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Amazon.com Inc said it would add more than 120,000 seasonal workers in the United States for the holiday season, an increase of 20 percent more than last year, highlighting the growing threat the e-commerce giant poses to traditional retailers.
U.S. retailers such as Macy’s Inc, Target Corp and Kohl’s Corp have said they plan to hire fewer temporary workers or to keep seasonal employment levels little changed this holiday season.
More than 14,000 seasonal positions were transitioned to regular, full-time roles after the holidays last year, and the company expects to increase that number this year, Amazon said on Thursday.
The U.S. National Retail Federation earlier this month forecast a 3.6 percent rise in holiday sales this year, with online sales expected to climb 7 percent to 10 percent.
U.S. brick-and-mortar retailers’ biggest challenge in recent years has been tackling the growth of online retailers, specially Amazon, which offer the same products at lower prices and have made shopping more convenient.
They are also keeping sales expectations and inventories low – and hiring light – ahead of the holiday season to avoid a repeat of last year, when unusually warm weather hit sales and piled up unsold goods.
For game critics, loving Gears of War has been problematic since the very beginning. The rippling, testosterone drenched surface of Epic’s franchise served as a distraction from its abundant qualities. Looking back, it’s clear that the first game, released in 2006, provided the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 era with the kind of moment that arguably still hasn’t arrived for the current generation. It was a new visual benchmark, its sense of weight and physical force was entirely distinct, and – a year before the launch of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – it introduced the most credible new multiplayer experience since Halo. For those who based their professional integrity on distinguishing good games from bad, to notice and appreciate any of this was to miss the square-jaws and lumpen dialogue that comprised its story.
Looking back now, it’s clear that Gears of War was one of the defining series of the last console generation, influencing the creative direction of a large proportion of action games, driving the development community towards the Unreal Engine in droves, and with Horde mode in Gears of War 2, introducing a multiplayer concept that would be adopted by everything from Uncharted to Mass Effect. Even its marketing was influential: Gears of War’s popular “Mad World” trailer might well be the origin of action games using pained, acoustic covers of popular songs to score their artfully spliced carnage.
Despite this estimable legacy, however, the reviews of Gears of War 4 are shot through with an almost apologetic tone; a need to address the (arguably misplaced) perception of Gears as nothing more than a dude-bro power fantasy. Polygon, which awards the game an impressive 9 out of 10, spends a full third of its review on story and characterisation, opening with a declaration that, “Gears of War 4 is about home and family.”
“Gears of War as a series has dealt with accusations of hyper-masculine excess and an emphasis on gore and violence since it was first announced more than ten years ago. And it’s not that those observations are wrong, exactly – the characters have always been larger than life, the men in particular wide and heavy, and the violence of the series has always been extreme and enthusiastic. But beneath or even in parallel to that aspect, there’s always been consistent themes of friendship, of relationships of support and camaraderie that would seem corny in most other games but, somehow, work in Gears of War for a passionate fanbase.”
This protagonist of this reboot – which was developed by Microsoft’s The Coalition – is J. D. Fenix, the son of the original series’ central character, Marcus Fenix. Both father and son play pivotal roles in the game’s story, which Polygon describes as, “more focused, less sprawling story than the last few entries… A lot of time is spent exploring the strained relationship between Marcus and his son, with a lot of perspective on both sides of the equation.” The game’s various other key characters all have their own emotional journeys, largely relating to those themes of family and friendship. Gears of War 4’s story and character time works as well as it does for several reasons,” Polygon says. “The writing is matter-of-fact, avoiding over-stoicism and also overwrought fluff for the most part.”
If this is an area of weakness that The Coalition sought to address, then the abiding sense from the game’s reviews is that it has made a significant improvement. Whether that’s what the vast majority of Gears of War’s players care about is another matter, of course, but The Coalition hasn’t dropped the ball with the series’ core strengths, either. Polygon praises Gears of War 4 as “simply a joy to play,” and that sentiment echoes throughout the critical discourse.
The Daily Telegraph, which awards four stars, applauds the “muscular and endlessly gratifying thrill” of the gunplay, which carries the game through a slow start that serves, “as an elongated (re)introduction to that well-oiled Gears combat, flashing between cover-to-cover, switching between shotgun and rifle and familiarising yourself with the rattle of an emptying clip and the satisfaction of a well-timed, power-boosting active reload.” There are two new enemy races to fight in place of the original series’ Locust, and “weaponry…as exotic as the bestiary” with which to fight them. The need to switch between distinct weapons to fight equally distinct weapon types has always been central to Gears of War’s appeal. Here, again, The Coalition has honoured its heritage.
The same is true of Gears of War 4 as a spectacle. You won’t find a single review that doesn’t proclaim it to be one of the very best looking games on either Xbox One or PlayStation 4, and the same is true is the PC version. Indeed, PCGamesN calls it “a visual and technical tour de force,” maintaining “searing frame-rates on ‘ultra’ settings during some of the most mind-blowing – if cheesy – set-pieces I’ve seen in games, while also inviting me to appreciate the vivid redness of sycamore leaves lazily billowing on a cracked yellow wall in a medieval town square on some parallel-to-Earth planet.”
That last observation is crucial, because the beauty of Gears 4 goes beyond polygons, framerates and animations, and extends to art direction. “This certainly ain’t the grey-brown Gears of old,” PCGamesN says, before adding, “the diversity of what it shows is stunning… This is a far cry from the game that single-handedly started the stereotype of the ‘murky brown war shooter’, taking us instead on a historical tour of the vestiges of a world parallel to ours, yet still different enough to be mysterious; I almost felt guilty as I stomped around a scenic town as a giant mech, casually calling in airstrikes to smash my way through buildings. Almost.”
Words like “jawdropping,” “stunning,” “incredible” and “breathtaking” are scattered throughout this and many other reviews, to the point where the handful of scores that fall below 8 out of 10 demand close attention. For Jimquisition, the website started by ex-Destructoid personality Jim Sterling, “there’s nothing quite like Gears on the market. The sense of weight, the meaty impact of combat, the gruesomely satisfying way heads pop and bodies burst, any given Gears game has a baseline quality even at its worst thanks to its undeniably unique style.” However, Gears of War 4 relies on that “baseline quality” a little too much, The Coalition happy to make the improvements necessary to maintain relative standards but, “doing very little to rock the boat and making minor improvements and evolving where needed.”
“Such a tactic provides a game that’s decent just because it’s Gears of War, relying on the groundwork established across four older games to maintain the baseline. And that’s most certainly what Gears 4 is. A maintenance of the series as opposed to an injection of fresh blood.”
In a sense, then, the game’s most ardent supporters and most vocal critics are in full agreement: Gears of War 4 absolutely meets the standard set by its forebears, which is either something to praise or lament depending on the individual. One suspects, though, that in the absence of new Gears, the public will be more than happy to settle for more Gears.
Amazon is holding discussions with European Union antitrust regulators regarding settling a year-long investigation into its e-book deals with publishers without a fine, a person familiar with the matter said.
The move comes as Amazon is also under scrutiny over its tax deal with Luxembourg, which may result in the U.S. online retailer paying millions of euros in back taxes.
“Amazon is in talks to settle the e-book case but it is too early to say whether it will reach an agreement,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Under the EU’s settlement rules, the company would not face any fine or finding of wrongdoing if it can offer concessions to allay regulatory concerns.
European Commission spokesman Ricardo Cardoso declined to comment.
The EU competition watchdog opened an investigation into the case in June last year, saying Amazon’s e-books contracts with publishers giving it terms as good as those for its rivals may make it difficult for other e-books distributors to compete.
The focus is on Amazon’s e-books in English and German. The company is the biggest e-book distributor in Europe, while the market is growing rapidly.
“Amazon’s lead is over,” he said during his keynote address at the OpenWorld conference in San Francisco. “Amazon’s going to have serious competition going forward.”
To that end, the company he co-founded is launching a set of new cloud data centers that are aimed at providing more powerful compute instances to help it compete against the likes of AWS, Azure and other cloud players. The generation 2 data centers will help bring a variety of performance improvements to customers who want to run high-performance workloads in the cloud.
The infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offering that Ellison announced on-stage is aimed at giving companies low-cost access to incredibly powerful hardware in the cloud. It’s an attempt to draw businesses towards Oracle’s services as they start migrating applications to take advantage of the performance and low pricing available as a result of not operating their own data centers.
Ellison showed off a new Oracle Dense Cloud IO bare metal cloud server offering that will provide developers with 36 CPU cores, 512GB of D-RAM, and 28.8TB of SSD storage. That’s a ton of compute capacity, all aimed at high-performance enterprise workloads. It’s more power than Amazon offers with one of its most powerful instance, the i2.8xlarge. It comes at a cost of $5.40 an hour, which is cheaper than what Amazon charges.
Deepak Patil, a vice president of product development at Oracle, said in an interview that the company was able to compete with Amazon on price and performance for three reasons: The different way that it architects its infrastructure, its access to the latest and greatest hardware and the fact that its cloud platform is built on top of Oracle-made hardware.
Oracle vice president of software development Mark Cavage said that the company plans to charge a flat 7.5 cents per instance hour per core across all of its compute offerings. In addition to its bare-metal options, the company will also offer four- and eight-core virtual machines at launch. By the end of the year, Oracle will also make one- and two-core VMs available.
Twitter Inc rolled out a new video streaming application for Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc TV platforms, as well as Microsoft Corp’s Xbox One gaming console as it brings its video content to the forefront.
The application will also be available for users of these devices without a Twitter account or a pay-TV subscription, the company said.
The application will feature video content from a number of Twitter’s partners, including the National Football League and the National Basketball Association, as well as curated tweets and shorter video from its Vine and Periscope services.
The news comes a day ahead of the first of the 10 NFL Thursday night games that Twitter obtained streaming rights for in April.
Jack Dorsey-led Twitter has made a significant push into video, signing deals with several media companies and sports organizations to stream major events.
Amazon.com Inc and Pandora Media Inc are gearing up to roll out new versions of their streaming music services in coming weeks, the New York Times has reported, citing several anonymous people with knowledge of the matter.
Pandora could announce its plans this to expand its $5-per-month platform this week, with possible features including skipping more songs or storing several hours of playlists, the newspaper said. The company plans to launch a full-fledged on-demand platform by Christmas. Such a platform, priced at $10 a month, would compete with Spotify and Apple Inc’ Apple Music.
Amazon, meanwhile, is expected to reveal a platform with a large catalog of music for $10 per month or about half that amount for customers using its Echo voice-activated speakers, according to the Times.
Both companies are close to completing months of negotiations for deals with record companies and music publishers that will allow them to offer the new services, the Times reported.
Amazon was preparing to launch a standalone music streaming subscription service at $9.99 per month, in line with major rivals, Reuters reported in June, citing sources.
Amazon so far has not responded to a request for comment. Pandora declined to comment.
Google has set an early December deadline for removing most Flash content from its Chrome browser, adding that it will take an interim step next month when it stops rendering Flash-based page analytics.
