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Textbook renting gaining popularity
SAN JOSE, CA (KGO) -- Textbooks -- college students hate lugging them around, and they especially hate paying for them. Books are the third largest expense in the college budget. But, a Bay Area company says maybe the way students get their textbooks is in the problem.
Hannah Casteneda needs a couple of textbook for her art classes at San Jose City College. She'll need even more when she switches to San Jose State. But, saving money for those books is tough.
"Sometimes a semester it will cost me about, I'll be spending $300 and that's just above my budget," said Castaneda.
Individual books can cost $80 or more at the college bookstore, and buying them online isn't much cheaper.
"Students feel like they're not getting a very good deal. They get really insulted twice: when they buy the books, they're too expensive, I mean on average a student spends thousands of dollars on books each year. And when they go to sell them back it's like pennies on the dollar ," said Chegg CEO Jim Safka.
That's why renting is the fastest growing part of the college textbook industry. Santa Clara based Chegg is one of the biggest players.
"Chegg is a lot like Netflix, but for college textbooks -- where students basically rent the textbooks. They go to our site, they put in the title or the author of whatever textbook is required and they rent them and save money," said Safka.
They can save between 65 and 85 percent on the latest edition. Calls come into the customer center in Santa Clara. But, the books ship from a warehouse in Louisville, Kentucky along with the packaging to send them back once the semester is over. Castaneda - who used Chegg - says the price was right.
"I know for an English book it would cost me $70 dollars used - period. But, when I went to Chegg.com that book was available for $25 just for a quarter," said Castaneda.
They are other competitors including companies like bookrenters.com and www.campusbookrentals.com. Even traditional book sellers like Follett see the writing on the wall and are setting up rental divisions themselves. Students at more than 6,000 colleges are now renting their books. And they have access to a couple million titles.
"We have any conceivable book that might be required on any college campus and if we don't have it we'll find it for you," said Safka.
Chegg allows a limited amount of highlighting and writing in the margin and you can buy the book if you wish.
education, eric thomas
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Conan's new motto for his new show, "When I make a promise ... I fulfill it!" And that's why Conan wore jeggings last night!
The madness started Wednesday when he promised "Project Runway" star Tim Gunn he'd try jeggings, the latest fashion craze. Sure enough, on Thursday's show, the leggy Coco kept his word!
Check out the video!

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A short survey posted on the District of 100 Mile House website aims to help improve shopping for local residents while providing support for the retail business community.
An earlier survey conducted a few years ago showed residents shopped out of town mainly for entertainment, household goods, and business supplies.
Over the last two to three years, however, shopping patterns have changed. The information gathered in the survey will help identify what these changes are and the products and services residents want to see locally.
“Gauging residents’ shopping patterns helps to identify strengths and opportunities in the local retail market,” said Joanne Doddridge, the district’s director of economic development and planning.
Knowing how shopping habits have changed will help the district’s economic development efforts to support local businesses, attract retailers, grow the local business sector and slow economic leakage of retail spending.
“The economic landscape is changing and to compete, we need to be flexible and innovative in our approach and take advantage of every opportunity to support locally owned businesses. Information from surveys like this will help us identify the opportunities and how 100 Mile House can support local retail options,” said Mayor Maureen Pinkney.
The survey closes on March 24 and takes 10-15 minutes to complete. All answers are anonymous. Visit www.100milehouse.com/2023survey to participate.
Results will be available in early May.
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The NDP government will back both Calgary and Edmonton as Alberta’s two largest cities pursue the possibility of online retail giant Amazon putting its second headquarters in the province, Economic Development Minister Deron Bilous said Friday.
An upbeat Bilous said he believes Alberta has a legitimate shot at landing what the company is calling Amazon HQ2, a US$5-billion project it estimates would include 50,000 high-paying jobs.
Both Calgary’s Naheed Nenshi and Edmonton’s Don Iveson have indicated their cities’ interest in the project.
Bilous said the province will treat each municipality equally if they submit bids for the new Amazon headquarters.
“I’m excited both of our cities have jumped on this,” he said in an interview. “Anywhere a company comes is a win for the province and a win for Albertans.”
Bilous said the NDP government has been working to develop a relationship with Amazon over the last year and he has met with officials of the company at their Seattle head office.
He wouldn’t give details of the meeting but said it was part of a general, ongoing pitch to American tech companies by the government to tout Alberta’s merits as a potential site for offices or facilities.
“It’s about putting Alberta on the map,” said Bilous.
Amazon’s request for proposals released Thursday is open to cities and regional economic development authorities throughout North America. However, some observers have questioned the likelihood of the company locating such a prize outside of the United States.
But Bilous said there is significant interest in Canada from tech companies because visa changes brought in by the Trump administration have led to uncertainty about stability in their workforce.
“Companies are looking at their options, and I can tell you Alberta has significant competitive advantages,” he said, citing low taxes within Canada, a skilled and educated workforce and a high quality of life.
Bilous noted Calgary has a large amount of available office space, while Edmonton boasts artificial intelligence research at the University of Alberta.
Amazon’s RFP says the company has a preference for metropolitan areas of over one million population, a stable and business-friendly climate, urban or suburban locations that are attractive for technical talent and communities that “think big and creatively.”
The document also says municipalities will be considered based on the incentives they provide the company “to offset initial capital outlay and ongoing operational costs.”
Bilous said the province is not averse to providing support to help lure the development.
“I am open to having discussions with companies as far as what they are looking for,” he said.
But he said the biggest issue he hears from companies is “which jurisdiction is going to make it as easy as possible to navigate regulations, taxation, etc., and that’s where we have a real advantage.”
Bilous cited the creation of Invest Alberta within his ministry, a section devoted to working with companies that would potentially relocate to or invest in the province.


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While rubberneckers and media hounds swarmed over the Social Security Administration's Web site this week as if it were a gruesome 99-car pileup, agency officials turned their firehoses on the site, and an experiment in accessing private information online ceased.
But the agency's failure to adequately address privacy concerns before making earnings statements and financial records available online raises a bigger concern: the possibility that Congress will ride to the "rescue" of online privacy with the same trample-the-problem-to-death subtlety it used to save children from online indecency through the Communications Decency Act.
"We could get some hasty legislation that will curtail electronic commerce in order to meet consumer needs about privacy," said Deirdre Mulligan, lawyer for the Center for Democracy and Technology.
Indeed, Representative Paul Kanjorski (D-Pennsylvania) said last week he plans to introduce a bill to prohibit Social Security from posting earnings and benefit-estimate statements on the Web. And other congressional leaders sent a letter to the SSA warning that the online service "may not afford sufficient protections against violations of individual privacy."
But banning the agency's attempt at providing a valuable service misses the point about all the personal information that already is online, experts say.
"Look-up services" such as Shadow Trackers and Deep Data already deliver a wealth of personal information - such as Social Security numbers, property records, corporate filings, death records, and financial statements - for very affordable prices.
Those are legal, out-in-the-open services. Less-visible dangers are out there, too. The Federal Trade Commission says that Net crime is a significant personal security risk, too, with theft of credit card numbers and other financial data on the rise.
The key, some observers say, is not panic legislation or even individual sites with effective security measures, but a well-thought-out set of policies on encryption and privacy standards. "Without well-defined security policies, even the best container will leak like a sieve," Geoff Mulligan, a computer security expert, warned a congressional hearing recently.
The government is taking small steps to address privacy concerns without stifling e-commerce. The Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection plans to hold hearings in June on the collection and use of personal information online and the development security technologies. And, the White House has signaled in its working paper on e-commerce a commitment to resolving privacy issues for the Internet to evolve as a useful consumer tool - although major disputes remain on how to secure online transactions.
As for the Social Security site, which may again offer financial information after a 60-day inquiry into security options, officials say there were no reports of fraudulent activity in the month that the service was up. But, despite this, some saw the failure of the site as inevitable.
"The public reaction is more intense, and more widespread when you're talking about something as fundamental as Social Security numbers," said Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.


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Holidaymakers are being warned over the dangers of booking a holiday, as fraudsters are conning travellers out of over £1.5 million a year, a new report said.
According to the City of London Police National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), one in ten consumers do not do anything to research their travel company, such as checking if they are a member of a trade association, or asking friends for recommendations.
A quarter of holidaymakers are prepared to pay £200 or more as an upfront payment or deposit to secure their booking, the YouGov poll said.
With the support of the NFIB, Get Safe Online, and Action Fraud, the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) is launching a campaign to warn people about the dangers of holiday booking fraud.
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The poll comes ahead of a debate in the House of Commons on Friday on a new Bill which would introduce such a system in England.
Jobs with decent pay and flexibility are "few and far between" for single parents who are the main earner and carer, said the report.
Coal's share of the power mix had fallen to 7%, while wind climbed to new highs to provide 15% of the country's electricity.


