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Event marketing software startup ToneDen has just completed a rapid period of expansion, signing up 50 independent promoters, venues and festivals for its subscription-based marketing system in just a two-month stretch.
New signings for platform include Ohio’s Prime Social Group, Seattle’s USC Events, the Clyde Theater in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Nashville’s Mercy Lounge. The company started in 2013 working with “friends who were mostly broke DJs,” jokes Ali Shakeri, co-founder and CMO. “They had no way to promote their music and we told them that instead of giving it away for free on Soundcloud, we’d make sure they got a Soundcloud follow out of it.”
The strategy came as many talent-buyers were shifting from making booking decisions based on Facebook likes, over to Soundcloud plays.
“Then artist management firms like Deckstar approached us and asked if we could help promoters that are booking their shows do a little bit better with ticket sales and Facebook ads,” Shakeri says. “I think there’s just a lot about Facebook ads that promoter’s frankly just don’t have the time to learn,” especially when they have multiple venues to book with dozens of shows on each calendar. Shakeri said many venue marketers realize their Facebook-generated ticket sales could be higher, but notes that running a successful Facebook marketing campaign requires constant monitoring. Shakeri believes the opportunity for ToneDen in the space is automation of some of the marketing, reporting and budgeting functions that had been previously done manually by show marketers and talent buyers.
The Mercy Lounge complex in Nashville, for example, is home to three venues — the 500-cap Mercy Lounge, the 1,000-cap Cannery Ballroom and the 225-person High Watt — and hosts a total of 700 shows per year, says Wes Davenport, marketing director for the three venues. He says he uses the reports from the service to show touring acts how their events were advertised — “I can show the results from the ads in the ad pack and which ads were optimized as high as possible in the market.”
ToneDen helps venue marketers track conversion rates and see how much of what they spend on marketing is paid back to them in gross ticket sales.
“I think it’s a big opportunity for the industry if people just knew a little bit more about what those best practices were,” Shakeri says, explaining that ToneDen offers Facebook advertising automation and Facebook Messenger platforms and helps marketers “view Facebook as ticket seller, not just a black hole that sucks up your show’s marketing budget.”
“I think what we’re also focused on doing is making it easier for the marketer or talent buyer to make everyone around them happier too,” Shakeri says. “It’s not just about optimizing the ads, it’s also making sure whenever the agent is verbally abusing that talent buyer for how marketing is doing, the talent buyers are able to come back and say ‘hey guys, not only are we spending what we promised, but the ads are actually doing good. So like, chill out because everything’s gonna work out.'”


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FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - The National Chicken Council says Americans will eat 1.2 billion chicken wings Sunday.
Albright's Meats and Deli says because of the fear of a nationwide chicken wing shortage, business is booming for them.
Lee Albright, the owner of Albright's Meats and Deli in Fort Wayne, said he plans ahead for the football game knowing bigger retailers face a better chance of running out ahead of time.
"I like to hear the word shortage, it creates a demand. You know, and people run out and buy it so like I said I always have wings so I hope everybody in town runs out of wings because I'm going to have some," Albright said.
The deli, located at 4924 South Calhoun Street, is stocked with around 5,000 pounds of wings for the big game on Sunday, our sister station WANE reports.
Albright's Meats and Deli also sells cooked chicken wings with buffalo or barbeque sauce. Albright said the most cooked wings he has ever sold was during the Colts vs. Bears championship game in 2007. He sold 6,000 pounds of wings for that game. Albright believes he will sell around 4,000 pounds of cooked wings this year.
Funeral arrangements have been finalized for the Nineveh children and mother killed in a fire in November.
Employees at some Indianapolis fast food restaurants will take part in a 100-city strike Thursday morning.
The Muncie School Board's decision to close one of the city's two high schools has some students looking to enroll elsewhere.

domain: news


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Apparently the driverless technology currently in development at BMW’s i division for the first autonomous car coming in 2021 will then start to spread towards the rest of the traditional range much in the same way electric technology has.
The timeframe is after 2021, according to BMW senior vice president Hildegard Wortmann, who explained that electric technology from the i3 and i8 has been slowly but surely integrated into the wider family of BMW cars, currently touching almost every model line. “BMW has the largest number of plug-in hybrids on the road,” the executive commented. “You can have a plug-in hybrid from the [2 Series] Active Tourer to the 7 Series, so in every segment we have an offer out on the street today.”
Wortmann also corroborated other reports that with the wider adoption of EV technology across the range, the i division is not focusing on electric powertrains anymore, and instead has been tasked towards developing autonomous technologies. “With BMW i, the i is not electric – otherwise it would have been an e – the i is for innovation and incubator function,” she commented. “When we launched the i brand the focus was on EVs. Now it’s on autonomous technology, but after that, the focus will move on.” So we can see how the division has passed the electric point, now moving towards the autonomous technologies, and then it will again repurpose itself towards what the company needs.


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Mukesh Ambani Becomes World’s 18th Richest Person
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani is world’s 18th wealthiest person with a net worth of USD 47.2 billion in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world’s wealthiest 500 individuals.
The net worth of the wealthiest people in the world keeps on shuffling with the time as a major part of the net worth is derived from the respective equity holding. Ambani controls almost 42 percent of Reliance Industries, owner of the world’s largest oil refining complex. The Mumbai-based conglomerate’s other businesses include a 4G wireless network across India. The billionaire also owns a residential property worth more than $400 million and the Mumbai Indians professional cricket team.
Details about the calculations are provided in the net worth analysis on each billionaire’s profile page, with figures being updated at the close of every trading day in New York.
Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is the world’s richest person with a total net worth of USD 125 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. , Microsoft Inc’s Founder Chairman Bill Gates has regained the second-richest place in the world rich list prepared by Bloomberg. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Bill Gates’ net worth is estimated to be at $106 billion, whereas the net worth of Bernard Arnault, Chairman and CEO of the wine-to-apparel-to-watch multi-billion dollar conglomerate — LVMH Moët Hennessy — Louis Vuitton SE, has dropped to $97.8 billion, as of August 04, 2019.
According to Bloombery, Ambani’s Mumbai mansion, Antilia, is valued at more than USD 400 million, according to a September 2014 analysis by property surveyors, which has been updated in line with market trends. The valuation is lower than unverified media reports which say Ambani has spent more than USD 1 billion on the 27-story property.
Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries’ subsidiary Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Ltd (RIIHL) is investing Rs 295.25 crore in Mumbai-based Fynd as part of its focus on consumer businesses and mobile phone services.
Even, Amazon.com Inc is in talks with Reliance Industries’ retail unit to buy a stake in India’s biggest brick-and-mortar retailer, two sources with knowledge of the talks told Reuters on Friday.
Amazon’s massive online presence could help bolster Reliance’s consumer and private labels business. More importantly, a potential partnership will help the duo counter Walmart, which last year invested $16 billion in Flipkart, in their battle for a bigger share of India’s fast-growing e-commerce market.
Reliance was previously in talks with China’s Alibaba to sell a stake in Reliance Retail, but a deal could not be sealed due to differences in valuation, according to a person familiar with the matter.


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DSM Dyneema has announced that Kimberly-Clark Professional has joined its licensing program for protective gloves made with Dyneema®, the world’s strongest fiber™.
Kimberly-Clark Professional plans to expand its KLEENGUARD* brand protective glove offerings with additional cut-resistant gloves featuring Dyneema® fiber. The licensing program sets high standards for abrasion- and cut-resistant gloves. A prototype of the gloves is independently tested, and, if found compliant, the gloves may be branded “with Dyneema®.” The Kimberly-Clark Professional KLEENGUARD* brand offers limited-use, comfortable head-to-toe protective gear for industrial workers.
“Industrial workers need durable, high-performing gloves that provide dexterity and comfort, while also protecting against hand injuries,” said Lori Shaffer, marketing manager for KLEENGUARD* Industrial Gloves. “The licensing agreement with DSM Dyneema will help us create more new and innovative products that can help our customers improve worker safety and increase compliance.”
Dyneema® polyethylene fiber, which combines maximum strength with light weight and softness, is increasingly being used in protective gloves. By incorporating Dyneema® in additional KLEENGUARD* brand gloves for industrial workers, Kimberly-Clark Professional will be able to offer its customers more new products with higher levels of both comfort and protection. Kimberly-Clark Professional currently offers KLEENGUARD* G60 Purple Nitrile* Cut Resistant Gloves with Dyneema®.
“We are very pleased to welcome Kimberly-Clark Professional as a licensing partner,” said Henri Oeseburg, business manager at DSM Dyneema. “As well-established brands in their respective industries, KLEENGUARD* and Dyneema® will enhance each other’s market position and together will help expand the safety and productivity benefits of high-performance, cut-resistant gloves to more workers. We look forward to collaborating with Kimberly-Clark Professional in the development of new KLEENGUARD* products featuring Dyneema® fiber.”


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Electronic self-order kiosks, a more flexible menu and access to Wi-Fi connected tablets are just a few of the new features at a renovated Hinckley fast food joint.
The McDonald’s restaurant on Northern Perimeter Road has undergone a renovation worth £350,000 that bosses hope will help tickle the taste buds of fast food lovers.
The eatery reopened for business today and scores of people took to the self-order kiosks to browse the menu and check nutritional information of each meal.
There is even the option to customise your order, for example remove gherkins or change the sauce.
Customers can now pay by contactless card and head to the designated area of the counter to pick up their order.
Residents can also use the four tablets for free to check their news feeds, play games or email a friend while eating their meal.
Hinckley franchisee Lorraine Lee who runs the restaurant said she was “thrilled with the transformation”.
She said: “Technology has a huge role to play in all walks of life, including our customers’ eating out experience, so the new tech we’ve introduced recognises the way people live their lives today.
“The response to the changes from my team has been very positive and they are enjoying the new ways of working.”
In the kitchens, new layouts and improved technology allows McDonald’s to make food specially to order for customers, with every burger and wrap personalised.
The restaurant also includes a striking new décor to create an “enjoyable space for everyone to enjoy”.
The renovation is part of a national investment to improve a string of restaurants around the country.
Some stores are piloting table service, and the new technology opens the doors to possible future advancements.
These could include placing an order on your phone before arrival or charging smartphones using wireless technology.
Paul Pomroy, CEO of McDonald’s UK, said: “We’ve listened to customer feedback and know we need to modernise further in order to move the McDonald’s experience on.
“Our converted restaurants like Hinckley will deliver a fast and easy experience, aided by digital and traditional ordering points ensuring we continue to be enjoyed by our customers.”


