text:
LISBON (Reuters) - A decade ago, shares in the world's largest cork producer, Corticeira Amorim CORA.LS, didn't look like a great bet.
Its biggest customer, the wine industry, was flirting with cheaper products that threatened cork’s dominance: screw tops and plastic stoppers. Many premium wine-makers had spurned cork, blaming it for occasionally tainting wines with a moldy taste.
That was then. The cork industry has since staged a comeback: Lisbon-listed Amorim’s share price has soared almost six-fold and cork exports from Portugal, the world’s dominant producer, have just regained their peaks of 15 years ago.
“When you go back 12, 15 years, the forecast for cork was anything but optimistic. Where we are today is a completely different territory from what most people thought possible then,” said Carlos de Jesus, Amorim marketing director.
Sales of plastic stoppers shaped like a cork and aluminum screw caps, made by firms such as Australia's Amcor AMC.AX, surged to account for almost half of the U.S. market, the world's largest consumer of wine, in 2009, according to the U.S.-based Cork Quality Council.
Screw tops took over the Australian market, and are now used to seal most bottles produced in South Africa and Chile too.
However, cork has rallied, partly by investing in research to eliminate cork taint - a dank, moldy smell sometimes caused by microscopic fungi found in cork-tree bark - and persuading some wine-makers to ditch aluminum and plastic.
Cork has raised its U.S. market share to around 60 percent, and its share of the global market, which Amorim estimates is worth about $1.3 billion a year, stands closer to 70 percent.
But the battle for market share has only just begun.
China is emerging as a huge new market as its middle class of more than 100 million people develops a taste for wine. Cork and its rivals are engaged in a battle for the hearts and minds of China’s wine lovers - and for now cork seems to be winning.
“It is a tradition. It represents prestige,” said Matthew Gong, Shanghai-based spokesman for major Chinese wine importer ASC Fine Wines.
However, he added, Chinese consumers would become less sensitive to the question of cork or screw cap as the market grew, especially younger people drinking cheaper wines.
“More and more consumers don’t mind as much whether the closure is a cork or a screw cap,” he said. “But for top wines, clearly cork is preferred.”
Cork exports to China jumped 22 percent in 2016, according to cork makers’ association APCOR. As the biggest buyer of Australian wines, China also has the potential power to influence how producers seal their bottles in that predominantly screw-top market.
Amcor did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. However, The Winemakers’ Federation of Australia denied cork makers were making inroads. “It’s definitely not a move in Australia or New Zealand. We are still very much screwcap for its convenience,” said Chief Executive Tony Battaglene.
He said about 90 percent of bottles produced in Australia are sealed via screw top.
LASERS & ROBOTS
In the war with screw tops and plastic, Amorim has recruited robots, lasers and a battery of chromatographic analysis machines which can detect the almost invisible signature of taint - the chemical compound TCA - in a few parts per trillion, or equivalent to one drop in enough water to fill 20 Olympic swimming pools.
Bark is carefully stripped from cork oak trees in Portugal’s central-south Alentejo region. Then at Amorim factories near the northern city of Porto, equipment processes it into slabs that are steam-treated, cut into smaller pieces and fed by robotic arms into machines that punch out stoppers. These are sorted and polished using lasers.
The finest-quality stoppers are still punched by hand before passing through the humming rows of chromatographic analyzers.
Amorim’s NDTech process is among the technologies that sprang from more than 700 million euros ($766 million) invested by the Portuguese industry in new equipment and research, and other companies hope to catch up soon.
The industry has also launched cheaper TCA-free stoppers made from shredded cork for lower-end wine makers. They are made by Amorim and others such as French-Portuguese Lafitte Group.
The R&D drive was a response to the industry’s cork taint crisis, which peaked in the early 2000s when even European makers of premium wines began joining the switch to screw caps.
In 2005, Laroche Wines, owned by AdVini ADVI.PA, sealed all of its Chablis, including high-end Grands crus, with screw caps. But 10 years later, the French winery, which has annual sales of 25 million euros, has switched back. It uses cork for all its Grand cru, Premier cru and most selection wines. At the end of last year, it started sealing its top wines with NDTech.
“After the big cork pollution crisis, the cork industry was on the defensive. The incredible work they did changed things... The cork quality increased drastically in the last 10 years,” said Gregory Viennois, technical director at Laroche. Joao Rui Ferreira, head of APCOR and CEO of cork stoppers maker WFScork, said cork was not aiming to return to its total domination of the late 20th century, when it held 95 percent of the global market. Instead, it was focusing on premium wines in what is now a much larger overall market.
“The trends are very clear. Wine consumption in the world is moving from volume to value...,” Ferreira said.
Influential wine critics are still not convinced. For them, taint remains a serious problem for cork.
APCOR estimates that up to 1.2 percent of wine bottles are still ruined by TCA, but some producers and critics cite anecdotal evidence that the actual proportion is much higher.
Lisa Perotti-Brown, a reviewer for the Robert Parker Wine Advocate website, wrote in April that during a recent tasting of more than 900 wines from California’s Sonoma County she had to discard up to 8 percent of the samples because they were corked. She warned that even at levels below the detection threshold hawked by Amorim, TCA can still damage the wine, muting or otherwise dulling the aromas and flavors.
(In 16th paragraph removes reference to five billion bottles.)
Additional reporting by Adam Jourdan in SHANGHAI and Benjamin Weir in SYDNEY; Editing by Mark Bendeich and David Stamp
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.


text:
Digital Banking Spurs Financial Inclusion in Philippines
Source: Philstar Global
The establishment of digital banks in the country is expected to boost the government’s financial inclusion objectives, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
In a webinar organized by the Management Association of the Philippines, BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said the establishment of a digital banking framework is particularly relevant as billions of people affected by the pandemic are driving a historic and dramatic shift in consumer behavior.
Diokno said digital banks in the country could advance financial inclusion by providing affordable financial services to the mass market and at the same time usher prosperity and alleviate poverty.

domain: news


text:
Energy Conversion Devices Reports Fourth Quarter & Fiscal Year 2010 Financial Results
Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (ECD) announced financial results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended June 30, 2010. Total consolidated revenues for the quarter were $86.2 million, compared to $51.4 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009, a 68% increase, and $72.4 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2010, a 19% increase. Solar product and system sales for the quarter were $81.3 million, compared to $46.0 million in the same quarter last year, a 77% increase, and $65.1 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2010, a 25% increase.
For the fourth quarter, the company reported a loss of $20.4 million or $0.48 per fully diluted share compared to a net loss of $17.6 million or $0.42 per fully diluted share in the year-ago period. This compares to a net loss of $26.8 million or $0.63 per fully diluted share in the third quarter of fiscal 2010, which excluded a non-cash impairment charge of $358.0 million or $8.46 per share.


text:
American automobile manufacturer, Ford Motor Co. finished 2016 with a $10.4 billion pre-tax profit, down slightly from record results in 2015, after posting a fourth-quarter net loss mainly because of accounting changes,
Fourth-quarter pre-tax profit was $2.1 billion, down $500 million due to a North American reduction in inventory and unfavorable conditions in the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific. Its fourth-quarter net loss of $800 million compared with a $1.9 billion profit a year earlier, the company said in a statement.
Ford took a $3 billion fourth-quarter hit because of the way it accounts for pensions and a $200 million charge for canceling its small car plant in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, a move that followed criticism from then President-elect Donald Trump. The automaker said it doesn’t expect any additional charges related to the aborted facility.
The automaker’s full-year net income of $4.6 billion was down $2.8 billion from 2015. For the full-year, Ford posted an automotive operating margin of 6.7 percent. Its total company revenue of $151.8 billion was up $2.2 billion from a year ago.
“This underscores the substantial progress we are making in expanding our business to be an auto and a mobility company,” CEO Mark Fields said in the statement.
Ford did not reveal its revenues from mobility services.The company’s shares fell 3.3 percent to close at $12.37 on Thursday, Automotive News reports.
Ford’s 2016 earnings were driven by a strong performance in North America, where it posted a $9 billion pre-tax profit, down $344 million from last year’s record earnings. It posted a 9.7 percent operating margin in the region, driven by strong pricing for some of its most profitable vehicles, including its F-Series trucks and SUVs.
Ford posted a record $1.2 billion pre-tax profit in Europe, including a record 4.2 percent operating margin. Despite concerns over the U.K.’s recent vote to leave the European Union, continued struggles in Russia, and launches of the Fiesta and EcoSport, the automaker expects to make its third consecutive profit in Europe in 2017, although it projects that the numbers will fall from 2016.


text:
The timing is pretty spot on as it coincides with the launch of the new Formula One season this weekend, and gives you full access to the main game. The news also comes on the back of rumors about F1 2022, which is reportedly set to include supercars and Cross-Play.
F1 2021 was released for the PS5, PS4, PC, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One in July 2021, and you can read our full verdict on the racer here.
EA acquired Codemasters early last year, bringing the likes of F1 and DiRT under its already-packed roster of IPs.
Just a few months after the acquisition was complete however, Frank Sagnier and Rashid Varachia, who served as CEO and CFO of Codemasters, respectively, announced they had departed the company.


text:
Pasco City Council Votes to End Retail Pot Ban
Monday, Pasco became the first city government in the Tri-Cities to left its retail pot ban.
The council vote is 4-3
Three council members, Pete Serrano, David Milne, and Irving Brown voted no, while Mayor Blanche Barajas and council members Joseph Campos and Zahra Roach and Mayor Pro Tem Craig Maloney voted yes.
The vote lifts the commercial ban on retail pot business, allowing such business in six zones, three commercial and three industrial.
According to Pasco's zoning map, there are a number of areas where conceivably one of the four licenses in Pasco could go. The vote would allow potential pot business in Commercial Zones C-1, 2, and 3, and Industrial -1.2 and 3.
The pink, white, and red shaded areas would be potential areas.
However, because of state-mandated buffers near schools, playgrounds, daycare facilities, and other requirements, supporters of retail pot say finding available space to locate has been difficult.
Reports claim the city could get as much as $200,000 annually from the state's tax-revenue 'sharing' plan for retail pot, but the majority of the money goes to the largest metro areas, namely King County. In 2022 the state took in just over $515 million from retail pot sales, Reports indicate the taxes were nearly $1 billion. Of that, $20 million goes back to city governments.
There are roughly 1,005-10 pot stores in WA state, many cities have multiples. Seven counties have 20 or more pot shops, and 8 others have over 10. Since the state money returned to local governments is split up based in part on how much sales a city has, the idea Pasco will get as much as $200K annually is perhaps far-fetched.
A few years ago, the Yakima-Herald Republic reported Yakima got around $124K in revenue back from the state.
25 True Crime Locations: What Do They Look Like Today?


