text:
Q: How to sort elements in subquery locally in gremlin? Let's assume we have a graph of persons, with properties

*

*name (String)

*age (int)

... and friend edges in between some of them. Let's further assume we have a complex gremlin query which eventually produces person vertices.
Now, for each of the resulting persons, we want to find the three oldest friends in a subquery.
This is the rough query structure:
g.traversal.V()
    // complex filtering and navigation here, produces person vertices
    .flatMap(
        __.out(friend)
        .order().by("age", desc)
        .limit(3)
    )
    // complex query continues with the three oldest friends per input vertex here

The problem with this query is that the order().by(...) step is global. I get three persons in total for all person vertices which enter the flatMap(...).
What I would like to receive is (up to) three persons per vertex entering the flatMap(...) step.
How would you do that in gremlin? I've read that there is "local" scoping of sorts, but I was unable to make it work.

A: I would expect your traversal to work as you would wish it to. See my examples with TinkerGraph and the "modern" toy graph:
gremlin> g.V().hasLabel('person').flatMap(out().order().by(id))
==>v[2]
==>v[3]
==>v[4]
==>v[3]
==>v[5]
==>v[3]
gremlin> g.V().hasLabel('person').flatMap(out().order().by(id).limit(1))
==>v[2]
==>v[3]
==>v[3]
gremlin> g.V().hasLabel('person').flatMap(out().order().by(id).limit(2))
==>v[2]
==>v[3]
==>v[3]
==>v[5]
==>v[3]

Or perhaps easier to see in action with just map():
gremlin> g.V().hasLabel('person').map(out().order().by(id).fold())
==>[v[2],v[3],v[4]]
==>[]
==>[v[3],v[5]]
==>[v[3]]
gremlin> g.V().hasLabel('person').map(out().order().by(id).limit(1).fold())
==>[v[2]]
==>[]
==>[v[3]]
==>[v[3]]
gremlin> g.V().hasLabel('person').map(out().order().by(id).limit(2).fold())
==>[v[2],v[3]]
==>[]
==>[v[3],v[5]]
==>[v[3]]

Perhaps there is something in your data that you are not expecting? If the problem persists maybe you could debug with map() as I showed above and see what's being returned before the lists are flattened? If all else fails, please update your question with a script that provides some sample data and a Gremlin Console session demonstrating the failure with that data.


Happy Canada Day from all of us at Canadian Geographic!
In honour of Canada's 149th birthday, we have selected 13 photos from our Photo Club members—one for each province and territory—to highlight the vastness and beauty of our country.
Happy Canada Day from all of us at Canadian Geographic and The Royal Canadian Geographical Society!


New Fall Schedules are posted at our locations. The autumn brings bountiful harvests, and family comes together around tables laden with colorful food. Come to Hipcooks for Fall Inspiration; we'd love to see you!
– the perfect class to jump into Fall. Schedules are bustling as kids are back to school, lazy summer days come to a close, and we ring in a new season. At the Wonders class, you learn great, easy but festive meals that work so beautifully in One Giant Pot. One and Done!
Many, many thanks to those of you who sent such enthusiastic emails about our baby location! We are still adding/switching customers to the Hipcooks WH Newsletter Subscribers, so kindly email if interested.
Never been? It is one of those things really worth doing in LA. What is it? Open studios in the largest art colony in the world – see what 700 people in the community are up to, check out art, see loft spaces, make new friends.
Artwalk is a great time to come by to say hello to Hipcooks, check out our studio and sample our tasty food! Cooking throwdown begins at noon and change at the top of each hour.
All Hipcooks Studio Managers just finished a fabulous week long meeting here in Portland. One of our "Agenda Items" was a cocktail throw down, and this cocktail took first prize!
Congratulations to Bonny of Hipcooks Seattle for creating this refreshing "I cannot let go of Summer!" drink. Honorable mention to Kyrsten of Hipcooks LA for her Berry Bourbon Smash.
After reading this recipe, do you think you or someone you know should be in the Hipcooks Executive Team? We're searching for the perfect host/class instructor/prep person for many of our locations! Candidates must have daytime availability to help with grocery shops, food prep and studio care. You must have a love of food and people, and an eye for detail.
If you think you're a great fit, kindly send an email to sd@hipcooks.com and tell us more. We're specifically interested in what Hipcooks studio you're near, your passion for food, your work experience, availability, and other fun facts.


text:
cask 'hyper' do
  version '1.2.1'
  sha256 'eefd8e345c11cae8dbb0bfb99fba1aa30d35562fb425c27db1ca59917494f4c2'

  # github.com/zeit/hyper was verified as official when first introduced to the cask
  url "https://github.com/zeit/hyper/releases/download/#{version}/hyper-#{version}-mac.zip"
  appcast 'https://github.com/zeit/hyper/releases.atom',
          checkpoint: 'cef5c590ab79abae9fcccea41aced83ebf9d6b67f5f89a87545e7301b166f181'
  name 'Hyper'
  homepage 'https://hyper.is/'

  app 'Hyper.app'

  zap delete: [
                '~/.hyper.js',
                '~/.hyper_plugins',
                '~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.sharedfilelist/com.apple.LSSharedFileList.ApplicationRecentDocuments/co.zeit.hyper.sfl',
                '~/Library/Application Support/Hyper',
                '~/Library/Caches/co.zeit.hyper',
                '~/Library/Caches/co.zeit.hyper.ShipIt',
                '~/Library/Preferences/co.zeit.hyper.plist',
                '~/Library/Preferences/co.zeit.hyper.helper.plist',
                '~/Library/Saved Application State/co.zeit.hyper.savedState',
              ]
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
https://apnews.com/6a1ae894f9da4a38b947fa03d2a824d4
Sports - Europe
Leclerc takes pole position for Italian GP
By DANIELLA MATARSeptember 7, 2019 GMT
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc of Monaco celebrates taking pole position during the qualifying session at the Monza racetrack, in Monza, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2019. The Formula one race will be held on Sunday. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
MONZA, Italy (AP) — A mess. An absurdity. Dangerous. Idiots. These were just some of the terms were used to describe the farcical end to qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix on Saturday.
Charles Leclerc rose above it all to secure a second straight pole position and give Ferrari encouragement it can end a nine-year wait for success at its home Formula One race.
Only Leclerc and Carlos Sainz crossed the line in time to set a timed lap in Q3. The other eight drivers were caught short jostling for position to try to ensure they had a car in front of them to catch a slipstream, with tow worth several tenths of a second at the high-speed Monza track.
"What a mess. Pole position anyway, guys. Sorry for the mess in the last lap," Leclerc said on team radio at the end of qualifying.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was even more critical.
"That was worse than a junior formula," Wolff said. "The problem was everyone wants a slipstream and nobody wants to go first ... and then everyone looks like idiots."
It is being investigated by motorsport governing body the FIA, and Wolff added later: "None of us has ever seen such an absurdity."
Leclerc, who claimed his first F1 victory last weekend at the Belgian GP, was 0.039 seconds ahead of championship leader Lewis Hamilton and 0.047 clear of Valtteri Bottas, much to the delight of the passionate Ferrari tifosi.
"The drag is a big issue here, the tow is a key to getting a good lap," Hamilton said. "Everyone was slowing right down and also blocking the way, so you couldn't really get through.
"It was pretty dangerous. I nearly crashed a couple of times trying to stay out of the way of the guys that were braking ahead of me and then people trying to come past me."
It was Leclerc's fourth pole position in only his second season in F1.
It was also the seventh race in a row that Leclerc has beaten four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel in qualifying. Vettel will start Sunday's race from fourth after finishing 0.150 seconds behind his Ferrari teammate.
The start of Q3 was delayed after last year's pole sitter, Kimi Raikkonen, hit the wall at Parabolica for the second time this weekend. The Alfa driver escaped unscathed.
Ferrari hasn't won its home race since 2010 through Fernando Alonso, even after the storied Italian team secured a front-row lockout last season.
Hamilton is the man most likely to deny Leclerc back-to-back wins. The Mercedes driver has won four of the past five Italian GPs and is bidding for a record sixth triumph at the historic track to move ahead of Michael Schumacher as the master of Monza.
Hamilton, a five-time world champion, has a 65-point lead over teammate Bottas in the standings.
Third-placed Max Verstappen, who is 87 points behind Hamilton, will start from the back of the grid along with Lando Norris and Pierre Gasly because of engine penalties.
Ferrari has once again dominated the weekend, with Leclerc fastest in both Friday practices and Vettel clocking the best time in Saturday's final practice.
Practice was delayed on Saturday due to track repairs after a huge crash in the Formula Three race.
Alex Peroni's car was launched into the air and landed on top of the catch fencing. The 19-year-old Australian driver was able to walk to the medical car and has since been taken to hospital.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Coach's Bundle [PU-KB00050] - $55.12 : PlayUlty.Com - Educational and lifestyle products for Ultimate Frisbee.
Every coach knows that fitness is one of the most important aspects of a winning team. Get your players in supreme playing shape using training techniques from the Ultimate Fitness DVD. Follow that up by teaching your players beginning and advanced Ultimate Frisbee tactics with the Ultimate Techniques & Tactics book. Lastly, coach your players onto victory with the aid of the PlayUlty Coaching Kit.


text:
Q: Intent from AsyncTask startActivity not working (FAILED BINDER TRANSACTION) I have the following AsyncTask. In the onPostExecute method I am trying to start another activity using the Intent. However, I noticed that the new activity doesn't start and the finish() line is simply called closing the current activity. I do not know what the cause of this can be.
   private void uploadImage(final String city, final String offset, final int currImage, final View itemView, final Animation animation) {
    class UploadImage extends AsyncTask<String, Void, String> {
        private Context context;

        public UploadImage(Context context){
            this.context=context;
        }
      //  ProgressDialog loading;
        RequestHandler rh = new RequestHandler();

