text:
Equipment financing is a crucial step in the process of bringing home the machinery that will make a difference to your operation.
How that financing is secured has evolved and reflects how technology has become more integrated into decision-making across the agriculture industry.
We conducted a survey in partnership with DTN/Progressive Farmer to ask readers how they finance farm equipment and found that 86% of farmers were willing to originate a loan online, yet less than 1% of loans actually originated from a digital source.
This disconnect indicates the ag equipment industry is primed to adopt digital ag financing and deliver a more accessible, streamlined experience to buyers.
Three industry experts weigh in on this topic from a panel discussion with Brownfield Ag News. They are:
Representing the technology, finance, and machinery industries, these experts outline five reasons why online ag equipment financing is growing and the benefits inherent to the digital process.
Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, is a growing expectation from customers that business decisions be available online. Just as searching for equipment and bidding in auctions have done, ag financing is responding to a demand for a digital process too.
“Today, 95% of farmers are searching for equipment online and continue to want to do business online,” says Kyle McMahon, CEO and Founder of Tractor Zoom. “That’s transformed and accelerated because of COVID. The adoption has grown more quickly, and now we’re starting to see other parts of agriculture operate more digitally.”
The precedent to integrate into a digital platform isn’t only due to the effects of the pandemic. Kelly Miller, Director of AgTech Financing for Compeer Financial, saw the trend begin in 2017.
“At that time, we really started noticing things were happening outside of the farmhouse, the machine shed, or in our offices. Our clients were making buying decisions online,” Miller says.
The goal to show up where clients need is now inclusive of a digital environment.
Estimate your equipment loan payment with Tractor Zoom.
Offering business processes digitally, in person, and a hybrid of both enable customers to complete the purchasing journey on their own terms.
“A lot of our loan types are available online, but we also impart our financial expertise and reach out to those clients and help them understand what’s next,” Miller says. We can have a conversation and establish a relationship, even though that looks different than it did just a couple of years ago.”
In some cases, an additional personal touch from a lending institution like Compeer Financial helps reassure buyers they’re making the right decision.
In others, the ability to secure pre-approval, receive customized quotes, and select a lender online delivers a more efficient and independent process for buyers to do on their own time.
Finding equipment online, anywhere, is easier than ever and more important than ever, given the availability of equipment is more limited due to the effects of supply chain issues in recent years.
“We continue to hear from the market, whether they be dealers or auction companies, that customers are more commonly buying sight unseen in deals across the United States,” McMahon says.
Because of this, the right technology and accurate data is critical to help buyers make the best, most informed decisions. That includes machine specs, photos, market trends and value, and more.
“Buyers are putting their trust into the seller they’re purchasing that piece of equipment from,” McMahon says. “We’re interested in facilitating those transactions to create the best user experience possible for farmers and other stakeholders.”
Statistics, facts, patterns, and other characteristics of data are already the foundation for many critical aspects of agriculture already, like precision farming, crop markets, carbon marketplaces, and more.
“Data is what drives every single decision and has for the last 100-150 years,” says Niall Haughey, Founder of Graze and Director for Delta FS Limited. “In agrifinance and agritech, the amount of data that’s involved that can be available to producers and everyone else in the value chain, if and when they want it, starts to move the needle on what’s possible.”
In agriculture equipment and financing, data enables providers to build the integrated solutions that buyers need.
“Data from the agritech side will start to blend beautifully with the financial services side, and the organizations, especially on the finance side who understand that, will be the winners,” Haughey says.
Learn about the Tractor Zoom data quality standards.
When engaged in an online business process, ease of use and efficiency is key.
“Around the globe, especially in equipment across all sectors, you can standardize and streamline the process,” Haughey says. “I spoke with an equipment finance provider in the UK and…they got the flow of finance applications down to 51 minutes. That’s what can be achieved when technology is in place and trust is in place. The U.S. is unique because it’s on a completely different scale and value-chain specific.”
Tractor Zoom research also indicates that an easy, trustworthy user experience takes precedence.
While Tractor Zoom is not a lender, we’re still dedicated to helping facilitate and streamline the ag equipment financing process. Compare available finance offers online, then select a lender with the rate and terms that best meet your needs.
Our resources and partnership with technology-forward companies like Compeer Financial have enabled us to put the decision-making power back into the hands of the farmer who knows what’s best for their operation.
Learn more about your ag equipment financing options with Tractor Zoom.
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin
Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont
Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia
Jeff Martin Auctioneers, Inc.
RDD Auction LLC
Hall's Auction/Traditions Auction Company
Weeks Auction Co
Bright Star Realty and Auction
Lynn Cain, LLCView More
Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas
Switzer Land & Auction Services
Purple Wave Auction
Chupps Auction Co.
LEAP Auctions LLC
Galindo AuctionsView More
Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming
Farm Equipment Financing & LoansDiscover why ag equipment buyers are choosing Tractor Zoom as the go-to-platform for securing their next equipment loan.
Tractor Zoom is connecting farm equipment sellers and buyers faster than ever before. Finding farm equipment at auction or at a dealership has never been so easy.


text:
Consumer spending has been making a comeback, and big stores have been cropping up lately in Northwest Indiana's retail sector.
HOBART | The new year will mean a new push by city officials to switch the postal designation of the Ross Township retail/residential corridor to a Hobart ZIP code.
HOBART | Timing completion of its store remodeling with the holidays, Carson Pirie Scott officials have unveiled a sparkling newly renovated store.
HOBART | Westfield Southlake mall, on U.S. 30, will host trick or treating for costumed children from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Oct. 31.
HOBART | An Indianapolis-based forensics expert will assist Lake County officials in the investigation involving remains found in a wooded area behind a strip mall.
HOBART | Hobart police recovered more human bones Saturday during a second, daytime search of a wooded area behind a strip mall where homeless people often camp out.
The Southlake Mall in Hobart, which at one time was the largest mall in Indiana, has been sold and will be placed under new management.
Northwest Indiana residents will have to turn elsewhere to find pleated khakis and crewneck sweaters, if they used to shop at the Gap store in the Westfield Southlake Mall.
HOBART | A Chicago woman attempted to snatch the purse of a woman while the two were inside a store restroom at the mall, police said.
HOBART | A Valparaiso woman caught shoplifting at Sears threatened a security officer with a knife and fled with two companions, police said.
HOBART | City officials said they will continue to address changing the Ross Township retail/residential corridor to a Hobart ZIP code.
HOBART | Westfield Southlake mall and the nine square miles that surround it have been part of Hobart for nearly 20 years.
HOBART | Two Winamac men stole items from a Hobart sports store and knocked out a store manager trying to stop them, police said.
HOBART | Three men used forged identification to charge thousands of dollars of merchandise at Westfield Southlake mall stores, police said.
HOBART | Westfield Southlake Mall will hold a family fun day from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Friday in the JC Penney center court.
HOBART | A Crown Point man pocketed cash register receipts while employed at a Hobart sporting goods business, police said.
HOBART | Police will have zero tolerance this holiday season for any type of misconduct at Westfield Southlake mall, Sgt. Jeremy Ogden said.
HOBART | Hobart police are bolstering their patrols along the U.S. 30 retail area, police Detective David Evans said.
HOBART | Two women who were dining Friday night at U.S. 30 restaurants reported that wallets were stolen from their purses, police said.
HOBART | A Gary man said he went shopping for the right victim before snatching a purse from a woman's car at the mall, police said.
Follow The Times
Mention this ad and receive 10% off all 1803 and Crossroad Candles!
Find out why more Veterans are choosing S.T.A. Roof Techs as their Roofing Contractor of Choice in Northwest Indiana
Gutter Cleaning Free Year Round For Veterans
S.T.A. Construction is now S.T.A. Roof Techs ~ Specializing in Residential, Commercial, & Industrial Roofing Services from A-Z in Northwest Indiana and Chicagoland
Northwest Indiana and Chicagoland Roofing Contractors & Services
Reduce Cost, Increase Productivity. Take control of your workflow with Document Management Solutions.
Visit our web site for more information. 800.837.1400 / www…
Who do you support for Lake County assessor?

domain: news


text:
WRU PUTS UP THE ‘SOLD OUT’ SIGNS
3rd October 2005, 5:27 pm By Principality Stadium
The New Zealand game was already sold out before tickets went on public sale.
It means the games between the RBS Six Nations champions and the three Tri-Nations teams, the All Blacks, Springboks and Wallabies, will be played out in front of capacity 74,000 gates at the Millennium Stadium next month. And with tickets for the match against 2007 Rugby World Cup opponents Fiji, also now on sale, it means more tickets have already been sold for this year’s November Tests than were sold last season when a record 221,158 watched the matches against South Africa, Romania, New Zealand and Japan.
“There has been a staggering demand to see Wales play in the Autumn Series and it was no surprise to see the final few thousand tickets for the games against South Africa and Australia sell-out so quickly,” said WRU chief executive Steve Lewis. “The only tickets now left for the games against the Tri-Nations teams are the 300 WRU 125 Anniversary Debenture seats that remain unsold. With seven mouth-watering home fixtures this season, and the three games already sold out next month, they look better value than ever.
“We deliberately kept the prices low for our Friday night fixture with the Fijians so that mums and dads could bring their children to watch the Six Nations champions in action. In many ways, that fixture is even more important than the others next month because Fiji are in our World Cup Pool in 2007.
“While there are still tickets left for Fiji , the signs are that it won’t be long before we have to put up the ‘sold out’ signs for that game as well. The message to everyone has to be buy your tickets now.”
Tickets can be purchased by phone on 08705 582 582 or online via the Ticketmaster website www.ticketmaster.co.uk.
PLEASE NOTE THAT NO TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR SALE TO PERSONAL CALLERS AT THE MILLENNIUM STADIUM BOX OFFICE ON ST MARY STREET.
For information on purchasing a debenture, contact the WRU debenture office by phone on 029 2082 2431 or email firstname.lastname@example.org.
There is also limited availability for Official WRU Corporate Hospitality for the 2005 Autumn Series. Hospitality packages are highly competitively priced, starting at £99 + vat, and offer some of the best seats in the house. For information on Official WRU Corporate Hospitality, contact the WRU commercial department on 029 2082 2410 / 2411 / 2413 or e-mail email@example.com.
“It is vital that anyone who wants to get their hands on one of the few remaining tickets does so via official sources. The new hard-line ticketing policy we issued to all our clubs last month has been set-up not only to protect our customers, but also to try to stop the black market ticket touts making a handsome profit from our game,” added Lewis. “The message is not to buy tickets from touts, auction websites or unofficial hospitality companies because that could lead to huge disappointment, loss of money and even ejection from the ground. You could end up paying over face value for these tickets when you can get some of the best seats in the house with official Millennium Stadium hospitality for a very reasonable rate.”
WRU AUTUMN SERIES
Sat 05 Nov – WALES V NEW ZEALAND – SOLD OUT
Fri 11 Nov – WALES V FIJI – Click Here for Tickets
Sat 19 Nov – WALES V SOUTH AFRICA – SOLD OUT
Sat 26 Nov – WALES V AUSTRALIA – SOLD OUT


