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TPEC Pool Enclosures provide a large range of premium commercial and residential retractable swimming pool, spa and terrace enclosures throughout Australia, servicing residential, local government…read more
South China Morning Post reports on ‘the dark side’ of Hong Kong’s fitness industry
Respected Hong Kong newspaper the South China Morning Post has revealed how sales tactics at city’s gyms have come under fire for misleading and intimidating customers.
In a recent feature, reported Raymond Yeung revealed an industry of staff facing relentless pressure to meet ambitious sales targets, cutthroat competition between colleagues and staff meetings where under-performers are ridiculed in front of everyone else.
Such is the highly stressful work atmosphere for personal trainers at many of Hong Kong’s top gyms, according to one personal trainer, a former employee of a major gym chain, who described the industry to the Post.
He said it was “a cruel business” and that the pressure to meet sales targets could lead to unscrupulous tactics.
Many trainers work on commission and are expected to sign up a constant stream of new customers to extended and complicated membership contracts.
This dark side of the fitness industry was highlighted earlier this year when the Hong Kong Consumer Council (HKCC) took the drastic step of naming and shaming California Fitness for intimidation and misleading sales practices.
It accused the firm of pressuring new and existing members into signing hefty contracts for memberships and taking up expensive personal trainer classes.
Of 577 complaints against gyms last year, 296, or 51%, involved California Fitness. The situation seemed to worsen when the HKCC received 71 complaints between January and March against the chain, a 29% surge year on year.
Billed as a major step forward for consumer protection in Hong Kong, an amendment to the Trade Descriptions Ordinance came into force in July 2013 outlawing aggressive or misleading trade practices with offenders subject to a fine of HK$500,000 and five years in prison.
From more than 9,100 complaints the Customs and Excise Department received until February last year, prosecutions were made in only 99 - or 1% - of the cases.
Other traders were either let off with a warning, or avoided prosecution by providing a written undertaking.
While the Consumer Council handles complaints and conducts its own investigations, it is not a law-enforcement agency and hence cases have to be passed on to Customs for prosecution.
Hong Kong’s Customs Department recently arrested two workers at California Fitness on allegations they charged a customer’s credit card for HK$140,000 to pay for more than 100 private classes without her consent.
HKCC Chief Executive Gilly Wong Fung-han has urged the Hong Kong Government to study existing legislation saying that the intimidating and misleading methods used by the fitness and beauty industries had become more rampant in recent years.
She also called for legislation to introduce a cooling-off period to contracts as a way to safeguard consumer rights.
While the California Fitness case highlighted worst aspects of the trade, the South China Morning Post highlighted how other operators have a better reputation.
Operating nine clubs in Hong Kong with 18,000 active members, Fitness First differentiates itself from its so-called ‘budget’ counterparts by providing premium and honest services.
Fitness First Hong Kong Managing Director Ken Mok said transparency was one of the company’s main goals when laying down business strategies.
For example, the longest membership that one can sign up for is 24 months and comes with a monthly payment option, avoiding exorbitant upfront costs.
Sales consultants are also banned from negotiating their own contract terms and maximise commission.
Mok explained “we don’t aim for sales volume.”
He said the firm would rather charge customers more and ensure their satisfaction than compromise on quality and pointed out that Fitness First had maintained a ‘seven-day money back’ policy since its first club opened in 2002.
Physical Beauty and Fitness, the largest chain in Hong Kong with 21 outlets across the city, also introduced a seven-day cooling-off period for customers in August 2015.
A spokesman said the measure allowed customers sufficient time to “assess their practical needs” and make changes or cancel if they are not satisfied.
Click here to read the original article in the South China Morning Post.
23rd June 2016 - ARNOLD CLASSIC ASIA MARKS EXPANSION ACROSS SIX CONTINENTS
6th December 2015 - ACCC URGES BUSINESSES TO CHECK THAT THEIR CONTRACTS ARE FAIR
17th December 2015 - HONG KONG FITNESS COACH JAILED OVER HK$1.4 MILLION CREDIT CARD FRAUD
19th August 2015 - ONLINE FITNESS PASSES AID HONG KONG EXERCISERS
6th December 2010 - CALIFORNIA FITNESS’ LATEST HONG KONG CLUB
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New York Fashion Week: Men's is certainly game for a little experimentation. Since its inaugural outing last year, the men's-focused fashion week is doing everything to establish that New York is one design capital that can't be slept on. But it's not just about fashion shows and celebrity attendees; New York's designers are doing everything they can to put on for their city—even letting shoppers cop runway looks the moment they step off the catwalk.
Nautica—looking to add some technologic twists to the average fashion week runway show—will be offering five distinct looks for sale directly following their NYFW:M show. Featuring everything from knitwear to outerwear, the gear will be live on the brand's webshop hours after it debuts on the runway at 3 p.m. on Feb 2.
Shoppable runways aren't the only tech that Nautica is tapping for it's show. Aside from livestreaming the runway and a Nautica-exclusive Snapchat geofilter, the brand will be utilizing Twitter's "Twitter Mirror." Just like prior uses at award shows, the Twitter Mirror will allow backstage attendees to autograph, hashtag, and physically interact with their tweets.
With these technologic touchces, Nautica is bringing NYFW:M into the 21st Century.

domain: news


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Manufacturers will save about $261 billion over the next decade thanks to the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. On paper, that should lead to new investments — in equipment, in workforce and beyond.
How can an operations strategy benefit your company? The easiest answer is that the business achieves more with it than without it.
The money will be used to build and buy mills as well as repay debt.
Companies from Kraft Heinz to Conagra are seen as possible suitors next year as food giants struggle to generate growth.
Snyder's-Lance brands include Snyder's of Hanover, Cape Cod, Pop Secret and Kettle Brand.
Consider these three ideas to reduce variation.
An on-demand IndustryWeek-hosted webinar, sponsored by Kronos Incorporated


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For today’s big news, Hogshead Publishing has just announced that as of November 30th, the company will be leaving the adventure-gaming industry. As the press release stated, the company hasn’t gone broke or anything. Instead, the shutdown is because “we are bored, creatively frustrated, and increasingly despondent about the future of the specialist games industry. After our successes in 2002, particularly the mould-breaking and critically acclaimed games Nobilis and De Profundis, we think we’ve gone as far as we can and this seems a suitable high-point on which to call it a day.”
So what’s to become of the Hogshead games, now bereft of a company? Nobilis will now reside at , while the English-language licence for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay has gone back to Games Workshop. SLA Industries is back under the control of Nightfall Games, and Warpstone magazine will continue under its own imprint. All future products previously announced by Hogshead are cancelled, except for the Nobilis line which GOO is taking over, and the full-length Warhammer FRP adventure Fear the Worst by Michael Mearls, which Hogshead will make available as a free PDF download from its website “as a farewell-and-thank-you present to all our players and fans.” A small amount of backstock has been retained by Hogshead for mail order, which will continue for a while, but the rest has already been sold off to distributors.
Check back with OgreCave later today for our exclusive interview with James Wallis, Director of Hogshead Publishing, on the shutdown decision, the state of the industry today, and whatever else we manage to wring out of him.


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If you own a Samsung Smart TV in the UK, your catch-up options have just increased. Samsung have just launched the promised Channel 5 catch-up–TV service, Demand 5.
Users can download the app from the Smart TV App store from their Samsung TV set, just press the smart button. The service gives access to on-demand content from hit shows such as The Gadget Show, Neighbours and Home and Away.
Demand 5 is available for all 2011 and 2012 smart TV models from Samsung. Speaking about the app for Channel 5, Paul Thornton-Jones, Head of Digital Media said, “Samsung is a crucial element of our strategy as we look to bring our video-on-demand services to as many viewers as possible, across as broad a range of devices as possible. To do so, we’ve reoptimised the app for the big screen, ensuring that viewers get the best possible experience at home.”
Speaking for Samsung, Guy Kinnell, the UK TV/AV director said, “We want to bring our customers as many entertainment options as possible, so they can watch their favourite shows at the most convenient times for them. We’re satisfied that Demand 5 will make a superb addition to the Samsung Smart TV platform, and we’re delighted that our customers have the best catch-up choices around.”


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Kia's groundbreaking Stinger hatchback is fresh out of the oven. Its cousin, the Genesis G70, hasn't been seen yet. But after the Kia's Detroit auto show debut, the question is already brewing: What's the difference between the two?
Answering definitively will be crucial for Kia and Genesis. Both cars look to challenge the established compact sport sedans; to do so effectively they'll need to carve out different identities from each other -- despite sharing most of their hardware -- and from their competitors.
While executives who worked on both cars weren't necessarily eager to take up the question, the clearest signal came from Albert Biermann, head of vehicle testing for Kia and Hyundai.


