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Despite the extraordinary challenges the world faced during the 2020 financial year, packaging machine manufacturer Gerhard Schubert GmbH posted a positive business result that was significantly better than the Corona-related forecast adjustments at the beginning of the pandemic year suggested. The Schubert Group achieved an increase in turnover of 2.5% in the 2020 financial year, representing a total of 281m euros in sales, therefore confirming the cautious management and dedicated commitment of all 1450 employees during the Corona crisis. The order position also developed very positively. Driven by growth in the US and Europe, Schubert realised a 25% increase in incoming orders compared to the previous year.
In the unforeseen pandemic situation and at an early stage, the Crailsheim-based world market leader in packaging technology relied on a company-internal task force along with a comprehensive safety and hygiene concept.
“It was a very good decision and is still working very well for us today. Thanks to the measures implemented to minimise the impact of COVID-19 on our operations, we have a very low number of employees who fell ill overall. We have been and continue to be able to work and deliver to our customers at all times,” explained Peter Gabriel, commercial managing director of Gerhard Schubert GmbH.
Digital services prove their worth
The manufacturer is benefiting from the fact that it is well advanced in the field of digitalisation.
“Our capabilities for virtual machine approvals, AR-supported service processes and digitally supported commissioning at customer sites have naturally proven very successful in customer support in 2020 and will continue to be an important focus of our development in the coming years,” reported Marcel Kiessling, managing director of sales and service.
In this context, the increases in service revenues compared to the previous year are clear: In spite of all the restrictions on travel and availability of service staff, Schubert achieved an increase in turnover in this key area from 54 (2019) to 59 million euros.
This is just one of the reasons why the further development of service offerings is an integral part of the company’s growth strategy: “A key focus is to increase and optimise performance tracking. Added to this is the customisation of our services – flexible and ideally adapted to specific customer requirements,” continued Kiessling.
Innovations with international growth potential
International growth, especially in the US and Europe, is currently being driven by the manufacturer’s immediately available and preconfigured lightline machine series, which enables customers to react quickly to market trends, along with significant advances in the development of tools for process optimisation using predictive maintenance (GRIPS.world). The establishment of industrial on-demand 3D printing processes for additive manufacturing in both plastics and metal, along with the consistent further development of sustainable packaging solutions and a strong focus on consulting, are all additional success factors behind Schubert’s current development. Business in the US developed very positively in this context. The Schubert subsidiary generated around US$82m in sales in North America in 2020. In addition to upward trends at Schubert UK and the main European markets of France and Italy, the Polish market is also becoming increasingly important for the manufacturer.
The future is both sustainable and flexible
Ground-breaking innovations and investments enable Schubert to continue winning over customers, while strengthening the company’s leadership position in the industry during the 2020 pandemic year.
Ralf Schubert, managing partner of Gerhard Schubert GmbH, explained: “We have been intensifying our research activities in the field of robotics technology for some time. With AI projects in the field of robotics and image processing, we are making a decisive contribution to the ongoing professionalisation and future viability of the entire packaging industry. Added to this is the development of innovative assemblies for our TLM machines as well as our first collaborative robot and progress on TITAN, our packaging systems’ digital twin.”
To this end, the Crailsheim-based company has been investing around eight to 10 per cent of its annual turnover for decades in a time-tested tradition.
It is also thanks to this innovative strength that Schubert is able to continuously expand its trailblazing role in the automation of sustainable production processes and in the development of innovative packaging materials.
“The future belongs to environmentally friendly packaging materials such as cardboard trays or fibre-based films which can be used flexibly on a packaging line. Our customers benefit from over 50 years of Schubert experience in cardboard packaging along with our consulting and service expertise,” said Kiessling.
Outlook for 2021
Supported by the high order backlog and equally positive order intake in the first quarter, Schubert is very confident about the development of the current financial year.
“Our production capacities are currently very well utilised. We already have 100 per cent of the planned annual turnover in our order books for 2021 and are already planning our new orders into 2022,” said Peter Gabriel, describing the favourable situation.
The signs are pointing towards continued growth for the manufacturer in other respects too. In the second half of 2021, construction of the new assembly hall will begin as part of the planned further expansion of the Crailsheim site. Prior to this, in 2019 the adjacent country road was rerouted in order to make way for the extensive construction work, creating the necessary space and ideal conditions for up to 300 additional employees.


