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Conference Agenda Announced for CTST 2008 – The Americas Conference
NEW YORK, February 27, 2008–SourceMedia and the Smart Card Alliance will mount the largest payment, security and identification conference in the Americas May 12th through 15th at the Orange County Convention Center West, in Orlando, Fla. Starting this year, CTST 2008–The Americas Conference combines the Smart Card Alliance annual meeting and SourceMedia’s CTST 2008 conference to feature 120+ speakers, 40 conference sessions, 20 hours of exhibit hall time and the Alliance’s prestigious Outstanding Smart Card Achievement (OSCA) awards. David Pogue, the humorous, tech-savvy New York Times technology columnist and Emmy-winning CBS news correspondent, will keynote the event luncheon.
New this year is a choice of four focused full conference tracks: Payments and Applications; Identification and Policy; Mobile and NFC (Near Field Communications); and Security & Access Control; plus two, one-day mini tracks: Emerging Technology and Innovation Spotlight, and Latin America Spotlight.
Echoing the conference track themes will be three Executive Roundtables bringing together major stakeholders from the payments and security industries. “How the Payments Ecosystem will Evolve” will look at new technologies and payments models and how that will create new challenges and opportunities. “The Future of Smart Cards & Digital Security” addresses how to meet the needs of the financial, government, transportation and mobile markets. “The Future of Security” explores best-of-breed solutions and how they will best fit together.
Payments case studies and deployments will be presented from a range of perspectives and markets. Issuers, retailers, ecommerce merchants, processors and transit authorities will discuss critical issues around contactless, transit, mobile and online payments, as well as risk mitigation, payment fraud and security in North America and internationally. Likewise, security topics and perspectives are wide-ranging and include border security, corporate badges, convergence of access and IT, healthcare data sharing and access security, and international government identification initiatives.
Pre-conference Workshops, a series of intensive full day tutorials, are new to the 2008 agenda. The Smart Card Alliance will host a Smart Card Technology and Payments Applications Workshop; GlobalPlatform will host The GlobalPlatform Value Proposition for Identity Management Workshop; and OATH will host the Seminar on the Open Authentication Architecture for the Universal Adoption of Strong Authentication.
Integrated into the conference agenda this year are two, daylong mini tracks, the Emerging Technology and Innovation Spotlight, and the Latin America Spotlight. The Innovation sessions will introduce new hardware devices and software developments impacting processing speed, memory storage, standards-based interoperable protocols and authentication. The Latin America sessions will examine growth opportunities and current electronic ID implementations within the region, along with growth opportunities in the payments, transit and mobile markets.
Birds-of-a-Feather Discussion Groups are planned daily for contactless payments adoption, the business issues of a shared device for banking, mobile and transit, and uncovering the business opportunities using secure credentials. An Innovation Pavilion will offer educational sessions on the Exhibit Hall floor and serve as the departure point for Guided Technology Tours. At the conclusion of the each day’s sessions, attendees can meet with colleagues during Networking Receptions.
Exhibit Hall hours are: Tuesday, May 13th, 11:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.; Wednesday, May 14th, 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.; and Thursday, May 15th, 10:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. CTST 2008 sponsors are Oberthur Technologies, CoreStreet, Giesecke & Devrient, Infineon, INSIDE Contactless and NXP.
Early bird conference pricing and hotel discounts are available before April 18th. For the complete agenda and to register, please visit http://www.ctst.com.
About SourceMedia Conferences and the Smart Card Alliance
Each year, SourceMedia Conferences & Events attract over 20,000 attendees worldwide to over 70 events. Its products include but are not limited to conferences, exhibitions, roundtables, exclusive dialogues for CEOs, CFOs and other top executives, Web seminars, road shows, Pod casts and custom events.
The Smart Card Alliance is a not-for-profit, multi-industry association working to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use and widespread application of smart card technology. It has over 170 members worldwide, including participants from financial, government, enterprise, transportation, mobile telecommunications, healthcare and retail industries.


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Nokia recently revealed the Lumia 925 smartphone, powered by Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform, and now a new report suggests that this smartphone will make its debut in China on June 15th.
According to the report, the Nokia Lumia 925 will make its appearance first in China on June 15th, and subsequently the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Spain. Eventually, those of us in the United States will see this phone. Nokia’s Lumia 925 will also be released in a “limited edition” capacity featuring a design to hype the upcoming movie “Superman: Man of Steel.”
“Nokia is to make a splash with Superman: Man of Steel limited edition, much like they did with the Lumia 900 and the Batman logo,” the report states. China is rumored to have 925 units that feature this limited edition handset. These units feature the iconic Superman logo as well as a wireless charging back cover featuring Superman’s logo.
The Nokia Lumia 925 features a 4.5 inch AMOLED WXGA (1280×768), 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, PureView 8.7-megapixel with OIS, Autofocus, dual LED flash, a second HD 1.2MP wide angle camera, and 1GB RAM. The camera has been redefined with the “next generation of image processing software” and the most advanced lens technology to make every shot clear and sharp.

domain: news


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Battery Lab Could Help GM Reach EV Vision
Captain Hybrid 10/2/2013 16 comments General Motors is plowing more money into its electric vehicle vision, nearly tripling the size of the lab where it tests and validates batteries for the Chevy Volt, Cadillac ELR, and Spark EV.
Slideshow: EVs & Plug-Ins for 2014
Captain Hybrid 9/24/2013 9 comments These days, it’s almost impossible to keep up with all the introductions of electrified vehicles without a running scorecard. In 2014, we’re already expecting to see them being rolled out by BMW, Cadillac, Porsche, Tesla, Volkswagen, and others.
Slideshow: Smart EV Has No Doors or Windows
Captain Hybrid 9/20/2013 40 comments If you've been searching for a tiny electrically powered car with no doors, no rear window, and an open roof with a pair of electric skateboards on it, then Smart Automobile may have a solution for you.
Slideshow: Safety Ratings for EVs & Plug-In Hybrids
Captain Hybrid 9/4/2013 10 comments When Tesla announced that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had given its Model S sedan received across-the-board five-star ratings, it showed some fundamental design differences between EVs and gas-burning cars.
Why Electric Cars Are Safer
Captain Hybrid 9/3/2013 42 comments Tesla's recent five-star sweep in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration safety ratings shed light on an important aspect of electric cars: They’re inherently safer than vehicles powered by internal combustion engines.
How Much Would You Pay for an EV?
Captain Hybrid 7/16/2013 48 comments Ford, Nissan, Honda, and Fiat have cut prices on their pure electric cars. Chevy has shaved the sticker on its Volt plug-in hybrid. Now the auto industry will hold its collective breath and see what happens.
Slideshow: Get Ready for Start-Stop
Captain Hybrid 7/15/2013 28 comments The auto industry’s biggest change over the next 10 years will be its move to start-stop micro-hybrid – a conventional gasoline-burning vehicle that uses an enhanced gear-based starter to enable its engine to shut down for short stops.
Tesla to Produce 'Affordable EV' by 2016
Captain Hybrid 6/11/2013 41 comments Tesla Motors plans to roll out a “compelling, affordable electric car” that will sell for about half the price of its high-profile Model S by the end of 2016, company chairman Elon Musk said last week.
It's Still About the Battery
Captain Hybrid 5/17/2013 29 comments The Tesla Model S' performance in Consumer Reports tests was a major victory for electric cars, but a bigger challenge still lies ahead.
The first photos made with a 3D-printed telescope are here and they're not as fuzzy as you might expect. A team from the University of Sheffield beat NASA to the goal. The photos of the Moon were made with a reflecting telescope that cost the research team £100 to make (about $161 US).
The increased adoption of wireless technology for mission-critical applications has revved up the global market for dynamic electronic general purpose (GP) test equipment. As the link between cloud networks and devices -- smartphones, tablets, and notebooks -- results in more complex devices under test, the demand for radio frequency test equipment is starting to intensify.
Much of the research on lithium-ion batteries is focused on how to make the batteries charge more quickly and last longer than they currently do, work that would significantly improve the experience of mobile device users, as well EV and hybrid car drivers. Researchers in Singapore have come up with what seems like the best solution so far -- a battery that can recharge itself in mere minutes and has a potential lifespan of 20 years.
Some humanoid walking robots are also good at running, balancing, and coordinated movements in group settings. Several of our sports robots have won regional or worldwide acclaim in the RoboCup soccer World Cup, or FIRST Robotics competitions. Others include the world's first hockey-playing robot and a trash-talking Scrabble player.
Focus on Fundamentals consists of 45-minute on-line classes that cover a host of technologies. You learn without leaving the comfort of your desk. All classes are taught by subject-matter experts and all are archived. So if you can't attend live, attend at your convenience.


