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ORGANISERS of ADF&PCD and PLD Paris 2020 have revealed the international trade show is set to enjoy its best-attended year to date.
The dedicated event for the aerosol, dispensing, perfume, luxury drinks and cosmetic packaging community, takes place on Wednesday 29th and Thursday 30th January 2020, at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles.
Pre-registration is up on last year’s numbers, thanks in part to an increase in drinks brands from across the globe including Diageo, Pernod Ricard, Wine Treasury, Organic Spirits Denmark, Rémy Cointreau, AB Inbev and Edrington. This is due to the addition of PLD – Packaging of Premium & Luxury Drinks – which was created and co-located with ADF&PCD this year.
ADF&PCD and PLD Paris 2020 has been developed to help cross-disciplinary brand teams become more involved in packaging projects to ‘innovate and reimagine’ their packaging as a team.
A new VIP delegates programme offers meeting rooms to some of the industry’s leading brands who send full teams. Brands sending full teams include L’Oréal, Coty, Groupe Clarins, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever.
The show will also debut several new features. ADF&PCD and PLD Paris 2020 will boast its official scent, alongside an art trail, live DJs, and the PLD Cocktail Bar, complete with signature PLD cocktails, mixology hours and olfactory workshops.
With sustainability a major hot topic right now, many exhibitors will unveil their latest environmentally friendly solutions. These include Pozzoli’s plastic-free 2020 calendar, Rissmann’s new line of products under the ‘Greenious’ umbrella, LINDAL Group’s mini engine platform which is designed to help clients reach market with sustainable new actuator designs that make use of post-consumer recycled resins, Virospack’s new powder-dispensing system for two-component extemporary products, and KAPAG’s new range of premium paperboards for the packaging of fine wines and spirits.
Josh Brooks, event director at ADF&PCD and PLD Paris 2020 said, “As we gear up for this year’s event, pre-reg numbers are even healthier than the previous edition, and we’ve seen a notable growth in attendance from the C-Suite. PLD has brought in a whole host of exciting new names alongside major brands for ADF&PCD – some brands are sending in excess of 100 attendees demonstrating the important part the event plays in facilitating collaboration within internal teams and the wider packaging community.
“We’ve put a particular focus on quality and customer experience this year, and we’ve put a lot of effort into making this year’s show more useful and more enjoyable for visitors and exhibitors alike. We recognise it is a focal event in the calendar for brands and suppliers to come together to network and get deals done. To that end, we’ve tried to make this as easy as possible by introducing dedicated meeting rooms for those brands sending large teams to the show.”


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Soaring iPhone 5 sales in the U.S. have helped make iOS the top smartphone operating system in the country, edging out Android, according to market research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.
Brightcove's native plug-in architecture for its App Cloud and Application Craft's launch of Mobile Build are the latest examples of how cross-platform development tools for mobile apps are becoming increasingly cloud-centric.
Mobile card payments startup iZettle has settled its payments dispute with Visa Europe and can now accept Visa payments in Norway, Finland and Denmark, the company announced on Tuesday.
Given Android's ubiquity today, it's almost hard to believe that it has only been around a few years.
Much as we might like iOS 6 around these parts, it's not without its flaws and foibles. Hence Apple's release of iOS 6.0.1 for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
You won't be able to get your hands on Apple's iPad mini until Friday, but US and European based reviews of the newest, smallest iPad have begun to trickle through today. Let's take a look.
Scott Forstall was major proponent of skeuomorphic design found in iOS and increasingly Mac OS X; Jony Ive said to hate it. Changes at Apple could lead to new design choices for iOS and Mac OS X products.
Apple has increased the prices of apps sold through its iTunes App Store in Europe because of exchange rate changes, it said on Friday. The minimum price for an app in the Euro zone rose to €0.89 ($1.15) from €0.79.
Samsung's Galaxy devices don't infringe on an Apple multitouch patent that describes technology that prevents smartphone users from pushing two on-screen buttons at the same time, the Court of the Hague ruled on Wednesday. The technique used in Andro...
The new 7.9-in. iPad mini will be a huge hit with business users as well as consumers, according to several industry analysts.
One of the seven patents at the heart of Apple's US$1.05 billion lawsuit against Samsung Electronics has been tentatively rejected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), according to documents filed by Samsung with a Californian court late ...
Over 17,600 users in U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) are being moved from their BlackBerry devices to Apple's iPhone, after it was found that technology from Research In Motion cannot meet the mobile technology needs of the agency, accor...
Apple's much-maligned iPhone exclusivity agreement with AT&T Mobility, started in 2007 but now ended, is once again the target of a class-action suit.
Ericsson has launched the world's first WebRTC-compatible browser for mobile devices, which will allow developers to integrate voice and video communications in their Web-based applications.
The changes Samsung Electronics has made to its Galaxy Tab 10.1 are enough so that it is no longer a copy of Apple's iPad, a judge at the district court in Düsseldorf, Germany, said on Thursday.
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Top Stories of Last Week
- Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced federally regulated banks can use stablecoins to conduct payments and other activities in letter addressing whether national banks and federal savings associations could participate in independent node verification networks. Letter states that blockchains have same status as other global financial networks, such as SWIFT, ACH, and FedWire. It also specifically mentions use of stablecoins for transactions, saying blockchain networks can mitigate costs for cross-border transactions as a “cheaper, faster, and more efficient” means of payment.
- FinCEN announced intention to amend Bank Secrecy Act’s Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts regulations in rulemaking notice that means Americans must report if they have more than $10,000 in cryptocurrencies with foreign financial or virtual asset service providers. No timeline for when new proposal might be published or implemented was provided. Rule change would bring FBAR rules around crypto holdings in line with cash held outside U.S. by citizens.
- Ban on sale of crypto derivatives and exchange-traded notes began in U.K. Financial Conduct Authority now forbids sale, marketing and distribution of CFDs, options, futures and ETNs that reference cryptocurrencies to retail investors. Regulator reckons it will prevent in region of £53m in harm, but industry commentators have raised concerns that it will instead drive consumers onto unregulated exchanges or offshore beyond FCA’s reach.
- Tetragon Financial Group, lead investor of Ripple’s $200 million Series C, is suing company to “enforce its contractual right to require Ripple to redeem” Series C preferred stock. Tetragon also wants to block Ripple from using any cash or other liquid assets until payment is made. Company has asked court for temporary restraining order, a preliminary injunction, and expedited trial.
- Italian Banking Association affirmed support for implementation of sovereign European digital currency by beginning pilot studies on digital euro project. Association is working with its research and development arm, ABI Lab, and commercial banks in country to develop experimental digital euro. Italian enterprise network firm SIA will assist consortium in technical feasibility studies.
- Skybridge Capital confirmed launch of new bitcoin fund and said exposure to bitcoin has already reached $310 million. Increase in position was mostly due to market appreciation, with small amount of additional purchases.
- Greenpro Capital (NASDAQ:GRNQ) announced it intends to set up Bitcoin Fund for investment. Greenpro provides cross-border financial services for businesses and high net-worth individuals, and will use subsidiary exchange CryptoSX to acquire bitcoin. CEO CK Lee said he’s instructed Greenpro investment bankers to raise debt in Q1 up to $100 million for BTC investment, and also plans to invest Greenpro’s cash in BTC.
- Online lending startup Social Finance Inc said it has agreed to go public through merger with Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp V, a blank-check acquisition company led by Chamath Palihapitiya. Deal values SoFi at around $8.65 billion and is expected to provide up to $2.4 billion in cash proceeds to SoFi. SoFi added crypto trading to its SoFi Invest platform in 2019.
- Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation inked memorandum of understanding with Stellar Development Foundation, agreeing to cooperate on number of digital asset-related initiatives including assisting Ukraine’s central bank on its digital currency efforts and development of strategy for virtual assets in Ukraine.
- Shenzhen giving away another 20 million digital yuan, worth $3 mil, as part of ongoing test of China’s CBDC. Shenzhen government will give away 100,000 red packets via lottery to residents with each packet worth 200 digital yuan, or $30. Lottery-winners will be able to spend digital yuan between January 7-17 among over 10,000 shops, restaurants and supermarkets in Shenzhen.
- ShapeShift announced it is getting rid of entire trading desk and routing orders through DeFi applications in bid to get rid of KYC regulations. Firm will gradually phase out centralized trading activity and KYC policy in favor of decentralized alternative as it becomes 100% DEX-based for customers. Exchange has now integrated with multiple DEXs including Uniswap, Balancer, Curve, Bancor, Kyber, 0x, mStable and more.
- Crypto custodian BTSE launched ERC-20 token that represents Monero on Ethereum blockchain. Represented by ticker symbol WXMR, Wrapped Monero is fully backed by Monero at ratio of one-to-one and is secured by BTSE.
- Bakkt reportedly in advanced talks to go public via merger with special purpose acquisition company VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings, which is affiliated with Victory Park Capital. Deal would value combined company at more than $2 bil and could be announced as soon as next week.
- Bithumb reportedly signed MOU with Nexon, the multi-billion dollar gaming conglomerate, to acquire exchange at price of 650 billion won ($460 million). Nexon will reportedly work with one of major shareholders in Bithumb, Vidente, to buy out exchange and take control with a 65% stake in Bithumb.
- Argentina’s Ripio acquired BitcoinTrade, second-largest crypto exchange in Brazil, in bid to increase footprint across Latin American crypto market. Financial terms of the deal were not revealed.
- Coinbase acquired trade execution startup Routefire, with mission of bringing advanced trading infrastructure to cryptocurrency markets through suite of institutional products. Additional resources in trading infrastructure realm has proven to be a necessity, as Coinbase has seen intermittent outages in recent days as bitcoin has surged to highs. Terms of deal were not disclosed.
- Marathon Patent Group announced completion of $200 million capital raise, which company plans to use to pay for major purchases of bitcoin miners from Bitmain, as well as further expand business. Marathon has already bought 103,060 miners that, once delivered and deployed, are expected to produce approximately 10.36 EH/s in hash power. 15,200 units scheduled to be shipped in Q1 2021.
- Canaan released Avalon Immersion Cooling Miner A1066I, a device designed to be liquid-cooled by submerging electrical components in special dielectric fluid that carries heat away directly from boards. Canaan claims each unit produces 50 TH/s for power consumption of 3,400 watts, while each tank reaches up to 7,200 TH/s and 306 kilowatts of energy usage when fully stacked.
- Bitcoin mining firm Bitfarms closed fully subscribed private placement of common shares worth CAD$20 million, or over US$15 million. In total, sale consisted of 8,888,889 shares.
- BC Technology Group, parent company of crypto platform OSL, raised HKD697 million (~US$90 million) in form of top-up share placement. Morgan Stanley was appointed as sole placing agent of 45,000,000 placing shares owned by firm, representing approximately 13% of BC Group’s issued share capital. BC Group CEO Hugh Madden said raised funds will help meet institutional trading demand and bolster software-as-a-service business.
- TaxBit, a cryptocurrency tax automation software firm, secured investments from venture arms of PayPal and Coinbase, plus existing investor Winklevoss Capital. Amount invested not disclosed in announcement. TaxBit automates cryptocurrency tax compliance for consumers, businesses and exchanges.
- DeFi aggregator Furucombo raised $1.85 mil in seed funding backed by SevenX Ventures, Defiance Capital, 1kx, Multicoin Capital, and Aave founder Stani Kulechov, among others.


