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As the pandemic subsides, restaurant owner Lefroy is delighted to be back offering a new menu of locally sourced food and drink, with weekly live entertainment
Jennifer McKnight has owned the Harbor House Grill in Lefroy for a decade, attracting locals as well as customers from the boating community.
Located inside the Lefroy Harbor complex, the restaurant offers calming lake views, lively entertainment, and locally sourced food and drink.
But it wasn’t always a âhot spot,â says McKnight.
When she first expressed interest in buying the Harbor House Grill almost 10 years ago, she was met with skepticism.
âWe have been told this place for years is not good,â she said. “It looked like a bad cafeteria.”
But she had a good idea of ââthe place and was able to prove that the naysayers were wrong.
McKnight comes from a vast culinary background, having worked in many restaurants over the years, from mom and pop stores to fine dining.
She grew up in Wasaga Beach and started in the industry at just 12, working as a dishwasher, with the dream of one day becoming a chef.
She had her own fine dining restaurant in Collingwood, but was forced to close after the 2008 recession, which brought her to Lefroy.
Before investing in the Harbor House Grill, she worked at the nearby restaurant in Monto Reno Marina and worked hard to develop her clientele.
“We drove him to madness, where I had to sleep in a boat,” she said. “It went so well, it was awesome, it was awesome.”
Eventually, she took over the Harbor House Grill just down the road and ended up owning both restaurants for two years as well as a neighborhood ice cream parlor.
Harbor House Grill’s business was growing so rapidly that she decided to sell the restaurant and ice cream shop Monto Reno to focus on one restaurant.
âHe’s grown up every year since,â she noted.
It was only after the pandemic and the recent reopening of the economy that McKnight changed his mind about his job.
âWith COVID, it’s a monster,â she said.
It usually closes in winter, but due to COVID it has decided to stay open this year. In January and February, she mailed 10,000 flyers to area residents advertising her take-out menu and had good response from customers.
âThey have supported us and are coming to see us for the first time,â she noted.
She’s grateful that she was able to adapt to online ordering throughout the pandemic in order to serve customers and says she’s sorry for some mom-and-pop stores that couldn’t.
âIf I didn’t adjust to the online part, I don’t know if I would still be there,â she said.
She had hired her staff at Harbor House Grill in April, but wasn’t sure when she might reopen for dinner.
âIt’s like you’re on a starting line and trying to be organized and prepared, then you’re good to go, then you have to go back,â she said.
In April the restaurant was doing so badly commercially, McKnight was ready to go out of business, but knowing summer was upon us, she persevered and stayed open.
Once restaurants were finally allowed to reopen for patio dining, it went from a staff of less than 10 to 40 in less than a week.
It was an overwhelming reopening, training for staff who were working for the first time, and serving clients who had been locked in over the past year.
âIt was in the first three weeks of opening, for the first time in my life, I didn’t want to do this anymore,â she admitted.
Not only did customers expect exceptional service at a time when staff were still new and training, but food suppliers faced shortages, forcing McKnight to seek other options to fill orders.
âIt’s so hard for the economy to go from zero to openness,â she said.
To help cope with shortages, she began sourcing menu ingredients from local businesses.
âThis is something that I have wanted to do for years,â she said, adding that the pandemic had forced her to do it. â95% of the menu is locally sourced. “
One of McKnight’s favorite parts of her job is the connections she makes with her staff.
âIt’s fulfilling,â she said. “The biggest thing I got out of all of this is over the years seeing the young staff, this is their first job, seeing them very well later in life.”
She says former staff members often contact her to thank her for the experience they’ve gained working at the restaurant.
âIt brings me butterflies,â she said.
It was this feeling that kept her going after a long and hard pandemic containment.
âI think it made me a better businessman, if I can get over that I can get over anything,â she said.
Despite a few difficult years, including the passing of her father earlier this year, McKnight is happy to be back stronger than ever, returning to a certain sense of normalcy with dining on the patio and indoors, and weekly entertainment.
On Friday August 6, rock and country band Tattoos N ‘Whiskey will perform, with music from their latest album “To waste my time”.
Harbor House Grill is located inside Lefroy Marina at 727 Harbor St., Lefroy. It is open to the public seven days a week at 11:30 a.m. for lunch and dinner, and 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays and on long weekend Mondays for breakfast.
To view their menu and see their entertainment program, visit their Facebook page here.


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At a time when the government is chalking out swift plans to tackle economic slowdown, the GST Council on September 20 could take key decisions aimed at curbing growth slowdown.
Details of the meeting's agenda, accessed by India Today TV, indicate that the GST Council will discuss key issues including slowdown, especially in sectors with a high consumer interface.
Not just automobiles but the GST Council will also discuss applicable rates on hotels, biscuits, matchsticks and outdoor catering segments. While the auto sector is unlikely to get any relief, the hotel and tourism sector could get rate relief.
The automobile sector, which has been hit hard by the ongoing demand slowdown, has been asking for a rate cut on vehicles from 28 per cent to 18 per cent. Major vehicle manufacturers feel that a cut could significantly boost prospects of the auto sector ahead of the festive season.
However, several states including Kerala have opposed a rate cut for the auto sector as it could lead to a sharp drop in revenue. The GST fitment committee had also said that a rate cut will "seriously hurt" GST collection as auto sector contributes almost Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000 crore of total GST collections.
But sources told India Today TV that the decision could be politically coloured and the government could cut rates for a certain period to assist the sector. However, most players from the industry feel that a limited period offer would not deal with the ongoing auto crisis.
They claimed that even if the government announces rate cut till the end of the financial year, prices may again increase with the introduction of BSVI compliant vehicles citing technology upgradation costs.
This is one reason why auto manufacturers are pushing for a long-term assurance from the government besides demanding reduced levy on low-engine capacity two-wheelers.
Moving on, the luxury hotel category, which charges approximately Rs 7,500 per night and invites more than 28 per cent GST could witness some relief on September 20.
A top source told India Today TV that the GST Council will reduce the GST rates applicable to luxury hotels-with rates up to Rs 10,000-Rs 12,000/night-to 18 per cent.
The outdoor catering industry, which is currently charged 18 per cent GST can also expect some relief. The Matchstick manufacturers, too, could expect relief as the industry continues to struggle due to two GST taxes.
As GST collections fell to sub Rs 1 lakh crore last month, the council could consider raising the tax level on "sin goods" like tobacco.
India's biscuit manufacturing unit is also hoping for some relief during the upcoming GST meeting. The industry, which usually generates Rs 35,000 crore annually, claimed that 18 per cent tax on biscuits priced at less than Rs 100/kilo has led to a slowdown.
Biscuit manufacturers said biscuits at Rs 100/kilo and above cannot be taxed at the same rate which applies to those below Rs 100/kilo. However, sources indicate that the industry may not get any relief in the upcoming GST Council meeting.

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Tactus are very proud to announce that we have been shortlisted for the PCR awards in the Vendor – Mobile & Wearables category. Other shortlisted companies include Lenovo, Acer and Asus.
Celebrating the achievements in the UK PC and tech industry, the PCR Awards returns on Wednesday 8th March 2017 at a brand new venue – The Brewery, Central London.
Previous winners of the PCR awards include globally recognised organisations including Amazon, Dell, Microsoft and Samsung
Taking place at The Brewery, Central London, guests will get the chance to network with 500+ members of the industry, kick back and relax during the dinner and after-show drinks reception.
‘We have seen fantastic growth across our business over the past 12 months and the PCR award nomination is further reflection of our commitment to delivering a world class service to our clients’ said Tactus CEO Scott Brenchley
Distributors, vendors and retailers will all be recognised as usual through a variety of categories including some new awards, developed to further recognise the contribution of retailers and resellers to the industry, and the evolution of technology and services in the last year.


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- TitleExecutive Vice Chairman and General Manager
- AffiliationGreat Wall Motor
- 2020 Rank21
Great Wall Motors is barreling ahead with its plans to expand overseas. The Chinese auto manufacturer in August bought a factory in Brazil from Daimler, signaling the auto manufacturer’s first entry into Latin America’s largest market. In September, Great Wall announced plans to sell an electric compact car and plug-in hybrid SUV in Europe in 2022. In the first eight months of 2021, the company’s export sales reached 87,000, more than double its total from the same period in 2020. Great Wall forecasts that by 2025, it will sell 1 million cars overseas, part of its ambitious goal of reaching 4 million in total sales, nearly four times its 2020 volume and a sum that would put it in the same territory as Ford and Honda. Of those 4 million, Great Wall says 80% will be new-energy vehicles, meaning battery-electric or plug-in hybrid models or cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells, a technology Wang has championed.
Subscribe to The Broadsheet, our newsletter on the world’s most powerful women.


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It was only a matter of time before Pinterest added advertising, and that time has come: Pinterest co-founder and CEO Ben Silbermann announced in a blog post Thursday that the image-based social network will “start experimenting with promoting certain pins from a select group of businesses.”
Silbermann offered a few more details on how the program will work:
“For our first test, we’ll promote a few pins in search results and category feeds. For example, a pin for a Darth Vader outfit from a costume shop might be promoted in a search for ‘halloween.’ Nobody’s paying for anything yet—we want to see how things go and, more than anything, hear what you think.”
He also promised that the promoted pins won’t junk up your feed — they’ll be “tasteful” and “relevant,” “about stuff you’re actually interested in, like a delicious recipe, or a jacket that’s your style.”
Pinterest, which launched as an invite-only site in 2010, has grown rapidly — the site reportedly had over 70 million users as of July 2013. And in recent months, it’s been making various efforts toward eventual monetization: It launched new types of pins — for food, retail products and movies — in May as a way to associate images with brands, and started making suggestions based on a user’s web browsing history in July.