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Baby basics receive masculine makeover
We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Business education news every morning.
If “mumpreneurs” is now an accepted way to describe female-led start-ups inspired by the birth of their children, then the co-founders of upmarket baby clothes business Mori are part of a new breed of “unclepreneurs”.
MBA graduates Cameron Miller and Akin Onal, from London Business School and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, respectively, met as interns at JPMorgan. Neither of them, nor their future business partner John Charles Gasser, who at the time was working as a publishing industry executive, have children of their own but all three had siblings who did, and it was in trying to buy presents for their nieces and nephews that they noticed how difficult it was for people like them to find appropriate gifts for new parents.
“What initially seemed like a disadvantage, however, has proved an advantage by allowing us to bring a naively intelligent and totally different perspective to the space,” says Mr Miller.
The eureka moment that there might be a business venture in trying to solve this problem came after Mr Onal found himself browsing baby clothes for his family in a spare moment on a business trip to New York. He spotted a designer babygrow on sale for $100 but saw nothing else of quality being sold at a more reasonable price.
He shared this with his friends and they agreed that there was an opportunity to come out with their own upmarket line in baby basics, consisting of soft, durable, high quality “essentials” at an affordable price.
Their business, Mori, which borrows the Japanese word for forest to reflect the soft bamboo fibre used in the company’s garment ranges, was born in 2014. A source of inspiration was Baby Box, an initiative by Finland’s government which, since 1938, has provided baby products for parents during the early years of their child’s development.
The founders decided their products should also grow with the customer’s baby via a subscription service. In this way, gradually increasing sizes and styles of garments could be delivered to the family’s home every six weeks, in packaging designed to fit through a standard letter box.
Another stimulus for the founders was LBS. Last year, they were among the first start-ups to be accepted into the incubator space at the school’s Regents Park campus. This gave them room to develop their operations alongside other alumni entrepreneurs and gain easy access to faculty staff with entrepreneurial expertise.
In March, the Mori team launched their service, collecting 1,500 emails from people who expressed an interest via the company’s website. “We have leveraged a lean start-up philosophy to this point — with the assistance of the London Business School incubator — to bring our offering to market on a tight budget,” says Mr Miller.
The team also completed a £160,000 seed funding round, backed by a UK government scheme that gives a tax break for angel investors.
The seed money enabled Mori to develop the initial products and pay for the first manufacturing run, although Mr Miller claims a lot of it is unspent. The plan now is to conduct another, larger fundraising round and refine the business model.
“It is about being smart around the data we build, particularly around our subscription service, and acting on it quickly. Having full oversight on manufacturing allows us to be very agile here and we believe this is a key competitive advantage for us,” says Mr Miller, who would also like to start hiring to expand the business beyond the UK.
Like their customer’s offspring, Mori’s founders are eager to see their [business] baby grow fast.


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Three weeks ago I mentioned that someone had manged to get an Intel-based Mac to run Windows XP.
Today Apple announced they have released software called Bootcamp that will allow anyone with an Intel-based Mac, and a licensed version of Windows XP, to run Windows XP.
Apple states that:
“Apple has no desire or plan to sell or support Windows, but many customers have expressed their interest to run Windows on Apple’s superior hardware now that we use Intel processors,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “We think Boot Camp makes the Mac even more appealing to Windows users considering making the switch.”
For further info check out:


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HANCOCK — Cinnamon, clove and cardamom. Curry. Lime zest. Do those sound like blueberry jams to you?
“I’ve always wanted to try something a little different,” says Kate Waters, who launched the award-winning line of Bleuberet wild blueberry toppings in 2013. Last month, she opened up a pop-up retail store on the Hancock Point Road.
Located just off Route 1 across from the Hancock town office, the shop sells Waters’ Blimey Lime Zest, Madras Curry Blueberry, Strawberry & Rhubarb, Morello Cherry & Lime and other spreads, preserves and jams. On Fridays, Waters also carries old-fashioned doughnuts. The shop also stocks Luigi Del Conte Sauces, Lucy’s Granola and other treats made in Hancock County. Penny candy is available too.
Before launching her Bleuberet line seven years ago, Waters had spent two years polishing her recipes and products’ presentation. Her unusually flavored fruit toppings initially were sold in select retail stores locally and as far afield as Rockport. The jams won the Yankee Magazine Food Editor’s Choice Award in 2014 and Down East magazine’s Maine’s Best Foodie Gift award in 2017.
“Indian cooking was actually something I was a little nervous to try,” says Kate, referring to some of the spicier jam flavors. “But I took a class around 2012 to try it out, and started incorporating that into the micro-batches.”
The Bleuberets store is located at 17 Point Road in Hancock, and is open this summer Thursdays and Fridays from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Sundays from 9 a.m. to noon. For more info, visit www.bleuberets.com.


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Help make Honiton sparkle this Christmas
- Credit: Archant
Support needed for Honiton Christmas Lights Appeal.
Honiton residents are being urged to switch on to the Christmas lights appeal and ensure the town really sparkles this year.
A final push is now under way by Go Festive – Honiton’s Christmas lights committee - to boost funds in time for the festive season.
Go Festive teamed up with the Midweek Herald in July to launch the Honiton Christmas Lights Appeal.
Currently, there is more than £2,000 available for a festive display, including £1,000 donated by Lidl and a further £1,000 made available from Honiton Town Council. A further £50 has been donated by Everys in Honiton.
“We hope that now Christmas is on its way and is visible in the shops that the festive spirit will spread in the town and that everyone will come together to support the Honiton Christmas Lights Appeal,” said a Go Festive spokesman.
“We want to thank everyone for their support so far. It has not been an easy task but we still need the help of the local community to make sure we raise as much as we can to have a brilliant Christmas lights display this year.”
- 1 Caravan left 'severely damaged' by fire on A35
- 2 Aldi seeking approval for extension of former Coop site
- 3 South West warning for drought issued
- 4 Happy Hippos all set for Peninsula push
- 5 Kilmington driver admits injuring woman in Axminster crash
- 6 Honiton history: Four generations of the Hussey family auctions
- 7 Seaton ladies storm into semi-finals of Top Club competition
- 8 Outdoor fire in Lyme Regis
- 9 All aboard! new halt for Seaton Tramway
- 10 Ottery St Mary - a shopping paradise
The committee hopes to be able to purchase lights for the town, which could be used for future years. However, it can only afford a limited number of lights - unless more money is raised.
Go Festive has held a number of fundraising events in the town including a Christmas lights quiz and most recently a festive trolley dash.
The Christmas trolley dash, which took place last Saturday, at The Co-operative store in Lace Walk, was won by local resident Mary Dixon.
Mary’s daughter Jane Small was given the challenge of filling up the trolley with as much as possible in 30 seconds. The total of the shopping dash came in at £175.53.
Go Festive added: “We would like to say a big thank you to Mick Alphonse and his staff at The Co-operative, town crier Dave Retter, and to everyone who bought raffle tickets and supported the trolley dash and the appeal. We also want to thank all the businesses that have supported us either through donating money or raffle prizes. And a thank you to Honiton Chamber of Commerce and Carol Gilson for their help.”
Anyone interested in helping to fundraise or making a donation is urged to call David Foster on 01404 45106 or email firstname.lastname@example.org


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There is no denial that Windows Phone is picking up momentum, and the newly announced Nokia Lumia 900 and HTC Titan II are only going to help it keep up that pace. However, Sprint does not seem to be too excited about any of that and is not planning on pushing Windows Phone handsets in the near future.
"We have a Windows device in our lineup, but honestly, it hasn't done well enough for us to jump back into the fire. We told Microsoft: You guys have to go build the enthusiasm for the product.", Owens added, followed by Lois Fagan, Director of Product Development at Sprint, who stated: "We want to participate in the market, but we can't build that brand by ourself. We're cautiously optimistic, but [Windows Phone] just hasn't taken off."
Still, Sprint is not giving up on Windows Phone entirely. Owens mentioned that a Sprint-bound smartphone running Microsoft's platform can be expected within the “August-September time period”. Will it be an exclusive Windows Phone device made by Nokia? Only time will tell.


