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The renewable energy market is under unprecedented pressure. A near-perfect storm of challenges have created seemingly unending delays, cost increases, and uncertainty for buyers, sellers, suppliers, and other market participants. For corporate and institutional (C&I) buyers, this has resulted in tighter renewable energy project supply and 15-25 percent higher prices over the past year for power purchase agreements (PPAs).
This is the first of a series of blogs covering the current turbulence in the renewable energy market and what C&I buyers can do to stay on track with their climate goals.
There Are Tons of Wind and Solar Projects in the US….
C&I buyers are seeing a tighter supply of renewable energy projects, but that’s not because the projects don’t exist.
Coho’s analysis of the interconnection queues in the seven wholesale power markets, which cover most areas of the US where competitive renewable energy projects are available to C&I buyers, shows clearly that there is no shortage of planned projects.
There are over 900,000 MW of wind and solar projects at various stages of the interconnection process at transmission voltages (not including those at the distribution level, which tend to be smaller and therefore not of sufficient scale for most large C&I buyers).
Many of these projects are early in the process and less likely to make it to commercial operation. But even if we weight the queue based on the development stage of the projects, there appears to be more than enough to meet anticipated market demand (more on that in the next blog). And more projects are added every day given growing demand for wind and solar energy.
…But They Are Fighting to Survive
The industry has plenty of sellers and buyers, but there are strong headwinds to successfully building and deploying wind and solar energy projects.
When a large wind or solar project is built, it needs to be connected to the electrical grid. The major wholesale electricity markets have been unable to keep up with the dramatic growth of new project interconnection requests in recent years. What used to take one and a half to two years to get through the queue process can now take three to five years or longer in some markets. This represents a major chokepoint in the availability of relatively advanced projects that buyers can contract with, particularly over the next two years.
Supply chain issues
The US renewable energy industry is heavily reliant on imports of semi-finished and finished products from China and Southeast Asia. China produces 72 percent of the world’s polysilicon and 97 percent of wafers, key ingredients of solar panels. About 80 percent of solar panels used in the US are made in China and several other Southeast Asian countries.
Several factors are making it increasingly difficult and expensive to source these critical materials from Asia.
- COVID-19 Pandemic: First, the pandemic shut down or slowed global production of many renewable energy components with huge impacts on project schedules and costs. Shipping costs also rose dramatically. Supply chains have not yet recovered, despite the optimistic expectations of industry analysts over the past two years.
- Forced labor products order: Next came a US Government order to stop solar products at the US border unless suppliers could prove they were made without forced labor, focused on the Xinjiang region of China. Even suppliers who made reasonable cases that they had a supply chain free of forced labor suffered delays and uncertainty over the order. Many suppliers refused to even ship product to the US for fear of not being able to meet the border test, which was initially unclear and hard to prove. While somewhat improved today, it continues to take time to get sufficient transparency and documentation in global supply chains.
- Solar import duty petition: Last, but certainly not least, a small US solar manufacturer has petitioned the Department of Commerce to impose new tariffs on solar modules imported from Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia, alleging suppliers have been circumventing US trade law. On April 1, 2022, the Department of Commerce announced an investigation into the issue. The outcome could affect up to 80 percent of crystalline-silicon modules used in the US, imposing tariffs between 50 and 250 percent. Many suppliers are refusing to even ship product to the US because of the uncertainty over whether the petition will be granted and, if so, the resulting impact of the tariffs. [UPDATE AS OF JUNE 6: The Biden Administration announced that it will pause solar tariffs for two years while the Department of Commerce completes its investigation and efforts to boost domestic production of solar modules are deployed.]
More About the Solar Import Duty Petition
Auxin Solar, a solar equipment manufacturer based in San Jose, CA, made two requests of the Department of Commerce related to alleged circumvention of tariffs of Chinese modules and solar cells.
Auxin Request 1: Existing tariffs on Chinese-made crystalline silicon solar cells and modules to apply to those manufactured in Southeast Asia
Auxin Request 2: change the origination determination for tariffs from cell to wafer
The above (and other) factors have contributed to price inflation from the raw commodity level to labor and finished goods, and there is little sign of it abating anytime soon. The war in Ukraine is adding fuel to the fire as Europe looks to wean itself off Russian oil and natural gas, adding to the already high global demand for renewable energy. In the US, the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates to slow demand and curb price inflation, but this measure also raises the financing cost of these projects, adding another blow to project feasibility.
When Will Renewable Energy Project Supply Recover?
The interconnection logjam is currently being dealt with on a piecemeal basis by the individual wholesale markets, but nothing has yet made a significant dent in the queue. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has filed a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to address the lack of long-term and inter-regional transmission planning. This is an important step to building renewable energy capacity, but it will likely be well into 2023 before queue reform at a national level is underway.
It is difficult to predict how much longer COVID will impact imports from China and other Southeast Asian countries. Though pandemic restrictions have relaxed across the US, the Chinese government’s “zero-COVID” strategy has imposed mandatory lockdowns despite their disruptions to Chinese manufacturing and global supply chains.The forced labor issue should decline as suppliers develop either the appropriate documentation of compliance or new supply chains are established. Some panels from Southeast Asia are starting to move through the US Customs process, abating some of the constraint.
However, any supply chain improvements made by the above two factors are more than offset by the specter of import duties. The Department of Commerce is expected to make a preliminary decision on the petition as early as this July. If the petition is dismissed, this will remove the newest and most disruptive factor from the market, at least for the time being. If the decision is to move forward with a full investigation and potential tariffs, then it will be late 2022 or early 2023 before a final outcome is known.
Even if the ultimate decision is to not impose tariffs, or keep them at recent levels, the uncertainty had put on hold the large majority of new solar capacity in the US in Q2 2022. On June 6, the Biden Administration’s announced it has paused new tariffs on these imports for two years, which paves the way for panels to resume shipments. While the announcement gives the industry a two-year bridge period, new tariffs could still eventually be imposed from the investigation.
In the long run, renewable energy developers can side-step all these supply chain problems—pandemic delays, compliance on labor documentation, and import tariffs—by sourcing products from new locations. But that means suppliers in those new locations must expand their production capacity with new manufacturing equipment, which doesn’t happen overnight. In the US, tax credits could speed up capacity-building for domestic solar module producers, but that legislation is languishing in a divided Congress. This means it will likely be at least two to three years before a major supply chain shift can realistically occur.
Taking all these factors into account, the Biden Administration’s ambitious clean energy goals will be impossible to meet unless a full court press is made now to reduce barriers and provide appropriate incentives.
We aren’t going to sugar coat it: this is a tough market. However, corporations and large institutions still have ambitious climate goals to meet, and there is significant pressure from customers, employees, and younger generations to act.
Fortunately, despite PPA prices ticking up more recently (halting the continuous decrease we had seen over prior decades), forward curves suggest higher energy revenues for projects across all markets as well, which can help offset higher PPA prices. However, there are many factors affecting future prices, and buyers must recognize that there is risk of loss in any solution that relies on high market pricing to continue.
Despite all the challenges, attractive and creative solutions still exist, but they are harder to find and don’t stay on the market for long given tight supply and strong demand. Buyers need to be closely attuned to the market and ready to move quickly and flexibly when good projects become available. Managing risk in these contracts is as important as it has ever been, so good commercial and legal advice continue to be key. Here are two blog posts we’ve written in the past about managing risk:
Stay tuned for more updates from Coho on how to successfully transact in today’s market.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: There is risk of loss in any contract whose settlement floats with the market
Win Sheffield, Joy Lu, and Gavin Ahern contributed to this blog post.


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So today, we are going to share to you this popular Emoji that most people getting crazy with, as the company announced Galaxy S7 and Edge, they also added that they will launch and host its self developed new emoji.
To be specific, the Emojipedia added with 159 latest emoji and of course it has countless changes. So now those older users of Samsung devices will get updated with this emoji feature as part of Android Marshmallow update.
So why not update your phone after receiving the update notification? So let us continue, Samsung takes emoji to the next level with more emoticons like what other similar app with Apple and other apps has.
So in similarity, Google uses more bulbous like looking cartoon character on its Android and Hangouts. To let you know the last time emoji was updated by Samsung was around 2013’s on Galaxy S5.
So now there are about 12 emoji faces including the famous ‘Money-Mouth Face’ and the ‘Nerd Face’. Ops before we forgot the ‘Reversed Hand with Middle Finger Extended and more.
So this Marshmallow update will bring new features to all Samsung devices.

domain: news


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Microsoft has quietly begun testing a new way to deliver updates to some Windows apps and features without pushing a full operating system update.
According to ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley, some users are starting to see a new “Windows Feature Experience Pack” mention in their System Settings. And while Microsoft hasn’t publicly said much about what that means, it appears to include a small bundle of applications including updated versions of the Windows Snipping tool, text input panel, and shell suggestions.
The Feature Experience Pack is listed in the “Features on Demand” section of Microsoft’s Windows 10 documentation for PC manufacturers. But aside from the fact that it’s a 44.15MB package available for Windows 10, versions 2004 and later, there’s not much information on that page.
Foley suggests that the pack could be part of an effort to separate the Windows 10 user interface and core set of apps from the Windows 10 Core OS. But it’s unclear what that will me in the long run.
Overall, this reminds me of the way Google has been separating key components of Android from the operating system so that it can push updates through the Google Play Store as soon as they’re available instead of waiting for a major OS update. The difference is that Google has a lot less control over OS updates than Microsoft does — phone makers are largely responsible for making sure the latest Android updates will work with their devices and then deciding if and when to roll out the update to users. Microsoft delivers Windows updates directly to users no matter what company manufactured the Windows PC you’re using.
So the advantage for Microsoft and Windows users may simply be that some Microsoft apps and features are updated more frequently, while Google’s move to push Android features through the Play Store is a way of ensuring that users get those updates at all.