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Latest Tetramethylammonium hydroxide Stories
SACHEM, Inc. announced today that it will be a platinum sponsor of the SEMATECH SPCC in Austin, Texas.
SACHEM experts will be on hand to discuss our proven product lines designed specifically for the microelectronics manufacturing industry at SEMICON Korea, booth #1242.
SACHEM will exhibit at Semicon Korea COEX in Seoul, S. Korea.
SACHEM is a sponsor at the Strategic Materials Conference (SMC 2013) October 16-17th in Santa Clara, California.
SACHEM experts will be available at SEMICON Europa Booth #1441 to discuss recent process challenges and opportunities in semiconductor market.
SACHEM experts will be on hand at SEMICON Europa to discuss process challenges facing LED, flat panel and printed wiring board manufacturers. Austin, TX (PRWEB)
In response to regulatory changes in Japan, SACHEM developed a platform of TMAH alternatives and launched Avanta A™ 4435 which exceeds the performance of standard pH adjusters and mineralizers.
SACHEM experts will be available at SEMICON West, booth #2548, to provide an update on TMAH Safety and the Envure System™, a platform of TMAH alternatives and next generation electronic formulation
Companies to combine resources and drive commercialization of groundbreaking customized selective etch chemistries Phillipsburg, NJ (PRWEB) July 11, 2011 SACHEM, Inc.
- To say in too many words; to express verbosely.
- To express in too many words: sometimes used reflexively.
- The leading idea or a repeated phrase, as of a song or ballad; the refrain; burden.


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Apple has been a leader in using PCIe-based flash storage, which offers far greater bandwidth than SATA-based SSDs. The new 2016 MacBook Pro's specs blow away the performance of its predecessor by nearly double.
Health insurer Aetna said it plans to give employees 50,000 free Apple Watches and subsidize the cost of the mobile device for a select number of its largest customers in an effort to bolster its analytics-based mobile wellness and healthcare management programs.
Automakers and municipal governments are testing new technologies that would make it possible to offer wireless charging stations embedded in the pavement or even in manhole covers -- thus removing the power cords from electric vehicles.
Single disk drive shipments continue to surpass all other storage devices, such as RAIDed NAS systems, for personal data storage, while shipments of hardware with the Thunderbolt interface surged in the past year.


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Menachem Anderman gathered together more than three hundred people in San Francisco to discuss the market and opportunities for advanced automobiles and their
The course is set. The engines are primed. And as far as advanced automotive batteries for hybrid cars are concerned, nickel metal hydride has won the first round hands down. Even though lithium ion batteries show a lot more promise in terms of energy density (which bodes well for future hybrid cars) and even though nickel is 17 times more expensive than lead.
In a year or so from now Panasonic and (to a lesser extent) Sanyo will be the only players in this market, which according to Dr Anderman’s figures will be worth an astonishing $300 million. No one else will even figure in the equation.
How did everyone else in the industry come to let two companies dominate the future of the automotive battery market without a fight?
And is this the future of automotive batteries? Or even automobiles? Should you be concerned?
These are difficult questions to answer, but they do mean one thing: Dr Anderman’s forum, now four years old, will run and run, although it may not need to be an annual event. Let me try to give you some answers, based on what I heard and saw and the conversations I had with players and pundits.
To even begin to look for answers, you must first play ‘follow the leader’ – and for now the leader is Toyota.
The past year has been one of global celebration for the latest version of the Prius, which has seen three variants to its nickel metal hydride batteries in just six years – and, as attendees to last year’s AABC will remember, a virtual doubling of energy density, thanks to an improvement in the current collector path of its prismatic NimH cells.
That one big improvement, on the face of it, has been sufficient to convince Toyota that it does not need to switch battery chemistry for this kind of hybrid – the parallel kind – for quite some while, even though the company is getting promising results from the lithium it’s been trying out in the small stop-start compact known as the Vitz. You have to look at future models Toyota plans to introduce. They are SUVs and vans. I have to admit I’m confused, because the lithium improvements to justify such a switch are already here.
You also have to answer some questions about the whole hybrid proposition to begin with. Who buys them? And why?
Firstly, the hybrid is not a panacea for reduced fuel consumption and money saving, though Honda’s Naboro Sato showed quite convincingly that sales of both the Prius and his own company’s vehicles improve when there has been a hike in fuel prices. But hammering down the highway is not going to save you much fuel, though stop-start driving in LA or around London’s M25 orbital will show the real benefits of the system. And the Prius is not cheap. With a waiting list over a year long, the vehicle sells at in excess of $22,000 and Toyota dealers in the US pack them with all kinds of added electronics like navigation systems, getting an even better margin from this, the plaything of the monied green geek. But it is the state of the art in hybrid architecture, and it’s almost good business.
A manufacturer trying to save money ends up with a low-voltage, mild hybrid design, running on ordinary lead-acid batteries. Cue General Motors, and the Chevolet Silverado! The electrical part of its power train can only contribute some 10% of the overall traction power, because of the limitations of the energy storage components of the system. GM has decided to offer this vehicle as a truck, with the added benefit of 110V outlets in the cab and on the truck itself. But fuel economy is likely to be modest, with a saving of 10% or probably less, because of the way the vehicle will be driven by its rough, tough redneck purchasers.
I wondered what GM’s Mark Verbrugge was thinking as he presented details of the Silverado to the San Francisco audience. Did he feel a sense of relief as he threw a morsel of business to the lead-acid community? A sense of contentment in the elegance of the design, given the limitations of the technology and the cost restraints of the design brief? Or deep down, a worry that this was a ‘pussycat’ of a truck which would ‘bomb’ with the public and set back GM’s hybrid ambitions by five years or more? To me, a truck is something huge, gas guzzling and intimidating, like the Hummer or Ford’s Trail Blazer. The GM offering was neither. But this isn’t an auto magazine.
The public won’t get its collective brain around the intricacies of hybrid architecture, and my guess is they’ll only be impressed by vehicles with a bigger electrical contribution, which leads to a more substantial fuel saving in city and suburban driving. For now, that rules out lead-acid technology.
Which is more than a pity, because lead-acid is showing more than a modicum of improvement. Take the contribution of Furukawa, the smallest of the Japanese lead-acid battery makers. Mr Shogi Shiga and his colleagues have reported significant improvements year on year in the specifications and performance of lead-acid batteries that both he and the rest of us were convinced (or deceived) into thinking were destined for the 42 volt market. In 2002 there were improvements in Furukawa’s battery thermal management; last year we saw a new electrical battery management system.
This year Furukawa incorporated the very latest ideas from the Advanced Lead Acid Battery programme, less than a year after they had been presented to the other ALABC contractors. Most importantly the company included improved grid designs, including a new grid alloy which Furukawa has designated C21. It is a PbCaSnBa combination, which shows superior performance at high temperatures and is 15% thinner and lighter in weight compared with conventional grids. The material doubles the life expectancy of conventional starter batteries, but the company was able to utilise the grid technology in a 192V battery design in a hybrid electric vehicle manufactured by Suzuki, known as the Twin. Launched last year and only available in Japan, it combines a 660cc petrol engine with a small electric motor. The Twin achieves a fuel efficiency of 32 to 34 km per litre of petrol. However it has very low sales targets – just 100 units – so it’s a test bed, like the first Prius.
Suzuki’s Twin ranks second only to the Honda Insight hybrid in fuel economy. Furukawa has only a year’s real road test data, but the laboratory simulations suggests that the battery pack is good for three years or 60,000 km. At lead-acid battery prices, this really isn’t bad at all.
Furukawa is also implementing a high-frequency pulsing device, developed by Lan Lam at CSIRO, to help minimise sulphation. With lead-acid science, if it’s significant, Furukawa seem to run with it. The clear message was “Look, US auto industry: it’s a high-voltage design using lead-acid, and it works!”
Furukawa wasn’t the only manufacturer sporting improvements in lead-acid. Shin Kobe now appears to have a Gates cell clone of its own, to compete with the Orbitel/Cyclon/Optima designs. It’s called Generty, but there was nothing earth-shattering about it in terms of performance, which may also account for its name.
Not counting the Rholab presentation from Allan Cooper (more on that in a separate article), there was just a single poster presentation from a Western lead-acid manufacturer – Eagle Picher, which is reviving the old Horizon design. That’s a story for another issue.
JCI, Exide and East Penn were merely observers. Can you blame them?
There’s an in-built resistance to lead on the part of auto makers now for this advanced role, and it’s played out each year here. Part of this is historical, but the rest in shaped by the kind of science the US Advanced Battery Consortium wants to do.
Verbrugge for one is a mathematician, and doesn’t seem to want battery people second-guessing the testing of batteries in automobiles. The specs for what’s needed by the car industry are on the USABC website. In essence he argues: “Make your batteries, see if they meet the specs, then give us an equivalent circuit model for us to play with in our computers. If they show any promise, we’ll get back to you.”
Test the ideas in a computer model and you can quickly eliminate the directions to avoid. It’s the modern way – no, the fast way – of doing things. Many other disciplines are already doing it this way, from pharmaceutical research to civil engineering.
Let me illustrate further. Why should we take any comfort from India and Pakistan agreeing to stop testing nuclear devices? They’re far too smart – they now have computer models to test their designs!
You see, most of the battery science people come from the school of experimental science. The old school is hypothesis, experimental design, observation and eventually the application of positive outcomes. The new school has worked out that it will never fully understand the complexities of battery chemistries, so it uses the mathematical ‘best guess’ approach.
For now the lead-acid world doesn’t appear to have those kinds of scientists. It’s time it did. Lecture over: back to the meeting!
So what’s so great about nickel metal hydride? Well there wasn’t much new here that we hadn’t seen in previous years. We explained the technical improvements last year, and they have been fully implemented in today’s Prius. Even the technology’s great defender, Naboro Sato, cautiously admits that we can probably see the limit coming in terms of performance.
In his summary of what’s happening, Sato sees lithium coming up from behind, where it was just four years ago, with a factor of three improvement in specific power. The issue now is cost, and Sato was quite specific about where the cost reductions need to come: cheaper separator and cheaper electrolyte, which represent 30% and 11% of the cost of the product. With new suppliers of both batteries and materials there seems to be no lack of entrants into the lithium field to bring this about, so we should expect movement here.
And who better to tell us this than Hideo Takeshita, the cool, self-styled observer of Japan’s rechargeable battery market, who’s watched that market for nearly a decade now and who cuts through the crap like no other Japanese speaker with both his overheads and his words.
Quite simply it’s about who’s making a profit now, and about who wants to stay in the game. In lithium the clear winner is Sanyo, by about $150 million. Sanyo is the battery maker to watch – but we’re only talking about portable batteries for phones and the like.
Now for the car players. OK, the profits from hybrids aren’t there yet; but the desire for them is growing, and if the cost of fuel keeps going up, especially in the US, then the market will grow. The US car makers are cash-strapped and limited in experience with hybrids, but the Japanese have a potential market of 17 million vehicles in the US and maybe another 4-5 million in China.
Switching to lithium soon will be a good move, because the battery will be more compact. Takeshita estimates that the switch will happen in 2006-2007. But as I’ve already mentioned, that’s not what Toyota is saying – and maybe with good cause.
Takeshita decided to dissect the lithium ion battery in the Vitz – you remember, the little town car with the lithium ion battery under the front passenger seat. In his words “it’s nothing special” – it’s a lithium nickel cobalt system, and quite safe. Get the cost down to $0.30/Wh and, Takeshita calculates, 25% of hybrids could have lithium ion in their battery packs by 2010.
Could it be however that the real expertise for lithium ion for vehicles lies outside Japan? Such as within SAFT or LG ? You only have to look at the performance figures for SAFT’s high-power VLP series to see just what can be achieved – low temperature
(-30ºC) high discharge capability – albeit at a cost that only the US military is presently prepared to pay.
But Toyota et al are still banging on about safety. Now to our knowledge, Toyota has not had any problems with the lithium ion battery system in the Vitz – at least none that Katzuo Tojima, the company’s senior staff engineer, would tell us about. His presentations were more a reprise of the nickel metal hydride improvement story which we covered from EVS 20 in our Winter issue. As I’ve suggested, the audience had already heard some interesting and convincing lithium ion presentations. And when it came down to the crunch question, i.e. when is Toyota going to move over to lithium, Tojima said they still needed to be convinced it was worthwhile.
One begins to suspect that the real reasons are political as well as technical and the company wants an indigenous Japanese source of high-power, low-cost lithium ion technology. For now, it doesn’t have one. Hence the costly love affair with nickel metal hydride continues.
What about other technologies? The romance of ultracapacitors and lead-acid – a perfect combination of energy and power – is still talked about, but these two are like the cliffhanger in some technical soap opera: just when are they finally going to sleep together? And will we get to read the ‘kiss and tell’ story?
We may have to wait a few years yet. As the delegates slipped away on the Friday, I felt that some of the excitement of previous meetings in this series had been lost. But that, I suppose, is inevitable.
A lot of technology decisions have been made, and next year we should have sales figures and technical reports on the GM and Ford hybrid offerings as well more details of the extended Toyota range. The cost of fuel is unlikely to have come down, and lead, cobalt and nickel prices will still be on the rise. And whoever’s in the White House, hybrid automobiles are here to stay.


