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Thanks to crowdfunding, California’s Stone Brewing Co. raised $2.5 million in just six weeks this summer to sell some so-called “beer futures,” but the initial mixed reaction to the campaign caught co-founder Greg Koch off guard.
The campaign, which Koch has described as a “limited beer pre-sales event,” ran into some crowdfunding fatigue when the U.S.’s tenth largest craft brewer offered to sell advance orders for beers that will be brewed at the company’s new facility in Germany.
Though Stone Brewing’s campaign is the second-most successful effort on Indiegogo’s website, the company’s chief executive admits there were some challenges. Stone initially sold the campaign as an opportunity to buy special edition beers, while also sharing details about using the proceeds to speed up the timeline for Stone’s expansion plans in Germany and at a new location in Virginia.
“Some people were infuriated by that,” Koch told Fortune. “We found we hit quite a sensitive nerve. People were like, ‘You are coming to us for a handout, you are a profitable, successful company.'”
Koch was surprised by that reaction, as he thought transparency would be appreciated by Stone’s fans. But Stone Brewing reacted quickly, altering its message and sticking to a promise of selling quality beer. The negative online chattered faded away immediately.
The campaign’s story is the latest example that shows craft brewers haven’t perfected the crowdfunding formula, even as many turn to strangers on the Internet to raise funds for a new project.
There are 23 breweries actively raising money on Kickstarter today. The website claims the geographic range and diversity of those efforts indicate the crowdfunding site is filling a much-needed gap by providing a form of investment via its backers when banks and traditional investors are unwilling to step up to the plate. Over the course of its history, more than 800 beer-related projects have been launched on Kickstarter, with the success rate of those projects (which includes other campaigns like say, a beer-focused documentary), slightly exceeding the success rate of the overall site.
While some of those campaigns have been successful, backers aren’t always seeing beers hit bar taps and retail shelves. Kansas City-based Wilderness Brewing Co., for example, raised $41,000 from 372 backers in 2011, with plans to use the proceeds to buy equipment and obtain proper licensing to brew its beer. Fast forward more than three years and backers are still waiting to taste their first Wilderness Brewing beer. In a blog post published in August, the founders said they still haven’t nailed down a location to build a brewery—an update that infuriated backers.
Texas-based Brewery Incubator also ran into trouble. It raised more than $36,000 last year, hoping to create a brewery that would feature a facility that could be used for aspiring brewers. Though the incubator opened in late 2013, it was shuttered this summer after the new business faced eviction from its landlord. The landlord claimed rent had been paid late, though Brewery Incubator says the issue was displeasure about a “naked game night” hosted at the site.
The founders of Wilderness Brewing and Brewery Incubator didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Mike Brenner, the founder of Wisconsin-based Brenner Brewing Company, turned to Kickstarter for marketing purposes and to presell merchandise. Brenner, a passionate home brewer, had earned an MBA and went to brewing school in Chicago and Munich to put himself in the best position to start his business. He also raised $2.2 million in equity investments and bank loans.
But Brenner, who raised nearly $26,000 more than two years ago, is still hearing from people who backed the project and want to cash in. Brenner said he tried to stay communicative with his backers, but he’s still getting requests for t-shirts, pint glasses, at-home brewing sessions, and other promises.
“I’ve been dealing with people for all eternity,” Brenner said. “As far as the whole process goes, was it worth the money I got? Probably not.”
Still, Brenner concedes there were some advantages.
“At [the time of the campaign], I had the highest number of individual contributors for a brewery project, so I could go to investors and say ‘Look, no one has ever had as many committed people as I have,’ which obviously impressed investors,” Brenner said.
On a positive note, crowdfunding websites can give aspiring brewers an opportunity to think about the challenge of raising capital and if successful, can inspire the entrepreneurs to make their dream a reality, according to Indiegogo Chief Executive Slava Rubin.
“Communication and transparency is very important,” Rubin said. He advises regular updates, and also says entrepreneurs should keep in touch with backers after the campaign has ended because the relationship companies like Stone Brewing can build with a crowdfunding audience can pay future dividends.
“What people forget is when you are an entrepreneur, your job isn’t done, you still have a business to run,” Rubin said. “The Indiegogo campaign helps push it forward.”


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A Kelowna business has been honoured as “best for the world” for positive environmental impact.
GreenStep Solutions received the recognition Friday (Sep 9) from B the Change Media and the non-profit organization B Lab.
The Best for Environment list recognizes businesses in the top 10 per cent of more than 1,800 Certified B Corporations globally. They are assessed on impact on workers, community, customers and the environment.
The 143 winning companies come from 15 industries and 17 countries. Besides GreenStep, only nine other Canadian companies have achieved the status.
Companies were judged on environmental performance through their facilities, materials, emissions, and resource and energy use, including transportation/distribution channels and environmental impact of their supply chain.
The assessment also measures whether a company’s products or services are designed to solve an environmental issue, including products that aid in the provision of renewable energy, conserve resources, reduce waste, etc.
“GreenStep is so excited to be a part of this movement of companies around the world using business as a force for good … this recognition gives us confidence that we are on the right track,” said GreenStep CEO Angela Nagy.
GreenStep provides business consulting, certification and software. Its work includes organizing Bike to Work Week for the City of Kelowna, working with UBC Okanagan and Okanagan College on waste audits, more than 1,400 energy assessments for businesses across B.C. and more.
The awards were handed out at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas Business School.
You can read more of the news on source

domain: news


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The city state of Berlin has adopted the new Corona rules Chancellor Merkel and the First Ministers agreed on earlier this week. One change was made though.
Berlin, March 5th, 2021 (The Berlin Spectator) — Under certain conditions, retail businesses may reopen in Berlin next week. Customers may enter stores to shop, but only with appointments they acquire beforehand. This applies as long as the Seven Day Incidence Number in Berlin remains below 100, and above 50. At this stage, it is on the rise again. The Incidence for the entire city rose to 70.5. One of Berlin’s twelve districts, namely Neukölln, is above 100 for the first time in weeks, namely at 102.8.
Aquariums and Museums
Garden centers, flower shops and stores for baby products may open without giving out appointments. Book shops, which may reopen in all parts of Germany on Monday, have been open all along in Berlin. The city state wanted to give its residents the opportunity to read during a time in which literature might be the only kind of culture people could experience, since all theaters, concert halls and museums were closed.
Now, Berlin’s museums will reopen, the first ones on March 16th. The same, meaning the reopening part, applies to galleries and memorial sites. Many of them might open their doors from Sunday, since that is when Berlin’s new Corona regulations will kick in. In the rest of Germany, it is Monday. At both Berlin zoos, which have been open all along as well, the aquariums and other animal buildings will open for the first time in months.
What the Germans call “proximal services”, such as massages, will be possible again as well. But those who offer those services need to get tested for Corona at least once a week. Their customers need a negative Corona quick test performed the same day in order to enter the premises and be massaged. Prostitution, which is generally legal in Germany, in normal times, is not among the “proximal services” that are allowed again.
There are more businesses that may reopen, including driving, boating and flight schools. Furthermore, the contact restrictions were eased. Starting on Sunday, people may gather in groups of up to five from up to two households. So far, meetings with up to one person from one different household were allowed. Under the new rule, children up to 14 years of age do not have to be counted.
There is no ‘leash rule’ anymore. It was dumped. This regulation said that people could not leave an area with a radius of 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) around their homes while the Incidence Numbers were high. Kids may engage in outdoor sports activities in groups of up to 20 persons. This applies to children up to 12 years of age. In the rest of Germany, it is 14 instead of 12. This is where the Berlin Senate deviated from the mainstream. Berlin’s schools started reopening on March 22nd.
Just like in the entire country, the easing of restrictions and the creopening of businesses and cultural facilities is supposed to be retracted if and once the Incidence Number exceeds 100 again. This is the “emergency brake” the First Ministers agreed to during their Corona conference with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday.
The Berlin Senate also announced a new aid package for self-employed individuals and small companies, with a volume of half a billion Euro (0.6 billion U.S. Dollars or 0.43 billion Pounds Sterling). Another 36.5 million Euro (43.6 million Dollars or 31.4 million Pounds) will be made available for people working in the cultural field.
Governing Mayor Michael Müller said, Berlin was not out of the woods yet. He conceded that many people had reached the limit of what they could take emotionally, because of the long lockdown, and that many craft businesses in the German capital were fighting for their survival.
As the chairman of the German Conference of First Ministers, Müller co-headed the Corona conference on Wednesday, during which a complicated ‘step-by-step reopening plan’ was approved as well. Berlin, the federal state he is governing with his three-way center-left coalition, is the largest city in Germany, with almost 3.8 million inhabitants.
We have a request: Would you consider supporting The Berlin Spectator? By donating, you would enable us to create even more content, to develop and grow further. Because of your support, we will worry less. Our Donations Page can be found here.


