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SANTA CLARA, Calif., – July 20, 2016 – The Low Power Sound Detector (LPSD) component of Sensory’s TrulyHandsfree technology is gaining significant traction among chip providers, being widely deployed as hardware within new chip designs
Sensory Inc., a Silicon Valley company focused on improving the user experience and security of consumer electronics through state-of-the-art embedded voice and vision technologies, today announced that deployment of its Low Power Sound Detector (LPSD) hardware component of the company’s TrulyHandsfree technology is gaining steady traction among leading chip manufacturers. Finding its way into a variety of chip designs from DSPs, digital microphones and sensor fusion hubs, Sensory’s LPSD hardware block is currently shipping in product designs from DSP Group, Knowles and QuickLogic, with more chip partners to be announced. LPSD allows chip manufactures whose products are suited for enabling an always-listening speech recognition system on CE devices to greatly reduce the power requirements of their components, as well as the power demand of the entire speech recognition audio chain.
Ideal for always-on keyword trigger solutions that enable “Alexa,” “Hey Cortana,” “Hey Siri,” or “Okay Google” hands-free voice control on devices, Sensory’s LPSD was designed to only wake the audio chain for a keyword trigger when potential speech is sensed. The solution conserves power usage by allowing the remaining audio chain of a device to be switched off until needed for speech processing.
“Sensory has been the industry’s pioneer of low-power speech recognition technologies for more than 20 years and while our line of speech recognition solutions have always been extremely power efficient, we created our Low Power Sound Detector technology for those looking to integrate always-listening voice trigger technology into ultra-low-power devices,” said Todd Mozer, founder and CEO of Sensory.
LPSD was developed as a supplemental solution designed to enable low-power devices to operate Sensory’s TrulyHandsfree™ and other always-on, always-listening speech recognition technologies with minimal draw on the battery.
A hardware implementation of LPSD reduces the overall system power for always-listening keyword trigger technology by 50 percent. Depending on the mix of speech to silence, Sensory’s LPSD reduces processing requirements and lowers average power consumption (including digital microphone and decimation logic) of an always-on implementation to under 1mA, which has long been a target for use in wearables and battery operated consumer electronics (some cases require as little as 400uA).
“Sensory is the industry leader in voice processing systems for mobile applications,” said Brian Faith, CEO at QuickLogic Corporation. “Integration of Sensory’s TrulyHandsfree and LPSD hardware with the QuickLogic EOS S3 multi-core sensor processing SoC provides unprecedented always-on speech recognition capability, and will facilitate a new generation of voice-driven applications capable of running on a fraction of the power consumption of competing technologies”.
For more information about this announcement, Sensory or its technologies, please contact firstname.lastname@example.org; Press inquiries: email@example.com
About Sensory Inc.
Sensory Inc. creates a safer and superior UX through vision and voice technologies. Sensory’s technologies are widely deployed in consumer electronics applications including mobile phones, automotive, wearables, toys, IoT and various home electronics. With its TrulyHandsfree™ voice control, Sensory has set the standard for mobile handset platforms’ ultra-low power “always listening” touchless control. To date, Sensory’s technologies have shipped in over a billion units of leading consumer products.
TrulyHandsfree and Low Power Sound Detector (LPSD) are trademarks of Sensory Inc.


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By Kristen Gallagher
Penetrating new markets is never easy, however it is not impossible, as any of the women of the Global Mamas Cooperative will tell you. Step by step, and connection by connection, GM has finally gotten its name, reputation, and unique style to the streets of the UK. With well-known retailers like TopShop, and not-for-profit Tabeisa’s support, Global Mamas is celebrating its entry into this competitive market with confidence.
The first step for developing the Global Mamas brand in the UK was to obtain the IFAT (International Fair Trade Agreement) certification. IFAT does a spectacular job enforcing their standards of fair trade with companies that apply for the certification. “It is a certification with substance,” says Renae Adam, founder of Women in Progress. “It is not a certification that can be obtained unless companies whole-heartedly use fair trade ethics and practices.”
Beyond fulfilling the fair trade qualifications for IFAT, Global Mamas decided to implement its own Fair Trade Certification program, which is enforced internally. The women of Global Mamas receive this certification when they have proven to practice high-quality employment standards. For example, they must provide clean and comfortable working environments for their employees, such as seamstresses and assistants. They must also pay their workers fair wages so that they spend their days making a truly living wage.
Many companies in the UK are responding to fair trade organizations, such as popular TopShop, which has taken note of Global Mamas’ ethical business practices and high-quality designs. TopShop has placed its first order of 400 dresses, 120 babies’ dresses, and tote bags. Not only will this connection in the UK give Global Mamas great business, but it will also help spread the awareness of fair trade and its importance in the UK. To have such practices become not only trendy, but eventually the norm in the industry, would be ideal.
The Global Mamas website is also becoming more popular, as it is a link on the TopShop website which has thousands of people looking to shop on a daily basis. As Global Mamas progresses with the TopShop order, it continues to keep an eye out for new opportunities in the UK and other markets.

domain: news


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It's hard to believe, but this year marks the ten-year anniversary of DevOps. In this decade, DevOps has represented one of the biggest IT transformation initiatives of the last 30 years. As the digital...
Consumers affected by the Equifax breach will be able to claim up to $20,000 each in compensation
Apple in talks with LG and Samsung over OLED 120Hz displays for its high-end iPhones
Exploits expected to emerge within days to take advantage of 9.8-rated critical security flaw in VLC Media Player
FSB projects to de-anonymise Tor and isolate Russia from the internet exposed


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Akron Rubber Development Laboratory has moved its rubber mixing services to its Barberton campus and expanded its prototyping offerings with injection molding and extrusion capabilities.
Bridgestone and Nokian believe the key to a more eco-friendly tire industry is growing in desert climates. Can guayule natural rubber really make better tires?
Bridgestone, Hankook and Nokian are fighting climate change and committing to a healthier planet by focusing on more efficient operations, eco-friendly products and end-of-life tire recycling.
As the tire industry navigates a post-COVID economy, Paolo Ferrari's experience with Bridgestone makes him the right fit as USTMA chair, the association says.
Second only to K, Fakuma is one of the most important technical events for the plastics industry. Christoph Steger, chief sales officer at Engel Austria GnbH, shares his expectations for this year's event.
With the return of in-person events, Arburg is eager for a "normal" trade show this year. Juliane Hehl, a managing director of the injection molding manufacturer, gives insight on Fakuma 2021.
The Tire Society is making its call for papers for the 2022 meeting and conference. Get details on the theme, date and location and submission requirements here.
Ryan Patterson's leadership in integrating Cooper Tire and Goodyear operations has earned him an expanded role within its largest business unit, Goodyear Americas.
Vitesco Technologies, which spun off from Continental, says the powertrain business must evolve, placing its bet on the growth in electric vehicles.
When Nikolai Setzer was named Continental CEO in 2020 he knew there would be challenges. What he got were microchip shortages, a global pandemic and an electric vehicle revolution.
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The world’s biggest hotel companies keep getting bigger.
No where is that more true than at Marriott International. Its purchase of Starwood in 2016 helped make it the largest hotel operator in the world. Marriott jumped 46 spots on this year’s Global 2000 list at #421 as revenue, profit, assets and market value all increased year-over-year.
Earlier this week, Marriott announced the transformation of Sheraton Hotels, a Starwood brand whose worn hotels had fallen out of favor. At the annual New York University International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference, Marriott unveiled a new, modern look for Sheraton around the idea of public space and open design.
The mock lobby setup near Times Square featured communal tables with wireless charging ports and desk compartments that can be locked by guests to store personal items. Telephone booth-sized, sound-proof “rooms” were also a main attraction with the idea of private and quiet work spaces. Renovation is under way at about 25 percent of Sheraton hotels.
With over 500 hotels in operation and in the pipeline Sheraton has the greatest global reach of Marriott’s 30 brands and is the third highest fee-generator.
Hilton and Wyndham come in behind Marriott in the hotel category ranking #775 and #1370 respectively on the overall list. Hilton fell from #766 last year while Wyndham dropped 32 spots from last year’s list.
France-based Accor has been on an acquisition spree making it the largest hotel operator in Europe. The growth helped Accor jump from #1800 last year to #1431 on this year’s ranking. Accor is one to watch as its expansion continues through the year. This week the company said it was interested in taking a minority stake in Air France-KLM.
Rounding out the largest public hotel companies are U.K.-based Intercontinental Hotels Group at #1583, Hyatt Hotels #1806 and Hong Kong-based Shangri-La at #2881.
For more coverage of the Forbes Global 2000 ranking of the world’s largest public companies, see below:


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INDIANAPOLIS — Popular social media food reviewer Keith Lee came to Indy for All-Star weekend and made a surprise stop at Chicken Scratch, a local carry-out restaurant that specializes in wings and fries.
“We make everything from scratch, our sauces, seasonings, batters, hand cut fresh fries, everything we do it all,” said Chef Tia Wilson, the owner of Chicken Scratch. "About 80% of our business comes through door dash and door dash was so crazy, we literally had to turn it off for like hours on end."
Wilson says they saw a 50% increase in sales on the Friday and Saturday after Lee visited especially for one of their most popular items.
“If I look at the numbers, we probably go through and sell maybe about 300 honey hot Mac and cheese fries a day,” explained Wilson.
Lee's review also helped bring in brand new customers like Tisara Hardy and her daughter London.
“We’re a small city in a way and he came out to support our black community and so why not just try what he tries,” said Hardy.
Chef Wilson hopes that support continues in the community.
“We got a good review, I don’t think it was the greatest, but we got a good review,” said Wilson. “We do really really well so I think things like that are just temporary boosts for us. We just try and maintain consistency and maintain staying busy throughout the entire year.”
The restaurant says things are starting to calm down and they have since they turned Door Dash back on.
A local digital director weighed in saying this is a prime example of the impact social media can have in just a matter of hours.
“When you get into this market of selling food, for instance Keith Lee's mindset, you have great chefs, great cooks, but not necessarily great marketers getting into business and Keith's been able to go in and showcase what they truly love doing and use his social media expertise to bring them to light,” said Evan Krauss, the Assistant Director of Digital Content at Butler University.
Lee's Tik Tok of chicken scratch now has close to 500,000 reviews. View it below.
@keith_lee125 Chicken Scratch taste test 💕 would you try it ? 💕 #foodcritic ♬ original sound - Keith Lee


