Category Archives: Evolution

Just a few years back, as the top marketing individual at both a for-profit and then a non-profit organization, I was initially responsible for brand or product management, market research and effective advertising. My role -- along with those of my professional colleagues in the field -- rapidly evolved.Chief marketing officers (CMO) continue to see ...

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The evolution of the chief marketing officer Maryland Daily Record - Maryland Daily Record

What will menswear look like in 2021? As cultural ideas about what is considered masculine shift, so do traditional ideas of dress. Take the latest couture season as proof: Bespoke menswear found itself woven throughout collections from Valentino, Giambattista Valli, and Fendi during a week that is usually exclusive to womenswear.

The emerging designers at New York Fashion Week Mens Day perhaps exemplify the changing points of view about menswear best. Many of them offered genderless collections, while others debuted womenswear lines alongside their menswear. Others found inspirations in the past to lead us to a more harmonious future. Here, six new names to watch.

Photo: Courtesy of Chelsea Grays

Why would anyone want to relive the trials of 2020? For Chelsea Grays, the woeful year had a few silver linings. With the drastic changes of 2020, it showed me that nothing is forever and to expect the unexpected, Grays tells Vogue. There were personal challenges that I had to face and it was time to boss up. This season, the unisex brand stayed close to its roots of political and social commentary. Photographed on the streets of Paris, each upcycled look reflects a specific struggle: coronavirus, climate change, and voting and racial injustice issues. Done in an abstract, artful way, Grayss are pieces worthy of attention.

Photo: Courtesy of Federico Cina

Photo: Courtesy of Federico Cina

Photo: Courtesy of Federico Cina

Federico Cinas genderless brand is based in Milan. His new collection was inspired by Per Strada, a series of photographs taken by photographer Guido Guidi from 1980 to 1994 on the citys Via Emilia, and the loose-fitted ensembles do indeed nod to the Italian fashion capitals day-to-day glamour.

Photo: Courtesy of Ka Wa Key

Photo: Courtesy of Ka Wa Key

Photo: Courtesy of Ka Wa Key

Photo: Courtesy of Ka Wa Key

Fantasy and reality have always been propped up as opposing themes, but London-based designers Key Chow and Jarno Leppanen play with harmoniously combining the two into one. Their playful new collection, Through the Looking Glass, is inspired by characters like Willy Wonka, Peter Pan, the Mad Hatter, and Schitts Creeks Moira Rose. Imagination is not tied to a time or a place; it is universal and for everyone, they say. This season, the duos imagined reality is one characterized by reimagined knits, loud colorful prints, and oversized silhouettes.

Photo: Courtesy of KoH T

Photo: Courtesy of KoH T

Photo: Courtesy of KoH T

Guided by the ideas of yin and yang, the Japanese label KoH T stands for the idea that everything in this world is originally beautiful. For fall 2021, designer Taisuke Kohji found inspiration in the work of Honami Koetsu, a Japanese craftsman from the 1500s, creating a monochromatic and utilitarian collection designed to resemble traditional Japanese paper crafts. What KoH T and Koetsu have in common is that they both seek to produce the highest-quality product by designing familiar things with innovative ideas, Kohji says. The collection was photographed in a mix of urban and rural settings, proving KoH Ts garments will work in any environment.

Photo: Courtesy of ONYRMRK

Photo: Courtesy of ONYRMRK

Photo: Courtesy of ONYRMRK

Rwang Pam and Mark Kim of Onyrmrk (pronounced on your mark) are reimagining normalcy for fall 2021. The clothes are a direct nod to the relaxed silhouettes of the 90s and utilize only natural fabrics. It is not so much optimism that is important, but rather the resilience and strength we have garnered through the mutual support of those around uswhich is more sustainable especially as people of color, the duo says. That is why this season our collection, titled Kinship, portrays the strength of the bond between people within a community.

Photo: Courtesy of The Stolen Garment

Photo: Courtesy of The Stolen Garment

Photo: Courtesy of The Stolen Garment

A trip to a used bookstore inspired The Stolen Garment designer Jungwoo Parks first New York Fashion Week collection. In the dusty adult book section of the store, Park was struck by the tragic poignancy of book titles from the 90s with words and phrases like passion, delinquent, and end of the world. He translated this into his lineup through spiked crowns, roped harnesses, ponchos, and even a robe adorned with green protruding mushrooms. According to the Korean designer, the books produce an untranslatable feeling that was reflected through Parks quirky garments.

