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(Click to view the HD version of this infographic)
Today we’re joined by RetailX, a company that specialises in performance research and analysis in multichannel retail.
UK’s retail e-commerce sales surpassed 30% of total retail sales due to the pandemic. To adjust to this surge in demand, more retailers began to offer delivery alternatives to provide customers with a fast, reliable and safe shopping experience.
With that in mind, we examined some popular delivery methods offered by Top 500 retailers in the UK.
Elevated demand for next-day delivery options:
Withe-commerce orders on the rise, the demand for faster delivery services also increased. More consumers in the UK are expecting businesses to offer next-day delivery as they shift to online shopping. Based on RetailX’s data, 57% of the top retailers in the UK offer next-day delivery.
“While the shifting retail landscape presents a major opportunity for brands to broaden their audience, it’s not without challenges. Consumers are coming to expect the same delivery options as they get from Amazon – notably free delivery – from across the retail sector as a whole.” – Peter Martin, Managing Director at SMP, said in an article covered by Retail Times.
However, our findings show that the average domestic transit time in the UK misses the mark at 1.9 days. This could be partially attributed to the shock in the logistics and supply chain industry during the pandemic, as average transit time peaked at 2.7 days during the lockdown period. Nevertheless, we believe this may change as transit times start to normalize and as retailers place more emphasis in e-commerce delivery experience.
The rise of alternative delivery methods like collection points and click-and-collect options
54% of UK’s top retailers offer click-and-collect as a delivery alternative. The efficacy of this delivery method is also evident from our data; 97% of parcels delivered to collection points are successfully picked up.
Click-and-collect as a delivery alternative has been growing in popularity even before the pandemic Expecting to to double by 2025 in the UK.
An online survey by SaaS provider Qudini found that 46% of UK consumers were more likely to use click-and-collect for essential stores such as grocery or pharmacies during the pandemic. The convenience of collection points allows consumers to opt for a convenient and safer option to collect their parcels.
Upcoming holiday season, combined with the e-commerce boom resulted in a 29% surge in parcel volumes
During the Christmas season last year, there was a 29% surge in parcel volumes.
In December 2019 alone, UK consumers reportedly spent £52.79 billion on holiday shopping. Looking back at the e-commerce boom in the first half of 2020, this holiday season is expected to set new records for online retail sales.
British Retail Consortium (BRC) has also started encouraging consumers to shop early this holiday season to spread the demand amid the pandemic. Retailers on the other hand, are also preparing for the peak season crunch time by offering delivery alternatives like BOPIS (Buy-Online, Pickup In-Store). With 21% of the top retailers in the UK already offering free delivery for all orders, will more retailers follow suit to encourage British consumers to shop more this Christmas?
Redelivery costs fell due to fewer missed deliveries.
Research by IMRG and NetDespatch in 2019 found that deliveries in the UK cost the industry more than £1.6 billion yearly. Fast forward to 2020, more people are staying home and are able to receive their deliveries. With less missed deliveries, we should similarly see a drop in the number of redeliveries made this year. Indeed, our data shows that 93% of parcels were successfully delivered at first attempt.
Supporting this finding, RetailX’s data shows that 13% of retailers offer nominated-day delivery service in the first half of 2020. Offering this service is also a great way to reduce the number of missed deliveries, and therefore the cost of rearranging deliveries.
Fireside Chat with Arne Jeroschewski, CEO & Founder of Parcel Perform and Martin Shaw, Head of Research at RetailX
RetailX is a research company that specialises in performance research and analysis for retailers and brands, sectors, markets, tools and people in multichannel retail and direct-to-consumer digital commerce. RetailX’s mission is to provide the data, analysis and insights to build successful and profitable businesses.


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2014 was year of big successes (Frozen), milestones (Hello Kitty’s 40th) and industry-changing innovations (3D printing). Here’s a recap of the news that shaped the year.
RRKidz, the company that re-launched "Reading Rainbow" in 2011, has appointed Brand Central to develop its consumer products program.
The Peppa Pig live show, which has sold more than 650,000 tickets in the U.K., is headed to the U.S.
Cartamundi is planning for a cold summer with the launch of a three-in-one pack of card games inspired by Disney’s Frozen.
Panini will create a sticker album for the upcoming FIFA Women World Cup, which will take place from June 6 to July 5 in six cities across Canada.
Backyard Sports brand is celebrating the success of NBA MVP Stephen Curry with a super-powered Stephan Curry character in its mobile game.
Tattiemoon, creators of the CBeebies series "Woolly and Tig," has inked two new publishing deals for the brand.
Vita Coco has teamed with swimwear brand L*Space by Monica Wise to create a limited edition bikini inspired by the coconut water brand.
Licensing agency LMCA has added two new members to the team of its consulting subsidiary ProdigyWorks.
Phil Carroll is has joined Pedigree Books as the interim head of sales for the annuals and yearbooks publisher.
Playboy has joined forces with Blitzway to create a limited edition collection of art figurines that highlight the brand's history of bringing together art and pop culture.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is seeking licensing of its stage production of the children’s book by Ian Fleming.
Talisman Licensing has tapped Li & Fung Home to develop the debut homewares line for international food writer and TV host Rick Stein.
This year’s Brand Licensing Europe will be the largest in the event's 16-year history with close to 235 exhibitors set to appear, 55 of which are new.
While inherent risks are still prevalent, so are the opportunities for retail growth especially in several smaller, less publicized nations.
Actress Sofia Vergara has partnered with Kay Jewelers to launch a new jewelry collection.
Aadrash has appointed MJA licensing as its licensing agent in France for the Purple Turtle book series.
Plus-size retailer Lane Bryant is teaming up with American ready-to-wear designer Lela Rose for a limited edition apparel line.
Kraft Foods Group has announced a multi-year deal with Keurig Green Mountain to bring its branded coffees to Keurig brewing systems in the U.S.
The National Football League, NFL Players Inc. and licensee Bleacher Creatures have unveiled the 2014 NFL player plush collection, which includes more than 50 NFL stars.
Nestlé has released two limited edition flavors of Nesquik inspired by Girl Scouts cookies.
©2015 ADVANSTAR COMMUNICATIONS INC. All rights reserved.

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Research In Motion has begun sending out invites for the eagerly anticipated launch of its all-new BlackBerry 10 platform.
After a well-documented series of delays the Canadian firm finally set the release date for 30 January 2013 last month, and today’s invites (above) confirm launch events to be taking place in New York, London, Toronto, Paris, Johannesburg and Dubai.
The event is scheduled to last four hours so there’s either a hell of a lot to be showed off on BB10 or RIM has a few surprises up its sleeve. Alongside the new OS, a full-touchscreen device and traditional QWERTY keyboard handset are expected to be unveiled.
The latter product seems to demonstrate RIM’s focus on keeping its enterprise customers happy, with BlackBerry’s QWERTY models representing business staple over past years.


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UK Market-listed cannabis business Kanabo is now generating its first revenues following the successful launch of its flagship VapePod product.
The medical cannabis vapes were launched in the UK in late August, following the launch of its CBD VapePods in the UK, Germany, Canada, France, Italy and Poland in July.
While Kanabo is yet to release any sales figures for the newly launched product, its CEO Avihu Tamir is confident it will enable the company to reverse the multi-million-pound loss it reported in its most recent financial figures, as well as its stock price decline.
“We’re just starting to generate value, so for us we’re very comfortable,” Mr Tamir told BusinessCann.
“We know that the share price will go up. People will see the significant revenues and profits that are going to come, and definitely it’s going to go up. I think it’s probably we’re in our low share price right now.”
Share Price Plummet
Kanabo became the second cannabis company to list on the London Stock Exchange in February this year, following closely in the footsteps of MGC Pharma.
Since skyrocketing over 300% immediately after listing, Kanabo’s stock, much like its peers, has halved since then seeing £57m wiped off its market capitalisation.
In the six months to June 30, 2021, when Kanabo was still pre-revenue, it reported a total loss of £2.4m attributing much of this to one-off costs associated with the reverse acquisition of Spinnaker which facilitated its listing.
Mr Tamir believes the collective underperformance of LSE-listed cannabis stocks over the past six months is largely due to inflated expectations from investors during the cannabis ‘hype’ earlier this year.
“So I think that we need to understand that most of the investors on the public market right now in the UK are retail investors, that means no institutional money and that means that they’re short term investors,” he explained.
“And so they went in because there’s a hype and there is excitement from cannabis’ first listed company. So obviously, there’s a lot of interest and they expected, the share price to go up and up like it’s Bitcoin or something.
“It didn’t go up into $1, $2, $3. And those that are investing for the short term, obviously, they were less happy.”
Materia Acquisition & Unicorn Status
Kanabo’s introduction to the retail market was aided by its upcoming acquisition of Canada-based cannabis producer and distributor Materia, announced in July.
As well as providing an in-road into Europe’s largest medical cannabis market Germany with its pharmaceutical wholesale operation, it allowed Kanabo to launch its vape products in the UK through HandPicked, a UK CBD marketplace owned by Materia.
Though it provided Kanabo with a foot in the door, Mr Tamir said it will not be limited to selling its products through Materia’s platforms.
“We are discussing with several retailers, we’re discussing with significant strategic players online as well, so it’s definitely not going to be solely for HandPicked.
“There is Materia Germany as well, that’s going to be another launch and beyond just the vape product. So Kanabo will grow into additional verticals.”
Mr Tamir remains bullish about the potential scalability of Kanabo following the deal. He told BusinessCann Kanabo’s product development operation in Israel, combined with Materia’s production facility in Malta and distribution networks in Germany put it in a strong position to become one of the ‘two or three’ European cannabis unicorn companies in the near future.
“Our merger will put Kanabo in a different category, instead of a small cap, suddenly the company will be worth north of £100m as a combined company. So I think that that will differentiate Kanabo from the rest of the small cap cannabis companies,” he said.
“Kanabo is unique because we have the capability of product development with our lab in Israel that can do research and trials with cannabis.
“That’s something that is quite challenging in many European countries. And now, there’s distribution and production, the cannabis team can focus more on product development, commercialising them through the production facility in Malta and distribution channels in Germany.”
While its Materia tie-up is the biggest among the numerous acquisitions and partnerships announced since its IPO, including a production deal with PharmaCann Polska in March, a supply partnership with Hellenic Dynamics in May and a further partnership with Medocann in March, it is unlikely to be the last.
“Unorganic growth is going to be a key feature as well because there are huge opportunities. There are some good companies out there that don’t have the access to cash.
“And as we learned from North America, if you want to be the biggest and you want to be the one that is winning, you have to reach a certain size. It’s an economy of scale.”
Opportunities In The European Market
Kanabo’s ambition to cement itself as one of Europe’s few billion-pound cannabis companies is also based on Mr Tamir’s confidence in the explosive growth potential of the European market, which he believes is on track to overtake Canada.
“When I’m talking about Canada, or NASDAQ, there is no difference,” Mr Tamir said.
“Europe is just behind the height that you have in North America. But the direction where this industry is going is very clear… I’m expecting that in the next two, three years, Europe will become a market that is bigger than what Canada is today.”
Mr Tamir believes that the medical cannabis space, where Kanabo is squarely focused, is set to be the major driver of growth across Europe over the next few years, drawing comparisons to the mobile phone boom of the late 90s and early 2000s.
“Taking Germany as an example, without a shift in regulations, we see it growing between 30% to 40% a year. I think the only market we saw growing like this, were when you had cell phones, the growth is quite quick.”
“In the UK year-on-year there is a 300% growth in patients that use medical cannabis. Overall there are not a lot of patients receiving cannabis today in the UK, but the growth is massive.”
The expansion of medical cannabis across the EU is also expected to see a shift in the way people take cannabis away from flowers, towards alternative methods like vaping and tinctures.
Flowers are understood to account for roughly 80% of consumption currently, but this will drop to between 50% and 60% over the next two years as new medical devices become available, Mr Tamir predicted.
Vaping will grow considerably in the near to mid-future, accounting for around 25% to 30% of all cannabis sales, while sublingual consumption will also rise as the market will need to provide a ‘pragmatic solution’ for patients who have never smoked or vaped.