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Phil Castle, The Business Times
Tamara Kleinberg had made it her business to promote innovation — founding an enterprise that tests new products while also speaking and writing about the subject.
Innovative businesses are better at differentiating their operations and adapting to changing market conditions, she said. Moreover, customers who increasingly demand innovation in products and services not only compare businesses with their direct competitors, but also have come to expect the same level of innovation as that offered by such companies as Disney and Uber.
“It’s incredibly important,” she said.
The good news, Kleinberg said, is that businesses can take steps to foster innovation.
In fact, Kleinberg will discuss what she said are seven-and-a-half steps for creating a culture of innovation in her keynote presentation at an upcoming manufacturing summit set for April 28 at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction.
In a telephone interview with the Business Times, Kleinberg said she views her role as “helping people wake up to their ability to innovate and guide them through executing their ideas.”
Kleinberg founded TheShuuk.com, a Denver-based operation she describes as an online testing ground in which she connects inventors and entrepreneurs with what she said is a community of thoughtful and engaged people who test new products and quickly provide feedback.
Some of the products tested through the operation have included Super Rope Cinch, a device that secures rope with a simple twist, and Flat Out of Heels, a line of rollable ballet style flats designed to offer alternative footwear to women wearing painful high heels, Kleinberg said. The shoe company also takes advantage of an innovative distribution channel, she said, in dispensing shoes through vending machines at airports, nightclubs and other locations.
Kleinberg also delivers keynote presentations on a variety of topics related to innovation and has written two books, including “Think Sideways: A Game-Changing Playbook for Disruptive Thinking.”
Kleinberg brings to her various pursuits more than 20 years of experience in working with Fortune 500 companies in developing new products and marketing approaches.
She was once one of the youngest people ever named to a leadership position in a global advertising agency.
One of the first steps in creating a culture of innovation, Kleinberg said, is to give people permission to innovate. People naturally come up good ideas, but can be discouraged from acting on them or even sharing them, she said.
Another step in creating a culture of innovation is to continually practice techniques that promote innovation — a process Kleinberg compares to going to a gym to improve fitness.
Perfection is the enemy of innovation, she said. Rather than considering something an outright success or failure, it can be more effective to go through a series of incremental improvements to get something right.
Small businesses enjoy some advantages in promoting innovation, Kleinberg said, because they can change more quickly than their larger counterparts. Smaller businesses also tend to communicate more directly with their customers and therefore receive more direct feedback, she said.
Individuals can improve their ability to innovate by realizing they bring different styles and strengths to the process.
Kleinberg developed what she calls the Innovation Quotient Edge, a brief online assessment that identifies innovation styles and strengths as well as what triggers innovation.
People who register to attend the manufacturing summit will have an opportunity to take the assessment. Kleinberg said she plans to discuss the overall results during her keynote presentation.
A culture of innovation also depends on good communication. Good communication in turn depends on using the right words and asking questions in the right ways, Kleinberg said.
Presenting an idea and asking someone what they think forces an up or down vote and poses the threat of immediate rejection, she said. Presenting an idea and then asking someone what they’d do to improve on that idea engages them and promotes collaboration.
The 2016 Western Colorado Manufacturing Summit is scheduled for April 28 at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction. Admission is $75 for members of the Colorado Advanced Manufacturing Alliance, $100 for others. To register for or obtain more information about the summit, visit www.co-cama.org.


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FDA fines e-cigarette makers for illegal salesCNN 02/23/2023
The Food and Drug Administration has filed a complaint against four e-cigarette makers for failing to get government authorization to sell their products in the U.S. The four companies, BAM Group LLC, Great American Vapes LLC, The Vapor Corner Inc and 13 Vapor Co LLC, are facing fines for their actions. “Holding manufacturers accountable for making or selling illegal tobacco products is a top priority for the FDA,” said Dr. Brian King, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “We are prepared to use the full scope of our authorities to enforce the law—especially against those who have continued to violate the law after being warned by the agency.”
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Glen Wilkins, a spokesman for Wal-Mart, which owns Sam’s Club, told The Star last week the retailer is still interested in constructing a Sam’s at the Oxford Exchange – a project the city first announced in December 2008.
However, Wilkins could not provide a time frame for when construction would begin on the project. Wilkins could not even confirm if construction would begin a year from now.
“I would hope so, but I’m not sure that that’s an accurate time frame,” Wilkins said.
The city has taken a different stance on the issue, indicating the project was ready to go. During an Oxford City Council meeting in December, Mayor Leon Smith said, “things are fixin' to break loose” at the Sam’s Club site, adding construction would possibly begin in January and the store would likely open as early as October 2010.
As of Wednesday, there was no construction equipment or activity of any kind at the site. It should be noted, however, there has been considerable rainfall during the last two months, which may have impeded some construction efforts.
Smith declined to comment Tuesday when asked about the progress or lack thereof on the Sam’s Club project.
Wilkins attributed the apparent ambiguity in the construction time for the Sam’s Club to a delay in reports about the condition site.
“We’re waiting for all the geotech reports to come back, to make sure everything is secure and suitable to handle the structure,” Wilkins said.
The city has spent millions prepping the site for the arrival of Sam’s Club. Through its Commercial Development Authority, it awarded a $2.6 million contract for grading work at the site. The CDA paid $1.7 million of the contract using money from the sale of Oxford Exchange property to developers Abernathy and Timberlake, a company based in Georgia. The city kicked in an additional $805,788.50, according to the city’s attorney and CDA documents.
City Project Manager Fred Denney said as far as he knew, all the studies on the site were completed.
“The foundation is good,” Denney said.
He added that the contractor hired by Wal-Mart was responsible for the reports.
Denney said he not know exactly when construction would begin, but was confident it would start soon.
“Everything is well underway,” Denney said. “(Wal-Mart) should be awarding the contract to do the foundation soon.”
City Council President Chris Spurlin said he has not heard of a problem with the project.
“Everything I’ve been told has been it’s ready to build,” Spurlin said.
City Councilwoman June Reaves said she had not heard anything about the Sam’s Club since Smith made his announcement during the December city council meeting.
“I have not heard anything to substantiate one way or the other,” Reaves said. “When I heard about some of the (Sam’s Club) warehouse closings, I wondered if that might have an impact.”
In January, Sam’s closed 10 underperforming stores, which cost about 1,500 jobs.
While Wilkins would not comment if the sluggish economy was impacting the construction of the Oxford Sam’s Club, it is no secret Wal-Mart has faced financial woes in recent months.
Wal-Mart has cut approximately 13,000 jobs in the past 13 months, including 11,200 jobs in its 600-store Sam’s Club warehouse division, when it turned over in-store demonstrations to an outside company. The cut amounted to 10 percent of Sam’s Club’s work force of 110,000.
The goal, company officials told investors in October, is to cut costs so it can lower prices for shoppers and in turn boost sales.
James Cashman, professor of management in business at the University of Alabama, said Wal-Mart’s layoffs are an indicator the economy is still in a slump. Cashman said people can get a sense of how the national economy is doing by looking at the performance of large companies like Wal-Mart, which have an impact on the economy as a whole.
“What (the layoffs) really reflect is a tangible piece of evidence of the economy as opposed to anything specifically wrong with the company,” Cashman said. “It’s an effort to keep costs down.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article.


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Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over daily movements, we do like to keep an eye on market changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
Stocks rebounded from Wednesday's slump today, as fourth-quarter GDP growth, and impressive corporate earnings, drove markets higher. The U.S. economy grew at a 3.2% annualized clip in the final three months of 2013, showing its resiliency in the face of October's 15-day government shutdown. All 10 market sectors advanced Thursday, led by health care, consumer services, and technology companies. The S&P 500 Index (^GSPC -0.09%), fresh off an 18-point loss yesterday, added just under 20 points, or 1.1%, to end at 1,794 today.
Interestingly enough, the services and technology sectors also produced three of the day's biggest decliners Thursday. Shares of cloud computing solutions company Citrix Systems (CTXS), for instance, plunged 7.5% as investors expressed their disappointment with the company's forward guidance. Citrix Systems' execution last quarter was great, and the $1.04 earnings per share number came in well ahead of the $0.98 per share that analysts were looking for. But 2014's earnings and sales outlooks were both well below forecasts, and that alone was enough to spur an investor exodus today. It didn't help that at least two investment banks promptly downgraded the stock in response to the news.
Security software provider Symantec (NLOK 3.48%) also felt the wrath of Mr. Market, even though it handily beat analyst forecasts in its last fiscal quarter. Symantec stock, shedding 7.3% in trading, also took a beating due to what analysts perceived as subpar forward guidance. I don't always agree with Wall Street analysts -- I believe they aren't well-incentivized to provide accurate predictions -- but I think the fact that Symantec's forward-looking revenue missed estimates is concerning. After all, the company's security software (e.g. Norton anti-virus) is awfully PC-centric, and PC sales are on what I believe to be an irreversible decline. While I still recommend protecting your PC, ridding yourself of PC-reliant investments will protect your portfolio.
Finally, shares of Best Buy (BBY 1.37%) tumbled 5.2% Thursday, as the electronics retailer trimmed its headcount by 950 workers. The job cuts, which all came from Best Buy's Canadian stores, don't reflect the decision to close any locations, and the company currently plans to keep its 265 Canadian stores open for business, according to a Bloomberg report. While reducing labor costs should help pad the company's bottom line, declining sales during the holiday season pose a far graver threat to Best Buy's long-term growth prospects. If the company can aggressively position itself as an e-commerce leader, then it may redeem itself; but until that trend becomes apparent, I'm skeptical about its potential.