Originally posted here:

New York Fashion Week Mens Day Hints at the Evolution of Menswear - Vogue.com

National Review

After a campaign in which Joe Biden expressed supreme confidence that he could bring an end to, or at least substantially curb the damage wrought by, the coronavirus pandemic, his administrations handling of the pandemic has left much to be desired. Rewind back to last fall. Biden was giving speeches about how while he trusted vaccines in general, he didnt trust Donald Trump, and was thus skeptical of the coronavirus vaccines in particular. Bidens running mate, then-senator Kamala Harris, said that shed be hesitant to take a vaccine that came out during Trumps term. When pressed about whether she would do so if Dr. Anthony Fauci and other reputable health authorities endorsed it, she doubled down: Theyll be muzzled; theyll be suppressed. By December, it was clear that the vaccines were in fact on the brink of FDA approval, and that by the time Biden and Harris took their respective positions atop the executive branch, distribution would be well underway. Biden received the Pfizer vaccine mid-month, and Harris got it just before the years end. It was only right that the principals of the incoming administration should be protected. But it remains the case that Biden and Harris, without basis, undermined confidence in a medical miracle for their own political benefit and then jumped to the front of the considerable line for it. After receiving the vaccine, Biden moved into the White House with a mandate to get the pandemic under control. He announced his moonshot plan for national vaccination: administering 100 million shots by his 100th day in office. This was a dishonest PR ploy. During the week of Bidens inauguration, the U.S. averaged 983,000 vaccinations a day, meaning the administration was setting itself a benchmark it could already be assured of hitting. Naturally, the public noticed, and almost immediately Biden was forced to increase his goal: He would now be aiming for an average of 1.5 million vaccinations a day at the end of his first 100 days. Already, weve reached that higher target, and not because of the Biden administrations novel efforts. As National Reviews Jim Geraghty has reported, the Biden administrations vaccination plan includes new federal sites, but no more doses of the vaccine. This presents not an opportunity to expand vaccination efforts there are already plenty of places where people can be inoculated but a bureaucratic obstacle that has made things harder on the states, some of which were not even aware that additional doses would not be made available at the new sites. Even worse, yesterdays Morning Jolt noted that theres still a substantial gap between the number of vaccines provided by Pfizer and Moderna and the number of vaccines actually being administered: As of this morning, according to the New York Times, Moderna and Pfizer have shipped more than 70 million doses to the states, and somehow the states have gotten only 52.8 million of those shots into peoples arms. The Bloomberg chart has a slightly better figure, showing states have administered 54.6 million doses, out of roughly the same total. That leaves anywhere from 15.4 to 17.2 million doses either in transit or sitting on shelves somewhere. The country is vaccinating about 1.67 million people per day according to the Times data, 1.69 million per day on the Bloomberg chart. Not great. The Biden administration has been similarly lackadaisical in its approach to school reopenings. White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced last week that its goal was to have 51 percent of schools open at least one day a week. This target suffers from the same problem as the vaccination target: Its already been met, and exceeded. Around 64 percent of school districts were already offering some kind of in-person instruction when Psaki spoke. The objective, given the enormous costs of virtual instruction on students, should be to open up the remaining 36 percent and turn partial reopenings back into full-time ones. To some extent, Biden walked Psakis stunningly slothful goal back during a CNN town-hall event on Tuesday, saying I think many of them [will be open] five days a week. The goal will be five days a week, and calling Psakis statement a mistake. Questions remain, though: If it was only a mistake, why did it take a week for it to be corrected? And why is the correction so vague as to leave room for fudging? How many, exactly, constitutes many to the Biden administration? Bidens expectations game is a symptom of a greater problem: He never had the plan for handling the pandemic that he said he did. His campaign-season contention that he did was always a smoke-and-mirrors act that had more to do with tone and messaging than it did policy. To cover up the absence of tangible changes that its brought to the table, the new administration has tried to flood the zone with already achieved objectives and then tout their achievement as accomplishments. Dishonesty has many forms, and the Biden administration has proven itself no more forthright than its predecessors, even if its deceptions are sometimes more artful.

Continued here:

The evolution of how actors play their own lookalikes in movies, from 'The Parent Trap' to 'An American Pickle' - Yahoo News

Automation is making waves in many industries worldwide and encompasses a wide range of technologies including endpoint management, robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).

Automation allows organizations to get more things done at a lower cost. It increases the efficiency of individuals, teams and companies as a whole, and is likely to revolutionize the way organizations function.

Lets take a look at a simple three-level hierarchy of automation technologies.

The foundational layer of all automation technologies is the automation of IT processes. This involves the automation of routine IT tasks and workflows such as server maintenance, software patch management and software updates. It also includes auto-remediation of IT incidents and associated service tickets.

IT processes are automated by running scripts or what we call Agent Procedures. With Kaseya VSA, our unified remote monitoring and management (URMM) software, you can customize pre-built automation scripts or create your own in the Agent Procedure Editor.

Auto-remediation of incidents involves first setting up monitoring on the endpoint and then automatically executing the script(s) when an alert occurs. This process can involve both the endpoint management tool and your service desk solution where you manage tickets. Tickets can automatically be created by the endpoint management tool. Then, those tickets can be resolved using automated workflows in the service desk to run the scripts.

A few benefits of IT process automation are:

The major challenge with automating IT processes is creating the scripts that automate the tasks. With the Kaseya Automation Exchange, you can get started quickly and easily. Kaseya Automation Exchange offers more than 800 pre-built automation scripts, monitor sets and reports that can be used to reduce the time it takes for you to implement automation.

