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HTC just got done unveiling the HTC EVO 4G LTE, which is a nice phone and all, but isn’t the story of the day clearly the Google[x] project known as “Project Glass?” We are talking glasses that can do everything your smartphone does, but right in front of you eyes. Full voice integration, a camera for snapping life, video chatting, social check-ins, responding to texts, and more are all featured in their video preview of what the technology “could” look like. They even mocked up some renders of the glasses themselves for all of us to geek out on.
But really though, are you interested? If Google released these for X-mas, would you buy it? Is this too Minority Report? Or is that exactly what makes it so awesome to imagine?
If you would like to watch the video again, jump past the break.


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Smells of coffee and breakfast sandwiches fill the train station in downtown Crystal Lake as the deli, Breaking Bread, serves a full menu of sandwiches, new coffees, teas and breakfast bakery goods.
Originally located at 230 W. Virginia St. in Crystal Lake, the sandwich shop opened in the train station at 70 E. Woodstock Ave. earlier in September.
Owner Chris Plazak and his wife and co-owner Teri said they moved there because they wanted to get more foot traffic and to be involved in community events that happen downtown.
“We’re meeting different people at the train station than we were at our last location,” Plazak said.
Plazak’s biggest challenge, he said, is getting word out that the new location is open and they are actually located inside the train station.
“You’re kind of on an island in the train station because you’re surrounded by parking lots,” he said.
Despite the challenge, Plazak said he is having fun getting to know new customers and creating new breakfast and coffee items like the honey bear latte and the lavender latte.
The honey bear latte comes in a bear-shaped cup topped with whipped cream and a teddy bear graham cracker, making it an instant customer favorite, Plazak said.
“We’ve got the background to make them really good,” Chris Plazak said. “They’re not going to miss out on anything.”
Chris and Teri Plazak once owned a coffee shop in Cary called the Coffee Station about 30 years ago. They said they are excited to bring back their old roots.
“We’re actually making the mocha that we used to make at the Coffee Station,” Plazak said.
The new location also offers online ordering on the Breaking Bread website. Online ordering also is available at their location in Cary.
“People will be able to go online and order, pay for it online and just pick it up and walk out, hop on a train or get in their car and take off for the day,” Plazak said.
The shop is open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day and is closed on Sundays. They serve lunch right when the shop opens at 7 a.m., which makes them an option for late-shift workers getting off work in the morning.
“That’s their dinner time,” Chris Plazak said.
A grand opening celebration is expected to happen sometime in late fall, once the team is settled into the location, Chris Plazak said.
Breaking Bread will be hosting a raffle for a free sandwich for 10 weeks during the Johnny Appleseed festival Saturday. They are also sponsors for the great ball race happening at the festival.

domain: news


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Source: CGTN Published: 2020-05-04
CGTN: What do you think of the economic slowdown? Do you think the Chinese economy can survive the impact of the new pandemic?
John Ross: I don't have any doubt it can survive. This is obviously a very severe economic blow. But the reason that the downturn is so severe is because China took the right decision, which is the absolute priority in this situation, to save lives. Therefore, it locked down its economy and it took a huge economic hit. Actually, this is the most rational from an economic point of view.
I don't want to just define this from an economic point of view. In my opinion, the most important thing in the present situation is not the economic factor. The most important factor is to save lives.
Due to the very strict measures taken, the actual number of cases which took place in China outside Hubei is not tremendously high. The reason for that, is because the lockdown in Hubei was very successful.
I think that China will gradually begin to ease the lockdown. So I'm pretty confident that the second quarter GDP figures will be better than first quarter GDP figures.
CGTN: Recently, some U.S. politicians have used the COVID-19 crisis to claim that the U.S. should "decouple" with China and shift the supply chain. What's your take on this view?
John Ross: Because the point is, the U.S. can't produce for fundamental economic reasons, the types of products which it gets from China. There was, before the stupid offensive by Trump on the trade war, there was a really rather rational division of labor between China and the United States, which worked to the advance of both countries. China produces, what I would call medium to low, very high-quality products. It no longer produces cheap things. Now it's producing computers, electronic products, etc.
The U.S. can't possibly produce these at the same low prices as in China. The best estimate on the trade war, which came from Oxford Economics, was that the average American family saves 850 U.S. dollars a year by imports from China, compared to if it had to purchase products in the United States. It can't compete with that.
On the other hand, the U.S. has an advantage over China in very high technology products, obviously aircraft, very high tech equipment, etc. And that was very sensible division.
The coronavirus is not going to alter the fundamentals of that – the U.S. cannot produce the type of products which China produces, economically. When Tim Cook was asked, "When will iPhone production return to the United States?" he said "Never," because they can't produce it, the Americans would have to pay a huge amount.
So therefore, what they should rationally return to is, which Trump interrupted, is a mutually advantageous division of labor. That's why what Trump is doing is so stupid. So there's not going to be a split up in the global supply chain. It is not going to happen.
John Ross is a senior fellow with the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China.
On July 25th, an international meeting in Opposition to the US-led New Cold War on China organized by scholars and activists from 48 countries voluntarily was broadcast live on Zoom, Facebook and YouTube simultaneously. The joint statement with 14-language version of "A New Cold War against China is against the interests of humanity" has attracted great attention from the international community. The event brought together 17 well-known scholars and opinion leaders from China, the United States, the United Kingdom, India, Russia, Canada, Venezuela, Brazil and other countries to participate in the speech. John Ross, a senior researcher at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China(RDCY), is one of the initiators of the "No to the New Cold War" initiative.


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By Carey Sweet, Special for The Republic | AZCentral.com
The world needs more cat cafes, Melissa Pruitt believes, her vision inspired by the phenomenon that began in Taiwan in 1988 and recently spread to U.S. cities like Oakland, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver and so many others that there is now an official North American Cat Cafe Embassy.
Add downtown Scottsdale to the list.
Pruitt hopes to open La Gattara Cat Cafe by the end of this year. La Gattara, naturally, is Italian for “cat lady.”
The idea makes purr-fect sense to cat lovers. Customers enjoy tea and nibbles in what essentially is a fancy cat adoption center. Pruitt plans to have about 15 cats in residence at any time, and guests are encouraged to make a love connection and take a kitty home.
“Cats have had my heart since I was born,” said Pruitt, 38, noting her father was an Illinois police officer known for keeping cat food in his patrol car to feed needy alley cats. “Sometimes, if I think too much about all the homeless cats and dogs, I can get overwhelmed. So I just began helping as many as I can, concentrating on my motto of ‘saving one at a time.’ Over the past 15 years, I’ve probably rescued more than 300 cats and kittens and found them good homes.”
What had been a whim came to reality when Pruitt visited Adam Myatt of Hoodcats and the Cat Town Cafe and Adoption Center in downtown Oakland.
“I went to see him and decided, yep, I’m in, this is what I am meant to do,” the Phoenix entrepreneur said.
Working with guidelines set by the Arizona Department of Health Services, Pruitt is laying out a cafe design that will include a designated living area for the cats and a lounge for coffee, tea and baked goods (maybe a wine bar, too). All food will be catered by a local vendor or restaurant, and on Sundays, guests can enjoy Meowmosas.
The cats will come from local animal shelters and rescue groups.
While patrons sip drinks and stroke kitties, they can learn about sustainable programs such as low-cost or free spaying and neutering, plus the trap-neuter-return philosophy of keeping feral cats feral, but without making more kittens.
Beyond a business and philanthropy idea, La Gattara will be an extension of Pruitt’s lifestyle. She currently has four rescue cats of her own, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Janis Joplin and Grace Kelley, sisters that Pruitt found at a few days old in the middle of the street in Mesa during the hot summer.
“I waited for the mom to come back, she never did, so I bottle-fed them for about six weeks, then just couldn’t let them go,” she said.
The fourth kitty is Fonzie, the huge orange fellow starring in Pruitt’s fledgling marketing campaign.
Pruitt also went to CatCon in June, held in Los Angeles to showcase products and ideas in art and design, pop culture and attitude, as it all relates to cats.
“It was amazing,” Pruitt said. “You would think it was a bunch of crazy cat ladies walking around, but it was really cool. Art, books, toys, clothes, rescue groups and cat adoptions.”
The exact location of her cafe is still being finalized, and Pruitt plans to launch a fundraising campaign in September. But the strategy is solid in her mind.
“The main focus is to bring the cats out of the shelter environment and get them into a free roaming space that’s less stressful,” she said. “Then, they can find great ‘furr-ever’ homes.”
Details: lagattaracatcafe.com. Search “LaGattara Cat Cafe-Phoenix” on Facebook.


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In these first two segments, we’re going to learn about Jerrie Mock—and about local artists who helped commemorate the 50th anniversary of her pioneering flight around the world.
Ohio To Cash In On Sketchers Settlement
Ohio will get about $156,000 of the $5 million going to states under a settlement with shoe retailer Sketchers.
The settlement resolves resolve claims that Skechers overstated weight-loss benefits in advertisements for its so-called rocker-bottom athletic shoes.
Here’s one of those advertisements.
Under the settlement, Skechers will allocate up to $40 million for consumers who purchased the shoes.