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Time for Growth – Luxe Watches Appoint The SEO Works
Multi-award-winning digital search agency The SEO Works have been selected to manage the organic SEO, Google PPC, and forthcoming new website migration for leading independent luxury watch retailer Luxe Watches.
Having spent over a decade assisting clients with finding their ideal luxury timepieces, Luxe Watches will soon be launching a completely revamped ecommerce website and also opening their brand new boutique store in early July 2021. Meanwhile, their existing Essex store will be converted into a dedicated watch service centre to meet rising demand.
This ambitious development for the leading watch retailer will be supplemented with sophisticated Organic SEO and Google PPC strategies, created by the Sheffield-based agency. Combining a new website migration with the development of these approaches, Luxe Watches hope to supercharge their digital presence, as well as drive awareness of their new offerings.
Nick Hickey, Managing Director and Founder of Luxe Watches said:
We’re currently seeing demand outstrip supply in the luxury watch world, but our expert sourcing team can locate and source watches matching our customer’s wish lists. Combined with this, it’s imperative that our website exemplifies the quality service that we offer our clients, and also our ability to be found via our strong SEO and PPC positioning. The SEO Works demonstrated a real desire to want to work with us and have a pedigree matching ours that has taken over a decade to establish
Alex Hill, Director at The SEO Works added:
Nick and his team at Luxe Watches deal only with the best and most luxurious and aspirational products in their field, and they deserve a digital service and online shopfront that matches that and drives the right pedigree of customer to them. The combined launch of their new website and new boutique store will provide us with the perfect ammunition to deliver on the campaigns and drive huge success for them.
The SEO Works specialises in SEO, PPC, Web and Paid Social advertising and has many clients within the Luxury items and Ecommerce sector, including Decathlon, TJ Hughes, Denby, Rab, Towsure and many others.
About The SEO Works
The SEO Works are an award-winning provider of digital marketing and websites for leading brands and prospering SME’s across the UK. They help businesses measure, understand, and fulfil their online potential.


text: Area hunting lodges and guides are using the Internet to bag their limit of tourists. The Web site huntfishsd.com went up about a year ago, said Nancy Krumm of the Aberdeen Convention and Visitors Bureau. The CVB operates the site, which highlights hunting opportunities within 50 miles of Aberdeen, she said. Local businesses that provide hunting services and supplies and room and board help support the site in return for being promoted on it. "Our goal is to reach more and more hunters and bring them into the area and show them what we have to offer," Krumm said. The Web site seems to have helped, she said. Last year, requests for information via the Internet from CVB were up 29 percent compared to 2005, Krumm said. Requests for direct mailings were up 72.5 percent, she said. Those are overall CVB numbers that include the huntfishsd.com Internet page. The Web site was up for only the last part of 2006. "We're real pleased with the program and how it's working," Krumm said. With the Web site, CVB officials can better get out the word about hunting around the Hub City at annual trade expos like Pheasant Fest and Game Fair, events where many outdoor enthusiasts go to learn more about hunting and fishing options and plan trips. The Web site also helps court the media, Krumm said. In recent months, the CNBC show "On the Money" filmed a segment about the economic impact of pheasant hunting on the Aberdeen area. Krumm said the episode has been shown five times. Krumm said somebody from Texas called her last week asking for information because he had found the Web site. This is a busy time of year for the Web site, she said. Many people planned early, but others wait until the last minute, she said. Krumm said the state Department of Tourism does not help with the Web site. It's a purely local effort.


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Samsung already launched its Odyssey G7 gaming monitor earlier this month. Now, less than a month later Samsung has globally launched its next-generation Odyssey G9 gaming monitor. The Samsung Odyssey G9 gaming monitor was showcased beside the Odyssey G7 monitor at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2020 in January this year.
The Odyssey G9 gaming monitor arrives with a futuristic design with a glossy white exterior and a 1000R curved display. On the specs aspect, it arrives with a huge 49-inch QLED curved display with a resolution of 5120 x 1440 pixels and an aspect ratio of 32:9. Samsung announces that Odyssey G9 is the first Dual Quad High-Definition gaming monitor in the world. It comes with a refresh rate of 240Hz, a response time of just 1ms, and a maximum brightness of 1000cd/m-square.
On the gaming aspect, it gives G-SYNC compatible and FreeSync Premium Pro functionality and it provides a total of seven gaming modes, which include Custom, FPS, RTS, AOS, RPG, Cinema and DCR. The Odyssey G9 also supports HRD10+ quality content, which allows it to deliver high-quality games and content. The newly launched monitor gives this experience by using the Quantum dot technology in tandem with the HDR1000 panel. To connectivity, Samsung’s Odyssey G9 gaming laptop has a 1.4(2 EA) display port, an HDMI 2.0(1EA) port, a USB3.0(1UP, 2DOWN) port, and a headphone jack.
Samsung hasn’t stated the price and availability of the Odyssey G9 gaming laptop yet. But the company has announced that it will be available in the global markets starting June 2020.


