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In northeastern India, nestled between Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal and West Bengal, lies Sikkim. Sikkim is an Indian state that has been making news since 2016 when it became the world’s first fully organic state. Sikkim won the prestigious U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s Future Policy Gold Award, known as the “Oscar for best policies,” which honors achievements made towards ending world hunger. “An organic world is definitely achievable,” explained Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Kumar at the awards. Could India’s Second Green Revolution be organic?
The First Green Revolution
Along with many other developing countries, India overhauled its agricultural systems in the 1960s and replaced them with a western industrial model that relied on expensive technology, GMOs and agri-chemicals. By narrowing the crop variety to mainly corn, wheat and rice, Asian countries doubled their grain yield and cut poverty in half. As time has passed, however, the Green Revolution proved to be problematic for many developing countries. Though it has spurred incredible grain production and increased income in rural communities, it has also polluted the environment, depleted the water table and created economic disparity.
Because genetically modified wheat and rice require more water than their organic counterparts, Indian farmers have been draining the groundwater supply, causing the water table to drop approximately three feet each year. Intensive farming has also exhausted the soil, depleting it of nitrogen, phosphorous and iron. Farmers now use three times the amount of fertilizer that they used to for the same crop yield. Many farmers find themselves in debt because they cannot keep up with the costs of new water pumps, patented seeds and fertilizer. This is why states like Sikkim are calling for an organic Second Green Revolution.
The Sikkim Revolution
Sikkim has reversed the industrial farming policies of the Green Revolution at a time when governments and philanthropists are calling for a Second Green Revolution. Chief Minister Kumars believes that countries should not “carry out any kind of development work and business at the cost of the environment.” Still, there has been much debate about what a Second Green Revolution should look like. Should countries increase reliance on genetically engineered crops and pesticides or move towards more sustainable but lower-yield organic practices?
The transition to organic farming in Sikkim has helped 66,000 families and increased rural development and sustainable tourism. A movement to invest in sustainable farming practices is growing around the world, leading institutions like the U.N. International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to invest in organic farming. IFAD President Gilbert F. Houngbo has stated that reversing conventional farming practices can fight food insecurity while improving nutrition and alleviating poverty. Though organic farming systems produce 10 to 20 percent less than conventional systems, they regenerate the soil and create fewer environmental costs.
An Unconventional Compromise
With the world poised to reach a population of more than nine billion by 2050, there is debate as to whether organic agriculture can feed the whole world. Industrial technologies and pest-resistant strains of rice and wheat have undoubtedly helped feed a rising population and reduce global poverty over the last 50 years. A recent meta-analysis of 66 studies comparing conventional and organic agriculture found that a Second Green Revolution needs the best of both systems. Though organic farming greatly increases the productivity of soil, making it more resilient to climate change, genetically modified crops could also play an important role in certain areas since they are designed to endure droughts and saltwater intrusion from rising sea levels.
At the end of the day, conventional or organic, there is actually plenty of food to go around. Global agriculture produces 22 trillion calories every year. If food were distributed equally and not wasted, every person on the planet could consume 3,000 calories a day. Though this may never be the case, organic states like Sikkim are choosing to make their calories count, by making them pesticide free and environmentally friendly. Whether India’s Second Green Revolution will be organic is still unsure, but Sikkim is setting a powerful precedent, and other states and countries are following suit.


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Return flights to 192 cities are cheaper than COVID tests needed to go there
You could get return, direct, flights to 192 cities around the world for less than the COVID tests needed to travel according to new analysis by finder.com, a shopping comparison site.
Currently, double vaccinated Brits face an average cost of £190 for the COVID tests needed to travel abroad, which is a significantly higher amount than many return flights.
Finder’s analysis looked at all available flights throughout September departing from London airports, and found 41 countries offered return trips, without any stops, for less than this cost.
In some cases the price discrepancy was huge. The cheapest return flight available was to Aalborg in Denmark, for just £9. In this instance travellers would be paying 21 times more for the tests than the flights. If you were prepared to have a stop en-route then you could get as far away as Dubai for less than the cost of the tests. You would also be able to visit 308 cities in 51 countries.
Liz Edwards, UK editor-in-chief at shopping comparison site finder.com, gives advice on ensuring you’re paying the lowest prices possible on your COVID tests: “There’s currently huge variation in price and service quality in the private COVID testing industry. While the government is attempting to tackle this issue, this fledgling industry is likely to remain loosely regulated for a little while yet. If you’re one of the growing number of Brits who plan to travel abroad soon, then make sure you search around to find a reasonably priced test from a provider on the government’s list. A few minutes of searching, and checking reviews, could save you and your family or friends a significant amount of money and hassle. It is also a good idea to keep tabs on the country you plan to visit because a change in its red, amber or green category is likely to alter the tests you need to buy”.

domain: news


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Sydney Swans chief executive Andrew Ireland has the perfect metaphor to show that sport really is just entertainment.
“I often say that it's like running a picture theatre,” Ireland says. “If you keep putting dud movies on, people won't come.”
Sure, some fans will put up with more duds than others but, generally, across the world, Ireland's view prevails – a professional team's performance is essential to the club's overall strength.
“People often say it would be nice to get yourself into a position where you could deliver the same sort of revenues no matter the results on the field,” says Ireland, whose Swans announced on Thursday a profit for a third consecutive year. “But I think you find that if your team's results start to waver, interest starts to waver also, whether it's membership, merchandise, attendances, or viewers on TV.”
However, there are interesting ways of differentiating the strength of clubs that have less to do with wins and losses. They are measurements that some observers will read more into than others, but they are worth considering to varying degrees by those interested in the financial, managerial and, to some extent, moral and ethical standing of the club they support.
Valuation consultancy, Brand Finance, in conjunction with brand design firm, Landor Associates, analysed AFL and NRL clubs to find the codes' most valuable entities based on two major components – brand value in dollar terms and a more subliminal measure, brand rating.
They based the brand value monetary figure on the revenue streams generated through affiliation with the elite team. As an example, if you had a T-shirt selling for $10 but were able to sell it for $15 once the team logo was printed on it, the brand value created by the T-shirt would be the additional $5. As another example, brand value is generated by the extra fee a poker machine operator is willing to pay to have his machines on a particular club's premises compared to having it at another venue.
The other measure, the rating, is more intuitive. It's about the strength of the brand, rather than the value. Respondents nationwide were asked about four areas: knowledge (to what extent do you know about the club?), relevance (to what extent is it relevant to you?), differentiation (to what extent is it different to other sports brands?) and esteem (do you hold the brand in high regard?).
The interesting part about the results was that, despite the role brand rating had in contributing to the overall brand value of clubs, there was not a clear correlation between the way people perceived a club and that club's brand value.
Most notably, the study found, the most valuable club out of the NRL and AFL was Penrith, at $46.2 million, ahead of AFL giant Collingwood, with a brand value of $39.1 million. The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs came third on $34.5 million, ahead of seven AFL clubs, including the Swans, who were 10th on $22.7 million.
“For me, this says a lot about the real depth of a club like Penrith,” NRL chief executive Dave Smith said. “It's about the restructure Phil Gould and [Panthers boss] Warren Wilson have undertaken – from restructuring their balance sheet to the diversification of the businesses, it's phenomenal.
“It's the same with the Bulldogs. The work that's been done over time to connect with the community, to diversify their business, to use their leagues club in a strong way is very smart.”
Smith said NRL clubs would be in a “horses for courses” search for their best business model in the future, but diversification which can “withstand external pressures is the way to go”.
Brand Finance director Richard Haigh says he, like many, was “expecting Collingwood to run away with the whole thing”. However, the revenue generating ability of the Panthers Group, through its affiliation with the team, was unmatched across both codes.
“Penrith has huge revenues in their gaming and catering arm, which have both gone into the ultimate valuation of the brand,” Haigh said.
“Collingwood has some gaming but it's nowhere near as big, something like $16 million in 2012, whereas Penrith's was something like $78 million. Collingwood has some 60,000 members, vastly larger than Penrith, and they have a travel company, but those things don't make as much of a material difference.”
From the fans' perspective, Haigh said, there is confidence in knowing the club is underpinned by a potentially enormous business entity, while brand managers can see that teams with a lot of equity behind them can offer business advantages if they are leveraged well.
It's important to note, of course, that the ability to generate revenue does not equate to profit. Penrith, despite its revenues, was nearly insolvent only two years ago.
“Overall, we don't believe profitability is really a representation of how strong the brand is,” Haigh said. “It's really an issue of management if they can't turn a profit when they've got huge revenues.”
What this all says is that relying on attendances at matches is not going to guarantee stability in the business, according to Dominic Walsh, managing director at Landor Australia, which looked at the brand rating side of the study.
“Penrith has built something more diverse and robust,” Walsh said. “We talk about brand experience, which means being able to interact with the brand in various ways. The Panthers provides a much bigger experience, which makes a stronger connection to the public. It shows that you don't have to win a premiership to have a strong club.”
The challenge is for the likes of the Panthers and Bulldogs to convert their money-making capacity into a higher brand rating, which is the domain of the Brisbane Broncos and the big AFL clubs, including Sydney.
The Swans were the most well-known brand, the Broncos rated highest for relevance, both were in the top five for differentiation and were one and two in esteem.
Swans boss Ireland, a former chief executive of the Brisbane Lions – who finished ahead of the Broncos in brand value and close behind in brand rating – pointed to the isolation of the Broncos and Swans as advantages, whereas “clearly clubs like Collingwood have huge followings but more immediate competition around them”.
But, because the Swans revenue is football-driven, unlike the Panthers, fan engagement takes a different appearance. Research by Roy Morgan, Ireland said, had found that the Swans were supported by the most number of people, but those people are not as engaged with the club as they could be.
“The area I think we could improve on is enhancing our engagement with people who identify with our brand,” he said.
“Whilst we've got a big support base – we're hoping to reach 40,000 members this year – we need to transfer identification with our brand into more rusted on engagement.”
This would probably offer more diverse investment opportunities.
There is a place for brand managers and number crunchers in all the business gibberish that goes with running football clubs these days. But, ultimately, for a club such as the Swans, who don't have a "world of entertainment", it's about putting on a good show.
“We get a dividend from the AFL, like all clubs, which is a share of the broadcast rights,” Ireland said. “We've got a big corporate support, we're ranked one and two with West Coast. Then it comes to crowds, merchandise and the like. But I really think the core of it is being a good football club and people wanting to watch the team play.”