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Reviving the maritime Silk Road
Updated: 2013-12-09 07:35
By Elaine Tan in Kuala Lumpur (China Daily)
Kuantan Port on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia will give the country faster access to China's ports and will be able to accommodate some of the biggest vessels in operation. [Photo / Provided to China Daily]
Malaysian port intends to become a vital regional shipping center
More than 600 years ago, the legendary Ming Dynasty diplomat Admiral Zheng He made seven epic journeys to the West via a route known as the maritime Silk Road.
First used in the Qin and Han Dynasties (AD 25-220), the nautical passageway connected the ports of south China to Southeast Asia, India, Arabia and Africa. Silk, china, tea and spices exchanged hands from Guangzhou, the starting point, to the countries around the Gulf.
Now, China is proposing to rebuild this centuries-old seaway into a 21st century maritime Silk Road. Kuantan, on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, is hoping that modern day Chinese vessels will share Zheng's assessment when he landed here in the 15th century: that this city facing the South China Sea is an ideal gateway to the region and beyond.
Located 250 kilometers from the capital city of Kuala Lumpur, Kuantan is the east coast's economic hub and its most modern city; although by no means as cosmopolitan as its west coast sisters. The capital of the state of Pahang is being developed into an integrated logistics and industrial hub for the East Coast Economic Region (ECER), a major project by the Malaysian government to decentralize economic activities.
Crucially, it provides fast access to China through its namesake port. The multipurpose, deep-sea port serves the resource-rich hinterland of the east coast and is a leading petrochemical hub port and container terminal for that part of the peninsula.
"We offer the shortest, quickest and most direct route between Malaysia and the ports of the Far East. The shipping community stands to benefit in terms of cost and reduction in shipping time," says Khasbullah bin A Kadir, chief operating officer of Kuantan Port Consortium, the port operator. He adds the sailing time between the port and China is a mere four days.
"Kuantan Port is one of the ASEAN ports that make up the wider connectivity network of regional ports," notes Lee Chee Leong, an analyst with think tank Anbound Research Center, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
"Because China has yet to secure any tangible agreement for port use in the South China Sea, developing Kuantan Port will give another option to China in terms of opening a new shipment route between China and ASEAN in the contentious sea."
The Malaysian government, which is trying to correct a gaping trade imbalance, is hoping this proximity and Kuantan's strategic location between China and the rest of the region will be major draws for Chinese companies.
It has scored its first big win in the Guangxi Beibu International Port Group. The State-owned conglomerate operates four ports in southern China - Fangchenggang Port, Qinzhou Port, Tieshan Port and Beihai Port - and has business interests in logistics, international trade, real estate, energy and environmental technologies.
It will be taking up a linchpin role in realizing Malaysia's aspirations with investments to the tune of billions of ringgit in the Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park (MCKIP) and Kuantan Port, which is 5 km from the park.
MCKIP is the sister park to the China-Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park (QIP) in Qinzhou, China, and the first industrial park in Malaysia to be accorded national status.
"MCKIP and QIP will take Malaysia-China relations to greater heights as they will play a synergistic role in enhancing bilateral trade between both countries," Khasbullah explains. "A distinct and competitive supply chain would emerge between both sister parks, resulting in a cross-border movement of manufactured goods with the Kuantan and Qinzhou ports serving as trans-shipment hubs to redistribute goods to markets around the world."
The park is being jointly developed by a Malaysian consortium of public and private sector companies and a Chinese consortium, of which Guangxi Beibu is a major shareholder (the other partner is the Qinzhou Investment Company). The Chinese have a 49 percent stake in the joint venture.
At the launch in February by Najib Razak, the prime minister of Malaysia, the Malaysian leader said: "MCKIP is well-positioned to become a hub of high-end, export-oriented industries that would leverage its proximity to Kuantan Port. It promises opportunities for investors from China and beyond."
The two leaders witnessed the signing of five agreements between Malaysian and Chinese companies to kickstart the inflow of investments.
"Each of these signings point to a long and fruitful future for the MCKIP. The park has already attracted investment commitments worth 10.5 billion ringgit ($3.3 billion), creating 8,500 jobs," Najib noted.
Much of this is coming from Guangxi Beibu which will be investing in three projects within MCKIP. This will include 3 billion ringgit for the expansion of Kuantan Port, which is undertaken together with IJM Corp, owner of Kuantan Port Consortium; and 2.5 billion ringgit via the joint venture company developing MCKIP.
In September, the Chinese conglomerate spent a further 334 million ringgit to purchase a 40 percent interest in Kuantan Port Consortium from IJM Corporation.
The partners are currently expanding the port to enhance its position as a regional shipping destination and trans-shipment hub. With the construction of a new deep water terminal, Kuantan Port will have the capacity to handle 1.5 million TEUs (twenty-foot container equivalent units) and accommodate some of the biggest bulk carriers and container vessels in operation.
Khasbullah says that the partnership with Guangxi Beibu will bring best practices in port management given its experience from running four ports in China, while its network of clientele will enhance the capacity utilization of Kuantan Port.
"Guangxi Beibu's presence will make it easier to attract Chinese investors looking to invest in Malaysia. In addition, they will play an active role in attracting foreign direct investments (FDI), particularly from China, which would contribute positively to the volume of cargo handled by the port," says Khasbullah.
For starters, the Chinese group is required by the memorandum of understanding of investment it signed with the ECER Development Council to secure investments for an integrated steel plant, an aluminum processing plant and a palm oil refinery within MCKIP (the parcel of three projects). There is also talk of future investments in the oil and gas, and petrochemical industries.


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Bright outlook for Haiti's apparel industry in 2016
Haitian apparel exports to the US reached U$896m in 2015
The prospects look bright for Haiti's apparel industry in 2016 after a number of important milestones were reached last year, says Mark D'Sa, senior advisor for industrial development in Haiti at the US Department of State.
Important milestones were achieved in 2015. In June, President Obama signed the Trade Preferences Extension Act which extended the duty-free provisions of the HELP Act to 2025. This opened a ten year line of sight which allows investors to establish operations in Haiti with greater confidence.
Earlier, in March, a trade delegation organised by IDB (the Inter-American Development Bank) visited several companies in South Korea with positive results. Following up on the visit, Hansae Corporation of Seoul visited multiple locations in Port Au Prince and eventually signed an MOU with SONAPI (the government administrator of industrial parks), to invest in Parc Industriel Metropolitain. This investment of U$30m is expected to yield anywhere between 5,000 to 7,000 jobs. Haitian apparel exports to the US for the year ending November 2015 reached U$896m and 334m SMEs (square metre equivalents).
During the year the number of apparel jobs reached a high of 41,200 – the highest since the HOPE and HELP Acts were signed in 2006. Not surprisingly 60% of the growth in jobs in 2015 was in the northern region led by the Caracol Industrial Park and CODEVI. With the establishment of the Caracol Industrial Park the industry has decentralised and by end November, 36% of the apparel jobs (15,212 of 41,536) are now in the northern corridor.
It is also important to note that between the two industrial parks under it's management, SONAPI is now home to 49% of the total jobs in the apparel industry and scheduled to go over 50% in 2016. During the year a total of 7,226 jobs were created and 3,542 workers were laid off due to shutdowns and temporary closures. The net job increase at the end of November was 3,684. The Caracol Industrial Park contributed 2,998 apparel jobs in 2015.
The country's growth in apparel exports has been steady and with a CAGR of 12.19% over the period 2010 to 2015. The job growth is mainly driven by investments from Dominican Republic, Korea and USA.
During the year a number of companies from South Korea, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Taiwan visited Haiti to conduct their due diligence prior to establishing operations in Haiti. Prominent US retailers in the children's sector and athletic performance wear also visited and made commitments to increase imports from Haiti.
Jobs in the apparel industry continued to grow despite a month long transportation strike on the DR-Haiti border which caused severe disruption in logistics. There were also a few days lost due to election related protests, but these were isolated and did not have a major impact on output.
The first quarter of 2015 saw the industry get off to a good start with jobs and exports growing steadily. The renewal of the AGOA agreement and the TPP generated a lot of discussion, but did not impact the volume of exports from Haiti. Towards the end of the year there was some disruption leading to the loss of 3,500 jobs in the Port Au Prince area; however the year finished on a positive note with an increase of 3,684 jobs. According to the numbers published by ADIH (Association of Industries of Haiti), the companies that contributed to the maximum number of job increases in 2015 were S&H Global (2,800), Val d'Or (1,259), Premium Apparel (756), Island Apparel (521) and H&H Textiles (513).
Prospects for apparel exports from Haiti continue to look bright with the extension of the HELP Act and the availability of motivated labour at competitive costs. Despite minimum wage increases, the country continues to be competitive as the local currency depreciated 22.38% and according to all indications, is likely to weaken further against the US dollar.
The current minimum wage is HTG240 (US$4.15) per eight hour day plus another 22% for health insurance, pension plan, two weeks vacation and one month bonus. As yet Haiti has not been affected by the AGOA and TPP agreements because of its proximity to the US and the generous tariff preference levels (TPLs) available under the HELP and CBTPA (Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act) agreements. Leading retailers and brands continue to be bullish about the potential Haiti has to offer.
Several Haitian producers like S&H Global, Willbes Manufacturing, H&H Textiles and Val d'Or are in an expansion mode. Major Korean manufacturer Hansae signed a lease agreement which could generate 5,000 jobs over the next three to four years.
Logistics continue to improve with private sector port investments in the Lafito and Terminal Varreux projects on the outskirts of Port Au Prince. In the north, the World Bank's IFC and USAID are upgrading the port of Cap Haitian. At the current time there are two weekly sailings from Cap Haitian and four from Port Au Prince with 3.5 days transit to Florida.
The prospects look bright for Haiti's apparel industry in 2016. The workwear producers are increasing output, knitwear exporters are in strong expansion mode and, based on the reactions of several investors, Haiti should continue to see an influx of foreign companies that will add at least 6,000 jobs and a very good chance to cross the billion dollar export mark in 2016.
An interactive databank with intelligence on the major apparel sourcing countries
- Under Armour Lighthouse will disrupt production
- Will new Vietnam wage hinder competitiveness?
- How TAL Apparel is staying ahead of the game
- Digitisation to drive new apparel-making models
- Ethiopia violence undermines sourcing strategies
- Marks & Spencer top for modern slavery reporting
- Bangladesh garment workers rally for higher wages
- MAS Holdings shares commitment to sustainability
- Gap to shutter all UK Banana Republic stores
- H&M CEO named sustainability leader
- Africa-Med strategic sourcing review – comparing East Africa, North Africa and Turkey
- REPORT BUNDLE: Africa-Med, Southeast Asia and Central America strategic sourcing pack
- Southeast Asia strategic sourcing review – a focus on Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar
- Apparel (GLOBAL) - Industry Report
- Global Sports and Fitness Wear Market 2016-2020


