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3 Industries that are at the cusp of Technology enabled Disruption (Part I)
May 10, 2015
Technology innovations are highly transformative – taking a look at the industrial revolution to the widespread usage of electricity to modern day cyber age, the impact is clear. However, over the last decade the transformation has been exponential with a speed and scale absent before. Here’s a sneak peek into 3 industries that in my opinion is near the tipping point.
Financial Services – You may think that with powerhouse institutions like global banks and venture capital – the industry has significant disruption entry barriers. Well changes might be easier than expected. Bitcoin is already disrupting payment gateways and retailers are supporting it. Crowdfunding and Peer-to-Peer finance networks have started providing capital and cutting into venture capital space. With transactions becoming card less in near future – mobile financial services growing rapidly, the physical infrastructure intensiveness of the current financial institutions will lose relevance.
Additionally, as the intra-financial institutions network becomes more seamless and global, customer credit history would be available and cross-border information linkage will boom. Capital markets worldwide are already linked but with increasing emergence of High Volume Trade algorithms market mechanics will rapidly alter in the coming decade. Lastly, with increasing program driven financial derivatives we will experience highly complex trades which would increase the markets vulnerability to shocks and if not regulated properly may create potential crisis.
Health Care – Since the advent of bio-technology health innovations have come into the forefront – not only in real life but in the fictitious world of movies and books alike. Apple has announced Healthkit – that stores information from wearable devices (like blood pressure, oxygenation, heart rhythms) and utilizes for treatment. Just think soon we will be monitored 24/7 willingly and not a single piece of our life history would be lost. Samsung also plans to invest heavily in the health space. Future is near where AI based physicians will become our primary point of contact for everyday health care (remember Baymax from Big Hero 6 – the idea doesn’t seem so badJ).
On more advanced med analytics for fields such as oncology – human genome sequencing is complex and time consuming. However over the coming 15 years with express increase in computational power and drop in prices – we will be able to have individual genome data decoded. This combined with all the available data from our everyday wearable sensors will mean that you can actually predict illness and take counteractive measures beforehand. And this is just the beginning just like diagnostics nowadays are done by sophisticated machines – in future say hello to your robotic surgeons (Sci Fi? – just wait for a couple of decades).
Communication – This may seem like an odd choice – I mean communication industry is already one of the most technology enabled sectors that was actually a disruption to begin with. What more can change here? Well the recent debates of net neutrality and internet.org from Facebook is just the beginning. The trend – landlines got replaced by mobile which is getting substituted with data. To relate simply for long distance or conference calls we never do voice calls anymore but instead opt for Skype, Hangout, Viber and now WhatsApp. With Wi-Fi becoming widespread and smartphone prices coming down rapidly (already at $ 50) the telcos would face difficult choices about investing in future (data business) versus protecting their legacy (voice call business).
Well this were the 3 industries for now – the next edition will deal with Energy, Manufacturing and Virtual Societies (Dystopia alert). And disruptions will come out and wipe out trillion dollar industries and create new ones (remember Kodak?). The solace is the future is exciting.
WRITTEN BY: Bijon Islam
Bijon is the co-founder and CEO of LightCastle Partners, an organization that focuses on creating data-driven opportunities for growth and impact for development partners, corporates, SMEs, and Startups. Over the last ten years, Bijon has led the company in engagements across 150+ businesses/development partners, 650+ SMEs/Startups, and 40+ accelerator programs in multiple industries including Technology, Agriculture, Health, Ed-tech, Energy, E-commerce, Logistics, and Manufacturing.
Previously Bijon has worked with Citibank, N.A. and Citi Foundation and oversaw the execution of Bangladesh's first Interest Rate Swap, Equity Convertible Bonds, Largest IPO, Microfinance Securitization, and Block Equity Trades. Due to outstanding performance, Bijon received the CEO Excellence Awards for two years in the organization. He completed his BBA and MBA from the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka.


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Digi-Key Corp. will distribute Midé Technology products to customers worldwide, the two companies announced Friday.
The Thief River Falls-based electronic components distributor will now make Medford, Mass.-based Midé Technology’s energy harvesters and other products available on its global websites.
“Midé is excited that Digi-Key will now be distributing our products around the world,” said Chris Ludlow, Midé’s Director of Engineering. “Energy harvesting is an emerging industry which will help power the wireless sensor networks of the future. With the help of Digi-Key, Midé will be able to supply this emerging industry with the energy harvesting it needs.”
The distribution agreement is global with the exception of Japan.
email@example.com | 612-288-2104

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Ericsson, the Swedish Telecom equipment maker announced on Monday it will lift its forecast for 5G subscription globally to around 2.8 billion by 2025 from 2.6 billion due to the spread of Novel Coronavirus pandemic.
The telecom industry is one of the very few industries that are seeing surge during this pandemic situation, which is mostly fueled by the increased demand as more people have started to working from home in order to avoid any infection and to adhere to lockdown rules imposed by various governments.
The head of Strategic Marketing at Ericsson Patrick Cerwall, said that the 2020 forecast will also be raised, “Long-term we look at 2025, 2.8 billion 5G subscriptions”, he told a web seminar held by the company.
Despite an overall bullish view of the technology, Patrick cautioned the pandemic would likely ease the short-term growth trajectory outside of China.
“If you look at the rest of the world, by the end of this year you see a decrease based on our estimate. People are sitting at home and it’s not the time to go out shopping for a new 5G device.”
Cerwall has also noted that, there had been a 20 per cent jump in data traffic in a number of markets with operators facing challenges in terms of location and profile, despite fixed operators taking the bulk of the remote working load. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there had been a shift of mobile traffic from business districts to residential areas and increased uplink demand from use of applications including video conferencing.
The Swedish company is now competing against Huawei and Nokia to sign up telecom customers, who are currently looking to upgrade their networks to 5G networks.
Currently, Ericsson is all set to publish its biannual Mobility Report next month, said in November 5G uptake was expected to be significantly faster than that of LTE, and the 5G subscriptions would account for as much as 29 percent of all mobile subscriptions in 2025.
The post Telecom Giant Ups 5G Forecast Despite Lockdown appeared first on InsightsSuccess.
This post first appeared on Insights Success Is The Best Business Magazine In The World For Enterprises, please read the originial post: here


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The combined ITMA and CITME shows were held in China, October 26 to 30, 2018. The exhibition welcomed over one lakh visitors from 116 countries and regions and recorded a 10 per cent increase in domestic visitors compared to the 2016 show. About 20 per cent of the visitors were from outside China. There was a large pool of qualified buyers.
Among overseas participants, Indian visitors topped the list, reflecting the strong growth of its textile industry. Following closely were trade visitors from Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea and Bangladesh.
Leading textile machinery manufacturers from around the world attended the event. The combined shows offered a cost-effective platform for their products and services in Asia.
In a global market, textile makers are sourcing innovative solutions and upgrading their facilities. The drive for better technological solutions is expected to grow in Asia, especially China. Hence, leading brand names had a large presence at this event. The last such combined show in 2016 welcomed 1,673 exhibitors from 28 economies and had over 1,00,000 visitors from 102 countries.
To enhance the country’s position in the global value chain, China has drawn up a roadmap to upgrade industries through innovation. The strategy aims at driving manufacturers swiftly toward smart industrial production and value-added manufacturing.


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We’ve learned (via Games Talk) that Sony Computer Entertainment has stopped production of PlayStation TV.
The news comes from a quiet update on the game’s official product page, much like the platforms bizarre overall treatment by Sony proper.
PlayStation TV was announced back in September of 2013, only to launch the following November. It didn’t come to North America and Europe until a year later.
It remains to be seen what this means for supplies of the device in western markets – similar announcements will probably be forthcoming.


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There was a time when I paid $275 for a MediaTek MT6577 phone. It’s 2016 now, and you can now avail far (FAR) more value for lesser.
The ZUK Z2 is known as the world’s most affordable Snapdragon 820 phone. However, it isn’t available in many markets as of now. Thanks to e-commerce, you can now get hold of the phone for not a lot of money.
For a limited time (till stocks last) you can purchase the ZUK Z2 for a mere $259.69. What’s more, this includes shipping costs!
Gizchina News of the week
To quickly run through the specs of this phone, you get a device with a 5-inch 1920 x 1080p display, a Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB on-board ROM, a 13 mega-pixel rear camera, 8 mega-pixel front facing camera, and a 3100mAh battery. You can avail the deal by clicking the button below.