text:
For a deeper dive into the topics and technologies covered on Gigaom, check out the latest in-depth analyses on Gigaom Research. This week we published our 2014 Sector Roadmap on Platform as a Service, an outlook on mobile CXM and more. Read more »
How might Samsung’s Chromebook 2 stand out from the crowd of Chrome OS laptops? A 1920 x 1080 resolution display would help and that’s apparently what the larger 13.3-inch model will have. Read more »
This 12-minute video provides a seemingly legit first look at the new HTC One. Read more »
Microsoft’s Windows Phone personal assistant is sounding much like Siri and Google Now. Cortana is the current name and the intelligent software will be able to scan your email to provide useful, contextual information. Will users accept that or complain about privacy? Read more »
Ask.fm now has 100 million registered users, the Latvia-based social network said on Monday. The service is apparently used in 150 countries and questions posted there – Ask.fm is kind of like Quora, only skewed more towards the teen demographic – now generate a billion answers a month. Bearing in mind that you don’t have to be registered to use it, Ask.fm also said it gets 190 million unique visitors each month. The 4-year-old service has unfortunately been associated with a number of teen suicides (though not always accurately) and the firm also used Monday’s announcement to promote its Safety Centre advice hub, stressing that it has recently improved cyber-bullying reporting mechanisms and boosted its moderator numbers.
Traditionally telcos have turned to do-it-yourself IT solutions for business intelligence and data warehouse projects. However, in this big data era, an operational intelligence platform that delivers faster time to value and market is necessary, leaving the question around whether the operator should build or buy it. Read more »
Apple is said to be hiring engineers from rival companies like HTC to develop more products and speed up launches. Read more »
On Monday, Kickstarter announced that it passed the $1 billion dollar mark in pledges to projects, with a few interesting insights into how that money was raised. Read more »
DueDil, a rather clever London-based outfit that uses open (and purchased) datasets to provide due diligence services, has raised another $17 million in a Series B round. The cash came from existing investors Notion Capital, Passion Capital and round leader Oak Investment Partners, and it comes on top of the $5m I reported on in April last year. In those 10 months, the “real-time decision intelligence” firm said, it has gained traction among most of the FTSE 100 companies. Customers can currently use the DueDil API to find out information about companies and directors in 22 countries, and the fresh capital injection should help spread that coverage.
The service, previously known as “iOS in the car”, will bring Siricentric infotainment functionality to the dashboards of a wide variety of cars. Read more »
Microsoft’s new CEO Satya Nadella is making moves: Mark Penn will reportedly be named chief strategy officer while executive vice presidents Tami Reller and Tony Bates prep their exits. Read more »
Updated: The week in cloud: Questions pop up about how well Watson’s doing; Greenqloud launches a hybrid cloud and more. Read more »
The team used their own visual effects and rendering expertise atop Amazon’s brawn to do the sort special effects that succeed because you don’t know they’re there. Read more »
Not all cloud infrastructure is the same, as David Mytton discovered when he started looking into Google Cloud. The service differs markedly from AWS and SoftLayer in these five key ways. Read more »
Now that Adobe InDesign is part of the Creative Cloud, I thought it was worth taking another look at this valuable took for ebook design and page layout. Read more »
In hopes of making it’s proposed merger with Time Warner Cable sweeter for regulators to swallow, Comcast is extending its low-cost broadband access program and announcing that 300,000 households have signed up. Read more »
Whistle started out selling a dog collar tag that monitored your pets activity, but it’s trying to evolve its platform into more than just a means of measuring walks. Read more »
Hope you like the faux leather trim and stitching on Samsung’s tablets and phones, because they might be coming to a Chromebook near you. After news of a Samsung Chromebook 2 leaked, an image with the trim appeared online. Read more »
This year, less than half of the screeners Hollywood professionals receive to help them vote on the year’s best movies were illegally uploaded — but what’s the cause? Read more »
LightSquare may have seemed to be a beacon of hope for rural broadband, but after looking at the details of the plan, rural America will be better off without the service the company planned to offer. Read more »
Determining a website’s mobile strategy isn’t rocket science, but it does take careful research and planning. Fortunately, design firm Entropy has it down to just three simple — but crucial — steps. Read more »
This Sunday, ABC is going to live stream the Oscars for the first time in the history of the awards. However, only a subset of TV viewers will have access to the show online. Read more »
Up till now developers could design and sell add-ons for Atlassian’s on-premises tools on its marketplace. Now they can do the same for its SaaS versions. Read more »
Advances in low-cost and low-power computing are removing the shackles that have constrained the feature sets of wearable devices. IBM’s Paul Brody predicts this will allow devices like smartwatches and fitness monitors to become more contextually aware and start to blur the lines between wearables and smartphones. Read more »
The medical practice of blood-letting persisted for decades in the face of evidence that it was a bad idea. Today’s patent system is experiencing the same difficulty. Read more »
As many outgrow their quotas for free online storage, hosting a personal cloud on becomes a more economical solution. This primer will go over some of the aspects of personal storage one should consider before diving in data first. Read more »
Sqrrl co-founder and VP of business development Ely Kahn came on the Structure Show this week to break down the state of cybersecurity and the cutting edge of data analysis within the Department of Defense. Read more »
Now that the Galaxy S5 and Nokia X are finally here, were they worth the wait? We took a hands-on look at the two which offer very different Android experiences. Read more »
Suzanne Vega, Rupert Murdoch’s broken marriage, Silicon Valley’s circus of innovation, Tom Steyer, the inconvenient billionaire; South Sudan’s old enmities and Facebook’s plan to conquer the world — some of the stories on menu this weekend. Read more »
Apple has been pushing for a windowed release strategy for new music, according to a Billboard report. In talks with record label executives, Apple has pointed to the latest Beyonce album as a possible blueprint for future releases: iTunes offered Beyonce’s self-titled album as an exclusive for one week when it was released in December. After that, it also sold at other retailers, but Spotify and other streaming services only got two tracks. Apple executives think that such windows could boost digital downloads, which declined by 5.7 percent last year.
Updated: This story has been corrected to reflect that it declined 5.7 percent last year, not 57 percent.
Big names Mark Lucovsky, Vadim Spivak, Richard McAniff, Karen Poole team up to make mobile story telling drop-dead simple. Read more »
The layoffs that started in India and Europe are now coming stateside. IBM admits to rebalancing its workforce but won’t confirm numbers or units affected. Read more »
In the next Gigaom Research webinar, our panel of experts will examine the future trends and use cases for streaming analytics. Join us on March 6 at 10:00 a.m. PT. Read more »
Planet Labs’ CubeSats aren’t the only satellites being released from the International Space Station this month. Lithuania, for example, just released its first two satellites ever. Read more »
February 2014 will mark a turning point for the internet thanks to a historic peering agreement and the FCC capitulating on net neutrality. Let’s let Verizon’s CEO share what the future internet will be. Read more »
Bad vision plus Google Glass typically means spending $225 on special Glass frames. Or you could just spend a buck and custom 3-D print clips to attach Google Glass to your existing glasses. Read more »
Cloudera is working on an open source project called Oryx that aims bring machine learning to Hadoop in a way that previous attempts such as Apache Mahout could not. Read more »
Enterprises must identify the common features for each IaaS building block and compare them to the services offered by key players in the industry. Read more at Gigaom Research »
Google filed an emergency motion on Friday asking a California appeals court to stay a decision this week that forced it to purge all copies of a controversial anti-Islam video from YouTube. The removal order was based on an unusual interpretation of copyright law, and was greeted with alarm by scholars, free speech advocates and the tech and entertainment industry. The order was all the more remarkable since it came with a gag order that forced Google to pull down all the videos before the court ruling was disclosed. In Friday’s motion, Google asked the court to suspend the original order until a full panel of the 9th Circuit Court can hear its appeal.
The Lumia Icon for Verizon isn’t perfect, but it’s the best Windows phone I’ve seen so far. Read more »


text:
Veterans Find Second Career as VaporFi Franchise Owners
Working with VetFran, this vape brand's growth potential, mentorship program, product portfolio and marketing support is connecting with active and former members of the military.
MIAMI - Aug. 24, 2017 // PRNewswire // - VaporFi recently announced its new membership with VetFran to provide recently separated Veterans with franchise ownership opportunities throughout the U.S., with documented success in supporting franchisees with guidance and mentorship throughout the franchising process. Currently, Veterans of the Army, Air Force, Marines and Navy make up the first class of franchisees to open VaporFi stores in 2017 and 2018 throughout the U.S.
"Both my sister and I are recently separated Veterans who will use our military experience and corporate training to open and operate our Tampa stores successfully," said Alex Asencio, an Air Force recruiter opening two stores in the Tampa Bay area. His sister Maria, a former Air Force technical sergeant and personnel specialist with a degree in human resources management will assist him with both store management and day-to-day operations.
VaporFi offers Veterans 20% off of franchise fees, as well as guidance and mentoring from VaporFi's headquarters team, which also includes a number of military veterans. The opportunity allows franchisees to immediately tap into a billion-dollar growth industry.
"VaporFi is looking for motivated, self-starting, creative and results driven professionals to join our growing franchise team, so naturally our nation's military veterans show up for the opportunity," said CEO Nick Molina. "After serving this country, we're proud to offer our support throughout their new career as small business owners with VaporFi," he added.
For more information on VaporFi's new website and pricing,visit them online, and follow them on Facebook,Twitter and Instagram.
VaporFi is an electronic cigarette/vapor products manufacturer that couples its strong presence in the online e-commerce vapor market with U.S. and international retail locations. Having launched to immediate success and experienced rapid expansion through franchising, VaporFi remains the most exciting brand of electronic cigarette, e-liquid and vapor products around. For more information on the brand, products and locations, visit www.VaporFi.com.
Comments:comments powered by Disqus
- Expansions & Growth
- Financial & Earnings Claims
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Personnel Changes
- General Announcements
- Conferences & Events
- Product Announcements
- Media Coverage
- Strategic Alliances


