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How BuzzFeed-backed toy store Camp plans to survive beyond the holiday season
The publisher pop-up shop has turned into a holiday season staple in cities like New York and Los Angeles. Camp, a big retail bet partly owned by BuzzFeed, is hoping to thrive year-round with help from classes and brand activations.
While the 10,000 square-foot New York City toy store, which currently offers 2,500 products ranging from a $2 bouncy ball to a $300 electronic rocking horse, is meant to survive purely as a brick and mortar retailer, it is also banking on brands paying big bucks for activations, which will run anywhere from six to eight weeks. Adding BuzzFeed’s media muscle to the mix helps, but Camp is also designed to reduce the costs that typically make pop-ups so tough for brands.
To make extra money (and build a loyal, local customer base), Camp will play host to classes and activities, aimed at new mothers during the workweek and young children during the weekends.
It’s not clear how much BuzzFeed, which handles media and activation sales for Camp, is charging brands to activate in the store. And it’s not clear how much market demand there is for a space where a brand can sell, either. But retail and agency veterans see in Camp’s structure many opportunities that are hard to come by elsewhere in the market.
“It’s an infrastructural challenge for a brand to justify a real-world, experiential activation on a short-term basis,” said Eric Fleming, the co-founder of experiential agency Makeout. “There’s not many venues that cater to this kind of short-term lease situation.”
Historically, brands have used pop-ups as a way to build buzz or get attention, rather than drive sales. That’s because the economics of spinning up a store on a short-term basis are unfavorable: A short-term sublease in a swanky retail space in Soho, for example, might cost $20,000 per week at the low end, Fleming said.
Throw in costs that might include architects, electricians, fabricators, designers, scenic firms, construction workers, plus staffing for the space itself, and it becomes difficult for even the most successful brands to turn a profit. “It’s very rare for that to be economically viable,” Fleming said.
Camp is set up to minimize those costs. It has existing relationships with fabrication firms in Detroit and New Jersey, as well as in-house designers and consultants who can work on building out activations at a lower cost, Camp founder (and BuzzFeed Commerce head) Ben Kaufman said.
As Camp expands, those up-front costs can be amortized too. Camp will open multiple locations in the United States this year, Camp CMO Tiffany Markovsky Speyer said, though she declined to share specifics about when and where.
As those locations open, brand activations and designs, which are built using concepts borrowed from trade shows, are designed be quickly taken apart and transported to the next location; every design element in Camp’s current setup, which is called Basecamp, can be boxed up and loaded into the back of a single truck, Kaufman said.
To further diversify revenue, Camp’s locations will have regular classes set up for children and their parents. Non-branded classes cost $20-30 per person. Eventually, Kaufman said, Camp may roll out a membership program which would guarantee class admission and an ability to skip the line on busy days.
The idea of Camp changing its stripes regularly follows a concept that’s gaining currency in retail circles, thanks to the buzz generated by stores including Neighborhood Goods, and Story, which was acquired by Macy’s this spring; Story’s founder, Rachel Shechtman, sits on Camp’s board.
Whoever owns most of Camp is making a sizable bet on its success. Its flagship location, 10,000 square-foot retail space, plus a 2,500 square foot basement, is being leased from Loblaw Companies, a Canadian company that owns brands including Joe Fresh. In 2012, Loblaw signed a multi-year lease for the space at 110 Fifth Avenue with a rent price starting at $220 per square foot, according to Compstak data. The asking rent for the sublease Camp signed was $300 per square foot, according to the New York Post. Assuming the ultimate price negotiated falls between those two numbers, Camp would have to pay between $2.75 million and $3.75 million in annual rent.
The activations may have to be a hit, because frequently turning the store over may make it harder to turn customers into regulars.
“Media companies, in theory, have the advantage of knowing people’s habits,” said Steven Dennis, founder of SageBerry Consulting. “But one of the things about remixing your product assortment all the time is, how does the customer understand why they should go to their store?”
Camp expects to use high demand to weather that storm. “In general, repeat customers are very important for most retailers,” Dennis said. “In the toy business, given particular ages, you’re going to birthday parties, you’ve got Christmas, Hanukkah, there’s lots of gift-giving occasions.”
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Oddly enough, predictions are getting easier to make about next year on the basis of what already faded in the last year. The food media fuel feeding frenzies in an effort to make whatever is merely new seem radically important. And on the blogs, things got especially nastier and nastier, with chefs first anointed, then mocked for their hubris. Even mentions of David Chang seemed to dwindle to a mere three per week, eclipsed by nasty excoriations of 2012's super-rich Goofball of the Year, Guy Fieri. Enough of that. Here's what we predict we'll see more of in 2013:
1. The rebounding economy is already filling seats everywhere, and restaurateurs are increasingly canny about giving good value rather than risk raising menu prices. The $180 tasting menu will be confined to 1/1000th of one percent of people who go out to eat.
2. Gourmet pizzerias are way past their pull date, especially since admirably good pizzas have now become a category of their own, even in American restaurants in every town from Tallahassee to San Bernardino. And those silly "creative" pizza toppings are being replaced by more traditional options.
3. So Peruvian food flopped, but Korean food is now beginning to make some headway in cities like New York and Chicago, though L.A.'s Koreatown has long been way ahead of the pack.
4. The best prices on wines will be from — astonishingly! — Bordeaux, where the vignerons have been drowning in oversupply, and, aside from the ever-exorbitant First Growths, they want to sell their wines at very reasonable prices, often under $20 a bottle.
5. The days of the high-alcohol monster California Cabernet will end soon, especially since Robert Parker, who had been the one to goose Napa Valley into making sixteen-percent Frankenstein wines, has retired from his newsletter The Wine Advocate.
6. The booming success of New York's Mission Chinese, with its three-hour wait lines, will cause more innovative Chinese restaurants to open around the U.S. outside of Chinatowns, where Americans don't seek out the best anyway.
7. Nordic cuisine, despite all the hype, never got more than a toehold in the U.S., with only a couple of examples in New York like Frej and Acme, and nowhere else. Apparently, people found that eating lichen was not all it was cracked up to be. As a result, resourceful restaurateurs and media will attempt to find the next Big Cuisine, which could well be from Eastern Europe. Our money's on the Czech Republic or Turkey.
8. Though a handful of well-funded mini-restaurants with under twenty seats per night serving twenty or more courses made for a great deal of hype in 2012, there is no evidence that many more such places are in the wings for 2013, and the major media have already been weighing in on how tiresome such four-hour meals can be.
9. In 2013, the words "locavore" and "farm-to-table" will be heard only in restaurants whose owners and PR companies somehow missed the message that such clichés are meaningless in 2013.
10. Cities to keep a watch on for exciting new restaurants in 2013 include Charleston, Austin, Nashville, and San Antonio.
11. Splashy, elegant, high-end Italian restaurants have reached a surfeit stage, while slightly cheaper trattorias in low-rent neighborhoods will thrive in 2013. Sadly, however, all of them will be serving nearly identical menus of crudi, gnudi, and arancini.
12. Except in Vegas, the tsunami of high-end steakhouses has subsided, with competition among the big chains like Palm, Morton's, and Ruth's Chris battling it out for the same testosterone-fueled expense-account diner. Higher prices for beef will dampen expansion plans.
13. Owing to cuts in newspaper budgets, more papers in 2013 will eliminate their food critics entirely, depending instead on unpaid bloggers and rich guys happy to pay for eating out from their own pockets. Wine critics, who have never been paid much to begin with, will go the same route.
14. Given the number of Big-Name Restaurateurs who have had their restaurants shut down in Las Vegas — Daniel Boulud, Alex Stratta, David Burke, Michael Mina, Kerry Simon, Bradley Ogden, Masa Takayama, and more — casino owners won't be opening any more money-losing Michelin-star French restaurants designed to impress the high-rollers. Instead, more mid-priced, copycat American restaurants and nightclubs will be popping up in the resort casinos. And if there is a Big Name on the door, it will be that of a cook with a television show.
15. Aging stars will start to fade on the Food Network and the Travel Channel through attrition, and competitive cooking shows will become more and more like all those cheap Judge Judy rip-offs.
16. The 2012 hype about Brooklyn's restaurants has already created a backlash among the media and bloggers. The best bet is that Queens will become the next big Hipster Food Borough, with plenty of attention devoted to its myriad South American and Asian eateries.

domain: news


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Tommy Ostgaard, Mitchell DeJong, Mack Bakkum, Joshua Rogers, and Martin Kronke have been given the title of Porsche eSports works driver. The team itself has also been given a new name: the Porsche Coanda eSports Racing Team. The drivers have received numerous awards. The driver lineup has collected wins and championships at the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual, VRS GT iRacing World Championship, Porsche eSports Supercup, and eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series.
“Every decade, Porsche drivers make history. Now Porsche welcomes the new Porsche Works Drivers as they write the next chapter of our motorsport legacy.”
“That mantra hasn’t changed since. Of course, we’ve grown over the years. First with the sim racing house, and earlier this year with the Conda Esports Hub, a new facility for our drivers and in-house media production team As in. Taking this next step together with Porsche is a dream come true for all of us.”
A Match Made in Le Mans
In 2020, Porsche and Coanda met for the first time during the virtual Le Mans 24 Hours. In that race, Porsche entered a lineup that included both real-world factory drivers and Coanda sim racers. The team took first place in the race in 2020 and second place in 2021, laying the groundwork for today’s announcement.
– Conor Murphy, Performance Engineer, Sim Racer Academy