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A YouTube video in which someone compares an iPhone 4S alongside a purported iPhone 5 has reached over a million views in a single day. The camera footage, which could still stand to be the most elaborate iPhone 5 hoax yet, expositions a thinner phone with a larger display, mini-dock connector and bottom-positioned audio input. These details jibe with the many rumors we've been hearing for the past several months concerning the design of Apple's upcoming phone which is expected to be announced on September 12.
The Next Web claims that the originators of this video "accidentally found" an iPhone 5 at Foxconn's Jincheng facility, presumably the birth place of many more phones just like this one. "Accident" in this case is likely shorthand for "intentional misappropriation of goods", but few details are known.
Somewhat comically, thanks to the plethora of iPhone 5 rumors and potential leaks, Chinese company GooPhone has patented a design which is expected to be identical to the iPhone 5. GooPhone says it will protect its Chinese patent aggressively, possibly suing Apple if it releases its latest smartphone within China's jurisdiction. The GooPhone i5 faithfully imitates purported design leaks and was patented and released before the iPhone 5 was announced, giving GooPhone a possible legal advantage over Apple in China. Of course, all of that depends on the accuracy of said rumors and leaks.
The video shows the 4S and 5 side by side, revealing a new, larger smartphone without a metal edge and an extra pin-hole near the front-facing camera. It also demonstrates both devices booting up together into iOS.
As convincing as this video may seem, the public still can't be certain about what Apple's new smartphone will look like until it is officially unveiled. Maintaining a healthy amount of skepticism is highly recommended.
The Apple iPad (3rd-gen) includes a Retina Display operating at a resolution of 2,048 x 1,536. Powering the new iPad is a dual-core A5X processor with quad-core graphics, it also gets upgraded optics in the form of a 5MP backside illuminated sensor that features a 5-element lens, IR filter and ISP built into the A5X chip. Apple claims The new iPad is good for 10 hours of battery life and nine hours when using 4G LTE.
The iPhone 4S looks identical to last year's model but comes in a new 64GB flavor and upgrades the camera to include an 8-megapixel sensor with improved low-light performance and 1080p video capture. In terms of performance the new iPhone is reportedly up to 2x faster and is also capable of running on faster HSPA+ networks, reaching theoretical download speeds of up to 14.4Mbps.
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Discount supermarket Lidl unveils bid to open in Highgate and Muswell Hill
Discount supermarket Lidl could hit the high streets of Highgate and Muswell Hill under plans by the grocer to open dozens of new stores in upmarket parts of London.
The German-owned chain has revealed an ambitious expansion plan to open 281 new shops in the capital – including in some of its most affluent areas.
Lidl currently has only three stores in north west London: in Camden Town, Kentish Town and Cricklewood.
But Britain’s eighth-biggest supermarket chain has so far spurned Hampstead, Highgate and other London “villages”.
Lidl bosses revealed yesterday that it is looking for standalone sites of between 10,000 and 28,000 sq ft - the size of a small to medium-sized supermarket – or up to four acres for a bigger development to include both housing and shops.
You may also want to watch:
It has not yet revealed potential sites of interest in Highgate and Muswell Hill.
But a supermarket has been rumoured to move into the ground floor of the old Richardson’s of Highgate furniture emporium in Archway Road after a proposed redevelopment.
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The empty shop offers more than 11,000 sq ft of floorspace.
Would you welcome a Lidl supermarket in Highgate and Muswell Hill? Have your say in our online poll above.


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Tue, 09/09/2008 - 11:33
Book sales are back up and running, having bounced back last week after a poor summer for the book trade. According to Nielsen BookScan, Total Consumer Market sales were £31.3m in the week ending 6th September, up by more than 9% on the previous week and by almost 1% on the same week in 2007.
It is the first positive week year-on-...
Mon, 08/09/2008 - 10:12
The Sky Arts Book Show is to return for a third series on 23rd October, again hosted by Mariella Frostrup. New features will include "A Fine Line" where authors read their favourite literary sentence and explain why they chose it. A monthly guest reviewer will also discuss a selection of new book releases. The first reviewer will be...
Thu, 04/09/2008 - 06:54
HarperCollins has apologised for offending indigenous Australians after complaints that an upcoming edition of The Daring Book for Girls breaks Aboriginal taboos by encouraging girls to play the didgeridoo, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Mark Rose, head of the Victorian Aboriginal Education Association, said the...
Wed, 03/09/2008 - 07:21
Borders UK has launched a campaign to coincide with the Boots-sponsored "30 Days of Fashion and Beauty". Starting this week, www.borders.co.uk is featuring a wide range of fashion, beauty and healthy eating book and DVD titles, and from 14th September, the site...
Fri, 22/08/2008 - 07:40
The authors of a book which claimed that Salman Rushdie was nicknamed "Scruffy" by his police protection officers have admitted there were falsehoods in the manuscript and have made amendments accordingly, according to Rushdie's lawyer. The publisher of On Her Majesty's Service, John Blake, hopes to release a revised...
Fri, 15/08/2008 - 06:30
The German-speaking world of Kafka scholars hit out yesterday over a British academic's claims that the writer had a penchant for hard porn, reports the Guardian.
James Hawes, a Kafka expert and novelist, claims in his book Excavating Kafka, published in Britain yesterday (14th August), that the writer was a...
Thu, 14/08/2008 - 06:00
A federal appeals court in New York has reversed a ruling that awarded the son and granddaughter of John Steinbeck the rights to 10 of his works, including The Grapes of Wrath, the Associated Press reported.
According to the appeals court, a lower court judge made a mistake by giving the rights to Thomas Steinbeck, the author...
Thu, 31/07/2008 - 14:00
Publisher Debrett’s, which bills itself as “the modern authority on matters of etiquette, taste and achievement”, is to publish what it calls a “definitive” book on contemporary manners.
Debrett’s A–Z of Modern Manners (September, h/b, £11.99) is the publisher’s first...
Thu, 31/07/2008 - 09:12
A tall, spare man in a traditional monk’s habit, Abbot Christopher Jamison of Worth Abbey cuts an unlikely figure as a reality TV star, but three million viewers watched “The Monastery”, the 2005 BBC series set in the abbey which followed five men from non-religious backgrounds as they spent 40 days with the monks.
Fri, 18/07/2008 - 14:29
“It’s always been much easier for me to write unpleasant characters,” says Zoë Heller, a note of pride in her voice. She is talking about the dysfunctional family of social justice campaigners she has created for her new novel, and about violent reactions to characters in her previous two books.
Notes on a...


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The line has already been set up in Bidadi Bengaluru and the company has begun assembly of the ES sedan and it will eventually add NX SUV to the line up, to price its product competitively in India. The company currently sells half a dozen models in India priced from Rs 58.2 lakh to Rs 2.32 crore and all of them are imported as completely-built imports, which come with a levy of over 100%, making Lexus models less competitive when compared to the overall market.
With almost all of its rivals having a local assembly line set up, the fully built imports from Lexus were putting the company at a disadvantage due to a steep imports duty. An email sent to the company by ET did not elicit any official response.
Plus the company has a limited reach with just dealerships or guest experience centres in India i.e. Mumbai, Delhi, Gurgaon and Bengaluru. The company is likely to add Chennai, Hyderabad and a couple more markets to have a bigger geographical footprint.
In a market of 35,000 units, Lexus sold about 500-600 cars in 2019 accounting for a very modest market share of 1-2%.
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Data released Thursday indicated India’s sustained economic momentum at the start of the new fiscal year, with goods and services tax (GST) collection growing at a rapid clip in May as manufacturing activity hit a 31-month high in the month. Vehicle and fuel sales backed up the trend.Major Players Looking at India as Next Chip-making Destination
India will focus on creating a supportive ecosystem for semiconductor manufacturing in the country first, and not only on fabrication units, according to union technology, railways, and telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
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As the economy changes so should competition policy. But does it? The "new economy" or the "information economy" or the "knowledge economy" or whatever you want to call it has altered the way the economy works. Changes in technology, in particular information and communication technology (ICT), have become the major drivers of change in the economy and of economic growth. But has competition policy kept up with this change? May be not.
The European Commission’s antitrust case against Google is the latest in a series of attempts to prevent tech giants from "monopolising" EU markets, or so we are told. But it can be argued that past cases against Intel and Microsoft demonstrate the need review what may be an outdated competition policy in the EU. And not only in the EU.
The European Commission has formally charged Google with anti-competitive practices, the latest twist in a case that was first launched way back in 2010. The EU’s competition watchdog accuses the US tech giant of systematically favouring results from its own specialist search engine, Google Shopping, over competitors like Amazon and eBay. And this, it is alleged, has had an adverse impact on competition and consumer well-being.
Diego Zuluaga has been looking at the case and argues, in an article
Superficially, it would indeed seem that Google holds a dominant position online, with a 92 per cent share of the EU market for general (known as ‘organic’ or ‘horizontal’) search. Google has also been expanding its offering of specialist (a.k.a. ‘vertical’) search engines for items like flights and consumer products. Does this mean that competition online is being undermined, and that regulatory authorities should intervene to put it right?
It could of course be that they are dominant simply because they are better than the competition.
Zuluaga goes on to say that the answer to his question is, Not necessarily.
The test for any antitrust investigation must be whether competition, not individual competitors, are being harmed. And by any available measure, competition and specialisation in online search services is thriving. New players focusing on specific market niches, from SkyScanner for flights to DuckDuckGo for greater privacy, have emerged in recent years. In the specific case of comparison shopping which the Commission is worried about, it does not look like Google Shopping is catching on, despite the tech giant’s best efforts: In three key EU markets – Germany, France and the UK – Google’s own product search engine is a marginal player, with Amazon, eBay and local competitors (Idealo in Germany, Fnac in France) boasting multiple times the number of user visits of Google Shopping. What is more, the gap between Google’s own service and its leading competitors is growing, if anything.
Intuitively, this makes sense. If I want to purchase Malcolm Gladwell’s latest bestseller, I am much more likely to browse for it on Amazon, as the latter is reputed for its excellent catalogue, user reviews and related recommendations. Rather than search for it on Google and then look for the best result, I will go to the Amazon website directly. The same goes for flights, hotels, restaurants and any other topic where there is a wealth of specialist search services. Even for those who tend to go through Google, competing options are still there – one only need scroll down to see them. This makes it hard for Google to divert large amounts of traffic to its own services – and it helps explain why Google Shopping has not taken off, as we might have expected it to.
A question one could ask is, Have past actions by competition authorities in previous digital cases been appropriate? May be not, just think of the Intel and Microsoft cases.
In 2009, the Commission fined chip-maker Intel more than €1bn for offering ‘predatory discounts’ to computer manufacturers, which allegedly harmed Intel’s competitors. Yet, by all measures, competition in the chip sector was fierce during the period of Intel’s anti-competitive behaviour. Chip prices declined by up to 75 per cent, while performance grew tenfold. Far from increasing at the expense of competitors, Intel’s market share remained stuck at 80 per cent, and the fluctuations in its share are strongly correlated with new product launches, both by itself and by rivals like AMD.
How about the other previous high profile digital probe, the 2004 ruling against Microsoft? Commission officials worried at the time that the company founded by Bill Gates was strengthening its grip on all PC-related products and services, thanks to its dominance of computer software. Barely a decade later, it is astonishing how things have changed: Microsoft still provides software for a lot of the world’s PCs, but the rise of smartphones – where Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS prevail – has made its share of the overall software market (for smartphones, tablets as well as PCs) shrink to as low as 20 per cent, according to Goldman Sachs research from 2012. Innovation killed the software star.
Both the Intel and Microsoft cases illustrate the shortcomings of EU competition policy when it comes to the digital sector: Despite Intel’s large market share in the chip market, competition was no less aggressive, and consumers still benefited from steadily dropping prices and ever better performance. And even though Windows was the dominant player in software in 2004, innovation outside the PC market – which no one, least of all Microsoft, foresaw – has turned it into one among several competitors in a much larger market.
Aa obvious point is that competition policy rulings should be grounded in sound economic analysis. It is not clear that they have been.
DG Competition has enormous powers to intervene in the internal market, acting as judge, jury and enforcer of antitrust proceedings in the EU. This makes it imperative that its rulings be rooted in sound, convincing economic analysis. Such analysis seems to be lacking in the case of Google Shopping, as it was in the Intel and Microsoft rulings. The digital economy lies at the heart of economic growth in the 21st century, so getting antitrust wrong in this sector will have a longstanding negative impact on innovation and growth in Europe.
A lesson from this is that the new technology underlying the new economy has changed the way companies do business in all sorts of sectors, and competition policy, in all countries, must evolve with it. Is not clear that it has in many countries, including New Zealand.