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Digital TV News: Will Law
ATEME joins Akamai partner program
Oct 29, 2020 – ATEME has announced that it is joining the Media Technology Partner (MTP) program of Akamai. Being a partner demonstrates the integration and interoperability of ATEME’s video delivery solutions with Akamai’s media products.
News categories: ATEME, Akamai, Remi Beaudouin, Jon Alexander, Content Distribution, Digital TV, Worldwide
AWS releases key exchange API to streamline DRM integration
Mar 27, 2019 – AWS has announced its Secure Packager and Encoder Key Exchange (SPEKE), an open, extensible API specification developed to streamline integration of Digital Rights Management (DRM) with encoders, transcoders, and origin servers.
News categories: AWS Elemental, Michael Callahan, Will Law, Digital TV, OTT, Worldwide
Industry Players Unite to Promote MPEG-DASH Adaptive Streaming
Feb 22, 2012 – A group of technology leaders has announced the creation of the DASH Promoters Group, a new organization dedicated to driving the broad adoption of MPEG's DASH (dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP) standard, which was ratified in November 2011.
News categories: DASH Promoters Group, OTT
- VTR selects Media Distillery recording time correction technology
- Nilesat chooses ATEME video processing for two projects
- Facebook Watch TV app available for Vewd-enabled devices
- Western Europe to have 234 million SVOD subscriptions in 2026
- Kublai GmbH to complete takeover of Tele Columbus
- SITI Networks launches apps and Android TV STB with Nagra
- FreeWheel addressable technology unifies linear TV and digital video advertising
- Crackle app launches on Xfinity X1 and Xfinity Flex
- Research suggests CTV ads more effective than linear
- Mowies optimizes cloud streaming workflow with Harmonic
- Mola TV taps Viaccess-Orca to monetize EPL video streaming
- Streamhub enhances video audience analytics with Kantar data
- Eurofins announces NEXTGEN TV test suite for 2022 receivers
- Roku begins Roku OS 10 roll-out
- Roku Express 4K+ and Roku Voice Remote Pro launched in U.S.
- Fraunhofer and Sinclair working to bring Digital Radio Mondiale to ATSC 3.0
- Vodafone España adopts targeted content promotion from TiVo
- 3SS selected by FreeCast for SelectTV multiscreen UX
- LTN Global launches universal signaling for linear addressable TV advertising
- Worldwide semiconductor revenue grew 10.4% in 2020


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Cape Town in the news:
- Over-50’s cricket WC under scanner as India skipper cries foul: Cape Town, March 13 : The Over-50’s cricket World Cup is on in South Africa and in a surprising move, India captain Shailendra Singh has stepped down ahead of the clash against Pakistan citing …: “Cape Town” – BingNews
- What climate change can teach us about fighting the coronavirus: The Amazon burns so more soy and cattle can be produced. The dangers to human life, though, are already being felt. Climate change was linked to a crippling drought around Cape Town, South Africa, in …: “Cape Town” – BingNews
- Strutting the ramp in ‘masks’ as coronavirus meets fashion week: Models strutted the ramp with adhesive glittering rhinestones stuck around their mouths arranged in the shape of surgical face masks as the coronavirus pandemic took centre stage at a fashion week in …: “Cape Town” – BingNews
- Student plunges 17 floors to his death: A 21-year-old University of Cape Town student jumped 17 floors to his death at a Harare hotel on Wednesday after a misunderstanding with his parents. National police spokesperson Assistant …: “Cape Town” – BingNews
Click here to submit your Cape Town News – free.
Have you tried: Visiting Port Elizabeth?
Quick Cape Town Fact: Simon’s Town is home to a thriving colony of Africa’s only penguin species, the Jackass Penguin.


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“I’ve always been drawing, I can’t really remember when I started,” says Jaswant Flora, a recent graduate from The University of Northampton’s Surface Design and Printed Textiles course.
Having only left the university at the start of the summer Jaswant has already started to make her mark in the competitive world of fashion, with intricate hand-drawn illustrations and print designs.
And she has already worked with designers like Lauren McCallmont for clients such as Nicholas Kirkwood, ASOS and French Connection.
Her illustrations and print designs have also recently been part of a project, which includes commissions from some of “The Best of British Illustrators” to collaborate with menswear brand Brutus to illustrate directly onto their Trimfit shirts.
“The project saw us do one-off commissioned illustrations directly onto their infamous Trimfit shirts.
“The project was all about finding the best of young British illustrators and designers and bringing them together for this project, so it was a real honour to have my designs picked.
“The task was to epitomise the brand Brutus as well as myself as an illustrator,” said the 21-year-old, who is soon to host her first solo exhibition.
“The shirts are not for sale, but the shirts will become part of their archive for the rest of time.”
Breaking into the fashion industry can be notoriously difficult, but Jaswant has already started gaining experience with some big names in the business.
“It is an industry that can be difficult to get into and I’m working freelance at the moment but I have done some internships like the one with Lauren McCallmont and that’s good way to make contacts and gain experience.”
But although Jaswant’s designs have made their way into the world of high fashion, they are anything but superficial, and the young designer hopes her imprint on style will also provide some food for thought.
“Although I’m interested in the fashion side of things, I am also interested in style making a difference, and I have tried to develop that idea,” she said.
“I often look at pockets of society and the way the media portrays things, like women’s bodies, and I comment on that within my work.
“I have a lot of hidden message in my drawings, that people can only see if they look closely.”
Jaswant’s first solo exhibition can be seen at HE-Art exhibition, on Wednesday, September 26 at The Exchange, 50 Rutland Street, Leicester. Tickets cost £5.
To see more of Jaswant’s work visit: http://jaswantflora.tumblr.com or find her on Twitter jaswant_flora.


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Gov't will act to keep prices in check: premier
The China Post news staff Sunday, April 8, 2012, 12:00 am TWN
Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) said yesterday that while some commodity prices are being increased to reflect higher costs, the government will take measures to prevent the prices from rising too much.
Chen made the remarks during a meeting with representatives of machinery and bicycle makers in central Taiwan when responding to the fact that even suppliers of lunchboxes to students are planning to raise their sales prices in the wake of a recent oil price hike.
The premier said that the prices of some commodities are raised to reflect increased costs. For instance, as international soybean prices shot up 58 percent year-on-year in 2011, prices of soybean-related products can hardly be expected to remain unchanged.
The situation was also the same with wheat-related products. Last year, international wheat prices surged by 35-40 percent, so suppliers of flour-based products have had no other choice but to raise their sales prices to offset increased costs, according to Chen.
He went on to say that domestic prices of many commodities have been increased by smaller increments than the price hikes of international raw materials as a result of the government having worked hard to stabilize domestic commodity prices.
The premier stressed that if measures are not taken at the moment, many negative effects will emerge in the future.
Meanwhile, Vice Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) said yesterday that the prices of daily necessities are expected to be raised in the next quarter as the government will closely monitor the fluctuations of domestic commodity prices to prevent abnormal price rises.
Jiang stressed that if suppliers or dealers are found to have collectively jacked up their sales prices or if unusually sharp price rises are detected, the government will bring them to justice.
The Cabinet's commodity price stabilization panel will step up random checks on the sales prices of various daily necessities to curb unreasonable price hikes, according to Jiang.
In order to stabilize domestic commodity prices, the government has moved to subsidize buses serving disadvantaged people, subsidize oil purchases by farmers and fishermen, and increase oil price reductions for mass transportation companies and taxi drivers, as well as reduce half of the fuel fee for the freight and passenger transport industries.
In addition, the Ministry of Finance has temporarily reduced the tariffs on imports of infant milk powder, butter, cornstarch, soybean flour, and full-flat and skimmed milk powder until the end of May. Furthermore, the business tax for imported corn will be exempted for six months.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs will ask state-run enterprises to freeze price hikes on salad oil and sugar products.
Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) estimated that annual growth of the domestic consumer price index (CPI) can be kept at under 2 percent this year despite the inflation pressure on commodity prices.
In the first three months of the year, the average annual growth of the CPI reached only 1.26 percent, with the growth mainly caused by the relatively higher prices of vegetable products during the three-month period.
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Some growers in Lanier County are creating a new industry, olive oil.
They had their first olive harvest in October. It was the first time since the 1800's that olives were commercially harvested on the east coast. Back then, Spanish settlers harvested table olives.
The Shaw family is using their olives for olive oil. The growers say A lot of restaurants that focus on using locally produced foods are interested in Georgia Olive oil but to produce more olive oil they need more farmers to catch on.
Jason Shaw went to Italy on a study abroad trip in 1996 and came back a changed man, never able to get olive oil off his mind. "It just sparked a curiosity in me that just made me think why can't we do this here?" he said.
So he, his brother Sam Shaw, and his cousin Kevin Shaw researched the crop making visits out west learning as much as they could about the crop. The three planted the first olives in 2008.
"When we started seeing the success they were having in California we were able to look at what they were doing and decided to take a shot at it," said Jason Shaw.
In October the olive growers had their first harvest, the first commercial harvest on the east coast since the 1800s. Tons of olives were shipped to Texas and processed into olive oil.
"It's the epitome of freshness," said Kevin Shaw.
"We've proven we can grow the olives. now we just need enough farmers to plant where we can get some oil," said Sam Shaw.
The buzz is building. These educators toured the farm to learn more, and a lot of farmers at the Sunbelt Ag Expo showed interest. Shaw says more farmers need to plant olive trees to justify building a processing facility for olive oil in South Georgia that would create jobs. Sam Shaw calls north Florida and South Georgia the olive belt.
"We've got probably 70 acres going in next year in North Florida and probably 60 more acres in Georgia so far so we're just encouraging farmers to look into and there's no other market in the world this large," said Sam Shaw.
Besides growing Georgia olives, Jason is a state representative and owner of an insurance company. Sam is a banker and spends lots of time in the olive tree nursery.
"It's my stress release from the down economy and the banking industry," Sam said.
He ships trees to farmers and even folks who want to have an olive tree in their yard. The olive tree is fast growing. A tree this size could reach six feet in just one year.
"Olives just grow so good in our soil," Sam said.
And Jason Shaw says his brother keeps Georgia Olive Farms in good shape and he's banking on his cousin Kevin's green thumb. "He's won all kinds of production awards in cotton and peanuts and I'm banking on his doing the same with the olives".
We caught up with Kevin Shaw as he harvested peanuts. "My wife and I do a little grits business and we've met some chefs through that deal and that's been pretty helpful in getting the word out."
they've bottled up some oil and they've been hitting the road to talk to chefs in cities across the southeast who focus on using locally produced foods.
"It's such a healthy alternative to other oils I think the future bodes well for olive production in the southeast," Kevin Shaw said.
And the return of olives to Georgia has created a new industry of fresh Georgia olive oil.
The olive growers say a restaurant called Husk is already cooking with their Georgia olive oil.
The Shaw's joined George Hughes and Berrien Sutton of Homerville, to form Georgia Olive Farms in 2009 as a cooperative association to develop the olive industry in Georgia and surrounding states.


