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Expect More Games Like Octopath Traveler Says Square Enix
The success of the RPG game called Octopath Traveler is beyond belief. Globally, this game has received praise and admiration from tons of loving fans since inception in the previous month. Though, the release of this game has become a surprise to many diehard gaming enthusiasts. According to the leadership of Square Enix, more games like Octopath Traveler may storm the industry.
The information of the release of this RPG game emanated from a Japanese conference that took place today. Takashi Mochizuki – a Tokyo-based WSJ reporter helped to spread this information on social media. According to Square Enix, the game has been able to pull enough sales since its inception. Europe and the USA have been the biggest regions where Octopath Traveler-like games trade well.
Square Enix believes that people rush into buying this game due to the amazing features they enjoy. Most old fans like JRPG games that can make them experience the feel of innovation. The game design is another amazing feature that keeps attracting gaming fans. The game comes with new and innovative components. This can be found in the likes of attractive character designs and the HD-2D graphics. This eventually made the franchise to promise fans that more games like Octopath Traveler will reach the industry later in the future.
The publishing franchise has boldly maintained that the game is simply a Switch exclusive. It continued by saying other platforms will be monitored and used for the future release of the game. To a normal gamer, it makes sense to release other future games via many platforms. This is because it will give fans the opportunity to order on their desired platform.
As mentioned above, the success of Octopath Traveler remains a huge surprise to many people. Across the globe, the game is really selling well and successfully. It is important to know that Octopath Traveler remains a section of the niche genre. The outcome of the conference helped to boost the morale of Square Enix in making a huge promise for the future. In most cases, the best way to know the success of a video game is the reaction from fans. Octopath Traveler has been able to gather more clients after release.
The success of Octopath Traveler from Square Enix is due to certain factors. The new features of the game remain a captivating talking point. The gameplay should not be ignored when talking about the success of the game. Attractive characters, the HD-2D art style and other components added to the success of this amazing game.
For average games, Square Enix thinks that the Nintendo Switch remains a great platform to launch. The company has made an honest promise to fans that more games in the order of Octopath Traveler will storm the industry soon. It is evident that if the company received bad reviews, there’s every possibility to stop production. However, the sky is blue for Square Enix, and fans should expect more games similar to Octopath Traveler in the future.


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South Africa's annual production of gold is to receive a boost from a revolutionary plant just opened near Johannesburg.
South Africa's annual production of gold is to receive a boost from a revolutionary plant just opened near Johannesburg. The hundred and eighty million dollar plant is reclaiming gold, uranium and sulphuric acid by processing slag heaps from old mines.
SYNOPSIS: Located at Boksburg, the Ergo plant has been mainly financed by the Anglo-American Corporation. The company has laid about eighty miles (110 kilometres) of large diameter pipeline to carry slurry to the site. In officially opening the plant the Minister of Mines, Mr. S.P. Botha, paid tribute to the corporation for the impressive size and sophistication of the project. He also thanked the major industrialised countries for the assistance they have given to South Africa's mineral processing industry and hinted the new technology learnt from processing uranium may be made available to companies planning similar operations in the United States and Canada.
Initial output of gold will be four thousand ounces per month, a mere drop in the bucket of the country's overall production. But this gold will be obtained relatively cheaply and the plant will also turn out sixteen tons of uranium and forty thousand tons of sulphuric acid monthly. to date nearly four hundred million tons of slimes from nineteen slagheaps have been earmarked for production during the next twenty years. Unlike conventional mines Ergo has no expensive shaft systems or underground development and with mechanisation needs only a modest workforce.
South Africa has nearly half of the world's gold reserves and nearly twenty per cent of uranium reserves. It's a wealth that the South African government wants to preserve and it sees the mineral production from new plants such as Ergo as becoming increasingly important if it is to retain one of the world's strongest economies.

domain: news


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Neil Black of Sherbrooke, Guysborough Co., will join Tourism Nova Scotia’s board of directors. His appointment was announced today, Oct. 22, by Geoff MacLellan, Minister responsible for Tourism Nova Scotia.
“Mr. Black has considerable marketing, finance and management experience and will be a great addition to Tourism Nova Scotia’s board,” said Mr. MacLellan. “I want to thank him for his interest in growing Nova Scotia’s tourism industry and welcome him to the team.”
Mr. Black is a retired financial consultant and real estate broker. In addition to operating his own mortgage brokerage, he has held management positions at Nova Scotia Savings and Loans Company, The Bank of Montreal, American Manor Corporation and Century 21. Mr. Black has also held positions on numerous volunteer boards and committees.
“It is an exciting and important time for Tourism Nova Scotia,” said board chair Irene d’Entremont. “Neil’s expertise and insights will be valuable as we continue to execute our strategy to grow export tourism revenues and lead the industry toward the goal of $4 billion in annual tourism revenue by 2024.”
Tourism Nova Scotia’s skills-based board is made up of business leaders from across Nova Scotia. Directors are appointed to the board based on a nomination process. Mr. Black’s appointment brings the board to full complement.


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Not many people can say they’ve helped build a brand from the ground up, but Vyve Broadband’s Diane Quennoz earns that claim to fame. The MSO’s head of marketing had spent years in the service provider side of the house, before joining Vyve to help start the company seven years ago.
“We came together as a really small company and bought some distressed assets. [We] wanted to build a really next-generation, broadband-first company,” says Quennoz. “We basically rebuilt the network and launched the brand. So, I actually created and developed the Vyve brand, the name, the identity, the whole nine yards.”
It’s not easy launching a broadband network in rural America, simply because it’s hard to market. “I can’t run TV [spots] because I have 90% waste. You can’t really buy radio, because you’re going to buy a lot of waste,” Quennoz explains. “If I buy in Oklahoma City, to reach my markets I’m now in another MSOs property.”
First, Quennoz and the team had to build the identity of Vyve Broadband, starting with understanding the MSO’s customer base. “Understanding the customers, really building it on a solid foundation of who we are, who we’re serving, who’s invested in us, and what would be an identity, a name that can actually carry on and bring forward in rural America and stand out,” says Quennoz.
Helping Vyve grab attention is its color palette, a bold yellow. “A lot of companies in our space are either blue or red,” she explains. “We wanted to stand out, and we wanted a color that was very welcoming and neighborly.” Quennoz understands the importance of being a strong presence in local, rural markets. Vyve paints the town yellow in its markets.
“We had to do all the unexpected places to reinforce the brand, to put the brand everywhere our customers were,” says Quennoz. That includes posters in Dollar General and a branded entrance to the Shawnee Mall in Oklahoma. “We did a lot of local, because we couldn’t just run TV spots and say ‘Hey, we’re Vyve.’ Because nobody could see that. We had to be very creative.”
The company works very closely with its schools, and can be seen at high school football and basketball games. That includes Vyve’s well-known annual Christmas card competition, where schoolchildren under the age of 13 compete to design the company’s holiday card. Quennoz says she came up with the idea six years ago when a technician’s daughter thought that Vyve needed a mascot, and drew a picture of an emu with a Vyve logo shirt on it. Now, the competition is national with a strong social media presence, and the winner earns an iPad, and the child’s teacher gets $200 in art supplies for the classroom.
With local media buys a challenge, Vyve relies heavily on social media. Plus, it fits Vyve’s mission to be where its customers are. “Our customers want to be able to reach us 24/7… they’re online, they want to chat, we have echat. They’re online, they want to purchase a product, we have ecommerce,” she says.
Quennoz’s responsibilities are only set to get bigger. Next up? Building the Vyve brand all over again following the company’s acquisition by GTCR and Mega Broadband Investments, which will combine Vyve, Northland Communications and Eagle Broadband under the Vyve name. “Even if you have an existing identity and brand, you have to really reintroduce it to a lot of employees,” says Quennoz. “One of the common cores that kind of threads amongst all of us is connected to our communities. As we reidentify and bring Vyve back to the forefront, it’s bringing in all the empathy that was at Eagle and at Northland, and ensuring that we don’t lose what they’ve been building years on. We’re going to be rolling it out throughout the year, and we’re going to start in our southeast properties and we’re going to roll all the way over to Washington State.”
– Mollie Cahillane
- Vyve Broadband doubled the size of the company through its acquisition with Northland Communications and Eagle Broadband.
- Vyve was founded seven years ago through the purchase of distressed assets, and will soon serve a market from the Carolinas to Washington State.
- The company sponsors various local sports teams and high school football games through Friday Night Vyve, and it also gives away popcorn at local basketball games.


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LPG cylinders cheaper by Rs 10 in Bihar
According to the notification issued by the state commercial taxes department yesterday, the applicable VAT on LPG cylinders been reduced to one pc from the earlier four pc.
Earlier, in a bid to cushion the consumers against the steep hike in petrol annd diesel prices, the state government promulgated an ordinance on June five reducing the sales tax of the two commodities by 2.5 and 1.64 pc respectively, official sources said.
While the sales tax on petrol has been reduced from 27 pc to 24.5 pc, and that on ordinary and high speed diesel it has been lowered from 20 pc to 18.36 pc, sources said.
The cut in VAT on LPG cylinders would cost the state exchequer Rs 25 crore annually, sources said.