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Facebook has joined Amazon and eBay in banning the sale of 'fully loaded' Kodi boxes. The set-top boxes provide illegal access to movies and sports content.
YouTube and the social media giants will face tougher rules in the future regarding hate speed and extremist content, "The Guardian" reports. The European Commission has drawn up new proposals to deal with the issue through a single EU entity that will need to be approved by the European Parliament.
We're not sure how the pitch invites were sent out, but "Campaign" reveals that Candy Crush has retained WRCS as its global creative shop, following a review in which it had to beat off competition from BBH, Iris and Leo Burnett.
A Forrester report has dared to spell out what many in digital marketing might have thought but not voiced. "The Drum" reports that the analyst firm is predicting the demise of display because of quality concerns around fraud as well as the fact that consumers are moving to experiences where they can less easily be interrupted.
"Marketing Week" readers have a sneak preview of Keith Weed's Cannes Lion speech. The Unilever CMO is urging advertisers to improve the quality of their digital display as the only way to fight rising ad-blocker adoption.
Online research means more than half of British shoppers arrive at a store knowing exactly what they want and a quarter feel that staff who share that detailed knowledge would provide a better retail experience. That's the finding of a new report from ShopperTrak, covered in Netimperative.
One in two British consumers blame brands themselves for inappropriate ad placement and three in four are put off buying from a brand who advertising ends up in an embarrassing setting. That's according to research form Broadband Genie in Netimperative.
P&G has consolidated its media account, including print, for the UK and Ireland with Publicis Media, according to "The Drum." The move follows a review earlier this year. The account is estimated to be worth GBP200m.
Sonobi, the header bidding ad tech company, has launched a "Beware The Yank" video campaign to the UK, following the similar lighthearted parody "Beware of the Bro-bots" campaign. The satirical video will be launched on YouTube and social media channels and, Campaign reveals, features a brash American ad tech company taking his vapourware company more British in a bid to boost sales.
Could this be the start of the highly anticipated move to Brand Britain that researchers have been predicting since the Brexit vote? "Campaign" reports that Co-Op is vowing to ensure all its own-label meat products contain meat sourced solely from the UK. The pledge will form the centerpiece of a new television ad campaign that launches today.


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Thursday, May 10, 2012
eEye Acquired By BeyondTrust
Security software developer eEye, which has operations in Phoenix, has been acquired by fellow security software firm BeyondTrust, the firms said this morning. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. BeyondTrust said that it will integrate eEye's Retina CS products with its PowerBroker family of products. eEye was venture backed by Openview Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners and Insight Venture Partners.


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Chinese smartphone shipments grew 3 percent annually to hit a record 438 million units in 2015, according to the latest report from Strategy Analytics. Xiaomi maintained the top spot by shipping 17.5 million smartphones and captured 15 percent market share in China in Q4 2015, up 11 percent annually.
Linda Sui, Director at Strategy Analytics, said that smartphone shipments in China declined 4 percent annually from 123.0 million units in Q4 2014 to 117.9 million in Q4 2015. Sui attributed the slow growth in China smartphone due to market saturation, inventory build and economic headwinds. For the full year, smartphone shipments grew 3 percent annually from 423.6 million units in 2014 to a record 437.8 million in 2015. Huawei shipped 17.9 million smartphones for the number one spot in China in Q4 2015, growing 50 percent annually from 11.9 million units in Q4 2014. The company has been growing rapidly in China due to extensive distribution channels and popular Android models like the Honor 7. However, Huawei’s growth is now starting to slow as its annual growth rate of 50 percent declined sequentially from 73 percent in the prior quarter, as several major rivals like Apple and Xiaomi are fighting back. For the full year, Xiaomi shipped 67.5 million smartphones to claim the top position in 2015, just staying ahead of Huawei with 62.2 million units.
Woody Oh, Director at Strategy Analytics said
“Apple had a strong quarter in China, shipping a record 15.5 million iPhones in Q4 2015. Apple solidified third position in China with 13 percent marketshare, up from 11 percent one year ago. Apple has worked hard to extend its retailer coverage across China, while Apple Music and other localized services have refreshed the iOS ecosystem for Chinese consumers.”
Giving further insights about shipment from other Chinese vendor Sui added that Vivo came in fourth with 10 percent smartphone market share during Q4 2015, while its shipment growth rate expanded a healthy 20 percent annually. Meanwhile, OPPO, pushed into the top-five China rankings for the first time ever, with 10.8 million smartphones shipped and 9 percent marketshare in Q4 2015. The success of Vivo and OPPO lies in good hardware designs, robust product quality, strong retailer penetration, and rising brand awareness among mass-market consumers.” In a surprise turn of events Samsung did not even made it to the top 5 list owing to a fierce competition from local Chinese vendors.


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Governments are enrolling the unbanked into the formal financial system at scale in developing countries, primarily to facilitate government-to-person (G2P) payments. According to the recently released 2021 Findex, roughly 865 million individuals have opened their first account to receive money from the government, about half of them women. While governments send several types of payments, including public sector wages and pensions, the type of transfers Findex measures (payments for educational or medical expenses, unemployment benefits, subsidy payments or any kind of social benefits) disproportionately target the poorest 40% of the population and beg the question, do all these accounts with funds flowing into them amount to financial inclusion?
If, as the Findex says, the goal of financial inclusion is, “for account owners to benefit from the use of accounts for digital payments, savings and appropriate credit because such uses provide a range of positive benefits, which extend far beyond convenience” things do seem to be edging in the right direction, but broad usage beyond payments from these accounts isn’t happening – yet.
A whopping one in five Findex respondents reported personally receiving a government transfer in the past year – a five percentage point jump from 2017 and one no doubt greatly impacted by COVID-19 emergency relief payments. While significant, that worldwide average obscures some interesting regional differences in recipient percentages ranging from 30% of North Americans at the high end to 8% of Sub-Saharan Africans and 12% of South Asians. Significantly for financial inclusion, over the last Findex reporting period 67% of transfers in developing countries were made into an account of some kind.
It is worth underlining that most of these individuals are now in an ongoing financial relationship with their government as many payments (one-off COVID-19 relief payments notwithstanding) are recurring, with money hitting accounts monthly, quarterly or biannually. This regular infusion of liquidity is significant as it encourages engagement and leads to more familiarity with financial services and provides possibilities for further financial deepening.
Unfortunately, the Findex doesn’t allow us to disentangle government transfers from pension payments. It does, however, report that many adults receiving a government transfer or pension payment into an account also made payments, but a smaller share stored, saved or borrowed money.
In developing economies, 13% of adults received a government transfer or pension payment into an account over the past year. Of these payment recipients, 70% also made a digital payment from their account, including;
- 50% who made a digital merchant payment;
- 40% who made a bill payment using a mobile phone or the internet;
- 32% who made a utility payment from an account; and
- 22% who sent a domestic remittance payment from an account.
About half of those who received a government transfer or pension payment into their account over the same period also used their account to store money. About one-third of government transfer or pension recipients saved money formally, and one-third borrowed money formally.
This is all very encouraging and shows that government payments can set recipients down the path to more robust financial lives and, in time, the prospect of deeper financial inclusion. As we’ve stated above, this optimism must be tempered by the fact that Findex 2021 numbers may overstate G2P recipients’ breadth of usage of financial services vis a vis those receiving a government pension.
Poor financial products, lacking financial education and the persistence of physical cash transfers mean that much of the potential of developing account ownership into financial inclusion remains unrealized. The 2021 Findex suggests a number of areas to focus on in future:
- Government transfer recipients (who disproportionately tend to be poor and financially inexperienced) may not be able to benefit from account ownership if they do not understand how to use financial services in a way that optimizes benefits and avoids consumer protection risks such as fraud, over-indebtedness and hidden fees. Tellingly, about two-thirds of unbanked adults said that if they opened an account (excluding mobile money) at a financial institution, they could not use it without help.
- 12% of those receiving government transfers still receive them in physical cash. Shifting these payments to financial institutions or mobile money accounts could create an entry point for financial inclusion.
- A common complaint among those receiving government transfers is that the payment products represent a poor user experience, are often difficult to use and recipients often contend with long lines at bank agents and struggle to get help when they have a question or a problem with their payments.
Finally, government transfers matter not only because they drive financial inclusion, but transfer volumes seem sure to balloon over the coming years. Two new drivers could well be climate change and inequality. First, climate. Those traditionally targeted by government transfers, such as the poor and vulnerable, also tend to be those most susceptible to climatic risks. As these populations grapple with adaptation or relocation, transfers will likely increasingly flow to them. Inequality, too, may drive transfer volumes as once fanciful ideas such as Universal Basic Income (UBI) enter the mainstream as a means of lifting those sections of society left behind. Let's see if they emerge and whether the Findex 2024 proves me right.


