Posted by AGORACOM
at 11:25 AM on Friday, March 20th, 2020
SPONSOR: Lomiko Metals is focused on the exploration and development of minerals for the new green economy such as lithium and graphite. Lomiko owns 80% of the high-grade La Loutre graphite Property, Lac Des Iles Graphite Property and the 100% owned Quatre Milles Graphite Property. Lomiko is uniquely poised to supply the growing EV battery market. Click Here For More Information
Nonprofit promotes documentary made by Tigard man, Ryan Hunter;
it’s called ‘Electrified – The Current State of Electric Vehicles’
For most college students, adding more work to their plate sounds like a nightmare.
They spend long nights and early mornings focusing on their studies.
But for University of Portland sophomore Ryan Hunter, directing his
first documentary seemed like a fun challenge.
The movie, “Electrified — The Current State of Electric Vehicles,”
brings together electric vehicle owners and industry professionals to
break down misconceptions about the specialized cars. It’s now being
promoted by nonprofits like Plug In America and Forth.
“The whole point of this movie was to explain some of the common
things that people should know when getting an electric car and tell
them some important things to consider before getting one,” said Hunter.
“My main goal is to lead people to buy an electric car based on some of
the stuff they learn from this film.”
Hunter started making the film last July. He became interested in the
topic because he was thinking about buying an electric vehicle. He
started looking into some of the high-tech features, such as Tesla’s
autopilot hardware.
Tesla is an American company that specializes in electric vehicle manufacturing and battery energy storage.
From that beginning, Hunter decided to put his self-taught filmmaking skills to good use.
“It started off with just interviewing a couple of people who I know
own electric cars,” Hunter said. “But as I started interviewing people
and talking to more people, I was able to get connections to (Forth) in
Portland. … And that kind of shifted the idea of a film from just
owners’ impressions to also having these expert opinions dragging the
narrative of the film.”
Zach Henkin, Forth’s deputy director, was happy to help Hunter once
he learned about the film. The Portland-based nonprofit consults with
cities, utilities and automakers to promote electric vehicles and shared
transportation.“We’re
seeing this as another way that we can continue to get the word out for
folks who are curious or interested and want to know what’s going on
with all these cars that don’t need gas,” Henkin said.
Forth is promoting the film through social media and newsletters. The
nonprofit is considering hosting a screening of the movie to get the
word out.
One of the biggest challenges is letting people know the benefits of electric vehicles, Henkin said.
“These cars are just simply better cars,” he said. “You can get tax
credits from the (federal government), and you can get cash from the
state. They’re also inexpensive, and you don’t have to pay gas.”
Henkin appreciates Hunter taking the time to research and inform
others through a documentary. At the time of the interview, Henkin
didn’t know Hunter’s age, and he was surprised to discover that the
young director had an interest in the topic.
“It’s really telling about what we’re seeing with younger
generations,” Henkin added. “They’re latching on to topics that are
important (and) might not be getting the amount of attention that they
could be.”
He concluded, “It makes me wonder how maybe older generations, myself
included, are approaching similar things and maybe missing stuff.”
Henkin hopes Hunter can leverage the documentary to bigger and better things. As for Hunter, he has other dreams.
“Computer science is kind of more of a thing I’d like to make a
career out of,” he said. “But filmmaking is definitely something I like
to do in my free time.”
Hunter remembers making short videos at 13 and having an overall interest in the craft.
“I took a filmmaking class in high school, but (it) was very basic,
so it wasn’t a lot that contributed to my knowledge,” said Hunter, who
graduated from Southridge High School in Beaverton two years ago.
“Everything I know has been self-taught.”
Hunter doesn’t know if he’ll continue making films in the future, but
he already is thinking about a possible sequel to his first
documentary.
“People said that they’d love to see a follow-up to this where I look
to see where electric cars are in a couple of years, because there are
more changes that are coming,” Hunter said.
He expects the price of electric vehicles to continue going down. A
market once dominated by Tesla and other luxury brands is now
increasingly populated with somewhat less expensive models, like the
Nissan Leaf and the Fiat 500e. As more and cheaper electric cars are
introduced, Hunter said, that growing market will make owning an
electric vehicle “more accessible to much more people than it currently
is now.”
Despite having no intentions for his film to “make it big,” Hunter is glad his movie is helping others make informed decisions.
“If just one person gets an electric vehicle based on this movie, I
would say that’s a win,” Hunter said. “Any change that I can help make
with the environment is good.”
As for what Hunter learned from the film, he’s planning on getting a
Tesla Model 3 — the automaker’s most popular (and affordable) car — in a
couple of months.
“Electrified — The Current State of Electric Vehicles” is available to watch on YouTube and Amazon Prime Video
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 4:12 PM on Thursday, March 19th, 2020
With 165,000 patients, Empower Clinics (CBDT:CSE) (EPWCF:OTCQB)
has a database that almost every medical cannabis and CBD company would
kill for. Patient visits increased 351% in Q4 and 800% in February.
But would Coronavirus social gathering imitations put the clinic network
at risk?
No. In fact, it has had the opposite effect, with the clinics being designated an essential service. Moreover, Empower has had to actually increase operating hours.
Watch this interview with the Company’s CEO, Steven McAuley, who is Six Sigma certified under the quality initiative of legendary GE chairman Jack Welch. We’ve never seen a Six Sigma certified CEO in the Canadian small cap markets. Never …. which also explains how McAuley has been able to guide Empower Clinics through the most disruptive retail environment in recent history. Â
Grab your favourite beverage and settle in to watch what may be your next great small cap investment.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 3:00 PM on Thursday, March 19th, 2020
SPONSOR: Datametrex AI Limited
(TSX-V: DM) A revenue generating small cap A.I. company that NATO and
Canadian Defence are using to fight fake news & social media
threats. The company announced three $1M contacts in Q3-2019. Click here for more info.
