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High salt intake is one of the biggest causes of high blood pressure.
As Hobson explained: “Too much salt raises the amount of sodium in your bloodstream upsetting the balance with potassium which helps the kidneys to remove water from the body.
“The extra fluid causes higher blood pressure affecting kidney, brain and heart health.”
Processed foods often contain a high salt content, warns Hobson.
According to the NHS, people should also cut down on the following foods:
- Gravy granules
- Salted and dry-roasted nuts
- Salted fish
- Smoked meat and fish
- Soy sauce
- Stock cubes
- Yeast extract
“Aim to eat less than 6g (0.2oz) of salt a day, which is about a teaspoonful,” advised the health site.
Sugar in all its forms
As Hobson explains, excessive sugar intake is associated with weight gain and obesity – major risk factors of high blood pressure.
“Free sugars are the issue, and these are those found in table sugar and all sweeteners, including honey, agave and maple syrup,” he said.
According to the British Heart Foundation, free sugar is any sugar added to a food or drink. “Extra sugar means extra calories and eating too many calories can lead to obesity,” explained the health body.
Consuming high amounts of saturated fat can increase a person’s LDL (bad) cholesterol levels, warns Hobson. LDL cholesterol is the unhealthy kind of cholesterol that can damage a person’s arteries, contribute to heart disease and increase their risk of having a stroke.
According to the NHS, foods high in saturated fat include:
- Meat pies
- Sausages and fatty cuts of meat
- Ghee (a type of butter often used in Indian cooking)
- Hard cheese
- Cakes and biscuits
- Foods that contain coconut or palm oil
According to Hobson, even though a (small) glass of red wine has been associated with helping to reduce the risk of heart disease, alcohol is a far cry from a healthy option.
“The reality is that most drinkers will drink more than a 125ml glass of red wine in a single sitting and many binge drink on the weekends,” he said.
Excessive alcohol intake can lead to weight gain which raises blood pressure, warns Hobson.
He added: “According to research, more than three drinks in a single sitting can temporarily increase blood pressure while habitual drinking can lead to more long-term blood pressure issues.”
Credit: Source link


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CHICAGO -- Grubhub announced on Friday in Chicago, where the company is based, that it's suspending collection of its marketing fees from independent restaurants across the U.S. starting Saturday.
"The City of Chicago is deeply concerned about the risk COVID-19 is placing on the health of our residents and communities, as well as the impact it's having on our working families and neighborhood economies and restaurants," said Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot at a news conference. "That is why we applaud corporate leaders like Grubhub who are stepping up with practical measures to support small businesses and their employees. Now more than ever, we must work together to ensure hardworking Chicagoans receive the support they need to thrive while also staying safe, secure, and healthy."
RELATED: Instacart, Postmates roll out no-contact delivery features amid COVID-19 outbreak
The CEO said that's up to $100 million of cash being pumped into American businesses.
"Independent restaurants are the lifeblood of our cities and feed our communities. They have been amazing long-term partners for us, and we wanted to help them in their time of need. Our business is their business -- so this was an easy decision for us to make."
Grubhub will also enable proceeds from its Donate the Change program to go toward charitable organizations that support restaurants and drivers impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak.
How to stock up for coronavirus: What you need, and why you shouldn't panic-buy

domain: news


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Angela Giuffrida sul Guardian parla degli effetti del regime fiscale italiano per gli “ultra ricchi”.
Italy rolled out the little-known incentive, which applies to the super-rich of all nationalities, in 2017. In exchange for paying an annual fee of €100,000 (£87,000), those who take up residency in the country are entirely exempt from paying tax on income generated overseas. The initiative also extends to family members for a yearly payment of €25,000 per person.
The measure, which was intended to boost big spending in Italy, whether it be on property or luxury brands, enticed 98 people in its first year before jumping to 549 by 2020 and more than doubling to 1,339 in 2021.
Their arrival has revitalised the market for luxury homes – buyers rarely put down less than €10m – and spurred the redevelopment of long-neglected historic landmarks in city centres.
Nineteen of the 29 opulent apartments under development in the swish Palazzo Raggi have been snapped up since going on sale less than a year ago, and several have been bought by those exploiting the flat-tax.
Commenta qui sotto e segui le linee guida del sito.


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(WYTV) – This week’s Hometown Hero is Jennifer Chiodo of Sharpsville.
Chiodo started the Shenango Valley Take Out Facebook page to help locally owned restaurants and small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She and other members of the group promote and advertise restaurants in the Shenango Valley that now rely on takeout only.
The page has already grown to just under 9,000 followers.
Some places have said their takeout businesses are doing better now than before the pandemic.
Chiodo said she’s just glad to help!
“It’s been such a blessing. I’ve met so many wonderful people on this page… Made so many new friends and got to talk to and get to know a lot of our area business owners with the restaurants and stuff. They’re just wonderful, wonderful people just trying to take care of their families, and I’m so honored to be a part of that,” she said.
If you’d like to join Chiodo in helping local businesses in the Shenango Valley, just go to the Shenango Valley Take Out page on Facebook.


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The affordable phone looks to be one of the biggest trends of 2014, with offerings from companies like HTC and Motorola having caught our eye. Windows Phones have also been leading the pack in terms of low-priced offerings, with a multitude of them coming in at less than $100. These latest two aren’t quite that cheap, but come in at more affordable prices than most of today’s flagships nonetheless.
Both the Lumia 636 and 638 phones are powered by the latest iteration of Microsoft’s mobile operating system, Windows Phone 8.1. Their differences don’t become apparent even when we talk specs — a 1.2 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 SoC, 5MP rear-firing camera, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, 1830 mAh battery, 4.5-inch Gorilla Glass 3 LCD display, and 4G LTE capabilities are to be found within both.
The only difference between the models is availability, as the Lumia 636 will be launching on China Unicom, while the Lumia 638 will make its way to China Mobile. The 636 will be available on July 21, while the 638 will go up for sale on July 5.


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Disruption is a prevailing and uncompromising theme of technological innovation in the 21st century. Technologies that can slice through preexisting layers of regulatory and business model processes to directly connect customers to the goods and services they seek are gaining traction across global markets. As a result, the regulatory compacts and constructs that have governed various forms of natural monopolies in energy markets face formidable challenges from distributed energy resources (DER). Chief among these challenges is a growing demand from customers to integrate these cutting-edge products to the electric distribution grid.
From solar photovoltaics (PV) and energy storage to demand response (DR)-enabled thermostats and electric vehicles (EVs), technologies with capabilities that were previously only provided to electric grids from supply-side resources are becoming available to the average consumer. Navigant Research expects the installed cost for PV in global markets to fall below $1.50 per watt by 2024, while the North American market for EV services and equipment is expected to grow to more than $4 billion by 2025. These trends fueling DER adoption bring with them complications for network operators, requiring nuanced coordination. This tangible convergence of DER interconnections to networks ill-suited to integrate demand-side behaviors is ground zero for DER disruption of the global energy landscape. The answer? Integrated Distributed Energy Resources (iDER) portfolios – and they’re coming.


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BBC announces next crop of digital start-ups on Worldwide Labs accelerator programme
Six companies to receive package of mentoring, networking and support
Global broadcasting firm BBC Worldwide today announced the six digital start-ups selected to take part in the 2014 iteration of its BBC Worldwide Labs business accelerator programme.
Now entering its third year, the Worldwide Labs programme will see selected businesses move into BBC Worldwide’s London headquarters for a year, receiving guidance and support from dedicated mentors, given access to business infrastructure, and entering into deals with BBC Worldwide’s business partners.
Unlike other tech accelerator programmes, BBC Worldwide does not take a stake in companies selected for its scheme, instead focusing on developing commercial partnerships with participants.
BBC Worldwide said 2014’s participants would be working in areas previously unexplored by companies on the Labs scheme, including audience research, advertising and video search.
The selected companies are:
- Rezonence: An advertising firm which allows publishers to monetise content by making consumers watch and interact with ads to unlock content
- Seenit: A video-sharing platform which allows users to ‘crowdsource’ the shots they need for a campaign
- CrowdEmotion: Software that uses a webcam to capture and respond to human emotions
- BuddyBounce: A platform that allows fans to earn rewards by following their favourite celebrities
- Verticly: A SaaS-based platform that delivers personalised multi-channel advertising to users based on social and location data
- OP3Nvoice: A video and audio interpreter allowing users to search the actual content of digital formats
Daniel Heaf, chief digital officer of BBC Worldwide, said: “With a strong pool of Labs applicants, we’ve carefully selected six companies based on their compatibility with BBC Worldwide’s business values.
“Now comes the exciting part where we work to help these start-ups reach the next level of success.”
Building a website for your business idea is easier than you might think. Our online tool ranks the top website builders that offer free trials.
Jordy Osborn, founder of freelancer platform The Backscratchers and a 2013 Labs graduate, said: “From getting the chance to film a promotional video for Unilever to developing HTML templates for Time Out, major brands and media organisations are taking note of the work we’ve done with BBC Worldwide and have opened their doors to us.
“Having BBC Worldwide on our score card definitely made that happen!”