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Mahindra Imperio premium pickup to launch in January 2016
Mahindra has finally broken silence over the upcoming pickup truck which was hitherto billed by the media as a heavily facelifted Genio. Called the Mahindra Imperio, the pickup will be positioned as a premium product and the company has confirmed that it will be launched in January 2016.
Touted to be an upmarket alternative to the Genio which itself is positioned above the Bolero pickup, the Imperio’s role will be that of consolidation of the segment. Mahindra leads the LCV (sub-3.5 tonne load) market with an impressive market share of 53% (YTD November 2015).
Focusing on style, performance and driving comfort, the Mahindra Imperio is claimed to be suitable for small and medium enterprises. In other words it targets self driving entrepreneurs, so one can expect features like power steering, AC, audio system, ABS and even airbags to be on board.
Going by the leaked spyshots, the Imperio is indeed a heavily upgraded version of the Genio with a new front fascia. New headlamps, silver grille ornaments, prominent foglamp housings and secondary airdam with square meshing make for an upmarket look. The profile is pretty much similar to that of the Genio. We expect the new front fascia to be carried over to the upcoming Quanto facelift. The interior is expected to be car-like.
Powertrain details are not released yet but the existing 75 hp 2.5-litre diesel engine is likely to continue untouched, paired with a 5-speed MT. Export-spec variants could receive the 120 hp 2.2-litre mHawk diesel unit with 5-speed MT and 4×4 system.
The Mahindra Imperio pickup would be pitted against the Isuzu D-Max.


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Washington, Michigan (PRWEB) January 07, 2015
The spotlight will be on X Games champion Chris Burandt as HillCross racing returns to the14th annual X Games extravaganza this January 22-25 in Aspen, Colorado. Burandt and sponsor ArcticFX Graphics are offering a contest where a fan can submit a sled wrap design using the SledWrapR® app, and the winner’s sledwrap design goes on Burandt’s snowmobile for the races.
ArticFXGraphics Kicks off X Games with Sledwrap Design Contest
ArcticFX Graphics and champion snowmobile racer Chris Burandt have announced a contest in which fans and followers can submit a sled wrap design, through the innovative ArcticFX Graphics special app SledWrapR®, and the winning design will go on Burandt’s racing sled for this year’s annual X Games in Aspen, Colorado. Millions of sled enthusiasts will tune in to the extensive X Games coverage on ESPN, starting on January 22, 2015 and anticipation is high for the return of the HillCross snowmobile race.
ArcticFX Graphics will have several sponsored racers competing in this year’s event. “And what better way to kick off the challenges than with a contest where our fans and social media followers can participate by entering their design for Chris Burandt’s sled,” said AFX founder Jordan Yankee. “It’s so simple to submit your ideas through our one-of-a-kind app SledWrapR®. One click from the ArcticFX homepage gets you into the app, and the rest is up to your imagination. One winning design will be chosen, then we produce it and get Chris’ sled ready for the international exposure on ESPN.”
HillCross Back in the Games
Snowmobile racing at this year’s X Games Aspen will have a much larger role, with an expanded menu of sled events that brings back some old favorites. Sled racing enthusiasts have not seen HillCross competition for 10 years, and former X Games gold winner Chris Burandt has talked about his excitement to compete again in this unique discipline. “HillCross is basically an uphill drag race with huge jumps, and it’s one of my all time favorite ways to race,” said Burandt. Buttermilk Mountain, owned and operated by Aspen Skiing Company, has undergone a $10 million base area facelift, but more importantly after 14 years of staging on Buttermilk, the athletes agree that the venues for the respective events could not be more perfectly designed.
SledWrap winner to be announced January 9
The sled wrap design contest for Burandt, through SledWrapR® at ArcticFX Graphics, has a short window, with the winner being chosen on Friday, January 9. There will also be some Burandt swag giveaways to promote his new venture, http://www.burandtv.com, as a part of the contest. “Snowmobile riders take great pride in the graphics on their machines,” said AFX owner and sled rider Jordan Yankee, “and this was a driving force when we were developing our design-your-own-wrap interface. How cool would it be to have your design chosen for a pro rider who will be a top contender at the 2015 X Games?” Contest rules can be found on Chris Burandt’s Facebook page.
About ArcticFX Graphics
ArcticFX Graphics and MotoFX Graphics are graphic design production companies based in Washington, Michigan, USA. Customers can design their own graphics for either snowmobiles or dirtbikes using a specially developed application available on the websites http://www.arcticfxgraphics.com and http://www.motofxgraphics.com. Both companies were created by owner Jordan Yankee, an avid sled rider himself.


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Tokyo – Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd (SRI) has announced plans to invest Yen10.1 billion (€79.6 million) to increase production capacity at its US tire factory.
The move is largely in response to increased demand driven by strong sales of our high-performance tires for SUVs and light trucks in the North American market, said a 9 Feb statement.
Under a $96-million project at the unit in Tonowanda, New York, SRI will raise maximum output of these tire categories from the current 6,500 tires per day to 12,000 tires per day by the end of 2023.
Strong demand has also prompted SRI to invest $26 million to up production capacity of truck and bus tires at the US plant, from the current 1,750 tires per day to 2,300 tires per day by the end of 2024.
As well as increasing production capacity, SRI said the investments would also improve overall productivity at the US factory over the coming years.
Despite the market impact of Covid-19, SRI said it had continued to steadily expand sales of high-performance Falken-brand tires in North America.
The US investment, it added, “also reflects our great confidence in the factory, which has made enormous progress in improving productivity over the past few years.
“By augmenting our local production base for the North American market, we aim to reduce sales lead times so that we may further expand sales in this key market.”
Meanwhile, the Japanese group is investing Yen10.8 billion to update equipment at factories in Thailand and Japan for increased production of tires for SUVs and light trucks.
SRI aims to produce 4,150 of these tires per day by the end of 2023 at its Thai plant in Amati City and 1,600 units/day at its Miyazaki, Japan plant, by the end of 2024.
“With this shift, these two factories will support our push to increase sales of SUV and light truck tires in North America,” said the group statement.