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Impossible Foods is sampling its next-generation products this week at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas
The leading food tech startup is providing an exclusive first taste of Impossible Pork -- a plant-based upgrade to the world’s most ubiquitous meat
Impossible Foods is also launching Impossible Sausage, which debuts in late January at 139 Burger King® restaurants in a limited-time test of the Impossible™ Croissan’wich®
Las Vegas, Nevada – This week at the International Consumer Electronics Show, Impossible Foods is serving up Impossible Pork Made from Plants and Impossible Sausage Made from Plants -- the startup’s first all-new products since the blockbuster Impossible Burger debuted in 2016.
Impossible Pork is a delicious, nutritious, gluten-free, plant-based ground meat that can be used in any recipe that calls for ground pork from pigs. Impossible Pork delivers everything that matters to people who love pork:
Taste: Impossible Pork is delicious in any ground meat dish, including spring rolls, stuffed vegetables, dumplings, wontons or sausage links. Like ground meat from pigs, Impossible Pork is characterized by its mild savory flavor, adding delicate depth and umami richness without being gamey or overpowering.
Nutrition: Impossible Pork contains no gluten, no animal hormones and no antibiotics. It has 16 g protein, 3 mg iron, 0 mg cholesterol, 13 g total fat, 7 g saturated fat and 220 calories in a 4-oz. serving. Conventional 70/30 pork from animals contains 17 g protein, 1 mg iron, 86 mg cholesterol, 32 g total fat, 11 g saturated fat and 350 calories in a 4-oz. serving.
Versatility: Impossible Pork is easy to cook in the steamer, oven, charbroiler, flat-top grill or sauté pan. Chefs can use Impossible Pork in recipes from stir-fry to meatballs to dim sum or links. Impossible Pork is designed to be eligible for kosher and halal certification if produced in a kosher- or halal-certified plant.
IMPOSSIBLE SAUSAGE: THE BEST OF THE WURST
In addition to providing an exclusive first taste of Impossible Pork at CES, Impossible Foods is launching Impossible Sausage -- a juicy, savory meat that pairs perfectly with traditional breakfast accompaniments or steals the show as a center-of-the-plate delicacy at any meal. The plant-based, pre-seasoned product can be used in any recipe or dish that calls for animal-derived sausage.
Impossible Sausage contains no gluten, no animal hormones and no antibiotics. A raw, 2-ounce serving has 7 g protein, 1.69 mg iron, 0 mg cholesterol, 9 g total fat, 4 g saturated fat and 130 calories. A 2-ounce serving of conventional Jimmy Dean’s raw pork sausage made from pigs contains 7 g protein, 0.36 mg iron, 40 mg cholesterol, 21 g total fat, 7 g saturated fat and 220 calories.
Impossible Sausage will debut in late January exclusively at 139 Burger King® restaurants in five test regions: Savannah, Georgia; Lansing, Michigan; Springfield, Illinois; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Montgomery, Alabama. The all-new, limited-time-only Impossible™ Croissan’wich® features a toasted croissant, egg, cheese and a seasoned plant-based sausage from Impossible Foods. This test makes Burger King® restaurants the first restaurant to sell Impossible Sausage in a breakfast sandwich. Click here to read more about the Impossible Croissan’wich(opens in a new tab).
Impossible Pork and Impossible Sausage are the only new foods showcased at CES2020 and the first all-new products from Impossible Foods, Inc. Magazine’s company of the year(opens in a new tab) and one of Time Magazine’s 50 Genius companies(opens in a new tab).
The leading food tech startup launched its award-winning Impossible Burger in 2016 with America’s top chefs. Impossible Burger is now available in more than 17,000 restaurants in the United States, Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau.
“Impossible Foods cracked meat’s molecular code -- starting with ground beef, which is intrinsic to the American market. Now we’re accelerating the expansion of our product portfolio to more of the world’s favorite foods,” said Impossible Foods’ CEO and Founder Dr. Patrick O. Brown. “We won’t stop until we eliminate the need for animals in the food chain and make the global food system sustainable.”
PORK: WORLD’S MOST UBIQUITOUS MEAT
Raising animals for food makes up the vast majority of the land footprint of humanity. All the buildings, roads and paved surfaces in the world occupy less than 2% of Earth’s land surface(opens in a new tab), while more than 45% of the land surface of Earth(opens in a new tab) is currently in use as land for grazing or growing feed crops for livestock.
Populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians have, on average, declined in size by 60 percent in just over 40 years(opens in a new tab). Animal agriculture is a primary driver of the accelerating collapse(opens in a new tab) in diverse wildlife populations and ecosystems on land and in oceans, rivers and lakes.
While cows and chicken are America’s favorite protein sources, pigs are the most widely eaten animal in the world, accounting for about 38% of meat production worldwide(opens in a new tab).
According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, the world is home to about 1.44 billion pigs(opens in a new tab); with an average weight of about 112 kg(opens in a new tab), total farmed pig biomass totals 175 billion kg. That’s nearly twice as much as the total biomass of all wild terrestrial vertebrates.
In order to satisfy humanity’s voracious demand for pork -- from Spanish jamón and Polish kielbasa to Brazillian feijoada and BBQ ribs — 47 pigs are killed on average every second of every day, based on FAO data.
More than half of the world’s pigs are eaten in China(opens in a new tab), where pork consumption has increased 140% since 1990, with dire consequences(opens in a new tab) to the environment — including depletion of natural resources and increased greenhouse gas emissions.
Using pigs as a protein production technology comes with a high environmental cost -- on both a global(opens in a new tab) and local scale(opens in a new tab): Industrial pork production releases excessive amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus into the environment, and the high doses of copper and zinc fed to pigs to promote growth accumulate in the soil. Feces and waste often spread to surrounding neighborhoods, polluting air and water with toxic waste particles.
Pork poses threats to both individual and public health(opens in a new tab). Because antibiotics are prophylactically added into pig (and cow and chicken) feed to protect and fatten the animals, pork consumption promotes antibiotic resistance — which the United Nations says(opens in a new tab) could cause 10 million deaths a year by 2050 and trigger a global recession. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(opens in a new tab), drug-resistant infections now kill 35,000 people in the United States each year and sicken 2.8 million.
Swine (and avian) flus are the most likely pandemic vectors because they pass easily to humans via feces in slaughterhouses. A University of Minnesota study discovered fecal matter in 69% of pork.(opens in a new tab) A devastating epidemic of African swine fever(opens in a new tab) has already wiped out roughly one-quarter of the world’s pigs(opens in a new tab) and is expected to drive up worldwide prices of animal protein.
About 2.5 billion people reject pork and pork-derived products based on dietary and religious restrictions. Pork from animals is forbidden in interpretations of Hinduism, Judiasm, Islam and some Christian sects.
“Pork is delicious and ubiquitous — but problematic for billions of people and the planet at large,” said Dr. Laura Kliman, senior flavor scientist at Impossible Foods and one of the company’s researchers on Impossible Pork and Impossible Sausage. “By contrast, everyone will be able to enjoy Impossible Pork, without compromise to deliciousness, ethics or Earth.”
BIG TASTE, SMALL FOOTPRINT
Based in Redwood City, Calif., Impossible Foods uses modern science and technology to create delicious food, restore natural ecosystems and feed a growing population sustainably. The company makes meat from plants -- with a much smaller environmental footprint than meat from animals.
To satisfy the global demand for meat at a fraction of the environmental impact, Impossible Foods developed a far more sustainable, scalable and affordable way to make meat, without the catastrophic environmental impact of livestock(opens in a new tab).
Shortly after its founding in 2011, Impossible Foods’ scientists discovered that one molecule — “heme(opens in a new tab)” — is primarily responsible for the explosion of flavors that result when meat is cooked. Impossible Foods’ scientists genetically engineer(opens in a new tab) and ferment yeast to produce a heme protein naturally found in plants, called soy leghemoglobin.
The heme in Impossible products is identical(opens in a new tab) to the essential heme humans have been consuming for hundreds of thousands of years in meat — and while Impossible products deliver all the craveable depth of animal meats, the plant-based innovations require far fewer resources because they’re made from plants.
WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS...GOES GLOBAL
Impossible Foods became the first food company ever featured at CES one year ago, when the startup launched Impossible Burger 2.0 -- the first major product upgrade since Impossible Burger’s 2016 debut. Rivaling ground beef from cows for taste, nutrition and versatility(opens in a new tab), Impossible Burger 2.0 won the most significant prizes at CES 2019(opens in a new tab) and got Popular Science’s 2019 grand award for engineering(opens in a new tab).
Impossible Foods remains the only food company featured in CES’ 2020 roster of world-changing technologies.
On Wednesday, Impossible Foods’ CEO will headline the Consumer Technology Association’s Leaders in Technology Dinner, an invitation-only address to 600 technology VIPs. Brown, the first person from the food sector to take the main stage at the tech industry’s seminal event, will conduct an unscripted on-stage interview with FOX Business Network journalist Liz Claman.
During the public show days Jan. 7-10, Impossible Foods will give away about 25,000 samples. Impossible Foods’ pop-up restaurant will operate 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Jan. 7-9 and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Jan. 10 in the Central Plaza of the Las Vegas Convention Center -- the crossroads of CES.
For video b-roll of Impossible Pork and Impossible Burger, please visit www.impossiblefoods.com/media/ces2020(opens in a new tab).
For a full list of locations that sell Impossible products, please visit impossiblefoods.com(opens in a new tab).
To learn more about buying Impossible Pork and Impossible Sausage when they are widely available, please email [email protected].
ABOUT IMPOSSIBLE FOODS:
Based in California’s Silicon Valley, Impossible Foods makes delicious, nutritious meat and dairy products from plants — with a much smaller environmental footprint than meat from animals. The privately held company was founded in 2011 by Patrick O. Brown, M.D., Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry at Stanford University and a former Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. Investors include Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates, Google Ventures, Horizons Ventures, UBS, Viking Global Investors, Temasek, Sailing Capital, and Open Philanthropy Project.


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Vietnam-Australia Centre Officially Launched in Hanoi
The Vietnam Australia Centre (VAC) has been officially launched by the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics (HCMA) and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), becoming a milestone in the Vietnam-Australia strategic partnership.
According to the Australian Embassy in Vietnam, the establishment of the centre is in implementation of an agreement signed by the Prime Ministers of the two countries in August 2019.
The Hanoi-based centre aims to help Vietnam access Australia’s knowledge, skills and expertise, experience in training and scientific research, thereby strengthening mutual understanding and deepening the fruitful partnership relationship between the two countries.
The VAC, to be jointly operated by the HCMA and the DFAT through the Aus4Skills Programme, also focuses on improving the capacity of Vietnamese leaders and managers to meet the requirements of integration and development of the country, and contributing to beefing up the close, positive and sustainable Vietnam-Australia cooperation relationship.
Earlier on June 8, the HCMA and DFAT signed an agreement on cooperation in implementing a project on establishing and building capacity of the VAC.
|The Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade signed an agreement to establish and build the capacity of the Vietnam–Australia Centre. Photo: VNA|
Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Robyn Mudie said her country is delighted to support Vietnam in its efforts to become a developed country with high income by 2045, Viet Nam News reported.
The centre’s establishment is an important initiative to realise this support, she stressed, adding that the centre is a symbol of mutual trust, and a priority in the development partnership between the two countries.
During their phone talks earlier this year, Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son and his Australian counterpart Marise Payne shared the view that the bilateral strategic partnership has been developing strongly despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
They said that the full reopening of the two countries will facilitate the promotion of bilateral relations in various fields, especially delegation and people-to-people exchanges, economy, agriculture and labour so as to bring the ties to a new height, according to VietnamPlus. /.
|Trade between Vietnam and Australia hit $12.4 billion for the first time last year. Photo: VNA|
Data of the General Statistics Office of Vietnam unveil that last year, two-way trade between Vietnam and Australia hit $12.4 billion for the first time, up more than 49% compared with that of 2020.
The value of shipments to Australia reached more than hit $4.45 billion, a year-on-year increase of 23%. Vietnam spent nearly $8 billion in importing goods from Australia, up nearly 70% against 2020’s figure.
Vietnam's exports to Australia are growing strongly, reaching $1.38 billion in the first quarter of 2022, a surge of 32.36% against the same period last year.
Meanwhile, the country is buying more and more essential materials from Australia, such as coal, iron ore, metals, cotton, wheat, and animal feed. /.
Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives met with Vietnamese Ambassador Nguyen Tat Thanh on Feb 9 reception.
The Enhanced Economic Engagement Strategy between Vietnam and Australia was published on December 21. It shall set out a roadmap to boost bilateral trade and ...
The Vietnam - Australia strategic partnership, particularly defence collaboration, has been maintained and promoted over the past time.


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Jeep has conquered Japan.
The new Cherokee is the first American car to make the top 10 of Japan’s Car of the Year list, Automotive News reports. The small SUV joined the Mercedes C-Class, BMW i3 and Peugeot 308 on the traditionally domestic-heavy list.
As for what this means for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ bottom line, probably not too much.
While Jeep has been the top-selling U.S. automaker in Japan for several years, last year it delivered just 5,274 total, compared to Toyota’s 1480577, according to IHS Automotive. Jeep sells that many Cherokees alone in the U.S. about every 10 days.
Still, not a bad feather in the cap for America's most patriotic brand.