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Rockstar's eagerly awaited Grand Theft Auto V has slipped from its expected spring release to a confirmed date of September 17, 2013.
GTA V was confirmed as a spring release in October last year, but a statement issued by Rockstar has indicated that the game needs more time in development. This also happened to its predecessor, Grand Theft Auto IV, which was launched in April 2008 after a delay of more than six months.
"Grand Theft Auto V continues to push the series forward in new ways; Rockstar North are creating our deepest, most beautiful and most immersive world yet," said Rockstar founder Sam Houser. "We are very excited for people to learn more about the game in the coming months."
The delay of Grand Theft Auto IV seemed to work out well for Rockstar. Strong sales of the game led to many of the company's subsequent releases launching in the same April/May window, including Red Dead Redemption in 2010, L.A. Noire in 2011 and Max Payne 3 in 2012.
UPDATE: Investors were clearly unhappy with the game's delay. During mid-day trading, Take-Two stocks were down more than 7 percent, off $.94 to $12.12.


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Downtown merchants will try to steal some of the national retailers' coming Black Friday thunder with a shopping fiesta Saturday, featuring Santa, musicians and roving food trucks.
"It's difficult for local retailers to compete with Black Friday deals, so we have to be creative and come up with different promotions," said Chris Hernandez, who operates his family-owned Krystal Jeans at 615 S. El Paso St.
That's why the Downtown Management District and the Central Business Association came up with the first Downtown Holiday Shop Fiesta, which will be centered on South El Paso Street from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.
Downtown merchants can't match the large national retailers' giant holiday advertising budgets, said Veronica Soto, executive director of the Downtown Management District. So the decision was made to do a pre-Black Friday event to entice El Pasoans to Downtown's 300 stores and restaurants before the Black Friday blitz begins, she said.
This year, many national retailers are beginning their Black Friday blockbusters on Thanksgiving night.
"It will be a street festival-like atmosphere and a holiday atmosphere as well," Soto said.
A choir singing Christmas carols, mariachis, a trio and a samba group will stroll El Paso Street and other areas, and a host of food trucks will be stationed along El Paso and Oregon streets. Artists will paint a holiday mural on the side of Krystal Jeans' building from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Stores are being encouraged to put up Christmas decorations and offer discounts.
Hernandez at Krystal Jeans said Downtown is different from the malls because most Downtown stores offer low prices every day, not just on special days. Even so, he and other merchants will be reducing some prices Saturday, he said.
Dennis Melonas, executive director of the Central Business Association, said about 18,000 people shop Downtown each week. Many shoppers come from Juárez, and the hope is to attract El Pasoans who usually don't go Downtown to shop, he said.
Santa Claus, relegated to El Paso's malls most Christmas shopping seasons, will be Downtown on Saturday at Starr Western Wear, 122 E. Overland, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Parents will be able to snap free photos of their kids with Santa instead of paying for the photos as is the case at the malls, said Edie Zuvanich, Starr Western Wear's marketing director.
"A local business can't really compete with a national retailer spending millions on advertising, but we have a lot of different things" not found at mall stores, Zuvanich said. Downtown has a local cultural flavor not found at the malls, she said.
"This is the first time we've had a (Christmas) shopping event Downtown," Zuvanich said. Arts events, the Christmas tree lighting and a posada are held Downtown, but those events are not centered on getting people to shop, she said.
Vic Kolenc may be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org; 546-6421. More information: http://downtownelpaso.com/dwntwn-inside; facebook.com/DWNTWNELPASO


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Google Play Pass Fuels Interest In Play Pass. Many game publishers have launched their own subscription-based gaming services. Google could not resist this temptation by announcing the Play Pass.
Talk about such a subscription appeared a year ago , but at last Google announced that the service would soon be launched. True, in a short announcement published on Twitter, there is no indication of the exact date of this event. The Google Play Pass is expected to be a direct competitor to the Apple Arcade mobile gaming service new technologies.
According to rumors, new users will receive a ten-day free period of using the service for testing. And then you have to pay $ 5 every month. For this money, a person will get access to many games and applications – from puzzles to premium music applications. It is reported that subscribers will be able to play and use the programs without ads, installation fees, and without internal purchases. Surely more details about the service developers will report in the coming days.


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CES 2012 Reflections: New Displays Hint at a Future, Hunger for a Business Model
It wasn’t too long ago that the hot acronym at the Consumer Electronics Show, held each January in Las Vegas, was HDTV. But this year, HDTV gave away to two new ones: OLED and CLED, with LG Electronics and Samsung introducing sets for the former and Sony for the latter. Yes, the technologies are related to HDTV, but they truly represent the next-generation home and professional viewing experience.
Both technologies, OLED (organic LED) and CLED (crystal LED), offer significant advantages over current LCD and plasma technologies: more-accurate colors, much improved dark levels, resolutions that move beyond 1080p. Of course, those improvements come at prices that are unknown but will no doubt cause potential buyers to blink twice (or maybe four or five times).
Briefly, here are some of the potential applications of the technology in the home:
- 2D viewing of images with four times the resolution of HD
- Full-resolution HD 3D viewing with passive glasses
- Glasses-free 3D viewing with much improved resolution and viewing angles
- The capability for “dual HD view,” which requires active 3D glasses but allows two viewers to watch two programs on the same TV at the same time (ear buds in the glasses transmit the correct audio signal).
Needless to say, when the doors closed on 2012 CES, the buzz among industry production professionals centered squarely on the new display technologies. But, as impressive as the capabilities are, there is a fundamental problem: with broadcasters unable to broadcast beyond 720p and 1080i and cable and satellite distributors unable to deliver even 1080p/60 signals, there is currently no way to deliver content that utilizes the capabilities of the TV sets. In many ways, they are out of touch with current market demands, pressures, and technology roadmaps.
Is the introduction of these technologies meant to lead to a viable consumer product within four or five years? And, with most American households having bought a new HD set within the past three years, what exactly will be the incentive to buy a new set with enhanced resolution, especially when most consumers today seem to be telling the marketplace that “good-enough” picture quality is just fine?
The introduction of next-generation sets points to next-generation problems facing the entire TV industry. The current business model, with Nielsen ratings, is working fine (especially for live sports). But there are plenty of signs that things may change drastically when it comes to watching TV in the next two or three years.
In the Beginning…
The combination of Smart TVs and Internet-enabled devices that can connect to a TV set will fundamentally change more than just how consumers get their content. It will completely change the value proposition of that content, the value of the pipes that deliver TV-specific signals, and the competition for viewer eyeballs.
Let’s start with the first issue: the value of content. As consumers begin to access free video services like YouTube and Vimeo on their TV sets and subscribe to streaming services like Netflix or Hulu, the value of content to consumers will fall. And we are already seeing content owners take action to maximize the value of their content. HBO, for example, last week became the latest content creator to tell Netflix “no go” on making HBO content available via rental or streaming. Expect others to follow.
But the ability for consumers to instantly access thousands upon thousands of hours of content without tuning into a TV network means that consumers will never be at a loss for an entertainment option. And, while plenty of viewers will gravitate toward hit programs, others will simply make do with whatever is available (or will have an opportunity to watch classic movies or TV programs not available via traditional TV viewing). The upshot is, as more and more content is instantly available to fill a viewer’s free time, the competition, especially for scripted programming, will become more intense when it comes to finding an audience.
Will Quality Be King?
So, if consumers are inundated with content through a combination of connected devices, downloadable films and TV shows, and hundreds of cable channels, the next question is what exactly is the value proposition of a cable or satellite subscription package?
There was a time when cable operators could increase the value of their services by offering more channels of more content. But will more channels be a selling point for a generation of viewers raised on YouTube, Netflix streaming, and other services that provide plenty of content for a tenth of the price? The answer, emphatically, is no.
The cable/satellite value proposition could potentially flip on its head, away from offering more and more channels to offering higher-quality services, services like 3D or 4K. And the proof of that can be found by simply observing the behavior of today’s HD viewers. Once viewers discover the HD tier, they tend to spend the vast majority of their time within it. The large number of non-HD channels are wasted bandwidth: rarely visited (especially with most networks now in HD) and nearly always redundant.
But, today, that HD tier is finding competition from streaming services making the move to HD (Apple is still rumored to be making the leap to 1080p). A flip of the input button, and the viewer is once again finding a wealth of HD content and bypassing traditional TV services.
So how will cable and satellite operators be able to keep subscribers? The most obvious way would be to couple the broadband/TV services in such a way that the decision to cut the cord on the TV service results in a large financial penalty on subscribing to the data side. Make it more expensive to not have the TV service than to have it, and consumers will keep it.
But another way would be to embrace the OLED revolution (and even the current 1080p/3D revolution) and create next-generation TV services that expand the available bandwidth to content creators and ensure that the viewer has the highest-quality experience possible.
That service would be a winner on two fronts. First, in about three more years, there will be approximately 30 million-40 million 3D and 1080p-capable sets in the market, based on current sales rates and the fact that most sets will have built-in 3D capabilities. The question at that point will be, how can networks and distribution providers get consumers to activate that 3D and 1080p functionality? Having access to a signal that offers twice the bandwidth of current HD signals would go a long way toward making that happen.
Current 3D viewers have to make a choice: watch it in 2D with full resolution or 3D with half resolution. That is a decision that has to end sooner rather than later if 3D is ever to stand a chance.
Opening up the delivery channels will also be a requirement if the new OLED and CLED sets are to become a market force. With the pipes in place to deliver the content, there is the potential to follow a similar model to that used in the early days of HD: offering pay tiers with a few channels and then slowly expanding the number of channels as content creation in 4K and 3D becomes more mainstream.
As with HD, much of the early content will consist of movies converted from 1080p to 4K. But it will also provide more incentive for TV networks and sports leagues to embrace more-immersive technology.
The good news for sports networks and leagues is that the current HD workflows will continue to attract audiences. And making the not-so-simple transition to 1080p services could be enough of a step to keep fans happy.
But, given the important role that sports plays in getting consumers to purchase new TV sets, the sponsorship of 3D and “beyond-HD” broadcasts of sports events should be something all TV-set manufacturers should continue to embrace.
A New Model
At the end of the day, there needs to be a business case for making the move to next-generation content creation and delivery. Unlike with the HD transition, there is no government mandate that required a move to DTV signals, spurring on the desire to use those digital signals for HD services. So this entire movement will need to be consumer-driven.
CES 2012 laid out the potential for the future of TV services. The question for the manufacturers of the sets is, will they do what it takes to persuade customers in an age of “good enough” to take the next step? The answer will be in their need to survive in an age when the next generation of TV viewers feel more affinity for YouTube and Netflix than the TV services that have defined our culture for decades.