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Volvo spot hopes to embarass German automakers on their own turf
The Swedish automaker apparently has a strong sense of humor and has release a video that takes a harmless shot at the competition. It's a simple, subtle clip but it does a very good job at expressing its point. Click past the jump to watch the video.
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“We’re digging into it additional to know what occurred,” Mr. Hargrove mentioned.
Whereas the announcement appeared genuine — even together with a press release purportedly from Walmart’s chief government, Doug McMillon — there have been clues it was faux. For one, it listed a contact e-mail tackle at walmart-corp.com, an unauthorized web site. Additionally, the press contact named within the launch doesn’t work in Walmart’s media division. And Walmart usually makes use of Enterprise Wire for its official bulletins, Mr. Hargrove mentioned.
Enterprise & Financial system


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Bank of International Settlements says warning signs remain for world economy despite Brexit bounce back
Warning signs remain about the world economy even though global markets bounced back from Brexit, the Bank of International Settlements said.
The so-called central bankers’ bank highlighted concerns over whether market prices fully reflected the risks ahead.
Warning signs: The so-called central bankers’ bank highlighted concerns over whether market prices fully reflected the risks ahead
Bond markets point to future economic weakness, along with signs that banks appear to be struggling, it said in its quarterly report.
Reports from BIS offer an insight into what occupies central bankers’ thoughts.
Claudio Borio, head of the monetary and economic department, said the valuations of eurozone and Japanese banks had been under particular pressure.
He added that they were worse off than British banks and considerably behind their US peers, pointing to Brexit hurting the Continent more than the UK following the referendum.
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Following a recent industry report that found higher energy discounts don’t necessarily translate to lower energy bills, a new survey reveals that 57 per cent of Aussie households admit pay-on-time discounts have not been helping them pay the rising costs of their energy bills.
The survey of an independent, nationally representative panel of 1000 Australian adults commissioned by leading insurance comparison service comparethemarket.com.au, found that 57 per cent of Australians find it hard to pay their energy bill amount, even with pay-on-time discounts.
The survey asked respondents for reasons why the pay-on-time discount didn’t help them. For 44 per cent, the discounted balance was still too expensive. Fifty-seven per cent (57%) of the 25-44s, the age group having children, also cited this compared with 41 per cent of 55-64s and 34 per cent of over 65s.
For 38 per cent, the pay-on-time deadline was too tight. Again, this was especially true for the younger generations, with 51 per cent of 25-44s finding the payment deadline too tight, compared to 28 per cent of 55-64s and 14 per cent of over 65s.
Abigail Koch, consumer advocate at comparethemarket.com.au, said: “Most energy providers offer pay-on-time discounts to attract new customers, with discounts on usage charges of up to 43% being offered by some retailers. However, it is still not enough to curb the rising cost of energy bills for Aussies already struggling with day-to-day household expenses.
“All households are also able to request a pay-on-time discount from their energy provider, but of the 28 per cent of our survey respondents who aren’t receiving these discounts, an incredible 86 per cent weren’t aware they could request the discounts.
“When the discount offer expires after a year or two, consumers need to be careful that they are not continuing with an expensive contract. When the time is up, we recommend that households shop around to compare their existing energy rates on websites such as comparethemarket.com.au, which make it easy to compare providers side by side.”
Comparethemarket.com.au is an online comparison service that takes the hard work out of shopping around. We help Australians to quickly and easily compare and buy products from a wide range of providers. Our easy-to-use comparison tool enables consumers to find a product that best suits their needs and their back pocket. We’re also in the business of comparing personal finance products, utilities and can help find the lowest fuel prices in your area. Whether it’s car, health or home & contents insurance, we provide a completely free service, that empowers Australians to make buying decisions with greater trust, knowledge and savings. We’ve got your back, simples.
 Essential Services Commission, ‘Victorian Energy Market Report 2016–17’, 2017: https://www.esc.vic.gov.au/document/energy/55678-victorian-energy-market-report-2016-17/
 Victoria’s Alinta Energy Fair Deal Plan – 43% pay-on-time discount off the electricity usage charges


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With a growing number of wireless users, carriers are constantly looking for ways to improve their networks. AT&T is kicking off the latest rush by launching a new technology called LTE-Advanced in Chicago. If you haven’t heard of LTE-Advanced, then we’ll give you a brief explanation. LTE-Advanced is an enhanced version of the current 4G LTE standard and the most common way that it’s implemented is through carrier aggregation. Carrier aggregation takes separate pieces of spectrum and puts them together into one so that a carrier can use that extra spectrum to boost speeds.
This new advancement will allow customers with compatible devices on AT&T to access this new LTE-Advanced network that uses 700MHz and 2100MHz spectrum. By combining these pieces of spectrum, LTE-Advanced can offer theoretical download speeds of up to 110Mbps. Whether or not you’ll see anything like that in real world use is still up for debate. It should also be noted that while this will speed up the current network, it won’t improve the capacity and as the number of users continues to grow, that capacity will shrink.
We’re sure that all of you AT&T users in Chicago are itching to try this out, but unfortunately, AT&T’s LTE-Advanced network isn’t currently compatible with any devices, save for one mobile hotspot. That being said, Samsung stated that the Galaxy S 5 would support carrier aggregation networks within the US. Whether or not AT&T’s LTE-Advanced network is one of those has yet to be seen.
Are you interested in trying this out?


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Wednesday, October 05, 2011
TotalTrax is the new company formed from the merger of Rush Tracking Systems and Sky-Trax.
Tuesday, October 04, 2011
Toyota now offers seventy-three authorized Toyota Industrial Equipment dealers with a total of 224 dealership locations, throughout the United States and Canada.
ISO 14001 requires companies to continually improve their environmental performance and implement a systematic approach to setting and achieving environmental targets and objectives.
Sealed Air Corporation announced that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of Diversey Holdings
Posted on 10/04 at 08:42 AM
Sealed Air •
Monday, October 03, 2011
As in all RISE UP episodes, manufacturers, contractors and other businesses contributed their resources and talents to upgrade school athletic facilities located in a high crime area.
Posted on 10/03 at 02:59 PM
Penco Products •
Manufacturing continued its growth in September as the PMI registered 51.6%, an increase of 1 percentage point when compared to August’s reading of 50.6%.
The Conveyor Equipment Manufacturers Association (CEMA) recently reported that overall industry orders (bookings) for the first 6 months of 2011 increased 38.28% compared to the same period in 2010, with total orders of $4.58 billion.
Attendees were put through a rigorous three days of industry trends, product training, plant tours, product demonstrations, hands-on learning activities, and real world exercises.
Posted on 10/03 at 11:35 AM
Steel King •
Saturday, October 01, 2011
Thanks to a new tilt-tray sortation system, Random House is beating the competition to market and improving turnaround times by nearly 50%.
Random House’s new picking methodology aggregates orders for faster turnaround times and speedier delivery to the market.


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Polytype America Corporation has announced its partnership with Shuttleworth Integrated Product Handling Solutions. Shuttleworth will provide Polytype America with standard and customizable automation solutions for Grand Format printing in conjunction with the introduction of the Polytype NQ 32 3-in-1 UV printer being debuted at SGIA on October 23 in Orlando, FL. Shuttleworth will consult, design and construct feeding, conveyor and stacking solutions compatible with the PAC customer base.
"Polytype America is proud to have Shuttleworth Integrated Product Handling Solutions as our automation partner," states Jim Cain, Director of Sales-Digital at Polytype America. "Shuttleworth’s commitment to quality and their engineering expertise in creating automated solutions for the Grand Format printing industry mirrors Polytype’s 110 year commitment to providing high quality, swiss engineerd solutions to our client base."
"Shuttleworth LLC is both honored and excited to be selected as Polytype America’s Material Handling Solutions Provider," states Todd Eckert, Marketing Manager at Shuttleworth. "We look forward to the unique challenges presented by this opportunity to address the need for modular, phased, flexible automation in the graphic arts industry, while maintaining the ultimate in gentle product handling. We look forward to a long and mutually profitable relationship with both Polytype America and their client base."


