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NEW YORK (AP) — For small retailers across the country, the coronavirus outbreak has turned an already challenging business environment into never-ending uncertainty.
Amy Witt might have 20 customers on a good day in her Dallas women’s clothing store, and then none the next.
“It’s a rollercoaster we ride every day,” says Witt, whose store, Velvet Window, reopened May 1 after being closed since March. “We’re doing everything we can to cover expenses and keep the store stocked with inventory.”
Many of Witt’s older customers are still shy about going into stores, especially since the virus has resurged in Texas. As she reopened the store in May, Witt told The Associated Press she planned to use services like private shopping hours to encourage reluctant customers to come in. The strategy has helped but sales remain well below Witt’s expectations. She hopes to boost sales by selling at an outdoor market where shoppers can feel more comfortable.
Still, Witt is grateful to be open — there are empty stores in the shopping center where Velvet Window is located.
Small retailers, especially those selling non-necessities like apparel, are still struggling months after state and local governments lifted shutdown orders aimed at containing the virus. With the virus far from under control in many areas, however, consumers worried about getting sick are staying home and doing their purchasing online or, if they venture out, going to big stores like Walmart and Target where they can do one-stop shopping.
The weak sales and erratic customer traffic have forced store owners to be creative in hopes of persuading customers to stop in rather than order from a big online retailer. But for some owners, disappointing sales and an uncertain outlook have forced them to close their stores for good and stake the future of their businesses on the internet.
Washington was one of the first epicenters of the virus, and one of the first states to shut down its economy. Ambika Singh felt the impact immediately: Her company, Armoire, rents clothing to professional women. Her customers, suddenly stuck at home, no longer needed outfits for the office, dinners and business trips.
Singh has permanently closed her two stores in Seattle, knowing they couldn’t be sustained. She’s adapted her online business to meet customers’ rapidly changing needs — they wanted different clothes, like luxury loungewear or more dress shirts to look business-like on videoconferences even as they wore sweatpants
Having lost customers due to the weakened economy, Armoire’s revenue is down about 35% from February, which was its best month ever. One of Singh’s biggest challenges now is marketing to new customers as she tries to replace the shoppers who left.
“As we’ve lost the physical connection with customers, can we rebuild?” she says.
The internet has been a refuge for many retailers during the pandemic, says Carlos Castelan, managing director of The Navio Group, a retail consultancy based in Minneapolis. He noted that Shopify, a company that hosts e-commerce websites, had a 71% increase in new stores in the second quarter compared to a year earlier.
“They’re urgently setting up these e-commerce models to serve their customers,” he says.
The most recent retail sales tallies from the government show sales at clothing sellers, which tend to have physical locations, fell nearly 36% from May through July. But online and other non-traditional retailers saw their sales soar 26%.
Small retailers have also learned to be more customer-friendly. They’re using, for example, texts to communicate with shoppers and making pickups easier by setting aside dedicated parking spaces so people can grab and go, Castelan says. And stores are letting shoppers know they are trying to keep everyone safe.
“The primary driver has been as much about convenience and safety. That’s more the story rather than merchandising,” he says.
The internet has been a lifeline for Antonelli’s Cheese Shop. The Austin, Texas, store remained open during the government-ordered shutdown, but many consumers stayed home, sharply reducing store traffic. The shop also sells to restaurants, which stopped ordering as they were forced to close. The shop’s business is still down 20%.
Owners John and Kendall Antonelli say they’ve managed to survive by taking the events they normally run on their premises, like cheese tastings, and putting them online. They’ve had as many as 150 people take part in a tasting, with many people ordering cheese in advance and picking it up curbside. More recently, with fewer people sheltering at home, they’ve been more likely to get 50 people, but that is still about double the number of attendees they had pre-pandemic.
The Antonellis revamped their website so local customers can order a la carte instead of pre-selected packages — that’s more expensive for the store, but it keeps people happy and shopping.
The Antonellis have learned that several cheese shops in other cities have gone out of business, so they know they too could be at risk.
“We are potentially considered one of the success stories — and what I mean by that is we’re still operating,” Kendall Antonelli says.
Business has been slow since Mallory Shelter’s Washington, D.C., jewelry store reopened in June. Shelter, whose store bears her name, responded to the pandemic and shutdown by pouring her marketing efforts into her website. It now accounts for 75% of her revenue, up from 8% before the virus struck, but her overall revenue is down by half. She also has changed her product mix, focusing more on custom items that can have a more personal meaning for buyers.
A big question is whether her in-store business will recover in time for the holiday season that starts three months from now.
“This is the month when I’m preparing for the holidays. But that looks really hard when you don’t know if you’re going to be open, if there’s going to be another wave of the virus or what people’s spending will be like,” Shelter says.
By JOYCE M. ROSENBERG AP Business Writer.
Russian hack of US agencies exposed supply chain weaknesses
The elite Russian hackers who gained access to computer systems of federal agencies last year didn’t bother trying to break one by one into the networks of each department.
Instead, they got inside by sneaking malicious code into a software update pushed out to thousands of government agencies and private companies.
It wasn’t surprising that hackers were able to exploit vulnerabilities in what’s known as the supply chain to launch a massive intelligence gathering operation. U.S. officials and cybersecurity experts have sounded the alarm for years about a problem that has caused havoc, including billions of dollars in financial losses, but has defied easy solutions from the government and private sector.
“We’re going to have to wrap our arms around the supply-chain threat and find the solution, not only for us here in America as the leading economy in the world, but for the planet,” William Evanina, who resigned last week as the U.S. government’s chief counterintelligence official, said in an interview. “We’re going to have to find a way to make sure that we in the future can have a zero-risk posture, and trust our suppliers.”
In general terms, a supply chain refers to the network of people and companies involved in the development of a particular product, not dissimilar to a home construction project that relies on a contractor and a web of subcontractors. The sheer number of steps in that process, from design to manufacture to distribution, and the different entities involved give a hacker looking to infiltrate businesses, agencies and infrastructure numerous points of entry.
This can mean no single company or executive bears sole responsibility for protecting an entire industry supply chain. And even if most vendors in the chain are secure, a single point of vulnerability can be all that foreign government hackers need. In practical terms, homeowners who construct a fortress-like mansion can nonetheless find themselves victimized by an alarm system that was compromised before it was installed.
The most recent case targeting federal agencies involved Russian government hackers who are believed to have sneaked malicious code into popular software that monitors computer networks of businesses and governments. That product is made by a Texas-based company called SolarWinds that has thousands of customers in the federal government and private sector.
That malware gave hackers remote access to the networks of multiple agencies. Among those known to have been affected are the departments of Commerce, Treasury and Justice.
For hackers, the business model of directly targeting a supply chain is sensible.
“If you want to breach 30 companies on Wall Street, why breach 30 companies on Wall Street (individually) when you can go to the server — the warehouse, the cloud — where all those companies hold their data? It’s just smarter, more effective, more efficient to do that,” Evanina said.
Though President Donald Trump showed little personal interest in cybersecurity, even firing the head of the Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity agency just weeks before the Russian hack was revealed, President Joe Biden has said he will make it a priority and will impose costs on adversaries who carry out attacks.
Supply chain protection will presumably be a key part of those efforts, and there is clearly work to be done. A Government Accountability Office report from December said a review of 23 agencies’ protocols for assessing and managing supply chain risks found that only a few had implemented each of seven “foundational practices” and 14 had implemented none.
U.S. officials say the responsibility can’t fall to the government alone and must involve coordination with private industry.
But the government has tried to take steps, including through executive orders and rules. A provision of the National Defense Authorization Act barred federal agencies from contracting with companies that use goods or services from five Chinese companies, including Huawei. The government’s formal counterintelligence strategy made reducing threats to the supply chain one of five core pillars.
Perhaps the best-known supply chain intrusion before SolarWinds is the NotPetya attack in which malicious code found to have been planted by Russian military hackers was unleashed through an automatic update of Ukrainian tax-preparation software, called MeDoc. That malware infected its customers, and the attack overall caused more than $10 billion in damage globally.
The Justice Department in September charged five Chinese hackers who it said had compromised software providers and then modified source code to allow for further hacks of the providers’ customers. In 2018, the department announced a similar case against two Chinese hackers accused of breaking into cloud service providers and injecting malicious software.
“Anyone surprised by SolarWinds hasn’t been paying attention,” said Rep. Jim Langevin, a Rhode Island Democrat and member of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, a bipartisan group that issued a white paper calling for the protection of the supply chain through better intelligence and information sharing.
Part of the appeal of a supply chain attack is that it’s “low-hanging fruit,” said Brandon Valeriano, a cybersecurity expert at the Marine Corps University. A senior adviser to the solarium commission, he says it’s not really known just how dispersed the networks are and that flaws in the supply chain are not uncommon.
“The problem is we basically don’t know what we’re eating.” Valeriano said. “And sometimes it comes up later that we choke on something — and often we choke on things.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — By ERIC TUCKER
Google’s parent deflates internet-beaming balloon company
Google’s parent company is letting the air out of an internet-beaming balloon company that was providing online access from the stratosphere.
