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As he sits down with his third energy drink of the day, Celsius Holdings CEO John Fieldly exerts a laid back demeanor that stands in sharp contrast to the pick-me-up his company's beverages provide.
But the 40-year old's message is decidedly more upbeat as Celsius finds itself in the sweet spot of a "renaissance" in the $14 billion beverage category behind its energy-boosting, calorie-burning drinks despite going head-to-head with industry juggernauts Monster, Red Bull, PepsiCo's Rockstar and scores of smaller competitors.
Despite the pandemic, sales are rising double-digits annually and its stock price has soared nearly 400% since this year in an otherwise turbulent market amid optimism that its push into stores such as Walmart and Kroger is just the start for a company once relegated to shelves at vitamin stores and gyms.
"We're not that far off from being a billion-dollar brand," Fieldly said during a hour-long interview at Celsius' headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida. "At this stage of this company, we need to keep our foot on the gas and keep our foot on Celsius. We have a lot of work ahead of us."
The U.S. energy drink sector is one of the strongest performers in the nonalcoholic space. Energy drink sales totaled $9.3 billion in 2014 and are projected to more than double to $19.2 billion in 2024, according to Mintel. Even with the pandemic, which has lowered retail traffic and prompted consumers to spend more time at home, sales are poised to jump 5% in 2020 compared to the double-digit increase previously predicted.
For smaller energy drink companies like Celsius, the huge size of the category offers a lucrative payday if they're able to grab even a small slice of the market. The category is currently dominated by Red Bull with 41.7% of dollar share at U.S. retail stores for the 52 weeks ended Oct. 4, followed by Monster at 31%, according to data from IRI, a market research firm. Meanwhile, upstart Bang has quickly captured just over 9% of the market.
"We're not that far off from being a billion dollar brand. At this stage of this company, we need to keep out foot on the gas and keep our foot on Celsius. We have a lot of work ahead of us."
CEO, Celsius Holdings
Euromonitor estimated Celsius had virtually no measurable brand share in 2018 when it posted sales of $52.6 million, but increased it to 0.2% the following year when sales jumped 43% to $75.1 million.
"Health and wellness is breaking into so many different categories," said Howard Dorman, a partner and practice leader for the food and beverage sector at Mazars. Celsius is "small enough to be nimble to react to the market."
Data released by Nielsen showed sales at Celsius remain robust, surging 61.5% in measured channels for the 52 weeks ended Sept. 5, giving it a 0.7% share. It outpaced growth in the broader energy drink category, which sat at 7.5%, during the same period. Its competitors posted mixed results, with Monster rising 4.8%, Red Bull up 10.1%, PepsiCo, including Rockstar, down 8.2% and Bang up 17.1%.
Expanding beyond the barbell crowd
Fitness-oriented drinks are viewed in the energy space as another way to expand the category. As consumers move away from beverages loaded with sugar and ingredients on the label they don't recognize, companies offering better-for-you products are among those that could be the biggest beneficiaries.
Celsius, Monster Energy's Reign and PepsiCo's Rockstar are some of the most prominent brands to take that one step further by incorporating into their drinks thermogenics to increase a person's metabolism to burn more fat and calories when they exercise.
Caleb Bryant, an associate director of food and drink at Mintel, said Celsius is emblematic of the broader push by energy drink makers to position themselves as not only a pick-me-up for lethargic consumers but as a go-to for exercise buffs attracted by its lack of lack of sugar and calories, as well as ingredients that provide some workout benefits. Celsius also stands out by tapping into unique flavor combinations for its sparkling and noncarbonated drinks, such as peach mango green tea, kiwi guava and Fuji apple pear.
"They're doing a lot of things right within the broader energy drink space. Now, others are kind of following that path," Bryant said. "The big question is, can [Celsius] appeal to those non-energy drink consumers, many of whom tend to have a fairly negative [perception] of energy drinks?"
While Celsius built its reputation initially as a drink for gym goers and fitness enthusiasts, its healthy reputation has helped it transcend beyond the barbells and bench press crowd to consumers lifting boxes of cereal and granola bars at prominent retailers.
Today, Celsius can be found on Amazon and in more than 74,000 brick-and-mortar locations, including Target, Walmart, CVS and 7-Eleven, up from 40,000 stores just two years ago. This expansion has proven especially valuable during the coronavirus by offsetting a drop in sales to gyms and fitness centers.
Fieldly said until 2019 there was "a lot of hesitation" among retailers to devote meaningful shelf space to the functional energy drink category because of uncertainty as to whether it would gain momentum or was merely a fad. At first, stores gave Celsius room to sell two or three flavors. Now, retailers are setting aside more space for performance energy drinks and "there's only a few brands they can put in there," he said.
During the company's second-quarter earnings in August, Fieldly said demand remains strong and its brand is "significantly outpacing the growth of our peers across an expansive number of industry channels.” E-commerce sales, which have thrived during the coronavirus outbreak across the food and beverage industries, are especially robust at Celsius, more than doubling from a year ago.
Big interest by big soda
As energy drink sales continue to reliably grow each year, soda titans Coca-Coca and PepsiCo have taken notice through new offerings of their own or by doling out billions to make an acquisition.
In January, Coca-Cola, which owns an 18.5% stake in Monster, launched its new Coca-Cola Energy line designed to appeal to cola drinkers rather energy drink consumers. PepsiCo spent $3.85 billion in March to buy Rockstar Energy, and then a month later announced a distribution deal with Bang. Keurig Dr Pepper entered the mix in 2019 with an investment and distribution deal with Adrenaline Shoc to appeal to consumers looking for less sugar and more natural ingredients.
Bang "represents a nice win for us and it really helps us fill out the energy portfolio as we move to a more assertive posture on this category," Hugh Johnson, PepsiCo's CFO, said during the company's first quarter earnings call in April.
Analysts said the emergence of the cola players in the energy drink space could be good for companies such as Celsius by bringing new consumers into the category through innovation and marketing.
"The main beverage players, they're taking the energy drink market quite seriously," Bryant said. "If you look at products like Coca-Cola Energy, that I think has the potential to bring new consumers into the market because it's the Coke brand that everyone loves, but it's an energy drink."
"The big question is, can they appeal to those non-energy drink consumers, many of whom tend fo have a fairly negative [perception] of energy drinks."
Associate director of food and drink, Mintel
Fieldly agreed, noting that after some initial concern at Celsius, the consensus is that Coke's presence will attract consumers to the category who will then explore what else is available. Shoppers will try different brands, but move to Celsius because of its better taste, exotic flavors and higher level of vitamins and nutrition, he said. Coca-Cola's presence also will put more pressure on energy drink companies to innovate.
"It's good for the category," Fieldly said. "Is it going to make it tough? Absolutely. It's more slots taken out of the door. ... but there's a lot more growth opportunity in the category."
'A formidable barrier'
While energy drinks have a dedicated base, Mintel estimated more than half of U.S. consumers are not purchasing the beverages in large part because they believe they contain too much sugar, caffeine or simply don't taste good.
This "presents a formidable barrier to trial," Mintel said in a report issued in May. "Despite loyalists that keep the category flourishing, conversion of non-users is extremely difficult, but necessary to sustain the sales trajectory for the long term."
Without mentioning brands such as Celsius by name, the report noted an energy drink that delivers on taste and cleaner formulation with lower caffeine and sugar could open the doors to attracting reluctant non-users to the category.
There are challenges that exist among existing users too. Mintel found even among energy drink consumers, the beverage is not their go-to drink when they need a boost, providing evidence there is still stiff competition from coffee and other caffeinated beverages. The market is further complicated by the fact that fewer than half of high-frequent users stock energy drinks at home and for medium- and low-frequency consumers energy drinks are impulsive, need-based purchases.
Nick Johnson, an analyst who covers Rockstar and Monster at Morningstar, said performance energy drinks, much like other subsets in the category such as those made from dairy or ones that are high in protein, are unlikely to ever command a dominant share to the point where they come to define the multi-billion dollar beverage segment.
But for energy drink manufacturers, expanding into performance drinks is a logical extension as they look to compete in as many categories and consumption occasions throughout the day. A consumer, for example, could grab an energy drink to wake them up in the morning or for an afternoon boost, while turning to another beverage before they work out. Johnson estimated performance could eventually command about 10% of the category.
"It's not going away. I don't think it's a fad," he said. "It's bringing new consumers into the category."
Big bang on a small budget
With an annual marketing budget that equates to what large CPGs spend during the course of a few weeks, Kyle Watson, Celsius's vice president of marketing, said the company has to find ways to stretch its dollars to promote its brand and connect with consumers. It has a large runway ahead for growth, having penetration in 1% of U.S. households, Fieldly said.
Before the pandemic, Celsius would do 50 brand events each quarter where it would sponsor gatherings such as tennis tournaments or marathons to enable people to sample the product and associate the energy drink with those experiences. During the Super Bowl in Miami in February where the average television ad costs $5.6 million, Celsius instead plastered its brand on a commuter rail train and went to parties and events attended by fans and players.
Beyond its own advertising, Celsius is highly dependent on its team of 500 brand ambassadors who distribute the products at area events and to people they know who might later purchase it on their next shopping trip. Watson said these individuals are not paid to promote the brand and do it because they like it, creating greater authenticity around the product with consumers.
"We have to get creative because we don't have the kind of money that the big brands have," Watson said.
During the pandemic, Celsius shifted its marketing dollars from in-person events to online. It sponsored free workouts on Instagram with the hashtag #SweatWithCelsius. It also has given away hundreds of cases of its beverage to first responders.
It has taken several years for Celsius to establish its reputation as a healthy, go-to offering. As Celsius moved beyond gyms and health clubs into mainstream retailers, the perception has trickled down from trainers and gym-goers into the average consumer interested in staying fit and giving themselves a boost when they work out.
"The cool crowd is drinking the product. My trainer is drinking the product, and you're likely to continue to drink the product. You see us at the gym. You see someone healthier, fitness-focused drinking the product, you're more likely to try that," Watson said. "That's what allows us to radiate out very cost effectively. And, yeah, that's taken for us years to build."
Analysts speculated Celsius' rapid growth and position in the functional energy drink space could bode well for a bigger player to buy the company, helping inject it with cash to compete while giving it a broader national distribution network to replace the piece-meal framework it currently has in place. But Fieldly insisted he isn't focused on a deal.
“My mandate from the board of directors is to drive profitable growth and build a company out on a global basis. Never did anyone talk about putting the company up for sale or anything like that or hire a banker to go pitch the company," Fieldly said. "It's bigger, there's like a massive opportunity here. You know, is everything for sale for the right price? Yeah, sure.”