        @Override
        protected String doInBackground(String... params) {
            HashMap<String, String> data = new HashMap<>();
            data.put("city", city);
            data.put("offset",offset);
            String result = rh.sendPostRequest(SL_URL, data);

            return result;
        }

        @Override
        protected void onPreExecute() {
            super.onPreExecute();
            //loading = ProgressDialog.show(SlideShow.this, "Uploading Image", "Please wait...", true, true);
        }

        @Override
        protected void onPostExecute(String s) {
            super.onPostExecute(s);
           // loading.dismiss();
            JSONArray jsonArray = null;
            try {
                jsonArray = new JSONArray(s);
            } catch (JSONException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
            for (int i = 0; i < jsonArray.length(); i++) {
                try {
                    JSONObject a = jsonArray.getJSONObject(i);
                    imageDisplayerArrayList.add(new ImageDisplayer(a.getString("user_id"),a.getString("image"),a.getString("longitude"),a.getString("latitude"),a.getString("city"),a.getString("geo_name_id"),a.getString("description"),a.getString("score"),a.getString("Categories")));
                } catch (JSONException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
            itemView.clearAnimation();
            itemView.setVisibility(View.INVISIBLE);
            if (imageDisplayerArrayList.size() > 0) {
                Intent intent = new Intent(context, SlideShow.class);
                intent.putExtra("key",imageDisplayerArrayList);
                intent.putExtra("city", city);
                context.startActivity(intent);
                ((Activity) context).finish();
            }
            else {
                Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "No new content available", Toast.LENGTH_LONG)
                        .show();                }

        }}
    UploadImage ui = new UploadImage(this);
    ui.execute(city);

}

PARCELABLE IMAGEDISPLAYER CLASS:
public class ImageDisplayer implements Parcelable {
private String user_id;
private String image;
private String longitude;

private ImageDisplayer(Parcel in) {
    this.user_id = in.readString();
    this.image = in.readString();
    this.longitude = in.readString();
    this.latitude = in.readString();
    this.city = in.readString();
    this.geo_name_id = in.readString();
    this.description = in.readString();
    this.score = in.readString();
    this.categories = in.readString();
}
public ImageDisplayer(String user_id, String image, String longitude, String latitude, String city, String geo_name_id, String description, String score, String categories) {
    this.user_id = user_id;
    this.image = image;
    this.longitude = longitude;
    this.latitude = latitude;
    this.city = city;
    this.geo_name_id = geo_name_id;
    this.description = description;
    this.score = score;
    this.categories = categories;
}

public String getUser_id() {

    return user_id;
}

public void setUser_id(String user_id) {
    this.user_id = user_id;
}

public String getImage() {
    return image;
}

public void setImage(String image) {
    this.image = image;
}

public String getLongitude() {
    return longitude;
}

public void setLongitude(String longitude) {
    this.longitude = longitude;
}

public String getLatitude() {
    return latitude;
}

public void setLatitude(String latitude) {
    this.latitude = latitude;
}

public String getCity() {
    return city;
}

public void setCity(String city) {
    this.city = city;
}

public String getGeo_name_id() {
    return geo_name_id;
}

public void setGeo_name_id(String geo_name_id) {
    this.geo_name_id = geo_name_id;
}

public String getDescription() {
    return description;
}

public void setDescription(String description) {
    this.description = description;
}

public String getScore() {
    return score;
}

public void setScore(String score) {
    this.score = score;
}

public String getCategories() {
    return categories;
}

public void setCategories(String categories) {
    this.categories = categories;
}

private String latitude;
private String city;
private String geo_name_id;
private String description;
private String score;
private String categories;

@Override
public int describeContents() {
    return 0;
}

@Override
public void writeToParcel(Parcel dest, int flags) {
    dest.writeString(user_id);
    dest.writeString(image);
    dest.writeString(longitude);
    dest.writeString(latitude);
    dest.writeString(city);
    dest.writeString(geo_name_id);
    dest.writeString(description);
    dest.writeString(score);
    dest.writeString(categories);

}
public static final Parcelable.Creator<ImageDisplayer> CREATOR
        = new Parcelable.Creator<ImageDisplayer>() {

    // This simply calls our new constructor (typically private) and
    // passes along the unmarshalled `Parcel`, and then returns the new object!
    @Override
    public ImageDisplayer createFromParcel(Parcel in) {
        return new ImageDisplayer(in);
    }

    // We just need to copy this and change the type to match our class.
    @Override
    public ImageDisplayer[] newArray(int size) {
        return new ImageDisplayer[size];
    }
};

}
SLIDESHOW
public class SlideShow extends Activity {

private ArrayList<ImageDisplayer> imageDisplayerArrayList = new ArrayList<>();
private String city;

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_slide_show);
    imageDisplayerArrayList = getIntent().getParcelableExtra("key");
    TextView time_rem = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.time_rem);
    time_rem.bringToFront();
    city = getIntent().getStringExtra("city");
    slideshow(imageDisplayerArrayList, 0, 0);
}

private void uploadImage2(final String city, final String offset, final int currImage) {
    class UploadImage extends AsyncTask<String, Void, String> {

        //ProgressDialog loading;
        RequestHandler rh = new RequestHandler();

        @Override
        protected String doInBackground(String... params) {
            HashMap<String, String> data = new HashMap<>();
            data.put("city", city);
            data.put("offset",offset);
            String result = rh.sendPostRequest(SL_URL, data);

            return result;
        }

        @Override
        protected void onPreExecute() {
            super.onPreExecute();
           // loading = ProgressDialog.show(SlideShow.this, "Uploading Image", "Please wait...", true, true);
        }

        @Override
        protected void onPostExecute(String s) {
            super.onPostExecute(s);
          //  loading.dismiss();
            JSONArray jsonArray = null;
            try {
                jsonArray = new JSONArray(s);
            } catch (JSONException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
            for (int i = 0; i < jsonArray.length(); i++) {
                try {
                    JSONObject a = jsonArray.getJSONObject(i);
                    imageDisplayerArrayList.add(new ImageDisplayer(a.getString("user_id"),a.getString("image"),a.getString("longitude"),a.getString("latitude"),a.getString("city"),a.getString("geo_name_id"),a.getString("description"),a.getString("score"),a.getString("Categories")));
                } catch (JSONException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }

        }}
    UploadImage ui = new UploadImage();
    ui.execute(city);

}

public Bitmap ConvertToImage(String image){
        byte[] decodedByte = Base64.decode(image, 0);
        return BitmapFactory.decodeByteArray(decodedByte, 0, decodedByte.length);
    }

public void slideshow(ArrayList<ImageDisplayer> a, final int currImage, final int offset) {
    ImageView imageView = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.picturedisplay);
    int currphoto = 0;

    final long DELAY = 300; // milliseconds
    final long VIEW_TIME = 10000;
    Timer timer = new Timer();
    final TimerTask update_time = new TimerTask() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            SlideShow.this.runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
                @Override
                public void run() {
                    TextView time_rem = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.time_rem);
                    int timeRem = Integer.parseInt(time_rem.getText().toString());
                    timeRem--;
                    time_rem.setText(Integer.toString(timeRem));
                }});
        }};
    timer.scheduleAtFixedRate(
            new TimerTask() {
                int i = currImage;
                int off = 0;
                @Override
                public void run() {
                    SlideShow.this.runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
                        @Override
                        public void run() {
                            if (i < imageDisplayerArrayList.size()) {
                                TextView time_rem = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.time_rem);
                                time_rem.setText("10");
                                Bitmap myBitmap = ConvertToImage(imageDisplayerArrayList.get(i).getImage());
                                ImageView imageView = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.picturedisplay);
                                imageView.setImageBitmap(myBitmap);
                                imageView.setScaleType(ImageView.ScaleType.FIT_XY);
                                Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(),
                                Integer.toString(imageDisplayerArrayList.size()), Toast.LENGTH_LONG)
                               .show();
                                i++;
                                off = (int)(Math.rint(Math.ceil((double) i / 10) * 10));
                                if (i % 5 == 0 && i % 10 != 0) {
                                    uploadImage2(city,Integer.toString(off),i);
                                }
                            }
                            else {
                                update_time.cancel();
                                Intent i = new Intent(SlideShow.this,ViewScreen.class);
                                startActivity(i);
                                finish();
                            }
                                                                  }});
                }

            },
            DELAY,VIEW_TIME
    );
    timer.scheduleAtFixedRate(update_time, 0, 1000);

}

}

UPDATE
This is caused by the following error FAILED BINDER TRANSACTION !!! as my image arraylist exceeds the 1MB limit. Can someone please help me create an alternative solution to passing this arraylist between the two activities?

A: Firstly, you have to fetch the ParcelableArrayList
imagesArrayList = getIntent().getParcelableArrayListExtra("key");
Secondly, You are doing too much I/O work in slide show function which is causing delay
Thirdly You are doing bitmaps work and displaying bitmaps on Ui Thread, you have to move your bitmaps work off the ui thread,  its worth using Universal Image Loader https://github.com/nostra13/Android-Universal-Image-Loader
Hope this helps.

A: Checkout this code. and when you call asynctask pass activity context thats it.
Intent intent = new Intent(((Activity) context), SlideShow.class);
intent.putParcelableArrayListExtra("key",imageDisplayerArrayList);
intent.putExtra("city", city);
((Activity) context).startActivity(intent);
((Activity) context).finish();

Now you retrieve your array list in another activity like this
imageDisplayerArrayList = getIntent().getParcelableArrayListExtra("key");
If you are passing bitmap in list don't do that just pass url in it.

