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Facebook revealed last month that tens of thousands of Instagram users' passwords were being stored unencrypted in a "readable format" within the company’s internal data storage systems, but updated their blog Thursday to say that the issue potentially impacted millions of Instagram users' passwords instead.
“Since this post was published, we discovered additional logs of Instagram passwords being stored in a readable format,” Facebook said in their blog post. “We now estimate that this issue impacted millions of Instagram users.”
Facebook said it would be notifying these users “as we did the others.”
The social media company also said that it estimates hundreds of millions of Facebook Lite users and tens of millions of other Facebook users were affected. It said it will also notify those users.
Facebook Lite is a version of Facebook predominantly used by people in regions with lower connectivity, according to the company.
The company's login systems are designed to mask passwords using techniques that make them unreadable, Facebook said. But Facebook said their investigation has determined that these stored passwords were “not internally abused or improperly accessed.”
In the initial March post, the company said that the passwords were not visible to anyone outside of Facebook.
The initial post also said the company has "fixed these issues," but it's unclear if the solution included the millions of Instagram users' readable passwords that were revealed Thursday to have been stored unencrypted.
This story was reported from Los Angeles.


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The owner of Comic Relief, Rory Root, died recently following complications from hernia surgery. I consider this significant because I spent 2-3 hours every week in that store while I was a student at Berkeley, and I still consider it to be my "go-to" comic book store. I also like to stop by and say hi every time I'm at Comic-Con.
And now the big friendly hippie who liked to share a laugh or two with the Friday crew is gone. An industry mourns one of its biggest supporters.
Comic Relief won't go the way of Cody's or the Bearcade - his legacy is far too strong and the store itself is still doing pretty well for itself. But it won't be the same without Rory there every Friday making jokes with us.

domain: news


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DETROIT (AP) -- Toyota has joined Hyundai and Nissan in offering to defer car loan and lease payments for government workers on furlough during the partial shutdown.
The automaker's financing unit says customers of Toyota or Lexus financial services can apply to put off making payments for up to three months. The customers' accounts must be in good standing.
Toyota says the offer also is being made to government contractors and suppliers, and to other businesses and employees whose work is directly affected by the shutdown.
Hyundai made a similar offer to government workers on Oct. 1, shortly after the shutdown began. Nissan followed with its own offer.
Hyundai said about 1,000 people have applied to defer payments under its program. It was unclear how many deferrals have been granted.
There were signs on Tuesday that the shutdown and stalemate in Washington over raising the government's borrowing limits could be coming to an end. House GOP leaders unveiled a plan to counter an emerging Senate deal to reopen the government and forestall an economy-rattling default on U.S. obligations.


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Sales of the Nissan LEAF and e-NV200 in the European fleet market have rapidly increased for a fourth consecutive financial year.
Up 45% on the previous year, Nissan sold more than 7,500 LEAFs and e-NV200s to fleet operators and municipalities in Europe, commanding a 28% share of the pure electric fleet market.
20,000 Nissan EVs have been sold to fleet customers across Europe since launch.
Gareth Dunsmore, director of electric vehicles for Nissan Europe: “It’s great to see Nissan EV fleet demand going from strength-to-strength as businesses catch on to the many marked advantages electric vehicles have to offer.
"Nissan not only offers a great pure electric range for businesses, but we have also employed EV fleet specialists in most European countries, trained to provide advice and support to customers, offering analysis of total ownership costs and charging infrastructure. This strategy has proved incredibly effective at assisting businesses who are interested in zero emission technology, but need some guidance on making the switch to zero emission motoring.
“Now with the introduction of the new-to-sector Nissan LEAF 30 kWh, fleet customers will be able to travel even further, helping to meet businesses demands with an extended 250 km range.”
Postal services are among the many service providers that have been particularly quick to take advantage of the clear benefits associated with switching to electric. Österreichische Post AG, the Austrian state postal authority, already utilises 160 e-NV200s and has recently confirmed an order for 100 additional units.
In the UK, Nissan has sold over 350 EVs to public entities. Nissan’s total UK EV fleet sales for the 2015 financial year were up 43% compared with FY14, with 2,573 combined LEAF and e-NV200 sales versus 1,806 for the previous financial year. Electric vehicles now make up around 3% of all fleet sales with an increasing number of major contracts, including West Midlands Police renewing its fleet of 30 Nissan LEAFs and upgrading to the new 30kWh model.
Karl Anders, national EV manager at Nissan Motor (GB), said: “More and more local authorities and public sector organisations across the UK are turning to Nissan’s market-leading electric vehicles to meet their fleet needs.
“Both the LEAF and e-NV200 can have a significant impact on reducing running and whole-life costs as well as well as helping organisations significantly cut their carbon emissions.”


text: Maytag CEO Ralph Hake painted a rosy picture during a teleconference with shareholders Wednesday. The Newton-based appliance company projects a 65-percent profit increase in 2003. Hake says a variety of new products will drive company growth in the next year, most notably kitchen appliances. He says kitchen investment is the highest concentration of spending in the home. Hake says consumer demand should help Maytag’s bottom line. He says the kitchen is the best place for consumers to invest and recover that investment when they sell their home, and he expects Maytag to benefit from that investment too. He says the company is looking for a seven to 10 percent sales increase.


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On December 29, at the Government House of the republic, Tatarstan Prime Minister Aleksey Pesoshin held a regular Board meeting of Tatspirtprom Distillery.
The meeting discussed the Strategy for the development and sale of Tatspirtprom alcohol products for 2018-2020. According to the Strategy, the company has the task to boost sales in Russian regions annually. In 2017, the company’s sales in other regions is three times more than that of Tatarstan.
It was also noted that Tatspirtprom will continue to increase the production under its own alcohol brands by replacing other brands.


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In the recently released HY 2016 numbers by Safaricom, the Telco registered a 40.9% growth in mobile data revenue to Kshs. 9.2 Billion. This is no small fete. The CA puts internet penetration at +70% of population which is astronomical for a developing economy.
Yesterday, I sat in the bus home streaming music from Spotify. The lady next to me looked at the Huawei P8 and thought it was an iPhone and struck a conversation with me. The conversation slowly went to what do you do with devices with a bias for the internet.
Her: Social media, Chat, read the news, call and sometimes gaming.
Me: Read the news, chat, gaming, lousy photography, social media and streaming music.
I could see the surprise on her face at the fact that I stream the music while I can just store it locally on the device and save on data. This got me thinking Kenyans are not completely taking advantages of the internet and are rather using it for rudimentary things such as Social media. With the current usage and penetration, I am of the thought that its about time players work towards moving users to the next level of internet usage which will allow for the thriving of e-commerce and even streaming services. The cost of data has dramatically fallen meaning there is no reason not to take advantage of this.
What do you use your internet for?


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Teradata, Microsoft ensure compatibility
Teradata, a division of NCR Corp., recently announced joint support for customers with the signing of a multi-year agreement with Microsoft Corp. to ensure product interoperability by jointly testing Analysis Services in Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and the forthcoming SQL Server 2005 with new releases of Teradata data warehouse solutions. As part of the agreement, Teradata will provide its latest release of Teradata Warehouse 7.1 and supply consulting services to assist Microsoft in testing and optimization. The companies will publish best practices for using the products together. Bill Baker, Microsoft’s SQL Server business intelligence general manager, noted that Microsoft is working with industry partners to provide customers with better connectivity.
New storage products address cost
In May, IBM announced new tape and disk storage products that it claims will help companies address growing data retention and government regulatory concerns while taking advantage of new, lower-cost technologies. The new storage products can help companies efficiently manage the lifecycle of data from creation to disposal. These include the IBM TotalStorage FAStT100 Storage Server, an entry-level near-line disk storage system, and Write Once Read Many (WORM) media technology for the IBM TotalStorage Enterprise Tape Drive 3592 for long-term data retention. Dell Inc. is planning to make storage-attached networks (SANs) mainstream with the release of its AX100, aimed at remote departments, workgroups and enterprises smaller than the top tier. Made up of integrated components from EMC Corp., QLogic Corp. and Brocade Communications Systems Inc., the resulting SAN will provide fast access to consolidated data storage, with each connected server having access to its own unique part of the SAN’s disk storage. It will also cost less than US$10,869. Dell CEO Kevin Rollins said the AX100 is of interest to “more than one third of Dell’s addressable market.” However, the AX100 will scale from 480GB to 3TB and is easily set up with Wizard-based tools. It can be configured in just four steps, Dell boasts. EMC head Joe Tucci said, “What we’re providing is a SAN environment for the price of what used to be direct-attached.” — with file from Chris Mellor, Techworld.com
CME aims to redefine ‘made in Canada’
Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters in May launched Manufacturing 2020: Building Our Vision For The Future, which it hopes will produce by October an action plan for industry and government that identifies specific elements needed to preserve a strong industrial base in Canada. The CME has begun a series of meetings coast to coast where manufacturers, exporters, suppliers and service partners will discuss industry challenges, global trends and other critical factors for business success. “Manufacturing in Canada and around the world is being transformed. In ten years time it will be unrecognizable,” reported Perrin Beatty, CME president and CEO. “The challenge for us is to anticipate how manufacturing will look, to determine the future we want, and to work together to achieve it.” According to CME chair Dan Gagnier, “while there is no way we can defy change, we can define it. Drawing on the ingenuity that has shaped our country over the generations, we can make today’s global shifts work for us rather than against us.” Check out www.cme-mec.ca/mfg2020/index.asp.
Storage backup appliances scale to 20TB
Unitrends Software Corp. in June unveiled storage systems to help businesses protect their data. The Data Protection Units (DPU) are available in desktop or rack-mountable configurations and include data backup-and-restore software, bare metal restore, and scalability to as much as 20TB. Further, the new DPUs are as much as 50 per cent faster than previous DPUs. They include the ability to perform disk-to-disk backup and can be configured as a near-line vaulting product. The DPUs support a variety of operating systems, including Windows, Linux, NetWare, Solaris and UnixWare. They also feature a compression technology called RX9 that allows data backups and restores to be done in a fraction of the time of tape-based alternatives. The DPUs are available in a variety of configurations, scaling from 250GB and starting at US$4,500. — Deni Connor, Network World Fusion (U.S.)


