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Report: Texas is 14th best state for nanotech
Texas ranks 14th among U.S. states for economic development from nanotechnology, according to a report released Tuesday.
Ranking first in the report from nanotech research and advisory firm Lux Research Inc. is Massachusetts, followed by California, Colorado, Virginia and New Mexico.
U.S. states pumped more than $400 million into nanotechnology research, operations and business incubation in 2004, on top of more than $1 billion in federal spending, making nanotech the largest publicly financed science initiative since the "space race," according to Lux Research.
F. Mark Modzelewski, managing director of New York-based Lux Research, says: "Multiple stakeholders -- including state and local officials, federal representatives, large corporations, startups, investors and universities -- have a vested interest in making nanotechnology efforts succeed.
"Biotechnology created more than 400,000 jobs from 1979 to 1999. Nanotechnology promises a far greater economic impact because it can affect not just biologically derived products, but all manufactured goods."
To rank the states, Lux Research weighed such factors as state nanotech spending, state nanotech initiatives, the number of nanotech companies active in each state and in-state nanotech patents. States were ranked on a according to their populations, so a single nanotech center in New Hampshire has a greater impact than the same center would in Texas.
Last year, Texas maintained its No. 5 ranking by Small Times magazine for the country's hot spots for nanotech and microsystems business development.
Nanotech companies create products on a molecular level for an array of industries.
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Salvatore Ferragamo Fights Fakes
Salvatore Ferragamo is continuous its anti-counterfeiting efforts, that are particularly targeted on China and the net.
The corporate mentioned that in 2015 it intercepted and blocked 91,000 on-line commercials for counterfeit merchandise. In addition, 140 domain names and unlawful Web sites, mainly managed by Chinese individuals, have been recovered or cancelled.
Related Salvatore Ferragamo Broadcasts Major Strategy Adjustments, Sees Drop in Shares
“In 2015, we further expanded the variety of e-commerce sites that we monitor,” mentioned Ferragamo Group chairman Ferruccio Ferragamo. “On the Chinese market, we now have continued and ramped up our offline checks, concentrating on commerce gala’s and resellers specifically.” Ferragamo added that the corporate had additionally accomplished the official course of for recognition as a well-known model in China, a key law enforcement instrument, which can assist the company saving money and time in the counterfeit battle.
Beginning with the pre-fall 2014 collection, the corporate has been inserting ferragamo shop italy microchips into the women’s sneakers, guaranteeing product authenticity, in addition to the chance to trace products. The brand additionally prolonged using the microchip to men’s sneakers with the Cruise 2015 collection, whereas this has been inserted in women’s small leather-based goods, luggage and baggage with the fall 2015 vary.
An extra success in Salvatore Ferragamo’s measures in opposition to fakes was the seizure and destruction of greater than 12,500 counterfeit merchandise. The Chinese customs authorities confiscated greater than 12,400 pretend goods leaving the nation and seized in excess of 34,000 counterfeit products in 2015. The estimated worth of the products exceeds $17 million. Belts accounted 60 % of the seized products.

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Space race Made by former EVE Online developers, this new massively multiplayer RTS wants to imagine a new way to wage space war.
E3 2019 A new roller derby game and Watch Dogs Legion gameplay top the list of the most exciting Ubisoft reveals.
ryde or die In the wake of Anthem’s lukewarm reception, my fondness for BioWare’s previous sci-fi outing only grows.
Next steps The FCC repealed guidelines protecting net neutrality in June 2018, but the fight continues in court and in Congress.
Windows shopping Here's where to look for great games at great prices, and how to avoid getting ripped off.
hands-on Turns out what’s really driving up rent prices in San Francisco is kung fu mecha warriors knocking over all the real estate.
Endgame When you hit level 120, the battle is just beginning. Here’s where to go from there.
Lorecraft There's a few hundred millennia to cover, but our guide will make sense of Titans, World-souls, and banshee queens.
auto royale Running and gunning, revving and ramming in a post-apocalyptic industrial thunderdome.
interview Feuding families are just the start of what's planned, and we chatted with the executive producer to learn more.
Enduring 2010's Civ 5 still has more players on Steam. We talked to the Civ community about the clash between old and new.


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Switzerland has jumped ahead of the United States in terms of global business competitiveness, according to the annual survey of the World Economic Forum. The People’s Republic of China has also moved into the top 30 for the first time.
Though Switzerland and the U.S. both rank high on innovation and business climate, the U.S. is dropping like a lead balloon in the macroeconomic category, from 66th to 93rd, due to rising public indebtedness and the sinking value of the dollar.
China is rising on the strength of its fiscal stability (cash reserves and favorable trade balance), as well as for showing improvements in innovation and business climate.
Several components comprise a country’s competitiveness – including its financial system, infrastructure, educational opportunities, the skill level of its workforce, and more–areas in which the United States remains relatively high except for the economic mess gripping the nation, exacerbated by huge spending outlays to spur the economy and their concomitant budget deficits.


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Toyota has reported its first quarterly loss in two years after the earthquake and tsunami in March decimated production while the yen’s rise hit profits on exports.
The carmaker made an operating loss of JPY108bn (US$1.4bn) in the April-June quarter, compared to a JPY211.7bn ($2.7bn) profit a year earlier. Net profit of JNPY1.2bn ($15m) compared to JPY190.5bn ($2.4bn) the previous year.
For the full fiscal year to 31 March 2012, Toyota raised its forecast for operating profit, which excludes earnings from China, to JPY450bn (US$5.8bn).
The company reported that supply constraints from the March disaster have eased faster than initially feared but the dollar’s drop, far below the JPY82 that Toyota had assumed for the year, will further hit profits as exports account for more than half of its vehicles produced in Japan.
Toyota has been trying to cut costs by around 30% but, with the dollar around JPY77.7, company executives had warned that keeping as much production capacity as it has in Japan was illogical, although they have stopped short of suggesting a politically sensitive shift overseas.
The company said it now assumes a dollar rate of JPY80 instead of JPY82 this financial year, and the euro at JPY116 instead of JPY115.
Toyota said it will continue to lower the cost structure of its domestic operations while keeping annual production at 3m vehicles in Japan in the interest of protecting jobs and manufacturing in the country.
TMC senior managing officer Takahiko Ijichi said: “In Japan and North America where the effects of the earthquake were particularly serious, vehicle sales declined substantially. In the Asia region, despite the impact of the earthquake, we were able to maintain a similar level of vehicle sales as the previous year in countries led by Indonesia.”
In Japan, vehicle sales totalled 292,000 units, a decrease of 208,000 compared to the same period last fiscal year. In North America the company sold 276,000 vehicles, a decrease of 250,000.
European sales totalled 174,000, down by 13,000 and Asia fell 26,000 vehicles to 259,000 during the quarter.


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Four people were sent to the hospital when the crowd outside Beijing’s number one Apple store turned violent as they stormed to get their hands on the new iPad 2 when it went on sale there this weekend, reports AFP.
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Leasing an electric vehicle (EV) is now the cheapest option for new car buyers across the United States – thousands of dollars cheaper per year than buying or leasing a gasoline-powered vehicle.
This new economic dynamic is being driven by several factors: Falling EV lease prices, new federal tax incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), lower operating and maintenance costs of EVs compared to gas-powered vehicles, and rising interest rates.
Fossil fuels are responsible for up to 40% of recent inflation, and oil market volatility has made pain at the pump a recurring headache for American households since the mid-1970s. For U.S. drivers who want to save the most money, and get off the fossil fuel rollercoaster, the choice is clear: Lease an EV.
Leasing An EV Is The Cheapest Option Across The U.S.
New Energy Innovation research identified this trend by analyzing the costs of buying and leasing 14 EV and comparable gas-powered vehicle models in all 50 states. The research included financing and lease costs, state taxes and fees, state and federal rebates and tax credits, fuel costs, and maintenance and insurance costs.
Leasing an EV is the cheapest monthly option available to U.S. drivers, cheaper than leasing a comparable gas-powered vehicle, or buying an EV or comparable gas-powered vehicle. Leases are paid monthly, often with a small or no down payment, meaning new car buyers can start saving money the day their car is driven off the lot.
And savings from leasing an EV can stack up fast. The Ford Mach-E, for example, is $500 cheaper per month and nearly $7,500 cheaper per year versus a comparable gas-powered vehicle. And the Tesla Model Y, which has been the best-selling EV in America since its introduction, is $425 cheaper per month or more than $5,000 cheaper per year compared to its gas-powered equivalent.
As EVs become more popular among American drivers, automakers have invested billions in new EV manufacturing and models, spurring competition among EV dealers and expanding available EV inventories.
These new dealer incentives and expanding supplies, coupled with IRA incentives, pushed last month’s average EV transaction price down 20% compared to the same time last year, even though transaction prices among all vehicles rose 1.6% over the same period. EV savings will shift into the fast lane whenever oil prices increase again to 2022 levels, about 40 cents per gallon higher than today.
This cost dynamic isn’t limited to leasing an EV – it’s also showing up for new EVs that are financed to own, even compared to gas-powered vehicles that are financed to own. That’s important to remember considering nearly 80% of Americans finance their new cars, compared to 18-19% who lease, and just 1-2% who purchase new cars outright.
Smart Policy Accelerates EV Sales And Consumer Savings
Smart EV policy has accelerated this trend. The IRA introduced a new $7,500 tax credit for leased EVs last year, and when dealers pass this credit through to new car buyers, they reduce lease payments and increase driver savings.
EVs are already cost-competitive with gas-powered vehicles, even without the federal incentive, but the IRA’s EV tax credit makes monthly lease prices 12% cheaper on average when dealers pass it along to lessees – making almost every EV model cheaper to lease than gas-powered vehicles.
Additional federal and state policy action can give the green light to even more EV sales moving forward. California’s Advanced Clean Cars II regulation, which set ambitious state-level zero-emission vehicle sales standards and could be adopted by the 16 “Section 177” states which adopted California’s earlier clean cars standards, could combine with the IRA incentive to help EVs compose 66% of the U.S. car market in 2035.
New proposals by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reduce tailpipe pollution could make this transition happen even faster, pushing EVs up to 67% of national light-duty car sales by 2032, the final year of the IRA EV tax credit.
If You Build It (An EV Charging Network), They Will Come (And Save Money)
Billions in federal incentives from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act are building EV charging stations across the country, and these dollars are being leveraged by nearly every state as the Biden administration aims to build a national network of 500,000 EV chargers by 2030.
Corporate action can also expand charging options – Tesla, which has the country’s largest EV charging network, is opening at least 7,500 of its chargers to non-Tesla drivers by the end of 2024.
Actions like these can leave range anxiety in the rear-view mirror and encourage more drivers in more parts of the country to consider an EV for their next vehicle.
Easy access to EV charging then becomes an on-ramp to consumer savings. Recent modeling shows that every EV model in every state is cheaper to charge than filling up a gas-powered vehicle, even if fuel prices are at their recent low mark.
Washington State has the biggest price difference - an average EV sedan is $60 cheaper to fill up and an average EV truck is nearly $82 cheaper to fill up than comparable gas-powered vehicles. Even in Hawaii, home to the smallest price difference, an average EV sedan is $27 cheaper to fill up and an average EV truck is $25 cheaper to fill up than comparable gas-powered vehicles.
The Bottom Line: Consumers Save Big By Driving An EV
EV sales in the U.S. have grown fast since 2018, rising from more than 360,000 vehicles or 2% of sales that year, to more than 810,000 vehicles or 6% of sales in 2022. Each EV sold inoculates another American household from volatile oil prices and fossil-fueled inflation at the pump.
Smart policy has opened up new routes to consumer savings from EVs. Despite rising interest rates and lower fuel prices, leasing an EV is now the cheapest way for drivers across the U.S. to get into a new car and start saving money. By increasing their EV ambition, federal and state policymakers can help ensure consumers don’t encounter any roadblocks to fighting inflation and cutting air pollution.