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India, Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement comes into force from today. India and Australia signed the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) on the 2nd of April this year. ECTA is the first trade agreement of India with a developed country after more than a decade.
The agreement encompasses cooperation across the entire gamut of bilateral economic and commercial relations between the two friendly countries.
Under this trade agreement, Indian exports will benefit from preferential zero-duty market access in Australia for 100 per cent of its tariff lines. It will benefit India’s labour-intensive sectors such as gems and jewellery, textiles, leather, furniture, food and agricultural products, engineering products, and medical devices.
On the other hand, India has provided preferential access to Australia on over 70 per cent of its tariff lines, which are primarily raw materials and intermediaries. As a result of this agreement, 10 lakh jobs are estimated to be created in the country. The total bilateral trade is expected to cross 45 to 50 billion dollar in five years from the existing 31 billion US dollar.


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Proxibid will provide live online bidding for Alex Lyon and Son’s annual three-day rental return auction, scheduled for Thursday, March 26 through Saturday, March 28.
Taking place in Mays Landing, New Jersey, the auction will feature construction equipment, aerial lifts, telescopic fork lifts and dump trucks.
Proxibid is 100-percent PCI compliant and boasts an uptime greater than 99 percent. The site’s risk management system ensures buyer safety during online transactions.
“Providing bidders with a reliable way to buy online ensures anyone in the market for equipment can participate in the sale, even if they can’t make it to Atlantic City,” says Jack Lyon, president of Alex Lyon and Son Sales Managers and Auctioneers.
The auction will begin at 9:30 Eastern on March 26. To view the auction catalog, visit www.proxibid.com/alexlyonson.


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- Dream11 CEO is offering jobs to all the Indian employees who lost their jobs during the recent mass layoffs
- The CEO made a public announcement on Twitter
We all are aware of the mass layoffs by tech giants like Meta and Twitter. As thousands of tech workers are laid off around the world, particularly in Silicon Valley, the CEO and co-founder of Dream11, Harsh Jain, has issued a public call for Indians who have been laid off – particularly those with H1B visa concerns – to return to their homeland.
Harsh Jain tweeted, “With all 52,000+ tech layoffs in the US in 2022, please spread the word to remind Indians to return home (especially those with visa concerns) to help Indian Tech realise our hyper-growth potential in the next decade!”
With all the 2022 Tech layoffs (52,000+!) in the US, please spread the word to remind Indians to come back home (specially those with visa issues) to help Indian Tech realise our hyper-growth potential in the next decade! 🇮🇳 🇮🇳 🇮🇳 (1/3)
— Harsh Jain (@harshjain85) November 7, 2022
In another tweet, Jain stated that his company is ‘profitable’ and is a ‘$8 billion co’ with more than 150 million users and ’10 kickass portfolio companies. He said that Dream Sports always looks for “excellent people, especially with leadership experience in Design, Product, and Tech!”
Furthermore, he asked people to recommend someone they know who “meets the above” and to contact the company at firstname.lastname@example.org.
According to the industry tracker Layoffs.fyi, almost 100,000 tech jobs have been lost in the United States this year. The list contains big names like Microsoft, Netflix, Twitter, Amazon, Walmart, Robinhood, Ford, and TikTok. Others, such as Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, have either paused hiring or stated that they are re-evaluating employment needs as the tech industry’s fast expansion shrinks due to rising interest rates and inflation.


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Guyana’s economy is projected to grow by 5.6% this year, according to Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh who proclaimed the eight consecutive years of growth up to 2013 as the longest streak in the country’s history.
Presenting the 2014 budget yesterday in Parliament, Singh projected that the inflation rate this year will be 5% compared to 0.9% last year, the lowest rate in decades. Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 5.2% last year while the non-sugar GDP rose by 6.3%.
While he played up expectations for this year, the Finance Minister also acknowledged that foreign exchange
earnings contracted in key industries last year. Export earnings reduced by 2.8% to US$1.4 billion.
Sugar production sagged by 14.4% in 2013 to 186,770 tonnes – the lowest figure in 22 years. This translated into a contraction of 13.6% in export earnings to US$114.2 million as a result of the decline in export volume to 160,284 tonnes. Guyana’s all important European Union quota of 167,000 tonnes was unmet and the shortfall was not offset by the 6.3% increase in the price of sugar to US$713 per tonne.
Last year, rice saw bumper production of 535,439 tonnes, 26.9% higher on the back of the PetroCaribe fuel barter agreement with Venezuela and the highest ever annual production. As a result, rice export receipts grew by 22% to US$239.8 million due to the 18.2% rise in export volume to 394,989 tonnes. There was also a 3.4% increase in the average export price to US$607 per tonne.
Gold exports totalled US$648.5 million, a 9.5% decline compared to the previous year.
This, Singh said, was a result of the decline in the average realized prices to US$1,344 per ounce compared to US$1,575 in the previous year.
The drop was registered despite a 6% appreciation in export volume to 482,527 ounces. Gold earnings were greater than sugar, rice, bauxite and forestry combined.
Bauxite earnings also contracted to US$134.6 million as a result of a 24.7% drop in export volume to 1,678,971 tonnes. This, despite the 18.6% hike in export prices to US$80 per tonne. Timber export earnings also dropped by 1.4% to US$38.5 million primarily as a result of lower export volume.
Singh said that production of other crops grew by 4.2% while livestock output climbed by 4.3%. The fisheries industry saw a drop by 6.5% due to overfishing, Singh said. This resulted in the suspension of the issuance of further industrial fishing licences and a drop in the operational trawler fleet. The forestry industry grew by five per cent with total output of 398,964 cubic metres.
The mining and quarrying industry was up by 8% over 2012 with the gold industry achieving 481,087 or 9.7% over the previous year. Singh boasted that the “…level of declarations represents the highest level of production in the history of the industry, exceeding production levels even when Omai gold mines were at their peak”.
Bauxite saw an 11% drop in value added production while diamond declarations jumped by 56.9% and stone output by 47.8%.
The Finance Minister said that the manufacturing sector grew by eight per cent reflecting mainly the growth in the manufacturing component of rice. He said the services sector recorded a 5.5% growth led by the construction sector which jumped by 22.6% “as a result of vibrant expansion in private sector construction buoyed by the national housing drive and by commercial construction, as well as implementation of public sector construction projects.
The information and communication technology sector grew by 5.9% while wholesale and retail trade dropped by 0.9% due to a reduction in the imports of consumption, intermediate, and capital goods.


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Microsoft has teamed up with barnesandnoble.com in a joint venture to boost electronic books. Stephen King is pioneering self-publishing efforts on the Web. And leading publishers are announcing their own ventures to publish books electronically.
Privately, all admit that the efforts are big gambles. But many publishers and booksellers are willing to bet that some of the chief successes in e-publishing, for them and for readers, will lie in the transformation of backlist books into e-books.
While some backlist opuses are very profitable-predictably selling for years, long after the author's advance and the marketing costs have been paid off-the overwhelming majority of backlist titles reap far more modest sales. Yet they take up precious warehouse space and rack up overhead.
Until now, as a book has matured and its sales have slowed, a publisher has faced two choices: Bear the costs or put the book out of print. But the digitization of books will change the economics dramatically.
Since last month, three large Manhattan consumer publishers-Simon & Schuster, Time Warner and Holtzbrinck Publishers-have signed deals with Ingram Industries' Lightning Source Inc. subsidiary to digitize their new and backlist titles. This will enable the books to be distributed electronically through PCs, laptops, Palm devices and e-book readers.
More profitably for the near term, these arrangements will enable backlist books to be printed on demand. POD allows for the quick printing and distribution of short runs, anywhere from a single copy to hundreds. Publishers can determine the size of the run in response to actual orders, as opposed to printing thousands of copies that all too often do not sell.
Ingram, the largest wholesaler/distributor in the consumer p-book world, is trying to make itself into the largest wholesaler/distributor in the consumer e-book world. It has digitized 10,000 titles for 600 publishers since fall 1997 and is accelerating its pace, says Ed Marino, its chief executive.
It's not alone, however.
In the largest digitization deal thus far, Versaware of Manhattan last month agreed to digitize new titles and the 17,000 backlist books of U.K. academic publisher Taylor & Francis by mid-2001. netLibrary, a leading provider of e-material to the academic and institutional library market headquartered in Colorado, has just opened a New York office to help position itself as a direct competitor to Tennessee-based Lightning Source.
But even netLibrary's digital conversion rate of 130 books per day amounts to a snail's pace when set against the number of backlist titles in print and the 100,000 or so titles added each year.
The digitization process costs between $100 and $700 per title for most trade books, says Mr. Marino. In the agreement with S&S, Lightning Source will digitize the publisher's new books and "at least half" of the 12,000-title backlist. It will do POD and also distribute on a variety of e-book platforms, says Kate Tentler, S&S on-line publisher.
On the brink of change
The deal with Holtzbrinck-whose New York companies include St. Martin's Press, Henry Holt and Farrar Straus & Giroux-will involve even more titles. Steve Cohen, who is spearheading Holtzbrinck's e-effort, says his company is going through 25,000 backlist titles to determine which to digitize and will probably end up converting between 10,000 and 15,000.
For publishers, the advantages of such an alliance are obvious. Mr. Cohen says he can better manage inventory by transferring slow-selling titles to POD. "We'll be able to keep books in print much more easily and think a lot more before putting a title out of print."
He also sees incremental business for some parts of the list, like St. Martin's mysteries. Until now, these were geared for hardcover-only library distribution. Now they will be niche-marketed to the consumer as POD paperbacks.
Simplifying the process
For electronic books, such a linkup "can streamline what until now has been a very, very time-consuming process: handling digital fulfillment ourselves on a title-by-title, platform-by-platform basis," says Ms. Tentler.
Large companies aren't the only ones getting involved. New York agent Richard Curtis' E-Rights has bought up the publishing rights to a thousand out-of-print titles. He's relaunching them this month for e-distribution and POD.
Yet major issues must be resolved. Quality assurance is one of them, with most digitization performed by cheap labor in China, India and the Philippines. For e-books, there are the issues of different platform standards, copyright, piracy, what royalties to pay authors, what prices to charge consumers, and the simple fact that everybody is jumping on the bandwagon.
"The biggest challenge," says Michael Fragnito, vice president for e-books at barnesandnoble.com, "is to have electronic publishing really make sense to the consumer."
The one thing everybody agrees on is that it'll be some years before that happens.


