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Port of Pensacola: The Future Ahead
In part two of our look at the Port of Pensacola, Director Amy Miller speaks on niche ports; LPV, and World Direct Shipping, among other topics related to the facility.
If the failed attempt to bring Incoa’s calcium carbonate facility to Pensacola had any impact, it appears it opened the door for development of a “niche” port. Director Amy Miller defines the term as picking a lineup of very specific business sectors you want to play in, and you go after them. One example is the America’s Cup Sailing Team, which spent winter at the Port.
“And that’s right in the neighborhood of 115 people who travel with the team who come here for the entire winter – they live here the entire winter,” Miller said. “They were here from October to June this year. Next year, they’ll be here from October until they leave for the European Sailing season next summer.”
With about 55 acres inside the fence and another 10-15 the port controls outside, Miller says they have to be very deliberate in what they do.
“We’re not like a Houston or a Miami, or an Everglades or a Jacksonville – that can be all things to all people,” said Miller. “What we want to do is pick very specific niches, we want to go after those as hard as we can, and we want to be the best that we can in those business lines.”
But seeking tenants as a niche port does not preclude work to expanding the port’s markets. One example is the Pensacola Bay Oyster Company, which is owned by local businessman Donnie McMahon.
“And he’s kind of the hub tenant in what we hope will become a growing aquaculture sector here,” said Miller. “[General Electric] continues to use the Port every single day and we expect that to continue to grow. And we’ve got other local shippers that use the Port and we want to make sure it’s always available to them as well.”
What appears to be the Port of Pensacola’s highest-profile work is being done by Offshore Inland Marine – converting a former cargo ship for a role in the next phase of the U.S. Space Program. Blue Origin is tentatively scheduled to begin the missions in 2021 from Cape Canaveral.
“This ship will be out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and the recoverable portion of the rocket will land on the ship – unlike the old days, when they used to crash into the ocean and a Navy ship would go recover them,” said Miller. “Somebody with a joystick is maneuvering those things and they can literally land on a dime,” said Miller.
The rockets will cause some damage to the ship’s landing platform, so she would be returned to the Port of Pensacola for repairs. Miller’s also hoping to get some additional work from that, and other parts of the project.
“Blue Origin has plans to have one more ship converted; we hope we get that work in the future,” Miller said. The long-term, permanent long-term ongoing business that will come out of this is the repairs in between launches, and the homeporting of the vessel.”
World Direct Shipping – headquartered in Palmetto, Florida – began operations at the port a little more than a year ago – providing direct shipping of containers between Pensacola and Mexico. It operates roughly every other Monday on an “on-demand” basis. Miller says the opportunity is there to grow that business into a weekly, regularly-scheduled service that puts the port in the container business.
“Even a small port can find a niche in the container service if they really are selective and deliberate about the kind of business they go after,” Miller said. “And we had been trying to recruit a small-niche container carrier like World Direct for about ten years. Sometimes that’s just how long it takes to make the business model work.”
With all of the activity going on at the port involving myriad businesses and the materials they handle, Director Amy Miller says they do draw the line in certain instances, with things that just don’t fit with the facility’s geography.
“Any kind of explosives, or dangerous chemicals; you’ll never see a shipment of fish meal; that stuff just stinks to high heaven,” said Miller. “We’re not just ever going to do anything that is going to be in opposition to the quality of life downtown.”
And it’s not just Pensacola, having to weigh the pros and cons of an Incoa, or a World Direct Shipping or a Blue Origin. Ports across the U.S. are seeing residences and businesses building and bumping up against their facilities. And despite their size, ports have to factor in that growth when making business decisions.
“The difference between a port like the Port of New Orleans and a port like Pensacola is -- for us – a question of ‘do we take that business or not?’” said Miller. “For New Orleans that’s so big, it’s ‘is there a terminal that’s far enough removed from a major population source that we can handle that cargo there?’ And that’s just a luxury that we don’t have because of our size.”
The Port of Pensacola could be “a true hybrid of maritime commerce and clean tech,” according to the study by the firm Moffatt and Nichol. But regardless of the changes that are in the offing, the Port’s not going anywhere – adding to its current, 276-year run.


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WHAT A GEM: After a seven-month search for a Madison Avenue location, Sanjay Kasliwal celebrated the opening of his signature boutique with friends like Beatrice Stern, Hunt Slonem, Liliana Cavendish, Susan Gutfreund, Annette Tapert Allen, Bob Colacello, Muriel Brandolini, Molly Duffy Burns, Priscilla Rattazzi and Nina Griscom. As a co-owner of The Gem Palace, Kasliwal said he went with a saffron silk interior to liven up Madison Avenue. His designs, including more sizeable pieces, are sold in The Gem Palace’s four freestanding stores, as well as in its outposts in five-star hotels.
While his family has been designing megawatt jewels in India for centuries, he wanted to create something more contemporary for his first U.S. store. Having 250 workers and craftsman in Jaipur is an advantage for The Gem Palace, Kasliwal said. Another bonus is having his daughter Shalini running the New York store, he added.
As is the norm with most jewelry stores, earrings and rings should be the bestsellers, said Kasliwal, adding that 22 carat gold designs with precious or semi-precious stones should be the most popular ones in New York. The Gem Palace’s creative director Kasliwal, an eighth-generation member of the founding family, plans to spend more time in the new location at 971 Madison Avenue until he returns to India next week.
“My basic concept is that everyone entering my store should leave happy,” Kasliwal said. “I think jewelry makes a woman glow.”

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Innovative UK-based surveillance technology start-up Ocucon has been invited to attend an exclusive event targeting the US retailer asset protection market.
The world’s first Video Surveillance as a Service (VSaaS) system – Ocucon – is amongst a handful of UK companies to have been invited to join US asset protection leaders at their annual meeting on 10th October in Philadelphia.
Hosted by the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), the event brings together industry leaders, representing the leading North American retailers and product manufactures, and is designed to help start-ups connect with decision makers, demonstrate their product offering and explore pilot opportunities.
Breaking new ground in surveillance technology, Ocucon delivers a powerful, cloud-based storage and retrieval platform, combining intelligent data analytics with the facility to store, analyse and retrieve unlimited amounts of HD video surveillance footage from within the Ocucon portal. It is the first technology of its kind to offer unlimited cloud-based storage as a service.
The UK-based firm also recently launched Ocucon Pixelate. Developed in partnership with Google, the new product harnesses the power of AI and machine learning to deliver an intelligent and cost-effective video redaction tool that can be used with all forms of camera footage.
Ocucon Co-Founder, Gary Trotter commented: “The upcoming RILA event is an ideal opportunity for us to explore international growth opportunities and demonstrate our product offering to the leading voices within the US retail sector. We were therefore delighted to be selected as one of a handful of companies to attend the event from the UK and are excited to see what new connections we will make from this event.”
Launched in October 2017, Ocucon is set to revolutionise the ability of businesses to defend against fraudulent cases of slips, trips and falls – currently estimated to cost the UK economy alone more than £800 million a year – by removing physical limitations on the amount of surveillance footage an organisation can save. Ocucon is expected to be of interest to any organisation capturing significant amounts of CCTV data, and since its launch has seen significant interest from both UK and US supermarkets and retail chains.


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Google Play Store has rolled out Netbanking as a payment method in India. The alternative was initially spotted by Android Police, which out screenshot of the same. “Preceding this expansion, Indian clients could just pay with charge/Mastercards or Play Store blessing cards,” the site said. As indicated by reports, Google has attached up with near 30 banks for Netbanking installment office in India. The expansion of Netbanking will make it simpler for clients to purchase applications, books, films and melodies from Google Play Store.
Clients who found the new installment technique particularily helpful, tweted about the same. “.@GooglePlay bolsters netbanking of numerous Indian banks, including @TheOfficialSBI. Installment made simpler,” said one of the Twitter clients who passes by the name @AkhileshTekade. “Awesome news is google playstore in india now bolsters netbanking in installment strategy for some banks @GoogleIndia @GooglePlay,”said another client Kishan V.
As per a prior report in Reuters, Google is honing Google Play store suggestions with counterfeit consciousness. The report additionally said the organization is hoping to extend bolster for different installment stages, among different activities. In addition, the Play Store will grow to new stages, including wearable gadgets, virtual reality headsets and Google’s Chromebook portable workstations. “What we are amped up for is giving engineers that solitary section point for more of the registering biological community,” said Sameer Samat, VP Item Administration at Google.
Google Play Store permits Thought clients to pay for applications, recreations and books on Google Play straightforwardly through their postpaid and prepaid records. The in-manufacture administrator charging highlight additionally stretches out to in-application buys.


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In less than an hour the Belgian pre-sale for 2016’s Tomorrowland sold out completely this weekend! According to an article by The Brussels Times, the tickets that became available at 11 am Saturday morning were sold out in just 40 minutes. The exclusive pre-sale offers half of the total available tickets to Belgian residents, whose interest has continued to grow over the years. Debby Wilmsen, a press agent for Tomorrowland, claims “there have never been so many Belgians interested.” It’s not surprising though, following the pattern of past years sales and the increasing popularity of the veteran music event.
Just a few weeks ago we learned of the theme for this year’s festivities titled, “Elixir of Life.” Located in the Antwerp Province of Belgium in the town of Boom, the annual festival is estimated to bring about 400,000 people this summer. Tomorrowland will take place July 22nd, 23rd & 24th, 2016, tickets will be available worldwide on February 6th, 2016 at 17h00 CET which you can pre-register for here. In addition, you can access information to travel options like Tomorrowland’s Global Journey here.