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In an economy where sales of everything are down, an increasing number of authors and publishers, especially in academic fields, are distributing their books free on the Internet. This contradicts common sense. After all, at a time when people are buying fewer books, won’t giving away books compound the problem?
John Hilton (one of my doctoral students) and I have been researching the question of the impact of “free” on academic-book distribution. Here’s some of what we’ve found:
The Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago has been digitally distributing free copies of its books, but print sales have not declined. “After the complimentary distribution of 21 titles in 2008 that had for many years only been available in print, sales of these titles increased by 7 percent compared with the previous two years,” institute officials reported on their Web site.
National Academies Press makes its publications freely available online, which has increased people’s ability to find the books, and in turn has increased sales, says Michael Jensen, director of publishing technologies there.
James Boyle, co-founder of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University School of Law, has made several of his books available freely online. “Why might free digital availability make sense for parts of the publishing industry?” he wrote recently. “First, most people hate reading a book on a screen, but like finding out if it is worth buying. I am sure I have lost some sales, but my guess is that I have gained more new readers who otherwise would be unaware of my work, and who treat the digital version as a ‘sampler,’ to which they then introduce others.”
Yochai Benkler, a professor of entrepreneurial legal studies at Harvard Law School, made his book The Wealth of Networks available free. Open publishing “has probably exposed me to people who otherwise would not have gravitated towards an academic book,” he said.
That’s not to say that all authors or publishers would find the same results if they made digital versions of their publications freely available. But the idea that increased access could equal increased sales seems especially plausible for academic works with narrow markets.
And there are other reasons besides sales numbers to offer free book downloads.
Doing so can increase a book’s impact. After Lawrence Lessig, a law professor at Stanford University, published Free Culture free online in 2004, his fans voluntarily translated it into seven languages, produced an audio version, and converted the text into 16 e-book formats. That remixing vastly expanded the book’s reach.
And some authors feel a moral obligation to freely share their work. Hal Abelson, architect of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s OpenCourseWare movement and a driving force behind MIT’s recent open-access mandate, has also made much of his academic work freely available. When asked what his motivations were for making his work free, he simply said, “It’s the right thing to do.”
Not all authors or publishers will choose the dual path of free online and paid print publishing. But for those who have a sense of moral obligation to disseminate their work as broadly as possible, there is good news. The common-sense notion that providing free digital copies of a work decreases its sales is incorrect in some circumstances. Additional research is needed to understand these circumstances in sufficient, actionable detail. —David Wiley
David Wiley, our July guest blogger, is an associate professor of instructional psychology and technology at Brigham Young University and an adviser to Flat World Knowledge, an online textbook company.Return to Top


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Drupa 2020 is history – that never happened. Drupa 2021 fell victim to the pandemic as well. But there is still virtual drupa in 2021 and we are all curious on how this experiment is going to work out. After all, a virtual event is almost the opposite to the live, meet and touch drupa we all know. Virtual drupa 2021 is going to take place next week on four days on your screen, from the 20th of April to the 23rd.
In times of generally declining magazine circulations, magazines for kids are doing well. This is according to a report in the Press Gazette. The Week Junior and First News in the UK have seen circulation increases and stable advertising revenues. First News has said order value is up 59% from its 62,000 a week circulation registered last year. For The Week Junior, a spin-off of the condensed news title for older audiences, circulation is up by more than a fifth to 85,000 copies a week. Especially during lock-down parents felt that kids needed to keep engaged and informed. Additionally, it served as an antidote against too much screen time. But it seems that this is not just a short-term effect. Surprisingly, customers are sticking with The Week Junior even though the publisher had anticipated a drop-off after a six-week trial period. This is proving that print is for kids not just in Covid times. Even advertising held up well. Ad spending reduced by companies closing or struggling during lockdown has been replaced by government funded educative ads.
During the pandemic up to now, children’s book sales have been booming as well. The Washington Post reports, that as Covid restrictions increased sales of books for kids boomed through March. Three of the top 12 categories for book sales were aimed at children, according to data from NPD Group, a market research company that tracks book-buying trends. From March through May, as the pandemic kept schools closed, that trend increased dramatically, with half of the 12 top-selling categories catering to kids, including three categories of juvenile non-fiction. Through mid-August, the category with the biggest growth was juvenile non-fiction, up 28 % from last year, while juvenile fiction rose more than 8 %.
Similar is observed in Europe. The German book publisher’s association states that July 2020 revenue from children and juvenile books increased by 7% over July 2019. Cumulative sales of children and juvenile books are 4.2% higher in 2020 than in 2019 despite the period of book shops closures – the only category of books scoring higher than in 2019.
Yes, we know drupa 2020 has been moved and Covid restrictions mean that there will be no trade shows for 2020 at least. Still vendors want to launch new products and since even open houses are out of question for now the last resort is virtual events. There have been a few in the last couple of months.
There are pundits that extol the virtue of virtual, but I find them somewhat unsatisfying – and I know that I am not alone. There are big differences in the quality of the virtual events as well, in terms of content, presentation and getting the attendants enthusiastic. But the main point is that marketing anything around print, which distinguishes itself as something multi-sensory and tactile, only virtually is a bit dicey.
Heidelberg today announced that the company is to cancel its participation in drupa 2021. After Bobst and Xerox the third printing industry heavyweight dropped out now. Industry experts will feel a déjà vu with the last days of IPEX in 2014, with almost all major exhibitors dropping out before the show – one after another. This sealed the fate of IPEX, the second largest print trade show at its time.
Heidelberg justifies the decision of not exhibiting at drupa with the shortening innovation cycles and emerging digital business models. Heidelberg plans to customize its activities in regional markets and segments as well. Plans are to replace trade shows with events at their Print Media Centers (5 globally) and virtual events. Heidelberg pulled out of trade shows in developed countries many years ago, citing they know all customers already and rather invite them to the open house event. As the only exception drupa remained, as “the trade show you need to exhibit to be taken seriously in the graphic arts industry” and as the show that sets the mark for trends and technology developments.
When judging applications being in demand during and just after the Covid crisis, antibacterial print is certainly high on the growth list. Even beyond the current crisis there will be usage for antimicrobial print and paper to fight germs as consumers become more health conscious. Applications are found everywhere where print products change hands frequently: from paper money, restaurant menus, key cards, safety documents, playing cards and packaging.
Paper itself is a pretty low risk material. Erwin Busselot from Ricoh already laid out some arguments on paper and board reducing transmission risks. He states that tests have found that the Coronovirus survives the shortest on board, when compared to other surfaces. According to the WHO the likelihood of spreading the virus on packaging is low. Also, the paper manufacturing and printing processes do reduce the number of viable particles required to infect someone. Paper packaging or wrapping can also be used reduce transmission risks. Even paper towels are efficient in reducing germs, while hot air driers spread them around.
Coating to fight germs
Paper and print can even go beyond just having a low risk potential of spreading viruses to become a material to fight germs. Antimicrobial paper has been in use for years. There are solutions available adding copper or silver compounds to the paper, to the paper coating or to apply as print. Both are relatively expensive materials however and I am not sure whether they interfere with existing paper recycling processes. But there is more.


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What will the Africa of 2050 look like? Being only 31 years away, Africa's population is expected to double and there will be huge economic shifts...
An average of 800 hours will be spent using mobile internet this year - that's equivalent to 33 days without sleep or pause, according to Zenith's Media Consumption Forecasts...
5 Jul 2019
Warc's Global Ad Trends report has found that advertising revenues among key social and messaging companies have halved over the last year as consumer trust becomes a growing issue...
2 Jul 2019
According to a new CMO Council's report, Reshaping Global Engagement Operations, today's customer is seeking security, service and localised experiences based on local language and culture...
25 Jun 2019
The report reveals that internet ad formats already account for the majority of media spend in eight markets, including the US, UK and China...
31 May 2019
The New York Festivals AME Awards has released the 2019 AME Report, a ranking of the world's most successful agencies, and advertisers according to their achievements in the AME Awards...
23 May 2019
Wan-Ifra has released a new report that looks at the global map of remedies adopted by governments whose objective is to combat the disinformation crisis, though with extremely diverse intent and effects...
15 May 2019
The results of the second annual BrandZ Top 75 Most Valuable Global Retail Brands have been revealed. The research shows that the world's most valuable retail brands are worth $339 billion more...
14 May 2019
PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC: Television audience measurement in the Czech Republic attracts interest among professionals at home and abroad.
25 Jun 2013
NEW YORK, US: Purchases of environmentally protective products have grown significantly in two of the world's leading markets - China and Brazil; but the widespread perception that these products are too expensive may be blocking deeper adoption.
21 Aug 2012
LONDON, UK: comScore, Inc, a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an overview of internet usage in Europe, showing that 395.7 million Europeans went online in May 2012 for an average of 27.6 hours each.
6 Jul 2012
NUREMBURG, GERMANY: In 2011, demand for mobile phones once again increased in Europe, largely as a result of the rising popularity of smartphones. According to GfK, 3.2% more mobile phones were sold in 2011, in particular the sales of smartphones increased by 67%.
15 Feb 2012
NEW YORK, US: Global consumer confidence increased one index point last quarter to 89, while Europe led confidence declines in 24 of the region's 27 measured markets, according to fourth quarter 2011 global consumer confidence findings from Nielsen, a leading global provider of information and insights into what consumers watch and buy.
8 Feb 2012
PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC: Skoda, the VW-owned Czech car manufacturer has historically performed reasonably well in west European countries such as Denmark and the UK. To build upon this success, Skoda wanted to increase its market share further afield in Australia.
2 Feb 2012
LONDON, UK: comScore, Inc, a leader in measuring the digital world, has released an overview of Internet usage in Europe, showing that 379.4 million Europeans went online in November 2011 for an average of 27.8 hours per person.
25 Jan 2012


