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This weekend's episode of Doctor Who revealed a strange new twist in the Doctor and Missy's tumultuous relationship. We recently had the chance to talk to Michelle Gomez about her time on the show, and now that "Extremis" is out in the wild, we had to get her spoilery thoughts on Missy's latest appearance.
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Although these days the realm of collectable Star Wars cards might be more active on your phone or tablet, the movies have been linked with the world of trading cards ever since they came out. A new book wants to stoke the flames of your nostalgia for those heady days of card collecting, and we have a look inside.
The next addition to the realms of Magic: The Gathering is taking players to the desert oasis of Amonkhet, a magical land that's essentially Magic's own take on the mysticism of Ancient Egypt. Ahead of the 74th expansion's arrival in stores later this month, we are proud to debut a few of the new cards and the art behind this new plane of mystery.
Netflix have released a new collection of episodes from the original Voltron, hand-picked by the creative team that's brought the iconic series back to life. To celebrate, we sat down with Legendary Defender executive producers Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery to reflect on the original show, and exactly how it has — and hasn't — inspired the new series.
The Girl With All The Gifts is a critically acclaimed 2014 novel, turned into a celebrated movie, which hits Australian theatres some time this year. It tells a new type of zombie story, about kids, compassion, disease and acceptance. Author M.R. Carey has written a sequel, and we are very excited to bring you the first except from it.
The new Ghost in the Shell movie is not without its controversies, but one of the universally-praised aspects of it from what we've seen so far is that the film totally nails its future cyberpunk aesthetic — and we've got an exclusive look at a book that will be all about bringing that world to the big screen.
Rogue One might be the most gorgeous Star Wars film ever made. It's full of incredible vistas, strange aliens and wonderful locales — and behind that imagery is an absolute ton of incredible concept artwork behind it. Today, thanks to the release of The Art of Rogue One, we have an exclusive glimpse at some of that amazing work.
Think long enough about the future, where humanity is almost certainly doomed, and you might start going insane with despair. But what happens when your entire job is preparing for that future? In the latest techno-thriller novel by Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan, Planetary, Red, Nextwave) you go to the one place that can help: Normal.
The thought of an official mashup between Doctor Who and the classic works of Roger Hargreaves was already too cute to bear when it was first announced. But now we have an exclusive look at the first book in the series, Dr First, and it's everything we could've wanted from this crossover.
There was a lot of amazing visual setpieces in The Force Awakens, made possibly by the incredible wizardry of ILM and many other VFX studios. But sometimes the best use of CGI is one where you had no idea its even used, as J.J. Abrams points out in this exclusive clip from his new Force Awakens commentary track.
Mondo is mainly known for their insanely gorgeous collection of pop culture posters and other collectable pieces, but in recent years, it's also transformed itself into an event. The third MondoCon begins this weekend, and to celebrate, we have a look at three of the gorgeous prints that will be available to attendees.
The last episode of Ash vs Evil Dead ended with Ash's worst fear coming true: His beloved Delta was heisted by teenage joyriders. On the next episode "Last Call", Ash throws a party with his longtime buddy, sleazy bartender Chet (Ted Raimi), to lure back the car thieves. Did we mention the Necronomicon's in the car, too?
There is no doubt that Ralph McQuarrie's sublime art was fundamental in shaping the success of Star Wars, and enriching the galaxy far, far away. For years his work has been archived and championed, but a new book is collecting some of his best (and some of his rarest) Star Wars art in a lavish volume, and we have an exclusive look inside.
Ever since he began publishing sci-fi stories to his website, The Martian author Andy Weir has been using unorthodox approaches to deliver his stories to audiences. His latest collection is not found online or on a bookshelf, but in a new app named Tapas, and we've got an exclusive excerpt from one of its stories.


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Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – Flirt Lounge has been using a new location and marketing strategy to increase its customer base.Ã‚Â Moving from their original in Jambo Building (Mafi Mall) to Lucky building on the road between Edna Mall and Friendship City Center they have been able to accommodate more people in a sophisticatedly designed venue.
Its luxurious decorations and impeccable service makes party goers feel special. Unlike many clubs in Addis the lounge uses Facebook as its main promotional tool instead of flyers. A professional photographer takes pictures of people enjoying themselves and uploads it on Facebook to show the fun and great time you can have.
Such kind of promotion is effective because the pictures show first-hand experiences of people and lends credibility to their claim of quality service. Friends are also able to share pictures of their fun with others.
Ã¢â‚¬Å“Even though we have new customers coming in all the time, we still promote the lounge as we did when it first opened because we want to remind people what we are offering and that is good entertainment and immaculate service,Ã¢â‚¬Â said Amsalu Hailu, Manager of the lounge.
Amsalu who started out as a bartender at Club Illusion and Amsterdam has been managing Flirt Lounge for two years now.
Ã¢â‚¬Å“I was involved in every little detail of the loungeÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s creation starting from hiring and training the staff to getting the space decorated,Ã¢â‚¬Â he says.
The establishment works to keep its quality of service topnotch. Ã¢â‚¬Å“There is still a sense that good customer service has disappeared in some places, for some reason some establishments fail to maintain good service and that is what hurts business the most,Ã¢â‚¬Â said Amsalu.
Asked why he likes Flirt, one regular customer said Ã¢â‚¬Å“it is the entertainment and service.Ã‚Â The waiters, bartenders and guards are very friendly. The service staff is quick to respond to customersÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ orders.Ã¢â‚¬Â
The lounge had also introduced brunch service on Sundays starting from 10am.
Ã¢â‚¬Å“That program is on hold temporarily because we want to do it on a bigger scale. Many of our customers are foreigners and we want to satisfy everyone; thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s why we want to diversify the menu for the brunch a little bit and ensure that everybody get what they want,Ã¢â‚¬Â explained Amsalu.
The lounge opens its doors at 5 pm. It offers live music three days a week. On Tuesdays, Zemen band, on Wednesdays Beyaynetus and on Sundays Team Donald perform.
Ã¢â‚¬Å“Our live entertainment is really the best in town; we have bands that can meet a diverse audience,Ã¢â‚¬Â said Amsalu. The live performances start at 9 oÃ¢â‚¬â„¢clock.
Ã¢â‚¬Å“The establishment works hard to keep its image as elegant as possible and never compromises service quality; thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s why it will never go out of style,Ã¢â‚¬Â says Amsalu.

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Two months after landing on the Hong Kong stock exchange, Naixue’s tea (hereinafter referred to as Naixue), the “first share of tea”, handed over its first report card.
At the interim performance meeting held recently, Naixue executives said that the operating profit of the store in the first half of the year reached 385 million yuan, a significant increase of nearly five times compared with the same period last year. The latest Naixue Pro tea store has reached or exceeded the company’s expectations while expanding rapidly, with an average daily sales of about 21000 yuan. Zhao Lin, chairman and CEO of Naixue, revealed that the actual number of stores this year is expected to exceed the original target of 300.
In addition, Peng Xin, executive director and general manager of Naixue, also reviewed the recent food safety events at the meeting, saying that the company has optimized its internal operation and food safety management in the past month. In the next step, it plans to hold Naixue open day activities to open stores and back kitchens to the public. She also pointed out that the incident did not have much impact. At present, the company’s performance has recovered to the level before the incident.
Let’s take a look at the details.
Growth strategy and logic
According to the financial report data, Naixue achieved a revenue of 2.126 billion yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 80.2%; The adjusted net profit after deducting listing expenses was 48.2 million yuan, compared with a loss of 63.5 million yuan in the same period last year. Among them, the operating profit margin of stores reached 19.2%, an increase of 7 percentage points over last year and 3 percentage points over 2019.
Shen Hao, CO chief financial officer and Secretary of the board of directors of Naixue, introduced that from the perspective of different products and income sources, the income of tea and baking continues to maintain at about 3:1, while the proportion of in store cashier, small program self delivery and takeout orders is relatively stable at about 1:1:1. Although the proportion of takeout orders decreased slightly by 1.5 percentage points compared with the epidemic period in 2020, it is still relatively stable.
He also talked about the company’s future growth logic at the performance meeting, which mainly has three levels.
First, with the increase in the number of stores, the decline in the pressure to expand stores, and the gradual maturity of the existing market, the operating profit margin of stores will achieve natural growth“ This logic has been verified. In the first half of this year, the operating profit margin of stores was 19.2%, which also increased by 2.9 percentage points compared with the whole year of 2019 unaffected by the epidemic, which is also the best level recorded since 2018. ” Shen Hao said.
Secondly, with the increase in the proportion of Naixue Pro stores with high profitability and the improvement of overall consumption habits brought by store encryption, the average operating profit level of stores will be improved.
Shen Hao explained that the reason to increase the store density is that Naixue, as a non essential consumer goods, has a close relationship between its store performance and the cultivation of consumption habits, and the cultivation of consumption habits depends on the improvement of brand cognition and convenience.
“To achieve these two points, we must further improve the density of stores on the premise of ensuring the profitability of a single store.” For example, he said, for example, in Shenzhen and Wuhan, due to the early entry time and relatively high store density, the revenue and profits of stores in these two cities are better than those in Shanghai and Beijing.
Finally, he believes that with the improvement of scientific and technological means, the operating efficiency and operating profits of all stores will be gradually improved.
It is revealed that Naixue has also launched a variety of retail products such as bubble water and snacks. It is expected to launch retail products to offline chain stores and other channels in the second half of the year. In the future, retail business is expected to gradually become an important part of the company’s revenue.
Shop opening plan and investment
It is understood that in the first half of this year, Naixue opened 93 new tea shops, of which more than 60% are located in the first and second tier cities, and closed 6 stores.
“According to the current signing and implementation of our contract, we will certainly achieve the goal of opening 300 new stores this year, and have a great probability of exceeding the completion. In the future, we also plan to continue to increase the density of stores in high-speed cities.” Shen Hao said that the revenue growth in the first half of the year mainly came from the contribution of new stores.
According to the data, as of June 30 this year, Naixue had 578 tea shops in 74 cities, all of which were self operated. Among them, Naixue Pro store accounts for about 15%. The company also subdivides Pro stores based on different business districts and believes that the second type of Pro stores located outside the shopping center are expected to reduce labor and rental costs and achieve better profitability.
Shen Hao believes that under the premise of maintaining rapid growth this year, Naixue offline stores still recorded the highest store operating profit margin since 2018, which shows the company’s continuous improvement of brand strength.
At the performance meeting, he also talked in detail about the whereabouts of the investment of 160 million yuan in the first half of the year, which is mainly used in three aspects: digitization, supply chain construction, brand promotion and marketing. He hopes to form multi-dimensional industry barriers and continue to take the lead in the process of rapid growth of the industry.
It is reported that Naixue has increased investment in science and technology since last year, introduced talents from TMT industry and established a technical team of nearly 200 people. At the same time, it is also committed to developing automation systems and equipment and establishing an intelligent operation decision-making system including sales prediction model to help stores accurately formulate production and sales plans.
In addition, since the establishment of the membership system in the third quarter of 2019, as of June 30 this year, the number of registered members of Naixue has reached more than 36 million, and as many as 8.6 million registered members have been added in the first half of this year alone, and its activity and repurchase rate have also continued to improve. In the second quarter of this year, the repurchase rate of members exceeded 30%. Thanks to the optimization of applet experience and other factors, Naixue’s overall online orders accounted for 72.2%, an increase of 0.3 percentage points year-on-year.
Shen Hao also pointed out that the gross profit margin of Naixue has increased this year, which is also due to the company’s continuous increase in investment in the supply chain, so that the classic products with a large proportion can maintain a stable supply. At the same time, this part of investment also includes the manpower reserve cost in the next 2 to 3 years.
“The track has great opportunities in the future, so we are willing to invest in the future and believe that such investment will bring very good financial and profit returns. As the scale effect of investment appears, human and other costs will continue to be diluted. ” He said.
Food safety risk management
It is worth noting that at the performance meeting, Peng Xin and Zhao Lin, the two founders of Naixue, resumed the recent food safety incident and talked about their ideas on how to prevent food safety risks in the future.
Peng Xin said that after the inspection, the regulatory authorities did not find the problems mentioned by the media, but the company found that individual store employees had the problem of printing labels falling into food materials and continuing to use food materials, and had punished the store employees involved. She also said that in the past month, Naixue cooperated with more than 400 food and drug administration departments to conduct a very detailed inspection of stores across the country, and then made improvements to some problems raised by the regulatory authorities.
“For this event, I think it is a great baptism and touch for our whole team.” Peng Xin also said that the company reviewed and optimized all work process standards related to food safety and quality to avoid similar events again.
However, the event did not have a significant impact on the company’s performance. A few days after the event, the company’s performance has returned to the level before the event.
Zhao Lin described that since starting his business, the food safety incident in August has hit Naixue no less than the epidemic. He believes that the biggest understanding brought to Naixue by the incident is to find that the immune system is imperfect. In the future, the company should strengthen external communication and establish a more open and transparent mechanism.