In a post to a company blog, Anthony LaForge, a technical program manager on the Chrome team, said the browser would refuse to display virtually all Flash content starting with version 55, which is scheduled for release the week of Dec. 5.
Previously, Google had used a broader deadline of this year’s fourth quarter for quashing all Flash content except for that produced by a select list of 10 sites, including Amazon, Facebook and YouTube.
Another anti-Flash change will reach Chrome with version 53, now slated to ship the week of Sept. 5. At that time, Chrome will stop rendering very small Flash elements, which are invisible to users but generate data for Web analytics platforms.
LeForge’s latest deadlines were what will probably be among the closing moves in Chrome’s years-long campaign to eradicate Flash. Like other browser makers — including Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla — Google has championed the elimination of Adobe’s once-dominant media player by arguing that it results in longer laptop battery life, faster page rendering and improved security.
Apple’s Safari has frozen some Flash content since 2013, and will beat Chrome to the no-Flash milestone when it ships Safari 10 with macOS Sierra between now and October: Then, Safari will default to HTML5 and only alert users that a site supports just Flash with a message that they need to download the plug-in. Microsoft’s Edge — Windows 10’s default browser — froze some Flash content in the version bundled with last week’s 1607 upgrade.
Mozilla has only begun to restrict Flash content inside its Mozilla browser. While the open-source developer has said it will require users next year to manually activate the Flash Player plug-in, it has not revealed a timetable for more drastic constraints, like those Google announced.
Alphabet will kick off a research study for Project Wing at a Federal Aviation Administration test site “to help regulators answer critical safety and human factors questions” for drone deliveries, the White House said in a statement.
Alphabet first tested its delivery drones in Queensland, Australia, in 2014, where the company delivered a first aid kit, candy bars, dog treats and water to farmers.
Google and Amazon are both developing drone delivery systems, but lots of questions remain about how the services will actually work, including how and where packages will be dropped off.
The tests at the FAA site could help assuage the U.S. government’s concerns about the safety of such systems and how they will operate.
The Project Wing announcement was one of several made during a White House workshop on drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs.
The National Science Foundation said it would invest $35 million in drone research over the next five years. The research is aimed at designing and controlling drones to be used for infrastructure inspection, disaster response, agricultural monitoring and studying severe storms.
The U.S. must avoid crippling the drone industry through slow-moving regulatory processes, FAA administrator Michael Huerta said during the White House workshop.
“This is an industry that’s moving at the speed of Silicon Valley,” he said. “We at the FAA know that we can’t respond at the speed of government.”
The U.S. Department of the Interior said it will use drones to support search and rescue operations, augmenting its manned aircraft operations.
In addition, the Future of Privacy Forum, Intel and PrecisionHawk released a report calling on drone makers to embrace privacy early in the design process, in response to concerns among consumers.
However, analysts at Canalys and IDC are seeing a glimmer of hope for the devices with business demand for detachable tablets like the Microsoft Surface Pro and the iPad Pro. The Windows 10 anniversary update, which rolls out tomorrow, could further the business trend toward detachable tablets as could the next version of Android, called Nougat, with its better multitasking support.
Canalys reported 35 million tablets shipped in the second quarter, down 16% from a year ago. IDC said overall shipments reached 38.7 million, a decline of 12.3%.
According to Canalys, Apple tablets took the top spot at a 28% share of the market, while Samsung took a 16% share and Lenovo and Huawei got 7% and 6% respectively. IDC’s numbers were about the same: Apple had 25.8%; Samsung, 15.6%; Lenovo, 6.6% and Huawei, 5.6%. IDC tracked Amazon with a 4% market share, citing its low-priced Fire tablets, based on an Android variant, including its 6-in. tablet, for the first time.
For more than two years, analysts have watched the tablet market decline. The reasons are primarily because users hold on to the devices for longer and because larger smartphones — those with displays over 5.5 inches — have caught on as an alternative to smaller tablets.
In June, IDC predicted global tablet shipments would drop by 9.6% for all of 2016, up from a prediction of a 6% decline in March.
IDC said the tablet decline would occur even when newer detachables tablets are included with slate tablets. Slates “are not coming back,” IDC analyst Jean Phillippe Bouchard said at the time.
Later in June, Bouchard joined IDC analyst Bryan Bassett in predicting that global business use of tablets would grow by nearly 6% annually through 2020. Even so, that figure would still not be enough to reach the number of total consumer and business tablets shipped in 2015. In 2015, IDC said 206 million tablets shipped, including 35 million for business users, but in 2020, the total number will reach only 202.6 million, including 59.4 million for business users.
The world’s biggest online retailer, which has laid out plans to start using drones for deliveries by 2017, said a cross-government team supported by the UK Civil Aviation Authority had provided it with the permissions necessary to explore the process.
Amazon unveiled a video last year showcasing how an unmanned drone could deliver packages, narrated by former Top Gear TV host Jeremy Clarkson.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said last month the use of drones for deliveries will require separate regulation from their general use.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc said last month it was six to nine months from beginning to use drones to check warehouse inventories in the United States.
Google’s intelligent cloud developer tools added new features with the launch of a new Cloud Natural Language API. The service is aimed at helping developers create applications that understand human language.
It’s an important move for Google, as public cloud providers race to host new applications built with intelligent capabilities. Natural language processing allows developers to build apps that can tackle the challenging task of understanding how humans communicate. It is also key for building intelligent assistants and chat bots.
This API can provide information about a block of text back to an application, including the overall sentiment of a passage and an analysis of the structure of a sentence. The system can also identify entities mentioned, including people, organizations, locations, events and products.
The API is based on the same research that Google used to create Parsey McParseface, an open source parser for English text that the company released earlier this year.
The natural language API entered public beta alongside Google’s already announced Speech API, which lets applications take in recorded voice clips and get text back. By connecting the two APIs, it’s possible for developers to build an app that can listen to a user’s voice and then understand what that person is saying.
By launching these two services in beta, Google continues its competition against Microsoft, Amazon and IBM, which are also launching intelligent capabilities in their public cloud platforms.
The company’s second annual sales event, which was held Tuesday, saw customer orders surpass Prime Day 2015 by more than 60% worldwide and more than 50% in the U.S., the company reported.
“It was a huge success,” said Sucharita Mulpuru-Kodali, an analyst with Forrester Research. “It was a big day, by all accounts, with enormous growth. It reinforces that e-commerce continues to grow and that Amazon is a significant part of that growth.”
Amazon’s Prime Day is a one-day sales event for members of Prime, the company’s membership program. Products in nearly all of Amazon’s copious shopping categories were put on sale.
Despite some reports of customers’ having problems checking out after making their purchases, more than 90,000 TVs were sold, along with more than 2 million toys, 1 million pairs of shoes and hundreds of thousands of Kindle e-readers.
Amazon also received twice as many orders via its mobile app than it did during Prime Day last year. More than 1 million customers used the Amazon app for the first time during the sale, the company said.
For U.S. sales alone, Amazon reported that device sales were three times higher compared to Prime Day 2015. It was also the biggest sales day for Amazon’s Echo personal assistant and the company’s e-readers.
When it came to techie purchases, Amazon sold U.S. members more than 14,000 Lenovo laptops and more than 23,000 iRobot Roomba 614 Vacuum cleaning robots.
While it was a big day for the online retailer, one day does not outshine the rest of the year, especially with back-to-school sales, and then holiday sales, coming up.
“No single day is going to change the fortunes of any retailer,” said Mulpuru-Kodali. “It’s one day of 365 or 366 days in any given year.
For all of 2016, global tablet shipments will drop by 9.6% over 2015, market research firm IDC forecast this week, marking the second straight year of decline. In March, IDC had forecast a decline of 6% for this year.
The decline will occur even when newer detachable tablets, often called 2-in-1s, are included with slate tablets, IDC said.
“The impact of the decline of slates is having a bigger impact, faster than we thought. They are not coming back,” said IDC analyst Jean Phillippe Bouchard in an interview.
But Bouchard was quick to add that slates are not disappearing entirely. There will continue to be a robust market for small slate tablets, under 8 inches, that are sold for less than $125 by Amazon and others, primarily for use by children.
“There will also continue to be a slate market for commercial uses in healthcare, education and hospitality, so there are a lot of use cases for slates saying that slates are not going away,” he said. “There will still be a need for slates but not as great as in 2010.” IDC said well over 100 million slate tablets will ship annually through 2020.
As IDC and others have said in the past, slate tablets have saturated the market. “Everyone wanting a slate has one, and there’s very little reason to replace it or upgrade it,” Bouchard added.
IDC pegged the total tablet market of both slates and detachables at 207 million units shipped in 2015, but that figure will decline to about 187 million in 2016. IDC didn’t release its forecast for years beyond 2016, but said the market will continue to decline in 2017 before having a “slight rebound in 2018 and beyond, driven by detachable tablet growth.”
The new brands with names like Happy Belly, Wickedly Prime and Mama Bear will include nuts, spices, tea, coffee, baby food and vitamins, as well as household items such as diapers and laundry detergents, the newspaper reported.
Amazon will only offer these labels to its Prime subscribers, the Journal reported, adding the first of the brands could begin appearing at the end of May or early June.
“We don’t comment on rumors or speculations,” a company spokeswoman said in an email.
Last week, Amazon launched Amazon Video Direct for users to post videos and earn royalties with them, setting it up directly against Alphabet Inc’s YouTube.
The Weather Channel is gearing up to roll out a mobile phone app for its recently launched online local news service Local Now in a bid to expand its viewership, Chief Executive Dave Shull told Reuters in an interview.
The independent TV network, which brings weather coverage from blizzards to tornadoes to millions of American homes, rolled out in January an online service “Local Now” that offers local news, weather, traffic and sports updates. The service is currently only available on Dish Network Corp’s online streaming service Sling TV.
“News should be personalized for you, hyper-local, and on-demand just like your favorite shows on Netflix or Hulu,” Shull said on Thursday. “You shouldn’t have to wait for the local news to come on at 11 p.m.”
The Local Now app, expected to launch in June, lets users access the service on iOS and Android phones by entering account information from their cable or satellite-TV subscription with some operators, such as Time Warner Cable Inc, Shull said. It offers a free trial for a week.
The launch comes as streaming services such as Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc’s Prime Video gain popularity and viewers shun traditional pay-TV offerings.
Streaming or over-the-top services bring slim bundles of channels from sports to kids entertainment to viewers, but often lack rich local news content as streaming rights have to be painstakingly negotiated with hundreds of stations.
The challenge for local news stations is to satisfy mobile demand without undermining viewership for traditional broadcasts, which generate hefty fees from cable operators who pay to carry their content.
By identifying a viewer’s location, ad-free Local Now creates a real-time, short-form newscast using live data from Weather Channel traffic and weather cameras and news from a handful of content partners, such as the Associated Press. The newscasts, which do not feature a news anchor, use automated pre-recorded words strung together to deliver news.
By leveraging existing Weather Channel infrastructure and using cost-efficient technology, Local Now can offer local news coverage to distributors at a “fraction of the cost” charged by local news stations, Shull said.