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Logistic solutions provider P&O Ferrymasters has launched new intermodal services that link Turkey to Rotterdam and Zeebrugge via the Free Port of Trieste in Italy and offer a transit time of less than a week.
The services will connect Turkey with Europe’s principal logistics hubs at Rotterdam and Zeebrugge with rail links from the port of Trieste and departures six times a week in both directions.
Wim Blomme, intermodal director at P&O Ferrymasters, said: “This new link between Turkey and our European network will give [customers] certainty on transit times and reduce their transport costs because of the partnerships we have put in place.”
The company opened its first office in Turkey in summer 2018 and these new services contribute towards its efforts to expand the reach of its services into Eastern Europe and Asia.
John Freyne, P&O Ferrymasters’ intermodal business development manager, said: “We expect Turkey to become an important hub as we focus on supporting new trade lanes with both road transportation solutions and the introduction of highly sustainable intermodal assets.”


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Mar 28, 2018
Lululemon fourth-quarter profit rises as sales climb on strong comps, e-comm
Mar 28, 2018
Canadian athletic apparel maker Lululemon Athletica on Tuesday posted a surprisingly strong fourth-quarter profit and forecast further growth in the first quarter, sending its shares surging in after-hours trading.
Strong sales from a revamped e-commerce platform and a surge of traffic at permanent and holiday pop-up stores drove results at the “athleisure” company, which is looking for a new CEO and seeking to fend off competitors such as Nike Inc.
The Vancouver-based company estimated first-quarter earnings of 44 to 46 cents per share on revenue of $612 million to $617 million, driven by an expected rise in comparable sales in the low-double digits. That compares with per-share adjusted earnings of 32 cents on revenue of $520.3 million a year earlier.
The stock jumped 6.5 percent in after-hours trading, following a 2 percent decline during the day to $78.71, after Lululemon reported a 33 percent increase in adjusted earnings and a 290 basis point rise in adjusted operating margins to 27.8 percent.
The gains came as Lululemon navigates changes following the abrupt resignation of Chief Executive Laurent Potdevin last month on undisclosed charges of misconduct.
The company is continuing its CEO search and has had “a number of great candidates,” Chairman Glenn Murphy, who became executive chairman on Potdevin’s departure, said on a teleconference on Tuesday.
Lululemon, which popularized “athleisure wear” by turning pricey women’s yoga wear into mainstream fashion, is seeking to shore up profits as it faces growing competition from brands including Under Armour Inc, Nike and Gap Inc.
It has restructured its money-losing Ivivva brand, turning it into a primarily e-commerce operation, boosted investment in its online and international businesses and expanded its men’s offerings.
Total comparable store sales rose 7 percent, while rising sales in the e-commerce business after a relaunch of its websites in the third quarter contributed to revenue growth in the direct-to-consumer business, the company said in a statement.
It reported adjusted earnings of $1.33 per share in the three months ended Jan. 28, up from $1 a year earlier as revenue increased 18 percent to $928.8 million. Including the effect of restructuring charges related to Ivivva and a U.S. tax overhaul, net income fell to $119.8 million, or $88 cents per share, from $136.1 million, or 99 cents, a year earlier.
Analysts had expected adjusted net income of $1.27 per share, and revenue of $912.4 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
For the fiscal year, the company reported an increase in adjusted earnings to $2.59 per share, versus $2.14 a year earlier. It forecast earnings per share of between $3 and $3.08 for the full year on revenue of $2.985 billion to $3.022 billion.
“We are seeing strong momentum across our business as we now move into 2018, which is further positioning us to achieve our 2020 revenue goal of $4 billion,” Chief Operating Officer Stuart Haselden said in the statement.
With additional reporting from Reuters
Copyright © 2023 FashionNetwork.com All rights reserved.


