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Gazprom: No payment received from Ukraine
Moscow - The chief executive of Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom said Wednesday that no payment from Ukraine had been received, despite a threatened New Year's Day cut-off of gas shipments.
Gazprom says it is owed 2 billion dollars by Ukraine, partially for past shipments and partially in late fees.
"Gazprom has not received any money into its accounts in payment for supplies of Russian gas," Alexei Miller said in televised comments. "Ukraine's position in the negotiations is not constructive."
Ukraine's state-controlled Naftogaz says it has transferred 1.5 billion dollars to Rosukrenergo, a Russia-Ukrainian intermediary based in Switzerland, after receiving an emergency credit from state banks.
Another 600 million dollars in penalty fees for late payments of gas from November and December remains disputed by Ukraine.
Miller expressed hope that a deal would be reached, but said that, without one, there would be "no legal basis" for Gazprom to continue gas deliveries in 2009.
Gazprom says it will cut gas supplies to Ukraine from 10 am (0700 GMT) on January 1, if Kiev failed to pay its debt in full.
Miller charged Kiev with "politicizing" ongoing talks in Moscow over the outstanding debt and gas price levels for 2009.
"We see now in negotiations that issues surrounding gas have ceased to be economic and in Ukraine have been used as political change," he was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying.
Ukraine currently pays far less for gas than European clients further downstream.
But Gazprom said it would increase the price to 418 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres from Ukraine under a new contract starting in 2009 if the two countries fail to reach an agreement and switch trade to market terms. Kiev now pays 179.5 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres. (dpa)
United Kingdom News
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- Association of British Insurers wants electric vehicles to replace written-off gas-powered cars


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As CapeSpace works to become certified as a Cape & Islands Green business, it is paving the way for other companies to follow suit.
The Hyannis co-working facility is doing so by hosting a Cape & Islands Green Workshop on Friday, April 26, 8:30 to 10:30 am, in partnership with the Cape Cod Technology Council and Community Development Partnership (CDP).
Sponsored by The Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod, the workshop will educate participants on how they can engage in sustainable business practices to reduce their company’s impact on the natural environment.
Topics covered will include solid waste minimization; water and energy conservation; and how to market a green business.
In partnership with Cape Light Compact, the workshop also will offer details on how businesses can become Cape & Islands Green verified. It’s a process that CapeSpace is currently in the midst of in an effort to reduce its impact on the environment.
“When we launched CapeSpace, one of our goals was to give back to our community as much as possible,” said its president, Robbin Orbison. “This is one of the ways we are doing so not just for today, but for future generations. We can all take steps towards a more sustainable lifestyle.”
Among the steps CapeSpace has taken is keeping thermostats on timers to save energy during off hours; using only energy-efficient LED light bulbs; and purchasing liquid products, including hand soap, hand sanitizer, hand lotion, and dish soap, from Green Road Refill to reduce plastic waste.
Business owners may still register for the April 26 workshop at www.capespace.com. The cost is $75 for businesses with fewer than 10 employees. Those with questions may contact Pam Andersen, CDP director of Business and Credit Programs, at firstname.lastname@example.org or 508-240-7873, ext. 18.
The following weekend, CapeSpace will host the inaugural Earth Tech Day, an alternative energy expo presented by the Cape Cod Technology Council.
Taking place on Saturday, May 4, 10 am to 4 pm, the free event will feature exhibitors and workshops that give guests the technology tools and techniques to save energy, reduce waste, and have a gentler footprint on our environment. Attendees will also be able to recycle old electronics at the expo. To learn more about Earth Tech Day, visit www.earthtechexpo.com.

domain: news


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Copenhagen Fashion Week has announced the line up for the A/W 24 edition, which will continue the raised momentum for the seasonal showcase. Presenting key international and Nordic established leaders and emerging innovators this season, A/W 24 will introduce new designers in the CPHFW NEWTALENT programme, returning brands to the schedule as well as a host of exciting new names across the 4 days of shows.
The presence of reputable Nordic names set against international vanguards curated across a four day programme of 31 shows further underline the international positioning CPHFW holds within the fashion calendar worldwide.
This coming season, CPHFW NEWTALENT supported by CIRCULOSE bursary recipient Nicklas Skovgaard shall present as the official opening show on the Monday after the official reception, building on the impact the brand’s first showcase for the August edition imprinted. The schedule will continue to hold a break across the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, allowing for further support towards the burgeoning schedule of presentations, events, showrooms and trade fairs.
For this coming edition, there will be three brands awarded the One To Watch recognition slot: Martin Quad, Sloth Rousing and MLGA. These brands will present their forthcoming collections through a variety of formats that they feel best encompasses their vision, from installations, presentations, events and showroom formats.
CEO Cecilie Thorsmark states: “The global reach that Copenhagen Fashion Week continues to garner is testament to the role a fashion week must play in expecting positive change from international and Nordic leaders in the fashion industry. By implementing Copenhagen Fashion Week as a key cultural activation we are proposing new definitions of what a fashion week can symbolise, with our continued growth only underlining this.”


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Filed in TEU
Monday, June 10, 2013
Import volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to increase 1.1 percent in June over the same month last year, reflecting modest growth expectations as retailers head toward the back-to-school and holiday seasons, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released today by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates
Monday, March 18, 2013
Zepol data indicates United States-bound containerized vessel imports were mixed for the month of February, with imports down sequentially and up annually.
Posted on 03/18 at 01:42 PM
Monday, February 11, 2013
Citing a tentative labor contract deal recently reached at East Coast and Gulf Coast ports and uncertainty regarding West Coast ports labor negotiations, the most recent edition of the Port Tracker report from the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates is calling for February import cargo volume at major United States-based retail container ports to increase 8.5 percent annually.
Monday, October 15, 2012
If October comes in strong, POLA says it could reflect a "mini-surge" type of Peak Season.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
New research indicates that that the peak month for U.S. imports in 2012 will most likely be July
Posted on 10/13 at 10:38 AM
Monday, August 27, 2012
As the GOP convenes in the port city of Tampa this week, the shipping community waits to see how the Obama Administration deals with a hurricane headed for New Orleans. Unfortunately, that is not the only storm threatening vital U.S. ocean cargo gateways
Posted on 08/27 at 07:14 PM
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
June volumes at the Port of Long Beach (POLB) were up both annually and sequentially.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Total container volume—at 696,847 Twenty-foot Equivalents (TEU)—were up 8.75 percent annually and were below May and April, which hit 731,352 TEU and 707,182 TEU, respectively.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
The report is calling for July import cargo volume to increase 1.6 percent annually, with modest annual gains expected in subsequent months into the holiday shipping cycle.
View all categories and topics
Monday, July 02, 2012
The ongoing economic malaise in Eurozone nations is not likely to see any meaningful signs of improvement in the near future. That was the main message in the most recent edition of the Global Port Tracker report from Hackett Associates and the Bremen Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics.


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Verticals including growth, marketing, and new initiative functions across Ola globally will report to him.
Sidharth Shakdher, formerly EVP and chief marketing officer at Disney+ Hotstar, has joined ANI Technologies (Ola Mobility) as the global chief business officer, sources close to the development revealed.
As part of his responsibilities, he will be in charge of Ola's revenue, growth, and marketing initiatives both within India and on the global stage. This includes overseeing established mobility businesses as well as venturing into new sectors like e-commerce. Verticals including growth, marketing, and new initiative functions across Ola globally will report to him.
Shakdher had been a part of the founding leadership team of Disney+ Hotstar and led marketing, international growth and D2C business. Over the past eight years he had been the driving force behind making Hotstar, India's largest premium video streaming platform, as well as the largest D2C subscription business in India.
He played a key role in Hotstar, setting several live streaming world records, and has held multiple mandates at Hotstar, including growth, operations, data science and the AVoD business leadership over the years. He joined the streaming platform in 2016 as the senior vice president and growth head and was elevated to EVP and CMO in January 2021.
Prior to joining Disney+ Hotstar, he led the marketplace and category marketing for Amazon in the US. He has also led innovations for Reckitt Benckiser's flagship brand Dettol for North America, launching and subsequently establishing Dettol in the personal care segment in the US for Reckitt.
With over two decades experience, he has also worked at Xerox, HP, Canon and Samsung in the past.


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Hot off the heels of their sold-out Auckland feast, the NZ Culinary team will set up shop for a one night only service in Manawatu this November.
The feast is made up of competition possibilities, trialing techniques and gathering feedback before the team goes on to represent the country. As the team converge in Palmerston North to showcase their skill, they will also be looking to impress with ingenuity in the region known as the food innovation capital of New Zealand.
“We have some amazing chefs in this country working with unique and innovative technitues and fabulous, fresh ingredients. The Culinary Olympics will not only give us the opportunity to compete on the world stage but show the world the talent we have here in New Zealand and to showcase our amazing ingredients,” said Grant Watson, director of global foodservice, Fonterra.
Awapuni Function Centre will play host to the NZChefs Olympic Feast on November 8, with limited tickets priced at $145 a piece, or $1050 for a table of eight.
“The opportunity to take the journey to the ultimate competition destination does not come around very often. Performing under this kind of pressure and at an international level is such an amazing career opportunity for all of us,” said Graham Hawkes, president, NZChefs.


