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The resort marked Mankind Pharma family’s foray into hospitality in 2022. Post acquisition, it is now Chalet Hotels’ second property in North India.
Hotel developer Chalet Hotels has announced that it is in the process of acquiring Courtyard by Marriott Aravali Resort. The 158-key resort, located near Delhi, is under the ownership of Ayushi and Poonam estates. It has been operational since June 2022.
The enterprise value of the transaction is INR 3.15 billion ($38 million). The resort has reported average daily rates of INR 13,500 ($163) between April 1 and December 31, 2023. It had an occupancy rate of 44% during this period.
Chalet’s venture into North India: Chalet Hotels Limited is a hotel owner and developer company, under the K Raheja Corp. Chalet developed eight hotels in Maharashtra and southern states of India, partnering with brands such as Marriott International and Accor for management of these properties. The company has currently nine operational properties.
Chalet’s first project in North India was announced when it was awarded the contract to develop a hotel at the T3 terminal of Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi. This hotel will be operated under IHCL’s Taj brand. The acquisition of Courtyard by Marriott Aravali Resort marks Chalet’s second property in North India, in line with its expansion strategy.
Mankind Pharma owner’s hospitality venture: Courtyard by Marriott Aravali Resort had marked the foray of Mankind Pharmaceuticals’ owner RC Juneja in the hospitality industry via Ayushi and Poonam estates. Post this resort, the Mankind family’s second hospitality venture – The Westin Resort & Spa, Himalayas – opened in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand last year.
Akasa Air Commences Jammu and Kashmir Operations
Budget airline Akasa Air has entered the market in Jammu and Kashmir. On March 1, the airline commenced its operations from Srinagar. The carrier is now operating daily flights between Srinagar and Mumbai.
Akasa Air, which began operating in August 2022, has served more than 7.75 million passengers. On a drive to rapidly expand its network, the airline last month announced Doha, Qatar as its first international destination. With this, it is now connecting 21 destinations.
Assam Tourism Unveils Homestay Scheme to Support Communities
The Assam Tourism Development Corporation has launched the Amar Alohi Rural Homestay scheme in order to promote community-based tourism in the state. The aim is to promote homestay facilities to the tourists while creating self-employment opportunities for the local communities.
The state government has tried to provide eligible local community tourism organizations with benefits including capital subsidy, promotion subsidy, and operational subsidy. In the 2022-23 financial year, Assam had recorded more than 9.8 million tourists, of which 18,946 were foreign tourists.
DoubleTree by Hilton Bengaluru Whitefield Opens
Hilton has announced the opening of DoubleTree by Hilton Bengaluru Whitefield in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The upscale hotel, which has been developed by Kalyani Developers, consists of 180 rooms.
Hilton is bullish on the India market and is also set to debut its luxury brand Waldorf Astoria in Jaipur, Rajasthan in 2027. The company has over 25 trading hotels in India and about 20 hotels in the pipeline. The company is looking to expand its portfolio to 75 operating as well as developing hotels in the next few years.
IndiGo Announces 6 New Domestic Routes
India’s largest airline IndiGo has announced six new domestic routes to be added in its upcoming summer schedule. The carrier will operate direct flights between Ahmedabad and Rajkot, Ahmedabad and Aurangabad, Bhopal and Lucknow, and Indore and Varanasi starting March 31. Direct flights between Kolkata and Srinagar, and Kolkata and Jammu will commence in April.
According to data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, in January 2024, IndiGo carried 7.9 million passengers with a market share of 60.2%. This is because the airline is the preferred carrier for the middle class passengers in India, who are now driving the tourism sector. IndiGo operates more than 2,000 daily flights and has the largest fleet in India with 350 aircraft. It is looking to double its fleet size by 2030.
Leisure Hotels Group Unveils Baikunth Resort
Leisure Hotels Group has announced the opening of Baikunth Resort in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh. The boutique resort consists of 35 rooms and cottages. The company is known for its experiential resorts.
Leisure Hotels Group is aiming to expand its presence in renowned and popular leisure destinations in the country. It recently signed properties in Mcleodganj and Goa.
Helicopters increasingly popular transportation mode for business travel
Universal Vulkaan Aviation has been appointed as the distributor for Leonardo, which is a global manufacturer of rotary-wing aircraft in the Indian civil helicopter market. The partnership aims to make available AW109, AW139, and AW169 models in the country.
Helicopters are becoming an increasingly popular mode of transportation for business travel and tourism, especially religious tourism, said Universal Vulkaan Aviation’s Harinder Commar. Pilgrims in India often rely on helicopter services to complete their pilgrimage. Several religious sites located in difficult terrains such as Mata Vaishno Devi Temple and Amarnath Temple in Jammu and Kashmir, and Kedarnath Temple and Gurdwara Hemkund Sahib in Uttarakhand, have helicopter services to make the journey easier for the devotees.


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MUMBAI: Like the two sides of a coin, India too is divided into two mindsets. While a certain part is moving towards modernisation, there are still a few things that are holding us back to be culturally liberal.
P&G Whisper’s new advertising campaign brings out the painful truth of our society.
According to market experts, the Rs 2,100 crore sanitary napkin market in India is growing at the rate of 19 per cent year on year. Whisper is one of the dominating brands in the category that has worked smartly on its pricing strategy over the years.
The brand, in the past, has taken up various corporate social responsibilities (CSR) as part of its marketing initiatives.
It can be recalled that P&G’s ‘Parivartan’ program has been protecting millions of adolescent girls in India from getting trapped in traditional practices of using unhygienic cloth for sanitary protection by providing menstrual education.
The program has been improving the lives of over two million girls annually across 15,000 schools in India. The objective of the program is to help adolescent girls embrace womanhood positively and enable them to adopt the right feminine hygiene practices to stay healthy and stay in school. ‘Parivartan’ ensures that adolescent girls do not miss school on account of periods and initiates a series of cascading effects leading to a more equal gender status in the state.
P&G’s ‘Shiksha’ that was launched in 2005 was aimed at enabling consumers to contribute towards the cause of education of under-privileged children through simple brand choices. It is considered to be one of the most successful CSR campaigns initiated by a multinational corporation in India.
Taking a step further and breaking the stereotypical communication thoughts, Whisper has rolled out a movement titled #TouchThePickle to try and put an end to period taboos that still haunt many Indian girls and women. The movement is initiated under the brand campaign called ‘Kadam Badhaye Ja’.
The TVC already has got over 22,600 views in five days. The video which was shared on the brand’s You Go Girl page has received over 17, 908 likes and 494 shares.
On the communication strategy by the brand, the Elephant Strategy+Design founder director and principal designer Ashwini Deshpande wished the TVC was done 25 years ago, but feels it is never too late.
“A global brand with real alignment to Indian culture is a rare sight yet delightful,” adds Desphande.
On the other hand Curry Nation co-founder Priti Nair has a different observation. “When I first heard about the movement I really thought that is a fantastic concept, very radical and memorable. I was genuinely happy and proud that a brand like Whisper has taken this stance. I thought we are finally getting rid of the stereotypical commercials from this category and someone is busting the conservative regressive cultural myths attached to a natural cycle of a woman and wished I could have done something similar. My perception changed after I saw the ad,” says Nair.
She believes that the brand diluted the huge idea to tick all the points of research work. According to her, the brand should have taken on the regressive thoughts on menstrual cycle and break them first and then taken on more myths that exist in our society.
“A brand like Whisper which worldwide is doing large mind set alteration would have succeeded doing that in India as well,” concludes Nair.

domain: news


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Mozilla, one of the most trusted brands of the internet which also made Firefox browser, released its VPN for Android and Windows devices, with a scheduled launch for Mac and Linux.
Mozilla claims th... Read more
Microsoft and Google are coming up together to help web developers get their Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) into the Google Play Store.
Progressive web apps use emergi... Read more
With the rising demand in video conferencing due to the current ongoing pandemic, major tech giants are coming up with their best version of video conferencing apps targeted towards, online group meet... Read more
Android 11 has been in beta phase for month and we have seen a lot of exciting changes coming up with it. Android 11 “Beta 2” is available for developers and tech enthusiasts to try out no... Read more
Video streaming takes up a lot of bandwidth up to 80% of the internet. Companies' servers require a lot more space to store the video files. Consumers too have to pay the hefty bills for exhausting th... Read more
Finally, Amazon is rolling out the feature which was long-awaited for Prime Video users. Earlier, if you shared your Prime Video account to your friends or family, it was all under one default profile... Read more
Since long, Facebook has plans to integrate all its services. Back in 2012, Facebook acquired Instagram and in 2014 it acquired WhatsApp. According to a WABetaInfo report, reverse engineer @Alex1... Read more


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Honor partners Flipkart to enter laptop segment in India
New Delhi, July 25 (IANS) Chinese smartphone maker Honor on Saturday announced its partnership with Flipkart to enter the laptop segment with MagicBook 15 device in the country.
The company is geared up to enter the laptop market with MagicBook 15 notebook launch on July 31.
“Our partnership with Flipkart goes a long way and we are delighted to mark our foray into the Indian laptop industry with our first flagship laptop – Honor MagicBook 15,” Charles Peng, President, Honor India said in a statement.
Honor aims to take its commitment of strengthening the brand's all-scenario, 1+8+N IoT strategy forward, and the latest Honor MagicBook 15 is step further to expand the portfolio for consumers, said the company.
Honor sells several laptops under MagicBook branding, including MagicBook 14, MagicBook 15 and MagicBook Pro.
In addition, the company is looking forward to launching Honor 9A and Honor 9S smartphones in India next week for under Rs 10,000.
The smartphones will come pre-installed with the latest AppGallery and are expected to run on Honor's flagship – Magic UI 3.1 based on Android 10.