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4 Spam-Free Article(s) Found
Mar 08, 2018 - Dividend increase season rolls along, a large number of companies have announced their yearly increase with half of those being 10% or more.This is the list of dividend stocks from the popular U.S. Di
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Essen Spiel 2023, marking the 40th anniversary of the German board game fair, cemented its place as the world’s foremost tabletop event with what its organisers claim was the convention’s biggest year to date.
193,000 visitors visited the board game convention held in the eponymous German city from last Thursday, October 5th to Sunday 8th. While that visitor figure is down on 2019’s pre-pandemic record attendance of 209,000, organiser Friedhelm Merz Verlag says that combined with the event’s increased hall space of 62,500 square metres and the more than 1,700 “novelties” exhibited - predominantly board games - it believes that “the biggest Spiel ever took place” in 2023.
By way of comparison, US convention Gen Con reported record attendance over the summer, with more than 70,000 visitors. The UK’s largest dedicated tabletop show, UK Games Expo, also set a new attendance record this year with almost 53,000 visitors.
This year’s Spiel was organised by a fresh team at Merz Verlag, including new managing director Carol Rapp, who took over in November and led a number of changes to the storied game fair.
"We had hoped that more people would come to Spiel than last year, but we didn't expect this number," said Rapp. "We changed a lot of things this year to make Spiel even more accessible and appealing, and the number of visitors on all days, as well as the general feedback, shows us that we've done it."
Among the shake-ups was a rearrangement of the halls of Spiel’s Messe Essen venue, with the show’s more than 900 exhibitors newly sorted into halls based on their focus on family games, “expert” games, and RPGs, trading card games and miniatures.
Ahead of this year’s convention, Essen Spiel’s organisers faced criticism from tabletop creators and fans over its decision to use AI-generated artwork for its marketing materials, including the main banners featured at the Messe Essen and across the German city.
The decision to use AI art came despite the show’s reveal of a new mascot created by Adventures of Robin Hood and Legends of Andor designer-illustrator Michael Menzel, who was subsequently named Meeps in a public vote. While Meeps appeared at the show on merchandise and occasional marketing, as well as being offered to visitors as a free miniature to paint, the AI-created artwork was far more prevalent across the show and the surrounding city. (Merz Verlang says that 1,200 Meeps models were picked up during the show.)
“The protection of artists’ rights has priority for us,” Merz Verlag said in response to the backlash, later adding that “the marketing campaign [with AI artwork] has been created way before we had the idea to create a mascot. The idea of Meeps had nothing to do with the marketing campaign and vice versa”.


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Are masks giving men a licence to leer? Women report a rise in 'aggressive eye contact' since face coverings became commonplace as an expert warns they 'provide anonymity' for threatening behaviour
- Women online are reporting a rise in 'aggressive eye contact' from men in masks
- Social media users are sharing stories of 'so much hard staring happening'
- UN Women UK Executive Director said to be aware of 'anonymity masks provide'
- Claire Barnett told FEMAIL: 'We need to create an understanding that behaviour like unwanted and persistent staring is intimidating'
Women across the country are reporting a rise in 'aggressive eye contact' since the introduction of face coverings in some public places.
New laws introduced over the weekend force customers to wear face masks in all shops, stations, banks and post offices, while it is also mandatory to wear coverings on public transport.
But many women have been sharing stories online of 'aggressive eye contact' and 'hard staring' from men wearing masks, with one tweeting: 'Grown men staring at you with a mask on is worse than when they don't have a mask.'
UN Women UK Executive Director Claire Barnett told FEMAIL: 'As we work to "build back better" following lockdown, we need to prevent the lack of witnesses of antisocial behaviour due to less populated public spaces, as well as the anonymity face coverings can provide, leading to further rises in harassment and threatening actions towards women, girls and minoritised groups.
'This will require widespread changes in attitudes and behaviour - creating an understanding that behaviour like unwanted and persistent staring is intimidating, and that we all have a role to play in making our public spaces more inclusive.'
Women are taking to social media with their stories of intimidating behaviour from men wearing masks, with many saying there has been an increase in 'staring' and 'demanding eye contact' since the introduction of face coverings (pictured, stock image)
Women are complaining about a rise in intimidating behaviour from men wearing masks, with many taking to social media to share their stories.
One person commented: 'Does anybody else feel like men are way more aggressively demanding eye contact in public since we all started wearing masks?
'So much hard staring happening. And I can't diffuse the attention by smiling like women are conditioned to do. It's weird.'
Another wrote: 'Seriously, we all are wearing masks and some men still keep staring. WTF is wrong?'
'Do men realize that masks don't cover their eyes so we can still ****** See them staring like the creepy pieces of s*** they are?????' one added.
'A jaunt downtown revealed men do not understand the anatomy of masks,' another wrote.
'The masks do not cover your eyes. I can still see you staring, idiots.'
Claire told FEMAIL that the crisis continues to have a 'damaging effect on women's economic opportunities, social experiences and health' so it remains 'more important than ever that women can move freely through public space without intimidation.
Many women have taken to Twitter to share their experiences, with some saying staring has been 'worse' and 'creepier' recently
She explained: 'As part of our campaign to make the UK's public spaces safer and more inclusive for women and girls, we're hearing reports of rising harassment and threatening behaviour in the streets and on transport, in addition to the clearly documented rising domestic abuse within the home.
'This can be particularly severe for women who also experience another intersecting minority characteristic, like women of colour and differently-abled people.'
Claire went on to say that it was important to be wary that the anonymity face masks provide, as well as the less populated spaces, don't lead to an increased rate of harassment for women.
Masks have been compulsory on public transport since July 15 after evolving scientific advice suggested they could help stop Covid sufferers without symptoms from spreading the disease.
UN Women UK Executive Director Claire Barnett told FEMAIL that people should be vigilant that quieter public places and the 'anonymity face masks provide' don't lead to an increased rate of harassment for women (pictured, stock image)
But over the weekend, new laws were introduced to make face coverings mandatory in shops, supermarkets and enclosed shopping centres as well as train stations, banks, post offices, building societies, bus stations and airports.
Failure to comply could result in a £100 spot fine, although police forces have indicated they will only respond as a 'last resort'. Scotland Yard said it hopes shoppers who refuse to wear masks will be 'shamed' into compliance.
A mask can only be removed in a shop for a small number of reasons, such as allowing staff to check someone's identity or age or to communicate with a deaf lip reader. Shop staff do not have to wear coverings but it is 'strongly recommended' that employers ask them to do so unless they have other precautions such as screens.
The new rules are contentious, with some people finding masks uncomfortable and some libertarians complaining they are being 'muzzled' by the state.
Face coverings in England
Face coverings are now mandatory in shops and supermarkets across England.
Under new rules introduced by the Government over the weekend, people will need to cover their nose and mouth or face a fine of up to £100. People with certain disabilities will be exempt.
This comes after rules requiring people to wear face coverings on public transport became mandatory last month. Initially many experts and authorities including the World Health Organisation suggested face coverings were not effective in preventing the spread of COVID-19 but are now recommending wearing them in indoor spaces.
- When do I need to wear face masks?
Face coverings will have to be worn in shops, supermarkets and enclosed shopping centres as well as train stations, banks, post offices, building societies, bus stations and airports.
The Government has also said that people taking out food and drink from cafes has to wear a face mask, but does not have to wear a covering if they sit in the premises.
Meanwhile, supermarket and shop staff do not have to wear masks, with several major retailers including Sainsbury's, Asda and Costa Coffee saying they will not police the rules aggressively.
Masks do not have to be worn in pubs and restaurants, museums, cinemas, theatres, indoor gyms and leisure facilities, spas and beauty salons, hairdressers, galleries, concert and bingo halls.
Face coverings are also thought to make no difference outdoors as the risk of transmission is low in open air.
Failure to comply with the rules could result in a £100 fine although the police have said they will not be aggressively enforcing the law, with ministers hoping the public will show 'common sense' on the issue.
- Are there any exemptions?
Yes, while face coverings will be mandatory in shops, banks, takeaways, post offices, sandwich shops and supermarkets in England from Friday there are some exemptions.
Section three of the Government guidance, published on Thursday, sets out a list of 'legitimate reasons' not to wear a covering. Groups and settings include:
If speaking with people who rely on lip reading, facial expressions and clear sound to help with communication.
It is not mandatory for shop or supermarket staff or transport workers to wear face coverings but employers can ask them to do so where appropriate and where other mitigation is not in place, the guidance states.
People exempt from wearing a face covering can choose to carry and show an exemption card, badge or even a home-made sign, the Government says.
- Has there been confusion over the new rules?
Yes, opposition MPs have said it needs to be clarified whether customers have to wear face coverings in takeaways and sandwich shops in England.
The criticism came after days of mixed messages with the Health Secretary and Boris Johnson's official spokesman contradicting each other on the matter.
The Daily Telegraph reported that people using sandwich shops and takeaways will be required to wear a mask, and buying food from the counter and then sitting down to eat inside the shop will be banned.
Ministers are facing accusations that the new rules are muddled, inconsistent and illogical, with face masks not necessary in pubs, restaurants and cinemas, but mandatory in shops, takeaway shops and shopping centres.
David Strain of Essex University said there was 'no logic to the exclusion of theatres and cinemas' as social distancing could not be enforced: 'There is no reason why shopkeepers or supermarket staff should be exempt'.
Chaand Nagpaul, head of the British Medical Association, told The Times: 'While today's guidance is in some ways helpful, the uncertainty of recent weeks has done nothing to inspire public confidence. Meanwhile, if venues such as theatres, museums and salons are not subject to these rules, there must be an absolute assurance that they can protect the public by enforcing physical distancing or putting other mitigating measures in place.'
And Jon Richards of the Unison union said: 'Government guidance has been confusing from the beginning. The UK was late to the table on face coverings and now people don't know what they should do.
'There are rules for shops and public transport, but not for other enclosed spaces such as libraries, register offices and civic centres. The public needs clarity to end the muddle.'
- What does the science say about face coverings?
A Royal Society report suggests that even basic homemade face coverings can reduce transmission if enough people wear them when in public.
The study, based on mathematical modelling, showed that if an entire population wore face coverings that were only 75 per cent effective, it would bring the R value, which is the number of people an infected individual passes the virus on to, from 4.0 to under 1.0, without the need for lockdowns.
Another Royal Society report suggests the use of cotton masks is associated with a 54 per cent lower odds of infection in comparison to the no mask groups, when tested in a healthcare setting.
Melinda Mills from the University of Oxford told a webinar: 'So that should suggest that when you're generally in the public that it should offer you some, not 100 per cent, but it does offer you some protection.'
Another study which looked at coronavirus deaths across 198 countries found that nations which had policies favouring mask-wearing had lower death rates.
In another piece of scientific research, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last month, scientists calculated that wearing face coverings prevented more than 78,000 infections in Italy between April 6 and May 9, and more than 66,000 infections in New York City between April 17 and May 9.
- What are the benefits to wearing them?
Experts say the risk of coronavirus transmission appears to be higher in poorly ventilated indoor spaces and wearing face coverings in small shops or enclosed shopping centres could help reduce the spread.
Keith Neal, professor of epidemiology at the University of Nottingham, said: 'Lack of strong evidence of their effectiveness should not be considered a problem but the evidence is accumulating that they have a part to play in reducing transmission and also in protecting the wearer.'
In addition, there is also increased evidence which suggests that many people with the virus who do not have symptoms can still be contagious.
- What do people need to know about wearing masks?
Ideally the face coverings should be made of multilayer high quality cotton.
Where possible they should be should be worn in indoor confined spaces and crowded spaces, especially where social distancing cannot be maintained.
Japan follows the three Cs, closed spaces, crowded places, and close-contact settings. When wearing a face covering, it should cover the mouth and nose.
- Are some face coverings better than others?
The WHO advises a three-layer face covering in the community - the outer layer should be water resistant, the inner should be water absorbent and the mid-layer acts as a filter.
It emphasises that a face covering alone cannot protect people from COVID-19, and must be combined with social distancing of at least a metre and regular hand washing.
The Government has said coverings can be made from scarves, bandanas or other fabric items, as long as they cover the mouth and nose.
But scientists at the Leverhulme Centre, who studied different types of face coverings used by members of the public, say some coverings are not as effective as others, with loosely woven fabrics, such as scarves, shown to be the least effective. Prof Mills, director of the Leverhulme Centre, said: 'Attention must also be placed on how well it fits on the face; it should loop around the ears or around the back of the neck for better coverage.'
- What are the main messages about face coverings?
Prof Mills says cloth coverings are an effective way to protect the wearer and those around them. She says that face masks and coverings cannot be seen in isolation and are part of a package that involves hand hygiene and social distancing. Consistent and effective public messaging is vital, she concluded.
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PS4 already profitable for Sony
The PS4 is already turning a profit for Sony, just six months after launch, the Japanese gaming giant has confirmed.
With past console offerings, such as the PS3, having been offered up as major loss leaders – costing Sony money on a hardware front it hoped to redeem in lengthy software sales – a change in approach has seen the PS4 profitable from the off.
Despite moving to a more traditional architecture, it had been widely expected that the PS4 would make a loss for Sony in its early stages.
Although the PS4 is turning a profit for Sony, the manufacturer recently announced overarching company losses having disbanded its Vaio laptop brand.
It is currently unclear whether or not Microsoft’s Xbox One is being sold at a profit or a loss, although the recent decision to remove Kinect from the equation, cutting the price in the process, is sure to have altered the company’s financial approach to the console.
Recent sales figures have shown that the PS4 is eclipsing sales of the rival Xbox One, selling more than 2 million units globally than the Xbox has even shipped.
Read More: Xbox One vs PS4