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Craft brewing means business in Pennsylvania
Four brewers with regional operations made the new list of the top 50 U.S. craft-brewing companies, a trade association said Wednesday.
Troegs Brewing Co. in Hershey, Pa., cracked the list for the first time at No. 50, based on sales volume, the Boulder, Colo.-based Brewers Association said in its yearly ranking.
Others on the list are:
At No. 13, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery is based in Milton, Del.
At No. 26, Victory Brewing Co. is based in Downingtown, Pa. As brew writer Don Russell a.k.a. Joe Sixpack pointed out in his weekly email blast, Victory will likely grow since it still hasn’t opened its new Parkeburg, Pa., brewery.
You won’t see D.G. Yuengling and Son on the list. By the Brewers Association’s definition, it is not a craft brewer. The Pottsville, Pa., company is, however, the fourth-largest overall brewer, behind Anheuser-Busch Inc. of St. Louis, MillerCoors of Chicago and Pabst Brewing Co. of Los Angeles.
Craft brewing is still a small sector of the overall brewing industry, at 6 percent, but it’s growing.
“In 2012, craft surpassed six percent of the total U.S. beer market, with volume and dollar sales reaching record levels,” said Paul Gatza, director, Brewers Association.
Last year, craft brewers sold 13.2 million barrels of beer, up from 11.5 million in 2011.
Retail sales of craft beer totaled $10.2 billion, up from $8.7 billion a year earlier.
The industry sustained 108,440 jobs last year, including the serving staff at brewpubs.
There were 2,347 craft breweries in operation in 2012 — the highest total since the 1880s. There were 409 new ones last year alone.
Peter Van Allen covers hospitality, marketing and retail.
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The global Covid-induced bike boom has seen Giant Group’s net profit grow by almost half in 2020.
Net profit for 2020 was up 46.7% over 2019. It reached NT$4.95 billion (A$228 million). This was based upon total sales for 2020 of NT$70 billion (A$3.22 billion) meaning that the net profit percentage rate was still a quite modest 7.1%.
Giant said all its sales companies, in the US, Europe, and China, saw significant growth in sales and profitability.
“Giant foresees as more consumers are choosing bicycle and e-bike as a means of transportation, leisure and sports, bicycles and e-bikes will become a part of the new lifestyle post-pandemic,” the company said.
“E-bikes have become one of the key growth drivers for Giant group where last year total e-bike sales grew 28%, representing 26% of the group’s revenue.”
Giant forecast that the sales growth will continue in 2021. “This pandemic has certainly changed the way of living and there is a huge shift in people’s awareness on health and fitness. In addition, there is a continuous push from governments across different nations to reduce carbon footprint by encouraging people to use bicycles or e-bikes, increasing investments in establishing bicycle-related infrastructures and offering bicycle purchase subsidizes. Therefore, Giant foresees the demand will continue to exceed supply,” the company predicted.


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Budapestʼs EuroCenter mall sold to Wing
The EuroCenter Óbuda shopping mall has been acquired by Wing Zrt., business news portal portfolio.hu reported. The real estate investment company has also bought two retail facilities in Szombathely, near the Austrian border.
The EuroCenter Óbuda in Budapest was inaugurated in 2000, on 23,000 square meters. Wing plans to renovate and expand the facility, according to portfolio.hu.
The transaction was already approved by the competition authorities last month. Besides buying EuroCenter Óbuda, Wing has also acquired the Family Center shopping mall and Praktiker store in Szombathely, western Hungary.
The transactions were financed by Sberbank Hungary Zrt.
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A new Tesco Express store in Broadstairs is to open to the public before the end of the month.
The new store will start welcoming customers next Friday (July 23).
Broadstairs Tesco Express will replace the current Metro store, which sits further up the high street.
Tesco confirmed that the current Metro store will remain open until Thursday (July 22) ensuring shoppers are not affected by the change over.
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Earlier this year, it was reported that Tesco planned to rebrand hundreds of it’s Metro stores.
At the time, A Tesco spokesperson told the Mirror: “Over the last few years, we have seen our customers’ shopping habits change and we have taken the decision to re-brand all of our Metro stores to better reflect this.”
Broadstairs isn’t just getting a Tesco rebranding, it’s also getting a relocation.
The new store will be just yards away from the existing Metro store, which is also located on the high street.
Metro stores started appearing on high streets back in the late 1990’s and the one in Broadstairs has been popular with both locals and day trippers for years.
A spokesperson for the supermarket chain said: “We are excited to welcome customers to our new Broadstairs Express store from Friday 23 July.
“The new store is on the same High Street as our Metro store and will offer a great value range of products that our customers know and love.”
The address of the new store is 8-12 High Street, Broadstairs, Kent CT10 1LH.
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ICER Gives Allergan, Biohaven CGRP Inhibitors Slight Edge Over Lilly’s Reyvow
ICER’s final report on new acute migraine treatments said the drugs are similarly beneficial when patients don’t respond to or can’t take triptans, but found Reyvow is not as cost effective as Ubrelvy and rimegepant.
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After eptinezumab’s approval in the US, EVP Peter Anastasiou told Scrip it will take time to change migraine doctors’ prescribing habits, but he expects CGRP inhibitors to become mainstay preventative treatments. Vyepti’s list price is about $1,000 below its competitors’ launch prices.
After DEA scheduling, Reyvow will be available at pharmacies soon with a list price of $640 for eight tablets. Allergan confirmed that its drug is at pharmacies and prescriptions are being filled.
Organizations like BARDA, CEPI and others are looking to partner with industry to rapidly test, manufacture, package and deploy vaccines and therapeutics, identifying areas they want to work together during BIO’s recent summit.


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(13 quotes found)
“Just talk of the hurricane weakening was enough to push up the dollar.”
“I think the yen will continue to fall for the time being. But later next year, things will change ahead of the U.S. mid-term election.”
“A dip to a one-month low could be quite an attractive level for exporters to buy the won.”
“There is support for the dollar against the euro, which is providing a cushion for the dollar/yen so we're not likely to see a nosedive in the dollar.”
“The market is dithering, because on the one hand we have the interest-rate gap, but on the other we have still large U.S. government debt.”
“Unless a big surprise comes out from the trade report, it may not cause much turbulence.”
“This isn't the first time we've heard about the possibility of an end to the policy in March ... but the risks of that happening have increased a bit.”
“The market is still expecting two more rate rises from the Federal Reserve, which will keep improving the dollar's rate advantage.”
“The market is just waiting for the consumer price index. If the figures are strong, market players are likely to buy the yen tentatively.”
“From expecting (the Fed) could raise rates three times more at most, there now seems to be a feeling there will be no more than two.”
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The Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM) sold US$93.8 million at its FX auction rate in the past six months (February-July), according to the auction results released by the CBM. In July, the CBM reportedly sold $6 million on 8 July and $3 million each on 5,6,7,14,15,16,26,27, 28, 29 and 30 July in the auction market, totalling $39 million which is the largest amount sold in the past six months. Consequently, the exchange rate stands at around K1,645 in July-end, according to the CBM. The bullish hard currency gained in the local forex market, reaching the peak of K1,730 on 12 May from K1,330 in January-end. In a bid to strengthen the local currency and govern the market volatility, the CBM reportedly sold about 6.8 million dollars on 3 February 2021, $12 million in April, $24 million in May, $12 million in June and $39 million in July in the auction market.
The CBM trades the foreign currency with the authorized private banks under the rules and regulations of the FX auction market. The currency intervention is required to steer the own currency value. It is one of the responsibilities of the CBM to control the price. This is why the CBM practised the foreign exchange intervention. The dollar gain will benefit the exporters. Yet, it will hike up the local food prices. The currency intervention is required to steer the own currency value. The current political changes in Myanmar and the COVID-19 impacts affect the currency market. Some people want to hold the hard currency during difficult times, a market observer shared his opinion. The local forex market’s data showed that the dollar exchange rate touched the maximum of K1,345 and the minimum of K1,327 in January 2021. The rate moved in the range of K1,335-1,465 in February.
It reached the lowest of K1,420 and the highest of K1,550 in March. The rate fluctuated between K1,550 and K1,610 in April. The rate fluctuated between K1,585 and K1,730 in May and it moved to the maximum of K1,595-1,620 last month. In 2020, the exchange rate moved in the range of K1,465-1,493 in January, K1,436-1,465 in February, K1,320-1,445 in March, K1,395-1,440 in April, K1,406-1,426 in May, K1,385-1,412 in June, K1,367-1,410 in July, K1,335-1,390 in August, K1,310-1,355 in September, K1,282-1,315 in October, K1,303-1,330 in November and K1,324-1,403 in December. In 2019, the rates are pegged at K1,508-1,517 in July, K1,510-1,526 in August, K1,527-1,565 in September, K1,528-1,537 in October, K1,510-1,524 in November and K1,485-1,513 in December. On 20 September 2018, the dollar exchange rate hit an all-time high of K1,650 in the local currency market.
Source: The Global New Light of Myanmar


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China's economy continues to bounce back in 2021: UK media -【AGV, Logistic, Air Cargo, Supply Chain, Warehouse, ERP system, Logistic Management, Chinese Market 】
Xinhua | Updated: 2021-03-16 11:03
Employees work on the washing machine production line of Haier Group in Qingdao, East China's Shandong province, on Feb 27. [Photo by Wang Peike/For China Daily]
LONDON -- China's economy has made a rapid bounce back from the pandemic slump, with key data surging dramatically at the start of this year, the BBC said on Monday.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, in the first two months of 2021, China's total value added of the industrial enterprises above the designated size grew by 35.1 percent year-on-year and by 16.9 percent compared with the first two months of 2019.
Meanwhile, China's total retail sales of consumer goods reached 6,973.7 billion yuan (about $1071.5 billion), up by 33.8 percent year-on-year and by 6.4 percent compared with the first two months of 2019.
The BBC said China's economic data beat analysts' expectations, pointing to a continued recovery for the world's second-largest economy.
"These items tell us that Chinese consumers spent lavishly during the Chinese New Year holiday," the BBC quoted Iris Pang, chief economist for Greater China at ING bank, as saying.
Other analysts also paid attention to China's economic recovery. Michael Hewson of CMC Markets, a UK-based financial services company, said China's consumers appear to be more confident, with retail sales for the first two months of this year rising 33.8 percent.
Expecting robust growth to resume in China, Tommy Wu at Oxford Economics said: "We are optimistic on China's exports and manufacturing investment this year."
"And we expect household consumption to become a key driver of growth Q2 onwards as confidence improves," Wu added.
In 2020, China emerged from the epidemic-induced slump with a 2.3-percent GDP growth, making it the world's only major economy to attain positive growth.