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Purchasing goods with credit and debit cards at point-of-sales terminals is becoming increasingly risky. A few months prior, Target’s massive security breach leaked 40 million credit and debit card numbers from cash registers running a Microsoft Windows-based software. More recently, several banks are reporting that the Home Depot lapsed into a similar same sinkhole – quite literally – as sources close to the ongoing investigation reveal that the hardware giant was hit with the same malware as Target.
KrebsOnSecurity, the “in-depth security news and investigation” blog run by security expert Brian Krebs, was the first source to break the news last Tuesday of Home Depot’s security troubles, claiming that multiple banks traced a series of card-related frauds back to Home Depot locations across the nation. A source involved in the investigation stated that multiple registers belonging to the retailer were infected with a strain of the “BlackPOS,” the same BlackPOS that was discovered on Target’s point-of-sale system back in December.
The BlackPOS malware enables credit or debit card data to be snagged every time the card was used at the infected point-of-sale. Moreover, the data was placed on sale at Rescator[dot]com, the dark web shop belonging to the cybercriminal, Rescator, where the 40 millions of cards Target card numbers were sold.
Krebs observed that certain clues contained within the malware’s code suggest that the Home Depot breach had been occurring for months. Furthermore, nine more batches of stole cards appeared on Rescator in the last few days, all under the same label assigned to the first two batches that notified U.S. banks to a pattern of card fraud stemming from Home Depot. Finally, the card numbers stolen from Target were also sold in a batch-like manner on Rescator over the course of three months.
What’s more, Krebs points out that the hack may have been politically motivated. A few strings of code embedded in BlackPOS’ link to news, editorial articles, and cartoon related to anti-American propaganda. A separate string leads to an image of the current conflict between the pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian forces. When Krebs himself traced Rescator’s multiple online personas, he found a young programmer in Odessa, Ukraine.
Whatever the case, it appears every few months some massive data breach is uncovered, suggesting that a good security practice would be to periodically replace one’s credit cards.
Update 9.9.14: Home Depot admits that 60 million credit card and debit numbers were stolen.
Learn more about Electronic Products Magazine


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US: Deckers taps Urban Outfitters’ Murray as EMEA chief
By just-style.com | 19 April 2011
Deckers Outdoor Corporation has named Stephen Murray as president of Europe, Middle East and Africa, overseeing subsidiary and distributor businesses which include the Ugg Australia, Teva, Tsubo and Simple Shoes brands.
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The arcade racer is available for testing
Codemasters has released the Dirt Showdown demo on Xbox Live, Playstation Network and Steam
The next game of the Dirt franchise is almost here. Codemasters has revealed the demo of Dirt Showdown which is now available on the Xbox's Marketplace, Playstation Store and Steam. With the demo you will be able to race single player in the 8-ball circuit and Rampage mode on multiplayer.
Welcome to the DiRT Showdown demo! Experience full-impact confrontational racing in the 8 Ball event in San Francisco. Boost and barge your way to the finish but watch out for your opponents on the brutal cross-overs. Challenge a friend to play online and unlock the multiplayer Rampage event to satisfy your appetite for destruction in a chaotic demolition derby!
NEWS SOURCE: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-GB/Pr...id=majornelson
Our thanks to 'Kaos2K' for this news item!


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GRAND RAPIDS — Retail recreational cannabis sales started Friday in Grand Rapids, while three more adult-use dispensaries have received preliminary city approval.
The Grand Rapids City Commission is expected to vote July 7 on a plan that could allow retail recreational cannabis sales months ahead of schedule, and put the city on track with a growing number of communities allowing the industry to flourish.
GRAND RAPIDS — A Colorado firm plans officially to open a 35,000-square-foot medical marijuana production facility next week in Oak Industrial Park, where it is in the process of harvesting its first batch of product.
GRAND RAPIDS — As it continues to make its way through the list of applications for medical marijuana facilities, the city of Grand Rapids will next consider how to handle recreational marijuana companies.


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LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- With the holiday shopping season fast approaching, the California Public Interest Research Group released its "Trouble in Toyland 2023" report, pointing out toys the group found to be dangerous or invasive to privacy.
"Products that are in the hands of our little ones, those products must be safe. This is not negotiable," said California Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, who took part in a CALPIRG virtual news conference Thursday.
Some of the toys may look harmless, like the CogniToys Dino, which is a Wi-Fi-enabled smart toy for 5 to 7-years-olds. But CALPIRG says the dinosaur collects your child's name, birthday, gender as well your address, payment information and other sensitive data.
"Not only is that creepy, this Dino is collecting all that information, but it makes your child and family more vulnerable to a hack or a breach," said Jenn Engstrom, CALPIRG's state director.
Even toys like the Amazmic Kids Karaoke bluetooth microphone are labeled as serious privacy risk by CALPIRG. Researchers found that it can allow anyone to listen to and talk with your child even from outside a child's home.
The group also does not recommend the Meta Quest Virtual Reality headset for children.
"It's just not worth the risk right now," said Rachel Franz of the child advocacy group FairPlay. "This technology is too new for us to trust our children with it."
FairPlay says, aside from privacy issues, it fears the headsets can stunt child development, and the group criticized Meta for dropping its VR age threshold from 13 years old to 10 just in time for the holiday shopping season.
"We recommend that Santa forgets them in his sleigh this holiday season," Franz said.
Meta responded to the report with this statement: "We are committed to creating safe, positive experiences for young people on Meta Quest 3, and have collaborated with youth safety experts to help ensure an age-appropriate experience for teens and preteens on the Quest platform. Parents must set up parent-managed Meta accounts for 10-12 year olds and they control what apps their preteen can use."
Low-tech toys that pose dangers as well, like water beads that expand when they get wet and pose a choking hazard.
"If a child swallows this bead, it can then expand in their body and block their airway or jam into the digestive tract," Engstrom said.
The entire Trouble in Toyland report can be found here.


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In the absence of any state notification on value-added tax (VAT) on foodgrain, traders are finding themselves in a spot.
The East Singhbhum district sales tax department has announced that it will press traders for filing returns. On the other hand, traders are hopeful that a new notification may waive tax provisions completely on foodgrain.
Officials of the district sales tax department said that today was the last date for filing sales tax returns for the month of April, from when the four per cent VAT on foodgrain items became effective.
Today is the last date for filing the tax returns for last month. From tomorrow, we will try to find out how many traders have paid taxes according to the new provision. In the next four to five days, we will press traders to pay value-added tax on foodgrain, according to the new rules, said Kartik Charan Jha, the joint commissioner of East Singhbhum district sales tax.
The VAT on foodgrain came to force as the state had failed to come out with a notification before March 31 for waiving the provision.
The East Singhbhum district sales tax department claims that the value-added tax on foodgrain would add around Rs 3 crore to its revenue this fiscal.
Meanwhile, city based traders said that the Arjun Munda government first implemented value-added tax on foodgrain and vegetables in 2006. But it was rolled back after protests from trade associations across the state.
They claimed that few traders were paying taxes according to the new provision, while few were still waiting for new notification from the state.
Officials of Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) said that the state had already given signals of coming out with a new notification that would waive the tax provisions on foodgrain items.
The governor has assured us that they will come out with a fresh notification of rolling back this tax. Few of the traders have not paid their taxes and are waiting for the new notification expected in the first week of June, said Suresh Sonthalia, the vice-president (PRW), Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce and Industry.


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App Store downloads reach 30B, $5B paid to developersThe iOS App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch has reached the 30 billion download mark, Apple announced on Monday, and $5 billion has been paid out to developers.
There are more than 650,000 applications available on the App Store as of today, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook announced at the 2012 Worldwide Developers Conference keynote. Of those, 225,000 have been built specifically for the iPad.
Cook took the opportunity to take a shot at tablets running Google Android, noting that "just a few hundred" applications are available for tablets that run competing platforms.
The chief executive also noted to the developer-centric crowd that there are more than 400 million active accounts with credit cards now on the iTunes Store, which includes App Store purchases. Cook said it's the largest number of accounts with credit cards anywhere on the Internet.
The App Store continues to expand, as well, as Cook revealed that the digital download destination will be opening in 32 new countries. That will bring availability of the App Store to 155 countries total.
On Topic: iPhone
- AT&T to raise unlimited data pricing to $35 a month in February
- JCPenney tests Apple Pay for store cards, plans full rollout in spring 2016
- Apple's leather cases for iPhone 6s, 6s Plus now shipping in new (Product)Red versions
- Apple's iOS clinches 78.3% of U.S. mobile online shopping over Thanksgiving, 360% more than Android
- Apple rumored to ditch headphone jack on 'iPhone 7' for Lightning connector audio


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Road cycling apparel manufacturer Rapha Racing has signed a partnership deal with ASO – owner of Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix, Paris-Nice and Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
The two year deal will Rapha provide marketing and comms advice, as well as producing exclusive product for ASO’s growing number of participation events, linked to major road races.
The news comes shortly after Rapha claimed a place on the latest Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100.
Rapha will also design and produce exclusive jerseys for the events and will work with ASO on enhancing the events.
"Rapha makes the finest cycling clothing in the world and ASO produces the best cycling events in the world, so our paths had to cross one day,” commented ASO MD Yann Le Moenner.
“We have long admired the way Rapha connects with road cyclists and we are looking forward to a great partnership that I’m sure will inspire thousands of riders."
Rapha Founder and CEO Simon Mottram, added: "I have been riding the Etape du Tour since 2002, before Rapha was launched. Like many Rapha customers, the Etape remains the pinnacle of our riding season and of the sportive year. To be working with ASO on these events is an amazing privilege."
The 2011 focus will be on the two Etape du Tour events and the new Paris-Roubaix challenge on April 9th 2011, the day before the race.


