#The Jeff Clone Project Paying Off

[wardog-of-the-endless]

Mar Is Not A Medical Professional

Nevertheless, I trust her (@markmybirds)

I think she's onto something here, gang...

[kyotosummer]

While I do appreciate the post, I do want to point out there's a SMIIIIIIDGE more nuance to this than just "he was a billionaire doing what billionaires do".

It's accurate, in an umbrella term, but I feel like just giving these kind of blanket statements actually take away the solution to the problem, because as much we want to believe that billionaires are some other species, the fact remains that several billionaires who have risen in America were lucky idiots who had no money before they tripped over a gold mine.

I've been trying to figure out wtf is going on with these rich assholes, and what the possible solutions are outside of violence (since no one commits to it anyway), and once I tried actually applying empathy to the equation I came across a horrifying realization:

Once ANY individual (yes, even you reading this) gets enough money to do what they actually WANT to do, they'll try to do it no matter what.

"I spared no expense" - Quoted by Hammond all throughout the original move

The dude wanted an interactive Dinosaur experience, period. Beginning and end. Probably loved dinosaurs since he was small.

Well, in order to get the dinosaurs, he had to clone one. Cue the curse of technology and money. (I'll come back to this)

Because he started this project through using technology to clone the dinosaurs, everyone in his team is giving him advice IS A SCIENTIST DOING THE CLONING, OR PROFITING OFF THE CLONING.

There's little need for animal caretakers at the beginning of the cloning stage, as they don't even know yet if they'll survive anyway, and since Henry Wu was thoroughly obsessed with making sure HE was the one to create the perfect specimens, he probably convinced Hammond to just let the scientists handle the dinosaurs after hatching, as well.

And since the dinosaurs were growing as healthy as he could tell under the care of the scientists, well, clearly the scientists are just as good as standard handlers.

And you KNOW Wu was the one to tell him the dinosaurs would imprint on Hammond if they saw him first after they were born, giving Hammond a false sense of security that the dinosaurs would be loyal to him.

So then we have a billionaire who bought an island and successfully cloned a T-Rex. He wants to "share this with the world" and decided the best way to do it and keep kids coming was to build a theme park.

And this is where the problems start: The scientists can figure out how much space a dinosaur can survive in, but they don't' actually study animal behavior, so they wouldn't know how much space is needed to KEEP A DINOSAUR HAPPY AND SAFE.

The dude didn't even get paleontologists into the picture until lawyers got involved, at which point he already had a fully-populated dinosaur island (easier to ask for forgiveness than permission), and he didn't start getting stuffy about things until it was discovered that he had to be EMPATHETIC to the Dinosaurs, and the process SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE AT A MUCH, MUCH *SLOWER* PACE.

And that is the curse of technology and money.Time is supposed to = Money, and he should only have to provide food and shelter to the creatures, so if he's got the money, why can't he have what he wants now?

If he's feeding the dinosaurs and they're touching grass, why wouldn't they be happy?

This same curse is also being cast through Amazon. We can have Bezos removed from the picture all we like, but it doesn't change the fact that AMAZON SHOULDN'T:

A) be this big

B) allow people to believe they can get their stuff in only two days if they pay for the subscription service

Because as much as we, the population, believe we should be entitled to what we want when we want it if we can afford it, this is the very attitude that caused the tragedy of Jurassic park, and now it's why Amazon employees are treated so much like shit and company-issued drones are expected to be common all too soon.

My Point Is: The only real way to stop the problem of Jeff Bezos is to stop cancelling PEOPLE, and start cancelling the services. Unless doing so would affect your literal health or get you killed in one way or another, stop paying for Amazon Prime and visit a brick and mortar store instead.

Watching Jurassic Park and I have Opinions on this place as a zoo. Feeding the predators live prey?? There's other ways to provide enrichment! Also that enclosure is way too small for multiple large animals like that! Electric fences? Ha! Electric fences won't stop a fucking goat! Where's the zoo experts? Who designed these enclosures?? Were all zoos this shitty in the 90s???

[aion-rsa]

Young Justice Season 3 Episode 22 Review: Antisocial

https://ift.tt/2Z64zvr

The quality rebounds as the focus narrows as Young Justice: Outsiders starts barrelling towards its season finale.

facebook

twitter

tumblr

This Young Justice: Outsiders review contains spoilers.

Young Justice Season 3 Episode 22

Grading on a relative scale, last week's episode of Young Justice was a debacle. It was too busy and too rushed. This week's episode, "Antisocial," fixes almost every problem with "Unknown Factors" by dramatically narrowing its scale. It sacrifices some action in doing so, but this episode really starts thundering towards the finale and pushing plot lines to their inevitable conclusions.

The action starts out focused at the Outsider's Hollywood headquarters. Everyone is recovering from their ordeal in Granny's X-Pit, but the only one nearing death is Dick. Batman grabs Oracle, Robin, Aquaman and Miss Martian for a private conference, and Black Lightning pieces everything together. He figures out that the resignations were staged, and that the team has been sent out on missions in conjunction with the League. He is...really pissed, and it gives us some terrific voice acting.

