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An early Shazam investor thinks the Apple deal is 'fantastic' — but that Shazam was 7 years too early (AAPL)

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  • Apple confirmed it's buying British music recognition startup Shazam, with sources pegging the deal at $400 million.
  • Shazam raised $140 million from investors, was once valued as a unicorn at $1 billion, and had at least 100 million monthly active users.
  • An early investor in the UK, Simon Murdoch, told Business Insider that the deal made sense for Shazam because Apple could reach a much larger audience.
  • Murdoch said Shazam had "fantastic" technology which was seven years too early.


British venture capitalist and angel investor Simon Murdoch was one of the first backers of Shazam, the British music recognition startup being acquired by Apple for a reported $400 million (£300 million).

Murdoch made an angel investment in Shazam in 2001 and, according to a recent filing, holds some 41 million shares, the bulk of which are preferred shares. This makes him one of the firm's biggest individual shareholders and high up in the pecking order when it comes to a post-acquisition payout.

"I've got enough shares to mean it's a nice outcome," Murdoch confirmed to Business Insider.

Apple and Shazam have confirmed the deal, and a source close to the matter confirmed the price tag to Business Insider late on Monday.

"It's brilliant tech and it's a very good deal for Apple and Shazam," said Murdoch. "Apple has got the distribution."

Shazam didn't become a big hit until the iPhone arrived 7 years after launch

Shazam was founded in 1999 but didn't take off until the release of the iPhone seven years later, when users could use the app to hold up their phones and recognise any song.

The company netted more than 100 million monthly active users and turned to advertising and brand partnerships to make money. But Apple has still acquired a loss-making firm: in the 12 months to December 2016, Shazam posted a £3.7 million ($5 million) loss. That's a slight improve on the £16.7 million ($22 million) loss the prior year, but rather belies the firm's one-time unicorn valuation of $1 billion.

Murdoch, despite believing in Shazam's tech, said the firm was too early because its tech arrived before the iPhone did. He also said unicorn valuations were "a vanity metric."

"One thought around investing is that it's best to find a business where the timing is right," he said. "Shazam is an interesting one in that it was too early when it started, and now the timing is a bit too late."

Shazam's acquisition by a major US tech firm fits into a wider pattern. DeepMind, Magic Pony, TweetDeck, and SwiftKey are were all British startups snapped up by foreign buyers, chipping away at European hopes of producing its own rival to Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon.

The trouble with Shazam, Murdoch said, was that it couldn't "own" its market.

"Take Spotify — it owns that space where it can help you find any music and manage all your music," he said. "Shazam is a bit of a points solution and didn't own a big enough space. It was more sensible to be an acquisition target.

"It's great technology, but at the end of the day, great technology doesn't mean a business that can earn hundreds of millions in revenue."

For those who are disappointed with the outcome, Murdoch said: "People should celebrate this as a success. It's awesome tech and Apple is a great place for it to go."

Apple could use Shazam to expand into the home

Apple hasn't said what it's likely to do with Shazam, other than embed it into Apple Music. One source said it was possible Apple could use Shazam, which has multiple TV partnerships, to expand its reach into the home. The source drew comparisons with Amazon's digital assistant Alexa, which comes installed in Amazon's Echo smart speakers and is present in millions of homes.

The deal is yet to be formalised and it isn't immediately clear who will benefit, and who will lose out from the acquisition.

Shazam raised about $140 million (£105 million) in total from investors, and if the $400 million price tag is correct, the firm's preferred shareholders should theoretically get their money back.

Whether ordinary shareholders — like employees who hold stock — get a payout depends on whether there's enough money left over.

It's likely the major beneficiaries will be Shazam's biggest shareholders which include: the Townshend Lamarre family trust; Acacia Capital Partners; DN Capital; KPCB Holdings; and Institutional Ventures Partners, among others. Through various family trusts, several of Shazam's founders also hold preferred stock.

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THE VOICE ASSISTANT LANDSCAPE REPORT: How artificially intelligent voice assistants are changing the relationship between consumers and computers

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This is a preview of a research report from BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about BI Intelligence, click here.

Advancements in a bevy of industries are helping intelligent digital voice assistants like Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa become more sophisticated and useful pieces of technology. 

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are allowing them to accurately understand more information, while upgrades to mobile networks are facilitating quick transfers of data to robust clouds, enabling fast response times. In addition, the swell of internet connected devices like smart thermostats and speakers is giving voice assistants more utility in a connected consumer's life. 

Increasingly sophisticated voice assistants and the growing potential use cases they can assist in are driving consumers to adopt them in greater droves — 65% of US smartphone owners were employing voice assistants in 2015, up significantly from 30% just two years prior. Consumers are also eagerly adopting speaker-based voice assistants, with shipments of Google Home and Amazon Echo speakers expected to climb more than threefold to 24.5 million in 2017, according to a report from VoiceLabs.

However, there are still numerous barriers that need to be overcome before this product platform will see mass adoption, as both technological challenges and societal hurdles persist. 

In a new report, BI Intelligence explains what's driving the recent upsurge in adoption of digital voice assistants. It explores the recent technology advancements that have catalyzed this growth, while presenting the technological shortcomings preventing voice assistants from hitting their true potential. This report also examines the voice assistant landscape, and discusses the leading voice assistants and the devices through which consumers interact with them. Finally, it identifies the major barriers to mass adoption, and the impact voice assistants could have in numerous industries once they cross that threshold. 

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

  • Voice assistants are software programs that respond to voice commands in order to perform a range of tasks. They can find an opening in a consumer’s calendar to schedule an appointment, place an online order for tangible goods, and act as a hands-free facilitator for texting, among many, many other tasks.
  • Technological advances are making voice assistants more capable. These improvements fall into two categories: improvements in AI, specifically natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning; and gains in computing and telecommunications infrastructure, like more powerful smartphones, better cellular networks, and faster cloud computing.
  • Changes in consumer behavior and habits are also leading to greater adoption. Chief among these are increased overall awareness and a higher level of comfort demonstrated by younger consumers.
  • The voice assistant landscape is divided between smartphone- and speaker-based assistants. These distinctions, while important now, will lose relevance in the long run as more assistants can be used on both kinds of devices. The primary players in the space are Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana, Google Assistant, Amazon's Alexa, and Samsung's Viv. 
  • Stakes in the competition for dominance in the voice assistant market are high. As each assistant becomes more interconnected with an ecosystem of devices that it can control, more popular platforms will have a sizable advantage. 