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Formal Dress Policy in Vogue
A fifth of the 200 companies responding to the Dress Code Survey have initiated a business dress code in the last year. More than half of the companies said they have a dress code in place.
There’s good reason. Executives polled said well-dressed workers have definite advantages over those more casually dressed:
- seven in 10 executives believe a person in a suit and tie is more effective,
- more than a fifth of the executives, or 22%, said professionally dressed workers are more likely to be promoted,
- almost half said well-heeled workers are more confident, and
- 46% said employees appear more organized in formal dress
The expectations for style of dress are not uniform through the workforce. For example, half of respondents think sales people should wear suits, 44% would prefer consultants to be well dressed, and 46% include lawyers among the well dressed.
The survey was commissioned by the Men’s Apparel Alliance and conducted by research firm Leflein Associates, Inc.


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Jarey Farmers Shift from Maize to Commercial Vegetable Cultivation
Deki Yangzom, from Jarey under Lhuentse Dzongkhag, has been cultivating maize on her one-acre land for ages. Amid COVID 19 pandemic, Deki saw the pandemic as an opportunity to take up commercial vegetable cultivation and bridge a demand-supply gap for local vegetables to promote self-sufficiency and decided to abandon the traditional maize cultivation system for commercial vegetables cultivation.
Similarly, several farmers in her community expressed a common interest to explore a new opportunity in commercial vegetable cultivation. Therefore, in July 2020, a group of nine members (8 male and 1 male), Jarey Sonam Detshen was formed with supports from the gewog extension office.
Deki says, “ I wanted to go for commercial vegetable cultivation on my land, so I suggested my friends and decided to form a group solely for vegetable production on a large scale. That’s how we came together to work in a team”.
Since the formation, the group has cultivated cabbage, cauliflower, carrot, radish, spinach, chili, and tomato on one acre of land, which is freely leased-out by Deki.
In the last four months, the group has sold around 3.5 MT of vegetables to retailers from Autsho town, and Mongar Dzongkhag.
“There is a lot of demand for vegetables in the market. Therefore, we can produce as much as possible without worrying about the market. The retailers from the region come and buy our vegetables weekly”, says Deki.
To date, the group has made a net income of more than Nu.30000 and expecting to earn more this winter. The marketing of the produces is being facilitated by RAMCO, Mongar, and the Dzongkhag Agriculture sector.
Nancha, Geowg Extension officer, says that the group has been supported with hybrid vegetable seeds, and greenhouse and drip irrigation on a cost-sharing basis, by Dzongkhag Agriculture Sector, with fund support from CARLEP-IFAD.
Likewise, the group will be further supported under the programme with the sprinkler installation and other inputs for improved performance both in terms of water-saving and increasing vegetable production substantially -building climate resilience.
Reported by Chhimi Lhamo, GKMO, OPM


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Is Snapchat making a comeback with its new crying face filter? It appears so. The videos of users crying tears – thanks to augmented reality technology – have taken flight on TikTok, and all over social media.
But before we get into the fun of this filter, despite the rumours and popular belief, according to TMZ, the cry face filter was not inspired by actress Amber Heard. She recently offered a tearful testimony in court recently against ex-husband Johnny Depp.
According to Mashable, it’s currently the most popular filter on TikTok and has been all the rage since it dropped.
So, you’re probably asking yourself what’s so great about this filter and how it works? That’s simple enough.
Once the filter is activated on Snapchat, the augmented reality lens will configure anyone’s natural facial expression to one that’s hilariously sad. The effect transforms even the most composed faces into one that has reached an emotional breaking point and it turns the user into a blubbering mess.
When you say blubbering mess, what does that mean exactly?
According to Mashable, the filter gives you sad, upturned eyebrows, bloodshot eyes, an exaggerated frown, and a few unshed tears. It’s got the kids hooked, as lots of these videos that were taken to TikTok have now gone viral.
The filter even turned into a prank as users fool their friends by showing an unsuspecting person doing just about anything and minding their business. The user behind the camera asks, “What’s wrong?” while the victim is confused. But on camera, the filter transforms their face into an inconsolable, crying mess. It’s also being used in media such as celebrity interviews, movies, and television shows.
For example, check this prank out.
The filter has gotten so big that the hashtag “crying filter” now has over 76 million views on TikTok.
Regarding how successful this filter has been, Snapchat may have a chance at revitalising its platform after all. – pennlive.com/Tribune News Service


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Sixth year of consecutive growth for Lancashire visitor economy
Today, Marketing Lancashire, the organisation responsible for the promotion of the county as a place to visit, live, work, study and invest in, revealed the latest independent research on visitors to Lancashire. The annual STEAM* figures show the economic impact of tourism in Lancashire for 2018 and reveal that Lancashire’s visitor economy is now in its sixth year of continuous growth.
The research shows that in 2018 visitor numbers reached 68.74million (+1.7% up on 2017), with visitors spending £4.41billion (+3.8% up on 2017) in the county. There was also a 1.5% increase in jobs in the tourism and hospitality sector, with employment now totalling 60,782.
Chief Executive, Rachel McQueen, said “We’re delighted to be able to demonstrate that the county is continuing to thrive as a visitor destination, with six years of healthy and sustainable growth to celebrate.
“In 2018 we enjoyed an especially hot summer, with visitors choosing Lancashire for short breaks and days out in particular, from Easter right through to the autumn months, increasing the total number of visitor days from 85million in 2017 to 86million in 2018.
“Lancashire’s food & drink and retail attractions continue to flourish, with both areas exceeding £1billion in direct expenditure by visitors, confirming our belief in Lancashire as the UK’s top gourmet destination.
“We’re confident that many exciting developments and new investments across the county will continue to drive growth, helping to attract high value visitors from further afield as well as boosting our domestic tourism offer. To that end we are now working with TEAM Tourism Consulting to help us produce a new tourism growth strategy for Lancashire, which will help us to explore and maximise the priority opportunities for the sector.”
“TEAM has been commissioned to develop an ambitious strategy focused on targeting interventions towards inclusive growth. The work will gather an evidence base that will feed into the development of the Local Industrial Strategy being led by the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership. It will also stand us in good stead to maximise any opportunities that come forward through the government’s Tourism Sector Deal.”
TEAM Executive Director, Richard Dickinson said “With tourism now one of the fastest growing sectors in the economy, TEAM Tourism Consulting is looking forward to working with Marketing Lancashire and its industry partners, to build on the County’s undoubted strengths and create a clear and focused road-map that can maximise the potential of tourism in the years ahead.”
Over the last six years Lancashire has seen visitors increase by 6.4million visitors, spending increase by £1billion and an additional 6,000 jobs created across the tourism and hospitality sector.
Rachel McQueen concludes “Today’s news is testament to the strength of Lancashire’s tourism sector, the professionalism and entrepreneurship of all those who work in our industry. It comes just a few weeks before we celebrate their incredible achievements in the Lancashire Tourism Awards 2019. Six years of continuous growth is certainly something to be very proud of and I’ll be saying as much as I welcome them to our tourism ‘Oscars’ in November.”
A full summary of the latest visitor economy figures and key findings of the STEAM data for 2018 can be found on marketinglancashire.com.