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On Friday 25th June, Member of Parliament for Burton-on-Trent and Uttoxeter, Kate Griffiths, visited representatives of the National Brewery Heritage Trust (NBHT) at the National Brewery Centre (NBC) in Burton.
Meeting with Harry White, Chairman of the NBHT, and fellow trustees, Wendy Toon and Terry Critchley, Kate heard
about the Trust’s important work in caring for a treasure trove of artefacts and documents at the NBC, which tells the story of more than 250 years of brewing in Britain.
A highlight of the event was a demonstration of the online archive, launched in July 2020. The website is part of an ongoing project to catalogue and digitise the half a million items cared for by the NBHT at the NBC. The archival and museum collections encompass all aspects of brewing, from grain to glass, including agriculture, transport and advertising, as well as sport and entertainment.
During the visit, Kate viewed a selection of manuscripts and inspected some of the historic vehicles, including a barley wagon which has been restored by the Trust’s volunteers. She also visited the stables where she met horseman, Barry Coffen, and Jed, one of the shire horses. Chairman of the NBHT, Harry White, presented Kate with a limited edition bottle of ‘Archive Ale’, produced to celebrate the launch of the online catalogue, and a selection of coasters based on beer mats from the collection.
The NBC reopened to the public on Wednesday 19 May after a prolonged closure due to restrictions surrounding Covid-19. In the last year, Kate helped Planning Solutions Ltd., the company responsible for managing the NBC, to secure grant funding from East Staffordshire Borough Council. This has helped sustain the popular tourist attraction through a challenging few months.
Speaking after the visit, Kate Griffiths MP said: “It was wonderful to meet Harry and the trustees of the NBHT. The Trust plays an essential role in documenting the history of British brewing, and Burton as its capital.”
“I was pleased to be able to help Planning Solutions Ltd, who manage the National Brewery Centre, to secure a financial grant during the period of lockdown restrictions, and will continue to do all I can to support the long-term future of the Centre and of the Trust.
Harry White, Chair of the National Brewing Heritage Trust, added: “It was great that we were able to show Kate the online archive launched last summer, which ensured continued access to our amazing collection of brewing and pub heritage throughout the temporary closure of the Visitor Centre.”
“We continue to look for new volunteers to help with the conservation and upkeep of our collection, as well as to develop the online archive by cataloguing items. We would encourage anyone interested to get in touch via our website.”
Mike Stickland of Planning Solutions Ltd. commented: “This has been a difficult time, but we are now welcoming back visitors to the National Brewery Centre, and encourage people to come to our events and view the unique collection of 500,000 artefacts and documents related to British brewing that is cared for here by the National Brewery Heritage Trust.”


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Jann and Ashlee Purcell from Bohemia Gallery are thrilled to have been voted as one of Vancouver’s best consignment/vintage stores in the Vancouver Courier’s Stars of Vancouver Reader’s Choice Awards. They appreciate everyone who took the time to vote, as this distinction makes them both very proud. Because of this, and in being keenly aware of what is going on in our city, they want to give back to their community.
In reading through the papers recently, they felt inspired by what others were doing to help with the ever increasing number of people who are finding themselves homeless. With the Olympics just around the corner, all eyes are on Vancouver and they feel that they are in a terrific position to make a difference. They want the world to know that store owners like them are doing their part to help raise awareness, and money, to deal with this very serious issue.
With thousands of tourists visiting our city during the Olympics they plan to donate 5% from every purchase towards ending homelessness in Vancouver. Help them make a difference by visiting their store and feel good knowing that with each purchase made, you will be helping our city find a solution for homelessness. This campaign will start on February 12th and run all the way through to the end of the Paralympics on March 21st.


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Hearst Corporation announced today that it will acquire UGO Networks, Inc., a leading online entertainment company, for an estimated $150 million. For Hearst, this will be the win of one of the most popular men’s lifestyle brands on the web.
With over 28 million uniques worldwide, UGO is one of the few sites that survived the dotcom crash — recently celebrating its 10th year online. That’s 10 years of publishing their angle on every game system, movie, music artist, and all thats new in the world of comics.
Those of us in our twenties were in high school playing the Nintendo 64. Hardly Web 2.0, but a very solid Web 1.0 that has proven itself a big enough powerhouse that the Hearst Corporation (owners of Popular Mechanics, Sling, among others) decided they needed their expertise.
Other terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Read the official press release here.


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Many retailers have already begun to take pre-orders for the Xbox One Day One edition. Amazon sold out of their stock of Day One consoles pretty quick. Just the other day we told you that Best Buy had also sold out of that particular version of the console.
Well, now a pre-order listing has confirmed that the $499 console can be pre-ordered once again and it will come with a similar limited edition controller which features the “Day One 2013″ label.
There’s also a code for a Day One Xbox Live achievement, just for bragging rights. So as of right now, it looks like Best Buy, Target and Walmart are still taking pre-orders for the Xbox One Day One edition in the US.


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Historically, the production, packaging, sales and marketing departments in the baking industry tended to operate on different wavelengths — some may argue that’s an understatement — due to the nature of their jobs and objectives for strategically growing businesses. However, the once vast abyss between the specialized groups has narrowed considerably as cross-functional teams collaborate to streamline new product development, increase speed-to-market and improve customer service.
In many ways, investing in packaging equipment has become interrelated with customer service among some grain-based manufacturers such as Clif Bar, according to Rich Berger, vice-president of engineering for the Emeryville, CA-based company. Mr. Berger is among a select panel of experts who participated in Baking & Snack’s exclusive Equipment Trends survey and provided qualitative analysis for a special report to be published in the February issue of the magazine.
Overall, according to members of the panel, packaging lines today need to be versatile enough to handle everything from a 12-piece carton for retail to a 50-pack for mass merchandisers and other channels. Sales and marketing, in many ways, have become integral in the decision-making process in the purchase of packaging equipment.
“When we’re designing or engineering process and packaging equipment, we think, ‘Where could the market and consumer preferences go? How can we enhance the design of our equipment and facility to be agile enough to accommodate those trends?’ ” Mr. Berger observed.
“You can’t build a line to be everything for everyone and every product, but we have a great group of marketing and sales people who give us insights and direct us with consumer preferences,” he said. “We try to design and deploy assets to support our business now and in the future.”
To establish the environment for equipment investment, Baking & Snack’s survey drew a baseline for current spending trends. According to the survey, 64% of executives reported an increase or significant hike in equipment purchasing in 2015 compared with 2014 while 30% kept investment the same and only 6% decreased it. The survey was conducted by Cypress Research Associates, Kansas City, MO, late last year.
Looking ahead to this year, more than half (52%) of respondents plan to heighten their equipment spending — yet again — in 2016 compared with 2015 while 37% will keep it the same, and 11% expect to reduce their budgets. Moreover, in 2017, 39% said their companies project they will bolster equipment spending again — the third consecutive time for several companies — while more than half (53%) plan to maintain 2017 spending with 2016 budget levels. Only 8% plan to decrease it in 2017.
When it comes to the packaging department, companies such as Mission Foods have turned to other industries, such as meat, poultry and dairy producers, to discover advances in hygienic practices and help ratchet them up within its operations, noted German Chavez, vice-president of manufacturing for the Irvine, TX, multi-plant tortilla manufacturer. “How do we make our plants cleaner than anyone else’s? How can we use the least amount of preservatives and maintain a good shelf life?” he asked. Those are questions with which the company constantly challenges itself as a part of its continuous improvement process.
When asked to check all types of packaging equipment companies expect to buy in the next year, 44% said they were targeting metal detectors, 32% checkweighers, 32% wrappers, 31% robotic automation, 30% horizontal baggers, 27% labeling equipment and 25% casepacking systems.
Moreover, between 15% and 20% of respondents cited palletizers, online vision systems, form/fill/seal vertical baggers, cartoners and closing equipment. Only 5% indicated they had no plans to purchase packaging equipment during the next two years.After examining the data, Marjorie Hellmer, president of Cypress Research, noted that one of the most significant statistical trends may be an unexpected one. It involves the small percent that plan to decrease spending over the next 24 months. To Ms. Hellmer, the absence of negative sentiment throughout