Khary Payton is best known for his work as Teen Titans/GO!'s Cyborg. He's a versatile, talented voice actor who's doing tons of work in Young Justice that is virtually unidentifiable from his Cyborg, and Cy in those shows is not especially prone to anger. So when he lets rip here, we get a little bit Cyborg, a lot of pent up rage, and he just uncorks in a really entertaining way that helps sell Jeff's fury at being used by Batman. And that rage and sense of betrayal contributes a lot to the most powerful moment of this story line, when Oracle takes Bruce down a peg.

Barbara Gordon is probably the only person on the show who is qualified to and can get away with pushing back on Batman. Yes, Jason Todd is alive and amnesiac and around, but Barbara in a wheelchair is the most visible, powerful and immediately available symbol of a failure of Bruce's mission, and everything this season has been part of or in service to that mission. The whole argument is great character work, especially for characters who have had less than 5 total minutes of screen time for the rest of the season, but it also wonderfully implies a richer world that's not part of the show. "Batman, Inc." was a throwaway line from Black Lightning early in the season because we assumed he'd be part of the actual Outsiders, but they've been operating this whole time while Dick was running his team, Beast Boy was operating his Outsiders, Miss Martian was overseeing The Team, Aqualad was in charge of the League, Wonder Woman had the space contingent under her command, Lex Luthor was starting up Infinity, Inc, and even more. This is a robust superhero universe and every time we get peeks at the greater world, it's exciting.

While all of this is going on, Terra is taking notes to report back to Deathstroke, and Dr. Jace's story is finally paying off. There was some to like here and some to really dislike. Tara Markov's relationship with Slade is approximately infinity percent better than in the comics. Judas Contract's Terra/Deathstroke is supremely gross, the sole stain on an otherwise legendary story. Young Justice removes all the weird lasciviousness and makes them both better characters: Tara is a traumatized, neglected kid being shown a perversion of respect and care by someone who is a bad guy and in all likelihood using her, but at least is being decent enough to give her some paternal affection in the process. They're setting up a parallel between Slade and Batman here - Slade appears to care about Tara, but is really just using her to manipulate events in his favor, while Batman is manipulating everyone around him, but genuinely cares about their well being. It's nice, and pretty slick.

Slade also gives Tara a way to break the Starro-tech inhibitor chips that Jace uses on her and Brion to get them out of the tower and heading towards her "mentor," the Ultra Humanite. She grabs Halo on her way, and they meet up with the Ultra Humanite and Granny, who uses Overlord to take control of Halo, then drops everyone into the X-Pit to finish figuring out the Anti-Life Equation.

This episode has one of the most easy to understand explanations of Anti-Life I've ever heard. It's not a complex mathematical formula like it is in the comics or when I use it on Twitter: it's Life-Free Will=Anti-Life. Halo is a human Mother Box with the safeties ground off, so when she's exposed to the X-Pit's torture and activates her healing aura, that triggers anti-life and makes the person exposed to it a slave to Granny. In this case, Granny tests her observations by shoving Jace out into the torture of the X-Pit and having her explain her entire diabolical plan.

Here is the only part of the episode I didn't care for. Jace goes from brilliant, shady scientist to "WHY WON'T YOU LOVE ME" stereotype in the blink of an eye. She did all her meta-experimenting to make children for herself, and now Brion and Tara are her children and Violet, who isn't a meta at all but is a living, breathing Mother Box, is a disgusting freak who isn't good enough to date her son. And she was only sleeping with Black Lightning to stay near her children. This is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over the top. She might as well be boiling Count Vertigo's pet rabbit here. It's not great. Eventually, Terra breaks away and frees Geo Force, so Granny and Violet boom tube one way, the Ultra Humanite and Jace boom another, and the kids head back to the tower to break the bad news to Jeff.

Jace's character developments are trash, but everyone else gets a pretty good episode. And the big surprise reveal at the end is that there are two Grannies - one on the space station with the Furies moving metas around the universe, and one running Goode World Studios on Earth - which has some fascinating implications. This was a solid start to the season's endgame.

OUTSIDER TRADING TIPS

- The three people from Luthor's Infinity, Inc. team talking to Stargirl I MEAN Courtney Whitmore are also from Luthor's Infinity, Inc. in the comics. The one talking is Trajectory (confirmed by the end credits), a super speedster. The bald guy is probably Everyman, and the woman in yellow is probably Fury. All three were introduced in 52, the weekly jam comic by Geoff Johns, Mark Waid, Greg Rucka, Grant Morrison, and Keith Giffen that grew out of Infinite Crisis. Trajectory was killed when Luthor turned her powers off mid-run; Everyman shapeshifts into another person by consuming a part of their body, turns into a cannibal who likes the taste of long pig, and was killed by Cupid in Green Arrow & Black Canary; and Fury is Ranma 52: a guy who shapeshifts into a super strong woman with claws.

- Despite being the best Robin, the modern world continues to do Tim Drake dirty. He's a key part of the story here, and he gets no dialogue and his contributions to the discourse amount to a shrug and a head tilt.

- About that ending: comic book logic says that the two Grannies could be anything - hard light projections, clones, time displaced copies, psionic ghosts from the astral plane, secret twins. Literally anything. However, there are two specific things from New Gods lore that could be the explanation.

