace and quiet offered by going electric: it really is incredibly hushed on the move. But while it's generally comfortable on motorways, it doesn't ride as well as the very best rivals and its range is someway off the Jaguar I-Pace's.
Best plug-in hybrid cars 2023
Plug-in hybrid cars can reduce fuel consumption to an absolute minimum, but which models are the best all-rounders and which ones should you avoid?
Peugeot 308 SW long-term test
The Peugeot 308 SW is one of the sharpest looking estates around, but does this come at the expense of practicality? We're living with it to find out


text:
Rules to allow for delta-8 THC could come in the “future,” but in the meantime, those for CBD in food and beverages have been finalized.
Delta-8 THC was front and center during the latest meeting of New York’s cannabis regulators, as officials work to stand up what will be one of the world’s biggest cannabis markets.
The state’s Cannabis Control Board (CCB) met on Wednesday, for the third time, to approve Cannabinoid Hemp regulations presented by the Office of Cannabis Management. The package of rules will now regulate hemp products, including CBD products, by creating “clear” guidelines for what kinds of products and activities are allowed, and which ones aren’t, “to help foster the development of a robust cannabinoid hemp industry.”
The rules also seek to enhance consumer protection and quality control through testing and labeling, and to “enforce against” products that don’t meet the bar and those that are explicitly banned.
“Delta-8, similar to delta-9 THC, is psychoactive, has psychoactive properties, particularly when synthesized through the processing process. Because of that, we’ve decided to hold off on including the regulations for those products in this package and that will be addressed in the future adult use packages,” Chris Alexander, executive director of the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), within which the Board sits, said during a question and answer portion of the meeting, when asked specifically where delta-8 rules stood.
The regulations do, however, allow for cannabinoids, like CBD, to be added to foods and beverages, if they meet the state’s standards, which will require that each product be made using Good Manufacturing Practices. Last month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 45, which will now allow hemp-derived CBD (or other cannabinoids) in supplements, foods, drinks, cosmetics, and pet food.
“I’m pleased that we will be advancing the cannabinoid hemp program today, just as we have done with the expansion of the medical marijuana program at prior meetings,” Tremaine Wright, chair of the Board, said at the start of the meeting. (As Cannabis Wire recently reported, the Board has already moved to allow for medical cannabis shops to sell flower products, which several have started to do, and released rules for patients to home grow.)
Board member Jen Metzger gave an overview of the hemp program in New York. In 2015, the Department of Agriculture and Markets launched the state’s Industrial Hemp Agricultural Research Pilot Program. Metzger said this program “exploded” after it launched, with 800 farmers registered to grow, most for cannabidiol (CBD).
When the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act passed in March, legalizing cannabis for adult use, the Cannabinoid Hemp Program was transitioned under the umbrella of the new Office of Cannabis Management.


text:
Narrow your search
Following far behind in Apple's footsteps, Google says all apps will now carry age-based content ratings and will undergo scrutiny by Google content reviewers.
The rate of adoption picked up steam with the release of iOS 8.1.3, which fixed some bugs and eased the software's demand for storage space on devices.
The number of people jumping to the latest version of Apple's mobile OS has slowed down dramatically, according to Apple's latest stats.
Apple's latest version of its mobile OS has picked up a bit more steam following the holidays.
The newest version of Apple's mobile OS didn't get off to as fast a start as its predecessor, but it's picking up steam.
The new figure shows steady but slow growth from the 46 percent reported by Apple more than a month ago.
Following its official launch Wednesday, Apple's new mobile OS has already shot up the ranks, according to mobile analytics firm Mixpanel.
PlayStation Vue is the new TV service from Sony that starts at $50 per month. Its competitor Sling TV starts at $20 per month. Both use the Internet to stream numerous live TV channels as well as VOD, and both are free from long-term contracts. So how do they stack up?
Normally $25.99, this staggeringly popular desktop accessory will intelligently charge all your mobile devices.
Outlaw Audio's powerhouse amp can take your home-theater sound to the next level.


text:
Do mobile banking transfers require a receipt?
Can a credit union stop payment on a cashier’s check, teller’s check or certified check?
Do we have to send an adverse action notice when we terminate a credit card account due to delinquency?
Can a credit union stop payment on a cashier’s check, tellerâ€™s check or certified check?
Bauer Financial and Highline Financial found that 26 percent of Washington-based banks and 20 percent of Oregon-based banks are considered problematic or troubled.


text:
Ever since August 2019, the internet has been ablaze with rumours of a vegan 'steak bake' being released by the UK's most popular high street bakery Greggs.
Fast forward to January 2020 and that fantasy — following countless leaks, comment section gossip and hearsay — has been made a reality, as Greggs has finally released its vegan 'steak bake'— a meat-free take on the chain's most popular order.
Following the unprecedented success of the vegan sausage rolls, the Greggs vegan steak bake is now ready to try, as announced on an Instagram advert that wouldn't look out of place on a YouTube grime playlist.
Needless to say, the news was well received by vegans and meat eaters alike. Die-hard Greggs fans celebrated the release of the "dirty delicious" vegan 'steak bake', which is made of 96 layers of puff pastry, Quorn pieces, chopped onions and a gravy filling.
The drop is the latest release from a slew of fast food chains that are creating vegan-friendly menus for #Veganuary, including Burger King, Pizza Hut and, almost unbelievably, KFC. According to Greggs, the vegan 'steak bake' is "the greatest vegan creation ever", but we'll let you be the judge of that.
Like this article? Sign up to our newsletter to get more articles like this delivered straight to your inbox.


