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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — USA Triathlon today announced it has partnered with RENPHO, a global leader in designing smart products for healthy living, as the organization’s official body scale partner through 2024.
“USA Triathlon and RENPHO share a mission to help people reach their health and wellness goals,” said Victoria Brumfield, USA Triathlon CEO. “No matter where USA Triathlon members are in their multisport journey, data and technology are key to monitoring their training and progress along the way. We are proud to welcome RENPHO to our family of partners to maximize use of that data for their overall health and wellbeing.”
“We are thrilled to be partnering with USA Triathlon to provide some of the country’s most passionate athletes with deeper insight into their health and fitness data,” said Jonathon Baggia of RENPHO. “Our best-selling innovations are designed to help all those on a wellness journey find the best path customized for them. We look forward to supporting the athletes, friends and families of USA Triathlon.”
A leading innovator in health and wellness technology, RENPHO develops products like its smart weight scales that are carefully researched to enhance people's health, fitness, and wellness journey. As a part of the partnership, RENPHO will provide its smart weight scales at all USA Triathlon National Championship events to be used for weigh-ins for the Clydesdale and Athena competitions.
To learn more about RENPHO and their latest health, wellness and fitness tech, visit renpho.com/.
USA Triathlon annual members can access their exclusive partner discounts by logging into their USA Triathlon membership profile at member.usatriathlon.org. Or, visit RENPHO.com and use code USAT2023 at checkout to score 15% OFF on any Smart Scale and select other triathlete-approved products.
Founded in 2016, RENPHO was born with the vision to empower people worldwide to improve all aspects of their life by granting a passport to their own health data. Its mission is to create a growing ecosystem of smart lifestyle products that provide advanced solutions which are essential, accessible, and every day. Widely recognized for its smart weight scales and massage products, RENPHO continues to be a leading innovator in health & wellness technology, developing products that are carefully researched to enhance people's health, fitness and wellness journey. To learn more, visit RENPHO.com or follow RENPHO on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and LinkedIn.


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The Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals will represent the NFC and AFC in this year’s Big Bowl in Los Angeles. Along with them, the battle is also raging to know which is the best service to see the streaming super bowl in 2022.
You will be interested:
If you’re thinking of cutting off your cable service or have already cut it off, you have more options than you probably realize. You’ll be able to enjoy Super Bowl XVI on many streaming services, so you won’t need a cable subscription or an antenna (but if you’re considering the latter, we’ve got you covered, too).
Whether you access them directly through your smart TV or streaming device, some of the featured services we recommend are FuboTV, Sling TV, and Hulu + Live TV, all of which are reasonably priced and all have access to NBC, owner of this year’s official Super Bowl broadcast. We have what you need and more below.
When is the Super Bowl 2022?
This year’s main event kicks off at 6:30 pm ET/3:30 pm PT on Sunday, February 13, 2022, from Los Angeles’ new SoFi Stadium, the city’s third Super Bowl venue after the Rose Bowl and Los Angeles. Angeles Coliseum.
It’s the first time the city has hosted the big game since 1993. The telecast will be live on NBC, airing on NFL GamePass, Sirius XM and Westwood One; and will be available on several different streaming services.
When activity begins, the Cincinnati Bengals will face the LA Rams. It’s only the third Super Bowl game for the Bengals, who lost their previous two attempts, most recently in 1989.
The Rams have had slightly more success, with a victory over the Tennessee Titans in Super Bowl XXXVI in 2000. Since then, they have lost twice to the New England Patriots, with the most recent attempt coming in Super Bowl LIII. in 2019.
The best streaming services for the 2022 Super Bowl
While not as competitively priced as others on this list, Hulu + Live TV counts NBC among its top networks, so all subscribers can watch Super Bowl 2022 without any add-ons.
Sling TV’s Orange and Blue packages include NBC, making the Super Bowl available to subscribers. New customers can take advantage of free trials of the service, but one thing to keep in mind is to make sure your particular area has an NBC affiliate to watch the game, as not all locations do. However, most major markets should be fine.
YouTube TV subscribers have access to all four major streaming networks, so everyone can watch Super Bowl LVI too.
Like Hulu + Live TV, FuboTV offers NBC on its main collection of networks, making Super Bowl 2022 available to subscribers, and it’s also not uncommon to find a free trial, like on Sling TV. Plus, when the Vince Lombardi Trophy is awarded to the victors of the big game, FuboTV has one of the best lineups in international sports, if you decide to keep it.
The new DirecTV Stream counts NBC among its member networks, so subscribers can watch the Super Bowl.
Peacock is NBC’s live and on-demand streaming service, so it makes sense for the company to make the Super Bowl available on the platform. The Peacock Premium option will give you the Super Bowl and it’s only $5 a month.
Download the NFL app and you can watch Super Bowl LVI live without needing anything other than your device and the internet.
Thanks to its partnership with the NFL, the sports app from Yahoo! has allowed NFL fans to enjoy some games throughout the season. National games, however, were previously unavailable. That changes, since the app will show the Super Bowl live.

domain: news


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Ince clinches BEE deal with Andile Khumalo
Atkinson and Khumalo families join forces in top marketing and investment communications firm
Business person Andile Khumalo has bought a 26% stake in family-owned communications and marketing agency Ince, in a move that will improve the company’s BEE status and its offering to clients.
Khumalo bought the shares from Caxton, which held 10%, and Ince founders, Atkinson Family, which disposed of 16% of the business. Ince’s employee investment scheme will own a further 4% stake, taking the company’s total BEE shareholding to 30%. ..


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APL has expanded its China-New Zealand network as trade between the two countries almost tripled in the past decade.
28 Sep 2016
E-commerce and the need for density in trade lanes is pushing expansion of the global network of C.H. Robinson Worldwide, the largest US logistics operator.
31 Aug 2016
Melbourne-based company gives C.H. Robinson Worldwide a direct presence in Australia and New Zealand.
25 Aug 2016
The Aotea Maersk will become the largest container ship ever to visit New Zealand when it calls at Tauranga on Oct. 4.
15 Aug 2016
Ports of Auckland want to avoid bad blood that spurred industrial actions at Australian ports.
08 Jun 2016
CentrePort in the New Zealand capital of Wellington is pushing for a deepening project despite shipper recommendations.
09 May 2016
U.S. air cargo price-fixing lawsuit yields another settlement from a major carrier, leaving just one airline standing in the decade-long class action.
11 Feb 2016
Air India and Air New Zealand are the last two defendants in a long-running antitrust litigation brought against nearly 30 providers of air cargo services, but a nasty surprise could be in store for the carriers in a trial scheduled for September.
10 Feb 2016
Maritime NZ, New Zealand’s maritime authority, is seeking stakeholder comments until March 11 on draft guidelines for compliance with the International Maritime Organization’s Safety of Life at Sea verified gross mass amendment.
14 Oct 2015
Container carrier APL announced it is upgrading its New Zealand Express, or NZE, service by adding a direct northbound call at Brisbane, Australia.
05 Oct 2015
The fast-growing port of Tauranga has begun widening and deepening its shipping channels to handle larger vessels after a more than four-year court battle over the project.
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Moss Bros makes changes to its board
Moss Bros has announced the appointment of Avis Darzins to the post of non-executive director, with effect from 1 September.
The menswear retailer has also announced that Maurice Helfgott will be standing down from the role of senior non-executive director after serving nine years, in line with good corporate governance.
Helfgott will, however, stay on the board and support incoming chairman Colin Porter until the next AGM in May 2020. In the meantime Alex Gersh will take over Helfgott's role as senior non-executive director.
Darzins brings considerable retail experience and, specifically, a strong background in retail operational transformation to the Moss Bros board.
At Accenture, where she was based for eight years as a partner focusing on the retail and consumer products sector, she delivered successful engagement with many well-known national and international brands such as Gap Inc, putting in place the infrastructure to enable Gap to launch its Banana Republic brand onto the UK high street.
Darzins also founded her own management consulting practice in 2013 following four years as director of business transformation at British media and telecoms corporation, Sky. She has built over two decades experience in retail development and utilisation having secured business leadership roles at Arcadia, BHS, Mothercare and Littlewoods.
Commenting on the board changes, Colin Porter, said: "Avis's significant track record in retail operational transformation is strategically important for the Group as we look to strengthen the business for future growth.
"We are delighted she has decided to join the Board to share her considerable experience as we pivot Moss Bros further to be a multi-channel business offering with a strong e-commerce platform.
"I also thank Alex for assuming the additional role of Senior Independent Non-Executive Director and thank Maurice for agreeing to stay on the Board until the next AGM and helping us to continue to develop the business."