A: Create a pair of ParcelFileDescriptors using createSocketPair and pass one of the objects to the activity by putting the object into the intent. Then you can pass data by creating File[Input|Output]Stream object from the underlying FileDescriptor for the parcel file descriptor. (usegetFileDescriptor() to obtain FileDescriptor)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Wilfred Stanley is in Prison after he was convicted on six counts of handling stolen goods.
Janelle Reyes, resident of Freshman Lane in West Landivar, reported to police that her home was burgalrized sometime between 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 9, and 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 22, 2014. An assortment of jewelry and other items were taken from the home.
Police investigation resulted in the discovery that on Monday, April 14, Wilfred Stanley pawned out a Tiffany designed gold chain valued at $1,500 at JL's Quick loan. On Tuesday, April 15, he pawned two gold chains value $200 each at JEC Pawn Shop. On that same Tuesday, Stanley pawned another Tiffany gold chain valuing $500 at JEC. On Thursday, April 17, he pawned a pair of small loop designed gold earring valuing $225 at JEC. A week later, on April 24, he pawned a gold ring with diamond valued at $3,000 as well as a pair of heart shaped hoop designed gold earring valued at $750 at JEC Pawn Shop. Police also discovered that Stanley pawned a pair of gold Channel earring valuing $2,000, a pair of Channel earring valuing $250 and a pair of gold earring valuing $225 at Fair Brothers Pawn Shop. In total, the items Stanley pawned out value $8,750.
Police arrested and charged Stanley with handling stolen goods. He appeared before Magistrate Herbert Panton on Tuesday, July 21, where he was read six counts of handling stolen goods. He initially pleaded not guilty to the charges but later changed his plea. Stanley told the court he was only doing a favor for a friend who asked him to take the items to the different pawn shops and pawned them out. Magistrate Panton was annoyed by Stanley's explanation because he did the same favour six separate times and never once thought something was wrong. Magistrate Panton sentenced him to one year in imprisonment for each count. He ordered that the sentences run concurently; therefore, Stanley will serve only one year in prison.


