Xbox Sessions: Rob Gronkowski & Todd Gurley to Play Madden NFL 19 in Big Game Edition Today1/30/2019
This site uses cookies for analytics, personalized content and ads. By continuing to browse this site, you agree to this use. Learn more
0 Comments
Grab’s fundraising push continues unabated after the Southeast Asian ride-hailing firm announced that it has raised $200 million from Central Group, a retail conglomerate based in Thailand. Central’s business covers restaurants, hotels and more than 30 malls in Thailand, while it has operations in markets that include Vietnam and Indonesia. Its public-listed holding companies alone are worth more than $15 billion. Singapore-based Grab confirmed that this deal is not part of its ongoing Series H fundraising, but is instead an investment into its Thailand-based business. Rumors of the deal were first reported by Reuters last year. Following this investment, Central said it will work with Grab in a number of areas in Thailand, including bringing its restaurants into the Grab Food service, adding Grab transportation to its physical outlets and bringing Grab’s logistics service into its businesses. The investment represents the first time an investor has bought into a local Grab country unit, and the goal is to strengthen Grab’s position in Thailand — a market with 70 million consumers and Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy. Grab is under threat from Go-Jek, which expanded to Thailand at the end of 2018. While Go-Jek’s ‘Get’ service is currently limited to motorbikes on-demand in Thailand, its ambition is to recreate its Indonesia-based business that covers four-wheeled cars, mobile payments, on-demand services and more. Central is a huge presence in the country, and in recent years it has raised its efforts to translate that offline retail presence into the digital space. Past deals have included the acquisition of Rocket Internet’s Zalora fashion business in 2016, and — more recently — a $500 million joint venture with Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com to create online retail and fintech businesses in Thailand. Grab, meanwhile, is pushing on with its $3 billion Series H funding round. That deal is anchored by a $1 billion investment from Toyota but it also includes contributions from the likes of Microsoft, Booking Holdings and Yamaha Motors. More capital is waiting in the wings, however, with existing investor SoftBank in the process of transferring its investment to its Vision Fund with a view to investing a further $1.5 billion. The total fundraising effort is targeted at a lofty goal of $5 billion, sources told TechCrunch. To date, Grab has raised $6.8 billion from investors, according to data from Crunchbase. That makes it Southeast Asia’s most capitalized tech startup and it was most recently valued at $11 billion. The company recently announced it has completed three billion rides; it claims 130 million downloads across its eight markets. Go-Jek, meanwhile, closed the first portion of a $2 billion funding round last week, sources told TechCrunch. The new financing is aimed at growing out its presence in new market expansions which, beyond Thailand, include Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines. Fun news here! We’re partnering up with the good peeps at PaleoHacks to bring you some new recipes, workouts, tips, and more! PaleoHacks is a top source for amazing Paleo recipes, fitness tips, and wellness advice to help you live life to the fullest. Read on for a delicious immunity-boosting soup — and stay tuned for more healthy content from them in the coming weeks. Staying away from cold and flu germs during the winter can be an impossible task, so it’s important to arm your immune system with plenty of vitamins and minerals that can help ward off these viruses. This vibrant, veggie-packed soup includes herbs and vegetables known for stopping a cold in its tracks. Keep this one-pot soup on hand when you feel signs of a cold coming on, like sneezing, sniffling, and a scratchy throat. (Psst… if you keep getting sick and don’t know why, it might be one of these six reasons!) You can cook this soup up in under an hour, and it makes a nice big batch — perfect for winter meal prep. Before diving into the recipe, here’s a breakdown of the benefits that give this soup its name:
Step By Step Instructions
Get started by heating ghee in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. You could also use avocado oil, but ghee offers a rich and buttery aroma and flavor that can’t be matched. Add chopped carrots and onion, cover, and cook for five minutes. Add garlic and continue to cook, uncovered, for another five minutes to soften the garlic.
Next, stir in bone broth, lemon juice, turmeric, sea salt, and pepper. Add thyme sprigs and bring to a boil.