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September 5, 2023
According to a report by the New York Times (Nov. 17th Taiwan time), the tourism industry in New York city has been severely hit by the COVID-19 epidemic, and it is estimated that it will not be able to fully recover until 2025. Among them, the economy of the local community, deeply connected with the tourism industry, will suffer the most. Compared to this, how would consumers see the development of the epidemic? Does the change in Taiwan's domestic tourism policy affect the people? As for the physical art and culture events that have been directly cancelled before, do Taiwanese audiences already want to experience those?
If we are going to leave a footnote for 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic will undoubtedly be the most important keyword. Although vaccine research and development seem to be progressing, with the recent outbreak of severe cluster infections in neighboring areas such as Sapporo, Japan, the possibility of counterattack or increase in epidemics around the world remains high. The latest survey in November shows that Taiwanese consumers are pessimistic about the global epidemic, and most believe that it is impossible to resume traveling abroad in the near future. At least they’ll have to wait until the second half of next year.
Therefore, domestic tourism has become the new normal for Taiwanese consumers. The public has maintained a certain level of attitudes towards using public transportation, and even slightly improved their confidence in taking high-speed rail, trains and planes. In addition, although policy subsidies for domestic tourism accommodation and others have ended in October, most consumers believe that their domestic travel plans will not be affected by that. There are still 70% of the people with travel plans in the next three months.
We can speculate that although travel subsidies have encouraged people to travel, those are not the main reason for either discouraging people from sightseeing or encouraging people to travel. Expectation for travel experience or mastering the fundamentals of marketing appeals is the main reason for attracting consumers. Only by expanding in-depth attractions or launching new services would it be possible to accurately grasp the customer group.
As for the selection of tourist attractions, it is not surprising that outdoor attractions have grown popular slightly; in addition, it is noteworthy that the young groups (18-39 years old) and the elite group of opinions pay more visits to indoor attractions. As the epidemic in Taiwan has stabilized compared to other countries, people have become more and more accustomed to coexisting with the current anti-epidemic situation. It is expected that indoor arts, cultural and entertainment activities will gradually resume, and the public will also be back participating as usual.
It is worth noting that, as the most developed performing arts unit in Taiwan, National Theater and Concert Hall has been actively attracting the youth customers and even those under the age of 21 in recent years. National Theater and Concert Hall has mentioned that the consumption capacity of young people in Taiwan has continued to grow and should not be underestimated. Taking 2017 as an example, the consumption of people under the age of 25 accounted for one-third of the box office of their hosted programs, and the amount of single consumption was around 770 TWD.
Therefore, we can find that young people are not only the first to return to the auditorium under the epidemic situation, but also the one with the habit of paying for admission to watch performances, compared with other age groups.
With the completion of large-scale performance venues in cities outside of Taipei, if we can design and develop other tourist itineraries or attractions for performances or exhibition tours according to the preferences and needs of young people, it will be a potential market worthy of devoting.
In addition, there are more breakthroughs in the development of art and cultural experience activities. In April this year, Taiwan PTS launched many authorized content for members to watch on the original PTS+ platform in order to support art groups that cannot hold physical performances. It is regarded that, for those streaming video-on-demand platforms such as Netflix, there are still needs from different groups of customers and space to develop in Taiwan.
The second trend is to launch various ticket sales programs that combine offline and online, like the 2020 Taipei Art Festival. The other trend requires more advanced technology in audio-visual platforms. For example, in response to the epidemic, Japan has developed a dual ticketing model for concerts, which is to limit the number of attendees at physical concerts, with a link that people can access to live performance recordings within a period of time.
Under the situation of the epidemic, although the tourism industry in Taiwan did not suffer a horrifying destruction like in other countries, it is still facing many harsh transformation trials. Taiwanese audiences can’t wait to travel or enter the venue to watch performances. However, where will the tickets lead us? To Which destinations will consumers be attracted?


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Amazon and Sears shoppers to get $50 gift cards from Wal-Mart this holiday season
Posted On July 21, 2021
Retailers are offering a special holiday card promotion to Amazon and its competitors this year.
The new card is available at Wal-mart and other retailers beginning Dec. 16, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The $50 “Amazon Gift Card” is a one-time payment that can be redeemed for a $50 Amazon gift card at participating stores.
The cards are available online, in store and online at participating Wal-marts.
Amazon offers a limited number of $50 cards for a limited time, which it says is intended to attract shoppers to its site.
The company says it is offering up to $1,500 worth of cards to its customers per year.
The offer is limited to Amazon, which is not the only major online retailer that has offered its customers free cards this year, the Journal reports.
The deal is not limited to just Amazon.com, and other major online retailers will not be able to offer the card.
Wal-mart, which operates more than 1,500 stores in the U.S., is also offering $1.25 million worth of gift cards.
The gift cards, which come with a $20 Amazon gift certificate, can be used for online purchases at Walmarts, Amazon Prime, Target, Walmart.com and other participating stores, Wal- Mart said.
Wal-Marts are among the top retailers in the country.
Walmart, Target and Walmart.net all offer free gift cards to shoppers.
Amazon, however, offers free cards to retailers and online shoppers.