The plan to shut down Loon was announced late Thursday, ending what started out nine years ago as one of Google’s secret projects in its so-called “moonshot factory,” a division now called X. Google, Loon and X all are owned by Alphabet Inc., which draws upon Google’s digital advertising empire finance risky ideas like internet-beaming balloons and another high-profile flop, internet-connected glasses.
As reflected by its name, Loon was viewed as a crazy idea from the start. Yet Google’s hopes for the project were a lofty as the high-flying balloons themselves when the company finally took the wraps off the project in New Zealand in June 2013.
The ambitious goal at that time was to launch thousands of massive balloons 12 miles (20 kilometers) into the stratosphere in order to bridge the gaping digital divide between the world’s 4.8 billion unwired people and their 2.2 billion plugged-in counterparts.
Since then, more countries that had little or no internet access now have gotten more ways to get online partly because of the explosive growth of smartphones during the past decade.
That made it even more challenging for Loon to find a way to make money, culminating in the decision to deflate it.
“The road to commercial viability has proven much longer and riskier than hoped,” Astro Teller, the head of the X division, wrote in a blog post.
Alphabet doesn’t disclose the results of other companies besides Google. The group of other far-flung companies that include self-driving car pioneer Waymo, health services venture Verily and drone delivery gambit Wing are clumped together with Loon and others in a division known called “Other Bets.” Those operations have suffered a combined $12 billion in operating losses since 2016 while Google has produced a combined operating profit of $140 billion during the same period.
Loon’s balloons had been working with telecom providers to provide internet access in Kenya and will continue to do that until March, according to Teller. Because it has been working with other companies on that access, Loon expects little or no disruption to the Kenyan customers’ internet access.
To help Kenya expand its internet access, Alphabet is will give $10 million to nonprofits and businesses aimed at advancing that cause.
Most of the employees working at Loon will be laid off with severance packages while some others will be offered jobs at X, Google or Alphabet, Teller said. He didn’t disclose how many of Alphabet’s 132,000 employees, — most of whom work within Google — are at Loon.
SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — By MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Technology Writer
Iran, pressured by blackouts and pollution, targets Bitcoin
Iran’s capital and major cities plunged into darkness in recent weeks as rolling outages left millions without electricity for hours. Traffic lights died. Offices went dark. Online classes stopped.
With toxic smog blanketing Tehran skies and the country buckling under the pandemic and other mounting crises, social media has been rife with speculation. Soon, fingers pointed at an unlikely culprit: Bitcoin.
Within days, as frustration spread among residents, the government launched a wide-ranging crackdown on Bitcoin processing centers, which require immense amounts of electricity to power their specialized computers and to keep them cool — a burden on Iran’s power grid.
Authorities shuttered 1,600 centers across the country, including, for the first time, those legally authorized to operate. As the latest in a series of conflicting government moves, the clampdown stirred confusion in the crypto industry — and suspicion that Bitcoin had become a useful scapegoat for the nation’s deeper-rooted problems.
Since former President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew in 2018 from Tehran’s nuclear accord with world powers and re-imposed sanctions on Iran, cryptocurrency has surged in popularity in the Islamic Republic.
For Iran, anonymous online transactions made in cryptocurrencies allow individuals and companies to bypass banking sanctions that have crippled the economy. Bitcoin offers an alternative to cash printed by sovereign governments and central banks — and in the case of Iran and other countries under sanctions like Venezuela, a more stable place to park money than the local currency.
“Iranians understand the value of such a borderless network much more than others because we can’t access any kind of global payment networks,” said Ziya Sadr, a Tehran-based Bitcoin expert. “Bitcoin shines here.”
Iran’s generously subsidized electricity has put the country on the crypto-mining map, given the operation’s enormous electricity consumption. Electricity goes for around 4 cents per kilowatt-hour in Iran, compared to an average of 13 cents in the United States.
Iran is among the top 10 countries with the most Bitcoin mining capacity in the world — 450 megawatts a day. The U.S. network has a daily capacity of more than 1,100 megawatts.
On Tehran’s outskirts and across Iran’s south and northwest, windowless warehouses hum with heavy industrial machinery and rows of computers that crunch highly complex algorithms to verify transactions. The transactions, called blocks, are then added to a public record, known as the blockchain.
“Miners” adding a new block to the blockchain collect fees in bitcoins, a key advantage amid the country’s currency collapse. Iran’s rial, which had been trading at 32,000 to the dollar at the time of the 2015 nuclear deal, has tumbled to around 240,000 to the dollar these days.
Iran’s government has sent mixed messages about Bitcoin. On one hand, it wants to capitalize on the soaring popularity of digital currency and sees value in legitimizing transactions that fly under Washington’s radar. It authorized 24 Bitcoin processing centers that consume an estimated 300 megawatts of energy a day, attracted tech-savvy Chinese entrepreneurs to tax-free zones in the country’s south and permitted imports of computers for mining.
Amir Nazemi, deputy minister of telecommunications and information, declared last week that cryptocurrency “can be helpful” as Iran struggles to cope with sanctions on its oil sector.
On the other hand, the government worries about limiting how much money is sent abroad and controlling money laundering, drug sales and internet criminal groups.
Iranian cryptocurrency miners have been known to use ransomware in sophisticated cyber attacks, such as in 2018 when two Iranian men were indicted in connection with a vast cyber assault on the city of Atlanta. On Thursday, British cybersecurity firm Sophos reported it found evidence tying crypto-miners in Iran’s southern city of Shiraz to malware that was secretly seizing control of thousands of Microsoft servers.
Iran is now going after unauthorized Bitcoin farms with frequent police raids. Those who gain authorization to process cryptocurrency are subject to electricity tariffs, which miners complain discourage investment.
“Activities in the field are not feasible because of electricity tariffs,” said Mohammad Reza Sharafi, head of the country’s Cryptocurrency Farms Association. Despite the government giving permits to 1,000 investors, only a couple dozen server farms are active, he added, because tariffs mean Bitcoin farms pay five times as much for electricity as steel mills and other industries that consume far more power.
Now, miners say, the government’s decision to close down major Bitcoin farms operating legally seems designed to deflect concerns about the country’s repeated blackouts.
As Tehran went dark last week, a video showing industrial computers whirring away at a massive Chinese cryptocurrency farm spread online like wildfire, prompting outrage about Bitcoin’s outsized thirst for electricity. Within days, the government closed that plant despite its authorization to operate.
“The priority is with households, commercial, hospitals and sensitive places,” said Mostfa Rajabi Mashhadi, spokesman of Iran’s electricity supply department, noting that illegal farms sucked up daily some 260 megawatts of electricity.
Although Bitcoin mining strains the power grid, experts say it’s not the real reason behind Iran’s electricity outages and dangerous air pollution. The telecommunications ministry estimates that Bitcoin consumes less than 2% of Iran’s total energy production.
“Bitcoin was an easy victim here,” said Kaveh Madani, a former deputy head of Iran’s Department of Environment, adding that “decades of mismanagement” have left a growing gap between Iran’s energy supply and demand.
Bitcoin “mining’s energy footprint is not insignificant but these problems are not created overnight,” he said. “They simply need one trigger to spiral out of control.”
A sharp drop in supply or spike in demand, like this winter when more people are staying home because of the coronavirus pandemic, can upset the balance of a grid that draws mostly from natural gas. Authorities reported that households have increased their heating gas usage by 8% this year, which Tehran’s electric supply company said led to “limitations in feeding the country’s power plants and a lack of electricity.”
Sanctions targeting Iran’s aging oil and gas industry have compounded the challenges, leaving Iran unable to sell its products abroad, including its low-quality, high-sulfur fuel oil known as mazut. If the hazardous oil isn’t sold or shipped it must be swiftly burned — and it is, in 20% of the country’s power plants, according to environmental official Mohammad Mehdi Mirzai. The smoldering fuel blackens the skies, particularly when the weather cools and wind carries emissions from nearby refineries and industrial sites into Tehran.
During the power blackouts, thick layers of pollution coated mountain peaks and hovered over cities, with readings of dangerous fine particulate pollution spiking to over 200 micrograms per cubic meter, a level considered “dangerously” unhealthy.
As the government publicized its clampdown on Bitcoin farms, miners balked at all the blame over their energy guzzling. Many warned that despite its potential to become a cryptocurrency utopia, Iran would continue to fall behind.
“These moves harm the country,” said Omid Alavi, a cryptocurrency consultant. “Many neighboring nations are attracting foreign investors.”
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — By NASSER KARIMI and ISABEL DEBRE
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This buzz for you.
The State Liquor Authority recently approved the sale of 192-proof booze - meaning the potent potables are 96% alcohol.
Some shop owners and imbibers are raising a glass to the hooch, believed to be the strongest ever available in the state, particularly folks in Polish and Russian communities who've had to travel to New Jersey for the stiff brew.
"It's incredibly sharp. It takes your breath away," said Levi Pekar, 22, a Brooklyn student who has sampled the swill. "It's like getting punched in the solar plexus."
William Crowley of the State Liquor Authority said the four new labels - including Spirytus Rektyfikowany and Baks Spirytus - were approved in the past few months after a review by the SLA found that they were not "false, misleading or deceptive to consumers."
"We have laws against our licensees selling to people who are intoxicated, but there's no law that even speaks to the alcohol content of a label we could approve," Crowley said.
Eli Eber of Eber's Liquor and Wine in Brooklyn said he sells eight to 12 bottles a week of the harsh stuff. A 750-milliliter bottle (between 25 and 26 ounces) goes for $22.
"The pilots in Siberia used to drink it," he said. "Some people say they like to take it with orange juice; that way, they don't feel the sting."
Daring drinkers who have tried the booze swear by it, saying it has a long history overseas and is so pure that it actually wards off hangovers.
"Nine out of ten people won't touch it," said Aaron Raskin, 52, a Brooklyn shopkeeper. "You have to drink it fast."
Some people find it hard to swallow.
"This sounds like it has tremendous potential for doing a lot of harm to people," said state Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Queens). "It sounds like moonshine."
The approvals came several years after the state turned down the grain alcohol Everclear. The SLA spiked it because makers acknowledged it couldn't be consumed without a mixer, Crowley firstname.lastname@example.org