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Gerry Ford – there’s potential to at least double the size of Coffee#1 in the UK: Caffe Nero founder and group chief executive Gerry Ford has told Propel there is potential to at least double the size of Coffee#1 in the UK. Caffe Nero has acquired a 70% stake in Coffee#1 with Welsh brewer and retailer SA Brain, which had owned Coffee#1 since 2011, retaining 30%. Ford said it would look to grow the 92-strong Coffee#1, which will remain a standalone business, outwards from its base across Wales, Midlands and southern England. He said: “It has a lot of brand awareness within the area it covers so it makes sense to push out from the edges and continue growing that way. In the short term, the next three to five years, our focus will be on growth in the UK. I’m not sure it can grow to the 750 sites Caffe Nero has in the UK but I think there’s potential to have a least double what we have now.” Ford revealed Caffe Nero started having conversations with SA Brain about three years ago, shortly after it began looking at strategic options for Coffee#1. He said: “Over the years we’ve kept in touch and we’ve managed to work out something that is mutually beneficial.”
Crussh extends vegan store trial following ‘overwhelming response’:London-based healthy food and juice brand Crussh, which turned its Soho site into a vegan pop-up this month, is extending the trial after an “overwhelming” response. Crussh will extend its offer at the Broadwick Street store until at least the end of February. The fully plant-based menu features more than 70 vegan recipes. The company said the move would allow it to gain further insight into how a fully plant-based operation could become a more sustainable business model for the future. Head of marketing Helen Harrison said: “Customer response has been fascinating and incredibly positive. Our regulars have been really supportive of the idea, welcoming the fact we’re making it so easy for them to choose a plant-based option. We’ve also been able to reach new customers – vegans, vegetarians and those opting for a flexitarian approach. We’ve also had some great feedback from those with dairy allergies who can now come to the store and choose whatever they like without having to be mindful of allergens. We’ve been asking customers to vote and it’s currently about six to one in favour of keeping it vegan. However, we think it’s important to see how the store trades once Veganuary passes to understand whether the offer is strong enough to sustain the store outside this period.” Crussh has introduced two vegan breakfast lines that will initially be exclusive to the Broadwick Street store – a scrambled tofu and spinach pot, and a Mexican spiced bean pot, both served with a choice of toppings. Crussh’s menu is already more than 45% plant-based – an increase from 22% in January 2017 – and is currently selling more than 50 vegan products. The company operates 35 sites across London.
7Bone Burger co-founder gets go-ahead to open Dorset micro-pub: Rich Zammit, co-founder of 7Bone Burger Co, has been given the go-ahead to open a micro-pub in Dorset. Zammit has had his proposal to convert a disused Barclays bank branch in Ashley Cross approved by Poole Council. Zammit said the Crazy Camel would sell premium craft ale and be an “alternative” to mainstream pubs. Officers had backed the proposal but it was called in for consideration by members of the planning committee following concerns over the number of eating and drinking businesses already operating in the area. However, Zammit said he was willing to work with residents to create a management plan to reduce any potential problems. He told the Daily Echo: “I believe this addition to the Ashley Cross area would be a good one and add to the vitality of the area.” 7Bone, founded by Zammit and Matt Mollicone, opened its first restaurant in Southampton in 2013, followed by Bournemouth the following year. In August 2016, Kings Park Capital took an equity stake in the business and, with its financial backing, 7Bone now operates nine sites.
Cheshire-based Almond Family Pubs acquires Stockport site for sixth venue: Cheshire-based Almond Family Pubs has acquired a pub in Stockport for its sixth site. The Jolly Sailor in Davenport will undergo a £1m refurbishment ahead of reopening in “late spring” in a move that will create 40 jobs. Almond Family Pubs, run by former hotelier Doug Almond and his children James and Vicki, has a reputation for taking on and turning around “unloved”pubs. Its formula includes a carvery but the Jolly Sailor will also offer an extended menu of pub classics and an orangery, which will create additional dining space. Doug Almond told Marketing Stockport: “We have been listening closely to what the locals want and will be doing what we can to make sure the pub works for them. We will serve our famous carvery but, having listened and seen the success of our extended menus in our existing pubs, we will offer a good pub menu alongside and keep dedicated areas for drinkers. It’s safe to say the locals want their pub back and that’s exactly what we’re going to give them.” The company’s other pubs are the Fletchers Arms, The Hesketh, the Three Bears, Puss In Boots, and the Spread Eagle, all in and around Stockport.
Starbucks named world’s fifth most-admired company, comes top in foodservice sector: Starbucks is the fifth most-admired company in the world, according to research by Fortune magazine, and is the number-one company in the foodservice industry. Starbucks appeared on the 2018 list for a 17th year in a row, while Apple topped it for a 12th year in a row followed by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, Walt Disney, Starbucks, Microsoft, Alphabet, Netflix, JP Morgan Chase and FedEx. Fortune created the list from a starting point of 1,000 companies based in the US and 500 from the rest of the world with revenue of at least $10bn. It then surveyed 3,900 executives, directors and analysts, who rated businesses in their own industry on nine criteria. Meanwhile, Starbucks chief executive Kevin Johnson has told staff “nothing changes” for the company regarding former boss Howard Schultz’s possible presidential bid, reports Nation’s Restaurant News. Schultz reiterated he might launch a presidential campaign but only if he believed it was “possible to win”. Johnson, in a letter to staff, embraced the legacy of the brand’s former chief executive, who stepped down as executive chairman in June 2018, and distanced Starbucks from Schultz’s political aspirations. He said: “Whatever he decides, it is my personal belief Howard will continue to make a positive impact on the lives he touches, and I wish him well. Many of us will inevitably be asked if the company supports a possible presidential candidacy of Howard and what changes for Starbucks? As a company, we don’t get involved in national political campaigns – and nothing changes for Starbucks.”
Caravan to operate coffee counters as part of Office Group partnership: Caravan, the London-based restaurant, bar and coffee-roasting concept, is to run coffee counters at a number of sites operated by co-working company The Office Group (TOG). The deal is TOG’s first hospitality partnership and will see Caravan roast an exclusive single-origin coffee for the company’s workspaces across the UK. The coffee will be available in espresso, filter and decaffeinated versions. Caravan co-founder and commercial director Chris Ammermann said: “We are hugely excited to partner with co-working pioneers The Office Group, supplying its members with freshly roasted craft coffee from our new Islington roastery. We are thrilled to be working with people who share our passion for great, sustainably-sourced coffee.” Caravan operates five sites in London.
Yard & Coop to open third site, in Leeds: Fried chicken concept Yard & Coop, owned by former Revolution Bars Group employees Carl and Laura Morris, is to open its third site, in Leeds. Yard & Coop will open the 120-cover venue in York Place in the former home of Miah’s Kitchen, creating 30 jobs. As with Yard & Coop’s other restaurants in Liverpool and Manchester, the Leeds site will source all its chicken from a farm in Shropshire. Carl Morris told BDaily: “Leeds is an amazing city and we’re extremely excited to bring the home of buttermilk fried chicken to the people of Yorkshire.” The Morris’ founded Yard & Coop in 2015 with a debut site in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. In December 2016, the company expanded with a second venue at the Liverpool ONE shopping and leisure complex.
Brunning & Price resubmits plans to turn 17th century farmhouse near Solihull into pub restaurant: Brunning & Price, the gastro-pub division of The Restaurant Group, has resubmitted plans to turn a listed 17th century farmhouse near Solihull into a pub restaurant. Tidbury Green Farm in Earlswood features four buildings including a cow house, pigsties and barns that were awarded grade II-listed status in 2016. The company has made changes to the application lodged last year with Solihull Council following residents’ concerns over work on listed buildings and protected trees, reports Birmingham Live. The number of parking spaces has reduced from 58 to 49. A planning statement said: “The ground floor of the farmhouse, with the exception of the existing entrance hall and dining room and large barn, are proposed to provide the dining area for the pub restaurant. The existing dining room, front entrance and upper floors of the farmhouse would provide staff facilities and manager’s accommodation.” Land surrounding the farmhouse in Fulford Hall Road has been sold for housing, with construction work currently taking place. Brunning & Price operates 70 pub restaurants across the UK.
Trio of operators sign for Portman Marylebone: Three operators – Blue Dot Coffee, Everbean Deli and A.O.K. Kitchen & Bakery – have signed to open sites in Marylebone, central London. The brands will open as part of the 110-acre Portman Estate, taking the estate’s dining offer to 40 restaurants, cafes and delis. Everbean Deli has opened at a 900 square foot space in Seymour Place offering breakfast, brunch and lunch menus to eat in or take away. Barista brand Blue Dot Coffee will open at a 450 square foot site in the spring offering artisan coffee and hot and cold snacks from its site in Old Quebec Street. As previously reported by Propel, the brands will be joined by A.O.K. Kitchen & Bakery, a debut restaurant for Kelly Landesberg, daughter of Admiral Taverns founder Gary Landesberg. A.O.K. is an all-day healthy food concept focusing on gluten, dairy and refined sugar-free dishes and will launch in a 3,500 square foot site in Dorset Street on Monday, 18 February. Philip Norris, head of retail at The Portman Estate, said: “We are delighted independent businesses and entrepreneurs continue to choose this quarter of the West End to open their restaurants and cafes. The mix of owner-operated shops and restaurants is an important part of Marylebone’s unique character.”
Cubana launches £106,000 crowdfunding campaign to develop roof terrace at Waterloo site: London-based Cuban restaurant Cubana has launched a £106,000 fund-raise on crowdfunding platform Crowd2Fund to develop the roof terrace at its Waterloo site into a terrace bar. The company is offering a 10% interest-paying mini-bond with a term of 36 months. Cubana, led by Phillip Oppenheim, also operates a restaurant in Smithfield. The pitch states: “Our two locations, Waterloo and Smithfield, emulate the soul of Cuba, with live music and salsa clubs hosted on Fridays and Saturdays. We take pride in our vibrant, colourful decor that gives the place a fun atmosphere and has led to us being used as a location for several film and commercial photo shoots. The next step for Cubana is to develop our space further by renovating our Waterloo rooftop into a terrace bar. We will use the funds raised in this campaign to facilitate this, ready for the uptake of sales in the spring and summer.” In 2017, Cubana raised more than £300,000 through two rounds on Crowd2Fund to fund its Smithfield site.
Shutov to open Bob Bob Ricard sister site in March: Bob Bob Ricard owner Leonid Shutov is to open its much-delayed sister site – on Monday, 25 March. Located on level eight of the Leadenhall building – also known as the Cheesegrater – Bob Bob Cité will “break new ground” in design and menu, with the latter overseen by Eric Chavot. The 190-cover restaurant will be set across two rooms. Bob Bob Ricard’s “press for Champagne” buttons will also be an integral part of the new site. Shutov told Harden’s: “Good things come to those who wait. I am delighted we will be opening Bob Bob Cité a mere 14 months later than we intended. Bob Bob Ricard was two years late when we built it so I feel this is already a big improvement! One concierge service told us they’ve had more than 5,000 reservation requests for Bob Bob Cité since it has been delayed. I am thrilled that, come March, we will be able to welcome everyone to enjoy Eric’s outstanding food in a restaurant I hope will become as much a City of London landmark as the Cheesegrater itself.”
Birmingham-based pan-Asian restaurant takes over former Frankie & Benny’s in Coventry for second site: Birmingham-based pan-Asian restaurant Oodles n’Oodles is to open its second site, in Coventry. The concept has taken over a site in Tile Hill previously occupied by The Restaurant Group brand Frankie & Benny’s. Oodles n’Oodles offers a variety of dishes with a focus on noodles. The Coventry site will be run by franchisee Imran Asif, with work to fit out the restaurant currently under way. He told Coventry Live: “I am Coventry born and bred and the choice for places to eat and drink has significantly increased recently. There is a real buzz about the city – you can see a difference. We want to be part of that and part of a successful city. We already have a restaurant in Star City that has been going ten years and we think now is the right time to open in Coventry.”
BaxterStorey opens first vegan outlet, plans concept expansion: Contract catering company BaxterStorey has opened its first vegan outlet to meet rapidly growing demand for plant-based alternatives – with plans to expand the concept. The cafe has launched at the University of Stirling in Scotland, where more than 14,000 students are enrolled. The venue features an entirely plant-based menu, including vegan carrot cake and vegan sausage rolls, with soups such as cauliflower minestrone and curried yellow pea. Minor Figures cold brew and banana split Rebel Kitchen dairy-free milk coffee are also on offer. Baxterstorey said it has ambitions to expand the dedicated vegan outlet to other universities in the area. Managing director Jeremy Wood said: “BaxterStorey prides itself on being a sustainable business and, with the growing trend for more plant-based options, we’re proud to be able to introduce a range of beverages and snacks that benefit the environment as well as the health and well-being of our customers.”
CMA clears PepsiCo’s acquisition of Pipers Crisps: PepsiCo’s acquisition of Pipers Crisps has been cleared by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). PepsiCo announced in November it planned to buy Pipers, which is stocked by a number of sector operators, for an undisclosed sum. The CMA decided to look at the deal to see if there would be a lessening of competition but has ruled the deal can go ahead. It stated: “The CMA has decided, on the information currently available to it, not to refer the following merger to a Phase 2 investigation under the provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002.” PepsiCo said it plans to accelerate the growth of the Pipers business in the UK and continue to develop exports, while Pipers would complement its own savoury snacks portfolio.
Stokes Tea & Coffee secures six-figure funding package to support expansion: Lincoln-based cafe operator Stokes Tea & Coffee has secured a six-figure funding package to support expansion at its headquarters. The company has been awarded funding from HSBC to boost its coffee and equipment trade and increase its servicing offer. The money will also be invested in the continued £2m refurbishment of its headquarters at The Lawn. The grade II-listed building, formerly run as a psychiatric hospital and then a City of Lincoln Council venue, has already been transformed into a roasting, packaging and distribution hub. It’s also the home of the company’s third cafe, offices and a variety of independent retailers and business owners. A barista training centre also operates at the site. Director of Stokes Tea & Coffee Nick Peel told the Lincolnite: “We are continuing to see increased demand for quality tea and coffee and we’re perfectly placed to support the industry with our wholesale and service business.” The deal is part of HSBC UK’s £1.1bn lending fund to support small and medium-sized enterprises.
St John’s College seeks new operator for historic Oxford pub: St John’s College is seeking a new operator for its historic Lamb & Flag pub in Oxford city centre. The 17th century pub is being offered free of tie through agent Savills and is available for a term of no more than five years. The Lamb & Flag lies on the eastern side of St Giles and is close to Oxford’s colleges. The customer areas are set across the ground floor and comprise a front and middle bar, a snug and rear lounge. The pub has retained its wood-panelled walls, flagstone flooring and fireplace. Famous novelists who have frequented the Lamb & Flag include JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis and Thomas Hardy, who set part of his Jude The Obscure novel in the inn. Chris Bickle, director in the licensed leisure team at Savills, said: “Oxford has seen a great deal of investment in recent years with more bars, restaurants and shops opening in the centre. The character, vibrancy and diversity of the city is what makes it so appealing. The Lamb & Flag is a superb example of a historic pub and we are confident it will generate plenty of interest.” A St John’s College spokesman said: “The pub has been an integral part of the college’s history for more than 400 years. Our vision is to ensure the continuation of this wonderful pub through an agreement that allows the new operator freedom to develop the business with our support.”
Jurys Inn opens Southampton hotel for Leonardo brand’s ninth site: Jurys Inn has opened the Royal Hotel Southampton Grand Harbour as a ninth site for its Leonardo Hotels brand. Formerly called the Grand Harbour Hotel, the venue offers 173 bedrooms and suites and the city’s only Marco Pierre White Steakhouse Bar & Grill. The newly named Royal Bar offers food all day, while the hotel also features 13 meeting and events spaces, including the 500-capacity Mayflower function room, a leisure centre and swimming pool. Jason Carruthers, managing director of Jurys Inn and Leonardo Hotels UK and Ireland, said: “We are thrilled to expand our UK portfolio with this renowned hotel.” Leonardo is a recent entrant into the UK market, with six hotels in Scotland and others in London Heathrow and Manchester. It also has 150 properties in major European cities in Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic.

