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New research from commercial credit reference agency Graydon UK, reveals today that last autumn’s Government pledge to ease the cashflow problems faced by small firms through the payment by Government departments of trade invoices in 10 rather than the usual 30 days, is taking longer than expected to take effect.
The survey, conducted during the first two weeks of March 2009, reveals that just 1 per cent of small businesses questioned, which are currently supplying Government agencies, are now receiving payments due to them within the pledged 10 day period. The results go on to show that over a third (39 per cent) of small firms said that they received payment from Government departments within 10 to 30 days, compared to 53 per cent who were paid within 30 to 60 days and 7 per cent after more than 60 days.
With the average payment period in the UK currently standing between 30 and 60 days, these results indicate that the majority of small businesses (60 per cent) consider Government departments no different to others in the market, in terms of payment practices.
Martin Williams, Managing Director, Graydon UK, said: “Whilst I applaud the Prime Minister’s desire to improve the cash flow of small businesses during these economically testing times, it seems that the political apparatus in this country has conspired against him in terms of actioning this undertaking. Clearly the Government’s pledge is taking longer than expected to find its feet, but time is a luxury that many small businesses simply don’t have.”
“Although often overlooked, it’s also a fact that Government agencies are suppliers as well, and like other suppliers, they too are suffering from a slowdown in payments. If they want to be able to consistently pay suppliers within the 10-day period, these agencies must evolve to become more efficient, and learn how to collect their own cash from debtors to speed up the flow of payments. After all, you can only pay out money if you have it coming in.”
Phil McCabe, a spokesman for the FPB, added: "The Government's ambitious target to pay its suppliers' invoices within 10 days is welcome, but has obviously been impossible to achieve. However, a third of the businesses surveyed are being paid within 30 days. This is more encouraging, but it is still not enough.
"It is important that more public sector organisations take the lead and pay their invoices promptly. Every day, the failures of businesses and government agencies to do so decimates many small firms' cash flow in an economic climate where they can least afford it. The Government should be setting a better example so that big businesses feel compelled to follow them.
"The FPB's latest Referendum survey of members shows that 37% are still being paid late. Our most recent economic downturn panel has seen payment terms deteriorate further than any time since its conception in November 2008, and, between August 2008 and January 2009, the amount owed to small businesses had risen from just over £1,000 to £3,600."
This latest intelligence follows on from a previous survey, conducted by Graydon UK in November 2008 and released shortly after the initial Government pledge, which revealed that only 34 per cent of those questioned found Government agencies to be “prompt payers” (within 30 days), with two thirds (66 per cent) instead describing Government payment practices as “slow” or “average” (over 30 days).
Martin Williams added: “When today’s results are compared with those of our November survey, it’s good to see that there has been a small increase in the percentage of companies that regard Government agencies as prompt payers. Clearly something is working, but we must remain patient.”
For further information contact:
Stephen Finch / Giles Robinson
Weber Shandwick Financial
Phone: 0161 238 9401/ 020 7067 0734
Email: email@example.com / firstname.lastname@example.org
Graydon UK Limited
Phone: 020 8515 1400
Notes to Editors:
• Graydon UK’s March 2009 survey questioned 254 UK businesses on their experiences of Government payment practices, 83 of which classified themselves as small businesses.
• Graydon UK’s November 2008 survey questioned 238 small businesses on their experiences of Government payment practices.
About Graydon UK
Graydon UK is one of the leading database information providers specialising in credit risk management and risk assessed marketing lists. The company helps clients reduce the uncertainty of doing business by providing a complete, differentiated and high-quality package of credit risk management services. Graydon provides access to credit information and reports on companies in more than 140 countries worldwide. The Graydon group is owned by Atradius, Coface and Euler Hermes, three of Europe's leading credit insurance organisation. www.graydon.co.uk
In 2008, Graydon UK Managing Director Martin Williams was invited by Philip King, Director General of the Institute of Credit Management (ICM), to join the ICM think tank (an expert panel of 20-25 industry leaders who meet quarterly and act as an influencing force on all issues related to the credit industry in the UK.).That same year, Martin Williams was honoured by Credit Today, after being included on their Credit 100 list of people who have had the greatest impact in the credit industry during 2008.
About the Forum of Private Business
The Forum of Private Business (FPB) is a member-led business support organisation, representing 25,000 small and medium-sized businesses, which in turn employ more than 600,000 people. Member-firms are spread across the UK and cover all sectors of industry.
The FPB was founded in 1977 to fight for fair treatment of private businesses by decision-makers. It continues to lobby today, on issues including late payment, overregulation and unfair competition.
Members have access to a range of specially negotiated money-saving deals on services from asset and invoice finance to telecoms and utilities. www.fpb.org.
Broadcast media – the Forum of Private Business now has ISDN capability and can provide comment, in quality audio, at short notice.
The FPB can also provide journalists with localised and sector-specific case studies.
The FPB is pleased to support the Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group (CCLG): www.fpb.org/charity
The FPB now has an online discussion forum, on which people can share information, join the latest debates affecting small businesses in the UK and vote in online polls. Visit the forum at www.fpb.org/forum.
This press release was distributed by ResponseSource Press Release Wire on behalf of Leapfrogg in the following categories: Business & Finance, for more information visit https://pressreleasewire.responsesource.com/about.


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Blockchain startup Filament has closed a new $15m funding round.
The round was led by Verizon Ventures, the venture arm of telecommunications conglomerate Verizon, and Bullpen Capital, a post-seed
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Litecoin Soars to 20-Month High, Price Spikes Nearly 100%
Litecoin prices have shot up today, March 30th, nearly doubling in value over a 24-hour trading period.
Data from Bitfinex shows Litecoin trading at $4.3 at 05:30 before gaining over 25% of its val

domain: news


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Over the past week and a half, Nvidia and AMD have almost completely reshaped the graphics card market from $199 up. We've carefully tested and benchmarked the two companies' new (and re-positioned) offerings, showing that AMD has really done its homework and Nvidia has managed to produce the overall-fastest single-GPU card once again.
With that in mind, we've concocted a new poll to ask what you think of these new graphics cards. More specifically, which of them is the finest, in your view? Feel free to cast your votes either below or on our front page.
Our previous poll topic was, "How many CPU cores will your next PC have?" Evidently, over half of our readers have their eyes set on a quad-core PC, while less than 20% would even consider a system with three cores or fewer. Interestingly, those numbers leave 27% of TR readers who want more than four cores. 16% believe their next PC will have eight cores, while 10% want 16 or more.
|Silent Power PC is cooled by copper foam||21|
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|EA to charge $4.99/month for access to its biggest games||56|
|Gigabyte's Brix Gaming BXi5G-760 mini-PC reviewed||48|
|Orange you glad Asus made a mechanical gaming keyboard||42|
|New GeForce drivers add Shield tablet support, SLI profiles||8|


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Selected as Games for Change finalist
- Games for Change gathers some of the world’s leading game creators and social innovators, with the aim of using games to drive real-world change. It is a real stamp of approval to have a game nominated in two categories for these awards, explains Dr. Alf Inge Wang of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
The professor in game technology has overseen testing and headed the jury in the EduApp4Syria competition.
The award ceremony will take place during the Games for Change Festival in New York, on June 28.
The EduApp4Syria competition
Antura and the Letters is one of the winning games of the EduApp4Syria competition, together with Feed the Monster. Antura and the Letters has been developed by an international consortia led by Cologne Game Lab (Germany).
The primary aim of EduApp4Syria is to reach Syrian children with engaging smartphone-based learning games that can help them acquire basic literacy skills in Arabic and improve their psychosocial wellbeing.
The two winning games were launched as beta versions in March 2017. After further testing and iteration throughout 2017, updated versions of the games were made available in March 2018. At the same time a first evaluation of the games was published, showing that the games had contributed to literacy learning for Syrian children.
Since the launch, the two games have been installed on an estimated 150 000 mobile devices, and significant outreach and marketing activities are planned to ensure that the games reach more end users.
Update! Winners were announced 28 June 2018. "Attentat 1942" received the award for Best learning game, while "Tree" was announced winner of the category Most innovative. "Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice" received the Games for Change x Polyfon People's Chioce Award. Congratulations.


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While smartphones have been getting a multitude of apps, tablets have not received the same treatment. Third-party apps aren’t the only guilty parties when it comes to poorly optimized tablet applications, Google is at fault too. The search giant is now set to change that.
Alongside the announcement of Android 13 Beta 2 at I/O 2022, Google revealed that more than 20 apps will get a revamp to better suit tablets. App such as Gmail, Google Chrome, Google Maps, Google Messages, YouTube, Play Store, and more will be optimized to take advantage of the larger screen real estate that tablets offer. They will also sport a multi-column layout. Moreover, the Play Store will highlight tablet-friendly apps so you’ll know if it will play well with your device.
Last year, Google had announced the Android 12L for tablets, which was followed by a stable release in March this year. It brought with it better UI design and improved layout. A couple of months back, Google had hinted that it is working on apps that are more suitable for tablets. The search giant had even hinted that “tablet-first” apps could also be on the horizon if the market continued to grow. Now, Android 13 offers apps optimized for tablets.
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The firm added that it has joined hands with third-party developers to offer a better user experience. Besides cosmetic changes, tablets will also gain multitasking features. This will include a taskbar which will be located at the bottom of the tablet. It will let you create a split-screen interface by dragging and dropping apps as per your requirement.
Google will be rolling out the update for its apps in the coming weeks. On the other hand, third-party apps will get the update within this year.