text: From 15 to 19 January 2021 Mliano will host the men’s fashion week dedicated to the A / W 2021-22 collections. The event includes 5 physical fashion shows and 32 digital contents that will be available on the online platform of the National Chamber of Italian Fashion. There are 37 brands on the calendar, 7 of which will be present for the first time, including the winner of Who’s next 2020 Dima Leu. Ermenegildo Zegna will open the fashion week while the physical shows will be set up by Dolce & Gabbana, Etro, Fendi, Kway and Solid Homme, and for the last two brands it will be their debut on the catwalk in Milan. Also present for the first time are Vaderetro, Dalpaos, Dhruv Kapoor and Tokyo James. Mfw appointments will be amplified all over the world thanks to international partners such as Kommersant Publishing House for Russia, Tencent Video for mainland China and The Asahi Shimbun for Japan. While, the Italian Ooh streaming partner Urban Vision will broadcast them in Milan through a large screen positioned in a strategic point of the city.


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Ad Firm Interpublic Avails Retailers to New Technology-Enabled Shopping Possibilities
Interpublic's interest in pushing these concepts is, of course, an effort to assist its customers in connecting to their own customers in an effort to drive consumption in an era in which consumer spending is less than robust. U.S. retail sales rose just 0.1 percent between June and July, according to MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse. If you don't include spending on vehicles, sales fell 0.9 percent, according to the firm. This follows a 0.5 percent decrease from May to June and a 2.1 percent drop from April to May.
Kelley Blue Book Now Social Network-Friendly
Seller's Toolkit is a sales method using online technologies to help consumers sell their vehicles on high-traffic websites, social networks, via e-mail or even a personal blog. To access the Seller's Toolkit, users can visit any Private Party Pricing Report on kbb.com.
SingTel Intros Three Mobile Applications
Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) has introduced three mobile applications tailored for consumers on the go -- Go! Shopping, Property Buddy and Price Pal.
Neustar's Diane Strahan on the Impact of Mobile Barcodes
For barcodes to achieve mass adoption, consumers need to be confident that when they click on a code it will work, and brands need to feel confident that the code will take the consumer to the URL that is intended by the brand owner.
NeoMedia CEO Iain McCready's comments on how the mobile barcode industry is ready for take-off


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King Maha Vajiralongkorn, or King Rama X, ascended to the throne in December 2016. Now he’s finally taking his place on Thailand’s currency.
According to a press release dated 8 March 2018, the Bank of Thailand plans to introduce the 17th series of notes. The fronts feature the new king, Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun, and the backs features two kings in order of reign, along with images of memorable royal duties. The new version of three lower denominations 20 Baht, 50 Baht and 100 Baht will be introduced on 6 April 2018, a holiday that commemorates the establishment of Thailand’s current Chakri Dynasty. The THB500 and THB1,000 bills will be released on July 28, the birthday of King Maha Vajiralongkorn.
The banknotes mark another step in the transition of King Maha Vajiralongkorn, 65, who took the throne in December 2016 and has increasingly asserted his power but has yet to set a date for his coronation.
Do you know what will happen with the previous style notes?
Will they still be used or will they be phased out?
Will they no longer be good at some point?
You can use the previous style notes as usual. At some point the old style notes will become rare items and some people may want to collect them and buy them for higher value. 🙂


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The final Nokia World event at Abu Dhabi was an eventful one for Windows Phone fans as Nokia finally introduced a phablet. Nokia Lumia 1520 will be known as the first Windows Phone phablet, the first Windows Phone 8 smartphone to feature a quad-core processor and the first Windows Phone device to come with a 1080p display. We bring you the hands-on comparison between Nokia’s first phablet and Sony’s first phablet- Xperia Z Ultra. Both the devices share some similarities despite being on completely different planets.
You can find our quick hands-on comparison video between the Lumia 1520 and Xperia Z Ultra right below.


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Home Tags Wii U
Tag: Wii U
Nintendo is giving the Wii U the axe
Looks like Nintendo has finally decided to cease production of the Wii U system, to make way for the release of the Nintendo Switch. If...
Link shows off magic arrows in new gameplay video
While magic arrows aren't anything new to the Legend of Zelda franchise, the ones Link is firing off in this new gameplay video look...
Super Mario Mashup invades Minecraft: Wii U edition
Blocks are about to collide as the upcoming Super Mario mashup makes an official leap into the world of Minecraft: Wii U Edition.While fans have long made...
Star Fox debuts first ever animated short
Nintendo announced that the animated short, Star Fox: The Battle Begins will be streamed live this Wednesday, ahead of the debut of the latest installment...
Cloud joins the fray in Super Smash Bros
Our favourite moody, spiky haired warrior from Final Fantasy 7 is joining the cast of Super Smash Bros, limit breaks and all! Most well known...
Star Fox Zero release delayed to next year
Star Fox Zero is getting delayed to Q1 next year so the devs can make the game even better
Squid Girl crosses over to Splatoon in the US
Nintendo of America has confirmed they will release Squid Girl costumes and crossover items to the U.S version of Splatoon Wii U game as...
Satoru Iwata has passed away
Nintendo's legendary Satoru Iwata that has become a quasi-cult hero has passed away
Is ZombiU shambling over to the PS4 and Xbox One?
The famous Nintendo Wii U zombie survival horror game is coming to PS4 and Xbox One
LEGO Dimensions trailer at E3 2015 looks awesome
Everything is AWESOME!
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Mindshare South Asia has restructured its upper tier in a bid to aid its collaborative efforts with other parts of the company.
The GroupM agency announced that Amin Lakhani of team Fulcrum will take on the role of president, client leadership of Mindshare India where he will be responsible with managing client relationships while attracting more brands aboard. He has been in the company for 14 years.
Anita Kotwani of Mindshare West has been promoted to senior vice president of new business. Additionally, Premjeet Sodhi will join Mindshare South Asia as senior vice president of Mindshare Fulcrum, South Asia. He manages clients such as Amazon, Reckitt, Gionee, Kraft Heinz, Infoedge and Bajaj Auto.
Prasanth Kumar, chief executive of Mindshare South Asia, said: “As we enter 2018, we are accelerating ‘transformation’ which is true to our DNA. We are clear on our strategic priorities, strengthening our connections with a growing universe of clients, consumers, brands and partners in the marketing ecosystem.
“To be able to do so, we now have the leadership and structure within our organization to continue our path to greater success, and our renewed focus on creating a disruptive Mindshare with speed, provocation, teamwork.”


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Gemvara / Boston Herald
The Boston Herald‘s Business Editor, Frank Quaratiello, held an in-person interview with Gemvara.com founder Matt Lauzon to discuss Matt’s hobby, fly-fishing, and watch Matt demo his skills. The full-page article ran in Frank’s recurring Business column called “Frank Talks,” which profiles local-area company leaders and their unique passions/hobbies. Video footage of Matt fishing also ran on bostonherald.com that same day!
Posted By: marlo marketing


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Tesco’s clothing arm F&F is a “strong standalone business” according to its brand and marketing director Chris Other.
Ahead of Tesco’s preliminary results announcement on April 22, in which the struggling supermarket reported a £6.4bn deficit, Other told Drapers: “F&F is still a big part of Tesco, but it’s a strong standalone business. It’s also growing internationally through franchise stores.”
Other said standalone F&F shops in the UK were not yet on the cards, but it is an “aspiration” for the business.
F&F has worked on improving the fashionability of its product over the last number of seasons in order to compete with the high street.
Other said: “It’s an evolution for F&F. We relaunched a few years ago and we want to be an affordable fashion brand, but you need that fashion credibility. It’s very important for us. We want our buying team to lead the way and deliver strong products.”
F&F chief executive Richard Collins said the business had added more detailed pieces, embellishment and real leather for autumn 15.
“We have worked on developing detail and bringing that wow factor to the ranges. We have better fashion credentials and more detail on product - it has been a conscious journey for us.”
He added: “We were criticised five years ago that the silhouette of our products were not right. Our buyers have worked hard to improve our fashionability. We want to be a leading retailer for affordable, competitive and fashionable product; that blend isn’t 100% yet but we’re making progress. On womenswear especially the product has become more exciting.”
Former BHS managing director Richard Price will join F&F this summer as chief executive. It is not known if Collins will take up another role in the business.