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Making change for the dollar
What do the owner of an East Coast manufacturing company and a midwestern cowboy have in common? Perhaps more than it seems – they both produce something they want to sell, and both businesses are sensitive to “similar” but often lower quality products displacing their own production.
The Coalition for a Prosperous America, who represents manufacturers, farmers, ranchers and laborers, supports legislation they believe would help improve profits for manufacturers, farmers and ranchers, which would, in turn, better the job opportunities and living conditions for much of America’s middle class.
The Competitive Dollar for Jobs and Prosperity Act (S. 2357) would help re-align the value of the U.S. dollar with currencies from around the globe, says CPA’s Vice Chairman, Brian O’ Shaughnessy.
“As a country, we’re importing cheap, subsidized goods and exporting jobs,” said O’Shaughnessy, the CEO of Revere Copper Products, a company that Paul Revere himself started and passed on to the generations after him.
Once an advocate of free trade, O’Shaughnessy says he has turned a corner. “Before I joined Revere, I worked for two multinational companies. I thought free trade was the way to world peace. I thought it was a wonderful thing, I didn’t realize it meant we were going to lose our middle class. When I joined Revere, I saw all of our customers disappearing. Then I woke up.”
The Competitive Dollar for Jobs and Prosperity Act (S. 2357) will require the Fed to manage the dollar exchange rate to achieve current account balance.
Probably the biggest business ally, not only of those countries competing with the United States, but also of the multinational corporations located around the world, is currency exchange rates, says O’Shaugnessy.
The manufacturer creates a hypothetical situation where a foreign producer creates an iPad or a leg of beef for *1,000 (the * represents the currency in any country outside of the US). If the currency exchange rate is 5 to 1, the product is worth $200 in US dollars, so if a US producer can create or grow the product for $150, he or she can make a profit.
“But then, let’s say that country – and this has nothing to do with labor or energy or interest rates or subsidies – manipulates the exchange rate to 8 to 1. That means the cost of that import in US dollars is now $125! You haven’t done anything differently but they have manipulated the exchange rate to the point that you are no longer competitive.”
While currently the federal government does not control the value of the U.S. dollar, O’Shaugnessy says that needs to change.
The US dollar is overvalued by 27 percent, said O’Shaugnessy, which sounds good, but is actually creating a challenging environment for manufacturers, farmers and ranchers. The high dollar facilitates the importation of highly subsidized goods, and the exportation of jobs, he said.
“When the value of the U.S. dollar is high, ag prices fall off,” he said, because US products are unaffordable to others around the globe and imported ag goods are that much cheaper in dollars.
Americans tend to think of a strong dollar as a good thing, he said. “What I’m saying is that the U.S. dollar is not ‘strong.’ It is over valued and noncompetitive. What we need for our family ranching, farming and domestic production companies, including mining, is a competitive currency.”
Since 2000, nearly 1/3 of the U.S. manufacturing facilities that were customers of Revere Copper have closed their doors, only to re-open them offshore, said O’Shaugnessy. His company, the nation’s largest supplier of architectural copper in the country, sells flat rolled copper products including sheets, strip, coils and busbar.
The facilities that have offshored production (set up shop outside of the country) tend to be owned by a multinational corporation with distribution channels in the U.S. Most of their new manufacturing plants can be found in China and Mexico, he says.
When a manufacturing company goes out of business in the United States, the local community suffers, he said. Aside from the employees losing their jobs, local mechanics, accountants, engineers and more feel the negative effects when people lose their jobs. “People say, ‘how does that affect me?’ Well, there are more people seeking jobs. There is someone else willing to do your job.”
When he became aware that many of his best customers were seeking labor outside of the country, Revere joined the National Association of Manufacturers. “I thought with their 12,000 members, and lobbyists in Washington DC, they would be the perfect ally to help stem this outsourcing of manufacturing facilities and jobs, and the decline of our middle class as those higher paid jobs move offshore.”
As an organization, however, the NAM wasn’t concerned. “It turned out that the members who paid most of the dues to fund the organization were multinational manufacturing companies and Wall Street investment bankers.”
Still, O’Shaughnessy secured a seat on the powerful organization’s Board of Directors, and worked to effect change.
He proposed a motion that NAM would support a bill being considered in Congress that would fight China’s manipulation of its currency.
“I got up before some of the most powerful CEOs in the US, and I suggested that some of them may want to recuse themselves from the vote, because those who import parts, components, subassemblies from China are going to be forced to choose between their company and their country.” O’Shaugnessy added that for those CEOs to make the choice between shareholder and stakeholder seemed next to impossible.
“They disagreed. They thought they could represent both and continue to outsource. They shot me down.”
“They” includes such big names as GM, Chrysler, Ford and GE, as well as big ag companies including Cargill and other food processors and multinational meatpackers, he said.
“And this was an awakening to me, when I realized what the multinationals were doing to manufacturing in this country they were also doing to family ranchers and farmers.”
And so, the Coalition for a Prosperous America was born.
And now the organization strongly urges the passage of the Competitive Dollar for Jobs and Prosperity Act.
In a scathing commentary, David Goldman argues that the bill, sponsored by Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) would not help the U.S. economy, but would equate to inflation.
“We need to revive the animal spirits of American entrepreneurs and draw on the power of American innovation to leapfrog China. America needs grand national goals and a vision of its future that will inspire young people to study physics rather than accounting,” said Goldman in his argument against the bill.
Jeff Ferry, CPA Chief Economist responded to Goldman’s article, saying the bill is not intended to deal with currency manipulation, but rather currency misalignment, which is the result of individuals and companies around the world investing in US dollars because they don’t trust their own, less stable, domestic currencies.
“The dollar misalignment problem has increased since its recent low in 2014. At the Coalition for a Prosperous America, we estimate the dollar is overvalued today by 27 percent. The International Monetary Fund, by nature a more cautious organization, puts the range at 6 to 12 percent overvaluation. Whatever the exact figure you choose, the point is that an overvalued currency makes it harder for a nation’s exports to compete in world markets and easier for foreign imports to take share in its domestic market.”
O’Shaugnessy, who bought Revere Copper 30 years ago, just recently purchased a small ranch in New York state with his wife, Jackie Kent.
Revere Copper was started by Paul Revere, and remained with his family for two or three generations. The company has employed a member of the family in some capacity until about two months ago.
O’Shaugnessy grew up in Nevada and worked in the copper mining industry like his father before him.
He believes that Wall Street bankers and multinational corporations control the U.S. Treasury Department as well as the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “You get executives of companies like Cargill working in big ag positions – that’s a huge problem for family farmers, because they are representing multinational corporations, not independent producers.”
“These corporations and the countries where they have outsourced production decry US protectionism and any suggestion that Free Trade be hindered. The truth is that they outsourced to the most protectionist locations in the world and need the USA to keep its borders open to their imports with Free Trade. That model is the model to maximize profits to enhance shareholder value,” he said.
Many Americans believe in Free Trade not realizing that the growth of our economy since the time of Paul Revere was based on tariffs and duties on imports. This policy was established by Alexander Hamilton and followed up until World War II. Following that war, the USA supported the rebuilding of the world’s economy not only through the Marshall Plan but also by allowing foreign production to grow through Free Trade with open borders of the USA to imports, said O’Shaugnessy.
“Every other major economy in the world today uses tariffs and currency exchange rate management to grow their economies at the expense of the US economy. This needs to stop and the introduction of the The Competitive Dollar for Jobs and Prosperity Act is a big step in the right direction for our country,” he said.
O’Shaugnessy presented information about currency misalignment and much more at the R-CALF USA convention in Deadwood, South Dakota, Aug. 16.
LINCOLN, NE (June 20, 2022) – Earlier this month, the Nebraska Cattlemen Foundation (NCF) Retail Value Steer Challenge (RVSC) winners were honored at the NC Foundation lunch on June 10, 2022, during the Nebraska Cattlemen…
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Mobile developers are unhappy with app marketing and advertising.
Over 70 percent of developers are dissatisfied with their current options for app marketing and advertising. That’s the results of a survey by Papaya Mobile, which offers the AppFlood service for promoting mobile games and apps. The survey shows that the majority of developers don’t have a clear idea of the benefits of mobile marketing channels. In particular, they don’t trust ad network providers.
Papaya Mobile, based in Beijing, surveyed more than 1,000 developers of all sizes to get perspective on the state of mobile app promotion and monetization. The company found that this kind of issue is one place where the mobile experience, which is the theme for our upcoming MobileBeat 2013 conference, could definitely improve.
The survey found that cost wasn’t the most important factor in choosing a mobile ad partner. Cost ranked third, chosen by 37 percent of the respondents. The most important factor for half the developers was whether they could trust the ad partner to deliver effective results at a reasonable price. They have so many options that they’re confused about which approach is the best.
About 48 percent of developers felt that the cost of user acquisition was too expensive. Developers with 15 employees or less expressed the most dissatisfaction, with 53 percent saying user acquisition was too expensive, while only 33 percent of large developers (with 50 or more staff) saying that.
About 71 percent of all respondents said that ad networks exaggerated their eCPM (effective Cost Per Thousand impressions) claims. Overall, medium-sized developers were the most dissatisfied with the eCPM claims of ad networks, with 80 percent or more citing they felt that eCPM figures were exaggerated. About 70 percent of small developers and 60 percent of large developers shared that view.
NOTE: It’s not too late to enroll in the upcoming DaVinci Coders classes starting on July 15th.
Learn to build your own web apps in less than 90 days. http://davincicoders.com/
The marketing budget for 78 percent of developers is $5,000 or less. About 12 percent have a budget of $5,000 to $10,000, and only 10 percent of developers can spend more than $10,000 to support an app launch.
Most developers said they are happier with a “do it yourself” approach to their app marketing, with 73 percent preferring to purchase and book their own media for campaigns rather than hand it over to a specialist media planning agency.
When asked how they decided which ad network or marketing service to use, 26 percent of smaller developers, 19 percent of medium developers, and 12 percent of large developers all responded that “they took a chance” when making their decision.
Si Shen, the chief executive of Papaya Mobile, said, “Developers instinctively gravitate towards big name ad networks and service providers in the belief that they can ‘trust’ these brands to offer an effective app marketing service. However, the fact that the vast majority of developers – especially smaller ones – are also unhappy with the results achieved relative to the cost suggests a gulf in expectations between themselves and the ad network providers.”
“To properly earn the trust of today’s cost-conscious developers, for whom meaningful results and a positive return on investment on their marketing investment are a priority, ad providers must be prepared to be more transparent with their app marketing offerings – especially around campaign planning, reporting, and measurement,” Shen added.
Papaya Mobile was founded in 2008.
Photo credit: Android Headlines
Via Venture Beat