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Air-purifying clothes unveiled at Edinburgh International Science Festival
Special clothing which cleans the air around the person wearing them has been unveiled at a science festival in Edinburgh.
Catalytic Clothing, in the form of air-purifying jeans and kilts, are on display as part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival.
The clothes are treated with titanium dioxide which acts as a catalyst, which cleans the air.
Air pollution is neutralised by the clothes as the person walks.
With the help of sunlight, the catalysts neutralise the dirt from the air pollution around the person.
The clothes could be launched on the market in 2013.
Artist and designer Professor Helen Storey, from the London College of Fashion, and polymer chemist, Professor Tony Ryan, from the University of Sheffield, are behind the project.
The technology is already used in concrete and the surface of buildings to help keep then smog and pollution free.
The Edinburgh International Science Festival runs until Sunday 15 April.


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We're thrilled to announce the return of GamesBeat Next, hosted in San Francisco this October, where we will explore the theme of "Playing the Edge." Apply to speak here and learn more about sponsorship opportunities here. At the event, we will also announce 25 top game startups as the 2024 Game Changers. Apply or nominate today!
Epic Games‘ hit game Fortnite has reached yet another milestone on mobile. Since its iOS launch in mid-March, it has generated $100 million in revenue on those devices in 90 days, according to market analyst Sensor Tower. Its presence on mobile will only grow, as the developer plans to roll it out to Android users this summer.
The game is free to play on PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and iOS devices, and Epic makes its revenue from in-game purchases. Fortnite previously passed the $50 million mark in May thanks to new Season 4 content. Hitting the $100 million milestone in 90 days puts it in the top 3 fastest earning mobile games along with Supercell’s Clash Royale and Niantic’s Pokémon Go, which outstrips the competition by reaching $600 million earned in its first 90 days.
Fortnite earned its $100 million in roughly half the time it took other popular mobile games like NetEase’s battle royale Knives Out and Tencent’s titanic multiplayer online battle arena Honor of Kings, which is known as Arena of Valor in the West. Sensor Tower notes that Fortnite’s rival, PUBG Corp.’s PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, has been omitted from this comparison because it has only been monetizing for 60 days, and it has yet to reach $100 million.
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The battle royale juggernaut has been excelling across multiple platforms, recently becoming the biggest free-to-play title on consoles and raking in 2 million downloads within 24 hours of launching on Nintendo’s Switch. Epic is also making a big push to build up an esports scene for its game, investing $100 million into the endeavor.
The only potential fly in Epic’s extremely rich soup is its ongoing legal trouble. PUBG is taking it to court for alleged copyright infringement, and that particular last-player-standing showdown will commence at a later date in South Korean courts.
GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings.


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Looking to push more of its toy brands into TV and film content, Hasbro is buying Entertainment One, a Canadian family-based film and TV programming and distribution company, for $4 billion in cash.
Among other shows, the deal will add key worldwide media brands, including preschool TV series “Peppa Pig,” “PJ Masks” and new show “Ricky Zoom,” which will run on Nickelodeon in the U.S.
Hasbro intends to use the company to develop and distribute its toy/game brands as TV/film content.
Hasbro has a similar relationship with Viacom’s Paramount Pictures to produce and distribute TV content based on Hasbro brands. Hasbro had its “Transformers” and “G.I. Joe” developed into theatrical films.
In a call with analysts about deal, Brian Goldner, chairman-CEO of Hasbro, said the Entertainment One deal will be used to develop brands that are not part of the Paramount deal.
Hasbro estimates synergy savings in the deal of about $130 million by 2022.
The deal price gives Entertainment One shareholders $6.86 a share, a 31% premium to eOne’s 30-day stock-price average.
On Friday -- a day after the announcement -- Hasbro stock was down sharply, 6% to $107.65.


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TINA THOMAS is every inch a modern woman with drive.
The Cardiff-based business adviser has always had a company car, until this summer.
Now she is the proud owner of an orange coloured MGTF two-seater bought from Rycar, Cardiff in June.
"I have never owned a two-seater before and just wanted to have the MGTF," she said.
Tina covers about 10,000 miles annually.
She is one of a growing number of women who are turning to the British two-seater.
FAST women really want to go topless, according to a new survey.
The convertible sports car, so long the preserve of young and old males, is now the preferred choice of an increasing number of women.
And the fair sex is prepared to sacrifice a home for horsepower in their quest for satisfaction and status.
Driving divas make up almost half Britain's motorists and they will make a bee-line for the hot seat at the drop of a baseball cap.
In 2002, over 7,800 MGTF models were registered and to-date registrations are heading towards a record with over 4,500 models sold, and there are still five months to go with a new plate peak in September.
Huw Llewellyn, marketing manager with Peugeot dealership Griffin Mill, of Treforest, says they sell over 80pc of 206 CC models to women. It is the next most popular model behind the MGTF.
"Everything about thePeugeot 206CC is appealing to a woman and they buy them in droves.
"They are usually in their 20s, very trendy and upwardly mobile and want the car to say something about them."
Privilege Insurance say women love to drive and three-quarters will volunteer to be a designated driver on a night out.
They also are more likely to swat up on sports models, avidly reading car magazines and newspaper motoring columns as well as tuning in to the television testers.
Half plan to change their car inside three years and many aspire to a sports model.
And they are not content with keeping it legal on the road because they are more likely to attend track days and this year more racing licences have been given to females than in the whole of 2002.
Privilege pollsters were told that a third of young women would actually put the brake on saving to buy a sports car.
Walking up the aisle would also have to wait for 21% who would love a convertible instead and half of these were even prepared pull out of having a family to sustain their passion for fast cars and big bhp figures.
Car makers have also seen this rise in registrations among women. Most popular sports brand for women buyers is the British-built MGF and TF two-seaters which now have over 20,200 women owners, a 40% rise in five years.
Even Lotus sales have blossomed almost a third thanks to women attracted by the Elise series.
Perhaps the most surprising result is the achievement of TVR which sold none of its beefy British models to women until 2000 but now has 533 registered female enthusiasts.
At the luxury end of the market, Mercedes-Benz has spotted a 63% increase in women buying its cars in five years, Porsche's doubled to almost 3,900, BMW open and closed cars have 17.5pc females, almost the same as Audi, Saab and Volvo.
And that red Ferrari overtaking you on the motorway just might be in the well manicured hands of a woman with 110 registered to some red-blooded women.
Privilege business manager Catherine Alty said, "In the last six months alone, we have experienced approximately 115 women per day signing up for cover on prestige and sports cars."
And of those going into motor sport, racing instructor Claire Williams said, " Thirty years ago, women in motor racing would have been an incredibly unique occurrence, but it has definitely become more acceptable and affordable over recent years.
"There is a growing number of women now who just have a real interest in sports cars and racing."
CAR production last month accelerated to its biggest year-on-year gain since October 1996, it was announced last night.
A total of 155,424 cars were made in the UK in June 2003 - a rise of 37.8% on the June 2002 total, the Office for National Statistics said.
The number of cars produced for the home market rose 47.1%, while export production was up 33.9%.
"It's fantastic to see output for both home and export markets rise so strongly," said Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders chief executive Christopher Macgowan.
The number of cars made in the first half of this year is now 857,597 - up 0.7% on the January-June 2002 total.
Commercial vehicle production last month did even better - rising 47.3% on the June 2002 figure to total 17,999 in June 2003, with the increase fuelled by a 71.1% rise in production for the home market.
The latest figures took commercial vehicle production for the year to date to 95,969.


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WASHINGTON—The government says it will investigate companies that collect and sell personal information about consumers to determine whether they need to improve their privacy practices.
The Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday that it ordered nine data brokers to provide the agency with details about their sources of information, how they use the information they gather and whether consumers have access to the data.
The consumer profiles assembled by data brokers allow advertisers and retailers to tailor marketing campaigns to specific customers.
The nine companies are: Acxiom of Little Rock, Ark.; Corelogic of Irvine, Calif.; Datalogix of Westminster, Colo.; eBureau of St. Cloud, Minn.; ID Analytics of San Diego; Intelius of Bellevue, Wash.; Peekyou of New York; Rapleaf of Chicago; and Recorded Future of Cambridge, Mass.