In full, the report:

  • Identifies the major changes in technology and user behavior that have created the voice assistant market that exists today. 
  • Presents the major players in today's market and discusses their major weaknesses and strengths. 
  • Explores the impact this nascent market poses to other key digital industries. 
  • Identifies the major hurdles that need to be overcome before intelligent voice assistants will see mass adoption. 

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

  1. Subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. »Learn More Now
  2. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. » Purchase & Download Now

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A $200 billion quant fund says one of the biggest market concerns over GOP tax reform is completely overblown

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  • AQR Capital Management, a quantitative-focused hedge fund overseeing $208 billion, seeks to dispell the four biggest myths associated with corporate share repurchases.
  • The firm argues that companies using cash to repurchase stock isn't negative for economic growth, as has been suggested in recent weeks.
  • One of the arguments against the GOP plan has been that companies will use excess capital to simply buy back their own shares.


To hear detractors of the GOP tax bill tell it, the plan as currently proposed won't actually boost economic activity. These skeptics think corporations will simply use the excess capital to buy back their own shares.

And that's not too far-fetched of an idea. After all, buybacks have swelled during the 8 1/2-year equity bull market, and stock gains have followed in spades.

The conventional explanation for the strength has been as follows: companies artificially boost their per-share prices by reducing the number of units outstanding, while simultaneously signaling to the market that their shares are attractively priced.

But AQR Capital Management, the quantitative hedge fund that manages $208 billion, doesn't buy it. The firm thinks that buybacks are completely misunderstood — and don't directly drive much share appreciation at all.

AQR has even gone as far as to compile what it sees as the four main myths of share repurchases, which the firm published in a recent research paper entitled "The Premature Demonization of Stock Repurchases." And while the study doesn't specifically reference the GOP tax reform, it does refute worries specifically related to it.

"A common critique is that each dollar used to buy back a share is a dollar that is not spent on business activities that would stimulate economic growth," a team led by AQR managing and founding principal Cliff Asness wrote in the study. "Oh, if only it were that simple."

Here are the four myths:

Myth #1: Companies are self-liquidating using share repurchases at a historically high rate

AQR admits that the total dollar amount spent on buybacks is higher than in the past, but says this "muddles changes in the scale of the economy and changes in the typical balance sheet of firms throughout time."

The firm points out that the total money spent on buybacks, relative to aggregate market cap, is not at a record. In fact, the measure is far below where it was during the last financial crisis. AQR also notes that, when properly normalized, there hasn't even been an upward trend in buybacks over the past five years.

Screen Shot 2017 12 11 at 4.24.19 PM

Myth #2: Share repurchases have come at the expense of profitable investment

AQR says this assertion is "not consistent with either finance theory or an empirical examination of the sources and uses of capital among US corporates."

The firm stresses that there's no apparent negative relationship between normalized investment and stock buyback activity. It also highlights that the two readings have actually been positively correlated lately, with both rising since the financial crisis.

Screen Shot 2017 12 11 at 4.28.25 PM

Myth #3: The recent increase in stock prices is the result of share repurchases

In order to disprove this one, AQR computed a rough estimate of cumulative index level returns using stock buybacks as the only input. The firm found that if every member of the gauge bought back shares in a given year at historically normal sizes, it would account for 1-2% of index-level price appreciation. That's a far cry from the gain of more than 15% for the Russell 3000 index.

Perhaps an important nuance to this point is that, while buybacks can't possibly be fully responsible for the large gains seen in the stock market, they are accretive to a degree.

Myth #4: Companies that repurchase shares do so only to increase EPS and thereby ‘price’

For this one, AQR points out that while buybacks reduce share count, the depletion of cash to buy back those shares is negative for earnings. "Only if the cash that is used for share repurchases is truly idle (sitting in the chairman's desk drawer) would we agree that share repurchases increase EPS," Asness wrote.



Going off AQR's logic, investors shouldn't be worried about the tax plan's massive windfall being misused. Assuming companies realize that buybacks aren't directly responsible for share gains, they'll theoretically be more likely to spend money on capital expenditures and corporate reinvestment — the activities most closely tied to economic growth.

And based on recent equity market performance, companies should already be favoring reinvestment to share repurchases anyway.

Since the beginning of 2016 and through October, a Goldman Sachs-curated basket of stocks spending the most on capex and research and development has beaten a similarly constructed index of companies offering high dividends and buybacks by a whopping 21 percentage points. That outperformance totaled 11 percentage points in 2017 alone, according to the firm's data.

Goldman's data-backed argument that companies should be reinvesting, combined with AQR's myth-busting around the use of buybacks, should be give corporations all the information they need to use tax reform proceeds in a way that will help the overall economy.

But will they? That's another discussion entirely.

SEE ALSO: Why BlackRock's $1.7 trillion bond chief gets up at 3:30 a.m.

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San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee dead at 65

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San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee died just after 1 a.m. local time at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, the San Francisco Examiner reports.

“It is with profound sadness and terrible grief that we confirm that Mayor Edwin M. Lee passed away on Tuesday, December 12 at 1:11 a.m. at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Family, friends and colleagues were at his side,” his office said in a statement, according to the Examiner.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Anita, his two daughters, Brianna and Tania, and his family."

Lee will be succeeded by San Francisco Board of Supervisors President London Breed. Lee was originally appointed by the board as mayor in 2011, and won reelection in 2015.

As of Tuesday morning Lee's cause of death remains unclear.

As recently as last week, Lee joined his "Fix-It Team" cleaning up the streets of the city and addressing quality of life issues

Lee presided over San Francisco during pivotal years when Silicone Valley giants took off and revolutionized industry while causing home prices in his city to skyrocket.

But Lee's run as mayor ran into international controversy recently, when he accepted a statue from South Korea commemorating the "comfort women" who the Japanese military used as sex slaves during World War II.

As a result, Osaka ended its "sister city" relationship with San Francisco.

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8 common things you should never do when you're trying to get a good sleep, according to an expert — and what to do instead

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  • Sleep is something we are too willing to compromise on.
  • Poor sleep can be bad for our physical health and our minds.
  • Sometimes the things we try to do to get a better night's sleep aren't actually helping us.
  • Here are some of the mistakes we are making and how to rectify them.


Poor sleep makes us miserable. Not only that, but research has shown that if we don't get enough sleep, it can be bad for our mental health, result in poor performance and concentration, and in the long term can increase our risk of diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's.

But no matter how many times we are told about the risks of not sleeping enough, it's still something too many of us compromise on.

New research from Debut — a student careers app— looked at the sleeping habits of 1,331 UK-based 18 to 25-year-old university students. It found that 74% of them admitted to often forfeiting sleep to make time for study, completing assignments, or revising for exams.