text:
What you need to know
- Google has removed the phone number requirement from Duo's web app.
- Users now only need their Google account to make use of the service.
- The change is rolling out now to non-G Suite account holders.
Google has now reduced a barrier to using Duo, making it so that users are now able to use it without a phone number. The feature was first spotted by 9to5Google in an APK teardown and later confirmed by a Google employee in Duo's help forums.
Now, as per a report from Android Police, it's rolling out to non-G Suite account holders, albeit on the web only.
I've been able to confirm this using my alternate Gmail account, and Duo works exactly as it's supposed to. You can make video and voice calls without confirming a phone number on the web app.
It never really made sense for a company as web-focused and future-looking as Google to tie Duo to phone numbers when our online identities are more often tied to our Google accounts. It also limited parents of young children from handing out little Android tablets to their kids for the purpose of Duo access if you needed to have a phone number anyway. With the web app now dropping the requirement, it seems likely that the Android and iOS apps will soon follow.
It's a small change in the grand scheme of things, but at the same time, a great improvement that boosts an already decent service.
Aukey 26800mAh 65W USB-C battery review: My new go-to travel power bank
There's been a steady improvement in really big portable batteries with high outputs for us with laptops as they shift to USB-C, and the latest I'm relying on is the Aukey 26000mAh portable battery.
Bethesda won't be holding a digital E3 showcase this year
We have some unfortunate news to share (and no, it's not an April Fool's joke). Bethesda Softworks has confirmed that it will not be holding a digital E3 showcase this year. Instead, news about Bethesda games will be shared in different ways in the months ahead.
Daily Coronavirus updates: UN says COVID-19 threatens global stability
COVID-19 has already infected over 877,000 people globally and caused over 43,540 fatalities. It has also had a huge impact on the tech industry, affecting the global supply chain and causing interminable product delays. Here are all the ways the coronavirus is affecting the world.
These weather apps will help you decide if you should pack your umbrella
There are so many weather apps on the Google Play Store that it can be extremely tough finding the best one. But that's also the best part about having so many options as there is likely a weather app that is perfect for you and we have found the best to choose from.


text:
TOKYO (Reuters) – U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital plans to buy Japanese advertising agency Asatsu-DK Inc (9747.T) in a deal that could be worth $1.2 billion or more, a person familiar with the transaction said on Monday.
Bain will launch a tender offer soon for as many shares of Asatsu-DK as possible, the person said, asking not to be identified because he is not in a position to speak to media.
The Nikkei business daily, which reported the buyout earlier on Monday, said Bain would pay about 150 billion yen ($1.33 billion) for the Japanese company.
Asatsu-DK spokeswoman Kaori Nakajima said the report was not something the company had announced.
Asatsu-DK closed at 3,180 yen on Monday, which gives the firm a value of 132 billion yen.
A consortium led by Bain Capital signed an $18 billion deal last week to buy Toshiba Corp’s (6502.T) chip unit.
($1 = 112.8700 yen)