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Apple made a big announcement the other week.
If you own an iPhone, and give Apple your permission, the company will be able to collect data on your “gait, motor impairment, fitness, speech and memory” and share it with university researchers. “With hundreds of millions of iPhones in use around the world, we saw an opportunity for Apple to have an even greater impact by empowering people to participate in and contribute to medical research,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s senior vice president of operations.
Researchers are excited. The power of big data could help them avoid the pitfalls that come with sampling small groups of people in small corners of the world. As smartphones get ever more sophisticated (diet tracking? blood pressure monitoring? sweat detecting?) there’ll be almost no end to the data they can collect.
So far, so very tech-utopian. But I think there are reasons to be concerned, too.
This may seem obvious, but the problem with collecting medical data from iPhone users is that you only collect data from the kind of people who tend to use iPhones. In the US, we know that iPhone users (compared to other smartphone users) tend to be older, more affluent and white. Around the world, more and more people may be using smartphones, but the fact remains that the latest tech is usually available only to those who can afford it.
Why is this important? Here’s an excerpt from a fascinating article on big data by Tim Harford, discussing Boston’s pothole-detecting app:
“As citizens of Boston download the app and drive around, their phones automatically notify City Hall of the need to repair the road surface… The City of Boston proudly proclaims that the “data provides the City with real-time information it uses to fix problems and plan long term investments.”
Yet what Street Bump really produces, left to its own devices, is a map of potholes that systematically favours young, affluent areas where more people own smartphones. Street Bump offers us “N = All” in the sense that every bump from every enabled phone can be recorded. That is not the same thing as recording every pothole.”
Apps that collect reams of data on affluent iPhone users may do wonders for treating “diseases of the rich” like cardiovascular disease and diabetes (and that’s no bad thing, of course). They may also be immensely profitable for those looking to cash in on the promised boom in “personalised medicine” – treatments tailored to individuals’ DNA and lifestyles.
What they won’t do is help produce cures for the diseases of poverty. Neglected tropical diseases affect more than 1.4 billion people around the world, and it’s a safe bet that most of them don’t own iPhones. And while big pharma is stepping up its game when it comes to access to medicine, it’s a sad fact that cures for poor people just don’t pay as well.
What does any of this have to do with Apple? Not much, you may say, although the founder of a rival tech company might disagree. At the very least, I’d say that Apple should be wary of promoting quick tech fixes for complex issues.
One thing’s for sure – developing treatments for the world’s poor is going to take determined effort, enlightened collaboration and a whole lot of time and money. And unfortunately, there’s just no app for that.


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Coke has selected Lowe, which handles Sprite, to work on both projects.
The brand in research is believed to have had at least three working titles so far, and is currently referred to as Bon Aqua.
This is also the name of Coca-Cola's bottled water brand in Germany, Russia, Spain and France. However, Bon Aqua has not been confirmed as the name of a UK drink and no launch date has been set.
The company is researching whether project Bon Aqua should carry Coca-Cola branding. Coke's US water brand Dasani carries the wording 'From the Coca-Cola Company'.
Separately, Malvern will be repackaged and repositioned with a substantial marketing campaign later this year in an attempt to make it more of a consumer-orientated brand. It has only a fraction of the market and is served almost exclusively at conferences and in hotels.
Evian is the UK's market leader in still water, with 24.8% of value sales, followed by Volvic with 11.9% and Danone Activ with 5.7%.
The £770m market is ripe for further growth. According to Danone's Bottled Water Report 2002, just under two-thirds of the UK population drinks bottled water.
Water contributed 31% to the growth of the soft drink sector last year. This figure is expected to increase to 38% by 2004.
A spokesman for Coca-Cola confirmed that the company was "very active in the water category", but would not give further details.
Lowe was unavailable for comment.
Dasani is Coke's biggest water brand, but it also sells Mount Franklin and Pump in Australia and the Turkuaz brand in Turkey.
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the Forum here.


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US start-up Ambercycle emerged from their shared concern about the impact of polyester recycling during their senior year at UC
Supima Cotton and Michael Stars extend their corporate social responsibility initiatives beyond environmental concerns to actively support educational and youth-centered
Supima Cotton is embarking on a global fashion showcase, commencing with the 38th International Festival of Fashion in Hyères. To
Yan prioritizes repurposing discarded and leftover materials from workshops and factories to prevent environmental harm, enabling sustainable fabrics in fashion.


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Thieves target home while family are on holiday
THIEVES stole several items of jewellery and a games console from a house while the occupants were away on holiday.
The detached home in Brize Avenue, Kingsway, Gloucester, was entered through a secure patio door sometime between 10am on Tuesday, August 14 and 6.30pm yesterday, Thursday, August 30.
Once inside, offenders stole four 18 carat gold necklaces, four sets of 18 carat gold earrings, one ladies watch, one 18 carat gold ring with a diamond setting and a red Nintendo Wii console with three controllers.
Anyone with information should call police on 101, quoting incident number 371 of August 30.


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The crypto business continues to show interest in the Indian market by attracting consumers through products such as mobile applications.
India’s crypto developers have begun releasing new mobile applications, following the positive decision of the country’s Supreme Court on blockchain technology. The Court’s ruling reversed a previous law prohibiting banks from providing services to crypto traders and businesses.
The developing interest in the Indian crypto market
B21, a digital asset investment company, recently launched their own Blockchain investment portfolio application following this change. They claimed that the announcement of the Supreme Court of India “had sparked a new interest in digital asset investment and a surge in the exchange rate” in the country.
“The decision in India has helped us focus on partnerships and marketing in India, as we see a large population which are smartphone savvy and also a large emerging class of investors looking for investment opportunities which previously were not available to them.”
Will crypto be legal in India?
B21 founders say India has “plenty” to contribute to the development of emerging crypto assets and blockchain ecosystems.
However, the Supreme Court’s decision on cryptos in India could still face challenges in the future. On June 12 the Indian Ministry of Finance proposed a cryptocurrency ban on a small continent.
Need to know more about Cryptocurrency and Bitcoins without being scams? Click here
Other articles you might like to read:


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NEW DELHI: As many as 18-20 lakh people are expected to visit the India International Trade Fair (IITF) at Pragati Maidan, which is beginning from November 14.
Per day, we are expecting over a lakh people and about 18-20 lakh during the full 14 days. We have all the arrangements in place. India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) CMD L C Goyal told PTI. This time Afghanistan will be Partner Country and Bangladesh Cross Country.
The theme is “Make in India”
Besides domestic companies, firms from countries, including Afghanistan, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, South Korea and the UAE, would showcase their products in the fair. There will be free entry for senior citizens and the differently-abled on November 19-27.
President will do inauguration and 7000 companies will participate
President Pranab Mukherjee will inaugurate the IITF 2015, in which about 7,000 firms from India and abroad are expected to participate.
Goyal said the fair tickets will be available at all the Delhi Metro stations.
Business visitors can buy the tickets online, he said, adding that from next year, “we will sell all the tickets online for both public and business visitors”.


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German luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz reported sales of more than 1.35 million vehicles in the first seven months of CY2018, an increase of 2.3 percent compared to same period last year. Additionally, the company reported July 2018 sales as the best in the history of the brand with global sales of 167,518 passenger cars.
Asia-Pacific drives sales
Mercedes-Benz sold 65,568 units in Europe for the month of July and the coming months it expects to see substantial growth with the recent launch of the new C-class family. The company said that the it sold 542,358 units in the first seven months of CY2018, which was 3.5 percent lesser as compared to the same period in the previous year. In Germany, the company sold a total of 173,721 cars, down by 2.7 percent YoY.
On the other hand the company saw strong demands from the Asian markets, where it reported one of its best July sales with 73,484 units being sold, an increase of 4.6 percent. In the first seven months also, Mercedes-Benz saw a growth of 11.4 percent YoY by registering 566,842 units. China proved to be its biggest market with July sales recording 52,616 units, an increase of 8.3 percent over July 2017. Apart from China, Mercedes-Benz said that it has set a new sales record for the first seven months in South Korea, Japan, India, Malaysia and Thailand.
In the NAFTA region, Mercedes-Benz cars were delivered to 24,884 customers in the month of July, down by 19 percent as compared to July 2017. In the US, it sold 178,882 units (-4.8%) in the first seven months and 20,034 units (-22.7%) in the month of July.
SUVs and S-Class drive sales
With a total of 484,275 SUVs sold in the first seven months of the year, it represented a growth of 7.7 percent YoY. The numbers were primarily driven by the GLC and the GLC coupe models. However, in July 2018, Mercedes-Benz reported a growth of 16.5 percent YoY by selling 4,906 units. The company claimed that the model’s unit sales doubled in Germany and quadrupled in Japan in the previous month. It witnessed more than 48,000 units (26.3% YoY growth) of the S-Class saloon being sold globally.
With the absence of the new C-Class saloon and the Estate in the Asia-Pacific region, their worldwide sales in July were 29,298 units, down by 9.9 percent over July 2017.
Also read: Merc A-Class’ new infotainment system to be integrated with AI and AR
Daimler to restructure into three independent entities
Daimler Group reports net profit of Euro 1,825 million for Q2 CY2018, down 27.35%


