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The Bayer company of German origin began an advertising campaign to hide the negative image that Monsanto drags and to link transgenics with health. Bayer's hidden past and its ties to Nazism.
From aspirin to pesticides. Germany's Bayer bought Monsanto and, after approval from the United States and the European Union, became the leading agribusiness company. Aware of Monsanto's bad image, he began an advertising campaign to dissociate himself from the complaints, but critical social organizations and academics are already questioning Bayer about the social, environmental and health consequences of the agricultural model. In Germany, Bayer's country of origin, it is prohibited to plant GMOs.
“If it's Bayer it's good” was a very effective advertising campaign for decades. But it is resignified by social movements: "If it's Bayer, it's Monsanto." The German multinational began in 2016 the purchase of the American company Monsanto, one of the companies with the worst image and the most complaints in history, producer of the chemical "agent orange" (used in the Vietnam War), the carcinogenic refrigerant PCB, the transgenic soybeans and the pesticide glyphosate.
Despite the fact that Bayer will have a dominant position, the European Union's Directorate-General for Competition approved the merger last March. The same was done by the US Department of Justice in May. The purchase was for 66,000 million dollars.
Bayer thus became the largest transgenic and agro-toxic seed company in the world. His first announcement was that the name of Monsanto will disappear (although it will continue to market all its products) and began an advertising campaign to improve its image. It uses the same arguments as Monsanto to increase its sales: it promises that with more GMOs and chemicals it will combat world hunger.
For half a century, agribusiness companies have publicized this argument, denied countless times by critical peasant movements and academics. Even organizations that support agribusiness (such as FAO, the United Nations) clarify that hunger is not about lack of food but about a distribution problem.
Bayer's Coordination against Dangers is a European network of organizations and activists who disseminate complaints about the company's actions, both in its pharmaceutical and agribusiness aspects. “Bayer and Monsanto's business model is unscrupulous. Both derive their benefits from pesticides and genetic manipulation techniques, damage the health of farmers and consumers, alter the climate, destroy biodiversity and endanger the foundations of food and subsistence for future generations. Now Bayer, by merging with Monsanto, enhances this threatening business model and seeks to increase the benefits of its large shareholders at the expense of people and nature, "said the organization.
Silvia Ribeiro, a researcher at the ETC Group (Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration), has been studying the corporate concentration of agriculture for thirty years. “The disappearance of the name Monsanto is a triumph of the widespread popular resistance, of peasant women and men, of environmentalists and consumers against transgenics. It is not a minor achievement. Although GMOs are still in markets, fields and food, there is a general rejection of them. The transnationals, Bayer included, have not managed to colonize our minds ", he stressed.
He recalled that only a score of countries sow transgenics massively and that there are more than 160 countries that do not allow the commercial cultivation of transgenics (among others, Germany, Bayer country).
A central issue is the control of seeds and pesticides. Three conglomerates, plus Germany's BASF, dominate the sector: Bayer-Monsanto, Syngenta-ChemChina and DuPont-Dow (they formed the new company Corteva Agriscience). They handle 60 percent of the global commercial seed market, 100 percent of the transgenic seed market and 70 percent of the agro-toxin market.
Bayer accumulates complaints of contamination to the environment, poisoning by pesticides, legal cases for clinical trials of products in India, conditions of its contraceptive pills in the United States, hormonal test deformities in Germany and the United Kingdom. But his most silenced crime is the one denounced by Fernando Bejarano González, a Mexican investigator who for the 150 years of Bayer (2013) summarized in a concise document the actions of the company. "The Dark Past of German Transnationals" is the title and explains the company's agreement with Nazism to "develop experiments with prisoners from the Auschwitz concentration camp."
The Mexican researcher takes up the work of Diarmuid Jeffreys (author of "History of IG Farben") and recalls that the company paid Nazism for slave workers and was in charge of the synthetic rubber concentration camp called "Buna / Monowitz", which he had 10,000 prisoners. Another fact silenced by Bayer is that it produced (through the Degesch subsidiary) the gas with which they murdered in the Birkenau-Auschwitz death camp (“Zyklon B”, a pesticide).
At the Nüremberg trial (which tried the crimes of Nazism) thirteen senior executives of the I.G. Farben for enslavement, participating in the forced labor program and for active participation in the genocidal politics of Nazism.
Bayer hides that past, finances advertising campaigns for GMOs and pesticides, and has a new slogan: "Science for a better life."
By Darío Aranda
Source: Page 12


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What once was acceptable for foodservice in hospitals is no longer the case. Disappearing are the days of fried foods and mystery meats in hospital cafeterias—they are now being replaced with turkey burgers and quinoa salads. Numerous hospitals across the country are changing the way they feed patients, patients’ families and hospital staff.
Making the Case
Earlier this year, Hackensack University Medical Center launched the Guiding Stars nutrition guidance program, an at-a-glance rating system that helps diners quickly and easily identify nutritious choices to encourage healthy eating habits. The program rates with zero to three stars the nutritional value of every available item in the facility, including hot and cold prepared foods, the salad bar, grab-and-go items and beverages.
Methodist University Hospital of Memphis’s University Cafe cafeteria offers numerous choices for its staff and patients as well, including Flavors 450, a food station that uses ingredients from within a 150-mile radius of the hospital. It has a rotating menu of meals under 450 calories for less than $5.
At Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Fresh Market at Fairbanks, chefs tend a rooftop garden that yields 32 varieties of organic vegetables and herbs, which it uses in as many of its menu items as possible.
Conflict of Interests?
In the ‘80s it was commonplace for typical fast food restaurants to lease space within hospitals, but this trend is also a dying breed. Take for example, McDonald’s. Earlier this year, a group of doctors made a plea to administrators of 22 hospitals to eliminate McDonald’s restaurants from their buildings because they believe it goes against their mission of healthfulness. Even before this cry for change, Parkland Health and Hospital System in Dallas ended its contract with McDonald’s and now offers Ufood Grill and Urban Taco to its staff and patients.
In addition to modifying cafeteria offerings, hospitals are also strongly considering the type of limited-service restaurants they allow to operate within their facilities. Most are gravitating towards brands surrounded by health halos, such as Au Bon Pain, Einstein Bros. Bagels and Subway.

domain: news


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Kobelco Construction Machinery USA, booth 4408 (Silver Lot)
by Therese Dunphy, Editor-in-Chief, and Amy Materson, Contributing Editor
Kobelco will offer attendees product information on its full line of excavators in the 3,000- to 180,000-pound classes, as well as its new demolition machine line.
The company’s exhibit is Kobelco’s homecoming to ConExpo-Con/Agg as an independent brand.
The exhibit will provide booth visitors the opportunity to compete in a number of traditional and high-tech games and serve as a place to kick back and relax, while delivering ample time to kick the tires and get into the operator seats of a wide-range of Kobelco excavators, including the company’s new 55SRX model.
From our partners
Sandvik Construction launches the newly developed CH540 cone crusher - the latest…
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The bits of hearsay have all the earmarks of being getting momentum and looking increasingly genuine. Yuga Labs, the group behind Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). The group is wanting to bring almost $500m up in extra income by selling virtual land in the metaverse. This lines up with their KYC declaration recently and the adjusted vision to Animoca Brands.
Yuga Labs is extending net income of $455 million this year, mainly through virtual land deals that will start off this month.The plans – including its own APECoin token – were laid out in a pitch deck acquired by The Block, which had been coursed to investors.
The Block got a deck that seems to show that Yuga labs brough in almost $130m in income during 2021 and is being flowed by financial backers to acquire extra subsidizing. This data avows the bits of hearsay around their objective of a $5billion valuation on the table.
In expansion to Land deals, the group will have an application store that will permit clients to sell and redo their NFTs in the new virtual universes. The money of this metaverse will be APECoin.
If the data is right the subtleties of the land deal include:
200,000 plots of land being sold during March and August (fully intent on making $178m in revenue)The Company will save some virtual land for themselvesAnimoca will likewise get land (and is building a dashing game for Yuga Labs)We expect some land will be saved for Apes, Mutants, Dogs, and presently Meebits and CryptoPunks.
MetaRPG Coming Soon
To that end, Yuga is wanting to construct a gaming-centered metaverse named MetaRPG that will be viable with a large group of NFTs.
There will be a framework – depicted as an “in-game app store” – that will permit players to make characters utilizing NFTs they own or without any preparation, outfit them (again with NFTs), and use them in games, as per the deck.
Another pivotal part of the proposed world is cash, which Yuga will give as a much-supposed token named APECoin.
The token will be utilized to make buys in Yuga’s arranged application store, and the organization said in its deck that it will likewise energize “trading and bartering.” – The Block
What is the Metaverse?
The Metaverse is an aggregate virtual shared space, made by the combination of practically improved actual reality and truly tenacious virtual space, including the amount of every virtual world, expanded reality and a blended reality world.
The term was begat in Neal Stephenson’s 1992 sci-fi novel “Snow Crash”, which presents a dream of the internet as a sweeping mixed media “metaverse” that envelops all PC networks.
In his novel, Stephenson envisions the metaverse as a three-layered space where individuals can connect with one another through symbols, articles and conditions to share data about themselves or simply have fun.
What is KYC?
The KYC process is one of the main strides in any monetary exchange. It is a vital piece of the Know Your Customer (KYC) guideline that banks and other monetary foundations are expected to continue to safeguard their clients and their funds.
KYC guidelines were first presented in the fallout of the 9/11 fear based oppressor assaults, as a method for forestalling illegal tax avoidance by psychological militants. The guidelines were intended to make it hard for lawbreakers to utilize bogus characters or hold secret seaward accounts.
In ongoing years, KYC has turned into a fundamental piece of banking, exchanging and contributing across all businesses and areas. Today, KYC consistence is a higher priority than any time in recent memory, as it can assist with moderating dangers related with deceitful exchanges and tax evasion conspires that are regularly executed by digital criminals
, 2022-03-15 17:31:33
#Exhausted #Ape #Yacht #Club #BAYC #plans #Metaverse #Land #Sale #APE #coming #NFT #Culture