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Growth in ad slots bought on TV, radio falls by half; print also feels the heat.
Harsh Mariwala, chairman & managing director of consumer products major Marico Industries, is keeping his advertising budget on a tight leash. “Given the inflationary environment and moderation in demand, there will be some cut in advertising spends, but it will not be huge. Competitive intensity is high and to protect market share you have to spend,” he says.
Pradeep Bakshi, chief operating officer, unitary products business group, Voltas India, which makes room air-conditioners and water coolers, says his company is scaling down its advertising spend. “While we will be visible during the festival season, the burst will not be as loud as last year.”
With demand for consumer and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) moderating, there are clear signs that companies are holding back spending. As a result, advertising revenues have grown at a much slower pace in the first six months of this year compared to the previous year.(Click here for graphics)
While exact figures are hard to collate, one way to catch the trend is to see the amount of time advertisers are booking on television or the space they are buying in newspapers and magazines.
According to data compiled by media research agency TAM, the rate of growth of advertising on television in terms of the number of hours was half during the January-June period this year in comparison with the corresponding period last year (see chart).
In 2010, the advertising hours on TV had grown 36 per cent in comparison to the previous year.
In print, the rate of growth of space bought in terms of column centimetres was down to about 16 per cent in the January-June period as compared to the same period a year ago. In 2010, the growth was 28 per cent compared to the previous year.
In radio, advertising spots in terms of hours grew 19 per cent in the January-June period. Last year, the rate of growth was 46 per cent.
While TAM doesn’t track the outdoor medium, industry sources say the slump there is to the tune of about 30 per cent. The only exception was the digital medium, which grew 60-70 per cent — double the growth rate in the corresponding period last year, according to Arnab Mitra, national director, digital, Starcom MediaVest Group. The share of digital medium is just 3 per cent of the total advertising pie of Rs 26,0000 crore. Print and television dominate with 46 per cent and 42 per cent share, respectively. The share of outdoor is about 5 per cent, while radio’s is 4 per cent, say industry experts.
Most people in the advertising industry are not sure how long the slowdown will last given that inflation continues to be sticky and advertisers are wary of spending too much on mainline media at a time consumer sentiment is weak and they have to manage expenses prudently.
Advertising agencies admit the revenue growth is slowing. Arvind Sharma, chairman, Leo Burnett India, said, “Client spends grew 20 per cent last year. This year, we are expecting 14-15 per cent growth.” Mahesh Chauhan, former group chief executive officer, Rediffusion Y&R, who now has his own agency, Salt Brand Solutions, says, “There is tension in the air. No denying that. Nobody knows how long this will last.” According to industry sources, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), the largest spender, has cut its advertising budget for the year by Rs 200-300 crore. In the 2010-11 financial year, HUL’s advertising & sales budget was Rs 2,764 crore.
Of this, the advertising budget alone was Rs 2,200 crore, said industry sources. This meant the scale-back for the current year was over 9 per cent, they said. A mail to HUL elicited no response till the time of going to press. Sources at Mindshare, which manages the HUL account, said the company chose to give cricket a miss this year to prune its advertising budget. Amin Lakhani, principal partner, Mindshare, while declining to confirm or deny this, indicated that advertisers had been cautious over the last few months. “Commodity cost pressures have been severe. Companies dependent on them have had to prune expenditure. This is bound to result in a scale-back in advertising,” he said. According to FMCG analysts, companies are likely to report lower advertising spends as a percentage of net sales for the first quarter of the financial year.
“It is likely to be down by about 200-300 basis points for the first quarter,” said Shirish Pardeshi, senior FMCG analyst, Anand Rathi.
Companies admit they are careful when opening purse strings. Manish Sharma, director, marketing, Panasonic India, says, “We have rescheduled our advertising this year. We used to be active in April and May. That was trend over the last two years, when we had two big summer campaigns. This year, we have seen no such splurge. Our mainline advertising activities will start at the end of July to coincide with the festival season, which begins with Onam in Kerala.”
A similar sentiment is expressed by FMCG major Dabur India. Chief Executive Officer Sunil Duggal said, “Regular brand investments are key to business delivery. While we will continue to spend, the intensity will not be that high. In other words, we will avoid going over the top.” Surely everyone will.
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Aeolus adds new retreadable patterns to truck tyre range
Fast-growing Chinese TBR manufacturer Aeolus has extended its range with the addition of two new patterns; the ASR69 and ADR69 truck tyres which are now available in popular sizes 295/80R22.5 and 315/80R22.5. ASR69 replaces the HN257 and ADR69 replaces the HN355 for regional haul use.
The new additions have been designed with a wider casing structure to make them suitable for retreading, a significant feature for Chinese manufactured truck tyres and one that will offer end users greater flexibility and life cycle value. All Aeolus truck tyres are also regroovable.
Researchers and tyre designers at Aeolus have also factored in operating qualities such as driver comfort into their latest products. As an example, since March 2012 all front wheel truck applications now undergo a dynamic balance test before leaving the factory.
Aeolus, established in 1965 and one of the largest tyre producers in China, is exclusively distributed in the UK by Kings Road Tyres. Aeolus invests heavily in R&D to produce tyres that meet the needs of the most advanced end user markets, such as the UK. They recognise the importance to hauliers of tyres that are retreadable and regroovable, which are features that have now been incorporated into the new ASR69 and ADR69 patterns.
As part of its sales and marketing drive, Aeolus will have its own stand (No.45) at Brityrex International in October, where the new ASR69 and ADR69 patterns will make their UK debut.


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Apple has been purchasing large quantities of Samsung’s AMOLED displays, in fact, the rumor claims that Apple has snapped up virtually all of Samsung’s Super AMOLED stock for 2011, leaving the Korean company to switch its Galaxy S and Wave phones to LCD displays instead.
Ridiculous. What AMOLED display? The 3.7-inch that’s used for the Samsung Galaxy S phones? That would mean the iPhone 5 will sport a different sized display and one that would have less pixels: 3.5-inch 960×640 Retina Display versus 3.7-inch 800×480 PenTile Matrix AMOLED.


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Dell Technologies takes on HPE with Project Apex
Company moves to simplified ‘everything as a service’ strategy in face of hybrid, multi-cloud trends
Described by Sam Grocott, senior vice president of Dell Technologies Business Unit marketing, as a “radically simplified as a service and cloud experience”, the new project acknowledges that the future of enterprise IT is “really going to be a hybrid, multi-cloud world”.
Speaking to journalists ahead of the company’s annual Dell Technologies World conference – which, like most conferences this year is being held as a ‘virtual experience’ – Grocott explained that Apex is a strategy, rather than a product, and is “how [Dell Technologies] is going to take as a service – which is already very successful – and cloud and [make it more unified]”.
The foundation of Apex is Dell Technologies Cloud Console, which acts as both a provisioning and management platform for cloud and as a service products. The company claims that customers can deploy workloads, manage multi-cloud resources and keep an eye on costs “with a few clicks”.
Sitting atop this is Dell Technologies Storage as-a-Service, an on-premises offering that features elastic block and file storage, which is delivered on an OpEx model and can be dialled up or down as needed via Cloud Console.
Also announced were Dell Technologies Cloud Platform instance-based offerings, which allows customers to start using hybrid cloud from $47 per instance per month. This can also be provisioned and managed from within Cloud Console, based on predefined configurations.
Cloud Console is available in the US as a public preview now, with general availability coming around the world in the first half of 2021. Storage-as-a-Service will also be available from the first half of 2021.
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Over objections, Montville Town Council trims buffer between vendors, businesses
Montville - The Town Council on Monday decreased the required buffer between vendors and businesses that sell similar products, an action taken over objections from the town planner, police lieutenant, Economic Development Commission and Planning and Zoning Commission.
In a 4-2 vote, the council amended an ordinance regulating peddlers and vendors by allowing them to sell goods within 500 feet of a business selling similar items, significantly shrinking the original 1-mile buffer zone. Democrats voted in favor, with the exception of the absent Chairman Joseph Jaskiewicz, while Republican Tom McNally and Independence for Montville member Kathy Pollard voted against the changes.
During a public hearing held before the council meeting, many town officials opposed to the changes said they would have accepted a half-mile buffer zone or an ordinance with regulations to compensate for possible traffic hazards.
Councilor Chuck Longton dismissed their arguments, calling 500 feet a reasonable distance and reminding them that vendor licenses still will be at the discretion of the police lieutenant, who can reject them if he foresees a traffic-related problem.
Before the vote, McNally reiterated some of the opponents' arguments and reminded fellow councilors that "you really should listen to the people." By his count, only six of the 18 speakers during the public hearing favored the change.
Representatives from Montville businesses like Friendly's Pizza, Pa's Pizza and Montville Florist told councilors the changes would hurt their businesses. Other residents, including some vendors, said the changes help foster "free enterprise" in town.
"I think the only thing you've succeeded in doing with this public hearing is setting business against business, which is the last thing you should be doing in the Town of Montville," said Town Planner Marcia Vlaun, who urged councilors to spend more time working on a compromise.
Meanwhile, Independence for Montville Chairman Jim Andriote repeated his claim that the changes amounted to political favoritism on the part of the Democrats, whom he said are trying to help former Democratic Town Councilor and hot dog vendor Gary Murphy.
Andriote said he plans to file an ethics complaint on Tuesday against the councilors who voted in favor of the changes.
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2016 Retrospective: U.S. Clothing Production in China Is Slipping
Fewer clothes were imported from China this year than last year as manufacturers headed to lower-wage countries such as Vietnam, India and Bangladesh to do more of their production.
Still, China accounted for 35 percent of the apparel imported into the United States for the 12-month period ending Oct. 31. In past years, China has accounted for as much as 40 percent of all clothing brought into the country.
The U.S. Commerce Dept. reported that apparel goods coming from China were down nearly 7 percent in the one-year period to $28.35 billion.
As salaries are rising in Chinese factories, U.S. clothing companies are moving production to countries with lower wages. The most favored country for apparel making after China is now Vietnam, which has grown steadily over the years with more apparel factories coming online.
Apparel imports from Vietnam grew 3.7 percent in the one-year period ending Oct. 31, totaling $10.75 billion. That accounted for 13 percent of all apparel imported into the United States.
Vietnam is expected to continue to be a popular apparel-manufacturing center despite the fact that its goods won’t be subject to duty-free consideration now that the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade agreement that included Vietnam and the United States, is dead.
Still, Vietnam is popular among several U.S. clothing companies such as Columbia Sportswear.
Bangladesh is also growing in importance when it comes to apparel manufacturing. Big retailers such as H&M and Zara have consistently headed to this extremely low-wage country to have goods produced in big factories.
For the one-year period ending in October, Bangladesh sent $5.3 billion worth of clothing to the United States, making up about 6.5 percent of total apparel imports. That was about the same as the previous year.
India only exported $3.65 billion in apparel to the United States, but when factoring in fabric and other textiles the total jumped to $7.2 billion in goods.
Mexico, which for years was the second most popular source for apparel making for U.S. labels, has seen its share of production decline. For the 12 months ending Oct. 31, it sent $3.3 billion in apparel, a 7 percent drop over the previous year, making up 4 percent of all U.S. apparel imports.


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UK retailer Clove has announced a change in the launch date for Sony’s Xperia P and Xperia U smartphones. The original launch date was set as May 7 when the devices were announced at MWC 2012. The new launch date is set as Monday, May 28. Both the smartphones are part of the NXT series with the P coming in black or silver and the U coming in white or black.
The P will cost £275.00 via Clove and runs the Android operating system. The device has a four-inch screen and uses a 1 GHz dual core processor. The rear camera is an eight megapixel unit and can capture photos along with HD video. Internal storage is 16 GB, and the phone has NFC along with HDMI and DLNA connectivity.
The Xperia U is significantly cheaper than the P at £170. It runs Android and has all the expected features such as Wi-Fi and GPS. It has a 3.5-inch screen, a 1 GHz dual core processor, 512 MB of RAM, and 4 GB of internal storage along with 2 GB for app storage. Its rear camera is a five megapixel unit that can capture 3-D images, and it has a front camera as well.


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ECONOMNEXT – Sri Lanka’s chicken farmers will have to sell at least 40 percent of their output as price controlled whole chicken, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said.
Farmers who were faced with higher animal feed costs due to ‘self-sufficiency’ plan for corn growers were earlier selling chicken parts at market prices.
The controlled price for whole chicken will be 420 rupees, he said.
Karunanayake said if price controls were not adhered to the government will import poultry. In the past there had been corruption in the import of poultry meat by the state.
Feed producers will be allowed to import corn, where there is not enough local production and exported meat will be given a rebate, he said.