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The Hispanic Heritage Celebration will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday at The Lyceum on Parris Island. Entertainment includes a fashion show, dance demonstration, and classic and contemporary music. Dinner includes traditional Hispanic dishes.
Tickets are $15 for ages 13 and older, $8 for ages 7 to 12 and free for children under six.
Details: Cynthia Golson, email@example.com or 843-228-2647; Delvon Survine, firstname.lastname@example.org or 843-228-3567; Roberto Medrano, email@example.com or 843-228-4911; Tamara McMillan, firstname.lastname@example.org or 843-228-7936; Jonathan Oliveros, email@example.com or 843-228-5416


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Bacolod execs hail downgrading of city’s status from GCQ to MGCQ
BACOLOD CITY –– Officials of this city welcomed the decision of the Inter-Agency Task for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) to downgrade its status from general community quarantine (GCQ) to modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).
Mayor Evelio Leonardia said more businesses can now operate to help reinvigorate the local economy.
The mayor, however, reminded the public to observe the health protocols and to remain vigilant to prevent a spike in COVID-19 cases.
Leonardia on Monday issued Executive Order No. 73, Series of 2020 placing Bacolod City under MGCQ starting Dec. 1 to 31.
Frank Carbon, Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive officer, was elated upon learning about the development.
“MGCQ is very good news for the local economy. It will allow more businesses to open and generate jobs that are badly needed,” he said.
“It will now allow for more inter-island travel and the infusion of money into the local economy,” he added.
Executive Order 73 sets the curfew in Bacolod City from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m., but Leonardia said it could be further shortened in mid-December.
Malls and commercial centers in Bacolod City are now allowed to operate at 100-percent capacity, provided they comply with required health protocols.
Businesses still not allowed to operate are beer houses and similar establishments, whose primary business is serving alcoholic drinks, and kid amusement industries.
Businesses allowed to operate at only 50 percent venue capacity are barbershops, salons, and other personal care service establishments, dine-in restaurants, fast food, and food retail establishments, including those in supermarkets, grocery stores, and food preparation establishments.
Also allowed to operate at 50 percent of their operating capacity are language, driving, dance, acting and voice schools, cinemas, theaters, libraries, archives, museums, cultural centers, tourist destinations, tattoo and body piercing, and live events.
Under MGCQ, persons below 15 years old and those who are over 65 years of age, those with immune deficiencies, comorbidities, or other health risks, and pregnant women, will continue to remain in their residences at all times, except for some instances, like obtaining essential goods and services or for work in permitted industries and offices.
Indoor and outdoor non-contact sports and other forms of exercise, such as but not limited to walking, jogging, running, biking, golf, swimming, tennis, badminton, equestrian, range shooting, and skateboarding are allowed provided that minimum health protocols are observed.
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He’s ‘fixed’ the iPhone 4 death grip problem without having to issue a recall.
“Apple fans must be ecstatic”, emails p2pnet regular Andrew AKA Comeoncomcast, linking to a Big Pond story.
In the wake of passionate Apple denials that the iPhone 4 even has an antenna failing that causes serious reception problems, the company is promising what amounts to an iPhone 4 condom ‘free’ to users who disagree.
“The more than 3 million people who have bought the iPhone 4 and new buyers through September 30 will all be eligible”, says the story.
“In our reporting and a video … we made the point that the signal drop that iPhone 4 customers have observed when they hold their phones the “wrong” way is real — and we’ve called on Apple to do something about it”, said Consumer Reports.
Now “The more than 3 million people who have bought the iPhone 4 and new buyers through September 30 will all be eligible” for iPhone 4 protective cases says Big Pond .
Not only but also, anyone who wasted the $US29 ($A32.80) on ‘Bumper’ cases will get their money back, it adds.
… and identi.ca
Big Pond – Free cases to for iPhone 4 consumers
passionate Apple denials – Apple iPhone 4 mess: up there with BP and Toyota, July 14, 2010
started deleting threads – Apple deletes negative iPhone 4 posts, July 14, 2010
Consumer Reports – Why Apple—and not its customers—should fix the iPhone 4, July 13, 2010
Neowin – Apple deleting Consumer Reports iPhone 4 discussions, July 14, 2010
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It`s really easy!
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details.