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Sony has shown a spectacular new PS5 commercial for the launch of the console. It’s too early, but still.
With PlayStation 5 remaining just weeks away, we look forward to experiencing the next generation of interactive entertainment for the first time. The launch of the new PlayStation console is a landmark day in history. And today we’re releasing a new promotional video ahead of the console’s worldwide launch.
SIE Senior Vice President of Marketing Eric Lempel on the PlayStation blog said that the idea behind the video is to explore something new. The voice of the narrator belongs to Travis Scott, who recently entered into a strategic creative partnership with Sony.
PS5 sales will begin on November 12.

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April 14, 2010 |
LONDON: The ill-fated Titanic wasted more than 45 minutes before sending out distress signal after it had hit an iceberg, just four days into the luxury liner's maiden voyage, a new book has claimed. The largest passenger steamship in the world hit an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, United Kingdom , to New York in April 1912, and sank with loss of 1,517 lives. Now, in his book, noted author Tim Maltin has said that the...
July 30, 2012 |
LONDON: The menu of the first dinner served to the first-class passengers of the ill-fated liner Titanic on April 10, 1912 has been sold for £46,000 at an auction. Hors d'oeuvre , roast duckling, fillet of veal and french ice cream were some of the dishes in the opulent menu of the first dinner served on Titanic at the start of the voyage . It was among 400 items being auctioned in Wiltshire in South West England as part of the 100th anniversary of the ship's sinking in the Atlantic Ocean,...
December 28, 2011 |
For some, it might sound too much like tempting fate - and for others, it smacks of 'disaster voyeurism' . But for more than 2,000 Titanic enthusiasts , the chance to mark the centenary of the maritime disaster by sailing on a large cruise ship to commemorate the sinking on the very spot of the tragedy is proving difficult to resist. A British company has almost sold out two cruises for people to mark the anniversary on 15 April by following the route of the Titanic to where it struck an iceberg.
March 4, 2013 |
LONDON: No Twitter and Facebook for Titanic II passengers! Social media and other internet facility including e-mails will be banned on board the replica of the doomed Titanic liner to give passengers a chance to relax and talk to each other. "It will be a chance for people to return to a different age, when there was a whole different social fabric. It's no bad thing to take some time with your family and friends," Australian Mining tycoon Clive Palmer, who has...
December 18, 2007 |
HAMBURG: A giant kite designed to help slash the spiralling cost of fuel consumption could herald winds of change for commercial cargo shipping. The first freighter to be fitted with the hi-tech sail was launched in the north German port of Hamburg Saturday by Eva Luise Koehler, wife of German President Horst Koehler. "It is an important step for the future," ship owner Niels Stolberg said as the huge yellow-and-white rectangular strip of nylon fluttered above...


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Moonfruit launched a new TV ad, where it showcased four Moonfruit customers in their business environment, doing what they love to do. This was the beginning of a number of campaigns, which all sit under the key message, ‘turn your passion into a business online’.
The TV campaign run from mid-January through to the end of February. Following on from this, Moonfruit wanted to keep with the momentum and continue raising brand awareness through other media. The next major campaign was to run is the Tube Car Panel (TCP) campaign. This campaign was a medium-weight campaign (3,000 panels) running for 4 weeks (two in-charge periods).


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Two cannabis companies in California recently announced they would be cutting jobs. CannaCraft and Grupo Flor will both be initiating a wave of layoffs to help save costs in the face of financial challenges. This comes at the same time that industry experts say they are expecting more cannabis jobs to be cut across the market due to the combination of a lack of profits and poor managerial decisions.
CannaCraft operates out of Sonoma County and oversees several retail shops. The company distributes several well-known marijuana brands. According to CannaCraf, 40 employees were laid off, accounting for roughly 16% of its staff. The company attributes the layoffs to the “slower-than-anticipated growth” of the legal marijuana market in the state of California.
Grupo Flor is based in Monterey County. The cannabis company runs multiple cannabis storefronts and a cultivation operation. According to Grupo Flor CEO Gavin Kogan, 30 employees were let go, roughly 35% of the company’s staff. Kogan says that an investment deal that fell through left the company without enough cash to complete its ambitious plan to create a statewide distribution wing in California. Kogan also said Grupo Flor has paused plans for a proposed business venture in Colombia.
Although both companies are trying to get over major hurdles, each has said that the future is still bright and that with significant adjustments to their business models, they should be able to right the course.
Speaking about having to layoff so many employees, Kogan said, “It’s not the end of the world. It’s just a difficult time in the industry for everybody.” Kogan also said that if marijuana businesses had access to traditional banking services, more companies in the state would be able to avoid layoffs.
Although the U.S. House passed the SAFE Banking Act, traditional lenders haven’t been jumping up to give loans to cannabis business owners. However, more banks and other financial institutions are starting to express interest in the marijuana industry as it becomes more likely the Senate could pass a measure before the end of 2019.
At Purdy & Bailey, LLP we are committed to keeping cannabis business owners up to date on the latest news impacting the industry. If you have questions regarding cannabis business law, then give us a call at (858) 360-7080 to request a free case evaluation.