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(Missouri Independent) – At the center of Missouri’s massive marijuana recall is a THC concentrate, or distillate made partially from hemp.
Robertsville-based marijuana manufacturer Delta Extraction has denied accusations that it illegally imported marijuana into the state by arguing it actually imported a non-psychoactive hemp product that was converted into THC once in Missouri.
The commissioner overseeing Delta’s appeal of the recall and license suspension said the company will likely lose that argument because it’s illegal to add “hemp-derived chemically modified ‘converted’ cannabinoids” to marijuana products.
But a lab in Florida — where Delta bought a good amount of product — says the commissioner’s description of “chemically modified” isn’t quite right.
JJ Coombs Jr., owner and CEO of the Arvida Labs in Fort Lauderdale, walked The Independent through the extraction process to make the concentrated THC-A, a cannabinoid that must be heated to produce a high — insisting it didn’t involve a chemical conversion.
It’s a fairly new process, Coombs said, that involves breeding hemp plants to have higher concentrations of the potentially intoxicating property THC-A. And it’s a process neither the state nor Delta leaders could explain during the company’s appeal proceedings.
Unlike marijuana, hemp has very few psychoactive properties naturally — which is why it was taken off the federal controlled substance list in the 2018 farm bill. But since then, businesses like Coombs’ have been in a race to create ways to produce the most predominant psychoactive active element in marijuana, delta-9 THC, using the hemp plant.
“THC-A is becoming popular because it’s able to convert into delta-9,” he said. “It’s like the new hot thing… That’s what everybody wants right now.”
For Missouri’s marijuana industry, businesses like Coombs pose a threat to their livelihoods, especially because Missouri cannabis licensees must go through a rigorous and costly regulatory process — one that hemp companies don’t.
However, for the Missouri hemp industry, the Delta Extraction case makes their argument for them: That hemp-derived THC is legal under federal law and it’s a safe, viable business for Missouri farmers.
Sean Hackmann, president of the Missouri Hemp Trade Association, said Delta sold more than $20 million of distillate which was a mixture of marijuana grown in Missouri and hemp from other states.
“Twenty million dollars in the Missouri hemp industry would be huge, if that was produced, extracted, and processed inside our state,” Hackmann said. “But it was all some other state that benefited from that. Not our Missouri industry.”
As the Delta recall winds its way through state legal proceedings, the future of the hemp industry has also been in legal flux on a federal level.
On Sept. 8, a federal judge in Arkansas granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit against the state, saying that hemp-derived cannabinoids, like THC-A, are protected under the 2018 farm bill.
But a few months before that, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reaffirmed its position that all these cannabinoids are illegal under federal law and not protected by the farm bill, said attorney Clark Wu, an Arizona-based who specializes in hemp and cannabis law.
“Ultimately, it’s hard to say whether this judge or the DEA is more ‘right,’ as different limitations of authority constrain them,” Wu said.
The federal judge indicated that Congress should be the one to decide how to regulate hemp-derived THC products, Wu said.
“The DEA, on the other hand, is viewing everything from a criminal lens,” Wu said, “and the agency is also bound by precedent in agency decisions and international treatises concerning cannabis scheduling. These cases will likely continue to arise until Congress resolves the gap in federal hemp legislation.”
An attorney for Delta Extractions did not respond to a request for comment.
Coombs, who is an advocate within the hemp industry in Florida, says staying in line with the changing legal opinions is taxing on hemp businesses.
“You’re literally sometimes a couple of degrees away from something not being compliant and losing a lot of money,” he said.
As far as his company’s process and products, he says he’s an open book.
“I just want to be transparent about this,” he said, “and make sure that people understand what this is — because it is complex, right?”
The confusion about Arvida Labs’ product being made using a chemical conversion process is understandable, he said, because most people don’t know labs can extract large amounts of THC-A from the hemp plant.
The most common way to get delta-9 THC from hemp is usually a chemical conversion process from CBD, which is the more common cannabinoid in hemp.
And that’s exactly the process Delta’s leadership testified was being used, at one point, with its products — a revelation that shocked businesses who purchased Delta’s distillate and thought it was made with 100% marijuana.
But it also outraged labs that test cannabis products in Missouri and need to know what chemicals were used in the process in order to ensure safety tests are accurate.
Although Delta’s leaders were asked during appeal proceedings to explain the difference between the CBD conversion process and the THC-A product, they failed to do so.
The distinction is important, Coombs said.
Coombs says Arvida purchased the hemp from farmers in Texas, Tennessee, and Kentucky who’ve learned to breed the plants to have higher concentrations of THC-A, he said, using federally approved strains.
THC-A is not intoxicating unless you heat it up, and then it turns into delta-9 THC. For example, eating raw marijuana flowers won’t produce a high because there’s only a small amount of delta-9 THC but a lot of THC-A.
Hemp has very little THC-A, so it takes about 90 pounds of hemp to make 1 kilo of THC-A isolate, or powder, Coombs said.
“It’s not that much in the grand scheme of things,” he said. “Most labs that are still in business are doing on average 16,000 pounds of extraction per day, if not more.”
The isolate is then put into oil for transport, which is why the shipping labels the state authorities presented as exhibits in the Delta Extraction case said “THC-A oil,” Coombs said. It didn’t mean that it was concentrated THC-A oil, he said, because that would make it more likely to convert into delta-9 THC before it got to Missouri — and the company went through what’s called a “decarboxylation” process, or heating it.
He said Arvida’s THC-A didn’t go through an “isomeric conversion” — or the process of converting CBD to THC which often involves a variety of chemicals. Because of that, he said it would have passed all the Missouri-mandated tests, which look for residue from chemicals used in the typical extraction process.
And because the hemp was grown in Texas, he said, so there were no foreign pesticides used that the lab wouldn’t have picked up on if the hemp was grown in another country.
However, Kevin Halderman, board member for the hemp association and a hemp business owner in Osage Beach, said he questions whether or not the hemp came from Texas.
“They don’t have to disclose that,” Halderman said. “If they’re in Florida, a lot of Florida products come from out of the country. They’re coming from Colombia, Costa Rica or Panama.”
Coombs insists that it isn’t foreign hemp.
Green Precision Analytics is one of the labs that Delta Extraction used to test the distillate at the heart of the recall. Anthony David, the lab’s owner and chief operating officer, told The Independent previously that he had no idea Delta was incorporating imported hemp in the products.
However, David also said there was no trace of the THC coming from an isomeric conversion process. Usually, he can see a difference in curves of the chromatography, David said, but he didn’t in this case.
Coombs said that’s because it was done through a normal extraction process.
The question about the hemp product was discussed during an Aug. 14 hearing regarding Delta Extraction’s license suspension and the recall.
Delta Extraction is a licensed marijuana manufacturer that specializes in making distillate, a highly potent and pure form of THC oil used for things like vape pens and edibles.
On Aug. 2, the state regulating agency suspended Delta Extraction’s license after accusing the company of sourcing untested “marijuana or converted hemp from outside of a Missouri licensed cultivation facility.”
The state argues it banned importing hemp from other states and adding it to marijuana products in its emergency rules filed on Jan. 20.
In its appeal, Delta argues that Missouri didn’t specifically ban this process until the state’s final rules went into effect on July 30 of this year.
But Carole Iles of the Administrative Hearing Commission said in an Aug. 29 order that the company will likely lose on that point. The only thing the cannabis regulating agency, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, added to this line in the final rules was the clause “such as THC-A …”
“We agree with the department that language added to the permanent rule … did not change the requirement of the emergency rule that THC in marijuana products could only be derived from marijuana cultivated by a Missouri-licensed cultivation facility,” the order states.
The Hemp Association does not have an official position on the Delta case. However, Halderman said he’s personally “sad” that customers were misled.
At some point, Delta Extraction was taking CBD and chemically converting it into THC. They were then adding it to THC concentrate from Missouri-grown marijuana concentrate and not disclosing that to marijuana customers.
“They were straight up lied to,” Halderman said.
Probably the most frustrating piece for Halderman, he said, is that Missouri industry leaders have consistently been using “rhetoric” that hemp-derived THC products are unsafe. This spring, marijuana industry leaders also pushed for legislation to regulate hemp-derived THC products, and Halderman said it would’ve killed their industry.
This spring was also the time when Delta Extraction was selling large amounts of the distillate which led to the recall.
“At the same time that they’re trying to make us illegal, they were using our whole process,” he said. “Not a portion of it, our whole process.”
During the hearing, Iles was trying to understand more about what Delta Extraction was doing. She said the company leaders and state officials were using the CBD and THC-A oils “interchangeably.”
“I think the testimony was kind of unclear,” Iles said at the hearing. “It looks like we’re all kind of confused here.”
Coombs said that marijuana companies who purchased Delta’s distillate should not feel “duped” because the same extraction process used to get delta-9 THC from marijuana was used to get THC-A from hemp.
“It’s the same exact thing,” he said. “There’s no difference. Hemp is cannabis, just with no delta-9 THC.”
Both hemp and marijuana belong to the same species, Cannabis sativa, and the two plants look somewhat similar. The defining difference between hemp and marijuana is how much delta-9 THC they each have.
By federal law, marijuana refers to all parts of the plant cannabis sativa with more than 0.3% delta-9 THC by dry weight. Hemp is any part of the plant containing less than that.
Wu, along with leaders of Missouri’s hemp industry, call these definitions “legal fiction” because it’s all the same plant.
“Seeds have no THC,” Wu said. “So even though certain seeds can be cultivated into ‘cannabis plants,’ some operators – hemp, and marijuana – have taken advantage of the current state of law and lack of federal enforcement to sell seeds across the United States. That is likely how the Florida operator acquired hemp and high THC strains of plants for THCa production.”