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Apr 18, 2014
Lululemon CEO looks beyond yoga wear for growth
Apr 18, 2014
Toronto, Canada - Lululemon Athletica Inc , best known for its trendy yoga wear, hopes to drive growth in coming years by expanding its range of fitness-related apparel and accelerating international plans, its newly appointed chief executive said on Thursday.
The United States, the company's largest market with just over 170 stores, continues to have room to grow, with another three to four years of expansion. So far, Lululemon has reached only two-thirds of the number of stores it can open there, Chief Financial Officer John Currie said at the retailer's analyst day in Vancouver, where the company is based.
Laurent Potdevin, chief executive, who was recruited to revive the company's fortunes after an embarrassing product recall and supply-chain issues last year raised questions about the growth outlook, highlighted Lululemon's global prospects, saying he wants to dominate the international market.
"Given the vastness of the (global) market, there are many cities in which the question is not, Will we have a store? but When will we have a store?" Potdevin said. "The global size of our playground is massive."
He added that the company would not have achieved an annual sales of $1.6 billion had it limited itself to the yoga market.
Casual wear, which uses many of the fabrics and technology developed for Lululemon's yoga apparel, will become a key component of growth, Potdevin said.
Lululemon's push into other product lines comes as it faces stiffer competition in the niche market it once dominated, and executives were quick to acknowledge the intense competition.
"Every price point and every channel, we're not alone in this market that we created," said Deanne Schweitzer, senior vice president of design and creation for Lululemon's women's line.
The company, which eschews traditional advertising for word-of-mouth branding, recently launched a limited collection of casual fitness wear called &Go to test demand.
"The recent success of our &Go capsule, which I'm sure you've seen, speaks to the elasticity of the brand," Potdevin said during his presentation.
"This lifestyle product collection resonated with our guests exceptionally well and will become an important part of our collection."
But Lululemon, which opened its first European store in London earlier this month, is still dealing with the fallout from last year's recall of yoga pants that were too sheer.
The company, which once boasted same-store sales growth of more than 30 percent, reported its first decline in quarterly comparable sales since 2009 last month, hit by weak post-Christmas holiday sales.
The company's rapid growth in recent years, combined with its March 2013 recall of the see-through yoga pants, caused supply chain issues last year. Delivery problems of products to stores and an overhaul of quality control have hampered performance.
The problems, combined with comments by the company's founder that some women's bodies "don't work" for its yoga pants, put tarnished Lululemon's feel-good, inspirational image.
Still, Potdevin said sales at the new London store, key to the plans to accelerate a European roll-out, were exceeding its target by 60 percent.
He sought to reassure analysts that Lululemon was focused on making sure its infrastructure could support its expansion plans, bring products to stores more quickly, and still be efficient enough to maintain strong margins.
Executives on Thursday repeatedly underscored Lulu's role in creating what became an extremely hot market as it presented some of its new products, which included samples of its growing men's and young girls' collections.
Potdevin said the men's line could eventually become a billion-dollar business and Lululemon's Ivivva stores for young girls have a half-billion-dollar potential. The standalone Ivivva stores are currently seeing sales of $900 a square foot, with double-digit comparable-store sales growth, executives said.
© Thomson Reuters 2023 All rights reserved.


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Verizon Outlines Their Plans For Their Fios App on Xbox LiveNovember 30, 2011 No Comments
Verizon has stepped forward recently to announce their plans for support of Xbox Live’s new Live TV feature. The Specific Verizon app will be available next month and will include 26 channels viewable through your Xbox. The FiOS app will also give you the ability to control it with your Kinect.
Sign me up to Live TV when I can sign up to cable through Xbox without having to deal with cable companies…
We went to the mall and Best Buy on Black Friday, and spent yesterday scouring the Internet for Cyber Monday. Today donâ€™t miss another great shopping day as Verizon launches a brand new offer. Get ready, gamers, because soon you can start using your Xbox consoles to watch live FiOS TV.
We told you last month that this was coming soon, and now itâ€™s ready for order. FiOS customers who subscribe to both FiOS TV and FiOS Internet and are Xbox LIVE Gold members can use their Xbox consoles to watch select live FiOS TV channels. No extra hardware. Plus, for the first time, Kinect for Xbox 360 will be integrated into the TV experience, allowing customers to use voice and gesture commands to control their TV viewing.
Interested? Call now to add an Xbox to your current service. Or, if youâ€™re a new customer, you can sign up online here and take advantage of a special offer that includes triple-play service with FiOS TV, FiOS 35/35 Mbps Internet service and Verizon voice service, starting at $89.99 a month. The offer also includes a 12-month Xbox LIVE Gold Membership and the â€œXbox Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversaryâ€ game. Order now â€“ the special offer is only available through Jan. 21.
The FiOS TV app will become available for download next month.Â Weâ€™ll be launching the service with 26 channels and we plan to add more.
Thatâ€™s not all. As part of the offer, Verizon is partnering with leading gaming network Machinima to sponsor the Gamersâ€™ Choice Award, which will be given out during Machinimaâ€™s Inside Gaming Awards on Dec. 9. You can vote for your favorite game of the year through Facebook here or on Twitter by using the #FiOSGamers hashtag, which also qualifies as entry into a sweepstakes that includes a grand prize of two years of Verizon FiOS triple-play service, a multi-room DVR, a Microsoft Kinect and 40,000 Microsoft points. The sweepstakes also includes daily prizes of 4,000 Microsoft gaming points that will be awarded to five winners daily from now through Dec. 8
Once again, Verizon is breaking boundaries and taking TV viewing to the next level. Weâ€™re excited to hear about your experience with FiOS TV on the Xbox, so place your orders now, keep a look out for the app, and let us know what you think.


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Maersk building 2.1 lakh sqft warehouse in Ctg
Danish logistics giant Maersk is building a 210,000 square feet warehouse in Chattogram to expand its capacity.
The warehouse has been tailor-made to suit the needs of exporters of retail and lifestyle commodities and should be available by April 2024, the company said in a press release issued yesterday.
In recent times, Bangladesh has seen a slight slowdown in exports owing to the ongoing geopolitical situation that has led to reduced demand for retail and lifestyle goods in the Western markets, said Maersk.
However, the trend is expected to turn around as inventory restocking begins, giving a boost to exports out of the country, it said.
With the demand picking up again and limited warehousing capacity in the market, Maersk aims to close the gap between higher demand and shortage of supply through this facility in Chattogram, the shipping company said.
Vikash Agarwal, managing director of the Maersk South Asia, said: "We continue to invest and strengthen our commitment to Bangladesh with the expansion of our footprint in the country."
The warehouse has been tailor-made to suit the needs of exporters of retail and lifestyle commodities and will be available by April 2024
"We strongly believe in the potential of this country and its exporters, and we are fully committed to participating and playing a role in their respective growth stories," he said.
Maersk and Ispahani Summit Alliance Terminal Limited (ISATL) had first collaborated and entered into an agreement towards the end of 2021 and within a period of 14 months, ISATL provided 200,000 square feet of export custom bonded warehouse to Maersk, according to the press release.
Maersk also offers another 100,000 square feet of warehousing space in partnership with Vertex Depot, which was inaugurated earlier in February this year.
With the latest expansion, Maersk has on offer over half a million sqft of dedicated export warehouse in Chattogram to its customers, it said.
Maersk also offers another 300,000 sqft of flexible warehousing capacity through local partnerships to customers in case of short-term requirements, it added.


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How vulnerable are America’s supply chains?
Our weekly podcast on democracy in America
A CONTAINER ship stuck in the Suez canal, tensions with China, and the vaccine race have combined to make America’s supply chains look vulnerable. President Biden has ordered a security review and his infrastructure plan includes measures to protect them. What are the politics of this new mantra of resilience?
The Economist’s US business editor Vijay Vaitheeswaran and Soumaya Keynes, our trade and globalisation editor, join the discussion.
John Prideaux hosts with Charlotte Howard and Jon Fasman. Runtime: 31 min
For access to The Economist’s print, digital and audio editions subscribe: economist.com/USpod
Also on the daily podcast: the hunt for less risky painkillers and another hunt for fat bears
Our podcast on markets, the economy and business. This week, a look at the scandals buffeting the business for advice
Also on the daily podcast: how luxury brands are changing and a new retrospective of William Kentridge’s works


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Bradford Council is yet to announce a date for the new Clean Air Zone that is due to be introduced but small businesses are invited to register their interest in exemption.
A Clean Air Zone (CAZ) is a specific targeted area that aims to improve air quality by introducing a daily charge to enter the zone for vehicles that do not meet environmentally friendly standards.
The main objective of the CAZ is to discourage the use of older, more polluting vehicles from entering the zone by setting a charge for entering.
Bradford is a Class C+ CAZ which means there will be charges for all non-compliant vehicle types with the exception of passenger vehicles.
The Clean Air Zone (CAZ) will cover Bradford city centre and the Bradford outer ring road.
It will also extend out along the Aire valley corridor, across Manningham Lane, Bradford Road and Canal Road area, including Shipley and Saltaire.
Families and individuals with a car will not have to pay a charge, even if they use their car for work, unlike London’s £15-a-day congestion charge for anyone driving in the city centre.
Instead, it is a daily charge for commercial vehicles, including buses, coaches, lorries, vans, and taxis, who do not comply with the new regulations.
Taxis will have to pay £7 a day, if they are not compliant, whereas HGVs will have to pay £50 a day to drive in the zone.
Most vehicles will have to comply with Euro 6 emissions for diesel, and Euro 4 emissions for petrol, or switch over to an electric car to avoid paying the daily surcharge.
Vans, minibuses, and Large Good Vehicles (LGVs) will have to pay a charge of £9 a day if not compliant.
Bradford Council has said that all money charged will be re-invested to help improve the air quality in the area.
Every ward in Bradford will benefit from cleaner air. There will be more electric taxis and the number of noncompliant vans, lorries, taxis, and buses will fall. As a result, air quality will improve across the district, both inside and outside the CAZ boundary.
Health research in Bradford has indicated that the largest health benefits will be felt by the most deprived communities in the city. The CAZ will bring levels of nitrogen dioxide within legal limits five years more quickly than without intervention.
However, the CAZ comes at a bad time, with many businesses, particularly in Manningham, suffering a loss of income, and for some, barely staying afloat, because of loss of trade due to Covid-19 restrictions.
In January, Asian Standard found that several businesses in Manningham felt that they were not adequately informed about the imminent changes.
Asian Standard also found out that business owners are concerned about the increase in their outgoing and how they are going to cope with purchasing new vehicles or paying the daily charge, especially after a slow two years in trade due to the pandemic.
Local businesses and registered organisations can apply for up to 3 vehicle exemptions from CAZ charges. Businesses up to Small & Medium Enterprise (SME), which includes self-employed, sole-traders, and registered organisations can apply.
The exemption process is not open yet, but businesses are invited to register their interest, here.
A spokesperson for Bradford Council, said: “The Bradford Clean Air Zone will be launched in Spring 2022, we are waiting for an exact date to be agreed with the Government.
“There are no changes to the charging table with regards to taxi vehicles. Taxi drivers with non-compliant vehicles will be charged to drive in the Clean Air Zone, however we have the highest levels of support in the UK available for all Bradford taxis, and over 80% have already upgraded.
“We are hoping to launch the exemptions by the end of March 2022. This will mean that Bradford businesses including self-employed and sole traders can apply for up to 3 exemptions for non-compliant vehicles, exemptions are not available to the taxi trade.
“Bradford households with a non-compliant private vehicle will also be able to apply for one exemption, this includes vans, horseboxes and campervans. All passenger cars and motorbikes will not be charged and do not need to apply for an exemption.”
Here is the full list of the proposed exemptions:
- School buses and coaches (for the use of transporting people attending Bradford educational establishments).
- Specialist Heavy Duty Vehicles (for example, those used in construction or vehicle recovery).
- Local small businesses and registered organisations can apply for up to 3 vehicle exemptions from CAZ charges including coaches, HGVs, LGVs, and minibuses.
- Residents can apply for an exemption from CAZ charges for 1 vehicle, LGVs, minibuses, and campervans.
- Leisure vehicles in private ownership (for example, motorhome or motorised horsebox) which is for personal use only and not commercial use.
- Charity and community transport vehicles – vehicles used solely for the delivery of work of social or charitable value (for example, vans collecting food for foodbanks).
- Limited supply vehicles (those waiting for replacement or retrofit solutions which are in limited supply).
- Emergency road diversion
- Emergency services vehicles (vehicles responding to an emergency)


