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A person who has not revealed his identity paid US $ 19 million to have lunch with the American businessman Warren Buffett, in a charity auction of the NGO Glide, which helps low-income people.
The bid, held on Friday night in San Francisco (California, USA), broke a historical record in the charity auctions that Glide organizes each year together with the eBay company.
“The winner has decided to remain anonymous,” the NGO reported in a statement about the auction, which started with a starting price of $25,000 and closed with $19 million.
The prize consists of lunch with Buffett, one of the richest men in the world, and up to seven guests at a well-known New York steakhouse.
The funds raised serve to finance the work of Glide, which helps thousands of homeless people. The NGO began auctioning off dinners with the businessman in 2000, and has since raised more than $53 million.
The NGO began to auction dinners with the businessman in 2000
Buffett, 91, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, said his experience at these dinners has been “good” and that over the years he has met “a lot of interesting people from all over the world.”
“On behalf of Glide, I thank Warren Buffett for his unwavering generosity, his dedication, and his contribution to our mission,” said Glide President Karen Hanrahan.
Berkshire Hathaway manages a wide variety of businesses including insurance, energy, rail and retail products.
Inflation: what Buffet recommends investing in
Although in Argentina we are accustomed to a inflation high annual rate, this situation is unusual in the United States, which had year-on-year inflation in May of 8.6%, a price level not seen in more than four decades. In this context, investors must learn how to deal with this monetary phenomenon through the capital market, and for this, what better than taking into account the recommendations of Warren Buffet.
In 1981, the legendary investor in charge of Berkshire Hathaway wrote what characteristics a company you want to invest in through stock purchases should have when the economic scenario that surrounds us is that of uncontrollable inflation and with a United States Federal Reserve (Fed) that cannot reduce it by raising interest rates.
First, Buffett said that companies must have the ability to increase profits. prices of your goods and services without significantly affecting sales. This means that they have to market necessary products that are consumed regardless of the macroeconomic situation.
They must also be able to grow and expand the business without spending inordinate amounts of money. If it continues to grow in times of inflation, its Actions they should also do so to a similar extent.
These characteristics can only be observed by analyzing the economic situation general and reading the balance sheets of each company, and not simply investigating the historical evolution of their prices.
The United States had year-on-year inflation of 8.6% in May
Although it seems to be difficult, the reality is that it is a necessary step to protect the inflation savings and thus try to maintain purchasing power over time.
Warren Buffett on how to succeed professionally in crisis
Inflation, the economic effects of the Ukraine War and the results of some companies, especially technology companies, are beginning to cause the conversation that the current period of economic complications is more durable that something conjunctural goes more and more.
Although no one has a crystal ball to know how best to act, if someone has a good track record and experience to have overcome difficult moments, it is, without a doubt, Warren Buffet.
The CEO of Berkshire Hathaway explained last month, in his company’s earnings presentation, that all professional can take certain measures to protect yourself from its effects, going beyond the investment level to delve into advice applicable to any business or even professional career.
Buffett says that the best thing anyone can do to hedge against inflation is to be “exceptionally good at something.” It seems a simple advice and at the same time complicated to carry out, but Buffett gives as an example the medical professions and specialized lawyers. “[La gente] it will always give you something of what it produces in exchange for what you give if it is unique or very valuable. It’s the only thing we should be concerned about,” the 91-year-old investor said.
Buffett, one of the most visionary
Exploit skills, a tip from Buffett
Buffett added that skills, unlike products, are foolproof. inflation. if you have one skill that is in demand, will continue to be in demand no matter how much it costs.
“The abilities you have cannot be taken away from you. They can’t really be inflated,” he said. “The best investment, by far, is anything that develops you, and it’s not taxed at all.”
It is advice similar to that Buffett shared in 2009, in the midst of the economic crisis, when the then 78-year-old investor said that “the best thing to do is to invest in yourself.”
At the time, Buffett also said that the next best thing a person can dos invest in “a wonderful business” that manufactures products that are in demand regardless of the evolution of the dollar.
He used the example of Cola-Cola as an example, saying that people will still be drinking their favorite soft drink decades from now, with inflation playing no part in their decision. “It doesn’t matter what has happened to prices,” Buffett said, because people will continue to pay for the products they love.


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Xiaomi had unveiled its flagship Mi 10 series in China last month. Soon after the launch, Xiaomi India MD Manu Kumar Jain teased the arrival of the smartphone in the country. Today, Jain has shared another tweet hinting at the imminent arrival of the Mi 10 series. Xiaomi has been teasing the smartphone with #108MPiscoming in its username. Now it has changed this to #108MPishere. The Mi 10 series is already confirmed to debut globally on March 27th, and it’s possible that the brand could announce it in India on the same day. Additionally, e-commerce portal Amazon also shared the launch announcement suggesting that the Mi 10 will be available on the shopping platform.
Well…yes. Small prep before we make a BIG announcement.
— Mi India #108MPIsHere (@XiaomiIndia) March 18, 2020
Meanwhile, a tweet by tipster Mukul Sharma aka Stufflistings claims that only the standard variant of Mi 10 will be launched in India. The Mi 10 Pro may not make its way to the country because of its higher price. The only difference between the standard and Pro model is in the camera department. Previously, Jain had said that the upcoming flagship smartphone will be priced higher than in China, as Xiaomi would have to import the entire stock of Mi 10 units. Earlier this year, Xiaomi had shared its plan to enter the premium market segment under its Mi series in India. So it’s just a matter of weeks for the Mi 10’s arrival in the country. However, the exact India launch date hasn’t been announced by Xiaomi at the moment.
Only the Mi 10 vanilla will launch. And I'm talking about Indian launch.
— Mukul Sharma (@stufflistings) March 18, 2020
Mi 10 specifications and pricing
The standard Mi 10 features a 6.67-inch curved AMOLED display bearing an FHD+ resolution. There is a punch-hole cutout at the top left corner and the device offers a 90Hz refresh rate screen. Internally, the smartphone is equipped with a Snapdragon 865 chipset with support for 5G connectivity. The processor is paired with up to 12GB LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB onboard storage.
The Mi 10 sports a quad-camera setup comprising of a 108MP main sensor with f/1.7 aperture. It is accompanied by a 13MP super wide-angle lens, 2MP macro shooter and a 2MP depth camera. The phone features a 20MP selfie snapper. The Mi 10 is backed by a 4,780mAh battery with support for 30W wired and wireless charging. It also comes with 10W reverse wireless charging.
The Mi 10’s pricing starts at RMB 3,999 (~Rs 41,000) for the base variant. Pricing in India is expected to be slightly higher.

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The upgrade of consumption in the country's tourism and consumer market is prominent, the report said.
The retail and catering sectors reported robust sales of 926 billion yuan ($146 billion) during the holiday, which ran from Feb 15 to 21, up 10.2 percent from last year's holiday according to the Ministry of Commerce.
While family reunions and returning home are the traditional subjects of the Spring Festival holiday, traveling has become an increasingly popular way for families to spend the holiday, which has contributed to the booming tourism market.
Data from the China National Tourism Administration showed tourists made 386 million trips during the holiday, a 12 percent year-on-year increase, and the tourism industry earned 475 billion yuan (about $75 billion) in revenue, up 12.6 percent from last year's holiday.
Three kinds of domestic destinations were popular during the holiday, including warm southern cities such as Sanya, Lijiang and Xiamen, northern cities where there are ice and snow tours and cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing where people can enjoy folk customs of the Spring Festival or many varieties of food, according to the report.
As outbound travel remained popular, Southeast Asia was the top overseas destination for Chinese tourists, according to online travel agency Ctrip.com. It predicted Chinese tourists would make 6.5 million outbound trips during the holiday and spend about 100 billion yuan overseas.
In addition, consumption in culture and entertainment was robust. China's box office totaled more than 5.5 billion yuan during the holiday, according to data from online ticketing platform Taopiaopiao.
The one-day box office on New Year's Day reached 1.26 billion yuan, up 50 percent year-on-year and creating a new global record for the box office of a single market on a single day.
Zhao Ping, director of the international trade research department at CCPIT Academy, said the constant optimization of consumption area structures and product and service structures will drive the adjustment of the structures of supply and demand to achieve steady growth of consumption and ultimately make China's economy transform from large to strong, Economic Information Daily reported.
The views and opinions expressed by the contributors from China Daily do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.


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The video was posted online a day before the announcement and reveals exactly what the new phone will look like.
And although the video doesn't give away the specifications inside (such as a battery or camera) it does show us the phone will come in three colours: Silver, gold and black.
It also shows a protruding bump on the back of the phone from the camera lens - something both Apple and Samsung have incorporated on their phones.
HTC pioneered the metallic design-led smartphone a few years back but has since been surpassed by the likes of Samsung and LG in the Android phone stakes.
The company has diversified with the arrival of the HTC Vive VR headset but will still be looking for smartphone success in 2016.
Plenty of other rumours have given clues about the HTC 10 with tech experts saying it'll have a 5.2-inch screen and a 12-megapixel camera.
It's also expected to feature a 32GB hard drive, 4GB of RAM and a 3,000mAh battery.
For the full story we'll have to wait until tomorrow but phone fans certainly won't be in for much of a surprise.