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The team at PoppyBaby.com are very proud and excited to announce that their brand new full e-commerce site has now gone live!
After more than 7 months of development the website launched at the end of June, with exciting products from suppliers such as Theraline, Geuther, Tippitoes, Hippychick, ClippaSafe, VTech, Baby Sense and Izziwotnot.
Many new products are being checked out as we speak and will be added over the coming weeks and months.
The Company has been set up by David & Helen Morrison from their location in Swindon, Wiltshire and aims to bring to the consumer a reliable, enjoyable website that is informative and secure, whilst providing new families with a great source of information to assist and support them.
David said “It’s been an amazing few months, lots of ups and downs but we are very proud of what we have achieved and that we have a site that looks fantastic, respects brands and gives the consumer exactly what they want. We are particularly proud of our Resource Centre and believe this adds a great deal of value. PoppyBaby.com is not just another internet ‘shop’ and we really want to be a big part of the community.”


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There’s an unusual market in the throes of a raging bull run — one that’s not afraid of Federal Reserve rate hikes.
Autumn normally sees a rush of new cars sales, as dealers look to shed current inventory to make room for next year’s models. With that in mind, vintage automobiles have emerged as a highly profitable asset class, yielding 8 percent on an annualized basis in the second quarter of this year, according to the Knight Frank Luxury Investment Index, which closely tracks so-called “passion” investments.
It’s a hot market indeed: Data from the Historic Automobile Group International show rare collectible cars have actually outperformed the SP 500 Index by nearly eight times from 2005 to 2015. Last year, total classic car sales in North America topped $1.45 billion, according to the Hagerty Group, which sells classic car insurance.
Experts have mixed feelings about whether cars are a legitimate investment. Yet judging by the enthusiastic buying at vintage auctions like Barrett-Jackson — which moved more than $32 million in collectibles last week amid a record number of bidders — and Russo and Steele, the payoff can be sizable for some investors, many of which are baby boomers.
Tom Rossiter, owner of The Stable, a vintage car dealership in New Jersey, described the market for vintage cars as either feast or famine, and sometimes contingent on economic conditions.
“When the stock market crashed in 1987, the collectible car market went up, and were really busy for the next three years. But after the 2008 [financial crisis], our phones were quiet for almost two years,” Rossiter told CNBC in a recent interview. “It got so bad that we asked the phone company to check our lines. After two years, it went up again, and it’s been fairly steady ever since.”
Boomers grew up in an era when American cars symbolized the vitality of the nation’s culture and economy, and foreign car manufacturers like Ferrari were producing some of their most iconic models. Vintage car dealers like Rossiter actively court this crucial market segment.
“Our mainstay customers use to be men in their 30s and 40s, but in the last few years we’ve sold a lot of cars to older men in their 70s and 80s,” Rossiter said, adding that he has a good number of female clients as well.
Hagerty’s data show that the most torrid segment of the vintage car market are models constructed from 1980 through the early 2000s, with Porsches, Aston Martins and Ferraris among the most sought-after brands showing double to triple-digit percentage price appreciation. Although boomers are the biggest buyers, younger buyers are gravitating to the market.
“The market is still growing, but at a slower rate than we have witnessed in the past three years,” said McKeel Hagerty, CEO of Hagerty.
“The notable exception is rapid growth among younger buyers who have entered the market and are exercising their buying power by spending on the poster cars of their youth,” Hagerty said. “A new era of later-model performance cars from instantly recognizable brands have irrefutably proven that the term ‘collector car’ is not synonymous with ‘old car.’”
Passion and aspiration are common traits among vintage car buyers. “For some, that passion represents a chance to recapture their lost youth. As Rossiter describes, “We’ve had a lot of guys come in here over the years and say, ‘I’ve wanted that car since I was a kid!’ The difference is that now they can afford it.”
Still, others are enthusiasts whose passion resides in the craftsmanship and joy of owning and driving vintage cars.
Clark Lance, an executive at luxury car maker Lexus, falls into that category. Lance, who owns vintage brands like a 1964 Lotus Elan and a 1948 MG, inherited his love of cars from his father, who began to buy and race cars after returning home from World War II.
“In the 1950s, there was a resurgence of interest in European sports cars,” the New Jersey resident said, “and this fueled the growth of European automakers because the war wiped out the European market, and it hadn’t really recovered. So European companies like Ferrari, Porsche, Lotus and Jaguar began to aggressively market and sell cars in the USA.”
For some buyers, however, passion also means investing. These buyers may represent a small percentage of actual customers — Rossiter estimated they account for around 10 percent of his customer base — but they can have a sizable influence on the market due to the type and costs of cars they purchase.
“Very few people buy vintage cars to stash them away in a vault,” Rossiter said. “Most people want to display them, show them to their friends, and enjoy them.” As a result, and depending on the perceived value, some of his cars sell for a hefty profit while others barely break even.
“A car doesn’t have to be old to be considered ‘vintage,’ and it certainly doesn’t have to be expensive,” he said. “People buy cars for all kinds of reasons. One guy might want a 1955 Ferrari, while the next guy is looking for a 1974 AMC Gremlin, and the price-point between the two is huge. What they have in common is the feeling they give to the buyer. And that’s where we come in.”
The most desired brands run the gamut, from Mercedes-Benzes, Rolls-Royces and Bentleys, according to Frank Knight figures, and experts say it’s largely in the eye of the beholder.
“Owning, buying, even selling vintage cars is a labor of love,” Rossiter told CNBC. “And so far, that love has been pretty good for business.”


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NEW YORK — Lara Stone will be featured as the face for Naked Glamour, Calvin Klein Underwear’s new advertising campaign this fall.
The news was revealed Wednesday at the annual meeting of The Warnaco Group Inc., which owns the Calvin Klein Underwear and Jeans businesses. Joe Gromek, Warnaco’s chief executive officer, told WWD he had viewed the ad images on Tuesday for the new product launch.
“It’s a very compelling campaign,” said Gromek.
Helen McCluskey, Warnaco’s chief operating officer, described the ad images as “traditional Calvin Klein, black-and-white, with incredible eye contact…it’s about lifestyle, it’s sexy, and images are up close with cleavage.”
Actress Zoe Saldana presently appears in the ads for the Envy campaign for Calvin Klein Underwear. Saldana signed an exclusive deal beginning fall 2010.
When asked if Stone will succeed Saldana in the Envy ads, a spokeswoman for Calvin Klein Inc. replied, “There is no replacement.”
Stone is also part of a global advertising campaign shot by Steven Meisel for lifestyle brand ck one that features a group including Pixie Geldof, Ruby Aldridge, Sky Ferreira, Abbey Lee Kershaw, Alice Dellal and Fei Fei Sun. The spring 2011 campaign encompasses TV, print, the Internet and social media. In January, Stone began appearing in Calvin Klein Collection TV commercials with Tyson Ballou, and is featured in the spring print women’s Collection ads shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott.
Earlier, Stone signed an exclusive deal with Calvin Klein Inc. as the face for Calvin Klein Collection, ck Calvin Klein and Calvin Klein Jeans for fall 2010. Stone is no stranger to the company. She was an exclusive model in the spring 2007 Collection runway show, and was in the fall 2007 Calvin Klein Jeans and fall 2008 ck Calvin Klein Beauty campaigns.
Harrods plans to remove the famous statue of Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed from the bottom of the Egyptian escalators and hand it back to Mohamed Al-Fayed. “We are very proud to have played our role in celebrating the lives of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Al Fayed at Harrods and to have welcomed people from around the world to visit the memorial for the past 20 years,” said Michael Ward, Harrods managing director. “With the announcement of the new official memorial statue to Diana, Princess of Wales at Kensington Palace, we feel that the time is right to return this memorial to Mr. Al Fayed and for the public to be invited to pay their respects at the palace.” More on the news, with reporting by @loreleimarfil, at WWD.com. #wwdnews
@prada is introducing a new project at its men’s fall 2018 show this Sunday: “Prada Invites.” The fashion house invited four celebrated creative minds – @ronanaerwanbouroullec, Konstantin Grcic, @herzogdemeuron and @rem.koolhaas – to each create a unique item with its iconic nylon material. The designs will be unveiled on the runway show, which will take place at the company’s warehouse in Viale Ortles 25. #wwdfashion #mfwm (📷: @martinocarrera)
@kering_official is spinning off its stake in puma in an effort to focus on its luxury brands, the brand operator announced yesterday. “We are proud to have supported the turnaround of Puma, which now has unrivaled capabilities to take full advantage of the specific dynamics of its global markets and is poised to achieve substantial growth,” said François-Henri Pinault, Kering’s chief executive officer and chairman. Artémis will become a “long-term strategic shareholder” of Puma with a 29 percent stake. #wwdnews #wwdfashion (📷: @jilliansollazzo)
The fashion world mourns for celebrated street style photographer, Nabile Quenum, who died at age 32 in Paris.
Quenum, creator of the fashion blog “J’ai Perdu Ma Veste,” was a fashion week fixture, and regularly shot for New York magazine’s The Cut, among other outlets, and brands such as Louis Vuitton, Moncler and Adidas. He was also actively involved in the #NoFreePhotos initiative, which kicked off in the fall. Read more about Quenum in @kbsmoke's story on WWD.com. #wwdnews
@verwanggang and @maisonladuree have teamed up on a dessert collab called Vera Wang Pour Ladurée. The collection, which launched this week, features a specialty macaroon, as well as a wedding cake inspired by one of the designer’s gowns. “I could not imagine a more delicate or sophisticated creation to grace any couple’s celebration,” said Wang. #wwdfashion