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Most everyone is certain that Apple will reveal its tablet device tomorrow, but no one involved — from Steve Jobs to the hundreds of likely partners — had explicitly confirmed it. Until now.
McGraw-Hill’s CEO Terry McGraw told CNBC this afternoon that Apple will make a Tablet announcement tomorrow, and that the device “will be based on the iPhone operating system, so it will be transferrable” — presumably referring to the 100,000+ apps that have already been developed for iPhone.
McGraw adds that he thinks the tablet will be “really terrific” for e-books in the higher education and professional markets, two industries that we’ve long suspected the Tablet would target. Although Jobs said in Apple’s earnings release yesterday that the company would launch a "major new product that we're really excited about" this week, the Tablet has still never been officially confirmed by Apple.
Here's the video:


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Solar wafer maker Green Energy Technology Inc (綠能科技) yesterday said its board of directors had approved a proposal to dissolve the company, after its turnaround efforts failed.
The move came after checks from the debt-ridden firm bounced earlier this month.
Tatung Co (大同) chairwoman Lin Kuo Wen-yen (林郭文艷) last week refused to take on the position of Green Energy board director after she was elected on June 27.
The move suggests that Tatung, Green Energy’s parent company, has no intention of helping the unit. Tatung is the firm’s biggest shareholder with a stake of 28 percent.
Green Energy is to hold an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting in Taoyuan on Aug. 30 to approve a plan to disband the company, it said in a statement submitted to the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) yesterday.
The firm has been unable to generate a positive cash flow as polysilicon wafers are selling at less than they cost to manufacture, the company said.
The plan will affect 68,128 shareholders.
Green Energy plans to lay off 284 employees to save on labor and operating costs, it said in a separate statement.
The company had 339 employees as of March 31.
Green Energy attributed the company’s demise to the unfavorable economic environment, including trade barriers set up by the US, China and India.
The solar wafer maker saw losses increase to NT$7.09 billion (US$228.33 million) last year from NT$619.14 million in 2017, its annual report showed.
Gross margin deteriorated to minus-40.26 percent last year from minus-0.31 percent in 2017.
The company has accumulated losses totaling NT$20.56 billion in the past 11 years, driving its net value down to minus-NT$5.53 per share at the end of last year.
TV and online retailer Momo.com Inc (富邦媒體) yesterday said it has set up a new logistics subsidiary, Fu Sheng Logistics Co (富昇物流), to oversee the company’s extensive shipping operations. Leveraging Momo’s 23 satellite warehouses and distribution centers nationwide, Fu Sheng will be in charge of executing the retailer’s same-day shipment plan for deliveries in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, Momo said in a press release. Seeking to further shorten its supply chain, the company is to set up another seven satellite warehouses and distribution centers by the end of the year. “Fu Sheng has a fleet of 200 couriers
‘ACCORDING TO PLAN’: A company official said that it has set up production sites worldwide to provide services and that its Wisconsin project was going smoothly Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) smart manufacturing center in Wisconsin would begin trial manufacturing in the middle of this year, the company said yesterday, adding that it plans to build a research institute to develop key technologies to support growth over the next five years. Hon Hai, known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), said in an annual report submitted to the Taiwan Stock Exchange that its planned Foxconn Institute for Research in Science and Technology would conduct research into artificial intelligence, next-generation communications, quantum computing, cybersecurity and nano semiconductors in Taiwan. Hon Hai is to make products at the center
US-CHINA TENSIONS: The company said that it supplies self-designed chips to the Chinese company and, as such, is not affected by the latest US export restrictions Macronix International Co (旺宏電子) said it does not expect its shipments of memory chips to Huawei Technologies Co (華為) to be affected by the latest US export restrictions on the Chinese tech giant. “As long as the company [Huawei] places orders, we will ship [chips], unless the [Taiwanese] government restricts all Taiwanese companies from shipping” to Huawei, Macronix chairman and chief executive officer Miin Wu (吳敏求) said on Monday in Hsinchu. The US Department of Commerce on Friday took a further step to block chip supplies from non-US companies to Huawei by requiring foreign semiconductor makers to get US government permission before
E Ink Holdings Inc (元太科技), the world’s sole supplier of e-paper displays for e-readers and shelf labels, posted its best quarterly net profit for the first quarter in nine years amid increased demand during a traditionally slow season. Net profit soared 80 percent to NT$787 million (US$26.23 million) in the quarter ended March 31, compared with NT$438 million a year earlier. That translated into earnings per share of NT$0.69, up from NT$0.39. E Ink posted lower royalty income of NT$371.23 million last quarter from NT$448.74 million a year earlier, a company financial statement showed. E Ink said that it expects royalty income to


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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Hope Katz Gibbs
Inkandescent Public Relations
firstname.lastname@example.org / 703 346-6975
Owners Kim and Edgar Alvarez to officially close doors Saturday, March 21 at 5pm
GLADWYNE PA, March 17, 2009 — The downturn in the economy has taken its toll on The Delaware Market House, say owners Kim and Edgar Alvarez, who will be closing their Gladwyne gourmet store on Saturday, March 21.
“With the increase of food costs and the decline in revenue, the market has been unable to keep up with the drastic changes in this tumultuous economic time,” says Chef Kim. “We will officially close our doors at 5pm.”
In the meantime, she and Edgar invite customers to continue to shop and take advantage of their 50% odd Going Out of Business sale.
“Everything must go, so now is a great time to stock up on frozen and fresh foods, gourmet jams and olive oils, and other sundries,” says Edgar, noting he and Kim think it’s only fitting that they go out of business in style, and invite community member to stop by on March 21 for their final day. “We have a little bash planned, and do hope you’ll come in and say goodbye.”
The couple admits closing the store is like losing a dear friend. “We thank all of our customers for the support they have showered on us since we bought the store in 2004,” Kim says. “We’ve had a wonderful time cooking for you, talking with you, and having you as a part of our Delaware Market House family. Please stay in touch.”
For more information, visit www.delawaremarket.com.


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Banks have begun to reduce approval requests for Personal Travel Allowance and Business Travel Allowance to legitimate users.
The legitimate users will be able to access forex only once in two quarters, The Punch gathered.
Before this new development, the banks had been granting approval to travellers who applied once every quarter.
Findings revealed that the development arose due to the lingering forex scarcity in the financial system.
First Bank said in a mail to its customers on ‘Updates on FX purchase’ that “The full Personal Travel Allowance and Business Travel Allowance ($4,000 and $5,000) respectively will now be disbursed into your FirstBank Travel Card. All applications will be in line with regulatory requirements.
Kindly ensure that all PTA/BTA applications along with the approved Form A are submitted at the branch exactly 14 days before your proposed travel date. Sales are limited to two quarters a year.”
A member of the Monetary Policy Committee, Prof. Mike Obadan, said in his personal statement released by the Central Bank of Nigeria after the last Monetary Policy Committee that access of forex was a challenge.
He said, “On the part of the monetary authority, there is no doubt that it is in a difficult situation because of excess demand for foreign exchange in the face of rather uncomfortable foreign exchange supply situation.


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Some weeks ago I visited an incubator, Ycombinator, for start-ups in Mountain View and I found robot Dexter. The start-up Anybots is run by Trevor Blackwell who started building Dexter six years ago, also one of the founders and co-workers of Ycombinator. I thought a walking robot could make a story, a good example of something you were initially covering leading to new ideas.
I introduced it to CNET and we decided to go back to Ycombinator's office and talk to Anybots. It became a joint-project of me and Zamir working together, he interviewed on camera and I interviewed for a story.
The innovation processes of what robots will be used for in the future are in progress. The robotic industry is a ongoing innovator of creating products to facilitate people's life. Majority of the robots are still at the research and prototype stage such as the Anybots robots.
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Asus has been showing off a device called the Padfone since May. Now chairman Jonney Shih says it’s on track to launch in early 2012 and it will come with Google Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich software.
The Padfone is a device that combines the features of a smartphone and a tablet in the most literal possible way. At first it looks like a typical 10 inch Android tablet — until you flip open a compartment and remove the smartphone with a 4.3 inch display that was hiding under the hood.
The phone is actually the brains of the operation. That means you don’t need to sync your phone and your tablet to share contacts, email messages, music, or other data — all of the data is on the phone so you can put it in your pocket and take it with you.
But when you slide the phone into the tablet dock, you get the benefits of the larger 10 inch display for watching video, surfing the web, reading books, or just about any other activity.
A few months ago we’d heard that the Padfone was expected by the end of 2011 — but it looks like that date has slipped. Still, 2012 isn’t that far away. I suspect we’ll be seeing a lot of this device at CES in January.
At this point it looks like Google's next-gen, mid-range smartphone may not be unveiled until July, and the latest …
Liliputing’s primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the “Shop” button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we’ll get a small commission).
But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you’re using an ad blocker and hate online shopping.