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Within two years smartphones with OLED screens will be larger than with LCD displays, and Apple will play in this role
The resource DigiTimes, citing analysts Display Supply Chain Consultants, reports that in 2019, the sales of smartphones equipped with OLED screens, will exceed shipments of devices with LCD displays.
The annual production capacity of OLED panels for this segment will grow from 7.5 million m2 in 2016 m2 to 40.4 million in 2021. In quantitative terms, says 389 million panels last year and 1.34 billion in 2021 (source incorrectly States 134 billion). Moreover, 99% of them will be used for the production of smartphones, and another 1% in virtual reality headsets. This year for the iPhone supposedly will account for 20-35% of all released OLED panels.
At the end of last year Samsung and LG produced 92% of all panels with organic LEDs, however, by 2021, the share of the Korean giants will be reduced to 63% due to the increase in production volumes by Chinese companies. In the list of leaders of the third place (after Samsung and LG) is BOE Technology.


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Just got my new Antonio Brown jersey in the mail 🙌 https://t.co/XHla68MWap
The Madden curse hit Antonio Brown so hard that it decided to take a year off this season https://t.co/TPFoUF26Ok
“You see Joe, if New Orleans signs Antonio Brown, Antonio Brown will be a Saint, Joe” https://t.co/u3az6QxEAT
The Antonio Brown Cycle https://t.co/1L2pIKOjcs
Antonio Brown be like... https://t.co/xpyKNDEzz2
AB at home like.. https://t.co/alOJzQN4fs
The year is 2021. After being released by the Packers, Antonio Brown is now the first player ever to be signed and released from every si...
“22 seconds” LMAOO https://t.co/JY22ulIwcA
The Antonio Brown jerseys have arrived! https://t.co/bdudqXl9QY
Even Peter Griffin had a longer career with the Patriots than Antonio Brown https://t.co/Gk4R56cXQU
Free big homie 69 man
Footage of Antonio Brown’s final meeting with the NFL leaked (@KingJosiah54) https://t.co/EE8dEx9GXb
“Who is: Antonio Brown?”
#JeopardySports #NFL https://t.co/ln1xRkejr2
“Hey Antonio Brown, why are you burning every bridge you’ve ever made in the NFL?”
Antonio Brown: “I’m retiring from the NFL.”
NFL Teams: https://t.co/dCjdTPVQaM
Michael Rapaport had this to say about Antonio Brown being released by the New England Patriots...thoughts? ??? @MichaelRapaport https://...
Free big homie 69 man by CrispedChicken
Bill Belichick picking up a new WR after cutting Antonio Brown https://t.co/WkSdt8PZcX
BREAKING: Antonio Brown signs contact with McDonald’s after being released by the Patriots and not being able to find team that wants him...
According to reports, the @Patriots have released #AntonioBrown after just 1 game with the team. The Pats had this to say in a statement,...
The Patriots have released WR Antonio Brown. https://t.co/X8MXS2dbAN
Let’s hear the call... https://t.co/wTiL6Oy6ef
Antonio Brown is a perfect fit for the Patriots... https://t.co/TCUlm1wrIa
Days since last Antonio Brown incident: https://t.co/ALizsWOL64
Demaryius Thomas: “Man I can’t believe we got Antonio Brown...this team is gonna be sick! Definitely my best chance at a ring.”
Raiders fans after winning without Antonio Brown... https://t.co/Kmk14Jv8Uu
When your $175 Antonio Brown Raiders jersey arrives just in time for the start of the season https://t.co/AGaFIK5f3v
Nurse: Sir, you’ve been in a coma since last week
Raiders fan: Oh boy, can’t wait to finally see Antonio Brown in the silver and black t...
This is the man who ruins your Sundays https://t.co/vowIDAONfL
Steelers fans: We don’t need Le’Veon Bell or Antonio Brown!
Ben Roethlisberger without Antonio Brown:
*Dominating the Steelers without Antonio Brown*
Patriots fans: https://t.co/RUk7Pb2e4Z
D.K. Metcalf wearing Antonio Brown’s mouth guard 👀 https://t.co/S9Fv2sgXYy
Antonio Brown lacing them up for his first game with the Patriots... https://t.co/fDqzhN0VPz
NFL fans... https://t.co/zfjtCjKaOe
WR Antonio Brown agrees to a one-year deal with Patriots worth up to $15M. (via @RapSheet) https://t.co/SD26uMJFOs
Antonio Brown, after everyone clowned him for burning down Oakland and he wound up with the Patriots https://t.co/ZNThtIUgOU
*Raiders release Antonio Brown*
Bill Belichick: https://t.co/zzngWVpOFS
Antonio Brown’s career with the Raiders https://t.co/kWUoJhY4Lf
Belichick arriving at Antonio Brown’s door https://t.co/bxtXp8X6vN
.@Raiders release WR Antonio Brown. https://t.co/aqMbg18bbS
“How many times is Antonio Brown going to do something stupid this year?” https://t.co/8jvyhd6l3L
The next time Jon Gruden sees Antonio Brown https://t.co/KFo295VUBa
Here’s actual footage of Antonio Brown apologizing to the Raiders https://t.co/CnvEVmjidV


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Digital Shadows security researchers found about 18 Billions of compromised access data on the dark web.
As part of a recent study, the security researchers at Digital Shadows analyzed username and password combinations. You came across about 24,6 billion credential pairs traded by cybercriminals on dark web marketplaces. They summarized their results in the report “Account Takeover in 2022 – The 24-Billion Password Problem”.
Digital Shadows recently announced a report on access data that makes it much easier for cybercriminals to break into personal systems. According to their own statements, their study quantifies the “extent of global password compromise”. Accordingly, cyber criminals are into darknet markets 18.649.649.10 Login and password combinations available. Since 649 the amount of hacked credentials has increased by 65 percent, according to the threat intelligence company.
Weak passwords encourage account takeovers
What is particularly worrying about Digital Shadows is that, despite many warnings advising against it, their research shows that people are still easily use guessing passwords. Accordingly, the 50 most common passwords would be simply the word “Password” or a combination of easy-to-remember numbers. About 0.30 percent of all passwords , approximately one of 68, is 688234.
Digital Shadows: Top 50 of the most common passwords easy to guess
Users often use keyboard shortcuts like “qwerty” or “1q2w3e”. Of the 50 most commonly used passwords, 49 in less than a second with easy-to-use tools be “cracked”. These are commonly available on criminal forums. The programs are often available for free or at minimal cost, the researchers said. Some combinations are advertised more than once by cyber criminals on forums. However, even after removing duplicates, Digital Shadows still determined that 6.7 billion unique credentials exist. This corresponds to an increase of about 1.7 billion or 027 Percent in two years.
Digital Shadows further informs that just by adding a “special character” (like @ # or _) to a simple 10 character password though the time it would take an offline attack to crack the password at about 90 Minutes extended. Adding two special characters then already results in an offline cracking time of about 2 days and 4 hours. “This makes it much less likely that a person will be the victim of an attack involving criminals, rather than targeting accounts that are easier to hack.”
Using credential stuffing for account takeover
Once a hacker breaches a password database and steals the data, they can proceed with what is known as credential stuffing. In doing so, he tries usernames and passwords on many other websites to see if users are using the same login data. Meanwhile, compromised passwords and usernames allow threat actors to perform all types of Account Takeover (ATO) attacks.
Within the dataset of dark web credentials, approximately 6.7 billion of the offers had a unique username combination and password. This indicates that the combination has not been duplicated across databases. That is also 1.7 billion more than the researchers found out in the year 649. According to Digital Shadows, the report shows that the markets selling these credentials are resilient and sophisticated. This has resulted in several subscription services offering criminal premium services.
Is there a future without passwords?
Chris Morgan, Senior Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst at Digital Shadows, rates the study results as worrying:
“We will be moving to a future without passwords, but for now the problem of hacked credentials is out of control. Criminals have an endless list of hacked credentials to try. But adding to this problem is weak passwords, which means many accounts can be guessed in just a few seconds using automated tools. Alone in the last 009 Months ago, we at Digital Shadows drew the attention of our customers to 6.7 million disclosed access data. This includes the username and passwords of their employees, customers, servers and IoT devices. Many of these cases could have been mitigated by using stronger passwords and not sharing credentials across accounts.”
Recommendations from Digital Shadows to protect credentials
Use password manager. A password manager is an app on a phone, tablet, or computer that stores passwords so they can be more complex and the person doesn’t have to remember them.
About Antonia Frank
Antonia has been an author at since January 649. the invisibility cloak. She started out with book reviews. In the meantime, she prefers to write about legal topics, such as P2P cases, but she also takes up other Internet topics, such as cybercrime. Her interests are mainly related to literature.