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Vijay C Roy
Chandigarh, June 9
India’s smartphone market is expected to remain subdued in the current year. According to the industry, challenging economic conditions, increasing lifecycle of smartphones and stable 5G handset prices are the major reasons that would impact the sales.
We expect the market to remain flat in the current year considering the trend in the past five months. The main reason behind the flat growth is people holding their purchase and stable 5G handset prices compared to the past two years.
Sree Hari, product manager, realme india
The total smartphone market stood at 15.5 crore units in 2022 dominated by budget smartphones with prices ranging between Rs 6,000 and Rs 15,000.
“We expect the market to remain flat in the current year considering the trend in the past five months. The main reason behind the flat growth is people holding their purchase and stable 5G handset prices compared to the past two years,” said Sree Hari, product manager, realme India.
The increasing lifecycle of smartphones was “an expected factor in the market”, as users are holding on to their devices for longer than usual. According to the industry, earlier, on an average, smartphone owners used their phones for less than 12 months before upgrading. But now, it has now increased to 18-24 months. Also, the lifecycle of smartphones has been steadily increasing and the devices are getting better.
According to data, India’s smartphone shipments declined 21% in the March quarter as compared to the same period last year. The overall handset market saw a decline of 20% year-on-year (YoY), according to CyberMedia Research (CMR). It noted that challenging economic conditions and slow demand contributed to the decline.
According to Counterpoint Research, smartphone shipments in India fell 9% to 152 million (15.2 crore) units in 2022. The shipments grew 11% in 2021 to 169 million (16.9 crore) units as the Covid forced users to buy smartphones for remote work and education.
However, the industry feels the entry of Jio in mobile financing and other NBFCs like Bajaj Finance may spurt the sales.
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Electric muscle-car brand Tesla have opened a show room with service capability in Holland to service its growing European market. The state-of-the-art facility will have a full battery service and repair centre and other specialized EV equipment.
Tesla say the Benelux region of Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg is a market that has been receptive to the Roadster, Tesla’ electric supercar, with over 100 cars registered.
George Blankenship, Tesla Vice President of Sales and Ownership Experience said: “The new Tesla showroom and service center allow us to inform and engage more people about our exciting cars and the many advantages of going electric, and are a great platform for the Roadster and Tesla’s new premium sedan, the Model S.”
Tesla has delivered more than 1,800 Roadsters, the world’s first electric sports car, to customers world-wide. The model S goes on sale in Europe and Asia in late 2012.


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Nan Fung Textiles Mill factory, Tsuen Wan – conservation project
The SCMP of 31st August 2016 has an article about the Mill6 Foundation, a “non-profit arts and cultural institution” run by property developer Nan Fung Group.
“The foundation is working on a heritage conservation project called The Mills in Tsuen Wan, restoring the former Nan Fung cotton mill in situ. The project is expected to be completed in 2018.
[The project is based in the Nan Fung Textiles Limited factory building with that company founded in 1954 later becoming Nan Fung Textiles Consolidated Ltd in 1969 and in 1970 becoming a holding company of three wholly-owned subsidiary companies, Nan Fung Textiles Limited, Nan Fung Textiles Second Mill Limited and Kin Fung Garments and Investments Limited. The company is currently known as the Nan Fung Group. See our articles below for further information.]
According to Mill6 Foundation director Angelika Li On-ki, the aim is to preserve the city’s textiles and garment making culture, and foster creativity and new textile arts. The space will also host exhibitions.”
The project has brought together retired workers from Nan Fung and those who worked for other companies in the Hong Kong garment industry during its boom time between the 1950s and 1980s, before production was moved across the border to southern China.
Many thanks to Ros Tanner for telling us about this article.
This article was first posted on 11th September 2016.
Source: Mill revamp is cue for Hong Kong textile workers to reminisce, and upcycle SCMP 31st August 2016
- The Mill6 Foundation – website
- Mill revamp is cue for Hong Kong textile workers to reminisce, and upcycle – Nan Fung Textiles Limited factory SCMP 31st August 2016
- Nan Fung Centre for Heritage Arts & Textile Scheduled to open in Spring 2019, the Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile (CHAT) is a part of the heritage conservation project of The Mills, the former cotton spinning mills of Nan Fung Textiles in Tsuen Wan.
- HOW THE MILLS IS REINVENTING HONG KONG’S TEXTILE HERITAGE: A look inside a new project that merges the Hong Kong textile industry’s past and future Cathay Pacific Discovery magazine 6th December 2018. Many thanks to IDJ for sending this article in.
Related Indhhk articles:


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Neighbourhood social network platform Nextdoor ran a poll recently that revealed things are looking bleak for Netflix, at least in Ontario.
The poll questioned Ontario residents whether they plan to cancel their Netflix subscription in response to the streamer’s full-swing crackdown on password sharing.
If you haven’t been keeping up with the recent changes at Netflix, here’s a quick rundown.
Netflix has informed Canadians that they need to set a ‘Primary Location‘ on their account by February 21st. This is how Netflix will know if anyone is using your account from a different location and I.P. address. The streamer wants passwords to be shared only between those living in the same house and not with people outside it. if you choose to share your password with users outside your household, you’ll need to pay an extra $7.99 per person.
The move subsequently led to searches for the term ‘Cancel Netflix’ skyrocketing, as revealed in Goole Search Trends.
According to Nextdoor’s poll, more than half of poll respondents from Ontario said they plan to cancel their Netflix subscription in response to the streamer’s crackdown. 57 percent, to be exact, said they wish to end their subscription, while 43 percent said they’ll be retaining it.
“For years Netflix’s big selling point was to share your subscription with family. We upgraded at extra cost so that more than 2 households (my kids) could watch at the same time. Now they are changing their rules and making it sound like we are the ones stealing. That is why I’m canceling my account. I think they have alienated a lot of people and it’s going to be their undoing,” said a Nextdoor user.
“I’m paying for five subscriptions. It shouldn’t matter if my daughters and grandsons are in my living room or theirs. I’m extremely tempted to cancel, but I guess I have to run it by my daughters first. Especially as they are now threatening to have ads. I can get that kind of service for free!”
“I would rather cancel my cogeco account as I watch Netflix more than any other programs,” wrote a user, while a different user said “I will be keeping mine. I actually called them to clarify some of the new policy cause the emails say that it’s based on the WiFi from the primary location. However my husband watches from his phone while on his dinner break at work, obviously not on our WiFi. Was told that any devices belonging to two primary locations just have to open and log in to the Netflix app while on the primary location WiFi once a month to have it recognized as a user/device.”
Nextdoor polled over 2,000 Ontarians, starting on Wednesday, February 15th. The stats mentioned above comprise data from February 15th, 16th and 17th. The poll will continue to run until Tuesday, February 21st.
Even MobileSyrup readers were unhappy about the change in Netflix’s policy. In a recent ‘Here’s how to set a primary location for your Netflix account‘ story we published, the way Canadians feel about the crackdown on password sharing was very evident.
It’s worth noting that Netflix has started cracking down on password sharing in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain only, and U.S. has been left unscathed. Though it appears that it’s only a matter of time before Netflix implements the rules south of the border.
If you’re looking to cancel your Netflix subscription as well, follow this link.
Image credit: Shutterstock


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2019 Startups Web
The IDEA Center at the University of Notre Dame launched 32 startup companies in 2019, matching the 32 it produced from 2017 to 2018. These additions bring the total number of startups since the IDEA Center’s founding in 2017 to 64 and the total number of official Notre Dame startups to 86.
In 2019, the University’s 64 active startups, 16 of which were founded before the launch of the IDEA Center, reported 99 full-time jobs, with an average salary of $72,000. Indiana’s statewide average salary is $59,000 and South Bend’s is $54,000. Collectively, the 64 companies also reported raising $6.6 million in investment; generating $10.9 million in product sales, a 584 percent year-over-year increase from 2018; and creating 54 part-time jobs, for a total of 153 jobs.
“Startup companies are economic development fire-starters for communities like the South Bend-Elkhart region because of the excitement and momentum they generate,” said Bryan Ritchie, vice president and the Cathy and John Martin Associate Provost for Innovation at Notre Dame. “Initially, the goal for a startup is to attract investment. Once achieved, they use their investment dollars to gain traction in the marketplace. As this happens, they add jobs at a faster rate than large companies. And as profits grow, so do salaries.
“Repeating this success is the key to producing economic impact, an upswing that benefits the entire community in terms of demand for housing, entertainment, retail, restaurants, health care, service industries and, of course, education.”
To qualify as a Notre Dame startup, the initial business or invention disclosure must undergo a rigorous vetting process. Only a small percentage of disclosures become Notre Dame startups.
Last year’s 32 startups represent a number of industries, including advertising, consumer products, fashion, food additives, health care and information technology.
Notre Dame student entrepreneurs are responsible for founding 18 of the 32 Notre Dame startups launched in 2019. Notre Dame faculty, alumni and members of the community created the other 14. Of the 64 startups launched since the formation of the IDEA Center, 36 are student startups.
According to David Murphy, assistant provost and executive director for student entrepreneurship and the ESTEEM Graduate Program at Notre Dame, student entrepreneurs are becoming the norm at college towns across the country, but particularly at those that have laid the foundation for success in the form of resources like the IDEA Center.
“Students are no longer content to sit on the sidelines with textbooks; they want to roll up their sleeves and start companies, build teams and change the world,” said Murphy. “This generation wants to attend a university that prepares them to create their own jobs — and be a job creator for hundreds if not thousands of others. Increasingly, Notre Dame students seek out the IDEA Center and immerse themselves in the entrepreneurial culture here while maintaining their rigorous academic coursework.”
Notre Dame faculty member Jarek Nabrzyski is the director of the Center for Research Computing and co-founder of blockchain startup Simba Chain, which currently has 10 full-time employees and was founded in 2018. He says the success of Notre Dame startups like Simba Chain serves as a magnet for talent.
“In the past, it was challenging to get people in the tech industry to relocate to the Midwest,” Nabrzyski said. “Now, when they see what we’re doing in blockchain, machine learning and other areas of advanced computing at Notre Dame, they want to be part of it. The same goes for faculty, research staff and students.”
For more information about each of the 32 startups, visit https://bit.ly/2RrxoAm.
Contact: Nick Swisher, director of marketing, communications and events, IDEA Center, 574-631-2984, email@example.com.
Originally published by ideacenter.nd.edu on January 16, 2020.at