How Coronavirus is Impacting Cyberspace
Hackers were also strategizing to spread fake news to create further confusion
By investigating the dark web marketplace, CYFIRMA uncovered illicit groups selling organic medicine claiming to cure and eradicate the COVID-19 virus
These discussions in the hackers’ communities were carried out in Mandarin, Japanese and English
These are interesting times – the world is witnessing an
unprecedented onslaught of upheavals not just in the ‘real-world’ but
also in the cyber world. We greeted 2020 gingerly knowing the trade war
between the U.S. and China was going to bring about economic uncertainty
but little did we know a global pandemic was upon us, with the
Coronavirus having an impact even on cyberspace.
By CYFIRMA RESEARCH
While healthcare workers are battling the COVID-19 virus, countries are in lockdown mode, and the global economy hangs in the balance, another war is raging in cyberspace.
Cyber risks and threats have multiplied with many more attack
vectors, and hackers’ techniques evolving faster than ever, blending
technical prowess with sophisticated social engineering. The current
challenge with the virus pandemic is a test of nations’ and businesses’
preparedness and resiliency on all fronts.
CYFIRMA’s threat visibility and intelligence research
revealed a massive increase of over 600% of cyberthreat indicators
related to the Coronavirus pandemic from February to early March.
Threat indicators are made up of conversations observed and uncovered
in the dark web, hackers’ forums, and closed communities. What our
researchers have seen and heard in these communities do not bode well
for governments and businesses – hackers are hard at work, actively
planning how to leverage this climate of fear and uncertainty to attain
their political and financial objectives.
The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) has
sent out alerts on scams tricking people into revealing personal
information or donating to fraudulent charities, all under the pretext
of helping to contain and manage the coronavirus. The Federal Trade
Commission has also warned about similar scams.
CYFIRMA’s research team and
multiple security vendors have reported that threat actors have used
fear tactics to spread malware, including LokiBot, RemcosRAT, TrickBot,
and FormBook.
These hackers’ communities span far and wide, communicating in
Cantonese, Mandarin, Russian, English, and Korean, unleashing campaigns
one after another to wreak havoc on unsuspecting nations and
enterprises.
On Dark Web
forums, a group from Hong Kong hatched a plan to create a new phishing
campaign targeting the population from mainland China. The group aimed
to create distrust and incite social unrest by assigning blame to the
Chinese Communist Party.
A deeper analysis of hackers’ conversations also revealed groups from
Taiwan discussing similar phishing and spam campaigns, specifically
targeting influential persons in mainland China to cause further unrest.
Korean-speaking hackers were planning to make financial gains using
sophisticated phishing campaigns, loaded with sensitive data
exfiltration malware and creating a new variant of EMOTET virus (EMOTET
is a malware strain that was first detected in 2014 and is one of the
most prevalent threats in 2019). These hackers were planning to target
Japan, Australia, Singapore, and the U.S.
CYFIRMA’s researchers also observed North Korean hackers targeting
South Korean businesses. The phishing email had the Korean language
title “Coronavirus Correspondenceâ€, tricking recipients into opening
them and launching malware into machines and networks.
With COVID-19, many hacker groups were observed to be using brand
impersonation with fake emails claiming to represent authoritative
bodies such as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World
Health Organization (WHO). The subject line and content of these emails
were very enticing, offering news updates and cures to the ailment.
We also noticed coronavirus-themed emails designed to look like
emails from the organizations’ leadership team and sent to all
employees.
Embedded with malware that would infect corporate networks, these
phishing attacks deploy social engineering tactics to steal data and
assets.
Other than unleashing cyberattacks to steal data, we also witnessed
the planning of fake websites to sell face masks and other health
apparatus using bitcoin in China, Japan, and the US.
To aggravate matters, hackers were also strategizing to spread fake
news to create further confusion. By investigating the dark web
marketplace, CYFIRMA uncovered illicit groups selling organic medicine
claiming to cure and eradicate the COVID-19 virus. These discussions in
the hackers’ communities were carried out in Mandarin, Japanese and
English.
A
new malware called ‘CoronaVP’ was being discussed by a Russian hacking
community; this could lead to a new ransomware or EMOTET strain,
designed to steal personal information.
Hackers leveraging on the COVID-19 pandemic are motivated by a
combination of personal financial gain as well as political espionage to
cause social upheavals. Threat actors in the world of cybercrimes are
well-equipped with tools, technology, expertise and financing to further
both commercial and political agendas. In our hyper-connected digital
world, cyber-crime is a lucrative business, and we should expect attacks
to be more frequent and more sophisticated as the pandemic continues to
cast a shadow over the global economy.
What we have witnessed in the field of cyber-intelligence has taught
us the importance of staying vigilant, and frequently, the most
dangerous forces at work are those we cannot see.
The importance of relevant and timely threat intelligence cannot be
over-emphasized as early detection of cyber threats could save
organizations from hefty financial penalties and irreversible brand
damage.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 2:45 PM on Thursday, March 19th, 2020
SPONSOR: CardioComm Solutions (EKG: TSX-V)
– The heartbeat of cardiovascular medicine and telemedicine. Patented
systems enable medical professionals, patients, and other healthcare
professionals, clinics, hospitals and call centres to access and manage
patient information in a secure and reliable environment.
The Tech That Could Be Our Best Hope for Fighting COVID-19—and Future Outbreaks
Battling a pandemic as serious as COVID-19 requires drastic responses, and political leaders and public-health officials have turned to some of the most radical strategies available.
The key to early response lies in looking beyond centuries-old strategies and incorporating methods that are familiar to nearly every industry from banking to retail to manufacturing, but that are still slow to be adopted in public health
Smartphone apps, data analytics and artificial intelligence all make finding and treating people with an infectious disease far more efficient than ever before
What began with a lockdown of one city in China quickly expanded to the quarantine of an entire province, and now entire countries including Italy. While social isolation and curfews are among the most effective ways to break the chain of viral transmission, some health experts say it’s possible these draconian measures didn’t have to become a global phenomenon. “If health officials could have taken action earlier and contained the outbreak in Wuhan, where the first cases were reported, the global clampdown could have been at a much more local level,†says Richard Kuhn, a virologist and professor of science at -Purdue University.