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The Growth of the Mobile Application Industry
Mobile Application Development and the Future
With thousands of Mobile Applications being developed and released to the public every year, one has to wonder: whether this influx of applications will ever stop. Don’t we already have a mobile application for everything we could possibly need? The simple answer is – No. No, we do not have an application for everything we need and this influx of mobile applications is only expected to gain momentum in the future.
An article recently published by CNet news stated that this year alone consumers would download close to 10.9 billion mobile applications for their mobile devices. And that figure is only expected to rise with each passing year. In fact, it is estimated that by 2014, there will be an estimated 76.9 billion mobile applications downloaded in a single year! That means in the next four years, we will be downloading 7x the number of mobile applications that we are downloading today.
Initial thoughts would be “how can there be so many mobile applications available out there?” but the fact of the matter is that there is such a high demand for mobile applications, that even if mobile application developers create two applications that are similar, (i.e. – two gaming mobile applications or two online banking mobile applications), there still will be enough demand for these similar applications to both experience great success and profits in the mobile application development industry. A similar comparison can be made during the “dotcom” bubble in the 90’s; even though there were many websites which all reported the same news/information; there was enough demand for websites that many companies could create multiple websites and still experience website traffic from the high demand of the internet/world-wide-web.
Companies such as Apple (iPhone), Google (Android), RIM (Blackberry), Microsoft (Windows Mobile 7) and Palm are surely expected to reap the benefits of such high demand for mobile applications on their mobile devices; however, this also paves the way for opportunities for many small to mid size mobile application development companies to also experience profits from the high demand of mobile applications in the mobile market today.
The mobile application industry is expected to surpass $35 billion by 2014 (up from an estimated $4.9 billion this year) and companies of all sizes will have the opportunity to get a taste of success in this booming industry. It is difficult to predict accurately what the future holds for the mobile application industry but if things continue to progress as they have been in the past year, it certainly holds a bright future ahead.


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Pace, who make the current Foxtel Q set top box, is believed to be negotiating to also buy the rights to the Motorola name for the US market.
Google is believed to have offered to finance the deal.
According to sources close to the negotiations, Google is trying to narrow Motorola's focus toward higher-end smartphones, but the deal has been complicated due to Google's desire to retain equity and the unit's patents.
Motorola is currently engaged in patent battles with TiVo over set-top box technologies, a fact that could complicate matters for any potential buyers. Financing might also help attract buyers, sources tell Bloomberg, as the unit would face increasing competition from digital applications which accomplish much the same tasks as the hardware it manufactures.
The sale of the set-top box unit is part of Google's wider restructuring of the electronics manufacturer. Shortly after purchasing the company in May, Google announced it would cut about 4,000 staff from Motorola, roughly 20 percent of the firm's workforce.
For Pace, getting a firmer foothold and solid reach in the US would strengthen its business.
In a statement, Pace said: "Discussions with Google are currently at a preliminary stage and there is no certainty as to whether any agreement regarding any transaction will be reached."
The Guardian newspaper reported the "Home" division of MMI, which is up for sale, generated revenues of about $900m per quarter and profits of about $50m per quarter in the two years ahead of the Google acquisition, while the mobile phone division, which Google is keeping had revenues of about $2.4bn but consistently made losses of about $80m.
No deadline has been set for completing the acquisition, and Google may want to hold on to the patents owned by the set-top business in order to fend off lawsuits from other companies as it seeks to expand its own Google TV business.


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Payroll reporting to the ATO became completely digital on July 1, 2019, for every business that employs at least one worker. The change has caused confusion and concern for business owners.
According to News.com.au research by Intuit Australia found that half of businesses with 4 or fewer employees had not heard of STP.
Xero conducted its own survey and found that one in five small business owners don’t think STP applies to them.
Xero Australia national partner director Rob Stone said ATO figures suggested about 90,000 microbusinesses used no software at all when paying their staff.
“It’s often the reality for small business owners that they are too immersed in the day-to-day of running a business to have the capacity to stay on top of all of the new regulatory obligations.”
Mr Stone said there was plenty of support available for small businesses to handle the STP switch.
STP affects around 700,000 small businesses, and ATO assistant commissioner Jason Lucchese said they had until September 30 to start reporting using STP.
“We have been writing to all small employers who have 19 or less employees over the past few months providing links to more information on our website including fact sheets, checklist and videos,” he said.
Mr. Lucchese said the ATO had published a list of no-cost and low-cost STP options for micro employers and would provide exemptions for some business owners.
Tania Tonkin, a chartered accountant, and director of dmca advisory, said cloud accounting software could also help business owners get a better handle on how their business was tracking.
“The purpose of this new rule is to make sure employers are paying superannuation to staff on time and accurately,” she said.
If you have any questions on how these changes may affect you and your business, please do not hesitate to get in touch. We are always happy to help.


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Best Chalhoub Group Careers In Dubai UAE
The General Authority for Civil Aviation in Saudi Arabia has today issued a license to the Chalhoub Group to operate a state-of-the-art facility at Riyadh Integrated – the Kingdom’s first Special Integrated Logistics Zone [– enabling Chalhoub Group and the Riyadh Integrated operator – Special Integrated Logistics Zone – to sign a new lease agreement for 50 years.]
His Excellency the President of the General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA) Abdulaziz Al- Duailej handed over the license to Mr. Marcus Freeman, President of Operations at Chalhoub Group, at the headquarters of the Authority in Riyadh.The Special Integrated Logistics Zone was launched in October 2022 in Riyadh by HE the Minister of Transport & Logistics and the General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA). The zone is truly integrated, with a value proposition that has been developed alongside its first batch of investors. The strategically located special integrated logistics zone will serve billions of potential customers in easy reach in Africa, Asia and Europe and help to significantly increase Saudi’s cargo capacity to more than 4.5 million tons per annum. It will also strengthen Saudi Arabia’s competitive position as the largest, fastest growing and leading trading nation in the Middle East, continuing Vision 2030’s mission to connect the Kingdom to the world.Set to open in mid-2025, Chalhoub Group’s fulfilment centre at Riyadh Integrated will serve as a flagship centre for the region. Once operational, the facility will also reduce lead time to market and strengthen last mile deployment whilst enabling sustainable growth through enhanced customer service by utilising advanced automation and technological solutions. Covering a surface area of 40,000 square metres, with a built-up area of up to 24,000 square metres, the fulfilment centre is expected to quadruple the Chalhoub Group’s fulfilment capacity to service the region, create an estimated 200 new job opportunities, and support the local drive for recruitment across key growth sectors, including logistics.
About Chalhoub Group
We are Chalhoub Group, a leading partner for luxury across the Middle East for over 60 years. By blending our Middle East expertise, deep understanding of the local customer and intimate knowledge of luxury, we’re dedicated to making every customer experience unforgettable.The leading partner for luxury across the Middle EastAs we continue to grow, it’s our vision to become a hybrid retailer, bringing luxury experiences to the fingertips of customers everywhere. Our passionate teams drive our vision forward.We are a family of fearless dreamers, chasing stars, inspired by the past and celebrating the future, daring and forever growing.We seek to inspire, to exhilarate, to delight. We bring people together and make them feel special. We enrich lives and turn aspirations into reality.We are a family of fearless dreamers, chasing stars, inspired by the past and celebrating the future, daring and forever growing.
19) Shop Supervisor
34) Growth Executive
35) Project Manager
37) Strategy Manager
48) Business Analyst


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Happy Easter everyone! Well, the vacation will be over for me today. But until that happens, I am enjoying my last day at the summerhouse together with my Danish family.
Now is time to start counting down for the Youth Fashion Summit / Copenhagen Fashion Summit, which is the world’s largest and most important event on sustainability in fashion yet.
This is the time where leading voices in the world of fashion, business and design students meet to discuss the fashion industry’s social and environmental responsibility and solutions.
On April 24, Copenhagen Fashion Summit2014 will take place in Copenhagen Opera House under the sponsorship of Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary of Denmark.
100 students will use their knowledge, their skills and all their good ideas to develop new and fresh solutions to the challenges facing the industry.
I am happy to be part of the 100 students invited from around the world to speak our minds about the industry that we would like to be part of and about how we believe sustainability can make a difference in fashion industry and the environment that surrounds us.
On 22 and 23 of April I will be working closely with students from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation School of Design, School of Design and Technology (KEA) among other design schools around the world sharing knowledge and finding solutions that can help make a good impact at the fashion industry.
We will present our ideas and recommendations for the industry on stage at Copenhagen Fashion Summit. I see this as a unique opportunity to network with people that work for the fashion industry but also as a chance to be part of project that aims to make a change.
This year’s Youth Fashion Summit will focus on solutions: How can the fashion industry justify a future with fewer resources and more people to share them? What will the industry look like in 2050? In what direction should the industry head to ensure the best possible solutions for the key challenges?
I am so excited to explore solutions to all these questions together with other creative minds.
But also at this year’s Fashion Summit, 10 Nordic designers and brands, such as Filippa K, Designers Remix, Marimekko, are challenged to design two complete innovative and creative looks in sustainable materials to demonstrate that sustainable fashion certainly can be stylish and fashionable. And finally there will be a runway show dedicated to denim, called Denim Challenge, and here five Nordic brands have designed creative styles made of innovative and responsible denim.
The goal of the Denim Challenge is to inspire both consumers and the industry to explore the endless ways denim can be used. It is meant to give designers access to sustainable materials while also encouraging innovative thinking and usage of denim.
I will probably share my experience about this unique opportunity with you in another post soon.
Stay turned and follow up on that is happening at: Copenhagen Fashion Summit.
Have a great Sunday!