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With a choppy but ultimately solid 2004 behind it, Wall Street is looking ahead to the so-called January effect, when new money enters the market and drives stock prices higher. But with questions remaining about the strength of the labor market, Friday’s job creation report from the Labor Department could determine the fate of the New Year’s buying spree.
The January effect describes the market’s positive bias coming into a new year. Starting in late December, investors reshuffle portfolios to either buy up stronger stocks or to lessen their tax impact. By January, the mood shifts as investors, freed from short-term tax considerations, spread out their investments into whatever stocks they feel will do well.
There’s also an influx of cash from yearend bonuses.
With an economy that appears to be growing steadily, a positive January effect seems like a lock again this year. But the Labor Department’s jobs report is one of Wall Street’s most important barometers of economic growth, and is closely watched by investors.
Analysts expect the economy to have created 175,000 jobs in December. However, they expected 200,000 jobs in November and only got 112,000.
With post-election exuberance and the yearend rally wearing thin, will the markets be able to absorb another negative surprise when the report is issued Friday? A better-than-expected jobs report would make that question moot, and many investors grateful.
Last week, Wall Street closed out 2004 with light, uneven trading, as most investors sat out for the holidays and the few that remained shuffled portfolios and investments before the year’s end. For the week, the Dow fell 0.41 percent, while the S&P rose 0.15 percent and the Nasdaq climbed 0.69 percent.
For the year, the Dow gained 3.15 percent, the S&P rose 8.99 percent and the Nadsaq was up 8.59 percent.
ISM Index figures due out
In addition to Friday’s jobs report, Wall Street will look closely at the latest readings on economic activity in manufacturing and the service sector.
On Monday, the Institute for Supply Management will release its manufacturing activity index for December. Economists are expecting a reading of 58.5, up from 57.8 in November. And on Tuesday, the Commerce Department reports on November factory orders, which are expected to rise 0.8 percent, compared with a 0.5 percent rise in October.
And on Wednesday, the ISM issues its services index reading for December. The index of non-manufacturing activity is expected to come in at 61, slightly lower than November’s 61.3 reading.
On Thursday, the nation’s big retailers issue their sales reports for December, including their final assessment of the holiday shopping season.
Earnings this week
Only a handful of companies are expected to post earnings in the week ahead, especially with the first-quarter earnings season getting under way next Monday.
Among the notable companies reporting earnings this week:
- Drug store chain Walgreen Co. is expected to earn 29 cents per share when it reports Monday morning, up from 25 cents per share from a year ago.
- Monsanto Co., the agricultural products company, reports on Wednesday and is expected to earn 9 cents per share, compared to 4 cents per share a year ago. The company’s stock climbed 93.4 percent in 2004.
- Accenture Ltd. is expected to earn 31 cents per share when it reports its earnings after Thursday’s session. The technology consultancy earned 28 cents per share a year ago.
- Health insurer Wellpoint Inc., reporting Thursday afternoon, is expected to earn $1.70 per share for the quarter, compared to $1.43 per share a year ago.
On Tuesday, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Inc. will hold conference calls to discuss their December sales, and other automakers are expected to release their sales data as well. Overall, auto sales are expected to rise slightly in December, but individual automotive stocks could fluctuate depending on their sales results.


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FILE PHOTO: The brand of SoftBank Group Corp is displayed at SoftBank World 2017 convention in Tokyo, Japan, July 20, 2017. Information/Issei Kato
TOKYO (Information) – SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) stated it sees a lack of round 700 billion yen ($6.6 billion) within the yr ending March on the portion of its WeWork funding held outdoors the Imaginative and prescient Fund, extending the group’s anticipated web loss to 900 billion yen.
SoftBank maintained its forecast of a report annual working lack of 1.35 trillion yen introduced earlier this month as bets through the $100 billion fund bitter.
Reporting by Sam Nussey; Enhancing by Kim Coghill


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The government has ended its safety investigation into the Chevrolet Volt, concluding that the Volt and other electric cars don't pose a greater fire risk than gasoline-powered cars. GM announced earlier this month that it will add steel plates to about 12,000 existing Volts to protect the batteries in the event of a crash.
— The Associated Press
Sales of new "clean" diesel autos in the U.S. increased by 27.4 percent in 2011 over 2010, according to HybridCars.Com and market-research firm Baum and Associates. Baum expects diesel-car sales to grow to 6-6.5 percent of the U.S. market by 2015, compared to just over 3 percent today.
— NWautos staff


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EXCLUSIVE: TikTok pranksters ’caused mayhem in Tesco two weeks before Asda’: New video shows super-hero mob brawling with supermarket bouncers as it’s claimed SAME ‘chaos for likes’ gang struck nearby store a fortnight earlier
- Costumed gang struck local Tesco just two weeks ago in similar stunt
- Asda video shows employee grappling with girl before Spider-Man punches her
- Five people who were arrested have been bailed by police after the incident
A thug in a Spider-Man outfit among a costumed mob involved in a violent brawl in Asda are being investigated over an earlier aggressive storming of Tesco.
New footage of the comic book character standing aloft brawling what looks to be a karate fighter on the top of chiller cabinets has been uncovered today.
The video in Tesco shows Spider-Man shouting down to where shoppers buy their goods ‘Come on then, you f****** c****’
Today the link to the longer video was now no longer available and has been set to private.
MailOnline can reveal Tesco suspect the incident is connected and are currently investigating the circumstances.
A source said: ‘We think it is the same group of people and are looking into what action was taken.’
Footage from Asda on Thursday night showed a female employee grappling with a girl before the costumed man lands a kick and a punch – knocking her straight to the floor of the supermarket branch in Clapham, south London.
Five people were arrested but bailed until next month over the fight, which left six people injured.
The video in Tesco shows Spider-Man shouting down to where shoppers buy their goods
The new Tesco video shows the man rolling around outside the supermarket before the stunt
The arrests included a 31-year-old man, who was detained on suspicion of actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm, affray and violent disorder.
A 37-year-old man, 35-year-old man, 18-year-old woman and 17-year-old girl were also arrested on suspicion of affray and violent disorder.
In a separate clip of the same incident, a massive brawl can be seen breaking out towards the entrance of the store.
One thug can be seen brandishing a pole, while shoppers are heard screaming in the background.
Footage shows the female employee grappling with a girl before the costumed man lands a kick and a punch at the supermarket branch in Clapham, south London
It was confirmed that a woman in her 20s was taken to hospital with a minor injury.
In a statement, Wandsworth Police posted: ‘We are aware of videos on social media appearing to show a disturbance at a supermarket in Clapham last night.
‘Five people have been arrested and remain in custody. Six people were injured.
‘Enquires are ongoing and we ask anyone with footage to share it to @MetCC’.
An Asda spokesperson said: ‘We are aware of an incident which occurred at our Clapham Junction store late last night.
‘We do not tolerate any form of violence or abuse towards colleague or customers and we are working closely with the police in their enquiries.’
The costumed man lands a kick and a punch – knocking the female employee straight to the floor. Five people have been arrested and remain in custody following the incident, which left six people injured, said police
In a separate clip of the same incident, a massive brawl can be seen breaking out towards the entrance of the store


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Good morning! Editor Nicole MacAdam (@nicole_mac1) here. Companies in the news today: Hudson’s Bay gets a offer for Galeria Kaufhof, Imperial looks to ramp up production in the oilsands and Loblaw, George Weston and others are under scrutiny by the competition bureau.
HBC mulls offer for European assets
Hudson’s Bay confirmed that it received “an incomplete, non-binding and unsolicited offer with no evidence of financing” for Kaufhof and other real estate assets from rival Signa Holding GmbH, Austria’s largest privately owned real estate company.
Bottom line: It’s not clear that Hudson’s Bay will jump at the chance to offload the Galeria Kaufhof brand or halt an expansion of its flagship stores into Europe, writes Hollie Shaw. The unsolicited offer is reported to be worth the equivalent of US$3.5 billion.
Imperial gears up in the oilsands
Imperial Oil, the Canadian affiliate of Exxon Mobil is getting ready for another growth spurt in the Alberta deposits that could include green-lighting the new 150,000 barrels a day Aspen project early next year, reports Claudia Cattaneo.
Bottom line: Imperial, one of the few international companies still operating in the oilsands, hopes to receive a permit from the Alberta Energy Regulator in coming months, evaluate any related conditions and potentially proceed with a final investment decision in the first half of 2018, CEO Rich Kruger said.
Competition bureau looks into bread price-fixing
Loblaw and George Weston have confirmed that they are aware of and co-operating fully with an industry-wide investigation by the Competition Bureau into a price-fixing scheme involving certain packaged bread products.
Bottom line: The investigation comes as demand for bread faces pressure from health-conscious consumers and heightened competition from discount retailers. “(Bread) now has almost become a fashion item… Huge aisles of white bread are slowly shrinking,” said John Williams, a partner at retail consulting company J.C. Williams Group.
Costs pile up for B.C.’s Site C dam
British Columbia’s massive and controversial Site C hydroelectric dam is behind schedule and could cost as much as $10 billion when complete, according to a new report from the province’s utilities commission.
Bottom line: The NDP government had promised a review of the Site C project and its costs and asked the BCUC to consider alternative power projects in place of Site C. The commission determined that it would cost $1.8 billion remediate the site if work were stopped, and that a suite of alternative power sources would be comparable in cost to the dam, reports Geoffrey Morgan.
Only 54 days more…
It’ll be a (mostly) white Christmas cup for Starbucks this year. The coffee chain’s latest holiday design lets customers colour it in themselves. “We hope they’ll colour it in to represent what the holidays means to them,” said Leanne Fremar, a creative director at the company.
Bottom line: A plain red cup from 2015 spurred an outcry from critics upset that it lacked snowflakes, reindeer or specific symbols of Christmas. U.S. President Donald Trump, who was a candidate at the time and who can clearly live without his peppermint latte, suggested boycotting the chain.