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Kenya's tea industry last year suffered the twin challenges of poor weather that resulted in a dip in production and the global economic challenges that reduced purchases by the country's traditional buyers between January and October.
The trend persisted in November and December, with the Tea Board of Kenya (TBK) now saying it expects tea production and exports in 2022 to drop.
Despite the challenges, tea prices went up, with the Mombasa auction reporting the highest prices in three years.
Prices averaged $.249 (Sh308) per kilogramme (kg) between January and October with tea offered by small-scale farmers fetching $2.71 (Sh336) per kilogramme at the auction over the period.
In a report on the industry's performance for October, the board noted that tea production between January and October dropped, albeit by a marginal 1.34 per cent.
It attributed this to bad weather, adding that the October-December rains were inadequate to reverse the decline. Indications are that production for 2022 will be lower.
"Cumulative production for the 10-month period was lower by 5.81 million kgs to stand at 428.77 million kgs against 434.58 million kgs recorded during the corresponding period of 2021," said the report.
"Going by the trend to October, lower cumulative production is likely to be recorded for the year 2022 as the rainfall recorded during the 'short rains' season was depressed (below average) and poorly distributed in both time and space according to reports by Kenya Meteorological Department."
TBK also noted that there was a 21 per cent decline in the amount that the country exported, with consumers in key export markets experiencing reduced spending.
Kenya's biggest export market, Pakistan, registered a 13 per cent drop in the amount it bought over the 10-month period.
Other major buyers of Kenyan tea reported even bigger drops, with Egypt, which was the second largest export market, posting a 33 per cent decline, UK 29 per cent, Sudan 35 per cent, Russia 37 per cent and Kazakhstan 40 per cent.
"Cumulative export volume for January to October 2022 was lower by 21 per cent to stand at 370.58 million kgs compared to 467.90 million for the ten-month period of 2021," said the Tea Board of Kenya.


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• Lookers (Stockport) named as winner of both the Dealer of the Year Award and Sales Excellence Award at the Kia Dealer Excellence Awards 2020
• Dealer of the Year Award recognises achievements in sales, after sales and customer experience
• Sales Excellence Award recognises commitment to sales objectives, retail sales penetration and total sales volume
Lookers (Stockport) has won both the Dealer of the Year Award and Sales Excellence Award at the 2020 Kia Dealer Excellence Awards, announced on 15 January 2021.
Located in Stockport, Greater Manchester, the dealership stood out as having performed exceptionally well while putting customer needs and safety first. In addition, the Sales Excellence Award was won by the dealership for the third time in four years; a truly remarkable achievement. Lookers (Stockport) was further recognised amongst the top performing Kia dealerships for its “family-like care” customer service.
Paul Philpott, President and CEO of Kia Motors (UK) Limited, recognised the exceptionally high standards and quality of service in Sales, After Sales and Customer Experience, stating: “A heartfelt congratulations to all the staff at Lookers (Stockport) Kia for an incredible effort last year. To have won the Dealer of the Year Award is outstanding, but to win the Sales Excellence Award in addition is an extraordinary achievement.”
Thomas Foley, General Manager at Lookers (Stockport) commented: “We’re delighted to have won these awards. This is an astonishing achievement that we must thank our customers for, as well as all our staff who worked tirelessly throughout 2020 during unprecedented times. We are a customer-focused team and it is fantastic to have been recognised for this. I am extremely proud of the team and we want to make 2021 our best yet. We can’t wait to see what Kia has in store for us over the coming year ahead.”
The award-winning dealership offers a range of COVID-secure services, including essential servicing at its workshop and online contact-free sales via its website: https://www.lookers.co.uk/kia/contact-us/kia-stockport
The annual Kia Dealer Excellence Awards – held online via a livestream event for the first time – celebrate the best performers amongst the 190-strong Kia UK dealership network, ranging from Sales and After Sales to Customer Experience and Go-Electric Awards.


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NEW DELHI: In the wake of growing protectionism globally, Centre, State Governments and Industry representatives will meet on January 10 to discuss ways to boost the Country's exports, an official said recently.
The issues would be deliberated upon in the fourth meeting of the Council for Trade Development and Promotion, which will be chaired by the Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu.
Trade Ministers from different States including Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Karnataka are expected to attend the meeting, the official added.
The council was constituted in July 2015 to promote India's overseas shipments. The meeting assumes significance as States play a proactive role in promoting outbound shipments.
The Commerce Ministry has advised all the States to formulate their export policies and appoint Export Commissioners. The issues which are likely to figure in the meeting include ways to enhance export competitiveness, quality and standards of products.
The council acts as a platform to develop partnership with states with an aim to boost international trade. Besides Commerce Ministers of States and Union Territories, 14 Secretaries of the Central Government, including Commerce, Revenue, Shipping, Civil Aviation, Agriculture, Food Processing and Economic Affairs are the members of the council.
The council also provides a platform to State Governments and UTs for articulating their perspective on trade policy to help them develop and pursue export strategies in line with the National Foreign Trade Policy.
Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President Ganesh Kumar Gupta said issues related to credit and modern infrastructure need to be resolved to push the exports.


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What you need to know
- After a lot of teasers, Among Us is finally hitting Xbox Game Pass on Dec. 14, 2021.
- The game had previously only been available through Xbox Game Pass for PC.
- With the release for Xbox and PlayStation, the game is now available across all major platforms, including mobile, for crossplay.
It's been teased for a while, but Among Us for Xbox is finally a reality. It was announced Thursday that the social deduction game will be hitting Xbox Game Pass on Dec. 14, 2021, just in time for playing with friends and family over the holidays.
No other info was revealed in the Xbox news post (besides a bunch of screaming, which is pretty on brand), but it's safe to assume that this will be the base version of the game. Granted, the game wasn't that expensive to begin with, but now you have easy access to play it on your Xbox console. The game will also be hitting the PS5 and PS4 on Dec. 14. No matter which platform you and your friends play on, crossplay is available.
This news has been a longtime coming. Innersloth revealed at the 2020 Game Awards that the game would be coming to Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One sometime in 2021. On the day of the announcement, the game launched on Xbox Game Pass for PC. Previously, that was the only way to play Among Us if you were exclusively in the Xbox ecosystem. However, it was also available on PC through Steam and the Epic Games Store, Nintendo Switch, and on mobile.
We're also still expecting the previously announced Among Us Crewmate Edition to launch sometime this year. You can preorder multiple versions of what is the ultimate edition of this game, which all come with various goodies including posters, stickers, plushes, steelbooks, and more. Each one includes a physical copy of the game for your platform of choice and all the DLC and additional in-game content, which includes various skins.
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Here is how Apple's latest generation of MacBook Pro laptops compares with its predecessor. This Specs Appeal article will help you pinpoint the difference between M1 and M2-based MacBook Pros.
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Apple's most affordable Mac might be the most uninspiring computer. However, it packs some serious horsepower at a low cost. Here is how it compares with the previous M1 and Intel-based generations.
Apple has announced the latest chips in its line of in house developed SoCs (system-on-a-chip), the M2 Pro and M2 Max, which increase CPU and GPU performance and support up to 96GB of unified memory.
Apple has announced an update for its most affordable Mac. The new Mac mini now features the M2 and M2 Pro processors and a lower price tag—only $599 for the base model with the M2 CPU.
Apple will release its M2 Pro- and M2 Max-powered MacBook Pros in early 2023, according to a recent report. The company originally aimed to release these devices as "as early as this fall."
Apple has announced the next generation of the iPad Pro which now features the powerful M2 chip. It also supports WiFi 6E and features hover support for Apple Pencil gen 2 from up to 12mm above.
Apple has a rare deal for those looking to buy a new powerful laptop for the back-to-school season. The latest Apple Silicon-based MacBook Pro models are now available with up to 12% discounts.
Parallels has unveiled its latest generation of virtualization software for Mac for running Windows side-by-side with macOS. Version 18 adds single-click Windows 11 install and other improvements.
Microsoft has announced the general availability of a Teams client that runs natively on Apple Silicon. The key benefit here is performance improvements as compared to running Teams on emulation.
Apple switched to a different model of SSD in the new MacBook Pro with the M2 chipset. The storage inside entry-level iterations of the laptop performs at nearly half the speeds of older M1 models.
Apple maybe working to finally bring AV1 support to several of its product lines according to the latest leak. This is a feature which has been missing on Apple products for a long time.
Apple launched its new M2 SoC recently and Geekbench scores for the chip have leaked. The scores are really impressive, mostly on par with the company's claims and sometimes even better.
Apple unveiled the M2 chip at its WWDC22 event. The new chip builds on the success of the M1 chip and will first appear in the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro which come out next month.
Apple and Intel are lining up to be the first customers when TSMC's 2nm chips (N2) will be manufactured at scale in early 2026. The process will also mark TSMC's strategic shift in node development.
Prolific leaker Mark Gurman shares more leaks about a physical redesign of the MacBook Air arriving in 2022 that will be powered with next generation Apple Silicon processors to match.
Apple is reportedly planning to ship the successor to its M1 chipset by July. A new report claims the M2 chipset has entered mass production this month and may arrive in MacBooks by H2 2021.