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New orders for U.S. manufactured capital goods rose less than expected in June amid weak demand for machinery and a range of other goods, suggesting that business spending will remain subdued for a while.
Business investment remains soft despite data ranging from retail sales to housing suggesting that the economy has regained speed after growth almost stalled early in the year.
The Commerce Department said on Wednesday non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, increased 0.2 percent last month after decreasing 0.5 percent in May.
Weak business spending could be one of the factors that could encourage Federal Reserve officials to keep interest rates unchanged at the end a two-day meeting later on Wednesday.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast these so-called core capital goods orders rising 0.3 percent last month.
The dollar fell against the euro after the report, while prices for U.S. government bonds rose.
Overall orders for durable goods, items ranging from toasters to aircraft that are meant to last three years or more, tumbled 4.0 percent last month, the biggest drop since August 2014, after declining 2.8 percent in May.
Business spending has weakened since late 2015, in part as lower oil prices squeezed profits in the energy sector, forcing companies to slash capital spending budgets. Uncertainty over global demand and the upcoming U.S. presidential election are also making companies cautious about spending, economists say.
Prospects for a pick-up in business spending are dim against the backdrop of lackluster corporate profits.
Shipments of core capital goods, which are used to calculate equipment spending in the government's gross domestic product measurement, fell 0.4 percent last month after sliding 0.5 percent in May. That suggests business spending probably fell again in the second quarter.
Should spending on equipment drop in the second quarter, that would be the first time since the 2007-09 recession that outlays would have contracted for three straight quarters.
According to a Reuters survey of economists, the government will likely report on Friday that GDP increased at a 2.6 percent annual rate in the second quarter after rising at a 1.1 percent pace in the January-March period.
In June, orders for electrical equipment, appliances and components increased 0.8 percent. But orders for machinery fell 0.1 percent and primary metals dropped 1.3 percent. Computers and electronic products orders declined 2.2 percent.
Orders for transportation equipment slumped 10.5 percent as bookings for aircraft plunged 58.8 percent. Orders for automobiles rose 2.6 percent.
Pointing to sustained weakness in business spending, unfilled core capital goods orders fell 0.2 percent in June after slipping 0.4 percent in May. Inventories of those goods rose 0.3 percent.
© 2023 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.


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Porsche aims for more than 20% operating margin
As it approaches its IPO, Porsche has revised its profitability targets upwards. The brand is aiming for a long-term operating margin of more than 20%. For the 2022 financial year, it should oscillate between 17 and 18%.
A minority share of the capital of Porsche AG should be listed on the stock exchange at the end of 2022.
Porsche »has the long-term ambition to achieve profitability (operational, in terms of EBIT) on sales of more than 20% », indicated, Monday, July 18, 2022, his boss Oliver Blume at Porsche Investor Day.
For the year 2022, Porsche has already raised its operating margin target, which must now reach between 17 and 18%, against « above 15% » referred to before. Turnover is expected between 38 and 39 billion euros, representing growth of 11 to 14% compared to 2021, when the group sold 302,000 Macans and other Cayennes worldwide, a record.
A good omen before the placement on the stock market of Porsche AG by the Volkswagen group, which plans to introduce a minority share of its subsidiary on the market during the fourth quarter. This plan must be decided and communicated during the summer.
Porsche is valued between 80 and 90 billion euros, according to sources cited by Bloomberg. By giving up a fraction of its control over Porsche, Volkswagen could obtain the billions needed to finance its investments in the electric, connected and autonomous car.
Read also : Porsche’s IPO will « accelerate » Volkswagen’s electric shift
Porsche AG, owned by the Volkswagen Group since 2009, should not be confused with the listed company Porsche Automobil Holding (« Porsche SE » for short), also based in Stuttgart and majority shareholder of the Volkswagen Group since 2009. The German region of Lower -Saxony is also a direct shareholder of Volkswagen, up to 20%, thus being able to exert its influence there.
This construction prevents to this day the family Porsche-Piech, majority shareholder of the Porsche holding company, to exert a significant influence on the Volkswagen group and therefore on the Porsche nugget. With Porsche AG listed on the stock exchange, the Porsche-Piëch clan could gradually increase its control in the family business started by the engineer Porsche ferry after the Second World War.
The manufacturer of the 911 has also set its sights on the electric and plans to launch a « new all-electric SUV model« , said Oliver Blume. To meet the global demand for electrified luxury vehicles, 80% of the brand’s vehicles will be fully electric in 2030. (with AFP)


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After winning one billion dollars from its historical lawsuit against Samsung in August, Apple is now going after the Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet and Google’s latest Android operating system – Jelly Bean. The report comes from Bloomberg who says that the company is now telling U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal in a federal court in San Jose that Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10.1 has infringed Apple’s patent. It’s also adding Android 4.1 Jelly Bean to an existing lawsuit in California. Today’s announcement by Apple follows after Samsung filed a patent infringement complaint against Apple’s iPhone 5 last month.
Apple lawyer Andrew Liao told Judge Grewal that the Galaxy Nexus is the only phone running on Jelly Bean that Apple seeks to add. Liao says that Apple is also adding 17 devices that “could use a stylus even though the products do not ship with a stylus.” On the other hand, Samsung lawyer Victoria Maroulis says that Samsung is strongly opposing Apple’s intention of including 17 devices supporting stylus input. “By adding the stylus, Apple is going to enlarge the case significantly,” she said. Judge Grewal, according to Bloomberg, did not issue any ruling today because both parties could file even more lawsuits if either of them is denied.
Next Story: Portal 2 In Motion DLC released
- 2014-04-13: Google Redesigning Android App Icons [Rumor]
- 2014-04-10: Age Of Empires: World Domination Greets iOS, Android And Windows Phone Platforms This Year
- 2014-04-10: Chrome Beta For Android Updated
- 2014-04-10: Google Expands Security Services For Android
- 2014-04-10: LG G Pad 8.3 Receives Android 4.4 KitKat Update In US And Europe
- 2014-04-08: Apple Seeks $2.2 Billion In Damages From Samsung
- 2014-04-08: Samsung Sues South Korean Publication Over Negative Galaxy S5 Press
- 2014-04-07: Leaked Document Reveals How Samsung Viewed Apple As An "Extremely Real" Threat
- 2012-01-12: Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0N Plus on sale in Germany
- 2011-10-13: Modified Samsung Galaxy phones have "photo flicking" replaced


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Discover more from Terms of Service with Chris Martin
The Neopets Renaissance [Content Made Simple]
Issue #319: AI revolt, Threads success, and more.
TOP OF THE WEEK
Neopets, the beloved virtual pet website that launched in 1999, announced a “new era” on Monday. The Neopets Team (TNT) said that it will be launching a new “unified website” this week and fixing some of the old Flash games shortly after, per an extensive blog post on Medium.
The new website, which will launch on July 20th, will “serve as a one stop shop for all brand announcements, links to our different games and products, a repository of Neopets articles and related links, and anything else Neopian you can think of!” TNT says in the post. Neopets.com “isn’t going anywhere,” TNT says, but the team will be giving the site some “extra care” to fix up some issues with the site, “including the Flash games.”
This probably doesn’t mean anything to a healthy portion of you, but hopefully some of you will enjoy a jolt of nostalgia knowing that Neopets is experiencing a bit of a renaissance.
THE TRIVIA QUESTION
The #1 most populous and #10 most populous cities in the world are in the same country: which is it?
Answer at the bottom.
HITTING THE LINKS
I’m glad this is happening, at least for individual creators. Important movement here.
Writers and artists are locking their files to protect their work or are boycotting certain websites that publish A.I.-generated content, while companies like Reddit want to charge for access to their data. At least 10 lawsuits have been filed this year against A.I. companies, accusing them of training their systems on artists’ creative work without consent. This past week, Ms. Silverman and the authors Christopher Golden and Richard Kadrey sued OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, and others over A.I.’s use of their work.
Good reflection from Casey on Threads.
Twitter’s deterioration continues to accelerate. Ad revenue is down by 50 percent, according to Musk, and — despite the company choosing not to pay many of its bills — the company is losing money. Rate limits continue to make the site unusable to many free users, and even some paid ones. Spam is overwhelming users’ direct messages so much that the company disabled open DMs to free users. The company has lately been reduced to issuing bribe-like payouts to a handful of hand-picked creators, many of whom are aligned with right-wing politics.
So much content, so little time to consume it.
YouTube is experimenting with a way to help sickos like me watch videos as fast as humanly possible. The test, which YouTube Premium subscribers can opt in to, lets you long-press on the video player to set the playback speed to 2x, according to YouTube’s experiments page (via 9to5Google).
THE FUNNY PART
You can subscribe to The Funnies here. (It is a weekly email of funny internet content, and it will always be free.)
Trivia Answer: Japan. (#1 is Tokyo at 37.2mil and #10 is Osaka at 19mil.)