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- BLACKPINK’s Jisoo attended Dior’s Spring/Summer 2024 fashion show in Paris
- Jisoo donned an all black-ensemble and rocked smokey-eye makeup
- Celebrities such as Robert Pattinson and Yara Shahidi reacted to Jisoo’s attendance
BLACKPINK member Jisoo seemed to have captured the hearts of famous Hollywood celebrities during a recent highly publicized event with Dior.
On Tuesday, the 28-year-old South Korean artist attended the French fashion house’s Spring/Summer 2024 collection show for Paris Fashion Week while donning an all-black ensemble and smokey-eye makeup, which highlighted her stunning visuals.
Dubbed the “Golden Girl” of Dior, Jisoo was accompanied by several security guards as more fans and guests tried to catch a glimpse or approach her during the event.
Fans — known as BLINKS — also took to social media to share some of the best moments that showed Jisoo as the “main event” of the show, including a video of her getting welcomed by Dior Couture’s chief communication and image officer Olivier Bialobos and Dior’s Public Relations manager Mathilde Favier.
But what caught the interest of fans was how Jisoo received the “VVIP” treatment upon entering the venue. Most celebrities were often free to roam around during the event, but Jisoo attracted a huge crowd.
“Twilight” star and English actor Robert Pattinson was also spotted at the scene, standing behind the crowd trying to take a picture of Jisoo. In a video shared by @BLACKPINKGLOBAL, he was seen trying to look over the commotion before giving a small laugh.
“Grown-ish” star Yara Shahidi also couldn’t hold back fangirling over the K-Pop sensation. Another social media user was able to repost the video of the 23-year-old American actress saying, “We’re all here to see Jisoo.” Before the camera panned to Jisoo interacting with guests.
Twitter user @iamlawyerkims also shared a close-up video of Shahidi meeting Jisoo, where she scored a selfie. The user credited Citta Bella Magazine’s editor-in-chief, Elsa Dang, for the video.
South African-American actress Charlize Theron was also able to interact with Jisoo. There, she introduced her 11-year-old daughter, who tagged along with her to the high-fashion event.
Jisoo has been spotted at Dior’s events over the past years, since becoming the Korean ambassador for the brand’s cosmetics line, Dior Beauty, in 2019. She was then appointed as the global ambassador for fashion and beauty two years later. Other than Dior, Jisoo is also a brand ambassador for Cartier.


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MRH Black History Month Shirts Are Back (and Front!)
February is approaching, and that means we are opening pre-orders for Black History Month shirts again.
They are $20 each, available for pre-order until January 24th. Delivery should be by February 10.
Here is the link for the shirts on the store website:
For more information, contact MRH School District at (314) 644-4400.


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SAN FRANCISCO (CNNMoney) -- The incident that made some of the web inaccessible this week was a result of human error.
Amazon published an explanation about Tuesday's disrupted service of S3, part of Amazon Web Services, which provides hosting for hundreds of thousands of websites and apps.
Turns out, it was a typo.
In a statement on Thursday, Amazon said an employee on its S3 team was working on an issue with the billing system and meant to take a small number of servers offline -- but they incorrectly entered the command and removed a much larger set of servers.
Amazon is "making several changes" to its system to avoid a similar event in the future. Namely, "the tool used allowed too much capacity to be removed too quickly."
According to Synergy Research Group, AWS owns 40% of the cloud services market, meaning it's responsible for the operability of large swaths of popular websites. So if AWS goes down, it takes a huge number of businesses, apps, and publishers with it.
That's why so many sites struggled with slow or reduced capacity during Tuesday's outage. Some news organizations couldn't publish stories, and file sharing was disabled on the enterprise chat app Slack. Other sites impacted include GitHub, Trello, and Venmo. It took Amazon almost four hours to resolve the issue.
"While we are proud of our long track record of availability with Amazon S3, we know how critical this service is to our customers, their applications and end users, and their businesses," the company said. "We will do everything we can to learn from this event and use it to improve our availability even further."
™ & © 2017 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.


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The Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM) and Metropolis Studios have announced a new record label which will be run by students, for students.
Metropolis Blue allows students to gain experience and insight into all aspects of running a label, from production to A&R.
ACM songwriters, performers and artists will benefit from the chance to get a professional release for their tracks, while producers, business and technical services students will have a hand in running the label and overseeing PR and launch events, branding and more.
Kainne Clements, chairman of ACM and owner of Metropolis Studios, said: ‘We promised more industry-based learning and connected opportunity than any other provider and I am both excited and proud to deliver on this by launching the new record label, specific to ACM, powered by Metropolis.’
Richard Connell, chief executive of Metropolis Studios, added: ‘Metropolis is renowned for sonic excellence, customer service and placing the artist at the centre of everything. We don’t just represent what the industry does, we are what the industry is doing, here and now, and I see it as a privilege to share this with the emerging talent that are the ACM students, from day one.’


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As the coronavirus outbreak continues to rage havoc across the world, western countries have unleashed all their might to tackle the crisis. The United States President is calling it a war and has decided to do whatever necessary to contain the global pandemic. As per reports, western powers have announced packages up to one trillion dollars to manage the aftereffect on the economy due to the infectious disease.
According to reports, the United States has proposed a $1 trillion rescue plan, to boost the economy after the crisis is over. As per reports, the proposed rescue plan would see a possible $300 billion that would be used in helping small businesses avoid mass layoffs, $50 billion to help the airline industry and $150 billion to protect other sectors.
Meanwhile, the government of the United Kingdom unveiled a multi-billion pound or $39 billion rescue plan for its businesses and to support people's finances in these hard times. The United Kingdom government has promised to offer paid leave to its citizens even if they have not tested positive for the virus and have been just asked to stay at home because of symptoms.
As per reports, the Italian government has approved a $27 billion rescue package to support the businesses affected by the lockdown that was further extended by Prime Minister Conte on March 19. Germany has set aside $610 billion to help businesses, while France and Sweden have kept $50 billion each to tackle the outbreak. Switzerland has unveiled a $10 billion stimulus package to deal with the outbreak.
Japan is also looking to offer a stimulus package that would help the government tackle the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak. According to reports, the Japanese government will probably hand out cash payouts to households affected by the outbreak. The package could be worth more than $260 billion. The efforts will be part of the government's plan to avoid a possible recession that experts are predicting across the globe.