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More advertisers embracing digital platforms
NST, May 23, 2014
The advertising landscape in Malaysia has undergone major transformations over the last few years, with more and more Malaysians having embraced the digital age.
The emergence of new digital platforms has paved the way for many industry players, including those in the traditional stream such as newspaper, magazine and radio, to become increasingly imaginative and innovative in reaching out to consumers in the most relevant and engaging manners.
Reflecting the advertising industry’s progress was the recently-announced 10th Malaysian Media Awards, one of the most prestigious and significant events of the advertising world, as it witnessed an overall increase in media campaign submissions, especially within the digital categories, which saw a nearly 25 per cent increase.
“The advertising landscape in Malaysia is very encouraging, growing between five and six per cent on average year-on-year.
“Among all, digital advertising is developing at the greatest pace, of between 25 and 35 per cent year-on-year, followed by pay TV, which has a 55 per cent market share.
“At the same time, individual players in print and radio have been experiencing healthy year-on-year growth as well, making this one of the most exciting and dynamic industries in Malaysia,” said Girish Menon, president of Media Specialists Association.
“Within digital media, we have seen a 40 per cent increase in submissions for performance marketing, which includes all forms of real-time didding platforms such as Search, Facebook Exchange, Google Display Network and YouTube, as well as online targeting, where consumers are shown advertisements based on their online behaviour and areas of interest,” he added.
The industry has also seen a massive 65 per cent increase in the social media category.
In the Best Use of Integrated Media category (which requires a minimum of three different media platforms to be used), virtually every one of the 55 entries has a strong digital component.
In earlier years, some campaigns either had a small digital component or did not have one at all, he said.


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Volkswagen Chattanooga Named Edison Green Award Gold Winner
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (29 April 2012) — Volkswagen Chattanooga has been awarded the prestigious Gold 2012 Edison Green Award, the highest honor among Green Award winners. The award recognizes “excellence personified by Thomas Alva Edison, inspiring the drive to remain in the forefront of innovation, creativity and ingenuity in the global economy.” The Green Award specifically recognizes the environmental and sustainability achievements at Volkswagen Chattanooga.
Recently Volkswagen’s Chattanooga manufacturing plant received platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) green building certification program. The facility is the first and only automotive manufacturing plant in the world to receive the Platinum certification.
Representatives from the year-old manufacturing facility accepted the honor at the 25th annual Edison Awards Gala in New York City on April 26.
“The new factory in Chattanooga is an important cornerstone in Volkswagen’s worldwide ‘Think blue. Factory’ initative ” said Dr. Jan Spies, Head of Plant Structure Planning for Volkswagen AG in Germany. “The ‘Think blue.Factory’ initiative is Volkswagen’s worldwide commitment to improve its environmental efficiency in automotive manufacturing by 25% until 2018. We are honored to receive this award from an organization that prioritizes sustainable solutions and green business models.”
Edison Award nominees were judged by a panel of more than 3,000 individuals, including members of the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG), an organization comprising America’s top marketing professionals and academics. The panel also included professionals from the fields of product development & design, engineering, science and education. Award nominees were judged against evaluation criteria that included concept, value, impact and delivery.
Prior to receiving the 2012 award, Volkswagen Chattanooga was named a finalist for the 2011 Edison Green Award. In 2011, the factory also received the Tennessee Governor’s Environmental Stewardship Award as well as Platinum LEED certification.
Volkswagen has committed to invest $4 billion in the US market, highlighted by its investment in Chattanooga. The Chattanooga facility recently announced it was expanding its workforce by 800 additional members, bringing the Chattanooga facility’s 2012 workforce increase to 1000, and the total employed at the facility to approximately 3,500 people. In January, Volkswagen opened its fifth regional sales office in Dallas to support its continued sales growth (sales for the brand are up over 40 percent so far in 2012); recently announced it will invest $40 million to build a warehouse in Roane County, Tenn. for distributing domestic auto parts for the Chattanooga-made Passat; and announced a multi-million dollar expansion of its Volkswagen Credit facility in Libertyville, Ill., which will add approximately 150 new jobs to the area.
About the Edison Awards
The 2012 Edison Awards are sponsored by Nielsen, Discovery Communications, Science Channel, USA Today, CSRware and applepeak. The Edison Awards are granted under the aegis of the Thomas A. Edison Papers at Rutgers University, a globally recognized research network dedicated to the study of innovation and its application in the 21st Century. For more information about the Edison Awards finalists, please visit www.edisonawards.com.
About Volkswagen Chattanooga
Volkswagen has invested $1 billion in the local economy for the Chattanooga plant and created more than 2,200 direct jobs in the region. According to independent studies, the new Volkswagen plant is expected to generate $12 billion in income growth and an additional 9,500 jobs related to the project. The Chattanooga manufacturing facility is the world’s first automotive manufacturer to receive platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building certification program. The facility manufactures the all-new 2012 Passat sedan, specially designed for the North American market and winner of the Motor Trend magazine 2012 Car of the Year award, Kelly Blue Books Family Car of the Year and Cars.com Best of 2012 award.


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We recently received a press release from Roche Bobois, international leader in top end furniture design and distribution. The presented their latest exclusive collections at the Milan furniture Fair. Here is the information they sent us together with a few photos showcasing their designs: “The collections represent the eclecticism and breadth of range of the brand ; rigorous structure sits happily alongside more free flowing forms, acid brights alongside pitch black. A game of opposites and similarities, organic rounded shapes for an ultra chic urban environment : the Roche Bobois universe thrives on the unexpected, on the surprises that lift the spirits and bring a sense of joy to the quotidian. Bold yet timeless offerings that, at the heart of the design event of the year, continue a 50-year old tradition of creativity and quality.
The AVA chair is a project to result from the first Roche Bobois ‘Design Awards’, a competition launched in China in 2009 and held in a different country every two years.
Under the theme of ‘Nature, the universal link between east and west’, 28 year-old design independent Song Wen Zhong, a graduate of Beijing Academy of Arts, sought inspiration for his Ava chair in the myths and stories of Chinese legend. With its long sensuous tapering limbs, Ava resembles a dragon-like avatar transformed into a chair: a fine yet strong specimen such as a giant ant.
Representing the first plastic injection-created design from Roche Bobois, Ava marries high-tech purity with organic form.
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Over the Past 24 Hours Alone, Bitcoin Processes Approximately $7 Billion in BTC Transactions
Bitcoin continues to represent the juggernaut cryptocurrency in the blockchain world.
Over the last 24 hours, as if to illustrate this fact over the last 24 hours, approximately $7 billion worth of Bitcoin transactions have been moving on and off chain over this time, amounting to more than 1.3 million BTC moving from person to person and various addresses over this time.
With every single hour, there was more than a quarter of a billion dollars moving to various users and addresses, with the median transaction coming to $100 and the average reaching $22,000, demonstrating that there's a lot of institutional buying and selling going on amidst the transactions.
This means that there were as many transactions taking place through Bitcoin that were worth less than $100 or more.
Along with the rough average Bitcoin transaction equallying $22,000, what shouldn't be left out . are some of the largest transactions taking place over this past 24 hours. Among them, they moved amounts of $850 million, roughly equivalent to 165,000 Bitcoin, which is 10 percent of the entire smaller range of transfers.
What we may be seeing from these smaller transactions are that they are not coming from cryptocurrency exchanges or larger entities like Over the Counter Trading and institutional investment, but from regular individuals making use of Bitcoin in a commercial way, for international payments as well as to exchange varying amounts of value.
BitPay is one of the examples we can think of as a company, which holds and manages a significant amount on a monthly basis. According to its Chief Operating Officer, Sonny Singh, the company had, over the last year, seen its merchants handle approximately $10 million per month in Bitcoin payments.
Then we have large-scale transactions taking place within organizations like Bitcoin Suisse, Coinify and Coinbase Commerce, which complete an incredible amount of Bitcoin merchant payments on a daily basis.
Much as previously discussed, international remittances as well as payments are massive area of transactions for Bitcoin. In spite of being slower than some of its counterparts in the cryptocurrency world, Bitcoin transfers are still far faster than taking the conventional approach through banks, and less costly than using Nostro Accounts.
While it is relatively challenging to get conclusive statistics, there are some other proxies that can serve as close enough indicators. These would include the peer to peer exchange service – LocalBitcoin – which, while not being a wholly accurate source of information, were we to compare them to centralized exchanges, the metrics can be a much-needed revelation.
What it reveals about some of the developing areas of the world, for example, such as Kazakhstan, is that it is breaking all-time high records for the region in terms of cryptocurrency mining. While this simply involves the mining of 26 BTC, it does demonstrate that there's a crypto rush going on there that is likely to increase over time.
In comparison, Russia, in spite of having an adversarial approach towards Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, is topping LocalBitcoin in terms of volumes, hitting around 3,000 per week, which makes for a total value of $15 million, with exception to value fluctuations. This volume is more than double that which comes from the United States or the European Union.
The reasoning behind this spike remains relatively unclear, but the fact that the Russian Federation's current attempts at bypassing international sanctions could be the real use case, with Russia making use of cryptocurrencies to get past a cumbersome banking system.
While there are several reasons for this uptick in trading volume, speculation is one of the dominant elements of this influx and circulation of some $7 billion worth of on-chain transfers. And it may well be the case that a large number of these transactions are over the counter. Regardless, it represents a monumental amount of economic activity.
Live Bitcoin (BTC) Price:
1 BTC/USD =$26,493.0243 change ~ -0.14%