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Unit sales of print books began the new year flat with sales in the first week of 2022 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Although it is now 2023, the sales pattern was the same as 2022, with sales increases in fiction offset by declines in nonfiction.
The young adult fiction segment had the biggest increase, with sales up 18.5% over the week ended January 8, 2022. The gain was led by a number of new titles, including The Stolen Heir, the newest book from Holly Jackson, which sold over 29,000 copies in its first week on sale, and Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman, which sold over 17,000 copies.
Adult fiction had another good week, with sales up 12.2% over the week ended January 8, 2022. The Colleen Hoover juggernaut rolled on into 2023, with her novels occupying five of the top six bestsellers in the category, led by It Starts with Us and followed by It Ends with Us, which sold about 62,000 and 55,000 copies, respectively. Danielle Steel's newest title, Without a Trace, sold nearly 18,000 copies in its first week, putting it in ninth place on the category list.
Sales of juvenile fiction were flat in the week. Moon Rising by Tui T. Sutherland remained #1 in its second week, selling almost 22,000 copies.
Nonfiction adult sales fell 8.2% from 2022. Two books on the January 6th report were in the top 10 on the category list, with the HarperCollins edition in second place, selling more than 39,000 copies, and Macmillan’s edition in eighth place, selling more than 12,000 copies. James Clear’s Atomic Habits remained in the top spot, selling over 55,000 copies; a year ago Atomic Habits was also #1, selling about 48,000 copies.


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Trends that will dominate the natural products space can fall into two categories: Larger macrotrends that are already well-established and rife with product development, or microtrends. SPINS senior manager of natural insights and innovation research Jessica Hochman described the latter as “ideas that we think are moving into macrotrend space, things we’re really watching.”
Together with SPINS director of industry insights Brent Coons, the duo presented the company’s forecasts on Wednesday at an event organized by the Chicagoland Food and Beverage Network.
Spanning multiple categories from snacks to sweets to supplements, here are the top trends SPINS highlighted for the dietary supplement industry:
Macrotrend: Mighty Mitochondria
According to Coons, 2019 is the year that mitochondria will come out as “an aspect of our bodies that folks start to pay attention to in terms of how it relates to health and wellness.”
“Mitochondria are the root of our energy production in humans and pretty much most species on this planet,” he said.
Coons attributed the rise of mitochondrial interest to the keto set—people who follow a low-carb, high-fat diet so that the body burns fat for energy instead of glucose.
“A lot of the keto influencers and lifestyle folks really talking about mitochondria,” he explained, “About how the ATP energy transfer cycle happen at the cellular level, getting energy from fat instead of glucose, a variety of aspects like that.”
This trend has revived interest in what Coons calls “classic supplements by heritage brands,” which includes L-carnitine, CoQ10, creatine, alpha lipoic acid, and PQQ.
“L-Carnitine, for example, is required to transfer the fat molecule into the mitochondria to be burned as energy. The body can produce it, but especially as we age, that process starts to decline a little bit,” he said.
“So overall, there’s a lot of theories and studies being done around mitochondria, and how it might relate to aging and various diseases. So a lot of focus and attention in this area.”
Additionally, though it is still too early to tell, Coons expects more ingredients as mentioned above may cross over into functional food and beverage, following the overall industry trend of moving away from pills.
Macrotrends: Better Sleep
“We’re all spending more time in front of screens and it shouldn’t be a surprise if we find it hard to fall asleep and switch off at night” said Hochman.
From that, the natural products industry is answering that call “both in terms of ingredients and ingredient combinations as well as also delivery.”
Examples of innovation in this space comes in dosing and serving sizes, such as what Snooze is doing, a 4.6 fl oz beverage.
“I’ve seen several enter the space in that size that’s not quite a wellness shot, not a full-sized ready-to-drink functional beverage,” she said. “It definitely has its supplement roots and a supplements facts panel in the back, but that small-format beverage is something [new] to drink before you go to bed.”
In products formulated this way, Hochman sees many core natural ingredients like valerian and chamomile used, “but also interesting blends of lemon balm and passion flower and a few other things.”
There has also been a rise in mouth spray formats, Hochman said. One example is in Garden of Life’s Mind Kind of Organics line. “It has a blend of herbs as well as L-Theanine, which is an amino acid we’re seeing used for several different health focuses, often promoted for focus, promoted for calm with cognitive associations,” she said.
The format that surprised the analysts the most for the sleep category was clarified butter. One example on the market is Pure Indian Foods. “I’m sure most people in the room are familiar with ghee clarified butter as a cooking oil, but this is actually a ghee as a supplement,” she said.
The active ingredient is brahmi, the Ayurvedic name for waterhyssop or Bacopa monnieri, an ingredient often used in cognitive health supplements.
“We see ghee in Bulletproof butter coffees a lot, so one of these types of products may fit in that kind of trend as well,” Coons added.
Microtrends: Wildcrafting, keto-supplements, and CBD
Coons and Hochman spent the last portion of their presentation covering trends that they think are inching their way into the mainstream.
Wildcrafting is one, a term used to describe herbs collected from the wild instead of farmed and grown from branded, patented seeds. According to Coons, the Paleo trend was a precursor of interest in wildcrafting, as more consumers are associating a lifestyle closer to hunter-gatherer to health benefits.
CBD is also an obvious buzzword. “For this year, we’re really watching beverages in particular,” Hochman said. Supplements that want to innovate in the CBD space should keep in mind, however, that even though hemp and its derivatives have been lifted from Schedule I status under the Controlled Substances Act, CBD is still not a legal dietary ingredient because it is the basis of a newly approved drug Epidiolex.
Finally, Coons described 2019 to be a break-out year for supplements, especially electrolytes, that use keto-positioning. These products will focus on stripping away sugar from supplement categories where sugar has been a staple, such as performance nutrition and immune support.


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It was just a matter of time before a search engine marketing company tapped into the data from a popular URL shortener to gain more insight on inbound links. SEM and social optimization software Moz announced a partnership Monday with Bitly to tap the company's click-tracking technology and data to discover, score and display inbound links from across the Internet.
Bitly shortens nearly half a billion links and generates more than six billion clicks monthly across nearly every social site, brand site and media site in almost every country worldwide. The partnership gives Moz customers a better understanding of who links to Web sites and how relevant or valuable those links are for the brand based on the number and frequency of clicks.
Moz uses link data from Twitter to rank relevance, but Bitly's data adds insight into Facebook, Google+, blogs, online media and multiple other sources.
No one knows for sure how changes in search algorithm at Bing and Google will impact the importance of inbound links in the future. A new breed of Internet-connected devices will change the way people find information. Not all of these devices will have a search engine attached. Some platforms will rely on connected information through Google Knowledge Graph, for example, to push preferred information to consumers from the Web.
Bitly also announced the addition of two executives to its leadership team led by new CEO Mark Josephson. Rob Platzer was appointed to chief technology officer; and Melissa Wallace, VP of marketing. The two are tasked with driving brand value though the insights available from Bitly's encoded links.


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(CN) — America’s trade gap with all countries surged 18.9% in July to the highest level since summer 2008, driven by a sharp increase in imports.
The difference between the goods and services the United States sells and buys from other countries rose to $63.6 billion, up from $53.5 billion in June, according to a Commerce Department report released Thursday.
While exports rose by 8.1% from $155.4 billion to $168.1 billion in July, imports jumped by a record 10.9% from $208.9 billion to $231.7 billion.
Michael Pearce, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said that despite the high trade deficit, the economy should see gains in the third quarter. Many experts predict a big boost in the gross domestic product after a record drop of over 30% in the second quarter.
“Both exports and imports rebounded sharply in July, but the bigger gain in the latter means that the trade deficit widened,” Pearce said. “Net external trade is on track to be a drag on third quarter GDP, but that will be offset by a positive contribution from inventories, so we still expect third quarter GDP growth will be 30% annualized.”
The politically sensitive goods deficit with China also went up this summer. It stood at $31.6 billion, up 11.5% from June. America’s goods deficit with Mexico jumped to $10.6 billion in July, a record high.
President Donald Trump has made closing the overall trade gap, and the deficit with China specifically, a top priority under his “America First” policy, claiming the imbalance is the result of bad deals by past administrations.
In January, Trump signed a new trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The so-called USMCA replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which was implemented in 1994.
But the Covid-19 pandemic has upended trade flows across the globe this year, and it remains to be seen if the USMCA will help shrink the U.S. trade gap.
Joel Naroff of Naroff Economics said that while the U.S. sold more overseas in July, those exports are still 20% below their February level.
“The reopening of the economy has done what was expected, drawn in a lot of goods from the rest of the world,” Naroff wrote, noting exports are less than three-quarters the level of imports. “I expect the deficit to widen a little more over the next two months, so look for trade to greatly restrain third quarter growth.”


