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- Today in Tabs
- Roll That Beautiful Big Boy Boat Footage
Roll That Beautiful Big Boy Boat Footage
We regret the errors.
It’s Thursday, assistant secretary for health Dr. Rachel Levine is the United States’s first Senate-confirmed openly transgender official, and we’ve finally got some dramatic Big Boy Boat footage:
Look at the size of that lad! Majestic. Sean O'Kane helps us all rubberneck. Bloomberg has more on the salvage operations, and the fun detail that “the best chance for freeing the ship may not come until Sunday or Monday, when the tide will reach a peak.” Even that may be optimistic, as salvors have begun to use the word “weeks.” I hope it never ends, and I’m not the only one who ‘ships Ever Given / Suez. Tabs Senior Maritime Salvage Witch Jessie Guy-Ryan suggests we simply cut a big hole in the boat and let the other boats drive through it. Meanwhile, Elon Musk has an idea:
Also Today in Oopsies:
Shrimp cereal guy has reached the next phase of Twitter main characterhood. As Vulture’s Rebecca Alter put it: “Since Jensen Karp’s post went viral, multiple women have come forward on Twitter accusing him of emotionally abusive and manipulative behavior both in relationships and as an employer.”
Slack apologized for the poor, abuse-prone design of its new Connect DMs feature yesterday, Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai reports in Motherboard. They could have saved some trouble by just bundling the apology in with the announcement.
Hyper-Boomer Jay Leno sort of apologized for all the racist jokes he’s told about Asians over his long and lucrative career, while still managing to half-defend them, saying “there was a ring of truth to them.” He also took the opportunity to complain about “cancel culture” and insist that “in my heart I knew it was wrong.” “Classic case of heart vs. racist bone” says Cat Ferguson.
Axios’s Dan Primack and Kia Kokalitcheva have more detail on Spark Capital dumping Dispo. And Morgan Sung used Dispo founder/albatross David Dobrik’s second attempt at an apology as the news peg for a delightful look at the whole floor-apology genre.
Platform-reporting machine Casey Newton interviewed 14 current and former Medium employees to dig up an incredible opening anecdote involving President Biden and “step sister taboo erotica,” and also the detail that Ev Williams can’t make a media company work with 700,000 subscribers and over $35 million in revenue.
Amazon is getting stressed about the Bessemer, AL union vote, which ends Monday, and last night the pressure broke in the form of some wild tweets. First Amazon Consumer CEO and algorithmically-generated Smarmy White Business Guy Dave Clark claimed “I often say we are the Bernie Sanders of employers.” Then Amazon PR’s @amazonnews account asked Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan “You don’t really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you?” Yes, we absolutely believe it, but either way if you’re tweeting defensively about whether your employees are forced to pee in bottles, you’re not winning the PR battle.
uNForTunately: Both of the New Yorks Time had NFT columns yesterday. News’s tech columnist Kevin Roose did basically the same “buy this column” stunt as Quartz, but it does have one of the clearest descriptions I’ve seen of how an NFT is minted. It sold for over $500,000. Good lord, do I have to mint a Tabs? For my kids’ future? Stay tuned. Meanwhile Opinion’s tech columnist Charlie Warzel’s “What Are You Paying for When You Buy a GIF for $25,000?” has a little more of that distinctive “Opinion desk editing a tech story” flavor. Today the Verge’s Jacob Kastrenakes points out one of the core problems with what is supposedly a distributed, zero-trust proof of ownership scheme: “NFTs are fundamentally built on trust.” Create your own incredibly valuable digital art with the Beeple Generator.
Today in Substack: Grace Lavery got a Pro deal: “Graham Linehan Should Be Kicked Off Substack.” My own personal view is: Graham Linehan should be kicked off Substack. Also Pro: Ashley Feinberg. Staying: Aminatou Sow. Leaving: Emily Gould. Incoming: everyone from MEL Magazine, probably.
Leslie Jones live-tweeted the Snyder Cut, and it is much better than watching the Snyder Cut. The horny emergency continues: “Horny folks told Insider they're ready for "ho phases," no underwear in public, and spontaneous dates.” Bloomberg News call me. 📞
Today’s Stream: Uighur lofi hip hop chill music (thx Ryan Broderick!)
~ Tab news on the doorstep, I couldn't take one more step ~
That’s it, the content is closed for the week! Subscribe if you haven’t yet and join us tomorrow for the subscriber open thread. Subject: “How will we fix the boat?” This is your daily reminder that whatever you’re going through right now is not being caused by the moon.


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- Alibaba had already generated more sales — $4.68 billion — just 10 minutes into Singles Day 2018 than Amazon is estimated to have reached during its record-setting 2018 Prime Day event.
- Singles Day had topped $6.5 billion in sales 20 minutes into its 11/11 event, which kicked off at midnight on Sunday in Shanghai.
- For comparison, Amazon's sales were estimated to have reached roughly $4.2 billion over the company's 36-hour Prime Day in July.
SHANGHAI, China — Alibaba's Singles Day surpassed Amazon's biggest shopping day of the year in less than 10 minutes.
At just 10 minutes in, Alibaba's massive 24-hour online shopping extravaganza had generated more than $4.68 billion in sales. Twenty minutes in, sales had surpassed $6.5 billion.
In 2017, Alibaba's Singles Day sales exceeded $25 billion.
While not an exact comparison, Amazon's total sales are estimated to have topped $4.2 billion over the company's 36-hour Prime Day event in July, according to Wedbush Securities Inc. analyst Michael Pachter. Amazon does not release Prime Day sales figures, but the company said it was "the biggest shopping event in Amazon history," exceeding sales from Cyber Monday, Black Friday, and the previous Prime Day.
Total online sales on Black Friday reached $5 billion in 2017, according to Adobe Analytics data. Cyber Monday sales were roughly $6.6 billion.
Over the last decade, Alibaba has almost single-handedly turned Singles Day — November 11, or 11/11 — into a cultural phenomenon and by far the biggest day of the year for online shopping.
The explosive start to Singles Day comes as little surprise despite some recent shakiness in the Chinese economy. A decade of skyrocketing 11/11 sales brings an added pressure to post ever-higher figures, according to Dr. Daniel Zipser, a McKinsey & Company senior partner who leads its consumer and retail practice in Greater China.
"The whole world is looking," when it comes to Singles Day sales figures, Zipser told Business Insider on Saturday.
Alibaba is not a retailer itself, so Singles Day sales figures are equal to gross merchandise volume, or the total value of goods ordered through the company's marketplace, which includes Taobao.com, Tmall, and concepts that blend online and offline sales, like the supermarket chain Hema.