domain: news


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Deliveroo has announced that they will be creating 400 new tech jobs in order to drive growth and innovation.
400 New Tech Jobs
Deliveroo announces that it will create 400 high-skilled tech jobs as it looks to support its rapid growth. The announcement reaffirms Deliveroo’s commitment to developing its pioneering logistics technology to help restaurants grow and improve efficiency, give riders the work they want, and provide customers with the best selection and experience.
The company is seeking to hire across a range of skill sets including software engineers, product managers, user researchers, designers, and data scientists. The expansion will enable the company to improve the experience of all three sides of the marketplace and allow the company to improve quality of service while gaining efficiency at the same time.
The expanded team will work on a range of projects to support growth, such as improving Deliveroo’s on-demand grocery delivery offering, expanding its Signature service, and growing the company’s delivery-only Editions kitchens.
Deliveroo’s pioneering logistics technology underpins its entire offering based on intelligent machine learning which allows the company to continually improve the nuances of delivering neighbourhood by neighbourhood. The company deploys technology, such as its Frank algorithm, to find the best way of connecting riders, restaurants, and customers to create a best-in-class logistics service. Frank is continuously improving its knowledge-learning capabilities, such as how long it takes a restaurant to prepare a meal to the time it takes to travel a certain route at different times of the day – to make the service even more efficient.
New Tech Features
The announcement comes as Deliveroo reveals new tech features which will help restaurant partners to improve connection with their customers and enable them to strengthen their offering. The new features will allow restaurants to receive real-time feedback and reviews from customers – visible only to each restaurant – on their service. Restaurants will benefit from direct restaurant-to-customer communication within the app allowing restaurants to respond to feedback, send vouchers, remedy order issues in real-time, and give personal touches to new or loyal customers.
These brand new tools and features were developed following engagement with restaurants, and will help them maximise their connection with customers and in turn encourage customers to continue ordering delivery and dine-in. These benefits are more vital than ever for restaurants as they look to strengthen their online offering and reach more customers.
Dan Winn, Chief Technology Officer of Deliveroo, said: “Deliveroo is proud to be at the forefront of Britain’s dynamic technology sector and we are excited to be expanding our tech team to help drive Deliveroo’s growth. These new team members will play a vital role in building best-in-class technology to help restaurants reach new customers, improve rider experience, and give customers access to the food they love.”
Digital Secretary, Oliver Dowden said: “This is a fantastic vote of confidence in the UK as a global hub for tech. It’s more evidence that our Plan for Jobs is creating new high-skilled employment.”


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Welcome to the new edition of our 10 most talked-about TV ads on social media: Walmart, Walgreens, and I cannot wait for the US elections to be over with…
Check them out! Any other great campaigns you spotted?
#1 – Walmart TV Spot, ‘All You Need’ Song by Aretha Franklin
#2 – Walgreens TV Spot, ‘The Walk of Life: Medicare’ Song by Dire Straits
#3 – PlayStation 5 TV Spot, ‘Launch: Play Has No Limits’
#4 – Biden for President TV Commercial, ‘Black Women’
#5 – Allstate TV Spot, ‘Smooth’ Song by Edith Piaf
Related | It’s Time For Another Netflix Price Hike
#6 – Future Forward USA Action TV Spot, ‘Voting Record’
#7 – Allstate TV Spot, ‘Roll Up’ Song by Bill Withers
#8 – Snickers TV Spot, ‘First Visitors’
#9 – Corona Extra TV Spot, ‘Shellphone’ Featuring Snoop Dogg, Bad Bunny
#10 – Dr Pepper TV Spot, ‘Fansville: Lucky Pants’ Featuring Brian Bosworth
This top 10 is provided by iSpot.tv, the leading real-time measurement tool for TV advertising. iSpot.tv aggregates all online video views, social actions, and search activity, to evaluate ad performance compared with its industry
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FOOD FIRST ORGANIZES LARGEST EVER FACT-FINDING DELEGATION DESTINED FOR CUBA
Experts to Learn about Cuba’s Transformation from Industrial to Sustainable Agriculture
Madison, WI, February 18, 2003 -- A University of Wisconsin Professor will be part of a high-level delegation joining the food policy think tank Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy for a ten-day fact finding trip to investigate Cuba’s transformation from chemical intensive, industrial agriculture to sustainable and organic agriculture.
Lydia Zepeda, Fellow of the Center for World Affairs and Global Economic, Chair of the Development Studies Ph.D. Program and Professor of Consumer Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will accompany agricultural experts, academics, and directors of NGOs closely working on food security issues. They will visit urban and rural farms and meet with government officials, scientists, and farmers to discuss this transition and how the lessons learned by Cuba could be transferred to the United States and other countries.
“There are over 70 experts in the delegation working to create local and community-based food systems in the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean,” said Professor Zepeda. “We think this will provide an opportunity to learn from the Cuban experience of establishing a more ecologically-sound, equitable, and community-based food system.”
Cuba lost its biggest trading partner when the Soviet Bloc collapsed in 1989. That, combined with a thirty-year trade embargo by the United States, forced Cuba into an economic crisis that threatened the island nation with famine. With little outside help, Cuba launched the most intensive transition to low-input sustainable and organic agriculture the world has seen to date. Cuba’s success has made the island nation the leading model of large-scale sustainable agriculture throughout the world.
Today, the United States faces its own farm crisis. Declining productivity from pesticide resistance, soil erosion and compaction, and contamination of surface and ground waters have led to rising farm foreclosures and declining rural communities. Inner cities face a crisis as well with endemic unemployment, crime, poverty and hunger. This has spawned a movement toward organic farming and urban agriculture, making them the fastest growing sectors of farm production.
“Our experiences with conversion to sustainable agriculture and promotion of urban farming remain disbursed and relatively limited in scope,” said Dr. Peter Rosset, co-director of Food First. “Cuba offers the United States and other countries a unique opportunity to learn what a large-scale move toward alternative agriculture practices would be like; what are the problems we can expect and which solutions seem promising, before the declining sustainability of conventional modern agriculture forces us to undergo a similar transition.”
Food First has been working with Cuba’s agricultural transformation since 1994 and last year published Sustainable Agriculture and Resistance: Transforming Food Production in Cuba, a book largely written by the Cuban agriculture experts involved with this transformation.
This is the fifth delegation to Cuba organized by Food First through its Cuban Organic Farming Exchange Program, a program dedicated to fostering the development of sustainable agriculture in the United States, Cuba, and around the world.
More information from the Food First website: http://www.foodfirst.org/cuba/cubatripinfo


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Verona’s municipal government is holding another electronic waste recycling this Friday and Saturday, October 12 and 13.
If you have a TV, computer, monitor or other electronic device, you can drop it off at the Department of Public Works, which is located just before the turn into the Recycling Center at 5 Ozone Avenue, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on either day. The the next drop-off day will not be until next spring, so best to scour the basement and garage for e-waste now.
It has been illegal to put things like TVs and computers at the curb in Verona since 2009. You also can no longer drop them at the Recycling Center with the paper, plastics, glass and clothing that you bring there. Electronic devices contain components that have been shown to cause significant pollution to land and water if they are not disposed of properly.
The easiest way to stay on top of the recycling dates is to put an app called Remyndr on your smartphone. Remyndr is a free smartphone app that was developed by Verona resident Tom Cherry to help all of us remember when to put what at the curb. There’s more information on all aspects of recycling on the Website of the Verona Environmental Commission.