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Information architecture on the web involves organising and presenting information in a way that is easy for the visitor navigate, find and understand. Information architecture is to your website what blueprints are for a building. It forms the basis onto which everything else can be built.Well constructed, easy-to-use websites lead to greater visitor satisfaction, meaning...Read More
Business owners want to understand how online search and marketing works, and make sure they’re getting the most out of the efforts they put in. With that in mind, we’re excited to introduce you to Learn with Google. Whether you’re just getting online, interested in marketing, or itching to do more, Learn with Google can...Read More
Louisville, KY (PRWEB) December 06, 2011 A new enterprise information service called AppRapids is now available. AppRapids, http://www.apprapids.com, published Monday through Friday, covers enterprise infrastructure, solutions, and applications. Unlike other services, AppRapids focuses on important developments and provides critical comments about technology, products, and services.
The news service follows the format of the widely...Read More
As individuals become increasingly comfortable sharing information online, they are also ceding their privacy in new — and sometimes dangerous — ways. According to a Consumer Reports survey released today, over half (52%) of social network users are oversharing online. And cybercriminals are taking note. The information shared on social networks is particularly susceptible to...Read More


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Airfares to popular expatriate destinations have soared by 40 to 60 per cent, heads of airlines and leading travel agents have said.
According to industry experts, the demand for travelling abroad during the five-day Eid Al Fitr holiday, from May 1 to 5, is also high as this is the first time in two years that most Covid-19 restrictions have been eased.
Depending on their final destination, ticket prices to specific popular destinations in the sub-continent – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal – are set between Dh1,200 to Dh2,052.
However, airfares to the Philippines, for example, are much lower compared to the peak pricing in February-March.
“Moreover, airfares to Sri Lanka are also very low due to the ongoing financial and economic crisis,” said TP Sudheesh, the general manager of Deira Travel and Tourist Agency LLC.
He explained, “Except for Sri Lanka, ticket prices to all destinations where expatriates hail from have soared by 40 to 60 per cent. Many festivals and celebrations are happening at the moment.” According to Sudheesh, since travelling with the family has become more accessible, tourist movement has increased to almost pre-pandemic levels.
“Unfortunately, the supply is yet to match with the current demand. Therefore, the prices of air tickets are surging,” added Sudheesh. Prices to short-haul GCC destinations such as Oman and Saudi Arabia are also rising. Similarly, ticket prices to the UK and Georgia have also increased.
Sudheesh further said: “Ticket prices for destinations where expatriates belong to – have gone up. Instead of Sri Lanka, beach tourism traffic has diverted to India and Maldives.”
Here is a breakdown of ticket prices for these top travel destinations during the five-day Eid weekend. All dates are for departure on May 1 and return on May 6.
The average cost of a return ticket to Makkah (Jeddah Airport) is between Dh1,200 and Dh1,480.
Malik Bedekar, operations manager at Smart Travels, said, “People are travelling to Makkah for religious pilgrimage during this time of the year – and Umrah packages are completely sold out.”
Umrah by bus costs Dh1,850; however, due to the high demand, the prices have gone up to Dh2,700.
“For those wishing to travel by air, the fares start at Dh1,480 to Jeddah Airport from Sharjah via Air Arabia. Prices on flights departing from Dubai prices are slightly higher.”
Fully vaccinated individuals are not required to show PCR test results pre-departure. However, non-vaccinated individuals need to show PCR within 48 hours.
The average fare of a return ticket to Muscat is Dh990. Wizz Air Abu Dhabi offers a Dh281 flight.
While demand for travel to Muscat is high during the Eid Al Fitr holiday, several passengers also prefer travelling by bus from UAE to Oman. Compared to other destinations like Georgia, travelling to Oman is cheaper. The bus package starts at Dh699, which includes a two-night stay with breakfast, AC luxury bus travel, Oman visa, and sightseeing.
Average of a return ticket to various destinations:
>>Dubai to Mumbai – Dh1,365
>>Sharjah to Mumbai – Dh1,353
>>Dubai to Kochi – Dh2,001
Prices to South Indian states, especially Kerala, are historically high during this time, said travel agents. Tickets to airports such as Kochi, Kozhikode, Kannur, and Thiruvananthapuram average at Dh2,000 during the Eid holiday. According to Bedekar, Delhi is also a peak sector, Lucknow and Kanpur. “Sectors in the West, including Mumbai, is less. However, cities such as Ahmedabad are higher because the frequency of flights is low,” he explained.
Moreover, prices vary depending on the cities as well as the airline.
All fully-vaccinated individuals are not required to show a PCR test result; however, filling up the Air Suvidha form is mandatory.
The average cost of a return ticket to Karachi:
>>Sharjah to Karachi – Dh937
>>Dubai to Karachi – Dh1,159
>>Dubai to Lahore – Dh1,265
Travel to Pakistan during the Eid Al Fitr holidays is a favourite among expatriates living in the UAE. For example, ticket prices from Sharjah are relatively less than ticket prices from Dubai and Abu Dhabi, said travel agents.
Now that Pakistan has eased travel regulations, all passengers must present a valid vaccination certificate that states the passenger has been fully vaccinated at least 14 days before travel or provide a recovery from Covid-19 certificate.
The average fare for a return ticket to Manila is Dh3,300
Malou Prado, the CEO and owner of MPQ Travel and Tourism, said vaccinated individuals need to take a PCR test valid for 48 hours. “Approved vaccines include Pfizer and Sinopharm.”
However, unvaccinated individuals need to undergo a five-day hotel quarantine. “The demand right now and during the Eid holidays is very high. A lot of people are travelling for the much-awaited vacations. Thankfully ticket prices are falling,” she explained.
A one-way ticket to Manila on Emirates Airlines and Philippines Airlines costs Dh1,750, while a round trip ticket is priced at Dh3,300. Cebu Airlines’ fare is Dh3,700 for a return ticket.
“Between February and March, when the Philippines government eased the travel restrictions, ticket prices shot up to Dh4,800,” she added.
The average fare for a return ticket to London is Dh3,455
>>Abu Dhabi to London: Dh3,555
During the Eid Al Fitr holidays, demand for UK sector is high only among British expatriates, who wish to travel home to see their loved ones for a short trip. Leisure travellers are not as high as compared to other European destinations.
According to Emirates Airlines, there are no Covid‑19 entry restrictions for United Kingdom. This includes requirements for testing, vaccination, quarantine and entry forms.
The average cost of a return ticket to Tbilisi is Dh1,995
According to flydubai’s travel advisory, passengers arriving in Georgia must submit a pre-registration form. Those who have recovered from Covid 100 days ago and passengers with a Covid-19 vaccination certificate showing that they were fully vaccinated need not fill out the form.
The vaccination certificate must be in English. Unvaccinated travellers must provide a test report valid for 72 hours.
Copyright © 2022 Khaleej Times. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).


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By Technology Editor Ian Bush
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Kids who are used to tablet computers expect any screen to be able to respond to their touch. Now, they can have one to call their own.
The Tabeo is an Android-powered device with a seven-inch (diagonal) screen and a bumper to cushion it in a fall.
It’ll be sold only at Toys R Us, starting next month.
The tablet offers WiFi and comes preloaded with several dozen games, books, and educational apps, and it lets parents set up controls to block unsuitable sites.
Other tablets designed for kids, including Kurio and Meep, share the Tabeo’s $150 price, but this one looks a bit more like mom and dad’s device.
In other tablet computing news…
Amazon heard plenty of grumbling after it said last week its new Kindle Fire HD would have ads on its standby screen. Now, Amazon says users can pay $15 to turn off those offers.


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BI Governor Perry Warjiyo said that the Intercountry QRIS which had been tested with Thailand had begun to be fully implemented, and three other countries would follow suit.
"In the near future, in five countries, we will be able to digitize the QR cross-border payment system, fast payment with local currency payments, which also supports tourism, supports MSMEs, and also supports the national digital financial economy," Perry Warjiyo said at the Launch of Domestic KKP and Interstate QRIS, at the BI Building, Jakarta, Monday 29 August 2022.
Perry said that the launch of the Domestic Government Credit Card (KKP) and Intercountry QRIS is part of the government's and BI's commitment to accelerate the national digital economy and finance and strengthen international cooperation.
"The holding of these two events is a tangible manifestation of our shared commitment to unite in accelerating the national digital economy and finance as well as strengthening international cooperation, especially in ASEAN in line with Indonesia's chairmanship in the G20," Perry explains.
Perry added, that this program is a follow-up to the direction of Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) to connect Indonesia's payment system to the world, starting from the ASEAN region.
“This is a follow-up to the direction of the President, connecting Indonesia's payment system to the world starting from ASEAN. In May 2022, we have gathered five central bank governors, namely Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines, who have committed to connecting the payment system," he concludes.