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03 June 2019, 16:46
Saga’s keel-laying for second new ship Spirit of Adventure‘ heralds a new era in Saga’s history’
Saga marked the keel laying of its second new cruise ship for the British market, Spirit of Adventure, with a ceremony at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany on Monday, June 3rd.
The 999-passenger ship will set sail in summer 2020 and the keel laying marked the official start of construction.
A commemorative coin stamped with Spirit of Adventure’s name, keel-laying date and the lettering S715 – denoting the identification marker for the ship during her build and until she is formally handed over by Meyer Werft to Saga in summer 2020 – was placed under the first block in the dry dock where a total of 54 blocks will be used to create the 58,250 gross tons ship.
Spirit of Adventure will have an overall length of 774.3ft with a breadth of 102.4ft
Speaking at the ceremony, Robin Shaw, CEO Saga Travel said: “These are exciting times for Saga and the occasion marks a key stage in the construction of our second new build cruise ship.
“Our decision to build two new boutique cruise ships, Spirit of Discovery and Spirit of Adventure for our guests heralds a new era in the history of Saga cruising.
“Both ships have been designed to epitomise Saga’s British boutique cruising concept and they are the first small, luxury ships to be built by a British company, for the British market, in more than four decades.
He added: “Each of our new ships has been exclusively designed for the British market and we have incorporated luxury interiors to meet our past and present guests’ feedback.
“We are proud to be working with Meyer Werft again, and it will be an honour and a pleasure, to celebrate the delivery of this ship in summer 2020.”
Notes to editors
Further images from the keel-laying ceremony and cabin mock-ups are available on request form firstname.lastname@example.org
Spirit of Adventure
Saga’s second purpose-built cruise ship Spirit of Adventure is being constructed at Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany.
Spirit of Discovery will be named in Dover on July 5, 2019 while her sister ship, Spirit of Adventure, is planned to enter service in 2020. Both ships will host 999 guests and 523 crew members. Spirit of Adventure will be a 58,250 gross tons vessel measuring 774.3ft in length and with a maximum beam of 102.4ft.
Spirit of Adventure will depart Dover for her inaugural cruise on 21st August 2020, the itinerary features calls to Copenhagen, St Petersburg, Stockholm and Tallinn
Saga is a specialist in the provision of products and services for life after 50. The Saga brand is one of the most recognised and trusted brands in the UK and is known for its high level of customer service and its high quality, award winning products and services including cruises and holidays, insurance, personal finance and publishing. Visit saga.co.uk


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A Qatari investment fund is seeking further funding for the grocer J Sainsbury PLC deal as regulators set a tight deadline.
Shares in Sainsbury dropped 3.2 percent as analysts suggested that the deadline of Nov. 8, just two weeks away, will give Qatar-based Delta Two little time to organize the extra funding for its 10.6 billion pound (15.2 billion EUR; US$21.7 billion) preliminary offer.
"The market will be concerned there will be a last-minute glitch," said Pali International analyst Nick Bubb.
Delta Two, which is backed by the Qatar Investment Authority, said it is seeking 500 million pounds (720 million EUR; US$1 billion) of additional equity to bolster its 600 pence (8.61 EUR; US$12.30) per share offer for Britain's third-largest grocer.
The stock was trading at 565.5 pence (US$11.60; 8.11 EUR) on Friday. It has risen around 30 percent since early February, when a private equity consortium comprising CVC Capital Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Ltd. and Blackstone Group International Ltd. expressed interest in the grocer.
That deal fell apart after it was rejected by Sainsbury, and Delta Two steadily built up its stake in the grocer to 25 percent before revealing in July that it was in preliminary talks about a deal. The Sainsbury board agreed last month to open the company's books to Delta Two for limited due diligence.
The pair said Friday they had agreed to seek a deadline for a formal offer from the U.K. Takeover Panel to end the uncertainty for shareholders. If Delta Two decides not to make a bid by the deadline, it will be barred from making an offer for six months.
Delta Two must receive approval for its bid from the Sainsbury family, the second-biggest stakeholder with 18 percent, and from the Sainsbury pension fund trustees. Both were instrumental in blocking the earlier private equity approach.
European retailers including Sainsbury, William Morrison Supermarkets PLC and Carrefour SA have attracted strong interest from investors and private equity groups in recent months, largely due to their extensive property portfolios. Sainsbury owns around 8.6 billion pounds (US$17.6 billion; 12.8 billion EUR) worth of real estate.
However, Sainsbury, once Britain's No. 1 grocer, now lags well behind Tesco PLC and just behind Asda Group Ltd., a unit of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., in the national supermarket rankings. It has slid down the chart due to a prolonged price war and internal problems including stock shortages.
Chief Executive Justin King was recruited from Marks & Spencer Group PLC in 2004 to begin a recovery plan and has since has slashed jobs, cut a quarter of Sainsbury's headquarters positions, shut underperforming stores and improved the supply and distribution chain.
Delta Two has said it plans to invest 3.5 billion pounds (US$7.19; 5.02 EUR) over the next five years in Sainsbury to fund store expansion, store refurbishment and the development of Sainsbury's nonfood offerings.
Former US intelligence officer Scott Ritter believes that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should flee Ukraine.


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Tag Archives : USA
Royal Enfield (RE), manufacturers of the renowned range of Bullet motorcycles has announced to introduce two new models by early 2010. RE is exploring the.
Last month, GM’s product “Czar” and vice-chairman of global product development Bob Lutz announced that GM is cancelling development of the next generation Zeta large.
In an age where ‘green cars’ are making more sense and SUV’s are continuing their dormant stint in dealership parking lots, the Audi Q7 has.
The U.S Auto market is opening up slowly, but steadily towards the favour of economical diesel cars. Introduced in August, VW has sold out this.


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Unless you’ve been living under a rock on Mars, you know that your activity on (and off) the Web is constantly monitored and evaluated so that applications and businesses can create a “personalized experience” for you. That’s why you keep seeing online ads that match whatever you might have searched for in the past few days.
However, while ad firms try to position personalization as something that consumers find desirable (“a better browsing experience!”), that’s simply not the case, according to a recent study from the market research firm InMoment.
The study revealed that three out of four consumers consider it “somewhat creepy” or worse they’re confronted with too much personalization and about one out of four of creeped-out consumers will stop buying the personalized brand and switch to its competition.
Furthermore, if a brand does creep out its customers, one out of five will tell their friends and one out of ten will share their “ewww” moment on social media. And that’s not a good thing for a brand because consumers remember personalized ads longer and more vividly than ads that are not, according to a study published in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology.
Read more here.


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The ransomware encrypts the Android device’s files and then displays a ransom message imitating the notorious WannaCry malware. Hackers have begun distributing Android ransomware disguised as copies of the popular multiplayer online battle game King of Glory, which has millions of users, security researchers have warned. The malware has prompted “emergency” warnings to be posted on gaming forums and websites in China, security firm Sophos said in an advisory. “This ransomware was spread via internet gaming forums and downloaded and installed by unsuspecting gamers,” Sophos said in the advisory, without estimating the number who might have been affected.
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ORIGINAL SOURCE: Silicon UK


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Japanese carmaker Toyota has developed a new electric concept car made entirely out of wood.
The vehicle, known as Setsuna—or moment in Japanese—will be on display at Design Week in Milan, Italy, next month. It's a roadster with exterior panels made of Japanese cedar and a frame constructed out of Japanese birch.
"We also paid particular attention to the sizes and arrangements of individual parts," Toyota said. "For the assembly structure, we adopted a traditional Japanese joinery technique called okuriari, which does not use any nails or screws." As a result, the Setsuna has a curved, boat-like look.
Why wood? Because it's "durable yet prone to change over time, [which] reflects Toyota's efforts to give form to the developing relationships between people and their cars.
"The Setsuna symbolizes how cars undergo a gradual transformation over the years, as if absorbing the aspirations, memories, and emotions of multiple generations of a family," Toyota explained. "With the Setsuna concept, Toyota is expressing the notion that, as a family accrues time and experiences together with their car, lovingly caring for it and passing it on to the next generation, that car will acquire a new type of value that only the members of that family can appreciate."
Despite its rather old-school materials, the Setsuna comes with some important technological details. For one, the car is electric and runs on six 12-volt batteries, according to Forbes. And although it's not street legal, it can hit a top speed of 28mph.
Looking ahead, Toyota told Forbes that Setsuna is designed solely to get people thinking about new car concepts. While it's not planning to bring the Setsuna to roads, some elements of the vehicle could be incorporated into future cars.
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Early bird offer for Musicom
People can still take advantage of early bird tickets for a huge outdoor music and comedy festival at Himley Hall and Park this summer.
Dudley Council’s Black Country Musicom will take place on Black Country Day (Sunday 14 July) from 12 to 7pm.
Tickets purchased before 31 May offer up to 40 per cent off the full price.
A number of tribute bands will take to the main open air stage and blast out classic tunes including Oasish, the UK’s official number one Oasis tribute band. Little Mix, The Spice Girls and Queen will also be represented, while a 1980s tribute party band will perform. They will be joined by a number of local bands including bhangra artists.
As well as the music, there will be a comedy tent featuring a selection of top UK circuit comics.
Meanwhile, for youngsters, there will be a fun fair and a whole host of children’s activities. They will include a sandpit, garden games, balloon modelling, face painting and animal encounters.
A dedicated teenage area will have DJs, gaming tournaments, virtual reality, glitter artists and a chill out area, while there will also be football and other sporting activities.
There will be real ale and street food available to buy, with demonstrations of traditional Black Country crafts including canal art and glass blowing.
Councillor Ian Kettle, cabinet member responsible for halls, said:
We are delighted to be holding this fantastic family day out at Himley Hall and Park this summer.
With so much wonderful entertainment and varied activities there will be something on offer for everyone.
The main sponsor for the event is builders merchant Jewson, along with brewers Blind Monkey, building contractors Jessup Brothers, builders CE Bunch & Co Ltd and Whittakers Ltd.
Vince Thurlby, of main event sponsors Jewson, said:
As a firm which is proud to trade right in the heart of the Black Country, we are delighted to be sponsoring the first Musicom at Himley Hall.
It will be a fantastic day out.
Full price tickets are £15 for adults aged 16+ and £11 for children five to 15. Early bird tickets (booked online before 31 May) cost £9 for adults aged 16+ and £5 for children aged five to 15. The event is free for under fives. The prices do not include booking fees. Car parking is £3 cash payable on the day.
To book, or for further information, go to www.himleyhallandpark.co.uk/bcmc
Tickets can still be bought on the day but online only and at the full price.