text:
Simplifying Significant Aspects Of Maryland Cbd Oil
Are you searching for CBD oil in Maryland? With out being an permitted medical cannabis affected person, customers in Maryland will not be able to legally purchase or use any form of hashish merchandise. However, there may be one other Cbd Oil In Maryland approach to buy CBD. Hemp-primarily based products at the moment are federally legal within the United States because of the 2018 Farm Invoice. That signifies that hemp-derived CBD products are available to all users across the nation.
Not like hemp-derived CBD products, marijuana-derived CBD merchandise are still in a grey space in relation to authorized sale and usage. Some states permit Cbd Oil In Maryland it with out medical exemption, whereas other states require a medical exemption. Idaho, Nebraska, and South Dakota are the one states where marijuana-derived CBD is illegal.
Maryland is yet another state throughout the continental U.S. working to suit the evolving hemp industry into an existing and extensive framework of regulation for the remainder of the expansive marijuana and cannabis trade. Having legalized medicinal hashish means back in 2014, the state has been no stranger to both the benefits Maryland Cbd Oil and the pitfalls of legalizing sure facets of marijuana within its borders. But legislators in 2016 worked to legalize the economic hemp program, permitting the state to step into an more and more aggressive market that persists right now.
Alabama – Below Leni’s Regulation, CBD oil is accessible to these affected by a severe and chronic medical situation that causes seizures. The one other approach to lawfully use CBD would be to participate in a state-sponsored clinical trial learning its effects.
The permitted legality of commercial hemp carried out by Congress additionally guarantees that merchandise created from hemp vegetation – together with CBD oil – are federally authorized due to their nonintoxicating levels of THC. That being mentioned, particular person states can still determine in the event that they wish to permit hemp-based merchandise to be sold within state borders.
This can be a dangerous state to drive by means of in the event you loaded up on tinctures and edibles in Washington or Oregon. Something with any quantity of THC in it’s illegal here, and legislators just introduced state legislation in step with the 2018 Farm Bill in March, which means law enforcement officials may not be as caught up on CBD’s status as in friendlier states—and that could result in issues for you.
Outlines For Simple Solutions For Maryland Cbd Oil
And November’s midterm elections, together with motion by Congress late in 2018 to legalize hemp in the Farm Bill, introduced much more adjustments to the panorama. Hemp is quite a lot of the hashish plant with a negligible quantity of the excessive-producing THC present in marijuiana.
Although CBD oil does not produce psychoactive results just like the THC found in marijuana, the two products are related intently enought that the manufacturing and sales of CBD are currently in a legal gray space. Earlier than starting your CBD oil enterprise, it can be Maryland Cbd Oil crucial that you just be certain that to learn up on each state and federal laws concerning CBD products. This may assist guarantee your enterprise features easily and avoids authorized hassle.
Speedy Products For Cbd In Maryland – A Background
Hemp-derived CBD with less than 5% THC is legal in Georgia, and since assisted residing residents can self-administer medicines, they need to be permitted to make cbd oil in maryland use of CBD. Hemp-derived CBD is authorized in Illinois. Because assisted residing residents can self-administer medicines, they should be permitted to take CBD.
Yes, purchasing CBD is federally legal so long as it doesn’t include greater than 0.three % THC, but some state laws Cbd Oil In Maryland have put restrictions on patrons. For instance, Virginians can solely purchase and possess CBD if they have a prescription.
It is dependent upon your state. If you’re in a state the place it’s illegal, you have no local or federal protection. But if you are in a state the place it’s legal, either recreationally or medicinally, you’ve gotten options. For example, in Pennsylvania where I follow, marijuana is legalized for medicinal makes use of. However physicians in the state of Pennsylvania can’t prescribe it. If they did, their license can be removed, as it’s a federal offense.


text:
Durban - A police constable accused of stealing meat and liquor from a trading store appeared in the Scottburgh Magistrate's Court on Monday, KwaZulu-Natal police said.
The man would appear in court again on January 20, Captain Thulani Zwane said.
The constable was arrested on Saturday at his home in Amandawe.
The shop was burgled on Friday night. The constable led police to a house in Umzinto where more stolen goods were found.


text:
· less than 3 min read
Administering Covid vaccines has provided a bump to some retail pharmacies, as post-injection consumers browse the aisles. But, because of increased demand for boosters due to Omicron, combined with the labor shortage, it might not last, per the Wall Street Journal. Chains like CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart have had to limit hours and close drive-thrus as they look to recruit thousands of pharmacists and technicians.
- According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1.4 million doses, on average, were administered every day in the US last week, up 22% from the previous week.
“Demand for vaccinations is particularly high at this time, so we encourage people to schedule their appointments in advance,” Walgreens told WSJ. The company is even doling out bonuses to employees who get certified to give the vaccine.
Over at CVS, appointments are available for the next two weeks, but staffing issues can lead to people waiting in lines or needing to schedule a week or more in advance.
- The company recently hired 23,000 pharmacists, technicians, and other positions to facilitate Covid vaccines and tests.
Meanwhile, certain Walmart locations ceased walk-in vaccine appointments because they couldn’t manage the demand. Those stores offer online booking, but time slots are often weeks away in some locations, per WSJ’s reporting.
Looking ahead...More companies, including local chains like Publix, are beginning to carry Covid boosters amid the continuing labor shortage and emergence of new variants.—JG


text:
As we enter the New Year, the Templemere team are reflecting on their favourite PR moments of 2018. There were some really innovative and inspiring campaigns last year - we are looking forward to seeing what 2019 has in store for PR. Here’s our top five.
1. IKEA: The Last Straw
Stella Wright, PR assistant and apprentice: In October, IKEA displayed a plastic straw in the Design Museum in London, to mark the end of single-use plastic straws in all stores across the UK and Ireland. Campaigns like these are proving really effective in encouraging others to consider their impact on the environment – my New Year’s resolution is to cut down on single-use plastics as much as possible.
2. David Attenborough
Clare Williams, managing director and founder of Templemere PR: My favourite initiative also came from the issue of single-use plastic - the massive shift in attitudes brought about by David Attenborough.
3. Nike’s 30th anniversary ‘Just Do It’ campaign
Steve Lambert, content manager: For its 30th anniversary ‘Just Do It’ campaign, Nike enlisted notable athletes including Serena Williams and LeBron James to star in a series of inspirational ads. But it was the inclusion of former American football player Colin Kaepernick – who had famously taken a knee at games during the US national anthem in protest against racism in the country – that sealed the campaign’s place in PR history, sparking a national debate and even leading US President Donald Trump to publicly comment on the move.
4. Lacoste: Save our Species
Anais Belloul, account executive and social media co-ordinator: Lacoste replaced their iconic crocodile logo on their signature polo shirts with 10 endangered species, with limited quantities of each logo to represent each animals’ brink of extinction. It is a great way to raise awareness to the impact our choices are making on the environment while offering limited edition and exclusive products to consumers. Wearing the polo tells a story and the message will be spread in a channel more conventional than reading about endangered animals in the news.
5. Gareth Southgate
Daisy Fannin, client services director: Not a campaign but a PR success none the less - the way Gareth Southgate changed perceptions of the England football team by quietly and consistently behaving with decorum and professionalism, and focussing on hard work and sportsmanship. The key to great PR is being able to truly walk the talk.
We at Templemere PR would like to wish all of our clients and media colleagues a prosperous and happy New Year, and we are looking forward to working with you throughout 2019.