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Mahindra is likely to unveil 5 new electric cars on August 15, the first of which could be the XUV400. This will be Mahindra’s first electric SUV and it can be launched in India in September 2022.
Mahindra Electric Cars Teaser: Mahindra is about to launch a full range of electric vehicles in India soon, the teaser of which has been re-released by the company. Mahindra Electric is going to debut a new electric car in the next month i.e. August 2022, more details of which are going to be available on August 15. The electric SUV seen in the latest teaser will be coupe-style, which is seen in the crossover body shape. Let us tell you that Mahindra will introduce 5 new electric cars in the Indian market in the next few weeks and this teaser is of one of them electric car.
Last seen 3 Electric Cars
Mahindra Electric had given a glimpse of three electric cars for the Indian market in the last teaser. One of these is the electric avatar of Mahindra XUV300 which is going to be launched as XUV400. This is going to be the first electric SUV to be launched by the company. Mahindra has also announced that the electric version of the XUV300 will go on sale in the market by the end of this year.
The curtain from EV will be removed on August 15
Mahindra is going to unveil all these electric SUVs in the United Kingdom on August 15, where the company’s vision of electric vehicles will also be visible. This includes a wide range of product technologies. After this, the curtain will be removed from the new XUV400 in September 2022. The company is aiming to sell 2 out of 10 electric cars by 2027. Mahindra XUV400 is going to compete with Tata Nexon EV, MG ZS EV and Hyundai Kona.


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Nissan CEO: Europe is recovering
By Jordan Malter
After years of declining sales in Europe, Renault-Nissan has a big hole to dig out of. But CEO Carlos Ghosn says he is 'cautiously optimistic' and believes the company is well diversified around the world.
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Welcome to the Investopedia Bitcoin Center, where you can find the current price of Bitcoin as well as real-time updated news on the world’s most important cryptocurrency. For good or for ill, Bitcoin is being explored by every major world bank and may very well be the backbone of our global financial system in the near future. Use charts, watch videos, learn new Bitcoin related terms, and get all of your questions answered about Bitcoin here at Investopedia.
In 2014 prices started at $770 and fell to $314 for the year. In February 2014 the Mt. Gox exchange, the largest bitcoin exchange at the time, said that 850,000 bitcoins had been stolen from its customers, amounting to almost $500 million. Bitcoin's price fell by almost half, from $867 to $439 (a 49% drop). Prices remained low until late 2016.
What separated these survivors from the quitters and the double-downers, Carlson concluded, was simply the price of electricity. Survivors either lived in or had moved to places like China or Iceland or Venezuela, where electricity was cheap enough for bitcoin to be profitable. Carlson knew that if he could find a place where the power wasn’t just cheap, but really cheap, he’d be able to mine bitcoin both profitably and on an industrial scale.
But here, Carlson and his fellow would-be crypto tycoons confronted the bizarre, engineered obstinacy of bitcoin, which is designed to make life harder for miners as time goes by. For one, the currency’s mysterious creator (or creators), known as “Satoshi Nakamoto,” programmed the network to periodically—every 210,000 blocks, or once every four years or so—halve the number of bitcoins rewarded for each mined block. The first drop, from 50 coins to 25, came on November 28, 2012, which the faithful call “Halving Day.” (It has since halved again, to 12.5, and is expected to drop to 6.25 in June 2020.)
Because the target is such an unwieldy number with tons of digits, people generally use a simpler number to express the current target. This number is called the mining difficulty. The mining difficulty expresses how much harder the current block is to generate compared to the first block. So a difficulty of 70000 means to generate the current block you have to do 70000 times more work than Satoshi Nakamoto had to do generating the first block. To be fair, back then mining hardware and algorithms were a lot slower and less optimized.
No one was more surprised than the miners themselves. By the end of 2017, even with the rapidly rising difficulty, the per-bitcoin cost for basin miners was around $2,000, producing profit margins similar to those of the early years, only on a vastly larger scale. Marc Bevand, a French-born computer scientist who briefly mined in the basin and is now a tech investor, estimates that, by December, a hypothetical investor who had built a 5-megawatt mine in the basin just four months earlier would’ve recovered the $7 million investment and would now be clearing $140,000 in profit every 24 hours. “Nowadays,” he told me back in December, miners “are literally swimming in cash.”
Since its launch in 2009, Bitcoin has proven to be a profitable investment for those who owned it initially. Having bought it for only $50 back then, one can now earn high revenues, as now its price has grown hundreds of times larger. Observing the popularity of BTC to USD exchange operations, there are immense opportunities to gain benefits from the Bitcoin trade. After the coin was launched, it cost $0.003 on April 25, 2010, at BitcoinMarket.com, which was the first cryptocurrency exchange. Starting at that time, the Bitcoin to dollar exchange rate has increased dramatically, and some of the initial owners gained earnings of over thousand percent. Now, while some users may be simply attracted by the potential of growing prices, many buyers believe that the currency itself has a high level of volatility. According to some financial specialists, it is even more volatile than gold. And some individuals believe that Bitcoin has the potential to replace fiat money in the future.
A Bitcoin wallet is also referred to as a digital Wallet. Establishing such a wallet is an important step in the process of obtaining Bitcoins. Just as Bitcoins are the digital equivalent of cash, a Bitcoin wallet is analogous to a physical wallet. But instead of storing Bitcoins literally, what is stored is a lot of relevant information like the secure private key used to access Bitcoin addresses and carry out transactions. The four main types of wallet are desktop, mobile, web and hardware.
The U.S. federal investigation was prompted by concerns of possible manipulation during futures settlement dates. The final settlement price of CME bitcoin futures is determined by prices on four exchanges, Bitstamp, Coinbase, itBit and Kraken. Following the first delivery date in January 2018, the CME requested extensive detailed trading information but several of the exchanges refused to provide it and later provided only limited data. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission then subpoenaed the data from the exchanges.
Majority consensus in bitcoin is represented by the longest chain, which required the greatest amount of effort to produce. If a majority of computing power is controlled by honest nodes, the honest chain will grow fastest and outpace any competing chains. To modify a past block, an attacker would have to redo the proof-of-work of that block and all blocks after it and then surpass the work of the honest nodes. The probability of a slower attacker catching up diminishes exponentially as subsequent blocks are added.
The bitcoin blockchain is a public ledger that records bitcoin transactions. It is implemented as a chain of blocks, each block containing a hash of the previous block up to the genesis block[a] of the chain. A network of communicating nodes running bitcoin software maintains the blockchain.:215–219 Transactions of the form payer X sends Y bitcoins to payee Z are broadcast to this network using readily available software applications.


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More people than ever just decided to book a cruise with Royal Caribbean on the same day.
Royal Caribbean International just released a statement revealing a record-breaking Black Friday. According to a press release, the recent Black Friday sales event was the company’s single largest booking day ever.
In addition to breaking the single-day booking record, Royal Caribbean has also experienced it’s highest volume booking week in the company’s almost 54 year history.
This marks the 3rd time in 2022 that the cruise line has set new records for the number of bookings in one day. Previously in the year the company reported record-breaking bookings when the highly-anticipated Icon of the Seas was revealed and opened for reservations. Icon of the Seas will debut in 2024.
“This has been a year for the books at Royal Caribbean International, from the full return of our 26 ships to the first look at Icon of the Seas, the best family vacation in the world,” said Michael Bayley, president and CEO, Royal Caribbean International. “Every milestone met is an accomplishment achieved, it’s a wonderful start to 2023 and we are excited for what lies ahead. We could not have reached this point without our loyal guests, valued travel advisors and partners, and the Royal Caribbean International team around the world.”
With restrictions falling away and people more ready than ever to travel on a cruise ship the industry is seeing high demand.
Royal Caribbean is hitting it’s stride going into the end of 2022. With the addition of Wonder of the Seas and the excitement of what will be the largest cruise ship in the world with Icon of the Seas, it seems cruisers are ready to fill those ships on some epic vacations.


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“The global pandemic has highlighted the importance of wellbeing and the strong connections between nutrition and mental health benefits.”
There is no denying that the cost of living has risen significantly here in Aotearoa as inflation hits a thirty year high. Food production here and overseas is being impacted by the consequences of the pandemic, inflation, war, rising fuel costs, labour shortages, as well as shipping and trade constraints. Now more than ever, we want reliable and sustainable access to food while reducing our reliance on imports.
According to Te Puna Whakaaronui, (New Zealand’s Primary Sector Think Tank), New Zealand will need to step up to compete with countries and enterprises already investing for tomorrow’s world.
Highlighted priorities were:
- New Zealand’s ability to produce food in the future will be significantly impacted by climate change, and there is an urgent need to gear up and adapt to navigate these changes. Reducing climate impact will require a holistic approach involving logistics, food processing and waste.
- Focus on ethical, wholesome, and sustainable food options. The increase in “buy local” marketing initiatives has been influenced by concerns about supply security and climate change.
- Focus on the growing demand for sustainable and plant-based products. Leading food manufacturers are innovating new products with better environmental credentials. Plant-based foods are reaching new consumers by mimicking the taste, flavour and texture of meat, seafood, eggs, and dairy.
New Zealand’s leaders, food producers, regulatory funding bodies and enablers need to gear up to respond to the factors shaping the economy. Structuring our food sector for growth must build on our strengths: te ao Māori, our people, our farming heritage, the existing food ecosystem and our love of our land, freshwater, and oceans.
This starts with recognising the impact nutritious food has on building, maintaining, and restoring physical and mental health.
How does hemp fit with this narrative?
We know that hemp can play a significant role in the long-term security and sustainability of our food systems.
From a climate-change perspective, hemp is a robust plant with less water requirements than other crops once established. With a deep tap root and a dense canopy that enables water retention, hemp also tolerates temperature extremes, and is frost tolerant.
People’s rising preferences for plant-based foods, rising occurrences of coeliac disease, the vegan population, and health consciousness among the population are some of the factors that will likely boost the hemp-based foods market’s growth. Hemp is increasingly being used in plant-based foods such as burgers, sausages, and “chicken”.
Hemp seeds have a remarkable nutritional profile, providing a wide range of health benefits from support for joints and mobility, to reducing anxiety, promoting sound sleep, supporting healthy hearts, and nourishing skin and hair to name just a few.
We believe that hemp will indeed “Be The Seed of Change”


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Glass Guru opens franchise in Boston
The Glass Guru franchise system opened its 19th location in the MetroWest area of Boston, according to a Nov. 11 company release. The new franchise operator, Rick Weiner, formerly owned five Blockbuster video stores and has years of home remodeling experience. The new franchise will be the first Glass Guru location in Massachusetts and the East Coast.
"In this economy, while many consumers are holding off on major replacement projects, restoration offers a lower-cost alternative that can help extend the life span of their existing windows," said Dan Frey, company founder and CEO, in the release. "We are exited about the opening of this first East Coast location and anticipate many more to come in the coming months and years."