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Online grocery stores have become a new option for Chinese families because of the novel coronavirus which confines millions of people across the country.
Statistics indicate that Missfresh, an online grocery platform backed by tech firm Tencent has seen a year-on-year growth of over 300 percent since the Chinese New Year holiday, and its rivals Meituan and Jingdong Shengxian also witnessed obvious sales growth in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Wuhan. Vegetables, foodstuffs, fruits, meat, eggs, and aquatic products accounted for over 60 percent of these platforms’ daily sales.
Li Jie, a retired teacher living in Nanjing, east China’s Jiangsu province who used to buy vegetables at supermarkets, recently ordered two bags of fresh vegetables from an online grocery platform. “It took me around 100 yuan and these vegetables can feed my family for a couple of days,” She told People’s Daily.
Now the retired teacher rarely goes to supermarkets due to the epidemic. She said that it’s convenient and safe to have the couriers send the commodities to her doorstep. She learned how to order vegetables online from her daughter during the Chinese New Year holiday, and is now able to select products and pay deftly.
The epidemic is driving larger-than-usual demand for groceries on online platforms. Wang Jun, partner and chief financial officer of Missfresh noted that the upper-stream industries of China’s agriculture have huge capacity, and the urgent problem is not production but labor shortage which results in difficulties in picking and transportation. It calls for collaboration to stabilize the supply side.
The General Office of the Ministry of Agriculture, the General Office of the Ministry of Transport, and the General Office of the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued a notice, requiring strict implementation of a “green channel” system that ensures unobstructed transportation of fresh agricultural products, as well as the orderly supply of non-grain food and agricultural means of production.
To relieve the labor shortage, e-commerce giant Alibaba’s Hema chain started “sharing” employees with catering enterprises. By Feb. 10, over 1,800 employees have joined the grocery chain. At present, this model has been widely applied by online grocery platforms, and the employees who passed health examinations and quarantine are working temporarily for these platforms to maintain normal operation.
Since the onset of the epidemic, many online grocery platforms have started providing non-contact service. Users can choose such service on mobile applications or tell the couriers to place the commodities at designated places via phone calls.
A citizen named Zhang Xinxia in Chengdu, southwest China’s Sichuan province was one of the many who have used such service. After typing the code on a smart locker at the south gate of her residential complex, the woman immediately received a bag of fresh vegetables she had ordered on an online platform.
Yao Xin, secretary general of the Commercial Sub-Council of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, told People’s Daily that non-contact delivery not only enables the customers to enjoy fast delivery, but also helps them avoid close physical contact and lower risk, which guarantees the health of both the customers and couriers.
According to a report issued by online delivery platform Meituan, over 80 percent of the orders placed between Jan. 26 and Feb. 8 were delivered by non-contact methods, and 66 percent of the customers requested non-contact delivery for every order.
A courier places grocery on a shelve at a residential complex in Beijing, Feb. 14. Online grocery delivery platforms have built “non-contact” depositories in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Photo by People’s Daily


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Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Kanye West is also an investor in cryptocurrency
A celebrity rapper has criticised US television presenter Kim Kardashian West for failing to pay him for promoting a cryptocurrency on Twitter.
In a series of tweets, French dance music producer Bat for Lashes, whose real name is Natasha Khan, criticised Kanye West’s wife for not paying.
“I spent f***ing $100 million promoting #Bitcoin and #XRP (another cryptocurrency backed by air miles),” Ms Khan tweeted.
“Of course I want my money back,” she added.
She said she did not give Ms Kardashian West any money to promote the currency, which she called the “feminist future”.
Ms Khan later wrote: “At the end of the day Kim is a rich white woman who has a pretty face.”
Kardashian: ‘Not funny’
Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Kim Kardashian was criticised for promoting the cryptocurrency Bancor, but her tweet was later removed
However, several Twitter users disputed Ms Khan’s position.
She also criticised Kim Kardashian’s posting of a photo of her wearing a necklace from Bancor, saying it was a way to promote it while benefiting herself.
“Stupid hashtag, and what an ironic situation as an Asian woman to not ask my resources before asking one from the most visible woman in the world,” Ms Khan wrote.
Ms Kardashian later deleted her tweet, which asked if she could invest in Bancor in exchange for “air miles”.
No bitcoin takings
Ms Khan’s statement comes after a series of disputes over cryptocurrency, with rival supporters of the alternative currency going to war online.
Bancor’s rival, Ripple, was slammed by Mr Khan and another celebrity rapper, Nas, and said to have received no cryptocurrency.
Bancor – which uses blockchain technology – told users that it had spent $92,240 on celebrities’ social media mentions.
Its backers suggested that the cash was based on future business deals.
Ms Kardashian recently said she was bullish on bitcoin, one of the most popular cryptocurrencies, which soared earlier this year.
However, she wrote on Twitter: “I’m excited to invest, not trade. I just want to feel like it’s authentic because I am all about authenticity.
“But my husband [Kanye West] is way more into bitcoin and blockchain.”


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Ahold Delhaize brings its U.S. companies together under new parent company, CEO
Ahold Delhaize on Thursday named Kevin Holt CEO of its newly minted Ahold Delhaize USA division, which will serve as the parent company for all of Ahold Delhaize’s U.S. companies, including its local brands, Stop & Shop, Food Lion, Giant, Hannaford, Giant/Martin’s and Peapod, as well as Retail Business Services, the U.S. shared services company providing support to the brands.
“Combining the parent companies of the U.S. brands and RBS is the natural next step in our brand-centric strategy in the U.S.,” Ahold Delhaize CEO Dick Boer said. “Kevin is an outstanding leader with extensive food retail experience and a great choice to guide our U.S. businesses through this time of continuing change and evolving customer expectations.”
Kevin holtHolt currently is COO of Ahold USA. In this new role, effective Jan. 1, 2018, he will remain a member of Ahold Delhaize’s management board and executive committee and will continue to report Boer.
“I’m excited that we are moving into this next phase where we can focus on further strengthening our brands and winning in our markets,” Holt said. “Ahold Delhaize USA and its U.S. brands are well positioned to continue to drive growth and innovation and meet the evolving needs of customers, both in stores and online.”
The company said that Frans Muller, deputy CEO Ahold Delhaize and chief integration officer, who serves as acting COO Delhaize America will focus on the continued smooth integration of Ahold Delhaize.
Holt joined Delhaize Group in 2014 as CEO Delhaize America and transitioned to COO Ahold USA in 2017. Prior to joining Ahold Delhaize, he served in executive leadership roles at Supervalu and Meijer.
Patagonia joins lawsuit to block Trump’s national monuments order
Patagonia has never backed down from speaking up for what it believes, however controversial it may be.
The outdoor apparel retailer joined a broad coalition that is suing to strike down what it termed “the President’s extreme overreach of authority in revoking the Bears Ears National Monument.” The plaintiffs — Patagonia Works, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Utah Diné Bikéyah, Friends of Cedar Mesa, Archaeology Southwest, Conservation Lands Foundation, Access Fund, and the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology — filed the complaint in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 7.
The lawsuit attempts to “declare unlawful President Trump’s December 4, 2017 proclamation that revoked the Bear Ears National Monument and replaced it with two new ‘units.'” It claims the act exceeds a president’s authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 and wants the original configuration of the monument restored.
“President Trump’s proclamation is the first time any president has attempted to abolish a monument established by a previous president and amounts to the largest elimination of protected areas in American history,” the coalition stated. “By revoking national monument status for 85% of the area protected by the Bears Ears National Monument, President Trump has removed legal protections for many well-known and widely-revered historic, scientific, and cultural areas.”
“I think the only thing this administration understands is lawsuits,” Patagonia’s legendary founder and ardent environmentalist Yvon Choinard told CNN.
Patagonia replaced the imagery on its homepage with a dramatic message, “The President Stole Your Land.”
“In an illegal move, the president just reduced the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments,” the message reads. “This is the largest elimination of protected land in American history.” The home page has a “Take Action Now” button.
The Patagonia post attracted the attention of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who called it “nefarious, false and a lie.”
As of Thursday morning, Patagonia had not taken down the pointed message.
“We’ve fought to protect these places since we were founded and now we’ll continue that fight in the courts,” stated Rose Marcario, president and CEO of Patagonia, who wrote a column for Time explaining why the company had joined the lawsuit.
The lawsuit’s defendants include Trump, Zinke, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, Deputy Director of the Bureau of Land Management Brian Steed, and Chief of the U.S. Forest Service Tony Tooke.
Walmart changing its name to reflect its new focus
Walmart is ending a 48-year habit by removing word “stores” out of its legal name.
The discounter on Wednesday announced that it is changing its legal name from Wal-Mart Stores to Walmart Inc., effective Feb. 1, 2018. The move reflects the chain’s growing emphasis on e-commerce and its positioning as a retailer with integrated online and offline operations.
“Our customers know us as Walmart and today they shop with us not only in our stores but online and with our app as well,” said Doug McMillon, Walmart president and CEO. “While our legal name is used in a limited number of places, we felt it was best to have a name that was consistent with the idea that you can shop us however you like as a customer.”
In a blog post on the company’s web site, McMillon said the change not only the company’s strategy to win the future of retail, but is also a bit about returning to the company’s roots.
You might be surprised to learn that, when Sam Walton opened the first store in 1962, the name on the front of the building was simply, “Walmart.” A few years later, we incorporated as Wal-Mart, Inc., and amended the name to Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., when we went public in 1970,” McMillon wrote.
Walmart operates under nearly 60 different banners around the world, including e-commerce sites, and has more than 11,600 stores and clubs in 28 countries. It will continue to trade on the NYSE as WMT.


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-- For Immediate Release --
July 18, 2022, New York, NY - Urban Therapy LLC announces the appointment of Dana Ammons as our new President and CEO, effective July 18th, 2022. Dana comes to us directly from Procter & Gamble and will also join the board as Board Member. This follows the departure of our previous CEO Randy Zeno at the end of last year. Randy left to pursue an exciting new opportunity for him that he was recruited for.
Dana Ammons said “I am excited by this fantastic opportunity to step into the President and CEO role to lead Urban Therapy into the next phase of exponential growth in the international natural hair care and beauty market. The last two years have seen Urban Therapy, and its key brands – Twisted Sista and Wellness + Therapy - achieve significant distribution growth through key brand partnerships across the US, Canada and European retail markets. Moving forward, I will be focused on ensuring that our brands continue on a strong glide path of share growth that will fuel expansion into additional areas of the fast growing multicultural beauty market. I look forward to working with our outstanding team, top notch partners, both domestic and internationally located, to grow the business and to deliver continued profitability for our retail partners and shareholders alike”.
"After careful consideration of the outstanding candidates brought forward through our search process, we’re confident that Dana’s proven track record at Fortune 50 companies such as Procter & Gamble, Pepsi and Colgate Palmolive, as well as his start-up experience and entrepreneurial successes, make him the right leader to take Urban Therapy’s growth and innovation to the next level. We want to thank Otis Robinson for his effective leadership over the past seven months while serving as interim CEO and for his many contributions to the company”, said Bob Barnett, Urban Therapy Board Member. Otis will now transition CEO responsibilities to Dana as he returns to his leadership role in our Product Supply & Operations division.
We also wish to thank Rory Verrett and his team from Protégé Search for their outstanding work as our search partner on this assignment.
Inquiries can be addressed to Dana Ammons at email@example.com.