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iOS 8 Randomizes the MAC Address, Stops Marketers Identifying a Device
With iOS 8, Apple scores a major win for privacy as it is set to trick locations trackers and protect iOS device users. The Apple-way to protect the user’s privacy was spotted by a Swiss programmer, Frederic Jacobs.
As we said before, the two hours of WWDC keynote were enough just to present a fraction of the new features iOS 8 brings. While we have pointed to a handful of features, the next-gen mobile operating system will bring, Jacobs has spotted a major improvement which has to do with the MAC address a device uses while scanning for Wi-Fi networks.
iOS 8 randomises the MAC address while scanning for WiFi networks. Hoping that this becomes an industry standard. pic.twitter.com/oGsZMtydUo
— Frederic Jacobs (@FredericJacobs) June 8, 2014
As the Quartz article highlights, there is an entire industry built around the Wi-Fi signal. A company called Euclid Analytics, for example, has a great solution for shopping malls, a system that logs the MAC address of every single device that gets near the Wi-Fi zone. In London, on the other hand, a startup installed trash bins, sniffing the MAC addresses from passers-by.
Because the MAC address is the unique identifier devices send out to connect to a router, the system is able to use the data in many ways, raising privacy concerns.
With iOS 8, this is about to change, because it will generate a random MAC address while scanning for networks, meaning that agencies collecting the aforementioned information will never know if the device (person) was there.
Last year, with iOS 7, Apple prevented app developers from using MAC addresses to spy on people who installed their apps. This year, however, Apple goes even further: it protects its users’ privacy from any company that uses wireless networking to identify a device.


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The UK India Business Council has released details of a survey which highlights that UK businesses believe that India’s business environment is improving and they see an opportunity for greater UK-India collaboration, which is something that is being echoed here in South Yorkshire.
The UKIBC’s ’Doing Business in India Report 2020’ is based on an in-depth survey of 106 UK organisations operating in India spanning manufacturing, services and higher education sectors.
66 per cent of businesses surveyed said that they believed it was becoming easier to do trade with India, thanks to progressive reforms and improvements in components of India’s business environment such as the availability of support and service providers, skilled labour, and supply chain.
UKIBC Chair, Richard Heald, OBE, said: “The positively-balanced findings of this report are tremendously encouraging. There is much still to do to remove the persistent barriers to doing business in India, particularly improvement to bureaucratic procedures and the application of the tax regime, which is a persistent concern for businesses in India. Yet, the optimism and commitment amongst UK businesses is telling of the strength of the UK-India relationship and scope for growth.”
The Sheffield City Region, which operates its India Growth Champions Scheme, in association with the UK India Business Council, has also seen strong demand recently from this region’s businesses for support and guidance with increasing exports to India. In total, there are 447 businesses in South Yorkshire that currently export to India.
Sir Nigel Knowles, International Advisor to the Mayor of the Sheffield City Region, said: “India offers huge potential in the digitisation of advanced manufacturing and shares many industrial synergies with our region. We are working closely with a number of businesses on our India Growth Champions Scheme, which is designed to help businesses to open up new opportunities in India. The Scheme is several months underway and already is showing huge potential for this region’s businesses to grow.”
Experts predict that India will be the third largest economy in the world by 2030. In 2015, the Sheffield City Region exported £81m worth of goods to India – making it the region’s 12th largest trading partner. In 2017, the Sheffield City Region introduced the strategy: ‘Make in India, Design and Develop with the Sheffield City Region’. Since then, the relationship between the Sheffield City Region and India has grown and developed and has been able to open up greater trading opportunities.
Trading with countries such as India is expected to help Sheffield City Region businesses to recover from the Coronavirus lockdown, with international trade expected to be a key factor in driving forward future growth and prosperity in the region.
To download the UKIBC’S 6TH ANNUAL DOING BUSINESS IN INDIA REPORT: THE UK PERSPECTIVE, click here.


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One year WOFs come into effect
Owners of cars registered from 2000 will now only have to get their vehicles warranted once a year.
The second stage of the annual warrant of fitness rollout came into force on Tuesday.
From January this year vehicles registered between 2004 and 2008 moved from six-monthly to annual WOFs.
The changes are aimed at saving people time and money without compromising on safety, NZ Transport Agency acting manager for access and use Robyn Elston says.
Six-monthly WOFs were introduced in the 1930s and vehicle safety had dramatically improved since then, she said.
Motorists are still responsible for ensuring their vehicles are properly maintained at all times.
NZTA is encouraging owners to "Check Your Car" in a $2 million three-year awareness campaign.
Police are carrying out extra enforcement duties to ensure cars are roadworthy.
The Motor Trade Association, which opposed the changes, says it will mean fewer inspections for the industry.
However, it says the staggered implementation has made it easier for industry and motorists to digest.
New WOF changes and effects:
* Annual WOF for cars registered from January 1 2000
* New cars get one year WOF, then three year, then annually
* Six-month WOF for older vehicles
* 1.2 million cars move to annual inspection
* Motorists estimated to save $160 million.
Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.


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Harrods is believed to be cutting up to 700 jobs as the fallout from the coronavirus crisis continues to devastate the retail sector. That number would mean up to 14% of its workforce being made redundant.
Salvatore Ferragamo will release on July 28 only its half-year sales data, postponing the remaining financial data for the semester and a conference call with analysts to Sept. 15, the luxury group said on Thursday.
European resale specialist Rebelle said this week that sustainability is the main reason for many consumers buying secondhand and that the Covid-19 crisis has boosted demand for luxury investment pieces.
Swiss travel retail giant Dufry AG on Wednesday launched a restructuring programme designed to cut its staff costs as it works to protect its business following the effects of the coronavirus outbreak globally.
The Austrian jeweller announced on Monday that it will be cutting 600 jobs around the world, including 200 in the Tyrol region where it is based, citing decreased demand in Asia and the U.S. due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The international jewelry retailer announced on Friday that it has appointed Rebecca Wooters as its new chief digital officer, as the company doubles down on its online transformation plans in the wake of Covid-19.
The luxury industry will feel the fallout from the coronavirus crisis for the next two years if not longer, Chanel's CFO said on Thursday, adding its 2020 revenues and profit would be significantly hit.


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Mercedes-Maybach GLS to be revealed next month. Mercedes-Benz is about to extend its Maybach sub-brand line-up beyond the S-Class.
The report says this new addition will be the new version of the upcoming third-generation GLS (formerly GL). It seems like with the new GLS, Mercedes wants to compete with other brands such as Land Rover’s Range Rover SVAutobiography and Bentley’s Bentayga.
The German luxury manufacturer has also seen remarkable success with its AMG performance arm, so it’s looking to expand its Maybach brand.
Mercedes will debut the new SUV at the Beijing motor show in April and then revealed production form at the Los Angeles motor show in November.
According to Britain’s Autocar publication, the new Mercedes-Maybach GLS will share the same basic aluminum and steel body as well as an advanced four-wheel-drive system on less-heavily specified versions of the new third-generation GLS.
However, the new addition is expected to come with more luxurious and a number of subtle design enhancements in the interior as compared to standard versions of the American-built SUV.
The Maybach GLS will include the Mercedes-AMG-developed M177 V-8 petrol engine which was launched in the S560e. It makes 468hp in the S 560.
Autocar said, “We have been quietly surprised by the sales success of the Mercedes-Maybach S-Class, which is proving extremely popular in many key markets. The plan now is to extend the exclusivity surrounding the Maybach name into the upper end of the SUV segment. We’re confident this new model will leave little to be desired in terms of luxury.”


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Northland businesses honored during conferenceA Superior-based business was honored as the Business of the Year during the 2013 annual Northwest Wisconsin Business Conference.
A Superior-based business was honored as the Business of the Year during the 2013 annual Northwest Wisconsin Business Conference.
The Northwest Wisconsin Workforce Investment Board, Inc. recently presented Field Logic Inc. with the Business of the Year Award.
Director of Human Resources Wanda Grew-Jasken accepted the honor May 9 at the Reeling in Business: 2013 annual Northwest Wisconsin Business Conference.
Mari Kay-Nabozny, NWWIB’s chief executive officer, presented the award in Hayward.
The NWWIB gives this award to recognize northwest Wisconsin’s employers and their outstanding contribution to employees and their community.
Field Logic Inc. is a nationally-recognized sporting goods manufacturer well-known for bringing innovative products to the archery industry. First among their industry-leading series of innovations is “The BLOCK,” archery’s first open-layered target.
Field Logic has continued creating products that have cornered the market and quickly climbed to the No. 1 position and is constantly enhancing and improving not only its products, but its workforce as well. They provide employees the tools and opportunities needed for growth.
NWWIB is proud to present Field Logic this award and commends the company for its investment in the workforce.
Delta Diner near Iron River also was honored with a Rising Star Award. The eatery provides customers with a classic American, 1940s roadside diner restaurant experience, crafted from the drive to the destination, being greeted at the door by staff, and the diner’s retro-designed booth and counter seating.