The study found that some of the tricks the students used to try and get a better night's sleep were actually not helping them that much — and while exams and late-night studying stop for most people after university, some of these habits apply to all of us.

Sleep scientist Stephanie Romiszewski, Channel 4’s resident sleep expert and the owner of the Sleepyhead Clinic, looked at what the students were doing, and made some recommendations on how they could improve their sleep patterns.

Here are some of the mistakes you might be making, and how to rectify them.

1. Turning phones and screens to 'night mode.'

57% of the students said they use the "night shift" mode on their phones to reduce light intake.

Romiszewski said that all light, no matter how dim, reduces the amount of melatonin — the hormone that prepares our body for sleep — we produce. By looking at your phone at night, you are effectively fighting off your "wind-down" process, and keeping yourself awake. The same goes for television and laptop screens.

2. Falling asleep to music.

40% of students said they listen to classical or relaxing music.

Listening to music is fine as long as what you are listening to is relaxing and doesn't increase your heart rate, according to Romiszewski. But make sure you set a timer to turn the music off, otherwise you won't enter the phase of deep sleep you need to wake up refreshed.

3. Exercising before bed.

34% of those surveyed said they exercise before bed.

Exercise is a great way to tire ourselves out, but if you work out just before bed, you'll make it more difficult for your body to relax afterwards, Romiszewski said. It's best to exercise during the day, or at least a few hours before you plan on going to sleep.

4. Writing things down to clear your head.

29% of the students said they write things down to clear their heads before hitting the hay.

It's a good idea to write things down, but you should ensure you do it at least an hour before you go to bed so you can deal with any thoughts that pop up. Otherwise, you'll probably still be thinking about what you wrote when you're lying down. If you write a to-do list, Romiszewski said you should make sure it's full of achievable things.

5. Using relaxation and sleep-tracking apps before bed.

23% of students surveyed use mobile relaxation apps like Headspace, or sleep-tracking apps.

These sorts of apps are helpful, but they're not that great if you only use them at night, according to Romiszewski. To really get the benefits of meditation, you should try using them more frequently during the day. It's not a short-term fix, so you need to see using these kinds of apps as a long-term lifestyle change.

Also, apps that track your sleep probably are more trouble than they're worth. They can make you more anxious if you see that you're not getting the sleep you want.

6. "Getting ready" for bed right before you want to sleep.

Getting ready for bed can be counter-productive.

Romiszewski said putting on pyjamas, changing the sheets, and brushing your teeth can all be unhelpful when you're trying to wind down. You should get ready for bed at least an hour before you want to sleep, so you make time to relax afterwards.

7. Focusing on number of hours instead of quality of sleep.

Quality is better than quantity, and it's not all about sleep duration. In fact, Romiszewski said it's better to wait until you feel tired to go to bed, rather than worrying about what time it is. Short, unbroken sleep is more beneficial to you than more time in bed not sleeping.

8. Napping during the day.

41% of students admitted to falling asleep in lectures.

Napping during the day is a pretty bad idea. It steals away the tiredness you'll feel later on, so your body will have to build it up again before you can sleep.

To get into a healthy sleep pattern, get up at the same time every day, no matter how tired you are, according to Romiszewski. This will be hard at first if you've slept badly, but you'll be setting yourself up well for the next evening. Before too long, you'll be in a good sleep cycle, and probably find you're laying awake staring at the ceiling a lot less.

SEE ALSO: Poor sleep can ramp up our insecurities — here's how treating insomnia can help with mental health

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10 things you need to know before the opening bell (SPY, SPX, QQQ, DIA)

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Here is what you need to know. 

Small-business optimism soars. NFIB Small Business Optimism soared to 107.5 in November, hitting its highest level since 1983, according to Bloomberg. 

UK inflation hits an almost 6-year highConsumer prices rose 3.1% in November, making for the fastest pace since March 2012, Office for National Statistics data showed.

Saudi Arabia is reportedly planning to hike petrol prices by 80%Saudi Arabia plans to raise gas and jet fuel prices by 80% in January, a person with knowledge of the plans told Bloomberg, as it looks to bolster state finances and remove subsidies.

Brent crude zooms higher after a major Eurpoean pipeline is shutThe international benchmark trades up 1.34% at $65.62 a barrel after Britain's Forties pipeline, which is important because the oil it carries normally sets the price of dated Brent, was shut due to cracks, Reuters says. 

The head of the SEC weighs in on cryptocurrency maniaSEC Chairman Jay Clayton on Monday acknowledged the revolutionary potential of cryptocurrencies and blockchain, but warned investors about exchange-traded funds holding cryptocurrencies and unregulated initial coin offerings. 

Westfield agrees to sell itselfThe mall owner has agreed to sell itself to France’s Unibail-Rodamco for $15.7 billion, in what would be the biggest takeover of an Australian company on record, Reuters says.

Stock markets around the world trade mixedHong Kong's Hang Seng (-0.59%) lagged in Asia and Britain's FTSE (+0.22%) is out front in Europe. The S&P 500 is on track to open little changed near 2,662.

Earnings reporting remains lightMongoDB and Verifone report after markets close.

US economic trickles outPPI will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is down 1 basis point at 2.39%.

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This 3-year-old Instagram star has a £2,800 cubby house complete with a grand piano, flat screen TV, and crystal chandelier — take a look inside

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  • Designer toddler Millie-Belle Diamond's Instagram account has nearly 160,000 followers.
  • She apparently gets sent free designer gear by brands and is paid up to AUD $250 (£140, $190) a post to share photos of her wearing it.
  • Her latest toy is a souped up AUD $5,000 (£2,800, $3,800) cubby house, "Palace MBD," complete with a 50-inch flat screen TV, baby grand piano, and crystal chandelier.


Three-year-old Millie-Belle Diamond from Noosa, Queensland, is no ordinary toddler — that's if her Instagram is anything to go by.

Her account, managed by mum Schye Fox, has nearly 160,000 followers, making one of the world's youngest Instagram sensations.

Designer labels send her free clothes, handbags, and shoes, her mother told Femail, then will pay her up to AUD $250 (£140, $190) a post to share photos of herself wearing the products.

The latest addition to her luxurious life is a brand new custom-built "cubby house" which has cost AUD $5,000 (£2,800, $3,800) for her father to build, and comes complete with a 50-inch flat screen TV — with Netflix installed naturally — a baby grand piano, crystal chandelier, and a rose garden and day bed out front.