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Ford will build electrified vehicles in U.S. after canceling Mexico plant
DETROIT -- Ford Motor will cancel its $1.6 billion assembly plant in Mexico, instead investing $700 million in the U.S. to bring to market 13 electrified vehicles.
The plans include an F-150 hybrid pickup, a Mustang hybrid and a full electric SUV with a 300-mile (480 km) range. The SUV will launch in 2020 and will be sold in North America, Europe and Asia. It will be built south of Detroit in Flat Rock, Michigan.
Ford is expected to call the SUV the Model E. Tesla CEO Elon Musk wanted to use the Model E name for the Model 3, but he was unable to secure the naming rights from Ford, which has owned the patent for some time.
The F-150 hybrid will be available by 2020 and will be sold in North America and the Middle East. It will be built at Ford’s Dearborn truck plant.
The Mustang Hybrid will be produced at the Flat Rock plant and will be available initially in North America in 2020.
The other vehicles include a high-volume autonomous hybrid vehicle for commercial or ride-sharing service. The vehicle will debut in 2021 in North America and will be built at the Flat Rock plant.
Ford will also launch a Transit Custom plug-in hybrid in 2019 in Europe. Ford did not say where the Transit plug-in will be produced.
Ford in December 2015 announced plans to invest $4.5 billion in electric car research and add 13 electrified vehicles to its lineup by 2020. On Tuesday the company announced details for about seven of the 13. To support this, Ford plans to invest $700 million and add 700 direct new jobs in the next four years.
The Mexico plant had been slated to build small cars; it’s unclear where that small car production will go.
Ford had come under harsh criticism from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump for its Mexican investment plans. Trump has threatened to slap Ford with a 35 percent tariff on any vehicles it imports from Mexico, as well as renegotiate or pull out of the North America Free Trade Agreement.
Ford CEO Mark Fields on Tuesday said the decision to cancel the new plant in Mexico was in part related to the need to "fully utilize capacity at existing facilities" amid declining sales of small and medium sized cars such as the Focus and Fusion. Fields also used the occasion to endorse "pro growth" tax and regulatory policies advocated by Trump and the Republican led Congress.
Trump repeatedly said during the election campaign that if elected he would not allow Ford to open the new plant in Mexico and would slap hefty tariffs taxes on imported Ford vehicles.
Trump also targeted GM in a tweet on Tuesday, threatening to impose a "big border tax" for making its Chevrolet Cruze model in Mexico. In response, GM reiterated that Cruzes built there will mostly go to the domestic market and that it will continue to build the compact in the U.S.
Ford’s electrified-vehicle announcement was made the same day that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles revealed plans for an all-electric minivan concept, called the Chrysler Portal, that gets 250 miles of range. The automaker recently began selling a hybrid version of its Chrysler Pacifica minivan.
General Motors is also making headlines for its Bolt EV, which went on sale in California last month and boasts 238 miles of range. It comes out a year before the planned release of Tesla’s much-hyped Model 3, the California automaker’s own 200-plus range EV.
Ford also said Tuesday that it is moving production of the Focus sedan -- which was supposed to go to the new Mexican plant -- to its existing Mexico plant in Hermosillo.
Reuters contributed to this report


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According to the results of crash tests, most of the cars participating in the tests were able to score five safety stars.
The European independent organization Euro NCAP has published the results of crash tests of five new models. Moreover, this time Chinese cars of the Ora and Wey brands also took part in the tests (it is possible that in the future these car brands will begin their activities in Russia). Also during the crash tests, Tesla, Genesis and Kia cars were broken.
So, the Chinese hatchback Ora Funky Cat received five stars with an indicator of 92% for the safety of adults, 83% for children, 74% for pedestrians. The work of electronic “assistants” was rated at 93%. The main complaint is the high risk of chest injury in the front passenger in a frontal collision. For a pedestrian, the side pillars and the headlight area of the car are the most dangerous.
The Wey Coffee 01 crossover deserved a similar rating. The car received a rating of 91% for protecting adults and 87% for children. Driver assistance systems that ensure safe driving were rated at 94%, and the car received 79% on the basis of a test that determines how much a car can be traumatic for pedestrians. Readings taken from the dummies used in the tests showed a moderate risk of chest injury in an adult passenger, who sits in front.
The Tesla Model Y electric crossover also received five safety stars. Experts rated the safety of adults at 97%, children – at 87%, other road users – at 82%, and 98% for electronic “assistants”. Experts noted a very low risk of injury to the driver and passengers in all types of collisions. At the same time, the area of the side pillars is a great danger for pedestrians.
The highest safety score was given to the Genesis GV60 crossover. The only complaint the experts have about the car is the high risk of injury to the driver’s leg in a frontal collision. The car received 89% for the protection of the driver and adult passengers. Child safety was rated at 87% and pedestrian safety at 63%.
The only car to receive four safety stars in this series of crash tests was the Kia Niro compact crossover. In a rear impact, a passenger sitting in the rear can suffer a serious neck injury. In addition, in a frontal collision, there is a high risk of injury to the driver’s legs.


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According to the usual practice in previous years, Apple should hold a spring launch event in the near future, but as of now, Apple has only officially announced a global developer conference in June, and if there are no surprises, Apple is likely to put products on the shelves directly, including the new iPad Pro and AirTags.
And at the June developer conference, iOS 15 should be used as one of the main presentation points.
But compared to these things, we definitely care more about the iPhone, last year’s release of the iPhone 12, there is really not much to make consumers want to buy, many people have said “thirteen”, this year’s iPhone 13 (and possibly iPhone 12s) may become a surprise to people This year’s iPhone 13 (and possibly iPhone 12s) may become a surprise.
However, from all aspects of the news, “thirteen” may not really be as fragrant as imagined. The latest renders show that there will be some changes in the appearance of the next-generation iPhone, its rear lens is still placed in the upper left corner, and the layout has not changed much, but the entire lens module is covered by a one-piece cover glass.
That is to say, the next generation of iPhone rear lens will not be raised one by one like the iPhone 12, it will be covered by all the sensors through the one-piece cover glass and made completely black, making it look and feel when the integration will be stronger. But the only thing that needs to be spiteful is that it will increase the overall height of the bulge.
The second is a larger opening for the image module, which is related to the rumored use of a larger aperture sensor, the next generation of iPhone will use a 7P wide-angle lens with F/1.5 aperture, the physical level of making the opening increased. To be honest, the unity enhancement to give a good review, but the overall look seems less refined.
The last and the most important concern is: whether the bangs have disappeared or not? The answer is clear, it still exists, but it has been optimized.
The true full-screen that everyone wants is still not realized. The model diagram shows that the bangs of the next generation iPhone still exist, but the overall area has been reduced. The width of the bangs has been reduced from 34.83mm to 26.8mm, and the height has increased by 0.05mm, which looks a lot smaller than the iPhone 12.
In this way, its front looks quite a kind of then after the release of the iPhone X, a variety of Android bangs cell phones are popping up to follow the trend of design, although it increases the display area a bit, but it still takes a while to get used to.
The core configuration is definitely Apple’s A15 chip, reported only some time ago, this year’s A15 will use the second generation of 5nm process, that is, 5nm +, the process will be upgraded to N5P, the performance is about 20% higher, while power consumption will also be further reduced.
So as in previous years, performance is the least of the new iPhone’s worries, all the mainstream applications and games on the market, the phone can easily cope. However, last year’s A14 will appear in the process of some game play after a few minutes to begin to degrade the frequency, I do not know if the A15 can optimize it.
Although the new iPhone will only be released around September, the exposure now can not be fully confirmed, but from the above exposure, it is considered the highest possibility.
Another of our greatest concerns, or the price, from the two years of the iPhone price, it should still be about $850 to start, and still the lowest version ……
From the above information, you still feel “thirteen fragrance“?