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Tesla’s accounts are in the red as new containment measures in China severely slow its production. In an interview, Elon Musk described the Gigafactory in Berlin and Austin as huge financial sinkholes, admitting that the manufacturer has already lost billions of euros.
Elon Musk seems to be having a hard time keeping his businesses afloat. While SpaceX has been on the verge of bankruptcy for months, it is now Tesla’s turn to be in trouble. The CEO had already announced the color a few weeks ago, declaring that he had to lay off several thousand employees because of a “very bad feeling”. This is confirmed today, in the light of the new anti-Covid measures put in place by the Chinese government.
Indeed, Elon Musk admitted that the car manufacturer is currently losing several billion dollars, for lack of being able to supply itself with batteries and other components for its cars. The businessman even goes so far as to describe the Gigafactory in Berlin and Austin as “Gigantic financial chasms”. Because of their recent opening, the latter have many difficulties in obtaining the materials necessary for the construction.
Tesla isn’t making enough money anymore
Elon Musk specifies that the Austin factory only manages to produce a very small quantity of cars per day, far from the 22,000 models per week targeted by the company. This catastrophic situation is due in particular to the blocking of many components in the Chinese ports that “no one is moving”, explains the CEO of Tesla. Despite everything, Elon Musk tries to be as optimistic as possible.
Related — Tesla: Elon Musk Praises Employees After Firing Thousands
“All this will be resolved very quickly, but it requires a lot of attention”, he added, without revealing a plan to try to raise the bar. As for the Gigafactory in Shanghai, already closed several times due to containment measures, a new two-week closure will soon take place for construction reasons. A particularly stormy context for Tesla therefore, which has already lost 600 million dollars following the Bitcoin crash.


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David Unowsky, owner of Ruminator Books, in St. Paul, Minn., is cautiously optimistic that his many actions to keep the store open may be successful. Ruminator has been looking to raise as much as $1 million since late last year to pay back rent to its landlord, Macalester College, and to repay outstanding loans (News, Nov. 3, 2003 ). In addition to funds raised through an online literary auction and selling shares of the company's stock, Unowsky announced last week that an anonymous donor, a Macalester alumnus, had made a financial contribution of up to $300,000 to the store—enough to cover the gap not raised through the stock offering, the sale of the Ruminator Review and pending grants.
According to an announcement posted on the store's Web site on January 31, the store had only good news to report. A $100,000 STAR (Sales Tax Revitalization) grant made to St. Paul is pending; Minnesota has extended through February the deadline for the closing for the stock offering; and Macalester has extended until the end of February the deadline for the store to raise $500,000. The college also has renewed for next year its contract with the Ruminator to sell textbooks to Macalester students, an agreement which had been suspended during the 2003—2004 school year. And Unowsky thinks that he may have found a buyer for the Ruminator Review, which was last published in December. A new issue will not be published until a buyer is found.
With events going his way, Unowsky told PW, 'We presume we'll stay open, due to a combination of the pending grant, the pending sale of the Ruminator Review, the extension of the stock sale and Macalester's extension of its deadline. Things are coming together... but we still do need Minnesota residents to buy stock, and for people out-of-state to call the store and talk to me if they are interested in helping us out.'
He added, 'I hope enough loose ends will be tied up by the second or third week in February that we can officially announce that we are going forward. Everything's not signed, sealed and delivered yet, so I'm going to wait before I break out the champagne and celebrate.'


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(Crain's) -- Manufacturing equipment at Jays Foods Inc.'s South Side headquarters will be sold off during a public auction scheduled for Jan. 24.
Interested in buying a potato chip fry line?
The auction, to be conducted by equipment liquidator Rabin Worldwide of San Francisco, marks the dismantling of the facility at 825 E. 99th St. following the Chicago snack manufacturer's sale to pretzel maker Snyder's. Hanover, Pa.-based Snyder's bought most of Jays' assets for $24.8 million through a bankruptcy auction and decided not to retain the South Side plant.
Items up for bid include batch frying systems, four continuous fry lines, two popcorn systems, office furnishings and tools.
The manufacturing plant, which employed 220 workers, was shut down in early December as part of Jays' Chapter 11 bankruptcy process.
The company sought court protection from its creditors on Oct. 11, its second bankruptcy filing within a three-year period.


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Hey Shacknews, it's time for Evening Reading. Let's officially close out our day of posting. Please take a look.
House issues Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry Report
The Trump impeachment inquiry is still ongoing, but the House issued a report today detailing its findings so far.
Here's part of report, which you can read right here:
The decision to move forward with an impeachment inquiry is not one we took lightly. Under the best of circumstances, impeachment is a wrenching process for the nation. I resisted calls to undertake an impeachment investigation for many months on that basis, notwithstanding the existence of presidential misconduct that I believed to be deeply unethical and damaging to our democracy. The alarming events and actions detailed in this report, however, left us with no choice but to proceed.
Trump also did his usual stock market manipulation jig earlier today, calling the drop on Wall Street "peanuts," vowing to not be forced into a bad trade deal with China. I wonder what the Shackers posting to our daily Trump Dump mega thread on the Shacknews Chatty are saying about all of this. (Turn on political filters to see that thread)
Larry and Sergey themselves shut down at Alphabet
Sundar Pichai has been promoted to the head of Alphabet, Google Inc,'s parent company, as the founders have stepped down from their leadership rolls.
Here's part of Larry and Sergey's statement:
While it has been a tremendous privilege to be deeply involved in the day-to-day management of the company for so long, we believe it’s time to assume the role of proud parents—offering advice and love, but not daily nagging!
With Alphabet now well-established, and Google and the Other Bets operating effectively as independent companies, it’s the natural time to simplify our management structure. We’ve never been ones to hold on to management roles when we think there’s a better way to run the company. And Alphabet and Google no longer need two CEOs and a President. Going forward, Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet. He will be the executive responsible and accountable for leading Google, and managing Alphabet’s investment in our portfolio of Other Bets. We are deeply committed to Google and Alphabet for the long term, and will remain actively involved as Board members, shareholders and co-founders. In addition, we plan to continue talking with Sundar regularly, especially on topics we’re passionate about!
Seems like things at Google will remain exactly the same, and the guys will still be on the Alphabet Board of Directors.
PlayStation family of consoles awarded Guiness World Record for 450 million units sold
We're thrilled to be certified as the best-selling home video game console brand ever, with over 450 million units sold across the original PlayStation, PS2, PS3, and PS4 as of Nov. 7 according to @GWR.— PlayStation (@PlayStation) December 3, 2019
And it's all thanks to you 💙 pic.twitter.com/maO0TOVqs2
Several people have pointed out that they used Vgchartz as a source, instead of verifying the record as they usually do. Either way, PS1 celebrated its 25th anniversary today, so let's let them have this.
First Tencent Nintendo Switch ad for China
Here is the official advert / trailer for the Tencent Nintendo Switch (Official Mainland China ver.)that is launching Dec 10th for RMB 2,099. pic.twitter.com/gObv4HweSW— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) December 4, 2019
The ads highlight Mario Kart, Odyssey, and even New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe.
In case you missed it at Shacknews:
- Holiday gift guide 2019: What to buy a video game fan
- Space Channel 5 VR: Kinda Funky News Flash! pushed back to spring 2020
- Life is Strange 2's surprise cameo explained [spoilers]
- Saint-14 returns in Destiny 2 Shadowkeep Season of the Dawn trailer
- Resident Evil 3 Remake art leaked on PlayStation Store
- Shacknews Livestream Schedule - Week of December 2, 2019
- First Post! December 3, 2019
There you have it, Shacknews. Your Evening Reading for December 3, 2019. Please consider subscribing to Shacknews Mercury to support our site for as little as $1/month. Here is a photo of Lola to brighten your night.
What are you up to this evening? Let us know in the Shacknews Chatty comment thread below.
Asif Khan posted a new article, Evening Reading - December 3, 2019


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Uber, Lyft Not Shutting Down During Coming Blizzard
If you’re going to be in Philadelphia this weekend, your options for getting around are slim. SEPTA is barely running as of 4 a.m. Saturday, and we expect that the remaining transit services won’t make it through Winter Storm Jonas unscathed. Plus, the city just announced that its bike-sharing service IndeGo will be unavailable — though, really, you’d have to be kind of out of your mind. But if you’re an Uber or Lyft customer, you may be in luck. Drivers for both services are expected to be working throughout the weekend.
“Uber is committed to getting riders safely and reliably to where they need to be, and we’re keeping a close eye on the Winter Storm,” the company said in a statement. “We’ll be staying in touch with driver-partners with updates on storm conditions and road closures, and will offer safety tips as well. And, for riders, we encourage them to check social media and the Uber app for updates.”
Uber doesn’t tell drivers when to work or when not to work, so it’s up to the individual drivers to decide whether to get on the road this weekend. To incentivize drivers to do so, Uber’s surge pricing will certainly go into effect.
If you’re an Uber neophyte, a quick explanation: The minimum fare for the Uber SUV service is $25, so even if you take it a short trip — say from City Hall to the Kimmel Center — you’re looking at a charge of $25. When Uber surge pricing goes into effect, rates increase by a surge factor, which is variable. Before you confirm a ride, you are given an opportunity to review the surge rate and accept or decline the ride.
It’s not infrequent to see a rush hour surge factor of 2.0, meaning the price doubles. We’ve seen surge factors hit 4 on Saturday nights, so the price quadruples. In other words, if the surge hits 4 during a blizzard and you take that SUV from City Hall to the Kimmel Center, you’re looking at $100. Egad!
Fortunately, Uber also offers a less expensive service that includes a lot of SUVs, and an SUV is what you’ll be wanting to get around in during this mess, we’re guessing. It’s called UberXL (as in extra large), and the minimum fare on that is only $7.25. So let’s say the surge is 4 and you get an UberXL — your minimum fare shoots up to $29. Still a lot to go down the street, but better than $100.
Not long ago, Uber instituted a policy that prevents the company from making the surge rate too high during a state of emergency, which has been officially declared in Pennsylvania and locally in Philadelphia. When we spoke with Uber on Friday afternoon, they were still trying to figure out what that surge cap would be.
Meanwhile, Uber competitor Lyft has said that it, too, will continue to offer service this weekend and that its prices will not increase. The trouble with Lyft is, every time I try to get one in Philadelphia, the service is busy.
As for regular old taxis, we’re sure some of those will be running as well. Note that cab drivers are not allowed to spike their fares or demand cash or a flat payment, so if you get into a cab that tries to do so, note the cab number (it starts with a P) and then file a complaint.
Follow @VictorFiorillo on Twitter.