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South Koreans cryptocurrency traders could soon find themselves busy doing taxes.
According to a report by Decrypt published on May 30, 2020, the South Korean Ministry of Strategy and Finance has proposed taxing profits made via crypto-fiat transactions.
South Korean Regulator Eyes Taxes on Crypto Profits
In a bid to bring more clarity to the country’s digital currency trading space, the South Korean financial regulator has floated the idea of taxing profits made on digital currency transactions. Notably, the tax will also be levied on digital tokens sold by crypto mining firms and via initial coin offerings (ICOs).
Per sources close to the matter, South Korean regulators are eyeing a July release for the full proposal, followed by the submission of the tax amendment to the South Korean regular assembly in September.
It’s worth highlighting that unlike the vast majority of other countries that levy taxes on profits made via digital currency trading, South Korea doesn’t tax crypto gains.
BTCManager in September 2019 that France had announced that it would not tax crypto-to-crypto transactions unless digital currencies were traded for fiat.
However, with the latest proposal, it would seem that the South Korean regulators are aiming to streamline their crypto taxation mechanism. According to the report, transactions that result in a net loss for the cryptocurrency trader will be exempt from tax. However, the law would be applied equally to both South Korean citizens and foreign residents.
That said, not everyone is on board with the proposed changes to the tax treatment of profits made on cryptocurrencies. Seung-Young Jeong, a researcher at the Korea Local Tax Institute, said:
“If you do a P2P transaction without going through an exchange, there is a possibility of avoiding taxation.”
“Even with IP tracking, if there are a large number of targets, administrative costs will increase, and it will be difficult to track each day.”
Tightening Stance toward Crypto Traders
As an increasing number of crypto exchanges mushroom across the world, access to digital currency trading for retail investors has become easier.
Witnessing the exploding trend in cryptocurrency trading worldwide, financial watchdogs across nations are mulling imposing taxes on profits made on cryptocurrencies. Earlier in March, BTCManager reported that Ukraine had mandated its citizens to declare their crypto holdings for tax purposes.


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UK regulator blocks Akzo Nobel’s Metlac deal
Competition Commission says move would substantially reduce competition
By CFOWorld.co.uk staff | CFO UK | Published 11:38, 21 December 12
The UK Competition Commission has blocked the proposed acquisition of Metlac Holding by Akzo Nobel, on grounds of the deal having the potential to substantially reduce competition in the supply of metal packaging coatings for beer and beverage cans in the British market.
In a ruling on Friday, the Competition Commission said its decision was in line with provisional findings in relation to the market published in September.
"The Competition Commission has found that the only remedy likely to be effective in addressing the substantial lessening of competition is prohibition of the transaction," it said.
At present, Akzo Nobel has an existing stake of 49 percent in Metlac Holding. The remaining majority stake is held by members of the Bocchio family.
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In a recent tweet by Rockstar Games insider Chris Klippel, GTA 6 will have incredible graphics thanks to the new RAGE Engine 9 technology the company has been working on.
Chris is a credible industry insider and a leaker who is also responsible for creating Rockstar Magazine and Naughty Dog Magazine. He continued that he has received some positive feedback on the engine and there is no need to be disappointed right now. He said so because many fans all over the world are criticizing Rockstar Games and are disheartened as the company is constantly ignoring fans when they demand the next Grand Theft Auto title-related announcements and news.
He also mentioned that we are looking at an engine that will be ahead of its time. This implies that the company will provide the best-looking graphics to the fans through GTA 6 and it is safe to say that it will look better than 90% of the games of this generation. Apparently, the goal here is to outperform the Unreal Engine, he said. See the screenshot of the tweet attached below:
Visiblement, la nouvelle version du moteur graphique de #RockstarGames (RAGE9) qui sera utilisée pour #GTA6 risque d'être assez incroyable. J'ai pu avoir des retours très positifs, on devrait vraiment ne pas être déçu sur ce point. On parle d'un moteur en avance sur son temps. pic.twitter.com/v2DVSS4lMJ
— Chris’ Klippel (@Chris_Klippel) April 22, 2022
Here is the translated one:
R* insider/fan Chris Liberty Klippel shared GTA 6's info. The upcoming GTA game will use RAGE9 engine. ''Is likely to be quite incredible''. He says we shouldn't be disappointed. ''We are talking about an engine ahead of it's time''. #GTA6 pic.twitter.com/g4MwMVULj2
— GTA 6 NEWS & LEAKS (@NEWSLEAKSGTAS) April 22, 2022
We already know the history of Rockstar Games and their capabilities in both the graphics and interactive open world departments. So this news was somewhat exciting but not surprising. GTA 5 graphics when it was announced back in 2011 were already ahead of their time. The same can be said when Red Dead Redemption 2 was announced in 2016 and we witnessed how everyone on the internet was swooning over its visuals. So, in the near future when GTA 6 will be announced possibly later this year we can expect a somewhat similar response from the audience.
Let us know what are your thoughts on this latest leak. if you like our work here then support us by following us on Facebook for daily gaming news and updates.


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Protesters chant outside the United States International Trade Commission building. (Brian Johnson/Medill News Service)
Monday, December 09, 2019
A solar tariff protest, held outside the U.S. International Trade Commission, was organized by Solar Energy Industries Association. Opponents say the tariffs have hurt the U.S. solar industry, the economy, and efforts to combat climate change.


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With the prospect of an LCBO strike hanging over the Victoria Day long weekend, people are rushing to stockpile booze in case labour trouble dries up access to wine and spirits.
“It’s more just an excuse to spend money, because I’m sure by Tuesday it’ll work out,” said Dan Gütter, who wheeled a cart of liquor out of the LCBO on Queens Quay Thursday afternoon. He said he needs to stockpile a plethora of booze for Marben, a downtown restaurant where he’s general manager.
“I’ve got a pretty stocked bar, so I’ll survive,” he said when asked how he’ll handle it if what could be the first LCBO strike in the provincial agency’s 87-year history turns out to be long standing. “It can’t last forever,” he shrugged.
LCBO spokesperson Heather MacGregor said the liquor board has seen a surge in sales this week. On Wednesday, the LCBO chalked up $28.1 million in sales, up 156 per cent from the “comparable day” before May long weekend last year.
“It’s definitely busy,” she said, adding sales were also up 73 per cent over last week. “People are preparing for the weekend.”
People like Sam and Neena Singh, who purchased a few hundred dollars worth of wine and hard alcohol, because it could be their only chance if the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) and LCBO don’t reach a deal by midnight Thursday.
“We’re having a party on the weekend, so we had to stock up,” said Neena.
The Beer Store can keep beer drinkers supplied with many popular brands, but stalking the aisles inside the LCBO, Brian Morin had worries anyhow. He plans to open his new specialty hotdog restaurant, Craft Dogs, on Tuesday, and he bemoaned the threat to his supply of craft beer to accompany rabbit and duck dogs.
“It’s going to affect me as a businessman,” he said. “I’m screwed, because if they go on strike, I won’t have craft beers to sell.”
Wheeling a loaded cart lined with rattling bottles of Grey Goose, Mike Ogilvie and Matthew Addario, managers at downtown nightclubs Switch and F-Stop, said they were stock pilling $40,000 of alcohol in case of a strike.
“If we don’t have alcohol to sell, we’re s--- out of luck,” explained Ogilvie. The pair laughed about their large haul of alcohol, and didn’t seem too worried about pre-empting the strike with such a big purchase.
Either way it goes, said Addario, the booze will be taken care of.


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MADRID, 29 Jun. (Portaltic/EP) –
Xbox has extended its cloud gaming service, Xbox Cloud Gaming, to Windows 10 computers and Apple-powered phones and tablets via web browser.
Starting this Monday, all Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members in Spain and 21 other countries can access Xbox Cloud Gaming from a computer other than an Xbox.
The company has reported in a statement that Ultimate users can enter the web ‘Xbox.com/play’ directly from Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome or Apple’s Safari browsers. There they will be able to access the more than one hundred games available in the Xbox Game Pass library.
Xbox Cloud Gaming is now powered by Xbox Series X ‘hardware’, which means it offers faster load times, improved frame rates, and a new generation of gaming. The company has indicated that the ‘streaming’ will run at a resolution of 1080 pixels and up to 60 frames per second.


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Elon Musk attends the groundbreaking ceremony of the Tesla Gigafactory in Shanghai, east China, on January 7, 2019.
Ding Ting | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images
China’s trade ministry has put Tesla Model Three automobiles which can be constructed contained in the nation on a listing of automobiles beneficial for presidency subsidies, based on a Reuters report on Friday.
Reuters, citing a doc revealed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, stated the extent of subsidy that Tesla would obtain was not but clear. Two sorts of the Model Three have been on the advice checklist for brand new power automobile subsidies, it stated.
Tesla shares rose 1.5% in prolonged hours commerce on the again of the information.
The Chinese metropolis of Shanghai is dwelling to Tesla’s Gigafactory 3, the place groundbreaking on the power occurred in January 2019. In its third-quarter replace towards the top of October, Tesla stated trial manufacturing of the Model Three in Shanghai had began forward of schedule.
Elon Musk’s agency famous that the Chinese facility was, by way of capital expenditure per unit of capability, roughly 65% cheaper to assemble than its U.S.-based Model Three manufacturing system.
Worldwide electrical automobile gross sales hit 1.98 million in 2018, based on the International Energy Agency (IEA), with international inventory reaching 5.12 million.
China’s electrical automobile market is the largest on the planet — a bit over 1 million electrical automobiles have been offered there final yr — the IEA says, with Europe and the U.S. following behind.
Tesla is considered one of a number of automotive companies making an attempt to make inroads into the Chinese market.
Just final week, the BMW Group, along with China’s Great Wall Motor, introduced it could assemble a plant to provide fully-electric fashions of the Mini automobile model.
The facility’s building part is slated to happen between 2020 and 2022, and it is going to be situated within the metropolis of Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu Province, the BMW Group stated final week.
The two companies have arrange a three way partnership referred to as Spotlight Automotive Limited and the mixed funding within the plant will quantity to roughly 650 million euros ($721 million).
Once up and working, the manufacturing unit line can have the capability to provide as many as 160,000 automobiles yearly.