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A collection of news and information related to Tesla Motors, Inc. published by this site and its partners.
Displaying items 1-12 of 224 » View chicagotribune.com items only1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11-19 Next >
Fresh off its first profitable quarter, Tesla Motors Inc. plans to raise about $830 million in a stock and debt offering that will enable the electric car maker to pay off its $465 million federal loan. Founder Elon Musk, who owns 33 million shares,...
ReutersPARIS - A fleet of little silver cars in Paris is showcasing France's gamble on electric vehicle technology in a project that backers say is even helping to narrow the capital's social divide. Modeled on the Velib bike-sharing program, Autolib has won...
Reports: MBA mortgage index for week ended May 4, 6:30 a.m.; Crude inventories for week ended May 4, 9:30 a.m. Local earnings: CF Industries Holdings Inc., Groupon Inc., Manitex International Inc., Middleby Corp., MYR Group Inc., Nanosphere Inc.,...
America is headed in the wrong direction on fuel efficiency, retired General Motors Vice Chairman Robert A. Lutz said Thursday in Chicago, and the right course is one politicians and consumers don’t want to take: higher gasoline taxes. "If you...
BloombergLOS ANGELES — Tesla Motors, the luxury battery-car company run by billionaire Elon Musk, is North America's rechargeable auto sales leader so far this year as its Model S sedan passed General Motors' Chevrolet Volt. Tesla expects to report at...
I drive a 13-year-old Honda Civic with nearly 142,000 miles on it, bought off Craigslist for about $7,000. No electric windows, no air conditioning — but plenty of scrapes and scratches. So when Tesla Motors lent me an all-electric Model S sedan...
Detroit Free PressEvery weekday, Chevrolet Volt owners jockey to hook up their cars to the two electric-vehicle charging stations in front of General Motors' Renaissance Center headquarters in downtown Detroit. Even though surrounding parking structures have about two...
Tribune staff reporterAmy Francetic was at a child's birthday party in 2004 when she decided it was time to leave Silicon Valley. "I was sitting there listening to 6-year-olds talk about IPOs and whose house was bigger and how much a wedding dress cost," she said. By...
ForbesWhen it comes to electric cars even such futuristic vehicles as Tesla Motors' Model S retain some anachronistic affects of an earlier automobile age. For instance, Model S drivers can turn on a "creep" function (via a 17-inch touchscreen) that mimics a...
Tribune NewspapersHere's a novel idea for an automaker: Open stores in an area where people are not shopping for cars. That's the strategy of Tesla Motors, the builder of high-end electric cars. The Palo Alto automaker opened its 12th North American store and second in...
Atlanta-based rapper Big Boi wasn’t surprised indie rock band Modest Mouse called on him to co-produce their first studio LP since 2007 — even if everyone else was. “Check my catalog,” Big Boi said in an alley outside of Tesla...
Tags: MTV (tv network), Music, Big Boi
Following his Crown Royal party at Tesla Motors on Wednesday, Outkast rapper Big Boi hung out at Jbar at The James Hotel. The Bulls' Taj Gibson also stopped by the Crown Royal party and Jbar that night. NFL Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk and Bears...
May 16, 2013 |Story| Los Angeles Times
May 14, 2013 |Story| Reuters
May 8, 2013 |Story| Chicago Tribune
Apr 26, 2013 |Story| Chicago Tribune - Hold from PM
Apr 26, 2013 |Story| Bloomberg
Apr 27, 2013 |Story| San Jose Mercury News
Nov 30, 2012 |Story| Chicago Tribune
Oct 29, 2012 |Story| Chicago Tribune
Nov 15, 2012 |Story| NewsCred
Jul 3, 2012 |Story| Los Angeles Times
Jun 13, 2011 |Story| Chicago Tribune
Jun 10, 2011 |Story| Chicago Tribune


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FASHION lovers were shocked at Gucci’s bizarre catwalk show that saw models strut their stuff carrying fake heads.
What was even odder about the freaky, transportable heads was they were replicas of the models carrying them.
The unique display was part of Alessandro Michele’s Fall show for Gucci at Milan Fashion Week.
Guests were welcomed to watch the runway that was set up as an eerie, green operating theatre – which set the scene for the fake head accessories.
Another creepy creation of the show was a model keeping not two, but three eyes on the crowds around her – with the third being added to her forehead.
And Gucci didn’t stop there, with models carrying snakes, chameleons and even a Game of Thrones-style dragon for the event.
But what was the meaning behind the models carrying the fake heads?
Vogue theorised: "Let’s call it a metaphor for carrying the spiritual burden of one’s own evolution and self-awareness."
It is no surprise that the unusual Gucci display took six months to create.
Alessandro combined forces with techno-artisan company Makinarium to make moulds of the models’ heads and also used 3D printers to make the finished design.
He was inspired by the company after seeing their work in 2016 movie The Tale of Tales.
While many Twitter users praised Gucci for creating a jaw-dropping show, not everyone was impressed.
One wrote: “Real life freaks! This is not cutting edge, @gucci - this is just ridiculous!”
And another said: “Tell me I am not the only one freaked out with the human heads the models carried with them in Gucci fall/winter show.”
HEIR SHE IS Meg dazzles in £9,000 dress as she & Harry arrive at pal's Italian wedding
SPICK & SPAN This cleaning hack will leave your house spotless with just 30 mins work a day
JUICY FIND Mum raves about £5 storage container which keeps fruit fresh for a WEEK longer
LAST LAUGH Woman called fat by Tinder date gets £2K on GoFundMe page to get train fare back
FORMULA ONE IS NOT AMUSED Queen told Lewis Hamilton off for his manners during Royal lunch
MARKS AND SPARKLES Four women bare all and show off their glitter-covered stretchmarks
It's not the only bizarre fashion trend to be seen on the catwalk recently.
Vagina wigs are the hair-raising new fashion trend… so would YOU rock a mini mohawk ‘down there’?
And from models in lilos to kitchen catwalk designs, here’s ten things we learned from the London Fashion Week circus.
The Queen and Dame Anna Wintour sit in the front row of London Fashion Week


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for our recently compiled list of new products and services that partners can sell.**
Logitech this week released a new wireless headset, the H820e, for UC platforms and PC softphones.
The headset is sold through Logitech channel partners.
The headset connects through a USB port to Windows PCs, Macs and Linux systems. It features a noise-cancelling microphone, acoustic echo cancellation and digital signal processing. It’s optimized for Microsoft Lync and is compatible with all major unified communication and softphone applications.
The H820e also has an in-call LED indicator light at the back of the microphone boom to prevent interruptions during calls and on-ear volume control buttons on both sides of the head band.
The Logitech H820e is built on the DECT standard and comes with a range of up to 300 feet.
Were looking to change the attitude that wireless headsets in the enterprise are an afterthought or a perk,” said Eric Kintz, senior vice president and general manager for Logitech for Business. “Wireless headsets are rapidly becoming the new normal for maximizing audio and video collaboration.”
The H820e should be available worldwide starting in May. Prices start at $179.99 for the mono version and $199.99 for the dual.
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October 17 2019 @ 18:01:04 UTC
For the second year, we've identified the people, organizations, techs and trends expected to have a major impact o… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
October 16 2019 @ 18:12:06 UTC