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Oregon company buys Holiday Inn near Spokane airport
New owner plans to make $1.5 million in improvementsMay 9th, 2013
Wilsonville, Ore.,-based BHG Hotels has bought the Holiday Inn Spokane Airport and plans a $1.5 million renovation of the four-story, 122-guest room hotel at 1616 S. Windsor Drive, says the company's regional manager Jatin Patel.
Operated under Bhgah Spokane LLC, the Holiday Inn Spokane Airport is a franchisee of the InterContinental Hotels Group, which owns the Holiday Inn & Resorts brand.
Spokop LLC had owned the 80,000-square-foot hotel since it was built in 2003. Patel declined to disclose terms of the hotel purchase, which was completed May 1.
The renovation will involve replacing furniture, carpet, and wallpaper throughout the hotel, Patel says. Peppers, a bar and grill located in the hotel, also will get new tables, chairs, and carpet. Patel says work is to take three months to complete and is expected to begin either in September or the following spring.
Mike Barnes, new general manager for the hotel, was hired after the change in ownership, Patel says. The hotel currently has 30 full-time and 15 part-time employees, he says, adding the existing staff has been retained.
He says it hopes through the renovation, more people will choose to stay at the hotel.
"If we can increase occupancy, then we'll need more team members to join our team," he says.
Patel says the hotel, which will remain the Holiday Inn Spokane Airport, books about 25,000 rooms annually.
"Our goal is to make that our base for the Eastern Washington area," he says. "We'd like to look at other opportunities in the Spokane market," as well as in Coeur d'Alene, Pullman, and Lewiston.
Family-owned and operated BHG Hotels was founded in 1990 by current company President Buggsi Patel and now operates 20 hotels throughout the Northwest, including in Walla Walla, Vancouver, Wash.; Meridian, Idaho; and Portland, Ore. Patel says the company is also a franchisee of Spokane-based Red Lion Hotels Corp.
Franchisor IHG has 4,400 properties in more than 100 countries through franchisees. IHG also includes brands such as Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn Express Hotels, and InterContinental Hotels & Resorts.


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has released several screenshots
from Zoo Vet: Endangered Animals
, this time illustrating the DS version of this simulation game set in an urban zoo where you test your skills as an animal doctor. Designed to fully utilize the DS capabilities, the game incorporates the latest in gaming technology, including micro games for each medical tool, 30 different photorealistic animals, and beautifully rendered environments. Zoo Vet: Endangered Animals will be available at retail in early November and will have an MSPR of $29.99.


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February 13, 2008 |
NEW DELHI: In a move that could give a fillip to the fast-moving consumer goods industry, the finance ministry is considering reducing central excise on packaging material to 8% from the current 16%. "In order to boost competitiveness of India's food processing sector, we have recommended slashing of central excise duties on the packaging sector. This will promote innovation in food processing and packaging equipment and increase processing efficiency while cutting costs of food products," said minister for food processing industries Subhodh Kant Sahay.
January 1, 2008 |
NEW DELHI: Industry body FICCI has demanded fiscal incentives for the packaging industry, citing findings of its survey which says higher cost of packaging on account of costly raw material and higher duties was impacting the demand for processed foods. The findings of the survey are based on the feedback received from 225 respondents from food processing, retail, packaging and packing machinery sectors. The domestic packaging industry, which is worth $18.8 billion and growing at over 15% annually, is characterised by a large number of small players and only a few large players with national presence, according to FICCI.
December 30, 2007 |
NEW DELHI: Government should allow import of packaging machinery at zero duty besides abolishing excise duty to help the 18.8-billion-dollar domestic packaging industry achieve a faster growth, industry body FICCI has said. In a bid to boost the competitiveness of India's food processing sector, FICCI has come out with a study comprising results of a survey of the packaging sector and recommended a nine-point fiscal incentive package. FICCI said import duty on finished packaging materials needs to be reduced which would help in developing newer and innovative packaging material for end users.
September 21, 2007 |
Control Print surges on talk of capital gain Control Print, solutions provider for the packaging industry, has risen 17% over the past one month. Buzz is that the company is on the verge of getting over Rs 25 crore from Videojet as one-time settlement for termination of its distribution arrangement. There is also talk that the company is planning to develop its 1.5 acres in Mumbai for commercial purposes. Basant S Kabra, managing director, confirmed the developments, but refused to divulge any further details.
September 3, 2007 |
Feroze Malik has been shifting between hometown Saharanpur and Bhagwanpur these days. His company, Frisco Foods, has got a big order from softdrink giant Coca-Cola for its milk business in India and he is rushing against time to get a new Tetra Pak packaging unit up and running at a new factory premises in Uttarakhand. Deadlines are important for him because the cola giant's product rollout plans depends on his new manufacturing line. In Saharanpur too, Malik is leaving no stone unturned.
September 20, 2006 |
KOLKATA: The Tinplate Company of India Ltd (TCIL), which set up a 'solutions centre' with state-of-the-art printing and lacquering facilities at Jamshedpur last December to provide value-added tinplate solutions to its customers, is planning to set up more such centres across the country. "We are looking to set up around four to five such centres in various formats at strategic locations across India over the next two to three years. Though the exact locations are yet to be decided, we will probably be starting with West India," Mr Bushen Raina, MD, TCIL and chairman, Indian Institute of Packaging (IIP)
August 28, 2006 |
MUMBAI: Buoyed up by the booming domestic pharmaceutical industry, the sunrise pharmaceutical packaging industry in India is on a higher growth trajectory at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 15 to 20 per cent. Dominated almost evenly by both organised and unorganised sectors, the total annual turnover of the industry is pegged currently at Rs 1,600 crores, industry sources told PTI. Pharma packaging consists of various types of glass, pet bottles, strip and blister packs, injectable and ampoules.
June 11, 2006 |
NEW DELHI: Call it innovation or sheer business acumen, a few pharma companies are charting a new growth path with ready-to-drink electrolyte energy drinks. The ready-to-drink segment, which comprises Rs 10 crore of the Rs 65-crore branded oral rehydration solutions, is growing at over 100% and is likely to grow at over 150% in the next five years. "Though this product forms a small part of our revenues, it's showing three digit growth. The segment has tremendous potential if marketed and distributed well," says Rajesh Jagdale, MD, Juggat Pharma, a division of the Rs 50-crore Jagdale Industries, which offers ORS-L, a lime-based drink enriched with electrolytes and vitamin C. Currently, the ready-to-drink electrolyte segment is dominated by Juggat Pharma, which has almost 90% of the market share followed by Energal from FDC Ltd and Coslyte from CFL Pharma.
May 7, 2006 |
Imagine you are a movie camera panning a conference room, the walls of which are lined on three sides with pictures and packets very much familiar to you. You pan from one end, past packets of Nestle, Cadbury, Dettol, Dabur, Haldiram among several other brands, covers of popular coffee table and travel books and magazines and then you move up front a bit to rest it on the profile of a person behind the processing, printing and packaging of...
April 24, 2006 |
NEW DELHI: If FMCG sector leads, can the packaging industry be far behind? As the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry, one of the fastest growing sectors, is poised to achieve an overall growth between 8%-8.5% in '05-06, up 2-2.5% over the growth rate clocked in the previous year, the packaging industry is eyeing to wrap up an annual growth of 4-6%. Essel Propack announced its entry into the US plastic tube packaging market by setting up a green-field unit near its existing manufacturing unit at Danville, USA. "The $25m capex project is expected to be completed by '06-end.


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China's largest television maker is linking up with a French rival to form the world's biggest television manufacturing company, while Southeast Asia's largest telecommunications company has reported a strong profit.
TCL of China and the French company Thomson will combine their TV and DVD manufacturing operations to create a new company called TCL-Thomson. The joint venture is expected to be the world's biggest TV set maker, producing 18 million a year.
The companies say the deal will allow Thomson to take advantage of cheap manufacturing in China and will give TCL better global brand recognition. Thomson makes the RCA brand of TV sets.
Southeast Asian telecommunications giant SingTel showed a solid performance for the three months ending in September. Net profit for the Singapore company rose 14 percent to $271 million from a year ago - boosted by strong earnings from an Australian unit and other regional investments.
Chief executive Lee Hsien Yan says overseas operations now account for more than 70 percent of the company's revenues. "Our international investments continue to perform strongly ? our regional mobile businesses are growing in terms of profits as well as dividends," he says.
Higher beer sales pushed up quarterly profit for the Philippine food and beverage conglomerate, San Miguel. Profit for the period from July to September rose 15 percent to $33 million. International beer sales rebounded 11 percent from the previous quarter's 10 percent contraction due to the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
In Taiwan, semiconductor sales by the country's largest manufacturers jumped in October. Sales by United Microelectronics rose more than 27 percent to $225 million from a year ago, while TSMC's jumped more than 33 percent to more than $500,000. Both companies expect to use more than 90 percent of their capacity to meet strong demand for microchips in the next few months.


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HBO Go For Xbox A No-Go For Comcast, Time Warner Cable Customers
HBO Go — plus MLB.TV and Comcast’s Xfinity app — launched today for Microsoft’s Xbox 360, adding more entertainment utility to tens of millions of Xboxes. As Microsoft tries to expand the Xbox beyond gaming — an important showdown on the horizon with Apple and perhaps Google — this is another positive, incremental step.
But don’t plan on using HBO’s app if you’re a customer of the two biggest U.S. cable companies, Comcast or Time Warner Cable — 34 million subscribers, combined.
HBO, still married to the cable industry, requires you to sign in/”authenticate” through your cable/satellite/telco TV provider, which verifies that you’re an HBO subscriber, before streaming any videos. But Comcast and Time Warner Cable are not on Microsoft’s list that will support HBO Go for Xbox. (Neither supports HBO Go on the Roku box, either.)
- In Comcast’s case, it appears you can sign in and watch HBO shows using the new Xfinity app for Xbox, just not the official HBO Go app. So for Comcast, this appears to be a case of wanting to “own the customer” vs. any particular objection to watching HBO shows on your Xbox.
- In Time Warner Cable’s case… Perhaps it’s trying to build its own app and it’s taking a long time? Perhaps its relationship with HBO — owned by Time Warner, the former parent company for Time Warner Cable — is still weird? (TWC subs only recently got access to HBO Go for the first time, and HBO channels were recently added to the TWC iPad app.) Or maybe it’s delusional enough to still think that preventing people from watching non-TWC video on their TV is a smart strategy?
The real losers, of course, are the subscribers — you and me. This silliness about “owning the entire customer experience” is just not productive or sustainable for the long-term. Maybe most of the same shows are available from both sources, but as long as we’re still paying for cable TV, why not give us the choice to pick which interface we want?
The real long-term, big-picture value of a cable provider is the bandwidth they can provide for video, Internet, and whatever else. Anyone can make videos, design interfaces, and build gadgets to watch it all on. Eventually, some company may even cobble together a web-based TV service with enough channels to be competitive with cable. But no one is going to dig up streets across the country and build broadband pipes into living rooms. Even Google isn’t that crazy.
Anyway: More short-term, selfish thinking by the cable giants. But that’s hardly news.
And, respect to the cable/satellite/telco companies that aren’t dinosaurs: “AT&T, Bend Broadband, Blue Ridge Communications, Cablevision, Charter, Cox, Directv, Dish, Grande Communications, HTC Digital Cable, Massillon Cable/Clear Picture, Mediacom, Midcontinent Communications, RCN, Suddenlink, Verizon, and Wow”.