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To help benefit children around the world affected by disasters, Westport's Main Street merchants like Mariana Reinhardt are teaming up with Save the Children. Reinhardt, owner of The Brownstone, is taking part in a store-front window painting competition organized by Save the Children as part of their "Make a Difference" community fundraising program.
"We are really excited about the event," Reinhardt, 46, said. "Anything related with the town is important, especially when it has to do with children because they are our future and it's important for us to work with them."
The competition will be held Aug. 13-27. Window painting will take place Aug. 13-15, and the art will be displayed from Aug. 16-27. The winning design, which will be announced Aug. 27, will be determined by how many $1 votes the design receives.
Other Main Street merchants taking part in the event include Banana Republic, BCBG, LF, LOFT, Lululemon Athletica, Oscar's, Shoe-Inn, Shoes N More, and Westport Pizzeria.
Ashley Karpel, manager at LF, said once she heard about the competition, agreeing to take part was a no-brainer. "I think it's a great way for stores to give back. It's a good way to get the community involved too," Karpel, 24, said. "I'm pretty excited."
You can sign up online by Aug. 9 to participate. Donations from the competition will go toward supplying toys and games to children in areas affected by disasters. The kits include beach balls, basketballs, jump ropes, marbles, blocks, dolls and other toys, and are intended to provide children with a sense of normalcy through difficult times. More information about the competition can be found online .
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Bing has launched a new app to make it easier to plan an event with a group of friends. The app is called “We’re In.” It broadcasts your location to only the people involved in the event.
So, if a group goes to Valley Fair and you want to meet for lunch, one user creates an event, adds friends from contact list, titles the plan and an invitation expiration time. The friends receive a text allowing them to use the app or open a web interface. The interface maps the location of those participating in the event, making it easy to figure out who’s arrived, who’s lost and who’s late.
This app could be beneficial in social and business settings, including:
- coordinating business travel
Right now this app is offered as a Windows phone application. Hopefully, the app will be expanded to include more devices.


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NEW YORK, January 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
According to a reportby Ameri Research Inc., the global legal cannabis market was valued at $14.3 billion in 2016 and is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 21.1% between 2017 to 2024 or culminating to $63.5 billion by
In states like California for example, where new recreational cannabis laws went into effect on January 1st, 2018, analysts are projecting an increase in sales of Cannabis. The new industry is also expected to contribute to California's tax revenue. The LA times reported that, California is on the verge of creating a legal market for marijuana worth more than $5 billion that will help make the state a destination for pot-loving tourists.
Sugarmade, Inc. (OTC: SGMD) announced yesterday that the, legalization of recreational cannabis within the state of California is already having a positive impact on the businesses of Sugarmade and BizRight Hydroponics, Inc. The two companies are currently in process of implementing a master marketing agreement, creating one of the largest publically traded cannabis and hydroponics supply companies. While the California market, considering its strong economic clout is certainly important, many other states are also now beginning to issue cultivation licenses, adding additional fuel to the already growing cultivation supply market.
Mr. Jimmy Chan, CEO of Sugarmade, commented, "2018 will certainly be very busy for our Company. We could not be more pleased with the growth we are seeing from almost all geographic areas, but California is clearly developing into a marketplace that is exceeding even our very positive previous expectations."
In California, a cultivator must first obtain a local cultivation license before applying for a state license. Through January 13, 2018, the California Department of Food & Agriculture had issued only 442 temporary cannabis cultivation licenses; however, there are thousands of applications still pending at the city and country level. Thus, the number of state issued licenses is expected to grow dramatically over the coming months.
Mr. Chan continued, "We are especially excited about the increase in business being seen from California commercial growers as both local and state licenses are now being issued. We are already seeing an increase in demand even though only 442 licenses have been issued thus far by regulators, but there are thousands of additional licenses still pending. Nearly all of these cultivators will need supplies and as one of the largest suppliers with product lines for both indoor and outdoor cultivation, we think we are very well positioned to realize further acceleration in demand. Thus, we are in process of revising our internal revenue estimates for 2018 and beyond. We expect to provide formal guidance over the coming weeks."
While the California market is very exciting, there many other cultivation markets expected to come online during 2018. States such as Florida, Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico, Alaska, Vermont and Pennsylvania, among others, are also experiencing a cultivation license backlog.
Sugarmade is currently expanding its staffing, especially related to finance and accounting, in order to prepare for the significant increase in business the companies are expecting. BizRight produced in excess of $30 million in revenues during 2017, with substantial growth expected for 2018. Sugarmade expects to provide detailed revenue guidance to its investors over the coming weeks, but is preliminarily expecting revenue for 2018 to top $40 million."
Lexaria Bioscience Corp. (OTCQX: LXRP) has developed and out-licenses its disruptive and cost-effective DehydraTECH technology that promotes healthier administration methods, lower overall dosing and higher effectiveness of ingestible drugs and other beneficial molecules. On December 13, 2017, the company announced the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted patent number 9,839,612 B2 for the use of DehydraTECHTM technology as a delivery platform for a wide variety of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients including all cannabinoids including THC; fat soluble vitamins; non-steroidal anti-inflammatory pain medications; and nicotine. In one aspect a method of treating a condition is provided wherein a cannabinoid is used to treat conditions selected from the group consisting of cardiac diseases such as heart disease, ischemic infarcts, and cardiometabolic disorders, neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) dementia; obesity; metabolic disorders such as insulin related deficiencies and lipid profiles, hepatic diseases, diabetes, and appetite disorders; cancer chemotherapy, benign prostatic hypertrophy; irritable bowel syndrome, biliary diseases; ovarian disorders; marijuana abuse; and alcohol, opioid, nicotine or cocaine addiction.
GB Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB: GBLX) is a diverse cannabis company, focused on standardized cultivation and production methods; as well as biopharmaceutical research and development. On December 13, 2017, the company announced its development of a cannabis strain that has an extremely high THC concentration, and also has a specifically-defined terpene profile, meaning that this potent strain may have significant medical benefits. This strain is the result of an ongoing research project and is one of many tangible results of the coordination of the three operating units--- Life Sciences, Tissue Propagation, and Cultivation Labs. GB Sciences is a fully integrated cannabis company with three complementary operating units. The internal pipeline is now fully solidified; the Life Sciences division researches and develops the profile for a strain that is thought to be medicinally important; the Tissue Propagation team acquires the specified genetics and begins the propagation process to provide clean, healthy, starter plants so that verifiable and consistent results can be gained; the new plants then move into the Cultivation Labs precision controlled growing environment and are matured under stringently monitored growing conditions.
mCig, Inc. (OTCQB: MCIG) is a diversified company servicing the legal cannabis, hemp and CBD markets via its lifestyle brands. mCig, Inc. is committed to being the leading distributor of technology, products, and services to fit the needs of a rapidly expanding industry. On January 02, 2018, the company announced that its Grow Contractors (GC) division has secured cannabis cultivation and manufacturing licenses for one of its clients in San Gabriel Valley, California. The licenses permit the production and sale of cannabis products throughout California, a state with a new recreational marijuana economy said to be valued at $7 billion and currently takes 30% market share of the US cannabis market.
Terra Tech Corp. (OTCQX: TRTC) is a vertically integrated cannabis-focused agriculture company. On January 1, 2018, the company announced that it has received State of California Temporary Authorization to distribute and retail cannabis, and expects to receive authorizations to cultivate and manufacture cannabis for California's adult-use and medical markets, effective January 1, 2018. Terra Tech plans to commence adult-use cannabis sales to the California market immediately through its Blümretail dispensaries located in Oakland and Santa Ana. Terra Tech first started selling medical cannabis products to patients in California through its Blüm dispensary in Oakland. In anticipation of adult-use sales, the Company opened a second Blüm retail location in Santa Ana, California in September, 2017 and is currently constructing a Blüm dispensary in San Leandro, which is expected to open to the public in early 2018. The Company is also expanding its cultivation facilities through its 'Craft Cultivation' model, and has signed two craft cultivators, based in Honeydew and Salinas, to ramp production of the Company's brand of premium cannabis. The Company's IVXX cannabis is grown and harvested under the safest and most beneficial conditions, free of toxic pesticides, harmful molds and chemical residues. All products are rigorously tested and certified to the highest standards of potency and purity.
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If you live in Vancouver or the Lower Mainland, you might remember (how could you not) when the cost of gas reached $1.75+/L earlier this year. I think we are all still recovering from the shock and pain of filling up at those prices.
Gas prices have come down slightly since then, but there’s still a sense of worry — we’ve seen traffic jams around gas stations offering gas for $1.30/L. All this is to have really made a case for people to purchase an electric vehicle (EV), which have been selling at an “astonishing” rate over the last few months in Vancouver. Couple the price of gas with provincial rebates for EV charging stations and for buying an electric vehicle, and there’s a clear reason why people are making the switch.
If you do purchase an EV, of course you will save money in gas. One thing to remember is that you will have to pay to charge the vehicle. But how does this compare to gasoline? How much will your electrical bill increase?
BC Hydro has given the following breakdown:
- A 2016 Ford Focus EV driven 15,000 km/year or 40 km a day = increase of $29 a month in electrical bill. Gas would cost more than $117 a month.
- A 2016 Nissan Leaf SV/SL driven 10,000 km/year or 27 km a day = increase of $14 a month in electrical bill. Gas would cost more than $62 a month.
- A 2016 Tesla S (P85D) driven 20,000 km/year or 55 km a day = increase of $35 a month in electrical bill. Gas would cost more than $138 a month.
However, the cost to charge your EV at a charging station or at home could decrease even more soon. According to BC Hydro’s website, they are “investigating an EV-specific rate.”
If you need to charge your vehicle at one of the 90+ city-owned charging stations, it is either free (!) or costs around $2/hr in Vancouver. If you decide to charge at home, you may need to install your own EV charging station, and you will have to decide between a Level 1, 2, or 3 charging station.
More and more people are installing their own EV charging stations. To give you an idea of how easy and popular it is becoming to install EV charging stations at homes and in apartment buildings, in March, 2018, the province set aside $1.85 million as part of its Clean Energy Vehicle Program for EV stations. Due to high demand, the rebates for home charging stations were fully distributed in under four months!
If you are thinking of buying an EV, it’s good to know that the federal government also recently released $300 million to be distributed in rebates to purchase an EV, with a person being able to claim between $2,500 – $6,000 off their purchase.
There is, of course, the fact that many people simply don’t want to be dependent on their fossil fuel burning car, and the government is taking pretty big steps to encourage that. If gas prices continue to skyrocket and rebates continue to be available, it’s hard to argue against the idea of buying an EV, especially if you are in the market for a new vehicle.
Of course, we love the switch to electric! Contact our certified electricians in Abbotsford or nearby areas if you have any questions