text:
LG Suggests G6 Will Be Waterproof
LG today revealed more potential details about its forthcoming G6 flagship handset in a teaser video. LG asked a number of people what they want in a phone, and those in the video say they're looking for something that has a big screen, but is easy to use one-handed, won't get ruined if dropped in the toilet, and has a good camera. LG has already said the G6 will drop the modular design of last year's G5 and will boast a 5.7-inch QHD+ display with thinner bezels. LG may announce the phone as soon as the Mobile World Congress trade show scheduled for February.
TCL Teases Its Next BlackBerry Phone
TCL today offered a sneak peak of a new BlackBerry smartphone in a short video. TCL is the parent company behind Alcatel and recently struck an agreement to design and manufacture smartphone hardware for BlackBerry.
LG Teaser Suggests Funky Display On Next Phone
LG has published a teaser video on YouTube showing off a brief silhouette of the phone it plans to announce on Oct. 1 in New York.
LG G6 to Feature New User Experience to Match 'FullVision' Display
LG has developed a new version of its Android user interface skin in order to take advantage of the unique 18:9 aspect ratio display of its forthcoming G6 flagship smartphone. The phone's display will measure 5.7 inches across the diagonal with 2880 by 1440 pixels.
LG Provides Peek at G4 User Interface and Camera
LG is slowly revealing aspects of its forthcoming flagship smartphone bit by bit. The G4, expected to arrive at an event later this month, will have LG's newest user interface called LG UX 4.0.