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In partnership with Hewlett-Packard, the movie studio dipped its toes into Linux waters with "Shrek," using some lower-end HP servers to speed up the brute-force "rendering" process under which skeletal images are fleshed out with detailed color and texture. In "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron," DreamWorks extended Linux use to the workstations that animators use to create the images in the first place.
With "Sinbad," scheduled for release this week, HP Linux workstations and rendering servers were used 100 percent of the time, said Jeff Wood, director of product marketing for HP's personal workstation business.
The Linux connection continues to spread at the studio. DreamWorks is using HP x4000 workstations running Linux to create "Shrek 2," Wood said, and is now adding the newer xw8000s as well. Another new DreamWorks movie, "Shark Slayer," uses xw8000 systems as well, Wood said.
About 250 of the 1,000 HP Linux workstations at the studio were used for "Sinbad," Wood said. In addition to those systems, the company has hundreds of lower-end 1.75-inch-thick HP Linux servers bolted to racks to handle rendering chores.
Linux, which runs on workstations using Intel chips instead of more expensive machines from companies such as SGI, is becoming a popular way to satisfy the appetites of an increasingly digital Hollywood. Other digital animation companies using Linux on Intel systems include Industrial Light and Magic and Pixar.
At DreamWorks, Linux initially wasn't up to snuff, able to draw only about three frames per second on animators' workstations at the outset. With HP optimizations to the operating system to accommodate features such as double graphics cards, though, the systems were able to draw 46 frames per second, Wood said.


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Could Advertising Risks Threaten Facebook’s Success?
(eToro Blog) The countdown for Facebook’s IPO launch on the NASDAQ continues (T-minus 2 days and 3 hours, give or take a few minutes) and spoilsports are already practicing their “I-told-you-so” speech, ready to whip it out at the first sign that the social media giant won’t be able to raise the targeted $100 billion at the launch. Some critics are arguing that Facebook is a fad; a point invalidated, says Facebook wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg, by the site’s 900 million global users. That doesn’t mean that the IPO launch is going to be a walk in the park either say analysts, who list a whole host of challenges that Facebook will face as it strives after the launch to maintain its share price.
Certainly, advertising revenue is going to be among its largest challenges. Martin Sorrell, the chief executive officer at WPP, which is considered a bellwether in the advertising industry, agrees that 900 million users don’t constitute a “passing fad,” but he points out that one of the problems with advertising on any social media website, not just Facebook, is interrupting a social communication which he says is always fraught with risk. Facebook execs argue that they intend to make changes that will make advertisements more engaging and relevant as they have argued that its revenue stream from advertising will be a key component to long term success. It would have to change for the better, critics insist, because historically, its advertising revenue stream has been weak.
That may be too little too late in one specific case. Just yesterday, General Motors confirmed an earlier Wall Street Journal report that they intend to cancel their $10 million worth of advertising on Facebook, noting that the paid ads didn’t have very much impact on consumers. A recently conducted poll of 1,000 Facebook users confirms that the majority of the respondents (57%) don’t click on Facebook ads ever while only about 4% say that they regularly do. Some experts believe that a click-through rate of 2 or 3% is the benchmark for banner ads’ effectiveness, however, and are not discouraged by those numbers. GM doesn’t intend to pull completely out of Facebook but says that they will limit use to their free Facebook page as the vehicle to maintain a presence and connect with consumers. Their point, in essence, seems to be why pay when they’re giving it away free?
On OpenBook’s NSDQ100, bears still dominate current sentiment but bulls are lining up ahead of the launch. That includes OpenBook trader cemara1, who will be moving away form his 100% allocation in the EUR/USD and is looking to buy NSDQ100 at 2,600, which needs only a small rally to get there. OpenBook trader saurabhtomar was able to profitable close a pair of trades in the past 24 hours, one long for an 8% gain and one short for a 28% return. A pair of long positions that were just opened are both in the red, and target 2627.50 and 2632.50.
Copyright 2012 eToro Blog


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Players will be waiting until next year for The Elder Scrolls Online, but the development team is already looking to the post-launch environment. Creative director Paul Sage has stated that the team wants to have new content coming out for the game on a frequent basis. Sage emphasizes that players ...
Posted on Jan 31st 2015 10:00AM
Posted on Jan 31st 2015 8:00AM
Posted on Jan 30th 2015 8:00PM


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U.S. Macroeconomic Indicators & the Cotton Supply Chain
Mixed signals surfaced for the U.S. economy over the past month. After a surprisingly strong GDP figure (+4.9% in the third quarter) came a weaker number for job growth (+150,000 in October, which was about half the value of +297,000 posted for September). The slowdown in hiring last month was affected by the strike by autoworkers. The strike appears to be near a conclusion, and it might be a distortive factor for employment numbers again whenever strikers return to work.
The precedent for a U.S. recession to follow interest rate increases is strong, with the U.S. consistently dipping into recession after cycles of rate increases in recent decades. A commonly cited reason why the economy has been able to hold off a contraction is that the labor market has been robust. In modern U.S. history, it has been rare that the unemployment rate has been able to hold onto levels below four percent, but unemployment has not been higher than four percent since the fourth quarter of 2021.
There may be several reasons why the labor market has held up so well. These include demographics (the large baby boomer generation has been retiring, and replacements have been needed) and the stimulus unleashed during COVID. Estimates regarding the amount that consumers may still have in savings vary, but whatever the level is, it has been supplemented by wage growth. With the collapse in inflation, the year-over-year rate of change in income has exceeded the year-over-year rate of change in the cost of living since May.
Both savings and income likely contributed to the growth of consumer spending since the pandemic and the 4.0% quarter-over-quarter increase in expenditures in the fourth quarter. Spending growth in the fourth quarter was the highest rate since the fourth quarter of 2022, when stimulus was fresh. Consumer spending represents more than half of GDP, and a recent uptick in outlays drove the latest GDP number. Nonetheless, there are still fears that a slowdown in consumer demand may be looming due to the steep rise in interest rates over the past year and a half.
Forecasts for the important holiday sales period suggest slower growth in spending than in recent years. The National Retail Federation (NRF) recently published a projection indicating growth of 3-4%. The rate is lower than any other year since the pandemic (+9.1% in 2020, +12.7% in 2021, +5.4% in 2022), but it is in line with the average experienced between the financial crisis and the onset of COVID.
The U.S. economy is estimated to have added +150,000 new jobs in October. Revisions to numbers for previous months were negative (August -62,000 to +165,000 and September -39,000 to +297,000). The current twelve-month average is +258,000.
The unemployment rate increased slightly, from 3.8 to 3.9%, but remains at a historically low level.
Wage growth continues to slow. The peak post-stimulus was 5.9% year-over-year in March 2022, and the year-over-year increase in October was 4.1%.
Consumer Confidence & Spending
The Conference Board’s Index of Consumer Confidence decreased for the third consecutive month. In October, the value dropped 1.7 points, from 104.3 to 102.6. It remains in the range between 102 and 115, which has held values since August 2022. The index was virtually unchanged year-over-year in October (it was 102.2 in October 2022).
Overall consumer spending was +0.4% higher month-over-month in September. Year-over-year, overall spending was +2.4% higher. Spending on garments was up +0.9% month-over-month but was down -0.6% year-over-year. September marked the seventh straight month that apparel spending was lower year-over-year. Overall spending has been higher year-over-year for more than thirty consecutive months.
Consumer Prices & Import Data
Retail prices for apparel decreased month-over-month for the second consecutive month in September. The decrease in August was small (-0.04%), but the change in September was meaningful (-1.1%). Year-over-year, the CPI for apparel was +2.7% higher, which was the lowest annual rate of increase in two years. Price levels remain above the values before the pandemic, and excluding the figure from the past three months, current values are the highest since 2013.
Average import prices for cotton-dominant apparel increased slightly month-over-month in September (+$0.05 per square meter equivalent or SME). The latest value is -12.4% lower than the peak set in November 2022 but is +9.6% higher than the average in 2019.


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GAINESVILLE, GA - The overall wholesale market continues to soften, according to Ricky Beggs, Black Book managing editor.
Lack of sales and "buyers less willing to pay asking price" were consistent comments Black Book personnel heard across the country at auctions, Beggs said. "When comparing adjustment amounts, segment trends, and average number of adjustments made each day throughout the week, comments from market personnel was confirmed: the market is continuing to soften."
The overall car segment change was on the minus side for the third consecutive week, he reported. All 10 segments Black Book tracks declined for the second week, averaging a $38 drop.
On the truck side of the market, overall values dipped an average of $32, marking the fifth straight week of softening. Twelve of the 14 segments Black Book monitors showed declines; 11 of the 12 that had slowed dropped even more than the previous week's declines. Compared to the other segments, full-size crossovers and midsize pickups appeared to be the strongest performers.
Despite dropping values, "there is still business being done," Beggs noted, with units bought "for specific needs or to fill a few of the empty holes at the lot."