text:
* * *
This scale of fishing is another strand in the very complex debate, which covers fishing and has a major impact on a number of our coastal communities. There are real benefits arising from locally run small scale fisheries as we discovered recently in our review of the Cornwall Good Sea Food Guide. This article tells us:
Supertrawlers spent almost 3,000 hours fishing in UK marine protected areas in 2019, making “a mockery of the word ‘protected’,” according to campaigners.
Supertrawlers are those over 100 metres in length and can catch hundreds of tonnes of fish every day, using nets up to a mile long. A Greenpeace investigation revealed that the 25 supertrawlers included the four biggest in the world and fished in 39 different marine protected areas (MPAs).
The Southern North Sea MPA was one of those fished and was created to safeguard porpoises, which are especially threatened by supertrawlers. More than 1,000 porpoises died in fishing nets around the UK in 2019. The most heavily fished MPA was the Wyville Thomson Ridge, off Shetland, which was intended to protect reefs. All the supertrawler fishing was legal.
Forty per cent of England’s seas are designated as MPAs, but these only ban some of the most damaging activities in some locations. On Monday, an independent review commissioned by the government urged the establishment of highly protected marine areas (HPMAs), where all harmful activities including fishing, dredging and construction are banned. The government’s own assessment in 2019 showed the marine environment is not in a healthy state.
“Our government allowing destructive supertrawlers to fish for thousands of hours every year in MPAs makes a mockery of the word ‘protected’,” said Chris Thorne of Greenpeace UK. “For our government to be taken seriously as a leader in marine protection, it must ban this practice.”
Too few people have a rounded view of the importance of farming and in our experience particularly of its contributions to rural communities. This article profiles a very important contribution to the debate. It tells us
A new report examining the role of commercial agriculture in the UK says it has the potential to solve sustainability challenges, generate employment and boost the post-pandemic economy.
Yet, the report warns that commercial farmers are being systematically "written out" of emerging policy in the rush to push environmental enhancement above all else.
"Commercial Farming: Delivering the UK’s new Agriculture Policies" has been released today (10 June) by the Commercial Farmers Group to coincide with the second reading of the Agriculture Bill in the House of Lords. As well as laying out the areas farming can impact positively, it argues that UK farmers should be ready and willing to compete with food imports – provided there is clear labelling identifying differences in production standards.
James Black from the group, who runs the family farming business producing pigs and arable crops in Suffolk, explains that commercial farming is important as fewer than 10 percent of farming businesses currently produce over half the UK’s agricultural output.
“These businesses are also ideally-placed to stimulate local economies, support wider industries and address pressing problems such as use of finite resources, greenhouse gas emissions, climate change and biodiversity decline. However, they can only do this if allowed the chance,” he says.
“Unfortunately, UK history is littered with the results of so many great aspirational concepts which have been poorly delivered – because policy makers have not fully engaged with the people most involved in the implementation. We must avoid food and farming becoming a casualty of this too.”
This seems like a “no brainer” and particularly pertinent to those rural communities with a high stock of low energy efficient properties. It tells us:
Making people's homes cosy is the cheapest way to create jobs as the UK prepares to fight recession, a report says.
Its authors say a job insulating homes would be much cheaper than creating a road maintenance job, for example.
Jobs in building roads are more costly to create, as the work is heavily mechanised.
The figures will be sent to the Treasury, which is reviewing a package of job stimulus measures for July.
The report's authors say a job in home insulation can be created for £59,000 - that's far less than a road maintenance job, which is estimated by the government to be more than £250,000.
Those figures include retrofitting 10 homes with insulation, and the road surface laid by a worker.
The report comes from a coalition of charities, businesses and pressure groups known as the Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group (EEIG).
Their aim is to upgrade the UK's aged housing stock.
They say home insulation would create jobs in all areas of the UK as well as supporting the government's aim of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
I fear that hotspots of frailty in rural areas, particularly coastal areas, will be particularly impacted by the impact of these waiting lists. This story tells us:
The waiting list for hospital treatment could soar to almost 10 million people by Christmas amid a huge backlog caused by coronavirus disrupting services, NHS leaders are warning.
Hospital bosses say that such a massive increase in England is a realistic prospect, given so many people have been unable to have surgery and crucial diagnostic tests in recent months while the NHS’s main priority has been minimising the damage from Covid-19.
The total number of people waiting to undergo a procedure in a hospital in England such as a hernia repair, cataract removal or hip or knee replacement stood at 4.4 million before the pandemic. It then fell to 4.2 million because in March GPs referred fewer patients for care to help hospitals tackle the pandemic and also because some patients were reluctant to risk getting infected by going into hospital.
However, the NHS Confederation estimates that it is likely to reach 9.8 million by the end of the year as a result of staff shortages and hospitals having to cap the number of patients they can treat at any one time because of strict physical distancing rules that reduce the number of beds available.
In a “pessimistic” scenario – which would result if a second wave of the virus emerges – the waiting list, comprising people who are meant to be treated within 18 weeks, could hit 10.8 million. And even under the confederation’s best-case “optimistic” scenario about 8.1 million people would be waiting.
Small towns have been at the forefront of the negative economic impacts of the coronavirus – lets hope we get a return to normal as quickly as possible and don’t just find ourselves bemused by a busy “stewarded” two weeks of retail madness followed by a massive long term dip. This could be really serious for our smaller towns. This story tells us.
Local councils and retail giants will deploy a small army of “social distancing wardens” on Monday to police crowds as non-essential shops open their doors after almost three months of lockdown.
Councils across the country have hired or redeployed staff to ensure shoppers and retailers comply with social distancing rules. And big chain stores, including Primark, Ikea and John Lewis, have brought in extra security staff.
The councils and retailers hope the wardens will prevent unruly queues as people rush back to clothes, homewares and electrical shops that have been closed since March. More than 1,000 people were reported to have queued outside Ikea warehouse stores, some turning up at 5.30am, when the Swedish chain was allowed to open two weeks ago.
If you’re prepared to wait for your coffee, this looks like a positive return to a glamorous and by-gone means of travel, which seems to have a really good fit with rural food policy.
The French schooner De Gallant docked in Falmouth harbour at the end of May, three months after leaving the port of Santa Marta in Colombia laden with tonnes of sustainably sourced coffee beans.
This wind-powered sail cargo of carbon-neutral coffee was worth the wait, according to Yallah Coffee, a single-origin coffee roastery only a few miles away in the Cornish port town.
Yallah’s special Colombian coffee grounds and beans are finding their way into coffee shops and restaurants across the country. Using a sailboat to import the beans into the UK made the first leg of their voyage almost entirely carbon neutral.
For Richard Blake, the owner of Yallah Coffee, the delivery was the culmination of almost five years developing the idea for a sustainably sourced coffee without the huge carbon footprint of most imported beans.
This article gave me an “ache” to get back to our favourite holiday location. It comes from the international perspective of National Geographic and it describes one of the most attractive parts of England in the following terms:
Strung with vast and often-deserted beaches, the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is one of the county’s primary draws. It’s not just the beaches that lure visitors, however — backed by dunes and fringed with pine forests, this dramatic, 175sq-mile stretch of rural England also features mudflats and saltmarshes that teem with a rich variety of wildlife. Base yourself in the heart of the AONB and you’ll find plenty to while away a weekend: charming flint houses and medieval churches in sleepy villages like Wells-next-the-Sea and Burnham Market, bracing walks in the sea breeze, and a fantastic food scene, with fresh, locally caught fish taking a starring role on menus all along the coast. visitnorfolk.co.uk
Sign up to our newsletter to receive all the latest news and updates.


text:
BD Live Title to Include Shopping Feature in August8 Jul, 2009 By: Chris Tribbey
A Blu-ray Disc title in August will be the first to feature an e-commerce application that allows viewers to shop for products in the movie and buy them directly over the Internet via BD Live.
The co-founders of Bright Stage Media, the company that developed the technology, would not share which title from which studio but did say they hope to have all the major studios embrace the technology by year’s end.
“How many times have you seen a product in the film and say, ‘I want that’?” said Randy Malinoff, CEO of That’s It! Media Group and co-founder of Bright Stage. “We now have that answer for the consumer, without them having to search online.”
When enabled, the application, dubbed “Connect, Share and Shop” for the first release, offers viewers in-movie information about products, and if the Blu-ray player is connected to the Internet, to comparison-shop between online retailers. Additionally, consumers can Tweet about their purchases and share the news on social networking sites like Facebook.
“We update the content so every time you put in the disc there are [new items],” said Bright Stage co-founder Brian Johnson, who’s also CEO of B1 Media.
Malinoff said the technology could change the way product placements are done for films.
“There are a lot of added product placement opportunities here in the green-light phase for a film,” he said, explaining that studios might consider ad opportunities long before the Blu-ray release comes out.
A version 2.0 of the application is in the works. It will include more in-movie customization, with entertainment news, trivia and filmographies.
During the high-def format war, Universal Studios Home Entertainment did something similar with e-commerce for the HD DVD release of Evan Almighty in October 2007, allowing viewers to shop for products in the movie while their HD DVD player was connected to the Internet.