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Earlier this year, German football team VfL Wolfsburg decided to rid its stadium of cow’s milk. Instead, it replaced it with oat milk.
But while the move was made with sustainability in mind, it was met with widespread backlash. Namely from the dairy industry. Ultimately, VfL Wolfsburg was pressured into reversing its decision.
But plant-based soccer teams do exist. Forest Green Rovers, for example, claims to be the world’s first carbon-neutral football club. It only serves players and fans vegan food. And, it’s thriving: in April, it was promoted to League One in the English Football League.
Could VfL Wolfsburg follow suit and go plant-based? It’s complicated.
VfL Wolfsburg’s oat milk backlash
Back in March, VfL Wolfsburg first announced it was collaborating with plant-based brand Oatly. The dairy industry was furious.
Local dairy company Uelzena wrote to the club expressing its concern. A butter producer also threatened to boycott the club’s parent company Volkswagen altogether. (The German multinational automotive company also inspired backlash last year when it stopped serving its signature currywurst in the canteen at its Wolfsburg factory. Instead, it offered more meat-free options.)
Then, Germany’s farmers’ association started a smear campaign against Volkswagen over VfL Wolfsburg’s decision. (It’s worth noting that Volkswagen is based in, and part-owned by, Lower Saxony, the biggest agricultural state in the country, holding 11.8% shares in the company.)
Eventually, VfL Wolfsburg gave into pressure. Now, instead of being the default as intended, oat milk is only offered on request.
Plant-based football is possible
Dale Vince, eco-entrepreneur and the chairman of Forest Green Rovers, says he’s not surprised at the backlash faced by VfL Wolfsburg. He recalls similar incidents when his own club went meat-free.
“Organizations that go plant-based will always receive backlash from farmers and dairy organizations with a vested interest,” he told Plant Based News. “People are entitled to their views, and many will want to protect their livelihoods.”
Vince took over Forest Green Rovers in 2010. At the time, it was facing bankruptcy. Gradually, as he built the club up, he slowly reduced the amount of meat that was served to players and fans. As a passionate vegan, he felt he had no alternative but to take animal products off the menu.
“On my first day of being the custodian of the club, I discovered our chef at the time serving up a huge beef lasagne and knew something had to change,” he explained. “I’d been vegetarian since my teens and a vegan for the last 20 years and had inadvertently become part of the meat trade. That was just not going to happen.”
First red meat was taken off the menu, which in itself generated a lot of press. Newspapers like The Sun ran sensationalist headlines about a “red meat ban,” but it actually helped to raise the club’s profile. After that, chicken came off the menu, followed by fish, and in 2015, everything was vegan.
“Fans didn’t disappear. In fact, we started bringing in people that were fans of our principles first, and football second, which was an unexpected bonus,” recalls Vince. “We still get the occasional ‘where’s your burger van’ or ‘stop eating our grass’ chant when our players get fouled from visiting fans, but that’s all part of the fun.”
He added: “We’ve had to add additional capacity to all of our kitchens and hospitality offerings.”
Oat milk is a more sustainable choice
Like VfL Wolfsburg, Forest Green Rovers partnered with Oatly on its dairy-free milk options.
Oat milk is better for the planet than cow’s milk. Drinking one glass of dairy milk a day contributes 229 kilograms to a person’s annual greenhouse gas emissions. But drinking the same amount of oat milk contributes just 65 kilograms.
VfL Wolfsburg teamed up with the United Nations on its Race to Zero initiative in 2020 to reduce its own emissions, and its attempt to move away from cow’s milk was part of that commitment.
“A food system shift is urgently required for the sake of both people and the planet. Food production is responsible for a third of global GHG emissions – with more than half coming from animal production,” said Oatly spokesperson Lucy Hopkins-Parkinson.
“We’re really proud to support pioneers like Wolfsburg and Forest Green Rovers who should be commended for leading this change to a more plant-based diet,” she added. “Especially in the world of professional sports, where sadly it is not yet the norm.”
A plant-based future of sport
But the world of sport is changing, slowly.
Footballers, like Chris Smalling, Héctor Bellerín, and Alex Morgan, for example, are speaking out about the benefits of a plant-based diet. And they’re also investing in the future of plant-based food.
Last year, footballer Dele Alli invested in Next Gen Foods, and Smalling has also invested in plant-based brands. Last month, he even set up his own eco-friendly venture capital fund.
But when it comes to making club-wide changes, Vince acknowledges that it isn’t easy. However, he encourages more to “hold their nerve.”
“When I took Forest Green Rovers plant-based, there was no going back,” he said. “If anything, my single-mindedness should encourage others to do what we’ve shown is possible.”
This article was updated on August 1, 2022, to clarify that Volkswagen, not Vfl Wolfsburg, received backlash for introducing one vegetarian canteen. It was also updated to clarify that Lower Saxony holds 11.8 percent shares in Volkswagen.


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Xaymaca International surpasses St Vincent relief target with corporate support
Xaymaca International’s initiative to support Vincentians impacted by the volcanic eruptions of La Soufrière has surpassed its initial target.
Andrew Bellamy, CEO of Xaymaca International, said the effort received strong support from corporate Jamaica. “Just a week after announcing our intention to assist our Caribbean friends, we are grateful to have the support of Trade Winds Citrus Limited, Paramount Chemicals, Somi Distributors and DHL, who have provided supplies valued [at] over $1.5 million,” said Bellamy.
Efforts are now being made to help even more Vincentians. “We have already surpassed our target of supplies with their contribution, but we have expanded our resources to be able to send more items to those in need,” said the Xaymaca head.
LAUDED THEIR EFFORTS
Marketing Manager of Trade Winds Citrus Limited Lauren Mahfood lauded the relief effort of Xaymaca International. “Xaymaca and Tru-Juice are brands that the Caribbean community has embraced, and we are thankful for the opportunity to support the people of St Vincent in this crisis,” said Mahfood, as she extended hope for a quick recovery for Vincentians.
As the needs of those housed in shelters in St Vincent continue to grow, Xaymaca Director Kandi King noted the support received from individuals who donated to the cause. “It is heart-warming to see our masqueraders and persons who support our events come out in support of our Caribbean brothers and sisters. It shows that amid a pandemic where many of us haven’t had the opportunity to share physical space, our movement is not just about ‘partying’. We are a carnival community that empathises with our people who are facing an adverse environmental crisis,” said King.
With one week to go before the items are shipped to St Vincent, individuals who can donate may still do so at the Xaymaca International Band House, 13 Lindsay Crescent, or call (876) 454-7857 for more information.


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We would like to share with you a video introducing the finalists of the EU Women Innovators Prize 2017 - impressive women entrepreneurs who have created outstanding innovations and brought them to market. For the first time, this edition will reward a new additional prize for young female entrepreneurs, the Rising Innovators Award.
Discover the 9 finalists for the EU prize for women Innovators 2017 and the 3 finalists for the new EU rising innovator awards. We will be announcing the winners in March 2017!
Watch the video here: http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/player.cfm?ref=I131862&videolang=EN


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Global server implementation is the culprit for Sony's delay.
The guys dig into Resistance, Riddick, Halo 3, Star Wars, and then some.
PS3 owners will have to wait a week longer than expected as Sony works out logistics.
We sneak into Insomniac for an exclusive hands-on with Fall of Man's upcoming multiplayer map and get the details on the new patch!
GameSpy's PS3 Game of the Year gets an early holiday gift from the Insomniac team.
Some fixes are being made to the multiplayer portion of the PS3 FPS.
Insomniac's first-person shooter is proof that mash-ups aren't just confined to music.
Insomniac's launch shooter still feels like a "PS2.5" game, but it's definitely got merits that make the single-player experience one worth trying.
Insomniac's shooter is poised to be the crowning jewel of the PS3 launch.
We go hands-on with the most impressive PS3 launch game we've seen to date. And get this: It's a first-person shooter!
Insomniac brings us onto an alien-infested battlefield to check out one of the PlayStation 3's most anticipated titles.


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A tipster with “an established track record” has told MacRumors that Apple will announce new MacBook Air models next week. Earlier this week, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Apple planned to launch updated MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models with scissor keyboards in the second quarter of 2020.
While the second quarter does not begin until April, an announcement next week would be just a few weeks earlier. Apple has announced new or refreshed products in March for the last five consecutive years, so there is precedence…
The current MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro are still equipped with butterfly keyboards that can suffer from issues such as sticky or unresponsive keys after prolonged use, which prompted Apple to initiate a free repair program worldwide in 2018. Apple finally solved this problem by reverting back to a scissor mechanism with the new Magic Keyboard on the 16-inch MacBook Pro, which has proven far more reliable.
Kuo has previously said that several other Apple products are planned for the first half of 2020, including the so-called iPhone 9, refreshed iPad Pro and MacBook Pro models, AirTags, a small wireless charging mat, and high-end over-ear headphones that may have AirPods branding, so it is possible Apple has more announcements in store next week.
MacDailyNews Take: If these new keyboards are even half as good as the keyboards in our 16-inch MacBook Pros, Apple will soon have the best notebook lineup on the planet once again. We very much look forward to being able to recommend every MacBook Pro and MacBook Air model once again! We also look forward to seeing the return of the MacBook as Apple’s first ARM-based Mac (hey, we can dream)!