text:
Disclaimer: We are not owner of this newspaper and responsible of content that is published in Nezavisimaya Gazeta Newspaper. So please read all content on your responsibility. We are just giving info and links of all Newspapers.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta Epaper is a great newspaper from Moscow, Russia. This Epaper or Newspaper is released in their mother Language Russian. You can view online epaper here. It has been increasingly issued in Moskva, Russia Country since last many years.
Persons within Moscow, Moskva always like to watch Nezavisimaya Gazeta Epaper. News, other informative articles and advertising are included in this newspaper. It is now printed online and offline mode. This Newspaper is Russia Based and giving important News of this region.
Local news about Sports, Business, Economics, Classifieds, entertainment, travel, Mortgage, forecasts, movies reviews, horoscopes, Matrimonial is available on Nezavisimaya Gazeta epaper. To read archives from Nezavisimaya Gazeta then visit old editions of this newspaper. you can get Nezavisimaya Gazeta android app from play store and iphone app from iphone store.
Newspaper info below:
Newspaper: Nezavisimaya Gazeta
Frequency: Daily Newspaper
Newspaper Language: Russian
Headquater Address: Moscow, Russia


text:
BJETS signed the single biggest order ever in Asia for a fleet of 50 brand new jets worth over US $ 600 million (S $ 840 million).
Deliveries will be over a period of five years beginning in the first quarter of 2008 comprising 20 Cessna Citation CJ2+ jets and 20 Hawker 850XP and 900XP jets with options for 10 more. The first 15 new jets will be delivered by the end of 2008 setting a record-breaking milestone for BJETS. BJETS will have the biggest fleet of private jets in Asia in its very first year of operations.
The Briley Group is the majority shareholder in BJETS. The other significant shareholder is Indian Hotels Company Ltd., better as known the Taj luxury brand of Hotels, Resorts and Palaces, a part of the Tata Group. BJETS’ flight operations will begin in May 2008. In Singapore, BJETS will operate out of Seletar airport. In India, BJETS will be eadquartered in Mumbai with the entire Flight Operations Center based out of the new Hyderabad International Airport.
Более 140 моделей самолетов и вертолетов бизнес-класса;
Летно-технические характеристики, компоновки салонов, карты дальности полета из Москвы;
Эксклюзивные фото воздушных судов и VIP-интерьеров;
Ориентировочную стоимость авиатехники в 2016-2017 гг;


text:
Thrifty White Pharmacy has been around in one form or another since the 1880s, but you wouldn’t know its age by the Plymouth, Minn.-based chain’s efforts at bringing its engagement-focused patient care to as many patients as possible. At the start of this year, the company — which Drug Store News named its Pharmacy Innovator of the Year in 2016 — unveiled its new Healthy Outcomes Diabetes Support Program, through which it partners with employers and providers in the communities its stores serve to help maximize health outcomes among diabetic patients.
“What we are seeing is we’re continuing to grow our synchronization program at the same time because it is incorporated into this diabetic program,” Thrifty White VP pharmacy Tim Weippert told DSN, noting that enrollment for its medication synchronization program — which it debuted about eight years ago — had hit 68,000 this year. In November, enrollment was 65,000.
The diabetes support program shares a moniker with Thrifty White’s Healthy Outcomes store format, which it has implemented in many of its stores, with roughly 40 stores in the past two years being remodeled or relocated with its new format. Central to the store format and the diabetes program is an increased level of patient-pharmacist engagement — the diabetes program can bring about an extra 24 touchpoints with a pharmacist, and the new stores contain two additional clinical suites for patient consultations.
“It’s really about keeping it face to face, keeping it within the brick-and-mortar stores we operate,” Weippert said. “That’s what patients are looking for, to engage and for us to engage with them.”
Thrifty White’s close and deep relationships to the communities it serves also has helped the chain grow its specialty pharmacy business, which demands a high-touch level of patient care. In fall 2016, the company added some important accreditations from URAC and CPPA for its specialty pharmacy business. Thrifty White’s specialty pharmacy business saw double-digit growth last year, Weippert told DSN, adding that the trend has continued into 2017, with specialty script growth up more than 30% in the first months of the year. According to Weippert, the accreditations also have given the company better access to more treatments and networks.
“They’ve allowed us to gain access to more networks, access to more medications and increasing the disease states that we’re working with,” Weippert said. “We certainly have the interest because of the brick-and-mortar stores and our relationships with providers, employers and organizations within our communities.”
As central as Thrifty White’s pharmacist-patient engagement is to its business model, equally central is the employee-owned company’s outreach efforts, which facilitate the building of partnerships within their communities. “When you are doing a good job you need to demonstrate [it], to show the tools you have in the marketplace, so people can utilize them,” Thrifty White president and CEO Bob Narveson said. “And through our outreach, we’re finding employer groups and people throughout the communities that see a benefit to that. It’s just a matter of working with them to try to coordinate an outcome and a plan that can be successful for everybody.”
Another aspect of the business that relies on Thrifty White’s deep community relationships is the company’s long-term care pharmacy business, which it said has seen double-digit growth recently. It currently serves 24,000 patients, which has driven it to open new central-fill sites to accommodate the growth.
“Access is going to revolve all the time around what programs you’re allowed to participate in … and how you’re given the opportunity to improve the health care of the patients that so desperately need it,” Narveson said. “It’s just a matter of having the opportunity … to partner with plans to demonstrate results.”


text:
A provocative print ad for Marc Jacobs perfume featuring seventeen-year-old actress Dakota Fanning has been banned following complaints that it sexualised children. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK has outlawed a number of adverts in the past year, variously deemed likely to scare children, encourage underage drinking, promote irresponsible driving and for making misleading claims.
Here are the top five banned ads from 2011 that have ruffled more feathers than a chicken farmer.
CREDIT: Marc Jacobs ‘Oh, Lola!’ ad (2011)
The banned magazine campaign featured Dakota Fanning wearing a short skirt and holding a bottle of Marc Jacobs perfume in what the advertising regulator deemed a ‘sexually provocative’ position between her legs. Talk about bad product placement.
CREDIT: Brink poster (2011)
A poster for the video game Brink showed a man with his face painted black and white and he appeared to be screaming. The ad appeared in ‘an untargeted medium’, on telephone boxes and bus shelters, and a number of complainants reported that their young children had been frightened. I don’t know about children but he certainly frightens me.
Encouraging Underage Drinking
- [yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nefyeGMfkN0′]
A black and white television ad for Kopparberg cider showed people walking into an underground nightclub, and inside dancing to music in slow motion amid flashing lights. Text projected on the wall of the club stated ‘Find the crowd who think every night is Friday night’. The regulator deemed that ‘a hidden venue where people were dancing to live music was likely to be seen as particularly attractive by viewers under eighteen’. Every night is Friday night? Sounds exhausting.
Promoting Irresponsible Driving
CREDIT: Yahoo login screen (2011)
An ad on a Yahoo login screen was headed ‘Faster is Funner’ and pictured two women in a convertible sports car, the passing scenery blurred. The regulator concluded that ‘the combination of the headline and the image portrayed speed in a way that might encourage motorists to drive irresponsibly’. Fair point, but I generally don’t take driving tips from a search engine (I do, however, from 1. Wacky Races. 2. Jeremy Clarkson. 3. Vin Diesel).
Two TV ads for a Motorola mobile phone showed the phone being dropped in a nightclub and splashed at a pool party. The regulator stated that because they had ‘not seen evidence that dropping the (phone) from the height shown in the ads would not damage the phone, (they) concluded that the ads misleadingly exaggerated the performance of the product’. I started writing this article on my laptop. Then I got curious about the height you could drop it from… The answer: not very high.
A common theme with these banned ads is the importance of timing and placement – the Brink poster in a gaming magazine works like gangbusters, and the Dakota Fanning image in a year’s time raises not a solitary eyebrow – as well as other subtle variations (is an overground club more acceptable than an underground one?). Then of course there are adverts that will go down like a lead balloon whenever and wherever they appear.
By Mark Wright (Assistant Editor)