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New accounting rules show that Apple's profitability of the iPhone could be much higher than previously expected, according to a new report.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board approved a change last week to the revenue reporting methods in the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Under the old rules, Apple was required to spread its profits from the sale of each iPhone over the term of the carrier contract for the device, typically two years.
Analyst Yair Reiner of Oppenheimer said in a research note to clients that despite all of the publicity of under-reported iPhone revenue, the market still doesn't fully realize, and that will take time. Oppenheimer company has an outperform rating for AAPL stock and has increased its price target to $210 per share.
Incredibly, despite all the ink spilled over iPhone accounting, we think the Street continues to highly underestimate Apple's GAAP earnings, Reiner wrote.
We grant this will likely become a moot point within six months, as Apple incorporates new FASB accounting rules and recognizes more iPhone sales at time of sale. But until then, Apple's EPS will continue to surprise to the upside, even if revenue comes merely in line with Street expectations.
The report noted that Apple could sell an additional 7 million to 8 million iPhones in 2010 by adding Verizon and China Mobile as carriers.


text: Sun\u00a0Tuesday provided analysts with a glimpse into its finances for the current quarter, predicting that it would meet revenue estimates despite a challenging market for sales of its server hardware."Based on our current view, we expect a seasonal sequential uptick in revenue," said Steve McGowan, Sun's CFO and executive vice president of corporate resources, during a conference call to discuss its fiscal second quarter results.Sun reported revenue of $2.7 billion for its\u00a0first quarter. For the second quarter, which ends Dec. 31, analysts expect the company to report about $2.9 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate collected by First Call\/Thomson Financial.\u00a0McGowan said Tuesday that Sun's actual revenue would be "in line with the current consensus figure."He wouldn't comment on earnings per share estimates during the call. Analysts on average expect Sun to lose a penny per share, according to First Call. Sun had not disclosed guidance for the quarter prior to its Tuesday conference call.Operating expenses should see a "modest sequential increase" from the first quarter, due primarily to investments in research and development and dollars spent on acquisitions, McGowan said. In the past three months, Sun has announced the acquisitions of Pirus Networks and Terraspring, both of which are intended to boost its offerings around storage and network management.Sun is close to completing its recent round of staff cuts, which is expected to lop 4,400 employees from its work force. "We are substantially complete in the U.S. We expect the majority of international reductions to conclude by the end of the third quarter," McGowan said.In a research note issued Friday, investment bank Sanford C. Bernstein said that weak demand for Sun's hardware products, particularly in Europe and Canada, doesn't bode well for Sun's second-quarter revenue."In short, we see no upside to revenue expectations coming out of the mid-quarter call, and some possible downside," analyst Toni Sacconaghi Jr. wrote.Sacconaghi also questioned the success of Sun's entry into the low-end Linux server business. The company unveiled in August the LX50, an Intel-based server that runs a version of the open source operating system from Sun. The research firm estimated that Sun sells less than 500 LX50 servers each month."We continue to believe that Sun's Linux offering will not have a material impact on the company for at least the next year," Sacconaghi wrote.Sun wouldn't comment Tuesday on the success of individual products or regions. "It's a very competitive environment. I don't want to single out any products or time zones," McGowan said. "Our sales force is aggressively going out and winning business."


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The year 2022 proved to be a rather challenging recovery period for the Indian print media. Though quite a few news publications exceeded pre-Covid advertising revenues, the rise in newsprint prices adversely affected profitability. With the newsprint prices now stabilizing and projected to drop in the following months, there is some optimism in the industry that the challenging period has passed. According to Amit Chopra, joint managing director, Punjab Kesari, newsprint prices touched $900-950/ton (approximately Rs 74,402 – Rs 78,535 per ton) last year but have come down to $650/ton (approximately Rs 53,734 per ton). The prices are expected to decline further. The factors that are expected to bring back growth include the revival of circulation in the past two years, the Indian economy resuming its trajectory, state elections and the upcoming 2024 general elections since both politics and political advertising play a substantial role in the Indian news media. The credibility of print as a source of information and its hyper-local nature contribute to both circulation and ad revenues.
According to a recent report by rating agency CRISIL, the Indian media and entertainment (M&E) industry is likely to log a 12-14 % year-on-year increase in revenues to clock Rs 1.6 lakh crore in FY 2023- 2024. With a 16% growth expected in 2023, ad revenues, which comprise a staggering 55% of the media and entertainment industry’s revenues, are forecast to grow by 14%, mainly driven by economic activity. However, CRISIL’s report says that even though print ad revenue is expected to rise by 14% year on year, it will still trail the pre-pandemic levels by 800-1000 basis points. In a recent article in exchange4media, MV Shreyams Kumar, managing director of Mathrubhumi Printing & Publishing, said that 2017 and 2018 were golden years for the print media, which is operating at 75-80% revenue compared to that period. “We are estimating to get closer to 90% in 2023 and surpass the golden period’s numbers by 2024. If we look at a decade of print starting from 2017 and our projections till 2027, one could undoubtedly say 2017 and 2018 were the golden period of print,” he states.
The growth is coming mainly from the vernacular news market, both in print and digital. “While Jio disrupted the accessibility framework, almost 90% of those new customers have also come in from Tier 2 and 3 markets. Vernacular holds a big story for the future. And as a vernacular newspaper, we are optimistic of getting the benefit of that,” Kumar added.
Digital media is also on the rise owing to its ease of use and its on-the go nature coupled with technological advancements. The seventh edition of the dentsu-e4m Digital Advertising Report 2023 unveiled on 2 February 2023, says the advertising industry in India is poised to grow by 14.7% to reach Rs 98,363 crore by the end of FY 2022-2023 with digital ad spends expected to take a 40% share.
Sports and politics are key contributors to this growth. These include the Cricket World Cup 2023, IPL 2023, Women’s World Cup 2023, FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, and the Assembly elections. The advertising space seems to have stabilized with a higher average growth rate and restored advertising opportunities compared to the years before the Covid-19 pandemic. Ad spends in eCommerce, consumer durables, retail, BFSI, and pharmaceuticals categories have shown maximum growth in the past year.
According to the dentsu report, by the end of the calendar year 2022, television contributed 40% (Rs 33,954 crore) to the advertising market in India, while digital media contributed 35% (Rs 29,784 crore). Print media contributed 21% (Rs 18,258 crore) to the Indian advertising market.
Media investment company Group M’s recent Indian adex forecast report also paints a better picture for the print media in the calendar year 2023 compared to previous years in terms of overall volume, though digital takes the cake. Print’s share is estimated to be around Rs 14,520 crore in 2023 of the overall Rs 1,46,450 crore for digital, print, OOH, radio, and cinema combined, the Group M report said. In 2021, adex share of the print media was Rs 12,067 crore and Rs 13,519 crore in 2022. In terms of percentage though, print’s share is expected to decline marginally – 10% in 2023 over 11% in 2021 and 2022, the report said.
There are huge differences and discrepancies amongst the several agency reports on the Indian adex or advertising spend. With differences as large as Rs. 40,000 crore one can only guess that the news media industy is unintereded in investing in serious research.


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It's time to get ready for the next generation as The PlayStation Blog has confirmed that the PlayStation 5 will be coming out on holiday 2020. This is a huge deal and definitely limits the appeal of those planning to get a PS4 or PS4 PRO. Still, it appears that the next-gen console wars are upon us but at least we'll have backward-compatibility this time.
On the US PS Blog, they revealed more details about the new PS5 controller we'll be getting, which will reportedly enhance our gaming experience by a large margin. This new controller will adopt "haptic feedback," which will replace the rumble technology we've all been used to for many years. Apparently, this will make certain in-game events feel unique, so a car crashing on the wall is going to feel different from a football player tackling someone.
Another supposed innovation coming to the PS5 controller is new adaptive triggers, which will allow developers to mess with the L2 and R2 buttons. This means that they can work on how resistant these triggers are, which will make more in-game actions feel immersive, describing how using a bow and arrow will feel slightly more realistic.
These all sound interesting but most of us are just happy that the PS5 will be able to play all of our PS4 games. Hopefully, this means they won't be releasing remastered versions of classics like Marvel's Spider-Man or Horizon Zero Dawn since Sony already stated that the PS5 will not only play them but also make these games flow better, essentially removing load times.
So, PlayStation 5 on Holiday 2020. Are you all ready?


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Microsoft isn’t just removing the Nokia name from upcoming Lumia smartphones, it’s also changing the default browser on what used to be Nokia’s low-end and feature phones. Thanks to a deal with Opera, those handsets will use Opera Mini, which could add more than 100 million new users for the Norway-based browser company.
The Wall Street Journal reported the news on Monday morning, after speaking with [company]Opera[/company] CEO Lars Boilesen. [company]Microsoft[/company]’s Asha phones, as well as any other feature phones, will transition from the Nokia Xpress Web browser to using Opera Mini as the default way to access the internet. It’s a move that makes sense for both companies, particularly since these phones are typically sold in regions with slower, limited mobile broadband connections or in areas where a fast connection is simply too expensive for most.
Opera Mini helps in both scenarios, not just because it’s a lightweight browser that can run well on limited hardware. All browser requests in Opera Mini are routed through the company’s servers, which then compress the requested content. This means viewing the web in Opera Mini can be faster, since less information is transmitted, which in turn helps the overall experience and saving on bandwidth used. That’s useful in countries with limited or slow network infrastructure, such as India where a full seventh of Opera’s total 350 million current users live.
Neither company announced specific plans for how and when the existing phones will switch their default browser, so it may take some time before the changeover. Of course, Opera Mini can be downloaded and installed on a phone before then by visiting m.opera.com with your existing browser.