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Small business owners across the UK need to prepare for a significant change in the Making Tax Digital (MTD) legislation from April 2026.
The MTD legislation is a key part of the UK government’s Tax Administration Strategy. It aims to digitalise the tax system, making it more efficient for them and easier for individuals and businesses to get their tax right.
MTD for Income Tax Self-Assessment (ITSA) was due to come into force for self-employed individuals and landlords in April this year but HMRC delayed the transition to ease the pressure on businesses facing a challenging economic environment. That said, it is important that business owners start to prepare and familiarise themselves with the new process.
Digital Records: The era of paper receipts and manual record-keeping is coming to an end. Under the MTD legislation, businesses and individuals will be required to keep digital records, so you will need to find software that works with MTD.
Software Usage: The use of software that works with MTD will be mandatory. This software will allow you to create and store digital records of each of your business transactions.
Quarterly Updates: Gone are the days of annual tax returns. Businesses will need to submit updates every quarter, bringing the tax system closer to real-time. An End of Year declaration will still be required – this will be similar to your normal self-assessment tax return.
Income Thresholds: From April 2026, self-employed individuals and landlords with an income of more than £50,000 will be required to comply with MTD. Those with an income of between £30,000 and £50,000 will need to do this from April 2027.
The introduction of MTD represents a significant shift in the way businesses manage their taxes. By understanding these changes and preparing in advance, you can ensure a smooth transition to the new system.
Although the goal of MTD is to make it easier for individuals and businesses to get their tax right, this poses a challenge for businesses with increased administration, new systems and the risk of actually submitting incorrect information to HMRC in real-time.


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If you’ve ever tried to refinish an old piece of furniture or your bathtub, you probably know how handy it is to use a paint stripper to help you get the job done. But what you may not know is that most paint strippers available on store shelves in Canada contain very harmful chemicals.
In April 2017, 21-year old Kevin Hartley died while refinishing a bathtub in an apartment in Nashville. Not very long after getting started, the fumes of the paint stripper he was using caused his heart to fail. While doctors managed to get his heart beating again, it was too late – Kevin’s brain had been starved of oxygen and couldn’t recover.
The chemical that killed Kevin is known as methylene chloride (or dichloromethane). It’s added in very high concentrations to conventional paint strippers available on store shelves.
Because of its high volatility and vapour pressure, methylene chloride can quickly and inconspicuously displace oxygen in the air. Its concentration in poorly ventilated rooms such as bathrooms can quickly surpass safe levels of exposure. In the human body, the chemical turns into carbon monoxide and can affect brain function and cause dizziness. High levels of exposure can even cause suffocation, coma and sudden death.
Other conventional paint strippers may contain a toxic chemical known as NMP (N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone), a chemical that’s been found to be toxic to the liver and kidney, and to cause miscarriage and stillbirth.
Should consumers be worried about paint stripper products?
It’s estimated that paint strippers containing methylene chloride are linked to approximately 60 deaths in the U.S. In Canada, we know that nearly 25,000 people are exposed to this chemical in the workplace and 2 million people are exposed to it through consumer products.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that every year around 11,300 pregnant women face greater risk of fetal death from exposure to NMP not only through paint strippers but also glue used for eyelashes and nails, food packaging materials and plastics.
Retailer leadership in the absence of government action
Environmental Defence partnered with the U.S.-based Safer Chemicals Healthy Families and the National Resources Defense Council to send letters to leading retailers and launch public actions urging them to stop selling paint strippers containing these chemicals. This May, Lowe’s (owner of RONA) was the first retailer to take action with a commitment to remove these products from their stores by January 2019. Since then, a flurry of similar commitments from ten major retailers across North America including Home Depot, Walmart, Canadian Tire, Dulux Paints and Home Hardware were made. Public concern around toxic paint strippers also accelerated the development of a non-toxic and equally effective alternative chemical that’ll be brought into market in early 2019.
TIP: Need a paint stripper but not sure which one to buy? Download a list of safer alternatives here.
Why are these chemicals allowed to be used in the first place?
Methylene chloride has been on the list of toxic substances under Canadian law for over two decades. Rather than banning the chemical, the federal government opted for writing a voluntary guideline on how to reduce the risk associated with using paint strippers containing this chemical in the workplace.
As for NMP, the federal government recently assessed its risks but surprisingly concluded that it doesn’t pose a risk to Canadians. NMP has been banned in consumer products in Europe and is currently on the list of top ten chemicals of concern to assess in the U.S. The Canadian government is currently reviewing recent data on NMP and considering whether it should change its conclusion.
While governments are ultimately responsible to protect people from toxics, government action can be slow. That’s why retailers have a major responsibility to respond to scientific and consumer concerns and replace harmful chemicals with safer ones.


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The House passed legislation on Friday to weaken an Obama administration regulation to require nutrition information on restaurant menus.
Thirty-three Democrats joined with all but one Republican to support the measure in the 266-144 vote. Libertarian Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) was the only Republican to vote "no," while Rep. John YarmuthJohn YarmuthWHIP LIST: More than 60 Dems boycotting Trump's inauguration House Dems call on OMB to analyze Senate budget plan Congress to clear path for Mattis MORE (D-Ky.) voted “present.”
The Obama administration said it opposes the bill rolling back the regulation, but stopped short of a veto threat this week.
“If enacted, it would reduce consumers' access to nutrition information and likely create consumer confusion by introducing a great deal of variability into how calories are declared,” the White House said in a statement of administration policy.
The vote represents yet another fight over ObamaCare.
The menu labeling requirements stem from a controversial provision of the 2010 healthcare law that has upset both Republicans and Democrats. A bipartisan effort is underway to roll back the rules.
Restaurants would have more discretion to inform customers about the number of calories in the food they sell by posting the information online or in a smartphone app, as opposed to printing them out on menu boards inside their stores.
The legislation will not, however, exempt grocery stores, convenience stores or gas stations. A previous version sought to apply the rules only to restaurants, but was rejected by Democrats.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) faced blowback from both sides of the aisle when it released the menu labeling requirements in November 2014.
Lawmakers said the rule would be too expensive for restaurants and grocery stores in their home districts to comply with.
“[P]rudent, effective labeling standards don’t come in the form of one-size-fits-all rule set forth by unelected bureaucrats,” said House GOP Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris RodgersCathy McMorris RodgersGOP waiting to hear from Trump on ObamaCare GOP recruitment goal: More women on ticket Crowd boos GOP rep at MLK Day event over ObamaCare repeal MORE (R-Wash.), the bill's author.
Most Democrats opposed the measure, warning it would compromise the amount of nutrition information available to consumers.
"Far from common sense, this unnecessary legislation would deny consumers critical information about the food that we eat," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.).
The bill does have some Democratic support. Dozens of senators, including Lamar AlexanderLamar AlexanderSenate committee vote on DeVos postponed Cheney calls for DeVos to be confirmed ‘promptly’ With Trump pick Tom Price, cool heads can prevail on health reform MORE (R-Tenn.) and Patty MurrayPatty MurrayWarren burns Mnuchin over failure to disclose assets Warren: GOP ‘ignored’ ethical requirements for Cabinet picks Overnight Healthcare: Takeaways from Price's hearing | Trump scrambles GOP health plans MORE (D-Wash.), pressed the FDA for more time in a letter sent last year.
The FDA eventually agreed to delay the menu labeling requirements, but the legislation would extend that delay further until two years after the bill is passed. This would give a Republican president the chance to kill the rules altogether, if the GOP takes back the White House.
Before final passage, the House adopted an amendment from McMorris Rodgers to clarify that businesses wouldn’t face penalties for accidental human error while preparing food or varying ingredients.
“Mistakes and variations are inevitable,” McMorris Rodgers said.
This story was corrected at 1:40 P.M.