text:
The Minnesota-based company first said it was considering “strategic alternatives” back in December after a disappointing first quarter, with an operating loss of $700,000 (€ 484,000).
Part of the new strategy included plans to sell the pharmaceutical arm of its business to concentrate solely on the more profitable diagnostics side – something which is still under strategic review.
Now, in what it says is a bid to cut costs, SurModics will eliminate around 20 jobs out of the 215 recorded December 1 2010.
Included in those leaving the company are senior VP and chief financial officer Philip Ankeny, and VP of human resources Jan Webster.
The firm hopes that its reorganisation will save between $1.7m to $2m a year.Gary Maharaj, SurModics president and CEO, said: “This is a critical transition for SurModics to implement the components of our strategic plan that focus and position our business for maximum long-term success.
“Importantly, we expect to maintain our commitment to R&D investment to drive growth opportunities in our core Medical Device and IVD businesses.
“While a workforce reduction is always a very difficult decision, it was necessary to enable us to achieve our objectives. We thank our affected employees for their contributions and wish them well in their future endeavors.”
The new move is the result of an uphill struggle for SurModics in recent years.
In October 2010, the company laid off 30 staff members to focus more on the diagnostics side of the business.
And plans to sell the underperforming pharmaceutical side of the company came after forming just four years previous in July 2007, following the acquisition of Brookwood Pharmaceuticals.
But although the company says the cuts will mean savings up to $1.1m to $1.4m in the fourth quarter, Feltl research analyst Ernie Andberg did not expect the latest course of action.
Andberg told in-PharmaTechnologist: “I’m a little surprised that it’s happened right now, because I believe if they were successful in selling their SurModics pharma business they would have been profitable.
“But Maharaj is a relatively new CEO, and I would guess he wants to put his own appointments in key management positions. I think that’s what is going on here.”
When in-PharmaTechnologist asked Andberg what he predicts for the future of the company after this move, he said it was still too uncertain to tell.
He added: “It’s a little difficult to peer into the future here because they still haven’t sold their SurModics pharma business.
“It’s still under strategic review, and they have had productive conversations with parties who are interested.
“It’s a different company if they are able to sell SurModics pharma. It would be much more about their core business of diagnostics, which is nicely profitable.
“Until they are successful in the sale of it, it’s difficult to see what the company will look like.”


text:
Previously video footage surfaced of rapper Lil Murden claiming that he retrieved the chain of DaBaby. The rapper was seen in the video holding up a BillionDollarBaby pendant and noted this instance was the fourth time he had to get a chain back on behalf of a rapper. Now, DaBaby has responded to the video, saying that Murden’s claim is false.
DaBaby said, “Fun Fact: Baby ever get a chain took, errybody dying. Even the messenger. Cute post tho thug. lol.” DaBaby also responded to other comments on the post, making it clear that the story was not true, including a comment where the IG user said Murden bought the chain from the jeweler rapper 704 Chop traded the chain to.


text:
Best stocks according to Barclays
Barclays said investors should now turn their attention to long-term growth with the resumption of trade.
The firm looked for large-cap stocks with overweight ratings from its analysts that were trading at or below their Barclays price targets by at least 10%. The firm identified stocks whose projected sales growth for 2022 is in the top fourth of the S&P 500.
Furthermore, Barclays looked for stocks that were trading well below their 52-week highs. This combination results in a list of companies with strong growth prospects and potential for stock price appreciation.
The resulting list includes some well-known names in technology and media, such as Disney and Salesforce.
In the first half of the year, these stocks underperformed the broader market, with Salesforce rising roughly 10.5 percent while Disney fell more than 6 percent. The two are also fairly popular on Wall Street, with more than 75% of analysts rating the stocks as buys.
Qorvo, a chipmaker, is also on the list. Semiconductor stocks have gained traction in the last two weeks, with Qorvo shares rising more than 12% since June 18.
Some of the names on the list are similar to other thematic plays that have been popular in the last year. According to Barclays’ metrics, solar panel company Sunrun is a secular growth stock in the booming green energy industry.
Sunrun investors can now buy at a discount, at least compared to earlier this year. On Tuesday, the stock closed just under $57 per share, after trading above $90 per share in January.
Bank of America believes that, even though Uber has underperformed over the first half of the year, the shares are now undervalued based on their valuation against peers and their 15 percent investment in Didi, which recently went public.
′′[W]e believe Uber is on track to achieve breakeven profitability by year end, potentially assisting in the achievement of a higher valuation multiple,” said Justin Post of BofA in a note released Thursday.
According to Post’s analysis, there is “significant upside potential.”
In 2021, Uber shares are down 0.8 percent, while Lyft and DoorDash are up more than 25 percent. According to BofA, this means Uber’s stock is trading at a significant discount.
Bank of America conducted a sum-of-the-parts analysis, comparing Uber’s food delivery business to DoorDash’s 12.5 estimated enterprise value-to-revenue multiple and Uber’s mobility business to Lyft’s 4.3 estimated EV/revenue valuation.
Didi Chuxing, meanwhile, raised $4.4 billion in its initial public offering earlier this week. Didi shares closed nearly 16 percent higher on Thursday, bringing the company’s market capitalization to nearly $79 billion.
According to the firm, Uber owns a significant stake in Didi — approximately 12 percent equity ownership, which translates to more than $9 billion in equity value as of Thursday. According to BofA, Didi adds approximately $2 per share to Uber’s equity value.
Adding the value of the Didi stake to the sum-of-the-parts valuation results in a value for Bank of America that is higher than its $71 price target, according to the firm. Nonetheless, the current forecast implies a 40% increase from here.
According to BofA, the highly contagious and rapidly spreading Covid delta variant may be weighing on Uber’s stock performance, among other things.
′′We believe some of the overhang will be cleared in 3Q with additional reopening and vaccination progress,” Post said.
Uber’s stock closed about 1% higher on Thursday, at $50.59.
Chipotle Mexican Grill
“We remain bullish on the outlook for shares given improved insight into attractive multi-year growth, upside to Consensus earnings, and trust in management’s ability to execute against growth plans,” wrote UBS analyst Dennis Geiger in a note published Friday.
UBS maintained its buy recommendation on Chipotle and set a price objective of $1,700, indicating a 10% increase from Thursday’s closing price of $1,538.23.
Chipotle made news in June when it announced a 4% price increase while raising employee pay. According to UBS, the higher price could help the fast-casual chain’s sales momentum.
Chipotle’s ongoing growth is also supported by internet sales, menu innovation, marketing, and its loyalty program, according to the company.
“Recent digital marketing efforts like as a Tesla giveaway and game, ‘Team Chipotle’ digital-only menu items, and an extended Twitch collaboration are examples of initiatives that should further enhance CMG’s leading digital presence and wider consumer reach,” Geiger said.
Meanwhile, a recovering economy could increase dine-in traffic, according to UBS.
Chipotle stock has up approximately 13% in the last month and will be up 11% in 2021.


text:
Hoping for trade deal, Taiwan to ease standards for U.S. pork, beef (update)
Taipei, Aug. 28 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) announced Friday that Taiwan will set standards for a controversial feed additive in imported pork and ease restrictions on American beef in an apparent attempt to pave the way to broker a trade deal with the United States.
(Full text of the story is now in CNA English news archive. To view the full story, you will need to be a subscribed member of the CNA archive. To subscribe, please read here.)
Man repatriated from Thailand arrested on suspicion of human trafficking08/16/2022 10:51 PM
EasyCard marks 20th anniversary08/16/2022 10:33 PM
Taiwan blocks Chinese produce due to excessive pesticide residue08/16/2022 09:51 PM
Prosecutors detain two over Cambodia human trafficking operation08/16/2022 09:38 PM


text:
UnitedHealth Group is pushing further into the hearing aid business by purchasing the subsidiary of a Swiss hearing aid manufacturer that manages insurance benefits for the devices.
The Minnetonka-based health care giant said it has directed customers for more than a decade to a company called Epic Hearing when employers want to supplement their employee health insurance plan with financial benefits for workers who need hearing aids.
Now, UnitedHealth's health insurance division will sell the coverage directly through a "specialty benefits" division that also offers vision, dental and "income protection" policies, said Tom Wiffler, chief executive for specialty benefits at UnitedHealthcare.
In an interview with the Star Tribune, Wiffler confirmed that UnitedHealthcare acquired Epic Hearing, a subsidiary of Sonova Holding AG, on March 30. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"We think there's a growing demand for hearing solutions in America," Wiffler said. "Earbud usage has caused some hearing loss in folks as young as 20s and in their 30s. [We're] trying to bring the full suite of offerings to employers and consumers."
Sonova said its Epic Hearing business had about $50 million in revenue in its most recent year. The manufacturer did not disclose the buyer in slides presented at a recent audiology conference.
"New owner best positioned to propel growth of Epic," the company said in the slides. "Sonova poised to benefit from accelerated growth of Epic."
The deal is the latest of three involving UnitedHealth Group that have become public in the past week or so. Last week, a rating agency said the company was part of a $2.2 billion acquisition of a physician-staffing company based in Washington. United also said last week that it was purchasing a Medicare HMO in Louisiana.
Company Chief Executive David Wichmann did not mention any of the recent deals at an investor conference in May, but commented: "We view M&A as a core capability at UnitedHealth Group."
Epic Hearing has been part of the recent rise in the U.S. of hearing benefits and companies known as "hearing benefit managers," according to a January report from analysts with Bernstein Research. It noted that Kentucky-based health insurer Humana announced last year it would add hearing aid benefits to Medicare Advantage health plans in more than two dozen states.
Hearing benefit managers create a network of providers who agree to both furnish and fit hearing aids at a negotiated price that represents a discount on retail, said Lisa Bedell Clive, one of the Bernstein analysts. In the U.S., the insurer often purchases the hearing aid, Clive said, and directs patients to specific retailers to buy with a co-payment.
In their report, Bernstein analysts said the typical retail price per hearing aid is about $2,000, whereas the out-of-pocket cost with the most generous hearing benefits generally runs $500 to $700 per hearing aid. They estimated that revenue at Epic Hearing has grown at a low double-digit rate over the past eight years.
"We estimate that today, perhaps 5 percent to 10 percent of U.S. hearing aid private market purchases are at least partly funded by insurance," analysts wrote. "We believe that in 5 years, 15 percent to 20 percent of purchases in the U.S. private market could be partly insurer funded, with further uplift thereafter."
In 2011, UnitedHealth Group launched a program called Hi Health Innovations to provide low-cost hearing aids to health-plan subscribers. The program is part of the company's Optum division for health services and will continue running alongside the new business, said Wiffler, the UnitedHealthcare official.
"They're very complementary," he said. "We know that there are more than 48 million Americans who have some degree of hearing loss."
Sales have been sluggish at Hi Health Innovations, likely because the program involves purchasing hearing aids online rather than with in-person counseling from an audiologist, according to the Bernstein analysts. UnitedHealth Group says it also works through a network of hearing professionals.
For hearing aid manufacturers, the rise of insurance coverage for the devices cuts both ways.
"The potential to bring in new customers by lowering out-of-pocket costs should increase volumes in the market," the Bernstein analysts wrote. "However, involvement of insurers could put extra pressure on retail pricing and margins."
Christopher Snowbeck • 612-673-4744 Twitter: @chrissnowbeck