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Picture used for illustrative purpose only.
A Japanese firm has shelved an advertising campaign intended to promote gender equity at home after its #beWHITE hashtag sparked concern about racial sensitivities.
Kao, which manufactures everything from detergent to make-up, launched the campaign playing on common Japanese terminology labelling firms that overwork and mistreat employees "black" and those that treat workers well "white."
It launched the #beWHITE project on Tuesday as part of marketing efforts for a detergent, urging an equitable distribution of chores at home.
"We wanted to call for people to join hands and share household chores to make 'white households' when it comes to chores... But the English-language phrase 'be white' has many possibilities (of interpretation) and lacked consideration," Kao spokesman Yoshiki Aoyama told AFP.
Kao decided to halt the campaign because employees raised a question about whether it was insensitive, Aoyama said.
But online, many Japanese commenters said Kao had over-reacted.
"Isn't it too much to restrict references to colours? We won't be able to say anything then," one tweet said.
"It's scary. This is fascism. Can't we say a wine is white?" added one commenter on a news article about the decision.
"Very disheartened at Manchester Airport today, I travel around the world with my insulin but never have I been made to feel embarrassed. I felt very humiliated as I was rudely questioned & ordered publicly to take my insulin out of its travel cold-case & dumped in to a plastic bag," Akram said in a tweet.
With skateboarding making its Olympic debut in Japan next year, Cuban skateboarders are hoping their sport will finally be accepted at home.
Yoshiro Mori announced his surprise resignation as honorary chairman of the Japan Rugby Football Union, officials said on Thursday, just months before the country hosts the World Cup.
If you are bored of the traditional egg breakfasts, try this green twist on the classic Middle Eastern dish of shakshuka, which are traditionally made with tomato sauce.
A Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) certified driver, Drift enthusiast and influencer, Ghaith Al Falasi likes nothing better than to push his boundaries on the racing tracks around the world.
The breathtaking reds, yellows and purples of the Mesoamerican Reef have been turning sickly white, leading researchers on a desperate hunt to understand and fight the mysterious disease killing the Caribbean's corals.


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A Wanganui dairy has gone smokefree - and business has never been better, says its owner.
Niki Gordon of the Glasgow Street Dairy decided to stop selling cigarettes as a new year resolution, and has already had six couples in the area tell him they're giving up smoking because of it.
"Cigarette companies are becoming a bit bullyish," Mr Gordon said. "Dairies are made to believe that you can't survive without selling cigarettes - but you can."
He posted signs on his store windows to say he did not sell smokes a couple of weeks ago, and ever since then he had people coming in to congratulate him on his stance.
Even smokers were coming in to shake his hand and wish him the best, he said.
His turnover was better since the change, despite the loss of cigarette sales, he said, as grocery sales had gone up.
Mr Gordon reckoned his was the only dairy in Wanganui that had stopped stocking cigarettes. The Chronicle visited 10 other dairies around the city this week, all of which were selling them.
He hoped his decision would inspire other dairy owners to ditch the ciggies and go smokefree.
"The trend will eventually be specialty smoke shops."
It was "a pride issue" too now for Mr Gordon to stand firm - he said he'd had a comment from a cigarette company assuring him it "wouldn't last".
He has owned the dairy for 10 years, and started thinking about going smokefree a couple of years ago.
For more articles from this region, go to Wanganui Chronicle


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During the Annual Meeting of the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA), in Tampa FL last month, officials from Carrier Corp. announced the launch of the Toshiba-Carrier brand in North America. Under this brand, Carrier will sell high efficiency duct-free inverter heat pumps, efficiency rated up to 23 SEER, via its distribution channel. The brand will also include Energy Star®-compliant and tax-credit eligible duct-free products.
Bob McDonough, president of Carrier Residential and Light Commercial Systems, and Akira Inoue, executive vice president of Toshiba-Carrier Corp., presented the product lines and distribution strategy at a press conference held during the ACCA event. McDonough told attendees that with the addition of the Toshiba-Carrier brand to Carrier’s existing line of inverter and fixed speed duct-free products, the company now has the broadest capacity range of duct-free split products in North America.
He said that these new products became available to distributors in mid-March 2010 and consist of two families: a residential tax-credit eligible and Energy Star®-compliant inverter high wall system line that ranges from .75 to 2 tons on size with efficiency ratings up to 23 SEER and 10 HSPF; and light commercial “Super Digital” inverter under-ceiling, cassette, and high wall systems ranging in size from 1.5 to 2 or 3.5 tons with the North American industry’s highest efficiencies among duct-free cassette and underceiling units, up to 21 SEER and 11.9 HSPF.
The super digital inverter line also features the longest refrigerant line lengths (245’) and wired controllers for increased installation flexibility.
Time Was Right for Expanded Venture
Greg Alcorn, Carrier’s vice president of Light Commercial and Duct Free Sales and Marketing explained in an exclusive interview with Contracting Business.com, that the joint venture with Toshiba was formed in 1999 to combine Toshiba’s innovation strengths with Carrier’s global distribution. He pointed out that for the ensuing 10 years, Toshiba-Carrier produced and sold products for the global markets which were much more duct-free centric than the North American market.
“But, with the emergence of inverter technology in duct-free split systems, along with tax incentives, and energy initiatives in the U.S., the timing was right this year to bring these efficient and compliant products here,” Alcorn said. “They complement our existing line and create the broadest capacity range of duct-free products that fit into the current tax-credit and Energy Star programs available to consumers today.”
Alcorn said that, from a contractors’ standpoint, the installation of these products is easy, because they’re not unlike traditional non-ducted equipment that contractors have been installing for years. Alcorn has been with Carrier nine years, and with parent company United Technologies for 15. He said they’re in the process of delivering training programs to Carrier’s distribution.
“Our Carrier distributors will provide service training to contractors locally,” he added. “Training isn’t just on the technology. Because the duct-free inverter products are new, Carrier has added sales training to the mix to help contractors be well-equipped to sell the benefits of these products in concert with the rest of our product lines,” he concluded.
For more information on the Toshiba-Carrier brand of duct-free inverter products, please visit the Toshiba-Carrier website at http://bit.ly/b3Sm8y


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Do you know exactly where your ads are placed? Probably not, at least not all the time. To circumvent any possible backlash, it is important to have a brand safety plan. The World Federation of Advertisers has published a global survey in August, covering 35 international companies with a combined annual marketing budget of more than 30 billion dollars. The survey names brand safety as the companies´ number two priority. Moving rapidly up the to-do-list with 70 percent of those surveyed saying that the issue has escalated during the last 12 months. A recent study by ad tech firm TailWind, conducted among senior ad executives in Central and Eastern Europe, confirmed the rapidly growing brand safety anxiety. It proves that the leading issue in programmatic advertising among buyers is the fear that ads might appear next to undesirable and unsavoury websites run or influenced by terrorists, supremacists or pornographers. The percentage of those who said brand safety was a challenge has doubled in the TailWind study on brand crisis within the last year.
400 Hours of Additional Videos on Youtube Each Minute
These studies confirm that in our technology-obsessed, digitalized, automated and algorithm-driven world the marketing landscape has become a potential minefield. Dramatic proof of this appeared in March 2017 after The Times newspaper revealed that big brand ads had popped up next to illegal content and hatespeech. Around the same time the Wall Street Journal broke a story on ads that had been placed automatically by Google next to racist videos on YouTube. The news triggered a widening boycott. After browsing for only 15 minutes on YouTube the British Guardian found T-Mobile ads on videos dealing with abortion as well as ads for Novartis heart medication running on tapes titled “Feminism is cancer.” Major brands like PepsiCo, Wal-Mart, Starbucks and McDonald´s quickly suspended their ads on YouTube. Havas, the number six advertising and marketing company on the planet pulled its UK clients´ ads and AT&T announced that it was removing ads from Google´s non-search platforms.
On the whole, around 250 companies pulled their ads from YouTube in March and April. One analyst forecast the damage for Google from this scandal to rise to 300 million dollars in net revenue by the end of the year. The brand safety scandal reduced direct ad spending on YouTube by 26 percent year-over-year in the quarter to June 2017. During the same time Google´s competitors registered an increase of 18 percent on average.
Taking Back Control Brand Safety Plan
The brand safety crisis triggered a frantic reflection and discussion on the risks of automatic ad placements, transparency in the ad ecosystem and possible ways to establish a sound monitoring framework that allows for the filtering of unacceptable content and reassurances that ads would not be placed next to extremist and hateful videos or similarly harmful content. In its August 2017 study the World Federation of Advertisers reported that 74 percent of the covered multinational companies had stopped spending in ad networks which they perceived to be an unnecessary risk to their brands. And 89 percent were limiting – or planning to limit – investment in networks eschewing third-party verification. For weeks after March 2017, major brands were waiting to receive guarantees from Google that their ads were safe. Some companies like JP Morgan started taking things into their own hands, whitelisting ad partners. YouTube started to roll out a whole set of tools that allow to significantly reduce the risk of controversial ad placements. Among these brand safety controls is the option for brands to choose which types of videos they want to be associated with, a contingency that is based on keywords. The video platform also advises brands about categories of videos not considered being “advertiser friendly.” YouTube has also tightened the requirements for channels participating in its Partner Program. A partner needs at least 10,000 views before its content can make money through advertising. A team of experts and an artificial intelligence tool are compiled to screen content for ad customers. According to one of its spokespersons YouTube parent company Google is working with vendors to establish a third party ad verification system.
These and additional efforts seem to be fruitful. Starting in late August 2017, professional journals began carrying reports on YouTube winning over top advertisers again. According to Advertising Age US telecom giant Verizon resumed buying video ads on YouTube “after a five-month break” and hired “an outside ad analytics company to verify both that its only paying for ads that have a sufficient chance to be seen and that those ads aren´t running near anything offensive, violent or otherwise unsuitable.” It seems there is hardly any major brand that isn´t screening its digital strategy for ways to adjust to this risk. Negligence regarding brand safety has become a major issue, not only because digital advertising “is now the single biggest chunk of media spend”, according to Marketing Week. The brand safety crisis in 2017 has made it clear that large parts of the industry were naïve when they didn´t start earlier to better control their automatic and algo-driven ad placements. It was P&G´s chief brand officer Marc Pritchard who in January 2017 – roughly two months before the start of the brand safety crisis – had called upon the ad industry to “clean up the media supply chain” and make sure that there will be an increase in transparency around media buying.
Relevant Skills Are a Bottleneck
But stepping up standards and governance is easier said than done. It is difficult to add external talent to existing internal teams because the respective skillsets are highly sought after. According to industry experts many brands are hiring internally for positions they now want to fill. And several marketers seem to be intent on bringing programmatic advertising positions in-house. The recent brand safety crisis has yet another angle. In a highly digitalized, fast-moving and politically charged world a single ad misplacement, an inappropriate tweet or a simple media post can create a hard to control shit-storm. If this happens, a well-designed crisis plan must be in place. The planning and strategizing must start well ahead of such a detrimental media scenario. A brand safety plan, getting in front of a story before it blows up is crucial, not only when it has to do with ad placements. It goes without saying that a sound brand safety plan needs to be part of the overall brand strategy and the ongoing campaign planning. Brands need to build an effective filter, choose a reliable and agile publisher and seek external advice to align the brand safety plan with their marketing campaign and set up a blacklist of sites that are not desirable- or act like JP Morgan and whitelist partners with preferred websites to place your ads on.