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Fashion website ASOS today announced a 47% rise in sales over the summer – while its international turnover more than doubled.
Total sales rose to £69.7m in the three months to September 30, a trading statement issued today revealed, with UK sales rising 21% to £43.6m, while international sales were up by 128% to £26.0m.
Overseas sales are now highest in the EU, where shoppers spent 71% more, rising to £13.9m, but the fastest growth was seen in the US, with a 293% rise in sales to £3.7m.
A dedicated US website went live in September, while German and French sites are set to launch during the course of this month.
Nick Robertson, chief executive, said: “I am pleased to report continued strong sales growth, both in the UK and internationally. Our US website launched in September and we expect to be live with both our French and German websites by the end of October 2010. With retail gross margin ahead of prior year and costs tightly managed, we expect our full year results to be in line with market expectations.”


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An average new car costs $45,000 in the US. Consumers have witnessed the increasing price tag for six months in a row now.
The last month’s increase in car prices marked the sixth record in a row, with the average new car costing $45,031. On Tuesday, the data revealed from the Kelley Blue Book and Cox Automotive showed, it is the first time in history a car price has crossed $45,000. It began with $40,000 in the last quarter of 2020 and increased up to $42,000 in June 2021.
On average, from last September to the current year September, the average new car price increased to 12.1 percent, making it $4,872 in terms of dollars. The 3.7% increase solely happened after August 2021. However, unlike the first quarter of the year when car buyers stormed the dealerships following the lock-down, this time, the reason is not the same for the increase in prices.
As per the recent data, car sales have declined from August 2021 to September 2021 by 7.3%. This makes sense as the Q3 chip shortage has stopped the production of new cars, leaving dealers without any new cars to offer. While brand new cars are still not widely available, the major chunk of the increase in sales is driven by pickup cars, SUVs, and luxurious cars – KBB’s reported.
Earlier at the beginning of the years, high demand and low supply for cars fuel the car manufacturers‘ profits.
Cars that have not made it to consumers’ homes include hatchbacks, standard, and other affordable vehicles, while the luxury cars sales boosted by 15.1% compared to the previous year. Last month, premium cars made an overall sale of 16.6%. Moreover, as per the KBB estimates, the luxurious car shares rose to the highest it has ever been in the past decade. An average luxury vehicle costs $60,845, increasing the gross average new vehicle price.
The high car prices contribute to the lack of cash and other incentives provided by the carmakers to make cars affordable for new car buyers. Previously, cash companies used to knock off the car prices to make a deal favorable for the buyer. However, with current market conditions and low inventories, the cash companies don’t feel the need to lure the customers with incentives to buy. The data received recently witnessed that the incentives spendings dropped by 5.2%, which previously would be 10% to help the customer get a car.
Most stolen cars in America: “Lock your car and take your keys, no matter where you live,” says NICB CEO
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. vehicles thefts continue. The US solely accounts for the theft of 9,000,000
Michigan police preliminary test has been taken this September, revealing that the Ford Explorer Ecoboost
It’s easier to count on fingers the industries that have not been affected by the
An average new car costs $45,000 in the US. Consumers have witnessed the increasing price
Ford authorities have reportedly announced that they are reducing the Ford Mustang Coyote V-8 up


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Safari Sam is a five-reel, 30-line 3D slot machine from Betsoft which is set in an African safari featuring Zebra and Lion symbols, and offering big prizes.
News about the latest 3D slot machine releases, as well as promotions from the casinos offering them!
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Share prices of Rivian Automotive ( NASDAQ:RIVN ) briefly fell to $75.13 per share on Friday before closing the session at $79.95 per share. It was the first time Rivian stock dipped below its initial public offering (IPO) price of $78 per share. The sell-off marks over a 55% drawdown from the stock's all-time intraday high of $179.47 per share set on Nov. 16, 2021. Here are arguments for and against buying the electric vehicle (EV) stock now. Image source: Rivian Automotive. Take advantage of inefficient markets Howard Smith : Markets aren't always efficient, and that's how investors can gain an advantage. While Rivian shares have dropped recently in concert with many high-growth tech names, one of the biggest dips came with the news that Amazon ( NASDAQ:AMZN ) was starting a partnership with Chrysler parent Stellantis ( NYSE:STLA ) to supplement its supply of electric delivery vans. Prior to this news, investors only knew that Amazon -- an early … [Read more...] about Rivian Stock Just Fell Below its IPO Price of $78 Per Share: Time to Buy?
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Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Bitcoin soared through much of 2021, helped on by the likes of Tesla TSLA and El Salvador embracing the cryptocurrency ( though Tesla CEO Elon Musk is increasingly backing the meme-based dogecoin ). Subscribe now to Forbes' CryptoAsset & Blockchain Advisor and discover hot new NFT and crypto blockbusters poised for 1,000% gains The bitcoin price, hitting an all-time high of almost $70,000 per bitcoin in November, has since crashed back, losing around 40% of its value and wiping $1 trillion from the combined crypto market. Now, Wall Street giant Fidelity has said other countries and even a central bank could follow El Salvador and Tesla into bitcoin this year—predicting those that buy bitcoin while the price is low "will be better off competitively than their peers." Sign up now for the free CryptoCodex —A daily newsletter for the crypto-curious. Helping you understand the world of bitcoin and … [Read more...] about ‘Astonishing’—An Investment Giant Just Advised Countries And Central Banks To Buy Bitcoin While The Price Is Low
(Agence France-Presse) (The Jakarta Post) PREMIUM Manila ● Tue, January 18 2022 The Philippines will buy 32 new Black Hawk helicopters for more than US$620 million, the defense secretary said on Sunday, in the nation's latest big-ticket purchase to upgrade its aging military capability. For the past decade, Manila has been trying to modernize its run-down military equipment featuring Vietnam War-era helicopters and World War II naval vessels used by the United States. The first of the 32 S-70i Black Hawks from a Polish firm owned by US defense manufacturer Lockheed Martin will begin to arrive next year, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said on Facebook. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept … [Read more...] about Philippines to buy 32 new Black Hawks
Representative image Consumer goods giant Unilever said it had approached Glaxosmithkline about buying the pharmaceutical group's consumer goods arm after a newspaper reported that a 50 billion pound ($68.4 billion) offer it made had been rebuffed. "GSK Consumer Healthcare is a leader in the attractive consumer health space and would be a strong strategic fit as Unilever continues to re-shape its portfolio," Unilever said in a statement on Saturday. "There can be no certainty that any agreement will be reached." GSK did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Earlier, Britain's Sunday Times said the Unilever bid for the business was worth roughly 50 billion pounds, and had been rejected as too low by GSK and Pfizer, which owns a minority stake in the division. Close The approach by Unilever, which owns brands such as Dove soap and Marmite, for Glaxo’s portfolio of household brands including Panadol painkillers and Sensodyne toothpaste was … [Read more...] about Unilever says it wants to buy GSK’s consumer goods arm
Trade Watchlist Portfolio Message Set Alert live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More × HDFC Bank's share price rose marginally in early trade on January 17 after the private sector lender reported results for the quarter ended December. The bank on January 15 clocked standalone net profit of Rs 10,342 crore for the quarter, up 18 percent year-on-year, backed by decline in bad loan provisions. Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, climbed 13 percent to Rs 18,444 crore, with net interest margin at 4.1 percent, and credit growth clocking a healthy 16.4 percent. Profit and net interest income grew 17 and 4.3 percent respectively on a sequential basis. Catch all the market action on our live blog Close Here is what brokerages have to say about the stock and the company: Macquarie The research house has kept … [Read more...] about What should investors do with HDFC Bank after Q3 earnings; buy, sell or hold?
Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Two weeks ago, the beer and spirits business contributor to Forbes began her annual year-in-review article by noting that 2021 had not grabbed headlines for merger and acquisition activity. Then 2022 promptly began with a succession of newsworthy mergers and acquisitions. The new shape of these transactions suggests the industry had better buckle up for a year of unprecedented transformation at the ownership level. The year also started with the bittersweet story that the founder of a major global craft brewery had finally buckled under pressure and admitted to tolerating an abusive culture for women months after widespread allegations of toxicity at his workplace had gone public. As the #MeToo movement in beer enters its second year , the reckoning has far from quieted. But along with accountability, the impending judgments hold promise for far more tangible — and some argue, productive — relief. 2022 threatens to thrust … [Read more...] about Prepare For Sticker Shock At The Beer Shelf, Plus More Predictions For The Year In Beer
New York (CNN Business) The stock market is like that old slogan for Timex watches. It takes a licking but keeps on ticking. Sure, it's been a rocky start to the year on Wall Street following a stellar 2021. The Dow is down about 1% and the S&P 500 has fallen 2%. Trading has been volatile. But the Dow and S&P are still each just 3% below their all-time highs. Tech stocks have had a bit more of a wild ride. The Nasdaq is down 5% in 2022 and nearly 8% under its peak, putting it closer to a 10% drop known as a correction. Yet every time it looks like stocks could be heading for an even steeper drop, investors come rushing back in to buy the dips. Traders have so far mostly shrugged off temporary concerns about inflation and the Federal Reserve getting ready to raise interest rates , as well as fears over the impact that the Omicron variant of Covid-19 may have on the economy. Earnings growth has remained strong in spite of these … [Read more...] about Here’s what could rattle the stock market this year
File image of US President Joe Biden (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Joe Biden was Barack Obama’s vice president. His Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, was Obama’s pick to lead the Federal Reserve. The director of Biden’s National Economic Council, Brian Deese, was deputy director of Obama’s National Economic Council. His chief of staff, Ron Klain, was his chief of staff for the first two years of the Obama administration and then Obama’s top Ebola adviser. And so on. The familiar names and faces can obscure how different the new administration, in practice, has become. The problems Biden is facing are an almost perfect inversion of the problems Obama faced. The Obama administration was bedeviled by crises of demand. The Biden administration is struggling with crises of supply. For years, every conversation I had with Obama administration economists was about how to persuade employers to hire and consumers to spend. The 2009 stimulus was too small, and while we avoided a second … [Read more...] about This isn’t the presidency Joe Biden imagined for himself
Oilmeals export fell 67 per cent to 1.7 lakh tonne in December with Indian products being uncompetitive in the global market, according to industry body SEA. In a statement, the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) said 1,70,338 tonne of oilmeals were exported in December 2021 compared to 5,16,006 tonne in the year-ago period. The fall in exports is mainly due to decline in export of soybean and rapeseed meal, it added. The overall export of oilmeals during April-December 2021 fell 28 per cent at 17,66,687 tonne as compared to 24,67,564 tonne in the corresponding period of the previous year. "Soybean crush margins in India are currently squeezed by pressure on meal prices and relatively high price expectation of farmers for soybean seed which is currently quoted over Rs 6,300 per quintal," SEA said. At present, the association pointed out that India is outpriced for soybean meal export. The prices of ex. Kandla are quoted at USD 750 against Brazil origin USD 535 … [Read more...] about Oilmeals export down 67% to 1.7 lakh tonne last month; 28% fall in April-December
O n a Monday in April, Shannon Spanhake stood at the front of Cleo’s office as her executive team lined up beside her. It had been only a few months since her parenting benefits startup had raised its latest round of funding—$27.5 million from blue-chip venture capital firm NEA—and Cleo’s CEO and cofounder was telling staff to push harder. A lot harder. The San Francisco-based company’s 50-person workforce needed to spend more time in the office and raise their performance to what she considered “an A-plus-stage appropriate team,” according to four former and current employees who heard the talk. She wanted no complainers. There was not enough hustle and not enough presence at work. One bullet point from the slideshow spelled it out: “Expect to work 50- to 60-hour weeks.” Her presentation got cut short before she could get to the next part. The company’s work-from-home policy was being eliminated. The harangue stunned some of Cleo’s employees, who felt that it flew in the … [Read more...] about Exclusive Investigation: How Lies And a Troubled Workplace Brought Down The Founder Of $115 Million Cleo