text:
Triple W Japan, developer of urination predictor, wins $610K grant for clinical research
D Free
Triple W Japan
Image credit: Triple W Japan
See the original story in Japanese.
Tokyo-based Triple W Japan, the Japanese startup developing developer of urination predictor device DFree, announced last week that it was selected by NEDO for the corporate alliance program for R&D-focused startups, and will receive a subsidy of up to 70 million yen (about $610K US). The target for the subsidy is joint research with large companies in relation to DFree's small size and high performance, and since the expenses required for research will be paid up to the maximum amount, it is possible to obtain the full subsidy.
The contents of collaborative research with each of five major companies are as follows:
Accenture…Collaborative research on nursing care packages combining various sensors and nursing care record data, joint development of algorithms and software, support for overseas development centered on Europe, etc.
Itochu Chemical Frontier…Development of a high precision ultrasonic sensor, high accuracy coupled with algorithm development, etc.
Itochu Techno Solutions…Feasibility studies, joint development of software, etc.
Paramount Head…Improve accuracy through the combination with various sensors, joint solution development, etc.
Revamp…Feasibility study at nursing care facilities, sales support, etc.
Among these companies, Revamp also participated in the series A funding round that Triple W Japan conducted last July. Also, in February of last year, the company acquired a subsidy of up to 70 million yen from NEDO's another R&D venture support project (commonly known as the STS grant project).
DFree's mobile app for nursing care facilities
Recently, Triple W Japan won Grand Prize at the "Japan Healthcare Business Contest" conducted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on March 3rd. Interest from Europe is also high, and it seems that DFree was exhibited as a use case of Soracom, an IoT-focused mobile network service from Japan, which announced its advance into Europe at the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona earlier this month. They are also scheduled to represent Japan in the Netherlands' startup conference competition Get in the Ring (which timing-wise overlaps with Tech in Asia Singapore 2017…) from May 17th to the 19th. Moreover, in Kawasaki city, DFree is certified as the Kawasaki Innovation Standard with the city subsidizing expenses for its use in nursing care facilities, which is expected to spur introduction.
Triple W Japan's CEO Atsushi Nakanishi had the following to say about the future of DFree:
I'd like to work with Kawasaki city to see it implemented for in-home nursing care and rehabilitation. In particular, most patients who have suffered from a stroke undergo a rehabilitation process where they're forced to wear a catheter after surgery (to compensate for difficulty urinating), which they then have removed and wear diapers, finally graduating from those, in order to fully rehabilitate into society. DFree would be useful in the process of removing the diaper.
Nakanishi continued:
DFree has already begun to be used in French nursing home care facilities, and we will promote trials for full-scale introduction. We're also in the process of contracting with a German company. We are collaborating in Europe since the structure of nursing care is well established. Regarding areas where nursing care is not easy, I'd like to consider making rehabilitation models and home care support tools and packages. I'd like to partner with insurance companies.
At the beginning of the project, DFree had set a goal of predicting bowel movements, but recently seems to be shifting its focus to urination control. On this, Nakanishi said that the technological development of urination prediction is the priority because urination is more frequent than bowel movements, making it easier to develop data and algorithms; also, throughout the world there are more people who are in need of support for urination rather than defecation. It appears that once they have answered the demand for urination prediction, they will once again return to the development of a solution for defecation prediction.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru IKeda
Triple W Japan, developer of DFree urination predictor, secures $4.4M pre-series B round
Triple W Japan, developer of bowel movement notifier, gets $4.9M from Foxconn, others
Japan's D Free, bowel movement and urination predictor, secures $1 million
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Japan's Ookami, offering social network app for sports fans, secures series A round
Ookami
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Ookami, the Japanese startup developing the "Player!" sports entertainment app, announced on Friday that the company raised an undisclosed amount from IMJ Investment Partners (IMJ-IP), Gree Ventures, The Asahi Shimbun, and a number of confidential individual investors in a Series A round. For Ookami, this follows an undisclosed amount raised in a seed round from Gree Ventures last May, making this Gree Venture's second investment in the company. Prior to the seed round, Ookami held angel rounds in June of 2014 and March of 2015, in which they raised a total of 30 million yen (around $260K US) from athlete Dai Tamesue, Uzabase, Uzabase CEO Yusuke Umeda, Tomohito Ebine (founder of OPT Holdings), and Toshiaki Komatsu (Co-founder of Photocreate), but according to information from the stakeholders the total amount raised this time in the Series A round is expected to be on a scale of several hundred million yen (or several million US dollars). Ookami was founded in April of 2014. In April 2015 they released the mobile app "Player!" for iOS, and pivoted from a sports news distribution platform to the one that reports sports games live, with a social network function…
Image credit: ookami
Tokyo-based Ookami, the Japanese startup developing the "Player!" sports entertainment app, announced on Friday that the company raised an undisclosed amount from IMJ Investment Partners (IMJ-IP), Gree Ventures, The Asahi Shimbun, and a number of confidential individual investors in a Series A round. For Ookami, this follows an undisclosed amount raised in a seed round from Gree Ventures last May, making this Gree Venture's second investment in the company.
Prior to the seed round, Ookami held angel rounds in June of 2014 and March of 2015, in which they raised a total of 30 million yen (around $260K US) from athlete Dai Tamesue, Uzabase, Uzabase CEO Yusuke Umeda, Tomohito Ebine (founder of OPT Holdings), and Toshiaki Komatsu (Co-founder of Photocreate), but according to information from the stakeholders the total amount raised this time in the Series A round is expected to be on a scale of several hundred million yen (or several million US dollars).
Ookami was founded in April of 2014. In April 2015 they released the mobile app "Player!" for iOS, and pivoted from a sports news distribution platform to the one that reports sports games live, with a social network function that allows users to share their reactions in real-time with other users watching the progress and results of the same game. In December 2015 it was labeled the "App Store Best of 2015", and in 2016 it won the "Good Design Award."
Ookami revealed plans to strengthen the news distribution functions of Player! In addition to revamping the news functions, they will partner with a major data stadium for the broadcasting of sports scores, and information regarding both J-league football and B-league basketball games in Japan will be offered in real time. Additionally, their information can be further enriched through their partnership with the Asahi Shimbun, a company that participates in some 180 sports events in Japan yearly.
The Asahi Shumbun, participants in this round, released the following comments in excerpt.
We believe that through multiplying various sports businesses and contents with Ookami's Player!, a new way of enjoying sports, and communicating about sports, separate from a newspaper, becomes possible; so we entered into the partnership.
GREE Ventures, who participated in the latest investment round along with IMJ-IP, appears to make a pure money injection. The following is an excerpt from comments by IMJ-IP.
With the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, the field of sports is expected to experience great growth in Japan. As a part of this, we recognize the fact that Player! is a new medium that makes live sports content possible and offers the optimal smart-phone customer experience, and judge that their management team is one of high executive power, so we have made the decision to support them.
Although Ookami created the above figure (and therefore it is not necessarily an objective interpretation), the digital distribution of sports content is definitely bustling, even with profitable and not so profitable players.
To illustrate other digital sports startups in Japan, there is Spotomo and Spotomo GC, which offer online lesson services, with investors like Docomo Ventures, DeNA (TSE: 2432), Sirius Partners, and ABC Dream Ventures. Link Sports, which runs the amateur sports score and competition management service TeamHub, raised about 60 million yen (around $523K US) in financing from Venture United and debt from the Japan Policy Finance Corporation.
In Japan, DAZN (pronounced dazon) and Softbank's Suponavi Live are advancing, challenging each other over Internet and mobile distribution, leading to a rise in broadcasting fees. However, they alone cannot consume all the video distribution, and it seems there is a development in which they discount and resell (sublicense) the broadcasting rights to other satellite broadcasters and cable television broadcasting companies. Overseas, Twitter contributes $10 million US to streamcast NFL games worldwide, and Amazon is moving to acquire broadcasting rights for sports.
For Ookami, Player! is not a distributor of sports video content, but instead focuses on score information related to games as well as SNS, thereby leaving them unaffected by these big players. Instead, through the benefit of sublicensing, etc., in the future it will be possible to deliver videos by revenue sharing with the broadcasting rights holder.
Ookami CEO Taiyo Ogata says:
I think it is possible to create a flexible operation if you can watch and listen to programs on a game-by-game basis (not on a per-channel basis), or if the price is changed when you watch from the second half.
60% of Player!'s users are under 35, a demographic that existing sports broadcasters are not reaching. In terms of being able to distribute video to this demographic, I think that it will be possible for major platformers to merge with Ookami.
Ogata also revealed that they are preparing several other user experiences only possible through Player! I look forward to a number of big announcements this year which can be expected in connection to this.
Japan's Ookami behind sports-centric social network app Player! raises series B round
Japan's Ookami behind sports live app Player! raises seed round from Gree Ventures
IMJ Investment Partners gets rebranded to Spiral Ventures as independent VC firm
Kyoto's Makers Boot Camp accelerator launches $17.5M fund to back IoT startups
Darma Tech Labs
Kyoto Bank
Makers Boot Camp
See the original story in Japanese. Kyoto-based Darma Tech Labs, which runs the Makers Boot Camp (MBC) hardware startup-focused accelerator, announced in Kyoto on Tuesday that it is forming an investment fund worth 2 billion yen (nearly $18 million US) with having Kyoto Bank (TSE: 8369) as an anchor limited partner. In addition to Narimasa Makino, CEO of Darma Tech Labs, Shingo Nadaka the Deputy Director of local manufacturing organization Kyoto Shisaku Net, and Director Masatoshi Takeda (also Director of Darma Tech Labs), and Masahiko Naka, the Executive Director of Kyoto Bank also attended the press briefing held on that day. The fund is called MBC Shisaku No. 1 Investment LP and its redemption period is 10 years. They will intensively invest in early stage hardware startups in Japan, North America, and Europe. Priority investment areas include IoT, robotics, sensing, networking, big data analysis, medical devices, nursing care, lifestyle, environment and energy. Along with forming this fund, Mikuni Kimura, the former chief investment officer for Future Venture Capital, along with certified public accountant Manabu Kuwahara will participate as managing directors at Darma Tech Labs, and expanding their field of partners by joining with New York City-based FabFoundry, the CEO Nobuhiro…
From left: Shingo Nadaka (Deputy Director of Kyoto Shisaku Net), Masatoshi Takeda (Director of Darma Tech Labs/ Director of Kyoto Shisaku Net), Narimasa Makino (CEO of Darma Tech Labs), Masahiko Naka (Executive Director of Kyoto Bank)
Image credit: Darma Tech Labs
Kyoto-based Darma Tech Labs, which runs the Makers Boot Camp (MBC) hardware startup-focused accelerator, announced in Kyoto on Tuesday that it is forming an investment fund worth 2 billion yen (nearly $18 million US) with having Kyoto Bank (TSE: 8369) as an anchor limited partner.
In addition to Narimasa Makino, CEO of Darma Tech Labs, Shingo Nadaka the Deputy Director of local manufacturing organization Kyoto Shisaku Net, and Director Masatoshi Takeda (also Director of Darma Tech Labs), and Masahiko Naka, the Executive Director of Kyoto Bank also attended the press briefing held on that day.
The fund is called MBC Shisaku No. 1 Investment LP and its redemption period is 10 years. They will intensively invest in early stage hardware startups in Japan, North America, and Europe. Priority investment areas include IoT, robotics, sensing, networking, big data analysis, medical devices, nursing care, lifestyle, environment and energy.
Along with forming this fund, Mikuni Kimura, the former chief investment officer for Future Venture Capital, along with certified public accountant Manabu Kuwahara will participate as managing directors at Darma Tech Labs, and expanding their field of partners by joining with New York City-based FabFoundry, the CEO Nobuhiro Seki will be appointed as a director of Darma Tech Labs.
Darma Tech Labs, the facilitators of MBC, also regularly holds Monozukuri Hub Meetup at the co-working space MTRL Kyoto (Material Kyoto) to focus on creating a community of hardware startups. At the Monozukuri Hardware Cup, held for the first time in Osaka in February, eight hardware startup teams from Japan came, with the three teams of QD Laser, PLENGoer, and VAQSO, being invited to the Hardware Startup Pitch Competition put on by the Pittsburgh-based hardware startup AlphaLab Gear.
Makers Boot Camp opens international makerspace in Kyoto
Kyoto's Makers Boot Camp partners with La French Tech to help more IoT startups grow
8 hardware startups give pitches at first Hardware Cup in Osaka for Pittsburgh finals
HackOsaka 2017
Monozukuri Hardware Cup
The Bridge 2017.03.08
This is a guest post by Mari Futagami, Community Manager of Kyoto-based hardware startup accelerator Makers Boot Camp. The accelerator holds the Monozukuri Hub Meetup event in Kyoto on a monthly basis. Additionally, all photos in this article were provided by professional photographer Miki Matsuura of Tumiki Photo. See the original story in Japanese. Monozukuri Hardware Cup 2017 was held for the first time in conjunction with Hack Osaka 2017 on 9th February. It is a pitch event hosted by Monozukuri Hardware Startup Consortium aiming to be a stepping stone for the Japanese "monozukuri" (referring to manufacturing in Japanese) startups which can potentially be successful around the world. Monozukuri Hardware Startup Consortium is organized by Darma Tech Labs (Kyoto), FabFoundry (New York City), and TechShop Japan (Minato-ku, Tokyo), and this pitch event is treated as the Japanese regional preliminary of National Hardware Cup which has been held in the US since 2015. Although typical national events in Japan are often held in Tokyo, Monozukuri Hardware Cup will be held in Kansai area for the next three years including this time. Hardware Cup Final has been held in Pittsburgh since 2015, and there is a reason why the regional city was…
This is a guest post by Mari Futagami, Community Manager of Kyoto-based hardware startup accelerator Makers Boot Camp. The accelerator holds the Monozukuri Hub Meetup event in Kyoto on a monthly basis.
Additionally, all photos in this article were provided by professional photographer Miki Matsuura of Tumiki Photo.
Monozukuri Hardware Cup 2017 was held for the first time in conjunction with Hack Osaka 2017 on 9th February. It is a pitch event hosted by Monozukuri Hardware Startup Consortium aiming to be a stepping stone for the Japanese "monozukuri" (referring to manufacturing in Japanese) startups which can potentially be successful around the world.
Monozukuri Hardware Startup Consortium is organized by Darma Tech Labs (Kyoto), FabFoundry (New York City), and TechShop Japan (Minato-ku, Tokyo), and this pitch event is treated as the Japanese regional preliminary of National Hardware Cup which has been held in the US since 2015. Although typical national events in Japan are often held in Tokyo, Monozukuri Hardware Cup will be held in Kansai area for the next three years including this time.
Hardware Cup Final has been held in Pittsburgh since 2015, and there is a reason why the regional city was chosen to be the host for the final of the event. Pittsburgh had once flourished as a town of steel industry, but its regional economy was seriously damaged by imported cheap steel in the 1970s. However, Pittsburgh, the city also known as an academic city having good universities such as Carnegie Mellon University, shifted its industrial base into high technology, as well as health, education or finance, and had gradually transformed into a new city since the 1980s.
Attracting innovative sections of top IT players including Google, Apple and Facebook, Pittsburgh has been developing into a more creative environment. Based in such a place, the hardware-focused accelerator AlphaLab Gear, chosen as one of the top 20 programs by Seed Accelerator Rankings Project, hosted Hardware Cup Final. AlphaLab Gear team has been creating an organic ecosystem in Pittsburgh as a key player, tying up with the academic / industrial world in addition to VCs.