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The curtain has gone down on Act I, and for a lot of electronic retailers there won't be an Act II.
E-tailers who have already exited the stage through mergers or plug-pulling include video vendor Reel.com, the inexplicably named Boo.com (sportswear) and Violet.com (a specialty boutique), and the rationally named Petstore.com, Toytime.com and Toysmart.com, whose Web site now includes guidelines for sending job offers to former employees.
Those still on stage are nearly drowned out by the noise of falling stock prices and cratering IPOs, and rumors of layoffs and cutbacks. It has been quite a show. And the audience is outraged.
Rarely have the economic gaffes of a few annoyed so many. Investors seeking reasons for the collapse don't have to look far. Industry analysts and market researchers have a list right on the tip of their tongues, and reasons fall into some startlingly simple categories:
Disdain for economics
As a child, perhaps you put up a lemonade stand. Did you price the stuff so as to make a profit ? Then congratulations--you did better than a lot of dot-coms.
An April report from Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass., noted that less than 40 percent of the dot-coms were aiming to be profitable before 2002, many would not commit to any timetable, and the concept of profit was widely seen as an impediment to the real business of establishing growth and market dominance. A third of them did not know or would not say where the necessary funding would come from, while others expressed a touching faith in the stock market or venture capitalists.
"Everyone thought that subsequent financing would not be a problem, and were shocked to find that the stock market would not support a secondary offering and that private investors had become skeptical," said Ken Cassar, analyst at Jupiter Communications, a research firm in New York.
"There are hollow dot-coms with highly promoted products they can never make money on," said Dave Sutton, vice president at the Atlanta office of Chicago's Inforte Corp., a management consulting firm. (Sutton has been involved in about a dozen dot-com start-ups--all still around, he noted.) "They are losing sight of the fact that strategy is about getting a sufficient return on investment, and if you don't make it, you are going out of business."
Nor is there any point in expanding a business when it loses money on each transaction, he added. "There is a lack of executive maturity [necessary] to create a balance and shut down non-productive sites," Sutton said.
Cassar spoke of dot-coms spending more on advertising than could have been made in profits from their market niche, and of multiple cases where a half-dozen start-up dot-coms are vying to dominate a segment that can logically barely support one such vendor.
"Hundreds of millions have been invested in the on-line grocery market, despite its small size, geographic dispersion and thin margins," he said.
Vendors who sold goods at or below cost often planned on making up the difference by selling banner ads on their sites, projecting that vast numbers of visitors--"eyeballs," in Web jargon--would be drawn there by the good deals.
"Banner ads turned out to be one of the most unsuccessful ways to advertise; people just see them as a distraction," Sutton said.
Fetish for brands
Perhaps you can remember some of the many dot-com ads that ran during the Super Bowl. If you can remember what company the sock puppet represented, congratulations, you have brand awareness. Now, can you name any specific products that company was selling? No? Well, that's merchandising--or the lack of it.
"Merchandising still matters, as opposed to just building a random brand name," said David Cooperstein, analyst at Forrester Research. "A brand by itself is not an asset, until someone buys your company. Meanwhile, you have to tell people what you are selling."
The whole idea of focusing on getting people to come to the site, to have big numbers to show to advertisers, assumes there are an unlimited number of new users out there, said Qaalfa Dibeehi at Cyber Dialogue Inc., a customer relationship management firm in New York. Even if there were, the approach is based on the old passive-audience broadcast advertising model, which began dying when the TV remote controls first allowed channel surfing, he added. E-tailers should embrace the Web's ability to let the consumer talk back, and find ways to personalize their offerings, like any smart clerk in a clothing store, he said.
"When someone comes to my site, I should do everything in my power to establish a conversation with him," Dibeehi said, adding that, so far, only a handful of vendors do that well.
Misjudging the audience
"Too many sites have focused on the early adopters as their customer base," said James Vogtle at the Boston Consulting Group in Toronto. "That was appropriate a year ago, but now the Web is a mass market, not a market of tech-savvy geeks."


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Shares of Affirm (AFRM 2.01%) traded as much as 7% lower early in Thursday's session in the wake of an announcement from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) that it plans to more intensively regulate "buy now, pay later" (BNPL) companies.
However, as of 10:45 a.m. ET, Affirm had recouped those losses and was trading roughly 2.3% higher.
The CFPB announced in a press release Thursday morning that it plans to issue new rules and guidance for BNPL companies to ensure that borrowers who use their services receive "many of the baseline protections" that credit card users do. It will also increase its oversight of the BNPL industry, and require the companies in it to undergo supervisory examinations.
"Buy Now, Pay Later is a rapidly growing type of loan that serves as a close substitute for credit cards," CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in the statement. "We will be working to ensure that borrowers have similar protections, regardless of whether they use a credit card or a Buy Now, Pay Later loan."
In addition to the announcement, the CFPB also released the results of a report it conducted on the BNPL industry. The agency found that BNPL loan approval rates are climbing, with 73% of applicants approved in 2021, compared to 69% in 2020. Additionally, the CFPB found that late fees are becoming more common in the industry: 10.5% of BNPL users were charged a late fee in 2021, compared to less than 8% in 2020. Furthermore, the report found that more purchases made using BNPL loans are being returned, and that BNPL lenders' margins are declining.
The CFPB also called out three specific risks to consumers as a result of BNPL: having all loan payments on autopay, the use of consumer data to increase sales, and borrowers stretching their finances with BNPL products.
Sometimes, regulatory clarity can be a good thing, and perhaps the increased oversight coming for the BNPL industry will be beneficial. But I don't know if I exactly see this particular case that way for these BNPL companies, as they could be looking at higher costs to meet their new regulatory requirements.
Furthermore, stronger regulation around their products could lead to reduced gross merchandise volume -- and facilitating more consumer sales is a big way that fintech companies like Affirm make money.
That said, the reasons I'm choosing to avoid Affirm's stock right now are less about this CFPB announcement, and more due to the ways rising interest rates could continue to impact Affirm's business.


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Beware presidents bearing tweets
10 July 2018
After an unexpectedly soft start to the year, data released over the past month suggest that global growth momentum picked up modestly in Q2. The global manufacturing PMI has continued to gradually decline through the spring and into the early summer. But the global services PMI, which represents a larger share of global economic activity, has staged a recovery and is not far from a multi-year high, led by the advanced economies. Meanwhile, our Nowcasts, which take into account a broader set of hard and soft indicators, imply that underlying global growth has stabilised a little above trend in recent months, albeit at a more subdued pace than in H2 2017. The US is economy will probably show the sharpest improvement in recorded growth in Q2, with tracking estimates currently above 4% annualised. The UK should also see a significant pick-up in growth as activity has recovered well from the weather-related weakness of Q1. We also expect Japanese growth to move back into positive territory, though growth in the Eurozone and emerging markets in the aggregate is likely to be little changed.
These healthy economic trends ought to have allayed investors’ fears about the outlook for the global economy. Yet global equity prices are still struggling to gain traction and remain below their January peak in USD terms. So what gives? Our analysis suggests that much of the blame is attributable to rising global trade tensions. Since the beginning of the year, the Trump administration has announced new duties on washing machines, solar panels, steel, aluminium, and more recently a 25% tariff on the export of 818 Chinese products, covering everything from aircraft, to chicken incubators and industrial magnets. More is likely to come, with investors especially wary of the results of the US Commerce Department’s Section 232 investigation into auto parts imports. In fact, on days that the president has tweeted about trade policy or China so far this year, the S&P 500 has declined a cumulative 6% (see Chart 1). As long as US trade measures do not spark an all-out trade war, we remain confident that the global economy will continue to expand at a healthy pace over the coming quarters. But it will be hard for investors to fully pay up for that growth until the risk of such a war is taken off the table.


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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Positive reports from several points along the consumer electronics business chain showed that people appear willing to spend money on smart phones and other gadgets, and the news helped lift shares of companies from chipmakers to online and traditional retailers.
Upbeat quarterly results from electronics retailer Best Buy Co. Inc., as well as bullish analysts comments on online retailers Amazon.com Inc. and eBay Inc. and a new, raised outlook from Qualcomm Inc. conspired Thursday to suggest that consumer spending on tech products is on the rise.
Probably the most-obvious sign that consumers might be feeling a little more confident came from Best Buy
The report also helped drive Best Buy's shares up $1.48, or 3.6 to close Thursday at $42.66. Read more about Best Buy's performance.
Bob Pavlik, chief market strategist at Banyan Partners, said the Best Buy results suggest that even though the consumer might not be sold on the economy, they are still likely to open up their wallets if they really want something bad enough.
"I think it's just that," Pavlik said. "What's happening is consumers will say one thing, that they are still a bit concerned about the economy, but when it comes to the bottom line and they need a new computer or something else, they're going to do a little shopping. And I think we might see more of this continue."
One of the beneficiaries of the rise in demand for mobile phones has been Qualcomm Inc.
Cody Acree, an analyst with Williams Financial Group, said Qualcomm's outlook was impressive, but when combined with the results from Best Buy, suggests that demand isn't limited to one particular segment of tech products.
"[The] March quarter demand is obviously well ahead of normal, seasonal weakness," Acree said, in a research note.
Qualcomm shares flexed their muscles, rising $2, or almost 5%, to close at $42.19.
And two of the classic bellwethers of Internet retailing are also signaling that consumer spending is at least taking some tentative steps forward.
In Wang's view, much of eBay's strength is coming from its PayPal payments processing business. When eBay reported its fourth-quarter results in January, the company said the total volume of payments through PayPal came to $21.4 billion, a 34% rise from the prior year. And as the majority of eBay merchants use PayPal to process their transactions, the growth of the business means that more consumers are willing to spend on the traditional non-discretionary items sold through eBay.
Other signs of a rise in consumer online commerce came from data released by online sales tracker Channel Advisor, which said that online same-store sales in February rose 17% from January. Aaron Kessler, an analyst with Kaufman Bros., said the Channel Advisor reports implies that consumers are increasing spending on larger-ticket items that cost more than $250, and that Amazon is benefitting from this trend.
"[The] data are positive for Amazon," Kessler said, in a research note. He said the data indicates Amazon's so-called electronics and general merchandise sales, which include televisions and other electronic goods, are doing better than Kessler's own forecast for year-over-year growth of 65%.


