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Nowadays, many software companies are committed to expanding their markets to other countries and even to the world. To gain a foothold in other countries and regions, localization is a critical task. When it comes to the localization of a company’s businesses, there can be a requirement to outsource the translation. Should translation marketing be outsourced? This is a controversial topic among business owners. Some tend to rely on internal talents to achieve localization by hiring bilingual employees, while others choose to outsource it to external experienced freelancers or a reliable language service provider (LSP). Compared with setting up an internal translation department of their own, the latter choice can be more cost-effective than localization for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). PROMOTED As my company has had experience with both internal talent and outsourcing, here are some ways SMEs can benefit from outsourcing translation marketing in different aspects. Human Resources Management For most SMEs, the translation marketing of certain languages is just a small part of their business and is often even temporary. For example, the software-related translations might only be demanded during software development or updates. MORE FOR YOU Aligning Education With A Changing World How To Ensure A Seamless Transition When A Key Company Leader Leaves The Best Flower Delivery Services For Valentine’s Day Bouquets If companies don’t have bilingual talents of the specific languages and plan to hire a qualified translator, they will need another experienced person to ensure the translation quality. But here comes the question: What should you do after the temporary task is completed? To keep these internal translators busy, companies have to develop new tasks for them to complete, but these translations may have little effect on the businesses and could be a waste of human resources. By outsourcing translation, companies can be free from the heavy burden of human resources, including recruitment, assignment and management of translation talents. Without worrying about the follow-up arrangements for translators, all they need is a manager who is responsible for quality control and critical decisions related to the outsourced translation. Efficiency And Quality Generally, SMEs that rely on internal bilingual talents won’t hire many translators. The limited translation personnel can handle routine translations easily and quickly, but it might take much more time for them to complete some heavy translation tasks, which might even affect entire projects. Besides, not all bilingual people are competent translators, and I've observed that SMEs are often unable to evaluate a translator’s expertise and proficiency well. By contrast, more manpower can be invested in translation while outsourcing. According to the amount of translation content, the outsourcing service can adjust the number of translators to provide high efficiency, and companies can get the translation result in a short time. The translation is divided into industries. These professional translators in LSPs commonly have enough linguistic and cultural knowledge as well as their own fields of expertise. They are also good at making use of some advanced translation software to ensure accuracy and efficiency. More importantly, they have cultural awareness and can localize the content in a way that is acceptable to the people in that location. The LSPs can designate qualified translators as per the project’s field and complete the translation with the latest terminology to result in good translations. At the same time, SMEs can give LSPs their special requirements when it comes to terms and style to customize the translation. Decreasing Costs Outsourcing translation work can help SMEs save costs. When using internal translation, companies can spend time, money and resources exploring and setting up translation standards, termbases and styles of their own for quality translation. They have to undertake the internal translators’ salary and benefits that a full-time employee deserves and spare office space for each employee, even if there are not many translations to allocate. However, for most enterprises, translation is not a routine task but optional work required for main projects. From this perspective, cooperating with a localization outsourcing service could be more cost-effective, as they just need to pay for the translation work required without spending much more. This also applies to the cases where companies involve multiple countries and the translation workload of different languages is uneven. SMEs can outsource a part of the translation process to save costs on languages with less workload. Best Practices For Outsourcing Outsourcing translation does not mean that SMEs can stay out of the translation process. There are still several important steps to note in response to outsourcing translation. First, choose a reliable and professional localization outsourcing, while maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of the company’s assets. Next, convey your requirements for translation, markets and businesses exactly to the translators. Keep good communication between relevant internal personnel and external translators to avoid conflicts about the content itself. And lastly, have internal personnel in the company to supervise the translation quality. In addition to these steps, here are some tips as you get started: • Start localization as early as possible, and try to create long-term and strong relationships between your business and outsourcing. • A dedicated internal role is required to manage outsourcing partners. • Always plan ahead with your project and reserve time and cost for the localization. • Include a mechanism to collect user feedback and a quick-release management procedure to ensure your business will not be affected by the mistake during the localization. When expanding globally, it is an ideal choice for SMEs that don’t have a localization platform of their own to outsource all or a major part of translation marketing. By outsourcing translation per the situation, SMEs can be free from a heavy human resource management burden and achieve quality localization while saving time and costs. Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify? Follow me on LinkedIn. Check out my website. Wei Ming Wei Ming Co-Founder and COO at MiniTool Software Ltd. Read Wei Ming's full executive profile here.… Read More Print Reprints & Permissions

“Honestly, since reopening in October 2020, it’s been very, very hard,” the post goes on. “We have had to endure the loss of tourists, international students and office workers and we are fighting for our life right now. Lockdown 3.0 has been the last straw.” Speaking candidly to Broadsheet about her business, Keser hopes to open up the conversation for other struggling businesses – especially those in the CBD, which have been hit particularly hard by the three lockdowns – and help prompt meaningful change. “Everyone’s too ashamed to admit it’s a cluster[CENSORED] … but it’s okay not to be okay,” she says. “If it’s happening to us it’s gotta be happening to others.” “I’ve run businesses in Melbourne for 20 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” she continues. Friday’s snap lockdown, she says, resulted in “loss of stock, staff wages … it’s just one blow after another”. “We, as a state, need to be at that ‘gold standard’ of contact tracing so we don’t have to worry about our businesses being open and closed … And none of us can afford for Jobkeeper to be cut.” This Healesville distillery doesn’t just produce world-renowned gin – it takes its responsibilities to the community seriously. In partnership with Dan Murphy’s, we talk to co-founder Stuart Gregor about supporting locals and giving back – and get a recipe for a special Olive-Oil Martini. Gin is more than just a key ingredient in G&Ts and Martinis – the liquor itself can display the character of the area it comes from, thanks to local botanicals and producers. It’s something Four Pillars Gin – based in Healesville, in Victoria’s Yarra Valley – has long been expert at. Take, for example, its annual Bloody Shiraz Gin, which combines the original Rare Dry Gin with cool-climate shiraz grapes from the Yarra valley, producing a stunning purple gin with a sweet note. But according to co-founder Stuart Gregor, Four Pillars’ award-winning gins are infused with an even more important ingredient: community. “I start with the people of Healesville,” he says. “We’re employing more than 80 locals in the Yarra valley area. That’s the best contribution we can make to any community – to keep people in jobs. You’re more than a brand of gin, you’re a collective of people.” It helps that the collective produces great gin. Four Pillars was recently crowned International Gin Producer of the Year for the second consecutive year at the International Wine and Spirit Competition in London. The business is also about to expand its physical footprint thanks to a multi-million-dollar redevelopment. “We’ll be three times the size we are now this time next year,” says Gregor. “It’s exciting times, especially coming after the year the community has just endured with Covid-19.” Community and local connections are integral to the business. Four Pillars recently worked with Yarra Valley Caviar to make gin-infused salmon caviar (made with Bloody Shiraz Gin), and with local brewers Hargreaves Hill to make a Gin Barrel Gose. “It’s really important to be a strong community participant,” says Gregor. There’s also the annual Four Pillars of the Community event – for the first week of December, all profits are donated to local organisations. Recipients in 2020 included CFA Healesville, Oz Harvest, Mad Foundation, Safe Steps and Scarf. When asked why Four Pillars has been such a success, Gregor says it’s because the company is no one-trick pony – it’s constantly innovating. New to bottle-shop shelves is the Olive Leaf Gin, which has a more savoury, Mediterranean flavour profile – think bay, rosemary and lemon – than the classic dry variation. Gregor says inspiration for the drop struck while visiting Cobram Estate’s annual olive harvest on the Murray River in north-west Victoria, back in 2018. “There’s something about being around an olive grove that just makes you want to have a Martini,” he says. It led to a light-bulb moment: using olive oil as the botanical in a new savoury gin, created with Martinis in mind. “Cobram offered us first-press olive oil, and we ended up using a few litres of it in any batch (about 1500 pressed olives), along with juniper, coriander seeds, lemon, macadamia and olive leaf,” says Gregor. “It gives a lovely soft mouth-feel and savoury taste. It tastes like standing on the edge of an olive grove on the Murray.” That’s the thing about gin: it can take you places. Here’s how to make Gregor’s Olive-Oil Martini at home. Stuart Gregor’s Olive-Oil Martini Makes 1 serve. Approx. 2 standard drinks. Ingredients: 60ml Four Pillars Olive Leaf gin 15ml dry vermouth (Dolin is a favourite) Olive oil Sicilian olives Lemon Method: Stir gin and vermouth over ice in a mixing glass (get it as cold as possible). Strain into frozen cocktail glass. Twist lemon peel over and garnish with a few drops of olive oil and drop in an olive. Serve with a side of Sicilian olives. Explore the great range of locally-produced Australian gins at Dan Murphy's. This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Dan Murphy’s.