text:
The brief statement says:
The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to keep its target for the federal funds rate at 5-1/4 percent.
Economic growth appears to have been moderate during the first half of this year, despite the ongoing adjustment in the housing sector. The economy seems likely to continue to expand at a moderate pace over coming quarters.
Readings on core inflation have improved modestly in recent months. However, a sustained moderation in inflation pressures has yet to be convincingly demonstrated. Moreover, the high level of resource utilization has the potential to sustain those pressures.
In these circumstances, the Committee's predominant policy concern remains the risk that inflation will fail to moderate as expected. Future policy adjustments will depend on the evolution of the outlook for both inflation and economic growth, as implied by incoming information.
It seems the doves are flying high at the Federal Reserve despite a sky full of warning signs. Recent headline inflation figures and a revision of the deflator from 4.0% to 4.2% for today's final GDP growth figures for Q1 2007 from the Bureau of Economic Analysis seem to prove the FOMC's expecations that inflation will not moderate as hoped. Q1 growth was revised to an annualized rate of 0.7% (0.6%.)
With oil futures creeping above $70 such hopes seem far-flung anyway.
Conclusion: The FOMC seems to be more concerned about choking a sharply slowing economy than fighting the worrisome uptrend in consumer prices that are poorly reflected in the Fed's favored gauge, the highly hypothetical "core" rate of inflation that may help complacency at the Fed's part but in no way mirrors consumers daily experiences at the cash register.
The continued hold on rates may be a temporary relief at first sight, but the easy monetary policy will only prolong the credit financed shopping spree of consumers who are already indebted up to their ears.


text:
Entries in 'Nintendo' (581)
A Premium Wii U with two games for £200 is exactly what Nintendo should be talking about.
(UPDATE: Curve has contacted MCV to say that while the quotes below are accurate they reference the Nintendo published Fluidity.
Nintendo is offering a free game from a selection of ten to anyone who buys and registers a copy of Mario Kart 8 Limited Edition.
Nintendo will for the second year running not hold a press conference at E3.
Ever noticed that Kirby is always the embodiment of happiness and light on Japanese artwork and a right grump on Western game boxes?
Nintendo has signed another Happy Meal licensing deal, this time in the US.
Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata has stressed that Nintendo should no longer be thought of as just a video games company.
Nintendo’s marketing campaign for Mario Kart 8 will run until the end of the year, the firm says.
Two additional Mario Kart 8 Wii U bundles have been announced.
3DS title Mario Gold: World Tour will be the first Nintendo game to offer a season pass.
Raw processing power has been named as the reason why Nintendo decided against releasing NES Remix or NES Remix 2.
Skylanders has been such a huge success it has made Activision the biggest seller of RFID tech in the world – but Nintendo refused a proposed partnership with the brand.
Nintendo has announced plans to release a new Princess Peach-themed Wii Remote later this month.
The bond between a fanboy and his or her console can chemically be compared to love.
Nintendo, in a rare move, has announced it will be cutting the price on five of its first-party 3DS hits – including Mario, Donkey Kong, and Animal Crossing titles.
Having gained a devoted following in Japan, Nintendo’s “new Animal Crossing” is going to be debuted on 3DS in Western markets.
Super Smash Bros will launch this summer on 3DS and this winter on Wii U, Nintendo has announced.
This week's Nintendo Direct event will focus entirely on detailing the upcoming Super Smash Bros title for Wii U and 3DS, Nintendo has announced.
A pink version of Nintendo’s 2DS handheld will be released in the UK in May.
Peter Moore has publicly apologised for April Fools tweets sent out by the official DICE Frostbite account that mocked the Wii U.
The Bat’s uneasy relationship with Nintendo’s home console continues.
A report from Japan seems to be suggesting that there’s a small risk Nintendo president Saturo Iwata could be voted off the company’s board.
Peter Molyneux says Nintendo is one hardware release away from leading the way in games again.
Ripstone has confirmed that Pure Chess will be available on the Nintendo eShop later this month.


text:
Online specialist Cool Camping has launched a sister brand aimed at the upmarket glamping sector.
The new website, glampingly.com, claims to have curated the largest dedicated collection of glamping accommodation yet in the UK.
It also offers a host of luxury stays in France and Europe.
The website is the new sister brand of Cool Camping that has promoted holidays under canvas for the past decade.
Cool Camping said the launch of Glampingly reflects the growing interest among consumers in post camping opportunities in recent years.
Glampingly.co.uk offers a choice of over 800 glamping options, mainly in the UK as well as around 120 choices in France and Spain.
All can be instantly booked online, users can use the site’s search functionality to find their perfect glamping destination.
Founder of Glampingly and Cool Camping Jonathan Knight said: “Glamping is now appealing to a much wider market.
“It is no longer just the ‘tenters’ being tempted to upgrade to more comfy digs. More and more of us are now considering glamping as an alternative to a hotel, cottage or B&B stay.”


text:
Michael “Mickey” Kantor, co-chair of the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy advisory board, penned an op-ed published in the Los Angeles Times, “End the storm at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports.”
In his February 16 op-ed, Kantor described the “frustrating and costly slowdown of operations at West Coast port facilities,” caused by a deterioration in contract negotiations between management and labor.
“Now the latest deterioration in the contract talks — which resulted in an almost complete shutdown of the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports over the holiday weekend, with 33 ships lined up waiting to be unloaded Monday — has the potential to turn the slowdown into a full-scale crisis,” Kantor wrote. “If the West Coast’s 29 ports are not returned to full operation soon, it will create a shock wave that reverberates across the economy, derailing a promising economic recovery that is creating jobs and restoring a sense of economic security for the nation.”
The effects of the slowdown and shutdown of the ports have reverberated across the country, Kantor said, with high-value goods manufacturers and agricultural producers particularly feeling the hit. And if the situation devolves into a strike or lockout, Los Angeles and the rest of the country will experience lasting consequences.
“Some of these losses, while painful enough in the short term, could become permanent if foreign customers ultimately find the products they need elsewhere,” he wrote. “Our competitors around the globe, be they in manufacturing or agriculture, are all too willing to poach future business from the U.S. Such a hit to the economy is almost impossible to measure, but it will continue to have real-world consequences going forward.”
Kantor stressed that this crisis is preventable, and called on President Obama to step in and “use his bully pulpit — and all other means at his disposal — to ensure that our nation remains open for business.”
Kantor is a partner at Mayer Brown in the Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles offices. Prior to joining Mayer Brown, he served as the United States Secretary of Commerce from 1996-1997 and as United States Trade Representative from 1993-1996. While in office, he led the negotiations that created the World Trade Organization, North American Fair Trade Agreement and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum and was involved in the initial steps towards the Free Trade Area of the Americas. He is a consultant with the Retail Industry Leaders Association.


text:
Cathedral Quarter Businesses Join Forces to Raise Cash for Children in Need
Businesses in a key shopping area of Derby’s Cathedral Quarter will be joining together to raise money for Children in Need on Thursday November 17.
Several businesses in The Strand and the Strand Arcade will be opening their doors late between 5pm and 10pm for an evening of games, raffles, competitions, live entertainment and special offers with proceeds going to the charity. They will be joined by a range of pop up stalls including food, drink, and arts and crafts.
The Prosecco Parlour in the Strand Arcade will be launching a locally produced hot mulled wine; opposite, Galactic Models will be organising competitions including model racing games. Tatlers Fabrics, Selena’s contemporary flowers and Can Can lingerie will be staying open late and Brides & Gowns will be holding a special accessories evening.
Meanwhile a number of retailers will be donating a percentage of their profits on the night towards Children in Need. Lynda and Lisa Ali from The Prosecco Parlour said: “Thursday evening will be a busy night in the Cathedral Quarter with the Derby Night Market happening nearby. “We wanted to give visitors another reason for visiting the Cathedral Quarter and the opportunity to help us raise a lot of money for Children in Need. “We have a fantastic community of businesses in The Strand and the Strand Arcade and everyone has been very keen to work together to bring additional stalls into their shops and organise a wide range of activities for visitors to enjoy. “This collaborative work was one of the many aspects of the Cathedral Quarter that impressed the Great British High Street Award judges who visited us last week. “Thursday evening will also be a great opportunity to remind the public that they can vote for us to win the city centre location award with the free online vote closing at midnight on Friday November 18.”
The Cathedral Quarter Business Improvement District (BID) is one of three locations vying for the city location category in the Great British High Street Awards - against Broadmead in Bristol and the Castle Arcade district of Norwich. The judges’ feedback will make up 50% of the score whilsthe other 50% will be decided by an online free of charge public vote at www.thegreatbritishhighstreet.co.uk. People can vote with multiple email addresses once a day for their choice. If successful, the Cathedral Quarter will win a cash prize of up to £10,000, dedicated support and mentoring from Google’s digital taskforce for shops, bars and restaurants and a trip to Twitter UK’s London office to further boost social media skills.
For more information about the Cathedral Quarter, visit www.derbycathedralquarter.co.uk, follow on Twitter @DerbyCQ and like the Facebook page cathedralquarterderby.