text:
DBaaS takes the trouble out of cloud databases
How open-source databases operating in the cloud can deliver performance, flexibility, scalability and cost savings
Sponsored Feature Every organization uses some sort of database technology. Data is what drives business these days; whether it's customer data, product data, or transaction data. Simply put - to function efficiently, companies must have a handle on their data.
As the database market evolves, many companies are choosing to go with open-source cloud databases. Open-source databases operating in the cloud convey a handful of business benefits, including performance, flexibility, scalability, and cost savings. And this shift to open source is driving the market. In fact, the global cloud Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) market is overtaking traditional on-premises databases.
"Cloud database technologies are already 55 percent of the overall market," explains Mikko Röntynen, director of product marketing for Helsinki, Finland-based Aiven. "And Gartner is saying that all growth in the database market is coming from DBaaS." Indeed, Gartner reports the overall database market grew to $91 billion in 2022, a growth rate of 14.4 percent. And Cloud DBaaS reflects more than half of that increase at 55.2 percent, confirming Röntynen's statement.
As with any technology and business process shift, however, there are challenges. Although it's moving in that direction, the world is still not entirely open-source. Some organizations may struggle to provision, maintain, and manage their open-source cloud databases, especially if they're working with multiple instances of the same or even different open-source products. There's also the factor of ensuring there are sufficient skill sets available to keep these open-source cloud databases operating at peak efficiency.
Companies are realizing they need to focus more on their core business activities; and not get caught up managing their infrastructure. "We're starting to see companies realize that it's getting harder to do on your own," says Kyle Romeo, Aiven's director of product marketing for the Americas. "You're going in all these different directions. Do you want to have 15 different relationships and 15 different data streams to troubleshoot and support or do you want to work with one partner?"
Benefits and challenges of DBaaS
Companies moving to cloud-based databases and DBaaS are doing so for the benefits of increased flexibility, scalability, efficiency, and performance; not to mention significant cost and resource savings. The primary benefits of moving to DBaaS are time to value and time to market, according to Röntynen. "You're able to focus your resources on things that add value, and leave the database maintenance and security to the experts," he adds.
Reducing complexity is another significant benefit. "When you think about cloud infrastructure - that's becoming increasingly complex," explains Röntynen. "The strain it places on companies to set up cloud services and multi-cloud environments becomes a resource drain. They're really just taking care of the plumbing. Do you want to be setting up infrastructure or adding value to your business?"
Moving from traditional on-premises databases to cloud-based open-source database services certainly conveys many benefits, but also presents several challenges. Many workloads will need provisioning to ensure access, visibility, management, and integration with other datasets. They will also have to comply with regulatory and compliance requirements related to specific datasets or regulations specific to geographic regions (such as the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Then of course there's planning for disaster recovery and security. And companies will need the expertise to handle all those tasks. That's a tall order.
Managing that complexity is steering companies toward seeking partners who can support their efforts. "No one can survive with just one data technology anymore. One of the challenges [companies] are experiencing is the complexity of managing all those different technologies," explains Röntynen.
And if a company – and its IT staff – doesn't have sufficient experience with open-source systems, it's going to need help. "We provide a platform that lets you interchangeably manage some of the most popular open-source technologies across whichever hyper-scaler you might be working with; whether AWS, Google, or Azure," says Röntynen. "Some companies bite off more than they can chew by trying to self-manage."
Take the platform approach
Managing these levels of complexity is something that a Data platform is well-equipped to handle. And the Aiven platform is just that – a platform. It supports 11 of the more popular open-source databases and tools, including venerable technologies like Apache Kafka, PostgreSQL, and Redis. Aiven also supports some of the newer entries like Clickhouse and Apache Flink. This cross-protocol support helps companies transfer data and workloads from one database to the other fairly seamlessly, and provides centralized management through a single interface.
"The key thing it provides is less complexity," explains Röntynen. "If you work with different database vendors, it's up to you to integrate those. We provide all that integration with one platform, and it's built right into the platform with easy to build data pipelines."
The Aiven Platform ensures all database services run with high availability, are up to date, remain secure, and can integrate across databases, cloud platforms, and any third-party tools. Being unified, it also simplifies management, governance, visualization, and compliance. Companies can migrate or replicate workloads across cloud platforms to accomplish such things as reducing latency, reducing costs, satisfying any regulatory requirements, or meeting disaster recovery protocols.
The platform approach helps Aiven support the different hyperscaler cloud platforms, like AWS, Google, and Azure. "You can easily replicate databases from one cloud platform to another to support different use cases or regulatory requirements," adds Röntynen.
And moving to Aiven does not mean having to shift cloud strategy. "One important factor is what we call, 'Bring your own cloud.' That basically means we still operate on those hyperscale cloud platforms, but customers can deploy Aiven managed databases into their own cloud accounts," says Röntynen. "That gives them more flexibility in terms of optimizing costs. They can continue with any discounts they're getting from their cloud provider. They can also build in additional security as they already control that cloud environment."
The DBaaS services provided through the Aiven platform can integrate with existing data sources, even on-premises databases. "It is definitely possible to still have on-premises databases at the same time [as using DBaaS]," says Röntynen. "Whether it's beneficial or not - that's a different story."
Getting the return
There is certainly an investment involved in moving to an open-source DBaaS and having those services managed by a partner, but the potential ROI can be significant. A recent report from industry research firm IDC revealed a 340 percent ROI over three years. That same report outlined a 37 percent reduction in operational cost over three years, as well as increased productivity in infrastructure, database management, and security teams, since they had to be less involved in the nuts and bolts of managing data services.
The IDC report also outlines how the Aiven platform helps companies automatically scale databases, relieves them of database maintenance concerns; provides increased agility, scalability, and security; and helps them respond quickly to any risk mitigation events. And companies can purchase those managed services on an as-needed basis. Database maintenance becomes an operating expense, not a capital expense.
Databases are used everywhere and in every company, so a platform like Aiven can help expedite and simplify a variety of use cases. Several large and well-known companies Aiven works with are finding significant cost savings and streamlined operations.
One of those is Priceline, a popular travel booking site which is moving toward becoming more cloud-native. As Priceline continues to grow in a chaotic travel market, it plans to offer new pricing models and services. Those new pricing models depend on accurate and immediate pricing and availability data from the airlines, hotels, and rental cars with which Priceline partners. Moving to Aiven has helped Priceline adopt its new models more quickly and efficiently.
Another Aiven success story is international sporting goods retailer Decathlon. The retail giant is using Aiven's DBaaS platform to support its transition to microservices. Decathlon plans to use Aiven's cloud and services management to convert the retail company's open-source data technologies such as Kafka, PostgreSQL, MySQL, OpenSearch, InfluxDB, and Redis into highly available and scalable services to support its retail efforts and improve the customer experience.
Future of DBaaS Market
The global cloud DBaaS market continues to grow at an impressive pace. According to a recent report by research firm MarketsandMarkets, it's expected to grow from $21.3 billion in 2023 to $57.5 billion by 2028.
And as more companies move to the cloud and open-source database technologies, Aiven finds itself in an enviable position. "Open source is not going to go away," says Röntynen. "Kafka has been around for some time, and now you're seeing emerging databases like Clickhouse. We're always keeping that future looking vision to what companies are going to need to adopt and embrace and making sure our platform is inclusive of that infrastructure."
Sponsored by Aiven.


text:
Nintendo has officially announced the Cobalt and Black DS Lite. The unit will go on sale on February 10.
Honestly, I really love this look. I have yet to pick up a DS, but I'm big on aesthetic and I really like this look so I might actually pick one up.
N4G is a community of gamers posting and discussing the latest game news. It’s part of NewsBoiler, a network of social news sites covering today’s pop culture.