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Multinational execs saddle up for Qingdao summit
Top executives of multinationals based in Qingdao, Shandong province are gearing up for the upcoming Qingdao Multinationals Summit to enhance communications with government officials and their peers in a bid to help further their businesses.
The third Qingdao Multinationals Summit will be held in Qingdao from June 20 to 21, the Ministry of Commerce announced on June 8. Approved by the State Council, the event, which is co-hosted by the Ministry of Commerce and the Shandong provincial government, will be held both online and offline.
Hao Jian, senior vice-president of Hexagon Greater China, will attend the summit for the third time. In a media interview on June 16, he said that the event is especially for multinationals, so it is a great chance for multinational executives to network.
"I also would like to hear what government officials will say during the summit to deepen my understanding of relevant policies," said Hao, who is also the executive president of Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence Greater China, which headquartered in Qingdao.
Hexagon is a global leader in digital reality solutions and Hexagon's Manufacturing Intelligence division provides solutions that use data from design and engineering, production and metrology to make manufacturing smarter, according to the company's official website.
He spoke highly of improving the business environment in China as well as in Qingdao.
"Recent years saw a boom in the capital market in Qingdao, which provides favorable conditions for businesses," he said.
Hao hoped more attractive policies for talents would be introduced in Qingdao.
High-end talents are essential for high-quality development, Hao added.
Ahn Myung-sik, general manager of Qingdao Nongshim Foods Co shared the similar views with Hao. Ahn said that human resources talents are the most important for a company's competitiveness and he hopes governments will support enterprise recruitment in terms of policies.
Nongshim is an instant-noodle maker and it established its Qingdao plant in 1996, according to the company's official website.
Also a participant for the summit, he wants to learn about Qingdao's future development plan to help guide his company's development strategy.
Furthermore, he said the summit serves as a platform to discuss solutions for complex globalization issues.
Van Svetlana runs a trade company called Golden Rus in the China-SCO Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Area in Jiaozhou, a county-level city in Qingdao. She is expected to attend the summit for the first time.
"We have been in communication with Russian institutions and associations in order to find Chinese partners during the summit," Svetlana said.
Robotic equipment for automobile manufacturing is displayed at an exhibition hall at Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence (Qingdao) Co. [Photo by Hu Qing/chinadaily.com.cn]
Van Svetlana introduces Russian goods at her store Golden Rus in Jiaozhou, a county-level city in Qingdao, Shandong province on June 16, 2022. [Photo by Hu Qing/chinadaily.com.cn]
Instant-noodle-related products are displayed at an exhibition hall in Qingdao Nongshim Foods Co. [Photo by Hu Qing/chinadaily.com.cn]

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Support during the COVID-19 pandemic
A good training is the foundation on which young people can build their professional future and Germany can ensure a continued supply of skilled workers. Punctually, as the new training year begins on 1 August, the German government has launched a new national programme to save traineeships (Ausbildungsplätze sichern), by supporting small and medium businesses.
To mitigate the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the traineeship market, the German government has decided to make available assistance worth millions of euros. The new nationwide programme to save traineeships (Ausbildungsplätze sichern) provides for measures worth a total of 500 million euros for small and medium businesses in 2020 and 2021. Businesses with a workforce of up to 249, that offer vocational traineeships in recognised occupations or conduct practice-integrated training regulated by national or federal state authorities in the health and social sectors are eligible to receive assistance.
Federal Education Minister Anja Karliczek explained, "Even during a pandemic young people need good opportunities to obtain training and they need reliable prospects for their professional future. The nationwide programme to save traineeships (Ausbildungsplätze sichern) is making an important contribution here. Young people are to be able to begin, continue and successfully complete a traineeship in the academic year 2020/2021."
Bonus payment for companies offering traineeships
The following regulations are planned:
- Businesses that have been particularly hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic are to receive a bonus payment if they offer the same number of traineeships as before. Specifically, they are to receive 2,000 euros for every training contract concluded for the academic year 2020/2021.
- Businesses that increase the number of traineeships they offer will receive a bonus payment of 3,000 euros for every additional training contract.
- Businesses offering traineeships that also continue their activities during the crisis and do not resort to short-time work for trainees or their instructors are to receive special support. The plan is to provide support equivalent to 75 per cent of the gross remuneration of trainees. This will apply for every month in which the business suffers a loss of work of at least 50 per cent. This support is limited until 31 December 2020.
- Assistance is also available to businesses that take on trainees whose original companies are unable to continue their training for an interim period as a result of the pandemic. This assistance is limited until 30 June 2021.
- Businesses taking on trainees from companies forced to declare insolvency will receive a bonus payment of 3,000 euros for every such trainee they take on. This assistance too is limited until 30 June 2021.
With this programme, the German government is translating into practice an important element of the economic stimulus and future package to overcome the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The nationwide programme is also to ensure the continued supply of skilled workers for the years to come.
As of next week, the application forms will be available on the website of Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit). Assistance covers trainees starting their traineeship no earlier than 1 August 2020. This also applies if the training contract was signed earlier.


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UPS has announced the launch of its route optimization software known as ORION (On-Road Integrated Optimization and Navigation), which the company expects will save more than 1.5 million gallons of fuel and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 14,000 metric tons by the end of the year.
ORION has a team of 500 dedicated resources to move the U.S deployment forward as UPS nears its busy holiday season. The rollout of ORION will optimize 10,000 delivery routes by the end of the year, reduce miles driven and reinforce UPS's sustainability efforts. A reduction of just one mile each day per driver over the course of a year saves the company up to $50 million annually, UPS says.
ORION consists of more than 250 million address data points. The software combines customer's shipping requirements with customized map data the company has compiled to provide UPS drivers with optimized routing instructions that meet service-level requirements, while reducing miles driven.
“This initiative, ORION, is arguably the world's largest operations research project,” said Tom Davenport, International Analytics Institute co-founder and Babson College professor. "UPS is one of the best examples of pushing analytics out to front-line processes - delivery routing in particular. It relies heavily on online map data and optimization algorithms, and will eventually reconfigure a driver's pick-ups and drop-offs in real time."
More than a decade in the making, ORION is the result of a long-term operational technology commitment, UPS says. To gather the necessary data, UPS operations research scientists began piloting telematics technologies with the installation of advanced GPS tracking equipment and vehicle sensors in 2008. The integration of these technologies allows UPS to capture data related to vehicle routes and performance and driver safety. The driver's handheld mobile device and telematics technologies combined with custom mapping data and ORION algorithms provide more efficient routes for UPS drivers.
UPS says it prototyped ORION technology at 11 different sites between 2008 and 2011 and engaged senior UPS drivers to "beat the computer." This challenge helped to identify business rules to bolster the algorithm.
UPS driver Tim Ahn said, "I get options that I would have actually never thought of before. It's a new way of thinking to make me more efficient."
The number of route combinations a UPS driver with an average of 120 daily deliveries could make is a number far greater than the number of nanoseconds the earth has existed, the company claims. ORION is constantly evaluating routing options up to the moment a driver leaves the UPS facility. At full deployment it will be running tens of thousands route optimizations per minute.
ORION will enable future enhancements to the MyChoice service, providing close to six million consumers with the ultimate flexibility over their home deliveries by way of rerouting shipments and adjusting delivery locations and dates.
U.S. deployment to nearly all 55,000 routes is planned to be completed in 2017 and global deployments are planned for the future.
In related news, FedEx earlier this year announced that it cut its fleet’s cumulative fuel economy by more than 22 percent, exceeding its goal of a 20 percent reduction by 2020 seven years early. The UPS competitor says it has pursued multiple avenues to achieve its efficiency goals, including advanced technology, engaging experienced manufacturers and optimizing vehicle operations. FedEx says it saw the biggest impact on overall fuel efficiency from its strategy of matching the right vehicle to each route, which saves time, energy and money. The company expects to save 20 million gallons of fuel each year from this strategy.