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Filipinos everywhere are celebrating the historic Papal visit with souvenirs that will become keepsakes of a lifetime.
These consist of tees, bonnets, umbrellas and buttons. There are also mugs, bags and pillows to commemorate and remember this special event.
Souvenir items of Pope Francis’ visit are available in selected SM Kultura stores and at Pope Francis Gift Shop, L/5, Bldg. A, SM Megamall.


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Foreign exchange traders have long been used to "jawboning" from central bankers – that is, using carefully selected words to suggest that they are unhappy with the level their currency is trading at, usually because they consider it over-valued.
But the world's top central bankers have a new target: bitcoin and its fellow digital currencies. And some strongly-worded statements show the depth of their feeling on the subject.
A month ago, Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe described the fascination with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a "speculative mania". Later that day, Janet Yellen, the head of the powerful US Federal Reserve described bitcoin as a "highly speculative asset", noting that "it is not a stable source of value, and it doesn't constitute legal tender".
Two days later, Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz ramped up the attack, saying that buying bitcoin was "closer to gambling than investing".
But it was Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, who really worried digital currency enthusiasts, when he suggested that global regulators were likely to take a closer look at digital currencies given their surging popularity.
In particular, Carney, who heads the G20's Financial Stability Board, said that a tightening up of the rules around initial coin offerings – the process whereby companies raise millions by selling digital tokens that can be used as currency on blockchain platforms- was necessary.
Many of bitcoin's aficionados saw this display of official hostility as extremely predictable.
After all, central banks presently enjoy a monopoly on issuing money.
So it's only natural that they'd resent the rise of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that involve the creation of new and digital forms of payments, free of the shackles imposed by governments and central bankers.
But although the world's top central banks have been privately discussing the rise of digital currencies for years, they've tended to adopt the view that there's little cause for concern that cryptocurrencies are about to usurp more traditional forms of payment.
That's because there's little indication that cryptocurrencies are being widely used in transactions, which could undermine the effectiveness of monetary policies.
Even more important, they see little evidence that digital currencies offer any significant advantages over traditional currencies, such as the Australian dollar, the euro or the US dollar.
The usual requirement for currencies is that they act as a store of value, a means of payment, and a unit of account. Bitcoin and other digital currencies meet none of these requirements.
Their extreme price moves – the price of digital currencies often gyrate by as much 20 to 30 per cent within a matter of hours – mean that they're unsatisfactory both as a store of value and as a unit of account.
And while several years ago, transactions on bitcoin were virtually instantaneous, the bitcoin network can only handle a limited number of transactions per second, and has been overwhelmed by traffic. This has caused delays in settlement times and a spike in transaction fees.
But the latest round of "jawboning" from central banks suggests that their tolerance for cryptocurrencies is wearing thin. The staggering rise in prices – the price of bitcoin recorded a stunning 2000 per cent price rise last year, while its smaller rival Ripple surged 35,000 per cent in the same period – has sounded some alarms.
Central bankers are clearly worried that an increasing number of retail investors will pour their savings into the various forms of digital currencies, lured by the prospect of enjoying the same staggering profits.
As a result, they feel the need to remind people of the hefty financial losses they will suffer as newer, more exciting digital currencies inevitably emerge, pushing the price of older competitors back to zero.
There's also a concern that the main advantage that digital currencies enjoy over the traditional payments system is their ability to facilitate cross border payments, particularly for those on the fringes of legality who want to remain anonymous.
Because this is the key advantage of digital currencies, it's also the area that financial authorities will most likely target if they decide they want to crack down on digital currencies.
In particular, financial authorities in developed countries will likely target the flow of money between exchanges and individuals – what bankers call the "on and off ramp". That's because, before an individual can do a bitcoin transaction, they first have to transfer money from their bank account to a bitcoin exchange.
This, however, triggers legal risks for the financial institution involved, because they have to be confident that by providing this service to their customer, they're not facilitating money laundering or terrorism financing.
In recent weeks local bitcoin investors have complained that Australia's big four banks are freezing their accounts, and preventing transfers to bitcoin exchanges.
While cryptocurrency exchanges see this move by the banks as an attempt to stamp out competition, analysts argue that it's more likely that the banks are concerned about the legal risk of doing business with digital exchanges, particularly after AUSTRAC's money laundering case against the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
The transactions regulator has accused the CBA of "serious and systemic" breaches of money-laundering laws.
At the same time, new anti-money laundering laws passed late last year will give AUSTRAC greater powers to police digital currency exchanges.
It's likely that growing nervousness about heightened regulatory scrutiny will continue to weigh on the prices of cryptocurrencies.
This week South Korean financial authorities announced that they are inspecting six local banks that offer virtual currency accounts to institutions to check that they are adhering to anti-money laundering rules, and using real names for accounts.
And the Chinese central bank, the People's Bank of China, is planning to limit power use by some bitcoin miners, a major challenge to energy-intensive computer networks that are critical for validating transactions in the cryptocurrency.
And in the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission has signalled that it will take a more aggressive approach to ICOs, after more than $US3 billion was raised using this fundraising method last year.
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Bon-Ton Stores mcommerce site and mobile coupons bring double-digit increase in orders
Bon-Ton Stores Inc. claims it has increased sales via a new mobile Web site that enhances the shopping experience by proposing relevant products and automatically providing coupons and discounts based on customer preferences.
The retail giant owns seven brands – Bon-Ton, Bergner’s, Boston Store, Carson Pirie Scott, Elder-Beerman, Herberger’s and Younkers – and al have seen success with the use of mobile.
“As customer demographics change and customers change and adapt we have to adapt with them and go to where they are and give them access to us wherever and whenever,” said Jimmy Amnsker, senior vice president of ecommerce at Bon-Ton, Milwaukee, WI.
“We wanted to make sure give customers a choice on how to interact with us,” he said.
The Bon-Ton Stores Inc. is a regional department store company based in York, PA, chiefly operating 280 department stores and 10 furniture galleries in 23 states throughout the United States.
Bon-Ton’s new mobile site is able to identify shoes, accessories and pants to complete the order.
The mobile site is able to develop targeted marketing campaigns tailoring the shopping experience for specific customer segments using new media capabilities and mobile coupons.
For instance, during this year’s winter formal season, Bon-Ton is targeting teen shoppers across multiple sales channels.
Teens can try on formal dresses in the store, receive a mobile coupon delivered to their smartphones, share photos of their favorite dresses with their family and friends via any social networking site and complete their purchases in the store or online.
While still in its infancy, mobile shopping is contributing to the growth of online sales.
According to the third annual Coremetrics Black Friday Benchmark Report, 5.6 percent of people logged retailers’ sites using a mobile device on Black Friday, representing a jump of 26. 7 percent compared to last year.
By using IBM WebSphere Commerce software, Bon-Ton is able to streamline day-to-day back office functions such as managing inventory and shipping.
Bon-Ton is making more merchandise available to customers with faster delivery methods.
No newbie to mobile
Cosmetics giant Clinique used mobile to activate its print campaign within Bon-Ton Stores Inc.-owned Bergner’s weekly circular.
Vertis Communications was responsible for the effort. With the large reach that the circular has among Bergner’s customers, Clinique and Bon-Ton were able to build a sizeable mobile database for future marketing efforts.
Clinique added a mobile call to action within the Bon-Ton circular that asked consumers to text the keyword GIFT to short code 266866 to sign up to receive exclusive text alerts for upcoming gift offers.
According to the CTIA, consumers exchanged more than 5 billion text messages per day, as of March 2010.
Text messaging is starting to play an even more important role than voice. According to Nielsen Mobile, the average consumer sends 584 messages versus using less than 200 voice minutes.
Additionally, 95 percent of existing mobile contracts have SMS built into the agreement and more than 90 percent of text messages are opened and read compared to less than 40 percent of all email solicitations.
“We built a mobile site because it lets us reach a younger demographic that we don’t typically see in our stores at a high level and we are letting customer shop when and how they want,” Mr. Amnsker said.
Giselle Tsirulnik is senior editor of Mobile Commerce Daily


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Discount store company Five Below (NASDAQ: FIVE) announced on Monday that holiday-period sales increased 24.6% to USD 526.1 Million from USD 422.3 Million the previous year. These totals are based on the nine-week period of November 5 to January 6. Comparable sales for this period increased by 4.9%.
Five Below’s CEO, Joel Anderson, announced on Monday at the 2019 ICR Conference in Orlando that the Company plans to open between 145-150 new stores in 2019. This is in addition to the 125 stores the company opened in 2018. Five Below’s real estate team has completed nearly all leases for 2019.
Plans were also announced to remodel 50 stores in 2019. “We would expect the remodels to cost about half of what a new-store investment is,” CFO Ken Bull explained. The Company is looking at a payback on the remodel of less than three years.
Ken Bull shared his thoughts on the Company’s end-of-the year success, crediting new store productivity. “If you do the numbers on it, the productivity in that nine-week period was just about 100% for the new stores,” he said.
Joel Anderson said he attributes the success of Five Below’s holiday season to a variety of “worlds” within each store: create, tech, candy, and games and toys. Although the toy department in particular greatly outperformed, he said the quarter overall was very broad-based.
In regard to the Company’s marketing strategy, Joel Anderson said, “There’s no better way to create awareness and drive top-of-mind than TV.” The Company has been looking to densify markets rather than open new ones in order to benefit from both a marketing and operating standpoint.