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Amazon, Overstock Fight New York's Sales Tax Law
February 7, 2013 2:00 PM
comment(s) - last by
A decision is expected in June
New York is sticking to its guns when it comes to taxing the likes of Amazon and Overstock.com, but the e-tailers are fighting back.
Amazon and Overstock.com are challenging a New York law passed in 2008, which forces companies with affiliates within the state to collect sales tax. However, Amazon said
this law is unconstitutional
because a 1992 Supreme Court decision said retailers that don't have a nexus of operation in a state does not need to collect sales tax.
New York law has an answer for that, though. It said that websites with purchase buttons for Amazon or redirect to Amazon as well as other national retailers receive fees for doing so -- making them local solicitors.
Amazon argued that web referrals are less like solicitors or a local sales force, and more like advertising -- even comparing this model to buying newspaper advertising. Of course, the state of New York disagreed, saying that there's a difference between advertising and what Amazon is doing.
Amazon and the state of New York duked it out in the State of New York Court of Appeals yesterday. A decision is expected in June.
From 2008 (when the state law was passed) until February 2012, online retailers collected $360 million in sales tax on over $4 billion in online transactions.
Amazon has been fighting states that force it to collect sales tax for years (except in Kansas, Kentucky, New York, North Dakota and Washington). The e-tailer fled many states that attempted to force tax collection on the company, such as
and Illinois. But between states looking for ways to offset large financial deficits and brick-and-mortar stores like Best Buy complaining about Amazon being unfair competition, the issue swelled.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said many times that his company would agree to collect taxes if there were some sort of federal legislation.
But eventually, Amazon finally broke down and started collecting sales tax in certain states, which allowed it to build more distribution centers within those states. For instance, Amazon announced that it would
collect sales tax in New Jersey
last May so that two Amazon distribution centers could be built.
This led to faster shipping for customers, such as
Amazon's same-day delivery
program, making it more competitive than ever (especially since it still had cheaper prices than most brick-and-mortars).
However, e-commerce firm ChannelAdvisor reported last month that
third-party sellers on Amazon saw a drop in sales
after the new tax rules in some states. For example, Amazon started collecting a sales tax of 7.25 percent to 9.75 percent in California in September 2012. ChannelAdvisor found that its clients’ sales on Amazon before sales tax collection in California were 5 to 10 percent above other states. After the sales tax collection began, sales in California matched those of other states. In early November 2012, California sales fell 10 percent below sales in other states.
This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
If you tax one, you should tax them all
2/8/2013 10:45:18 AM
I live in PA and Amazon started attaching a tax for all items I order. To be honest, it hasn't affected my shopping on their site at all. Their prices are still better than stored and especially on items I can not find in a store locally. However, I do agree with Amazon that they should make a federal law that all e-tailers much charge state sales tax, big or small. It is only fair to all parties. States are struggling as it is and if charging sales tax on all online purchases can help that, then so be it. You are already legal liable to pay the sales tax on purchases if it isn't included, but no one ever does that. I think they added a $25 blanket tax when I filed my taxes last year that is supposed to cover all items purchased online for 2011.
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Beijing, China: With “Innovation and Intelligence” theme, OPPO Developer Conference (ODC) 2019 kicked-off here on Friday. OPPO unveiled a range of initiatives to co-build a new intelligent service ecosystem with developers and partners.
OPPO launched three main programs – Gravity Plan 2.0, Five System-level Capability Exposure Engines and IoT Enablement Plan.
Gravity Plan 2.0
This plan basically is an enhanced developer program. For which, OPPO will allocate RMB 1 billion ( about $143 million) in 2020.
OPPO said that it has been successful in building a new ecosystem in the past year. ColorOS, the company’s operating system has over 320 million monthly active users globally. It is amassing huge user base of users across its applications, services and content ecosystem.
Over 120,000 developers have joined the OPPO open platform till date. And OPPO’s open capability service is being used over than 3 billion times per day.
For the first time OPPO officially had announced the “Gravity Plan,” a RMB 1 billion program to support outstanding developers worldwide during the 2018 conference.
Since then, the plan has provided resources for more than 2,000 applications, resulting in 9.2 billion impressions and over 180 million downloads.
“The Gravity Plan 2.0 will built on last year’s plan with the help of ColorOS to provide sustained and all-round support to partners in the four major fields of applications, services, content and going global,” Henry Duan, VP – Services, OPPO told in his keynote address.
ColorOS, according to Duan is available in more than 140 countries and regions globally.
The Five System-level Capability Exposure Engines
This new plan allows developers to connect to OPPO’s system-level capability more smoothly and fast. It aims to bring better user experience to users.
The plan includes Hyper Boost, Link Boost, CameraUnit, MediaUnit and ARUnit capabilities. In this way, OPPO wants to improve user experience together with developers and partners.
“With the launch of the “Five System-level Capability Exposure Engines,” OPPO will help developers leverage creativity, explore scenarios, maximize value and build a world of intelligent connectivity in which reality and the virtual realm integrate,” Andy Wu, VP – Software Engineering, OPPO told in his keynote address.
The IoT Enablement Plan
This is OPPO’s most ambitious plan based on its “HeyThings IoT protocol” and “HeyThings IoT service platform.” With this platform, it wants to push convergence of technology and service.
OPPO said it is anticipating the integration and convergence of things to be the future, while announcing the “IoT Enablement Plan.”
This new plan is a capacity opening program, aimed at opening OPPO’s HeyThings IoT protocol, service platform and audio connectivity protocol for IoT partners.
HeyThings IoT service platform
OPPO’s HeyThings IoT service is a new upgraded platform that is expected to be deployed in Q1, 2020. The first phase of audio connectivity protocol will be in service by June 2020.
“OPPO will soon debut its first smartwatch – OPPO Watch and a health platform, which will be positioned as a strategic device that OPPO will use to create a robust ecosystem with its partners,” said Bobee Liu, VP – Intelligent Mobile Devices, OPPO.
The smartphones brand’s new initiatives announced today at the 2019 conference are in the direction of what CEO Tony Chen had hinted earlier this year.
“OPPO has been more than just a phone maker from the outset,” Chen had said during the OPPO INNO DAY.
“OPPO plans to invest RMB 50 billion ($7 billion) into R&D spending in the next 3 years to develop core technologies in hardware, software and system in addition to 5G, AI, AR, big data and other frontier technologies,” Chen had revealed.
“By actively collaborating with partners across the industry for a future of shared success, OPPO is forging a new ecosystem of smart services in the era of the intelligent connectivity,” he had mentioned.


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NEWCASTLE, England, January 9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --
Better Price Paid, one of the UK's biggest cash property buying companies are now offering up to 90% cash prices for all UK property, regardless of condition or location. With the housing market currently booming, there has never been a better time to sell, especially if you are looking for a cash offer.
Better Price Paid, a leading cash buying company operating nationally in the UK residential home sale market, has today announced an increase in the amount that they will pay in cash for all types of property regardless of the condition or location. The up-to-90% cash offer is expected to attract a number of new customers who have previously struggled to sell, and who aren't prepared to sell as low as 70 per cent market value, which some other rival cash buying companies are offering.
House prices rises means increased offers
Better Price Paid has always operated differently to other companies that advertise online to buy property quickly, with no reduced offers at the last minute, genuine statements made on their website, and a genuine ability to purchase homes for cash in as little as 7-10 days.
With the increase in house prices and the dramatic change in the property market, a cash offer from Better Price Paid could be up to 20 per cent more than what a vendor may have previously been quoted from the company, meaning they can now proceed with a cash purchase at a better price than before.
Director of Better Price Paid, David Sessford says: "Our previous offers were not about being greedy; they simply reflected the property market at that particular time, and the risk we were taking in purchasing and relying on a resale. With the current climate, our offers are significantly higher than most other companies, and anyone offering cash offers over 90 per cent of value is likely to not be genuine."
David also went on to advise customers about the perils of using cash buying companies that advertise on the internet, and the scams to watch out for. "We often from time to time see websites claiming to be able to offer sellers 97 per cent market value for their properties in cash. This is obviously impossible as the companies in question would not make any profit, and therefore would not be a company. These particular scams generally involve high offers to begin with, and a drastic drop in price at the last minute. Make sure you research a company thoroughly before deciding to use them. Don't sign any contracts and check they are registered with the OFT (Office of Fair Trading)."
Better Price Paid believes that it is better to be honest with sellers from the outset in order to firstly achieve a realistic valuation, and finally to make an offer based on that valuation. They also advise any vendor interested in their service that all costs incurred, including valuation fees, are at the expense of the company and not the seller.
Contact: David Sessford, Tel: 0800-612-7917
SOURCE Better Price Paid