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SAN JOSE, CA, Leader in ultra-low power Wi-Fi connectivity for the Internet of Things (IoT), announced today that it has closed a $19 million funding.
GainSpan Corporation, a leader in ultra-low power Wi-Fi connectivity for the Internet of Things (IoT), announced today that it has closed a $19 million funding, with participation of two new strategic investors: Zebra Technologies Corporation and Oplink Communications, Inc. Existing investors, Opus Capital, Intel Capital, New Venture Partners, Sigma Partners, Camp Ventures and Hatteras Funds, have also participated in the financing.
GainSpan will use the new funding to extend its leadership position in IoT Wi-Fi and to complete development and launch its recently introduced GS2000 based family of chips, modules and application development kits. The GS2000 is the industry's first chip to combine Wi-Fi and ZigBee IP on a single die and extends IP connectivity to more devices than ever before. According to technology research firm ABI Research, the number of "things" that will connect wirelessly to the internet is expected to reach 17 billion by 2015 and over 30 billion by 2020.
"Zebra is committed to providing more products and solutions to help businesses take advantage of the Internet of Things in their operations to gain greater visibility into their value chains. We are excited about how GainSpan's unique technology can enable new categories of products to become a part of the Internet of Things," said Phil Gerskovich, senior vice president new growth platforms, Zebra Technologies Corporation.
"GainSpan is recognized as a leader in low-power Wi-Fi technology," said Joe Liu, CEO of Oplink Communications, Inc. "We invested in GainSpan because its technology further strengthens Oplink Security's smart, cloud-based home and small business security alert service offerings."
"In this fast-growing IoT market space, our low-power Wi-Fi technology continues to be the leading choice among device and appliance manufacturers for connecting devices," added Greg Winner, president and CEO of GainSpan. "Our new family of GS2000 Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi/ZigBee IP chips and modules are on their way to penetrating new markets this year by making possible a whole new class of battery or line-powered connected devices. This funding will be used to help these products proliferate into a broad range of end products and to expand our sales, marketing and technical resources as we grow our customer base."
About GainSpan Corporation
GainSpan, a spinoff of Intel Corporation, is an innovator and leader in semiconductor solutions for wireless connectivity for the rapidly emerging Internet of Things. GainSpan's solutions let customers quickly and easily create connected products for smart energy, healthcare and control/monitoring in industrial, commercial and residential markets. With a broad portfolio of state-of the art low-power Wi-Fi and ZigBee/Wi-Fi chips, modules and software, GainSpan is changing the world by connecting Things to the Internet and People to Things. GainSpan is a member of the Wi-Fi Alliance and the ZigBee Alliance. www.gainspan.com
(c)2011-2020 by Massinvestor, Inc. For contact info, please check out our about


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Newswise — Do diet drinks help or hinder those trying to lose weight? New research from Texas Christian University (TCU) suggests that no-calorie sweeteners may lead to diet-sabotaging choices.
For the study, published this month in the journal Appetite, researchers conducted three experiments in which 116 participants ages 18 to 25 were randomly given an unmarked cup filled with either a non-caloric sweetened beverage (a diet soda), a sugar sweetened beverage (regular soda) or non-sweetened beverage (sparkling water). Researchers then measured their cognition, snack choices and responses to sugary food.
In the first experiment, the diet soda drinkers were faster to identify the names of high-calorie foods (like hamburger or milkshake) than participants who drank a non-sweetened or sugar-sweetened beverage. “There was no difference among the groups in identifying the words of low-calorie foods like ‘apple’ or ‘carrot’,” says study author Sarah Hill, associate professor of psychology at TCU. “It seems that drinking a non-caloric drink may prime you to choose unhealthy food items. Those foods are on your mind.”
In the second experiment, participants – who were told they were taking part in a consumer product study – were given the choice to take home a bag of chocolate candy, a pack of sugar-free gum or a bottle of spring water. The diet soda drinkers were significantly more likely to choose the high-calorie candy than were the participants who had regular soda or sparkling water.
Finally, to test participants’ response to sugar, researchers had the volunteers eat as many cookies as they wanted and then report on their satisfaction. “We found that drinking a diet drink didn’t change how many cookies they ate,” says Hill, “but the participants who had the diet drink did report feeling less satisfied after eating.”
But don’t think sugary beverages get a free pass.
Hill notes that, in the sugar response experiment, there was no difference in the number of cookies eaten by those who drank regular soda and plain water. “People just don’t seem to compensate for the calories consumed in a beverage,” says Hill. “Even if we consciously think about it, a less deliberate part of our mind might not really register those calories.”
“The totality of these studies suggests that drinking artificially sweetened beverages can have unintended consequences and, over time, may influence choices that can affect weight loss goals,” she says.


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In a well-attended session on the last morning of NRF 2019: Retail’s Big Show, Jeff Beer, senior staff editor at Fast Company, interviewed Rose Marcario, president and CEO of Patagonia Works and Patagonia Inc., about her company’s approach to living by its beliefs. Or, as Beer put it, whether you can do good and do good business at the same time.
Beer began by asking Marcario why Patagonia had changed its mission statement. “For a long time, the mission statement was, ‘Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis,’” he said. Recently, though, the company changed it to “Patagonia is in business to save our home planet.”
“The original mission statement was developed in the 1990s, and at the time it was sort of a groundbreaking thing to say we’re going to do no unnecessary harm, which meant that we would consider the impact our supply chain was having on the environment,” Marcario said.
“And it took years, I think, for the company to really embody that mission statement. Why did we change it? Because the climate crisis isn’t a forecast anymore. It’s real. It’s happening.”
Some of it happened recently to Patagonia, which is headquartered in Ventura, Calif., in an area affected by the wildfires of last summer and fall. “Seventy-five percent of my employees were evacuated because of these fires,” said Marcario. “We were talking with the firemen on the ground and they said they’d never seen anything like it — and that the techniques they were using weren’t working, because we’ve hit a dire state with the planet.”
In addition to changing the mission statement, Patagonia has become more direct about its political activism. As a result of the much-debated Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, for example, Patagonia received a $10 million reduction in federal taxes — all of which it donated to grassroots environmental organizations in what Beer called “a sort of generous protest” against those very tax cuts.
In 2018, and for the first time, the company endorsed a pair of political candidates, Jacky Rosen in Nevada and incumbent Senator Jon Tester in Montana, who have been outspoken on environmental and public lands issues. “It’s like you wanted to make your voice a little louder,” said Beer. “It’s not just about doing things anymore, but about communicating them.”
“It feels like a proportional response to what’s going on,” Marcario said. “In the very early stages of the current administration, they did something that had never been done in the history of the United States. With the stroke of a pen, they eliminated 3 million acres of public land. It’s being challenged in court now, and we’re one of the companies challenging it. That’s our heritage. Our national parks and public lands are sacred places.”
Turning to possible economic effects, Beer said, “So much of the discussion around companies doing these sorts of things, whether it’s taking political stands on social issues or even looking too deeply at their supply chain and sustainability, has to do with risk, whether it’s risk to profits or risk to their brand and reputation. Talk to me a little bit about that.”
“This last decade has been the best we’ve ever had in terms of our overall business,” said Marcario. “We grew out of a catalog company, so we’ve always had a very close relationship with our customers. People find the brand because they’re interested in the product, or someone introduces it to them, or they’re on the mountain and they go to a specialty shop that has our product. Then they get to know us, and they get to have a relationship with us. For us, the activism hasn’t been a big risk.”
As for other business leaders pondering activism? “The companies that do it in a way that’s really consistent with their values are rewarded for it,” Marcario said. “I think anybody who runs a company now is dealing with the issue of how divided the country is, and how bad that is for the country. I’ve got employees that don’t want to go home and see their families at Christmas. We’ve got to work on that as leaders.”
Patagonia worked on a campaign last year called Time to Vote, joining with 400 other CEOS to give employees time off to vote. “Good bipartisan initiative is necessary,” Marcario said, “and supply chain is the same thing. We were one of the first fair-trade apparel companies. We did the heavy lifting for the bigger companies that use those factories, and now they can become fair trade. There are things we can do together as an industry that will be really important to preserving this planet that we love, and to creating a better, more just world.”