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A nut industry has been booming since the 1970s and now, there are nearly 1,400 farms with more than a billion pounds of nuts on the Australian market, according to a recent survey.
It comes as the Government and some major food companies have been struggling to deal with a rapidly increasing demand for nut-based products.
The industry has become so popular in recent years that even the government has become involved.
Last year, the government’s Agricultural Marketing and Trading Department estimated there were more than 20 million tonnes of nuts in Australia.
But it is the nut sector that has seen the biggest growth in the past decade.
The most important nut growers are in NSW, with the largest number of growers per capita in Queensland, with a total of more than 10 million tonnes.
It is the industry’s main source of income, with more growers than any other sector contributing more than half the total market.
The government’s role in the nut market is relatively small, with most of the work going to growers in the state’s eastern and southern states.
The Government is funding an annual Nutland Market Survey to help identify the most important growers.
It also provides incentives to encourage more farmers to participate.
“We have a lot of good things about the industry,” Agriculture Minister Stephen Conroy said.
It’s growing quickly.
It has a really strong and strong consumer base.
There’s no doubt in my mind there are more nut growers than ever before.”
He says that because the market is so well established, there’s a lot more information out there than ever.
“The more we can do to help growers get their nuts in front of their consumers the more we’re going to get a better market for our consumers,” he said.
The Australian Government has made a commitment to encourage the industry to grow and grow, with Mr Conroy saying that he is confident that nut growers will be successful.
“This industry is going to grow, it’s growing fast and it will continue to grow,” he added.


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Read all about it! This Week’s Top Line News Summary – 10/5/09
Last week we shared with you our firm’s “Top Line News Summary” which included highlights from three sectors including real estate, healthcare, and bankruptcy.
This week our media relations professionals highlight three different sectors: retail, HR/management, and markets.
Retail: Key retail stores will release September sales reports this Thursday. Retailers and analysts will be looking to see if they need to adjust their already gloomy-holiday forecasts. More information can be found in today’s Wall Street Journal.
HR/Management: Bank of America directors will meet this week to choose an emergency CEO in case legal issues force Kenneth Lewis to step down before the end of the year. A five-person board committee is leading the process. Once the committee chooses a candidate, and once the full board approves, the plan will be “shelved until needed.” http://tinyurl.com/ybzeg3h
Markets: Stocks climbed early Monday, propped up by gains for financial stocks after analysts at Goldman Sachs raised their outlook on the sector. Analysts at Goldman Sachs indicated that they are more optimistic about large U.S. banks, raising their coverage view on the sector to attractive from neutral. Wells Fargo shares were up 5% after Goldman upgraded the bank to buy. Capital One Financial, which Goldman added to its conviction buy list, gained 5.2. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was recently higher by about 11 points, the S&P 500 rose about 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite Index was up about 0.2%. http://tinyurl.com/y8fm9ru
What are YOU reading this week?
(photo by JWorld)
To reach Gretchen:


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Aside from three high-end tablets ready to go live at Galaxy Unpacked on July 26, Samsung's also been working on not one but two new Fan Edition tablets. Both were spotted in an online benchmark a few months ago, rocking model numbers SM-X516B and SM-X616B. And now, the so-called Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ is finally showing its face in renders for the first time.
The Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ has a modernized design worthy of standing next to the rest of the Tab S9 series in 2023, and we're assuming the same will be the case for the regular Tab S9 FE. (via @OnLeaks / WolfOfTablet)
The Tab S9 FE+ has two rear-facing cameras instead of one, so for the first time, it looks like the Fan Edition tablet is getting an ultra-wide shooter.
A bigger Fan Edition tablet for 2023
Like the rest of the Tab S9 series, the FE+ carries a magnetic S Pen strip on the back panel. But whether or not this strip will be visible in the final product is to be determined. If the renders are based on case dimensions, this small detail might be a bit off. Time will tell.
According to the old benchmark, the Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ should be powered by the Exynos 1380 chip developed by Samsung and 8GB of RAM. The Exynos 1380 is currently used in the Galaxy A54 5G and the Galaxy F54 5G.
Other noteworthy specs include a fingerprint scanner, a 12.4-inch display, and stereo speakers. The tablet measures 285.4 x 185.4 x 6.54mm and will supposedly be available in grey, light green, light pink, and silver. Samsung might unveil the Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ at the next Unpacked event on July 26.


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While most of the talk today has been on the latest arrival from HTC, the HTC 10, one of the enduring news topics of the last couple of months is the next version of Android, which is currently entitled Android N. As is usually the case when a developer preview of the latest version of Android is released, Google has yet to decide on a final name (or at least yet to make publicly known their decision) and instead the latest version of Android goes by what is certain to be its first initial. In this case, N.
This in itself has led to wide speculation on what the next version of Android will be called and some of these suggestions that have been put forward so far include the likes of Nutella, Nougat, New York Cheesecake, among others. In fact, Hiroshi Lockheimer recently put out a blog post on Android N and hinted that the name may very well be Nutella. Another aspect which remains unknown is the actual Android version number with most assuming Android N will either follow as a decimal-based increase from Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) with Android N adopting Android 6.1 or adopting the greater level of separation, Android 7.0.
Well, if you ask Samsung it looks like they firmly believe the next version of Android will almost certainly be Android 7.0. The seemingly Samsung Android version number confirmation comes from a MultiWindow Release Note the company published back on March 28. While most of the release note is as you would expect, the one telling line reads as follows “This version has been released with Android N(7.0) compatibility”. Needless to say, this does highlight that at least for now, Samsung does consider Android N to be Android 7.0. Of course, this is not guaranteed to be the case, although it could be argued that if any OEM was going to know then Samsung would likely be that OEM. To many, the use of Android 7.0 will likely seem as the most logical step anyway as the update to N does seem to be one big enough to warrant a major numerical change. Either way though, it is likely we will know more of Android N in general once this year’s Google I/O conference kicks off next month.


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Multinational conglomerate Rakuten, which owns the Kobo ebook operation, is shutting its marketplace website in the UK which sells print books as well as a range of other products.
The marketplace was rebranded as Rakuten.co.uk in October 2014 following the firm’s £25m takeover of the Play.com ecommerce website in 2011.
Kobo in the UK is unaffected by the Rakuten move at present. Kobo has a small share of the UK ebook market which is overwhelmingly dominated by Amazon. Nook shut down its ebook operation in the UK in March this year, switching customers to supermarket Sainsbury’s ebook store.
The UK is very much an Amazon country in terms of print books, ebooks and almost everything else to do with ecommerce and Rakuten obviously realised it might have more success in European countries that have resisted Amazon, such as France and Germany. The company says it believes its businesses in France and Germany ‘have the scale and potential for sustainable growth’.
The UK marketplace will shut down at the end of August.
At the time it launched the UK marketplace in October 2014, Rakuten said it would have a direct focus on empowering more independent retailers to sell online in the UK. The marketplace looked to cover a broad range of products and customers could access ebooks from Kobo through a single account.
It aimed to offer a competitive deal for retailers with rolling monthly contracts, competitive commission rates and low subscription fees but ultimately couldn’t compete with the Amazon juggernaut.


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It is now ten years down the line since Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) was incorporated into the NASDAQ. Well-wishers around the world continue wishing the company a happy 10th IPO. It took off at $19 per share, and the figure has risen to now stand at about $970 per share. It is a great success story for a company that has remained focused on producing top-notch products.
At the start, Tesla had only one car model. Reports indicate that the model is no longer available. However, great progress has been witnessed despite the ups and down it has experienced in its quest to take over market leadership. Currently, it takes great pride in having an amazing line up of about four models.
Determined to succeed, Tesla has been active in doing progressive activities. For instance, it has taken a massive step in purchasing an auto-manufacturing factory in California. It also has another one in Shanghai as it hints on opening up another in Germany. Business competition rages on with the rivals also trying their best to survive in a rather competitive business climate. Elon Musk is impressed that earlier this month, Tesla hit its record high and hopes to do more to make things even better. It was great news to shareholders who, without any cloud of doubt, have been rewarded.
Nikola and the reservation of its Badger
On the other hand, the stock of Nikola Corporation (NASDAQ:NKLA) has also been showcasing outstanding performance. It is a matter that has grabbed a great deal of attention to investors from around the globe. They are developing confidence in it, but the latest announcement has left many surprised.
It is about the registration for an electric track called the Badger whose prototype hasn’t been produced yet. Nikola is taking deposits amounting to $5,000 for every person that is reserving a slot. The money is expected to be deposited in the escrow accounts, but this is something that requires one to have confidence and trust in Nikola. A lot of enthusiasm about the company continues to be witnessed as more people continue considering making their reservations.