The key to early response lies in looking beyond centuries-old
strategies and incorporating methods that are familiar to nearly every
industry from banking to retail to manufacturing, but that are still
slow to be adopted in public health. Smartphone apps, data analytics and
artificial intelligence all make finding and treating people with an
infectious disease far more efficient than ever before.
“The connectivity we have today gives us ammunition to fight this
pandemic in ways we never previously thought possible,†says Alain
Labrique, director of the Johns Hopkins University Global -mHealth
Initiative. And yet, to date, the global public–health response to
COVID-19 has only scratched the surface of what these new containment
tools offer. Building on them will be critical for ensuring that the
next outbreak never gets the chance to explode from epidemic to global
pandemic.
Consider how doctors currently detect new cases of COVID-19. Many
people who develop the hallmark symptoms of the -disease—fever, cough
and shortness of breath—-physically visit a primary-care doctor, a
health care provider at an urgent-care center or an emergency room. But
that’s the last thing people potentially infected with a highly
contagious disease should do. Instead, health officials are urging them
to connect remotely via an app to a doctor who can triage their symptoms
while they’re still at home.
“The reality is that clinical brick-and-mortar medicine is rife with
the possibility of virus exposure,†says Dr. Jonathan Wiesen, founder
and chief medical officer of MediOrbis, a telehealth company. “The
system we have in place is one in which everyone who is at risk is
potentially transmitting infection. That is petrifying.†Instead, people
could call a telemedicine center and describe their symptoms to a
doctor who can then determine whether they need COVID-19
-testing—without exposing anyone else.
In Singapore, more than a million people have used a popular
telehealth app called -MaNaDr, founded by family physician Dr. Siaw Tung
Yeng, for virtual visits; 20% of the physicians in the island country
offer some level of service via the app. In an effort to control
escalating cases of coronavirus there, people with symptoms are getting
prescreened by physicians on MaNaDr and advised to stay home if they
don’t need intensive care. Patients then check in with their telehealth
doctor every evening and report if their fever persists, if they have
shortness of breath or if they are feeling worse. If they are getting
sicker, the doctor orders an ambulance to take those people to the
hospital. Siaw says the virtual monitoring makes people more comfortable
about staying at home, where many cases can be treated, instead of
flooding hospitals and doctors’ offices, straining limited resources and
potentially making others sick. “This allows us to care across
distance, monitor patients across distance and assess their progression
across distance,†says Siaw. “There is no better time for remote care
monitoring of our patients than now.â€
Other at-home devices and services currently being used in the U.S.
allow patients to measure dozens of health metrics like temperature,
blood pressure and blood sugar several times a day, and the results are
automatically stored on the cloud, from which doctors get alerts if the
readings are abnormal.
Telemedicine also serves as a powerful communication tool for keeping
hundreds of thousands of people in a specific region up to date with
the latest advice about the risk in their communities and how best to
protect themselves. That can go a long way toward reassuring people and
preventing panic and runs on health centers and hospitals.
Beyond individual-level care, the data gathered by telemedicine
services can be mined to predict the broader ebb and flow of an
epidemic’s trajectory in a population. In the U.S., Kaiser Permanente’s
tele-medicine call centers are now also serving as a bellwether for an
anticipated surge in demand for health services. Dr. Stephen Parodi,
national infectious–disease leader at Kaiser Permanente, was inspired by
a Google project from a few years ago in which the company created an
algorithm of users’ flu–related search terms to determine where clusters
of cases were mounting. Parodi started tracking coronavirus–related
calls from the health system’s 4.5 -million members in Northern
California in February. “We went from 200 calls a day to 3,500 calls a
day about symptoms of COVID-19, which was an early indicator of
community–based transmission,†he says. “Our call volume was telling us
several weeks before the country would have all of its testing online
that we have got to plan for a surge in cases.â€
On the basis of the swell in calls nationwide, the hospital system is
considering suspending elective surgeries based on local circumstances,
in part to ensure that ventilators and other critical equipment would
be available for an anticipated influx of COVID-19 patients with severe
symptoms. Kaiser doctors also postponed appointments for routine
mammograms and other cancer–screening tests and cut back on in-person
appointments by turning most noncritical visits into virtual visits.
The COVID-19 pandemic may be the trial by fire that telemedicine
finally needs to prove its worth, especially in the U.S. Despite the
fact that apps and technology for virtual health visits have existed for
several decades, uptake in the country has been slow. Medicare only
recently began reimbursing for telemedicine visits at rates comparable
to in-person visits, and states have just begun to relax licensing
regulations that prevent doctors in one state from -remotely treating
patients in another state. “This -pandemic is almost like us crossing
the Rubicon,†says Wiesen of MediOrbis. “It’s a clarion call for America
and for the world on how important telemedicine is.†Parodi agrees. “I
think this pandemic will bring in a fundamental change in the way we
practice medicine and in the way the health care system functions in the
U.S.,†he says. “We’re going to come out of this and -realize a lot of
health care visits don’t have to be in person.â€
Other tech innovations that haven’t fully made their way to the
public-health sector could also play a critical role in controlling this
-pandemic—and future outbreaks. Taking a closer look at health-related
data, such as electronic health records or sales of over-the-counter
medications, can provide valuable clues about how an infectious disease
like COVID-19 is moving through a population. Retail drugstores track
inventory and sales of nonprescription fever reducers, for example, and
any trends in those data might serve as an early, albeit crude,
harbinger of growing spread of disease in a community. And given the
proliferation of health–tracking apps on smartphones, analyzing data
trends like a rise in average body temperature in a given geographical
area could provide clues to emerging clusters of cases.