text:
Apple is raising the price of apps in the UK, as well as India and Turkey as a result of exchange rate and tax changes.
In the UK app prices are rising by more than 25% following the further recent falls in the pound due to Brexit and the ongoing incompetence of the Conservative government. In fact such a price rise is assuming further falls in the pound against the dollar even with VAT factored in. An app sold for 99c in the US will now cost 99p instead of 79p.
Increases of about 25% are reflected all the way across the pricing matrix for the United Kingdom App Store.
Developers will be able to re-price their apps to new, lower tiers starting at 49p, but if they do nothing their prices will be automatically changed over the next 7 days starting 17th January.
There has not yet been an equivalent announcement regarding iTunes content like movies and books but it would seem to be likely to follow shortly.


text:
As Milk Prices Keep Rising, Should You Stay Away From Dairy Companies?
As milk prices continue to grow, what's the impact on Dean Foods, Nestle, and Groupe Danone?
Is Cal-Maine Worth Owning Right Now?
A great quarter recently boosted the stock to a record high, but should you still consider buying?
China Trends Toward Milk, Soy, and Coffee Stocks
China's drinking more milk these days, and that's a boon to American dairy companies. Besides milk, there are two other incumbent China beverage trends that should bring profit to these American food companies.


text:
PLANS for retail giant Sainsbury's to open a store in Barnsley have been put on hold.
The supermarket had intended on converting the B&Q store at Stairfoot, but now plans have been reined back amid falling sales.
Sainsbury's reported a half-year loss of £290 million and said like-for-like sales had fallen 2.1 per cent during the period.
It has been reported as many as 40 supermarket developments across the country will now not go ahead, and only eight new stores will be developed over the next three years.
A Sainsbury's spokesman confirmed the Barnsley store plan was on hold pending the review.


text:
Kia's Sportage hits 30
Hugely successful Korean SUV began life back in 1993, celebrated with anniversary edition.
Government must do more to facilitate EV switch: report
Survey of Irish EV owners shows dissatisfaction with charging network and more.
Happy 25th to the Renault Kangoo
Part-van, part-car, the Renault Kangoo has just passed the 25-year mark.
Interview with Michael Mauer, Chief Designer, Porsche & Head of Volkswagen Group Design
Porsche's head of design on just how far you can push the future.
Interview with Torsten Müller-Ötvös, chief exec of Rolls-Royce
As Rolls-Royce launches its first electric car, we interview the people tasked with making it a success.
Continental simulator tech reduces carbon footprint
Driving simulator reduces tyre development time by up to one year for Continental.
Papa! Nicole! Clio marks 33 years of advertising
Renault’s marketing chief Arnaud Belloni, reminisces about three decades’ worth of car commercials.
Interview with Linda Jackson, CEO of Peugeot
On the occasion of the opening of Gowan Auto's new HQ, we got a chance to speak with Peugeot's CEO, Linda Jackson.
Toyota celebrates 50 years in Ireland
Toyota Ireland's success in the sales charts has been 50 years in the making.


text:
You are not permitted to download, save or email this image. Visit image gallery to purchase the image.
People in Central Otago over the weekend were spoiled for choice when it came to wine and food sampling, as both Cromwell and Alexandra hosted festivals on Saturday afternoon.
Almost 1000 people attended the festival in Old Cromwell, where they sampled wines from about 20 local wineries.
In a first for the festival, people were able to move on to the McNulty estate, a house and grounds neighbouring Old Cromwell, recently purchased by the Central Otago District Council. Organiser Heather McPherson said it provided three times as much space and had more shade, where people could relax as they listened to entertainers Jody Direen and Martin Chaney.
The inaugural Great Alexandra Craft Beer, Food and Wine Festival, held in Pioneer Park, featured 21 food and drink outlets and three bands. It attracted a crowd of about 500, leaving organiser Martin McPherson pleased and confident about the event's future. Police said no-one had been caught drink-driving after either event.


text:
Japanese gift and lifestyle retailer Shaddy's new ad campaign features the O. Henry short story, The Gift of the Magi...
4 May 2017
TOKYO, JAPAN: The Dyson 360 Eye robot vacuum cleaner is claimed to have more suction than any other robot vacuum.
5 Sep 2014
RIXEYVILLE, US: The direct sales industry has changed very little over the last few decades, incorporating new technologies as they have developed, rather than evolving their business practices to capitalise further on existing markets.
Henry Buell 20 Jun 2014
NEW YORK, US: Purchases of environmentally protective products have grown significantly in two of the world's leading markets - China and Brazil; but the widespread perception that these products are too expensive may be blocking deeper adoption.
21 Aug 2012
CUPERTINO, US: Apple has announced it has sold three million of its new iPad, since its launch on Friday, March 16. The new iPad features a new Retina display, Apple's new A5X chip with quad-core graphics, a 5 megapixel iSight camera with advanced optics for capturing photos and 1080p HD video, and the same all-day 10 hour battery life*.
22 Mar 2012
NEW YORK, US: Global consumer confidence increased one index point last quarter to 89, while Europe led confidence declines in 24 of the region's 27 measured markets, according to fourth quarter 2011 global consumer confidence findings from Nielsen, a leading global provider of information and insights into what consumers watch and buy.
8 Feb 2012
NEW YORK, US: Global online consumer confidence fell for the seventh consecutive quarter as confidence in 31 of 56 global markets measured declined, according to from Nielsen, a leading global provider of insights and analytics into what consumers watch and buy.
9 Nov 2011
NEW YORK, US: Despite overall growth of 5.7% for the advertising industry in Q2 2011, adspend fell in nearly half the world's key markets in the second quarter of this year as economic concerns continued to impact the advertising industry, according to Nielsen's quarterly Global AdView Pulse report released recently.
20 Oct 2011
TOKYO, JAPAN: The week on week sales in the Japanese flat-panel TV market are experiencing a dramatic increase ahead of the digital switchover on 24 July.
19 Jul 2011
TOKYO, JAPAN: Return on investment focused media agency ZenithOptimedia has released its 2011 Advertising Expenditure Forecasts revealing interesting shifts in global ad expenditure. Zenith reports that an estimated US$2.4 billion* was knocked off adspend as a result of the turmoil in the Middle East and the earthquake in Japan.
28 Jun 2011
NEW YORK, US: media control GfK International, a leader in international media and entertainment tracking servicing the global entertainment industry, has announced the release of its 2010 Year End Home Video Retail Sales Report.
28 Feb 2011
NEW YORK, US: Consumer confidence fell in 25 out of 52 countries in Q4 2010 as hope for a global economic recovery evaporated at the end of last year, according to the latest edition of the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index, which tracks consumer confidence, major concerns and spending intentions among online consumers.
27 Jan 2011
NEW YORK, US: After an upbeat start to the year with two consecutive quarters of increases in optimism, global consumer confidence fell three points in September to an Index of 90 as consumers' hopes for a full economic recovery this year fades in most parts of the world, according to the latest edition of the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index.
27 Oct 2010
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND: It's official. As of the second quarter of this year the Chinese economy has taken over Japan's as number one in Asia and number two in the world. This has been foreseen for a few years, hence it is not a total surprise; but it is a shock nonetheless. It upsets the status quo that prevailed for over a century.
Dr Jean-Pierre Lehmann 19 Aug 2010
A new global survey from KPMG has found that despite major concerns over privacy and data security, people around the world are rapidly adopting the mobile internet as an easy and convenient method of carrying out everyday transactions including banking and shopping.
30 Jul 2010


text:
During its Graph Search announcement, Mark Zuckerberg noted that it will also include wider results thanks to Facebook's partnership with Microsoft and Bing. Apparently, same deal did not work out with Google.
It was pretty clear that Graph Search would need some sort of outside help as finidng people, dentists and restaurants would not make it a good search engine and thanks to Bing, it can pull in a whole lot more "results".
Zuckenberg noted that Facebook would love to work with Google as well and they simply just "wanted to incorporate search", but only as long as the company is willing to honor the privacy of folks sharing content on Facebook. Apparently, that could not work out with Google as Microsoft was more "willing" to do things specific to Facebook.
Of course, everyone is now waiting for a reply from Google as it looks like this is not over yet and we are quite sure that Google's reply will be quite interesting.


text:
In a complex arrangement that could boost Taiwan's reeling DRAM industry, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) will reduce its stake in one local DRAM maker and invest in another.
Under the terms of the agreement, TSMC will sell nearly 20 million shares, or less than 1% of its holdings, in Hsinchu-based DRAM maker Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp. (VISC) to another local DRAM supplier, Etron Technology Inc.
The IC-wafer foundry giant, which held a 26.7% stake in VISC before the transaction, will then purchase for an undisclosed amount a 5% stake in Hsinchu-based Etron, a fabless IC design house that makes high-density DRAMs.
The deal will enable VISC and Etron to combine resources in product development. As part of the deal, VISC and Etron will co-develop 64-Mbit and higher-density DRAM products, as well as accelerate their process technologies to 0.18-micron, according to Robert Hsieh, VISC's vice president of finance.
VISC and Etron are no strangers. In fact, VISC president C.Y. Lu and Etron president Nicky Lu are brothers.
Before 1994, VISC was actually a government-sponsored research lab that developed and licensed submicron chip technology to local IC makers. At that time, Etron provided DRAM and SRAM designs to the lab.
In 1994, the Taiwanese government spun off the lab into a new and independent merchant DRAM company called VISC, which also owned the island's first 8-in.-wafer fab.
Meanwhile, Taiwan's DRAM industry has taken a major hit in the last year or so following a downturn in the worldwide memory market, and every Taiwan DRAM company is bleeding red ink to one degree or another.
Even TSMC, which has been racking up record profits and sales, has taken a minor hit due to its exposure in VISC.
But Y.C. Huang, vice president of TSMC, denied the company unloaded a small portion of VISC's stock to reduce its exposure in that company. "This is a business strategy to reinforce VISC's relationship with Etron," he said.