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Teen's and Children's Cosmetics May Still Contain Talc And Asbestos
The parents of teenage girls should read the ingredient labels of the cosmetic products they are about to purchase to ensure that they do not contain talc
Monday, March 22, 2021 - All women should carefully consider the ingredient labels for the health and beauty care products they purchase, but this holds especially true for the parents of teenage girls. There is a large and growing body of evidence that links talc with being contaminated with cancer-causing asbestos which may show up in teen and children's cosmetics. Johnson's Baby Powder talc has been tested by independent microscope researchers at the request of the Food and Drug Administration and found to contain traces of asbestos, a deadly carcinogen. About 25,000 women with ovarian cancer and men and women with mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer, have filed suit against Johnson & Johnson for failing to warn them that their iconic brand of talc contained asbestos. Johnson & Johnson has discontinued selling Johnson's Baby Powder made from talc and replaced it with powder made from cornstarch. Most companies in the cosmetics, health care product, baby, and beauty care industries are following Johnson & Johnson's lead and also quietly replacing talc products with cornstarch. Some very popular beauty care products are made from talc and we will continue to look for them to make the public aware. In addition to Johnson's Baby Powder, other iconic brands of talc-based body powders include Clubman's Barbershop Talc, Gold Bond Medicated Powder, and Gold Bond Medicated Extra Strength Body Powder, and even Dr. Scholl's Foot Powder contains talc. Each of these products has recently announced that they have or will replace their talc-based products with cornstarch or arrowroot. Ovarian Cancer talcum powder attorneys are helping families and individuals nationwide and offer a free no obligation consultation before filing a claim.
Young teen girls have been the target of marketing done by talc-based cosmetics companies whose products may contain asbestos. Asbestos.com has a list of the products that mothers and fathers should be concerned about may turn up on your child's makeup desk. "In December 2017, a lab confirmed it found asbestos in makeup products sold by Claire's, an accessory and jewelry retailer that markets its products to girls and young women. Just five months later, the same lab identified asbestos in Just Shine Shimmer Powder sold by Justice, a retailer that sells clothing, accessories, and cosmetics to girls and teens," according to Asbestos.com. The list of children's cosmetics being sold across America containing asbestos includes, several Mint Glitter Makeup Sets, Pink Glitter Palette with Eyeshadow & Lip Gloss, Bedazzled Rainbow Heart Makeup Set, Ultimate Mega Make Up Set, and Metallic Hot Pink Glitter 48 Piece Makeup Set, according to the website.
Talc that contains asbestos is known to cause a health hazard when ingested by breathing, using in the genital area for women, and also by being absorbed by the skin. Young women. Parents of teenage girls using cosmetics may be surprised to know that there is no regulation of the cosmetics industry and there are no tests done to ensure the safety of cosmetics products.


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Despite a leaked Intel memo that warned of a potentially unprofitable quarter, Intel has actually posted sequential net income growth for the first quarter of this year. The chipmaker says it raked in profits of $647 million on revenue of $7.1 billion, compared to $234 million net income and $8.2 billion revenue for the fourth quarter of last year.
As you'd expect considering the economic climate, however, Intel didn't do anywhere quite as well from a year-over-year perspective. The firm saw $9.7 billion revenue and $1.4 billion net income in the first quarter of 2008, so it's seen revenue go down 26% and profits fall 55%.
Nevertheless, Intel CEO Paul Otellini comments in the results announcement, "Intel has adapted well to the current economic environment and we're benefiting from disciplined execution and agility." Encouragingly, he also notes, "We believe PC sales bottomed out during the first quarter and that the industry is returning to normal seasonal patterns."
Other noteworthy tidbits from the results announcement: Intel's gross margin has fallen from 53.8% in Q1 '08 and 53% in Q4 '08 to 46% in Q1 '09, a decrease the company blames on "higher factory underutilization charges and startup costs." Also, Atom processor and chipset revenue added up to $219 million, down from $300 million in the previous quarter.
|1. Ryszard - $603||2. Hdfisise - $600||3. Andrew Lauritzen - $502|
|4. Redocbew - $350||5. the - $306||6. SomeOtherGeek - $300|
|7. chasp_0 - $251||8. Ryu Connor - $250||9. mbutrovich - $250|
|10. YetAnotherGeek2 - $200|
|EVGA GTX 980 Ti VR Edition puts 5.25" drive bays to use||12|
|Windows 10 gets new Release Preview ring and detailed change logs||9|
|Asus releases a trio of colorful B150 boards for smaller PCs||16|
|Ash Wednesday Shortbread||30|
|Google to phase out Flash display ads in January of next year||14|
|Oculus will discount Oculus Ready PCs as part of a Rift bundle||25|
|Micron reports early successes in GDDR5X production||49|
|AOC U2879VF monitor brings 4K and FreeSync together||65|
|Amazon lets developers build games for free with Lumberyard||10|


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BECAUSE Krista Whetstone lives on the Upper West Side she can make this vow, "I will never go to the supermarket again."
"In the market where I grew up everybody knew the names of the checkout girls, and it was a social center for the whole town," she said of Guilford, Conn. "Here people at the supermarket glare at my kids, and it's dirty and crowded. Why would I spend my time and money there?"
Two months ago Ms. Whetstone joined the company of New Yorkers who have opted out of supermarket shopping. Whether they hate shopping with kids in tow, dislike maneuvering a cart through narrow aisles or just prefer shopping for sodas at 2 a.m, they now log on, browse and get their groceries delivered from FreshDirect, the online site, which is transforming the way a growing number of New Yorkers get their food.
After two years and two million deliveries (and $600,000 in parking tickets), FreshDirect has become the online grocery service that many New Yorkers have embraced, even while its ubiquitous trucks, piles of discarded boxes and high prices have irritated others. In 2004 FreshDirect had $100 million in sales, almost double the sales of the year before. Also last year, the number of New Yorkers who told the Zagat Survey that they had ordered groceries online rose to 52 percent from 16 percent.
FreshDirect (www.freshdirect.com) has survived where predecessors like Webvan and Urbanfetch failed, by aggressively catering to the kind of New Yorkers who would fill out a Zagat survey. Real estate brokers now routinely cite FreshDirect in their sales pitches in neighborhoods like Battery Park City, Harlem and Bayside, Queens, which are known to have poor access to fresh food.Continue reading the main story
This summer FreshDirect will follow its best customers to their weekend kitchens and will begin delivery in the Hamptons. It next hopes to expand vertically, saturating entire high-rises so that customers who live in the same building get their orders at the same time every week, with free delivery or another perk offered as an incentive.
"Some buildings already have 70 percent saturation" said Dana Smith, the company's marketing manager. "For us that's incredibly efficient."
Rockrose Development, one of New York's biggest residential renters, has been cooperating with FreshDirect from the beginning, staging tastings in the lobbies of some Lower Manhattan buildings. "We think of it as yet another amenity to offer our tenants, like dry-cleaning or a gym," said Kathleen Scott, Rockrose's director of leasing. "Who in this day and age has time to go to the grocery store?"
Most Americans still spend much time and money at the supermarket. Internet shopping represents only 0.4 percent of the $570 billion grocery business. But online shopping has taken hold in urban areas: SimonDelivers.com in the Twin Cities, Peapod.com in Northeast cities and Safeway.com in California succeeded where Publix.com and Webvan.com notoriously failed.
"New York is an ideal environment for online grocery shopping," said Patti Freeman Evans, a retail analyst for Jupiter Media, an Internet consulting firm. "A time-starved population that is geographically concentrated and Internet-saturated: that's just what you want."
Still, 150,000 New Yorkers who have tried the service have not returned to become regular customers, and millions of others probably will never try it. So while most of Manhattan's major supermarket chains -- including Morton Williams Associated Supermarkets, Gristedes and Food Emporium -- now offer Internet ordering in addition to phone orders, retail analysts say that grocery stores are in no real danger.
"It will never replace the offline stores," Ms. Evans said of online shopping.
"I would never let someone else pick out my family's fruit," agreed Sunita Khanna, who lives in Kew Gardens, Queens, where FreshDirect began deliveries last April.
The service was first made available only to Roosevelt Island and Battery Park City, sparking suspicions of elitism that still linger. It is not yet available in the Bronx and Staten Island. But the company insists it has always expanded in direct response to requests from potential customers. Big chunks of Queens and Brooklyn and all of Manhattan are now being served.
Steve Druckman, the company's chief marketing officer, said: "Once we get a certain number of e-mails from your zone, we go there. That's all there is to it."
Even steady customers do not give FreshDirect their unconditional love. First, there are the huge quantities of packaging used in deliveries.
"I hate getting one avocado in a big cardboard box, which I then have to flatten and find a place for until trash day," said Karen Zuniga, who lives in the East Village. The company says the multitude of boxes are an unavoidable result of the automated packing system. Other common complaints include uneven produce and the air and noise pollution created by lingering trucks.
Another issue is price: one organic cabbage cost as much as $4.86 last week, orders have a $40 minimum, and there is a delivery fee of $4.95.
But those who have converted -- the company claims 100,000 regular customers -- say they can overlook the occasional brown spots on the Granny Smiths.
"It's a love-hate relationship," said Brook Bartlett, who lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. "One time they let me down, and it was very painful," she said of a delivery that never arrived. "It became a hate relationship, and then it went back to love because I've had two babies in two years, and I can't remember anything anymore."
It's more than a chance to shop in peace for Sidette Warren, an Upper East Sider who uses a wheelchair. She described her life as "truly changed" by the service.
Few people anywhere seem to enjoy grocery shopping. In a 2004 national survey of happiness among women published in Science magazine, grocery shopping ranked 27th of 28 daily activities, beating out only cleaning. New Yorkers have long complained about the city's supermarkets, which over all are smaller, dirtier and less well staffed than markets elsewhere.
"My neighborhood has 14 places to buy kielbasa but no organic produce," said John Hansell, who lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. "Just try finding a butcher at my supermarket to bone a leg of lamb. It's a joke."
To browse the Web site is to browse the open (if picky) minds of New York cooks. They want to choose among skinless, boneless, and skinless and boneless chicken thighs and among blue, red and white baby potatoes, but do not care all that much about brands of frozen vegetables.
"We try to offer choice on things that matter, but we can't offer choice on everything," said Steve Michaelson, the company's president. "To be a FreshDirect customer you just have to trust us."
In inverse proportion to traditional grocery stores, FreshDirect's stock is about 70 percent fresh and prepared food and 30 percent dry goods like paper towels and cat litter. It sells natural toothpaste cheaper than Duane Reade does, offers bulk packs of meat and produce like Costco, competes with Whole Foods in organic produce prices and has a big selection of prepared foods, like Citarella and Fairway.
Now the company is moving into farmers' market territory. In May local baby herbs and microgreens will be available from Satur Farms, a Long Island grower (owned by Eberhard Müller, the chef at Bayard's, and his wife), which supplies restaurants like Jean Georges and Daniel; and day-boat scallops will be trucked into the company's warehouse each night from Gosman's Dock in Montauk.
FreshDirect's 300,000-square-foot facility in Long Island City, Queens, employs about 1,000 butchers, bakers, produce pickers and other food workers. Like the largest, coldest warehouse store imaginable, it includes two huge kitchens, a special room dedicated to bananas (always kept at 60 degrees) and miles of conveyor belts, which carry tubs from the far-flung departments -- health and beauty, coffee, dairy -- to the central packing area near the loading dock. Most of the company's employees work during the peak packing hours of 4 a.m. to noon, when the trucks leave to begin deliveries.
Internet retail analysts watch the company closely and speculate about whether its model would work in other cities.
"Who would have thought you could carry only one brand of diapers, not let people pick out their own bananas, charge for delivery and still make money?" said Steve Friedman, an investment banker and FreshDirect customer in Battery Park City.
Mr. Michaelson, the company's president, agreed. "A lot of what we do might not make sense in other places," he said. "But in New York even thousands of dollars in parking tickets are still cheaper than rent."
Correction: April 13, 2005, Wednesday An article last Wednesday about FreshDirect's impact on New York residents and grocery stores misstated the extent of its delivery coverage. The service is not available in every neighborhood in Manhattan. A picture caption misspelled the name of the Long Island City street where FreshDirect trucks are parked outside the company's building. It is Borden Avenue, not Border.Continue reading the main story