text:
Updated: 07/22/2014 7:04 PM
Created: 07/22/2014 7:03 PM KAALtv.com
By: Brianna Long
(ABC 6 News) -- For students heading off to college at the end of the summer, back-to-school shopping can be overwhelming. Not only are they buying textbooks and paying college tuition, but a lot of times they need all those supplies for their dorm rooms.
"I need to look at finances. I need to be able to find a job to be able to afford to go to class," said RCTC student Cole Smith. Like most college students, he knows that paying for higher education isn't exactly easy.
"I have to make payments for a car, and my actual rent," said Smith.
Right now, Cole goes to RCTC and lives at home. But by next year, he's hoping to move out to pursue his biology degree.
"I'm hoping to go to Brigham-Young University in Idaho," said Smith.
That means, getting his first apartment and buying all the stuff that goes in it.
But now, Target has come up with a way to get those college kids to ask for help from family and friends.
"College students can just go on target dot com and they can put in their address, their name, their college and they can start picking things from our stores and from online that they can purchase," said Adam Boes, the store manager for the South Target location in Rochester.
It's a college registry; the same kind of concept already used for weddings and baby showers.
"From electronic items to snack items to cleaning and laundry items that our first time college students might not know about," said Boes.
It's pretty simple. Students just go online, create an account, and pick the items they want and need. When someone buys them, the items will ship to whatever address the students want.
"It's an easy way to get what you need and get exactly what you want. And it always helps if someone else is helping shop for you to get you started," said Boes.
And as Cole gets ready for his next college adventure, this is something he'll be looking into.
"I think its amazing, it's a great way to help any college student who's having difficulty with finances or isn't able to get any of these certain materials," said Cole.


text:
In 1773, in protest against import duty levied from London, a group of men calling themselves the Sons of Liberty snuck on to a British ship moored in Boston harbour, seized hundreds of chests of tea and dumped the contents over the side.
The Boston Tea Party, which was originally dismissed in England as a “little local difficulty”, became a symbol of the struggle for American freedom from Britain. Almost 250 years on, this event may seem to have little to do with the current relationship between the UK and the US, but as the Brits look amiably on at the Fourth of July celebrations this week, it is a good time to reflect on the state of our trade relationship.
Our trading relationship has come a long way from the problems of tea duties. The UK is the largest European market for US exports, and the second largest exporter to the US after Germany. Since the end of the Second World War, the two countries have pushed for more open, global trade and lower tariffs.
While both countries have since expanded on their international economic networks, the “special relationship” between the UK and US has remained strong. So it is unsurprising that, as we look to the future beyond Brexit, there is a great deal of interest in strengthening trade ties with America.
The time now seems right to start this conversation, not least because the US and UK governments have both expressed a willingness to explore a future trade agreement.
Before we go on, I do have to declare a personal interest. I am originally from the US, but have been working across the world for a good part of my life and involved in business in the UK for more than two decades.
I am a strong proponent of the benefits of trade. Deepening trade links between the US and the UK seems to me to be a natural ambition as we leave the EU. The US has enormous opportunity for UK businesses. Our shared language and many aspects of business culture should put it high up our list as a target market. At present, trade between the two countries is worth around $230bn (£177bn) a year. Investment between the two economies totals around $1 trillion.
The UK will want to look to boost trade with many different countries around the world in the coming years, but it’s clear that with the US, we are starting from a strong position.
Of course, trade policy is a little more multi-faceted than tea taxes these days. In the UK, a minority government faces the huge task of negotiating our exit from the EU – with business obviously very keen to get a good settlement. In the US, the president has spoken of a shift away from the liberal trade policy pursued by previous American governments.
How this will play out in practice remains to be seen, especially as trade deals are more political now than ever.
It’s essential to grasp that increasing trade with the US is not just about a potential trade agreement in the future. Business rarely waits for a new trade deal to make inroads into overseas markets. In some areas, UK and US regulators could already be talking about issues that do not need to be in a formal trade agreement.
Our Department for International Trade is already ramping up trade missions and trying to highlight opportunities to UK firms. This should be increased steadily. Once we have sorted out our relationship with the EU, we will be ready to negotiate formal trade deals.
There will inevitably be challenges in increasing UK trade. I think we should approach them in the spirit of the Founding Fathers. Theirs was the spirit of optimism, of focusing on how to build the prosperity and success of their country, even in uncertain times.
As an American living in her adopted home of Britain, I wish you all a happy Fourth of July, and one that marks the beginning of even closer ties between our two countries.


text:
Pharmacy chain Well is rolling out a new retail concept called The Pharmacy Shop, “a customer-led, modern retail destination to meet today’s customers’ health and wellbeing needs”, says the company.
The aim is to create a welcoming environment in-store, including clear signage and information, rather than the “typical clinical feel” that customers are used to in community pharmacies. Stock lines include beauty and skincare, health and wellbeing, wearable fitness technology and gifts. Also featured are health kiosks offering on-the-spot blood pressure, BMI and weight measurement checks.
Emma Smith, head of retail and marketing at Well, says: “We’ve taken the best of the traditional pharmacy and given it a place in the lives of the modern day shopper. Our customers want to receive exceptional healthcare advice and wellbeing technology, as well as modern, trend driven, value for money products, right in the heart of their local community. Our new stores will challenge the idea of what a local pharmacy should be.”
Chief executive John Nuttall adds: “Shopping habits have changed significantly. We want to become more than a pharmacy. We want to become a place which people choose to visit for all their health and wellbeing needs.”
Well unveiled its new concept store in Highgate, London, last month (pictured). Another 11 stores from the 780-strong estate are due to be refitted this year to test the concept.


text:
NEW YORK, Jan. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — MedSchenker® (https://medschenker.com), a market leader in manufacturing and distributing advanced medical products/equipment, has officially launched a distribution partnership with COPAN Diagnostics (https://www.copanusa.com). COPAN’s unique quantitative approach to diagnostics and passion for innovation drove research and development. COPAN invented and patented flocked swab (FLOQSwabs®). COPAN introduced its flocked swabs to the market in 2003.
The engineering and science behind the design of a flocked swab that will perform as intended is extremely complex. Characteristics and integrity of the swab’s fibers and other components impact the performance of the swab in sample collection and downstream testing. With more than 40 years in the industry, COPAN has proven its ability to manufacture and supply gold standard products that perform reliably, safely and consistently.
As a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic, new foreign manufacturers have entered the market. The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) has begun an investigation into the importation of flocked swabs and related products into the United States considering COPAN’s U.S. patents covering flocked swabs.
"The exponential increase in demand for flocked swabs, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulted in an increase in inferior, unauthorized Chinese flocked swabs entering the market. Partnering with COPAN puts us in a much stronger position to compete more aggressively and successfully," said Sean Yeom, president of MedSchenker. "The initial onset of the COVID-19 pandemic created an unexpected and exceptional demand for flocked swabs, and many laboratories and medical institutions scrambled to secure product from wherever it was available. That moment has passed. COPAN has dramatically increased its manufacturing and production capacity and customers can now secure the flocked swabs they need from trusted suppliers that offer products of superior quality and move away from knockoff products that are not well vetted in the market."
"Flocked swabs are invented, manufactured, and patented by COPAN. These sample collection tools revolutionized the industry and play an important role for COVID-19 and other laboratory testing. COPAN’s flocked swabs improve specimen collection and testing capabilities resulting in better clinical care. Partnering with MedSchenker has expanded our reach, allowing us to better serve healthcare providers and laboratory professionals," said Jaimie Augustine, Vice President of Sales at COPAN Diagnostics.
Founded in 2001, MedSchenker’s mission is to bring to market innovative and top of the line medical solutions and equipment while maintaining a strong connection to the industry.
For more information on MedSchenker’s distribution agreement with COPAN, please contact (Logan T. Semer
MedSchenker, founded in 2001, is a market leading manufacturer and distributor of advanced medical products and equipment. What many overlook, they obsess over and strive to improve. MedSchenker’s focus has always been to develop products engineered to exceed the needs of the end user.
About COPAN Diagnostics, Inc.
COPAN Diagnostics is part of COPAN Group, a leading manufacturer of collection and transport systems and full laboratory automation in the world. COPAN’s collaborative approach to pre-analytics has resulted in FLOQSwabs®, ESwab™, UTM Universal Transport Medium®, laboratory automation including WASP® and WASPLab®.
Logan T. Semer


text:
Hope grows for auto dealers
As the humbled captains of the U.S. auto industry spend the weekend preparing their second case for a federal bailout, their best argument may come in November's auto sales figures.
Industry watchers and car dealers say they expect this month's vehicle sales to come out slightly better than October's historic lows, but increased incentives have not been enough to overcome tight credit, the crumbling economy and weak consumer confidence that are keeping consumers away from showrooms.
"All those major factors that had an impact on new car demand so far this year are still with us," said Jesse Toprak, executive director of industry analysis for the automotive Web site Edmunds.com.
Edmunds is expecting sales to drop 28 percent from a year ago to 850,000 units when automakers announce their November sales on Tuesday. Barclays auto analyst Brian Johnson predicts a 32 percent plunge. Other analysts are just as pessimistic and expect U.S. car companies to take the biggest hit.
"Detroit Three automakers appear likely to once again lag the industry in both retail and total sales," Citigroup analyst Itay Michaeli wrote in a report this week.
But if there is a bright side, it's that industry watchers are expecting are a slight improvement over October's total of 838,156 vehicles. October's seasonally adjusted annual sales rate of 10.6 million vehicles was worst in more than 25 years and far below the rate of 16 million a year earlier, according to Autodata Corp.
Analysts say a number of factors may have stabilized sales, the most obvious being the collapse in gasoline prices, which have shed 75 cents a gallon in the past month.
The average price of regular gas nationwide was $1.84 on Friday, down 55 percent from a high of $4.11 in July, according to AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express.
Automakers have ramped up sales incentives to near-record levels, as well. GM launched its annual "Red Tag" year-end sale earlier than usual and is knocking thousands of dollars off its vehicles. Toyota Motor Corp. extended its zero-percent financing offer on 12 vehicles through the end of the month, while Nissan Motor Co. launched a similar deal on some of its cars. Ford Motor Co. began offering employee pricing and other deals.
Edmunds says average industrywide incentive spending rose 15 percent from a year ago to $2,625 per vehicle in November. Among the Detroit Three automakers, incentive spending has been even higher.
Individual dealers have piled on even more deals as they seek to clear out built-up inventory.
At University Dodge in Davie, buying a 2008 Dodge Ram Quad Cab that retails for $32,000 to $40,000 gets you a standard-cab Ram at no extra cost, sales manager Ali Ahmed said.
"When we do buy-one-get-one, we're actually losing money on that deal," he said. "In the home market, it's to create a base of customers."
The offer is moving merchandise. The dealership already had sold 60 vehicles as of Wednesday, compared with 51 in November 2007.
Evergreen Ford in Issaquah, Wash., is offering Ford stock to anyone who comes in for a test drive, owner Daniel Rowe said. His deal is simple: Test drive a car, then pick a ball from a lottery-like dispenser. Each ball has a number between 1 and 250, he said, and the number you pick is the number of shares you get.
"If a customer buys a car, they can take the number of shares and double it," said Rowe, who launched the deal Nov. 19.
Ford shares have more than doubled since then, climbing 54 cents, or 25 percent, to $2.69 Friday as analysts said a bailout for U.S. automakers appeared increasingly likely.
The companies' sales results will come the same day they must submit a detailed plan to Congress that spells out how they will remain viable if they get $25 billion in government loans to stave off bankruptcy.
Some lawmakers and analysts have suggested General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC should use a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing as the best way to cancel unfavorable contracts and restructure their costs, but the companies have said that is not a suitable option because consumers would be afraid to buy a car from a bankrupt company.