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market traders parking protest
A group of traders in Newport have banned Labour council members from their businesses in protest over free parking being stopped.
Steve Reynolds, owner of Toy Army in Newport Market, launched the campaign after councillors voted against a motion which would have saved the city’s two-hour free parking.
Other businesses in the market have followed.
Newport Labour councillor Debbie Harvey said the move was “outrageous”.
Mr Reynolds said: “I had just had enough. It’s been one thing after another.
Continue reading the main story
Considering they’re crying out for trade, banning 30-odd councillors is ridiculous”
Councillor Debbie Harvey
“We’ve been asking the council for help and relief.”
The motion was brought by opposition leader Matthew Evans urging the council to reverse its decision to axe the scheme, which allows shoppers to park for free for the first two hours in all its city centre car parks.
The motion was defeated with 10 councillors voting for it, 32 against and one abstaining.
Other businesses who have joined the campaign include Sys Barbers, Turner’s Butchers, Mr Fruit, City Fashions, Kriminal records, Negative Zone comic store and Chillis sweet shop.
Mr Reynolds said: “We’re really struggling as it is here. Myself and other traders are round about 60 to 70% down on last Christmas already.
“There’s no draw to this town as it is and this is going to do more damage. People just aren’t going to pay.”‘Absolutely outrageous’
But Labour councillor Debbie Harvey, of Alway ward, said the current administration had been left with millions of pounds of debt by the previous Conservative-Liberal Democrat administration so cutbacks had to be made.
“I think it’s absolutely outrageous. Considering they’re crying out for trade, banning 30-odd councillors is ridiculous. This definitely isn’t the way to tackle it,” she said.
“If you ask people on the street if they would rather pay 33p an hour to park or for people to lose their jobs, I’m sure 99.9% would say they would rather pay.
Continue reading the main story
I proposed an alternative plan which is a voucher scheme, but it fell on deaf ears”
Councillor Chris Evans
“What they haven’t factored in is the five hours free parking between now and February.
“I feel for them but I feel for every business not just the market traders. There’s the whole of town as well but unfortunately with the debt we have got, it’s got to be tackled.
“In the current climate everyone has to tighten their belts.”
Councillor for Rogerstone Chris Evans said that he was the only Labour councillor not banned because he had abstained on the parking issue.
“The entire Labour group with the exception of myself voted to withdraw free parking. I proposed an alternative plan which is a voucher scheme, but it fell on deaf ears,” he said.
Mr Evans said the market is a council building and he had heard that some Labour councillors were disgruntled by the traders’ decision.
“But this is the consequence. The traders are at the end of their tether. They feel this potentially could be the last straw. This is make or break time for many businesses,” he said.
Ringland councillor Emma Corten told her followers on Twitter: “So I’ve just been told that as a Labour Councillor I’ve been banned from shopping in Newport Market. That’ll help, I’m sure.”
Read on: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-20810302
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When it will come to launching new tech at the Commonwealth Lender (CBA), things are starting to transfer speedy.
Just 9 months right after main executive Matt Comyn flew to Los Angles in April 2019 to meet up with the founder and head of payments disrupter Klarna, Sebastian Siemiatkowski the services went dwell in Australia this 7 days on CBA’s app.
We’ll get to how the moment transpired in a moment, but what Klarna’s nearby launch as a result of CBA implies for the Australian banking, credit history, e-commerce and digital payments marketplaces is quite large. More substantial than it first sounded far too.
The launch that will send shudders not just as a result of the CBA’s institutional peers – Westpac will not launch Apple Shell out on its key brand name until mid-12 months – but also the bank’s ‘marquee’ credit history card husband or wife Mastercard, not to point out nearby invest in-now spend-afterwards unicorn Afterpay and rival Zip.
But it desires a tiny ‘unboxing’ to make sense of how the items occur collectively and why the CBA plumped US$300 amid shrinking margins and a regulatory shitstorm.
The conclusion of interchange
At lunch Siemiatkowski squirms a tiny as he’s peppered with questions about Afterpay and the nearby invest in-now spend-afterwards frenzy.
With normal Swedish directness he’s puzzled as to why there’s such enormous enthusiasm for an expenditure pile-on for a inventory that stings retailers for as much as five percent for every transaction.
“The fees that are becoming billed in Australia are not all that sustainable I assume,” Siemiatkowski reckons.
In Europe, especially Scandinavian and German talking economies, Klarna has almost ubiquitous market place penetration, thanks in component to the terrific tradition of fiscal rectitude as a advantage. And an in-grained resistance to Americanisation.
And although the invest in-now spend-afterwards choice is unquestionably component of the Klarna combine, especially in marketplaces the place common ‘revolving’ credit history devices are tightening (ie credit history playing cards and their hello-teen desire charges) there’s a large amount a lot more to the Klarna stack than 4 monthly repayments.
Aside from all the clear digital aggregation and prosperous details, Klarna’s proposition to the service provider is that it can compress all the shitty, unpredictably elastic and opaque expenses down to a single primary fee.
And suck-up the danger and spit it out all over again. Which is way a lot more than playing cards or financial institutions do at the moment.
Envision PayPal absent suitable
In brutally uncomplicated conditions, Klarna looks like a sibling of PayPal absent suitable, unmolested by the rapacious progress needs of flip addicted Silicon Valley investors.
With no the absurd regulatory assaults defending the rights of ticket scalpers or decrying of a dependable business legal responsibility regime (now termed ASIC’s ePayments code)
At 15 years-outdated, Klarna can hardly be termed a start-up either, while it is unquestionably scaling.
Siemiatkowski tells iTnews that when he was youthful(er) and experienced hassle locating a career, one of the gigs he picked-up was back place of work accounts “factoring” – hardly awe inspiring operate – when he realised there experienced to be a much better way.
That especially utilized to on the internet transactions, which in their early daily life ended up dominated by credit history playing cards since, thanks to infomercials and chatlines, there was a facility to consider a card amount without having the cardholder basically becoming current.
With transactions directly from financial institutions mostly out of the photograph since of clunky messaging expectations – the void that adroitly PayPal filled prior to becoming picked up by on the internet flea market place eBay – credit history playing cards and their payments infrastructure rapidly became the default for on the internet payments.
Credit rating card schemes and financial institutions also kept a sky-high service provider price construction intact that was derived from mail-order times, as perfectly as sheeting household fraud legal responsibility to the service provider to hedge from stolen card figures that until quite not long ago ended up sent throughout the online in the obvious.
Close to the same time financial institutions progressively commenced realising their individual proprietary items ended up not likely to lower it in conditions of international interoperability on the internet, in essence handing Diners Club, American Convey, Mastercard and Visa an oligopoly on on the internet payments.
Banks, realising a lot of of their account holders could be shut out of credit history playing cards, rapidly leapt on proxy products and services that allowed transactions employing credit history card rails to pull income from peoples’ financial institution accounts – assume CBA Debit Mastercard.
That equation worked for a although, while it didn’t impress regulators (at least in Australia) who questioned why what was in essence a straight as a result of income transaction was accumulating a high danger sting – with the service provider copping the on the internet fraud legal responsibility.
Which is no little beer either. Over the 10 years, the carbuncle of on the internet card fraud in Australia has swollen to shut to $five hundred million a 12 months, with no break up concerning Mastercard or Visa debit or credit history playing cards offered. Which is, like it or not, a main transparency challenge.
Klarna reckons it can simply front danger for retailers, which is a phone that is in all probability primarily based on its credit history wellness examining – which happens for every transaction relatively than for every month – and a total bunch of other place and heuristic stuff that will never be talked about but could occur down to age and shoe sizes.
The “ghost card” apparition
Appear underneath the hood of Klarna’s payments tech stack and the one merchandise or services that stands out is its use of one-time virtual credit history playing cards, a merchandise that has been hanging all around for a 10 years in essence ready for a use scenario to get there.
It’s not seriously rocket science, except if you invoke the example of NASA’s pricey zero gravity pen as opposed to the humble Russian pencil.
Klarna states that it boils down to a client initiating a payment as a result of it employing a disposable card amount derived from a one-time pad.
That one-time credit history card amount offers to retailers as Visa transaction Siemiatkowski confirmed to iTnews, with Klarna sporting the danger.
Buyer will be shared with CBA, he confirmed, but only with express client consent.
Which is not terrific news for Mastercard, although CBA shoppers can connection existing Mastercard credit history and debit items for transactions. When they start linking accounts directly, one presumes the interchange audio will stop.
Which is a main change, and not one before time. And with US$300 million in the activity the CBA will not be shy about touting the new merchandise.
As for how Matt Comyn met Sebastian Siemiatkowski for a groundbreaking payments bromance, blame Sequoia Capital.


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Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam finally signed the state's cannabis oil bill into law. He previously opposed the bill, which passed unanimously through both the House and Senate last month.
Puerto Rico’s governor just signed an executive order to legalize medical marijuana! That and more in this week's cannabis legalization update.
From one moment to the next, you never know what new changes are going to take hold. Here’s the latest in cannabis legalization updates from across the globe:
From the Heart of Dixie to the Lone Star State, from sea to shining sea, the tide is turning towards marijuana legalization. Here’s the latest in cannabis legalization news:
The cannabis movement continues, not just in the U.S., but at an international level, with Italy signing a motion to legalize cannabis and Jamaica leading the way towards cannabis reform.
Two cities may be in hot water over the pungent cannabis aroma that is permeating their area. Here’s the good, the bad, and the stinky marijuana legislation news for this week:
More and more states are pushing for decriminalization and, if all goes well, we could see federal framework for legalized cannabis nationwide before the end of the year.
Cannabis supporters all across the globe continue to fight the good fight towards legalization. Here's a roundup of the good, the bad, and the unexpected in cannabis legislation:


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The evidence clearly shows that vaping helps many smokers quit cigarettes. Naturally, federal regulators and state legislators are trying to kill the e-cigarette industry.
Regulators and policymakers are on the warpath against vaping. Last fall, the FDA effectively banned millions of the most popular e-cigarette devices and nicotine liquids ex-smokers use in place of combustible tobacco. The agency's decision was poised to wipe out a major portion of the e-cigarette industry. So instead of going out of business, some vaping companies evaded the agency's decision by using synthetic nicotine in their products. The FDA at the time only had the authority to regulate products derived from tobacco, including nicotine.
Congress closed this loophole in early March by empowering the FDA to regulate synthetic nicotine as well, which means e-cigarette users (vapers) will likely have far fewer product choices moving forward, almost all of them sold by giant tobacco companies.
However, many policymakers who want to “look tough” on tobacco still aren't happy. For example, New York state assembly member Linda B. Rosenthal is beside herself because the FDA is allowing any flavored vaping products to remain on the market. She's now urging other states to ban these few, literally three as of last week, remaining options. As she wrote in a recent Connecticut Post op-ed:
"Connecticut should follow the lead of Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island; these states did not include loopholes or exemptions in their legislation. Compromises like the one being proposed by Big Tobacco in Connecticut will allow lawmakers to walk away from the issue …"
Like most tobacco controllers, her argument comes down to protecting children—a laudable goal, to be sure, but not a sufficient reason to ban flavored vaping products. Let's dissect her key claims. Perhaps some of the voters who put her in office will find their way to this article.
E-cigarettes are the tobacco product most commonly used by youths, and eight of 10 youths who have ever used a tobacco product started with a flavored product.
Our state legislator deserves a trophy for her expert-level sleight of hand here. “Ever used” isn't a helpful metric because it obscures our tremendous progress in cutting teen smoking. As of 2021, that figure is less than two percent, a roughly 90 percent decline since 2010. That leads us to another crucial observation: teenagers rarely use e-cigarettes. Just three percent of high-school students vape regularly, and, crucially, the vast majority are former smokers. But even teen vaping has significantly declined in the last year (by 42 percent), meaning that Rosenthal is warning us about a problem that is rapidly resolving itself.
Flavored vapes are vital
But relevant numbers be damned, because flavored vapes are obviously designed to hook kids, right?
One argument for e-cigarettes is that they are likely less harmful than combustible cigarettes and they may help some adult smokers quit those. I don’t know what Papa Smurf vape juice tastes like (yes — that’s a real product), but I do know that Big Tobacco didn’t design Papa Smurf vape juice to help adults quit. They did it to hook kids and guarantee future customers. Big Tobacco always plays the long game.
There is no denying that vaping helps many smokers give up combustible cigarettes; anybody with a functioning brain and pair of eyes can find the evidence in support of this conclusion. One especially important result leaps out of this research: access to many flavors encourages smokers to stick with vaping long enough to abandon tobacco. This is partly because smoking can dull your sense of taste, while cessation can rapidly restore taste sensitivity.
Many new adult vapers will find fruit- and dessert-flavored products very appealing as they begin to smoke fewer cigarettes. From a public health perspective, it would be wise to let these people vape any flavored product they can legally purchase because it will discourage them from going back to smoking.
ACSH agrees that marketing any nicotine-containing products to children is unacceptable, and the penalties for doing so are justifiably severe. That said, the mere existence of flavorful e-liquids isn't proof that vaping companies target kids, any more than fruit-flavored alcohol is proof that Budweiser plays “the long game” against teenagers.
Thank you for smoking
As the evidence in support of vaping as a quit-smoking aid grows, so do the rules restricting access to e-cigarettes. The regulatory landscape here makes absolutely no sense. I would never accuse public health agencies and legislators of intentionally encouraging smokers to keep buying cigarettes, but this is the fatal outcome Rosenthal and her colleagues are incentivizing with their campaign against vaping.
We finally have a viable smoking-cessation tool at our disposal. Instead of celebrating this public health breakthrough, policymakers are trying to quash it.