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In a joint effort to combat the growing marketization of health services in Europe, three organizations—the European Public Services Union (EPSU), the European Network Against Commercialization of Health and Social Protection, and the People’s Health Movement (PHM) Europe—have announced a renewed regional campaign. The initiative was announced during a public meeting held on Thursday, September 7, aiming to bring health to the forefront of the European Union’s (EU) agenda. The coalition has expressed deep concern over the EU’s prioritization of financial and fiscal matters, such as free competition and budgetary convergence, over public health.
As a university student living in a country with high living costs such as Sweden, where even a conventional cucumber can cost you 2 Euros, you have to figure out how to get your hands on cheap or free food pretty quickly. For me, dumpster diving, as well as taking home the left-overs of the local student pub where I volunteer as a cook, does the trick. Friends unwilling to climb into dumpsters prefer food-saving apps like „Too Good To Go“ (TGTG) or „Karma“. These apps promise a win-win-win-win situation: restaurants can make money off food they would normally have not been able to sell, customers get good food at a discount price, the apps take a percentage of the revenue, and lastly, food waste and its negative effects on the climate are reduced.
Bloomberg reported on Sunday that California water futures are now officially on the Wall Street markets, with the United States–based CME Group heading up the 2021 contracts connected to the state’s billion-dollar water market. The “commodity” was most recently going for $496 per acre-foot with the main purchasers of the futures—which were first announced by CME in September—expected to be large-scale water consumers, chiefly utility companies and the states’ Big Ag corporations. (California is home to the largest agriculture market in the nation.) “Climate change, droughts, population growth, and pollution are likely to make water scarcity issues and pricing a hot topic for years to come,”...
Iowa is unrecognizable from centuries ago, when Europeans took the land for themselves. What were prairie and wetlands are now neatly partitioned grids of intensely cultivated land: the model for the farm as factory. I was in Iowa last week shooting for the PBS NewsHour Weekend “Future of Food” series. There are some good things going on — and you’ll see them in the segment, which will run later this summer or fall — but I left feeling depressed as hell.
The retail industry is experiencing significant upheaval. Online shopping is expanding rapidly, many national chains have closed locations and even declared bankruptcy, and malls are going dark in record numbers. Headlines have started calling this wave of closures a “historic tipping point” for American retail. However, almost all of the media reporting about these trends has focused on national retail chains. In order to find out how changes in the retail landscape are affecting independent businesses, we decided to ask them. Working with a coalition of national small business trade associations, we conducted a survey that gathered data from over 850 independent retailers across the country in a variety of retail categories.
On April 1, Baltimore started turning off water to 150 households a day. The city plans to turn off 25,000 residences in total. There are commercial and public entities in Baltimore that owe $15 million, but they are not losing their access to water. Baltimore has a history of overcharging residents. This resulted in a $4.2 million refund to about 38,000 residents in 2012. Beginning in July 2013, Baltimore is raising water rates by 42% over a three year period. Advocates say that the city's programs to assist residents are burdensome and inadequate. There is a one time grant of about $160 available for those who qualify. Residents of Baltimore are concerned about the water shut offs for a number of reasons.
These sacred luxury consumer temples (where the water tanks are always full), lowered their doors before the the march that brought together 15 thousand men, women and children - a significant part dressing in MTST (Workers Homeless Movement)’s t-shirts - in addition to other left wing organizations protesting on Thursday (26/02) against the water crisis in São Paulo. It was the first major public protest on the issue and involved people like the seamstress Maria Francisca da Conceição, 69, who walked, wearing her flip-flops, the 6300 meters that separate Largo da Batata, in Pinheiros neighborhood, and the Bandeirantes Palace in Morumbi, where is the official residence of the governor Geraldo Alckmin (PSDB) is located.Maria Francisca has been a resident of an MTST occupation in Numa Pompilius, in the extreme east of the city of São Paulo, since early 2014, when she joined the homeless movement.
Fortunately, many grape-growers and smaller wineries continue to follow regulations and not over-build. They are a credit to agricultural and rural communities. On the other hand, a prominent banker, Chinese developer, and two large Napa County wineries are opposite examples that have generated mounting concerns, especially from Sonoma County’s rural residents who feel invaded. Retired Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill, of what has been the world’s largest bank, bought a winery and moved here part-time from New York City in 2012. He purchased a Sonoma State University (SSU) honorary doctorate by giving a $12 million dollar gift, with strings attached. Part of SSU’s elite Green Music Center was also re-named after him. This was the first time SSU gave an honorary degree in return for such financial benefits, rather than for academic achievement.
Taken for granted in the climate change discussion is the assumption that nature or the environment is something that can or should be commodified, yet the structure of capitalism is such that it seeks to commodify everything, including human life (labor) and the environment (land and natural resources). The commodification of nature and the environment, inherent in the capitalist system, is problematic in its own right. Within this economic system, land, as well as labor, are seen as a commodity – something that can be purchased – and an essential part of industry. Yet what does it mean to say that something like “labor” and “land” are commodities? Karl Polanyi, the great economist, anthropologist, philosopher and sociologist, argued that both are not created as something to be sold. Labor is essentially human activity, a necessary part of life. Land, synonymous with nature, is not produced by man and in fact, encompasses man as a part of itself. When we sell the right to harm the natural environment, we are effectively selling something that is not ours. Yet many seek to solve the climate change crisis through market mechanisms and through the buying and selling of rights to pollute or degrade the natural environment through things like carbon taxing and trading. This is effectively selling the rights to pollute something that is not ours to sell.


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April 21, 2016
Vancouver, British Columbia – Angel Gold Corp. (the “Company”) (TSX-V: ANG) is pleased to announce that it has closed the second and final tranche of its previously announced private placement (the “Financing”), as described in its press release dated February 12, 2016, by issuing 1,800,000 units for aggregate gross proceeds of $90,000.[…]
April 18, 2016
Vancouver, British Columbia– Vancouver, British Columbia –Angel Gold Corp. (TSX-V: ANG) (“Angel” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it has modified the terms of the original option agreement dated November 14th, 2014 under which it can acquire a 100% interest in the El Porvenir Gold Property as previously announced (see press release dated November 24th, 2014).


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Here’s the abstract…..it’ll cost $US99 and the publication date is 14 April
California is the world’s biggest and most important cannabis market. It’s also among the most challenging and expensive to navigate. To compete, businesses must contend with a complex regulatory environment, high taxes and a illicit market which can consistently undersell licensed competitors.
WeedWeek’s Guide to the California Cannabis Industry is a detailed overview of the market, featuring insights and best practices from some of the leading figures in California’s cannabis space.
Written by WeedWeek editor and publisher Alex Halperin, LeafLink executive Jesse Taylor says, “For anyone considering either lending or investing in the California cannabis market, this is absolutely essential reading.” We think operators and other professionals will value it as well.
The report includes:
– A market overview plus a look at the early impact of the Covid-19 crisis
– Data from an exclusive 26-question survey of 400 California consumers focused on what, where, why and how they buy cannabis. The survey was commissioned by WeedWeek and conducted by SoapBox Sample. Customers who pre-order the report before April 14 will also receive the raw data broken down by age, sex and region.
-Exclusive interviews with:
1) Clark Howell Cannabis Attorney Ariel Clark on what her clients are facing
2) United Food and Commercial Worker organizer Jackie Cornejo on organized labor and cannabis
3) Harborside co-founder Steve DeAngelo on why he opened a shop in Desert Hot Springs
4) State Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer on legislative relief
5) Berkeley Patients Group co-founder Etienne Fontan on the current state of “over-regulated chaos”
6) Caliva CEO Dennis O’Malley on the benefits of being in Silicon Valley
7) NUG CEO John Oram on why he’s vertically integrated
8) Fyllo Chief Strategy Officer Amanda Ostrowitz on taxes and regulations
9) Cat Packer, Executive Director of Los Angeles’ Department of Cannabis Regulation, on taming the world’s largest metropolitan market
10) Poseidon Asset Management‘s Emily Paxhia on what she’s looking for in portfolio companies
11) California Cannabis Industry Association executive director Lindsay Robinson on what the industry needs
12) Flow Kana CEO Michael Steinmetz on the promise of inter-state trade
13) Wana Brands CEO Nancy Whiteman on arriving in California
14) PUREXTRACTS CEO Adam Yader on the past and future of concentrates
-Approximately 65 Pages
-Researched and written by WeedWeek Editor and Publisher Alex Halperin


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“Joan Westenberg launched PR and branding firm Studio Self at the end of 2019. Despite Covid-19 setting her back before she’d barely begun, she’s come back stronger than ever, with Studio Self passing six figures in the space of six months”, according to a Tess Connery post in Mediaweek. https://bit.ly/3pCnjTX
Joan Westenberg talks on how she uses her experiences as a trans woman in tech to steer the industry towards transgender inclusion, in this Aishwarya Jagani interview for Virtasant, https://bit.ly/3GiFYdD
“I’ve always loved technology. I taught myself to code when I was 12 years old, and I’ve just fallen in love with it. I love being online, doing anything cool, building cool stuff, and just exploring online communities. So it’s always been really important to me,” she shared.
But it hasn’t always been easy. Westenberg, who used to head PR and communications for tech brands, and who has always been in demand by tech companies looking to leverage her skill in shaping their voice, experienced a shift in attitudes after transitioning.
“Suddenly, I was told that I wasn’t a culture fit. That I wasn’t experienced enough. That the founders didn’t feel that with my background, I could relate to their stakeholders. One tech recruiter asked me what it was like “being a transgender,” she told The Next Web in a June 2020 article.
Grappling with an industry that didn’t support or see her, Westenberg decided to create opportunities and built a trans-inclusive space for the tech industry’s other ‘outsiders’.
Photo Joan Westenberg, Mediaweek.


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Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) has Thursday signed a partnership with Uganda’s football governing body, FUFA to promote sports tourism.
The partnership with Uganda Cranes through FUFA among others, gives the government tourism agency rights to brand Destination Uganda at local and international games in which team Uganda is participating.
UTB will as well as work with the Uganda Cranes players in destination marketing campaigns- given the local, regional and international appeal of soccer, is a double bottom-line opportunity.
The partnership was signed by UTB chief executive, Lilly Ajarova and the FUFA Vice President.
Across the world, trends reveal that sports fans are keen travellers and with sports events taking place all over the globe, the synergies between sport and travel are clear for all to see.
It has also become a common trend for countries through their tourism agencies to market themselves using football entities or events.
For destinations, it is no longer just about hosting major events; governments and tourism authorities now understand the power of sport and the effectiveness of sponsorship as a marketing tool to enhance the economy, image and quality of life for their residents.
Their sport tourism and wider commercial strategies must now include strategic alliances and a calendar of events that keep visitors coming back year after year.
When used intelligently, sport can be an incredible platform for brands and tourism destinations to showcase themselves and to communicate key messages to a global audience, according to GMR Marketing, a U.S engagement marketing advertising agency.
However, it is not simply enough to sign a deal with a rights holder and to rely on the brand exposure generated.
GMR says most successful partnerships are those that use creative activations in collaboration with the rights holder. This is premised on the idea that people retain about 20% of what they read and hear, 40% of what they observe and a full 90% of what they experience.
For Uganda, there is great potential, both on the aspect of football (Uganda Cranes) and tourism (as a destination). The national football team is due to participate in the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2019 kicking off Friday in Egypt. It has as well won several trophies during the EAC regional football tournament, CECAFA.
Tourism is Uganda’s highest foreign exchange earner and the country boasts of diversity be it in culture, food, wildlife and other natural attractions.