text:
Facebook is currently testing a system that would require users to pay to send a message to someone outside of their circle of friends, delivering it to their message inbox rather than the “Other” folder, the company said Thursday.
“Several commentators and researchers have noted that imposing a financial cost on the sender may be the most effective way to discourage unwanted messages and facilitate delivery of messages that are relevant and useful,” stated the company’s Newsroom.
According to CNET, Facebook is looking at charging $1 for one message delivered.
“We’re starting a small experiment to test the usefulness of economic signals to determine relevance. This test will give a small number of people the option to pay to have a message routed to the Inbox rather than the Other folder of a recipient that they are not connected with,” Facebook said. Only individual users have the feature.
A Facebook spokesman told CNET, “Brands can’t use this feature—not at the moment.”
The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 20 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.


text:
The death this week of Karl Lagerfeld has been widely mourned, but this outpouring of love, writes Mr Siphiwe Mpye, neglects the fact that there was no phobia too deplorable for him, and he was allowed to flourish by an enabling fashion industry.
Mr Karl Lagerfeld, the creative mastermind behind his eponymous label and the luxury fashion giant Chanel, died this week after falling ill. He was 85. The German was well-loved around the world, evidenced by the outpouring of grief, archive pictures and social media tributes from the top-tier of world fashion – from André Leon Talley, Jefferson Hack and Grace Coddington, to Carine Roitfeld, Donatella Versace and Suzy Menkes.
There were cute anecdotes about his eccentric ways; nods to his intellectual stamina; his magnificent contribution to the canon of the cloth and an archive strewn with fantastical fashion productions. His genius and influence are without question, and it is perhaps this creative excellence – among other structural buttresses – that allowed him for so many years, to get away with being an ass, and in many instances, something much more sinister.
“His genius and influence are without question, and it is perhaps this creative excellence – among other structural buttresses – that made sure he got away with being an ass, and in many instances, something much more sinister than that.”
His sins are well documented: racism, misogyny, classism, fatphobia, xenophobia and Islamophobia. Outburst after outburst – the singer Adele was ‘a little too fat’; Coco Chanel was ‘not ugly enough to be a Feminist’; a tirade about his disdain for Syrian immigrants; models who ‘didn’t want their pants pulled about’ should join a nunnery – would be written off as “candid”, “controversial” or “politically incorrect”, never what it really was.
In the days following his death, there have been but a minority in the industry honest enough to speak the truth – like Australian models Ms. Tiah Eckhardt-Delaney and Mr Ryan Porter. Mr Ryan asked rhetorically in an Instagram stories post: “I wonder how many people really know how much of a pig Karl Lagerfeld was? He made fun of overweight people, made fun of the MeToo movement. Only cared about physical appearance.”
But still, in death the media is tentative about condemning his ‘controversies’ and the fashion world is largely content to ignore his misdeeds and sing his praises, as they did while he was still alive. The genius creator overshadowed the ‘pig’. The ‘pig’ could prance around, muddying and offending at will, and the genius would be protected and celebrated by the Fashion Media Industrial Complex (FMIC), because his bile was largely directed at people in the margins of society: in race, class, gender, nationality and aesthetics. Our contemporary vigilance for demanding accountability from writers, musicians, actors, directors, comedians, means nothing if it gives fashion a pass.
“The genius creator overshadowed the pig. The pig could prance around, muddying and offending at will and the genius would be protected and celebrated by the Fashion Media Industrial Complex.”
It would be naïve to miss the point that Lagerfeld was also protected because in the world of the FMIC, many people in pivotal places share his worldview. Stefano Gabbana’s China DMs attest to this; ex-Vogue Brazil Style Director Donata Meirelles’s recent slavery-themed party falls in that class and Gucci’s blackface stupidity betrays their many blind spots. But he also got away with it because he made a lot of money for people who worship wealth. He also got away with it because he too was rich, male, and white. There is no black or brown designer with Lagerfeld’s track record for indiscriminate abuses, who would have survived their own mouths, yet Lagerfeld thrived, year on year, for decades. And now, he is no more.
He leaves behind his cat Choupette (who looks likely to inherit all of R2.7BN from the Lagerfeld estate) and an industry that will continue to pay lip service to the urgent changes that our global moment demands. It will continue to protect its despicable own, as long as they keep producing beautiful garments and stay profitable. That, is the saddest thing about Mr Lagerfeld’s death.


text:
The 2016 awards are open for entry until Friday, September 30th.
Structured Products runs three global awards for the Americas, Asia, and Europe. The awards celebrate regional excellence.
Structured Products awards are the industry's most prestigious honour, put in place to recognise the top buy side and sell side firms participating in the market. The awards also recognise the strongest index providers, technology companies and ETF providers.
The Structured Product Awards Europe, 2016 will be taking place on Thursday, November 17th at The Mayfair, London.


text:
Tags (87) : Apple
iBeacon was initially introduced by Apple in September 2013. The technology uses low cost (starts at $5) and low power Bluetooth Smart devices that broadcast data to smartphones to trigger actions in a mobile application. The system was initially used for retail but has evolved into much more than...
Total shipment of smart watches and smart bands for the third quarter of 2015 came to 21 million units, up 197.6% from the 7.1 million units shipped in the third quarter 2014, according to a new report from market research firm IDC. Fitbit Number One With 4.7 million devices shipped in the quarter...
Big geo data visualization platform Mapsense was acquired by Apple at the beginning of this month. The deal first rumored last week - and estimated at $25 million - was confirmed as several employees have now updated their profile on LinkedIn. It was clear for several weeks there was a transaction...
For the 2016 model year, Chevrolet will offer Android Auto and Apple CarPlay compatibility in 14 car models, starting with the 2016 Cruze compact car, which will debut on June 24, the GM brand announced today. “For most of us, our smartphones are essential,” said Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors....
TomTom today announced in a short statement it has renewed its "global agreement for maps and related information" with Apple. TomTom did not mention if traffic data is part of the deal, but it could be among the "related information." This announcement is obviously shedding some lights on whether...
Apple has acquired Coherent Navigation, a start-up specializing in high precision GPS, according to various media reports this week, confirmed by Apple. Based in San Mateo, California, Coherent Navigation was formed in 2008 by William Bencze and Brent Ledvina and gathered a small team of engineers...
Apple has started to operate a local business portal in the United States that allows local shop owners to add their location to Apple Maps, claim an existing business and update its data. The platform allows local shops to disclose their precise location, opening hours, Facebook, Twitter Yelp and...
Pioneer has become one of the first aftermarket infotainment system manufacturer to support Apple CarPlay with a range of existing products: 4 in Europe and 6 in North America. That concerns five 2014 NEX in-dash multimedia receivers (4 equivalent devices in Europe), as well as the introduction of...
After visiting the IFA trade show in Berlin last week, I had the feeling that the whole smart watch industry (LG, Asus, Samsung, Sony and others) was demonstrating the typical problem of a great technology in search of a real use case. Frankly these are very nice pieces of technology, small enough...
Torsten Krenz, a Director at Nokia HERE based in Berlin has joined Apple beginning of August his LinkedIn profile revealed. Krenz spent his whole career in operation roles at NAVTEQ. He initially joined the company in 1993. He was initially responsible for driving the extension of the map coverage...
At the recent Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco, Apple introduced its indoor location technology without a big splash. Apple will use RF parametric data as well as motion sensors data from its M7 chipset to enable indoor location. Mobile developers will use the existing corelocation...
IN THE NEWS