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You might have noticed many businesses cutting back on single-use plastic items over the last few years, but this has now been rolled out as law across food outlets. Items including single-use plastic plates, trays and cutlery will no longer be permitted for use across England as a ban has now come into place.
Following similar policies set out in Scotland and Wales, the legislation came into effect from October 1 in a bid to reduce plastic pollution. The single-use plastic ban hopes to quell the estimated 1.1 billion plastic plates and 4.25 billion pieces of cutlery, only 10% of which are thought to be recycled, that go to waste each year. Plastic waste that cannot be recycled often doesn’t decompose and simply lies in landfill for years.
From October 1, no business – whether retailer, takeaway, food vendor or part of the hospitality industry – will now be able to sell single-use plastic cutlery, balloon sticks nor polystyrene cups and food containers in England. The supply of single-use plastic plates, trays and bowls has also been restricted.
Environment Minister Rebecca Pow said: “This new ban is the next big step in our mission to crack down on harmful plastic waste. It will protect the environment and help to cut litter – stopping plastic pollution dirtying our streets and threatening our wildlife.
“This builds on world-leading bans on straws, stirrers and cotton buds, our single-use carrier bag charge and our plastic packaging tax, helping us on our journey to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste by 2042.”
However, the ban will not apply to single-use plastic plates, trays and bowls used as packaging in shelf-ready pre-packaged food items.
The single-use plastics ban is part of the Government’s wider action to tackle the scourge of plastic pollution and eliminate all avoidable plastic waste by 2042. The Government has already banned microbeads in rinse-off personal care products in 2018 and restricted the supply of plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds in 2020.


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Last week the Nevada Gaming Commission announced that they have opted to approve the use of arcade style and skill-based slot machines, expanding the potential gaming offering of the state's casinos.
The regulator approved the changes, which are set to attract a younger generation of gamblers to casinos, as they want an aspect of skill in their games. These games could hit the floor as soon as this year, and it is likely that more of the games will be shown at the G2E Expo later this month. The Silver State's gaming revenues have flagged in recent years, and it is hoped that the change will help boost figures.
Commenting on the approval G2 Game Design CEO Gregg Giuffria said, "This is an evolution in gaming. An older demographic is currently playing slot machines. This addresses a completely new generation coming into casinos and a new wave of players."
A potential example of the style of game that could be offered is the Vegas 2047 game, which can be viewed below:


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Evolution and NetEnt Report Increased Earnings Ahead of Proposed Merger
Posted on October 27, 2020 | 8:15 am
Online gambling technology suppliers, Evolution and NetEnt, have released reports for the first three quarters of 2020 and the numbers are looking great for both companies ahead of their proposed merger.
Evolution, formerly known as Evolution Gaming until a rebrand that took place earlier this month, generated revenues of 140 million euros in the third quarter of 2020, and that’s a growth of 48% compared to the same period of 2019.
The profits were also quite impressive, amounting to 79.4 million euros, which is double compared to what they managed to get during the same three months last year.
On the other hand, NetEnt reported an increase in revenues of almost 17% in the third quarter compared to the same period of last year, they generated around 50 million euros.
Strong Presence in North America
Both brands are placing North America at the center of their development strategy for the coming years. Over the past couple of weeks, Evolution penned agreements with Wynn Interactive and William Hill, both for the United States market.
NetEnt also increased their profile in the United States recently through deals with Wind Creek Online and The Cordish Companies. Moreover, their games have also been available in Canada since 2018, through an agreement with International Game Technology and the British Columbia Lottery Corporation.
Focusing on Live Dealer Games
Speaking about the company’s report for the first 9 months of the year, Evolution Chief Executive Officer Martin Carlesund emphasised the success of the brand’s live dealer titles: “Our new game show style game – Crazy Time – was launched globally on July 1st and has been a great success. Players enjoy the groundbreaking game format and possibility of big wins.
It is our most successful game launch to date. Instant Roulette was also launched during the quarter and coming up in Q4 is the launch of Craps. We continue to build our portfolio of unique innovative games both within traditional table games as well as game shows.”
Therese Hillman, NetEnt Chief Executive Officer added: “During the quarter we continued to invest in our strategic growth areas USA, Red Tiger and Live Casino, while driving cost and revenue synergies from the ongoing integration between NetEnt and Red Tiger.
Given our new lower cost base, the operating leverage of our business and our strong product pipeline, we expect continued strong growth in earnings and cash flow for the rest of the year and beyond.”
The two companies are still set to merge as Evolution have made an offer to acquire NetEnt, a deal that would create a real industry giant.


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October 2, 2019
Bruce Goldman brings decades of knit manufacturing experience to Evolution St. Louis team
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Evolution St. Louis today announced it has hired Bruce Goldman as its first director of operations. Goldman brings decades of experience in the manufacturing industry and will lead operations at the company’s high-tech knit manufacturing facility at 3830 Washington Blvd.
September 18, 2019
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Evolution St. Louis, a premier high-tech knitting facility at 3830 Washington Blvd., announced today it received an investment from the newly created St. Louis Manufacturing Opportunity Zone Fund.
“We are encouraged that investors see the vision for our project and why we chose to open our facility in St. Louis, where there is a rich heritage in the fashion industry and deep roots in manufacturing,” said Jon Lewis, co-founder of Evolution St. Louis.
May 16, 2019
Facility will create supply chain of the future with 3D and seamless- knitting technology, create new fashion jobs in St. Louis
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Evolution St. Louis today announced the opening of a high-tech flat-bed knit manufacturing facility using cutting-edge 3D and complete garment seamless-knitting technology at 3830 Washington Blvd. in downtown St. Louis.


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This week we bring you stories about TikTok’s e-commerce play, Deliveroo unlocking advertising revenue, Amazon shutting down its plans to build warehouses, and more. Enjoy the read.Read Article
How to use FOMO to grow your e-commerce sales and revenue. See examples of how brands use FOMO.Read Article
Cross-selling and upselling offers obvious benefits to all e-commerce owners regardless of what industry they belong. In fact, over 30% of all customers order again from the same online store within the first year of placing their first order. Product recommendations have proven to increase average order value. There are several personalized product recommendation tactics…Read Article
In the recent years, e-commerce industry has witnessed a massive growth and a quickly evolving atmosphere. With covid-19 pandemic in 2020, more customers are turning to online stores rather than going to physical retail shops. This has created an urgency to come up with new shopping marketplaces that would compete with Amazon. Recently, Google came…Read Article
Running an e-commerce store all by yourself requires great efforts and technical knowledge. Although you feel the basics are similar to running a brick-and-mortar store, but there are some features that distinguish online store from a physical store. The growth of e-commerce has opened up a lot of opportunities for the people who are willing…Read Article
Speak with a search expert so we can learn about your unique goals.