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THE productivity drive currently under way in Singapore has been taking a toll on local businesses in recent years as the resulting shortage in labour pushes up wage costs.
But the pain is now starting to show up more clearly in the country's overall economic figures as well. The economy grew 4.9 per cent in the first three months of the year over the previous year, and 2.3 per cent over the preceding quarter - better than economists' expectations, according to the latest figures released on Tuesday last week.
Most of the growth, however, was driven by an unexpectedly strong bounce in the volatile segments of manufacturing, the figures showed. The sector as a whole grew 9.8 per cent in the first quarter over a year earlier, accelerating from 7 per cent in the previous quarter.
In contrast, domestically oriented industries such as services, which makes up about two-thirds of the economy, turned in slower expansion. The service sector grew 4.4 per cent in the first quarter from the previous year, down from 5.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, data showed.
"Service growth moderated much more quickly than we anticipated," said Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Chua Hak Bin.
Part of the reason for the slower growth is likely the manpower crunch in services dragging down expansion, said Citi economists Kit Wei Zheng and Brian Tan.
"The more domestically and regionally oriented sectors like construction and restaurants and accommodation... performed more poorly likely due to labour shortages as well as demand weakness," they said last week.
"The first quarter (growth) data suggests restructuring is taking a toll despite tentative signs of better G-3 demand," they added, referring to the United States, Europe and Japan.
CIMB economist Song Seng Wun said while some of the lower growth in service segments, such as financial services, could be due to labour constraints, the main drag was a slowdown in "sentiment-sensitive" activities such as stock market transactions and bank loans.
Still, the shift in Singapore's growth approach towards higher productivity, rather than endless labour force expansion, may mean it is less able to ride on the nascent pick-up in the global economy due to the tight labour market.
Signs of improving global growth emerged last week as an indicator of China's factory activity rebounded faster than forecast, while manufacturing in the US and Japan also beat expectations.
HSBC's purchasing managers' index (PMI) for China rose from 48.1 last month to 49.7 this month, nearer the 50 threshold that separates expansion from contraction in the factory sector. Economists had expected a reading of 48.3. The PMI for the US rose to 56.2 this month, up from 55.4 last month, while Japan's PMI climbed to 49.9 from 49.4 in the same period.
Dr Chua said "restructuring and stricter foreign worker restrictions are reducing Singapore's capacity to capitalise on stronger global growth". He added that despite the stronger than expected growth in the first quarter, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) refrained from upgrading its full-year forecast of 2 per cent to 4 per cent growth.
This was "probably in part because of these domestic labour constraints", he said.
Meanwhile, the labour crunch and higher wage costs are continuing to fuel rising consumer prices.
Singapore's core inflation, a measure of inflation that excludes housing and private road transport costs, rose to 2.3 per cent last month, from 2 per cent in March, data last Friday showed.
This inflation figure, a better gauge of the everyday cost of living, was pushed up by higher service, food and retail costs.
Service inflation accelerated to 2.7 per cent last month from 2.4 per cent in March, while food inflation increased to 3.1 per cent from 2.9 per cent.
Retail items also added to overall inflation, as clothing and footwear prices rose for the first time in five months, MTI and the Monetary Authority of Singapore said.
Said UOB economist Alvin Liew: "Domestic cost pressures from the tight labour market remain the key source of inflation... as firms are expected to pass the increases in business costs on to consumer prices."


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Kensington Palace announced this week that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are officially engaged, and are expected to marry next May. Before we dismiss the celebrations as just another celebrity extravaganza, it's important to remember that the upcoming nuptials will benefit the economy, too. This year, the British Monarchy generated £1.77 billion to the UK economy. This includes a £50 million contribution for fictional shows like The Crown and Victoria, which offer a glimpse into the mystique of the Royal family. The figure also takes into consideration £550 million from tourism: in 2016, 2.7 million people visited Buckingham Palace alone. When William and Kate married in 2011, the British economy was boosted by £2 billion, with £26 million being from Wills and Kate souvenirs and merchandise. Likewise for Harry and Meghan, brands and retailers will want to capitalise on the goodwill and excitement surrounding another Royal wedding. However, certain rules apply to businesses wishing to use images of the Royal family, or their associated symbols and phrases.
Famous movie stars and athletes earn big bucks beyond their day job at the studio or stadium. Their image can be used to in a variety of commercial contexts, ranging from endorsements and sponsorships, to merchandising and deals with fashion brands and magazines. Marketwatch reports that on average, signing a celebrity correlates to a rise in share prices, and a 4% increase in sales. After Chanel signed Nicole Kidman in 2003 to promote their N°5 perfume, global sales of the fragrance increased by 30%. Celebrities today spend a huge amount of time and energy developing and maintaining their public image. But here in the United Kingdom, "image rights" have never been clearly stated in law. So how do celebrities protect and control the publicity associated with their name, image, and brand?
Last week, the New York Times filed a lawsuit against Contessa Bourbon for causing substantial damage and injury to the paper’s business, goodwill and reputation. Despite having never worked for the Times, Contessa has been representing herself as one of their reporters – both in person, and on social media. According to the lawsuit, Bourbon pretends to be a NYT reporter to gain access to press events: she recently interviewed US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and the Turkish Ambassador under such pretenses. Despite receiving cease and desist letters from the Times previously, Bourbon continues her charade. She tweets about articles she claims to have written for the paper, and her profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram state that she is a NYT reporter. However, with the exception of impersonating police officers or medical doctors (and in England, solicitors), simply pretending to be someone you’re not isn’t technically illegal. The problem impersonators and poseurs face is when they (almost inevitably) break laws concerning privacy matters, defamation, criminal fraud – or, in the NYT’s case – intellectual property.


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Mylan launching cheaper, generic version of EpiPen
Mylan will start selling a cheaper version of its EpiPen after absorbing waves of criticism over a list price for the emergency allergy treatment that has grown to $608 for a two-pack, making it unaffordable for many patients.
The drugmaker says it will launch in several weeks a generic EpiPen version that is identical to the branded option but will have a list price of $300 for a two-pack.
It will be available in both 0.15-milligram and 0.30-milligram strengths, like the current version on the market.
EpiPens are used in emergencies to treat severe allergies to insect bites and foods like nuts and eggs that can lead to anaphylactic shock. People usually keep a number of EpiPens handy at home, school or work. The syringes, prefilled with the hormone epinephrine, expire after a year.
Consumers and politicians have accused the company of price-gouging, since the list price for a pair of EpiPens has climbed repeatedly from around $94 in 2007, when Mylan acquired the product.
Mylan CEO Heather Bresch defended the price hikes last week, saying the company only received $274 of the total price for a twin-package while insurers, pharmacies and other parties divvy up the rest.
Last week, Mylan said it was expanding programs that help people pay for EpiPens. It doubled the limit for eligibility for its patient assistance program, so a family of four making up to $97,200 would pay nothing out of pocket. It also said it will offer $300 copay cards, up from the current $100 per-prescription savings.
A company representative said Monday that the $300 cards would be available only for the branded version, but patients could use its assistance program for both the branded and generic versions of the medicine.
How much an individual pays for an EpiPen prescription can depend on insurance coverage.
Pharmacy benefits managers, which negotiate drug prices for insurers and employers, often get discounts off a drug's list price, and patient out-of-pocket costs can vary by plan. For instance, customers of Express Scripts Holding Co., the nation's largest prescription benefits manager, pay $73.50 on average, a price the company has kept fairly stable for a couple years.
Mylan said that last year, nearly 80 percent of its patients with commercial insurance paid nothing out of pocket for an EpiPen prescription due to its savings card.
Uninsured patients or those with high-deductible coverage might be stuck paying the full price for the prescription, if they are unaware of Mylan's savings options. High deductible coverage can require patients to pay thousands of dollars toward medical care or prescriptions before most coverage kicks in.
Mylan specializes in selling generic drugs, which are lower-priced equivalents to branded medications. Launching a generic version of the EpiPen can help the drugmaker protect its market share from competition.
Mylan's announcement Monday comes a few days after the compounding pharmacy Imprimis Pharmaceuticals said it might be able to sell a version of the allergy treatment in a few months and would likely charge around $100 for two injectors.
There is currently little competition for EpiPen, with the only rival product being Adrenaclick, which carries a list price of $461. But that could change.
At least two companies are trying to get U.S. approval to sell a rival brand or generic version of EpiPen. None is likely to hit the U.S. market until well into next year.
Numerous members of Congress and other politicians have called for congressional hearings on Mylan's pricing, an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission and action by the Food and Drug Administration to increase competition by speeding up approvals of any rival products.
Shares of Mylan NV slipped 34 cents to $42.69 in morning trading Monday, while broader indexes rose slightly.
(Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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Pan Brothers to build two new factories
The Jakarta Post
Publicly listed garment manufacturer PT Pan Brothers is expanding its production capacity by building new factories in West and Central Java, to reach its target of 10 to 15 percent sales growth in the next two years.
“Our company sees an increase in demand from the Asian market because of the emerging economic growth in the region,” Pan Brothers vice president director Anne Patricia Sutanto said in Jakarta on Wednesday.
The company manufactures garments for prominent brands such as Uniqlo, Adidas, North Face, Lacoste and Calvin Klein. More than 93 percent of its products are marketed to foreign markets, mostly in Asia — which accounts for 56 percent of total sales — followed by the United States (US) and Europe with 26 percent and 17 percent, respectively.
The company had allocated US$30 million for construction of the two factories, which are set to start operation in 2018 under the management of the company's subsidiary PT Eco Smart Garment Indonesia.
In addition to the two factories, Pan Brothers has allocated $5 million to build a new factory under its subsidiary PT Theodore Pan Garmindo in West Java. It will start the construction in 2018 and expects to see it operational in 2019, adding to the production capacity by 6 million pieces per year. (dis/ags)
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Kellogg Co., the world’s largest cereal company, raised its annual earnings forecast after its cost-cutting program helped make up for a slumping breakfast business.
Profit will be $4.11 to $4.18 a share this year when removing the effects of currency, the Battle Creek, Michigan-based company said in a statement Thursday. It had previously projected $4 to $4.07 a share.
Kellogg’s move to embrace zero-based budgeting -- an increasingly popular form of cost cutting in the food industry -- is boosting its margins. The company also benefited from growth of Pringles potato chips and a less-dire-than-expected business in Venezuela, which has suffered from runaway inflation.
Last quarter, profit was 91 cents a share, excluding some items, which matched analysts’ estimates. But sales fell more than 6 percent to about $3.26 billion in the quarter, worse than the average projection of $3.36 billion.
Kellogg is still trying to turn around its struggling morning-foods division, which has been hurt by a prolonged slump in U.S. cereal sales. The company, known for brands like Special K and Froot Loops, has said the category can return to growth this year as younger consumers embrace the breakfast staple as a snack.
The stock rose 1.1 percent in early trading after the results were posted. It had already gained 12 percent this year through Wednesday.
News by Bloomberg, edited by ESM. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.