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Confirmed as one of the largest stand-alone Honda new car showrooms in Europe, the site is owned and operated by the Cloverleaf Group. It already has two retail sites in the Berkshire area, further increasing the profile of Honda and Jardine Motors Group.
It will mark a significant change in Cloverleaf’s presence in the area, as the Honda dealership in Ascot closes its doors. The Ascot site, just three miles away, has transferred all 22 staff to the Bracknell premises and has created a new role of used car sales manager.
The showroom has space for 14 new cars from Honda’s modern and fuel-efficient range, plus forecourt space for around 60 ‘Approved Used’ vehicles. A seven-bay workshop will provide service and repair work, with further dedicated bays offering MoT testing and wheel alignment.
Gary Peters, operations manager for Cloverleaf Group, commented: “The most exciting part of the move to Bracknell is being able to welcome customers into a stunning new facility that’s in keeping with Honda’s and Jardine’s brand image. We had outgrown the Ascot site and Bracknell gives us much more space to show off Honda’s exciting model range, which is set to expand significantly in the near future.”
Commenting on the new dealership, Nick Campolucci, head of dealer development at Honda (UK) said; “This is an exciting addition to the Jardine Motors Group’ portfolio. With successful sites already in the Berkshire area we look forward to inviting new and current customers into the new showroom.”


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Cyberpunk 2077 Design lead Andrzej Zawadzki condemned the death threats he and the CD Projekt RED team sent after announcing the latest delay in the game.
According to reports, Zawadski and his team received many death threats after further delays in Iraq. Cyberpunk 2077 -So far, this is the third time, from November 19 to December 10. The design leader later condemned these threats, calling them “unacceptable.”
He wrote: “I understand you are angry, disappointed and want to express your opinion.” “However, it is absolutely unacceptable to send death threats to developers. It is wrong. We are human, just like you.”
Check out his tweets below.
Regarding the @CyberpunkGame delay, I want to talk about one thing.
I understand that you are angry, disappointed and want to express your opinion.
However, sending death threats to developers is absolutely unacceptable and wrong. We are people, just like you.
-Andrzej Zawadzki (@ZawAndy) October 27, 2020
The welcoming attitude towards the game delay was mixed, and some supporters expressed support and understanding. At the same time, others canceled reservations for the game and criticized the studio for failing to fulfill their previous promises of no more delay.
Check out some of the tweets below.
It is completely understandable, looking forward to December 10! ! This is a long wait. To become the best game in ten years, a longer three weeks does not mean a longer time! #Cyberpunk2077#Game of the Year#CDProjektRED https://t.co/2t3stVAHoF
-Jerrybanjo (@Jerrybanjo77) October 27, 2020
The purchase price was just refunded. There is no point in buying games from developers who can’t keep their promises.
When we were children, we learned valuable lessons from the story of “The Crying Boy”.
I think I will never buy another game from this studio.
-crumb (@LilBlazeyVert) October 27, 2020
CD Projekt RED explained that the reason for the delay was “simultaneous release of the game on the current, next and PC”, which forced the team to test nine different versions of the game. This resulted in a three-week delay to “make sure everything is okay and every version runs smoothly.”
Cyberpunk 2077 It will now be released for PC, PS4, Xbox One and Google Stadia on December 10. The game will also be played on PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S through backward compatibility, although a complete next-generation version is expected to be released in the future.
Recently, Bryan Intihar of Insomnia Games revealed that he has become the target of multiple threats after the upcoming Peter Parker recast news Marvel’s Spider-Man Remake.


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The football simulation game series from Electronic Arts has been around for over three long decades now, but now, things are about to change, and as big as each other looks, FIFA brings fond memories of challenging a friend to a match.
The brand new “FIFA 23” has the word “FIFA” in its title, and instead, EA has chosen the brand new “EA Sports FC” for the upcoming games in the series.
Perhaps this move is the partnership between the global football governing body and EA is on its way to completion, but some of the others in the series of football games it has entered may not appear, EA has licenses from 300 football partners and partnership with major football leagues in the world such as the Premier League La Liga, La Liga and more.
Information about the first game to be launched within the EA Sports FC series in July 2023, has been revealed to a report from Engadget.
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Over the last several years, e-commerce has grown into a huge industry, but many smaller companies might be concerned that the giants of that sector are cutting into their ability to generate sales and revenues. For this reason, many small business advocacy groups are pushing federal lawmakers to institute more financial protections for the smaller firms they represent.
The biggest of these, which has been discussed for years now, is the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would require e-commerce companies to charge sales tax to consumers regardless of where they live, according to a report from political news site The Hill. Currently, federal law only requires such charges to be levied if a company has a physical presence in the state in question. Interestingly, small business owners and advocates seem to mostly be irked with leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives, as the Senate passed the bill around the middle of last year, but there has been no action in the House.
“It’s time for them to move,” Donnie Eatherly, the owner of an auto parts distributor in Goodlettsville, Tenn., told the site. “The House has sat idly by and done nothing. [Speaker of the House John Boehner, a Republican from Ohio] claimed countless times to have run to stand up for small businesses.”
Why the inaction?
For his part, Speaker Boehner says that a committee on the bill run by House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte’s, a Virginia Republican, will need more time to evaluate its impact, the report said. Meanwhile, another well-known Republican, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, noted that he believes the bill would favor larger companies over smaller ones, which might be ill-equipped to handle the potential added cost.
Those trying to advance the bill through the House have considered trying to attach it to another piece of legislation that would be more likely to pass (specifically, one that would extend a moratorium on taxing internet access), the report said. However, that comes with the acknowledgement that if the bill cannot be passed by the end of the year, it might not be able to succeed next year either, when Republicans have a tighter grip on both houses of Congress.
In the meantime, owners who want to prepare their companies for the most success may want to consider the ways in which cutting other costs, such as those for small business insurance, could go a long way. For instance, finding more affordable liability insurance could save thousands annually.