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Quorum Software has announced a merger with fellow Thoma Bravo subsidiary Aucerna, along with the acquisition of Tieto EVRY's Oil and Gas software business The new combined business, to operate as Quorum Software going forward, looks to focus on driving digital transformation and complementary customer offerings in the energy sector. Alongside with the merger, the acquisition of TietoEVRY‘s Oil and Gas software division aims to combine complementary workflows, mission-critical technologies and global expertise, as well as bolstering the organisation’s bid to lead the energy software industry. Following confirmation of the deal, Gene Austin will continue to serve as CEO of Quorum Software, while Wayne Sim, CEO and co-founder of Aucerna, will be appointed to its board of directors. The combined company will serve more than 1,800 energy customers across 55 countries. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Quorum Software will have offices located throughout North America, LATAM, Europe, the Middle East and APAC. Additionally, presence is set to continue in Calgary, Alberta, the headquarters of Aucerna, and in Norway, the Energy Components and DaWinci software headquarters. “Over the last 20 years, Quorum has become the leading innovator of software deployed by North American energy companies,” said Gene Austin, CEO of Quorum Software. “Today Quorum is expanding the scope of our technology and expertise to all energy-producing regions of the globe. Customers everywhere will have access to a cloud technology ecosystem that connects decision-ready data from operations to the boardroom.” Wayne Sim, CEO and co-founder of Aucerna, and board member at Quantum Software, added: “Our new company will be able to deliver value to our stakeholders, while accelerating the growth of our combined business and the energy industry’s software transformation.” Scott Crabill, a managing partner at Thoma Bravo, commented: “Quorum and Aucerna are industry leaders that have each spurred significant innovation and digital transformation in the energy industry. “By combining these two fast-growing and highly complementary businesses with TietoEVRY’s Oil and Gas software business, the new Quorum will have significant global scale and an unparalleled product portfolio that meets nearly every need within the energy value chain. “We look forward to continuing to work closely with Gene, Wayne and the Quorum team in this exciting next chapter of the company’s growth story.”

The middle of November saw some of the quickest ecommerce website crashes in recent memory. Hundreds of thousands of gamers looking to cop a next gen console flooded the likes of Walmart, Amazon, and other prominent retail chains. The target? A next-gen console. Gamers were no strangers to this phenomenon by this time. 2020 has been a year of the dreaded "Out of Stock" message flashing across disappointed customers' screens. We had the paper launch of Nvidia's RTX 3000 series graphics cards, followed soon by AMD's 6000 series GPUs and 5000 series CPUs. The global pandemic has confined people to their homes and as a result, the demand for gaming hardware has skyrocketed. The stock issues were further exacerbated by logistical issues that arose because of restrictive measures taken by countries as well freight companies. While the Xbox Series X stock has somewhat stabilised, the PlayStation 5 still remains elusive. These circumstances have also spawned a different breed of evil: the scalpers. With bots and clever scripts, these heinous beings buy massive chunks of stock from retailers, only to flip the products at double the price to third-party sellers. Scalping is such a big issue right now, that even brick-and-mortar retailers in our country are engaging in it. Don't believe me? Take note of how that random friend fidgets every time you ask them the price of their PS5. That's them trying to hide their shame of having no self-control. In the event that you do manage to cop one at retail price, congratulations! You are literally one of the lucky few in the world. But is the entire experience worth it? To answer this question we need to roll back to 2013 when the PlayStation 4 launched and the 8th generation of console wars officially began. Both the XB1 and PS4 had a modest number of titles, and few were worth playing. It was a future-proofing purchase rather than one of instant-gratification. If you got the new console, you could assume you'd be safe for at least the next five years for all your gaming needs. The 8th generation truly shined during the years 2015 to 2018, with both platforms pumping out must-play exclusives all the while offering vast ecosystems to entice users into spending more time in their systems. This will be the case for the 9th generation as well. As of now, barring all the multiplatform titles, there's literally nothing to play on the next-gen consoles. Once you're done with Demon's Souls, you're going to be stuck playing backwards compatibility games from the PS4's library. We cannot be certain as to whether there will be a golden age for this generation as well but we can opt to consult certain facts. It is clear that both Microsoft and Sony want to cater to the growing technically-proficient gamer base who consider PC the platform of their choice. This trend started with the mid-generation hardware refresh during the PS4 and XB1 lifespan. The PS4 Pro and XB1X were both aimed at delivering higher fidelity visuals and better performance—hallmarks of the PC platform. With the 9th generation of consoles, they have opted to go down a similar path by heavily advertising one of the most polarising features of modern-day PC gaming, Ray Tracing. Ray Tracing was touted by Nvidia at the onset as the next step in the evolution of graphics in video games. Real-time ray tracing was a pipe dream for hardware manufacturers for the longest time imaginable. Nvidia made it mainstream with their RTX 2000 series GPUs. The first generation of ray tracing was generally a horrible mess in terms of performance. It still is, given how it requires raw computational power to function well. Nvidia's DLSS upscaling has circumvented that performance requirement, but AMD is yet to catch up. Which brings me to my next point: all the next-gen consoles have AMD graphics hardware, and if the 6000 series is any indication, they are nowhere near breaking Nvidia's performance numbers when it comes to ray tracing. But given this fact alone that the console manufacturers have promoted graphics features that were once thought to be exclusive to PC, does mean that they are serious about bringing proper next-gen experiences to these consoles. The handful of exclusives that have been released on both consoles have a variety of settings for different graphical fidelities. A user can choose smoother framerates while sacrificing visual quality and resolution or vice versa. The hardware in the consoles is just not powerful enough to deliver 4K or even 1440p 60 FPS with full raytracing, but neither can most PCs unless you spend a fortune so there's that. But all of this flies in the face of what made consoles vastly po[CENSORED]r in the first place—a seamless experience. Gone are those days when you could just pop in a disk (or a cartridge if you prefer) and you could just play the game. Now, you're going to have to wait for frequent updates. The new SSDs on the consoles hoped to reduce loading and installation times, but they can't upgrade your internet unfortunately. What will ultimately happen is that consoles will struggle to find their own identity in a market that is already highly competitive because of shrinking wallets. As platforms become homogeneous, gamers will face what I like to call the commodity dilemma. Think of when you're in the market to buy a bag of rice, generally you'd just pick whichever one's at the top without giving a second thought, right? That is the future we might be looking at with consoles as well. With a vast majority of gamers flocking to live service multiplayer games that are cross-platform, your platform of choice simply won't matter. Unless, of course, you are part of the niche who want to go for particular franchises which are exclusive to a platform. Graphics and performance have always been better on PC, trying to make it mainstream might just be a bit too much of a stretch for consoles yet again. No doubt there will be a vast library of jaw-dropping titles to experience on these platforms after one or two years, but simply put, the next generation of consoles have a lot to live up to given how they have basically entered a market that has been dominated by one platform for years on end. Only time will tell if the 9th generation will be the one that finally breaks the stalemate or will it be just a repeat of 8th gen.