Geotracking on phones, while controversial because of privacy issues,
can also streamline the tedious task of contact tracing, in which
scientists try to manually trace infected patients’ whereabouts to find
as many people with whom they had direct contact and who could have been
infected. In South Korea, this strategy helped identify many of the
contacts of members of a Seoul church that formed the first major
cluster of infections in the country. In countries with a less robust
health care infrastructure, smartphones can be critical for gathering
information about emerging infections on the ground. In Bangladesh, says
Labrique, programs created to canvass for noncommunicable diseases like
hyper-tension and diabetes are now being modified to include questions
about COVID-19 symptoms. These types of real-time data can rapidly
provide a snapshot of where and how fast the disease might be spreading,
to distribute health care workers and -equipment where they’re needed
most.
It’s all about catching these cases as early as possible, to minimize
the peak of a pandemic so the health system doesn’t get overwhelmed.
But it’s not just about seeing the trends. Flattening the surge of an
infectious disease also requires action, and that’s where the advice
gets -muddier—but also where Big Data and artificial intelligence (AI)
can provide clarity.
By deeply analyzing the care that every COVID-19 patient receives,
for example, AI can tease out the best treatment strategies. Jvion, a
health care analytics company, is using AI to study 30 million patients
in its data universe to identify people and communities at highest risk
of COVID-19 on the basis of more than 5,000 variables that include not
just medical history but also lifestyle and socioeconomic factors such
as access to stable housing and transportation. Working with clients
that include large hospital systems as well as small remote health
centers, Jvion’s platform creates lists of people who should be
contacted pro-actively to warn them about their vulnerability so health
providers can create a care plan for them.
In the case of COVID-19, that might include social distancing and
avoiding large public gatherings. To help public-health departments
better prepare communities for this and future outbreaks, the company
has communicated with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention to share what it has learned.
Privacy issues, however, nest in every single byte of data about a
person’s health. So the power of AI methods in controlling outbreaks
depends on how effectively data can be anonymized. Only when people are
assured of privacy can algorithms help to navigate the next big hurdle:
predicting surges in cases that strain health care personnel and
availability of supplies like ventilators, masks and gowns.
If COVID-19 teaches public-health officials one thing, it’s that
there are now tools available to help contain an infectious disease
before radical measures like quarantines and curfews are needed. “What
we were doing 10 years ago and what we are doing now is vastly
different,†says Wiesen. “There is a tremendous opportunity here, and
hopefully by [the next pandemic], the use of technology and data
analytics is going to be light-years ahead of where it is today.â€
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 1:57 PM on Thursday, March 19th, 2020
SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp.
aims to provide access to quality education from around the world. The
company plans to bridge the prevailing gap in the education and job
industry and enhance the lives of its prospective learners by developing
an integrated ecosystem. Click here for more information.
Focus On Survival Amid Coronavirus: Lightspeed’s Lessons From China For Indian Startup Founders
By: Bhumika Khatri
The VC’s partners from China and India suggested startups work on reducing cash burn, spending
Lightspeed China’s James Mi said the Chinese ecosystem is focussing on extending runway through cost-cutting
Mi advised founders to have at least six months of runway
The Indian startup ecosystem has joined the fight against the
coronavirus pandemic, as over 125 confirmed cases have emerged in India.
With three deaths so far, India has not yet seen the worst of the
outbreak. While many startups have advised employees to work from home,
some are also offering medical support, while helping employees take up
self-quarantine for Covid-19 and creating contingency plans — life has
truly changed in the age of the pandemic for many people, startup
founders included.
Many are saying that India is in the same place as China was almost
30-45 days back when the coronavirus had not yet been given the pandemic
status. So startups may have a few lessons to learn from their Chinese
counterparts. To make this happen Lightspeed India hosted a closed-door
founders-only online session recently to facilitate interactions between
Indian startup founders and venture capitalists in China so that each
group can learn from their experiences.
The discussions were led by James Mi, partner, Lightspeed China,
Udaan cofounder Amod Malviya with Lightspeed India partners’ Bejul
Somaia and Hemant Mohapatra. The VC fund received over 200 questions
from founders, with over 60 founders joining the session.
A founder who was part of the interaction told Inc42
that the session focused on fundraising, business environment and work
from home. From the experience of China, James Mi noted that the
strategy was first to focus on containment and as a result, hospitality
businesses saw decline while businesses like grocery delivery grew.
However, logistics was impacted negatively.
Other businesses that saw high adoption, traction and growth were
digital content, video streaming, edtech among others. Mi also said that
enterprise SaaS businesses saw some downturn due to the lack of
face-to-face meetings, which are crucial for large sales contracts.
Shoring Up The Runway
In terms of fundraising, Mi advised founders to have at least six
months of runway and first focus on optimising unit economics. However,
if they don’t have such a runway, they should aim to reduce burn by
cutting down unnecessary expenses on marketing and even reduce headcount
if need be. Founders were also advised to find alternative financing
options like bank loans.
Mi also urged startups to lock any existing offers and secure the
funding to support the runway as VC funding is expected to slow down in
the next quarter. He also suggested that businesses should go back to
decisions taken at earlier stages to reduce burn and work on unit
economics, rather than increasing market reach.
Lightspeed India’s Somaia shared a similar sentiment and said that
fears in financial markets are similar to the consumer market as the
capital gets scarce and selective. He said that even though financing
won’t stop, it would now be more selective, focussing on quality and
business fundamentals.
He noted that in such situations, reckless spending isn’t appreciated
and that startups should plan in a way where they can spend 2020
without external funding. Somaia advised that the startups can top-up
from the recent funding round as well if there is an interest. The trio
emphasised that founders should focus on survival on priority.
The three experienced VCs also noted that the conditions are benign
today but may become severe tomorrow. The impact on business from the
pandemic is expected to last at least two quarters. The responsibility
of businesses has changed from being equitable and fair employers to
taking precautions ranging from temperature checks to masks and
sanitisers.