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About The Chosen Mortal Arises!
Read full news story: https://blog.godsunchained.com/2021/08/18/interview-owning-a-mythic-card/ -- NFT Gaming history was made when this past week, FlexyFlexy “The Chosen Mortal” was selected via random number generation and received The Citadel of The Gods Mythic card and played a round of Gods Unchained publicly with Copperpitch. This was the first time there has been public gameplay of a mythic card in all of Gods Unchained history. Mythics have been distributed via the blockchain but their owners have locked them inside of a vault. The Chosen Mortal has arrived and is disrupting the NFT gaming space in the best way possible.Learn More


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114 Airbus, 100 Boeing: Iran on a shopping spree?January 25, 2016 12:46
The off-peak year, Part II
Caught in the midst of infrastructure overdrive and global slowdown, the region’s tourism sector will be forced to find new revenue streams to survive the lean times, Part II.
August 11, 2009 7:58 by Ehtesham Shahid
Caroline Bremner, of Euromonitor International, says investing in Doha’s tourism offers is a good start. “These steps are critical to building its credentials as a leisure destination and will help underpin 10 percent arrivals growth per year, so that the country welcomes 1.7 million visitors by 2013,” she says. Tourist arrivals are indeed important, not only for the hotel sector, but also the broader service and retail sector.
Besides those blips on the tourist radar, Doha seems to have chosen to take the retail route to attracting tourists. A Jones Lang LaSalle report says about 500,000 square meters of retail space is expected to come online by 2011, which will double the retail stock within the city. That is not necessarily good news under the circumstances confirmed by the report itself. “Faced with this increased supply and declining global tourism, rentals in the Doha retail market are expected to decline in the short term,” the report reads. Although the level of leisure travel for sporting and other events is likely to increase in Doha, the business and convention sector will remain the major driving force of Qatar’s tourism mix.
Abu Dhabi has chosen to focus on family and cultural tourism, which observers say should hold the emirate in good stead. But, since it doesn’t overly rely on tourism, little sleep is lost.
Places like Oman are happy holding on to their ground as regional leisure destinations, and wouldn’t want to experiment at this time. However, construction activity isn’t drastically slowing down across the region.
According to Proleads research, Gulf countries have more than $140 billion worth of hotel projects under construction and 19 percent of the projects are being suspended or canceled as the sector faces a global slowdown. Of 893 hotel projects surveyed in the Gulf, 5 percent had been canceled, 14 percent put on hold, and 42 percent were underway.


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An unannounced Samsung Galaxy Trend Duos (GT-S7392) smartphone is selling for Rs 8,490 on an e-retail store in India, FoneArena spotted. Samsung had recently mentioned its plans to launch affordable Android smartphones in India and the Galaxy Trend Duos seems to be one of them. Samsung has been facing stiff competition in the entry-level smartphone segment from local vendors, especially Micromax, which according to IDC has a 22 percent market share and is inching closer to Samsung’s 26 percent share. According to IDC, 67 percent of all smartphones shipped in India are priced under $200, which is where Samsung did not have much presence. However, with the introduction of the Galaxy Trend Duos, it is clear that Samsung won’t easily let go of market share. Also Read - Apple sells more iPads in early 2021 than ever, grows along with Samsung
Feature-wise, it is good to see that Samsung has ensured to offer some decent features on the phone, despite placing it in the sub-Rs 10,000 category to compete against its local counterparts. Like the previously launched Galaxy S Duos, the Galaxy Trend Duos also comes with a 4.0-inch WVGA display with 480 800 pixels resolution. It is powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor coupled with 512MB of RAM, 4GB internal memory and up to 32GB of external memory on microSD card. The phone runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.
Another point to notice is that though the phone supports 3G on one of the dual-SIMs, it lacks a front-facing camera and only features a 3-megapixel rear camera. The phone has proximity and ambient light sensors. Connectivity-wise, it offers Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS/AGPS, and dual-SIM support. The phone is available in black and white colors for Rs 8,490.
We are expecting Samsung to officially announce the Galaxy Trend Duos sometime this week.


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The energy regulator has strengthened its rules to protect households after taxpayers were left to pick up a £9.2bn bill when suppliers went bust – but it was criticized for failing to protect consumer deposits.
Ofgem has announced a package of reforms designed to strengthen consumer protection and ensure energy suppliers are more resilient to market shocks.
Almost 30 energy suppliers have collapsed since the start of the energy crisis. The Bulb collapse, by far the biggest failure, has been estimated to cost the taxpayer £6.5 billion alone, while the remaining failures will cost consumers around £2.7 billion. Many of the failures were due to the weak balance sheets of the suppliers, which were exposed when the wholesale price of gas began to rise rapidly.
In response, Ofgem is proposing a number of reforms, including setting a minimum amount of capital that suppliers must hold – in order to reduce the risk and costs of supplier failure.
However, the UK regulator said it would only “closely” monitor the use of credit balances. Some energy companies, including British Gas owner Centrica, have argued that customer credit should be restricted to prevent suppliers from using consumers’ money for other business purposes. Rivals, including Octopus, have proposed cheaper alternatives.
Centrica chief executive Chris O’Shea hit out at the decision, accusing Ofgem of an “abdication of responsibility”.
He said: “When customers pay up front for their energy, they trust their supplier to look after their hard-earned money. They would be horrified to learn that their money was being used to fund day-to-day business activities, but that’s exactly what happens in some companies, and it undermines confidence in the market.
“If and when a major supplier fails, the recklessness of the decision not to address this issue will be clear to all.”
Ofgem said if the use of customer balances was found to be “reckless”, it would take further action.
Consumers usually pay too much in relation to their consumption in the summer months, and build up large advance deposits with suppliers, which are then run down through the winter.
Ofgem’s chief executive, Jonathan Brearley, has previously said that some energy companies use customers’ credit balances “like an interest-free company credit card”.
He said on Friday: “We want suppliers to be able to be innovative and dynamic, while ensuring that they are financially stable and that customers’ money is protected.
“This is a delicate balance, and while Ofgem wants well-capitalised businesses that can withstand price fluctuations, we also don’t want to block the market for new suppliers or force suppliers to sit on a lot of capital they could invest in innovative ideas. We are seeking views across of the industry, and recognizes the different business models the suppliers have, if we have found the right balance between resilience and competition.”
Ofgem tried to improve competition in the market but has been criticized for being too slow to act as the energy crisis escalated and many of the new entrants failed.
The new rules will also require suppliers to limit the money needed to buy renewable energy.
Ofgem announced consultations on a number of other reforms, including reviews of suppliers’ return on investment and updates to the price cap. The reforms are expected to start next spring.


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Sears Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:SHLD) made news this week by partnering with mall REIT Simon Property Group Inc (NYSE:SPG), the largest REIT in the world by market cap.
Sears plans to bundle 10 properties worth about $228 million into the venture, which it will then lease back. Sears made a similar deal with rival mall REIT General Growth Properties Inc (NYSE:GGP) earlier this month, selling and leasing back 12 properties located in General Growth malls.
Of course, all of this pales in comparison to Sears’ most ambitious move: The planned spinoff of 254 properties worth $2.5 billion into Seritage Growth Properties, a real estate holding and development company. Sears currently owns Seritage, but it is widely believed that Chairman Eddie Lampert plans to list it as a standalone traded REIT.
So … what’s going on here?
Lampert Nears His Endgame
I’ve been following the developments at SHLD for years, and it appears that this is execution of Lampert’s long-term plan of essentially chopping up Sears — an old retailer that has been dying a slow death for decades — and selling its valuable pieces for spare parts.
Just last year, SHLD spun off its Lands’ End, Inc. (NADAQ:LE) brand. This followed the 2011 spinoff of Orchard Supply and assorted sales of real estate along the way.
Sears stores have been losing ground to more competitive big-box retailers like Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT), The Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) and Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) for longer than I have been alive. Yet, due to its age and longevity, Sears is sitting on choice retail sites across the country.
Of course, no shoppers visit these sites anymore, but they certainly might if they were rented by higher-quality tenants. At least this was Lampert’s thinking when he bought a controlling interest for $11 billion back in 2004. Though he has never admitted it publicly (it would be bad for business), it was pretty obvious that Lampert had no grand ambition for reviving the Sears retail empire. That would be ludicrous, and Lampert is too smart for that.
Lampert’s game plan was to invest whatever minimal amount was necessary to keep the company afloat long enough for him to extract the value out of it via spinoffs of its valuable brands and real estate assets.
As I wrote years ago in “Is Sears the Next Berkshire Hathaway?” Lampert’s plan probably would have worked well had he not started it immediately before the 2008 crisis and real estate crash.
Is there an investment play here?
Seritage, were it to go public, might very well turn out to be a decent investment. We’ll have to wait and see there. But the rump Sears Holdings — which today is trading at 2004 levels — is still struggling to turn a profit in a lousy environment for retailers.
When I compared Sears to Berkshire Hathaway years ago, I got a lot of raised eyebrows. But the comparison is completely valid. Warren Buffett has publicly admitted that buying Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-A) was the worst investment of his career and one that probably cost him $200 billion in lost gains.
Once the Sears stores do eventually go out of business — and they will — SHLD, like Berkshire Hathaway, might be a great way for regular investors to invest in the holding company of one of the best managers in the business today.
But in the meantime, you’re looking at a slow bleed.