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TOKYO (CBS.MW) -- Top U.S. online retailers are doing little to support sales to Japanese consumers, says a report just published by Building2 Information Group.
According to the company, 52 percent of the top 100 U.S. online retailers researched by Providence, R.I.-based Building2 prohibit the sale of their products outside the U.S. Only 18 percent have Japanese language versions of their Web sites and related services for Japanese language visitors.
"For many U.S. retailers, that statistic represents a missed opportunity," Stephen Siegel, Building2 Managing Partner said in a release. "American brands are surprisingly strong in Japan, and Japanese consumers are going online to shop in increasing numbers." The company says estimates for business-to-consumer online sales in Japan are approaching $10 billion annually.
The report suggests that issues like shipping methods and costs, customs and duty fees, and customer service need to be addressed for U.S. businesses to sell to Japanese consumers effectively. "If you're not careful, you can easily erode your reputation for service and end up with costs that are higher than you expect," Siegel commented.
Lands' End LE, -0.11% was picked as the Top 100's best-practice U.S. online retailer for its robust Japan strategy that includes a localized Japanese Web site, customer service via phone and e-mail in Japanese, and use of alternative payment methods that are popular with many Japanese consumers. Lands' End (through its subsidiary, Lands' End Japan) has been operating in Japan since 1994 and online in Japan for over a year.
Yutaka Fujioka, Lands' End Japan's Director of Internet and Business Development, said the company's success in Japan is based on communicating the Lands' End business model in a way that resonates with Japanese customers. "We have the same approach to providing service as our parent company in the U.S., and our look and feel is consistent," Fujioka was quoted as saying. "But we are very careful to localize our site's copy and its contents to Japanese culture and ways of thinking."
In addition to Lands' End, other top U.S. retailers -- including Dell, Disney, Gateway, and Office Depot -- have successfully built a presence in Japan through their Japanese subsidiaries, the Building2 report notes. Amazon.com AMZN, -1.61% however, chose a different tactic, partnering with Japanese companies for distribution and customer service on its sales in Japan.
Cisco Hong Kong telecom deal
Cisco Systems CSCO, -0.90% has signed a multi-million U.S. dollar contract with New World Telephone, a Hong Kong-based broadband carrier and telecommunications service provider, to supply next generation broadband network products and solutions to Hong Kong.
New World Telephone's GigaLink network will be powered by Cisco's Long-Reach Ethernet (LRE) technology and IP+Optical networking products. An article in the online version of Nikkei's Asia Biz-Tech valued deployment at around US$12.9 million. GigaLink is counting on Cisco technology for its launch of video conferencing, IP Television (IP TV) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) telephony.
"In general, businesses pay more for office space that offer high-speed access and likewise, and a business traveler will prefer to stay in a hotel that has broadband access rather than using a dial-up connection or slow-speed network," said Frankie Sum, managing director, Cisco Systems (HK). "The amplified capacity of an optically enabled Cisco network allows New World Telephone to offer richer, more complex and higher-value applications to customers at a fraction of the time and cost."
Golf IT par for the course
Golf always looked like such a simple game -- guys in green plaid polyester and ladies in skirts and sweaters, zipping around in golf carts, squinting steely-eyed from hole to hole, gauging distance and wind velocity in their head, 19 holes and a round of beers or martinis in the clubhouse. But pleeeze -- this is the 21st century and we may not have flying cars and robot maids but golfers can use their own Jetson-like GPS equipped virtual caddie out on the course.
Inforetech Wireless Technology WYRE and its golf division Proshot Golf Networks applies global positioning satellites (GPS), radio frequency and a integrated network of wireless technology to information systems for the golf and recreational industries.
The company, headquartered in Vancouver B.C., has expanded to Central America, Europe, China, Australia and the Philippines. It also just announced this week the signing of an exclusive distribution agreement with Atechs for courses in South Korea. Atechs, based in La Canada, CA, has been developing distribution networks in South Korea. The agreement commences with a payment in year one for territorial distribution rights and inventory purchases. Committing to install product in a minimum of 49 South Korean courses over a five-year time frame and is projected to generate $10 million in revenue from inventory purchases, plus advertising revenue.
Courses that implement this technology send out golfers with information and communication systems providing accurate yardage to greens, key hazards, distances to the pin, sand traps -- detailed maps even show where sprinkler heads are located -- plus updates on weather warnings or emergencies. Using either the handheld or cart-mounted unit, golfers can even order drinks or lunch from out on the fairway. The company says its portable product, the 'Inforemer' is the first, patented, communications network that utilizes advanced Internet protocols to provide a wireless information system to enhance recreational value, increase golf course profits and improve player safety. Currently they have four high-end GPS products for the golf industry consisting of three cart-mounted systems and the hand held system.
Inforetech shares have been dragged down along with most tech stocks but the company has seen more active - if spiky -- trading in February and March.
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HTC has released the latest flagship smartphone from the company which is the HTC U11. The U11 comes as the second premium smartphone in the U series which has been introduced this year by the company. Now, we have known that the HTC U11 has been already unveiled in India as well as other countries around the world. However, the phone is left to be launched in Sapphire Blue color in India. Now, the company has informed via Twitter that the HTC U11 will be available for sale in Sapphire Blue color in India from June 24. However, the smartphone will be available for pre-order on June 24 and the open sale will start on a later date in the country.
Talking about the specifications of the smartphone, the HTC U11 is powered by 2.45GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor and it comes with 6GB of RAM. The phone packs 128GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 2000GB via a microSD card. As far as the cameras are concerned, the HTC U11 packs a 12-Ultrapixel primary camera on the rear and a 16-megapixel front shooter for selfies. The smartphone comes with a 5.50-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 1440 pixels by 2560 pixels.
Apart from that, the smartphone has been already launched in India at a price of Rs. 51,990 and the smartphones have already been selling in the country through offline as well as online channels. The smartphone runs the latest Android 7.1.1 Nougat operating system out of the box. In terms of battery capacity, the smartphone has a 3000mAh non-removable battery. In terms of the announcement of the Sapphire Blue color, it is important to note that the Sapphire Blue variant is just a color change on the smartphone and all the specifications are same as the other variants so the pricing of the Sapphire Blue version should remain the same.


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| Feb 21, 2013
| 11:05 AM
A two-year study of more than 1,200 seafood samples by Oceana, an environmental advocacy group, found that a third of seafood sold in grocery stores and restaurants is mislabeled, the group announced Thursday.
DNA testing of seafood samples between 2010...
| Feb 22, 2013
| 1:05 AM
BROOKINGS - Research into alternative fish feed could jump-start the fish-farming industry in South Dakota and provide a new market for soybean farmers, proponents hope.
"Our target here, our aim, is to reduce operating costs by producing these novel...
| Feb 23, 2013
| 5:35 PM
Seafood fraud remains a persistent problem in the United States.
The advocacy group Oceana released a report Thursday that as much as one-third of seafood sold in restaurants and grocery stores is fraudulently labeled.
The fraud varies from state to...
| Feb 22, 2013
| 9:37 PM
Like many people, I eat a lot of fish this time of year.
It's not so much because I like fish. It's because I love tartar sauce.
I am very careful about my supply of tartar sauce at home because my wife has no idea how quickly we go through it. I...
| Feb 7, 2013
The fried fish sandwich exists for the same reasons the fried chicken sandwich or the fried pork chop sandwich or the fried steak sandwich exists — justifying fried food as lunch by placing it between two slices of bread.
| Mar 24, 2013
Blu on the Avenue has replaced Spice Modern Steakhouse on Winter Park's Park Avenue. The concept is from the people who operate neighboring 310 Park South and 310 Lakeside in downtown Orlando.
Spice's dark interior has been renovated into a room...
| Feb 7, 2013
| 10:37 AM
When Billy's Stone Crabs opened in 1997, it closed every year when stone crab season ended in October. In May, when stone crabs returned, Billy's started all over again. This year, Billy's will stay open year-round.
Being a seasonal restaurant isn't...
| Feb 8, 2013
| 8:06 AM
A state Department of Labor report concludes that three-fourths of Alaska's seafood processing workers reside out of state.
The figures were revealed in the department's annual report on residency of Alaska workers.
Seafood processing leads other...
| Mar 20, 2013
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Easter is just around the corner and several places are hosting special events. Here are a few hopping ideas on how to celebrate the holiday.
Easter Family Fun in H.B.
In Huntington Beach, the Easter Hunt and Family Fun Day will take place form...
| Feb 17, 2013
Even before the Civil War, Hampton's busy waterfront boasted many free blacks who made their living as pilots, fishermen and boatmen.
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When James Beard Award-winning authors Matt and Ted Lee talk about their hometown of Charleston, S.C., there's an unmistakable air of reverence in their voices.
"It's hard to separate the passion (for the food) from having grown up there, having grown...