Simmer for 15 minutes, then add the kale and let it wilt. Ladle the soup into bowls, garnish with a sprinkle of lemon zest, and sip your way to health!
Immunity Boosting Veggie Soup RecipePrep time: 10 minutes Total time: 37 minutes Serves 8
TOOLS NEEDED Dutch oven INGREDIENTS
DIRECTIONS
Tip: Leftovers can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to one week. Do you have any favorite home remedies for warding off or fighting cold-weather illness? --PaleoHacks (First posted in 2017) People often come to me wanting to lose weight or improve their lifestyle, but their moods are anything but well. Sometimes, when I ask them about it, they'll say that their weight is why they think they're struggling with depression or anxiety. I always tell them the same thing. Mood comes first. Intentional weight loss requires the very things that mood disturbances often preclude - the ability to consistently, plan, organize, and motivate. Setting yourself up to struggle with weight loss by attempting to affect intentional changes when your mood is squarely in the way is not only unfair, it might make matters worse by giving you something to feel guilty about when you're understandably and realistically challenged. And it's also important to note that your mental health is far more important than your weight. So regardless of your weight, whether its working with your family physician, your employee assistance program, reading books, talking to friends, or looking into community based counselling resources (many of which offer sliding scales for payment), mental health should be your first priority. Sometimes I use a running analogy. You can't start work on learning to run if your ankle's currently sprained. First you work on your ankle. Then you learn to run. Same here. First mood. Then weight. (And remember, for every #BellLetsTalk tweet, RT, and Facebook share today, Bell will donate a nickel towards mental health. And yes, it's marketing for them, but unlike hospitals raising money with cookies, telecommunication does not contribute to the burden of societal illness or promote an unhealthy lifestyle - so tweet and share away!)
This site uses cookies for analytics, personalized content and ads. By continuing to browse this site, you agree to this use. Learn more
One of 3D printing’s biggest selling points has always been the ability to create objects that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to build with more traditional methods. A new collaboration between Google and industrial 3D printer manufacturer Stratasys, however, finds the companies working to re-create the familiar. The latest addition to the Open Heritage Project finds Google Arts and Culture leveraging Stratsys’ multi-color prototyping machine, the J750 3D, to create models of ancient objects and landmarks. The project is designed to give museum-goers and researchers access to rare or on-off creations and to help preserve structures from the ravages of time. “The project was to explore physically making these artifacts in an effort to get people hooked and excited about seeing pieces in a museum or research context,” Google Design Technologist Bryan Allen said in a statement tied to the announcement. “That’s when we turned to 3D Printing. “With the new wave of 3D Printed materials now available, we’re able to deliver better colors, higher finish, and more robust mechanical properties – getting much closer to realistic prototypes and final products right off the machines.” The teams use 3D scanners to create a CAD design of objects and architecture from heritage sites. Those can then be accessed as a file or printed on one of the of these machines. Amazon HQ2 hearing: a huge political battle has erupted over the tech giants NYC expansion.1/30/2019 Amazonâs decision to build one of its two new headquarters in New York City was supposed to be a slam dunk. For its political backers, who made the deal largely in secret and hoped for a celebratory reveal, it was a no-brainer. The deal promised 25,000 jobs â good ones â with an average salary of $150,000 a year, in Queens, one of the cityâs outer boroughs. It was a move that would help cement New York City as a tech hub on par with Silicon Valley. And it would be a joint victory for two outspoken politicians, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, who usually donât agree on much. âI think they thought this was the greatest victory of their careersâ said New York City councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer, who represents the district where Amazon HQ2 is slated to be built; he is one of the most vocal politicians against the deal. But the public started clapping back before de Blasio and Cuomo could finish giving each other congratulatory high fives. Residents were outraged that one of the worldâs richest corporations was receiving a combined total of $3 billion in tax