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Future sports technology & next generation business insights
Investment is the lifeblood of any business and in sport, the movement of money has reflected profound shifts in everything from geographical power bases to consumer behaviour. The way big and small funds work in sport has changed, too, settling into the rhythms and demands of the industry.
by Eoin Connolly
Where the sports industry goes next
After Eleven Sports suffered teething problems on its UK debut, Daniel Ayers, a consulting partner at digital sports agency Seven League, outlines the challenges facing audiences and rights holders as more sports content shifts towards unfamiliar platforms.
by Guest Contributor
Sunny Singh, Van Hawke Sports chief executive, offers his thoughts on the exciting possibilities and perilous pitfalls of the blockchain boom.
After the IOC and GAISF’s Esports Forum in Lausanne, SportsPro editor-at-large Eoin Connolly suggests a more radical approach might be needed to find a place for video games in the Olympic movement.
Simon Tracey, head of client services at Wasserman’s Experience division, asks whether mixed reality could be the tech to truly transform the way fans experience sports.
Charlie Beall, a senior consultant at digital sports agency Seven League, explains how Amazon calculated its heavily guarded financial foray into Premier League soccer rights.
Sean Verity, Antourage co-founder, explains the mechanics behind the company's work with Swedish soccer's top-flight and how it is taking fan engagement to new levels.
Business insights & future intelligence delivered to your inbox


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WASHINGTON — Volkswagen Group of America is recalling 366 2016 Volkswagen Touareg SUVs because the tire-pressure monitoring system may be improperly calibrated, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
"The TPMS may fail to warn the driver that the tire pressure is low," NHTSA said in its recall summary. "Additionally, the tire pressures printed on the safety-certification labels are incorrect.
"If the vehicle is driven on under-inflated tires, the tires may fail suddenly, increasing the risk of a crash."
The recall was prompted by a February 18, 2016 customer complaint, Volkswagen told federal safety regulators.
The affected vehicles were built from July 7, 2015 to March 3, 2016.
Edmunds says: If you own one of these Volkswagen Touareg SUVs, it's time to make a service appointment with your Volkswagen dealer.


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The controversy undoubtedly shakes up this advertising campaign that JD Sports has launched in the United Kingdom, and which aims to promote sports shoes. In a video uploaded just a few days ago, you can see how different specialists perform stunts with motorcycles and quads.
To that point, there is nothing new about using motorcycles and quads to promote products. It has been done, it is done and it will be done, it is part of the game. The problem comes when the images are analyzed.
Looking for a rebellious aesthetic, they opted for the hackneyed use of dirt bikes and quads in the gang style that already causes so many problems in the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries. In fact, this has caused quite a stir because in the video you can even see how they circulate through the streets and although it is part of an advertising campaign, in a way they encourage and approve this type of actions as something aspirational.
Advertising with aspirational tint and lack of protection
And to finish raising blisters in the United Kingdom, it turns out that this advertising campaign, which is still on the networks, is to promote the clothing and shoes worn by the specialists who drive the motorcycles.
That is, in complete disregard for the user’s safety, tracksuits and sports shoes are chosen for riding a motorcycle. And although they wear a helmet and gloves, the safety of their feet and the rest of the body is more than evident.
But not only that, we are no longer talking about a lack of protection on a daily basis, as we can see in some movies or series, but also in scenes that carry an obvious physical risk. We have already reviewed on many occasions what happens in each part of our body if we ride a motorcycle and, therefore, the fact that a company encourages the use of sneakers and tracksuits is what has ended up spreading on the other side of the Canal de la Stain.
At the moment the campaign is still running to promote the sneakers that they sell exclusively. Maybe it was not the most successful way to promote themselves, or maybe that way of showing themselves against the system, being part of it and trying to sell shoes to those who are really against the system works… The human mind is complex .


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Manufacturing company Nyanza Light Metals has appointed LSE-listed quality assurance provider Intertek as its quality control and assurance partner for its titanium beneficiation project, which is under construction at the Richards Bay Industrial Development Zone (RBIDZ).
Nyanza is building the R4.5-billion titanium beneficiation plant, which will beneficiate ilmenite and titanium slag to produce titanium dioxide (TiO2) pigment, which an important ingredient in the manufacturing of paint and industrial coatings. The appointment is in pursuit of Nyanza’s mission to produce world-class quality TiO2 pigments, says Nyanza CE Donovan Chimhandamba.
The partnership will see Intertek manage Nyanza’s laboratories and deliver process and product quality control and assurance across the entire operations and the appointment marks another critical milestone in the company’s mission to support the country’s beneficiation agenda, he adds.
“Quality control and assurance are of paramount importance. The project is a true African mineral beneficiation story, as South Africa moves from exporting unprocessed mineral ores to building value addition industries,” says Chimhandamba.
In 2017, Nyanza appointed Grinaker-LTA to build the first phase of the plant which, according to Chimhandamba, is expected to be commissioned by the last quarter of this year. The rest of the plant will be completed by 2023, he adds.
South Africa imports up to 35 000 t/y of TiO2 valued at over R1.5-billion, while Africa imports more than 150 000 t/y, which is valued at close to R7-billion. With the projected production of 80 000 t/y of TiO2, Nyanza will become Africa’s first titanium mineral beneficiation plant in Africa, support the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement to promote trade on the continent and provide paint manufacturers a secure supply.
Nyanza will create 1 200 jobs during the construction phase and 550 direct permanent jobs, once the plant is fully commissioned. Intertek will take over the quality control and assurance processes when the first phase of the plant is commissioned in the fourth quarter of 2021.
"Intertek is proud and honoured to collaborate with Nyanza on this exciting ground-breaking project, which will positively impact the South African economy, as well as the local communities," says Intertek sub-Saharan Africa MD Jérémy Gaspard.


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Big bill for data privacy may cost startups dear
Experts advise firms to begin compliance process by carrying out a privacy impact assessment.
Freshworks raises $100 million, becomes India's newest unicorn
The infusion, led by Sequoia and Accel Partners, will be used to expand Freshw...
Buoyed by China success, Capillary plans to expand to 3 more nations
The Singapore-headquartered company, currently, has a presence in seven ...
Capillary Technologies looks to tap instant messaging platforms, in talks with WhatsApp
Capillary is also looking to increase its business from the consumer goods segment where it ventured early this year and has got clients like Marico and Johnson and Johnson.
Senco Gold & Diamonds ropes in Capillary Technologies as CRM partner
Senco will leverage three flagship products of Capillary Technologies namely Insights+, Engage+ and Loyalty+ to provide its customers a seamless experience across 87 stores pan-India.
Capillary Tech raises $20 million from Warburg, Sequoia
Capillary will also be opening its second office in China at Guangzhou and will also open one at Beijing, later this year.
InnoVen Capital commits Rs 418 crore in first half of 2018
The capital deployment in the first six months of this year shows an annual growth of about 30% as compared to the same period last year.
Capillary Technologies hires former Dell India MD, Ganesh Lakshminarayanan as COO
His previous roles included that of senior adviser at Sequoia Capital and at EY, besides serving as a board member of learning platform company Linkstreet.
Artificial intelligence comes in handy for offline retailers too
To put this in perspective, online platforms like Flipkart and Amazon use customer data and insights gleaned from their shopping to build a personalised experience.
Capillary Tech may get $30 million in fresh funds
It had also raised an undisclosed sum in venture debt funding from InnoVen Capital, the Temasek-backed specialty financing firm in September 2016.
Capillary Technologies to ramp up hiring for India operations
Capillary Technologies, the omni-channel customer engagement and commerce platform that provides solutions to retailers, is looking to hire 170 people for its India operations.
Axilor looks to venture out with a Rs 200 crore seed fund
The company aims to act as a pipeline for VC firms who are looking for good companies to invest in. It also runs an accelerator, which has had six cohorts till date.
Capillary Technologies acquires Sellerworx
Will be integrated with co's MartJack platform in 6 months
Capillary Technologies makes it easier for WeChatters to be more social
Tencent-owned WeChat offers its users a wide array of capabilities like ordering a cab, buying from e-retailers, emailing, peer-to-peer payments and others.
Google's Rajan Anandan joins Capillary Technologies board
Anandan is an experienced professional in digital, mobile and software products space, an industry veteran with two decades of experience in Google, Microsoft, Dell and McKinsey.