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Google Pay, the combined payments system launched by world’s largest tech giant Google, is now being rolled out on the web for desktop and iOS devices. While it is already available on Chrome and Android, the new update will make it work for other browsers too such as Firefox and Safari.
Google pay faces sharp competition from Apple Pay and Samsung Pay as its ace rivals. At the time of launch, Google had hinted the debut of the unified payment platform on all its product, including Chrome. But now several months after launch, Google is finally bringing “Buy with Google Pay” buttons to other desktop browsers and iOS as well.
Google Pay Brings Platform Independence
With the latest change, Google Pay will be expanding its scope. There is an added functionality that will sync card details automatically from whichever platform the user will log on to his Google account, making it faster to check out at online retailers that work with Google Pay.
The credit or debit card added by the user associated with Google account will also be available on other platforms-irrespective of the browser, user will choose to make payments. This simply means you will not have to update details everytime you move from Chrome to Safari or use an iOS or move to Android device.
However, there are some features of Google Pay that will remain exclusive to Chrome such as automatic filling of billing and shipping information. Moreover, Google Pay for Android also has some exclusive features as it lets speedy checkout in grocery stores, convenience outlets and several other places that accept contactless payments with compatible devices. Similarly, the payment platform for Android provides exciting offers and promotions to users of countries like Canada, UK, USA, Russia, and Poland.


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Tuesday, July 23, 2019 /10:00 AM / By NSE With Additional Notes From Lafarge Africa’s Press Release / Header Image Credit: Lafarge Africa Plc
Lafarge Africa Plc released its Q2 Unaudited Results for the Period ended June 30, 2019.
Revenue declined by 1.2% to N160.29bln from N162.29bln in the previous year.
Profit Before Tax however spiked by 246.1% to N9.27bln from N6.35bln loss recorded in the previous year.
Profit After Tax therefore grew by 330.9% to N9.01bln.
Net Assets grew by 69.3% to N227.78ln from N134.54bln as at 3oth June, 2018.
Strong profitability momentum in Q2 2019
− Operating profit up 38,5% in Q2 vs LY
− Turnaround and cost reduction strategy delivering with Q2 EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16) up 15,6%
− Strong earnings per share, improvement in Q2: net income at N5,9 bn, benefiting from Operating Profit improvement and reduction of net financial costs
− Closing of the sale of South Africa expected in 31st July 2019
Michel Puchercos, CEO of Lafarge Africa stated: “Our Strategy 2022 « building for growth » in Nigeria is delivering the expected results with strong volume growth, considerable EBITDA improvement, robust net income and operating cash flow development. We continue to deliver strong margins as a result of our turnaround and cost reduction strategy in Q2 with improvement in our commercial transformation, logistics performance, and industrial and energy efficiencies. Our ambition is to continue the acceleration of growth and earnings in 2019. South Africa continued the turnaround plan with significant EBITDA and operating profit improvement in Q2 2019 compared to prior year.”
Good Progress on Strategy 2022 – “BUILDING FOR GROWTH”
The global roll-out of the new Strategy 2022 – “Building for Growth” – was successfully launched by Lafarge Africa with strong progress made in all four drivers of the strategy, delivering results as planned.
Growth – Switching gears to growth is the most fundamental principle of Strategy 2022. Nigeria is strongly contributing to this growth and acceleration of our improvement is expected in 2019 for Nigeria
Simplification & Performance – Visible progress was made towards ensuring best-in-class performance by improving and unifying our business processes and logistics across the country. This has made our business simpler and gives us access to data that will help improve our speed to market in 2019 and beyond. Our successful Go-live on SAP will be a strong enabler to our 2019 performance.
Financial Strength – The recent Rights Issue fully subscribed and the closing of the divestment of the South African Operations expected in Q3 2019 will significantly deleverage Lafarge Africa Plc by c.N239bn. This will strengthen the Company’s balance sheet while significantly reducing financing costs.
Vision & People – Our leadership team is fully established and empowered to deliver results. A simplified performance management system and incentive system is being implemented. We are building local capabilities for improved efficiency and performance in 2019.
· Softer cement growth compared to 2018.
· Stable pricing environment foreseen.
· Implementation of route-to-market and energy initiatives to continue to deliver.
· Continuous focus on cash cost reduction to drive operational performance.
· Divestment from South African operations in Q3.
Q2 boasted strong results despite the slowdown in market trends, closing flat YoY from a +6% growth in Q1 2019. Market was affected by delays in the new cabinet nomination post February general elections.
Cement volumes were up +3.3% supported by our new Route-to Market whilst net sales grew by +1% only, impacted by downward pressure on prices, notably after the Q1 end announced increase.
Recurring EBITDA closed with significant improvement by +2.6%, ahead of Sales growth, supported by improved production, logistics operations efficiencies and the implementation of our turnaround & cost reduction strategy.
The construction industry still remains subdued and net sales down 2,1% in Q2 2019 despite price increase. The Lafarge South African operations continue to yield positive results from its turnaround plan.
Other Financial Items
Net financial expenses for Q2 2019 was N4,8 billion compared to N13,5 billion in Q2 2018. The decrease was mainly driven by the repayment of all our short-term loans and overdraft from the proceeds of the Rights issue which was successfully completed on March 8, 2019.
Free cash flow stood at N28,4 billion with significant improvement over H1 2018 of N10 billion.
Net Profit After Tax for Quarter two was restored to positive territory at N5,9 billion compared to -1,9 billion in previous year.
Visit Lafarge Africa Plc IR Page in Proshare MARKETS
Graph – One Year Share Price Movement