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Then-Fastly Founder & CEO Arthur Bergman, right, rings a ceremonial bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as his company’s IPO begins trading, Friday, May 17, 2019.
Richard Drew | AP
Zoom may be the technology story of the pandemic. But it’s no longer the best-performing tech stock of the work-from-home era.
That distinction now belongs to Fastly, which went public a month after Zoom last year. Fastly shares climbed 15% on Monday to $ 73.27, following last week’s 36% surge. They’re now up 222% since the market’s peak on Feb. 19, outperforming Zoom, which is up 159% over that stretch.
Fastly’s technology helps consumers more rapidly view and retrieve digital content. Its customers include e-commerce software provider Shopify, music-streaming service Spotify and messaging app Slack, which are all seeing usage spikes with so many people working remotely. Some analysts are starting to see Fastly as one of the top technology winners from the accelerating trend toward working from home and staying at home.
Fastly vs. Zoom
“Its customers are a lot of the next-generation bleeding-edge tech companies,” said Rishi Jaluria, an analyst at DA Davidson who recommends buying the stock. “It’s the combination of a company with really strong fundamentals and everything executing really well and at the same time, I think, momentum is building on that.”
Jaluria has the highest share price target of the six analysts tracked by FactSet who have published predictions, but even he hasn’t been able to keep up with the latest rally. Jaluria raised his target to $ 55 from $ 33 on June 3, when the stock was at $ 47.84. The other five analysts all have buy ratings, and target prices between $ 30 and $ 46.
Last month, Fastly announced a follow-on stock offering at $ 41.50 a share, 43% below Monday’s close.
Fastly said in its first-quarter earnings report that revenue climbed 38%, and the company increased its guidance for the year to as much as $ 290 million from up to $ 265 million. The mid-point of its range would mark annual growth of 42% from 39% last year.
In the content delivery network (CDN) market, Fastly is only about one-fifteenth the size of Akamai in terms of revenue, but almost half as big when it comes to market value. Fastly’s market cap now sits at $ 7.6 billion, while Akamai is worth $ 16.5 billion. Cloudflare, another competitor in the space, has more than doubled in value in the past four months to an $ 11.2 billion market cap.
While he couldn’t have known it at the time, Fastly CEO Joshua Bixby took over at a most precarious moment â Feb. 20. The stock market peaked the previous day and proceeded to plunge 34% over the next four weeks, as concerns about the coronavirus forced wide swaths of the economy to shut down. In his letter to staff announcing Bixby’s promotion, founder and then-CEO Artur Bergman, said “the board and I believe that Joshua is the right person to lead Fastly into the future.”
Bixby wrote his first blog post as CEO ten days later, urging extreme caution to his 685 employees:
We are suspending all non-essential travel worldwide for Fastly employees, canceling or postponing Fastly-sponsored events, and discouraging employee attendance at industry events and in-person meetings. Though a large portion of Fastly personnel already work remotely, we have also made the decision to close all Fastly offices and temporarily enact a fully remote workforce. These changes are effective immediately.
Bixby has since written two more blog posts, and neither have to do with the company’s technology. The first, on April 27, was to applaud organizations providing important information about Covid-19. The second, on June 1, was titled, “Black Lives Matter: We are taking a stand,” and came as people across the country were protesting a policeman’s killing of George Floyd.
Along with three other top executives, Bixby wrote that Fastly was contributing $ 50,000 each to two organizations fighting for racial justice and that the company was putting in place internal efforts to better recognize Black culture.
“We choose to do better,” the post said. “We choose to be anti-racist. We choose to use our privilege and platform to speak up. We choose to stand in solidarity with the Black community.”
Fastly representatives didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment for this story.


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Carnage continues as New Look plans to close 60 stores as part of rescue plan to avoid administration
British fashion retailer New Look plans to close 60 stores as part of a rescue deal to help it avoid going into administration. About 980 staff face redundancy – from a 15,300-strong UK workforce – and rents at about 400 stores will be slashed.
The rescue plan still needs approval from creditors. New Look said it faced “a difficult trading environment”. Chairman Alistair McGeorge said the cuts were “tough but necessary”.
The retailer – which has 593 stores in total – hopes to redeploy employees within the business where possible.
The firm said it had been struggling with its rental costs and had asked landlords for leeway so it could “restore profitably”.
It has also faced an “extremely challenging” retail market, driven by weaker consumer confidence, the implications of Brexit and competition from online channels,” said Deloitte, which is handling the firm’s Company Voluntary Agreement – a type of compromise deal that allows a firm to avoid going into administration.
“New Look is an iconic brand on the High Street and the Company Voluntary Agreement will provide a stable platform upon which management’s turnaround plan can be delivered,” said Daniel Butters, a partner at Deloitte.
“It is important to stress that no stores will close on day one, and employees, suppliers and business rates will continue to be paid on time and in full.”
High Street slowdown
A glut of UK retailers have made closures or gone bust in recent months amid a slowdown on the High Street.
Last week toy store chain Toys r Us fell into administration, along with electronics retailer Maplin, leaving thousands of jobs at risk.
Restaurant chains Byron and Prezzo have also announced closures, while House of Fraser is seeking to shore up its finances.


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Trying out 5G is a little tricky because, put simply, none of us have 5G phones just yet. Now though, if you’re in and around Birmingham, you can try out 5G at Grand Central.
Vodafone have invited people travellers to test 5G speeds as part of live trial on the New Street concourse with a 5G router. When handsets and devices arrive later in the year, you’ll be able to experience it too, as the network turns on 5G in 19 towns and cities.
Data will be passed over the new multi-billion-pound single optical fibre converged network, which is already providing customers in the city with fast 4G mobile, home broadband, Internet of Things (IoT) technology and business services.
Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street states…
I am delighted that Vodafone has brought 5G to Birmingham; and that New Street is the UK’s first 5G-enabled rail station. When I was Managing Director at John Lewis, we saw online shopping transform the retail industry. I believe the West Midlands 5G project will enable our businesses, hospitals, public transport and universities to explore new services and stay ahead of their competition.
Here’s a look at it in action..


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And Finally: Frank Fitzgibbon: Eircom heavyweights dine out on biggest cheques in town
THERE are no wrong numbers at Eircom, especially if you have been elevated to the upper echelons of the company’s management. We upset a few breakfast tables last week when we revealed that the four top bods at the company had been rewarded to the tune of €40m over a three-year period. What we didn’t say is that the riches on offer place Eircom’s executives at the very top of the Irish pay league.
Phil Nolan, Eircom’s chief executive, wooed from FTSE-100 company Lattice in 2001, stands to earn €18.35m in the three years to the end of 2004. Taking into account a €2m signing-on fee and a €7m bonus following last year’s debt refinancing, his overall package works out at an average of €6.1m per year. Peter Lynch, Eircom’s financial guru, and Cathal Magee, head of the retail division, will have earned an average of almost €2.6m and €2.5m


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• Governor Anne Waiguru says cartels should be blamed for importing Pakistan rice at the expense of local farmers.
• The importation she says has negatively affected the local prices for Mwea rice.
Kirinyaga governor Anne Waiguru has vowed to fight cartels importing Pakistan rice.
Waiguru on Friday said the cartel led by some well-known traders is secretely importing Pakistan rice at the expense of local farmers.
She said the importation has for decades negatively affected Mwea Rice markets.
“Going forward I am going to do my best to safeguard the interests of local farmers,” she said.
Waiguru was speaking on Friday at Ngurubani town where she launched Mwea-Makima Water project.
“I also urge our farmers to take precaution not to elect leaders who protect such self-centered traders whose aim is to exploit others,” she said.
Waiguru said over 6,000 households in Mwea Sub County will benefit from clean water sourced from Nyamindi River.
She said the project is part of her administration’s resolve to ensure Kirinyaga residents are provided with clean safe water for consumption.
The county boss said the water will undergo a chlorination process in a 22,500 litre tank before it is released to the residents.
According to her, the supply line is served by a 200mm pipe that covers 31km within the county.
The supply will reach residents of Nyangati, Kimbimbi, Ngurubani and all the way to Wamumu ward.
“We have initiated several projects in the county through Mountain Cities Vision, which currently ranks Mwea region as green City,” Waiguru said.
The former Devolution, Youth and Gender Cabinet Secretary said so far a 30,000 litre distribution tank at wanguru is complete.
She said two more tanks will be built in different area to boost supply.
She said amid efforts to create more employment opportunities for the youth, a rice husk factory will be set up to convert rice husks to MDF boards.
The governor said the factory will maximise profits for rice farmers.
"We want to end the culture of handouts among our youth by initiating sustainable economic activities," She said.
“This region produces tomatoes in large scale and thus to add value to the products, my administration is committed to ensure a tomato cunning factory is set up at Sagana,” she added.
This she said will go a long way in enhancing markets for the crop.


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Some weeks after hearing Kode9‘s latest cut on Benji B’s radio show, the release from the Hyperdub founder is only a couple of days away. Beside the title track which you can stream in full above, the 12-inch is backed up by another track called Kan on the flipside. You can pick this up at your favourite record store starting April 29, or you can order your copy online at Juno or Boomkat. The digital release should be available on the Hyperdub store by then.
With three gigs all over Asia taking place this week, Hyperdub boss Kode9 put together a mix to promote his DJ-sets. If you’re in Shanghai (September 21st at Shelter), Manila (24th at B-Side) or Hong Kong (25th at Backstage), make sure not to miss the man!
01. Morgan Zarate – Hookid
02. Addison Groove – Nautilus
03. Joe – Claptrap
04. Wiley – Eskimo (Devil mix)
05. Terror Danjah – SOS
06. Endgames – Ecstasy (Jam City rmx)
07. DVA – Step 2 Funk
08. Funkystepz – Fuller
09. Redlight – What U Talkin About (Roska rmx)
10. Ossie – Set the Tone
11. DVA feat. Fatima – Just Vybe (Soulpower mix)
12. LV feat. Omkalumkoolkat – Boomslang
13. Lone – Pineapple Crush
14. Terror Danjah – I’m Feelin U
15. Mala – Don’t Let Me Go
16. Riko – Woo Freestyle
17. Terror Danjah – Minimal Dub
18. D Double E – Street Fighter
Unfortunately, the download expired already. I’ll post a link if I see it popping up somewhere, you can do the same by posting a comment.
Whenever there’s a new DJ-Kicks coming out, there are up to three options to choose from: the actual mixed CD, a 12-inch with an exclusive track from that mix, and an unmixed LP. I think it started with the DJ-Kicks from Hot Chip, that !K7 introduced a free download.
As mentioned yesterday, the latest in the series comes from Hyperdub founder Kode9 and you can now download the dub version of his exclusive track.
June 22nd is the day, you should be able to get your hands on the Kode9 DJ-Kicks.
Still a couple of weeks to go before Kode9’s DJ-Kicks will be in stores, but the Hyperdub founder just finished an oldskool jungle mixtape for FACT Magazine (I wonder how the folks at !K7 will like that.)
FACT Mix #156 (download)
01. Soundman & Don Lloyde with Elizabeth Troy – Greater Love
02. Lemon D – Manhatten Melody
03. Dope Style – You Must Think First
04. Nut Nut – Special Dedication
05. Undercover Agent – Oh Gosh
06. DJ SS – MA2 remix
07. 12-10 Series Mk 1 – All that Jazz
08. L Double featuring Bassman – Da Base too Dark
09. Urban Jungle – Back in the Daze
10. Sacred – Kall the Kops
11. Fusion Forum – Vintage Keys
12. Maldini – Def Roll
13. Bad Influence feat. DJ Rush Puppie – Time & Time
For the first time in ages I feel good going back to that period, 2010 seems to be the official year to do so.
The aforementioned DJ-Kicks will be out on June 22nd and the release will be accompanied by a club-tour around the world – check Kode9’s MySpace for details!
In the brandnew episode of XLR8R TV, Hyperdub founder Kode9 speaks about the different streams of dubstep, his time as university professor, upcoming releases on the label and other things. Quite entertaining!