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Pharmaceutical companies have been front and center during the response to the COVID-19 pandemic by producing and distributing vaccines to millions across the world. Their contributions have been invaluable, but it’s also brought unwanted attention from malicious and state actors.
Navigating these challenges has led to a more complex threat landscape online. While many pharmaceutical companies previously conducted penetration tests to comply with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), offensive security strategies are shifting from compliance-based to risk-based to keep up with a dynamic cyber threat landscape.
Threats of intellectual property (IP) theft and data manipulation require staying one step ahead of foreign and domestic adversaries seeking to cause harm. As the recent attack on India’s Sun Pharma demonstrated, security needs to be a priority to keep operations running—it’s not a luxury.
Synack has worked with some of the most notable pharmaceutical companies globally on a strategic approach to security testing that prioritizes critical assets and identifies the root cause of vulnerabilities. These are some of the risks that we see as top priorities for our customers and how we are helping to address them.
Top 5 Cybersecurity Risks in the Pharmaceutical Industry
Intellectual property theft
A company’s IP is indispensable to its ability to innovate, compete and ultimately generate revenue. While the U.S. has strict laws defending pharmaceutical companies’ patent rights, other countries, such as China, have nullified patents in industries deemed important including pharmaceuticals. This opens up opportunities for corporate espionage.
While data manipulation has been used intentionally in the past as a way to gain FDA approval, in more recent years there are fears that competitors or foreign adversaries could manipulate data to gain an economic advantage or cause harm. Whether an adversary is trying to trigger an event like releasing the wrong drug or defrauding your company with ransomware, it is more important than ever for pharma companies to make sure that their data is secure.
The FDA’s Internet of Things (IoT) regulation has been front and center due to security research at DEFCON’s Medical Device Village and other lobbying efforts, and the industry at large has also been impacted by broader frameworks like GDPR, SEC regulations and HIPAA.
Companies that don’t adhere to compliance frameworks like those mentioned can face steep fines by failing to protect consumer data, for example. Clinical trial data is also among the top priorities for regulators at the FDA and HIPAA, which protects the patient’s personally identifiable information.
The New York Times recently wrote a piece about the extent to which Chinese industrial espionage has become a serious concern. Many company executives rightly want to trust their employees but are now faced with serious questions about how to detect insider threats.
One way to stymie a malicious insider threat is by segmenting your network to limit user privileges. Sometimes, functions of applications can leak sensitive information that can be exploited to gain additional access.
Supply chain risk
It goes without saying that your security is only as good as your providers, as we saw with the recent MOVEit vulnerability which is now estimated to have affected 530 organizations and 37 million people.
In the pharmaceutical industry, the supply chain is critical and large disruptions like a cyberattack can lead to losses as high as 24% of one year’s earnings. Companies across industries are experiencing the uncertainty of letting in a malicious actor via a third-party.
According to a Crowdstrike survey, 84% of respondents believe a supply chain attack is one of the biggest looming cyberthreats but only 36% vetted new and existing suppliers within the last year. The dissonance between understanding the threat of a supply chain attack and proactively doing something about it could be due to a lack of appropriate resources or tools.
NIST recommends implementing a cyber supply chain risk management process that identifies risks and critical systems, which could include regular pentesting of those systems to identify existing critical vulnerabilities and provide continuous monitoring.
How Synack Can Help
Synack provides continuous testing for your most critical assets that contain intellectual property and a blend of structured and unstructured testing to help prevent IP theft in a scalable, repeatable model. Synack tests for OWASP vulnerabilities that can be strategically used by attackers like broken access controls, authentication bypass, SQL injection and data leakage in our web and host premium checklists.
Additionally, Synack harnesses the creativity of a vetted community of security researchers to provide unstructured testing 24/7/365. Through continuous open vulnerability discovery, your team will have the chance to learn about new vulnerabilities, tools and tactics as 60+ vetted researchers test your network and applications all year long, instead of the traditional version of two pentesters for two weeks. You also have the ability to select researchers with specialized expertise to match the need.
Interested in a demo of the Synack Platform? Reach out!


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Budget 2022 expectations: Tech industry eyes import tariffs cut
Vijay Kumar Mikkilineni, Head of Marketing, TCL India expects the central government to reduce import tariff in the upcoming Budget 2022.
Budget 2022 is almost here and several industry experts have come up with a list of expectations that they want the government to consider. They are of the opinion that if these Budget 2022 expectations are covered, then it can help tech industry grow. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting the Union Budget 2022 on February 1, 2022. Due to Covid-19 pandemic several sectors and industries have been adversely impacted and this has slowed the overall economic development of the country and even the world.
The central government is already making efforts to boost domestic manufacturing and production industries by initiatives like Make in India, PLI Scheme, among others. Tech industry experts are expecting the government to reduce tariffs on imports so that it will become a bit easier to compete with countries like China, Thailand, among others.
Keeping his expectations forward from the upcoming Union Budget Vijay Kumar Mikkilineni, Head of Marketing, TCL India said, "Reduction on import tariffs is something we are expecting, this will help us compete with countries like China, Mexico, Thailand and more."
"In the last two years, the PLI schemes have provided momentum to domestic and international investments, but so the investment from the Government side for infrastructure building will boost the ‘Make in India' movement. We have to integrate India into the global supply chain scenario, to achieve that tariffs should be equal or less than competitive markets,” he said.
While, Rimo Bose, PR and Branding Manager, TCL India said, “We are expecting that the import tariff will be reduced, so that our country can match up with the other competing countries like China, Mexico, Thailand and more. Additionally, we have witnessed much of compliance reforms in the last two years, the PLI schemes have indeed helped in domestic and international investments, but we have to keep in mind that setting up manufacturing units might take several years, so the investment from the Government side will boost the ‘Make in India' movement.”
TCL India has various businesses spanning home appliances, wearables, and other segments. The company deals in products like gaming televisions, air conditioners, washing machine, headphones, tablets, etc.


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Yahoo Finance’s Jared Blikre breaks down how markets opened on Monday.
The catalyst that sent the electric vehicle (EV) maker plunging was quarterly vehicle deliveries that fell short of expectations. In a press release that dropped Sunday, Tesla revealed its third-quarter production and delivery numbers, and while the growth was robust, investors wanted more. In its press release, Tesla addressed the issue, saying, "Historically, our delivery volumes have skewed toward the end of each quarter ... [but] as our production volumes continue to grow, it is becoming increasingly challenging to secure vehicle transportation capacity."
(Bloomberg) -- Tesla Inc.’s shares dropped the most in three months after the carmaker blamed a disappointing deliveries report on shipment issues that increased the number of vehicles that were on their way to customers as the quarter came to a close.Most Read from BloombergCredit Suisse Turmoil Deepens With Record Stock, CDS LevelsTesla Falls Most Since June as Quarterly Deliveries DisappointCredit Suisse Market Turmoil Deepens After Memo BackfiresStocks Stage Oversold Comeback as ISM Sinks Yi


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Elkins classes pose a serious safety threat among students and faculty. Between classes that hold hundreds of people and uncooperative students who refuse to wear masks, it makes someone wonder why Pepperdine is having them at all during a pandemic.
Pepperdine students and faculty who have a disability share their experience.
Reserved parking in handicap spaces caused students and alumni to voice their opinions via Instagram.
Photo Courtesy of Red Carpet Report//Creative Commons In the fashion world, audiences rarely see inspirational triumph of the human spirit. However, this week at New York Fashion Week, audiences saw all of this and more in the show featuring Carrie Hammer’s designs. The show was titled “Role Models, Not Runway Models,” and it featured unconventionally […]


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New Delhi. Apple, one of the big tech companies, is in the process of launching another great phone iPhone SE in the year 2022. This phone can also be Apple’s most affordable 5G phone. According to leaked reports, the phone will support 5G connectivity. So far, many leaked reports have come to the fore regarding this phone. According to a recent report, the new Apple iPhone SE can knock in the market in March or April this year. Ahead of the device becoming official, several features have already been leaked online.
According to the report of Mark Gurman, Apple’s phone is expected to be launched in March or April this year. Based on previous leaks and reports, the iPhone SE 2022 will be similar to the model currently available in terms of design, but with better features. It will look like the iPhone 8 but will feature upgrades in terms of internals.
The phone is expected to come with a 4.7-inch Retina HD LCD display. Apart from this, it will also have a home button with fingerprint sensor. It is likely to be the last Apple smartphone to come with an LCD display panel and a home button.
It could be powered by Apple A15 processor with 3GB of RAM. For better photography features, a 12-megapixel single camera can be given at the back of the handset.
Not much information has been revealed about the storage option yet, but it is likely to come with 64GB and 128GB storage variants. A 7MP front-facing camera can be given for selfie and video calling in the phone. If other leaked reports are to be believed, then the price of the smartphone can be around $ 399 (about Rs 30,000).
first published:Jan. 10, 2022, 11:18 a.m.