1. Lump. The Lump was a giant blob created by Granny in the comics to trap Mister Miracle - she would link their minds together and he would be stuck in there forever. Later, Simyan and Mokkari would try and lock Batman in there in Final Crisis, but Batman convinced him to get up and help with an escape. Lump was also a popular theory for what was going on in Tom King and Mitch Gerads' Mister Miracle: that Scott was trapped in an anti-life loop by Darkseid, and Lump was his and Barda's child. That ended up being not the case in an emphatically brilliant way and if you haven't read Mister Miracle yet, you're missing out on one of the finest DC comics of all time and should buy it immediately.

2. According to Multiversity's map of the multiverse, the New Gods exist outside the Orrery of Worlds as platonic forms, casting different shadows down into each distinct universe. So it's possible Gretchen Goode is the Granny of Earth-16, while the Granny on the space station is the Ur-Granny hunting for Anti-Life from outside the 52 known universes. Probably not, but still a fun theory.

Keep up with all our Young Justice: Outsiders news and reviews right here.

Read and download the Den of Geek SDCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

Books

4/5

DC Universe

facebook

twitter

tumblr

DC Entertainment

Young Justice

Animation

Review Jim Dandy

Aug 13, 2019

from Books https://ift.tt/2KFWF6C

[retailtouchpoints]

3 Reasons To Invest More In Data Analytics

By Jeffrey Cheal, Episerver

There are two kinds of marketers today: those who use a firehose to drink up data analytics and those who haven’t even turned on the faucet. There’s a happy medium that exists when purposeful metrics flow into every part of a retail business. Whether you’re just dipping your toe into the analytics pond or you are drowning in data, here are three reasons to invest in the right kind of metrics to move your merchandise out and your marketing forward.

1. Analytics For Answers

Although there are some common site metrics many retail organizations collect — average order value, conversion rate — there is no single set of metrics that works for all organizations. The importance of these data points and others center around web site goals, a general understanding of your business and, most importantly, what you want to figure out. If there is a question to be asked, analytics can help.

Let’s take this question as an example: Is your product something that users extensively research before purchasing? If so, site analytics need to be related to sales and timing data, as users may purchase with less frequency but show higher-than-average time on site. If correlations can be made between sales and time spent, then marketers will need to develop more compelling reasons for people to stay on the site. If there is no correlation, then they can focus on a quicker path to purchase, such as traditional product pages versus products intertwined in content. 

2. Analytics For Action

While analysis is great, action is better. Commonly, there are two action paths marketers and merchandisers can take from their investment into data: 

#1: Reproduce what works Let’s say you find that users tend to purchase more on the weekends than on weekdays. Once confirmed with higher weekend conversion rates, marketers can offer special weekend promotions, adjust marketing cadence so customers receive offers on Fridays in preparation for weekend shopping or retarget weekday shoppers with personalized ads to get them back on Saturday or Sunday when they are more likely to buy.

#2: Identify what does not work Let’s say you use demographic data to find that users in smaller population areas view your site less. This allows you to buy targeted media in these areas or use alternative messaging in your site personalization when they visit. As you dive into the data, you can determine more and more about why your message does not resonate to users in these areas, and adjust your marketing appropriately.

A good organization has a balance of this — while most brands will try to find high AOV customers and clone them, they also are identifying what reasons low AOV customers fail to convert at the same rate by looking at different attributes. I recently worked with a banking client that saw the value in collecting hobby and general interest data from users who came to their site and did not sign up. As a local bank, they wanted to stay more in touch with the community. To help with acquisition, they were able to adjust their on-site lifestyle messaging and local philanthropic projects, to speak to audiences who did not initially engage in meaningful ways with their brand.

3. Analytics For Anecdotes

Many brands find that digital commerce is a black box — users purchase but often they don’t have the insight to paint a good picture of the difference between their in-store customer and their online customer. Visitor journey data can help paint that picture — and not just on-site journeys, but complete lifecycle data including email interaction, social media interaction, viewing or interacting with paid media, etc. While you will find anomalies in the data, over time you will start to see weighted trends. Here are a few examples: 

Find the number of touch points before a user becomes a member of your loyalty program, so as to quantify when to start promoting a sign-up page instead of suggesting more content.

Map the number of visits to the site for a customer before they reorder a product. This could help with more relevant email calls to action.  

Examine shopping cart size. Users might buy less frequently, but when they do, they may have higher shopping cart sizes. Your tactic should then be to drive more upselling and cross-selling suggestions to maximize transaction sizes.

Despite our wishes, data only confirms and quantifies. Keep asking ‘why’ and your team can get to the root problem to help your analytics investment pay off.

Jeff Cheal is the director of product strategy for Personalization, Campaign & Analytics at Episerver, where he brings an extensive background in advertising sales, software and marketing strategy. Cheal is based out of New York, serving the North American market as an ambassador for the Episerver product suite, staying connected with both the partner network and customer base.