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Updated June 28, 2018 07:48:52Pornhub, the popular social media network, is to pay a $30-million settlement to resolve antitrust charges filed by the U.S. Department of Justice against the site.
PornHub is the second major tech company to face antitrust charges over its alleged dominance of the social media market.
In January 2018, the DOJ filed charges against Twitter and Facebook with the antitrust division of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.
Twitter had already settled with the DOJ for $5.5 million and Facebook had settled for $7.5 billion.
Pete Santilli, chief executive of Pornhub, said in a statement that the settlement was “a step in the right direction for our customers, our employees, and the industry.”
Porn’s move to settle comes at a time when social media giants like Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Twitter are facing mounting scrutiny for alleged market power.
In the past, Facebook has said it is not involved in the monetization of its content.
But it has been accused of favoring its own advertisers.
Pentagon officials have been warning of the dangers of social media and of the increasing dominance of large companies like Google and Twitter in the online advertising marketplace.


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(Updated from 9:22 a.m. ET)
analyst Stephen Fortuna cut his estimates on
this morning. Fortuna, who was already forecasting earnings near the lower end of the consensus estimate, reduced his second-quarter and full-year projections for the computer maker based on "extensive channel checks as well as the weak demand environment for PCs and servers that persists in the U.S. and has increasingly spread into Europe."
Fortuna cut his revenue forecast for the current quarter to $8.315 billion, down 17.9% from the same period last year. He pointed out that his new projection is well below the average, as the previous consensus top line estimate was closer to $8.8 billion, with forecasts ranging from $8.5 billion to $9.3 billion.
The analyst also cut his earnings estimate for the quarter to 3 cents a share from 5 cents. The
Thomson Financial/First Call
consensus estimate is for earnings of 5 cents a share.
"While headcount reductions due to layoffs and attrition should lead to a leaner cost structure, we do not believe that this will positively impact margins enough for Compaq to overcome lower than expected sales and meet the current Q2 EPS consensus of $0.05," Fortuna wrote in a research note.
"While it is very likely that revenue will be especially weak this quarter, there is a slim possibility that EPS could meet the current consensus if several big contracts close before the quarter's end," he continued.
For the full fiscal year, Fortuna lowered his earnings estimate to 35 cents a share from 45 cents a share. Wall Street's consensus estimate is 52 cents. Attempts to reduce inventory in the face of weak demand will continue to pressure Compaq's revenue stream throughout the year, the analyst said, but he believes that the company's concentration on improving efficiency, rather than short-term sales gains, is the proper path to take.
Fortuna maintained his earnings estimate for next year at 65 cents a share. Fortuna still rates the stock an accumulate, with a $16 price tag. Compaq closed yesterday's trading session at $13.49.


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Maruti Suzuki is all set to launch the 2022 Baleno by the end of February. The bookings of the new Baleno have already started. The manufacturer will be making some significant upgrades when compared to the current generation of Baleno. Now, we know that the upcoming Baleno will be heavier than the current generation. The same applies to the Toyota Glanza too.
The current Baleno’s weight is 1,340 kg whereas the new one weighs 1,410 kgs. So, the weight has gone up by 70 kgs. The reason behind the weight gain is still not known. It could be because of feature additions and some media reports suggested that Maruti Suzuki will be using a thicker sheet metal which should also have some positive effect on the build quality.
We also know that there will be an increase in the safety features that the new Baleno will offer. For starters. The top-spec variants would come with six airbags whereas the current one comes with dual airbags only. So, there would be front, side and curtain airbags on offer. There would be an Electronic Stability Program, Hill Hold Control, Anti-lock Braking System with Electronic Brake Distribution, Speed Alert System and ISOFIX child seat mounts.
Other features that are added to the Baleno are rear AC vents, rear USB ports for charging devices and LED fog lamps. There would also be cruise control for fatigue-free highway driving. There would be automatic climate control, push-button to start/stop the engine, keyless entry and much more.
Maruti Suzuki has already released the teaser that shows the heads-up display. The Baleno will be the first hatchback in its segment to come with a heads-up display. It would show various information so that the driver does not have to take his eyes off the road.
We also know that there will be a 360-degree camera on the Baleno because Maruti Suzuki released a teaser for it. It would show a top-down view of the hatchback. This will make it much easier to park the vehicle in tight parking spaces. This is also a segment-first feature that no other premium hatchback currently offers in the Indian market.
The manufacturer has also updated the infotainment system. It is a new 9-inch unit that has been co-developed with Toyota. The new infotainment system is called SmartPlay Pro+, the current one was called SmartPlay Studio and it measured 7-inches in size. It will support Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. As of now, we do not know whether both of them will be wireless or not.
There will be only one petrol engine on offer with the Baleno. It would be a 1.2-litre K-Series, four-cylinder engine that is naturally aspirated. It seems like there would be no mild-hybrid technology this time, but you would still get Idle Start-Stop.
The engine produces 90 PS of max power and 113 Nm of peak torque. It will come mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox or a 5-speed AMT. The claimed fuel efficiency of the manual gearbox is 22.35 kmpl whereas, for the AMT, it is 22.94 kmpl.
The post 2022 Maruti Baleno & Toyota Glanza Facelifts get heavier: Safety boosted? first appeared on Cartoq.Cartoq Read More


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Not enough businesses are using data analytics, and it’s not because there’s a data shortage. A new survey found that more than half of companies with devices that collect data aren’t using it for customer insights. Another found that many tech executives don’t think their companies can fully use the data they gather. This reluctance to use data can be costly, especially when businesses undertake expensive expansion programs without all the information they need to make the best possible orientation, site, and timing decisions for new stores.
How Analytics Drives Smarter Retail Growth Through Site Selection
by Marketing | Oct 10, 2016 | Customers, Retail, Sales, Small Business |


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[This article was first published in the Fairfax Sunday Star Times on 16 March 2014 under their title ‘Fonterra needs a milk rethink’]
Last week I wrote how Fonterra needed more capital. The balance sheet as at June 2013 shows total capital of $NZ14.4 billion, liabilities of $7.6 billion and equity of $6.7 billion This is much better than back in 2009 when liabilities were $9.3 billion and equity was only $4.8 billion, but it still leaves only modest capacity for funding further investments from borrowings. So if Fonterra is going to grow with any rapidity, it is going to need more shareholder funds.
Fonterra’s solution for 2013/14 is to siphon funds from the theoretical milk price as calculated using the rules in Fonterra’s Milk Price Manual. In doing so, as I showed last week, this actually takes money away from some groups, including sharemilkers who rely totally on the milk price. In contrast, some other groups benefit from the transfer, including the non-farmer unit holders who are not normally entitled to those milk price funds. Their returns are supposed to come from profits.
Fonterra will probably be able to get away with all of this in 2014, but only because groups such as the sharemilkers are already getting very high prices this year, and anyway are too busy milking their cows to organise protests. In future, Fonterra will want to develop new rules to ensure that the Milk Price Manual does indeed give them reliable profits.
Determining the milk price under TAF was always going to be a challenge. Given the absence of a competitive market, It was always going to be the outcome of complicated back-room calculations.
Realistically, these new rules are still unlikely to give retained profits of more than half a billion after paying out dividends of about another half billion. So how far will that half billion go?
We can get some idea of this from one of Fonterra’s key new investments this year, which is for a UHT (ultra-heat-treated) milk plant costing $120 million, which will produce 100 million litres per year of consumer-branded UHT milk. This milk will then be sold to consumers and food service buyers in China. It will also go to other Asian countries. This will also require investment in logistics and brand development. I would expect this additional investment to take the total investment up to at least $200 million. In other words, at least $2 of capital is required for every litre of annual capacity.
So how much milk does Fonterra produce? This year it will be processing more than 17 billion litres of milk from New Zealand, plus additional milk from Australia. The trend is upwards each year. Currently most of this NZ milk is sold as commodities, so let’s assume that Fonterra’s long term aim is to turn 10 billion litres of this commodity milk into consumer products. That would require $20 billion of investment! About half would need to come from equity, which would then give access to a similar amount of borrowings.
There is no way that Fonterra can access these levels of equity funds, given its current capital structure. Apart from profits, the main source of new funds will be from farmers who increase their production and need to buy new shares. Most of this money will be used for processing infrastructure to process the additional milk into basic commodities. The other option would be to increase the proportion of shares held by non-farmer investors as investment units, but Fonterra does not have its farmers ‘on-side’ for that to occur.
So a Fonterra mega shift to consumer products is not going to happen.
Many and perhaps most dairy farmers will not be upset with this situation. Commodity prices are excellent and likely to stay that way for some time. Farmers would in general prefer to invest money in land and cows rather than in Fonterra shares.
At a country level the hopes may be somewhat different. The Government has great plans as to how food and beverage exports are going to increase as a result of further processing and value-add, but much of it is just hot air. For that to occur, it is not just Fonterra that is not making the necessary investments. No other NZ company has the necessary size to even make a modest dent in the necessary numbers.
That leaves only overseas capital.
So for we have been seeing New Zealand investments by three of China’s big dairy companies. These are Yili in South Canterbury, Mengnui /Yashili in the Waikato, and Bright in Mid Canterbury. European companies are also becoming active investors. So the choice may come down to New Zealand owned commodity companies or overseas owned value-add companies.
Either way the land will still be here. And the second option will provide more jobs, more competition, and possibly more taxes. It needs some thought.


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Daily Archive: May 13, 2013
So I’m seeing a lot of hyperventilating about the revelations that the DOJ has been conducting traffic analysis. I thought it would be helpful to have a brief primer post on the subject of...
Mike Masnick highlights how the weird retail history of cars has led to state laws which leave electric luxury car manufacturer Tesla out in the cold.
So, over the weekend the good and decent Doc and I were chatting back and forth by text.


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Speeding Bullet Comics is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Power Rangers and the 25th anniversary of Speeding Bullet Comics in a big way this Free Comic Book Day!
Free Comic Book Day returns to Speeding Bullet Comics on May 6, 2023!
The store will welcome special guest Justin Nimmo, the Silver Ranger from “Power Rangers in Space,” from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Nimmo is probably best-known as Zhane the Silver Ranger from “Power Rangers in Space.” He’ll be signing at Speeding Bullet Comics as part of our Silver Anniversary celebration for 2023, on the biggest comic-book day of the year, Free Comic Book Day!
The character of Zhane has recently appeared in “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” #100, as well as storylines in the “Power Rangers” and “Power Rangers Unlimited” series of comic books.
Free Comic Book Day, held annually on the first Saturday in May, is a worldwide event in which participating comic book shops across North America and around the world give away selected comic books absolutely free to visiting patrons. We will have up to 5 free selected comics per customer all day long, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Free comics will feature Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Spider-Man and more this year.