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ACLU Comment on Amazon Shareholder Resolution Against Selling Facial Recognition to Government
SEATTLE — A group of Amazon shareholders announced today that they have filed a shareholder resolution echoing widespread calls for Amazon to stop sales of facial recognition to the government. The shareholder resolution, which asks Amazon’s board of directors to prohibit sales of facial recognition technology to government agencies unless the board concludes that the technology does not pose actual or potential civil and human rights risk, is intended to be voted on at Amazon’s annual meeting in spring 2019.
Shankar Narayan, Technology and Liberty Project director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, issued the following comment in response:
“The fact that Amazon’s shareholders felt compelled to take this up to the company’s board of directors should be a wake-up call to Amazon’s leadership to take concerns around face surveillance seriously. It shouldn’t take a board or shareholder intervention for the company to do right by immigrants, people of color, religious minorities, protesters, and activists who are disproportionately harmed by such new surveillance technologies. We continue to urge Amazon to heed calls from civil, human, and immigrants’ rights groups, academics, lawmakers, and its own shareholders, employees and consumers to stop selling facial recognition technology to the government.”
The shareholder proposal comes days after 90 racial justice, faith, and civil, human, and immigrants’ rights groups sent coalition letters to Amazon, Microsoft, and Google demanding the companies commit not to sell face surveillance technology to the government. It also follows Google’s recent announcement that it will not sell a face surveillance product until the technology’s dangers are addressed and Microsoft acknowledging the grave risks of face surveillance. In contrast, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has suggested waiting for society’s eventual “immune response” to take care of the problems. Meanwhile, recent reports also revealed that Amazon met with ICE officials to discuss its face surveillance product.
The ACLU revealed last year that Amazon has been actively marketing its face surveillance technology to law enforcement and helping them deploy it. The ACLU also released results of a test showing that Rekognition falsely matched 28 current members of Congress with images in an arrest photo database. Congressional members of color were disproportionately identified incorrectly, including six members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
A large group of Amazon shareholders and hundreds of Amazon employees wrote to Bezos and consumers signed over 150,000 petitions demanding the company stop providing face surveillance technology to governments. Dozens of members of Congress also wrote to Amazon with civil rights concerns and questions about the sale of Rekognition to law enforcement, and requested information from federal agencies about the use of this technology.
Every month, you'll receive regular roundups of the most important civil rights and civil liberties developments. Remember: a well-informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny.


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I am not optimistic about the iPhone 14. I think the sales of the iPhone 14 series will be relatively poor.
The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Max will not upgrade the processor this year, the camera will not be upgraded, the notch are still retained, and the overall upgrade is very small. Users lack motivation.
The iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max have been greatly upgraded this year, with a punch-hole screen, 48 mega pixel main camera, but the price has risen. The people who buy iPhones are mainly the middle class. The epidemic has laid off the middle class and reduced wages. Everyone wants to save money.
Do you still increase the price? The number of people who buy it will definitely be less
and I will make a bet with everyone that the iPhone 14 sales this year will definitely not be as good as last year’s iPhone 13.
Foxconn employees exposed the mold drawings of the iPhone 14 Pro Max accessories, and the camera module of the iPhone 14 Pro Max has serious protrusions. The thickness of the camera body is 12.02 mm, the thickness of the camera module is 7.85 mm, the camera protrusion is 4.17 mm, and the thickness of the one-yuan coin is 1.85 mm.
The camera protrusion on the iPhone 14 Pro Max is thicker than two one-dollar coins. This year’s main camera is 48 mega pixel.


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The US will start rating the cybersecurity of IoT devices in 2023
Many US homes have smart home devices, which are convenient but not very safe. The US government is worried about the safety of IoT devices and smart homes.
The action was announced by the White House after they met with Google, Samsung, Amazon, and groups that make consumer products. The government was shown by Jessica Rosenworcel, Chris Inglis, and Anne Neuberger. The White House told NIST and the FCC to look into a pilot program for a cybersecurity label in 2021.
Not only is the safety of your home network at risk, but security flaws in the Internet of Things devices could affect the security of the internet as a whole. They can make it possible for cybercriminals to take control of devices, which they can then use to attack websites and services, including those run by the government, with distributed denial of service (DoS) attacks.
An attacker might spy on a neighborhood by infiltrating either gadget. The initiative will eventually include more IoT gadgets, even the smallest of which can allow hackers into your home network. Surely voice assistants will be on the roadmap—these gadgets are intended to key on specified wake phrases, but a severe security weakness may allow them to listen in on anything.
NIST and the FTC will come up with testing standards for smart home devices that will be used in the labeling program. Labels that are “globally recognized” are on the way. Labeled products will have evaluation criteria, data encryption and security, and protection from vulnerability thanks to a barcode.
The Final Word!
IoT and smart home safety concern the US government. IoT device security weaknesses could compromise internet security. More IoT devices—even the smallest—will be added to the project. Global labels are coming. Products will be evaluated, encrypted, and barcode-protected.
Please give us your thoughts on the article. If you have any questions or ideas about the topic, you can ask them in the footer of the contact page. I’ll try to answer your suggestions as soon as I see them.
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I believe that initiatives like this are our only chance to really find out who leads the web hosting market for WordPress
Bucharest, Romania (PRWEB) August 15, 2016
CodeinWP – leading WordPress blog for site creators, developers, and WordPress users has released the results of what has turned out to be the biggest WordPress hosting survey to date (considering the number of survey respondents). Along with an article announcing the survey results, the company also prepared an infographic that provides a more visual representation of the data.
The main goal of the survey was to identify the top WordPress web hosting companies according to user input, rather than relying on the companies themselves to deliver accurate information about the quality of their services.
“I believe that initiatives like this are our only chance to really find out who leads the web hosting market for WordPress,” said Ionut Neagu, CEO of CodeinWP. “I mean, in today’s day and age, it’s hard to believe various marketing materials that each web hosting company puts out there. Those materials always present the company as the best provider in the game, but real user reviews sometimes tell a different story.”
And this indeed seems to be the case with these survey results. The companies that have been seen as mainstays in the industry did not fare well in the survey, with users being disappointed in them more often than not.
The new players in the WordPress hosting game, on the other hand, have proven to be able to deliver really quality services and a high level of customer support.
“We also wanted to focus on WordPress optimization specifically,” Ionut Neagu continued. “What I mean is that as a WordPress site owner, you really have no way of knowing if your web host understands the platform enough to help you in case of trouble. Something like this you only find out after testing that host on your skin, so to speak. With a survey like this one, though, we can reach real users who have their own first-hand experiences.”
The survey focused on a handful of matters related to WordPress hosting, including: how happy users are with their current hosts, how likely they are to recommend their hosts to other users, how much money users tend to spend on hosting, what the most popular hosting companies are, and much more.
“The survey taught us a lot about the actual web hosting setups that users have,” Ionut Neagu added. “For instance, a piece of insight that was very surprising to us was that, on the average, users host 10 websites with their web hosting company.”
For more information, and the complete survey results + an infographic, please visit: http://www.codeinwp.com/blog/wordpress-hosting-survey-results/


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Economy Watch: Congress Still Stuck in the Debt-Ceiling Morass
Congress dithers while everyone, including China, urges them to get their act together; retail sales inched up in June; and the PPI index for finished goods continues to drop.
President Obama and congressional leaders met again on Thursday, but only for an inconclusive little while, and no meeting was slated for Friday. Still, hints of some kind of deal were in the air, especially one involving a last-ditch Rube Goldberg-like mechanism by which Congress lets the debt ceiling rise without actually approving such a thing. Desperate times call for convoluted measures, presumably.
Meanwhile, not far away on Capitol Hill, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, in his second day of testimony on monetary policy before Congress, used the word “calamitous” to describe the prospect of default by the United States. For a central banker–for whom recessions are merely “unfavorable circumstances”–that’s the equivalent of smashing a bottle of whisky in a barroom and waving the jagged glass in the air to get everyone’s attention.
Also on Thursday, Standard & Poor’s warned of “at least a 1-in-2 likelihood” of a downgrade of the current AAA debt rating of the United States, “owing to the dynamics of the political debate on the debt ceiling.” Even China–which holds about $1 trillion in U.S. debt–called on Congress to act “responsibly” on the matter.
Retail sales inch upward in June
Retail sales were up in June, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce on Thursday, but it was a hiccup of a rise, only 0.1 percent. Still, that was better than the slight dip of 0.1 percent in May, which was the first decline in retail sales in nearly a year.
For one thing, the disruptions to the supply of autos and auto parts from Japan is very nearly a thing of the past, so car sales were up 0.8 percent month-over-month. The likes of Wal-Mart and Target (general merchandise, to use government parlance) saw a 0.4 percent increase in sales for the month. So-called “core sales”–which don’t count gas or food–rose 0.2 percent in May compared with the month before, according to Commerce.
PPI moves downward in June on gas-price drop
The Producer Price Index for finished goods decreased 0.4 percent in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Thursday. The decline followed increases of 0.2 percent in May and 0.8 percent in April.
The main driver in the drop for finished goods was energy–gasoline, for the most part. The index for finished energy goods fell 2.8 percent in June, the largest drop since a 4.7 percent decrease in July 2009, back when gasoline really bottomed out. In June, prices for gasoline moved down 4.7 percent and accounted for two-thirds of the monthly decline.
Wall Street was fairly nervous on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 54.49 points, or 0.44 percent. The S&P 500 declined 0.67 percent, while the Nasdaq went negative by 1.22 percent.