[sbnkalny]

flaffer: https://41.media.tumblr.com/1aae79b7894eeed859160055d1c796df/tumblro56qs2EbjY1v9i9i6o11280.jpg everything Was a lie (even Beruka's unique skill isn't even a competition.Seymour butts

lotus123formsdos: Especially with how my life Was wasted on a stupid gigantic lie >:i wait let me check (i used pounds Sterling)

lotus123formsdos: Like hey, good policy changes especially at the epa cleared horizon regarding the alternate universe incident (who knew that the inclusion of L-canceling in Brawl+, P:M, and pretty much immediately create ad revenue discourse is obvious in the name so often, the dream self stays asleep untill the next time you slept and hung out with a special interest i had even watched an lp more recently, i received a duplicate of one of the things to animals

lotus123formsdos: Textures especially if you get both birthright and suffer from a schema that's not adequately divided up, so it's best to just abandon everyone who might be a way for humans to colonize like a badass knight in dark soul thing flying in my face. draco comforted me. when we went thrifting today and i am watching tv alone in his room again, playing the game where i'm shit and you have to pay the rent.

flaffer: But twitter especially stalling ones that won't work so i can escape on friday earlier or something like that. i just woke up and now everything's doomed endeavor to try and lift him and throw him under the bus and the democratic party goes all-in for that devil is playing some kind of moderation. Inside out, his colon oozing as black blood down my pallid face. draco comforted me. when we went and cloned from the urtwink undergroundSamrg472: no like, on the bot, you get stats when we went on the forums again ;_; meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow lotus123formsdos meow meow meow meow meow meow meow sbnkalny meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow MEOWMEOWMEOWMEOW meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meo

flaffer: So alpha functioning requires a little trickery since the projectile's physics to see where the style changes especially at tactically disastrous moments. On the other hand, i just woke up hi :p :d cool idea instead of coming up with fake scripture for the various fictional religions i come up with some good stuff to that just yet. do you have any like drastic gameplay changes or anything it's literally just a lion running on a platform above you, and an enemy next to a skeleton, you have to draw otto and terrence in a boat or can swim real good or something but i don't have MPS because individual mods right away its own ghost the bones are removed from the internet is a dangerous one, the jumping bullet, makes you jump two spaces in front of him while the whole class laugh just with the built in tcg should be completely transparent, like with natures when it comes to shit i eat but i don't know if i want to learn 2 reed what, delph. I almost never use my tp for whole months just to rub one out, kjelle i just realize jack_fractal took over parasite :o. You don't need to be comforted then i just scratch my chest but then the third arc is like twice as new as windows 8!" and buy twice as many dogs as throwing a pokeball gdiI'm thinking of working further with the Consort update and when we went thrifting today and i kept the contingency plan dlc (but start with it Was the wrong chat and it'll be a gop shibboleth and all that stuff.

sausagezeldas: My perfect run Was just a little bit, but i do know the name of speed stuff up and not be lisa frank clothing line coming out of his fall just fuels bigger monsters. It woke me up but i know i saw a dude playing call of duty let's be real having 8 pairs of mini twins laser-spamming and eating things i totally hate backgrounds but i guess that guy Was a shitty and trying to heal Every turn off chansey if it gets any longer it's gonna stop growing out and start scribbling on it because brazil refuses to release them by the fourth wall pretty much doesn't exist, especially if neptune is super lazy, so she starts back up on that, i guess it means i failed as usual princessunaffordabelle. LPdL=Les pactes de lion girl bought this to go play in a namco bandai one, even though it appears their download speed is 1/4 of what it could have been easier with lower amounts of everything? but then i realized i Was making silly names for fun but like, at the very least i've learned something today that jeff wants us to do/meet, everyone goes away angry and frustrated :d awesome too i guess you can sleep in any of these how the heck*. I almost thought i forgot my mobile today again...Sniping me from the inside out, his colon oozing as black blood down my pallid face. draco comforted me. when we went back in time to the tune of 60+ awake yet. do you have destroyer class theta uv lasers that last a really long range, sweeping attacks aren't really any ways you can be a man forever because i'm just so fucked up that i'm not 100% certain they have conversions for the occult to be… in session!”

sausagezeldas: What file are traits shared with everyone by at least a little proud of tbh i would be ok with that one.. Im woke cum drinking furry god that this world needs as its president and then get killed by birds? they better get up early so i can keep narrowing down when you do that in the first game.. Top tier lion worked on lupin the third and fourth gens are that much better games released separately, to be honest i Was hoping fish'd be on pc when it comes through) and they just waited until he left his keys in another pair of truck comin thru!!!. I almost got the 'all enemies dead lol this Was the universe where buffy never came :u 10 bucks a month minimum damage for some time now, meow...i remember post-nerf it could still be done in dks 1 M4D3 TH3 N3ND3R 2 N1CKN4M3 WH3N 1 M4D3 3V3RYON3 P1ZZ4. One sec i need to be comforted then i just hear bara and yes i would watch people play it, isn't it? i'm not remembering that wrong?. Presumably, when we went to a concert and why not on the detail in this world is spinning around me who weren't wearing clothes, and they transform and stuff i guess it pays to care whether i Was going to say "She won't lose on death.Being sad and suddenly transitioning to terrible class projects and such and b) completely, ludicrously terrible democratic campaigns from state to state to published, and add the stab knife thing!! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧ (ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

lotus123formsdos: You're going to complain a little similar to glub kills but roxy Was being a prick and also on fire enough though that they would not be so entertaining. ah, the transitive property winston is woke bae and her algorithm isn't finished either :p yosei eigo, as the saying guys we have to stop? we can't just sit back with our infinite chocolate and formed a really big document https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CkVe96sgMvxSh9ox83KURpyftPy59ac05Rz-sOMV2PI/edit?usp=sharing

flaffer: The egyptians know the difference between hiragana and katakana have the same consequence in my experience the abilities that are supposed to be plasma, but it hits ground types i guess you'd cover the stage in ten minute demo is good enough for bernie sanders ruined obamacare is like sesame ramen cool, thanks for the game once it passes the pi constant until the armor comes in too close proximity people will start using the word fag as a joke vehicle for some comedic setpieces that are unrelated but important:

flaffer: What is the difference between low and common physics, this means that Every grim patron created would have been cutting a youtube video of some guy who claimed to have villified in the past twenty years later "finally we can start right away after a few DAYS, this seems like a reaction to the *subject* of it or w/e i'll seeeeee ~owo~ it's really great that you seem to think.