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Wednesday, April 23, 2014
By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO/The Associated Press
NEW YORK - Some of the world's largest retailers have agreed to a first-of-its-kind pact to improve safety at some of Bangladesh's garment factories following a building collapse that killed more than 1,100 workers in the country last month.
A Bangladeshi rescue worker walks at the site where a garment factory building collapsed on April 24 in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Monday. Nearly three weeks after the building collapse, the search for the dead ended Monday at the site of the worst disaster in the history of the global garment industry.
The Associated Press
Rescued woman done with garment factories
The Associated Press
SAVAR, Bangladesh - The 19-year-old seamstress who spent 17 days trapped in the rubble of a collapsed factory building said Monday that she will never again work in a Bangladesh garment factory.
Reshma Begum was pulled in remarkably good shape from the wreckage of the eight-story Rana Plaza building Friday.
On the morning of April 24, she said, she heard there were cracks in the building and saw co-workers, mainly men, refusing to enter. The managers reassured them: "There is no problem. You do your work," she said.
Soon after, the building crashed down around her.
"When it happened I fell down and was injured in the head heavily. Then I found myself in darkness," she said. She tried to crawl to safety, but could not find a way out, she said.
She survived on four packets of cookies she had with her and some water.
The move comes just days shy of a deadline imposed by workers' rights groups that said they would hold street protests and otherwise increase pressure on clothing brands that did not sign the agreement by Wednesday.
H&M, a trendy Swedish chain that's the largest clothing buyer in Bangladesh, said Monday that it would sign a five-year, legally binding factory safety contract. Within hours, C&A of the Netherlands, British retailers Tesco and Primark, and Spain's Inditex, owner of the Zara chain, followed.
The agreement requires that the companies conduct independent safety inspections, make their reports on factory conditions public and cover the costs for needed repairs. It also calls for them to pay up to $500,000 annually toward the effort, to stop doing business with any factory that refuses to make safety upgrades and to allow workers and their unions to have a voice in factory safety.
"We can slowly but surely contribute to lasting changes," Helena Hermersson, an H&M spokeswoman, said in a statement Monday.
The companies that agreed to the pact Monday join two other retailers that signed the contract last year: PVH, which makes clothes under the Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and Izod labels, and German retailer Tchibo. The agreement has since been expanded to five years from two.
Among the holdouts, Walmart, the second-largest clothing buyer in Bangladesh, said through spokesman Kevin Gardner that it had nothing to announce Monday. And Gap, which had been close to signing the agreement last year, said Monday that the pact is "within reach," but the company is concerned about the possible legal liability involved.
Labor groups applauded the retailers that signed the pact Monday. They say the agreement goes a long way toward improving working conditions in Bangladesh's garment industry, which long has been known to be dangerous.
Based on the seven companies that plan to participate in the pact, between 500 and 1,000 of the 5,000 Bangladesh factories will be covered, according to Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, a group that had been one of the organizations pushing for the agreement.
"This agreement is exactly what is needed to finally bring an end to the epidemic of fire and building disasters that have taken so many lives in the garment industry in Bangladesh," he said.
The agreement comes as the working conditions of Bangladesh's garment industry have come under increased scrutiny. Since 2005, at least 1,800 workers have been killed in the Bangladeshi garment industry in factory fires and building collapses, according to research by the advocacy group International Labor Rights Forum.
The two latest tragedies in the country's garment industry have raised alarm. The building collapse on April 24 was the industry's worst disaster in history. And it came months after a fire in another garment factory in Bangladesh in November killed 112 workers.
After the latest tragedy, Walt Disney Co. announced that it is stopping production of its branded goods in Bangladesh. But most retailers have vowed to stay and promised to work for change. H&M and Walmart both have said they have no plans to leave. Other big chains such as The Children's Place, Mango, J.C. Penney, Gap, Benetton and Sears have said the same.
(Continued on page 2)


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New Yorkers have already collectively freaked out over ice cream, dessert and fortune cookies. And the latest food to get the idol treatment just happens to be something we’re already obsessed with: chocolate.
Choco-Story, a brand-new interactive museum inside the Soho flagship of Jacques Torres, is a collaboration between the revered NYC chocolatier and Eddy Van Belle, Choco-Story’s founder (who has already launched locations in Belgium, Mexico and France). The exhibition will trace cacao’s development from humble bean to eminently bingeable candy (not to mention ubiquitous pop culture presence—hi, Juliette Binoche).
Inside the museum, you’ll find ancient artifacts used to make (and consume) the antioxidant-packed treat throughout history. The main attraction, however, is the live chocolate-making demos by Chef Torres and his team of chocalatiers, from the Mayan recipe for fresh-ground hot chocolate to handmade truffles. And don’t worry, this isn’t some social experiment where the sweet stuff is always out of reach—there are plenty of samples.
As far as we know, there are no plans for a chocolate river à la Willy Wonka (we can’t image that would ever make it past the NYC health department). But there is a hands-on component: Visitors can learn how to make their own chocolate bars and then take those customizable creations home. We’ll try our hardest not to eat ours all at once—but we’re not making any guarantees.


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Diablo 4 breaks multiple records, surpasses $666 million in just 5 days of launching
We are facing a historic moment for a company that has offered us an incredible game that will be with us for years. Diablo 4 is enchanting the community, even since Blizzard is already preparing two expansions for Diablo 4. However, from California, they are very happy with all the money that the title has generated.
As reported by Blizzard in a press release, Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo IV has surpassed the barrier of $666 million in the five days of launch. These incomes have also been thanks to microtransactions, which have been the subject of controversy since some cosmetics cost up to 25 euros in Diablo 4.
Diablo’s general manager, Rod Fergusson and a senior vice president at Blizzard Entertainment credited the initial success to Dibalo IV’s willingness to work across platforms while embracing different characteristics of the game in today’s gaming mode and the older features of the franchise.
“We were trying to reach the younger audience,” the 55-year-old insisted in an interview. The franchise was less worried about getting older fans who were used to the earlier Diablo games to purchase the latest installment, he said. “If you’re paying attention, you can see it in our marketing,” VC added.
The company has also shared other statistics that show the great reception of the game. In this way, 276 million hours have been exceeded and players have killed 276,000 million demons. However, users have also died 316 million times. The true heroes of the community have been the 163 people who have reached the maximum level in Hardcore Mode, that is, permanent death where you lose all your character, time and objects.
Diablo IV is the fastest-selling game in Blizzard’s history
The previous record we reported is Diablo 4 being the fastest-selling game in Blizzard history. The most remarkable thing is that the game had not yet been released on the market since it was in the Early Access period. We do not have data on copies sold, but we can already imagine that there have been millions and millions.


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Royal Enfield asked to cough up Rs 15,000 compensation to Hyderabad customer
| Wednesday | 12th February, 2020
By Express News ServiceHYDERABAD: The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum-I has directed the motorcycle manufacturer, Royal Enfield, to pay a compensation of Rs 15,000 to a consumer for not refunding his booking amount for a limited-edition motorcycle.
According to the complainant, G Anil Kumar, a resident of Parsigutta, on July 25, 2018, he paid Rs 25,000 for booking a limited-edition bike, Classic 500-Pegasus.
Later, the complainant was also told that a refund was processed.
The court directed the company to refund the booking amount of Rs 25,000, with 12 per cent interest.
Additionally, it was asked to pay a compensation of Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000 as litigation cost.
Your support to NYOOOZ will help us to continue create and publish news for and from smaller cities, which also need equal voice as much as citizens living in bigger cities have through mainstream media organizations.
Stay updated with all the Hyderabad Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.


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Finally, after all the leaks, teases, and speculation, Activision Blizzard has announced 2020’s Call of Duty game. Titled Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, its announcement was accompanied with an eerie trailer depicting live-action footage from the Cold War. This announcement comes on the heels of an intricate community puzzle that was implemented last week, which involved a lot of work from its players in order to uncover the mystery of the next game.
You can check out the announcement trailer below.
On top of that, we received word that Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will be fully revealed from within battle royale Call of Duty: Warzone on Wednesday, Aug. 26. It’s unclear how the reveal will be implemented, so we’ll keep our eyes peeled for any references or hints from within Warzone leading up to next Wednesday.
VGC reports that Black Ops Cold War will indeed have a campaign, multiplayer, zombie mode, and some sort of connection with Warzone, though this has yet to be officially confirmed. Speculation seems to point towards a full Warzone revamp to coincide with Cold War‘s release later this year.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is being developed by Treyarch after publisher Activision moved that team onto the project. As you might know, Call of Duty typically cycles through three developers, Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer, and Treyarch, giving each game a three-year development cycle. But last year, sources reported that Sledgehammer — the team that was supposed to ship a Call of Duty game this year — was taken off the project and development was shifted over to Treyarch for some reason.
Hopefully, next week we’ll get Cold War‘s official release date, along with its features and how it ties into Warzone.


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Ecocentric bloggers have a soft spot for cool stuff on roofs. Check out a slideshow of our latest venture above street level and read about sub-irrigated planting systems, a diy technology that could revolutionize urban food production.
Since 1930, Rockland County, New York has lost most of its 900 farms. As land was bought up by developers, the county that once provided food to Manhattan became a landscape dominated by supermarket chains. Enter the Rockland Farm Alliance.
Ecocentric returns to the Brooklyn Grange, the world's largest rooftop farm, to take in the view and catch up with co-founder Gwen Schantz. Check out the interview to hear her thoughts about roofs, urban ag and future plans.
Brian Gotreaux never made the conscious decision to become an organic farmer-- it was simply a matter of getting healthy. After years of hard work, Brian and his wife Dawn successfully run an organic farm, a CSA and a farmer's market all while educating their community about the benefits of organic farming.
Industrial agriculture and monocropping has caused the extinction of thousands of breeds of fruits, vegetables and livestock. The July issue of National Geographic highlights the hopeful work of seed preservation in this article, Food Ark.
The city of Oak Park recently dropped misdemeanor charges against Julie Bass, but not before threatening her with 93 days in jail. Here, she speaks with us about her love of gardening, why she chose to fight the good fight and how her experience has affected her view of the food movement.
As Food Growing Project Coordinator at the Food Bank for Westchester, Doug DeCandia manages a joint production-vocational program to grow fresh produce for those who experience food insecurity in Westchester. [Podcast length: 27 min.]
In which our resident home brew hobbyist and clean water advocate argues that craft beers strengthen communities and explores some characteristics (most of which also apply to the good food movement) of the better beer movement, particularly as it concerns local production and consumption.
Perhaps best known as the chicken farmer from Food, Inc., Carole Morison is a long-time poultry producer, sustainable agriculture activist and outspoken critic of the industrial food system. Here, she discusses her transition from industrial producer to sustainable farmer.
The Brooklyn Grange (largest rooftop farm in the world!), has announced plans to build a second rooftop farm in Brooklyn AND launch an ambitious apiary project to produce more than 1,000 pounds of honey annually.