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Dark Side of the Cocoon by Sivion Sivion and Illect
Raging Moses released a new track, “Feeling Like A G”.
James Gardin releases a new single today via Illect Recordings
J. Rhodan (Illect Recordings) has been a prolific producer over
New instrumental hip-hop from UK based producer Imperial. “For me,
Creativity comes in waves. Now a days things are created


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WASHINGTON — U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Tina Smith (D-MN), along with Representative Pete Stauber (R-MN-08), announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has awarded the Duluth Seaway Port Authority $10,500,000 to fund a rail-served warehouse and rehabilitate the wharf’s walls.
“Critical investments in our infrastructure serve as a down payment on the long-term economic well-being of our state and country,” Klobuchar said. “The Port of Duluth supports industries from agriculture to manufacturing—it’s the largest and busiest port on the Great Lakes serving nearly 900 vessels and an average of 35 million short tons of cargo per year. This investment will help support future economic growth in the region.”
“This port is vital to the success of our nation’s economy, and to the state of Minnesota. The Duluth Seaway Port Authority receiving this important investment signals that the federal government understands that, and I will always advocate to support this critical waterway,” Smith said.
“The Port of Duluth is integral to transporting the food, materials, and other vital goods from northern Minnesota to other parts of the world. By investing in this port, we are ensuring reliable operations for years to come, and continued economic prosperity by extension. During my time as a St. Louis County Commissioner, I was appointed to serve on the board of the Port Authority, so I know the economic importance of a viable port and am proud to have helped secure this grant in my current role as Congressman. I thank Secretary Chao for listening and taking action to help Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District,” Stauber said.


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The recent surge in silicon price has driven the stocks of related listed companies to skyrocket, but in sharp contrast with the downstream of the industrial chain, under the sudden increase in raw material costs, some companies have been overwhelmed and broke their contracts.
Today silicon price, the silicone sector continued to rise in the morning, and Tianci Materials’ daily limit, Hesheng Silicon, Jiangsu Cathay Pacific, Sanyou Chemical and other stocks were the top gainers. Since August, the silicone sector has continued to strengthen.
In terms of individual stocks, Tianci Materials, Hesheng Silicon, Share prices of Jiangsu Cathay Pacific, Dongyue Silicon Materials, etc. hit a record high today. Recently, domestic DMC supply tensions have intensified, and prices have risen again. Since August, the spot price of organic silicon has risen sharply. As of today, the average daily price of SMM spot DMC is 33,750 yuan/ton, which is an increase of 2,650 yuan/ton or 8.5% from the previous August 13th of 31,100 yuan/ton. (1 USD = 6.48 Yuan)
At the same time, the surge in silicon prices has caused chaos in the market. According to SMM research, the surge in prices has caused frequent breaches of contracts in the domestic and foreign markets of silicon plants and traders. Some silicon plants have continuously delayed the delivery of low-cost orders.
Another part of the silicon factory simply broke the contract directly, downstream customers could not get the goods, and only needed high prices to find other sources of goods. In addition to the breach of contract due to non-delivery by the silicon plant, the serious upside-down of profit after receiving the order and replenishing the goods is also a major reason for the breach of contract.
SMM recently pointed out in the article “Silicon metal has jumped and stabilized at a new 20,000 new mark, with strong supply constraints and strong silicon price rises.” Silicon supply is particularly tight. In the first echelon of price increases, the price of metallurgical metal silicon is driven to rise, and the overall market performance is tight. From the demand side, silicon prices of 441# and 3303# have been flat or surpassed that of aluminum this week. In the future, more specifications of silicon metal will be upside down with aluminum prices.
The cost of aluminum alloy enterprises has risen sharply, and downstream consumption is sluggish. , Some aluminum alloy enterprises temporarily postpone their purchases. In particular, the primary aluminum alloy plant has suffered a loss in processing fees this week and has begun to reduce production. It plans to only guarantee the supply of long-term customers and abandon bulk customers in the near future. Silicone and polysilicon companies mostly maintain normal purchases.
In terms of transactions in the silicon price spot market, according to SMM research, the average daily price of SMM Tongyang 553# Silicon (East China) today is 21,100 yuan/ton, an increase of 7,150 yuan/ton compared to 13,950 yuan/ton on July 20. 51.3%. In the spot market, high-grade metal silicon led the rise, driving the overall market to continue to rise. There were sporadic high-priced orders in the market, and other silicon factories followed to increase their quotations.
The rapid increase in price is the characteristic of this price increase, and the market has fluctuated. Fast also widened the actual trading range. Silicon factories have acceptable orders, basically no spot available, let alone overstocked inventory. Therefore, even if there are no new orders, it will not affect silicon factories to raise their quotations. The price increase mentality is relatively firm, and downstream and traders’ inquiries are more active. Wait and see The market is mostly.
In the recently issued “Barometer of Completion of Energy Consumption Dual Control Targets in Various Regions in the First Half of 2021”, the provinces whose energy intensity did not drop but increased in the first half of the year included Xinjiang and Yunnan, two major silicon metal supply provinces. In the second half of the year, provinces may implement more stringent energy consumption dual control policies, and the form of power supply is not optimistic.
The start of silicon plants in the second half of the year may be challenged. Regarding the new supply in the second half of the year, because the existing profits of the silicon plant are rare, some of the silicon plants that have been sealed for a long time intend to resume production. According to SMM’s understanding, if all production resumes as planned, it is expected to add new supply in the second half of the year. The amount is around 20,000 tons, which has limited impact on the overall silicon metal supply market.
Regarding future expectations (silicon price), SMM believes that at the beginning of the second half of the year, due to supply problems of raw material silicon coal and other supply problems, the yield of chemical grade metal silicon has plummeted, and the situation of superimposed silicon plants frequently occurs, resulting in tight supply of some grades, especially 421# silicon, and more than half of the wet period. Silicon metal downstream companies have not yet established safety stocks, and the national energy consumption dual control policy is still not optimistic about power supply in the second half of the year.
This directly affects the start-up of silicon metal plants. Except for a small number of conditional zombie production capacity plans to resume production in the second half of the year, existing metals The operating rate of silicon plants cannot continue to increase. In addition to the short-term correction risk, the silicon metal market is expected to maintain an upward trend in the second half of the year, constantly refreshing new historical high prices.


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Apple Confirms September 9 Event – Let’s Rock
According to ars technica, Apple will indeed be hosting a special event on September 9, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, just down a bit from the Moscone Center. The event will be held Tuesday morning at 10 am Pacific Time, and by all indications will definitely be about iPods. Will there also be new MacBook Pros as many have hoped for and rumored? Time will tell.
What do you think we’ll see next week at the Let’s Rock event?


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The software being the company’s very first true mobile release delivers the streamlined core OS and mobile user interface that could make way for full device convergence.
“This is a milestone in Ubuntu’s history; the exact same Ubuntu OS runs on ARM phones and modern HP Moonshot ARM servers, and provides exactly the same capability as x86 platforms,” said Rick Spencer, leader, Ubuntu consumer-facing engineering.
Canonical still wants to bring their range of smartphones into the market by 2014 and are working to meet the deadline, although they their attempt to manufacture the phones through crowdfunding had failed to meet the minimal amount.
“Thanks to our passionate community of early adopters and designers we’ve built a unique experience for end-users and for developers: one UI framework that scales across all the personal computing form factors” said Mark Shuttleworth, Ubuntu and Canonical founder.
The smartphone manufacturing industry seems to be a very lucrative business that many wan to venture in now that most people have one and will continue purchasing the latest and the most advanced. It will come a time that everyone in the world, even in the remotest place, people will be having smartphone based on the rate at which new smart phones are being manufactured. Besides that, the big question is will Canonical penetrate the smartphone market? Panasonic gave up the venture due to very high competition will Ubuntu manage this?


