text:
The London Mayor said the £200 million snow dome would be the double the size of any other indoor ski centre in the country and comparable with the Ski Dubai facility in the United Arab Emirates.
Westfield Stratford City will submit a planning application to London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) by the end of the summer using land next to its retail centre in east London. Further shops, hotels and restaurants will also form part of the application.
Around 20,000 square metres of piste will be created using “real” snow, with the longest of several runs expected to be 300 metres. There will also be snowboard ramps, toboggan runs, an ice-skating rink and “snow-play” zones for children.
The year-round attraction hopes to attract up to three million visitors a year and could be ready to open its doors in 2015.
“One year on from London’s Olympic and Paralympic Games we are defying the sceptics who prophesied a herd of white elephants,” said Mr Johnson. “Stratford’s status as a stunning new destination is confirmed by Westfield’s plans for a world-class indoor ski centre. This underscores the massive confidence in this area from investors which is delivering a real pay back for taxpayers in terms of jobs and the regeneration of East London.”
This weekend the Olympic Stadium has once again been hosting athletics for the Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games, marking a year since the London 2012 opening ceremony.
Dubai's indoor ski resort is part of the sprawling Mall of the Emirates and covers 22,500 square metres. It opened in 2005, and features a 60-metre "mountain", five slopes of varying difficulty - including the world's first indoor black run - and a handful of kickers and rails. The adjacent Snow Park has sled and toboggan runs and a climbing tower. See www.skidxb.com
Earlier this year Aarhus-based architectural firm CEBRA submitted a proposal to construct the world’s largest ski dome in the Danish town. Composed of three 700-metre-long arches, the huge structure would resemble a snowflake when viewed from above and provide skiers with access to more than three kilometres of indoor and outdoor slopes.
Plans for Skidome Denmark have be developed in association with Alpe d’Huez ski resort in France and the gradients are copied directly from its most popular pistes. The roof of the top arch would have two black runs. The roof of the middle arch would function as an urban playground, with facilities in place to accommodate skateboarding and bike riding, while the bottom arch would have a landscaped roof alolowing it to function as a raised city park.


text:
In Burlington, VT Students Meet Green-Business Pioneers
by Bret Nolan Collazzi, MBA '13 (1/14/13)
Part I of SGE Club’s Burlington-Boston Trek includes visits to Ben & Jerry’s, Seventh Generation, My Web Grocer, Native Energy, and Vermont Smoke & Cure.
Burlington, Vermont has spawned some of the nation’s most iconic triple-bottom-line businesses – and in mid-December members of the Sustainable Global Enterprise (SGE) Club visited with industry-leading firms such as Ben & Jerry’s, Seventh Generation, and Vermont Smoke & Cure during a first-ever career trek to the Green Mountain State.
In typical Vermont fashion, top executives were eager to share the strategies and outlooks that set them apart them from their more traditional competitors.
Ben & Jerry’s CEO Jostein Solheim explained how his firm purposefully seeks to raise the bar on social issues by paying above-market wages, sourcing from family farms, and openly advocating on national controversies (during Vermont’s marriage equality vote, the company renamed its Chubby Hubby ice cream flavor “Hubby Hubby.”)
Seventh Generation’s director of social responsibility, Reed Doyle, described how the rise of “light green” consumers – those who are curious about natural products but less involved than their “dark green” counterparts – has led the household goods company to develop more user-friendly packaging for its detergents, cleaning sprays, and other products.
Not all speakers agreed on all points. While Solheim described Ben & Jerry’s sale to the multinational public company Unilever as the best way to expand its global impact, Vermont Smoke & Cure CEO Christopher Bailey (Johnson ’03) explained how he took pains to fund a recent expansion strictly with patient equity (also known as “slow money”) because he feared typical investors’ expectations might have forced him to grow too rapidly, jeopardizing the firm’s mission to support small farmers.
One area of consensus among all firms was that product quality must come ahead of any social or environmental goal; if you’re not offering a product consumers want to buy, they each said, no business can be sustainable.
Jessica Saturley, who as SGE Club co-president organized the trek, described the maiden voyage as a way to deepen Johnson’s connection to alumni and employers in New England, where many students hope to work in the near or long term.
“MBAs interested in sustainability-oriented careers often have to look outside traditional recruiting channels for employment,” noted Saturley. “Visiting such an engaging, diverse group of companies on the trek helped illuminate the amazing range of opportunities available to MBA students who combine business sense with an interest in environmental and social issues.”
Other companies welcoming the SGE Club during the two-day trip were Native Energy, which helps finance renewable energy projects through carbon offsets, and My Web Grocer, which designs online sales and marketing platforms for supermarket chains. Trek participants also had a chance to meet a broad swath of Johnson and Cornell alumni during a dinner reception at Burlington hotspot The Daily Planet.
The SGE Club Burlington + Boston Trek was made possible by generous support from the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise, the Career Management Center, and the Office of Alumni Affairs.
Pictures provided by Hanson Boyd, MBA '14.

domain: news


text:
Richard Li has managed yet again to hit a brick wall.
Earlier Wednesday, PCCW Ltd. said the Hong Kong stock exchange , listing committee rejected the company’s application to spin off its telecom business in the form of a business trust. The move was widely seen as a way of cashing out of a business that has been indebted since Richard Li bought the assets in 2000. He is the chairman of PCCW, Hong Kong’s largest fixed-line operator.
A spinoff of PCCW Ltd.’s telecommunications arm could be the solution to Richard Li’s woes, writes Dow Jones Investment Banker. The unit has a track record of cash generation, making it the perfect candidate for a business trust listing, but there’s no guarantee that such a move would be in the best interests of PCCW shareholders.
By Philippe Espinasse
Richard Li appears again to be following in his father’s footsteps. Hong Kong’s richest man, Li Ka-shing, just spun off the container port assets of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. as a business trust on Singapore’s SGX in the world’s largest IPO so far this year. Now PCCW Ltd., in which the younger Li holds a 27.1% stake, is considering a similar listing in Hong Kong for its telecommunications arm, which accounts for about 90% of PCCW’s business.


text:
Savvy brands and retailers are taking advantage of social media to build holiday sales this season. From sophisticated SaaS applications, which provide software on demand via a licensing fee, to local, targeted marketing campaigns, retailers are working hard to make this holiday season count.
Just ask Casey Simmons, co-owner of Stuff in Kansas City, MO. She attributes much of the store’s revenue growth over the past two years to making technology and social media integral parts of their marketing strategy.
For Dan Gordon of Samuel Gordon Jewelers, a high-end, independent, family-owned jewelry store located in Oklahoma City, OK, leveraging technology and social media is helping his store reach their lofty seasonal goals. He started by targeting the purge of some old inventory by the traditional “fire sale” of days gone by on its digital head. He created a campaign called Jewelry Friendzy, which was designed to sell jewelry at very reduced prices and offer discounts to people based on how many friends they referred.
The company used TV, Facebook and Twitter, to create excitement about the campaign’s savings. Since Jewelry Friendzy’s November 15th launch, Dan estimated they were about 30 percent of the way to their goal of selling $1 million in inventory by year-end (as of 12/8/10). Given the fact that the holiday season accounts for one-third of their annual sales volume, and that the majority of buying takes place in the last two weeks of the year, he’s excited about the store’s chances of reaching its goal.
Dan’s got social media figured out. “When customers see me on TV,” he says, “they know what I look like and I can tell them what we’ve got going on. Then, when they connect with me on Facebook or on Twitter, it’s like they really know me. We have conversations and interact with one another. Bottom line -- I’ve earned their trust and their respect and now I can ask for the sale.”
At the end of the day, using social media to enhance your business is more about building brand awareness and retaining customer loyalty, both of which are your strengths as a small business owner. Luckily, being a tech wizard isn’t a requirement. Here are some low-cost options to help you figure out the tech stuff, so you can start implementing a social media strategy into your holiday business game plan.
Get Your Customers to “Like” You and “Check In” Online
Context Optional is software that lets brands build and manage a presence on Facebook, but it goes deeper than that. It allows brands to offer coupons, track the locations of customers, offer special deals based on check-ins, and also monitor the stream to see what people are talking about so they can tailor their offerings accordingly. Big retailers like Kohl’s and Safeway are currently using the software, soon to be joined by Toys ‘R Us, Radio Shack, and other national retailers.
Of course, you don’t have to spend a lot of money on sophisticated software to use social media to drive sales.
Foursquare and Gowalla are location-based platforms that allow users to check in when they visit somewhere and easily share those updates on Facebook and Twitter, letting their friends know where they are and what they’re doing. You can easily visit your company page (and yes, that means you should have one!) on these sites to see who is checking in, then reach out to them on Twitter and thank them for their business. Then, invite them back with some kind of an offer or other special incentive.
Retailers also use Foursquare, Gowalla and Twitter to post specials and discounts, as well as to announce special events or drive traffic during slow periods. With mobile devices clutched firmly in the majority of hands today, using location-based technology and offering targeted specials and deals when prospective customers are in your area is paying off for a wide range of businesses, from retailers, restaurants, and bars to museums, entertainment venues, and even hardware stores.
Offering Deals and Driving Online Sales
Big Commerce, a shopping solution that you can plug into your Facebook Wall, allows you to drive sales on your Facebook page, and it’s affordable and easy to use. The service allows brick-and-mortar stores the luxury of dipping their toes into e-commerce without the burden of a huge financial commitment.
WildFire has rolled out an app called Group Deals that brings a Groupon-like experience to Facebook. They’ve partnered with PayPal for this initiative, enabling consumers to make purchases of the various “daily deals” seamlessly through individual PayPal accounts. Brands can use the WildFire app to manage all aspects of setting up their deals, defining parameters and guidelines, and then publishing the deal to its Facebook wall and even to the company’s website.
Sound good? Yes. Time consuming, of course. But it’s worth it, especially with the holiday season at stake. And the best thing about the majority of these apps and platforms is that they are relatively inexpensive -- or free. They’re affordable, easy to use, and as long as you’re willing to invest the time in setting a goal, crafting a strategy, developing a campaign, and investing in some social media best practices, you can reap some serious benefits -- during the holiday season and beyond.
That’s the magic of social media that transcends season. When executed correctly, it becomes not only about sales but about real people, engagement, trust and respect. And people like doing business with friends they trust.
Shelly Kramer is a marketing strategist, brand-builder and digital-communications expert at V3 Integrated Marketing in Kansas City, Missouri.
Image credit: Irish Typepad