domain: news


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America’s top roadside attractions are highway accidents of a good kind. They’re small, conventional businesses that grew, thanks to desperation-driven innovation and a little luck, into legendary, multi-generational family concerns that draw mind-boggling traffic and profits that their founders little imagined.
More surprising still is that these products of the automobile’s golden age continue to thrive in a time of air travel and triple-digit gas prices. We asked the owners of some of the longest enduring attractions what allows them to survive.
Click ahead for some great american roadside attractions.
By Paul O’Donnell, Special to CNBC.com
Posted 26 Jan 2012
Location: Wall, South Dakota
In the depths of the Depression, Ted Hustead’s grandmother drew up signs offering travelers free ice water in order to draw business to her husband’s struggling pharmacy in a tiny town near a nascent Mount Rushmore. Today, Wall’s billboards stretch as far as Minnesota and the store, restaurant and gift shop see as many as 15,000 visitors on a summer day. “We’re on our second- and third-generation customer,” says Hustead, grandson of the founders. “Grandparents want to share an experience that they had when they were a kid.”
That experience has evolved “to entertain, educate and do it with world-class aesthetics,” says Hustead. Famous for its ubiquitous bumper stickers, Wall displays a priceless collection of Western art. In addition to its Yosemite and Rushmore souvenir sales, the Husteads do a half-million dollar trade in cowboy boots alone.
Location: Dillon, South Carolina
Hey Pedro, it’s South Carolina, not Mexico. The border in question is with Robeson County, N.C., less than a mile up Interstate 95, where alcohol was banned when Al Schafer opened his beer stand in 1949. It attracted not only Schafer’s thirsty neighbors, but high-end “Cadillac customers” bound for Florida. When a souvenir salesman traded his samples for beer one day, “they sold as fast as my granddad put them out,” says Ryan Schafer, who owns the complex today with his father.
The Cadillac customers fly now, but thousands of motorists are lured by 175 billboards that begin in Virginia, to what has become a small town, with a motel, gift shop and restaurant. The first sign that they’ve made it? A vision of Pedro, a 100-foot statue of the mascot.
South of the Border is famous for something else, as well: It's where Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke worked as a waiter on one summer break from college.
What keeps customers coming is change. South of the Border recently added an indoor reptile zoo, the largest in the country, according to Schafer. But modifications need not be elaborate, says Schafer. "If nothing else, repaint."
Location: Shartlesville, Pennsylvania
Beginning in 1903, Laurence Gieringer built more than 300 miniature structures, which he displayed around his hometown of Reading before moving to Shartlesville in 1941. Packed with homes, businesses, and more than 10,000 handmade trees, Roadside America is actually eight villages set in different time periods.
Nostalgia is part of every attraction’s formula, but Roadside America relies on it almost exclusively. The display has not changed since Gieringer died in 1963. Says granddaughter Dolores Heinsohn, the current owner: “I have people thanking me for not changing. Those are the people who mean the most to me.”
Location: Dragoon, Arizona
Settling near Interstate 10 after years of touring as a carnival sideshow, the Prince family opened "The Thing!" Museum in 1951, and quickly leased the attraction to the Bowlins, who owned a string of Western-themed travel centers. What is The Thing? Even director of operations Kit Johnson replies, “Don’t know,” but we can reveal that after 50 billboards spanning more than 300 miles, the “Mystery of the Desert” is somewhat anti-climactic. But surrounded by eerie dioramas and Native American trinkets, The Thing still draws 50,000 visitors a year, testifying to the power of the billboard build-up.
Location: Sussex, New Jersey
Parker Space calls his family’s 84-year-old zoo, farm museum and restaurant “a lifestyle, not a job.” That lifestyle includes farming 180 acres to supplement feed for the hoof stock, removing road kill from local byways (which is fed to the zoo’s big cats) and tending to a menagerie of more than 500 animals, including lions, tigers and seven species of bears.
Space has a dedicated employee handling regulatory paperwork, a costly reality for every small business that in Space’s industry at least, keeps other costs down. “If you could put a lion on eBay, he’d go for $100,000,” says Space. “But buyers are limited to places where it’s legal to keep him.”
Location: Walcott, Iowa
Advertised as the world’s largest truck stop, the sprawling waypoint on Interstate 80 was founded by Bill Moon, a location scout for the Standard Oil Corporation. Moon eventually bought his employer out and turned Iowa 80 into a big-rig spa, with a truck washing machine of Moon’s invention and spotless 24-hour showers for drivers. “He would talk with truckers about their concerns,” says longtime employee Heather DeBaillie. “He wanted to know how to make their lives easier.”
Now run by Moon’s children, Iowa 80 draws 5,000 customers a day in summertime, half of them nontruckers stopping to eat in the food court or simply to fuel up, and check out Moon’s trucking museum. In winter, the traffic reverts to 80 percent professional drivers who know they can get everything from to-die-for pork chops to a gym workout to a bath for their dogs.
Location: Amado, Arizona
The 40-foot steer skull is the work of Michael Kautza, whose “commercial sculptures” dot the Tucson area. The skull turned an unassuming adobe building into an instant landmark, visible for miles on Interstate 19. Owners Edward Madril and Al Reynolds bought the place in 1993 after being left to wait by the seller in the parking lot. “In that half-hour,” says Madril, “five cars with out-of-state plates stopped to take pictures. We thought, ‘There’s something here.’”
If the skull gets them to the restaurant, Madril’s job is to make them stay and drop some dough. Madril cites his “Spaghetti Western” fare—an unconventional combination of Mexican, American and Italian cuisine—and the $2.50 margaritas.
Location: Scottsboro, Alabama
Two types make up visitors to the Unclaimed Baggage Center — daytrippers looking for bargains and the curious who come from all over to mull what other travelers have left behind. Since 1970, the Owens family has made a living buying luggage the airline cannot reconnect to passengers and selling the contents — house slippers to diamond jewelry to harpoons — at a discount.
The business has grown from a rented house stocked with card tables to a 40,000-square-foot facility whose yearly draw, at nearly a million customers, dwarfs other taller, weirder attractions. Besides the bargains and the gawking factor, the Owenses attribute their success to their almost spiritual mission. “We take these misfit toys and put them back into society in a purposeful manner,” says director of marketing Brenda Cantrell.
Location: Cave City, Kentucky
One of seven faux-teepee encampments that dotted the highways in the 1930s, Cave City’s Wigwam Village motel is the oldest surviving example of entrepreneur Frank Redford’s original concrete design. All of the villages feature a large central teepee housing the office and a restaurant with the 32-foot-tall guest-room teepees arrayed in a semi-circle around it, all decorated in a Southwest Native American theme.
Redford captured the imaginations of bored kids with his eye-catching kitsch in the pre-Interstate days, but he also invented an early form of franchising, allowing imitators to build similar Wigwam Villages along Route 66 west of Kentucky, in return for the proceeds of coin-operated radios installed in the rooms.
Location: Arcadia, Oklahoma
Nostalgic for the road trips he used to take with his father, Aubrey K. McClendon, CEO of the natural-gas giant Chesapeake Energy Corp., planted Pops on some land he owns along Route 66 in 2007, naming it in honor of his dad and the fizzy beverages he remembers from those days. Conscious that “you have to have a clever gimmick to make it on Route 66,” McClendon hired architect Rand Elliott to design a 66-foot, LED-lit pop bottle that beckons drivers from the highway. Inside, Pops stocks more than 600 brands of soda pop from Moxie to modern flavors.
Incorporating the essentials of an iconic structure, nostalgia and big portions, Pops was an instant success, and now serves about 3,000 diners on a summer day. Says general manager Marty Doepke, “It’s a matter of finding your niche.”


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Pascrell Applauds Federal Trade
Commission Ticket Workshop
WASHINGTON, DC (June 11, 2019) – U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09), New Jersey’s only member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, offered qualified praise for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for holding a workshop on consumer protection issues in the online event ticket marketplace. The workshop heard from consumer advocates, trade association representatives, academics and government officials to assess practices in the marketplace.
“Millions of Americans have found common cause through their united dissatisfaction with the live events ticket market, and so I thank the FTC for finally turning its attention to the problem,” said Rep. Pascrell. “But by itself, it isn’t enough. More can be done by Congress and the administration to protect consumers, promote transparency, and go after the bad actors who make their living inconveniencing fans and ripping people off. I was encouraged to see near universal agreement on one panel about the need for regulation to improve transparency of ticket fees. At the same time, the Justice Department should be doing more to curb the Live Nation-Ticketmaster monopoly. The company should never have been allowed to exist and should be broken up. Americans are fed up with being gouged any time they want a little live entertainment.”
The FTC workshop was announced after Reps. Pascrell and Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ-06), the chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, wrote a letter to FTC chairman Joseph Simons in July 2016 highlighting a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study which found a myriad of consumer protection and competition issues in the primary and secondary live event ticket markets. The GAO report was commissioned in response to Pallone and Pascrell’s work, and the members urged Simons to do more to protect consumers in the marketplace.
Congressman Pascrell has been a leader in Congress calling for regulation of the opaque live events ticket market. Pascrell was an early critic of the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger, and repeatedly urged the Obama administration to reject it, warning that the union would crush competition and harm consumers. After Ticketmaster infamously redirected Bruce Springsteen fans to its secondary site TicketsNow to buy marked up seats without notice, Pascrellintroduced the BOSS Act in 2009 to create better transparency in the sale of live event tickets and provide overhaul reform of the unregulated secondary market. Rep. Pascrell will be reintroducing a revamped version of the BOSS Act in the coming weeks.
In May 2018, Pascrell wrote an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times on his attempts to impose greater positive regulation on the fraught live events ticket market. In September 2018, Pascrell was featured in the wide-ranging investigation by the CBC into corruption in the live events ticket marketplace. Pascrell’s interview segment is available here, and the next month Pascrell wrote a letter to then-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions calling for the Justice Department to open an investigation of continued market corruption by Ticketmaster.
Office of U.S. Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr.


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alvin Ayre’s Bodog brand operates a license model that includes the Bodog Asia brand launched in May with Haydock Sports, Bodog’s America-facing brand licensed to Mohawk Morris Gaming Group in September 2007; Bodog Europe, which launched in March this year and operates Bodog’s UK and Canada-facing sites; and the Bodog Network poker network.
However as reported on EGRmagazine.com, Bodog has also sought a partner for Latin America since the Summer, but has now adapted its plan to allow for a potential region-by-region approach after failing to identify a suitable licensee despite offers from a number of operators.
Ayre said: “I would consider having a number of operators for different Latin American markets. And if someone started out with a large territory and wasn’t able to grow fast enough then we would want to claw back some of that region – we have that right already [with existing licensees in other regions].
“If someone comes to me with a business plan that says they are to conquer all of Latin America I would think they are dreaming. But if they come with one that says there are to target Argentina, say, and be based in Uruguay that would be more realistic. I think an operator could set up in Montevideo [capital of Uruguay] and target Argentina, Brazil, or both.”
Asked what criteria operators hoping for Bodog licences in Latin American should possess, Ayre said: “They will need proven competency in operation and business development and to be well funded – we wouldn’t want to be in Latin America with someone with less than us$ 10 million.”
In a prior Calvin Ayre interview with eGaming Review featured in September’s Power 50 edition of the magazine, Ayre has also expressed his interest in licence deals in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa once Latin American licences are established


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Start the conversation
Google stock is one of our favorite tech plays. It got even better with the Feb. 23 announcement that Google will purchase the mobile payment company Softcard (formerly known as Isis).
Essentially, the search engine company is buying Softcard's technology to use as Google Wallet.
The purchase also guarantees pre-installment of Google Wallet on all Verizon Communication Inc. (NYSE: VZ), T-Mobile US Inc. (NYSE: PCS), and AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) Android phones in the United States starting later this year.


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Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:
1. A seemingly unlikely partnership between Uber and NASA was announced this week along with the news that Uber plans to add flying taxis to its line of service offerings by 2020. There are also some concept videos that show how these taxis may work that are worth taking a look at. The vehicles actually look just like helicopters, but imagine being able to call a helicopter to come pick you—and up to three of your friends—up and fly to your destination. All from your phone.
That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.