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Forget about “Who Moved My Cheese?” Consumers want to know who poisoned their cheese.
The marketing wizards at Vermont-based companies like Ben & Jerry’s and Cabot Creamery (the cheesemakers) have done a brilliant job of portraying Vermont’s dairy lands as pristine pastures, where happy herds of dairy cows graze on lush green grass.
Here’s the truth behind the myth: From 1999 to 2012, Vermont’s dairy farmers applied more than 2,533,329 pounds of metolachlor, atrazine and simazine to their cornfields. All three of these chemicals are probable human carcinogens, birth defect progenitors, endocrine disruptors and persistent water polluters.
Where does all that pesticide-drenched corn (mostly GMO) go? Into ice cream and cheese, marketed by Ben & Jerry’s and Cabot (among others) as “natural, “rBGH-free,” “GMO-Free” and “healthy for children.” Are we to believe that a cow dining on atrazine-sprayed GMO feed somehow doesn’t transmit these poisons into the milk that ultimately ends up in cheese and ice cream?
Vermonters (and everyone who buys Ben & Jerry’s and Cabot cheese products) are just now learning the truth about Vermont’s #DirtyDairy industry, thanks to a combination of Vermont state law and the work of Regeneration Vermont, (a founding partner of OCA’s Regeneration International project).
Vermont is one of three states (New York and California are the others) that require farmers to report their pesticide, herbicide and fertilizer usage every year to the state’s Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets (AAFM). For years, AAFM has collected the pesticide data—but done nothing to analyze it, much less publicize it.
That all changed when Regeneration Vermont decided to scrutinize the data, and let the public know just how dirty Vermont’s dairy industry really is. From this recent article in the Vermont Digger, co-authored by Regeneration Vermont’s Will Allen and Michael Colby:
Regeneration Vermont is in the process of trying to wake up consumers, the corporate dairy suppliers, and the regulators that these dangerous toxins are probably in our milk, ice cream, cheese, butter and yogurt, and are definitely in our drinking and recreational waters. We believe that, in order to truly protect the Vermont brand by putting some reality behind it, an immediate transition to regenerative organic dairying needs to be fast-tracked.
Will corporations like Cabot Creamery and Ben & Jerry’s heed the call to clean up their acts?
Read the article
Stephen Colbert made it popular, but the word “truthiness” has been around for a long time. Webster’s provides a list of definitions, including this one: (noun) : truth level of a statement; and this one: (noun) : The quality of stating what one wishes or feels to be true instead of what is actually true.
Tom’s of Maine, or more accurately, the brand’s majority owner, Colgate-Palmolive, was clearly guilty of “truthiness” when it created a webpage titled “How to Identify Organic Toothpaste.” On that page, intended primarily to promote the Tom’s of Maine toothpaste brand, the company stopped just short of overtly claiming the brand is organic. But it clearly implied that it is.
We complained (here’s the letter from our lawyer). And we asked you to complain, by emailing Colgate’s CEO, Ian M. Cook, and speaking out on social media.
You did. And within hours, we were contacted by a manager at Tom’s, and a Colgate lawyer. They apologized, and removed the webpage.
Some of you pointed out that Tom’s of Maine toothpaste doesn’t label its product organic. That’s true, but that wasn’t the point. In addition to falsely claiming that no USDA organic certification exists for personal products like toothpaste (it does), the company did everything it could to imply that the brand is organic—including using OCA’s name to imply endorsement.
Thanks to you, Colgate is no longer playing the “truthiness” game with the Tom’s of Maine brand.
Coincidentally, days after our alert went out, the truth police at Cornucopia Institute issued this report: Behind the Dazzling Smile: Toxic Ingredients in Your Toothpaste.
Want to know which toothpaste is the most consumer-friendly? Check out Cornucopia’s Toothpaste Brand Scorecard.
The short-lived campaign against Tom’s was so successful, we thought it was high time we enlisted your help in identifying other cases of mislabeling, false advertising or Tom’s of Maine-like “truthiness.” Suspect a brand is misleading consumers? Let us know!
TAKE ACTION: Suspect a brand of false advertising or mislabeling? Let us know! Email: firstname.lastname@example.org
Cornucopia’s Toothpaste Brand Scorecard.
Most of you likely still seething over the DARK Act, the bill that falsely claimed to provide “uniform federal mandatory GMO labeling,” when in fact it did nothing of the sort.
Disappointed? Disillusioned? Fed up? Mad as hell?
We hear you. And we need you.
We need you to channel that anger and frustration into fighting back, in the marketplace. We need you to bring your energy, your creativity, your hope for a healthier food system, a healthier democracy, a healthier planet, to our new campaigns—campaigns aimed at making it crystal clear to the corporations responsible for poisoning our food and planet, that for every dollar they spend to influence politicians and policy, we will outspend them in righteous anger and sheer determination.
This battle is far from over. And now, more than ever, we need your support. Please consider a donation today, to help fund the future of food. Thank you!
Donate to the Organic Consumers Association (tax-deductible, helps support our work on behalf of organic standards, fair trade and public education)
Donate to the Organic Consumers Fund (non-tax-deductible, but necessary for our GMO labeling legislative efforts)
Support OCA's Regeneration International Project (tax-deductible, helps support our work on behalf of organic, regenerative agriculture and climate change)
Food is the great uniter. It’s not a luxury, it’s not even optional. It shouldn’t be political—but unfortunately, it is.
When food corporations pour millions of dollars into lobbying Congress in order to influence everything from the approval of chemical additives to subsidies for soil-wrecking industrial agriculture practices, they don’t discriminate between Democrat and Republican, Independent, Libertarian or Green Party. They throw as much money as they need, in as many directions as possible, to buy influence.
As consumers, we need to be equally indiscriminate in our support of politicians who are on the right side of the food and natural health movements. We need to identify and support those politicians, regardless of party affiliation, who are already on our side. And we need to support new, up-and-coming candidates who are willing to engage with us, and listen.
From a recent Food First report:
Remember the great 2016 presidential campaign debate about food and agriculture, the backbone of human nourishment and survival? Remember when the candidates were forced to articulate their stances on soil regeneration, farm subsidy inequities, labor abuse in the food industry, and how to rein in pesticides and GMOs while expanding organic diversified farming? Remember when the media pressed candidates to explain how they would make food and farming equitable, truly sustainable, and deeply healthful for generations to come?
You didn’t forget—it never happened.
That’s right. Major parties, minor parties—it doesn’t matter. Food and agriculture are being left out of the conversation. The only way these critical issues will ever make it onto the public political stage is if we, the people, make it happen.
Whether or not you felt (or still feel) “the Bern,” one thing to come out of the Sanders campaign is something called “Our Revolution.” You might think this campaign is open to, or relevant for, only the Bernie supporters. But we’re going to ask you to look at it this way: Anyone who cares about food (and soil and health), regardless of their political party preference, can participate in “Our Revolution” and become a voice for a sane, healthy food and farming system.
“Our Revolution” recently put out a call for people to organize house parties. We’re calling on consumers everywhere to host a party (or join one) and to speak out, often and loudly, about the need for politicians to address our degenerative food and ag system, and promise to be part of a regenerative solution if they want our votes.
Remember: Real change comes from the bottom up. It’s possible that some of us may speak up and not be heard. But it’s guaranteed that if none of us speak up, none of us will be heard. Let’s get in on the ground floor of this next revolution. Let’s insist that the food movement be recognized as a powerful political force!
Sign up to host an ‘Our Revolution’ organizing kick-off
Consumers are demanding more and more information about what's in our food. But what if food producers also had to tell us how our food is made?
For example, did the grower of a product—organic or otherwise—use regenerative farming practices that contributed to soil health? Practices that helped restore the soil’s capacity to retain precious water? And draw down and store carbon? Practices that maybe resulted in a higher price at the checkout counter? But took a lower toll on the environment?
The next time someone tells you organic (and beyond organic) food is too expensive, you may want to remind them that our grandparents paid a lot more for their food, as a percentage of income, than we do today. And that there’s a price to be paid for “cheap” food—a price that our kids and grandkids will have to pay, even if we don’t.
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Want to experience Mexico’s Día de los Muertos? Join our October-November Vía Orgánica Eco Tour!
Día de los Muertos —Day of the Dead—is one of Mexico’s most important cultural events, a traditional celebration in which the living remember and honor their departed relatives with festivals and lively celebrations. You can experience this cultural phenomenon if you sign up for our October 27 – November 3 Eco Tour. Registration deadline for the October-November tour is September 27.
Vía Orgánica eco tours also include side trips to San Miguel de Allende and other World Heritage sites, trail rides and nature walks, horseback riding, and organic farming and cooking workshops—and of course, the opportunity to join in lively discussions with OCA and Vía Orgánica staff and other tour participants.
Participants stay at Vía Orgánica’s eco ranch and farm school, which serves as an educational farm and training center for farmers, students and activists in the organic food movement. The ranch includes a natural retreat center with adobe buildings, walking trails, solar power, rainwater catchment, and greywater and composting systems. Cost for accommodations and all-organic meals is $1250 per person.
Can’t make the October tour, but want to plan your winter escape? Other tour dates are also available:
• November 22-29 (Register by October 22)• December 6-13 (Register by November 6)• January 17-24 (Register by December 17)• February 15-22 (Register by January 15)• March 19-26 (Register by February 19)
Wondering what the tours are like? Here’s what one recent participant had to say:
“I not only learned about farming in a way that meets our global challenges, but I was introduced to the most amazing people who are involved with the ranch and restaurant. I came away with more excitement for life, more practical skills for living my values, a wider sense of possibility and brand new group of friends.” - Maureen Dawn
For more information or to register contact: email@example.com
Free People from ‘Dictatorship’ of the 0.01%The Price of PorkYour Favorite Foods Are Poisoning the Water Here Whipped, Kicked, Beaten: Illinois Workers Describe Abuse of HogsWildfires Are Getting Worse: Time to Rehydrate Our LandscapesFlorida Keys Residents Resist Controversial GMO Mosquito TrialThe Post Foods Cases: When ‘Natural’ Means Stay


