Latest news with #Cube
The Herald Scotland
5 days ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Bike shop in ‘best place to live in Scotland' for sale
Cornerstone Business Agents is handling the leasehold of Law Cycles in North Berwick. The shop in near the High Street. (Image: Cornerstone Business Agents) The agent said: 'Our client has owned and operated Law Cycles in North Berwick for 24 years and has reluctantly placed the business on the market to allow himself the time to take things a bit easier. 'The business is very well known and highly respected in East Lothian and beyond, offering a good range of electric, road and mountain bikes and accessories with the franchise for both 'Giant' and 'Cube' for the area.' READ MORE: The agent also said: 'This opportunity is ideally suited to a cycling enthusiast who can operate the business in a hands-on manner as the current owner carries out the repairs and servicing. Income is derived through the sales of bikes and accessories and through the servicing and repairs of all types of bikes. 'There is scope to develop what the current owner has already in place and Law Cycles offers the chance to work in the town that was recently voted 'the most desirable town to live'.' It was recently named best place to live in Scotland by the Sunday Times. The agent also said that North Berwick is also a 'magnet for holidaymakers, visitors, golfers, cyclists and wildlife enthusiasts, with the world famous Scottish Seabird Centre being located in the town'. It said: 'A guide price of £25,000 is sought for the leasehold interest in the property and all fixtures & fittings pertaining thereto. Stock will be payable in addition to the purchase price.'
Winnipeg Free Press
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
The monster lives
Four theatre grads from Calgary in an ogre-green Volkswagen Bus oozed into Winnipeg, intending to improvise a fairy tale in Old Market Square. It was 12 years BC — Before Cube. 'There was no Cube. It was a circle stage in the middle of a field there,' recalls Ryan Gladstone, who first visited the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival with Monster Theatre in July 2000. Supplied Monster Theatre drove to Winnipeg 25 years ago in a borrowed VW Bus. Supplied Monster Theatre drove to Winnipeg 25 years ago in a borrowed VW Bus. Monster didn't know what would come of Fairy Tale: A Choose Your Own Adventure Play. Dressed as goblins, sea creatures and big, bad wolves, journeying through mystical forests and vast deserts, Gladstone, Katherine Sanders, Jen Kelly and Charlotte Mitchell performed daily to sparse but enthusiastic crowds, earning so little from the 'pass the hat' system that they sustained themselves on chickpea curry from street vendors and two-dollar highballs from the King's Head Pub. The company left town satisfied, but disappointed to not score a review in the newspaper. But the day after the festival ended, as they gassed up the VW, they noticed a photo of Mitchell hamming it up on the front page of the Free Press, leaving 'children in stitches.' With that bit of validation, the bus headed west, but along the way, a rope came loose, sending their props flying: somewhere between Winnipeg and Saskatoon, a blue foam head the size of a refrigerator must have given a farmer quite the fright. 'We like to imagine that someone found it,' Gladstone says. Twenty-five years after its first breaths, Monster is still alive and well, with Gladstone and company bringing four productions to this year's fringe: the bar-down comedy Hockey Night at the Puck and Pickle; the drunken insurance-investigator tale of No Tweed Too Tight; Til Death: The Six Wives of Henry VIII, starring Tara Travis; and Riot, which features Gladstone and his brother Jeff as thespian nemeses in the story of two duelling productions of Macbeth taking place across the street from one another. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS It's alive: Monster Theatre company members (from left) Tara Travis, Jeff Gladstone, Ryan Gladstone and Jonathon Paterson are bringing four shows to this year's fringe. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS It's alive: Monster Theatre company members (from left) Tara Travis, Jeff Gladstone, Ryan Gladstone and Jonathon Paterson are bringing four shows to this year's fringe. Some of the company's other previous shows in Winnipeg included last year's Erika the Red; Jesus Christ: The Lost Years (2006, 2018); The Canada Show (2001, 2006, 2017); and Juliet: A Revenge Comedy (2019, 2022), which earlier this year enjoyed an off-Broadway run at the Soho Playhouse. Formed after its founders graduated from the University of Calgary's BFA acting program, Monster's name was inspired by their teacher, Keith Johnstone, who explained the difference between monsters and demons while discussing Shakespeare's Iago. 