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SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive
SanDisk Extreme PRO SSD
New Sandisk Ultra miniDrive
New SanDisk Clip Sport MP3 Player
Fusion ioMemory - PX600
NEW SanDisk X300 SSD
“The Future Proof Storage Summit is about demonstrating SanDisk’s industry leadership to customers and other industry influencers in China,” explains Rafael Feitelberg, Senior Director of Strategic Marketing of Mobile and Connected Solutions. Held in Shenzhen, China, the event brings together key industry leaders and customers in the burgeoning Asian marketplace.
SanDisk executives and our technology partners—among them Rockchip and MediaTek— share their vision of how connected devices such as tablets, smartphones and PCs are expected to evolve in the coming years.
Device-system discussions, executive presentations and roundtable discussions with executives from our ecosystem partners (Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm, NVIDIA) are all part of the FPSS event.
As Bob O’Donnell, founder and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research (and a presenter at the summit) has noted, “One of the most important developments driving the improved performance of our latest devices isn’t the processor inside those devices, but the storage and its interaction with embedded device systems.”
Demand for better and richer connected user experiences will drive the mobile market to increasingly adopt Flash Memory technology for responsive and reliable storage, Drew Henry, SVP and GM of Mobile and Connected Solutions told more than 300 attendees at SanDisk’s 3rd Annual Future Proof Storage Exclusive Technology Conference on August 26, 2014 in Shenzhen, China.
This year’s event brought together executives from more than 90 Asia-based mobile, tablet and consumer electronics companies and manufacturers, including Huawei, Xiaomi, Lenovo and ZTE.
Leading companies in the mobile ecosystem, including Allwinner, HiSilicon, Intel, MediTrek, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Qualcomm and RockChip, also sent their senior representatives, emphasizing their close relationship and tight technical integration with SanDisk.
Six presentations and two panel discussions examined new technologies, applications, flash storage advancements and market trends that are shaping the mobile and connected world today and the future.
“By working closely to integrate new SanDisk X3 storage solutions with the products from our ecosystem partners, we’re enabling manufacturers to offer smartphones, tablets and other innovative devices for the mass market—providing users the capacity and application performance they demand,” Henry told attendees in his keynote talk: Designing for the Next Generation of Storage, Smartphones, Tablets and New Devices.
In addition to Drew Henry, other SanDisk participants included:
The conference also included presentations by other industry thought leaders, including Bob O’Donnell, Founder and Chief Analyst of TECHnalysis Research. In his Future of Mobility presentation, O’Donnell said, “Device storage will become increasingly more critical for managing a portable digital identity—including our data, passwords and preferences—that works across devices and services.”
SanDisk showcased the latest in storage technologies with two live demos: one that highlighted iNAND® 3120’s X3 performance vs an X2-based option, and a second that framed the exceptional user experience and performance advantages of iNAND® 7030.
“This year’s attendance increased by more than 100 compared to our 2013 event,” says Rafael Feitelberg, Senior Director of Strategic Marketing of Mobile and Connected Solutions at SanDisk. “Our post-conference survey indicated more than 90% are interested to come back next year, with more than 85% of attendees wanting to learn more about SanDisk’s products and technologies.”
We held our annual seminar, Future Proof Storage, on August 28, 2013 in Shenzhen, China. The seminar featured valuable insights from industry leaders such as Broadcom, Intel, Konka, Laoyaoba, Marvell, Meitu, Qualcomm, and Rockchip. Discussions and sessions centered on how intelligent storage solutions can help with the development of current and future-facing products and deliver superb customer experiences.
Over 200 attendees gathered at the event to learn, to connect and find out the latest regarding future growth engines, upcoming technologies, standards and new applications.
SanDisk Technology Session Speakers


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China Overseas Land & Investment develops technology ecosystem to create new income source, as first-half revenues beat expectations
- The developer reported that its basic earnings per share slipped 3.7 per cent to HK$1.87, beating analysts’ estimates
- Contracted property sales grew 4.2 per cent to in first half to 172 billion yuan despite no sales for almost two months
China Overseas Land & Investment (COLI) is moving to develop a technology ecosystem to create new sources of income amid a slowing property market, as the developer’s first-half revenues beat expectations.
The company’s strategy is to allocate 2 per cent of its resources to fund new businesses such as elderly living, education, logistics and supply chain management to “foster new sources of profits”, chairman Yan Jianguo said in an earnings teleconference on Monday afternoon. Residential and commercial developments take up the bulk of them.
The state-owned developer hopes to “establish a technology ecosystem” by setting up a new supply chain management company for the construction materials sector and a technology company to digitally manage residential development and business operations, it said in an earnings filing.
“COLI’s prudent expansion strategy could help defend against the softening economic outlook amid Covid-19,” said Patrick Wong, senior research analyst of Asia Real Estate at Bloomberg Intelligence in a note.
The company reported net profits down 3.7 per cent to 20.5 billion yuan (US$2.97 billion) in the six months to June 30, compared to 21.3 billion yuan in the same period of 2019.
Revenues increased 11 per cent in the first half to 88.6 billion yuan, beating consensus estimates of 81.6 billion yuan according to analysts polled by Bloomberg.
Basic earnings per share slipped 3.7 per cent to 1.87 yuan, beating analysts’ forecasts of 1.40 yuan.
“The pandemic has had a big impact on us. We had no property sales for one and a half months,” said chief executive Zhang Zhichao, speaking on the teleconference.
However, the group was able to achieve contracted property sales of 172 billion yuan in the first half, a year-on-year increase of 4.2 per cent. This was helped by sales in June which amounted to 57.6 billion yuan, a 32.3 per cent increase from a year ago and setting a new monthly record for the group.
“Without a severe rebound in coronavirus cases and deterioration in the economic situation, we are still relatively confident that we can reach our HK$400 billion sales target for the full year,” said Zhang.
China’s new property sales slipped 5.4 per cent in the first half to 6.69 trillion yuan compared to the same period last year, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
“The mainland real estate market has fragmented and begun to compete based on inventory, which presents structural opportunities. The buying power is returning to the higher-value first- and second-tier cities and core urban agglomerations,” said vice-president Guo Guanghui speaking on the teleconference.
Sales in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Guangzhou each exceeded 10 billion yuan in the first half, the company said in the filing.
The group acquired 21 land parcels in 13 cities in mainland China, adding a total gross floor area of 5.82 million square metres to its land reserves.
The company proposed an interim dividend of 45 HK cents per share.
COLI’s shares rose 0.9 per cent to HK$23.45 after the announcement on Monday.


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An advertising industry group says revenue from Internet advertising in the U.S. hit $8.4 billion in the first three months of the year.
That’s the highest for the first quarter, up 15 percent from $7.3 billion in the same period last year.
The record for any quarter is $9 billion in the final three months of 2011.
Record-setting numbers are a common occurrence, as more advertisers turn to websites and mobile apps, where they can target their pitches more precisely than traditional channels.
The group did not break down the figures, but typically the bulk of the spending comes from text-based ads that are sold by Google Inc. and other companies. These ads are targeted to search terms and other keywords.
More breaking news
- 6 LI nonprofits share $27,500 in prizes
- Hanover income doubles, forms holding company
- First of LI issuing $35M in shares
- Aeropostale, one-time mall king, seeks bankruptcy protection
- April job gains at small businesses and franchises
- US trade deficit in March smallest in 16 months
- Q&A with Scott Jackson
- Two LIers charged with stock fraud
- Ex-NY Assembly Speaker sentenced to 12 years
- Accelerate Long Island gets $3M from state


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Faced with a growing volume of increasingly sophisticated threats and the fact that data is distributed across multiple systems within the enterprise environment, organizations are realizing that hardware-assisted security capabilities are critical to a robust security strategy. In some cases, performance improvements come from having security baked into the hardware layer rather than installing yet another security software tool.
While only 36% of the 1,406 IT leaders surveyed by Intel say their organizations have deployed hardware-assisted security (HAS) solutions, there is strong interest in these types of technologies. Just under half, or 47%, say their organizations plan to adopt hardware-assisted security solutions in the next six months, and 23% say they plan to do so over the next 12 months.
Just a note: Hardware-assisted security (other terms include hardware-enabled or hardware-enhanced security) is different from hardware security, which focuses on protecting the physical devices and machines.
HAS uses hardware extensions and components to support the security of higher-level machine layers, which encompasses the BIOS, operating system, hypervisor, and installed applications. HAS can speed up security-related processing, protect memory bounds, secure random number generators, isolate app execution, and enable trusted computing via hardware components such as the trusted platform module (TPM) chip.
"[Companies] are demanding assurance capabilities and hardware-enhanced security solutions that help protect the entire compute stack," said Suzy Greenberg, vice president, Intel Product Assurance and Security, in a statement.
In Intel’s survey, 64% say they are more likely to purchase security from vendors considered to be “leading edge.” Two-thirds of the respondents say they are looking for vendors offering HAS elements, such as TPM and an open ecosystem. About a third of the respondents, or 31%, say they already use automated industry software/tools to plan and deploy security and functional updates for BIOS and firmware.
Of those organizations already using hardware-assisted security:
- 85% of the respondents say hardware and firmware security is a top priority for their organizations.
- 32% say they have implemented a zero-trust infrastructure strategy, while 75% say they are interested in zero-trust models.
- 64% say it is important for a vendor to offer both hardware- and software-assisted security capabilities.
Intel says hardware-assisted security complements existing protocols and bolsters overall security hygiene. In the survey, 69% say hardware and firmware security solutions make it easier to manage vulnerabilities.
A little over half of these respondents say they have “good or significant visibility into whether their hardware and firmware are operating in a known good state,” according to the survey.


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— John Kemp is a Reuters columnist. The views expressed are his own —
By John Kemp
LONDON, March 23 (Reuters) – Managing the rise of China’s vast economy and healing the U.S. trade deficit will require a new willingness and capacity to boost U.S. technology exports at affordable prices. More importantly it requires a new language from policymakers and a new mindset.