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Soulja Boy just blasted Gucci while on stage at the High Times Cup in Adelanto, Calif on Sunday.
It's because the Italian fashion brand put out a turtleneck sweater that resembled blackface a while back. Soulja first cancelled the brand last month, around the same time people like T.I. and 50 Cent did the same thing. Soulja also said he's going to remove his Gucci tattoo soon. On the other hand, Young Thug was seen sporting the blackface sweater not too long ago.
"Hold the f--k up. F--k Gucci, n---a. Gucci canceled. N---a, f--k outta here. Gucci racist as f--k," said Soulja right after he stopped his song "Gucci Bandana." "Man, y'all got me f--ked up. Gucci put out that racist ass sh-t with that blackface sh-t on that sh-t. Nigga, f--k Gucci, on my momma, n---a. I spent over $1 million on Gucci in the last ten years. N---a, they can suck my d--k with that racist sh-t. F--k Gucci!"
If you have any Gucci, are you still rocking it? You can check out Soulja's performance below.


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The report cites confidential sources, and it's in line with what we've heard as well.
That's more than two years after Apple released the original iPad (April 2010) and created what it's calling the "post-PC" market.
That seems incredibly slow, but it's a year faster than Microsoft responded to the iPhone, which essentially created the market for high-end consumer smartphones. The first iPhone shipped in July 2007; Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 platform showed up on phones in November 2010.
That's understandable: the Windows group is a well-oiled machine compared with Microsoft's mobile phone group in 2007, which had to be staffed up before it could come up with a viable iPhone competitor.
Sources also told us that Microsoft hoped to have a version of the tablet interface ready to show off by the end of the company's fiscal year in June. But as Bloomberg reports, it might not have a feature-complete version to share with partners until the end of the calendar year.
We'll know more when Microsoft announces a date for its next Professional Developers' Conference, which is where the company is most likely to drop the first Windows 8 builds on developers.


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Wedding planners, Brexit marchers and a voyage on the good ship Titanic II
Planet Business: A week of unexpected comebacks
Buck Frexit in the 21st century. Photograph: Niklas Halle’n/AFP
In numbers: Wedding trade
Number of wedding planners from around the world attending this week’s sold-out Engage! Luxury Wedding and Event Business Summit at Adare Manor in Co Limerick.
Revenue that the overseas wedding market generates for Irish businesses, according to Fáilte Ireland. Wedding guests from overseas also generate an estimated €150 million in spending while they’re here.
The “investment to attend” the summit is costing the luxury event professionals up to this much. Though, to be fair, it does include a “dessert party” in which like-minded wedding planners can “meet up to share experiences over a lavish parade of sweets and confections”.
Image of the week: Buck Frexit
A tale of two protest signs here as the plaintive “I’m 16… your vote, my future” and the polite wordplay of “Buck Frexit” appear side-by-side at last weekend’s anti-Brexit march in central London. The demonstration, said to be the biggest in the city since the anti-Iraq war protest of 2003, was otherwise marked by sunny weather, early 1990s dance music and thousands of luminous yellow “b*****ks to Brexit” stickers. In other words the atmosphere was substantially better than it was reported to have been at Tuesday’s meeting of the British cabinet, at which valiant efforts to avoid chaos from a no-deal Brexit inflamed pro-Brexit ministers, apparently leading to a mood that wasn’t so much sunny as it was “heated”. Photograph: Niklas Halle’n/AFP
The lexicon: Splinternet
The “splinternet” is what happens when the internet runs up against national and regional borders and stops being the global sphere that some of its early evangelists hoped it would be. The big digital border is likely to be – and some might say already is – between a Chinese-led internet and non-Chinese internet led by the US, as former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt recently put it, with the two divided by the “great firewall of China”. Concerns about the ramifications (both democratic and commercial) of a deeper “splinternet” come at an interesting time for Google, which recently confirmed for the first time the existence of Project Dragonfly, under which the tech giant has explored the idea of building search tools that would comply with Chinese authorities’ fondness for user monitoring and censorship.
Getting to know: Titanic II
The Titanic II is the long-term pet project of Australian mining magnate and conservative politician Clive Palmer, who this week revealed that work on his Blue Star Line company’s full-size replica of the Titanic is resuming. The unconfirmed rumours are that billionaire Palmer wants his sequel of an ocean liner to set sail from Southampton in 2022, some 110 years after its ill-fated predecessor. According to a tweet by Time magazine, it will “follow the same route as the original”, which is going a touch overboard, though on closer examination it does actually intend to deliver all of its passengers to New York this time. Start replenishing your period costume wardrobes now and not to worry if the only available tickets are third class – climate change will have melted all the icebergs soon anyway.
The list: 1990s fashion revivals
These aren’t the smoothest of times for clothing retailers, which might explain why some of them are harking back to the glory days of the 1990s for their next big trend.
1. Dr Martens: Its boots last had a big fashion hurrah during the early 1990s, but this week the company that makes them said sales were up 20 per cent thanks to some recent celebrity endorsements.
2. Corduroy: Like Dr Martens, corduroy peaks every 20 years or so.
3. Thongs: Department store John Lewis this week attributed a surge in sales of stringy quasi-underwear to the reality show Love Island.
4. Scrunchies: The hair ties fell off a fashion cliff at some point, but in 2018 they have the double-backing of both Claire’s Accessories and the catwalk crowd.
5. Velvet: It’s never really left Marks & Spencer, but now the grunge-era fabric is occupying space on every shop’s rails.


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While the Superbowl brings football fans together from far and wide, it has the rare opportunity of attracting attention from people who know nothing or could care less about football. Between the new and exciting movie trailers, the ads companies pay millions of dollars to feature during the game and the star-studded half time show, every Super Bowl is sure to attract hundreds of thousands of viewers at the least. The 2022 Super Bowl was no different, with a halftime show featuring Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige and Eminem, and plenty of new movie trailers that attracted filmgoers. The game was also filled with ads that starred a variety of celebrities, everywhere from Doja Cat to Paul Rudd.
However, the game was also littered with ads for cryptocurrency. Not one but four ads aired during the Super Bowl for crypto currency, with the most prominent being a simple QR code that drifted over the screen with soothing background music. If viewers scanned the code, they were led to a promotional deal that offered them $15 in Bitcoin if they signed up for the cryptocurrency site Coinbase.
The site got so much traffic in such a short amount of time that it promptly crashed. While the memes were great, the feeling the ad and others like it left was not. Cryptocurrency may be the trend, but ultimately, it’s unsustainable and a volatile investment.
Not only does cryptocurrency mining take an immense amount of power to process, but the fluctuation of the marketable value of cryptocurrency makes investing in it a gamble many cannot afford. The energy it takes to run the computers to mine cryptocurrency is astronomical, wasting valuable resources to gather something that isn’t even tangible.
Cryptocurrency is often described as an investment, not an exchange, which in my opinion makes it even sketchier and classist. The market value of cryptocurrency fluctuates frequently and is only a safe investment for those who can afford to gamble their money. For example, Dogecoin shot up 15000% last summer but fell all the way back down within weeks. Disadvantaged communities or individuals often don’t have the luxury to risk putting their money into something so unpredictable, especially when priorities like food, rent or other essentials are involved.
If the service is only accessible to a minute community instead of the many fans gathered to watch the game, there’s no point in airing four ads about how great cryptocurrency is. Cryptocurrency isn’t the future, especially since it puts our environmental and financial future at risk.


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Amazon is my favorite way to shop. I can’t even imagine life without them anymore. But they are big business and they are taking over whole segments of the marketplace. In some ways, that is good… in others, not so much. They wiped out billions of dollars of grocery store market cap last month when they announced they were planning on purchasing Whole Foods. Now, they are moving on Blue Apron as well. In the wake of this development, shares of Kroger, Wal-Mart, Sprouts, and Target are cratering.
But Amazon’s huge success was pretty much inevitable. Amazon Go’s existence along with other concept stores are virtually eliminating the need for in-store employees. This allows them to spend less and make more. Which in turn, lets them offer lower prices to customers than traditional grocers. It is the face of the future whether people like it or not. Smart stores with no check outs and far fewer employees will destroy the traditional supermarket business model.
A similar revolution is taking place in restaurants. Many are going to computerized kiosks. Other are using computer tablets at tables, so customers can order. Humans will still bring out their food… for now. But there is no doubt about it… robots are going to cut 1,000’s of minimum wage jobs, if not millions in the end and sooner rather than later.
This may take time. The conversion to robots won’t be overnight, but in 10-15 years, you will no longer recognize the retail grocery market. So, grocers have a choice. They can adapt to the technological revolution that is about to transform their industry or they can face the same slow, painful death that ultimately claimed the life of Blockbuster video. Some don’t plan on waiting that long.
A Midwest grocery store chain named Schnucks has decided to deploy Tally… a grocery stocking robot and the wave of the future. It is a slender robot that moves like a Roomba. It automatically checks for stock levels and verifies prices. They have 100 stores in five states. The chain is running a pilot test at one store in Missouri for six weeks, but it is expected to be a precursor to deploying these robots at their other stores and downsizing their employee base.
Each robot weighs about 30 pounds and is equipped with sensors to help it navigate the store’s layout and avoid bumping into customers’ carts. When it detects product areas that aren’t fully stocked, the data is shared with store management staff so the retailer can make changes. It’s brilliant really. I assume management is notified by an alert on a tablet and off they go.
Tally was created by a San Francisco-based company named Simbe. It is also being tested at other mass merchants and dollar stores all across the country. It’s actually been around for a couple of years, but the robotics craze is heating up because of the demand for a $15 an hour minimum wage. Which will ironically put even more people out of work and cause businesses to use even more robots.
There are over 40,000 grocery stores in the US, with 3.5 million employees. People working in them are probably going to have to find another way to make a living. These robots don’t get tired or sick and they never stop working. This is the future… Fight for #15! and Bernie Sanders Marxists might want to take note that they are becoming obsolete.