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Amazon GameCircle gives Kindle Fire owners Game Center-style features
GameCircle-compatible games will reward gamers with achievements, feature global leader boards and Sync - a function that offers cloud-based game saves. This latter feature lets you save your game remotely, ready to pick up where you left off on another device. And while this could mean a replacement Kindle Fire, it's a strong indication from the company that it has plans for other devices in the (near) future: Kindle Fire 2 and an Amazon smartphone, perhaps? Hmmm...
One of the first games to feature GameCircle is the massive hit Temple Run. Keith Shepherd, co-founder of its developer Imangi Studios, believes that not only will its integration greatly benefit the game's existing fans, but also attract new ones.
“The new service is a great way to keep our fans engaged by offering them more opportunities to play the game, and an intuitive platform to connect with new players,” Shepherd said.
Other games to feature GameCircle from the off include Doodle Jump, Tap Zoo and Rule the Kingdom. It will become wider spread now that developers can sign up for access to the APIs.
UK residents will also soon be able to experience Amazon GameCircle. Although the online retailer is yet officially to announced the arrival of the Kindle Fire in Britain, high street store chain Currys and PC World included it in the company's annual Christmas in July event, saying it would be available in its shops from the autumn.
What do you think of GameCircle? Let us know in the comments below...


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Maps Download Android
Google actually flagged the August 5 cut-off date in June but recently updated the help page with a note that users will find Google Trips app features in Google Search and Google Maps. As of today, Notice a bug? Let us know here. UPDATE: Fortnite update 10.00 patch notes are live on PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android. As reported, the new update adds the Automatic Sniper Rifle, as well as a big new map change
Beginning in early 2020, anyone setting up a new Android device in the European Economic But to access core services such as YouTube and Google Maps, they have also had to preinstall a broader Google has updated its Google Fit app letting you track your sleep from the Android and iOS-friendly health and fitness Now iPhone users can map routes for runs, rides and hikes and see that data Typically, victims are infected when they download trojanized versions of what appear to be legitimate Android applications that otherwise apps include a messaging app called UzbekChat, Ahrar Maps
Maps Download Android – SEE: Tech and the future of transportation (ZDNet special report) | Download the report as a PDF (TechRepublic) As Google announced in May, the new Android Auto starts playing media and Google Maps as When I am stuck in traffic, I’m using Google Maps and Spotify in the background to make life a bit more bearable. I use the app to download and listen to music when travelling on flights and even use “Modern Maps came about through me wanting to share to camera roll’ option in iOS or ‘Show media in gallery’ in Android. You can also change preferences in media download for individual chats.


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Texas ranks 4th on a new list of best states to start a business compiled by U.S. News & World Report .
The Lone Star State won praise for having “the most globe-focused manufacturing sector in the country, with export sales at $69,268 per worker—the highest of any state.” U.S. News also cited Texas’ lack of income or capital-gains taxes for individuals and the state’s low worker compensation costs.
The newsmagazine took a comprehensive look at the business climates for entrepreneurs in all 50 states. As the basis for their report, U.S. News used the 2008 New State Economy Index from the Kauffman Foundation and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation as well as the Small Business Survival Index 2008 from the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council.
Texas’ fourth-place ranking fell behind No. 1 Washington, followed by Virginia and Colorado. Rounding out the top seven were Nevada, Utah and Florida.
Click here to see more of the report.


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There is always a lot going on at filtec. New products are being developed. Current products are being improved or upgraded. Advanced technology is being integrated. New product literature is being released. See below for the latest, and check back often.
filtec Announces New Human Resources Supervisor
filtec Welcomes New Mechanical Engineer Manager
filtec Welcomes New Technical Project Leader
filtec Exhibiting at Craft Brewers Conference
filtec welcomes Tim Robinson as the new Machine Shop Manager.
filtec welcomes Nick Newman as the new Chief Operating Officer.
filtec Welcomes New Product Engineer
filtec will be exhibiting at Brau Beviale
filtec will be exhibiting at Pack Expo International in Chicago, IL, USA October 28-31
Pascal Pilote has been named filtec’s new Sales Director for USA
filtec will be exhibiting at Expo Pack in Mexico City, Mexico from June 26-29
Check out filtec’s Pressure/Leak Detector Ad in the online edition of PMT Magazine http://e-ditionsbyfry.com/Olive/ODE/PMT/1st June 2012
Check out filtec’s Pressure/Leak Detector Ad in the online edition of PMT Magazine
filtec welcomes Carlos Quintero as the new Sales Engineer for USA
Zonoe Jalamo is filtec’s new hire for Sales Support
filtec welcomes John Decker as the new Sales Engineer for USA
filtec welcomes Bruce Hoerning as the new Director of Facilities


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Of the 350 U.S. households surveyed, with incomes greater than $35,000, 34% said direct mail is the most effective communication vehicle, followed by print advertising (30%), TV (25%), radio (5%), e-mail (4%), Internet ads (2%) and telemarketing (0%).
The survey, conducted with the help of consultancy Peppers and Rogers Group, also found that 82% of consumers prefer the control associated with direct mail and 78% enjoy its non-intrusive nature.
More than 90% of those surveyed cited the familiar, convenient, interactive and universal aspects of direct mail as the reasons for its effectiveness.
Although direct mail accounts for 65% of the mail received by the average U.S. household, the majority of consumers -- 57% -- said they value companies' efforts to communicate with them, up 10% since 1998. -- Cara Beardi
Copyright June 2001, Crain Communications Inc.


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Spam moves away from cans
After 75 years in a can iconic brand Spam will also be available in a plastic tub.
The new 200g tub is aimed at complementing the current 200g and 340g can varieties and provides “a good opportunity” to grow the existing canned meat category, according to the company.
The company also claims “no major brand” has offered a plastic tub format for meat before and hopes its decision will attract both new and lapsed users to Spam.
Hormel Foods, makers of Spam, also feels the older generation is a key demographic for Spam as many have grown up with the brand and it’s hoped the new easy open format will encourage future purchase.
The new format is also aimed to appeal to younger consumers who may not be used to buying canned meat.
Liz Dee, Hormel brand manager said, “Our existing 200g can makes up almost half of spam brand sales, and this new easy opening format will encourage potential consumers to buy into the category.
“Many of our older consumers, who may have conditions such as arthritis, will now have easy access to the content which will give them a new reason to purchase Spam chopped pork and ham.”
Dee also revealed a comprehensive marketing launch strategy for the new tub which includes: advertorials in leading national women’s magazine; a full social media campaign through the brand’s 150,000 UK Facebook fans and a targeted consumer PR campaign in national and regional media.
There will also be a focused marketing campaign in the camping and caravanning media as this lighter format is perfect for use in the great outdoors.
The new 200g tub will be launched in Tesco from mid July and Asda in August, with other major supermarkets expected to follow.


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After Esther Crawford shared a photo of herself sleeping on the floor, she became one of Elon Musk’s insiders.
Stocks rose Monday as investors contemplated a potential slowdown in rate hikes from the Federal Reserve and braced for a busy week of earnings.
The Dow Jones Industrials climbed 254.07 points to 33,629.56.
The S&P 500 gained 47.2 points, or 1.2%, to 4,019.81.
The NASDAQ Composite leaped 223.98 points, or 2%, to 11,364.41.
Shares of Tesla and Apple gained on hopes that a reopening in China would boost their businesses. Both big tech names recently grappled with temporary shutdowns and blows to production as the country dealt with surging COVID-19 cases.
Investors weighed the possibility that the Fed is preparing to slow the pace of its inflation-fighting rate hikes. Economic data released last week showed a decline in wholesale prices and retail sales, along with commentary from central bank officials, seemed to signal a slowdown.
Remarks from Fed Governor Christopher Waller Friday seeming to favor a quarter percentage point rate … Read more
Space tourism stocks are ready for take-off. Should all go well, the industry could be worth up to $800 billion by 2030, says UBS, as reported by Forbes. By 2040, the industry could be worth $1 trillion, added Morgan Stanley. Plus, there’s already a good deal of pent-up demand. According to analysts at Cowen, 39% of people with a net worth of more than $5 million are already interested in paying at least $250,000 for a flight, says CNBC. Even billionaire-run companies, like Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) are ready for lift-off. Even companies, like Maxar Technologies (NYSE: MAXR) (TSX: MAXR), and Maritime Launch Services Inc. (NEO: MAXQ) (OTCQB: MAXQF) are gearing up for big launches of their own.
Look at Maritime Launch Services Inc. (NEO: MAXQ) (OTCQB: MAXQF), For Example
Maritime Launch Services Inc., owner and operator of Canada’s first … Read more


