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Wyndham Hotel Group, one of the largest hotel operators across the world, has introduced three new hotels in Ethiopia following the recent opening Ramada Addis. The brand operator seeks to expand its management services in the African market.
According to Daniel Ruff, president and managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), the construction of the four-star TRYP by Wyndham Addis Ababa off Bole Road is due to begin later this year, co-located with the five-star Wyndham Addis Ababa, also off Bole Road. According to Wyndham Group, construction works on the four-star Wyndham Garden Langano has also begun at its exquisite lakefront location 180km south of Addis.
Ruff was in town to ink agreements with Abel Sahlemariam, founder and chairman of Santa Maria Real Estate & Hotels PLC at Sheraton this week. Founded as a family business in 1993, Santa Maria has been operating in the construction sector.
Read more at: The Reporter


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A recently-discovered vulnerability in Skype's Android app could allow malicious apps access to your personal data. Here's what you need to know about this flaw and how to protect yourself.
As more LTE (Long Term Evolution) networks go live across the globe, operators have started planning to offer data roaming, and reusing existing spectrum is seen as one of the best chances of getting worldwide coverage, according to speakers at the L...
Apple today patched bugs in iOS and Safari used at last month's Pwn2Own hacking contest by three teams of researchers who collectively earned $45,000 for their work.
As Research In Motion launched its PlayBook on Thursday evening, Cisco Systems was already accepting orders for its Cius enterprise tablet and shipping it to some customers.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) wants to compel telecommunications service providers to purchase more equipment made locally in the country.
Sprint subscribers will now be able to pay for the applications they buy on Android Market via their monthly cellphone bill, Google <a href="http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/04/new-carrier-billing-options-on-android.html">said in a blog po...
Microsoft on Wednesday announced 1,500 new developer tools coming in May for the next version of the Windows Phone operating system, code-named Mango, that's due in the fall.
Three large broadband projects funded recently by the U.S. Rural Utilities Service (RUS) largely cover areas already served by broadband providers, according to a study released Wednesday by a trade group representing cable broadband providers.
Long-time partners Huawei Technologies and Motorola Solutions have agreed to settle trade secrets lawsuits against each other, the companies announced.
Libyan rebels in the East of the country have set up their own mobile phone network connecting them to the rest of the world, over a month after they were cut off from a centralized network that required all international calls to be routed through a...
Verizon Wireless and LiveCast Media today announced 4G Mobile Reporter for use with Verizon's LTE network to send live high-definition video wirelessly with a laptop and USB modem.
Research firm Gartner yesterday gave Microsoft a hard diss on the tablet front by not including Redmond in its recent tablet-OS four-year forecast.
Amazon.com announced a new Kindle with Special Offers for $US114, priced $US25 less than the bestselling $139 Kindle but still above the magic $100 pricetag that analysts say will make the e-reader affordable to most consumers.
HTC's latest smartphone, the Sensation, has a dual-core 1.2GHz processor from Qualcomm that holds the promise of faster graphics and is due to ship in Europe in the second quarter, the company said at an event in London on Tuesday.
Nokia launched an updated version of its Symbian^3 mobile operating system on Tuesday, along with two phones running the software, the X7 and the E6.
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First impression on unpacking the Q702 test unit was the solid feel and clean, minimalist styling.
For work use, Microsoft Word and Excel programs pre-installed on the device are adequate for preparing short documents.
The Fujitsu LifeBook UH574 allowed for great mobility without being obnoxiously heavy or clunky. Its twelve hours of battery life did not disappoint.
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Scientists develop new satiety ingredient12 Dec 2014
Scientists have developed an ingredient that can be added to foods to make them more filling. In its first tests in humans, researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Glasgow found that the ingredient is effective at preventing weight gain in overweight volunteers. The ingredient contains propionate, which stimulates the gut to release […]
Scientists have developed an ingredient that can be added to foods to make them more filling.
In its first tests in humans, researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Glasgow found that the ingredient is effective at preventing weight gain in overweight volunteers.
The ingredient contains propionate, which stimulates the gut to release hormones that act on the brain to reduce hunger. Propionate is produced naturally when dietary fibre is fermented by microbes in the gut, but the new ingredient, called inulin-propionate ester (IPE), provides much larger quantities of propionate than people can acquire with a normal diet.
First, 20 volunteers were given either IPE or inulin, a dietary fibre, and were allowed to eat as much as they liked from a buffet. Those given IPE ate 14 per cent less on average, and had higher concentrations of appetite-reducing hormones in their blood.
Next, 60 overweight volunteers took part in a 24-week study in which half were given IPE as a powder to add to their food and half given inulin. One out of 25 volunteers given IPE who completed the study gained more than three per cent of their body weight, compared with six out of 24 given inulin. None of the IPE group gained more than five per cent of their body weight, compared with four in the inulin group.
After 24 weeks, the IPE group also had less fat in their abdomens and livers compared with the inulin group. The findings are published today in the journal Gut.
Professor Gary Frost, who led the study at the Department of Medicine at Imperial College London, said: “We know that adults gain between 0.3 and 0.8 kilos a year on average, and there’s a real need for new strategies that can prevent this.”
“Molecules like propionate stimulate the release of gut hormones that control appetite, but you need to eat huge amounts of fibre to achieve a strong effect. We wanted to find a more efficient way to deliver propionate to the gut.”
“This small, proof-of-principle study shows encouraging signs that supplementing one’s diet with the ingredient we’ve developed prevents weight gain in overweight people. You need to eat it regularly to have an effect. We’re exploring what kinds of foods it could be added to, but something like bread or fruit smoothies might work well.”
Dr Douglas Morrison, from the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre at the University of Glasgow, said: “There is significant interest in how food components like dietary fibre interact with gut microbes to influence health, but much of the evidence we rely upon comes from laboratory and animal studies. It is often difficult to translate these findings directly into successful human interventions.”
“Packaging propionate up to more efficiently deliver it to the large intestine has allowed us to make direct observations in humans that propionate may play an important role in weight management. These exciting findings could at last open up new ways to manipulate gut microbes to improve health and prevent disease.”
Imperial Innovations, a technology commercialisation company focused on developing the most promising UK academic research, is working with Professor Frost and Dr Morrison on taking the ingredient to market. The team is exploring how to deploy the ingredient so it makes the biggest impact and has early commercial engagement with a number of food and ingredient manufacturers, and says it would welcome discussions with further interested companies.
The study was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council’s (BBSRC) Diet and Health Research Industry Club (DRINC), which aims to help the food industry develop products that deliver enhanced health benefits for consumers. The club operates by establishing partnership between research funders and a consortium of food companies to support academic research.
Dr Celia Caulcott, BBSRC Director, Innovation and Skills, said: “This is an excellent example of the exciting discoveries being made thanks to DRINC funding that can help to improve our health and benefit society. By working closely with industry to identify research priorities, we are investing in discoveries that have a much better chance of moving out of the lab and into our lives.”
Award-winning startup uses enzymes to cut sugar in fruit juice
31 Jan 2019
Fruit juice has come under fire for its high sugar content in recent years, but an Israeli startup called Better Juice has developed an enzyme technology that cuts sugars by up to 80% without adding or subtracting anything from the juice.Read more
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Lonza has reported what it describes as a positive start to 2018 with businesses along the healthcare continuum as growth drivers.Read more
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Engaging with the Instagram generation
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Colourful, exotic and unusual foods are on the rise as a growing number of consumers look for food experiences they can share on social media.Read more
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1 May 2018
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Given the state of today’s retail distribution marketplace, what challenges and opportunities do the upcoming years provide? Here are some insights and perspectives on the topic. Given the state of today’s retail distribution marketplace, what challenges and opportunities do the upcoming years provide? Here are some insights and perspectives on the topic.
Trusted Advisor Role Expanded
In the next few years, retailers who succeed will be taking their trusted advisor status to new, higher levels in a number of areas.
Technology. Retailers will need to expand their knowledge, to be the expert on new technologies coming that customers will need to know about. The biggest area here: Artificial intelligence and automation.
Going further, dealers need to generate conversations with growers on these cutting-edge topics that go beyond their focal point — which has always been “this year,” says Ron Farrell, President of Farrell Growth Group LLC.
Information and technology are hot topics now, says Amy Asmus, Co-Owner of Asmus Farm Supply, but the problem is retailers have been giving it away as advice with a sale. “With margins being squeezed ever so tight, retail needs to charge for these services,” she says.
The big question from growers that Asmus has always wrestled with is, “Should I get my advice from my retail partner or are they just going to use my information to sell me more?” She is wondering if dealers should split their services/recommendation divisions from their sales division — so they don’t have a direct connection.“
And if that should happen, why would we as retailers not just partner with existing service providers who are doing a great job without reinventing the wheel in-house,” she asks.
Data. Dealers already understand agronomics and the production cycles of their farmers. But in the future they will need to be specialists in data management. Growers are going to be looking at how to improve their return on investment — “and it will take a specialist to walk them through that,” says Farrell.
Precision ag is definitely growing into the future, says Daren Coppock, President/CEO of the Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA), with the key to the precision ag puzzle being who can be first to make sense of overlapping spacial data for yield, fertility, soil characteristics, weed pressure, topography, weather, etc. stretching over multiple years — and extract from it meaningful conclusions for planning forward.
“It’s a huge data mining task,” he says.
“Driving the precision growth will be a desire to make the most efficient use of inputs and to avoid the environmental consequences of having those inputs go somewhere else,” he adds.
Return-on-Investment (ROI). Retailers will need to get farmers away from focusing on bushels per acre to return on dollars invested. To have conversations like, “Yield at 250 bushels per acre would be really good, but maybe you would have made a lot more money at 220.”
Today, there are billions of dollars being invested in this area called ag tech with the majority of those being focused on remotely generated algorithms or prescriptions, describes Farrell. They may only give growers 95% of their potential ROI, but they’re easy to use. Retailers can beat that remotely applied algorithm 10 out of 10 times. “There’s no such thing as remote agronomy. It is all local,” he emphasizes.
“If you are an advisor and you’re not staying very specifically oriented to that farm customer, focused on getting that last 5% on the basis of return on investment, the farmer’s not going to be successful,” he adds.
New tools such as phone apps are available to help growers and advisors begin to calculate the cost of production for each segment analyzed in a field. Then they can discuss what could have been done differently — say, to have done a variable rate fertilizer or seed treatment — that could have gained an additional 3% return.
Partnerships Go to New Places
In the future, retailers will need to make trusted relationships into true partnerships.
With Growers. For instance, says Farrell, “If a farmer needs more grain storage and you’ve got too much, why wouldn’t you do a partnership with him. If he owns a sprayer, why wouldn’t you lease that sprayer from him, to use it on your acres, rather than spend the same amount of money the farmer spent — and he’s only going to use it 20% of the time.”
ARA’s Coppock just returned from a trip to Brazil where he met with that country’s equivalent of the association. He says there, too, dealers are talking about the changing nature of their relationships with growers — from traditional attitudes of “closing the deal” to being consultative and strategic partners. Brazil is seeing many of the same trends the U.S. is, he found.
With Manufacturers. Retailers will need more from manufacturers than marketing programs. They’ll need extensive training and support, especially for CEOs of huge dealerships and co-ops as well as their second- and third-tier managers, believes Farrell.
Consolidation has happened so fast that these managers are often thinking mostly as sales people and agronomists rather than thinking forward on what the business is going to look like — or what their customers are going to look like — in the next five to 10 years, he adds.
Asmus agrees it’s important to nurture retailer/manufacturer relationships so that both are truly partners.
“It’s no secret that I don’t like it when major manufacturers put their people on the ground calling directly to large growers,” she says. “A grower recommendation rarely resides within one company’s portfolio. What growers need to succeed is a sales agronomist as stated above, not a company representative that shows up with a limited toolbox and tries to fit a customer’s needs into that box.
“Manufacturers should provide retail agronomists with the proper tool and let us place the right ones on the right acres.”
A word of caution: Farrell affirms many manufacturers are working very hard to develop a relationship with the trusted advisor and the retailer. But at the same exact time they’re spending hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars developing their own backup channel directly to the farmer.
“I understand that, because if the retailer doesn’t fulfill the obligations that are currently his, then these manufacturers have got to be ready to compete with people like Farmers Business Network and other people who are going directly to the farmers. The trusted advisor role is the ag retailer’s position to lose,” he says.
Dealerships currently invest approximately 40% of their gross profit into personnel. That investment will need to increase fairly significantly if ag retailers are going to be able to hire and maintain the quality trusted advisor necessary in the next five to 10 years. “The trusted advisor of the future will need to be ‘extreme specialists’ who are able to work with and interpret multiple layers of data to be able to tell us things that we didn’t even imagine before,” explains Farrell. Unfortunately, such experts/specialists are in short supply and retailers will have to find them, then pay them to keep them. All with the goal of improving customers’ ROI.
“In my mind, being a CCA will be more important than ever,” adds Asmus. As new technologies are introduced, staff will have to be capable of making the right recommendations. It’s no longer a glyphosate market, and more retail salespeople will have to be retail agronomists, she says.
Equipment, Facility Investments Reexamined
Retailers will be re-thinking big expenditures on assets. For instance, Farrell wonders if the days of spending $300,000 to $350,000 on an applicator will soon be over. “Technology is going to change so quickly, it’s hard to comprehend,” he says and compares the situation to the continuing rapid developments in cell phones.
He sees equipment from firms such as Blue River Technology as becoming commonplace. The applicators have the ability to and spray individual weeds while still going through the field at 6 mph. “That’s not going to happen tomorrow, but it is going to happen in the next five to seven years,” he predicts.
Retailers will have to consider dedicated spray equipment, says Asmus. “With the new technologies and more prescriptive application parameters on the labels, cross contamination and misapplication will become more of an issue,” she says.
As for facilities, a lot of updates and construction have already happened over just the last few years, says Asmus. She doesn’t expect this to continue in the short term because farm incomes are lower.
That said, companies involved in buyouts and consolidations are looking at facilities and deciding locations to close or keep. “I believe as locations close, owning companies will reinvest in the facilities they keep,” she says.


