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DAVID FURLONGER: Is that a Merc or a Mosk?
From the sublime to the lowly, automotive history makes a comeback
Have you ever dreamt of owning a Moskvich, the Soviet-era car brand that went out of business 20 years ago? No, I didn’t think so. How about a 67-year-old Mercedes-Benz sports car? Hmm, now that’s a different matter. You’re definitely interested.
Motoring’s glorious, and less glorious, past has come roaring into the present this month. Last week, it was revealed that a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé had sold at auction a few days earlier for a bowel-loosening $142m. That’s R2.2bn to you and me — enough that even Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman, whose 2021 pay package was worth R300m, might think twice about buying.
The car is one of two based on an open-topped, two-seat racing car built by Mercedes for the 1955 world sportscar championship and driven by grand prix legends Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss. The car dominated that year’s world sportscar championship, which included the famed Mille Miglia, a 1,600km round trip on public roads, including mountain passes, between Rome and Brescia.
Moss gave what is considered the greatest performance in the race’s history, averaging 160km/h and finishing 32 minutes ahead of second-placed Fangio. Of the more than 600 drivers who entered the race, fewer than 300 finished and two died in crashes.
Two closed-top versions of the car were commissioned for endurance events but never raced. Instead, Mercedes kept them for show, insisting they would never be sold. That changed this month when the company secretly auctioned one at its museum in Stuttgart, Germany. Insiders say only 10 people, all carefully vetted to make sure they could give the 300 SLR Coupé the love and attention it deserves, were invited to bid.
The winning bid, by an unnamed collector, almost doubled the previous known record for a classic car — $78m paid in 2018 for a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO. Mercedes-Benz says the money will be used to set up a charitable fund for young people.
You’d need to take a lot of zeros off the SLR’s price to find a realistic one for a Moskvich. The brand made its debut in 1946 after Soviet authorities moved an Opel assembly line from Soviet-occupied Germany to Moscow and sold a modified Opel Kadett as the Moskvich-400.
Unlike East Germany’s Trabant car brand, which was so spectacularly bad that it is now a cult car — more than 30 years after the last one was built — Moskvich eventually became known for mundane reliability. Many cars were exported, most to Soviet bloc countries, but also to Scandinavia, France and the UK. A handful even made their way to SA.
As the post-Soviet Russian market opened up to outside brands, Moskvich sales fell and its parent company declared bankruptcy in 2002 and stopped production.
Some analysts say the plan is unrealistic and that it will take at least two years and $1bn to develop a new car. Perhaps they would change their tune if they looked at SA’s automotive history
Now, because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the name could make a comeback. Renault is among motor companies halting activities in Russia because of international sanctions. It has sold its Russian subsidiary to a local automotive research institute for a symbolic one rouble.
Russia is Renault’s second-biggest market, after France. The French company employs about 45,000 people there. Through its own brand and ownership control of AvtoVaz, a Russian company whose brands include Lada, it accounts for about 30% of the Russian car market.
The sale of its Russian assets includes a six-year buyback clause, reflecting Renault’s stated desire to return to Russia once (if) sanctions are lifted and relations return to normal.
By then, Renault may find its product line very different. To protect jobs, Russian officials say the main Moscow factory must produce cars — and that Moskvich’s return may be the answer. Reports say there are almost 200,000 Moskvich cars still registered in Russia, of which more than 45,000 are over 35 years old.
There is also talk that AvtoVaz may produce the Renault Duster under the Lada name, at another assembly plant.
Moscow authorities are said to be talking to Chinese company JAC about using one of its vehicle platforms for the new Moskvich. Officials say they hope production of the Moskvich, which Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin says has “a long and glorious history”, will begin by the end of 2022.
Some analysts say the plan is unrealistic and that it will take at least two years and $1bn to develop a new car. Perhaps they would change their tune if they looked at SA’s automotive history.
In the later years of anti-apartheid sanctions, Ford and General Motors both disinvested from SA, Ford leaving its assets to SA Motor Corp (Samcor) and GM to Delta Motor Corp. Both later bought back their operations after the advent of democracy.
Some other multinationals, like Toyota, that did not own the SA companies that bore their name, distanced themselves by reducing engineering and technical support.
This did not result, as some predicted, in industry collapse. Rather, it encouraged lateral thinking and engineering ingenuity. Vehicles may not have been as technically cutting edge as those in developed markets, and some shapes may have been dated (I went on some car launches where, if manufacturers had not told us the vehicles were new, we wouldn’t have guessed by looking at them) but the industry more than survived. Indeed, Delta was more profitable than GM had been or was after it returned.
I wonder if there’s a Russian equivalent of ’n boer maak ’n plan.
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Perky Pear Lift & Shape Tape ropes in Vicky Pattison as celebrity brand ambassador
Perky Pear has appointed Vicky Pattison as the celebrity brand ambassador. She is believed to be a genuine fan of the brand and a great advocate for body positivity, she exactly reflects the company’s belief that “no style should be off-limits to any woman.”
Vicky’s brand endorsement started with a glamorous photoshoot and soon she will be holding a launch party in Perky Pear’s home town of Manchester.
Speaking about the partnership, Vicky said, “I can’t wait to perk up the nation’s wardrobes by showing women they can wear whatever they want, whenever they want and am excited to be the first ambassador for one of my all-time styling hacks.”
While, Perky Pear’s founder, Samantha Ryder said in a statement: “We are passionate about finally providing an affordable non-surgical breast lift solution that delivers real results. We have helped women across the world feel confident about wearing the styles they were once unable to wear. One such woman was Vicky Pattison and we’re delighted to have her aboard as our first ambassador who will help show other women how Perky Pear has given her the confidence to wear anything and everything she likes, showing that no style is off limits whatever your shape or size.”

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Stay safe when buying Venapro and Avatrol online
We all love a bargain and thanks to the recent Amazon Prime event, many people have saved cash on everything from Gadgets to Groceries. With this in mind, you may be wondering if it’s worth trying to use Amazon for purchasing medications and over the counter treatments.
Whilst we’re sure that the vast majority of Amazon purchases for these types of treatments go smoothly we’ve recently been reading a few horror stories from people online that have tried to purchase haemorrhoid treatments like Venapro and Avatrol from Amazon, the giant retailer.
The issue seems to lie with the fact that many small businesses are now advertising their goods on Amazon and it’s hard to tell which of these retailers are suitable for selling the likes of haemorrhoid treatments.
We’re not Amazon bashers and we use them all the time but we just wanted to point out to unsuspecting shoppers that when in doubt, always buy your over the counter treatments either from the pharmacy or from the manufacturer over the Internet. If you’d like to read the full article on this issue, please find it here.


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Last week, Aesthetic Gamer insider revealed that Capcom has restarted the development of Resident Evil 8. Now
What they say
Journalists received a letter from an anonymous whoreferred to own sources. The report said that Resident Evil 8 will receive a different, more “smart” name. Testing of the project began last year, and the main character was chosen Ethan, who saved his girlfriend in Resident Evil 7.
According to the source, the game will begin invillage, and end in a classic castle for the series. It is worth noting that in February 2019, another insider prophesied that the actions of the eighth part will take place on the island. According to new information, it will be a highland in Europe. A previous source also said that Capcom decided to return to third-person view, but according to Biohazard Declassified in Resident Evil 8 they will leave the camera in the first person.
As for the enemies, gamers will again beFight zombies, not weird mutants. There will also be “wolf-like creatures” and the shadow of a girl who will chase the player like a Tyrant. With the canonical universe, the eighth part will be associated with Chris Redfield, whose role is still unknown.
For gamers who want to know more:
- New hero Apex Legends killed on the air: Respawn says goodbye to the Forge and is looking for a replacement
- Blizzard Designs Hearthstone VR With Tipping Table And Walking Through A Tavern
- Torchlight Frontiers turned into Torchlight 3 - a story adventure without focus on online and donation


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Hello sim racers!
Another day, another new and exciting content announcement! Adding to our highly popular and ever expanding GT3 class within the simulation, we are delighted to today confirm that the very latest generation BMW GT3 contender will be coming to rFactor 2 in the very near future – the BMW M4 GT3.
Initially beginning its development journey at the start of 2020, the brand-new BMW M4 GT3 has been created to represent the very latest flagship GT racer of the Bavarian marque. Built using the aid of CAD and CFD simulations, with testing input from several of the German brands works drivers, the car has undergone a rigorous development test plan ahead of completing its first tests under race conditions in the second half of 2021, proceeding its race debut season in 2022 that started with the 24H Dubai and the world-famous Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona in January.
Succeeding the highly successful M6 that has been in competition since 2016 (also available in rFactor 2 – CLICK HERE), the new M4 GT3 certainly has a large legacy to fill, taking up the mantle of representing the best of BMW as it replaces the mighty M6, one of the most prominent and competitive cars within the GT3 category.
Created with the goals of achieving greater driveability, cost efficiency and operational improvements, BMW have left no stone unturned with this new machine, offering up to customers what is expected to be a car capable of running at the very front of the grid in the many GT3 specification series around the world.
- Length: 5,020 mm.
- Width: 2,040 mm.
- Wheelbase: 2,917 mm.
- Engine: P58 3.0l straight six
- Capacity: 2,993 cm³.
- Output: up to 590 hp.
- Transmission: Xtrac 6-speed gearbox.
The new BMW M4 GT3 is set to release to rFactor 2 as part of a large content drop on Monday, February 7th 2022, available both as an individual item within the rFactor 2 Steam Store, and part of a wider content pack – details of which will be confirmed closer to release.
We are exceptionally grateful to BMW to have the opportunity to bring another exciting GT3 car into rFactor 2 with this release, and we firmly believe the new BMW M4 GT3 will offer players a very enjoyable driving experience, one that is sure to prove a popular choice in online GT3 events throughout the simulation.
We hope you enjoy taking this new machine out onto the circuit, and we look forward to hearing your feedback and most importantly of all, seeing you on track and enjoying the new car!
BMW M4 GT3 – Coming February 7th to rFactor 2