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The increasingly-fractious, six month labour dispute at IKEA's big box store in Richmond may be on the verge of a dramatic escalation -- all the way to Europe.
After listening to a wealth of emotional testimony from embittered IKEA employees during a hearing in Vancouver, international trade union representatives are pledging overseas action on behalf of the Richmond store workers, if the prolonged conflict continues.
"We will do everything we can that's in our power," declared Peter Lövkvist, secretary of the Nordic Transport Workers' Federation, which represents 400,000 union members across all five Nordic countries, including IKEA's home base of Sweden. "We're not ruling anything out."
Asked for specifics, Lövkvist mentioned measures such as publicizing the dispute in Scandinavia, demanding a "friendly" meeting with the worldwide company's top brass at its Swedish headquarters, and union members refusing to handle IKEA products. "That could include seafarers, dockworkers, longshoremen, truck drivers, warehouse workers," he said in an interview. "It depends. We could do a lot."
Erin van der Maas, strategic industrial project co-ordinator for the the International Transport Workers' Federation, who also sat in on the hearing, was equally adamant on the readiness of international union organizations to pitch in to help those on the picket line in Richmond. If the company is successful in breaking that union local and imposing concessions, it will be a defeat for unions everywhere, he said.
"Their dispute is now under the gaze of a wider labour movement… I can definitely see this going further," warned van der Maas.
While hoping the threat of international pressure would prompt IKEA to return to the bargaining table, van der Maas noted that Christmas is coming. Boycotts are not out of the question. "We need to raise awareness of this dispute right across Europe," he said. "We've got many members in many countries who buy IKEA, and soon it will be Christmas… Those are things we don't need to spell out."
Uniting across borders
Although nothing will happen immediately, vows by the two international union leaders definitely up the ante in the local IKEA dispute that began in the lazy, hazy days of mid-May. They also signal growing awareness that a fair settlement for 300 employees at a single location, fighting to resist concession from a worldwide, retail heavyweight like IKEA, may only be possible with powerful, outside allies.
Van der Maas, who is based in London, said labour organizations have understood this for some time, but only now are they starting to translate that into concrete strategy.
"We are realizing we have to be a lot more reactive and work with affiliate unions much faster, so we can respond to a crisis in a quick, meaningful way," he said.
"If you're going to challenge a big company, you need to work across borders, because [picketing] one store in Richmond is not enough to get the message across."
The two international labour leaders are members of a fact-finding panel invited to investigate the strike/lockout by the B.C. Federation of Labour and the Teamsters Union, which represents the IKEA workers.
The four panelists spent Wednesday talking to store managers and employees on the picket line, followed by a two-hour public hearing Thursday afternoon at the Wosk Centre for Dialogue in downtown Vancouver.
Panelists will first compile a report on their findings, then make it public. At that point, further strategy will be mapped out in conjunction with the Teamsters.
Lövkvist, who chaired the panel, said he expects their report to be finished within a month. He noted that Albert Martens, head of corporate human relations for all of IKEA, declined an invitation to explain the company's position. "Once we write the report, we will be contacting IKEA again."
'They've become demigods of the furniture world': worker
Meanwhile, emotions continue to run high among picketers as the foul weather of November moves in. They accuse managers of distributing information on an anti-union organization called Labour Watch, which counsels workers how to get rid of their unions, and calling employees at home, inviting them back to work. So far, more than 30 union members have crossed the lines and been expelled by the Teamsters.
Picketers who testified Thursday clearly moved panelists with their determination to stick it out and their sense of betrayal over what they said was the loss of social values that had been part of IKEA's approach throughout its astonishing global expansion under legendary founder Ingvar Kamprad.
"He was always willing to find a way. That was his philosophy. But they don't think that way at IKEA anymore," said Marc Caron, a values trainer at the store and an employee for more than 20 years.
"Kamprad also said that only while sleeping, do we not make mistakes. All of a sudden, the company doesn't make any mistakes," Caron said. "They've become the demigods of the furniture world, quick to tell you how wrong you are."
Julia Buczek, a younger, part-time employee, said IKEA had been a big part of her upbringing, as her Polish immigrant parents furnished most of their house with IKEA products.
"But now it seems the company I'd loved and grown up with has become one big corporate machine. Their Swedish values appear to have gone down the drain, at least over here," Buczek said.
Another part-time employee, Kourosh Shahrokhzadeh, told how he experienced more and more difficulty getting sufficient work hours at the store to qualify for benefits. The atmosphere was far different from his time working at an IKEA store in Sweden.
One of his children is autistic and his wife has breast cancer, he said. "I'm just speaking from my heart. My co-workers were so good to me. They gave me a sense of belonging. But now I only see the black end of the tunnel. The IKEA culture here is certainly not what I was expecting when I was hired."
Ikea 'committed to being a great employer': spokesperson
IKEA's Richmond store is one of only two in Canada with a unionized workforce.
On May 13, after workers voted resoundingly to reject a contract offer laden with concessions and a two-tiered wage package, they were locked out for an hour. Employees were then invited back by the company under terms of a new agreement that imposed the two-tier wage system (lower rates for new staff), fewer benefits, tougher management rules and a new pay grid that required much longer service to attain the top wage rate. Workers stayed on the picket line, where they remain today.
In subsequent bargaining, the company abandoned its demand for two-tier wage rates, but called instead for advancement up the wage grid to be based on the level of sales at the store. According to the union, such a condition is unprecedented in the industry.
Madeleine Löwenborg-Frick, public relations manager for IKEA Canada, said she was travelling and could not provide comment on the latest development in the dispute until late Friday or Monday.*
In an interview with the CBC earlier Thursday, however, she said the company had not been invited to participate in the public hearing, but did meet with two panelists at the store in Richmond.
"So we did have an opportunity to reiterate to them that we are committed to providing wages that exceed industry standards," Löwenborg-Frick told the CBC. "We are not proposing any wage reductions. We are committed to being a great employer and providing long-term, sustainable jobs."
She said the company is willing to return to negotiations if the Teamsters step forward "with a reasonable offer."
The dispute has caused IKEA to close its restaurant and children's play area, and shut down completely one day a week, hardly a grave financial blow for a chain that reported about $4 billion in profit last year.
Peter Lövkvist said he was quite startled to hear about IKEA's attitudes towards its Richmond employees, given the company's generally fair treatment of workers in much of Europe.
"IKEA has a good reputation in Sweden. It's a good employer," he said. "But it seems the farther away from Sweden they get, the worse IKEA gets in labour relations."
*Story updated Friday, Nov. 8 at 12:35 p.m.


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'Meet the Mustangs' Tuesday at Smoky
Smoky Mountain's athletic department has scheduled a "Meet the Mustangs" function on Tuesday at Carr Hooper Stadium in Sylva.
Fall sports athletes will be introduced and there will be hot dog plates available for purchase at a cost of $5. Fans may also buy athletic passes and merchandise.
The event is scheduled to run from 6 to 8 p.m.


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Xenoblade Developer Monolith is Making a 3DS Game
Monolith Soft, the developers of gems such as Xenosaga, have opened a new studio in Kyoto and put up a recruitment page seeking staff for an untitled Nintendo 3DS game. The company is looking for effect designers (map and battle screens), motion designers (for monsters and characters), and 3DCG experts (character and 3D map modeling).
Monolith, a Nintendo subsidiary, recently hired en masse for an unknown Wii U project. The company also contributed to production for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Your guess on what this new game could be is as good as mine, but my money is on a new RPG. Perhaps a Xenosaga title for the 3DS?


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Market Research published in September 2015
- Inside sales rise as gas prices dip.
- Limited-time offers increase visits and check sizes.
- New twists on classic brands also among the biggest launches.
- Lower gas prices, good weather help boost the category.
- Sales of pumpkin products are up 79 percent since 2011.
- Competition is fierce as consumers seek more rewards.


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NHL Tabs Adidas as Official Sponsor for Authentic Apparel
Starting with the 2017-2018 NHL season, CCM owned, Adidas Group, will provide all of the official equipment to the players, including their sticks, skates, gloves, helmets and goaltending gear.
Commissioner Gary Bettman said on the league’s website, “Teaming up with Adidas continues our strategy of aligning with major partners who share our vision for growing the game and putting innovation at the forefront of everything we do for our players and fans.”
He added, “As an iconic performance brand with global reach, Adidas is the perfect partner for us. With the World Cup of Hockey next year and the launch of our new partnership coinciding with our centennial celebration in 2017, there could not be a more appropriate time for us to take our longstanding relationship to new heights.”
The National Hockey League Players Association also announced a partnership with Adidas for the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. Adidas and the NHLPA’s partnership allows the apparel company to become the official provider for all authentic and replica jerseys. Donald Fehr, NHLPA Executive Director told the site, “Adidas will be instrumental in providing leading technology to produce hockey jerseys for the world’s best hockey players, while also serving our growing global fan base with innovative products..”
Fehr added, “We look forward to partnering with the creative minds at Adidas who collectively share our focus on growing the game around the world.”
Adidas and the league have continued a longstanding relationship despite the NHL’s existing partnership with Reebok. This new agreement allows Adidas to leverage its offerings as a leading sports brand to collaborate with one of the world’s most innovative sports leagues. The partnership also allows Reebok to continue to focus on and invest in strengthen their position to become a leader in the fitness market.
As part of their new strategic business plan, Adidas is trying to aggressively refocus its role to become more relevant in America by increasing its presence within key US sports. As hockey is a leading sport within Canada, the partnership will also assist their Canadian business growth as well.
Mark King, President of Adidas Group North America said, “This partnership with the NHL is evidence of our comprehensive commitment to the athlete. Adding the league to our growing iconic portfolio, is just the start for us.”
He added, “Everything we do at Adidas focuses on making athletes faster and we are ready to bring that attitude to the ice. This is an incredible opportunity to get our most innovative performance products on the world’s best hockey players, on and off the ice, and take the game to the next level”
The new partnership comes on the heels of Adidas announcing an agreement with 2015 number one draft pick, Connor McDavid. Adidas has plans to add more top NHL players to its roster of professional athletes.
In addition to the merchandising rights, Adidas will bring high performance training footwear and apparel to every NHL locker room. Adidas will also connect with fans at all NHL events, such as the Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic, Coors Light NHL Stadium Series, the Stanley Cup playoffs and the NHL All Star Game through largescale brand activations.
Adidas and the NHL will continue to work together on several grassroots initiatives to help spur the growth and excitement of the game.
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Just as Dorothy stuffed straw into the Scarecrow, a 1996 law designed to foster telecommunications competition instead enabled most of the Baby Bells
and the extant AT&T to reassemble.
It will also see BellSouth return to its roots, as it and a number of other operators ( dubbed the Baby Bells
( were spun off from AT&T in the 1980s.
Each year brought the same promises of how VoIP would revolutionize the delivery of phone service, replacing expensive and cumbersome traditional phone service delivered by the "Baby Bells
" with a cheap alternative.
These adorable baby bells
hold the perfect amount of spreadable butter for one person to enjoy.
If you want to hear some plain talk about the frenzied competition between the Baby Bells
and the cable providers to market bundled services, seek out Randy Luther, vice president of construction technology for Centex Homes in Dallas.
The same can be said for all of the Baby Bells
and related telecom companies.
Despite being called Baby Bells
from their inception, the telecommunications companies created from the breakup of AT&T retained several major hallmarks of a hidebound, old-economy sector that includes a large capital-heavy infrastructures and a huge unionized workforces active in multiple states.
But after months of talks with local broadcasters and the networks, the plan remains in limbo, a new competitor has launched a similar service, and it's starting to look like the Baby Bells
are going to get into the pay TV business before local broadcasters get their act together.
While officials at this big giant lumbered along, its competitors, including the Baby Bells
that were forcefully spun off in the mid 1980s, took risks and implemented programs that allowed them to leap ahead.
"The Baby Bells
are synonymous with 'market power.'"
But the Baby Bells
soon became adept at blocking competitors' access-to their lines.
At top speed, Korea's broadband connections over very high-bit digital subscriber lines (VDSL) are on average four times faster than the fastest broadband connections that the likes of Comcast, Time Warner or the Baby Bells
provide in the U.S.