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Chinese Manufacturing Activity Falls Back into Contraction in November
China’s factory activity slid back into contraction in November, with subdued demand, as well as rising unemployment and prices, weighing on manufacturers.
The Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI), released earlier in the day, was at 49.9, just below the 50-mark indicating growth. It also was lower than the 50.6 figure reported in October, as well as the 50.5 predicted in forecasts prepared by Investing.com.
The findings from Caixin’s survey, which focuses more on small firms in coastal regions, contrasted with Tuesday’s data from the National Bureau of Statistics. The data showed the manufacturing PMI was at 50.1, while the non-manufacturing PMI was at 52.3.
“Supply in the manufacturing sector recovered, while demand weakened. Relaxing constraints on the supply side, especially the easing of the power crunch, quickened the pace of production recovery,” Caixin Insight Group senior economist Zhe Wang said in a statement accompanying the data release.
“But demand was relatively weak, suppressed by the COVID-19 epidemic and rising product prices.”
Although China initially staged an impressive economic recovery from COVID-19, a slowing manufacturing sector, debt woes in the property market, and COVID-19 outbreaks have all contributed to a slowdown.
Investors predict that a slowdown in gross domestic product recorded for the third quarter of 2021 to continue in the year’s last quarter.
The Caixin survey also showed that production expanded in November for the first time in four months, while new orders fell back into contraction.
Caixin’s Wang urged policymakers to focus on supporting small companies and pay attention to problems including deepening unemployment, limited household income growth, and weak purchasing power.
“In addition, the prices of some raw materials remained high. Enterprises are still facing high-cost pressures. Policymakers should treat inflation seriously,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Caixin services PMI is due later in the week.


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Samsung is launching a number of fitness brands on its Smart TVs. These fitness apps from Calm, barre3, Echelon, Fitplan, Jillian Michaels Fitness and obè are available on select 2018 and 2019 Samsung TV models, so you don’t need a 2020 model.
So let’s break it down, wellness app by wellness app.
Calm is available on all 2019 Smart TV models, and Samsung users will receive all Calm content for free. That means you will have access to meditation and mindfulness-centric content, and with all the stress around the world right now, this is a great way to take a breather and give some time to yourself. The 2020 Smart TVs will also receive free access to Calm this summer.
If you’re looking for a workout that combines cardio, conditioning and wellness, barre3 might be worth a look. You’ll receive 50 pieces of content for free on all 2018 and 2019 Smart TV models.
Echelon will bring its FitPass app to all 2018 and 2019 Smart TVs. You’ll score 20 free trial classes as well. FitPass integrates with Echelon’s connected equipment, but also lets you take classes around strength training, yoga, pilates, Zumba and many others. It’s well rounded to say the least.
Fitplan, which will launch on all 2019 smart models, brings fitness trainers right to your TV. You can pick from a wide variety of courses, and six free plans. This is equivalent to 50 classes from five trainers.
With celebrity trainer Jillian Michaels’ fitness app, you’ll have access to the exclusive Samsung Smart TV 28-day workout plan, which makes use of recorded workouts detailing exercises, along with interactive daily workouts.
Obè workouts present you with a large library of more than 4,000 workouts. It’s a lot for just one app, and while you have plenty of choices on-demand, there are also 14 live classes every day. Samsung users will get 20 classes for free that will be refreshed every two weeks, so you won’t get tired of doing the same workout. The obè workouts app is available on all 2018 and 2019 Smart TVs.
Samsung is on track to launch Samsung Health for 2020 Smart TVs in the coming weeks, but for now, we have an a la carte selection of fitness apps that are launching at the perfect time.
Note: The prices above reflect the retailer’s listed prices at the time of publication.


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An update to the prerelease version of the software causes crashes in certain situations as Microsoft works hard to meet its July 29 launch deadline.
Those in the Insider program have been getting preview builds of Windows 10 for free for testing. With Windows 10 about to hit the market, Microsoft wants to clarify things.
Microsoft delivers its second update in two months to the tech preview of Windows 10. Here's what's in it.
Microsoft is taking signups for its real-time video translation service, which will be available in limited preview form before the end of the year.
At Corning's Gorilla Glass testing labs, the glassmaker that fronts Apple's iPhone tried to show that rival sapphire crystal isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Windows Phone users who signed up for the BBM beta tester program can now download and install the app.
The search giant has been trying to take a more measured approach with costs, especially as its cash cow search engine faces more competition.
Ready to try out Medium's new Android app? You'll have to sign up for beta access first.
As the Australian Government releases a broadband speed tester allowing users to check download speeds, one expert doubts how effective such tools can be.
When teens get a chance to pilot Parrot drones for the first time, they take the ultimate selfies. But does the future of this tech excite or unnerve them?