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- FashionUnited |
Los Angeles Fashion Week (LAFW) just announced that it will be showcasing its annual fashion event this year in October. From October 8 to 11, the platform will highlight established and emerging designers with runway shows and presentations.
The platform’s intention is to elevate fashion in the U.S. by bringing the inventive talents from local designers to the attention of fashion industries on a global scale. By connecting Los Angeles designers, the shows can help propel their businesses and help boost the local economy. “There is so much amazing, creative energy vibrating throughout this city that we are honored to give our designers, supporters, and audience a few new experience,” said Arthur Chipman, executive producer of LAFW. Spring/Summer 2016 designers that will participate in LAFW include Ashton Michael, William Bradley, Barbara Gongini, Giacobbe, Emma Mulholland and more. The participants are mixed between locals and international designers. “The designers we’ve met are pushing the boundaries of fashion by positioning themselves as leaders of innovations for reasons to come,” said Kim Krempien, fashion director.
LAFW is a production company that is based in Hollywood. The team produces high-quality fashion week events in various cities including New York, Vancouver, Toronto, Sydney, and Los Angeles. The organization is dedicated to supporting apparel, design, and art communities through a variety of initiatives, partners, organizations and charities.
Photo: LA Times


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We have learnt that Africa can help us.
The Dutch giant, the world's third-largest brewer, is stepping up its initiatives on the continent. One priority is local production of the crops needed to make its beers, an effective way of fostering inclusive growth while supporting its business model.
Many people still believe that Africa needs help. We have learnt that Africa can help us.
For over 100 years, HEINEKEN has been resolutely turned towards Africa, where it opened its first brewery in 1923. Today the continent accounts for nearly 15% of its global turnover.
Between 2007 and 2013, the group invested €2.5 billion to strengthen its positions, with two goals: boosting sales of local and international brands (Heineken®, Primus, Star, etc.) and increasing its industrial capacity. Its 45 African breweries' output rose from 23.5 million hectolitres in 2009 to 30.1 million in 2013.
Nigeria, HEINEKEN's leading African market, is a striking example. In January 2011, it acquired stakes in five local brewers, boosting its production capacity by a third. Seven months later, it acquired two breweries in Ethiopia, Africa's second-most populous country.
In early 2013, it started building a third production site near Addis Ababa. "Our priority is to be as close to African consumers as possible," says HEINEKEN Africa and Middle East President Siep Hiemstra. "To succeed, we have to grow faster than our markets. That's why the group is investing more in Africa than in any other part of the world."
A win-win partnership
Today HEINEKEN operates in 23 countries all across the continent. It directly employs 15,000 people and supports over one million indirect jobs. The brewer seeks to have a positive impact on the communities in which it operates. One example is its partnerships with civil society to promote the responsible consumption of alcohol. Another is the Heineken Africa Foundation, which backs the development of health infrastructure and access to medical care. HEINEKEN also works with farming communities: it has set the strategic goal of sourcing 60% of its agricultural raw materials from African growers by 2020.
In the organisation of the HEINEKEN Group, the Africa Middle East region accounted for
30.1million hectolitres in 2013
14.1% of global volumes
Key brands - Heineken®, Primus, Star, Mützig, Amstel ...
Strong positions: number 1 or 2 on 17 markets
An impact on over 100,00 African farmers
The group already has strong experience in this area. In 1989, it started replacing imported malted barley in Nigeria with locally grown sorghum, a high-yield variety developed in partnership with that country's agronomical research institutes. The experience was reproduced in Burundi. After a slow start, in 2014 HEINEKEN launched Nyongera, the first locally produced, 100% sorghum beer, which is a big success.
In 2008, a major rice-growing programme began in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Tens of thousands of farmers are now involved in this country brimming with natural wealth—the country boasts 80 million hectares of arable land. Thanks to this programme, rice output soared by 62% from 2009 to 2012 in the eight regions where the project is underway and farmers' average income has skyrocketed: for example by 323% in Kinshasa!
These programmes benefit not just HEINEKEN, which secures its supply of agricultural raw materials, reduces its vulnerability to market ups and downs and cuts its shipping costs, but also local producers, who develop their knowledge, boost their fields' profitability and increase the income from their harvests. That raises their standard of living, which provides them with food security, enables them to improve their homes and send their children to school, etc.
Picking up the pace
Public-private partnerships (PPPs) between HEINEKEN, the Dutch government and EUCORD (the European Cooperative for Rural Development) have made these results possible. The experience was so successful that several other NGOs have joined them in the CREATE (Community Revenue Enhancement through Agricultural Technology Extension) programme, set up in 2013 to support the local production of maize in Rwanda, sorghum in Sierra Leone and hops in Ethiopia.
Over 6,000 Ethiopian farmers are involved in CREATE, a figure that should rise to 20,000 by 2017. Since June 2014, a new public-private partnership in Nigeria has been underway for the growing of local manioc.
So far, 10 local crop-sourcing initiatives, including six PPPs with the Dutch government, are underway in eight African countries (South Africa, Burundi, Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Rwanda, DRC and Sierra Leone). They involve over 100,000 African farmers, which means they have a positive influence on the quality of life for around 600,000 people.
In 2013, 45.6%, or 200,000 tonnes, of the various agricultural raw materials HEINEKEN used in its African breweries were of local origin. At that rate, the goal of sourcing 60% of its grain in Africa by 2020 is an achievable one.


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DICE is "not moving onto future projects or expansions until we sort out all the issues with Battlefield 4," an EA representative told IGN when asked about ongoing issues with the shooter sequel. "We know we still have a ways to go with fixing the game – it is absolutely our #1 priority. The team at DICE is working non-stop to update the game." They say the China Rising expansion was "already in the final stages of development by the time issues began with Battlefield 4," in explaining the expansion's release. "We know many of our players are frustrated, and we feel your pain," EA says. "We will not stop until this is right."
.. .. ..
All trademarks are properties of their respective owners.
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All rights reserved.
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- Business Wire•4 days ago
Nordson EFD, a Nordson company and the world’s leading manufacturer of precision fluid dispensing systems, introduces a new Better Dispensing™ How-To Video series. These first three short but highly instructional videos, hosted by EFD Application Specialist Tom Muccino, provide best practices when selecting a dispense tip.
- Business Wire•5 days agoNordson Corporation Board of Directors Elects Stephen P. Lovass as Corporate Vice President for Industrial Coating Systems
The Nordson Corporation Board of Directors has elected Stephen P. Lovass as Corporate Vice President for its Industrial Coating Systems business segment, replacing Douglas C.
- Business Wire•10 days ago
Nordson Corporation today announced it will release fourth quarter and fiscal year 2016 earnings on Tuesday, December 13, 2016 after the close of the market. Nordson will host its quarterly webcast on Wednesday, December 14, 2016.
NDSN : Summary for Nordson Corporation - Yahoo Finance
Nordson Corporation (NDSN)
NasdaqGS - NasdaqGS Real Time Price. Currency in USD
Add to watchlist
|Day's Range||105.85 - 107.39|
|52 Week Range||51.89 - 110.65|
Trade prices are not sourced from all markets
|PE Ratio (TTM)||25.00|
|Dividend & Yield||1.08 (1.01%)|
|1y Target Est||N/A|