text:
Chamath Palihapitiya, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist who founded Social Capital and used to work at Facebook, was a new face at New York’s Sohn Investment Conference on Wednesday, where hedge fund managers present their best stock picks and short—meaning they would bet against—ideas.
Palihapitiya, however, is officially one of the hedgies now: His new hedge fund, revealed in Fortune in April, launches this month.
While launching a long/short hedge fund might seem unusual for a VC who says his “mission is to advance humanity by solving the world’s hardest problems,” Palihapitiya explained that a single publicly traded company had convinced him to start picking stocks. The company, he said, had an opportunity to deliver a “10x” return in 10 years, a windfall virtually unheard of outside the world of private startups and venture capital.
“For the first time on our investment horizon we’ve found a company that we can say that about in the public markets,” Palihapitiya said. “And that company is Valeant (VRX).”
In case you didn’t get it, Palihapitiya was making a joke. “Too soon?” he asked the laughing crowd, with a glance towards Bill Ackman, who was in the audience and presented Valeant as his top stock idea at the Sohn Conference exactly a year ago, but did not take the stage this year. Valeant’s stock has fallen more than 80% since Ackman’s presentation.
Palihapitiya’s stock pick was actually Amazon (AMZN), whose logo appeared on a slide behind him even as he mentioned Valeant. Ackman, for his part, said in a conversation with Fortune after the presentation that he appreciated the joke. “I laughed,” Ackman said.
“It’s a multi-trillion dollar monopoly hiding between us in plain sight,” Palihapitiya said of Amazon.
Amazon, a tech darling, is not exactly a shocking choice for a Silicon Valley investor. But many traditional Wall Street types have criticized or remained wary of investing in Amazon, pointing to its high valuation and meager profits, which have only turned positive in the past year.
Nonsense, Palihapitiya argued, explaining that Amazon’s 5% margins are probably at their “natural” level. But “we should not think that the business is unprofitable,” Palihapitiya said.
Instead, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos will continue reinvesting in the company rather than returning capital to shareholders, Palihapitiya said, portraying Bezos’ philosophy as something similar to that of legendary investor Warren Buffett, who has famously refused to pay dividends to his shareholders. The reasoning: Both Buffett and Bezos can make more money investing your money than you can.
So far, Palihapitiya said, Bezos has accomplished an average annual 33% return on invested capital, turning $18 billion into more than $200 billion in value. Over the next eight years, the VC expects Bezos to keep reinvesting and “king-making” on an even greater scale, growing the company’s Amazon Web Services business and acquiring new major corporate customers.
By 2024, Amazon and Bezos will have generated more than $90 billion “of investable capital that he will probably not return to us,” Palihapitiya said. “He’s going to invest in in the business, he’s going to invent things.”
For investors who might then wish they had bought Amazon back when the stock was a lot cheaper, Palihapitiya predicted that Amazon’s growth was only just beginning. “We think this is the most incredible company being built today in the world,” he said. “If you believe in buying things, if you believe in consumer consumption, you have to own Amazon.”


text:
JAMMU: Under the directions of Commissioner JMC, Mr. Arvind Kotwal, KAS and Joint Commissioner (Adm.) Mr. Pardeep Singh Manhas, KAS, Municipal Veterinary Officer, Dr. Zaffar Iqbal along with other team members conducted a surprise drive in different areas of Jammu City to ensure the sale of wholesome and good quality meat and meat byproducts to the consumers on eve of Eid-ul-Azha. The surprise drive started from CPO Chowk Panjirthi, Ustad Mohalla, Newplot, Janipur, Bantalab, Paloura, Jewel & Gujjar Nagar, etc.
During the drive, various meat shops were checked and about 10kg of substandard meat was seized and later on disposed of properly along with a fine to the tune of Rs.4100/- was also levied from meat sellers selling unstamped meat. Municipal Veterinary Officer has appealed to all the shopkeepers dealing with meat/chicken products to maintain hygienic environment in and around their shops and make availability of good quality meat to the consumers during the festive season. He said that such surprised drives will continue in near future as well to ensure that the consumers can get healthy, wholesome and diseased free meat at any cost.


text:
Monday, July 6, 2015
This week the 365 Stories will recall fun places, people, and local foods that defined living in southeast Michigan between 1950 and 1990.
Even Hudson’s shoppers at Oakland Mall remember the mammoth JL Hudson’s store that covered an entire city block in downtown Detroit. At 2,124,316 square feet, only Macy’s in New York City occupied more space. The Hudson’s building was the tallest department store in the world (410 ft.) Employees and shoppers navigated between the 32 floors on 51 passenger elevators, 17 freight elevators, 8 employee elevators and 48 escalators. The store also had 705 fitting rooms and 99 restrooms– 39 for men, 50 for women, and 10 executive washrooms. The largest was a women’s lounge on the fourth floor that had 85 stalls. Retail merchandise for 200 departments filled 49 acres of floor space on 17 floors in the building. JL Hudson’s featured 553,921 different items acquired from 16,000 vendors in 40 countries.
While the numbers were impressive, for many, Hudson’s was simply synonymous with going downtown one each year to shop the “Good Ole Summertime” sale, eating Maurice salad for lunch, and seeing the world’s largest flag hung from the building. Suburbanites who rarely ventured south of Eight Mile Road still knew that the real Santa arrived each year at the conclusion of the Hudson’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Then, after receiving a “key to the hearts of boys and girls,” Santa entered his special toy land inside JL Hudson’s.
In 1954, Hudson’s sales exceeded $163 million (or more than $1.28 billion in 2015 dollars). Six years later, Joseph L. Hudson Jr., the founder’s grandnephew, became the president of the giant retail business. Joe Jr. opened new facilities including the store at Oakland Mall as Detroiter’s moved to new communities like Troy. During the 1970s Detroit’s population, vitality, and reputation continued to decline and the popularity of regional shopping malls increased. Hudson’s downtown store closed January 17, 1983 after more than 90 years of business.
The company’s corporate offices with a workforce of 1,200 employees remained in the downtown building until 1990 when the store was sold by Dayton Hudson Corp. to Southwestern Associates of Windsor, Ontario. Despite the efforts of historic preservationists to redevelop the enormous structure, the building was imploded at 5:45 p.m. (the store’s closing time) on Oct. 24, 1998.
The Big Store
For generations, it was as synonymous with Christmas and fashion as it was Detroit. The store at Woodward and Gratiot avenues was absolutely massive, evolving with the Motor City until it became the tallest department store in the world. By the time it finished growing, the store’s size almost defied belief.
A quick list of facts, many courtesy of the Detroit Historical Museum:
- The store was 2,124,316 square feet, making it second in size among department stores to only Macy’s in New York. Even then, Macy’s is only 26,000 square feet bigger.
- The store was spread out over 32 floors: 25 floors, two half-floors, a mezzanine and four basements.
- At 410 feet, Hudson’s was the tallest department store in the world.
- The building had 51 passenger elevators, 17 freight elevators, eight employee elevators and 48 escalators. Its largest freight elevator could accommodate a semi trailer.
- Hudson’s had to have three transformer centers in the store: They generated enough juice to power a city of about 20,000.
- The store had 39 men’s restrooms, 50 for women and 10 private ones for executives. The largest was a women’s lounge on the fourth floor that had a whopping 85 stalls.
- It had 705 fitting rooms, a world record.
- The dining rooms and cafeterias served an average of 10,000 meals a day – not counting the 6,000 meals a day served in the employee cafeteria on the 14th floor. The 13th floor dining room was renowned for its Maurice salad and Canadian cheese soup.
- There were 49 large display windows facing Woodward, Gratiot, Farmer and Grand River Avenues, and there were an additional 50 interior display windows in areas — such as the elevator corridors and in the Woodward Shops on the seventh floor.
The store featured more than 200 departments across an incredible 49 acres of floor space, and it featured about 600,000 items from 16,000 vendors from 40 countries. The building had 51 elevators serving its 17 floors of retail.
Joseph Lowthian Hudson and his father were running a men’s clothing store in the lumber town of Ionia, Mich., when the Panic of 1873 struck. When the sawmills were shuttered, their customers couldn’t pay their bills. Then Hudson’s father died. Three years later, Hudson went bankrupt, paying his creditors 60 cents on the dollar. Hudson dusted himself off and started over in Detroit. On April 2, 1881, Hudson opened his first store on the ground floor of the old Detroit Opera House. In 1888, he was so successful, he looked up all the creditors he had shorted in the bankruptcy proceedings 12 years earlier and paid them in full – with compound interest.
In 1911, he opened what would become the first piece of the behemoth. Many people thought Hudson was a fool opening so far north of Jefferson Avenue, then the heart of the city’s commercial district.
Hudson himself was a legend. Easily one of the most successful businessmen in the city’s history, Hudson also was a benefactor. He would serve as chairman and organizer of Detroit’s Associated Charities, which laid the foundation for the United Way Foundation.
In 1954, Hudson’s had sales of more than $163 million (an astronomical $1.28 billion today).
In 1961, at age 29, Joseph L. Hudson Jr. – the founder’s grandnephew – became the business’ president. He had started out working on the docks of the downtown store in 1950. He emphasized fashion and special events and would grow the chain, expanding into the suburbs as the city’s population sprawled into the countryside.
In 1969, Hudson’s merged with Dayton Co. of Minneapolis, creating Dayton Hudson Corp. The merger led to growth not on in Michigan, but also Ohio and Indiana.
As the city’s decline in population, reputation and wealth continued, Hudson’s downtown store closed Jan. 17, 1983, after more than 90 years of business.
But the building was not abandoned at this point. The company’s corporate offices remained in the Big Store, and about 1,200 people still worked there. A new lobby and security entrance were added on the Farmer Street side for employees and visitors. Employees would stick around the building until 1990, when the store was sold by Dayton Hudson Corp. to Southwestern Associates of Windsor, Ontario.
“Various media sources wanted the public to believe that Hudson’s had been vacant for 15 years, when in actuality, it was eight years,” said historian Michael Hauser, “which, by Detroit standards, is a relatively short period of time, compared to many other large vacant structures in the city that have been idle for decades.”
The big blast at the Big Store
Despite several pitches to redevelop the enormous structure, the building was imploded at 5:45 p.m. (the store’s closing time) on Oct. 24, 1998.
“With a deafening roar that will echo in the hearts of Detroiters for decades, the Hudson’s building was blasted to the ground — ending one era and beginning another in 30 ground-shaking seconds,” The Detroit News wrote. “A symbol of glamor for three generations, a symbol of decay for another, the mammoth structure wobbled like a drunk, hesitated, then collapsed into a 60-foot-high pile of rubble — coating downtown streets with a fine gray dust.”
Thirteen years after the big bang at the Big Store, no development has occurred at the site other than an underground parking garage. Hope that someone might wish to build on the property has left Detroiters with nothing but a giant empty space in the heart of downtown dotted by steel girders poking above a concrete expanse.
To commemorate the City of Troy’s 60th Anniversary in 2015, we will publish a different story each day that highlights a person, discovery, or event that occurred locally, regionally, nationally, or even globally between 1955 and 2015 and that helped shape our lives and our community. We will try to post stories on important anniversary dates, but we also realize that dates are less critical than content and context. We will include the facts related to controversial stories, allowing our readers to form their own opinions. We invite you to read and comment on the stories. Your suggestions for topics are also welcome and can be posted on our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/TroyHistoricVillage. You can also email stories or ideas to the 365 Story Editor at firstname.lastname@example.org