text:
Ford Motor Co. and India’s Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd. called off their auto-making joint venture Thursday, a little over than a year after announcing it, citing pandemic-related economic challenges.
In a joint statement, the companies said the dissolution of the venture “was driven by fundamental changes in global economic and business conditions — caused, in part, by the global pandemic — over the past 15 months.”
“Those changes influenced separate decisions by Ford and Mahindra to reassess their respective capital allocation priorities,” the companies said.
The two auto makers announced the joint venture in October 2019. Ford F, -0.79% would have transferred most of its auto operations in India to Mahindra 500520, +2.23%, a cost-saving move intended to keep a foot in a growing market where Ford has largely failed to make inroads. The joint venture would have focused on producing vehicles for emerging markets.
Ford said Thursday its operations in India “will continue as is,” and added that it is “actively evaluating its businesses around the world, including India” to boost margins and generate consistently strong cash flow.
Ford shares ended 2020 down about 5.5%, despite a 30% surge in the past three months, compared to the S&P 500’s SPX, +0.64% 16% gain for the year.
In some ways, Peloton Interactive (NASDAQ:PTON) is doing for exercise equipment what Apple did in the personal computing market. It has taken a mundane product and made it feel special.
That’s an impressive feat given that the exercise equipment market has been crowded for a long time. Competitors like NordicTrack offer equipment with many of the same features as a Peloton Bike, but the latter has the benefit of connecting owners with a growing community of workout enthusiasts. Peloton’s willingness to spend heavily on marketing has helped it build a powerful brand, generate amazing sales growth, and deliver big returns for investors.
And the best is yet to come.
What’s most impressive about Peloton’s growth is how consistent it has been. Revenue grew 90% in its fiscal 2018 (which ended in June of that year), 107% in its fiscal 2019, and 99% in its fiscal 2020. But when gyms shut down due to the pandemic and people went looking for appealing at-home workout options, its growth and member engagement jumped to another level.
In the quarter that ended Sept. 30, revenue growth accelerated to 232% year over year. This performance was partly driven by a large backlog of unfulfilled Peloton Bike orders from the previous quarter, but that reflects phenomenal demand for the product.
On Wall Street, the knock against Peloton has been its lack of profitability, which can be blamed on the exceedingly large percentage of revenue it spends on marketing. But with this year’s high demand, management has been able to pull back on that spending, which allowed some profits to poke through in the last few quarters. Peloton reported net income of $69 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2021, for a net profit margin of 9%.
Peloton reported a profit much earlier than investors originally expected, given that it’s still investing aggressively in subscription content and new products to drive growth. Its ability to show a healthy profit while making these crucial investments was a key reason the stock rocketed higher as the year progressed.
Further propelling the stock price was a September investor presentation in which management updated its long-term outlook. The company sees the potential to convert millions of people with paid gym memberships to its interactive fitness products, including the Peloton mobile app.
Many people like their gym experience, so management’s goal will be challenging to reach, but if Peloton can convert even a minor percentage of the estimated 200 million paying gym-goers worldwide, that would be enough to make its stock a rewarding investment, even purchased at its current highs.
Peloton ended the recent quarter with 1.33 million connected fitness subscribers, and 3.6 million total when including digital app memberships. Those relatively low figures reveal a business that is still at the beginning of its growth journey.
What’s exciting about Peloton is that new growth avenues are still emerging. For example, it recently announced the acquisition of Precor for $420 million, a purchase that will bring several benefits.
Precor is a leading provider of commercial-grade fitness equipment for hotels, multifamily residences, and college campuses. The deal not only opens up these markets for Peloton, but it also brings in-house more expertise in product development, which could enhance the feature sets and technology that will go into its future products.
What’s more, Precor provides a large U.S. manufacturing footprint. By producing some of its connected fitness products domestically, Peloton could significantly shorten delivery times and save money on logistics and shipping. All of this will undoubtedly benefit the bottom line.
The stock has provided a muscular boost to the portfolios of any investors who bought shares during the months after its September 2019 initial public offering. But management sees revenue roughly doubling again in fiscal 2021, and the healthy profit Peloton showed in the last earnings report shows how lucrative its subscription business model will be over the long term.
This growth stock already sports a rich valuation, so investors may have to temper their near-term expectations. However, I wouldn’t underestimate Peloton’s ability to deliver market-beating returns over the next decade even from these lofty levels.
HOUSTON, Dec. 31, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Aravive, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARAV), a clinical-stage oncology company developing transformative therapeutics, today announced that Dr. Ray Tabibiazar will be stepping down from the Aravive Board of Directors but will remain an advisor to the company, effective December 31, 2020. This transition will allow Dr. Tabibiazar to focus on a new venture.
Dr. Tabibiazar co-founded private Aravive Biologics and served as the Chairman of its board of directors and as President and Chief Executive Officer from its inception to April 2017 and as Executive Chairman from May 2017 until October 2018. During that time, he led Aravive Biologics through a reverse merger with Versartis, Inc., to form the combined company, Aravive, Inc. Dr. Tabibiazar remained on the Board of Aravive, Inc. since October 2018.“On behalf of my fellow directors, the company’s management team, and shareholders, I’d like to thank Ray for the significant contributions he made to the company as co-founder, CEO, and most recently during his service on Aravive’s Board,” said Fred Eshelman, Pharm.D., Chairman of the Board of Directors. “Ray’s dedication to ensure AVB-500 reaches patients quickly has helped advance our lead program and we wish him the best in his future endeavors.”Dr. Tabibiazar commented, “Aravive’s AVB-500 is a very promising biologic drug with tremendous potential to become a mainstay treatment in several cancers including ovarian and renal, readily combinable with any standard of care therapy given its differentiated mechanism of action and exquisite safety profile. Aravive is in a great position as it advances AVB-500 through the planned registrational study and is tested in additional indications.”About Aravive
Aravive, Inc. is a clinical-stage oncology company developing transformative therapeutics designed to halt the progression of life-threatening diseases. Aravive’s lead therapeutic, AVB-500, is an ultra-high affinity decoy protein that targets the GAS6-AXL signaling pathway associated with tumor cell growth. Aravive recently successfully completed a Phase 1b trial of AVB-500 in platinum resistant ovarian cancer and selected 15 mg/kg as the dose for the Phase 3 trial. While the Phase 1b trial of AVB-500 in platinum resistant ovarian cancer was a safety trial and not powered to demonstrate efficacy, all 5 patients in the 15 mg/kg cohort experienced clinical benefit, with 1 complete response, 2 partial responses, and 2 stable disease. The Company has initiated and is recruiting for its Phase 1b/2 trial in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma. For more information, please visit www.aravive.com.Forward-Looking Statements
This communication contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as “may,” “should,” “potential,” “continue,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “estimates,” and similar expressions and includes statements regarding plans to evaluate AVB-500 in a Phase 1b/ 2 trial in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma Forward-looking statements are based on current beliefs and assumptions, are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, risks and uncertainties related to: our ability to initiate a Phase 1b/Phase 2 trial of AVB-500 in clear cell renal cell carcinoma as planned, the impact of COVID-19 on the Company’s clinical strategy, clinical trials, supply chain and fundraising, the Company’s ability to expand development into additional oncology indications, the Company’s dependence upon AVB-500, AVB-500’s ability to have favorable results in clinical trials and ISTs, the clinical trials of AVB-500 having results that are as favorable as those of preclinical and clinical trials, the ability to receive regulatory approval, potential delays in the Company’s clinical trials due to regulatory requirements or difficulty identifying qualified investigators or enrolling patients especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic; the risk that AVB-500 may cause serious side effects or have properties that delay or prevent regulatory approval or limit its commercial potential; the risk that the Company may encounter difficulties in manufacturing AVB-500; if AVB-500 is approved, risks associated with its market acceptance, including pricing and reimbursement; potential difficulties enforcing the Company’s intellectual property rights; the Company’s reliance on its licensor of intellectual property and financing needs. The foregoing review of important factors that could cause actual events to differ from expectations should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with statements that are included herein and elsewhere, including the risk factors included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, recent Current Reports on Form 8-K and subsequent filings with the SEC. Except as required by applicable law, the Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statement, or to make any other forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.Contacts:
Sheryl Seapy, W2O Group
Luke Heagle, W2O Group
In the latest trading session, Abbott (ABT – Free Report) closed at $109.49, marking a +0.97% move from the previous day. This change outpaced the S&P 500’s 0.64% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.65%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.14%.
Coming into today, shares of the maker of infant formula, medical devices and drugs had gained 0.27% in the past month. In that same time, the Medical sector gained 3.2%, while the S&P 500 gained 3.19%.
Investors will be hoping for strength from ABT as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.36, up 43.16% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $9.91 billion, up 19.18% from the year-ago period.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $3.57 per share and revenue of $33.83 billion, which would represent changes of +10.19% and +6.05%, respectively, from the prior year.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for ABT should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company’s business outlook.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. ABT currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Looking at its valuation, ABT is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 30.41. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry’s average Forward P/E of 39.41.
Investors should also note that ABT has a PEG ratio of 2.47 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company’s expected earnings growth rate into account. Medical – Products stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 3.65 based on yesterday’s closing prices.
The Medical – Products industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 171, putting it in the bottom 33% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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The excitement in the potato market does not subside, despite the ongoing harvesting of products in professional farms and an unprecedented sharp increase in potato imports from Belarus and Russia. This is reported by EastFruit analysts.
At the beginning of this week, another round of price increases began - producers in all regions of Ukraine decided to raise selling prices for potatoes. If on September 26-27 it was still possible to buy potatoes in bulk at 10 UAH / kg (41 US cents per kg), then today farmers do not want to sell potatoes for less than 11-12 UAH / kg (45-50 US cents per kg), and individual varieties are even offered at 13 UAH / kg (54 US cents per kg).
Thus, in just two weeks, potato prices in Ukraine rose by almost a third. About the same increase in the volume of imports of potatoes. The most interesting thing is that potato prices in Ukraine are now on average three times higher than in Russia. And the difference between prices in absolute terms continues to grow, which makes the export of Russian potatoes to Ukraine through Belarus all the more attractive.
The rise in prices in Ukraine also leads to an increase in the price of potatoes in Belarus and Russia. If at the end of last week Russian potato growers sold products on average at 15 US cents per kg, then at the beginning of this week it becomes more and more difficult to buy potatoes at this price.
Against this background, in Ukraine there is an increase in demand for low quality potatoes, which are sold for less than 10 UAH / kg. However, the supply of such potatoes is also limited.
In the coming days it will become known how many potatoes Ukraine imported in September. As of the middle of the month, the Ukrainian Fruit and Vegetable Association (UPOA) estimated the volume of potato imports at the level of 8 thousand tons, although, as a rule, in September Ukraine never imported this product at all. At the same time, in the previous season, Ukraine updated the record for imports of vegetables and potatoes, which indicates systemic problems in this industry.
What will happen to potato prices in Ukraine next? The answer to this question is far from obvious. On the one hand, there is a delay in cleaning products, so the supply of local products is limited. On the other hand, consumers, frightened by high prices, fear a repeat of the onion market price scenario last season, therefore they are more actively than usual stocking up potatoes for the winter. The demand is also warmed up by numerous intermediaries who expect that the price of potatoes in the spring will reach 20-25 UAH / kg. They buy products, including imported ones, and lay them for storage, in the hope of good earnings.
At the same time, many analysts doubt that spring potato prices will be much higher than now, given the good harvest in neighboring countries and significantly lower prices.