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Is it too latte for Sumatra's lowland
25 April 2003
Coffee prices are at their lowest in 100 years.
"If we do not act soon, our next cup of java may have the
bitter taste of extinction." So says Timothy O'Brien, an ecologist
with the Wildlife Conservation Society in Bogor, Indonesia.
In a report published today1, O'Brien and fellow conservationist
Margaret Kinnaird warn that unregulated coffee prices are threatening
precious forests and their endangered inhabitants on the Indonesian
island of Sumatra.
The crisis is part of a broader problem affecting coffee-growing
regions worldwide. Although the caffeine-fuelled economies of the
West are demanding more coffee than ever before, and paying accordingly,
the revenue reaching farmers is plummeting. Coffee retail in the
U.S. nets $70 billion each year; coffee producing countries reap
just $5.5 billion.
Rich nations, in particular the United States - the world's biggest
coffee consumer - must intervene to harmonize the international
coffee trade, the report urges.
Struggling to make a living in the face of falling prices, farmers
on Sumatra - Indonesia's main growing region - have been hurriedly
planting more and more coffee. "They're having to grow more
just to break even," O'Brien explains.
Between 1996 and 2001 the acreage devoted to coffee on the island
increased by 28%. Some 70% of these new plantations are in or near
the Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park.
As a result, the park - which preserves the last remnants of Sumatra's
lowland forest - has shrunk by 28% since 1985.
The critically endangered Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae)
and rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) will be the first to suffer
says O'Brien. There are fewer than 400 of the tigers and 300 of
the rhino left in the wild. Needing wide ranges to survive, "they
will disappear long before the forest," he says.
The predicament described in the new report is a familiar one.
"Agricultural encroachment on forested areas is a widespread
problem and one that we are very concerned about," agrees Richard
Perkins, an agricultural-policy officer with the World Wide Fund
for Nature. But this is the first that he has heard of the plight
of Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, he admits.
Supply and demand
Underlying the environmental crisis is the fact that, in real terms,
coffee prices are at their lowest in 100 years, despite demand being
higher than ever. A pound of coffee, which fetches around $5 on
the US high street, is worth only 35-45 cents to Indonesian farmers.
The impact of this mismatch is widespread. Farmers in South America
and Africa are replacing biodiversity-friendly, shade-grown coffee
with pasture, and other Asian growers such as Vietnam are clearing
more forest for coffee. "Inevitably, pressure is being put
on what land remains," says Peter Baker, a coffee-production
expert with Commonwealth Agricultural Bureau International in Egham,
UK.Reform is certainly on the cards
Plus squabbling over fair prices between coffee-producing nations
led the United States to leave the International Coffee Organization,
a United Nations regulatory body in 1989. Without the United States,
many conservationists argue, the body lacks the power to tackle
the myriad middlemen responsible for coffee pricing.
But the United States may itself be taking on the job. With consumer
prices continuing to rise in the U.S. the disparity in price is
becoming impossible to justify. Last November, the US Senate proposed
a new plan to address fairer trade rules for coffee.
"Reform is certainly on the cards," says Baker, but pressure
must also come from within coffee-growing nations to regulate their
farmers' activities and to provide sensible alternative crops.
1. O'Brien, T. G. & Kinnaird, M. F. Caffeine and conservation.
Science, 300, 1728 - 1731, (2003).
© Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003


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- BC Games
Checking out: West Vancouver Safeway closing at month's end
The end of this month will mark the end of an era in West Vancouver when a staple Marine Drive grocery store checks out its last customer.
Employees at the 1650 Marine Dr. Safeway store were given notice earlier this month that when they close shop on Saturday, June 30, it will be for good.
While the approximately 60 workers at the Marine Drive Safeway "have all been placed" in other Safeway stores "all over," according to a Safeway regional spokeswoman, it remains unclear what is to become of the sprawling 1.4-acre Ambleside property.
"They're redeveloping it," the Safeway spokeswoman said. "I don't know what the plans are but the property didn't belong to us," adding that it was never Safeway's decision to leave the site.
The property is owned by the multi-billion dollar H.Y. Louie Group, whose spokesman, Scott Colburn, did not return The Outlook's phone calls last Friday. The company came close to getting approval for one of two massive multi-storey mixed-use developments on the site last summer but both proposals were ultimately quashed in public consultations and the company was sent back to the drawing board.
The two options presented to District of West Vancouver council at the time both included a 41,000-square-foot underground grocery store, 16,800 square feet of ground-level retail and office space and between 144 and 154 residential units. The only difference between the two designs was in their residential buildings, with one option proposing a 15-storey tower and the other 10 storeys.
But what the company has recently told the district is that once Safeway closes its doors on June 30, H.Y. Louie hopes to have another grocery retailer on-site, but who and when are still anyone's guess.
The current building is also expected to undergo "extensive renovations" according to information passed along to The Outlook from the district's planning, lands and development director, Bob Sokol.
"I started hearing rumours and everybody started hearing rumours probably about month ago that Safeway was going to close down," Sokol told The Outlook in a phone interview Wednesday. "And a result of that we tried best we could to contact H.Y. Louie to find out what their plans were for the site and all I've been able to get from them was the fact that yes, the Safeway lease ends July 1 and they've given notice to Safeway the lease will not be extended and that long-term, they'd like to have another grocery store on the site."
But as yet, the district has received no new applications for either a building permit or a development permit for the site, meaning 1650 Marine Dr. will be a vacant hole in the heart of Ambleside for some time.
"At minimum, I assume they're going to want to do extensive renovation work on the interior and that will require a building permit," Sokol said, noting that it takes a few weeks to get a building permit approved through his department. "And depending on the renovation work they're going to want to do on the exterior of the building, that would require a development permit" taking several months to approve, he said.
In the meantime, West Vancouver councillor Nora Gambioli says her district hall office continues to be flooded with complaints about the looming closure of the neighbourhood grocery that's been a West Van institution for decades.
"It's going to sit empty for at least six months or more," Gambioli said. "It's a big, big screw up and it's a big issue. We've had tons of people phoning district hall and of course it has nothing to do with us, it's a private business. But it's going to affect a lot of people."
The H.Y. Louie Group is the second largest group of retailers in B.C., whose holdings include IGA, Marketplace IGA and London Drugs.
Safeway opened on Marine Drive in 1957.


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After years of trying, vendors realise that the long-tail of partners is not a ripe group that with just the right magic touch will turn into gold partners.
Most channel executives are familiar with the dreaded question: What did we get for what we spent in the channel last quarter?
Following a year of sizeable change across the channel, the next 12 months look set for further disruption for partners, vendors and distributors.
Increased competition has placed new pressures on technology providers, yet AC3 is advancing ahead of the chasing pack.
As one of Australia’s leading technology providers, Meridian IT fuses local expertise with global capabilities.
Operating in a crowded market for more than two decades is no easy task, Cameron Brookes explains how Kiandra IT continues to innovate.
It’s time for businesses to up their game in sales enablement to succeed in the hyper-crowded Internet of Things market.
As a new breed of customer emerges, new breeds of partners are emerging in parallel, creating a competitive threat to the traditional channel.
Australian IT services company eNerds has launched a SaaS start-up, spinning off from the main brand to target MSPs across the world.
Starting with the customer is crucial when creating a viable channel strategy - EDGE Research outlines end-user priorities across A/NZ.
Professor Mohan Sawhney of the Kellogg School of Management pressed pause to outline the future channel opportunities during the opening keynote of EDGE 2017.
Tech giant establishes five routes to market across expanding ecosystem.
University of Technology Sydney engages Airloom for F5 solutions rollout.
Reseller News examines the books of New Zealand’s largest IT services provider.
Forming a key part of the common business vernacular, the concept of core vs. context is taking on new meaning in the channel today.
Once the customer and now the integrator, Datacom Group CEO, Jonathan Ladd, explains the power of people.
Irrespective of size or stature, even the global players in the game can’t go it alone. ARN uncovers why Insight Enterprises is prioritising partnering.
Two years on from being acquired by a billion-dollar French giant, Exclusive Networks managing director, Dominic Whitehand, explains to ARN how the distributor has maintained its local touch.
Networking vendor, Juniper Networks, has been around for over 20 years, operating in the shadow of Cisco for most of that time. However, the vendor wears the challenger label like a badge of honour, touting its upstart mentality at almost every opportunity.
The art of surviving and thriving in the eye of the digital storm requires the modern-day partner to ask new questions of customers, while learning from the experiences of previous channel failures.
Huawei’s success is tied to its ability to plant the seeds of the future, a philosophy that underscores its heavy investment in the countries in which it operates. It is also at the heart of the research and development it finances to ensure the company is not only a major innovator but also delivers cutting edge technology solutions.. Read more