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If you watched Indie Game: The Movie or followed the at the opening of day development of Fez, you’ll be an intelligent being the hardships developer Phil Fish went through. Well, his troubles aren’t immersing yet, and Fez has been suffering from a major bug that corrupts some players save files. Less than 1% of players are unnatural, but to that 1% who’ve paid beneficial to the game like everyone else, it’s a frustrating puzzle that needs and deserves to subsist fixed.
Corruption started a few weeks ago after a patch was released to plant other issues. That patch was pulled at the time it started corrupting some save files, only Fish refuses to patch the patch and is instead just re-releasing the identical one. For gamers that aren’t effected through . messed up save files, it does place some framerate issues, loading times, and decease loops. Fish also believes that granting that your save has corrupted, just restart the bit of strategy and that new save will exist fine. So it may only event those who’ve gotten in a great degree far into Fez.
Fish has fixed that future patches will not subsist free because Microsoft will charge him tens of thousands of dollars to plant the game, and as a feeble indie developer he cannot afford that. The dissimilitude is, if Fish had instead released the valorous on Steam, it probably would be obliged been patched already at no unusualrdinary cost to the developer. Instead Fish stifle owes Microsoft money for the set apart of putting his game on Xbox Live. It’s during this same reason that many feeble developers choose PSN/Steam over XBLA.
Fish has apologized to the 1% of gamers who inclination have their games ruined, but whose lapse is it really? Fish chose to put his game on XBLA. Maybe he didn’t perceive about these re-certifying costs beforehand, but if everything is free to carry into practice on Steam why didn’t he pure choose to put Fez on that platform leading? Even putting it on the PSN would bring forth cost him a lot less currency than he’s forking out to Microsoft.
It’s uncandid that Microsoft wants to charge in such a manner much money for a patch, no more than Fish made his bed and at this moment he just refuses to lay in it.
More at Polytron Corperation, via Thesixthaxis


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There is a “further silver lining for consumers” with the latest monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, showing that food price inflation has continued to moderate.
RaboResearch senior food retail analyst Michael Harvey said the November 2023 data showed prices for food and (non-alcoholic) beverages had risen 4.6 per cent annually (from November 2022). However, this was down on the 5.3 per cent rate of annual inflation in this category posted in October 2023, and well below the peak of annual food price inflation of 9.6 per cent that was seen in September 2022.
Harvey said red meat and fresh produce saw annual inflation of less than 1 per cent, which “will be welcome news for Australian consumers as they are important categories in household budgets”.
“More sticky inflation was evident in key packaged food categories, such as dairy and bakery,” he said, “but the good news is there is less ‘sticker shock’ for consumers in these categories as well, with the rate of inflation also moderating and actually at the lowest level since mid 2022.”
Harvey said Rabobank saw agricultural commodity prices broadly remaining range-bound at lower price levels through 2024, and this would be “welcomed by consumers as it has been a leading cause of higher food prices”.
However, he said, recent rainfall and flooding reinforce the risk to local food supply and prices from unfavourable impacts of adverse weather conditions, particularly across horticulture and fresh produce. “Unfavourable weather during key growing periods can affect quality and disrupt supply, leading to upward pressure on prices,” Harvey said.
He said margins in the food supply chain were also improving “downstream’ for food companies on the back of weaker agricultural commodity prices and easing food processing and distribution costs.
“And with this, we are seeing a sharpened focus from food and beverage companies to tailor products to a value-conscious consumer. And this will be a key theme through 2024 as cost-of-living pressures continue to influence purchasing behaviour,” he said.
Harvey said for agricultural commodity prices, there had, however, been “some outliers, such as cocoa and sugar”, which have remained higher for longer. “And this does keep pressure on certain processed foods such as chocolate,” he said.
“We will get a deeper dive look into the food basket when December quarter CPI results are released on January 31.”


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With the January security patch rolling out to Pixel devices, there are a few fixes above and beyond the typical security updates.
There are 10 functional updates included in the patch, which fix issues ranging from problems with the new Google Assistant to weird colour shifting problems and more.
The Pixel 4 received some specific functional updates with the January update. To start, the new Google Assistant now works properly with the flashlight toggle. Further, there’s a fix for colour shifting issues that occur at lower brightnesses.
For the record, my Pixel 4 still has an odd colour tint on certain shades of grey — particularly the Messages app in dark mode — that shifts from reddish on the right to greenish on the left. The January update has not fixed this for me, so your mileage may vary.
Finally, the update now enables 90Hz support for popular Chinese messaging platform WeChat. Previously, WeChat was on a list of apps that were disabled from accessing higher refresh rates. Specifically, the chat app was barred from using 90Hz due to performance issues. Seemingly those issues have been remedied.
Further, the Pixel 3 and 3 XL gained call speaker audio quality improvements and the Pixel 2 and 2 XL received an update to improve Wi-Fi connection issues. The 3a and 3a XL got improvements for audio when recording video as well.
Finally, all supported Pixel generations received a “fix for notification display in UI,” which isn’t immediately clear what that means. There’s a fix for an issue where devices got stuck during boot on Android 10. And last but not least, the patch includes fixes for Wi-Fi crashes on certain enterprise access points and “various stability fixes.”


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Although we have been negative about Sears Holdings’ (SHLD) long-term prospects, wealso believed that it would likely survive into 2018 and potentially longer than that. Survival past 2018 was predicated on Sears being able to keep its comparable store sales decline relatively under control (such as -7%), However, the continued acceleration of Sears’ comparable store sales decline is leading me to believe that the chance of a 2018 filing is fairly high (75%-plus) now.
Sears did a lot of cost cutting before, but the effects of a 15%-plus decline in comparable store sales would essentially negate most of the effect of $1.25 billion in cost cuts within a year. Thus there is the potential for its year-over-year adjusted EBITDA comparison to turn negative again after a couple quarters of improvement.
Sears’ comparable store sales decline is accelerating despite Q3 2017 not being that poor of an environment (comparable to Q2 2017 and markedly better than Q1 2017) for retailers. Sears’ comparable store sales ended up at -15.3% in Q3 2017, which is noticeably worse than Q2 2017’s -11.5% and Q1 2017’s -11.9% comparable store sales. Retail sales in Q1 2017 were negatively affected by delayed tax refunds, so after adjusting for that, Sears’ comps have probably been getting worse by around 3% each quarter in 2017.
This poor comparable store sales performance comes after a relatively easy comp vs. Q3 2016 as well. Sears’ two-year stacked comps for Q3 is -21.6%. Sears did indicate that its Q3 2017 comps were affected by Kmart pharmacy closures and its reduced assortment of consumer electronics. However, excluding the impact of those items would still result in Sears’ Q3 2017 comps declining at -13.6%, a nearly 4% increase in the comps decline compared to Q2 2017’s adjusted (for pharmacy and consumer electronics) comps.