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Apple Music now boasts 60 million paying subscribers, according to figures shared by the company this morning. Apple’s Eddy Cue disclosed the figure to French publication Numerama, while more broadly discussing the company’s shift away from iTunes.
Back in mid-May of 2018, Apple’s Tim Cook officially disclosed a total of 50 million paying subs. Which means that the platform has tacked on 10 million new subscribers in roughly 13 months — with both figures including paying and trial users.
Importantly, Apple Music’s rate-of-growth is slowing substantially. Last year, Apple was adding a breakneck 2 million subs a month, though a slowdown was probably inevitable.
Spotify announced that it had crossed the all-important 100 million-mark in April. Incidentally, Spotify hit the 75 million-mark in early May of 2018, right before Apple hit 50 million.
Cue was careful to emphasize that older iTunes users — and their playlists and collections — would not be left in the lurch by the transition towards a separate music app. But iTunes is now in the rearview mirror, with a dedicated music app rapidly replacing the older, consolidated media approach.
The transition could accelerate subscriber gains for Apple Music, though it’s still too early to understand the impact.
“Of course I’m fond of iTunes, but I think Apple Music is absolutely better in every way,” Cue relayed. “We have something better now and there’s no point in looking back.”
“And contrary to what the press may have reported, purchases and other iTunes playlists are being entirely transferred into the new application. Nothing will be lost from the pre-streaming era.”
Among those ‘press reports’ was Digital Music News — we broke the story last year that Apple was planning to sunset iTunes music downloads. At the time, sources noted that previously-downloaded songs would not be eliminated, which is exactly how Apple proceeded. But Apple hasn’t shut down its iTunes Store for purchasing song downloads — at least not yet.
In response to questions about the sunsetting of iTunes purchases, Apple’s former Head of Music Jimmy Iovine merely stated that the Store would be retired when “people stop buying.” So perhaps it’s just a matter of time.
On the topic of podcasts, Cue was less interested in creating an audio smorgasbord like Spotify.
“These are two different things,” Cue said. “You don’t listen to a podcast, then listen to a piece of music, and then listen to a podcast. And experience has shown us that running music and podcasts in separate applications works great on iOS.”
Just recently, Bloomberg estimated that Amazon Music has roughly 30 million subscribers, while Google/Alphabet (which includes YouTube and Google Play) claims around 15 million subscribers.
Source: Digital Music News


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Walmart Canada launches new multi-temperature refrigerated trailer
Global retail giant Walmart said its Walmart Canada segment recently rolled out a new 60-foot multi-temperature refrigerated trailer, which the company says is one of the first of its kind for the company in North America. North.
The company observed in a blog post written by Stephanie Fusco, General Affairs Manager of Walmart Canada, that this trailer allows the company to ship more freight to stores in a single trip, providing better efficiency to the within its supply chain, as well as lower CO2 emissions.
In terms of how this new trailer can drive efficiencies, Fusco noted in the blog that departing Walmart’s Mississauga fulfillment center for its Windsor and Woodstock stores, the temperature refrigerated trailer can hold up to 30 pallets of perishables, such as meat and dry/wet goods, requiring different temperatures.
“For context, a standard 53-foot trailer can hold about 26 pallets,” Fusco wrote. “The increased capacity and multi-temperature zones provide the flexibility to serve our stores in the most efficient way by combining certain stops that would not normally be dispatched on the same trailer.”
Aaron Ritter, director of transportation at Walmart Canada, said ML that a major driver of this new trailer was due to Walmart aiming for zero emissions globally by 2040 without the use of offsets.
“We know that innovative and efficient transportation solutions are essential to achieving our sustainability goals,” Ritter said. “In 2012, we launched our first pilot program with our 60-foot ‘super cube’ trailer, and since then we’ve continued to work with organizations and manufacturers across the province on other ways to leverage tailor-made solutions to bring efficiency and savings to our customers. The introduction of our new 60 foot refrigerated trailer is just one of the ways we have created custom solutions to our transportation needs.
In terms of the benefits this trailer offers Walmart, from an operational and efficiency standpoint, Ritter explained that it gives Walmart additional flexibility, in terms of how it ships products and schedules routes.
As an example, he said Walmart Canada is able to make fewer trips overall by pairing certain stores with varying temperatures, allowing Walmart Canada to increase capacity more than ever before and helping reduce emissions. carbon by having less mileage and/or fewer trucks on the road.
In the blog, Walmart Canada’s Fusco said that in 2012 Walmart started a pilot program with the Ontario Ministry of Transportation to introduce 60-foot trailers to Ontario roads. And she added that this Special Vehicle Configuration Permit pilot project has been a success and has allowed organizations across the province to improve productivity by reducing the number of trips needed to move lighter and bulkier goods.
When asked if Walmart plans to use these types of trailers outside of Canada, Ritter said that given the success of Walmart’s Special Vehicle Configuration Permit pilot project with the Department of Transportation of Ontario, Walmart hopes to similarly collaborate with officials and the trucking industry to address future emissions and safety challenges with innovative approaches in other markets.
“While we are delighted to be able to reduce the number of trucks on the road and therefore reduce our carbon footprint, we have always said that sustainability is not a competitive advantage – we will share the knowledge and technology put into this truck with anyone interested in order to have the greatest impact on environmental protection,” said Ritter. “Our ability to ship up to 30% more product not only benefits the environment, but also reduces transportation costs, which is a saving that we can pass on to our customers.”
About the Author
Jeff Berman, Group News Editor Jeff Berman is Group News Editor for Logistics management, Modern material handlingand Supply Chain Management Review. Jeff works and lives in Cape Elizabeth, Maine where he covers all aspects of the supply chain, logistics, freight forwarding and material handling industries on a daily basis. Contact Jeff Berman


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In an effort to increase its fuel economy by up to 30 percent, Toyota is going to revamp its engine lineup, which could see the next Camry losing its V6 in favor of a turbocharged four-cylinder.
Toyota recently introduced a 2.0L turbocharged four-cylinder in the 2015 Lexus NX 200t crossover, but it's expected that the engine will eventually be offered in several other Lexus and Toyota models. With 235 horsepower on tap, the 2.0L turbocharged engine could replace the Camry's V6 and is on par with the turbocharged four-cylinder engines offered in the Ford Fusion and Hyundai Sonata.
The next-generation Toyota Camry will be the first model to be built on the automaker's Toyota New Global Architecture with a new platform and engine lineup. The new Camry could debut as early as sometime in 2016.
Source: Automotive News
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Only two social networking sites make minors' profiles private by default, according to a test of 14 such sites conducted for the European Commission.
According to press reports, AOL has finally got rid of its Bebo albatross.
First they came for Bebo and now it looks as if even larger rival MySpace is losing the battle against the social networking steamroller that is Facebook.
AOL is actively trying to rid itself of Bebo, the social-networking site it acquired two years ago for a whopping US$850 million.
Bebo is launching local-language versions of its social networking site in five European countries, offering premium video content via media partners, the company said Monday.
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Aston Martin goes "green" at the 'Ring, Bugatti becomes world's fastest ragtop and Citroen previews something Wild.
Just two of 16 family sedans rated "good" in IIHS crash test; European Car of the Year shortlist announced
Honda gets more Fits, VW's baby-SUV is staying in Brazil and the GM Peugeot alliance announces their frist offspring — all in today’s First Shift …
John LeBlanc reviews the new cars and concepts from the home-market French automakers at the 2012 Paris Motor Show.
Reigning world champion Sebastien Loeb of France in a Citroën won the Monte Carlo rally for the sixth time on Sunday to take up where he left off last season — on top the World Rally Championship standings
Frenchman Sebastien Loeb will be aiming for an unprecedented ninth World Rally Championship (WRC) title when the 2012 season kicks off Wednesday with the return of the Monte Carlo Rally.
Apple Inc.’s suppliers are preparing to manufacture the company’s largest-ever iPad, with production scheduled to commence by the first quarter of next year, according to people with knowledge of the matter
Mozilla Corp. began offering its first low-cost smartphone in India for 1,999 rupees ($33), in a bid to build market share for its open source software in the world’s fastest growing market for such devices
If your iPhone 5's battery suddenly seems to drain far too quickly, you may be eligible to get it replaced by Apple Inc. for free


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Zomato boss Deepinder Goyal on Tuesday clarified that the new 10-minute service will be “safe for delivery partners” amid what he signaled as “outrage” on LinkedIn, the popular career networking website. The restaurant aggregator is aiming to break new grounds with the 10-minute delivery service, christened as ‘Zomato Instant’. In his latest note on Twitter, the 38-year-old CEO wrote: “I just want to tell you more about how 10-minute delivery works, and how it is as safe for our delivery partners as 30-minute delivery.”
The instant service “will be for specific nearby locations, popular and standardized menu items only” and there will be “no penalties for late deliveries and no incentives for on-time deliveries.” “We are building new food stations to enable the 10-minute service for specific customer locations only,” the CEO on Tuesday wrote in his intricate note.
The food delivery giant on Monday revealed what brought forth the thought for cutting on the conveyance time from 30 to 10 minutes. “Customers are increasingly demanding quicker answers to their needs. They don’t want to plan, and they don’t want to wait. In fact, sorting restaurants by fastest delivery time is one of the most used features on the Zomato app,” a blog post read.
There were mixed responses, in any case, via social media, uniquely LinkedIn. “Zomato Instant is an unnecessary addition and can result in a risk to the delivery partner and the food quality. Eventually, they would put incentives for delivery partners who would be under tremendous pressure to deliver the order on time,”.