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Online auction giant EBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) reported record fourth-quarter revenue Tuesday of US$219.4 million and pro forma net income of $38.5 million, easily beating analyst expectations.
Bolstered by a strong holiday shopping season, EBay’s quarterly revenue was the highest ever for the company, representing a 64 percent gain over the $134 million generated last year, and was the auction company’s 13th consecutive profitable quarter.
For all of 2001, EBay reported revenue of $748.8 million and pro forma net income of $137.5 million.
Success Breeds Confidence
“Our fourth-quarter results capped off an outstanding year,” said EBay President and CEO Meg Whitman. “We have excellent momentum going into 2002 and feel confident with our long-term strategy, ongoing execution, and the inherent strength of our business model.”
EBay attributed the increase in income to better-than-expected holiday sales in the U.S., strong international growth, and third-party advertising revenue. The company said the best-performing categories in the fourth quarter included EBay Motors, computers, collectibles, sports and toys.
Some analysts have suggested that despite the company’s strong performance, the biggest dilemma for EBay is meeting investor expectations.
Potential growth categories to keep an eye on in 2002, according to analysts, include consumer electronics, EBay Motors and EBay’s international sites.
In the past, EBay has estimated that revenues will hit $3 billion per year by 2005.
EBay’s stock has held up relatively well in recent weeks. At the close of regular trading Tuesday, EBay shares were at $64.06 per share, up 46 percent from their post-September 11th low. The earnings report was released just after the close.
The Real Test
A number of research reports released earlier this month indicated that online holiday sales were stronger than expected. Online portals such as Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) and America Online also reported that consumers were spending money on their shopping sites in record numbers.
Still, the most accurate assessment of the success or failure of the e-tail holiday season lies in the e-tail companies’ earnings statements, and EBay is the first big e-tailer to report this year.
Yahoo! is scheduled to release earnings on Thursday and Amazon.com‘s (Nasdaq: AMZN) report is slated for January 22nd.


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A recently released cider from Sharp’s Brewery has earned recognition at the International Cider Challenge (ICC).
Just months after being rolled out in UK bars and restaurants, Cold River Cider was awarded a silver medal in the New World Cider Category at this year’s event.
Judges acknowledged “its light, crisp, and moreish flavour with a refreshing look to match”.
Sharp’s Cold River Cider is a collaboration between Sharp’s Brewery’s Cornish team and Aspall Cyder House’s Suffolk team, to create a new premium 4.5% ABV medium-dry apple cider.
James Nicholls, marketing controller for Sharp’s Brewery, said: “In Cold River Cider, we have created something truly unique; a crisp and moreish, refreshing medium-dry apple cider, and we’re delighted that this has been recognised by the panel at the International Cider Challenge so soon after our launch.”


text: "Kekkou desu". That means "no thanks" in Japanese. And Softbank shareholders have said a very strong "kekkou desu" to the idea of the Japanese cellphone and internet giant buying up to 75% of America's Sprint Nextel. Softbank's shares fell as much as 17% this morning in Tokyo. Japanese stockholders are not sure Softbank can afford Sprint. The Nikkei newspaper has said the Japanese firm will spend up to US$19 billion on the deal.


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Vodafone New Zealand today announces brand new mobile phone plans that remove the fear of running out of data for its customers. In a first for New Zealand, the redesigned mobile plans all offer Pay Monthly consumers and business customers an endless supply of mobile data, with the difference in plans being the amount of data that runs at max speed.
“In today’s world we cannot get enough data, whether it’s for streaming music, uploading video, using apps, sending files, gaming, or a myriad of other amazing things. We’ve listened to what our customers are telling us,” says Vodafone NZ Consumer Director Carolyn Luey.
“We’ve seen a massive increase in data usage over recent years and with Vodafone New Zealand’s investments in capacity and 5G network roll out, we are now ready to meet the needs of data hungry customers. Our new, endless data mobile plans will free them from the fear of running out of data at those crucial moments.”
Vodafone NZ reports that it has seen an average 52% increase in mobile data consumption year-on-year over the last three years and a large increase in customers looking for greater data limits.
A recent consumer study commissioned by Vodafone and conducted by independent market researcher Colmar Brunton found that 78% of New Zealand mobile telecommunications customers say it is important that they have access to (and credit to use) data on their mobile phone.
“Mobile data has become a way of life,” says Luey.
“Like petrol in your car or milk in your fridge, the large majority of Kiwis now expect to always have data on their phones for life on the go, so we want to make sure they always do.”
Vodafone’s new Endless Data mobile plans are available from February 26 at four competitive price points*. The lowest cost plan will be $40 and offers 4GB of data at max speed, while the top end plan offers great value at $100 per month with 100GB at max speed. Once customers exceed their max speed data they will be able to continue to enjoy using data at a reduced speed**.
“Even when customers run out of their max speed data, they will still be able to do things they love like listen to music, update their social media, and important activities like order ride-share transport, send an email or use a GPS map online,” says Luey.
“Our higher data usage customers will also love the Extra Large plan with 100GB of data at max speed – New Zealand’s most generous amount of max speed data on the market – at an incredible value of only $1 per gigabyte. These data-munchers will be able to enjoy activities such as hours and hours of video streamed at high-definition quality, and uploads and downloads happening as fast as the network and their device allows.
“Our business customers will also be able to enjoy endless data on these plans. Plus we have introduced a new Business Team Plan where, when combined with our Business Lead Plan, up to ten team members can each enjoy the benefits of endless data with 40GB Max Speed***.
“As we continue to roll out our 5G network across the country, Vodafone customers on our new plans will also have the freedom to experience the awesome speeds and low lag times that it brings,” says Luey.
“We’re stoked to be able to offer our customers a full suite of plans with endless data, in what we believe is a market-first for mobile plans. Our Vodafone New Zealand customers can enjoy their lives with the freedom of knowing they now no longer need to worry about running out of mobile data.”


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Subway fires up ‘toast tax’ campaign
11 June, 2012
Subway has started a campaign to end tax on sandwiches and toasted Subs—the latest stage in an ongoing saga over VAT on takeaway items.
As Peach Report has reported, the government’s recent U-turn on the so-called ‘pasty tax’ has delighted some retailers but not others, with many arguing that regulations as they stand are discriminatory. Subway has now waded into the debate with a Facebook-based ‘Toast the Tax’ campaign that calls for greater support for the sandwich industry in particular. Launching it, it said: “The sandwich shop industry, which employs tens of thousands of hard working people and supports thousands of small businesses, is now being placed under threat.”
It is calling for a level playing field on tax. “We are not asking for the government to reverse its recent U-turn on pasties but to remove the tax across the board, just as they have done in Europe. We are asking for sandwich shop owners to be treated fairly.”
Subway has now set up an e-petition to advance its campaign. It has so far gathered more than 1,000 signatures.
A piece in the Daily Mirror suggested that Subway franchise owners are also planning legal action against the government’s tax policies. Harvey Brown, a Subway owner in Exeter, said: “If the Chancellor thinks that scrapping the tax on pasties has put this issue to bed he’s very much mistaken. I haven’t spoken to anyone who can understand why toasted sandwiches should have VAT added but pasties shouldn’t… The government should treat sarnies the same as savouries.”
Brown also pointed out that Subway had supported the government on issues like its Responsibility Deal to promote healthier eating—but got nothing in return. “The Chancellor is, in effect, telling sandwich shop owners they’re second class citizens and that bakers are more important. I’ve nothing against bakers. Pasties shouldn’t be taxed, but neither should toasties.” A Subway spokesman added: “It just seems very unfair that piping hot pasties are exempt yet toasted sandwich fans have to pay a tax.”


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April Gallegos, a senior representative at the West Side Verizon call center, is going to spend her bonus on credit card debt, shopping and maybe a trip to the casino.[From ABQJOURNAL NEWS/STATE: Call Center Gives Bonuses - and It's Hiring Hundreds]
Her what? Bonus? In this economy?
At a time when a lot of companies around Albuquerque and nationwide are canceling raises, suspending bonuses and freezing pensions, Phoenix-based Verizon is shaking the hand that bakes its bread.
"Sometimes, companies use the economy to justify not taking care of their employees," said Robyn Lumb, human resources manager for the call center at Coors and Central SW. "That's not the company I work for. There was no conversation about not giving the STIs (short term incentive raises).
"The company is performing very well, and that's because of our employees. They are the foundation of our company. They are the ones out there taking the calls every day. It's a tough job."
On Friday, the call center's 1,270 employees got performance-based bonuses of up to 8 percent of their salaries, Lumb said. Bonuses are based on company and employee performance for 2008.
Starting salaries at Verizon are $27,000; $28,500 for bilingual call-takers. Nationwide, Verizon employs 86,000 people and has 26 call centers. They all got bonuses Friday.