renda Romero, the designer behind Prohibition-era strategy game Empire of Sin, remembers the meeting as if it were yesterday. Facing publisher bigwigs in a Cologne conference room, the veteran game maker presented what she had been writing for the past five years, and dreaming of for 20. “It was the most nerve-racking pitch of my life,” she says. “I’m comfortable with public speaking but to be on a stage with an audience of two, where you’re trying to get somebody to fund an idea for two-and-a-half to three years, that’s a big ask.” For all the shifting dynamics of the video game industry over the past decade – most notably the proliferation of indie games, sometimes made without any funding at all – this is still the most likely way a video game will get made. In a world before Covid-19, hopeful game makers and executives would jet off to conferences such as Gamescom, E3, or the Game Developers Conference to thrash out deals in backroom meetings while the public enjoyed the show. Empire of Sin is part of a new wave of games known in the industry as “triple I (III)”, independent titles with production values to rival their blockbuster (triple-A, or AAA) counterparts. New funding options and publishers have emerged: Devolver Digital deals in acerbic cartoon violence, Annapurna Interactive offers an accessible take on arthouse, and Swedish publisher Raw Fury sits somewhere between the two. The type of deals on offer can vary, but the fundamentals remain the same. Publishers will often fund production as well as additional costs such as marketing and quality assurance. Then, when a game is eventually released, revenue share is either split between publisher and studio, or kicks in once the publisher has fully recouped its advance. Depending on the size of advance, studios can be left in the cold (potentially with cashflow problems) as they wait for funds to materialise. In Romero’s case, video game publisher Paradox Interactive signed the game and she ultimately relinquished ownership. In return, Romero secured enough funds to assemble a team of 30 on the west coast of Ireland. Megan Fox, founder of Glass Bottom Games, questions whether the trade-offs inherent in a publishing deal are worthwhile for the creators of smaller indie projects. “A publishing company used to be responsible for getting the game into brick and mortar stores,” she says. “But at this point, I can release a game [digitally] on pretty much any platform I care about.” Fox, a mostly solo game maker, turned to crowdfunding site Kickstarter for her latest project, SkateBIRD, raising enough cash to fund production for a few years. While the crowdfunding site could be counted on to finance bigger-budget game projects, such as point-and-click adventure Broken Age eight years ago, thanks to a string of high-profile failures it is now more likely to fund a team of one rather than 100. Indie Fund, a collective of 34 independent game makers, most of whom found success during the past decade, has made a habit of essentially eliminating risk from its ventures. Since its formation in 2010, the group has financed many commercial and critical hits, including seminal walking simulator Dear Esther and innovative FMV drama Her Story. Adriaan de Jongh, maker of 2017’s Hidden Folks and one of its most recent members, suggests its high rate of success is partly down to the financing agreement, which caps investor returns at double their initial input. Theoretically, this is good for game makers but the arrangement also stymies risk; Indie Fund’s investors are incentivised to back what they believe are almost sure bets. Of course, what the investors of Indie Fund perceive to be safe bets is a matter of perspective – and in a mostly white, cisgender male group, that perspective is arguably limited. Indeed, De Jongh admits the risk-averse fund might not be doing everything it can to nurture new talent, particularly game makers from underrepresented backgrounds who could be less experienced or simply less confident. There haven’t been any recent conversations about specifically financing projects headed up by developers of colour, or adding developers of colour to the investor list. This, De Jongh believes, is a result of the group’s amorphous structure. “I’m not certain we’re taking our responsibility for diversity in the games industry seriously by not organising Indie Fund more than we do,” he says. These issues aren’t limited to Indie Fund but course through what is still a demographically homogeneous industry. Figures from the US show that 81% of game makers identify as white and 71% male; in the UK, the numbers sit at 90% white, 74% male. These figures are an improvement on previous years but there’s a noticeable lag in those from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds filling senior decision-making positions. Chandana Ekanayake, co-founder of Outerloop Games, the studio behind Falcon Age, has experienced this first-hand while courting investors and publishers. Of the 15 mid-to-large funding sources he recently pitched to, all but one were represented by white men. This, he says, presents particular issues for his studio, which is devoted to telling stories about underrepresented cultures and themes: “I have to assume that some of the things I’m going to talk about aren’t going to resonate. There’s certain lived experiences they might not understand … The types of games that are out there, that are getting funded, would be different if there was more cultural understanding,” says Ekanayake. Kowloon Nights, a game-funding group established in 2018, is acutely aware of this issue, and is hoping to help shift the direction of the industry with its Fairchild Initiative, a $2m pledge for projects led by black creators and studios. The head of the project, Kendall Deacon Davis, a former narrative designer on Halo 4, says the aim is to facilitate the sustainable growth of black studios and provide a model for such material change. “Ideally, successful games allow studios to get built with great creative cultures,” Davis says. “It’s a lot easier to pump more capital through once that architecture is in place. We’re laying the foundation for much larger-scale diversity initiatives.” The greatest handheld games consoles – ranked! Read more If there’s one thing which arguably impacts access to funding more than anything else, it’s the opaqueness of the process. This extends to accurate and available information on who to contact at publishers, platform holders, or investors – sources of capital for commercial titles – but also to the arts funding increasingly utilised by the experimental scene. Chella Ramanan, maker of dementia-themed game Before I Forget and former video game journalist for publications including the Guardian, says these pots of money are poorly advertised. She also believes video games fall through the funding cracks: after a number of attempts, Ramanan called time on submitting further applications to arts funds for Before I Forget, a process she describes as “exhausting, time-consuming, and demoralising”. As in television and film, securing capital for an independent video game is often a gruelling process requiring the alignment of multiple stars. There are more funding options available now, to a wider range of video game makers, than ever before – but the system is far from perfect, and the odds of success still tip towards familiar faces. And the video games industry never sits still; in the coming years, Netflix-style subscription services such as Apple Arcade and Xbox Game Pass threaten to rip up the funding rulebook yet again. With Covid-19 slowing life and business and temporarily halting the conferences where the deals are made, this is a good time for those who fund the games we play to reflect on what they’re financing and why – and what they could be doing better to foster the next generation of remarkable developers.