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MacNN is the leading source for news about Apple and the Mac industry. It offers news, reviews, discussion, tips, troubleshooting, links, and reviews every day. The best place for Mac News Period.
- Apple is being asked to get past the security of an iPhone to allow access to data stored inside, but this time from an individual instead of a law enforcement agency. An Italian father has written to CEO Tim Cook for assistance to unlock an iPhone 6, one owned by his deceased 13-year-old son during the last few months of his life, so that they can retrieve photographs, video, and anything else that can help preserve the memory of their child….
- Over the last few years, consumer drones have slowly started to grow in popularity. What started as a fairly expensive hobby has grown into a much more competitive market. So much so, that the US government recently began imposing a new law that requires all drones over eight inches in size to be properly registered before flight. Walk through any mall, and you will likely find a booth selling relatively cheap quadcopters designed for kids, but as you are likely already aware, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Recently we got our hands on a high-end model: the Chroma Blade drone with a 4K c…
- A number of users are having issues with accessing iCloud services, with reports of an inability to connect to Apple’s servers for a limited number of people. Starting a few hours ago, multiple iCloud services went down, affecting iMessage, calendars, iCloud email services, and other items iCloud supports, with users seeing a “connection error” warning message when their devices failed to connect to the server….
- [update: Sprint has informed us that the issues have been resolved.] Some customers on the Sprint network have been notified by the carrier that it is working on LTE connectivity problems, likely induced by a Sprint carrier update made at the same time as Apple’s iOS 9.3 update. Customers impacted by the problem, which span multiple versions of the iOS confirming that the problem is linked to a carrier update, report that certain bands are unavailable, limiting some to slower LTE speeds and others to only 3G connectivity….
- Over the last few years, consumer drones have slowly started to grow in popularity. What started as a fairly expensive hobby, has grown into a much more competitive market. So much so, that the US government recently began imposing a new law that requi ……
- Having gotten the gist of the March 21 event right (though many of the details wrong, as we’ll see), and having already “called” the forthcoming Worldwide Developers Conference pre- and during-event announcements (mostly the obvious stuff — iOS 10, OS X 10.12 which might be called something completely new, and an expected refresh of more-or-less the entire MacBook family), the rumor mill has moved on to next fall — or possibly the fall after that — with speculation on the “iPhone 7″ — or is it the “iPhone 8?”…
- Nobody writes the way you do. Just looking at the end result, at the words you choose to use and the sequence you write them in, plus the very topics that you decide to cover or explore, that is inevitably and distinctively you and nobody else. Then, the ways you get to that end result is probably unique: you’d think there are only so many ways of getting words down on Macs or iOS, but you’d be surprisingly wrong there….
- Canadian phone manufacturer BlackBerry continues to slowly bleed to death. Once again, the company has posted a massive loss, posting a quarterly loss of $238 million on revenue of $464 million, after eking out a small profit in the year ago quarter. Notably, CEO John Chen claimed in a post-earnings announcement interview that the company would have to consider shedding itself of its smartphone division, should things not turn around this year for the department….
- Welcome to Daily Deals, the weekday post where the staff of MacNN scour online retailers for discounts, bargains, promotions, and sales on hardware, software, gadgets, and games for our readers. Our list created throughout the week has been pruned of dead deals, with the new additions for today including a 50-inch Samsung 4K television for $698, a refurbished Apple Airport Express for $49, and a 960GB ADATA Premier SSD for $190….
- Musical artist Jay-Z is suing the original owners of Tidal, for supposedly misleading the buyers of the struggling music streaming service about the real number of subscribers it actually had. The suit alleges Norwegian tech company Aspiro had inflated Tidal’s subscriber count ahead of its sale to the rapper last year, in a high-profile deal said to be worth 464 million Swedish kronor ($56 million) at the time, with an investigation by the new owners discovering the apparent issue….
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The Greater Bossier Economic Development Foundation (GBEDF) is launching a campaign this holiday season in order to educate the public on the impact of the local retail sector.
“Buy Bossier” will encourage shoppers to purchase local, specifically in Bossier Parish, throughout the season and beyond. The campaign is meant to deter retail leakage due to the more increasingly popular trend of purchasing goods and services online through companies outside of the area.
The GBEDF has created a website to showcase the relevant data related to our retail sector in order to engage locals in ways they can be a part of their community’s economic success. Additionally, the site hosts a tool which allows users to search within Bossier for any goods or services for those who rely on the convenience of online shopping.
Retaining retail trade dollars in our market and keeping the local income circulating in our trade area is an important part of Bossier’s economic success.
“When you Buy Bossier, you help to build a better Bossier,” shared Rocky Rockett, executive director of the GBEDF. “Retail sales tax dollars flow back into the local municipality’s bottom line, which in turn helps to further fund investments in public safety, quality of life and infrastructure improvements.”
Patronizing Bossier businesses, both big box retail as well as small businesses, does in fact have an impact on the further development of the area. Additionally, local businesses are more likely to support and invest in community events. The GBEDF invites the business community to join with them in advancing their mission to market the Bossier community in Northwest Louisiana.
Local Retail Facts and Figures
2018 Annual Retail Sales Total (Source: GBEDF)
- Bossier Parish $2,706,944,972
- Bossier City $1,987,364,720
Number of Employees in the Retail Trade Sector (Source: Louisiana Workforce Commission Labor Market Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment Source)
- 13% of the local workforce is employed by the retail trade sector
Total Wages Paid in the Retail Sector for Bossier Parish in 2017 (Source: Louisiana Workforce Commission, Louisiana Occupational Source: LOIS, Labor Market Statistics, July 2019 Information System)


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India adds 28 unicorns in 2021 to take total to 66; over 3.3 lakh people employed: Nasscom
India adds 28 unicorns in 2021 to take total to 66; over 3.3 lakh people employed: Nasscom – India added 28 new unicorns in the initial nine months of 2021, taking the absolute number of unicorns in the country to 66, industry body Nasscom said. This allows the country an opportunity to double the quantity of unicorns from the year before. India had 38 unicorns toward the finish of 2020.
In the startup world, an organization which is esteemed at more than $1 billion is known as a unicorn.
The 66 unicorns in India have a sum of income of more than $15 billion, while they worker over 3.3 lakh individuals, Nasscom said in a blog entry. Out of these, seven unicorns have worker count of more than 10,000 each. Aggregately, these organizations have brought more than $51 billion up in subsidizing over their lifetime, with 18% of them have raised more than $1 billion each.
In term of their consolidation, 75% unicorns were fused over the most recent 11 years (2010 and onwards) out of which more than 50% were joined in 3 years (2010 – 8, 2011 – 9 and 2015 – 10), it said.
Nasscom said online business, SaaS (Software as an assistance) and fintech firms represent more than 60% of the absolute unicorns in the country, with the areas additionally representing 60% of the all out combined financing. These areas were trailed by edtech and coordinations as far as number of unicorns.
As far as the clients they serve, business-to-business (B2B) firms represent 50% of unicorns, while 24% are business-to-shopper (B2C). 16% of unicorns serve both B2B and B2C, said Ashish Gupta, the blog entry’s creator.
Bengaluru has the most extreme number of unicorns with 33% of country’s unicorns settled in the southern city, trailed by Delhi-National Capital Region with 20%.
“Around 90% of new companies turned unicorns in 10 or less number of years from their extended period of fuse out of which 70% turned unicorns in under 5 years,” it said.
Read more News & Trends on India Frontline.


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The car maker announced the design flaws -- effecting its 2010 model Prius -- in an earnings statement in which Toyota reported a $1.3 billion profit for the fourth quarter of 2009.
Now the U.S. Department of Transportation says it will investigate the matter. According to the Associated Press, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received 124 reports from consumers about the 2010 vehicle.
The transportation department investigation, follows an examination of the Prius vehicles published in Riverfront Times last April.
That story recounted claims -- denied by Toyota -- that the previous models of the vehicle accelerated and braked on its own.
Later the car maker blamed ill-fitting floor mats for those problems.
As Jon Stewart and his correspondent, Jason Jones, joked last night, it's going to take awhile for Toyota to recover. That is, if everyone survives the recalls.
|The Daily Show With Jon Stewart||Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c|
|Toyotathon of Death|