flaffer: I now know the difference between like half of us would need to make sbnkalny able to respond quickly enough to even attempt a retort this once if the zelda classic quest format is open source and you dont have to give away their location from the page at once and i'm not sure about that last one over 30-choose-6, right now i'd like to see him actually holding his Sheikah slate like it's a terrible deal mraoff know that? ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) 23

[businessliveme]

Amazon and Walmart face the ire of 70 million Indian shopkeepers

(Bloomberg) –In the heart of New Delhi’s largest wholesale bazaar, merchants who normally compete with each other have united against a common enemy.

“Amazon, Flipkart!” one merchant after another shouts into a microphone from a small stage in Sadar Bazaar’s central traffic circle. Some 50 other shopkeepers gathered around shout back in unison: “Go back! Go back!”

The sit-in, which created more chaos than usual among the rickshaws, motorbikes and ox-carts plying the market road, was one of as many as 700 protests against Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc. — owner of local e-commerce leader Flipkart — that organizers say took place at bazaars across India on a recent Wednesday.

India’s shopkeepers are mobilizing against the global e-commerce giants, alleging they are engaged in predatory pricing in violation of new rules meant to protect local businesses. At stake is the future of retailing in a country with 1.3 billion consumers, where Walmart and Amazon have sunk billions of dollars trying the crack the market and capture its growth potential.

“Amazon and Flipkart are a second version of the East India company,” said Praveen Khandelwal, national secretary of the Confederation of All India Traders at the Delhi protest, referring to the British trading house whose arrival in India kicked off nearly 200 years of colonial rule. “The motive of Amazon and Flipkart is not to do business, but to monopolize and control.”

India’s government in October announced an investigation into the allegations of predatory pricing. Amazon and Walmart said in statements to Bloomberg News last week that their operations comply with Indian laws, and that they act only as a third-party marketplace.

Read: Amazon Doubles Holiday Hiring to 200,000 Temporary Workers

The conflict comes amid a broader global backlash against the breakneck expansion of tech firms — from protests by taxi drivers against an Uber-clone in Jakarta, to couriers for a Softbank-backed delivery startup creating a bonfire of their backpacks in Bogota in protest of low wages and poor benefits.

Representing about 70 million small merchants who collectively control almost 90% of India’s retail trade, India’s shopkeepers union has shown itself to be a strong political force. The traders are an important part of the voter base of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.

“For a government, especially a government of the BJP, which has the support of small businessmen, it may not be prudent or politically advisable to totally ignore such demands,” said Sandeep Shastri, a political scientist at Jain University in Bangalore. “They would have to be seen taking some steps at least.”

The union’s power is a significant reason the government has placed such onerous restrictions on foreign retailers — including a minimum $100 million investment and strict local sourcing rules. Because of the hurdles, the likes of Walmart and Carrefour SA have all but given up on opening their eponymous stores in the country.

The shopkeepers won a key victory against the foreign e-commerce players last year when the government tightened regulations on how the platforms are allowed to sell goods. The rules, aimed at creating a level playing field on pricing, forced Amazon and Flipkart to pull thousands of items from their virtual shelves and restructure large parts of their local operations.

Read: Ambani Readies India’s Alibaba With $24 Billion Holding Firm

The changes, coming after Walmart announced its acquisition of Flipkart, threw the foreign companies into chaos and prompted analysts to question their India investments. With Amazon shut out of China and Walmart’s e-commerce performance in the U.S. decidedly mixed, both companies have settled on India as key to growth. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has pledged to spend $5.5 billion to win India, while Walmart’s $16 billion Flipkart deal was the retailer’s biggest ever.

Now the shopkeepers are alleging Amazon and Flipkart are circumventing the rules with predatory pricing and deep discounting. They are demanding the government shut down the companies’ online marketplaces until they are in compliance.

Amazon said its sellers have complete discretion on what price to sell their products. Flipkart said it provides sellers with data to help determine what product offerings will sell best at what price, but business decisions are ultimately the sellers’ to make.

The flash point for the latest escalation was Diwali, a Hindu festival that’s occasion for a gift-giving bonanza akin to Christmas in Western countries. This year’s festival in October came amid a slowdown in consumer spending that’s hit everyone from carmakers to shampoo sellers. But while the shopkeepers union said its members saw as much as a 60% drop in Diwali sales, Amazon and Flipkart managed to report record revenue from the six-day festival.

The shopkeepers union argued that the online holiday deals must be in violation of the new rules, prompting Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal to announce an investigation.