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A South Korean company has developed a technology that can be used to make red LEDs by developing gallium nitride (GaN) on a sapphire wafer substrate. It will be interesting to see whether the development can be a steppingstone for improvement in reliability and durability of red LED.
Soft-EPi announced on Monday that it has succeeded in making red LEDs using GaN. The company explained that it used a same method for making blue and green LEDs where GaN is developed on a sapphire substrate.
According to the company, most of red LEDs are currently made through aluminum gallium indium phosphide (AlGaInP) or a fluorescent substance. However, red LEDs based on AlGaInP are very expensive and tend to lose their effectiveness as they become smaller.
On the other hand, red LEDs based on GaN are relatively cost effective and have excellent mechanical strength and highly reliable. However, there has yet to be any company that has successfully developed red LED based on GaN until Soft-EPi. Although there were cases when red LEDs were developed through special techniques such as ‘nano-rod’, none of the developments came close to mass-production.
“GaN-based red LED requires advanced techniques such as injecting indium into active layer and increased current density causing short wavelength.” said a representative from Soft-EPi.
The company emphasized that its technique overcomes many existing limitations.
“Our technology has been developed through stress control technique and highly-concentrated indium injection technology.” said CEO Hwang Seong-min of Soft-EPi. “Our technology also allows MOCVD (metal organic chemical vapor deposition) production lines that are used for blue and green LEDs to be used for red LEDs as well.”
It will be interesting to see whether the company’s technology can also be utilized for microLEDs as well. microLED is an ultra-small LED that is smaller than 100 micrometers. Red LEDs lose their performance as they become smaller. Soft-EPi’s goal is to develop red LEDs that can be utilized for next-generation displays. It plans to cooperate with domestic and foreign companies and institutions and commercialize GaN-based red LEDs.
Staff Reporter Yun, Geonil | firstname.lastname@example.org


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World Fashion Channel Selects blinkx
SAN FRANCISCO - World Fashion Channel, a Web site dedicated to style, which features recent shows from famous designers, the latest collections, and all of the top fashion news, selected blinkx, a search engine. blinkx will index hundreds of hours of the World Fashion Channel's premiere content and make it searchable at www.blinkx.com.
"We're thrilled to be partnering with blinkx to allow users greater access to our content," said Olga Bogdanova, marketing director, World Fashion Channel. "The World Fashion Channel is the first site to deliver all the hottest news in the fashion world -- it's a glossy video magazine about fashion, style and stars' lives -- and we wanted to be sure that the content is easy to find and view. blinkx's technology is ideal for our needs because it was built to search rich media."
blinkx enables search for new forms of online content such as video. blinkx uses speech recognition technology to deliver results.


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Ontario, CA, February 01, 2018 --(PR.com
)-- Spicy Lingerie has announced that the most anticipated, annual Valentine's Day sale is now live on its website. The online lingerie retailer has product discounts up to 50 percent off site wide, however, these Valentine's Day price reductions will only last until Thursday, February 15. Customers can shop the sale at http://www.spicylingerie.com/valentinesday.html
Spicy Lingerie is anticipating this sale to attract more than its usual customer since historically, it has proved to be a favorite time to shop for lingerie, and is prepared to respond to the demand.
"We are so excited and have been hard at work to prepare for this huge Valentine's Day sale this year," says Jaclinne Cheng, Spicy Lingerie's director of sales and marketing. "We have taken extra measures to stock up on the hottest lingerie available in every size, style and theme our customers could possibly want. We're hoping our customers find exactly what they are looking for, at a price that keeps them coming back and may even encourage them to buy something they normally wouldn't try."
With this sale, Spicy Lingerie is aiming to ensure that their loyal customer base has a great selection to choose from for the most loved day of the year. Additionally, it has invested in carrying a variety of styles to entice a larger audience for Valentine's Day. Spicy Lingerie has expanded its exclusive line of lingerie and dresses to include more than 2,000 styles that are not only exclusive designs which cannot be found at any other retailer, but the volume is far greater than any other lingerie specialty store.
Customers don't have to worry about remembering or searching for a promo code to take advantage of this sale. Regular-priced items have been reduced by up to 50 percent from the original price throughout the entire online store and the savings will be applied automatically at checkout.
Spicy Lingerie intentionally works with several top designers in order to offer its customers the most unique designs and a wide variety to choose from. Whatever the customer preference, they will likely find a markdown on the Spicy Lingerie website during this Valentine's Day sale.
Spicy Lingerie offers classic lingerie, costumes and more, all in line with the latest trends. For more on Spicy Lingerie and to take advantage of the limited-time Valentine's Day sale discounts, visit http://www.spicylingerie.com.
About Spicy Lingerie: As an established online retailer of lingerie, costumes, swimwear, and clothing, Spicy Lingerie is dedicated to offering top quality products at the lowest prices on the web. Customers can always expect excellent customer service and fast shipping on all orders. Not only do we have an extensive selection of lingerie not found anywhere else, we are committed to customers being satisfied and happy with their online shopping experience. Our friendly customer service experts are always available for assistance by phone, live chat, or email. At Spicy Lingerie, we feature the hottest styles of lingerie for every size and body type. With over 15,000 different styles of lingerie, it’s your one stop shop for seduction. For more information please visit http://www.spicylingerie.com


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6 Flips | 1 Magazine | 1 Like | 7 Following | @RamseyQuartey | Keep up with Ramsey Quartey on Flipboard, a place to see the stories, photos, and updates that matter to you. Flipboard creates a personalized magazine full of everything, from world news to life’s great moments. Download Flipboard for free and search for “Ramsey Quartey”
Among luxury fashion brands, Burberry is the undisputed leader in embracing digital. While its competitors are still tip-toeing in, Burberry dove head first back in 2009, dedicating marketing dollars to social media and launching the “Art of the Trench” minisite, which invites the public to submit …
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Conservative challenger Andrzej Duda has won Poland's presidential election and ousted the incumbent in a runoff vote, …Europe
USA Today's Matt Krantz takes a look at previous Memorial Day weeks and says stocks typically fare very well this week.
"Our negotiators are working even as we speak, working through issues. We hope to conclude it soon. We are very much in the end-game," he told reporters.<p>Asked about a timetable, Froman said: "We agreed to conclude (the TPP talks) the moment that we have an agreement on an ambitious, comprehensive …Economy


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Is Your Laundry Detergent Illegal? It May Be In New York
People have found over the years that laundry detergent can be deadly, if ingested. It's not really a surprise. It seems more of a shock that some are ignorant enough to eat laundry products in the first place, but we live in a strange world. Even if we are not ingesting the products, most of us don't want to be washing our clothes with a possible cancer causing ingredient, either. That's why New York State's Department of Environmental Conservation put a cap on a chemical compound found in some popular laundry detergents. Is yours one of them?
According to Scott R. Axelrod of syracuse.com, on January 1st, New York State put a limit on the potentially cancer-causing concentration of the compound called 1,4-Dioxane in laundry detergent. The article stated that 1,4-Dioxane is a bi-product created during the manufacturing of cleaners and chemicals. According to syracuse.com, laundry detergents tend to have the highest concentrations of 1,4-Dioxane due to the way that they’re manufactured.
The new law cuts the maximum allowable concentration of the compound in half. DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said in a New York State press release, that the "DEC prioritizes the health and well-being of New Yorkers and our environment, and the implementation of new laws for chemicals in everyday household products is part of our state’s ongoing commitment to protect communities.” Is your detergent one of the outlaw brands?
Well, "Tide Original", "Arm & Hammer, Clean Burst", "Arm & Hammer Sensitive Skin Free & Clear" and "Gain Original + Aroma Boost" were some of the popular brands listed with now-illegal concentrations of 1,4-Dioxane. The new law allows laundry detergent manufacturers to apply for a one-year waiver.


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A recent Motor Transport roundtable debate sponsored by Fraikin looked at what will a zero-emissions truck look like as we start off down the ‘Road to zero’. Steve Hobson, editor, MT: Good morning and welcome to this roundtable on low emissions vehicles. To my mind there are four distinct areas: Carbon emissions and local emissions such as NOx and particulates; and then there is urban transport and long distance haulage. A lot of people have accepted Euro-6 diesel is going to […]
Tesla boss Elon Musk said it would not be introducing any new vehicle models this year due to an ongoing issue over parts.
Howard Tenens has taken delivery of six new Lawrence David longer semi-trailers (LST) in an effort to reduce CO2 emissions from its trunking movements.
DAF Trucks has revealed it is in the final phase in the development of an “entirely new generation of distribution trucks” that will share many of the features of the New Generation XF, XG and XG⁺ ranges launched in 2021.


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Who: IKEA Canada with Rethink, Scouts Honour for production, Saints Editorial, alter ego, The Vanity and Grayson Music Group. Media by Carat.
What: “Scrap du Soleil,” a new spot that continues the retailer’s communications strategy around sustainability, which has already produced work including “Lamp 2,” and “Stuff Monster,” as well as the more recent “One Little Thing.”
When & Where: The campaign broke today across TV, out-of-home and social, and runs through the end of November.
Why: It’s continuing to reinforce IKEA’s efforts around sustainability, part of its commitment to becoming a circular business by 2030. The kitchen might be at the heart of many houses, but IKEA says it’s also the most wasteful room—not just because of food waste, but also because people are generally not conscious about how they use water and electricity.
“We believe it’s critical to keep sustainability at the top of the agenda,” says IKEA’s head of marketing, Johanna Andrén. “As one of Canada’s largest home furnishing retailers… we believe we have a responsibility, both in [the products] we produce and inspiring people to make small little changes.”
How: Andrén calls the spot a mix between a brand and an activation spot, with a focus on one of IKEA’s core pillars: the kitchen. Set to a piece of music from the 1875 opera Carmen, the dialogue-free spot focuses on a man and woman preparing dinner from leftovers (stored in IKEA containers, of course) while engaged in a sensuous and increasingly elaborate dance that at one point sees them take to the air with some Matrix-worthy wire work.
While the spot features several IKEA products, including energy-efficient appliances and water-saving taps, it specifically calls out its “Kungsbacka” cabinets, which are made from recycled wood and covered with a plastic foil made from recycled PET bottles.
Why dancing? According to IKEA, the ad is meant to show how cooking sustainably doesn’t have to be complicated. “[I]t can be beautifully, gracefully simple.”
IKEA is always focused on making the mundane daily tasks of life “:a little more efficient, a little more beautiful, and a lot less wasteful,” said Joel Holtby, creative director and partner at Rethink. “What better way to visualize that feeling than with a dance where every movement is part of a more graceful, purposeful whole?”
Andren says the music was “crucial” to the spot, with IKEA testing several soundtracks before arriving at the final version. “We wanted to find the friction between classical music and modern dance, and when we tried it out, Carmen fit so perfectly with the feeling we wanted to create,” she says.
Choreography for the spot was done by Montreal’s Lydia Bouchard, who comes from the world of classical dance and has spent the past 10 years as artistic director with Cirque du Soleil and served as a judge on the TVA show Revolution since 2018.
And one other little thing: The new work comes on the heels of “One Little Thing,” which debuted just last week. Presented as a single shot, the spot—developed by Rethink, but shot in Sweden by Adam Berg—is also tied to IKEA’s sustainability efforts, showing people engaging in simple but effective acts that contribute to the environment, such as using LED lights bulbs or air-drying laundry (see it below).
“I’m not super afraid of cannibalization because they are directed towards different target groups,” says Andrén of having two different spots in market simultaneously. “One Little Thing” is more brand-focused, she says, “Scrap du Soleil” is specifically focusing on its kitchen products.
A truly global approach: Rather than developing original creative for each of the 28 markets in which it operates, IKEA has developed seven marketing clusters. While the kitchen work is currently exclusive to Canada, the “One Little Thing” campaign is appearing in Australia, Serbia, Romania and Croatia.