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PayTM has had a a dream run after the demonetization declaration by the government. It has been the front runner among all mobile wallet companies were the uncontested leaders when it came to promotions during the cash-crunch.
In this overdrive of ptomotions, Paytm has positioned itself as a supporter of the government’s decision and they have even used the photograph of the Indian Prime Minister Mr. Naredra Modi opening themselves up to some amount of criticism. One of the points of criticism is that their investors are Chinese. Alibaba Group and its affiliate Ant Financials invested $680 million into Paytm’s parent One97 Communications last year. Which means they now own over 40%of the Indian company.
There are also some reports that the Chinese giant is looking to raise it’s holding in Paytm to 70%.
Vijay Shekhar, the founder of Paytm has been quick to defend his company.
We are as Indian as Maruti is…we are ‘India story’ in every sense whatsoever.
– Vijay Shekhar, Paytm
Maruti, widely loved as an Indian brand that was once controlled by the Indian government is now majority owned by Japanese car manufacturing company Suzuki Motor Corp with a 56.21 per cent stake as its sole promoter.The change in ownership however did not change the image of the brand as an “Indian” brand. Maruti continues to be the leading car seller in the country.
What matters to us is our customers, what matters to us is the law of land, regulator, said Sharma.
If you like this post, please hit the like button and leave a comment.
#Paytm #Demonetization #Demonetisation #Government #GovernmentOfIndia. #NarendraModi #Maruti #Alibaba


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Marathi actor Adinath Kothare along with his father actor-director Mahesh Kothare is getting into television production soon
Samsung has launched curved ultra high definition (UHD) TV, and a range of products including tablets at the ongoing CES 2014 show.
For 28-year-old Hyderabad boy Mohammed Irfan, being a Bollywood playback singer was always his career of choice. He may have come to the fore through reality shows, but it was actually goodwill that got him his debut track (Behene De in AR Rahman’s Raavan) albeit as an additional vocalist.
The rewards finally flowed for paceman James Anderson as England savoured one of the rare good days on their ill-fated Australian tour in Melbourne on Friday.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is hoping for the security situation in the country to improve over the next 10 months, as it is reluctant to host three successive "home" series against Australia, New Zealand and Zimbabwe in the United Arab Emirates.
Gadgets in 2014 will make it easier to monitor our health with heartbeat and movement sensors, and record how much we have exercised.
The company will discontinue the sale of Vaio brand later this year and this is being done as Sony decided to exit the personal computers space globally after suffering losses.
We discuss some cutting-edge technologies that’s only been seen in research labs till now… and some of these are still prototypes.
A life time achievement award was conferred on A. A. Natu for his contribution to research ,teaching and to the development of Chemical Industry by Sudhir Meshram ,vice chancellor North Maharashtra University (NMU) and S. F.Patil, former VC of NMU.
The Governor K Sankaranarayanan presented the lifetime award to renowned vocalist and 'Thumri Queen' Dr Girija Devi in Mumbai on Wednesday. The award, named Aditya Vikram Birla Kala Shikhar Award' has been instituted by the Sangit Kala Kendra and carries a cash reward of Rs 2 lakh and a citation.
The forest department is experimenting a new project to build walls in certain areas of forest to prevent straying of wild jumbos from forest to villages.
Private professional colleges have written to the government asking them to initiate steps to implement the Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Determination of Fee) Act, 2006 from next academic year.
Brian Lara likely to visit Kolkata for Sachin Tendulkar's 199th Test.
TVS Automobile Services has formed a joint venture (JV) with US-based The Warranty Group (TWG) to provide extended warranty services for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and off-road farm equipment.
TVS has launched a new range of motorcycle tyres.
TVS Tyres has launchjed a new range of new motorcycle tyres.
TVS SriChakra has unveiled its latest agri radial tyre 'Tigertrac&rdquo for the European and global markets at Agritechnica 2013&rsquoin Hanover, Germany.
TVS has launched new colour variants of its Phoenix and Apache RTR 160 range of motorcycles to cater to the forthcoming festive season. While TVS Phoenix will be available in dual tone 'Alpine White' with graphics, the Apache RTR 160 motorcycles will be available in five single tone colours -- white, black, red, yellow and titanium grey.
Greaves Automotive Engines Business, part of Greaves Cotton Limited, one of India's leading engineering companies, has added TVS Motor Company to its list of customers, for supply of single cylinder diesel engine (G435) for the TVS King DS (diesel variant).
Betting big on its newly launched scooter TVS Jupiter, auto major TVS Motor Company Limited plans to increase its market share from the current 15% to 19%-20% by the end of this fiscal, a top official of the company said.
Nagpur University is organizing Dr Anant and Lata Labhshetwar lecture series at the university convocation hall at 4pm on Monday. Former vice-chancellor of Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Agriculture College, Akola , Sharad Nimbalkar will talk on 'Samajik apekshanche suyogya karyanvay'. The lecture is open to all. VC Vilas Sapkal will preside over the programme.
Vidarbha Sahitya Sangh and Stri Shikshan Prasarak Mandal are jointly organizing Ganesh lecture series at Shrimati Dadibai Deshmukh Hindu Mulinchi Shala, Mahal at 4pm on Monday. Dattaprasad Dabholkar, Satara will deliver a lecture on 'Vivekanandanchi Khari Olakh' while Waman Telang will preside over the programme.
The original manuscript copies of these accounts are housed in the Oriental and India office collection in the British library, London.


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The famed Chinese behemoth, and the third largest smartphone’s manufacturer, Huawei is continuously growing by introducing innovative mid-ranger smartphones all over the globe. Recently, the company has introduced a new addition to its Y family, which is dubbed as a mid-range lineup dedicated to emerging markets.
The newly unveiled Y9 (2018) is dubbed as the successor of Huawei Y7 Prime and has quite similar specs and features to recently released Mate 10 Lite. The smartphone has a major key selling point i.e. its four cameras, like the last year’s Mate 10 Lite. Y9 (2018) features a 5.93-inch display with FHD+ resolution (2160 x 1080 pixels) and 18:9 aspect ratio. Hardware-wise, the smartphone is quite decent since Huawei included an octa-core Kirin 659 processor, 3GB RAM, and 32GB of expandable storage.
Furthermore, on the rear, the Y9 (2018) features a dual-camera setup (13MP+2MP), while in the front it comes with a similar configuration (16MP+2MP). The extra 2MP camera is for depth sensing. The smartphone is powered by a massive 4,000 mAh battery.
Another, plus point for Y9 (2018) is that the smartphone is running EMUI 8.0-based Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box, where Mate 10 Lite is still on Android Nougat. The smartphone features security with a fingerprint scanner on the back, however, a less secure way i.e. Face Unlock is also there.
The available color options for the device are black, blue and gold. There’s no official word on the price of the smartphones however, it is expected to cost nearly same as Mate 10 Lite i.e. roughly PKR 27,000/-. It must be noted that the smartphone has been announced for Thailand for now, and it will make its debut in other emerging markets including Pakistan by the end of this month.


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Forty-three people were taken off Dallas' Ebola watch list, but Oklahoma officials barred several staff and students from activities due to Ebola concern.» Read More
Enbridge CEO Al Monaco said Enbridge has $15 billion in hand to put into pipeline expansion.
More people are taking a moment to flip over an item or fish for a label and ask, is it "Made in the USA?"
Even amid declining stock market correlation, active managers are still having a tough time staying competitive.
Former JC Penney CEO Allen Questrom says that the company's board of directors needs to act.
Carl Icahn appears set to enter the fray over the leveraged buyout of Dell. Trading sources say they are confident that Icahn has amassed a position in Dell that may approach 100 million shares, and would bring him to a roughly 6 percent ownership.
U.S. economic growth continued to improve gradually in January and early February, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday.
Marriott International and the property division of IKEA Group will debut chic, tech-friendly Moxy Hotels in Europe beginning in 2014 - furniture assembly not required.
As the courtroom battle between department stores Macy's and J.C. Penney continues, Martha Stewart will win no matter what, said the former chairman of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.
Facebook is shaking things up again on its desktop platform, and this time it's focusing on breaking up the news feed.
House Speaker Boehner told CNBC's Larry Kudlow that a long-term deal on entitlements is possible, and there's no good reason for the Obama team to have shut down the White House tour.
When Berkshire Hathaway and co-investors were putting together the deal to buy Heinz, they wanted the right to terminate the acquisition if they couldn't finance it in the event that some of the biggest banks in the world went bust.
About 3.6 million Americans were earning at or below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour in 2012, and those weren't all high school students flipping burgers, about half of them were 25 or older. How do they do that? NBC reports.
The head of TD Ameritrade's retail investment arm says that bullish sentiment is near all-time highs.
Some of the 30 companies in the Dow Jones industrial average are still down from their peaks, reflecting a move in financial power. The NYT reports.
Apple has held talks with Beats Electronics, the audio technology firm, on a potential partnership involving Beats' planned music-streaming service. Reuters reports.
New orders for U.S. factory goods fell in January as demand for transportation equipment weakened, but the underlying strength in manufacturing remained intact.
Private companies added 198,000 jobs in February, well ahead of analyst estimates and indicating that the labor market is continuing to thaw, according to a report Wednesday.
The market still has "more to go" on the upside, but stocks are not cheap because they're fairly valued, billionaire hedge fund manager Leon Cooperman told CNBC.
A late-winter storm made its way Wednesday to the nation's capital, where residents braced for the possibility of power outages.
A committee of Dell's board of directors said in a statement that it unanimously determined that a sale of the tech company would be the best alternative for shareholders.
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The Kansas City Royals are commanding higher ticket prices and bigger merchandise sales than their rivals from the Bay.
Sears clerk charged with stealing $3.7 million worth of goods from a warehouse.
Blue-collar firms are beginning to embrace the hands-free technology as it lets them streamline business and training. Fortune magazine reports.
"Street Signs" hosts Mandy Drury and Brian Sullivan look at 5 stocks with 5 analyst recommendations, including a downgrade for Cliffs Natural and an upgrade for Micron.
CNBC's Melissa Lee, Herb Greenberg and trader Stephanie Link, preview the earnings for McDonald's, Chipotle and United Technologies.
CNBC's Jon Fortt speaks to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella about the reorganization of its cloud structure.