"It truly is the cubby of every child's dreams — Millie-Belle is so lucky but she also knows how lucky she is," Fox told Femail. "It is a palace fit for a queen and she absolutely loves it."

Click the arrows below to see inside the souped-up cubby house, which they have named "Palace MBD."

To have her life 😂🤷🏼‍♀️ . . I promised more inside pics and a decor tag list so here goes .. EACH PHOTO IS TAGGED - scroll through and see other post for more pics .. . . Gucci @melijoe.paris Bell - we sprayed it silver and it’s from @Bunnings Vanity @potterybarnkidsaus Bow chair @dreamykidz Doll @neapolitanhomewares Dolls bed @little_mackie Toy chests @belleandcoliving . . . Feature wall - yes we made it ourselves and we got the wallpaper from Bunnings too. Yes hubby made it all from scratch without plans or a kit & yes her TV is in the wall. Aircon to come. And no he isn’t making anymore 😂 AND NO, we are not opening a “palace” business 😂😂😂 everrrrr

A post shared by Millie-Belle Diamond (@milliebellediamond) on Dec 9, 2017 at 8:34pm PST on

The three-metre squared space was inspired by a $20,000 Hamptons-style cubby house that Fox saw while in America, she told the paper.

It took Millie-Belle's father, a former builder, three months to build.

Inside, there's a wallpapered "feature wall" and a "mini makeup vanity."

The couple are also planning to install air con in the coming months.

Take a tour of the end result in the video below.

"So many cubbies you see around look great on the outside but are just plain and wooden on the inside so it was important to us that it was just as beautiful if not better on the inside," Fox said.

"I wanted it to look Instagram-worthy and just be a beautiful mini home and I think that's just how the palace turned out."

Fox told Femail that she started up the Instagram account when Millie-Belle was just two months old so that family could keep up with their lives.

Now, her daughter gets paid up to AUD $250 (£140) a post to share photos of her wearing the designer gear...

Christmas shopping done right 🤷🏼‍♀️😂 MBD in #gucci tee, tulle skirt, socks AND shoes from @melijoe.paris ❤️

A post shared by Millie-Belle Diamond (@milliebellediamond) on Nov 17, 2017 at 1:31am PST on

...And she has a pretty insane trainer collection for a three-year-old.

3 year old shoe goals 🤷🏼‍♀️😂 Gucci + her new @diamondkicks_au Nikes!

A post shared by Millie-Belle Diamond (@milliebellediamond) on Nov 10, 2017 at 3:29pm PST on

SEE ALSO: The Russian billionaire owner of Arsenal reportedly paid for his niece to wed in a lavish Disney-style wedding — take a look inside

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Here's why 'man flu' might actually be real, according to one professor

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  • "Man flu" is real, according to an article in the British Medical Journal.
  • A professor in Canada argued that male immune systems are inherently weaker than female ones.
  • This could lead to increased susceptibility to bad bouts of flu.


Man flu is apparently real — and the cure is lying on the sofa and watching telly, according to one professor.

Dr. Kyle Sue, a medical professor at a Canadian university, spelled out what he described as "the science behind man flu" after growing "tired of being accused of over-reacting" to flu-like symptoms.

He made the case that men could genuinely be more susceptible to bad bouts of flu in an article for the prestigious British Medical Journal.

Sue, who works at Memorial University, Newfoundland, Canada, first looked at studies with mice, which he suggest are "good models for human physiology."

Several studies he cited suggest that female mice have stronger immune systems than their male counterparts, and that gender hormones have a direct effect on the immune system.

But it wasn't just in animal studies that the phenomenon could be observed.

A 2013 study from Stanford University found that women's antibodies tend to respond more rapidly to an injection of the flu virus than men's antibodies.

The study also found that men with higher testosterone levels tended to have the weakest antibody response. As a result, the study suggests that testosterone suppresses the immune system, while estrogen boosts it.

The capability of the immune system to deal with infection has more consequences than the occasional sniffle.

In a study of flu-related deaths between 1997 and 2007, published by the American Journal of Epidemiology, a group of researchers found that mortality was more common in men than women across multiple age-groups, regardless of underlying conditions.

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Sue warns that, if these hormones do have a profound effect on the immune system, then "men may not be exaggerating symptoms, but have weaker immune responses to viral respiratory viruses, leading to greater morbidity and mortality than seen in women."

As a result, Sue believes that the common perception of "man flu" as an exaggeration is unjust.

When feeling under the weather, Dr Sue promotes energy conservation. "Lying on the couch, not getting out of bed, or receiving assistance with activities of daily living could also be evolutionarily [sic] behaviours that protect against predators," he advised.

Playing up to the stereotypes of men's reactions to illness, Sue jokingly said: "Perhaps now is the time for male friendly spaces, equipped with enormous televisions and reclining chairs, to be set up where men can recover from the debilitating effects of man flu in safety and comfort."

SEE ALSO: These 5 celebrity diets were just ripped to shreds by a top authority

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Theresa May is being advised to fine Facebook, Google, and Twitter over their abusive content (GOOG, FB, TWTR)

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  • Facebook, Google, Twitter, and other web firms are likely to face new sanctions in the UK about hosting abusive content on their platforms.
  • The government's ethics committee will recommend that prime minister Theresa May sues the web giants if they can't delete abusive posts in time, according to The Times.
  • It isn't clear how much the firms might have to pay, but they are more widely under huge political pressure to keep paedophilic and terrorist content off their platforms.


Prime minister Theresa May will be advised to sue Google, Facebook, Twitter, and other tech firms who don't delete abusive content, according to a report from The Times.

Abusive could mean racist, sexist, terrorist, and other hateful posts.

The government's ethics watchdog is due to publish a report on Wednesday making the recommendations. Its suggestion for new laws would, in a major shift, begin treating the US web giants more like publishers. Conventionally, Facebook and Google have argued they are just platforms and not responsible for the content hosted on their sites in the way normal publishers are.

The report from the Committee on Standards in Public Life doesn't specify particular sanctions, but recommends legislation that could mean prosecution for firms that don't obey the rules.

The report is part of an inquiry into intimidation of MPs during elections, much of which takes place on social media. Chair Lord Bew previously said: "There is a degree of frustration in our committee about what’s actually been done, given the vast resources of these companies, to protect the integrity of our democracy. We are less than hugely impressed by what they have done."

May has already proposed sterner rules for web firms, particularly when it comes to taking down terrorist content.

The committee report follow aggressive investigations by the press into the kind of content Twitter, Facebook, and Google are willing to put up with. A Tuesday report in The Sun found "hundreds" of Twitter users use the site to talk about their sexual urges towards children.