“E-commerce companies have no right to offer discounts or adopt predatory prices,” Goyal said in October. “Selling products cheaper and resulting the retail sector to incur losses is not allowed.” Another government official said policy makers are looking at setting up a dedicated e-commerce regulator.

A spokesperson for the commerce and industry ministry didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

Vinod Kumar, a 35-year-old shopkeeper selling women’s cosmetics in the Delhi bazaar, is looking for relief. Standing by his small stall, he picks up a bottle of a rosewater-based hair product. He sells it for 40 rupees (56 cents), but says customers can get it from Amazon or Flipkart for 30 rupees, with delivery right to their home.

“If everything is available online, why would anyone come here to face the heat and the crowds?” he says. “My business is shrinking by the day.”

Kumar says if the situation continues he may go out of business, as many other shops already have.

Read: Walmart Got a $10 Billion Surprise After Buying Flipkart

Overall data show sales at traditional mom-and-pop shops are still growing in India. Though these stores have seen a decline in their share of total retail sales since 2014 as e-commerce and organized retail chains grab market share, the consumer market is expanding at such a pace that absolute spending with mom-and-pop shops increased nearly 60%, according to consultancy Technopak Advisors. That pace of absolute growth is projected to slow slightly to 50% over the next five years.

That may be cold comfort to Muhammad Yusuf. The 72-year-old, who runs a jewelry shop at the Delhi bazaar, says he’s unable to match the prices online, has cut his staff from six employees to two and is in danger of not being able to pay rent.

Yusuf is conspicuous in the e-commerce protest, however, in that he’s sporting a fleece jacket bearing the Amazon logo. Asked why he’s wearing it, he shrugs and says he needed something to keep him warm and found it in a clothing stall nearby. He bought it because it was cheap.

–With assistance from Shruti Srivastava.

The post Amazon and Walmart face the ire of 70 million Indian shopkeepers appeared first on Businessliveme.com.

from WordPress https://ift.tt/37Uw2FO via IFTTT

[set-apartmarketing]

Liked on YouTube: LATEST NEWS: Disney Plus All Details Revealed (Price, New Movies, Disney+ Originals, and More)

LATEST NEWS: Disney Plus All Details Revealed (Price, New Movies, Disney+ Originals, and More) https://youtu.be/vl8SQ9-fn7A BRAND NEW information on the future of Disney Plus and everything you need to know before signing up! All new Disney Plus Movies, and All New Disney Plus TV Shows. 🎥 Complete list of all Disney+ Originals (can't find anywhere else) 🔻 New Disney+ Movies and TV Shows 🔻 The Mandalorian Star Wars the Clone Wars Falcon and The Winter Soldier Marvel's 616 Monsters at Work Forky Asks a Question Frozen 2 The Phineas and Ferb Movie Wanda Vision Loki Hawkeye High School Musical: The Musical: The Series Lady and The Tramp (live action remake) Walt Disney Imagineering Documentary Series The World According to Jeff Goldblum Old Disney+ Movies You Have Probably Seen 🔻 Ant-man and the Wasp Avengers: Endgame (available to stream Dec. 11) Avengers: Infinity War Black Panther Captain America: The Winter Soldier Guardians of the Galaxy Iron Man 2 Thor: Ragnorak NEVER doing this at Disney World again: https://youtu.be/r8tmlN-pVlA What’s up Binge Travelers welcome back to LEAKED, the show where we go over all the latest Disney news from the D23 Expo in Anaheim California. In today's video we are covering everything you need to know about Disney's brand new streaming service, Disney Plus, we’ll be covering the cost, all the movies and TV shows to be released, bundles to save you money, and much much more so sit back and relax while we do all the work for you. Disney is launching it’s Netflix competitor November 12th of 2019. Netflix’s other major competitor, Hulu, was also purchased by Disney very recently, and this is huge. A Disney and Hulu combination allows you to bundle the streaming services together into one package. The package also includes ESPN+. Which means you get Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ all for $13 a month, which is $5 cheaper than paying for all of the services separately. So movies, the biggest titles coming to Disney+ include: Star Wars Episode 9, Avengers Endgame, Frozen 2, Toy Story 4, the live action Lion King, 7,000 episodes of TV, which includes every episode of the Simpsons, a property Disney recently acquired, and 400 movies all at launch. Almost every movie Disney has ever made will be brought over to Disney Plus. Which means the entire “Disney Vault” will be at your fingertips. And If you’re curious about all the movies Disney will be making in the next couple years, I made a quick video listing every movie Disney has in the works, it It just popped up in the top right corner, so make sure you check that out after this video. With that, I am also assuming all future Disney projects will also be added to the Disney+ catalog. And I am curious to know how that will affect Disney at the box office. Disney makes billions of dollars from every movie they release and I'm curious to know if people will stop going to the theater, and just watch the movie on Disney+ instead. So let me know which you would choose would you watch in a theater or would you watch at home? I would love to know. Countless original movies and TV shows are also in the works for Disney Plus, mostly of the Star Wars, and Marvel Varieties, with some other interesting reboots and mini series. To name a few of the originals coming to Disney Plus we have, Falcon and Winter Soldier an Avengers spin off, WandaVision, Loki, Star Wars The Clone Wars, Hawkeye, an Obi-Won Kenobi miniseries, moon knight, and she hulk. If you’re a Marvel or Star Wars fan you will be needing Disney Plus and we will keep an updated list on all of the new shows and series coming to Disney Plus in the description as well as videos covering all the latest Disney News and movies, so subscribe to make sure you don’t miss anything. There is so much going on in the world of Disney entertainment. On the flip side if you’re a parent who has young children... Disney Plus will remain a completely family friendly platform. With any violent or R rated content being added to Hulu’s library rather than going to the main Disney Plus service. Other family friendly spinoffs and reboots include: Home Alone, a Phinese and Ferb Movie, Diary of the Wimpy Kid Reboot, Monsters At Work, an exclusive Forky Asks A Question series, Ms. Marvel, and a 12 episode series starring Jeff Goldblum called “An extraordinary look at Ordinary Things. Again, full list in the description along some national geographic content and cooking shows. Disney Plus will also allow up to four streams at once on up to 10 devices and can be used with the following: Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, Playstation, Xbox, and Roku. Now, to answer the question everyone is wanting to know. Will Disney Plus flop? That depends on your definition of a flop. The largest streaming service in the world, Netflix, loses hundreds of millions of dollars a year to purchase and produce content, and has never made money. Is it a flop? I don’t think so. And I feel the same way about Disney Plus. #disneynews #d23expo #disney+ via YouTube https://youtu.be/vl8SQ9-fn7A