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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Online sellers kick off the coming week with one of their biggest sales days of the year - Cyber Monday.
E-tailers consider it their version of Black Friday. It is the day that Web merchants furiously push big discounts, free gift cards, free shipping and any other gimmick they can think of to entice consumers to spend even more of their holiday shopping dollars online.
If pre-Black Friday sales are an indication, consumers are shopping more enthusiastically both in stores and online.
Online payment service Paypal said Friday it saw a 25% increase in payment volume on Thanksgiving Day this year versus last year. PayPal also noted a 297% jump in mobile payment volume on Thanksgiving Day versus last year.
The National Retail Federation estimates that Cyber Monday deals will be much more aggressive this year.
The group said 88% of retailers will have a special promotion for Cyber Monday this year, up from 72% in 2007.
But since Monday is a working day, many consumers will try to sneak in some shopping while at work.
According to the NRF, 54.5% of workers with Internet access, or 70.1 million people, will shop for holiday gifts from the office, with the majority of those being men and young adults.
ComScore, a digital marketplace research firm, expects online sales for the 2010 holiday season will reach $32.4 billion, marking an 11% increase over the previous year for the combined November-December gift-buying period.
Sales for that two-month period rose 4% over the prior year, the firm said.
"The beginning of the online holiday shopping season has gotten off to an extremely positive start, outperforming our earlier expectations," ComScore chairman Gian Fulgoni said in a statement.
"Despite continued high unemployment rates and other economic concerns, consumers seem to be more willing to open up their wallets," he said, adding that deep sales have spurred much of that spending momentum.
New York Magazine reporter Jessica Pressler, who has been caught up in controversy this past week, will not be moving on to a new job at Bloomberg News. More
Unilever sued Hampton Creek over its egg-free mayonnaise spread Just Mayo. But the company behind Best Foods and Hellman's mayonnaise has now dropped the lawsuit. More
The income of the top 1% jumped significantly in 2012, far outpacing inflation. Not only did this group make a larger share of the country's income, their share of total taxes also jumped from 35% to 38%. More


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Coronavirus (COVID-19) is taking a toll on the famously recession-resistant pet segment.
That is the message from Packaged Facts, which reported that total U.S. retail sales of pet products and services will decline by 17% in 2020, compared with the 5% growth anticipated prior to the coronavirus pandemic. This equates to a drop from $95.0 billion in 2019 sales to $78.5 billion in 2020, according to Packaged Facts.
“Historically the pet care business has been quite been an impressive and consistent grower, growing twice the rate of GDP and even growing in the great recession,” Simeon Hyman, global investment strategist at financial services firm ProShares, told Chain Store Age. (The firm runs the ProShares Pet Care exchange-traded fund [ETF] [PAWZ]). “It does appear that this time is a little different.”
For example, based on the market peak on February 19 through April 16, “our pet care ETF PAWZ has declined 9.7%. There has been a 17% decline in the S&P 500,” Hyman reported.
However, there is a glimmer of hope for retailers carrying non-discretionary pet products, primarily pet food and cat litter. Pet food, the largest pet industry category, is forecast to grow 4% in 2020, compared with a 6% growth forecast before the COVID-19 pandemic impact, according to Packaged Facts.
While pet food remains an essential item on consumers’ weekly shopping lists, sales will reflect that shoppers will begin trading down to value and store brands to stretch their household budgets, the firm reported.
During the pandemic, more shoppers are also relying on e-commerce when procuring this merchandise. “Online retailers are currently outperforming omnichannel retailers when it comes to where consumers are spending,” said ProShares’ Hyman.
However, over the next 12 to 18 months, Hyman expects continued strong performance across both online retail and the consumer staples conglomerates, as consumers continue “taking the best care of their pets in their homes to the greatest extent possible."


text: While Bernie Madoff serves time in jail for his massive Ponzi scheme, the U.S. Marshals Service auctions off the contents of his New York homes. Up on the auction block: A $500,000 diamond ring, rare Persian rugs, a 1917 Steinway piano, and thousands of other items seized by the U.S. government. The Marshals also auction off the beach house and cars of drug dealers and the fine art of a white-collar criminal. National Geographics the Madoff Auction is a behind-the-scenes look as the possessions of Bernie Madoff are auctioned off to the highest bidders.


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In November 2016, the overall TV market was down -2.4% YoY. Broadcast spend declined -10.6%while Cable grew +6.3% YoY. However, when you exclude Football the national TV market is up +5.3%, highlighting how much the national pastime and live sports influences the TV industry. Similarly to the overall market, if you compare the November 2016 TV market to November 2014, you see a +8.4% two-year growth, even broadcast is up +5.2% for the two-year period. The extremely high spend from 2015 gives an unfair picture of how the November 2016 television market did.
“November was a fascinating one for the sector with a lot of moving parts. The final days of election coverage, a challenging football season, and a revitalized retail sector all contributed to the market delivering a modest gain,” said James Fennessy, CEO of Standard Media Index. Poor football ratings earlier in the season, combined with fewer games this month, finally caught up with the major broadcasters whose revenue dropped more than 10% in November as they were forced to give inventory back to advertisers. Without sport the major networks were slightly up as major retailers moved big money back into TV after some questionable experimentation with digital last holiday season.”


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Claims of the demise of the creative agency review may be greatly exaggerated.
A total of 134 major U.S. reviews were launched in 2018—30 of those from the country’s top advertising spenders, according to COMvergence’s latest 2018 U.S. “creative new business barometer” report.
The report found that one third of the creative accounts placed in review last year were part of the consumer packaged goods and restaurant categories (home to the biggest ad spenders) including Dunkin’, which awarded its creative business to BBDO and Arc Worldwide. Pizza Hut sent its creative account to GSD&M, while Papa John’s finally landed with Endeavor Global Marketing after Laundry Service reportedly resigned the account following racist remarks made by the company’s former chairman and founder, John Schnatter.
Johnson & Johnson also consolidated its creative business with two dedicated teams of WPP and Omnicom agencies last March and, in a bold move, P&G handed its North America Fabric Care business to a dedicated unit that pulls from agencies across holding companies including Publicis Groupe’s Saatchi & Saatchi, WPP’s Grey and Omnicom’s Hearts & Science.
Following an ongoing trend that is seeing more companies consolidate all advertising efforts with one agency or network, COMvergence found that eight brands selected holding companies to manage their accounts through full-service units that span creative, media, digital and PR.
Among the holding company-owned agencies, Publicis Groupe’s Publicis creative network and Havas were both on top with the highest number of account wins in 2018 (six), according to the report. Havas won Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, Orbitz, Edible Arrangements, Rackspace, Rite-Aid and Barnes & Noble. Publicis’ wins include Campbell’s soup, sauces and beverage brands, Aflac, Red Lobster and Nestlé’s Coffee-Mate.
COMvergence recorded Omnicom’s BBDO and IPG’s FCB winning five creative accounts each in 2018.
By holding company, Omnicom led the pack by winning 20 creative accounts, IPG was second with 17 wins and WPP and Publicis Groupe rounded out third place with 15 creative wins, according to the study.
Outside of the “big five” agency holding companies, MDC Partners won 14 creative accounts last year through its agencies including Anomaly and 72andSunny, which both added four new creative accounts. 72andSunny Los Angeles picked up Match and retained its creative AOR status for Activision. Anomaly won the Petco, Booking.com and Weight Watchers creative accounts last year.
COMvergence said the MDC wins are not part of the 55 out of 134 U.S. creative accounts won by independent agencies. Droga5 was the leader in that category (even though it is owned partially by Endeavor) with five wins including G Suite from Google, United Rentals and Kraft Heinz brands Philadelphia Cream Cheese and Kraft Mac & Cheese.
There were 17 marketers that retained their agencies, either partially or entirely, through review processes, according to the report.
Meanwhile, Havas, McCann, GSD&M and FCB all ended 2018 with fewer client losses than in 2017, while BBDO and 72andSunny lost more accounts in 2018 versus the year before.
This report follows a similar one conducted by R3 last month in which Publicis Groupe was named the top generator of new business revenue among the holding companies. This would suggest that Publicis may not have won the most accounts among the major agency holding companies but that it scooped up those with the biggest budgets.
COMvergence itself also just generated a big win after WPP’s GroupM consolidated the reporting and analysis of its commercial and business development data with global independent research firm. The appointment marked the end of GroupM’s relationship with Recma, which previously was the only global research firm that provided quarterly reports and benchmarks on media agencies’ client billings.