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Shares of Comcast (CMCSA - Free Report) have climbed over 13% this year to outpace the S&P 500’s strong 2019 comeback. The cable and internet powerhouse is also coming off stronger-than-expected fourth quarter financial results, and Comcast is set to roll out its own streaming service as it expands its wireless phones unit. Coupled with Comcast’s solid value, CMCSA stock looks like a buy at the moment.
Comcast’s adjusted Q4 earnings surged over 36% to beat our Zacks Consensus Estimate. The company’s fourth-quarter revenue popped 5.2% to $28.28 billion, when factoring in the impact of its acquisition of pay-TV giant Sky PLC. Meanwhile, CMCSA’s consolidated revenues soared 26.1% to reach $27.85 billion.
The company’s cable communication revenue climbed 5.2% to $14.13 billion. Comcast, like its peers has seen thousands of customers cut the cord in favor of the likes of Netflix (NFLX - Free Report) and Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) Prime. The firm, however, lost fewer subscribers, 29,000, last quarter than the 33,000 it did in Q4 2017. Investors should also note that Comcast’s internet business looks poised to expand no matter what happens with traditional cable because streaming platforms need fast Wi-Fi and internet. CMCSA’s high-speed internet unit saw its revenue surge over 10% last quarter and add 351,000 customers.
Comcast’s NBCUniversal division revenue jumped 7.1%. The company also announced plans to roll out an ad-supported streaming platform that could help Comcast compete in a quickly growing streaming market that will soon include Apple (AAPL - Free Report) , AT&T (T - Free Report) , and Disney (DIS - Free Report) —soon to be boosted by its Twenty-First Century Fox purchase.
Another business that could bolster Comcast’s top and bottom lines down the road is its relatively new wireless unit known as Xfinity Mobile, which is still unprofitable. The unit added 227,000 total lines in Q4 to bring its total to 1.2 million.
Looking ahead, Comcast’s current-quarter revenue is projected to surge 16.2% to reach $26.49 billion, based on our current Zacks Consensus Estimate. The company’s fiscal 2019 revenue is projected to expand by 15.3% to touch $108.99 billion.
At the bottom end of the income statement, Comcast’s adjusted quarterly earnings are projected to pop just 1.4%. With that said, CMCSA’s full-year EPS figure is expected to climb over 7%, with 2020’s earnings projected to jump roughly 11% above our current year estimate.
The chart above shows us that Comcast stock has outperformed its industry’s average over the past five years. In fact, CMCSA stock is up 48%, which more than doubled the Media Market’s climb. At the same time, Comcast is trading at a discount to industry’s average.
CMCSA stock is trading at 13.9X forward Zacks earnings estimates at the moment, which falls below the Media Market’s 18.8X average and the S&P 500’s 16.6X. Furthermore, Comcast stock has traded as high as 20.3X over the last five years, with a five-year median of 16.9X. This means we can say with some certainty that Comcast presents solid value at the moment, even over a ten-year stretch.
Comcast raised its dividend by 10% to $0.84 a share on an annualized basis for 2019, for a quarterly payout of $0.21 per share. The first new dividend will be payable on April 24 to shareholders of record as of April 3. Shares of Comcast closed regular trading Wednesday down slightly to $38.61. This marked just a slight downturn from its recently-reached 52-week high of $39.66 a share.
Comcast is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) based, in part, on its recent earnings estimate revision trends. The company also sports “B” grades for both Value and Growth in our Style Scores system.
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The Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar park, currently the largest single solar system in the world. Â© Pazemin Dreamstime.com
The Al Dhafra PV2 solar project in Abu Dhabi, the world’s largest single-site photovoltaic system, has awarded Cosco Shipping Specialized Carriers (CSSC) a nine-month contract for the transport of photovoltaic modules, transformers and associated freight in containers.
CSSC is the breakbulk and multi-purpose vessel operating arm of China Cosco, and although its MPVs can haul containers, the company does not own any and will be serviced by the freight forwarding company Shenzhen Yihaitong Global Supply Chain Management for 270 days at a cost of US $ 10.53 million. Dollar rent.
The Al Dhafra project, owned by EDF Renouvelables, Jinko Power, Abu Dhabi Future Energy and Abu Dhabi National Energy, is expected to be completed this year and will provide power to Emirates Water and Electricity for 30 years.
CSSC said cargo for the project will be shipped to Abu Dhabi from Shanghai or Taicang in China.
Independently of this, the company has signed a two-year chartering agreement (COA) for 53 million US dollars with Yihaitong for two to three shipments of 550 to 750 TEU from China to Brazil. A total of 36,600 teu of goods are expected to be transported.
The Chinese airline said the COA was in response to government calls to stabilize foreign trade in the face of container freight rates spiraling out of control.
CSSC added: “Due to the current situation in the container transport market, Chinese companies have serious logistical problems when exporting.”
Brazil mainly exports wood pulp to China, but the COA ensures the company can move cargo from China to Brazil, which makes round-trip travel more practical.


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July 12, 2016
Import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports should see a small-but-significant increase this month as merchants stock up for the back-to-school season, then see a larger wave in late summer and fall for the holiday shopping season.
October 14, 2014
After a turbulent start to 2014, the nation’s retailers expect sales in November and December to increase a healthy 4.1% to $616.9 billion, higher than 2013’s actual 3.1% increase during that same time frame.
September 19, 2013
Containerized cargo volume at the Port of Long Beach surged 16% in August compared to the same month a year ago, with double-digit percentage gains in both imports and exports.
July 10, 2013
Summer typically marks the doldrums of the import freight season, and this one will likely be no exception, but things are expected to pick up big time in the fall, according to the new Port Trucker forecast from the National Retail Federation.
March 28, 2013
A new report shows the value of U.S. trade with neighboring Canada and Mexico increased in January 3.5% from the same time a year ago with truck movements dominating freight transportation.
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Photo credit: Disney
Each year Disney marks Halloween with a Haunted Mansion-inspired tiki mug! This year's mug was revealed to be the Hatbox Ghost! The mug features a seemingly headless body with the ghost's face appearing in the hatbox, much like the effect on the classic attraction!
The tiki mug goes on sale October 15th at 7am at the Disneyland Hotel Convention Center South Lounge. No announcements have been made as to the mug coming to Walt Disney World.
Photo credit: Inside the Magic
Previous years have featured another grim, grinning favorite, the Hitchhiking Ghosts!
Look alive, because these tiki mugs move fast! There will be a limit of two per guest!