The Sun examined accounts that describe themselves as "non-offending" and "anti-contact"— terms used by self-confessed paedophiles who say they have never harmed children. The newspaper found some accounts of the talking about children, though it did not seem to find any examples of anything illegal or explicit. A Twitter source told the newspaper the information had been handed to the police, and that police had not requested further data.

Elsewhere, the BBC found Amazon-owned gaming site Twitch was hosting sexualised content, while YouTube has been under fire for several weeks over inappropriate content aimed at children.

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Jimmy Kimmel makes tearful plea alongside 7-month-old son for Congress to save child healthcare program

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  • Jimmy Kimmel made a tearful plea to lawmakers to secure funding for CHIP.
  • The Children's Health Insurance Program covers 9 million children who would struggle to pay for healthcare without it.
  • Kimmel held his son Billy, who has a heart condition that has required several surgeries.
  • CHIP's funding expired while politicians were finalising details of an impending tax bill.


Jimmy Kimmel took his seven-month-son on air to make a tearful plea to congress to save the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which covers 9 million children in the US.

Kimmel appeared alongside Billy after a week-long break from his show, "Live." Billy was born with tetralogy of fallot with pulmonary atresia, a rare defect which required open heart surgery just hours after his birth.

Billy has undergone a series of surgeries in his short life, but Kimmel said he now has just one more to go.

CHIP, first introduced during the Clinton administration, recently had its funding lapse as Congress focuses on passing tax reform. An analysis by the Urban Institute found that 1.2 million children, many of them in low-income families, could lose their healthcare.

Speaking with his son in his arms, Kimmel immediately began to tear up while compelling Congress to act to fund CHIP, and his viewers to demand action from their representatives.

"CHIP has become a bargaining chip. It's on the back burner while they work out their new tax plans, which means parents of children with cancer, diabetes and heart problems are about to get letters saying their coverage could be cut off next month," Kimmel said. "Merry Christmas, right?" 

"Imagine getting that letter, literally not knowing how you will afford to save your child's life. This is not a hypothetical. About 2 million CHIP kids have serious chronic conditions," Kimmel said.

Kimmel pointed out that CHIP usually gets bipartisan support in the Senate and House but said "this year they let the money for it expire while they work on getting tax cuts for their millionaire and billionaire donors."

Watch the full clip below:

 

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Google is launching 3 new experimental apps on both Android and the iPhone (GOOG)

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Sundar Pichai

  • Google is launching a new research project to develop so-called "appsperiments."
  • Appsperiments are new apps that use some of Google's experimental technologies.
  • The company is releasing three new apps today, on both Android and Apple's iOS.


Google is launching three new experimental apps, named Storyboard, Selfissimo!, and Scrubbies, on iOS and Android (we first saw the news via The Verge).

The first will come just to Android, while Scrubbies is an iOS exclusive; Selfissimo!, on the other hand, will be released on both platforms.

The three apps are parts of a first round of products inside the Google's new, so-called "appsperiment" program. More apps will come, but the current lineup focuses on photography.

The apps are all built on experimental technologies — a bit like Motion Still, the iOS app that transforms Apple's Live Photos into universally shareable gifs.

"[The apps] rely on object recognition,person segmentation, stylization algorithms, efficient image encoding and decoding technologies, and perhaps most importantly, fun!" reads Google's blog post.

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Storyboard is a nifty app that asks users to upload a video, and then automatically extrapolates six frames out of the clip from which it creates a comic-book like panel.

There are six visual styles, Google says, and up to 1.6 trillion different combinations for its algorithms to churn out.

Scrubbies, iOS' exclusive apps, lets you use your fingers to scroll through a video's timeline, DJ style, and record the movement to create a video loop that emphasises movement and action.

Animated GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

Discover & share this Animated GIF with everyone you know. GIPHY is how you search, share, discover, and create GIFs.

The weirdly named Selfissimo! will make its way to the iPhone and Android phones, and is the simplest app out of this first appsperiments' wave.

A simple tap on the screen will make your phone start recording (with the front-facing camera), and ask you to strike a few different poses.

The end result is a lot like a photobooth's, with Google's app snapping a shot every time you move and giving you back black and white pictures to save and share on social media or elsewhere.

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4-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome has failed a drug test and could face a lengthy ban from the sport

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Chris Froome

  • Renowned British cyclist Chris Froome has failed a drugs test.
  • The four-time Tour de France winner's urine sample during the Vuelta a España in September contained twice the permitted level of salbutamol, a legal asthma drug.
  • Froome will challenge the result, but if it is upheld he could face a lengthy ban from the sport.

 

Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome has failed a drugs test, according to The Guardian.

Froome submitted a urine sample that contained twice the permitted level of salbutamol, a legal asthma drug, during his 2017 victory at Vuelta a España in September.

He maintains innocence and, according to The Guardian, said that "it is well known" that he suffers from asthma, that he knows "exactly what the rules are," and that he used an inhaler to manage his symptoms.

Cyclists are allowed a level of 1,000 nanograms of salbutamol per milliltre in their urine, as per World Anti-Doping Agency rules. Froome's sample was double that.

"My asthma got worse at the Vuelta so I followed the team doctor’s advice to increase my salbutamol dosage. As always, I took the greatest care to ensure that I did not use more than the permissible dose."

Froome is considered to be one of the most successful Tour de France cyclists of all time, thanks to four championship wins. He also won the 2017 Vuerta title, is a two-time Olympic bronze medalist, and received an OBE in 2016.

He said that the world governing body for cycling, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), is correct to examine the test results and said he would cooperate with it's investigation. "I will provide whatever information it requires," he said.

It is understood that Froome and Team Sky will challenge the result of the test.

However, if the result is upheld, Froome will lose his 2017 Vuelte title, be handed a significant ban from the sport, and could therefore be suspended for the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France in 2018.

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There is a new chapter in Harry Potter's story — and it was written by artificial intelligence

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harry potter

  • An artificial intelligence tool read all of the "Harry Potter" books and automatically generated a new, self-written chapter out of what it learned.
  • The output text was mostly raw and incomprehensible, so a few writers intervened to make it understandable.
  • The writing is mostly weird and borderline comical, but the machine managed to partly reproduce original writer J.K. Rowling's writing style.


There is a new chapter in Harry Potter's story, but it wasn't written by the original author, J.K. Rowling. Instead, an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm did most of the hard work, The Verge first reported.