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FTC opens antitrust review of Google’s acquisition of Waze
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Google’s $1.1 billion acquisition of social mapping startup Waze has reportedly sparked a new federal antitrust investigation. Google confirmed the news to the Wall Street Journal over the weekend, but did not comment on the extent of the investigation.
Waze didn’t generate enough revenue last year to trigger an automatic antitrust review. The FTC will reportedly look for evidence that Waze was potentially poised to directly compete with Google Maps, or that Google purchased Waze to hurt its competitors in the mapping space.
Waze was an early mobile mapping pioneer, using GPS data to automatically determine traffic speeds. Users also reported traffic accidents manually, creating a live map of traffic conditions around the world.
Shortly before it was acquired, Waze announced its software had been downloaded by 45 million people in 190 countries. Google Maps is used by 1 billion people worldwide.
Earlier this month, a consumer watchdog organization asked the FTC to open an antitrust investigation into the deal, saying the search giant was trying to take out its most viable competitor in the mapping space.
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Apple has added more than 50 banks and credit unions to its list of Apple Pay supporting financial institutions in the US, 9to5mac reports. The update follows the mobile payment service’s launch in Singapore earlier this week.
- Garmin Pay expands to three new smartwatches
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February 22, 2013
Google Glass Will Be Available This Year, Will Work With iPhone
Michael Harper for redOrbit.com — Your Universe Online
You´ve got to give it up to Google. One minute their Glass project is in flux and they´re asking developers and anyone else with $1500 to help them develop their futuristic glasses. Then, suddenly, Joshua Topolsky gets an exclusive with Glass, posts an interview he did with some Google execs, and learns they plan to release the thing in earnest by the end of this year.CNET can confirm it: Google Glass will be available by the end of 2013 for $1500 and, if earlier rumors are true, Google may even be selling them at their own retail stores, just like Apple and their iPod.
Google has also confirmed Glass will be able to connect to Android and, yes, even the iPhone, via Bluetooth.
It could have been a bold move to lock out the iPhone from Glass, and honestly, it would have been a very Apple thing to do. Yet, Google has decided to take money from as many people as they can. These Glass frames will also be able to connect via Wi-Fi or the phones 3G or 4G, but Google said the glasses won´t have cellular radios built in.
Over the last year or so, Google has periodically teased this device with videos of what the Glass experience will look like. Most recently, the Android-maker announced they´d be opening up an application process wherein any regular old schmo (with the right address and $1500) would be able to help them test new features and develop these things. Google took the opportunity to officially change the name to just “Glass” as well as show off a new video about what these specs will be able to do.
Now it seems wearers will be able to communicate with these specs by tapping a button, saying: “Ok, Glass“¦” then finishing up with a voice command.
Topolsky tries out the features seen in this video, such as “Ok, Glass“¦record a video” or “Ok, Glass“¦take a picture.” In his heads-on review, Topolsky claims the experience is exactly like what we saw from the most recent Google video.
“Let me start by saying that using it is actually nearly identical to what the company showed off in its newest demo video,” writes Topolsky.
“That´s not CGI – it´s what Glass is actually like to use. It´s clean, elegant, and makes relative sense. The screen is not disruptive, you do not feel burdened by it. It is there and then it is gone. It´s not shocking. It´s not jarring. It´s just this new thing in your field of vision. And it´s actually pretty cool.”
Google also said they´ll be sending out monthly updates to those early adopters, calling them “Explorers,” to let them know how the development process is coming along.
According to product director Steve Lee, these Explorers are going to help Google figure out how normal, workaday people (or at least, the kind of people with a spare grand and a half laying around) are going to use Glass in the wild.
“What we´re trying to do is expand the community that we have for Glass users. Currently it´s just our team and a few other Google people testing it. We want to expand that to people outside of Google. We think it´s really important, actually, for the development of Glass because it´s such a new product and it´s not just a piece of software. We want to learn from people how it´s going to fit into their lifestyle."
In the end, Topolsky believes Glass still has a way to go, but he´s convinced these things will be a hit for the common man.


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In this guest post, Indonesian tech luminary Andi S. Boediman explains what Indonesia needs to do to build on its vast market and huge potential.
Social Media Week Jakarta is a hot spot for the industry this month. Here’s what we learned from BuzzFeed’s VP of international, Scott Lamb.
Additionally, McClure gave pointers on how to build a startup, invest wisely, and build a startup ecosystem.
Focusing on Android apps, this study shows which primary global app markets share similar characteristics and which ones have more unique consumer tastes.
Browsing through the names and slogans of Asia’s tech startups, you see a lot of weird stuff. Every company wants to set itself apart, so that it can have a unique domain name and also to stand out in...
Beijing’s mayor just said it’s ‘not a liveable city.’ Here are 5 startup hubs in China that are much nicer
Every major city in China succumbs to pollution on some level, but there are other startup hubs in China to consider.
Here are the best locations in Asia for a budding digital nomad.
Metaps has released a report on the mainland China mobile app market, but that’s not all you need to break in.
While there are many guides out there for how to crowdfund a startup, we wanted a more on-the-ground perspective from Asian startups who’ve weathered the storm.
PCH founder Liam Casey cites Shenzhen as the most exciting city to steer creativity and innovation in building consumer electronic products.
Our guide on how and where to buy electronics like phones, cameras, computers, and games in Hong Kong.
Many companies avoid Japan because the sales culture is rumored to be excessively arcane. What if that assumption is completely wrong?
Digital nomads - it's a trend and movement that's growing exponentially. Here's some advice for going the entrepreneurial route in Southeast Asia.
IPOs aren't just for the big boys. If you’re making money, Japan’s startup-friendly Mother’s Index offers a shortcut to IPO.
Staying on the right side of the law takes some time but it is worth the wait.
Chinese investor Ran Wang, the CEO of ECapital, says the downturn will be more of a market correction rather than a full-on bubble burst.
The Sun Microsystems co-founder spoke at a closed meeting with Itochu Technology Ventures executives and portfolio startup CEOs.


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Cal Ripken Jr. was the keynote speaker for the inaugural Amateur Sports Leadership Summit in Louisville, Kentucky, from October 23-25 as leaders from throughout the industry spent two days discussing issues that involve hosts, suppliers and event organizers.
The ASLS featured a wide range of speakers and presenters, including leaders in the sports and hospitality industries, CVB/sports commissions and technology experts.
“It was exciting to be a part of the inaugural TTS Amateur Sports Leadership Summit in Louisville,” said John Newby, executive vice president of Varsity Spirit. “It was great to connect with other leaders in the youth sports space and share best practices, new ideas and collaborate on future opportunities. The speakers were great and the opportunity to spend some time with Cal Ripken, Jr was a highlight.”
The event was created by Team Travel Source and also included panel discussions and interactive sessions focused on leadership development, athlete safety and industry trends. Dates and a location for next year’s event are to be announced at a later date.
“We are thrilled to see the enthusiastic response to this year’s ASLS,” said Ainsley Harris, vice president of customer success and retention of Team Travel Source. “Our goal is to bring together industry leaders for a productive and informative day, and we believe that this year’s summit was a tremendous success.”


text: On 3 October, the Commercial court of Bobigny announced the liquidation of the freight transport group Mory (5300 employees) which was placed in receivership last June. The court decided to divide the Mory group between two companies who take over its activities. The investment fund Caravelle took over the express transport activities, Mory Team (turnover, 450 m euro) and will preserve 2800 positions from a total of 3500. The social plan affected 800 employees and will be financed by the public authorities. The offer of Caravelle received the support of the central works council of Mory. The new management wants to build a French leader within the sector with the aim of merging within the next two years Mory express activities with Ducros Express (turnover, 300 m euro and a loss of 70 m euro in 2010), a company that Caravelle took over (ERM Factsheet) in 2009. The storage and logistics group ID Logistics (7200 employees, turnover 386 millions euro) took over the logistics activities (a turn-over up to 25 millions euro) and 250 of the 270 employees. Another activity of the Mory group, Mory SLD, Jura Transport was sold to the group Zamenhof (Jacky Pérennot group) for 4 m euro.