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Microfinance services giant Cebuana Lhuillier has expanded its Cebuana-from-Home online platform to include pawning services as it seeks to provide greater safety and security for its customers who are adapting to the new normal where social distancing and community quarantine restrictions apply with the continuing spread of the corona virus disease.
“The addition of pawning to the services offered at our Cebuana-from-Home platform is a testament to our commitment to bring our clients the best possible service even if we are in the middle of a pandemic,” said Jean Henri Lhuillier, president and CEO of Cebuana Lhuillier.
Cebuana Lhuillier is one of the country’s most accessible pawnshop chains and remittance centers in the country with over 2,500 branches nationwide.
With pawning services now part of the Cebuana-from-Home platform, Cebuana Lhuillier customers are now allowed to pawn jewelry items without going to the branch and just go online. Then, a dedicated appraiser will come to their location and appraise the item, negotiate the value, and release the loan.
To avail of this new online service, clients only need to accomplish the application form on the website and their application will then be handled by a member of Cebuana Lhuillier’s TeleSales team who assigns it to the nearest rider for the fulfillment of the transaction.
The application form can be accessed on the website by logging on to bit.ly/CebuanaFromHome.
Lhuillier assures that the Cebuana-from-Home platform carries the same brand of quality service and highest appraisal that Cebuana Lhuillier usually provides in its branches.
The Cebuana-from-Home platform was first launched at the onset of the community quarantine period. Through the website, Cebuana Lhuillier enables clients to send domestic remittance, pay bills to a number of billers nationwide, and purchase Cebuana Lhuillier insurance products such as personal accident insurance and medical expenses insurance.
Karina is not your ordinary supermom. She juggles her time bonding with her three amazing kids while being in the loop on the latest happenings in the tech and lifestyle scene. Follow me on Instagram (@digitalfilipina) regularly visit www.digitalfilipina.com for daily dose of updates not just for moms but for everyone!


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Update: A bunch extra retailers are actually becoming a member of the PS5 enjoyable. It appears a lot of US-based media are receiving their PS5 consoles, with lots of them sharing photographs of the field on social channels. Places like Polygon, GamesRadar, Washington Post, and extra have teased followers on Twitter:
Original Story: Hold onto your butts: Sony is seemingly sending out PlayStation 5 to pick media.
We’ve seen some of us posting pics of themselves with a DualSense PS5 controller — footballer Robert Lewandowski posed with the pad on Instagram — however it now appears to be like just like the Japanese big is starting to get the console out to extra related locations and folks. Case in level: Austin Evans, a YouTuber specialising in movies on tech, posted this yesterday:
More just lately, Jeff Bakalar of CNET shared a GIF of the PS5 inside its retail field, the primary time we have seen the bodily packaging “in the flesh”.
It appears it is solely a matter of time earlier than sure retailers can be sharing their ideas on the PS5. It’s about time, too — the console launches in only a few weeks. Are you excited to begin seeing some protection on PS5 from the gaming media? Prepare yourselves within the feedback under.


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As a Durham marketing agency celebrates its first anniversary, the two young men behind it say they want to inspire others like them to succeed.
Digital Owl launched in fall 2020 just after co-founders Tyson Van Dusen and Cyprian McKenley graduated from Durham College’s Marketing Program.
They are both 21 now and say their first year in business – in the midst of a pandemic – has been both difficult and rewarding.
“We have learned a lot more as business owners than we would at an entry level job. We do everything, wearing all hats, ”says Van Dusen. “We are two young black business leaders and we want to inspire others like us. “
Digital Hibou offers marketing, public relations, web development, and e-commerce services.
“We understand the social media game and we understand e-commerce. It’s a gap we’ve found with other digital marketing agencies, ”McKenley explains.
Owl means ‘owl’ in French – a nod to the fact that owls keep a watchful eye on their surroundings the same way Van Dusen and McKenley monitor customer websites and social media.
In their first year in business, the couple say they were “blessed” to provide services to clients such as Shale Ridge Estate Winery, Phoenix Management and Forget-Me-Not Jewels.
Digital Hibou’s future plans include opening a brick and mortar office in Durham, increasing the agency’s presence in the community, and expanding services.
“We may not be the most experienced marketing agency, but we are an agency eager to capture opportunities. It’s one of the things customers see with us, ”says McKenley. “We have a lot of knowledge and a lot of energy.”
Are you opening a new business in Durham? Tell us about it! We also want to hear about business birthdays, store closings, amazing local manufacturers, and small business owners. Send your ideas to journalist Jillian Follert at [email protected]


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India, the world's largest gold consumer, is about to see a 63% decline in its gold imports in the calendar year 2009.
Anjani Sinha, president of the IBMA reported that gold imports may fall by 63 percent to 250 tonnes as demand has been heavily reduced due to persisting high prices and also because of rupee depreciation.
Gold market of India is expecting to see an increase in sales in the coming festive months as customer demand will prevail over the fears of economic slowdown.
Mr. Bhaskar Bhat, Managing Director, Titan Industries Limited, said that current Indian gold market stood at Rs 80,000 crore, and it is expected to rise to Rs 125,000 crore by the year 2014.
He made this announcement after the inauguration of Tanishq’s first large format retail store in Chennai.
Due to rising prices and slowing economy dented demand, India’s gold import has witnessed 47 percent decline in 2008 to 402 tons.
According to Bombay Bullion Association, imports in December fell 81 percent to 3 tons from 16 tons in the same month a year before.
The sources said that in fiscal 2007, India, the world’s major buyer of the metal, had imported 759 tons of gold.


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CHICAGO, June 26, 2017 — Strategy execution firm Gagen MacDonald today announced the appointment of Chicago business executive Brad Messinger as Chief Marketing Officer, reporting directly to the firm’s president, Sherry Scott.
“We are at an incredibly exciting time in our growth journey, serving a record number of clients with their most critical opportunities and challenges such as business and culture transformation, M&A integration, and employee engagement and experience,” said Scott. “We’re very pleased to have Brad in this role and believe he will be a strong asset in supporting the vision, brand, and culture of Gagen MacDonald.”
Founded in 1998, Gagen MacDonald is a woman-owned, strategy execution firm focused on employee engagement, culture change and leadership for many of the world’s largest brands. Throughout its 19-year history, the company has undergone several quantum leaps to remain pioneers in accelerating organizational change. “As we continue to evolve our capabilities to meet the ever-more complicated challenges of the entire C-Suite, it’s paramount we have the talent in place to get us there,” said Founder and CEO, Maril MacDonald. “We conducted an extensive search to find a creative and collaborative marketing leader who will guide the brand through our next big strategic leap and I’m thrilled to welcome Brad to our family.”
He succeeds Meg Wheaton, who’s been promoted to lead a client services team dedicated to bringing clients cutting-edge thinking and creative communication solutions.
Messinger, former Senior Vice President of Marketing and Client Service at digital marketing agency Rise Interactive, brings a wealth of brand building, business development, and management experience with him. Prior to Rise, he was Director of Marketing at Sun-Times Media, overseeing all marketing activity for 41 brands in their media portfolio. Earlier in his career, he also worked for Alliance Creative Group and VWR International.
Brad holds an undergraduate degree from Eastern Illinois University and his MBA from Roosevelt University. He’s served on the Board of Directors for the Chicago Chapter of the American Marketing Association and the Marketing Leadership Council at Forrester Research. In 2016, Messinger’s commitment to the craft landed him one of the industry’s highest individual honors as a ‘4 Under 40 Emerging Leaders’ award recipient from the American Marketing Association International.
“It was important for me to find an organization that shares the same passion for people and culture as I do. The corporate character of Gagen MacDonald is one that not only values pioneering work, but also the integrity and humility in which it’s done,” said Messinger.
“With strong leadership and an award-winning team, it’s no wonder Gagen MacDonald is widely considered the go-to strategy execution firm by many of the world’s most admired brands,” said Messinger. “I’m honored to join such an inspiring group of professionals who are helping to transform the companies that can transform the world.”
About Gagen MacDonald
Gagen MacDonald is a strategy execution firm specializing in employee engagement, culture change and leadership. Working collaboratively from the corporate office to the front line, Gagen uses an organization’s brand, culture, vision and history to motivate and align employees to transform companies, accomplish business objectives and drive reputation from the inside-out. As a pioneer in organizational change, Gagen has helped some of the world’s biggest brands including Coca-Cola, DuPont, GE, Johnson & Johnson, Phillips 66 and Walgreens Boots Alliance. To learn more, please visit http://www.gagenmacdonald.com.
To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gagen-macdonald-names-brad-messinger-as-chief-marketing-officer-300479362.html
SOURCE Gagen MacDonald