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Tesla’s cabin camera is looking for facial features to enhance vehicle safety
At the point when Tesla enacted the cabin-facing camera inside the Model 3 and Model Y in June with the 2020.24.5 Software Update, the company conceded that it would assist engineer with creating security highlights and upgrades for what’s to come.
Notwithstanding, new advancements have been uncovered by a famous Tesla programmer, who has demonstrated the coding for the lodge camera, and what facial highlights the capacity will search for to expand safety.
Tesla hacker @greentheonly uncovered the particular things that the lodge camera is searching for subsequent to finding the product for the component. A progression of facial highlights and head positions are portrayed inside the product, and give off an impression of being searching for approaches to make drivers more mindful and increment the wellbeing of the vehicles.
Among the identified outward appearances are BLINDED, DARK, EYES_CLOSED, EYES_DOWN, EYES_NOMINAL, EYES_UP, HEAD_DOWN, HEAD_TRUNC, LOOKING_LEFT, LOOKING_RIGHT, PHONE_USE, SUNGLASSES_EYES_LIKELY_NOMINAL, and SUNGLASSES_LIKELY_EYES_DOWN.
The fascinating improvements from the recently uncovered coding show that the cabin camera will currently be utilized by Tesla to build security and driver mindfulness.
One of the most clear signs of this is the PHONE_USE code, which will probably perceive and show when the driver’s eyes have left the street and have zeroed in on a Smartphone.
Curiously, only a couple of days prior, Tesla got a 6th spot positioning on the Assisted Driving Grading overview from the Euro NCAP tests. The lower appraisals were because of helpless scores in the “Driver Engagement” metric, where the Model 3 scored just a 35 out of 100.
The absence of a driver observing framework on the Euro NCAP tests altogether influenced the Model 3’s scoring on the test. It appears to be that Tesla is as of now planning for the lodge camera to catch this information to build vehicle security.
Notwithstanding, perceiving any development or facial feature that could be an interruption to driving could be utilized with Tesla’s in-house insurance suite to decide a driver’s rates. For instance, if the lodge camera distinguishes PHONE_USE more frequently than the normal driver, rates could be expanded in light of the fact that the driver isn’t focusing out and about.
The possible situation is to build the driver monitoring system, which Tesla needed by the NCAP tests—extending the driver’s attention to what is happening while at the same time driving is significant, particularly with Tesla’s self-driving and semi-autonomous functionalities.
There is a lot of proof that numerous individuals who use the FSD or Autopilot highlights don’t utilize them effectively on the grounds that they require the proprietor to keep on keeping their hands on the haggle mindful of driving conditions.
Be that as it may, a few proprietors have seen Tesla’s highlights as a chance to be less dependable out and about. The company has over and over expressed that the vehicles are not yet completely autonomous. Drivers are needed to keep checking their vehicle’s presentation.
The cabin camera’s monitoring system could be a significant method to eliminate the chance of not exactly ideal mindfulness while driving a Tesla.


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Nike released a gold Air Max 97 this past October for international soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo with patchwork details, and the theme is back just two months later–this time on an Air Force 1.
According to Nike, the inspiration stems from Ronaldo playing so much soccer as a kid that his mother would sew patches on his shoes once he’d worn holes in them. Rather than covering the upper like on the Air Max 97, the theme is limited to the Swoosh this time, on an otherwise mostly standard pair of white-on-white AF1 Lows. Additional detailing includes Ronaldo’s C7 logo on the left heel, and his signature embroidered in gold on the shoe’s lining.
While there’s no word of a U.S. release yet, Nike’s U.K. site shows a launch scheduled for Dec. 7. for approximately $115.
Update 01/04: Nike has confirmed that the "Golden Patchwork" AF1 CR7 will release in the U.S. on Jan. 11.


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Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi registered a net profit of $56 million last year, revealed a filing made by electrical appliance manufacturer Midea Group to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE), reports Reuters.
Xiaomi had recently acquired 1.3% stake in Midea Group for $203.7 million, in bid to enhance its presence in the internet-connected home electronics space. The company is also expected to start selling its Mi Air Purifier, which can be controlled with a mobile phone, in China from today.
Xiaomi had recorded revenues of about $4.3 billion and had an operating margin of 1.8% last year. A Xiaomi spokesperson confirmed these numbers to Reuters, but mentioned that these figures didn’t represent the whole of Xiaomi’s business. Apparently, the figures in the Midea filing only refer to Xiaomi Inc, which is a part of Xiaomi Group.
A separate disclosure by Midea Group on SZSE revealed that Xiaomi’s founder & CEO Lei Jun has a 77.8% stake in Xiaomi and other stockholders own the remaining stake. Xiaomi is a privately owned company and doesn’t disclose its financials.
Xiaomi, which launched in India in July this year, has adopted a flash sales based distribution model through an exclusive tie-up with online marketplace Flipkart. It has attracted a lot of attention in the country (both positive & negative), but has struggled to keep pace with high demand.
Legal troubles: Recently, an ex-parte interim injunction by the Delhi High Court had directed custom officials to stop the imports and restrain Xiaomi from selling, advertising, manufacturing or importing devices that infringe on Ericsson’s standard essential patents (SEP). Local commissioners had also been appointed to visit Xiaomi offices to ensure the implementation of these orders. The company has now been allowed to import or sell Qualcomm chipset-based handsets in India until January 8, which means it will be able to sell Redmi Note 4G and Redmi 1S in India while Redmi Note that runs on Mediatek-based chipset will continue to remain banned.


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Microsoft has defended the quality of its Surface tablets and laptops following concerns raised about their reliability by Consumer Reports.
The organisation said it had removed its ‘recommended’ status for four of the range and that it could not recommend any other Microsoft Surface devices because owners were more likely to suffer issues than owners of other branded laptops.
Consumer Reports tests factors such as display quality, battery life and speed and estimates a quarter of Surface owners will have problems by the second year of ownership such as crashes and touchscreen failures.
Surface devices have been critically acclaimed, including by Silicon, but Consumer Reports says that as a relatively new entrant to the laptop market this is the first time it has had enough data to predict reliability.
“Consumers tell us that reliability is a major factor when they’re choosing a tablet or laptop,” says Simon Slater, Consumer Reports’ survey manager. “And people can improve their chances of getting a more dependable device by considering our brand reliability findings.”
Microsoft said that although it respected Consumer Reports it disagreed with the findings.
What is your biggest cybersecurity concern?
“Microsoft’s real-world return and support rates for past models differ significantly from Consumer Reports’ breakage predictability,” said a Microsoft spokesperson. “We don’t believe these findings accurately reflect Surface owners’ true experiences or capture the performance and reliability improvements made with every Surface generation.”
Head of devices Panos Panay has also published a blog post to defend the quality of devices and reassure customers of their reliability.
“Surface has had quite a journey over the last few years, and we’ve learned a lot,” he said. “In the Surface team we track quality constantly, using metrics that include failure and return rates – both our predicted 1-2-year failure and actual return rates for Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book are significantly lower than 25 percent.
“Additionally, we track other indicators of quality such as incidents per unit (IPU), which have improved from generation to generation and are now at record lows of well below 1 percent.”
In Janury 2016, Microsoft was however forced to recall Surface Pro charging cables after it emerged the power cords shipped with the devices are at risk of overheating.
US FCC regulator gives its official approval for SpaceX to use its Starlink satellite internet…
Privacy quest. Google is a repeat offender, says BEUC, as ten European consumer groups file…


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The price of Stellar Lumens has seen a strong downtrend over the past few months as cryptocurrency prices retreated. XLM price crashed to $0.1277, which is close to its lowest level since January 2021. Its market capitalization has fallen to around $3 billion, making it the 24th largest cryptocurrency in the world. world.
Stellar Ecosystem Growth
The price of XLM has been trending lower after peaking in May last year. This decline is in line with the performance of other cryptocurrency prices like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple.
Still, Stellar’s ecosystem has grown over the past few months. For example, Stellar Foundation deepened its partnership with MoneyGram, the global payments giant. The partnership allows people to send coins in USD and withdraw them at its locations. It is one of the biggest stablecoin to fiat payment process.
At one point last year, there were even rumors that the Stellar Foundation would partner with Advent International to acquire MoneyGram. These talks came to nothing, and MoneyGram was taken over by another private equity firm.
Learn more about purchasing Stellar Lumens.
This week, Stellar announced that it has partnered with Nium, a global money transfer company. The agreement will allow companies to facilitate payments to 190 countries on Stellar. The process will improve the traditional correspondent banking system and speed up money transfers. In a statement, the head of Nium Crypto said:
“Our approach to modern monetary movement on Stellar innovates on legacy approaches far beyond their heyday. It showcases both Nium’s global reach and real-time payment capabilities to a thriving network of business leaders and innovators.
Other companies have recently partnered with Stellar. For example, Coinme recently announced that it would launch a USDC-powered borderless global digital payment system. Other companies that have partnered with the company are Mercado Bitcoin, Novatti, Flutterwave, Shift Markets, and OkCoin.
XLM Price Prediction
The daily chart shows that the price of Stellar Lumens has been in a strong downtrend over the past few months. As the coin retreated, it broke below important support levels at $0.2021 and $0.1676, which were the lowest levels in January and March of this year.
Stellar broke below the 25- and 50-day moving averages, signaling that the bears are under control. At the same time, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) trended upwards.
Therefore, the path of least resistance for XLM price is bearish, with the next key support at $0.0900.


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J&R Joins PRO Group
J&R Music & Computer World is the newest member of PRO Group, the group announced Monday. The venerable lower Manhattan retailer becomes the group's 16th member.
“I am extremely excited to welcome Rachelle and Joe Friedman and their team to PRO," Dave Workman, PRO Group's executive director, said as part of the announcement. "J&R Music & Computer World is a respected and important retailer in the New York market and is very well established with many of our core vendor partners. We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with everyone at J&R.”
“Everyone at J&R is extremely excited about joining this prestigious buying group,” J&R co-CEO Rachelle Friedman said.


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Indoor air is actually five times more contaminated than outdoor air, which means that indoor air pollution is a serious problem that shouldn’t be ignored.
Los Angeles, California (PRWEB) March 23, 2016
Airbiotics has the pleasure of being a guest on Modern Living with Kathy Ireland on March 24th to discuss their line of cleaning and health products powered by probiotics.
The CEO of Airbiotics, Robert Meirovich, and Vice President of Operations, Amanda Ortiz, got the chance to sit down with Kathy Ireland and introduce their solution to improve indoor air quality. Airbiotics, a line of all-natural cleaning products that use probiotics, is designed to keep indoor environments free of bad bacteria and allergens that can aggravate allergies and make symptoms worse.
“We’re so excited and grateful for the opportunity to be on Modern Living with Kathy Ireland to spread the word about the future of cleaning,” said Amanda Ortiz. “There are a lot of people out there suffering from indoor air pollution and they don’t even know it, so, it’s always rewarding for us to share our knowledge and offer Airbiotics as the solution.”
“What people don’t realize is that their own home has the ability to affect their health,” said Robert Meirovich. “Indoor air is actually five times more contaminated than outdoor air, which means that indoor air pollution is a serious problem that shouldn’t be ignored. The beauty of Airbiotics is that it uses good bacteria to remove and replace bad bacteria, so that harmful contaminants and allergens are no longer polluting the indoor living space.”
During the show, Airbiotics will be showcasing their line of products and explaining how each one has a different purpose. Their probiotic products include the StaBiotics™ Mist, All Purpose Cleaner, Mist To-Go and their newest item, the travel-friendly Probiotics Hand Cleaner.
Catch Airbiotics on Modern Living with Kathy Ireland by tuning in to E! Entertainment at 6:30am EST/PST on March 24, 2016 and Bloomberg International at 7:00am GMT, 10:00am D.F. and 2:30pm HKT on March 27th, 2016.
Airbiotics cleaning products use an all-natural probiotic formula that protects your indoor living spaces from dangerous bacteria and allergens while also creating an environment for your family that’s safe, healthy and allergy-free. We use a patented StaBiotics™ formula that works to remove air and surface contaminants and replace them with a healthy layer of probiotics.
Instead of creating a breeding ground for unwanted bacteria, Airbiotics infuses indoor air with powerful probiotics, which helps good bacteria win the microscopic battle against harmful, competing organisms. StaBiotics™, a unique, proprietary technology that provides everyday protection against toxic indoor microorganisms, effectively deconstructs biofilm, reduces the risk of infection and provides relief for many common health issues such as allergies, headaches, dizziness, fatigue, sneezing, asthma, itchy eyes and more.