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Blizzard has revealed the first queer character in its popular multiplayer team-based shooter Overwatch via a new comic celebrating the holidays, titled “Reflections.”
The comic, which focuses on how the speedy Tracer races through the snow in order to find the perfect gift for her partner, reveals the character’s orientation during a scene in which lover Emily gives her hero a kiss in return for a scarf. The pair then take to Winston the gorilla’s house for a holiday dinner.
Quite sweet in scope, the news comes after Blizzard has teased that there are indeed multiple queer characters in the game. Seeing as how Tracer is featured prominently in the title’s promotional materials, including its cover art, the move seems like a step in the right direction for members of both the queer community and the industry as a whole.
Overwatch was named Game of the Year during The Game Awards earlier this month and currently has a holiday event underway, introducing new Christmas-themed skins, emotes, and highlight intros for almost every character in the game. It’s available now for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
What do you think about the reveal? Leave a comment below to let us know!


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They're calling it a "Silver Tsunami." That's how Charles Lynn Lowder, a Vietnam veteran, lawyer and co-founder of the Veteran Business Project, describes the outflow of veteran entrepreneurs looking to leave the businesses they've built and start a well-deserved retirement.
For some of these retiring business owners, retirement is kind of a problem. They spent their lives building a small business, taking care of employees and becoming part of a community. Now that they're ready to enjoy the fruits of their labor, they can't find anyone to take it over.
"A very typical scenario is that their kids don't want it," Lowder tells Military.com. "They're faced with shutting it down or finding a buyer, but they're not having any success within their family. So they would come to us to see if they could be introduced to a veteran who wants to take it over."
The Veteran Business Project was co-founded by Lowder and partner Dale Eisenberg, who would do the due diligence on the business, ensure it was viable and then look for veterans who might be interested in taking it over.
They also assigned them a business coach, an entrepreneur with business experience who knows what it's like to start and operate a business. When it comes to accessing capital to actually buy the business, the Veteran Business Project helps veterans find affordable financing with favorable terms. Hundreds of veterans have already gone through the program.
With this formula, VBP has been pairing retiring entrepreneurs with entrepreneurial-minded veterans across the country for more than a decade. They have just received a considerable grant from The Duchossois Family Foundation and are ready to ramp up efforts to pair the 250-350 veterans with their new business ventures.
"We've been very careful about who we're involved with on the funding part," Lowder says. "This grant will allow us to staff up, go further with the marketing and add additional business coaches to pair more people in our pipeline."
Lowder dropped out of college to enlist in the Marine Corps in 1967. He earned a commission through the Corps' enlisted commissioning program and deployed to Vietnam with the 1st Force Recon Company. After 10 years of service, he left and went to college, then law school.
While practicing law, he helped the University of Missouri develop a program for veterans, helping separated vets get their transfer credits and mental health counseling. As more and more veterans began to approach him, he noticed they often had one thing on their mind: starting their own business.
When he began looking into veteran entrepreneurship, he learned the rates of veteran business owners have been on a steady decline since World War II. Almost half of WWII veterans became small business owners. For the Post-9/11 generation, that number is only 5%.
"The predominant reason is, they can't get a loan, and it's astonishing to me that they'll lend a college-bound teenager tens of thousands of dollars with no credit score and no collateral," Lowder laughs. "But a veteran? Sorry, no. Instead, they'll try and put a veteran into an SBA [Small Business Administration] program where they've gotta have a minimum 690 credit score and collateral before they can borrow."
Lowder asserts that is just not likely. He jumped at the chance to be appointed to the SBA Advisory Committee on Veteran Business Affairs and began lobbying on Capitol Hill for vets to be able to use their GI Bill to purchase or start businesses. In the meantime, he started the Veteran Business Project. Calls from Baby Boomer business owners began right away, and haven't stopped.
It doesn't matter how old the veteran is; if they have the heart of an entrepreneur, the Veteran Business Project wants to hear from them. Lowder himself started a restaurant in his town of Naperville, Illinois. His only regret was that he didn't start sooner.
"When I left the military, I wanted to have a small-town restaurant where you could go, have a good meal, get caught up on the town gossip and go about your day. I wonder why I didn't do this before," Lowder says. "So when I talk to these older veterans, I tell them it's never too late. If you want to do this, you can do it. You're not alone, so if this is burning in your heart, let's go. You can do it."
To learn more about the Veteran Business Project or to sign up to get into the pipeline of veterans looking to stem the tide of retiring business owners, visit the VBP website. Business owners who want to list their business with VBP can start there, too.
Want to Know More About Veteran Jobs?
Be sure to get the latest news about post-military careers as well as critical info about veteran jobs and all the benefits of service. Subscribe to Military.com and receive customized updates delivered straight to your inbox.


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Messages were left early Wednesday seeking comment from health officials and Tesla. According to the statement, local police will help " to verify Tesla is adhering to physical distancing " as well as other precautionary measures. Two workers who have returned to the plant said they were required to watch a safety-training video. The Detroit automakers' 150,000 US workers are represented by the United Auto Workers union, which has negotiated for added safety precautions.
Speaking in the House of Commons this afternoon, Sunak confirmed that until the end of July there will be no changes to the scheme whatsoever, then from August to September the scheme will continue for all sectors and regions of the United Kingdom but with "greater flexibility".
Since mid-March it has operated a skeleton daily schedule of 30 flights per day between the UK, Ireland and the rest of Europe . The company noted that its summer plans were subject to the lowering of government-imposed travel restrictions in the European Union as well as the implementation of "effective public health measures being put in place at airports".
According to Pichai, the few workers that will be allowed to work in corporate offices will resume in June or July, and they will resume with enhanced anti-COVID-19 safety measures in place. Outside of the tech sector credit card company Capital One ( COF ) told its 40,000 workers that they will be out until September and possibly longer.
Despite efforts to diversify the economy, the kingdom continues to rely heavily on oil for revenue. Futures for USA oil rose over one percent, with West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for June delivery trading above $25 a barrel after losing three and a half percent in earlier action.
The decline in Beijing's investment in the United States reflected tensions between the world's two biggest economies and Chinese government restrictions on overseas investment. Relations between the United States and China have deteriorated in recent weeks as the novel coronavirus has spread across the globe, killing more than 276,000 people worldwide and infecting over 4 million.


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After 29 years in business, Shoe Pavilion is closing the last of its 60 or so locations.
The Sherman-Oaks, Calif.-based shoe retailer at one point had 117 stores, but began shuttering low performing locations after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection July 15.
Along with Shoe Pavilion, Linens-N-Things and Mervyns also are set to close their doors after filing for bankruptcy protection.
Shoe Pavilion’s companywide going out of business sales are expected to last 10 to 12 weeks and will be conducted by a joint venture group consisting of Great American Group LLC, SB Capital Group LLC, Tiger Capital Group LLC and Hudson Capital Partners LLC, the company announced in a news release Monday.
“It is always tough to close down stores, but consumers will benefit from the extreme discounts on every item in the stores until all the merchandise is sold,” Danny Kane, managing member of Tiger Capital Group, said in the news release.
In addition to California, Shoe Pavilion has stores in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas and Washington.


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Insider Tom Henderson noticedthat publisher Ubisoft unfussedly announced the next broadcast of its shareware sports-arcade game Roller Champions.
Remember that the launch of Roller Champions was expected since last May and until recently for the entire current financial year, that is, up to March 31 (inclusive) of the 2022 calendar.
As became known from the announcement official discord server Roller Champions, the game is about to be released “late spring”. The developers at Ubisoft Montreal still need some time to finish polishing the project.
“The waiting is going to end soon. It is thanks to your trust in our team that we have been able to make such progress. We want to thank you for all the love you have shown Roller Champions.”the creators announced.
Roller Champions is officially confirmed for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and mobile. In the game, participants from two teams compete for possession of the ball on roller skates.