Ilana Diamond, Chief of AlphaLab Gear, explained the reason for holding Hardware Cup:
In the US, hardware startups have more difficulties in fundraising rather than web or app startups. I think that is because they could not gain enough understanding of investors or media.
Pitches and exhibition booths
Exhibition booths were set for eight participant startups where visitors can try their products. By allowing them to actually touch and experience the products, their understanding of the hardware development seemed to deepen, and also active communication among startups came to be seen.
In the pitch competition, each team gave a pitch within four minutes and dealt with questions from the judges all in English in five minutes. Under the same regulation with the final, the eight teams competed for a ticket for the final in Pittsburgh.
Atmoph
Gyeong-il Kan, Co-founder / CEO of Atmoph
The first presenter was Kyoto-based Atmoph which developed the world's first digital smart window under the same name and aims to spread a new travel experience to homes. Co-Founder / CEO of Atomoph Kan's experience of window-less environment in the US triggered him to start development of the smart window.
With beautiful moving scenery images displayed on the liquid crystal screen and sounds all over the world such as Hawaii, New Zealand, Switzerland or Patagonia, Atmoph provides users to get a feel for actually being there. All images were originally photographed in 4K resolution by partnered cameramen. Currently, more than 500 images of 30 countries have been uploaded and one can purchase them via the app. The window is also able to display daily life information such as weather forecasts or time.
The team is eyeing possibilities for application to health-care or home hub uses.
Dendama
Yoshihiro Otani, CEO of Dendama (right)
Dendama offers an IoT (Internet of Things) kendama (Japanese cup-and-ball toy) under the same name capable of online match games. The player population of kendama is said to be 3 million in Japan and the kendama boom is gradually spreading globally. Dendama is equipped with a sensor capable of discriminating complicated kendama skills by linking with the app and enables online match games with players all over the world.
The team plans exhibition at Kickstarter and SXSW, and continues business activities with a view to linking with AR (augmented reality) technologies.
Lightflyer
Kaoru Kakinuma, CEO of Lightflyer
Lightflyer was spun out from The University of Tokyo and is going to offer the launching service of ultra-small satellites leveraging its know-how of "the microwave rocket" accumulated for 13 years. The launching apparatus costs only tens of thousands of dollars for each ultra-small satellite and that is one-hundredth of conventional ones.
The Lightflyer team has established a research and development in cooperation with the University of Tokyo or Carnegie Mellon University, making efforts to complete the unit to put satellites into low orbit.
Yoshinari Kou, Mille-Feuille
The automated electronic schematic creation tool Mille-Feuille supports programmers or artists without specialized knowledge to freely design their own custom electronic circuits. Mille-Feuille is composed of base board, module board, and device board. Users can participate in designing of the device boards as open hardware and can even sell them.
While sales of device boards will become the first profit for the firm, it also plans to customize and sell the license of the electronic schematic creation tool and its firmware (they are Web tools) to user companies. Moreover, the team has a concept of preparing a marketplace focusing on device boards and offers services like Google Play.
PLENGoer Robotics
Atsuhiko Tomita, COO of PLENGoer Robotics
PLENGoer Robotics develops the original personal assistant robot. The team introduced this time a personal assistant robot capable of changing a general home into a smart home by controlling camera functions or household appliances, which was exhibited at CES too.
Unlike conventional cameras requiring pushing a shatter button, PLENGoer Robotics' camera recognizes ideal photo opportunities and provides natural photos automatically.
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QD Laser
Hironori Miyauchi, Business Development Manager, Visual Information Device Business Division, QD Laser
QD Laser develops the retina scanning type laser eyewear which projects images directly to wearer's retina from the built-in laser projector on the eyewear frame. The number of visually handicapped people with impaired vision, who are not completely blind but have cloudy eyesight, totals at about 1.5 million in Japan and 250 million in the world including developing countries so this technology has a possibility of contributing to improvement of their quality of life.
With the specially designed optical system, QD Laser is able to project clear images regardless of the accommodation of eyes including eyesight or in-focus position. The team has been developing the glasses as medical instrument or welfare equipment in order to recover visual senses of visually handicapped people mainly caused by dysfunctions of anterior ocular segments such as corneas and lens. The team also implied the application possibilities in other fields such as AR or smart glasses where significant expansion is expected in the future.
Secual
Naoki Nishida, COO of Secual
Secual was founded in June of 2015, aiming to realize a new style of home security utilizing IoT. When the built-in sensor of the device installed on a window or a door detects unusual vibration, it transmits information to the firm's center system via the gateway and notifies user's smartphone of the analyzed information.
The device costs about $90 at least. Since it can be easily installed without requiring wiring works, the team approaches possible users who had gave up introducing home security due to high costs or installation limitations in rental houses, and aims to secure profit by setting $8.7 as the monthly charge.
The team is also developing new devices that work with Secual and is looking to various kinds of business development such as utilization in welfare facilities through strengthening cooperation with external organizations.
Japan's Secual, smart home security startup, ties up with major vacation rentals agencies
VAQSO
Kentaro Kawaguchi, CEO of Vaqso (right)
Vaqso develops the scent generation device attachable to HMD (head-mount display). Linking with VR contents, it is able to shoot out various realistic smells and provides VR experience with higher reality. The device can be installed to all HMD on the market.
Japanese startup wants to add smells to VR experiences with small bar device
Awards Ceremony: QD Laser Won the Top Prize
QD Laser team won the top prize
After the pitch competition held at the communication area with a casual atmosphere, the awards ceremony was held at the main arena.
The scent device for VR Vaqso team took 3rd place and the personal assistant robot PLENGoer Robotics team took 2nd place. The top prize went to the retina scanning type laser eye-ware QD Laser team.
(From left) Jeffrey McDaniel, Hikari Takahashi, and Shuji Fujita as judges for the pitch competition
The chief judge of the pitch competition Jeffrey McDaniel, Executive-in-Residence of Innovation Works hosting the accelerator AlphaLab Gear, commented on Japanese hardware startups:
Presentation in English must be the great first step to make appeal to overseas investors. I hope you all grow up utilizing Japanese manufacturing background.
After the competition, judge Shuji Fujita (President of EO Osaka) and judge Hikari Takahashi (Co-founder of Brain Portal) gave advices to eight participant teams about the key to success in business development. Fujita and Takahashi made great efforts to support the Japanese startup culture.
Supplemental Prizes
Yoshiaki Tsuda, Chief Director, Digital Design Lab of All Nippon Airways which acts as the travel sponsor of this event
The qualifier QD Laser team was given a ticket to the pitch competition in Hardware Cup Final (19th to 20th April, Pittsburgh), as well as round-trip tickets from Japan to New York and travel expense support of $2,600 by the travel sponsor All Nippon Airways.
PLENGoer Robotics in 2nd place and Vaqso in 3rd place were given exhibition rights at demonstration area in Hardware Cup Final and travel expense supports ($1,800 for 2nd place and $880 for 3rd place) as well. Moreover, participation rights to Hardware Cup Demo Day which will be held either in New York or Pittsburgh will be awarded to all higher-ranking winners.
While it was the first Monozukuri Hardware Cup held this time, eight teams were chosen as finalists from 24 applicants through documentary elimination and competed fiercely to qualify for Hardware Cup Final by presenting their own products and business plan.
I hope that holding Monozukuri Hardware Cup continuously in the Kansai area will contribute to further growth of the Japanese hardware startups and become a foothold for creating the ecosystem of manufacturing.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by "Tex" Pomeroy
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Wantedly, Japan's social recruiting startup, officially expands into Singapore
See the original story in Japanese. It has been five years since I first wrote a piece about Wantedly on Penn Olson (now known as Tech in Asia). I remember that I visited the Kayac (TSE:3904) office located in Ebisu to meet CEO Akiko Naka and others. Since Naka was actively providing lectures at many startup conferences such as RISE or Slush Asia (renamed today as Slush Tokyo), I mistakenly thought that Wantedly had already expanded its business globally, but actually this is the first time it is establishing an office overseas (without local offices, it had expanded into Indonesia with a foreign language version of Wantedly services in March of 2015). Wantedly revealed on Thursday that it will commence full-scale sales and promotion activities in the Singapore market, hiring four local staffs. Weiting Tan, who formerly served the last-minute hotel reservation app HotelQuickly as Marketing Manager, has been appointed Country Manager of the local subsidiary Wantedly Singapore. Its office will be established at the co-working space Spacemob near Orchard Road. In commemoration of the full-scale launch, the firm held a party at Red Dot Design Museum in Singapore from 15:30 (local time) this Thursday. Coinciding with the announcement, the…
Image credit: Wantedly Singapore + 123RF (Image composite by Masaru Ikeda)
It has been five years since I first wrote a piece about Wantedly on Penn Olson (now known as Tech in Asia). I remember that I visited the Kayac (TSE:3904) office located in Ebisu to meet CEO Akiko Naka and others.
Since Naka was actively providing lectures at many startup conferences such as RISE or Slush Asia (renamed today as Slush Tokyo), I mistakenly thought that Wantedly had already expanded its business globally, but actually this is the first time it is establishing an office overseas (without local offices, it had expanded into Indonesia with a foreign language version of Wantedly services in March of 2015).
Wantedly Singapore team: (L to R) Weiting Tan (Country Manager), Joelle Pang (Int'l Business Development)
Image credit: Wantedly Singapore
Wantedly revealed on Thursday that it will commence full-scale sales and promotion activities in the Singapore market, hiring four local staffs. Weiting Tan, who formerly served the last-minute hotel reservation app HotelQuickly as Marketing Manager, has been appointed Country Manager of the local subsidiary Wantedly Singapore. Its office will be established at the co-working space Spacemob near Orchard Road. In commemoration of the full-scale launch, the firm held a party at Red Dot Design Museum in Singapore from 15:30 (local time) this Thursday.
Coinciding with the announcement, the firm launched the English version of the company visiting app Wantedly Visit for iOS. Although any plan about one for Android is not mentioned at this point, the firm declared that it will accelerate the business development to the Asian countries including Indonesia using the Singapore subsidiary as a hub, so that it seems that the app will also soon become available for Android as it is frequently used in these areas.
The company claims that over 20,000 companies in Japan have registered as users on Wantedly while the number of monthly visiting users have recently reached 1 million.
Edited by "Tex" Pomeroy, Masaru Ikeda
Wantedly Visit
Image credit: Wantedly
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Japan's Dazzle lands $1.8 million to develop growth hack tool for VR game developers
See the original story in Japanese. Updated on March 6: Dazzle CEO's first name was corrected. Tokyo-based Dazzle, which develops mobile game apps as well as solution for virtual reality (VR) content developers, announced on Wednesday that they raised a total of 200 million yen (about $1.75 million US) in funds from the major construction/manufacturing engineer dispatch company Yumeshin Holdings (TSE: 2362, hereafter referred to as Yumeshin HD) and their subsidiary Yume Education which conducts training programs for IT engineers. This is in addition to the 150 million (about $1.3 million US) raised from Yumeshin HD in June of last year, bringing the total amount raised to 350 million yen (over $3 million US). Following this funding, the President of Yume Education Norikiyo Sato, and major game developer Acrodea's (TSE: 3823) Director of Solutions Division and Executive Officer Ariro "Alex" Nagayama will serve as Corporate Auditors of Dazzle. Additionally, former Skymark CEO who currently serves as Representative Director of AirAsia Japan Takashi Ide was appointed as a management advisor. Yasuteru Yamada founded Dazzle in 2011 while still working as a freelance programmer (now, he is the CEO). In addition to Valiant Nights, a mobile game for Android and iOS, they…
Image credit: Dazzle
Updated on March 6: Dazzle CEO's first name was corrected.
Tokyo-based Dazzle, which develops mobile game apps as well as solution for virtual reality (VR) content developers, announced on Wednesday that they raised a total of 200 million yen (about $1.75 million US) in funds from the major construction/manufacturing engineer dispatch company Yumeshin Holdings (TSE: 2362, hereafter referred to as Yumeshin HD) and their subsidiary Yume Education which conducts training programs for IT engineers. This is in addition to the 150 million (about $1.3 million US) raised from Yumeshin HD in June of last year, bringing the total amount raised to 350 million yen (over $3 million US).
Following this funding, the President of Yume Education Norikiyo Sato, and major game developer Acrodea's (TSE: 3823) Director of Solutions Division and Executive Officer Ariro "Alex" Nagayama will serve as Corporate Auditors of Dazzle. Additionally, former Skymark CEO who currently serves as Representative Director of AirAsia Japan Takashi Ide was appointed as a management advisor.
The team members of Dazzle. The second person from the right standing is Dazzle CEO Yasuteru Yamada.
Yasuteru Yamada founded Dazzle in 2011 while still working as a freelance programmer (now, he is the CEO). In addition to Valiant Nights, a mobile game for Android and iOS, they have released four VR game titles for Gear VR and HTC Vive. In recent years, R&D consultation on VR from companies has been increasing, and as a service for supporting the PDCA cycle of VR game products, they began to develop growth hack tools / middleware AccessiVR since last year.
In the closed beta version of AccessiVR only Microsoft DayDream devices are compatible, but Gear VR, Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive will be added in the official version. Also, Unity is the only supported language in closed beta, but they plan to add Unreal Engine for the official version, and they are aiming for it to correspond to Amazon Lumberyard in the future. To sequentially add functions required by developers, the company plans to implement budget management and operation plan management functions for setting target budgets and establishing KPI to compare budget forecasts.
AccessiVR's dashboard
In the same business sphere, there are conflicts with Unity Analytics and Cognitive VR as overseas forces, but Unity Analytics can only deal with Unity, and because AccessiVR's component is light, when it is incorporated into a VR game or content the fact that there is less loss to the FPS (frame per second) is said to be its technological merit. Following the participation of as many as 10 developers in closed beta tests, they aim for the official version to be out from June to July, and in partnering with VR Arcades, acquiring vital data through cooperation with IoT startups, they hope to differentiate themselves in terms of actual operation. I was reminded of visiting VR Space in Shibuya awhile back, where Executive Producer Akihito Ninomiya suggested that the VR Arcade could be used as a VR developer's acquisition of growth hack data and as a marketing base.
Currently Dazzle has not received funding from any VCs. Yamada explained that if they were to receive funds from VC as a VR company, Dazzle would seek to specialize in VR only, and if they pursue funding as a specifically VR company, there is the possibility that their valuation could lower. He elaborated that after evaluating the game business that they were already able to monetize they sought to invest in a new business, and the company that understood that vision was Yumishin HD, leading to the acceptance of the investment.
There are around 40 employees at Dazzle including engineers, and in light of the fact that 2018-2019 the global VR industry is set to become vibrant, the in-house developers of smartphone games will gradually shift to the VR business. Using funds raised this time around, the company is focusing on strengthening the development engineers and support staff of AccessiVR.
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A full list of all creature IDs in the Ark Ragnarok map.
The Ragnarok DLC is not yet finished, although it did bring a new map to the game. The arrival of Ragnorak also brought 5 new creatures to the game.