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By Najib Aminy
The most expensive item the Reverend of the Church of Stop Shopping has is an espresso machine imported from Italy, which was given as gift. “It’s taking over our life,” jokes Savitri Durkee, director of the Church of Stop Shopping and wife of the Reverend. “It’s the fanciest thing we have. It’s fancier than our car.”
Entering their second-floor Brooklyn apartment blocks away from Prospect Park, books upon books covered the walls with no television or Christmas tree in sight, only a laptop with a sticker of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger covering the Apple logo. “I don’t get him too much, is he a Democrat or is he a Republican? He is confusing,” said Durkee.
His voicemail recording leaves callers with a “cellphonelujah,” and his message urges listeners to “stop shopping.” Emulating what he calls an iconic, toxic figure in American history, Bill Talen puts on a white dinner jacket, slacks, a black-tee, and a $5 priest’s collar and becomes Reverend Billy.
Hard to miss, the six foot, three inch reverend from Minnesota, who is usually accompanied by his not-for-profit gospel choir, treads Wall Street to Main Street, preaching economic justice, environmental protection and protesting sweatshops, among other topics. “It is really hard to generalize about what is going on,” said Talen. “Our role from day-to-day is changing so much. Our role is changing, but the world is changing.”
Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping has waged crusades against multinational corporations including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Starbucks Co., Victoria’s Secret and the Walt Disney Company. Armed with a 35-member choir, a large cardboard megaphone and a message, Talen goes into these stores to perform “exorcisms” on cash registers in what he calls “retail interventions.”
Protesting with out the picket signs and angry mob, Talen and his church practice an integration of comedic performance protesting. Talen began going into “big box” stores such as Disney in 1997 where he and his followers would pose as customers chatting on their phones, becoming increasingly louder as they addressed the corporate abuses by Disney. “It was very unusual, it was not the same thing as protestors chaining themselves to Mickey Mouse,” said Durkee. “‘You mean that person over there can be doing a political action?’ It captures the imagination in a certain way.”
Though most preachers flocked to Times Square for its notoriety of sin, Talen spoke out against the gentrification and removal of locally owned businesses. “Back then Times Square was not where you would take your 10-year-old neice from Omaha, but a place like that getting cleansed is very unsettling,” said Durkee. Talen witnessed his friends and their businesses being removed by corporations, ultimately creating an outside shopping mall. “I was losing friends, my friends in the neighborhood were getting swept up into jails, shelters and God knows where by Giulliani’s police working with the Disney company,” said Talen. “Diner shops, barber shops, small independent proprietors, many who have been there for decades.”
Personally affected, Talen said he became informed that behind the Disney Store and other facets of corporations were sweatshops and various other injustices occurring. “I was preaching about the efforts to privatize Times Square,” said Talen. “And quickly I was taught by activists that everything in the Disney store was a sweatshop product.”
Raised as a Calvinist, Talen’s act progressed over time from a few people who would follow and clap with him into what it is now today, a group of followers who sing alongside and support him. “Billy was expressing something a lot of people were thinking and feeling,” said Durkee, sipping from her freshly brewed espresso. “Whenever someone starts shouting and it’s fairly true, people will stop and listen.”
While cooking an egg omelet at two in the afternoon, Talen described himself as neither a Christian or an Agnostic, but “searching.” Durkee, who comes from an Islamic background said that they both were raised in fundamentalist beliefs. “We have an objection to fundamentalism,” said Durkee. Walking from the kitchen back to living room wooden picnic-styled table, Talen said, “The biggest, most powerful church in the world is the church of consumerism.” The figure both Durkee and Talen look to is Jesus, and, as a result, have gain popularity amongst American Christians.
Talen has appeared on numerous television interviews, published two books and recorded two albums, as well as starred in What Would Jesus Buy, a documentary produced by Morgan Spurlock about the Church of Stop Shopping and the effects of consumerism. Certainly eye-catching, Talen walks a fine line between getting one’s attention and having them listen to his message. “That is our device, not the only device but it has been fairly affective,” said a much relaxed Talen. “Some people accept it and some reject but at this point it is reasonable to say that our popularity is allowing us to have some impact.”
Exercising his first amendment rights, Talen has been arrested over fifty times across the country, and is banned from every Starbucks coffee shop. “Union Square? I get arrested there every month,” joked Talen. Durkee worries about Talen at times, but is comforted by what she said is “a fostered community of fifty people who are together every week and take risks with the police every week.”
Durkee describes the Church as a group of people with the same ideas expressing their views artistically and comically. Jumping right into the Stop Shopping choir, bass singer Ben Cerf, of Manhattan, said he was attracted by the comedic approach of Reverend Billy and the message that followed it. “It was protesting without a chain, and funny at the same time,” said Cerf. “And it wasn’t too religious either, more along the lines of non-denomination.”
Adhering to Talen’s message, soprano singer Stefani Peika, of Brooklyn, has turned from shopping to baking. “I’ve definitely curbed my shopping immensely. I bake more and that’s what I give out as gifts,” said Peika. “I go all out.” With her choir members chatting it up outside Dixon Place, Manhattan, Peika affirmed that Talen is serious about his job. “He is a very passionate activist and practices what he preaches.”
As choir director and Adminstrative director of St. Mark’s Church of Bowery New York, James Solomon Benn has commended Talen’s work ethic. “He is a work-a-holic,” said Benn, laughing. “He has to be, it’s his day job.”
As the result of a weakening economy and an increase in unemployment, Talen’s advice for this holiday is to stop shopping. Talen’s definition of shopping is simply buying what is unnecessary. “Buying what you don’t need is not a neutral act,” said Talen. “It has bee defined by consumer culture as the thing that raises world culture—but it is the opposite. Buying what you don’t need deprives people of what they do need.”
Advising Americans to become consciously aware of the true value of an item, Durkee said the Valley Stream incident, in which a store employee was trampled to death by crazed shoppers, served as a window into America’s own ignorance. “We don’t know there is violence among the range of consumerism,” said Durkee. “Violence and death comes from far away where consumer goods are made—American shoppers are protected from this violence.”
Talen blames this notion of price value to the marketing campaigns and contribution of commercial journalists who protect Americans from the truth of consumerism. “We see as far as the product, we don’t think the product has any history, any natural resources, any labor.” That is why Talen and Durkee urge Americans to buy locally, even if that means spending a little more, and to support horizontal investments that benefit local communities.
This holiday season, Talen and Durkee said they hope Americans will realize the true meaning of the holidays, specifically Christmas. “The original notion of Christmas was to shake us up,” said a more serious Talen. “It is an incitement to give gifts, have shared experiences with loved ones, and teach us peace. This is all completely lost with Santa Claus.”
Talen’s neigborhood was decorated with multiple lawn ornaments of Mickey Mouse dressed as Santa Claus. Pointing this to be one of many examples of how Christmas has been exploited by corporations, Durkee asked jokingly, “You think we should get a BB gun?” To which Talen responded, “We pioneered that concept. The conflation of Santa and Mickey as Mickey Claus,” mockingly adding, “I want to take credit for it, the image of Mickey Claus comes from Savi and Billy.”
Working to get the message out, Talen and his choir stood outside of Macy’s on Black Friday, a day he calls, “Buy Nothing Day.” Given the economic state of the nation, both Durkee and Talen agree that Americans can learn from the situation and ultimately have a better Christmas. “When a smoker gets caught in a snow storm, he or she may take that opportunity to stop forever,” Durkee said. “Americans can choose to change their habits, or just go back.”
Walking out of his apartment, Talen said, “Now you’ve come to our home and seen at least we’re a little bit not hypocrites—though we have a thousand dollar espresso machine.”


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Butterfly Ventures hooks up with Capital A Partners
Finnish investment company Butterfly Ventures has established a new fund, Butterfly Venture Fund III, together with US- and Sweden-based Capital A Partners.
WordDive closes EUR 1.27 million crowdfunding round
Finnish language learning mobile and online application WordDive has secured 1.27 million euros via the Invesdor crowdfunding platform.
TalentAdore goes global with new funding
Finnish TalentAdore, which is going to revolutionarise recruitment communications, completed a major funding round worth almost a million euros.
Gasum becomes the biggest in the Nordics
Gasum has purchased all the shares of Swedish Biogas International. The acquisition makes Gasum the biggest producer of biogas in the Nordic countries.
Verseidag Ballistic Protection sold to Belgium
Sioen Industries and Verseidag-Indutex have reached an agreement for the purchase of the shares of Verseidag Ballistic Protection.
Silmäasema’s eyes are on Estonia
The Finnish eye care provider and optical retailer purchases Tallinna Optika, which has stores all over Estonia.
Chinese company purchases Finnish Rightware
A Finnish automotive user interface software provider, Rightware, has been acquired by Thundersoft, a Chinese company, which is a big scale provider of operating systems and smart device platform technology.
Visedo raises EUR 20 million to take global lead
A Finnish company Visedo, which specialises in electric powertrains and components, has collected a financing package of 20 million euros.
Two Finnish professors granted EUR 2 million each
Professor Anna-Liisa Laine has received the European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant of two million euros, while professor Robin Ras was granted nearly the same amount by the ERC for his research into non-wetting surfaces.
Plantui plants seeds for growth
Finnish design and food company Plantui has seen its sales grow in Europe and Southeast Asia, which has been boosted by more than a million euros in equity investments raised during 2016.
Tilt Biotherapeutics lands EUR 4 million in funding
The Finnish oncolytic immunotherapy startup has raised almost ten million euros in funding to progress its lead candidate into phase I clinical trials.