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One of the aspects of this pandemic that’s affected car enthusiasts has been the lack of auto shows. Of course, during a pandemic the lack of an auto show isn’t actually anything to complain about in the grand scheme of things. However, so many enthusiasts use auto shows as a way to connect with other like-minded enthusiasts and meet people in person that they might not normally see, for various reasons. It’s also a way to indulge our passions together, as enthusiasts, and because of that auto shows were hugely important in many enthusiasts’ lives. So as a way to provide provide as close of an experience to that as possible, Chicagoland BMW dealerships are going to be working with BMW North America Central Region to host virtual car events on our Facebook page. Starting Tuesday, February 16, eleven Chicagoland BMW dealerships will begin livestreaming virtual events on the BMWBLOG Facebook page. During these livestreams, dealers will spotlight some of the latest BMW products and talk about their performance, specs, designs and options, showing customers the cars they’re missing and giving them the info they want/need. This is the first time we’ve ever partnered up for something like this and we’re excited to bring a virtual car event to you. This past year has been tough for car enthusiasts, as it’s almost impossible to enjoy cars with friends without coming in close contact with one another. Personally, we can attest to that, as there are so many people that we only see at big auto shows that we haven’t seen in over a year and it’s beginning to take its toll. However, the ability to check out cars together virtually is the next closest thing. This way, if you’re so inclined, you can jump on the livestream with your friends and check out the new Bimmers together. Being that it’s on Facebook, we’ll be taking questions and will answer as many as we can. It’s also nice to see BMW working closely to keep its customers and fans involved with the brand during the pandemic. Even though people can’t really be together, BMW is still finding a way to connect to its loyal fans, so they can experience the brand, even in a digital way. Please stay tuned to our BMWBLOG Facebook Page for the direct links to the livestream. In the mean time, book this first even on February 16, 2021. Here are the participating dealers and the schedule for Feb 15-19, 2021:

A po[CENSORED]r beauty influencer has found himself at the centre of a social media storm after pretending to be pregnant for 24 hours. The male YouTube star shared a video documenting himself experiencing the “challenges” of being pregnant for a day, telling fans it was “in no way shape or form to make fun of, to make light of pregnancy and the sensitivities and the complications that come around it”. The video followed Charles through a day of tasks and challenges, including a contraction simulator, while he wore a fake pregnant belly. To promote the video he also shared a photo on his Instagram account that showed him cradling a “bump” in an elaborate set up surrounded by flowers. But despite the disclaimer on video, the 21-year-old quickly attracted criticism for the stunt, with some women branding it “gross, disrespectful and insensitive”. RELATED: Tips and tricks from beauty blogger James Charles Many said the YouTuber – who has hit headlines in the past for being embroiled in bitter feuds with beauty rivals – had failed to take into account how insensitive the whole stunt was, especially those struggling to conceive. “I love you James, but be ready to expect backlash. This wasn’t a good move. It’s very insensitive and I’m generally not a sensitive person. Sorry bud. This ain’t right,” one person wrote. “Umm this is not a joke? … This is not OK? … Are you guys seriously allowing this to be OK?” While another said: “How thirsty for clout can you be?! So gross, disrespectful and insensitive. Also I’m sure he’s at an age where he knows that pregnancy jokes aren’t OK.” On Twitter, “James Charles pregnant” began trending, but for all the wrong reasons. One woman called it “gross and offensive to all women” while another said it was “distasteful”. While James hasn’t yet responded to the backlash, the disclaimer message on the video suggests he expected the situation. After stating the video was not made in any way to “make fun” of pregnancy, James said it was a “lighthearted” video. He also stated that “charities helping women through pregnancy complications” would receive a portion of the money made from the video’s streams. James has 25.5 million followers on YouTube and 26.8 million on Instagram. He’s estimated to be worth $US12 million ($A15.5 million). In 2020, he purchased a $US7 million mansion in Los Angeles.

If we winter this one out, we can summer anywhere. Seamus Heaney only said this the once, in 1972. And then everyone else said it in 2020. Heaney was talking about cattle in winter fields waiting patiently for the next thing to come along. Unfortunately, we haven't read the small print. Winter turned out to mean: Winter, spring, summer, autumn, winter, winter again (if you believe the winter before Christmas to be a different winter to the one after Christmas), and then spring again, because we didn't winter properly the last time. Meanwhile, 'summer anywhere' now means 'summer anywhere as long as it’s here'. There are lots of serious side effects to this newly extended lockdown. But one revelation has been all the Irish men of a certain vintage who now have big, grey hair; big, bushy, grey clouds that haven't been seen in decades, and certainly none that developed in such a short space of time. Young people have always grown their hair differently, of course, depending on fashion. But that's because they were goddamn hippies and commies, tree huggers and beat poets, getting high off my dime while I worked in the auto shop, with no one to help me but my memories of Korea. And now, with no end in sight, we really don't know where our next haircut is coming from. Well, some do. But for most of us, even if there was someone in the house who could cut it, you wouldn't want to be appearing with too good a haircut. It's the equivalent of that one gang-member who, straight after the heist, arrives in a Lamborghini to the house in which he was raised, even though the ringleader warned people not to draw attention to themselves. Because everyone is asking: Where did you get that? Lockdown almost has the effect of an indirect sumptuary law. The sumptuary laws were brought in centuries ago to stop people getting clothes above their station. They were also used here in the 16th century to stop the English settlers adopting the Irish hairstyle. The Irish hairstyle was called a glib and according to noted historical langer and lick-arse Edmund Spenser, consisted of "a long, curled bush of hair, hanging down over the eye, and monstrously disguising them, which are both very bad and hurtful". This element of disguise made the Irish appear untrustworthy and the English settlers were, therefore, forbidden to look like a shoe-gazing band. It's the opposite now. And there are a lot of men who are now thickening on top, men who wouldn't normally have any truck with that much hair. Men who would have seen eating brown sliced-pan as a sign of decadence now look like a mercurial French football coach who leaves their club after a bitter row over unorthodox tactical methods, only to turn up at a World Cup as the manager of Burkina Faso. Short-back-and-sides men, who have spent a large part of their life looking for a lost wrench next to a broken harrow in a bitingly cold February field, now run their calloused hands through their luxuriant new waves, like a French nouvelle vague director on the set of his existential epic, Mon Passe-Temps Prefere est Faire Du Ski. These newly bouffanted men turn up in the background of Zoom calls at the 'Would you like to speak to your father?' section. Your mother moves to one side and the next thing, Ted Danson heaves into view to ask if you're going to bother taxing the car now, at this stage. And me? Let's just say that when I see a hair-bobble on the floor during the 7 o'clock floor-toy sweep, I pocket it. There's a lot more wintering to be done.

According to Søren Smed Østergaard, Vice President, Digital Health of Novo Nordisk, the most significant innovations in the diabetes space centered around hardware, artificial intelligence (AI) and data. He believes that having access to more accurate data on individual behavior and medication usage could positively impact people living with diabetes. "We know there is a huge discrepancy between how people should use medication and how they're using it," said Østergaard. "In 2003, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said improving medication adherence will have a more significant impact on the po[CENSORED]tion's health than improvements to specific medical treatments. "Healthcare data today is often incomplete and too sparse to use for effective decision-making; we need to solve that first, but with this comes a plethora of ethical implications," said Østergaard. "People must have confidence that their data is being kept secure and used responsibly. Data sharing – creating a complete picture using data from different parties and devices – has the potential to revolutionize healthcare and outcomes, but robust data privacy policies must underpin it.