'Demons are smooth and attractive on the outside, but have a cruel and twisted heart. But monsters are the opposite: strange and bizarre on the outside, but they always have a good heart,' Johnstone said. That became a guiding principle for the company, which found its niche in alternate mythologies and revisionist musicals about historical, literary and nationalistic symbols after a brief foray into the tamer world of kids fringe in the early 2000s. 'We sang a song called The Maginot Line, about the Nazis moving into France and stuff. No swears or anything,' Gladstone told the Free Press in 2009. 'Then we sang a version of It's a Small World in a minor key, like a creepy thing. We started going on about how the Disney Corporation has lawyers everywhere and they're watching your kids.' SUPPLIED Juliet: A Revenge Comedy was last here in 2022 Juliet: A Revenge Comedy was last here in 2022 Monster was more at home in the pub, as evidenced by the lasting appeal of Puck and Pickle. Every four years, the company rewrites the topical material to keep the show's 230 short scenes — all taking place during a televised hockey game — fresh. In 2013, ahead of the Sochi Olympics, Monster did Canada v. Russia; in 2017, the home team took on the U.S. 'We were going to do Sweden this year, but we decided, 'No, it's still America,'' says Gladstone, who stars alongside Jon Patterson. (Look out for references to Sam Bennett's rough-housing, an orange-haired president and Connor McDavid's buzzer-beating Four Nations Cup clincher). Gladstone, 48, who also teaches at Vancouver Film School, credits the Winnipeg fringe as a launching pad and testing ground for brand new and more experienced companies, with audiences who push creators to repeatedly up their game when they make a return visit. 'When you talk about living the dream, I think it's the ability to think of an idea for a show, to make it a reality and to bring it to audiences,' he says. 'I found an old journal from 2001 with a list of shows I'd love to do some day.' There are still some ideas without a checkmark beside them — monsters yet to be unleashed. A theatre troupe whose members came up together through the Manitoba Theatre for Young People is running it back where it all started for this year's fringe. After last year's cloning comedy House of Gold earned a spot on the short list for the Harry S. Rintoul Award for best new Manitoba play, Brighter Dark Theatre will stage its latest twisty offering at MTYP's mainstage (Venue 21), where just over a decade ago they bonded during young-company productions of Legally Blonde and The Pirates of Penzance. Starring Thomas McLeod, Dane Bjornson and Alanna MacPherson, with their former teacher Teresa Thomson directing, Third Party is 'MTYP all the way down,' says McLeod, who wrote the script. But the story isn't exactly child's play. Inspired in part from a real-life vehicular collision experienced by the playwright, Third Party stars Bjornson as 'a himbo, alpha-male finance guy' who crashes the car belonging to his wily girl-boss partner (MacPherson, MTYP's Blue Beads and Blueberries), triggering a phone call with hard-boiled insurance adjuster Marty Fink (McLeod), who makes it his mission to poke holes in an already leaky relationship. 'He approaches his job like a Poirot, Columbo or Benoit Blanc,' says McLeod, who works by day as a legal writer and has a degree in English literature. Third Party is 'really influenced by Winnipeg's reputation for being car-dependent,' McLeod says. Brighter Dark's isn't the only production with a noirish hue: new local company Mad Tom Theatre's The Show Must Go On (Venue 3) follows a high school theatre group whose production of Macbeth is bedevilled by an incompetent detective and a cunning saboteur. From Australia, Racing Sloth Productions is stopping in with 2 Magic Rubies, 1 Private Eye: A Dirk Darrow Investigation, with magician Tim Motley (last year's Barry Potter) bringing his psychic detective back to the fringe with a tale based on a story by Dashiell Hammett. Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. Ben WaldmanReporter Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University's (now Toronto Metropolitan University's) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben. Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Daily Mirror
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Netflix fans claim most popular film is 'so painful' to watch