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Rookies Start Their First Restaurants
A passion for food and people draws newcomers Kristin Jackson, Bud Antonelis and Carri Loui into a challenging business
(page 1 of 3)
Photo: David Croxford, Rae Huo
It was about two hours until dinner service, and there was a steady movement in, out and around The Grove, a family-owned restaurant that opened in Kailua in December.
As bartenders got organized and cooks prepped for dinner, there was someone in the restaurant who didn’t seem to fit in. Dressed in shorts and Quiksilver slippers with a pair of sunglasses sitting on a windblown mess of hair, Bud Antonelis looks more like a retired marine biologist from Ventura, Calif., than a restaurant owner in Kailua.
And, yet, he’s both.
For more than a decade, Antonelis, 64, was the chief of the Protected Species Division of the National Marine Fisheries Service in Honolulu, overseeing the monitoring of the state’s endangered Hawaiian monk seal and green sea turtle populations. He retired in January and joined his son, Troy, and accomplished chef Fred DeAngelo, who’s married to Troy’s wife’s sister, to open the restaurant on Aulike Street.
“I enjoy the company of people and feeding them a good meal,” says Antonelis. “Maybe it’s a Greek thing, but when you come to someone’s house, you show your love and appreciation by feeding them.”
What better way to share that love than with a 4,000-square-foot restaurant that seats 120 people between the indoor and outdoor dining areas?
“It just takes the right people,” says DeAngelo, who also owns the award-winning Ola restaurant at the Turtle Bay Resort. “We are a family and we approach (the business) as such. We treat everyone – the employees, our customers – as family.”
Like many newcomers to the business, Antonelis had long wanted to open a restaurant. But running a restaurant takes more than a passion for food.
“A lot of people who want to open a restaurant like the social aspect of it, but they don’t realize there’s a lot of back-office work you don’t see as a customer that needs to get done in order to keep your costs in line,” says Jerry Prendergast, lead consultant of California-based Prendergast & Associates, a restaurant consulting firm that has developed projects from New York City to Tokyo, and several in Honolulu.
“They think, ‘This can’t be hard. You make food, you bring it out, you put it on the table and somebody pays for it.’ But they don’t realize that, in some ways, a restaurant has more moving parts than almost any business you could get into.”
The moving parts include tracking inventory, managing workers, meeting health-department and building codes, balancing books, developing menus and everything else tied to owning a small business. Most people –including Antonelis – have little experience in these facets of the business, but they can make or break a restaurant.
“You are taking raw products and producing an end product. You’re setting up a delivery system to deliver that end product to consumers. And you’re doing all the accounting and bookkeeping and cost controls necessary for multiple businesses all in one business – and sometimes all in one night,” Prendergast says. “It’s not easy.”
Kristen Jackson perfected family receipes such as these biscuits
From all walks of life
It’s not a new trend for people with little or no experience in restaurants to buy, start or invest in them. Athletes, celebrities, politicians and other public figures have been doing it for decades.
Even those with extensive connections or sales and marketing savvy often enter the restaurant business, too, relying on their professional and networking expertise.
People from all business backgrounds – such as carpenters, baristas, lawyers, engineers and school teachers – follow their dreams of restaurant ownership, many quite successfully.
“(Restaurateurs) come from all walks of life, and I think that’s a good thing for the restaurant industry,” says Roger Morey, executive director of the Hawaii Restaurant Association, a nonprofit trade organization that represents more than 3,500 restaurant locations employing 82,000 people in Hawaii. “They bring different points of view and that’s a good thing.”
The association gets so many inquires about restaurants – how to start them, what’s needed, what the state requires – that it’s compiling all that information as a resource for newbies.
“Opening a restaurant is not like opening up any other business,” Morey says. “There are so many different things involved. … It’s a very difficult business. But it has been my experience that people who do start restaurants are highly motivated and sincere in what they’re trying to do, and the result has been a wonderful thing.”
Kristin Jackson thought she was being reasonable in her plans to open a restaurant.
The public relations and marketing veteran first wanted to operate a food truck because the startup costs and commitment were far less than opening a brick-and-mortar establishment. But plans fell through and, instead, she took over the lease of her friend’s small restaurant in Puck’s Alley near the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
After two months of renovating the 700-square-foot space – Jackson and her family did everything from install the church-pew seating to replacing the tile floor with wood – Kiss My Grits opened on Sept. 14.
Bud Antonelis at The Grove restaurant awaits the dinner crowd.
The restaurant, which features a menu of authentic North Carolina staples such as buttermilk fried chicken and oyster po’ boy sandwiches, was met with rave reviews. But the price of success was grueling 16-hour days. “In my life, I’ve moved in the middle of school years, my house burned down, and I went to (Marine Corps) boot camp and broke both my legs. And this has been the hardest,” says the North Carolina native. “It was the combination of stress, physical labor and everything costing more than I thought. But we’ve been lucky. We’ve been busy and doing well.”
She invested all her savings into the restaurant, and then devoted a lot of time creating an authentic menu by digging up family recipes and taking months to perfect one for biscuits.
Before the restaurant served its first plate of fried okra, Jackson created all its branding, logo and marketing materials. The website, social media accounts and identity were all ready by opening day.
Yet, she still runs her PR company on the side for needed, extra income.
“You really, really, really have to love it,” Jackson says. “And even then, I don’t know if I would do it again.”
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Meta’s ‘Voicebox’ AI is a text-to-speech tool that learns similarly to ChatGPT.
Meta AI has recently introduced a text-to-speech (TTS) generator named Voicebox, which claims to produce results up to 20 times faster than state-of-the-art artificial intelligence models with comparable performance. The new system uses a model more similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Bard than traditional TTS architecture.
One of the main differences between Voicebox and similar TTS models is that Meta’s offering can generalize through in-context learning. This capability is achieved by using large-scale training datasets, similar to ChatGPT or other transformer models.
Voicebox uses a novel training scheme that ditches labels and curation for an architecture capable of “in-filling” audio information. As a result, it can translate text to speech, remove unwanted noise by synthesizing replacement speech, and even apply a speaker’s voice to different language outputs.
The arrival of robust speech-generation comes at a particularly sensitive time as social media companies continue to struggle with moderation and, in the U.S., a looming presidential election threatens to once again test the limits of online misinformation detection. To mitigate possible future risks brought by this technology, Meta has developed a tool for determining if speech was generated by it, which the company claims can “trivially detect” the difference between real and fake audio.
In the cryptocurrency world, AI has become as integral to day-to-day operations for most businesses as the internet or electricity. The advent of robust text-to-speech systems such as Voicebox, combined with automated trading, could help bridge a gap for would-be cryptocurrency traders who rely on TTS systems that, currently, may struggle with crypto jargon or multi-lingual support.
- Mark Cuban criticizes SEC for hurting crypto startups.
- Liquidators of Three Arrows Capital seek contempt sanctions against...
- 7 ChatGPT alternatives.


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Editor’s note: Hebrew U’s Prof. Chezy Barenholz and Prof. Alberto Gabizon previously developed Doxil, an anti-cancer drug approved for the treatment of Kaposi’s sarcoma, ovarian cancer, multiple myeloma and breast cancer. Doxil is one of the blockbuster products commercialized by Yissum, the technology transfer company of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Innocan Pharma (CSE: INNO) CEO Iris Bincovich joined Steve Darling from Proactive Vancouver from Toronto with news the company has signed a deal with the distribution company Active Therapeutics. This agreement allows Innocan to move into the U.K. and Ireland.
Bincovich also told Proactive about the work they will be doing with Hebrew University and also about a new board member who comes with a very big resume.
Hebrew U’s Prof. Chezy Barenholz is Head of Membrane and Liposome Research Lab, Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem and head researcher and supervisor under the Yissum Agreement with Innocan.
InnoCan’s project with Yissum is targeted at developing a breakthrough technology platform that enables the delivery of cannabinoids by injection of hydrogel-cannabinoid-loaded (such as CBD) liposomes into the blood stream or to a specific body part. The controlled release of CBD (or other cannabinoids) from the liposomes may allow continuous exposure of the patient to the cannabinoid and decreases the variations of CBD concentration in the blood caused by food intake or other physiological condition. Moreover, through injection of loaded liposomes, a greater portion of intact CBD can reach its target site, decreasing the total amount of CBD needed to achieve the desired therapeutic effect. The use of the technology is versatile and may be tailored to the development of different cannabinoids.
On the latest research results released on January 13, 2020 Prof. Barenholz said, “This is a significant milestone and creates the basis for the development of therapeutically meaningful New Drugs, based on local injection of CBD, that could have greater efficacy and promote the well-being of patients suffering different ailments.”
The latest research achieved the following results:
- High loading of CBD was achieved. The loaded amount is sufficient for administration of a therapeutic dose.
- Several types of CBD liposomal formulations were developed having potential of targeting a variety of clinical indications for CBD injection administration.
- The liposomal formulations may have the potential to enable a controlled release delivery of injectable CBD.


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On November 2nd, 2018, an Ohio law goes into effect allowing records and contracts secured by blockchain data. This comes after Governor John Kasich signed Senate Bill 220 (SB220) in August, which amends Ohio’s Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA).
UETA ensures electronic transactions are enforced to the same effect as written transactions. SB220 amends the definition of “electronic record” in UETA to add that “a record or contract that is secured through blockchain technology is considered to be in an electronic form and to be an electronic record.” SB220 also amends the definition of “electronic signature” to expressly provide that signatures secured through blockchain technology are considered to be in electronic form and be an electronic signature.
SB220 was born out of Senate Bill 300 (SB300), which was introduced in May 2018. SB300 sought to implement blockchain and its associated technologies into Ohio legislation even further than SB220 as it also defined “blockchain technology” and “smart contract.” SB300 died in the Senate, however, and only a few of its provisions were implemented via SB220.
Ohio joins Arizona, Delaware, Illinois, Nevada, Tennessee, Vermont and Wyoming as states enacting or adopting laws that reference blockchain. Meanwhile, California legislatures continue to work on their blockchain legislation. Legislatures in Florida and Nebraska have also proposed blockchain legislation, but the pursuit of passing the legislation has been abandoned indefinitely.