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Warren Buffett Shares the Secrets to Wealth in America
Buffett is the CEO and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway
I have good news. First, most American children are going to live far better than their parents did. Second, large gains in the living standards of Americans will continue for many generations to come.
Some years back, people generally agreed with my optimism. Today, however, pollsters find that most Americans are pessimistic about their children's future. Politicians, business leaders and the press constantly tell us that our economic machine is sputtering. Their evidence: GDP growth of only 2% or so in recent years.
Before we shed tears over that figure, let's do a little math, recognizing that GDP per capita is what counts. If, for example, the U.S. population were to grow 3% annually while GDP grew 2%, prospects would indeed be bleak for our children.
But that's not the case. We can be confident that births minus deaths will add no more than 0.5% yearly to America's population. Immigration is more difficult to predict. I believe 1 million people annually is a reasonable estimate, an influx that will add 0.3% annually to population growth.
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In total, therefore, you can expect America's population to increase about 0.8% a year. Under that assumption, gains of 2% in real GDP–that is, without nominal gains produced by inflation–will annually deliver 1.2% growth in per capita GDP.
This pace no doubt sounds paltry. But over time, it works wonders. In 25 years–a single generation–1.2% annual growth boosts our current $59,000 of GDP per capita to $79,000. This $20,000 increase guarantees a far better life for our children.
In America, it should be noted, there's nothing unusual about that sort of gain, magnificent though it will be. Just look at what has happened in my lifetime.
I was born in 1930, when the symbol of American wealth was John D. Rockefeller Sr. Today my upper-middle-class neighbors enjoy options in travel, entertainment, medicine and education that were simply not available to Rockefeller and his family. With all of his riches, John D. couldn't buy the pleasures and conveniences we now take for granted.
Two words explain this miracle: innovation and productivity. Conversely, were today's Americans doing the same things in the same ways as they did in 1776, we would be leading the same sort of lives as our forebears.
An American icon is depicted through composite photography.
Replicating those early days would require that 80% or so of today's workers be employed on farms simply to provide the food and cotton we need. So why does it take only 2% of today's workers to do this job? Give the credit to those who brought us tractors, planters, cotton gins, combines, fertilizer, irrigation and a host of other productivity improvements.
To all this good news there is, of course, an important offset: in our 241 years, the progress that I've described has disrupted and displaced almost all of our country's labor force. If that level of upheaval had been foreseen–which it clearly wasn't–strong worker opposition would surely have formed and possibly doomed innovation. How, Americans would have asked, could all these unemployed farmers find work?
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We know today that the staggering productivity gains in farming were a blessing. They freed nearly 80% of the nation's workforce to redeploy their efforts into new industries that have changed our way of life.
You can describe these develop-ments as productivity gains or disruptions. Whatever the label, they explain why we now have our amazing $59,000 of GDP per capita.
This game of economic miracles is in its early innings. Americans will benefit from far more and better "stuff" in the future. The challenge will be to have this bounty deliver a better life to the disrupted as well as to the disrupters. And on this matter, many Americans are justifiably worried.
Let's think again about 1930. Imagine someone then predicting that real per capita GDP would increase sixfold during my lifetime. My parents would have immediately dismissed such a gain as impossible. If somehow, though, they could have imagined it actually transpiring, they would concurrently have predicted something close to universal prosperity.
Instead, another invention of the ensuing decades, the Forbes 400, paints a far different picture. Between the first computation in 1982 and today, the wealth of the 400 increased 29-fold–from $93 billion to $2.7 trillion–while many millions of hardworking citizens remained stuck on an economic treadmill. During this period, the tsunami of wealth didn't trickle down. It surged upward.
In 1776, America set off to unleash human potential by combining market economics, the rule of law and equality of opportunity. This foundation was an act of genius that in only 241 years converted our original villages and prairies into $96 trillion of wealth.
The market system, however, has also left many people hopelessly behind, particularly as it has become ever more specialized. These devastating side effects can be ameliorated: a rich family takes care of all its children, not just those with talents valued by the marketplace.
Spotlight Story
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The Chief Justice presides over the trial, not the Majority Leader.
In the years of growth that certainly lie ahead, I have no doubt that America can both deliver riches to many and a decent life to all. We must not settle for less.
This appears in the January 15, 2018 issue of TIME.
TIME Ideas hosts the world's leading voices, providing commentary on events in news, society, and culture. We welcome outside contributions. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors.