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Over 75s targeted by new idea
As such, one enterprising organisation has decided to target the over 75s by offering them a product which does away with the all singing, all dancing smartphone. Instead, they can just make calls.
This new idea is in reality is going back to what mobile phones were invented for – to make calls on the go.
Age UK’s My Phone is a device that allows older people to make calls to a limited number of friends and family using an oversized button. The design is to help individuals who have poor eyesight.
Interestingly, the new phone is not bulky, as one would expect. It is apparently lightweight and the same size as a credit card, and comes in a variety of colours.
Oddly, there is no dialling tone, which could be a little off-putting. Reviewers also say that you have to wait a few seconds before the phone at the other end rings.
On a more positive note, the phone has a cord attached, allowing the user to put it round their neck. This is similar to the alarm devices that many old people wear in case of accidents.
The phone was manufactured on behalf of Age UK, which believes that My Phone will encourage the over 75s to join the rest of the country in using modern technology.
Age UK also thinks it could be a useful alternative to an alarm device.


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Week Ending March 25, 2012. Songs: For fun. And Profit
"We Are Young" by fun. featuring Janelle Monae this week surpasses Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" as the best-selling song so far in 2012. "We Are Young" has sold 2,389,000 copies so far this year, compared to 2,246,000 for "Stronger." "We Are Young" also surpasses "Stronger" as the year's longest-running #1 hit on the Hot 100. This is the fourth week on top for "We Are Young," compared to three weeks for "Stronger."
This is also the fourth week in a row that "We Are Young" has sold 300K or more digital copies. Only four other songs in digital history have topped 300K in weekly sales four or more times. "Love The Way You Lie" by Eminem featuring Rihanna leads the pack, having topped 300K five times. Flo Rida's "Right Round," "California Gurls" by Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg and "E.T." by Katy Perry featuring Kanye West each topped that lofty plateau four times.
"We Are Young" sold 387K copies this week, which is its highest tally to date. This is the fifth straight week in which its sales have increased over the previous week. That's remarkable, because its sales were at a very healthy 291K when it began this streak.
This marks the 24th time that a song has sold as many as 387K digital copies in one week. But, as Billboard's Keith Caulfield points out, such massive sales are almost invariably triggered by one of three events: the song's initial release; Christmas, when fans with gift cards are on the hunt for songs to download; and the Grammys. How many songs have songs sold 387K without one of those three sales triggers? Just two: "We Are Young" and Flo Rida's "Right Round," which sold 460K copies in its second week in the week ending Feb. 22, 2009.
P.S. American Top 40 bleeps the word "higher" in the line "My friends are in the bathroom/Getting higher than the Empire State." That wouldn't have struck me as an objectionable line, especially in this day and age. I guess the show has a zero-tolerance policy on drug references. (It's easier to understand why show host Ryan Seacrest always refers to "Ni**as In Paris" as simply "Paris.")
Kelly Clarkson's former #1 hit "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" logs its fourth straight week at #2. In addition, it moves up to #1 on Billboard's the all-format Hot 100 Airplay chart (which is different than the Hot 100, which combines digital sales, radio airplay and on-demand streaming data). This is Clarkson's first #1 hit on the Airplay chart, which is remarkable because she is her 10th year as a hit-maker. She had previously climbed as high as #4 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart, with "Since U Been Gone," "Behind These Hazel Eyes" and "Because Of You," all from 2005. American Idol was very fortunate to have had such a talented, versatile and likeable performer as its inaugural winner. It put the show on the right footing.
Katy Perry's "Part Of Me" enters the U.K. chart at #1 this week, five weeks after it debuted at #1 in the U.S. (It rebounds to #8 on this week's Hot 100.) It's Perry's third song to top the chart in both countries, following "I Kissed A Girl" and "California Gurls" (featuring Snoop Dogg). Only three other female solo artists have amassed three or more "transatlantic #1 hits." Madonna leads with five, followed by Rihanna with four and the late Whitney Houston, also with three. All of these women were born in the U.S., except Rihanna, who was born in Barbados.
"Part Of Me" is one of two songs in this week's top 10 to top the 1 million mark in digital sales this week. The other is Nicki Minaj's "Starships," which jumps to #5. It's Minaj's second top five hit as a lead artist. She hit #3 in August with "Super Bass."


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With the month of April coming to a close, we want to take a look at what owners of Google’s Nexus smartphones and tablets need to know about the Nexus Android 5.1.1 update and release as we head into the month of May.
Late last year, Google extended an Android 5.0 Lollipop upgrade to owners of its Nexus devices. Android 5.0 Lollipop was and is a substantial update for Nexus users as it delivers some huge changes to the look and feel of the Android operating system. Like all big software updates, Android 5.0 Lollipop also arrived with some big time problems, problems that continue to this day.
Nexus users in particular have been voicing concerns about Lollipop problems since November. Those complaints have continued after Google’s Android 5.0.1, Android 5.0.2 and Android 5.1 Lollipop releases. From battery life problems to random reboots to issues with connectivity, Lollipop’s problems have battered Nexus users from all over the world.
Earlier this month, Google released a brand new update in the form of Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. Android 5.1.1 Lollipop isn’t a big update but it is an important update for many Nexus smartphone and tablet users. Problem is, the update has only rolled out to one device, and a niche device at that. There are tons of questions swirling around but Google has chosen to remain silent.
With the month coming to a close, we want to take a look at what Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 4, Nexus 7, Nexus 10, and Nexus 9 users need to know about the Android 5.1.1 update and release. This mini roundup will catch oblivious users up to speed and it will serve as a reminder to those of you that have been following along since day one.
Nexus Android 5.1.1 Update Still Limited
With just a few days to go before the calendar strikes May, Google’s Android 5.1.1 release for Nexus devices remains extremely limited. As of right now, it’s available for the Nexus Player, a niche product that the company introduced last year. The Nexus Player Android 5.1.1 OTA is rolling out and those who own the device should check for a prompt.
Nexus Player users that don’t have a prompt can download and install the update straight from Google. Those that are familiar with the sideloading process can take this file and get the Android 5.1.1 update and its fixes on board right now:
- Android 5.1 -> Android 5.1.1: LMY47V from LMY47D
Nexus 9 & Nexus 7 Android 5.1.1 Updates
Earlier this month, Google’s developer portal listed Android 5.1.1 Lollipop builds for the Nexus 9 and the Nexus 7 2013. For reasons unknown, Google decided to scrub those listings and they now reference older versions of Android 5.0 Lollipop. That doesn’t meant that the Nexus 7 and Nexus 9 Android 5.1.1 updates won’t be coming though. Google’s Sascha Prüter provides some insight.
In response to complaints from angry Nexus 9 users, Prüter says that the Nexus 9 has not reached its EOL (End of Life) and that it’s simply a matter of Google wanting to take its time to ensure that the bug fixes it does include on board the Android 5.1.1 update actually fix the problems plaguing the device. Here are his comments in full:
EOL would mean that there are no more updates coming (which is incorrect). The fact that another Nexus devices gets the update earlier signals to you that a product is EOL? I don’t understand that.
I totally understand the frustration of N9 owners who are hitting issues but because of that its even more important the 5.1.1 update for Nexus 9 actually fixes these problems. So I think it’s the right step to prepare an update that actually improves quality and fixes the issues that have been reported instead of rushing out something that doesn’t help the majority of customers. And I don’t think it’s in the interest of anyone if we’d artificially hold updates to other Nexus devices that are ready to go in the meantime.
Prüter doesn’t confirm any other details but it’s clear that Google has more Android 5.1.1 updates up its sleeve. It’s just going to release them when its ready to, without any major announcements.
Nexus 5 & Nexus 6 Android 5.1.1 Update
Google hasn’t announced anything and it hasn’t dropped a Nexus 5 Android 5.1.1 update into AOSP but we’re confident that the company is planning to release a Nexus 5 Android 5.1.1 update in the future.
Google’s Android 5.1.1 Lollipop change log comes with some fixes for the Nexus 5. So unless Google is trolling Nexus 5 users dealing with major problems, it appears that a Nexus 5 Android 5.1.1 update will be rolling out sometime in the future.
The change log also references fixes for the Nexus 6 (shamu) and the Nexus 10 (manta). In other words, it looks like this update will be hitting more than just Google’s Nexus Player. At this point, it’s just a matter of when.
Android 5.1.1 Features
Thanks to Android Police, we know what’s coming with the Android 5.1.1 update. The Android 5.1.1 update won’t bring new features to Nexus smartphones and tablets. Instead, it’s filled with bug fixes including some key solutions for camera crashing problems, random reboots, and some smaller changes that should help to stabilize the software.
Start Preparing Now
Google hasn’t announced any Android 5.1.1 release dates and there’s a good chance that it won’t. That means that the Android 5.1.1 roll outs for devices like the Nexus 5, Nexus 6 and others could come at any time.
We’ve put together a game plan for Nexus users that includes steps to take ahead of the Android 5.1.1 Lollipop release. It also includes some release day tips that we think Nexus users will find helpful as the company works to get its Android 5.1.1 update out to Nexus users all over the world.
It could be days, weeks, even months before some Nexus users see the update but it’s never to early to prepare. Nexus users will want to keep that in mind as April gives way to May.
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Nvidia has confirmed the reissue of the RTX 2060 however now with 12GB of VRAM, a GPU that was launched in 2019, as a part of a transfer to alleviate sky-high costs of GPUs through the international chip scarcity. The unique Nvidia RTX 2060 graphics card was launched in 2019 and got here with 6GB of reminiscence. The corporate has introduced that the renewed Nvidia RTX 2060 GPU with double the reminiscence of the unique mannequin will quickly be obtainable, though pricing is but to be introduced.
The corporate has introduced the revised Nvidia RTX 2060 within the launch notes for the corporate’s Sport Prepared Driver 497.00 that was launched on December 2. Nvidia has additionally listed the specs on its web site, revealing that the brand new GeForce RTX 2060 will function a better base clock pace and gives 2,176 CUDA cores, as a substitute of the 1,920 cores discovered on the 2019 mannequin.
Energy consumption can be larger at 185W, up from 160W on the older mannequin, in accordance with Nvidia. As beforehand talked about, the GPU can even function 12GB of reminiscence, twice that of the RTX 2060 from two years in the past. The specs of the renewed RTX 2060 GPU recommend it may very well be positioned as an entry-level graphics card for avid gamers, in a market with a excessive demand for GPUs. The corporate has not supplied a launch date, however The Verge reviews that the GPU shall be obtainable from December 7.
Earlier this yr, Nvidia had introduced that it might relaunch the GTX 1050 Ti and the RTX 2060, in an try and alleviate the issues attributable to the worldwide semiconductor scarcity that has hit the computing trade. Over the previous yr, scalpers (who purchase GPUs in bulk and promote them at a premium) and cryptocurrency mining have ensured that the costs of GPUs just like the Nvidia RTX 3060 are excessive, whereas shares are restricted. The corporate is re-releasing older, lower-powered GPUs is to make sure graphics playing cards can be found for individuals who must buy GPUs with out ready for restocks.