text:
Taco John’s could open as many as seven restaurants to Columbus in the coming years.
The Wyoming-based quick service chain, which operates nearly 400 units nationwide, has finalized deals for a number of Central Ohio units and expects to open two or three in 2022.
“We’ve been successful in the Midwest,” said Brooks Speirs, vice president of development for Taco John’s. “We’re targeting Indianapolis, Illinois, Ohio.
“Columbus is an area with great demographics. You have Ohio State University. It’s very vibrant.”
Taco John’s, know both for its tacos and its Potato Olés side, has three restaurants in the state including one that’s operated in Athens for decades and a Circleville site that opened last year.
But it’s never been in Columbus.
Though Speirs couldn’t yet say where Taco John’s is going, he did say one place it is not going.
Taco John’s explored a co-branded unit with Cinnabon inside a Turkey Hill gas station and convenience store slated for Dublin. Though it is using such units to grow in other markets, it ultimately decided against doing that here in Central Ohio.
“The new prototype is doing great for us,” Speirs said. “That’s how we want to enter Columbus – with stand-alone stores.”
He said that design is more open and brighter than older units. It’s one of several factors driving what was a record sales year for the company in 2020.
Speirs also credited menu additions aimed to appeal more to women and Millennials, though the chain still is selling plenty of its hearty Six-Pack And a Pound meals.
The Covid-19 pandemic also has helped. While much of the restaurant industry has struggled in the past year, many quick service operators saw business increase as they already were well positioned to appeal to consumers seeking drive-thru, carryout and delivery options.
“We’ve been rocking and rolling in the last 18 months,” Speirs said. “That’s the power of the drive-thru.”
Drive-thru sales were 65% of the business pre-Covid. Now, it’s 90%.
Taco John’s is shopping for real estate in power centers, wanting to be near high-traffic anchors such as Home Depot, Target or Walmart and alongside other restaurants.
Speirs said the first units will be ground-up new builds, roughly 2,200 square feet each. He said he doesn’t anticipate taking over any vacated restaurant space, at least at first. That could be an option once the chain opens a few restaurants in the market, depending on the opportunities available.
Taco John’s is not the only fast feeder to set its sights on Central Ohio. California-based Del Taco has multiple Columbus-area units in the works. Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bonjangles just this week said a franchisee hopes to open as many as 15 restaurants in the market, which would be its first locations in Ohio.
For more business news, go to ColumbusBusinessFirst.com.


text:
British Heart Foundation gives life-saving CPR training to Washington's Amazon drivers
Delivery drivers working across Wearside are being trained up in life-saving skills thanks to the British Heart Foundation.
The charity is helping to train drivers who deliver parcels to Amazon customers across Washington in CPR, so that they can respond to emergencies when out on the road.
Working in partnership with Amazon and more than 100 independent delivery companies across the UK, the BHF is offering the free training to thousands of drivers.
Amazon instructors at the Washington Delivery Station have already been educated in CPR by the charity, and they will now pass on their new skills to drivers in 30-minute sessions.
Jacob West, Director of Healthcare Innovation at the British Heart Foundation, said: “CPR is a life-saving skill that only takes 30 minutes to learn.
“Unfortunately, in the UK there are far too many people dying of a cardiac arrest, often because people don’t have the skills or confidence to perform CPR.
“It’s vital that CPR training reaches as many people as possible.”
There are up to 30,000 cardiac arrests outside of a hospital setting in the UK each year – but the survival rate is less than one in 10.
Kerry-Anne Lawlor, Country Director of Amazon Logistics, welcomed the vital partnership with the BHF, which will equip drivers to respond to emergencies if they are needed.
She added: “We regularly see examples where drivers delivering Amazon parcels for our delivery service partners act selflessly when out on their routes to help others.”


text:
“This unique initiative supports the manufacture of next-generation vehicles using innovative technologies and contributes to the realisation of carbon neutrality. Nissan also announced a roadmap to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 at its production plants around the world.”
Hideyuki Sakamoto, Nissan’s executive vice president for manufacturing and supply chain management, said, “The automotive industry is in a period of great change, and solving the global challenge of climate change is urgent. We see this as an opportunity to build the strength of monozukuri (manufacturing), a part of our DNA, to develop and apply innovative technologies to overcome the challenges we face.”
Nissan introduced this at its Tochigi Plant. It will allow it to use robots that have inherited the skills of takumi to manufacture next-generation vehicles of the highest quality, to create an improved environment in which a wide range of people can work comfortably, and to realise a zero-emission production system, thereby accelerating efforts to achieve a decarbonised society.