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Impact of IC Shortage Extends Beyond Automotive
May 21, 2021
While much of the attention regarding semiconductor shortages has focused on the automotive sector, other industrial and digital sectors are being hit equally hard by IC supply chain disruptions.
According to a survey of manufacturers commissioned by software vendor Qt Group and conducted by Forrester Consulting, the industrial machinery and electrical equipment segments are hardest hit by the chip shortage. Not far behind are the IT hardware and computer sectors, having registered this highest percentage of product development slowdowns.
The poll of 262 embedded device and connected product developers carried out in March found that 60 percent of industrial machinery and electrical equipment manufacturers are now heavily focused on securing IC supply chains. Meanwhile, 55 percent of server and computer makers said they are struggling to maintain chip supplies.
Semiconductor shortages have forced automakers to shut down production lines in recent weeks. Still, the automative sector ranked in the middle of the Forrester survey with respect to IC supply chain focus.
Overall, the survey found that nearly two-thirds of manufacturers have experienced setbacks in delivering new digital products due to silicon supply disruptions. That has translated into delays in production rollouts of more than seven months, the survey found.
“Organizations are [now] more focused on ensuring adequate supply” of semiconductors,” Forrester reported. “Consequently, half our survey respondents indicate that ensuring an adequate supply of semiconductors and key hardware components has become more important this year.”
Among hard-hit server and computer manufacturers, 71 percent said IC scarcity is slowing product development. That’s occurring as demand for data center services like cloud computing and storage are booming along with streaming video applications for remote workers.
Among the recommendations for weathering the current semiconductor shortage are blunting the impact via what Forrester dubs “cross-platform frameworks.” That refers to stopgap measures like flexible software tools that support a wider variety of silicon, thereby “reducing the impact of critical supply chain shortages,” Forrester concludes.
In response to disruptions in the semiconductor pipeline, the market researcher also found that eight of ten executives surveyed report they are investing in “cross-device tools and frameworks that support multiple classes of hardware.”
Along with getting new products out the door faster, that approach is promoted as increasing supply chain flexibility while reducing the workload for harried software developers often juggling multiple product designs.
Indeed, new product development is also plagued by a shortage of developers with the skills required to leverage multipurpose software tools. Three-quarters of survey respondents said demand for connected devices is outstripping the supply of qualified developers.
Hence, software vendors like Qt promote tools like cross-platform software libraries as a way for product developers to cope with a chip shortage expected to extend through the second half of 2021.
“We’re at a crunch point in global technology manufacture and development,” asserts Marko Kaasila, senior vice president of product management at Qt, which is based in Helsinki, Finland.


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McAfee, the company well-known for its PC-focused security software, has launched a new consumer-based anti-theft app for iOS today. WaveSecure, as it's called, will enable users to remotely access their data in case their iPhone or iPad is lost or stolen. Users will also be able to back up their contacts, photos and videos and remotely track the location of where their device is heading via the app's own online portal, and wirelessly restore their contacts.
As Apple users, we enjoy a lot of perks. Our equipment, when called upon, just works. Our software is often a joy to work with, and when we party, our devices allow us to party hard. Traditionally, Macs computers and iOS mobile devices have been far more secure than those of Windows and Android users. Sadly, if the security experts at McAfee are correct, the days of our being able to chortle in the face of viruses and malware may soon be coming to an end.


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FP TrendingOct 23, 2020 14:54:54 IST
Fortnite PC size has now shrunk to under 30 GB in size from 90 GB due to a recent development from Epic Games. Epic Games took to Twitter on 21 October to share about a development stating the release of version 14.40. The Twitter handle of Fortnite Status posted, "Please note the patch size will be larger than normal on PC (approx. 27 GB). This is to make optimizations on PC resulting in a massively reduced Fortnite file size (over 60 GB smaller), smaller downloads for future patches, and improved loading performance."
Please note the patch size will be larger than normal on PC (approx. 27 GB). This is to make optimizations on PC resulting in a massively reduced Fortnite file size (over 60 GB smaller), smaller downloads for future patches, and improved loading performance.
— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) October 20, 2020
As per the tweet, the version 14.40 is larger than previous updates as according to the developers, optimisations made to the game will significantly reduce the total file size on PC.
According to a report by Essentially Sports, Fortnite started off with a size of around 18 GB on PC. Regular additions to the content resulted in the game growing into 90GB. The latest update aims at reducing it by 60 GB and will also see that future updates do not require so much space.
According to the Fortnite patch notes, update 14.40 is for Halloween and is called the Midas' Revenge Fortnitemares.
The official description for the season states that Shadow Midas and his reawakened Henchmen have reclaimed T Agency and during Fortnitemares, players will have to follow in their footsteps and haunt their adversaries. After getting eliminated, players can return to battle as Shadow to take a shot at the Nitemare Royale.
Players can pick up various artefacts from the island including Pumpkin Rocket Launchers, and even ride Witch Brooms. Over the course of the new season, players will be able to compete in new challenges to unlock a host of new rewards.
Find latest and upcoming tech gadgets online on Tech2 Gadgets. Get technology news, gadgets reviews & ratings. Popular gadgets including laptop, tablet and mobile specifications, features, prices, comparison.


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Suit against artificial-turf firms is settled
The nation’s largest artificial turf supplier and manufacturer have agreed to eliminate nearly all lead from their products as part of an agreement to settle charges that they violated California’s Proposition 65 law by not including warning labels, state officials said Friday.
Beaulieu Group and FieldTurf USA Inc., both based in Georgia, had been charged with the violation in 2008 by the California attorney general, Los Angeles city attorney and the Solano County district attorney. Their products are used at public facilities, such as schools.
As part of the settlement, Beaulieu — a supplier of the turf — additionally agreed to pay for testing the lead content in its products purchased after October 2004 and installed at schools, day-care facilities and public playgrounds in the state, said California Deputy Atty. Gen. Dennis Ragen. The company is required to replace any turf that tests high in lead.
Manufacturer FieldTurf agreed to pay for testing of its products installed before November 2003 at the same kind of public facilities. It will offer discounts to replace turf found to have high lead content.
Neither company agreed to test or replace products bought by consumers.
Also in the settlement: Beaulieu will pay $285,000 and FieldTurf will pay $212,500 in civil penalties, Ragen said.
Representatives at Beaulieu and FieldTurf could not be reached for comment. The companies did not admit to any wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
The action brings to a close a suit filed by the state and local government agencies under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986. The law requires warning labels on products that contain chemicals known to cause cancer or birth defects.
The suit was filed after Oakland’s Center for Environmental Health told the state attorney general’s office that it was considering to sue based on testing that found high amounts of lead in the companies’ products.
In its own tests, the state found that turf samples contained more than 5,000 parts per million of lead, more than 10 times the state and federal guidelines for children’s products, Ragen said.
Beaulieu and FieldTurf have agreed to change their products to contain less than 50 parts per million, Ragen said.
A third company named in the suit, AstroTurf, settled charges last year.
The lead was added to the synthetic grass to keep its color bright, Ragen said.


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Baton Rouge’s recovery middle of the pack among peer metros
Baton Rouge, La. (July 28, 2020) – The Baton Rouge Area Chamber (BRAC) today released its COVID-19 economic indicator dashboard that examines and assesses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the regional economy. The dashboard is available online at brac.org/recovery.
This week’s dashboard includes two new analyses of broader trends and comparative analysis. For the first time, the dashboard looks at current job loss against the Great Recession and 2016 flood, finding that the pandemic has claimed nearly twice the number of jobs as did the Great Recession in its height. Baton Rouge’s economic recovery is also compared to peer southern cities on the indicators of consumer spending, small business revenue, and number of small businesses open, finding Baton Rouge’s urban core in the middle of the pack and significantly less varied than other urban centers.
“While jobs and employment are still major issues in the Baton Rouge metro area, consumer spending, small business revenue, and other local metrics show positive trends thanks in large part to federal stimulus payments and enhanced unemployment benefits,” said Andrew Fitzgerald, senior director of business intelligence for BRAC. “As Congress mulls the size of the reduction of these benefits, it’s crucial that we focus on finding employment for those currently without a job. There is room for improvement to meet pre-pandemic levels for nearly all metrics, but compared to peer cities, the Capital Region is no longer significantly lagging in its recovery.”
Key takeaways from this week’s dashboard include:
- Although there have been consecutive months of job growth, the Capital Region is still down over 10% since the start of the pandemic;
- Retail fuel sales and hotel occupancy have shown strong rebounds compared to their 2019 levels over the last month;
- Total weekly unemployment claims have stagnated at a significantly high level, as a number of businesses remain closed;
- Consumer spending has rebounded from late-March lows, but small business revenue is still down in some large parishes;
- Compared to peer cities, Baton Rouge’s economic recovery is in the middle of the pack for most major metrics.
The dashboard looks at a number of data points to illustrate the economy’s current state. With data from a number of regional stakeholders, the dashboard is the most real-time analysis of the Baton Rouge metro economy available.
BRAC President and CEO Adam Knapp presented the dashboard this morning as part of The Advocate’s Mid-Year Economic Outlook. The recorded event may be viewed on The Advocate’s facebook page.
To download this week’s indicator dashboard directly, click here.
BRAC is regularly updating brac.org/recovery with business resources and guidance related to COVID-19.
About the Baton Rouge Area Chamber
The Baton Rouge Area Chamber (BRAC) leads economic development in the nine-parish Baton Rouge Area, working to grow jobs and wealth and to improve the business climate and competitiveness in the region. Today, BRAC investors include more than 1,400 small businesses, mid-sized firms, large industry and entrepreneurial startups, as well as individuals and organizations that support business and economic development. In this capacity, BRAC serves as the voice of the business community, providing knowledge, access, services and advocacy. More information is available at brac.org.