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ELLABELL, Ga. — Hyundai Motor Group confirmed May 20 the corporate will spend $5.5 billion on an enormous electrical car plant close to Savannah that can make use of 1000’s — a deal Georgia’s governor referred to as the most important financial growth venture within the state’s historical past.
Hyundai Motor Group CEO Jaehoon Chang made the announcement with Gov. Brian Kemp on the website of the long run manufacturing unit in Bryan County, the place state and native officers bought a flat, sprawling tract for $61 million final yr in hopes of luring a significant producer.
“Hard-working Georgians are going to have the opportunity to have a really high-paying, advanced manufacturing job with a great company,” Kemp stated in an interview.
Hyundai stated it’ll make use of no less than 8,100 staff on the plant close to the unincorporated city of Ellabell. It will likely be Hyundai’s first U.S. plant devoted to assembling electrical autos and also will produce car batteries.
“This new, high tech EV plant represents the future of our business,” Chang informed greater than 100 individuals sipping champagne Friday below a tent pitched on the website on a dusty area of cleared grime.
Hyundai Motors stated it plans to begin development early subsequent yr and in 2025 start producing as much as 300,000 autos per yr. The firm did not say which car fashions the Georgia plant will make. In a video proven on the Georgia announcement, Hyundai Motors chairman Euisun Chung stated it’ll produce “a wide range of exciting, innovative EVs for our American customers.”
The firm and state officers stated they count on suppliers to speculate a further $1 billion within the space.
“It’s going to continue to bring wealth and opportunity to the region,” stated Kemp, who predicted a ripple impact that can enhance companies from Savannah’s already booming seaport to eating places and comfort shops.
The announcement got here as President Joe Biden is visiting South Korea. He was scheduled to fulfill with Hyundai’s CEO in Seoul on Sunday. Jake Sullivan, the president’s nationwide safety adviser, stated Biden “will have the opportunity to say thank you for this significant investment that will occur in the United States.”
The timing was lucky for Kemp, who’s being challenged by former U.S. Sen. David Perdue in a Republican main election that will likely be determined Tuesday.
It’s the second enormous electrical car plant introduced in Georgia in lower than a yr. Rivian Automotive introduced in December plans for a $5 billion electrical truck plant east of Atlanta that is anticipated to make use of about 7,500 staff.
Kemp declined to debate particulars of what incentives and tax breaks the corporate was provided for bringing jobs to Georgia. Rivian obtained and package deal price $1.5 billion.
The state of Georgia and accomplice native governments purchased 890 acres in Bryan County a yr in the past to lure a big producer. It wasn’t massive sufficient for Hyundai. The state and its companions bought two further neighboring tracts to broaden the location to greater than 2,900 acres.
That’s greater than 4.5 sq. miles devoted to the Hyundai venture. Officials declined to provide the sale value of the additional acreage, saying the property was below contract however the deal hadn’t been finalized.
The plant website sits adjoining to Interstate 16 that hyperlinks Savannah and Macon, not removed from its intersection with Interstate 95 that spans the Eastern Seaboard. It’s additionally close to to the Port of Savannah, the fourth-busiest U.S. seaport.
Kemp predicted the Hyundai plant will change into one of many greatest clients for Savannah’s port, which has already seen explosive progress in recent times.
Hyundai Motor Group sells automobiles below the Hyundai and Kia manufacturers. The South Korean automaker already operates two American meeting crops in Montgomery, Alabama, and in West Point, Georgia.
Perdue stopped Friday in Savannah to marketing campaign with Sarah Palin, the previous Alaska governor and onetime GOP vice presidential candidate. Palin borrowed considered one of former President Donald Trump’s slogans to reward Perdue as a Republican who “was America First before America First was cool.”
Perdue has accused Kemp to making an attempt to purchase his reelection with the Rivian deal and its large incentives. Kemp dismissed the criticism, noting Perdue’s report of outsourcing U.S. jobs to abroad manufactures as a company govt.
The governor stated incentives assist Georgia compete for large initiatives with states reminiscent of South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. He pointed to the Kia plant in West Point close to the Alabama border as one which stuffed a void when the native textile trade shut down years earlier.
“You’ve seen downtowns that used to be ghost towns, they’re vibrant communities now,” Kemp stated. He added: “These are investments that we’ll be reaping the benefits of 20 to 30 years down the road.”


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Generations of Americans have been brought up on the belief that a good breakfast is one of life`s essentials. Stoking up the body at the outset of the day, we have all been told and told again, is as necessary as putting gasoline in the car before starting a trip.
But for many people the thought of food the first thing in the morning is unappealing. So despite all the cajoling, they still skip breakfast. Between 1977 and 1983, the latest year for which figures are available, the number of people who skipped breakfast increased by 33 percent--from 8.8 million to 11.7 million--according to the Chicago-based Market Research Corp. of America.
For those who feel twinges of guilt about not eating breakfast, however, there is some good news. Several studies in the last few years indicate that, for adults especially, there may be nothing wrong with skipping breakfast.
''Going without breakfast does not affect performance,'' said Arnold E. Bender, former professor of nutrition at Queen Elizabeth College in London,
''nor does giving people breakfast improve performance.''
Scientific evidence linking breakfast to better health or better performance is surprisingly sketchy, and most of the recent work involves children, not adults.
''The literature,'' says one researcher, Dr. Ernesto Pollitt at the University of Texas, ''is lousy.''
The basis for most arguments in favor of breakfast, especially for young children, is research done more than 30 years ago at the University of Iowa. Called the Iowa Breakfast Studies, it purported to show that mental and physical performance were improved by eating breakfast.
Yet by today`s standards, the Iowa studies--which were sponsored by a grant from the Cereal Institute--seem unsophisticated. Only 50 people were studied, and none of them were small children; the age range was between 12 and 83.
During two- to four-week periods, groups of 8 to 10 subjects ate heavy
(fruit, cereal and cream, egg, bacon, toast, jam, milk and coffee) or light
(fruit, toast, butter, milk and coffee) breakfasts or no breakfast at all. Then they switched.
The studies showed that the omission of breakfast caused a decrease in work output, an increase in reaction time and in tremors.
On a larger scale, Bender sought to repeat the Iowa research in 1982. His work with 500 children between the ages of 8 and 16, ''Breakfast and Performance in Schoolchildren,'' published in the prestigious British Journal of Nutrition, showed just the opposite. One of his studies of children between the ages of 8 and 16 compared the performance of those who habitually ate breakfast with those who habitually did not eat breakfast. A second study investigated the effects of omitting breakfast on those accustomed to eating it.
''There was no statistical difference between the two groups,'' said Bender. ''You couldn`t find that breakfast had any effect, but you cannot say it had no effect because no one is ever working to the limit of their mental capacity.''
Bender`s views are not shared by all nutritionists or researchers. ''When children eat breakfast they perform better in problem-solving situations where attention is a critical factor,'' said Pollitt, who has conducted his own tests on children aged 9 to 11 at Baylor University and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
''Skipping breakfast has an adverse effect on a child`s late-morning problem-solving performance,'' Pollitt said he has found. But, he added, his findings cannot be extrapolated for adults.
Some researchers believe there could be a relationship, not yet clearly defined, between performance and the blood sugar levels, which are determined by food consumption.
''After a 12-hour overnight fast there is a greater drop in children`s blood sugar levels than in adults`,'' said Bambi Batts Young, director of the environment and behavior program at the Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer group. ''There are some subtle effects on children`s mental abilities late in the morning if they haven`t eaten breakfast, but it is not clear that this applies to people over 13.''
Adults, Young explained, maintain more stable blood sugar levels overnight. Because of this, it is thought that skipping breakfast affects them less.
Breakfast proponents, however, can find more fuel for their argument. Research at the University of California at Los Angeles has linked breakfast eating with longevity. And at the University of Minnesota, subjects who consumed 2,000 calories a day at breakfast lost weight while the same 2,000-calorie meal in the evening resulted in weight gain.
Bender, a breakfast eater himself, remains unconvinced by these studies. Breakfast, he contends, is not essential for everyone. ''Do as you like,'' he said. ''If physiologically you don`t feel you need breakfast, then you shouldn`t eat it.''
Nutritionists are in agreement, however, on what constitutes a good breakfast--complex carbohydrates that contain fiber, moderate amounts of protein, vitamin C and, if necessary, a small amount of fat for palatability. Bonnie Leibman, director of nutrition at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, recommends whole-grain cereals such as Wheatena, Nutragrain, Grape Nuts, oatmeal or shredded wheat, whole-wheat toast and fruit for the complex carbohydrates and fiber; low-fat milk and low-fat yogurt or a thin slice of cheese for protein and a little fat. Citrus fruits, tomato juice and cantaloupe can provide the vitamin C.
How about coffee, a stimulant? Because most breakfast studies thus far have concentrated on youngsters, coffee has not been considered. Young, however, says: ''Probably a cup of coffee with breakfast is not a serious hazard for adults. But more than that can cause irritability, shakiness and even dependence.''
For at least a decade nutritionists have been warning against quintessential--and high cholesterol--American breakfast dishes, such as fried eggs, bacon, sausages and buttered toast. There is evidence that during the last few years consumption of these foods has dropped in many homes, while consumption of ready-to-eat cereals has increased. At the same time though, statistics also show that more American breakfast eaters are eating that meal out, especially at fast-food restaurants or at ''family'' establishments where eggs and bacon or ham or sausages are morning menu staples. As a result, despite generally healthier breakfast diets at home, overall consumption of breakfast fats and cholesterol is up.
Indeed, breakfast in restaurants is the fastest growing segment of the dining-out trade, accounting for a 57 percent increase in business between 1977 and 1984. Between 1979 and 1984 breakfasts in restaurants increased by more than 56 percent. During the same period, lunch business increased only 5 percent and dinner 22.5 percent. According to the National Restaurant Association, singles, working women and their families, looking for convenience, are responsible for this dramatic increase.
Jeffrey Prince, senior director of the restaurant association, said:
''People keep telling us the reason they are eating breakfast out is because they want to divide their nutrients over the whole day so they can eat the things they are supposed to eat. But I tend to doubt that based on what they eat. Convenience is what it comes down to.''
''Many people are eating breakfast away from home because they think it`s bad to skip breakfast,'' Bonnie Liebman said. ''But if your breakfast away from home is going to be a sausage biscuit or a croissant stuffed with ham you are better off just waiting for lunch--though that`s not what I recommend if you are hungry.
''Breakfast can get you off on the right foot or virtually ruin your diet for the entire day.''
For adults who do not want to eat breakfast, Liebman said, ''There is no really good evidence that they are causing themselves real harm by having lunch as the first meal.''