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China’s first low cost carrier expands fleet to meet growing demand for cost efficient air travel
The aircraft, the 210th A320 Family aircraft assembled at the Airbus Tianjin Final Assembly Line, is powered by CFM 56 engines and is configured in an efficient lay-out with 180 economy class seats. Based in Shanghai, Spring Airlines has been an Airbus operator since July 2005.
“We are pleased to expand our all Airbus A320 fleet to 50 as we are going to celebrate our 10th anniversary in July this year. From the first to the 50th, our partnership with Airbus has lasted for 10 years. Airbus is our closest partner,” said Wang Zhenghua, Chairman of Spring Airlines. “The low cost mode that we initiated in China 10 years ago has proved to be successful and it is becoming more and more popular today. The Airbus A320 plays a key role in the successful development of low cost operations in China with its high reliability, unrivaled economics and comfort in its class.”
“The sustained development and steady growth of Spring Airlines has impressed the industry deeply,” said Eric Chen, Airbus China President. “We are proud to see that our products have supported the success of our customers. There is great potential for low cost airlines in China as the market demand for cost efficient air traffic is growing. We will provide Spring Airlines with even stronger support in the future including our innovative products and top level service.”
Derived from Spring Tourism Company, Spring Airlines took its maiden flight in 2005 as one of the first private enterprises entering into the airlines business and first positioning itself as a low cost carrier. The slogan of Spring is ‘to make flying affordable for everyone.” Competitive pricing, quality service and smart operation make Spring an outstanding airline.
Airbus, headquartered in Toulouse, France, is the world’s leading aircraft manufacturer of passenger airliners, ranging in capacity from 100 to more than 500 seats. Airbus has design and manufacturing facilities in France, Germany, the UK, and Spain, and subsidiaries in the US, China, India, Japan and in the Middle East. In addition, it provides the highest standard of customer support and training through an expanding international network.
The A320 Family is the world’s best-selling single aisle product line with more than 11,500 orders to date and more than 6,400 aircraft delivered to 400 customers and operators worldwide. Thanks to its wide cabin, all members of the A320 Family offer the industry’s best level of comfort in all classes and Airbus’ 18” wide seats in economy as standard.
11 February 2015 Press Release


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50th Annual Harvest
Published 4:31 pm Thursday, September 30, 2010
PROSPECT – Prospect Volunteer Fire Department President and Assistant Chief Howard “Pete” Campbell remembers the first fire department auction 50 years ago.
They sold a pig.
“My father bought the pig,” Campbell, who was ten years old at the time, recounts.
The sale's been bringing the bacon home for the department ever since.
Beyond the pig, the fire department has offered an unusual menagerie over the years, from a barber's chair to store fixtures, cars, trucks, boats, furniture, appliances to the set of redneck wind chimes (a collection of beer cans attached by string to a board) that's in this year's lot. It's just whatever folks want to donate-most anything including chickens, but no dogs.
They've never auctioned a dog.
“Something about…the original auctioneer said something about it's not good to sell your-how did he put it…man's best friend you shouldn't sell…,” Campbell said.
The Prospect Fire Department, a community hub that has been nurtured by a giving community, will celebrate their 50th anniversary in October. Plans are in the works for a parade through the community (located west of Farmville just off of U. S. Route 460) and an open house of sorts on October 17.
Before that, however, is the October 2 sale-the 50th annual such fundraising event.
The first such sales were at Nordstrom's Service Station, which Campbell noted is in the middle of the current U. S. Route 460 (before a second lane was added). The fire department was yet to have a building, back in those days, though they did have a 1950 Ford truck purchased with monies raised from those community sales.
“The first three years, the fire truck was kept down in Scotty Booker's garage…and when the fire alarm went off, folks had to go down there, open up his garage…,” Campbell said.
He also noted, “…Back then, when they first started out, if you drove the fire truck to the fire and came back, you had to put gas back in it.”
Out of your own pocket.
The original firehouse was built in 1963, an extension to the rear of the structure was added in 1970 and the latest expansion came in the late '80s.
Today, the building doubles as a community center of sorts, having hosted a political debate, a flu vaccine clinic, rabies vaccination clinics and it continues to serve as a polling site for voters.
Membership has grown from the 16 it started with in 1960 to some 38 on roll (plus four lifetime members) and about 15 who serve in the supporting auxiliary. The department consistently averages about 100 calls per year, according to Campbell. Still, it's been a good year this year, having only 58 calls at the time of our interview last week, including a perhaps surprising number in August-two.
The County chips in annually to help fund the department, but the annual harvest sale also plays an important role. The proceeds from the sale almost covers one of the department's biggest expenses, insurance.
This year's event likely includes both frogs and princes, depending on one's perspective. One may find washers and dryers, upright freezers, tables and chairs, a vanity sink, a “very nice” computer desk, pony saddle, TVs, a computer monitor, a manual typewriter, and horse shoes (appearing to be the shoeing kind, not the throwing variety).
It's typically stuff folks are hesitant to throw away, but-short of selling-will donate.
Again, Francisco Auction Company's E.A. “Bill” Talbert will do the honors, as he has for many years. A sizable portion of donated items come to the department via word-of-mouth advertising. It's no surprise, perhaps, when the department has been conducting similar such auctions for 50 years.
Though some items are dropped off, firefighters also pick up donated goods year-round for the sale (contact Al Mason at 434-574-6625 or Campbell at 434-574-6618 to have items picked up for the auction), often traveling out of the area. The department has four storage buildings available and will continue to accept contributions up until the day of the sale.
For some, the event might be a way of supporting the local department through giving and buying. One individual, at one point, purchased the same electric stove four years in a row.
Like clockwork-minus the one rainout-the sales have come and gone. Yes, there was that one year they had a fire call the day of the sale. Campbell recalled they finished fighting the fire at 5 p.m. and the sale started at 6 p.m.
“Of course, everybody was dead (tired) when they started the sale,” he said.
But the show went on.
The event is more than just a fundraiser, however. It's a homecoming of sorts for some folks who don't come to bid, but to rejoin with the Prospect community.
If auctions aren't quite the thing, plans are in the works for a community parade.
Lynn East, who's heading up the October 17 program, cited that the event will start at 2 p.m. on October 17 with a route through Prospect, then return to the firehouse.
“…We're hoping a lot of people will come back. We're gonna fix some kid's bags and have lots of food and tour the fire trucks,” she said.
Smokey Bear will be in attendance as will Darin the Lion (of the DARE program), a 50-50 drawing and DJ will be playing for the family event.
A celebration of sorts, open and free.
The annual harvest sale events get underway at 7 a.m. Saturday, October 2 with a yard sale (call 434-574-8830 to rent a space), a bake sale starting at 7 a.m., with the auction kicking off at 2 p.m. Barbecue will also be for sale that evening, beginning at 4 p.m. There will also be a raffle for cash.


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U.S. domestic auto production for 1994 is expected to overtake Japan's for the first time since 1980, says a leading Japanese business newspaper.
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun forecast the estimate of Japan's auto vehicles including passenger cars and commercial vehicles for the year, showing it is likely to decrease 900,000 units, to around 10.3 million vehicles."Unlike the U.S. market, the Japanese market is still weak," said Hiroshi Sato of the Fuji Economic Research Institute, forecasting a decline in Japan's auto production.
In addition to the weak Japanese market a dip in car exports will also add to the output drop, said Sato.
The newspaper's estimate was based on production figures from the January-July period, auto makers' production plans for the following three months and estimated production figure for the rest of the year.
A total figure in the production plan for the August-October period, released earlier by 11 domestic car makers, ended with output of 2.49 million vehicles, the business daily said.
The Nihon Keizai, or Nikkei as it is known, predicts that production for the remaining two-month period of November and December will decrease by up to 5 percent from the same period last year.
U.S. auto production for the year, however, is on an upward track. Along with its economic recovery and growing auto sales, it is estimated to reach beyond 11 million units the Nikkei said.
Analysts said there is a clear difference of purchasing power between the U.S. auto market and the Japanese one which is still showing slow progress as it remains mired in an industry slump from last year.
Japan's auto exports for the first six months in 1994 dropped by 555, 000 units to 2.23 million vehicles with many manufacturers increasing overseas production as the Japanese currency has risen against the U.S. dollar.
A high yen makes Japanese exported cars expensive in foreign markets, and auto makers shift their production base to foreign nations to take advantage of lower offshore production prices.
"Japan's production figure includes quite a large portion of exports," Sato said. "Drops in exports automatically means production cutbacks."


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Daytime TV host Erica Cobb is taking on television industry standards by proudly revealing her new natural hairstyle.
Co-host of Daily Blast Live, Cobb debuted her new hairstyle during the show on Tuesday.
“In an age where everyone is touting representation matters, I want to be a part of the change that I want to see in media today,” Cobb said.
Encouraged by former First Lady Michelle Obama, Cobb decided to buck the television industry trend of hiding her natural black hair.
In December, Cobb met Obama during a brief encounter. She said the former first lady complimented her hair. Cobb responded, “You know we can just never wear our hair the way we want to wear our hair.”
Obama then looked Cobb in the eyes and told her, “You can wear your hair any way you want to wear your hair.”
Cobb wants all women to do what makes them happy and feel confident. “If wearing your hair natural makes you happy and confident, girl, you go and DO JUST THAT!” said Cobb.
After revealing her new hairstyle, Cobb pointed out that multiple African American news personalities have been disciplined or fired for wearing natural hairstyles.
“We’re told you need to straighten your hair. You need your hair to look a certain way to be presentable,” Cobb said.
Cobb hopes her natural hair reveal will embolden other African American women in television to fight against the belief that natural black hair is not professional.
“I feel presentable and respectable no matter what my hair looks like,” said Cobb.