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Group turnover fell 11 per cent to pounds 15.5m. But growth in EDP's high-margin software licensing business and higher interest receipts on its cash balances compensated for plummeting prices for the hardware it distributes.
Richard Jowitt, managing director, said he was delighted with the results in the face of a hardware market that had seen prices squeezed by 58 per cent year-on- year. The company was determined to reposition its business to become a software publisher.
He added that trading remained flat, but said the company would launch a new software product in the new year. EDP plans to use this to attack the North American market for the first time.
The company was keen to make acquisitions, Mr Jowitt said, acknowledging the diminishing benefit of substantial cash balances at a time of lower interest rates.
'We know who our targets are and what price we would be prepared to pay. Trading is going to remain tough but there are many opportunities for us if the economy begins to go the right way.'
Earnings per share rose 17 per cent to 32.83p and the shares closed 10p higher at 510p.Reuse content


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BCE Inc. began its defence Monday of a proposed $3.4-billion takeover of Astral Media Inc. – and immediately faced the pointed scrutiny of the avowedly populist new CRTC boss.
"I would remind everyone that it is the responsibility of a seller or their representative to prove that a transaction is in the public interest," Jean-Pierre Blais, chairman of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, warned in his opening statement. "That means the burden of proof rests squarely with Astral and BCE. We will not hesitate to challenge their representatives."
When Mr. Blais took up the post in June, he promised to shift the agency's focus back to consumers amid criticism that the commission too often coddled the country's largest broadcasters.
In an unprecedented move, he broke from tradition almost immediately on Monday as he read letters from average Canadians expressing frustration with the company's customer service.
Bell Media president Kevin Crull defended the firm, stating many of the consumer complaints were from people who didn't understand the deal thanks to an advertising campaign funded by BCE's competitors.
An irritated Mr. Blais quickly cut in. "You seem to be suggesting there has been a campaign of misinformation and there may well have been," he said. "But we don't apply a test to consumers, who would come to a hearing, to see if they are knowledgeable about the broadcast system. They are welcome here."
The CRTC – which can approve, amend or kill the deal outright – has always solicited comments from the public but it's unprecedented for a commissioner to put those comments directly to the executives being questioned.
The deal has been controversial because some feel it would put too much power in the hands of Bell Media, which could then use that power to extract higher prices for its programming and put pressure on its competitors.
Those rivals will have a chance to weigh in Tuesday, starting with Quebecor Inc. chief executive Pierre Karl Peladeau.
The deal is a high profile test of the commission's willingness to take on the country's largest broadcasters and service providers as they seek to grow larger. While the fate of the deal is at stake, so is the reputation of a broadcast regulator that has increasingly found its relevancy in question as Canadians turn away from conventional television and turn to unregulated services such as Netflix for their viewing needs.
"The CRTC has become a bit of a whipping post for many people who felt it was just coddling the incumbents and not looking out for consumer interests," said Dwayne Winseck, a professor at Carleton University who studies media consolidation and regulation. "But I think people are pleasantly surprised that it seems to be changing."
Mr. Blais has made it clear the commission would dedicate as much effort to making sure consumers are well served as it spends developing the regulations that govern the industry. He appointed a chief consumer officer late last month, and last week issued a three-year plan that further underscored his intentions.
Bell Media came to Montreal bearing gifts in its bid to win regulatory for its takeover – a Canadian-based service to take on Netflix, a French-language news channel and more money for French programming. It previously announced a plan to form a production company with Quebec-based Cirque du Soleil which is also dependent on the Astral deal closing.
The Netflix-like offering would be available to all of the country's cable and satellite companies to offer to their customers, Bell said, and would be built around content inherited in the Astral deal from specialty channels such as HBO and The Movie Network.
"[It is] a made-in-Canada service, available in French and English everywhere we have rights to all Canadians through the cable, satellite or IPTV provider of their choice," BCE Inc. chief executive officer George Cope said.
Ian Greenberg, who founded Astral and said he put it up for sale on the advice of his family, said the company is "at a crossroads" as services such as Netflix take market share. The U.S. subscription-based service is used by about 10 per cent of Canadians. In contrast, Astral's specialty channels aren't yet available on many mobile devices.
The hearing continues Tuesday and goes until Friday.
The CRTC could allow the deal to proceed, insist on some changes being made as a condition of approval or reject the deal outright. The deal must also be approved by the Competition Bureau.


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· DeFi blue-chip tokens on the rise
· Sushiswap rise due to an NFT sale on Miso
· Aave’s rise due to a yet-to-be-launched project-REDACTED
· Curve’s rise due to 2-layer scaling solution-Arbitrum
Various blue-chip DeFi tokens have seen an upward trend over the past 24 hours. The reason for these surges is varied. Multiple tokens behind top DeFi protocols have experienced over 10% gains in the past day. These include SushiSwap, Aave, and Curve.
DeFi is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the cryptocurrency industry and offers various conventional financial services. These include services like borrowing and lending but eliminates centralized go-betweens like brokers or banks.
The latest spike (15%) in Sushiswap’s native token (SUSHI) is most likely to a recent NFT (non-fungible token) sale on Miso, its token launching platform. The NFT is called “Jay Pegs Auto Mart,” Any interested speculators can buy a DONA reservation token on the Miso platform. These tokens are redeemable for a “2007 Kia Sedona NFT” on 21st September 2021. The DONA token sale has already generated 427.14 ETH, equivalent to $1,451,276.49 at the current prices.
Aave is a crypto borrowing and lending protocol whose platform newsletter and social media handles have been abuzz with a yet-to-be-launched project. The Aave team has dubbed the project as “[REDACTED] protocol” and has hinted it may have more to do with the monetization of social media. FRAX, an algorithmic stable coin, has also added to Aave’s surge by over 15%.
Curve, a DeFi exchange, has launched on a layer-2 scaling solution built for Ethereum-Arbitrum. Curve operations are in batches and settled periodically. This reduces congestion and transaction costs.


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AirBridgeCargo significant boost for Russia
06 / 07 / 2008
RUSSIA’s growing importance in global air cargo, will provide a significant boost to the development of the country’s cargo aircraft market.
Addressing the Russia & CIS Aircraft Conference, Denis Ilyin (right), senior vice-president for strategy and commercial at AirBridgeCargo Airlines, said: “Despite a certain decrease in the passenger air market, global air cargo is constantly developing and average annual growth up to 2025 is forecast at between 5.4 per cent and 7.1 per cent. Russia can and will benefit strongly from this. Airfreight growth in Russia over the next 17 years is forecast to be greater than that for North America, Europe-Middle East, Intra-Europe, Europe-Africa, Europe-North America, Latin America-Europe and Latin America-North America.”
The development of Russian hubs in Moscow and Krasnoyarsk will greatly support Russia’s air cargo development. Moscow is a natural hub connecting Europe to the Middle East, Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, while Krasnoyarsk in the Russian Far East sits in the centre of major trade lanes that connect the USA, Europe and Canada to China, Japan and Southeast Asia, via cross-polar and trans-Siberian routes.
According to Ilyin’s prognosis, Russia’s role in global air logistics will increase from its present 1.4 per cent share of the total US$80 billion global market to eight per cent in 2015 and 16 per cent in 2030 worth an estimated $8.4 billion and $25.6 billion respectively.
Cargo carried on ramp aircraft is forecast to grow at a faster rate than non-ramp aircraft. This will create many new opportunities for the Russian cargo aircraft market.
According to Ilyin, Russian cargo airlines’ share of both scheduled and charter market using ramp aircraft, is set for further rapid growth. The 1.4 per cent share of scheduled cargo carried by Russian carriers will grow to 10 per cent by 2020. Russia’s already dominant position in the $1 billion ramp aircraft operations market will increase from the current 74 per cent market share to 90 per cent in 12 years time.
“The Russian economy has been growing steadily in recent years, creating a base for the very challenging and ambitious goals of the Russian air cargo industry in the next decade. In order to turn these plans into reality, there will be more and more freighters flying to, from and via Russia, operated by both Russian and foreign airlines.”


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A 3D printer uses 3D printing combined with molecular gastronomy to create 3D "fruits" in a matter of minutes.
An artist has used his agricultural background to create gorgeous, multi-fruit trees to revive heirloom stone fruits.
Some tiny astronauts are scheduled to fly up to the International Space Station to help scientists model the effects of long-term space exposure on humans.
Pebble's latest smartwatch, the Pebble Time, offers voice capabilities, but there's an important detail you need to know.
The CSIRO is putting RFID sensors on Queensland fruit flies to study their behaviour in the hopes of saving Queensland's crops.
Being a morning person or a night owl could be genetic, suggests a study based on the habits of fruit flies. Waiter, there's a fly in my coffee!
Could a common fungus found in decaying soil, leaves and fruit power aircraft? Scientists from Washington State University think so.
At last, there's a scientifically proven way to get that song out of your head, but you'll want to make sure you're done eating first.
Skip the salt and sugar bombs and get fresh salads and snacks from the Farmer's Fridge, now available in Chicago.
Apple CEO Tim Cook talks iPhone, Apple Watch, China and iPad during a conference call with analysts.