The people over at Botnik Studio fed a computer's algorithmic tool with all of the original novels from Harry Potter's saga, and in return, it generated a three-page chapter titled "Harry Potter and the Portrait of What Looked Like a Large Pile of Ash."

The AI churned out the bulk of the text, but in order to transform it from your typical predictive-text word salad to something actually intelligible, a number of writers were involved.

Chief among them is Jamie Brew, a former writer for The Onion and Clickhole, who had already worked on similar automated text prediction writings on Tumblr, where his objectdreams page includes procedurally generated, fictional work on X-Files, grammar rules, and even Craiglist ads.

With his and the other writers' work, The Portrait of What Looked Like a Large Pile of Ash has been curated to be grammatically correct and understandable, but the actual content is as weird as the title suggests — with things such as "BEEF WOMEN" being a door's password.

But it gets even better: "The pig of Hufflepuff pulsed like a large bullfrog," it reads at one point. "Dumbledore smiled at it, and placed his hand on its head: 'You are Hagrid now.'"

The writing is as weird as it is fun, and it might be worth a few minutes of your time; if you agree, you can read the whole chapter here.

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Meghan Markle is spending Christmas Day with Prince Harry and the Queen at Sandringham

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Prince Harry Meghan Markle engagement photos

  • Meghan Markle will spend Christmas Day with fiancee Prince Harry and the rest of the royal family, according to Sky News.
  • Kensington Palace reportedly confirmed that the unmarried couple would break tradition by spending the holiday together at Sandringham.


Kensington Palace has confirmed that Meghan Markle will spend Christmas Day with fiancé Prince Harry, the Queen, and the rest of the royal family at Sandringham in Norfolk.

The move is a break in tradition, as unmarried partners have previously not been invited to spend Christmas with the royals. Even Kate Middleton wasn't invited to join the family for Christmas in 2010, despite getting engaged to Prince William a month before.

A Kensington Palace spokesman told Sky News: "You can expect to see The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry, and Ms Markle at Sandringham on Christmas Day."

The Telegraph reported that the couple will "be seen in public with other royals when they attend the traditional Christmas Day church service on the Queen's private estate."

Prince Harry announced his engagement to the "Suits" actress last month. The couple are reportedly planning their own "fun" wedding at Windsor Castle, where they are set to wed in May 2018.

Meghan Markle Prince Harry

Their plans to spend Christmas together aren't the only way their engagement has marked a move into a more modern future for the royal family.

There are a number of factors related to Markle's background— aside from the fact she's a well-known celebrity — that make the royal engagement different to most that have come before.

Not only is Markle American, but she comes from a humble upbringing, is a divorcee, and is expected to be the first mixed-race person to marry into the family for generations.

SEE ALSO: These are all of the ways Meghan Markle smashes traditional royal stereotypes

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A baby was born with her heart outside her chest — but has survived thanks to 3 risky operations by 50 doctors

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Vanellope Hope post surgery

  • A baby born with her heart outside her chest has survived in a "miracle."
  • Vanellope Hope Wilkins was given less than a 10% chance of survival.
  • Fifty doctors operated on her right after her birth.
  • She is believed to be the first baby in Britain with this condition to survive.
  • This report contains graphic images.


A baby born with her heart outside her chest has survived, thanks to 50 doctors who operated on her immediately after her birth.

Vanellope Hope Wilkins was born on November 22 without a breastbone, the long bone to which the ribs are attached.

She has ectopia cordis, a rare condition in which the heart is "abnormally located either partially or totally outside of the chest,"according to Glenfield Hospital in Leicester, England, where Vanellope was born and where she is being treated.

Vanellope Hope Wilkins born

Babies born with this condition have a survival rate of less than 10% due to the risks of infections and other side effects, the hospital added. Doctors had advised Vanellope's mother to have an abortion.

Vanellope is the first baby to have survived with this condition in the UK, according to multiple media outlets.

Naomi Findlay, Vanellope's mother, said pre-natal scans and tests showed her daughter's heart and parts of her stomach growing outside her body.

Vanellope's father, Dean Wilkins, told the BBC: "We were advised to have a termination and that the chances of survival were next to none — no-one believed she was going to make it except us."

vanellope hope wilkins and mum

Immediately after Vanellope was born, she was "immediately placed in a sterile plastic bag" to keep her organs sterile and tissues moist.

Fifty minutes later, Vanellope was deemed stable enough to undergo a series of surgeries with 50 anaesthetists, heart surgeons, and paediatricians, who put her heart most of the way back inside her chest.

After around three hours of operations, Vanellope was taken to the hospital's intensive care unit, where she will stay for several weeks, "while she hopefully gets strong enough, and big enough, for her heart to be placed fully within her chest and covered in her own skin," anaesthetist Dr Nick Moore said.

Vanellope Hope Wilkins during surgery

Findlay said: "I had prepared myself for the worst; that was my way of dealing with it. I had brought an outfit to hospital that she could wear if she died.

"I'm now confident she won't wear it so I’m going to donate it to the hospital."

Wilkins told the BBC: "She defying everything — it's beyond a miracle."

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The ghosts of the financial crisis are haunting investors 9 years later

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  • Overly cautious investors have missed out on huge market opportunities in 2017, says investment manager Richard Bernstein.
  • That investor reluctance is a byproduct of the last financial crisis, the memories of which still inform cautious behavior to this day.
  • Despite the missed opportunities, Bernstein is still bullish on stocks heading into 2018.


The market crash of 2008 was the worst anyone could remember. Now, nearly nine years and a 300% stock market rebound later, stock investors are still grappling with the ghosts of the financial crisis, even as the bull market rages on.

The lingering memory has kept investors from capitalizing on prime market opportunities along the way, including this year, which saw the S&P 500 soar 19%, according to Richard Bernstein, the CEO and chief investment officer of Richard Bernstein Advisors.

Instead, investors have proceeded with caution, shelling out loads of money to hedge against losses, not wanting to be caught off-guard by another huge market downturn. It's become the new normal for traders, who have embraced the undercurrent of skepticism.

"Investors still do not fully appreciate the magnitude of opportunity cost they have paid to alleviate their fears that 2008 would repeat," Bernstein, a former Merrill Lynch chief investment strategist, wrote in a research note. "Fear has caused 2017 to largely be another year of missed opportunities."

Bernstein doesn't buy into this fear. He's crunched the numbers, and says the 55% plunge seen in 2008 has an extremely low likelihood of happening again. As shown in the chart below, even a loss of 30% or more has occurred very rarely throughout history.

"Drawdowns similar to 2008's have historically occurred only 0.5% of the time!" he wrote. "Yet, both individual and institutional investors have been structuring portfolios as though the markets were necessarily going to replay 2008."