text:
UK-based gas-detection industry expert ION Science will be exhibiting its gas sensors and air quality monitoring technology at two events being held this year (2021).
The company will be present at Sensors Expo, held at the McEnergy Convention Centre in San Jose, California from September 22nd – 23rd.
A second event, the Air Quality and Emissions Event, will be held virtually over October 13th and 14th.
Exploring the latest developments in sensor and gas detection technology, the events will showcase a range of ION Science’s products including its flagship MiniPID2 Sensor, a sensor capable of detecting volatile organic compounds (VOCs) over a wide dynamic range.
Resistant to up to 99% humidity, the device also boasts a 10,000-hour lamp life and is designed for both diffusive and in-line pumped sampling.
With the Covid-19 pandemic highlighting the importance of good air quality, ensuring a clean air supply is arguably more important than ever.
ION Science’s High Sensitivity VOC Gas Sensor will also be on show at the events. Capable of detecting VOCs at sub ppb (parts per billion) levels, the company claims that the sensor is 15 times more sensitive than other leading market products.


text:
Giant Tech companies namely Amazon, Google and Microsoft have recruited students from the University Institute of Engineering and Technology, Panjab University.
“The highest package offered this year is Rs 40 lakhs per annum and annual average package has also witnessed a rise from 5.5 lakhs in 2018 to 7 lakhs in 2019,” said a spokesperson of Panjab University.
Shivank Bali and Tarun Khullar, 4th year Computer Science Students from UIET were offered job by Microsoft after they appeared in the firm’s recruitment procedure. They were offered a highest package of Rs 40 lakh.
Tarun Khullar is also offered job by Google for the position of Software Engineer. With an annual package of 30 lakh each, the online giant, Amazon has recruited two students Gurpreet Singh and Rahul Bafila, computer science students. Ridhima a computer science 4th year student has been offered six months internship at Amazon.
Samsung, another big giant in technology has recruited four students namely Sagar Kalra, Akshay Kumar, Amit Singh and Naman as they went through the firm's on campus recruitment procedure.
Moreover, Amit Kumar, Anvneshna Sood, Kunal Garg, Sandhya Kumari, Shivam Chaudhary have been recruited by the telecom giant, Airtel.
The spokesperson said that the placement session of 2019-2020 witnessed the arrival of 63 companies in total providing full time job and internship offers. It saw an acknowledgement of 308 offers. A total of 256 students from campus were placed in these companies after they got through their selection procedures.
Last year, the highest package offered at the UIET was just Rs 16 lakh, and it stood at Rs 20 lakh in 2017.


text:
Inland exporters in the U.S. and several European countries, as well as Asia are being affected by a container shortage, reports Seatrade Maritime News.
U.S. Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) chairman Michael Khouri emphasized the issue of shipping lines not supplying containers to agricultural exporters inland in the U.S.
“Some ocean carriers, not all, have stated that they will no longer reposition empty containers to the U.S. interior agricultural areas. Instead, they are expediting empties back to Asia,” he said. “This abandonment of a significant U.S. export industry, the American agricultural industry, is shutting them out of global markets,” he told the virtual Global Maritime Conference.
The FMC is looking at possible actions it could take.
“We are looking into all potential responsive actions, including a review of whether such ocean carriers’ actions are in full compliance with the Shipping Act and more specifically the various “Prohibited Acts” sections of the Act,” said Chairman Khouri.
Research by FraunhoferCML and Container xChange shows the shortage is being exacerbated by the lengthy periods empty boxes spend in depots, an average of 45 days. In China and the U.S., the number of days empty containers spend in depots is considerably higher at 61 to 66 days.
Meanwhile, Hapag-Lloyd, a global leader in container shipping, has stopped accepting 40- foot reefer container booking for empty pick-up from depots in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary and the Czech Republic until the end of the year. In Hamburg, it has also stopped container booking for empty pick-up for 40-foot GP units until the end of the year.
“Our aim is to support all confirmed export bookings but it might come to booking cancellations in individual cases.” “We do our utmost to avoid such cases and to serve all our customers as best as possible. We expect the situation to remain extremely tight over the next weeks,” Hapag-Lloyd said in a customer advisory.


text:
News Media – US – July 2019: National Cable and Online News Sources Continue
Posted by Deeksha on August 22nd, 2019
The news media industry in the United States is reliant on a number of factors, and is primarily assessed by major economic indicators and key audience tracking parameters. News media in the U.S. includes online news sites, social media, newspapers, and television. U.S. newspaper circulation continues to remain sluggish. However, revenue from this news media has displayed a steady rate, despite a fall in the revenue from ads in newspapers. A number of national level publications have witnessed a rise in digital subscriptions and revenue, in the past few years. On the whole however, the sector continues to struggle with business obstacles. A study of the United States news media industry is compiled and published in the report titled, “NEWS MEDIA - US - JULY 2019” that has been added to the massive research repository of Market Research Hub (MRH).
Check for the sample here @ https://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=2461298
Revenue from ads on digital platforms continue to rise. However, approximately half of all such revenue goes towards tech giants such as Google and Facebook. Further, the rise of ad revenue on digital platforms has failed to offset the declines in traditional ad revenue sources.
Request TOC of the Report @ https://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/news-media-us-july-2019-report.html
News Media - US – July 2019: Report Overview
The report on the news media industry for the US in July 2019 provides the readers with a detailed analysis on the landscape of news media industry operating in the United States. Industry-based forecasting models include a full analysis of the research publication and primary interviews with industry participants in addition to consumer data.
The report also includes detailed interviews conducted by leading market analysts with industry savants, media experts and industry analysts to provide key validations of the operational statistics and relevant assumptions in the study.
The news media industry report for the US in July 2019 foresees the performance of the market progress in terms of volumes forecast by different categories including sales, marketing, technology, and costs, in addition to factors such as the growth of the US news media market.
For each of these categories, business development strategies and market projections adopted by key market players for specific strategies has also been added to the report. Valuable insights which can be helpful for manufacturers operating in the US news media market are provided in the report.
Scrutiny of supply-demand equation, pricing analysis, barriers to market entry, and market expansion strategies, makes the report a highly credible source of data for business professionals interested in the US news media market.
About the AuthorDeeksha
Joined: January 3rd, 2019
Articles Posted: 12,334
Take Online Guitar Lessons
Learn to play at your own pace and in a range of styles and genres. Get started now to access over 200 online guitar lessons.
Online Art Lessons
Visit us for hundreds of free online art lessons and classes. New tutorials added every week on how to draw and paint in Oil, Watercolour, Acrylic and more.
Learn Guitar | Free Guitar Tip | Online Guitar Lesson
Guitar Coaching: Serving Guitarists Online Since 2004. Best learn guitar lessons online. Step-by-step courses for beginners, intermediate & advanced guitar.
Wall Street Window
Stock Market Financial and Global Geopolitical News
Make Rap Beats Online - Sonic Producer
It is now really easy to make rap & Hop Hop beats online with the help of the number one voted beat maker software. You can make rap, hiphop etc beats in minutes.
Lolli: Earn Free Bitcoin When You Shop Online!
Lolli is a rewards application that gives you bitcoin for shopping at your favorite online stores.


text:
Kim Kardashian Is Showing the World How to Recreate Her Makeup with These New Videos
Your makeup game will never be the same again thanks to Kim Kardashian West. The star announced via twitter (below) that this summer she'll be sharing several makeup video tutorials on her new website.
For years Mrs. West has used her site to share her outfits, private photos, and more, but the beauty tutorials are a completely new element that we can't wait to see. Even more exciting, she won't be alone while handing out secrets. Just like previous business endeavors, her sisters are joining her on the journey by also updating their sites, giving fans their different takes on makeup and hair.
From those contoured sky-high cheekbones to the healthy shiny tresses, we've been dying to know the secret behind how she really achieves her gorgeous looks.