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Feb. 3, 2020 By Kristen Torres
State Sen. Mike Gianaris has introduced a bill that would ban retail pet stores from selling dogs, cats and rabbits.
The bill, which passed the Domestic Animal Welfare Committee on Monday, aims to put an end to puppy mills, which Gianaris says are inhumane and cruel. Instead, he wants to encourage pet store owners to partner with animal shelters to find homes for rescue pets.
“With so many good animals in need of rescue, there is no need for puppy mills that abuse animals to supply pet stores,” Gianaris said in a statement. “Our four-legged companions should be treated with respect, not like commodities.”
Most animals sold at pet stores come from commercial breeding facilities, which have frequently come under fire for substandard conditions. Gianaris says that many of the animals are from out-of-state puppy mills, where the regulations are very loose. He says that many animals are mistreated and sick.
Gianaris said the animals supplied to stores from these mills often suffer from congenital issues resulting from poor breeding practices.
“Many times these animals have health problems that are not known to the person who purchases the animal,” Gianaris said. “They have to spend thousands and thousands of dollars in health care costs that they had no idea was going to be the case.”
The bill is being championed in the state Assembly by Linda B. Rosenthal, of Manhattan, who says the purpose of the bill is to cut the puppy mill pipeline.
But the bill does have its critics.
The Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council, which represents pet store owners, says the bill is misguided, arguing that responsible pet store owners will suffer and that many purchasers seeking a specific type of breed will go directly to the bad breeders anyway.
“In reality, the bad breeders this legislation targets will go untouched while responsible pet store owners pay the price and will be forced to close their doors and lay off hardworking New Yorkers,” the group said in a statement. “Families who are seeking a specific breed of dog will be driven to unlicensed sources, and could fall victim to unscrupulous sellers.”
The bill sponsors, however, said they hope New Yorkers seeking pets would instead adopt them from animal shelters. The legislation would still allow people to buy dogs or cats directly from breeders.
Animal rights groups have voiced their support for the bill, and said that the legislation is the right course of action to stop cruel practices among breeders.
“Shutting down the puppy mill pipeline will make it much harder for unscrupulous breeders to profit from their unconscionable brutality,” said ASPCA President Matt Bershadker.
New York has one of the highest concentration of pet stores in the country, according to the Humane Society of the United States. If passed, New York will join Maryland, California and more than 290 localities across the nation that have laws banning the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits in pet stores.
The law would affect roughly 80 pet stores that are registered to sell domestic animals in the state.
There are 14 registered pet stores in Queens, including in neighborhoods such as Astoria, Corona, Sunnyside, Flushing, Forest Hills, College Point and Bayside.


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Some may have been surprised to see interest from overseas media in the Government’s decision to introduce a national programme providing free menstrual products to school pupils.
The issue of what has become known as ‘‘period poverty’’, where women or girls cannot afford to buy menstrual products and so avoid participating in their usual activities, is unlikely to be a new problem but increasingly it is getting attention here and elsewhere.
Scotland has been a step ahead of other countries, announcing a programme offering free menstrual products to those attending schools, colleges, and universities in 2018. Then, in November last year, it announced it would extend the free products to all those who needed them.
In New Zealand, pressure has been mounting in recent years for the Government to address this issue, after a series of surveys and university research indicated the extent of the problem.
A major concern was the estimated one in 12 pupils who reported missing school when they were menstruating because of lack of access to period products.
When they could not afford menstrual products, young women resorted to using toilet paper, old rags, cloths and nappies.
Unsurprisingly, those most affected were those more likely to be living in poverty, with Maori and Pasifika pupils over-represented.
The Government has taken a sensible and thoughtful approach to this, trialling a programme in the Waikato at 15 schools and kura last year, which reached 3200 pupils. It worked closely with a variety of groups, including charities who had been addressing this need, and young people themselves, to get to grips with what would work best.
The feedback from the trial has been described as overwhelmingly positive and schools have also seen a shift in culture reducing the stigma around menstruation, something which is surely long overdue. The pilot programme also showed there was a need for better information about menstruation and period products and the practicality of managing menstruation.
It is expected extending the programme across all primary, intermediate schools and secondary schools on an opt-in basis will cost about $25million over three years.
Schools which opt in by the end of this month will receive products from the end of the second term this year. If schools choose to opt in later than this, they will be included in later stages of the roll-out.
The scheme will offer a choice of pads or tampons initially and the Ministry of Education says as the initiative develops it will explore supporting the use of sustainable products such as reusable menstrual cups and period underwear, alongside educating students about these.
It was considered that while these products could be more environmentally friendly, they were not always suitable for the age range and cultural diversity of young people in schools.
We hope this sustainability issue is not lost sight of. The use and availability of reusable products may help alleviate future period poverty as young women leave school and head to future study or work.
Period poverty, of course, will not be limited to school-aged women. Not-for-profit organisation Dignity NZ has been providing a variety of free menstrual products to organisations around the country including Dunedin Public Libraries which offers packs for women in need of urgent supplies.
At this stage there has been no indication the Government intends to go as far as Scotland making products available free across the board.
It could be argued that if all incomes were adequate, none of these measures would be needed.
In the absence of that adequacy, however, the schools’ programme should at least reduce period truancy which must be worthwhile.


text: Number of the day 16% That's how much Intersil's stock has jumped since its main competitor, National Semiconductor, announced a deal to be acquired by Texas Instruments. National Semi fetched a 75 percent premium over its share price, and now Intersil investors are speculating that they too might benefit from a lucrative takeover bid. Intersil, a Milpitas company that makes chips for regulating power in computers and phones, could be more of a bargain. Even after its stock run-up, it trades at a lower multiple to its revenue than most chipmakers. Hear here "Cisco has realized that's a crappy business." Sean Conner, an analyst at Nuveen Asset Management, on the growing sentiment that Cisco should dump its consumer division. The computer-networking giant has used acquisitions to expand into products such as Flip video cameras and Linksys home Wi-Fi gear. But those kinds of devices don't provide synergy with the rest of the company, Conner says. CEO John Chambers vowed this week to make changes at Cisco, saying it has lost focus and credibility. Heads up Are rising oil prices proving to be a boon for Chevron? The company will give a sense of that Monday afternoon, when it delivers its interim update on the first quarter. The report includes data on oil and gas production, product pricing and refinery output, as well as an earnings forecast. San Ramon's Chevron will issue its full results April 29.


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Even as Dunzo said it is business as usual in the majority of its stores, the Reliance-backed quick delivery service was not available in parts of Bengaluru on Friday following a strike by delivery partners.
For the past two days, hundreds of delivery workers in Bengaluru and other parts of the city have protested against changes in the company’s payment and time structure.
“Earlier, there was no time limit on our work hours. We could make our target earnings in the time span that worked for us and even take breaks or attend to personal matters in between. However, Dunzo has now said we have to earn our target in 10 hours and it is impossible to earn the same amount that we made earlier,” one of the protesting delivery workers told BusinessLine on condition of anonymity.
Supporting the sentiment, a second delivery worker said, “We don’t want duty timing. They are telling us to work for 10 hours and go home. We don’t want salary work.”
Further, a third delivery executive noted that the company did not pay them a fair commission during the rains in the city. ”Even though the company is charging extra rain and distance charges, the commission paid to us is much less. Petrol rates have also skyrocketed and so Dunzo should increase the per kilometre earning of the partners,” he added.
Dunzo did not respond to queries from BusinessLine till the time of going to press.
Delivery partner strikes have impacted Dunzo’s operation for the past few days across Indiranagar, Frazer Town, and Mahadevapura, among others. The strikes come on the heels of the heavy rains, which has impacted the operations of various delivery companies.
Swiggy Instamart head, Karthik Gurumurthy, said in a Twitter post earlier this week that certain areas like Sarjapur, Marathahalli, and Bellandur have been badly impacted by the rains and the company is working with its sellers to serve as many orders as possible. “Count on us...Your orders may be delayed, but we will deliver,” he added.


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“The entertainment-software industry has become a recognized part of our cultural landscape, as nearly two-thirds of our nation’s households include someone who plays computer or video games,” wrote Gov. Rick Perry (R) of Texas in his message declaring Feb. 3 “Entertainment Software Day.” In 2007, Texas directed $20 million to film, television, and video-game incentives. Governor Perry wants to triple the program in the next budget.
A big driver behind this push to get chummy with the industry: money. As traditional manufacturing jobs erode, some point to the young medium as a flourishing high-tech industry.
In 2006, the growth rate of Texas’ video-game industry was nearly quadruple that of the state, according to the Entertainment Software Association, an industry group in Washington.
The industry’s growth rate has slowed somewhat with the rest of the economy. But sales continue to grow. Last holiday season was the biggest in video-game history. Sales hit $5 billion in December, nearly equalling what the industry earned in all of 1997, according to the retail research firm NPD.
“Entertainment is usually recession-proof,” says Morgan Webb, cohost of X-Play, a TV show that covers video games on the G4 cable channel. During the Great Depression, people flocked to the movies. During this recession, it seems people are flocking to their Nintendo Wiis.
Beyond sheer economics, Ms. Webb says that video games are getting noticed because of a generational shift in politics.