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|HP 131A Magenta Original Toner Cartridge, Magenta from Currys PC WorldHP 131A Magenta Original Toner Cartridge, Magenta
Make a bold statement with your marketing collateral when printing with the HP 131A Magenta Original Toner Cartridge.Compatible with HP LaserJet Pro 200 colour M251 series and HP LaserJet Pro 200 colour MFP M276 printers, this toner delivers crisp, deep colours for maximum impact. Easy to replace and recycle, HP LaserJet Toner Cartridges are designed for reliability and help you avoid waste and delays, keeping your costs in control.
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Facebook is adding augmented reality target tracking in a closed beta test.
Facebook’s AR Target Tracker is being used on posters for the movies “A Wrinkle in Time” and “Ready Player One.” Pointing a phone camera at the poster makes the characters come to life via augmented reality, according to the Facebook announcement of the new feature.
The AR feature is aimed at brands, publishers, artists and developers to create content tied to images, logos, signs or pictures in a physical environment. The tracker is available through the Facebook camera. The movie posters with AR are worldwide.
“Our goal is to make the technology available for the widest array of devices at the highest level of quality possible, maximizing accessibility to the widest variety of phones so anyone with an iPhone 5S and above or an Android 2012 device and above can use it,” stated Krishnan Ramnath, Facebook research scientist, in a blog post. “We are able to provide this experience for high-end market phones all the way down to older, lower end phones, to ensure that people in any market can experience it. We achieved this by heavily optimizing our tracking algorithm to perform on the low-end devices.”


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The national educational toy store franchise Learning Express, winner of the 2011 Franchise Business Review Specialty Retail Category, announced the establishment of 16 new franchise stores in the last quarter of 2011. Currently, new demographic information indicates that franchise business opportunities exist in Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma, and Spokane Washington.
â€œOur stores are truly neighborhood toy stores. Our businesses are growing and our success has been a community effort, â€œsaid Sharon DiMinico, founder and CEO of Learning Express Toys. According to DiMinico, unlike several big box retailers that have fallen victim to economic pressures and have been forced to close their doors, Learning Express toy stores continue to serve children in communities across the nation.


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When it comes to US business choosing to power their stores and factories with solar energy, the critical factor is money. Commercial solar prices have fallen by 58% since 2012 and by 16% year over year in 2016. In many cases, it’s just cheaper to install commercial solar power systems than continue to buy electricity from the local utility. Large US corporations now benefit from more than 1,000 megawatts of installed solar power. That’s up from 300 megawatts in 2012.
In its latest annual report entitled Solar Means Business, the Solar Energy Industries Association of America puts the spotlight on the 10 largest users of commercial solar energy. About half of them are retail store chains. Another quarter are distribution centers and data centers.
Target leads the way with 147 megawatts of installed solar from 300 installations. Walmart is right behind with 145 megawatts from 464 solar systems. Target is on pace to install another 70 megawatts of solar power in 2016 while Walmart has 21 megawatts of new solar power planned for this year. The full list of corporations in the top 10 is:
1. Target — 147 megawatts
2. Walmart — 145 megawatts
3. Prologis — 108 megawatts
4. Apple — 94 megawatts
5. Costco — 51 megawatts
6. Kohl’s — with 50 megawatts
7. IKEA — 44 megawatts
8. Macy’s — 39 megawatts
9. General Growth Properties — 30 megawatts
10. Hartz Mountain — 23 megawatts
10. Bed, Bath and Beyond — 23 megawatts
IKEA has installed solar systems at almost 90% of its 38 US locations, by far winning in relative terms. General Motors uses solar at 31% of its facilities and Johnson & Johnson is third in the percentage of its sites with solar power at 28%.
The current total of installed solar by large adopters such as the companies above represents 16% of all non-residential and non-utility-scale solar capacity in the country. Collectively, these systems generate 1.5 gigawatt-hours of electricity each year. That’s enough to power 193,000 homes and offset 1.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
Are corporations doing this because they are altruistic and want to help save the environment? That may be part of it, but the real motivation is money. Solar is now cheaper than conventional electrical power in many a location. Solar just makes good economic sense for businesses. It also insulates them against future price increases that utility companies routinely pass along to their customers.
Despite the idiocy issuing from inside the Trump administration, solar does mean business, as does climate action in general. Unless the Trumpster plans to order American businesses to burn coal in the basements of their stores and factories, they will seek out the most reliable and least expensive electricity they can find. For most, solar is the right answer at the right time.


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One of Pakistan’s top startups — Airlift — has suddenly announced to shut its operations in the country citing “global recession and the recent downturn in capital markets”.
Reacting to the development, Dr Umar Saif, the founder of several startups and one of the country’s top innovator, said that we should learn some lessons from the closure of the q-commerce startup, which raised $110 million in funding.
In his Facebook post, he said that there are a few lessons that we can earn from its closure:
- Don’t follow global fads. Pakistan has over 900,000 grocery stores, virtually one at the corner of every street. A handful of dark stores (warehouses) are not going to change the way people buy grocery.
- Venture capital (VC) money is not a substitute for a strong business model. Airlift’s gross revenue in 2021 was over $33 million. Net margin? Less than $800,000. That’s a net margin of less than 2.5%. A grocery corner store makes at least 10 times of this margin. Subtract overheads etc and you are looking at a company selling grocery of over Rs6 Billion in a year while posting a substantial loss!
- Gross merchandise value numbers don’t mean anything. $33 million above might sound like a big number — and apparently it was for the VCs — but remember that grocery retail is over $54 billion annually in Pakistan.
- Startups need to be run by founders, not VCs. Any startup in which founders are diluted to less than 10% equity after just two rounds of funding is looking at a team that’s simply not incentivised enough to go the extra mile. Dear VCs, please stop doing this.
Bright future ahead
“Having said this, I have no doubt that entrepreneurs who could build and grow something like Airlift has a bright future ahead. Don’t be disheartened. Next time, InshAllah. May the force be with you,” he added.
Taking to Twitter, Umar Saif said that he started “Plan 9” and helped bootstrap Pakistan’s startup ecosystem long before anyone believed in startups.
“I am on to my 7th startup now,” he added.
Saif said, “Pakistan’s first unicorn will happen. There will be temporary failures, but we will make it happen. Have faith!”


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According to NintendoWorldReport, a Wii Mini is planned for launch sometime next month. The website received an internal memo from a retailer chain, which claims that Nintendo is going to release a smaller version of the Wii console on December 7.
This is what the memo states:
Introducing the Wii Mini! Coming December 7 2012
WII MINI CONSOLE
Compact Nintendo Wii Console
Comes with Sensor Bar, Nunchuk and Wii Remote Plus with Jacket
Let's speculate for a mintue. At 44mm wide, 157mm tall, and 215.4mm deep, the Wii is one of the, if not the smallest home console to date. How could Nintendo possibly make it any smaller? One possible option would be remove the DVD-ROM entirely, and make it an Internet-only device, with Nintendo's eShop being the center of entertainment for gamers to get their games and what not.
Nintendo is yet to comment on the matter.


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Meat Industry Ireland (MII) is warning that Brexit is not only causing major disruption, but also huge additional cost and paperwork burdens.
The meat factory representative body highlighted a number of concerns in its submission to the Joint Committee on Agriculture - titled Brexit’s impact on the Agri-Food Industry.
It said it understood that the direct route to continental Europe is adding between €500 to €800 per truck and, depending on the route, costs could have increased by 40%.
It also pointed out that the additional SPS checks meant that any EU (and Irish) products that derived from an animal, such as meat or dairy, now require an export health certificate (EHC) or veterinary certificate when entering a third county, such as Great Britain.
The Department of Agriculture estimates that 350,000 extra EHCs will be needed every year now to accompany Irish food exports into Great Britain.
MII called for an automated version of the export checking system TRACES to be introduced as soon as possible to allow for a smoother checking process.


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The government also hopes by increasing access to marketinformation the project will facilitate trade by allowingfarmers in rural communities to remain informed on prices ininternational commodities markets.
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|These comments are direct quotations from the Hansard
Mr. Bernard Bigras (RosemontóLa Petite-Patrie, BQ): Mr. Speaker, on Friday, the council of environment ministers of the European Union decided to maintain the right of member states to ban certain types of genetically modified corn and rapeseed in order to protect public health and the environment, a right that is currently in dispute before the WTO.
Given Europe's decision to protect public health and the environment, will Canada consider today withdrawing its complaint before the WTO?
Hon. Andy Mitchell (Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, here in Canada we have a very clear way in which we handle GM products. It is very intense. We deal with a scrutiny in terms of any product that would come to market. Our absolute priority is to ensure the safety of Canadian consumers. That is what we do.
Mr. Bernard Bigras (RosemontóLa Petite-Patrie, BQ): Mr. Speaker, Canada, like the United States and Argentina, is contesting these bans at the WTO on the basis of freedom of trade, and contends that the product must be proven unsafe before it is banned, while Europe contends that the product must be proven safe before it is authorized.
How can the Canadian government continue its proceedings at the WTO in the name of free trade and ignore the legitimate concerns of consumers over the potential dangers of genetic modification?
Hon. Andy Mitchell (Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, Canada's position is not in terms of free trade. It is in terms of protecting Canadian consumers. Before we provide a licence to any product for distribution in this country, we make absolutely certain that we undertake the necessary investigations to ensure it is safe for Canadian consumers. That is what we do in terms of our licensing process. That is what we have done in the past and that is what we will continue to do in the future.