It is one of the most watched films right now One of Netflix's most popular films right now is a 'mind bending' sci-fi thriller that fans say is 'so painful' to watch. The movie titled Brick was only just added to the streamer earlier in the week. After just a couple of days it has already become one of the most watched films among subscribers. At the time of writing, the German produced movie is currently third in the top ten films among UK users. It sits just behind anime hit K Pop Demon Hunters and documentary Trainwreck The Real Project X. According to the synopsis provided by Netflix, the film's story picks up when a mysterious brick wall encloses a couple's apartment building overnight. Tim and Olivia must unite with their wary neighbours to get out alive. Despite its immediate popularity on the major streaming platform, its critical reception has been considerably mixed. It has only managed to register a score of 31% on Rotten Tomatoes. One review addressed the fact the film was compared to cult classic Cube, when the first trailer was released. That film saw a group of strangers wake up in a strange giant cube all armed with deadly traps. The critic claimed: "It seems clear that Brick has more in common with a bottom-tier Black Mirror episode than it does a true sci-fi puzzle-box movie like Cube . It does a lot of little things competently, but doesn't do any one thing exceedingly well, leaving it feeling like a genre exercise in search of a story worth telling." One fan had a more damning verdict as they posted: "Watching this was actually painful.. Holy its so bad.. and the actors are terrible... Do not watch.. you will regret it." However, there are viewers who actually enjoyed and recommend the title. One such person suggested: "A pretty amazing and exciting contained thriller with a sci-fi twist. The ensemble and the camera work sticks out, with the plot taken twists you don´t see coming. Fun and cool with that little German hint of weirdness!" Another added: "This movie was so amazing. Great cast, great acting. I had no clue what was going to happen next. It is Escape Room on steroids. Great movie, great story, great cast, great direction." Someone else commented: "Netflix's German sci-fi chiller imprisons a couple in a high-rise overtaken by an ominous black barrier. The director masterfully evokes claustrophobia through tight shots and escalating dread, turning everyday spaces into nightmares." They continued: The lead stars shine with raw vulnerability, their relationship strains amplifying the horror. The film's exploration of isolation and survival resonates, though some twists veer into familiarity. Pacing keeps viewers hooked, building to a poignant climax. A smart, contained thriller that punches above its weight, Brick is a worthy addition to Netflix's genre lineup." Brick is streaming on Netflix.
Tom's Guide
11-07-2025
- Business
- Tom's Guide
Quick! Fire TV Cube drops to lowest price in last chance Prime Day sale — and it makes watching Netflix, Prime Video and more way easier
It's the final hours of Prime Day, but don't panic — there's still time to snag some killer deals before the clock runs out. We're tracking all the best discounts live so you don't have to scroll endlessly. One standout steal? The Fire TV Cube, now slashed from $139 down to just $89 on Amazon. I'm a bit of a streaming fanatic, always chasing the smoothest, easiest way to binge my favorite shows without fumbling for the remote. The Fire TV Cube fits that bill perfectly. It's fast, hands-free, and can control Netflix, Prime Video, and more with just your voice. This $50 off deal is the Cube's lowest price yet, and with Prime Day wrapping up, now's the time to grab it before it's gone. Don't wait! The Amazon Fire TV Cube is a powerful streaming media player that combines 4K Ultra HD streaming with hands-free Alexa voice control. It supports major apps like Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney Plus, letting you control your TV, soundbar, and smart home devices using just your voice for a smooth entertainment experience. The Amazon Fire TV Cube is a smart home hub and voice assistant rolled into one small box. Unlike typical streaming sticks that require you to use a remote, the Cube listens to your voice commands hands-free. You can say things like 'Alexa, play Squid Game on Netflix' or 'pause the show' without reaching for the remote, which makes binge-watching much smoother. It supports all the popular streaming services like Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus, Hulu, and more, and streams in crisp 4K Ultra HD with HDR and Dolby Atmos sound for a solid audio-visual experience. The Cube's processor is more powerful than most other Fire TV devices, so it handles navigation and app switching quickly and smoothly. Beyond streaming, the Cube also acts as a universal remote control. It can communicate with your TV, soundbar, cable box, and even some smart home devices, letting you control your entire entertainment setup and smart lights with voice commands. While it's more expensive than basic streaming sticks, the Fire TV Cube's combination of speed, hands-free Alexa, and smart home integration makes it one of the best streaming devices for anyone seeking an easy, voice-controlled entertainment experience. With the current discount from $139 to $89, it's a solid deal for anyone looking to upgrade their streaming setup. We're running our Amazon Prime Day live blog until the end of the sale, so be sure to check that out for last minute savings. Make sure to check out what freebies you can get this Prime Day before it's too late!