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Smokers who have not cut back tend to look more aged than those who have. The U.S. tobacco industry is about to see the corporate equivalent as cigarette alternatives spark competition between the two companies behind the Marlboro brand, Altria MO 0.84%.
Philip Morris International (PM) is a leading international tobacco company. It produces and sells cigarettes and other tobacco products in markets around the world. PM is committed to providing adult smokers with the products they want, when they want them. The company's products are sold in more than 180 countries.
PMI's $16 billion takeover of Swedish Match looks set to go ahead. On Monday, the cigarette giant said it would own 83% of the European oral nicotine pouch maker following the completion of its offer. PMI needs 90% to delist Swedish Match and has given index funds and individual investors a further two weeks or so to tender their shares. All of the target's main shareholders have cashed in, including activist hedge fund Elliott Management, which had built a stake of more than 10%.
This deal will see PMI return to the US market for the first time in 14 years. Since it was spun out of Altria in 2008, PMI has distributed Marlboro cigarettes overseas, while Altria has continued to sell the brand in the US.
PMI is reducing its reliance on traditional cigarettes at a faster rate than its former owner. The company generates 30% of its net revenue from smokeless products, and is targeting a 50% share by the middle of the decade. This compares with roughly 10% for Altria in its latest quarter. PMI Chief Executive Jacek Olczak believes its IQOS heated tobacco brand can capture 10% of the U.S. nicotine market in volume terms by 2030. If Swedish Match is included, its overall market share in America could be significant.
The latest news from PMI is just the latest setback for Altria. Juul Labs, the vape brand in which Altria invested $12.8 billion four years ago, is reportedly considering filing for bankruptcy protection. In addition, Altria sold 9.2% fewer cigarettes in its latest quarter than in the same period last year. This number has been volatile since the pandemic began, but is expected to remain weak if PMI can convince more American smokers to switch to non-combustible products.
Altria will no longer have its main exposure to the heated-tobacco category when its exclusive agreement with PMI to distribute IQOS in the U.S. ends in 2024. The company will receive a $2.7 billion payment to end the tie-up early, which it could use to design a rival product. Altria also holds a 10% stake in Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev that it could sell to fund investment in new brands or acquisitions.
The joint venture with Japan Tobacco, announced last month, looks like it may not be very successful. The agreement is not binding, and any new product the partnership produces must be commercialized and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This means that PMI will have a head start of at least three or four years.
Even if Altria can come up with a great product quickly, it still faces challenges as noncombustible brands eat into sales of traditional cigarettes. PMI doesn't have this problem in the U.S., because it doesn't sell any cigarettes there. Altria could try to expand internationally, but this would dilute profit as overseas tobacco markets are less lucrative than the U.S.
Altria has invested billions of dollars in Juul and the on! nicotine pouch brand. However, most of this money has been lost, leaving a void that PMI is now moving into. Altria has rarely looked less healthy.
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EA reduces staff
The game giant lays off employees following its recent acquisition of Pogo.com.
We spoke to Electronic Arts today about the recent layoffs that have taken place at the company. According to EA, the layoffs are a reduction in its online and related departments following the recent acquisition of Pogo.com, an online game company. The layoffs affected less than 200 employees, and the company plans to continue to recruit and finish the year with approximately the same headcount as it had before the layoffs. The layoffs came from the company's Redwood Shores and Virginia offices, as well as the Origin Systems office in Texas.
The only game cancellation the company would confirm is that of Ultima Worlds Online: Origin, the sequel to Origin's popular online role-playing game Ultima Online. The remaining staff at Origin Systems will focus its efforts on improving the original Ultima Online game, and the company plans to release additional enhancements to the game after the upcoming release of Ultima Online: Third Dawn. According to EA, the Harry Potter game is still alive, although the project is still in the early planning stages and very little actual development has taken place.
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MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Calabrese Motorsports is proud to now be part of Calabrese Auto Group, along with Diamondback Towing, Airgraphix and JJ&M Auto Body. They would also like to welcome CEO Alex Stagliano to the Calabrese family of businesses.
Additionally, Calabrese Motorsports is pleased to announce Eddie MacDonald as our driver of the No. 43 Calabrese Auto Group Toyota for the K&N Pro Series East Zombie 150 on April 14 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“Eddie Mac” has a 17-year K&N Pro Series East career with seven wins, 36 top fives and 95 top 10s in 195 races. The Rowley, Massachusetts, driver, won the 2014 PittLite125 at Bristol and boasts five top 10s in six starts at “The World’s Fastest Half-Mile.”


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Eight years ago, Skittles made a pretty big change to their flavor lineup when they replaced the lime candy piece - that's the green one - with a green apple flavor. As lime had been a part of Five Fruity Flavors since Skittles was launched in 1979, the flavor change broke the hearts of some Skittles fans but now those candy-loving hearts can heal. Skittles has announced that the classic lime flavor is back in Skittles Original Flavor packs permanently starting next month.
Back in 2013, the band made the switch from lime to green apple after the green apple flavor out-performed lime in taste tests. Since then, the lime versus green apple debate has raged on and Skittles has even temporarily returned lime to the line-up for limited runs, including a special, all-lime pack earlier this year. But now, lime's back for good thanks to the devotion of Skittles fans.
"It's no secret that Lime has been a hot topic for SKITTLES fans since we replaced them with Green Apple back in 2013. Green Apple has had a good run, but the fans have spoken and it's time for Lime to return to the rainbow," Fernando Rodrigues, Mars Wrigley Senior Brand Manager said in a statement. "What better way to bring better moments to our loyal fans, than with the return of the most asked about flavor? The joy of Lime can't be denied anymore. It is back. This time for good."
Packs of the newly-restored original flavor lineup for Skittles Original - orange, lemon, grape, strawberry, and lime - will start hitting store shelves in October with a full nationwide roll-out taking place over the course of the year. Sour packs of Skittles will also feature the original flavor lineup.
As you can guess, fans are pretty stoked that lime Skittles are making a permanent comeback. Candy fans have been sounding off on social media about just how thrilled they are that lime is back. You can check out a sampling of the responses below and be sure to share your thoughts with us in the comment section.
The world is healing
they’re changing green apple skittles back to lime the world is healing.— marisa ♡ (@rismanagement) September 27, 2021
Not a joke!
LIME SKITTLES ARE RETURNING!!! THIS IS NOT A JOKE!!!— Mia🧣ミア (@delicatepisces) September 28, 2021
Redemption with today’s announcement of the return of lime skittles https://t.co/lBhVIcAfeg— joe kaup (@joe34pitcher) September 28, 2021
Lime Skittles Returning to Original Flavor Lineup After 8 Years!!!! Bruh this the shit that make me happy 😊— W👑 (@GotDammWatkins) September 28, 2021
It's the simple things
LIME SKITTLES ARE COMING BACK!!!!!! THIS IS ALL I WANTED IN LIFE!!!!!— Vera (◠‿◠) (@verabbit_) September 28, 2021
Life has meaning again
GREEN SKITTLES ARE GONNA BE LIME AGAIN THERE IS MEANING IN THIS DARK, CRUEL WORLD— Zoe! That's Me! (@Blankzilla) September 27, 2021
...maybe not quite that powerful.
Skittles is finally ditching Green Apple and bringing back Lime. Not gonna lie, I think that might end the pandemic...— 🐻⬇ Dan (@BearDownDan) September 28, 2021


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In deciding not to exhibit at the Macworld events, CES and MWC, Apple has shown the world that it doesn’t need others to be successful. It can control the conversation far better when it holds its own press conferences which are invitation-only by design.
While this philosophy was very successful for a number of years, what Apple didn’t count on was the innovation gap between its products and the rest of the market closing to the point where a large-screen Android smartphone is actually preferable by the masses to the company’s iOS based phone offerings.
In other words – the “Apple attitude” we’re too sexy for your trade show was a great marketing concept for a number of years but now it seems like a bad choice. In just over a week as tens of thousands of movers and shakers descend on Barcelona for Mobile World Congress, we will see every competitor Apple has – we will witness launch after launch but nothing from Apple.
In fact Samsung is expected to make a major splash and launch a Galaxy S4. Last year they dominated the city as you may remember from my posts on the matter relating to the special art exhibit they had in the center of town and launch of the Galaxy Note 10.1. The S4 in case you are wondering is expected to contain a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED+ screen and possibly an 8-core processor.
You could make the argument that Apple has everyone it needs at its own press conferences but this just isn’t the case. In the age of citizen journalism you need to reach every influential citizen. These people, to the dismay of Apple, go to non-Apple events in far larger numbers than they do the company’s press conferences.
Now it’s up to Tim Cook to make Apple change with the times. Will Apple still think it’s “too sexy” to be at MWC and other events after Samsung and others steal the show? We’ll see.