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Since quitting the fashion game, Helmut Lang has shed his designer lifestyle and shredded his archive, even using those clothes as, well, new material. Now a resident of the farther reaches of Long Island, Lang is making a rare return to Manhattan for a solo show of new sculpture that proves that even though he’s no longer in fashion, he hasn’t lost his touch.
Organized by art-world bigwigs Mark Fletcher, Sadie Coles and Neville Wakefield, the exhibition Helmut Lang: Sculptures will feature more than 20 new pieces: monochrome totems reconstructed from uneven layers of pre-used materials, from rubber and foam to sheepskin and tar. Like earlier work made from destroying his archives, the pieces show signs of their former industrial uses.
The exhibit will be held May 5 – June 15 in a Greenwich Village townhouse at 24 Washington Square North, not far from Lang’s onetime atelier.


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With Mamba Day slated to take place this Saturday, today we take a closer look at another pair of Black Mamba-inspired sneakers. Today we get our first look at Nike’s PG3 Mamba Mentality. This eye-catching design comes in a bold and colorful approach, rocking a “Multi-Color/Opti Yellow” colorway. The sneakers boast a color homage to Kobe’s former team, while given a Black Mamba-inspired approach.
The sneakers come rocking a pattern displayed across various panels on the upper, which slightly resembles the graphic covering the OG colorway of the Nike Kobe 8. The black and yellow design is host to contrasting touches of gray, offering a special design created to celebrate Mamba Day 2019. The sneaker follows the PG 2, which was also released in a special makeup to celebrate Mamba Day 2018 that was inspired by the “Prelude Pack” Kobe 6.
Take a closer look at the eye-catching “Mamba Mentality” Nike PG 3 in the images below and look for the kicks on April 13th at DICK’s Sporting Goods. Keep it locked for more new footwear and more new sneakers coming very soon.Want to be featured on stupidDOPE? Reach out and lets make it happen!


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UnitedHealth offers up $60,000 prize for tech innovations
UnitedHealthcare on Thursday launched a competition seeking innovative ideas for using consumer electronics to address chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.
The winner will receive $60,000. UnitedHealthcare, the insurance business of Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH), asks participants to incorporate existing devices, such as mobile phones and gaming consoles, into their idea.
The insurer announced the contest at the Consumer Electronics Show. The deadline for submissions is April 8.
The contest is the latest in a series of open innovation challenges UnitedHealth has launched since mid-2012. One example is myHealthcare Cost Estimator, an online and mobile tool that provides personalized out-of-pocket cost estimates based on current benefits.
“Innovative ideas can come from anywhere, including people outside the health system,” UnitedHealthcare CEO Gail Boudreaux said in a news release.
>Click here to read UnitedHealthcare's news release
>Click here for more contest information.
Katharine Grayson covers med tech, clean tech, technology, health care and venture capital.
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Welcome again to our new website and we hope very much that you will be joining our many happy customers who are now able to purchase some of the best European ales and wines available.
And talking of wine – one of our favourite subjects! – a couple of months back, we spotted a very interesting article in The Guardian which reports analysis of clay pottery found during a recent archeaological dig in Georgia provides evidence that grape wine making can now be dated back to around 6,000 BC, a full 500 years or more earlier that first thought. The findings from the study have been confirmed as unquestionable and “certainly the example of the oldest pure grape wine in the world”, besting the previously held record held by traces of Iranian wine found just 500km away and dated to 5,400-5,000 BC.
Whilst remnants of older vessels from around 7,000 BC had previously been found in China and these certainly contained some kind of fermented liquid, it appeared this was a mix of grapes and other ingredients rather than pure grape wine.
So, for those of us who enjoy partaking of the grape now and again, it would seem we are in very good – and very old – company! Click here to read the full article.


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Rustic Colorado Artist’s Cabin is the Ultimate Place to Recharge
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Kigali: East African country, Rwanda, has officially banned skin lightening and bleaching products. According to a CNN report, the Rwandan government is sending officials across the country to enforce the ban.
The country is leading a campaign against skin bleaching and substandard cosmetics, particularly products that include hydroquinone."It is being implemented by the Ministry of Health and the Rwanda Food and Drug Authority and the Rwanda Standards Board," Simeon Kwizera, the public relations and communications officer for the board told CNN.
"Operations are being conducted by technical people," he said. "The police is there to oversee only and make sure that all operations are being conducted in a safe way."(UNI)


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OnePlus 6 price drop as OnePlus 7 due for release today
There’s just a few hours to go until OnePlus reveals its all-new OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro with this major launch event scheduled for later today.
Rumours and leaks suggest there could be plenty to look forward to with these refreshed phones looking set to be faster and more powerful than ever.
The most exciting of the pair could be the Pro version which looks likely to include a triple rear camera, all-screen design and pop-up selfie snapper which might allow the Chinese firm to rid the front of this device of a notch or hole-punched camera.
We’ll find out full details later today but there's still time to get the older OnePlus 6 with Amazon even recently offering a big discount on this device.
The current OnePlus 6 - which launched in May last year - is still on sale for just £519.
That price is for the 128GB model in Midnight Black with the 256GB also still available for £569.
The OnePlus 6 was regarded as one of the best mid-range phones of 2018 and this deal certainly makes the device even more tempting.
As a reminder, the OnePlus 6 includes a 6.28-inch full HD display, 128GB of internal storage and a dual-lens rear camera.
There’s also a fast Snapdragon 845 processor tucked under the glass and metal body and you get a fast-charging battery.
When Express.co.uk reviewed the OnePlus 6 last year we said: “The OnePlus 6 is an incredible phone at an even more incredible price.
“It's fast, looks great and has a very nice display which offers a brilliantly bright and sharp viewing experience.
“With the OnePlus 6 packing such a punch for under £500 the competition should be afraid...no...in fact, they should be absolutely terrified.”
If you want to know all about the next generation of OnePlus phones then Express.co.uk will be at today’s event to bring you the news live as it happens.
Keynotes are taking place across the world with the London event kicking off at 4pm GMT.


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News to a self-confessed javaphile (yours truly) that a revered coffee shop chain is due to hit Manchester has me all in a caffeinated tizz.
I reckon it’s pretty neat how I’m writing about coffee, whilst actually sipping the ambrosial stuff. I first heard about Tim Hortons® (or Timmy’s as his shops are affectionately known over in Canada) last month.
Tim Hortons®, the iconic Canadian coffee chain, will serve even more enthusiastic coffee lovers in Great Britain later this year with new restaurant locations coming to England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
With a second restaurant already underway in Glasgow, Tim Hortons® restaurants will be opening in Manchester, Cardiff and Belfast over the coming months. The openings represent the second phase of an extensive, nationwide rollout plan with details to be revealed in due course.
The expansion is expected to bring more job opportunities to each city. The new Tim Hortons® locations are currently recruiting for team members at all levels, including manager and assistant manager. Those interested in applying should email [email protected]
The first Tim Hortons® restaurant in Great Britain opened on Argyle Street in Glasgow at the start of June. The long-awaited launch was met with huge excitement, with people travelling from across the country and queuing overnight to be the first to sample the brand’s popular coffee and baked goods.
Tim Hortons® was founded by its namesake, a top professional ice hockey player, who wanted to create a space where everyone would feel at home. Now one of Canada’s most iconic brands, nearly eight out of 10 cups of coffee sold across Canada are served at Tim Hortons® and more than 5.3 million Canadians – approximately 15 per cent of the population – visit the café daily.
Across Great Britain, Tim Hortons® will offer an extensive and varied menu of delicious drinks, which include Tim Hortons® signature coffee, espresso-based beverages, hot chocolate, French Vanilla and classic frozen Iced Capp® drink, as well as baked goods, breakfast and lunch items made from quality ingredients. People can also look forward to Tim Hortons® signature Timbits®, bite-sized doughnuts which come in a variety of flavours.
Kevin Hydes, Chief Finance and Commercial Officer of the Tim Hortons® franchise in Great Britain says: “We were blown away by the reception we received in Glasgow, and are delighted to announce the opening of restaurants in Cardiff, Belfast and Manchester. We know there’s a great deal of excitement out there and we can’t wait to share more details. We’re always looking for fantastic people to join the Tim Hortons® Great Britain team – get in touch if you’re interested!”
For further information please see www.timhortons.co.uk.