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Up-and-coming sites may make Boston a leader in e-commerce
In a Back Bay building that once housed Shreve, Crump & Low, husband-and-wife entrepreneurs Greg and Dina Selkoe are building an e-commerce company that is already bigger than the upscale jeweler ever was. With about 100 employees in Boston, Karmaloop expects to generate $130 million this year peddling hoodies, sneakers, and shades to the uber-hip.
A few blocks to the west is CSN Stores, an online seller of furniture and home décor items that attracted $165 million in funding last month. It has set its sights on becoming the “clear destination for the home’’ on the Web, according to chief executive Niraj Shah. He says the company will likely surpass $500 million in revenues this year.
The two are part of a small cluster of companies that could turn Boston into a high-profile hub of e-commerce. We’re already home to the number two online merchant, Staples Inc., which sold just over $10 billion worth of office supplies online last year. But Staples and every other player exist in the shadow of the big kahuna, Amazon.com, which raked in $34 billion in revenues last year.
As is often the case, Boston’s status deficiency stems from two failings: that Olde Yankee distaste for self-promotion, and too many entrepreneurs selling their companies too soon. Shoebuy.com, an online footwear retailer, sold to InterActiveCorp in 2006, for instance, and Rue La La, a site that conducts time-limited “flash sales’’ of high-end apparel and services, was acquired by GSI Commerce in 2009. Companies tend to attract less attention once they’re tucked inside big conglomerates.
“I think that Boston can be too quiet sometimes about what it does well,’’ says Shah. “But I also think we’re seeing a critical mass of e-commerce talent and excitement starting to build.’’
CSN Stores built its business on the strength of logistics expertise - not many e-tailers like to handle shipping and returns of exercise equipment, for instance - and ability to show up prominently in all sorts of Web searches. Looking to buy a new vanity cabinet for a bathroom recently, I found myself at a CSN-operated site, JustVanities.com. The company also operates MoreTVStands.com, DiningSets.com, and about 200 other specialty sites.
But CSN’s biggest deficiency has been its inability to build brand loyalty and spur repeat sales. Someone who buys a vanity from JustVanities.com may not know the same company also sells dining room sets and holiday decorations. While we think of Amazon as the place to buy almost anything, CSN customers think of it as a place for purchasing a very specific thing. (WickerChairs.com, anyone?)
Shah’s plan is to consolidate 200-plus CSN sites into about four brands, and replace the generic-sounding CSN with the brand Wayfair, which the company developed with help from BrandEquity, a Newton consultancy. The company’s two main sites, launching later this summer, will be known as Wayfair and Wayfair Office.
Separately, CSN will continue running a flash sale site called Joss & Main, and a site for higher-end home goods called AllModern. Shah says we’ll likely see some splashy advertising to support the new Wayfair brand in 2012.
CSN has about 800 employees, and could surpass 1,000 by year-end. Shah says the $165 million his company just banked may be used for international expansion or acquisitions.
Karmaloop, which raised $30 million in venture capital in 2008, is hunting for about $50 million in new funding.
Chief executive Greg Selkoe says the site targets the 18-to-25 age group. “We call our demographic ‘verge culture,’ ’’ he said. “It’s the first generation that has grown up on the Internet. They’re multiracial and multiethnic. They’re into the newest stuff, and they approach dressing from a collector’s standpoint. Our audience collects hoodies and sneakers the way others used to collect baseball cards.’’
The Karmaloop site sells products such as a $25 printed T-shirt from Fly Society, but the company expects in September to launch a new site, Boylston Trading Co., to offer more expensive, slightly more dressy attire, Selkoe says. The new site will be accompanied by an invitation-only showroom in the old Shreve building at Boylston and Arlington streets.
Selkoe also has plans to launch a new cable channel, KTV, featuring video content about music, food, street art, and fashion trends, geared to a young audience.
The wild card in Boston e-commerce is what happens with Rue La La. Among the first to offer flash sales on pricey clothing and accessories, Rue last year expanded into the increasingly crowded business of offering “daily deals’’ from restaurants, spas, and other local firms.
But Rue was acquired in 2009 by a Pennsylvania company, and eBay bought that company earlier this year. Then, eBay subsequently said it would spin off Rue and another site as part of a new holding company, retaining a 30 percent stake. Will that newfound independence help Rue regain momentum? Rue CEO Ben Fischman wasn’t available for an interview last week.
According to Internet Retailer’s rankings, Boston isn’t doing too terribly: Staples moves more product online than Apple or Dell. VistaPrint, which sells custom-printed products such as T-shirts and business cards, is at number 36 on the Top 100 list; CSN is 51; and Shoebuy is 87. But vaulting new ventures onto the list, and improving the position of those already there, would change the way Boston is perceived.
Writing about CSN Stores on his blog, Boston venture capitalist Larry Cheng predicts the e-tailer “could be transformative for this town. You have former private equity professionals, recent college grads, rising stars in corporate America, and other walks of life all going to CSN Stores to learn the nitty-gritty of building an e-commerce business.’’ (Cheng’s firm, Volition Capital, isn’t an investor in CSN.)
“I fully expect that 5 to 10 years from now, the legacy of CSN Stores will be a vibrant community of next-generation e-commerce companies started by CSN alumni,’’ Cheng writes. “And that’s exactly what Boston needs.’’


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Changing times for marine insurers with blockchain and IoT
Emerging technologies like blockchain and the Internet of
Things (IoT) are likely to transform the maritime transport industry in the
coming years, creating potential opportunities for insurers.
The marine and transport sectors are starting to invest in
innovative technology solutions as they look to increase efficiency and improve
the quality of products and services.
Earlier this year IBM and Maersk piloted a blockchain supply
chain system, which the shipping company is using to process some 10 million
containers in 2017. In the aviation sector, GE is developing micro-robots to
carry out routine inspections of jet engines, a technology that they could also
use for gas turbines.
Blockchain, in particular, is expected to make big waves in
the logistics sector, increasing efficiency and transparency and reducing the
potential for fraud. Blockchain-based platforms enable multiple parties to
share and verify data and documents in real time – so-called ‘smart contracts’
could also use blockchain to automate certain actions, like paying a claim or releasing
In the context of the marine and logistics industry, a blockchain
platform can link shippers, freight forwarders, financial institutions, ports
and customs authorities, enabling them to share shipping data and documents,
such as invoices, bills of lading or insurance certificates.
Maersk is working with EY on a cargo insurance blockchain
solution that can capture marine data, such as information about risk and
liability, as well as help firms comply with insurance regulations.
The other big technology development for marine and
transport is IoT. Developments in computing and sensor technology will enable
companies to track and monitor the condition of cargo in real time, while IoT
systems can monitor engines and plants, flagging up faults or recommending
The marine and logistics sectors are expected to be among
the biggest adopters of IoT. According to the Boston Consulting Group, business
to business investment in IoT will reach €250bn by 2020, of which 50% will be
driven by the transportation, logistics and utilities sectors.
If shipping and logistics widely adopt technologies like blockchain
and IoT, it could mean big changes for global trade. IBM estimates that
digitising the container paper trail using blockchain could save shipping
carriers about $38bn every year.
Technology adoption is now attracting the attention of the
marine insurance industry, and was the focus of the President’s Workshop at
this year’s IUMI (International Union of Maritime Insurers) conference in Tokyo.
The IoT and blockchain workshops at the event gave the impression that there is
plenty of opportunity for marine insurers that are willing to adapt to changing
Insurers are starting to work with their clients to explore
such technologies – a small number of marine contracts using blockchain have
already been underwritten, for example.
Blockchain and IoT technology will have wide-ranging
implications for marine and transport insurers, both in terms of the risks they
underwrite and how they do so. They are also likely to present an immense
opportunity for insurers writing other classes.
Cargo policies, as well as related coverages like trade
credit, could plug into blockchain-based supply chain or logistics platforms,
giving insurers access to data and potentially leading to major efficiencies.
IoT could also give insurers access to new data, such as
station-keeping data for floating offshore platforms or data on ‘hogging and
sagging’ of super tankers, which would enable insurers to monitor fatigue of
The increased availability of data and analytics will be a
rare step-change for the marine and transport insurance sector, giving
underwriters better information and insights.
However, huge volumes of data alone will be of limited value
for insurers. Data will need to be relevant to assessing risk and will need to
be built up over time. For example, data on cargo movement could provide
powerful information for insurers. However, to be of real benefit, it would
need to cover a period of many years as it would only detail historical
information rather than being forward-looking.
Although the application of blockchain and IoT technology is
still in its infancy, marine and transport insurers need to start thinking
ahead and identifying the data they would find most relevant and who they might
need to partner with in order to access it.