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NATIONAL (KTNV) — A peach recall has expanded to include loose peaches and peach products after 78 people have become sick in 12 states by salmonella poisoning connected to the fruit.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the update on Thursday.
As of Aug. 27, a total of 78 people were infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Enteritidis in those 12 states that include Connecticut, Kentucky, and Missouri.
The Wawoma-brand peaches were identified as the likely source of infection and were sold in multiple states from June 1 to the present.
More than a dozen companies have so far recalled the peaches or products made with the fruit, including Aldi, Food Lion, Hannaford, Kroger, Target, Walmart, Wegmans and Russ Davis Wholesale.
Bagged peaches, loose fruit and in-bulk peaches, along with peach salsa sold under three brand names and labeled as Perfectly Peach Salsa, are under recall.
The FDA currently reports the possibly contaminated fruit was distributed to retailers in 34 states: Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin.
The investigation remains ongoing to identify other retailers that may have sold contaminated peaches packed or supplied by Prima Wawona or Wawona Packing Company LLC.
The CDC urges to clean and sanitize any surfaces the peaches may have come into contact with to prevent cross-contamination.
Salmonella poisoning can cause diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps between six hours and six days after exposure to the bacteria, according to the CDC.


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Posts filed under ‘Health Hazards’
Did you know? Since 2012 there have been 32,000 calls to Poison Control from children ingesting laundry detergent? Most commonly from the pod like packages! #DitchTheDetergents
New tests of 100 “natural” and “organic” soaps, shampoos and other consumer products show that nearly half of them contained a cancer-causing chemical that is a byproduct of petrochemicals used in manufacturing.
Finally–toxic cleaners exposed! EWG will soon launch a website tool that will allow people to search and find out just how toxic their cleaners are. Check out their sneak peak report!
Are your white clothes really whiter after you wash them? Most laundry detergents contain optical brighteners, which are chemicals that trick your sensory perception.
Beauty is only skin deep, but the products we use to attain it contain chemicals that may penetrate far deeper. The average adult uses nine personal care products a day, with roughly 120 chemicals spread among them, many of which are incompletely tested for toxicity.
Start 2012 right with a toxin-free home – check out this list of simple things you can do to maintain an eco-healthy home.


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Live Webcast Available
— Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO) announced today that Burke Culligan, senior director, product management, Front Doors, will present at the 2009 Deutsche Bank Technology Conference. The session is scheduled to begin at 9:40am PT / 12:40pm ET on Wednesday, September 16, 2009.
A live webcast will be available on the Investor Relations website at http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/events.cfm?CalendarID=5
Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO) is a leading global consumer brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! is where millions of people go every day to see what is happening with the people and things that matter to them most. Yahoo! helps marketers reach that audience with its unique and compelling advertiser proposition. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit http://pressroom.yahoo.com or the company’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal (http://yodel.yahoo.com).
SOURCE: Yahoo! Inc.
Cathy La Rocca, 408-349-5188 (Investors)
Kim Rubey, 408-349-8910 (Media)


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Transport Minister appoints c’tte to resolve ports issues
… Joins Customs in explaining Tin-Can Port congestion
The latest Federal Government-midwived committee in the ports system, SHIPS & PORTS DAILY gathered, has the Executive Director, Marine and Operations, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Engr. David Omonibeke, as Chairman.
Membership of committee is multi-disciplinary, comprising, among others, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), cargo scanning services providers, terminal operators and shipping companies.
Sources informed SHIPS & PORTS DAILY that Umar had given the committee marching orders to objectively look into the various issues that assail the ports, proffering solutions on critical matters such as dislocations in cargo clearance and delivery, and congestion arising thereof.
While the committee’s timeframe could not readily be confirmed, it was learnt that the Minister gave strict directives that it kick-starts promptly, and works with dispatch to execute its brief.
Meanwhile, the crushing congestion that has engulfed Ashaye Terminal of the Tin-Can Island Port Complex (TCIPC) may soon be a thing of the past, even as the Transport Minister; and the Customs Area Controller (CAC), Tin-Can Island Port Area Command, NCS, Comptroller Zakari Jibrin, linked the cargo build-up with alleged inadequate logistics supply by the terminal operator.
Tincan Island Container Terminal Limited (TICT), as the terminal operator, undertakes the responsibility of taking delivery of imported cargoes, which it, thereafter, transfers to the scanning site of the service provider, Cotecna Destination Inspection Limited (CDIL).
Blaming the root cause of the worrisome situation on the alleged inefficiency of cargo transfer mechanism from the terminal to the scanning bay, the two top government officials, who spoke at different fora after touring the port, said that the issue of space constraint would also be addressed.
During the tour of the port last Friday, the Minister, who bemoaned, what, according to him, was the slow process of transfer of cargo by the terminal operator, also expressed worry at the incessant breakdown of the Customs server, thereby compounding the goods clearing process.
Umar, who was accompanied by top officials of the NPA during the tour, opined that the congestion problem could have largely been averted if the delays associated with feeding the scanning facilities with containers had been observed.
And speaking with journalists recently during the presentation of his Command’s quarterly scorecard, the CAC linked the congestion problem to inadequate supply of containers to the scanner site.
Jibrin said: “We went round the terminal with the Minister (of Transport) and the representatives of the service provider and the terminal operators, and we can all see the problem. TICT has a lot of cargo, (and) no space, because empty containers have taken over most of the available spaces. Cotecna is waiting to scan, (and) no cargo transfer from TICT, because of transportation problem.
“Cotecna have told us that they can scan up to 400 containers in a day, but they (terminal operator) only make 200 available … sometimes less, because the trucks are inadequate. They have not allowed us to test the true capacity of Cotecna by supplying them with that 400 so that everybody can see.
“I can assure you that the problem with TICT is being addressed. They are now to transfer excess containers to off dock facilities, and we do hope that this will take care of most of the problem.”
Reacting to the issue, the CDIL management, through its spokesperson, Mr. Aminu Mohammed, maintained that the installed capacities of the scanners at the port were grossly being underutilised.
“While the daily capacity of the 9.0 MeV fixed scanner at Tin-Can Ashaye is 400 boxes, and the mobile scanner at Tin-Can RoRo is 360 boxes, within the current month of September 2013, the company has so far accomplished only daily average of 185 and 108 for the 2 sites respectively,” Mohammed said.
Copyright Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.


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OKX, a major cryptocurrency exchange, has announced plans to delist TRX futures contracts. In a statement released on April 4th, the exchange cited market trends and user needs as the reasons behind the decision.
According to the announcement, the delisting will be gradual, with the generation of TRX USDT-Margined and Crypto-Margined futures contracts being discontinued in the coming months. The official delisting of TRX futures contracts is scheduled to take place at 08:00 am UTC on September 30, 2023.
The delisting will affect OKX’s web, app, and API users. The exchange has not provided any further details about the decision, but it is expected to have an impact on TRX trading volumes on the platform.
TRX is a cryptocurrency that runs on the TRON blockchain and is used for a variety of purposes, including payment for goods and services and as a means of exchange on decentralized applications. OKX’s decision to delist TRX futures contracts may be a reflection of changing market dynamics and shifting user preferences.


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India’s exports rose approx 45.8% to reach US$33.28 billion in August 2021, according to data released by the Commerce Ministry on Tuesday. This compares to US$22.8 Billion recorded in August 2020.
According to the data, imports in August 2020 surged by 51.7% to approx US$47.1 billion.
Trade deficit in August widened to touch US$13.8 billion compared US$8.2 billion in August 2020.
Cumulative value of exports between April-August this year expanded to USD 164.10 billion, a 67.3% increase on a year-over-year basis.
Imports during April-August 2021 stood at US$ 219.63 billion compared to US$121.42 billion, the previous year.


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Vibrant Media, purveyor of in-text advertising, is trying a new product that might make the whole concept seem a little less evil.
Vibrant ads are the double-underlined hyperlinks that have become ubiquitous over the past few years. They open into a small window when passed over by a cursor; the advertiser pays when an ad is clicked. Many readers find them annoying, and they've been been controversial at some publications. But with click rates between 3% and 10%, they're effective.
Now Vibrant is testing an editorial version called "Vibrant Related Content." These will look like a normal hyperlinks with a single underline, but they'll open a window of related links, images or video pulled from elsewhere on the site. The window will also contain ads, either pre-roll video or display, sold on a cost-per-thousand-impressions basis, so advertisers pay based the number of ad views, not clicks. Readers will be alerted that it's not a normal hyperlink from a small magnifying glass, indicating the presence of more content.
Vibrant is selling the concept to publishers as a way to increase clicks by visitors by helping them to information they might not have otherwise found. The danger, of course, is that the links aren't wanted or useful and it just feels to the user like more spam. So far, 50 sites are experimenting with the service, including NBC U's iVillage and Gannett's Detroit Free Press, which are using it to direct users to related articles.
It's potentially a new line of business for Vibrant, whose CEO Doug Stevenson says the company will sell $80 million in-text ads across 3,500 Web sites in 2008. The company lost a recent high-profile hire, Sean Finnegan, to Starcom MediaVest, but Stevenson says Finnegan will remain on Vibrant's board.


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Mozilla has announced that they are now accepting web apps for their upcoming Mozilla Marketplace.
Mozilla spoke about this new platform:
Today, we are incredibly proud to announce that the Mozilla Marketplace will open for developer submissions next week during Mobile World Congress. If you are an app developer interested in distributing and monetizing your app across device and platform silos, you should submit your app to the Mozilla Marketplace. Submitting your app will reserve your app name and give your app the chance to be featured in the launch later this year.
Mozilla Marketplace would become a prime challenger to Chrome Web Store which also feature web apps but is restricted to Google Chrome browser.