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The recently announced Indian budget for 2008–2009 has little to offer appliance companies. A 2% reduction on central excise duty, from 16% to 14%, is not much to cheer about. Durable manufacturers were expecting the excise duty to decline to at least 12%. The direct-to-home television industry, however, is celebrating: Customs duty on set-top boxes has been waived, which will give a boost to the industry.
Appliance makers have been rooting for a substantial reduction in excise duty, but a 2% reduction is not expected to benefit the industry significantly and is unlikely to result in lower appliance prices for consumers. The price of steel, which accounts for 30% of the cost to manufacture air-conditioners and refrigerators, has increased 12–15% in the past several months.
While not affecting the appliances industry directly, the budget’s emphasis on rural development, aimed at enhancing living standards among the rural population and at higher availability of disposable incomes, should give a boost to retail sales of consumer appliances. Moreover, with the threshold limit of exemption for personal income tax rising to Rs 150,000 (approximately US$3750), consumption of appliances is expected to get a fillip.


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Apple had introduced its 10th anniversary iPhone – the iPhone X with much hype last year. It features a full screen design that is enabled with a notch at the top of its display. The notch houses the complex system of True Depth Camera and Face ID sensors. The next-generation iPhones that will be unveiled later this year are likely to continue to sport the notch design. Soon after the launch of iPhone X, many Android smartphone OEMs started working on introducing similarly designed phones. The recently unveiled ASUS ZenFone 5 and ZenFone 5Z look quite similar to the iPhone X. Also, the upcoming phones like Huawei P20, P20 Pro, P20 Lite, OPPO R15, OPPO R15 Dream Mirror and OnePlus 6 are also expected to arrive with notch design.
Fresh information shared by an industry insider reveals that Apple may ditch the notch design on the iPhones that will be arriving next year. By removing the notch, the 2019 iPhone will be able to deliver ultimate full screen experience. The source claims that Apple may embed the front-facing camera and Face ID sensors under the display of the 2019 iPhone.
The other possibility could be that the next year’s iPhone will have full screen design with a small hole to support some functions. This indicates that the 2019 iPhone may deliver around a screen-to-body ratio of 90 percent. As of this writing, there is no information available on the specifications of the 2019 iPhone. If the under-display fingerprint scanner feature is not made available on 2018 iPhones, the Cupertino company may make it available on 2019 iPhone.
Apple was mocked for including a notch on the iPhone X at its launch. However, many Chinese smartphone makers have adopted the design to use it as a selling point. Hence, the ultimate full experience that Apple is reportedly planning for its 2019 iPhone may also inspire Android smartphone makers to launch similar looking phones. As far as this year is concerned, the company is rumored to launch 5.8-inch and 6.46-inch OLED iPhones alongside a budget-friendly 6.04-inch LCD iPhone.


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New Clinton Carpet Cleaning Location from Oxi Fresh!
Brian Parente – Retired Police Officer – Opens New Oxi Fresh Location!
Dirt and spills happen to the best of carpets, slowly turning comfy looking floors into dingy ones. Thankfully, there’s a new Clinton carpet cleaning service out there courtesy of Oxi Fresh and its new franchisee Brian Parente.
This is Brian’s first carpet business, but it’s not his first time serving the community. Prior to joining Oxi Fresh, Brian worked as a police officer for over thirty years. That’s three decades spent helping make all of us safer.
After he retired, Brian wanted to both own a business and to work in his neighborhood. The reason, as he put it, was that, “The most gratifying part of my career in law enforcement was always having an opportunity to help people – unfortunately they were mostly under unpleasant circumstances.” But with Oxi Fresh, Brian says he’s “excited to be invited into peoples’ homes under normal circumstances to help them clean up their carpets and make their homes brighter.”
The whole of Oxi Fresh is happy to see Mr. Parente open his Clinton carpet cleaning business. They know he’s a hard-working guy with a heart for his customers, which fits Oxi Fresh’s culture perfectly.
“I’m excited to have Brian become one of our franchisees,” said Jonathan Barnett, the company’s President and CEO, “He’s spent a long time serving others as a police officer, and so he knows what it means to really give it his all. I’m sure he’s going to do a fantastic job.”
As happy as Oxi Fresh is to have Brian join the brand, we know customers will be even happier once they see Brian in action with our deep-cleaning system. That’s because Oxi Fresh is a truly modern carpet cleaner that combines the cleansing power of oxygen, a green encapsulator, and a revolutionary cleaning machine.
Together, this system can make spots disappear and erase years of dirt from deep in the carpet. These world-class results also come with the confidence that you’re using a green Clinton carpet cleaner.
Oxi Fresh employs a variety eco-friendly carpet products and practices. One of the most significant ways we’re green is in water conservation. We get great results while using 95% less water than other cleaners. That means we can save dozens of gallons of water per job. In a year, our Clinton carpet cleanings could conserve thousands upon thousands of gallons of water! Plus, that means your carpets dry in just about one hour instead of 12-24 hours!
“It doesn’t get better than Oxi Fresh when it comes to cleaning,” said Kris Antolak, the company’s Vice President, “We make sure to leave carpets looking and feeling amazing. Whether it’s dirt, spots, spills, traffic lanes, or any number of other blemishes – Oxi Fresh can erase them all and get carpets looking grand.”


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Intel Will Soon Reveal Its New Line Of Arc Laptop GPUs
Intel announced today that it will be hosting a digital broadcast later this month focusing on its first-generation Arc series graphics cards.
The broadcast will air on Wednesday, March 30 at 8am PT / 11am ET and will provide viewers with a “first look” at Intel’s new discrete graphics for laptops. While the company has announced intentions to release its Arc GPUs in laptops, desktops, and workstations, the company’s upcoming broadcast will focus solely on the laptops.
Earlier this year, the company announced that its Arc series would arrive first on laptops with a Q1 release window, with the Arc series arriving on desktops and workstations to follow in Q2 and Q3, respectively.
Intel, which has previously been known for its laptop and desktop CPUs, announced last year that it would be taking on AMD and Nvidia in the graphics card market. While we have yet to see what the GPUs look like, specifically the desktop graphics cards, we know that Intel is playing the long game here with the Arc series. Its first-generation of GPUs, codenamed “Alchemist,” is one of four generations the tech giant has planned, with the other three codenamed “Battlemage,” “Celestial,” and “Druid.”
Intel says that its Arc graphics cards will offer real-time ray tracing, variable-rate shading, video upscaling, and mesh shading. Additionally, we know that Intel announced that it is making its own AI-accelerated supersampling tech called XeSS, which has several developers confirmed to support it, including Ubisoft and Kojima Productions. The PC port of Death Stranding: Director’s Cut will be one of the first games to support XeSS.
Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
Author: Taylor Lyles. [Source Link (Intel Will Soon Reveal Its New Line Of Arc Laptop GPUs), IGN All]


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Slack creative chief touts humanity over AI when it comes to CX
- 20 February, 2018 07:00
Words have never been more important to a brand, says Anna Pickard, creative director of business and collaboration tool, Slack.
And marketers might want to pay attention to this assertion, as words are where Slack is looking to differentiate itself from the pack, doggedly using them to offer a human element to its customers that can often be missing in a multi-channel, artificial intelligence-driven world.
Launched in 2014, Slack is a cloud-based set of proprietary team collaboration tools, apps, and services borne from a now defunct online game. It now exceeds 50,000 paid teams and two million paid users, including 43 per cent of Fortune 100 companies. Recently, the vendor achieved US$200 million in annual recurring revenue, more than double the previous year, nine million weekly active users, and more than six million daily active users in over 100 countries.
Pickard is credited with being the ‘editorial soul’ of Slack. The words she uses not only inform the company’s customer engagement efforts and staff training, but also everything else, including how the software is designed, updated and communicated.
While Pickard agrees authenticity, humanity and customer engagement are the main tools in the savvy marketer’s box, it is in striking the correct balance between humanity and service, playfulness and solutions that she believes most are falling down.
“Of course, at the moment everyone is doing ‘human voice’ in customer engagement,” Pickard tells CMO. “In a world of Alexa and Siri, people are getting used to speaking to their technology in a human voice and hearing responses back in a human voice. Nothing is impersonal anymore, and if it is, it really sticks out.
“So we’re all in the same space trying to ensure we are giving people an authentically human experience. That leads to people going way too far and injecting personality into literally every single experience. You don’t want personality injected into every single little thing, it’s about finding those touchpoints where you can really connect with people authentically."
While bringing that personality in and being playful can be a great brand tactic, the danger is that it ends up being scattered everywhere, like too much salt, Pickard claims.
"Working out moderation when we are connecting with people, and ensuring we are connecting at the appropriate points, is increasingly differentiating us,” she says.
Customer experience is the key, and this has to occur from the ground up within any brand. “We have to make sure we retain a consistently strong voice so that people understand where it comes from; who we are as a company informs what we sound like,” Pickard continues.
“The words we use ensure we feel like one strong fabric. An increasing part of my job as we scale is making sure we sound clear, concise and human.”
What this means for Slack on a daily basis is having a mature consideration of what it means to be at work, what communication means within work, connecting it all together, and ensuring the conversation is consistent across all channels and mediums.
“We often brainstorm about how we can more closely connect what people’s experience of work is and incorporate this into our brand experience," Pickard says. "So when we talk to people on customer service, they’re hearing the same voice as when they get on the website. And if the leg falls off, people know they’re hearing from Slack, they’re hearing from a real human. That is our unique selling point.”
Slack is tapping machine learning to help people find things better as well as learn how customers are using its solutions. This is then informing how features and functionality are designed and built.
"We use Slackbot, which is not an AI bot as there’s no natural language processes, but we are able to give people a platform to bring those ways of communicating and creating human bots in that space," Pickard explains. "It’s something we think about in the way we anticipate what people are looking for, or wanting to hear, without putting words in their mouths.
“Really, creating the brand experience for the whole company is very much the same skill as creating the persona for a bot. It’s about anticipating people’s needs and feelings, and what they’re looking for and hoping to find, and how they’re hoping to hear those answers. It’s a similar skill and I think we have a lot to learn from each other."
Related: Interview: Bill Macaitis, CMO, Slack