text:
Enterprise app migrations, new ‘microservice’-based app designs and container technologies will create further disruption and fuel innovation in the public cloud market over the next two years, according to research firm Forrester.
Retail banks around the world are expected to use startup providers - overtaking incumbent application vendors - to replace legacy online and mobile banking systems over the next four years, according to analyst firm Gartner.
Worldwide PC shipments have declined for six consecutive quarters, with shipment volumes of 64.8 million in the first quarter this year the lowest since 2007. Amidst the gloom and doom - and despite a 7.2% decline in its shipments - China vendor Lenovo still maintained number one position globally.
By moving away from fibre and sticking with an archiac mess of copper the Coalition ensured that wireless would be[…]
This is such an interested case, that will shape the World's view of a controlled monopoly or is it a[…]
Excellent article thx Alex -Pricing to enable bonuses to execs while hiding what they do to their 'essential workers' -[…]
Time for the US gov't to BAN these a***holes at Fecebook, Twatter, Instagrub and elsewhere. PUT THEM IN JAIL FOR[…]
Quite frankly passwords are a pain in the posterior.Why can't I have one secure password that I use on all[…]


text:
Can Kimbal Musk Do for Farms What Elon Has Done for Cars?
For more than 150 years, Pfizer manufactured pharmaceuticals in its 660,000-square-foot factory on Flushing Avenue in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. The pharma giant shut down operations in 2008, and since 2011, a host of food start-ups have taken up residence in the building’s cavernous halls. Starting next year, the bakeries and distilleries and kimchi companies will be joined by a venture called Square Roots. Founded by Kimbal Musk and Tobias Peggs, the urban farming accelerator aims to empower “1,000s of millennials to join the real food revolution,” as Musk (Elon’s brother) wrote in a Medium post announcing the venture last week.
“Our goal is to enable a whole new generation of real food entrepreneurs, ready to build thriving, responsible businesses,” Musk continued. “The opportunities in front of them will be endless.”
Square Roots’ real-food revolution will be built around container farming: shipping containers retrofitted into self-contained, highly efficient hydroponic mini farms. Beginning next fall, 10 ag-tech entrepreneurs will each develop an urban farming business in their own 350-square-foot shipping container housed in the Pfizer building. The containers will be able to produce the equivalent yield of two acres’ worth of farmland annually, with 80 percent less water than a conventional farm, according to Musk.
Brooklyn will be just the beginning: “Square Roots creates campuses of climate-controlled, indoor, hydroponic vertical farms, right in the hearts of our biggest cities,” Musk wrote on Medium. “On these campuses, we train young entrepreneurs to grow non-GMO, fresh, tasty, real food all year round, and sell locally. And we coach them to create forward-thinking companies that—like The Kitchenâ€Š [Musk’s chain of eco-friendly restaurants]—strengthen communities by bringing local, real food to everyone.”
Square Roots joins the growing ranks of high-tech indoor-farming operations that are cropping up in old industrial sectors of major cities across the country—from Newark’s AeroFarms to Chicago’s FarmedHere—that are seeking to both shorten the food-supply chain and fundamentally reimagine the American farm as a high-tech, urban, factory-like operation.
If Square Roots and its contemporaries succeed, the country will be awash in locally grown lettuce, kale, and herbs. But the question is, how much locally grown lettuce, kale, and herbs do we need beyond what is already being produced? Is growing greens and herbs in shipping containers or old factories better—in terms of resources, emissions, and the environment—than growing them on farms in the Southwest? A container-farm entrepreneur can grow lettuce with less space and water than a farmer in California and Arizona, where the bulk of American lettuce is grown. But the question of sustainability isn’t answered quite so easily—and a greens revolution in agriculture can only do so much to address the problems the industry faces.
“I don’t think these big sweeping urban agriculture ideas are going to happen anytime soon,” Raychel Santo, a program coordinator at the Johns Hopkins’ Center for a Livable Future and a coauthor of a report on the potential of urban agriculture, told TakePart in May. Instead of supplanting traditional, rural agriculture, she sees urban farming’s potential in education, conservation, and as a means of fostering a connection between city residents and the food they eat—even if only on a small scale.
Start-ups like Square Roots tout the nearby nature of container farms: Produce can be grown on the outskirts of town instead of in the Arizona desert or California’s Central Valley. That’s part of the sustainability pitch: Container farming cuts down on emissions from transportation. But the great white lie of the local food movement is that the carbon emissions from trucking foods from there to here represent a small slice of agriculture’s overall climate footprint. The Environmental Protection Agency put ag at 9 percent of the nation’s overall emissions in 2014, with livestock and farmland management two of the major contributors.
With their highly efficient use of space, container gardens can do the work of a lot of farmland in exceptionally few square feet. According to Musk’s announcement, one shipping container can produce the same amount of greens or herbs as two acres of farmland—land that, if taken out of production, could be used to capture carbon rather than emitting it.
While container farms are highly efficient when it comes to space, the same cannot be said for their energy use. A 2015 study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health sought to determine whether hydroponics were “a suitable and more sustainable alternative” to conventional lettuce farming in Yuma, Arizona, which today is better known for romaine than for train robberies. While the researchers found that hydroponics outperformed traditional field-grown lettuce production in terms of land and water use, the same could not be said for energy use. Between cooling in the summer, heating in the winter, and the energy required for 24-hour lighting, hydroponic operations have high electricity demands. As the authors of the paper concluded, “Due to the high energy demands, at this time, commercial hydroponics is not a suitable alternative to conventional lettuce production in Yuma, Arizona.”
The Johns Hopkins report on urban farming, which reviewed prior research on various types of city-based ag, found similar evidence, and the authors wrote that “producing food in urban settings may increase GHG emissions and water use if plants are grown in energy- and resource-intensive operations, such as indoor/vertical farming, greenhouses, hydroponics (soilless crop production), or aquaculture (the cultivation of aquatic animals or plants for food) facilities in cold or water-scarce regions.”
Both geography and technology could mitigate the energy problem of indoor ag, as the authors noted. Renewable energy could help to offset the energy demand for heating and cooling. Building hydroponics infrastructure in a milder climate could limit the amount of cooling and heating needed throughout the year. Even if the energy issue presents a problem with indoor farming as it exists today, the researchers pointed out that the technology “provides promising concepts that could lead to more sustainable food production.”
Technology could also help to make conventional lettuce farms more efficient from a water-use standpoint. The paper noted that hydroponics are able to use less water than field-grown lettuce not because each plant needs less water when grown indoors but because highly controlled indoor farms can outperform inefficient irrigation technology. Lettuce has shallow roots “but is primarily irrigated through flood furrow irrigation in southwestern Arizona,” the authors wrote, which is also the case in California. “Water not quickly absorbed by the roots is lost to percolation. Increases in the use of low-flow and more-targeted irrigation techniques could lower the overall water use of conventional farming.”
Would a venture capitalist plow money into improving existing ag technologies? It seems unlikely during an era when the tech industry fetishizes so-called disruptive companies. Why make a better irrigation system—or invest in one—when there are more innovative ideas like shrinking down the outmoded American farm, stuffing it in a repurposed shipping container, and dropping it in an old factory in gentrified Brooklyn? CNBC does not write about irrigation companies as a “hot new area for investors,” that’s for sure.
There’s the question of what can be grown in container farms too. AeroFarms grows greens and herbs; FarmedHere grows greens and herbs. Square Roots will grow greens and herbs. Spread, a Japanese indoor-farming company that promises to go fully robotic next year, will increase its daily yield to 50,000 heads of lettuce a day, thanks to its robot workforce.
Square Roots is working with two indoor-farming start-ups, Freight Farms and ZipGrow, for the incubator farms. Freight Farms will supply the shipping containers; ZipGrow will provide the vertical-farming towers. Freight Farms calls its farm-in-a-box containers Leafy Green Machines and recommends growing lettuces, herbs, and brassicas such as kale, chard, and arugula. ZipGrow’s “recommended go-to-market crops” are greens, herbs, and flowers.
That’s a lot of lettuce, kale, and herbs. Matt Matros, the CEO of FarmedHere, which is the largest indoor farm in the country, hopes to someday grow avocados, as he told The Guardian last year, but we aren’t there yet.
The indoor-farming start-ups all offer non-GMO crops, yes—but there are also no commercially produced genetically modified greens or herbs. Any given head of lettuce grown in California or Arizona is non-GMO.
Entrepreneurs have to start somewhere. Remember when Amazon only sold books? Even if container farms can’t move past herbs and greens, if Musk and Peggs’ incubator floods the market with kale-and-lettuce-growing start-ups, those local greens will become that much more affordable.
This article originally appeared on Takepart.