text:
The World That Never Was: Wizarding World of Harry Potter
Back at the end of the 20th century (still strange to say), there was something brewing up with these children’s books coming out of England by an unknown author. By 1999, Warner Bros. had jumped on the chance to turn the first four books into movies. The first four books cost Warner Brothers Studio nearly $2 million dollars just to have the rights to. After the first film received massive attention and box office numbers, the Disney company jumped on board with the project, purchasing the rights for the film to television deal for the first film at a reported $1 million dollars. Soon after, it became a bidding war for the possible theme park rights to J.K. Rowling’s run-away success in the Harry Potter franchise.
Yes, it is true that Universal Studios owns the theme park rights to Harry Potter, and this is specifically a Disney website, but Mickey Mouse did have his gloved finger prints on the Harry Potter park at one time. In fact, Universal Orlando President Bob Gault had once said the Walt Disney Company did have the Harry Potter rights back in 2003. An misinformed Gault was almost correct. Disney was in very deep negotiations with Rowling but both sides were having a hard time agreeing. A very stubborn Rowling was not going to allow Disney Imagineers the right to change what she had created or to scale down what she thought was suitable for a Harry Potter theme park.
By 2007, Universal had garnered the rights to Harry Potter by giving Rowling almost everything she wanted while also compensating Warner Bros. for the visual representations of several film locations planned for the future Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Well, we know what happened after that. The Wizarding World opened in June of 2010 at Universal’s Islands of Adventure and theme park attendance rose while Universal gained a 10% increase in profits. Now in 2012, they are expanding the Harry Potter area to make it even bigger, and have announced the same for Universal Studios in Hollywood.
So after years of conversations and proposals, why did J.K. Rowling pass up Disney and go with Universal Studios? Much like the film series, J.K. Rowling had stiff demands that she wanted to keep. (All of the actors in the films had to be British.) One story that had made the rounds a few years ago is that J.K. Rowling wanted Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to be of actual size. She figured that Disney had the money to do it, and she wasn’t going to scale down the key location for much of the series. That would mean Hogwarts would be as big, if not bigger, than the iconic Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom Park. Disney wasn’t fond of taking their icon since 1971 and posting Hogwarts in front of it just to make a few extra dollars.
Another problem Disney had was where to put the Harry Potter brand. Certainly Harry Potter didn’t fit in with the Magic Kingdom. Like the coming Avatar “land”, it may have fit into Animal Kingdom if Disney were to put the focus on much of the animals coming from the Forbidden Forest. I could see a proposal like this coming from Disney and Rowling shutting it down as she probably felt that Harry Potter deserved it’s own park.
As much as everyone talks about adding a fifth theme park to Walt Disney World, at this point, the focus needs to be on what already exists. Disney has done a great job over the last few years of reinventing the current parks it has. They are currently turning what many would call half-day parks into full day parks, and full day parks are becoming brand new experiences.
So Harry Potter ended up at Universal Studios instead of Walt Disney World. To that I say congratulations to Universal Studios as they needed something to boost their parks, and for Walt Disney World, I say it wasn’t worth it. Walt Disney World is doing great business with the franchises it already owns and they are doing what they need to be doing currently, reinventing instead of expanding.
How do you feel about the Wizarding World? Would you have liked to have seen it at Disney World even if that means cutting out the New Fantasyland and the future Avatarland. If it did come to Disney World, where would you have liked to have seen it? Maybe at Disney’s Hollywood Studios? Maybe it’s own park? Let me know what you think and I will see you all next time.


text:
WEDNESDAY 23 FEBRUARY, 2011 |
Samsung Inks Solar Polysilicon Agreement With MEMC
Samsung Fine Chemicals (SFC) and MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. have announced
a deal to produce high purity polysilicon for use in products such as solar panels.
The partnership will build and operate a new facility on an existing SFC property in
Ulsan, Korea; with an initial capacity of 10,000 metric tonnes of polysilicon
"This joint venture signals SFC's entry into the fast moving renewable energy market and establishes a new engine for long-term
growth." commented Hyun-min Hong; Samsung Fine Chemicals' Executive Director
of Strategic Planning.
A statement from MEMC says the arrangement minimises
business risk by ensuring competitiveness in both cost and quality through the
combined forces of SFC and MEMC's advanced processing and technology
Samsung Fine Chemicals
is the chemical-focused subsidiary of Samsung Group and a producer of electronics
related materials. SFC is expanding and reinforcing its operations by moving
into environmental friendly products and renewable energy materials.
While probably best known for other high quality electronics, various arms of
Samsung have been heavily involved in solar power research and development for
nearly three decades - and the company looks set to become a powerful player in
the solar module manufacturing sector.
Last year, Samsung announced over five billion dollars in investments in solar
products by the end of this decade and a range of high quality Samsung
are already available in some markets. Samsung says its
proprietary solar cell technology offers high power output and low degradation.
has been working in the field of design and development of silicon wafer
and solar energy technologies for 50 years and is also a developer of solar power projects,
through its SunEdison subsidiary.
Other news for Wednesday 23 February, 2011
Return to main renewable energy news section
Other Energy Matters News Services


text:
PEOPLE IN FASHION
LOOK OF THE DAY
An evening at the castle: Chanel Métiers d’art 2021 collection
“Showing at the Château de Chenonceau, at the “Château des Dames”, was an obvious choice. It was designed and lived...
Chanel releases a teaser for Le Château Des Dames 2021 Métiers D’art Collection
During the run-up to the Chanel 2020/21 Métiers d’art show, the German photographer Juergen Teller produced a teaser and a series...
Chanel Cruise 2021 campaign starring Lily-Rose Depp
The Chanel Cruise 2020/21 collection evokes the spirit of the Mediterranean. The campaign is embodied by actress and House...
Discover the new Chanel N°5 campaign starring Marion Cotillard
Chanel invites you to discover the new chapter in the legendary journey of the most famous fragrance in the world, N°5....
Inside Chanel Chapter 30: Gabrielle Chanel and Literature
If Gabrielle Chanel was particularly attuned to how modern artistic practices were developing during time, literature for its part...
Chanel Spring 2021 collection is an Ode to Cinema
Monumental light-bulb encrusted letters spelling Chanel sparkled over the runway at the Grand Palais on the last day of Paris...
Chanel celebrates the opening of the exhibition Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto at the Palais Galliera
On September 30th 2020, Chanel celebrated the opening of the exhibition Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto, which will run until...
Chanel, Partner of the Deauville American Film Festival
For the second year running, Chanel is partnering with the Deauville American Film Festival, whose 46th event will be held...
Chanel presents new Coco Mademoiselle L’eau Privée campaign starring Keira Knightley
For the launch of Coco Mademoiselle L’Eau Privée, British actress Keira Knightley, once again plays a game of seduction....
Inside Chanel Chapter 29: Gabrielle Chanel and Dance
At the epicenter of the avant-garde, Gabrielle Chanel was surrounded by a circle of friends that included some of the greatest...
Inside Chanel Chapter 28: Gabrielle Chanel and Cinema
A new arrival in the artistic field of the 20th century, cinema intersected paths with Gabrielle Chanel's extraordinary career...
Inside Chanel Chapter 27: Gabrielle Chanel and the Arts
In 2020, Inside Chanel explores the special relationship Gabrielle Chanel had with the world of the arts. The first episode...
Chanel Fall 2020 Haute Couture collection: Limitless creativity and sophisticated eccentricity
Limitless creativity and sophistication are at the heart of the Chanel Fall-Winter 2020/21 Haute Couture collection, as imagined...
Chanel Cruise 2021: Balade en Méditerranée
On Monday, June 8, Chanel digitally unveiled the 2020-2021 Cruise Collection, which had initially been scheduled to show...
Chanel Spring 2020 eyewear campaign
Musician Pharrell Williams, actress Margaret Qualley, singer Angèle, actress Isabelle Adjani and musician Sébastien Tellier...
Marion Cotillard is the new face of Chanel N°5 fragrance
Chanel is delighted to announce that Marion Cotillard will be the face of the new advertising campaign for the iconic N°5...
« Previous Page
Next Page »
AZ Factory unites the fashion world for the Spring 2021 collection
AZ Factory unites the fashion world with the Love Brings Love tribute show in honor...
Louis Vuitton Spring 2022 Women's collection
Nicolas Ghesquière presents his Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2022 Women’s collection...
Tamara Radjenovic: Montserrat will always be in my heart!
The young rising opera star, Montenegrin soprano Tamara Radjenovic made her operatic...
Chanel Spring 2022 collection
A cast of ambassadors and friends of the House personify key roles in a fantasy world...
Schiaparelli Spring 2022 collection: The Surrealist Holiday
Discover the Schiaparelli Spring/Summer 2022 collection through the words of the Maison's...
Alexandre Vauthier Spring 2022 collection
Alexandre Vauthier presented the Spring/Summer 2022 Ready-to-Wear collection, filled...
Lanvin Spring 2022 collection
Traveling and traversing, escape and escapades - the Lanvin Spring/Summer 2022 collection...
Alexis Mabille Spring 2022 collection: The Dance Machine
With his new Spring/Summer 2022 Ready-to-Wear collection, promptly named The Dance...
PEOPLE IN FASHION
Look of theDay
Copyright 2010. Vesna Filipović