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We were able to check out some demoes and see a dummy unit running the company’s new Snapdragon X Elite PC chip, and Qualcomm is making some big performance claims against Apple’s latest silicon.
The Snapdragon’s Qualcomm Oyron CPU, which was announced in October, was being compared to the Apple M2 Max chip at the time. The brand stated in October that its component can match the peak performance of an ARM-compatible competitor using 30% less power. But since then, the competition has changed.
Apple notably announced its M3 series chips and accompanying laptops a week after Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon X Elite. Performance has been the best point of comparison, especially since Apple has yet to truly delve into the AI space. Qualcomm has compared the CPU to the new M3 chip, similarly claiming that its chip outperforms the leading ARM-compatible competitor for single-threaded CPU performance. Qualcomm also says the Oyron chip is 21% faster than the M3 in multi-core performance. That’s quite the bold claim.
Speaking with Qualcomm, the manufacturer noted that there are bound to be differences in the software experiences, but the hardware remains a consistent metric.
“The experience is not going to be the same because they’re running macOS and we’re running Windows, but in terms of hardware, which is the only thing we can control, it’s good hardware,” Sascha Segan, senior public relations manager told Digital Trends.
In October, Qualcomm also rated its Oyron CPU as faster than the leading x86 CPU on the market. However, Intel has announced its latest 14th-gen Meteor Lake processors as of Thursday. Intel has shared its own specifications for the chips, which also include AI capabilities and various performance statistics, including some really impressive integrated graphics. However, Qualcomm says it has not yet gotten a chance to compare the new series to the Snapdragon X Elite.
Snapdragon-powered PCs are set for mid-2024 availability from vendors including Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Honor, Lenovo, Microsoft Surface, Samsung, and Mi. Meanwhile, Qualcomm has had staff members using unbranded reference devices internally to positive reviews that note not only the performance improvements, but the long-rumored induction of on-device AI capabilities for AI PCs.
Segan said to take advantage of the first class of Snapdragon-powered PCs, consumers should forgo purchasing laptops now and wait until the middle of next year.
The hype is real, and we won’t have to wait too much longer to see if it lives up to the big claims.
- There’s an unexpected, new competitor in PC gaming
- Qualcomm just made some bold claims about gaming on ARM PCs
- The M3 is the most important chip Apple has ever made
- Apple just did something unprecedented with its new M3 chips
- Qualcomm says Oryon chips are faster than Macs’, but we’ve been here before


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Unionization will kill the flexibility, freedom and personal accountability that make Uber so popular
The headline of an article in Tuesday’s Seattle Times declares Seattle the first city to “give Uber drivers the power to unionize.” The article further explains the new law will, “give taxi, for-hire and Uber drivers the ability to unionize.”
This new law does not “give” anything to rideshare drivers; the opposite is true. It takes away choice and freedom for drivers who do not want to join or support a union.
If a majority of drivers vote to unionize, every driver will be required to join the union and pay dues as a condition of employment. Any driver who refuses to pay those dues will not be allowed to work.
One driver that has lobbied in favor of unionizing says he thinks the passengers who utilize Uber and Lyft services will support the new rules. He says riders “feel so bad” for drivers because they don’t earn higher wages. If that is really the case, those riders are free to tip drivers as generously as they need to make them feel better. The pro-union driver says he just wants Uber to “pay us a living wage,” and concludes, “Seattleites want that.”
What Seattleites want are the convenience, competitive prices and customer service that have made Uber and Lyft so popular. If for-hire drivers unionize, the personal accountability that sets Uber apart from taxi-cab services will be gone.
Uber drivers are directly responsible for the service they provide and the wages they earn. Drivers who go the extra mile to make customers happy get top reviews, repeat passengers and more money; those who consistently do not get “deactivated.” Unions will ensure drivers earn higher wages regardless of job performance, and they will make it impossible for under-performing drivers to get fired.
If Seattleites wanted drivers who don’t have incentives to make their customers happy in order to earn more money or keep working, they would still be using taxi cabs.


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TOURISM RECOVERY ACCELERATED IN APRIL
News Release from DBEDT, May 26, 2022
HONOLULU—According to preliminary visitor statistics released by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), a total of 818,268 visitors came to the Hawaiian Islands in April 2022, representing a 96.3 percent recovery from April 2019 and the highest recovery rate since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hawaii. Visitors spent $1.6 billion in the islands in April, an increase of 21 percent compared to the $1.32 billion reported for April 2019.
Visitor Spending and Visitor Arrivals by Major Market
Of the total visitors, 809,612 arrived by air service, mainly from the U.S. West and U.S. East. Additionally, 8,656 visitors arrived by cruise ships. In comparison, 849,397 visitors (-3.7%) arrived by air and by cruise ships in April 2019. The average length of stay by all visitors in April 2022 was 8.68 days, up from 8.25 days (+5.2%) in April 2019.
The statewide average daily census¹ was 236,835 visitors in April 2022 compared to 233,616 visitors (+1.4%) in April 2019.
In April 2022, 514,878 visitors arrived by air from the U.S. West, an increase of 32.5 percent compared to 388,573 visitors in April 2019. U.S. West visitors spent $940.9 million in April 2022, up 72 percent from $547 million in April 2019. Daily spending by U.S. West visitors in April 2022 ($223 per person) was much higher compared to April 2019 ($171 per person, +30.4%).
There were 188,868 visitors from the U.S. East in April 2022, an 18.7 percent growth compared to 159,115 visitors in April 2019. U.S. East visitors spent $422.9 million in April 2022, up 47.5 percent from $286.8 million in April 2019. Daily spending by U.S. East visitors in April 2022 ($242 per person) increased in comparison to April 2019 ($200 per person, +20.9%).
There were 6,749 visitors from Japan in April 2022 compared to 119,487 visitors (-94.4%) in April 2019. Visitors from Japan spent $15.3 million in April 2022 compared to $164 million
(-90.7%) in April 2019. Daily spending by Japanese visitors in April 2022 ($231 per person) decreased compared to April 2019 ($234 per person, -1.3%).
In April 2022, 43,107 visitors arrived from Canada compared to 56,749 visitors (-24%) in April 2019. Visitors from Canada spent $88.8 million in April 2022, compared to $100.2 million
(-11.3%) in April 2019. Daily spending by Canadian visitors in April 2022 ($182 per person) increased compared to April 2019 ($154 per person, +18.1%).
There were 56,010 visitors from All Other International Markets in April 2022. These visitors were from Oceania, Europe, Other Asia, Latin America, Guam, Philippines, and the Pacific Islands. In comparison, there were 100,686 visitors (-44.4%) from All Other International Markets in April 2019.
In April 2022, a total of 5,171 trans-Pacific flights with 1,085,948 seats serviced the Hawaiian Islands, compared to 5,031 flights with 1,112,200 seats in April 2019.
Through the first four months of 2022, total visitor spending was $5.83 billion, up slightly (+0.3%) from $5.81 billion in the first four months of 2019. A total of 2,812,030 visitors arrived in the first four months of 2022 which was a decrease compared to the first four months of 2019 at 3,376,675 visitors (-16.7%).
read … Full Report
SA: U.S. visitors to Hawaii in April top 2019 levels for 12th consecutive month
PBN: Hawaii hotels reported an occupancy rate of 76% in April
SA: Hawaii summer travel demand near 2019 levels
CS: Hawaii visitors, tourism spending up
MN: Maui’s April visitor arrivals, spending top 2019 numbers


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The New York Times is once again breathlessly heralding the “launch” of a Google-killer.
Back in January, the NYT covered Powerset and Hakia in “Looking for the next Google.” In today’s story, “Start-Up Aims for Database to Automate Web Searching,” the NYT covers Metaweb Technologies’ plans to create a semantic Web database, to be called Freebase, which founder Danny Hillis envisions as “a centralized repository that is more like a digital almanac.”
It’s being billed as a cross between a search engine and a database, which would mean that its goals will be similar to those of Google Base — adding structure to data that otherwise does not have structure, and letting content owners edit that metadata.
“It’s like a system for building the synapses for the global brain,” Tim O’Reilly, CEO of O’Reilly Media, is quoted as saying in the NYT story. O’Reilly talks about Freebase on his blog, where he is a bit more cautiously optimistic than the NYT, saying, “While freebase is still VERY alpha, with much of the basic functionality barely working, the idea is HUGE.” O’Reilly does a great job covering what Freebase could be, once it is built.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not judging Freebase (or Hakia or Powerset, for that matter). I’m just saying that covering someone’s great idea as if it was already in place is misleading, and unfair both to readers and the company itself, who now must face the constant pressure to complete their project as fast as possible, instead of waiting to start the hype closer to the launch of an actual working product.
Of course, these companies agreed to the interviews, so they’re not innocent in this hype-fest. I’m intrigued by the concept, and look forward to learning more about it – once it exists.