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In 1961, Allen Rosenstein used a $500 loan from his father to found Pioneer Magnetics, an electronics company that grew from a small NASA contractor in Southern California to a major manufacturer of computer components. By 2000, he employed 500 workers and grossed $27 million a year. But that was before competition from low-cost Asian manufacturers inspired much of the American high-tech industry to relocate overseas. “They have persuaded my biggest competitors to move over there,” says Rosenstein, who’s had to lay off 80 percent of his US workforce to stay competitive. “The net effect is it beggars this country, and we don’t seem to be able to recognize it.”
On Monday, the Obama administration sent Congress its latest version of the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA)—a bilateral pact that would be the largest of its kind since the North American Free Trade Agreement. (The package included free trade deals with Panama and Colombia, but those are small potatoes compared with Korea, the world’s 15th-largest economy—and a tech and manufacturing powerhouse.) The US Chamber of Commerce, which launched a national pro-ratification campaign in January, was juiced. “America is finally getting back in the game,” Thomas J. Donohue, the group’s president, declared in a statement. “The chamber will pull out all of the stops to get the votes in Congress, where the agreements already enjoy bipartisan support.”
A sizable number of domestic manufacturers, however, have sided against the chamber over Korea. For one, the US Business and Industry Council, an association of small and midsize firms founded in 1933, is strongly opposed to the deal. “We can’t imagine that KORUS would serve current US economic interests,” says Alan Tonelson, a research fellow with the council.
Ditto Ian Fletcher, senior economist with the Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA)—a collection of business, labor, and agriculture interests whose petition against the Korea deal has been signed by scores of companies. He says the pact’s boosters willfully ignore how similar agreements have gutted American manufacturing. “They just kind of airbrush it out of the picture and don’t talk about it very much,” Fletcher says. “Like sex in a Victorian family.”
Originally negotiated by George W. Bush, KORUS FTA would eliminate tariffs on most US and South Korean goods within five years. (Korea is America’s seventh-largest trading partner, with trade between the two countries reaching $67 billion in 2009.) In a Wall Street Journal op-ed praising Obama’s support for the deal, Thomas McClarty, a former chief of staff to President Clinton, wrote that it “won’t be easy, and it may alienate some in the Democratic base, but it is essential.”
Most economists still cling to the notion that free trade agreements boost prosperity. “The credible studies show that the US has benefited enormously from liberalizing its market and other markets,” says Joshua Meltzer, a Brookings Institution fellow. Meltzer concedes that lowering tariffs has displaced certain US industries, but he argues that the losses are more than offset by lower prices, better investor protections, and a boom in high-paying jobs in competitive fields like corporate and financial services.
Yet the results of Clinton-era trade deals have led some prominent economists to form a dimmer view. Adam Hersh, an economist with the Center for American Progress, once regarded Ross Perot’s 1992 claim that NAFTA would create a “giant sucking sound” as jobs were siphoned to Mexico was “kind of crazy. But it turns out he was onto something.”
Indeed, in 1994, three months after Clinton signed NAFTA, the peso plummeted and later collapsed, triggering a deluge of suddenly cheap Mexican imports and, according to the Hersh, a spate of outsourcing to maquiladoras just south of the border. America’s $1.7 billion trade surplus with Mexico has since turned into a $66 billion trade deficit—costing the United States about 600,000 jobs, according to the labor-backed Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), a key NAFTA supporter, attributes the Mexico trade deficit to oil imports, not manufactured goods. If the Korea pact is not ratified, the group contends, America will be at a disadvantage to the EU, which has its own free trade deal with Korea. But economist Fletcher counters that that most NAFTA-related oil imports are from Canada, not Mexico, and so lumping the two countries together masks the pact’s effect on domestic manufacturing.
America’s biggest trade imbalance, of course, is with China, which enjoys easy access to US markets through the World Trade Organization. The EPI claims that China’s participation in the WTO has helped triple the US/China trade deficit to $278 billion, contributing to 2.8 million lost jobs in the United States. “I think we’re ignoring the reality of what’s gone on with trade agreements in this country,” says Rob Dumont, president of the national Tooling, Manufacturing & Technologies Association, which opposes the Korea deal.
Supporters of the agreement say it’s designed to avoid past pitfalls. According a US International Trade Commission study, it will reduce our trade deficit with South Korea by $4 billion without costing a single US job. And Obama won over the United Auto Workers last year by renegotiating the pact to push back tariff cuts on Korean car imports for four to eight years.
But most labor interests see the deal as a sort of Trojan Hyundai. EPI economist Robert Scott is particularly concerned with a “duty drawback” provision that lets Korea export foreign-made goods to America duty-free after adding a mere 30 percent to their value. “You can get that with slapping a label on something,” he says.
Scott estimates that the Korea deal will cost America 159,000 jobs in its first eight years. “This is going to be a gigantic superhighway for China and Thailand and Indonesia, everybody in Asia, to export their auto parts to the US,” he says.
The main beneficiaries of the free-trade deal, its opponents say, will be US-based multinational corporations that want to snap up Korean banks and open their own Korean factories. “These are really offshoring agreements designed to make it easier for American corporations to produce abroad for the American market,” says the CPA’s Fletcher. China and Korea, he adds, have a history of blocking US exports with arcane procurement rules and currency manipulation. (See “The China Syndrome.”) “As long as America persists in trying to play by free trade rules honored only on paper, while foreign nations play the 400-year old game of mercantilism,” Fletcher says, “this will remain true.”
Pioneer Magnetics founder Rosenstein has weathered the exodus of America’s high-tech sector with enough money left to retire on, but these days he fears his workers and his grandchildren won’t be so lucky. “Free trade is not free,” he told me. “It has never worked anyplace it has been applied, and for people to say it’s going to work now—they’re selling you snake oil.”


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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) – member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee – today questioned panelists during a Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation and the Internet hearing entitled, “Advancing the Internet of Things in Rural America.” The hearing was convened to examine the current usage of the Internet of Things (IoT) in rural America, to assess the economic and societal benefits of IoT in rural communities and to explore potential infrastructure needs.
“Making certain that more of our rural communities can utilize technologies related to the Internet of Things in their homes, classrooms and businesses is crucial to closing the digital divide,” said Sen. Moran. “I look forward to continuing this discussion next week during my subcommittee hearing on data usage practices for farms to improve interconnection among members of our rural agricultural community.”
Sen. Moran will convene a hearing next Tuesday, November 14 in his Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance and Data Security entitled, “Technology in Agriculture: Data-Driven Farming.”
Click here to watch today’s hearing.