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Indiegogo - BUDDY, the Companion Robot from Blue Frog Robotics, Raises More Than $600,000 on Indiegogo
Blue Frog Robotics, developer of companion robot BUDDY, said its Indiegogo crowd funding campaign exceeded its goal by more than six times. More than 1000 funders participated in the campaign.
Paris, France; Boston, Mass. September 09, 2015
Blue Frog Robotics, a robotics technology company and developer of companion robot BUDDY, announced today that its just completed Indiegogo crowd funding campaign exceeded its fundraising goal by more than six times -- raising $617,830. The 1000+ funders include robotics technologists, software developers, academic institutions, and business partners from the healthcare, elder care, insurance and distribution industries as well as individual consumers excited about the future of companion robots.
The Indiegogo campaign reached its $100,000 funding goal in less than a day. During the campaign, Blue Frog Robotics executives introduced BUDDY to consumers, technologists, investors and members of the media throughout the world and held events in London, Boston and San Francisco.
"This is just the beginning," said Rodolphe Hasselvander, CEO and co-founder of Blue Frog Robotics and the inventor of BUDDY. "The successful Indiegogo crowd funding campaign has validated BUDDY and companion robots, and thats exciting news for us and for our many contributors to whom we are so grateful for getting this project off to a fast start. We learned so much from the recent global tour where BUDDY was met with universal enthusiasm. Now its time to take what we learned and continue to evolve BUDDY into a world-class, affordable and useful companion robot."
BUDDY, recently described in consumer electronics web magazine Engadget as having "R2-D2's versatility but with Wall-E's emotive abilities" and also recently featured in TechCrunch, a leading online publisher of technology news, can perform a broad range of useful, every day activities. It can alert a family member to an upcoming appointment, route and make phone calls, snap a picture or take a video, suggest a recipe and serve as a home security solution, among many other tasks.
Blue Frog Robotics recently opened offices in Boston, Mass., ground central for robotics in the US, and in San Francisco, Calif. Executives from the company will be attending, along with BUDDY, Unite 2015 Boston and TechCrunch Disrupt SF, San Francisco, Calif., both from Sept. 21-23, and RoboBusiness 2015, Sept. 23-24 in San Jose, Calif.
Anyone who missed out on the discount opportunity through the Indiegogo campaign will be able to purchase BUDDY at the retail price from Blue Frog Robotics in 2016.


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We loved reading your stories about the make of your first motorhome in our latest community poll.
With more than 450 votes and lots of manufacturers and different styles of motorhomes to choose from, one just about came out on top with 10 per cent the votes.
Here’s the results…
Auto-Sleepers, which has been building motorhomes since 1961, took first place as the most popular motorhome for first timers – 10% chose the Cotswolds based brand. But it was closely followed by Volkswagen and Elddis, who notched up 8 per cent of the votes.
Next up was Auto-trail and Swift with around 7% of the vote. Also making the top 10 first motorhome list were Bessacarr, Hymer, Burstner, CI Motorhomes and Bailey. Bailey has quickly become a popular choice for first time motorhome owners despite only entering the motorhome market in 2011.
With so many choices out there, many makes received a small number of votes, and a few failed to get onto the scoreboard, despite hundreds taking part in the poll.
Here’s what some of you had to say…
Second ranked VW has been around a while but many independent convertors have produced their own versions Transporter based campervans. Here’s what Eddie Vincent had to say about his first motorhome: “Mine was a 1960 VW Devon conversion, even had a clay-lined fridge. A family of five so had to have an awning on side. 1200cc but had great fun.”
And Barry Carter travelled all over the UK after buying a new Elddis Suntor Autoquest 400 in 2005.
“As motorhome prices go it was cheap but well-built and had four berths,” he said. “We went all over the UK and had a lot of fun with it. After two years we part exchanged it to move up to a Swift Bessacarr E600 and got back virtually what we paid for it. Our reason for selling was to get two passenger belted seats, due to a change in the law affecting the grandchildren travelling with us and which the Elddis did not then have, otherwise we probably would still be using it now. It was a great motorhome.”
Elddis do now have a belts = berths policy.
Graham Cock is a Hymer fan: “You can’t beat a Hymer. Comfortable, and does what you need it to,” he said.
Frankia and LMC didn’t make the top 10 but they still got a vote each.
Michael Peters bought a Frankia motorhome eight years ago: “How can I better it? I can’t. Superb design, quality and customer service.”
Caroline’s first motorhome was an LMC Liberty: “A super motorhome, about 7.7m long with an island bed – which we bought in Germany,” she added.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote and share their stories.


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MILAN — Despite Dubai’s recent financial woes and estimated debts of $80 million, the Burj Khalifa tower, widely advertised as the world’s tallest building,opened on Monday. Giorgio Armani SpA said the company’s first hotel, which will be located in the tower, will be officially unveiled in Dubai on March 18, marking the designer’s hotellerie debut in collaboration with real estate firm Emaar Properties PJSC.
Standing at 2,625 feet and 160 stories, the tower, also developed by Emaar, was unveiled with a major celebration of fireworks and in the presence of the city’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
The tower is surrounded by a 27-acre park and counts 3,000 underground parking spaces, according to the Burj site. Completion of the Burj tower was originally projected to be in late 2008.
Armani’s 432,000-square-foot hotel, furnished with his Casa line, will comprise 160 guest rooms and suites and 144 private residences.
Online bookings for the hotel will be available from later this month.
The Dubai financial and real estate markets have been suffering for over a year, and the city’s troubles have been making headlines since the end of November, after its chief investment vehicle, Dubai World, asked its lenders for a six-month freeze on repayments of a $59 billion debt pile, creating panic over potential repercussions on European banks. United Arab Emirates neighbor Abu Dhabi has since allowed Dubai World some breathing space by bestowing a $10 billion loan. Dubai, which has no natural resources and relies primarily on real estate investment and tourism, started showing signs of a slowdown in 2008, causing delays in many Italian fashion houses’ projects throughout the city.
The opening of Armani’s first hotel was pushed back to 2010 from the slated date of September 2009. Palazzo Versace also did not open in 2009, as was originally planned, and is due to open this year.
As per the agreement between Armani and Emaar, which was first unveiled in 2004, a second Armani hotel will open in Milan next year and at least 10 hotels and resorts are to be expected within the next 10 years.
Other properties under way include the first Armani Resort, planned for Marrakech, and the first Armani Residences villas in Marassi, Egypt. New York, Tokyo, Shanghai and London have also been earmarked as future locations.
Emaar’s sales and property prices have been impacted by the industry’s slowdown. In 2008, Emaar recorded a 15 percent drop in net operating profits to 5.57 billion United Arab Emirates dirhams, or $1.52 billion at average exchange, on a 10 percent drop in annual sales to 16 billion dirhams, or $4.35 billion, compared with 2007.
The real estate giant has also opened the 5.6 million-square-foot shopping and entertainment destination Dubai Mall, which boasts stores such as Bloomingdale’s, Chanel, Gucci and Louis Vuitton. In Saudi Arabia, Emaar is developing King Abdullah Economic City, which will feature a port,business, industrial, educational and resort districts and a residential area. The company holds a 30 percent equity stake in Dubai Bank, focused on retail and commercial banking. Dubai World’s Istithmar unit also owns Barneys New York.
Harrods plans to remove the famous statue of Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed from the bottom of the Egyptian escalators and hand it back to Mohamed Al-Fayed. “We are very proud to have played our role in celebrating the lives of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Al Fayed at Harrods and to have welcomed people from around the world to visit the memorial for the past 20 years,” said Michael Ward, Harrods managing director. “With the announcement of the new official memorial statue to Diana, Princess of Wales at Kensington Palace, we feel that the time is right to return this memorial to Mr. Al Fayed and for the public to be invited to pay their respects at the palace.” More on the news, with reporting by @loreleimarfil, at WWD.com. #wwdnews
@prada is introducing a new project at its men’s fall 2018 show this Sunday: “Prada Invites.” The fashion house invited four celebrated creative minds – @ronanaerwanbouroullec, Konstantin Grcic, @herzogdemeuron and @rem.koolhaas – to each create a unique item with its iconic nylon material. The designs will be unveiled on the runway show, which will take place at the company’s warehouse in Viale Ortles 25. #wwdfashion #mfwm (📷: @martinocarrera)
@kering_official is spinning off its stake in puma in an effort to focus on its luxury brands, the brand operator announced yesterday. “We are proud to have supported the turnaround of Puma, which now has unrivaled capabilities to take full advantage of the specific dynamics of its global markets and is poised to achieve substantial growth,” said François-Henri Pinault, Kering’s chief executive officer and chairman. Artémis will become a “long-term strategic shareholder” of Puma with a 29 percent stake. #wwdnews #wwdfashion (📷: @jilliansollazzo)
The fashion world mourns for celebrated street style photographer, Nabile Quenum, who died at age 32 in Paris.
Quenum, creator of the fashion blog “J’ai Perdu Ma Veste,” was a fashion week fixture, and regularly shot for New York magazine’s The Cut, among other outlets, and brands such as Louis Vuitton, Moncler and Adidas. He was also actively involved in the #NoFreePhotos initiative, which kicked off in the fall. Read more about Quenum in @kbsmoke's story on WWD.com. #wwdnews
@verwanggang and @maisonladuree have teamed up on a dessert collab called Vera Wang Pour Ladurée. The collection, which launched this week, features a specialty macaroon, as well as a wedding cake inspired by one of the designer’s gowns. “I could not imagine a more delicate or sophisticated creation to grace any couple’s celebration,” said Wang. #wwdfashion


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A transition plan has been worked out, said an official release on 31st meeting of GST Council, said an official release.
New Delhi: A new Goods and Services Tax (GST) return system will be introduced to facilitate taxpayers.
This was decided by the Council at its 31st meeting to ease the transition to the new return system. A transition plan has been worked out, said an official release on the 31st meeting of the GST Council, said an official release.
"In May 2019 a prototype of the offline tool has already been shared on the common portal to give the look and feel of the tool to the users. The look and feel of the offline tool would be the same as that of the online portal. Taxpayers may be aware that there are three main components to the new return - one main return (FORM GST RET-1) and two annexures (FORM GST ANX-1 and FORM GST ANX-2)," the release said.
"Between July to September 2019 (for three months), the new return system (ANX-1 & ANX-2 only) would be available for trial for taxpayers to make themselves familiar," added the release.
"From October 2019 onwards, FORM GST ANX-1 shall be made compulsory and FORM GSTR-1 would be replaced by FORM GST ANX-1," it said.
"The large taxpayers (i.e. those taxpayers whose aggregate annual turnover in the previous financial year was more than Rs. 5 Crore) would upload their monthly FORM GST ANX-1 from October 2019 onwards.
However, the first compulsory quarterly FORM GST ANX-1 to be uploaded by small taxpayers (with aggregate annual turnover in the previous financial year upto Rs. 5 Crore) would be due only in January 2020 for the quarter October to December 2019," it added.
The release further stated that Form GSTR-3B shall be completely phased out by January 2020.