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Jet Airways and Aeromexico sign codeshare MoU
As part of the arrangement, both carriers will code on each other’s services between India and Mexico via common gates in Europe (London Heathrow, Paris Charles De Gaulle and Amsterdam). To begin with, Jet Airways will place its marketing code “9W” on Aeromexico flights from London Heathrow to Mexico City. In turn, Aeromexico will place its marketing code on Jet Airways’ direct services from London Heathrow to Mumbai and Delhi.
The codeshare partnership will offer guests enhanced connectivity and seamless access to the combined networks of both airlines, with convenient connections via Jet Airways’ European gateways.
Naresh Goyal, chairman, Jet Airways, said, “We are confident that this new codeshare partnership will stimulate the demand for business and tourist travel between India and Mexico.”
Andres Conesa, CEO of Aeromexico added, “It is a great pleasure for us to settle this code share partnership with Jet Airways that will build new bridges and connect Mexico to India more easily. This achievement is a manifest of our will to continuously offer new flight destinations to our passengers. Also, by connecting with an important country as India, Aeromexico creates new cultural bonds and tourism exchange between both nations”.
This comprehensive MoU signed between the two carriers, also includes cooperation in the area of reciprocal Frequent Flyer benefits for members.
The initial codeshare flights via London Heathrow will open for sale as well as travel later this year, subject to government approvals. Flight tickets under the codeshare agreement can be purchased via preferred travel agents or through the two airlines’ sales offices, websites and call centers.
The MoU was signed by Jet Airways’ chairman Naresh Goyal and Aeromexico’s CEO Andrés Conesa, on the sidelines of the IATA Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Cancun, Mexico.
Photo: Naresh Goyal, Jet Airways and Andrés Conesa , Aeromexico
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While Astral Aviation will be a new Full Member, Bombelli Airport Equipment will come on board as an Associate Partner.
Continuing its technological investments, the software reduces the error rate at its business processes as well as the costs while improving the employee productivity among other aspects
SEOSAT-Ingenio is the first Spanish satellite with optical technology, developed primarily by the Spanish space industry led by Airbus in Spain as the prime contractor.
Weekly direct flights will depart from Shanghai (PVG) every Monday and from Amsterdam (AMS) each Sunday to service for a post-COVID resurgence in demand during what is traditionally a fourth quarter peak season.
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol’s Pharma Cargo Community is collaborating to ensure the temperature-controlled supply chain is ready for the safe and efficient transportation of Covid-19 vaccines.
Through this partnership, Matternet will conduct a joint research project with JAL in Japan, as the company continues to expand its commercial business globally.
DSV has now added an additional two 747 freighters to its Europe-Asia cargo air bridge with an extra weekly inbound departure from Shanghai and the new Hong Kong-Luxembourg route.
This partnership between the two companies is because of the e-commerce boom experienced in Belgium during the Covid-19 pandemic
After a five month pause, KLM will resume offering its non-stop service from Edmonton to Amsterdam, beginning October 29, 2020.
Under the terms of the MoU, Emirates SkyCargo and IHC will work together to develop innovative logistics solutions for effective crisis relief operations.
All communication will run via OSCA, from order confirmation and delivery planning to transport bookings and inquiries among other aspects of the software.
Laem Chabang has a range of strategic multi modal capabilities alongside its proximity to the country’s major deep sea port, transit cargo terminal and the future Thailand third airport project at U-Tapao.
The company said the new aircraft will boost the cargo and supply operations and help meet the significant surge on the demand for medicine, medical and preventive equipment and other similar goods.


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Organised under the Patronage of the UAE President, HH Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Environment 2007 exhibition will take place at the Abu Dhabi International Exhibition Centre between 28 and 31 January, 2007.
Mr. Osamu Watanabe, Chairman and CEO, JETRO, said:
“This exhibition is a symbol of our continued efforts to strengthen our diplomatic ties between the UAE and Japan. Since our initial exhibition in 2002, the economic ties between our countries have gone from strength to strength, particularly in the areas of energy and infrastructure development. We hope that the large number of participants taking part in the Japanese pavilion at Environment 2007 will deepen mutual understanding between our two nations, in addition to promoting trade tie-ups and technology cooperation.”
The special Japanese pavilion will also commemorate the completion of 35 years of diplomatic ties between Japan and the UAE, and will house over 40 of Japan’s key players within the industrial environment sector. Amongst the list of exhibitors, Hitachi, Nissan and Panasonic will be presenting their latest products and technology for the first time in this region.
The pavilion will cover a variety of areas pertaining to the environmental considerations of the region, which include air pollution control, water purification, power generation and desalination.
Japan’s eco-business market has seen tremendous growth in recent years and its expertise in the field will be a major contributing factor to a region, given the demand for large-scale real estate projects. According to the Japanese Ministry of Environment, the country’s eco business will grow to over US $ 400 billion, with its Clean Energy and Waste Treatment Sector commanding over US$ 100 billion in growth.
Mr. Seiji Koyanagi, Managing Director, Panasonic Marketing Middle East added, “The Middle East market for consumer electronics is constantly evolving and growing. One of the recent trends we have witness worldwide, is the gradual shift of consumers towards products that have been produced whilst keeping the needs of the environment in mind. Our participation at this pavilion is evidence of Panasonic’s initiative to provide our consumers with products that are not only on the cutting edge of technology, but also help towards a better environmental future for the consumer of the future. Our reputation within the UAE has grown tremendously, and we look to strengthen our presence within the UAE, a market which has an increasing growth potential, through participating in exhibition geared towards strengthening economic ties between UAE and Japan.”
The UAE Government, which ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 2005, has since been taking great measures towards environmental conservation. With over 200 Japanese companies already based in the UAE, the Japanese government hopes that with the conclusion of the free trade agreement talks with the GCC, the ties between the two countries would further be enhanced especially within this sector.
“The market for environment related projects in this region is tremendous with both Middle East and North African countries looking to invest in this industry. The participation of Japan in Environment 2007, is an important step in establishing this exhibition as a commentator on the growing eco-business industry. Our relationship with the Japanese economy will enable us to use their expertise within this field to better maintain, and sustain the growth of our economy for future generations,” commented Mr. Abdulla Omar, Managing Director, Reed Exhibitions Middle East, the organiser of Environment 2007.
The organisers of this exhibition have received a tremendous response from exhibitors with more than 80% of the space already being booked by the end of last year. The event targets over 375 exhibitors from around the world, and is the fourth in the series of exhibitions and conferences since initiated in 2001.
Monday, January 22- 2007 @ 12:17 UAE local time (GMT+4) Replication or redistribution in whole or in part is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Mediaquest FZ LLC.


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Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit to launch summer
“pop up” booth in Eastern Market
Eastern Market visitors can shop ready-to-wear looks from
professional stylist at the “YB Blue” Goodwill store
DETROIT –Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit today announces that it will open a boutique Goodwill store every other Sunday in Eastern Market, beginning Sunday, June 1.
Eight professional stylists will create one-of-a-kind outfits for women, men and children assembled from the nonprofit organization’s three Metro Detroit Goodwill retail locations. Each stylist brings his or her own fashion sense to the looks. The YB Blue store will feature apparel from a different stylist each week.
In addition, shoppers can also browse a collection of vintage and retro home good finds, curated from Goodwill stores.
YB Blue will be located within Shed 2 at Eastern Market.
“Eastern Market is a quintessential part of the summer experience in Detroit. We want to bring the unique treasures and incredible shopping experience from our retails locations to Eastern Market shoppers” said Lorna G. Utley, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit. “The revenue from purchases at YB Blue will go right back to funding our efforts to put Metro Detroiters with employment challenges back to work. Shoppers can find great style and feel good knowing their purchase is helping to keep our friends and neighbors employed.”
YB Blue will be open every other Sunday from June 1st through September 28th and will feature a different stylist each time.
June 1- The shop will be curated by Christy Kondogiani, Paisley Place Designs
June 15- The shop will be curated by Annie Pilon, Wattlebird
June 29- The shop will be curated by Tracey Tilley, Studio 34
July 13- The shop will be curated by Mary Semon Milsted, Detroit Fashion Vault
July 27- The shop will be curated by Katie Kondek, Fashion Frugality
August 10- The shop will be curated by Bethany Nixon, Reware Vintage
August 24- The shop will be curated by Tracey Tilley, Studio 34
September 14- The shop will be curated by Mary Semon Milsted, Detroit Fashion Vault
September 28- The shop will be curated by Emily Schwartz, Livin Vintage
We wont be leaving the men out every other week either, Greg Everett, another amazing stylist will be picking out some exciting items for the men.


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- Posted by Johanna on October 7, 2010 at 4:19 pm
- Category: Comic News
Beginning January 2011, DC Comics will implement a line-wide pricing adjustment, lowering the prices of all standard length 32-page ongoing comic book titles currently priced at $3.99 to $2.99, it was announced today by DC Comics Co-Publishers Jim Lee and Dan DiDio.
“Today’s announcement re-affirms DC Comics’ commitment to both our core fans and to comic book store retailers,” said Jim Lee, DC Comics Co-Publisher. “For the long term health of the industry, we are willing to take a financial risk so that readers who love our medium do not abandon the art form.”
Bully for DC trying to keep the industry alive single-handedly. But there’s a catch. We’re losing two story pages in the standard-sized book — and there will still be oversized annuals and specials at higher prices.
As of January, … standard length ongoing titles, previously priced at $3.99 for 32 pages/22 story pages, will be priced at $2.99 with 32 pages/20 story pages:
20 instead of 22 story pages in a month will be a boon to artists, too, since that better matches with the number of workdays in a typical month. Co-features (aka backup stories) are going away, but DiDio promised hope that “Some of these characters will find a new platform.” Platform, hunh? Like digital?
Update: Comic writer JTorres reminds me that “losing two pages also means less income for the creators”, since they’re paid by the page. I should have thought of that when I mentioned a help to artists. They get more time, but less money.
Update 2: Marvel will follow suit, also lowering prices in January, according to Heidi MacDonald, as announced on digital panel at NY Comic Con.
Update 3: Clarification on the Marvel news: “Marvel Senior Vice President of Sales & Circulation David Gabriel confirmed that new books launching in January 2011 will not debut at $3.99.” So it’s new titles going forward — existing titles may or may not stay at $3.99. More surprising: turns out it’s because their digital sales are so successful, they can afford to do this.