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3 reasons behind Intel’s disastrous Mobileye IPO
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger suffered his latest setback on Tuesday after the IPO of his Mobileye subsidiary proved to be a great idea that was sadly long past its prime.
Due to report quarterly earnings on Thursday, the former tech bellwether has fallen on hard times and reportedly plans thousands of layoffs as demand for personal computers following the pandemic is once more on the decline.
Gelsinger had hoped to float shares of the autonomous driving technology firm Mobileye at a valuation of around $50 billion, but demand fell far short of plans and expectations were lowered twice as a result.
The Israeli startup founded by CEO Amnon Shashua was purchased for $15.3 billion back in 2017 by former Intel CEO Brian Krzanich. Now, five years later, shares will start trading on Wednesday at an initial valuation of only $16.7 billion—an annual return of just 1.8% on the original deal.
Below are three key reasons why the IPO failed to deliver for Intel.
When Krzanich penned the deal, he had presided over a steep decline at Intel during which its fabless rivals were eating its lunch. These companies chose to outsource chip production to foundries like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).
U.S. competitor AMD ate into Intel’s core PC business; Qualcomm seized control over the booming smartphone market that prizes chips that go easy on battery life; and Nvidia cleaned up in the area of high-end graphics processors for everything from video gaming to crypto mining.
In this context, Intel’s Mobileye deal was little more than a strategic punt to be first in a future market it estimated to be worth $70 billion, and came just as premature euphoria over self-driving technology reached its peak.
There was no natural fit between the two, and hence little justification why Intel would be best placed to run the Israeli company.
While they enjoyed some cross-selling opportunities, there were precious few technological or manufacturing efficiencies that could be gained by housing them under the same roof. Importantly, the Israeli startup has long designed its own proprietary silicon based on a RISC-V architecture rather than relying on Intel’s competing X86 standard.
When Intel CEO Gelsinger told reporters in December he was planning to take Mobileye public, he admitted things wouldn’t much change since the links were thin to begin.
“We operate Mobileye quite distinctly from the rest of Intel to give it the speed and pace of operation,” he said at the time.
Gelsinger took over at Intel early last year with a mandate to rebuild its expertise in semiconductor fabrication, so cashing in on a tech market bubble made sense at the time.
He needs billions to develop logic chips with bleeding-edge five-nanometer node sizes and below to compete with TSMC.
The timing seemed perfect. Just prior to Gelsinger’s announcement of the Mobileye IPO, Amazon-backed EV manufacturer Rivian had gone public in mid-November in the biggest IPO since Facebook and quickly gained a market cap that saw it eclipse General Motors and Ford in value after delivering only a few dozen trucks.
Had Mobileye been taken public then, when chip shortages were acute and countries were outbidding each other to win investment in new fabs, Intel would have likely met with an avalanche of demand.
Unfortunately, investor appetite has since swung in the opposite direction, with the Nasdaq Composite trading near two-year lows.
Making things worse, semiconductor stocks, once the talk of the town, have taken an absolute beating as geopolitical tensions added to bearish sentiment. The Biden administration has recently signaled it will go to extreme lengths to prevent high-tech chips from ending up in the hands of China.
For several years, auto industry stocks have traded at or near historically low valuation multiples. This poses a problem for even a leading supplier of computer vision technology like Mobileye, as ultimately the bulk of its business is selling componentry for driver assistance systems to incumbent carmakers under pressure from the likes of Tesla.
While it’s true that Porsche was able to pull off a $10 billion IPO, it trades as a luxury branded goods maker like Ferrari, thanks to its iconic brand. It also boasts a list of investors that includes a wealthy family willing to fork over billions to secure a veto and a number of sovereign wealth funds that lined up in advance of the IPO subscription period.
As Jefferies autos analyst Philippe Houchois told Fortune at the time, parent Volkswagen Group could have closed the order book on the very first day.
Even so, while the Porsche IPO raised every penny of the cash VW had hoped for, it failed to live up to expectations in one key element that is also pertinent to Intel and Mobileye. VW management believed that by creating a transparent market price for the company’s stake in Porsche, it would show just how undervalued the parent was: Instead, VW’s market cap has since sunk below its diminutive 75%-controlled subsidiary.
Intel had likewise hoped the value of its investment in Mobileye would be better appreciated once its shares floated on the market. As Mobileye begins trading today, however, Intel’s shares were set to open lower.
Finally, investors will not have liked the fact that the IPO proceeds will largely go to Intel. On Tuesday, Mobileye said a “significant portion” of the roughly $800 million in net proceeds will be used to repay debt owed to Intel. Investors typically want to see the money reinvested in further growth.
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By CHEYENNE LIGON
The United States Census Bureau will release the international trade report on Tuesday, which will contain data from the month of March. Economists expect to see a further widening in the trade deficit as the domestic economy continues to rebound, outpacing pandemic recovery abroad.
Here are five things to keep in mind when considering the latest report.
Imports Continue to Increase as Americans Buy, Buy, Buy
The U.S. economy is rebounding after being hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. The widespread availability of vaccinations means the pandemic is easing and, along with it, restrictions on in-person activities including shopping.
Additionally, $1,400 stimulus checks from President Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief plan hit bank accounts in mid-March, giving many cash-strapped Americans money to spend.
In February, the U.S. imported $258.3 billion worth of goods, but economists believe that March imports will jump dramatically.
“We’re seeing very strong consumer spending,” said Stephen Gallagher, Chief Economist at Societe Generale US. “People are buying goods over services because of the restrictions that have been put in place.”
Many consumer goods are manufactured abroad to cut costs, and strong consumer demand in the first months of the year nearly wiped out domestic inventories.
“Between meeting consumer demand and replenishing inventories, there’s a huge appetite for imports,” Gallagher said.
Exports Are Growing, But They’re Hampered by Weak International Demand
Vaccinations may be widespread in the United States, but the same cannot be said for many of its trading partners. Europe’s botched vaccine rollout has led to flagging vaccination rates and renewed lockdowns, and a vaccine shortage in India has led to a deadly second wave of COVID-19.
“The U.S. recovery is proceeding at a pace that is faster than other advanced economies,” said Robert Stein, Deputy Chief Economist at First Trust Advisors.
International demand is recovering, just not at the pace of domestic demand. Economists expect to see a small increase in exports from February’s $187.3 billion figure.
The Suez Canal May Be Clear, but Shipping Issues Persist
The plight of the Ever Given, a 1300-foot-long Taiwanese container ship stuck sideways in the Suez Canal, drew international attention to global supply chain issues and shipping bottlenecks.
Record imports from Asia have overwhelmed ports on the West Coast, leaving many ships anchored in the bay, waiting for their turn to dock and unload their cargo. Despite the Ever Given’s predicament, the bulk of shipping issues are not due to accidents or other trouble.
“It’s really just the tsunami of imports coming into the country and the limited capacity to receive them,” said Gallagher. “There’s a line of ships ready to be unloaded.”
Instead of waiting for cargo, many ships have been returning to Asia empty, putting an additional damper on U.S. exports.
The Hard-Hit Automotive Sector May See a Small Bounce
The domestic automotive industry has been hit hard, slammed by both the COVID-19 recession and a global semiconductor shortage that shows no signs of subsiding. February’s trade data revealed a $3.4 billion decrease in international trade of automotive parts and engines as factories ground to a halt and both imports and exports of parts and vehicles slowed.
But economists are hopeful that Biden’s focus on domestic manufacturing, combined with the nearly $400 billion in stimulus checks that hit bank accounts in March, will provide a modest boost for the auto industry.
The Growing Deficit Keeps Hitting New Records
February’s $71.1 billion trade deficit was the highest in history, but economists believe that March’s deficit will be even larger. Hugh Johnson, partner and founder of Hugh Johnson Advisors, projects a trade imbalance of $72.5 billion.
“That would be a record high,” said Johnson.
The widening trade deficit was a major source of political tension during the Trump presidency, and the reason Trump launched trade wars with China, Canada, and the EU. Phase One of Trump’s renegotiated trade deal with China aimed to increase Chinese purchases of U.S. goods by $200 billion in 2020 and 2021, but China hasn’t held up its end of the bargain.
The deficit continues to widen under President Biden, whose trade strategy remains murky. As Biden pushes off discussions of international trade to focus on the domestic economy, the gap will likely keep growing.


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LONDON (Reuters) - Philip Morris International said on Friday it has applied for pre-market approval of its iQOS heated tobacco product with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The world’s largest international tobacco maker, owner of the Marlboro brand, said that if the FDA grants its request, its U.S. affiliate, Altria Group, would be responsible for selling the device in the United States through a licensing agreement.
The device heats tobacco enough to create a vapor without burning it, which the company believes makes it less harmful than cigarettes.
It has so far sold more than 3 million iQOS devices in Japan. It began nationwide sales there in April last year after test marketing in major cities.
Philip Morris had stated that it planned to submit the U.S. approval application during the first quarter of 2017.
Reporting by Martinne Geller; Editing by Greg Mahlich


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Will You Let Google Control Your Home?
Gear Up On Five IoT News Bites To Start Your Wednesday.
Chirp for Google Google I/O is this afternoon, the tech giant's much hyped three-day tech conference, and IoT watchers are eager to see the expected unveiling of Google Home—a clear competitor to Amazon's Alexa and Microsoft's Cortana. Formerly called 'Chirp,' the new voice command system will reportedly come out this fall, according to a story in The New York Times. Home controllers are a big push for tech companies eager to be the Captain's Chair for all your connected devices. Google Home? Amazon Alexa? Honeywell Lyric? Maybe there is room for all.
Rogue Drone The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) set up shop at New York's John F. Kennedy airport to test a drone detection program earlier this month. Using the FBI's system, the FAA ran about 40 tests to see how the government can spot unauthorized drones, and potentially avert crashes particularly near airports.
French No Drone Zone France is taking precautionary measures around rogue drones ahead of the Euro 2016, the European football championship starting in June (and please don't call it 'soccer.') Drones will not be allowed to fly above any of the 10 stadiums and training grounds during the month-long event, with anti-drone technology to be used as well to further secure the sites. Explosions and attacks last November in Paris left 130 people dead. (Via BBC Sport)
Facebook VR The social media site has shot a 360-degree film in New York's Grand Central Station. Called 'Here and Now,' and viewable in Facebook the two-minute virtual reality flick lets you see all angles of the famous space, while listening to different vignettes, such as parents saying goodbye to their daughter. (Tissues please.) The best way to view? On your mobile device: As you turn the view turns with you. Take a gander below.
Self-Driving Semis Not ready for self-driving cars? How about self-driving big-rigs? Otto, a startup built by former Google employees, says the time is almost near. The company is developing technology to get 18-wheelers on the highways: yes up to 40 tons controlled by artificial intelligence. Otto is designed to work with existing trucks, rather than new vehicles, the way autonomous cars are being designed today.