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Google+ (Plus) may already hit 10 million registered users and is expected to hit 20 million users by this weekend. But it’s still a long way off from Facebook’s 750 million registered users.
If Google were just counting on its estimated Gmail subscriber base, it won’t catch up with Facebook at all. But perhaps the bigger source of sign-ups will come from people who use Google search where people all over the world key in more than one billion searches a week.
Word is going around that “Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg registered a Google+ account” without any confirmation from the Facebook founder.
An article in International Business Times in San Francisco says:
As of Saturday evening, he had 22 people in his Circle and 2994 people added him on their Circles.
According to a tweet from allegedly from Robert Scoble: ”…Zuckerberg just texted me back. Says “Why are people so surprised that I’d have a Google account?”
Verifying any truth from the tweet seems problematic. read more
Myspace. Does it really have a heart after firing more employees?
From 1,400 employees two years ago, the number of employees at Myspace now number just around 200. This development follows after News Corp. sold the social networking site to Specific Media and after Justin Timberlake, who portrayed Sean Parker in the movie “Social Network”, joined the company.
Myspace, was sold for $580 million to Rupert Murdoch. The plan back then, according to Business Insider was to “merge MySpace into Yahoo and save Yahoo from Microsoft’s clutches…as long as Yahoo agreed to value MySpace at something like $10 billion.” Myspace was recently sold for just $30 million.
Tim Vanderhook, Specific Media CEO, is practically singing the same song. According to an article in CNET plans to use Myspace to build a “digital media company on par with Yahoo, AOL, Facebook, and all the other big names out there.”
The first wave of Google + (www.plus.google.com) invites will be going out soon and in the next few hours, we’ll probably see more posts with loaded with praises or criticisms. The first few weeks of reviews won’t probably do much to prove or disprove the idea that the search giant’s social initiative will actually eat up Facebook as it inches towards its rumored 2012 IPO.
Ensogo. Great for bargain hunters, but how about merchants?
I’ve been receiving pretty good offers from Ensogo over the past few weeks now and I am surprised by the amazingly low prices they have. Almost every single thing is marked down or discounted by at least 50 percent and the quality of the stuff they are offering seems pretty good.
Ensogo, like Groupon, is a social buying site and was recently acquired by LivingSocial, one of the major Groupon competitors.
In their e-mail to me today, two things interested me immediately: an offer for a Php600 (about US $ 15.00) Berting’s Grill gift certificate discounted at P300 (about US $ 7.50) and a 3-day, 2-night stay at the Boracay Terraces Hotel going for P7,700 (about US $180) when it would normally cost twice that much.
And, having just opened up a bank account that links up with PayPal (but you can also pay via ATM Peso Pay or bank transfer), I might just buy that gift certificate from Berting’s Grill and use it to buy several orders of their fabulous barbecued chicken ass and liempo or pork ribs. As for Boracay Terraces Hotel, well, it’s something that I really got to discuss with my wife first — but it looks like a pretty good buy.
All in all, it’s almost a revolutionary site for bargain hunters like me but it may not be all that amazing for merchants who get into social buying sites expecting “magic” to happen. A long time acquaintance who sells organic food online clued me in on a couple of caveats and cited a couple of reasons why he isn’t a fan of Ensogo — at least, not yet. read more
Will you buy something that was recommended to you on Twitter?
The thing is, I wouldn’t even buy something that one of my best friends recommends to me. But maybe I am not the sort of person who would be susceptible to any of my friend’s recommendations or perhaps it’s because my best friend always ends his recommendations with a disclaimer — “check it out for yourself man, don’t take my word for it.”
Maybe I am actually confessing to be a caveman when it comes to buying on the sole basis of a recommendation I come across online. Or maybe I don’t really fully understand how “online conversation” can lead to an actual sale.
The patently dishonest hype, if you will, surrounding the social media marketing buzz around the world is that the repeated and frequent mention of your brand on Twitter and Facebook can ultimately lead to rip-roaring, laugh-like-a-maniac-wall-the-way-to-the-bank sale.
It won’t. Not immediately, magically, or miraculously. Especially NOT just because it’s on Twitter or Facebook or a blog.
Facebook has actually made social connections more entertaining, rendering even some of my most boring relatives, friends, co-workers, and casual acquaintances a bit more interesting.
Now that Netflix chairman and CEO Reed Hastings has joined Facebook’s board, I’m wondering what’s going to be down the road of my life on Facebook. Will I one day look up from my laptop and ask my wife to watch a movie or TV show on Facebook?
Clearly, as Facebook inches towards reaching 1 billion users sometime next year, it is looking for more and more ways to keep people logged in. Games are obvious time consumers and so is music. Movies and TV? Definitely. (Even if it means watching Green Lantern laying a big fat egg at the tills.)
As an additional revenue stream (which Facebook probably needs more than just traffic), perhaps it’ll lead to seamless social network TV/movie promotion that actually brings bigger bucks. That will definitely come in handy, if and when, Facebook goes public next year and needs to support its profitability profile.
Last year a young and pretty female former co-worker at the Office of Senator Richard Gordon got in touch with me through Facebook chat. Although I initially savored the idea that the conversation was going to be somewhat purely social, talk eventually turned to one particular facet of everyone’s life online: Will prospective employers Google her and use the information they find to decide on whether or not to hire her?
Being somewhat the office’s second default expert on all things online, I said “Yes. Of course.”
If someone else had asked me the same question before Facebook became one of the biggest social networking sites on the planet, my answer would have been “No. Not unless you’ve been involved in a crime or scandal that was published on an online newspaper, blog or forum.” The reason for this is that online newspapers, blogs, and forums used to be the most likely ones to turn up a person’s name. Moreover, the more common reason for a person’s name to turn up on Google search would be either because they’ve been very good or very, very bad.
These days, anyone who has ever Googled themselves will know that their Facebook profile (along with LinkedIn, Twitter, Google profile, etcetera) will invariably turn up in the first ten search results. This can be both a boon and a bane, most especially now after a company got the nod of the US Federal Trade Commission to screen job applicants based on their Facebook and Twitter postings. read more
With more than 26 million users, the Philippines is the 7th largest country in terms of Facebook users according to Social Bakers.
While most people here use it to keep in touch with friends and family or play games, Facebook has become more than a diversion for at least one long time friend.
Armand Nocum, an acclaimed Filipino journalist who is now a legal public relations consultant, is making waves on Facebook that will hopefully help bring peace to his home island Mindanao.
Armand is the founder of the Kristiyano-Islam Peace Library (Kris), a non-government literacy advocacy group, that recently built at least one library in Zambonga City and another in Quezon City. Apart from libraries, the advocacy group also funded scholarships, donated books, and organized medical missions.


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ABG launches new company in Chile
A B Graphic International (ABG) is continuing to expand its global infrastructure by opening ABG SpA as its official reseller in Chile and Bolivia. The new company will see the leading finishing equipment manufacturer increase its support network to provide customers across South America with an even better ABG experience.
The announcement, which comes as a result of ongoing and significant worldwide demand for the company's equipment, will provide opportunities for ABG to strengthen its footprint and further grow its brand.
The new business will be headed up by Sebastian Rosero and Roberto Dahms.
Sebastian said, ‘We are delighted to finally have an official ABG entity in Chile and to become part of the wider ABG family.’
ABG’s CEO, Richard Knight, added: ‘This is fantastic news for ABG and our customers in South America.’


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In the class action suit, plaintiff Jenile Thames said the company pledged to phase out the additive six years ago, but so far has not moved on those promises. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and alleges fraud as well as violations of consumer protection law in California.
Estimated reading time: 0 minutes, 25 seconds
Mars Inc. Facing Consumer Lawsuit Over Alleged Toxic Skittles Ingredients
Skittles manufacturer Mars Inc. is facing a lawsuit from a consumer who has accused the company of failing to cease using titanium dioxide, a known toxin, in the popular candy. So reports Reuters.
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CPI for industrial workers for October at 9.6 pct
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's consumer price index (CPI) for industrial workers was at 9.6 percent in October, higher than an annual rise of 9.14 percent in September, government data showed on Friday.
The consumer price index for industrial workers rose by 2 points from the previous month to 217 in October, data released by the labour ministry showed.
The government uses CPI for industrial workers to fix wages for its employees.
India's statistics ministry separately releases annual inflation data based on the CPI every month. The annual consumer price inflation was 9.75 percent in October.
(Reporting by Manoj Kumar; Editing by Devidutta Tripathy)
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Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday unveiled a budget that aims to ramp up growth, aided by a slowed pace of fiscal deficit cuts and a raft of tax measures to put private domestic and foreign capital to work. Read | Full Coverage


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SBI has given this facility to its customers that they can do transactions up to five lakhs through IMPS without any charges.
In this regard, India’s largest bank has given information by tweeting. Customers will get this facility on IMPS transactions through digital channels. SBI has announced on Tuesday that, at present, there is no charge for sending up to Rs 2 lakh under Immediate Payment Service (IMPS).
The country’s largest bank said in a statement that to encourage customers to adopt the bank’s digital methods, SBI will no longer charge any charges for IMPS transactions up to Rs 5 lakh.
Facility will be available on YONO App, Internet Banking and Mobile Banking
According to PTI News, SBI has informed that this transaction can be done through YONO App, Internet Banking and Mobile Banking. If one wants to send money through IMPS by visiting a bank branch, there is no charge for up to Rs 1,000, but from February 1 on transactions above Rs 1,000 and up to Rs 2 lakh, there is no charge of Rs 2 to Rs 12. GST will be levied on it along with service charges.
SBI said that it has added a new category of transactions above Rs 2 lakh and up to Rs 5 lakh. For the transaction of this amount through the branch, GST will be levied with Rs 20 from February 1. If customers send money through internet banking, mobile banking or YONO app, then they will not have to pay any charges.
Sending money through NEFT is also free
According to SBI, there will be no charges for sending money through National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) through digital medium. While sending money through NEFT through bank branch will have to pay GST in addition to Rs 2 to 20. Similarly, there will be no charges for sending money through RTGS through digital medium. While sending money through a bank branch will have to pay GST in addition to Rs 20 to 40.