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» Info Data Ptk Terbaru
Info Data Ptk Terbaru
Info Data Ptk Terbaru on Technology News and Updates AdmaTechnology.com at Thursday, April 24, 2014
Although the majority of smartphone users prefer to communicate via messenger applications, many of them are also fond of making phone calls.
Some of the applications are available both on the iPhone, Android, or BlackBerry can be used for free calling [...]
Rotation with the sun at a distance equal to the Earth’s rotation on the solar system.
An expert team of Anglo-German astronomers have discovered a new planet orbiting a nearby sun in the same distance as the Earth orbits the sun so that it has [...]
Beat the record photo teen star Justin Bieber.
Obama seems destined to be the person who created history. Being the first black president in the United States and the second democrat politician who was elected president for two terms in a row since World [...]
Map of Japan and Korea also did not show up.
Among users of Bing Maps in a number of countries, was shocked by the disappearance of the map of the three influential countries in the world, Japan, Korea and Israel from the map application.
Facing the war in the “second front”
The Israeli government on Sunday (11/18), admits millions have been subjected to attacks in cyberspace since the country launched an offensive on the Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run Palestinian territory last [...]
Apacer Technologi Inc., as one of the manufacturers of SSD products, digital consumer products and memory modules, Thursday (10/04) launches a USB 3.0 flash drive AH450.
One thing that most enjoy is the speed of data transmission is very high up to 140 [...]
HTC launched its newest product to sail in 2013. This time, they introduced Android smartphone named HTC One.
Quoted from Ubergizmo, Wednesday (2/20), one of the most highlighted features of the Taiwanese manufacturer is Ultrapixel camera.
Through these [...]
A man named Jim Stickley so far recorded more than 1000 bank he had robbed.
Uniquely, the hacker genius was never arrested let alone sent to prison.
Yes, Stickley is a ‘tester‘. His job is to penetrate and break through the security of computer [...]
Exploration of the universe using telescopes have been done by the experts since time immemorial.
Various planets and outer space Unexplained phenomenon-was discovered using a telescope.
Various types of telescopes were presented by experts in order [...]
Microsoft also released membership on Xbox live has increased by 15% during the third quarter of 2012.
Based on data obtained from a number of media releases Microsoft, stated that the number of sales of the Xbox 360 console has sold over 70 million [...]
Polaroid has agreed to put his name behind a Socialmatic concept, which will embody the spirit of Instagram into real form with an instant camera.
With the help of ADR Studios, Polaroid instant camera will perform retro and is expected to be present [...]


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Tag Archives : Yamaha MT-03
Yamaha R3’s naked version hitting showrooms this Diwali according to a new report. Following the debut of the Yamaha MT-25 in June 2015, Yamaha Motor.
Was unveiled at EICMA 2015. Autocar Professional reports that the Yamaha MT-03 will be launched in India, likely at the Auto Expo 2016 in Greater.
Both directly derived from super sport models. Yamaha has unveiled the MT-03 and the MT-10 street fighters at the 2015 EICMA in Milan, today. Yamaha.
Could be launched in India. Yamaha has unveiled the 2016 Yamaha MT-03, the naked version of the YZF-R3, and has announced the Japanese launch on.


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As everyone probably knows by now, the Obama campaign has started a website called http://fightthesmears.com which addresses smears put out by the McBush campaign and their support groups. Quickly, someone else grabbed up the dot org and dot net versions of this website name and claimed that they will clear up all smears for both Obama and McCain. Only time will tell in that regard.
In addition, we have started up http://fightthesmears.wordpress.com which will address all smears that we receive. At this time, we have already addressed 1 bogus email on that site and are currently researching 2 others. Based on the filth that is getting thanks to the Republicans smear campaign (Floyd Brown, creator of the infamous Willie Horton 1988 ad is aboard), it is obvious that we are just getting started.
If you come across any smears, you can send them to us at firstname.lastname@example.org.


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WASHINGTON: The recycling volumes have nearly doubled-a clear indication of the thumping success of the Knoxville curbside recycling program. The new household recycling program launched in October 2011 had registered 13,200 households initially. The number of households crossed 20,000 by December 2011.
In terms of volume, the curbside program which averaged between 4500 to 5000 tons per year has now touched 9,000-almost the double. The Knoxville Recycles Coalition which co-ordinates the recycling efforts say the city is planning to expand the program this summer so as to include as many as 1,900 more households who are now on wait list.
The curbside program has its own unique features which make it more convenient for the public. Households do not have to sort the materials before dumping in their bins. City residents with garbage pick-up have no additional fees for the recycling service. The city residents would just need to rinse all recyclable containers and flatten all the recyclable boxes before placing them into the cart.
The cart just needs to be taken to the curb. Recyclable items that can be included in the cart are Plastics(plastic bottles, plastic jugs, milk jugs, detergent containers, all plastic containers # 1-7),Metals(aluminum, steel and tin cans),Glass(glass bottles and brown/clear/green glass jars) and Paper(newspaper, magazines, junk mail, office paper, cereal boxes, cardboard, shredded paper).
Items that could not be included are aluminum foil, batteries, ceramics, dishes, electronics, food waste, hazardous waste, light bulbs, medical waste, mirrors, plastic bags, shrink wrap, styrofoam, trash, window glass, or yard waste. The participants can also register at Recyclebank, a nationwide agency that allots points to households depending on the weight of recyclables in their cart. The points thus earned can be redeemed at major shopping outlets.The Knoxville Recycles Coalition runs environmentally sound recycling programs by helping reduce the materials going to the landfill.


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Taking another look at the benefits of cloud communications
As more companies deploy unified communications and VoIP solutions, the need to reexamine the benefits that these systems arises. Switching from a legacy PBX system to a hosted phone system can save a business a large percentage of its IT budget, and improve other operations as well.
According to CMV Live, there are eight primary benefits to adopting a hosted VoIP solution. A few of these features contribute directly to increased productivity and efficiency. With a cloud-based system, employees can access voice and data more easily from any device with an internet connection. Professionals working from home can still access the same tools they do from the office, and one worker can access data on his or her tablet when at a meeting, rather than lugging a laptop around the office.
VoIP also provides numerous features that were previously only available with high cost legacy business phone systems, such as call recording, call forwarding, video conferencing and more. One of these features, call routing, is listed separately by the news source, as it is not available outside of a cloud-based system. The ability to reroute a call to different devices, such as a smartphone or different workstation, not only gives employees flexibility and improved collaboration benefits, but allows them to not be tethered to a desk in the office as well.
Adaptability is another benefit associated with hosted PBX solutions. These systems are more customizable to the specific needs of a business, and rather than shopping around for a phone system that meets all the needs of a business, but may cost significantly more than the company is ready to pay, cloud VoIP allows a business to purchase the best solution for a fixed price and change what is needed. This allows for even more cost effective deployment, according to the news source.
Contact centers can also benefit from one primary feature of VoIP systems but integrating them with customer relationship management tools. According to the report, VoIP can increase the marketing efficiency of CRM systems and help improve first call response by collecting customer data automatically at every call, rather than require the center agent to spend time asking the customer a variety of questions unrelated to his or her actual needs.


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Only a handful of major retailers and one specialty dealer released November sales figures in time for our deadline, but their figures indicate holiday demand was strong for consumer electronics. Here’s a rundown:
Best Buy, which reports sales quarterly, said revenue for the three months to November 27 climbed 25% to a record $3.11 billion, to lift its fiscal nine-month sales total to $8.18 billion, up 24%. Same-store volume was up 9.2% for the quarter and 11.1% for the full period.
The retailer’s “comparable-store sales growth for the quarter was driven by digital products, including satellite systems, DVD hardware, cellular phones, cameras and camcorders,” said CFO Allen Lenzmeier. Also contributing to the strong sales increases was “entertainment software, including video games, music and DVD movies.”
“Comparable-store sales growth for the quarter was driven by digital products, including satellite systems, DVD hardware, cellular phones, cameras and camcorders. In addition, increased sales of entertainment software including video games, music and DVD movies contributed to our strong sales gains,” Lenzmeier said.
During the quarter Best Buy opened 22 stores, including market entries in Norfolk and Richmond, Va.; Albany and Rochester, N.Y.; Jacksonville and Tallahassee, Fla.; and San Diego. It ended the period with 354 outlets.
Kmart chairman Floyd Hall cited home electronics as among the product “categories showing strength for the month.” He reported the chain had a 2.1% overall sales rise in November to $2.96 billion and a 1.4% increase at comparable stores.
Sears reported November sales at ongoing domestic stores rose 7.7% to $2.75 billion, with comparable stores posting a 5.9% rise. “Home appliances and electronics continue bringing strong sales increases,” said chairman Arthur Martinez. “Overall sales in November were better than expected, ending with particularly strong sales on Thanksgiving weekend.”