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Z Energy posted a 10 per cent increase in full-year operating earnings, as fuel and refining margins improved and the service station chain sold more fuel.
Replacement cost earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and fair value adjustments, the company's preferred earnings measure, rose to $241 million in the year ended March 31, from $219 a year earlier, the Wellington based company said in a statement.
Sales fell 9 per cent to $3.06 billion.
Statutory net profit tumbled 93 per cent to $7 million, which Z said was "negatively impacted by the 61 per cent drop in the price of crude oil and refined fuels over the financial year".
Z says replacement cost Ebitdaf is the preferred measure for the downstream fuels industry globally.
On that basis, earnings fell to $91 million in its first half, missing the company's prospectus forecast of $105 million.
For 2016, the company forecasts RC operating Editdaf of $245 million to $265 million.
"The second half of the financial year was a period of recovery and increasing momentum for the company - the opposite of the conditions in the first half," the company said.
"Refining margins improved markedly, Z sold more fuel than in the previous corresponding period, and fuel margins and store sales improved.
"The under-performance relative to financial targets in the first half of the year, resulting from costs associated with the low refining margins in that half, was reversed in the second half."
Z lifted its final dividend to 16.5 cents from 14.3 cents a year earlier.
Shares of the company were unchanged at $5 and have gained 29 per cent in the past 12 months, outpacing an 11 percent gain for the NZX 50 Index.
Operating expenses rose 2 per cent to $294 million, with an increase in selling commissions and on-site costs, and a decline in employee benefits after restructuring in 2014.
The net cash inflow from operating activities was $182 million, more than double 2014's inflow of $81 million.
The company chased volume in its latest year, "actively price matching in retail while maintaining average margin," it said.
That saw its underlying fuel margin rise 6 per cent in the year, at 19.3 cents per litre, while the total volume of fuel sold rose 2 per cent to 2.48 billion litres.
Of that, petrol sales fell 1 per cent to 823 million litres, while diesel rose 1 per cent to 861 million litres - with both fuels lagging behind volume growth in the industry as a whole.
'Other' fuels fell 1 per cent to 625 million litres.
The biggest gain came from supply sales and exports, which rose 51 percent to 172 million litres, reflecting 54 million litres of crude and condensates sold to BP through the New Zealand Refining optimisation programme.
"While Z's commitment to match up and compete on discounted prices has meant that up to 40 percent of its retail fuel volume has been discounted, this reduces margins on total retail volumes, however tactical pricing has firmed the company's fuel volumes over the second half of the year," said chief executive Mike Bennetts.


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Apple has launched the fourth model of iOS 16 developer beta, which brings extra iOS 16 options on the iPhone for beta testers. The newest model was seeded for builders with new options involving Apple’s Messages app, Residence app, Mail, Display screen notifications, CarPlay and extra.
iOS 16 is at the moment in beta testing for builders and memebers of Apple’s beta testing program. The replace will probably be rolled out for all iPhone 8 and newer iPhone customers later this yr round September. The brand new replace comes with a number of new iOS 16 options which have turn into obtainable for testing. Listed here are the highest iOS 16 options that are actually obtainable for beta testers:
iOS 16 Characteristic: iMessages Edit Characteristic Will get Higher
The brand new iOS 16 replace permits customers to see the unique message and another earlier edits. Customers can faucet on a small “Edited” label beneath an edited message to view the unique model and different earlier edits. Additional, a message can now solely be edited a complete of 5 occasions earlier than the “Edit” choice disappears.
Apple has launched the Stay Actions characteristic in beta, permitting customers to start testing the characteristic on the Lock Display screen on the iOS 16 beta. The Stay Actions characteristic gives real-time info from apps on the lock display screen. Kind of like a reside widget on the lock display screen. Apple has stated that this characteristic won’t be obtainable on the primary public launch of iOS 16.
New Wallpapers in Residence App
The fourth beta of iOS 16 additionally provides new wallpaper classes to select from within the Residence app. These embrace Wildflowers and Architectural.
Mail App Will get New Time Restrict For Unsending E mail
Within the Mail app on iOS 16, customers can unsend electronic mail after just a few seconds of sending, in case they despatched one thing by mistake. The fourth beta gives customers with choices of 10, 20, or 30 seconds, whereas the earlier variations solely gave customers 10 seconds to unsend and electronic mail.
New Lock Display screen Notification Customisation
The lock display screen notificaion settings now contains visible illustration of the choices for a way notifications present up in your lock display screen. Customers can select from three sorts of lock display screen notifications – depend, stack, and checklist.
New Custimisations For Lock Display screen
Apple has improved the interface when customising the Lock Display screen, with choices for colours, gradients, photographs, and extra on the backside on iOS 16 beta 4. Other than this, the corporate has additionally up to date the music participant on the lock display screen with bolder components.
New Wallpapers For Apple CarPlay
Just like the Residence app, Apple CarPlay additionally will get new set of wallpapers with the fourth beta of iOS 16. The brand new choices embrace coloured, blue, and grey.


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With a host of new banking options suddenly available to the Indian consumer, the battle of banks is hotter than ever. Involving users with better experiences and personal finance tools has become an increasingly pivotal factor in deciding which bank the Indian consumer will choose.
$230 million in funding was raised by Niyo, FamPay, Jupiter and Fi in 2021 alone. These new banking solutions, along with many others to come soon, will serve the needs of more than 10 million Indian consumers by the end of this year (expected).
The Indian consumer is now surrounded by a variety of banking options, from existing players to trying new new banks. The checkout page of every India consumer app is filled with discounts and rewards from every new and old bank in India. This occurs at a time when the average consumer is looking for personalized and comprehensive financial management to improve financial habits and health.
We believe that building capacity around personal finance will be key to gaining market share as new job holders and banks compete for it. New banks, with technology as a core competency, are slowly building personal financial experiences that drive growth from acquisition to engagement and revenue.
But incumbents, who have a majority of the market share, cannot move quickly into personal finance as a strategy, due to poor technological capabilities. But the cost of that will come when customers swell, at a time when retention is key to incumbents.
Personal finance becomes a priority
With the social and political landscape pushing towards financial inclusion, and awareness raising among millennials and millennials, financial literacy is developing faster than ever. Indian consumers, who have made digital banking an option, are becoming more aware than ever of personal finance.
Consumers are looking to understand and control their expenditures, tools with which they can save and invest, and stay informed about their overall financial health. All of this was out of reach of consumers until recently, when the account aggregator framework made possible a range of possible personal finance experiences.
Since then, there has been a rise in investment finance for personal finance mandates and later a rise in the number of personal finance apps and downloads in India. The modern Indian consumer has made personal finance a priority.
Personal Finance as a Strategy
New banks are taking advantage of technology to build attractive personalized financing features, such as summary and analysis on spending, budgets, savings, recommendations on investment options, etc. This is in line with the core principle of new banks – customer happiness.
These experiences affect the entire customer life cycle of new banks:
● Acquisition by introducing new personal finance features such as spending limit and budget tracking.
● Share across financial journeys by offering features such as approximate savings at checkout.
● Generating income by tracking cash flow and financial behavior and recommending savings and investment tools.
The new banks have built rich experiences powered by multiple technologies like machine learning where users can search for insights like “How much money did you spend on food last month?”.
Technology – the Achilles heel of existing banks
In a world where most app store reviews are filled with complaints about poor user experience, current banks have a lot to catch up with in this battle of the banks. Banks have traditionally been slow-moving institutions and are far behind new banks in terms of digital expertise and offerings.
● It’s time to market with any new digital experience posing a major threat to incumbents.
● The inefficiency of financial technology makes banks unable to deploy advanced technologies and seamless experiences.
However, current banks have a huge moat in the form of historical data close to digital experiences. But unless they overcome technology’s Achilles heel, they won’t be able to extract value from their data.
Build embeddable personal finance
Backed by the industry’s leading Fintech players and some of the major investment funds in India, Fego, a Chennai-based startup, is building a solution for conventional banks. By pooling most of the engineering and technology overhead involved in offering personal finance experiences, they can significantly reduce the time to market for traditional banks.
While resolving technology dependence, Fego’s experiences can simply be incorporated by traditional banks into their existing digital presence. Through a suite of modular personal finance experiences that are optimized for customer satisfaction, these experiences can help existing businesses replicate growth across the funnel that is currently limited to new banks.