Mi recollected that in China, even though factories were allowed to
work, they didn’t have the infrastructure like masks and other sanitary
needs set up to fulfil recommendations, which meant many workers
couldn’t come in. So founders need to provision for all manner of things
that they had not earlier.
Udaan cofounder Malviya shared the experience of work from home
saying that it needs a planned approach and should be embraced
correctly. He said that it becomes important to document decisions and
startups should have well-defined touchpoints on a daily and weekly
basis for different groups.
He said that work from home requirements are different for teams
which are in operations and are on managerial work etc. Among the
challenges with work from home for operational teams that Malviya noted
was a drop in productivity. He advised founders to rely on products like
Notion for documentation, Kettle.ai to track daily productivity and
Hangouts and Zoom for video collaboration.
Posted by AGORACOM
at 12:51 PM on Thursday, March 19th, 2020
RECENT HIGHLIGHTS
First Class CBD brand achieved sales of Cdn$2,981,000 February 2020
Marketing efforts improved gross margins by 4.9% from January 2020 to February 2020.
February 2020 represents an increase of 832% over the same period last year.
Plans to continue growth of First Class in the United States over the balance of 2020, as well as an expansion into the European market.
Formalized Joint Venture With Bevcanna Enterprises: Read More
Will share equal ownership in the Joint Venture and will be jointly responsible for developing and funding its operations
Company will provide manufacturing, marketing and distribution infrastructure in the European market.
Parties have determined an initial product launch and will provide further details on specific regions and timing once finalize
Announced Collaboration for Sativida US Expansion Read More
Unified Funding will provide assistance to Sativida with product
sourcing, packaging, shipping, payment infrastructure and marketing
Sativida has become the number one search-ranked online retailer of CBD products in Spain and Mexico
Entered into Licensing Agreement with Phenome One Read More
A privately held full-service live genetic and seed preservation cannabis company.
Mota will have full access to Canada’s largest live genetic cannabis library with over 350 cultivars
Mota will have the right to propagate, cultivate, harvest and process a minimum of 10 selected cultivars
2 World Class Brands:
#1. FIRST CLASS CBD: ONE OF THE LARGEST US BASED ONLINE RETAILERS OF CBD PRODUCTS
HIGHLIGHTS:
Leader in online CBD sales in North America
Crop to package model: US grown CBD hemp
Acquired at a 1.5 times revenue valuation
Current customer base 142,000 customers -with additional leads of over 424,000 potential new customers
2019 Sales of $19.2M USD/ EBITDA of 2.7M USD
 #2. SATIVIDA: ONLINE DIRECT TO CONSUMER RETAILER OF A VAST RANGE OF ORGANICE CBD OILS AND COSMETICS
HIGHLIGHTS:
Current distributor of CBD products in Spain, Portugal, Austria, Germany, France and the United Kingdom
Number one search-ranked online retailer in Spain and Mexico
Award winning product line known for its minimal heavy metal content and accurate CBD levels
100% organic products
About Mota Ventures Corp.
Mota Ventures is seeking to
become a vertically integrated global CBD brand. Its plan is to
cultivate and extract CBD into high-quality value added products from
its Latin American operations and distribute it both domestically and
internationally. Mota has established distribution networks through the
acquisition of First Class CBD in the United States and Sativida in
Europe. Mota Ventures is also seeking to acquire revenue producing CBD
brands and operations in both Europe and North America, with the goal of
establishing an international distribution network for CBD products.
Low cost production, coupled with international, direct to customer,
sales channels will provide the foundation for the success of Mota
Ventures.
Posted by AGORACOM
at 11:44 AM on Thursday, March 19th, 2020
Sponsor: Affinity Metals Corp. (TSX-V: AFF) is a Canadian mineral exploration company building a strong portfolio of mineral projects in North America. The Corporation’s flagship property is the drill ready Regal Property near Revelstoke, BC where Affinity Metals is making preparations for a spring drill program to test two large Z-TEM anomalies. Click Here for More Info
Bob Moriarty President: 321gold
Every time the price of gold and silver go down in a big way, the
manipulation/conspiracy crowd come creeping out of their rat holes to
start preaching about naked short selling and a disconnect between
physical metals and paper markets. As you will see, both issues tend to
reveal how little these guys understand about how markets and people
work in the real world. And an utter display of their basic ability to
think for themselves.
A little Econ 101 first.
Commodity
markets go down because of an excess of motivated sellers. Anyone who
actually knows how commodity markets work understands that for every
contract there is one buyer and one seller. That’s why it is impossible
for there to be anyone doing “naked short selling.†You can sell first
or you can buy first but you will do both eventually. If somehow someone
managed to dump trillions of dollars worth of commodity contracts
“naked†on the market, at some point they would have to buy those
contracts back.
A lot of people like to believe that commodity
prices go down because there are more sellers than buyers but since
every contract requires an equal and opposite party on the other side,
if ten contracts are sold, someone has to buy ten contracts. There is
never any other alternative. One buyer, one seller. Both margined or
having the ability to fulfill the contract either as a supplier or a
consumer.
So if the prices of gold and silver have plummeted, and
they have, why are people reporting shortages of the physical metals?
And let me remind my readers, there were people predicting this crash with great accuracy.
I’ll
give you a hint; none of the manipulation/conspiracy crowd got it
right. They never do call anything correctly but are always forgiven
because they tell people what they want to hear, just like TV preachers
and successful politicians.
To understand why there is an apparent shortage of physical metals, you have to try thinking for yourself if only this once.
Pretend
you want to go into the business of buying and selling silver bars. You
have rented a shop, hired an assistant, set up an accounting program.
On the 6th of March a customer walked in, your first. He wanted to sell
this nice shiny 100-ounce silver bar. You looked at either Kitco or the
futures market to see what you should pay, there being zero difference
between the physical and paper market at the time.
For the 6th of
March the spot silver price varied between a low of $17.08 and a high of
$17.55. Since as a businessman you have to make money you pay him $1700
for the bar. He’s thrilled; you’re thrilled with your first purchase.