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Chief Tokunbo Omisore, CEO of Topservices Limited, has participated in the development of several malls in Lagos, Ibadan, and other parts of the country.
In this interview, he explains that organised retail trade has potential to solve Nigeria’s rising unemployment challenge. This, according to him, will only happen if government and banks provide the right kind of funding to support the industry.
Ignorance about the potential of Nigeria’s retail industry
The retail industry holds several benefits to the economy given that apart from the increasing employment generation, raising government’s revenue, modernisation of the environment, tourist attraction, and infrastructural development, it also drives events in other industrial value chains, such as agriculture and manufacturing.
That is because most of these retailers will buy a large portion of their products from local farmers and manufacturing companies in Nigeria. We have seen this play out with Shoprite, where most of the outlet’s supplies are sourced locally, especially its food items.
Miscoception about malls
That is not the correct view. Malls can be likened to infrastructure like roads, bridges and so on that are capable of providing employment to the youths, starting from the construction stage and its entire lifespan, and contributing more to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which lies in government’s ability to provide a special fund to the sector. The construction of roads and other infrastructure that governments often embark upon will not automatically translate to reducing unemployment. However, a formal retail industry has the potential to employ millions of Nigeria’s teeming youths and improve their incomes.
Benefits of organised retailer like Shoprite to SMEs, manufacturers and farmers
An organised retailer like Shoprite which presently has 25 stores spread across the country will enable various SMEs to showcase and sell their products with a single transaction, unlike the time when their products are limited to their immediate environment thereby hindering their growth. This large platform as well goes to the manufacturers and the farmers who now have a reliable organised market to sell farm produce without getting spoilt, and suffering loss.
Retail industry’s potential to solve Nigeria’s unemployment challenge
Nigeria’s retail sector remains relatively under-developed. Over 80 per cent of the shopping is still carried out at the traditional shops such as corner shops, kiosks, local markets and also from street vendors. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), at least 142 million people work in the retail sector in developing countries. Retail employment accounts for an average of 10 to 15 per cent of the job market in any given country. Seeing that the retail industry is very vital to a nation’s economy, the Nigerian market holds significant opportunities for retailers (local and international) and the chance to solve the unemployment challenge in the country. It is proven in the direct and indirect jobs provided by all the malls anchored by Shoprite in Nigeria today.
Factors hindering mall development in Nigeria
The interest rates on loans for the development of malls is rather too high and also has short time repayment. This explaines why investors and banks are often only willing to invest in government securities which pay high returns. If I can buy a risk-free 180-day treasury bill that pays me 20 per cent interest rate, I see little incentive in lending to a risky individual or institution, and if I do, I will charge an exorbitant interest rate. Similarly, if I could get such a risk-free 20 per cent return in half a year, why should I invest in the REIT? In short, high-interest rates on government securities draw investment away from other areas of the economy. This is not helping the retail sector’s capable of solving the problem of unemployment in the country.
Solutions to challenges
The government needs to provide a specific intervention fund at single digit interest rate through the CBN/commercial banks to developers willing to invest in this sector on a long-term basis.
The sector thrives in other countries and solves their unemployment problems due to funds made available at a single digit interest rate for a long-term period because the development is seen as infrastructural development that will last years.
Effects of inflation, recession on investment in malls patronage
Presently in Nigeria, investing in mall development is not sustainable to indigenous developer due to cost of funding, infrastructural decay and stringent regulations/pronouncements amongst other factors. However, it can be a sustainable venture if government intervention funds with at most 5 per cent interest rate coupled with at least a 10-year tenure are made available to indigenous mall developers, commercial banks grant loan facilities at single digit interest rate with at least a 10-year tenure to indigenous developers. The foreign developers in the industry enjoy single digit interest rate on foreign currency as they obtain funds from offshore at an interest rate that is less than 5 pe cent. This obviously gives them an undue advantage over the indigenous developer. It means that business friendly regulations with waivers and prompt approvals, where necessary should be granted;
It must also make provision for improvement of infrastructure especially electricity. Energy cost constitutes approximately 75 per cent of the cost of running a mall. An increase in the price of crude in the international market will bring about increase in the diesel cost locally. Hence, causing service charges to go further north. Running generator for 12 hours or more will also mean high generator maintenance cost and consequently replacement due to over use. All these obviously makes the mall unsustainable as tenants will complain of high cost and may be forced to vacate the mall. Improved electricity supply of at least 10 hours during trading period will reduce drastically the cost of running the mall. There could also be a partnership/joint venture between developers and land owners; and the most recently introduced Real Estate Investment Trust Scheme (REITS) should be encouraged and allowed to work. That means that investors pooling funds to finance mall development.
With the above, the rent payable will be friendly and affordable and indeed sustainable especially, the neighbourhood malls concept with emphasis on affordability and sustainability. Indded retail industry holds the key to solving the menace of unemployment, especially youth unemployment.
Benefits of pension or long-term private savings investing in retail sector
Pension fund investment in the retail sector would be an “ideal asset class” that provides tangible advantages such as long duration- facilitating cash flow matching with long-term liabilities, protection against inflation and statistical diversification. The retail sector will show growth in all economic cycles, for instance, a consumer spending on durable items like cars or expensive electronics may decline in a recession. Food consumption, for example, does not as home food expenditures often grows in tough times.


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Datacentre provider expands footprint across multiple locations in mainland China.
Chayora Limited — infrastructure investor, developer and operator of hyperscale datacentre campuses in China — plans to open an office in Shanghai, as it continues its expansion into the rapidly expanding digital infrastructure market in China.
The new office is located in the heart of Pudong, the central Shanghai business district, directly across the Huangpu River from The Bund.
Chayora continues to expand its footprint across multiple locations in mainland China and last year opened its office in central Beijing to provide local support to the company’s large datacentre campus being constructed in nearby Tianjin.
“Chayora is making significant investments and is expanding rapidly within China and we celebrate the opening of this new office which will be a springboard for our establishment of data centre facilities in Shanghai and enhance the support for our staff based there,” said Oliver Jones, Co-Founder and CEO, Chayora.
He stated Shanghai, with its adjacent provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang and “a key location” for the international finance sector.
It will also provide the main base for and support Chayora’s recently appointed executive vice president, sales for China, Shining Xiao and Chayora’s executive GM for the Eastern Region, Kevin Sun and their growing team supporting sales and new developments in China.
Earlier this year Chayora and Telstra International entered a partnership to provide world-class colocation services and network connectivity from Chayora’s hyperscale campus serving the Tianjin-Beijing corridor in the People’s Republic of China.
The partnership aims to enable customers to access a range of high-performance Data Centre Capacity, from retail colocation through to build-to-suit Hyperscale Capacity with more than 300MW available on Chayora’s Tianjin campus.
Telstra and Chayora’s facility in Beichen (TJ1) aims to serve as a scalable extension to Telstra’s existing nearby Tier III colocation facility in Tianjin, with up to 3000 racks of capacity available in the third quarter of 2020.


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Kyle Taylor knows what it's like to be in — and get out of — a serious financial ditch.
In 2010, the then-24-year-old had $50,000 worth of student loans, lacked a steady job and was unsure if he could pay the next month's rent. At one point, he resorted to picking up change off of the street to buy ramen noodles.
Today, Taylor, 30, is a millionaire and the founder and CEO of The Penny Hoarder, a site that offers practical personal finance advice to millions of readers.
While Taylor follows a number of helpful personal finance guidelines, such as having weekly check-ins with yourself to review your finances and saving 50 percent of your take-home income, there's one he says can have an immediate impact.
Taylor insists there are actually ways to start saving even when you're barely making ends meet.
"If you're somebody like I was, living paycheck to paycheck and wondering how you can get out of the hole," he tells CNBC, "the first thing I recommend people do is to start a second bank account."
That second bank account should be strictly for savings, he says.
"Deposit anything, something. Five dollars, a roll or pack a quarters — just deposit something," he says. "And then use that as a foundation to keep growing from."
The simple act of dedicating one account to savings is a big step forward, no matter what the balance, Taylor says.
He also stresses the importance of keeping this account disconnected from your checking account, so that transferring funds is more difficult.
It works, the millionaire says.
"Even if [you deposit] just five dollars a week, it will get better," he says. "It will keep growing if you stick with it."
Check out the formula Taylor uses to save big.


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Essential has officially shut down after trying unsuccessfully to get its new Gem phone to market.
The company tried to make a splash with its Essential Phone (PH-1) but ultimately failed. Reviews like ours panned out the phone for being “beautiful but not fully baked.” The company tried to make a comeback after rumors of its imminent demise with the Gem, the weirdly elongated candybar phone that was supposed to bring a few innovations to the mobile world.
However, after bold claims, the Gem has vanished into the realm of vaporware and the company has announced its definitive shut down.
Essential was founded by Andy Rubin, a former manufacturing engineer at Apple from 1989 to 1992 and one of the creators of Android. He became a high rank at Google after the Mountain View company bought the OS to start its own phone business to compete with Apple. He finally left Google in 2014 following sexual harassment allegations — according to The New York Times, Rubin was asked to resign by Google following forced-sex accusations from an employee in 2013. There was a big scandal when it was discovered that Google tried to protect him and paid him a $90 million exit package.
That scandal clearly hurt the company after the release of its modular Essential Phone. While Essential hasn’t clarified the exact reasons that led to the shutdown except beyond saying it has no “clear path“ to deliver the Gem, it’s reasonable to think that the company may have had trouble finding the financial muscle needed to get Gem from prototype to final product after both the failed PH-1 and the sex scandal that tainted its founder.
A flawed phone and a weird failed promise
Being the father of Android, Rubin made a lot of noise with the promise of a better Android phone than anyone else. The hype failed to materialize and the phone was considered underpowered and flawed, despite its clean hardware design and software. According to our review by EIC Mark Spoonauer and Mike Prospero, “the Essential Phone is a gorgeous Android phone with an edge-to-edge screen, clever modular design and refreshingly clean software, but the camera is a letdown so far.”
The phone really never took off in the market and became a niche device. And while Essential kept its promise to update it with new versions of Android as soon as they became available, nobody really cared by then.
After the much publicized sex scandal, Rubin and Essential tried a comeback with something new called the Gem, a phone with an extremely elongated format that the company was trying to position as something “radically different”.
While the device raised some eyebrows in the online community and threw in some nice ideas, it appears that it didn’t have enough oomph to drive it through development and release.
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Jesus Diaz founded the new Sploid for Gawker Media after seven years working at Gizmodo, where he helmed the lost-in-a-bar iPhone 4 story and wrote old angry man rants, among other things. He's a creative director, screenwriter, and producer at The Magic Sauce, and currently writes for Fast Company and Tom's Guide.


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Allen Wright, 76, a well-known and highly respected figure in the rail transit industry for more than 60 years, died at his home in Stratford, Ontario, Canada.
The current trend in 2015 U.S. rail freight traffic—intermodal registering gains over prior-year numbers, carload traffic falling—continued for the week ending June 13, 2015, the Association of American Railroads reported. This week was highest on record for intermodal units.
Wabtec Corp. has acquired Metalocaucho, a European-based manufacturer of transit products, primarily rubber components for passenger car suspension and vibration control systems.
The Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program has released the final two installments in its Metro Freight Series, a collection of new research examining the volume of goods flowing through U.S. ports and across the nation by truck, rail, water, air and pipeline.