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La Boulangerie's owners, Pascal Rigo, Nicolas Bernadi, Michael Staenberg, and James Park, made the announcement last Thursday, according to Eater SF.
Founded by wife and husband team Liz and Dez Fiedler, Loving Cup opened its first location in 2008 in Russian Hill (2356 Polk St.) Known for its rice pudding and non-fat, probiotic frozen yogurt, it's since expanded to stores in Cow Hollow, Hayes Valley, Divisadero and Marin.
Rigo and Bernadi became investors in the company roughly a year and a half ago, Liz Fiedler told Hoodline. But the pair have been fans of Loving Cup for some time, and even made an offer to buy the business in 2013, she said.
When Rigo and Bernadi broached the idea again this year, "I think that all the stars aligned, [just] as the business was getting a lot bigger," said Fiedler.
"My husband and I were doing everything ourselves, and it was really fun, but it's really different going from running two stores to seven," she said. "And Pascal and Nicolas partnered with [Staenberg and Park], who have a lot of history and success with franchising and scaling ... After meeting with them, Dez and I felt comfortable selling the business, because we knew they would do an awesome job."
When the Fiedlers originally opened Loving Cup, the plan was to only have one shop. But due to its success, it organically grew, Liz said.
"Once we got the investors and started expanding, my job changed a lot. I went from being involved and on the floor with customers, to a businessperson," she said. "It changed to a point where it wasn't necessarily the job that I wanted anymore."
As for the future of Loving Cup, Fiedler said that she expects to see the chain continue to expand in San Francisco, and eventually to the South Bay. She also said she wouldn't be surprised if it goes national at some point.
Launching a chain with a national profile wouldn't be a first for Rigo, who didn't return a request for comment for this story. La Boulangerie's previous incarnation, La Boulange, was sold to Starbucks in 2012, with its products being sold in its stores around the country.
As for the Fiedlers, "we are going to go into beer," Liz said. "It's a little bit of a departure, but Dez is interested in opening a tap room in Marin," near the couple's home in Mill Valley.
"There's not a lot of places to go, and we want to open something that's really family-friendly and dog-friendly as well."
The couple is also planning on launching another frozen dessert business, expected to roll out in the coming year. Though it's still in its early stages, Fiedler hinted that she's working on a "frozen novelty" dessert to be sold wholesale, instead of at brick-and-mortar stores.
"I'm really interested in doing something non-dairy, to be sold by the pint at grocery stores," she said. "I think that you can make something non-dairy that still tastes like ice cream, and tastes really great."


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Microsoft has announced that the Amazon App Retailer is prepared for set up on extra Home windows 11 units. Which signifies that customers with a Home windows 11 desktop or laptop computer PC are not any going to have entry to a few of their favourite Android apps in a complete new manner.
The official announcement mentions that the Amazon App Retailer is quickly going to be accessible in 31 international locations. Together with the US, Japan, New Zealand, the UK, Germany, Canada, Australia, France and extra. That being mentioned, not all of these international locations have entry but. Microsoft states that particularly, it’s increasing the assist for the Amazon App Retailer on Home windows 11 to new international locations “within the coming weeks.” So whereas it has began the rollout course of, it isn’t full. It’s going to take a bit earlier than it reaches all initially deliberate areas.
Additionally price noting is that a number of the international locations within the listing do have already got entry. And Microsoft’s announcement at this time is just not in regards to the launch. However merely increasing entry to areas the place the app retailer wasn’t accessible earlier than. For example, the US has had entry to the Amazon App Retailer since February. And within the months since Microsoft has rolled out assist to extra areas.
The Amazon App Retailer is on the market on Home windows 11 in 21 international locations
Thus far, Microsoft has rolled out assist for 21 international locations, out of the 31 that it plans to increase that listing to by the top of this yr. All 21 international locations will be discovered within the screenshot beneath. Microsoft’s weblog submit mentions the standard suspects just like the US and the UK, however Canada is just not at the moment listed, neither is Mexico. So the entire of North America doesn’t fairly but have assist.
For those who stay in one of many supported areas, getting apps from the Amazon App Retailer is fairly straightforward to do. You’ll must first set up the Amazon App Retailer. Yow will discover this within the Home windows Retailer app in your desktop or laptop computer. After getting that put in, you may browse the app retailer for greater than 2,000 Android apps and video games. Then set up something you see which may be of curiosity.


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Environmental Activist, Rob Greenfield, speaks about his mission to help raise awareness about the volume of trash consumers generate and opportunities for a more sustainable future.
TV broadcast week beginning 6/12/22
Sponsor: NONPROFIT FIRE, Google Ad Grants Community Building
Sponsor: GWC PRODUCTIONS, Putting Eyes on Your Music
Sponsor: SKYWORKS MARKETING, Performance Advertising


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YOUR SAY: Why get punished for paying rego quarterly?
REGO payments have got Sunshine Coast residents revved up.
Car registration is the hefty bill that no one wants to see sitting in the letterbox.
Now the financial strain has been lifted...slightly. Queensland motorists will have the option of paying car registration quarterly, using direct debit.
A new 'set and forget' direct debit system will come into place from July 1, allowing owners to pay their registration electronically in three-, six- or twelve-monthly instalments.
RACQ Executive Manager Public Policy Michael Roth said the move was a win for RACQ and all Queensland motorists.
"The option of quarterly car registration payments through direct debit will go a long way to reducing pressure on the household budget for many families," he said.
As part of the introduction of this new option, the Queensland Government will also reduce the surcharge for six-monthly registration fees from July 1, 2015
"As the State's peak motoring body, this is something we have been calling on the Queensland Government to provide for a long time," Mr Roth said.
"The option of quarterly car registration payments through direct debit will go a long way to reducing pressure on the household budget for many families. "
This, coupled with the fact that it's now easy for people to check online when their rego is due, is another safeguard for motorists worried about forgetting to pay on time now car labels have been phased out.
The Queensland Government is set to reduce the surcharge for six-monthly fees to $12.60, keeping it in line with the quarterly payment surcharge of $6.30.
Daily readers weighed in on the changes on Facebook, with some questioning why three-monthly payees were slugged with a surcharge.
"Great idea but there should be no fees whatsoever if you pay it quarterly or six-monthly," Michelle Champion said.
Lisa Weatherley agreed: "Why should we be slapped with higher costs just because we want to use a quarterly service."
Jade Schwartz questioned the logic of the changes.
"So if you pay three months you have to pay an additional $25. So for those who choose to pay quarterly will now have to fork out an extra $100 on top of a normal year bill?"
Craig Weston agreed- "Still can't justify a $6.30 fee for quarterly payments! They get an extra $25.20 a year out of us."
"I want them to let us set it up so we can make a BPay payment every fortnight or week out of our pay packets just like the phone bill and water bill.
This is 2015 - surely it is not that difficult for them to change it so this option is available?" Jeannie Church said.


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Finland’s largest city wants to replace cars with apps
See the original posting on The Verge
Car sharing has grown in popularity in recent years thanks to the internet and smartphones. But now the city government of Helsinki, Finland, wants to take that idea to its logical endpoint: replacing most privately owned cars by 2025 with a comprehensive route-planner app that would also offer access to all of the city’s shared-transportation options, plus weather forecasts. As The Helsinki Times reported earlier this month, the idea is to offer every commuter a series of transportation options tailored directly to them and their circumstances: so if it’s due to start raining, the app would recommend exactly when to swap a bike-share for a cab, for example.


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Tiger’s founder will launch a new kids and toys retailer on the British high street, opening the first store in London next month.
Philip Bier has agreed a franchise deal with French retailer ÏD Kids to launch the chain in the UK, according to The Guardian.
The retailer has a £750m turnover and owns eight brands including childrenswear clothing brand Okaïdi and educational toy range Oxybul. It has 1,200 stores worldwide.
“If people say I’m mad I have some sympathy for that statement,” Bier told The Guardian. “But if you take Toys R Us, they stood still and relied on doing the same thing for 25 years with no material change in their model.
“They just expected customers to turn up with a basket and fill it. That doesn’t happen any more.”
Bier now runs Bier Brothers with his brother Jacob. The outfit aims to bring new retail brands to the British high street by becoming the preferred partner for foreign retailers wanting to enter the UK.