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Google has announced it is jacking up the price of YouTube TV by $15 a month, infuriating customers of the cord-cutting live TV streaming service.
From today, for new customers, or the next billing cycle for existing subscribers, monthly fees go up to a whopping $64.99 a month. That comes after Google increased the subscription to $49.99 from $39.99 last April.
Google says it is not taking the decision lightly and cites the rising cost of content. However, subscribers are already registering their displeasure on social media, with many threatening to cancel.
“We don’t take these decisions lightly, and realize how hard this is for our members,” Google said in the announcement. “That said, this new price reflects the rising cost of content and we also believe it reflects the complete value of YouTube TV, from our breadth of content to the features that are changing how we watch live TV.”
Related: Best Disney Plus TV shows and movies
Google has conveniently timed the announcement to coincide with the launch of eight new channels, which debut on the service today. Those are BET, CMT, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Network, TV Land and VH1. They will be followed by BET Her, MTV2, MTV Classic, Nick Jr., NickToons, and TeenNick in the near future, as part of a wider deal with ViacomCBS.
The company also said it was looking for more flexible models, suggesting tiered subscriptions may be coming in the near future.
“As the streaming industry continues to evolve, we are working to build new flexible models for YouTube TV users, so we can continue to provide a robust and innovative experience for everyone in your household without the commitments of traditional TV,” the company adds.
YouTube TV started as an affordable alternative to a cable and satellite TV subscription with more agile online viewing options, device freedom and the ability to cancel at any time. Right now it’s looking as if we’re heading towards price parity with the traditional cable TV platforms. Here’s what subscribers have to say:
This is ridiculous. I’ve had a subscription for a year now, but I’m not going to pay $65 a month for a bunch of channels I don’t want.
— David St. Hilaire (@DavidStHilaire1) June 30, 2020
I’m out. You raise the price but don’t offer packages. I have spread the gospel of @YouTubeTV but you keep raising prices for channels we don’t want. I can get all of that with @hulu live at a better price. Later #youtubetv
— ???????? (@quallick) June 30, 2020
— Mike (@Green_94) June 30, 2020
@YouTubeTV I was an early adapter and was grandfathered in at $35 and now it’s $65, come on. This is not why I wanted YouTube TV so I could pay 70 bucks a month. Where’s the unsubscribe button
— scott abramczyk (@lethalgorman) June 30, 2020


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You have searched for "Vincent Tan"
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PETALING JAYA: Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun (pic), who relinquished the chairmanship of Berjaya Corp Bhd (BCorp) in February 2012 to focus on charitable and social programmes, has returned as executive chairman of the group he founded.
WHILE Vincent Tan has handed over the reins of his sprawling Berjaya Group to his son Datuk Robin Tan, the elder Tan remains the man to watch next year, both on the corporate front and the sporting pages.
KUALA LUMPUR: Berjaya Corp Bhd (BCorp) founder and executive chairman Tan Sri Vincent Tan plans to take private his convenient chain store operator 7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings Bhd as well as property and hotel business unit Berjaya Land Bhd (BLand).
PETALING JAYA: Tycoon Tan Sri Vincent Tan has denied an online report claiming that he had invested US$250mil (RM1bil) in a get-rich-quick scheme.
KUALA LUMPUR: Shares of T7 Global Bhd are down 9% in early Wednesday trading following an after-hours announcement by tycoon Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun that he will be divesting his entire stake in the company.
PETALING JAYA: A month after emerging as a substantial shareholder in T7 Global Bhd, Tan Sri Vincent Tan has announced his plan to exit the offshore oilfield service provider in light of the recent controversy over the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project.
KUALA LUMPUR: Billionaire Tan Sri Vincent Tan has not ruled out the possibility of listing Cardiff City and 7-Eleven to raise funds.
KUALA LUMPUR: Billionaire Tan Sri Vincent Tan has not ruled out the possibility of listing Cardiff City Football Club and 7-Eleven to raise funds.


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WORLD BEER AWARDS
07th August 2019
NEXT STORY Gin Magazine Issue 8 Out..PREVIOUS STORY Whisky Magazine 161 Out Now!
After months of tastings and from over 3500 entries globally this year, the results for the style & country winners are now here.
These were announced on 7th August after the final tasting which was attended by over 200 brewers, judges and journalists from around the world.
We have seen a great range of products and are all looking forward to the World's Best in each Category which will be announced on 19 September. And of course next year to see what new and exciting things develop in the world of beers.
Here are all country winners http://www.worldbeerawards.com/shares/WBA19_A4_CountryWinnersBooklet.pdf
Here are the style winners, all of which now compete for the title World’s Best in their categorieshttp://www.worldbeerawards.com/shares/World-Beer-Awards-2019-Style-Winners.pdf


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If you're not in a rush to receive your prints, the Office Pro 6.1 makes a worthwhile sidekick with several cloud printing options, a generous 200-sheet paper input capacity, and a 35-sheet autodocument feeder for hands-free scans on the upgraded 2,400dpi scanner.
Iwata served as one of Nintendo's top executives for more than a decade, as the company faced increasing competition from Microsoft and Sony.
The smartphone giant expects second-quarter operating profit to decline 4 percent and miss analysts' expectations.
Healthy demand for Fitbit's initial public offering is a sign that consumers will keep buying fitness bands even when they have the option to choose more feature-packed wearables like the Apple Watch.
Mobile networks will cover 90 percent of the world as smartphone subscriptions more than double to 6.1 billion by 2020, according to Ericsson's research.
First it was video, then it was packages. Now a new trend is emerging with drone use: humanitarian relief.
The HTC E9 smartphone will be thinner than the M9, with a bigger screen running at a much higher resolution, if leaked specs and images are to be believed.
Apple enters the high-end watch market with the 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition. But CEO Tim Cook stays mum about how to keep the smartwatch relevant a year or two down the line.
Check out these impressive big-screen smartphones that won't cause a big drain on your wallet.
Worldwide, Samsung's market share drops from 32.5 percent in 2013 to 28 percent in 2014, while competitors, like Apple, maintain or gain ground.


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With the Steam anime sale, Twinfinite has decided to detail some of the best games that are on offer.
Maybe you've been watching the wrong anime?
This list mostly applies to one type of anime fan.
It's focused on the games in this weekend's steam sale, so it's limited by design.
it's about that all day anime
I think the only one worth playing in that list is Ys Origin
N4G is a community of gamers posting and discussing the latest game news. It’s part of NewsBoiler, a network of social news sites covering today’s pop culture.


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Video-on-demand service app HOOQ announced a new ad-free premium service that paves the way for users to watch your favorite content free.
This new hybrid model now allows customers to sample a premium service at no cost. Pilot episodes of all TV series will now be free for all registered users even after their free trial period has ended. Customers can now catch pilot episodes from DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, Devious Maids, The Mentalist, Castle to Alyas Robin Hood, Walang Hanggan and #Jadine whenever they hit the service. This extended sampling gives the customers the power to decide if they would like to continue to watch the rest of series before they pay for the subscription.
HOOQ fans can look forward to a new app interface that boasts a mobile first UX that has been built from extensive customer beta testing and usability research to derive a customer-centric experience, given that over 80% of customers are consuming HOOQ on their mobile devices.
Globe Postpaid customers can get up to 45 days of free trial with Globe GoSURF 99 and below, and up to 90 days of free trial for all mobile customers availing of GoSURF 299 and up. Broadband customers also get HOOQ for free on Globe Home Broadband. Once the trial period expires, GoSURF customers can continue enjoying HOOQ at Php149 subscription fee monthly charged to your Globe bill. For all other subscribers, you can either pay the Php149 monthly subscription fee through credit card or charge it to your Globe bill.
Sign up today on www.HOOQ.tv for a free trial. Monthly subscriptions start from Php149.00 and soon, customers can also choose from weekly subscriptions for as low as Php59.00.
HOOQ’s new ad-free freemium service will be available to all customers starting October.
HOOQ is available on Android, iOS, Google Chromecast, Android set-up boxes, and Airplay.