text:
Samsung Display announced today that it is the first in the industry to successfully commercialize a foldable display panel having a 1...
Samsung Electronics today introduced four new Samsung ISOCELL image sensors for its 0.7 micrometer (μm)-pixel product lineup; 108-megapixel (Mp) ISOCELL HM2...
The report pointed out that Apple’s supply chain providers have revealed that Apple’s new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus will upgrade to having A9 processors. At the same time, their memory will be increased from 1GB to 2GB. Original suppliers Micron and SK Hynix will be unable to meet the supply requirements; therefore, Apple will begin purchasing from Samsung.
DRAM distributors stated that Samsung has already formally notified OEM manufacturers that at the end of next month they will ship out US$20.50 to $21 DRAM modules, which are the lowest prices this quarter. However, beginning in August, they will not lower the price further. Samsung will reduce their production of standard DRAM by 30% in order to shift to producing the newest 8GB LPDDR4 Mobile DRAM and put all of their efforts into meeting production requirements for Apple’s new phones.
Samsung is currently the world’s largest DRAM producer, and at the beginning for this year they spared no efforts in manufacturing 20nm standard DRAM. However, lower than anticipated PC sales brought about an overproduction of standard DRAM relative to global demand and price decreases of over 10% in the second quarter, and this impacted DRAM manufacturers’ profit performance.
Taiwanese DRAM manufacturers Nanya and Inotera originally expected profits to slide in the third quarter; however, because of Samsung’s shift in supply strategy, this decline may be reversed.
CTIMES loves to interact with the global technology related companies and individuals, you can deliver your products information or share industrial intelligence. Please email us to firstname.lastname@example.org
- 1Digi-Key Releases 1.5 Million SnapEDA CAD Models Including Symbols, Footprints, and 3D Models
- 2Baytec SPR Strengthen the First Eco-bridge in SEA
- 3LTPS Smartphone Panels in 2021 Likely to Be Constrained
- 4eMemory NeoFuse IP Qualified on GLOBALFOUNDRIES Advanced High Voltage Platform for OLED Applications
- 5Record-breaking Drone Show Enabled by u-blox Positioning Technology


text:
Lithium is the current hot topic in Western Australia, powering the latest mining boom and building a new multi-million dollar industry within the State.
In July 2017 Britain announced that it would ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2040, following a similar statement from France. Given the vast distances that Western Australians need to cover, a similar move would not currently be feasible in Australia. The Western Australian Premier, Mark McGowan, is looking into future opportunities for lithium miners as the global shift to electric vehicles develops.
‘’WA is in a prime position to capitalise on the growing world market for lithium,’’ Mr McGowan said.
In November 2017 the Australian Financial Review published an article including an interview from Western Australia's Chief Scientist, Professor Peter Klinken. Professor Klinken said, ''there is great value in exploring the viability of lithium-ion battery manufacturing in the State.’’ Hightlighting the real possibilities that Western Australia possesses to progress the resources sector and look to further processing of lithium to reach the desired end product, a lithium-ion battery.
Australia, as the world’s largest producer of lithium, has the competitive advantage as a producer of some of the raw battery materials to capture a greater share of the value present in the booming battery supply chain. Western Australian miners are beginning to invest in advancing further downstream – Professor Klinken said it is time that WA ''packages it all together in the interest of the State and of the nation.’’
A recent report by The Economist describing Australia as the new frontier for battery materials also noted Australia's comparative advantages as a supplier for battery producers due to lower political, legal and business risks as well as a lack of ethical concerns surrounding supplies sourced elsewhere.
In other lithium news, the McGowan Government has welcomed Tianqi Lithium's final investment decision to expand its processing plant currently under construction at Kwinana. The project will take spodumene from the Greenbushes mine south-east of Bunbury and process and refine it into battery-grade lithium hydroxide for export.
Last month the Western Australian Government launched a $16.7 million New Industries Fund which Innovation Minister Dave Kelly has described as ''primarily a vehicle to support new and emerging businesses and create WA jobs.’’ This provides a great platform to further encourage industry growth, particularly in booming sectors such as the lithium industry, which in turn works towards building lithium batteries.
Minister Kelly further stated: ‘’The State has attracted interest in downstream value-adding of lithium. Tianqi Lithium has commenced construction of a $700 million processing facility in Kwinana which will create more than 650 jobs across operation and construction.’’
‘’The State hopes to secure more downstream processing of lithium and other minerals, and would be interested to engage with any substantive companies who are interested in manufacturing lithium-ion batteries in WA.’’
Pilbara Minerals' 100%-owned Pilgangoora Lithium-Tantalum Project, described as the world's leading lithium development project is located 120km from Port Hedland in Western Australia’s resource-rich Pilbara region. It is one of the biggest new lithium ore (spodumene) deposits in the world, with a globally significant hard rock spodumene resource.
For more information on Pilgangoora (as seen in the image at the top of the article) please go to their website.
As the world begins to look to batteries rather than fuel, Western Australia is ready to utilise its abundance of battery metals.


text:
Shares of Under Armour Fall On Uncertain Future
Published February 11,2020
Under Armour’s stock fell after the company failed to impress investors in the first leg of its comeback strategy.
Shares plunged by more than 15 percent Tuesday in pre-market trading hours after the Baltimore, Md.-based athletic apparel, accessories and footwear brand reported weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings.
“Under Armour is an operationally better company following our transformation over the past few years, with a clearly defined and focused strategy, enhanced go-to-market process, cleaner inventories and a stronger balance sheet,” Patrik Frisk, Under Armour’s president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “However, ongoing demand challenges and the need to drive greater efficiencies in our business requires us to further prioritize our investments to put our company in the best position possible to achieve sustainable, profitable growth over the long-term.”
For the three-month period ending Dec. 31, revenues rose about 4 percent to $1.44 billion, up from $1.38 billion during 2018’s fourth quarter. But the company had a loss of $15.3 million, compared with profits of $4.2 million the same time last year. The company credited this to a $23 million tax expense, as well as a $39 million impairment charge on an equity investment Under Armour has in Japan.
Revenues for all of 2019 were $5.26 billion, compared with $5.19 billion in 2018. Meanwhile, profits were $92.1 million, compared with a loss of $46.3 million in 2018.
But moving forward, the company anticipates even further losses, most notably because of the ongoing coronavirus in China. In 2020’s first quarter, the retailer expects sales declines of between $50 million and $60 million.
“Given the significant level of uncertainty with this dynamic and evolving situation, full year results could be further materially impacted,” according to a statement. In addition, “the following outlook also does not include any possible benefits or costs from a potential restructuring initiative.”
This quarter also marks Frisk’s debut as ceo.
Last October, Under Armour founder and former ceo Kevin Plank abruptly announced that he would be stepping down Jan. 1. Instead, Plank would take the helm as executive chairman and brand chief. Other c-suite changes include Colin Browne appointed chief operating officer earlier this month, and Paul Fipps named chief experience officer, Under Armour’s first.
Frisk told WWD in January that Under Armour was focused on growing its retail fleet. But in Tuesday morning’s quarterly results, the company said it was reconsidering its plans for a New York City flagship.
In addition, the company continues to be plagued by an ongoing SEC security probe and heightened competition in the world of ath-leisure and activewear.
“The brand remains focused on the technical aspect of their apparel,” said a note by Jane Hali & Associates. “[Under Armour] is focused on functionality rather than trends in the active and athleisure space. The brand does not have many collaborations with trending celebrities or brands that would help them gain. We are yet to hear news on an impressive business strategy that would help [the company] gain share in the activewear market.”


text:
Lumber Liquidators, the largest specialty retailer of hardwood flooring in North America, will open a new store in Dothan Friday.
The 7,600-sq.-ft. store, located at 3500 Ross Clark Circle, will include a warehouse and a showroom with flooring options, moldings, accessories and tools. It will have more than 400 flooring varieties, including solid hardwood, engineered hardwood, bamboo, cork and vinyl wood plank.
It is the chain's sixth store in Alabama, which continues the company's growth in Alabama, Dennis Knowles, company CEO said in a statement.
"Our associates at the new Dothan location are excited to build relationships in the community and serve our full range of customers, from homeowners and DIYers to construction professionals," he said.


text:
Kioxia, Western Digital ‘In Detailed Talks’ About Merger: Report
Joseph F. Kovar
Should the deal, talks about which have been going on for a couple of years, occur, the combined company would likely overtake Samsung as the world’s largest producer of NAND flash memory at a time when that market is in a downturn.
Kioxia and Western Digital are in “detailed talks” about a possible merger between the two companies, according to a report by Japanese news agency Kyodo News.
Kyodo Friday reported that Japan-based chipmaker Kioxia Holdings and San Jose, Calif.-based storage and memory manufacturer Western Digital are now in detailed talks about merging the two.
Kyodo, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, said the two companies are looking into integrating their production and sales operations via a joint merger in which Kioxia would hold the majority.
The news of progress in talks between Kioxia and Western Digital comes three weeks after reports surfaced that the two were in discussions over the merger after not coming to an agreement during talks in August of 2021.
Merger talks between Kioxia and Western Digital come at a time when NAND memory demand continues to decline following shortages that resulted from COVID-19 pandemic-related supply chain issues that drove prices to some of their highest levels.
Taipei, Taiwan-based market intelligence firm Trendforce Thursday said purchasing momentum in the NAND flash memory market declined in the first quarter of 2023. Shipment volume in the quarter increased only 2.1 percent over the prior quarter, while total revenue for the market decreased 16.1 percent over the same period, Trendforce reported. Average selling price decreased about 15 percent during that time as well.
In the first quarter of 2023, Samsung continued to be the NAND flash manufacturing leader with 34 percent of the market, according to Trendforce. Kioxia was second with a 21.5-percent share, followed by SK Group which includes SK Hynix and Solidigm at 15.3 percent, and Western Digital at 15.2 percent.
A merger between Kioxia and Western Digital would give the combined company a 36.8-percent market share, assuming consolidation of manufacturing capacity would not reduce total output.
Neither Western Digital nor Kioxia responded to a CRN request for further information by press time.
Western Digital and Kioxia have a 20-year joint venture for developing flash memory at the Yokkaichi Plant, the largest semiconductor plant in Japan.
The two companies in late March jointly unveiled their newest 3D flash memory technology they said reduces costs with new processes and architecture. The new 218-layer 3D flash leverages 1-terabit TLC and QLC with four planes with a new lateral shrink technology to increase bit density by over 50 percent, the two claimed. It also features high-speed NAND I/O at over 3.2 gigabits per second, a 60 percent improvement over the previous generation, with a 20 percent write performance and read latency improvement.
Western Digital in June of 2022 said it was evaluating strategic and financial alternatives, including a full separation of its flash business. Such a separation, should it come to pass, would follow a similar move by Intel late 2021 to sell its flash technology business to South Korea-based SK Hynix, which became a new flash storage company named Solidigm.
Kioxia, which until October of 2019 was known as Toshiba Memory, continues to be a world leader in memory and SSD technologies, including SLC NAND flash memory, NAND with integrated controllers, and 3D BiCS FLASH technology, along with enterprise, data center, and client SSDs.