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The 2022 NBA Champion Golden State Warriors have unveiled the team’s 2022-23 Nike NBA City Edition uniform, designed by Bay Area artist Allison Hueman. As part of the team’s uniform reveal, the Warriors have also launched Empowered, presented by Rakuten — a celebration of women at the intersection of court, community and culture in the Bay Area. Through the campaign, the Warriors and Rakuten will donate over $25,000 to the Women’s Sports Foundation, founded by sports icon and social justice pioneer Billie Jean King in 1974, to advance the lives of girls and women through the power of sport.
“Our City Edition uniform consistently offers the opportunity to highlight topics important to our community,” said Warriors Chief Marketing Officer, Jen Millet. “A few years ago, in the ideation for this uniform, we quickly landed on a unique design that aligned with our women’s empowerment focus. Along with Rakuten, our entire organization—including our players—are honored to launch this platform that stands to amplify the voices, work and contributions of women in the Bay Area. I am so proud that we will use our uniform, one of the most visible assets of this franchise, to empower girls and women around the world.”
Designed by Bay Area artist Hueman, the uniform design incorporates several unique elements. The centerpiece of the uniform is a yellow rose, representing the fearless, bold women who have changed the trajectory of history in their various industries. The emblem on the chest emanates rays of sunshine, symbolizing power and strength, and the gradient on the side of the uniform represents the diversity of the Bay Area. Lastly, the uniform type face sources inspiration from the historic Art Deco landmarks in the Bay Area.
The Warriors and Rakuten identified the Women’s Sports Foundation (WSF) as a beneficiary of the Empowered campaign to spotlight the work of the longest-running women’s sports-focused foundation in the country. Since its inception, WSF has fought for gender equity in sport from grassroots to collegiate and professional levels through research, advocacy, community programming and a wide variety of collaborative partnerships. WSF has invested over $100 million in these impact efforts to expand access and opportunities for girls and women in sports.
“Seeing a team like the Golden State Warriors celebrate and empower women through the powerful platform of their uniforms is exciting,” said Women’s Sports Foundation Chief Executive Officer, Danette Leighton. “Across the country and around the globe, girls and women have been blazing new trails on and off the court for decades, and it is imperative to have brands like Rakuten and teams like the Warriors showcasing the importance of investing in women. We at the Women’s Sports Foundation know the importance of powerful images, such as a global uniform, that can inspire young girls, reminding them of their strength and potential in sport and life. We are proud to be a benefactor of the Warriors’ and Rakuten’s Empowered campaign.”
As part of the Empowered campaign, Rakuten is funding 20 scholarships for local girls basketball players to attend a multi-day all-girls camp held at the Warriors Basketball Facility in Oakland. In addition to receiving high-quality instruction from the Warriors Basketball Academy coaching staff, the young athletes will have the opportunity to experience Shoot 360 performance technology that will help them to elevate their games.
“We are honored to partner with the Warriors on a program that celebrates the contributions of Bay Area women and advances the talents of our next generation,” said Chief Operating Officer at Rakuten Rewards and Rakuten Americas, Adrienne Down Coulson. “Thanks to Empowered, the young women receiving these scholarships will have a unique opportunity to develop important life skills like perseverance, teamwork and communication that will contribute to their success on and off the court.”
City Edition uniforms and merchandise are now available at the Warriors Shop, located in Thrive City, and online at shop.warriors.com. Additionally, Hueman designed an Empowered Limited Edition Collection merchandise line, which will be available later this year. The collection includes t-shirts, hoodies and joggers, that pull from the uniform’s original designs.


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A US jury on Friday awarded International Business Machines (IBM) $83 million (roughly Rs. 569 crores) in a patent dispute with e-commerce company Groupon.
A jury in Delaware said Groupon used IBM's patented e-commerce technology without authorisation following a two-week trial.
"IBM invests nearly $6 billion annually in research and development, producing innovations for society," IBM spokesman Douglas Shelton said in a statement. "We rely on our patents to protect our innovations. We are pleased by the jury's verdict."
"We continue to believe that we do not infringe on any valid IBM patents," Groupon spokesman Bill Roberts said in a statement. "To the extent these patents have any value at all - which we believe they do not - the value is far less than what the jury awarded."
The jury said Groupon's infringement was wilful, allowing IBM to ask a judge to award additional damages.
IBM had sought $167 million (roughly Rs. 1,146 crores) in damages, saying it developed widely licensed technology crucial to the development of the Internet. Two of the patents relate to Prodigy, IBM's late-1980s precursor to the Web.
Groupon argued that some of IBM's patents should not have been granted because they describe obvious ideas, and said the computing company's damages request was unreasonable.
Armonk, New York-based IBM has secured more US patents than any other company for the past 25 years.
The case was closely watched in the technology industry because it offered a glimpse into IBM's efforts to license its large patent portfolio to other companies.
An IBM licensing executive testified that Amazon, Facebook, Alphabet's Google, LinkedIn and Twitter have each paid IBM $20 million to $50 million (roughly Rs. 137 crores to Rs. 343 crores) as part of cross-licensing deals that gave them access to the patent portfolio.
In 2017, IBM generated about $1.2 billion (roughly Rs. 8,235 crores) in revenue from its licensing activities.
During the trial Groupon lawyer J. David Hadden portrayed IBM as using outdated patents to squeeze money out of other tech companies with threats of litigation.
IBM lawyer John Desmarais told jurors the company had no choice but to sue after Groupon refused to take responsibility for using IBM's foundational technology.
"The verdict is a vindication for IBM's licensing program," Desmarais said by phone.
© Thomson Reuters 2018


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Nov 10, 2016: Frankfurt Airport (FRA) witnessed strong increase in air cargo throughput (airfreight + airmail) in October.
It increased by 4.8 percent to 194,108 metric tonnes. This represents Frankfurt Airport's second highest cargo volume for an October month. The growth momentum was driven, among other things, by the positive trend in the German industrial sector.
In September, Frankfurt Airport’s cargo throughput (airfreight + airmail) saw 5.9 percent increase due to slight recovery of the global economy.
In October 2016, FRA welcomed some 5.7 million passengers, thus reaching nearly the same level as in the same month of last year (down 0.3 percent).
Aircraft movements decreased by 1.5 percent to 41,939 takeoffs and landings in the reporting month. Despite a slight 0.3 percent decline on the previous year, maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) posted the second highest score in an October month to date, reaching some 2.7 million metric tonnes.


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New York-based designer Gabriela Hearst has opened the doors to her eponymous brand’s first pop-up at the Bristol Hotel in Paris. The boutique on the hotel’s ground floor will host a space with a curated selection of the label’s ready-to-wear pieces, handbags and accessories, including key designs from its permanent collection.
The pop-up features natural-toned linen wall coverings and reclaimed oak shelves, reflecting on the designer’s flagship creations in New York City and London and penchant for sustainable luxury. “Le Bristol is one of the best resorts on the planet,” Gabriella Hearst said in a post. “Having the chance to open our retailer on the resort is a privilege.”
Also on view at the pop-up are custom furniture and fixtures designed by French sculptor-designer Antoine Dumas and woodworker Benjamin Gavron, according to the hotel.
“The pop-up shop is an opportunity for the two houses to celebrate their mutual affection and shared commitment to offering timeless expressions of luxury,” Bristol Hotel said in a release. The event runs till 5 November.


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Which? reveals shrinking products costing us more - from Andrex Puppies, McVitie's, and Dettol to Sensodyne
You may not have noticed, but going to the loo in your own house has become more expensive.
That's because the UK's leading toilet roll manufacturer has been caught shortening some of its best-selling products.
Indeed, new research from Which? reveals that although a standard four-pack roll of Andrex has shrunk by 8% from 240 to 221 sheets, the price has not, with customers still paying an average of £2.
Similarly, the company's Puppies on a Roll brand, that used to have 221 sheets per roll, now has 190 - or 14% less than in 2006, according to the consumer watchdog.
But toilet roll is just one of a range of items Which? found had become smaller, with prices remaining the same - or, in some cases, increasing.
Other notable examples of shrinking groceries and toiletries include coffee, toothpaste, biscuits, bathroom wipes and orange juice.
Which? discovered that McVitie's dark chocolate digestive biscuits had shrunk by 10% from 332g to 300g, but the price in Tesco had risen by 10p to £1.69.
It also found that Dettol's pure bathroom wipes saw an 11% reduction from 36 to 32 wipes, however the cost of the product rose by 3p to £2.03 in one supermarket after the change.
One of the biggest downsizing manoeuvres was in tubes of Sensodyne's total care extra fresh toothpaste, which shrank by 25% from 100ml to 75ml.
The consumer watchdog also found that Tesco had the toothpaste on offer at "£2.40, was £3.60" before the product was reduced in size, but then the price soared to £3.49 after downsizing, making it more expensive per 100ml.
Richard Headland, the editor of Which? magazine, said its aim was to demand better transparency for consumers from retailers.
"Shrinking products can be a sneaky way of increasing prices," he said.
"We want manufacturers and supermarkets to be upfront about shrinking products so consumers aren't misled."
Over three-quarters of Which? members said they believed it was wrong for retailers not to highlight when products were reduced in size, but continued to be sold at the same price.
Which? said that when it contacted the brands following its research the majority of them said that pricing was a matter for the supermarkets.
The consumer group added that the manufacturers refused to disclose whether they had charged the supermarkets a lower wholesale price for their smaller products.
Kimberly-Clark, the American company that owns the Andrex brand, said its focus was "on meeting and exceeding the needs of consumers".
"Before the sheet count change we invested significantly in improving our product strength and softness," said a spokesman.
"Reducing the roll by a very small number of sheets helped make this multi-year, multi-million pound investment in product quality possible."
Experts said that suppliers tended to cut sizes because they were under pressure to maintain profits to keep shareholders happy and believe, given the choice, customers prefer smaller products to price increases.