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HARRISON, Maine — High gas prices along with rising inflation are causing some food pantries in rural Maine to struggle to keep up with the surging demand for food.
Every Tuesday from noon to 6 p.m., cars line up outside the Harrison Food Bank while volunteers inside bag up frozen meat, sorting through products and other donated food items.
Abbie Barber and her husband are among 42 volunteers who fill hundreds of boxes every week with groceries.
"It's just one of those things, more people should do it because there is the need," Barber said.
Food bank founder Sandy Swett said a large number of donations come from grocery stores, while meat and seafood wholesalers donate items that are close to expiring or overstocked.
Swett said the demand for nutritious food is surging.
The pantry is serving nearly 500 families at its weekly pickup. Volunteers also are delivering groceries to more than 100 people throughout Oxford County who don't live near a food pantry. The majority live up to an hour's drive away.
'We are getting calls from people who have children, saying, 'I can't afford the gas, can you bring food to me?'" Swett said.
Families who can afford to drive are bringing boxes of food back to their neighbors, including the elderly.
Ellie McKinney drives from Oxford to get food for herself and two other families. She said the donations are a big help, especially for those on a fixed income.
"I am disabled, and my dad gets $20 a month for food stamps, so this really helps him", McKinney said.
Others say rising gas prices may put a brake on how often they can come to get food. Carolyn Payeur drives to the food bank from Dixfield, which is an hour each way.
"I told them I will continue to do this until it hits $5 a gallon," she said. "When it hits $5, we may have to go every other week."
One of the pantry's biggest expenses is diesel fuel. Their two trucks are on the road five days a week, making daily 100 mile round trips to Greater Portland to pick up donated food.
And costs are rising at a time when financial donations are way down. Twenty-five new families are signing up every week and Swett worries about keeping up with the need. The Harrison Food Bank also supplies six other smaller food pantries in Oxford County.
Volunteers are hopeful more businesses and the public will answer the call.
NEWS CENTER Maine is committed to fighting hunger year round. Our 'Feed Maine' Telethon will be held on May 5 to benefit the Good Shepherd Food Bank.


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Twitter has promised that it will not insert ads within a user’s timeline, a new advertising option that it has been experimenting with over the past few months.
Google didn't drop $12.5 billion just for patents...
Or did they just leak some juicy tidbits to the press?
Sprint is against AT&T's merger with T-Mobile because it says it'll raise prices for consumers. But Sprint has no issues with raising prices for consumers.
Does Google want you to use your real name because it needs that information for future efforts that are based on your identity? We think so.
Some of the affected regions report lost or spotty cell phone signals, impairing the spread of emergency information.
If the price is right, it will sell--and it looks like Amazon is taking this philosophy very seriously.
Apple succeeded in getting a Dutch court to ban the sale of the three phones that it claims are too similar to the iPhone. The ban affects select EU countries and takes effect October 15.
Note for the future: Text messaging appears to be the best way to communicate after an earthquake rocks your world.
Miramax is offering online movies via Facebook, for $3 per rental.
A key Google partner is considering its options -- including a proprietary OS -- in the wake of Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobile.
Sprint is reportedly marketing the struggling Clearwire to cable companies, who could then bundle yet another tech service.
Google's latest Doodle pays homage to the mathematician's last theorem.
End of the PC era? Our readers don't think so.
Mobile phones are a good diversion when you’ve got nothing to do – and a good prop to avoid unpleasant social situations, a Pew study found.


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Statement attributable to Luis Guardia, president, Food Research & Action Center
WASHINGTON, May 13, 2022 — FRAC commends the Biden administration for today’s announcement to assist families impacted by the unprecedented nationwide shortage of infant formula.
This will be especially important to the millions of Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) participants who rely on formula to feed their children. WIC provides low-income pregnant women, new mothers, infants, and children with nutritious foods, nutrition education, and improved access to health care.
Nearly half of infant formula is purchased by WIC participants. Recent infant formula recalls and shortages have created problems for parents utilizing WIC benefits.
WIC operates by identifying specific healthy foods that families can buy with their WIC benefits at the store. For formula-fed infants, the WIC benefits specify the type, size and brand of infant formula.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is working with states to make it easier for families to use their WIC benefits to access formula. State WIC offices have issued notices and allowed substitutions to accommodate the formula shortage, but more must be done to ensure all infants have the nutrition they need to grow and stay healthy. USDA is urging states to “allow WIC recipients to use their WIC benefits on a wider variety of products so that if certain sizes or types of formula are out of stock, they can use their benefits on those that are in stock.”
The pandemic has only deepened America’s hunger crisis, and households with children have been particularly hard hit. This most recent challenge of the formula shortage places an even greater burden on families who are struggling. When parents cannot get the formula they need for their baby, the health consequences are significant because infant formula is specially designed to provide infants with the nutrition they need in an easily digestible form.
FRAC looks forward to working with the Biden administration and USDA as they support efforts to make formula access easier for families in desperate need and believes all babies deserve the best nutrition and start in life. Calls for limiting access to infant formula based on immigration status or being in a detention center deny people their basic nutritional needs.
FRAC stands with the Biden administration in supporting the right for all infants to be well-fed.
The Food Research & Action Center is the leading national nonprofit organization working to eradicate poverty-related hunger and undernutrition in the United States. To learn more, visit FRAC.org and follow us on Twitter and on Facebook.


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MANCHESTER — Shoppers driving by the former Sears store at the Mall of New Hampshire can see through large openings in the walls to an empty space where aisles of Kenmore appliances and Craftsmen tools were found last year.
Work has started on overhauling the space — including about half destined to become a Dick’s Sporting Goods store.
The renovation work will cost more than $6.4 million, according to documents filed with the city. It was unclear whether that covers a portion or all of the estimated cost.
Half of the Sears store, a casualty of the retail giant’s bankruptcy, will transform into Dick’s Sporting Goods before year’s end, according to a mall spokeswoman, reconfirming what the New Hampshire Union Leader previously reported.
A Dave & Buster’s restaurant is slated to open in 2020 in the other half of the space.
Pittsburgh-based Rycon Construction, which has a banner hanging at the Manchester construction site, said its work includes more than 170 projects in 20 states involving Dick’s Sporting Goods and its subsidiary, Field & Stream, according to the firm’s website.
Cleveland-based Onyx Creative, which offers various services including architectural, is listed on a city permit as the project’s applicant.
Under scope of work it listed: “Renovate former Sears space to create multiple tenant spaces and perform landscaping work as approved administratively by Planning staff. Also, fit-up and occupy 46,400 square feet of space for ‘Dick’s Sporting Goods’ as per plans submitted, as per code.”
Calls to Rycon and Onyx weren’t returned Monday.
Tom Farrelly, executive director of Cushman & Wakefield of New England, a commercial real estate firm, said the fact that the Manchester Sears space has new tenants already is a plus.
“I think it’s amazing frankly,” Farrelly said. “I think it speaks to the resilience and depth of the retail market in Manchester.”
Many malls have had to bring in things other than restaurants and shops to fill empty stores. The Steeplegate Mall in Concord, for example, has added a theater with live performances, a charter school and a trampoline park.
“I think the fact the Mall of New Hampshire doesn’t have to pivot toward non-conventional uses to fill space again speaks to the strength of the retail market and the demographics of the area,” Farrelly said.
Two other Sears stores in New Hampshire also closed last year.
Kim Haffner, spokeswoman at the Mall at Fox Run in Newington, said she couldn’t share any plans yet.
“Long-term, you’re not just going to see it sit there,” she said.
A spokeswoman for The Mall at Rockingham Park in Salem didn’t return a phone message.
A new store that sells motorcycle gear and parts opened at the Mall of New Hampshire on June 20 — Cycle Gear — adjacent to the recently opened Xfinity store and BurgerIM, said mall spokeswoman Elyse Phelan.


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Those of us in the territories where Pokémon Go is not yet released are having to watch patiently as folks in the US, Australia, and New Zealand are having the most awesome time playing Pokémon Go. As is always the way with App Store releases, we currently don’t even have a firm date to fix on as to when we might finally get our hands on the game. However, as AppleInsider reports today, the worldwide rollout has most definitely begun, albeit slowly, with the game arriving in the German App Store today, and word from the official Pokémon Go Twitter account that there are “future announcements” to come. The game is not even out in Japan yet, the actual home of Pokémon, but according to rumour it could be arriving there “within a few days.”
It seems that the German launch is not without problems, though, as the incredible demand for the game has once again led to some local server outages. It’s most likely that launches in other territories will be delayed until Niantic can be sure that its servers can handle the extra load.
Source: European expansion of Pokemon Go commences with launch in Germany


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Lululemon, a staple in women’s athleisure the last few years, is using its understanding of performance wear to improve its menswear.
In a story for Men’s Health, Lululemon’s SVP of design and concepts Ben Stubbington explained how men no longer want to “sacrifice” performance for modesty, and are more willing than ever to wear form-fitting gear.
The company’s flagship garment technology is SenseKnit, which provides varying levels of “support and breathability” throughout the body, based on what their studies have shown custom regarding needs different parts.
Lululemon also wants apparel using the technology to transition seamlessly between active and lifestyle situations. “We’re really thinking about how we can ask every garment to do more than one thing,” said Stubbington.
Rival businesses have been making moves in men’s athleisure. Earlier this month, Dick’s Sporting Goods announced VRST. All In Motion, Target’s in-house athleisure brand for men and women, reported $1 billion in sales in its first year.
Men’s activewear accounted for 45% of the total men’s apparel market in 2020 compared to 39% in 2019, per the NPD Group. Long seen as a female-first brand, Lululemon has big goals for its men’s apparel.
- The company aims to double its menswear revenue to $1.4 billion by 2023.
- Lululemon menswear has already been outperforming womenswear overseas, per CEO Calvin McDonald.
Last summer, Lululemon spent $500 million to acquire connected fitness startup Mirror, in a separate push to diversify beyond clothing.