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Indonesian government cracks down on corruption and deforestation The Indonesian government has shown some signs of cracking down on corruption and illegal forest clearing in the country’s palm oil industry. The Corruption Eradication Commission recently arrested Riau Governor Annas Maamun, who was allegedly caught accepting bribes from a palm oil company. He is scheduled to …
Five large palm oil producers announce HCS moratorium, but questions remain Five major palm oil producers – Sime Darby (SIME:MK), Asian Agri, IOI Corporation (IOI:MK), Kuala Lumpur Kepong (KLK:MK), and Musim Mas, – announced today that they would institute a moratorium on clearance of high carbon stock areas while a yearlong industry–sponsored study of what …
Indonesian parliament floats bill to restrict foreign firms; Jokowi on haze The Indonesian parliament introduced a new draft bill to restrict the percentage of foreign-owned plantations to no more than 30% (down from the current 95%).
New Singapore Haze Law: On August 5th, the Singaporean parliament approved the Transboundary Haze Pollution Bill, in order to fight haze from deforestation in the region.
Cargill, one of the world’s largest agribusiness companies and a significant palm oil trader and producer, today announced a new “No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation” policy. The policy applies to Cargill’s entire supply chain, including third party suppliers – requiring them to protect High Carbon Stock, High Conservation Value, and peat landscapes, as well …
In June, Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Peter O’Neill announced the cancellation of all illegal agricultural land leases. He also abolished future issuances of this kind of lease.
We’re preparing an upcoming product that analyzes sustainability and financial risk in the supply chains of Kuala Lumpur Kepong (KLK:MK), a Malaysian multinational company and one of the largest palm oil plantation companies in the world.
Deutsche Bank drops palm oil supplier Bumitama (BAL:SP): This week, Deutsche Bank announced that it had sold all of its shares in Indonesian palm oil supplier Bumitama (BAL:Singapore).
Chain Reaction Research has developed a briefing in anticipation of the Indonesian coal mining company Bumi Resources’ (BUMI:IJ) upcoming rights offering. Bumi Resources is a holding company for Bumi, Asia’s largest thermal coal exporter.
On 12 May 2014, Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM) announced that it will make its palm oil supply chain fully traceable. To do so, ADM will work with Wilmar, the world’s largest palm oil trader.


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For 35 years, Lancashire farmer Colin Bradley has put consistency at the heart of his potato growing enterprise.
His passion and drive to put the consumer first has seen the farm grow from a relatively small growing operation into a multi-faceted business, which now sees his products available on supermarket shelves and chip shops across the UK.
From seed to finished potato, the entire process takes place at the home of Fylde Fresh and Fabulous, Weeton, Preston.
Major investment has enabled the business to expand and build an impressive potato peeling and processing plant, ensuring it has control from first planting to final chips, which make their way to more than 400 chip shops around the country.
And although famed for its Triple F Chips brand, the business provides potatoes for the ready-meal market, which has continued to grow, giving the farm another outlet for its produce.
In early 2005, Colin drew on the expertise of his former bank manager David Linton, who has since become a director of the business. David shared Colin’s passion for the industry and, so Fylde Fresh and Fabulous was born.
David says: “We started off with a business plan. We wanted to just be 100 per cent chips, but we found the business was not evolving as quickly as we hoped.”
The pair quickly realised they needed to explore the European market to assess whether their business plans could become a reality.
They toured various potato growing and manufacturing units across Poland to gain a better understanding of the market.
On returning to the UK, they secured a £300,000 Process Marketing Grant from the EU, which was 30 per cent of the capital costs needed to build a state-of-the-art peeling plant.
David says: “While we were building our [peeling] factory, Colin had been supplying another processor in Bradford, which had entered into administration.
“We bought this business out of administration and it got us into the factories which make ready-meals for supermarkets.”
Because the business is accredited by the British Retail Consortium, it allows easier market access, he says.
“This gave us a higher market of accreditation and protocol.”
Potatoes go through a strict grading process following peeling
Chipping and ready-meal markets are core to the farm business
Colin and David saw the potential in the booming ready-meal market and started to focus efforts on this sector, as well as continuing their successful chipping enterprise.
Taking control of the supply chain was a key factor in the pair’s ambitious expansion plans, as this enabled them to manage both risk and quality of the end product.
“We start with the consumer and understand the supply chain back from there,” adds Colin, who started his farming career as a tenant farmer milking about 60 cows.
He turned his attentions to potato production in the early 1980s because he saw the crop as a higher value product.
Colin and David’s market research revealed their competitors did not focus on quality of potatoes, but instead used waste potatoes in many branded ready-meals.
Colin says: “We are not the cheapest. You cannot have a dedicated supply chain growing a consistent product which is as cheap as someone who uses waste potatoes.”
As a McCain’s grower for more than two decades, Colin has always prided himself on crop quality, regardless of which market it is destined for.
He says: “It is all about identifying what consumers want and trying to deliver it.”
While product differentiation is practically impossible in mash potato, the Fylde Fresh brand has continued to deliver the high standard it is renowned for.
Colin says, while other companies were selling waste potatoes for use in ready-meals, it meant there was no consistency in the product.
He says: “There are two reasons potatoes are grown – one is for appearance and the other is for content.
“Appearance potatoes go for the packhouse and supermarkets, while content potatoes are for the likes of McCain.”
As some companies use packhouse waste potatoes for ready-meals, the lack of consistency enables Fylde Fresh to steal a match on its rivals.
“Because of our consistency, our potatoes are available for use all-year-round,” says Colin, who farms 174 hectares (430 acres), plus further rented land in the North West.
Through market research, Colin and David found quality measurements for both crisps and chips, but no measurement for quality mash potato.
By setting a protocol whereby only a consistent potato was used, they found they could produce a better standard of mash.
Colin says: “If you have a bad meal experience, you may never revisit.
“There is not enough attention given to this [in ready-meals], and we feel it is unacceptable to have a bad meal experience.
“We want to understand our market, which takes some doing, and I feel the industry as a whole spends so much time and money on how to produce potatoes, but nothing on how to utilise them.”
David says: “We look at the end market grow for it.”
With David’s experience from the banking sector and Colin’s potato procurement knowledge, they believe their attributes complement each others and have helped to grow the business into what it is today.
Simon Butcher brought his expertise from the crisp manufacturing sector to Fylde Fresh in 2009 and became the company’s third director, leaving London to take on the role.
Sam Paterson, farm manager
Another important addition to the team came in the form of farm manager Sam Paterson, who joined the enterprise about six years ago.
With the help of Simon, Sam runs the potato growing side of the business, which is a balancing act according to variety.
Sam says: “Different varieties are suited to different soil types. This all links back from the end product. We work back from the target date for harvest.”
As the focus is on quality over quantity, Sam says yield is almost irrelevant when it comes to the crop.
He says: “Our aim is to meet quality and yield comes after it.
“If we produce 30 tonnes which is not worth processing, then there is little point.”
Some potatoes go in to store and some are used straight after harvest. The grading process is strict to ensure quality remains high.
Sam says: “Everything we work towards is based on dry matter, due to the market we are selling to.
“Potatoes come off the field and on to the grading line. They are then put into short-term storage.
“We grade them on the harvester and then grade them in the store. You do not want to put anything in to store which is defected.
“When they are brought out of store, they go back over the grader, are sized depending on the job, and then they are put into a box ready for the factory.”
The business is always looking for new market entry points and Colin believes the addition of a pre-cooked chip to its offering would open up more market opportunities.
Colin says: “You have to know the supply chain to plan for the future. This takes a lot of research.”
Outside the business, David runs his own chip shop in Chester, which has enabled him to test ideas out on the general public.
He says: “If there is an issue with chips, for example if a consumer says we are not peeling them enough, I can feed the information back to Fylde Fresh.”
David has used the chip shop to nutritionally test a standard portion of chips, after feeling negative publicity around the product was damaging the industry.
He says: “Our analysis found there is less than six per cent fat in a standard portion of chips.
“An American study of 1,000 grossly obese people found in six months, the potato calorie intake was less than three per cent of the total calories consumed.
“Yet, when you see photos of obese people, they are always shown with chips.
“I think a lot more education is needed in promoting good practice and the importance of a healthy and balanced diet.”
Colin adds: “I see there are a lot of wrong messages which go out about chips and potatoes.
“We have to market ourselves, as we are competing against a large competition of fast food chains, so differentiating ourselves is vital.”


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Check your Google Photos app for a cool year-end surprise0
As 9to5Google found, the Google Photos app is generating a special ‘best moments of 2019’ album for some users, which includes a curated collection of photos from your library. The photo book is made up of about 60 photos or so arranged in chronological order, though the layout and arrangement can be adjusted to your liking.
If you end up liking your photo book, Google is also offering a physical copy in softback and hardback versions, starting at $10 and $20, respectively.
This isn’t the first time Google Photos has curated a collection like this, but the service has grown tremendously this past year, reaching a staggering billion users, so it’s likely to reach many more people.
At this time, it doesn’t seem like the special photo book can be generated manually, but if it’s available you can find it in the ‘Print books’ section of the Google Photos app- you should find a number of automatically generated photo books, including highlights for each season and (hopefully) your 2019 album, too.
If it isn’t there yet, keep an eye out for notifications, as the feature should be coming to all or most users over the next few days.