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Investor psychology after a market crash

Despite Bernstein's consternation, the behavior being exhibited by the market is a natural reaction to past trauma. After a catastrophic drop, it often takes investors years to gather enough confidence to re-enter the market. Then, after they've missed that first stretch of gains, doubts around the rally's longevity start to creep in, keeping them from unabashedly loading up on bullish positions.

As a result, even the smartest investors can miss out on what, in retrospect, look like easy gains. Ultimately, the whole process serves to show just how difficult it is to play a market rally with the ideal combination of timing and confidence.

For another example, look no further than the second half of the 1990s, when stocks were enjoying what still stands as the longest bull market on record. Still stung by the 1987 crash, bearish strategists called for market downturns for years, starting around 1995. That plunge didn't end up transpiring until the dotcom bubble burst in 2000, and many of them lost their jobs along the way.

Meanwhile, the bulls that rode the wave higher into the crash were eventually discredited for failing to see it coming. Many investment professionals affected by that cycle are still in the market today, which goes a long way towards explaining the cautiously optimistic tone being derided by Bernstein.

Bernstein's 2018 outlook

Interestingly enough, it's that same cautious backdrop that's informing Bernstein's bullishness headed into 2018. When investors are wary of their surroundings, it helps keep overexuberance from creeping into the market — the same type of overconfidence that has historically blinded traders from a cracking foundation.

Those skeptics are also responsible for the types of temporary pullbacks that are healthy for the market. As soon as major indexes slip a bit, bullish investors are waiting there to scoop up more exposure at more reasonable valuations. This so-called "dip buying" has driven a great deal of equity strength during the bull market.

Bernstein's bullish outlook for next year is also built on what it sees as continued earnings growth — a positive catalyst that's frequently viewed as the foremost source of the almost nine-year rally. Further, he sees "significant liquidity" as another source of strength, even as the Federal Reserve engages in monetary tightening.

In the end, Bernstein's quasi-cynical view on the 2017 market is one that distracts from the fact that stocks are still surging higher. Sure, some investors have missed out on some gains, but the downside alternative is far more stark.

And when that market reckoning does happen, we get to start this process all over again, hopefully with the added benefit of hindsight.

SEE ALSO: The next stock market crash will look a lot different from the financial crisis

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Tillerson's new North Korea strategy praised by China and Russia — but undermined by Trump

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Rex Tillerson

  • US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson seemed to lay out a new strategy on North Korea on Tuesday, but the White House followed with a vague statement that seemed to dispute him.
  • China and Russia welcomed Tillerson's new stance, which would allow the US to talk to North Korea without preconditions.
  • But President Donald Trump seems set on putting pressure on North Korea.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson laid out a new US strategy towards North Korea on Tuesday, which was met with cheers in Russia and China, but was vaguely squashed by the White House on the same day.

"We're ready to talk anytime North Korea would like to talk, and we're ready to have the first meeting without precondition," Tillerson said at an event at the Atlantic Council.

"Let's just meet. We can talk about the weather if you want... But can we at least sit down and see each other face to face, and then we can lay out a map, a roadmap, of what we might be willing to work towards."

His words appeared to signal a significant shift in US policy towards North Korea.

President Donald Trump has preferred to pile the pressure on Pyongyang to surrender its nuclear capabilities. Tillerson's approach would allow the US and North Korea to begin peace talks without the prospect of denuclearizing.

"It’s not realistic to say we are only going to talk if you come to the table ready to give up your program," Tillerson said. "They have too much invested in it, and [Trump] is very realistic about that as well."

Instead of the promise of total verifiable, complete denuclearization, Tillerson simply asked for a "period of quiet," where they pause testing nuclear devices and ballistic missiles.

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russian media he welcomed the decision. China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a press briefing the same. 

The White House is unmoved

Rex Tillerson Donald Trump

But the White House, where Tillerson has reportedly fallen out of favor, seemed to push back.

"The president's views on North Korea have not changed," the White House said in a vague statement, according to Reuters. "North Korea is acting in an unsafe way ... North Korea's actions are not good for anyone and certainly not good for North Korea."

Hardliners on North Korea say that if the US accepted talks with Pyongyang without preconditions, it would give the abusive regime a seat at the table with Washington as equals, something which they consider a defeat.

Trump has frequently talked up military and kinetic responses to North Korea's missile testing, and often undermined Tillerson's efforts at diplomacy, once calling them a waste of time.

Within the last month, Trump administration sources began leaking that Tillerson may be on his way out of the executive branch in favor of a Trump favorite, CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

Golden opportunity for peace — if that's what the US wants

Trump kim jong un

In the past, presidents who have looked to engage with North Korea diplomatically without first securing guarantees from Pyongyang have faced strong backlash from more hawkish US officials, usually Republicans.

Trump may have the unique opportunity to engage with North Korea, as he has proven at least partially insulated from the criticism of Republicans.

Additionally, Trump has said he would be "honored" to meet with Kim Jong Un, who no head of state has ever met with.

The US has engaged in a massive pressure campaign of sanctions on North Korea that may have begun to take effect.  If the US could hold out and wait until sanctions further weakened North Korea, it could possibly achieve a better negotiating position in future talks.

But with North Korea having demonstrated an intercontinental ballistic missile, and its ongoing threat to detonate a nuclear device over the Pacific, the US has a choice to make: Settle now before things escalate, or continue the nuclear showdown until one party blinks.

SEE ALSO: The F-35 could intercept a North Korean missile launch — but it could bring an all-out war

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THE PAYMENTS INDUSTRY EXPLAINED: The Trends Creating New Winners And Losers In The Card-Processing Ecosystem

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smart home voice assistant benefits

This is a preview of a research report from BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about BI Intelligence, click here.

Digital disruption is rocking the payments industry. But merchants, consumers, and the companies that help move money between them are all feeling its effects differently.

For banks, card networks, and processors, the digital revolution is bringing new opportunities — and new challenges. With new ways to pay emerging, incumbent firms can take advantage of solid brand recognition and large customer bases to woo new customers and keep those they already have.

And for consumers, the digital revolution is providing more choice and making their lives easier. Digital wallets are simplifying purchases, allowing users to pay online with only a username and password and in-store with just a swipe of their thumb. 