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To launch on January 15.
A Team-BHP member has worked on a new render of the Mahindra KUV100 featuring a new honeycomb grille and bumper design, which lend a dynamic and new look to the compact crossover's face.
Mahindra aims to garner attention from B-segment compact hatchbacks like the Hyundai Grand i10 and Maruti Swift by offering the road presence of an SUV, decent equipment list and a new fuel efficient range of engines.
Speaking of engines, the KUV100 debuts a new range of “Falcon” engines, which includes an 82 bhp 1.2-liter three cylinder petrol (mFalcon G80) and 77 bhp 1.2-liter three-cylinder diesel (mFalcon D75) engines. Mahindra is yet to detail the gearbox options, but is likely to offer a 5-speed manual gearbox and an AMT (unconfirmed).
Bookings for the Mahindra KUV100 are being accepted at all dealerships across India since December 19, and the crossover will go on sale from January 15, 2016. It will be manufactured at the company’s plant in Chakan (Pune) where its bigger monocoque brother, the XUV500, is also made.
Mahindra KUV100 - Official Image Gallery


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A lot of African countries are working on diversifying their economy.
In Ghana, the government has signed deals with various car manufacturers to either assemble or manufature vehicles in Ghana.
In Kenya, the government is also supporting local production of vehicles, such as Ghana has the Kantanka Automobile.
In a Facebook post, the Kenya Export Promotion and Branding Agency said it was in the process of promoting made in Kenya vehicles.
They are working on up-scaling the Sagak Auto tech plant and build capacity to produce for the local, regional and international markets.
However, the cars are doing little to meet local expectation and not to talk of international standards.
Various social media posts and comments under the Facebook has teased the government for promoting such low grade vehicle.
They tried, didn’t they?
Click on the comment box below and leave us your thoughts. Thank you


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TOWN centre traders and politicians today join the Southport Visiter in calling for a review of parking in the resort.
As our town’s small businesses struggle to secure elusive bank funding to see them through the economic downturn, we believe parking concessions are a necessary step to encourage people to Shop Local.
Traders suggest that offering discounted parking at certain times, or making our three park and ride services free, would stop business haemorrhaging to Manchester, Liverpool and Preston.
Newsagent Steve Baldwin of SKB News, Eastbank Street, said it was crucial to make the town centre as visitor-friendly as possible.
He said: “It’s so important that we make the town centre accessible and encourage people to come and spend their money here.
“Even if it is only a temporary measure, something needs to be done before it’s too late.”
Anthony Weldon, owner of Pack-It, King Street, asked the council to offer two hours free parking at lunchtimes.
But he says the council rebuffed the idea as too expensive to introduce.
He said: “I spoke to Steve Christian (Tourism Marketing Manager) and he said it would cost far too much to change how the pay and display machines work.
“Two hours free parking would mean people could go for a look around and a coffee without having to keep a close eye on the clock.”
Sefton Council is understood to have held tentative briefings on the subject, as other authorities begin to implement concessions.
Motorists driving in parts of central London on Saturdays in April will be able to park for free in a show of support to businesses.
Southport MP John Pugh said: “It would be silly to blame Sefton parking services for all the effects of the global recession but what we fundamentally need is a more sensitive and business- friendly way of rationing inevitably limited car parking space.
“It’s a question of local business and the council working together – and promoting the right offer with the right facilities, and above all the right attitude.”
The Southport Visiter is celebrating an overwhelming response to our In It To Win It supplement – unveiled as part of our Shop Local campaign – in Friday’s edition, on sale until tomorrow (Thursday).
As of Monday, over 2000 entries had been received by readers trying to win thousands of pounds worth of prizes from our local businesses.


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It currently has one U.S. location.
Aier Eye Hospital, a company that operates over 170 locations in China, is looking to the U.S. for growth, Forbes contributor Ellen Sheng reports.
In China, the company's business model involves running eye hospitals in smaller cities and underserved areas. It will use the same approach in the U.S., according to Forbes.
Aier last year set up a U.S. subsidiary called Aier (U.S.A.) International Holdings Inc. and has since bought Wang Vision Institute in Nashville. The laser vision center is the practice of Dr. Ming Wang, an eye surgeon who is serving as CEO of the U.S. subsidiary.
The goal for now is to open locations in other Tennessee communities, Forbes reports. After that, Aier will consider building or buying eye hospitals nationwide.
Wang told Forbes that the U.S. clinics will "will have significant elective out-of-pocket paying procedures."
The U.S. subsidiary has an initial fund of $50 million, according to the Tennessean.
The company "is building 20 hospitals a month in China with a goal of having 1,000 eye hospitals in the next few years," the newspaper reports.
Aier also operates more than 75 locations in Europe, according to Forbes. In all, it employs 25,000 people.
Read more at Forbes
Hear What the Industry Thinks About the Ultimate Lens Package by Essilor
Eye care professionals, patients, and Essilor sales consultants shared their feedback on the Ultimate Lens Package. Watch to see why they believe the innovation behind the lens can make the difference for your practice and for your patients. For more information on the Ultimate Lens Package, contact an Essilor Sales Consultant or click here.


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On Twitter, Kojima has shared a picture of a new Metal Gear model by Kotobukiya: Metal Gear Solid V’s Sahelanthropus.
“The plastic model of Sahelanthropus by KOTOBUKIYA. It can be change to both REX & human shaped. Awesome made.”
Kotobukiya released several model kits of Metal Gear figures before, Metal Gear RAY and REX, a Ground Zeroes set, and currently they are working on a Sniper Wolf statue.
Source: Hideo Kojima Twitter


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The last year has been rocky for Samsung with the recall of the Galaxy Note 7 and various legal woes in its native South Korea. And yet, the company has issued Q2 earnings guidance today that points to its highest profits ever. So, I guess people aren't holding any grudges after the Note 7 thing.
Samsung's initial estimates show around 60 trillion Korean won (about $51 billion) in sales with 14 trillion won ($12.1 billion) in profit. That's a whopping 71% increase from last year in the same quarter. Strong sales of the Galaxy S8 are part of that, but Samsung has managed to push semiconductor and display manufacturing to the forefront of its business. Analysts predict that it will become the largest chip maker in the world soon, claiming the crown long held by Intel.
The previous record for quarterly profit at Samsung was the third quarter of 2013 when it posted 10.2 trillion won ($8.8 billion). That was back in the era of the Galaxy S4 and Note 3. The high profits are likely to continue, with Samsung expected to launch the rumored Galaxy Note 8 later this year. With a price as high as €1,000 per phone, Samsung will be raking it in. Meanwhile, LG is still losing money.


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Listen to this story
OpenAI has temporarily suspended new sign-ups for ChatGPT Plus following a significant surge in usage post DevDay, OpenAI chief Sam Altman said. “The surge in usage post DevDay has exceeded our capacity and we want to make sure everyone has a great experience” he posted on X.
Despite this temporary pause, users can sign up within the app to receive notifications about the reopening of subscriptions. This ensures they stay informed and can promptly access the enhanced features of ChatGPT Plus when availability resumes.
Recently, ChatGPT also experienced periodic outages caused by an unusual surge in traffic, indicating a possible DDoS attack.
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The surge in the demand can be attributed to GPTs. At OpenAI’s first developer conference, DevDay 2023, OpenAI introduced GPTs that allow anyone to easily build their own GPT without the need for coding. As of now, there are over 5,000 GPTs available.
After releasing GPT-4 Turbo, OpenAI is silently working on developing GPT-5. Sam Altman mentioned that the training process for GPT-5 will necessitate an increased volume of data, as per FT report. Altman explained that this data would be sourced from a blend of publicly accessible datasets on the internet and exclusive datasets from private companies.
While GPT-5 is expected to be more sophisticated than its predecessors, Altman mentioned that predicting the model’s exact new capabilities and skills is a technical challenge. Meanwhile, Sam Altman stated that OpenAI also plans to seek additional financial support from its major investor, Microsoft, to achieve its vision of AGI.