Research firm Gartner predicted that the global robotic process automation (RPA) market revenue will reach $1.89 billion in 2021 an increase of 19.5 percent from 2020.

RPA is the business process layer. In RPA, simple, repeatable rules are followed by bots or virtual systems to automate manual computing steps or simple business processes. For example, in the insurance industry, RPA allows companies to automate the processing of claims without manual intervention. In any organization, the process of onboarding/offboarding of employees can be done with RPA.

Another use case for RPA is in the hiring process. It enables human resource executives to automate some or all of the process. This means a job candidate can be hired or rejected automatically based on a certain set of rules.

Hyperautomation brings together artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) tools with RPA to enable the automation of complex business processes. Hyperautomation can lead to real digital transformation of the business. As one of the top 10 strategic trends of 2021 touted by Gartner, the idea of hyperautomation is to automate anything that can be automated.

Implementing hyperautomation requires streamlining entire processes in an organization, getting rid of legacy applications and enforcing lean, optimized and interconnected processes.

One of the hyperautomation use cases is automating all banking processes. Right from regulatory reporting, marketing, bank servicing, payment and lending operations to customer support, all functions can be automated for a swift banking experience.

The major challenge with hyperautomation is actually automating complex processes. Grappling with process complexity can cause frustration and increase implementation costs.

Create a roadmap for the processes to be automated. Start with the smaller ones and expand to the most complicated ones.

For automation to be highly beneficial, companies must choose which activities to automate, the level of automation to be implemented and the technologies to adopt based on their business needs. Having a strong foundation in IT process automation is the best place to start.

Learn about the 7 Processes to Automate to Improve Productivity and Reduce IT Costs in our checklist.

The post The Evolution of Automation Technologies appeared first on Kaseya.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Blog Kaseya authored by John Emmitt. Read the original post at: https://www.kaseya.com/blog/2021/02/16/the-evolution-of-automation-technologies/

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The Evolution of Automation Technologies - Security Boulevard

For years I have been content to be conflicted about Alexey Navalny. On the one hand, I thought he was an extraordinarily brave, inventive, and committed opponent of Vladimir Putins regime. On the other hand, he had allied himself with ultranationalists and had expressed views that I found extremely objectionable and potentially dangerous. Over the years, Ive had a couple of arguments with Navalny and a few with my friends whose support for him flummoxed mea mentor of his who is Jewish, a tireless campaign volunteer who is Armenianbut I felt I could respect him and disagree with him at the same time. Nationalist leaders have, historically, often played key roles in building democracies. And its not as if I had to decide whether to vote for Navalny.

Now Navalny is in jail, facing years behind bars. (His current sentence of two years and eight months is likely just the beginning.) He has survived more than one Kremlin-backed assassination attempt, and people close to him fear that he will now be killed in prison. The Kremlin, which for years banned his name from the airwaves, has accused him of staging his own near-death and unleashed a propaganda offensive against him, deploying, among others, the accusation that he is a far-right ethno-nationalist. In the English-language press, the socialist magazine Jacobin published an article branding Navalny an anti-immigrant nationalist who cannot be trusted; the British journalist Anatol Lieven, who covered Eastern Europe in the nineteen-eighties and nineties, has warned against idealizing Navalny; and the N.Y.U. professor Eliot Borenstein, one of American academias most prolific commentators on contemporary Russia, wrote on Facebook, Hes not Nelson Mandela. Hes Aung San Suu Kyi.

On the other hand, several academics, politicians, and policy experts have nominated Navalny for the Nobel Peace Prizean initiative that now includes Lech Walesa, the former Polish President and leader of the Solidarity trade-union movement, who received the prize in 1983. The effort was launched last September by Alexander Etkind, a Russian exile, professor at the European University in Florence, and, in my opinion, the single most insightful scholar of contemporary Russian culture and politics. Etkind is Jewish. A nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize is not something one undertakes while holding ones nose. I called Etkind and other prominent and decidedly anti-nationalist Navalny supporters to learn why they didnt seem conflicted about him. I learned a few things about Navalnys personal and political evolution and also about the workings of the Kremlin propaganda machine. I also realized that I should have undertaken this research sooner.

Navalnys reputation as an ultranationalist stems from statements and actions that are more than a decade old. In 2007, he left the socialist-democratic party Yabloko, where he had served as the deputy head of the Moscow chapter, to start a new political movement. He and his co-founders called their movement NAROD, the Russian word for people and, in their case, also an acronym for National Russian Liberation Movement. Navalny recorded two videos to introduce their new movement; they were his dbut on YouTube. One was a forty-second argument for gun rights. The other, a minute long, featured Navalny dressed as a dentist, presenting a slightly confusing parable that likened interethnic conflict in Russia to cavities and argued that fascism can be prevented only by deporting migrants from Russia. Navalny closed his monologue with We have a right to be [ethnic] Russians in Russia. And we will defend this right. It is decidedly disturbing to view. Around the time Navalny released the video, and for a couple of years after, Navalny took part in the Russian March, an annual demonstration in Moscow that draws ultranationalists, including some who adopt swastika-like symbols. In 2008, Navalny, like an apparent majority of Russians, supported Russian aggression in Georgia. In 2013, he made illegal immigration from Central Asia a central theme of his campaign for mayor of Moscow. In 2014, after Russia occupied Crimea, he said that, while he opposed the invasion, he did not think that Crimea could be just handed back by a post-Putin Russian government. In the past seven years, though, Navalny appears to have not made any comments that could be interpreted as hateful or ethno-nationalist. He has publicly apologized for his comments on Georgia.