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April 10, 2018
2 Min Read
A National Beef facility in Kansas. Image courtesy of Google Maps
Brazilian meat processing corporation Marfrig Global Foods is poised to become the world’s second biggest processor of beef following the announcement of a $969 million deal to acquire a 51% ownership stake in Kansas City, MO-based National Beef Packing Company LLC.
The definitive agreement between National Beef’s owner, investment holding company Leucadia, and Marfrig was announced in separate press releases on Monday.
Leucadia said it will sell 48% of National Beef to Marfrig for $900 in cash and that other shareholders will sell an additional 3%. The New York-based firm will retain 31% ownership in the meat processor.
“We believe that National Beef was an outstanding company, but was too large and concentrated of an investment for Leucadia. We were patient and persevered as National Beef went through an exceptional downturn and then we navigated deliberately toward a transaction that would achieve our near-term and long-term objectives,” the investment holding company’s chief executive officer, Rich Handler, said in a statement.
Reporting sales of $7.3 billion last year, National Beef exports its products to 40 countries, including South Korea and Japan. Marfrig said the combined sales of the firms following the transaction will total $13 billion.
“The acquisition of National Beef represents the realization of a unique opportunity, said Martin Secco, the Brazilian company’s chief executive officer, in a press release. “With the transaction, we will have operations in the world’s two largest beef markets, will gain access to extremely sophisticated consumer countries and will be able to grow while maintaining rigorous financial discipline.”
National Beef’s current chief executive officer Tim Klein is slated to remain in his present position.
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Impressive iPhone 6 Concept Based On Recent News Hits The Web
Over the past couple of weeks, a number of reports sharing vital information on Apple’s next-generation iPhone 6 handset have surfaced online. Now, the French language Apple blog Nowhereelse.fr and acclaimed designer Martin Hajek have teamed-up in order to produce an impressive iPhone 6 concept based on the recently published information.
The concept, first published by Nowhereelse.fr, shows off an iPhone 6 handset that’s based on both a series of recently leaked schematics and cases for the next-generation smartphone; as such, Hajek’s design exhibits an iPhone that’s bigger and thinner than Apple’s present-generation four-inch iPhone 5s model.
Despite reports claiming Cupertino is developing a 5.5-inch handset, Hajek’s concept shows how a 4.7-inch smartphone might look; the model is also equipped with a series of colored cases, too.
Take a look:
Apple is also expected to move the handset’s power button with its iPhone 6, and this, too, is reflected in Hajek’s design. Though of course, we’ll know nothing for certain concerning the handset until Apple unveils the new model later this year.
Besides the above, further reports have suggested that the price of Apple’s handset could increase by up to $100 with the iPhone 6. Previous analysis has suggested that Apple will make the move in order to “avoid the (profit) margin erosion that occurred when the iPhone 5 launched.”
While Apple is expected to unveil iOS 8 at WWDC on June 2, we’re not expecting to get our first look at the iPhone 6 until September or October at a dedicated iPhone event. Besides a revamped iPhone line, 2014 is also expected to bring new iPads, a refreshed Apple TV, and Apple’s long rumored “iWatch” product.
See also: Photos+ Gets Acquired And Updated To Add Dropbox Support, Junk Jack X Gets Its Anticipated Feature-Packed Easter Update, and RadioShack Is Now Offering The iPhone 5s From $99.[gallery columns="2"]


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Borderlands 3 has been an Epic Games Store exclusive since the game launched but Steam users will finally be able to get their hands on the game next month. Borderlands 3 will launch on Steam on March 13th and will include cross play so players on Steam and Epic can play together.
Also announced is that the second campaign expansion titled "Guns, Love and Tentacles: The Marriage of Wainwright & Hammerlock" will launch on March 26th for all platforms. The second expansion will be available to all season pass and Super Deluxe Edition owners.
Finally a roadmap was released for content coming this Spring including Mayhem 2.0 and the Revenge of the Cartels seasonal event. Finally Guardian Takedown will arrive in May.


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By Rigoberto Hernandez
“Modern Times is facing a financial crisis and urgently needs an influx of cash if we are going to be able to pay our bills through the summer,” the letter reads. “The cold, hard economic facts are these: We need to sell a certain amount everyday in order to break even on costs – taxes, rent, payroll, utilities, insurance, and new books – and right now we are not doing this.”
Over the last decade, the Mission’s independent bookstores, many of which have been here for decades, have struggled against one new competitor after another, including mega-bookstores, online sales and now e-books.
Abandoned Planet, formerly on Valencia, closed in January, and Adobe Books on 16th Street is barely making it. Alan Beatts, the owner of Borderlands Books and the Borderlands Cafe next door, told Mission Loc@l in January that he opened the café because he doesn’t see bookstores alone as viable businesses.READ MORE HERE.


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Fujifilm has announced a new wide-format mobile printer for its Polaroid like-film – the INSTAX Link Wide™ Smartphone Printer.
Designed to connect to smartphones through Bluetooth, the Instax Link Wide Smartphone Printer could serve as a competitor to the existing Instax Mini Link offering Polaroid-style photographs straight from the users’ camera roll.
The photos are much bigger than the Instax Mini ones – about the size of two credit cards side by side – and the printer is also compatible with Fujifilm’s X-S10 mirrorless camera, enabling users to transfer and print photographs directly from it.
Available in two printing modes, Rich and Natural, the printer will let users choose between “bright and immersive or saturated and classic” color schemes.
The printer should be able to take about 100 Instax prints on a battery charge, and users will be able to edit captures in the app and even adding text.
The Instax Link Wide Smartphone Printer will arrive later this month for the price of $149.95, while there will also be a new black-bordered variant of Instax Wide film, costing $21.99 per pack of 10.


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By Melodie Warner
FirstEnergy Corp.'s (FE) first-quarter earnings fell 36% as cooler weather again contributed to the diversified energy company's lower distribution volume.
FirstEnergy's $4.4 billion acquisition of Allegheny Energy Inc. in early 2011 made it one of the largest electricity producers in the U.S. The company serves customers in Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and West Virginia.
FirstEnergy's revenue has declined over the past year as milder weather contributed to lower energy prices and demand. The company has responded by taking steps to reduce its operating costs, including job cuts and repurchasing debt.
FirstEnergy reported a profit of $196 million, or 47 cents a share, down from $306 million, or 73 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding items such as mark-to-market adjustments, regulatory charges and impairments, adjusted earnings fell to 76 cents from 82 cents. Revenue declined 8% to $3.7 billion from $4 billion a year ago.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had most recently forecast per-share earnings of 68 cents on revenue of $3.66 billion.
Total distribution volume fell 3%, partly due to cooler weather this year. Residential sales climbed 6%, while industrial and commercial deliveries increased slightly.
Shares of FirstEnergy, which also backed its full-year guidance, closed Monday at $44.18 and were inactive premarket. The stock is up 5.8% since the start of the year.
Write to Melodie Warner at email@example.com
Order free Annual Report for FirstEnergy Corp.
Visit http://djnweurope.ar.wilink.com/?ticker=US3379321074 or call +44 (0)208 391 6028
"FirstEnergy 1st-Quarter Net Falls 36% on Lower Distribution Volume" at 8:53 a.m. EDT misstated the company's distribution volume decreased in the headline, first and sixth paragraphs. Total distribution volume rose, not fell, 3%, partly due to cooler weather this year. Earnings declined as the diversified energy company posted lower revenue.


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Electricity consumers in Delta have charged the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to enforce the “No Meter, No Billing” rule in the country.
The consumers made the demand on Friday at a one-day NERC Electricity Consumers Public Consultation on the theme, ” Capping of Estimated Billing and Distribution Franchising” in Asaba.
Some of the consumers, Mr john Uche, Mr Larry Olise, Mr Sam Obidi, Mrs Ngozi Obi among others described the services of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) in the state as deplorable and reaping off the consumers through estimated billings.
According to them the people of Delta deserve apology from the distribution company and the power regulator for the poor services and neglect.
“Nigerians are not supposed to pay for meters, nor procure transformers, electricity cables among others before being connected to the public power source.
“NERC should make the DISCOs supply pre-paid meters free to every home and until they do this they must stop given the consumers estimated billings.
“We insist on No Meter, No Billings,” they said.
They, however, pledged to explore opportunities in the distribution franchise and called on NERC to fasten the process of meter supply and installation to every consumer to ensure proper electricity billings in the state.
The NERC Chairman, Prof. James Momoh while addressing the forum, assured them that modalities were being worked out to ensure that the DISCOs stop forthwith the estimated billings.
He said that the capping of estimated billing and the distribution franchise when fully implemented would make consumers better of.
He also said that the meters were not free as consumers would have to pay for them.
According to him, the reason for the consultation is to seek the consumer’s inputs on the issue of estimated billing.
“Capping estimated billing here means that the former estimated billings charged consumers for not having meters is going to stop.
” This consultation is to get consumer’s opinions and options, and when the capping is agreed and the bill passed, there will be a maximum amount consumers should pay if the DISCOs does not provide meters.
“The whole idea is to provoke, promote and make DISCOs to provide pre-paid meters to Nigerians, all over the world, consumers pay for electricity through metering.
“We now have requirement that meters should be provided to all customers in Nigeria but that may take more than one day and we said metering should start May 1st this year.
“This could take time but we have a maximum period of two years to provide meters to all registered customers with the DISCOs.
“But in doing that we have to put a cap to maximum amount consumers will pay so that you will not be over estimated,” he said.
He said the burden of procuring meters had been taken away from the DISCOs through the Meter Asset Procurement (MAP) Programme, the private investors willing to invest and provide meters for Nigerians.
He said that the distribution asset provider which was called distribution franchise would create opportunity for investors to make money providing meters, maintaining and collecting bills.
He said that at the end the whole process that it would pay off and the consumers would no longer spend their monies procuring facilities for the DISCOs to give them electricity as the franchise would take away that burden.
On his part, Mr Abu Ejoor, Executive Director, BEDC said that the company had complied and would ensure the metering of all electricity consumers in the state in line with the directive of NERC.
He, however, charged consumers to always consult with the DISCOs before embarking on procurement of power transformers, other ancillary facilities and avoid connecting electricity illegally.
According to him, it is the duty of the DISCOs to procure electricity materials and to connect consumers to the power source.
He said that enumerations of consumers in the state was on going, adding that when all the processes were concluded, consumers who pay for the meters would be metered.