text:
Battery recycling company founded by former Tesla chief technology officer receives $2 billion loan from Energy Dept
- February 12, 2023
- No Comment
Redwood Materials, a Nevada company that recycles batteries for electric vehicles and was founded by Tesla’s former chief technology officer, has received a $2 billion green energy loan from the Biden administration.
It secured the contingent loan from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program that helped Tesla more than a decade ago.
Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm joined Gov. Joe Lombardo on Thursday to announce the donation to dozens of employees at Redwood’s Nevada plant.
“This region points the way to a broader history of what’s happening in the country,” Granholm said, pointing to a map of 80 manufacturing or supply chain companies expanding or opening in the United States. Most were announced in response to President Joe Biden signing the 2021 infrastructure bill and the climate bill he signed last year, she said.
Battery recycling will help the US build its own electric vehicle supply chain, a key goal of the Biden administration, which wants to move away from gas-powered cars in the larger fight against climate change. Mr. Biden has also promoted domestic production of critical minerals used in electric vehicles and other electronics as part of climate action and to counter China’s longstanding supply chain dominance.
The Department of Energy said its conditional commitment shows its intention to fund the Nevada project, but several steps are needed before officials approve a final loan.
Redwood Materials was founded in 2017 by Jeffrey “JB” Straubel, former Tesla Chief Technology Officer. It now has more than 300 employees recycling used batteries and has supply deals with Ford and with Panasonic, which makes batteries for Tesla.
Straubel said the company already has more material than it can process from used consumer batteries from lawn mowers, cell phones and toothbrushes, as well as manufacturing waste from the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries.
The company says it can recover more than 95% of the elements in a waste battery, including lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and copper. The metals are then used to make anode and cathode components for new battery cells.
Redwood Materials “is going to have this outsized role in bringing the battery supply chain home — because you’re focusing on the parts that we don’t have in the United States,” Granholm told employees at Thursday’s event . “It’s you making history.”
Redwood Materials is expected to create about 3,400 construction jobs and employ about 1,600 full-time employees, the department said. The Nevada company’s history began under former Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval, who was in attendance Thursday. It continued under Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak before the loan was approved with conditions under Lombardo, who acknowledged he was late in negotiations. The investments and resulting jobs help fulfill a campaign promise made by Lombardo and previous governors to diversify Nevada’s casino and tourism economy.
“That’s what we have to do to be successful in the state of Nevada,” Lombardo said. “We can’t put all our eggs in one basket.”
In December, the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development awarded a $105 million tax incentive to Redwood, the second-largest equity investment in the office’s history after Tesla.
Last month, the Department of Energy announced a $700 million contingent loan to an Australian company to mine lithium in northern Nevada while the US seeks domestic supplies for the key component in electric vehicle batteries.
Redwood has also announced plans to build a $3.5 billion battery manufacturing and recycling factory in South Carolina.
Once fully operational, the battery materials campus in McCarran, Nevada, outside of Reno, will be the first domestic facility to support the production of anode copper foil and cathode active materials for a lithium-ion battery manufacturing process. The process would recycle used batteries and manufacturing waste and reprocess it into critical materials, the Department of Energy said in a blog post.
Straubel, CEO of Redwood, told The Associated Press last year that recycling battery materials will help the US build its own electric vehicle supply chain. China now dominates the EV supply chain, including critical minerals needed for EV batteries.
“Redwood fills a critical gap in this whole piece, and our goal is to close the loop on all the materials we’ve already quarried and turned into products and keep them in the regions where they’re purchased and used. Straubel told the AP, “Every battery that we can recycle is a battery’s worth of materials that we don’t have to dismantle again.”


text:
BIONIK has received regulatory approval in South Korea and secured the first sale of BIONIK’s InMotion robotic technology.
BIONIK Laboratories (OTCQB:BNKL) has received regulatory approval in South Korea and its exclusive distributor Curexo secured the first sale for BIONIK’s InMotion robotic technology in the country, out of Curexo’s existing inventory.
As quoted in the press release:
BIONIK received notice of regulatory approval for its InMotion® ARM from the South Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on January 08, 2020, representing a significant step toward the penetration of Asian markets for the company. Just days later, Curexo, a recognized leader in medical device distribution and BIONIK’s exclusive distribution partner in South Korea, received its first purchase order for an InMotion® ARM system from SeoSong Rehabilitation Hospital, a new university rehabilitation nursing hospital expected to open on March 1, 2020. Both the regulatory approval and purchase order were led by Curexo.


text:
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg Law: Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai must face questioning in a California federal court lawsuit over privacy concerns surrounding Google's "incognito" web browsing mode. Lawyers for the consumers who sued want to ask Pichai about user misconceptions of their privacy online while using Google's Chrome browser. Pichai is subject to up to two hours of testimony under an order issued Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The lawsuit, filed in June 2020, alleges that Google tracks users even when they're browsing in incognito mode. Google disputes the claims, arguing that its privacy disclosures make clear that the private browsing mode doesn't make user activities "invisible" online. In an earlier order, Judge Lucy Koh also allowed consumers to question Google's chief marketing officer, Lorraine Twohill, about incognito's branding as private. Google has tried to toss the claims from consumers, but so far Koh has let them proceed. The company also argued against questioning Pichai, saying lower-level employees responsible for Chrome and the incognito mode are better suited to answering inquiries about private browsing.


text:
- In the last 12 months, essential products have climbed substantially.
- Essential products and grocery products including edible oils, essentials, personal care and home care products peaked 40 percent in India.
The price increases have been largely for categories such as atta, sugar, and other loose items such as pulses and spices due to increase in agricultural costs.
- Packaged goods avoided the price hikes by revamping their packaging in terms of net weight and other comparable variables.
- There is no change in MRP for noodles. Brands like Maggi have reduced weight from 70 gm to 60 gm per pack.
Snacking Items Price Hiked By 8–10% Since Price Of Oil Spiked Sharply Detergent Powders and Liquids Price Hiked By 5–7%
No Price Change
No price change in categories like salt, coffee, detergent bars.
Biscuit prices remain the same but discounts/schemes have been withdrawn.
The only category where price is reduced by approximately 20–30 per cent is hand sanitizers, since the government has waived off taxes.
How Much Hike
Several brands are on a hike spree with Amul and Mother Dairy being the latest. Both spiked the milk price by 2 per litre in July 2021. HUL increased prices of Lifebuoy and Lux by 6–7percent. In the last two quarters, Marico raised the price of Saffola by 50 percent.
Why The Price Hike?
Rising cost of raw materials and agricultural costs is what is driving the price hike by packaged consumer goods companies. For instance, the rise in palm oil prices, a key ingredient for most home and personal care products including soaps, has witnessed a 40–50% inflation, resulting in a spike in several products.
Consumers Switching To Less Expensive Alternatives
With prices going up across several categories, consumers demand for less expensive alternatives.
FMCG Sector Growth
With the increase in prices, the FMCG sector’s revenue growth is expected to double this fiscal year to 10–20%. This would be the highest growth rate in the past three fiscals.
Will The Prices Still Soar High?
According to the latest trends, the prices are said to increase further. But with revenue growth bouncing back, some experts hope that prices may return to normalcy very soon. Above all, the rise in prices of daily essential items is making life difficult for the common man.


text:
Supply Chain Recruiter Picks Up Public Sector Slack And Secures Bumper ASOS Contract In The Process
Driver and industrial recruitment firm, Transline Resource today posted financial results for its fiscal 2010 and in doing so announced a record turnover of £44m – an incredible 43% increase on the £25m turnover posted in 2009 which was also a record year. Now employing 95 staff, the company is delighted with the results and is predicting a prosperous 2011 to boot.
This time last year, Transline Resource Managing Director Paul Beasley vowed to maintain growth, diversify service provision and increase capacity by exceeding client expectations, listening and acting upon customer feedback and pursuing new company contracts. 12 months on and he’s confident they’ve not only achieved but exceeded those goals.
"After last year’s incredible success I’m thrilled to be here again reporting the highest sales revenue and profit in the company’s history," said Beasley. "At the start of the year we set out to sustain our 2009 growth throughout 2010, whatever the economic situation."
"During 2010 we appointed 30 more internal staff, introduced driver CPCs, launched our revolutionary real time dashboard monitoring system for clients and won several new contracts, including a bumper ASOS contract in Barnsley to supply 500 plus workers a day. We’ve consolidated our gains in 2009 and I see no reason why we can’t continue to grow in 2011 from this solid base."
Further developments included the 100% growth of its training division, driver CPC training roll-out, three new departments – IT, Sales and Communications, 30% more staff overall, sponsorship of local football team FC Halifax Town, finalisation of re-branding plans and the purchase of a new HQ – location yet to be announced.
Everything Transline-Resource has achieved has been against the backdrop of public sector cuts and great uncertainty in consumer spending.
Managing Director Jon Taylor said: "As soon as the economy began to falter we knew it would be a huge opportunity for a temporary agency like ourselves as clients looked for greater flexibility from their workforce."
"Temporary employees can offer just that. By continually diversifying our offering and improving our service levels we’ve been able to stay ahead of our competitors and increase our market share."
In 2010 the company has gone on to expand its client base across 35 plus on-site offices throughout the UK placing around 5000 workers in transport driver positions and general warehousing jobs. By the end of 2011 the firm expects to achieve turnover in excess of £60m.
Beasley added: "The temporary recruitment sector is as competitive as ever, which is why we’re particularly proud of these latest figures. Despite consumer spending being hampered by VAT rises and public sector cuts, we are confident that we will maintain healthy growth levels throughout 2011."