Yevgenia Albats, a Russian investigative journalist and a close friend of the Navalny familys, told me that she persuaded Navalny to attend the Russian March. In 2004, Albats had returned to Moscow after defending her doctoral dissertation in political science at Harvard. In the preceding four years, Putin had taken control of the media and dismantled the electoral system, effectively destroying Russian politics as it had been constituted. Older, experienced politicians were disoriented. But a crop of younger activists, who had not experienced party politics in what had been a somewhat functional electoral system, were rearing to go. Albats, who had researched grassroots organizing during her years at Harvard, started gathering the young activists in her Moscow apartment. About twenty people of different political stripesfrom social democrats to libertarians to religious-rights activistsattended Tuesday-night seminars with Albats for about a year, she told me by Zoom from Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she is wrapping up a research fellowship. Albats was in her late forties and an observant Jew. Navalny, in his late twenties, was the oldest among those who gathered at her house but also the least articulate and least educated: most of the others had gone to prestigious colleges, while Navalny was a military brat with an undergraduate law degree from a decidedly second-tier school. For as long as she has known him, Albats told me, Navalny has been teaching himself how to be a politician: he taught himself public speaking; while he was under house arrest a few years back, he taught himself English.

In the absence of politics, in the absence of any public conversation, little remained to form political alliances around. Putin was trafficking in nostalgia for the Soviet empire. The only alternative seemed to be broadly ethno-nationalist ideas, which also addressed a sense of humiliationand these were emerging both on what could be roughly described as the left and vaguely designated as the right. Activists who didnt share ethno-nationalist ideas believed that they had to form alliances with Russias emerging nationalist movements. The chess champion Garry Kasparov, for example, who quit the sport in 2005 to launch a political career, created a joint movement with the National-Bolshevik Party. At the time, he told me that only a united front could overthrow the Putin regime, and only after that should pro-Western liberal democrats like him hash out their differences with the ethno-nationalists. Albats recalled that it was in this context that she told Navalny that he should attend the Russian March. They went together. I wore a giant Star of David that I made sure could be seen from a distance, she told me. He took a lot of shit for walking with a kike. Their efforts to engage people in conversation failed, and after three years they gave up.

Navalny has often said that he saw the Russian March as a form of valid political expression, that in the kind of Russia that he and his supporters are fighting fora free, democratic societythe Russian March will be a festive annual event like the St. Patricks Day Parade. He believes that if you dont talk to the kind of people who attend these marches, they will all become skinheads, Leonid Volkov, who runs the political-organizing part of Navalnys organization, told me over the phone. But, if you talk to them, you may be able to convince them that their real enemy is Putin. Volkov, who is Jewish, lives in exile in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.

In 2015, the Polish journalist and former dissident Adam Michnik and Navalny recorded a series of conversations that Michnik compiled into a book. My idea is that you have to communicate with nationalists and educate them, Navalny told Michnik. Many Russian nationalists have no clear ideology. What they have is a sense of general injustice to which they respond with aggression against people with a different skin color or eyes of a different shape. I think its extremely important to explain to them that beating up migrants is not the solution to the problem of illegal immigration; the solution is a return to competitive elections that would allow us to get rid of the thieves and crooks who are getting rich off of illegal immigration.

According to Volkov, Navalny now regrets making the 2007 video in which he advocated for deporting Central Asian migrants, but he has not deleted it from YouTube because its a historical fact. Navalny stands by his support for gun ownership, an issue on which he and Volkov disagree. On immigration, Navalny has refined and reframed his position: when he advocates for a visa regime with Central Asian countries now, he emphasizes the need to protect the rights of migrant laborers. Russia definitely needs immigrants, Volkov said, but ones who receive work permits and pay taxes. This position is part of a broader economic platform worked out with the help of another Navalny political mentor, the brilliant Russian economist Sergei Guriev. Guriev, who is now a professor at Sciences Po, has lived in exile in Paris since 2013. Under Gurievs influence, Volkov told me, we have moved significantly to the left economically. In 2018, Navalny added a federal minimum wage to his platform: he believes it should be twenty-five thousand rubles a month, roughly twice the current legal requirement.

Link:

The Evolution of Alexey Navalnys Nationalism - The New Yorker

As Americans anxiously watch variants first identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa spread in the United States, scientists are finding a number of new variants that originated here. More concerning, many of these variants seem to be evolving in the same direction potentially becoming contagious threats of their own.