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Consumers looking to purchase a new television set in today’s down-turned economy have many options available. Many consumers have been trading downward (downsizing); buying smaller LCD television sets to save money. But a lot of other consumers have realized that trading up to a plasma television is actually a very economical decision; a way to get more screen for less money.
Especially in the very large screen sizes, a lower resolution 720p plasma high definition television (HDTV) has a considerable cost advantage over a similar sized liquid crystal display (LCD) televisions with 1080p resolution. Value-minded customers who take the time to do a little bit of research before making a purchase are beginning to realize this, and then make the decision to buy or rent a plasma television.
Plasma television sales have actually increased significantly in the past couple of years, according to a report from Quixel Research. The jump in sales was attributed to customers looking to save money. That money savings can be realized whether the customer opts to purchase a plasma or rent a plasma set.
In the large screen size category (50 inches or more), 720p plasma televisions are far less expensive than 1080p LCD sets. Just check out Amazon and compare the prices. Plasma televisions can cost twenty-five to fifty percent less than their LCD counterparts even they are not on sale. Not surprisingly, this competition has begun to drive down the prices of LCD sets, but plasma still has the price advantage at least for now
When customers choose a 720p plasma television set over a 1080p LCD set, they send a clear message to the manufacturers that any slight advantage the LCD might have in picture quality is simply not worth the extra cost associated with it. Those customers are right. Television signals are simply not broadcast in 1080p, so if you are using the set to watch your favorite television shows there is no need to buy anything else.
Only Blu-ray discs bring out the best of 1080p resolution. Customers who are savvy to this information also know that if they do not have a Blu-ray play and have no plans to buy one, then the 720p television set will meet all of their needs. They also know that if they were to go ahead and buy or rent a plasma with that 720p television format, there is no reason to go ahead and purchase the Blu-ray player since its full resolution cannot be displayed on the 720p screen. Hence, they save even more money.
While plasma television sets still represent a minority percent of all flat-screen sets purchased, they are increasing in popularity. This current economic downturn may have turned out to be a boon for the plasma industry. Outdoor LED Screen


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The multi-talented designer, who made his name in menswear but then crossed over successfully into womenswear, will design two collections for the brand – one for men and one for women.
It’s been a busy few weeks for Anderson, who picked up the presitigious Emerging Talent – ready-to-wear award at the British Fashion Awards on Tuesday evening.
The new strategy for Versus going forward will be to collaborate with a variety of designers on a season-less line.
“I keep a close eye on young talent, and have been impressed by Jonathan’s work over the last couple of years,” said Donatella Versace. “Versus is all about fun, change, and digital. I can’t wait to present this collaboration!”
The collection will be sold on Versus.it and at top department stores worldwide.


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Global Pyrogen Testing Market is anticipated to grow at a 11.0% CAGR from 2019 to 2030
Market Industry Reports (MIR) has published a new report titled “Pyrogen Testing Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2019–2030.” According to the report, the pyrogen testing market is estimated to be over US$ 650 Mn in 2017. It is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 11.0% from 2019 to 2030.
Rapid setup as well as consolidation of pharmaceutical companies is taking place across the world. For instance, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. has been adopting the strategy of acquisition of related companies in order to fortify their presence in the global market. Moreover, the stringent regulations laid down by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) make it mandatory for all the companies in the field of medicine, cosmetics, food and beverages, biotechnology, and medical devices to incorporate pyrogen testing in their quality assurance protocols. Furthermore, the high prevalence of chronic diseases in densely populated countries like India and China also fuels the market revenue. All the above factors propel the pyrogen testing market. However, the rise in consolidation in industries, especially the pharmaceutical companies, are likely to restrain the growth of the market to a certain extent.
The pyrogen testing market has lucrative opportunities across various companies operating in the fields of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, medical devices, food and beverages, biotechnology. These fields account for a major presence from among all the industries present globally. Moreover, the companies have to cater to the demands of the ever-growing population. The increasing prevalence of diseases across the world, especially in the eastern regions, is propelling the pharmaceutical, medical devices, and biotechnology market.
Browse key industry insights spread across 150 pages with market data tables & figures & charts from the report, Pyrogen Testing Market is likely to register a double digit CAGR during the forecast period 2019-2030. in detail along with the table of contents: https://www.marketindustryreports.com/pyrogen-testing-market/97
To ensure safety of people, FDA has imposed a number of regulations concerning the use of food and drugs for human consumption. Tests to detect the undesirable pyrogenic products have been mandated by the organization. Companies cannot release their products into the market unless they standardize them as per the rules. The protocols for pyrogen testing have been laid down in article number 21 CFR 610. The tests must be carried out on animals and human subjects. Upon violation of the law by the companies, FDA is liable to take legal action against them.
However, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector has been witnessing tremendous consolidations in the last few years. This factor restrains the revenue to a certain extent. The reason for consolidation lies in increased competition from generic drug manufacturers, as well as the escalated costs of drug development. Some of the significant acquisitions that happened in 2018 are, GlaxoSmithKline’s acquisition of Tesaro for US$ 5100 Mn, Celgene’s acquisition of Impact Biomedicines for US$ 7000 Mn, and Juno Therapeutics for US$ 9000 Mn. Such consolidations prove to be an obstacle for the financial growth of new entrants in the market.
Two major factors are expected to boost the CAGR of the market in Asian countries like India and China. The ever-growing populations of these countries, and the demand for medicines owing to the high prevalence of chronic diseases in these regions, will drive the market. The key players in the market are already doing heavy investments in such countries. They are focusing on providing a number of products in their services. Increasing disposable income is another factor responsible for growth of the market. The Asia Pacific market is anticipated to reach a figure of US$ 270 Mn by 2020.
The prominent players in the pyrogen testing market are Charles River, Inc., Ellab A/S Inc., Lonza, Ltd., Merck KGaA, Inc., Associates of Cape Cod Inc., GenScript, Inc., Wako, Inc., Sanquin Inc., bioMerieux SA, Inc., and WuXi PharmaTech (Cayman), Inc.
Market Industry Reports is a global leader in market measurement and advisory services. It is 100% subsidiary of Maniks Systems Pvt Ltd. The firm has always been at the forefront of innovation to address the worldwide industry trends and opportunities.
We offer our clients a unique depth of market intelligence in an actionable format to move their business forward. Our analysis incorporates the consumer study in more than 100 countries that provide a tactical approach to drive the sustained growth for the business. We continue to pioneer state-of threat approach in research & analysis that makes complex world simpler to stay ahead of the curve. By nurturing the perception of genius and optimized market intelligence we bring proficient contingency to our clients in the evolving world of technologies, megatrends and industry convergence. We empower and inspire Vanguards to fuel and shape their business to build and grow world-class consumer products.


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By LA Weekly
By Henry Rollins
By Weekly Photographers
By Shea Serrano
By Nate "Igor" Smith
By Dan Weiss
By Erica E. Phillips
By Kai Flanders
The answer, born from Walker’s experience as an artist and from Castelaz’s 10,000 hours of behind-the-scenes practice, was straightforward: Execute the old record-label ideal of artist development with new-media nimbleness, doing a small number of things really well as opposed to a large number of things moderately well (or not well at all).
“Jeff is in touch with a lot of people in a lot of places,” says KCRW music director Jason Bentley. “He really pays careful attention to what’s out there, what bands are looking for deals and shopping demos and whether or not they’d fit into the Dangerbird universe. And not everything qualifies. They don’t sign a lot of bands.”
“Jeff’s mindset is basically the exact opposite of the major-label mentality for the last 30 years,” adds Butch Vig, the producer and Garbage member who’s known Castelaz since the latter brought Citizen King to Vig’s Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin. “He’s interested in figuring out how to be efficient with budgets and marketing, and when it comes to reaching your audience, how to get the biggest bang for your buck.”
The label’s biggest bang so far has come in the form of Silversun Pickups, the celebrated Eastside dream-rock outfit whose 2006 debut, Carnavas, has sold more than 335,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. This past Tuesday, Dangerbird released the Pickups’ highly anticipated sophomore disc, Swoon, just in time for the band’s Friday-night performance at Coachella this weekend. By all accounts, Swoon is a big record for Dangerbird; it represents a chance to find out if the label’s machinery is capable of firing at what music-industry folk habitually refer to as the next level.
What defines success for the album, of course, varies depending upon whom you ask. “We just knew that as long as we didn’t fuck up and shoot ourselves in the head, we’d be okay,” says the Pickups’ front man Brian Aubert.
“If you’re efficient with your business model and you sell a couple hundred thousand,” Vig says, “that’s a home run.”
The group’s manager, Cliff Burnstein (whose company QPrime also represents Metallica, Shania Twain and the Red Hot Chili Peppers), thinks in somewhat loftier terms. “I want them to be considered one of the best bands that is currently operating today,” he says, “that their music is at a high, sophisticated level, that the album is good all the way through, and that it’s better and more ambitious than the first album. That’s what’s important to me. All the other stuff will follow in the wake of that.”
Lots of indie-label heads are afraid of being called businesspeople, with the dreaded term’s taint of conference-room anti-artistry. Castelaz isn’t one of them.
“The music industry has been run by people, part and parcel, who have no clue about business,” he says. “Somehow they’ve gotten sucked into this slipstream of working for corporation after corporation after corporation. But they’re not entrepreneurs. They might think they are because they yelled at somebody and they pay a lot of money for dinner on their expense account. That’s not being an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur says, ‘Let’s start a new label. Let’s put our nuts on the line. Let’s put our flag up on the flagpole, and if we don’t do well, the whole world will be there to see it.’”
Castelaz loves business, but he hates bureaucracy. So he and Walker run Dangerbird with an eye toward vertical integration, offering bands the closest thing they can to one-stop shopping in the form of in-house marketing, radio-promotion and licensing staff — not necessarily the norm in Indieland. That last piece of the puzzle is particularly unique and, according to KCRW’s Bentley, particularly crucial. “They’re actively pursuing TV, film and commercial opportunities for their bands,” he says. “Being on an indie label in a time when sales aren’t what they used to be, that can make all the difference.”
Burnstein appreciates the lean-and-mean approach. “Jeff has far more than a skeleton staff but not anywhere approaching a major label,” the manager says. “I can talk on a very high level with the majors, but that doesn’t mean that anything gets done. I actually spend more time talking on the mid- to lower levels; it’s better to go from the bottom and push up. But with Jeff, I have the luxury of ending a phone call and walking into the next room and saying to someone, ‘QPrime and Dangerbird decided this is what we need to do — let’s get it done.’ I don’t have to play games or work the building from within or any of that stuff. It’s refreshing.”