text:
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that Mediabistro Circus, the two-day conference about digital media, in New York City on May 20-21, will be pure buzz. Just a frothy future-think kind of event where Internet thought leaders envision far out trends.
Well, okay, there might some of that. The two-day summit focuses on evolving trends in digital platforms – in other words, the future of all media – and how these trends are transforming news, commerce and entertainment. Think MySpace and Twitter, but also think Big Traditional Media thriving online. Attendees will be hip cohort from publishing, broadcasting, advertising, video, and music, plus related media omnivores.
And yes, the conference will be held at Skylight Studios, an event space in hipper-than-thou Soho that, admittedly, is popular with the arts and fashion crowd.
So, given all that, certainly there’ll be some fairly groovy chatting going on. Probably some people who wear white after Labor Day. People who use the word “space” in a sentence, as in “yes, they dominate the online cat food space.”
But – and here’s the point – the conference is set up to offer practical, tangible guidance. It won’t all be froth. The event is geared to help working professionals leverage the rapid changes in digital media with (as much as this is possible) real world techniques.
“It’s about getting some real tools so you can go back to the office and say, ‘Let’s get started on this project – and here’s how we can do it,’” says Kirsten Cluthe, the event’s producer.
To make the event more focused, it’s been organized with a single “track” – the two-day schedule has one event at a time, with a logical progression. The program schedule covers the chaotic new media universe in something resembling an orderly way.
For the event, Mediabistro (owned by Jupitermedia, the company that publishes Datamation) has gathered a constellation of media luminaries. Here’s a complete list. Among the big names:
Editor-In-Chief, Wired magazine, and author of the much-blogged book The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More.
CEO of the recently launched Social Approach, a social media consultancy. Gold was formerly head of marketing and content development for MySpace.
Kate Everett Thorp
CEO, Real Girls Media. Within a year, one of RGM’s sites has become the 18th largest women’s community on the Web.
Executive Director, Digital Strategy and Operations, The Wall Street Journal Digital Network. Trumble also oversees the company’s offerings in the wireless space; he’ll be a panelist in the conference’s Mobile presentation.
VP Wireless Platform Development, NBC Universal Digital Distribution. Canter recently helped launch 12 mobile video channels and over 60 mobile Web sites presenting content ranging from CNBC to “Access Hollywood.”
A blogger’s blogger, the onetime Microsoft evangelist is now head honcho at Fast Company TV, an online video network.
Here’s the Mediabistro Circus registration page.


text:
Kim Kardashian's fall wardrobe looks to include a lot of bubblegum pink–and we're totally here for it.
The 42-year-old was spotted sporting the color for the second time this week while going about her business in New York City on Thursday, Sept. 28. In these newest snaps, she's seen wearing a vintage Chanel light pink cropped jacket from the spring 1995 collection with a black collar, cuffs, buttons, and piping.
The coat was paired with black leggings and pointed, heeled boots, along with a black purse with a quilted pattern and chain handle. Her hair was styled in a sleek, long ponytail high on her head and thin black sunglasses.
The reaction to the look from fans was mixed. On one post about the outfit on X (formerly known as Twitter) in which a user compared the original runway look to Kardashian's Sept. 28 ensemble, one person wrote, "This is so upsetting," while another said, "She looks ridiculous and I mean that in the worst possible way."
In particular, it was the bottoms that many had an issue with. Someone else reposted the X update and added, "Why would she wear those leggings with the jacket? Kimberly be serious. The skirt and belt are iconic. You have the money to get a seamstress to match it Ffs."
Meanwhile, a different critic of the look simply responded, "just ruined my day."
Many complimented the whole look, especially the high ponytail, with a fan declaring, "High pony stans we’re uppp."
While Kardashian has been quite experimental with her fashion lately, even rocking a super short spiked hairstyle in a gritty new photoshoot, this is a more classic, elegant look from the eldest Kardashian sister.


text:
Even in the age of Facebook and Twitter, e-mail can still be a powerful way to market a business, according to a new study by ExactTarget.
It seems consumers have simply grown accustomed to receiving offers by e-mail. While 28 percent of buyers look to Facebook to find deals, 56 percent of consumers look for these in their e-mail inboxes, ExactTarget reports. The average consumer receives 44 e-mails every day, and about a quarter of these are permission-based messages from businesses. While it might seem like so many e-mails would turn shoppers off, the effect is just the opposite, the report notes.
"Consumers are familiar with the technology, are comfortable using it, and know exactly what to expect," the study reports. "They've also grown accustomed to using e-mail as a way of engaging with brands."
I want to receive what's interesting and relevant to me, not information for another group
About 93 percent of Americans subscribe to at least one "permission-based commercial e-mail," the report notes. Some survey respondents like the privacy that e-mail affords. Others enjoy its flexibility, which allows them to read messages at their convenience. Still others like the record-keeping nature of e-mails. But above all, the study finds, shoppers are drawn to the exclusivity of e-mails, and the ability to find deals you won't get anywhere else.
"Becoming a subscriber is like becoming a member of an exclusive club," Exact Target reports. About 67 percent of survey respondents said they gave their e-mail address to a company to receive special promotions.
However, businesses or sellers who use e-mail campaigns to reach customers must ensure the messages are tailored to their audience by providing personalized messages that give readers relevant information. Those who don't adhere to this could face a backlash, ExactTarget notes. In fact, 41 percent of Internet users "threatened to stop buying from companies that sent irrelevant messages," according to the study.
"I want to receive what's interesting and relevant to me, not information for another group," says one survey respondent. "I'm not interested in those non-relevant messages, and they make me much more likely to delete [the sender] as a contact."
Other Entries by this Author
Auctiva staff writers constantly monitor trends and best practices of those selling on eBay and elsewhere online. They attend relevant training seminars and trade shows and regularly discuss the market with PowerSellers and other market experts.


text:
This “Fatty” Fruit ENDS Diabetes
Fruit is good for your health.
But even the best fruit can sabotage a weight loss program or increase your diabetes risk if you eat too much of it.
In fact, some doctors tell their patients to stay away from it altogether.
Yet there’s one particular “fatty” fruit that can actually HELP you lose weight and prevent diabetes.
And you should be eating it every single day.
An apple a day might keep the doctor away… but an avocado a day can keep DIABETES away.
In a study published in the journal Molecular Nutrition and Food Research, researchers found that a compound found ONLY in avocados can STOP certain processes in your body that cause diabetes.
For eight weeks, the researchers fed rats a high-fat diet designed to induce obesity and insulin resistance. Then for the next five weeks, they added this avocado molecule (called AvoB) to the diets of half the mice.
In the end, the mice given the AvoB:
- Weighed less
- Gained weight more slowly, and
- Had greater insulin sensitivity
One of the underlying causes of insulin resistance is when your body stops burning fatty acids the way it’s supposed to (as a result of obesity or diabetes).
AvoB steps in to help your body continue to burn fat.
This can play a major role in weight loss, blood sugar control, and diabetes prevention.
In addition, a human study reveals that giving AvoB as a dietary supplement to people eating the typical high-fat Western diet led to weight loss, and didn’t cause any negative side effects.
This is still an early study, but it’s just another in a long line of reasons to be eating avocados regularly.
They are loaded with healthy fats that help keep you full, slow the breakdown of carbohydrates, support healthy skin, and boost the immune system.
They contain nutrients that are good for your vision, bones, mood, and digestions, and they can help prevent cancer, heart disease, and stomach issues.
And they’re just plain delicious.


text:
Deliveries will be prohibited in front of Benito's Pizza, at 100 S. Ann Arbor St. between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. as a result of a new traffic order approved by Saline City Council last Monday.
The order was recommended by Saline Police Chief Larry Hrinik. Hrinik said the owners of Benito's Pizza complained about large delivery trucks parking in front of their new location and requested a remedy to the situation.
“They've talked about having outdoor seating that customers would use at lunch hour, and nobody is going to want to sit there with a semi-truck parked in front of them,” Hrinik told council.
Hrinik discussed the situation with owners of Mac's Acadian Seafood Shack, Brecon Grille, Mangiamo Italian Grill, My Favorite Cafe, Maureen's Designs and Waggles N Whiskers. Two of the restaurants compliled a list of delivery days and times. From the list, Hrinik determined that most deliveries occurred outside the 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. window. Delivery trucks operating during this time can use the municipal lot 4, west of Waggles N Whiskers.
Hrinik said that all the parties agreed to the solution.
Mayor Brian Marl asked Chief Hrinik if he doubled back to talk to the other businesses about the change. Hrinik responded in the affirmative.
The new order states that there is “No Parking” in the commercial loading zone from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Delivery vehicles can park for up to 30 minutes.
Between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., it would be a no parking zone.
Marl said he was concerned that if the city limits parking to 30 minutes, it will enforce the standard.
“If that proves problematic, I would be interested in your thoughts on how that would move forward,” Marl told Hrinik.