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The Light Cinema Walsall has announced its plans to reopen on Friday, May 21 and offer a big screen experience.
The cinema has spent much of the last year closed due to the coronavirus pandemic and will ensure all safety measures are taken including Test and Trace and gathering the contact details of all guests over the age of 16.
It will open with films such as Godzilla Vs Kong, Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, Sound of Metal, Nomadland, plus a very special 40th anniversary showing of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Guests can also look forward to A Quiet Place Part II, Black Widow, Fast & Furious 9, The Suicide Squad, and No Time to Die, later this year.
CEO James Morris said: "We can’t wait to reopen and get back to offering the ultimate big screen experience in a safe and welcoming environment.
"A huge thank you to all our guests and team for their patience and support over the past year.
"We know you’ve all been so eager to return, and we can’t wait to finally welcome you back."
To find out more, go to lightcinemas.co.uk


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Back to Archived News
TRA Is Granted U.S. Patent Covering Its Unique ROI Technology
Thursday, June 03, 2010
TRA Matches the Advertisements Households Actually Receive With the Products They Actually Buy
New York, NY -- This week, the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued a patent to TRA covering the technology and processes TRA uses to provide TV networks, agencies, and advertisers with a unique solution to improve accountability and return on media investment. By matching the ads households actually receive with the products the same households actually buy, TRA technology identifies The Right Audiences™.
The Media TRAnalytics® platform is TRA’s scalable end-to-end web based business intelligence platform that addresses the challenge of marketing accountability by matching large databases. TRA currently anonymously matches 1.5 million households of TV data with 54 million households of purchase data to create the largest single source database ever, 370,000 singlesource households. Since TRA’s official launch two years ago, broadcast and cable networks, advertisers and media agencies have been using the Media TRAnalytics® platform for media planning and selling, ROI measurement and second-by-second audience measurement (ratings).
U.S. Patent No. 7,729,940 (the “940 patent”), entitled, “Analyzing Return on Investment of Advertising Campaigns by Matching Multiple Data Sources” also covers TRA’s solutions for integrating other types of media and purchase data as well as TRA’s report metrics, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), multivariate analytics, algorithms and privacy solution.
TRA’s Chairman and CEO, Mark Lieberman, stated, “We founded the company on the principle of fulfilling the unmet need in the marketplace for accountability in advertising. Securing the ‘940 patent demonstrates our commitment to the importance of intellectual property and helping our clients improve their business results through technological innovation.”
Last week, Intel Capital, the global investment organization of one of the world’s leading technology companies, announced a $10 million investment in TRA as part of a larger Series C financing for TRA’s next stage of technological growth.
TRA, Inc. (www.traglobal.com) is a technology, software and research company that helps advertisers, agencies and television networks improve advertising accountability and return on media investment. TRA’s patented Media TRAnalytics® is a web based platform that matches the advertising households actually receive with the products the same households actually buy, enabling TRA's clients to find “The Right Audience™” while providing an unmatched level of transparency, measurement, media planning/selling and improved ROI. TRA's investors include Intel Capital, Kodiak Venture Partners, WPP and Arbitron. TRA is the recipient of the BeyeNETWORK’s 2009 ‘Vision Award’ for Business Impact in Analytics. TRA is certified under ISO 27001, the information security management system standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) designed to ensure security controls for protecting information assets.
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Daily NewsView All News
The current economic recession has created an exceptional demand for working holiday schemes in Canada aimed at the under 35 year olds. The dire economic climate has seen some of the best and brightest packing their bags in the hope of being able to stay on after the working holiday and find a longer term temporary or permanent position in the country.
Seona Mac Reamoinnn of specialist travelling agency USIT told the Irish Times "we filled the 1,000 places for the under 35 working holiday scheme within two days of them going on offer. The waiting list is still open but we don't want to create false expectations for people."
There is also a student and under 25 year olds working holiday scheme, which opened on Tuesday and equally has a limit of 1,000 places.
Canada's ambassador to Ireland, Patrick Binns, said the Canadian government was considering whether to offer more working holiday visas this year to Irish applicants in light of the high demand. "Last year we started off with 2,000 visas for students and under 25s but we were able to get an additional 500 visas later", the ambassador explained.


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Qualcomm on Wednesday reported record earnings for the first quarter of fiscal 2012. The company took in $4.68 billion in revenue, up 40% year-over-year and 14% sequentially, beating Wall Street’s estimate of $4.58 million. Qualcomm’s net income of $1.4 billion was up 20% year-over-year and 25% over the fourth quarter. The firm also managed earnings of $0.97 per share, up 18% year-over-year and ahead of the Street’s EPS estimate of $0.90. Qualcomm boosted guidance for the full year, saying it expects to report between $18.7 billion and $19.7 billion in revenue for 2012. It had previously said revenue would likely fall between $18 billion and $19 billion. “I am pleased to report another record quarter with revenues, earnings and MSM shipments reaching all-time highs, driven by our industry-leading chipset portfolio and the continued strong demand for smartphones around the world,” said Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm. “We are raising our revenue and earnings guidance as our broad licensing partnerships and extensive chipset roadmap, led by our integrated Snapdragon processors, position us well for strong growth in fiscal 2012. We continue to invest in innovative wireless technologies, products and services, and we are excited about the opportunities ahead as 3G and 4G continue to expand across new device types and geographies.” More →
Microsoft announced its fiscal first-quarter 2012 earnings on Thursday, the best first quarter the company has ever recorded. The Redmond-based software giant reported revenue of $17.37 billion, up 7% from the first quarter of 2011 and on a par with analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. Operating income for the quarter was $7.2 billion, up 1% from the same quarter last year and net income was $5.74 billion, or $0.68 per share, up 6% from the first quarter of 2011. “We saw customer demand across the breadth of our products, resulting in record first-quarter revenue and another quarter of solid EPS growth,” said Microsoft CFO Peter Klein. “Our product portfolio is performing well, and we’ve got an impressive pipeline of products and services that positions us well for future growth.” Microsoft’s Business division reported $5.62 billion in revenue, up 8% from the same period last year and above analyst estimates of $5.4 billion. The company’s Server & Tools team reported $4.25 billion in revenue, up 10% from last year’s first quarter and a hair below analyst expectations of $4.3 billion. Its Windows and Windows Live Division reported a revenue increase of 2% up to $4.87 billion. In addition, Microsoft said it has now sold 450 million Windows 7 licenses since the platform’s launch. Read on for the full press release from Microsoft. More →
Sony reported its fiscal first quarter results on Thursday and recorded a net loss of 15.5 billion Yen ($198.7 million). The company attributed the loss to the earthquake that struck off the coast of Japan in March, as well as a “stagnate” economy in the United States and Europe. Sony’s operating profits were 27.5 billion Yen ($330 million), down from the 67.02 billion Yen ($862) it reported during the same quarter last year. Operating revenue was 1.49 trillion Yen ($19.1 billion), down 10% from the 1.66 trillion ($21.3 billion) in revenue Sony reported in the first fiscal quarter of 2011. “We think we can be profitable at the current exchange rate levels,” Sony’s chief financial officer Masaru Kato said during a recent news conference. “We had almost no negative impact from the dollar, but the euro is still an issue for us.” Kato said that “TVs are one of the only remaining issues,” for the company and noted that Sony expects to sell 22 million televisions this year, down from the original projection of 27 million units. Kato said Sony’s supply chain was hit hard by the earthquake and impacted the company’s sales during the first quarter but that the supply channels have already bounced back.
Nintendo posted its first quarterly operating loss ever on Thursday in its fiscal first quarter earnings report. The Japanese gaming company recorded a net loss of 25.5 billion Yen ($328 million), which was on a par with the net loss of 25.2 billion Yen ($324 million) the firm reported during the same quarter last year. In addition, it posted a net operating loss of 37.7 billion Yen ($485 million), down from an operating profit of 23.3 billion Yen ($299 million) during the first quarter of 2010. Nintendo also slashed the price of the 3DS to $169.99, down from the portable gaming console’s original $249.99 price point. Nintendo attributed the poor quarter to a lack of Wii and DS sales, as well as a lack of attractive games for the 3DS. More →
Microsoft released its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday and noted that its revenue of $17.73 billion was greater than any other fourth quarter in the company’s history. The Redmond-based firm also reported $69.94 billion in revenue for the fiscal year — also a record — up 12% from 2010. The company’s Entertainment & Devices division was particularly successful, reporting 30% growth in revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter and 45% for the entire year thanks to Xbox Live, the Xbox 360 game console, and the Kinect controller. “Throughout fiscal 2011, we delivered to market a strong lineup of products and services which translated into double-digit revenue growth, and operating margin expansion,” said Peter Klein, chief financial officer at Microsoft. “Our platform and cloud investments position us for long-term growth.” Read on for Microsoft’s full press release. More →
Sony Chief Financial Officer Masaru Kato announced to the press on Monday that the company expects to post an annual loss of $3.2 billion for its fiscal year ending in March 2011 — the second largest loss in company history. The news comes as yet another blow for the Japanese consumer electronics giant, whose online networks have been the target of a series of cyberattacks that impacted more than 100 million customers. Sony had previously expected to post a profit this year, however the company had to write off $4.4 billion for a tax credit from a previous quarter. A series of earthquakes that rocked Japan earlier this year had a negative impact on the company as well, slowing production and destroying factories. The affect of the quakes carried over to the company’s first quarter, Kato told the press, but Sony is still optimistic about 2011/2012. For the fiscal year ending in March 2012, Sony expects to post an operating profit of 200 billion yen, or $2.45 billion at today’s exchange rate. More →
Microsoft announces record Q3 earnings of $16.43 billion in revenue, $5.23 billion of net income driven by Office, Kinect products
Driven by strong growth in its Business and Entertainment & Devices divisions, Microsoft posted record Q3 2011 revenues of $16.43 billion — a 13% increase year-over-year. “We delivered strong financial results despite a mixed PC environment, which demonstrates the strength and breadth of our businesses,” said Microsoft’s chief financial officer, Peter Klein. “Consumers are purchasing Office 2010, Xbox and Kinect at tremendous rates, and businesses of all sizes are purchasing Microsoft platforms and applications.” The company posted $5.71 billion in operating income, $5.23 billion in net income, and $0.61 earnings per share — a 10%, 31%, and 36% increase respectively year-over-year. Microsoft also noted strong revenues from its Online Services division — which includes search — up 14% from Q3 of 2010. More →
Fresh news out of Redmond. Software giant Microsoft has just posted earnings for Q1 of their fiscal year 2011, and the vitals all look good as Microsoft raked in $16.2 billion in revenues; a 25% increase from the same period in 2010. The company posted a net income of $5.41 billion which translated into $0.62 earnings per share; a 51% and 55% increase respectively when compared with Q1 of fiscal year 2010.
“This was an exceptional quarter, combining solid enterprise growth and continued strong consumer demand for Office 2010, Windows 7, and Xbox 360 consoles and games,” said Peter Klein, Microsoft’s CFO. “Our ability to grow revenue while continuing to control costs allowed us to deliver another quarter of year-over-year margin expansion.”
Although inconsequential on the balance sheet, this quarter did mark the first time in fifteen years that Cupertino, CA based Apple, Inc. outperformed Microsoft in revenue; Apple reported $20.34 billion in revenues during the same period. Regardless, Microsoft still — through its focus on highly profitable software (not hardware) — did generate more profit than the iPhone maker… and paid its shareholders a dividend. More →
Say what you want about RIM’s hardware and operating system, for the time being they continue to bring home the bacon. Late yesterday, the Canadian mobile giant announced earnings and that a record 12 million BlackBerry smartphones were shipped in Q2 of the company’s fiscal 2011. Here are the highlights:
- Revenue: $4.62 billion, up 31% year-over-year
- Earnings per share: $1.46, up 76% year-over-year
- 12.1 million smartphones shipped in Q2
- Net income: $796.7 million
“We expect a continuation of this momentum in the third quarter as we extend the rollout of new products including the BlackBerry Torch into additional markets and benefit from heavy promotional activities and increasing customer demand as we head into the holiday buying season,” said Jim Balsillie, the company’s co-CEO. RIM’s stock price rose slightly on new of the strong earnings report (up 2% at time of publishing). More →
On a day when the business world is focused solely on Apple and the launch of its iPhone 4, RIM announced its quarterly results. Although it managed to pocket a handsome profit of $768.9 million, everything from revenue to subscribers to devices shipped missed the mark. Revenue, which was up 24% Y0Y at $4.24 billion or $1.38 per share diluted, fell short of the $4.32b analysts were expecting. The 4.9 million new subscribers RIM picked up also wasn’t good enough for the Street, which was looking to see 5 million additions. Handset sales also failed to meet expectations with 11.2 million sold. RIM is very optimistic about the current quarter — one which will see it “a range of exciting new BlackBerry products being released in the coming months” and “create significant opportunities to accelerate RIM’s growth in the second half of the fiscal year” — and is expecting it that revenue come in at $4.4 to $4.6b while adding up to 5.2 million subscribers. EPS is targeted for $1.33 to $1.40. More →
Dell, the third-largest PC maker in the world, showed strong growth in Q1 of 2010 as profits totaled $441 million — or $0.22 per share — up 52% from a year ago. Revenue climbed 21% (to $14.9 billion) from the previous quarter thanks to a 21.4% increase in PC shipments; a spike which Dell attributed to, “the early stages of a corporate IT refresh.” Dell also saw a boost from server and network revenue (up 39% to $1.8 billion), mobility revenue (up 18% to $4.6 billion), and desktops sales (up 13% to $3.6 billion). Even with all this this great news Dell’s stock price dropped 5.2% in after hours trading as both the earnings per share figure and gross margin figure fell short of The Street’s expectations. More →
HP managed to surpass the Street’s expectations as the company saw profits grew by 28% in the quarter ended April 30th. Capitalizing on strong demand for PCs and servers, revenue came in at $30.8 billion with an adjusted income of $1.09. Analysts were expecting to see $1.05 per share. This performance allowed HP to hold onto its title as the world’s largest manufacturer of personal computers. HP is predicting that the current quarter will see bring in $29.7 to $30 billion in revenue, with an adjusted income of $1.05 to $1.07 per share. Shares in HP are up 0.41% in after hours trading.
UPDATE: During a call with analysts, HP CEO Mark Hurd said that webOS will be coming to slates and web-connected printers. Slates with webOS is something easily imaginable, but printers? Whatever it is HP is planning, we hope it’s good. More →
Apple posted its Q2 2010 results and to say they’re impressive would be an understatement. Beating analyst expectations in practically every way possible, the Cupertino company sold 2.94 million Macs, 8.75 million iPhones and 10.89 million iPods. Analysts were only expecting 2.7 million iMacs, 6.8 million iPhones and 9 million iPods to be sold. In terms of cold, hard cash, Apple’s revenue was $13.5 billion with a diluted earnings per share of $3.33 making for a net profit of $3.07 billion. As for the current quarter, Apple is expecting revenue to hit $13.0 billion to $13.4 billion with a diluted earnings per share from $2.28 to $2.39.
[Via Business Insider] More →