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LOS ANGELES — CamSoda is taking pre-orders for its OhRoma Mask, which delivers aromas to accompany the virtual reality experience.
Working with a user's VR headset, the OhRoma Mask features two heatable canisters that contain three cartridge slots that are Bluetooth-enabled and accessed via iOS and Android apps.
OhRoma Mask users can select an assortment of aromas, including “private parts,” “body odor,” “fragrances,” “panties,” “aphrodisiacs” and “environments,” among others.
Daron Lundeen, president of CamSoda, said that with the lauch of OhRoma, the VR experience will move to the next level.
“Virtual reality figures to play a pivotal role in 2017, and we wanted to enhance the experience for our fans by introducing OhRoma, which now allows users to smell what they are seeing and hearing," he said.
“It delivers a heightened sensation of pure unadulterated ecstasy, allowing users to completely immerse themselves in the experience," he said. "We’re excited for our fans to try it out.”
Lundeen said that CamSoda remains steadfast in its "pursuit of technology that challenges the boundaries of what is imaginable and to provide our fans with as many dimensions of sensory stimulus as possible."
An OhRoma Mask will retail for $99, which includes 30 scents. It is available for pre-order here.
Lundeen noted the company, which launched lived VR programming last year, is currently conceptualizing the integration of touch into the VR experience, as well.


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The Christmas dust is settling and revealing the conquest Apple made over the weeks leading up to this holiday season. Apple devices recorded the highest new devices activations over this gift giving season.
This report is according to Flurry, the statistics gathering firm owned by Yahoo. Flurry published its findings on Monday, Dec. 28, showing a sizable lead by Apple in a report title, Pha-La-La: A Real Phabulous Holiday. In the period between Dec. 19 to Dec. 25 Apple devices recorded new activation more than any other competing device maker.
Although Apple devices performance went 2.2 percent down compared to 2014, the bulk of the activation has been registered among the large screen iPhones; otherwise known as Phablets. The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models.
Next as second best, is Samsung, which recorded 19.8 percent of the new device activation in 2015. You should, however, note, that Samsung improved by 2.1 percent compared to the year 2014. Much of the Samsung devices activation was contributed to the market buoyancy of …read more


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By Peter Egwuatu
A United Kingdom (UK)-based company, Zetogon has committed $100,000, about N39 million to AirSmat, a pan-African software company, as a preliminary investment to help the organization to deliver world-class service on the African continent.
The Nigerian-based firm will use the funds to get its flagship product, SmatCrows, to customers in Nigeria and support the product launch.
Chief Technology Officer, AirSmat, Adeoluwa Ibikunle said the new investment would enable AirSmat to further build on its position as a startup that helps customers to proactively take business decision backed by intelligence obtained from AirSmat AI-based platform.
Ibikunle said the company would start with food security for the continent as its solution allows smart farmers to gain control of their crop yield and general farming activities.
“Our innovative and creative approach will use world-class AI-powered software aimed at improving the efficiency of African farmers in terms of yields and productivity using the power of AirSmat Artificial Intelligent (AAI)-driven software. The software will provide timely information about the state of their crops and general operations on their farmlands,” Ibikunle said.
According to Ibikunle, Nigeria comes first with an official launch of our flagship product called Smatcrows in October and a similar launch would be carried out in other African countries by Q2 2021,’’ Ibikunle said.
Zetogon noted that the funds would be used to support the launch of the software services designed to change the agricultural landscape by providing AI-driven data that will add value to farming and all agro-allied businesses.
According to the firm, the new product innovation is a crucial area of focus for AirSmat, which will enable farmers to get more information about their farmlands, thus ensuring timely decision making and, ultimately, increase crop yield.
AirSmat is a software company founded on the belief that drones will shape the future. The company is aimed at providing cutting-edge software solutions to many rapidly-growing industries adopting drones into daily operations by helping to transform the way businesses collect, manage, and interpret drone data. It is desirous to help businesses unlock the power of drone data.


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WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans cut back on borrowing in July for the first time in nearly a year. Credit card use fell for the second straight month, suggesting many consumers remain cautious in the face of high unemployment and slow growth.
WAYNE, N.J. (AP) - Toys R Us said Monday that it plans to launch next month its own tablet computer aimed at children, introducing a low-priced entry into the increasingly crowded tablet business.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Don't fall for the hype on quick remedies for killing and preventing bed bugs.
NEW YORK (AP) - T-Mobile USA, the only "Big 4" phone company that doesn't sell the iPhone, now wants to snag used ones from AT&T.
SANTA CLARA (AP) - Intel's sales are falling at a rate that blindsided the chip-maker's management, amplifying Wall Street's worries about the slumping personal computer market and the frail economy.
Q. I need to know if you think I should hire a lawyer for an appeal that I have filed with the Social Security Administration. In a nutshell, here is my case. I waited until age 70 to file for my Social Security retirement benefits because I wanted to get the 32 percent bonus offered to those who delay filing for Social Security until that time.
NEW YORK (AP) - Coca-Cola's newest drink won't come in a bottle or a can. And people will only need a squirt or two to quench their thirst.
WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal judge in Arizona has rejected the government's challenge of a state constitutional amendment that guarantees workers the right to secret ballots in union elections.
MIAMI (AP) - Darden Restaurants Inc. violated federal labor laws by underpaying thousands of servers across the country at Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Red Lobster and other eateries, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday on behalf of the workers.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Texas will soon open a stretch of highway with the highest speed limit in the country, giving eager drivers a chance to rip through a trip between two of the state's largest metropolitan areas.
NEW YORK (AP) - An eyewear website operator who threatened some of his customers with murder or rape when they complained about their eyeglasses was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison by a judge who said he terrorized them.
SANTA MONICA (AP) - Amazon unveiled four new Kindle Fire tablet computers on Thursday, including ones with larger color screens, as the online retailer steps up competition with Apple ahead of the holiday shopping season.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal judge has approved the U.S. Justice Department's settlement with a trio of electronic book publishers accused of conspiring in a price-fixing scheme orchestrated by the late Steve Jobs.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Federal Reserve's record-low interest rates have shrunk income for savers but cut costs for borrowers. Chairman Ben Bernanke is among the beneficiaries.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Not long ago, online games company Zynga looked on pace to unseat much bigger, well-established rivals as it rode the popularity of "FarmVille," the clicking game of virtual cows and real money.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Think you're in control? Think again.
DETROIT (AP) - The four-door Mini Cooper Countryman was the only one of 12 cars to earn a top rating of "good" in new frontal crash tests.
DENVER (AP) - Hundreds of people across the country lined up Tuesday to tell the Environmental Protection Agency that its new rules for power-plant pollution either go too far or not far enough.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The little blue bird is flying high. Stronger-than-expected financial results pushed Twitter's stock sharply higher on Tuesday after the short messaging service said its revenue more than doubled in the second quarter.
NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. (AP) - Plenty of working parents can relate to the dilemma Debra Harrell faced when her 9-year-old daughter asked to play unsupervised in a park this summer. How do you find the time and money for child care when school is out?
WASHINGTON (AP) - Medicare's financial future is looking brighter despite a growing wave of baby boomers reaching retirement.
LAS VEGAS (AP) - The long parade of tourists who regularly stop by the downtown Las Vegas shop featured on the History Channel reality show "Pawn Stars" could soon have something better to do while waiting in line.
NEW YORK (AP) - Zillow and Trulia, two companies that changed the way people shop for homes, are combining.
REDMOND, Wash. (AP) - Microsoft Corp. CEO Satya Nadella painted an upbeat vision of the future Tuesday, saying that the next version of Windows will be unified across screens of all sizes and that two money-losing units - Nokia phones and Bing search - would become profitable in 2016.
CUPERTINO (AP) - Apple's growth prospects are looking brighter as anticipation builds for the upcoming release of the next iPhone, a model that is expected to cater to consumers yearning for a bigger screen.
NEW YORK (AP) - It's an almost weekly occurrence: On Tuesday, Goodwill said its computer systems may have been hacked, leading to the possible theft of customers' credit and debit card information. The nonprofit agency, which operates 2,900 stores in the U.S., said it is working with federal investigators to look into a possible breach.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - In New Orleans, discarded butts are being turned into something useful.
NEW YORK (AP) - Verizon Wireless is launching a nationwide loyalty program this week for its 100-million-plus subscribers. There's a twist, though: To earn points for every dollar spent, subscribers must consent to have their movements tracked so the company can help target ads that match their interests.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Raising beef for the American dinner table does far more damage to the environment than producing pork, poultry, eggs or dairy, a new study says.
REDMOND, Wash. (AP) - Before Ralf Groene helped devise the look and feel of Microsoft's Surface tablet, he designed food - or "food concepts," he says, for people on the go. Among them: dried noodles that come wrapped around a pair of chopsticks; a tubular meal that can be pulled with two fingers from a car cup holder base; and a fork that squeezes out sauce.


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Panaji, Jan 8 (PTI) In a bid to shore up the falling tourism potential, stake-holders in Goa tourism are looking at China to tide over the slump in arrival of foreign tourists.
A six-member delegation from China is scheduled to arrive here later this week to prepare content and guide the Goa tourism department and stake-holders on how to promote the coastal state in Chinese markets, which is a virgin territory for the state's tourism industry.
Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) president Savio Messias on Wednesday said that there is a downfall in international tourist arrivals in Goa by almost 30-40 per cent.
'There are several factors responsible for this phenomenon, and one of them is shutting down of Thomas Cook, UK, which was flying charters in Goa,' he said.
Messias said that China offers a lot of potential for Goa markets.
'Chinese usually go around in huge groups and when they come to India, their visit is restricted to places like Agra in North India or Kerala in the South,' he said.
The TTAG chief, who had participated in a Travel Mart at Chengdu city in China, said many Chinese are unaware about Goa.
'Promotions in China are different from the rest of the world. They don't use Facebook, Google or Whatsapp. We will have to design websites in the Chinese language to reach to them,' he said.
Goa attracts around four lakh international visitors every year, whose number has gone down significantly in the last two years.
Russia and Britain are two traditional markets for Goa. PTI RPS AP NSK NSK