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Total Group revenue up nearly 13 per cent and a significant improvement in cash position
PARIS, 2016-May-30 — /EPR Retail News/ — Darty plc today announces fourth quarter trading for the period 1 February 2016 to 30 April 2016, based on unaudited management accounts.
- Continued market outperformance in France with like-for-like sales up 16.0 per cent, aided by vision switchover in April
- Positive like-for-like sales in Belgium for the fourth consecutive quarter
- ‘Confiance 4.0’ plan delivering strong results in terms of growth initiatives and multi-channel development
- Continued focus on working capital resulted in average net debt for the quarter reducing by over €140 million compared to the same quarter last year. Net debt at the end of the year was €115 million lower than last year at €108.8 million
Q4 revenue change (3 months to 30 April)
|Belgium and the Netherlands||0.3%||(0.9)%|
Régis Schultz, Chief Executive, commented:
“We saw an exceptional sales performance in France during the quarter as our service credentials made us the reference retailer for customer advice on the television switchover. As a result, we continued to outperform the market in France with Darty’s like-for-like sales up 16 per cent and Belgium delivered a fourth successive quarter of positive like-for-like sales.
“Our ‘Confiance 4.0’ plan is delivering positive results through our multi-channel and franchise growth, cost initiatives and a significantly improving cash position.”
Total Group revenue was up 12.8 per cent and up 13.5 per cent excluding Mistergooddeal.com. Like-for- like sales increased by 12.0 per cent. Sales were particularly strong in vision driven by the switchover in France but we also saw positive sales in all other major product categories apart from multi-media, where the market remained weak.
Our web-generated sales continued to grow, up 14.4 per cent excluding Mistergooddeal.com, now representing over 16 per cent of total product sales. Underlying group gross margin was down around 160 basis points for the period with very strong vision sales resulting in a less favourable product mix. Mistergoodeal.com then had a negative impact of around 20 basis points and there was a dilutive impact of around 40 basis points from the franchise business.
Darty (excluding Mistergooddeal.com) continued to outperform the market, with total revenue up 17.2 per cent and like-for-like sales up 16.0 per cent driven by the vision switchover. The switchover impacted an estimated three million televisions, necessitating customers to either purchase a set top box or a new television. Darty was well prepared for this event, commencing a customer awareness programme towards the end of 2015 supported by dedicated technical assistants at its call centres. At the switchover deadline in early April, Darty sold over 8,000 set-top boxes, 3,000 HDMI cables and 800 new televisions every hour.
Darty’s web-generated sales grew over 17 per cent to represent close to 16 per cent of total product sales. This was driven by an over 50 per cent growth in click and collect sales.
Overall gross margin for France was down around 250 basis points, with underlying gross margin down around 190 basis points. We continued to grow the profitable franchise business with a further eight openings in the quarter to total 67 in France and opened an additional three overseas to total seven. The franchise operation had a dilutive impact of around 50 basis points on gross margin. Mistergooddeal.com had a negative impact of around 30 basis points on gross margin and whilst its revenue remains under pressure the business is at breakeven.
Belgium and the Netherlands
At Vanden Borre in Belgium and BCC in the Netherlands overall revenue was up 0.3 per cent and like-for- like sales were down 0.9 per cent. Web-generated sales continued to grow strongly, up nearly five per cent, to nearly 16 per cent of total product sales. Overall gross margin was down around 90 basis points.
Vanden Borre delivered a fourth successive quarter of positive like-for-like sales, with strong web sales, but continued to see some small gross margin pressure from competitive market conditions.
Gross margin was under pressure at BCC and whilst revenue was on an improving trend it continued to see some disruption from the warehouse IT system issues, adversely impacting profitability. A new system to resolve was implemented after the period end.
Our cash enhancement programme delivered a further improvement in working capital with average net debt for the quarter reducing by over €140 million compared to the same quarter last year, resulting in the Group’s €225 million revolving credit facility being undrawn (30 April 2015: €40 million drawn). Year end net debt was down by €115 million at €108.8 million.
There will be a telephone conference call for analysts at 08.00 on 26 May 2016. Dial-in number: +44 (0) 20 3003 2666. A recording of this call will be made available after 10.00. Replay dial-in number: +44 (0) 20 8196 1998, Access Pin: 8973210#.
The Group will issue its Full Year Results on Thursday 16 June 2016.
+44 (0) 20 7269 1400
+44 (0) 20 7251 3801
Le Public Système
Ségolène de Saint Martin
+33 1 41 34 23 31
About Darty plc
Darty group is a leading multi-channel service led electrical retailer operating over 400 stores and websites in three European countries. It generated an annual turnover of over €3.5 billion in 2014/15 through its operations of Darty and Mistergooddeal.com in France, Vanden Borre in Belgium and BCC in the Netherlands. Its ordinary shares are listed with the UK Listing Authority and trade on the market for listed securities on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol DRTY.L. It is also listed on the NYSE Euronext Paris.
For further information, please visit the company’s website, www.dartygroup.com.
Certain statements made in this announcement are forward looking statements. Such statements are based on current expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any expected future results in forward looking statements. Unless otherwise required by applicable laws, regulations or accounting standards, Darty plc does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.
Store numbers as at 30 April
|Belgium and the Netherlands||137||135|
*Includes 67 stores in France (2015:39) and 7 overseas (2015:4)


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Diamond Announces Contents of the December 2015 PREVIEWS
December’s PREVIEWS features DC Entertainment’s original graphic novel, Wonder Woman Earth One
(BALTIMORE, MD) — (November 18, 2015) — The December edition of Diamond Comic Distributors’ monthly PREVIEWS catalog arrives in comic shops, hobby stores, and other specialty outlets on November 25th and features comic books, graphic novels, toys, and other pop culture merchandise scheduled to go on sale beginning February 2016.
ON OUR FRONT COVER: Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette revisit the origins of Wonder Woman in DC Entertainment’s long-awaited graphic novel, Wonder Woman Earth One.
ON OUR BACK COVER: Civilization has collapsed in the face of an ice age in Joe Harris and Martin Morazzo’s new series Snowfall from Image Comics.
The December PREVIEWS Features
Unsung Heroes —It’s not easy being a superhero these days. There’s plenty of competition, and you’ve got to stand out in the crowd if you’re going to make your mark. To that end, PREVIEWS celebrates indie superheroes with our “Unsung Heroes” event this month, bringing these deserving characters and series into the spotlight.
On the Flipside —:01 First Second celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, and PREVIEWS talks with First Second’s Editorial Director Mark Siegel and Associate Marketing and Publicity Manager Gina Gagliano about the company, where they’ve been, and where they’re going.
Gems of the Month — December’s PREVIEWS Gems of the Month include: Lara Croft is back in action in Dark Horse Comics’ new Tomb Raider series, set after the new video game; Superman faces a multiversal threat in Neal Adams’ new DC Entertainment mini-series, Superman: The Coming of the Supermen; a secret fighting tournament leads to an unexpected crossover in IDW Publishing’s Street Fighter x G.I. Joe; Emma Rios and Hwei Lim enter the world of 8House in Image Comics’s new series Mirror; and two of Marvel Comics’s best-known street level heroes are back in Power Man and Iron Fist.
Splash — PREVIEWS shines a special spotlight at some of the blockbuster books and products coming out in February, including the debut of Miles Morales in the All-New All-Different Marvel universe in Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man from Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli; a new era dawns on Barsoom in Dynamite Entertainment’s Dejah Thoris; a Time Lord will offer you a jelly baby in Titan Comics’ Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor; Looney Labs unleashes Firefly Fluxx; and many more products you have to look forward to in the new year.
PREVIEWS Exclusive Apparel — Each month PREVIEWS offers comic book fans and pop culture aficionados a selection of t-shirts and other apparel that can only be found in your local comic shop! Underboss brings fans the DC Bombshells Panty & Camisole Sets featuring Ant Lucia’s pin-up style artwork of Harley Quinn or Wonder Woman. The Red Hood’s symbol is featured on the DC Comics: Red Hood “Flip” Black T-Shirt, and Howard the Duck stars on the Howard the Duck: “Space Duck” Black T-Shirt. These and many other shirts can only be found through PREVIEWS.
Indie Edge — PREVIEWS talks to Captain Canuck writer Kalman Andrasofszky about his comics work, the books he’s reading, and his career in this month’s Indie Edge feature.
Plus: Staff Picks, the month’s Certified Cool books, the monthly Bestseller Charts, and so much more!
All this awaits you in the December edition of PREVIEWS, which goes on sale at your local comic shop or specialty store on Wednesday, November 25th with the new, lower cover price of just $3.99.


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Touch the Soil News #347
There is not enough space in our news columns to report the volume of food recalls taking place in the U.S. – 1 to 2 a day. Following are just a few of the recent recalls that provide ample insight to why more people are giving industrial and corporate food more scrutiny.
4/2/16 – Cashews with glass pieces
Snyder’s-Lance Inc. is recalling some of its Emerald brand cashews. The problem started when a customer complained of the glass. Investigations are now underway.
4/2/16 – Glass in cans
Roland Foods, LLC – in cooperation with the manufacturer in Peru – is recalling specific lots of Fire Roasted Red Pepper Strips due to potential glass pieces in the food cans.
4/1/2016 Listeria in broccoli
Save-A-Lot’s exclusive Wylwood brand frozen broccoli is be recalled in 11 states after a random test by Ohio officials found listeria in the product. The food was distributed in stores in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Flordia, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and North Carolina.
4/1/2016 Dole and FDA silent on salad plant listeria problem
Nineteen people in 9 states were confirmed to have listeria infections from a strain of listeria found in random sampling of Dole bagged salads. All 19 victims required hospitalization and one person died.
3/24/2016 – Salmonella contamination in pistachios
American Gourmet is recalling roasted and salted Pistachios for possible salmonella contamination in stores throughout the counties of San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino in Southern California.
Salmonella bacteria – the source of many food recalls and food poisoning outbreaks.
3/23/2016 – Listeria in sprouts
Henry’s Farms Inc. was shut down on 3/3/2016 – after years of ongoing listeria problems in its fresh sprouts. The company issued a recall of its soybean sprouts produced on or after March 1st. The contamination was discovered by the Virginia Department of Agriculture through a surveillance and monitoring effort of Henry’s Farms, Inc.
3/21/2016 H-E-B grocery chain recalls tuna
H-E-B grocery chain recalled 10,000 cans of tuna because the product – produced by a co-packer – may have been undercooked due to an equipment malfunction. The problem was uncovered during a routine inspection.
3/18/16 Shell eggs linked to salmonella outbreak
Kenneth Miller Farms is recalling an unknown volume of shell eggs after Ohio officials linked them to a salmonella outbreak further linked to Lucky’s Taproom mayonnaise. On farm samples taken by the Ohio Department of Agriculture proved positive to salmonella presence.
The following short video clip highlights the magnitude food recalls can reach:


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Cathay Dupont Warning! Avoiding ATM Scam When in Japan
The government and international immigration give warning to travellers and expatriates working in Japan to beware of fraudulent transactions and identity thieves. An Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) i...
The government and international immigration give warning to travellers and expatriates working in Japan to beware of fraudulent transactions and identity thieves.
An Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) is a convenient way to get money from a bank account. People can manage their bank transactions without going over the counter. Machines are located in accessible areas like business establishments and various bank locations for people to easily dispense the cash needed. However, people have reported problems regarding the use of ATMs. Its users are experiencing problems since the crooks are prowling on the machine, as well as its users.
Although ATMs are made with security, criminals can still easily get away with money. By using skimming devices, felons can hack the system. They can also get various information such as account number, password, and personal details for the crooks to hack and get the money from the ATM card. The police are alerted and an investigation is being done due to several reports on ATM scam.losing money from atm
Many have filed their complaint about how they lose money from using the ATM. In Japan, a crime has been committed to several ATM users. The money in their accounts has been stolen. People unaware of how skimming devices work are the prey of fraudsters. Through a wireless network, criminals can quickly hack and complete a fraudulent activity.
According to the police investigation, the criminals have stolen millions of dollars in just three hours. They did it by installing skimming devices in different machines located in Tokyo and across the country. It was attached to the keypad and card slot of the ATM which gather the information needed to hack an account. Without any physical, it can easily gather the details such as account name, password and other information from the card.atm scam
The criminals have stolen big amounts of money using counterfeit Standard Bank credit cards. There was a gang behind the scheme. The money amounted to about 1.4 billion yen which was accumulated in 14,000 transactions. According to reports, the money was withdrawn from ATMs located at 7-Eleven convenience stores.
Seven Bank cooperated with the Japanese police to pinpoint the culprits who stole a big amount of cash from different accountholders. Financial Services Authority (FSA), Japan’s banking regulator, also investigated the crime.
Seven Bank has 22,000 ATMs across the country. It accepts not only local bank cards but also overseas credit cards. According to the experts, the company and the banks were under fire because they have failed to monitor the transactions. The criminals were able to withdraw big amounts of cash in different locations at the same time. Their high security must have prevented the scam. If they have the reliable system, they could have prevented and stopped the fraudulent transactions.
This type of con activity puts the ATM users at risk. Different agencies like Cathay Dupont helps people to prevent fraudulent transaction by giving warning to their clients. Before withdrawing money from machines, always check the card slot and keypad.
Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andrei Park from Cathay Dupont