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Apple and Samsung will head to the US Supreme Court today, in a landmark case over patent infringement of the iPhone.
The case – which will be the first the court has heard involving design patents for more than 120 years – was opened in 2011, when Apple sued Samsung for patent infringement, reports the Financial Times.
A jury in California awarded Apple $400 million (£326 million) in damages in 2012 after Samsung allegedly copied the iPhone’s grid system for displaying app icons and the phone’s rounded edges. The damages were based on Samsung’s profits from the devices.
Scale of damages
Now, the case has been taken to the highest federal court in the US. However, the court will not be considering whether Samsung copied Apple with the design of its Galaxy smartphone, but the scale of the damages owed.
Samsung claims the damages ordered by the lower court are “disproportionate”, and should instead be based on the profits made from specific parts of the product which have been infringed.
The Korean phone manufacturer has also released a statement ahead of the hearing, saying: “Samsung took this case to the Supreme Court because we believe the way design patent law has been interpreted is not in line with modern times because it discourages competition, innovation and consumer choice.
Apple “stifles innovation”
“The problem is that Apple wants a rule that stifles innovation – including innovation in design – by discouraging the development and marketing of new products. According to Apple, a patent holder of one design feature on a smartphone is entitled to the profits from the sale of the entire phone. With more than 200,000 patents in a smartphone, such a rule undervalues the contributions made by the other hundreds of thousands of patent holders to that smartphone.”
Apple has presented a counter-argument that Samsung has not presented enough evidence to support its arguments.
The Supreme Court is expected to reveal its decision in June 2017.


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New Jersey has now entered a third wave of the pandemic, Gov. Phil Murphy announced on Wednesday, as coronavirus cases continue to rise throughout the state.
Another 4,586 cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed, along with 44 deaths. The surge may not peak until mid-May, with the possibility of it lingering into the summer, according to new COVID-19 models released by the state. Hospitalizations for COVID-19 have spiked for three straight days.
Gov. Murphy says the surge is most likely driven by different variants spreading and people becoming more lenient as restrictions ease.
Wearing a face mask in public has become the new normal and is also one of the most important things you can do to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus — especially as more contagious strains are being discovered.
The Center for Disease Control recommends wearing a face mask in public, and many businesses mandate them in order for you to enter their establishment.
“Masks are a simple barrier to help prevent your respiratory droplets from reaching others,” the CDC says. “Studies show that masks reduce the spray of droplets when worn over the nose and mouth.”
Duke University also published a study in September that says the three most effective types of face masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus are N95, three-layer disposable and cotton. There were 14 types of face masks used in the study.
There are also KN95 masks, which are typically regulated by the Chinese government, while N95 masks are regulated by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in the U.S., according to a report by Men’s Health.
Here are N95, KN95 and three-layer disposable face masks currently available online.
Where to buy N95 face masks in bulk:
- N95 NIOSH Face Masks Soft Shell (20-Pack) on sale for $70
- N95 NIOSH Face Masks Hard Cup Shell (Small Adult Size; 25-Pack) for $80 or Hard Cup Shell (Regular Size; 25-Pack) for $80
- N95 NIOSH Masks Harley Hard Shell (20-Pack) for $80 or Soft Shell (20-Pack) for $80
- Protective Health Gear N95 Model Face Masks (50-Pack) for $187.50
Where to buy KN95 face masks in bulk:
- KN95 Face Mask (50-Pack With Protective Respirator) for $90
- KN95 Face Masks (40-Pack) for $70
- Black KN95 Face Masks (25-Pack) for $29.74, instead of $39.74
- KN95 Face Masks (20-Pack) for $40
- KN95 Protective Face Masks CE Certified (5-Pack) for $15
- KN95 Protective Face Masks (5-Pack) for $13, instead of $18
Three-layer disposable face masks
- Blue Disposable Face Masks (50-Pack) for $10
- Black Disposable Face Masks (100-Pack) for $12, instead of $20
- Pink Disposable Face Masks (50-Pack) for $10, instead of $17
- Kids’ Disposable Face Masks (50-Pack) for $15
- Galaxy-printed Disposable Face Masks (50-Pack) for $13, instead of $16
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Spotify Valued at $4 Billion
Has reportedly secured $250 million in new financing
Spotify may be the latest startup to join the $4 billion valuation club.
The music streaming company has reportedly secured $250 million in new financing, valuing it at more than $4 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. Spotify previously raised $100 million almost exactly a year ago at a $3 billion valuation.
Spotify declined to comment on the report.


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Finnish firm Nokia, once the giant of the mobile phone scene, has sent a chilling warning to investors.
The company has warned that it is likely to report no profit for the quarter ending June and that overall handset sales would be "substantially below" the €6.1bn to €6.6bn previously forecast.
Blaming lower than expected net sales, Nokia has now refused to provide annual targets for 2011, saying that doing so would not be "appropriate".
As a result of the news the company’s share price yesterday plunged 15 per cent – its lowest level since May 1998.
The news is the latest development in what has been a miserable year for the company. A partnership with Microsoft and its Windows Phone 7 operating system does not mask the bigger picture of collapsing market share and muddled strategy.
And then last month Nokia saw fit to kill its Ovi brand, once the supposed poster child of mobile commerce and now a sorry afterthought in a market dominated by brands such as Apple and Goole.
"The truth about Nokia’s competitiveness has come out now. We know that the company is loss-making at a group level," Swedbank analyst Jari Honko told The Guardian.
"Consensus estimates will react strongly, and so will the shares. We will see more and more reflection on Nokia’s market share, and that is the worst thing to happen to this company, when the scale is shrinking fast.
"It remains to be seen how low [market share] could go, but for smartphones we are talking about going under 20 per cent this year."


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Nokia and Samsung - the world’s top two handset makers - both lost market share in Q2, under pressure from OEMs as well as high-end smartphones, according to IDC.
Vendors including Apple and ZTE were the biggest winners in the quarter as four of the top five vendors lost market share, the research firm said.
Nokia remains on top of the handset league table, but the 111.1 million devices it shipped captured just 35% of the global market, down 1.6 percentage points from Q1 and 2.2 points from a year ago, IDC said.
Rival Samsung’s share fell from 21.8% in Q1 to 20.1%, while both RIM and Sony Ericsson slid from 3.6% to 3.5%. Only LG increased its share, up less than half a point to 9.6%.
IDC reported that shipments of all mobile devices had risen 14.5% for the year, but this was mostly driven by companies outside the top five, which increased their portion from 25.3% to 28.3%.
“Lower smartphone average selling prices, increased consumer interest, and aggressive expansion plans on the part of key suppliers will keep the device type growing above market growth rate,” he said.


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THQ has no plans to release any MMO games in the near future, according to CEO Brian Farrell - since there's no point while everyone's still going mental for World of Warcraft.
Farrell's comments came during a presentation to investors, where he was asked why THQ hasn't produced an MMO yet. He replied: "We're looking at it very closely, but I want to find the right opportunity. I think what you will not see THQ do is come out with another fantasy-type game."
"The other thing we're thinking is these things tend to have a window," Farrell continued.
"Right now that product is World of Warcraft, so the idea would be to time something for when that product is going to be on its downward slope. To come out with something competitive now I think would be misguided for anyone, including THQ."
Danish from eXputer: "Despite Blizzard's attempt to give a fresh new spin to World of Warcraft, some fans still seem to be stuck in the past."
HG writes: "Blizzard is usually pretty bad at keeping secrets, but the company somehow managed to keep this one under wraps until now. Plunderstorm is a special limited-time event that’s basically World of Warcraft’s take on the Battle Royale genre."


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Delta-8 THC has been gaining traction as an alternative to delta-9 THC for those seeking a milder “high”. While research is still ongoing, it appears that delta-8 produces similar levels of relaxation and pain relief as delta-9, but with fewer cognitive distortions such as an altered sense of time, memory problems, and difficulty concentrating. Participants in studies have also reported feeling less anxiety and paranoia when using delta-8.Many users have found that they can consume delta-8 THC and remain productive, while using delta-9 THC products for recreational purposes due to their more potent effects. Jessica Kruger, PhD, adjunct clinical professor of community health and healthy behavior at the UB School of Public Health and Health Professions, has called for more research on the psychoactive effects of delta-8-THC, as well as on the risks and benefits.
Children are especially at risk of poisoning due to the consumption of delta-8 products due to their small body size and the fact that the products usually come in the form of gummy bears and peach rings. The Farm Bill effectively legalized delta-8-THC hemp-derived products in areas where recreational use of cannabis was prohibited or medical marijuana required medical authorization. A 1973 study found that the effects of delta-8 THC mimicked those of THC, but were not as intense. CBD Oracle conducted an independent analysis of 51 products and found that 77% had lower THC delta-8 than advertised and three-quarters of the products had higher THC levels than allowed by federal law.
Of the 14 states that have banned delta-8-THC, six allow recreational use of cannabis, 10 allow medical use and three have decriminalized recreational use. Kruger and his colleague have partnered with a Buffalo-based manufacturer of cannabinoid (CBD) products in an effort to learn more about the benefits and potential disadvantages of delta-8-THC and to better inform legislators, public health officials, consumers and others.