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Record Growth for Intronis Amid Channel Chief Search
Intronis, the online backup provider, continues to generate record monthly performance and will continue to grow its partner program. That’s the message from founder and CEO Sam Gutmann, amid a search for a new channel chief to replace outgoing VP Eric Webster.
During a phone call earlier today, Gutmann confirmed a report that Webster had left Intronis because of a new career opportunity at another company. Gutmann wished Webster well, and said Intronis is seeking a new channel chief to further grow the company’s partner program.
Officially, Webster had been VP of marketing and sales at Intronis, which included responsibility for the Intronis partner program. Looking forward, Gutmann said Intronis may have two people take over Webster’s responsibilities, due to the company’s continued growth.
Intronis is privately held, so it’s difficult to pin down the company’s exact financial status. But Gutmann made it clear that the Intronis partner program has delivered record results for the company in recent months. Throughout the conversation, Gutmann reiterated his commitment to the Intronis partner program, which includes a white label option that allows VARs and MSPs to re-brand Intronis online backup as their own.
Webster’s departure came at a tricky time. Webster had been scheduled to attend the Autotask Community Live conference this week; the Miami-based event attracted roughly 500 VARs and MSPs — and companies such as VaultLogix and Zenith Infotech’s BDR team were on hand to pitch storage management to attendees.


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On Oct. 25, 2023, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed Meeting Invoice A5610-D/Senate Invoice S5823-C, banning the sale of weight-loss and sports activities vitamin dietary supplements to minors.
New York has change into the primary state to go such laws. A5610-D/S5823-C will take impact in April 2024. Hochul beforehand vetoed Meeting Invoice A431-C, which advocated for a similar laws.
The brand new regulation requires firms to make use of age verification measures. It may be utilized to any dietary complement that’s “labeled, marketed, or in any other case represented for the aim of attaining weight reduction or muscle constructing.”
The regulation states that elements, equivalent to creatine, inexperienced tea extract, raspberry ketone, Garcinia cambogia and inexperienced espresso bean extract, could also be thought of weight reduction or muscle constructing merchandise. Protein shakes and powders are excluded except they include an ingredient that will represent muscle constructing or weight reduction.
Firms present in violation might face courtroom injunctions and fines of as much as $500 per offense, in line with the invoice.
The Pure Merchandise Affiliation (NPA) mentioned it should search to overturn the ban in courtroom.
“It’s disingenuous and flat-out unsuitable to recommend the usage of dietary dietary supplements causes consuming issues, and FDA (U.S. Meals and Drug Administration) knowledge proves it,” mentioned Daniel Fabricant, PhD, the president and CEO of the NPA. “The dietary complement trade has an intensive historical past of offering customers with well-researched, trusted merchandise as evidenced by the 80 % of Individuals who use at the very least one dietary complement as a secure and reasonably priced approach to preserve a wholesome way of life. Governor Hochul’s choice to ban entry to secure and dependable dietary dietary supplements like amino acids, creatine and different important vitamins is basically flawed and solely hurts customers.”
The Council for Accountable Diet (CRN) expressed disappointment over the passing of the invoice.
“It will affect an enormous swath of merchandise sitting on grocery retailer, pharmacy and pure retailer cabinets all through New York State,” mentioned CRN President and CEO Steve Mister. “Due to this blatant, alarmist misinformation pushed by STRIPED, Empire State customers of all ages could have their capacity to buy dietary complement merchandise restricted.”
The Strategic Initiative for the Prevention of Consuming Problems (STRIPED) is a company primarily based at Harvard’s T.H Chan College of Public Well being and Boston Youngsters’s Hospital.
STRIPED Director Sydney Bryn Austin, a professor of social and behavioral sciences, praised the invoice.
“From social media influencers selling unattainable physique beliefs to the nook pharmacy promoting snake oil fat burners and muscle dietary supplements, there isn’t any scarcity of predatory firms making an attempt to make a buck off of teenagers’ psychological well being struggles and physique insecurities,” Austin mentioned.
Comparable laws is showing in California, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri and New Jersey.
The total invoice will be learn right here.


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To address shopper worries about coronavirus this holiday season, Target Corp. is implementing new and enhanced measures to make in-store and online purchases faster and safer.
Target said Thursday that, on the safety front, customers can now use the Wallet mobile payment option in the Target app for contactless self-checkout experience. By using Wallet, in-store shoppers won’t need to pick up a scanning device regardless of where they choose to pay, at the register of self-checkout stations. Wallet also brings Redcard payment, Target Circle offers, weekly ad coupons and gift cards into one place for a single scan at checkout.
The Minneapolis-based retailer also said it’s deploying another 1,000 MyCheckout devices across its store base. Using MyCheckout, associates can help customers check out anywhere in the store and skip waiting in line.
To promote social distancing, Target is introducing pre-trip shopping reservations. The company said it has continued to monitor store capacity and, as needed, limit the total number of shoppers inside stores at one time. This holiday season, customers can go online to Target.com/line to see if their local store currently has a waiting line and, if so, reserve a spot in line. Target then will text the customer to notify them that it’s their turn to enter the store.
“Year over year, the investments we’ve made in our business and team have made Target the easiest place to shop in America. As we've navigated the pandemic, that focus has evolved to ensure we’re also creating the safest place for our guests to shop,” Target Chairman and CEO Brian Cornell said in a statement. “As we approach the holidays, guests can feel confident in choosing Target — a safe experience, incredible value, and a differentiated assortment that will help them celebrate the joy of the season.”
Enhanced safety measures for the holidays focus on Target’s same-day services for online orders. The company said it aims to add nearly 8,000 Drive Up curbside pickup sites, doubling the total number of locations for the service, in which Target associates bring online orders directly to customers’ vehicles within minutes of their arrival at the store.
In addition, Target said it’s improving social distancing for Drive Up by eliminating the need for barcode scanning. Now, when arriving at the store, customers just have to show the personal identification number on their app screen to associates through their car window to confirm the order. Shoppers, too, can now switch in real time between Drive Up curbside and Order Pickup in-store pickup options, even after they’ve arrived at the store. Target noted that this flexibility to switch between services will provide more convenience during the busy holiday months.
For Target’s fiscal 2020 second quarter ended Aug. 1, digital sales jumped 195% and represented 13.4% of the retailer’s 24.3% total comp-sales growth. Stores fulfilled over 90% of sales during the quarter. Same-day services — Order Pick Up (in-store), Drive Up (curbside pickup) and Shipt (on-demand delivery) — posted 273% comp-sales growth and accounted for about 6% of overall comp-sales gains.
“Among these services, we saw the fastest growth in Drive Up, which grew an astonishing 734% [in the quarter],” Cornell told analysts in a conference call on second-quarter results. “We also saw incredible growth in Target sales fulfilled by Shipt, which were up more than 350%. However, even though we have offered pickup in all of our locations for more than five years, in-store pickup sales increased more than 60% in the quarter.”
The surge in online sales has led Target to expand its same-day service product assortment. The company said Thursday that customers can now use its same-day services to purchase all their holiday needs, including thousands of gifts and all of the ingredients for holiday meals, the latter fueled by this summer’s expansion of fresh and frozen grocery offerings available via Order Pickup and Drive Up. Adult and children’s apparel also is now available through Shipt same-day delivery.
For our most up-to-date coverage, visit the coronavirus homepage.


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(CARLSBAD, Calif.) — PUMA Golf, leader in innovation, design and style, announced today that it has added the former #1 amateur in the world in 2018 and 2019, Justin Suh, to its team of world-class athletes. Per the multi-year agreement, Suh will wear PUMA Golf apparel, footwear and headwear in all professional events, in which he competes. Suh is set to make his professional debut this week at the 2019 Memorial Tournament, donning items from PUMA Golf’s SS19 collection of apparel, accessories and footwear.
Suh, a 4-year member of the University of Southern California Trojans’ golf team, amassed an incredible amateur career that saw him achieve the top world ranking among amateurs and earn PING NCAA All-American honors in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, including 1st Team All-American status in 2018 and 2019. Over the course of his storied career, Suh set the record for individual tournament wins at Southern Cal, recording 8 victories in total. After a record-breaking junior year where he was named PAC 12 Player of the Year, was a finalist for both the Fred Haskins and Jack Nicklaus awards (collegiate golf’s two highest honors), earned the Arnold Palmer Award and represented the U.S. in the 2018 Palmer Cup, Suh kept his momentum going, winning twice in his senior year. To culminate his collegiate career, Suh finished 4th for the individual competition in the 2019 Men’s Division I Championship this past week.
“After my incredible experience being part of the USC Trojans athletic tradition the last four years, I am looking forward to taking my game to the PGA TOUR this week. Doing so in partnership with a great company like PUMA Golf makes it all the more special,” said Suh. “As a Cali-guy, I have long admired how PUMA Golf marches to the beat of its own drum, offering golfers unmistakably fun style combined with the highest level of performance in its shoes, apparel and accessories. I can’t tell you how excited I am to walk the fairways of Muirfield Village in my first pro event wearing PUMA.”
Suh will be decked out from head-to-toe, in PUMA Golf gear this week, including apparel from the SS19 collection, IGNITE PWRADAPT shoes and the iconic P Cap in a variety of eye-catching hues.
For more information on the apparel being worn by Justin Suh this week, or to see the entire PUMA Golf SS19 apparel collection, visit www.pumagolf.com.