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Kenya is the third largest exporter of cut flowers in the world, accounting for around 35% of all sales in the European Union. Famed for being long-lasting, Kenya's roses, carnations and summer flowers are also popular in Russia and the U.S. where last week several growers showcased their blooms at the World Floral Expo in Los Angeles.
The event is one of the industry's largest and gathers over 80 exhibitors from across the world, with several Ethiopian growers also representing the African continent alongside Kenya. Read more. Source | WDSU New Orleans


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As everybody starts to jump on the cryptocurrency bandwagon, many people are wondering which coins are the best to invest in.
For the purpose of this article, I will address the two biggest cryptocurrencies on the market, Bitcoin and Ethereum, who have market caps of $162,514,367,730 and $47,342,582,580 at the time of writing. There are several other altcoins or alternative coins that are worthy of more focus, but investing in them would be far riskier, albeit that some of them like Bitcoin Gold are rising at an ever-faster rate in terms of their value.
Bitcoin’s growth over the past nine years has been astronomical, to say the least. When Bitcoin came into existence in 2008 it was worth practically nothing. There were no exchanges or purchases and tokens were collected primarily for hobby uses. In March 2010 Bitcoin finally started to gain value with the now-defunct BitcoinMarket.com starting to operate, but was valued as a third of a US cent. In mid-November 2017, its value fluctuated roughly between $7600 and $8100. 2017, in particular, has been an incredible year for Bitcoin with its value this time last year only reaching as high as $760. A 1000% increase in 12 months is ridiculous, to say the least, and the beauty of Bitcoin is that its value isn’t determined by anything other than that the users deem it to be, with no centralized authority.
Ethereum, on the other hand, was initially released in July 2015 and is far less valuable than Bitcoin today and has fluctuated somewhere between $300 and $490 in the last month or so, but was valued at only roughly between $11 and $20 this time last year. That’s an increase of just less than 4500%, making its rise in value more than four times that of Bitcoin. The advantage that Ethereum has over Bitcoin is in its functionality. The first thing about Ethereum is that it is not just a digital currency. It is a blockchain-based platform with many aspects. It features smart contracts, the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and it uses its currency called ether for peer-to-peer contracts. Essentially, this means that other Blockchain platforms can run directly off of Ethereum, while Bitcoin only operates as a cryptocurrency.
Ethereum’s value is rising faster than Bitcoin’s and it serves as a multifunctional platform. However, Bitcoin has a huge advantage in that it is the dominant cryptocurrency, its value is far higher and it will only be a matter of time before it goes mainstream. Bitcoin has the potential to hold something akin to a natural monopoly in the market for digital currency because Ethereum still has many barriers to entry to overcome. With its value rising at a better rate, on the other hand, Ethereum may catch up in time to change this and serve as a direct competitor.
Another factor is security and what I like to call the ‘purity’ of a currency, where the protocols don’t become bastardized, destroying the vision of a decentralized currency that is impossible to corrupt in the same way that fiat currencies’ value are determined by the governments that control their supply. This falls under the umbrella of the cryptography and respective security of either currency. The Blockchain technology, the distributed ledger, is the fascinating thing about cryptocurrencies and is why they are unhackable. These are the strict protocols govern the verification of transactions.
It works in Bitcoin’s favor because of their protocols, specifically, the size of the blocks on the Blockchain was recently under a challenge. The Bitcoin Gold hard fork proposed a change to Segwit2x, which proposed doubling the block size. Which currency would be “the real Bitcoin” would be totally ambiguous and it seriously brought the credibility of Bitcoin under question. However, as the safeguard to protocol changes and post hoc transaction changes, what is known as the 51% attack (where over half of the Bitcoin users essentially agree to a hack) was avoided. Bitcoin came under threat and lived to tell the tale.
This change, also known as a “hard-fork” has partially happened with both coins, but they split into completely separate currencies, with no debate existing over which is the “real one”. Yet, Bitcoin’s battle with the Segwit2x hard fork has been the greatest test yet and it remains to be seen whether Ethereum can survive a similar “attack”.
At the end of the day, as an investor, you could be more attracted to Ethereum, because you can buy it at a low value and there are several pros and cons for each option, but Bitcoin can be viewed as a “safer” option, despite having to partway with far more money to buy it. The main thing is to hold (hodl) onto and not sell whatever you have and you’ll see enormous returns in the next couple of years, with many experts predicting the value of the respective cryptocurrencies to rise even faster than they are now as the demand for them rises in the mass market.


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Today, Consumer Reports released new infant seat ratings from its latest test protocol based on crash testing, ease-of-use, and fit-to-vehicle. After testing 34 commercially available infant seats, the consumer advocates group classified five seats as “basic,” 16 as “better,” and 13 as “best.”
The Child Passenger Safety Technician community should be prepared to field questions from consumer parents who wonder how they should interpret these results. Is their “basic” rated child seat is still safe to use? Here are few points to consider:
Today, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) released a new study in its latest Status Report regarding LATCH ease-of-use. Although child restraint systems (CRS) installed with LATCH or with a vehicle seat belt are equally safe, LATCH was mandated in motor vehicles beginning with model year 2003 in order to make CRS installation easier. However, research has shown that parents can struggle to correctly install a CRS using LATCH.
Nine months ago, we blogged about the improper restraint methods used to transport a newborn Prince George of the UK home from the hospital. Unfortunately, the Royal Family is once again making international news for their concerning child passenger safety practices.
Driving simulators offer a safe, highly reproducible environment for assessing driver behavior. However, reducing the data to easy-to-interpret metrics can be extremely time-consuming and effortful. Even worse, it can be error-prone. My recent research involves the development of a tool to help standardize driving simulator results called DriveLab.