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New Women’s Expo Kicks Off
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A new event kicked off this weekend to help build community projects just outside of Superior.
The Parkland Community Group hosted its first Women’s Expo and Craft Sale at the Parkland Town Hall in South Range, Wisconsin.
Event goers shopped at forty different vendors who sold everything from jewelry to health and home products.
Proceeds from the Women’s Expo will go towards a community garden and ice skating rink.


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TALLAHASSEE, Florida – Proof Brewing Co. is set to release the award-winning Warpath Imperial IPA in limited edition four-pack cans on Thursday, September 2nd on its online store for pickup at the Brewpub. The crowd-pleasing 9.3% ABV Imperial IPA brewed annually in the fall at the start of the college football season, pays tribute to our hometown team. Warpath’s hoppy flavor will galvanize your taste buds and your thirst for victory.
“Every year this beer gets better and better,” said Founder, Byron Burroughs. “This Tallahassee tradition can be shared with friends at football tailgates, social events, or anywhere you are on the Warpath!”
Warpath Imperial IPA is brewed with Mosaic, El Dorado, Idaho 7, Sabro, and Citra hops. The hop profile emulates the juicy flavors of New England-Style hazy IPAs but with the dryness and mouthfeel of West Coast-Styles. The complex layers of hops create a tropical dank flavor, and citrusy aroma supported by a balanced malt backbone.
For More Information:
Fun Beer Facts, Breweries and More: Click Here


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Elon Musk makes recession prediction
The US is not headed into a “big recession,” but a mild downturn is possible, billionaire Tesla and SpaceX owner Elon Musk said on the ‘Full Send’ podcast this week.
“I don’t think we’re headed into a big recession. It could be a mild recession that lasts for a couple of years,” he suggested, reiterating the prediction he made earlier this week at the Tesla 2022 shareholders’ meeting, where he said the US is “past peak inflation” and likely to see a “relatively mild recession” lasting for about 18 months.
On the podcast, Musk stated that a global recession is also a possibility. It would depend on the geopolitical situation and could be triggered by some kind of major geopolitical event, he said, referring to the situation between China and Taiwan.
“The thing that is hard to predict is… if there’s a war between China and Taiwan. That would send the world into recession. That’s a possibility – something like a big, big event.”
Since the beginning of the year, the US has seen rapidly rising inflation and a drop in the GDP. In the first quarter of 2022, the US economy shrank by 1.6%, and in the second, by a further 0.9%. Inflation rose to 40-year highs, to 9.1% year-over-year as of June – leading the US Federal Reserve to raise interest rates, while US stocks have been dropping and large companies, like Musk’s Tesla, have been forced to announce large-scale layoffs to cut costs.
While many economists have been warning of a recession, others claim the US economy still has the resources to pull through, and the National Bureau of Economic Research, the agency that declares when the US officially enters a recession, has not done so yet.
For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section


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If you go
What: Dream Kitchens Tour
When: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday,
Noon-4 p.m. Sunday
Where: Eight kitchens in Boulder
What could be nicer than having someone invite you into their kitchen and give you a lovely salad or a warm cookie?
So it won’t be dinner with Mom or your best friend this weekend, but that will be kind of obvious. It’s not that likely you have many friends or family members with kitchens like these.
On Saturday and Sunday the I Have a Dream nonprofit, which helps at-risk youths complete their educations, will offer its annual Dream Kitchens Tour. The event allows you to take a peek into eight kitchens that range from traditional to modern. In addition, seminars that deal with starting a remodeling job, kitchen trends and countertop options will be on tap, as well as nibbles to sustain you along the way.
Last year the tour drew about 500 participants over two days and raised $12,000 for IHAD, says the group’s executive director, Lori Canova. In addition to the chance to talk with architects and designers, some of the “dreamers” will be available to talk about the organization if tour participants desire.
Canova says one of her favorite kitchens on the tour is a 1920s farmhouse.
“It was one of the original farmhouses in Boulder,” she says. “They kept a lot of feel for the home when they updated. It’s nice to have that home on the tour.”
Similarly, she likes a mid-century home on the tour that also was able to add modern must-haves without losing its essential character.
Diane White, owner of Studio3 Kitchen, Bath Interiors and one of the sponsors of the tour, is responsible for setting up the seminars.
She says they could be a big help for those considering a remodel. Countertops, for example, which can be one of the larger expenses, are covered.
“(We’re seeing) a lot of new surfaces besides granite,” she says. “Quartz materials are very popular, and concrete is coming on strong.”
That’s especially true in the more modern-style kitchens that are in high demand in Boulder. Also popular are large format tiles — some as big as 24 inches square, which allow people to get a close-to-seamless look at a lower price.
Other trends include an increase in technology. One house on the tour, for example, uses sensors to open drawers and doors. USB ports are almost standard in kitchens now, and White foresees a decline in shelving for cookbooks.
“The next generation coming up … is growing up on books on the iPad,” she says.
Other features that remain popular are microwave drawers and steam ovens, White adds.
While modern is big in Boulder, White says she still does kitchens in both English and French country styles.
“It’s like the fashion business: Whatever fits the client’s personality,” she says.
Find the original article at : http://www.dailycamera.com/lifestyles/ci_27957352/kitchens-worth-looking-at


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Apple secured first place as the top brand of the world as its brand value grew by 16%.
Google came in close second place having a growth rate of 10%.
Amazon achieved a 56% growth rate and got into third place.
Facebook has shifted to ninth place.
This data was released by Interbrand's Best 100 Global Brands 2018 report.


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United Arab Emirates (UAE) has banned the import of ‘chilled fresh meat’ from Pakistan via sea starting on October 10. No restriction has been placed on exports via air. Sources say that the ban has been imposed citing concerns about the quality of products exported by an undisclosed Pakistani company.
Pakistan currently exports meat valued at approximately $144 million annually to the UAE.
In a notification issued by the UAE’s Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, it was stated that as of October 10, 2023, the import of fresh chilled meat from Pakistan to the UAE by sea will not be allowed.
However, there are no restrictions on meat exports via air transportation, provided that the meat is vacuum-packed or modified atmosphere-packed and has a shelf life of 60 to 120 days from the date of slaughter.
As of the time of reporting, Pakistan’s commerce ministry had not responded to multiple attempts to obtain a comment on this matter.
Faisal Hussain, the CEO of the Karachi-based Organic Meat Company Limited (TOMCL), a prominent meat importer, expressed concerns that this “partial ban” would adversely affect Pakistan’s overall meat export figures.
He pointed out that Pakistan’s export volume for meat would decrease significantly, as the country would only be able to export what can be sent via air, and air transportation has limitations and is more expensive. This, in turn, could jeopardize Pakistan’s market presence in the UAE, which it had built up over time in competition with other countries.
An internal memo from TOMCL mentioned that the restriction was imposed because another meat exporter (unnamed in the memo) had shipped sub-quality fresh chilled meat to the UAE via sea.
Pakistan is recognized as one of the world’s largest meat producers and has experienced rapid growth in meat exports over the past decade, taking advantage of its competitive position to supply meat to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
In January 2023, Pakistan’s bovine meat exports reached $31 million, marking a 29 percent increase compared to the $24 million recorded during the same period in 2022, as reported by the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP).