In a study posted on Sunday, a team of researchers reported seven growing lineages of the novel coronavirus, spotted in states across the country. All of them have evolved a mutation in the same genetic letter.

Theres clearly something going on with this mutation, said Jeremy Kamil, a virologist at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport and a co-author of the new study.

Its unclear whether it makes the variants more contagious. But because the mutation appears in a gene that influences how the virus enters human cells, the scientists are highly suspicious.

I think theres a clear signature of an evolutionary benefit, Dr. Kamil said.

The history of life is full of examples of so-called convergent evolution, in which different lineages follow the same path. Birds gained wings as they evolved from feathered dinosaurs, for example, just as bats did when they evolved from furry, shrew-like mammals. In both cases, natural selection gave rise to a pair of flat surfaces that could be flapped to generate lift enabling bats and birds alike to take to the sky and fill an ecological niche that other animals could not.

Charles Darwin first recognized convergent evolution by studying living animals. In recent years, virologists have found that viruses can evolve convergently, too. H.I.V., for example, arose when several species of viruses shifted from monkeys and apes to humans. Many of those lineages of H.I.V. gained the same mutations as they adapted to our species.

As the coronavirus now branches into new variants, researchers are observing Darwins theory of evolution in action, day in and day out.

Dr. Kamil stumbled across some of the new variants while he was sequencing samples from coronavirus tests in Louisiana. At the end of January, he observed an unfamiliar mutation in a number of samples.

The mutation altered the proteins that stud the surface of the coronavirus. Known as spike proteins, they are folded chains of more than 1,200 molecular building blocks called amino acids. Dr. Kamils viruses all shared a mutation that changed the 677th amino acid.

Investigating these mutant viruses, Dr. Kamil realized they all belonged to the same lineage. The earliest virus in the lineage dated back to Dec. 1. In later weeks, it grew more common.

On the evening of his discovery, Dr. Kamil uploaded the genomes of the viruses to an online database used by scientists across the world. The next morning, he got an email from Daryl Domman of the University of New Mexico. He and his colleagues had just found the same variant in their state, with the same 677 mutation. Their samples dated back to October.

The scientists wondered whether the lineage they had discovered was the only one to have a 677 mutation. Probing the database, Dr. Kamil and his colleagues found six other lineages that independently gained the same mutation on their own.

Its difficult to answer even basic questions about the prevalence of these seven lineages because the United States sequences genomes from less than 1 percent of coronavirus test samples. The researchers found samples from the lineages scattered across much of the country. But they cant tell where the mutations first arose.

Feb. 18, 2021, 12:59 p.m. ET

Id be quite hesitant to give an origin location for any of these lineages at the moment, said Emma Hodcroft, an epidemiologist at the University of Bern and a co-author of the new study.

Its also hard to say whether the increase in variants is actually the result of their being more contagious. They might have become more common simply because of all of the travel over the holiday season. Or they might have exploded during superspreader events at bars or factories.

Still, scientists are worried because the mutation could plausibly affect how easily the virus gets into human cells.

An infection begins when a coronavirus uses the tip of the spike protein to latch onto the surface of a human cell. It then unleashes harpoon-like arms from the spikes base, pulling itself to the cell and delivering its genes.

Before the virus can carry out this invasion, however, the spike protein has to bump into a human protein on the surface of the cell. After that contact, the spike becomes free to twist, exposing its harpoon tips.

The 677 mutation alters the spike protein next to the spot where our proteins nick the virus, conceivably making it easier for the spike to be activated.

Jason McLellan, a structural biologist at the University of Texas at Austin who was not involved in the study, called it an important advance. But he cautioned that the way that the coronavirus unleashed its harpoons was still fairly mysterious.

Its tough to know what these substitutions are doing, he said. It really needs to be followed up with some additional experimental data.

Dr. Kamil and his colleagues are starting those experiments, hoping to see whether the mutation does indeed make a difference to infections. If the experiments bear out their suspicions, the 677 mutation will join a small, dangerous club.

Convergent evolution has transformed a few other spots on the spike protein as well. The 501st amino acid has mutated in a number of lineages, for example, including the contagious variants first observed in the United Kingdom and South Africa. Experiments have revealed that the 501 mutation alters the very tip of the spike. That change allows the virus to latch onto cells more tightly, and infect them more effectively.

Scientists anticipate that coronaviruses will converge on more mutations that give them an advantage against not only other viruses but also our own immune system. But Vaughn Cooper, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Pittsburgh and a co-author of the new study, said lab experiments alone wouldnt be able to reveal the extent of the threat.

To really understand what the mutations are doing, he said, scientists will need to analyze a much bigger sampling of coronaviruses gathered from across the country. But right now, they can look at only a relatively meager number of genomes collected by a patchwork of state and university labs.

Its ridiculous that our country is not coming up with a national strategy for doing surveillance, Dr. Cooper said.