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Proof recession is forcing drivers off the road as petrol sales now 12 per cent down on pre-slump level
The amount of petrol sold on UK forecourts has slumped this year, official figures have shown, as cash-strapped motorists cut down on their journeys.
According to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), almost 500million fewer litres of petrol were sold between April and June compared to the same period last year. The fall came despite a fall in prices compared to the preceding quarter.
For the whole of the first half of 2012, the statistics show that more than two billions fewer litres of petrol and diesel were sold on forecourts compared to the same period in 2008 – just before recession took grip.
Fuel sales: According to recent research, sales of both diesel and unleaded have slowed
Yesterday, research from Moneysupermarket revealed that an increasing number of motorists are sacrificing going out and shopping for clothes to help keep their cars on the road.
Nearly three-quarters admitted to cutting back on spending to support the cost of running car as a combination of higher petrol costs and car insurance take their toll.
Unleaded prices have gone up by 47 per cent in five years while diesel prices are up 49 per cent, AA statistics show. At the same time, car insurance costs have gone up by roughly 60 per cent, according to confused.com data.
The DECC figures for petrol sales lay bare the burden carried by drivers since the financial crisis struck. In the first six months of 2008, before recession hit the UK, retail sales of petrol and diesel reached 18.97billion litres.
In the first half of this year, retailers sold 16.7 billion litres - a fall of 12 per cent.
Petrol sales in particular suffered in the second quarter of the year, dipping more than ten per cent compared to just the previous three months. Fuel buying was turbulent in March and April, when the threat of tanker strike action spooked British motorists into panic buying fuel and distoring the month-on-month figures.
Amid a public row between ministers and tanker driver unions, Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, was accusing of scaring drivers into panic buying by suggesting a potential strike would lead to fuel shortages. He said in a TV interview that 'a bit of extra fuel in a jerry can in the garage is a sensible precaution to take', drawing complaints from fire safety groups and, ironically, sparking the type of forecourt queues and panic buying that he had warned could happen.
This pushed petrol prices to a record 142.48p a litre in mid-April. However, by the end of June, the price dropped down to 131.19p a litre.
Edmund King, AA president, said: ‘A 10.6 per cent fall in petrol sales this past quarter is a huge drop.
‘While we welcome the fact that new cars have become more fuel-efficient, this goes nowhere near to accounting for the crash in demand over the past three months and the past five years.
‘Ever-increasing prices in recent years have sent petrol sales into steady decline and the panic-buying at the end of March may have brought forward sales in early April. Wet weather may also have played a part.’
Petrol prices: The red line represents diesel prices, blue line unleaded and green oil prices - both diesel and unleaded have crept up in recent months
Mr King added: ‘A fall of 2.27billion litres in UK fuel sales over the first six months of this year compared to the same period in 2008 has got to bring some sense of reality to the fuel market and the Government.
‘However, we have seen the fuel industry trying to squeeze more money out of shrinking customer demand, as was the case when wholesale diesel was cheaper than petrol in early spring but drivers and businesses were forced to pay 5p a litre more.
‘Price transparency is the way forward: to ensure and show drivers that they are getting a fair deal at the pump.’
Fuel prices have begun to surge towards record highs once more.
According to the AA, unleaded prices rose by 4.7p to 140.2p a litre over the course of September, while diesel prices rose by 4.2p to 144.6p.
It came as oil prices hit a five month high in the middle of last month to reach $117 a barrel, although prices have slipped back down to $112.
In January, the Government is planning a 3p a litre fuel duty hike after Chancellor George Osborne delayed plans to increase it in August – and this could lead to record high prices for drivers.
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The TikTok wave will come to an end Sunday thanks to the Trump administration.
According to The New York Times, the Chinese-owned mobile app will be barred from U.S. app stores as early as Sunday along with another app, WeChat. Both are very popular services used by more than 100 million people in the United States.
“Today’s actions prove once again that President Trump will do everything in his power to guarantee our national security and protect Americans from the threats of the Chinese Communist Party,” said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in a statement.
This move follows an executive order put in place Aug. 6 where President Trump argued that both WeChat and TikTok collect data from American users that could be accessed by the Chinese government. His administration has threatened up to 20 years in prison for violations of the order as well as fines of up to $1 million.
New York Times reports TikTok is currently in talks to be acquired by the American software maker Oracle. Reports reveal the company could announce a deal that would alleviate the administration’s national security concerns.
The Commerce Department says President Trump has given until Nov. 12 for TikTok’s national security concerns to be resolved. If resolved, the prohibitions within the order could be lifted.
A spokesman for TikTok, Josh Gartner, issued a statement to express the company’s disappointment in the Commerce Department’s decision.
“We will continue to challenge the unjust executive order, which was enacted without due process and threatens to deprive the American people and small businesses across the U.S. of a significant platform for both a voice and livelihoods,” Gartner said.
With so many creators who use the app to pay their bills, one can only hope this order does not last.


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It is no secret that venture capital is on the rise. Companies today are raising more money than ever before and are seeing higher valuations than their earlier counterparts.
In 2018, the global VC market witnessed between 30–50 supergiant (USD 100M+) funding rounds per month.
That averages out to more than one USD 100M+ round of investment every single day of 2018. The trend strongly highlights the inclination of investors globally to create larger companies that can tackle problems at unprecedented speed and scale.
This however, does not reveal the full story. Most of the VC funding is concentrated by geography and sector. For example, the Technology sector itself has been accounting for ~50% of the funding raised in the last 5 years.
The bottomline is that there is no dearth of money when it comes to fundraising. But as with most of the capital in the world, venture capital has a distribution problem, not an availability one.
There is a plethora of opportunities in the market that are underserved by VCs, making it harder for entrepreneurs to venture out into those spaces.
The past decade has also witnessed the birth of some key challenges for the future. From food and water shortage to alarming levels of greenhouse emissions around the globe, there are existential issues facing the world that need urgent action but are not getting the level of attention needed to successfully tackle them at a large scale.
Let us explore India as an example. India is one of the world’s fastest growing economies with a current GDP of ~USD 2.7 Trillion. It has a lot of growth potential in the future and its vibrant startup ecosystem is enabling market opportunities for entrepreneurs to build global companies and create value for various stakeholders in the Indian economy.
However, India faces some key challenges in the future such as:
- Agriculture Modernization — Agriculture employs almost half of India’s workforce, but accounts for only ~15% of the its GDP. Average landholdings of Indian farmers are below two hectares. Smallholder farmers face manifold issues in terms of productivity and efficiency.
- Livelihood Generation — Unemployment levels have been steadily rising, and after several years of staying around 2–3%, the headline rate of unemployment reached 6% in 2018. This rate of unemployment is the highest seen in India in at least the last 20 years.
- Alarming Air Pollution — 22 of the world’s 30 worst cities for air pollution are in India.
- Water Scarcity Crisis — Currently 600 million Indians face high to extreme water stress and about 200,000 people die every year due to inadequate access to safe water. By 2030, the country’s water demand is projected to be twice the available supply, implying severe water scarcity for hundreds of millions of people and an eventual loss in the country’s GDP.
These problems, although outlined above with the Indian context in mind, have been witnessed globally as well.
Credit is due to organizations working towards a healthier and sustainable future but most of them rely on external support through grants, donations and goodwill. This makes economic viability a key challenge on the path to effective outcomes.
Venture Capital can play a key role in markets such as Agriculture and Climate Change to build businesses that are both sustainable and profitable.
Moving forward, we must reevaluate the importance of sectors being funded, the problems being solved and the role of the investor ecosystem. The current blitzscaling model of “build today, deploy tomorrow and monetize later” is not a mould that fits every kind of business. There is a need for patient capital to back businesses in an active fashion alongside the entrepreneurs.
Blue Ashva Capital is an investment Fund that is backing sustainable and long-term profitable businesses which are solving real challenges and building lasting value in core sectors including:
- Agriculture — Invest in innovative, sustainable and inclusive agriculture practices
- Agroforestry — Invest in innovative business models to build a green environment
- Climate Change — Invest in a low carbon future
- Micro Enterprises — Invest in creation of livelihood opportunities for the masses
The fund seeks to generate blended value of competitive financial returns and measurable development impact.
We believe that the real problems that our world is facing today in terms of climate change, agriculture productivity and livelihood generation can be effectively addressed only by businesses operating at the intersection of profits and purpose.
If we channel resources and energy to the right industries, business can be a force for creating positive social change and not just a medium for wealth creation.