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Technology giant Amazon has reported $US96.1 billion ($A137.0 billion) dollars in net sales as the pandemic-related surge in online shopping continues to boost the company.
Amazon's 2020 third quarter sales jumped 37 per cent compared to the same period in 2019 and the company nabbed a record $US6.3 billion profit for the quarter.
The result is nearly three times greater than Amazon's profits in the same quarter last year.
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The report blew past analysts' expectations, with the earnings per share coming in at $12.37 versus an expected earnings of $7.41 per share.
Amazon has seen rapid sales growth during the coronavirus pandemic as stores closed to in-person shopping and customers sought online alternatives for fear of catching coronavirus in a physical setting.
Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos said on Thursday holiday season shopping was likely to break records.
The company has projected between $US112 billion and $US121 billion in sales in the fourth quarter.
"We're seeing more customers than ever shopping early for their holiday gifts, which is just one of the signs this is going to be an unprecedented holiday season," Bezos said.
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- Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, which organizes CES, stood by the decision to invite Ivanka Trump for a keynote talk at the event.
- The three-day long CES conference in Las Vegas is expected to attract almost 200,000 attendees.
- Trump's appearance at CES has caused some to call for boycotts against the conference.
The head of CES defended the organizers' decision to invite Ivanka Trump as a keynote speaker at the event.
With the daughter of and advisor to President Donald Trump set to deliver her keynote address on Tuesday, some have criticized the organizers for overlooking other women with established careers in tech. However, Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, which organizes CES, stands by the decision.
"There's a lot of focus on jobs of the future, and certainly the keynote that I'll be doing with Ivanka Trump will be focusing on... how the industry is working with the government on this very important issue," he told the BBC on Sunday.
Shapiro is set to interview Trump for her keynote talk about "how the administration is advocating for employer-led strategies that invest in reskilling workers, create apprenticeships and develop K-12 STEM education programs," according to the CES website.
The three-day long CES conference in Las Vegas is expected to attract almost 200,000 attendees.
"CES has consistently proven to be one of the most influential technology events in the world and I am excited to join this year for a substantive discussion on the how the government is working with private sector leaders to ensure American students and workers are equipped to thrive in the modern, digital economy," Ivanka Trump said when she was initially announced as a keynote speaker.
The announcement that Ivanka Trump was given a sought-after keynote spot at the conference didn't sit right with some, many of whom said the decision is another way the tech industry is overlooking women leaders in the sector. Critics of the decision took to Twitter to air their frustrations, with many calling to "#boycottCES."
Founder of The Heart of Tech and Forbes columnist Carolina Milanesi wrote last week that the decision to include Trump on the keynote speakers list continues a tradition of overlooking women in tech at CES. Milanesi pointed out that in both 2017 and 2018 the CES keynote lineup failed to include a single woman on the main stage.
"Given the track record we have had at CES and the state of the tech industry I just shared, you might now better understand the frustration of seeing Ivanka Trump selected to be one of the two women delivering a keynote," she wrote in a column for Forbes. "If you are a woman in tech, like me, you are very familiar with the T.WA., the 'token woman appearance' on keynote stages and panels."
Like much of the tech industry, CES has been criticized for its lack of inclusion and objectification of women. For example, Shapiro defended the practice of hiring models to staff CES booths in 2012, telling the BBC: "Sometimes it is a little old school, but it does work. People naturally want to go towards what they consider pretty."
CES booths have largely abandoned the practice of hiring models in recent years.
This year's CES keynote lineup includes eight events with 20 total speakers and moderators, half of whom are women. Among the women set to speak are Meg Whitman, CEO of Quibi, and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao.


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Pre-Budget: Canteen perk cut
Thousands who pay for meals in their staff canteens using swipe cards topped up by their bosses could lose out on up to £500 a year.
Alistair Darling announced that he is ending the tax relief on the canteens, which is mostly used by big firms.
Up to 20,000 are estimated to benefit from the system.
The canteen meals are paid out of an employee's pre-tax income as a form of 'salary sacrifice'. The perk enables them to enjoy a tax and National Insurance benefit worth up to £500 a year.
The Treasury says that axing the benefit will save the Government £110m a year by 2011-2012.
Mr Darling is also ending the loophole that enables employers to give staff part of their pay as travel expenses instead of as wages.
At the moment, bosses can avoid paying some employee National Insurance contributions by opting to provide staff with non-taxable travel expenses. It is estimated that closing the loophole will save the Treasury £85m a year by 2011/2012.
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Elton John to model lipstick for charity
BY Advocate.com Editors
December 15 2001 1:00 AM ET
Out pop legend Sir Elton John will pucker up as the new spokesman for MAC's Viva Glam VI lipstick, according to Reuters. Proceeds from sales of the lipstick will benefit the company's AIDS fund. Mary J. Blige and Shirley Manson will join John in the ad campaign, scheduled to launch in February, which will be shot by gay photographer David LaChapelle. Mac's Viva Glam line has raised more than $24 million for HIV and AIDS services since its creation in 1994.
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Does this 'spark joy?': Marie Kondo's new store draws mixed reaction
Tidying guru Marie Kondo now selling range of items online
Marie Kondo may have rocketed to international fame by showing people how to get rid of items that don't "spark joy" and de-clutter their homes — but now she has an online store selling a tuning fork and quartz crystal for $75 US and a cheese knife that'll set you back a cool $180 US.
In Toronto, some certified Kondo experts, referred to as "KonMari consultants," say it could seem like a contradiction — but they don't necessarily think it's a hypocritical move.
"I have mixed feelings only because I'm a minimalist," said Michele Delory, one of the consultants CBC News spoke to.
"But I'm not hating on her business decision."
"Many people have asked what I use in my everyday life. This online shop is a collection of my favourite things and items that spark joy," said Kondo in an online statement, noting people can still acquire "meaningful objects' after tidying.
"My tidying method isn't about getting rid of things — it's about heightening your sensitivity to what brings you joy."
On her website, Kondo says the items were chosen for their "ability to enhance your daily rituals and inspire a joyful lifestyle."
But still, news of the store sparked online criticism, with some people saying Kondo's teachings are at odds with selling non-essential stuff, like indoor shoes for $206 US and dish soap that costs $9 US.
Marie Kondo opening an online shop that sells dumb crap you don’t need is my favorite heel turn of 2019. pic.twitter.com/4lFa28NadS—@PJVogt
Delory says she was surprised by the online store and she understands the criticisms.
But Marie Kondo is a "brand," she says, and her business is evolving and responding to fans.
The KonMari tidying method isn't actually about getting rid of things, Delory notes — it's about only keeping things that make you happy.
The store doesn't align with her own values, but, from a business perspective, it is the natural next step for Kondo, said Ivanka Siolkowsky, the most highly-certified KonMari consultant in Canada.
There are currently five such consultants in Toronto, all trained in Kondo's methods. They are certified to help tidy people's homes, but don't gain anything from promoting or selling KonMari products.
Siolkowsky is also a minimalist — she hasn't gone shopping in two years — and she won't be encouraging her clients to buy Kondo's wares.
But Marie Kondo's personal method was "never about minimalism," said Siolkowsky, and these products might "spark joy" for someone else.
Some excited to buy
KonMari consultant Anne Papaioanou, however, is excited to buy merchandise from Kondo's store.
"I truly believe that she uses the best quality for her items," said Papaioanou. "And I value her opinions on things."
Papaioanou isn't a minimalist like some of her colleagues. But she doesn't impulsively shop anymore, and says she looks for quality over quantity.
'A Kardashian world'
Kondo has "become a celebrity," Siolkowsky said, and people want to know what's in her home.
Siolkowsky says the high prices indicate a wealthier target market.
"We live in a Kardashian world," said Siolkowsky, adding that's something she sees as a sad reality. If someone famous says something's worth buying, she said, people are going to buy it.


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Better sharpen your Gen Y chops. Tuesday’s Advertising Research Foundation seminar looked at the future of advertising and saw life beyond the baby boomers.
“Very soon we are going to be at a point where the baby boom generation is no longer driving the economy,” said Pharmacia advertising director Paul Silverman. “To reach the next generation we’re going to need to be less geographic in our ad focus and less demographic. We will need to group people more by their desires.”
Silverman and other speakers during the forum “Is Advertising Poised For A Fundamental Change?” addressed the shift from demographics to different forms of audience grouping. Helios consulting president Sam Hill said that the concept of “tribalism” will be important as Gen Y gets older. For example, Harley-Davidson riders should be looked at as a group of people who have common interests and image, not a group of particular ages and geographic location.
Technology will continue to play an important role. Many panelists said the Internet was still an important part of their media mix, but the biggest tech topic of the day was TiVo. While nobody was ready to change their ad plans because of TiVo use in the short term, some panelists are actively investigating how to deal with growing use of PVRs.
“There are a lot of things that I’m concerned about in today’s market, like audience fragmentation, but I’m much more concerned about TiVo,” said Domino’s Pizza national media manager Sara Hall. “I love it. I’m a big hockey fan and I can watch a Red Wings game in an hour. We’re looking more than ever at ways to weave our brand into shows through product placements. That’s part of it. We have to be more creative so people don’t skip through our advertising.”
Hall also said that Domino’s is actively testing ad concepts with several iTV companies including Wink. Domino’s has been successful with home delivery in the UK through interactive TV links.
By John Gaffney
Courtesy of http://www.MediaPost.com


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The mall is more or less dead except in 279 great cases where we’ve got fabulous malls out there, says legendary retail analyst Jan Kniffen. But the 1,100 malls they’re struggling. It’s the levered retailers and the mall-based retailers that are struggling. We’re going to have 26 retail bankruptcies this year.
“They kept making a new step every time and the rest of retail had to follow and they won the game, they got all the market share,” says Jan Kniffen of J. Rogers Kniffen Worldwide “They can’t let Amazon out Walmart Walmart (when it comes to free one-day shipping). Walmart will fight this battle to the bitter end.”