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LAVAL, Quebec -- Amid its ongoing global rebranding initiative, Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. is offering new franchise opportunities for its Circle K convenience-store brand in Canada. The expansion marks the first time the Circle K brand will be franchised in Canada, with the offer initially targeting the province of Ontario.
Circle K’s entrance into the Ontario franchise market begins immediately. The company said it aims to foster the growth of the brand in the province. The franchise locations will also complement Couche-Tard’s nearly 10,000 stores in North America, including more than 2,200 in Canada.
The proposal includes access to Circle K’s private brands, comprehensive training and continued education of the brand and total operational and marketing support.
“At Circle K, we are committed to growing our brand globally and look forward to providing business partners in Ontario with the full range of Circle K-branded products and service,” said Matt McCure, vice president of the Circle K worldwide franchise. “We are excited that through this franchise offer, more retailers will be able to join us in our mission to become the world’s preferred destination for convenience and fuel.”
In 2015, Couche-Tard said it would begin consolidating its Circle K, Statoil, Mac's and Kangaroo Express retail brands under one refreshed global banner, creating a renewed, global convenience brand with Circle K.
As of Oct. 15, 2017, and following the Holiday Stationstores acquisition, Laval, Quebec-based Couche-Tard’s network included 9,987 c-stores in North America, including 8,657 stores with motor-fuel dispensing. Its North American network consists of 19 business units, including 15 in the United States covering 48 states and four in Canada covering all 10 provinces.
In the U.S., Couche-Tard ranked No. 2 in CSP's 2017 Top 202 list of the largest c-store chains.


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Manchester Fort retail park could get a cinema and hotel as part of attempts to avoid decline.
A new masterplan for the shopping centre - which was opened in 2004 - aims to move away from the major ‘bulky goods’ outlets that originally anchored it, such as B&Q, and towards leisure, food and drink as both its owners and the council look to revamp it.
The document says north Manchester is particularly lacking a cinema at the moment and argues a new multiplex could anchor a redeveloped park instead, to help it weather the tough environment facing retailers.
At the same time more food and drink outlets would be encouraged, along with a three-star or budget hotel at the Queen’s Road end of the park.
It is understood the council is also keen to see an Aldi or Lidl open on the site.
The new masterplan, a version of which which has already been out for an initial consultation in the area, says that while the park has been very successful, times are tough in general for retailers.
“In the face of a vulnerable retail market which is characterised by low consumer confidence, changes in shopping behaviours and a weak retailer demand for floor space, there are a number of threats to the future success of the shopping park,” it says.
“To continue its contribution to north Manchester and enhance its resilience to an increasingly challenging market more needs to be done to ensure the longevity of the park.”
Referring to its 'unquestionable success' since opening nearly 20 years ago, the document says it is nonetheless at risk of decline.
“Stemming from the park's origins, the remnants of the original bulky goods offer, in the form the B&Q Warehouse and Halfords, jar with the character of the park and its principal ‘high street’ retail offer," it adds.
“There is limited synergy between this bulky-goods offer and the high street brands, meaning one does not support the other.
“Extending across the breadth of the park’s northern terrace, B&Q and Halfords create a largely ‘dead’ frontage which limits activity and dilutes the appeal of the park.
“There is a dominant retail offer and only limited provision of supporting leisure facilities concentrated on a range of food and beverage outlets.
“Whilst these outlets represent a crucial part of the park’s overall offer and do serve to increase customer dwell time, it is a narrow offer.
"There is no broader leisure or other offer that serves to extend customer stay, particularly into the evening. The park is thereby limited by its existing breadth of use and the contribution to the wider area and local communities is consequently restricted.”
Key among the plans by owners Nuveen and the city council is a new cinema, which would be built in the north eastern corner of the park and is considered a ‘viable proposition’ after market analysis.
The plan envisages the new attraction functioning in a similar way to Parrs Wood in Didsbury, noting the cinema market is buoyant and the north of the city is currently underserved.
“At present north Manchester has a limited provision of leisure uses and a notable gap exists in the cinema market,” it says.
“The provision of cinemas across Manchester is focused in the city centre and at out-of-centre locations to the south (Cineworld Didsbury) and East (Showcase Cinema) of the city.”
A new multiplex would be combined with other attractions to ensure people are less likely to make single trips, which the plan says people tend to do at the moment when visiting B&Q and Halfords.
Those units would be ‘comprehensively’ redesigned to open up access on that side of the park, reducing their floor space as leases come up for renewal in the next couple of years.
The redeveloped park - which already sees 7m visitors a year - would also create new jobs in one of the city’s poorest areas, the masterplan concludes.
Manchester council’s executive will consider the draft on Wednesday and are expected to approve it for wider public consultation.


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Xiaomi happen to be one of the most discussed brands (if not the most discusses) here at GizChina. It’s the proactive nature of the company that doesn’t just keep its competitors at its toes, but also compels you to keep an eye out.
That said, Xiaomi may not be having the best time yet. According to data published by IDC, Xiaomi just saw a 38.4 percent drop in smartphone shipment volumes in China for Q2 2016 vs Q2 2015. This, when the smartphone market in China grew by 4.6 percent.
Gizchina News of the week
What this also means is Xiaomi is now at #4 in China, from being #1 for a long while. The plummet in numbers can also be attributed to strong offline presence of phone makers such as OPPO, vivo, and Huawei, which now comprise of the big three in China.
Is it time for Xiaomi to start taking the offline market a bit more seriously?


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The popular doughnut chain said it is extending the tradition to be weeklong because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Since many Krispy Kreme dining areas are temporarily closed, customers can choose any doughnut of their choice via drive-thru or online for pickup. If ordering online, use promo code “NDW” at checkout to get the free doughnut.
“National Doughnut Day is one of our favorite holidays to celebrate, but with days starting to blur together, we want to make sure it’s easier than ever for fans to participate,” Dave Skena, Chief Marketing Officer for Krispy Kreme, said in a statement. “That’s why, this year, we’re extending our beloved free doughnut tradition from one day to five days with the very first National Doughnut Week.”
There are currently Krispy Kreme stores in four New Jersey towns: Collingswood, Springfield, East Rutherford and Jersey City. All four locations are participating in National Doughnut Week.
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Atlas Copco is expanding its US footprint, having today (9th June) unveiled plans to acquire National Vacuum Equipment.
Headquartered in Michigan, Nation Vacuum Equipment is a manufacturer of industrial vacuum pumps and packages for mobile use on tanker trucks.
Geert Follens, Business Area President Vacuum Technique, said, “The acquisition will add to our vacuum solutions portfolio, allowing us to enter the currently untapped mobile vacuum market.”
Once acquired, National Vacuum will become part of the Industrial Vacuum Division, within the Vacuum Technique business area.
The acquisition is expected to close in Q3. The purchase price was not disclosed.


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Weekend Warrior, a division of Omega RV, acquired a 27-acre campus in Caldwell, Idaho, to expand its production capacity since the revival of the legendary toy hauler and return of its founder, Mark Warmoth.
With the expanded manufacturing capacity, Weekend Warrior is positioning itself to recapture market share and industry prominence by providing toy haulers a “gold standard in design, innovation, and user-experience.” New models will be released including the long awaited fifth wheels after the new campus is renovated and online.
The 27-acre manufacturing campus in Idaho is part of the former Kit Manufacturing complex in Caldwell adjacent to the current manufacturing plant, where thousands of RV’s have been manufactured over the course of four decades.
“The current wave of sales fueled by pent up demand for the brand and improving economy has led us to invest significantly in R&D and property expansion,” said Don Day, Weekend Warrior GM and partner. “We are fortunate to have a great local work force that has many years of experience. The local and state government have been very helpful to help our company in this expansion to meet the demand for the Weekend Warrior toy haulers.”
Mark Warmoth, the founder of the Original Weekend Warrior in 1988 and partner in Omega said, “This was a perfect fit for the next chapter of Weekend Warrior.”