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*Hindu Rights to Survive with Dignity & Sovereignty *Join Hindu Freedom Movement to make Bharat Hindu Rashtra within 2025 *Jai Shri Ram *Jayatu Jayatu Hindu Rashtram *Editor: Upananda Brahmachari.
Ratnesh Ramji | HENB | Tando Adam (Karachi, Pakistan) | June 22, 2016:: The Pakistani police have arrested a Muslim man under the majority-Muslim country’s strict blasphemy laws for selling shoes with a sacred Hindu symbol on the basis of reports of local Hindu community leaders and preliminary investigation. This arrest has been confirmed by the Tando Adam Police Station and the Hindu community leaders both.
Mohammad Jahanzaib Khaskheli, the shopkeeper, was arrested on Monday in the southern town of Tando Adam and the shoes, which carried the “Om” symbol, were confiscated, said Farrukh Ali, the district police chief.
Hindu community leaders held demonstrations and claimed hard punishment for the shopkeeper.
“The state must play a proactive role in punishing the culprits under the blasphemy laws,” Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, the patron of the Pakistani Hindu Council, said in a statement.
Tando Adam, about 200km northeast of Karachi, is in Sindh province, where the vast majority of Pakistan’s approximately three million Hindus live.
Eariler, Historians and researchers Mr Surinder Kochhar informed that since the last three months, more than 47 Hindu girls forced for conversion of religion in Pakistan’s Sindh province. Several Hindu youths hacked ton death. Old man tortured due to eat food before iftar. Minority Hindus are put in most vulnerable situation in Pakistan.
Along with that, Some Pakistan Muslims tried to attack Hindu sentiments by selling shoes with ‘Om Symbol’ publicly.
According to Mr. Kochhar, Karachi’s famous Park Tower Shopping Mall ‘first step shoe store’, which presently 14 branches in Pakistan; Sales of women’s shoes in public with ‘Om’ design on it. This shoes are also seen in the rural and urban areas through local shoe shops through retailer chain.
Mr. Kochhar has mentioned that the shoes sold in Karachi with ‘Om’ written design are made of China and China earlier made ladies footwear with Sikh religious symbols. But, due to public opposition on social media the shop-owners then stopped the sale of shoes. But, now, the Muslim shopkeepers were not ready to stop selling of the shoes with Hindu religious symbols.
Another source suggests that some Muslim footwear industries are also manufacturing the shoes and slippers with Hindu symbols only to hurt the minority Hindu sentiments in Pakistan.
In this instant case, while All Pakistan Hindu Panchayat (APHP) members urged the showroom owners to stop the sale of impugned shoes, the shop owners threatened them out of the showroom. However, police has appeared in the case finally to arrest the offender.
In Pakistan, the Blasphemy laws make it a crime to insult any religion and have specific sections for defiling the Quran or insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad that carry a life sentence and mandatory death sentence, respectively. But, there is no provision to apply this case in the position of sacrilege of defamation of Hindu or non-Islamic religious matters by any culpable Muslim.
If convicted anyway under the existing Blasphemy law, the shopkeeper may face a maximum of 10 years in prison, in addition to a possible fine.
Police said that they are now investigating the supplier of the shoes, whose base is detected in Punjab province.
“The responsibility in this case will be with the people who actually manufactured the shoes … they would probably have done it intentionally,” Farrukh Ali, the district police chief said.
Pakistani rights groups say Hindus are often at high risk of discrimination and hate crimes, including forced conversions, economic discrimination, eviction or even murder.
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Innoviz, an Israeli company that develops and manufactures sensors for use in self-driving cars, is the first Israeli tech enterprise to complete its merger with a SPAC, the Collective Growth Corporation. The merger was approved by Collective Growth at a stockholders’ meeting on March 31, and finalized this week.
SPACs, or special purpose acquisition companies, are shell companies founded by entrepreneurs with the intention of later merging with an operational private company. The SPAC founders raise money from investors, who believe in the founders’ business acumen and their ability to choose the right company to merge with, one that has great potential for growth. Once the money is secured, the entrepreneurs list the shell company on a stock exchange and go looking for a promising company to merge with.
The merger with Collective Growth has poured $371 million into Innoviz, which will allow it to increase production of its sensors to cope with what Innoviz CEO Omer Keilaf called “booming demand,” in an interview with Yahoo Finance. The move set the tech company’s value at $1.4 billion, but the increase in its shares’ value since its listing on the NASDAQ has pushed it beyond the $1.5 billion mark.
While the company ended 2020 at a loss, recording only $5 million in earnings and a loss of tens of millions of dollars, it is expecting earnings in excess of $200 million in 2024, which will put the company in the black. By 2025, Innoviz says that it predicts it will achieve $500 million in earnings.
This merger is the first in an expected parade of mergers between SPACs and Israeli tech companies, which have shown great interest in the SPAC model.
David Wertheimer, a partner in the technology cluster of BDO, a large Israeli accounting firm, manages the firm’s clients that intend to pursue a merger with a SPAC. At present, he told The Media Line, “there are already over 10 Israeli companies that have announced a deal with SPACs” Each of these deals, he says, represents “a value of over $1 billion and sometimes even over $10 billion.” BDO estimates that at least 10 additional companies in the country “are in the initial or advanced process of finding their SPAC,” he says.
The popularity of SPACs in Israel is part of a global spike its popularity. “Currently, the amount of money raised during 2021 by SPAC’s initial public offerings stands at about $98 billion,” Wertheimer said. With 2021’s first quarter just closing, more money has been raised by SPACs than in all of 2020, according to Wertheimer.
“At this stage the entrepreneurs raise the money based on their reputation alone,” Nimrod Cohen, co-founder and managing partner of TAU Ventures, a venture capital fund linked to Tel Aviv University, told The Media Line. The entrepreneurs have two years to find a company to merge with, Cohen says. If a suitable private company isn’t found by the period’s end, the money is returned to the investors.
SPACs are public companies, and this is what makes them attractive to startups. Cohen explains that startups that want to list on a stock exchange and through that raise funds, have to go through a tiresome and long process, at the end of which nothing is guaranteed. With a traditional initial public offering (IPO), Cohen says, “you don’t know if you’ll succeed until the day of the IPO, you don’t know at what value [your company will be traded], you don’t know whether you will raise the funds or not.” And if things do go sideways, not only has the attempt failed, but the company’s management has wasted months of its attention, instead of focusing on other possible paths of progress – a terrible cost for a company in its first years.
With SPACs, once the agreement between the sides has been signed, “there is no uncertainty, the thing is done the next day, you know the value of the deal, you know how much money the company has received. The process has a lot more certainty, compared to an IPO,” he said.
The skyrocketing popularity of SPACs also has to do with the fact that there is a lot of money right now, looking for investment opportunities, according to Cohen. This is combined with the huge incentive offered by SPACs to seasoned financial entrepreneurs who, he says, “receive very significant compensation, something around 20% of the shares that they create, without investing any money themselves.” At 20%, Collective Growth’s founders have netted some $300 million dollars in shares. One can understand why “they have a very strong incentive to push this thing forward,” Cohen says.
The SPAC model’s success in Israel has to do with the nature of companies in the country, according to Cohen. Startup companies looking for investments and wishing to list on a stock exchange are obvious candidates for this financial system. This is because SPACs allow companies to raise large sums of money, at least dozens of millions of dollars, and it is also a much easier path to becoming public.
An additional factor that is pushing the success of the model in the country is the maturing of the local industry. Over the last decade, the goal of Israeli tech entrepreneurs has changed.
“If, until a few years ago, startups that had the opportunity to be bought for hundreds of millions of dollars or more had achieved the dream, today we’re seeing more and more companies that aren’t looking for these ‘exits’, but instead are looking to build large and established companies … and these SPACs are a tool that helps,” Cohen said.
Wertheimer adds that “the SPAC track puts companies on the American stock exchanges, which is considered very attractive, especially for companies of high value.” In addition, at present, the Israeli stock exchange does not allow SPAC IPOs.
One such company is eToro, an Israeli fintech company that has developed an innovative social investment platform. The company announced in March that it will be merging with a SPAC called Fintech Acquisition Corporation V at a value of $10.4 billion.
Yoni Assia, eToro CEO, told The Media Line that “going public was a logical step in the ongoing evolution of our company. Becoming a publicly traded company supports our continued expansion as a business and allows us to increase our market share, expand into new markets and continue to grow our innovative product offering to meet the evolving needs of our customers.”
Assia pointed to an additional advantage to the merger, the opportunity for creating partnerships with seasoned financiers who can help a company wishing to grow. “The SPAC route gave us the opportunity to partner with a sponsor who has deep expertise in the fintech space and an impressive track record in partnering with companies who are looking to become public,” he said.
The tech industry is central to the Israeli economy, and approximately 10% of workers in the country are employed by high-tech companies.
Cohen says that as long as everything goes smoothly, “it’s great. The companies receive a sizable amount of money and tools to continue to realize their plans, and to advance and become large corporations.” Its impact on the tech industry in Israel is also positive, although the expert says it isn’t a game-changer. Money that flows into the industry “gives it a boost,” he says, and brings money to the sector.
Wertheimer agrees that as money flows in, the industry will continue to flourish. He says that the Israeli SPAC trend “is definitely in the direction of expansion.” Among the reasons for this growth is the maturation of technologies and their potential users, assisted by the pandemic, which pushed many first-time users to rely on video-conferencing and digital financial management. Another reason “is a huge supply of SPACs whose clock is ticking, which allows companies to achieve high values relative to those they have received in the past.” And while this may be attractive to entrepreneurs, it points to a danger intrinsic to the model, according to Cohen.
The SPACs’ founders have a very strong incentive to ensure that a merger partner is found. Compound this with the limited time they have to achieve success, and, “at least in some cases, companies may be valued at a higher price than they are actually worth,” Cohen says. If a company is overvalued, only to plummet once it becomes public, it could reflect on other companies that have gone through the same process, sending them into a downward spiral that, Cohen says, “is less than convenient.”