I sat down (virtually) with Forethought's co-founder and CEO Deon Nicholas to learn what it takes to start and grow a successful enterprise software startup. Deon provides valuable insights, advice and encouragement to minority founders and entrepreneurs. Taking on the challenge of creating customer service chatbots that learn and continually improve the quality of responses instead of providing rote, canned remarks is ideal for AI and machine learning. However, chatbots have not scaled well to keep up with the increasing complexity and contextual intelligence that customers need to get their problems solved. It's a perplexing, multifaceted problem to solve, requiring AI and machine learning algorithms that continually work to improve customer experiences. It's exactly the complex challenge motivating Black entrepreneur and CEO Deon Nicholas to excel as an enterprise software startup founder. Before starting Forethought, Deon built products and infrastructure at Facebook, Palantir, Dropbox and Pure Storage. He has machine learning publications and infrastructure patents, was a World Finalist at the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest and was named Forbes 30 under 30 alongside, Head of Engineering Sami Ghoche. Deon's many accomplishments reflect his strong growth mindset– and why that value is a cornerstone of Forethought. "I'm constantly learning and growing up. I learned math, computers and physics.. Any time I saw a problem, I tried to solve it through what I knew, even if I didn't know how to solve it," Deon says. Forethought's Agatha is an AI-based customer service platform that solves, triages, assists and presents discovery on customer interactions. Agatha is an AI-powered customer support agent using machine learning and natural language understanding to immediately respond to customers to resolve simpler issues, automate repetitive routing and provide real-time assistance. Notable customers include Instacart, MasterClass, Gusto and Carta. Deon: The first thing I did, I actually applied to Y Combinator. But, the idea wasn't fully formed. I mean, it's exactly Forethought, all the things we're doing, but still very much in its infancy. We got rejected for Y Combinator. There was definitely a period of time where we were still learning, still growing, still figuring it out. I was still figuring out what it meant to be an entrepreneur, converging on what exactly the iteration of this product is going to be, the market we're going to attack. And then after that, a three to six months period emerged from that with clarity on which direction we wanted to go. Obviously we continue to iterate over time and improve, but, in late 2017, when we actually incorporated and started running with it, was when I would say all of the stars fully aligned. Louis: To your point, what are your lessons learned that you want to pass on to minority entrepreneurs — starting from Y Combinator? Deon: The very first lesson learned is, you really do have to bet on yourself. Like building things, just having that mindset. It's so hard to describe, but despite the story you've heard of me basically doing entrepreneurship since I was young, it was not in my vocabulary that I could be a CEO, that I could be an entrepreneur. CEOs were these other people. They looked a certain way, right? They came from certain backgrounds. They went to a certain school, all of these things. And it was just not something that I knew would be me. So, as I started building things and part of the reason why I actually applied to YC, was I had met a partner from Y Combinator. And she was like, "Oh, you have a great background. You should consider applying to YC." Obviously we didn't get in, but it was like, even just hearing that was surprising to me. When somebody would look at me and say, "Hey, you worked at Facebook and these companies, maybe you should consider getting funding. Maybe you should consider being a CEO. Maybe you should consider going to Y Combinator." It's so weird to say, but that actually clicked something for me, in that prior to that, I didn't even know it was something that was allowed. Louis: What kept you going and continuing to bet on yourself? Deon: I would ask these same people, "Are you sure? What do you mean raise funding, be a CEO? Isn't that somebody else? You're talking about the same guy here?" So the first hurdle was getting over that mindset. It's hard to be what you can't see, right? In my case, there aren't that many Black CEOs. When you think of enterprise companies, you might think of Marc Benioff or Bill Gates. When you think of consumer companies, you might think of Mark Zuckerberg. But, it seems so different, such a different realm of reality. Whereas, I'm starting to come to terms with this, but depending on where you are from,there are plenty of people who just assume, "Yeah, of course, I'm going to go be a CEO." Whether or not they're going to be good at it. And so you end up having this, starting point bias, so to speak. Louis: As you've been a CEO, what are the lessons that you learned that you never thought you were going to learn, starting with the fundraising process? Deon: There are a lot of introspective lessons.The overwhelming majority of investors pattern match. Some would say things to me like, "Deon, you're an engineer, you're not going to be good at sales or recruiting. Why start an enterprise company?" Or, "Why don't you bring in someone to be CEO?" You got some of that as well. I got a lot of investors just telling me that, basically the equivalent of like, "Eh, you're great." All these things, all these signals, but you don't get the benefit of the doubt on the things that are risks for any entrepreneur." But I did get really great investors that I think I like to say self-select. The ones who think about things from first principles end up investing. I actually tell this to minority entrepreneurs, anyone that I'm advising:, bias happens in the benefit of the doubt.If you take any company, it's going to have a bunch of risks and there's going to be some doubts. Depending on whether you fit a certain pattern in the investor's subconscious, they're going to say, "Well, I've seen a person who looks like X, Y and Z overcome this kind of risk before. Therefore they're probably going to do it." If they haven't, they're going to say, "Well, I've never seen this kind of person overcome this kind of risk." Louis: What's been the most valuable lesson learned from being the CEO of an enterprise software startup? Deon: The biggest job of a CEO is storytelling. Whether you're pitching your story to investors, a new recruit, or a customer. That, in and of itself, is a skill that you can learn, that you can practice, that you can grow and become great at. And at the end of the day, that's probably the only thing you can't outsource as a CEO. That's the only thing you can't hire for: the vision and the storytelling. In the early days, you have to kind of do everything. But, over time, it becomes the most important thing to tell that story. Like envisioning the video game, the RPG world before it's been built and then going and creating it. Louis: It seems like exceptional challenges motivate you and you say to yourself, "This looks really hard, I want to really excel at this". You remind me of one of my favorite books I re-read every year, Mindset by Dr. Carol Dweck. Deon: I think you really hit the nail on the head. Actually,one of our values at Forethought is The Growth Mindset. And as you talk about that, I realize that maybe that's part of the way I was wired. I started programming at an early age and I was just super curious. I wanted so badly to go to the University of Waterloo. No one else in my family had gone to college or anything like that. I didn't really know what that meant or how you would go and apply to college. And that [challenge] awoke something in me. It's exactly as you described it.I was like, "This is the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I'm going to go keep doing it." And that was the thread. For somebody who learned to code so early on in life, when I started doing algorithmic programming competitions and math competitions, I was pretty bad. The University of Waterloo's name was all over the competitions, so I was like, "I really want to go there to this school. If they're challenging me this much as a teenager, I'm certain it's going to be amazing as when I go to college." I went there, started on the programming team, did the ICPC kind of Olympics.. And, it was really that. Every time I kept getting beat down, especially in competitive programming, I kept going. I spent four years of my university career reading, re-reading the textbooks, to the point where I had completed my third and fourth year algorithm textbooks in my first year. All because, I just wanted to get better at it. Long story short, the final year at the International Collegiate Programming Contest, myself and my two teammates, we were 13th in the world out of every single university of 2,000 plus universities. Now that we're talking about it, it felt like a recipe. I've repeated the same pattern as an entrepreneur where you go after really, really, really hard problems. The recipe for quote-unquote success is finding something really hard, teaming up with really great people and then just obsessing over it. Knowing you're going to fail and then repeating. Louis: Did you want to build video games and did you have an entrepreneurial dream then? What was that dream that kept you going? Deon: Yep. Absolutely. I think this is a fun walk down memory lane. The first game I ever made, I was maybe seven years old. I was just learning how to program, at the time it was really drag and drops. I wouldn't even say it's coding, but I build video games. I was super interested in Pokemon and Digimon, so the first game I ever made was called Dojimon. So, I would tell these stories that I was interested in and then build video games out of them. And that was really what I really wanted to learn about. So that one was about little creatures. My big vision for when I actually learned to code when I was actually trying to build a really big video game, was this game called Doji World. I kept the name Doji, it was my symbol for me coding. And it was going to be this massive multiplayer online MMO RPG, that's equivalent to maybe a Fortnite or something now. That was my big vision when I was a teenager. Surprising. Yeah. And so I had stuff like that. That was the first really big one that I ever built. And then the second thing that I built was actually the textbook reader for myself to study history class. So it was really things like that, that jump started the entrepreneurial vision I had. In the end, I ended up showing it to some folks at a local software tech company. And my second job after being in customer service,they actually ended up hiring me as a high school student to be a software tester software engineer. So in my junior and senior year of high school, I had already started kind of working as a full-time software engineer...and Doji World still hasn't been finished. Maybe I'll finish it one day. Louis: As you thought about the concept for Forethought and you met your co-founders, were you so focused on the pain of customer support and the scale for that, that you thought, true AI is the way to go about solving this? Deon: I think it's the combination of figuring out where the efficiencies are, where problems can be solved and where you should be generating your energy. Then you work as hard as you humanly can to attack the problem. And that's in some ways how I converge on this. It was a combination of things that led to this. So one, the AI background. And obviously I'd been thinking about true AI for a long time, because I was super fascinated with this idea of an artificial general intelligence coming from the world of the textbook question and answer generation. The second, yes, as a customer service person myself, or at least a former one, realizing that there was a huge market and huge opportunity and huge pain here. I would say there were multiple different angles and multiple different intuitions that were pointing me to like, "Hey, there is something here that needs to be solved." The first few months of my journey was actually exploration. This was 2017 now and right around this time I was like, "Okay, I think I'm going to go be an entrepreneur."