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EGGS marketed by the granddaughter of Scotland’s largest producer will feature on the sides of new Tesco lorries.
Launched last year, the Kitty Campbell free range eggs now account for seven per cent of the out of John Campbell’s Glenrath Farms in Peebleshire.
The 20-year-old Kitty’s sister, Amy, 22, marketing manager, said: “The brand has exceeded our expectations and getting it out to the whole of the Tesco market has been a huge boost to our family-run business.”
The sisters are two of seven granddaughters now involved in the multi-million pound West Linton business which produces organic, free range, barn and ‘good value’ eggs for a range of markets
The Kitty Campbell range was launched in Scotland last year in response to the success of rivals Happy Eggs.
From a start of supplying Tesco stores in Scotland in April, the range was extended to 300 of the supermarket giants’ stores UK-wide that summer.
And now the company is in talks with all the other major supermarkets in the country with a view to supplying them too.
Egg baron Mr Campbell explained: “Our opposition have a very good brand called Happy Eggs and we had to react to that.
“Kitty has been working in the business since she was 14, gathering eggs and looking after hens. She lives on our organic farm and looks after some of the hens there. She loves her hens.
“The Kitty Campbell eggs are chosen very carefully for yolk colour and the nice dark brown eggs. The brand is growing fast and doing well for the company.”
The Harper Adams student finishes her studies this summer when she will return to work full time in the business alongside her older sister, a Newcastle graduate.
Mr Campbell started egg production at Glenrath in 1961 and has grown the business over the last five decades to become the country’s biggest operator.
But he said last year saw profits fall by 40 per cent because of over production in the UK
“In July 2010 we were selling second quality eggs at seven and a half pence a dozen. Today we are selling the same quality eggs at £1.50 a dozen.”
The upturn is because of new EU rules on conditions for hens which have seen a 25 per cent reduction of the industry.
“Everybody has had to put in new buildings: we’ve spent £46million trying to bring our facilities up to the standards set,” said Mr Campbell.
But as the company which employs 200 people pushes to expand, he says legislation is slowing the process.
“We are trying to get more production units up but the planning process is the big thing that is holding Glenrath Farm up. It’s not the planners but the legislation: the red tape is horrendous.”
Tesco launched the new fleet of 14 lorries to champion local produce last Friday with the vehicles featuring a map of Scotland including the Kitty Campbell eggs.


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- WaziriX alleged of tax evasion by Indian authorities.
- Exchange says allegation is a case of lax in clarity, regulation.
- Other exchanges also being investigated in India.
Binance-owned crypto exchange WazirX, domiciled in India, has been identified by tax authorities who allege the firm of evading tax.
In a statement, GST Mumbai East Commissionerate of Mumbai Zone said after investigating the business activities of cryptocurrency exchange WazirX, they have detected GST Evasion of Rs 40.5 Crores.
They noted that the Commissionerate has also recovered Rs 49.20 Crores in Cash pertaining to [goods-and-services tax] evaded, interest and penalty.
That amount equates to more than $6 million. The commissionerate also indicated that it was investigating other crypto exchanges as well.
WaziriX response to tax evasion claims
According to the Binance-owned exchange, WaziriX, the case is a subject of lack of clarity in regulation. The exchange maintained that it has been diligently paying tens of crores worth of GST every month.
The exchange added: “There was an ambiguity in the interpretation of one of the components which led to a different calculation of GST paid. However, we voluntarily paid additional GST in order to be cooperative and compliant. There was and is no intention to evade tax. That being said, we strongly believe that regulatory clarity is the need of the hour for the Indian crypto industry.”
Other exchanges being investigated amidst backdrop of stiff crypto regulation
Despite fingering WaziriX, reports have it that other exchanges in the country are also being investigated.
The moves are notable, given the broader backdrop of the still-unsettled regulatory framework for crypto in India.
According to TheEconomicTimes, the Directorate General of GST Intelligence — a law enforcement agency under the Ministry of Finance — is also involved in the investigations.
According to the Times report, the exchanges named in the report are CoinDCX, Unocoin, Coinswitch Kuber and BuyUCoin. Per CoinDesk, the searches took place on Saturday.


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People in Wales are among the most digitally excluded in the UK, with only 62% of adults having the five basic digital skills they need to succeed in an evolving digital age.
This is according to a charity set up to promote digital skills, Go.On UK , which has produced a ‘Digital Exclusion Heatmap’ , pinpointing the areas where people are most likely to miss out on the digital revolution.
According to the survey, people in London, Scotland and East Anglia are the most capable online, while parts of Wales are among the most digitally excluded.
More than 4,000 were surveyed
The map also shows that men are less likely to be digitally disadvantaged than women, with 80% having the necessary skills as compared to 74% of women.
The ‘heatmap’ combines known indicators of social and digital exclusion such as age, gender, broadband coverage and an estimated level of basic digital skills.
A survey of more than 4,000 people nationwide to assess their skills, coupled with data about education , income, health and Internet access, was also used to build the ‘heatmap’.
Those taking part were asked about five basic online skills: managing information - such as using a search engine to find information, communicating on platforms such as social media, completing transactions like managing your bank account or shopping online, problem-solving online and creating things digitally.
The map found that more than a third of the population in Wales, where Internet access is at its lowest, do not have these five basic digital skills they need to prosper in the digital era.
'Threat to economic growth, productivity and social mobility'
It shows a huge variation across the country, with some of the worst affected areas with the highest likelihood of exclusion including Anglesey , where 40.9% of adults have never been online, the Rhondda Cynon Taff , where 20.1% of adults have never been online and Pembrokeshire where 18.80% of households do not receive broadband speeds of at least 2 megabits per second (Mbps).
Areas with a lower likelihood of exclusion include Cardiff , where 78% of adults are able to use all five basic digital skills, Monmouthshire and Gwynedd , where only 14.2% of adults have never been online.
Go On UK, chaired by the government’s former digital advisor Baroness Martha Lane Fox, is warning of a threat to economic growth, productivity and social mobility if we don’t close the skills gap.
'The UK as a whole isn’t doing too badly'
Rachel Neaman, Go ON UK CEO said: “The UK is experiencing a digital skills crisis. Around 12.6 million adults, 1.2 million small businesses, and over half of all charities lack the Basic Digital Skills needed to succeed in today’s digital age.
“Digital competency is an essential skill for everyone and we believe that - without urgent action - the nation’s lack of Basic Digital Skills will continue to hold back economic growth, productivity and social mobility.”
But the charity says the UK as a whole isn’t doing too badly compared with other countries when it comes to broadband availability, and use of mobile devices, although it is well behind countries like Japan, Finland and the Netherlands.
Go On UK is hoping that its map will become a vital tool for those trying to deal with digital exclusion - local authorities, businesses, charities - and help them to target their resources at areas where they are most needed.
The five basic skills include:
- Managing Information: Finding, managing and storing digital information and content, for example regularly updating and running virus checking software, using a search engine to find information or storing data on a device or in the cloud.
- Communicating: Communicating, interacting, collaborating, sharing and connecting with others, for example keeping in touch using email, instant messaging, video calls or social media.
- Transacting: Purchasing and selling goods and services; organising your finances; registering for and using digital government services, for example managing your bank account or ordering your shopping online.
- Problem Solving: Increasing independence and confidence by solving problems using digital tools and finding solutions, for example teaching yourself simple tasks using video lessons.
- Creating: Engaging with communities and creating basic digital content, for example creating a social media post or an online photo album.