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Africa's startup landscape
These are exciting times for entrepreneurship on the African continent. With a youthful population, rapidly growing consumer markets, and some rather unique problems to solve it’s no surprise that the startup growth curve is beginning to steepen.
According to the World Economic Forum, Africa’s average annual GDP growth has consistently outpaced the global average, and is expected to hover around 6% until 2023. Technology is increasingly becoming a key driver of economic growth across the continent.
As a result, private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) activity across the continent has steadily grown year-on-year within the last decade.
Startup Acts which have been passed in several countries such as Senegal and Tunisia are indicative of the continent’s commitment to entrepreneurship and only serve to instil more confidence with investors.
Dealflow data as a proxy
2019 saw the biggest leap in VC funding across Africa where the number of deals grew by 22% from 2018.
However, the most profound metric was the growth in the total value of VC deals which doubled from $0.7bn in 2018 to $1.4bn in 2019. According to AVCA the median deal size from 2014 to 2019 was $2.4m.
When one looks at deals by regions, Southern Africa, East Africa and West Africa account for the largest number of deals in that order.
The largest value deals are multi-region deals which derive from startups which operate in multiple countries across the continent.
When we look at specific regions by median deal size, West Africa takes the cake at $3m followed by East Africa at $2.2m and Southern Africa at $1.1m.
Dialling it down into each region, South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria attract the highest number of VC deals each year respectively.
Combined these three countries account for over 50% of the total number of deals across the continent.
As a result we are beginning to see the emergence of three key tech cities, namely, Cape Town, Nairobi and Lagos forming what some are calling the African Silicon Triangle.
Fintech remains one of the most popular startup categories on the continent, attracting 19% of the total number deals over the last 6 years. The recent acquisition of Nigerian online payment provider, Paystack, by Stripe exemplifies Africa’s fintech pedigree.
However, the consumer discretionary category (think services that are not essential to us as consumers, for example SweepSouth) garnered over a quarter of the venture capital deals by value in the last 6 years, making it the top category by value of total funding.
Which round are you in?
According to AVCA, a third of the startup funding deals in Africa happen at the seed stage, but the total value of seed funding accounts for only 5%. Over 66% of the deal value derives from Series A through to F.
Within the last 3 years there has been an uptick in interest for Series A and B funding from funds, corporations and family offices from across the world.
To date over 250+ investment funds that have invested in African tech startups. There is still however a chasm that exists between seed funding and Series A rounds across the continent. VC’s like Launch Africa Ventures are setting out to bridge this divide.
Which countries are investing in African tech?
Due to the behemoth that Silicon Valley is, it’s not surprising that the US is the largest investor in African tech startups. According to AVCA, 40% of the total number of startup investors in the last 6 years came from the US.
It is however interesting to note that South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt all had a seat at the investment table accounting for a combined share of 15% of the total number of investments.
Live long and prosper
As African entrepreneurship confidently steps into the 3rd decade of the 21st century, a certain optimism prevails around its continued growth over the coming decades. Startups fundamentally exist to solve a problem or at the least augment an existing solution.
A young, fast growing, mobile-centric citizenry combined with public sector mediocrity presents a host of problems that can be solved through technology. The time is ripe for African entrepreneurship to flourish and prosper.
🚀 In the News
🇳🇬 Nigerian payment gateway, Paystack, was acquired by Stripe for $200 million.
🇿🇦 Finchatbot raised $1.6 million to expand into Europe and West Africa.
🏛 Stellenbosch University has raised $1.7 million to support startups spinning out from its tech transfer department, Innovus.
🇾🇪 Arabic website builder, Wuilt, who are based in Egypt, has raised a $535K seed round to launch an e-commerce platform.
🖥 Over in the US, the founders of social media giants Facebook and Twitter failed to reach consensus on whether they thought social media platforms were addictive.


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The Surge 2 To Feature Character Creation, More Open World Design, Higher Difficulty
The Surge 2, the second entry in the series developed by Deck13, has been announced earlier this month, promising to expand the original game's experience considerably with some brand new features. Not much else has been said about the game in the announcement, but more on it has emerged online thanks to some new interviews.
Speaking to European websites like Hobby Consolas and Everyeye, Creative Director Jan Klose and Game Design Chief Adam Hetenyi have revealed some interesting new details. For starters, the game will not feature a set protagonist like the original, as players will be able to create their own character thanks to a character creator. Warren will still make an appearance in The Surge 2, only it's not yet known in which capacity and role.
The team has also revamped world design considerably. The Surge 2 will be set in an entire city, which will be made up of interconnected areas. While exploring these areas, players will be able to take on a variety of subquests as well as interact with NPCs which can also be hostile.
Difficulty and AI will also be enhanced considerably from the original game. Enemies will adapt to the player's action and will be even smarter while fighting in a group. A new type of enemy, lacking an exoskeleton, will also be found in the game, seeking to steal weapons and armor from the player.
The Surge 2 launches on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One sometime during 2019. We will keep you updated on the game as soon as more come in on it, so stay tuned for all the latest news.


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Having had the opportunity to measure LTE in commercial operation, TeliaSonera believes that lower latency, not data throughput, most impresses consumers.
The company, which was the first operator to launch commercial LTE services last December, said that LTE download speeds in Norway and Sweden, which can be 10x faster than those achieved with 3G, was the best feature of the technology, but it was the lower latency that made customers go "wow".
According to TeliaSonera's head of R&D, Johan Wickman, "They click and it happens, with very little delay. We have seen a big uptick in upstream video; upstream in particular seems to be a 4G killer app."
Wickman also said that the company will be launching dual-mode USB dongles that will work with the company's LTE and 3G infrastructure. "At the end of this quarter we will have one multimode dongle [from Samsung], with several vendors [delivering multi-mode] by the end of the year."
However, the company admitted that LTE handsets will not appear until early next year. This would seem to be in line with Verizon Wireless, which has mentioned May 2011 as a potential start date for commercial LTE mobile phones.
But a report carried by Rethink Wireless, which made mention of TeliaSonera's plans to expand LTE coverage to include the Finnish city of Turku, said that the company would launch LTE smartphones this year.
No details were provided as to the possible vendor that could provide these devices within this timescale.
For more on this story:
- read Into Mobile
Telia Sonera releases LTE user survey
TeliaSonera's LTE network does deliver, despite analyst 'tests'
TeliaSonera: Slow uptake of LTE blamed on no handsets
TeliaSonera leads LTE charge, coverage planned for 29 cities


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Update: This story has been updated to add comments from Microsoft Ventures and a statement from Yahoo.
Yahoo Inc. has acquired BookPad Inc., a Mountain View, California-based startup, which was mentored by Microsoft Corp.’s startup incubator program in India, two people with knowledge of the deal told International Business Times on Monday.
Microsoft's accelerator program for India, which is like a fast-tracked incubation program, lasts four months at a time. BookPad’s three Indian founders, including CEO Aditya Bandi, were part of the program’s fourth edition. Bandi is a graduate of one of India’s premier engineering schools, the Indian Institutes of Technology, and previously did stints with IT services company Cognizant Technology Solutions and as a consultant with Microsoft.
BookPad has a development center in Bangalore, India’s fast-emerging startup hub, where the founders fine-tuned a way to view, annotate and collaborate on documents from within various applications. Their product is called DocsPad, which can be accessed off the cloud and a user does not have to download a document to work with it.
The editing feature, which is currently unavailable, is expected to be added soon, although upon integration with Yahoo, the DocsPad service in its current form would shut down to appear in a new avatar, one of the persons that spoke to IBTimes said. Cloud computing refers to renting computer storage and software on the Internet rather than purchase them outright.
An email sent to BookPad in India didn’t elicit responses at the time of publishing. A Yahoo spokeswoman told IBTimes in an email that the company did not have an "announcement to share on this news" yet.
India’s Economic Times newspaper reported the value of the deal was 500 million rupees ($8.2 million), citing two people with knowledge of the deal it didn’t name.
“The deal is mutually beneficial. It would help them (BookPad) to get their products into the next level, and as it allows documents to be viewed on multiple hand-helds, clearly Yahoo see it as a strategic investment” as more people use smartphones for an increasing number of tasks, Rajat Tandon, a senior director at the National Association of Software and Services Companies, an industry lobby, or Nasscom, told IBTimes.
BookPad first caught Microsoft's attention last year, when the startup made a presentation at an annual products conference organized by Nasscom. That led to their being selected for the accelerator program, Ravi Narayan, a director at Microsoft Ventures told IBTimes in a phone interview Monday.
“We selected them primarily because the technology they had created was unique, we felt that it was a great play for several different applications,” Narayan said.
“For BookPad, it’s a nifty technology ... but for one small company to go around, find applications, convince the providers to use it and so on will take a very long time. If Yahoo were to incorporate in their offerings or made it available to their customers, it automatically expands the reach for this technology,” he said. “For Yahoo this probably is a solution for providing uniform document rendering ... they could have probably built it over a period of time, but this (acquisition) was a way to very quickly cut the go-to-market (time).”
BookPad also benefited from a startups mentoring program that Nasscom runs, called the "Nasscom 10,000 Startups," which helped the founders make a trip to Silicon Valley last year, build contacts and showcase their work, Tandon said.
Bandi, and co-founders Niketh Sabbineni and Ashwik Battu, “wanted to solve a problem,” one of the persons that spoke to IBTimes said, but declined to be named.
“If you were in the shoes of a user of a lot of cloud applications, with increasing uploads and downloads of documents it was more of a personal pain point to them (the founders) ... ‘hey the cloud is going to be so big that this sort of technology is required,’” said the person, who is closely associated with the company.