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Every year thousands of people die on the operating table from the loss of blood. These people, who have certain religious beliefs which prevent them from have having other people’s blood transfused into them, may now have an important option.
A UK company called Brightwake Ltd. has created a new device which they call the Hemosep. What the Hemosep does is recover blood during a major surgery or trauma, and concentrates that blood into a system which can then transfuse it back into the patient. Since this is the patient’s own blood, religious people such as Jehovah Witnesses, are able to recover lost blood without relying on that of donors.
Stratasys, one of the world’s largest 3D printing companies, announced today that their 3D printing technology, particularly the Stratasys Dimension 1200es 3D printer, played a significant role in the production and testing of the Hemosep device. Although the final product will not use 3D printed parts and be produced out of metal, the testing device, and prototypes have used several 3d printed parts including the filtration and cooling systems.
“The Hemosep consists of a bag that uses chemical sponge technology and a mechanical agitator to concentrate blood sucked from a surgical site or drained from a heart-lung machine after surgery,” said Steve Cotton, Brightwake’s Director of Research and Development. “The cells are then returned to the patient via blood transfusion. In a climate of blood shortage, this recycling methodology has the potential to be a game-changer within the medical industry, saving the National Health Service millions.”
Because of the use of 3D printing, Brightwake was able to significantly cut their prototyping costs by 95%, as well as eliminate a majority of lead-times.
“Previously we had to outsource the production of these parts which took around three weeks per part,” explains Cotton. “Now we’re 3D printing superior strength parts overnight, cutting our prototyping costs by 96% and saving more than £1,000 for each 3D printed model. 3D printing has not only enabled us to cut our own costs, it has also been crucial in actually getting a functional device to clinical trials. The ability to 3D print parts that look, feel and perform like the final product, on-the-fly, is the future of medical device manufacturing,” he added.
This is yet another application which has shown the amazing benefits that 3D printing can have on businesses of all types. There have already been 100 successful clinical trials in Turkey of the Hemosep device during open-heart surgeries. Additional trials are now underway in the United Kingdom. Discuss Brightwake’s use of 3D printing in the development of the Hemosep device at 3dprintboard.
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Reports are that NVIDIA is currently in the works of developing two new mobile GPUs for laptops. One of them is stated to be the recently rumored GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, and now it seems that we have the information related to the new GA104 silicon which has been uncovered on the PCI Device ID database.
According to sources, a comment from the user Faintsnow on the PCI Device ID database site about a specific ID that appeared, ID 24A0, is referring to an NVIDIA mobile GPU, the NVIDIA GN20-E6.
It is being believed that the GN20-E6 is the moniker given to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU and the green team’s new Laptop GPU is currently not listed with the remainder of the NVIDIA Ampere family.
If we believe this information then we can assume that NVIDIA is planning on manufacturing RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3070 Ti GPUs for mobile devices, such as laptops and notebooks, and they will be offering core counts the non-Ti models.
NVIDIA’s RTX 3080 Ti is also reported to use a newer graphics processor, the GA103, and it will have as high as 7680 CUDA cores. NVIDIA seems to be stepping up its game as this new development has appeared after the release of the launch timeframe for the next-gen Intel Arc Alchemist graphics processors, which are to appear as early as the first quarter of next year.
The Alchemist 512 EU chip is expected to measure at around 396mm2 which makes it bigger than the AMD RDNA 2 and NVIDIA Ampere offerings. The Alchemist -512 GPU will come in the BGA-2660 package which measures 37.5mm x 43mm. NVIDIA’s Ampere GA104 measures 392mm2 which means that the flagship Alchemist chip is comparable in size while the Navi 22 GPU measures 336mm2 or around 60mm2 less.
|GPU Name||NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050||NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti||NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060||NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070||NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti||NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080||NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti|
|Process Node||Samsung 8nm||Samsung 8nm||Samsung 8nm||Samsung 8nm||Samsung 8nm||Samsung 8nm||Samsung 8nm|
|Base Clock||1057 MHz||1035 MHz||1283 MHz||1290 MHz||TBA||1245 MHz||TBA|
|Boost Clock||1740 MHz||1695 MHz||1703 MHz||1620 MHz||TBA||1710 MHz||TBA|
|Memory Clock||11 Gbps||11 Gbps||12 Gbps||12 Gbps||TBA||12 Gbps||TBA|
|Memory Size||4 GB||4 GB||6 GB||8 GB||8 GB||8/16 GB||TBA|
|Bandwidth||176 GB/s||176 GB/s||288 GB/s||384 GB/s||TBA||384 GB/s||TBA|
|Launch||Q2 2021||Q2 2021||Q1 2021||Q1 2021||Q1 2022?||Q1 2021||Q1 2022?|


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343 Industries reportedly making big moves on new Halo game
Halo Infinite was meant to be the poster child of Xbox's output for years to come. Though Master Chief remains iconic as ever and will belligerently show up in all of the console's marketing, it was hoped that his latest adventure would go down more of a treat.
Sadly, as time wore on for the initial Game Pass banger, interest waned, and it has been sat in sad dormancy ever since. Despite 343 Industries hoping Halo Infinite would carry the franchise forward with its seasonal updates, it's hard to keep players engaged when they feel they've seen it all before.
And now, it looks as though 343 Industries have finally accepted Infinite's fate, moving on to bigger and better with the next Halo game.
The next Halo game is reportedly in development
Though many had expected 343 Industries to keep its attention on Infinite, new reports claim the developer is already looking to hop onto the next game in the Halo series and is actively working on its Campaign.
In a video with Bitcast 269, the Editor-in-Chief of Seasoned Gaming claimed that 343 Industries is hard at work on the single-player campaign. "Do I have any info on the Halo campaign?" Ains asks himself on the SG Bitcast 269 Podcast.
New Halo is still years away
Even in spite of the claims, Ains says we shouldn't be expecting anything to poke through the woodwork for some time."I don't know - if I'm a betting man, I think I told a friend the other day that the earliest I would expect to see another Halo single-player campaign outside of Firefight and stuff they're doing in Infinite, is a couple years."
It's a pretty standard response at this point, with Ains concluding, "It's going to be a while, so don't hold your breath." Xbox has some massive games like Starfield out at the moment, and with the Activision Blizzard King deal only just signed, we imagine Phil Spencer's attention will be elsewhere.
Considering we first heard about an Infinite sequel as early as December 2021, it's likely 343 has already been cooking something up for a while. Thankfully, there's still plenty of seasonal content to come for Infinite - even if there are fewer players to enjoy it by the day.


text: The new EU school fruit, vegetables and milk scheme was introduced on 1 August, in time for implementation across the EU as of the first day of the 2017/2018 school year. Aimed at promoting healthy eating habits among children, the scheme will include the distribution of fruit, vegetables and milk products, as well as dedicated educational programmes to teach pupils about the importance of good nutrition and to explain how food is produced. This single scheme merges and optimises the existing projects that last year reached over 20 million children. Although participation is optional, all 28 Member States indicated they will take part in the initiative in the new school year. Fresh fruit, vegetables and drinking milk will be given as a priority to school children. Last year, around 20 million children benefited from the milk scheme and around 11.7 million children from the fruit and vegetables scheme.