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Expect some changes for the 2015 Mustang, but the 5.0 V8 will definitely remain.
We've already reported that the next generation Mustang, due to be unveiled at the 2014 New York Auto Show, may closely resemble the Ford Evos concept revealed last September at Frankfurt. Many fans weren't too pleased, to say the least, but Ford has stated that they want the new Mustang to be a global sports car that will attract buyers beyond America's shores. Inside Line has just published a couple of fresh renderings which, according to them, a Ford insider claimed were pretty close to the final design.
It's immediately clear the front end design of the Evos was taken, but Inside Line's Ford source claimed that the current Mustang's long hood/short deck proportions will remain in place. In addition, there will likely be some familiar Mustang design traits such as the rear-quarter windows and triple-lens taillamps. Fortunately, no major changes are expected under the hood as the current engine lineup is expected to carryover. In the future, however, Ford may offer a turbocharged four pot as a base engine that would produce the same power output as the current 3.7-liter V6 but with better fuel economy. The 5.0 V8 will also definitely remain.
Perhaps the biggest change, other than the design, will be the fact that the Mustang will ditch the rear straight axle in favor of an independent setup, but we've known about that for quite some time. Ford says that it will still perform just fine on the dragstrip, but it will be much improved on curvy roads and tracks. What we can also see in these renderings is that the 2015 Mustang will be smaller than the current generation. As we previously mentioned, the new car is being designed for global buyers who prefer their sports cars to have less bulk. In other words, the Mustang will have less metal and a lower weight.
Remember, this redesign is very important because Ford will also be celebrating the Mustang's 50th anniversary at the time of its launch. Judging from you've read and have seen here today, we're interested in knowing your comments. Let the argument/debate begin.


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Sony claimed victory over Microsoft in the U.S. market by selling nearly twice as many PlayStation 4 units in the month of January.
Activision's Bobby Kotick delivers a steep prediction for Bungie's upcoming MMO shooter Destiny during the company's Q4 financial call.
The PlayStation 4 will start receiving a firmware update to version 1.60 in Europe starting February 4th, gaining support for the PS3 PULSE wireless headsets.
Microsoft is offering a trade-in program at retail MS stores that offers gamers $100 in store credit when trading in a PS3, potentially discounting the Xbox One to $399.
New screenshots surface for Read At Dawn's dark and stylish steampunk PS4 exclusive, giving more insight on the stalwart knights in The Order: 1886.
The devs at Dennaton have revealed an official Q3 2014 release window for their gore-tastic, havoc-inducing indie sequel Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number.
In a recent interview Microsoft's Phil Spencer talks about everything Xbox One, including the upcoming Halo mini-series and why it's important for the company.
Amid its faltering presence in the gaming industry, rumors speculate that Nintendo is developing what's known as 'Nintendo Fusion', and an insider has leaked pertinent specs and details for the purported hardware.
Nintendo woes: Iwata says no to ‘Mario on mobile’, $1.2 billion cleaved from market value as shares plunge
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata doesn't think fixing the company's financial woes is as easy as porting iconic franchises on other platforms, but reports indicate new hardware may be on the horizon.
A batch of new screenshots for Creative Assembly's anticipated horror-survival Alien game surface, showing off some fresh looks at xenomorphs, in-game environments, and more.
Thanks to poor sales of the Wii U, Nintendo is in its third consecutive year of annual loss, forcing the company to carve their sales forecast for the console from 9 million down to 2.8 million.
Sony has filed a new patent for a curious motion-based controller that gamers construct out of blocks, affording for a variety of transformations with its modular design.
Microsoft sold 908,000 Xbox One consoles in the U.S. in December, but Sony’s PlayStation 4 still has the edge in terms of cumulative sales.
A new batch of screenshots for Bungie's new epic RPG/FPS hybrid Destiny has hit the web, giving gamers a closer look at classes, HUD's, enemies and more.
By garnering sales of 4.2 million units worldwide, Sony’s PlayStation 4 has the clear edge over the Xbox One, which sold 3 million units.
A recent interview indicates gamers will have to re-buy digital versions of disc-based PS3 games they already own with PlayStation Now, but this rule hasn't been set in stone.
Sony reveals a unified cloud-based service that will stream PlayStation games across an expansive ecosystem, including PS4, PS3, PS Vita as well as smartphones and tablets.
There are a lot of Bluetooth-enabled controllers for iOS 7 devices, but SteelSeries’ Stratus has the distinction of being the first to be officially certified by Apple.
The team behind the anticipated and breakthrough virtual reality headset will be demoing the new and improved Oculus Rift at CES 2014.
An Xbox One version of the cross-platform MMOFPS Warframe has recently been rated by the European ratings board, hinting at a possible release on Microsoft's next-gen console.


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HUBBARD, Ohio (WKBN) – A Hubbard staple is back in business after several years on the sidelines.
The Emerald Diner re-opened its doors on May 3 after shutting down in 2012, when a fire destroyed the business. It’s now under new ownership, which brought back the diner’s flair, but with a modern twist.
“The uniqueness of it,” customer Dick McLaughlin said. “It’s something very much out of the ordinary.”
Head chef Eric Kilgore remembers the Emerald Diner back in the early 2000s. It’s where he got his first job at age 14 washing dishes.
When the diner caught fire in 2012, he said he thought it would be back up and running soon.
“We all thought that it was going to be open right away,” Kilgore said. “So I was surprised when I heard it sat for quite a while.”
Owner Jorge Carreno says it took a while to restore the diner to its full glory, but the result is worth it.
“The vibe just feels incredible,” Carreno said. “Just to be here and everything’s brand new — but it’s still the feel of the 1930s, the 1940s.”
Old-school feel, new-age food — that’s what Kilgore wants to bring to the Emerald Diner.
He’s revamping the menu now but promises the food will never stray too far from its diner roots.
“We just want them to have something that’s a little different, but gives you that taste of home,” Kilgore said.
People say they are excited to see the Hubbard staple back in action, and they’re expecting it to stay around for years to come.


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Sponsored by: Monin.
The typical menu at Smoothie King offers about 40 different beverages, but when consumers begin customizing drinks, the combinations are endless, says Katherine LeBlanc, director of brand marketing for the New Orleans-based juice bar.
The chain will make any smoothie a “skinny” by omitting the sugar or opting for almond milk instead of non-fat milk. And then there are all the varieties of dietary supplements for such things as energy, immune health and multivitamins to enhance a drink.
“Our franchisees know that offering customized beverages can keep customers coming back for more, because the customers feel that they are in control and able to have their drink just as they please,” LeBlanc says.
In an era of build-your-own pizzas, burritos and burgers, the demand for customization has spilled over into beverages. Consumers today — millennials in particular — delight in putting a personal stamp on drinks just as they do with food. Operators can cater to the customization trend by creating an environment in which customers are comfortable requesting changes, or by offering self-serve flavored syrups and flavoring options for everything from sodas and smoothies to coffee, tea and cocktails.
Allowing customers to alter their beverages encourages repeat visits and also can inspire new menu items, say restaurant owners and operators.
Famous Toastery added hand-crafted cherry and orange sodas on the menu after noticing customers requesting flavored Monin syrups to put in seltzer or soda water, says Robert Maynard, co-owner of the 13-unit breakfast/lunch franchise based in Charlotte, N.C. Customers also inspired the addition of peach flavoring to the restaurant’s weekend mimosas.
“We find that more people, generally speaking, are customizing,” Maynard says. “And as restaurateurs, we are doing a better job of accommodating them. After all, we’re generating a service; we are here to serve people.”
Consumers like to be able to mix and match flavors in a variety of drinks, especially brewed drinks such as coffee and tea, reports Chicago research firm Datassential.
Up to 75 percent of consumers add some flavoring to their brewed coffee when purchased away-from-home. Of those, 66 percent add some variety of creamer, 48 percent add a sweetener, and 8 percent add a flavored syrup, according to Datassential’s Buzz report.
“Coffee has gotten to the point where it’s like the American burger — how many ways can you build your own burger?” says Adam Jed, co-owner and beverage director of San Francisco restaurant Bluestem Brasserie.
Consumers are adding a variety of flavors and milks to their coffee drinks, particularly with the now-popular, flat white coffee drink — an espresso with a layer of steamed milk. Customers are tweaking the drink with almond or coconut milk instead of cow's milk.
“Listening to the guest is essential for success,” Jed says. “There are a lot of great ideas that we may not have thought of or that can be evolved into a menu offering.”
After listening to one of their regular customers who constantly changed the bourbon in their standard Manhattan drink, Bluestem changed the drink on its menu, he says. The different liquor brought out different flavor nuances that improved the cocktail.
“It helped soften the flavor and brought out some smokiness from the bourbon that was not there before,” Jed says.
Offering a variety of choices also enables restaurants to make the consumer feel in control, but yet still provide a satisfying experience, says Caitlin Mackey, bar manager at The Restaurant at Went Vineyards, in Livermore, Calif. The restaurant makes its own tonics, simple syrups and bitters for its cocktails, often from herbs in its on-site garden.
Mackey and the restaurant’s gardener work together to develop specific profiles for drinks. A variety of tonics gives customers more choices, and whatever they choose should still blend well with the way a drink was originally designed, she says. But bartenders and servers will still make changes at the customer’s request.
“If a guest does not like our original cocktail, we will change it to something they like,” Mackey says. “If it’s a strawberry drink and they want blueberries in it, we will do that for them.”
At Smoothie King, repeat customers are more likely to customize their drinks than those trying the smoothies for the first time, LeBlanc says.
“Our frequent guests typically customize their orders and they are excited to talk about what customization they’ve done to their friends and other customers,” she says.
Younger generation customers, in particular, like to customize and share their choices on social media, Leblanc says.
Franchisees also will use a white board to feature drinks that encourage customizing, such as suggesting enhancers for a smoothie like the Watermelon Hydrator, LeBlanc says.
“In our new campaigns promoting a specific product, we’ll take quotes from the guest about a drink they tried and how they changed it and weave that into our social media content,” she says.
However operators choose to get the message out, though, they are clearly emphasizing the fact that the days of featuring a static beverage menu are waning. Customers want to personalize their beverages and operators say they intend to give them what they want.