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Photo Credit: See-ming Lee.
Turns out, you can make a living as an artist. And there’s no better time to do so.
Numbering almost two million, artists – those in photography, architecture, music, production, art, dance, design and writing – are one of the largest classes of workers in the nation, only slightly smaller than the U.S. military’s active-duty and reserve personnel (2.2 million).
“American artists tend to be better educated and more entrepreneurial,” Dana Gioia, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, says in the report, Artists in the Workforce. Indeed, artists are 3.5 times more likely to be self-employed.
Artistic creativity and entrepreneurship are no longer mutually exclusive. What was once a vehicle for personal expression has increasingly become an avenue to impact society, and artists are now change agents for communities.
“Rather than seeing art as something to pursue in the hours when they are not earning a living,” argues New York Times columnist Marci Alboher, “these artists are developing businesses around their talents. These artists are part of a growing movement that has caught the attention of business experts and is being nudged along by both art and business schools. Living in the Internet era has certainly helped.”
Making your passion your profession – and ensuring the resulting income has long-term viability- is no easy task. Just because you have the ability to create, doesn’t always mean you have the skills to own your art and profit from it. But yes, of course, the Internet has helped. It has sparked consumer interest in unique, one-of-a-kind or handcrafted products, and has created new and effective methods for tech-savvy artists to find an audience.
Not to mention, technology reduces the cost of producing many types of art, and gives artist-entrepreneurs “the ability to create and manage small businesses with multiple revenue streams. This greatly increases the likelihood they will generate enough revenue to succeed,” argues small business researcher Steve King.
Giga Om reporter Michael Wolf agrees, declaring 2012 as the year for the artist-entrepreneur. Wolf points to examples in digital publishing where former mid-list writers like Barry Eisler to superstars like JK Rowling, are increasingly making waves. Or how everyone’s favorite comedian Louis CK said no thank you to corporate middlemen and put his concert video online for $5 a pop.
“No doubt, the vast majority of economic wealth is still distributed through large corporate media,” Wolf argues, “but as new technologies enable artists to reach consumers directly through push-button creation and distribution, there is a movement afoot. Expect this movement to expand in 2012 as more artists take control of their own economic destinies and become part of the artist-entrepreneur generation.”
Here at Graph Paper Press, we have had the great pleasure to watch these trends explode from a front-row seat. Next week, we will have an exciting announcement related to the artist-entrepreneur. Stay tuned…
(Don’t you just love a good cliff-hanger?)
What do you think? Have you found you’re becoming an artist-entrepreneur? What challenges or successes can you share?


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Will Super Bowl XLIX Break Nielsen?
Super Bowl XLIX is expected to draw more viewers than last year's Big Game, which pulled in a record-breaking 111.5 million viewers. Albert Fried Director of Research Rich Tullo is confident the NFL will enjoy another record-breaking year.
"It's been pretty well done in the media," Tullo told Benzinga. "[NBC is getting] $4.5 million for the top spots. Obviously that benefits Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) because they own NBC. The big benefit is NBC partners. They're doing the Budweiser ads and they'll probably do ads for some of their other advertisers on the show."
Tullo referred to the "deflategate" controversy as a "bunch of nonsense." He is confident that the Super Bowl will set another record in 2015.
"There's no doubt," he said. "They'll break the record this year."
— Daniel (@RadioDaniel) February 1, 2015
Tullo dismissed the idea that Super Bowl ratings will peak in 2015.
"I don't know about that," he said. "The millennial generation is getting older. There's 70 million of them out there. All it takes is a few percentage points of market share with these kids as they're getting older. They used to be 18 to 24. Now they're 24 to 34. As they're getting older, there's a good possibility that this particular media event could do well on that. It's a more international product now than it's ever been before. Globally and certainly the trend is there."
Ticket prices declined in the secondary market in 2014. At the time, Ticket Club CEO Don Vaccaro attributed the decline to an increase in ticket availability.
"I think the availability on the secondary market is greater [in 2014] than it has in the past two years because a lot of folks who have Super Bowl tickets in the beginning of this year were asking way too much for the tickets," Vaccaro told Benzinga in January 2014. "It was hard to put together packages and sell them because of the higher prices. When folks stayed away from it, it left more tickets on the marketplace until the end."
Some people also held out thinking that New York would bring big money to the Super Bowl.
"There were a lot of people who were afraid to take orders in advance of the Super Bowl, thinking, 'It's New York, it might spike up, there's a lot of money in New York,'" Vaccaro added. "Well, that didn't turn out to be the case."
Consequently, there were a lot of tickets "held in stockpiles."
This year it's a whole other story. Ticket prices soared last week to an average $6,459.21 -- more than double the fee consumers would have paid last year.
Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.
Image credit: flash.pro, Flickr
© 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.


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A retail sandwich range aimed specifically at children is making its way into the chillers later this month in a bid to bring younger consumers to the category.
Organic sandwich brand Fresh Naturally Organic is launching the sandwiches, aimed at children between 18 months and six years old, under its new Fresh for Kids brand.
Two variants are being launched - an organic humous and carrot recipe and a sandwich containing tuna and sweetcorn mayonnaise. They met demand from parents who wanted to give their children much more simple flavour combinations, as well as people with smaller appetites, she added.
The half-sized packs were made to recipes that were much more suitable for kids than most of the lines currently available, claimed founder Chantelle Ludski.
A range of children's salads is also being developed for retail.
"Our research showed there is very little out there in the sandwich market for children," said Ludski. "I have to give my son egg and cress sandwiches because the majority of combinations available are not suitable for children.
"Ham sandwiches, for example, often contain tomatoes and mustard, two ingredients not that popular with small children. There was clearly an opportunity to come up with something to cater for the children's market."
The UK sandwich industry is worth £5.25bn but sandwiches aimed at kids make up a small percentage of that, according to Jim Winship, director of the British Sandwich Association. The majority of sandwiches were bought by adults at lunchtime, he said.
Fresh Naturally Organic's concept could appeal to tourists and would work in the London area, he said. "It is an interesting concept. I'll be fascinated to see how the launch goes."
The sandwiches will be launched into Boots on 21 July at an rsp of 99p to £1.05 compared with the company's standard sandwiches, which start at £2.30.


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Here’s a letter that I sent today to the Washington Post:
Harold Meyerson insists yet again that America has lost its manufacturing, alleging also that investors are abandoning the U.S in favor of “nations with far cheaper workforces” (“Obama’s Factory Factor,” August 21). Mr. Meyerson predictably singles out China as one such nation.
Facts utterly contradict Mr. Meyerson’s fantasies. First, U.S. manufacturing revenues (adjusted for inflation) reached their all-time high in 2006. 2006 was also a peak year for inflation-adjusted manufacturing profits in the U.S. and for inflation-adjusted U.S. manufacturing exports. And the U.S. accounts for the largest share of the globe’s manufacturing output; Americans today produce 2.5 times more manufactured goods than do the Chinese. [See here.]
Second, in 2007 the flow of per capita foreign direct investment into the U.S. was up 13 percent from 2006, to $675. In China, it was up 14 percent – to $55. [I derived these these figures from here, here, and here; I got population figures from the CIA World Factbook .]
Harold Meyerson is a perfect example of the Beatles’ “Nowhere Man”: “He’s as blind as he can be / Just sees what he wants to see.”
Donald J. Boudreaux
I also posted this letter in the Comments section that accompanies Meyerson’s articles. It’s extraordinarily disheartening to read most of the other comments.