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The iPhone 14 is the highly anticipated successor to the iPhone 13. It is expected to be a major upgrade over its predecessor, featuring a new design, advanced features, and improved hardware. There has been a lot of speculation about the iPhone 14’s release date, with many people wondering when they can get their hands on the latest Apple device.
What Is the Release Date of the iPhone 14?
The exact release date of the iPhone 14 is still unknown, but rumors suggest that it could be released in late 2021. Apple usually releases new iPhones in September, so the iPhone 14 could be released at the same time as the iPhone 13 was. It is also possible that the iPhone 14 could be delayed due to the current global pandemic.
What Features Will the iPhone 14 Have?
The iPhone 14 is expected to have a variety of new features. It is rumored to have an A14 processor, 5G capability, a new design, improved camera, and more. The exact features of the iPhone 14 are still unknown, but rumors suggest that Apple is working hard to make the device even better than the iPhone 13.
How Much Will the iPhone 14 Cost?
The cost of the iPhone 14 is also unknown, but it is expected to be more expensive than the iPhone 13. Apple typically charges a premium for its devices, so it is likely that the iPhone 14 will cost more than its predecessor. It is also possible that Apple could offer discounts or promotions to make the device more affordable.
What Colors Will the iPhone 14 Be Available In?
The iPhone 14 is expected to come in a variety of colors. Rumors suggest that Apple could offer the device in black, white, blue, and red. It is also possible that Apple could introduce a new color for the iPhone 14.
Will the iPhone 14 Support 5G?
Yes, it is expected that the iPhone 14 will support 5G. 5G is the next generation of cellular technology, and it provides faster download and upload speeds than 4G. It is expected that the iPhone 14 will be compatible with 5G networks, allowing users to take advantage of the faster speeds.
Will the iPhone 14 Have a New Design?
Yes, it is rumored that the iPhone 14 will feature a new design. Apple is expected to make some changes to the device’s design, such as a larger screen and a new camera setup. It is also possible that Apple could introduce a new material for the device’s body, such as a metal or glass.
Will the iPhone 14 Have Improved Battery Life?
Yes, it is expected that the iPhone 14 will have improved battery life. Apple is rumored to be using a new battery technology that will allow the device to last longer on a single charge. It is also possible that Apple could introduce a new battery optimization feature to further improve the device’s battery life.
The iPhone 14 is one of the most anticipated devices of 2021. While the exact release date and features are still unknown, it is expected to be a major upgrade over its predecessor. The iPhone 14 is expected to be released in late 2021 and feature a new design, advanced features, and improved battery life. It is also expected to support 5G networks and come in a variety of colors.


text: Oct 2, 2013 09:10 Denham Springs Council considers annexation Denham Springs Council considers annexation Denham Springs eyes Bass Pro area BY ROBERT STEWART| email@example.com Oct. 02, 2013 Comments DENHAM SPRINGS — The City Council is considering annexing land south of Bass Pro Boulevard to create a larger economic development district for Riverside Landing, possibly paving the way for a tax-increment-financing plan for the impending project. Five people who own land in the area signed a petition to have the city annex about 18 acres of land between Bass Pro Boulevard and Vincent Road and presented the document to the council Monday. City Attorney Paeton Burkett said the petition presented Monday represents 100 percent of the area’s landowners. A letter from Jared Andrews, Livingston Parish’s chief deputy registrar of voters, says there are no registered voters in the defined area. The property is valued at about $11,610, according to a letter from Parish Assessor Jeffrey Taylor. The City Council voted unanimously Monday to introduce an ordinance to annex the land. It will hold a public hearing on the matter Oct. 7 before voting on the ordinance. Riverside Landing is an economic development project surrounding the Bass Pro Shop in Denham Springs, which Bass Pro developer Jacob Fa-Kouri said he envisioned when constructing the gigantic outdoor sports store. Mayor Jimmy Durbin said annexing the land would allow the City Council to create an economic development district that covers all of Riverside Landing’s proposed area, part of which currently sits outside city limits. Creating the economic development district could lead to a tax-increment-financing plan, or TIF, but Durbin said that is only a possibility at this point. Tax-increment-financing plans redirect sales tax revenue collected within a district to development projects, such as Bass Pro and the in-the-works Juban Crossing development off Interstate 12 at Juban Road. Fa-Kouri has said he would seek a TIF for parts of Riverside Landing. Through a spokeswoman, Fa-Kouri declined comment Monday about the proposed annexation. He did not attend Monday’s meeting. Fa-Kouri has said the new TIF would be limited to sales tax revenue collected within the economic development district and would help finance infrastructure and drainage work in the area. Creating the district and paving the way for Riverside Landing would generate more sales tax revenue for the city, Durbin said. “It’s going to be a fantastic development once we get there,” Durbin said. Plans for Riverside Landing include women’s clothing and accessories stores and homemaking stores. Crews already have broken ground on a Cavender’s western clothing store just off Bass Pro Boulevard. The next phase of Riverside Landing will begin construction once 60 percent of the retailers sign up to join the project, which could be by the end of the year, Fa-Kouri has said. Bass Pro opened in 2008 with the help of a TIF. That TIF diverted to the development a portion of sales tax revenue that otherwise would have gone to the Denham Springs City Council, Livingston Parish Council, parish School Board, Sheriff’s Office and Livingston Gravity Drainage District 1.


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Alert: Popular Cleaning Products Sold In New York May Get You Sick
Nearly 40 million cleaning products have been recalled because they may contain infection-causing bacteria.
Another day and another recalled item to look out for. This week, Hudson Valley Post has reported on recalled desserts, recalled meat and now recalled cleaning supplies.
Plastic Found In Popular Dessert Sold Across New York State
Nestlé USA announced it's initiating a voluntary recall of ready-to-bake refrigerated NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® STUFFED Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough with Fudge Filling products due to the potential presence of white plastic pieces, according to the FDA.
No illnesses or injuries have been reported, according to Nestlé USA. The company says officials took immediate action "out of an abundance of caution" after a "small number of consumers" contacted Nestlé USA about this issue. CLICK HERE for more info on this recall.
'Blue Rubber' Found In Popular Meat Sold in New York
Bob Evans Farms Food, based in Ohio, is recalling approximately 7,560 pounds of Italian pork sausage products. The recalled sausage were shipped to stores nationwide.
The recall is due to possible foreign matter contamination, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). The Bob Evans Farms Italian pork sausage might be contaminated with extraneous materials, specifically thin blue rubber, the FSIS reports.
The FSIS warns you should not eat the recalled meat. You are advised to toss the recalled sausage or return it to the place you purchased the product from. CLICK HERE for more details and photos about this recall.
Clorox Recalls Cleaning Supplies Due To Bacteria
On Tuesday, Clorox recalled 37 million products due to the risk of bacteria. Photos and more information about the recalled items are below:
The recalled items are sold at Walmart, Sam’s Club, Dollar General, Target, Home Depot, BJ’s, Kroger, Dollar Tree, Lowe’s, Publix, Amazon and other major retailers nationwide.
Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled items, health officials suggest. No injuries have been reported, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
How To Get A Refund
"Consumers should take pictures of the 12 digit UPC code and the date code, dispose of the product in its container with household trash, and contact Pine-Sol for a full refund of the purchase price, with receipt, or of the manufacturer’s suggested retail price, without receipt," the Consumer Product Safety Commission states.


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How Does the Pandemic Recession Stack Up against the Great Depression?
Many observers have been comparing the COVID-19-induced recession with the Great Depression. An Economic Synopses essay published in August examined some key economic indicators during these contractions to consider their severity and duration.
Group Vice President and Deputy Director of Research David Wheelock explained that the Great Depression was likely the largest and longest slump in economic activity in U.S. history, though records for the18th and 19th centuries are sketchy.
“Comparing the 2020 recession with the Great Depression is also fraught with measurement difficulties, but some rough comparisons based on various measures of economic activity are possible,” he wrote.
The Performance of GDP/GNP
The author began by looking at gross domestic product (GDP), a broad measure of economic activity. He noted the severity of the recent economic downturn: Real GDP fell at annual rates of 5% in the first quarter of 2020 and over 30% in the second quarter.
Prior to the U.S. officially starting to measure GDP in 1947, the country had been using another broad measure of economic activity: gross national product (GNP).GNP is a measure of the total finished goods and services produced by U.S. producers, regardless of where production takes place, whereas GDP captures total production within the U.S. and its territories, regardless of the nationality of the producers.
To compare economic activity, Wheelock plotted an index of real GDP during the current recession along with forecasts for the remainder of the year and for 2021. He also plotted an index of real GNP for the Great Depression. The index value of 100 represents the business cycle peaks on a quarterly basis for these two periods: the fourth quarter of 2019 and the third quarter of 1929. The figure below is based on data that were available when the essay was published in August.
Looking at these broad measures of economic activity, Wheelock observed that the cumulative decline in the first two quarters of the 2020 recession was somewhat larger than the decline during the first two quarters of the Great Depression. He also pointed out that the drop in economic activity during the second quarter of 2020 was larger than any quarterly decline during the Great Depression.
In the case of the Great Depression, the economy continued to contract for more than three years, the author added.
“By contrast, consensus forecasts predict that the U.S. economy will expand in the second half of 2020 and into 2021 but that output will remain below the 2019 peak for at least several quarters,” he wrote.
Other Economic Indicators
Wheelock also looked at other key indicators:
- Industrial production
- The unemployment rate
- The consumer price index
- The S&P 500 stock price index
During 2020, the February-to-April decline in industrial production was the biggest two-month decline in the history of the index, which started in 1919, Wheelock pointed out. The cumulative declines in the index were similar during the first fourth months of the Depression and the 2020 recession.
However, he noted that forecasters expect the index to rise in coming months. This is unlike what happened during the Depression, when the index continued to decline for several more quarters.
During the 2020 recession, the unemployment rate rose from 3.5% in February to nearly 15% in April before declining in the subsequent months, Wheelock pointed out. (The unemployment rate was 7.9% in September.)
During the Great Depression, the rate did not experience such a sharp rise in its early months, but it gradually rose to 25% in 1933 and stayed above 10% throughout the 1930s, the author observed.
Consumer prices also fell during the two periods, though the Great Depression saw prolonged deflation. When the economy bottomed out in March 1933, the consumer price index (CPI) was 27% below its August 1929 reading, Wheelock wrote. Though CPI fell in the first two months of the 2020 recession, it has returned to its pre-recession level, and forecasters expect consumer prices to gradually rise.
S&P 500 Stock Price Index
After peaking in October 1929, stock prices fell about 30% during the first three months of the Great Depression, Wheelock noted. By 1932, stock prices were down almost 85% from their August 1929 level.
In comparison, stock prices fell around 20% from February to March 2020. However, he pointed out that by June 2020, stock prices had rebounded to 94% of the February level.
Similarities in Severity but Not in Duration
Wheelock noted that the 2020 recession saw sharp declines in economic activity, employment and stock prices that rivaled or exceeded the initial declines of the Great Depression. However, he pointed out that the Depression persisted, with the economy bottoming out nearly four years later. At the Depression’s trough, economic activity, employment and consumer and equity prices were far below their initial levels.
“The 2020 contraction might turn out to be the sharpest, but also the shortest, in modern times and perhaps of all time in the United States,” he wrote.
Recent debate has focused on whether the increase in economic activity since May will be maintained or turn out to be an uptick before a second dip, Wheelock observed.
“The virus and the public’s response to it will likely make that determination,” he concluded.
Notes and References
1 GNP is a measure of the total finished goods and services produced by U.S. producers, regardless of where production takes place, whereas GDP captures total production within the U.S. and its territories, regardless of the nationality of the producers.
- Economic Synopses: Comparing the COVID-19 Recession with the Great Depression
- Economic Synopses: What Can We Learn from the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918-19 for COVID-19?
- On the Economy: Financial Contagion: Lessons from the Great Depression