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The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) will restrict the production, import and sale of batteries with mercury from next month to reduce the mercury hazard to the environment and human health, EPA officials said yesterday. Starting on Sept. 1, battery manufacturers and importers must present test reports proving that their products contain less than 5ppm of mercury before they are permitted to manufacture or import the products, the officials said. After the new policy comes into force, the EPA will send officials to inspect and sample batteries at supermarkets, night markets and other vending outlets, the officials said.
Fri, Aug 11, 2006 - Page 3 News List
Taiwan Quick Take: Batteries face stricter rules
STAFF WRITER WITH AGENCIES
This story has been viewed 1832 times.
Listing from 2015-02-27 to 2015-03-06
- Most read
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1Taiwan’s military strength ranked 15th in global poll
2Tainan may remove school CKS statues
3Tears, controversy mark 228 memorial
4Protesters pelt Chiang statue with eggs, paint
5Cook says Apple Watch will replace vehicle keys


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The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) might be over, but U.S. consumer drone regulations, Nvidia’s latest self-driving car deal, and the growing role of AI in national defense are just some of the other news items from the past weeks. How will robotics affect fast-food chains and daily life?
Robotics Business Review has partnered with Center for Innovating the Future to provide its members with cutting-edge insights into recent developments in international robotics, artificial intelligence, and unmanned systems. Are you ready to be updated?
FAA reinstates consumer drone rules
As part of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has brought back rules for “hobbyist drones.” These rules require drone owners to register their drones with the FAA.
The rules specify which consumer drone models must be registered by criteria such as weight, as well as civil and criminal repercussions if drones are not registered.
Such laws, while likely to ignite fears over privacy, are important because they help track a technology that could be used in dangerous ways. As drones are tapped by terrorist organizations and as the number of near-misses with planes grows, nations will turn to tracking laws to mitigate these threats.
However, these drone rules may not be enough, as those that seek to cause harm through drones may not ever register them, leaving the onus of what to do with the consumer drone manufacturer (something which I talk about in my book, Next Geopolitics: Volume One).
Beijing doubles down in global AI competition
During a press conference at CES 2018, Qi Lu, chief operations officer at Baidu, reflected on the growing competition among nations over artificial intelligence.
Specifically, he noted that AI firms in China have backing from Beijing, since the Chinese government views AI with rising importance. The COO also claimed that China will succeed with AI because of its large population.
While China continues to dominate headlines around AI, there may be a large element of hype. While Chinese firms like Baidu, Huawei, and Alibaba make inroads in AI development, China faces major challenges to its ability to compete around AI on the global stage.
For one, foreign companies and nations may not trust China the same way they trust the U.S. Equally important is who is using Chinese AI? If only Chinese organizations use home-grown systems, China would be an AI power, but not a global one.
Nvidia signs self-driving car deal with Volkswagen
Nvidia and Volkswagen have signed a deal to use Nvidia chip sets in Volkswagen self-driving cars. One of the first cars that will use Nvidia’s technology is the famous VW bus, which was popular in the 1960s and ’70s. The updated version, called I.D. Buzz, will include Nvidia technology called Drive IX to enable self-driving features.
This partnership with Volkswagen is one of many AI deals that Nvidia has struck in the past few years. I’ve discussed how such deals demonstrate that the U.S. is competing in the global AI race through chip sets.
However, the question for Nvidia and other U.S. companies isn’t whether they can sell these chip sets — there is a lack of supply and high demand — but what happens when nations begin developing local alternatives.
Fast-food workers on the chopping block
The chief executive of fast-food chain Jack in the Box reportedly said last week that increases in the minimum wage in states such as California will lead to more automation.
Previously, Jack in the Box tested the use of automated kiosks in stores, but the company didn’t move forward with it because of costs at that time.
The debate over whether robots will take jobs and what the appropriate policy responses should be has continued. Automation is spreading in different industries at different rates, so strategic thinking should take place right now.
Governments should pay attention to what business leaders are saying. In the case of Jack in the Box, how can state governments retrain or re-employ fast food workers who are displaced by machines? If there is no answer, then it once again reinforces the threat that automation poses to social, economic, and political instability.
More on Drone Rules, Robot Law, and China:
- What Business Managers Need to Know About Automation
- CES Recap: AI & Robotics Trends to Watch in 2018
- Will an AI Bubble Be the Next Dot-Com Bubble?
- AI Rivalry Encompasses U.S., China, and Canada; UN Proposes Global Drone Registry
- Komatsu Implementing Nvidia’s AI on Construction Sites
- Emerging AI Applications Include the Law; Self-Driving Cars to Deliver Services, Security
- Flying Taxis Prep for Takeoff, Berlin Boosts IoT, and Washington Scrutinizes Trade
- Don’t Worry — Robots Aren’t Going to Take Your Job
- Drones as a Service Are a Natural Extension of RaaS
Future Army capabilities may include bots
A request published on the Federal Business Opportunities website outlines a new capability the U.S. Army is exploring, namely an AI system that can analyze social media, including posts in other languages. The system should be able to analyze posts for emotion and would help the U.S. government stop social media from being used to influence people against its interests.
Artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming core to how militaries combat threats in the digital age. The challenge for nations though is whether AI will objectively look at threats online, or whether AI will carry the same biases and attitudes that humans currently have.
In the case of the U.S., if such systems analyze and stop content only from Russia, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Libya, and Venezuela, that would only heighten tensions between the U.S. and these nations.


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Why Is Bitcoin Rising So Fast Web 14 May 2019 · The price of bitcoin (BTC) rose by 48% in a month, its dominance reached the levels of December 2017 reaching 60%, making analysts extremely positive with regard to the cryptocurrency market. There are at least 10 possible explanations for this bullish trend that could explain why bitcoin (BTC) is rising so
FXEmpire.com – Bitcoin broke through its support level today opening the door for lower prices. The lost level of support that could now turn into resistance is at $22,500 and is also exactly were the 20-day.
We knew Bitcoin as the first decentralized digital currency in 2009. A group led by the mystery man created way back in 2009 by the mystery man known as Satoshi Nakamoto. The name has always.
Best Bitcoin Mining Sites Web Start Bitcoin Mining For Free, No Fees, Daily Payouts: Unmined.io keyboard_arrow_down Get Free Bitcoins Every Hour Try the new unmined.io featuring a built-in SHA-256 mining algorithm and achieve up to eight times faster speed compared to other cloud mining. Start mining Now! Get Free Bitcoins Every Hour Web 30 Jan 2023 · Bitcoin Cloud Mining
Forbes – 2022 has been very rough for all the cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin. Infact, the largest cryptocurrency of the world, Bitcoin has lost nearly 65% of its market value in the entire year of 2022.


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André Leon Talley has made up his mind after eight years: the Vogue editor-at-large has accepted Tyra Banks' invitation to join the America's Next Top Model judges panel, armed with Anna Wintour's blessing and 13 custom-made Chado Ralph Rucci capes.
The larger-than-life fashion maven has signed on for three "cycles" on the show, convinced by Banks' success over the past several years. Banks tapped Talley to educate viewers and elevate the reality competition to the realm of high fashion. And while Talley wanted his samurai-inspired TV wardrobe to pop, Banks will tone down her look in the editor's honor. Needless to say, we can't help but be intrigued.
Talley has already been savvy about his television debut, adopting the catchphrase, "drecktitude", a hybrid of "dreck" and "quackitude", which he adopted from none other than Rachel Maddow. We're guessing that's just a small taste of the sound bite gems that will come flying out of that flamboyant mouth of his over the course of the season.
ANTM has been notoriously churning out winners who, after the prize Cover Girl contract and Seventeen cover, seem to disappear from the mainstream and high fashion modeling worlds (unlike, say the Project Runway designers and Top Chefs of the world). Talley, however, truly believes the winner (who's been chosen) has a shot at Vogue, so we'll have to see if he can take the show in that new direction.