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Japan's Sharp is seeking an investment from U.S. chip giant Intel and other companies.
The U.S. and China are likely to resolve the conflict over potential security threats from Huawei Technologies' network equipment without a trade war, Cisco Systems chairman and CEO John Chambers said on Tuesday.
Cisco Systems posted higher revenue and profit in its fiscal first quarter despite weak orders in Europe, as results in the U.S. were strong, the networking company reported on Tuesday.
Intel is in final negotiations to invest up to $us500 million in struggling Sharp of Japan, Kyodo News agency reported Tuesday.
Oracle has taken a minority stake in Engine Yard, maker of a PaaS (platform as a service) for Ruby, PHP and Node.js applications, the company announced Tuesday. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Steven Sinofsky, the executive in charge of Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system and the driving force behind its new OS, is leaving the company, Microsoft announced late Monday.
Media reports that European Commission representatives had their computers hacked at the Internet Governance Forum in Baku last week have been vastly inflated.
The number and value of technology mergers and acquisitions is flattening out, mainly as a result of economic uncertainty, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report.
Cray on Friday agreed to acquire server maker Appro International for US$25 million in cash as it looks to strengthen its high-performance computing product portfolio.
Oracle on Thursday said it has agreed to acquire PPM (project portfolio management) software vendor Instantis, in a move that will build upon its past acquisition of Primavera. Terms of the deal, which is expected to be completed this year, were not ...
Sony said Thursday that the executive in charge of its online products, and linking them up to its broad hardware holdings, will leave the company at the end of the year.
Lenovo's net profit for the fiscal second quarter increased by only 13 per cent year-over-year, marking a shift from the high profit growth the company has previously seen.
Oracle is finding itself caught up in another Java-related patent lawsuit, but this time it's the one getting sued.
Nextel, an upstart mobile operator formed in the 1990s that attracted a loyal following in construction and other trades, looks set to disappear after Japan's Softbank buys 70 percent of Sprint Nextel.
New market data from ABI Research suggests that the power of Apple’s once-dominant smartphone is waning. Even the arrival of the iPhone 5 may cause only a temporary resurgence for the iOS smartphone.
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First impression on unpacking the Q702 test unit was the solid feel and clean, minimalist styling.
For work use, Microsoft Word and Excel programs pre-installed on the device are adequate for preparing short documents.
The Fujitsu LifeBook UH574 allowed for great mobility without being obnoxiously heavy or clunky. Its twelve hours of battery life did not disappoint.
The screen was particularly good. It is bright and visible from most angles, however heat is an issue, particularly around the Windows button on the front, and on the back where the battery housing is located.
My first impression after unboxing the Q702 is that it is a nice looking unit. Styling is somewhat minimalist but very effective. The tablet part, once detached, has a nice weight, and no buttons or switches are located in awkward or intrusive positions.
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NEW YORK — Canoe, the cable-backed advanced-advertising venture, is close to having all of the nation’s major broadcasters on board for a run at the still small, yet growing, market for video-on-demand advertising.
The latest big broadcaster to join the cause is ABC. That network, as well as cable channel ABC Family and independent multiplatform, VODonly programmer Sportskool, are all now working with Canoe, whose remaining backers are Comcast, Cox Communications, Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable (former members Cablevision Systems and Charter Communications are no longer on board).
The deals with Sportskool, ABC and ABC Family are sealed up, and the networks will begin to roll out ad campaigns with Canoe “in the coming weeks,” Chris Pizzurro, head of product, sales and marketing for the ad venture, said in announcing the deals here last Wednesday (Dec. 11) at the TV of Tomorrow Show.
Under the deals, Canoe will provide those programmers with a platform to splice ads dynamically into video-on-demand streams delivered to a set-top box. Canoe has yet to announce a product that can insert those ads into IP video streams and TV Everywhere applications.
Notably, ABC is jumping on board with Canoe as Comcast expands its tests of On Demand Commercial Ratings (ODCR), a model that dynamically inserts the Nielsen-measured C3 ad load into the most recent episode of a TV series delivered via VOD as well as in previous episodes in the season. Comcast conducted a small, technical trial of ODCR with NBCUniversal and Nielsen in Philadelphia and Boston over the summer, and now has a similar pilot underway with ABC. CBS, meanwhile, has said it is interested in partnering with Comcast on an ODCR trial; Pizzurro said Canoe is “in discussions” with the broadcaster.
The latest round of deals means Canoe now has corporate deals with Disney, NBCU, Fox and Scripps Networks. Fox, FX, Food Network, Cooking Channel, DIY Network, USA Network, CNBC, FearNet, NBC Sports Network, Sprout, G4, Syfy and E! are among the individual channels currently on board.
Pizzurro told Multichannel News in a separate interview that 95 networks are now signed on under those deals, with more anticipated to follow in 2014. Of those 95 channels, 23 are currently running ad campaigns and, together, conducted 68 VOD advertising campaigns with Canoe in November.
Canoe’s platform is now deployed to roughly 29.5 million U.S. homes, covering designated market areas (DMAs) such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston. Those are largely coming by way of deployments with Comcast and TWC. Pizzurro said the plan is to roll out Canoe’s platform on Cox and Bright House systems throughout 2014.
Canoe’s transformation into a VOD-focused outfit got underway in February 2012, when the joint venture shut down its interactive advertising operations and its New York office, and laid off 120 employees.
With ABC on board, advanced advertising venture Canoe now counts nearly all of the major U.S. broadcasters among the 95 channels that have signed up to use the advanced advertising platform.


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Agrani Convergence Ltd (ACL), an ASC Enterprise (part of the Essel Group), is stepping up its expansion plans across India. The company plans to spread its tentacles across the country taking the franchisee route. While ACL targets a total of 2,500 retail stores by 2006, 100 will be company-owned and the others franchised out. In fact, by end of the current financial year the number of outlets is expected to touch 64, up from the current 26. If all goes as planned, says Pankaj Mohindroo, CEO, ACL, "The company will clock a revenue of Rs 90 crore by 2006."
ACL's Agrani Switch is a multi-format, countrywide chain of retail stores peddling Telecom, IT & Learning, Media & Entertainment (TIME) products and services under one roof. It offers branded products and services such as cellular phones and services, pagers and paging services, basic landline telephone instruments (and services when they open up), fax machines and Internet access kits.
The 26 Agrani Switch superstores are located in Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Amritsar Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Udaipur, Lucknow and Kanpur. The company is 'seriously' looking at three more cities - Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pathankot.
"Agrani services the needs of large sections of society by creating a powerful retail brand Agrani Switch. ACL has begun to leverage its wide network and its brands to encash other retailing, reselling and distribution opportunities. With this vision, ACL will achieve its presence through physical stores in such product categories that contribute about 80 per cent to India's GDP," says Mohindroo.
In addition to the physical retail chain, ACL has also established a parallel channel of corporate retail. Agrani Switch Direct Catalogue is the corporate channel to address the technology needs of corporates, SMEs and SOHOs, offering them all the Switch benefits at their desktop.
ACL has also established a nationwide technology service brand Agrani Switch Technoaid as a one-stop service point for all technology products to meet the service requirements of customers nationwide. The service is backed by service support engineers at the Technoaid Service Centres at key locations and service points at every Switch store across India. © 2002 agencyfaqs!


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Sales at stores open for a year or more rose 1.9pc, excluding fuel but including VAT, in the three months to June 11. This was up from 1pc in the previous quarter but down on market expectations of a 2.1pc rise.
"Despite the tough economic conditions our customers celebrated Easter, the Royal Wedding and the glorious weather in April, playing to our strength of supporting family occasions," Justin King, the chief executive, said in a first quarter trading statement.
Sainsbury said it sold nearly 300 miles of bunting, 159,000 flags and 49,000 mugs. Hot cross bun sales jumped 29oc and it sold the most champagne ever outside of Christmas.
However, Mr King said "the market environment remains very competitive, reflecting the challenging economic backdrop" with rising fuel costs placing further pressure on households' disposable income.
"We expect this to be the case throughout the year," he said.
Underpinning like-for-like sales growth was expansion in both its convenience and online businesses. Sainsbury also said its general merchandise and clothing grew faster than food.
The retailer's performance on a comparable basis was better than rival Tesco, which suffered as shoppers cut back on discretionary spending on non-food goods. Tesco reported sales, excluding fuel but including VAT, of 1pc on Tuesday for the 13 weeks to May 28.
Sainsbury shares rose 2.4 to 329p in early trading.


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The summer closure of the Interior’s last remaining dairy is a sobering reminder of the difficulty faced by agricultural businesses in Alaska — and a warning about how dependent we are on Outside food sources. It has never been a secret that Alaska is reliant on other states and countries for the vast majority of its goods, whether furniture, appliances, cars or groceries. But though the absence of Alaska-based manufacturing is an economic concern, the inability of the state to feed itself using local sources is an existential threat to its population if supply lines are disrupted by natural or manmade disasters. The Northern Lights Dairy in Delta Junction is just one example of Alaska’s decades-long difficulty in sustaining agriculture, but it’s an example that hits close to home.
Since territorial days, Alaska has never produced even half of the food its residents eat, but the statistics didn’t used to be quite so dire. In 2014, the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Institute for Social and Economic Research estimated that 95 percent of food purchased in Alaska was imported from Outside. The highest-profile example of Alaska’s quest to provide for itself was the Matanuska Valley Colony, a New Deal program that brought 203 farming families from the Midwest to Southcentral Alaska. Despite a staggering lack of infrastructure and poor support from those who were supposed to oversee the program, the families managed to establish an agricultural base in the region that still survives today.
But though agriculture in Alaska has survived, it has never thrived. Only five years after the Matanuska colony started, more than half the original colonists had left the valley. Those who remained, as well as farms in the Interior near Delta Junction, have held on despite harsh conditions and low profit margins. Even in conditions that favor dairy farming, the cost of many of the elements essential to farming — such as energy, equipment and grain — are substantially higher in Alaska than Outside. This makes local produce and dairy more expensive than items imported from farms in Washington. Coupled with local farmers unable to match the quantity supplied by Outside farms, it puts two strikes against them in seeking to get their food carried at local stores and purchased by residents.
There have been successes for local farmers, however, many of which have come in selling their food directly to consumers. This takes many forms — several local farms offer community-supported agriculture shares, which offer a variety of produce at intervals throughout the growing season. Other farmers who raise cattle or pigs will sell portions or whole animals directly to local families, which lets residents fill their freezers with fresh meat raised close to home. Farmers markets offer another direct-to-consumer sales opportunity, and local grocery stores such as the Co-Op Market, Safeway and Fred Meyer all offer Alaska-grown produce when available — and, in some cases, meat and dairy.
Given the challenges faced by farmers in the state, there’s little hope that Alaska’s extreme reliance on Outside food sources will turn around without a concerted effort by residents to purchase more locally grown food. And because residents already struggle with high costs in other aspects of their lives, such as energy and manufactured goods, that’s not always easy to accommodate. But the extra money spent on local produce, dairy and meat has benefits beyond doing a good turn for one’s neighbors and the local economy. Locally grown foods are often fresher, more flavorful and contribute to self-sufficiency.
— Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, May 31


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The range has undergone a naming restructure, with Grand Carnival Si replacing EXE and SLi replacing Premium. Platinum remains the range-topper while the SWB Carnival EXE is now known as the SWB Carnival S and is available only with automatic transmission.
Side and curtain airbags are now standard across the Carnival range, and the SLi and Platinum models also get a rear-view mirror integrated reversing camera system.
The new 3.5-litre V6 Lambda II engine is smaller than the previous model but offers an extra 20kW, taking total power to 202kW.
Teamed with a new six-speed automatic transmission (which Kia claims is the most compact in the world), fuel consumption is down 1.9 litres/100km to 10.9 while emissions have dropped 43g/km CO2 to 259.
The Schreyer family grille heads the visual changes along with new 16in steel wheel covers for the S and Si and new 17in alloys for the SLi and Platinum.
The Carnival has been a dominant force in the people-mover segment in Australia, finishing each year since 2006 as the highest selling vehicle. In total, 29 percent of the people-movers sold since the beginning of 2006 have been Carnivals.
Year-to-date sales for 2010 were up 18.3 percent after May and it continues to lead the way with a 28.7 percent market share, ahead of the Hyundai iMax (21.2 percent) and the Toyota Tarago (14 percent).
Kia Australia President and CEO, Mr MK Kim, said the Carnival update would do the segment-leader no harm.
“The people-mover segment has been under attack for several years now, firstly by the introduction of seven-seat SUVs and then more recently by a global economic downturn affecting families, car rental companies and the hospitality industry – the segment's three core markets."Early indications are that the refreshed Carnival range is entering at a good time. April sales alone are up 51 percent compared to April last year in the people-movers segment. We're proud to introduce an eight-seat vehicle which sets new standards in safety and fuel efficiency in such an important family driven market,” Mr Kim said.
The new Kia Carnival range begins at $36,990 for the Carnival S. The Grand Carnival Si petrol enters at $41,490 and the diesel Platinum tops the range at $56,990.