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The 2023 sensor industry conference was held in Laishan, and the way to upgrade the sensor industry was conspired.
This is a grand event with sensors as the invitation, and it is also a grand event to seize the opportunity of industrial development and take the pulse of industrial development. On the morning of August 3rd, the "2023 Sensor Industry Conference" hosted by the lai shan Municipal People's Government and the Sensitive Components and Sensors Branch of China Electronic Components Industry Association was held in Crowne Plaza Nanshan Hotel. More than 220 industry experts, scholars and representatives of well-known enterprises from home and abroad gathered at the scene to discuss, exchange and cooperate ... and seek ways to upgrade the sensor industry and develop it in a large-scale, characteristic and high-end way.
Academicians and experts put the pulse industry in the future.
This sensor industry conference opens a new era of smart life with "the world of things"; With the theme of "sensing first, helping the digital economy to flourish", Wang Juncheng, an academician of China Academy of Engineering, and more than 220 representatives from well-known domestic companies of sensors and Internet of Things, and upstream and downstream enterprises gathered together to show the technological innovation products and achievements of sensors and Internet of Things applications, and to make suggestions and exchange ideas on promoting industrial development.
Wang Juncheng, an academician of China Academy of Engineering, gave a report on "Towards Deep Blue —— Present Situation and Trend of Technology Development in the Field of Marine Ecological Environment Monitoring Sensors". From the perspective of macro-science to micro-science, he expounded the development status, development direction, the gap between the required sensors and the foreign level and the technological development vein of China's marine monitoring instruments and equipment, which pointed out the direction for the development of the marine sensor industry and opened up a professional vision for the participants.
During the conference, many industry leaders, authoritative experts and scholars gave keynote speeches on the new development trends of MEMS advanced technology and packaging technology. First-class enterprises at home and abroad and well-known entrepreneurs of listed companies were invited to give keynote speeches on the application and development of sensors in the fields of intelligent manufacturing, 5G communication, automotive electronics, consumer electronics, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and "the belt and road initiative" initiative. Participating experts and enterprises conduct exchanges and docking negotiations on projects, technologies and industrialization. Lai shan made investment promotion, and the participants visited and inspected key enterprises such as Jerry Group, Jinzheng Environmental Protection and Dong Run Instrument.
Enterprises exert their efforts to break international monopoly
As the sensing component of various machines, sensors are equivalent to human senses, which make the original rigid objects more intelligent. They are not only used in the fields of automobiles, mobile phones, monitoring and the Internet, but also extended to the field of national defense, and their importance is comparable to that of chips.
However, such important parts are mainly imported at present. Guo Meng, Secretary General of Sensitive Components and Sensors Branch of China Electronic Components Industry Association, said that there are more than 3,000 domestic sensor manufacturers and research institutions, but 80% to 90% of high-end sensor chips still rely on imports. Happily, in recent years, the industry has paid more and more attention to sensors, and the industry has developed very fast. The growth rate of domestic sensor industry has reached 20% to 30%, and low-end sensors can be developed and produced.
The development of any industry is inseparable from the unremitting struggle of every enterprise. Shandong Dong Run Instrument Technology Co., Ltd. is an enterprise mainly engaged in the research, development, production and sales of water environment monitoring and analysis instruments and material (liquid) level instruments in lai shan, and sensors are one of its main businesses. "The positioning of our company is to be an expert in water testing. Whether the water quality can meet the needs of life, industry and national defense must be tested accurately, which requires very advanced sensors. " Ma Zheng, chairman of Dong Run Instrument, said in an interview that in the process of research and development, it was indeed faced with the problem of "sticking the neck" of key components of imported sensors, but Dong Run did not give up. In order to break the monopoly of imported products on the China market, Dong Run independently developed a variety of water quality sensors, the quality of which was not inferior to that of foreign products.
The convening of the 2023 sensor industry conference provides opportunities for Dong Run Instrument and many industry enterprises to exchange ideas and learn from each other's strengths. "By attending this conference, we learned about each other's pain points and difficulties, grasped the direction of industry development, and laid a solid foundation for our domestic enterprises to break through the technical bottleneck and catch up with the world's advanced level. We are very confident about the future of our domestic sensor industry. " Ma Zheng said.
Have a solid foundation and win the development opportunities.
As a grand meeting of domestic sensor industry, "Sensor Industry Conference" was held in lai shan for the first time this year. "Choosing to hold this conference in lai shan, what we are interested in is lai shan's strong industrial base and its emphasis on the sensor industry." Guo Meng said.
In recent years, with the rapid development of Internet of Things, big data and artificial intelligence, the importance of sensors as sensing front-end devices has become increasingly prominent, and the application market has shown explosive growth, and the sensor industry is welcoming a rare historical development opportunity. Lai shan focuses on the fields of electronic information and artificial intelligence. Enterprises such as Orange Cloud, Jierui Digital, Oriental Weston, and Lasting Watch are focusing on the digital economy and the industrial Internet, and are accelerating the construction of high-end, knowledge and radiation industrial gathering places. Electronic information and artificial intelligence are not only the leading industries in lai shan, but also the key attraction and development direction. In recent years, by increasing attraction, it has further promoted the development of industrial agglomeration and continuously promoted the industrial chain group to become bigger and stronger.
Guo Meng said that in developing the sensor industry, lai shan has Dong Run Instruments, Jinzheng Environmental Protection and other enterprises, and the government has created an excellent business environment and attached great importance to the development of the industry. Taking this conference as an opportunity, I believe that the sensor industry in lai shan will develop better and better in the future, attracting upstream and downstream enterprises of sensors at home and abroad to settle down, and the prospect is promising.
Lai shan has both policy, market, environment and platform, and the development prospect of sensor industry is very broad. At the meeting, the relevant person in charge of the People's Government of lai shan sent an invitation to the enterprises and institutions in the sensor industry at home and abroad, welcoming them to visit and exchange in lai shan, and jointly writing the "Laishan Story" of openness, cooperation, innovation and win-win.
YMG All Media Reporter Xu Rui Correspondent Lv Shaoning Kang Shengyang Cai Chuanjian
Declaration: All article resources on this website, unless otherwise specified or labeled, are collected from online resources. If the content on this website infringes on the legitimate rights and interests of the original author, you can contact this website to delete it.


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No ill effects on sales despite Breitbart boycott: Kellogg CEO
Kellogg says it saw no “discernible” effect from an online boycott spurred by its decision to pull ads from a website formerly run by one of President Donald Trump’s top aides.
CEO John Bryant said it’s difficult to gauge the impact of such consumer actions given the volume of its sales, but that the company did not see any effect it could attribute to the boycott. Kellogg had announced its decision in late November to pull ads from Breitbart.com, which has been criticized for featuring racist, sexist and anti-Semitic content.
The website subsequently called for a boycott of the company.
At the time, Kellogg had said it works with media buying partners to ensure its ads don’t appear on sites that aren’t “aligned with our values.”
The company and others have said such ad placement can come about because of automated ad buying programs.
“We had no intention of getting into a political discussion,” Bryant said Thursday.
Paul Norman, president of Kellogg North America, also said Thursday that the company generally does not advertise on news sites because there is a chance an ad can end up next to a negative story.
For the final three months of 2016, Kellogg said its U.S. cereal sales were flat. The company has been dealing with slumping cereal sales for years as people reach for a variety of different breakfast options and the image of Special K, one of its biggest brands, has become outdated. Its effort to boost cereal’s image have included opening a cereal café in New York City.
To improve its financial performance, Kellogg has also been slashing costs and this week noted that it will end all direct delivery of products to supermarkets and big-box retailers. Instead, it will ship those products to warehouses before they move to retailers’ distribution centres — a system the company already uses for the majority of its products.
Kellogg says the move will free up money to invest in activities such as advertising that more directly help boost sales.
While domestic cereal sales were flat in the quarter, sales for the broader U.S. Morning Foods unit dipped as it discontinued some products, such as breakfast shakes. The company noted that the broader cereal category is expected to be flat to down 1 per cent in 2017.
Kellogg reported sales of $3.1 billion (all figures US) in the final three months of 2016, slightly better than expected revenue of $3.07 billion. The company reported a loss of $53 million, or 15 cents per share, as it booked charges for restructuring and deconsolidating its Venezuela business. Not including one-time items, it said it earned 92 cents per share.
Kellogg says a call for an online boycott of its products isn’t having an effect on its sales.