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RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - Revenue from the electro-electronic industry should end 2019 at R$154 (US$37) billion. According to the Brazilian Association of the Electrical and Electronic Industry (Abinee), despite the nominal growth of five percent compared to 2018 (R$146.1 billion), there was no real increase, since inflation in the sector, according to the Producer Price Index (IPP), also closed the year at five percent.
The association released this Thursday, December 5th, in São Paulo, the annual indicators.
The industrial production of electro-electronic goods also showed stability in 2019 compared to 2018. The stability . . .


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Amazon says it is on track to finish its one-million-square-foot fulfillment centre in Leduc County by spring 2020.
The facility is located at the Border Business Park in Nisku (1440 – 39 Ave.) directly south of Edmonton’s city limit at 41 Avenue SW.
Once complete, the massive building, which is projected to cost $120 million to build, will be the size of 21 football fields. As of Tuesday, the company said the project is about 40 per cent complete.
“It’s different in terms of we keep evolving fulfillment technology — in terms of storage solutions and in terms of automation — so this will have the most latest storage solutions for these heavy, bulky, bigger type of items that we store in the county.”
“To see a tenant of this size… a million square feet, is unprecedented in Alberta, actually I think it’s the biggest distribution site we have seen built in Alberta,” said Bill Bird, the senior vice-president of ONE Properties.
ONE Properties is a development firm working on the facility with Amazon. Bird said Leduc County was appealing because of less expensive taxes and a location that allows for easy access to Edmonton, the airport and areas north of the city.
The construction phase of the project will employ about 250 workers at its peak. Once the centre is open, the Amazon facility will employ 600 people.
“We are proud that Amazon has chosen Leduc County as the location of its next fulfillment centre,” Leduc County mayor Tanni Doblanko said in a news release
“This new centre will not only provide direct employment for more than 600 people in our region, but it will also boost the local economy, providing many indirect jobs and commerce for small businesses that will service both the new workforce and the facility.”
“We’re going to start with 600 jobs but over a period of time, the numbers we’ve seen [indicate that] as customer demands increase, they will just continue to go up,” Arora said.
This is Amazon’s 11th fulfillment centre in Canada. Amazon is building another warehouse in Ontario that will be similar in size to the facility in Leduc County.


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EUROBOTS GmbH, an internet retailer based in Germany that is authorized to sell autonomous robot helpers like the Roomba, has been on a robot domain name shopping spree.
The company which used Eurobots.de as its home page, acquired Eurobots.com this month for 22,000 Euro (or about $29,000 USD) through Sedo GreatDomains.
Before that acquisition, the company paid $3,239 USD in 2010 for Eurobots.co.uk.
Eurobots.net, a different company than EUROBOTS GmbH, which buys and sells used industrial robots, currently owns the top spot in the search engines for Eurobots.
EUROBOTS GmbH owns a number of “bot” domain names and online properties including Lawnbot.de and Cleanbot.de.
Small robots are making a move
You might not see them on store shelves everywhere you go, but small, autonomous robots like the Roomba are doing well when it comes to sales. iRobot reports that in 2009, the company, “generated more than $298 million in revenue and employed more than 500 of the robot industry’s top professionals, including mechanical, electrical and software engineers and related support staff. iRobot stock trades on the NASDAQ stock market under the ticker symbol IRBT.”
According to CNET: “iRobot demoed its updated line of robot floor cleaners at CES 2011, showing off a more powerful Roomba vacuum bot and a much more compact Scooba floor scrubber.”
While you can watch a video of iRobot showing off their robots at CES, if you really want to see one of the coolest videos that has to do with robots and domain names, watch this video of Diapers.com robots working in the warehouse.


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Just over a month ago (on September 9, to be exact) Apple launched two new models of its somewhat popular flagship smartphone, the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus – along with a wearable, the Apple Watch.
Today, at a special event at its Cupertino headquarters in California, Apple has unveiled two new models in its iPad tablet line, along with a shiny new iMac computer.
Read on to find out all of the details…[/nextpage] [nextpage title=”Next”]
Apple Pay was announced last month, but now Apple says that it will officially launch on Monday in the US – and the company has signed up a further 500 banks to participate since it was announced.
Apple also announced the Watch last month, and today CEO Tim Cook said that the company would be rolling out WatchKit for developers making Watch apps, from next month. The Watch itself will be in stores from spring 2015.
Apple also announced some updates for its iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite operating systems.
iOS 8.1 will see the return of the camera roll, the lack of it being a common complaint about iOS 8. Plus there will be a public beta for the iCloud photo library, with the first 5GB of storage free.
Apple says OS X Yosemite will bring iOS-like sharing from Apple’s built-in applications, and the new Safari is six times faster than any other browser. Oh, and the company says that it’s also much more efficient for better battery life.
Yosemite also has what Apple calls Continuity features, which let you make calls, texts, and set up your phone’s hotspot from your computer. Yosemite is available from today, for free – as is iOS 8.1, which is available from Monday. And the iWork update for OS X and iOS is also available today, and is also free.[/nextpage] [nextpage title=”Next”]
As predicted, Apple revealed the iPad Air 2 – which is even thinner than any previous iPad, at just 6.1mm. That’s 18% thinner than the original iPad, making it, Apple says, the world’s thinnest tablet.
“It’s unbelievably gorgeous, and look how thin it is,” Cook gloated. “Can you even see it?”
The iPad Air 2 has an anti-reflective coating, reducing reflections by 56%, and improved retina display. Inside, it’s running a new chip – the A86. It has a second-generation 64-bit architecture, 3 billion transistors and a 40% faster CPU. The iPad Air 2 has 180 times the graphics performance of the original iPad and a 10-hour battery life.
New ipad Air 2’s new iSight camera is 8MP, 1.12 micron pixels, f2.4, and does 1080p HD video. The camera will take 43mp panoramas and you can do time-lapse photography as well as well as slow-motion video. There is also a new Facetime camera on the front of the iPad.
Apple says that the most-requested feature is Touch ID, which unlocks your iPad by reading your fingerprint. It can also be used for making online purchases.
The iPad Air 2 will come in silver, grey and gold, and in the US will be priced from $499 for the 16GB model, $599 for the 64GB and $699 for 128GB.[/nextpage] [nextpage title=”Next”]
Also as predicted, an upgraded version of the iPad Mini 3 was also announced, and it also gains the fingerprint recognition component.
It has a 5MP iSight camera rather than the 8MP of the iPad Air 2, but also has the 1080p HD video camera. In the US, the iPad Mini 3 starts at $399.
Both the iPad Air 2 and the iPad Mini 3 are available for pre-orders from tomorrow and will ship from October 17.
[/nextpage] [nextpage title=”Next”]
And finally, Apple could not leave out the Mac – which is fitting, seeing as this years is the Macintosh computer’s 30th birthday.
A new iMac with retina display was announced, with a 5K resolution 27-inch display that has 5210 x 2880 pixels. Apple says it is better than HD and is the highest resolution computer display available – with what it claims is seven times the pixels found on standard high-definition TV sets.
The iMac is just 5mm thick and has a special “timing controller” chip to drive the display, along with a new low-power backlight system that uses 30% less energy than the previous version.
Apple says the iMac runs on a new 3.5GHz Intel quad-core i5 chip, which you can upgrade to 4GHz i7. The graphics will be powered by a new AMD Radeon M9 M290X processor, which has 3.5 teraflops of processing power.
It also comes with 8GB of RAM and the Thunderbolt 2, 1TB fusion drive and will cost $2,499 in the US.
The Mac Mini is also getting an update, with new Intel chips, two Thunderbolt 2 ports, faster graphics and wi-fi. Apple says that it is the smallest, most power-efficient computer the company has made.
It starts at $499 in the US and is shipping from today.[/nextpage]