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A lakefront home outside Montreal sold for around $ 14.5 million, according to the local multiple listing service. It is the most expensive house ever sold in the province of Quebec, according to listing agent Cassandra Aurora of Sotheby’s International Realty Canada.
The five-bedroom home on more than 6 acres in the Montreal suburb of Senneville was listed for $ 15.39 million earlier this month, Ms. Aurora said. The seller was James Upton, founder of real estate marketing and lifestyle company Legacy Luxury Lifestyle Inc. Mr. Upton said he bought the home in 2017, but declined to disclose the purchase price.
Ms. Aurora also represented the buyer, whom she declined to identify.
The property has approximately 400 feet of waterfront on Lac des Deux Montagnes and a multi-level dock, Ms. Aurora said. Mr Upton collects Ferraris and the property has three “Ferrari-only garages” with parking for seven cars, Ms Aurora said. The land also includes a two-bedroom guest house, which Mr Upton used as a “car and coffee club,” Ms Aurora said. Mr Upton said he has hosted Ferrari events at the house, but declined to say how many cars he owns.
The estate also includes a private garden, a large helicopter-friendly lawn and a hot tub, she said.
Inside, the circa 1995 home spans approximately 11,500 square feet, including the basement, which features a mirrored wine cellar, movie theater, gym, and gym. games. The house has several Swarovski crystal chandeliers, five fireplaces and a music room, according to Mr. Upton’s website.
The sale broke a provincial record set earlier this month in the Montreal suburb of Westmount, where a home sold for around $ 14.31 million.
Ms. Aurora said that the current market activity in Quebec is unprecedented. “We have never had this type of market. We never even had bidding wars, ”she said. “Now the ads can’t last two days on the market. “
Luxury single-family homes in Quebec have sold on average for around $ 6.27 million so far in 2021, according to multiple listing service data provided by Sotheby’s International Realty.
Much like in the United States, added Aurora, “people are leaving the city to go to the suburbs because of Covid for more space”.
Copyright © 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8


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Nokia X91 2022 Price, Specifications, and Release Date
Nokia X91 2022 Release Date, Price, Specs, Rumors, Features, Leaks, News! Hello everyone. We have a new premium beast for you, the Nokia X91 5G. This beast is from HMD Global and is produced by the Nokia Corporation. It is called the Nokia X91. The new flagship phone has huge RAM, a massive battery, and a powerful processor. Smartphone lovers everywhere are rejoicing. Earlier, we talked about the Nokia Xpress Music Pro.
Nokia X91 5G Full Specification
Camera and Battery
The Nokia X91 has a stunning optics system. The main camera is a Quad-camera system with a primary lens of 108MP, a secondary lens of 32MP, a 16MP lens, and a 5MP depth sensor. The front-facing camera is the best I’ve seen yet. It’s a 48MP camera. You can take beautiful selfies and make video calls with this lovely phone. The phone offers GSM / CDMA / HSPA / LTE / 4G / 5G connectivity. This smartphone battery is so powerful, it would put a cake to shame. It’s a 6900-mAh battery, which will charge your phone all day long. It has fast charging, which isn’t even on Nokia phones yet. In 74 minutes, this thing will have your phone fully charged.
RAM and Internal Storage
The new phone has 10/12 gigabytes of RAM. It comes with 256/512 gigabytes of internal storage. The processor is the most important part of a phone. It controls the speed, how smoothly apps run, and how quickly the phone is able to download and upload information. Hardware-wise, The Upcoming 5G phone will use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 898 5G Mobile Platform, which is designed for speed.
The new Nokia X91 comes with an operating system of Android 12. The Nokia X91 is available in multiple connectivity options, including 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPRS. The X91 5G smartphone will have sensors like an under-display fingerprint sensor, face recognition, proximity, gyro, barometer, compass, accelerometer, etc.
Nokia X91 5G Release Date and Price
No official word from HDM Global about the Nokia X91 5G release date, but mobile experts think it will be released in the last Q of this year. The mobile experts believe the phone will be an amazing hit. This year, the price of the upcoming Nokia X91 is a hot topic. The Company hasn’t officially announced the pricing yet, but we believe that it will be around $390 ~ Rs. 29,098.
- Nokia X91 Price in Bangladesh ৳33,065 TK
- Nokia X91 Price in Pakistan 62,188 PKR
- Nokia X91 Price in China ¥2,526 CNY
- Nokia X91 Price in Nigeria ₦160,485 NGN
- Nokia X91 Price in Euro Country €330 EUR
If you want more about the latest technology you must join World View on Facebook and Twitter and also join our WhatsApp Group by clicking on the name. For breaking news, you have the opportunity to follow us on Google News. Thanks for having a pleasant time with us.


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The gleaming NBA Store opened a month ago on Fifth Avenue and 52d Street with little fanfare and no advertising but with logos on everything from bibs and $210 cashmere sweaters to $8,000 Waterford vases and $25,000 Breitling watches.
Over three levels connected by a 170-foot-long maple ramp, the sleekly designed store that owes more to slick designer emporiums like Salvatore Ferragamo and Liz Claiborne than Modell's symbolizes the sophisticated marketing that has made the National Basketball Association a potent global brand.
''It goes against every sensibility of the N.B.A. not to turn the store opening into as big an event as possible,'' said Rick Welts, the president of NBA Properties. ''So we've depended on people finding us.''
The N.B.A.'s sudden shyness derives from the uncertainty of a season already tainted by the owners' lockout of the players. All preseason games, and the first two weeks of the regular season, have been canceled. So the N.B.A. chose not to turn hypermarketing's klieg lights on a store stocked with $26 Barbie dolls and $2,400 leather jackets without an on-court product to sell.
As he browsed the lower level, Joel Zolodnek of Phoenix said, ''I thought I'd be locked out of the store, but I guess revenues have to come in to the league somehow.'' The lockout has not deterred his desire for league goods despite his concerns about soaring salaries and greedy owners.
''I love the game, I love the environment of sports and I love to relate to it,'' said Zolodnek, a Brooklyn-born accountant. ''But the N.B.A. will have its greatest marketing job ever if they don't play any games.''
The lockout's length will determine the damage done to the N.B.A.-related business cultivated by retailers, sponsors and merchandise manufacturers, none of whom want to suffer the devastation wrought by the 1994-95 baseball strike.
''If the league isn't back by Christmas, we could lose 75 percent of our N.B.A. business,'' said Neil Hernberg, sports marketing manager of Pro Player, the apparel maker, which is just matching prestrike levels of baseball goods.
Retailers were already coping with a downturn in the sale of licensed merchandise such as T-shirts, caps, jackets and sweat shirts plus the prospect of Michael Jordan's retirement and the end of the Chicago Bulls' dynasty.
''The market is soft,'' said Steve Raab, vice president of marketing for Starter, the apparel maker. ''Retailers are reducing and canceling orders.''
Welts said retailers, and the makers of licensed merchandise, are suffering more so far than corporate sponsors like Coca-Cola, AT&T, and American Express.
Modell's has pared its N.B.A. orders by 75 percent. ''We're stocking the basics, the marquee players,'' said Mitch Modell, the chain's president. ''The N.B.A. business doesn't start for us for 30 days, but our space right now is totally converted to Yankee stores because Yankee sales are phenomenal.''
Gatorade, a longtime sponsor, is not worried. Yet. Its league-related commercial campaign, starring Jordan, does not start until after the All-Star Game. ''He was an equally appropriate vehicle whether he plays or not, whether there's a season or not,'' said P. J. Sinopoli, a spokeswoman for Gatorade.
Coca-Cola's Sprite brand is proceeding soon with its national contest, dubbed ''The Sprite Salary Cap'' promotion. It features the Detroit Pistons' Grant Hill and the Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant.
The only change in the plan is to shift the advertising that would have run on N.B.A. games to other television programs. ''The spots aren't dependent on games being played,'' said Scott Jacobson, a Coca-Cola spokesman.
And Fila and Reebok are not delaying the coming launches of new basketball shoes endorsed by Hill and Allen Iverson.
''We have a much leaner program to sell The Answer II than we did last year,'' said Dave Fogelson, a Reebok spokesman. ''That may mean selling fewer shoes, but it will mean less inventory left over.''
The GH5, Hill's $90 signature sneaker, will not be marketed on TNT and TBS's N.B.A. games, as planned, but in print advertising and a Web site.
''I guess I'm a little surprised we haven't been affected by the lockout,'' said Howe Burch, a senior vice president of Fila America, an N.B.A. sponsor.
The cancellation of the first two weeks of the N.B.A. season has meant canceling seven TNT and TBS games and replacing them with other programming.
Turner Sports, which carries games on TNT and TBS, will add unplayed games to its schedule when the lockout ends. NBC Sports must pay its full rights fee this season, but would get refunds over three seasons for unplayed games.
''The lockout probably won't be an issue for fans until Nov. 1, when they don't see what they expect to see,'' said Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Sports.
In the meantime, fans feeling deprived can venture to Fifth Avenue, for the $60 sculptures made of nuts and bolts, a $30,000 Bulls facsimile championship ring and $750 gold cuff links to soothe the angst of the delayed season.