Time
passes and since you are new to the game you don’t do any business.
After all it takes time to build a customer base. But the bell rings and
another potential customer walks in. Lucky for you, he wants to buy a
100-ounce silver bar, shiny if possible, and you just happen to have one
in stock.
The two of you go to Kitco or look at the spot price of
silver on the futures market and it shows $12.27. What do you do? Do
you sell it for $12.27 and a small premium or do you tell him you are
out of stock? At this point, the price of physical and paper is the
same.
Or alternatively do you point out that the “Experts”
are saying customers are willing to pay a 50% premium. So you tell him
that the price is $1800 for the bar. If you quote him $1800, just how
likely do you think it is that he will bite?
If you charge him
$12.27 an ounce, you go out of business. If he is willing to pay a 50%
premium, give him my contact details because I have all the silver in
the world at a 50% premium.
The price of silver went down because
the sellers were more interested in dumping than buyers were in scarping
it up. There is no shortage of silver and there is no disconnect
between the price of physical and paper. If you really believe dealers
are short of silver, take in a 100-ounce bar and see just how much the
physical price varies from the paper price.
I can tell you. It’s
zero. If you own gold or silver you paid for it with paper and if you
sell gold or silver you are going to be paid based on the paper price.
Supply and demand really does work. If the price of silver bars stays low, all the people who rushed to buy at the top will be just thrilled to sell at the bottom. They always do.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 11:11 AM on Thursday, March 19th, 2020
Announced the reinstatement of BTRU to trading effective as of March 23rd , 2020
Company is providing an update on the business and notice of the Annual General Meeting of shareholders
OTTAWA, March 19, 2020 – betterU Education Corp. (TSX VENTURE: BTRU, Frankfurt: 5OGA) (the “Company” or “betterU”) has been working with the TSX Venture Exchange to file all necessary outstanding filings and is now pleased to announce the reinstatement of BTRU to trading effective as of March 23rd , 2020. The Company is providing an update on the business and notice of the Annual General Meeting of shareholders.
Message from the CEO –
“Our company has gone through a lot of turmoil over the last
year, and I want to thank all of you – our shareholders and extended
stakeholders – for weathering this storm with us. The good news is that
we are emerging stronger – more operationally and commercially focused –
than ever. While the company’s trading was suspended over the last
six-months we redoubled our efforts to build value for the Company and
our shareholders.
I am pleased to announce the official launch of our enterprise
B2B SaaS platform for skills development called ‘Ready-To-Goâ€, which is
the first mobile platform on the market to bring together everything an
employer needs to continually assess and skill any employee from entry
level to executive in an integrated manner. Ready-To-Go is proving
valuable to corporate customers globally, and we will be announcing
contracts with companies in Canada, US, India and beyond in the coming
months. Ready-To-Go completely aligns with our founding vision to
provide best in class education-to-employment solutions for individuals
and companies globally. What is different from the past was the
realization while in stealth mode over the last few months, that we are
not in the business of selling courses, we are in the business of
building better people (hence our brand ‘betterU’). As such we have
shifted our business model away from a pay-per-course (transactional)
model to a pay-per-employee (software-as-a-service) model – whereby
employers pay monthly subscriptions per employee for continual skills
improvement and tracking.
This simple shift in framing – which is both on brand and on
mission – is resonating strongly with public sector partners, private
enterprise customers, and with individuals as end-user beneficiaries.
While our focus has become more global in nature, we continue to
maintain dedicated staff and skilling platforms for India, which
inspired all of our hard work up to this point. There is still a lot of
hard work ahead of us, but we now have a solid foundation to become a
more sustainable company.†Brad Loiselle, President and CEO betterU.
Business Update – The following are additional updates on the business:
Cancelled Shares for Debt – As
previously reported on July 26th, 2019 and November 29, 2019 as part of
ongoing efforts to reduce the Company’s debt and operational liabilities
that its board of directors had approved the settlement of $125,000 of
debt through the issuance of common shares of the Company (the “Debt
Settlement”). The Company had since decided not to move forward with the
Debt Settlement due to the downward pressure of the stock price and the
level of dilution it would have created. The Company continues to look
at debt reduction options.
Board approved restructuring plan – On December 2, 2019
betterU’s board of directors approved a plan to restructure the
Company’s existing debts and liabilities in efforts to deleverage its
balance sheet. The restructuring would take place over the course of
2020 i n connection with a planned subordinated secured convertible
debenture offering and subsequent private equity placement to fund a
global rollout of the Company’s Enterprise SaaS skilling platform and
also convert or otherwise pay down the Company’s currently existing
liabilities to a sustainable level.
betterU Enterprise SaaS Platform ‘Ready-To-Go’ – is
fully operational and has been showcased to multiple corporate clients
in Canada, USA, UK and India. The Company has begun contracting with
several enterprise users, which will be announced in the week to come.
betterU has built over the last several months a database from
interested parties of 400+ Directors of Learning and Development, VPs
and HR heads from companies around the world. To support such growing
demand the Company would first have to raise additional capital through
its planned subordinated secured debenture offering. For more details
about betterU’s recently launched Enterprise SaaS ‘Ready-To-Go’
platform, please visit https://readytogo.betteru.ca/
Partnerships – Adding to our existing content
partnerships encompassing tens of thousands of courses from 100+ of the
world’s leading online education and training providers, betterU has
been expanding its offering of assessment tools required to support
employers in determining their employee skill gaps. We are pleased to
announce the Company has entered a partnership with Cyprus firm Byrq to
support betterU’s Enterprise SaaS Platform for pre-hiring candidates.
With a proven I/O psychology framework that is scientifically validated
and EEOC compliant, betterU will now be able to measure cognitive skills
including numerical, verbal, problem solving and attention to detail as
well as 16 personality traits. betterU is also pleased to announce they
have entered a partnership with USA based firm eSkill, providing
betterU with access to 600+ assessments across job roles, subject base
and modular. This partnership enables betterU to support entire
departments and job roles across organizations in determining the skills
required per employee and mapping them to their skills on betterU’s
Enterprise SaaS Platform Ready-To-Go.