text:
New research from Escalent suggests that while “Break Up Big Tech” is a red hot political topic, consumers aren’t demanding that Facebook, Google, Amazon, Uber, and other tech giants be broken up. At least not yet.
Judging by last week’s Democratic debate, you’d think anyone with a smartphone was standing ready to storm the Google gates and demand an end to monopolistic rule. Nearly fifteen minutes was devoted to the question: “Do Facebook, Amazon, and Google need to be broken up?” The candidates’ responses varied with respect to what “breaking up” means and what the proper level of oversight should be while agreeing, in principle, that a problem exists.
But from a consumer perspective, while consumer trust in Big Tech is shaky at best, a recent study by Escalent suggests that Americans are reluctant to call for breakups.
To find out, we surveyed 1,000 US consumers and asked questions similar to those posed by the debate moderators.
For each of six big tech companies (Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, Uber, Microsoft), we asked consumers for their level of agreement with the following statement: “Because of the way [tech company] limits competition and uses personal information, government should break up [tech company].”
Given Facebook’s current role as the Big Tech whipping boy, it didn’t come as a surprise that Facebook fared the worst. But even so, only 34% either agreed or strongly agreed that Facebook should be broken up, while 37% either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement.
In second place was Google with 25% agreeing that government should break it up, followed closely by Amazon at 24%, Uber and Apple at 22%, and Microsoft at 20%.
Clearly, the majority of Americans are not on the “Break Up” train. However, when consumers were asked about their perception of specific practices or behaviors of the tech giants, they were much more likely to express unfavorable opinions. Facebook got the worst of it:
71% are concerned about how Facebook handles personal information
52% agree that Facebook intentionally stifles competition
47% agree Facebook stifles innovation
But it’s not just Facebook. Consumers are definitely concerned about the types of shady corporate practices that anti-trust laws were specifically created to prevent. Here’s what they say about the other tech giants:
Bottom line: Consumers don’t trust Big Tech, and some companies are less trustworthy than others. But this doesn’t mean consumers support breaking up these companies. Given the climate on the blue side of the aisle, one might think Democrats would be more supportive of anti-trust action. However, our research showed no significant difference between those who identify politically as Democrats, Republicans, or Independents.
From a consumer perspective, the problem with the “Break Up Big Tech” movement is that there are too many conflated arguments. It leaves people unclear about exactly what they should be outraged about.
The conflation of outrage was on full display on the Democratic debate stage. It began as a question to Andrew Yang about Elizabeth Warren’s position on Big Tech. Yang pushed back on Warren’s ‘break ’em all up’ plan, essentially saying that technology is a somewhat unique animal and that 20th-century anti-trust frameworks won’t work because encouraging competition is not the obvious answer. “It’s not like any of us wants to use the fourth-best navigation app,” he quipped. But from there, his argument took a weird detour into concerns over children and screen time.
When it was Warren’s turn she went big, railing against “a handful of monopolists dominating our economy and our democracy.” But then she tried to break down in simple terms how Amazon’s ability to collect data on its users is bad for companies that use Amazon as a platform. It makes sense, but it’s a multi-step argument. Does the average American have time for multi-step outrage?
Enter Cory Booker who steered the argument to 2016 election interference. This teed up Beto O’Rourke who said social media companies are being treated like a utility when they should be regulated like publishers and held accountable for misinformation. Kamala Harris pounced, seeing an opening to shut down Trump’s Twitter account.
And it’s not over. Warren jumped back in. This time taking on Big Tech money in politics, saying anyone who accepts those dollars is suspect. Amy Klobuchar invoked the founding fathers’ vision of a start-up nation. Julian Castro stood up for the Amazon worker. And to bookend the whole affair, Yang fired back with ‘it’s your data, you should get paid for it.’ “How many of you remember getting your data check in the mail?”
So which is it? Data privacy? Getting big money out of politics? The scourge of fake news? Bringing back good old-fashioned competition? Screen time limits? Trump’s Twitter account?
For many Americans, it’s simply too exhausting to know how to properly channel their outrage on the issue. And besides:
Google tells us things.
Amazon brings us things.
Apple makes nice things.
Uber takes us places.
Facebook connects us.
Our lives could get really complicated without Big Tech. The public experience of this issue is fast becoming one of malaise versus outrage. We know there’s something wrong with how our data is being handled, but what choice is there? We know we have to filter and question what we see, hear and read. It’s exhausting. But what choice is there?
One choice, which we offered consumers in our survey, arose as somewhat more palatable than break-up: regulation. While consumers were generally averse to the idea of break-ups, they were more likely to agree that “government should regulate” Big Tech. Appetite for regulation was, on average, more than ten percentage points higher than a willingness to break up any given tech firm. However, even Facebook, the brand that elicits the most sentiment for intervention, musters only 46% who agree with government regulation.
Until politicians offer a concrete and compelling vision for how they will intervene in the tech industry–and how that intervention will improve consumer’s lives–we are likely to remain in this messy state of detente. We don’t trust Big Tech, but we’re not ready to pack up our things and leave.
Find out more about our current research on the trust gap in Big Tech, and ask Escalent about building brand trust.


text:
Chorley welcomes two new shops to fill Market Walk
Chorley's main shopping precinct is now full to the brim with traders after two new stores opened to take the centre to full capacity.
F&B Barbers and Slacks Farm Butchers opened in February, offering shoppers a friendly service in the Chorley Council-owned and managed shopping centre.
After 10 years of running Foran and Blake, the successful ladies hair salon in Market Walk, Will Foran decided to open a barber shop to offer the men of Chorley a similar experience from haircut to hot towel and cut-throat shaves.
F&B Barbers is just around the corner from Foran and Blake and offers men the latest up-to-date styles in a relaxed environment.
All the barbers are fully-qualified and trained to the highest standard with the style of the shop matching the professionalism of the staff.
Just around the corner, Slacks Farm Butchers offers customers a fresh range of good quality meats with plenty of special meat packs ideal for creating fantastic family dinners.
Councillor Alistair Bradley, leader of Chorley Council with responsibility for Market Walk and the town centre, said: “We’re delighted to welcome two new businesses to Market Walk, taking the shopping centre to full capacity.
“Both businesses will make great additions for shoppers in the town centre and they’re creating new jobs for local people, which is excellent news.
“We have been working hard to attract new business and seeing Market Walk full of great shops will only add to the appeal of Chorley town centre as a shopping destination.
“Since we purchased Market Walk in November 2013, the shopping centre has gone from strength to strength with a wide range of shops offering excellent face-to-face customer service that you just don’t get online.
“While work on the extension to Market Walk is due to start soon, which is part of a £17 million investment package the council is putting into improving the town centre,
“Market Walk and the town centre remains open for business and it is important for people to continue to shop local and support existing shops.”
Only 5.2 per cent of shops are vacant in Chorley town centre compared to the North West average of 13.2 per cent.
“When compared to other towns, Chorley has the third lowest vacancy rate across the North West, which shows businesses are continuing to choose Chorley,” added Coun Bradley.
“The town centre has some fantastic shops and the council will continue to support businesses in every way we can to boost the local economy and ensure Chorley is thriving.”


text:
William Hill has boosted its online instant win offering through a tie up with IWG, a supplier of online instant-win games.
Following the integration of IWG’s Progressive Play RGS via OpenBet, Hill now offers a much improved instant win portfolio with over 100 games to choose from.
IWG’s content is already live with 888, Foxy Bingo and Mecca Bingo.
“Partnering with one of the industry’s most recognised names is a major deal for us and we’re thrilled William Hill has entrusted us to expand their online instant win offering,” said Rhydian Fisher, CEO at IWG..
“Through our Progressive Play RGS network, Hills will now be able to offer a comprehensive portfolio, and we’re sure their players will enjoy the vast array of games on offer.”
William Hill head of gaming, Ciara Nic Liam says the demand for instant win games has grown “exponentially in recent times,” adding the company has been looking to boost its offering in this space.
Asia Gaming Brief is a news and intelligence service providing up to date market information for worldwide executives on relevant gaming issues in Asia.
ASIA GAMING BRIEF
PO Box 1139, Macau SAR
Tel: +853 2871 7267
Fax: +853 2871 7264


text:
State media reports plans to formalise measures designed to curb pollution during smog-choked periods
Chinese factories and coal-fired power stations could soon face further rolling shutdowns, as the government battles to get a hold on the smog crisis that has gripped the capital Beijing. The government...
White House announces series of initiatives to boost the number of electric vehicle charging stations across the US
Paris deal now likely to take effect before end of 2017, as UN invites countries to special ratification event in September
Risk-averse financiers including Aviva, BlackRock and State Street are pursuing renewable energy projects and seeing steady returns
Partnership with Starwood Energy Group will see discount retailer use 100 per cent wind power in 60 of its stores


text:
A Singaporean business offering airconditioning as-a-service has its sights set on Australia, which could bring cheaper, ultra-efficient cooling to Australian buildings.
Kaer’s revolutionary airconditioning model borrows from other industries that have “servitised” their offerings, such as Uber (mobility) and Spotify (music), which provide access to products rather than ownership.
Rather than a building owner procuring and managing its own airconditioning kit and investing in expensive software to make it run efficiently, owners pay for cool air on a pay-as-you-go basis.
The pivot to as-a-service
According to Kaer’s senior manager, customer success Dave Mackerness, the family-owned air conditioning business was started in 1993 by Australian ex-pats living in Singapore.
Back then the company was a stock standard airconditioning vendor that designed systems and sold them to customers. In 2013, the company pivoted to the as-a-service model.
It’s since grown to about 100 people servicing about 10 million square feet, with a focus on big energy guzzlers such as data centres, pharmaceutical companies, hotels, food processing, shopping centres and casinos.
“Those are the guys that do well with this kind of business.”
He says that industries are attracted to the model for different reasons.
“The pharmaceutical companies use it for a reliability standpoint, shopping centres like outsourcing.”
The company also services commercial office clients, including major REITS such as Lendlease.
“They like it because it’s better for the business, financially better.”
How it works
Instead of the airconditioning vendor designing a system and selling it to a building owner, it owns and operates everything – chiller equipment, pipes, maintenance, repairs, facilities management, the works.
With an existing building, it’s a slightly different set up. Instead of designing the system from scratch, the company purchases the existing kit and then takes on all maintenance and operations, selling it back at when the building owner when it wants to sell the building.
There’s also no long term utility contract that the building owner has to negotiate.
For the customer, the result is airconditioning that is about 10 to 20 per cent cheaper than a self owned model. Plus, there’s the benefit of not having to invest in technologies and capabilities outside their specialities.
According to Mackerness, the product as a service model is not only more profitable for the business but also more sustainable and circular because the vendor is incentivised for the airconditioning to be as efficient as possible.
- Learn more about accelerating the circular economy in the built environment industries at The Fifth Estate’s Building Circularity event on 24 November.
When the onus is on the vendor to optimise operations, only the most efficient systems are installed to keep energy costs down, and they are impeccably maintained so that they keep running smoothly.
“It’s now my responsibility, not my customers responsibility.
“You want to move to a circular economy, we need to move the burden of being sustainable and circular away from customers and onto vendors, because then there’s a business incentive to do it.”
The other benefit of servitisation, according to Mackerness, is that it allows for the scale up of operations and the subsequent ability to invest in R&D to streamline still further.
As such, the company has poured funds into artificial intelligence and other technologies to keep improving performance.
This takes the pressure off busy operations managers to oversee the many factors that influence energy used for airconditioning, such as the weather conditions and the number of occupant or visitors in the building. Instead, highly trained specialists draw on smart software to help them manage the building’s airconditioning as optimally as possible.
It also helps to have a large portfolio of buildings to collect data from and iteratively improve operations and maintenance strategies.
Mackerness says this is exactly what ride sharing companies have done to their services, with ride sharing fleets bigger than any cab companies that came before them, allowing them to invest in the digital platforms that make these services so efficient.
The model works best in air conditioning heavy regions
Kaer has so far focused on the Asian market, servicing clients in Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and India, which is where airconditioning accounts for about 50 per cent of energy consumption in buildings.
When teamed with renewables, which Mackerness says the company is trying to do more, the solution can be run off 100 per cent renewable energy.
In a mixed used precinct with high energy using buildings such as an automotive plant and educational complex in sweltering hot Mumbai, the company has managed to turn the site energy positive.
Putting solar on the roof to run 1Elpro Park’s airconditioning systems turned out to be the cheaper way to run the chiller plants for the company, and also resulted in enough surplus solar energy to run 200 average Indian households each year.
The 100 per cent renewable precinct also relies on water captured entirely onsite. The company also offers chilled water as a service, and capturing rainwater turned out to be the cheapest way to provide this service.
Mackerness says that the demand for airconditioning in south-east Asia makes the region the more suitable markets to target initially but Australia is also of interest for future expansion plans.
Genius or idiot idea?
Mackerness says the company is essentially out on its own with this model. “This does make us nervous because it means you’re either a genius or an idiot.”
He says more people are starting to move behind the idea but one of the big barriers is the huge amount of capital needed to get started.
Kaer was able to finance its way because it sold its distribution rights for Daikon airconditioners back to Daikon, and then managed to secure finance from banks including Australia’s NAB.