Excerpt from:

7 Virus Variants Found in U.S. Carrying the Same Mutation - The New York Times

The evolution of the great transformation in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The evolution of the great transformation in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Al-Riyadh, Feb. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- - The Kingdoms Vision 2030 is perhaps the largest planned economic transformation ever enacted. It seeks to transform the country from having an economy reliant on oil prices and government spending, to one that is diversified, competitive, open and consumer driven. Along with the economic changes, the once strict visa procedure has been significantly relaxed, with the introduction of tourist visas coinciding with global sporting, entertainment and hospitality events being held throughout the country. Where once foreign visitors came almost exclusively for the religious pilgrimage of Hajj, now in line with Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia is establishing itself as one of the worlds premier tourist destinations, drawing on both its rich culture and history as well as investing heavily in cutting edge technology, amenities and luxury offerings.

Such developments reflect the broader objectives of attracting foreign direct investment and improving the quality of life for citizens, residents and visitors alike. While the development of NEOM and major events like Formula E, world heavyweight title fights and Middle East Beast have drawn international headlines, wider changes have been taking place across the burgeoning tourism industry and its related sectors. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in F&B and specifically fine dining. Increases in investment, international travel and deployable income among the population have led to explosive growth in the sector, which has come hand in hand with ever increasing demand for increasingly varied gastronomic and hospitality experiences. With ever increasing levels of wealth among its over 30 million residents and an influx of tourists from around the world, Saudi Arabia is poised to become the leading market and destination for fine dining in the Middle East.

This transformation is happening at a rapid pace. While fast food chains and mid-tier F&B brands have been present in the Saudi market for some time, recently the Kingdom witnessed the entry of several luxury brands, including Bagatelle, Bagatelle beach, Sumosan, Santini, NOOA, Socialista, Wadi, Purple Dragon and Cipriani. All of which have signed with Advanced Tastes, a Riyadh based restaurant & hospitality management company, which has been recently fully acquired by two prominent businessmen, Mr.Hisham Almousa and Mr.Ahmad AlMubarak.

Advanced Tastes have recently unveiled plans to open franchises in prime locations across all of the Kingdoms major cities. This is a step towards increasing supply to what is an ever growing demand for luxury F&B offerings in Saudi Arabia, a sector which seems likely to continue to expand for years to come.

For the original news story, please visithttps://www.prdistribution.com/news/the-evolution-of-the-great-transformation-in-the-kingdom-of-saudi-arabia.html

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Advanced Tastes - The evolution of the great transformation in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia - GlobeNewswire

Blink and you might miss a major shift in the business of Smart Mobility.From bike sharing to Mobility as a Service and everything in between, the business of Smart Mobility takes many different forms and provides business opportunities for everyone from a small entrepreneur to the large car manufacturers.This article will accurately lay out the future of Smart Mobility and predict the winners and losers over the next 5 years, allowing everyone to sleep easy tonight. (And if you believe that, I also have a bridge to sell you.)

Arguably the start of shared mobility can be traced back to the Netherlands in the 1960's. Throughout the years, advancements in technology and congestion in urban environments has led to a more sophisticated model of bike sharing.In the last 10 years bike sharing has seen a rapid expansion of companies entering the market.

According to data from the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), in 2019 alone people took 136 million trips.In fact, when you add in scooter trips, a third of a billion trips were taken on shared bikes and scooters over the past decade.

While bike sharing has had a great run over the last decade, the explosion in popularity of scooter sharing and the increasing number of operators have been the bright shiny object that has everyone's attention.

NACTO reported that from 2018 to 2019, scooter ridership increased from 38.5 million to 88.5 million, a growth rate of more than 100%.Geographically, scooter companies continued expansion in 2019 to over 109 cities.

Car sharing has been a roller coaster ride of sorts with early entrants including Car2Go, BMW ReachNow, Lime Pods, Bollor's Electric BlueCar program, and General Motors'Maven had some early success but largely these players have exited the market in favor of more sustainable businesses.It remains to be seen if car sharing will gain the popularity that scooter and bike sharing enjoy and if operators will figure out a sustainable model that meets the needs of todays urban commuter.

Bollor pioneered electric car sharing with the launch of Autolib in 2011, enjoying huge growth and popularity. Bollore Group, largely known for its logistics business and LMP battery technology, saw the opportunity to help cities solve a mobility need while introducing zero emission electric cars: the Bluecar.

Launching 100% EV carsharing businesses became an important goal of using LMP battery technology to help reduce emissions in dense urban environments and bring equity to previously underserved communities. Launches in Lyon, Turin, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Singapore followed. Utilizing a proprietary software solution to monitor its global fleet of cars resulted in the natural evolution and launch of Bollore's Blue Systems Smart Mobility Division in 2014, led by CEO Christophe Arnaud. "It was a natural evolution for us to launch this business as we already had the expertise and technology to monitor a global fleet of cars"says Christophe Arnaud.By 2015 Blue Systems had already launched its software platform in France and the UK. Arnaud explains that in France, "Blue Systems integrated parking meters and provided digital permitting and digital fine payment systems allowing cities across France to better monitor parking meters, permitting, and violations on one single platform."In England, Blue Systems'Platform was used to monitor a network of EV charging stations and partnered with multiple Boroughs and car sharing companies to provide real time information on the EV charging infrastructure.