Corporate Portal – betterU has developed and launched a corporate website https://corporate.betteru.ca/,
that provides access to more details about betterU’s history,
leadership, 2020 focus, Investor Relations and more information on the
Company’s ongoing activities. betterU’s corporate website will support
more visibility, transparency and access to current and relevant details
about how the business is moving forward. Please visit the site
regularly so that you are kept current.
Stock Option Grants – The following stock options were
issued to an insider on December 13th 2017, Positive Venture Group for
125,000 at an exercise price of $0.335 for a 5 year term, with 1/3rd
allowed to exercise on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd anniversary date.
AGORA Internet Relations Corp. – The Company has issued
the following number of shares in connection with settlement of $56,500
owed to Agoracom for marketing services according to the terms of the
agreement disclosed on April 12, 2017.
Marketing Services
Price per Share
Number of Shares
15-Mar-17
$11,300
0.45
25,111
15-Jun-17
$11,300
0.57
19,824
15-Sep-17
$11,300
0.38
29,736
15-Dec-17
$11,300
0.38
29,736
15-Mar-18
$11,300
0.79
14,303
Total
$56,500
118,710
Annual General Meeting (“AGMâ€) Notice – Take notice that the annual general meeting (the “Meetingâ€)
of shareholders of betterU Education Corporation (the “Corporationâ€)
will be held at 1 Hunt Club Rd, Ottawa, ON K1V 1B9 on Thursday May 28th,
2020 at 11:00 a.m. (Ottawa time) for the following purposes:
To receive the financial statements of the Corporation for its
fiscal year ended March 31st 2019 and the report of the auditor thereon;
To elect directors of the Corporation for the ensuing year;
To appoint an auditor of the Corporation for the ensuing year;
To consider and if thought fit to pass, with or without variation,
an ordinary resolution to approve the Corporation’s Stock Option Plan
allowing the granting of up to 10% of the Corporation’s issued and
outstanding common shares at any time; and
To transact such other business as may properly come before the Meeting or any adjournment thereof.
The Corporation has elected to use the notice-and-access
(“Notice-and-Accessâ€) provisions under National Instrument 54-101
Communications with Beneficial Owners of Securities of a Reporting
Issuer and National Instrument 51-102 Continuous Disclosure Obligations
to distribute Meeting materials to shareholders. Notice-and-Access is a
new set of rules that allow issuers to post electronic versions of
proxy-related materials on SEDAR and on one additional website, rather
than mailing paper copies to shareholders. Shareholders have the right
to request hard copies of any proxy-related materials posted online by
the Corporation under Notice-and-Access.
Meeting materials, including the Circular, will be available under the Corporation’s profile at www.sedar.com and also at https://corporate.betteru.ca/
by April 29th 2020. The Corporation will provide to any shareholder,
upon request to the Corporation’s transfer agent, a paper copy of the
Circular and any financial statements or management discussion and
analysis of the Corporation filed with the applicable securities
regulatory authorities during the past year. In order to allow
reasonable time for you to receive and review a paper copy of the
Circular or other document prior to the proxy deadline, you should make
your request for a paper copy by April 13th 2020.
A shareholder who is unable to attend the Meeting in person and who
wishes to ensure that such shareholder’s shares will be voted at the
Meeting is requested to complete, date and sign the form of proxy for
the Meeting, or voting information form (“VIFâ€), and deliver the form of
proxy, or VIF, in accordance with its instructions.
About betterU Education Corp.
betterU is an education-to-employment technology company offering an
end-to-end solution leveraging business intelligence to automate
skilling, reskilling and upskilling for companies operating on domestic
and global scales.
betterU has integrated into its platform the content, technology and
support for tailored skills assessments, learning pathways and training
modules from 100+ of the world’s leading online education providers.
betterU’s eco-system includes detailed job, skill, employer, and
educational profiles spanning 3,000+ standardized jobs. betterU’s
integrated platform is the most efficient solution to address evolving
skilling challenges for employers and employees through the employment
lifecycle from entry level to executive. We don’t sell content, we help
build better people.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Posted by AGORACOM
at 10:37 AM on Thursday, March 19th, 2020
SPONSOR: Lomiko Metals is focused on the exploration and development
of minerals for the new green economy such as lithium and
graphite. Lomiko owns 80% of the high-grade La Loutre graphite
Property, Lac Des Iles Graphite Property and the 100% owned Quatre
Milles Graphite Property. Lomiko is uniquely poised to supply the
growing EV battery market. Click Here For More Information
Fermata’s bidirectional charger (pictured) has been the first to attain UL 9741 certification. Image: Fermata Energy.
An electric vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging system which allows for
bi-directional flows of power created by US maker Fermata Energy, has
become the first to receive certification under a new standard
introduced by UL.
UL 9741, ‘Investigation for bidirectional electric vehicle charging
system equipment’, was first published on 18 March 2014. Almost six
years to the day later Fermata – which has previously partnered with
automakers including Nissan and received investment from backers such as
Japanese utility company TEPCO – became certified under the North
American safety standard.
Vehicle-to-grid, allowing parked cars to discharge as well as charge
energy to and from the grid from their batteries means they can be used
as a grid-balancing resource. Fermata Energy’s website states that the
company was founded for two purposes: to accelerate the adoption of EVs
and to accelerate the transition to renewable energy. By acting as
stationary energy storage systems (ESS), EVs can provide services such
as frequency regulation.
Thus far, while V2G technology has existed at least since the early
2000s, and been trialled on a commercial basis in the last five years or
so, various barriers exist to widespread adoption. Last year, a
research note from consultancy Apricum pointed some of these out,
including potential reluctance of owners to allow aggregators access to
their batteries, which may have an impact on battery lifetime through
causing accelerated degradation of battery cells. Another possible
barrier is that trials have only shown very limited commercial revenues
being possible for using EV batteries for frequency regulation under
most existing market structures.