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5 Freelance Jobs That Will Pay You $100,000 Per Year
We read headlines about individuals who earn six figures a year, but the way people earn that much doesn’t always work for everyone.
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See: With a Recession Looming, Make These 3 Retirement Moves To Stay On Track
If you’re not able to pull in that kind of money through passive income or side gigs, there are certain freelance jobs that have the capacity to pay you $100,000 on a yearly basis. Where are these jobs and how soon can you start working them? GOBankingRates did the research to find out which opportunities have individuals making big money. Here are the freelance jobs that can pay you $100,000 per year.
Tasker for Taskrabbit
A Tasker for Taskrabbit can, indeed, earn up to six figures or more per year. GOBankingRates connected with William Young, a Tasker on Taskrabbit based in New York City (Midtown West).
Young works in mounting, occasionally doing moving and furniture work through the app. Taskrabbit was 50% of Young’s income in 2022. In 2022, Young said he earned roughly $100,000. He earned $160,000 in 2021, totaling a little over $200,000 in revenue for both years.
Young, who has been completing tasks since July 2020, said Taskrabbit is a great platform to start freelance work in the handy/moving space or as an organizer/cleaner. He even keeps his equipment stored in a designated shop through the app.
“As a Tasker, Taskrabbit has given me the opportunity to have a little shop in Midtown where I can store all my tools and equipment. It’s a place to drop by in between tasks during the day,” Young said.
Take Our Poll: What Are Your Financial Priorities in 2023?
Many freelance writers do earn upwards of six figures or more a year, and grant writing is among freelance positions that can pay $100,000 a year.
Meredith Noble is the co-founder and CEO of Learn Grant Writing (SenecaWorks LLC), and she said Learn Grant Writing helps teach those without prior business or grant writing experience how to make their first $15,000 freelancing. From there, the company takes grant writers step by step to hit financial milestones of $50,000, $100,000 and $250,000 a year.
Before starting a freelance grant writing career, Noble does have some recommendations:
- Find a coach. A coach will assist you in determining how much to charge and learning more about the professional fees of grant writing.
- Be patient when waiting for results. The momentum flywheel for seeing financial results takes up to four to six months. Those who hope to start earning a lot of money fast may feel discouraged by the lag in a few months. However, Noble recommends grant writers stay the course. “If you are consistent, the client work will come,” Noble said.
- Seek clients who pass the five-year test. “This means you can see yourself working with them for five or more years,” Noble said. “If not, they likely are taking your energy, which will cost you in the future more than your earnings.”
M&A stands for mergers and acquisitions. Currently, the M&A and private equity market is fairly new to freelancing — and those who decide to work in it have the opportunity to earn six figures, said Tobias Liebsch, the co-founder of Fintalent.io, an M&A staffing platform.
Previously, freelancing in M&A and private equity wasn’t viewed as a serious career path. Liebsch said this is because for a long time, brands sold gigs. “If you didn’t work for an established boutique, it’d be difficult for you to sell your services as the business is inherently relationship-based,” Liebsch said.
This has changed as remote work and freelancing have become more mainstream. Liebsch said freelancers in M&A can now attract and close clients and deliver work without paying a team of analysts. There’s also increased access to data, which Liebsch said successful M&A boutiques circa 10 years ago required a team of analysts to collect information for them. Now, freelancers in M&A may use sophisticated tools and deliver work that previously required agency overhead.
What does an instructional designer do? These designers create eLearning materials for companies and other organizations.
Devlin Peck is the founder of DevlinPeck.com, a business that helps people learn how to become instructional designers. He started freelancing part time and became a full-time instructional designer after graduating from college. By his second year in business, his company had grown to become a six-figure business.
While this freelance job does require specialized training, you can get started by using online resources to learn more. “Instructional designers are in high demand, especially today with the rapid growth of eLearning tools,” Peck said.
Virtual Nurse or Therapist
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a transformative impact on the telehealth and healthcare industry and it isn’t leaving anytime soon. More and more offices are employing virtual nurses or therapists to provide necessary services, said Debbie Winkelbauer, CEO of Surf Search, a recruiting firm specializing in the healthcare, medical device, pharmaceutical and biotech industry.
“A nurse, therapist or counselor specializing in workplace health can easily clear six figures with multiple contracts,” Winkelbauer said.
Those who do, it should be noted, will need to be on-call for a few businesses during select hours and may be asked to provide some emergency services too. For healthcare workers who currently feel burned out in high-pressure medical settings, working as a virtual nurse or therapist can be a great option to grow in healthcare and enjoy flexibility in their schedules.
More From GOBankingRates


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Raising the bar above restaurant
Davidburke & Donatella is set to open a new bar and lounge just north of the swanky restaurant--as in upstairs.
The upscale eatery is taking over the apartment above it to open the hot spot, which will have its own soon-to-be-decided name.
"We've never had enough space," says Donatella Arpaia, who is undertaking the expansion at 133 E. 61st St. with partner and celebrity chef David Burke.
A private party room, also on the second floor, will allow the restaurant to stay open to the public while it hosts special events.
Capitalizing on the latest trend, the new bar will specialize in savory drinks, with such ingredients as shrimp. The bar is likely to open in the fall after an extensive renovation.
"It won't be the kind of place where you put people that can't fit downstairs," says Ms. Arpaia. "It'll be very unique, a destination bar."
Shopping channel gets into groove
Chill jazz is coming to the shopping channel. Starting in August, New York radio personality Rafe Gomez will host a twice-monthly, late-night one-hour show on cable network QVC. He'll be playing the same mix of chill jazz--a more up-tempo version of smooth jazz--that listeners hear now on the Groove Boutique, his nationally syndicated Saturday evening show on CD101.9.
The TV version will also feature live performances. And best of all for struggling record labels, listeners can call in and buy the CDs. "I'll probably be offering six different CD bundle packages, with three CDs in each," Mr. Gomez says. "It'll be a jazz show--and a selling opportunity."
Uptown store low on fuel
Joe Gurrera opened his Citarella in Harlem two weeks ago with high hopes and a splashy party. But now the entrepreneur who sank more than $1 million into building the gourmet grocery says sales are off to a slow start.
One problem is that Con Edison has yet to turn on the gas, which means the facility can't prepare the fried chicken and barbecue ribs it expects to offer customers. "It's a procedure," says Mr. Gurrera, who hopes the utility will hit the switch soon.
What's more, the store is situated two blocks from the Apollo Theater and former President Bill Clinton's offices, on a stretch of West 125th Street that has yet to pop. "This is the last part of 125th Street to be revitalized," says Mr. Gurrera.
Ethnic site clicks with patients
When Harvard and Yale grad Dr. Dina Strachan set up her New York dermatology practice a few years back, she assumed other African-Americans would seek her out. The question was how to advertise the fact of her race. She came up with the answer in April when she launched Findablackdoctor.com.
So far, 85 doctors have paid a fee for their listing. Patients love it, Dr. Strachan says. More than 500,000 people have visited the site. "A lot of people feel more comfortable with a doctor of their own ethnicity," she says.
The concept of choosing a doctor by ethnicity makes some physicians queasy. "I hope this isn't based on the erroneous concept that white doctors discriminate against black patients," says Dr. Sally Satel, author of PC, M.D.: How Political Correctness Is Corrupting Medicine. Still, "If someone set up Findajewishdoctor.com, I'd use it," she says.
A Canada goose chase
Science writers can't hope for much better exposure than having their book prominently reviewed in The New York Times' science section. Times reporter Gina Kolata's "Books on Science" feature June 14 was devoted to Dr. Miriam Shuchman's The Drug Trial: Nancy Olivieri and the Science Scandal That Rocked the Hospital for Sick Children.
But local scientists who might want to read it will find the title cannot be bought or ordered from bookstores or online sellers here. According to publisher Random House of Canada Ltd., that's because no one has the U.S. distribution rights yet. "Any New York bookstore that tried to sell the Canadian version would risk the wrath of publishers everywhere," says a Random House of Canada publicist.
Ms. Kolata says she wasn't aware the book couldn't be bought here. The author's brother-in-law Kendall Christiansen says he has to order it online from Canada. "I smuggled some copies in," he says.


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EAGAN, Minn.—The Eagan City Council approved preliminary plans this week for an outlet mall that would open in two years with nearly 100 brand-name stores.
The project’s last big hurdle is a development agreement between the city and developer Paragon Outlet Partners, but city officials said they expect the deal to be hammered out by about January, according to a St. Paul Pioneer Press report ( http://bit.ly/Qg5Ydn).
Paragon Outlets at Cedar Grove is being billed as an open-air outlet center on 29 acres near the intersection of Cedar Avenue and Minnesota 13. Although it would be the only outlet mall in heart of the seven-county metro area, it would only be about five miles from the Mall of America.
Kelvin Antill, a Paragon spokesman, said the proximity to a traditional mall can be a good thing for an outlet mall.
“They shop there one day and the outlet mall the next day,” he said. “We really think we can feed off that. A mutual feeding, if you will.”
Paragon already opened outlet malls this year in Grand Prairie, Texas, and Livermore, Calif., and Antill said both projects were 100 percent leased on opening day.
The developers have told city officials that its similar projects generally had an investment of more than $100 million, created 400 construction jobs and produced 1,500 to 2,000 retail jobs.
“It’s a significant project,” Eagan Mayor Mike Maguire said. “It’s going to be significant for not only for Eagan, but I think for the south metro.”
A study commissioned by the city to assess potential demand concluded that anticipated growth in the Twin Cities area would lead to retail expenditures increasing from $2.9 billion in 2014, when the outlet mall is slated to open, to nearly $3.7 billion in 2020. The study was performed by Maxfield Research Inc.
Paragon said it would court many of its retail clients from its other outlet malls, including Brooks Brothers Factory Store, Coach, the Children’s Place, DKNY and Nike.
City Council member Cyndee Fields said she was excited about the proposal.
“I’m envisioning we’re going to have a huge amount of traffic,” she said. “This is like one of the first outlet malls in a long time in the Twin Cities. It’s going to be huge, I know it is.”
Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press, http://www.twincities.com