Earlier this week, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said that even though its Massive studio is now developing a new open-world Star Wars game, it will also continue to work on its other open-world shooter series, The Division. "The Massive studio is a large studio, and they are also collaborating with lots of studios all over the world," he told analysts in a quarterly financial call. "You're going to see more on The Division in this year and the year after." Today the studio officially committed to that promise, saying in a message on Twitter that the recently-released title update 12 for The Division 2 was intended to be the game's final major update, "but thanks to your continued support, we are now in the early stages of development for fresh content to release later in 2021." "While it is still too early to go into more details today, you won't have to wait too long, as we will share more as soon as we can," the message says. "In the meantime, we again want to send a heartfelt thank you for your continued support through The Division 2 post-launch period. We cannot stress enough how much this means to us." Today, we are thrilled to confirm that were will be additional content for The Division 2 released later this year! pic.twitter.com/LRlTwVZEtpFebruary 12, 2021 Title update 12 went live in December and kicked off the fourth season of The Division 2, pointedly entitled End of Watch. In case that's not quite sufficiently on the nose, the season is built around the return of Faye Lau, an NPC in The Division who goes bad and joins Black Tusk in The Division 2. I haven't played it myself but reading the wiki, it sounds very much a "closing the loop" sort of thing—a good way to wrap things up, in other words. The Division 2 team may not be ready to share details on what it has in mind for new content, but Guillemot's statement that there's more on the way "this year and the year after" suggests that it won't be a simple one-and-done. The studio also said that it's currently investigating what sounds like a pretty serious crash bug, and is also close to having a fix for missing volumetric fog and screen space reflections on the PlayStation 5.

Hot in the heels of the 3 Series Gran Limousine, BMW is now gearing up for the launch of its M340i M Performance in India on March 10. It is going to be the first M Performance model to be assembled locally in the country and will also come out as the most powerful 3 Series in the line-up. At the heart of the BMW M340i M Performance will sit a 3.0-litre, in-line six-cylinder, twin-turbo petrol engine churning out 374hp and 500Nm of torque. The transmission opinion will include an 8-speed automatic gearbox sending power across all four wheels with the help of BMW’s xDrive all-wheel-drive system. For the record, internationally, the car is also available in a rear-wheel-drive layout. Apart from a more powerful engine, the car also benefits from a number of performance-oriented updates over the regular model. These updates include M-specific suspension technology, M Sport brakes, M Sport differential, and an M Sport exhaust system. These M Performance parts have been aimed at improving the overall driving dynamics of the car. On the inside, it will sport the same features found on the standard 3 Series such as three-zone automatic climate control, extended storage, ambient lighting, and an automatically dimming rear-view mirror as a standard fitment. Other bits on its standard equipment list will include Park Distance Control, Remote Services, Concierge Services, BMW Live Cockpit Plus complete with navigation system and an 8.8-inch Control Display and more.

For Black History Month, moms Gabrielle Union, Tia Mowry, and Vanessa Williams sat down with Elle to talk about the evolution of Black beauty. The stars shared the way Eurocentric beauty standards were imposed on them as girls, what Black beauty meant to them in the past, and what it means to them now as mothers of daughters. For Union, her journey to self-love didn’t begin until recently, especially when it came to her hair. “I wore relaxers starting from the time I was 8 and didn’t stop until my thirties,” she said. “I didn’t even wear braids professionally, which might’ve been the first time ever really — until Almost Christmas, which was five or six years ago.” Once Union turned 40, she said something changed. “Something happened around my 40s, where I just fell in love with myself,” she said. “I emptied my basket of [CENSORED]s. And that’s the attitude I hope to pass onto my daughters — shameless self-love.” “When we were younger, it was wonderful being able to wear our natural hair,” she said, but as she and her twin sister Tamera grew up, they started to face discrimination around those same natural hairstyles. Mowry said she was often directed to conform to the whitewashed beauty standards of pin-straight hair during auditions, and was asked to pull her natural hair back because it was seen as a “distraction.” “When I straightened my hair, it damaged my hair and it damaged my natural curls,” she said. “But I thank God that my mom told us, ‘Do not allow this business to define you. Do not allow this business to define your happiness. Do not allow this business to define your value.’ I believe that’s what saved us from falling into the pit of childhood stardom.” “When we were younger, it was wonderful being able to wear our natural hair,” she said, but as she and her twin sister Tamera grew up, they started to face discrimination around those same natural hairstyles. Mowry said she was often directed to conform to the whitewashed beauty standards of pin-straight hair during auditions, and was asked to pull her natural hair back because it was seen as a “distraction.” “When I straightened my hair, it damaged my hair and it damaged my natural curls,” she said. “But I thank God that my mom told us, ‘Do not allow this business to define you. Do not allow this business to define your happiness. Do not allow this business to define your value.’ I believe that’s what saved us from falling into the pit of childhood stardom.”