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Mahendra Swarup, Shashi Sinha to co-chair IDMA 2012 Jury
Mahendra Swarup, Chief Mentor, Smile Interactive Group, and Shashi Sinha CEO, Lodestar UM, will co-chair the Jury for Indian Digital Media Awards 2012
Top leaders and professionals in advertising, media and marketing are all set to participate in the Jury meets for the third edition of the Indian Digital Media Awards 2012 (IDMA 2012). Entries for the awards opened early this month and the judging process will take place on March 16 and March 17 in Mumbai and Delhi, Mumbai respectively.
The Jury panel will be co-chaired by Mahendra Swarup, Chief Mentor, Smile Interactive Group and Shashi Sinha CEO, Lodestar UM. Apart from the 18-member panel, more leading marketers and media professionals are expected to join the Jury.
The distinguished Jury panel includes:
Alok Mittal, MD, Canaan Partners India
Anuj Kumar, CEO, Affle
Arnab Mitra, National Director, Digital Starcom Mediavest Group
Atul Satija, VP&MD, APAC at InMobi
Dippak Khurana, MD & CEO Vserv.mobi
Lakshmikant Gupta, VP & CMO, LG India
Madan Sanglikar, CEO at AD2C
Praveen Kulkarni, General Manager - Marketing, Parle Products
Rajesh Mehta, Director - Marketing, Western Union
Rajiv Hiranandani, Co-Founder & Executive Director at Altruist- Mobile2Win
Ramesh Chembath, AVP, Sales & Marketing, Godrej Appliances
Ramswaroop Gopalan, Country Manager, SapientNitro, India
Sandip Tarkas, CEO (Future Media) & CEO (Future Telecom), Future Group
Sanjay Behl, CEO - Reliance DTH & IPTV at Reliance Communications
Neville Taraporewalla, Country Director, Advertising & Online, Microsoft India
The third edition of IDMA, organised by exchange4media Group, will be held in April in Mumbai. To make the Awards more comprehensive and inclusive for the digital industry, this year, several categories and sub-categories have been added to the list of categories. Therefore, digital publishers and companies can send more entries this year to showcase their work. Moreover, for the first time, digital reports and digital startups will also be evaluated.
Interestingly, this year, a part of the entry fees collected from entries will be donated for a social cause. The judging will be conducted online and by way of Jury meetings in Mumbai and Delhi.
In 2011, some of the major winners of the IDMA Awards included Deep Kalra, Chairman & CEO, MakeMyTrip, who was adjudged IDMA Person of the Year. Interface Business Solutions was declared Digital & Social Media Agency of the Year, while Tata Docomo walked away with the Digital & Social Media Advertiser of the Year Award.
For further details and to send your entries, please visit:
Read more news about (internet advertising India, internet advertising, advertising India, digital advertising India, media advertising India)For more updates, be socially connected with us on
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Sun Microsystems has announced it will expand its HP Away programin a bid to lure Hewlett-Packard’s Unix customers. The company will dangle its own Unix operatingsystem, Solaris, as an alternative to HP-UX.
Sun initially launched the HP Away strategy almost two years agowhen HP began to phase out its Alpha/Tru64 platform in favor ofItanium-based servers. Since then, Sun claims 80 customers havemigrated to its HP alternatives, representing as much as US$200million in additional revenue for the Santa Clara,California-based company.
“We’re expanding the program to take advantage of an inflectionpoint in the industry,” Sun senior vice president Larry Singer said.”We’re addressing the disruption around HP’s architectural roadmapand its neglect of a key customer base.”
Sun estimates more than 270,000 customers are using HP-UX or relatedplatforms. The company is dangling several carrots to lure HP customers to Solaris, including a lease buy-down program designed to level out the costs of migration, plus free two-week migration assessments that take into account the applications beingmoved as well as how a company’s data storage needs might change as a resultof the move.
HP could not be reached for comment. But as a top server-sales leader, itlikely has grown accustomed to having competitors attempt to use any meansat their disposal to grab market share.
Last year, for example, when HP announced it would phase out sales andsupport for its venerable, 30-year-old e3000 server line, IBM tried touse the occasion to highlight its ability to migrate customers from HPservers to its own.
“Given how fierce the competition is at the top of the servermarket, any delay or product change — anything that could cause customerfrustration or confusion — is going to be an invitation for competitors topounce,” IDC vice president Jean Bozman told the E-Commerce Times. “With ITspending starting to pick up, companies may have budgets lined up and belooking for somewhere to spend them.”
Sun’s latest announcement comes as HP’s customer base is stilldigesting news that HP will begin offering servers loaded with AMD’s 64-bitprocessors while still trying to maintain as much loyalty as possible to theIntel Itanium chip it helped develop. “Sun is banking on the news being confusingand off-putting to customers who might be ready to make a change,” Bozman said.
The move also came as research firm Gartner reported Sun is slipping in theoverall server market-share race. Gartner’s data shows IBM extending its worldwidelead, with Dell moving up and threatening to bump Sun from the number three spot.HP occupies the number two slot.
Dell was the fastest-growing server seller last year, according to Gartneranalyst Joseph Gonzalez, and now sits only about 3 percentage points behindSun.
“The server market’s really in flux,” Gonzalez told the E-Commerce Times.”On the Unix and Linux side and in the Intel market, the fight is goingto last for a while.”


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Virtual Private Network
Latest research by analytics firm GlobalWebIndex notes that with 43% users using VPN in a month, India is second only to Indonesia (55%) globally when it comes to accessing the net via VPNs.
Credit Fair offers customers access to small personal loans, while Chqbook lets customers compare personal finance products such as loans and credit cards, based on their financial status.
Privacy Labs Inc., a startup based near Microsoft headquarters just outside Seattle, wants to upend all this in the name of digital security.
Tata Tele business Services on Wednesday introduced VPN solutions for SMEs with improved security services and privacy capabilities.
A VPN provider has highlighted a major vulnerability that can potentially be used to reveal a user's real IP.


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Bomb threat brings shopping to a halt
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, December 6, 2006
Holiday shoppers at Wal-Mart were forced to evacuate the building when a suspect called in a bomb threat on Saturday night, according to Greenville police and Wal-Mart officials.
At approximately 7:15 p.m. Greenville police reports state that a male phoned Wal-Mart and asked a store clerk for a video game cheat code. When the clerk refused, the caller stated he had “C-4 explosives planted throughout the building.” The caller also said he had an assault rifle, was located outside Wal-Mart, and would start shooting at anyone who exited the building.
The store clerk said the caller sounded like a young, white male.
Store patrons were evacuated as Greenville police searched the building for explosives. The department's special response team was also put on standby.
No explosives were found.
Police said they would attempt to trace the phone number and find out just who exactly made the false report.
“We think it may have been a cell phone number through Verizon,” said Sgt. Justin Lovvorn. “We're working with CenturyTel to determine who called in (to Wal-Mart) between those times.”
Lovvorn said besides stating that explosives were inside Wal-Mart, the caller also made some dubious comments such as there being “snakes on the roof.”
Store manager Bill McCrary said if the suspect is found Wal-Mart would prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.
“Regardless of who did it - whether or not they thought it was a joke - if they are apprehended we will press charges,” said McCrary. “You have to take something like this seriously.”
McCrary said the store was evacuated for an estimated hour and 30 minutes. The prank phone call also came during one of the store's busiest periods of the day.
𔄟:30 (p.m.) on Saturday night is a busy time,” said McCrary. “And it's hard to get people to come back in after something like that.”
The suspected caller faces a charge of falsely reporting an incident, a Class C felony which carries anywhere from one to 10 years in prison, said Lt. Randy Courtney.


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On 10 June 2016, Uber service was launched in Astana (Kazakhstan). One of the world's most popular on-line services, a company valued at over US $62.5 billion and operating in over 70 countries for the past 7 years is now available in Kazakhstan.
The legal adviser supporting the Uber launch in Kazakhstan is GRATA International, an international law firm. At the press conference to announce the company's launch on 10 June 2016, Yerzhan Yessimkhanov, the Grata Partner who has provided legal support for Uber in Kazakhstan, outlined the key legal aspects of Grata services and operations.
Further information about Uber operations in Kazakhstan is available from Alex Stakh, General Manager of Uber CIS, and Grata Partner Yerzhan Yessimkhanov in their interview for vlast.kz


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One of the highlights of the IAOM Annual Conference is the five Product Showcase presentations on the Expo floor. Over the past few years, this event has grown to over 125 participants where attendees can see the latest in milling innovations and new services. We won’t let the COVID-19 pandemic stop this valuable offering!
The suppliers selected for this year’s presentations have agreed to share their resources with IAOM membership virtually using the Zoom platform! Beginning at 2 pm (CDT) on Thursday, May 14 and running for five weeks, each of the companies will provide a 20-minute webinar with a question and answer period after. Don’t miss out on these free events!
How to Attend:
Go to the IAOM Online Store and register for the Product Showcase Webinar (free). Your confirmation letter will have all of the Zoom details.


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Lassa Tyres shows Driveways series in Bologna
Lassa Tyres presented its recently developed Driveways series to Italian drivers at the Bologna Autopromotec Fair. Lassa Tyres are currently offered to end-users at 5,000 points of sales in 63 countries, according to the company.
At the Autopromotec Fair, Brisa International Markets Director Ertan Kurt conveyed his opinions on Lassa Tyres’ goals in Italy and said: “We continue with our efforts to strengthen our presence in Italy and to promote our brand to the Italian car owners. We have been operating in Italy for almost 20 years and have learnt a lot to progress both from our experiences and customer feedback as a deep rooted player in Italian market. Therefore, we assured the suitability and convenience of our former and recent tyre models for the Italian roads and will provide added value to the end-users both in terms of safe driving and durability.”
Kurt continued: “In Europe, the 16-inch plus tyre market accounts for 57 per cent of the total market, and has grown by 8 per cent during the last three years. With our Driveways and Driveways Sport products, we have increased our product range to 21 inches and we are an alternative to the increasing high-size tyre demand both in Italy and entire Europe.”
As well as Italy, Lassa reports a strong presence in Spain, UK, Austria and Germany. Furthermore, Lassa has been investing in retail stores since 2011 through its distributors and currently has more than 580 stores and offered at 5,000 points of sales in 63 countries worldwide.


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Every artist has different muses and things that fascinate them. For DC hip-hop wunderkind Wale, sneakers are definitely at the top of his list of muses. For the first time ever, the sneakerhead's sneakerhead is collaborating with ASICS and East Coast retailer VILLA for what will definitely be a memorable shoe.
With a June 26th release date and suggested retail price of $160 for Wale ASICS, this is a must-cop for any Wale fan or lover of the cult classic Gel-Lyte series. Stay tuned for more updates on this shoe, which for now can be seen most prominently in Wale's new "Matrimony" music video featuring Usher.


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Microsoft might be in a position to make a dent in the smartphone war through an unbelievable concept – competitive pricing.
This thought comes to mind as analyst Walter Piecyk of BTIG expresses concerns about how long wireless carriers will continue to keep Apple's iPhone price point at $199.
Piecyk cut Apple's stock rating to "hold" from "buy" Monday even though he expects the company to beat analyst expectations when it reports earnings later this month.
The problem, he believes, is that wireless carriers such at AT&T Inc., Verizon and Sprint are unlikely to support frequent iPhone upgrades on $600 iPhones that consumers are paying just $199 for when they sign up for a service plan.
Carriers will be working hard to promote smartphones that use the Android operating system from Google, he writes, and there's also hope for devices from Microsoft and Nokia: "As Android's initial popularity continues to fade because of its uneven and fragmented performance and BlackBerry falls further into oblivion, there is renewed hope that Microsoft and Nokia will be able to produce a viable alternative to Apple."
Earlier this year, TechFlash reported that Microsoft is paying Nokia $230 for each Windows phone in an effort to catch up with Apple and Google in the cell phone market.
For Apple, Piecyk predicts a decline of 4 million units between the first and second quarters, to just 9 million units, with the biggest drop from Apple's biggest customer, AT&T.
"We expect post-paid wireless operators to remain firm in their plan to stunt the pace of phone upgrades in 2012 and we expect to see some initial evidence of their success in the current quarter," he wrote.
That will put pressure on Apple to lower its price on its popular iPhone, he believes, cutting its profit margin on the device.