text:
The COVID-19 pandemic shut businesses and restricted people from normal activity for several months in 2020. But in the wake of the lockdown, digital payments adoption grew significantly particularly from the second half of the year.
In particular, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has seen transaction volumes double in a matter of a few months between April and September. According to data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), released last week, UPI recorded 2.23 billion transactions worth over ₹4.16 lakh crore as of December 2020, up by 105% from last year. In 2020, there were a total of ₹33.87 lakh crore transactions on the UPI platform.
Bharat Bill Payments System doubles in value
Similarly, transactions on the Bharat Bill Payments System (BBPS), another NPCI-owned payments rail, doubled in the last year. In December 2020, there were over 26 million transactions worth a little over ₹3,962 crore compared to 14 million transactions worth ₹1,970 crore in same month of the previous year. A total of ₹35,466.5 crore transactions took place on BBPS during the last year.
Aadhaar Payments System close to historic high
The central government has been using the Aadhaar-enabled Payments System (AEPS) to transfer welfare benefits to citizens across the country dealing with the hardships of the lockdown. This led to a massive boost to transactions flowing through AEPS between April and June this year. In December, there were 72.5 million transactions worth ₹19,919 crore, around 104% higher than in the previous year. A little over ₹1.98 lakh crore worth of transactions took place on the AEPS platform in 2020.
Immediate Payments System reaches historical high
Transactions on the Immediate Payments System (IMPS), used for higher value transactions, grew by 38% to over ₹2.92 lakh crore in December 2020 compared to 2.1 lakh crore in the previous year. In total, there were ₹26.82 lakh crore transactions processed on IMPS in 2020.
FASTag hits new historical high
Transactions on the National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) or FASTag platform have grown gradually over the last year, as the government mandated all cars and vehicles to use the system to pay for tolls on national highways from January 2020 onward. Though the government had suspended toll collection for the first few months of the pandemic, toll collections have since improved as restrictions on supply-chain movements and inter-state passenger commute were eased. In December 2020, there were 138.4 million transactions on FASTag worth ₹2,303.8 crore up by 83% from the previous year. A total of ₹19,606 crore worth of transactions were processed on FASTag during 2020.
- UPI to process transactions worth 15% of India’s GDP this year, says head of NPCI International
- NPCI to hive off Bharat Bill Payment System: Report
- NPCI publishes UPI market share data, yet to consult players on 30% cap
- Payment companies suffer frequent UPI system outages


text:
The World Food Programme finds that the climate crisis is causing serious food insecurity for women and girls in certain parts of the world.
List view / Grid view
The World Food Programme
Genetically modified food has faced opposition from both consumers and decision-makers alike. Here, Dr. Oliver Peoples, PhD., CEO of Yield10 Bioscience, suggests that, with modern understanding of their benefits, GMO crops could hold the answer to ensuring the food security of the future.


text:
Today’s episode of Decoder is about a very big idea: bitcoin. The Verge has been covering bitcoin since we launched in 2011. And since then I’ve heard many loud, powerful voices talking about how it’s going to be the future of… something. Everything. Maybe nothing at all.
To be honest, I’ve been a bitcoin skeptic: over the past 10 years we’ve seen the value of bitcoin skyrocket, but very few actual uses for what should be a revolutionary digital currency. But that value keeps going up, and it feels like we might be at an inflection point for the bitcoin story. And there doesn’t seem to be a lot of gray area between the people who think bitcoin is going to change everything and the people who think it’s nonsense.
For this episode, I had two conversations. First I spoke to a bitcoin investor. Then, a few days later, I spoke to a bitcoin skeptic. In each conversation, I tried to play the other role but without the usual yelling and chaos that seems to characterize bitcoin debates.
The investor is Nic Carter. He’s a general partner at Castle Island Ventures, which funds startups that are building on top of the bitcoin infrastructure to make payments more accessible. Basically, making sure bitcoin can function like a currency.
The skeptic is Steve Hanke. He is a professor of applied economics at the Johns Hopkins University and senior fellow and director of the Troubled Currencies Project at the Cato Institute. He has also advised other countries on how to deal with hyperinflation and how to stabilize currencies.
In the end, my biggest question about bitcoin is whether people are interested in it because it’s bitcoin or because it’s worth a lot of dollars.
Here we go.
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Nilay Patel: Nic Carter, you’re a general partner at Castle Island Ventures. Welcome to Decoder.
Nic Carter: Thanks for having me. I’m really excited for this.
NP: You have kind of an interesting history. You were the first crypto-analyst at Fidelity. Now you manage investments into the bitcoin ecosystem at Castle Island Ventures. I want to start at the very beginning. What drew you to bitcoin and crypto, generally?
NC: It wasn’t anything super dramatic. It wasn’t like my family had our wealth confiscated by some tyrannical government or anything. As much as I, weirdly enough, wish I had a great bitcoin origin story, I don’t, but I just was attracted to the playful community initially on Reddit, believe it or not. And I thought it was really cool to tip people through the internet and do P2P payments that weren’t being cleared through any traditional financial medium.
That was really interesting and exciting to me to have that instant, final settlement on internet payments. And then it was only with time — and it took me a long time — that I came to realize that there was actually a deeper, sort of philosophical underpinning behind the project, that it was a real monetary project, and it was tightly intertwined with some normative views on economics and the role of central banking in society.
NP: I want to pull back out of that. I’m really interested in your perspective on what the normative aspects of central banking are and how they might change with bitcoin. But just help me out from the very beginning. How would you define bitcoin at this moment in time?
NC: So the thing about bitcoin is that we have a bit of a definitional problem because the word bitcoin actually refers to a number of different things, and that causes confusion. So on the one hand, it’s a protocol.
It’s a set of rules that people opt into to send value through a communications medium in a final way so you get final settlement. And on the other hand, it’s also a financial asset, so bitcoin is the name of the monetary unit that circulates within the bitcoin protocol.
That doesn’t make a lot of sense to a lot of people, but the bitcoin network is such that, really,…


text:
Posted: Dec 28, 2012 5:52 PM by Ben Trotter
How would you feel about paying eight dollars a gallon for milk? If congress doesn't extend the current farm bill or approve a new one by January 1st, we could end up paying that much.
The current farm bill, a document over 2000 pages long, is set to expire on New Year's Day, and with it, the current subsidies and regulations on, among other things, milk.
If congress allows the bill to expire, a law from 1949 could take effect, which, while dairy farmers would benefit from higher milk prices, would mean that a regular gallon of milk could skyrocket three to four dollars in price.
For Ron Gompertz, owner of Wild Joe's Coffee Shop in Bozeman, this means bad business. Says Ron, "Would a latte actually have to go to eight or nine dollars a 16 ounce latte if this goes into effect?...80% of that drink is milk, whether it be non-fat or whole milk or whatever, so it's a really major impact..."
One of the reasons the current farm bill is about to expire, is that the senate and house can't agree on which version to pass.
According to Vincent Smith, professor of economics at Montana State University, "The house pays a lot more to the southern crops, and the senate bill more to the corn belt and northern crops".


text:
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the latest flavor of Google’s mobile operating system, has reportedly started to roll out to Galaxy Nexus users in Canada.
Owners of this device on the airwaves of various wireless carriers in the country are currently reporting successful updates to the new platform release, yet an official announcement on the matter has not yet been provided.
Users at Bell, Virgin, TELUS, WIND, Fido and Rogers are currently receiving the 4.1.1 Jelly Bean platform release, a recently article on MobileSyrup
As soon as the update is ready for their devices, users will receive a notification on the matter. Those who would like to check in advance to see whether the new software has been released for them or not should go to Menu > Settings > About phone > System software updates > Check now.