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Dish launches "industry first" 4K TV set-top box
One of the biggest reasons many users are reluctant to spend the extra money to pick up a 4K television is a lack of content. DISH is aiming to change that with the launch of its 4K Joey set-top box, which will bring 4K cable to the home, along with some other interesting features.
A box that's capable of receiving a signal in 4K is nice, but the content needs to be there. For that, Dish claims that it will deliver 4K content from "several providers," with announcements of exactly which providers are on board coming closer to launch of the device itself, which will be in the second quarter of 2015.
Outside of the actual 4K content, another interesting aspect of the 4K Joey is the way its picture-in-picture works. Because of the extra resolution, the device will be able display two channels side-by-side, with each in HD. For sports fans, this could be a huge selling point, as it prevents the need to switch back and forth between two big games happening at the same time.
Another important fact for current DISH users is that the new box supports the Hopper, the company's popular full home DVR system. It also supports Hopper apps like Netflix and Vevo. The box will work with any HDMI 2.0/HDCP 2.2-compliant TV, which should cover the 4K models on the market.
It's also that worth noting that DirecTV began offering 4K content to subscribers late last year, but this requires the user to own a 4K TV with RVU technology built in, with compatibility currently limited to Smart 4K models from Samsung.
While DISH did announce the Q2 release window for its new 4K set-top box, it did not announce pricing information. Presumably, it would take the form of a monthly fee, which is generally how most television providers offer their equipment, but it will be interesting to see how it compares to a standard HD box.
Of course, the main limiting factor will still be how much 4K content there is watch. The enhanced PiP is a cool feature, but will probably not be enough to make this a must-have device on its own.
Update (Jan. 13, 2015): Article text was edited to include a mention DirecTV's 4K offering.


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It's the dirty secret behind the world's fashion addiction. Many of the clothes we donate to charity end up dumped in landfill, creating an environmental catastrophe on the other side of the world.
On the banks of the Korle Lagoon, in the Ghanaian capital of Accra, an escarpment towers at the water's edge, cattle grazing on its summit.
This ragged cliff, some 20 metres high, is formed not of earth or stone, but of landfill. Most of it — an estimated 60 per cent — is unwanted clothing.
These were garments shipped to Ghana mostly for resale and reuse, many sourced from clothing bins and charity collections.
But a huge proportion were never worn again.
Some 15 million used garments pour into Accra every week from the UK, Europe, North America and Australia, flooding the city's sprawling clothing market.
An estimated 40 per cent are of such poor quality they are deemed worthless on arrival and end up dumped in landfill.
As global clothing consumption skyrockets, fed by ruthless "fast fashion" brands, it's creating an environmental catastrophe.
The clothes arrive long before dawn, when the city has yet to stir. Headlights ablaze, semitrailers squeeze into ever-narrower alleys, disgorging hundreds of bales wrapped in bright orange plastic. Men and women, some bearing clipboards, inspect the goods and dispatch them.
Some of the clothes will cross Ghana, others will go as far as Burkina Faso or Côte d'Ivoire. But most will be dispersed within West Africa's biggest second-hand clothing exchange — Accra's Kantamanto markets, a bustling labyrinth of 5,000 retailers and their timber stalls, many of them overflowing with the West's unwanted fashion.
Competition for customers is fierce. Clothes are spruiked by song and are quickly discounted by day's end. Entrepreneurs seize high-end pieces with minor defects that can be mended and dyed and put back on sale for a premium.
But transporting the 55kg bales around the teeming bazaar, with its narrow passageways and thousands of customers, is impossible by mechanical means. So the job falls to Accra's ranks of head porters, or kayayei, "the women who carry the burden".
Since she was 12 years old, Aisha Iddrisu has been one such woman. With no work in her remote northern village, Iddrisu has travelled back and forth to Accra for work, now with her 18-month-old son Sheriff. She tries to earn enough money to send some back to the rest of her family, including her nine-year-old daughter.
"I didn't have much choice," she told Foreign Correspondent, "because I didn't know how else I can take care of my children if I don't come. I am not happy with this situation, but I need the money."
The market employs thousands of people, including Aisha Iddrisu, who comes here every day from her home in central Accra's sprawling slum, Old Fadama.
Foreign Correspondent: Andrew Greaves
The work is far from lucrative — Iddrisu earns about $4.50 a day. It's also notoriously hazardous; everyone seems to know a woman who has suffered a grave injury.
"Some of them get severely injured and they are sent back to the north because they can't do the job again," Iddrisu said. "When they get there, they're unable to do any work because of the injuries."
Still, Iddrisu credits the second-hand clothing industry with helping her find employment. And there are many who would agree. The local used-clothing dealers' association claims the industry has created 2.5 million jobs — a figure as plausible as it is impossible to verify.
For the past few decades, the resale of Western cast-offs has boomed here. They are so cheap, local textile makers can't compete.
Foreign Correspondent: Andrew Greaves
Wander around Accra and every spare inch of pavement seems occupied by a hawker, a new batch of old clothing folded and hung among their wares. They call them "obroni wawu" — dead white man's clothes.
The trade in second-hand clothing has steadily grown in Accra, just as it has around the world. Every year as many as 4 million tonnes of used textiles are shipped across the planet in a trade estimated to be worth $4.6 billion.
In Accra, where some 60 containers of used clothes arrive every week, the industry can be highly profitable. But it carries an unusual business risk. Importers can spend as much as $95,000 on a container of clothes and have no idea what they're buying.
It's only once a bale has been opened that the quality of the clothing is discovered. If it's in good condition, profits can tally quickly to as much as $14,000. But if the clothes are torn or stained, or long out of fashion, their importer may as well have put a torch to their money.Loading...
In the swarming Kantamanto Market, young traders, even friends, can briefly become fierce competitors when a prize new bale arrives.
There's a lot at stake — if they don't grab the best clothes they don't make money.
Emmanuel Ajaab has fought his way to the top of the industry; he's now one of the market's more prominent importers. He stands atop a pyramid of resellers and traders who each find a margin to carve off for themselves.
"I have about 100 to 150 customers who buy from me here," Ajaab said. "And remember, those that buy from me, they are going to sell it and to many other people too."
Ajaab is a firm believer in the power of his industry to create opportunity. It's certainly been true of himself. His business has not only provided jobs for his immediate family but also the capital to invest elsewhere. He now owns a construction business which competes for his time.
In Ghana, they call them "obroni wawu" — dead white man's clothes.
But the clothes business is not what it once was.
"Seventeen years back [when I started] it was good," said Ajaab, "but now what they are bringing to Africa, to Ghana … they are continuing to reduce the quality that was given to us. Now it's very bad."
As I watched, Ajaab opened a bale from Australia and quickly separated out those clothes which might be resold at a decent price, from those which were worth far less. Familiar labels flashed by: Suzanne Grae, Target, Zara, Billabong, Just Jeans.Loading...
Very few landed on his high-quality pile. Of the 180 light summer jackets inside, 85 pieces were unsaleable: collars ringed with sweat, buttons missing, bloodstains on the sleeve. He threw his hands in the air.
"It's an insult," he said. "Assume you use your money to buy this bale. How are you going to survive?"
The bale had cost him $90. In the end, he sold $20 worth of clothes. The rest were put out with the rubbish. And it's happening more frequently. "We don't know what is going on," he said. "And if we complain to them … to our suppliers, they say that what they get is what they are giving."
Ajaab's suppliers, like all of Kantamanto's importers, are middlemen: recyclers and rag traders, who source castoffs from high street charity shops and the private operators of clothing bins. There's little incentive for them to filter out unwearable items. Individuals who include spoiled garments in their charity shop donation are behaving woefully, he said.
"In Europe, the UK and Australia, America, they think [that in] Africa here, sorry to say, we are not like human beings. Even if somebody knocked [on] your door [to beg], you cannot just … pick something from your dustbin. In this case … they're doing this to us."
The growing number of poor-quality clothes arriving at Kantamanto Market is a major driver of Ghana's waste crisis. Another is the sheer volume of clothing being manufactured around the world.
Since 2000, global production of clothing has doubled.
We're buying 60 per cent more clothes now than we did 15 years ago.
But we're only keeping them for half as long.
A major survey in the UK six years ago found one in three young women considered garments "old" if they had been worn just twice.
An estimated 85 per cent of all textiles go to the dump every year, according to the World Economic Forum, enough to fill Sydney Harbour annually.
Globally, that's the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles being burned or going into landfill every second.
These problems have only accelerated with the advent of so-called "fast fashion" — cheap, low-quality clothes produced quickly to respond to changing trends. Where brands once had two fashion seasons a year, many now produce 52 micro-seasons, flooding the market with new styles.
H&M, Zara and Boohoo are among those brands rolling out new fashion lines within days. Boohoo, for example, has more than 36,000 products available at any one time. Three years ago, the company was castigated in the British Parliament for selling five-pound items of such low quality that charity shops were unwilling to resell them.
With factories incentivised to maintain around-the-clock operations, the world's major fashion houses factor into their budgets huge waste margins. In 2018, Burberry attracted a storm of criticism when it revealed it had destroyed $50 million of stock. The same year, H&M reported an unsold global inventory worth more than $5 billion.
Liz Ricketts, an American fashion waste campaigner, has documented Ghana's textile waste disaster for a decade. Her organisation, the OR Foundation, blames major fashion houses for the waste crisis.
Where do our donated clothes go?
Australians donate 310,000 tonnes of clothing to charities every year. Many of these clothes are sold to raise $527 million for the funding of social welfare programs. But one-third of these clothes can't be sold in local op shops. Instead, they are shipped overseas. Charities sell them to Australian exporters for around 50 cents a kilogram. They're then exported to Malaysia, Pakistan and the UAE for sorting into bales based on their market segment, for example "men's shirts" or "women's jackets". Those bales are then sold to importers in Eastern Europe, the Pacific and Africa. Once these garments arrive in those markets, many end up in landfill.
"Waste is a part of the business model of fashion," she said. "A lot of brands overproduce by up to 40 per cent."
Equally, she believes consumers are "somewhat complicit". "We have decided that convenience is a human right and we think that when we go shopping we should always be able to find exactly what we want," she said. "We should find it in our size and the colour that we want. That also contributes to this overproduction."
Australia, with clothing retail sales in 2020 of about $22 billion, may not have the economic scale of the US or the UK, where combined the industry turned over $468 billion in the same period. But on a per capita basis, Australia is the highest consumer of textiles anywhere in the world outside of the US.
When these clothes fall out of favour with their owners, the vast majority of them end up in landfill. Only 7 per cent of clothes sold in Australia are classified as recycled. But it's a dubious classification — watching the Kantamanto Market clean-up at days' end gives its lie.
As night falls in Kantamanto Market, alleys full of unsaleable clothing are swept up into giant hessian sacks, ready for collection. Every dawn, garbagemen haul them into a derelict truck that groans under the weight, threatening to spill its awful load. About 6 million garments leave Kantamanto Market every week as waste.
"Close to 40 per cent of whatever shipments that are coming on a daily basis ends up to be complete chaff of no value," said Accra's waste manager, Solomon Noi. "We have become the dumping ground for textile waste that is produced from Europe, from the Americas and [elsewhere]."
"Waste is a part of the business model of fashion. A lot of brands overproduce by up to 40 per cent."
Ghana's capital has the capacity to process 2,000 metric tonnes of waste per day. But in part because of the blooming textile problem, the city produces almost double that volume every 24 hours.
The overflow is almost everywhere you look. Much of it is burned, sometimes in small pyres on street corners, sometimes in huge bonfires of cotton and plastic, and whatever else besides, which blacken the skies for days at a time.
One such fire burned for 11 months, though it was not deliberately lit. The Kpone landfill was a $9.5 million World Bank-funded project, which was carefully designed to solve Accra's mounting waste crisis. It opened in 2013, with the capacity to operate for 15 years.
It filled within five, then caught alight.Loading...
"We were all afraid. The fire started in the night … things are exploding," said Jerry Johnson Doe, a waste picker who once worked retrieving recyclables from the Kpone landfill.
"Everybody around is running because we understand how the place is designed, we are afraid it can explode."
As the textiles could not be properly compacted, unbeknownst to all, they had trapped a rising bubble of methane.
"Less than two, three hours' time, you see the fire has escalated to all corners of the landfill."
The site is now closed and capped. But there has been no let-up in demand.
Informal dumps now dot the city, including the towering Korle Lagoon tip. It rises on the edge of the city's Old Fadama slums, where some 100,000 people live and work and raise their children.
Most are migrants from Ghana's north, displaced by conflict and unemployment. They've had little choice but to bow to the dump site at their door, even as it steadily grows.
Synthetic textiles can take hundreds of years to decompose. This mountain of waste may cast its fetid shadow over their neighbourhood for generations.
But only a portion of the 160 tonnes of daily textile waste ends up in landfill. During the monsoon season, tropical storms wash an untold volume of clothing into the city's medieval network of open sewers. The fabrics choke the city's drainage system and promote flooding. Mosquitos breed, diseases prosper.
The textiles that wash back onto the beach become so tangled in the sand they are almost impossible to dig out.
Foreign Correspondent: Andrew Greaves
"We have become the dumping ground for textile waste that is produced from Europe, from the Americas and elsewhere."
The textiles which do make it all the way out to sea wreak yet more damage. Lighter materials float, become entangled with floes of plastic waste and wash back onshore. But heavier materials sink to the ocean floor, only to rise again and roil about in ocean currents, forming long arms of writhing fabric.
"We call them tentacles," Ricketts said. "When you see them wash up from the sea they're very long, you know they can be eight feet to 30 feet (2.4m to 9.1m), and sometimes three feet wide," she said. "When we've done clean-ups here, we've been digging 15 feet and still find tangles of clothing."
Behind Accra's waste crisis lies a startling piece of arithmetic. Thirty million people live in Ghana and yet 30 million garments arrive every fortnight. The man who is trying to do what he can to rescue Accra from its waste catastrophe, Solomon Noi, has a simple message to the second-hand clothes industry — and to individual donors.
"I'm not sure they've ever been conscious to ask, where is the final destination of that thing they are discarding," he said. "But if they come here, like you've come, and you see the practicality for yourself, then they will know that, no, we better take care of these things within our country and not ship that problem … to other people.
- Story: Linton Besser
- Photography and cinematography: Andrew Greaves
- Graphic design: Emma Machan
- Digital production: Matt Henry
Drone footage of the burning Kpone landfill site courtesy of the OR Foundation.