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Bangladesh apparel industry: It’s time to shift perceptions
For better or worse, Bangladesh as a sourcing hub has become the global bellwether for CSR issues in apparel supply chains.
More often than not Bangladesh is portrayed as a case study on poor working conditions. If international media wants to highlight safety, Bangladesh is their favourite punching bag. And, of course, for pollution, water wastage and so on, the spotlight is always put on Bangladesh.
I got thinking about a lot of these issues in recent weeks in the run up to the anniversary of the Rana Plaza tragedy. No surprise, the spotlight has been on Bangladesh once again, and I have seen many international commentators making all sorts of circumspections or throwing their views on the country. If one were to read everything they say, it is likely they would never purchase another garment from here.
So, I began to wonder, how many people who criticise Bangladesh have first-hand knowledge of this issue? I know for certain that many of our most ardent critics have never stepped foot on Bangladeshi soil! Often, I read about Bangladesh and our factories and I see an industry I simply do not recognise! This picture I see too often is the Bangladesh of a decade ago.
Let me be clear: Rana Plaza is an event we should never forget and, of course, we need to remember those who lost their lives in the most tragic incident every year. The terrible incident that will be forever etched in the history of Bangladesh's apparel industry. The country and the world were shocked, pained and saddened with grief and mourning for the tragic loss of human lives.
But I think it is also important to promote the fact that we have had several years during which the Bangladesh Accord and Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety supported a huge overhaul of the Bangladesh apparel factories. Major remediation works were carried out costing tens of millions of US dollars, alongside the rolling out of key safety features across the industry. In a recent survey conducted by QIMA, Bangladesh ranked second in "Ethical Manufacturing" with a score of 7.7 only behind Taiwan which scored 8.0. Vietnam came in third, followed by Thailand, Pakistan, Turkey, China, India and Brazil, respectively.
Bangladesh successfully eliminated child labour from its apparel industry with the help of the ILO. The workers' wages have steadily risen and their rights have also increased, although we must all keep fighting on these issues and stay humble.
The country has by far the largest number of LEED factories (138) in the world, among them 39 are LEED Platinum certified and as many as 84 are LEED Gold certified. Yet, so often, I see news popping around Bangladesh and the images used to represent factories do not represent the modern apparel factories here. Perhaps, as an industry, we need to improve our public relations although that is a story for another day.
Bangladesh has moved beyond Rana Plaza. The landscape stands neatly transformed.
But it goes deeper than this. I have been running my own factory for almost two decades. It is difficult to put into words the amount of change I have seen during the time in the industry. The Bangladesh apparel sector is a completely different proposition to what it was back then. It has had no choice but to change to meet the demands of a global fashion industry which never stands still.
There is also the issue of garment workers. Is worker unrest an issue in Bangladesh? From time to time yes, of course it is (as it is in many countries, even those in the west). Yet if one were to follow the social media streams of some NGOs, one would get the impression that Bangladesh garment factories are in a regular state of infighting and chaos.
My intention here is not to criticise people who write about Bangladesh. Many are doing fine work and I have faith that in most cases they are coming from a place of goodwill. The industry should be ready to take this extraneous pressure as a motivation to even accelerate the improvements and get better beyond what it has already achieved. But the significant improvements the industry made over recent years should also be recognised by all stakeholders. Any mis-portrayal of the industry will actually demean the concerted efforts made by the manufacturers, buyers and the government to transform it.
I say with reasonable basis that too many people incorrectly label Bangladesh without ever coming to the land and visiting the factories. There is the other group of individuals who visit us on a regular basis—the buyers from big fashion brands who are witness to the quiet transformation. They are better placed than anyone else to speak for the real progress in Bangladesh apparel industry.
New buyers are often positively shocked when they come here. The reality does not match the perception they had formed by reading about us on the internet. This is not what Bangladesh looked like in the reports they had read, they tell us.
This modern side of our country, the real Bangladesh, is something we all need to play our part in promoting looking ahead as we seek to win hearts and minds and encourage would-be investors to look beyond the headlines.
I would like to take this opportunity to invite all our foreign friends to Bangladesh to see the Bangladesh apparel industry with their own eyes. We always appreciate any constructive criticism. But making sweeping comments that simply is not representative of the truth and publishing news that is far from the reality are not only undermining the progress Bangladesh made, but also barring the honest march of the global fashion industry towards safety and sustainability.
Mostafiz Uddin is the Managing Director of Denim Expert Limited. He is also the Founder and CEO of Bangladesh Denim Expo and Bangladesh Apparel Exchange (BAE).


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In the six months since the launch of the Fitbit Ionic smartwatch – the best Fitbit by a country mile – it seems the best-known maker of fitness trackers has been busy, because it has just announced another smartwatch. The Fitbit Versa will go on sale in April and is available to pre-order now.
The Versa is almost the same as the Ionic but for five key differences, three of which are bona fide improvements.
- It’s lighter. In fact, according to Fitbit, it’s the lightest metal smartwatch out there.
- The Versa swaps built-in GPS for connected GPS, so to accurately track your run or ride and follow your pace on the device’s screen you’ll have to bring along your smartphone and the Versa will connect to that.
- The quoted battery life has dropped from five days to four, but that’s still good for a smartwatch and we found the Ionic sometimes lasted beyond five days.
- The Versa has dropped the wider metal frame around the top and bottom of the screen and it looks a damn sight sharper for it.
- Finally, and perhaps most importantly, at £200 the Versa costs £100 less than the Ionic. Would you spend an extra ton for another day’s battery life and leaving your phone at home when you run?
Combine these changes with the waterproof casing and swim tracking, heart rate monitor, sharp screen resolution and the smartwatch features inherited from the Ionic, and the Versa makes a strong case for being the best fitness smartwatch out there.
Those smartwatch features include onboard memory to store music and play it through Bluetooth headphones, and Fitbit has announced a new partnership with Deezer Premium to sync playlists to the watch so they can be listened to offline. Fitbit smartwatches also relay notifications from any app on your phone and Android users have also been promised an upgrade with the addition of a quick reply to texts feature.
And while Fitbit Pay, which should let you use the watch like a contactless card, only works if you’re with one of only two challenger banks in the UK at the moment, the selection of apps has been slowly improving – name brands like the New York Times, Yelp and Hue smart lighting are joining the fray. Furthermore, there is an ever-growing selection of watch faces to choose from.
Then there’s all that other Fitbit good stuff, like the best sleep tracking around, a cardio fitness score that’s VO2 max in all but name and automatic recognition of exercise. Plus, there are more badges, reminders to move and challenges than you can shake a stick at.
Yep, we’re feeling pretty good about this new Fitbit. We’ll get our hands on one as soon as possible and let you know if it lives up to the (ahem, our) hype.
£200, pre-order on fitbit.com


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Two restaurants named Bay Area's greenest
Mixt Greens of San Francisco and Vineyards Inn of Sonoma County were named the greenest restaurants in the Bay Area on Thursday in a contest sponsored by Thimmakka, a Berkeley nonprofit that helps restaurants improve their environmental practices.
The two winning restaurants were chosen from 40 entries by a panel of experts from the conservation movement and the hospitality industry.
The judging was based on metrics such as energy efficiency, water use, percent of waste recycled, green design elements, and use of organic ingredients and eco-friendly cleaning products.
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"All the 40 restaurants that participated were green, which is special since (green restaurants) are still in a minority," said Suparna Vashisht, managing director of Thimmakka. "But these two stood out head and shoulders above the rest for doing so many things that were completely voluntary and self-motivated."
Mixt Greens, which specializes in salads and has three downtown San Francisco locations, uses local and organic produce and compostable takeout containers. Among other environmental steps, it diverts 90 percent of its waste from landfills, hosts benefits for environmental groups, and buys carbon offsets to counter its carbon emissions.
Vineyards Inn, in Kenwood, uses only organic produce and meat, and grows most of its own vegetables. It has reduced its natural gas consumption for two years in a row, and has cut waste to a point where one 35-gallon residential bin is enough to hold all its nonrecyclable, noncompostable garbage. It incorporated many green and recycled elements into its building, including reusing a roof that had been on a 150-year-old Buddhist monastery in Ukiah.


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The Irn-Bru maker is a step closer to its goal of carbon neutrality after announcing plans to package multipacks in 100% recycled shrink wrap by the end of 2021. This move will save 400 tonnes of virgin plastic a year - that’s the weight of about 250 cars.
Irn-Bru is the first AG Barr brand to make the switch to 100% recycled wrap across its can multipacks, with the new sustainable pack set to hit shelves across the country from May.
Roger White, AG Barr’s chief executive said: “We’re always looking for ways to make our products more sustainable and we’re delighted to introduce this new 100% recycled film which has half the carbon footprint of its virgin plastic equivalent. This is just one step towards our longer term carbon neutral ambition, ensuring we play our part in reducing the effects of climate change on our planet.”