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Joblessness in Singapore is at its highest level since 2010, with total unemployment hitting 2.2% in the 4th quarter as opposed to 2.1% last quarter.
This level of unemployment was last seen in the 4th quarter of 2010, when Singapore was recovering from the effects of the global financial crisis.
Although the unemployment rate is not as bad as previous economic recessions in the past, the economy’s outlook looks dim.
“Consumption growth will slow further, which will impact things like retail sales, discretionary spending,” said Credit Suisse economist Michael Wan.
In 2016, total employment increased by 16,400 or just 0.4%. This is the weakest growth since 2003 when another economic crisis had struck and total employment shrunk by 0.6%.
Economists predict Singapore’s economy will slow further this year.


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Slovenian masters on auction in Trieste
Trieste, 25 November - Paintings by some of Slovenia's most prominent artists such as Zoran Mušič and Ivan Grohar will be available at an auction in Trieste, Italy, on 4 December, according to a report in Wednesday's Delo.
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Large Tech censorship has reared its head on-line and in media, and if studies are to be believed, tech firms might also be concentrating on their very own workers to silence dissenting opinions within the office too.
An worker alleged, in response to The Washington Publish, that Amazon threatened her with termination for merely critiquing the corporate’s environmental insurance policies. “[I]f I continued to talk up, I could possibly be fired,” the worker mentioned.
The Washington Publish, coincidentally owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, to its credit score, revealed the Jan. 2 article “Amazon threatens to fireplace critics who’re outspoken on its environmental insurance policies” citing “no less than two workers who publicly criticized the corporate’s environmental insurance policies” had been warned that they “could possibly be fired” for “future violations of its communications coverage.”
The Publish famous that Amazon up to date its communications coverage in September, “a day after an worker local weather group emailed colleagues” about an upcoming walkout. The coverage now requires a “enterprise justification” for any communications and signifies that approval for the communications may take as much as two weeks. “The sooner model of the coverage, which had not been routinely enforced with activist workers,” famous The Publish, “required staff to request approval by way of e-mail from senior vice presidents to remark publicly.”
Amazon software program improvement engineer Jamie Kowalski, and principal user-experience designer Maren Costa each blasted the corporate for its company practices. Amazon’s environmentalist group Amazon Staff for Local weather Justice wrote in an October 10 assertion that “Amazon’s place is predicated on false premises and distracts from the truth that Amazon needs to revenue in companies which might be straight contributing to local weather disaster,” reported The Publish.
The calls for of Amazon’s environmentalists, are certainly steep. They demanded that Amazon “decide to being carbon impartial by 2030, to finish cloud computing contracts that assist power firms speed up oil and gasoline extraction, and to cease funding politicians and lobbyists who deny local weather change,” summarized The Publish.
Following this outcry from workers, an e-mail was allegedly despatched to Costa, which warned of “formal corrective motion, as much as and together with termination of your employment with Amazon” for future infractions.
In response to this warning from her firm, Costa wrote in an e-mail to The Publish: “It was scary to be referred to as into a gathering like that, after which to be given a follow-up e-mail saying that if I continued to talk up, I could possibly be fired.” She doubled down, suggesting she doesn’t remorse her actions: “It’s our ethical accountability to talk up — no matter Amazon’s try and censor us — particularly when local weather poses such an unprecedented risk to humanity.”
An Amazon user-experience designer Emily Cunningham additionally alleged that she too was warned away from publicly criticizing her employer after she made social media posts and spoke to information organizations about Amazon’s local weather controversies. She had allegedly been advised in an October assembly that she had violated the corporate’s coverage. “It was a transparent try and silence me and different staff who’ve been talking out in regards to the local weather disaster,” claimed Cunningham.
The Publish famous that this has been a part of an ongoing pattern throughout Silicon Valley, the place Large Tech firms wrestle to stability each company pragmatism with their workers’ liberal politics:
“Throughout a Sept. 20 protest, 1000’s of Amazon workers walked out and criticized the corporate’s local weather insurance policies and practices. In November 2018, 1000’s of Google workers walked off the job to protest of the corporate’s dealing with of sexual harassment claims. Employees at Google, Amazon and Microsoft have spoken out in criticism of facial-recognition know-how from their firms, fearing misuse by legislation enforcement and different authorities businesses”
The Publish acknowledged how a couple of weeks after the walkout “Amazon launched a brand new coverage assertion outlining its positions on quite a lot of hot-button points for which it has confronted criticism.”
Amazon’s “Our Positions” manifesto was a laundry listing of liberal speaking factors from praising range to proclaiming a dedication to “LGBTQ+” folks and tackling local weather change, which, by some means, are nonetheless not sufficient to fulfill a few of their workers.
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|By Business Wire||
|February 24, 2013 10:01 AM EST||
Lenovo (HKSE: 0992) (PINK SHEETS: LNVGY) today announced a line-up of new Android tablets, offering configurations and form factors to match consumer needs for both ultra-portable tablets and multimedia performers. The portfolio, which also boasts unique connectivity features, will be available starting in the second quarter 2013.
The range starts with two new A-series tablets, seven-inch devices, designed for optimal mobility while still packing a performance punch. The A1000 is ideal for first-time tablet buyers and features enhanced audio, while the A3000 offers quad-core processing for speedy performance whether for gaming or web-browsing. Alongside these models, Lenovo also announced the new 10-inch S6000, which offers extended I/O options, a large, vibrant screen and a super-slim profile that looks sophisticated and elegant, whether the user is web-surfing in the coffee shop or enjoying movies and games at home.
“Lenovo’s latest Android tablet family is designed to meet the demands of a wide range of customers, particularly young, active users who are always on the go, and have adopted the seven-inch form factor as their own. With these latest additions to our tablet portfolio, we’ve created devices that address these customers’ needs, as well as devices for more demanding gamers and multimedia users,” said Chen Wenhui, vice president Lenovo and GM Mobile BU, “We believe that our Android family of tablets will appeal to customers across the world as we’ve built our products to be highly accessible and flexible to serve multiple needs and budgets.”
S6000, Mobile “Home Entertainment” Center
As tablets have continued their march into the mainstream, increasing demands with regards to larger screen devices have raised the bar for tablet makers. Lenovo has responded with the S6000, a sleek and powerful option for customers looking for a device that switches seamlessly from entertainment to social media and beyond. Powered by the MTK 8389/8125 1.2 GHz quad-core processor, the S6000 shines as a multimedia and gaming tablet fronted by a 10.1-inch IPS 1280X800 display with a wide, 178-degree viewing angle, micro HDMI port and digital microphone. The S6000 also offers a number of additions to optimize its performance as a connectivity tool for social networkers including optional HSPA+ and a substantial battery that allows for more than 8 hours of continuous WiFi web browsing. Even with these specifications though, the S6000 does not lose track of style and convenience; it is all tied together in a super slim (8.6mm) and light (560g) frame that feels good and helps users look good.
A3000, Full Performance in a Compact Package
In today’s connected world, devices must be mobile, without skimping on performance. The A3000 bristles with specifications typically found in a much larger device, all packed into a seven-inch form factor that is thin and light. Powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core, MTK processor, the A3000 optimizes the user experience for games, video, photo-sharing and web-browsing, offering seamlessly fluid navigation and highly responsive performance. The benefits of the seven-inch form factor are not ignored on the A3000 either. The tablet, which sports an IPS 1024x600 screen, weighs in at less than 340g and is only 11mm thick, but can still hold a wealth of content with an extensive memory, which can be extended to 64GB with the external micro-SD card. Optional 3G HSPA+ support ensures users stay connected on the go with Lenovo’s ultra-portable tablet.
A1000, Pocket Studio with Dolby®
The A1000 delivers an audio experience normally reserved for more expensive tablets in a seven-inch device. With Dolby Digital Plus integrated into the device and large, front-facing speakers that ensure the sound is directed at the users’ ears rather than the floor, the A1000 is perfect for music lovers and those seeking a “pocket studio” for either music or movies. The A1000 runs Android Jelly Bean 4.1 on a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and has on-board storage of up to 16GB, extendable to 32GB with a micro-SD slot, so users can load content up and take it to the gym, the office or anywhere else they want to experience high-quality sights and sounds. It also comes in either black or white, allowing users to customize their Lenovo pocket studio to their lifestyle.
Lenovo Mobile Access
All the new Android tablets come with Lenovo Mobile Access, a unique service that allows users to connect instantly “out of the box”. When customers first power up their Lenovo device, they will see an icon indicating Lenovo as their access provider. Without having to set up a special data plan, they can immediately start browsing web pages, accessing their email and sharing content with friends using HSPA+ 3G access or through WiFi according to their specific configuration. When the initial Lenovo Mobile Access service expires users will be prompted with the option to easily renew their plan or select an alternative service.
Pricing and Availability1
The newest Android tablets will be available worldwide from Q2, 2013. Although pricing varies according to market, configuration and model, each tablet in the range is competitively priced to ensure maximum accessibility to a premium user experience for all customers.