Di two oil-rich communities for Niger Delta region fit sue Royal Dutch Shell plc (RDS) and dia Nigerian branch, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), di UK Supreme Court rule on Friday 12 February, 2021. King of Bille Kingdom Igbiki-ngeri Ngowari Herbert call di ruling a welcome development. "Now wey we don pass over di first hurdle, we don sabi say for here [Nigeria] dem for cari truth troway, we now know say truth go prevail." King Herbert, di Amayanabo of Bille Kingdom inside Rivers State Southern Nigeria tell BBC Pidgin. Di King of Bille Kingdom add say dis one dey important because, "we want make justice dey done, and we no want any kain bias for behind corners." Dis Supreme Court ruling dey come two weeks afta di Dutch Court of Appeal ruling against di RDS for case wey four Nigerian farmers and Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands) bring come wey say RDS dey responsible for di pollution for di region and make den improve dia pipeline network. Di villagers wey be Ogale and Bille communities don dey complain say dem dey suffer from di oil pollution of Shell operations for Nigeria for years and e don even pollute dia drinking water. But Shell dey tok say no be RDS dey legally responsible for wetin happun to di communities and dem no suppose hear di cases for England. Wetin dis new ruling don do na say dem go fit hear di cases of dis two communities for English courts, sometin wey di communities don dey fight for di past five years. Dis na as dem claim say dem no go get di justice dem dey find for Nigeria. Di Supreme Court say di way RDS arrange Shell Group make dem liable for any harm wey dia subsidiaries for dion cause for di Ogale and Bille communities. Leigh Day partner Daniel Leader wey dey represent di communities tok say dis fit give real hope to di pipo of Ogale and Bille communities wey don dey ask Shell to clean up dia oil for years. Dis ruling go mean say di against RDS for di cleaning and compensation Ogale and Bille communities for dia oil operations for di region go now return to High Court so dem go hear am. Shell statement tok say: "Di oil spills for dis mata bin happun inside communities wey dey heavily affected by oil tiff-tiff, illegal oil refining, and di breaking alias sabotage of pipelines." Di company say, even though na di cause of di pollution, dia sister company divisions don work hard to both clean up and prevent spills. Dis Bille and Oghale mata na di latest from a list of international and domestic court cases alias law suits on top Shell oil drilling iniside Nigeria. In 2015 Shell accept say na dem cause two oil spills and agree to pay £55m ($76M) to Bodo community wey be one big village inside Ogoniland for Niger Delta and assist in diclean-up. In 2006 one Nigerian court order di company and partners to pay $1.5bn to Ijaw pipo of Bayelsa State for environmental katakata inside di area. Inside one oda ongoing civil case, women wey husbands die alias widows of four environmental activists wey Nigeria military goment bin hand for 1995 dey drag Shell for court ontop accuse say na dem provide support to di military. Shell deny di claims. A Dutch appeals court rule for January 2021 say di Nigerian branch of oil giant Shell na im dey responsible for leaks for di Niger Delta. Di court order make Shell Nigeria pay compensation to Nigerian farmers, while im subsidiary and im Anglo-Dutch parent company go install equipment wey go prevent future damage. Four Nigerian farmers who alleged widespread of pollution on dia land na dem launch di case in 2008. Shell Nigeria fit appeal di ruling. Di court say dem go determine di amount of compensation ''at a later stage''

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Intel just spilled the beans on an Intel Core i9-10900KS CPU that could be coming soon. An Intel Software Advantage Program qualifying list shows the SKU, leaving us wondering what it may offer over the standard Intel Core i9-10900K. The document also states that buying the Core i9-10900KS or one of the (many) other qualifying CPUs will net you a free copy of Crysis Remastered. However, the 10900KS isn't out yet. In fact, this is the first time we've heard of the CPU. This is not Intel's first rodeo with special edition SKUs. Processors such as the Core i7-8086K and Core i9-9900KS were both limited/special edition products that offered the highest binned Intel silicon you could buy, as well as the highest stock core frequencies possible at the time. For instance, the Core i9-9900KS features a beefy all-core turbo of 5 GHz flat on all 8 CPU cores, even under AVX workloads. The vanilla i9-9900K could boost to 5 GHz but only on a few cores. As you loaded up more cores, the boost frequency would gradually drop, until you hit the CPUs all-core turbo of 4.7 GHz, (unless you enabled multi-core enhancement which would auto-overclock all cores to 5 GHz flat). The 10900KS could end up being a similar offering, though it seems difficult to fathom a 5.0 or 5.1GHz all-core-turbo frequency on 10 14nm cores without encountering serious power and heat issues. Also possibility is a higher all-core turbo clock, with Intel continuing to use a turbo core hierarchy, where some cores boost higher than others. Again though, this is purely speculation. This is the first we've heard of the 10900KS so we have no idea when it will come out or what it will offer in attempts to compete with the best gaming CPUs. But with Intel's past two generations of Core microarchitectures featuring a "Special Edition" SKU, it seems reasonable that Intel would continue the tradition with Comet Lake-S.

Filing taxes on your own can be cheaper than hiring an accountant, but the costs of online tax filing software can still add up. The best programs cost up to $170 for federal filing, plus $50 per state. And if you want to add advice and a review from a tax expert, the cost can be an additional $35 to $55, plus the per-state fees. Thankfully, many credit card issuers are offering discounts on po[CENSORED]r tax software programs that can save you $5 to $20 when you pay with an eligible card. The current discounts are nearly all for TurboTax, however two issuers are offering TaxAct. These discounts are a great way to reduce the cost of filing taxes, especially if you wind up owing tax money. Keep in mind that some of these offers are targeted to individual customers, so you may not receive access to every promotion. And in order to benefit, you’ll need to use your eligible card to pay for the tax software. Here’s a roundup of tax software discounts available on major credit cards. Consumer Amex card members can activate an Amex Offer that allows you to get $5 back after you spend $50 or more with TurboTax. This offer is available for all consumer card members who haven’t previously spent with Intuit and is valid through April 16, 2021. Small business and consumer card members can also save on TurboTax’s paid plans: $10 off Deluxe or Live Deluxe $15 off Premier or Live Premier $20 off Self-Employed or Live Self-Employed To benefit, sign up for TurboTax with this unique link through April 16, 2021. Consumer card members can take advantage of both the Amex Offer and direct link offer. Additionally, consumer and small business card members can activate an Amex Offer to get 30% back on purchases at TaxAct, up to $60 in savings. This offer is valid through June 30, 2021. Bank of America Bank of America offers targeted discounts on tax software for customers who are enrolled in the BankAmeriDeals program. Cardholders can receive a $5 cash back offer on a purchase of TurboTax directly from Intuit, after activating the BankAmeriDeal and using the promotional link in the offer. You can also receive instant discounts on one of the following TurboTax products: $5 off TurboTax Deluxe (online, live and CD/download) $10 off TurboTax Premier (online, live and CD/download) $15 off TurboTax Self-Employed (Online and live) $15 off TurboTax Home and Business and TurboTax Business (CD/download) To receive an instant discount, you must use a promotional link to purchase the TurboTax plan. Check your inbox for an email containing the link or look online or in the Bank of America mobile app. Offers expire April 15, 2021. Capital One Capital One isn’t running any promotions at this time. Chase The Chase Offers program is offering eligible cardholders the opportunity to save on TurboTax purchases. After activating the offer, you can earn 10% back on your TurboTax purchase, with an $8 back maximum. Plus you can get up to $15 in additional instant savings at checkout on TurboTax federal products when you purchase from the unique Chase Offers link that’s accessible when you activate the offer. Here are the discounts: $5 off Deluxe or Live Deluxe $10 off Premier or Live Premier $15 off Self-Employed or Live Self-Employed Offer expires April 15, 2021. Citi Citi ThankYou rewards card holders can save up to $20 on tax software with TurboTax. Here’s the break down: $10 off Deluxe or Live Deluxe $15 off Premier or Live Premier $20 off Self-Employed or Live Self-Employed To take advantage of this offer, access the promotional link through April 15, 2021. Discover Discover isn’t running any promotions at this time. Wells Fargo The Wells Fargo Deals program allows cardholders to earn cash back in the form of a statement credit. Currently there are two offers: Earn $7 cash back on a TaxAct software purchase through February 15, 2021. Wells Fargo Propel American Express® Card holders can earn 30% cash back (up to $60) when using their Propel card to make a purchase online at TaxAct.com through April 15, 2021. Outside of My Wells Fargo Deals, consumer Wells Fargo cardholders with Go Far Rewards can earn a bonus 6% cash back / 6X points on purchases made at TaxAct.com through the Earn More Mall. This offer is valid through March 31, 2021.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is one of the best-selling video games in US history, according to NPD Group analyst Mat Piscatella. The stat that made my jaw drop this month was seeing Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War make it into the top 20 best-selling games in U.S. history. Absolutely incredible.February 12, 2021 Black Ops Cold War broke the top 20 best-selling games in US history (based on when US game sales tracking began) in January 2021, just a few months after its November 2020 release. It currently sits in 20th place, although the entire top 20 has yet to be released by NPD. These are pretty staggering statistics, especially considering Black Ops Cold War has only been out for a few months. According to Piscatella, it even took the crown for best-selling game of 2020 with only two months of sales underneath its gun belt - although it must be noted that the company did not factor Animal Crossing: New Horizons digital sales into the mix, which could very likely push the Nintendo title into the top spot. It's important to note that the NPD statistics are based on dollar sales, so it's unclear how inflation factors into rankings. The po[CENSORED]rity of Black Ops Cold War could be tied to the free-to-play Call of Duty: Warzone. The two games were integrated in December 2020, with multiplayer maps and cosmetics shared between the two, so many may have picked up Black Ops Cold War to bolster their Warzone content. We know that the new Call of Duty game 2021 will happen at some point this year, so let's see if that will be able to pull in as impressive sales numbers as Black Ops Cold War. Considering Activision reports that Call of Duty has "the largest player community it has ever had to start a year" in 2021, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw some record-breaking sales numbers yet again. Even the Call of Duty: Warzone invisibility glitch can't stop the sales.