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Verizon to double early-termination fees
Jan 06, 2010 (The Philadelphia Inquirer - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Verizon Communications Inc., which is rolling out FiOS TV and Internet services in Philadelphia, is poised to double its early-termination fee for new TV and Internet subscribers to $360, according to corporate documents.
Verizon has seen Comcast Corp. and other cable companies stealing back FiOS TV and Internet customers with steep discounts and offers to rebate the termination fee. Customers who cancel TV or Internet service in mid-contract pay the fee.
The sharply higher fee -- the current one is $179 for a two-year contract -- would make the rebate payments more painful for competing cable companies.
Consumer advocates generally view the fees as anticompetitive because they keep customers from freely switching between competitors when they would like to do so.
The $360 Verizon fee would diminish on a sliding scale over 24 months, which means a subscriber canceling in the midst of the contract would not pay the whole amount, according to Verizon's plans.
A FiOS subscriber who signs a two-year contract and cancels within three months would pay $330, according to Verizon documents accidentally posted on the Internet and then taken down. If the customer cancels in 16 months, the fee would be $135; at 24 months, $15.
There would be no grace period for the new fee, which takes effect Jan. 17, according to the Verizon documents. The current grace period is 15 days.
A grace period is the time that a customer has to cancel FiOS service without triggering a termination fee.
Verizon spokesman Richard Young late yesterday declined to comment, other than to say that the company could alter its plans for the early-termination fee and other changes by Jan. 17.
Four pages of Verizon documents obtained by The Inquirer detail the FiOS changes. The new fee and possible FiOS rate increases on Jan. 17 were first reported in the trade journal DSLReports. Current Verizon bundles -- typically TV, Internet, and phone services -- would be grandfathered, the documents say.
Fine print in current Verizon promotions for FiOS TV and Internet says the offers are good through Jan. 16, indicating a change could take place thereafter.
Early-termination fees, or ETFs, have become controversial at the Federal Communications Commission, which is looking at Verizon's early-termination fees in its wireless division.
"I am concerned by what seems to be a shifting and tenuous rationale for ETFs," FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said in a statement on Dec. 23.
Verizon says ETFs cover the cost of wireless phones for customers. In a recent response to an FCC letter, Verizon said they also were used for store and advertising costs and sales commissions, Clyburn said in the statement.
Rick Kaplan, the commissioner's spokesman, said early-termination fees for TV and Internet services had not been an issue.
Verizon secured from Philadelphia City Council a 15-year cable-TV license in 2009. The telecom giant has said early-termination fees cover the cost of installing FiOS -- $500 to $600 per customer.
Joel Kelsey, policy analyst with the Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, said Verizon should provide an accounting of installation costs if the termination fees were being used to recoup those costs.
He said the higher fee appeared to be "another example of early-termination fees being used to punish consumers rather than being used to recoup costs."
Comcast says that most of its customers pay monthly without a contract and are not subject to early-termination fees. Some Comcast promotional packages carry $179 early-termination fees, according to a published report on the Consumerist blog.
Comcast spokeswoman Jenni Moyer said the cable company's standard early-termination fee is "generally $150" and varies by the promotion. The fee is tied to the incentive offered to the consumer for signing a contract, she said.
Contact Bob Fernandez at 215-854-5897 or email@example.com.
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to http://www.philly.com/inquirer. Copyright (c) 2010, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
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|By PR Newswire||
|November 20, 2012 09:38 AM EST||
MIAMI, Nov. 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Acceller, Inc., will send Benjamin Vides, Vice President of Product Management, to WebCongress Miami 2012 on Nov. 30, to share how the company worked closely with Google to launch an industry-leading marketing campaign focused on U.S. Hispanics. WebCongress Miami brings some of the best Internet professionals together to share their success in capturing users and converting them to customers.
Beginning in 2011, Acceller began using some innovative and practical techniques for marketing online, specifically to the U.S. Hispanic consumer market. By implementing Google Mobile and Ad Network solutions, among other tactics, Acceller launched a campaign that drove high volume and high quality traffic back to their site.
Acceller is a marketing and technology partner that connects millions of U.S. consumers with over 30 of the industry's leading brands to find the best home digital services. Vides plans to discuss the insights Acceller gained from collaborating with Google to understand the behavior of the U.S. Hispanic consumer.
"We're excited to share our practices with WebCongress Miami attendees," said Vides. "Hopefully, we'll help them get their products out to the U.S. Hispanic market, which is growing faster than any other group in the country." He will share the company's key findings in a case study published jointly with Google in early 2012.
Acceller took several steps to get their services in front of U.S. Hispanic audiences. They optimized their mobile campaigns through analytics, segmented the Hispanic audience online to drive targeted conversion results, and connected online and offline sales through advanced attribution tracking and call metrics.
Held at the University of Miami, WebCongress Miami 2012 is a new digital marketing event that is being showcased in the U.S. for the first time, after seeing great success in Europe over the past five years. The two-day conference helps companies network and learn from some of the top online experts.
Acceller is a technology and marketing partner focused on enabling consumers to live the connected life. We join forces with the nation's leading digital service providers to enrich their marketing and distribution channels. Using our technology and marketing insight, channel partners are able to enhance their value to consumers and drive incremental revenue. Our agile business model and deep relationships within the digital service industry, enables the education and empowerment of consumers through our comparison shopping and content site, Digital Landing (www.digitallanding.com)
Founded by Ouali Benmeziane in 2008, WebCongress is the most popular professional online marketing event in Spain & Europe and now expanding to the U.S. and Latam. With Conferences, Workshops & Networking, WebCongress is a place to learn and make business. Held in the most important European cities, Google, Yahoo, BlackBerry, Microsoft, W3C, SEOmoz, Bwin, Walt Disney, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Hootsuite, Oracle, Mozilla, Sedo, Sony and Intel, are some of the companies that participate in the event each year. WebCongress is the new digital marketing event for business and professionals wiling to learn the latest digital trends.
More info: http://webcongress.com/
SOURCE Acceller, Inc.
WebRTC services have already permeated corporate communications in the form of videoconferencing solutions. However, WebRTC has the potential of going beyond and catalyzing a new class of services providing more than calls with capabilities such as mass-scale real-time media broadcasting, enriched and augmented video, person-to-machine and machine-to-machine communications. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Luis Lopez, CEO of Kurento, introduced the technologies required for implementing these idea...
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Buzzword alert: Microservices and IoT at a DevOps conference? What could possibly go wrong? In this Power Panel at DevOps Summit, moderated by Jason Bloomberg, the leading expert on architecting agility for the enterprise and president of Intellyx, panelists peeled away the buzz and discuss the important architectural principles behind implementing IoT solutions for the enterprise. As remote IoT devices and sensors become increasingly intelligent, they become part of our distributed cloud enviro...
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"A lot of times people will come to us and have a very diverse set of requirements or very customized need and we'll help them to implement it in a fashion that you can't just buy off of the shelf," explained Nick Rose, CTO of Enzu, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 18th Cloud Expo, held June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
Jan. 20, 2017 08:15 AM EST Reads: 4,698
The WebRTC Summit New York, to be held June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, announces that its Call for Papers is now open. Topics include all aspects of improving IT delivery by eliminating waste through automated business models leveraging cloud technologies. WebRTC Summit is co-located with 20th International Cloud Expo and @ThingsExpo. WebRTC is the future of browser-to-browser communications, and continues to make inroads into the traditional, difficult, plug-in web co...
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In his keynote at @ThingsExpo, Chris Matthieu, Director of IoT Engineering at Citrix and co-founder and CTO of Octoblu, focused on building an IoT platform and company. He provided a behind-the-scenes look at Octoblu’s platform, business, and pivots along the way (including the Citrix acquisition of Octoblu).
Jan. 20, 2017 07:00 AM EST Reads: 9,069
For basic one-to-one voice or video calling solutions, WebRTC has proven to be a very powerful technology. Although WebRTC’s core functionality is to provide secure, real-time p2p media streaming, leveraging native platform features and server-side components brings up new communication capabilities for web and native mobile applications, allowing for advanced multi-user use cases such as video broadcasting, conferencing, and media recording.
Jan. 20, 2017 07:00 AM EST Reads: 6,857
Web Real-Time Communication APIs have quickly revolutionized what browsers are capable of. In addition to video and audio streams, we can now bi-directionally send arbitrary data over WebRTC's PeerConnection Data Channels. With the advent of Progressive Web Apps and new hardware APIs such as WebBluetooh and WebUSB, we can finally enable users to stitch together the Internet of Things directly from their browsers while communicating privately and securely in a decentralized way.
Jan. 20, 2017 03:00 AM EST Reads: 880
WebRTC is about the data channel as much as about video and audio conferencing. However, basically all commercial WebRTC applications have been built with a focus on audio and video. The handling of “data” has been limited to text chat and file download – all other data sharing seems to end with screensharing. What is holding back a more intensive use of peer-to-peer data? In her session at @ThingsExpo, Dr Silvia Pfeiffer, WebRTC Applications Team Lead at National ICT Australia, looked at differ...
Jan. 20, 2017 02:30 AM EST Reads: 5,028
The security needs of IoT environments require a strong, proven approach to maintain security, trust and privacy in their ecosystem. Assurance and protection of device identity, secure data encryption and authentication are the key security challenges organizations are trying to address when integrating IoT devices. This holds true for IoT applications in a wide range of industries, for example, healthcare, consumer devices, and manufacturing. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Lancen LaChance, vic...
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With all the incredible momentum behind the Internet of Things (IoT) industry, it is easy to forget that not a single CEO wakes up and wonders if “my IoT is broken.” What they wonder is if they are making the right decisions to do all they can to increase revenue, decrease costs, and improve customer experience – effectively the same challenges they have always had in growing their business. The exciting thing about the IoT industry is now these decisions can be better, faster, and smarter. Now ...
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Fact is, enterprises have significant legacy voice infrastructure that’s costly to replace with pure IP solutions. How can we bring this analog infrastructure into our shiny new cloud applications? There are proven methods to bind both legacy voice applications and traditional PSTN audio into cloud-based applications and services at a carrier scale. Some of the most successful implementations leverage WebRTC, WebSockets, SIP and other open source technologies. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Da...
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Who are you? How do you introduce yourself? Do you use a name, or do you greet a friend by the last four digits of his social security number? Assuming you don’t, why are we content to associate our identity with 10 random digits assigned by our phone company? Identity is an issue that affects everyone, but as individuals we don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Ben Klang, Founder & President of Mojo Lingo, discussed the impact of technology on identity. Sho...
Jan. 20, 2017 12:45 AM EST Reads: 4,126
A critical component of any IoT project is what to do with all the data being generated. This data needs to be captured, processed, structured, and stored in a way to facilitate different kinds of queries. Traditional data warehouse and analytical systems are mature technologies that can be used to handle certain kinds of queries, but they are not always well suited to many problems, particularly when there is a need for real-time insights.
Jan. 20, 2017 12:00 AM EST Reads: 6,347
You think you know what’s in your data. But do you? Most organizations are now aware of the business intelligence represented by their data. Data science stands to take this to a level you never thought of – literally. The techniques of data science, when used with the capabilities of Big Data technologies, can make connections you had not yet imagined, helping you discover new insights and ask new questions of your data. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Sarbjit Sarkaria, data science team lead ...
Jan. 19, 2017 09:45 PM EST Reads: 6,831
WebRTC has had a real tough three or four years, and so have those working with it. Only a few short years ago, the development world were excited about WebRTC and proclaiming how awesome it was. You might have played with the technology a couple of years ago, only to find the extra infrastructure requirements were painful to implement and poorly documented. This probably left a bitter taste in your mouth, especially when things went wrong.
Jan. 19, 2017 09:45 PM EST Reads: 7,720
WebRTC is bringing significant change to the communications landscape that will bridge the worlds of web and telephony, making the Internet the new standard for communications. Cloud9 took the road less traveled and used WebRTC to create a downloadable enterprise-grade communications platform that is changing the communication dynamic in the financial sector. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Leo Papadopoulos, CTO of Cloud9, discussed the importance of WebRTC and how it enables companies to focus o...
Jan. 19, 2017 07:30 PM EST Reads: 4,246
Providing secure, mobile access to sensitive data sets is a critical element in realizing the full potential of cloud computing. However, large data caches remain inaccessible to edge devices for reasons of security, size, format or limited viewing capabilities. Medical imaging, computer aided design and seismic interpretation are just a few examples of industries facing this challenge. Rather than fighting for incremental gains by pulling these datasets to edge devices, we need to embrace the i...
Jan. 19, 2017 05:30 PM EST Reads: 3,657
Jan. 19, 2017 05:15 PM EST Reads: 3,132
With major technology companies and startups seriously embracing IoT strategies, now is the perfect time to attend @ThingsExpo 2016 in New York. Learn what is going on, contribute to the discussions, and ensure that your enterprise is as "IoT-Ready" as it can be! Internet of @ThingsExpo, taking place June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, is co-located with 20th Cloud Expo and will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry p...
Jan. 19, 2017 04:45 PM EST Reads: 3,782
In his General Session at 17th Cloud Expo, Bruce Swann, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Adobe Campaign, explored the key ingredients of cross-channel marketing in a digital world. Learn how the Adobe Marketing Cloud can help marketers embrace opportunities for personalized, relevant and real-time customer engagement across offline (direct mail, point of sale, call center) and digital (email, website, SMS, mobile apps, social networks, connected objects).
Jan. 19, 2017 04:00 PM EST Reads: 5,455