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McKesson Q2 revenues up 36%
MinuteClinic debuts Rhode Island’s first retail medical clinics
WOONSOCKET, R.I. — MinuteClinic, the retail medical clinic of CVS Health, opened its first location in Rhode Island on Wednesday inside the CVS/pharmacy store in Woonsocket. Two more walk-in clinics will begin seeing patients Thursday in CVS/pharmacy locations in Cranston and Wakefield.
The Rhode Island clinics are part of MinuteClinic’s plan to add 150 clinics nationwide in 2014. With the openings this week, there will be 87 MinuteClinic locations in New England inside select CVS/pharmacy stores in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. In total, MinuteClinic currently operates more than 940 locations in 30 states.
“MinuteClinic is the latest innovation CVS Health is bringing to its home state to help expand access to high quality care and lower costs,” said Andrew Sussman, president, MinuteClinic and SVP/associate chief medical officer, CVS Health. “As we have experienced elsewhere in New England and across the United States, MinuteClinic can support the primary care medical model by offering services at convenient locations near where patients live and work and at times when traditional options may not be available.”
The Rhode Island clinics are included in a clinical collaboration between MinuteClinic and Lifespan to enhance continuity of care with the primary care community. Lifespan is Rhode Island’s largest health system with a network of more than 1,800 affiliated physicians throughout the state. Both organizations will integrate their electronic medical records to further promote exchange of clinical information, with patients’ permission.
MinuteClinic also will be collaborating with the Rhode Island Free Clinic, providing care for free to its patients, as part of its overall commitment to increasing access to affordable health care in Rhode Island. CVS Health already provides free medications for these patients at several CVS/pharmacy locations in the state.
“The support of MinuteClinic nurse practitioners and physician assistants in providing care to our patients, will be a great complement to the quality care provided at Rhode Island Free Clinic,” said Marie Ghazal, CEO, Rhode Island Free Clinic. “Overall, MinuteClinic will also increase access to care for uninsured Rhode Islanders, promote more patients to find a primary care physician and help to reduce costs to the health care system in our state.”


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Singapore: US technology consulting firm Cognizant has expanded its presence in the Far East with the opening of a new development centre in Singapore.
The centre was inaugurated last week by Yeoh Keat Chuan, Assistant Managing Director of the Singapore Economic Development Board, with Louis Mazel, Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in the Republic of Singapore, as the guest of honor.
The 30,000-sq.ft. development centre located within the Changi Business Park will accommodate around 370 professionals and will enhance Cognizant's existing operations in Singapore, which include regional leadership and operational support services for Cognizant's businesses in the Asia-Pacific region. Cognizant services a variety of key industries out of Singapore, including Banking, Insurance, Life Sciences, Manufacturing, Retail and Logistics, Consumer Goods, and Hospitality.
Cognizant says its new development centre will leverage the rich talent pool available in Singapore, and will scale up to provide a range of services that help clients drive both efficiency and effectiveness of operations as well as business transformation.
"We warmly welcome Cognizant's decision to establish its development centre here," said Yeoh Keat Chuan, Assistant Managing Director of the Singapore Economic Development Board. "The Singapore IT services sector employs over 30,000 people today. We are pleased that Cognizant will add a significant number of good jobs to the sector through this new centre. We look forward to working with Cognizant to develop and pilot new technologies in Singapore."
"I congratulate Cognizant on the inauguration of its first development centre in Singapore," said Louis Mazel, Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in the Republic of Singapore. "Cognizant has built strong credentials in Singapore in a short period of time. With the Asia-Pacific region gaining prominence within the global economy, Singapore has become an ever more important business destination. Cognizant's expanded presence in Singapore will help the Consulting, IT, and BPO industry in Singapore increase its competitiveness and define newer benchmarks."
"We started operations in Singapore in 2005 and have steadily grown our presence and investment in the city-state," said R. Chandrasekaran, Group Chief Executive, Technology and Operations, Cognizant. "Our Singapore centre will continue to strengthen our integrated global delivery capabilities, as our investments in new global, regional, and local delivery centres help our clients harness specialized talent globally to meet their requirements and risk preferences, as well as provide business continuity. We are committed to investing in the growth of our Singapore operations and to working closely with the academic community in Singapore to develop talent across our full range of services."
"Our experience in Singapore has been excellent," said Prakash Hemdev, Vice President and Head of Cognizant's ASEAN operations. "With the support of an outstanding university system and local talent pool, our Singapore centre will continue to attract technology and business professionals with deep domain expertise. We plan to develop the new facility into a state-of-the-art incubation centre for newer technologies and business opportunities, such as mobility and enterprise analytics. The Asia Pacific region is seeing significant adoption of these technologies and defining best practices for corporations globally."


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NYer knows how to count her jelly beans, wins $25K
NEW YORK (AP) — There are plenty of bean counters in New York City, but one Manhattan resident is an exceptional bean-guesser.
Twenty-six-year-old Jessica Silverman won $25,000 after guessing the exact number of jelly beans in a jar — 7,954.
Silverman, who works for a fashion designer, says she was on her way to meet friends for coffee Tuesday when she saw a booth set up by an insurance firm at the Hilton New York Hotel. The person manning the booth for insurer DeWitt Stern persuaded her to take a guess.
Silverman says she'll use her winnings to put a down payment on a new home.


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According to this Forbes report, Macquarie Securities analyst David Gibson reckons Nintendo makes a grand total of $6 from every Wii unit sold.
Nintendo profits are aided by its strong first party software sales, the analyst added: Nintendo titles are reported as having a 60 percent attach rate.
Comparatively, the report states that Sony loses money on each PS3, and Microsoft is able to break even on 360.
Read all about it through the link.
By Mike Bowden


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Uber is Making It Easier to Know Exactly What Drivers Think of You
Originally published on April 25th, 2017.
Starting Wednesday, Uber riders will be able to see their passenger scores directly under their name in the app’s menu.
Some users may have already noticed this feature in testing over the past few weeks.
After tapping on their score, riders will be able to see information about how they are rated and how they can improve. Riders with higher scores have an easier time reserving Ubers. For example, New York City riders have an average of 4.6 stars. Those with above average scores are more likely to be picked up faster by drivers.
Uber hopes that having scores in plain view will make riders more conscientious and avoid common faux pas, like eating or drinking in the car, slamming the door, or stuffing in more passengers than there are seats.
And although ratings remain anonymous, users can watch their score change (or remain the same) after each ride.
For those dissatisfied with their ratings, Uber has a few tips to become a five-star rider — most of which can just be boiled down to “be respectful.”
To raise their scores, riders should aim to meet their driver on the street on time, give other riders space when riding UberPOOL and follow local laws like buckling up in the back seat and avoiding bringing open containers of alcohol into the car.


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So far, quercetin has chalked up 10 benefits. But the count is still not over as more and more research will eventually attest.
Quercetin is an antioxidant flavonol found naturally in foods such as apples, plums, red grapes, green tea, elder flower and onions, just to name a few.
According to a 2019 Market Watch report, the quercetin market is growing rapidly as its health benefits are becoming more widely known.
Quercetin has been shown to combat inflammation and acts as a natural antihistamine. Several studies have highlighted quercetin’s ability to prevent and treat both the common cold and influenza.
Another, less known benefit and use for quercetin includes the prevention and/or treatment of high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, certain cancers, gout, arthritis and mood disorders.
A review of quercetin’s effect on metabolic syndrome found it significantly reduced fasting plasma glucose when taken for at least eight weeks at a dosage of 500 milligrams per day or more.
Other recent research found quercetin has a beneficial impact on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease by ameliorating inflammation, oxidative stress and lipid metabolism.
Quercetin also has the ability to trigger tumor regression by interacting with your DNA and activating the mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis (the programmed cell death of damaged cells).
If you’ve been counting, you’ll realize that this video didn’t list ten benefits.
Click the link below and read the article to uncover the full 10 benefits of quercetin.
Also, Subscribe and click the bell icon and get these updates directly into your inbox.
Other popular videos:
Immune System Boosters for a Healthier Life – Q
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BMW knocks Toyota out of top spot in brand value survey
BMW has ousted Toyota as the world's most valuable car brand, finds Millward Brown's BrandZ Top 100 survey. Toyot's recent rash of safety recalls - which have involved more than 8.5 million vehicles worldwide -- helped BMW sneak past for the number one spot.
Toyot's brand value slipped 27 percent in the survey, but still registered a strong $21.77 billion. "It is likely that Toyota's brand has suffered further in recent months, but it is a strong brand and is trying hard to overcome the damage through a major communications campaign," Peter Walshe, Millward Brown global brand director, told Automotive News. "All of our evidence shows that strong brands are much more likely to recover from a crisis."
BMW's brand value actually slipped 9 percent, but managed to just beat out Toyota at $21.82 billion. Honda nabbed the third spot with a value of $14.3 billion.
BMW-rival Mercedes-Benz occupied the number four position on the list with a brand value of $13.74 billion, but that figure is down 11 percent from the year prior. Porsche saw an even bigger drop off, falling 31 percent to $12.02 billion - good enough for the fifth overall spot.
Volkswagen saw the highest jump of any automaker in brand value, climbing 20 percent to $6.99 billion. Ford wasn't far behind, posting a 19 percent increase to $7.04 billion.
1. 'BMW replaces Toyota...' view