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On November 16th, the Polygon blockchain saw 16,449,264 transactions, marking a sudden and massive increase from the average of below three million per day.
In a post on social media platform X, Polygon founder Sandeep Nailwal says the network handled the spike without experiencing any downtime.
“Polygon handled 16+ million transactions, and the network didn’t even blink.
At its peak, PoS (proof of stake) had a throughput of 255 tps (transactions per second) – that’s around two to three times of the entire ETH ecosystem combined. Total transaction fees generated by the validators are around [$1 million] in a single day, though the gas fees spiked to insane levels.
Block rewards totaled more than 155,000 MATIC, around $1.2 million revenue for validators in a single day.”
Nailwal says a new metaverse game called Baby Shark, which is based on the Polygon chain, could be what’s behind the sudden spike in transactions.
“I hear there is some game Baby Shark launching, could that be the reason? Someone told me just now that the minting stopped just now and we might go back to the less crazy levels.”
He also says that efforts to improve Polygon enabled the network to efficiently handle the volume of transactions.
“Polygon PoS chain was able to handle this load as a direct result of Polygon ecosystem engineering contributors and the upgrades to PoS that have been rolled out over the last few months.”
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any loses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.
Generated Image: StableDiffusion


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It sounds like that sexy PlayStation 4 Anniversary Edition revealed earlier this week is going to be very hard to get in Spain. The console will be sold to raise money for charity through an auction, according to the official Spanish PlayStation Blog.
All proceeds from the auctions will go to non-profits UNICEF and Juegaterapia.
Details on how people in North America can obtain one of the 12,300 special edition consoles being produced globally remain slightly vague.
"PS4 20th Anniversary Edition will be available in very limited supply for pre-order starting Saturday, December 6th," according to the PlayStation Blog. "Please watch the PlayStation Experience keynote starting Saturday morning at 10:00am Pacific Time to learn more. Canadian users can follow PlayStationCA on Twitter to learn more details for availability in their region."
Earlier this week, the official Spanish PlayStation Blog released a trailer for something they called Emagon, an anagram for "No Game." Today the second Emagon trailer hit, explaining how people can obtain the limited edition console in Spain.
There will be 350 of the console sold in Spain, all auctioned off on Dec. 12, 13 and 14, according to the video.


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In mid-April, a bunch of trade associations in China issued a warning in opposition to the potential monetary dangers of non-fungible tokens, digital belongings that symbolize real-world objects or intangible items like a tune. NFTs should not be traded with cryptocurrencies, said the nation’s banking, web finance and securities associations, and so they should not be used to create securitized merchandise.
Although the trade associations don’t have regulatory energy, they nonetheless exert an affect on and are taken critically by policymakers. Many within the crypto trade see the pronouncement as a demise knell for NFTs’ growth in China. Curiously, although, China’s tech giants are exhibiting a rising curiosity — or some would say, FOMO — within the house.
As a result of crypto trading is banned in China, NFTs exist in a constrained manner within the nation. Fairly than NFTs, tech firms name them “digital collectibles” to distance their initiatives from the monetary and speculative nature of many NFTs, stressing the use case’s operate in proving possession and authenticity. As such, most of the objects being minted in China are artworks like an historical Chinese language Buddhist statue or an object conveying historic or cultural significance, like a well-known Chinese language spaceship.
Because the monetary associations mentioned within the assertion, the worth of NFTs lies of their potential to advertise the expansion of the inventive and cultural trade.
In contrast to NFTs which are minted on Ethereum or different public chains and traded with crypto on open marketplaces, digital collectibles issued in China are minted on permissioned blockchains managed by native tech giants and infrequently offered on these firms’ personal channels. Customers would first need to confirm their actual identities on these platforms earlier than shopping for the collectibles utilizing China’s fiat foreign money yuan and are prohibited from reselling the works on secondary markets.
Rules imply that digital collectibles in China are separate from the worldwide NFT market and are extraordinarily illiquid. A few of the platforms let house owners give away their belongings, however solely totally free and after just a few months of the acquisition.
Nonetheless, Chinese language tech giants have rushed to launch digital collectibles and a few have even ventured past the border to promote NFTs abroad. Beneath we now have summarized among the main gamers within the house so far:
- Whaletalk (鲸探) is the flagship digital collectible service created by Ant Group, Alibaba’s fintech affiliate, in mid-2021. The artworks are minted on AntChain, a distributed ledger that wants permission to hitch (additionally known as a consortium/alliance chain) and is collectively managed by Ant and its institutional companions.
- In April, Alibaba’s meals supply service Ele.me launched a digital collectible service on its app, which is an all-encompassing platform for Chinese language customers to order on-demand providers, and now, purchase food-themed digital collectibles as properly.
- Final August, Tencent launched Magic Core (幻核) on Zhixin Chain, a consortium chain constructed by Tencent and its companions. Probably the most notable use case of Zhixin Chain has been to switch bodily ink seals, or company stamps to authenticate paperwork, utilizing blockchain.
- On-line retail large JD.com unveiled its personal Lingxi (灵稀) platform that runs on Zhizhen Chain, a consortium chain it operates, in December.
- Baidu, the nation’s search engine and autonomous driving large, launched a Area Day-themed assortment on its consortium Xuperchain in April.
Some Chinese language tech giants have taken their NFT ambitions abroad — or not less than are indicating a robust curiosity.
- This week, Bilibili, a preferred user-generated video streaming website in China, mentioned it’s releasing a set of 10,000 distinctive profile photos by way of its third-party associate CryptoNatty, an organization that was lately integrated in Singapore. The corporate has “licensed” its mental property to CryptoNatty, which might be minting the illustration avatars on Ethereum. It’s unclear how the 2 events are sharing revenues or who the target market is, given most of Bilibili’s customers are in China. We’ve reached out to Bilibili for extra particulars.
- This week, Huawei tweeted about the Caked Ape assortment, sending the NFT’s ground worth hovering. The vaguely worded tweet doesn’t point out what connection the Chinese language telecoms behemoth has with Caked Apes.
- TikTok, the ByteDance-owned quick video large, distributed its first NFT assortment on Ethereum in October that includes Detroit rapper Curtis Roach. The corporate’s endeavor has been described as “underdelivering” because it reportedly didn’t fulfill its promises to work with famend artists like Lil Nas X and Grimes.
- Cai Wensheng, the founding father of the Chinese language selfie app Meitu, might be the most important crypto bull in China’s tech trade. Not solely was he an early investor in bitcoins, however he additionally made the choice for Meitu to own up to $100 million value of cryptocurrency. Meitu purchased the primary tranche of bitcoins and ethers for a complete of $40 million in March 2021.


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The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Thursday said it has urged finance minister Arun Jaitley to extend the last date for filing annual goods and services tax (GST) return from December 31, 2018 to March 31,2019.
In its communication to the finance minister, CAIT said that the format of filing of annual GST return is not available anywhere including the GST website. In fact, the option itself is not available.
“Under such circumstances it will not be possible for the traders to file their annual GST return by the stipulated period and as an immediate measure, the CAIT has urged to extend the last date of filing annual GST return up to March 31 2019 for the period 2017-18,” it said.
CAIT also urged that format should be made available in regional languages.
It noted that the concept is till unclear to a large number of traders and most are not even aware of the obligation of filing annual GST return.
Moreover, they are unaware that annual return is the last opportunity for assessees to rectify their previously filed return with the department for the concerned year. This would help avoid any denial of input tax credit which in turn could also be resulted into unwanted tax recovery, it said.
Source : Financial Express