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The three-day motoring festival, Salon Prive, will be held at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire from 3 to 5 September this year, celebrating its 10th anniversary.
This is the first year the event, first started in 2006 by brothers David and Andrew Bagley, will be held outside of London and offers manufacturers and owners alike an opportunity to showcase luxury motoring.
The three days include regular events such as the Chubb Insurance Concours judging day on the Thursday and the Ladies’ Boodles day on Friday – where an £8500 ring will be awarded to the best-dressed woman – but also some new features such as the Speed & Style supercar competition on the public day on Saturday, featuring supercars from 1975 to the present.
At the media day ahead of the event in September, the Bagley brothers confirmed that manufacturers participating in the super-luxury event include Aston Martin, Ferrari, Jensen and ad Tramontana, but Lamborghini won’t be present this year because of long-term commitments elsewhere. Hypercars on show include the Ferrari LaFerrari, Porsche 918 Spyder and McLaren P1, as well as the GTA Spano, Zenvo, Koenigsegg Regera and a prototype of the new Ford GT.


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The move comes in response to a decline in Bud Light sales attributed to a conservative backlash in the U.S. The brewing giant reported Q3 earnings that surpassed expectations but revealed a nearly 14% drop in revenue from July to September in its largest market, the U.S. Bud Light sales have faced challenges since April when a conservative boycott arose following the brewer’s partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. To reverse the brand’s fortunes, Anheuser-Busch plans to promote Bud Light through uncontroversial platforms, emphasizing events like football games, concerts, and more.
St. Louis, Missouri, [Date] – Anheuser-Busch InBev has unveiled its strategy to breathe new life into its flagship beer, Bud Light, as it grapples with declining sales amid a conservative backlash in the U.S. The brewing giant reported better-than-expected third-quarter earnings but acknowledged a nearly 14% dip in revenue from July to September, primarily driven by a slump in Bud Light sales.
The decline in Bud Light’s sales began in April when a conservative boycott emerged in response to the brewer’s partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. At the peak of the backlash, Modelo Especial dethroned Bud Light as the best-selling beer in the U.S.
Despite efforts to recover, Bud Light’s sales continue to lag, plummeting by 29% in the four weeks ending October 21 compared to the same period last year, according to Nielsen data compiled by research firm Bump Williams Consulting. Overall, sales have dwindled by nearly 19% this year, according to the same firm. CNBC reached out to Anheuser-Busch for their response.
In a bid to reverse the brand’s fortunes, Anheuser-Busch is shifting its marketing focus to platforms it deems uncontroversial. During a conference call with investors, CEO Michel Doukeris expressed confidence in Bud Light and revealed a “significant increase” in investment in the brand over the summer. The company’s future plans include promoting Bud Light at events such as football games and concerts.
Bud Light will concentrate its marketing efforts on platforms like the NFL, college football, the country music festival Stagecoach, and Folds of Honor, a nonprofit organization providing scholarships to military families.
Earlier this month, Bud Light solidified its position as the official beer sponsor for the Ultimate Fighting Championship through a six-year marketing partnership, reported to be a nine-figure deal and the largest in the mixed martial arts promotion’s history, as previously covered by CNBC.
Furthermore, Doukeris emphasized a change in the company’s marketing structure, intending to steer the brand away from contentious debates. He stated, “While beer will always be at the table when important topics are debated, the beer itself should not be the focus of the debate.”
Doukeris also distanced the company from Dylan Mulvaney, who criticized Anheuser-Busch for not defending her during the boycott. The backlash surrounding the company’s response contributed to lower sales earlier this year. Doukeris clarified that the partnership with Mulvaney was a one-time campaign, not a formal production or advertisement, and that the company has been working to support those affected by the situation, including delivery drivers, sales representatives, wholesalers, and servers.
Despite Bud Light’s challenges in the U.S. market, Anheuser-Busch surpassed Wall Street’s expectations for the third quarter, with revenue rising by 5% from the previous year to $15.57 billion, driven by an industry-wide trend of higher pricing.


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While the BlackBerry Z3 was not the device that was finally able to lift the company from a negative financial abyss (it was actually the BlackBerry Passport that did that), the company has still rolled out a device called the BlackBerry Rio. Earlier speculations indicated that the BlackBerry Rio was going to be the flagship handset of BlackBerry but as more and more leaks made it through, we now know that the BlackBerry Rio is not the flagship device belonging to the company, but rather the successor of the company’s Z3 handset.
The BlackBerry Rio, which is expected to be released in February 2015, will be loaded with more impressive specifications, including a better processor and an LTE modem. However, perhaps the biggest perk of owning the BlackBerry Rio will be that it will be retailing for $300. Going in to more details, the BlackBerry Rio will have a 5 inch screen size that will be exuding a 720p display.In addition to this, a Snapdragon S4 chipset possessing a dual core processor clocked in at 1.5GHz will be handling all the tasks, while 2GB of RAM will allow for multitasking capabilities. 16 GB of internal storage combined with a microSD slot seems like a solid combo and a 2,800 mAh battery has been added for sufficient battery backup time.
If the BlackBerry Rio is compared to the Z3, then the latter possessed a 540p resolution, a dual core Snapdragon 400 chipset, 1.5 GB of RAM, 8 GB of storage and only possessing 3G connectivity. In our opinion, the Rio has been given an upgrade, but for $300, we were hoping to see more than just a dual core processor. Nevertheless, BlackBerry fans will rejoice to hear that a new 5 inch smartphone is up for grabs in the near future.


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Surprise! The Void just announced its Marvel VR experience, Avengers: Damage Control.
We first reported that The Void was making a Marvel VR experience earlier this year. The company creates location-based VR experiences often based on popular IP like Wreck it Ralph and Star Wars. Today, the company surprise revealed its Marvel project, which will be launching on October 18. You can get tickets right here. Check out a teaser trailer below (which features Shuri herself, Letitia Wright).
Assemble alongside Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in @Avengers: Damage Control, an all-new virtual reality adventure from @MarvelStudios and @ILMxLAB. Launching exclusively for a limited time at @VOIDVR locations beginning October 18. Tickets on-sale NOW: https://t.co/Pbktqi5uBV pic.twitter.com/BbJo3zr8H1
— ILMxLAB (@ILMxLAB) October 3, 2019
Avengers: Damage Control Details
In Avengers: Damage Control, players are recruited by childhood prodigy Shuri to test an experimental armor. As you can see from the trailer, the prototype suit combines technologies used in both the Iron Man and Blank Panther suits. A website reveals that Doctor Strange, the Wasp and Ant-Man will appear in the experience alongside other Avengers. The piece will also feature a villain from the series’ history.
That’s all we know for now. The name Damage Control itself is a Marvel easter egg, though. In the comics, this is the name of an organization that cleans up after big superhero battles. Tony Stark coined the term in the MCU for its debut in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Damage Control is developed by ILMxLAB, the studio that also worked on The Void’s Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire. It also just launched the second episode of Vader Immortal.
The Void says Damage Control will be available for a limited time only. For now, it’s available in the US and Canada, with no word on a possible launch overseas. Tickets start from $39.95.
Elsewhere, we also know the company is working on a new experience with Sony Pictures that’s yet to be revealed.


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Jean-Talon Market merchants want to feed the hungry
Merchants in the Jean-Talon Market want to make sure their neighbours in the area are fed and will be donating a lot of food to make sure that’s the case.
Each year, vendors at the market throw out 200 tons of fruit and vegetables, much of it perfectly edible.
"No matter how much we sell it for less -- from $5 to 50 cents -- people don't want it," said vendor Johnny Cicchino.
This year, they’re hoping to get that number down to zero by donating food that would normally be thrown out to charity.
While many merchants were already donating to charities that asked, it’s the first time the market has organized to ensure no food goes to waste. While there was a pilot project last year, Food bank organization Centre de Ressources et d’Action de la Petite-Patrie director Nathalie Bouchard said its success made it evident that the project should be expanded. With less than 10 per cent of the market's vendors taking part last year, she said the room for growth was evident.
"We knew there was stuff being thrown away here so we just came and didn't have any expectations, really," she said. "But we recuperated about 21 tonnes of food which was very amazing for us. That's why we persisted all year to find financing so we could pursue it again this year."
While most of the food looked perfectly presentable, Bouchard estimated another 10 per cent was edible but didn't look pristine. She said programs are underway to make sure that food is still put to good use, such as being used for her organization's weekly lunch or by making it into soup that could be given away.
During a short trial period last year, 460 families received two bags of produce each.
Sabrina Racine, owner of the Racine Petits Fruits stand said she's against throwing food out on principle. Often, she sells overripe fruit to people looking to make jam but she's happy to see her fellow merchants get in on the act.
"I think it's an old mentality that a lot of people have but now I think we'll see more and more people that will see people take overripe fruit and vegetables they would have thrown out and give those products a second chance."
The Centre de Ressources et d’Action de la Petite-Patrie is one of the organizations that will receive some of the food. Bouchard said the initiative won’t just provide the needy with staples but will also give them access to foods they wouldn’t normally be able to have.
“We also get all kinds of vegetables that are a little more rare and fine herbs that people in need don’t usually cook,” she said. “We have people at the centre that tell them what they can do with these vegetables. Not only are they being fed a bit more properly, but they have a bigger variety now.”
This is a pilot project of sorts for other public markets: Atwater, Lachine, Maisonneuve, and a dozen smaller community markets, all still throwing out far too much food.
The city of Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie will be chipping in $85,000 to fund a refrigerator in the market in which merchants will put food they were unable to sell. The money will also go towards the cost of a truck and driver to bring the food to those who need it.