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Several surveys done this year have shown a significant trend in how we pay for goods and services. We are not only moving further away from cash, but moving closer to Contactless Payments. What is Contactless Payments? It is the ability to just tap your card or phone on a payment device instead of providing the card to the person at the counter or actually using the card slot on the payment device.
A survey by Fiserv, Inc. found that 67% expect to use mobile/contactless payments vs cash or checks on a permanent basis even when the pandemic is finally over. This is an increase of 27% who responded to this same survey a year ago.
Those using cash alone has decreased by about 36% since the pandemic began showing that cash payments are getting closer to becoming extinct (though it will never completely go away.)
Why are Contactless Payments gaining ground? One reason is that younger people find it easier and faster as they are more likely to have adapted the technology early on. The other reason is the perception that contactless is the safest way to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
As more people become more comfortable with contactless payments, businesses are going to have to update their equipment to meet their customers’ need to feel safe and to speed up the purchase experience.


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From Xfire: "Video game delays are nothing new. It's happened many times in the past already and it will continue happening in the future. Sometimes, things happen outside of a studio's control. Even if a game's development is going smoothly, the makers might feel that a game needs some extra time baking in the proverbial oven, which is why it gets pushed back or delayed.
Although the verdict is still out on the likes of Deathloop and Halo Infinite, one thing that we can be sure of is that the delayed games we listed below were well worth the wait."


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ROGERS PARK — Two brothers bonded by their love of magic have found a bigger space in Rogers Park to practice their craft.
Blake and Wycke Malliway reopened their witchcraft store, Malliway Bros, at 1407 W. Morse Ave. late last month. The two started their store at 1626 W. Morse Ave. in 2018 but grew out of the space over the years.
“We could only have, comfortably, 15 people in there,” Blake Malliway said. “We were turning people away left and right, which you don’t want.”
Costumed partygoers gathered to celebrate the relaunch Aug. 28.
The store — nearly double the size of the original location — is decorated with whimsical antiquities, colorful charms and candles. It has a parlor-like sitting space by the front door.
Oils, candles, charms and books from a vast collection are some of the store’s most popular products. The brothers try to sell anything someone starting out in witchcraft might need, and they’re open to stocking new items customers suggest.
The Malliways are practicing witches, and they hold seminars and workshops in the store to share their wealth of knowledge. But the brothers said they’re teaching their spin of magic and witchcraft, as there are other ways people can practice.
“We tend to view witchcraft as hands-on, getting your hands dirty, casting spells,” Blake Malliway said. “But so many people have their own interpretation, and we don’t want to say what they’re doing is wrong. It’s not our place to judge them.”
The two said there can be a difference between being a witch versus identifying as something more religious, like being a Wiccan or follower of Pagan religions.
“We typically say a witch is the practitioner of magic, and it’s not really something that has to be religious,” Wycke Malliway said.
As kids, the Malliway brothers were self-proclaimed “nerds” and were drawn to anything and everything to do with magic and witchcraft, whether that be Harry Potter books or the evil queens in Disney stories.
They remember when they realized their passion for magic and spells would follow them into adulthood.
“I think it was when my first big spells were actually happening around 10, and that was when I realized, ‘Oh my God, this is real stuff I can actually do,’” Wycke Malliway said.
Blake Malliway said he was 11 when a classmate drew a pentagram with a Gelly Roll pen on the back of his hand. He felt transformed and began practicing and researching magic.
After a brief stint vending at Pagan Pride events, the brothers settled on the idea of opening their own space to conduct workshops and sell products and art from independent artists from all over the world. This led them to Rogers Park.
The neighborhood welcomed the Malliway Bros shop with open arms, a bit to the brothers’ surprise.
“Because our last shop was between three different churches, we were going in there ready to expect some sort of backlash,” Wycke Malliway said.
Even through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the brothers managed to keep the store and its community thriving. The shop was closed from March 2020 until July. They offered curbside pickup for customers on top of virtual workshops, which attracted people from all over the United States.
“I think our own practices during COVID got stronger because we were able to step away from the world, and there was nothing else to do but delve into the magic,” Wycke Malliway said. “The community really wanted to get together, so they pushed just as much as we did to make the workshops work.”
The brothers said they’re excited to get back to hosting this fall — COVID permitting — with a calendar of events during October, including a spirit circle around Halloween.
“That’s definitely something we’re going to be bringing back, rain or shine,” Blake Malliway said.
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Marketers Can Glean Private Data on Facebook
SAN FRANCISCO — Online advertising offers marketers the chance to aim ads at very specific groups of people — say, golf players in Illinois who make more than $150,000 a year and vacation in Hawaii.
But two recent academic papers show some potential pitfalls of such precise tailoring.
Both papers focus on Facebook ads and show that in certain circumstances, advertisers — or snoops posing as advertisers — may be able to learn sensitive profile information, like a person’s sexual orientation or religion, even if the person is sharing that information only with a small circle of friends. Facebook does not share such information with advertisers.
The papers come amid an intense focus on vulnerabilities in Facebook’s privacy safeguards.
In one paper, researchers from Microsoft in India and the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems in Germany found that it was possible for an advertiser to find the stated sexual preference of Facebook users.
The researchers created six nearly identical Facebook accounts, three for men and three for women. The one significant difference was that in one account for each gender, the profile specified that the user was “interested in” people of the same sex.
Not surprisingly, the different accounts were shown different ads, because advertisers can specify what types of people they want to reach on the site. In particular, the accounts that appeared to belong to gay people received ads for things like gay bars.
But the researchers also found that the gay profiles were shown ads that were not shown to straight people and had no obvious connection to sexual preference — like those for a nursing degree at a medical college in Florida, which appeared exclusively in the gay man’s account.
If users click on such an ad and visit the advertiser’s site, they are essentially revealing to the advertiser that they are gay.
“The danger with such ads, unlike the gay bar ad where the target demographic is blatantly obvious, is that the user reading the ad text would have no idea that by clicking it he would reveal to the advertiser both his sexual preference and a unique identifier,” the researchers wrote.
The researchers did not seek evidence that any advertiser actually employed this technique. What’s more, the identifier — typically a cookie or a computer’s Internet address — does not necessarily disclose the identity of the person who clicked. But privacy experts said an advertiser could potentially obtain the name in other ways and link it to the user’s sexual orientation, perhaps by asking the person to sign up for a newsletter or fill out a form.
“This is yet another example that there are privacy landmines built into Facebook,” said Christopher Soghoian, a privacy advocate and research fellow at the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at Indiana University. “Even if the company is trying to do the right thing, when they have this many users, they are going to be a target for bad guys.”
Mr. Soghoian said that other advertising systems may have similar problems, but that most online ad systems do not allow ads aimed at sensitive characteristics like sexual orientation.
A Facebook spokesman, Barry Schnitt, defended the company’s system and said its guidelines prohibit advertisers from collecting any data about users that is obtained by running ads on the site. He also suggested that the ads for the nursing school violated its policies, because the company requires “that targeting of ads based on a user attribute be directly relevant to the offer in the advertisement.”
In a separate study, Aleksandra Korolova, a researcher at Stanford, said she was able to find the age and sexual orientation of specific Facebook users by tailoring certain ads to their profiles.
She said an attacker could use the technique to find other profile information that was not public, including relationship status and political and religious affiliation. She also said that the technique could be used on other social networks or Web sites, like Google and MySpace.
In her paper, Ms. Korolova said she used public sources to collect information like the location, gender, age and interests of a Facebook user. Then she placed an ad on Facebook that was aimed at those characteristics and also to people who are interested in people of the same sex.
If Facebook’s system indicated that the ad had been displayed to someone, she would know that the person was gay, because nobody else on Facebook was a match for those other attributes. (For ethical reasons, she used the profile of a friend in her experiment.)
In an interview, Ms. Korolova said she alerted Facebook to the issue in July. Facebook responded by changing its system so that if an advertiser’s targeting criteria is so precise that fewer than 20 people would see the ad, it is not allowed.
But Ms. Korolova said she could, in theory, circumvent that measure by creating 20 profiles to match the known characteristics of the person whose information she is trying to uncover, and then staying out of those accounts once the ad was placed.
Facebook disputed that, saying that its terms of service prohibit fake accounts and that it works hard to eliminate them. It said that if someone quickly created 20 similar accounts, its automated systems would detect them.
“We are confident that our techniques address the practical concerns of the privacy violations Aleksandra discusses,” the company said in a statement.
Mr. Soghoian said it was unlikely the attack described by Ms. Korolova could be used widely, but said it exposed yet another vulnerability in online networks.
Earlier this week, in response to an article in The Wall Street Journal, Facebook acknowledged that many popular applications on its site had improperly shared identifying information about users, and in some cases about their friends, with advertisers and Web tracking companies.
On Friday, MySpace acknowledged similar problems. It said that it had leaked some personal information to advertisers and that applications running on its site had also shared such information with third parties, in violation of its policies.