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It’s time to wake up. On Global Day of Climate Action, VICE Media Group is solely telling stories about our current climate crisis. Click here to meet young climate leaders from around the globe and learn how you can take action.
The American supermarket is changing. Dairy shelves are increasingly crowded with coconut yogurts, oat milks, and cashew cheeses, while "meatless" sections eat up more and more shelf space to make way for new options in plant-based burgers, soy "crumbles," and assorted nuggets and sausages.
As shoppers have cut back on animal products—whether due to environmental concerns, health issues, or an ethical stance against animal cruelty—and look for appealing replacements, there's no shortage of companies offering up choices. While dairy alternatives have seen the most stratospheric growth in recent years, meatless options have also seen a surge in popularity as beef and chicken substitutes become more enticing to the mainstream, with a 37.8 percent growth in sales from 2017 to 2019, according to research from the Good Food Institute. From March to May of this year, sales of plant-based meats rose 264 percent over just nine weeks amid a major uptick in home cooking during the COVID-19 lockdown. And as start-ups like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods bring the spotlight to the expanding profit potential in the plant-based meat market, Big Meat is angling for its share.
It's clear from alt-milk's current success that Big Dairy has essentially failed to contain the soy, almond, and oat milk industries, though certainly not for lack of trying. Meat companies seem to be trying a different approach: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
Through hopeful new lines and marketing campaigns, the meat industry is showing shoppers how its own products can be integrated into plant-forward eating instead of being replaced entirely. In 2019, Tyson—which produces an estimated 20 percent of all beef, pork, and chicken in the United States, and has previously backed Beyond Meat—launched a line of "plant-based" and blended meat products called Raised & Rooted. Perdue announced that it, too, would offer blended nuggets, alongside a five-year goal of making blended meat 5 percent of its overall business. Smithfield, the world's largest pork producer, followed suit with a meatless brand called Pure Farmland, as did Hormel under the name Happy Little Plants. This June, JBS, the world's largest meat processing company, jumped in the arena with its line of OZO faux meats, under its new subsidiary Planterra Foods.
Now that many of the world's biggest meat corporations are getting into plant-based products, the question remains as to whether they can effectively contribute to the movement for more climate-friendly food. Is there reason for consumers to trust their new direction, and is it even possible for these companies to ameliorate the problems caused, in part, by their own systems of industrial meat production?
The more plant-based a diet is, the more environmentally sustainable, a research review published in Sustainability concluded last year. That verdict echoed high-profile guidance from researchers of a study in Science in 2018, who found that avoiding animal products has "transformative potential" for the environment. The land use and greenhouse gas emissions of animal-based food production have majorly contributed to the climate crisis, in which experts now estimate that just seven years remain until the effects of global warming become irreversible. The science is there: Moving toward a future less dependent on animal agriculture is both responsible and unavoidable.
Naturally, there's a financial incentive for meat companies to launch vegan-friendly lines, according to Brian Kateman, co-founder and president of Reducetarian Foundation. His goal through the Reducetarian movement is to view meat consumption not as an all-or-nothing choice, but through the perspective that every vegetarian meal a person eats helps advance a world in which fewer animal products are consumed. "It's not necessarily because [meat companies] loathe factory farming, or have decided that they want to abandon the primary ways in which they make money," he said.
Kateman believes it's "unquestionably a positive development that meat companies are investing, producing, [and] promoting plant-based products," but there's good reason to be skeptical of their reasons for getting into the game and their methods of marketing those products. Many companies of this size will just go wherever the money is: In 2018, responding to the rising interest in non-meat protein, Perdue chairman Jim Perdue said, "Our vision is to be the most trusted name in premium protein. It doesn’t say premium meat protein, just premium protein. That’s where consumers are going."
For this reason, Kari Hamerschlag, deputy director of food and agriculture at Friends of the Earth, doesn't see the meat industry's current push into vegetarian options as an effective step toward a more sustainable food system. "I actually think that these large company investments will do very little to cut the massive impact of the world’s largest meat companies," she said. "Unless these companies actually slash their emissions, then they are not doing what they need to do to address the climate crisis."
Meat, fish, and dairy production use roughly 83 percent of the world’s farmland and are responsible for around 57 percent of our food system's greenhouse gas emissions, according to that 2018 Science study on reducing food's environmental impact. Even more disproportionate is the fact that all of that animal agriculture—and the environmental harm that comes with it—accounts for only 37 percent of the protein in our food supply. Producing a single kilogram of beef emits 60 kilograms of greenhouse gases (CO2-equivalents), while farming peas (which are used in numerous vegetarian meat substitutes) emits just one kilogram of these emissions per kilogram produced. When it comes to beef, most of those emissions come from land use and farm-stage processes like manure management and methane emissions. According to the EPA, manure management—yes, dealing with cow poop—alone accounts for 12 percent of the agriculture sector's total greenhouse gas emissions nationwide.
With these statistics in mind, it's difficult to see how Big Meat could be meaningfully interested in environmental causes while continuing to obtain most of their profits from factory farming. "It's greenwashing, and it's a smart marketing tool, and it's a profit," Hamerschlag explained. Greenwashing, a term coined by environmentalist Jay Westerveld in 1986, refers to practices that mislead consumers about a company or product's environmental practices or benefits, whether that's through false claims, self-congratulatory statements without backing evidence, or just vagueness.
For example, a bag of Tyson's Raised & Rooted meatless nuggets offers the slogan "100% delicious. 0% compromise," without even explaining what that compromise is. Other examples of greenwashing include the many instances of companies labeling foods "sustainable" without evidence or proof of third-party certification. Kateman pointed out that labeling around these claims needs to be honest: As he has written, Tyson's use of "plant-based" for its nuggets can be misleading since they contain eggs, breaking from the common understanding that "plant-based" means vegan.
"[Meat companies] are meeting the market, but they are not addressing climate change," Hamerschlag said. "Let's just be clear about that: They are not slashing their greenhouse gas emissions—in fact, they continue to grow, because they're expanding their operations in the meat sector." Though large meat companies have announced emissions reduction initiatives—Smithfield has committed to reducing absolute emissions 25 percent by 2025, and Tyson is working toward a 30 percent reduction by 2030—Hamerschlag cited concerns with the scope of their emissions reporting. These same companies have made false promises before: In 2007, Smithfield promised to eliminate gestation crates, and later claimed to have fulfilled this commitment in 2018, but animal welfare groups found that the company was still keeping many pigs in cramped, unsanitary conditions.
The average American eats over 200 pounds of meat per year, according to data from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, amounting to some of the highest meat consumption in the world. But as Hamerschlag pointed out, even if American meat consumption goes down, domestic meat production could still remain high due to the demand for exports. Before the pandemic hit meat processing plants hard—unsafe workplace conditions for meatpacking workers have caused at least 42,000 cases of coronavirus and more than 200 deaths—the pork industry was still expanding. Driven by exports to China, pork production hit a record last year, the New York Times reported.
"I think the key thing to keep in mind is that in order to be a real solution to climate change, the meat companies need to start tracking, reporting, and setting serious greenhouse gas reduction target goals that would actually require them to divest, and produce less meat and dairy overall, rather than just adding a plant-based option to their portfolio," Hamerschlag said. While it is a "real climate solution" for consumers to eat more vegetables and legumes, and specifically, to opt out of factory-farmed meat, she concluded that it's crucial for meat companies to curb production and emissions, as well as for the government to tip the scale by integrating reduction goals into its food procurement programs.
Unlike the smaller vegan start-ups that we've been seeing more and more of in health food stores, these massive meat companies are equipped with resources to not just meet the demand for these options, but increase it. They have a large reach, distribution channels from supermarkets to stadiums, and capital to fund R&D, marketing, and investments in plant-based food brands. "Anywhere that food is served, these companies have, in one way or another, connections, so they're really able to accelerate the distribution of these products," Kateman said. Because of these resources, analysts have forecasted that companies like Tyson and Nestle will eventually become the leaders in the meat substitute space.
Danielle Nierenberg, co-founder and president of the sustainability-focused think tank Food Tank, would also ask for more from meat companies than just blended burgers and copycat veggie nuggets. "What I'd like to see from the Tysons and other big meat companies in the world is reversing some of the practices that have been so destructive to public health and the environment and to animal welfare," she said. "That would be a bigger step forward in curbing climate change and the environmental problems that come from industrial meat production." Big companies have power to sway things, Nierenberg added, pointing to Walmart's push into the organic sector. Though the chain's move into organic was controversial, its sheer size made those products more available to suburban shoppers, and familiarized more people with the concept in general.
"I think it's really important that we not let perfection, be the enemy of the good."
Ultimately, it's unclear whether it's possible to truly divest from the meat industry's systemic problems by buying plant-based products produced by those same corporations, even if doing so could help shift consumer thinking. While consumers could ostensibly avoid some of these issues by buying vegan food from smaller start-ups and independent companies, financial ties to the meat industry are common: OSI, which supplies meat to McDonald's, also produces Impossible Burgers, and Lightlife is owned by Canadian meat packaging goods company Maple Leaf Foods.
Despite the benefits that come with large meat companies' ample resources and wide distribution channels, Hamerschlag does not personally want to see the profits from meat substitutes going to corporations whose "exploitative" business model gives her "significant concerns with the labor practices, the environmental practices, and health practices."
But shopping ethically is never perfect—that's part of the ethos Kateman promotes with the Reducetarian movement. Earlier this month, oat milk brand Oatly, which has boasted about its products' environmental benefits and company sustainability, came under scrutiny for receiving an investment from a firm with ties to deforestation. But as Oatly has explained in response, it hopes this partnership will push other private equity firms to invest in green companies, ultimately resulting in maximum change for the environment.
A whole foods-based diet that relies on vegetables and legumes rather than processed meat and dairy substitutes is the safest bet when it comes to environmental friendliness and ethical consumption—but ultimately, we've just got to do our best. "The point is it's a spectrum. I think it's really important that we not let perfection, be the enemy of the good," Kateman said. "If someone has decided to cut back on animal products, eat more plant-based foods, regardless of the source, that's something to be celebrated."