Lenovo (HKSE: 0992) (PINK SHEETS: LNVGY) is a $US30 billion personal technology company – and the second largest PC company in the world, serving customers in more than 160 countries. Dedicated to building exceptionally engineered PCs and mobile internet devices, Lenovo’s business is built on product innovation, a highly-efficient global supply chain and strong strategic execution. Formed by Lenovo Group’s acquisition of the former IBM Personal Computing Division, the company develops, manufactures and markets reliable, high-quality, secure and easy-to-use technology products and services. Its product lines include legendary Think-branded commercial PCs and Idea-branded consumer PCs, as well as servers, workstations, and a family of mobile internet devices, including tablets and smart phones. Lenovo has major research centers in Yamato, Japan; Beijing, China; and Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information, see www.lenovo.com.
1 Prices do not include tax or shipping and are subject to change without notice and is tied to specific terms and conditions. Reseller prices may vary. Price does not include all advertised features. All offers subject to availability. Lenovo reserves the right to alter product offerings and specifications at any time without notice.
SYS-CON Events announced today that Cemware will exhibit at the 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Use MATLAB functions by just visiting website mathfreeon.com. MATLAB compatible, freely usable, online platform services. As of October 2016, 80,000 users from 180 countries are enjoying our platform service.
Oct. 25, 2016 09:15 PM EDT Reads: 875
The Internet of Things (IoT), in all its myriad manifestations, has great potential. Much of that potential comes from the evolving data management and analytic (DMA) technologies and processes that allow us to gain insight from all of the IoT data that can be generated and gathered. This potential may never be met as those data sets are tied to specific industry verticals and single markets, with no clear way to use IoT data and sensor analytics to fulfill the hype being given the IoT today.
Oct. 25, 2016 08:45 PM EDT Reads: 2,699
Established in 1998, Calsoft is a leading software product engineering Services Company specializing in Storage, Networking, Virtualization and Cloud business verticals. Calsoft provides End-to-End Product Development, Quality Assurance Sustenance, Solution Engineering and Professional Services expertise to assist customers in achieving their product development and business goals. The company's deep domain knowledge of Storage, Virtualization, Networking and Cloud verticals helps in delivering ...
Oct. 25, 2016 08:30 PM EDT Reads: 1,099
SYS-CON Events announced today that Enzu will exhibit at the 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Enzu’s mission is to be the leading provider of enterprise cloud solutions worldwide. Enzu enables online businesses to use its IT infrastructure to their competitive advantage. By offering a suite of proven hosting and management services, Enzu wants companies to focus on the core of their online busine...
Oct. 25, 2016 08:15 PM EDT Reads: 1,372
November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Penta Security is a leading vendor for data security solutions, including its encryption solution, D’Amo. By using FPE technology, D’Amo allows for the implementation of encryption technology to sensitive data fields without modification to schema in the database environment. With businesses having their data become increasingly more complicated in their mission-critical applications (such as ERP, CRM, HRM), continued ...
Oct. 25, 2016 07:30 PM EDT Reads: 1,111
In the next five to ten years, millions, if not billions of things will become smarter. This smartness goes beyond connected things in our homes like the fridge, thermostat and fancy lighting, and into heavily regulated industries including aerospace, pharmaceutical/medical devices and energy. “Smartness” will embed itself within individual products that are part of our daily lives. We will engage with smart products - learning from them, informing them, and communicating with them. Smart produc...
Oct. 25, 2016 07:30 PM EDT Reads: 1,537
OnProcess Technology has announced it will be a featured speaker at @ThingsExpo, taking place November 1 - 3, 2016, in Santa Clara, California. Dan Gettens, OnProcess’ Chief Analytics Officer, will discuss how Internet of Things (IoT) data can be leveraged to predict product failures, improve uptime and slash costly inventory stock. @ThingsExpo is an annual gathering of IoT and cloud developers, practitioners and thought-leaders who exchange ideas and insights on topics ranging from Big Data in...
Oct. 25, 2016 07:15 PM EDT Reads: 294
[webinar] Cloud Computing: A Roadmap to Modern Software Delivery | @ImpigerTech #API #Cloud #DataCenter
Join Impiger for their featured webinar: ‘Cloud Computing: A Roadmap to Modern Software Delivery’ on November 10, 2016, at 12:00 pm CST. Very few companies have not experienced some impact to their IT delivery due to the evolution of cloud computing. This webinar is not about deciding whether you should entertain moving some or all of your IT to the cloud, but rather, a detailed look under the hood to help IT professionals understand how cloud adoption has evolved and what trends will impact th...
Oct. 25, 2016 07:00 PM EDT Reads: 354
SYS-CON Events announced today that SoftNet Solutions will exhibit at the 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. SoftNet Solutions specializes in Enterprise Solutions for Hadoop and Big Data. It offers customers the most open, robust, and value-conscious portfolio of solutions, services, and tools for the shortest route to success with Big Data. The unique differentiator is the ability to architect and ...
Oct. 25, 2016 07:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,025
SYS-CON Events announced today that Cloudbric, a leading website security provider, will exhibit at the 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Cloudbric is an elite full service website protection solution specifically designed for IT novices, entrepreneurs, and small and medium businesses. First launched in 2015, Cloudbric is based on the enterprise level Web Application Firewall by Penta Security Sys...
Oct. 25, 2016 06:45 PM EDT Reads: 1,243
SYS-CON Events announced today that Transparent Cloud Computing (T-Cloud) Consortium will exhibit at the 19th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. The Transparent Cloud Computing Consortium (T-Cloud Consortium) will conduct research activities into changes in the computing model as a result of collaboration between "device" and "cloud" and the creation of new value and markets through organic data proces...
Oct. 25, 2016 06:45 PM EDT Reads: 1,440
Traditional on-premises data centers have long been the domain of modern data platforms like Apache Hadoop, meaning companies who build their business on public cloud were challenged to run Big Data processing and analytics at scale. But recent advancements in Hadoop performance, security, and most importantly cloud-native integrations, are giving organizations the ability to truly gain value from all their data. In his session at 19th Cloud Expo, David Tishgart, Director of Product Marketing ...
Oct. 25, 2016 06:00 PM EDT Reads: 2,707
Successful digital transformation requires new organizational competencies and capabilities. Research tells us that the biggest impediment to successful transformation is human; consequently, the biggest enabler is a properly skilled and empowered workforce. In the digital age, new individual and collective competencies are required. In his session at 19th Cloud Expo, Bob Newhouse, CEO and founder of Agilitiv, will draw together recent research and lessons learned from emerging and established ...
Oct. 25, 2016 05:45 PM EDT Reads: 1,446
SYS-CON Events announced today that Coalfire will exhibit at the 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Coalfire is the trusted leader in cybersecurity risk management and compliance services. Coalfire integrates advisory and technical assessments and recommendations to the corporate directors, executives, boards, and IT organizations for global brands and organizations in the technology, cloud, health...
Oct. 25, 2016 05:15 PM EDT Reads: 1,617
As data explodes in quantity, importance and from new sources, the need for managing and protecting data residing across physical, virtual, and cloud environments grow with it. Managing data includes protecting it, indexing and classifying it for true, long-term management, compliance and E-Discovery. Commvault can ensure this with a single pane of glass solution – whether in a private cloud, a Service Provider delivered public cloud or a hybrid cloud environment – across the heterogeneous enter...
Oct. 25, 2016 04:15 PM EDT Reads: 1,455
In his general session at 19th Cloud Expo, Manish Dixit, VP of Product and Engineering at Dice, will discuss how Dice leverages data insights and tools to help both tech professionals and recruiters better understand how skills relate to each other and which skills are in high demand using interactive visualizations and salary indicator tools to maximize earning potential. Manish Dixit is VP of Product and Engineering at Dice. As the leader of the Product, Engineering and Data Sciences team a...
Oct. 25, 2016 03:15 PM EDT Reads: 441
A completely new computing platform is on the horizon. They’re called Microservers by some, ARM Servers by others, and sometimes even ARM-based Servers. No matter what you call them, Microservers will have a huge impact on the data center and on server computing in general. Although few people are familiar with Microservers today, their impact will be felt very soon. This is a new category of computing platform that is available today and is predicted to have triple-digit growth rates for some ...
Oct. 25, 2016 03:00 PM EDT Reads: 34,211
DevOps is being widely accepted (if not fully adopted) as essential in enterprise IT. But as Enterprise DevOps gains maturity, expands scope, and increases velocity, the need for data-driven decisions across teams becomes more acute. DevOps teams in any modern business must wrangle the ‘digital exhaust’ from the delivery toolchain, "pervasive" and "cognitive" computing, APIs and services, mobile devices and applications, the Internet of Things, and now even blockchain. In this power panel at @...
Oct. 25, 2016 03:00 PM EDT Reads: 2,027
Governments around the world are adopting Safe Harbor privacy provisions to protect customer data from leaving sovereign territories. Increasingly, global companies are required to create new instances of their server clusters in multiple countries to keep abreast of these new Safe Harbor laws. Is it worth it? In his session at 19th Cloud Expo, Adam Rogers, Managing Director of Anexia, Inc., will discuss how to keep your data legal and still stay in business.
Oct. 25, 2016 02:30 PM EDT Reads: 1,493
SYS-CON Events announced today that MathFreeOn will exhibit at the 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. MathFreeOn is Software as a Service (SaaS) used in Engineering and Math education. Write scripts and solve math problems online. MathFreeOn provides online courses for beginners or amateurs who have difficulties in writing scripts. In accordance with various mathematical topics, there are more tha...
Oct. 25, 2016 01:15 PM EDT Reads: 1,072