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News, opinions and advice for fast growth businesses with an eye on the horizon.
Just as you would not treat a traditional B2B transaction like this, you should not expect this from Alibaba. You need to spend time negotiating with interested buyers, building their trust and coming to an agreement.
If Austrade has specifically designed a special category under this grant for marketing consultants, it shows that they understand the limitations and the challenges around breaking into an overseas market like Asia.
So just over a year on from its $2 million capital raise led by AirTree Ventures, premium designer furniture and e-commerce retailer Brosa has announced YoY growth of more than 400 per cent.
Booming Aussie start-up Mathspace takes its maths e-learning solution to millions of college students...
Mathspace is being rolled out for use across thousands of colleges in the United States as part of an integration with MyMathLab, Pearson’s leading online homework, tutorial and assessment product.
Given the wealth of innovation here, it’s no surprise that that 38 percent of cash-generating Australian startups already have export revenue. But for that other 62 percent to really thrive, they’re going to need sell across the Indian Ocean.
Unlockd closed a $AU15 million Series A Round in early 2016 from some of the biggest names in the business community, and has recently appointed an advisor to assist with their Series B raise of up to $US30 million
mPort’s expansion into the US represents its first international market, and the technology company has received interest from every major market around the world. A three-month pilot with LA Fitness led to mPort signing an agreement with the fitness chain that will see mPods in LA Fitness centres nationally in the US, starting with California.
The difficulty lies in scaling. As an entrepreneur, it wasn’t starting up that I found difficult, but making the right calls that would allow my business to grow without losing the fundamental nature of what I wanted it to be.
For long-time friends, Sylvan Spatarel (34) and Ben Thompson (30), it was a love of business, rather than pasta, which first inspired them to turn their backs on the corporate world and invest their savings in an idea for a new hospitality offering serving fresh pasta, pan cooked to-order.
The team that brought cinema on demand to Australia have launched a new, globally scalable platform that will enable independent filmmakers to negotiate a...
In Australia, creative industries currently contribute $90 billion annually to the economy – with CEA arguing that Federal Government support could drive that contribution much higher as it has in the UK and other international economies.
A feasibility study for ProjectR has begun, which will include developing designs for the state-of-the-art complex, and has been funded by some Wellington-based IT and technology businesses, who are collaborating on the project.
Redbubble, the online creative marketplace powered by more than 400,000 independent artists, announced recently that it will be opening its first European office in Berlin in early 2017, signalling a period of rapid international growth for the company.
Queensland cruise operator Frankland Islands Cruises, and New South Wales technology company Intersective are among the first Australian small businesses to benefit from export funding through the Small Business Export Loan, the latest finance offering for small businesses from Efic, Australia’s export finance agency.
Cedars-Sinai has received a grant award of US $600,000 from the United States National Institutes of Health for the purchase of 4Dx’s new preclinical lung scanner, making Cedars-Sinai the first institution scheduled to purchase this advanced instrument, which can help detect lung diseases in their early stages.
It is clear from these growth figures that there is a huge untapped market for Australian companies to sell goods and services to Chinese consumers through online channels. However, this market can be notoriously difficult to do business in.
Australia’s first marketplace for home loans, HashChing recently announced its $1 billion of home loans milestone as momentum builds for the Sydney based fintech company.
When you run your own business, one of the most consistent and common causes of sleepless nights is the people you employ. But it...
When you started your business, you probably had certain ideas about how things were going to play out. The goal was a humming, streamlined...
Okay, tell me if this sounds familiar? You’re a small business operator, or maybe the CFO of a small company. It’s your job to stay on...


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In the fourth quarter of 2009, worldwide server shipments grew 4,5% year-on-year, while revenue fell 3,2 per cent, says Gartner.
“The recovery that began in the third quarter of 2009 based on x86 servers extended into the fourth quarter,” says Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice-president at Gartner. “However, it is important to put this into context. The fourth quarter of 2008 was quite weak, so the fourth quarter of 2009 did not have to produce huge x86 server numbers to result in an increase. At the same time, other segments like RISC/Itanium Unix and mainframes remained constrained and that exerted downward pressure on overall vendor revenue results.
"Blade servers pushed ahead with growth of 11,1% in shipments and 22,1% in vendor revenue for the period. RISC/Itanium Unix servers, on the other hand, dropped 30,5% in shipments and fell 20% in revenue in the fourth quarter," Hewitt adds.
Regions that grew in shipments were Asia/Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, and the US, at 19,6%, 13,4% and 9%, respectively. Canada, Eastern Europe, Japan, Latin America and Western Europe had shipment declines of 9,4%, 13,3%, 1,7%, 6,8%, and 4%, respectively. Regions that grew in vendor revenue were Asia/Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa at 9,1%, 22,1%, and 9,4%t, respectively. Canada, Eastern Europe, Japan, the US and Western Europe had sales declines of 1,7%, 26,2%, 6,7%, 5,1%, and 9,2%, respectively.
IBM continued to lead the worldwide server market based on revenue. In the fourth quarter of 2009, IBM's server revenue was about $4,1-billion, reflecting a 5,9% year-on-year decline. IBM's market share was 32,7%, a 1 percentage point decline. System x grew, while System p and System z posted declines for the quarter.
Of the top five global vendors, HP, Dell and Fujitsu grew in revenue for the quarter while IBM and Sun posted declines.
In server shipments, HP remained the worldwide leader for the fourth quarter of 2009 with a year-on-year shipment increase of 3,8%. The ProLiant brand showed growth in shipments while all of its other brands fell in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared with the fourth quarter of 2008.
Of the top 10 vendors in server shipments worldwide, all but NEC and Sun had shipment increases for the period.
The results for the quarter were centred around demand for x86 servers which increased in shipments by 6,3% and in revenue by 14,3% for the fourth quarter of 2009.
2009 was highly challenging in the worldwide server space. Worldwide server shipments declined 16,6% in 2009 compared with 2008, while 2009 server revenue declined 18,3% from 2008.
Blade servers posted a revenue increase of 1,3% and a shipment decrease of 11,4%t for the year. HP was the 2009 leader with blade servers at 46,8% shipment share. IBM was in the number two position at 28,2%. These two vendors continued to dominate this form factor.
The outlook for 2010 suggests a return to shipment growth in the middle or high single digits and revenue growth at a slightly lower level. These increases are being buffered by the use of x86 server virtualisation to consolidate physical machines as they are replaced.
In Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), server shipments surpassed 676 000 units in the fourth quarter of 2009, a decline of 4% from the same period last year. Server revenue totalled $3,9-billion in the fourth quarter of 2009, a decline of 9,8% from the same quarter last year.
“The EMEA server shipment market exhibited a single-digit decline in the fourth quarter of 2009, which is an improvement from the double-digit decline registered in the third quarter of 2009,” says Errol Rasit, senior analyst at Gartner. “It also exhibited sequential growth from the third quarter of 2009. These recent market results indicate that levels of demand are starting to steadily recover, however customers remain relatively cautious.”
In the x86 market, total volumes in EMEA declined 2,6% compared to the fourth quarter of 2008.”This is a marked improvement from the 22% decline seen in the third quarter of 2009. However, the fourth quarter’s growth is compared to a weaker 2008 result,” says Rasit.
In the fourth quarter of 2009, HP held the number one position, exhibiting a marginal decline of 0,5% and further extended its market share lead. Dell, in the numbe two spot, declined 6,5% in shipments and 8,7% in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2009. IBM, ranked number three, was the only one of the top five vendors to exhibit growth, with a 6% increase in the fourth quarter of 2009. Its performance was primarily driven by its rack-optimised and blade business. Of the top five vendors, Fujitsu exhibited the weakest performance with a decline of 13%, although Fujitsu grew x86 revenues as a result of improved sales with richer configurations and a new blade product.
RISC and Itanium Unix revenues declined 22% in the fourth quarter of 2009. Sun led the segment in the fourth quarter despite a decline of 28% and a loss of 2% revenue share year-on-year. HP, ranked number two, exhibited a revenue decline of 31% year-on-year, while IBM in the number three position saw its revenue decline 9%.
For these three vendors, the slower recovery of RISC IPF Unix compared to x86 in EMEA is similar to global trends. IBM and HP will release major platform refreshes in 2010, which will ultimately delay purchases among some customers in anticipation of the new systems. The acquisition of Sun by Oracle which was not complete in the fourth quarter of 2009 made some customers hold back investment in anticipation of news following the completion of the acquisition.
Bull held the number four position and grew revenue by 13% as a result of strong investment in France. Fujitsu, which ranked number five in this segment, declined revenue by 45% in the fourth quarter of 2009 as a result of increased focus on x86 sales.
In 2009, the second half outpaced the first half in both shipment or revenue terms as the server market began to recover. HP maintained its top position in shipment terms, improving share by 1,3% from 2008. Although Dell and IBM lost market share by less than 1% each, they maintained their respective number two and number three positions. In revenue terms, HP remained the market leader improving share along with second-placed IBM by 0,3%. Sun lost 1% share, declining 33% in 2009.
In the first quarter of 2010, Gartner foresees a continued improvement in server market demand, primarily driven by the x86 segment.
“Based on improvements in the x86 market it is likely the EMEA server market will return to volume growth in the first half of 2010, although revenue will take slightly longer to recover,” says Rasit.


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Mojio has partnered with MetroPCS to power the prepaid brand’s comprehensive connected car solution, MetroSMART Ride.
As part of the partnership, Mojio will deliver a suite of telco-grade IoT solutions to MetroPCS, including the company’s cloud platform service and mobile apps for connected cars.
This is Mojio’s eighth deployment of an operator-branded IoT service, representing more than 750,000 connected cars in five countries across North America and Europe.
Mojio’s team has developed proven solutions that unlock immediate revenue from IoT services, facilitate valuable net-adds to the network and help in reducing customer churn. As part of its value-added offerings, Mojio partners with operators to define, design and deploy go-to-market strategies that enhance all aspects of the customer journey, while also delivering specialized services across product management, marketing, merchandising, sales training and customer care.


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Herbal medicine plays an integral role in healthcare delivery in Ghana. According to a report by the World Health Organisation, about 80% of the population in developing countries including Ghana rely on herbal medicine to treat various ailments.
However, there are concerns about the safety and efficacy of some of these herbal medications. Medical practitioners have attributed some liver and kidney cases to the consumption of fake and unlicensed herbal medicines due to the toxicity of some of these products.
This has resulted in a growing interest in the regulation of herbal and traditional medicine. There are, however, perceived lapses in the regulation leading to the proliferation of fake and unregistered products in the market.
The media which is the main platform through which herbal medicine advertisers reach their audience. In its traditional gatekeeping role, the media has a responsibility to educate the general public about herbal medicines and their abuse so that consumers of these medicines can do so with informed perspectives. However, many are concerned that the media is not only shirking its gatekeeping role but is also validating unlicensed and fake herbal medicines.
To address these concerns, the Media Foundation for West Africa is holding a Public Forum on Media and Herbal Medicine Advertising in Ghana. The forum will be a one-day event which will come off on September 14, 2023, at the Kofi Annan ICT Centre in Accra.
The forum will host the Ghana Country Representative of the World Health Organization, Dr. Francis Kasolo, who will deliver the keynote address. The public forum will also bring together all major stakeholders in the media and public health sector including the Ministry of Health, the Food and Drugs Authority and the National Media Commission.
A key highlight of the forum will be the screening of an investigative story on the herbal medicine market in Ghana by The Fourth Estate, an accountability journalism project of the MFWA.
Stakeholders and health sector regulators who will be in attendance will be expected to come out with actionable recommendations for the media in regard to the advertisement of herbal medicine.