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More bad news for housing and a disappointing report on durable goods orders highlighted last week's economic data. Stocks and bonds ended the week with the S&P 500 Index up 2.4 percent to 1,535, now up 8.2 percent for the year, and the yield of the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose one basis point to 4.41 percent.
Existing Home Sales: Sales of existing homes fell much more than expected in September, plunging 8.0 percent from August to an annualized rate of just 5.040 million, the lowest level since 1999. On a year-over-year basis, sales declined 19.1 percent and volume is off an even 30 percent from the peak in 2005. Sales were down across the entire country with the most severe drops occurring in the West and the Northeast.
Inventory set a new eight year record at 10.4 months, up from 7.3 months a year ago. The current level of homes for sale is almost double the six month inventory that typically delineates a "seller's market" from a "buyer's market" and this figure does not include many of the bank-owned properties and other foreclosed homes that are on the market.
The median home price fell from $224,400 in August to $211,700 in September as the credit market tumult and "drying up" of funding for jumbo loans caused many higher priced sales to be cancelled and, as a result, the median price to be pushed down. The year-over-year price decline of 4.9 percent was the largest on record.
This report covered sales that closed in September, meaning that the sales agreement would have been signed in July or August. While this data reflects the tightening in credit, it does not necessarily reflect the change in the mood of home buyers as a result of the events of August and September. While both the median price and sales volume may bounce back in the months ahead, given the amount of negative coverage on housing and mortgage lending, a sustained rebound is not likely anytime soon. An increasing number of analysts do not see a housing turnaround until 2009 at the earliest.
Durable Goods Orders: Orders for durable goods fell 1.7 percent in September, following a downwardly revised 5.3 percent decline in August, led by a sharp drop in durable defense orders. Excluding defense, durable goods orders increased 0.7 percent, but this report was far short of the rebound that most analysts expected from the month before. Orders fell 8.4 percent and shipments declined 1.1 percent while inventory grew, further confirmation of the slowdown in manufacturing that has been exacerbated by the credit market problems.
New Home Sales: Sales of new homes rebounded from a downwardly revised annualized rate of 735,000 in August to 770,000 in September. While the headlines may have indicated a 4.8 percent increase, comparing the original August release that showed 795,000 sales to the original September data indicates a 3 percent decline. The September data is likely to be revised downward when the October report is released, part of a continuing pattern of downward revisions to prior data that make this data set a very poor source of newspaper headlines.
On a year-over-year basis, sales were down 24 percent and, from the peak in July of 2005, sales have declined 45 percent. The inventory of new homes for sale fell from 9.0 months in August to 8.3 months in September and the median price rose 2.5 percent for the month but was down 2.8 percent on a year-over-year basis.
Recall that prices paid do not reflect builder incentives and that cancellations, now averaging about 50 percent for major homebuilders, are not included in the sales totals - the net purchase price and the actual total of closed sales are much lower than this report indicates.
Also note that new home sales are recorded when contracts are signed as opposed to the existing home sales report that reflects closed sales. As such, this data on new home sales covers September activity following the onset of the credit market problems in August, the initial plunge in sales being seen in last month's report.
Consumer Sentiment: Rising fuel prices and worsening housing market problems led to a gloomier outlook by consumers as the Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index fell from 83.4 in September, to a mid-October reading of 82.0, and then to a final October reading of 80.9. The index has now declined in seven months out of the last nine and is at the lowest level since May of 2006 when gas price shocks hit consumers' wallets.
Summary: Both new and existing home sales continue to decline. The headlines of a rebound in new home sales are wildly off the mark and when taking into account all recent housing data, it should be clear that the housing market has yet to find a bottom. As the lack of availability and the higher cost of jumbo loans were big factors in both the sales and price declines for existing home sales in September, it will be important to see how the high-end market fares in the months ahead.
For much of the last year, median home price declines have been somewhat muted because of the drop off in sales at the low-end while higher priced homes continued to sell. With jumbo mortgages now more difficult to get and with rates now much higher, more substantial median home price declines will probably be seen in the months ahead.
The continuing decline in consumer confidence and a disappointing report for durable goods orders after last month's sharp decline offer more evidence of a slowing economy. There has yet to be any major stress in the labor market, however, and anecdotal evidence still suggests that employment, the most important of all economic indicators, remains in much better shape than other economic indicators. This may soon change, but, then again, many observers have been expecting the labor market to weaken substantially for a long time now.
The Week Ahead: The week ahead will be highlighted by the FOMC announcement and the first look at third quarter GDP, both on Wednesday, and the monthly labor report on Friday. Also scheduled for release are reports on consumer confidence on Tuesday, construction spending and ADP employment on Wednesday, and personal income/spending, the ISM manufacturing index, and pending home sales on Thursday.
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Driving relevance means driving growth. Join global brands and industry thought leaders at Brandweek, Sept. 11–14 in Miami, for actionable takeaways to better your marketing. 50% off passes ends April 10.
Over the years, agency holding companies have approached San Francisco-based agency Muh-Tay-Zik Hof-fer about partnerships, but its executives dismissed them every time.
"We never gave it much thought. It wasn't something we needed or were looking for," said John Matejczyk, the agency's executive creative director.
But when London-based VCCP came calling, seeking out a U.S.-based partner, the arrangement made sense for both agencies. Today, Muh-Tay-Zik Hof-fer and VCCP are announcing a new creative partnership. The two agencies will form an international network, continuing to operate with the same staff, and combining their client roster.
"We wanted to find a partner in the U.S.


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The dot-comers may have had their day. But look who is sitting in their chair: Corporate America.
For amid the wreckage of the dot-com start-ups, one of its industry practices remains--the demand for stylish, comfortable and affordable office furniture.
"The dot-comer helped bring about lower-priced, better-designed furniture that was a little funky," said Mark Falanga, vice president, business development, for Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. NeoCon, North America's largest office furniture conference, concludes Wednesday at the Merchandise Mart.
"For example, in the early `90s, the buyer had to pay up for ergonomic features," Falanga said. "Now, it's medium threshold; it's less expensive for the buyer. All chairs are ergonomic today and better designed."
The NeoCon conference, now in its 34th year, is the national beauty pageant for office furniture and design concepts. Yet the office furniture industry, like much of American business, is struggling through the second year of an economic downturn and continued layoffs. A dearth of new office construction is also hurting sales.
The latest furniture industry forecast calls for a 13 percent decline in shipments through the end of this year, with significant improvement not expected until next year, when a 9 percent increase in shipments is anticipated, according to an analysis by the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturer's Association.
The industry sees some easing toward the end of this year, when employment growth is expected to accelerate, leading to some increased demand for office furniture. Still, new office construction is expected to decline for several more quarters, dragging down furniture demand through the middle of next year, according to industry analysts.
In short, fewer workers mean fewer desks and chairs are needed. Unemployment among office workers in May was 5.2 percent, compared with 5.8 percent for the overall economy, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In January 2001, the unemployment rate for office workers was 3.5 percent, compared with a 4.2 percent unemployment rate overall.
"It's true that corporations still have tight budgets, but we've found a growing optimism for new products, many of which generally align with cost-cutting measures of big companies or are aimed at smaller emerging companies," Falanga said.
Examples of this trend have been rolled out at NeoCon this week. These include the #19 Chair, a new office chair made by Allsteel Inc., a unit of Hon Industries Inc. of Muscatine, Iowa; the Olympia chair, produced by KI, an employee-owned company in Green Bay, and the Maxwell chair, produced by Izzydesign, a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based start-up.
Chuck Saylor, Izzydesign's president, has more than 30 years of furniture industry experience. His claim to fame: He helped design the office cubicle in the mid-1970s.
He's now anti-cube.
"The oppressive command-and-control mentality in most large businesses at the time was reflected in their organizational structure. Basically, the pyramid structure conveyed that people at the top were smart, and the rest of us were stupid," he said.
Saylor's 2-year-old firm, named after his granddaughter Isabel, employs 150 people and has roughly $50 million in revenue. The firm is built around the idea of producing "cool and affordable" office furniture.
The Maxwell chair was designed in conjunction with German automaker BMW, and uses a mechanism that lets the seat slide--it seemingly rocks back and forth--allowing it to move more in line with the natural way the body moves, Saylor said.
The ergonomic system originally was designed by BMW for use in German trains, Saylor said. Izzydesign is able to make the chair at a lower cost because a big chunk of production occurs in an auto manufacturing plant, enabling the company to leverage manufacturing technologies and use lean manufacturing principles.
In contrast to Izzydesign, KI is one of the heavyweights of the office furniture industry, with about $700 million in sales a year, according to Norm Nance, a KI spokesman.
KI touts its new office chair, the Olympia, as fully ergonomic and fully adjustable. The chair has a mesh back, more conforming to a person's body, said Norm Nance, a KI spokesman.
"It has a very slim line--it's very Italian looking," Nance said.
The economic downturn has had some effect at KI, though its highly diverse customer base has cushioned it somewhat, Nance said.
"We are really getting hammered on the technology side," Nance said. "The business accounts are down 30-plus percent." Still, he noted that KI's accounts with colleges, primary schools and health-care facilities have held their own.
Allsteel dubbed its new chair, #19, because it is made up of 18 primary technical components. The 19th is the person sitting in the chair.
"Anyone can make an ergonomic chair; the hard part is making it with only two levers," said Jeff Loringer, Allsteel's spokesman. "The marketplace was looking for a chair that didn't require an owner's manual to operate it."
One lever operates the chair's passive recline system, the other moves the chair up and down. Among the chair's features is a seat cushion made of foam, gel and fabric. The base foam eliminates pressure on the "sitting bones" while the gel reduces pressure points by distributing weight over a large area, Loringer said.
Allsteel has felt some of the effects of corporate belt-tightening, and has shut some factories, though "it's not quite as bad as last year," Loringer said.


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Excellent snow conditions across Europe - some of the best for years - have seen ski operators extending their season, adding departures into April and even May. And because Easter falls unusually early this year, prices are much lower than end-of-season deals in previous years.
Frances Sweetman, of the Ski Club of Great Britain (020 8410 2000; www.skiclub.co.uk), said: 'The season has been extended because Easter is so early - people tend to think that the season finishes then, but this year there are still a good number of weeks after the Easter holidays. And there's plenty of snow to see us through April.'
Companies are already offering good deals on the extended season, and Sweetman predicted that even better late-season bargains may be released over the next fortnight, through websites such as www.ifyouski.com and www.iglu.com.
Inghams (020 8780 8813; www.inghams.co.uk) has extended its season in Austria, France and Switzerland, with extra departures on 9 April. Prices start at £468pp for seven nights' half-board accommodation at the three-star Hotel Pepi Gabl in St Anton, including flights from Stansted and transfers.
Crystal Ski (0870 160 6040, www.crystalski.co.uk) is now offering departures to 19 French resorts between 10 and 17 April, with prices from £419pp for seven nights' catered chalet accommodation in Méribel. Thomson Ski (0870 606 1470; www.thomson-ski.co.uk) is offering 15 resorts in France from 9 April, with seven nights starting at £419pp in a chalet in Tigne. A spokesman said: 'We started the season early, and will go right through to 5 May. It's the first time we've done it - we've been lucky with the snow, and it's quite cheap.'
Other April deals are available from Ski Val (0870 746 3030; www.skival.com), which has seven nights' half-board in Val d'Isère from £529pp including flights, and Ski Famille (0845 644 3764; www.skifamille.co.uk), which is offering seven nights' chalet accommodation in Les Gets and five days' childcare from £420pp, excluding flights.
There is still availability on Easter skiing with Directski.com (0800 587 0945), which has three nights' half-board in Lillehammer, departing 24 March, from £359pp, and Ski Val, whose catered Chalet Arabella in Val d'Isère is available for seven nights from 26 March, from £999pp.