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Badshah Masala & Real Juice, a Dabur Enterprise shines at India Day Parade in New York
Authentic Indian Kitchen float with the iconic ‘Swad Sugandh Ka Raja’ Jingle steals the Parade’s Spotlight
New York, Aug 20, 2023: The iconic Indian superstar, who made the nation gyrate in the blockbuster Pushpa – Samantha Prabhu, the global Indian Guru of the ‘Art of Living’ fame Sri Sri Ravishnkar and the Hindi film star Jacqueline Fernandez were the big superstar attractions at the 41st India Day Parade but there was another iconic Indian entity which won hearts of the diaspora with its heartwarming presence.
Badshah Masala, a Dabur Enterprise, unite at New York’s India Day Parade in association with Federation of Indian Association to bring the authentic taste of home to the streets of New York city. This remarkable event unveiled an authentic Indian kitchen float, brimming with vibrant Badshah Masala spices, embodying their legacy of exquisite flavors. In addition, Dabur Real Juice added a punch of freshness and fruitiness to the occasion.
The Dabur Badshah Masala float was not just a visual spectacle, but an ode to India’s rich cultural and culinary diversity. Dancers representing the dance forms from North, East, West and South of India accompanied the float highlighting that India is a country which brings people together through food, flavors, art, music, dance and several other cultural anchors. The iconic “Swad Suganda Ka Raja” song added a historical touch, evoking nostalgia tied to the essence of Badshah Masalas.
The event gained even more excitement through an exclusive Pani Puri (Gol Gappas) competition. The love for this quintessential Indian street food was made evident by several participants who entered the competition. The winners of the Pani Puri (Gol Gappas) competition were presented with cash prizes and Badshah Masala gift hampers. This harmonious blend of culture, melody, and spirited competition created a memorable experience and put a smile on everyone’s face.
Rakesh Sareen, Sales Head North America, Dabur International Ltd, stated, “At Dabur, our ethos has always been to serve our communities, no matter where they reside. And on India’s 77th Independence Day, we congratulate all American Indians, who continue to add to the economic and cultural fiber of the country. This is our first year partnering with Federation of Indian Associations for the India Parade and it gives us immense joy that through this platform we have been able to bring the flavors of home closer to our consumers”.
Speaking on this association, Kenny, President FIA said, “Partnerships with brands like Dabur enhance our ability to bring the authentic taste of India to audiences beyond its borders. This event garnered tremendous support from proud Indians and our fellow New Yorkers, underscoring the success of our association with Dabur. We eagerly anticipate a lasting partnership.”
Manish Tiwari, Founder & Director of HereandNow Infinity said, “As we reflect this parade, it signifies the vibrant tapestry of the Indian diaspora and their significant impact on American society, economy, and culture. Multiculturalism thrives on diversity, and we are committed to promoting it worldwide through our unswerving efforts”.
Boasting 1,00,000+ attendees, including celebrated names like Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Jacqueline Fernandes and Samantha Prabhu at the event garnered huge support from New Yorkers which fortified this dynamic gathering, epitomizing unity, and cultural appreciation. Amid sun-soaked streets filled with joy, the parade served as a profound testament to harmonious convergence, etching enduring and captivating memories.
About Badshah Masala:
Established in 1958 by Jawaharlal Jamnadas Jhaveri in Mumbai, Maharashtra, Badshah Masala has become a hallmark of quality and authenticity. Specializing in a diverse range of grounded spices including amchur powder, turmeric powder, lal badshah, black pepper powder, coriander powder, jeera powder, Kashmiri chilli powder, cumin powder, white pepper powder, and many more, Badshah Masala continues to elevate culinary experiences both in India and worldwide.
About Real Juice:
Dabur India Limited (Dabur), a well-known brand in India in the health and wellness products, launched Real fruit juices in 1997. Réal Fruit Power the No. 1 juice brand in India. We have been awarded ‘India’s Most Trusted Brand’ for six consecutive years, in the juices category. Réal Fruit Power has a range of 14 exciting variants in the fruit juices category – from the exotic Indian Mango Juice, Guava Juice, Amla Juice & Litchi Juice, to the international favorites. A wide range has been produced to cater to the different needs, occasions, and taste buds.
HereandNow Infinity & HereandNow 365:
Here and Now Infinity, founded by Manish Tiwari, is a multicultural agency specializing in strategic campaigns tailored for businesses targeting the culturally diverse markets of Britain and North America. The focus is on Ethnic and Multicultural marketing, which goes beyond conventional outreach – it is the key to unlocking brand resonance in today’s dynamic societal landscape. The agency thrives in diverse media landscapes, including digital, experiential, print, and broadcast, enabling us to deliver optimal outcomes for our clients. For media inquiries, please contact: [email protected]


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Amazon announced today that it is proud to be opening a brand new factory that will employ 1,500 full-time workers in Orlando, Fla.
“I am proud that Amazon has chosen the Orlando area as the best location for their new fulfillment center,” Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott said of the announcement. “Amazon is already a major job creator in Florida, and we’re proud that they are continuing to invest in our state and create new opportunities for our families.”
The retail giant already employees more than 4,000 full-time workers in Florida.
The Daily Caller reports:
“We are excited to join the Orlando community, creating more than 1,500 full-time jobs at our new fulfillment center,” Akash Chauhan, Amazon’s vice president of North America operations, said. “We very much appreciate the state and local elected leaders who have supported Amazon’s arrival in Orlando and we look forward to bringing more jobs and investment to the state in the coming months.”
The 850,000 square-foot fulfillment center will be located at Lake Nona in Southeast Orlando. Workers will pick, pack and ship small items to consumers. The company said that employees at the new facility will have the opportunity to engage with Amazon robotics in a “highly technical workplace.”
Amazon announced at the beginning of the year that it plans to hire more than 100,000 workers in the United States.
The announcement excited many in the US, as Amazon has been expanding greatly, even buying Whole Foods recently.
Amazon has also announced at least one other facility opening in the US as the company continues to expand into groceries, hardware, and clothing.


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The pro-file-sharing, anti-copyright rabble rousers over at Torrentfreak have uncovered a Central Command document created after a Hollywood trade group complained that U.S. personnel were watching pirated DVDs in Iraq.
The MPAA has a difficult task trying to clamp down on high-speed Bittorrent file-sharing on the Internet and the pirate DVDs (many of questionable quality) for sale in street bazaars all over the world, but sometimes their zealous attempts to defend copyrights lose sight of the bigger picture.
Not only did the MPAA want assurances that pirate DVDs weren't for sale in Coalition stores (no problem), they also wanted CENTCOM to ban U.S. personnel from doing business with Iraqi merchants who might be selling contraband movies.
The brass said no way. "Movies give our troops a chance to escape temporarily from the rigors and dangers of the battlefield. This has been the case since World War II and it carries over into present-day conflicts," said Col. Gerald O'Hara, Multi-National Force - Iraq spokesman.
It's true that file sharing has decimated the music business and does damage to the movie and DVD industries, but the MPAA's decision to go after the men and women in uniform who are defending Hollywood's right to make movies seems pretty misguided.
In fact, maybe the movie business should offer all of our troops stationed overseas a free Netflix account to get them hooked on paying for movies, the way the tobacco companies created two generations of customers by handing out free cigarettes in both World Wars.
That would be a start.


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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Idexx Laboratories IDXX, -0.33% on Friday said fourth-quarter net income rose to $25.5 millino, or 40 cents a share from $24.7 million, or 38 cents a share in the year-ago period. Adjusted net income rose to 40 cents a share from 31 cents a share. Revenue at the Westbrook, Maine animal health products firm increased 27% to $245 million. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial forecast earnings of 40 cents a share and revenue of $235.4 million, on average. Idexx Labs said it expects 2008 earnings of $1.83-$1.87 a share, compared to the analyst estimate of $1.86 a share.
Idexx Labs net income rises 3%


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Fresh off the news that its revenues doubled in its third-quarter, Sierra Wireless Inc. (NASDAQ:SWIR) saw its stock jump nearly 16% in trading Friday.
Richmond, B.C.-based Sierra, which makes modems for AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), exceeded analysts expectations after they reported their net income rose sharply to US$9.04-million, or US33¢ a share. The positive results were helped in part by the rising sales of modems and the recent acquisition of Airlink Communications, a mobile data company.
The results made RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky upgrade his rating on Sierra Wireless to "outperform" and raised his target price from US$23 to US$30.
"Recent valuation declines on competitive concerns are in our view overdone; pending technology transitions in our view play to Sierra Wireless' strengths in engineering, design, quality/reliability and brand," said Mr. Abramsky in a note. "We see competitive fears dissipating with new product launches and healthy results."
SWIR 1-yr chart:


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Defra proposals for a good-better-best welfare label on food products have come in for flak from the industry.
Following the launch of a 12-week consultation period last week, the proposed bronze, silver and gold labelling system has reignited the debate over intensive farming and what constitutes good welfare.
The proposals form a key plank of the government's Animal Welfare Delivery Strategy.
"Everyone who keeps or works with animals can help improve their care," said welfare minister Ben Bradshaw last week at the consultation launch.
However, the BRC said shoppers were already faced with a barrage of welfare labelling, including organic, free-range and the RSPCA's Freedom Food.
"We already have a number of labels out there to identify welfare, from the Red Tractor upwards, so I'm not sure what else this will bring," said a spokesman.
"We don't want consumers to think they are getting a lower quality of product if they choose a bronze label."
The Soil Association was equally scathing, albeit for the opposite reason.
"Defra's just trying to give a veneer of respectability to poor welfare standards," a spokesman said, adding it would be more accurate if labels were green, amber and red to illustrate the impact on animals.
Even Assured Food Standards, which runs the Red Tractor, lined up to criticise Bradshaw's plans.
It said the simplicity of the labels concealed a quagmire of wrangling over how to measure welfare standards and what made animals' lives better.
"This is not going to happen by the end of 2007, nor even by the end of the decade," said chief executive David Clarke.
He questioned the point of launching a strategy that closely mirrored work being done by Brussels in its Welfare Quality Project
Defra said the concept was still at an early stage and urged industry to comment on its proposals. It argued it would clear up consumer confusion rather than add to it, as critics have suggested.