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The government could crack down on share buybacks, as it has hired researchers to determine whether they are being used by companies to artificially inflate their executives' pay.
Share buybacks, where a company purchases some of its own shares to reduce the number available in the market and often raise their price, can increase a company's earnings per share. Since many executive pay packages are often decided in relation to this figure, executives who have completed a share buyback could unlock a higher pay bracket even though the company's performance has been poor.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) has appointed PwC and Alex Edmans, a professor at the London Business School, to research how common this practice is.
"There are concerns that some companies may be trying to artificially inflate executive pay by buying back their own shares," said business secretary Greg Clark.
"This review will examine how share buyback schemes are used and whether any action is required to prevent them from being abused."
The government was quick to acknowledge that there are legitimate reasons for share buybacks. A company may want to purchase shares if it believes they are undervalued, to make use of cash when business conditions do not justify spending it in other areas, or to meet investor demands to return cash.
But there are concerns that "a minority" of companies are using the technique for less honourable reasons, to inflate pay and "crowd out investment".
The government is hoping that the research, set to be published later this year, will help strengthen public and investor trust and confidence in big businesses and corporate standards.
Last summer, Theresa May announced a broader package of corporate governance reforms including the creation of a public register of companies whose shareholders are protesting executive pay, new legislation requiring companies to annually explain the pay ratio between chief executives and employees, and a group to write corporate governance principles for large private companies.


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This past fall, Tim Worstal wrote in the Forbes article, “The iPhone 5s, Proof That Apple Has Given Up On Innovation,” that the iPhone 5s is just another example of Apple “steadily losing its mojo following the death of Steve Jobs.” Worstal echoes the growing speculation that Apple is no longer capable of producing great disruptive inventions e.g., the Mac, and is simply coasting on the momentum of the innovation tidal wave they created rather than navigating new waters.
But it’s difficult—and arguably a waste of time—to prove that a company has stopped innovating. Apple represents the collective nerve it strikes in the business world: fear that once you reach a certain point of success, you will no longer be able to consistently innovate to satisfy user demand while beating your competitors.
Is it possible then to create an environment built to create consistent innovation over time? Three innovation experts at MIT Sloan say yes.
Many companies get it wrong when it comes to creating new products. They focus on what they need for revenue streams, how to evolve current products into new extensions, and immersing themselves in their R&D labs. Then they take the new product out to a focus group to get feedback.
This process, however, is backwards. Innovative products really come from users who have a need for something. And often, those users are finding workarounds to solve their needs. Research conducted by Eric von Hippel, Professor of Management of Innovation and Engineering Systems at MIT Sloan, in collaboration with Steven Flowers, Jeroen de Jong, and Tanja Sinozic, found that 6.1% of consumers over the age of 18 in the U.K. had created or modified a product for their own use within the last three years.
User-innovators are unlikely to bring their idea to a focus group—after all, the product is already “baked.” That’s where networking—or participating and observing your target markets—comes into play. In today’s open, collaborative world, that’s very easy to do.
By Chuck Brooks
Public/private partnerships are critical to the success of government operations that provide essential services and benefits. Such partnerships can help agencies reduce costs, simplify operations, and are easily scalable at times of increased and decreased need. Whether motivated by a natural disaster, terrorism, or an interruption caused by legislative shortfall, successful public/private partnerships can provide business continuity and resilience.
Given that most of the infrastructure in the U.S. is private, government has a need to coordinate with the private sector for maintaining critical transportation modes, IT, and communications support, allowing these agencies to keep preparedness at high levels. The private sector can also bolster humanitarian efforts with supplies of needed food, water, and provisions.
Contributed by Grayson Brulte, Co-Founder & President of Brulte & Company
When you think of the term innovation, you probably do not associate it with politics. This is due at least in part to the historical reluctance of politicians and campaign managers to take uncertain risks that could have a negative impact on the outcome of an election or term.
Instead, it is companies in the private sector such as Apple and Google that are disrupting their industries with new, innovative products and services. And, even older, more established companies such as Porsche and Walmart are redefining their industries with updated product lines and innovative business models.
These private sector companies have successfully developed cultures that are always learning and striving for perfection. Apple has Jony Ive, who is always pushing the envelope of what is possible, and Google has Google X, its secret lab focused on solving big problems.
So where is the Jony Ive and Google X of politics?


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The new Apple Watch is seen on display after an Apple special event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on March 9, 2015 in San Francisco, California.
Apple Inc. will sell its new smartwatch at prices starting at $449 in Canada, along with a gold luxury version that will cost more than $13,000.
Apple Watch is the company’s first new gadget since the iPad’s debut five years ago. The device will be available for pre-order on April 10 and in stores on April 24 in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan and the U.K. and U.S., Cupertino, California-based Apple said Monday.
Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook had already signaled Apple would adopt premium pricing when he unveiled the product in September. The cheapest Apple Watch will cost more than Samsung Electronics Co.’s $399 Gear S smartwatch, which is far pricier than most other wearable fitness monitors. Motorola’s Moto 360 starts at $279.99.
I have been wanting to do this since I was five years old
Cook described the watch handling many functions currently associated with the iPhone, which tethers wirelessly to the watch and connects it to the Internet. For instance, Uber cars can be contacted from the watch.
The watch will track exercise, remind wearers of events with a tap on the wrist, and make calls through the tethered phone, since the watch has a built in speaker and microphone, he said.
“I have been wanting to do this since I was five years old,” said Cook.
The Apple Watch begins shipping in April and comes in two sizes and three styles. A variety of straps will be offered as well. Pre-orders begin April 10, Cook said at an event held in San Francisco to announce more details about the smartwatch.
The Sport model, which has a space grey or silver anodized aluminum case and colourful bands, is priced at $449 (for the 38mm) and $519 (for the 42mm). The Apple Watch version costs $699 (38mm) to $779 (42mm). The high-end Apple Watch Edition, which comes with an 18-karat gold case and polished sapphire crystal, begins at $13,000 and will be available in limited quantities, Cook said.
The Sport may comprise 55% of sales while the Watch version may make up 45% with the high-end version grabbing just a small share, according to Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray Cos.
Apple showed off some of the apps that will be available for the watch. An app from Uber can be used to summon a car. The Starwood Hotel’s app can be used to unlock hotel rooms. The Alarm.com app lets users open their garage doors with the watch. To find watch apps, users go into the Apple Watch app available on iPhones running iOS 8.2, which is now available for download. Apple executives didn’t say how many apps would be available at launch.
Apple said users of the new smartwatch will be able to go 18 hours under typical use before charging the battery. Cook said that the watch will be able to run all day before charging each night. The question of an Apple’s devices ability to hold a charge is a routine following an introduction.
Battery life is a tricky thing that has a lot to do with usage. Apple says the iPhone 6, for example, should stay charged for as much as 14 hours of talk time or 10 hours of surfing the Internet over a cellular network. Users, though, see different results in the real world.
Samsung says its Gear S smartwatch gets about one to two days of typical use out its battery, while Pebble, which doesn’t have power-sucking apps or as vibrant a screen as its rivals have, claims to last five to seven days.
Website 9to5mac had said that the Apple Watch may operate for five hours of heavy use while it will go about a day with a mixture of active and passive use.
“A full day is a decent benchmark for version one,” Ben Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies Inc., said. “What you’re dealing with is that most smartwatches today last maybe a day, nothing gets better than that.”
Battery life was one of the major concerns when Apple brought out the first iPhone in 2007. Apple shares rose on the day in 2007 when Steve Jobs announced ahead of the iPhone’s debut that it would get eight hours of talk time, three more than previously planned. Ultimately, the phone received some criticism over its battery life, something the company worked to improve over time.
The next generation of the watch will probably have better battery life as well, according to analysts such as Jim Suva of Citi.
“Battery life is very important,” he said. “But version one is usually never as good as version two.”
Separately, Apple also also laid out other product successes and launched a new MacBook notebook with 256 gigabytes of storage that weighs as little as 2 pounds. The MacBook will start shipping April 10.
Apple also refreshed its current lineup of MacBook Air and Pro products.
In addition, Apple announced it is offering researchers new development tools, called ResearchKit, to help medical researchers design apps for clinical trials, the company said.
It cut the price of Apple TV by US$30 to US$69 and is partnering with HBO to offer its stand-alone streaming service, HBO NOW, on Apple devices in time for the “Game of Thrones” premiere April 12. It will cost US$14.99 monthly. Cook said 2,500 banks are now signed up with Apple Pay, which is available in 700,000 retail locations nationwide.
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kscarbel2 Posted September 22, 2017 Share Posted September 22, 2017 Iveco Australia / August 25, 2017 The growing trend among many transport and logistics providers is to offer a full suite of services that meet their customers’ need all along the supply chain – this can result in a diverse fleet of vehicles selected on their strengths for the particular application. New Zealand logistics company C3 is a case in point, providing its Kiwi and Australian client base with transportation, warehousing, marshalling and stevedoring services throughout both countries. To assist in the specialised transport of wood chips from sustainably-grown plantations in Southern WA to Albany Port, the company has identified a range of IVECO Stralis models as an excellent fit for the task. C3 has invested in over 20 Stralis trucks over several years, comprising of earlier series AS-Ls and four new AS-L Series II models that have been added in recent months. C3 Operations Manager – Albany, Craig Fildes, said some of the first Stralis prime movers on fleet are now approaching a million kilometres – these are fitted with Cursor 13 engines producing 500 horsepower and the smooth-shifting EuroTronic II 16-speed AMT. “We began using Stralis AS-L prime movers around six years ago – some of these are still being used and now have over 800,000 kilometres showing,” Craig said. “When it came time to grow the fleet in this application, we opted to continue using AS-Ls, purchasing four of the latest Series II models in March. This time we went for the higher engine output and worked with IVECO to select the best GCM – the AS-Ls allow us to work at our desired target of 90 tonnes which helps productivity. “The AS-Ls do quite an amazing job – they are a good all-round fit for the application. They’re comfortable, quiet, they’re easy to work with and are competitively priced. “A lot of the roads the trucks travel on especially in the plantations – as you could imagine – are not very nice, the trucks can take a battering but the IVECOs handle it well. The drivers are also happy with them, especially with their comfortable, quiet cabin.” The latest AS-L Series II prime movers feature a 560 horsepower, 13 litre Cursor engine coupled to a ZF Eurotronic II 16-speed transmission. For peace of mind, the engine is covered by a market-leading standard warranty of five years or 1,000,000 kilometres. The Stralis prime movers operate five days per week averaging over 400 kilometres per day – the majority of the plantations which they service are located within a 130 kilometre radius of Albany. Along with the WA-based fleet, C3 also operate several trucks from the city of Portland in south-western Victoria in the same application but configured as B-Doubles. Craig said the IVECO models compared well to the higher-profiled European brands. “When you do the numbers on a fleet of trucks the IVECOs make sense because they do a good job and we have less capital tied up in our fleet,” Craig said. “We also have a local company that we resell some of our trucks to – they have a broad range of brands on their fleet and the IVECO models rank highly with their drivers, especially in terms of comfort levels.” With C3 enjoying steady grown and now offering services at 15 ports across Australasia, its partnership with IVECO will likely remain strong, according to Craig. “We do put new purchases out to tender to remain in touch with the market but so far we’ve been pleased with what IVECO has done for us,” he said. . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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Retailers selling consumer electronics were among Black Friday’s big winners, as shoppers lined up for $17.99 DVD players, $29.99 MP3 players and $500 lap tops – giving a healthy start to the holiday shopping season.
The number of consumer-electronic items sold this holiday season is expected to top unit apparel sales for the first time, according to Craig Johnson, chief executive of Customer Growth Partners, a consulting firm. In dollar terms, consumer electronics surpassed apparel in 1999.
“The price of consumer electronics has fallen so dramatically, they’re entering the stocking-stuffer category,” Johnson said.
Best Buy ran a special on Norcent DVD players for $17.99, including a mail-in rebate, and sold Toshiba laptops for $500. Wal-Mart offered 20-inch flat screen Symphonic TVs with built-in DVD players for $139.92. And Target discounted a Samsung four megapixel digital camera to $97 from $159.99.
“The hot sellers were electronics,” said Lena Michaud, a Target spokeswoman.
Anecdotal evidence based on the polling of about a dozen Target stores suggests that overall sales on the day after Thanksgiving will top last year’s, Michaud said.
Other popular items, she continued, included toys and household products like a Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner priced at $28.88, down from $49.99.
Although actual figures were yet not available, retailers generally said yesterday’s sales volume appeared equal to or slightly higher than the previous Black Friday, as shoppers lined up at stores earlier than ever before.
The Toys ‘R Us store in Wayne, N.J., opened at 5:45 a.m., 15 minutes earlier than planned to accommodate customers who had been waiting outside as early as 4 a.m. for TV Paintball and Go Go My Walking Pup, said Susan McLaughlin, a company spokeswoman.
“Usually they don’t start lining up until 5 a.m.,” she said.
Analysts are predicting moderate increases for holiday spending of about 3 percent to 5 percent. A Gallup poll released yesterday said that consumers plan to spend about $730 this holiday season, slightly less than the $734 they spent last year.
The National Retail Federation predicts that 130 million people will go shopping over the Thanksgiving Day weekend, about 8 million more people than did so last year. The NRF also expects holiday sales to total $219.9 billion this year, up 4.5 percent from a year ago.
Retailers were heartened yesterday as consumers – perhaps spurred by the sunny, crisp weather and a recent trickle of positive economic news – took to the stores with gusto.
“We’ve got off-the-charts numbers,” said Joseph J. Sitt, the chief executive and chairman of Thor Equities, which manages 6 million square feet of retail space across the U.S.
Sitt said as of 10 a.m. one-fifth of his retail locations had reported a 20 percent increase in customer traffic, compared with the same time a year ago.
Mark Flowers, the New Jersey district manager for Sears, said he was encouraged that people are coming in not just for “doorbuster” deals – like 20% off all Kenmore appliances – but to load up on other items as well, including apparel, tools and electronics.
Although analysts said they were encouraged that retailers didn’t give away the store this Black Friday, shoppers were clearly there for the bargains.
“People seemed to be going for specific products that they saw on sale,” said Shari Austin, a spokeswoman for Mervyn’s.
Britt Beemer, the founder of America’s Research Group, said one-fifth of the people he surveyed said they would reduce spending this Christmas by 80 percent if they don’t see half-off sales.
It’s only the day after Thanksgiving, and consumer electronics are selling like hotcakes. Yesterday’s big winners:
* Best Buy
* Circuit City