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Runway, a San Francisco-based startup that aims to reinvent how businesses use financial data, announced today that it has raised $27.5 million in series A funding led by Garry Tan’s Initialized Capital. The round is Initialized Capital’s largest investment to date and comes on the heels of a $5 million seed round from Andreessen Horowitz earlier this year.
Runway is a new cloud-based platform that allows businesses to create, manage, and share financial models and plans with relative ease. The platform integrates with over 100 data sources, such as QuickBooks, NetSuite, Google Sheets and AWS, and automates the process of updating and maintaining financial forecasts. Runway also uses artificial intelligence to generate insights, scenarios and recommendations based on the business data and goals.
The company was founded in 2020 by Siqi Chen and Arya Asemanfar, who previously worked at Zynga and Facebook respectively. Chen, who serves as Runway’s CEO, said in a recent interview with VentureBeat that the company’s mission is to make business success understandable to everyone.
“We believe that everyone in a company should have access to the financial data and context that drives their work. But today, financial planning is often done in spreadsheets that are hard to understand, maintain and share. We want to change that by building a consumer-grade product that makes financial planning more accessible, intuitive and intelligent,” Chen said.
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“We really see this becoming an operating system for businesses,” he added. “That’s what the financial artifact enables, because it connects everything in that company. People, data, all the work that you do, customers, and sales.”
According to Chen, Runway’s platform is different from traditional spreadsheet tools in several ways. One of its key innovations is the concept of plans, which are isolated changes to the financial model that capture the business intent and context behind them. Plans can be created by anyone in the company, assigned to different owners, moved around on a timeline and compared for their impact on key metrics.
“Plans are a new primitive that enable some of the most useful AI workflows that we have. If we didn’t have plans, an AI cannot create plans. So we really try to think about how we can invent fundamentally new primitives to make this more accessible,” Chen said.
Another feature that sets Runway apart is its ability to handle time series data natively. This means that users can easily plan for future events or changes without affecting the historical data or breaking the formulas. For example, users can give themselves or others a raise in six months or adjust their sales conversion rate based on seasonality.
“We’ve engineered everything to be natively time series. So what that means is you can actually turn on this as a time series and then go to the future and make some plans for your salary or other people’s salaries. It’ll just work,” Chen said.
Consumer-style finance tools for non-finance people
Runway also boasts a sleek user interface that allows you to create custom dashboards and reports with drag-and-drop functionality. You can also interact with graphs and charts directly by dragging them up or down to see how they affect the outcomes. Additionally, users can collaborate with their team members and stakeholders by sharing their models and plans via links or embedding them into other tools like Notion or Slack.
With the new funding, Runway plans to expand its team, improve its product features and integrations, and prepare for its general-availability launch next year. The company is currently in early access mode and has over 50 customers across various industries, such as Stability AI, Superhuman, Lobe AI, Origin Protocol and Joby Aviation.
Runway is part of a growing trend of startups that are using AI to disrupt traditional financial planning and analysis (FP&A) tools. According to Gartner, AI will automate 80% of FP&A tasks by 2024. The benefits of using AI for FP&A include faster decision-making, improved accuracy and reliability, reduced manual work and errors, enhanced scenario planning and forecasting, and better alignment and collaboration across the organization.
However, Runway faces tough competition from other players in the space, such as Anaplan, Adaptive Insights (acquired by Workday), Planful (formerly Host Analytics) and Causal App (formerly Causal). These companies offer various solutions for budgeting, forecasting, reporting, analytics and modeling for businesses of different sizes and industries.
Runway claims to have an edge over its rivals by offering a more accessible, intuitive and intelligent platform that can handle complex and dynamic business scenarios. The company also claims to have a large and untapped market opportunity, as most businesses still rely on spreadsheets or outdated tools for their financial planning.
“We think that our product is not only better, but also different from anything else in the market. We are not just building a better spreadsheet or a better FP&A tool. We are building an operating system for businesses that connects people, data and work in a new way. We believe that this is the future of financial planning and analysis in the age of AI,” Chen said.
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Updated: Feb 9
Press Release | TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY
TALLADEGA, Ala. (Feb. 7, 2023) – Talladega Superspeedway welcomes a new name to fall playoff weekend, announcing today that Love’s RV Stops, an amenity offered by Love’s Travel Stops, will sponsor the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race in late September.
The 250-lap race is officially titled the Love’s RV Stop 250, and will set the scene as drivers battle it out in the second contest of the Round of 8 in the playoffs later this year.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Love’s to the Talladega family,” said Talladega Superspeedway President Brian Crichton. “Playoff weekend is always a fantastic event here at the track. The intensity of Saturday’s truck race is what really gets the excitement going and keeps it rolling into Sunday.”
The Love’s RV Stop 250 will take place on Saturday, Sept. 30, and is part of a doubleheader weekend featuring the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs’ Round of 8, and the NASCAR Cup Series Yellawood 500 on Sunday, Oct. 1 – the second race in the Cup Series Playoffs Round of 12.
“Talladega draws one of the largest camping and RV audiences in the country, so we are excited to expand our partnership in NASCAR with the Love’s RV Stop 250,” said Dave Frankenfield, Vice President of Marketing at Love’s. “Our new RV Stops extend our highway hospitality to the RV customer providing convenience with hookups and amenities adjacent to our traditional travel stop.”
Love’s currently has a network of 27 RV locations, which account for more than 250 reservable overnight spaces. RV hookups located at Love’s Travel Stops offer a convenient place for overnight stays, and include Wi-fi, 30 and 50 amp hookups, travel stop amenities such as clean restrooms, food and drink offerings and showers. The company also recently started adding RV Stops located adjacent to Love’s Travel Stops for longer stays that include added amenities like fire pits, dog parks and recreational amenities. Travelers can reserve online at www.lovesrvstops.com
Pre-sale tickets for the fall races at Talladega Superspeedway are available now, but fans can also catch racing action at the famed Alabama track during the GEICO 500 weekend in April.
The upcoming tripleheader weekend features two back-to-back races on Saturday, April 22, with the ARCA Menards Series General Tire 200, followed by the NASCAR Xfinity Series Ag-Pro 300. Then, on Sunday, April 23, drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series challenge the iconic 33-degree banking in the GEICO 500.
For ticketing information and more details about upcoming events as well as the Fall playoff weekend, visit www.talladegasuperspeedway.com. Fans are also encouraged to keep up with all the happenings at the biggest, baddest racetrack on the planet following Talladega Superspeedway on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, as well as in the NASCAR Tracks App for the latest speedway news.


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ESPN has been given a huge boost for its 3D service with the decision by Sony Electronics to extend sponsorship of the network for an additional twelve months.
Sony was the first official sponsor of the network in January 2010 and is thought to have seen particular attraction in brand alignment with ESPN’s 3D productions of the upcoming Summer X Games and regular college US football season this autumn.
ESPN 3D has to date produced more than 115 live sporting events, exceeding original expectations and is an ideal vehicle for Sony who claims that most commercially successful 3D feature films and live sports events are captured with its lines of cameras and production systems.
Commented Stuart Redsun, senior vice president of marketing at Sony Electronics: “We are excited to extend our partnership with ESPN and continue to deliver sports in 3D to consumer homes…We've signed on to do the X Games as well as an expanded college football schedule, where ESPN will utilise Sony professional 3D cameras to bring consumers the best in live sports."
Added Ed Erhardt, president, ESPN Customer Marketing and Sales: "Working with companies like Sony on such leading-edge technologies as 3D gives us the ability to deliver a whole new experience to sports fans. We're doubling the number of college football games on the network this fall, which was made possible by our strategic relationship with Sony."


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The promise of modular smartphones like Google's Project Ara is that buyers will be able to upgrade components at will -- and now Finnish company Circular Devices has come up with a use for discarded computing modules.
Larry Ellison has opened a new front in his battle with Cisco Systems and EMC, launching new Oracle hardware on Wednesday that he claims will be the cheapest on the market.
Fujitsu has developed a circuit that could double data rates between CPUs in servers and supercomputers
IBM continues to commercialize its Watson-branded cognitive computing technology, setting up a new Watson business unit and unveiling two new Watson-derived services.
Controversial quantum device maker D-Wave is hoping to find a home for its cutting-edge technology in the high-performance computing (HPC) market.
Supercomputing power is being concentrated in a smaller number of machines, according to the latest Top 500 list of high-performance computers. Keepers of the list are uncertain how to parse that trend.
Helping scientific supercomputing take advantage of emerging big-data technologies, high-performance computing manufacturer Cray is releasing a set of packages promising to optimize the process of running Hadoop on the company's XC30 machines.
China has maintained its lead in the twice-yearly ranking of the world's most powerful supercomputers, with the Chinese National University of Defense Technology's Tianhe-2 system bringing 33.86 petaflop/s (quadrillions of calculations per second) to...
This year's America's Cup will be remembered for Oracle Team USA's jaw-dropping comeback against Emirates New Zealand, but it should also be remembered for the huge role computers have come to play in the competition.
Increasing sales of cheaper systems helped fuel growth in the high-performance computing (HPC) sector during the second quarter, while interest in high-end supercomputers cooled.
As supercomputers grow more powerful, they'll also grow more vulnerable to failure, thanks to the increased amount of built-in componentry. A few researchers at the recent SC12 conference, held last week in Salt Lake City, offered possible solutions ...
The Top500 is no longer the only ranking game in town: make way for the Graph 500, which tracks how well supercomputers handle big-data-styled workloads.
If the increase in supercomputer speeds continue at their current pace, we will see the first exascale machine by 2020, estimated the maintainers of the Top500 compilation of the world's fastest systems.
Intel hopes to deliver performance and power-efficiency breakthroughs to servers with the new Xeon Phi family of processors, the first model of which is now shipping to customers, the company said on Monday.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) wants to attract more high-performance computing users to its cloud and has launched a public beta of Cluster Compute Eight Extra Large, its most powerful cloud service yet.
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