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Despite decade at Detroit auto show, Chinese cars still years from U.S.
The GAC GS4, from China, is unveiled during the North American International Auto Show, Monday, Jan. 12, 2015 in Detroit. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio
DETROIT -- Another Chinese automaker is showing vehicles this year at the auto show in Detroit, raising the perennial question about when these companies might sell in the United States.
The answer: Years from now, according to carmakers and industry observers alike.
Chinese manufacturers have announced plans over the past decade to export to the U.S. only to postpone them when faced with passing U.S. safety and emissions tests and building a dealer network. They also must overcome big hurdles in convincing U.S. car buyers that Chinese cars have the quality they demand. Still, Chinese companies remain interested in eventually selling in the prestigious -- and potentially profitable -- market.
"The fact that they're showing in Detroit doesn't really signify that they're coming soon," said Michael Robinet, managing director of IHS's automotive group. "They're showcasing that they're in the game, looking to expand beyond the home market."
Any Chinese-made cars sold in the U.S. likely would come in at the bottom segment of the market for different types of vehicles, Robinet said, where they would compete in the already lively market for used cars. Buyers would need to decide whether it's better to buy a used car made by General Motors or Toyota, for example, or a new car from a company that just arrived on American shores.
John Humphrey, senior vice-president of global automotive operations at J.D. Power and Associates, said the quality of Chinese-built vehicles has improved, but they still generally lack the fit-and-finish that U.S. car buyers expect. And consumers' experience with waves of Chinese-made products that they encounter daily at stores would colour their expectations about new cars.
"There's a general perception of goods coming out of China, being fair or unfair, that they are relatively sub-par," Humphrey said.
Chinese companies are in their first decade displaying vehicles at the North American International Auto Show. In 2006, a lone Geely Automobile sedan sitting outside the main exhibit halls marked the first time a Chinese automaker showed a car in Detroit. Last year, the Chinese companies skipped Detroit.
This year, Guangzhou Automobile is showing vehicles including a fuel-efficient small SUV that will be sold in China starting in April and parts of the Middle East, Africa, South America and eastern Europe in late 2015. The company known as GAC said 2017 is a possible year it would like to enter the U.S. market, but there is no concrete timetable.
"Before entering the North America market, we'll have a full understanding of the culture and consumption features of the North America auto market and release according models," Wu Song, GAC Group general manager, said in an email interview.
In 2007, Chrysler and Chery Automobile, China's biggest independent brand, announced plans to produce a Chinese-manufactured small car for export to the U.S. as soon as 2010 under Chrysler's Dodge brand. They ended the venture due to the global financial crisis.
Other companies pegged 2009 as a year where Chinese-made vehicles would be offered for sale in the U.S., but that year passed without any coming on the market.
Elsewhere, Chery and brands including Great Wall Motors export sedans, minivans and SUVs to Russia, Algeria, Chile and other developing markets. Still, Chinese automakers mostly sell at home, where the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers reports they had 41.2 per cent of the market in 2014. They're being pressured in China by established global automakers, the same companies that dominate the U.S. market.
"They basically compete on price, and in the past several years have started to upgrade their design," said Yale Zhang, managing director of Automotive Foresight, a research firm in Shanghai.
Quality has improved but "it's not there yet to enter mature markets like Western Europe and the U.S.," Zhang said. In the U.S., challenges include setting up distribution in an unfamiliar market in which local laws prohibit direct sales to customers, Zhang said.
While Chinese-built vehicles have faced continued obstacles in the U.S., BYD Auto had success in its plans to put U.S.-built vehicles on the road. BYD, which stands for "Build Your Dreams," is a major battery maker and last year opened a California factory to produce plug-in electric buses.
Robinet said it's more difficult now than ever for automakers to make their first steps into a developed market such as the U.S. It's expensive to ship from China, he noted, and it took decades for South Korean automakers, for example, to fully establish themselves in the U.S.
"It's a massive undertaking and you can't get it wrong," said IHS's Robinet. "You might only have one chance."
Associated Press writer Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this report.


text: The EasyMobile service, slated to launch in the U.K. by December, will sell SIM cards and cheap airtime over the Internet, but rely on customers already owning their own handsets. EasyGroup is teaming up with Danish telecommunications company TDC to operate the service and plans to extend the brand into 12 European countries, although EasyGroup has yet to persuade one of the U.K.'s five network cellphone operators to allow it to use their network. Another obstacle is that rival cell phone marketer Orange has threatened to try to stop EasyMobile from using the orange color that is part of both marketers' branding. EasyMobile will join more than a dozen Easy businesses including cinemas, financial services, rental cars and internet cafes, as well as the original airline brand. Mr. Haji-Ioannou has further plans for Easy cruises, hotels and even a range of male grooming accessories, easy4men. However, not all of Easy ventures are successes. He has sold shares in EasyJet to prop up Easy Internet cafes, and EasyCar is also struggling. Even EasyJet, suffering more competition in the low-cost airline market, issued a profit warning this year.