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Supply chain issues have dented Ford's (F 1.85%) exterior, but strong demand for its trucks and electric vehicles could be setting the stage for unexpected growth for one of the world's oldest automakers.
Ford's stock had a stellar 2021. Shares rose 140%, partly thanks to investor enthusiasm for Ford's new direction under President and CEO Jim Farley, who's focusing on electric vehicles and investing in new technologies like batteries, software, and semiconductors. Moreover, its financials show Ford is on the right path, even if losses associated with the company's investment in Rivian left Q1 earnings weaker than expected.
Ford's future growth potential
The exciting launch of the Ford electric pickup could disrupt the EV industry and significantly contribute to Ford's revenue growth in the coming years. Sporting a price tag of roughly $40,000, it brings EVs within reach of the average consumer.
While Tesla (TSLA -1.38%) may remain the leader in EV sales, Ford wants to close that lead rapidly. The combination of its Mustang Mach-E, the E-Transit commercial cargo van, and the recently launched Lightning F-150 EV truck will help them do just that. Lightning F-150 models sold out in the first days after launch, and Ford expects to deliver 600,000 or more by the end of 2023.
Ford's recent sales numbers reflect this projected growth. In April, Ford's sales outperformed the industry with a total share of 13.8%. That's an improvement over its 2021 share of 12.6% and reverses four years of market share decline. Additionally, sales of new models rose 17.9% versus March, and electric vehicle sales were up 139% year over year.
Supply chain struggles subsiding?
Of course, the supply chain issues that have dogged nearly every business could put a wrench in those delivery plans. Yet Ford has reiterated its guidance recently, indicating that it's not too worried about this. And while the company could be wrong about that in the short term, supply chain issues will almost certainly continue to improve in the long term. A recent New York Federal Reserve Bank report indicates that such pressures are easing, albeit slowly, based on its Global Supply Chain Pressure Index (GSCPI).
The company could also give that improvement a jump-start of its own by "nearshoring" -- moving production lines and facilities closer to where the products are needed. This reduces transit times, allowing products to be delivered more quickly. Ford is already increasing its production in Mexico and building battery factories in Kentucky.
That nearshoring is a part of the automaker's overall Ford+ plan for growth. As seen in Ford's most recent Sustainability and Financial Report Summary, the company is investing heavily in electric vehicle production and improving the quality of its operations, while aggressively attacking costs. Ford has successfully hiked prices, and it's aiming for further cost savings by increasing its volumes.
The automaker expects to ramp up deliveries as part of a restructuring plan that divides Ford's business into two distinct divisions:
- Model E for EVs
- Ford Blue for combustion engines
Ford expects the EV business to account for 50% of global sales by 2030. Ford has already seen EV sales jump 139% in April on the strength of Mustang Mach-E and E-Transit electric vehicles.
Ford's financials in focus
Currently, Ford's shares look undervalued compared to its competition. Ford's P/E of 4.70 is well behind GM's (GM 1.41%) 6.2 P/E, much less Tesla's 98 P/E.
While Ford shares have taken a hit in the short term, this is due to factors out of Ford's control. What it can control -- costs, innovation, and quality – is hitting on all cylinders. Management expects this to contribute to 15%-25% growth in adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (forecast to rise to $11.5 billion-$12.5 billion) in 2022.
While this could all take some time to play out, investors who start accumulating Ford shares now will see rewards as it increases its market share in the EV market. In addition, adding the Lightning F-150 to the mix should show even better sales numbers heading into the summer months. And while they're waiting, investors interested in electric vehicles can enjoy the company's dividend yield, currently in the vicinity of 3%.


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Which have legislators convening when you look at the Arizona and you may Austin, the following years might possibly be create-or-split to have Texas’ $5.8 billion cash advance market. When you look at the Arizona, the industry’s upcoming could rely on if Donald Trump fulfills a beneficial promise so you’re able to abdomen the user Economic Safeguards Bureau. Should the CFPB’s laws and regulations getting effective while the planned in the 2018, conformity will cost you will get rid of 70-as well as per cent of all the businesses that extend short-label loans so you can customers, industry advocates say.
In Austin, at the same time, the fresh new leniency in which Colorado manages pay check credit try against an effective issue thru 39-and-depending places having accompanied ordinances limiting specific world methods, particularly of the restricting loan wide variety predicated on borrowers’ earnings. Roughly 8 percent out of Tx customers used pay day loan, compared to 5.5 percent across the country, with respect to the Pew Charity Trusts.
Often Pay-day Loan providers Drain Or Swimming?
In the 2014, Colorado was certainly five states where users paid down the highest fees having payday loans in the nation, centered on Pew search. Eg Idaho, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, Tx had no courtroom limit into the payday charges-your state out of circumstances you to, about about Solitary Superstar County, stays genuine. “The nation’s lawmakers can make a real differences having Colorado household by the getting the town ordinances into the county law and you can implementing a fair speed cap having pay check and you will auto identity financing,” claims Ann Baddour, director of your own Fair Financial Functions Investment at the Tx Appleseed, an enthusiastic Austin-based advocacy group.
Dallas, in 2011, became the initial Tx urban area to consider new therefore-entitled “harmonious regulation,” and that now is very effective into the nearby ‘burbs such as Flower Mound, Garland, Mesquite, and you will Arlington. Jerry Allen, an old Dallas town council member, remembers a pay check lobbyist harmful so you can sue immediately following Allen spearheaded the latest legislation’s passage. “I told him, ‘We will bring your butt into judge out of public-opinion, and then we’re going to take your butt in order to a court of law,’” he states.
Dallas Condition during the 2015 had 432 “stores” that did payday lending, the 3rd-extremely nationwide, centered on Auburn University research. Tarrant Condition, which have 329, rated No. cuatro, that have Harris Condition No. 1, and California’s Los angeles Condition Zero. dos.
Texas’ white regulating touch is actually a major reason that inside 2015 the state had 23.1 percent of all the pay day-credit locations across the country, says James Barth, a money student which led the newest Auburn research. Ca, the brand new No. 2 player, had twelve percent, he states. “Some thing are still some not sure at this time regarding the people legal otherwise regulatory change as a result of the election,” Barth said. Regulating change such as the CFPB’s suggested regulations would affect almost every other members for the “alternative financing,” a keen umbrella title getting approximately a half-dozen different high priced credit into terrible.
Northern Texas is a beneficial kingpin for the choice finance, the home of players such as Fort Worth’s FirstCash (possibly the planet’s largest operator of pawn sites,) Irving’s Ace Cash Share (payday financing and look cashing,) and you may Dallas’ MoneyGram (money import). FirstCash, Expert, and you can MoneyGram don’t build executives readily available for interview.
Taxis, Not Trains
Users play with pay check lenders as a convenient cure for defense holes inside their profit, essentially off $500 or shorter. From inside the 2015, locate $one hundred to possess a two-day loan, Tx customers normally perform create https://samedaycashloans.org/payday-loans-ct/ a choose $ in order to loan providers, and this cashed the newest checks into the person’s second pay check, considering Appleseed analysis. Typically, the brand new annualized fee costs one Texas consumers efficiently spend for the payday and you can vehicles label money focus on ranging from 2 hundred % and you can five-hundred per cent, per Appleseed.
A 2007 article from Fordham Legislation School opposed cash advance so you’re able to taxis: less expensive for quick-title needs, not brand new long term. Individuals generally speaking stumble on difficulties with “rollovers,” essentially borrowing once more to help you re-spend established loans. An excellent Pew Charitable investigation when you look at the 2012 discovered pay check individuals pull out an annual average out-of seven loans away from $375 apiece and you will purchase $520 to your appeal.


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Elon Musk yesterday announced that he had found someone to replace him as Twitter’s chief executive officer. While he didn’t mention who it was besides hinting at the new CEO being a female, the billionaire has today confirmed it is Linda Yaccarino, the former head of advertising at NBCUniversal.
“I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!” Musk said in a tweet further stating that the Penn State graduate “will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology.”
Yaccarino will start her work as the new head of Twitter in six (6) weeks according to Musk’s Thursday tweet.
Last month she interviewed Musk at her “Possible” advertising conference in Miami in which she told the billionaire that some advertisers “have a challenge with your points of view”, to which Musk replied that some of his tweets should be taken with a “grain of salt”. In the same interview Yaccarino also said: “If freedom of speech, as he says, is the bedrock of this country, I’m not sure there’s anyone in this room who could disagree with that.”
In December, the Tesla boss had said that he would step down as the head of Twitter once he found someone “foolish enough” to take on the position.
“I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software and servers teams,” Musk tweeted at the time.
Since his chaotic takeover of Twitter for $44 billion six months ago, the social site has seen rapid changes some of which drove away major advertisers and led to the birth of secession Twitter clones such as Spoutible.
Under Musk’s leadership, Twitter laid off around 90% of its employees and reinstated the account of former President Trump. The online platform also introduced a paid verification service and stripped away blue badges from legacy verified users selling them to everyone who is willing to pay.
Additionally, the company also axed Covid-19 misinformation rules and banned an account that tracked the location of Musk’s private jet which was followed with a mass suspension of the journalists who reported on the ban before unsuspending them later after black lash.
Twitter later tried to ban users from linking or mentioning their usernames to a number of rival social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and others and recently, the online platform also shut down almost all free access to the its API and introduced a new fee structure for API access that could cost some enterprises as much as $42,000 per month.


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Nintendo says to connect Gameboy with Internet
Taken From Cerulean City
Japan's Nintendo Co Ltd
said on Monday that its Gameboy hand-held game machines will be
able to link to the Internet starting early next year.
The company has developed software that will enable users to connect Gameboys to mobile phones and personal handyphone systems for Internet access, it said. Users will be able to exchange data with other users and to add features such as new characters and background to games through the Internet. The price of the new software is still undecided, a spokesman said.


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After the success of Chalo, the BEST undertaking plans to launch the Paytm transit card in March, reports from Mid Day stated.
The card can be used for Metro lines and BEST buses.
The card can also be used to pay parking fees and at toll booths. According to officials, because the prepaid card is directly linked to the Paytm Wallet, all recharges and transactions can be traced online.
To use the transit card, users simply need to top up their wallet and do not need to have another account. Commuters will have integrated access to all public transportation, eliminating the need to carry/purchase numerous cards for different uses.
Similar to Oyster card in London
Senior transport expert with Mumbai Mobility Forum and Mumbai Vikas Samiti AV Shenoy said that Mumaikars should have a card similar to the Oyster card in London.
BEST General Manager Lokesh Chandra while speaking to Mid Day said that the PayTM transit card is in the final stages of preparation and will be launched in March.
The electric AC double-decker, which was launched on Tuesday, does not issue paper tickets onboard. Equipped with 'tap in tap out', the bus is conductor less and only digital ticket users are allowed to travel.
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Social media stocks tumble amid economic woes - Cryptos drop steeply on monetary tightening, fear - Davos meeting addresses social inequality
German airline Lufthansa has said it is canceling over 2,000 additional flights at its Frankfurt and Munich hubs due to staff shortages. Its low-cost subsidiary, Eurowings, is also expected to cancel flights.
Toblerone bars are still produced exclusively in Switzerland, but the world-renowned chocolate brand is planning an expansion. Under Swiss law, this change comes with a price.
The European Union should change the way it does business with Africa to redress imbalances left over in part from the colonial era, EU lawmakers have said.
In our modern consumer society, Type 2 diabetes has become a widespread disease. Companies are developing drugs that are increasingly expensive, but not necessarily more effective. Health authorities are powerless.
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