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SEIA calls for Section 201 tariffs to be eliminated ahead of key United States ITC hearing
- The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has actually advised the Biden Administration to eliminate the Section 201 tariffs on specific crystalline silicon PV cells from China ahead of an US International Trade Commission (USITC) hearing today.
In a prehearing rundown, SEIA said the tariffs had "created a lot more injury than great", have actually not improved the competition people manufacturing and also have actually cost the US solar market more than 30,000 tasks.
On Wednesday (3 November), the USITC will certainly hear debates on the efficiency of the tariffs before making a recommendation to Head of state Biden on whether to expand, alter or eliminate the tariffs.
Section 201 was enforced by President Trump in January 2018, with the mentioned objective of reinforcing United States solar manufacturing. SEIA claimed the tariffs "have just created limited investments in domestic component setting up facilities that drop well except the capacity required to serve United States demand".
The tariffs were introduced at a price of 30%, declining by 5 percentage points yearly for 4 years. However, then-President Trump released a pronouncement last October that imposed the protect obligations on previously omitted bifacial panels and increased the tariff price from 15% to 18% for its fourth year (2021).
In 2019, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) turned down an obstacle by China that declared the procedures broke worldwide trade rules. China has actually given that appealed that decision.
The tariffs are due to finish in February 2022 as well as SEIA president and also chief executive officer Abigail Hopper claimed any type of extension "would be yet one more obstacle to clean power deployment and also will certainly weaken any kind of hope we need to mitigate this situation".
"The U.S. has actually gathered US$ 2.6 billion in Section 201 solar tariffs, yet not one cent of that helped the residential manufacturing sector," added Hopper.
SEIA had previously contacted Head of state Biden to ditch the tariffs however is now calling for an eliminated strategy, warning versus any type of expansion.
In its US Solar Market Understanding record, released along with Wood Mackenzie last week, SEIA stated the possibility for expanded as well as prolonged tariffs, in addition to provide chain restrictions and also the US federal government's hold back release order, "pose disadvantage dangers to near-term growth" of the nation's solar field.
Rather, it has called for increased federal investment to sustain United States solar manufacturing, such as legislator Jon Ossoff's suggested Solar Energy Manufacturing for America Act (SEMA).
"We need a robust residential manufacturing market in the united state, and also wise policy solutions such as senator Ossoff's tax obligation debt for solar manufacturing will assist us make the long-lasting financial investments required to step up domestic manufacturing," Hopper said.
Last month, five manufacturers with United States procedures-- Auxin Solar, Suniva, Q CELLS U.S.A., LG Electronics United States and Mission Solar Energy-- filed 2 different petitions to expand the tariffs.
- LONGi to develop 20GW solar module project in Anhui in most current capacity development
- As US Continues Pressure On Chinese Manufacturers, Solar Growth Stalls
- Modules becoming more powerful however witness increasing failure rates in 'year of successes' for PVEL's Module Reliability Scorecard
- Trina Solar Lays Claim To Second Rank As Module Supplier Globally
- Eight solar suppliers picked for further scrutiny in AD/CVD investigation