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Geely introduces modular Sustainable Experience Architecture, world’s first open-source EV platform – paultan.org
Geely Holding (that’s the group and not the namesake brand) has announced the launch of its Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA), billed as the world’s first open-source electric vehicle architecture “that promises to transform the availability of zero-emission cars and trucks in the world’s largest auto markets”.
Geely says that it will deploy the SEA architecture across its portfolio of nine automotive brands (this total includes Proton) which collectively sold over two million units in 2019. The first model to be based on SEA will be the Lynk & Co Zero Concept, which will go into production next year.
The open-source part is from Geely promising to make SEA accessible to other automakers and third parties. The company says that it has entered into preliminary discussions with other global OEMs about potential use of the SEA architecture. Initially, SEA will be used by Geely Holding portfolio brands that are accelerating their EV model range.
“Our development of this transformative electric vehicle architecture marks the biggest leap forward at Geely in more than a decade. This far-reaching innovation will greatly expand the volume and scalability of our zero-emission models, and we intend to offer the benefits of this innovation to other manufacturers – reflecting the common interests in our industry in addressing the challenges of climate change. Open-source architectures will be a hallmark of new mobility services, of which Geely is proud to be the pioneer,” said Geely chairman and founder Li Shufu.
According to its creator, the modular SEA can accommodate vehicles from A to D/E segments, and will have a variant developed for light commercial vehicles. Front, rear and all-wheel drive layouts are supported. Geely says that SEA was developed over the past three years at R&D centres in China, Sweden, UK and Germany.
“The use of SEA will attract customers, both B2B and B2C, with unrivalled connectivity, shared vehicle functions, e-motor capabilities, constant over-the-air-updates that will keep vehicles up to date, leading autonomous drive functions, and will offer a maximum range in excess of 700 km between recharging with the capacity to increase range in the future,” the company said in a release.
They’re looking at the kind of synergy that today’s Common Module Architecture is achieving – CMA has underpinned nearly 700,000 vehicles to date since its introduction in 2018. Geely estimates that in the short-term, “hundreds of thousands” of SEA-based vehicles will be produced within China with numbers set to grow considerably in the long term as subsidiary brands introduce their own SEA-based products. Of course, this will reduce development costs at participating brands.
The technology development was led by Kent Bovellan, head of advanced vehicle architectures at Geely Holding. “This is a highly scalable pure electric architecture that will allow us to make the best-in-class vehicles with leading dynamics, connectivity, intelligence and shared functionality in very high volumes that will bring zero-emission transportation to many more consumers,” he said.
So, when the day Proton is ready for EVs comes, the Sustainable Experience Architecture will be at their disposal.
Source: Read Full Article


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LAUNCESTON, Australia (Reuters) - When is an agreement not really an agreement? When it is the latest maneuver in the long-running trade dispute between the United States and China.
That’s not to say the Oct. 11 announcement by both parties isn’t significant, but it is still a long, long way from the sort of comprehensive resolution sought not only by the world’s two biggest economies, but also by the rest of the world fearful of a trade war-inspired recession.
President Donald Trump went so far as to call the announcement a “lovefest,” while Chinese Vice Premier Liu He was more circumspect, noting that the two sides had made “substantial progress in many fields.”
In some ways the positive reaction by financial and commodity markets to the announcement in Washington was more justified than previous bouts of optimism, which have generally been followed by a fresh breakdown in talks and an escalation of the tariff war.
This was the first time that the two sides appeared determined to get something down on paper, with a “Phase 1” deal now scheduled to be signed at a Nov. 16 summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation countries in Chile.
But the good news from the Oct. 11 announcement is all largely sentiment, with scant detail on what has, or has not, actually been agreed between the two sides.
The tit-for-tat tariffs have also not been removed or wound back, the only concession being that the United States won’t lift tariffs to 30% from 25% on about $250 billion in Chinese goods that was supposed to have gone into effect on Tuesday.
The main item being touted by Trump was a repetition of his claim that China will once again start buying vast quantities of U.S. agricultural produce, with the president saying Beijing will buy up to $50 billion of such goods.
That seems fantastically optimistic and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said purchases would gradually be ramped up to this level.
Even a gradual increase to $40 billion to $50 billion would represent quite an increase on the value of U.S. agricultural goods being bought by China, which was more in the region of $23 billion a year prior to the start of the trade dispute in the middle of last year.
About 52% of U.S. agricultural exports to China prior to the trade dispute were soybeans. About 27.7 million tonnes were imported in the 2017/18 season, before the trade dispute saw that drop to 13 million in 2018/19.
If China returned to buying around 28 million tonnes a year of soybeans, this would be worth about $9.7 billion at the current futures price of 936 cents a bushel.
While this would no doubt be welcome news for U.S. soybean farmers, it implies that for U.S. agricultural exports to reach Trump’s target, there would have to be a staggeringly huge increase in shipments of not only soybeans, but virtually everything else, including hogs, beef, poultry and nuts.
WHERE’S THE ENERGY?
There was also no mention of energy exports from the United States to China, the one area that had been booming prior to Trump launching his tariffs.
There had been some recent positive moves for U.S. crude oil exporters, with five tankers scheduled to offload a total of 9.4 million barrels of crude in October, according to vessel-tracking and port data compiled by Refinitiv.
Three of those cargoes have already discharged and two are due to arrive toward the end of this month, according to Refinitiv.
If all the cargoes are unloaded, October’s imports will be about 303,000 barrels per day (bpd), the second-highest this year after August’s 374,000 bpd.
However, for the first 10 months of the year, China’s imports of U.S. crude have averaged only 121,000 bpd, well below the 344,000 bpd for the first six months of 2018, prior to the start of the tariff dispute.
Furthermore, a sharp rise in tanker freight rates after the Trump administration imposed sanctions on four Chinese shipping companies for continuing to do business with Iran has made U.S. crude less competitive in Asia, given the longer voyage than from competitors in the Middle East and Africa.
In liquefied natural gas (LNG), U.S. exporters remain shut out of China, the fastest growing market for the super-chilled fuel.
No U.S. cargo has been discharged since March, with the one delivery that month being the last of just three in 2019.
In the first half of 2018 China imported 25 U.S. cargoes for a total of 1.73 million tonnes.
Coal tells a similar story to LNG, with cargoes slowing to a trickle, with Refinitiv data showing one shipment discharged in September, and one vessel discharging in two ports in August.
No coal vessels are currently underway from the United States to China, and imports for the year so far have totaled 1 million tonnes, down from 3.2 million in 2018 and 6 million in 2017.
If the United States really is to boost exports to China, then energy clearly has to come back into the deal as agricultural goods alone is never going to be enough.
While the details of the “Phase 1” agreement still have to be shown, for now it looks like Trump has surrendered his previous stance that he would only take a single, comprehensive deal, and the concessions on agriculture he has got from Beijing amount to little more than a return to the situation that existed prior to the start of trade dispute.
(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.)
Editing by Richard Pullin
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.


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Allen Ford is one of the UK's leading and longest established Ford dealer groups, with branches in Coventry, Daventry, Kettering, Northampton Riverside, Northampton Van Centre, Nuneaton, Rugby & Warwick.
Unlike the car supermarkets they do much more than sell new and used cars and vans. Allen Ford has fully equipped workshops at every site which are manned by fully trained qualified technicians.
Allen Ford has committed to help sick babies and children by supporting Action fund life-saving research. The company raised over £24,000 in total last year and are aiming to go one better in 2015.
In 2014 dealerships in Coventry, Solihull and Northampton held special VIP sale days in February and August where valued customers were invited to the showroom for a free valet with exclusive deals available on the range of vehicles. Over four days, 258 customers took up the offer and for every new car sold the dealership donated £50 to Action Medical Research.
Mike Phillips, Allen Ford’s Managing Director, said: “We are proud to be supporting such a worthwhile children’s charity and that Action Medical Research is our charity partner. The VIP days were a great success and customers thoroughly enjoyed the treat – it’s just fantastic that the promotion has also been able to benefit the charity as well.”
Allen Ford also entered four teams into The Rutland Round PLOD in 2014 raising an additional £5,000.
So far in 2015 Allen Ford have held another VIP day which rasied around £4,000 and plans are afoot for further fundraising activities, from cycling to swimming.


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New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday (May 15) said that the government will bring a law to implement agriculture marketing reforms to provide marketing choices to farmers, adding "law will provide adequate choices to farmers to sell produce at an attractive price."
To provide assurance to farmers on agriculture produce price and quality, FM Sitharaman said the government will create legal framework to enable them for engaging with processors, aggregators, large retailers, exporters etc. in fair and transparent manner.
Key highlights of Agriculture Marketing Reforms, Agriculture Produce Price & Quality Assurance are given below:
1. Agriculture Marketing Reforms to provide marketing choices to farmers
- Farmers bound to sell agriculture produce only to Licensees in APMCs
- Such restriction of sale is not there for any industrial produce
- Results in Hindrances in free flow of Agricultural Produce and Fragmentation of Markets and Supply Chain;
- Less price realization for fanciers. A Central law will be formulated to provide
- Adequate choices to fancier to sell produce at attractive price;
- Barrier-free Inter-State Trade;
- Framework for e-trading of agriculture produce.
2. Agriculture Produce Price and Quality Assurance
- Farmers lack an enforceable standard mechanism for predictable prices of crops at the time of sowing.
- Private sector investment in the provision of inputs and knowhow in the agriculture sector hindered
- The facilitative legal framework will be created to enable farmers for engaging with processors, aggregators, large retailers, exporters etc. in a fair and transparent manner.
- Risk mitigation for farmers assured returns and quality standardisation shall form an integral part of the framework.
3. Amendments to Essential Commodities Act to enable better price realisation for farmers
- Essential Commodities Act, 1955 was enacted in days of scarcity.
- Need to enable better price realisation for farmers by attracting investments and making agriculture sector competitive
- Agriculture foodstuffs including cereals, edible oils, oilseeds, pulses, onions, and potato to be deregulated.
- Stock limit to be imposed under very exceptional circumstances like national calamities, famine with the surge in prices.
- No such stock limit shall apply to processors or value chain participants, subject to their installed capacity or to any exporter subject to the export demand.
- The government will amend the Essential Commodities Act.
The Finance Minister also announced Rs 1 Lakh crore fund for agriculture Infrastructure for farmers, saying, "Financing facility of Rs 1,00,000 crore will be provided for funding agriculture infrastructure projects at farm-gate and aggregation points. The impetus for development pf farm-gate and aggregation point, affordable and financially viable post-harvest management infrastructure."
She also said that funds transfer worth Rs 18,700 crores has been done under PM KISAN in the past 2 months and PM Fasal Bima Yojana claims worth Rs 6,400 crores released in the past 2 months.