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That’s one of the findings from the Cask Report, launched to coincide with Cask Ale Week, which kicks off today (27 September). The Report found that pub-goers are turning to cask ale in search of flavour, natural ingredients and craft production methods.
“There has been a sea-change in attitudes towards cask ale over the past few years,” said Pete Brown, author of the Cask Report. “This explains why it’s now out-performing the beer market by 6.8 per cent.
Cask-conditioned beer, also referred to as real ale, is served from a cask without additional nitrogen or dioxide pressure. Sixty-three per cent of licensees say the drink is attracting younger customers into their pub and a similar number say that more women are drinking it.
“More people see it as crafted product made from natural British ingredients and like the fact that it’s available only in the pub,” added Brown. “This is great news for all those who care about the future of the British pub since it helps guarantee a new generation of drinkers who will help keep pubs relevant - and open.”
Brewing up a storm
The Cask Report also refers to Britain’s brewery boom, highlighted earlier this month by the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) in its 2014 Good Beer Guide.One hundred and eighty-four new breweries have opened during the past year; some microplants in the brewhouses of regional brewers and others in pubs or converted buildings, on industrial estates or in the heart of the countryside.
“People love the opportunity to support local breweries,” said Brown. “But they aren’t looking exclusively for beers from their own region. In fact, 70 per cent of drinkers would like to try beers from different parts of the country more often. This provides a great opportunity for pubs to diversify their range – and for the country’s 1,150 breweries to sell beyond their own doorstep.”
Brown concluded that cask ale’s image was further modernised by the hosting of beer festivals by over 10,000 pubs in 2012. “With all the extra beers on offer in each of those pubs during the festivals, that’s not only a lot of sales generated; it’s also a good illustration of why the market is fragmenting and new breweries are opening,” he said.
Cask Ale Week, which runs from 27 September to 6 October, sees a range of activities taking place from master classes in ale tasting to beer quizzes, meet the brewer evenings, beer festivals, sampling and free pint offers. The theme for the Week is ‘The Great Big Taste Challenge’. For more information, visit www.caskaleweek.co.uk.
Pete Brown is an author, consultant and broadcaster specialising in beer and pubs. He is the author of five books and was named Beer Writer of the Year in 2009 and 2012. Read some of his columns in our sister title, the Publican’s Morning Advertiser, here.


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ComputerWare Mac-Only Chain Closes Suddenly
Published 4:00 am, Thursday, April 5, 2001
ComputerWare, a Bay Area chain of Macintosh-only retail stores, has abruptly shut its doors.
Starting in 1984 with a single, tiny storefront in Palo Alto, the company had grown to 10 stores scattered from San Rafael to Capitola. But the end came Monday night, when the chain's primary investor, Knightsbridge Holdings of Las Vegas, pulled the plug without warning.
Even management employees at the chain's headquarters didn't know of the shutdown until they reported for work Tuesday and were told to clean out their personal items, according to an online posting from one such employee. An inventory-liquidation sale is going on at its Sunnyvale store, but all the others are shut down.
Calls yesterday to ComputerWare headquarters were not returned. At the company's Web site a message says "Our On-Line Store is not available at this time. Please try again in a few moments."
Among those most affected by ComputerWare's demise are Mac users who had taken their machines there for service. In recent years, however, the stores' service departments have been operated by an outside contractor, CyberCSI of Santa Clara, and yesterday that company's chief executive officer, David Sanders, tried to provide reassurance.
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"We're running around right now trying to pick up all the work in process" from the defunct chain's stores, he said. "We're working very hard to get everything sorted out."
Customers can't yet recover equipment that was in service, but can make inquiries through an e-mail link at CyberCSI's Web site, www.cybercsi.com, Sanders said.
CyberCSI "wants to continue serving the Apple community" and is now investigating the possibility of setting up new service depots around the region, he added.
Like other computer retailers, ComputerWare faced mounting competition from large national chains and online outlets. Apple has also been pushing to increase sales through its own online store.
But the situation apparently became acute last fall, when Mac sales suddenly plummeted. According to Martin Reynolds, vice president and research fellow at Gartner Dataquest, Apple's worldwide share of the personal computer market fell from 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 1999 to 1.9 percent at the end of last year.
"The retail environment is fairly fragile," Reynolds said. "If anything gets out of balance, you can get in trouble very, very quickly."
Compounding the problem was the limited availability, until recently, of new models Apple announced in early January. Tom Santos, proprietor of Macadam,
a competing Mac-only store in San Francisco, said ComputerWare made things worse for itself by refusing to sell older models after new ones were announced.
Santos said he's been coping with shortages of new models by selling their predecessors, such as the now-discontinued PowerBook G3, which, he said, he can "sell at wonderful prices and still get great margins."


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Gulf between patients and doctors over EMR access
An Accenture survey of consumer attitudes towards patient access to electronic medical records has shown that 78 per cent of patients believe they should have full access, but only 22 per cent do so.
The survey of consumers follows one taken late last year of doctors' attitudes, in which only 18 per cent of doctors believed patients should have full access to their medical records.
While the consumer survey was more about attitudes than trying to find out if patients were actually asking for more access more frequently, it did bring up an interesting finding, which was that 47 per cent of Australian consumers without online access to their medical records would be willing to change doctors to achieve it.
The Accenture survey found that this percentage rises to 55 per cent among consumers under 55 years of age without online access to their records.
Leigh Donoghue, managing director of Accenture’s health business in Australia, said an impetus behind conducting the consumer survey was the results of the survey of doctors, which indicated that Australian doctors have more conservative attitudes towards patient access to records than other surveyed countries.
“We were really interested in how patients' expectations compared with doctors' views,” Mr Donoghue said. “There is a significant gap. What also comes through is that younger consumers have higher expectations in terms of online access, along with higher income consumers.
“That makes sense – each of these groups is IT literate and extensive users of online services … but the real challenge is to engage the older people who are going to become chronically ill unless they start to change some of their behaviours.
“Access to medical records has to be a part of empowering people to take more responsibility and be active participants in their own healthcare. That's why we have to start to change some of the attitudes around patient access and involvement.”
Mr Donoghue said Australian consumers differed from those in countries like the US and Brazil, where the expectation of online access to medical information and health services was much higher. Australia more closely mirrored the UK, he said.
“When it comes to healthcare [in the US] you have more direct competition and the innovation that comes with that, such as the ability to get repeat prescription refills online or wellness services via mobile health apps.”
“We are not wildly different from the UK, England in particular, which has similar characteristics in terms of consumer experience and expectations. Certainly, the national eHealth program in the NHS England focused heavily on provider enablement in terms of shared electronic health records, with consumer access treated as a secondary concern.
“In the last couple of years the NHS has sought to correct this. By comparison, through the PCEHR the Australian eHealth approach put much greater emphasis on personal control and consumer engagement.”
The survey found that over three-quarters of consumers in Australia (78 per cent) reported that they have limited or no access to their electronic medical records, despite the launch of the PCEHR last year, which Accenture was intimately involved in designing as the national infrastructure partner.
While Mr Donoghue is precluded from talking too much about the system, he said he did not think the PCEHR was the only way that patients will be able to access their information in the future.
“A number of GP products support this capability in the UK today. Locally, we're seeing moves from some of the health insurers to create a personal health record for their members. It has to be a part of empowering consumers to play a more active role in their own healthcare.”
On the concerns raised by clinicians with the PCEHR system allowing patients to withhold certain information if they so choose, Mr Donoghue said this needs to be kept in perspective.
“The reality is, clinical decision-making is based on partial information today and this will remain the reality for many years to come,” he said. “A significant amount of patient information is not available to clinicians today. We don't have information from allied health in the PCEHR system, we don't have information from specialists or from the private hospitals or from aged care, so that the vast bulk of information is not there today.
“It is always about making judgements based on limited information and the need to ask patients for more. Partial information is a reality of the health system today and only a small minority of people will restrict access to clinical documents held in the PCEHR.
Yet there seems to be a particular focus on the information that patients withhold, and I think that is out of proportion compared to the wider information gaps that exist today.”
He has been watching the submissions to the PCEHR review with interest, and has noticed a few themes coming through, including several suggestions to move to an ‘opt-out’ system.
“There is some strong support for the core infrastructure that is in place and a desire to build on it to deliver better clinical outcomes, but I can also see some emerging consensus around the benefits of an ‘opt-out’ system and the opportunities that creates by shifting the focus from registration ... to more meaningful use and how electronic records can support better care and clinical outcomes.
“That would be a constructive step. It's obviously a decision for government and we'll support whatever the government does but I think you can see those two themes emerging.”
Accenture's survey of 1000 consumers in Australia as part of a total of 9000 around the world was taken in June, when business consulting firm Infosys also released the results of a survey on consumer attitudes towards sharing data online with healthcare providers, retailers and banks.
The Infosys survey of 5000 consumers, 1000 of whom were Australian, found that 92 per cent believe that doctors should have ready access to patients’ electronic health information.
It also found that consumers were confident in the security of their medical records and were comfortable sharing personal information with their doctor or local hospital. However, only 60 per cent say they are actually willing to share healthcare information online.
Allen Koehn, public sector general manager for Infosys in Australia, said the relative reluctance to share healthcare information online was probably due to a conundrum facing healthcare providers and governments over personal health information.
“My personal healthcare information is very personal, and you could argue that it's even more personal than financial data, yet I own it,” Mr Koehn said.
“The government doesn't own it and the insurance companies don't own it, I actually own it, but I probably have the least amount of control over health information compared to all of my personal information.
“I think that is part of the conundrum: certainly when you go to the doctor's office you are more than happy to sit there and speak with the doctor about very private information, but it's another thing to get onto a government website or even a private insurer's website and put private information out there.”
The Infosys study did find that consumers were interested in using apps for their healthcare, with 70 per cent interested in apps that helped them track their health goals, 73 per cent for helping them stick to their doctor's treatment plan, 76 per cent to communicate with their doctor’s office, and 75 per cent to coordinate appointments with their doctor.
However, they were much less interested in using apps to share their healthcare data with their doctor.
“There are more apps coming out where you can actually start doing business with government or doing business with your private health insurer, but if you look at what's available on the market now, there are a lot of apps that are superficial.
“I don't think there's a significant amount of apps available yet. That could be a reason why: there just aren't the apps available that people have seen and become used to and trust. If I go to my doctor and he says I'd like you to start using this app so that I can monitor your progress and we can communicate, that's a different story. I think that's still probably a leap that has to be made and that's again where innovation comes in.”
With the PCEHR, Mr Koehn said the system was just one piece of the puzzle. “You have Medicare, you have private insurance, you have dental, vision, the hospital, etc… These have all historically been silos of information, and the PCEHR will bring some of the silos together, but not all.
“If you look at the research, when it comes to mobile apps where people would actually have control of what they are doing and their personal information, the interest level is high. I think the government needs to open this whole area up to innovation.
“For example, all of the information that I put into the PCEHR, why can't that be opened up to innovation? It's my data and if I give permission, why can't someone come up with some wild idea of an app that helps me manage my health better?”
Posted in Australian eHealth