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EMI Trying Out DRM-free Music Files
December 9, 2006 12:49 AM
comment(s) - last by
EMI is the latest record label to offer users music files without DRM
In a move aimed at pleasing users, EMI Music has
announced that it is offering music tracks through the Yahoo! Music service
with no restrictive digital rights management (DRM) technology. EMI is offering tracks from Norah Jones and Relient K for $0.99 through Yahoo! Music.
Several other record companies have also tested out the market for DRM-free music files. Sony released a Jessica Simpson song over the summer with no DRM, and Disney offered Jesse McCartney's latest album with no restrictions. Independent record labels, however, have been much faster to adapt to offering content with no playback restrictions.
Music companies are trying to test out the waters to see if there is a high enough demand for music files that are able to be played on any digital music player on the market. In fact, some officials have gone as far as to claim that record labels should all attempt to offer DRM-free content to users.
While any drastic notions of all songs being DRM-free is still a longshot, progress is being made. "They're still looking at it as an experiment by the labels have come a long way in terms of wanting to see how this works for them," said Carrie Davis, a Yahoo spokesman.
This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
This sounds like a fictional story
12/9/2006 8:36:32 PM
Disney released an album DRM-free?!?
Why does this seem like a fairy tale?
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We’re opening this issue with a look at a handful of coffee shops and how they charge customers for non-dairy milk. Dunkin and Starbucks have already been sued for charging extra for milk substitutes, but several others are now being investigated. You can find these coffee chains below.
Then, attorneys suspect a recall involving the fuel pumps in certain Equinox and Terrain vehicles may not have been enough to make drivers whole and are now looking into whether a class action lawsuit is possible. Following that story, we’ve got another car-related investigation – this time, attorneys are looking into reported engine problems in certain Nissan and Infiniti vehicles.
We’ll round things out with the ever-present concern of online data security as attorneys look into whether The Athletic is secretly sharing website user data with Facebook. Keep reading for the latest, including new settlements and those ending soon.
We’ve previously touched on Dunkin facing legal action over charging extra for non-dairy milk, but now several other coffee shops are suspected of the same practice. Attorneys are specifically investigating whether Peet’s Coffee, Caribou Coffee, Biggby Coffee, Dutch Bros and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf discriminate against customers with milk allergies and lactose intolerance by charging extra for milk substitutes. If filed and successful, lawsuits could help customers get back some of the money they may have been wrongfully charged—and possibly force the companies to stop adding a surcharge for non-dairy milk. Learn more here.
Last year, General Motors issued a recall for the fuel pumps in 2021-2022 Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain vehicles, but attorneys suspect that this wasn’t enough. Specifically, the attorneys believe that not enough vehicles were covered and that a permanent fix wasn’t provided. They’re now looking into whether a class action lawsuit could be filed on behalf of owners and lessees who’ve had issues with their fuel pumps. If you’ve experienced problems with the fuel pump in your 2020-2023 Chevy Equinox or GMC Terrain, tell us about it here.
Our settlements page is always being updated. Have you checked to see if you're covered by any open settlements? You can also check out the latest settlements as they happen by following us on Twitter.
Drivers of certain Nissan Rogue, Nissan Altima, Infiniti QX50 and Infiniti QX55 vehicles have reported problems with the cars’ engines, including noises, fires, vibrations and loss of power. Attorneys are looking into whether the engines are defective—and if a class action lawsuit could be filed against the automaker. A class action lawsuit could help reimburse owners and lessees for repairs and potentially force Nissan to provide a fix for the engines. Learn how you can help the investigation here.
Attorneys have reason to believe that The Athletic may have violated the federal Video Privacy Protection Act by sharing consumers’ private information without permission and are now looking into possible legal action. Specifically, they believe that TheAthletic.com may be using a tracking tool to secretly transmit details about certain users and the videos they’ve watched to Facebook. If you’re a paid subscriber to TheAthletic.com who has watched videos on the website within the past two years, learn how you can join others taking action on this page.
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For the fourth straight year, OTA Names DigiCert to the 2015 Online Trust Alliance Honor Roll
LEHI, UT (June 16, 2015) — DigiCert, a leading global Certificate Authority and provider of trusted identity and authentication services, today announced its selection to the 2015 Online Trust Alliance (OTA) Honor Roll, the fourth consecutive year the company has earned this distinction. The Honor Roll evaluates high-traffic websites’ adherence to online security and privacy best practices. DigiCert remains highly committed to innovation and leading the push toward a more encrypted, better authenticated web.
“As we continue to raise the bar for companies seeking to make the Online Trust Honor Roll, DigiCert consistently not only qualifies but leads in developing and advocating online security best practices,” said Craig Spiezle, executive director and president of the Online Trust Alliance. “DigiCert’s strong support of multi-stakeholder collaboration is resulting in innovation that advances key initiatives to protect organizational and consumer data.”
With the exponential growth of the Internet of Things and the push to connect consumer wearables, networked medical devices, home automation systems, automobiles and critical infrastructure to the web, companies need to optimize their digital certificate usage. DigiCert’s innovation enables large-scale, trustworthy deployment of SSL/TLS Certificates to authenticate devices and web servers and encrypt data in-transit.
“The increasing connectivity of every day consumer products associated with the Internet of Things introduces new security challenges that business and industry must proactively address with reliable identity authentication and encryption,” said DigiCert CEO Nicholas Hales.
Continued Hales, “We endorse the work of the OTA and continue to work alongside other industry leaders to help develop best practices and educate those responsible for security in their organizations about the steps they can take to protect against evolving threats. We’re honored to be recognized once again on the OTA Honor Roll for practicing what we advocate.”
For the 2015 Honor Roll, the OTA surveyed more than 400 million e-mail headers, 1,000 privacy policies and approximately 10,000 web pages, benchmarking security and privacy practices among the largest U.S. online retailers, banks, social networks, news media, federal government sites, and for the first time home automation and wearables companies. Honor roll recipients were selected based on a comprehensive analysis including SSL Certificate implementation, privacy practices, e-mail authentication, and use of Extended Validation SSL Certificates.
The Online Trust Alliance (OTA) is a non-profit with the mission to enhance online trust and user empowerment while promoting innovation and the vitality of the Internet. Its goal is to help educate businesses, policy makers, and stakeholders while developing and advancing best practices and tools to enhance the protection of users’ security, privacy, and identity. OTA supports collaborative public-private partnerships, benchmark reporting, and meaningful self-regulation and data stewardship. Its members and supporters include leaders spanning the public policy, technology, ecommerce, social networking, mobile, email and interactive marketing, financial, service provider, government agency and industry organization sectors.
DigiCert is a premier, trusted provider of enterprise security solutions with an emphasis on authentication and encryption via managed PKI and high-assurance digital certificates for enterprise and the Internet of Things. Headquartered in Lehi, Utah, DigiCert is trusted by more than 115,000 of the world’s leading government, finance, healthcare, education, and Fortune 500® organizations. DigiCert has been recognized with dozens of awards for providing enhanced customer value, premium customer service, and market growth leadership. For the latest DigiCert news and updates, visit digicert.com , like DigiCert on Facebook® or follow @digicert on Twitter®.


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7/4/2011 - Nearly 750 cargo thefts in 2010
The National Insurance Crime Bureau is out with its latest report, this one detailing how much merchandise businesses were robbed of in 2010.
According to its national Cargo Theft report, the NICB reports there were 747 cargo thefts in 2010, totaling $171 million in losses for businesses nationwide.
The FBI defines "cargo theft" as stealing merchandise that's being shipped through various modes of transportation - be it by plane, truck, boat or railway - by a commercial outfit.
While cargo theft affects businesses' bottom line, NICB president and CEO Joe Wehrle says it also adversely impacts the country's economic vitality and health.
"Cargo theft is not only a property crime that hurts the national economy, it can have a serious impact on public health and safety," said Wehrle. "In one case a load of insulin was stolen and stored at a warehouse while the thieves made arrangements to sell it on the black market."
Business insurance can help companies recover from financial losses such as these. Policies may be particularly important for businesses owners in Tennessee, which the NICB says was one of the states where cargo theft was common. To learn more about business insurance from Selective, talk to your Selective agent today or click here


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EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) - The holiday season is known for food, family and fun, but how about running a 5k. That's what hundreds of people gathered in downtown Eau Claire this morning to do. The 4th annual Run Santa Run 5k kicked off at 10 a.m. from Phoenix Park with over 400 runners. The Grinch was among the participants today, those who beat him got a free scoop of ice cream from Ramones. Run Santa Run director Rickey Chernik, said the event is the perfect way to get into the holiday spirit.
“We started it with some local race directors from Eau Claire and it has grown to several hundred people from its infancy at 200. It's a great family gathering for a nice holiday weekend,” Chernik said.
Runners were dressed as Santa, elves and there was even an abominable snowman. After the race, those with race bibs received special discounts from many downtown businesses and had an after-race party.


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Chongqing Tourism Investment and Chongqing Daily News Group signed a strategic and established several practical cooperation agreements on March 24, speeding up the revitalization of cultural tourism in Chongqing after COVID-19.
An unexpected epidemic severely hit China’s cultural tourism industry. In essence, every link of the industrial chain, including travel agencies, OTAs, scenic areas, theme parks, hotels (B&Bs), performances, and resorts, suffered a significant loss. The industry, which aims to serve people’s beautiful life, has been resilient with potential, although being highly environmentally-sensitive. Over the past few years, Chongqing has seen the cultural tourism industry embraces booming development. The epidemic brings new challenges but also is embedded with new opportunities.
Chongqing Tourism Investment, municipal-level tourism investment, and financing leader have 12 subsidiaries, 17 scenic areas, of which two are 5A-rated, and eight are 4A-rated, seven five-star Yangtze Gold Cruises, 12 middle-range, and upscale hotels, of which 3 are five-star, and 7 are four-star, and other valuable tourism resources. It, therefore, creates a five-in-one tourism industrial chain incorporating scenic areas, hotels, cruises, travel agencies, and real estates.
Chongqing Daily News Group is a mainstream media group of Chongqing. Recently, it has been promoting media convergence, resulting in an Omnimedia matrix led by Chongqing Daily, cqnews.net, and CQCB and composed of outdoor media and Chongqing International Media Center. It covers 350 million people. Platforms, such as Chongqing Culture & Tourism International Communication Center, Tourism Development Center, News Tourism Group, under the Chongqing Daily News Group are capable of planning, marketing and execution of industrial product and product integration.
The two parties have reached many practical cooperation agreements. First, they will deepen project cooperation. Chongqing Daily News Group and Chongqing Locajoy Theme Park in Yongchuan District will develop in-depth capital collaboration, and the former will participate in the comprehensive integration and marketing of the latter; Chongqing Tourism Investment will employ Chongqing Daily News Group’s media and other channels to advertise its scenic areas, cruises, hotels, travel agencies, and other products, to improve its brand value and influence significantly.
Second, they will deepen marketing cooperation. The two parties will jointly plan and organize a special tour and personalized tour routes covering the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle and the Yangtze River international golden tourism belt. They will also promote performances in scenic areas and competition events. With such efforts, they are expected to quickly foster and expand the cultural tourism market and revitalize tourism consumption in the city.
Guan Hong, Secretary of the CPC Chongqing Daily News Group Committee and President of Industry Company of Chongqing Daily News Group, said that the Group was responsible for exerting its professional and publicizing strengths to stimulate the cultural tourism industry of Chongqing.