subsidies from city and state funds. It didnât matter that advocates of the deal could rationalize the economics with future gains from the jobs and community benefits Amazon would provide. People were upset, not just with the terms of the deal, but with how it was made â behind closed doors, with limited public input, and no involvement of local city leaders. These kinds of deals happen in smaller cities that need to lure corporations in, but in New York City, the sentiment was, Amazon would have come anyway. On the day of the announcement, the nationâs most popular new member of Congress, Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, tweeted harsh words against the deal to her 2.5 million followers. And on the ground, the same grassroots organizations that helped propel Ocasio-Cortez to national leadership, including the New York Democratic Socialists of America, were now organizing local rallies and door-to-door campaigns against Amazon. People were as angry with the contents of the deal as they were with the way it was made â in private and without input from local politicians, or citizens. About a month later, at the first of three scheduled public hearing at New York City Council, protesters held a rally outside chambers and interrupted the hearings, chanting âG-T-F-O, Amazon has got to go!â City council members were also fiery in their remarks â ridiculing the cityâs plans to help Amazon build a private helipad for its executives. After more than three hours of tough questioning from the council and jeering from the crowd, the two Amazon executives who attended the hearing left the meeting looking visibly displeased. This Wednesday, a day before Amazonâs quarterly earnings report, there will be a second city council hearing thatâs set to be just as confrontational as the last one. So how did leaders at the HQ2 New York City negotiation table â the mayor, the governor, the economic development corporation, and Amazon let this happen? While Amazon may have anticipated the public backlash (especially among residents of the losing cities) in the grander scheme of their national search, shouldnât de Blasio and Cuomo have known their constituents better? âThereâs a real disconnect between decision makers and the feeling on the ground,â said New York State Senator Michael Gianaris, who, along with Van Bramer and New York State Assemblyman Ron Kim, has been among the more vocal politicians against the deal. âItâs a problem across the country where the anger at wealth concentration is not appreciated by people who are making decisions.â said Gianaris. Gianaris says he wants the deal to be âtorn upâ and start from scratch. Heâs trying to block the build, potentially by getting it voted down on the Public Authorities Control Board (PACB), where he says the state could halt funding for the subsidies. This seems like a long shot, since Amazon has so far bypassed going through standard local oversight committees â but opponents like Gianaris say they will consider taking legal action if Amazon doesnât go through state review processes. Whatâs more important â at least from a PR perspective for Amazon and the politicians who supported the deal â is whether the public is on their side. Amazon, for its part, has been on a charm offensive to win over residents of Queens. The company has hired lobbyists and a political consulting firm to drum up support. In recent months, it sent several mailers to locals to persuade them to get on board with the deal. The company announced Tuesday that it is launching a program to fund computer science courses at 130 New York City high schools, including more than 30 in Queens. The company also plans to announce two other initiatives at Wednesdayâs hearing according to the New York Times â a technical training certificate program at LaGuardia Community College and a 30-person customer service center that will hire New York public housing residents. To some extent, Amazon may already have support, albeit with reservations. A recent poll showed that 60 percent of registered Queens voters were in favor of Amazon moving into their borough, although 78 percent thought that New York City should be more involved in the process. Critics say that context matters, and that the more people know about the terms of the deal, the more they oppose it. But the point remains that many Queens residents are happy with the idea of Amazon moving in, on reasonable terms. Meanwhile, the politicians in support of the deal continue to stand behind it, albeit more quietly than they have in the past. In his recent 60-minute-plus State of the City address, de Blasio mentioned Amazon only briefly. âThe major new announcements from Amazon and Google show that the worldâs most innovative companies want to be here, and they want to hire New Yorkers,â de Blasio said. Google says that unlike Amazon, it didnât ask for tax