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HAVANA — Cuba's cigar industry survived a trio of hurricanes but saw sales slip 3 percent to $390 million last year as the world economic crisis reduced demand for luxury goods, the island's tobacco monopoly said Monday.
Habanos SA vice president Manuel Garcia said an 11 percent drop in international travelers slowed cigar sales at duty free shops, which account for a quarter of its business, while stricter smoking laws in Germany, France, the U.K. and United Arab Emirates also decreased demand.
Some 25 percent of the 400 million cigars sold worldwide last year were Cuban, with Spain, France, Germany and then Cuba itself buying the most, said Javier Terres, a vice president for development at Habanos.
Excluding the U.S., which consumes about 250 million cigars a year, Cubans hold 70 percent of the global cigar market, he added.
One iconic Cuban cigar, the Churchill-sized Cohiba Esplendido, costs around $35 apiece in London and about $20 at shops in Havana.
President Barack Obama's election has sparked talk of the U.S. easing its 47-year-old trade embargo against Cuba, potentially opening the world's biggest market to Habanos.
But Garcia told reporters that Habanos executives have "more important" things to do than speculate about the embargo.
Habanos was founded in 1994 as a joint venture between Cuba's communist government and Madrid-based Altadis SA, part of a Cuban push to draw private, foreign investment after the collapse of the Soviet Union cost the island billions of dollars in annual subsidies and trade.
Altadis was acquired by Britain's Imperial Tobacco Group PLC last year for $16 billion.
Habanos produces 27 premium cigar brands in 220 different sizes, some as small as a cigarette and others nearly as big as a Chihuahua.
It gained 13 new stores in 2008, opening 22 and closing nine to bring its network of authorized dealers to 144, Terres said.
Cuba's tobacco crop was meanwhile unaffected by Hurricanes Gustav, Ike and Paloma which caused more than $10 billion worth of damage, left about 500,000 Cubans homeless and devastated farms across the island when they blew through between August and November, Garcia said.
The first two storms destroyed dozens of curing barns and production facilities when they roared through Cuba's western Pinar de Rio province — where the mix of sun, slightly sandy soil and humidity grows the island's finest tobacco — but they hit while the crop was out of season.
Nearly all the damaged facilities were repaired by the harvest, which peaks this month, Garcia said.


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Sterling Storage Management focused its business in Self Storage, Records Storage, and Recreational Property Management. Sterling Management is well known in the self-storage industry as a "distressed property expert."
B&M Secure Shredding (B&M), a leading provider of secure document shredding services and confidential information destruction, has launched a new website focusing entirely on its environmental services.
Corcentric to host educational webinar showing Accounts Payable professionals how to find the best-equipped AP Automation solution for streamlining AP processes, eliminating low-value tasks, and minimizing invoice processing costs.
ezW2 2012, W2 1099 software, is affordable but fully functional software designed for the non-accounting small business and accountants who needs to file and print Form W-2 and Form 1099. Learn more from www.halfpricesoft.com.
Golden Spot believes the market growth rate of SA-1500AF, the Auto Dual Layer Interchanging Multi-point Spot Welder that can help users save manufacturing cost and create adding value, will keep rising in 2013.
Tom Kuhlmann, one of the world's best known e-learning designers and currently number three in the 'World' list of the Top Ten Movers and Shakers in corporate online learning, discussed the 'what, when and how of interactivity' with an invited audience at The Cellar at Vinopolis, on London's south bank, at the end of January.
IBIS Capital Limited, a specialist investment bank focused on the Media sector, has produced a 101 page report on the e-Learning sector - with market information and analysis from Learning Light, a consultancy with an in-depth knowledge and experience of the e-Learning marketplace and how to use e-Learning materials effectively.
Francisco Orchilles, Orlando Short Sale expert with Keller Williams Classic Realty, has recently sold another Bank of America short sale listing, with no deficiency towards the home owner, in the town of Windermere, FL.
Today's announcement of the Huhtamaki deal in Batavia Township, outside of Cincinnati, marks a cross-state coup for the Semarjian/Lichter team from Industrial Commerce Ltd. and IRG. Late last year, the partners announced an acquisition campaign culminating with the purchase of two major facilities, a data center in Cleveland used by RBS and the former Masco Cabinetry plant in Waverly, Ohio.
Waymakers Solutions in conjuction with Davenport University and Michigan Business and Professional Association offers the Ultimate Success Summit that will teach small businesses how to outsell, outsmart and outshine the competition.
The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) made the announcement yesterday that they will implement new radon testing and radon mitigation requirements for multifamily units in an effort to prevent lung cancer. This new program is part of the CDC Healthy Homes Initiative. National radon mitigation company, S.W.A.T. Environmental is staffing-up to handle the increased workload.
Discount Garage Doors, a leading, specialist supplier of manual and electric garage doors to mainland UK, announce that their business will be exhibiting at the National Homebuilding and Renovating Show 2013.
India's first Credit Health Improvement Company, CREDIT SUDHAAR, a Non Banking Financial Corporation today announced introduction of a free credit health score estimator on their website - www.creditsudhaar.comwhile declaring February 8th as CREDIT HEALTH DAY and the week of February 8th to 15th as CREDIT HEALTH WEEK.


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Everyone in the Linux world remembers Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's famous comment that Linux is a "cancer" that threatened Microsoft's intellectual property.
Microsoft has known since at least February that dozens of Windows applications, including many of its own, harbor bugs that hackers can exploit to seize control of computers, an academic researcher said Sunday.
The appearance Monday of exploit code for the DLL loading issue that reportedly affects hundreds of Windows applications means hackers will probably start hammering on PCs shortly, security experts argued.
The Windows Phone Developer Tools have been downloaded more than 300,000 times, Microsoft said, as the company prepares to offer a new application store and mobile operating system.
As it turns out, Windows Vista really wasn't all that slow; and no, your PC probably won't fry if you open it up without wearing a wrist strap. Thanks in large part to the Internet, the tech world is teeming with lies, half-truths, and misinformatio...
About 40 different Windows applications contain a critical flaw that can be used by attackers to hijack PCs and infect them with malware, a security researcher said Wednesday.
An unpatched problem with Windows applications is much worse than first thought, with hundreds of programs, not just 40, vulnerable to attack, a Slovenian security company said today.
Microsoft today announced that the next version of Office for the Mac will include a pair of key features that debuted in the Windows edition of Office 2010 earlier this year.
Windows 7 is only 10 months old, but it's never too early to glance on down the road at Windows 8.
Microsoft on Thursday announced it will release a public beta of Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) on Sept. 15, a little less than five weeks from now.
What goes down must eventually come back up, but I'll bet you weren't expecting Irrational's startling recast of the BioShock tale to take that inverted aphorism literally.
Despite being widely derided (even by Microsoft executives), the Vista OS was instrumental in finally bringing to the world a secure version of Windows, at least if a presentation by a Microsoft security expert at the Usenix Security Symposium, being...
Microsoft on Tuesday warned customers that a record number of just-patched bugs will probably be exploited in the next 30 days.
Microsoft has launched a new Windows 7 campaign to take on Mac OS X. A new tab on the Windows 7 sites compares Windows 7 to Mac OS X in a number of areas--listing out the reasons that Windows 7 is the superior choice. Most of the points made by Micro...
Microsoft today issued a record 14 security updates to patch a record-tying 34 vulnerabilities in Windows, Internet Explorer (IE), Office and Silverlight.
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First impression on unpacking the Q702 test unit was the solid feel and clean, minimalist styling.


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The C-Aircross Concept is thought to preview a new crossover which will effectively replace the C3 Picasso in the French automaker's range. Developmental versions of the new crossover wearing heavy disguise have been spotted a few times by spy photographers.
Measuring 4.15 metres long, 1.74m wide, and 1.63m tall, the C-Aircross Concept is about 72mm longer than the current C3 Picasso. The two cars have almost exactly the same width and height, though.
Citroen has evolved the latest C3's styling language to give the impression of off-road ability. The company describes its new SUV concept as "staunchly optimistic" and having the "feeling of robustness and energy", while also bearing a "relaxed and non-aggressive presence".
The C-Aircross Concept features camouflage print wheel arch guards, 18-inch alloy wheels, and orange highlights for the roof rails, C-pillars, and rubbing strips.
On the inside, the C-Aircross Concept has a minimalist design that's dominated by a 12.0-inch touchscreen in the centre of the dashboard, and a storage area that runs the width of the car. Ahead of the driver there's a head-up instrument display, while the car's seats have built-in concealed storage bags.
There's also a forward facing high-definition camera integrated into rear-vision mirror, which can share footage directly to social media networks.
Under the skin, the C3 Picasso replacement will share a platform the next-generation Peugeot 2008 and the already revealed Opel Crossland X, which replaces the Meriva small people mover.
This platform sharing agreement is one of the few results stemming from GM's, now disposed of, minority stake in PSA Peugeot-Citroen.
MORE: Citroen news and reviews


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MR ANTONOPOULOS SPEECH, VICE CHAIRMAN & CEO OF INTRALOT
The 5th Government Roundtable organized by Economist, took place in April, 2001 at the Athens Hilton Hotel, in Greece, with theme Leadership Strategy At the Dawn of the 21st Century. The panel of the keynote speakers included the fmr. President of the United States of America, George Bush, Prime Ministers from the Balkan region, Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Finance from Europe, Bankers and Economists, as well as, prominent businessmen..
The scope of this meeting was to conduct a stimulating dialog in defining roles of business, government and academia in the new era, in brainstorming with leading personalities of the world on the tasks and challenges.
One of the basic speakers was Mr. Constantinos Antonopoulos, Vice Chairman and CEO of INTRALOT. Mr. Antonopoulos speech was focused on the emerging business sector of the Southeastern Europe at the dawn of the 21st century. He mentioned that in nowadays, the gaming and wagering sector in the developed economies of Europe, USA and Australia is considered an important and promising financial activity. INTRALOT had foreseen that the use of high-end technology in the gaming sector is an imperative perquisite in performing lottery business and has invested in this business sector of the Southestearn Europe since this region has a high educational and culture level, which provides a valuable resource for the New Economy. Therefore, these societies posses both scientific background for technology development and a promising consumer future as technology users.
Mr. Antonopoulos concluded his speech by posing the dilemma that it is a matter of choice for the governments in Southeastern Europe to proceed to the New Economy and attract investments on this direction, rather than become a region of cheap labor, intensive production, high energy and raw materials industrial consumption.