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COVID-19 conditions have weighed heavily on Red Robin in recent weeks, although the burger chain’s to-go business is picking up.
The company announced Tuesday it’s temporarily closed 35 corporate restaurants—the majority of which are mall-based locations. As a result, Red Robin furloughed affected restaurant managers and employees, it said. Some were transferred to nearby locations where possible.
Additionally, Red Robin temporarily reduced pay by about 20 percent for all non-furloughed restaurant support center and supervisory employees, effective April 20. It also eliminated roughly 50 support center G&A positions (active April 17), and is engaging in “constructive discussions” with landlords regarding the potential restructuring of lease payments. Red Robin said the process is ongoing.
The 550-plus unit chain is in the final week of its fiscal first quarter. And things were off to a solid start pre-COVID-19.
In the period through March 23, same-store sales were up 3.4 percent, year-over-year.
Here’s how that progressed (same-store sales versus prior-year period):
- Week ending March 1: 0.9 percent
- Week ending March 8: –3.7 percent
- Week ending March 15: –26.3 percent
- Week ending March 22: –72.7 percent
- Week ending March 29: –70.5 percent
- Week ending April 5: –63.9 percent
- Week ending April 12: –65.2 percent
While this dramatic chart unfolded, Red Robin’s off-premises sales per restaurant lifted:
- Through February 23: $7,674
- Week ending March 1: $8,264
- Week ending March 8: $7,963
- Week ending March 15: $7,534
- Week ending March 22: $13,172
- Week ending March 29: $18,259
- Week ending April 5: $20,782
- Week ending April 12: $19,033
The final week included the Easter holiday weekend, which was one week earlier than the prior year.
“We continue to be focused on protecting the health and safety of our team members and guests, and are taking additional actions to preserve liquidity, reduce costs, and better position Red Robin for the long term,” CEO Paul Murphy said in a statement. “These include both short- and longer-term initiatives that will enable the Company to more effectively benefit from an eventual recovery in on-premise sales as the impact of COVID-19 subsides. At the same time, we continue to be encouraged by the strong growth in our off-premise sales, which is helping to reduce the impact of the temporary closures on the dine-in business.”
Red Robin has implemented several initiatives over the last month, including a “pre-work symptom survey,” to ensure employees aren’t sick and are sent home when they show any signs. It’s also sealing to-go bags and pizza boxes with tamper-proof stickers and encouraging guests to remain in their cars for pickup.
Red Robin has designated curbside parking spots where customers can see signs with a phone number to call when they’ve arrived.
The chain also reduced its menu options April 2 to streamline kitchen and supply chain. It’s calling this the “Best Of” menu. It features alcohol where available by law as well.
Red Robin is offering 20 percent of online gift cards for a limited time, too, and free direct delivery through its site.
The company last provided an update in early April saying it had more than doubled its off-premises sales in a two-week span. It also revealed that it drew down on the remaining capacity in its $300 million credit facility, which brought the brand’s cash balance to more than $91 million as of March 29.
Executive salaries were reduced by 20 percent, effective March 30, and board member cash retainer fees were sliced by the same amount.
The company decided to postpone the rollout of Donatos pizzas in an effort to eliminate non-essential spending on capital expenditures, planned growth, and other initiatives like restaurant redesigns and IT projects. Before the pandemic, Red Robin planned to shake up its menu by bringing pizza—via Donatos—to 100 restaurants in 2020 then 150 each in 2021 and 2022
In Q4, Red Robin’s off-premises business increased 26.9 percent to 13.9 percent of food and beverage sales.
Q4 same-store sales increased 1.3 percent to give Red Robin two consecutive periods of positive gains. That after reporting negative in seven of the previous eight and 12 of the last 14.
The company’s net loss in Q4 narrowed to $7.7 million, or 60 cents per share, from $10.6 million (82 cents per share) in the year-ago period. Adjusted net loss was $4.7 million versus adjusted net income of $5.4 percent in Q4 2018. Total revenues decreased 1.2 percent, year-over-year, to $302.9 million. Restaurant revenue fell $4.1 million due to a $7.8 million decrease from restaurant closures, partially offset by the comps growth.
Red Robin’s 1.3 percent same-store sales performance was weighed down by traffic. Q4 average check lifted 4.1 percent, thanks to a 1.1 percent increase in menu mix and 1.8 percent hike in pricing, and a 1.8 percent uptick from lower discounting. Guest counts fell 3.4 percent.
Red Robin finished fiscal 2019 with 556 total restaurants. It closed five units and sold 12 to franchisees in Q4. For the full calendar, the chain shuttered 18 locations (all company owned). There were 573 total units as of December 30, 2018. Red Robin headed into 2020 with 102 franchises versus 89 this time last year, and 454 corporate locations compared to 484.


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AUSTIN (KXAN) - A tip from a citizen back in April that Nike shoes were being sold below market value at two Austin area stores ends with police busting a counterfeit shoe ring.
The shoes were being sold at two Dollars & Cents stores--one at Hwy 290 and IH-35 and the other on Rogge Lane.
Undercover officers went to the location off Rogge Lane Thursday and bought a pair of Nike shoes, one for $45 and the other for $50 from Russell Harris, 44, a court affidavit states. Those particular shoes are valued at $160 and $150, police said.
Police said Harris identified himself as part owner of the store and admitted that the shoes were not real Nike shoes.
Officers were joined in the sting by a private investigator who contracts with Nike and other companies to investigate counterfeit merchandise.
According to the affidavit, the contracted investigator did issue a cease and desist order to the owners of both Austin stores in 2009.
Police said they brought the shoes to this private investigator who confirmed they were counterfeit.
Police returned to the store and arrested Harris. In plain view, police said they saw counterfeit Nike, Gucci, Christian Dior, Coach, Burberry and Louis Vuitton merchandise, the affidavit states.
Police said they found 161 counterfeit items.
The total retail price and loss to the manufacturer is $6,570, police said.
The price placed on the items by Harris was $1,415, police said.
Harris was arrested and is now facing felony trademark counterfeiting charges.
Winter is invading Texas with a vengeance as snow, sleet and ice were unleashed on much of northern and western sections of the state.
A man is expected to survive after being stabbed in the head at the Salvation Army shelter in Downtown Austin at about 3:45 a.m. Friday.
Investigators are looking into an overnight fire that left one woman with third-degree burns.
Caldwell County residents gathered Thursday evening to organize their fight against a proposed landfill that they say poses a hazard that they don't need.
The pastor of the Austin church attended by the teacher who was killed Thursday in Benghazi remembered him as a spiritual friend dedicated to improving the lives of others.
In just a few months, Pflugerville will be home to a new water park. It's just the latest development as the community becomes a major suburb.


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IMAGINE BELIEVING you can do something positive for your community by banning shopping carts.
The head of that business coalition told our colleagues at Beach Radio in Vernon that the city needs to turn around its reputation as one that turns a blind eye to bad behaviour associated with homelessness.
Here in Kamloops, we’ve had our own shopping cart wars.
James Peters is the radio anchor at CFJC, coming to Kamloops in 2006. He anchors the afternoon news on B-100 and 98.3 CIFM, and contributes weekly editorials to the CFJC Evening News. He tweets regularly @Jamloops.


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Very soon Google plus would allow its users to play Cityville – one of the most popular games by Zynga on its website.
The two companies have been partners for quite sometime now and Google is one of the investors in Zynga. This gaming platform was launched in August and one of the first titles that Zynga had was Zynga Poker.
Cityville has so far been able to draw a lot more traffic on Facebook than any other game and it is expected that after hosting this game on Google plus it would have a tremendous increase in traffic. As of now Google plus has 50 million users and Facebook has more than 800 million users.
As far as Zynga is concerned it is as if now dependent only on Facebook; by securing a place on Google plus it would surely have a lot more hits. This business tie up would definitely prove more profitable to Zynga because Facebook takes away 30% of its share of profits and Google supposedly is offering better terms.


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Toulouse is constantly growing and its numerous tourist attractions will be offering new activities in 2020. Here’s a round-up of the most emblematic new features.
Aeroscopia, the aeronautical museum that already houses around thirty legendary aircraft (Concorde, A400M and more) is being extended to welcome five new aircraft, including an A380, which visitors will be able to visit fully from February 2020, and an A320 christened by Princess Diana. In 2020, a free-fall simulator will also be set up next to the museum.
The Cartoucherie neighbourhood, a former industrial area currently being converted into an eco-neighbourhood, will house a new “Third Place” in 2020, a social hub offering a range of activities, based on a model that already exists in several European cities: Les Halles de la Cartoucherie.
The entrance area will house a food hall, among other things, with 26 catering outlets (local products and world cuisine, a craft brewery, and more), due to open in March-April 2021.
Several sites are set to reopen after months of renovation work: the Musée des Augustins, Toulouse’s fine arts museum, will be accessible from November 2020; the Daurade Basilica and its Black Virgin can be visited from December 2019.
The Cité de l’Espace will also be given a facelift in 2020. From February onwards, the "Cité des petits" will offer its young visitors an entirely new experience, to stimulate their interest in space and get them thinking about the mysteries of the universe. After receiving and scrupulously fine-tuning, in July 2019, a replica of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module (LM), the Cité de l’espace has been offered an exceptional new exhibit by one of China’s two space agencies, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC): a life-size model of the CHANG’E-4 Chinese probe, with its YUTU-2 rover, which achieved an historic feat in early 2019: the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon. This exhibit has been on display in the Cité de l’espace gardens since September 2019.


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FIN urged Congress to apply BSA standards to crypto firms; Jay Clayton affirmed his stance that crypto products are subject to existing securities laws; China’s proposed cryptocurrency is taking shape ahead of an expected go-live later this year; Stripe launched a lending product for online businesses; Uber is exploring offering loans to its drivers; the Hong Kong Stock Exchange suffered cyber attacks; and U.K. digital banks are expected to triple their customer base over the next year, but likely will remain unprofitable.
The SEC brought suit against Kik for its $100 million token offering that allegedly violated U.S. securities laws; JPMorgan is shuttering its mobile-only bank Finn one year after its nationwide rollout; Facebook plans an independent foundation to run its proposed cryptocurrency; the FSB considers the effect of decentralized financial technology on financial stability; and a survey finds half of EU businesses are unprepared for new security rules for payments.
Kik is crowdfunding money to officially challenge the SEC’s ruling that its Kin token is subject to securities rules; IBM and Maersk expanded their successful blockchain-based TradeLens shipping consortium; Facebook’s GlobalCoin is reportedly set to launch in early 2020; the German Bundesbank was critical of blockchain following a test of its ability to facilitate securities transactions; TransferWise raised nearly $300M in new funding, giving it a $3.5B valuation; and Plaid expanded services to the U.K.
The SEC delayed its decision on Bitwise’s proposed bitcoin ETF again; Paytm is working with Citi to launch its first physical card in India; Investec shut down its robo-advisory business; the ECB produced a white paper exploring the risk to the EU posed by crypto assets; British MPs called for shared bank hubs; Coinbase expanded global access to the USD Coin stablecoin; and crypto trading platform eToro is expanding to the U.S.
The SEC issued new guidance on digital assets, and also issued a no-action letter regarding digital token use; BNY Mellon and BlackRock partnered on a data sharing agreement; the FSB published a directory of global crypto-asset regulators; Affirm raised $300M in Series F funding; and JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon highlighted developments in AI, fintech, and China in his annual letter to shareholders.
The U.S. SEC delayed making a decision on two bitcoin ETFs; FICO and Equifax announced they plan to sell customer data to banks; a new report indicates that the majority of crypto exchanges lack appropriate KYC and AML controls; Apple announced it will introduce a new credit card in partnership with Goldman Sachs and Mastercard; and Hong Kong’s securities regulator announced new guidance on crypto token offerings.