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Tesla CEO Elon Musk 'impressed' after driving VW's fully-electric ID.3
Search Driven for Volkswagen for sale
While New Zealand is still under reasonably strict travel restrictions, it seems that the rest of the world has eased up, with Tesla CEO Elon Musk taking a trip to Germany over the weekend to try out VW's new electric vehicle.
Meeting with the Volkswagen Group's Chairman Herbert Diess, Musk managed to get behind the wheel of the highly-anticipated ID.3, a fully-electric hatchback that's set to replace the iconic Golf.
In a video that VW posted on LinkedIn, the Tesla CEO is shown driving the EV around a skidpad before taking it to a runway to check its acceleration. "What's the worst that can happen," Musk says as he mashes the throttle.
Following the drive, Musk describes the steering as being "pretty good" for a "non-sporty car", which could be taken as a back-handed compliment in regards to Tesla's own Model 3.
Alongside Musk driving the VW, Diess states in the video that he also got behind the wheel of Tesla's Model Y SUV. The "user experience, updatability, driving features, performance of the top of the range models, charging network, and range," were noted by the German CEO as benchmarks for the electric sector.
Despite rumours of the two automotive bosses meeting to discuss a collaboration circulating, Diess quickly shut down those whispers by stating “We just drove the ID.3 and had a chat – there is no deal/cooperation in the making.”
So while this might disappoint some electric vehicle fans, it provides a good level of competition between the two massive brands, and the ID.3 is shaping up to be one of the best EVs the world has seen.


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Realme on Monday announced that Realme U1 will now be available at the offline stores for purchase throughout the country. Realme U1 was launched in November last year as an Amazon-exclusive and later it was made available offline only at Reliance stores but now with the latest confirmation, the device will be available offline in other retailing stores as well. Realme U1 price in India is Rs. 11,999 for 3GB RAM with 32GB storage variant and Rs. 14,499 for 4GB RAM with 64GB storage option. The device comes in three different colours- Fiery Gold, Ambitious Black and Brave Blue.
Realme is also offering special offers for Realme U1 customers. In the offer, customers can get benefits worth Rs. 5,750 up to 4.2TB on Reliance Jio 198 and Rs. 299 prepaid plan offers. It should be noted that the offer will be valid to only aforementioned Jio prepaid packs.
To recall, Realme U1 features a 13-megapixel (f/2.2) primary rear camera and a 2-megapixel (f/2.4) secondary rear camera while at the front, it sports a 25-megapixel selfie shooter. The device runs on Android 8.1 Oreo and packs a 3500mAh battery capacity. Realme U1 has also started receiving the January 2019 Android Security update which has brought in various camera improvements and an added reboot function to the phone.
On the expansion, Madhav Sheth, Chief Executive Officer, Realme India said, “Considering the rapidly growing customer demand towards Realme U1 we are making the device available at our offline stores. Initially, the device was available for sale exclusively in Amazon.in and saw a phenomenal response. The initiative is to fulfil our commitment to deliver the best consumer experience to our customers.”


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Small businesses have always been the backbone of America's economy and will save today's economy by using the opportunities only America can provide. Warren Buffet has said and it is well known that "ultimately the value of the stock market can only reflect the output of the economy." More broadly, the wealth of a nation depends most on its ability to produce. As mega-corporations such as Walmart and Nike increasingly import their good and use cheap foreign labor to produce their goods, we have seen a slow seeping of America's money into the banks of other countries. This scenario mirrors that of a lake whose flow out is greater than its flow in, eventually it dries up.
A stark example of this theory is the big three automakers: Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler. The auto-companies have shut down plant after plant in America while opening new plants in Mexico and other 'cheap labor' countries. Many Americans have found themselves looking for a new job due to these job exports. I will never forget the story i heard of a 19-year old college kid training a forty three year man to run a cash register at a sporting goods store because his job had been sent overseas. And many middle class American's find themselves in this situation. According to the US Census Bureau, 70% of America's economy comes from the non-goods producing sector (the service industry). As we replace our goods-producing jobs with service jobs more and more American money is finding its way into the hands of other countries, while the American middle class is making less money to spend on goods. It will be very difficult for America to thrive on a purely service industry based economy as foreign businesses get better at insurance, professional consultation, and banking. America must start producing more to keep cash in America.
Small businesses are the answer for keeping America's manifest destiny intact. Companies like AIG, Walmart, and GM all started small and got big because they were the best and brightest. As some of the mega-corporations succumb to the diseases of greed and mismanagement it is time for new companies to rise from the ground and inject capital into America once again. This will happen because small companies rely on and employ the American worker. This symbiotic relationship puts cash in the pockets of the American middle class, cash that it has historically been known to spend. The big question is, can the little guy win the fight in a room full of giants?
Small companies have an uphill battle to climb against the multi-national corporations who have the deep pockets to spend money on R and D and marketing. Also, a theme now of big companies has been to buyout, rather than compete with, the smaller companies. Despite this fact I will keep my faith in David with his slingshot against Goliath. Small business must prevail to save the American economy. I will support the local smaller guy to keep my dollar in America.


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Latest Ingredients of cosmetics Stories
PEAPACK, N.J., March 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Findings of a new survey of 300 women living in Charlotte, NC, revealed that women, on average, are exposed to over 20 potentially harmful chemical ingredients or irritants (e.g.
PEAPACK, N.J., March 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Findings of a new survey of 302 women living in Denver, CO, revealed that women, on average, are exposed to nearly 25 potentially harmful chemical ingredients or irritants (e.g.
WASHINGTON, July 21 /PRNewswire/ -- "The content in this harsh and unscientific 'shockumentary' - genre video - bears no relationship to the 'real story of cosmetics.' Our industry employs hundreds of men and women who have devoted their careers to substantiate the safety of cosmetic products.
WASHINGTON, July 21 /PRNewswire/ -- "We appreciate the interest of Representatives Schakowsky, Markey and Baldwin in cosmetic regulation, and we share their desire to ensure that existing FDA regulatory oversight is enhanced to take into account evolving science, the continued growth of our industry, and the need to modernize the regulatory structure.
PORTLAND, Ore., Dec. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Imagine stuffing a loved one's stocking with skin rash, anaphylactic shock, hormonal disruption and carcinogens. It sounds crazy, but well-intentioned shoppers do it to the people they love every year.
RACINE, Wis., Nov. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Just nine months after launching an industry-leading ingredient communication website, SC Johnson today announced it has already completed the task of populating the U.S. site with more than 200 products and their ingredients.
NEW YORK, Nov.
FDA won't disclose brands; still has no standard for lead in lipstick SAN FRANCISCO, Sept.
WASHINGTON, July 2 /PRNewswire/ -- For more than 30 years, consumers have benefited from the use of sunscreen products to protect themselves from the harmful effects of the sun, including sun burn, premature skin aging, and certain types of skin cancer.
More than a year after a U.S. coalition reported some brands of lipstick contain lead, there has been no government action, members of the group said Monday. The U.S.
- Monstrous in size or character; huge; prodigious; monstrously perverse, savage, cruel, etc.