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US indices mostly lower, 3M shares down double digits
- US Market
- 8 months ago
U.S. markets traded mostly lower as the retail sector posted some unpleasant figures.
The DJIA shed 0.5% while the S&P 500 ended the session down 1.08 points to 2,926.17.
Bucking the trend however was the Nasdaq which rose by 0.2% as Microsoft and Facebook shares rallied by 3.3% and 5.9% respectively.
Although the latter has reserved around $3 billion for potential fines in regards to mishandling of client data.
Tesla however, failed to keep up the pace as shares fell by 4.3% as quarterly losses were beyond expectations.
However not a bad as 3M’s stock which slumped by 13%, its worst day since 1987...
Source: Smart Trend Team


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Gozen secured $3.3 million in a seed funding round, the company announced Wednesday.
The biomaterials company, which produces a leather alternative from microorganisms during fermentation, will use the capital to accelerate its research and development of new materials and to scale production of its existing material, called Lunaform.
The round was led by Happiness Capital and also included participation from Accelr8, Astor Management and SOSV.
The company is targeting the fashion and automotive industries for its product, which was recently used in Balenciaga’s show during Paris Fashion Week. That partnership, which took place over two years, includes the Balenciaga Lunaform maxi bathrobe coat, which was the material’s first use in the fashion industry.
Following the funding round, the company plans to open a facility in Turkey to boost the annual production capacity of its material, Gozen said.
Lunaform forms in a singular material, which the company says is different from plant-based leathers, plant-based leathers that are assembled in layers.
As fashion brands pledge to clean up their leather supply chains, Gozen faces competition in the alternative leather space from other startups. MycoWorks, which makes mushroom-based leather, opened a commercial-scale production plant in South Carolina last month, after raising a $125 million funding round.
But other companies in the alternative leather space have different stories. Bolt Threads, which announced its plans to go public through a special purpose acquisition company merger earlier this month, paused production of its mushroom leather alternative in July as part of a pivot to its b-silk product. B-silk is made from spider silk and is aimed at beauty and personal care products.
"There is a lot of competition now in animal free leather. But I believed that GOZEN's approach could surpass all others in both performance and economics, and we've already demonstrated this by launching our first commercial product – at Fashion Week, no less. We've accomplished in months what it's taken others years to do,” Po Bronson, managing director of SOSV’s early-stage biotech investment program IndieBio, said in the release.


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Coca-Cola and CBD?![Aurora Cannabis May Make a Deal] | Honest CBD Coca-Cola and CBD? While much is not known on Coca-Cola’s plan to implement CBD into their products, they did make a statement today: We have no interest in marijuana or cannabis. Along with many others in the beverage industry, we are closely watching the growth of non-psychoactive CBD as an ingredient in functional wellness beverages around Coca-Cola May Soon Add a Surprising Ingredient to Some of Its Maybe not, but Coca-Cola appears to be pretty close to a decision in favor of CBD-infused beverages, sources told BNN Bloomberg. One who has direct knowledge of the talks said the cola maker was Coca-Cola CEO says no plans for cannabis drinks - CNN
2 Jan 2020 The Coca-Cola Co has been moved to distance itself from the cannabis beverage sector once again after a YouTube clip claimed a CBD
Coca-Cola plant Entwicklung eines CBD-haltigen Softdrinks mit Aurora Cannabis Inc. Mit der Erkenntnis, dass sich der Verkauf der traditionellen Softdrinks immer weiter abschwächt, hat Coca-Cola Co. erklärt, dass es den Cannabis Getränkemarkt im Auge hat. Coca-Cola verfolgt den Plan eines der innovativen Getränkeunternehmen zu sein, die sich Coca-Cola Will Not Be Entering the CBD Market - At Least Not Yet Even Coca-Cola has done pretty weird things; like putting orange flavor in Cola. Yeah, call me out on it if you want, but that’s just weird. However, CBD enthusiasts might have to wait a little while before that happens. Recently, there was some speculation going around on whether or not the beverage tycoon Coca-Cola would start to dabble in
26 Dec 2019 (Bloomberg) — Coca-Cola Co. is dousing speculation that it's getting a new line of its classic drink in Canada that will feature CBD extract,
2 Jan 2020 Is Coca-Cola Co (NYSE: KO) planing on entering the burgeoning cannabinoid medicinal market with an infused CBD extract soft drink? A video 7 Jan 2019 Coca-Cola has been facing shifting shopping habits, which have agitated the industry. It is taking a minority stake in Iris Nova, a company 6 Jan 2020 A recent video suggested that the company will sell CBD-infused also been rumored to be interested in cannabis: Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO). 26 Dec 2019 Coca-Cola Co. is dousing speculation that it's getting into the cannabis business. 30 Dec 2019 Rumors about the imminent appearance of a CBD–infused cola drink by the Coca-Cola Company spread like wildfire once again, after a 2 Jan 2020 The Coca-Cola Co has been moved to distance itself from the cannabis beverage sector once again after a YouTube clip claimed a CBD 26 Apr 2019 Demand for CBD and related products is exploding. Piper Jaffray believes major beverage companies—such as Coca-Cola and PepsiCo
16 Dec 2019 Could we soon be seeing the world's largest drinks companies releasing their very own CBD-Infused beverages? READ MORE NOW!
Wie lange Coca-Cola-Anleger das wohl noch mit machen? | Dividende: Coca-Cola hat mit einer Dividendenrendite von 2,87 Prozent momentan einen leicht höheren Wert als der Branchendurchschnitt (2.33%). Die Differenz zu vergleichbaren Werten aus der „Getränke“-Branche beträgt +0,54. Aufgrund dieser Konstellation erhält die Coca-Cola-Aktie in dieser Kategorie eine „Hold“-Bewertung.


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Since US startup OpenAI launched ChatGBT last year, various tech companies have been competing in the field of generative AI.
Analysts, investors, and consumers have become obsessed with these programs, capable of producing on-demand text, images, and video in fluent language.
Microsoft and Google have both added generative AI technology to their search engines and desktop software, aiming to lure users interested in having bots write their emails and plan their vacations.
Likewise, several companies, from “Snapchat” to banks and travel agencies, have added advanced chatbots to their services to keep pace with this evolution.
However, Apple, the neighbor of Google and Meta (Facebook, Instagram) in Silicon Valley, did not mention generative artificial intelligence or even artificial intelligence at all during its annual conference of developers which took place is held last Monday.
After the conference, the specialized magazine “Wired” headlined “Apple Ignores Generative AI Revolution”.
The fact that the iPhone maker did not mention artificial intelligence does not mean that this technology is foreign to it.
The concept of artificial intelligence is considered broad and includes many technologies that are neither rare nor particularly complex, while it is criticized for pointing to a near science-fiction future in which machines with knowledge control the humans.
Thus, some companies, including TikTok and Facebook (Meta), publish innovations that fall under artificial intelligence without focusing on the term itself.
“Of course, we build this technology into our products, but people don’t necessarily see it as artificial intelligence,” Apple Chairman Tim Cook said in an interview with ABC News this week.
Many of the innovations highlighted at Monday’s conference incorporate this technology.
Software manager Craig Federighi, for example, points out that machine learning algorithms will improve the automatic spelling correction tool.
And Federighi hinted that the keyboard, thanks to artificial intelligence, will become less limited when a user wants to type common swear words, in addition to knowing their preferences and providing them with suggestions.
However, he did not mention the famous algorithms.
Artificial intelligence plays a major role in the first mixed reality headset invented by “Apple”, which is supposed to be released next year, at a starting price of $3,500.
The computer to which the Vision Pro helmet will be attached will be able to create a digital avatar very close to reality for the user who wears it, thanks to video recordings of this person and sensors to follow the movements of their mouth and hands. in real time .
Some observers believe that not mentioning artificial intelligence is an indication that Apple has lost ground to its competitors.
According to independent analyst Rob Enderle, “Apple is far behind” its competitors in this area.
He considers that the success of ChatGBT “surprised them”, adding: “I think they thought that this type of artificial intelligence would not be achieved anytime soon (…) and now they are forced to hire a start-up in this field”.
And the random performance of “Siri”, the voice assistant of “Apple”, launched ten years ago, gives the impression that the giant is still behind its competitors.
“It’s clear to almost everyone that Apple has lost its competitive advantage with Siri,” says Insider Intelligence’s Yuri Wurmser, adding, “Siri is perhaps the most important indicator of the company’s lag in the field of artificial intelligence.
On the other hand, the expert recalls that “Apple” is above all a computer hardware company. He points out that software based on artificial intelligence is “a means to improve the user experience, not an end in itself” for Apple.
Dan Ives of “Widbush” believes that the presentation of the “Vision Pro” helmet shows the company’s capabilities in the field of artificial intelligence, although the subject was not clearly discussed.
“It’s the first step in a larger corporate strategy to build a system that includes generative AI applications” on a new headset, he says.
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