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We've suspected for a while that Samsung would officially announce its foldable phone, rumored to be called the "Galaxy Fold" (previously thought to be "Galaxy X"), at its pre-Mobile World Congress Unpacked event on Feb. 20, along with the Galaxy S10 line and a lot more.
A teaser video posted on Monday by the company confirms that we'll see its bendy new flagship that day.
A variation on its original S10 marketing teaser, the new video posted on the official Samsung YouTube channel bears the tag line "The Future Unfolds" in both Korean and English. It shows text sliding around curves as if it were a folded screen, with the Feb. 20 date, and incorporating the older S10 teaser which hinted at it.
While Samsung's is the highest profile model, we'll be seeing quite a few foldable -- and 5G -- phones at MWC later this month. The Barcelona show will kick off a year of foldable phones.
Samsung's foldable phone is here, with brand-new One UI for AndroidSee all photos
Originally published Feb. 11.
Update Feb. 20: Changed a few links to more current stories and amended the name to "Galaxy Fold."


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BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty’s start is likely to be flat-to-positive, though traders will keep reacting positively to the GST Bill winning majority support of the Rajya Sabha Select Committee, which has endorsed almost all the provisions, while also agreeing to demands for five-year compensation to states.
Traders will eye Bajaj Auto, Wipro, Biocon, Lupin, TTK Prestig, SBT, Granules and McDowell-N, Cairn India’s earnings.
Traders will also be getting some support with report of Foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country rising to four-month high of $3.85 billion in May 2015, up by 7 percent compared to the same month of last year. Also, there will be some encouragement with India Ratings report that the Centre’s housing for all project is expected to give the economy a Rs 15-trillion boost over the next 7 years. Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the government is not considering any plans to introduce foreign direct investment (FDI) in e-commerce retail. There will be some buzz in capital goods companies associated with defence manufacturing activities, as the government has eased several bureaucratic hurdles in export regulations and done away with a provision that demanded multiple assurances by foreign governments even for the sale of components and parts by Indian entities. There will be lots of result announcements too, to keep the markets buzzing.
Wednesday proved wonderful day of trade for the Indian markets, which smartly coming out their slump of last session posted triple digit rally. The start was on a sluggish note tailing the weakness in the global markets, but the markets bounced back in style in the very first hour and kept gaining momentum reclaiming the crucial psychological levels lost in last week’s sell-off. Though, the rally was guided by the surge in blue-chip stocks, the broader markets equally contributed to the upsurge. Once the markets started moving up there was no looking back, barring some stock specific profit taking. Traders got some support with Goods and Services Tax (GST) panel submitting its report to Rajya Sabha, proposing three modifications related to clause 12, 18 and 19. Finally, the BSE Sensex surged by 322.79 points or 1.15% to 28504.93, while the CNX Nifty soared by 104.05 points or 1.22% to 8633.50.


text: Volkswagen is recalling nearly 92,000 cars in the U.S. to fix mechanical problems that can knock out the power-assisted brakes. The recall includes the Beetle, Golf, Jetta and Passat models from 2015 and 2016. The cars have 1.8-liter and 2-liter turbocharged four-cylinder gasoline engines. The German automaker says a part in the camshaft can shear off, causing loss of vacuum in the power brakes. That can lengthen stopping distance and possibly cause a crash. The engines also will go into a reduced power mode to avoid further damage.


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FYI - Hot VWs News.
Classic Volkswagen Monopoly game goes on-line Monday, October 14.
After a huge introduction at Nick's Burgers, the Molinars are getting ready to go on-line
Classic Volkswagen Monopoly games will be available on-line this coming Monday, October 14, 2013. Molinar Enterprises have a new web site that goes live on that day. Residents of U.S. and Canada can order this must-have game on Monday, by logging on to: www.molinarenterprises.com
Other Hot VWs News Stories
Don't Miss the Next Issue. Subscribe Now!Subscribe now to get the latest issue of Hot VWs Magazine.
FRIDOLIN FRENZYThe October issue features a very special pair of VWs — the 1972 Fridolins of Donna and Gary Crull of Florida, and Eliot Vancil of Arizona. These rare VWs, of which only 7,340 came out of the factory between 1964 and 1974, were totally customized, but in very different ways. Check out the stories on both these amazing VWs, and much more, in this month's issue - on-sale now!


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CHATSWORTH, Calif. — Shane's World Studios girl Casey Parker rides again in Casey Parker's California Dreamin', in stores this week.
"I can't wait for all my fans to see this movie!" Parker said. "Seeing all the different places in California was so exciting. But I think the wine tasting in Napa may top my list of spots. I also had this amazing threesome with Jack [Venice] and Paulina [James] on the cliffs looking over the water. It was just crazy!"
In addition to Venice and James, Parker's co-stars in California Dreamin' include Devon, Aubrey Addams, Reena Sky, Charles Dera, Criss Stokes and Dane Cross, and their collective adventures take them to the dreamy locales of Malibu, Catalina Island, Napa and San Francisco, among other places.
The new movie arrives at the same time as Parker's three-segment stint on Fuel TV's "The Daily Habit."
"It was a lot of fun," Parker said of her appearance on the web-based show. "It was a chance for me to take a stab at comedy ... I loved it!"
For more on "The Daily Habit," go to www.fuel.tv, and to see the trailer for Casey Parker's California Dreamin', click here. For sales, contact Megan Stokes at (888) SW-RULES or [email protected].


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Target: Howard Schultz, Chairman and CEO of Starbucks
Goal: Thank coffee company for stopping water bottling operations in drought-stricken California.
Starbucks’ bottling of water from areas in California suffering from the worst drought in recorded history will finally end, the company has announced. California residents and farmers will no longer have their water taken from them for a line of boutique bottled water. Applaud Starbucks for making this decision.
At a plant in Merced, California, Starbucks had been bottling water it for its Ethos bottled water line for years. While the company got its water from a private spring, it was speculated that its consumption drastically cut from municipal water supplies further downstream, causing problems for cities, families, and farmers currently contending with horrific drought.
Following the impassioned activism of concerned citizens who would not abide such wasteful misallocation of precious natural resources, including those here at ForceChange, Starbucks bowed to righteous public pressure. The company has agreed to phase out its California bottling operations over the next six months.
In the fight for environmental and social justice, it is all too easy to become discouraged with the carefree, wanton destruction by those in power—successes like this one give us all cause to be reinvigorated. Sign the petition below to express your appreciation to Starbucks for doing the right thing.
Dear Chairman Schultz,
I am writing you today regarding your company’s decision to phase out water bottling operations in California. I wanted to take the time to thank you for bowing to public concern and prioritizing the environment over profits.
California is becoming a desert. Crops are dying, reservoirs are literally drying up, and homes and cities are taking unprecedented steps to ration their water use. The people who are in California, who need water to survive, should always take priority over the profits of private enterprise. Thankfully, you and your business seem to agree with this sentiment, and decided to amend your ventures accordingly.
In a world dominated by corporations that care nothing for the environment if it stands in the way of the almighty dollar, it is refreshing to see one embrace its public responsibility. The world would be a better place if other companies followed in your footsteps. Thank you for doing the right thing and relocating your bottling operations out of drought-stricken California.
[Your Name Here]


text: The benefits of Vocalcom’s workshopsSecond part of Vocalcom’s workshop on Customer relationship has been attended by around100 people.Five year from now, customer services should have created 15 000 jobs in Tunisia.Vocalcom’s 360° proficiency on customer relationship sector arouses interest of many actorson the market—particularly in Tunisia where multiples related problems are still waiting to besolved. Editor’s local branch decided to share some of this know-how, as well as the one of itsclients, during an unusual event thought as a workshop on Customer Relationship Management.After a first session focused on finance, bank and insurance sectors, on March, 22nd; a secondworkshop has been held on April, the 10th, this time centered mainly on service, industry and carcentered businesses . A “back to basics” work must be done in Tunisia: Jihene Bouzaiene, Headof Topnet (internet provider) Customer Service, declared that “many Tunisians companiesintegrate their customer services units, but manage it poorly. Creating it is not enough, you haveto animate and run it properly to keep customers loyal.”On Ali Kassab’s (Vocalcom’s CEO for MENAT region) opinion, this requirement must be satisfiedby adopting adapted technologies, hence, this event “ massives investments in advertising anddirect marketing are not enough to approach customers if you’re not putting emphasis on howimportant having contact with them is. The company must master its Customer Relationship andthat’s why Vocalcom created during the last decade a global offer having in mind all the ways ofcontacting clients: voice, sms, web, chat and social networks”.Safouene Fatnasi, ETAI’s General Manager –specialized in data input and process for motorcompanies professionals — highlighted the importance of attracting to customer relationsrelated jobs good human resources: “ for example, in France 350 000 persons are employed forCustomer Relations, the country counts 60 million inhabitants. If we are referring to localexamples such as Algeria, 15 000 should be created in the next five years in Tunisia, whereservices sector is a major one. “Build around dialogue with multiples Vocalcom’s clients, this workshop allowed its hundredthattendants to study closely WIV’s (food industry) customer case, presented by company’s CEO,ETAI’s case, a study offered by Foued Cheraga, a business plan adapted to Customer Servicescenters and a demonstration of solutions created by Vocalcom.According to Ali Kassab this kind of events will happen again as soon as September 2012.