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The pandemic pummeled the travel and tourism industry last year, but as economies and borders reopen, numerous companies are well positioned to benefit. In this Backstage Pass video, which was recorded on Oct. 20, 2021, Motley Fool contributors Jason Hall, Rachel Warren, and Trevor Jennewine discuss why Booking Holdings (BKNG -0.40%), Airbnb (ABNB 1.09%), and Ryman Hospitality Properties (RHP -1.70%), look like smart investments right now.
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Jason Hall: It's official. On November 8th, the U.S. is going to begin allowing vaccinated international travelers to enter the US. I think it's going to be a real boon for a lot of hospitality and travel companies that really rely on international travelers. We have the reopening trade. We could call this the reentry trade, I guess. But let's think not just about what can be great in the next couple of months, but what could be great for the long term. Who's going to first?
Rachel Warren: I'll go first. I was actually very excited to read this, and being a frequent traveler, I find these stories very interesting. Obviously, the travel sector as a whole has been hit incredibly hard by the pandemic. I think that this is a sector that by all of estimates is going to take several years to reach recovery to pre-pandemic levels.
But even so, I was thinking about this, and one stock that I think is really interesting to consider within this space, as the travel industry recovers, is Booking Holdings. You may know it as Booking.com. You can go and book apartments, short stays, usually hotels. I actually use Booking.com all the time, personally, especially when I'm traveling abroad as I am now. I like the interface from the website, it's easy to use.
Not surprisingly is this company was hit incredibly hard in the early days of the pandemic. But it has made a really impressive recovery, particularly over the last few quarters. Shares are actually trading up about 40% from where the stock was one year ago. I think investors have a lot of optimism regarding this company.
It's interesting. I took a look at the company's most recent quarterly report for it's second quarter and gross travel bookings, the total dollar value of all bookings on its platform, was up 852% year-over-year. Definitely signaling a tremendous recovery from the lows at the height of the pandemic.
In addition to that, room nights booked in the second quarter were up 458% year-over-year, and its total second quarter revenue was up 243% year-over-year. I think it's an interesting company to look at. Travel stocks have a long way to go. I don't think the rebound for these companies is going to be something that happens overnight. The industry is recovering very slowly but surely. But I do think patient long-term investors that invest in high-quality businesses in this industry could definitely see some nice gains in the years ahead as the industry continues to recover. What do you think, Trevor?
Trevor Jennewine: I agree. I think that's a great pick. The travel industry was absolutely hit hard last year. I think in 2019, travel and tourism accounted for about 10% of global GDP, the economic output around the globe. Then I think that figure got cut in half in 2020. Still a massive industry, but really got hit hard by business closures and social distancing. Booking Holdings is a great way to play that.
I think I'm going to go with Airbnb. It's probably not a big surprise to anybody. I think this company has a much better business model than traditional hotel chains. The range of the inventory that they have is better both in terms of location -- Airbnb has places that are in the middle of the woods, rural areas, the coasts, downtown, anywhere you want to go, Airbnb probably has properties there and then they also-
Jason Hall: Castles.
Trevor Jennewine: Exactly.
Jason Hall: Treehouse, everything [inaudible 04:42:58] .
Trevor Jennewine: [laughs] Yeah. The type of lodgings that they can offer. Like you said, castles, treehouses, adobes, airstreams, there's boat houses, anything you can imagine. There are caves that have been renovated, too, that are actually very comfortable. There's one I think in Idaho where it's a remodeled version of Bilbo's Hobbit-Hole from The Lord of the Rings. Just anything you can imagine. I think they have that unique experience thing working for them that you can't really get at a traditional hotel chain.
Then it's also much easier for them to acquire new inventory. It takes a couple of minutes to onboard a new host; and it doesn't cost very much money. But it takes months or years to build a new hotel and it costs millions of dollars.
I think to tie some other current events into this, there's labor shortage right now. I think it's really hitting the industry pretty hard. I think Hilton's CEO has said that it's the worst problem that they're facing right now. Marriott has 10,000 staffing vacancies across 600 locations. Then I read an article in The Wall Street Journal today talking about how a lot of customers or guests are going to these hotels and they see advertising on websites for various amenities like breakfast or whatever it might be, and then they get there and those things have been canceled. Staffing is now translating into a poor customer experience. I think that might push people toward Airbnb faster than otherwise. What do you think, Jason?
Jason Hall: It's funny. Anecdotally, I can tell you. I just spent three weeks at an extended stay hotel while we were in the middle of our move and closing on our house and doing some remodeling before we could move in, and experienced exactly what you were talking about. I think our room was cleaned twice in three weeks. Nicest people in the world, the ones that were there, but it was clear they were so incredibly understaffed. All of the other resources were an issue. It's just a challenge.
The flip side of it, Trevor, is I think that the thing that is detrimental to the traditional hotel business is very appealing about Airbnb. A way for people to earn income without having to have a job, like sitting at a hotel desk. It's really interesting how the same dynamic has resulted in a terrible experience and problem for one industry and then its biggest disrupter in its competitor, it's a tailwind for it. I think it's really interesting to see how it plays out. I think you're probably going to be proven right about it.
This is a really interesting one for me that I thought about. I'm going to come back to a hotel company. [laughs] That's the biggest irony there, and it's Ryman Hospitality Partners. The ticker is RHP. I think Ryman is a little bit unique in this space.
For those who don't know, if you've ever heard of the Ryman Auditorium, the Grand Ole Opry, that's where the name comes from because this is one of their premier properties that they own. But they also own all of the Gaylord Hotels and events centers. I think there's six of them. These are the largest, most valuable convention destinations outside of Vegas in the US. They are enormously valuable.
What we've seen, obviously, it was tough for a year-and-a-half because conventions we're no longer a thing. But they've essentially seen booking activity pretty much return to normal. That's incredible. When the pandemic lockdowns happened, the company acted quickly. It's a real estate investment trust, so they very quickly halted their dividend. They knew they were going to take big losses so they wouldn't have earnings to pay out. They halted the dividend and they tapped every single bit of revolving credit they had and get as much cash in the bank as they possibly could, and built a fortress of cash to get them through the downturn.
The business has actually reached the point now where it's actually back to being cash flow positive. That's just happened in the past month or two. And that's a big step forward. This is now a cash flow positive business.
And I'm of the opinion -- this is the big one for me -- I think that whatever the work world looks like in two, three or five years, whether it's more remote work, whether it's hybrid, whether it's still a lot of people going into offices, whatever it's going to look like, I think conventions are going to be really big and maybe even more important. If people are working more remotely and less in the office, less interaction, I think there is a massive opportunity that businesses are going to take to get their stuff together. A company like Ryman that has the facilities that are built to handle that sort of thing, I think there's going to be a big tailwind for that industry for the next five or 10 years. I think it's a big winning industry no matter what the work environment looks like. RHP, Ryman Hospitality Properties, that's my pick.


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A fund headed up by pan-European retail property investment manager Meyer Bergman has acquired the Vinopolis site in London in a multi-million pound deal.
Meyer Bergman will convert the site into 193,750 sq ft of retail space for boutique stores.
Vinopolis, which offers wine tasting experiences and is situated near London Bridge, revealed earlier this month that it will close at the end of 2015.
Meyer Bergman European Retail Partners II (MBERPII) has joined forces with central London developer Sherwood Street Ltd in acquiring the leasehold of the two-acre site.
The two partners have also acquired the mixed-use building Thames House and other sites adjacent to the Vinopolis Centre for the redevelopment, which will see them invest a total of £300m into purchasing and redeveloping the sites.
It is not yet known which retailers will take up the space, but a spokesperson confirmed they would be “fashion-led.”
A statement from the partners said they have been working on initial proposals for the redevelopment alongside freehold owner Network Rail and Southward Council. They aim to submit a planning application “shortly”.
Sherwood Street Ltd founder Tom Sherwood said: “You aren’t going to get a better location in central London, which is lacking a quality retail offering for shoppers.
“We have and will continue to work closely with Southwark Council, Network Rail, Borough Market and other stakeholders to draw up a scheme that is entirely in keeping with the cobbled streets and artisan feel of the area, which we anticipate will be hugely appealing to new brands, designers, restaurant or bar concepts and boutique retailers.”
Meyer Bergman’s other investments include retail buildings on Bond Street, Piccadilly and Queensway in London.


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Your mistake: Microwaving or boiling them
The fix: Steaming
Why it works: Steaming helps retain cancer-fighting nutrients in broccoli better than other cooking methods, reports a new study from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Sulforaphane — a plant compound with strong anti-cancer properties — is abundant in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, kale and arugula. The enzyme myrosinase is necessary to release the compound, but most cooking methods destroy it. Steaming is a slower, gentler heat and isn’t intense enough to kill myrosinase, explains study author Elizabeth Jeffery, Ph.D. Cook broccoli in a steaming basket for three to four minutes for the biggest cancer-fighting boost.
Here are more foods with amazing — and scientifically proved — health benefits: 40 Foods With Superpowers
Your mistake: Slicing them before eating
The fix: Eating them whole
Why it works: Whole strawberries contain 8% to 12% more vitamin C than the cut fruits, according to a 2011 Brazilian study. That’s because vitamin C begins to break down when it’s exposed to light and oxygen. For the biggest C boost, store whole strawberries in the fridge — cool temperature helps retain vitamin C too, finds the same study.
Your mistake: Letting a bottle “breathe”
The fix: Sipping a freshly opened bottle
Why it works: When red wine is decanted for long periods of time — up to 12 hours — the organic acids and polyphenols begin to break down, according to a 2012 Chinese study. Leaving the bottle open overnight nixes the usual benefits of a glass of red, including decreased depression, increased testosterone and a healthier heart.
Safeguard your body’s most important organ: 100 Ways to Protect Your Heart
Your mistake: Eating them raw
The fix: Heating them up
Why it works: Tomatoes have been linked to lowering men’s risk of stroke, helping fight prostate cancer and preserving brain power with age. Heating tomatoes significantly increases their levels of lycopene, the chemical that can up antioxidant levels. In fact, a recent study in the British Journal of Nutrition found that raw foodists — people who eat mostly uncooked produce — were deficient in lycopene. Cook tomatoes in olive oil for the biggest nutritional boost: lycopene is fat-soluble, meaning you need fat in your diet for your body to absorb it properly.
Your mistake: You skip right over frozen foods at the grocery store
The fix: Hitting the freezers
Why it works: “Most people think only fresh is healthy, but this is a huge misconception,” says Mary Cluskey, an associate professor of nutrition at Oregon State University. In fact, U.K. scientists found that in two out of three cases, frozen fruits and vegetables packed higher levels of antioxidants — including polyphenols, vitamin C and beta-carotene — than the fresh kind. As produce ages, nutrients begin to change and break down, says Cluskey. It’s therefore better to eat food that was frozen at prime ripeness with its nutrients intact than week-old produce that no longer has the same beneficial chemical makeup.
There are 46,000 foods in the average supermarket. How to choose what to put in your cart? Here’s your shopping list: The 125 Best Foods
This article was written by Rachael Schultz and originally appeared on Men’s Health.
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[Update] Nov. 11, LG today offcially announced the LG AKA. Its model number is LG-F520.
There are threee variants of the handset, namely the F520K,F520L and F520S.
A new LG Smart phone which carries model number LG-F520L has been spotted on South Korea carrier LG U plus website.
As usual, the listing does not reveal much details about the smartphone but confirms the existence of the LG F520L model.
So far, we have not seen the LG F520L model in RRA database. We assume that LG will launch the LG F520L model in the first quarter of 2015.
Is this LG F520L the company’s flagship Android smartphone for 2015? We’ll be sure to let you know once we get information about the details of this LG F520L smart phone.