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More than a thousand parents of under-five-year-olds were interviewed by Childwise. They revealed that 75% of their children had access to a connected device and over half of three and four-year-olds had their own tablet or computer.
市场调查机构 Childwise 采访了一千多名五岁以下儿童的家长。他们发现，在这些人的子女中，75%的孩子有机会使用能上网的设备，且有超过一半的三至四岁的孩子拥有自己的平板电脑或计算机。
Children spend just under three hours a day watching TV in various forms and while the number watching traditional television hasn't changed, they're using their devices to access all kinds of online video services.
While Cbeebies is still their favourite channel, its share of viewing has declined. Voice-recognition gadgets such as Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa are being used by children to play nursery rhymes or ask questions such as "how big is the moon?"
尽管 BBC 旗下的幼儿频道 “Cbeebies” 仍是孩子们的最爱，但其收视率有所下降。孩子们在使用苹果 Siri 和亚马逊 Alexa 等智能语音识别装置来播放儿歌或询问这样的问题：“月亮有多大？”


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Every time Bastl Instruments and Casper Electronics collaborate, something special happens – so it’s no surprise a mixer/VCA is going to come with tasty fixin’s, too. The concept has roots in Casper concept module”Party Mix” and … it’s a party and a martial art.Read more
The runs-on-any-OS modular music studio got a major 2.1 update this week, with better high-res graphics, a new keyboard, and more. It’s a synth. It’s a tracker. It runs on Raspberry Pi so you can make your own mobile music hardware. It’s stupidly good – and those keys make it easy to jam with on the go. SunVox is a bright music maker even in hard times.
It was once the stuff of dreams — a patchable, modular environment for sound, synthesis, music, and procedural generative audio. Now it’s free (MetaSounds) in a free game engine (Unreal Engine). You just have to learn to use it – which is why this free comprehensive tutorial series by our friend Matt Spendlove is a must.
brings together the latest breaking news on music, technology, gear, and live visuals. Got a project, found a news tip, or want to share your product? Submit to us directly.


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OCU launches its "Don´t throw out your food" contest to fight against food waste30 may. 2016
This Monday, the 30th of May, OCU launched its “Don’t throw out your food” photography competition as part of its social awareness campaign.
OCU is inviting all Spanish homes and consumers to participate in the competition by sending photos of their best homemade "tricks" to avoid wasting food. Starting today, May 30th, and until the 20th of June, consumers can send their photographs via social networks using the hash tag #stopdesperdicio. An expert panel will choose five finalists from among all the entries. You can vote for your favourite via social networks from the 22nd to the 30th of June in order to choose the three winning photos. The winners will receive a six-month subscription to the online Masterchef school.
The purpose of this new initiative is to find out what strategies consumers use in their day-to-day lives and what advice they have with regards to avoiding throwing away food. We want to share these in order to make people aware that even the smallest gesture is important when trying to decrease food waste. Unfortunately, the data is alarming: between 30% and 50% of edible food ends up in the rubbish. According to the European Commission, Spain is number 7 on the ranking of countries that waste the most food, behind the United Kingdom, Germany, Holland, France, Poland and Italy.
Moreover, it is in homes where the most food is wasted (42% versus the 39% thrown out from the food industry). The majority of food waste in homes is due to poor planning. Here at OCU, we want to make Spanish consumers more aware of the need to change and improve small habits which can reduce the 1.3kg of food thrown out weekly in each Spanish home on average.
Additionally, the "Don't throw out your food" campaign (www.ocu.org/movilizate/no-tires-la-comida) advocates making donating leftover food a priority. For this reason, it is demanding that the Government and other involved administrations take real and effective measures to stop this squandering of resources and food.
In collaboration with consumers, OCU demands a regulation which incentivises and promotes donation and requires a proper management of food waste which respects the environment.
In OCU's opinion, this regulation should include the following measures:
- Establish measures ensuring that each and every agent involved in the production, generation, distribution and commercialisation of food products donate or give the food they reject to food banks, animal feed or fertilizers, in this order.
- Prohibit practices which involve the damaging of foods making them unusable for consumption.
- Incentivise donations by improving the fiscal benefits for those food donations sent to food banks or NGOs.
- Require that the best consumed by and expiration dates adhere to food quality and safety criteria and not be based on specific economic interests.
- Promote the reuse and recycling of leftover food products which cannot be donated as such. This should be prioritised in the following manner: transformation into other products, animal feed, composting or biogas production.


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NEW YORK – The Sheraton New York Times Square hotel has unveiled a $500,000 Fitness Center upgrade, which features several on-trend industry firsts and complimentary amenities that are not offered in other hotels. Guided by technology, current wellness trends and guest preferences, the 3,500 sq. ft Fitness Center has emerged from a top-to-bottom makeover and offers several new services.
The new Fitness Center is staffed by a professional team of certified fitness trainers who help take the guesswork out of working out, a complimentary service that is a first for a New York City hotel. In addition, the gym also offers the only 10-bike Peloton bike room at a hotel and the first customized running and walking tour of Central Park created for a New York Hotel by Tour Buddy Apps.
“With industry firsts like our team of trainers and Peloton bike room, we are bringing excitement to the hotel fitness experience while taking the guesswork out of working out,” said Dan McCarron, Director of Hotel Sales for the Sheraton New York Times Square hotel. “Hundreds of our business and leisure guests work out in the Fitness Center each day, which prompted us to identify innovative offerings guests will seek out during their stay.”
Full Team of Certified Trainers
An industry first, the Fitness Center is staffed by a rotating team of four certified fitness trainers passionate about helping guests navigate the hotel’s offerings throughout the gym. Seven days per week during business hours, certified trainers oversee the facility and interact with guests while walking the floor to share workout ideas, provide complimentary guidance, lend assistance with equipment and share turnkey tips with guests. Guests have 24/7 access to the facility; trainers staff the gym 5:30 am – 9 pm on weekdays and 8 am – 4 pm on weekends.
More Peloton Bikes Than Any Other Hotel
Tapping into the Peloton indoor cycling trend, the Sheraton New York Times Square now has ten Peloton bikes in a dedicated room within the Fitness Center. Guests have 24-hour access to studio cycling classes and can join any of the up to 14 daily live classes and 5,000+ on demand workouts. In addition, guests may join daily group Peloton rides broadcast onto an 85-inch screen. There six group rides Monday through Thursday, five on Friday and up to four on the weekend.
Guided by Tech: New Sheraton Fitness Running Tour App
The Sheraton New York Times Square is the first New York hotel to partner with Tour Buddy Apps, developing a customized app with six self-guided running and walking audio tours of Central Park. With its convenient location just five blocks from Central Park, the app offers yet another way for guests to have a highly personalized and curated workout experience while staying in New York City. With a quick tap of the screen, the GPS-enabled app guides guests through 5K or 10K walks and runs, with audio commentary about Central Park landmarks, history and notable points of interest in one of the world’s most famous parks. The Sheraton Fitness Running Tour app powered by Tour Buddy is a free download available in the Apple Store and in the Google Play store this April.
New SYNERGY360 System for Inspiring Workouts
Guests now benefit from the state-of-the-art equipment they are accustomed to using at home and their local gyms. The LifeFitness SYNRGY360 Suspension Trainer system offers a myriad of options for customized workouts, including an array of cable-motion strength training stations, suspension cables, rip stick, battle rope, kettlebells and medicine balls. The hotel’s certified trainers are on-hand in the Fitness Center to assist with tips and instruction for guests looking to build strength, balance and stability.
See NYC with Group Runs Led By Trainers
The hotel has paired working out with sightseeing, offering group runs led by fitness trainers that help keep guests on their regular workout schedule while traveling. A daily 5K group run through Central Park begins at 8:15am during the week and 11:30am on weekends.
The new equipment add to the Fitness Center’s full offerings, including new cardio and strength-training machines, weight benches, free weights, squat rack, rowing machine and a PowerMill climber. Access to the Fitness Center is complimentary for all guests and includes all classes, amenities and equipment.


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With millions of Americans excited to witness the first total solar eclipse visible across the entire United States in 99 years, many brands were vying to capture consumer attention relating to the rare natural phenomenon.
Airbnb had recently launched its “Night At…” series, allowing Airbnb users the chance to “win the sleepover of their dreams” by transforming iconic spaces into homes for just one night. A high profile custom execution and contest leveraging the “Great American Eclipse” and National Geographic’s expertise and reach would likely drive greater awareness and participation in Airbnb’s “Night At…” series.
Airbnb and National Geographic embarked on a ground-breaking partnership incorporating key expert National Geographic Explorers, one-of-a-kind lodging, contest promotion, extensive social media integration, and even a private jet experience.
Nat Geo/Airbnb Eclipse livestream generated 3.5M views, making it the highest peak viewership Nat Geo had seen at that time across all social channels.
Eclipse livestream was featured on the YouTube homepage.
Total 126M total impressions across National Geographic’s YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts.
Tafreshi’s exclusive photo taken from the “Night At…” plane was Nat Geo’s most-engaged social post, garnering 20M+ impressions for a single image. Tafreshi’s total Instagram activity garnered 85 million total impressions with Airbnb was tagged throughout.
PR surrounding the campaign earned an additional 4M coverage views across major media outlets


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