breaks from the city for its recent expansion in NYC. The big questions going into Wednesdayâs public hearing will likely be: What will those Amazon jobs end up being, how many locals will fill them, and whether that will be enough to appease angry community members. The continued fight over Amazon HQ2 in Queens is a reminder that tech companies and local governments can no longer expect to be welcomed with open arms when they move into a major metropolis â especially one with a voice as loud as New York Cityâs. Unless you've been living under a reality-TV-proof rock for the past few months, you've likely been privy to ABC's seemingly never-ending supply of "Virgin Bachelor" content to publicize Colton Underwood's season of the show. From a take on the movie poster for The 40-Year-Old Virgin to limo entrances full of cringeworthy virginity jokes, season 23 has hinged almost entirely on the fact that the 27-year-old former NFL player has yet to do the deed. However, there's one diehard fan of The Bachelor out there who isn't buying into Colton's sex-free schtick: Jimmy Kimmel. The Jimmy Kimmel Live host dropped by The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Monday, where he didn't hold back while discussing the series's latest leading man. "Do you believe the Bachelor is a virgin?" he asked Ellen, who replied, "Well, he says he is." Image Source: ABC "I know he does. I used to tell my mother that, too. I think maybe that's the deal. Maybe he doesn't want his mom to know that he's been, you know," Jimmy joked. "If I were to announce, like, 'Hey, just want everyone to know I'm an adult virgin,' people would say, like, 'Yeah that makes sense. Yeah.' But you look at this guy and it's, like, there's no way he is. It's just impossible." As proof, Jimmy pointed to a shirtless photo of Colton, who spent a good portion of the Jan. 21 episode shirtless. "I mean, look at him! That's not a virgin," Jimmy said, before also noting that Colton refused to take a polygraph test to "prove" whether or not he's had sex yet. (Jimmy did give Colton an anatomy lesson back in September, though.) For what it's worth, nobody can technically "look" like a virgin, since being a virgin has no bearing on your physical appearance. (A fact that hopefully Jimmy Kimmel is very much aware of.) But all this focus on Colton and his very much intact v-card even prompted the Bachelor himself to tweet that everyone should "hang in there" during the premiere a few weeks back, because we'll eventually find out "other things" about him. (Sure, Jan.) Clearly Colton is in on the joke.
This site uses cookies for analytics, personalized content and ads. By continuing to browse this site, you agree to this use. Learn more
Your smartphone may soon pack 1TB in storage thanks to Samsungs new memory chip TechCrunch1/30/2019 Sick of filling the limited space on your phone with apps, photos and videos? Sometime in the near future, your smartphone could ship with more than one-terabyte (1TB) of internal storage and run 10 times faster than a standard memory card. Samsung is best known for making smartphones but the company’s memory division — one of its most profitable units — just announced that it has begun mass-producing a 1TB flash storage chip for phones. There’s no word on when they’ll be inside smartphones but Samsung said it plans to increase production during the first half of this year. “Smartphone enthusiasts will soon be able to enjoy storage capacity comparable to a premium notebook PC, without having to pair their phones with additional memory cards,” Samsung said. That 1TB capacity is double the previous highest that the Korean firm has produced. Its newest chip gave the Galaxy Note 9 a 512GB model which passes the terabyte milestone when a 512GB SD card is added. This new breakthrough promises to offer that without the help of a card, but the company also boasted of improved performance. Samsung said its new tech reaches speeds of up to 1,000 megabytes per second (MB/s) — that would transfer a 5GB-sized full HD video in just five seconds to transfer, as opposed to nearly one minute with conventional microSD cards. Increased memory will also enable better quality high-resolution video shooting thanks to faster random read speed, it said. Sounds good, but might this ship before the end of the year? The Samsung rumor mill is already speculating that the upcoming Galaxy Note 10 could include a 1TB model, but at this stage there is no concrete evidence. Keep an eye out for future leaks for more hints. |
AuthorAt the moment I'm exporting jigsaw puzzles in Prescott, AZ. Once had a dream of getting my feet wet with crayon art in Orlando, FL. Spent a year training wooden trains in Salisbury, MD. Spent childhood selling salsa for the underprivileged. Had moderate success building Virgin Mary figurines on the black market. Archives
April 2019
Categories |