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Michele Hayes, the managing partner of Arizona-based Strategic Meetings & Incentives, fell in love with Hawaii all over again on a recent scouting trip to find the right location to bring corporate travelers in 2014.
"We're definitely coming to Hawaii," Hayes said. "The question is which hotel that we'll book and what we'll buy."
Hayes' perspective is in keeping with results from the Global Business Travel Association's most recent business travel index. The association reports that nationwide business travel spending is coming back, indicating greater corporate confidence. As uncertainty over U.S. politics, the fiscal cliff and taxes dissipates this year, U.S. business travel spending is forecast to rise 4.6 percent to $266.7 billion, Virginia-based GBTA and its sponsor, Visa, reported earlier this month. In comparison, business travel spending had a rough 2012, finishing at just 1.6 percent growth.
While Hawaii is still feeling the impact of last year's uncertainty, there is evidence of pent-up demand, said Michael Murray, vice president of sales and marketing for the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau.
"The numbers are encouraging and there are high expectations for the market," Murray said. "Our booking goals are up 19 percent over last year."
Hawaii already is seeing gains in business travel and spending, said Hilton Area Vice President Jerry Gibson.
"The car dealers haven't come back yet, but we're seeing more medical, pharmaceutical and incentive groups," Gibson said.
As a result, Hilton has upped its entire Waikiki group business forecast by 2 to 3 occupancy points and expects to realize gains in average daily rate and revenue per available room (RevPAR).
"(Business travelers) are buying more than they have in the few years past," Gibson said. "They are doing more activities and they are spending more money on receptions and food and beverages. Instead of a continental breakfast, they are adding full meals."
Vickie Omura, director of sales and marketing for the Westin Moana Surfrider, said business groups and traveler bookings are up 10 to 20 percent over the prior year.
"Most are realizing that when you have an important message to convey it's important to be here," Omura said. "They also care about the type of experience."
Planners understand that adding on spa visits, daily breakfasts, circle island tours, team-building events and other exclusive experiences helps the customer "leave feeling better than when they came," she said.
Hayes said while many of the business travelers that she brings to Hawaii are conservative spenders, most want a high-end experience and some are willing to pay slightly more than they have in the past to get it.
"Budgets have loosened up a little bit," she said. "For example, before we might have had a $50 budget for in-room gifts, now it's $60."
Given that Hayes shops local, even a $10 per-person increase can add up to big gains for Hawaii's economy.
"The trickle-down impacts are enormous," she said. "Everyone from gift retailers like Hilo Hattie to Island Gifts and various local florists benefits."
Distributed by MCT Information Services
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Tody only, 7-Eleven is donating 100 percent of proceeds from sales of Slurpees to Feeding America and its local member food banks which help feed the poor and needy. The date, Nov. 7, is 7-Eleven in reverse.
7-Eleven is calling 11/7 “Name Your Own Price Day”. Fill your cup and pay what you wish. Whether it is 5-cents, 50-cents or $5, even a small donation can make a big impact to ensure that poor and needy people have something to eat this holiday season.
Be thirsty, my friend. Pay it forward and pay more than usual for a 7-Eleven Slurpee. And even if you aren’t thirsty, drop some coins in the Name Your Own Price donations box.
Feeding America is a nationwide network of food banks which helps feed tens of millions of people through food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and other community-based agencies in communities across America. Find a Feeding America Food Bank near you.
Every year, 7-Eleven celebrates 7-Eleven Day, July 7 (7/11) to give back to its customers. This year, in addition, the iconic day is being reversed on November 7 (11/7) to give customers the chance to give back. Let’s hope Name Your Own Price Day also becomes an annual “thing”.


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Inside Bugatti’s new $3 million car – CBS News
July 14, 2017, 8:40 AM|
One of the most exclusive cars on the market today can go from zero to 60 mph in less than two-and-a-half seconds. The Bugatti Chiron can reach up to 261 mph and is said to be the fastest production car in the world. Only 500 models were built worldwide, and half have reportedly already been sold. Kris Van Cleave took a ride in the luxurious car.


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London based bitcoin exchange Wirex recently re-branded launching a suite of tools for bitcoin users, while also now focusing on targeting non-bitcoin users, in an attempt to capture a bigger market that uses remittance corridors to send money including the unbanked.
Pavel Matveev is one of the co-founders of Wirex who used to work at Credit Suisse and BNP Paribas, and says that Wirex is looking to apply for an e-money license once the regulation framework is defined for it in the UK. Wirex raised money via crowdfunding last September and is now negotiating a series-A funding round with venture capitalists to raise another $1.5 million.
Dmitry Lazarichev is the other co-founder of Wirex, and in an interview with Euromoney, he said,
“We are trying to break down the border between crypto and fiat currencies and bring to customers the best of both worlds, […] essentially, this is about bringing the benefits of blockchain technology to the conventional banking world. We already have more than 20,000 customers in 130 countries that we have shipped cards to. We are now growing very fast.”
Wirex sees itself as a first mover in this personal banking hybrid service between the fiat and cryptocurrency worlds. Wirex isn’t the first bitcoin exchange company though to apply for an e-money license in the UK. Recently Circle Financial was the first to apply for and receive the license in the UK, and Bitstamp is also applying for one which they hope to receive in the near future.
In the UK bitcoin is not yet regulated, although Wirex continues to operate as the UK has been favorable to fintech companies. Wirex’s banking partner is WaveCrest, an e-money issuer licensed by the Financial Services Commission of Gibraltar, which has passported its licence across Europe. WaveCrest is a principal member of MasterCard in Gibraltar and the UK and a principal member of Visa in Gibraltar.
In regards to UK regulation, Matveev said,
“The blockchain world is new and we are trying to anticipate the regulations flooding into it. For example, we are talking to [blockchain intelligence firm] Elliptic about ways to do due diligence around addresses and gain a clear picture of where money is coming from and going to. And we are putting in place the same kind of know-your-customer and anti-money laundering infrastructure that already covers conventional bank accounts and debit cards.”
Use Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash to play online casino games here.


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As expected after Amazon, Flipkart has also extended their sales day, in fact they call this the Big Diwali Sale – Sabke Liye Dhamakedar Offers starting today and ending on 28th October 2016. These online companies have conducted these sales days multiple times this month.
The Amazon Great Indian Festival restarts again at midnight and will go on until 28th of October 2016. Yes it’s the same Great Indian festival that has happened twice this month and the third time will be from 25th to 28th October.
Good news for Vodafone users, the company has announced that they will be offering free incoming calls for all its customers while roaming. Until now incoming calls were free but customers had to pay for incoming calls received while roaming.
Airtel is now offering 10GB 4G data with any new 4G enabled smartphone. For 10GB 4G/3G data, Airtel will be charging Rs. 259 only. The company was offering this pack for Samsung Galaxy J Series handset and now it is applicable on any 4G handset.
It’s Diwali with Mi festive 2nd day and one more Rs. 1 flash sale will begin at 2PM. For this sale if you get lucky you can buy the Redmi Note 3 16GB for Rs. 1 and / or a 20000 mAh Mi power bank for Rs. 1.
OnePlus today announced its Diwali offer, the OnePlus Diwali Dash Festival starting from 24th October to 26th October – at 12PM, 4PM and 8PM on each day. On these Diwali Dash Sale days you can win prizes for just Rs. 1.
Amazon started the Great Indian Festival again, from 17th to 19th October and now even Flipkart has started their festival sale. Flipkart is offering great deals on electronics, gadgets and accessories, you will find deal on their website or via the Flipkart app.
Xiaomi will be offering 30 Redmi 3S prime handsets worth Rs. 8,999 for just Rs. 1 and about 100 Mi Bluetooth Speakers also for Rs. 1. The Rs. 1 flash sale will begin today at 2PM. There are limited units and there will be a huge rush.
Diwali with Mi celebrations have begun, starting today and will end on 19th October 2016. This time too there will be Rs. 1 flash sale, gifts and other offers plus few new devices that will be made available.
Amazon Great Indian Festival is back, well once again, starting on 17th October to 20th October. Amazon had conducted the Indian Festive sale from 1st to 5th October along with Flipkart and Snapdeal and now here is another one.
The Mi Diwali sale will begin from 17th October (Monday) to 19th October 2016. You will find lot of exciting deals, Rs. 1 sale, coupon giveaways and more. Mi has already announced the stuffs / discounts they are going to offer during the sale period.
Xiaomi’s Diwali with Mi will begin from 17th October to 19th October and now even LeEco will be conducting their special carnival i.e. LeMall for all Diwali Edition that will start from 18th to 20th October.