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Hell’s Kitchen has gained two world-class specialty shops in one with the arrival of Rubber N’ Road — an establishment that’s bringing global coffee and cycling gear to the neighborhood.
When Gil Lavi arrived in New York from Tel Aviv in 2010, the first thing that struck him was how bad Starbucks coffee was. “I landed here 11 years ago and I walked into Starbucks. I was immediately taken aback by the flavor — I found it just shocking. I never tasted anything like that. It was just completely strange to me. Then I was also looking for something that tasted more close to what I was used to. And so I started to research,” he told us while meticulously making a coffee.
Over the years, his research transformed into a desire to open a coffee shop — and along the way, he gathered a second obsession, cycling. “I got obsessed with coffee and cycling at pretty much the same time,” Gil said.
Now he has joined forces with his friend Max Davis to merge those passions at Rubber N’ Road on W51st Street between 9/10th Avenue (in the store that used to be Cakes ‘N’ Shapes). “It’s pretty easy to geek out on bikes and coffee. There’s a lot of equipment and gear — people can really immerse themselves,” says Max.
Gil and Max founded Rubber N’ Road in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. They had both spent years working with large brands in the cycling industry but wanted to create a new way to serve the New York cycling community. Gil offers the global perspective in the partnership, while Max, who was born just steps from Central Park, gives the local knowledge of New York road cycling.
In the venture they see lots of synergies between cycling and coffee. They want to “bring a fresh alternative to the cycling industry’s habit of using glittery paint jobs to cover up less-than-ideal supply chains and products” as well as being a unique alternative to branded coffee that “is like having one vineyard serve the same cup of wine to 200 million people year after year.”
They are promoting emerging, independent cycling brands in the store — and for their beans, they have selected single-origin coffees curated by the legendary Berlin coffee roasters, The Barn.
Max recalls first meeting Gil at industry events around the city four years ago. They struck up a friendship and in 2019 Gil asked him to join his consultancy business. “For the first six months, it was insanely busy and then the pandemic hit. The whole world kind of hit the pause button,” Max recalls. They started to look at options and identified that New York’s cycling community “with all the diversity in the New York cycling community, the offering of cycling brands and products was extremely limited.”
Their business started online with a range of independent products from around the world. “We started to send out emails and make calls to brands in June, July of last year. We got in touch with Rob Gitelis, who’s the owner of Factor — a bike brand. He really loved the idea and agreed to support us. Rob is an American based in Taiwan — everything he produces is built and engineered in his own factory. And then we started reaching out to the apparel brands,” Max told us.
They soon added jerseys from MAAP in Australia, Kask helmets, KOO sunglasses and Q36.5 apparel from Italy, Isadore clothing from Slovakia, Festka bicycles from the Czech Republic and cycling fashion from FINGERSCROSSED in Germany.
“We launched the website in August of 2020,” said Max. “We always remember MAAP shipped us our first shipment of apparel and it was in this tiny box — three feet by two feet. So we started selling the apparel through the website.”
Their move to meeting customers in person came when they wanted to do a photo shoot up in Vermont. “We couldn’t afford anything — and car hire was $200 a day. So we asked Volvo if they could help. They liked what we were doing and helped with a car — and offered for us to create a popup at their dealership on 11th Avenue,” said Gil. “That’s when Rubber N’ Road actually came to life. Customers actually showed up in real life.”
They did more popups and one day when Gil was delivering locally from his Hell’s Kitchen apartment he spotted the empty storefront on W51st Street. “We wanted a place with proximity to Central Park and the West Side Bike Patch — so geographically it felt right,” he recalls.
They took on the lease in March and are in soft launch for the rest of August — opening Thursday to Sunday from 9am-5pm for cycling talk and coffee.
“I mean, cycling and coffee are pretty related. I think most cyclists enjoy coffee — we’re always going on coffee rides. There’s always a coffee stop,” said Max.
They’ve already connected with their neighbors. Specialist beer bar, AS IS, around the corner on 10th Avenue is already their after-work favorite and they’ve made friends with Lino at Il Melograno across the road. They’re also facing a challenge from Bobby next door at Totto Ramen. “We need for Bobby to approve our Japanese-style hand brew. It’s a Japanese-style ice pour-over. Gil’s been working for some time on that,” said Max.


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Monster Hunter: Legends of the Guild premieres exclusively on Netflix in August
Capcom has announced that Monster Hunter: Legends of the Guild, a project that was first announced back in 2018, is set to hit the streaming service on August 12.
Legends of the Guild tells the story of Aiden, the same excitable A-Lister Cadet from Monster Hunter World, who fights to save his village from the attack of a mysterious Elder Dragon.
The official synopsis of the movie can be seen below:
Humans, nature, and giant monsters coexist in the world while maintaining a careful balance.
A young man named Aiden who calls himself a hunter protects his isolated village. One day, he learns that his village is threatened by the Elder Dragon, a monster cloaked in mystery. Needing to find a way to save his village, Aiden leaves his home and sets off on a journey into the unknown alongside Julius, a first-rate and member of the Hunter’s Guild, and his companions…
The MH franchise has been on a roll as of late. With its successful release of both Monster Hunter Rise and Monster Hunter Stories 2 for the Nintendo Switch, the series will now make its way to your screens as a Netflix Anime film.
Monster Hunter: Legends of the Guild premieres on Netflix on August 12.


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The Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy plans to reduce the price of data from 1000 naira to 390 naira per gb, this statement was issued by the Executive Vice Chairman of Nigeria Communication Commision, Umar Danbatta.
Mr Umar Danbatta in his address said, "the ministry was tasked to come up with a digital economy policy and strategies, adding that all efforts was being put in place to make data more affordable, to reduce it to 390 naira as against the normal 1000 naira network providers charge.
He said the price was brought down to 1000 naira per gigabyte but the government expects the price to call to 390 naira in the next 3-5 years.
We need pervasive broadband data infrastructure because at the landing point in Lagos, where we have all the submarine cables. We are indeed pursuing the plan. There is infrastructure and company licensing framework that could give the companies the ability to afford to sell the data to the retail agents, who will sell the data to the citizens,” he explained.


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- Are there police on cruise ships?
- Can a wave capsize a cruise ship?
- Can you survive jumping from a cruise ship?
- How common are deaths on cruise ships?
- How likely is it for a cruise ship to tip over?
- How many people died on cruise ships in 2018?
- Do Pirates attack cruise ships?
- What do cruise ships do with poop?
- What do cruise ships do with dead bodies?
- Is there a jail on a cruise ship?
- Where does human waste go on a cruise ship?
- Would a cruise ship survive a tsunami?
- How safe are cruise ships in rough seas?
Are there police on cruise ships?
Cruise line security personnel are essentially first responders in most cases, ensuring continued safety of all passengers until they can hand the matter over to law enforcement in a port.
If the ship is in port when a crime occurs, local authorities have clear jurisdiction..
Can a wave capsize a cruise ship?
Many experts agree that wind alone cannot cause a cruise ship to capsize, but waves caused by extreme wind feasibly could. … A rogue wave could also cause a cruise ship to capsize.
Can you survive jumping from a cruise ship?
No. Survival rates depend on several factors, including whether the person was injured by impact with the water or part of the ship on the way down and how quickly the person can be rescued by the cruise ship or Coast Guard. Many times, a person going overboard is dead by the time he or she reaches the water.
How common are deaths on cruise ships?
Beyond the reports culled from the media by Cruise Ship Deaths, there are an estimated 200 deaths aboard ships each year, according to a 2015 report from The Telegraph. That statistic, based on around 21.7 million annual passengers, puts the odds of dying aboard a cruise ship in a given year at more than 1 in 100,000.
How likely is it for a cruise ship to tip over?
How likely would it be for a cruise ship to encounter a wave that might tip it over? Not very likely. … The only way that it could happen is if the ship were in extreme weather and positioned sideways to a 70- to 100-foot wave that would have the potential of rolling it over, Bolton said.
How many people died on cruise ships in 2018?
An estimated 21million of us will cruise in 2018. And remarkably, there are an estimated 200 deaths a year on cruise ships, according to The Telegraph.
Do Pirates attack cruise ships?
While the risk to the cruise industry is considered to be extremely low, we still need to remain vigilant and prepared.” … The fact remains that while yachts have been kidnapped and cargo vessels have been hijacked for ransom, there has never been a successful pirate attack on a cruise ship.
What do cruise ships do with poop?
Put simply, when you flush the loo, the sewage goes straight to the on-board treatment plant which treats it until it’s drinkable and then pumped back into the ocean, far away from land.
What do cruise ships do with dead bodies?
Cruise ships have a morgue on board The morgue is able to hold bodies of the deceased until a ship returns home or to another port where arrangements can be made. The ship cannot, however, keep a dead body on board indefinitely. In most cases, the body must be taken off the ship after about one week.
Is there a jail on a cruise ship?
Most Ships Have a Jail, Medical Unit, and Morgue One of the most shocking cruise ship facts is a jail cell hidden away at the bottom of the vessel in the crew areas. … Most ships have a morgue that can hold one to three bodies.
Where does human waste go on a cruise ship?
U.S. law allows cruise ships to dump raw sewage in the ocean once a ship is more than three miles off U.S. shores. Ships can dump treated sewage anywhere in the ocean except in Alaskan waters, where companies must comply with higher state standards.
Would a cruise ship survive a tsunami?
Experts agree that a cruise ship sailing out over a body of water is not likely to feel any impacts from a tsunami’s waves. … “If you’re close to the coastline in shallow water, a tsunami can really toss ships around,” Heaton said.
How safe are cruise ships in rough seas?
Yes, cruise ships are designed to handle rough seas. But regarding rough seas; The captain will do everything possible to avoid bad weather by steering the ship away from storms or rough seas when possible. Unfortunately it’s not possible to avoid rough seas in all cases, but don’t worry; The ship is not going to sink!