text:
“Diamonds can at last be an investor’s best friend”, said the Singapore Diamond Investment Exchange (DIX) recently while launching a new standardised form of the precious stones. This newly introduced standardised form of diamonds will rise as a tough competition to rival gold since you will be able to invest in diamonds – a safe-haven alternative to cash savings.
Diamonds are indeed the most concentrated form of wealth, that can be treasured easily and occupy the slightest of space. There was a time when people preferred investing in gold as the store value of gold was considered more reliable. With diamonds, the cost of each stone is different depending on its cut, clarity, colour and carat, which makes trading of diamonds difficult. However, with this newly launched form of diamonds, diamonds are likely to become the new gold for investors.
Alain Vandenborre, the Chairman and Founder of Singapore Diamond Investment Exchange (SDIX) has solved the problem of diamond trading, making diamonds emerge as the new gold for the investor minds. How is this going to happen? Diamond Bullion, produced by the Singapore Diamond Mint, is a collection of investment grade diamonds. The unique thing about these investment grade diamonds is that their value can be checked quite quickly, ranging between $100,000 and $200,000 initially. The denominations for these investment grade diamonds can be made available in higher and lower values in future so as to allow everyone to invest in diamonds.
The diamonds would be stored in a credit card sized device that will contain a chip. This chip shall allow immediate evaluation of the stored diamonds on the basis of exchange trading and instant authentication. With this, the value of diamonds could be guaranteed making it a good asset for investments. The Diamond Bullion will carry a mark, which has been developed by the International Institute of Diamond Grading and Research (IIDGR), a part of Anglo American’s De Beers Group, that is a guaranteed value.


text:
Two British men have been charged by federal prosecutors in New York with defrauding people into investing nearly $100 million in loans supposedly backed by an inventory of expensive wine that did not actually exist.
According to a grand jury indictment announced on Tuesday, Stephen Burton and James Wellesley induced people to invest in loans supposedly brokered by their company Bordeaux Cellars and collateralized by wine they stored for wealthy collectors.
Bordeaux Cellars allegedly had custody of thousands fewer wines than loan documents reflected, including wine from Domaine de la Romanee-Conti in Burgundy and Chateau Lafleur in Bordeaux, court papers showed.
Prosecutors said Burton and Wellesley both used multiple aliases, and used loan proceeds to make fraudulent interest payments to investors or for personal expenses, in a scheme running from June 2017 to February 2019.
“These defendants duped investors by offering them an intoxicating investment opportunity collateralized by valuable bottles of fine wine that turned out to be too good to be true,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace in Brooklyn said in a statement.
Burton, 55, and Wellesley, 57, were each charged with wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, and could face up to 20 years in prison.
Lawyers for the defendants could not immediately be identified. Wellesley was arrested on Feb. 4 in the United Kingdom, and Burton is a fugitive, prosecutors said.


text:
Sony has dropped its appeal against the £250,000 fine handed out by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) following the PlayStation Network security breach in April 2011. The PSN attack saw hackers...
That's several hours faster than the average human
Password re-use weakness enabled attackers to compromise developer's TeamViewer software
Fintech startup Orwell Group aims to cut the cost and risk for banks looking to expand into new territories
Alan Partridge-themed 'Chat' will require mobile carrier opt-in


text:
General Mills Convenience announced the launch of a new flavor of Dunkaroos, Triple Chocolate, hitting convenience store shelves this month. The new variety features chocolate cookies, chocolate frosting and chocolate chips. Dunkaroos come individually packaged in a convenient single-serve tray that is great to eat on-the-go with a suggested retail price of $1.99.
The launch coincides with the Dunkaroos Convenience Store Sweepstakes, where c-store customers have a chance to win exclusive Dunkaroos-branded, basketball-themed merchandise through May 28. Free, downloadable assets for c-store retailers to use to promote the sweepstakes are available.
General Mills Inc.


text:
Vanitygen is one of the most well-known Bitcoin (BTC) wallet generators on the internet, but the service has come under serious accusations. According to users who used it, Vanitygen would be accessing the wallets and withdrawing the BTC stored in the addresses. At least two users took to the Reddit forum and complained about the case. The topic was also discussed on the Morning Crypto program, presented every morning by Edilson Osório. In a conversation with CriptoFácil, the computer scientist and founder of OriginalMy explained the case.
understand the problem
Wallet generators are used to generate BTC or Ether (ETH) addresses. These generators create traditional random addresses, but allow for the creation of a non-random string of letters. In this way, the user can create a more personalized address, something somewhat exclusive. For example, if someone named Paulo wants to put his name in an address, he can do that using a generator. So, the address would be something like 1pauLOy27TK1YyrJuYxPvRparcf5HKuxs (merely illustrative address). According to Osório, these addresses need to be generated on the blockchain, which can take some time. The more non-random letters the key has, the longer this time. After a series of calculations, the generator manages to find the private key that is associated with the address. Once this process is done, the generator delivers the wallet’s private key to the user and then destroys the copy of the key, so that it is not stored in the generator. However, Vanitygen is an online generator, that is, connected to the Internet, and therefore the private keys generated on the site would not be deleted.
“Some platforms promised to hand over the wallet’s private keys and in fact they did. They also promised to erase the keys from their database, but that part was not fulfilled. In the case of Vanitygen, the BTC of those who had the private key generated there were stolen. The site says it was targeted by hackers, which there is no way to prove. But the fact is that they kept copies of the wallets’ private keys, which made theft possible, whoever stole it”, explains Osório.
cases on reddit
Suspicions of this type are not a new fact, as there have been accusations of this type of procedure since 2014. At least two users had their funds stolen precisely through wallets generated by Vanitygen. One of them thought it was an error in his backup, but found that all addresses were generated in Vanitygen. Another reported an address that reportedly received over 14 BTC in funds stolen from Vanitygen’s wallet. There are more than BRL 2.6 million at the current price of the cryptocurrency. For Osório, the wallet generators are not the problem in themselves, but the programs that work online. The scientist highlights that Vanitygen has a totally closed one, without transparency and with complaints of lack of support on social networks. And now, I suspect keeping copies of the keys. So it’s not a site people should stay away from for anything that manipulates passwords or private keys. Instead, Osório warns against using other types of systems.
“Online generators could be hacked at some point, or they could steal their funds themselves and say they were hacked. The best way to create a wallet is to use recognized, official software on your computer or smartphone that generates the private keys on a device under your control. Then, you must keep this private key on paper or, preferably, on a metal plate”, warns Osório.
Read also: Survey: 63% of Brazilians want to make payments with cryptocurrencies in their stores Read also: Brazilian eSports team Furia receives BRL 15 million sponsorship from FTX Read also: Bitcoin Core developer promotes soft fork on BTC to create quantum resistance


text:
Producer prices in South Africa increased 2.4 percent from a year earlier in August of 2020, following a 1.9 percent rise in the prior month and beating market expectations of a 2.1 percent gain. It ws the highest producer inflation since March, boosted by prices of transport equipment (8.1 percent vs 8.3 percent in July); food products (4.2 percent vs 3.7 percent); tobacco products (5.6 percent vs 5.1 percent) and paper & printed products (3.7 percent vs 3.3 percent). Meantime, costs decreased less for coke, petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products (-1.9 percent vs -2.5 percent) and non-metallic mineral products (-1.3 percent vs -2.8 percent). On a monthly basis, producer prices inched up 0.7 percent, following a 1.2 percent increase in July and above market consensus of a 0.45 percent rise. source: Statistics South Africa
Producer Prices Change in South Africa averaged 5.25 percent from 2013 until 2020, reaching an all time high of 8.80 percent in April of 2014 and a record low of 0.40 percent in May of 2020. This page provides the latest reported value for - South Africa Producer Prices Change - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news. South Africa Producer Prices Change - data, historical chart, forecasts and calendar of releases - was last updated on October of 2020.
Producer Prices Change in South Africa is expected to be 3.00 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Producer Prices Change in South Africa to stand at 1.60 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the South Africa Producer Prices Change is projected to trend around 3.10 percent in 2021 and 3.50 percent in 2022, according to our econometric models.