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COVID Verification of Tourists: Is the Hospitality Sector Doing Much?
COVID-19 has been a big hassle for everyone except for those who adopted the new normal quickly. Although before the pandemic, digital solutions were common, the need for social distancing now demands a different setting. As the virus continues to spread, the tourism industry embraces COVID test verification as a mandatory requirement. Hotels, malls, airports and other public spaces are moving towards innovative ways to cater to the current global emergency.
The blog discusses how hotels can practice safe tourist onboarding standards by offering virtual check-ins and how a comprehensive tool like Digital COVID Pass allows the hospitality industry to adhere to the new restrictions.
Why is COVID Test Verification Essential?
Verifying if a tourist is COVID-free is significant to stop the spread of the coronavirus. This is particularly helpful for verifying tourists engaging at large-scale events and public spaces with a sizeable in-person attendance. It allows tourism businesses to keep intact the COVID verification requirements as well.
Contactless Check-ins: The New Safety Mechanism
Checking into hotels in the COVID-struck age has been a particular concern for the hospitality sector. With digital solutions in place, tourists can get their identity and COVID PCR tests verified remotely without the hassle of manual verification on the hotel premises. This way, hotels can not only adhere to global health safety standards but also provide their customers with a pleasant and effortless experience.
Today, hotel booking sites allow customers to check-in through their mobile phones before visiting the hotel. It doesn’t matter if tourists are near their destinations or are about to leave their home, they can communicate with the hotel anytime. The hotel staff can acquire details about the tourist beforehand that allows them to prepare better. Details submitted during remote check-in can be verified once the visitor reaches the premises.
Tourists checking into hotels means they submit a lot of personal information including their name and credit card details. If this data is not kept safe, it could take a toll not only on the customer’s credit but the brand reputation as well. In this regard, self check-in solutions are used by hotels that offer end-to-end encryption to protect user’s data. These tools are integrated with the hotel management system where they can acquire customer details through a safe and secure channel.
Today, most hotel receptions have installed a self check-in kiosk that ensures automated and safe admittance of guests. The fact that these devices do not need to be operated by hand makes them essential in verifying legitimate tourists while practising social distancing norms. Apart from simplifying the onboarding procedure, touchless kiosks can read credit cards.
While online hotel bookings may be a convenient way to make transactions for your destination tour, they may not always be safe. That’s why hotels invest a lot of resources in making tourist onboarding solutions efficient and reliable. Thanks to artificial intelligence, shady passengers are not able to bypass onboarding procedures with a fake COVID test or false passport ID. The contactless kiosks installed at the hotels are now powered by facial recognition technology that instantly verifies the tourist identity based on the information submitted during the virtual check-in.
Digital COVID Pass – Elevating Tourist Experience
To resume tourist activities, the travel and hospitality sector needs to adopt an effective and reliable mechanism. Digital COVID Pass is a tourist verification solution that incorporates QR code authentication along with identity verification to make sure visitors arriving at hotels, cinemas, conferences and other public spaces are COVID-free and are not potential fraudsters.
Verifying Covid Reports
Currently, visitors arriving at hotels need to take part in manual procedures for COVID report verification. Since the reports come with an MRZ or QR code that is used for user identification and document authenticity, it can take quite some time to understand these codes without an automated system. This directly impacts the customer experience because they have to wait for several hours.
The COVID Pass addresses this problem by using OCR technology based on artificial intelligence to scan and extract information from passenger documents in real-time. The solution reads the QR code on the Covid reports to verify if they are older than three days or not – in which case the COVID test is not reliable.
Oftentimes, fraudsters use sophisticated ways to get away with forged and synthetically created IDs. These documents could be either a passport needed on an airport terminal or hotel to check-in or a COVID test report that is a mandatory requirement for tourist onboarding these days at public places with a considerable audience. Digital COVID Pass performs a series of intelligent checks to determine if the document is – missing important features such as a hologram or rainbow print – created using false information, or is possibly altered.
Hotels can use COVID Pass to identify and verify their customers. The solution installed at contactless kiosks allows visitors to enjoy a purposeful onboarding experience keeping intact the SOPS. AI-powered facial recognition technology matches the passengers/visitors facial identity against the information they provided during the virtual check-in before onboarding. The liveness detection feature also makes sure the user does not display a paper-based or still image of their face to bypass the system. This allows travel authorities and hotel staff to confirm they are not allowing any fraudster to onboard.
To Wrap it Up …
The hospitality industry is faced with new COVID restrictions to verify all onboarding tourists and passengers. The requirements include verifying a PCR test for COVID, no older than 72 hours, to make sure tourists are not carrying the virus. Although hotels nowadays employ remote solutions to authenticate visitors beforehand, they often fall short of identity verification standards. Digital COVID Pass allows travel authorities, hotels, and personnel at public spaces to verify COVID reports as well as identity documents including passports and travel IDs for a seamless and secure tourist experience.


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AOL-Time Warner faces struggle
The world's biggest-ever merger - the $106bn (£71bn) marriage of media giant Time Warner and leading internet player America Online - has at last gone ahead after winning its final approval.
But the economic environment has drastically reversed since the deal was unveiled a year and a day ago and analysts predict that the two will have their work cut out to integrate and achieve the $1bn of 'synergies' they promised at the height of the internet boom.
The value of the all-share bid by AOL has tumbled by more than a third as scepticism over internet stocks has grown and AOL recently spurred worries by reporting that its advertising backlog was just as large in the third quarter as in the second.
Time Warner also warned last month that its profits were being hit by slowing advertising sales at its cable TV networks and weakness in its Warner music and film empire.
Mark Cavallone, an analyst at Friends Ivory & Sime, which holds AOL shares, said: 'Since we are in what is a pretty drastically slowing economy, you may think the merger will get off to a rocky start. I wouldn't be surprised if they set the bar low for the first year.'
But the new company, AOL Time Warner, stands by its initial estimates for this year of $40bn in sales and £11bn cash flow, including the $1bn in synergy savings - likely to come from drastic job cuts in the internet business - including CNN Internet.
The deal was held up by lengthy anti-trust scrutiny first from America's Federal Trade Commission and then from the Federal Communications Commission, which said the new business will have to open its cable networks to other internet messaging services and internet access providers.
The conditions appear to represent a compromise between Republican and Democrat members of the FCC. Republicans wanted no conditions while one Democrat agreed with AOL competitors that AOL should open its existing internet instant messaging service to rivals.
Jordan Rohan, analyst at Wit/Soundview said: 'We have been presented with a macro-economic environment that is difficult. It makes media companies work with a stiff wind in their faces.'
AOL Time Warner chairman Steve Case said the company would lead the convergence of the media, entertainment, communications and internet industries, and provide wide-ranging, innovative benefits.
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Nidi62 writes: The GAO, through a fictitious company, recently requisitioned parts from China in order to determine if the Chinese government was living up to its promises of battling counterfiet parts. The report from the GAO found that " 334 of 396 vendors who offered to sell parts to the fictitious company were from China" and that " all 16 parts eventually purchased by the fake company came from 13 China-based vendors and all were determined by an independent testing laboratory to be counterfeit." The parts requested were supposedly for use in F-15s, MV-22 Ospreys, and nuclear submarines, and were asked to be new parts. It also says that over the past 3 years, over 1 million counterfeit parts have been found to have come from Chinese companies. This stands in sharp contrast to the Chinese government's promise to clamp down on the production of counterfeit parts in China
MrSeb writes: "In Kurt Vonnegut’s 'Player Piano,' workers displaced by robots find themselves with an abundance of material goods but a lack of jobs. Watching robots like those from Kiva — recently acquired by Amazon for nearly a billion dollars — zip around warehouses fetching products, it’s easy to wonder whether his dark vision of the future is becoming part of ours. The last 50 years have seen dramatic advances in robotic technology and machines have been made suitable for a dramatically increased number of tasks. The path hasn’t been smooth, though, and it hasn’t proceeded in a way anyone expected, but robots are coming of age in one area after another — most recently warehouse automation. Warehouse robots are a logical evolution of the conveyor belt. They are highly mobile and capable of navigating themselves around the complex environment of a distribution facility. Often they have no arms at all, and simply act as glorified, motorized hydraulic jacks, ferrying loads from one place to another. If you've ever wondered how Amazon keeps its prices low, here's your answer: It's the robots."
supersloshy writes: The popular GNOME desktop environment has just announced the release of version 3.4. User-facing updates include, among others, a new look for many GNOME applications, smooth scrolling support in GTK, integrated document search in GNOME Shell, a new dynamic background, improved accessibility configuration options, new high-contrast icons, and more documentation. Developer-facing improvements include the release of GTK+ 3.4 and updates to standard GNOME libraries as part of the latest GNOME Developer Platform. For more information, you can read the full release notes at this webpage.
tsu doh nimh writes: Experts from across the security industry collaborated this week to quarantine more than 110,000 Microsoft Windows PCs that were infected with the Khelios worm, a contagion that forces infected PCs to blast out junk email advertising rogue Internet pharmacies. But within hours of the takedown, miscreants launched Khelios.C, a new version that appears to be spreading via Facebook links.
penciling_in writes: Paul Vixie shares his personal account of the DNSChanger takedown operation working with FBI and a worldwide team. He also explains the delay issues in identifying and notifying victims which resulted in FBI asking the judge for an extension and were given four more months. 'On July 9 2012 the replacement DNS servers operated by ISC will be shut down and any victims who still depend on these servers will face new risks,' he warns. A half dozen national Internet security teams around the world have created special web sites that will display a warning message to potential victims of the DNS Changer infection. The full list of these "DNS Checking" web sites is published on the DCWG's web site.
Volanin writes: The e-book versions of Harry Potter are being released through Pottermore, and Rowling has chosen to do a number of interesting things with them, including releasing them without DRM restrictions.
One of the encouraging things about the Pottermore launch is that the books will be available on virtually every platform simultaneously, including the Sony Reader, the Nook, the Kindle and Google’s e-book service.
Even Amazon has bowed to the power of the series and done what would previously have seemed unthinkable: it sends users who come to the titles on Amazon to Pottermore to finish the transaction.


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AARP Eye Center
The maker of EzriCare Artifical Tears placed a recall on the product amid an investigation led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) into at least 55 bacterial infections in 12 states that have resulted in permanent vision loss, hospitalization and one death.
The type of infection linked to the drops, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, is resistant to antibiotics and poses a greater threat to those who are immunocompromised. CDC testing determined the bacteria in the recalled products was resistant to antibiotics such as carbapenem, ceftazidime and cefepime.
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Although most infections were linked to the EzriCare brand of eye drops, patients with infections reported using more than 10 different brands of artificial tears.
While preservative-free drops are recommended for people who apply artificial tears more than four times a day or have moderate to severe dry eyes, they are more likely to support bacterial growth after the bottle is opened, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Infections were reported in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.
The manufacturer, Global Pharma Healthcare, based in India, recalled EzraCare Artificial Tears and two other products, Delsam Pharma’s Artificial Tears and Delsam Pharma’s Artificial Eye Ointment, at the recommendation of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The agency has also placed an import alert on the company, blocking its products from entering the U.S., citing poor manufacturing practices and lack of appropriate testing and packaging, according to a statement.
Consumers are advised to stop using EzriCare Artificial Tears and seek medical care if they have signs of an eye infection. The CDC says symptoms include:
- Discharge from the eye
- Pain or discomfort
- Sensitivity to light
- Blurry vision
- A feeling like something is in the eye
Editor's note: This story, published Feb. 1, 2023, has been updated.


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McDonald's February sales fall less than fearedPUBLISHED: 09 Mar 2013 05:56:48 | UPDATED: 09 Mar 2013 05:56:48PRINT EDITION: 09 Mar 2013
McDonald's Corp said February sales at established restaurants around the world fell less than expected, giving investors hope that new chief executive Don Thompson's strategy is paying off.
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