From the carmakers’ point of view, only a few have given serious
thought to enabling the function due to possible impact on warranties,
with Nissan being the first to allow its Leaf EV to be used in this way.
Earlier this month, Energy-Storage.news reported on a successful V2G ‘showcase’ project where Leaf EV batteries were used for storing locally generated renewable energy.
Despite the barriers that exist, V2G technology is likely to have a
“bright future,†Apricum experts Florian Mayr and Stephanie Adam, who
co-authored that earlier mentioned piece on the consultancy’s website,
said. While acknowledging a survey held in Germany by digital
association Bitkom that found only 37% of EV owners would be willing to
allow their cars to be used for V2G participation, if one large electric
mobility market such as China went for it, others might follow quickly.
“With increasing demand for the required components, standardization
will improve and economies of scale will kick in. Due to falling costs
for hardware, the economic case for a car owner participating in V2G
will improve, increasingly outweighing potential disadvantages of a
reduced battery lifetime or limitations in car availability,†the Apricum note said.
Meanwhile, Fermata Energy CEO and founder David Slutzky said that
bidirectional energy solutions “play an important role in reducing
energy costs, improving grid resilience and combating climate change.
We’re excited to be the first company to receive UL 9741 certification
and look forward to partnering with other organisations to advance V2G
applications.â€
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 7:24 AM on Thursday, March 19th, 2020
Empower Clinics adapts operational processes to manage continued record patient counts during COVID-19 outbreak
Patient visits in corporate clinics continue at record pace, with patients demonstrating an even greater need for plant-based medicine, as the impact of COVID-19 becomes more pervasive
State’s of Arizona and Oregon have declared a State of Emergency over the novel coronavirus outbreak therefore, as a medical service provider, Empowers corporate medical clinics are considered an essential service and are not subject to certain mandated closures
VANCOUVER, BC / March 18, 2020 / EMPOWER CLINICS INC. (CSE: CBDT) (OTC: EPWCF) (Frankfurt 8EC) (“Empower” or the “Company“), a vertically integrated and growth-oriented life sciences company, announces that patient visits in corporate clinics continue at record pace, with patients demonstrating an even greater need for plant-based medicine, as the impact of COVID-19 becomes more pervasive.
“The coronavirus crisis is impacting all aspects of our lives, but
our clinics remain incredibly busy, as patients show how important their
medical cannabis treatment options are to manage increased levels of
anxiety, stress, chronic pain and PTSD” said Steven McAuley, Chairman
& CEO of Empower. “We had to quickly adapt clinic operating
procedures to ensure optimum safety for employees and patients, updated
cleaning and sanitation protocols, and provided extensive new
communications to our team and patients.”
The State’s of Arizona and Oregon have declared a State of Emergency
over the novel coronavirus outbreak therefore, as a medical service
provider, Empowers corporate medical clinics are considered an essential
service and are not subject to certain mandated closures.
The Company has made changes to clinic operations and patient
management based on the most recent recommendations from the (CDC)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and their guidance for
healthcare facilities.
Empower is a vertically-integrated health & wellness brand with
it’s first hemp-derived CBD extraction facility under development, the
Company produces its proprietary line of cannabidiol (CBD) based
products and distributes products through company owned and franchised
clinics, with wholesale partnerships, online channels and with new
retail opportunities nationwide in the U.S. The company is a leading
multi-state operator of a network of physician-staffed wellness clinics,
focused on helping patients improve and protect their health, through
innovative physician recommended treatment options. The company has
commenced activity on how to connect its significant data, to the
potential of the efficacy of alternative treatment options related to
hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD) therapies.
For French inquiries: Remy Scalabrini, Maricom Inc., E: [email protected], T: (888) 585-MARI
DISCLAIMER FOR FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This news release contains certain “forward-looking statements”
or “forward-looking information” (collectively “forward looking
statements”) within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws.
All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are
forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and
projections as at the date of this news release.Forward-looking statements
can frequently be identified by words such as “plans”, “continues”,
“expects”, “projects”, “intends”, “believes”, “anticipates”,
“estimates”, “may”, “will”, “potential”, “proposed” and other similar
words, or information that certain events or conditions “may” or “will”
occur. Forward-looking statements in this news release include
statements regarding; the Company’s intention to open a hemp-based CBD
extraction facility, the expected benefits to the Company and its
shareholders as a result of the proposed acquisitions and partnerships;
the effectiveness of the extraction technology; the expected benefits
for Empower’s patient base and customers; the benefits of CBD based
products; the effect of the approval of the Farm Bill; the growth of the
Company’s patient list and that the Company will be positioned to be a
market-leading service provider for complex patient requirements in 2019
and beyond. Such statements are only projections, are based on
assumptions known to management at this time, and are subject to risks
and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or
developments to differ materially from those contained in the
forward-looking statements, including; that the Company may not open a
hemp-based CBD extraction facility; that legislative changes may have an
adverse effect on the Company’s business and product development; that
the Company may not be able to obtain adequate financing to pursue its
business plan; general business, economic, competitive, political and
social uncertainties; failure to obtain any necessary approvals in
connection with the proposed acquisitions and partnerships; and other
factors beyond the Company’s control. No assurance can be given that any
of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will occur
or, if they do occur, what benefits the Company will obtain from them.
Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking
statements in this release, which are qualified in their entirety by
these cautionary statements. The Company is under no obligation, and
expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any
forward-looking statements in this release, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by
applicable laws.
Tags: CSE, Hemp, Marijuana, small cap Posted in Empower Clinics Inc., Featured | Comments Off on Empower Clinics $CBDT.ca Daily Patient Count Continues at Record Pace with Medical Cannabis Certifications Deemed an Essential Service $WEED.ca $CGC $ACB $APH $CRON.ca $HEXO.ca $OGI.ca