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According to the tech company’s 2021 Global State of the Hospitality Industry Report, 38% of UK merchants are already operating with fewer employees than needed, with 14% forced to reduce opening hours.
Hiring and staff retention were singled out as the biggest challenges facing the UK hospitality industry, with almost half of survey respondents (48%) struggling to retain staff.
Some 34% have boosted pay and benefits in a bid to mitigate the problems.
Asked what would be the most helpful to their staff retention challenges, more government funding to raise wages and stabilise the business (47%) was one of the highest ranked, alongside technology that automates some staff functions, such as inventory and order-taking (48%); and more patience and empathy from diners (43%).
However, when it comes to whether customers are being more understanding, the industry is split, with 48% reporting diners are more demanding while 46% feel customers are more understanding. And when it comes to the generosity of diners, 43% are tipping worse compared to 37% who say diners are tipping more.
This is supported by consumer data, which revealed just 22% said they were tipping more to support their local restaurant.
Rising food and supply costs was the second biggest challenge reported for the UK (22%), followed by accommodating higher demand from customers (20%) and inventory and supply chain (13%).


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Brutally Honest Audio Rant: Repeating the Mistakes of the Past
(Computer – Introduction)
(Music intro – "American Idiot Remix" – by Green Day and David Matthews 2)
Good evening, and welcome to this week’s Brutally Honest Rant. I’m David Matthews 2, writer of the weekly online column Brutally Honest.
The late stand-up comedian Sam Kinison had a great rant about relationships… every time he gets his heart broken by some psycho-bitch from hell, he promises that he will NEVER let that happen to him again. And then he turns around and meets this woman who will say "Oh, but you never MET me! I’m not like those other women! You can trust me!" Next thing he knows… yup, she’s NOT LIKE those other women… she’s worse!
But that brings up an old saying that you may have heard before, but it’s ALWAYS worth repeating: those that fail to learn the lessons of history are forever doomed to repeat them.
And it is a saying that’s worth repeating because it’s TRUE! We DO forget these things! We DO forget the lessons of history! No matter what we say, no matter what we promise, no matter what has happened, we keep on saying "never again" and yet it DOES happen again!
And that is certainly true when it comes to two issues that are irreversibly linked each other, the economy and energy.
The City of Atlanta just got a shock the other week when the CEO of the Ford Motor Company announced that there would be a SERIOUS restructuring of the company, including the shutting down of the manufacturing plant in Hapeville and the layoff of THOUSANDS of hard-working employees.
Now the restructuring was something that was expected for quite some time, but not the shutting down of THIS plant. The Hapeville plant was in operation since it started in 1947, cranking out cars for Ford for almost sixty years. General Motors had already announced the closing of their facility in Doraville, which was also cranking out cars since 1947, but that news was pretty much a given. This closing, though, took everyone by surprise. That’s a serious kick in the nuts not only for the employees, but for the local economy and the local government. MILLIONS of dollars that will go away from stores and property taxes.
And they’re not the only ones either with such hard news. Kraft Foods just announced that 8000 people will be losing their jobs as well. Several major corporations are laying people off, which will have a SERIOUS impact on the economy both here and nationwide.
But there was something in that announcement from Ford that probably went unnoticed. It’s a little saying from CEO Bill Ford, great-grandson of Henry Ford that stuck out in this commentator’s mind.
"’If you build it, they will buy it’ – that’s business as usual, and that's wrong."
"If you build it, they will buy it."
Does that saying sound familiar to you?


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Carbondale residents should evaluate all options
There have been several letters in the press recently, questioning why the Carbondale Board of Trustees (BOT) would be considering an Option 3 for the proposed Crystal River Market Place. These letters have asserted that the town has already made a decision to deny a large format retailer such as Home Depot, based on a vote taken three years ago. This is simply not true.
The citizens voted down a referendum for a specific proposal that included space for a large format retailer. This proposal had a number of problems that prompted many people to vote against it. Even so, it was a relatively close vote, 57 percent to 43 percent. Anyone who thinks it was a referendum on the broader question of building size need only look at the results of the last trustee election. A key issue of that election was support for the Economic Roadmap Group’s (RMG) proposal for a hard cap of 60,000 square feet for retail buildings. The candidates that supported a “soft” cap, or no cap, received over three times as many votes as those that supported the hard cap. Clearly the residents of Carbondale have not dismissed the possibility of having a large format retailer in the town.
The current Option 1 proposal recommended by the RMG includes space for three “junior” anchors, allowing a building size of up to 30,000 square feet each. The junior anchors are situated side by side and share common walls. This would be one, 90,000 square foot building ” the same size is a single large format retail store being proposed in Option 3. The bottom line is that Option 3 is not materially different than Option 1.
The people that oppose evaluating Option 3 also claim the town’s finances are in great shape. Since there was no credible capital reserve study done as part of the roadmap process, we don’t know what our future revenue requirements truly are. It is our BOT’s fiduciary responsibility to all Carbondale citizens to evaluate all options for the Market Place property, including Option 3.
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With all its current troubles, Pakistan has not been attracting much foreign investment recently. In fact, China seems to be the only country that's prepared to pour money into Pakistan in a big way.
But a boost in Chinese investment has sparked resentment in southern Pakistan, where activists accuse China of trying to be a new colonial power. A bomb blast recently hit near the Chinese Consulate in Karachi — an ominous sign of the rising tensions.
Phyllis Diller, one of the first and one of the few female comic headliners of her generation, died Monday at the age of 95.
Diller performed in the persona of a crazed housewife. She usually dressed in outlandish, bad-fitting clothes with her hair teased into a disheveled mop. Then she'd fire off long strings of self-deprecating gags. She was so unattractive, she used to tell her audiences, that Peeping Toms asked her to pull her window shades down. Onstage, she called her husband Fang. Diller told Fang jokes like her male counterparts told wife jokes.
Despite tough economic times, Nike is about to go where it has never gone before: Its Lebron X sneakers are expected to retail for $315. That's the first time a pair of its kicks breaks the $300 barrier.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the price hike comes after the company saw some steep drops to its gross margins. But the company may be taking its customers too far. The Journal reports:
Originally published on Tue August 21, 2012 12:19 pm
It is a truth universally acknowledged that health insurance companies can be a pain for patients. What may be a surprise is that hospitals often complain, too. And the reasons aren't so different from those of consumers: Denied claims. Low reimbursement. Late reimbursement. Thickets of red tape.