text:
This could augment the price action away from a normal market cycle, for better or worse. Dimitar got interested in cryptocurrencies back in 2018 amid the prolonged bear market. His biggest passion in the field is Bitcoin and he was fascinated with its journey. With a flair for producing high-quality content, he started covering the cryptocurrency space in late 2018. Nonetheless, Bloomberg’s Mike McGlone predicted that “deflationary forces” will prevail next year and inflation will stop spreading across the globe. This process could help the primary cryptocurrency to tap a significant milestone in its USD development of $100,000. According to the expert, the same factors will cause gold to climb to $2,000 and oil to hit $50. And while national currencies, such as the American dollar, are slowly losing their purchasing power, bitcoin is considered by many as the exact opposite. Its fixed supply of 21 million coins ever to exist gives it a trustworthy scarcity, making it an attractive investment tool that many people got on board during the ongoing financial turbulence.
From March 2011 to March 2021, Bitcoin, for example, was the best-performing asset, asbitcoin priceprovided investors a remarkable 230% return annually. The Nasdaq-100 ETF, symbol QQQ, was the second best-performing asset class during that time period, with “just” a 20% annualised return. But what does the future has for the wild-growing cryptocurrency market? Here are some of the most popular cryptocurrency forecasts for 2022. According to Gov. capital, Bitcoin can hit the best possible price of $90,180 and the potential minimum price would be $66.654k. With average buy and sell pressures the primary coin would hit $78.417k by the end of 2022. The asset hopes to be best suited for the long-term, by the end of the next five years, BTC price would reach a maximum of $222.958k and the minimum prediction stands around $164.795k by the end of 2025. Based on the predictions of industry experts and big-name investors, it’s easy to see that Bitcoin growth could be enormous considering current prices near $44,000.
The Meme Coin Effect
Governments worldwide are taking measures to restore the economies and it is set to have an influential impact on Bitcoin too. This should make BTC an active and safe haven for investors and industry experts. Axie Infinity price appears ready for a 27% bounce toward $121 if it manages to slice above the resistance line of the governing chart pattern. However, AXS may face ample challenges ahead before the bullish target could be reached. Even local newly elected officials in the US are already putting pressure on the US government to get regulatory guidelines on the nascent asset class. Mayor-elect Eric Adams is one of those who said he wants to make New York the crypto capital of the US, and wants his first paychecks in Bitcoin. As 2022 looks to be the year when the world finally starts to coexist with Covid and its variants, expect global growth to pick up further and for there to be a rally in US equities. Bitcoin can take advantage of this to enjoy another year of colossal upside potential and further gains. The best proof of this comes from the monthly BofAML fund manager survey, where Bitcoin is often seen as the top answer next to equities when asked where to best invest in a risk-on environment. This has created a rule-of-thumb, where Bitcoin now sees buying volume pick up during periods of global risk-on sentiment, likewise Bitcoin will be first on the chopping block when sentiment turns risk-off.
How much do Bitcoin miners make?
If a miner is able to successfully add a block to the blockchain, they will receive 6.25 bitcoins as a reward. The reward amount is cut in half roughly every four years, or every 210,000 blocks. As of November 2021, bitcoin traded at around $66,000, making 6.25 bitcoins worth more than $400,000.
It’s fair to note that some have observed that the time it takes for the peak to come. And it has been getting a little longer with each cycle as well. We’re absolutely not here to make specific predictions or give investment advice. But we can’t ignore that it seems likely we will see the top at some point in 2022. Just as more businesses involved with crypto will likely go public, we also suspect there will be an increase in businesses that accept various forms of crypto. Take for example Regal Cinemas, who recently announced that they were partnering with the Gemini-linked Flexa platform to accept multiple cryptocurrencies as payments for movie tickets and snacks. Now, we obviously can’t say specifically which companies will actually launch an IPO in 2022, but based on all of the talk going around, we do think it’s highly likely that several more will. Whether it’s the ones we’ve just mentioned, or alternatively some surprise news from an unexpected place, remains to be seen.
Is Bitcoin’s Bull Market Fading Away?
He also cited the acceleration in money-printing by central banks since the emergence of COVID-19, which may fuel the Bitcoin run. BTC will be worth around $120K-$150K in the year 2025, according to our Bitcoin price predictions. Analysis from Bloomberg Intelligence sets the Bitcoin forecast for the year 2025 at $100,000 as most measures of demand and adoption support an upward trajectory for Bitcoin BTC cryptocurrency. However, it was too short-timed and the rise was not sustained. Bitcoin crashed rapidly to below $7,000 by April 2018 and below $3,500 by November 2018. A Renaissance phase is observed by many experts for Bitcoin prices starting the year 2019. This resurgence was seen both in price as well as the volume when it broke all bounds, bursting to around $10,000 by June 2019. Once again the tremors of Bitcoin were felt, sinking the price to around $7,000 by the end of the year 2019. BTCUSD is in a massive rise since March 2020 lows that we see it as wave that toped in April 2021, so current price action can represents irregular formation for wave that can be a flat or possibly even a triangle.
A wild rally that’s reminiscent of its tremendous price surge in 2021 that saw it narrow in on the $68K mark. We cover BTC news related to bitcoin exchanges, bitcoin mining and price forecasts for various cryptocurrencies. Currently, not many companies accept payments in cryptocurrencies directly or through third-party digital wallets. Draper has also based his prediction on a potential increase in demand with more people using them as only 21 million Bitcoins are available to be “mined” in total. Draper, who has invested in Bitcoin, said he is “pretty sure” that the world’s largest cryptocurrency is heading in that direction and will gain more acceptability by the time. He had made the prediction for the first time in 2018 when Bitcoin was trading at $8,000 (roughly Rs. 5.9 lakhs). One alternative asset class that has shown exceptionally high potential returnsrelative to risk toleranceis cryptocurrencies.
What Will Bitcoin Be Worth In 2030?
As Barron’s previously reported, some money managers have recently started buying shares of Alibaba. U.S. stock-index futures fell Sunday night, following a losing week on Wall Street amid worries about Fed policy and the fast-spreading omicron variant of COVID-19. Tougher contact restrictions and an accelerated booster campaign are among measures being considered by German leaders ahead of a meeting on Tuesday aimed at softening the blow of a fifth wave of coronavirus infections. The government’s scientific advisory panel said in a statement on Sunday it was necessary to further limit contact, with data so far showing that boosters alone would not be enough to contain the spread of the virus. The state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia state, Hendrik Wuest, did not rule out contact restrictions on people who have been fully vaccinated or had a booster shot. Ether is also one of the best performers so far in the market. ETH is already up by more than 4% in the last 24 hours and is trading above the $3,500 level. Several analysts note in pre-market commentary today that, right now, Bitcoin is struggling to crack $60,000 and is even having difficulty finding support at $50,000 amid continued market gyrations. Some say that it will be impressive if BTC finishes this year at or above the $50,000 mark.
- On the flip side, Gryphon’s Chang expects the supply chain bottleneck to last until at least mid-2023, as the chip manufacturers have stated that the global semiconductor shortage will extend through to 2023.
- These were going to be digital assets that run on Blockchain technology.
- Believing that bitcoin has already peaked, Whale predicts a bleak near-term future for the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
- Some of the most trusted trading platforms for U.S consumers include Coinbase, Gemini, Voyager and Crypto.com.
- Ethereum could rise in price because of a mix of greater demand and less supply, according to eToro’s crypto analyst Simon Peters.
@RonnieMoasRonnie Moas is the founder and director of research at Standpoint Research, an equity research firm accounting for both traditional investments and new-time ones. Moas is an avid Twitter user and Wall Street analyst who has been featured on dozens of TV and radio interviews and holds an MBA in finance. He also pointed out that the asset is striking fear into the hearts of bankers, precisely because Bitcoin eliminates the need for banks. When transactions are verified on a Blockchain, banks become obsolete. @jeremysliewJeremy Liew is a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, famed as the first investor in the social media app Snapchat. Liew’s other investments include the multimedia company Beme, the listing service VarageSale, and the hardware wallet LedgerX. Pompalino believes the available supply of Bitcoin is much less than is perceived by most, which lies in stark contrast to the amount of demand that is beginning to precipitate – in particular by institutions.
Most notable was his prediction of the end of the 2013 Bitcoin bubble, which was then followed by a bearish market for multiple years. Interestingly, The CNBC channel had been increasingly involved in cryptocurrency reporting over the past few months. On Jan. 8, the cable network aired a step-by-step tutorial on how to buy Ripple using the Poloniex exchange as a platform for the purchase. By that time, Novogratz had already invested $150 million in the cryptocurrency space, having collected more funds from outside sources, mainly wealthy individuals/families and fellow hedge fund managers. In July 2014, Draper purchased nearly 30,000 bitcoins (worth around $19 million at the time) which had been seized by the US Marshals service from the Silk Road . @TimDraperTim Draper, a billionaire venture capitalist, had envisionedBitcoin to hit $10,000 USD by 2018. He is also an early supporter of Bitcoin and its underlying technology blockchain. @wencesWences Casares is the Founder and CEO of Xapo, a Bitcoin wallet startup, and a board member at PayPal, among various other roles. Casares first found interest in Bitcoin due to high financial volatility in his home country Argentina’s native currency, the Peso.
Bitcoin price forecast at the end of the month $71703, change for July -16.0%. Bitcoin price forecast at the end of the month $100283, change for May 16.0%. Bitcoin price forecast at the end of the month $86451, change for April -9.2%. Bitcoin price forecast at the end of the month $91090, change for June -6.3%. Bitcoin price forecast at the end of the month $95128, change for February 16.0%. Bitcoin price forecast at the end of the month $82007, change for January 16.0%. Bitcoin price forecast at the end of the month $70696, change for December 12.2%. Bitcoin price forecast at the end of the month $63025, change for November 16.0%. Bitcoin price forecast at the end of the month $54332, change for October 16.0%. Bitcoin price forecast at the end of the month $46838, change for September -1.8%.
What is nonce in blockchain?
A nonce is an abbreviation for “number only used once,” which is a number added to a hashed—or encrypted—block in a blockchain that, when rehashed, meets the difficulty level restrictions. The nonce is the number that blockchain miners are solving for, in order to receive cryptocurrency.
While Bitcoin was 1st intended to be a peer to peer payment system, most investors use the cryptocurrency as a store of value. While Bitcoin is still a great option for global remittances and for sending large payments, its relatively high transaction fees don’t make it ideal for every day payments. Our team is diligently working to keep up with trends in the crypto markets. Keep up to date on the latest news and up-and-coming coins. Boosting the bullish outlook is ethereum’s diminishing supply following the August protocol update that started to remove coins from circulation. Bitcoin’s current support level is $40,000, and its initial resistance is $70,000.
Retrospective: Past Bitcoin Historical Price Predictions That Got It Right
As you probably know, CBDCs are basically cryptocurrencies run by a bank, which is what the entire movement has been trying to get away from. Then there’s Electronics retailer Newegg, who have revealed that they would be accepting payments in Shiba Inu via a BitPay partnership. While somewhat unexpected, this does open up yet another avenue to buy goods using cryptocurrency. There’s frankly so many projects, such as Polygon, Solana, Internet Computer and many more. They are just getting their feet wet in the realm of DeFi and appear to have so much to offer.
Due to how volatile Bitcoin is, market price retraced as much as 80% down to $3,000 where it eventually bottomed, leaving many wondering “will Bitcoin go up in value ever again? ” Others knew Bitcoin will rise again, and opened long positions at the bear market bottom. Because Bitcoin is so powerful and has so much potential, Bitcoin’s projected value and estimated growth could be astronomical. Speculation from crypto analysts and industry experts suggests that Bitcoin’s long term value could reach over $100,000 to as much as one million dollars per BTC in the future. “There is no reason why we couldn’t see Bitcoin pushing $50,000 by December” he said. @fundstratTom Lee is Co-Founder of the market strategy firm Fundstrat Global Advisors, and a well-known bitcoin bull. Lee initially set a Bitcoin price target for $11,500 for mid-2018, and then increased it to $20,000 as the cryptocurrency’s intrinsic value increased. @novogratzMike Novogratz is a former hedge fund manager who’s been investing in Bitcoin and blockchain technology for a long time.
And even with crypto, experts say a set-it-and-forget-it approach makes sense. “Passive investing is a very valid way to achieve financial goals,” says Arkansas-based certified financial planner Sarah Catherine Gutierrez. “It actually does almost kind of seem like a scam,” Merchan says about Bitcoin’s origins. Though he says he’s seen his crypto holdings reach millions at times since he began investing in 2017, he’s also seen them disappear in an instant. Governments might stop the exchange platforms – They might ban some of them, resulting in legal and illegal Bitcoin. Their job is to check every transaction that uses Bitcoin. Your computer could be one of them, and you’ll earn coins each time.
Read more about Buy LTC here. Ripple pricehas gained backing from some of the investment heavyweights, and the number of partnerships and events with crypto firms shows that many believe in the currency. Recent XRP price predictions and price movement may mark a tremendous improvement by the end of the year, surpassing its previous all-time high price of $3.84, unlike other major coins such as Bitcoin and ETH. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. Bitcoin price forecast at the end of the month $80527, change for January 16.0%. Bitcoin price forecast at the end of the month $69420, change for December 16.0%. Bitcoin price forecast at the end of the month $59845, change for November -16.0%. Bitcoin price forecast at the end of the month $71244, change for October 2.0%. Bitcoin price forecast at the end of the month $69867, change for September -16.0%. Bitcoin price forecast at the end of the month $83175, change for August 16.0%.
Bitcoin price forecast at the end of the month $46001, change for December -20.2%. The price of bitcoin, ethereum and most other major cryptocurrencies have risen sharply over the last year, in part due to the huge monetary stimulus measures undertaken by the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world that have boosted the price of stock markets and assets across the board. Move from $ to $0.0000 over the next month, Bitcoin has a price prediction of $0.0000 in over a years time. These predictions often change in relation to the current overall crypto market sentiment. BCH future prices byLongeforecast While the value of the coin has been predicted with optimistic outcomes from most of the analysts, Longforecast has been bearish with their predictions. When compared to other predictions, the website claims that the price of Bitcoin Cash will be trading on all exchanges in the range of $159-$183. This will make BCH one of the worst-performing assets in the industry. The information provided does not constitute, in any way, a solicitation or inducement to buy or sell cryptocurrencies, derivatives, foreign exchange products, CFDs, securities, and similar products. Comments and analysis reflect the views of different external and internal analysts at any given time and are subject to change at any time.
Conducted by financial advisory organization deVere Group, a survey of more than 700 high net-worth individuals revealed that 73% of respondents are bullish toward cryptocurrencies, an increase from68% in 2019. Most recently, CleanSpark bought 20-megawatt-powered immersion cooling infrastructure for its Norcross, Georgia, bitcoin mining facility and is aiming to increase its mining efficiency by over 20%. On the flip side, Gryphon’s Chang expects the supply chain bottleneck to last until at least mid-2023, as the chip manufacturers have stated that the global semiconductor shortage will extend through to 2023. No, Bitcoin price will not be downward based on our estimated prediction. On a bearish note, Bitcoin commenced the year 2018 with a price of $13,877.46 by early January. Shockingly, the Korean authorities planned to ban Bitcoin and this led to the massive price crash and the coin moved to $8,270.10 by mid-February. With certain fluctuations, BTC managed to be in the range between $4,014.86 and $11,454.06 throughout the year till the end of November. With a price of $3,851.48, BTC managed to end the year 2018.
Who founded bitcoin?
The family of Mr Kleiman, a computer security expert who died in 2013, said that the two men had worked together to create and mine the first Bitcoin in existence, and that Mr Wright had stolen it. The invention of the cryptocurrency in 2008 was described in a white paper published under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.
We prioritized platforms based on offerings, pricing and promotions, customer service, mobile app, user experience and benefits, and security. To see a comprehensive breakdown of our methodology, please visit see our Cryptocurrency Methodology page. Not only this, but some analysts go as far as to call proof of work antiquated technology. Proof of work can only handle a few transactions per second, making it hard to scale PoW blockchains. This is opposed to PoS consensus, which can often handle upwards of 1,000 transactions per second. Ethereum, the 2nd largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, is in the process of migrating its blockchain from PoW to PoS consensus. The new year will be filled with uncertainty as the Federal Reserve looks to pivot and tighten its monetary policies. At the same time, the inflation threat continues to grow, which means real rates will remain in low to negative territory.