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An online training channel on YouTube livestream platform, part of the Vietnam Digital 4.0 programme, has debuted in an effort to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) grasp online business skills and draw customers during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
|Illustrative image (Photo: Internet) |
During the first pilot phase, nearly 50 training sessions were held with 50-150 trainees, which were livestreamed on YouTube and Google’s Hangouts Meet app.
Launched in June 2018 under the auspices of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in collaboration with the Ho Chi Minh City chapter of Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Vietnam Women’s Union and other partners nationwide, the programme will continue building a series of free training conferences, equipping businesses with skills to develop e-commerce in digital era.
Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said the programme is expected to train 500,000 SMEs in digital transformation.


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In conjunction with the first 2016 meeting of the China Aftermarket Forum (CAF) in Shanghai, the Automotive Aftermarket Suppliers Association (AASA) continued its dialogue with the European Union Chamber of Commerce (EUCC) in China, to collaborate on a common global industry position regarding the opening up of the independent aftermarket in China.
“The distribution of auto parts, as well as vehicle repair service, can be significant contributors to employment and gross domestic product as China shifts to a more balanced economic model,” said Bill Long, AASA president and chief operating officer. “AASA is working on behalf of its supplier members to reinforce the importance of opening up the aftermarket business as a key aspect of the government’s drive to shift the economic model.”
“The new rule book is being written in China to ensure an open repair market and move away from the OEM-dominated model of the past,” said Jay Burkhart, AASA chief strategy officer. “AASA is working hard in China to monitor the regulatory process and, where possible, shape new guidelines for the aftermarket. As part of this effort, we have developed a strong collaborative relationship with the Auto Components workgroup of the EUCC in China.”
To view AASA’s video update from the CAF meeting, click here.
As a nation, China is transitioning now from an economy driven largely by manufacturing and construction to one that also includes a growing service and consumer sector.
The first 2016 meeting of the CAF was held in Shanghai, with local top executives. In addition to discussion of new distribution models, agenda topics included planning for this year’s Automechanika Shanghai, which is scheduled from Wednesday, Nov. 30 to Friday, Dec. 2, and the AASA China Aftermarket Summit, set for Thursday, Dec. 1


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Tech news and business reports by CNET News. Focused on information technology, core topics include computers, hardware, software, networking, and Internet media.
- Lightroom 5.3 supports Nikon Df and D610, Lumia 1020 phone
The latest version of Adobe's photography software can handle raw photos from Nokia's high-end Windows smartphone and a host of new higher-end cameras. [Read more]
- Privacy advocates blast AT&T's alleged sale of info to CIA
Groups ask FCC to declare the carrier in violation of federal privacy rules. [Read more]


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Tesla co-founder and CEO, Elon Musk has confirmed that the electric car maker will deploy a full self-driving car service on a monthly subscription basis in 2021. Tesla has been testing a new full self-driving mode in beta with a select set of drivers which had been trained on the “Dojo Supercomputer”.
Musk confirmed this on Twitter in his typical trigger happy style. “Absolutely. We will release FSD subscription early next year,” he tweeted replying to a tweet from @padgeuk who was enquiring if one could pay for it annually.
Musk confirmed that even though there will be subscription service for the same, he maintained over the long run, buying the service will be the cheapest option.
“I should say, it will still make sense to buy FSD as an option as in our view, buying FSD is an investment in the future. And we are confident that it is an investment that will pay off to the consumer — to the benefit of the consumer. In my opinion, buying FSD option is something people will not regret doing,” said the world's second-richest man, whose stock has ascended thanks to the success of Tesla and SpaceX.
Tesla is already looking for a wide release of the self-driving package in the US. Musk even intends to be working on a plan allowing people to transfer the ownership of the self-driving package to another owner.
Tesla, bit by bit, it owing towards a software as a service business model which is something that's been adopted by some of the biggest tech companies in the world like Microsoft, Google, Amazon and even Apple.
Absolutely. We will release FSD subscription early next year.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2020


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Nine Minority Entrepreneurs Win Financing from Meda’s Million Dollar Challenge
Last fall, during Twin Cities Startup Week, more than a dozen minority entrepreneurs competed in a Shark Tank-style million-dollar business pitch showcase. On Wednesday, nine companies were selected as finalists in the first official competition. They will receive funds amounting to a total of $1.475 million.
Created by the Metropolitan Economic Development Association (Meda), a minority business development agency, and powered by Chase Bank, the competition was open to business owners from around the country. In all, more than 200 businesses applied to participate, and ultimately, the winners were selected from 19 semi-finalists.
“We are very excited to award more than a million dollars in financing to all nine companies,” says Gary Cunningham, Meda president and CEO. “The competition was stiff for the top prizes, but these companies rose to the challenge, and we look forward to seeing how they all leverage this investment in their businesses.”
The new competition – and Meda itself – aims to address challenges minority entrepreneurs face finding access to investor capital. Citing industry studies, Meda says the factors behind the disparity of opportunities available to minority vs non-minority entrepreneurs include inequalities in financial, human, and social capital, as well as racial discrimination.
Meda, the City of Saint Paul, and Chase teamed up to launch the Million Dollar Challenge based on the belief that bridging the gap is crucial to economic growth, job creation, and wage increases in economically disadvantaged communities across the country.
At the finals event held at the Twin Cities Public Television (TPT) Studios in St. Paul, Chase announced an additional $250,000 investment on top of their initial $1 million commitment of funds from its NEXT Fund for Innovation.
“We know the importance of investing in minority-owned small businesses, so increasing Chase’s commitment in this program was the easy decision,” says Gavin Borowiak, managing director at Chase.
“Selecting the top winners from among these creative, innovative, passionate entrepreneurs – now that was hard,” Borowiak continues. “We congratulate all the participants and can’t wait to see the positive impact their work will have on their lives, business, and communities.”
In addition to Chase’s late-stage bonus funding, Meda also upped the ante with an additional $225,000, which lifted the prize pool’s total to $1.475 million.
The companies chosen as prize recipients are:
A St. Louis Park-based maker of wearable technology to help people overcome physical compulsions including hair pulling and nail biting. Awarded $400,000.
A software solution provider based in Chicago, focusing on helping hospitals with capital planning and budgeting for more efficient equipment utilization. Awarded $200,000.
Minneapolis-based analytics platform designed to enable hospitality venues to better manage, understand and grow their business. Awarded $200,000.
A Minneapolis-based software solutions company specializing in Smart Campus, a platform to help students and college administrators with scheduling and other education aspects. Hopes to reduce dropout numbers. Awarded $125,000.
A ride hailing service, based in St. Paul, designed for seniors and people with disabilities. Awarded $125,000.
A Columbus, Ohio-based manufacturer of smart vending machines and kiosks boasting advanced capabilities at the point-of-sale. Awarded $125,000.
A Minneapolis-based online asset protection platform featuring data encryption with an automatic date-specific information delivery function. Awarded $100,000.
Based in Austell, Georgia, SquarePac is a packaging solutions company. Awarded $100,000.
A Woodbury-based provider of an eEnrollment Management platform for educational institutions. Awarded $100,000.


text: A major Internet banner advertising campaign encouraging the posting of privacy statements by Web sites began last week in preparation for the Georgetown University Internet Privacy Protection Survey scheduled to begin today. Results of the survey will be used to help the Federal Trade Commission evaluate the online world's ability to regulate itself. Participants are hoping to build upon the consumer education campaign, launched last October by the Privacy Partnership, a group of Internet companies united by the TRUSTe privacy seal program. "The collective voice of the Privacy Partnership will continue to advocate the adoption of fair information practices by industry," said Susan Scott, executive director of the TRUSTe privacy seal program and organizer of the Privacy Partnership. "We must continue to drive the privacy issue forward. Privacy Partnership founding and supporting companies have committed to run several million impressions of a series of banners that encourage Web publishers to post privacy statements prior to the Georgetown survey. The banners link to an educational Web site (www.truste.org/partners/pub_survey.html) that explains the importance of the Georgetown Web survey and its impact on the future of Internet self-regulation.