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Dee is for Digital masterclass series attracts over 1 million viewers
Businesses feeling the pressure of the global pandemic can now learn a thing or two about going digital to earn revenue.
For the past few weeks, Digicel, in conjunction with Dee is for Digital, have been conducting a series of masterclasses twice a day via Digicel St Lucia's Facebook page, focusing on topics to help businesses and individuals get online.
Dee Hutchinson, CEO of Dee is for Digital, has described the masterclass series as a success on many different levels, highlighting that they have now reached the one million views milestone.
“With COVID-19 there is a real push for businesses to get online because their stores are closed and social distancing but obviously people who are worried about their jobs or may have lost their jobs need to find alternative sources of income,” she explained.
The masterclasses provide tips on how to monetize your skills which include how to access online marketplaces and sell your skills online. The Chairperson of the Digicel Crisis Committee has also shared some tips on what Digicel is doing during the crisis that other businesses can learn from.
“This kind of educational format is really important and can help people create new streams of income and new revenue streams for businesses.”
In addition, the series highlights individuals in the Caribbean who have created innovative businesses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Dee is for Digital Masterclasses will soon be available globally in ten different languages.
Check out the series at https://www.facebook.com/watch/DigicelStLucia/259074705107549/


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Apple: iPhone feature needs your location even when you don't share it
Legal concerns mean iOS uses your location to determine if it must turn off Apple's Ultra Wideband feature.iPhone software will process user location information on the device, and Apple won't collect or store the data, the company said.
U.S. President Donald Trump called for Apple Inc. to “step up to the plate” and suggested the company unlock iPhones used by the terrorist Apple has refused to build a backdoor to unlock an iPhone 5 and iPhone 7 belonging to the Florida shooter, but it has said it has provided the
United States President Donald Trump this afternoon weighed in on a disagreement between Apple and the FBI, calling on Apple to "step up to the We are helping Apple all of the time on TRADE and so many other issues, and yet they refuse to unlock phones used by killers, drug dealers and other
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. President Donald Trump called for Apple Inc. to “step up to the plate” and suggested the company unlock iPhones used by the gunman behind the Dec. 6 terrorist attack on a Florida Navy base.
In a tweet on Tuesday, Trump said the U.S. government helps Apple on trade and other issues, so in return, the Cupertino, California-based technology giant should unlock phones used by “criminal elements.”
Tim Cook, left, speaks with Donald Trump at the White House on March 6, 2019.
Trump and Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook have cultivated a unique working relationship, and these ties likely contributed to Trump negotiating a trade deal with China that will potentially save Apple billions of dollars.
FBI seeks Apple's help unlocking phones of suspected naval station gunman
Phones thought to belong to the Saudi air force member accused in the deadly attack are password-protected.In a letter sent late Monday to Apple's general counsel, the FBI said that although it has court permission to search the contents of the phones, both are password-protected. "Investigators are actively engaging in efforts to 'guess' the relevant passcodes but so far have been unsuccessful," it said.
President Trump joined Attorney General William Barr on Tuesday, slamming Apple Inc. for refusing to extract data from two iPhones that belonged to the Saudi "We are helping Apple all of the time on TRADE and so many other issues, and yet they refuse to unlock phones used by killers, drug dealers
Apple referred to comments it made on Monday. Apple Says It’s Helping FBI Investigate Florida Terrorist Attack. Still, new vulnerabilities and exploits are The FBI would likely also need other tools to unlock the iPhones , such as Grayshift’s GrayKey or Cellebrite Premium, a special on-premise
Still, U.S. government officials, including Trump’s Attorney General William Barr, have complained that Apple isn’t doing enough to help unlock the iPhones of the Florida attacker.
Apple rejected the assertion that it hasn’t helped, saying that it provided “gigabytes” of data from to cloud backups of the devices.
Apple didn’t directly address the government’s request for it to unlock the devices, but is refusing to build special tools to give investigators access to locked iPhones.
However, the governmentto break into and analyze the attacker’s handsets and can instead use third-party tools, Bloomberg News reported earlier Tuesday, citing security experts. One tool to simplify this process was updated on Tuesday.
FBI asks Apple to help unlock iPhones of suspected Navy base shooter, report says
The iPhone maker has battled previously with the FBI over unlocking devices.CEO Tim Cook has championed strong encryption and Apple's efforts to protect customer data.
President of the United States , Donald Trump , has joined the chorus of administration figures calling on Apple to unlock the phone of a gunman accused of shooting three Navy personnel at a base in Florida last month. "We are helping Apple all of the time on TRADE and so many other issues, and
US President Donald Trump (r) and Apple CEO Tim Cook speak to the press during a tour of the Flextronics computer manufacturing facility where "We are helping Apple all of the time on TRADE and so many other issues, and yet they refuse to unlock phones used by killers, drug dealers and
Trump’s tweet is an escalation of a long-running public spat between Apple and the FBI over device security and data encryption.
In 2016, the FBI asked Apple to unlock an iPhone belonging to a shooter behind the San Bernardino terrorist attack. Apple refused, and CEO Cook said building a backdoor into the devices was the “software equivalent of cancer.”
(Adds detail on Trump-Cook relationship in third paragraph.)
To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Gurman in Los Angeles at firstname.lastname@example.org
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tom Giles at email@example.com, Alistair Barr
For more articles like this, please visit us at
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
United States: in Florida, Donald Trump surrounds himself with his evangelical supporters to maintain his popularity
Donald Trump launched Friday an evangelical coalition in support of his re-election in 2020 to rally evangelical Christians to his cause. However, this electorate is today very divided.
Donald Trump sets out to win back the evangelical Christians. The, candidate for a second term in 2020, goes on Friday, January 3, to a gigantic church in Miami (Florida), King Jesus International Ministry, also known as El Rey Jesus. Its objective: to maintain its strong popularity with its voters, by launching "the evangelical coalition for Trump", surrounded by 70 pastors and 15,000 to 20,000 faithful committed to its cause.
An electorate which had massively voted for Donald Trump in 2016 but which this year seems a little more divided. At the time, Evangelical Protestants voted over 80% overwhelmingly for him, but among these conservative Christians, the president's popularity rating dropped slightly. In the latest polls, it is now 70%.
The American president has also lost significant support. The Christianity Today magazine, created in the 1950s by the famous pastor Billy Graham, published a vitriolic editorial on December 19 stating: "Trump should be removed." "It’s a moral judgment more than a political one," magazine chief editor Gall Galli said on CBS. "Donald Trump's morality makes him not up to the presidential office. It is true that he gave us what we wanted, on abortion for example, but with this story impeachment is no longer in the balance, "he said.
From Christianity Today's editor in chief- Christianity Today (@CTmagazine)
Despite everything, Donald Trump offered many pawns to this community by installing Mike Pence at the vice-presidency, and two conservative judges at the Supreme Court. In the coming months, the current president will spare no effort to conserve this electorate, which represents about a quarter of the American population, or between 60 and 80 million people.
iPhone Hacking Firm Updates Tool in Midst of Apple-FBI Spat .
Digital forensics firm Cellebrite released a new tool that could be used to access data on the iPhones at the heart of the latest spat between Apple Inc. and the FBI. © Bloomberg A customer holds an Apple Inc. iPhone 11 Pro smartphone inside the Regent Street Apple store during a product launch event in London, U.K., on Friday, Sept. 20, 2019. Apple's new iPhones with camera enhancements and improved battery life go on sale today. The company pushed out an update to its UFED Physical Analyzer software that helps law enforcement agencies and other customers extract and analyze information on some iPhones.


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A new leak has revealed that Battlefield developer DICE is already working on a new futuristic game that will quickly evolve from 2021’s Battlefield 2042.
Battlefield 2042 was viewed as a major disappointment by both developer DICE and longtime fans of the franchise.
Publisher Electronic Arts itself even admitted that the game’s sales were “disappointing” and that the game “didn’t live up to expectations.”
Now, a new report reveals that EA and DICE are moving forward with another Battlefield title and are trying to learn from their past mistakes.
New report reveals the next Battlefield will be a ‘modern’ shooter
Tom Henderson, the reporter behind many leaks in the past, has revealed DICE’s plans for the future of the Battlefield franchise.
In the articledescribes EA’s desire to push the Battlefield franchise forward with an all-new game.
Henderson said DICE learned “valuable lessons” from the disastrous Battlefield 2042 release, and efforts are being made to reverse changes made in 2042 that divided the community.
Some of these changes could affect the 128 player feature as well as the introduction of Specialists, changes that may be scrapped starting with the next title.
One important detail emerged from the leak about the untitled next installment in the franchise: the game will be a “modern/near future” Attitude.
Although Battlefield 2042 is set to receive tons of post-launch content, including four new Specialists, a “large chunk” of the DICE staff has moved on to the next Battlefield game.
EA and DICE have publicly commented on the next game in the Battlefield franchise, but judging by this new information, it could release sooner than most expected.
https://www.dexerto.com/battlefield/dice-working-on-another-futuristic-battlefield-despite-bf-2042-troubles-1790885/ DICE is working on another futuristic battlefield despite BF 2042 issues


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Some Ryanair flights are due to resume in July but there's been no rush for seats.
The airline plans to operate 40% of its normal service from July 1st.
Almost 1,000 flights will take off but less frequent than usual.
But the Travel Agents Association says passengers aren't ready to hop on a plane.
They're hoping that'll start to pick up by the end of August at best.
CEO Pat Dawson says it's a case of wait and see;
"Confidence is definitely not back
"The worry is, there are many different restrictions in many, many different countries
"I know countries are looking at opening up corridors with one another
"That's in hand at the moment but we certainly haven't seen it from our customers
"We think that's a little while away still
We look forward to again welcoming overseas visitors to Ireland. Whether you’ll be returning home, visiting family & friends, coming back for a return trip, or fulfilling a lifetime dream. #WhenWeTravelAgain #FillYourHeartWithIreland pic.twitter.com/C6RGqxCYqx— Dublin Airport (@DublinAirport) May 13, 2020
"There's countries that are sort of matching up with one another
"It's like our health service - we're watching what other people are doing
"Towards the back end of the year there certainly will be travel but we're not forecasting anything huge", he told us.