text:
BAR HARBOR, Maine — For more than a decade, shoppers have been able to enjoy the comfort of home one day a year by wearing their pajamas, bathrobes and slippers while out patronizing local businesses during the annual Early Bird Sale.
This year, they will be able to carry the concept one step further by bringing their beds with them, too.
The Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce plans to add a little competitive zeal to the sale by holding downtown bed races on Saturday, Nov. 22, according to Chris Fogg, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce. Fogg said recently that competitors will have to provide their own bed on wheels and have teams of five people each — four to push the bed and one to ride.
“We’re really excited about it,” Fogg said. “It’s going to be a fun day.”
The event will begin as it usually does with participating downtown businesses opening at 6 a.m. and offering discounts to pajama-clad customers until 9 a.m.
At 10 a.m., there will be a parade for participating bed racers and their beds from the Village Green north on Main Street to Cottage Street, where the races will be held. The races will begin immediately after the parade.
The winners will earn more than just bragging rights and a trophy, according to Fogg.
“The winner gets a $500 gift certificate [to local businesses]. Second place gets a $200 gift certificate,” Fogg said recently. “It’s just another way to celebrate the season.”
Sharon Malm, the Chamber’s events coordinator, said Tuesday that six teams have registered so far, but the registration deadline for competitors has been extended through Thursday, Nov. 20. She said that even if only six teams compete, a good turnout of spectators is expected.
“We’re going to have fun with it no matter what,” Malm said.
Anyone who wants to enter a team to compete in the race can contact Malm at 288-5103. More information on the event can be found at www.barharbormaine.com/2008BedRace.htm.