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Hackers may be waging war against some of tech's biggest names, but investors could care less, at least in terms of what it means for stock prices. The Nasdaq hasn't seen these levels in a dozen years, and futures are holding tight to prior gains.
Andrew Parlin believes there's still plenty room for markets to run. In fact, the Kotell Advisors LLC co-founder says "this rally is in its infancy" and the way the central bank is behaving continues to create a "nirvana" for stocks. We'll hear more from the Federal Reserve later in the day, with what it has to say about the risks/exit strategy of QE3 at the forefront.
And while the Biebs may be doing his part in propping up demand for gold, the precious metal continues to fall further out of favor with investors, suggesting that, despite fears of a tired bull, there's still thirst for risk out there.
Key market gauges: Futures on the Dow and the S&P are signalling another steady day on the markets, following a strong showing in Asia . Nasdaq futures are holding tight, as well.
Europe isn't showing much early, though the FTSE pushed through 6,400 for the first time since early 2008. Read: London markets.
Keep an eye on gold , too. Futures are off, and, technically speaking, it could be in deep trouble, as pointed out by this tweet:
Gold has delivered a "death cross". The price of the yellow metal has seen the 50-day moving average fall below the 200-day moving average
— FT Global Markets (@FTGlobalMarkets) February 20, 2013
The economy: The U.S. Department of Commerce reported that U.S. housing starts fell 8.5% to 890,000 in January. Economists polled by MarketWatch had been looking for a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 914,000, down from 954,000 in December, which was the highest level since June 2008.
Later, the Federal Reserve will release minutes from its last meeting, in which the central bank is expected to have spent a lot of time talking about when and how it would stop QE3. Read: What to expect on the U.S. economy.
Earnings: If it hadn't happened already, this Tesla tiff jumped the shark the moment CNBC's auto reporter got behind the wheel of the Model S to retrace the infamous steps of the range-anxiety-inducing New York Times reporter. The collective "enough already" could be heard from my desk here in London.
In the spirit of closure, it turns out Tesla and it's Big Brother approach to test drives did, in fact, prove the reporter's account to be flawed. The editor behind the story admitted there were problems with "precision and judgment." Here's the Tesla founder being happy about it.
For the Tesla fanboys who maybe, just maybe, are going a bit overboard in defense of their beloved car, TechCrunch's John Biggs offers some advice on "the best way to love something unequivocally without looking like a freak."
At any rate, Tesla will report its fourth-quarter results this afternoon. Manufacturing targets for 2013 and gross margin are two of the metrics in focus. Read the full preview.
The buzz: Both OfficeMax and Office Depot are seeing big share gains in the premarket on word, whether it's official or not, that the two have agreed to merge in an all-stock transaction. If the deal does go through, as the premature release suggests, it would market the latest chapter in what Josh Brown of the Reformed Broker blog recently called "the healthiest M&A boom in decades."
Two of the stock market's highest-profile companies have given investors another reason to sing their praises. Both Google and Berkshire Hathaway are pushing into uncharted territory, recently taking out key levels of $800 and $150,000, respectively. Could they possibly move even higher? One of the many questions wafting through cyberspace today.
Score one for Icahn. Herbalife posted a higher profit and raised its outlook for the year, sending its shares up nicely before today's opening bell. Ackman still has the overall edge as the stock is about 6% lower from where it was before word of his short sale leaked. Read about Carl Icahn's picks for 2013.
Dell also posted results late yesterday, but the focus continues to be on the computer maker's plans to go private. The stock is up nominally before the opening bell. Read: Will Lenovo make things worse for Dell?
Yahoo will come under closer scrutiny after CEO Marissa Mayer blogged about the launch of a "more intuitive and personal" Yahoo experience.
The chart of the day: Tim Wu tackles the old tech adage that "open beats closed." That's another way of saying a company that allows interoperability, like Google, has an advantage over, say a closed-off AOL . Apple has been the wild card in the equation, succeeding wildly despite its closed approach. But Wu contends the company had a one-off genius on its side. Now that Jobs is gone, Apple has been getting crushed. Here's a chart ranking the openness of some of the biggest tech names and how they have fared since 2006.
The call of the day: As for Apple, it's probably best that you don't jump on board for the long haul, warns Seeking Alpha contributor George Kesarios. He lays out his case in which he says "conventional thinking" on how to play the stock isn't working. "Apple is no longer a long-term, buy-and-hold stock," he wrote. "Apple has turned into a dog stock and is only good for swing trading or if you are interested in the dividend."
Random Reads: Note to self, buy domain name before opening a restaurant.
"They get one hour for breaks and lunch, talk for three and work for three. I told the French union workers this to their faces. They told me that's the French way!" Read more about the Titan chairman's letter to the French industry minister.
The riveting Norwegian TV show that included chopping and stacking wood. And then the added bonus of eight hours of fire burning in a fireplace.
The unsettled "porch marijuana question" and the perils of pot tourism in Colorado.
Need to Know starts early and is updated as needed until the opening bell, but sign up here to get it delivered once to your e-mail box. Be sure to check the Need to Know item. The e-mailed version will be sent out at approximately 8:45 a.m. Eastern. Follow @slangwise on Twitter.


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Decentralization may have become the guiding trope for crypto enthusiasts but Hugo Renaudin, founder of LGO Markets – a startup with a digital asset management platform, is less than impressed with the concept. “You cannot work in a fully decentralized way,” he says. As an example, he points to the settlement process for a trade. “You are trusting the market (and not the counterparty) in the process.”
Among the multiple problems hampering adoption of cryptocurrencies among traders, the absence of a reliable trading infrastructure is the most important. Cryptocurrency exchanges, which have been subject to hacks and routine price surges, are still to come into their own as OTC markets garner a bulk of trading in the asset. LGO Markets claims to solve that problem by creating secure and transparent trading venues.
An Annoying Introduction to Cryptocurrency Trading
Renaudin was introduced to cryptocurrencies in 2015 while still in college. He’d already invested ihis own money in them. Through friends, he was introduced to the founder of Bitspread and, subsequently, worked as a trader with them. His job was to arbitrage bitcoin price between different crypto exchanges. The experience soured him on crypto trading.
In mainstream markets, a plethora of indicators – news, analyst reports, or quarterly earnings – are triggers for price movement. But crypto exchanges have baffled traders. Bitcoin scaled new heights last year even as economists criticized the coin and governments clamped down on its use. This year is a different story and the cryptocurrency has not reversed its prolonged slump even after a slew of positive news about the entry of institutional investors into the space. “The market is completely opaque,” says Renaudin. “You don’t know why it’s up or down and it’s completely annoying.”
Over time, he distilled the cause of his annoyance to two reasons. The first one was a lack of transparency about transactions occurring at exchanges. “If you are using data as a signal, then exchanges post fake volumes,” says Renaudin. Some reports also surmise that bitcoin whales, or holders of large stashes of cryptocurrencies, move markets with their trades. Still others accuse prominent exchanges, such as BitMex, of betting against their own customers. The SEC has recently started investigations into price manipulations of Tether, a stablecoin that trades at parity with USD.
The second reason for Renaudin’s annoyance was the lack of trust between various stakeholders involved in the trading process. This absence of trust is best exemplified by the jumble of connections in a trade involving cryptocurrencies. Exchanges often act as custodians of their holdings by storing coins. They also clear trades by functioning as clearinghouses. In effect, traders are forced to include the risk of their holdings going bust, if the exchange goes down. The numerous hacks and breaches over the years have only added to their worries. When he was trading, Renaudin says they distributed funds between multiple exchanges, sometimes as many as 10 to 20, to avoid a complete loss. “But that is not a good strategy,” he says.
A Clean Process
As with most entrepreneurs, Renaudin says he built LGO Markets to solve his problems with current crypto trading infrastructure. The potential of cryptocurrencies to act as a medium for exchange of value representing security ownership also excited him. “Once you see that current incumbents like traditional exchanges are not made to handle digital asset-based transactions, the potential becomes clear,” he says.
The starting point for Renaudin was a breakup of the monolith that is a cryptocurrency exchange. “In cryptocurrencies, there is one big bank account or a big wallet (to trade and store your cryptocurrencies). One entity does the entire trade execution,” he says. “There are no checks and balances.” Renaudin drew inspiration from the current structure of capital markets and the three distinct entities – exchanges, clearinghouses, and custodians – that facilitate investor trade execution.
“We bring a clean process and we apply it to crypto,” he says. The startup’s whitepaper describes the exchange’s architecture as “fair by design” because it is verifiable and multilateral. Verifiability refers to the fact that all transactions occurring within the exchange are logged and can be traced back to their provenance. Multilateralism refers to the distribution of information between the three entities to ensure impartial execution and minimizing of conflicts of interest.
While he hasn’t launched the exchange yet, Renaudin is putting pieces of the puzzle together. LGO markets has already tied up with a qualified custodian for safekeeping of its funds and has tied up with a liquidity provider. It has also signed up four institutional clients for its launch. The exchange is designed to be transparent and secure. Transactions available on a blockchain will ensure that exchanges cannot front run their traders and encrypted multisig wallets will be used to implement security. The multisig wallets for exchanges will have three private keys distributed between clients, custody providers, and the exchange itself. Two of the three private keys will be required to conduct transactions and move funds. The decision to focus on institutional investors also means that the exchange will have fewer connections to verify and validate as opposed to, say, an exchange like Coinbase, which has more users than Charles Schwab.
LGO Markets is part of LGO Group, which also has a marketing & advertising company for blockchain. Called LGO Launch services, the division will provide an array of services – international marketing, content creation and dissemination, social media and community management – to clients in the space.
Renaudin’s emphasis on avoidance of conflict of interest may fall short here. According to him, the customers for this company are crypto companies and clients from different industries interested in cryptocurrencies. It is not hard to imagine a situation where a firm avails itself of launch services from LGO Launch Services and, subsequently, lists its token on LGO Markets – the exchange. But Renaudin dismisses the concerns because “these are two different companies with different governances and targets.” (But the website for LGO launch reverts back to a white paper for LGO Markets and the team listed is the same as for LGO Markets).
Decentralization Vs. Centralization
In mainstream finance, bitcoin and cryptocurrencies have positioned themselves against the monolithic “too big to fail” structures of the industry. Centralized exchanges belong to Wall Street, crypto proponents say. Decentralized exchanges, in which two parties trade directly with each other without the exchange recording details of their transaction, have emerged as an alternative in cryptocurrencies.
Renaudin’s attempt to imitate the Wall Street structure at LGO Markets could open it to charges of centralization. But he is unfazed. “There’s always some kind of centralization.” he asserts. As example, he says even traders at decentralized exchanges rely on trade contracts drawn up by the exchange. The reliance on US dollar (or other fiats) for conversion or trades at crypto exchanges is also a form of centralization, he says. “In the digital asset space, you still need some kind of central authority to ensure that you get paid for the trade.”