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Sports Authority teams up with ShopRunner to improve online shopping experience
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. - Sports Authority has announced a partnership with ShopRunner (http://www.shoprunner.com), a members-only online shopping program that offers consumers unlimited, free two-day shipping with no minimum order size, and free shipping on returns, across a wide selection of retailers.
“We see ShopRunner as an exciting component of our progressive marketing strategy,” said Clay Cowan, VP e-commerce with Sports Authority. “In an era when consumers are driving how and when goods are sold, we can leverage ShopRunner’s fast, free shipping as an ideal addition to our online shopping experience. We feel that the ability to provide free two-day shipping over the course of a year will be a real value to our consumers who continue to choose Sports Authority across more and more seasons.”


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Digital River Servers Breached, 200,000 Individuals Records Stolen
E-commerce company Digital River exposed data belonging to almost 200,000 individuals after hackers executed a “highly unusual search command” against its secured servers, according to a news report.
The breach came to light only after a 19-year-old New York man allegedly tried to sell the purloined data for as much as $500,000, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported Friday. After Eric Porat made repeated attempts to persuade a company called Media Breakaway to buy the information, company officials alerted their counterparts at Digital River, the paper reported, citing court documents. A federal grand jury is investigating the matter with help from the FBI.
The data contained names, email addresses, websites, and unique user-identification numbers for 198,398 individuals. It was originally gathered by affiliated marketing companies using software offered by Digital Rivers subsidiary Direct Response Technologies and stored on password-protected servers.
It was stolen in late January using a “highly unusual” search command. The report didn’t elaborate.


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The internet advertisement industry might be the fastest growing industry around. We are moving into an era where businesses will be entirely dependent on online advertisement for success. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) are the two best positioned stocks to benefit from this trend. The primary concern for all internet advertisement based businesses is mobile monetization. In its recent earnings report, Facebook has revealed its mobile monetization strategy, but Google is yet to accomplish this difficult task.
Computing is shifting to handheld devices that have a different functionality as compared to conventional computing. ‘Explorer based’ browsing allows Google to publish adds on their website, as a large part of the traffic is routed through their search results. Smartphone applications minimize the usefulness of Google because users can access their destination through pre-installed applications. Therefore the market has been closely monitoring Google’s mobile monetization strategy and its ability to get the maximum out of Android. The company is facing heavy competition from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iOS and there is a potential threat from Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s Windows 8. The search giant is depending heavily on the following factors to drive future growth:
I. Growth from areas other than search, primarily YouTube and Enterprise.
II. Successful conversion of the mammoth potential of Android into actual revenue and profit for the company.
III. Continued expansion in international markets due to growing market share of online advertisement.
IV. Becoming the leader in cloud computing, which can place it in a dominant position in the global arena.
Despite a worsening economy and shrinking advertisement budgets, Google was able to report a solid quarter. The market was expecting Google to report an EPS of $10.56 on revenue of $15.4 billion for its 4Q2012. The company reported an EPS of $10.65 and revenue of $14.4 billion, beating the earnings and missing revenue estimates. The company saw increased growth from international markets and a slight growth slowdown in the US market. The revenue growth for the quarter was healthy at 24%, despite fiscal cliff concerns and a generally weak economy.
During the quarter revenue of approximately of $8.4 billion was driven by Google-owned sites, while $3.4 billion came from partner sites. The company is focusing on increasing monetization from its mobile platform and YouTube. The failed attempt of Apple to launch their map application has given Google an opportunity to step in with iOS 6 map application. This application has become the most downloaded application on the iOS for 2012.


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Toyota's Final Numbers: Gain Or Loss?
April 25th, 2010 10:12 AM Share
One would think that with all the recalls, Toyota would be looking at a hefty loss for fiscal 2009, which ended on March 2010. Toyota itself thought the same. Well, not hefty, but last projections saw a loss in the neighborhood of $200m. A loss is a loss, and it would have been the 3rd lost year in a row. Toyota bean counters went over the books with a fine tooth comb. And guess what they found?
A likely profit of around $500m! “Cost reductions and a weaker yen staved off another year in the red,” reports The Nikkei [sub]. The full whammy of recall costs will hit this fiscal anyway, so it is doubly good that half a billion dollars were found. This way, if or when they write a loss in the current 2010 fiscal, nobody can say that Toyota “lost money for the fourth year in a row.” That would be devastating for the all-important hyo-ban (reputation) of Toyota and Toyoda. The yen, which had been frighteningly strong for most of the year, lost some of its strength just in time for the end of the fiscal year, only to get stronger again. Looks like someone helped out the hyo-ban of the whole Japanese export industry. Doesn’t change the facts much, but appearances are everything.
Published April 25th, 2010 10:12 AM
Join the conversation
4 of 11 comments
Yes, he can smile. He's just chewing on something, a type of bird.
Despite its recent fall, Toyota's market capitalization is 50% more than that of Goldman Sachs. Former Ford CFO Alan Gilmore famously said, "Toyota has more money than God". They'll ride out this trying time just fine, as will Goldman Sachs and the Vatican. But Goldman CEO also said Goldman Sachs is doing "God's work". So maybe it's all the same.
I've just seen the two latest Avalon ads, the train station one and the pilot one. Holy crap, are they trying to raise Oldsmobile buyers from the dead??? Those ads have great production value but they are - AWFUL - unless you're target demographic is 80 year old World War II vets who can't find the brake pedal.
If Toyota makes a loss, which it now seems it won't, it would have been its second loss in a row rather than third.


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Shares of Reliance Capital tumbled over 13 per cent, hitting 52-week low, in intraday trade on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Monday after its chairman Anil Ambani said the company would exit lending business.
"As a part of transformation process, Reliance Capital has decided it will not be in any of the lending businesses," Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) Chairman Anil Ambani told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting (AGM) in Mumbai.
Weighed down by the development, Reliance Capital share price declined as much as 13.57 per cent to hit a record low of Rs 24.20, after opening tad higher at Rs 28.20 against previous close level of Rs 28.The stock ended 12.32% lower at Rs 24.55 on BSE.
There was also surge in volume trade as 27.14 lakh shares changed hand over the counter as compared to two-week average volume of 12.15 lakh shares on the BSE.
In a similar fashion, stocks of Reliance Capital were trading 10.91 per cent lower at Rs 24.90 on the National Stock Exchange. The scrip opened higher at Rs 28.65 but soon slipped into negative terrain to hit 52-week low of Rs 24.15. The stock closed 12.52% lower at Rs 24.45 on NSE.
Other ADAG group companies, including Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Power, Reliance Home Finance were also under selling stress. While Reliance Infra shares were down over 10 per cent to trade at Rs 29.90 apiece on the BSE, Reliance Power stock was down 6 per cent to quote at Rs 2.26. Shares of Reliance Home Finance were trading at Rs 3.81, down 4.99 per cent, against the previous close price on the BSE.
In a separate development, Reliance Capital said that it has made interest and principal repayments of Rs 72.65 crore on September 27 and September 30 on a range of instruments including non-convertible debentures, term loans and inter corporate deposits.
"The company is current on all its repayment obligations," Reliance Capital said in a filing to the BSE on Monday.
Last week, credit rating agency CARE had downgraded the rating of Reliance Capital to "CARE D" for the company's long-term debt program, market-linked debentures and subordinated debt of the company. The agency attributed its action on back of the alleged "delay" in payment of interest by one day by the company. Reliance Capital, however, said the payments were delayed by a day due to technical glitch in bank servers.
Edited by Chitranjan Kumar