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Car makers have put a lot of time and money into their own dashboard infotainment systems, so it’s not surprising that some are reticent to embrace Apple’s CarPlay, which puts iOS front and center in your car. Toyota is holding off on CarPlay support in favor of its own platform, according to a Monday
New York Times report.
Several auto companies and aftermarket car stereo makers are on board with CarPlay, with plans to make the smart dashboard available in upcoming models. Some, like Ford, plan to support CarPlay, Android Auto, and their own platforms to ensure buyers aren’t turned off by a lack of choice. But Toyota is sticking to its own closed system,
“We may all eventually wind up there, but right now we prefer to use our in-house proprietary platforms for those kinds of functions,” John Hanson, Toyota’s advanced technology communications manager, told the Times.
Infotainment systems are designed to cut down on distracted driving by bringing smartphone functions like maps, messaging, and music into your car dashboard, but auto makers have failed to create a seamless experience. That’s what CarPlay aims to do, and in our
early tests, Apple’s system is already leagues above manufacturers’ platforms. Why? Simple:
Apple does software better. Toyota is smart not to rule out CarPlay—with its competitors already planning to support iOS in the car, not offering a wide range of options could hurt the company down the line.


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Charlie McCurdy, CEO of the Informa Markets division, said: “We are excited to partner with Swapcard to develop a seamless customer experience across our omni-channel offering, which includes online marketplaces, virtual exhibitions and events and our hybrid and in-person trade shows. We serve many different specialist markets and communities across the world – and we are confident that Swapcard’s ability to innovate at a rapid pace will help us expand our reach, and support our customers’ success, beyond the show floor in truly year-round communities.”
Unlike standard live virtual event platforms, which promise an interactive and immersive experience yet simply pair videoconferencing technology with basic chat tools, Swapcard serves as a full-fledged omnichannel hybrid event and matchmaking platform that draws inspiration from social networks. The company leverages artificial intelligence to match audiences with the people and content most relevant to their interests, offering a full suite of features to help event planners run successful events including live streaming, an online marketplace, network matchmaking features, 1-to-1 video calls and more.
"The event industry is becoming more tech-centric and we're at the beginning of our long overdue digital evolution. The first movers will be the winners. Informa understood this quicker than anyone,” said Baptiste Boulard, CEO and Co-Founder, Swapcard. “This deal is a strong endorsement of Swapcard's vision of the future of industry moving from 3-day physical events to 365-day online communities. This partnership positions Swapcard as the leading platform for large-scale trade shows and conferences all over the world."
Swapcard has been experiencing rapid growth in recent months as more large-scale event organizers transition to hybrid platforms and discover the true power of its platform. The company recently;
- Announced 400% growth after hosting over 1,500 virtual events in S2 2020
- Acquired Avolio, a U.S.-based registration company, to bring event registration in-house and become an end-to-end technology platform for event planners.
- Announced it was selected to serve as the official platform for SXSW Online and SXSW EDU Online 2021
Swapcard also recently hired on events industry expert Julius Solaris to serve as Head of Engagement, where he’ll lead marketing initiatives such as the popular Evolve event series, Inside Event podcast and Swapcard Academy. Julius previously served as founder and editor-in-chief of EventMB, where he operated at the forefront of the event app revolution, integrating social media with both live and virtual event management.
Informa is a leading international Information Services, Advanced Learning, B2B Exhibitions and Events Group. Its network of Events, Intelligence and Scholarly Publishing Brands connect specialists with knowledge, helping them learn more, know more and do more .For more information, please visit www.informa.com.


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With just one week to go before their next release, YG Entertainment group BIGBANG revealed their plans for their MADE series.
Fans were baffled when the highly anticipated countdown clock revealed five dates rather than a release, prompting many theories about what the dates could mean. Shortly after, however, BIGBANG revealed that the group would be launching their 2015 World Tour, and even added that it would be their largest yet with 15 countries scheduled.
According to a pre-order notice for the first part of the MADE series, “Starting with ‘M’ on May 1st, M, A, D, and E projects will be released monthly till complete ‘MADE’ album is out on September. Each project contains more than one track, and MADE SERIES ‘M’ will be out in two different versions; M ver. & m ver.”
Each album is set to includes a booklet, CD, photo card (random), puzzle ticket (random), and a poster. As the countdown clock indicated, “M” will be released on the first date of May 1st.
The group has also released a poster for the first single M, which will include two songs, “Loser,” and “Bae Bae.”


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Ken Lowe To Be Keynote Speaker At CRS 2011
October 25, 2010 at 10:34 AM (PT)
COUNTRY RADIO BROADCASTERS has announced SCRIPPS NETWORKS Interactive CEO KEN LOWE as the keynote speaker for COUNTRY RADIO SEMINAR 2011, to be held MARCH 2nd through 4th in NASHVILLE.
Since 2008 LOWE has served as President, Chairman and CEO of lifestyle media group SCRIPPS NETWORKS INTERACTIVE. The company comprises GREAT AMERICAN COUNTRY (GAC), HGTV, FOOD NETWORK, DIY NETWORK, TRAVEL CHANNEL and COOKING CHANNEL.
LOWE said: “It’s no coincidence that a lot of folks who had a hand in the development of cable networks came out of radio. They had a better understanding of a more niche type of programming. Radio was truly that, whereas in broadcasting, so much of a local station's content came from the network. Radio folks tended to be more hands-on and more promotion and marketing driven.”
CRB Execc. Dir. BILL MAYNE said: “KEN LOWE brings an amazing perspective on the innovation, leadership, product development, marketing, risk taking and accountability it takes to build great companies in today's new media marketplace.”
For more information about COUNTRY RADIO SEMINAR, visit www.CRB.org.


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Sony said "The Interview" has earned more than $15 million in online sales and another $2.8 million in theaters, thanks to the hacking publicity.» Read More
A massive dump of data about Medicare reimbursements to physicians raised eyebrows for the millions paid to some doctors, but the data aren't perfect.
The bond market does not appear to setting off major alarm bells, David Joy, chief market strategist of Ameriprise Financial, told CNBC on Friday.
Amazon said it has started a program called Pay to Quit, in which it offers workers at its fulfillment centers between $2,000 and $5,000 to quit.
U.S. producer prices recorded their largest increase in nine months in March as food and services costs spiked.
Thieves have claimed billions of dollars in bogus tax refunds from the IRS by swiping the Social Security numbers and identities of ordinary people.
Blythe Masters, who will leave JPMorgan Chase, is under investigation by prosecutors in Manhattan, Bloomberg reported.
The Justice Department is investigating whether a Citigroup unit failed to alert the government about suspicious banking transactions along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Permanent stock market bull Jeremy Siegel doesn't seem so bullish about economic growth in the last quarter, and that could hurt his forecasts.
BMW is issuing a worldwide recall of many models of cars with certain 6-cylinder motors after identifying a problem with a bolt used in the engine.
FedEx said it was "cooperating fully with authorities" investigating a deadly crash between one of the firm's tractor-trailers and a bus carrying high school students.
Intellectual Ventures has persuaded Microsoft and Sony to invest in its latest acquisition fund while Apple and Intel declined to participate.
Wells Fargo reported quarterly earnings that beat analysts' expectations on Friday.
U.S. regulators are considering testing a reform that could drive business to major stock exchanges and away from alternative venues.
Don't let your kids play with the sellers' kids' toys, and more tips for homebuyers.
Filing taxes after you divorce, or even separate, may be trickier than when you were together and your first "uncoupled" tax bill might deliver a major financial blow.
Steer clear of certain deductions or risk the ire of the IRS.
The Internet bug has made private data on many of the world's major websites vulnerable to theft by hackers.
Five months after its initial terms were set, a historic criminal settlement between SAC Capital and prosecutors was approved Thursday.
A Southern California city council gave the Sriracha hot sauce factory 90 days to vanquish the spicy odors that prompted complaints from residents.
Jeffrey Gundlach of DoubleLine Capital said he believes there is more deflation in the world than most people appreciate.
Get the best of CNBC in your inbox
Travelers, take note: those pesky boarding passes that often get lost or discarded after your flight may have some use after all.
Historically, stocks go up in January as people start buying again. But is the January Effect still real?
Top-tier venture capitalists in Silicon Valley are looking to replace the kennel model for pets.
Burger chain Shake Shack has filed an S1. The "Squawk Alley" team discusses the threat to the McDonald's business model.
Discussing "The Interviews" VOD release, Jon Steinberg, Daily Mail North America CEO, explains why the film will break the VOD-movie theater model.
CNBC's Jane Wells lays out her predictions for the defense industry in 2015.