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Following a week of negative reports, the American Chemistry Council's (ACC; Washington, DC) economics and statistics department changed its banner from green to yellow when its running tab of positive indicators slipped to 11 out of 20. While news that initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to a two-year low was positive, disappointing reports on retail sales, industrial production, trade, and the regional business surveys outweighed any optimism to be gleaned from that bright spot.
In the July 16 report, the ACC also confirmed that overseas the industrial production recovery appears to be slowing, with year-earlier comparisons in Europe, China and India, remaining strongly positive but now beginning to moderate. "This confirms earlier signals emanating from the purchasing manager reports and composite leading indicators," the ACC concluded in its weekly report. "A second half slowdown or soft patch is clearly...


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PetSmart, Inc. has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by a consortium led by BC Partners, Inc. at a price of $83.00 per share in cash, representing a premium of approximately 39 percent over PetSmart’s unaffected closing share price on July 2, 2014. The consortium includes Funds advised by BC Partners (“the BC Funds”), alongside several of its limited partners, including La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (“La Caisse”) and StepStone. Longview Asset Management, which owns or manages approximately 9 percent of PetSmart’s outstanding shares, has committed to vote in favor of the transaction. Longview will participate in the consortium only with respect to approximately one-third of its holdings, with the balance of its holdings receiving the same $83.00 per share cash transaction consideration as PetSmart’s public shareholders will receive.
The transaction would be valued at approximately $8.7 billion, representing a 9.1x multiple of PetSmart’s adjusted EBITDA1 for the twelve months ending November 2, 2014.
The announcement follows a thorough review of strategic alternatives undertaken by the PetSmart Board of Directors to maximize shareholder value which began over the summer. The transaction was unanimously approved by the PetSmart Board and is subject to shareholder and regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions. The consortium has received fully committed debt financing in connection with the transaction. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2015.
“We are pleased to have reached this agreement with BC Partners, which maximizes value for all of our shareholders and best positions PetSmart to continue to meet the needs of pet parents,” said Gregory P. Josefowicz, chairman of PetSmart. “This transaction represents the successful conclusion of our extensive review of strategic alternatives.”
“This transaction is a testament to the strength of the PetSmart brand and franchise and reflects the dedication and commitment of our 54,000 associates to serving our customers and delivering value for our company and our shareholders,“ said David K. Lenhardt, president and CEO. “The consortium led by BC Partners will be an excellent partner for PetSmart as we continue to implement our strategic plan to capitalize on our opportunities for growth and meet the needs of pet parents.”
“We are very pleased to add PetSmart to our portfolio of investments. PetSmart is an iconic brand and the category leader in the growing pet retail industry. We look forward to working with management to continue growing PetSmart’s business and executing against its recently announced strategic initiatives,” said Raymond Svider, a managing partner at BC Partners.
“This is an excellent outcome for PetSmart shareholders; it delivers significant and immediate value while best positioning the company for the future,” said James A. Star, president and CEO of Longview Asset Management. “We fully support the transaction.”
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is serving as the exclusive financial advisor to the company, and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is serving as the company’s legal advisor. BC Partners and its consortium investors were advised by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and Ernst & Young. Longview was represented by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Citigroup, Nomura, Jefferies, Barclays and Deutsche Bank, have underwritten the debt package to finance the acquisition.


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OnBuy, the online marketplace that has set out its mission to rival Amazon and eBay, has detailed its latest plans for globalisation, aiming to scale up to span 140 countries by the year 2023. The platform will start with 40 initial sites by the end of this year, and has forecast to drive growth by 50 times the number within four years.
Should OnBuy achieve the goals, it will become the world’s first truly global marketplace.
The platform has even gone as far as to detail how it will achieve the mission, through a combination of 525 million products, a network of robust global partnerships, and an efficient infrastructure. The business has called its a ‘secret sauce’ that will allow for rapid scaling into multiple territories on a tailored platform with local currency payment enabled.
Unlike other online retail operations, which have to build up product ranges from scratch in each new country they launch into, OnBuy suggests that its own product offering can be implemented almost instantly – ‘with an array of global retailers eager to add their product ranges.’
The company recently announced 24,000 per cent growth in just four years, with a reported 600 per cent revenue growth year-on-year for the second year running.
Cas Paton, OnBuy’s founder and CEO, said: “OnBuy’s aggressive growth strategy is unlike anything the eCommerce world has ever seen. We have around 25 million live products in the UK, with 525 million products ready to roll out internationally. The scope of this scale-up is immense, and we aim to double our product numbers in the first 12 months.
“Our ability to scale in the UK, which is known to be one of the toughest eCommerce markets on the planet, has given us the infrastructure and business model that combined, go a long way to supporting us to scale internationally.”
Targeting territories that other marketplaces have been unable to reach is a conscious focal point of the globalisation strategy. OnBuy’s differentiates itself via what it calls a ‘model of low, competitive seller fees, and promising never to hold stock to compete with its merchants.’ It’s so far proven a success for the company.
In addition, OnBuy’s agile business model and low overheads driven by minimal premises costs allows the business to adapt, evolve and thrive, in response to evolving opportunities and the needs of both customers and sellers.
Paton continued: “OnBuy is the marketplace of the present and of the future. Our move into global territories starting in November and continuing over the next 18 months is seen as the delivery of our global marketplace solution – a move that will establish OnBuy as a first-of-its-kind global player. We’ve worked very hard to create the world’s first global marketplace.
“Having rapidly overtaken our closest competitors, proving conclusively that the appetite exists worldwide for a transparent and ethical marketplace, we will welcome the planet to a better, fairer and more ethical eCommerce ecosystem, and support retailers all over the world in selling through the world’s first true global marketplace.
“We’re not just about big brands and big business: the core value of our business model is to support businesses of all sizes – and we support small UK businesses to help make them visible to a wider audience. This value resonates globally: as the world becomes dominated by large players, we plan to make the world’s retailers more accessible and more visible. Ultimately, we plan to offer consumers more choice, convenience and confidence in buying from any retailer, giving the customer peace of mind through OnBuy guarantees and protections.”


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Designers, like Isaac Mizrahi, who has a collection at Target Stores as well as at Bergdorf Goodman, and Karl Lagerfeld, who has created clothes for Swedish chain H&M in addition to being the fashion genius behind Chanel, now sell in mass-market outlets for which only the likes of Jaclyn Smith once dared to design. Their straddling of the stratospherically expensive and the giddily cheap means they understand the power of mass marketing; Today, good design is within everyone's reach.
"Fashion is getting more accessible," says Nandini D'Souza, senior fashion features editor at Women's Wear Daily, the trade newspaper of the women's apparel industry, and its sister publication, W. "It is entertainment and it is fun. It is incredible business and incredible entertainment."
Marshal Cohen, NPD's chief analyst, says that the presence of high-end designers in lower-end stores shows that retailers are finally responding to what the consumer wants: cheap but fun fashion. (continue reading...)


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As the number of mobile internet users is increasing with each passing year, mobile users in india are becoming more data hungry in 2015, the share of mobile internet spend in the average monthly bill rose to 64% from 54% in the previous year. Tracks the usage share of search engines, browsers and operating systems including mobile from over 10 billion monthly page views. Unlimited home internet data for customers with the internet 1000mbps speed tier, combined bills for home internet and u-verse tv or directv as a benefit of bundling, or the $30 unlimited usage option. The internet is growing at an annualized rate of 18% and now has one billion users a second billion users will follow in the next ten years, bringing a dramatic change in worldwide usability needs.
3 generation gap narrowing in recent internet use in 2018, almost all adults aged 16 to 34 years (99%) were recent internet users since the survey began in 2011, adults aged 75 years and over have consistently been the lowest users of the internet. Checking your internet usage when you have a download limit on a package with a download limit, it's pretty common for broadband providers to let you see how much of your allowance you've used they'll usually drop you an email when you're nearing the limit, but it's a good idea to check it regularly anyway. The latest news from brussels: italy is not happy with article 13 or article 11, and wants them gonewhat is going on with europe’s meme-filtering article 13 (and the hyperlink-meddling article 11) after the proposals sneaked over the finish line in a close european parliamentary vote in july, the.
Internet users are growing in africa and latin america at a fast pace with support from the local governments already in colombia internet penetration in the larger cities (with over 200,000 population) has reached 80%. Chennai: the number of internet users in india will reach 500 million by june 2018, a report by iamai and kantar imrb says at the end of december 2017, india had 481 million users, growing 1134%. Global policy forum is a policy watchdog that follows the work of the united nations we promote accountability and citizen participation in decisions on peace and security, social justice and international law. In 2017, 1 in 4 people in myanmar use internet on a regular basis according to a new report released by we are social, myanmar now counts 17 millions internet users which represents 26% of the country population myanmar remains the least penetrated country in the region (26%) but caught up on laos with an impressive 97% growth within one year. This report lists the market share of the top browsers in use, like internet explorer, firefox, chrome, safari, and opera this report lists the market share of the top browsers in use, like internet explorer, firefox, chrome, safari, and opera market share statistics for internet technologies login (800) 315-8391.
Interesting observations about media internet users 3 of the top 5 countries by internet users are christian 97 of the top 187 countries by internet users are hot countries. Definition: this entry gives the number of users within a country that access the internet statistics vary from country to country and may include users who access the internet at least several times a week to those who access it only once within a period of several months. Internet users compares the number of users within a country that access the internet statistics vary from country to country and may include users who access the internet at least several times a week to those who access it only once within a period of several months.
Below is a sortable list of countries by number of internet users as of 2016 internet users are defined as persons who accessed the internet in the last 12 months from any device, including mobile phones. Users can upgrade to comodo internet security pro for just $2799 per year and receive unlimited live expert virus removal services and our exclusive virus free guarantee malware removal the secrets of comodo internet security. When you get internet for home or as a student, there’s always a cap on your internet usage limit but when you’re online, you tend to get carried away and sometimes end up exhausting a whole month’s internet package within a couple of weeks there can be multiple reasons for that for.
Computer and internet use in the united states: 2015 this report is an update to the 2013 report it highlights computer and internet use data for various demographic and geographic characteristics. South africa has 21-million internet users, the vast majority of which are using mobile, according to new research that shows 40% of the population will go online this year. The map identifies that asia has 124 billion users, so this is the continent where nearly half (46%) of the world’s internet users live that number is roughly equal to the number of internet users in europe, latin america & caribbean, middle east & north africa, and north america combined.
Understand internet usage understanding how much data you use can help you avoid overages activities like online gaming, streaming movies and tv shows, and music downloads contribute to your data use it’s not how long you’re on the internet but what you do while you’re there that determines how much data you use. Beginning and advanced internet users all access the web through web browser software, which is included on computers and mobile devices at the time of purchase other browsers can be downloaded from the internet a browser is a free software package or mobile app that lets you view web pages.
More fact sheets: internet/broadband | social media in contrast to the largely stationary internet of the early 2000s, americans today are increasingly connected to the world of digital information while “on the go” via smartphones and other mobile devices. Statistics of the internet the internet has made distances shorter and the world smaller however, the great divider that stands in the way of a truly global. This employee internet usage policy is ready to be tailored for your company’s needs and should be considered a starting point for setting up your policies regarding computer usage for employees may also be called employee internet policy, company internet policy or computer usage policy. Rank 4: india 81 million internet users internet in india was established more than a decade ago as ernet -- educational research network it was a joint undertaking of the department of.