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WATERLOO — Scott Scully is getting national recognition for blazing new trails in the marketing world.
But the founder and chief executive officer of Abstrakt Marketing Group in St. Louis said his success is grounded in Iowa’s work ethic and his Waterloo upbringing.
“There’s a little something in the air in Iowa,” Scully said. “If people do leave Waterloo for whatever reason, it seems like they go out in the world and represent Iowa and Waterloo well.”
Scully, 49, won a prestigious Entrepreneur Of The Year 2018 award from Ernst & Young on June 14 for the Heartland region covering Kansas City, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. National winners will be selected from the regions in November.
EY uses an independent panel of judges, including entrepreneurs and prominent business, finance and community leaders, to select winners following an intensive vetting process involving work place visits and a review of company finances.
“There’s been some very well-known business people that have won the award in the past,” said Scully, also a finalist in 2017.
The son of George and Cammie Scully graduated from Waterloo Columbus High School in 1987 and earned a marketing degree from Mankato State University in Minnesota. His first job out of college was as director of marketing for the Waterloo-based Hogan-Hansen accounting firm.
“I had a great family and really good friends and very supportive teachers,” Scully said. “Growing up in Iowa, with parents who had certain expectations and being surrounded by others with those expectations, that molded me into the person I am today.”
But an entrepreneurial spirit led him to depart for St. Louis about 20 years ago where he has been involved in three marketing companies, founding Abstrakt Marketing Group in 2009. While the previous two firms were focused on the automotive industry, Abstrakt was designed to have multiple niches.
The company has grown from $100,000 in annual revenue to more than $1 million monthly sales revenue, while staffing has jumped to 270 employees with plans to add 100 new workers in the next year.
“We have a mission to be a household name in the industries we (service) around the county,” Scully said. “We work in all 50 states. Most of our business is actually outside of St. Louis.”
The company’s corporate headquarters are near the St. Louis Arch in a renovated historic building in the Laclede’s Landing district.
Abstrakt Marketing Group, under Scully’s leadership, has been recognized by the St. Louis Business Journal as one of the best places to work and was tapped by Entrepreneur Magazine last year as one of the “top company cultures” in the country.
“We’re trying to do things so our people are happy and want to do the hard work for our clients,” Scully said. “It all is very hard work so we want to provide an environment that they want to come to on a daily basis.”
Abstrakt has a team that works on internal marketing and culture, having monthly themes, events and competitions. The office has a lounge with a bar and shuffleboard and foosball tables. Plans call for a 20,000-square-foot addition that will include sports courts and a workout facility.
But Scully said it’s not all fun and games. Results are expected.
“We’re real metrics driven,” he said.
Scully is not the only Columbus High School graduate working at Abstrakt. His brother Ben is also a company owner while 1994 graduate Brian Condon runs the firm’s agency division.


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London, 21 May-2014, ANI: Google has dedicated British paleontologist Mary Anning a doodle on its…
Google is officially, an adult. The company celebrates its 18th birthday, with an animated doodle. It has been designed by doodler Gerben Steenks. The company was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998.
However, there might be some confusion regarding Google’s exact birth date.
Since 2006, the company has celebrated its birthday on the homepage on September 27. But the year before, it was celebrated on September 26. In 2004, Google’s 6th birthday was celebrated with a doodle on September 7 and the year before that, it was September 8.
2015 end, Google co-founder and Alphabet CEO Larry Page explained in a rare appearance why he was spurred to create a whole new structure for the company. He said the new company would operate a little bit like a venture capital firm, a little bit like Berkshire Hathaway Inc. the conglomerate controlled by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, whom Page admires.
It was a rare public appearance for Page, who co-founded the Mountain View, California-based company with Stanford classmate Brin in 1998. Since then, Google has grown from a popular search engine to Alphabet, a far-reaching conglomerate employing more than 40,000 employees worldwide.
He has also taken a step back from being the face of the company, largely due to a chronic medical condition affecting his vocal cords. He has appeared at only a handful of events over the last few years. Page is known for his enthusiasm for some of the company’s more far-fetched efforts, such as driverless cars and other so-called “moonshots”.
Aside from Google, Alphabet’s other businesses include Google X, connected home products maker Nest, venture capital arm Google Ventures and Google Capital, which invests in larger tech companies.


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Low yields will be around for a while yet. Professional stock picker Mike Turner tips three stocks for income investors to buy now.
On the face of it, London’s property market is still going strong. But in reality, things are not so rosy. Matthew Partridge looks at how much longer London’s house-price bubble has to go before it pops.
Conflict in the Middle East could contribute to rising oil prices.
Mobile banking is set to become the next big thing, says Bengt Saelensminde. And for early investors, it promises to be a very lucrative market.
Tesco has slashed its dividend – can Sainsbury’s avoid having to do the same, and should you buy the shares? Phil Oakley investigates.
The crisis is over and the economic recovery seems to be picking up speed. Does that mean the case for holding gold is finished? We wouldn’t be so hasty.
Merryn Somerset Webb runs through some of the other suggestions for the MoneyWeek investment trust portfolio.
Burger King’s takeover of Canada’s Tim Hortons coffee and doughnut chain has drawn flack from tax critics.
Spending it: wine
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