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Baltimore retailers worry over fiscal cliff
Baltimore’s small business owners Thursday afternoon flanked the Inner Harbor waterfront, where Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Acting U.S. Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank urged Congress to resolve the fiscal cliff.
Rawlings-Blake said Baltimore’s tourism and retail businesses will be jeopardized if Congress does not find a solution by Dec. 31 for the fiscal cliff, which would end Bush-era tax cuts and impose government spending cuts that are likely to send the country toward another recession. So far Congress is at a stalemate.
“There is only so much that we can do to help them and others like them if we fall off the fiscal cliff,” Rawlings-Blake said. “It will hurt consumer confidence and hit discretionary spending in the retail and tourism sectors, two pillars of growth here in Baltimore. And that means it will hurt jobs in our economy.”
Blank laid out President Barack Obama’s plan to overcome the fiscal cliff and said politicians need to find middle ground to build on the economic progress that has already been made.
“We need to provide these businesses and their customers with the certainty that they need to plan for the future, creating a stable environment which allows for stable, long-term economic growth and more jobs,” Blank said.
In the midst of the holiday season, consumer confidence is heavily linked to media portrayals of consequences that will result if Congress does not avoid the fiscal cliff, said Claudia Towles, who owns aMuse Toys in Fells Point and Quarry Lake.
“Perception is reality and if it’s perceived that we’re not stable economically, that our government doesn’t have its ducks in a row, we are probably headed to consumer uncertainty,” Towles said. “The realities are that if we go over this cliff that people are going to have less money in their pockets, as the administration has said, and therefore they’re going to have less disposable income and they’re not going to come in to buy.”
Sarah covers hospitality/tourism, minority business, marketing and new media
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Home Tags Houlden
A record 50 suppliers showcased their product at the event which was the organisation's first in-person meeting for members and suppliers in 18 months
PJ sat down with a number of suppliers at the event to gauge the industry's mood heading toward Q4 and find out what it was like to be back at physical events again
Houlden member retailers were given the chance to browse the wares of dozens of suppliers who had set up stands across two rooms at the East Sussex National Hotel
Retailers at Houlden Group's first physical meeting for 15 months also wanted to know more about valuation and repair services
Houlden Group has revealed the dates for two key upcoming meetings for members and suppliers this year as lockdowns lift and physical events become...
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Chief executive Helen Haddow reveals group feels well positioned to tackle 2021 head on after minimising losses last year
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Chief exec, Helen Haddow, reveals what the buying group has been up to, alongside providing advice for jewellers as they grapple with a new normal.


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Sunday, October 30, 2005
Woo Hoo I'm Famous!
Check this out....this is a scan of the article in this weeks Jackson Today newspaper. There's an article about the Breast Cancer Awareness luncheon, and yours truly is mentioned for the piece of fine art jewelry I donated which was given away! To see the piece of jewelry which they are referring to, please visit my webpage here. It's right next to the article in that gallery.
Posted by Jai Johnson • JaiArt.Com at 2:47 PM


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Interview with Informa’s Event Manager, Sarah Griffin 18th April 2023
Ahead of CPHI North America, we spoke with Sarah Griffin Event Manager at Informa to get her perspectives on what’s new at the event and the year ahead for pharma in the United States.
CPHI North America is the only event where the world’s largest healthcare economy meets with global pharma markets, ingredients suppliers and all parts of the supply chain. Held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center from April 25th – 27th in 2023 the event creates a central hub for the US drug development and manufacturing industry and features a who’s who of international pharma leaders, innovators and developers. The 2023 edition brings together thousands of pharma professionals from 80+ countries, with 65% of attendees having purchasing power and 48% from the C-Suite.
Q: What should be the major takeaways for companies ahead of CPHI North America?
SG: “Exhibitors should look to maximize the value of being onsite at the event, as we see across all industries in North America, companies are looking to widen their supply chain networks and build in contingencies. Being able to meet this many existing partners and network with potential new contacts in one place is invaluable to the growth and security within the industry. But there is also a large desire from our community to harness the power of meeting in person, so exhibitors should see a high ROI from being at the event.”
Q: What topics at the conference will have a major effect on US companies going into next year?
SG: “The topics and sessions are and will continue to be a direct reflection of the biggest trends that our communities are seeing in the wider industry. For example, emphasizing its importance to the industry ‘supply chain issues and capacity challenges’ have an entire track this year. Similarly, with many pharma customers and CDMOs are looking to work with new partners – mapping CDMO strategies is another major trend. With CDMO demand so high this means our communities are planning development and manufacturing strategies much earlier. The other big trend we are seeing is how we can use technology like AI to improvement production processes and development, and the ongoing debate about moving toward next generation manufacturing with greener technologies, and improved chemistries. We see some big and exciting years ahead for the industry.”
Q: What is demand in the US market like for CPHI?
SG: “Well the first off, we are fully booked in terms of booth space and there is a real desire within the market to meet in person. We have about 60% US based exhibitors and 40% international. It’s not just an appetite within the US to connect and we expect most events to return to full strength this year. But in terms of US pharma market specifically, demand is incredible, with domestic manufacturing and the wider pharma sector projected to outperform the wider economy reaching $429B by the year end. We view 2023 as a transformational year for CPHI North America and see the event growing dramatically over the next 2-3 years.”
Q: What are the new networking features?
SG: “We are doing something different this year for the welcome reception, inviting all exhibitors and attendees to our “Art of Pharma, 5th year Anniversary Ball” and hosted at the Philadelphia Museum of Art – which was of course is the setting of the famous Rocky film steps. What we are providing is an opportunity for informal networking and experiential interaction in the evening – plus, we’ve included free shuttles to/from the event. We have our fantastic sponsor Biophore to thank for such a lavish and exciting evening!
We have also completely redesigned our Match and Meet area and it’s reservable in the show app as an additional option outside of meeting at booths.”
Q: How is this year’s event different from previous editions?
SG: “One of the big things we have done this year is evolved the back-end services of the event to make it much easier to do business with us. We’re listening to our customers and improving our services levels. All customer service inquiries are to be responded to within 24 hours – which for events is pretty transformational. We also placed all services and show links within a log in space that exhibitors utilize to book their booth. So no more searching for where to find what!”
Q: What are your plans for 2024?
SG: “We have some really exciting things happening in 2023 and into 2024. We are pushing the envelope and embracing new technologies. For example, we have cameras placed throughout the facility that will assess – without recording – what the averaged sentiments are from people that interact with screens at the event. This is obviously very next generation for events, and we’re excited to be able to provide this additional ROI to our sponsors! To take it another step further – we’ll be able to see which sessions were best received without even asking the audience. Another platform we are beta testing (for just VIPs for now) is to have the display ads adapt for a person’s interest provided in registration! All of this is to bring about a truly personalized event journey – next year we hope this technology will be much more noticeable and widespread.”
Q: Can you tell us about the new Center Stage happening in 2024?
“Center Stage will be a new edition for the 2024 event where exhibitors can purchase 30-45 minute blocks on the stage for any type of content they choose from product launches to booth promotion to content from around the world, with a special high-profile keynote on the last day of the show.”
Q: Sustainability is now big part of the industry agenda – how does Informa contribute to this?
“It’s huge part of the show now, and every part of the event has or is being reviewed for how sustainability can be improved. So many of the components including carpets are reusable and all vendors are reviewed for ESG initiatives. Our content is also driven by these goals, including multiple ESG focused sessions. For the cherry on top, we would encourage everyone to take an event survey, as we will donate $5 for each completed survey to iPraxis, a local charity that encourages and supports underserved middle schoolers to get into a science career, we’re aiming for at least a $5000 donation.”
Q: What is especially attractive about Philadelphia as a host city?
“Ease of access from the biggest pharma markets in the world, Boston, New York and of course the local Philadelphia region is well known as a hub of advanced therapy manufacturing. We stay close to the action making it easy for local companies to exhibit and attend. The East Coast corridor is well known as ‘the big hub’ for the supply chain suppliers and we are committed to bringing more biotechs into the event as well. Not to mention the historical significance of the area establishing, with the nation’s first drug mill established here in the 1810s”.
Learn more about the opportunities and trends in USA pharma market by registering to attend CPHI North America – which is runs for three-days and spans 50 sessions with 5 dedicated tracks. Exhibitors cover the entire end-to-end pharmaceutical supply chain from clinical trial supply to ingredients manufacturing, packaging, biologics and finished products.
Register today to attend CPHI North America and meet other leaders from the world’s largest and most innovative pharma market: https://www.cphi.com/en/home.html?utm_source=Informa%20Markets&utm_medium=Press%20Release&utm_campaign=HLN23CPN-MC-ChemicalsKnowledgeHub


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Korea: Consumer confidence wanes in February
February 26, 2014
The Consumer Sentiment Index (CSI) published by the Bank of Korea inched down from 109 points in January to 108 points in February. January's print had represented the highest level in nearly three years. Despite the slight decrease, the index is still above the 100-point threshold, which indicates that consumers are more optimistic than pessimistic.
According to the Central Bank, consumers' views regarding their current economic situations as well as their future living standards were unchanged compared to the previous month. Conversely, households were slightly less optimistic regarding their financial prospects and, consequently, their opinions on prospective purchases of big-ticket items deteriorated compared to the previous month.
FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast panelists expect private consumption to expand 2.8% in 2014, which is unchanged from last month's forecast. For 2015, the panel sees private consumption accelerating to 3.1%.
Author: Ricardo Aceves, Senior Economist


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Lewiston resident Vicki DeVantier will chair Erie County Medical Center's annual fashion show, this year themed "Fashion On A Budget." The event will be held Saturday, Nov. 1, at Classics V, 2425 Niagara Falls Blvd., Amherst.
Tickets, priced at $30, should be purchased no later than Oct. 24. Four different lunch entrees will be offered and the event will include a theme basket auction, 50/50 raffle and a special raffle.
The fashions this year will be presented by Lewiston resident Dana Zuber, owner of Clothes Mentor. The ECMC Gift Corner will present jewelry and accessories. The ECMC volunteer board sponsors the event. All proceeds will remain at ECMC.
Contact DeVantier at 946-8808 to purchase tickets or to donate a basket or certificate.
Pictured, from left, are Lois Peterson, manager of ECMC's Gift Corner, and DeVantier.