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Foxconn’s Profits Plunge By 90%
Factories in China shut down for weeks, sales down, still hoping for subsidy for Wisconsin operation.
Foxconn Technology Group, the Taiwan-based manufacturer with a still shadowy operation in Wisconsin, posted a 90 percent decline in its first quarter earnings for 2020, compared to the first quarter of 2019, as the Wall Street Journal has reported. The company’s net profit for the quarter was 2.08 billion (in new Taiwan dollars) compared to 19.83 billion in the first quarter of 2019. Much of that loss came because the company shut down its plants in China, where most of its business is located, due to the COVID-19 outbreak. It was the lowest quarter profits posted by the company in two decades, Reuters reported.
“The pandemic will continue to cast a shadow of uncertainty over the company,” the WSJ reported, “with April-June revenue expected to fall on year by a single-digit percentage, said Young-Way Liu, Foxconn’s chairman.” In a conference call Liu said “the visibility of our outlook for the whole year is limited” and “there is no way I can offer the outlook for the latter half of this year.”
Foxconn is the world’s electronics contract manufacturer, and most of its production sites have now returned to normal operation, Liu said. But its biggest customer is Apple, and demand for consumer products like smartphones is likely to decline in the current quarter, Liu noted. But the company “will stabilize in the second quarter,” Foxconn said in a statement, as Reuters noted.
“For consumer electronic products, because everyone is staying at home, naturally it affects consumers’ purchasing power and such power might take a very long time to recover,” Liu said.
Meanwhile, Foxconn’s much ballyhooed operation in Wisconsin remains mired in controversy, with all of its promised “innovation centers” in four different Wisconsin cities amounting to nothing more than empty buildings and continuing questions about its main campus in Mount Pleasant in Racine County, where there is little sign of activity and it remains unclear what will be manufactured there. The company has submitted documents to the State of Wisconsin stating it has hired 550 full-time employees and invested more than $280 million in capital expenditures to develop its Mount Pleasant campus, and is requesting a state subsidy worth nearly $45 million. But officials in the administration of Gov. Tony Evers have yet to certify that any subsidy was earned and have repeatedly informed the company it is out of compliance with the contract it signed with the state.
If you think stories like this are important, become a member of Urban Milwaukee and help support real, independent journalism. Plus you get some cool added benefits, all detailed here.
- Lawsuit Against Foxconn Dropped - Corri Hess - Mar 8th, 2021
- Hintz Doubts Foxconn Electric Car Project - Corri Hess - Mar 2nd, 2021
- Murphy’s Law: The Foxconn Real Estate Show - Bruce Murphy - Feb 25th, 2021
- Murphy’s Law: Local Costs for Foxconn Cut By 2% - Bruce Murphy - Feb 8th, 2021
- Foxconn Sued for Breach of Contract - Corri Hess - Feb 4th, 2021
- Vos and Wanggaard Continue to Gaslight Public on Foxconn Development - A Better Mt. Pleasant - Feb 3rd, 2021
- Murphy’s Law: Robin Vos Will Solve Foxconn Fiasco - Bruce Murphy - Feb 2nd, 2021
- Murphy’s Law: 9 Reasons a New Foxconn Contract Is Unlikely - Bruce Murphy - Dec 21st, 2020
- Audit Says Foxconn Loophole Needs a Fix - Corri Hess - Dec 9th, 2020
- Back in the News: Residents Outraged by Foxconn Fiasco - Bruce Murphy - Dec 8th, 2020
Read more about Foxconn Facility here


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|Traffic | Weather | Your account||Movies | Restaurants | Today's events|
Vista feature will enhance online newspaper reading
Seattle Times technology reporter
Even if you're reading All the News That's Fit to Print on an ultra-mobile computer, it may soon look and feel the same way it does spread out with your morning coffee — minus the ink-stained fingers, perhaps.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, appearing at the American Society of Newspaper Editors conference in Seattle, showed off a new feature of Microsoft's forthcoming Windows Vista operating system that promises improved "on-screen reading." He shared the podium Friday with Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher of The New York Times, which is partnering with Microsoft to develop a prototype application dubbed Times Reader. Microsoft plans to release development tools by the end of this summer for other newspapers and "whoever wanted to do these things," Gates said.
The newspaper industry has spent generations trying to make reading the daily paper a rich and engaging experience, and now it's transferring that journalism to the Internet, Sulzberger said.
"And quite frankly, we don't have the tools that we would like; we don't have the ability to make it a compelling reading experience as we ought to have," he said.
The new reader changes that, blending "the accessibility and the portability of print ... with the immediacy and interactivity of the Web," Sulzberger said.
It will automatically resize text, photos and advertisements to fit any size screen while maintaining a uniform design. That's a vast improvement over Web browsers, now the primary way people read news on the Internet.
"The Web surprisingly isn't taking advantage of what can be done in its environment," Gates said.
The reader is designed to better match fonts and other design elements with those in print so publications can maintain a distinct appearance across multiple formats. It offers easy ways to annotate text and its contents can be included in a desktop search.
It also allows readers to turn pages rather than scrolling, as demonstrated by Tom Bodkin, an assistant managing editor at The New York Times working on the project.
"The current Web technology makes it difficult to achieve the intimacy of a product you page through ... that has a sequence you can follow, a beginning and an end," he said.
"We must follow our readers where they want to be," he said.
That will encourage readers to "spend more time with us," which in turn increases what newspapers can charge advertisers. Sulzberger said some kind of subscription model for the reader is also being considered.
Despite a growing emphasis at Microsoft on generating revenue through advertising, Gates assured the audience that "whatever your business model is in terms of advertising and content, or anything like that, we're not involved at all in that."
He added that the reader is "just an enabling tool" that will be a "fundamental feature" of the Vista operating system, due to be released to consumers early next year, which is also when the Times Reader launches.
"Vista in particular has been a huge investment, the biggest investment in a single piece of software ever," Gates said.
The proliferation of tablet and ultra-mobile PCs like the one Samsung is unveiling next week and widespread Internet connectivity will speed the transition from traditional to digital formats for a variety of content, including textbooks, he said.
"The fact that you can put something in your hands and subconsciously simply adjust your angle of viewing and your comfort ... makes a huge difference in terms of being willing to do long-term immersive reading off of a digital machine," Gates said.
An editor asked Gates how much an ultra-mobile PC would cost relative to a year's subscription to The New York Times.
Gates, the world's richest man, asked Sulzberger to remind him what a year's subscription costs.
The publisher's reply: "If you have to ask, you can't afford it."
Benjamin J. Romano: 206-464-2149 or firstname.lastname@example.org
Copyright © 2006 The Seattle Times Company


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As the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates and inflation soars, small businesses are struggling. Many Harrisonburg businesses have been grappling with rising prices, including rising employee salaries and hourly rates, along with the current labor shortage. These added stresses are hurting small businesses around the country.
Despite an increase in job openings, labor shortages remain a persisting challenge for businesses across the board, and small businesses carry the heaviest burden. According to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), 49% of small business owners reported difficulty in filling job positions, and 21% reported issues with labor quality. Ninety-one percent of business owners reported “few or no qualified applicants” for job openings. Many are raising employee wages in order to retain workers, which can put an extra strain on small businesses’ financial situation.
Kayla Martin, the general manager and pastry chef at Bella Gelato and Pastries, said that after the pandemic she struggled to find employees, but now her business is grappling with a different issue, one that small businesses across the country are dealing with — a lack of qualified job applicants.
Currently, Martin is searching for a new baker but hasn’t received any qualified applicants. Unlike baristas, who are relatively easy to find and train, she said bakers are more specialized and must be experienced.
The costs of doing business are increasing exponentially, including the soaring price of inventory and the price of transporting and distributing business’s products. Unlike large companies, many small businesses don’t have the means or money to fully combat rising interest rates that increase the price of their inventory according to Business News Daily. The increase in interest rates will also affect small businesses’ potential growth, which will be much slower than normal — this is especially true for startups.
According to Kabbage, in the U.S., small businesses revenue increased from July 2021 to July 2022 by an average of 87%. However, this increase in revenue coincides with an unfortunate downturn in profits by 4% over the same time period — small businesses are making more money, but more of that income must be put back into the business, leaving less profit for the owners. This often leads businesses to raise prices and cut certain products or services.
Martin said that before the pandemic, Bella Gelato and Pastries hadn’t raised prices for several years, but now that distributors are increasing the cost of products, Martin said she’s had to raise prices two or three times since the pandemic.
Chris Straub, the manager at Midtowne Market, said his business struggles with rising prices as well.
“Product prices have certainly gone up, and they’ve gone up a lot and they’ve gone up frequently,” Straub said. In the last year prices have risen significantly more than previous years. He noted that the price of cigarettes and beer specifically have increased.
However, Straub said he hasn’t had an issue with labor shortages since the end of the pandemic and is now fully staffed with plenty of applicants.
While businesses can’t control rising interest rates, there are some things small businesses can do to combat inflation. In a ZenBusiness article by Janet Attard, she gives nine tips for small business owners: pay attention to cash flow, reduce costs, increase prices, create product bundles, eliminate products or services that aren’t profitable, increase productivity, market to increase sales, target profitable customers and get creative.
With so many small businesses in Harrisonburg, students and residents can help support them in multiple ways. Instead of shopping online or ordering from a name brand retailer, consider buying goods from local businesses that offer the same products. Become a loyal customer at your favorite local farmers market or hair salon. Any support you can provide helps small businesses in the community.
Businesses across the country are feeling the effects of inflation and labor shortages, and Harrisonburg is no exception. As distributors raise prices, small businesses are forced to raise their product prices as well. The added stress of finding qualified workers leaves small businesses at the hands of the current state of the economy. The only hope is that as the Fed raises interest rates, inflation will slowly decrease.
Contact senior writing, rhetoric and technical communication major Emma Seli at firstname.lastname@example.org. For more editorials regarding the JMU and Harrisonburg communities, follow the opinion desk on Instagram and Twitter @breeze_opinion


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A dispute between a new Chinese rare earth company industrial alliance and Japan’s Hitachi Metals over extension of Nd-Fe-B magnets could impact U.S. and Chinese manufacturing.
RENO (MINEWEB) – China’s desire to promote the development of a domestic rare earth permanent magnet industry is running head-on into Japan’s Hitachi Metals, Ltd. which is trying to protect over 600 sintered rare earth magnet patents globally, including over 100 patents in the U.S., 300 in China and 600 in Japan.
The dispute could impact up to half of the world’s rare earths production. The neodymium- iron-boron alloy magnet is used in motors, audio speakers, headphone, cordless tools, computer hard drives and even golf ball markers.
A year ago, Hitachi Metals, Ltd. and Hitachi Metals North Carolina, Ltd. asked the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to stop the sales of such products and their downstream products that did not have a U.S. patent license. Four Chinese companies entered into settlement agreements with Hitachi in May by paying money to gain the patent license. Continue Reading →