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It was a torrent of women who came forward with disgusting stories of alleged abuse at the hands of now-disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein.
Throughout it all, Weinstein’s wife Georgina Chapman, founder of the fashion line Marchesa, has been there in the background in a seemingly stunned silence.
In October, 41-year-old Chapman announced in a statement she’s leaving Weinstein, 65, and said she’s focusing on looking after their two children together, seven-year-old India and four-year-old Dashiell.
She also apologised to the countless women for the “unforgivable” pain her husband caused.
But now she is pulling out from showcasing Marchesa at New York Fashion Week, and we are left wondering: has Weinstein’s poison infected her brand, also?
There are stories from stars such as Jessica Chastain and Felicity Huffman that Weinstein forced them to wear his wife’s label to events, The Cut reports. An investigation from Jezebel showed leading Miramax ladies commonly wore Marchesa on the red carpet. You can’t help but wonder: How much of this was coerced?
Until today, Chapman was planning a Marchesa show at New York Fashion Week alongside her partner Keren Craig, The Cut reports. The latest collection was set to appear on the runway on February 14 – in only two weeks time.


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Ahaus on its way to becoming a Smart City
The city has the same problems as many other large and small towns in Germany: empty buildings, a deserted inner city, a lack of rural transport services and tourism and leisure attractions. In order to deal with these issues Ahaus is forging ahead with digitalisation. Smart applications that are not standalone solutions are making life in Ahaus even more appealing to both locals and tourists.
’Chayns’ offers solutions to the problems of our times
On its way to becoming a smart city Ahaus has set up the platform chayns, where both locals and tourists can find out about the city’s various services and attractions. Simply introducing an online presence has resulted in new restaurants setting up in the city with a population of 40,000. “People can mostly use their smartphones to order from restaurants and pay”, says van Acken. “These services would not work with a conventional operation due to the lack of staff.“ Several restaurateurs are working together to supply a beer garden with dishes – a service that was possible because the guests order and pay online.
Ahaus has also found an online solution to the problem of its deserted inner city. It has set up a walk-in online shop, where 90 retailers display their goods. There are no shop assistants, so business can be conducted late in the evenings and on weekends, and customers can shop there anytime instead of going to Amazon or any other large online retailer.
Ahaus has a 24-hour supermarket which customers can access with their smartphone for their everyday shopping needs. No shop assistants are needed, the supermarket operates online only – stacking the shelves is the only task that still requires an employee. Additional information on the 24-hour supermarket in Ahaus can be found here.
Electric bikes and cars, playground equipment and even a movie theatre are among the things that people in Ahaus can simply book using a smartphone app. Travellers check in online at their hotels – without a receptionist in sight.
“These services and many others only exist because they can be accessed solely online. They would not be available otherwise, being too costly or because of a lack of staff. Users need only register once, after which they always have access via smartphone“, says van Acken.
Smart cities and smart citizens?
“For the people of Ahaus the smart city has long become a reality and one that is fully accepted“, says van Acken. He often gets enquiries whether this or that can be included on the platform. As in every other smart city it is important to communicate. Particularly where the elderly are concerned, Ahaus works with local agencies who have made it their task to support them.
Dieter van Acken has five tips for those embarking on the transition to a smart city:
- Establish a master ID.
- Think vertically and deal with local problems first. Simply copying others is not a solution.
- As far as possible take the project into your own hands.
- Break down existing services. Expand an existing analogue service online and convert it step by step.
- Address people’s anxieties. Digitalisation is not an end in itself. The main thing is that it benefits people.
Even if in many respects Ahaus is well on the way to becoming a smart city, the project is still ongoing. “It is not a project, but work in progress”, says van Acken.
For many people Ahaus is a pioneer of the smart city concept. Various tours are on offer to enable as many other cities as possible to learn from Ahaus, about the smart city, smart restaurant trade, online retailers and online companies. Full details can be found here.


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UK engineer Renishaw seen benefiting from new Apple products
Oct 3 (Reuters) - British precision engineering company Renishaw Plc said first-quarter revenue rose 28 percent, helped by strong growth in the Asia-Pacific region that some analysts linked to the launch of new products from Apple Inc .
Renishaw, whose products include precision measurement and calibration systems and spectroscopy devices, said it expected the trend in revenue growth to continue in the current quarter.
The company's stock rose as much as 10.8 percent, making it the top percentage gainer on the FTSE-250 Midcap Index.
"The group refers to good growth in the Far East, which we assume includes irregular orders related to production of new products for Apple," N+1 Singer analyst Jo Reedman said in a note.
Sales rose to 101 million pounds ($162.8 million) in the three months ended Sept. 30 from 79 million pounds a year earlier. Renishaw said it would provide more details in an interim management statement on Oct. 16.
"We await with interest ...," UBS analysts Robbie Capp and Mark Fielding said in a note. "As of now we are somewhat in the dark - strong Q2 growth could potentially be explained by the later release (and thus production) of the Apple Watch."
The Apple Watch - a device worn on the wrist that allows the wearer to tell time, make calls, check email and track exercise - was unveiled last month and will go on sale in early 2015.
Renishaw reported a 17 percent jump in full-year profit in July, citing large "unpredictable" orders in the fourth quarter from an Asian customer that it did not identify.
The company did not disclose the value of the orders, but said they were mainly in its metrology division, which makes precision equipment.
The Asia-Pacific region was the biggest contributor to group revenue last year, accounting for about 38 percent of the total.
Of the eight analysts covering the stock, two rate it a "strong buy", two a "buy" and four a "hold", with a mean price target of 1834 pence, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Renishaw shares were up 8.8 percent at 1,729.58 pence at 0944 GMT on the London Stock Exchange. Up to Thursday's close, the stock had dropped 18 percent since the start of the year. (1 US dollar = 0.6204 British pound) (Reporting by Roshni Menon in Bangalore; Editing by Sunil Nair and Ted Kerr)
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NPPD customers won't see rate increase in 2014
Following approval Friday by the company's board of directors, Nebraska Public Power District wholesale and retail customers won't see electric rate hikes in 2014.
Earlier this year, NPPD said it would likely raise rates by 3.5 percent; however, president and CEO Pat Pope said cost-cutting measures, strong revenues and a reduction of personnel from the district's annual budget made it possible to operate without a rate hike.
“Staff has done an excellent job in reducing unnecessary expenses to get us to the point we will not need an increase,” Pope said.
NPPD said its rates are set to cover costs and do not include a profit margin. Revenues received are used to pay operating expenses and make necessary investments in maintenance, construction and system upgrades.
Wholesale customers include rural public power districts and municipalities that purchase power from NPPD and distribute to electric customers. Retail customers reside in communities served by NPPD personnel and receive a bill directly from NPPD.


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Samsung to Be Sole Manufacturer of Snapdragon 820
Qualcomm has selected Samsung to manufacture the Snapdragon 820 processor. Samsung is kicking off mass production of its second-generation 14nm LPP (Low-Power Plus) process, which is what it will use to make the Snapdragon 820. Samsung says its 3D FinFET structure on transistors provides gains in raw performance and power efficiency. For example, the 14nm LPP process delivers 15% faster speeds and 15% less power consumption when compared to its first-generation 14nm process. Qualcomm has traditionally used Taiwan Semiconductor to fabricate its silicon. Qualcomm said Samsung will be the only company to make its top-of-the-line mobile processor. The deal could earn Samsung as much as $1 billion. Qualcomm and Samsung both expect to see the 820 ship in consumer devices during the first half of the year. Samsung has seen profits drop over the last year and is looking to diversify its product mix. Samsung increased its investment in manufacturing facilities during 2015 in order to win exactly this type of business.
Sep 7, 2022
Apple has revealed the iPhone 14 series, with new features, improved specs, and new size options. In place of a Mini option, the iPhone 14 will come in the same 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch screen size options as the Pro models.
Feb 9, 2022
Samsung today announced its lineup of flagship phones for 2022: the Galaxy S22 series. The top-end S22 Ultra sees the biggest changes as it essentially absorbs Samsung's Note series with an integrated S Pen stylus and a more Note-like shape and design, instead of the Contour Cut design of the other models.
Jan 14, 2021
Samsung today officially unveiled its Galaxy S21 series of flagship phones for 2021. All three models sport a distinctive new "Contour Cut Camera" design where the metal frame extends around one corner to surround the rear cameras.
Feb 5, 2021
A new company called Metalenz has developed a unique flat lens technology that is well on its way to revolutionizing the infrared 3D depth cameras used in many phones. The flat lens technology is much smaller than the traditional lens systems, and offers better performance.
It totally don't make sense to me, how you give access to your technology to your stronger competitor?