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COVID-19 Fuels the Global Rise in Digital Payments.
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated financial inclusion, resulting in a significant increase in digital payments in tandem with the global expansion of formal financial services. According to the Global Findex 2021 database, this expansion created new economic opportunities while also narrowing the gender gap in account ownership and building household resilience to better manage financial shocks.
As of 2021, 76% of adults worldwide have a bank, other financial institution, or mobile money provider account, up from 68% in 2017 and 51% in 2011. Importantly, the increase in account ownership was evenly distributed across a much larger number of countries. Previously, much of the growth in previous Findex surveys over the last decade was concentrated in India and China, but this year’s survey found that the percentage of account ownership increased by double digits in 34 countries since 2017.
The pandemic has also increased the use of digital payments. Over 40% of adults in low and middle-income economies (excluding China) made merchant in-store or online payments using a card, phone, or the internet for the first time since the pandemic began. More than a third of adults in all low- and middle-income economies paid their utility bills directly from a formal account. Following the start of the pandemic, more than 80 million adults in India made their first digital merchant payment, while over 100 million adults in China did.
Two-thirds of adults worldwide now make or receive digital payments, with developing economies increasing their share from 35% in 2014 to 57% by 2021. In developing countries, 71% have a bank, other financial institution, or mobile money provider account, up from 63% in 2017 and 42% in 2011. Mobile money accounts have significantly increased financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“The digital revolution has catalyzed increases in financial service access and use around the world, transforming how people make and receive payments, borrow, and save,” said World Bank Group President David Malpass. “Creating an enabling policy environment, promoting payment digitalization, and expanding access to formal accounts and financial services for women and the poor are some of the policy priorities to mitigate the development reversals caused by the ongoing overlapping crises.”
For the first time since the Global Findex database’s inception in 2011, the survey discovered that the gender gap in account ownership has narrowed, providing women with greater privacy, security, and control over their money. Since the last survey round in 2017, the gap has shrunk from 7 to 4 percentage points globally and from 9 to 6 percentage points in low- and middle-income countries.
In developing economies, approximately 36% of adults now receive a wage or government payment, a payment for the sale of agricultural products, or a domestic remittance payment into an account. According to the data, receiving a payment into an account rather than cash can encourage people to use the formal financial system; when people received digital payments, 83% used their accounts to make digital payments. Almost two-thirds used their account for cash management, while roughly 40% used it to save, contributing to the expansion of the financial ecosystem.
Despite advancements, many adults around the world still do not have a reliable source of emergency funds. Only about half of adults in low- and middle-income economies said they could get extra money easily during an emergency, and they frequently rely on untrustworthy sources of finance, such as family and friends.
“The world has a critical opportunity to build a more inclusive and resilient economy and provide a gateway to prosperity for billions of people,” said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and one of the database’s supporters. “By investing in digital public infrastructure and payment and ID system technologies, as well as updating regulations to foster innovation and protect consumers, governments can build on the Findex progress and expand access to financial services for all who need them.”
In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, the lack of an identity document remains an important barrier preventing 30% of adults from opening a mobile money account, indicating an opportunity to invest in accessible and trusted identification systems. Over 80 million adults without bank accounts continue to receive government payments in cash; digitizing some of these payments could save money and reduce corruption. To increase account ownership and usage, trust in financial service providers, confidence in financial products, tailored product design, and a strong and enforced consumer protection framework will be required.
The World Bank produces the Global Findex database every three years in collaboration with Gallup, Inc., and it surveys how people in 123 economies use financial services throughout 2021.
Overviews of the Regions:
1.)EAP Global Findex 2021 Regional Overview-
In East Asia and the Pacific, financial inclusion is divided into two parts: what is happening in China and what is happening in the region’s other economies. In China, 89% of adults have an account, and 82% of those accounts are used to make digital merchant payments. In the rest of the region, 59% of adults have an account, and 23% of adults have made digital merchant payments, 54% for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Account ownership increased by double digits in Cambodia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Thailand, while the gender gap in the region remains low at 3 percentage points, but the gap between poor and rich adults is 10 percentage points.
Account ownership has increased by 13 percentage points in Europe and Central Asia since 2017, reaching 78% of adults. The use of digital payments is widespread, with nearly three-quarters of adults using an account to make or receive a digital payment. COVID-19 increased usage among the 10% of adults who made their first digital merchant payment during the pandemic. Digital technology has the potential to increase account use among the 80 million banked adults who continue to make merchant payments only in cash, including 20 million in Russia and 19 million in Turkey, the region’s two largest economies.
Since 2017, Latin America and the Caribbean have seen the greatest increase in account ownership of any developing region, with 73% of adults having an account. Digital payments are important, as 40% of adults paid a merchant digitally, with 14% doing so for the first time during the pandemic. COVID-19 also influenced the 15% of adults who made their first utility bill payment directly from their account for the first time during the pandemic, which was more than double the developing country average. Given that 150 million banked adults made merchant payments only in cash, including more than 50 million in Brazil and 16 million in Colombia, opportunities for greater use of digital payments remain.
The Middle East and North Africa region has made strides in closing the gender gap in account ownership, which has shrunk from 17 percentage points in 2017 to 13 percentage points in 2018—42% of women now have an account compared to 54% of men. There are numerous opportunities to broaden account ownership by digitizing payments that are currently made in cash, such as payments for agricultural products and private sector wages (about 20 million adults with no account in the region received private sector wages in cash, including 10 million in the Arab Republic of Egypt). Another opportunity is to move people to formal modes of saving, given that the region’s 14 million adults without accounts—including 7 million women—saved using semiformal methods.
In South Asia, 68% of adults have an account, a figure that has not changed since 2017, despite the wide regional variation. In India and Sri Lanka, for example, 78% and 89% of adults have an account, respectively. However, account usage has increased due to digital payments, with 34% of adults using their accounts to make or receive a payment, up from 28% in 2017. Given the continued dominance of cash—even among account owners—to make merchant payments, digital payments present an opportunity to increase both account ownership and usage.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, mobile money adoption has increased to the point where 33% of adults now have a mobile money account, which is three times higher than the global average of 10%. Although mobile money services were initially designed to allow people to send money to friends and family living elsewhere in the country, adoption and usage have spread beyond those origins, with 3-out-of-4 mobile account owners in 2021 making or receiving at least one non-person-to-person payment, and 15% of adults using their mobile money account to save.


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By Randy Kraft, Special to the Independent
Since developers of the first Montage resort built a luxurious craftsmen-style sandcastle in Laguna Beach in 2003, nearby resorts from Newport Beach to Dana Point have been scrambling to compete.
Other top-rated ocean view luxury hotels have invested in major property upgrades – Surf & Sand and Marriott Laguna Cliffs in 2010 and the Ritz Carlton in 2013 — even as a new rival, Pelican Hill in Newport Beach, opened its doors in 2008, just in time to face the economic downturn.
Now, in response to a stabilizing economy and an expanding tourist base, what might be called the Montage effect seems to be gaining new momentum. A handful of coastal luxury resorts are seeking opportunities to build profitability and market share by increasing room rates and enhancing amenities.
The owners of the St. Regis Monarch Beach, which opened in 2001, are the latest to add a new gleam to their property, updating spaces and finalizing plans to re-launch their day-spa as a Miraval, the first extension of that award-winning resort beyond Tucson, Ariz. At the same time, the Blackstone Group, the largest hotel investment firm in the world, last month announced plans to acquire Strategic Hotels and Resorts’ portfolio of 17 luxury hotels, including the Montage.
As a result, Orange County median room rates in the first half of the year are up as much as 50%, according to Atlas Hospitality Group, a hotel broker based in Irvine. Local rates have increased 7 – 9% in each of the last three years, with the same expected next year, says Peggy Trott, chair of Visit Laguna Beach, the city’s tourism promoter.
Hoteliers intentionally dropped local room rates for several years to maintain occupancy near 80 percent, which Trott claims they have. This compares to occupancy rates in Los Angeles County.
“Hotels are the first to go down, but unlike other real estate, the first to rebound,” says Alan Reay, Atlas Group president. “Room rates fell precipitously during the recession years, with luxury resorts down 40 – 60%, and now that segment is poised for growth.”
The sunny southern coast has long been a year-round destination, but now lures guests arriving from different shores.
Ed Fuller, president of the OC Visitors Association, points to the influx of the international traveler as the primary growth engine, which bodes well for a return-on-investment by companies like Blackstone.
“We see 4 million international visitors yearly now, with an increasing proportion of tourists from China and the Middle East,” says Fuller. “These are frequently individual travelers, versus groups or meetings.”
The OC marketing organization opened offices in Beijing and Shanghai, and Visit Laguna Beach also markets to these markets, says Trott.
“China has now surpassed Canada as the No. 1 source of visitors to California,” says Reay.
On one recent weekend, a large contingent of Indian guests at the St. Regis were dressed for a wedding, Asians predominated the lobby and deck bars at the Ritz Carlton, and a walk along the pathways of the Montage revealed several Middle Eastern families.
“We’ve always wanted to visit this beautiful place,” said a woman from the United Arab Emirates who declined to give her name.
It is no wonder then that hotel property valuations are also at record highs, up 78% in the first half of 2015, according to Atlas. When the Montage Laguna Beach sold earlier this year to Strategic Partners for the equivalent of $1.4 million per room, it was the highest price ever paid, matching the Waldorf Astoria in New York in 2014. In contrast, Blackstone has acquired its new stable on sale, even at a price tag of $6 billion, an average of $750,000 per room.
Luxury resorts as a rule “refresh” every four to five years, with 4-5% of revenues designated annually to property maintenance, though Fuller says this varies by property. During hard times, refreshes can be tabled, and during the best of times, profitability may take precedence.
“Operators are always working to maximize their rates, and also try to keep customers happy,” says Fuller.
The St. Regis, a frequent site for conferences and events, is banking on the power of the Miraval brand as the final phase of an extensive property renovation.
“This transformation follows our recent 400-room refresh, a redesigned lobby, five new dining concepts and an expansive pool area,” says Ian Pullan, general manager.
Miraval is credited for pioneering the destination spa and since 1995 has been consistently top-rated by travel media. Owned by KSL Capital Partners and Revolutionary Places, a newly appointed chief executive, Elizabeth Blair, is putting her stamp on the brand. She struck a deal with ESPA, which operates 450 luxury spas in 50 countries, to expand the Miraval brand through the U.S. and Europe. In this case, the spa and salon will transform into a Miraval at the St. Regis in spring 2016, while the resort will retain its original moniker and identity.
The author is a freelance writer and novelist who formerly covered City Hall for the Indy.
Correction appended Oct. 5, 2015
At present, only room renovations at the St. Regis have been completed; the improvements to the lobby and new dining concepts in addition to the Miravel spa are all to be completed by next spring.