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Pottery Shards Push Milk-Drinking Back to 6000 B.C.
By Andrea Thompson
Article from Fox News
The answer to "Got milk?" just got a little older: A new study indicates that people have been milking cattle and other domesticated animals as well as processing and storing milk products for 2,000 years longer than originally thought.
A group of scientists studied thousands of pottery shards from sites all over the Near East and the Balkans and tested them for residues of milk fats.
They found that milk was already being used and processed by societies there by the seventh millennium B.C.
Previously, the earliest evidence of milk use came from the fifth millennium, though cattle, sheep and goats had already been domesticated by the eighth millennium.
• Click here to visit FOXNews.com's Archaeology Center.
The traces of milk fats can survive on the pottery, even after being buried for thousands of years, because the fats are hydrophobic, so they don't dissolve in water, and they are produced in large amounts, said study leader Richard Evershed of the University of Bristol in England.
Ceramic vessels are very porous, so if you store or cook animal products in them, "the pottery vessels pick up that organic matter like crazy," Evershed told LiveScience.
The residues don't indicate the presence of milk itself, as those would decay away very quickly, but instead suggest more processed dairy substances, such as butter, yogurt, ghee (or clarified butter), and possibly cheese, though cheese is largely altered by microbes and so may not leave a recognizable dairy signature, Evershed said.
Evershed and his colleagues were surprised that they found the most residues in sites in Anatolia (most of modern Turkey), which lies outside the traditional Fertile Crescent region where agriculture was first developed.
To see why milk production seemed to be more important in Anatolia than in the other sites, the team looked at animal bones and found a strong correlation between the number of cattle bones present at a site and the prevalence of milk residues.
"So it looks like there's a linkage between the importance of dairy, of cattle and the production of dairy products," Evershed said, pointing out that this is much the situation in the world today, where cattle are the main source of dairy products.
Evershed said that the region in Anatolia around the Sea of Marmara was supposedly very lush, and so "it might have been that the conditions were just right for grazing cattle."
Because Anatolia is outside of the Fertile Crescent, it also suggests that the various pieces of domestication didn't evolve in a linear order and that some aspects, such as milk production, may have only boomed in the right places when the conditions were ripe.
The results of the study are detailed in the Aug. 7 issue of the journal Nature.


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Shoppers will soon be able to stand outside the designer Norma Kamali’s boutique in Manhattan, point a phone at merchandise in the window and buy it — even late at night when the store is closed.
Ms. Kamali is at the forefront of a technological transformation coming to many of the nation’s retailers. They are determined to strengthen the link between their physical stores and the Web, and to use technology to make shopping easier for consumers and more lucrative for themselves.
The main way they plan to do it is by turning people’s mobile phones into information displays and ordering devices. Can’t find the flour at the grocery store? Grocers will offer phone applications that tell shoppers exactly where to go. Is the department store out of size 8 jeans? Retailers want to make it simple to punch a couple of buttons and have the desired size shipped home.
Some supermarkets intend to offer real-time coupons while people shop. For example, a promotion for milk may be sent to a shopper’s mobile phone the moment her cart rolls into the dairy aisle. Drugstores will offer loyalty programs on cellphones, not on plastic cards. And specialty chains will allow shoppers to breeze through the aisles compiling a wedding registry, just by pointing at merchandise.
It remains to be seen how readily shoppers will embrace such aggressive merchandising, which will generally require them to download free applications onto their phones and consent to being tracked electronically while in a store. But many stores are betting they will go along. After all, people already wander city streets guided by maps on their mobile phones. Why shouldn’t the same technology lead them to the toilet paper in Aisle 3?
Hoping to use the technology as a competitive advantage, some big chains are reluctant to discuss their plans. The Sam’s Club division of Wal-Mart , Crate & Barrel, Kerr Drug of North Carolina and Disney stores are among the retailers that confirmed they were testing various mobile technology or planned to do so soon.
Technology companies behind the products say retailers are sniffing around, with some planning limited introductions this year and wider deployments in 2011 or 2012.
Appropriately enough for a revered designer, Ms. Kamali is in the vanguard. A technology called ScanLife was installed at her boutique in recent weeks, and it already allows people to scan bar codes on merchandise and obtain details about the clothes through videos. The part about buying items day or night will come in another week or two.
“To say that I’m excited is putting it mildly,” Ms. Kamali said. “I’ve been in this business since the ’60s and I have to just tell you, nothing — nothing at all — has been as powerful a change in the psyche of the way we do everything as this technology.”
Other retailers have begun testing a product from I.B.M. called Presence. Shoppers who sign up can be detected as soon as they set foot in a store. That enables Presence to offer real-time mobile coupons. And tracking shoppers’ spending habits and browsing time in various departments can help the system figure out who might be moved to suddenly buy a discounted item.
Presence can also make product recommendations. If a shopper was buying cake mix, Presence might suggest buying the store’s private-label frosting and sprinkles, too.
“We’re also able to do predictive analytics — predict what we think you might want based on what we already know about you,” said Craig W. Stevenson, an I.B.M. executive who oversees Presence.
Cisco Systems , the supplier of networking equipment and services for the Internet, is also a leader in the field. The company’s Mobile Concierge system is capable of connecting customers’ smartphones to retailers’ wireless networks — so a shopper could type “Cheez Whiz” into a cellphone, then pinpoint its location in the store.
“We see the smartphone being used more and more in the shopping experience,” said Dick Cantwell, Cisco’s vice president for retail at Cisco’s Internet business solutions group.
Beyond privacy worries, retailers recognize other potential pitfalls. If the phone applications freeze or give bad information, they will most likely frustrate consumers. So reliability will be a priority, a reason retailers are starting with limited tests. And as some executives said, many stores cannot yet afford such technology.
As the more daring retailers see it, the potential benefits outweigh the risks. More aggressive profiling of shoppers — along with a novel, entertaining shopping experience — could help increase sales. And the technology may help retailers save money by cutting workers, essentially substituting electronic guidance for store clerks. Motorola , for example, has stores testing kiosk systems that enable consumers to summon a clerk to a particular department or fitting room when needed.
A new Motorola product promises to eliminate loyalty cards, instead putting the program, as well as coupons, onto shoppers’ cellphones. “Probably by the end of 2010 we’ll have 10 to 20 retailers up and running,” said Frank Riso, a senior director at Motorola, adding that most of the activity will begin in 2011.
Many big retailers have already created cellphone applications that do more than just dole out coupons. Target , for one, has an application that can identify which store aisle sells nightgowns.
So far, many stores have focused on improving their mobile shopping sites, which some consumers use when browsing the aisles to see product reviews and specifications. Retailers like Sears and American Eagle Outfitters work with a company called Usablenet to optimize their mobile sites.
Jason Taylor, Usablenet’s vice president for mobile products, said retailers began clamoring for improvements around Thanksgiving. The company is also working with a retailer, which it said it could not name, to enable shoppers to use smartphones to scan items in its stores, then add them to gift registries.
“Extending the phone to use as a scanner in the retail world — especially gift registry, wish lists — you’re going to see a lot more of this year,” Mr. Taylor said.
In the end, though, stores may not have much control over the way consumers use mobile technology.
Some shoppers are already outwitting retailers, using mobile applications like RedLaser to compare prices in a physical store to those on the Web. (Such applications scan product bar codes through a cellphone’s camera.)
Ben Aldern, 20, of Berkeley, Calif., went to Target recently to shop for headphones. “I was ready to spend whatever I needed,” he said, but on a hunch, he fired up RedLaser — and found the same model for less at Amazon , the online merchant.
“Once I saw I could save 20 bucks,” he said, “Target lost me.”