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Three Wayne State students felt frustrated with the lack of creative media platforms in Detroit. After spending countless hours reading blogs based out of cities such as New York or Los Angeles, the students were inspired to start their very own blog. This led to the birth of La Vie Détroit, a curated blog dedicated on reporting about art, fashion and culture in Detroit.
Shawn Kaura, 20, Avery Naman, 20, and Mason Williams, 19 founded La Vie in February 2017.
Kaura and Naman are both pre-med majors. Together they work on ideas, story pitches and control the creative direction of the blog. Williams is majoring in fashion design and merchandising, and develops the clothing line for La Vie.
Recently, La Vie has received praise from media outlets such as Jibs Podcast and the art blog Taco Picasso. However, the start of La Vie was challenging said Kaura.
“This idea for La Vie would come in and out of our heads, we didn’t know how to make it a reality,” said Kaura. Eventually in January 2018 they decided to act upon their dreams and bought a domain name.
“Our goal was simple,” said Naman. “We wanted to give style inspiration while documenting the local artistic and cultural happenings in Detroit.”
Out of the three founders, Williams is the only one who studies fashion at WSU. However, Naman and Kaura both said their pre-med majors do not affect their ability to write about fashion.
“Fashion for us, although it’s not something we technically study, we implement it in our everyday lives,” said Naman. “We study the game and are constantly filtering through lookbooks, and doing a bunch of background research that people might not see.”
Although the three boys started the blog in Detroit, the three bloggers are from the suburbs of metro Detroit.
Brands, such as Detroit vs. Everybody and General Motors Co., commonly use the personality and reputation of the city of Detroit to market and advertise their company, products and the like. However, Naman said that they are not using the city as a marketing tool, and all of the founders collectively have a certain personal connection to the city.
“Although we weren’t born or raised here, we grew up around and in the city. In high school we did plenty of service and learning in Detroit,” said Naman. “Now in college, we decided to stay and properly move in because we have the connection and care for the city.”
Kaura also said Detroit helped to shape his identity.
“Most of my maturing and self-growth happened in Detroit,” said Kaura. “I have definitely been surrounded by Detroit long enough to where I feel credible to talk about the ins and outs of the city.”
The founders of La Vie said that they have plans to expand their company and create a networking space for creatives in Detroit.
“There is no way for creatives in Detroit to collaborate and work together,” said Williams. “We want to fix that through growing our student organization at [WSU] and helping to bring artist[s] together.”
Naman said that despite the high price tags on some of the clothing they recommend, they proactively try to work with the community instead of exploiting it and perpetuating gentrification.
“We are attempting to learn the underground gusto that encapsulates Detroit. We want to learn more about the city, embrace Detroit’s creativity and show that Detroit deserves to be seen,” said Kaura.
To keep up with La Vie, check out their website.
Slone Terranella is arts and entertainment editor of The South End. She can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org.


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Kids today still play baseball and cut out paper dolls. But increasingly they are playing online—in virtual worlds.
Altogether in 2008, an estimated 8 million US children and teens visited virtual worlds on a regular basis, and eMarketer projects that number will grow to over 15 million by 2013.
Virtual world usage among children in the US is already quite strong and getting stronger. eMarketer estimates that 37% of online children ages 3 to 11 use virtual worlds at least once a month. By 2013, 54% will.
In addition, 18% of online teens will visit virtual worlds on at least a monthly basis in 2009, according to eMarketer, and by 2013, 25% will.
“Unfortunately, as with social networks, advertising has not kept pace with usage,” says Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, Kids and Teens: Growing Up Virtual. “Not surprisingly, the hype and fizzling out of Second Life, combined with the tough economy, have made some marketers skittish for virtual worlds in general.”
But things are turning out differently for virtual worlds aimed specifically at the youth audience.
According to Virtual Worlds Management, as of January 2009 112 virtual worlds aimed at children under 18 were already up and running worldwide, and another 81 were in development.
“The rate of development in virtual worlds targeted to the youth audience will slow as economic pressures mean less money for venture capital and for advertising to support new worlds,” says Ms. Williamson. “But there is no denying that creating avatars and exploring virtual worlds are growing activities for many children and teens.”
Virtual worlds reside in a sweet spot between online games (which are intensely popular among children) and social networking (similarly popular among teens).
While the vast majority of virtual world users are children and teens, adult users are more likely to be parents monitoring their children’s use of virtual worlds.
According to a late-2008 survey by Accenture, 9% of adults said they spent at least 1 hour per week in a virtual world. But Forrester Research found in 2008 that only about 3% of adults engaged with virtual worlds at all.
Currently, virtual world advertising is a small business, but it has interesting growth potential.
“Advertising in virtual worlds gives marketers new insights into how consumers perceive and interact with their brands,” says Ms. Williamson.
To explore the engagement opportunities that branded worlds themed to real-world products offer, find out more about the new eMarketer report (Note: Interactive Report—available only to Total Access subscribers), Kids and Teens: Growing Up Virtual.
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Weather Company’s Webster Touts the Power of Forecast Data in Local Marketing
Many of the recent advancements in marketing technology are predicated on the promise of an increasingly sophisticated ability to anticipate consumers’ actions and movements. But what kind of information can be depended upon to formulate the educated guesses that result in actual transactions? Of all the data that can be gathered and utilized, what works best to heighten the accuracy of these predictions? Some would argue it’s that most local of information that is all around us: the weather.
People have been checking forecasts via The Weather Company for more than three decades, and most of the company was acquired earlier this year by IBM, which saw the potential for its Watson Internet of Things division. Street Fight recently caught up with the firm’s EMEA Managing Director, Ross Webster (who will be a speaker at our upcoming LOCALCON conference in London next week), to talk about what makes weather data so valuable to businesses.
Obviously there’s no information that’s more local than the weather. How can it be leveraged to help businesses connect and engage with consumers?
We call ourselves a location company that’s driven by weather. We map 2.2 billion locations globally for weather forecasts and provide information to allow people to plan their lives — to make decisions about what they’re going to do, where they’re going to go, what they’re going to wear. And we work with a lot of companies on a B2B basis: aviation companies, energy companies, retailers, anything where business performance would be affected by the weather.
Over the last four or five years, as data has become much easier to leverage and manipulate, we’ve started seeing ourselves as a product and technology company as well as a media company. From that, we’re starting to have conversations about how we can take data and predict consumer behavior based on weather conditions. We’re not just looking at the weather as absolute — “It’s sunny outside, so let’s have some ice cream.” It’s much more about the different layers of weather data, around relativity and seasonality.
For example, 60 degrees in Austin and 60 degrees in New York may be the same temperature, but people in Austin would react very differently [from people in New York]. We’ve started putting together algorithms that can basically predict consumers’ propensity to buy or behave in a certain way.
This weekend in London, we had the first sunny, warm-ish day. It wasn’t that warm, but it was sunny, and suddenly everyone was in shorts, buying ice cream. But we’re still in the beginning of April, so no one was leveraging that behavior change. Humans act like a swarm, and when the weather changes, we all change our behavior on the back of that. The clever advertisers would be the ones advertising ice cream and summer activities even though it’s April. We divide the seasons into six, and the most important ones are those transitional seasons between spring and summer and autumn and winter.
How does a long-established organization like the Weather Company build innovation into its DNA?
I think a lot of it comes down to talent. We started pivoting from being a media company that was behaving like a media company to one that’s behaving like a product technology company when the leadership changed. [Weather Company CEO] David Kenny came in from Digitas, very much from the technology side, and he brought people behind him like Curt Hecht from VivaKi Nerve Center. We’ve always known that weather has an influence on people, but Curt and David realized that if we started providing solutions that were much more in line with what was happening with the data explosion, we would be ahead of the game.
Obviously we’ve been bought by IBM, and one of the reasons they were interested in us is that our forecast platform is so involved they wanted to [incorporate it into] their Internet of Things platform. We were already doing the B2B side, and it took a mindset change for us to also start innovating the media business and innovating for consumer engagement using the same tools.
How does the company’s strategy vary from country to country?
We’ve been much more of a B2B offering outside of the U.S. In the U.K. and some other countries we operate on a similar scale as we do in the U.S., but there are areas where we don’t have any sort of real footprint. In those countries, our offering is quite different — we’re operating much more as a product and technology company. We provide a solution to advertisers within their technology stack that can empower them to leverage weather insights. That’s where the business is going outside the U.S. We have an ambition to expand our media platforms as well, but I think the opportunity at the moment is very much around working with advertisers and their ad stack.
How is brands’ adoption of marketing technology different outside of the U.S.?
I think there are parts of the U.K. that might be more advanced than the U.S., as far as adopting and adapting to new technology. Every market has its own personality. There are some in Europe that aren’t as quick as other places, and how we’ve gotten around that is by starting a strategy of partnering with local media. We have a deal in Germany with a company called Burda, a big online content producer. We go into a market and learn with a partner about how to integrate into that market. We’re not just going in with a U.S. or a U.K. perspective. We’re learning how exactly to approach a market, and how to define our products within it.
What do you think will emerge as the main issues in local in the next year or so?
I would look at some of the issues around mobile. I think we’ve still got a long way to go when it comes to measurement. Intuitively we know the importance of hyperlocal as far as marketing opportunities, and I think the companies that can really get their hands around proving that, proving impact and deliverability, will be the ones to succeed. We’re working really hard to ensure that we can prove the effectiveness of location marketing. We need to shake out the wheat from the chaff, as with any sort of innovation market. There needs to be a bit of a shakeout to ensure that every single vendor is doing everything absolutely correctly. And the proof is in the pudding.
Annie Melton is Street Fight’s news editor.
Hear more from Ross Webster at our upcoming conference on April 20-22 at the Chelsea Football Stadium in London. Click below for tickets!