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If you were at #RLTM Realtime NY 11 last week, you may have participated in a The Halo Group’s “Realtime Marketing Reality Check” survey. The survey focuses on how rapidly companies are adopting emerging technologies. The survey itself was conducted via an emerging technology, with #RLTM attendees snapping a QR code to participate. 40% of respondents say they plan to create marketing campaigns around QR codes, shortcodes or other forms of mobile marketing.
The reality check? During the conference, PepsiCo Head of Digital Shiv Singh of PepsiCo Beverages called for companies to allocate 50% of their marketing budgets to realtime marketing efforts. But most of the survey respondents reported that their organizations currently allocate less than a quarter of their budget to realtime, social media or mobile marketing efforts.
“It’s no surprise that brands are increasingly utilizing emerging technology in their marketing strategies. However it is interesting how organizations continue to oppose allotting a bigger budget for realtime marketing,” said Linda Passante, CEO/Co-Founder, The Halo Group, a New York-based branding and marketing communications agency, which was also a sponsor of the conference.
The survey identified four key areas of focus for marketers to effectively implement realtime marketing: culture, training, technology and budget. The key findings for each area:
- 1 out 4 respondents described receptivity to innovation in their company as only “baby steps permitted”
- Only 14% of those who answered had a highly developed training program for staff that manages their brands’ presence in social media
- Only 25% of survey-takers have a completely mobile-friendly website
- 71% of respondents allocate less than 25% of their budget to realtime marketing efforts
In terms of what’s next, survey participants have big plans for using realtime tools to market their brand in the next year. 41% plan to send promotional efforts via social media, 40% plan to use QR codes or other forms of mobile marketing technologies, 39% are planning on realtime customer interactions or customer service.
And there’s relatively little to get in the way of those plans.
Asked about the biggest barriers to getting buy-ins, 22% cited Finance. But 20% said there were none.
For a copy of the full report, please visit The Realtime Report.
**This post originially appeared on The Realtime Report, June 10, 2011**


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There's a lot of uncertainty in the marketplace, which both poses challenges and provides opportunity for investors. But if we can correctly predict how a market will play out and who the winners will be, the potential to make money on the stock market is incredible.
As we look into 2015, we asked three of our contributors to highlight what they would like to see in the year ahead that may change their investing thesis.
Travis Hoium (more 200+ mile range electric vehicles): If electric vehicles are ever going to become mainstream, there needs to be a big advancement in driving range available to consumers. Tesla Motors has a Model S that will go nearly 300 miles, but outside of that, most EVs only go 50-100 miles on a full charge. That's not a recipe for upending conventional vehicles, especially against $2 gasoline.
The U.S. Commerce Department has implemented import tariffs in an effort to address illegal dumping and unfair pricing practices, but according to the American Steel and Iron Institute, imports still hold 30% of the U.S. market.
Domestic steelmakers Nucor and Steel Dynamics are great operators, but oversupply is keeping them from shining. Nucor -- the industry's best operator -- reported utilization rates are well below 80% of capacity, a number that an Ernst and Young report says should be closer to 85% for the industry.
There have been some improvements over the past year, but global capacity remains beyond demand. The only two things that will change this are increased demand -- hard to predict with a weak Europe and slowing Chinese growth -- or reduced manufacturing capacity.
Eventually something will give, but until then, it's going to be tough going in the steel business.
John Rosevear (Where is GM?): I'd like to see General Motors have a year where it can finally show us where it's at.
A year ago, GM had a new CEO, and its future finally looked bright -- but Mary Barra was just a few weeks into her tenure when a recall scandal erupted. That scandal dented GM's 2014 profits in a big way, and it also made it hard for investors and car shoppers to see that the General actually has a pretty good thing going.
GM's newest models are light-years beyond what it was making just a few years ago. Models like the Chevy Impala and Cadillac CTS sedans and the new midsize Chevy Colorado pickup are racking up awards and winning tough comparison tests. They're terrific cars -- and they're hitting the market just as GM's business is finally starting to come together, too.
GM has finally learned its lesson on profit-robbing discounts. Better-quality products mean it can be more restrained with incentives, and that has pushed its profit margins in North America sharply higher. A massive effort to boost its old Cadillac brand is gaining traction and should pay off big in time. Meanwhile, it's adding profitable crossover SUVs to its strong-selling lineup in China, and sweeping organizational changes (and again, better products) have its money-losing European operation on track to a profit in 2016 .
It's still fashionable in some quarters to beat on GM because of its 2009 bailout, and because of last year's recall mess that brought back tough memories of Bad Old General Motors. But under Barra's leadership, the company itself has moved far beyond those bad old days, and as a GM shareholder, what I wish for it in 2015 is a fair chance to show the world what it can do -- and, to be fair, where there's still more work to be done.
Warren Buffett: This new technology is a "real threat"
At the recent Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, Warren Buffett admitted this emerging technology is threatening his biggest cash-cow. Buffett's fear can be your gain. Only a few investors are embracing this new market, which experts say will be worth over $2 trillion . Find out how you can cash in on this technology before the crowd catches on, by jumping onto one company that could get you the biggest piece of the action. Click here to access a free investor alert on the company we're calling the brains behind the technology.
The article 3 Things We Would Like to See in 2015 originally appeared on Fool.com.
Jason Hall owns shares of Tesla Motors. John Rosevear owns shares of General Motors. Travis Hoium has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends General Motors, Nucor, and Tesla Motors. The Motley Fool owns shares of Tesla Motors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days . We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy .
Copyright © 1995 - 2015 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy .
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.


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Porsche NFTs: Luxury car manufacturer Porsche is set to embark on its Web3 journey this week, following in the footsteps of high-end brands such as Louis Vuitton, Prada and Gucci in releasing their genesis NFT collection.
Based around their iconic 911 model, the Porsche collection of 7,500 NFTs will feature virtual Porsche 911 Carrera which can be aesthetically designed by the owners to produce unique assets representing one of over 150,000 variations.
The public mint will commence on January 23rd on the Ethereum blockchain at a price point of 0.911ETH.
According to the company, owners of the Porsche digital collectable — referred to as the Porsche Pioneers Circle — can expect utility offerings such as special merchandise, exclusive behind the scenes access, as well as the opportunity to attend virtual and IRL events, among other benefits.
In addition, it was revealed that “every virtual 911 comes with an individual license plate ranging from 1 to 7,500. Some of them with special meaning for Porsche.”
Porsche NFTs: Climate sustainability
Porsche has consistently outlined its intent on supporting climate endeavours, announcing their sustainability strategy 2030 which includes pivoting the company’s operations to focus on areas of decarbonisation, circular economy and diversity, among other sectors.
One of the key areas of focus for Porsche is reducing the environmental impact of its vehicles. This includes developing more efficient engines, using lightweight materials in the construction of its cars, and investing in electric and hybrid technology.
Additionally, Porsche has made a commitment to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from its production facilities by 30% before 2025, and “the goal of being balance sheet CO2 neutral across their entire life cycle.”
Porsche decided to launch their collection on Ethereum, the most popular network for NFT audiences and market volume.
The network has faced criticism for its high energy consumption in recent years, largely the result of its proof-of-work consensus algorithm used to validate transactions on the network.
However, with the transition to proof-of-stake, it is expected that Ethereum’s environmental impact will significantly decrease.


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Even in a steady sports memorabilia market like Chicago, business could be better for one long-time shop. They’re trying to make up for it elsewhere.
Not many sports card shops can say they’ve been around since 1973, but CPS Sports and Coins–located in Chicago’s Loop–is a fixture.
Cubs, Bears, Bulls, Sox, Hawks…it all moves in good times. These, however, are not the best of times. Complicated by a physical move, the economic barometer has been down for the store.
“Sports, stamps and coins are not essential when you have to pay the bills,” says owner Ned Fishkin.
Still, the store has been around long enough to have seen this kind of economy before and Medill Reports says they’re savvy enough to shift their efforts online–and to another part of the business.