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2009 Apollo Award nominees focus on Best Practices
Kristine Ellis -- Casual Living, September 1, 2009
Since their inception 50 years ago, the Apollo Awards have honored the industry's top specialty retailers for their expertise, dedication to customers and passion for the outdoor furniture business. This year, specialty dealers faced some of the toughest economic conditions ever. Yet, as this group of nominees proves, the industry's future is bright.
Finalists will be honored and winners announced at the Apollo Awards banquet on Sept. 23 at Chicago Union Station, during the International Casual Furniture & Accessories Market.
Just six years old, first-time Apollo Award nominee AuthenTeak has gone through a major growth spurt every two years since Eric Brenner and Damon Fogel opened the business in 2004.
It started out as a weekend-only business selling imported teak out of a 1,200-sq.-ft. space. Neither Brenner nor Fogel had a background in furniture or retail. "We didn't realize what we were getting into," Brenner said.
Customer response and their growing passion for learning everything they could about the industry quickly changed their goals. Soon after they opened, Brenner and Fogel decided to add brand name teak manufacturers to fill out their product mix.
By the end of their first year, they realized the demand for other categories and started to diversify their mix.
"By the end of the second year, we started thinking that if we were able to do the business we were doing in a small location with horrible visibility and a limited product offering, what would happen if we did it as an actual business rather than a hobby," Brenner said.
The two sold their other business and started to focus full time on outdoor furniture. Today, they have about 15,000 square feet of showroom, 10,000 square feet of warehouse and offer a full line of outdoor furniture as well as grills and outdoor kitchen products.
With a warehouse full of early-buy inventory when the bottom fell out of retail, Brenner and Fogel adjusted their business model again last fall.
"We started promoting the in-stock product right away, which allowed us to build up our cash flow during the off season," Brenner said.
They started cold-calling the contract market, while examining every facet of their operations to cut the fat. They didn't, however, cut any of their small staff of three.
"We like the people we work with and we really value the chemistry, which is very important in a small company," Brenner said. "It was a big decision, but we didn't want to mess up what we've had success with."
Fruehauf's Patio & Garden Center, Boulder, Colo.
Long known for its "shopper-tainment" value, Fruehauf's Patio & Garden Center focused on giving its customers the best experience possible this season by going back to basics.
"We have been doing this for well over 30 years, and I know this has been one of the most challenging for me so we certainly had to look at everything carefully," said Mary Fruehauf, president and owner. "In a year like this, it's about going back to what works."
First and foremost, that meant making sure the 2-acre destination business looked better than ever. In addition to fantastic displays of outdoor furniture, accessories and gifts, Fruehauf's partnered with other area businesses to create a permanent "home and garden show" on-site.
"We teamed up with a landscape company, an awning company, an artificial turf company and some others, and let them create an alternative backyard where people could come and get ideas, just like a home and garden show," Fruehauf said.
Economy permitting, Fruehauf plans to expand the area next year and keep it evolving and changing to draw customers back time and again.
Although the business tightened its belt, cuts were behind-the-scenes.
"You don't want your customers to think that something is wrong, so the changes we made weren't visible," Fruehauf said. "For example, we didn't change our staff level much or our customer service."
For the most part, customers were purchasing at similar levels to last year but doing it over several visits.
"I saw a lot of people making two or even three purchases over the summer, whereas in the past they would just come in and buy everything they liked at once," Fruehauf said.
Customers also spent more time with the sales staff, making multiple visits before deciding to purchase.
"It wasn't that they weren't buying, they were just more cautious shoppers," she added.
This is Fruehauf's fourth Apollo Award nomination.
The Pool & Patio Center, Metairie, La.
Early this year, when consumer confidence was at its lowest and pundits were finally calling the economic climate a recession, the Pool & Patio Center started adding the words "Recession Pricing" to its sales placards.
"We thought that if we anticipated their request for a recession discount by using that terminology on our sales price placards, they might be reluctant to ask for a deeper discount," said Bruce Aronson, managing director of the Pool & Patio Center.
It was just one of several tactics Aronson used to deal with the recession head on. He also revised his marketing strategy by increasing television advertising and cutting back on print ads, cut two non-salespeople and encouraged his staff to do on-site consultations. Those steps helped. Aronson believes one of most effective strategies this season was offering a large selection of in-stock product despite cutting back on early buys.
"When consumer confidence finally started to go up in April and May, most customers wanted immediate satisfaction," he said. "We had brought in enough to be able to satisfy their needs."
Just as importantly, the business did not compromise its customer service despite laying off two people.
"It wasn't easy," Aronson said. "Everyone in the store had to do double, and in some cases triple, duty. I can't tell you how proud I am of my staff. They have stuck with me through Hurricanes Cindy, Katrina, Gustav and Ike. Their loyalty is the cornerstone of my success."
The Pool & Patio Center opened in 1952, when Aronson's father started building in-ground pools in New Orleans. It now offers mid- to high-end outdoor furniture in its 14,000-sq.-ft. showroom. This is the retailer's second Apollo Award nomination.
Sunnyland Furniture, Dallas
Winner of the Apollo Award in the Single Store Category three times in the last five years, Sunnyland Furniture followed its proven course this season and thrived in spite of the economy.
"People keep coming in, and we keep taking care of them," said David Schweig, who opened the store in 1997 with his wife Debbie.
Overall, Sunnyland's strategy for 2009 has been to optimize every opportunity.
"It is making sure that every delivery goes out perfectly, that payments are received on time to keep the cash flow going, that every order is written correctly the first time — all of the things that you might be a little careless about when times are good and you are busy," Schweig said. "We are now taking the time to make the most of every situation."
Schweig was pleasantly surprised its traffic counts this year have been almost identical to past years. In general, Sunny-land's customers were shopping but making smaller purchases. For instance, luxury homeowners who in the past might only buy brand names were willing to go with imports this year, adding a fresh look for a lower price.
"We have had very good years with almost double-digit growth each year for almost five years," Schweig said. "This year was down, but in June and July we were back up almost matching last year's numbers."
Sunnyland draws destination customers who come in to browse its three showrooms. In addition to a large open space of about 23,000 square feet, there is a 10,000-sq.-ft. area displaying various distinct outdoor rooms and a 2,000-sq.-ft. multi-themed fantasy backyard.
Schweig carried less inventory this season but hasn't decided yet what he will do for 2010.
"When we look at our business, we feel very fortunate," he said.
"Don't fix what ain't broke."
Williams Ski and Patio, Highland Park, Ill.
While it is always an honor to be nominated, this year's Apollo Award nomination of Williams Ski and Patio holds special significance for Mark Williams and his family.
"We won the first year the Apollo Award was given, 50 years ago," said Williams, president. "My father was just getting the patio business going then."
In addition to a tight economy, Williams Ski and Patio, a division of Williams All Seasons, faced abnormally cool weather this season making it even more difficult to maintain store traffic. Still, those customers who come in are serious shoppers and are buying product across all price points.
"I think it's loosening up a little bit now, but overall there has been very little recreational shopping," Williams said. "People have had a specific thing in mind and come in ready to make a purchase. They haven't come out just looking for inspiration."
To build traffic, Williams has been exploring various online advertising options.
"We have just scratched the surface of what is out there, but we are trying to learn that side of it," he said.
Perhaps the biggest change for the company this year is its departure from the indoor furniture business, which operated in a building located next to the ski and patio shop. The company will continue to house its warehouse in that building and rent out the showroom.
"The indoor furniture business has its own set of challenges, and I don't want to be involved in them," Williams said.
In fact, he believes the outdoor furniture industry as a whole should be cautious about blurring the line between indoor and outdoor products.
"Some people position outdoor product as being nice enough for indoors, and that is not the focus that we want our industry to have," Williams said. "We have to be innovative for outdoors .... I don't think the patio industry benefits by being distracted by the indoor market."
In addition to winning an Apollo Award in 1959, Williams Ski and Patio won in 2003. It has been nominated for the award several times.
|ABSCO staff members stand behind Cathy Galbreath-Watson, her mother Catherine Galbreath and husband Glen Watson.|
|Colorful pillows and umbrellas are part of the full range of accessories available inside ABSCO.|
Multiple Store Nominees
ABSCO Fireplace & Patio, Birmingham, Ala.
A first-time Apollo Award nominee, ABSCO Fireplace & Patio has three retail locations offering a full range of outdoor furniture, hearth, accessories and grill products.
Inventory control topped the retailer's list of best practices in a tough market this year, as did working closely with manufacturers who could quickly turnaround special and restock orders.
"I also tried to be more conservative in fabric selection, keeping it more neutral in the deep seating and then dressing up the displays with pillows in bright colors," said Cathy Galbreath-Watson, who manages the three locations with her husband, Glen Watson.
Although traffic was down slightly this season, Galbreath-Watson kept her sales staff and advertising at last year's levels.
"A lot of times advertising will be the first thing people cut, but I think that's the kiss of death," she said.
Galbreath-Watson plans to continue her conservative approach for 2010 and is hoping that more manufacturers will be able to offer quick-ship programs to help with inventory control.
"If they can ship in a timely manner, then we wouldn't have to carry as much inventory," she said.
The company was founded in 1965 as Alabama Building Specialties Company. In 1977, John and Catherine Galbreath added outdoor furniture to the mix and renamed the company ABSCO Fireplace & Patio. Thirty years later, in recognition of Catherine's passion for and hard work on behalf of the industry, she was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Catherine continues to work in the family business, while John has retired. Their son, John Galbreath Jr., and his wife Nan manage ABSCO's wholesale hearth division.
Carls Patio, Boca Raton, Fla.
Despite struggling in some of the hardest-hit markets in the country, perennial Apollo nominee Carls Patio stood firm this year when it came to pricing.
"Have we become more flexible than ever before? Absolutely. But we made a conscious decision years ago that the business we do needs to be profitable, especially in times like this," said Gary Ecoff, president. "Buying something for a dollar and selling it for a dollar just doesn't work."
Carls Patio opened in 1993 and now has 16 locations in Florida and Southern California. Originally owned by Carls Furniture, the company completed a leveraged buyout with a private equity company last fall. In the months since, the focus has been on running as lean and efficiently as possible.
"Our new partners forced us from the get-go to dig deep and look at every aspect of the business," Ecoff said. "We've stopped making decisions based on gut instinct and entrepreneurial spirit, and started relying on data. As a result, it has brought the financial end of the business into the 21st century."
Improvements in technology have spurred much of the cost savings by eliminating redundancy. For example, a job that dozens of people were doing across the 16 locations can now be done by four people thanks to a new data system.
"We've managed to cut hundreds of thousands of dollars of organizational expenses" Ecoff said. "Every aspect has been scrubbed."
What hasn't changed is Carls Patio's skill in merchandising and selling lifestyle rather than product.
"We're all fortunate in that this is becoming more of a fashion industry instead of a commodity industry," Ecoff said. "Our special orders are a higher percentage this year than ever before and that's telling me that overall people are interested in making a personalized fashion statement and they understand that it is a long-term investment."
Fishels, Portland, Ore.
Knowing this year would be tougher than last, Fishels' sales staff adopted a mantra of sorts that guided their efforts throughout: How do we get a bigger piece of a smaller pie?
"We knew that beyond having good product and good advertising, we needed to make sure that we were very positive and made this an environment people would feel good shopping in," said Larry Talbot, president. "It couldn't just be a normal retail/customer relationship."
The strategy paid off, helping to keep traffic at a rate similar to past years and eliciting customer comments about the upbeat atmosphere.
"We had several customers mention how dreary it was in stores where people were frowning and how good they felt here seeing the positive attitudes and hearing laughter," Talbot said.
In general, customers trended toward lower price points, with the $5,000 to $10,000 customer shopping at the lower end of the spectrum. Although he didn't cut back on the number of salespeople, Talbot trimmed his advertising overall by dropping local shelter magazine ads, decreasing his newspaper ads and increasing Fishels' exposure on television.
Talbot also decreased his early buy for 2009 by about 30% and anticipates taking a similar approach to 2010.
"It gave us enough inventory for the season, then we concentrated on our best sellers and working with manufacturers that could ship quickly in season," he said, adding that his special orders were up this season.
With two locations, Fishels offers the largest selection of outdoor furniture in the Northwest. The company was founded in 1921 as an awning business. Relaunched as a high-end furnishings company in the 1950s by Martin Fishel, who became the first retail recipient of the industry's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002, Fishels has been nominated for the Apollo Award several times.
|Clockwise from top left, Paul Parker and Karen Galindo with Paul Galindo and Tracy Wolfrom holding store pets.|
|Teak dining table with crescent benches allows room for elegant entertaining.|
Greenhouse Mall, Austin, Texas
Anyone walking into one of Greenhouse Malls' three locations in south-central Texas is bound to get energized. If the bright colors and wow products don't do it, the upbeat nature of the sales staff will — and that is all according to plan.
"If you can't keep up the energy of your store and your sales staff is depressed, you aren't going to do anything for your customers but send them packing," said Karen Galindo, vice president and secretary of the specialty business, which she manages with her husband, Paul Galindo.
Although the recession didn't hit Texas as fast or as hard as in other parts of the country, Galindo took steps early in the season to prepare for the eventuality including training her staff on how to deal with customers who came in expecting to bargain.
The company also cleaned up its inventory. After identifying all the product that was tying up floor space, warehouse space and inventory dollars, they made a concerted effort to run promotions and clean it out.
"Our inventory is cleaner now than it has ever been," Galindo said. "There is nothing that can drag a retailer down like high or bad inventory."
Cleaning out the inventory allowed the business to run in-season promotions to draw additional traffic as well as to offer sales incentives for the staff, both tactics Galindo plans to continue in the future.
She also plans to cut back on the number of vendors she carries.
"This economy has taught us that we can be a little narrower in our scope," she said, adding there are advantages to a down economy.
"One of them is that it makes us better businesspeople," Galindo said. "When times are good, it's all you can do to keep up with everything. This economy has made us more cognizant of what we need to do as businesspeople to be more profitable."
The specialty dealer has been nominated for the Apollo Award numerous times and won in 2002 in the Single Store category.
Patios Plus, Rancho Mirage, Calif.
Frequent Apollo nominee and winner in the multiple-store category the last two years, Patios Plus concentrated on selling value this season.
"People want to know the difference between buying from us and the big box stores, so we've been spending time explaining how the furniture is made and how it will last," said Jim Schultz, who owns the business with his sister, Kristine Schultz Hutchinson.
Patios Plus opened in 1978 and has two locations — a 10,000-sq.-ft. showroom in Rancho Mirage and a 6,000-sq.-ft. showroom in La Quinto. Traditionally catering to a high-end, seasonal customer base, the retailer brought in new customers this season by offering exceptionally good pricing.
"Like everyone else, we offered great deals this year, so we brought in some new customers who might not have thought they could afford to shop here in the past and who now have been able to upgrade the value of their outdoor furniture," Schultz said.
At the same time, its well-established reputation for good service enabled Patios Plus to maintain its existing customer base as well.
"It's all about the experience," Schultz said. "When people come in, they bond with our very professional salespeople so they come back."
To improve efficiencies, the Schultzes reviewed every line item in their budget to see where they can find cost savings. In some cases, that has been all to the good.
"We pay 100% medical for all of our employees, and we were able to find a new agent and a great new plan that our employees are very excited about," Schultz said. "It is better coverage for about half the cost."
They also renegotiated the lease for the La Quinto store and have cut their sales staff by half.
"It's been a tough year and I anticipate 2010 to be tough as well, so we are being very cautious," Schultz said.
Tiny Girl, Big Dream