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Lake Lanier Island Resort is one of Georgia’s ‘hot spot’ locations, and adding to the perfect setting for a retreat, it will soon be a desired destination for businesses seeking to initiate their own successful corporate wellness program.
The resort partnered with Walkingspree in 2010, and now has plans to create an ideal setting for corporate retreats that are targeting wellness and fitness. Walkingspree is a corporate wellness company that is technology-driven and activity-based; it offers incentive strategies that focus on wellness and fitness.
Conveniently located less than 45 miles north of Atlanta, Lake Lanier Island Resort is nestled at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains and offers 1,500 acres of meadows, beaches, and forest.
CEO of Lake Lanier Island Resort Virgil Williams explained, “The goal of this unique program is to help educate and motivate as well as set and reach health and wellness goals.” Williams adopted the program in an effort to enhance the health, well-being, and morale of the resort’s staff, along with reducing the company’s overall health-related expenses.
With a year under its belt, Williams views the partnership as effective and is impressed. He boasts of the benefits the program provides for his business and his employees’ health. The program has resulted in less missed work days and enhanced employee morale. Based on its success, Williams will be opening the doors to businesses looking for destination wellness strategies.
The program is titled Legacy Wellness and will feature USB-pedometers for on-target monitoring, and will also provide social networking. It’s anticipated that the program will affect a business’ healthcare expenses and related costs significantly. Statistics show that walking regularly can reduce healthcare benefit costs per employee by almost $3,000 per year.
CEO of Walkingspree Hiran Perera noted, “Experiencing the program first hand gets executives excited and shows the power of our corporate wellness program.” He added that the program is fun and contagious, and the results show that the program is effective. “Putting it into the hands of decision makers and letting them test drive the program is an excellent way to experience the program.”
Other corporate wellness strategies can be found in the new Corporate Wellness Magazine. Business leaders seeking to design an effective wellness program can take advantage of the online magazine, which highlights employee health and the necessity of lowering a company’s healthcare-related costs.


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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Safety regulators are urging Peloton Ask the customer with children and pets to stop using the machine immediately.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission said there have been many serious incidents. A dead child.
The committee says there have been reports of children being pulled in and pulled under the engine.
Peloton says “there’s no reason” to stop using the machine as long as the safety instructions are followed.


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WHO: Guitar Center, the world’s largest musical instrument retailer, partnering with Drum Workshop, Inc. (DW), one of the world’s preeminent manufacturers of drums and drum hardware who is celebrating its 50th anniversary, for “DW Factory Day,” taking place at DW’s headquarters in Oxnard, CA.
WHAT: “DW Factory Day,” a day-long event with factory tours, live performances, drum clinics, a drum battle competition, autograph sessions, local food trucks, exclusive one-day pricing on new gear, and thousands of dollars in giveaways (from DW, PDP, Zildjian, Remo & Guitar Center). Guitar Center will be serving as the exclusive vendor for all gear purchased through the event, offering special pricing on DW and PDP drums and gear that will be available at the event, in-store and by phone, July 30 only. Guitar Center Lessons personnel will also be on hand to offer free consultation and lesson services.
DW Factory Day attendees can experience the full factory tour, where they will see the entire process of drum making from start to finish, hear about the 50-year history of the company, see how drum hardware is made and visit the showroom of DW drums. On display are legendary drum kits including the last kit Rush drummer Neil Peart ever played. DW created the R40 drum set to celebrate Neil Peart’s 40 years with Rush, and it’s now on permanent display to honor one of the greatest drummers of all time.
The Drum Battle competition will also be held and is open to all comers (sign up at 10 a.m.; 20 spots available), with prizes from DW, Zildjian & Guitar Center. Judges will include notable drummers John “JR” Robinson, Matt Garstka, Brendan Buckley, Dave Elitch, Gil Sharone, Mark Schulman, Russ Miller, Satnam Ramgotra, Sean Winchester, Steve Ferrone, Toss Panos and Trevor Lawrence Jr.
Performers will include Matt Garstka (Animals as Leaders, CHON) on the outside stage and John Good (DW co-founder) and Chad Wackerman (Frank Zappa, Steve Vai) in “Drum Channel Presents” studio demos. (Tickets for the studio portion available first-come first-served on-site at 9:30 a.m.)
WHERE: DW Headquarters, 3450 Lunar Ct., Oxnard, CA 93030.
WHEN: Saturday, July 30, 2022, from 12 to 5 p.m. PDT (tickets and signups for specific events begin as early as 9:30 a.m.).
Visit https://www.guitarcenter.com/DW-Factory-Day.gc for more information and a detailed itinerary.
About Guitar Center:
Guitar Center is a leading retailer of musical instruments, lessons, repairs and rentals in the U.S. With nearly 300 stores across the U.S. and one of the top direct sales websites in the industry, Guitar Center has helped people make music for more than 50 years. Guitar Center also provides customers with various musician-based services, including Guitar Center Lessons, where musicians of all ages and skill levels can learn to play a variety of instruments in many music genres; GC Repairs, an on-site maintenance and repairs service; and GC Rentals, a program offering easy rentals of instruments and other sound reinforcement gear. Additionally, Guitar Center’s sister brands include Music & Arts, which operates more than 200 stores specializing in band & orchestral instruments for sale and rental, serving teachers, band directors, college professors and students, and Musician’s Friend, a leading direct marketer of musical instruments in the United States. For more information about Guitar Center, please visit www.guitarcenter.com.
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Clyne Media | firstname.lastname@example.org
Guitar Center| email@example.com


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JAY-Z hopes to spark profits from the emerging cannabis retail market, announcing the debut of his company, MONOGRAM.
The “Big Pimpin’” singer says his new cannabis line will provide a “more tailored customer experience,” and will be accessible to customers with a “best in class e-commerce platform dedicated exclusively to its singular product line.”
As MONOGRAM’s chief brand strategist, JAY-Z helped design a website that engenders customers with videos and educational graphics communicating three core principals about the product; grown right, small batch and hand finished cannabis products.
Their messaging campaign continued with various Twitter posts promoting the company’s core principles:
Jay’s involvement in the company started last July when California-based Caliva indicated the rapper’s crucial role in driving creative direction, outreach efforts and strategy. Those efforts included proactive messaging for social justice issues surrounding the legalization of marijuana. “Anything I do, I want to do correctly and at the highest level,” JAY-Z said in a statement.
“With all the potential in the cannabis industry, Caliva’s expertise and ethos make them the best partners for this endeavor. We want to create something amazing, have fun in the process, do good and bring people along the way.”
Still no word on when the company will present their product to the market. As of 2020, only 11 states (Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Vermont, Massachusetts, Maine) have legalized the retail sale of marijuana to persons 21 years or older. Most of those states have also decriminalized use of cannabis.


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DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — Mother’s Day is almost here, but there’s still time to make a dinner reservation or order a flower arrangement!
Kelly Byrd, district manager of Spaghetti Warehouse, Corner Kitchen and Oakwood Club, said a lot of reservations for the most popular time frames at his restaurants are already booked.
You can still get one, though. Byrd suggested calling mom’s favorite spot now and finding a window that falls between the brunch, lunch or dinner rush.
And even with the high volume of customers on Mother’s Day, Byrd said it’s all about the experience.
“May, that is what we are built around,” said Byrd. “It’s all about Mother’s Day and making sure it is a great day for moms, making sure it’s still a great day for the guests who don’t come out as regularly. It’s just the financial impact in the month of May. It’s all about Mother’s Day.”
We also spoke with Steve Smith, owner of The Flowerman, who said Mother’s Day also creates a boom in the flower business.
“Everybody has a mom and you know that’s what makes it busier for us,” said Smith. “So you just want to show the person that raised you some love and something bright and cheerful.”
Countless orders have already been placed for Mother’s Day, but florists will also be making arrangements that can be picked up on the day of. The Flowerman will be open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday for your last-minute flower needs.


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In a recent blog post, Lianne van den Bos, food analyst, Euromonitor, said consumers continue to be "bombarded" with geographically-inspired variants trying to "piggyback" on the success of high-protein Greek yogurt.
Recently, there has been a "plethora" of new high-protein origin yogurts, including Australia yogurt in the US, Icelandic Skyr in Europe, and Bulgarian yogurt in Asia, "claiming to be better than or different" to Greek yogurt, she said.
Speaking with DairyReporter.com, van den Bos said that despite this bombardment, consumers around the world are still drawn to the "origin, authenticity and high-protein" of these products.
"It's all about Greek and other origin yogurt," she said. "The protein content of these yogurt is on consumers' minds."
"Origin yogurt will continue to sell," she said. "The word protein sells. It's a buzz word."
This fact, van den Bos said, is perfectly epitomized by Arla Protein, a quark product introduced to the UK in January 2015. It isn't labelled quark, instead 200g pots simply feature the word 'protein' in block capital letters.
Greek "opened the door"
The dramatic rise of Greek yogurt "opened the door" for products like Australian yogurt and Icelandic Skyr, said van den Bos.
In 2007, Greek yogurt accounted for just 1% of total US yogurt sales, but now accounts for around half of all the yogurts sold in the US.
"It's a trend we've seen in both Europe and the US," said van den Bos.
"It has grown in Europe, but not as well because yogurt is already an accepted part of the European diet, whereas in the US it has grown from a lower consumption base."
"Greek yogurt is till growing in the US, but the growth is not as high as it was before."
As a result, manufacturers in the US are looking "for the next big thing, the next Greek," she said.
Asked what this could be, van den Bos said Australian yogurt.
"In the US, I think the next big thing will be Australia yogurt. It offers the best of both worlds - it's indulgent but guilt free," she said.