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Beware That Nocebo Strapped to Your Wrist
Most people are familiar with the concept of a placebo, but the opposite of it, a nocebo also exists
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Most people are familiar with the concept of a placebo, where merely providing positive information can improve perception of well-being. Yet the opposite also occurs, with negative data making people feel worse about their own health.
That’s a nocebo — Latin for “I shall harm” as opposed to “I shall please” for placebo. And there’s a good chance you have a nocebo strapped to your wrist.
A wave of health-tech gadgets — from fitness trackers to Apple Inc.’s Watch — means hundreds of millions of people are hooked up to real-time feedback devices. They’re designed to measure your steps, encourage you to exercise more, and give daily updates on your mental and physical health. Apple wants you to “close your rings” — the three colorful circles the Watch uses to monitor your progress — and Garmin Ltd. helpfully tells you when your health is “excellent.”
They make for popular gifts and are bound to be stocking-stuffers this year. Various models of the Apple Watch occupied four of the top 10 most popular items in November’s Black Friday sales, according to Business Insider.
In fact, research on the nocebo effect — first conceptualized in 1961 — has shown that perceptions of pain can increase with shifts in information and detail. Patients with suspected concussions have shown poorer neurocognitive performance when their history of traumatic injury is called to attention. Concentration falters when unpleasant data is provided. Sometimes, even a change in the color of a specific signal associated with health can trigger discomfort.
With more devices strapped to people’s bodies, noceboes are now creeping into every day life as people put more faith in data to guide their habits. “It’s about sleep for me, because I will wake up and feel pretty darn good and then I'll look at my score and sometimes it's not pretty darn good, " fitness podcaster and Youtuber Ali Spagnola says. “And I can tell that I will actually feel worse after that.”
While a constant flow of data can help people optimize their health, she says she is starting to understand that the opposite can also be true. Spagnola, who produces videos on music, comedy and fitness for more than 2 million social media followers, says sometimes all we really need is positive reinforcement.
“There's an exact moment where I speak to the camera and say: I should just make an app that says ‘you are great, and you feel awesome today,’ every day,” she says. That moment led to her producing the O Band. It’s a real product but it literally does nothing but hang around your wrist. It’s a joke with a very serious message.
The nocebo effect has become inherent in social media. Rather than logging on to feel inspired and connected, Instagram and Facebook have made users feel anxious and depressed. The constant feedback of hits, likes and retweets has undermined what should be appreciations of creativity. According to its own research, Instagram makes teenage girls feel worse about their bodies, the Wall Street Journal reported in September.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Well-meaning executives who churn out gadgets and apps place a high degree of faith in their products’ ability to improve life. They rarely stop to think about the downsides. “I believe that technology can make our lives better,” Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said in October when he announced his company’s name change. “The basic story of technology in our lifetimes is how it's given us the power to express ourselves, experience the world with ever greater richness.”
Apple has a similar view of its own devices. Its Watch, “encourages you to be active and get more out of your workouts,” CEO Tim Cook said in September when he announced the latest iteration of the gadget. “And it monitors your health, helping you live a better day.”
It’s a world where we’ve been blindsided by the unexpected. And so we want to believe that technology can forewarn us of dangers and risks. We’ve come to depend on the devices on our wrists to constantly flag us about our physical and mental health. This is more than a little naive. Sometimes all we really need is to be told we’re awesome.
More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion:
Garmin's Connect app helpfully informs you if it's proprietary algorithm thinks you're peaking, recovering, detraining or even unproductive.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Tim Culpan is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. He previously covered technology for Bloomberg News.
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.


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Let Mozo help you navigate the business banking maze. Need a loan for a brand new business? Or hunting for the best business bank account or credit card? Whatever your needs, we help you find the best banking options for your business.
Despite COVID-19 slowing down activity in many industries, the business loans market has remained busy throughout 2020. For over 250 days now, Australian banks have approved more than 500 loan applications from small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) a day. This is according to the latest data from the Australian Banking Association (ABA), which shows a whopping total of $41 billion has been lent out to SMEs and sole traders between 1 February and 7 October. ABA’s chief executive, Anna Bligh said that with the loan approval rate sitting at 70%, it’s clear Australian banks haven’t left struggling small businesses behind. “Australian banks are continuing to provide a lifeline to small and medium businesses across the country. The rate of lending has held up strongly despite the pandemic,” she said. “The banks’ commitment to small business has been supported by a number of Government and regulatory measures, including the RBA’s Term Funding Facility, changes to business lending rules, the instant asset write-off, and the SME loan guarantee.”These figures come after the federal government announced plans last month to scrap ‘responsible lending’ laws in order to further reduce red tape around accessing credit. The proposed shift from the current practice of “lender beware” to a “borrower responsibility” principle would essentially allow lenders to rely on the income and expense information provided by borrowers, helping to speed up the loan approval process. Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, Kate Carnell said she supported the proposal as a step towards loosening unrealistic serviceability rules for small businesses. “We are aware of small businesses that have been asked for all sorts of documentation by the banks - even for loans that have been 50 percent guaranteed by the Federal Government - including director guarantees, which really means the family home. It’s no wonder small businesses owners are reluctant to borrow,” she said. “Importantly the banks will still be accountable to ASIC [Australian Securities and Information Commission] and the Government has pledged greater protections for vulnerable borrowers.”
Ever heard of a neo business credit card? Say hello to Melbourne-based fintech Archa. This week, Archa announced that it has become a principal issuing member of Mastercard, meaning it can access the card providers leading global payment network. The partnership will allow the fintech to launch its new neo business credit card along with an app with innovative tools to help businesses manage their expenses. “This is a really important strategic milestone for Archa. We’re thrilled to have the support of Mastercard as a critical foundation to our business model,” Archa’s chief executive, Oliver Kidd said. “We look forward to working closely with Mastercard over the coming years to support small businesses throughout the region.”
As lenders gear up for phase two of the government’s SME Loan Guarantee Scheme, new Commonwealth Bank figures have emerged showing NSW and Victorian businesses have snagged the biggest piece of the scheme’s funding pie to date. NSW and Victoria made up almost two-thirds of CommBank’s government-backed loans (38% and 26% respectively), while Queensland came in third place at 16%. “Obviously different lockdown measures have impacted some businesses more than others and many of our customers, particularly those in the greater Melbourne and greater Sydney area, worked with our bankers to quickly ensure they had extra cash flow in case they needed it,” CommBank’s group executive for business banking, Mike Vacy Lyle said. Under the first phase of the scheme, the government guaranteed half of all unsecured three-year business loans of up to $250,000 issued by participating lenders including CommBank, ANZ and 39 other smaller providers. Under phase two, the loan terms have been extended to five years, and loan amounts increased to $1 million. Almost 20,000 small to medium sized businesses (SMEs) took advantage of phase one, with CommBank approving loans for 9,400 of these firms. According to CommBank, nearly one-fifth of those businesses belonged to the property and business services sector (17%), while 16% came from retail, 14% from construction, and 14% from accommodation, cafes and restaurants - all industries that experienced high levels of disruption due to COVID-19.
For small businesses across Australia this may have been one of the most important federal budgets yet. On top of extended coronavirus stimulus packages like JobKeeper, the 2020-21 Budget was a ray of hope that more financial relief would be rolled out to help companies and the economy recover from the current recession. So what exactly is the federal government pledging to deliver to support small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through this period? From tax offsets to a new wage subsidy program, there’s lots in the pipeline to watch for. In fact, businesses are set to receive $31.6 billion in tax breaks - almost twice as much as households. But unlike households, the business tax incentives are only temporary, with an aim of encouraging more investment in jobs and ‘big ticket’ items (like new equipment and machinery) over the next few years. Read on for a snapshot of budget support measures for your small business:
Mozo is everything business banking should be - fast and easy. If you are self employed, starting a new business or simply looking to get a better banking deal for your small business, Mozo helps you to compare business credit cards, business loans, savings, business bank accounts and more. Our database has all the major banks and challenger brands, fees, interest rates, terms and conditions in the one place making it easy to shop around for a better deal for small businesses. With our nifty comparison tool you can compare banking products side by side or add them to a shortlist - all in a few simple clicks. No queuing in bank branches or wasting hours with complicated spreadsheets.
We know that many business need a line of credit to invest in developments or to purchase stock, so have plenty of information about short term business loans in Australia. We also have a business loan repayment calculator so you can easily work out how much funds you need to allocate to service your loan and when you can expect to have it paid off.


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Regent Seven Seas Cruises have revealed spectacular images and exciting details of the new Seven Seas Splendor suites.
What makes the food onboard Oceania Cruises luxurious ships so good? According to Executive Chef Viktor Malek it’s all about the passion.
Solo cruisers can benefit from a Silversea zero single suppliments promotion on 13 spectacular voyages this year.
Regent Seven Seas Cruise will be the first ultra-luxury cruise line to eliminate single-use plastic water bottles from their fleet.
Cunard have announce a royal rendezvous for Queen Elizabeth in Australia during next year's season.
Bottled water will be eliminated from all Oceania Cruises ships and replaced with reusable glass bottles and purified water.
The World’s biggest suite on a luxury cruise ship will have a spa area as well as a mini-pool and a US$200,000 bed.
A new Regent Seven Seas Cruises ship is due for delivery 2023. It will have room for a maximum of 750 guests in all-suite accommodation.
Silver Whisper has emerged from dry dock with a decor that reflects the flagship Silver Muse. She's now set sail on her World Cruise 2019.
Two new Oceania ships with room for approximately 1,200 guests have been ordered. They are set to debut in 2022 and 2025 respectively.


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Expectations were running high in the weeks before Christmas for members of Clitheroe Chamber of Trade and Commerce who have been decorating their windows with Christmas themes.
Judging of the best dressed Christmas Window Competition was once again undertaken by Clitheroe Town Crier Roland Hailwood. He had the task to browse around 150 festively decorated windows.
Chamber president Owen Phillips, of Ribcaged Productions, said: “The Christmas Window Competition has been running for many years now and as a chamber we intend to increase awareness of the benefits of shopping in Clitheroe and raise money for good causes at the same time. It was great to see feel the buzz around the town and next year will be bigger and better. Hopefully, we will be able to raise even more money for local charities."
The competition winners were: First place: Valley Living, Market Place; second place was awarded to Dawsons in King Street and third, Fancy Frocks York Street.