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Cryptocurrency Rate Today, May 23: Cryptocurrencies Are Moving To The Red Zone
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Litecoin, Cardano, Stellar, IOTA, Dash, Monero: cryptocurrency rate
According to the Coin360 online platform, Bitcoin (BTC) lost 5.3% over the past 24 hours. The price at the time of writing is $7534 per coin.
Rest cryptocurrencies also significantly reduced:
Bitcoin Cash dropped by 9.52%, Bitcoin SV has lost 7%, the value of coins is $372 and $98, respectively;
Ripple fell down by 8.6% and costs $0.36;
EOS minus 7.5% and its price is $5.7;
Litecoin decreased by 6.2% and its price is $85;
Cardano minus 8.7% and its value is $0.076;
Stellar dropped by 10.7% and costs $0.12;
IOTA minus 12% and its cost is $0.36;
Dash lost 10% and its price is $146;
Monero decreased by 7.7% and costs $81.
Over the past 24 hours, according to the p2pb2b exchange, Ethereum fell down by 8.3%, its price is $235 per coin.
The total market capitalization is $233 billion. Bitcoin accounts for 57.1% of the total. In monetary terms, this is $133 billion.
Subscribe to The Coin Shark news in Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coinshark/


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Jokes are often made about millennials lacking communications skills, but if research proves it’s true, what does this mean for the future of office-based businesses?
Budget conscious SMEs are often forced to take their market research in-house, national market research experts Explain Market Research are here to tell you what mistakes to avoid when you’re doing it.
A few slices of pizza cures many ills, but can it also serve up a much-needed boost to management skills?
The Institute of Leadership & Management’s latest report details how the 15,000 people who leave the UK Regular Armed Forces each year could benefit business.
More employee-owned businesses would improve UK productivity, enhance the resilience of regional economies, and motivate more engaged employees, says a new report co-authored by professor Joseph Lampel from Alliance MBS.
Like all buzzwords, the “business model” has evolved from something new and exciting to something more mundane and straightforward.
There seems to be a difference in perception as to what constitutes to sexual harassment both between men and women and across the generations.
Julie Deane, CEO and founder of the Cambridge Satchel Company and Jeremy O?Hare, relationship manager at the British Library Business and IP Centre, share their top tips on mastering intellectual property so you don’t get caught out.
Disruption is a term that gets used a lot. So much so that it’s fallen into the category of business jargon. But the result of this overuse is that it makes it easy for UK SMEs to dismiss the reality that underpins it, and that has dangerous consequences.
When it comes to lists about innovative tech locations, it’s perhaps unsurprising that London ranks high. However, it’s by no means the only UK city making waves.
According to studies, traditional brand fidelity is declining. This is bad news for large, established players. But it’s a golden opportunity for SMEs to capitalise on a new phenomenon… “loyalty as you go”.
Henry Ford, Nicola Tesla, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg share numerous traits. Not only do they challenge convention, they are also left-handed. And according to scientists, that very fact made them excellent problem solvers.


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Video gaming has consistently been a serious game. Arcade boxes prior had their pixelated high score graphs, and each child needed to be the one with the top scores in his neighborhood. With the web blast and the arrival of famous first individual shooter games like Doom and Counter Strike, players from everywhere throughout the world started to meet up. In 1997, one of the main e-sports associations, Cyberathelete Professional League was set up. From that point forward the gaming scene has jumped forward to web based gaming and spilling. Let us investigate the wonder. http://realracinghack.com/
The Rise of Online Gaming and Streaming
In the previous four decades, web based gaming has gotten one of the world’s greatest media outlets. As indicated by reports from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the worldwide internet g
aming industry in 2010 was worth around $56 billion! This is greater than both the magazine or the music business and around 66% the film business’ size. As indicated by a 2011 report by Entertainment Software Association, the normal age of a gamer in the United States is 37 and 42 percent of these gamers are female.
Probably the greatest pattern today, in live gushing isn’t music (as you may have recently expected), however serious gaming. e-sports today, pulls in a large number of watchers. Various locales today, providing food explicitly to gamers and their fans stream e-sport occasions. A few e-sport sites have detonated everywhere throughout the web as live webcasts take serious video gaming to a totally new level, changing it into a game that is seen by millions from one which was constrained to simply insiders.
Computer game Streaming: The Big Players
Among the enormous players in computer game spilling today are Own3D.tv and TwitchTV. Own3D.tv started online computer game gushing in 2010, and at present, the site gets more than 4,000,000 one of a kind watchers a month for computer game live streams. In March 2011, Electronic Sports League (ESL), the world’s biggest gaming group, communicated the Intel Extreme Masters occasion, which is among the most well known gaming competitions of the year, through Own3D. With $400,000 as prize cash, the gaming competition drew 75,000 synchronous live watchers on single occasion days, while the general crowd arrived at a few million gamers. June 2011 saw more than 200,000 simultaneous watchers viewing a Dreamhack challenge (which is based around League of Legends, another famous game) on Own3D, with around 250 GBps of traffic through the occasion.
Also, live video gushing seller Justin.tv saw e-sports video spilling develop at such a fast rate, that they committed a whole site to it. In June 2011, they propelled TwitchTV after computer game spilling stretched around 3.2million month to month interesting perspectives on its principle site. TwitchTV now connects more than 12 million one of a kind watchers every month. Additionally it has had a consistent month over month development pace of 11 percent since it was propelled. Other than that, TwitchTV has more than 1,000 premium accomplices. It has additionally gotten more than 80,000 downloads of its iPhone portable application in under a month of the application’s dispatch. Between October tenth and October sixteenth the site got enormous traffic as can be seen from the accompanying figures:
Absolute Hours Watched: 6,737,250
Week after week Unique Viewers: 4,214,057
All out Hours Watched per Unique Viewer: 1.6
Week after week Unique Chatters: 309,220
Pinnacle Concurrent Viewers on a Single Stream: 125,862
Pinnacle Concurrent Viewers on all Gaming Content: 165,250
Computer game Streaming: Popular Genres
Here are probably the most mainstream kinds in live online computer game spilling:
Experience (Assassin’s Creed II, Lego, Lost Planet)
Methodology (StarCraft II, Total War, Worms)
Game Games (FIFA, NBA 2K10, MLB 2K10)
Shooter (Modern Warfare 3, Bad Company 2, Left 4 Dead 2)
Pretending (Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age)
Hustling (Need for Speed: The Run Playthrough Part 1!, GP2 Asia Series 2011)
Reproduction (The Sims)
Greatly multiplayer online pretending game – MMORPG (World of Warcraft, Hydra 9)


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Corpus Christi auto dealership strip continues growing
South Padre Island Drive offers a plethora of auto dealerships on both sides, and the lineup is growing.
CarMax, the nation's leading used car dealership, is adding a Corpus Christi location on South Padre Island Drive between Ennis Joslin and Rodd Field roads.
The company submitted plans to the city earlier this month for the project. The estimated price tag is just under $5 million on the permit request filed with the city, but the final investment by the company will likely be significantly higher.
CarMax typically invests between $10 million and $25 million in a dealership by the time there is a grand opening, however, spokeswoman Jennifer Bartusiak told the Caller-Times.
There is not yet a timeline on when the Corpus Christi location will open, but the process is usually years-long, Bartusiak explained. The company is looking to add "13-16" new locations each of the next two years, she added.
On average, CarMax lots offer between 200 and 400 vehicles for sale, and more than 50,000 can be shipped to the location.
City Councilman Greg Smith, who represents the area, said the proposed project is a sign of economic momentum building in Corpus Christi.
"It's a sign of growth in that area that companies like CarMax are interested in building locations here," Smith said.
CarMax is following Autonation in its bid to provide a niche service of quality used vehicles. Autonation USA, the national dealer's pre-owned arm, hosted a grand opening last month for it's new location at 3115 South Padre Island Drive.
Automotive dealers have targeted the Coastal Bend in recent years. In 2015, Hicks Family Nissan broke ground on a Calallen-area dealership, and last year Mike Shaw Automotive purchased a dealership to expand in the Robstown area.


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As a result of the nuanced and regulated nature of adding outdoor seating due to COVID-19, the association has published considerations and guidelines for business owners and designers leveraging this strategy.
Trade school has long struggled to gain recognition as a worthy alternative to four-year college, but the pandemic is changing perceptions, with one-third of Americans now viewing trade school as a more favorable option than college.
Since the start of 2020, the plumbing and HVAC supplies e-commerce company has remained consistent with hiring, being able to bring on 120 new employees. Founder and CEO Joshua Meyerowitz discusses the evolution of the company.
We discuss the importance of workforce development initiatives with Carl Pinto Jr., senior director of marketing communications, Bradford White Corp., as well as the state of industry trade shows and what the company is doing to strengthen customer relationships now that we're more than six months into the COVID-19 pandemic.


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Trade protectionism measures would do no help to tackle global steel overcapacity but hinder global trade orders, China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said in a statement after the European Union (EU) adopted new prior-surveillance system for steel imports.
The prior-surveillance system will bring extra burdens to normal trade and China is concerned about this matter, said the statement.
The EU announced on Friday that it had established a prior-surveillance system for imports of steel products into the bloc in order to further protect its own steel industry.
Based on the new regulation, imports of steel products into the EU will now need an import license. The EU has long claimed that importing steel products from third countries, such as China, have jeopardized its own labor market.
China always advocates anti-trade protectionism and maintains stable, predictable and fair trade environment, said the MOC statement, adding that the EU should abide by the commitments it has made and avoid sending wrong signals.


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Amazon has created more jobs than any of the Big 5 tech companies since 2000, expanding its headcount 72-fold since the turn of the century.
Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon have collectively employed over 1 million people between 2000 and 2018, according to a new analysis from CNBC.
Last year Amazon employed 648,000 workers, dramatically overshadowing its nearest contender Apple which had 131,000 employees.
While Amazon’s staggering numbers are down to the hundreds of thousands of workers it employs in its vast fulfilment centres, many of whom work part-time, Apple is also understood to be second highest thanks to its considerable retail workforce.
Microsoft, which also employs many retail workers, came just behind Apple with 131,000 workers, while Facebook employed the least with just 36,000.
Google’s owner Alphabet has seen the biggest growth since the turn of the millennium, and is now 347 times the size it was in 2001 with 99,000 workers.
Despite adding so many jobs, its worth noting that the disruption these five companies have caused to their respective industries have likely contributed to the loss of large numbers of jobs.