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Splatoon 3 has been confirmed with an all-new gameplay trailer that features new locations, customization, features, weapons and more.
Fans of the show have been arriving for a long time, but Splatoon 3 has been officially confirmed for Nintendo Switch. The popular shooters franchise will launch its third entry in 2022, possibly with some sort of solo narrative. Details are scarce, but the new trailer and announcement for the game were among the brightest moments in the latest Nintendo Direct presentation.
The long awaited Splatoon 3 will be the second entry in the series to make its way to Nintendo Switch, following the game’s initial sequel in 2017. The series has made a name for itself with its unique approach to a competitive third-person shooter, including making it accessible to all ages. Players have to paint the map with their team color while fighting other players, the more team color paint on the ground, the easier the player can navigate the map and quickly achieve victory . It’s colorful, fun, and fills a void of competitive shooters that are valid on Nintendo platforms.
During a new Nintendo Direct, it was confirmed alongside a new remaster of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword than the long awaited Splatoon 3 will be released in 2022. More details are expected in the future, but the first trailer features a more extensive customization system as well as a pet that players can walk around with (though it’s unclear what ‘there will be different forced to stick to this weird little chicken / fish hybrid). The trailer also features a new environment, a vacant lot with an upturned Eiffel Tower and a train going back and forth between this neighborhood and the city. The trailer also features typical multiplayer matches and fights, but there’s nothing particularly new or noteworthy about it.
The YouTube description of the trailer gives more ideas on this Splatoon 3 will hold in store. “Splatoon 3 is coming to Nintendo Switch in 2022! In the aftermath of the chaos, enter the sunburnt Splatlands and new town, Splatsville, home to battle-hardened Inklings and Octolings. New weapons, new moves, and more await, so be sure to keep an eye out for updates to come,The trailer’s description reads. This seems to confirm that there will be more unique content not yet shown in the initial release trailer. In particular, players will keep a keen eye out for new weapons as the game could present.
The Nintendo Direct has also confirmed a number of other new games beyond. Splatoon 3, as a collection of Ninja gaiden Games. Unfortunately, no new details have been revealed for Breath of the Wild 2, but it has been confirmed that the game will receive more information later this year. Nintendo also took the first look at a new Mario golf game, titles ports like Stubbs the zombie, as well as new third-party titles like a DC Super Hero Girls Game. Needless to say, the future of Nintendo Switch is diverse and quite compelling.
Next: Splatoon 2 Fans Throw Huge Tournament After Nintendo Cancels Official Event
Why the future of Star Wars needs Rian Johnson (despite the last Jedi split)


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DEUS electric hypercar concept made debut at New York show; Williams Advanced Engineering & Italdesign
The DEUS Vayanne production-oriented electric hypercar concept made its world debut last week at the New York International Auto Show. DEUS Automobiles was established in Vienna, Austria, in 2020.
Vayanne is the result of the three-way collaboration between DEUS Automobiles, Italdesign, and Williams Advanced Engineering with a shared goal of producing the first electric vehicle to cross the 2,200 horsepower mark (simulated, not validated) while delivering a comfortable and luxurious ride, outstanding performance figures (0-100 km/h in less than 1.99 seconds), and maximum daily usability in the hypercar class.
Williams Advanced Engineering and Italdesign announced their partnership in April 2021 for a high performance, flexible EV platform: EVX, supporting a long-term vision for EV architecture. (Earlier post.)
This rolling chassis utilized Williams Advanced Engineering’s expertise in electrification, light-weighting, innovative chassis structures and vehicle and system integration.


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Six – a number representing equilibrium, harmony and balance; the winning roll of a dice; the day man was created; the edition Jacket Required marks its homecoming to East London and introduces autumn/winter 2014.
Having launched at Rochelle School in London's Shoreditch in 2011, Jacket Required has since firmly established its place on the international fashion calendar for buyers, press and industry members alike. Following a run of successful events at Victoria House, Bloomsbury, the premium menswear trade show returns to its original London home in Shoreditch – a move that feels natural yet new. With a new venue, the event seizes the opportunity to evolve and develop, while preserving its original blueprint of a carefully edited offering for the fashion elite.
The Old Truman Brewery is the new home for Jacket Required, situated over two floors within a brand new space developed to house the autumn/winter 2014 edition. Once home to London’s largest brewery, the East London, grade-II listed location has been regenerated into a finely tuned creative quarter, with a unique environment allowing it to become a destination in its own right. Co-founder Craig Ford says, “Timing is key, and a return to East London seems natural. We’re moving forward with a new space – different to where we set out three years ago, but retaining the familiar in terms of architecture and feeling. It’s important to recognise and preserve everything the show embodies and the reason that brands, buyers and press have embraced Jacket Required.”
With a continuing pledge to present an optimum combination of both established brands and emerging labels, expectations remain high for the next edition. “Our aim has always been, and continues to be, to show the best premium casual collections”, says Mark Batista, the show’s co-founder. “Some brands have been part of Jacket Required from the very beginning, and will complement the new brands that we can now welcome to show with us in the seasons ahead.”
An epicentre of British culture, historically Shoreditch played host to the first staging of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet within the late 16th century Curtain Theatre. And now, in the modern day, the location has become synonymous with cutting-edge style and creativity – an area which, while experiencing an impetus of wealth, still holds a gritty East End appeal. A hub for fashion, arts and music, where period architecture is juxtaposed with original street art, Shoreditch symbolises a synergy between the old and new, traditional and contemporary, with a cultural heritage, ensuring the new home of Jacket Required, and autumn/winter 2014, is full of East London promise.


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In order to bolster their talent, Oculus has acquired Carbon Design, a Seattle-based hardware designer who were the lead designers on the Xbox 360 controller, widely received as one of the best controllers built for console.
Carbon Design has been working with Oculus for over a year now on multiple projects and it looks like the VR company wanted to seal the deal, grabbing the talent and making sure no other company could get dibs.
Peter Bristol, the creative director at Carbon Design, praised the Oculus team for the first real virtual-reality headset. The design team could shape what the next version of the Oculus headset looks like, making it more comfortable to use.
Oculus has been on quite the spending spree ever since Facebook’s $2 billion acquisition of the VR company. The team has been purchasing small VR and design startups, mostly looking for more talent to bring to the Oculus team.
The first Oculus VR headset should be available before the end of 2014, other virtual reality headsets have been shown off like Project Morpheus and we have heard that Valve is creating their own hardware VR headset.
It might be a race for first out of the door and since Oculus is a few years ahead of the pack, it looks like they will be first. This might not mean that much if the first Oculus headset does not offer much in the way of games, forcing players to wait for developer interest.
Facebook’s ownership of Oculus also brings a lot of questions about the future of the VR headset, will we see an interface similar to Facebook? Will we have options to share our gameplay and other achievements with Facebook friends? This could hinder Oculus’ future in the VR sector – if it fails to impress users.


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Zicom Electronic Security Systems is one of the most known brands in security systems in India. People who watch Big Boss might have seen the camera product boldy showing the Zicom brand.
One of the major concerns is the lower shareholding by promoters and not giving out a fat dividend when they sold two of its divisions to Schneider Electric.
But when we look at the stock technically the volumes have picked up over the last 3-4 months and a technical breakout seen yesterday and confirmed today with higher volumes.
Zicom Technical View
-> The triangle breakout indicates a move to 80-90 zones quickly before taking a pause.
-> Today the volumes are almost double as of yesterday by 2 pm.
-> Volume accumulation indicates that this breakout can head even beyond 90 also but we will take this as a trading pick and keep trailing when it moves in line to expectations.
If investors who have been tracking the stock better please post their comments will reduce our research work on the company. The sector is promising, brand is promising if only the management seems clean it has all ingredients of a multibagger. Godrej Inds through its subsidiary Ensemble Holdings & Finance Ltd has bought 2.2% stake also makes it an interesting bet.
Will post more once able to research more for now its a trading pick.
Disclosure: The stock has been recommended to our clients at 71-74 levels in the past two days.
TECHNICAL ANALYSIS TRAINING MUMBAI – January 11-12
For more details mail to email@example.com or call 09819225396 Nooresh ( after market hours )
Thanks and Regards,
Twitter – https://twitter.com/nooreshtech
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/nooreshtech


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Cryptic Studios, purveyor of Champions Online, Star Trek Online, and the upcoming Neverwinter, has just posted an ominous security warning on its official site. Its new security procedures have recently detected that hackers gained unauthorized access to a user database back in December of 2010. According to the studio,
The unauthorized access included user account names, handles, and encrypted passwords for those accounts. Even though the passwords were encrypted, it is apparent that the intruder has been able to crack some portion of the passwords in this database. All accounts that we believe were present in the database have had the passwords reset, and customers registered to these accounts have been notified via e-mail of this incident.While Cryptic does not believe additional information (like player names and credit card numbers) was taken, it advises vigilance all the same and warns against phishing scams. We'll keep you posted as we learn more.
(Thanks to Geoff for the tip!)


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Numerous companies were tipped as potential suitors for Palm prior to HP sealing the deal, but according to BusinessInsider the roster includes heavyweights Apple, Google and RIM. Their “source familiar with the negotiations” claims Apple eyed Palm for its patent and intellectual property portfolio, while Google are tipped as wanting the same thing but dropping out because they were unaware their Cupertino rivals were actually involved in negotiations.
As for RIM, the source reckons they were forerunners for the most part, and indeed “had to work incredibly hard to blow it.” That breaking point came when RIM made a strong initial offer – higher than HP’s final agreed price per share, in fact – but which the Canadian cellphone company actually reduced after further diligence.
Interestingly, Apple are tipped as considering keeping Palm going as a reasonably separate endeavour – perhaps as a keyboard-centric rival specifically targeted at capturing RIM’s market share – despite their own iOS platform. However they failed to bid strongly enough and lost out to HP.


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Bitcoin is hard to miss these days. Chatter about the cryptocurrency is everywhere as more businesses — from coffee shops to online retailers — accept it as a payment option.
That raises an important question for us: will there come a day when buyers can use bitcoin to finance a home?
Maybe. Bitcoin is slowly making its way into real estate but it’s not considered a viable option for paying off a mortgage.