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The Ghana Revenue Authority has launched a mobile application named “Ghana Tax Stamp Authenticator” to help consumers to detect the authenticity of tax stamps on products sold in retail shops.
The Mobile application launched on Tuesday enables consumers to scan and verify the excise tax stamps affixed on excisable products such as alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and tobacco products.
Speaking at the launch of the app, Emmanuel Kofi Nti, the Commissioner-General of GRA said the Excise Tax Stamp Act, 2013 (Act 873) required that excise tax stamps shall be affixed on specified excisable products.
According to the Commissioner-General, to identify the authenticity of the tax stamp, the Authority came up with a device, the Bar Code Scanner at the beginning of the enforcement of the policy, but the gadgets were only used by the staff of the Authority.
And in that regard the Authority developed the application to ensure that the monitoring process of the device was simplified and easily made available to the public.
WATCH HOW THE MOBILE APP WORKS
Meanwhile, Kwabena Apau Awua Anto, the Chief Revenue Officer in charge of Excise Unit of GRA, explaining the installation process, said the public or the consumer needs to visit play store on adroid device to download Ghana Tax Stamp Authenticator.


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We feel extremely honoured to have been asked to create a poster for the launch of the Nike MAGs in LA on Thursday. Amongst all the excitement of the release no one was (understandably) looking at the walls – but still, the posters were there, and we’re happy with that! The MAGs that feature in Back To the Future 2 are probably amongst the most anticipated sneaker releases ever, and 1500 pairs have now been made available on eBay. 150 pairs a day for 10 days. Prices are getting crazy but all proceeds will be donated to the Michael J. Fox Foundation to help in the fight against Parkinson’s Disease.
More info at back4thefuture.com.


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Looking to build on automotive-related business at Speedway Commerce Center, owner Harsch Investment Properties has joined the Specialty Equipment Market Association and will be a first-time exhibitor at this week’s SEMA Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Harsch is paying about $2,000 for a 10-foot-by-10-foot booth at the automotive industry’s largest aftermarket product trade show, which brings about 100,000 people to Las Vegas each year. The show runs today through Friday. It is closed to the public, but many custom vehicles are displayed in the convention center parking lot.
The Portland, Ore.-based commercial real estate developer is hoping to capitalize on Speedway Commerce Center’s location as a gateway to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, easy access to Interstate 15 and Nevada’s business-friendly tax climate.
Harsch is committed to SEMA not just for this year, but probably for the next five years, said John Ramous, vice president of operations for Harsch in Las Vegas.
Besides the exhibit booth, Harsch is sponsoring the SEMA businesswomen’s networking breakfast and the Young Executive Network’s 20th anniversary reception. The company has also scheduled a press conference Thursday to announce the release of 48 acres for build-to-suit opportunities at Speedway Commerce Center.
“Our thought is we have 2 million square feet here and the base of this is really automotive-related, whether it’s racing or manufacturing,” Ramous said. “What we found is with the uncertainty of taxes, wealthy individuals are putting money into race teams. They’d rather not pay Uncle Sam and do something fun. We understand that the automotive industry, like many other industries, is aggressively working towards recovery and growth.”
The $28 billion automotive specialty-equipment industry is showing tangible signs of economic recovery judging by early registration for SEMA. The number of exhibitors submitting contracts for booth space increased 20 percent from a year ago, including a record 1,621 new product registrations, show officials said. They also grew their footprint for contracted exhibit space by 16 percent, or 11,700 square feet, from 2009.
When late casino owners Ralph Engelstad and Bill Bennett built the $250 million Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 1996, they envisioned the adjacent industrial park being home to national racing teams and other automotive industries.
That vision has been slow to materialize, though the center’s tenants include a number of racing teams such as Orleans Racing, Kroyer Racing and Vision Airlines Racing, which recently expanded from 7,500 feet to 12,000 feet.
Shelby American is Speedway Commerce Center’s major tenant, occupying nearly 210,000 square feet in several buildings. Other prominent tenants include the Richard Petty Driving Experience, U.S. Legend Cars, Exotics Racing and most recently U-Drift from Alabama.
Exotics Racing puts drivers into the seat of a Lamborghini, Ferrari, Porsche, Aston Martin or Audi R8 for five laps around the track starting at about $300. The company is expanding from 3,775 feet to 14,000 feet of frontage along Speedway Boulevard.
“This is Vegas and a company like this can really thrive,” Exotics Racing marketing and sales director James Switzer said.
His goal is to expand the company’s Las Vegas fleet to 30 cars.
Canadian-based Big Rig Collision just took 57,000 square feet at the industrial park.
“It’s the closest proximity to California without actually being there,” BRC owner Rob Pek said. “Nevada is certainly a lot friendlier place to work and Las Vegas is a hub for our business with the tourism and RVs and trucking. It makes sense to be here.”
About 40 percent of Speedway Commerce Center is leased to automotive companies and 60 percent of lease transactions in the past 16 months have come from out-of-state and international companies, Harsch Assistant Vice President Reed Gottesman said.
Harsch bought the 95-acre, 1.4 million-square-foot industrial park from Las Vegas Motor Speedway owner Bruton Smith for $44 million in 2001 and added eight new buildings totaling 523,000 square feet. Harsch also acquired another 80 acres of vacant land at Speedway Commerce Center.
Contact reporter Hubble Smith at firstname.lastname@example.org or 702-383-0491.


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Online classifieds site OLX has raised $5 million from Indian venture capital fund Nexus India Capital, reports TechCrunch; the company has classifieds sites for 85 countries. OLX does have an India site which allows publishing of free classifieds in both Hindi and English, and has partnered with HT Media to power its classifieds portal AskHT. A look at OLX.in reveals a staggering number of classified listings. In India, OLX competes with Quikr (formerly Kijiji India), Sulekha, HTClassifieds.com, Rediff LocalAds, Click.in among others. Are any of the free classifieds businesses making money in India?
It’s interesting to note that in December last year, OLX had appointed Amarjit Batra as Country Manager for the Indian business. Batra was with Bazee and eBay India for around five and a half years; there’s a connection there with Nexus India Capital – Suvir Sujan, founding partner of Nexus India Capital was among the co-founders of Bazee, and later the Country Manager for eBay India.
Also worth noting is the fact that another Baazee founder has also backed classifieds businesses: Avnish Bajaj of Matrix Partners invested in Quikr, which was created from the Indian arm of eBay’s classifieds business Kijiji.


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Macau’s trade deficit widened by 32.4% in the first quarter of 2018 to 19.651 billion patacas (US$2.456 billion), according to information released by the region’s Statistics and Census Bureau.
The increase in the balance of trade deficit in the first three months of the year was due to the fact that exports increased by 0.8% to 2.971 billion patacas and imports increased by 27.2% to 22.622 billion patacas.
The value of goods imported from Mainland China (7.68 billion patacas) and the European Union (5.97 billion patacas) in the first quarter of the year rose 29.8% and 28.3% respectively, against the same quarter of last year.
In the same period Macau imported goods worth 200 million patacas and from the countries covered by the “Belt and Road” initiative, with the exception of the Greater China region, products worth 1.92 billion patacas. patacas, with a growth of 29.9% and 23.5%, respectively.
In March alone, Macau exported goods worth 1.030 billion patacas, with a year-on-year drop of 3.8% and imported goods worth 7.678 billion patacas, an increase of 21.9% year-on-year. (macauhub)


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If you've been waiting to buy plane tickets for the holidays, it's National Cheap Flight Day supposedly the BEST day to buy. Some people say it's just a lot of hype though.
It's been a thing since 2015. A site called CheapOair says that according to their data, holiday plane tickets tend to hit rock bottom today. And that's not totally baseless.
Prices do usually start dropping in June, and keep going down through most of August. So now IS a good time to buy for a lot of us.
But experts say there isn't really one "best" day. Cheap Flight Day is just based on the overall average, and it really depends on when and where you're flying.
In general, the best prices tend to be one to three months before you fly. Or two to eight months if you're flying to another country.
Just don't wait until the last minute and expect to find crazy deals a WEEK before you fly. According to one expert, deals like that used to be a thing but "basically don't exist anymore."