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Rumors are going around that Google is making a play for the social gaming market, with something that might be called "Google Me".
If the rumors are true, it would not be surprising given how lucrative social gaming has become. Although, perhaps that is not the real reason Google is making this move. My impression is that one of the main reason's for Facebook's recent popularity seems to be social games. If the rumors are true, then Google may just be using social gaming as a strategy to help make their next attempt at social networking a success.
Google is no stranger to the social networking world. They previously purchased Orkut, which although popular in Brazil and India, is barely heard of in North America. Google also recently launched Google Buzz, which unfortunately for Google, thus far, seems to have had disappointing adoption rates. (I.e., not many people seem to be actually using it in any meaningful way.) Perhaps this social gaming strategy will help making Google's next attempt at capturing the social networking market gain some traction.
From a social game developer point-of-view, though, significant competition on the social networking end is definitely welcome. It could case social networks to give "better terms" to social game developers.


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Read original story on: New York Times
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Tuesday reported that Internet-connected devices presented “serious data security and privacy risks”, urging companies to make data protection a top priority. The announcement came just after Verizon’s supercookie—embedded unique user identifiers that are undeletable—made headlines last week for the privacy threats it poses for customers.
In both cases, the main security and privacy threats originate from non-consented access to and sale of personal data by third-party devices or apps. As estimated by Gartner Research, around 4.9 billion connected devices for consumers, enterprises, and utilities will be in use this year, generating a vast amount of personal and company data that need to be properly protected and regulated.
Update 1/30/2014: NYT reports that Verizon Wireless has decided to make a major revision to allow users to completely opt-out of its “supercookies”.


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Whenever a new Dota 2 update is promised, the community gets excited and, after Valve announced the 7.21 patch was on its way.
Valve tweeted on January 25 that the 7.21 release date would be "next week", which would mean it should be released at any time now.
UPDATE: Valve released 7.21 patch and other big changes
The 7.20 was significant and caused a big stir among Dota 2 fans, so what are they wishing for from 7.21?
7.21 patch wishes
Fans posted what they hope to see in the 7.21 patch on Twitter and we asked members of our Discord community for their wish list.
Kio said: "Dota+ update and a gangking / roaming meta. Weaker protection from towers. I like the encouragement of teamfights that 7.20 introduced, but it's just going too far."
Yohko5208 said: "This one is not about gameplay but I'd like them to find a way to properly punish smurfs, boosters and game-ruiners."
Riley said: "Tag team nerf, Vlads nerf, Storm and Ember buff, new Aghanim and Ring of Aquila back."
Ingo Ignores Ingot said: "Make the jungle more active for offlaners to come out early and reintroduce Iron Talon."
Join the discussion
Let us know your hopes for the 7.21 Dota patch and chat with other fans in our friendly and welcoming Discord server.


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Tesla’s coming-out party; Redfin soars; more space for fliers
Updated 2:19 pm, Friday, July 28, 2017
Model 3 owners, start your engines
For Tesla, everything is riding on the Model 3. The Palo Alto electric car company was due to deliver its newest vehicle to its first 30 customers Friday night (details at www.sfchronicle.com), but the coming weeks will be far more crucial. Its $35,000 starting price — half of Tesla’s previous models — and 215-mile range could add hundreds of thousands of customers, but the whole thing could backfire if the carmaker doesn’t meet its aggressive production schedule, or if the cars have quality problems. Limits on the $7,500 U.S. tax credit for electric cars could also hurt demand. Once an automaker sells 200,000 electric cars in the U.S., the credit phases out, so not everyone who buys a Model 3 will be eligible.
Number of the day
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That’s how much shares of Redfin rose Friday on its first day as a publicly traded company. The Seattle real estate firm priced its initial public offering at $15 — $1 above the maximum price listed when it filed plans to go public in June. It closed Friday at $21.70.
Don’t squeeze me in
A federal appeals court on Friday ordered aviation regulators to consider setting minimum standards for how tightly passengers can be packed in. The court found in favor of Flyers Rights, a nonprofit, which argued that steadily shrinking legroom and seat size created a safety hazard, and the Federal Aviation Administration should impose new restrictions.


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Noah Graff recently interviewed Miles Free, the Precision Machined Products Association’s Director of Industry Research and Technology. He’s a guru of machining industry world politics and one of the world’s foremost experts on the steel trade.
In March when President Trump tweeted his intentions to implement a 25% tariff on steel and a 10% tariff on aluminum coming into the United States, Free was bombarded from news outlets around the globe for his analysis—he really knows his steel.
He compared the tariffs to the economic sanctions on imports that the United States would inflict on an enemy like Russia or Iran. “Nobody would have dreamed that the White House would ever use an entire industry as a negotiating technique” Free said.


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Square Enix has announced the release date for their latest installment in the Kingdom Hearts franchise. Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] will be released in North America on July 31, 2012 for the Nintendo 3DS. Along with the release date announcement are new character art for Sora and Riku.
About the character art:
Sora and Riku, two of the most popular characters of the KINGDOM HEARTS franchise, are the playable protagonists in the latest title for the Nintendo 3DS system. Players can switch between them, using the Drop Gauge in order to battle strategically.
Official Website: http://na.square-enix.com/kh3d/
Source: PR Email


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Cityfurnish, an online furniture and appliances rental startup based in Delhi NCR, will be exploring more opportunities in the hospitality sector after working with the brands like OYO, Beer Café, NYC Pie, Republic of Chicken, etc. Among the hotels, the company has already signed contracts with Lemon Tree Hotels and Sayaji Hotels in recent months, making inroads into mainstream hotels with its rental services. According to Neerav Jain, Founder of the company, they will look at working with ‘structured players’ in the hospitality sector who look for standardised products at multiple locations. In a major breakthrough, Cityfurnish has signed MoU with Yum brands like KFC and Pizza Hut for furniture. “We are currently working on the prototype for furniture for 120 restaurants,” he said.
Started in September 2016, OYO was the first hospitality brand Cityfurnish signed up with. Today, Cityfurnish has more than 35 B2B clients and over 5,000 retail customers in cities like Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Pune. The company will be formally launching their services in Hyderabad by end of this month. “We are primarily looking at expanding our services initially to cities where inter-city migration is strong, followed by education hubs, pilgrim centres, etc.,” said Jain.
‘Furniture is a depreciating asset. Today, people do not want to live with the hassle of ownership when it comes to depreciating assets like car, furniture, etc. Earlier, a rental option was not available for people,’ Jain informed. He said that as a rental platform, Cityfurnish gives a wide range of option to customers starting from INR 299 per month for a bed. “We keep upgrading our products and taking our customers along without allowing them to go off the eco-system,” he said.
Talking about the advantage of the rental model for hotels and hospitality businesses, Jain said that financial benefits are much more for hotels if they follow the Opex model when it comes to Furniture rather than the conventional Capex model. Rental doesn’t show up as a liability in company’s books. Therefore, it doesn’t impact the creditworthiness of the company and therefore its propensity to take debts from structured institutional debtors remain intact, he added.
He said that while the company is keen to expand its business in the hospitality market, they are more cautious of selecting partners to avoid the risk of closures and terminations, etc. He said that the company would look at working with more structured brands in the market which want to scale up faster and look for an Opex model for that.
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) A national jewelry store chain is looking for a "nice way" to thank a Midwest Airlines employee who found a cargo bag with $266,000 worth of jewelry inside and took it to police.
Ramp agent Robert Lewis said he saw the Brinks cargo bag in the middle of the street as he left Kansas City International Airport for home Monday night.
Inside, Lewis found a 40-pound box marked "Helzberg Diamonds" and containing wedding rings, bands, sets and loose stones.
"I saw all the rings," Lewis told Kansas City television station KMBC, "engagement rings, wedding rings, just unattached stone, diamonds, everything."
KMBC's report said the box contained about $266,000 worth rings.
He said he briefly thought about keeping the bag, then decided to turn it over to police.
The bag was being shipped to New Jersey.
North Kansas City-based Helzberg Diamonds has its jewelry back and has promised to show the company's appreciation to Lewis.
"I'm sure we'll come up with a nice way to thank him," said Helzberg CEO Marvin Beasley.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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