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Is the Apple iPhone 12 Pro really worth the £200 price hike?
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We rate the Apple iPhone 12 Pro a 7/10
The Apple iPhone 12 models saw many new and improved features over last year's Apple iPhone 11 models. It seems the main focus for the Apple iPhone 12 models was to improve the display, and for the first time, include an OLED display in every Apple iPhone 12 model. When comparing the Apple iPhone 12 Pro to the Apple iPhone 12, the only differences are the colour options, 2GB more RAM, and an extra 12MP telephoto camera. We don't believe this is worth the £200 / $200 price hike between the two models.
Great display
Amazing cameras
Smaller battery than the Apple iPhone 11 Pro
Upgrades not worth the £200 / $200 price hike
Apple is one of the biggest names when it comes to the technology industry. Although Apple is most commonly associated with the Apple iPhone, Apple also sells other electronics, software, and online services. Each year, Apple release a new range of Apple iPhones, bringing the latest and greatest technology into three or four Apple iPhone models. This Apple iPhone 12 Pro review will go in-depth about the pros and cons of one of the four Apple iPhone 12 models.
For all Apple iPhone 12 reviews, please see below:
Apple iPhone 12 Mini review
Apple iPhone 12 Pro specifications
Price (at release): £999 / $999
Colours: Silver, Graphite, Gold, Pacific Blue
Storage: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB
Display: 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED (460 PPI)
Processor: Apple A14 Bionic
Memory/RAM: 6GB
5G Technology: Yes
Cameras: 12MP wide, 12MP ultrawide, 12MP telephoto, 12MP front camera
Apple iPhone 12 Pro specs infographic
Apple iPhone 12 Pro review: Design
The Apple iPhone 12 Pro is available in four different colours. These four colours are silver, graphite, gold, and Pacific Blue. Although these colours are pretty basic, especially the silver, graphite, and gold colours which we've seen in previous Apple iPhone models, such as the Apple iPhone 11 Pro, it's a safe bet for Apple as they all look amazing. Below you can see how each Apple iPhone 12 Pro colour looks.
Apple iPhone 12 Pro colours - Credit: Apple
When you compare the design of the Apple iPhone 12 Pro to last year's Apple iPhone 11 Pro, you'll find very few differences. While the camera housing looks identical, and the sizeable notch and bezel remains, some are calling the Apple iPhone 12 Pro a blend between the Apple iPhone 4 and the Apple iPhone X. The main similarities from these iPhones are the notched, full-screen display first introduced in the Apple iPhone X, and the flat-edge design from the Apple iPhone 4.
Apple iPhone 12 Pro design - Credit: Apple
Apple iPhone 12 Pro on Amazon
This year's Apple iPhone 12 Pro features a sleek flat-edge design, similar to the Apple iPhone 4 design, along with an aerospace-grade aluminium enclosure. This, along with the new Ceramic Shield front cover, which goes beyond just glass protection by growing nano-ceramic crystals within the glass matrix, ultimately increases drop performance by 4x.
Possibly the most controversial change with the Apple iPhone 12 Pro is its charging capabilities, with the introduction of MagSafe. MagSafe is a new feature on all Apple iPhone 12 models that allows magnetic accessories to be attached to the back of your Apple iPhone 12 Pro, including Apple's MagSafe charger for precise wireless charging. We'll go into more detail about Apple's new MagSafe charging in the battery section of this review.
Apple iPhone 12 Pro review: Display
For the first time ever, Apple has included an OLED display in every iPhone model this year, not just the high-end models like in last year's Apple iPhone 11 Pro or the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max. The Apple iPhone 12 Pro features a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display with a 2532 x 1170 pixel resolution at 460 PPI.
This year's Apple iPhone 12 line-up has made some huge improvements to the displays this year in many ways. The biggest improvement has been that now all models of the Apple iPhone 12 come with OLED displays, rather than the Liquid Retina LCD displays Apple has provided to the standard iPhone models over the past few years.
Apple iPhone 12 Pro display - Credit: Apple
As well as this, the Apple iPhone 12 Pro comes with a resolution of 2532 x 1170, a slight improvement over last year's Apple iPhone 11 Pro display, which had a resolution of 2436 x 1125. Along with this, the Apple iPhone 12 Pro has seen a solid improvement to the screen-to-body ratio when compared to last year's Apple iPhone 11 Pro. The Apple iPhone 12 Pro has a screen-to-body ratio of 86%, a great increase when compared to the 82.1% screen-to-body ratio of the Apple iPhone 11 Pro.
The Apple iPhone 12 Pro also has 460 Pixels Per Inch (PPI), the same as the standard Apple iPhone 12, and almost the same as last year's Apple iPhone 11 Pro, which had 458 PPI. Generally speaking, the higher the PPI, or pixel density, the more detail you can see on your display. Although there hasn't been much change to the pixel density, having a display with 460 PPI is still very good.
Overall, the display of the Apple iPhone 12 Pro is identical to the display of the standard Apple iPhone 12.
Although this year has seen many great and much-needed improvements come to the displays of the Apple iPhone 12 models, Apple still has quite a lot of catching up to do with Samsung's flagship displays. The Samsung Galaxy S series has been a leader in display technology for many years now, and the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus puts the Apple iPhone 12 Pro display to shame, which was released 7 months earlier than the Apple iPhone 12 Pro. For comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus display has a 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED display with a resolution of 3200 x 1440, 525 PPI, and support for 120Hz display refresh rate.
Apple iPhone 12 Pro review: Cameras
As always with Apple iPhones, the cameras on the Apple iPhone 12 Pro are great, but there hasn't been much change when compared to the previous year's Apple iPhone 11 Pro. The Apple iPhone 12 Pro includes triple 12MP wide, ultrawide, and telephoto cameras, as well as a 12MP front camera.
The triple 12MP rear cameras are housed in a slightly raised, rounded glass square. This design may take some getting used to and is much more noticeable if you tend to use your phone on a flat surface, especially when typing.
Apple iPhone 12 Pro cameras - Credit: Apple
The Apple iPhone 12 Pro's ultrawide lens has a 0.5x zoom compared to the standard wide camera. This allows you to essentially zoom out without having to move. This is great for tight environments such as the indoors where you may not have any room behind you.
This ultrawide camera opens up the possibility for so much more. When you're using the standard wide camera, under the user interface you can actually see what you could capture if you were using the ultrawide camera. This small, yet great feature helps you know when you should be making use of the ultrawide camera.
As well as this, the Apple iPhone 12 Pro also a great option that allows your ultrawide camera to take a picture at the same time as the standard wide camera. This acts as a backup in case the standard wide photo doesn't capture everything that you was hoping to capture, these backup images last 30 days if not used.
Apple iPhone 12 Pro camera app - Credit: Apple
Alongside the ultrawide lens, the Apple iPhone 12 Pro features a telephoto lens that offers a 2x optical zoom. This telephoto lens is the same as the telephoto lens found on the Apple iPhone 11 Pro.
The Apple iPhone 12 Pro's front TrueDepth 12MP camera is also great but is exactly the same as the front camera from the previous year's Apple iPhone 11 Pro. The front camera features its Smart HDR for more balanced images, whilst also allowing for additional features such as Animoji, Memoji, and slofies.
As well as this, the rear cameras on the Apple iPhone 12 Pro support night mode and Deep Fusion. Night mode greatly improves camera low-light performance and allows for incredible night shots. This happens as your Apple iPhone 12 Pro will ask you to hold the phone as steady as possible for a couple of seconds to allow the shutter to take multiple pictures, all at different sharpness and exposure levels, for it to then merge the data together, which results in an incredible low-light photo.
Deep Fusion is Apple's new image processing system, first introduced in the Apple iPhone 11, which works automatically in certain environments. Apple describes it as "an advanced image processing system that uses the A14 Bionic Neural Engine to capture images with dramatically better texture, details, and reduced noise in lower light." This feature is completely automatic and has no indication to show when it's being used. However, there are a few scenarios where Deep Fusion won't be used. Deep Fusion won't be used when you're using the ultrawide lens, shooting burst photos, or when you have the feature "Photos Capture Outside the Frame" turned on.
The Apple iPhone 12 Pro also has very impressive video recording capabilities. The rear cameras on the Apple iPhone 12 Pro are capable of capturing video at 4K at 24fps, 30fps, and 60fps (frames per second). As well as this, the Apple iPhone 12 Pro is also able to record at 1080p at 30fps, 60fps, 120fps, and 240fps. Not only this, but the front camera is also able of recording at 4K at 24fps, 30fps, and 60fps. As well as this, it can also record at 1080p at 30fps, 60fps, and 120fps.
What are the camera specs of the Apple iPhone 12 Pro?
The wide lens is 12MP, f/1.6, 26mm, 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS.
The ultrawide lens is 12MP, 120-degree view, f/2.4, 13mm, 1/3.6″.
The telephoto lens is 12MP, f/2.0, 52mm, 1/3.4″, 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS, 2x optical zoom.
The front camera is 12MP, f/2.2, 23mm, 1/3.6″.
Apple iPhone 12 Pro review: Battery
Apple has never been the best when it comes to battery size, and unfortunately, this year's Apple iPhone 12 Pro is no different. The Apple iPhone 12 Pro has a battery size of 2,815mAh, the same size battery as the standard Apple iPhone 12, and quite a bit smaller than the 3,046mAh battery found in last year's Apple iPhone 11 Pro. Not only is this a step backwards, but even the Apple iPhone 11 Pro battery wasn't enough to compete with last year's similar flagship smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy S10, which featured a 3,400mAh battery.
For comparison, the Apple iPhone 12 Pro has a 2,815mAh battery, and Apple's main competitor, Samsung, released the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus seven months earlier than the Apple iPhone 12 Pro, and that comes with a significantly larger battery size of 4,500mAh.
According to Apple, the Apple iPhone 12 Pro can last up to 17 hours of video playback, up to 11 hours of streamed video playback, and up to 65 hours of audio playback.
Possibly the most controversial change with the Apple iPhone 12 Pro is the introduction of MagSafe. MagSafe is a new feature on all Apple iPhone 12 models that allows magnetic accessories to be attached to the back of your Apple iPhone 12 Pro, including Apple's MagSafe charger (sold separately) for precise wireless charging. For more information, check out Apple's MagSafe charger support page.
Along with this, Apple will no longer include a power adapter in the box of the Apple iPhone 12 Pro or any future Apple iPhone models, nor will they provide Apple's wired earphones, the Apple EarPods. However, the Apple iPhone 12 Pro will come with a Lightning to USB-C cable, which you can use to charge your Apple iPhone 12 Pro by connecting to a laptop, desktop PC, or your own power adapter, as long as they have a USB-C port.
These changes come as a result of Apple attempting to reduce its carbon emissions and overall environmental impact. By removing the power adapter and Apple EarPods, it allows Apple to reduce the size of the Apple iPhone 12 Pro box, as well as future Apple iPhone boxes. It's not all bad, however, as you can still buy the power adapter and Apple EarPods, each sold separately.
Apple iPhone 12 Pro review: Performance
The system-on-chip found in the Apple iPhone 12 Pro is the new A14 Bionic. The Apple A14 Bionic chip features a very powerful CPU (Central Processing Unit) and GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) and allows for advanced features such as Deep Fusion, Apple's newly-introduced image processing system. Apple's A14 Bionic chip is the fastest Apple has ever made.
Released on September 16, 2020, iOS 14 will come preinstalled on the Apple iPhone 12 Pro, and all other Apple iPhone 12 models. The main focus for iOS 14 was to bring a fresh look to the things you do most often, making them easier than ever. Some of the main features of iOS 14 are widgets on the home screen, a redesigned app library, and compact calls. Feel free to check out everything new with Apple's iOS 14.
The Apple iPhone 12 Pro comes with three internal storage options: 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB. Although competitors to Apple's iPhone are starting to offer storage of up to 1TB, 64GB is usually enough for the average user. The Apple iPhone 12 Pro also comes with 6GB of RAM (Random Access Memory), 2GB more than the standard Apple iPhone 12 model. We're used to seeing just 4GB of RAM in Apple iPhones, but this is a much-welcomed upgrade.
Apple iPhone 12 Pro review: Pricing
The Apple iPhone 12 Pro was released on October 23, 2020. At release, prices started from £999 in the UK, and $999 in the US. Below are some of the best deals from Amazon.
How much does the Apple iPhone 12 Pro cost?