text:
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The economy was supposed to be the decisive issue in this year’s election, but the two presidential campaigns are barely talking about it at all.
There are a couple of very good reasons the candidates are ignoring the economy, starting with the fact that almost everyone already has an opinion on the economy, and most aren’t likely to be persuaded by campaign rhetoric or advertising to change their minds.
The second reason is that the economy is expanding at a mediocre pace, giving Democratic President Barack Obama almost nothing to crow about, while at the same time giving his rival, Republican Mitt Romney, little ammunition to bolster claims that the economy is getting much, much worse.
At this point, the economy isn’t really helping either candidate very much. But conditions — and attitudes — could change between now and Nov. 6.
A month ago, I wrote a column describing the seven economic indicators that best reflect how the economy is affecting voters’ finances, their views about the economy and, potentially, their votes. This is an update of that analysis. I’ll revisit these seven indicators several more times before Election Day. Read previous column: 7 economic indicators that could decide the election.
My assumption is that voters care most about their own finances, which means their incomes, their jobs, their wealth, and their ability to buy the things they want and need. What they don’t care about is the exact numerical value of economic indicators, such as the jobless rate, the inflation rate or the growth rate. Those numbers are too abstract to matter when voters go into the booth.
Although the flood of economic indicators every week may lead us to believe that the economy is as changeable as the weather, in reality the economy changes directions very slowly. Likewise, voters alter their perceptions of the economy slowly. That’s why I’ve analyzed these numbers by computing the annual growth rate over a six-month period.
The first indicator on the list is the change in payrolls, as reported each month by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Over the past six months, the economy has created 784,000 jobs, which translates into a 1.2% annualized rate. That’s just slightly faster than the 0.9% growth in the adult civilian population. At this rate, it would take many years to reach full employment.
Things are getting better, yes, but it’s unacceptably slow.
Next: Incomes are growing rapidly.
Next to jobs, incomes are probably the most important factor in household finances. Over the past six months, real disposable incomes have risen at a 4.1% annualized pace.
That’s the fastest growth in two years. Importantly, the growth is mostly coming from wages and salaries, not from the temporary boosts provided by tax cuts and unemployment benefit checks. Wages have been growing at a 7.5% annual rate, the fastest in five years.
Next: Consumer spending is growing slowly.
The strong growth in incomes has been accompanied by a more modest increase in spending. Over the past six months, real consumer spending (adjusted for price changes) has increased at a 1.8% annual rate.
Spending is rising at almost the same rate as that at which the overall economy is growing, which means that consumers are neither a drag on the economy nor its major engine of growth.
Higher spending would boost gross domestic product, but consumers are trying to pay down their debts and save more money. It’s probable that consumer spending will be tepid for a few more years while households deleverage from the Great Credit Boom of the past 30 years.
Next: The market is up.
Although few voters have any meaningful amount of money in the stock market (for families in the middle of the income spectrum, the median value is around $6,000, including retirement accounts), it’s still a useful gauge of sentiment, and a telling indicator for how much wealth some households are accumulating.
The market has recovered almost all of the losses suffered during the recession, and prices are close to a four-year high.
Gasoline prices are one of the few economic indicators that’s really spelling trouble for Obama. Since July, the average price for regular-grade gasoline is up 38 cents to $3.74. Average prices have increased at an 11.7% annual rate since February.
Gasoline purchases account for only about 5% of a typical family’s spending, but the price of gas looms much larger than that. The price of gasoline is very visible, and most people across the country have no choice about whether to buy it.
Next: Home values rising again.
For most families, a home is their largest asset. Over the past six months, home prices have risen at a 12% annual rate.
Millions of families still face foreclosure, but the number of homes that are worth less than what’s owed on the mortgage has declined. Higher home prices mean some families can refinance and lower their mortgage payment. Others will now be able to sell their homes. Still others will be able to borrow against a home’s value to pay for other needs, including education and health care.
Rising home prices are the most positive development in the economy over the past year.
Next: Consumers’ moods are volatile.
Consumers are more optimistic about the economy than they were four years ago — or even one year ago, when Congress pushed the nation to the brink of default. The Rasmussen consumer index hit a post-recession high in May but faded in June as job growth slowed. The index has basically stalled since June.
Consumer-sentiment surveys generally don’t tell us anything about the economy that we can’t know from other data, such as payrolls, income, or prices. But the daily surveys from Rasmussen Reports can give us an early read on how the latest events are impacting voters.
Next: Drawing some conclusions.
The election may very well come down to whether voters think they’re better off now than they were four years ago. By some measures, they are better off. The economy is growing, not collapsing. Jobs are being created, not destroyed. Incomes are growing. Stocks and house prices are up.
But all is not well with the economy. Unemployment is too high. Too many people have given up on working. As inequality rises, many are questioning the fundamental fairness of our system.
The voters have a lot to think about. What can either candidate or either party do to restore our economy, or our faith that it will work for us?


text:
The Hanoitimes - Over the past few days, the General Department of Vietnam Customs (GDVC) has stepped up efforts to tackle such violations and protect domestic production.
Vietnam has set up drastic measures to prevent trade fraud activities, especially foreign goods from forging Vietnam’s origin and later being exported to a third country, according to Le Thi Thu Hang, spokeswoman of the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).
Hang made the statement in response to question raised by reporters in a press conference held on June 20 regarding the growing trend of Chinese goods faking Vietnam’s certificate of origin (C/O) before being exported to the US.
Over the past few days, the General Department of Vietnam Customs (GDVC) has stepped up efforts to tackle such violations and protect domestic production, Hang added.
Previously, Director General of GDVC Nguyen Van Can said the agency would tighten its monitoring and checking procedures to identify goods violating rules of origins, while goods prone to origin certificate fraud are mostly textile, fishery, agricultural products, steel, aluminum, processed wooden products, among others.
Hoang Thi Thuy, head of Custom Control and Supervision Department under the GDVC, said customs agencies have identified dozens of cases of origin certificate fraud. In 2017, Haiphong’s Customs Department found company named INTERWYSE importing 600 speakers and phone chargers from China but with the “Made in Vietnam” label printed in their packages.
The US Customs Department has also fined FINEWOOD Vietnam Company for exporting wood products forging Vietnamese origin to the US.
An analysis conducted by Nikkei earlier this month showed that while Chinese exports of machinery, electrical equipment and some other products to the US have shown particularly sharp declines, shipments of such goods from China to the US via Vietnam, Taiwan and Mexico rose during the same period.
In January-March 2019, exports of the five items from China to Vietnam, including machinery and parts, electrical equipment and parts, furniture, toys, and automotive equipment and parts, rose by US$1.5 billion, or 20% year-on-year, while exports of the five items from Vietnam to the US surged by US$2.7 billion, or 58%.
Nikkei also noted the items exported from Vietnam to the US that have increased sharply since the introduction of punitive tariffs to items including timber, textiles and a raft of other upstream goods. While this involves the shipment of raw materials, the place of origin can be more easily disguised on upstream items as they are less recognizable than finished products.
Referring to rumor that Apple could shift part of its smartphone production chain from China to some countries in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, MOFA’s Spokeswoman Hang said there has not been contact between Apple and the Vietnamese government.
Nevertheless, Vietnam welcomes foreign investors to do businesses in the country as long as they comply with international and Vietnamese laws, Hang stressed.