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SUNNYVALE, Calif., Aug. 05, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Finisar Corporation (NASDAQ: FNSR), a global technology leader for subsystems and components for fiber optic communications, today announced that its Chief Executive Officer, Michael Hurlston, has informed the Board of Directors of his intention to resign his position with the company to pursue another opportunity. The Board of Directors has accepted Mr. Hurlston’s resignation and it will be effective immediately. Mr. Hurlston was not expected to remain with the company following the completion of the pending acquisition of Finisar by II-VI Incorporated.
The Board of Directors has appointed Chief Operating Officer Todd Swanson and Executive Vice President of Global Operations Joseph Young, to a newly formed Interim Office of the Chief Executive.
“Todd and Joe have each been with the company for well over a decade and have been critical to growth and development of Finisar into the leading company it is today,” stated Robert Stephens, Chairman of the Board of Finisar. “We have confidence in their leadership as they guide the company toward completion of the II-VI acquisition while continuing to build on Finisar’s strong product portfolio."
Finisar’s acquisition by II-VI remains under review by the State Administration for Market Regulation of the People’s Republic of China (“SAMR”). SAMR’s review of the transaction is currently in Phase III, which ends on August 17, 2019. Finisar will make a subsequent announcement either when SAMR approves the transaction, or if Phase III expires and II-VI re-files its clearance application in order to provide additional time for SAMR to review the transaction.
Finisar Corporation (NASDAQ: FNSR) is a global technology leader in optical communications, providing components and subsystems to networking equipment manufacturers, data center operators, telecom service providers, consumer electronics and automotive companies. Founded in 1988, Finisar designs products that meet the increasing demands for network bandwidth, data storage and 3D sensing subsystems. The company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, USA with R&D, manufacturing sites, and sales offices worldwide. Visit our website at www.finisar.com.
Chief Financial Officer


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Monday Morning News
The first piece of news we’ve heard about Apple’s next-generation SoC says it’ll be a dual-core chip running at 2GHz. It’s a contrast to competing processors, which are mostly quad-core affairs, but as MacRumors notes, Apple’s solution is custom-tailored for their software and perhaps doesn’t need the extra cores for performance. I can’t wait until some tech blog decides the next iPhone fails because it has a dual-core processor instead of a quad-core one.
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is back with predictions regarding Apple’s upcoming wearable, and what he’s saying reflects recent rumours. Kuo states the iWatch will enter production in November, with a flexible AMOLED display, sapphire coated display cover, higher waterproof standards, and new SoC components rounding out his analysis for today.
Apple has launched a new Swift blog, pointing to the importance of their new programming language. Articles on the blog will be authored by Apple engineers, giving us a rare (if slightly technical) look into some of the thinking behind various design decisions. As part of the new blog, Apple are also offering free downloads of Xcode 6 to anyone who wishes to register for it, as pointed out by Ars Technica.
I’ve heard the iPhone’s ability to track location being called many things, but this is the first time I’ve heard it called a “national security concern“. But that’s exactly what Chinese media has labelled the feature, and Apple’s official response to the matter is spot on, as per usual.
A few of us noticed a developer preview of Safari 7.1 in the Updates tab of the Mac App Store over the weekend, and it seems it was mistakenly pushed to the Mac App Store when it shouldn’t have been. Apple has released new beta builds of Safari introducing new WebKit features, but they’re available via Apple’s developer portal.
Apple are seeking FCC certification for their own iBeacon hardware. Model number A1573 was spotted out by Securifi, which seems to be a USB-powered unit about 14cm in diameter. It’s unknown whether Apple will be making this hardware available to the public, although if I had to put money on it I’d say Apple are planning their own iBeacon hardware for them to use in Retail Stores.
A post on Reddit indicates Apple are proactively going about updating location data. One Redditor states he got a call from the Apple Maps team when his business address was reported as incorrect. It’s widely known Apple’s Maps previously used data from Yelp, although there doesn’t appear to be any syncing between the two.
Curiously, Apple has cut song previews for some songs down to 30 seconds. After extending song previews to 90 seconds a few years back, it’s unknown why Apple has made the move, but an update to the article on MacRumors says Apple has restored 90 second previews for most of the tracks, suggesting it was just an temporary glitch after all.
TUAW has today’s Mac app, where they say iTranslate has made the jump to the desktop. The popular translation tool currently has an introductory price of $6.49 on the Australian Mac App Store. Meanwhile, on iOS, Beautiful Pixels says you can manage your screenshots with ease with an app called Screenshotter. It can filter through your Camera Roll to just select screenshots. Free, in the App Store.
Just when you thought Finder replacements were all but dead now that Finder has tabs, Dr Drang’s semi-review of Path Finder says Path Finder is still a viable option for power users. That said, it’s not perfect — but then again, neither is the Finder.
One day OS X will be smart enough to know when I’m tethering (even though the menu bar apparently knows about it) and cut down on my internet usage, but until then apps like Little Snitch can come to the rescue and lower my data bill.
Finally this morning is why everything is bad for Apple. But hold on a second — it’s actually the Apple Clickbait Generator from Kirk Lennon, which gives you new clickbait articles with every refresh. It’s great!


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Fiat Chrysler will join forces with PSA Groupe to create fourth-largest carmaker
FCA has a new partner after talks with Renault failed a few months ago
FCA (Fiat Chrysler) and PSA Groupe (Opel, Peugeot, Citroen) will join forces in a 50-50 merger to create the world's fourth-largest automaker.
The Supervisory Board of Peugeot S.A. and the Board of Directors of FCA N.V. have each unanimously agreed to work towards a full combination of their respective businesses by way of a 50/50 merger. Both boards have given the mandate to their respective teams to finalize the discussions to reach a binding Memorandum of Understanding in the coming weeks.
The new deal will create the 4th largest global OEM in terms of annual unit sales (8.7m vehicles). The new company will be valuated at $50 billion and will be domiciled in the Netherlands with PSA's Carlos Tavares as CEO and FCA's John Elkann as chairman.
FCA was in talks with Renault just a few months ago, but the potential merger was abandonend.
The merger will create a group that will include the Fiat, Dodge, Ram, Chrysler, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Peugeot, Citroen, DS, Opel and Vauxhall brands and will serve mass and premium passenger car markets as well as trucks and light commercial vehicles.
It is projected that 80% of the synergies would be achieved after 4 years. The total one-time cost of achieving the synergies is estimated at €2.8 billion.


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January 7, 2014
Tobii announced its partnership with SteelSeries to bring eye tracking to video games with a new sensor bar and the EyeX engine. A prototype at CES demonstrated in-game navigation, menu selection and aiming by using nothing more than players’ eye movements. Developers can preorder the SDK now for delivery in March, and they’ll be able to designate standard mouse and keyboard functions to gaze controls. The device is expected to cost around $100.
Engadget reports on the EyeX demo saying it was “a bit rough” running at a low frame rate and not having been calibrated to their eyes. “Still,” the article explains, “we could see the potential for the technology, as it allows for faster in-game navigation.”
The menu selection was the best and smoothest example of the technology, allowing users to select menu items by simply looking at them. “Additionally, the control for aiming down the sights simply required closing one eye, while squatting or looking around corners was accomplished by moving our head up and down or side to side,” notes Engadget.
ExtremeTech explains the technology, saying that there are two cameras and an infrared light inside the device. “Throw in a healthy serving of Tobii’s proprietary image processing algorithms, and a physiological 3D model of the eye, and you can work out the position of the eye and the direction of the gaze with high accuracy.”
Until now, gamers have only had their hands — and sometimes their voices — to control the game. The big question, the article says, is whether gamers will actually want eye tracking. ExtremeTech says it “could be the biggest revolution in gaming since the joystick.”
The $195 developer kit is available for pre-order ($95 for a limited time using promo code CES2014).


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Navy suits revealed for Team GB
Next have revealed what the official 'off-track' look will be for Team GB athletes on duty, and that look is distinctly navy. A classic suit for the men, with a nice dress featuring an adjustable hemline for the women. Imogen Fox has a good look through the details in our interactive guide to what Team GB will be wearing for the Olympics 2012.
Another one bites the dust?
Sad news this week for fans of a freakish approach to fashion, as Betsey Johnson LCC announced it had filed for bankruptcy and would be closing stores across the US. "She was one of the first designers who didn't dumb it down for women in their 30s and 40s who were serious about their careers. A lot of designers were creating boring, bland clothes for these women," former Vogue fashion editor turned style and beauty expert, Mary Alice Stephenson told the Guardian's Carlene Thomas-Bailey, "Betsey showed you that it didn't matter about age, you could be a woman doing serious things but having fun with fashion, being colourful and flamboyant." But will it be the last we see of the wonderful Ms. Johnson? Doubtful.
Anna Della Russo to accessorise for H&M
She's the front row fashionista who's never knowingly papped in anything boring, so it was with glee that Guardian fashion received the news that Vogue Japan's fashion editor at large, Anna Della Russo, will be designing a range of accessories for H&M, to be launched in stores everywhere in October.
Vogue unites against eating disorders. What do you think about that?
Editors from across 19 of Vogue's international editions have signed a pledge which says they will no longer use models younger than 16 or who they believe to be suffering from an eating disorder. The six-point pact, which is published in June editions of the title, will put forward a new initiative to discourage ill-health among models, and also, one would imagine, among readers. We want to know what you think about this: about time or a meaningless gesture? Or will Vogue set an example that the rest of the industry will follow?
Alice Temperley's home counties chic to hit John Lewis
As Jess Cartner-Morley explains, Alice Temperley's take on city-meets-country fashion has in itself carved a niche for the designer as one who represents a very particular kind of British femininity. Where better, then, to take her signature look than John Lewis, the most British of retail institutions. A new range, Somerset, will launch in September, and JCM gauges what to expect from Temperley on the high street.