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Windows 7 and 8.1 will get Windows Defender protection.
Internet Explorer 11 is Microsoft's latest version of the Internet Explorer browser. In an official blog post today, Microsoft is touting several reasons why Internet Explorer 11 is the perfect browser, since it is faster and safer than older versions.
BitLocker Drive is an extremely useful security feature which integrates within the operating system, and protects the data from threats of data theft or exposure from lost, stolen, and unattended computers. With the latest Windows...
With the official release of Office 2016 today, Microsoft is also pitching why it believes upgrading to this new version is a good idea. While Office 365 users will be automatically updated to the latest...
If you are reading this in Internet Explorer, you should probably close it and fire up Chrome -- and come back after a newly reported zero-day flaw is patched. Even the U.S. and U.K. governments are warning against use of Internet Explorer for now.
Today, the conclusion of my talk with Jim Blasko (here's part 1), who encourages you to go start your own crypto currency, because it's a fun exercise and because every entrant adds new ideas to the mix. As you'd expect,
How can the UK's engineering and manufacturing industries prevent falling victim to a skills shortage?
The increase in cyberattacks have led consumers to turn to mobile as the more secure channel.
A lacklustre MWC, the slow advancement of 5G and security threats galore.
All members of your organisation should be properly prepared for the upcoming regulation, even the C-Suite.
Chipmaker was able to shrink its processors to 10nm but not its GPUs.
Preventing software audits can save your organisation both time and money.
Let’s look at the three aspects that come into play and how they can be employed to your advantage now.
An ongoing learning programme can be quite beneficial to your organisation if executed and managed effectively.
Next-generation technology comes to the fore as Huawei unveils investment and research priorities ahead of Mobile World Congress.
Lack of access to talent could hit growth hard, new report says.
威锋网讯，昨天苹果除了宣布 8GB 版本的 iPhone 5c 登陆部分地区之外，还宣布了 iPad 4 的回归，正式将 iPad 2 下架。
据国外科技媒体Android Community 3月31日消息，最近几年，摩托罗拉手机业务一直低迷不振。不过，不久前发布的Moto G智能手机助其在欧洲市场发展，已在英国市场获得6%的份额。
An anonymous reader writes:Linux creator Linus Torvalds is well-known for his strong opinions on many technical things. But when it comes to systemd, the init system that has caused a fair degree of angst in the Linux world, Torvalds is neutral. "When it comes to systemd,
HTC Desire 820 的中端旗舰的地位虽然很快就被 Eye 给挤了下去，但这部接替 816 超值大屏幕手机的机型，但仍以 Snapdragon 615 的 64 位元双四核心（1.5GHz x 4、1.0GHz x 4）的有趣规格，让这部 5.5 寸...
灾难降临时，如何才能最快获得通知？空气投影 3D 图像是个不错的方案，不过真要用上还得再等几年。于是有人想到了我们无时无刻不攥在手中的通讯工具——智能手机。 当然，这里要说的肯定不会是打电话一一通知。


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Did you ever imagine that a refurbished phone that you have bought “just like new” at 50% cheaper than new can come with a warranty and an additional accidental damage and liquid damage protection – for FREE?! Now when you buy an open box or refurbished phone from GreenDust.com, it comes with just that for additional peace of mind.
Coming as a blessing for people who are concerned for their favorite phone getting damaged by accident or any liquid substance, GreenDust has come to a rescue. GreenDust is here to offer exceptional damage protection to mobile phones that is not covered by phone manufacturers.
GreenDust is already a market leader and a trusted name in the refurbished market with loyal customers who like to get value for their money. Recently GreenDust’s “flash sale” in mobile was a super hit with its customers where they were sold out in less than 24 hours. GreenDust now plans to extend the flash sale model to include additional brands and categories. With this special offer, users will get double benefit at no additional cost. All the buyers of branded refurbished phones will get additional accidental damage and liquid protection offer from GreenDust while buying from its website or mobile app. The deal via mobile app is even sweeter as customer get additional discount if they buy via GreenDust mobile app.
Hitendra Chaturvedi, founder & CEO, GreenDust said, “We would like to set a benchmark in customer service and show our customers that they can buy from GreenDust , save lot of money and rest easy because we are standing behind them with warranty and additional protection. This has never been done before in the world and we are setting benchmarks in customer service in refurbished products space.”
GreenDust accidental damage and liquid protection protects users from the damage over and above to the warranty offered by OEMs. GreenDust protection plan is free of cost and is application for one year from the date of purchase.


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Volvo: All-season tyres for electric cars in Europe
Volvo Cars has announced that the fully electric cars it sells in Northern and Central Europe – but not the UK – will come with all-season ‘Recharge’ tyres as standard. Original equipment Recharge tyres are specifically developed for Volvo’s Recharge product line, and according to the carmaker are the first tyres for year-round use to achieve an EU tyre label ‘A’ rating for energy efficiency.
Recharge tyres will become standard on fully electric Volvo cars sold in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland, Sweden and Ukraine.
Figures recently published by a large European tyre maker indicate that all-season tyres respectively account for 22 per cent and 14 per cent of the large German and French tyre markets. Their share of the UK market is five per cent; while much smaller, this is a market share that’s grown from nothing in a relatively short timeframe. We thus asked Volvo Car UK why British consumers won’t receive the all-season Recharge tyres with their new electric cars.
Volvo’s spokesperson noted that requirements on tyres differ considerably between markets, and these differences aren’t just related to climate. Road surfaces also vary from country to country. Consumer expectations when it comes to comfort and durability play a role in original equipment tyre selection, too. “The Recharge tyres, as mentioned, have been introduced first to Northern and Central Europe, but from a UK perspective, a decision is still to be finalised,” comments Volvo Cars UK. “However, we are continuing to assess the potential of offering the option to customers here in future.”
Clear benefits for customers & the environment
Volvo calculates that driving a pure electric Volvo XC40 on Recharge tyres instead of winter tyres (‘C’ energy efficiency rating) can reduce energy consumption by up to eight per cent and extend the average driving range. It also points out that offering an all-season tyre in markets where bi-annual switches between summer and winter fitments are common provides an additional climate impact benefit, courtesy of reduced aluminium wheel production.
“With electric cars, keeping tyre rolling resistance low is more important than with traditionally powered cars, since it has a bigger impact on consumption and range,” says Gisela Blomkvist, head of the Volvo Cars Sustainability Centre. “Usually, that trait is limited to summer tyres – but with Recharge tyres we extend this into the winter months and realise clear benefits for customers and the environment.”
All-season a safety choice
The decision to make all-season tyres a standard fitment isn’t just an environmental choice, adds Volvo Cars: “In large parts of Europe, the conventional tyre setup of summer and winter tyres might not always be the safest option for the actual weather and road conditions.”
Volvo Cars says its safety experts have identified that it is “less safe” to use traditional summer or winter tyres when conditions are dry or wet with temperatures around zero degrees. “In these conditions, the Recharge tyres are the safest option.” Volvo adds: “The Recharge tyres, specially developed for our Recharge product line, offer the best-balanced safety performance all year round and excel when the weather and road conditions change frequently.”
“In a perfect world, you would wake up each morning, look outside your window, listen to the weather report and fit the right tyres to your car based on what you see and hear before driving away,” adds Jan Ivarsson, senior safety expert at Volvo Cars Safety Centre. “Of course, that’s too much to ask of people, so we offer the Recharge tyres as the best-balanced alternative to help keep our customers safe all year round.”
Recharge tyres may not be the best option for everyone. Volvo notes that winter tyres remain the safest option for customers who live in areas where winter conditions are severe and driving on snow or ice is common, or customers who frequently visit areas like these.
Recharge rollout begins with Volvo XC40
Volvo Cars is working with multiple tyre suppliers for its Recharge range during the initial roll-out in Northern and Central European markets. Recharge tyres will be standard fit on all fully electric Volvos starting with the new XC40 Recharge Pure Electric. This model will be sold either with 235/50 R19 front and 255/45 R19 rear tyres or with 235/45 R20 front and 255/40 R20 rear tyres.