The launch and popularity of scooters in North America and Europe created some challenges for cities who sought to ensure the public right of way was protected and that scooter companies operated in a safe and equitable manner in line with the overall mobility and transportation mission of cities. Enter Blue Systems. With a long history as a mobility operator and a proven software platform, Arnaud and an experienced team based in the U.S. and Europe began to meet with cities to discuss scooters and emerging mobility operators. In collaboration with several cities, Blue Systems developed and enhanced its Smart Mobility Platform to enable cities to monitor and manage not only scooters but all forms of mobility within dense urban environments. Today Blue Systems'Platform is used by cities including Los Angeles, San Jose, Lyon, Paris, London, and several other cities to be launched in 2021. "We have just scratched the surface in the U.S. and Europe, and we expect 2021 to be a very busy year as we explore new ways to help cities manage their mobility programs. Our team in the U.S. is working with emerging technology providers to provide cities with even better tools to help analyze the impact of mobility operators"said Arnaud when asked about future technology.

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is the holy grail for cities grappling with the best way to integrate mobility operators under one platform that can provide a seamless experience for users. MaaS integrates multiple forms of transportation into a single mobility service or platform which can be accessed on-demand. This type of platform would not only integrate all forms of transit but also provide a single payment option for users to access the different mobility operators on the platform. This is the Holy Grail. Leveraging its expertise in mobility, data aggregation, data analytics, and IoT integration, Blue Systems has now launched its MaaS business. Blue Systems is already in discussions with several cities who understand the complexity of MaaS and the need to offer a seamless service to users. When asked about its ability to compete in this market, Arnaud explained that "Blue Systems is uniquely positioned and qualified to offer a comprehensive portfolio of products to help cities deal with the complex issues of mobility management and MaaS. As operators we were pioneers in the field of EV carsharing, our Smart Mobility Platform is in use by some of the biggest cities in the world, and our collaborations with other technology providers give us a unique advantage to help cities with today's challenges."In fact, through strategic partnerships Blue Systems can deliver a white label MaaS application for end users. At its core, it is a powerful data aggregation tool that collects both shared and open-source data from mobility operators including private operators and mass transit. Arnaud added that "data security is a high priority and our MaaS offering makes it possible to collect data in a way that protects privacy of end users while adhering to the most stringent data security principles. Ownership of data always remains with the mobility operators, transit authorities and cities."

Whats Next for Blue Systems

When asked what is next for Blue Systems, Arnaud laughed and said well, we definitely have to hire more people!

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The evolution of Smart Mobility: from bike sharing to MaaS and everything in between - Smart Cities Dive

This years theme New World, New Radio is an ode to the resilience of radio and a tribute to its capacity to adapt to societal transformations and listeners needs.

In celebrating the tenth anniversary of the day, Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) drew attention to the past year as highlighting the extent to which this medium remains essential to our contemporary societies.

As the world changes, so too does radio evolving as it records humanitys history by following and adapting to societal developments.

This has been extremely clear during the coronavirus crisis, where, among other things, the medium has made it possible to ensure the continuity of learning and fight against misinformation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us of its added value: with a penetration rate of over 75 per cent in developing countries, radio remains the most accessible medium, the UNESCO chief said, citing that as a reason why it has been a key tool in responding to the crisis.

It has helped to save lives by making it possible to relay health instructions, make reliable information accessible and combat hate speech, she added.

UNESCO has produced royalty-free audio messages in 56 languages, offering them to radio stations around the globe to counter false rumours.

To remain the go-to medium of mobility, accessible everywhere and to everyone, the medium has had to adapt to new technologies.

While radio of yesteryear was a simple transistor on our kitchen tables, nowadays, through smartphones, it follows us wherever we go.

And radio is no longer just a sound medium. Technological progress and digitization have made it possible for it to adapt to our behaviors and lifestyles.

Today it is listened to on television, and TV is heard on the radio while podcasts can be downloaded for listeners to hear whenever they like.

Radio thus remains an essential medium that proves its resilience on a daily basis, along with its capacity for innovation said Ms. Azoulay.

Noting that in this century of imagesradio mirrors the thoughts of a world that must be heard to be understood, she pointed out that with the creation of Internet radio, podcasts, smartphones and new technologies, it is truly blossoming in its second youth.

Radio also services society, sharing vital information during natural disasters, socio-economic crises, epidemics and other important events.

Public service announcements, alerts and broadcasts are but a few examples of how the medium provides services and solutions to best meet listeners needs.

It connects people, forging or maintaining links affirming its central role for today and tomorrow.

More than ever, we need this universal humanist medium, said the UNESCO chief.