The Apple iPhone 12 Pro was released on October 23, 2020. At release, the Apple iPhone 12 Pro started from £999 in the UK, and $999 in the US.
What are the differences between the Apple iPhone 12 Pro and the Apple iPhone 12?
The Apple iPhone 12 Pro comes with 2GB more RAM, includes larger storage options, features a telephoto camera, and comes in gold, silver, graphite, and Pacific Blue colour options.
Is the Apple iPhone 12 Pro worth buying?
If you bought the Apple iPhone 11 and would like to upgrade, we actually recommend the Apple iPhone 12 Pro rather than the Apple iPhone 12. If you didn't buy an Apple iPhone 11, it really depends whether or not you value the improvements the Apple iPhone 12 Pro brings over the standard Apple iPhone 12. If you're looking for something better than the Apple iPhone 12 Pro, check out our Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max review.
Apple iPhone 12 Pro review: Conclusion
The Apple iPhone 12 models saw many new and improved features over last year's Apple iPhone 11 models. It seems the main focus for the Apple iPhone 12 range was to improve the display, and for the first time, include an OLED display in every Apple iPhone 12 model.
Other than the flat-edge sides, the design of the Apple iPhone 12 Pro looks almost identical to the Apple iPhone 11 Pro. The cameras, whilst amazing, haven't seen any notable improvements, and when compared to last year's Apple iPhone 11 Pro, the battery size has actually gotten smaller.
The differences between the Apple iPhone 12 and the Apple iPhone 12 Pro are the colour options, 2GB more RAM, and an extra 12MP telephoto camera.
If you currently have any model of the Apple iPhone 11, we don't believe it's worth upgrading to the Apple iPhone 12. If you do have an Apple iPhone 11 and you want to upgrade, we recommend you check out the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max. If you didn't buy the Apple iPhone 11 and you're looking for a great flagship phone, we recommend the Apple iPhone 12 Pro.
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Warranty: 12 months (refer to Terms and Conditions).
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Kodak Releases Special Committee Report – Details Failures in Corporate Governance Practices
Katherine Ashton
Other Posts by Katherine
LaDawn Naegle
Other Posts by LaDawn
Vicki Westerhaus
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Securities Enforcement
Authored by: Katherine Ashton, LaDawn Naegle and Vicki Westerhaus
We previously blogged about the myriad issues arising in connection with the botched announcement by Kodak of a potential $765 million loan from the federal government as part of its coronavirus response measures, as well as insider stock transactions preceding and immediately following the announcement. Kodak's board formed a special committee to conduct an internal investigation. Akin Gump, retained by the special committee to conduct the investigation, last week delivered its report of over 70 pages of factual findings and legal analysis, concluding that there were no violations of law or company policy, but identifying corporate governance issues requiring attention and remediation. The company has posted the report on its website.
As we previously blogged, on July 27 the internal public relations team at Kodak released an alert to local media that Kodak would be making a big announcement the following day concerning a major initiative between Kodak and the federal government. Stories immediately started circulating on social media and the websites of local network affiliates. Kodak then contacted the recipients of the advisory to tell them it was meant only as background and was not intended for publication. The formal announcement followed before the market open on July 28 when Kodak and the U.S. International Development Finance Corp (DFC) jointly announced a "letter of interest" contemplating a $765 million loan to Kodak to launch a new pharmaceutical business. Although the press release made clear that this was only a letter of interest and the loan was subject to further diligence by the government as well as satisfaction of some significant conditions, in a television interview the following morning, CEO James Continenza stated that he was "very comfortable" that investors could "bank on it" getting funded. Also on July 29, the company caused a series of Form 4s to be filed revealing significant stock option grants had been made to the CEO and other executives on July 27 prior to disclosure of the potential loan. Over a several day period, Kodak stock volumes soared to 20 times normal trading levels and the stock price rose as high as $60 per share from about $2 per share the prior week. The day following the announcement, as the share price was dramatically rising, a board member gifted 3 million shares of Kodak to a charitable foundation he founded. With the then inflated market value of the stock, the gift was worth a reported $116 million.
While the report concludes there was no wrongdoing, it observes that the company and its officers and directors "could have significantly benefited from adherence to more robust corporate governance standards." The report goes on to enumerate recommendations including –
Expand the in-house legal department and provide sufficient resources to serve its function; in consultation with outside counsel, review and refresh all policies and procedures, in particular those relating to insider trading, option grant processes and processes for managing contact with the media and other third parties relating to public announcements; and coordinate the Kodak's legal function and compliance function to ensure complete ownership of all such internal policies and procedures;
With respect to the board and the compensation committee, review and update policies and procedures related to executive compensation, adopting more robust written practices and ensuring committee members receive comprehensive information about proposed executive compensation matters in advance of all committee meetings; and standardize the process for onboarding board and committee members with appropriate training and regularly refresh training;
Revise the insider trading policy to apply equally to all directors and officers and employees who may become temporary insiders, to have clarity around the pre-clearance process for trades by such insiders, to update and clarify the process for closing the trading window, and to expand the pre-clearance process to apply to proposed gifts of shares, prohibiting such gifts during closed window periods; and
Review and update the policies and procedures for releasing potentially material non-pubic information and ensure that the public relations department is properly staffed and trained in handling public company public statements.
After its nearly six-week investigation, Akin Gump concluded that none of the company, its officers or directors violated securities laws or the company's own internal policies or procedures and there was no breach of fiduciary duties in connection with the July 27 option grants. The report states that the investigation involved the review of over 60,000 electronic communications and over 40 interviews and included relevant research and analysis of pertinent laws and regulations. The firm stated that it had not undertaken an analysis of the director's 3 million share stock gift under federal tax laws, nor does the report consider some of the public statements by the CEO on the day following the formal announcement.
With respect to the blown advisory issuance on July 27, the report found that the public relations related to the announcement was driven almost exclusively by the DFC and that the July 27 advisory was crafted by the DFC and included the header "for planning purposes only." Kodak was responsible for issuing the advisory to the local media while the DFC was responsible for issuing it to the national media. The report states that "a relatively junior Kodak public relations employee" emailed the advisory to the local media on the morning of July 27 after deleting "for planning purpose only" and inserting "for immediate release," apparently believing that the "planning purposes" header meant that it was the internal draft that she needed to finalize before issuing by adding the "for immediate release" language. Akin Gump concluded there was no violation of Regulation FD because Regulation FD does not apply to media disclosures and, even if it did, the release was unintentional and, once the mistake was discovered, the timeline for issuance of the press release was moved to before the open of market on July 28, clearly within the 24 hour period required under Regulation FD for correcting an inadvertent disclosure.
As to stock purchases by the CEO and a non-executive board member in June, the report found that both executives properly obtained pre-clearance for such purchases as required by Kodak's insider trading policy and such pre-clearance was appropriate given the highly speculative nature of the possible government loan at that time.
Akin Gump concluded that the July 27 option grants were made in accordance with the company's equity plan and had been in the works for months for "legitimate business purposes not related to the DFC loan." Although the report found that there were shortcomings in the process – including a failure to consider the consequences of granting what could look like spring-loaded options and to consider the provisions of the company's executive compensation policy related to the "timing of public announcements" – the grants did not violate the securities laws or the company's policies or plan and did not amount to a breach of fiduciary duty.
In addressing the director's stock gift on the day after the DFC announcement, Akin Gump concluded that the gift did not violate the securities laws because a bona fide gift of shares does not constitute a sale of securities for insider trading purposes. Akin Gump concluded that the gift did not violate Kodak's insider trading policy because although it was made during a closed window period and without pre-clearance by the general counsel, apparently this director had not yet been added to the "insider list" as contemplated by the insider trading policy and so, technically, the pre-clearance requirement did not apply to him and, even if it had, the policy did not clearly prohibit gifts during a closed window period.
The special committee made an additional recommendation to the board. It noted that the composition of the board reflected representation of major shareholders who may no longer own such significant blocks of shares as a result of events following the July 28 announcement. The special committee suggested that the board consider changes in board membership to better align the board with its current shareholders and the strategic direction of the company, including in respect of its plans to expand into pharmaceutical chemical manufacturing.
After release of this report, the stock price again jumped. This despite repeated statements in the report about the "insanity" of the market's response to the July 28 announcement and a general consensus among the executives, directors, and outside experts interviewed by Akin Gump that the extraordinary stock price run-up was way out of line with the announcement of a mere letter of interest subject to significant pre-conditions that Kodak may or may not be able to meet. There is no word about the status of the various government inquiries into this situation which arose in the days and weeks following the announcement, nor has the company or DFC announced any further movement of the loan application. And the various shareholder suits against Kodak and its directors and officers are still out there. So it remains to be seen whether this report will clear the way for Kodak in any meaningful way. What is clear is that Kodak has a lot of work ahead of it to better align its people, policies and procedures to the rigors of being a public company.
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pass the roti on the left hand side
Varun's latest gem is he is Lord Rama
The delusional fantasies of Varun Gandhi, the controversial BJP nominee from Pilibhit, came to the fore on Wednesday when he called himself "Shri Rama" in Aligarh. "I am Shri Rama," he said during an election rally at HB Inter College in Aligarh, when the people requested him to raise the BJP's slogan of "Jai Shri Rama".
Pointing his finger towards himself, Varun said with a smile, "Main hi to Shri Rama hun." (I am Shri Rama). It was certainly not a slip of tongue because he repeated it. He said there was more to say but he was restraining himself because he didn't want to go to jail again. "I don't want to say more because I want to avoid going back to Etah. It is not that the jail is a bad place, but going there time and again wouldn't be a nice proposition," he said.
Interestingly, just two days ago Varun had said he was ready to go to jail again for the cause of "Hindutva". Varun was lodged in Etah jail for 20 days after his venomous remarks against minority communities.
The BJP has always banked on Lord Rama for its Hindutva agenda. But now, getting a good response from party leaders who have deployed him to campaign across Uttar Pradesh for the BJP, Varun seems to have suddenly discovered himself bigger than the party and on par with the religious icon.
Piyush Srivastava, agencies
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Ali Sulaiman Rashid Al-Busaidi (21 de janeiro de 1991) é um futebolista profissional omani que atua como defensor.

Carreira
Ali Al-Busaidi representou a Seleção Omani de Futebol na Copa da Ásia de 2015.

Futebolistas de Omã
Futebolistas do Suwaiq Club
Jogadores da Seleção Omani de Futebol
Futebolistas da Copa da Ásia de 2015
Futebolistas da Copa da Ásia de 2019