text:
End of Support for Windows Phone
The story of Windows Phone is a tragic one. When Windows Phone 7 was first introduced, the concept looked fresh. A bunch of colorful tiles on a black screen instead of the sorely dated rows of icons sported by iOS and Android. The concept of live tiles was also new, which is a step forward from the numeric notices shown by iOS on its Phone and Messages icons as well as the changing numbers of the Calendar icon. Live tiles can actually show live tweets for Twitter and posts on Facebook much like Widgets on Android. The Gallery is live as well as a slideshow of your favorite photos. Apps that take advantage of this feature like news apps give Windows Phone users a glimpse of available headlines. All of these combined results in a lively dynamic screen even when the phone is idle. The problem was apps and adoption. Microsoft can’t seem to get a foothold in the mobile phone market and the love of third party developers.
People who at least tried Windows Phone grew to love the freshness and ease of use. Things were made more complicated with the launch of Windows Phone 8.1, a more improved but incompatible version to Windows Phone 7. Way to throw those people under the bus. The Windows 8 disaster only served to drag Windows Phone 8.1 along. Again, no luck with third party developers. Things improved somewhat with Windows 10 Mobile, but upgrades only came to select phones. Microsoft has recently finally given up on the Windows Phone platform and cuts its support of Windows Phone 8.1 leaving loyal users in the dust. Such behavior from Microsoft has kept this author reluctant from actually purchasing Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile devices as they could easily be deprecated in three years or less despite having a quality-built phone. The current bare Android-based Windows Phone–like Nokia X unit I bought for my wife is a testament to the lack of updates and support from Microsoft. It’s a tough little unit that’s actually still in use. Fortunately, I can still sideload old apps into it, but it’s useless now for Facebook Messenger. Hopefully, Microsoft will remain committed to Windows 10 Mobile for at least half a decade for the sake of those proud owners who bought their Nokia Lumias, their HP Elites, and their Acer Liquid Jades.
Surface Hub Facility Sinks
124 people recently lost their jobs in Wilsonville Oregon when Microsoft shut down its Surface Hub manufacturing facility there as part of Microsoft’s current streamlining program. The facility was integral in acquiring the technology in developing the Surface Hub and was owned by Perceptive Pixel Inc. which Microsoft acquired. However, this doesn’t mean that the Surface Hub manufacturing itself is in danger of being shut down as we earlier reported it to be popular with medium to large businesses in need of collaborative conferencing systems.
“…We are consolidating our Surface manufacturing. This will result in the closure of the Wilsonville Oregon office and factory. We remain committed to the Surface Hub product line and will move forward with Surface Hub development in Redmond,”
— Microsoft, email to Mary Jo Foley
Calibri Font Scandal
My favorite fonts have always been Arial and Times New Roman, which I’ve used since way back in Windows 3.x. I wasn’t aware that Microsoft Office had the concept of an Official font and considered the sudden default to Calibri as an annoyance. I’ve grown to adopt Calibri as it didn’t really affect my writing especially now when I have to zoom my screen a little. The same isn’t true for Pakistan’s Prime Minister as the use of the Calibri font has him and his family in hot water. The font is at the center of an ongoing investigation in the tracing of PM Nawaz Shariff and his daughter Maryam’s overseas properties and accounts, which is rooted in the historic Panama Papers leak.
Supposedly old documents from 2006 were alleged to have been forged because the Calibri font used wasn’t supposed to publicly appear until 2007. Calibri has appeared as a download as early as 2005. This results in questioning the use of an unknown font like Calibri in official documents. The font name is currently trending in Pakistan and has a good chance of becoming popular. Pakistan’s PM, however, is downplaying the significance of the font scandal.
Windows 10 Plus Office in Microsoft 365
Microsoft is now offering businesses the combined package of Windows 10 and Office 365 as Microsoft 365. So instead of getting both licenses separately, they’re now bundled for apparently better value and savings. So the various variants of Office 365, combined with Windows 10 are now offered as Microsoft 365 Enterprise, Microsoft 365 Business, and Microsoft 365 Business Premium.
Microsoft 365 Enterprise and Microsoft 365 Business Premium will include Enterprise Mobility and Security features. These bundles could also feature additional Office apps. These bundles will become available this coming fall.


text:
The same day Bloomberg announced that Sprint would be offering free unlimited data plans with the iPhone 5 in mid-October, SprintFeed published a screenshot of the carrier's internal systems which revealed they're preparing for a "major phone launch" in October. Sprint's biggest known upcoming release is the Galaxy S ll which is due out next week. The memo states that a blackout is the begin on September 30 through October 15, so we know Sprint isn't canceling vacations for their Galaxy series. The note says "possible" major phone launch, meaning if it's for the iPhone 5, no one is quite sure of an actual release date. So don't believe all those bold predictions from the "unnamed sources" we keep hearing from.
Best Buy is also prepping for a Sprint iPhone in October. A leaked internal memo showed that Best Buy stores are anticipating iPhone 5 pre-orders to begin in first week of October, and they're expecting a Sprint iPhone to be part of the launch.


text:
For a long time, coin-operated laundromats were just that – strictly coin-operated. Customers either brought in bags of quarters to a store to use the washers and dryers, or they used the change machine inside the store. There was no confusion or difference of opinion on the currency used to pay for laundry services.
That has all changed, however. When credit cards became a popular payment method, some laundromats converted with the times. Card machines are now common sights in laundry facilities, along with coin machines. By giving customers multiple payment options, business owners are trying to expand their market.
The advancement in mobile payments has forced laundry owners to reconsider their charging processes once again. As more customers, especially young people, use mobile services to buy items, laundromats must consider adopting the technology as a valid payment. However, there are pros and cons to installing and accepting mobile payments, ones that must be considered before making a final decision on whether to accept them inside a laundromat.
Mobile payments bring in the right type of customer
Smartphones have become a vital part of daily American life, and that extends to how people are spending money. A study by the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve System found that in 2011, only 12 percent of Americans were using mobile payments. By 2014, that number had increased to 22 percent. Mobile payments are expected to continue to rise in popularity as the technology expands.
Young people specifically are utilizing the payment option, with 34 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 29 – and 31 percent of those between 30 and 44 – regularly using mobile payments as a way to spend money.
Those demographics also fit the people least likely to have access to a washer and dryer at home. The U.S. Census Bureau reported in 2013 that 73 percent of Americans ages 15 to 29 had a clothes washer in their home, far below the national average of 85. 2 percent.
“Some laundromats already have begun accepting mobile payments along with cash and credit cards.”
Some laundromats already have begun accepting mobile payments along with cash and credit cards. Laundry applications for smartphones have grown in popularity in recent years, giving users the options to have their clothes delivered and picked up at specific times. That flexibility also extends to payment plans, as laundry owners are hoping that by giving customers options, they will be improving the loyalty of those users.
With several mobile payment providers specifically designed for small business use, an owner can develop a strategy to fit a laundromat’s specific needs. Pricing and setup for mobile payments is relatively simple for small business owners, Business News Daily explained. Even without a mobile app, allowing people to pay for laundry machines through Google Wallet, Vemmo or Apple Passbook opens up a business to a new group of customers that otherwise may look elsewhere for their clothes washing needs.
Mobile payments include safety risks
Mobile payments has its risks, ones that laundromat owners must be aware of before accepting that form of currency in their businesses. While cash can be counterfeit and credit cards can be stolen, both of those types of payments are relatively safe. The drawbacks to using mobile payments are partially because of the dangers involved with the new technology but also involve the process of setting the system up.
A 2013 LexisNexis study on the cost of mobile banking found that the number of merchants who accept mobile payments is rising, but at the same time, many businesses are not seeing the type of profits they desired because of fraud. A fraudulent transaction through a mobile payment application results in $2.83 of costs for every dollar of actual fraud losses, the study stated. Those costs can really multiply for a business owner that is not careful about who is making payments at his or her store.
Additionally, Inc. magazine stated that small businesses are big targets for criminals. Because a small business generally is unable to afford the safety and security measures that larger companies can, fraudsters tend to attack those locations. A laundromat needs to be sure that mobile payments are safe for users, so that customers can be reassured that if they keep coming back, their personal information is secure.
Along with fraud, installing the technology to allow for mobile payment on washers and dryers would also take some up-front costs and effort. However, that work is manageable if a laundromat owner feels that the benefits of having mobile payments outweighs the risks. A growing number of customers use their smartphone to spend money, and a laundromat can tap into that market by allowing those types of purchases in addition to traditional coins and credit cards.


text:
COMMODITY PRICE INDEX
COMMODITY PRICE INDEX The lead market faces a deficit of 90,000 tonnes this year, the biggest since 1995, say analysts at Brook Hunt. Buoyant car sales in Europe and America have boosted demand for batteries, the main use for lead. China exported a record 440,000 tonnes of refined lead in 1999. But this year its exports are expected to fall by 25%. Chinese smelters are becoming dependent on imported lead concentrates to meet targets, and world supplies are tight. Japan has the same problem. Lead stocks on the London Metal Exchange have fallen by nearly 40% from a near five-year high in May. The shortage could continue; most lead comes from mines whose main product is zinc, and many new zinc mines are low in lead. Lead prices have risen from a six-year low in April to $490 a tonne. They could top $550 next year.
This article appeared in the Economic Indicators section of the print edition under the headline "COMMODITY PRICE INDEX"
Economic Indicators August 26th 2000
From the August 26th 2000 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contentsExplore the edition


text:
Yahoo shuts down its news websites in India, citing changes in FDI rules
Yahoo has shut down its news websites in India today, a result of the new foreign direct rules in India, which limit the foreign ownership of media companies that operate and publish digital content in India.
This includes Yahoo News, Yahoo Cricket, Finance, Entertainment, and Makers India. A notice on Yahoo India’s homepage alerted readers that as of August 26, Yahoo will no longer be publishing content. Yahoo Mail, Search, and Account will not be affected by this, the notice said….
US tech major Verizon had acquired Yahoo in 2017. In November 2020, the Modi government capped FDI in digital media in India at 26 percent, and instructed those exceeding the mark to “bring down” foreign investment by October 2021. HuffPost India, also owned by Verizon, was the first casualty of the FDI regulations in November….