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This is not good news for the USPS…but it’s good news for Netflix users. Netflix just signed a deal with a consortium of movie studios that increases Netflix’s access to 46% of newly released movies. And with that, the USPS will start to see a fairly significant chunk of their $600 million cash cow decrease.
As I mentioned in a previous blog, Netflix management has tried to use this large chunk of cash currently paid to the USPS for awhile now. Apparently, the studios finally understand that the 3D/IMAX hysteria which has ballooned Hollywood revenues will not continue indefinitely.


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Lawrenceville, NJ – (January 19, 2021) – Datacolor®, a global leader in color management solutions, announced today the launch of the Spectro 1000/700 series, a family of close-tolerance benchtop spectrophotometers designed for high efficiency and confidence in color formulation and quality control in a wide range of industries.
The new series features the high inter-instrument agreement Datacolor customers have come to rely on, to ensure uniform color assessments across various instruments and multiple locations throughout the supply chain. The systems are designed to increase productivity and improve workflow efficiency through high measurement speeds and seamless backward capability with other Datacolor benchtop instruments. The Spectro 1000/700 family is optimized for the future of color management, featuring internet connectivity for upcoming remote services.
“Heightened by the pandemic and remote working trends, the need for digital exchange of color data has increased. Datacolor set out to develop a family of high-efficiency spectrophotometers designed to meet the industry needs of today while also staying ahead of tomorrow’s trends,” said Albert Busch, President and CEO, Datacolor. “With the Spectro 1000/700 series, users can feel confident their instruments are ready to take advantage of future product enhancements, allowing for remote service and data analytics thanks to internet connectivity.”
Users of the Spectro 1000/700 series will also enjoy greater confidence in their color measurements thanks to its ability to capture the temperature of samples measured. This is an essential new quality control feature for those who work with materials that need be within certain temperature ranges to assure accurate color measurement.
“The Datacolor 1000 is a game changer,” said Dave Ertle, Advanced R&D Engineer and Solution Center Manager at GEON® Performance Solutions, a Datacolor customer. “There’s no more guessing if a user measured a specimen that had properly cooled to ambient temperature.”
To learn more about Spectro 1000/700, please visit www.datacolor.com/spectro-1000.
Datacolor, a global leader in color management solutions, provides software, instruments and services to assure accurate color of materials, products, and images. The world’s leading brands, manufacturers, and creative professionals have used Datacolor’s innovative solutions to consistently achieve the right color for more than 50 years.
The company provides sales, service, and support to over 100 countries throughout Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Industries served include textile and apparel, paint and coatings, automotive and plastics as well as photography, design and videography. For more information, visit: Datacolor.com.
When data meets color, inspiration meets results.


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The company specializing in the production of medical textile articles, Lamatem, inaugurated Monday at the industrial area of Berrechid, its first industrial unit in Morocco. The site which required an investment of MAD 120 million currently employs 350 people and will create 850 direct and indirect positions. Its production capacity reaches 6 million units per month.
“This plant reinforces the production capacity of textile for medical use, the majority of which in Morocco is exclusively imported,” said the Minister of Industry, Moulay Hafid Elalamy.
The site covers an area of 13,800 m², including a clean room, the largest in North Africa, of 6,000 m² expandable to 8,500 m². The plant includes a storage shed with delivery and reception docks of 2,500 m² and is ISO 13495 certified. It will manufacture the types of clothing required in the different medical interventions (gowns, dredging, block pajamas, gowns, charlottes, hoods ..).


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The complaints about signal quality and inconsistency have brought the town's regulation policy and the providers' service to the forefront.
"There are two streets in Chapel Hill where I don't get any service -- on Estes Drive and on Franklin Street near Estes," said Lindsay Bauer, a junior psychology major.
Proximity to towers, surrounding terrain and building density, the phone itself and the intricacy of a service provider's network factor into the quality of service, said Josh Ray, a manager at Office Supplies & More, a retail store for AT&T and Verizon located on Franklin Street.
Some providers say the process of obtaining towers in Chapel Hill is more difficult than in other locations.
"With all (service providers) it's harder to get towers built in Chapel Hill than it is in other towns, such as Raleigh," said Rick Bushman, a sales and operations manager at WireFree, a retail provider of AT&T and Verizon service also in Chapel Hill.
But Rob Wilson, the town's principal planner, said Chapel Hill strictly regulates new tower construction to maintain the beauty and atmosphere of the town.
Wilson also said town officials prefer to have cellular providers co-locate whenever possible, meaning companies should build towers on existing structures. "Throwing up towers everywhere is not very conducive (to maintaining beauty)," Wilson said.
"The water towers around town all have cellular," he added. "The (Chapel Hill Town) Council's policy has been to encourage co-location."
Wilson also said the town's preference for co-location is reflected in its approval process.
"The town's review process, as established by the council, is very lengthy," he said. "(Co-location) is something, if the town approves, that can happen very quickly."
The time frame for achieving the special-use permit to construct a tower takes more than one year, while co-location permits may be granted in a few weeks, Wilson said.
Lawrence McWright, director of engineering for Nextel's market in the Carolinas, said the density and concentration of buildings in an area also play a role in determining the quality of service.
"In the computer lab you can get service, but nowhere else in the library," said Leah Hill, a senior advertising major.
Ray also said the phone itself plays a role in the quality of service.
He said service providers have contracts with phone manufacturers that allow usage of the phone to be linked exclusively to the service provider.
"You can't use one phone from (one company) and then switch to (another)," he said.
McWright maintained that Chapel Hill should not lag behind other areas in cellular service, especially with the number of users increasing.
"In general we design for similar service in every area."
The City Editor can be reached
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For 80 years, Minneapolis-based Goodin Company has served the Upper Midwest as a trusted wholesaler of quality kitchen and bath fixtures, plumbing equipment, HVAC and industrial supplies. The company’s well-earned reputation for customer service depends on consistently fast and reliable deliveries.
To assure long-term service excellence, Goodin started purchasing Kenworth trucks about 15 years ago, and has been a loyal Kenworth customer ever since. With 15 locations across Minnesota and Wisconsin, as well as in Fargo, North Dakota, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Omaha, Nebraska, Goodin depends on quality Kenworth trucks for uptime reliability, long-term durability and driver comfort. Today, the company operates an elite fleet of Kenworth medium duty delivery trucks.
New trucks are spec’d with the PACCAR PX-7 engine, rated at 300 hp, and driven through Allison automatic transmissions. Drivers appreciate the comfortable ride, excellent visibility, easy handling and rugged dependability in all weather conditions.
“The Kenworths are great,” said company driver Russ King, who works out of the Wausau, Wisconsin, branch. “Sometimes we have to drive 400 miles a day in winter weather, making deliveries all over Central Wisconsin up to the Michigan border. The Kenworth T370s get the job done, no problem.”
Russ King, Goodin Company Kenworth T370 Driver
Over the years, Goodin’s Fleet Operations Manager Tom Newman has refined the company’s truck spec to make Goodin delivery vehicles as driver friendly as possible. Newman has been buying trucks for 25 years and remembers when he purchased the company’s first Kenworth. “We put one through its paces in Minnesota back then, and it did really well, so we bought one. Since then, the Kenworth product has only gotten better and better. All our trucks are Kenworth now,” he said.
The newest truck spec includes roof fairings and fender-mounted mirrors, among other components. The roof fairing gives the truck a unique look and helps improve fuel efficiency, said Newman, while the fender-mounted mirrors “help our drivers see more clearly behind and around their trucks on both sides.
“We provide the best equipment we can find, and that goes a long way with our drivers,” said Newman. “When we go out to a job site or drive around town, our trucks project a quality image. The graphics are like company billboards. The T370s are ambassadors for Goodin Company and drivers take pride in that.”
With 13 new T370s added since 2015, Newman values the sales and service support the company gets from its dealer, Rihm Kenworth – St. Paul. “We have stuck with Kenworth because of great quality and service,” said Newman. “Here in Minnesota, Rihm Kenworth handles all our service needs, and we recommend to all our branches that they work with their local Kenworth dealers. We get great service from the professionals at Rihm Kenworth.”
With 75 trucks in the fleet, Goodin runs about 60 delivery trucks, mostly T370s and some T270s, and about 15 tractors, including T680s. “I’m always trying to better our fleet while making it more cost effective,” said Newman, who has been ordering PACCAR engines since they were first introduced. “We like to keep our equipment a long time and appreciate the durability of our Kenworth trucks powered by PACCAR engines.”
Kenworth is The Driver’s Truck™. See what drivers are saying at www.kenworth.com/drivers.
Kenworth Truck Company is the manufacturer of The World’s Best® heavy and medium duty trucks. Kenworth’s Internet home page is at www.kenworth.com. Kenworth is a PACCAR company.


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The party town of Malia, on the island of Crete, is hugely popular with stag and hen parties but locals have had enough of their wild antics.
Now 95% of the town's hotels have agreed to ban Brits who have signed up for the infamous 18-30 package holiday deal.
The move, which has already blocked 10,000 UK visitors, includes scrapping pub crawl party operators, and declining bookings that exceed three rooms.
The town says it is now aiming to turn the area into a family-friendly holiday destination, and is turning its attention to German, Austrian and Dutch families.
Deputy mayor Efthymios Moutrakis told The Times “We’ve given these tour operators a free hand in branding an image completely alien to what Malia really is.
“Malia isn’t about sex, drugs and everything goes. It’s the prime tourist destination in Crete, bringing in millions of euros to the island.”
A prominent hotel owner said: “We have nothing against these kids and the British people as a whole.
“But these tour groups are operating on the verge of criminal negligence.
“With a whistle in their hands, they lead teenagers already in a state of drunken stupor from their hotels to organised bar crawls through as many as 17 nightclubs in the town.”
He added: “Just the other day I had a group of German visitors who cut their stay short because they couldn’t sleep and they didn’t feel safe.”
British tour operator Purple Travel confirmed it had seen a “decrease in availability of holidays in Malia for bookings in 2018”.