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Walmart Launches ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ VR Tour to Sell Merch in Parking Lots
Walmart is using virtual reality to — what else? — get people excited to buy stuff.
The retailer teamed up with DreamWorks Animation for a touring VR experience tied to “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.” Walmart is setting up installations in parking lots of its stores in 16 cities, starting Friday (Feb. 15) in Burbank and culminating in its hometown of Bentonville, Ark., on April 7-9.
The goal is to lure fans of the animated dragon franchise into the VR tent, where they’ll strap on VR googles and take a seat in a motion-activated chair. They’ll then take a nearly five-minute virtual flight and interact with Astrid, Hiccup, Toothless, Hookfang and other characters from the films — after which they’ll be shepherded through a “branded, immersive gift shop.”
For DreamWorks Animation, it’s also an opportunity to hype the release of “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,” which opens wide Feb. 22. The studio worked with Spatial&, acquired last year by Walmart’s Store N°8 incubation arm, which was founded on the premise that VR and other emerging storytelling technologies will become major sales tools. It’s the first VR activation for the startup (whose name, spelled out, is “Spatialand”).
“Collaborating with DreamWorks Animation and its iconic ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ franchise is such an exciting way to bring Spatial&’s first ever activation to the public,” said Katie Finnegan, CEO of Spatial&.
It’s not Walmart’s first foray into employing tech-driven entertainment to boost engagement with customers (and, ultimately, drive up sales). Last fall, the retailing giant invested $250 million in interactive video firm Eko, establishing a joint venture — dubbed W*E Interactive Ventures — to create entertainment and advertising content.
The “How to Train Your Dragon” VR/shopping pop-up will hit five states — California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas and Arkansas — where warmer temps prevail this time of year.
In the Walmart store parking lots where it’s hosting the “Dragon” VR experience (see list below), guests start in an on-boarding room where they’re greeted by the film franchise’s mischievous twins Ruffnut and Tuffnut (played by real-life actors). Participants are then led into a dragon’s cave to sit in Positron’s Voyager VR motion chairs, powered by the HP VR backpack, and don either an HP Windows Mixed Reality or HP Omen Mindframe headset. Visitors must be 8 or older to participate.
The “How to Train Your Dragon” VR experience was directed by Kurt Mattila and Gil Zimmerman and produced by Spatial&’s Armand Weeresinghe. “Our partners at Spatial& exceeded our expectations with their incredible work on this project,” said Abhijay Prakash, COO of DreamWorks Feature Animation.
Walmart’s “How to Train Your Dragon” gift shop will feature plush toys, action figures, DVDs and Blu-ray Discs of previous “Dragon” movies, video games, and books. Select merchandise from the collection will be available in 2,000 Walmart stores across the U.S. and on walmart.com.
Here’s a list of Walmart stores the “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” virtual tour is scheduled to hit between Feb. 15 and April 9 (visit this link for address info and hours):
- Burbank, Calif.: Feb. 15-16
- Pico Rivera, Calif.: Feb. 17-19
- Anaheim, Calif.: Feb. 22-23
- San Bernardino, Calif.: Feb. 24-26
- Las Vegas: March 1-2
- North Las Vegas, Nev.: March 3-5
- Glendale, Ariz.: March 8-9
- Gilbert, Ariz.: March 10-12
- San Antonio, Texas: March 15-16
- New Braunfels, Texas: March 17-19
- Grand Prairie, Texas: March 22-23
- Allen, Texas: March 24-26
- Sugar Land, Texas: March 29-30
- Katy, Texas: March 31-April 2
- Rogers, Ark.: April 5-6
- Bentonville, Ark.: April 7-9
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SingleHop Opens Data Center in Phoenix
SingleHop, Inc., a dedicated and managed web hosting provider, yesterday announced the opening of a data center in Phoenix, AZ. The facility operated by IO, a provider of next-generation modular data center technology and services, is the first Western US expansion for the company. It will now offer its customers the option to choose which data center they want their hardware to reside within.
The company articulates that initially, the modular data center technology will allow it the capacity for 2,500 servers and act as the third location for all of its cloud hosting products. Unlike traditional data center build-outs, modular data centers allow for the deployment of data center capacity in a fraction of the time.
It avers that the Phoenix data center features:
"This year has already been full of great news for our company and that continues today with this announcement. We understand that location does matter a great deal, especially to our international customers and that's why we made the decision to expand to Phoenix," said Zak Boca, Chief Executive Officer.
"Customer control is always at the core of our operational developments and that's why this facility had to have technology that we could easily integrate into our existing infrastructure. All of our customers now have a choice in location, but with the same ease and automation they have come to expect from us," said Andy Pace, Chief Operating Officer.
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This weekend is the twentieth anniversary (china!) of the signing of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). As for me, I mentally awarded the DMCA its rightful wooden spoon five years ago, on its fifteenth anniversary.
Would you say that "china" is appropriate? The DMCA is certainly broken. Of course, it was intended to encourage cooperation between copyright owners and internet service providers to protect copyright and to reduce piracy. Unfortunately, when the DMCA was written, most people used dial up to access the internet, downloading a file took all afternoon, and using the internet meant that the phone line was tied up for the duration of one person's internet "surfing" time.
Nowadays, it takes less time to make a good cup of tea than it does to scan a book and "share" it with potentially thousands of people. A generation has grown up expecting that anything they can find online is theirs for the taking, free, covered by their cost in purchasing a computer and internet service (a false perception), and the big tech companies have taught everyone to believe that copyrighted works of all kinds are "content".
There's power in words.
In honor of the DMCA, the Copyright Alliance's Copyright Counsel, Terrica Carrington has penned an important, two-part retrospective article about the lofty aims and mixed success of the DMCA.
All the best,
Saturday, October 27, 2018
The Law And Unintended Consequences
Posted by RowenaBCherry at 11:36 PM
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- The Korean beauty market is among the top 10 global beauty markets.
- Korea is one of the few countries with "functional cosmetics."
(CNN)There's face powder in panda palettes, hand gel in gummy bears and bubble tea sleeping packs.
Often packaged in bright colors and decked out with cartoon characters, Korean beauty products are too cute to ignore, but they also provide some health benefits.
It's "skin-tertainment," said Christine Chang, who co-created the Glow Recipe brand to bring Korean beauty products to the American market. She and partner Sarah Lee travel to South Korea multiple times a year to find new products and are repeatedly "blown away by the new innovation in the market."
The Korean beauty market is among the top 10 around the world, with an estimated worth of over $13.1 billion in sales in 2018, according to Mintel, a global market intelligence agency. Facial skin care products alone make up half of the total market share and are projected to reach $7.2 billion by 2020. And one in five facial skin care launches in South Korea, the agency reports, is actually a mask.
"For a long time, France and Japan were considered a symbol of cosmetics business around the globe," said Ryan Park, who founded the Korean beauty brand Whamisa in 1999. "Korea was able to catch up with them within a very short time thanks to the balance of its accumulated fundamental industry, chemistry, bioscience and Korean Wave culture."
The Korean wave, called "hallyu," is about the spread of South Korean pop culture and how all things Korean -- food, dramas, makeup, movies and music -- have propagated throughout the world through social media and online platforms. A lot of this wave radiates off of the music, K-pop, with artists like PSY, Wonder Girls and BTS whose edgy look, style and sound attract global fans.
Simply put, consumers want the skin of Korean celebrities, who supposedly use it too, said Dr. Soyun Cho, a dermatology professor at Seoul National University.


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Evergreen Line is re-introducing a 20-port pendulum service, linking the U.S. West Coast, Asia and Mediterranean trade. It will range from Tacoma, Wash. to Valencia, Spain via the Far East, Middle East and Suez Canal. Slated to begin on May 10 out of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the new U.S. West Coast-Asia-Mediterranean (UAM) service will replace Evergreen's current Asia-Pacific-North West Coast (PNW) and Far East-Mediterranean (FEM) services, introduced last October as an interim measure. The UAM service will utilize 14 U-type vessels, each of 5,364 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). First vessel to depart will be the Ever Unison from Kaohsiung. The first sailing from the Port of Tacoma will be May 23. The port rotation will be Tacoma, Vancouver, Tokyo, Osaka, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Yantian, Tanjun Pelepas, Colombo, Ashdod, Alexandria, Taranto, Genoa, Barcelona, Valencia, Taranto, Colombo, Tanjung Pelepas, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Yantian, Shanghai, Ningbo and Tacoma.
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