In a new report, BI Intelligence explores the digital payments ecosystem today, its growth drivers, and where the industry is headed. It begins by tracing the path of an in-store card payment from processing to settlement across the key stakeholders. That process is central to understanding payments, and has changed slowly in the face of disruption. The report also forecasts growth and defines drivers for key digital payment types through 2021. Finally, it highlights five trends that are changing payments, looking at how disparate factors, such as surprise elections and fraud surges, are sparking change across the ecosystem.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

  • Digital growth is accelerating the pace at which payments are becoming faster, cheaper, and more convenient. That benefits both nimble startups and legacy providers that invest in innovation.
  • Mobile payments are continuing to take off. On mobile devices, e-commerce, P2P payments, remittances, and in-store payments are each expected to rise as customer engagement shifts from more established channels.
  • Power is shifting to companies that control the customer experience. As the selling power of physical storefronts shifts to digital devices, the companies that control the apps and platforms that occupy users’ attentions are increasingly encroaching on payment providers’ territory. 
  • Alternative technologies are moving from the idea stage to reality. Widespread investments in blockchain technology last year are beginning to result in services hitting the market, promising to further squeeze margins for payments providers. 

In full, the report:

  • Traces the path of an in-store card payment from processing to settlement across the key stakeholders.  
  • Forecasts growth and defines drivers for key digital payment types through 2021.
  • Highlights five trends that are changing payments, looking at how disparate factors, such as surprise elections and fraud surges, are sparking change across the ecosystem.

To get the full report, subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND more than 250 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> Learn More Now

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How an erratic sleep schedule affects your ability to lose weight — and the exact time you should go to bed to get results

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sleep bed unsplash kinga cichewicz

  • A new survey by Forza Supplements has linked sleep patterns to weight loss.
  • Sleeping for at least 7.5 hours each night makes you less likely to snack.
  • You're also less likely to drink too much alcohol or cheat on your diet regimen.
  • The best bedtime for weight loss is apparently 10:10pm.


A good night's sleep improves your ability to lose weight effectively, according to a new survey.

As adults, it's recommended that we get at least seven and a half hours of sleep a night — preferably heading to bed at the same time every night, too.

Sports nutrition company Forza Supplements surveyed 1,000 people across the UK aged between 18 and 65 about their sleeping habits. All of the participants were attempting to lose weight.

The survey found some clear differences between the participants that got their designated rest and those with erratic sleeping patterns — including the ways it affected their eating habits and dieting success.

Good sleepers shed pounds more easily

74% of participants that slept for seven and a half to eight hours every night said that they didn't struggle to stick to a diet or lose weight. This could be because four out of every five good sleepers were more likely to follow a consistent routine in their eating habits, which aids weight loss.

Those with erratic sleeping patterns are more likely to snack...

People sleeping for less than seven hours a night tended to have more chaotic eating patterns to mirror their erratic sleeping habits. Poor sleepers were more likely to snack between meals and cheat on their diets than someone getting more sleep.

Participants that slept for less than seven hours each night were almost four times more likely to snack between meals than their well-rested counterparts (64% of participants compared to 17% of participants).

nachos snack unsplash herson rodriguez

...And drink more alcohol

Similarly, those left bleary-eyed from lack of sleep said they also drank more alcohol than they know they should, and were more likely to exceed their weekly allowance (54%) than participants that got more sleep (13%).

72% of those that got enough sleep found that they could stick to a diet plan, compared to just 42% of poor sleepers, proving that sleep has a huge effect on our ability to curb cravings and stick to a diet regimen.

10:10 p.m. is the best bedtime for weight loss

According to Forza Supplements, the optimum time to head to bed in order to improve the quality of your sleep and curb your sugar cravings the next day is 10:10 p.m.

This reportedly gives you 20 minutes to nod off, and 90 minutes for the most restorative sleep state — non-REM — which is best accomplished before midnight, according to Forza Supplement's research.

sleep unsplash vladislav muslakov

Lee Smith, managing director of Forza Supplements, said: "This new research shows that the key to successful dieting is discipline and routine — you need to adopt good habits and stick with them.

"If you are sleeping erratically and getting up in the night, chances [are you're] visiting the fridge while successful dieters are upstairs in bed fast asleep."

SEE ALSO: These 5 celebrity diets were just ripped to shreds by a top authority

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MPs demand the power to vote down Theresa May's Brexit deal

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Open Britain rally Chuka Umunna Caroline Lucas Tom Brake

  • Labour, Green, Lib Dem and SNP MPs rally outside Parliament ahead of crucial amendment 7 vote.
  • MPs will vote whether Parliament should get a meaningful vote on any final Brexit deal.

 

LONDON — MPs from across the Commons rallied outside Westminster on Wednesday morning ahead of a key vote on whether Parliament should be given a meaningful vote on a final Brexit deal.

MPs will vote tonight on an amendment to the EU (Withdrawal) Bill which seeks to give Parliament the power to either approve or reject any Brexit deal reached between British and EU negotiators before exit day in March 2019.

Labour's Chuka Umunna, Green Party co-leader Caroline Lucas, Liberal Democrat Tom Brake and the SNP's Stephen Gethins joined campaigners from anti-hard Brexit group Open Britain in a demonstration outside Parliament.

"What the Brexiters are worried about is that Parliament’s going to have its say," Brake told Business Insider.

"They have wanted from the beginning to railroad it through. That’s why, for instance, they’ve objected to the Article 50 bill. They’re not interested in parliamentary scrutiny, they want to just ram this through, get it done.

"But actually, Parliament must be central to this. This is the single biggest change the United Kingdom will have made if we proceed with Brexit. "That’s why Parliament has got to be at the centre of it."

Brexit Secretary David Davis has attempted to head off a Conservative rebellion by assuring them that UK government will not use the so-called "Henry III powers" until the Commons has voted in favour of the final Brexit deal.

Dominic Grieve, the Tory MP who tabled the amendment, said Davis' offer did not meet the demands of MPs.

"The government needs to listen to what’s being said to them," he told Sky News.

"And at the moment, unfortunately, my impression of the last few days, when I’ve been talking to the government, is that it seems to be a bit of a dialogue of the deaf."

Green co-leader Lucas urged Conservative MPs not to back down.

"A meaningful vote in Parliament on this issue is what people are calling for," she told BI.

"Meaningful basically means that there is still time to go back and negotiate something better, not that you’re told this is a "take it or leave it'."

"I think unfortunately the government producing a written statement at the 11th hour when they’ve been able to consider Dominic Grieve’s amendments for weeks and weeks and weeks doesn’t do it for me," Brake added.

"I don’t think they’re genuine, they have consistently tried to block Parliament from being fully engaged in this process.

"All members of parliament who believe in parliamentary sovereignty have got to vote for Amendment 7 tonight."

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