Wer beim größten Auto-Exporteur der USA noch immer an Autobauer wie Ford, General Motors oder Chevrolet denkt, hat sich offenbar schon lange nicht mit aktuellen Entwicklungen beschäftigt: Gemessen am Fahrzeug-Wert steht die deutsche BMW Group seit inzwischen 7 Jahren an der Spitze des Export-Rankings und zählt damit je nach Betrachtungsweise und Lesart tatsächlich zu den wichtigsten Autobauern der USA. Verantwortlich dafür ist das BMW Werk Spartanburg, dessen Produkte längst nicht alle auf dem US-Markt bleiben: Allein 2020 wurden Fahrzeuge im Wert von 8,9 Milliarden US-Dollar exportiert und sind heute auf den Straßen anderer Länder unterwegs. Insgesamt handelte es sich dabei im letzten Jahr um 218.820 in South Carolina gebaute SUV-Modelle, von denen mit über 189.000 Einheiten der weitaus größte Teil über den Hafen von Charleston in alle Welt verschifft wurde. 23,3 Prozent der 2020 in Spartanburg gebauten BMW sind heute in China unterwegs, 12,9 Prozent sind im eigentlichen Heimatmarkt Deutschland angekommen. Auf den weiteren Plätzen der wichtigsten Export-Märkte folgen Südkorea (7,8 Prozent), Kanada (6,0 Prozent) und Russland (5,3 Prozent). Der große Rest landet in zahlreichen kleineren Märkten, wobei über den Hafen von Charleston insgesamt 125 Länder erreicht werden. Das Jahr 2020 war dabei auch für das BMW Werk Spartanburg außergewöhnlich: Ab Anfang April ruhte die Produktion aufgrund der Corona-Pandemie für fünf Wochen komplett, bevor sie langsam und unter verschärften Hygiene-Auflagen wieder aufgenommen werden konnte. Das zweite Halbjahr wurde dann allerdings mit Vollgas zu Ende gebracht: Nie zuvor wurden in Spartanburg innerhalb von sechs Monaten so viele Autos gebaut wie zum Abschluss des Jahres 2020. Insgesamt liefen in den zweiten sechs Monaten fast 218.000 neue BMW vom Band, für das Gesamtjahr ergibt sich ein Wert von 361.365 Einheiten. Neue Bestwerte stellten dabei die Plug-in-Hybride auf: Der auch in Deutschland sehr gefragte BMW X5 xDrive45e wurde mit 24.248 Einheiten häufiger gebaut als je zuvor, auch die 22.964 Einheiten des X3 xDrive30e sind ein klarer Indikator für die weltweit wachsende PHEV-Nachfrage. Insgesamt wurden 13 Prozent der 2020 im Werk Spartanburg gebauten Modelle mit Plug-in-Hybrid-Antrieb ausgerüstet.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all of us differently. Between the great toilet paper hoarding disaster of 2020, local businesses shutting down, forgetting how to socialize, working from home (or not working at all), and canceled travel plans; life as we knew it came to a screeching halt with seemingly no sign of normality on the horizon. Among those that have been deeply impacted by this global disaster are children. Not only have they been robbed of a fundamental year of their lives, but they've been asked to start learning outside the classroom — something many have struggled with. Parents and kids alike have been forced to adapt during these trying times, which is what inspired mom and writer, Christine Derengowski, to take to Facebook to flesh out her concerns over remote learning. She began by explaining that her seven-year-old son, who's been enrolled in online schooling, had been feeling the pressure of completing assignments under such unconventional learning conditions. "I’ve lost a year with my kids battling over school and I’m done," Derengowski wrote. "My seven-year-old and I were in the midst of our usual asynchronous day battle. I had his writing homework in my hand from school. He’d written several full, well-thought-out sentences. But he won’t do the same for me, at least not without a fight. "I told him he didn’t have to write about his best day like his teacher asked, he could write about his worst. He could write about whatever he wanted as long as he wrote a few sentences," she continued. "He said he’d get in trouble. He said he was doing a bad job in first grade. He was on the brink of tears but didn’t know why. And it hit me. Instead of getting frustrated and pushing the assignment, I sat down with him at his desk in his superhero bedroom."

CHICAGO (WREX) — You can now see the demographics of those who have received the coronavirus vaccine in Illinois. The Illinois Department of Public Health has begun publicly reporting demographic data on vaccine administration including race and ethnicity. Since moving from Phase 1A to 1B this data has shifted to more closely reflect the overall demographics of the state, but work remains to ensure communities of color are fully represented. The data, which is updated daily, is based on statewide numbers with age demographics available on the county level. IDPH receives demographic data directly from vaccination centers across the state including local health departments, FQHCs, and pharmacies. State health officials and Governor Pritzker's office also announced an expanded partnership with Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) across the state to administer the COVID-19 vaccine. The partnership will direct vaccine from the state’s allocation to select FQHCs beginning in March. This builds on a federal program that will begin with 25 FQHCs in certain states and ultimately expand to hundreds of FQHCs across the nation to administer vaccines to underserved po[CENSORED]tions including the homeless, migrant workers, public housing residents, and those with limited English proficiency. To ensure that communities hardest hit by the virus have access to the vaccine, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) in Illinois will begin directly receiving vaccine from the federal government. Illinois has been working with local health departments across the state to provide vaccine to 26 FQHCs and this new federal program will further expand those administering the vaccine. FQHCs often serve individuals who are living at or below the federal poverty level, as well as racial and/or ethnic communities. Beginning the second week of March, the state will begin allocating vaccines directly to FQHCs. Initially, the state will expand its partnership to FQHCs in counties where vaccine administration is lowest, before partnering with additional FQHCs statewide. By allocating vaccines directly to the centers, residents in underserved areas will have the ability to receive vaccines more quickly from trusted providers, and counties will hopefully experience a decrease in the disparity between which po[CENSORED]tions are vaccinated. This partnership with FQHCs builds on deliberate efforts by the administration to ensure equity is at the center of the Vaccine Administration Plan. When the federal government recommended vaccine coverage for only those 75 and older, the state announced it would allow those 65 and older to be vaccinated. This follows data that shows that while the average white person in Illinois who died of COVID-19 passes away at age 81, the average age at which Black Illinoisans die of COVID is 72, and for Latino Illinoisans it’s 68. Ultimately, the CDC agreed with Illinois and changed its federal guidelines to match ours.