Forbes
08-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Aligning On One Source Of Truth: Why It's Hard—And How To Get It Right
Artyom Keydunov, CEO, Cube. I've written extensively about the universal semantic layer, an emerging (and sometimes misunderstood) concept. A semantic layer abstracts a corporation's business metrics, or standard units of measurement, from its data. Adopting a universal semantic layer isn't just a technical deployment—it's a cultural shift. Getting every team in a large enterprise to pull from the same data definitions requires more than installing new software. It demands structured change management, deliberate training and a commitment to cross-functional alignment. Making The Semantic Layer Work In practice, success starts with executive sponsorship. Teams often fall back into siloed habits without senior leaders reinforcing the importance of shared definitions and unified metrics. A cross-functional governance committee should be formed, ideally including finance, HR, sales, operations and IT stakeholders. This group defines, refines and owns the business logic embedded in the semantic layer. Next comes training—not just on how to use the tools but also on why the change matters. Data consumers must understand that consistent metric definitions (like "revenue" or "active customer") are essential for trustworthy insights. Hands-on workshops, role-based dashboards and embedded documentation all help reinforce these principles. But expect friction. Teams may resist relinquishing control of their own metrics. To address this, create a clear escalation path for reconciling disputes and showcase early wins demonstrating improved efficiency and decision-making from unified data. One of the most overlooked challenges is integrating the semantic layer into daily workflows. Implementing it is not enough—it must be embedded into the tools teams already use, like BI dashboards, spreadsheets or CRM platforms. The path isn't easy, but enterprises can achieve data alignment that scales by prioritizing executive buy-in, cross-team governance, contextual training and workflow integration. Benefits Of A Universal Semantic Layer Strategy A well-implemented universal semantic layer helps deliver measurable business value by unifying definitions and enabling trustworthy, real-time insights across departments. Here's how a successful semantic layer strategy can be realized by different teams: • Finance And Accounting: Finance teams often operate in fragmented environments with legacy OLAP systems and conflicting reports. Ensuring everyone is pulling consistent metrics—like revenue recognition or margin analysis—from a single, auditable source helps to centralize financial definitions, reduce reconciliation time and improve regulatory confidence. • Human Resources (HR): HR decisions suffer when data is spread across disconnected systems. The ability to consolidate performance, engagement and compliance data into one coherent view empowers more proactive, strategic workforce planning. • Sales: Sales leaders frequently lack a unified view of pipelines, customer behaviors and KPIs. With standardized definitions across CRM, emails and BI tools, teams unlock better forecasting, lead prioritization and coaching decisions based on facts, not guesswork. • Marketing: Disparate sources of campaign data lead to missed insights and wasted spending. By aligning attribution and ROI metrics across platforms, marketing teams can execute and adapt with real-time clarity. • Operations And Supply Chain: Fragmented supply chain data undermines efficiency and responsiveness. A consistent lens across ERP, logistics and inventory systems helps drive better planning, cost control and risk management. • Customer Support: As customer-facing teams often struggle with slow, inconsistent service due to scattered data, a semantic layer provides unified access to service histories and communication logs for faster, more accurate responses. Alignment First, Technology Second The universal semantic layer's promise is powerful, but it is not automatic. The technology itself can only take organizations so far. Success depends on how effectively teams align on definitions, processes and responsibilities. Creating a shared understanding of key business metrics across departments is a profoundly human challenge. However, when companies invest in organizational scaffolding—governance, communication and education—the semantic layer becomes more than a data architecture. It becomes a strategic advantage. Those who get it right aren't just managing data better—they're making better decisions, faster and with greater confidence. That's a competitive edge every organization should aim for. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