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By Li Panpan
(JW Insights) Sep 5 -- Global smartphone production dwindled by approximately 6.6% yearly, settling at a modest 272 million units in Q2 of this year. Four Chinese brands, Xiaomi, OPPO, Transsion, and Vivo, ranked third to sixth in production, following Samsung and Apple in the quarter, according to a TrendForce report released on September 4.
Samsung continues to lead in production rankings, delivering 53.9 million units in Q2. However, it suffered a 12.4% QoQ downturn. Apple’s output for the second quarter clocked in at 42 million units, marking a 21.2% dip from the preceding quarter.
Xiaomi (including Xiaomi, Redmi, and POCO) is reveling in a bountiful Q2, posting production numbers of around 35 million units—a staggering seasonal uptick of 32.1%.
Oppo (including Oppo, Real, and OnePlus) also had a fruitful Q2. The brand primarily rode the wave of rebounding demand in Southeast Asia and other regions, amassing approximately 33.6 million units and marking a seasonal leap of 25.4%.
In a dramatic shake-up of global rankings, Transsion (including TECNO, Infinix, and itel) eclipsed Vivo to secure the fifth spot for the first time ever.
Vivo churned out 23 million units in Q2—a modest quarterly increase of 15%—and, as a result, slipped to sixth place in global rankings.
The first half of 2023 clocked in at a mere 522 million units—marking a 13.3% YoY decline and setting a ten-year low for both individual quarters and the first half of the year combined, said the TrendForce report.
Trendforce identified three key reasons behind this slump in production:
The easing of pandemic restrictions in China failed to spur demand.
The demographic dividend from the emerging Indian market has yet to translate into tangible demand.
Initially, it was estimated that brands would return to normal production levels as excess inventory was cleared. However, the current economic downturn has kept consumer spending in check—undermining first-half production more than expected.


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Dying Light was a well received game, however, a lot of people were more excited about Techland’s next project, Hellraid, which was initially due to release this year. Unfortunately, the dark-fantasy title has been put on hold and will no longer launch this year.
In a statement released today on the Hellraid website, Techland noted that the game was not meeting the dev team’s expectations and as a result, they would rather keep focussing on Dying Light for now.
“Dear Hellraid fans, we would like to officially announce that our dark fantasy FPP game Hellraid will not be released this year as previously planned, and the development of the game has been put on hold.”
“In the recent months we conducted an internal analysis and came to the conclusion that Hellraid, in its current shape and form, is not meeting our own expectations for this project. Therefore, we decided the best course of action would be to send it back to the drawing board and invent our dark fantasy title anew.”
While development of the game has been put on hold, it may be revisited in the future and be re-revealed. Howev”r, for now, Techland is focussing on developing the Dying Light ‘franchise’:
“In the meantime, we will consolidate our development resources and focus on further expansion of our Dying Light franchise. We wish to thank all our fans for your support – you’re the best!”
Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.
KitGuru Says: Hellraid had a fair bit of buzz around it so it is a shame to see Techland put it ‘on hold’ in order to focus on turning Dying Light in to a franchise.


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Gear up for Motor Mania
Friday, June 1, 2012
NASHUA – If you happen to see a procession of classic cars making its way through downtown Nashua this Saturday morning, don’t panic.
You haven’t taken a wrong turn and traveled back in time – you’ve just stumbled across the cruise-in, the newest addition to Motor Mania, The Telegraph’s annual car and motorcycle event.
Motor Mania will be held from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, June 2, at The Telegraph grounds in Hudson, 17 Executive Drive, off Lowell Road.
Those interested in participating in the cruise-in will start lining up at 8 a.m. at Granite Clover Self-Storage at 6 Caldwell Drive in Amherst, just over the Nashua line.
“It’s brand-new this year, and it was a natural fit for Motor Mania,” said Kimberly Lencki, The Telegraph’s events manager. “Whenever we think of showcasing cars, for me, I always thought of a cruise-in.”
Though the route is still being finalized, the cruise-in is scheduled to pass through downtown Nashua a little after 9 a.m. on its way to The Telegraph grounds.
“The idea is that onlookers can enjoy the sight of all the cars,” Lencki said.
The cruise-in is also timed for participants to make an impressive entry into Motor Mania.
“We kept our start time at 10 o’clock so that attendees will be there as the cars come in to park,” Lencki said, noting that vehicles that are being showcased but aren’t participating in the cruise-in will already be on the grounds at this time.
The formula for Motor Mania is a simple one that has proven effective at car shows the world over: participants park their vehicles, spectators admire them and judges examine them and present awards.
“It’s an opportunity to show off and showcase their vehicles,” Lencki said of the participants. “They have a lot of time and money invested, and they’re proud to show off what they’ve done in rebuilding their cars.”
Trophies will be awarded for first and second place in the following categories: Best Antique Car, Best Street Rod, Best Muscle Car, Best Foreign Car, Best Sports Car, Best Truck, Best Classic Car, Best Custom Car and Special Interest.
The judging panel will be the same as last year: automotive airbrush muralist Dave Dapkus; Bill Allen, who recently retired as owner of Bill Allen’s Yesteryear Specialties, an automobile restoration and customization business; and Chris Laurencio, an IT professional with a lifelong passion for rare and modified cars who has hosted numerous car shows and related events.
“Their experience with the show was important to me, and their understanding of the cars,” Lencki said. “The feedback that was received was really positive on their judging techniques.”
“They really do look at all aspects of a car,” she said, explaining that it takes more than a pristine paint job for a vehicle to be trophy-worthy. She cited one of last year’s winning cars as an example.
“They really looked at the bones of the car, and the work that had been done on it,” Lencki said. “What really made the car win was that it had all its original parts.”
An award will also be given for the best motorcycle, a category that was introduced at last year’s event. Should more motorcycles participate, more specific awards will be created for future events.
“We would definitely start to break them off into types,” Lencki said, “because we know a motorcycle is not a motorcycle.”
Best in Show, People’s Choice and Publisher’s Pick round out the rest of the awards.
“I do like that we have a People’s Choice award, because it get the attendees involved as well,” Lencki said. “I think people like to be heard.”
Terry Williams, The Telegraph’s publisher, is unfortunately unable to attend this year’s event, so the Publisher’s Pick will be determined by Opinion Editor Nick Pappas.
As Pappas coordinates the newspaper’s editorial opinion, Lencki felt it would be a natural step for him to offer his opinion on the cars.
In addition to the awards, participants will have the opportunity to win a brand new 2004 Honda NSR50 bike, courtesy of Best Ford Lincoln and Best Cycle Center in Nashua.
“You can register online to participate in Motor Mania to enter, or you can register at Best Ford or Best Cycle Center,” Lencki said, noting that this raffle is only open to those who are showing a vehicle at Motor Mania. “There will be other raffles throughout the event for attendees to enter.”
A portion of the registration fees will be donated to Greater Nashua Habitat for Humanity. The organization just completed a home in Wilton, starting work on a home in Hudson immediately after, and has two more homes in the planning stages. These projects will keep them busy through 2013.
“I thought it was a great way to shed some light on their needs,” Lencki said of the decision to choose this charity for Motor Mania.
Motor Mania is traditionally one of The Telegraph’s most popular events, with 1,600 people and 150 vehicles taking part last year. Lencki believes people are drawn by the nostalgia of the classic cars and the event’s family-friendly nature.
“There is something special about it,” she said, “because when I talk to people who’ve attended this event, even our Telegraph staff, they just grin from ear to ear and talk about how much fun it was to see the cars and have everyone there together.”
“I think it brings people back to the good old days,” Lencki said. “While the cars are the purpose of the event, it’s about the community, just coming together, sharing stories, reminiscing.”
Teresa Santoski can be reached at 594-6466 or firstname.lastname@example.org. Also, follow Santoski on Twitter (@Telegraph_TS).


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Samsung's Galaxy S7 edge is already the best device of 2016 but it could be about to get a major rival.
The Korean tech firm is lifting the lid on its new Note 7 and, if the rumours are true, this phone could take the crown from its Galaxy sibling.
All will be revealed next Tuesday at Samsung's Unpacked event but here's why we think smartphone fans should be very excited.
1. IRIS SCANNING
Fingerprint scanners are so last year.
The new Note 7 is expected to launch with an iris scanner that takes a quick look at your eyes to unlock the phone.
This technology has already been used by Microsoft but this could be the first time it's been seen on an Android device.
However, one leak has suggested this won't be as good as it sounds as it may not work with glasses or under low light conditions.
But if it does instantly unlock the phone when you look at it, it will be an exciting new toy to play with.
Apple is also thought to planning a similar technology but it seems Samsung will beat them to a launch.
2. THE S PEN
Samsung's S Pen has been around for a while and each year it gets better and better.
This mini digital pencil allows users to draw, make notes and interact with the content on the display.
The Note 7 is sure to include this in-built stylus and we've got a feeling it could be their best digital pen yet.
DAILY STAR ONLINE
3. BIGGER SCREEN
The Note range usually squeezes into pockets with a bigger display than Samsung's other phones.
Like the older Note 5, we're expecting the Note 7 to feature a 5.7-inch display.
Rumours have also suggested the Note 7's screen will be curved, making its design similar to that of the S7 edge.
Samsung's Galaxy S7 has one of the best displays on the market so expect a similar eye-watering experience from the Note 7.
4. SAMSUNG'S BEST CAMERA
Samsung's Galaxy S7 is leading the photography field this year and the Note 7 could feature similar technology.
The S7 currently features a Dual Pixel 12 megapixel camera which has super fast autofocus and can record video in 4K.
There's no confirmation that the Note 7 will include the same camera but, with the S7 performing so well, it would make perfect sense.
5. A GLOBAL LAUNCH
Fans of the Note series we're left seriously disappointed last year after Samsung didn't launch its phablet across the world.
There's no word if the same will happen with the Note 7 but it looks like everyone will be able to own one.
Samsung is revealing the new phone across in New York, London and Rio next Tuesday so that would suggest a global launch is coming.
Daily Star Online has our invite and will be at Unpacked to bring you all the news as it happens, so be sure to log on to dailystar.co.uk/tech from 4pm on Tuesday.