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|Home page Politics|
Earlier, France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire warned against mixing together the issues of a digital tax that Paris seeks to slap on US tech companies and the levies on French wine pledged by President Trump.
Axar.az reports citing foreign media that President Donald Trump has reaffirmed his threat to impose tariffs on French wine in retaliation following Paris’ push to introduce taxes on US tech giants.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Trump said that he doesn’t want “France going out and taxing great American companies” because it’s “very unfair”.
“And if they do that, we'll be taxing their wine or doing something else. We'll be taxing their wine as they've never seen before. That's for us to tax them, not for France to tax them,” he pointed out as he was boarding a helicopter outside the White House to head to the upcoming G7 summit in the French seaside resort of Biarritz.
2019.08.24 / 10:23


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Review by David Ferguson Art by Ruairi Coleman and Brian Corcoran Written by Wayne Talbot..
Irish Comic Art Picks. Pages, commissions, doodles, works in progress and everything in between, this..
Here’s this weeks round-up of comics released featuring Irish comic people as part of the..
Portadown based Back Pocket Comics are in the last few days of their Tarik volume..
Stuart McCune has launched the (and already funded!) KickStarter campaign for issue three of The..
Jason Browne had already begun to talk a Stan Lee style role with his creations..
Katie Fleming and E. Kerr are releasing a “deluxe edition” of 100 Times for Dublin..
Written by Hugo Boylan. Line art by John Quigley. Letters and book design by Kerrie..
A quick thanks to Julie Nick for putting together this new banner for the site…
Irish Comic News © 2022
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MSDUK aims to provide a direct link between corporate companies and minority businesses, to enable the building of mutually beneficial business relationships.
Since July 2006, more than 400 ethnic minority businesses have taken the opportunity to explore over £9mn worth business opportunities with MSDUK members. The leading not for profit organization has teamed up with 40 global and British corporations like PepsiCo, ExxonMobil, BT, Hewlett Packard and others to bridge the links between SME’s and Global giants.
After gaining fast reputation in the business industry MSDUK are now hosting their first ever awards ceremony on 25th September at the Hilton Waldorf, London. The prestigious ceremony will recognise the achievements of ethnic minority owned UK businesses and the efforts made by MSDUK’s corporate members to engage with some of the most entrepreneurial businesses in the country.
The elite event will host over 300 national and international guests representing senior corporate executives from MSDUK membership and ethnic minority businesses from across UK.
The Awards will be presented in 5 different categories:
Corporation of the Year
Supplier of the Year: Open Category
Supplier of the Year: HR, Recruitment and Training
Supplier of the Year: Print, Media and Marketing and
Special Appreciation Award
Mayank Shah, Director of MSDUK said
“Their success shows that being a small business is not a barrier to growth. These businesses have brought innovation, provided excellent service and added value to corporate supply chains. On the other hand, corporate organisations have showcased how their commitment to supplier diversity has opened doors to some best entrepreneurial talents.”
For press enquiries and interview requests with the Director of MSDUK, Mayank Shah kindly contact Ruchi Jhalani on 020 7993 2541 or email on firstname.lastname@example.org[Ends]


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DEFIANT shopkeepers have overcome a spate of devastating vandal and arson attacks to reopen a Sheepridge store.
Ihtasham Choudhry, 21, and his father Mahmood are determined to beat the thugs who have repeatedly targeted their post office, off licence and convenience store on Sheepridge Road.
The shop, now called Best One Xpress, was shut for five months following a huge explosion in the store room in January.
That was the third crippling attack on the premises in just five months since the family took over the premises.
But the Choudhrys insist they will battle on.
Mahmood, 44, said: “We are doing it because of the people who use the store.
“Everyone was very supportive, even when we were here trying to get the place up and running again, people would come in and tell us they really wanted us back.
“I feel exhilarated because we are doing something for the community.
“It’s a case of not giving in to the minority who have caused so many problems.”
In January, intruders smashed a hole in the roof of the shop storeroom and set off an explosion which blew off the door.
The blast also cracked the storeroom’s walls.
An explosion in an earlier attack caused devastation when bottles were blown off the shelves and the floor was damaged.
That came just a month after intruders broke a hole in the roof, poured petrol inside and set it alight.
This year the shop was featured on an edition of the ITV show Tonight with Trevor McDonald about the problems shopkeepers face with thieves and vandals.
The Choudhrys believe they know who was involved in the attacks but can not prove it. No-one has ever been caught.
The family, who had an insurance claim rejected, have ploughed £15,000 into rebuilding the storeroom, carrying out repairs and bringing in extra security.
They have also been granted a 24-hour licence.
Mahmood said: “It’s a security thing. If the premises stay open 24/7 there’s less of a chance of anything happening. There’s always someone around and it gives us a sense of security.
“To be honest, when you get refused by the insurers you wonder whether it’s worth carrying on.
“They rejected the claim and we were in two minds about it because it’s a lot of money.”
He added: “It’s always at the back of your mind that trouble could happen again.
“But we have got assurances from the public that we have got their full support. We believe this is a vital community service and we’re doing this for them.”


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Hagens Berman serves as interim co-lead counsel in an antitrust class-action lawsuit representing a proposed class of indirect purchasers of the drug Vascepa. The pending lawsuit against drugmaker Amarin centers upon Amarin’s attempts to delay generic competition for Vascepa, its only pharmaceutical product. The lawsuit states Amarin did this by preventing companies from obtaining the core ingredient needed to manufacture generic versions of the drug.
ANTITRUST ALLEGATIONS AGAINST AMARIN FOR VASCEPA
Vascepa is a prescription medication approved for reducing triglycerides and, when administered with a statin, to reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke, and other heart conditions. The plaintiffs represented by Hagens Berman allege that Amarin staved off inevitable competition for Vascepa by entering into long term and exclusive, or de facto exclusive, supply agreements with every approved manufacturer of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in Vascepa. These actions prevented those suppliers from selling their API product to Amarin’s would-be generic competitors.
The indirect purchasers of Vascepa allege that these contracts – which are of the type regularly treated with suspicion under antitrust laws – effectively prevented competitors from coming to market with generic Vascepa products for more than a year.
Amarin pursued its API scheme after courts had already invalidated the patents protecting Vascepa and after Amarin had exhausted every regulatory means to prevent and delay generic competition.
By boxing competitors out of the market, Amarin was able continue charging supracompetitive prices and eke the most profit it could out of Vascepa at the expense of the indirect purchaser plaintiffs and others who purchased Vascepa.
TOP PHARMA LAW FIRM
Hagens Berman is one of the most successful litigation law firms in the U.S. taking on pharmaceutical companies and has achieved more than $320 billion in settlements against Big Pharma largest sellers and manufacturers for antitrust schemes, pay-for-delay, IP shams and other forms of wrongdoing that drive up the costs of prescription drugs for consumers and others.
Amarin moved to dismiss the complaint, and that motion is currently pending before the court.
The complaint was amended in September 2021.
Hagens Berman’s lawsuit was filed in June 2021.


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Despite the size and scope of the automotive space, there are several examples of iconic cars that can accurately be described as game-changing. One such car that completely revolutionized the muscle car era, as well as Ford’s legacy of making them, was the original 1967 Mustang Shelby GT500. Its ruggedly stylish design and awe-inspiring performance specifications made it an instant classic that people still lose their minds about today. More than half a century later, Ford is honoring the car that defined a generation with the release of the 2022 Mustang Shelby GT500 Heritage Edition.
Though just a few years past its golden year birthday, the 2022 Mustang Shelby GT500 Heritage Edition celebrates the 55th anniversary of its original model. The Mustang Shelby GT500 Heritage Edition is a limited-release model whose gorgeous exterior features a Brittany Blue paint job and two stripe options that come in Wimbledon White: a hand-painted one or a vinyl version. Unfortunately, the hand-painted stripe doesn’t come automatically with the Shelby GT500 Heritage edition; it’ll cost you a cool $10,000, which if you can afford it, is worth the five figures. GT500 fans will also be happy to find the unique Shelby Cobra logo featured proudly on the front grille of the car. Under the hood, Ford made sure that the Mustang Shelby GT500 Heritage Edition offered the same level of power that the standard GT500 provides. It features a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission along with a supercharged 5.2L V8 engine with an impressive 760hp and 625lb-feet of torque.
While the Shelby GT500 has gone through several different permutations throughout its storied history, the 2022 Heritage Edition is a clear, worthy successor to the iconic original. You can expect the 2022 Mustang Shelby GT500 to retail for more than $71,000, and Ford is opening orders for it on November 15.


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Microsoft acquires process automation specialist Mint
It marks yet another move for Microsoft into a market expected to be worth around $11 billion by 2030
Microsoft has announced the acquisition of Mint, a process automation company, for an undisclosed fee.
The acquisition is aimed at supporting digital transformation strategies with automated insights from operational data.
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Mint was originally set up in Slovakia but is now headquartered in Amsterdam, with sub-offices in New York and London. The firm develops and sells process automation technology, which is used for data analytics. Its systems monitor and measure 'event' data to give a business a detailed overview of how certain parts of its operations perform. This can be used for machinery, software, or even its people.
It's considered a lucrative market, likely to be worth over $11 billion by 2030, according to estimates from Polaris Market Research. It's also an area that Microsoft has previously invested in, with acquisitions of robotic process automation startup Softmotion back in 2020.
"Our customers will be able to better understand their process data, uncover what operations look like in reality, and drive process standardisation and improvement across the entire organisation to ensure compliance at every step," Justin Graham, Microsoft's general manager of process insights, wrote in a post.
For Mint and its own customers, however, there isn't much detail about what comes next. CEO James Dening has said that the level of support and engagement it offers its users "will stay the same". He also quoted co-founder Rasto Hlavac who said that the Microsoft acquisition would result in positive outcomes on "a different scale", in a post on the company's website.
Denning then signed off the message with "there's nothing I can add to that".
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