Without it, she maintained that the right to information and freedom of expression and, with them, fundamental freedoms would be weakened, as would cultural diversity, since community radio stations are the voices of the voiceless.

On this World Day, UNESCO calls on everyone audiences, radio broadcasters and audiovisual professionals to celebrate radio and its values and to promote reliable information as a common good, concluded Ms. Azoulay.

UNICEF/Salomon Marie Joseph Beguel

Through an innovative radio programme, UNICEF is helping an 11-year-old girl separated from her family in Cameroon to continue her studies.

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World Radio Day marks evolution, innovation and connection of 'vector of freedom' - UN News

LONDON, Feb. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --International Game Technology PLC (IGT) (NYSE: IGT) announced that its subsidiary, IGT Mxico Lottery, S. de R.L. de C.V. ("IGT"), has extended its agreement with La Lotera Nacional para la Asistencia Pblica ("LOTENAL"), Mexico's national lottery, to continue providing an integrated draw-based/instant ticket system, draw-based lottery terminals, a communications network, and additional lottery products and ongoing services. The agreement, effective Dec. 20, 2020, extends IGT's contract with the lottery to March 2, 2022.

"For the Lotera Nacional, the extension of the contract with IGT contributes to the certainty and security that we offer to our clients in a year of great challenges for all of us, which has also been a year of transition and internal transformation,"saidMario Caballero Luna, LOTENAL Chief of Advisors.

"For more than three decades, IGT has provided our Lottery customer in Mexico with the expertise, technology, and services it has needed to generate results, which ultimately benefit social and health programs,"saidJay Gendron, IGT Chief Operating Officer, Lottery. "As LOTENAL navigates this transformational period, IGT's innovative, reliable, and proven technology will continue to be a key driver of its evolution."

IGT's ongoing services to LOTENAL include lottery game transactions and instant ticket distribution across 8,200 terminals nationwide. It also includes continuous development of new B2B retail channels; installation, repair, maintenance and monitoring of its total base of lottery terminals; retailer training; field service; call center operations and hotline management; a fixed-odds sports betting retail network; and marketing support to further enhance LOTENAL's overall product and game portfolio.

In 2019, LOTENAL merged with Mexico's Pronsticos para la Asistencia Pblicalottery, and the combined new organization retained the LOTENAL name.

For more information, visit igt.com. Follow IGT on Facebook at facebook.com/IGT, on Twitter at twitter.com/IGTnews, or watch IGT videos on YouTube at youtube.com/igt.

About IGTIGT (NYSE:IGT) is the global leader in gaming. We deliver entertaining and responsible gaming experiences for players across all channels and regulated segments, from Gaming Machines and Lotteries to Sports Betting and Digital. Leveraging a wealth of compelling content, substantial investment in innovation, player insights, operational expertise, and leading-edge technology, our solutions deliver unrivaled gaming experiences that engage players and drive growth. We have a well-established local presence and relationships with governments and regulators in more than 100 countries around the world, and create value by adhering to the highest standards of service, integrity, and responsibility. IGT has approximately 11,000 employees. For more information, please visit http://www.igt.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking StatementsThis news release may contain forward-looking statements (including within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) concerning International Game Technology PLC and its consolidated subsidiaries (the "Company") and other matters. These statements may discuss goals, intentions, and expectations as to future plans, trends, events, dividends, results of operations, or financial condition, or otherwise, based on current beliefs of the management of the Company as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, such management. Forward-looking statements may be accompanied by words such as "aim," "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "could," "would," "should," "shall", "continue," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "future," "guidance," "intend," "may," "will," "possible," "potential," "predict," "project" or the negative or other variations of them. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which such statements are made and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside the Company's control. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of the underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may differ materially from those predicted in the forward-looking statements and from past results, performance, or achievements. Therefore, you should not place undue reliance on such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include (but are not limited to) the factors and risks described in the Company's annual report on Form 20-F for the financial year ended December31, 2019 and other documents filed from time to time with the SEC, which are available on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov and on the investor relations section of the Company's website at http://www.IGT.com. Except as required under applicable law, the Company does not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. You should carefully consider these factors and other risks and uncertainties that affect the Company's business. All forward-looking statements contained in this news release are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. All subsequent written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to International Game Technology PLC, or persons acting on its behalf, are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.

Contact:Phil O'Shaughnessy, Global Communications, toll free in U.S./Canada +1 (844) IGT-7452; outside U.S./Canada +1 (401) 392-7452Francesco Luti, +39 3485475493; for Italian media inquiriesJames Hurley, Investor Relations, +1 (401) 392-7190Rhonda Whittaker, Global Communications, +1 (506) 878-6471

2021 IGT

The trademarks and/or service marks used herein are either trademarks or registered trademarks of IGT, its affiliates or its licensors.

SOURCE International Game Technology PLC

http://www.igt.com

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IGT Drives Evolution of Lottery in Mexico through Extension of Full-Service Contract with LOTENAL - PRNewswire