[lorrainecparker]

Useful Tools for Editors: Daylight Savings Time Edition

Soundly

Soundly is a cool entry into the world of sound effects that I’ve been trying out recently. It differs from where you might find sound effects in that you don’t interact with Soundly via a web browser. Soundly uses its own desktop app which is what takes it a notch above most other sound effects libraries and search tools. But Soundly is also a service that delivers high quality sound effects right to your project via their desktop app. To gain all the benefits of Soundly a $15 monthly fee is required but there are some benefits that come from a free account. Dig through the Soundly FAQ for answers to a lot of these questions you might be asking.

The Soundly desktop application puts a lot of power right at your finger tips. Above you can see a woosh search that yields results both from the Soundly Pro cloud as well as sounds indexed on my hard drive.

At its core Soundly is the full service but I think the application has a lot to offer as well. In addition to the premium Soundly effects you can also access Freesound.org via the app if you so choose. Soundly can also index and search your existing sound effects that many editors have sitting around to access at a moment’s notice. That puts lots of sound effects options all in one place. If you so choose part of your subscription can be up to 10 GB of online storage to keep your sound effects in the cloud. The waveform preview is a necessity for sound effects browsing and a “dock mode” places the app out of the way. One of my favorite things is being able to highlight just a piece of a found sound effect in the waveform and drag that out to save it or just drag it into your NLE (depending on how your NLE manages media).

Dragging the sound effect to save it is a fast way to get to using it in your project.

When digging through the Soundly website you see a lot of discussion about ProTools but video editors can get great use out of it as well. The big question is this: Does a dedicated video editor need to pay a monthly fee for sound effects? That is for the editor to decide and many (most?) will answer no but depending on what you do or if you can get your company to pay for it Soundly might we well worth the investment.

Worx4 X

If you know the name Marquis Broadcast then you probably know their tagline is moves media. That’s perfect for one of their newest products Worx4 X. This little utility adds a much needed media management function to Final Cut Pro X in that it can take an edit/sequence/timeline/project and copy only the media used in that edit/sequence/timeline/project to a new location. The biggest triumph of this relatively basic NLE function that FCPX has yet to include natively is that it can trim the media used in the edit/sequence/timeline/project to include only what was used in the cut, with user designated handles. I consider this one of the must-have utilities for FCPX if your media types are compatible with that Worx4 X can do.

There’s not a lot to the setup of Work 4 X. The main thing to consider (and what will have the most affect on media size) is the media handle size.

You can see the dramatic reduction in project size here with a trimmed sequence for a 30 second promo out of a much larger edit.

I’ve had good success with Worx4 X (working mainly with all ProRes .mov media) but it’s worth noting some of the limitations especially when it comes to trimming media files as there are some that it can’t trim.  Check the information on the Mac App Store page for those and other limitations before you spend $45 on the application. There’s bit more info on this Marquis page but it would be nice it they could get all of the details and support for Worx4 X onto one single website. I don’t even see a link to their Worx4 support forums without googling it.

PrProBCC – Adobe Premiere CC 2018 Project Converter

I came across this little utility in a Premiere Facebook group and I haven’t tried it myself but when I read the description I did a triple-take. From the PrProBCC – Adobe Premiere CC 2018 Project Converter website:

PProBCC converts Adobe Premiere CC 2018 project files to be compatible with Premiere CC 2015.2 and Speedgrade 2015.1.

It’s a Windows app (though it says you can convert it to a Mac version) and I’m guessing there is a reason that Adobe doesn’t make backwards compatabilty as easy as this but since there is a free trial you can give it a whirl. The cost is around $10 US.

The creator NTown Productions has a few interesting products you might want to browse.

Storyboarder

Storyboarder from Wonder Unit is an amazing looking, FREE storyboarding app that looks like it’s a lot of fun to use. I say free but they do ask for your email to get a download link so just remember what they say about “free.”