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OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — Full of life African clothes, each equally typical and trendy, enlivened the catwalk in Burkina Faso’s trend 7 days.
Designers say they’re striving to make the West African area transform recognised as an rising development hub, to offset its fame for its current coup and ongoing battle with Islamic extremists. A number of the reveals ended up staged on a central street of Ouagadougou, the money, the place folks lined as much as see merchandise strut varieties for women and grownup males.
The modest West African nation hosted its third Ouaga Method Week — the first as a result of the pandemic compelled its maintain off. The colourful 4-day show closed Sunday amid surging jihadi violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic Level out group which is killed a whole bunch.
When the funds was strike by repeated electrical energy cuts, types and designers utilized the lights of their cell telephones to position on make-up and restore their hair.
Some 35 designers — chosen from about 200 candidates — from West Africa and Europe, showcased their clothes within the capital, Ouagadougou. For the primary time the vast majority of designers, about 75%, have been from Burkina Faso, stated Alex Zabsonre, director of the celebration.
“Burkina is an individual of the African nations that has a great deal of possible to provide as considerably as fashion is concerned … That’s the rationale why I established this activity up, to reveal Burkina designers and get them acknowledged on the international diploma,” he acknowledged.
Most of the layouts highlighted Burkina Faso’s conventional, handwoven Faso Dan Fani material designed from cotton, which Zabsonre says has been worn by superstars together with singer Beyonce and elegance designer, Stella McCartney. The place is one specific of one of the best 10 cotton exporters on the earth accounting for an widespread of three% of worldwide exports contemplating that 2000, in accordance to the U.N.
Development within the nation has superior in newest a very long time in order that people have flip into additional clothing-mindful, stated Korotimi Dao, method designer and founding father of Koro DK Mannequin.
“Style week isn’t an issue, it’s an prospect to hope that something can come to be excellent once more,” she defined.
On condition that 2017 the European Union has given $10 million to the Ethical Method Problem, which has produced a whole bunch of careers for marginalized ladies and may help professionalize the textile and inventive discipline by connecting Burkina Faso producers and designers to the distinguished fashion and inside designers, Wolfram Vetter, ambassador to the European Union in Burkina Faso advised The Concerned Press.
“It’s time for these unrecognized artisans to play a facet within the world-wide fashion enviornment in order that these crafts, traditions and cultures stay alive,” defined Mallika Chaudhuri, founder and director of INDOI, a Britain-based womenswear model. “We might want to have fun, revive and protect regional craft the place designers and makers operate collectively in order that we shift within the route of a further moral and sustainable development market.”


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If you weren’t familiar with the term “metaverse”, I am sure you are now after Facebook announced that it’s changing its name to “Meta”. On Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook’s parent company was changing its name to Meta to emphasize its focus on metaverse. Metaverse is defined slightly differently by futurists, but at its core, the idea is basically the same: the metaverse is where the physical and digital worlds come together, and digital representations of people can interact with each other for work or play. Some, including Mark Zuckerberg, take the idea even further and add a virtual reality element to the metaverse, where two people on opposite sides of the world meet in a virtual room and interact. The metaverse represents a huge financial opportunity, as digital objects will have to be represented, ownable, sellable, and transferable within the metaverse. Blockchain and NFTs grant holders true ownership over digital items, and have already become a critical building block for emerging metaverses.
Ilias Louis Hatzis is the founder and CEO at Kryptonio wallet. Please participate in our Crypto Wallet Survey, we could use your help. It’s seven simple multiple-choice questions about crypto wallets and you should be done in 60 seconds. The survey is completely anonymous.
The “metaverse,” was coined by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 novel “Snow Crash,” where a pizza delivery guy by day and a VR superhero by night, lives in an online universe called the “Metaverse”.
The best-known metaverse is Second Life, an online virtual world that was launched in 2003. But there is no single truth to what a metaverse really is and games that offer their own versions of an immersive world may also be considered metaverses: Fortnite, Everquest, War of Warcraft. For most people, the idea of “virtual” does not necessarily involve a VR headset. Zoom, Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces have allowed us to carve out a virtual existence. In some ways, due to the pandemic, many would argue that the metaverse has already arrived.
The money is pouring in to the space and for good reason.
While it’s not apparent what shape the metaverse will take, the industry is growing. According to research firm Strategy Analytics, the global metaverse could be worth $280 billion by 2025 and likely grow from there. That’s more than sixfold compared to the $46 billion in 2020.
Earlier this year in April, Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, announced that it completed a $1 billion funding round to support its long-term vision for the metaverse. Galaxy Interactive announced it raised $325 million venture capital fund to invest in the metaverse and next-gen games. Recently, Recur raised $50 million, the largest Series A round in NFT history, to help brands and companies design and develop experiences that allow fans to buy, collect, and resell digital products. Mojito raised $20 million to power Sotheby’s metaverse.
Projects like Decentraland, Cryptovoxels, and Somnium Space are combining virtual reality and several crypto primitives, such as smart contracts and NFTs in order to create virtual worlds with digital scarcity.
At the center of all this activity are non-fungible tokens, which are a lot more than a speculative frenzy. NFTs use blockchain to record the ownership for any kind of asset. They can be used to provide fractional ownership of physical assets such as real estate, art, and diamonds, and they can also be used for virtual assets like virtual real estate or for collectible digital cats. In the third quarter of 2021, sales of NFTs reached $10.7 billion, 8x the sales volume of the previous quarter.
Non-fungible tokens are a land grab and the key to the metaverse race. NFTs point to a booming economy, that is transforming the gaming industry, fashion and collectibles, and has become a path to personal expression that just might entice a billion users into the metaverse. If you already own an NFT or some crypto, you’re part of the metaverse experience.
To frame the potential opportunity, just look at Fortnite, Epic Games’ metaverse platform that generated $1.2 billion in the first 10 months of launch. Dolce & Gabbana unveiled an NFT collection of dresses, suits, jackets, tiaras, and crowns that can be worn by digital avatars and ended up selling 9 NFTs for $5.65 million. Cryptopunks, a collection of 10,000 pixel art pictures of punks, passed $1 billion in sales. The Russian State Hermitage Museum, the largest museum in the world, raised $440,500 by auctioning NFTs of masterpieces from artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Vincent van Gogh.
Across the entire crypto ecosystem, we’ve seen more companies jump into NFTs. TikTok, Coinbase, Visa, and Sotheby’s are the latest entrants. Coinbase caused a stir with the announcement of its NFT marketplace. Brain Armstrong, Coinbase’s CEO, posted that over one million people are on the waiting list.
Over 1M people have signed up for Coinbase NFT since we launched yesterday 🤯https://t.co/pNE3nfFmyW
— Brian Armstrong – barmstrong.eth (@brian_armstrong) October 14, 2021
Social media video sharing platform TikTok entered the market, letting people buy NFTs from top creators on the platform. Traditional auction house Sotheby announced its NFT marketplace, Sotheby’s Metaverse. Visa is launching an NFT support program to help artists join the digital art space.
Metaverses have the potential to create enormous economic value from the combination of social interaction and digital asset ownership. Everything will have to be represented in the metaverse. I can imagine companies like Amazon, Netflix, and Robinhood all rolling out their own contributions to a shared metaverse. NFT technology is critical to the development of an open metaverse because it provides the financial architecture needed to standardize the value of digital assets that generally lack provenance and traceability.
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Mumbai: Toyota Motor
is set to become the first carmaker in India to voluntarily make antilock braking system (ABS
) a standard fitment in all its locally made vehicles. This move comes after it started offering airbags in all its cars
since October last year.
Toyota’s headquarters in Japan and its Indian unit, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, are deliberating on this and all its vehicles are expected to roll out with ABS starting 2016-17, said people with knowledge of the plans.
N Raja, director and senior vice president for sales and marketing at Toyota Kirloskar, didn’t specify any timeline to implement the plan. “The new safety regulations are likely to be enforced by 2017 and further norms towards pedestrian safety are also likely to be implemented by the end of the decade. Our current initiative will not only offer a safer car to our buyers, but also give us an edge against the competition,” said Raja.
Toyota’s German rival Volkswagen
too has made airbags a standard fitment in all its cars in India. Airbags and ABS come as standard in luxury vehicles, which though are produced overseas or are assembled from imported kits.
There has been a renewed push towards road safety in India, where some 1.4 lakh people are killed every year in road accidents, the highest in the world. In their efforts to meet demand for cheap vehicles, manufactures have often been forced to overlook safety features such as airbags and ABS, which reduces skidding. The new Bharat Safety rules that are in the making are likely to mandate side and frontal crash testing at 56 kilometers per hour in line with European rules by April of 2017.
Toyota, meanwhile, plans to test its locally produced cars using humanoid, internally called as THUMS (Total Human Model for Safety). By crash testing with humanoid, the real impact on body parts like bones, muscles, ligaments, tendons, and internal organs can be evaluated. The company is also designing cars keeping in mind the pedestrian safety.
Toyota globally crash tests its vehicles at 64 km per hour for both frontal and side crash. And, one of the primary objectives given to engineers is to design the vehicle in such a way that even in case of crash, the driver’s door must open freely.
Raja said most customers didn’t initially want to spend for airbags and preferred a music system in its place. But reports of some India-made cars failing crash tests and effort by dealers to educate customers have helped increase its acceptance significantly, he said.
With no new models in the pipeline for launch this fiscal year, Toyota is aiming to meet last year’s sales of around 1.35 lakh units, which is a sizeable number for an airbag manufacturer to set up a plant here.
“Supplies are coming in, but localisation will definitely help us. Our group companies are in the process of defining the manufacturing roadmap,” said Raja.


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The supermarket giant's appeal against the proposed competition test, which aims to prevent one retailer gaining a dominant position in a local area, was described by Assocation of Convenience Store's (ACS) public affairs director Shane Brennan as "delaying tactics". ACS appeared in support of the Commission alongside Marks & Spencer, Asda and Waitrose at a Competition Appeals Tribunal appeal hearing this week.
The appeal procedure is likely to see implementation of the test delayed for up to 12 months. Should Tesco win, the CC would have to revise and resubmit its recommendations on the planning competition test.
"The more likely outcome is that Tesco's appeal will not succeed and the process will simply push back implementation of the test, possibly into 2010," said Brennan.
ACS has also written to MPs calling for parliamentary scrutiny of the "delays and prevarication" surrounding another of the CC recommendations. Chief executive James Lowman said: "A new Ombudsman is vital to creating a sustainable and diverse market that delivers for consumers. Government has failed to take a lead in this process and as such has allowed uncertainty and delay to undermine the chance for a fairer and more diverse market to be created.
"Some of the supermarket companies have sought to convince government, the media and politicians that the Ombudsman will limit their ability to keep food prices low for consumers. This is not true and is a cynical exploitation of consumer fears."