text:
The Federal Trade Commission recently announced a large scale “crackdown on con artists” who have been targeting jobless Americans.
“Federal and state law enforcement officials will not tolerate those who take advantage of consumers in times of economic misfortune,” the Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection said in a press conference last week. “If you falsely advertise that you will connect people with jobs or with opportunities for them to make money working from home, we will shut you down. We will give your assets to the people you scammed, and, when it’s appropriate, we’ll refer you to criminal authorities for prosecution.”
The FTC has dubbed this new mission Operation Bottom Dollar. I don’t love the name, but it has already done much to raise awareness… particularly about the seven big scammers that the FTC has already gone after.
Real Wealth, Inc allegedly conned more than 100,000 people into buying instructional booklets that explained how to make money off of government grants. Career Hotline, Inc is accused of falsely promised people jobs that paid at least $25K a year and the FTC claims that Independent Marketing Exchange, Inc lied about a wide variety of work-at-home opportunities.
Then there’s Entertainment Work, Inc, a company that is said to have scammed people into paying membership fees with the promise of landing “jobs as movie extras, jobs on television, or jobs in print media.” The last one should have clued people into the scam – there are no jobs in print media… well, almost none anyway.
The list of people injured by these scams is even worse – elderly people, the disabled, single mothers and more. If you hear about a work opportunity that seems too good to be true, it probably is. The New York Times recommends that you research any company that you’re using for your job search and, in general, you should only deal with them if you can meet them face to face at some point.
You can view the full list on the FTC’s Web site. Also, be sure check out MainStreet’s coverage of the worst scams that plagued Americans in the past year.
—For a comprehensive credit report, visit the BankingMyWay.com Credit Center.


text:
Market analyst Mitesh Thakkar has suggested three BUY Calls and one SELL call for today’s trading session, suggesting a bullish view on Indian markets.
Market analyst Mitesh Thakkar has suggested only BUY CALLs for the trading session indicating positive sentiment about today’s trade.
Market expert Mitesh Thakkar has suggested four BUY calls for traders in today’s trade. Indian markets gained ground last week and this week we can expect some consolidation.
Market analyst Mitesh Thakkar has suggested two BUY Calls and Two SELL calls for today’s trading session. Indian markets are expected to open weak today as US markets closed low on Wednesday.
Indian markets are expected to open strong and market analyst Ashwani Gujral has suggested BUY Calls for five stocks for traders. Two pharmaceutical companies are on Gujral’s buy list for today.
© 2005-2022 TOPNEWS.IN ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. COPYSCAPE PROTECTED


text:
Cheshire Anilox Technology in collaboration with Applied Laser Engineering have now installed a fifth Fibre laser to meet a surge in demands of high release engravings and a consistent growth in sales. The 500W laser is the most advanced of its kind and will allow Cheshire to produce high quality bespoke engravings to suit the most challenging flexo and coating applications.
The new 4.5 meter Fibre laser system is equipped with the latest Multi Beam Technology for high precision and high quality engraving with fully programmable cell geometries. It can produce engravings from 25LPI-2000LPI.
It features a Custom Pulse to provide graphical control and creation of bespoke cell shapes. It also features the latest MAD engraving mode for high precision engraving which offers greater control over cell shape for maximum release and absolute engraving consistency with less than 1% cell volume variation across the roll surface.
Sonia Arcos, Technical Sales Director of Cheshire Anilox Technology described the purchase as a “Historic moment” for the Company and as the evidence of Cheshire’s long term commitment towards continuous improvements in quality and service as it continues its expansion on flexo, offset and global markets.
The purchase completes a major investment project that the Company has undertaken in the last 18 months totalling £1,5 Million. Paul Smith, Managing Director of Cheshire Anilox Technology has described the recent investments including new coating, finishing and laser equipment “as necessary to ensure sustainability and improve quality and deliveries. It also offers Cheshire access to the latest coating and engraving technology to ensure we can stay at the forefront of Anilox innovation for many years to come”.


text:
The signing of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) between Hong Kong and the mainland yesterday has widely been seen by business people as a shot in the arm for the sagging local economy.
The extent of the benefits will depend on how well business people can tap its potential.
"CEPA gives Hong Kong a two-year headstart over potential foreign rivals," said Priscilla Lau, associate head of the Department of Business Studies at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
But she told Cable TV the results would only become apparent in the longer term.
Higher value-added industry would benefit the most from CEPA, said Eden Woon, chief executive officer of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce.
One of the important effects of CEPA will be to drive industrial restructuring further towards more innovation. Zero tariffs will encourage more manufacturing in brand-name goods and products with a high intellectual property content, further enhancing the competitiveness of manufacturing industries such as design and audio-visual production, he said.
Victor Li, deputy chairman of the Cheung Kong Holdings, agrees the CEPA would spark greater development in Hong Kong's high technology industry.
He said the company would expand its life sciences business in Hong Kong as there would be more room for growth.
Lau Ping-cheung, vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Coalition of Professional Services, said CEPA will bring immediate benefit to a professional and managerial level. However, he would like to see more clarification on taxation issues, which are often a pertinent part of the business.
Though bullish about the arrangement, George Leung, chief economist at HSBC, cautioned the impact of the pact on Hong Kong's economy should not be overestimated. He said short-term benefits would surface soon after the pact was signed but "we should not expect too many changes in the economy by then."
Zero tariffs would only bring about savings of HK$750 million (US$96.15 million), which is not going to have too great an impact on the economy, he said.
(China Daily June 30, 2003)


text:
Online: 0 Guests: 39
Microsoft has dated the release for Halo 4 and it will arrive November 6, 2012.
The Xbox creator also revealed a tiny sliver of new information about what we can expect to see delivered in Halo 4. Already we were given the news that Master Chief and his AI Cortana will return in the next Halo game, but now we know that the events we'll see happen in Halo 4 are set four years after the conclusion of Halo 3. At the end of the last Halo game, the Chief and Cortana were sent off into uncharted space. It was strongly hinted that they were going to visit the homeworld of the Progenetors, the alien race that built the mysterious ringed Halo worlds.
Microsoft also said this of Halo 4's storyline: "Master Chief returns to confront his destiny and face an ancient evil that threatens the fate of the entire universe."
There's also a mention that the game developer, 343 Industries, is working on the "Reclaimer Saga" which commences with Halo 4.
"We are beginning a new saga with Halo 4 and embarking on a journey that will encompass the next decade of Halo games and experiences," said Phil Spencer, corporate vice president of Microsoft Studios. "Millions of fans worldwide have been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to step back into the boots of Master Chief, and, with Halo 4 leading the charge, we’re confident 2012 will be the most successful year in Xbox history."
There are currently no comments


text:
Mumbai, May 9: German auto major MAN, celebrating its 250th anniversary, is looking for greater opportunity in India and is planning a significant investment this year. The Company, which had infused 11 million euros over the last two years, today said the investments would be much more, but did not specify the numbers.
MAN Executive Board member George Pachta-Reyhoten said the order intake for MAN in India went up by 38 per cent last year to around 111 million euros as against 81 million euros the previous year. At the global level, the Company had an order book of 19.37 billion euros, up 17 per cent over the previous year. Sales, last year, in India was 90 million euros, marginally up by two per cent. The Company's joint venture with Force to manufacture heavy duty trucks in Pune dispatched its first truck to South Africa last year. During the current year, the joint venture, which would have a final capacity of 25,000 trucks, would build 6,800 trucks, of which 1,800 were meant for exports. By 2010-11, the unit would sell 12,000 trucks domestically and a similar number would be exported. The unit had a capacity to produce trucks in the range of 16 to 49 tonnes gross weight.
Asked about bus production, Force Chairman and Managing Director Abhay Firodia, who has a 70 per cent stake in the joint venture, said that currently the aim was to fully concentrate on the truck business. Talks, however were on for manufacture of bus chasis also, he added.
The Company unveiled its Indian headquarters ''MAN house'' here to focus all its Indian activities through one roof. Besides the joint venture with Force, MAN India had diesel engine production unit in Aurangabad, where it also had a 100-men-strong engineering services group which catered to the global requirements of the Company, a turbo machinery unit and industrial services group.


text:
Lucas Sues Maryland Firm Over Lightsaber Knockoff
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Lucasfilm Ltd., the film-production company of "Star Wars" creator George Lucas, said it sued a Maryland man and his novelty company for making lightsaber replicas without permission.
In a complaint filed yesterday in federal court in San Francisco, Lucasfilm said William Osburn and his company, High-Tech Magic, are infringing "long-held" trademarks by making copies of the lightsabers, swords whose blade is a light beam, featured in the six-part film series.
"We owe it to our fans -- as well as to companies like Hasbro and Master Replicas, which are producing excellent authorized toy and replica lightsabers -- to stop this type of unlawful behavior," said Howard Roffman, president of Lucas Licensing, a unit of closely held Lucasfilm.
Lucasfilm, based in Nicasio, Calif., asked the court to order all of High-Tech Magic's lightsaber replicas destroyed and to award cash compensation for lost profit.
Calls to Abingdon-based High-Tech Magic seeking comment were not immediately returned.
High-Tech Magic says on its Web site: "We do Star Wars(TM) Light Sabres," and that it can produce "a Star Wars(TM) Lightsaber that looks as good as those in the movies."
In October, Lucasfilm won $20 million in damages in a case against a British company that sold helmets and costumes based on characters from the "Star Wars" movies.