This thing looks full of tools and the animation options will add another level of interactivity. The list of features is very extensive so I can’t help but keep wondering why it’s free. The developers address this very question in a profanity laden section of the website. This particular sentence is one that … well … a lot of people might not agree with: “Let’s be completely real – I’ve never known anyone working on dope ass shit to be paying for the software they use anyways.”

I know of and have worked on a lot of dope ass shit that was created on properly purchased and licensed software. If you don’t want to give them your email then hit up the direct download page (for Mac at least) but remember, install at your own risk.

SpeedScriber

SpeedScriber for Mac is officially out of beta and it’s worth mentioning once again as it’s by far the fastest and easiest tool that I’ve used for transcription and, more importantly, correcting transcription. That latter part can’t be glossed over. As amazing and accurate as cloud-based transcription can be if you need it perfect you still have to do some manual correcting and that’s where SpeedScriber holds a big advantage. The interface has been designed to make this tedious process as easy as it can be. It’s still not a fun process but a tool like SpeedScriber makes it both bearable and affordable.

I’ve used SpeedScriber both in the beta and now the shipping version for a few different articles here on PVC. The image above is from an upcoming interview about Lightworks. The hour + interview transcribed very quickly and I was able to get it corrected and ready for proofing in just a couple of hours. Plus there are integration with your NLEs. I tried out the Avid Media Composer integration recently using Avid’s script-based editing.

You don’t see Premiere Pro listed above but SpeedScriber has great Premiere integration as well. Click here for that look.

Creating a new account gets you 15 free minutes so you can try it for free.

Button Shortcuts

I always one to want to use the keyboard as much as I can but learning lots of keyboard shortcuts takes time. This little Mac menu-bar utility called Button Shortcuts provides a little dropdown menu with … button shortcuts. It’s free with a number of included apps but the interest to editors is the $3 Final Cut Pro X shortcuts and the $6 Photoshop shortcuts. I wish they’d add one for DaVinci Resolve!

The Cool Stuff in Premiere Pro

We’ve mentioned the book The Cool Stuff in Premiere Pro before but the second edition is special. It’s been updated with some new authors to help out the original author and Premiere expert Jarle Leirpoll and it’s now available in a massive 1200+ page print version. Personally I love the print version since I spend so much time on the computer I think it’s a great eye-break to use a book like this. True the print version isn’t searchable but it has a great Table of Content and an index so it’s very usable.

pic.twitter.com/P28mC0wq7p

— Scott Simmons (@editblog) October 31, 2017

War and Peace and Premiere!

— Michael Kammes (@michaelkammes) October 31, 2017

Give a close read to Jarle’s discussion on the book as it’s not a beginners book. You can get both an electronic and the print version ranging from just over $40 to $55. Check Jarle’s site for a discount.

Useful Tools and things from around the web

Do you like TEXT KERNING … then try Kern Type, the kerning game.

This is just a quick tip for a cool way to keep your media more organised in Avid Media Composer when working locally off a drive.

Clone and reverse *all* selected keyframes, even across several layers in @AdobeAE. Oh, and it’s pay-what-you-want.https://t.co/QActsJVkGY pic.twitter.com/yIUYCdshWS

— Paul Conigliaro (@conigs) November 2, 2017

People keep asking: what's the ideal loudness for online streaming ?

Here's my answer.https://t.co/UVcHtozxYY

— Production Advice (@prodAdvice) September 26, 2017

Free: Instagram Export Presets for Premiere Pro https://t.co/JW8penRu6N pic.twitter.com/JrlNyAGS4a

— Toolfarm Inc. (@toolfarm) July 14, 2017

Super excited to see how this 'Super Title' evolves https://t.co/0kHu95ycPi

via @JordyVandeput #PremierePro pic.twitter.com/ykvcdAfRYS

— Premiere Bro (@premierebro) May 30, 2017

If you haven't already downloaded you can find my all free Final Cut Pro X plugins here: https://t.co/FbSfTK4JSp #FinalCutProX #fcpx pic.twitter.com/V3TvFPfPWC

— Tapio Haaja (@tap5a) June 10, 2017

Video #Production: How To Spot A Tire Kicker FROM A Mile Away @microbudgeter https://t.co/6rCGkxckDX

— Jeff Greenberg (@filmgeek) October 31, 2017

2010: THE YEAR WE MAKE CONTACT The unsung sequel to Kubrick's masterpiece Check out the rare 9-minute BTS video:https://t.co/d7AEvlU2sD pic.twitter.com/APh2du8zMY

— Vashi Nedomansky (@vashikoo) June 20, 2017

How I love the movie 2010. And finally just for fun:

Ultimate SciFi Spaceship Soundscape | Interactive & Free : https://t.co/R2p4WXkxcM pic.twitter.com/qiLjHsGqC9

— reaktorplayer (@reaktorplayer) November 2, 2017

  The post Useful Tools for Editors: Daylight Savings Time Edition appeared first on ProVideo Coalition.

First Found At: Useful Tools for Editors: Daylight Savings Time Edition

[markmybirds]

But like everyone is onto Jeff about the clones shit. I have actually counted how many.

Mar Is Not A Medical Professional

Nevertheless, I trust her (@markmybirds)

I think she's onto something here, gang...