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The female hygiene product industry accounts for $35.4 billion in business worldwide each year, according to Global Industry Analysts. Increasingly, new companies founded and led by women are offering cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternatives to the traditional brands that have long controlled the female hygiene product market. Among the upstarts are companies such as Thinx and Lunette, Lunapads, DivaCups, GladRags, and Dear Kate and Flex, which sell menstrual cups, reusable period underwear, cloth pads and a variety of other products that can include menstrual-cup cleansers, carrying cases for fresh and used pads, and pad soaking containers.
“The average woman spends $150-$300 a year on feminine hygiene disposables, and one DivaCup retails for around $40, and women only need to replace that annually, so you do the math,” explained Carinne Chambers, vice president and co-founder of DivaCup. “It’s definitely cost-saving compared to the disposable products. The average woman menstruates for over 30 years of her life, so when you add that up, that’s a lot of cost savings, not to mention the amount of waste in landfills.”
Adding to the cost in the U.S. is the so-called “tampon tax” on female hygiene products. Only 10 states didn’t tax women’s hygiene products in 2015 — of those states, five didn’t have any sales tax at all. In 2016, New York, Connecticut, and Illinois all ended their taxes on tampons and similar products.
Homemade menstrual pads are increasingly a viable option as well, added Emily Varnam, a 27-year-old doula who said that she used to spend $10 on a box of tampons each month. For now, she uses reusable products that cost her about $50 in total. But in the future, she hopes to make her own menstrual pads and lead workshops to teach other women how to do so as well.
“I can’t imagine using tampons or something disposable now, because it’s so expensive and so bad for the earth,” said Varnum. “Once I had this relationship with my blood where this isn’t gross, it makes me feel better and I’m allowed to be a woman.”
Read the full story at USA Today.


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Food Inspections Being Eased
All you eaters of meat and poultry products, Jim Murphy, a leader of government food inspectors, wants to send you a message–SOS-like. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s mandatory continuous meat and poultry inspection tradition is in jeopardy. Ronald Reagan’s secretary of agriculture, John Block, has sent to Congress legislation to end mandatory inspection of processing plants for unwholesome, unsafe or mislabeled products, and he wants his department to have complete discretion to determine which processing plants can police themselves.
Murphy is worried that Block’s proposals also will weaken the application of penalties and speed up chicken production lines so that 4,200 chickens per hour can whiz past inspectors. He asks two good questions: “How many slaughterhouses, packing and processing plants can be expected to discard diseased or contaminated meat when the loss means a downturn in profits? Can consumers be assured that the meat and poultry products they buy are safe, wholesome and free of disease under production-line speedups and self-inspection systems?”
The Reagan officials at USDA say there is nothing to worry about and that the proposed changes will save several million dollars a year. Some also whisper that Murphy has a special interest in saving the jobs of hundreds of meat and poultry inspectors.
I side with Murphy. Ever since our work in the mid-’60s has helped strengthen the meat and poultry inspection laws, one central observation is verified year after year. And that is, when the cats are away the mice will play.
Existing laws are already too weak; civil penalty authority is non-existent. A congressional report concluded that “with few exceptions, neither the USDA nor the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can locate and remove from the market raw meat and poultry found to contain illegal residues. Most are sold to the public.” In one USDA random sample for animal drugs, pesticides and general environmental contaminants such as mercury and lead, rates of violation for cattle and swine reached about 15 percent of the sample. To make matters worse, the USDA has no legal authority to quarantine such suspected animals.
Without non-stop vigilance by government inspectors, meat and poultry plants tend to attract numerous uninvited guests–certain bacteria, insects, rodents and their remains, paint flaking into the processing areas, disease, dirty water and just plain accumulations of filth. Secretary Block cannot deny many years of his own department’s reports itemizing such conditions and citing illegal marketing of diseased or dying animals.
Instead of going to Congress to improve and strengthen the food inspection laws, the Reagan administration cocks its ear to the industry’s trade associations and says: “Tell us what you want us to do.” So it was not coincidental when the anti-consumer congressman, William C. Wampler, R-Va., introduced the Block bill in the House of Representatives, he made no secret of who was behind it all. He listed them: the American Meat Institute, the National Broiler Council, the National Canners Association and the Poultry and Egg Institute.
To add to the pressures on Capitol Hill, food industry lobbyists are pushing the politicians to weaken the food laws that authorize the FDA to guard against harmful chemical additives, some of which cause cancer. This giant network of food corporations is going for broke while their friend, Ronald Reagan, is president.
In the past, whenever the American people aroused themselves over dirty meat and unsafe food, Congress responded with some action. Now is the time for another round of public protest. Interested eaters, who want to make a difference on Congress, can send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to Tom Smith, Community Nutrition Institute, 1146 19th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20036. He will send you further information about what you need to know and what you can do.


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Wells Fargo Education Financial Services and Amazon are partnering to offer college students a new deal on loans.
Wells Fargo, the nation’s largest private student lender of U.S. commercial banks, announced an interest rate discount for Amazon Prime Student customers who apply for Wells Fargo private student loans, according to a news release.
Wells Fargo is offering 0.50 percent interest rate discount to students who have Amazon Prime. The deal can also be added to a 0.25 percent interest rate reduction for enrolling in an automatic monthly loan repayment plan from Wells Fargo, according to the company.
“We are focused on innovation and meeting our customers where they are – and increasingly that is in the digital space,” said John Rasmussen, head of the Wells Fargo personal lending group. “This is a tremendous opportunity to bring together two great brands. At Amazon and Wells Fargo, delivering exceptional customer service and helping customers are at the center of everything we do.”
Amazon Prime Student gives college students unlimited free two-day shipping on more than 30 million items, according to a news release.
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The International Monetary Fund said that the advent of digital currencies in emerging markets could spark cryptoization of local economies. This is upsetting financial stability. Bitcoin and its kin have soared in price and popularity over the last year. This can be seen in economies such as Vietnam, India and Pakistan. U.S. blockchain researcher Chainalysis summarized this.
Cryptocurrencies offer a cheaper and quicker way of sending money across borders. Digital tokens such as stablecoins helps in protecting the savings from high fluctuations in local currencies. El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender. This happened in last September, and that too because of the backers. They tipped the experiment to lower costs for billions of dollars of remittances, which were sent to the Central American nation. The IMF said that unsound macroeconomic policies and inefficient payment systems are among the drivers of cryptocurrency adoption.
The exact level of adoption of crypto in emerging economies was hard to gauge. Low credibility of central banks and weak domestic banking systems also contribute to growing crypto use. Dollarization is where a foreign currency is used instead of a domestic currency. The instability of a domestic currency is the driver of this process. Wide adoption of stablecoins could also pose significant challenges. This is by reinforcing existing dollarization forces as per the IMF statement. It mentioned that the dollarization can impede central banks’ effective implementation of monetary policy. This also leads to financial stability risks through currency mismatches. The IMF added that the Cryptoization could also become a threat to fiscal policy.


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Cape Town – Springbok captain Siya Kolisi’s wife, Rachel, has humorously responded to claims that she and her husband own a fleet of expensive cars.
Taking to social media, Rachel responded to a report that said in part: “Kolisi is no stranger to expensive cars and this is a fitting addition to his garage. Together with his wife Rachel, they own several high-end cars and live a comfortable lifestyle. On top of the new one, they have a Range Rover, two other Mercedes Benz and a Volswagen to their name. Altogether their garage is worth over R20 million, and they keep adding more cars to it.”
To this, Rachel hilariously responded by sharing a video of a garage door opening, only to reveal five of their son’s toy cars parked in an orderly fashion.
“Technically they weren’t wrong,” she joked.
Watch the video below;
View this post on Instagram
Picture: Facebook / Siya Kolisi
Compiled by Mihlali Vellem


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Sony Looks To Improve Data Management At Universities Through Blockchain Technology
The blockchain is going to school.
Earning a college diploma doesn’t just mean a student has become an expert in a specific field. It also means they’ve learned good study habits, developed self-discipline, and figured out how to navigate a complicated bureaucratic landscape. Case in point: the simple task of getting transcripts delivered from one institution to another.
Now, Sony is looking to make managing education records easier by using blockchain technology, the same revolutionary concept behind Bitcoin. The tech giant has developed a new digital system for storing and managing education records that not only keeps them safe but also makes it easier for them to be accessed by third parties.
For those unfamiliar with blockchain, it’s a database or a “digital ledger” located on a chain of computers. Before a change to the data or a transaction (in the case of Bitcoin) can be recorded, the entire chain of computers must give their approval. This helps reduce fraud because everything on the ledger is available to everyone — and every computer — on the blockchain to see.
Sony’s new platform will give students a digital transcript — including degrees, diplomas, tests, and athletic records — which will be accessible through the blockchain. This will prevent fraud while making it easier for potential employers and academic institutions to access these documents. Currently, this type of information is stored as physical copies at individual institutions, making it difficult for them to be accessed and easy to be forged.
The big win for students: less time wasted in line at the administration building waiting for their transcripts.
After this new information system is up and running, Sony hopes to use artificial intelligence to analyze the data to help schools improve their curriculum and management. Sony is also looking to bring the same blockchain technology to other arenas, including real estate, logistics, and proprietary digital content.