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NEWS ALERT: Carnival unveils new 'cash back' promotion for summer cruises. Click HERE for details.
Remember the Cruise Log story a month ago that warned cruisers fares could be heading up?
At the time some readers questioned the premise, saying the travel agents quoted in the story were shamelessly trying to drum up business with a "better book now" message.
But higher prices is exactly what has occurred over the past month on many itineraries for spring and early summer, says industry watcher Paul Motter, editor of CruiseMates.com.
Motter puts together a twice-a-week newsletter on deals, and he notes that just last week prices rose in most regions between the time of his first newsletter on Monday and his second one on Thursday.
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On Monday, Motter mentioned a balcony cabin on the May 15 sailing of the Celebrity Solstice that was going for $1,348 per person. By Thursday, the price had shot up to $1,519. Similarly, the starting price for a May 23 Baltic cruise on Holland America's Eurodam was $999 per person on Thursday, up from $977 on Monday. The price of a balcony cabin on the sailing had jumped to $1,299 from $1,268.
"I still see (some) cruise fares lower than they were a month ago, but I also see many that are higher," Motter says. "Cruise lines use the yield management model where more sales consume inventory and drive prices higher. The longer you wait the higher the price can get."
Motter's advice for would-be cruisers who spot a good deal for spring or summer: Book it. "There is no guarantee the cruise you want to take will be cheaper next week," he says. "There will certainly still be some last minute sales - but (if you wait for a last-minute sale) the best staterooms may already be sold out, and the low airfare currently available might disappear."
Another longtime industry watcher, CruiseCritic.com editor Carolyn Spencer Brown, concurs.
"There are still outstanding, deeply discounted fares to be found even as Wave Season begins to wane," she says. "But here's the caveat: cruise lines are all trumpeting the fact that Wave Season, in terms of quantity of cruises sold, has been very successful. It's been successful because cruise lines discounted so deeply. What that means, however, is that a lot of inventory's now off the market."
Spencer Brown says she's seeing strong demand for hot new ships like Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas, debuting in December (with inside cabins priced at a stunning $2,600 a week for January). Royal Caribbean's Freedom class ships also are selling at healthy prices, not only in the Caribbean but in Europe, she says. "On the other hand, cruises on older ships in fleets, such as NCL's Norwegian Sky and Carnival's Holiday, are typically dirt cheap."
The bottom line? "Discounts are still out there, especially with 'last-minute' cruises," says Spencer Brown. "But you do have to shop around."
Cruise Loggers, are you still finding good discounts on spring and summer cruises? Let's talk cruise deals in the comment area below.
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DID YOU KNOW? USA TODAY's Gene Sloan is now on Twitter. Follow him at twitter.com/CruiseLog.
Photo of Celebrity Solstice courtesy Celebrity Cruises


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President Barack Obama speaks about the economy at the Los Angeles Trade-Technical College in Los Angeles, Thursday, July 24, 2014, on the final day of his three-day West Coast trip.
Workers build SUVs at a General Motors plant in March. (Kye R. Lee, McClatchy News Service). By Jerry Hirsch contact the reporter · Automotive IndustryEconomy, Business and FinanceEarnings ForecastsHighway and Road DisastersGeneral MotorsProduct ...
Asian equity markets were mostly higher on the final trading day of the week following another record close for the S&P 500 overnight.
Asian stocks were mixed early on Friday, with a weaker yen helping Japan lead the region higher at the end of a positive week. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.5% as the yen softened against the dollar�a positive for the country's exporters.
Fast food chain McDonald's has suspended sale of chicken nuggets and some other products in Hong Kong. It said it had imported chicken and pork from Shanghai Husi Food, the Chinese firm that allegedly supplied out of date meat to fast food firms.


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Cannabis industry leaders are launching the Council for Federal Cannabis Regulation.
The goal of this independent, tax-exempt nonprofit is to help cannabis become a mainstream consumer goods product by educating federal regulators, legislators and people from outside the industry.
Sheri Orlowitz, founding partner of Artemis Holdings and a Marijuana Policy Project board member, introduced the council and its team members Monday at the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference in Miami Beach.
Tickets to the next Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference in Detroit, Michigan April 1 are available now.
Regulating Hemp CBD For Foods, Beverages
The council’s first order of business is to help develop a pathway for hemp-derived CBD to be infused in food and beverages.
The council has already sat down with the FDA and understands the agency’s position, Orlowitz said.
As a former Justice Department prosecutor, Orlowitz said she “almost stutters” at the idea of regulating cannabis federally.
Yet she said the way to achieve these goals is to have world-class experts to whom the FDA is accustomed to speaking.
For this reason, Orlowitz said she has assembled a group of people that she believes are the right fit for the job.
The CFCR will be composed of four committees: a Corporate & Business Committee, a Legal and Government and Relations Committee, a Scientific Advisory Committee and a Diversity and Social Equity Committee.
Its founding members are, along with Orlowitz, Jeffrey Dunetz, managing partner at Artemis Holdings Group; Steven Hawkins, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project; Mike Froy and Eric Berlin of Dentons LLP; and Charlie Black, chairman of the Prime Policy Group.
Bruce Linton, former CEO of Canopy Growth Corp (NYSE: CGC), is also supporting the CFCR as head of the Corporate & Business Council.
“That kind of skill set is what we need in this industry to have an open mind with a science background and the understanding of entrepreneurship, as well as the understanding of how the FDA works,” said Orlowitz.
The cannabis investor said she expects the FDA will begin to look at CBD as a possible dietary supplement, although at this point the agency does not generally believe the compound to be completely safe for human consumption.
“That’s the initial conversation we’re going to have. I expect the FDA to move CBD away from the regulatory nightmare that it has given us, and I expect that we’ll get to it by the end of the year, maybe sooner.”
Photo by Natan Poneiman.
See more from Benzinga
© 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.


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ADK announced the launch of ADK Connect, a performance-marketing unit. The offering will be available initially in the network's Singapore, Bangkok, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Taipei and Vietnam offices, with expansion to the entire network expected within 12 months.
As part of this effort, ADK announced it has acquired shares in a Vietnamese independent digital agency called VietBuzzAd. Based in Ho Chi Minh City, VietBuzzAd will be rebranded as VBA.
ADK Connect will offer end-to-end digital services, using data analytics to empower creative planning and performance campaigns, the company said. The unit will also deliver KPI-driven audience targeting, content personalization, optimization and customer conversion, along with accountability, measurability and transparency, it added.
“ADK Connect takes us into the next stage of our growth in Asia, focused on bringing future-facing solutions to our client partners," Yasu Katagi, CEO of ADK global operations, said in a release. The offering will deploy "best trends, tech and practices to develop new tactics and strategies to optimise results", he added.
Nguyen Huu Hanh, CEO and founder of VietBuzzAd, said joining ADK will provide strong integrated digital solutions for ADK clients, enable further growth with existing clients and open up great opportunities in other markets.


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After a series of teasers, Skoda has released the first official images with the Fabia R5 set to be showcased starting Saturday in Essen.
Acting like a replacement for the Fabia S2000, the new R5 is based on the third generation Fabia supermini but with the typical motorsport-spec enhancements such as a wider and more aerodynamic body, roof scoop, rear wing, race wheels, enlarged brakes and a stiffer suspension setup. It has also gained a centrally-positioned exhaust, Michelin tires and tiny side mirrors.
To comply with FIA regulations, the Skoda Fabia R5 will be powered by a four-cylinder, 1.6-liter turbocharged gasoline engine mated to five-speed sequential gearbox all wrapped around in a body weighing at least 1,230 kg (2,711 lbs). It will also benefit from MacPherson struts and a stripped-down interior to shave off excess weight.
Skoda says customer racing teams have already shown their interest in the Fabia R5 which will compete starting next year in the WRC 2 series.


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Pete Davidson’s ‘Kim’ Kardashian Tattoo Is Actually a Brand (Yes, Like From a Branding Iron)
During the Wednesday (March 16) episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the reality star revealed that the Saturday Night Live comedian has multiple tattoos in honor of her. His most obvious tribute, which simply reads "Kim," isn't actually ink though — it's a brand.
“[It] isn’t a tattoo, it’s actually a branding,” Kardashian shared. “Because he wanted to do something that was really different.”
Davidson told Kardashian that he didn't "want to be able to get rid of it or to cover it up," that he "just wanted it there as a scar on me.”
If that wasn't enough, Davidson also "has a few [cute] tattoos" for Kardashian all over his body.
When the talk show host probed for the exact number of tattoos and questioned if Davidson had three, the KKW Beauty mogul said he beau has "a little more than that.”
Although Kardashian would not reveal all of his tattoos dedicated to her, she did reveal her favorite.
"My favorite one … says, ‘My girl is a lawyer,'” she shared.
Davidson apparently sent the rapper a message sharing he was "in bed with your wife" alongside a shirtless selfie that featured "Kim" across the side of his chest. Fans initially believe it was a new tattoo, but now we know it's a brand.
Davidson previously went under the needle to honor of a number of past relationships.