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Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Graduate Students Hack To Another Win at AngelHack
Carnegie Mellon University’s Silicon Valley (CMU-SV) students love to hack, so it was no wonder they spent yet another weekend participating in a hackathon rather than indulging in some R&R. On June 15-16, a team of CMU-SV students hacked their way to two API prizes at AngelHack Silicon Valley. AngelHack, “the world’s biggest hackathon competition,” organizes hackathons in cities all over the world from London to Singapore, and last weekend’s San Jose, Ca. event brought in close to 1000 submissions.
The team of Software Engineering graduate students, Owen Chu, Clyde Li, Kate Liu, David Liu, Sean Xiao, and Ph.D. student, Yuan Tian, impressed the judges with their app, Sticky. “The idea behind Sticky is to connect the consumers and the companies by creating an ecosystem in which both sides can benefit,” said Owen Chu. Companies host competitions using their products through the Sticky site, attracting users to vote on their favorite products and receive coupons from the company. The companies then receive demographic information on their voters. “This anonymous user information is valuable in helping companies understand the market and make more informed strategic decisions,” explained Chu.
The team won sponsor prizes from HP and Intel, adding to their considerable hackathon spoils from recent wins at the Tizen Hack Competition, Hertz Hackathon and CMU-SV HTML5 Hackathon, to name a few. Team members contend that Sticky is their favorite idea yet and are exploring growth options such as finding local businesses to host competitions on their site. “The hackathon judges told us that they graded the business side of apps most heavily and that our idea is actually marketable,” said Software Engineering ’13 student, David Liu. “We think we could make a business out of this.”
Pictured above (from left): Sean Xiao, Yuan Tian, David Liu, Kate Liu, Owen Chu, and Clyde Li


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New webinar: Gaining the customer service edge in lifelong learning
Exceptional customer service is key to retaining customers and increasing the revenue. Find out the key things you should be doing to ensure your customers have the highest service and keep coming back.
The webinar will be held at 2 p.m. ET, 1 p.m. CT on Wednesday, July 9. Cost is $79 for LERN members and $89 for future members.
All LERN Webinars are archived, and will be sent out to those who have pre-registered for the Webinar.
Your presenter, Tammy Peterson, is LERN’s Information Specialist and an expert in creating customer satisfaction. In fact, up to 99% of LERN customers report they are satisfied with the service they receive from LERN.


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Since the pandemic, the cyberworld has become a much riskier place. What’s even more alarming is that these attacks are happening as companies have doubled their spending on cybersecurity.
Cybersecurity is at a critical inflection point where five megatrends are making the threat landscape riskier, more complicated and more expensive to manage than previously announced. To better understand the evolution of this threat landscape, let’s examine these trends in more detail.
1. Everything is going digital
The sudden explosion in connectivity has accelerated the digital transformation of governments and businesses by almost seven years, according to a McKinsey report. With infrastructure and associated services much more accessible over the Internet than they were before COVID, attackers had plenty of opportunities to compromise remote users, vulnerable systems, and defenses.
The pandemic has also forced workers to become more digitally dependent. The corporate perimeter that traditionally protected employees in an office environment has now become irrelevant. Workers access corporate resources from personal devices, use unsecured public Wi-Fi networks, and put organizations at increased risk of breaches and cyberattacks.
2. Organizations become ecosystems
Organizations open their infrastructure and resources to an expansive set of manufacturers, supply chain vendors, and partners to share information and make trade barriers less intrusive.
Such changes present cyber risks to organizations, as it is difficult to manage, secure, and regulate an entire ecosystem that is beyond the company’s control. Cyberattacks in the supply chain jumped 51% last year according to research by NCC Group.
3. The physical and digital worlds collide
As the physical and digital worlds overlap, a hybrid threat landscape will emerge where attacks in cyberspace will have implications in the physical world (and vice-versa). This can take the form of business interruptions, physical security and infrastructure security, theft or loss of confidential data, litigation and even loss of life.
Gartner predicts that cyber attackers will weaponize operational technology (financial systems, fuel or gas pipelines, power grids, water supplies, healthcare, or the internet itself) to harm human life.
4. New technologies bring new risks
The emergence of technologies such as the Internet of Things, multi-cloud, 5G and edge computing will create tens of billions of hackable devices and many entry points for attackers to exploit. Artificial intelligence will be subject to manipulations that can even institutionalize prejudices and make unfair, even dangerous judgments. The more connected the world, the more widespread the potential for disruption.
5. Regulations are becoming more complex
The massive increase in cyberattacks and breaches creates an urgent need for governments to regulate activities in cyberspace. Almost every major country publishes some form of data protection or privacy legislation.
Regulations are changing rapidly, and depending on the number of geographies a business operates in, tracking and implementing regulatory mandates can be a complex undertaking. Non-compliance can expose businesses to pitfalls including operational failures, costly fines and penalties, and loss of customer trust.
Cybersecurity will always be a work in progress. The key to effective risk management is having proactive visibility and context across the entire attack surface. This helps to understand which vulnerabilities, if exploited, can cause the most harm to the business. Not all risks can be mitigated; certain risks will have to be accepted and compromises will have to be negotiated.


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It seems like LED lighting may be used for more than just lighting. A recent NY Times article explores different lighting technology aimed at improving health, moods, and even food.
"There's a tremendous potential for LED lighting to go beyond illumination," said John Strainic, General Electric’s general manager for consumer lighting. “We’re asking people to think about lighting as more than just an impulse purchase.”
Compared to older types of bulbs, LEDs can create light in multiple colors, generates less heat, and uses considerably less energy. And LEDs can be as programmed remotely.
Because of the LED manufacturing process, the light that the technology creates is weighted toward the blue end of the spectrum. That is true whether the LED is used in a light bulb, a tablet or a television display. While the ability to alter an LED lamp’s color opens up new uses for light, the fact that LEDs can be remotely controlled significantly changes their potential.
Within the next few years, the world’s major lighting companies expect to expand LEDs’ connected capabilities, particularly with sensors.
“Today, lighting is becoming an appliance, like a blender,” said Mr. McGowan of the American Lighting Association. “I tell people when they move, they should take their LED bulbs with them.”
Source: NY Times


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The wave of intensely cold weather that hit most of the country this week and turned Chicago into "Chiberia" posed some challenges and opportunities for marketers.
Airlines like Jet Blue were forced to close their gates in New York and Boston, most people stayed inside instead of going to a store, and even advertising agencies themselves faced problems — there was a "poo eruption" scare after some pipes burst in the offices of Chicago agency Leo Burnett (the agency later claimed the dirty water was poo-free).
But as some companies suffered, others took advantage the best they could.
Stores such Wal-Mart, which put up large space heater displays in its Midwestern locations, were able to benefit from a subscription to the weather forecaster Planalytics. The service helped companies plan two weeks ahead before the "polar vortex" hit.
Online food delivery services Seamless and GrubHub faced a huge influx of orders, while many empty restaurants were left raising their heating bills, reports AdAge.
Retailers that were able to take cold-weather wear out of the clearance racks were in the best position for success, Consumer Edge Research analyst Stacie Rabinowitz told AdAge. She mentioned T.J. Maxx and Marshall's as two brands who adapt best to adapting inventory to the weather.
And some brands couldn't resist taking advantage of the #PolarVortex trending topic on Twitter:
AMC Theatres used it to promote the animated movie "Frozen":
Corona recommended you stock up on their beer before the extreme weather hit:
And though Wendy's skipped the hashtag, it plugged into the trend of people uploading weather app screenshots of absurdly low temperatures:
Obligatory weather app pic. pic.twitter.com/B4Zoq6tRGC— Wendy's (@Wendys) January 7, 2014
Smaller retailers jumped in, too, and took advantage of getting sponsored tweets into Twitter feeds. Here's one from college textbook retailer Chegg:
The good news is that the Arctic air that has been passing through the United States is about to dissipate, and milder temperatures will return by the end of the week.
Edit: A previous version of this post stated that Stacie Rabinowitz said that T.J. Maxx and Marshall's were some of the best at adapting their prices to weather, when she was actually referring to their inventory.


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Some shelters in Maryland report almost 40 percent increases of pet adoption over 2019 statistics, and it’s a standard met by various other shelters and animal rescues throughout the region. Even with the pandemic requiring Zoom calls and virtual meet-and-greets with animals in lieu of in-person adoptions, many Americans are finding it difficult to adopt their new pets from local shelter services.
WaPo cites Shelter Animals Count, a national database that tracks sheltered animal statistics, which reports 26,000 more pet adoptions over the past year than in 2019. This burst of activity seems a reasonable effect of stay-at-home orders, but has actually led to circumstances where shelters are reaching out to facilities in other states to help provide adoptable pets to local pet-parents-in-waiting.
Time will tell whether this pet adoption boom persists while vaccines become available to more and more Americans. For now, though, shelters and animal rescues are doing their best to meet the demand of new adopters in the new year however they can. If anyone reading this is one of those expectant adopters: please remain patient, your new furry friend may take longer than usual to arrive, but they’ll be there.