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As consumers around the world plan a summer of ‘revenge travel’ in the wake of easing restrictions, Trip.com data reflects the global travel recovery trend. Data show that users are more confident to book further ahead this summer, and the appetite for city breaks, staycations and short-haul trips still holds firm in a post-pandemic world.
For summer 2022, midweek is the most popular time to plan a holiday. Trip.com data shows that, among Trip.com users, Tuesday through Thursday are the peak days for browsing flights and hotels. Wednesday is the most popular day overall for flight searches, with Saturday being the quietest.
When looking at the summer period (June-September) across major global markets (UK, South Korea, Japan and Thailand), 1 July was the most popular day for flight departures. It was also the most popular hotel check-in date that users searched for on Trip.com’s sites in the UK and Thailand.
As Covid-19 began to affect travel in 2020, uncertainty and travel restrictions spread across the industry, customers - as expected - adapted their booking habits and moved to last-minute reservations.
Trip.com data shows that by June 2020, the booking window for hotel stays had fallen from 20.3 days (June 2019 data) to 6.1 days in Asia - highlighting the rising appetite for last-minute breaks. Flights saw a similar trend, with the booking window on Trip.com’s European sites falling to 13.4 days in June 2021 - from close to double that - 22.2 - just two years prior.
Read original article


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Owners of small businesses want Wall Street and the large American banks to be held accountable for the lingering financial crisis. They believe that stronger regulations governing these institutions should be enacted and enforced.
According to the polling of Small Business Majority, described in a recent piece published on the Huffington Post, 84 percent of small business owners support a strong Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In a population that tends to align with the Republican party, seven out of ten Republican owners of small businesses believe in tougher regulations for Wall Street.
To those who follow these matters, the SBM poll once again contradicts the assertions of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which promotes the interests of the largest companies by saying that the Chamber acts in the interest of small business. Consider that the Chamber’s website lists as its first two bullet points on “regulatory reform” the costs of regulation to small businesses.
The SBM poll sheds a new light on why small business owners would want a strong regulatory regime in the financial sector: small businesses are the customers of the banks. They depend on loans, lines of credit, mortgages and other ways to access capital. It is no wonder that small business owners want clearer and simpler credit documents. This applies to personal credit cards as well as business cards, since many small business owners use personal cards for business purposes.
The iconic small business owner is deeply respected in the American imagination. For too long he and she have been claimed as allies by the very biggest American corporations. No doubt the Chamber of Commerce will continue to say that it is representing the interests of small business. Increasingly, groups like Small Business Majority are helping us understand why this isn’t true.


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OnePlus has recently launched its budget smartphone, OnePlus Nord. while OnePlus Nord is currently being sold exclusively to Europe and India, the latest information that has come on courtesy of OnePlus CEO Carl Pei during his interview at wired has revealed the OnePlus' plans for the USA.
According to CEO Carl Pei speaking to Wired, unlike current Nord smartphone selling exclusive to Europe and India, the next OnePlus Nord smartphone will make its way to North America. He also suggests the possible launch date for the upcoming Nord smartphone, later this year, somewhere in last quarter.
The upcoming Nord smartphone to be available in the USA is rumored to come powered by a recently launched Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 Chipset paired with at least 8GB of RAM. Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 Chipset is currently the cheapest 5G offering from Qualcomm inventory, followed by Snapdragon 765G SoC. The specifications suggest an even lighter price tag to come attached with the upcoming anonymous Nord smartphone.
According to an XDA geek, while digging deeper into new OnePlus Oxygen OS, he has found the traces of some upcoming Nord smartphone codenamed - Billie. A recently leaked Antutu benchmarks listing had also revealed same specification, check it out here. According to the Antutu, the smartphones was tested along with the recently launched OnePlus Nord smartphone, therefore I'll bet on a launch sooner than later.
There isn't any rumor or any official information about the price of OnePlus Billie yet, but guessing with its chipset - Snapdragon 690, the smartphone is likely to carry a lower price tag compared to current OnePlus Nord smartphone and $300 will be a good guess to start.
Meanwhile, you can check our hands on review of recently launched OnePlus Nord smartphone loaded with stunning images
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With the local tourism industry severely affected by the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis, senior business broker and ex-motelier Ray Hart along with Gordon Fridge of LINK Hawke's Bay Central Plateau have set up an industry-wide fundraiser to raise much needed funds and provide support for moteliers and their valued employees whose businesses are on the brink of collapse.
“While many other businesses will be able to pick up and re-build within months of the lockdown being lifted, this cannot be the case for motels and other accommodation providers.” says Ray.
“International tourism which drives much of the accommodation industry will not be a reality for a year – or more and those who rely on corporate, or domestic markets still face uncertainty on if, or when this may be viable to return.”
Funds raised via the Give a Little page will be reviewed and distributed by an independent panel which includes a solicitor, an accountant and a finance broker who will scrutinise applications and decide on how the funds are used to support moteliers meet their fixed costs over this difficult period.
Ray says with such a significant number of motels not surviving this crisis, it is also the many other providers who will be adversely impacted, including businesses who provide computers, stationery, linen, cleaning products, tea, toilet paper, tools, machinery, paint and food products etc.
“All of these individual companies employ staff who themselves are consumers of goods and services and thousands of these jobs are at risk,” says Ray.
“A contribution to this fund may end up saving not just a motel, but any one of the above businesses and help keep New Zealanders in jobs.”
Ray says that while he acknowledges and applauds the contribution the Government has made to support the employees of New Zealand, if the business owners of motels are left to fend for themselves, redundancy in this sector will soar. A request for assistance has been made to Grant Robertson and Ray is looking forward to a positive response from his department.


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WASHINGTON—The U.S. is considering sanctions that would target a United Arab Emirates-based businessman and a network of companies suspected of helping export Iran’s oil, part of a broader effort to escalate diplomatic pressure on Tehran as U.S. officials push to reach a deal on Iran’s nuclear program.
The firms and individuals under scrutiny have been using ship-to-ship transfers of oil in waters that lie between Iraq and Iran and then forging documents to hide the origin of the cargo, according to corporate documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, shipping data and people familiar with the matter. By passing off the blended oil as Iraqi, those involved can avoid Western sanctions targeting Iranian oil.
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Espacio Salvaje: More than just a retail space
Saint Mangos Lane is now home to collaborative retail store Espacio Salvaje, which has been spicing up the laneway with unique, Latin-inspired, ethical fashion garments since late last year.
Translating to “wild space” in Spanish, Espacio Salvaje is a co-founded project of owner and director of Latina Styles Karin Rosales, owner and director of Noelle Shoes Nohelia Young, and operations and marketing director Xander James.
While a relatively new project, with both brands beginning their collaboration last year in Ms Rosales’ smaller Fitzroy location, the new space in Docklands is inspiring them to think bigger and better.
“It’s a journey, because it’s a retail space but it’s also a collaborative space, and we are also introducing smaller online businesses, who don’t have a physical location, into the space,” Mr James said.
“We also want to run some workshops to help empower start-ups and entrepreneurs, and to help build them up and give them some direction.”
Ms Rosales first founded Latina Styles nearly five years ago after seeing a gap in the Australian market.
Put off by seeing racks of the same clothes that did little for curves and the natural body shapes of many women, she decided it was time for someone to showcase Latin culture through fashion.
“Latinas are all about looking good and feeling good, and we like to dress up, stand out, and be wearing something different,” Ms Rosales said.
Starting with swimwear and activewear, the store now contains a wide range of clothes for all occasions under the banner of multiple brands, with Ms Rosales’ Latina Styles brand also in the process of expanding its collection of womenswear and menswear.
“I was inspired to give people a place with one-of-a-kind pieces. People can shop here and know they won’t find another person wearing the same item at a party or the gym,” she said.
Australian women also have curves like Latina women, and sometimes the clothes here don’t really shape them or flatter their bodies, whereas we sell quality clothes in flattering styles that are made for every type of body.
Ms Rosale's business partner and one half of Espacio Salvaje, Ms Young, offers Colombian handmade premium leather products for both women and men – including shoes, jackets, hats, belts, handbags, and accessories.
In addition to providing clothes, shoes, and accessories, the goal of all of the founders of Espacio Salvaje is for the items they sell, and brands they support, to be high quality and ethical.
On the partnership they have with big brands in Columbia, where clothes are produced by small designers, artisans, and single working women, Ms Rosales said, “80 per cent of [the store’s] items are handmade”.
And with a new collection due to arrive soon, locals are urged not to miss out, with the brands’ first Docklands runway to be held on Sunday, February 19.
The event will provide a chance for locals to witness the magic of what separates Espacio Salvaje apart and get their hands on limited-edition garments, offering a night they won’t forget.
“The majority of items are ones we are not stocking in the shop at the moment, so it will be full of surprises and there will be new designers invited and a couple of guests who have Latina brands made in Australia or designed in Australia and locally-made in Latin America,” Ms Rosales said.
“The models are also our real customers which is really unique, and it’ll be an experience for them and for us. We want to be showing normal bodies in different sizes, shapes, and colours.”
The event will also feature competitions and special prizes, drinks and nibbles, and tunes from “Docklands’ number one and favourite DJ”, who so happens to also be Espacio Salvaje’s very own Mr James.
“We want it to just be an event that is fun, interactive, and cosy,” Ms Rosales said. •
To purchase your ticket for the runway, visit Eventbrite.