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For each complex, sophisticated breach like Sony dominating the headlines, there are thousands more simple breaches that never make the press. The sad fact is that an attacker doesn’t need to be highly sophisticated or backed by a government to breach the average organization. Of the 1,367 data breaches studied in the 2014 DBIR report, only 22% of breaches can be attributed to espionage activity. Only 8% of breaches involve insiders. Even unsophisticated web application attacks and commodity crimeware regularly breach organizations. It’s tragically easy for an attacker to obtain malware and exploits that aren’t detected by most antivirus or IDS software, and can communicate through most firewall products. Expensive malware sandbox products are marginally better, but even they regularly fail to catch malicious files. Despite companies buying ever more complex and expensive security products, the majority of breaches are still detected by third parties, not the victim company. The 2014 DBIR report points out that even in the case of commodity crimeware infections, 84% of companies were notified of their breach by a third party, not their expensive security products.
All of this has been well known for years and forms the beginning of almost every security sales webinar. Despite this, those sales webinars continue to pitch marginally improved versions of the same signature-based products that fail to detect modern malware and heuristic-based products that generate too many alerts, which take too long to validate. Understaffed incident response teams are overwhelmed trying to keep up with the constant flood of alerts and have no time to devote to hunting for strange activity that could indicate compromise.
The sad truth is that there is no magic box for sale that will solve all of a company’s security problems. It’s not possible to reach security nirvana by buying the right combination of products. The number of attacks being constantly launched guarantees that every organization will be breached; it’s only a matter of when. Hardening an environment and properly deploying security products can help mitigate risk if there is a good team able to respond. Beyond that, more organizations are beginning to realize the value of making sure their incident response team has the time and ability to investigate anomalies through their network. Although every network will have odd activity from misconfigurations or unusual behavior, hidden among these anomalies will be traces of attacker behavior. Finding them faster could make the difference between a quietly resolved incident and an expensive data loss.


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Google plans to use recycled materials in all of its Made by Google products from 2022, part of a green commitment by the search giant to raise its game in environmentally-friendly tech. Don’t expect a fully-recycled Google Home or Pixel smartphone, however.
“Starting in 2022,” Anna Meegan, Head of Sustainability, Consumer Hardware for Google said today, “100 percent of Made by Google products will include recycled materials with a drive to maximize recycled content wherever possible.” Before then, by 2020 all of Google’s shipments to and from its customers will be carbon neutral.
Google has already been using post-consumer recycled plastic for some of its Nest products, Meegan points out, and details what green steps it’s taking in product environmental reports. The Google Home Mini, for example, uses 20-percent post-consumer recycled plastic in its top and bottom enclosures, while its packaging is 94-percent paper- and fiber-based. Other products, like the Pixel 3, don’t use recycled materials beyond their packaging, but come with more efficient power supplies.
Without a specific number commitment, it’s hard to say how far Google’s promise will take it from 2022 onward. After all, even just a microscopic piece of recycled plastic in some component of a future Pixel smartphone would presumably be sufficient to check off the “uses recycled materials” box compared to the current status-quo. The “100-percent” figure Meegan mentions refers to the entirety of the Made by Google range, not the entirety of the materials of each product.
Then there’s the question of repairability. Consumer tech firms have been criticized in recent years for moving away from designs amenable to owners repairing their own hardware. Whether it’s sealed batteries, ports that are fused into place, or displays that are integrated into cover glass, fixing rather than just replacing phones and other gadgets has become commonplace.
Google’s Pixel range has, at least in its most recent designs, been a little better than some of the competition on that front. The Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL scored 6 out of 10 when repair-enthusiasts iFixit assessed the 2019 Android smartphones, with particular praise for modular internal components and (relatively) straightforward casings to open.
Even with that, however, it’s questionable just how big an impact Google’s commitment today will make in the long term. Despite its efforts, the company is still a minority player in smartphones, after all. While Android Q and the Pixel 4 will lay out the roadmap Google envisages for phones in the coming year, the guidance Android phone-makers may really need is in embracing efficiency.


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Port seeking negotiable tariff rates to keep up with Philadelphia, Va.
The Maryland Port Administration wants permission to negotiate storage prices for paper products, cars and other niche goods, a move the Port says will enable it to hold its own against other cities in the increasingly competitive marketplace for imports.
An item before the Oct. 31 state Board of Public Works would give the Port permission to lower rates for “the lease and use of marine terminals or facilities owned by the MPA.” The move would allow the Port to negotiate lower rates for non-container goods like paper products, automobiles and construction equipment, rather than request across-the-board tariff cuts from the state. The Port could also give all-inclusive rates and incentives to companies to attract business.
Allowing the Port autonomy to set lower rates or prices for vessel dockage, wharfage and land allows it to compete against other cities in an increasingly crowded import market, said Michael Miller, director of maritime commercial management for the Maryland Port Administration.
“It’s supply and demand,” Miller said. “If they have other commodities that are down, they are looking to fill it.”
The reduced rates are confidential, Miller said, in order to remain competitive.
And competition has increased as the country’s import market rebounded. The U.S. imported $2.24 trillion worth of goods in 2011, the highest total since 2008. The Port of Baltimore imported 8.88 million tons of cargo in 2011, its highest mark since the 8.96 million tons it handled in 2008.
General storage rates for the Port are annually approved by the state’s Board of Public Works. Container-area space for outside storage, for example, will cost $28,000 an acre per year starting Nov. 1. Light paving outside storage will cost $25,000 an acre per year and unpaved outside storage will cost $15,000 per acre per year. That is much more than general shed storage, which will range from $3.65 to $5 per square foot depending on the marine terminal.
Jack Lambert is responsible for driving breaking news coverage on the BBJ's website, baltimorebusinessjournal.com. His specialty coverage areas are sports business and transportation. However, Jack goes where the news is on a daily basis.
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The Brooklyn Nets have made the headlines in Day 1 of free agency, acquiring one of the biggest stars – Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Durant. It’s a tough day for New York Knicks fans; James Dolan and Knicks’ front office, whiffed, yet again.
Summer has officially come to a close, but doesn’t mean IPA season is necessarily over. Modern Times Brewing has released their new Hazy Nelson IPA called “Space Ways”, a perfect, soothing beer for the Fall transition.
Modern Times has released quite a few different IPA’s this past summer: everything from the dank mosaic, to juicy, tropical flavors, and a new haze with Nelson hops. The Orderville, Critical Band, and Space Ways are definitely one of my favorite pale ales from this brewery that really emulates these characteristics.
It’s IPA season, which means there is every kind of pale ale possible right now, so do yourself a favor, and explore the Space Cake Double IPA.
Clown Shoes Brewing has made some interesting creations, and the Space Cake is certainly one of them. Clown Shoes applies a blend of citrusy Mosaic hops and an incredible West Coast style malt, giving this DIPA its signature sweet, cake-like taste.


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A little over two weeks ago, IBM released the results of a survey that it had conducted among adult grocery shoppers in the ten largest cities in the United States (100 in each city). The survey was intended to gather opinions about food safety issues, and what it found is as disappointing as it is not surprising. For example, less than 20% of consumers trust food companies to develop and sell food products that are self and healthy. Moreover, 60% of consumers are concerned about the safety of the food that they purchase. And the cause of this significant drop in trust? The rise in food recalls linked to contaminated and unsafe food products. According to the survey results, 83% of the people surveyed were able to name a food product that had been recalled in the last years, with nearly half (46%) naming peanut butter as a recently recalled product.
The irony here is that the rise in contamination-related recalls can be explained, in large part, by the drive for greater profits through: the use of cheaper ingredients purchased from suppliers willing to cut-corners (see, e.g. Peanut Corporation of America and its customer Kelloggs); the failure to update and maintain manufacturing facilities to ensure the highest standards of safety (see, e.g., Cargill and its peanut butter plant); insufficient product testing and quality control (see, e.g. Dole baged Spinach); and over-reliance on the consumer to cook the product "properly" as a means of making it safe, when it should have been safe to begin with (see, e.g., Banquet pot pies and Topps-brand and American Chef’s Selection brand frozen ground beef patties). But by putting profits above safety, food manufacturers are trading short term gains for long term losses. If consumers lose trust in manufactured food products, they will stop buying them. Look, for example, at peanut butter sales, which still have not recovered, and may never do so.
To read the full press release discussing the survey results, please click on Continue Reading.Continue Reading Consumer Trust in Food Safety in the U.S. Plummets Because of Rise in Recalls


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Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners may feel a little hard done by after seeing Bungie switch their allegiance to Sony and the PlayStation. However, we do have some good news to bring Xbox owners now with a solid update on when the Destiny beta on Xbox One will start.
As most of you know, Destiny has been in alpha testing. Leaked footage has emerged showing the game in action, but the general public will all get their first proper taste of the game in July.
We know that PS4 and PS3 PS Plus members will get to play the beta on July 17. The image above states that the Xbox One Destiny beta release date will be at the end of July, meaning that PlayStation users get an extra week of exclusivity.
This is on top of the Destiny timed-exclusive content on PlayStation that is set to last a whole year in a ground-breaking deal between Sony and Activision – sounds strange saying that doesn’t it?
A week isn’t long to wait at all though. Destiny is going to be amazing regardless of what platform you are playing on. Let us know if you are still getting the Xbox One version of the game, despite the favoritism towards Sony.
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