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Along with being Sweden’s all-time record goalscorer and one of the biggest names in world football, Ibrahimovic already has a hit single with superstar producer Max Martin under his belt, as well as his own fragrance, so he isn't scared of branching out.
The enterprising Swede now has success in another field in his sights, buying into Stockholm-based Isbit Games, who launched in 2014 and produce titles ranging from first person shooters to puzzle games.
Sweden is a major player in the gaming industry, with household names like Candy Crush and Minecraft originating in the country.
An avid gamer, Ibrahimovic has spoken about his love of shooters like Call of Duty and Battlefield in the past, so his new investment will come as little surprise to his fans.
“Zlatan met Markus Koos, CEO of Isbit Games through common friends and it took off from that point,” Yann Blandy, CEO of communications agency Intellecta who announced Ibrahimovic's purchase, told The Local.
“He is truly passionate about games,” Blandy added.
Isbit are not yet ready to reveal what Ibrahimovic's plans for their work together are, but with the striker no shy type, it seems likely that more will be explained soon.


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As an influx of off-lease vehicles is expected to enter the market this summer, a new study by car search engine iSeeCars.com reveals which 3-year-old used cars depreciate the most to present the best deals for consumers.
While the average vehicle depreciates 39.1 percent after the average car lease term of three years, the highest-depreciating vehicles lose more than half of their value, resulting in significant savings for consumers opting to buy a 3-year-old vehicle instead of a new one.
iSeeCars.com analyzed more than 6.9 million car sales to identify models with the greatest loss in value after three years. “Three years is a popular age for used car buyers because the cars have taken a major depreciation hit, but likely have many of the latest modern safety and technology features,” said iSeeCars CEO Phong Ly. “ Some of these bargains provide good opportunities for car shoppers as reliable vehicles that are discounted because they simply aren’t as popular in their vehicle segments.”
Read the article at iSeeCars.


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After Levi’s® launched its highly lauded initial NBA collection earlier this year, featuring the Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls, Golden State Warriors, L.A. Lakers and the New York Knicks, the brand took cues from fans and quickly got to work to expand the collection announcing four new teams this season.
The latest additions to the 2017 roster will include the Cleveland Cavaliers, Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, and Toronto Raptors, as well as a brand new piece to the collection—a rugby shirt. To properly celebrate the launch, Levis® headed to the hills of San Francisco where they started and found inspiration through the streets of Chinatown to showcase the new collection in a vibrant yet authentic environment.
The entire collaboration came about as a way for loyal NBA fans to be able to represent their favorite teams without sacrificing style, and Levis® now brings a premium collection to the world of fan apparel, sticking to their motto, "Quality never goes out of style."
You can shop the entire collection now on the Levi's® website.


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Michael Jordan has been out of basketball for years now. He's mostly on the golf course. But the latest pair of basketball Nike Air Jordan shoes named in his honor are so hot they are causing bedlam in some parts of the country.
Fights have erupted. Pairs have been stolen. And, arrests have been made, as the shoes are selling out and being re-sold for much higher prices on eBay -- $300 to $500 and up.
Demand for the sneakers and chaos surrounding Nike release of the Air Jordans have caused mayhem from coast-to-coast. The new Concord is a retro model of one of the more popular Air Jordans Nike has produced. It retails for $180 in a limited release but pairs at eBay are going for much higher than that.
In Seattle, police used pepper spray on 20 customers who got into a fight in the Westfield Southcenter mall, according to Newsday. Police said the crowd began gathering at the mall around four stores expected to sell them around midnight the day of the release. By 4 a.m. some 1,000 people had gathered. People began to fight and push, and one 18-year-old man was arrested for assault after he punched a police officer.
The man did not get the shoes, an officer said, but he did go to jail.
In Jersey City, New Jersey, one man was stabbed after a brawl involving the shoes, and in Indiana police were called to three different malls over chaotic scenes caused by crowds wanting the shoes.


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Take one part Pokémon and one part Tekken, and you have Pokkén.
Tag Archive: pokemon
Pokémon is getting a Super Bowl commercial to celebrate the brand's 20th anniversary, and today we get a look at it ahead of the big game.
2016 brings hundreds of hours to the 3DS for RPG fans.
Just in time for its big 20th anniversary, The Pokémon Company is spending big bucks to celebrate the Pokémon brand's latest milestone.
The developers behind Google popular augmented reality game are teaming up with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company to produce a new Pokémon game for iOS and Android devices.
With not all that much fanfare, Nintendo has announced that Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon is headed to the Nintendo 3DS this winter.
Nintendo has some solid Wii U and Nintendo 2DS/3DS plans for this Holiday season. Amiibo figures now available to pre-order.
The Pokémon-themed Art Academy release for the Nintendo 3DS officially has a release date.
You won't be able to catch Pokémon Omega Ruby or Pokémon Alpha Sapphire until November, but here's a healthy batch of new media.
Pikachu and friends are headed to the Nintendo 3DS/2DS in an all new Art Academy release, slated to be released this fall.


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It is official, parliamentary elections can have a significant impact on consumer confidence and retail sales, but it may be good or may be bad and it may reverse after an election.
We don't need to tell QVM traders that the current Federal election campaign seems to be impacting adversely on sales. Consumers listening to constant arguing and bickering between rival candidates, hearing the tales of doom if one party wins the election, and generally being subjected to negative, cynical news can hardly be blamed for putting a clamp on their spending.
Some elections are characterised by grandiose promises that actually boost consumer confidence but then when reality sets in after the election that can reverse. Other elections are characterised by fear campaigns that dampen confidence before an election, but then when a clear direction emerges, particularly if there is a new leader, the confidence rises.
A mid year campaign is considered good for retail rather than at Christmas when dampened confidence has a bigger impact. Deutsche Bank has said that Federal elections on average are not good for retail but the impact is pretty much 50/50 over the longer term. Myer has claimed that the election will impact on third quarter sales and Qantas is blaming the election on reduced bookings with travellers not wanting to be away during the voting process.
So, with an apparent negative impact in the lead up to the election lets hope for a clear result that gives consumers the confidence to go out and shop immediately after the July poll.
Have Your Say - click here.


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Editorial: Just cook them
Published: August 27, 2010
WE HAVE often used this space to complain about idiotic reporting in the national news media. And here we go again ....
Literally thousands of news stories have appeared in print, online and on radio and TV in the last two weeks about the contamination of a portion of the nation’s egg supply with salmonella.
These stories have breathlessly and alarmingly examined the minute details of where the eggs came from, meticulously counted the number of people who got sick (about 2,400) and the number of eggs to be destroyed (at least 500 million), and given an almost unlimited platform to politicians and activists to demand Congressional hearings, tighter regulation of the food supply, and quicker recalls when something is amiss. The farms that produced the eggs have been investigated, not only for the way they handle their eggs, but how they treat their chickens. Editorials have solemnly pronounced that “the nation’s food supply must be made safe,” and animal rights activists have been permitted to claim that there’s no way it can be as long as farms are run like businesses. Etc., etc.
But amid all those hundreds of thousands of words, the single most important fact about how consumers can protect themselves from becoming ill has hardly been mentioned. Concerned about salmonella or any other kind of bacterial contamination in your eggs? Just cook them before you eat them. Yes, it’s that simple.
Cooked food is much safer than raw food. That’s why we cook it. In the caveman days, people who developed cooking techniques became sick much less often than those who didn’t. The same thing is true today.
To understand this properly, a few facts are in order: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are about 76 million illnesses and up to 5,000 deaths in the United States each year caused by contaminated food, with the vast majority of cases caused by bacterial species such as salmonella, E coli and staphylococcus. And almost all of these cases could be prevented with proper food handling at home.
Furthermore, it’s important for the media not to mislead the public into believing that there is some magical way the nation’s food supply can be made 100 percent safe. Eliminating harmful bacteria from food simply isn’t possible, because there are just so many bacteria in the environment. The intestinal tract of nearly every animal contains bacteria potentially harmful to humans. And since animals are pooping everywhere, the bacteria are everywhere, too.
The greatest danger of contamination comes from eating uncooked meat, since it is impossible to slaughter and process beef, chicken or pork without feces being somewhere nearby.
Fruits or vegetables which grow close to the ground and which are not peeled or cooked also carry a relatively high chance of contamination, since the ground is where animal feces are commonly found.
Refrigeration of stored food, either before or after cooking, is important, since bacteria grow slowly at low temperatures. So is keeping raw meat away from anything you’ll eat uncooked.
But the most important fact of all is this: Even if something you are about to eat is contaminated with bacteria, when you cook it, the bacteria are killed. If you cook your food thoroughly and eat it soon after cooking, the danger of becoming ill is minimal.
So, cook your eggs, dear Pine Cone readers. That’s all you need to do.