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Research published by research and analysis company Nielsen in a blog post reveals that 21% of soccer fans worldwide will be getting at least some of their World Cup information from the internet via their mobile phones, while 9% said they'd get it through applications on their handsets.
Responses were uniformly high across the Middle East & Africa, where between 22% and 30% of respondents planned to use mobile technology. The highest response in Latin America was Venezuela, where 27% of respondents said they’d be following the games on a mobile device. In North America, 23% of US respondents and 11% of Canadians planned to check the World Cup via their mobile phone. Figures in Europe were lower, with Ireland's 18% response topping the list – falling to 3% in Germany and Spain.


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Last week, the NFL announced that it had issued grants worth $1 million for research studies. The studies would look into the effectiveness of using marijuana and its components in pain management and offering neuroprotection from concussions among NFL players. Out of 100 applicants, the commission selected the University of California San Diego and University of Regina, which is located in Canada.
This is the league’s attempt to provide its players with quality care that is up-to date with the medical standards of health and…
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Cannabis Strategic Ventures Inc. (OTC: NUGS) are available in the company’s newsroom at http://cnw.fm/NUGS
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Is Google Set To Buy 35% Of LG Electronics?
Late today LG Electronics who makes smartphones and supplies display screens for Google devices denied categorically that a key stake in the Company was are set to be acquired by Google.
On the 22nd, a rumour that Google will buy 35% of LG Electronics’ stake spread in industry and stock market.
Share in LG skyrocketed 14.5% as the rumour spread.
The shares were tipped to be acquired through a block-deal (off-hour block trading).
The Korean Times reported late this afternoon that as the rumour spread some said that that Google will acquire its stake not through M&A, but 3rd person assignment of shares in the Company.
LG Group has formally denied the rumour that started in the USA.
Last year LG and Google tightened their Android alliance via a “long-term patent cross-licensing agreement” covering both existing and future products.
In a statement released on LG’s website, at the time the Korean company confirmed that the agreement would cover “a broad range of products and technologies” and would apply to all existing patents as well as patents filed over the next 10 years — a significant timeline in terms of product releases.
In a statement, Executive Vice President and Head of LG Electronics’ Intellectual Property Centre JH Lee joined Google in praising the partnership, saying it would build on a long-standing alliance between the two companies.
“LG values its relationship with Google, and this agreement underscores both companies’ commitment to developing new products and technologies that enhance consumers’ lives,” he said.
Google Deputy General Counsel for Patents Allen Lo was similarly effusive.
Prior to the Google rumour surfacing LG Electronics stock price had fallen significantly due to weakening profits.
Shares of LG Electronics dropped 4.84 percent on Monday from the previous day to close at 47,150 won.
This was the lowest figure since June in 2003 when the figure hit 46,400 won. The market value also dropped to 7.7 trillion won, down by 1.5 trillion won from the previous month.
The company’s sales in the first quarter of this year stood at 13.9 trillion won, which is similar figure to last year but its operating profit dropped by 36.2 percent to 305.2 billion won. Its net income dropped to 38.4 billion won from 92.6 billion won during the same period.
Prior to the rumour analysts were revising down the target share price of LG Electronics in the latter half of this year, claiming that sluggish sales of the firm’s flagship products smartphones and televisions were impacting the business.


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Image source: Kandi.
One of China's more beaten down stocks is shifting out of reverse.Kandi Technologies has seen its shares move higher for five consecutive trading days.
Continue Reading Below
We're not talking about tiny moves, either. Shares of the maker of value-priced electric vehicles have climbed 3%, 3%, 6%, 8%, and 4% in the past five trading days respectively. The stock may have hit yet another all-time low of $5.05 the day before the rally began last week, but Kandi investors have enjoyed a 26% pop through the past five days.
The stock opened nicely higher again on Wednesday, but it remains to be seen if it can stretch its streak to six days of notable gains.
Any celebration should be tempered by the stock's grim price chart. Kandi stock has surrendered slightly more than half of its value this year despite the big pop over the past week. It has actually shed more than two-thirds of its value since peaking at $22.49 last summer.
It's been a wild ride. Shares of Kandi more than tripled last year as investors got excited about the potential for China's nascent market for electric vehicles. It's not a secret that China's more populous regions have a serious air pollution problem, and the government has tried to encourage the switch to electric cars as a way to fight the smog. China's offering chunky subsidies to buyers of homegrown green energy vehicles, and that's something that should benefit Kandi as it toils away in the entry-level end of the market.
However, most of Kandi's sales so far haven't been to retail customers. Its biggest source of sales through its car-building joint venture with Geely Automotive has been to work with municipalities to set up affordable garages where Kandi's compact vehicles can be rented by the hour. The target market for Kandi has been people that don't own cars but can use one to go shopping or for social purposes.
Big orders for the car-sharing program come in spurts, making Kandi's financials lumpy from quarter to quarter. It also doesn't help that there isn't a single major analyst offering up sales and profit forecasts on Kandi, resulting in heavy volatility around earnings season.
Kandi has also been a popular target for naysayers. The SEC didwind downan investigation into the electric-car maker earlier this year, but that hasn't silenced larger concerns about its past and accounting practices. This explains why Kandi seems to be in the right place at the right but it has been the wrong investment since peaking 15 months ago.
Rattling off five consecutive profitable quarters -- according toS&P Capital IQdata -- hasn't eased the speculative nature of the stock. It's been rolling these days with a lack of material news, but one way or another Kandi is going to have to eventually prove the naysayers wrong. It still has a long way to go to get there.
The article Don't Look Now, But Kandi Is Revving Up Again originally appeared on Fool.com.
Rick Munarriz owns shares of Kandi Technologies. The Motley Fool recommends Kandi Technologies. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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Netizens are pleased with Senator Nancy Binay's stylishlooks at the 2022 State of the Nation Address.
On July 25, 2022, the 49-year-old senator graced the red carpet in two gorgeous gowns made by famous Filipino designers.
A post on the senator's Facebook page indicated she wore "a traditional Filipiniana terno by local designer Randy Ortiz for the opening of the 19th Congress on Monday, July 25."
The caption further described, "The terno features all-piña fabric from Aklan. The sleeves sport callado embroidery, while the front and back carry sampaguita cutouts also made from piña fabric."
The creation was put together by fashion designer Randy Ortiz.
Earlier in the day, Nancy was clad in a chic white gown by designer Michael Leyva.
Michael wrote in his Instagram post: "My vision of Philippine Terno for my Muse for today’s #sona2022 [emoji] Ate Senator @nancybinay in #michaelleyva Classic Filipiniana white draped gown [emoji] Simple… Classic… Timeless…"
And what's the verdict of the netizens who have been chronicling Senator Nancy's style evolution?
It's a yes!
They were quick to shower praises for the senator's elegant gowns.
One of the comments read
The collective approval was a far cry from the reactions that Nancy received from previous SONA sessions, particularly in 2014 where she wore a hot air balloon-like skirt, and in 2018 when her light-blue Filipiniana blended with the color of the carpet.
It was in 2019, when Nancy supposedly started her streak of being "vindicated" from bashers waiting to pounce on her outfits for the annual political assembly.


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Elite Model Look 2014 finals is on the way, and from year to year, a few of organizers in various African countries pay extraordinary amounts of money to buy the Elite Model Look franchise, promote the brand, prepare their finalists and buy plane tickets for a competition that has never seen an African win the competition ever since it started 1983.
In fact the Elite Model Look competition, formerly known as Look of the Year, has not seen one black girl win the Elite Model Look title. Even more puzzling, not one non white girl has won the international competition comprised of winners from regional competitons, unless you count the Spanish as non whites.
Despite the track record of Elite Model Look title winners, one brave African girl believes she is going to change the status quo. She is already highly hailed in Ivory Coast, participated in fashion shows across the francophone sectors of the African continent, and recognised across the entire African continent. Her name is Awa Sanoko who is the current title holder of Elite Model Look Cote d’Ivoire.
Awa Sanoko might not be fully aware of the Elite Model Look winners trend and its interesting lack of black winners, never the less she is beyond confident that she is set to win this years competition, and not with an eager fight to win spirit, but with a cool, calm, go in, get it, and get out persona.
In a phone conversation with the androgynous looking model, as put in her own words “I am going to be first black African model to win the competition” she continues in her french African accent “If I don’t win, I will still be most successful model in the competition, it is not big problem”. Awa Sanoko’s modeling career blew in less than a year after a magnificent photoshoot with photographer Daniel Sery, which exposed her face to the world.
Ever since then, shes been booked across a number of African countries from Senegal, Ghana, Cameroon, Togo and more. Some Ivorien fashionistas even believe the first Elite Model Look Cote d’Ivoire event was put together this year to ensure her involvement in the international competition due to the buzz around her name.
In this past decade, many of the most memorable super model names happen to be black, from our favourite Naomi Campbell, to Alek Wek, Grace Jones, Tyra Banks, Iman and more. Elite model will need to include in its franchise memo for their franchisees to upgrade their judges on a local and international level as some are still living in the 50s. With a highly potential international model like Awa, they will be doing their brand injustice by continuing down this path of only white winners.
As far as Africa goes, in the past couple years the competition has seen local winners from Nigeria, Cape Verde and South Africa. This year, as far as we know, there is expected to be a contestant from Senegal and Nigeria, who will accompany Awa Sanoko to China in late November where the final competition will be held in in early December. Be sure to get the African model updates here.
Picture by Daniel Sery Photography