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New Phishing Attack That Even Most Vigilant Users Could Fall For (view link) https://thehackernews.com/2019/02/advance-phishing-login-page.html
A growing number of hackers are targeting professionals on LinkedIn, according to security firm Symantec. Its investigation uncovered dozens of fake accounts on the social network, across a variety of industries. Posing as recruiters, the fake accounts allow hackers to map the networks of business professionals and gain the trust of those in them. The […]
The illegal reproduction and distribution of copyrighted material on the Web is extensive and growing rapidly. For the 2015 State of Application Security Report, Arxan and iThreat Cyber Group (ICG) analysed data collected over the past 3.5 years that looked at the distribution of pirated software and digital assets on the Dark Web (i.e., the […]
In this increasingly data-driven world, corporate security is more important than ever before. This concept is even more prevalent with the rise of the modern smartphone.
SnoopWall, a US counterveillance software company released a threat assessment report regarding the top 10 Flashlight/Torch apps in the Google Play Store, and every one of them can potentially be used maliciously. Flashlights are simple apps that use your mobile phone screen as a torch. They are so simple that the size of the […]
Antivirus solutions provider Bitdefender has warned that fake videos spreading across Facebook are leading to malware infections rather than the promised content. The new Facebook scam takes advantage of Emma Watson’s growing popularity, using the actress as bait. It starts with a Facebook comment promising to reveal private or leaked videos of the celebrity. The […]
Get Safe Online Week is here again from 20th – 26th October Whoever you are, whatever you do, you could be a victim of online crime. It’s a growing threat, but there are things you can do to protect yourself from online criminals – whether they’re anonymous individuals an organised crime gang operating in the […]
A major new vulnerability called Heartbleed could let attackers gain access to users’ passwords and fool people into using bogus versions of Web sites. Some already say they’ve found Yahoo passwords as a result. The problem, disclosed on 8th April, is in open-source software called OpenSSL that’s widely used to encrypt Web communications. Heartbleed can […]


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Alcala said the commitment was made during a meeting held on July 18 called by the DA to arrest the influx of imported farm products, particularly onions in public markets and supermarkets. The meeting was attended by officials and representatives of the Philippine Association of Supermarkets Inc. (Pasi), Philippine Amalgamated Supermarkets Association Inc., Hotel and Restaurant Association of the Philippines (HRAP), Rustan’s Supermarket and a farmers’ group, the Katipunan ng mga Samahang Magsisibuyas ng Nueva Ecija (Kasamne).
Pasi, the DA noted, indicated that they prefer selling organic agricultural products. The group was requested a list of organic products which the DA will refer to interested suppliers, farmers’ groups and producers.
The DA said HRAP committed to provide the DA with a list of farm and fishery products and ingredients that hotels and restaurants require and consume, which farmers’ groups could supply on a regular basis.
For its part, Kasamne committed to ensure a sustainable supply of onions. Its members will soon produce off-season yellow granex onions. These will be planted beginning August and could be harvested by October through November to meet the demand during the Christmas season.
Alcala said the DA will spearhead a program to revive the country’s garlic industry.
Imported onions and garlic are among the farm products usually sold in major supermarkets.
Alcala also said the agency will promote the production of local “Peking duck” to supply the requirements of Chinese restaurants.Some consumers prefer to patronize imported farm products such as garlic as these are cheaper than those produced locally.
Trade experts, however, noted that farmers in other countries can afford to bring down the prices of their farm goods because their production is subsidized by their governments.


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Strategy First has announced that the source code to Jagged Alliance 2 will be included with Wildfire, an updated version of the game with numerous changes and improvements:
Due to the overwhelming response for Jagged Alliance 2: Wildfire, to be released in March 2004, SFI has decided to include the source code for JA2 in the Wildfire box.
"The decision was based on the incredible fan support that Wildfire has generated," says Don McFatridge, President of Strategy First. "We want to keep the Jagged Alliance community active so releasing the source code that allows the modding community to alter the JA experience to their liking was an obvious decision."
Jagged Alliance 2: Wildfire will be available in retail stores in Q1 2004 for $19.99 USD and it will include the original title Jagged Alliance 2. For more information go to www.strategyfirst.com


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Calvin Harris has composed an original piece of music for Coca-Cola's upcoming Â£50 million pan-European marketing campaign.
The advert featuring the new track from the 'I'm Not Alone' star will air on UK TV screens from May 31, The Guardian reports.
Entitled 'Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, La, La, La', the campaign from Mother London features a man playing an organ powered by small creatures who are fed the drink.
Marketing director Cathryn Sleight said: "Much like hearing 'Holidays Are Coming' at Christmas, with this campaign we are looking to build anticipation and excitement throughout the summer.
"The upbeat track on the new ad depicts a summery sound which we hope will build positive feeling around the brand over the summer months."


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Drama Book Shop, Backed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, to Open in June
The Drama Book Shop, a unusual 104-year-old Manhattan specialty retailer that has lengthy been a haven for aspiring artists in addition to a purveyor of scripts, will reopen subsequent month with a brand new location, a brand new look, and a brand new group of starry homeowners.
Those new homeowners — the “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, in addition to the present’s director, Thomas Kail, lead producer, Jeffrey Seller, and the theater proprietor James L. Nederlander — stated Wednesday that the shop may have its long-delayed reopening on June 10.
The opening, at 266 West 39th Street, is an indication of the group’s confidence in Times Square, which has been largely theater-free since March 12, 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic pressured Broadway to shut. Broadway reveals are usually not planning to renew performances till September, however the brand new retailer homeowners say they’re prepared for enterprise.
The “Hamilton” group purchased the Drama Book Shop, most not too long ago situated on West 40th Street, in early 2019 after years by which the shop had struggled to outlive the challenges of Manhattan actual property, e-commerce, and even a dangerous flood. Kail had a selected ardour for the bookstore, the place he had run a small theater firm in his early years as an expert; Miranda joined him there to work on “In the Heights,” a musical Kail directed. “In the Heights” has now been tailored into a movie which is being launched on June 11, the day after the bookstore opens.
The new homeowners had initially hoped to reopen the shop in late 2019, after which in early 2020, however the undertaking was delayed, first by the vicissitudes of building, after which by the pandemic. The new store has been designed by David Korins, the “Hamilton” scenic designer, and features a cafe.
The retailer is encouraging guests to make reservations on-line; capability will probably be restricted.


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A regional curator with a twist is Shop Kaikoura. The Kaikoura-based site was launched close to Christmas last year, when local shop owners were struggling to cope with the aftermath of the 2016 November earthquake. The quake caused widespread damage to homes and businesses and chased away Kaikoura’s usually-reliable summer tourist traffic.
Shop Kaikoura was created by Ina Kinski, a Dunedin tech executive who had planned to spend the summer in Kaikoura. After the quake, she noticed local retailers were holding deep-discount sales to try to address a revenue shortfall of 60-70 percent, and saw the potential for a digital solution which could open up those retailers to the rest of New Zealand.
Shop Kaikoura strikes a different note to the other curation sites. It’s a grassroots, not-for-profit organisation that operates solely for Kaikoura and the businesses located there.
Although, like other curators, the site holds no assets itself, it features 24 small business and offers a look to inside the store and what is available for purchase.
Customers book online for a personal shopper to take them around a chosen store, by either Skype or video call, and show them what’s available to buy. After the customer has chosen what they want to purchase, the volunteer shopper will pass them over to the retailer so the transaction can be completed, and have the item delivered.
Kinski says Shop Kaikoura’s social conscience is what drives it: “This campaign is focused on local identity. The entity of a shop is its identity and a trust relationship is important.”
Kinski says the site was bust from the start, and the importance was placed on the money going back to the retailers, not to the curated site.
“I think the reason it worked so well was because it was compelling, simple and it came at the right time. People wanted to help, empathy and action are big draw cards.”
According to Kinski, “people spend more when they’re directly connected.” Which can be a learning point for other curation sites which have no personal relationship with their customers.
“People are wanting to go back to having a personal relationship with the people they buy from.”
Although Kinski is blunt about the need for change in an increasingly competitive retail environment, she acknowledges that it’s difficult for SMEs.
“For a brick and mortar suddenly needing to change its whole model to survive, on top of dealing with a natural disaster, it’s a stressful proposition,” she says. “If you had a business in Kaikoura you didn’t exactly need to be good at what you did. But suddenly good relationships are more important than good locations. Change is difficult with added stress.”
Shop Kaikoura has gained support from sponsors such as New Zealand Post and Health 2000, which is how the site can continue to operate. It is a perfect example of a curated site that features only physical stores in its trading, meaning brick and mortar stores without an existing online presence have an opportunity to grow without leaving the community.
Although the site has had a lot of recognition, it is clear that provincial towns struggle with change when it needs to happen quickly. As Kinski says: “Immediately after an earthquake isn't necessarily the right time to re-work your business model and it's rough to see people being forced to adapt.”


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Butcher brews up hit sausage recipe
A Kununurra butcher has expanded its range of meats — which already includes saltwater crocodile, camel rump and kangaroo — by creating “bush chook sausages”.
The tubes of meat are a combination of beef and Emu Export, concocted by Tenderspot butcher Murray Salter.
Mr Salter said he got the idea from the internet after seeing someone else mix sausage and a brew together and thought “why not do the same thing and soak beef in some bush chook”.
The experiment has paid off, with punters putting away snags like red cans after work on a Friday.
Mr Salter has also been infusing rib eye steak in a dry-ager fridge with Five Rivers Spiced Rum from local distillery the Hoochery.
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