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Executives from global motion control companies have launched a new trade association to serve the interests of motors, drives and controls companies. Known as the Motion Control Association, the new trade group will promote the use of mechanical and electronic motion control technology, which currently accounts for more than $44 billion in annual sales globally.
Companies assisting with the formation of the association envision the organization as becoming a leading resource for motion control technology. It will provide industry statistics, develop and coordinate industry standards, deliver educational programs and host executive-level business conferences.
In addition, Motion Control Online (www.motioncontrolonline.org), a global resource for the industry, was recently launched. The site gives users of motion control an online buyers' guide, articles and technical papers, new product information, user tips, an ask-the-experts forum, career center and bookstore.
The Motion Control Association's board of directors includes Chris Davis, Baumuller; Sandy Holden, Rockwell Automation; Arun Jain, Siemens Energy & Automation; Dan Jones, Incremotion Associates; John Mazurkiewicz, Baldor; Kevin McNicholas, Applied Motion Products; Jason Struthers, Parker Hannifin Corp.; Andy Urda, Yaskawa Electric America and Andrew Vogl, Danaher Motion.


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Cell C recently announced that its collaboration with local mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) like FNB Connect, Mr Price Mobile and BokSel has brought in more than a million end-user customers.
Cell C, South Africa’s third largest cellular network, is currently the only mobile operator in SA that enables other brands to launch mobile services using its network infrastructure. However, MTN has revealed its plans to also introduce this offering in coming months.
According to Cell C CEO, Jose Dos Santos, MVNOs bring great value and competition to the telecommunications industry: “MVNOs have incredible insights into their customers’ needs and based on those insights they can offer very targeted products.”
In addition to the rise in MVNO numbers, Cell C now has more than 24 million active customers and the network has “nearly trebled its total subscriber base in the last four years.”
Dos Santos adds that this growth is “off the back of continuous network improvements, innovative services like WiFi calling and a commitment to value offerings.”


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Long-Awaited Japanese Recovery Remains Stuck in First Gear
STRONG YEN HURTS
SINCE late 1993, the mighty Japanese economy has been in a recovery notable for its tentativeness and lethargy.
As much as businesses in and out of Japan want the world's second largest economy to gain vigor, it hasn't happened yet.
The beginning of this year has not been encouraging. First the Kobe earthquake struck. Reconstruction will boost the economy in the long term, but the partial destruction of a major Japanese port is hurting imports and exports.
Potentially more detrimental, from an economic standpoint, is last week's appreciation of the yen. It may be more than Japan's fainthearted recovery can take. ''The flower has just started to bloom,'' says Bank of Tokyo senior economist Soichi Enkyo,''and now a very cold wind comes.''
Every time the yen gains in strength against the dollar and other currencies, Japan's big exporting companies warn that they are losing money. Their problem is that much of their revenue comes in dollars, deutsche marks, or other currencies -- which buy approximately 10 percent fewer yen than they did a month ago. The manufacturers need the yen to pay workers and make investments and purchases here in Japan.
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan's leading business newspaper, said last week that if the yen stabilized at 93 to the dollar, growth estimates for the next two years would have to be revised downward. Instead of growing 2.6 percent in fiscal 1995 and 3.0 percent in fiscal 1996, said Nikkei, the Japanese economy would expand by just 2.2 percent in each of those years.
THE yen's appreciation, known here as endaka, hits hardest at what was supposed to be one of the two main engines of the current recovery. At the end of last year, many economists forecast that businesses would increase their capital investments, meaning they would spend money on factories and other facilities. But if the yen stays at its current level -- it closed at 91 to the dollar in New York on Friday -- revenues will decline at many big Japanese corporations.
As a result, says Dr. Enkyo,''capital investment recovery will be delayed.''
The yen's rise also indirectly hinders private consumption -- what economists hoped would be the other driving force behind the recovery. If corporate profits decline, wages stagnate and bonuses get cut. That means consumers have less money to make purchases.
The most profound effect of the strong yen has been to force Japanese companies offshore in search of less costly places to manufacture. Although the levels of Japan's direct foreign investment have not yet reached those of the boom years of Japan's late-1980s ''bubble economy,'' companies here have been going to great lengths to get out of Japan and trim costs.
So far, the companies have been able to do so without causing significant increases in unemployment. But with each bout of endaka, companies hint that further cost-cutting will have unpleasant social consequences. These warnings also tend to undermine consumer sentiment.
On the other hand, notes Merrill Lynch Tokyo-based economist Ron Bevacqua, the anticipated dislocations ''never seem to happen.'' Japan has essentially privatized unemployment, with companies tacitly agreeing to carry some excess workers in the national interest, so Mr. Bevacqua says he thinks the companies ''would be able to muddle through'' this burst of endaka.
But even if companies manage to avoid endaka-induced layoffs, it appears they won't be giving their workers any extra money. Japanese trade unions are now engaged in the traditional springtime process of negotiating for annual pay increases. Early indications suggest this year's raises will be small -- a further sign that consumers will not have as much to spend as economists once hoped. On March 3, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation reached an agreement with its union to raise monthly wages by 2.8 percent -- the smallest increase in 10 years.
Many economists see the yen's strength as a necessity. They warn that until foreign companies begin selling more goods in Japan, earning yen that they would then need to convert into their own currencies, endaka will persist.


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The Run to the Sun Car Show, one of the largest in the Southeast, brings thousands of classic cars to Myrtle Beach for a weekend-long event. In addition to bringing classic-car enthusiasts from around the country together, the show raises money for the Children's Miracle Network and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Stay tuned for more information on the 30th edition of the Run to the Sun Car Show for 2018!


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A new report has found that up to 40% of a farmer's crop can get ploughed back into the field as supermarket buyers refuse so-called ugly or wonky vegetables.
The UK's global food security programme says up to 2/5 of a crop can be rejected because it doesn't look right.
Yet at River Cottage headquarters, on the Devon/Dorset border they're proud to grow all sorts of weird and wonderful veg.
They say it's up to customers to demand natural-looking products.
It's a view that's shared by our viewers
One supermarket has defended itself saying it will still buy the crop and use it across its range.
Here's Seth Conway's report.
Some of you have sent in pictures of wonky vegetables you have come across. Here are a couple:


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Amazon is making a big move in the cost-per-action (CPA) marketing space, launching a new service called Amazon Moments designed to allow companies to reward their loyal users.
Companies that use the tool will be able to reward users or customers that take specific actions with digital or physical rewards, fulfilled by Amazon.
The company has been testing Moments with a number of partners, including streaming video services, streaming music services, apps, and publishers, and says it is now ready to roll it out worldwide.
“It can be used for anything across the customer journey, all the way from acquisition to engagement to loyalty,” Amir Kabbara, head of digital marketing & consumer innovation at Amazon tells Digital News Daily.
Kabbara says that one subscription app was able to generate twice as many subscribers using the Moments service than it had using different marketing tools, while an entertainment streaming service saw its daily active users (DAUs) improve by 291%.
It works like this: marketers at a streaming company, for example, decide what metrics they want to reward (it could be renewing a subscription, or watching seven episodes of a TV show, or streaming 20 house of music). They go into the Moments console, submit their CPA amount, and Amazon pulls up items that fit those parameters. Marketers can choose a specific reward, or give users a choice of a handful of rewards.
When users complete the action, a unique Amazon link is generated, allowing them to claim their reward. Amazon then fulfills the order as it would for any other physical or digital good, to more than 100 countries. The marketer only pays Amazon when the customer completes the action.
Sesame Workshop, for example, gave a free "Sesame Street" eBook to users who paid to upgrade one of their apps. A streaming music app, meanwhile, wanted to reward users who listened to more than 20 hours per week of music with free headphones or an iPhone case.
Companies can leverage their own research to determine the value of each action. So a streaming video service that finds that viewers are more likely to watch the entire season of a show if they watch the first seven episodes can reward customers for watching seven episodes.
Amazon Moments also connects Amazon’s advertising business with its shopping business, leveraging the scale and distribution it has in commerce to more efficiently deliver in-app rewards for marketing partners.
“Some marketers, especially in the loyalty space, created rewards
programs that are points-based, and then had to figure out how to source physical products as rewards, how to get them to the customer, ship them, and so on,” Kabbara says.
Moments was designed to eliminate the need for marketers to source and fulfill their own rewards, and have Amazon do it all instead.
“It is really creating that benefit for both marketers and customers,” he says. “Our goal is to make fun, delightful experiences for customers when they consume digital content.”


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BC’s fastest-growing company, based on revenue growth over the past five years, is the Victoria-based tech startup Certn Holdings Inc., which specializes in employee background checks. Certn’s revenue shot up 33,109.8% to $18.5 million in 2021 from $55,856 in 2017.
The company had the fifth-highest revenue jump of any company to make Business in Vancouver’s Top 100 Fastest-Growing Companies list (pages 10, 12, 13, 14, 16) in the past 10 years. “It’s been a snowball effect,” said Andrew McLeod, Certn’s co-founder and CEO. “Growth has given us the opportunity to unlock more growth.” That growth, according to McLeod, has resulted from the combination of a great team, a great product and changing market and business conditions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. W h i le business conditions outside of the company’s control contributed to Certn’s huge revenue spike, McLeod attributes much of the company’s success to its employees. He wasn’t always so sure that a Victoria startup would be able to find the talent needed for such a venture, let alone to support accelerated growth.
When the company was founded in 2016, McLeod bet $100 that Certn wouldn’t be able to find talent or investors in Victoria – a bet he later paid, happily. For Certn, skyrocketing from five-digit to eight-digit annual revenue meant having to expand its services, its employee base and its market all at the same time. Back in 2016, the company was focused on making the business of tenant screening fairer for renters. Its broader goal was to put the power of information in the hands of consumers – be they renters or employees. “Right now pre-employment screening is the biggest part of our business, and that’s really taken off,” said McLeod. With more people working remotely during the pandemic, demand increased for digital and online employee background checks. The company has since grown from a staff of 20 to a team of 400. Even after five years in which its revenue grew over 33,000 per cent, Certn is working to expand its global footprint and find new ways to further support consumers with information.