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Today, the Bank of Korea announced the launch of an experiment, together with the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service, to field test a Korean CBDC.
The BIS (Bank for International Settlements) will also participate in the experiment by providing technical advice for the preparation of the test.
The Bank of Korea’s CBDC
The Bank of Korea is the central bank of South Korea, and the CBDC it will be testing is the digital version of its national currency, the South Korean won (KRW).
According to the Bank’s official website, the CBDC will be used to maintain the safety and efficiency of payment and settlement systems.
It will be a digital form of the national public currency and will be used in particular for cross-border payments and other financial applications.
They also note that the development of a CBDC is a complex process that requires a lot of planning and coordination between the various stakeholders involved, such as government agencies, financial institutions and technology companies, and generally takes several years before it is finally launched in the markets.
Therefore, the test that will be launched will only be a preparatory step to verify its potential and possible problems, within a long process that started some time ago with the so-called proof of concept and is expected to continue for some time.
Moreover, the pilot project will also involve some private banks, making it a mixed public-private project.
Retail and wholesale
The Bank of Korea will test both retail and wholesale CBDC.
In particular, it will test the tokenization of bank deposits so that wholesale CBDC can be used to circulate funds within the banking network supervised by the central bank itself and the country’s other financial authorities.
While only the wholesale test will start soon, the retail tests are expected to start after the completion of the wholesale test, i.e. in the fourth quarter of 2024.
The wholesale test will focus on the funding of interbank transactions using deposits on accounts opened by commercial banks with the central bank itself.
The infrastructure of the Bank of Korea’s new CBDC
It should be noted that while this is obviously not a blockchain-based project, it will still be based on distributed ledger technology, but owned by the Bank of Korea.
This will allow, for example, for the issuance of exchange tokens representing the funds deposited by banks with the central bank, which will presumably be exchanged to speed up interbank transactions and make them cheaper.
The CBDC’s new currency infrastructure will be managed jointly with the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service.
Even the infrastructure on which the pilot will be based is considered to be only a pilot model for the creation of a future digital currency infrastructure. In other words, nothing that exists today should be considered definitive.
The pilot will take place in a virtual environment, a true proof of concept (PoC).
The aim is to lay the foundations for the implementation of financial services in the digital environment.
The test process
Initially, only banks will participate in the test.
At the end of this initial test, the Department will undertake a full review of the institutional issues involved before deciding whether to proceed.
The field test will need to provide sufficient user protections within the legal system to be considered successful.
It is therefore not certain that a full-scale implementation of a CBDC in South Korea will be achieved, nor is it certain that this network will actually be used.
Rather, the test will be used to fine-tune the final design model, on the basis of which it will be decided whether or not to launch the CBDC in the markets.
However, by the end of October, the Bank of Korea plans to hold an information session for companies and banks developing payment systems.
Details of the process will be announced at the end of November.
The test will be an important step in creating a prototype of the future currency system.
The success of CBDCs
So far, there have been no cases of truly successful projects related to the introduction of native digital currencies issued by central banks.
On the contrary, where attempts have been made to launch CBDCs in some countries, the results so far have been poor or even negative.
However, the Bank of Korea’s approach of clearly distinguishing between wholesale and retail use may prove to be a strength.
Indeed, many of the reasons why people doubt the benefits of using a currency whose transactions are all controlled by the central bank fall away at the interbank level.
It is therefore possible that the wholesale test will produce positive results, while at the same time it remains possible that future retail tests will produce much less interesting results.
In China, for example, a local CBDC has been tested in the retail space for years, with poor results to say the least.
On the other hand, tokenizing bank funds to make interbank exchanges faster and cheaper is something that several banks have been working on for some time, so it is unlikely that they would resist a similar system based on a state-owned CBDC.
South Korea’s seems to be the most promising experiment in new central bank digital currencies to date.


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In just 90 seconds, they’d made off with over $10,000 in cosmetics.
Groups known as “flash-mob robbers” storm a store, steal thousands in merchandise in minutes and bolt as quickly as they arrive. Among the most notorious are the Rainbow Girls — a group of female thieves, named for their brightly hued hair — who’ve hit dozens of stores in the Bay Area. Their high-stakes heists have included Ulta
Often in groups of up to 15 people, the bandits burst into a store, make a beeline to the lucrative goodies and quickly pillage the shelves. (High-end jeans and cosmetics are favorite items, experts say.) Sometimes even before the store employees or security realizes what is happening, the mob has dispersed, goods in tow. “The longest I saw it take them was two minutes,” says San Francisco police officer Carlos Manfredi, who has been working to arrest the robbers and their copycats. Depending on the target, each shoplifter can pocket more than a dozen items each. Manfredi estimates the Rainbow Girls have stolen more than a million dollars in merchandise over the years.
Across the country in Massachusetts, law enforcement officers are battling a similar problem. In September, a hoodie-clad gang of men mobbed an Apple
The rise of flash-mob robbers over the past seven years is one of the most troubling, emerging trends in retail, says Ernie Deyle, a retail industry consultant and co-author of the Checkpoint Systems’ Retail Holiday Season Global Forecast. “These events have become more in vogue and popular via ‘viral-spread,’” he says, referring to how quickly surveillance videos of the heists are shared across social media.
Sometimes these robberies happen spontaneously, other times, they’re organized by criminals. The robbers “can get $40,000 in under two minutes…it’s like a dance routine, it’s very coordinated,” says Robert Moraca, the vice president of loss prevention at the National Retail Federation. Sometimes the thieves sell the goods — iPhones, for example, get two to three times their value when sold internationally, he says. Other times, they exchange the goods for gift cards, then sell those gift cards for cash. The benefit of working in a group is if one gets caught, others in the mob still walk away with plenty of stolen merchandise.
Not only can flash mob robberies cost retailers millions, says Manfredi, they also hurt consumers, who ultimately get charged higher prices for goods to make up for these kinds of losses, says Moraca. A survey from Checkpoint Systems found that shrink — the industry term used to describe a company’s lost inventory due in part to losses from shoplifting, theft and internal fraud — will cost the average consumer $50, just within this holiday season, though of course, only a small part of this is due to flash mob robberies.
To combat this, stores are investing in better security cameras and training specific to these incidents, experts say. Moraca notes that some stores even have advanced security systems that alert staff to unusual foot traffic patterns before an actual heist is in progress. Still, businesses are in a bind: many retailers still have fewer staff than before the recession, and the word of these incidents spreads quickly. The Rainbow Girls, for example, now have lots of copycats, says Manfredi: “They tell their friends, ‘it’s so easy.’”


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In response to the frustration Black content creators have expressed for not getting the credit they deserve for their viral social media trends or being part of the groups profiting from them, Instagram has introduced a special tag for influencers and business accounts that secures they will get credit for their creations, according to NBC News.
Alexis Michelle Adjei and Cameryn Boyd who are data analysts and engineers for Instagram brainstormed and created the label to ensure that Black creators will make a living off the trends and content they create through social media.
From NBC News:
Twice as many white influencers are making upward of $100,000 a year as are Black ones who are making similar content to similarly sized audiences, according to a study published in December by MSL, a communications company, and The Influencer League, an educational organization. The report also found a 29 percent pay gap between white creators and all creators of color.
“We want to ensure that as Black creators’ content is being distributed as it already is, they are getting the proper attribution so that they have the opportunity to get all of those growth and monetization and career-starting opportunities like their contemporaries are,” said Boyd, a Spelman College graduate. “It’s really critical, as we’re moving towards this new age where creators are so important and creators are really able to use their craft to support themselves in their lives, that Black creators are getting the same opportunity, as they’re already creating the content.”
Adjei and Boyd joined Instagram in August 2020 before landing on the idea the following February. They worked on it with colleague Alexandra Zaoui, building it out together and pitching it across different teams at Instagram’s parent company, Meta, until eventually getting their own team, which prepared the feature to launch this week under the pair’s leadership.
According to NBC News, Adjei and Boyd said the attribution will not affect the algorithm that decides what posts a user will see in their feed. But, since the algorithm already takes into account what users liked, shared or viewed when trying to personalize content, the overall reach of those credited users should continue to grow and expand even more.