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Magic: The Gathering’s Jumpstart 2022 Launches December 2
One of the most mysterious upcoming products on Magic: The Gathering’s line-up is Jumpstart 2022. Announced at last year’s showcase along with now-released sets like Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty and Double Masters 2022, we’ve heard absolutely nothing about this follow-up to 2020’s hugely popular set.
Many began to suspect that maybe it had been cancelled or delayed out of the year it’s named after, facing a similar fate to the original and its unfortunate mid-lockdown launch. Fortunately, Wizards has confirmed it’s actually one of the final releases of the entire year; Jumpstart 2022 will be launching on December 2.
In the July 21 instalment of Weekly MTG, senior communications manager Blake Rasmussen confirmed that we’ll be seeing the set later this year, and even showed off booster packs for it. Though the images don’t give too much away, it does confirm that each 20-card pack will include at least one “anime-inspired” card, bringing back the art treatment we last saw at the start of the year in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty.
Like the original Jumpstart, Jumpstart 2022 is aimed at being a beginner-friendly limited format. Each booster pack includes half of a themed deck – such as the first set’s Dogs, Goblins, Mill, or Planeswalkers – and you’re tasked with shuffling two random packs together and trying to win with the outcome.
Despite being made for beginners, Jumpstart proved a big hit with enfranchised players as well. On top of it including powerful reprints like Cathar’s Crusade and Rhystic Study, it was a limited format that didn’t have the hassle of drafting or playing sealed – you bash two packs together and off you go. Unfortunately, the first Jumpstart launched at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the odd decision to pull Jumpstart from Magic: The Gathering Arena shortly after launch meant many people didn’t get the chance to experience it until much later.
Even though Jumpstart 2022 is launching at almost the last possible moment, this year is proving to be a big one for the format. On top of Arena’s excellent Jump In! format, September’s Dominaria United is replacing Theme boosters with new Jumpstart boosters. These contain ten different themes based on Dominaria United’s draft archetypes, and is designed to be compatible with the other ranges of Jumpstart packs launching alongside Brothers’ War and in Jumpstart 2022.
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Standard & Poor's Ratings Services placed Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD, +6.12% on watch for a ratings boost, citing the semiconductor company's higher and more stable levels of profitability over the past two years.
The ratings firm currently rates AMD at B-plus, four levels below investment-grade territory. S&P said it will resolve the credit watch placement once it meets with management to assess the company's product strategy and reviews final terms with its foundry suppliers.
"Despite continuing competitive and technological challenges, AMD's more stable performance over the past two years, combined with the debt reduction we anticipate, could support a higher rating if we view it as sustainable," S&P credit analyst John Moore said.
The Sunnyvale, Calif., company--which designs semiconductors that serve as calculating engines in computers, servers and game consoles--has its strongest product lineup in years during 2011. But problems at Globalfoundries, a company formed by the spinoff of AMD's manufacturing operations, have hindered its ability to get enough supply into the market, and it has yet to make inroads into mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.
AMD in November said it planned to cut about 10% of its employees, triggering charges but ultimately helping the company reduce operating costs. The company has said it would plow some of the savings into newer business areas.
Last week, AMD said it swung to a fourth-quarter loss as write-downs tied to the chip maker's investment in Globalfoundries offset stronger sales of personal-computer processors.
Shares were down 3 cents at $6.71. The stock is up 15% over the past three months.

domain: news


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Generally, an inverted yield curve signals a potential recession that will occur anywhere in the next 12 to 24 months. So is it time to panic?
There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. Every economist will tell you this. Why? Opportunity costs!
Last week reports came out that Xi Jinping (President of China) would not be meeting Trump for further Sino-US trade relations discussions until March 1st, which is the “Armageddon” day for when the imposed tariffs between the two largest global economies will be enacted. This articles discusses future China outlooks and current Sino-US affairs.
“A frictionless market is a theoretical trading environment where all costs and restraints associated with transactions are non-existent.”
Spending and Credit drives the economy, but what is credit, and how is it good and bad for the economy?
WTF are Basic Investment Terms? A simple introduction to terms, such as stock market, stock, bond, and dividends.


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1 February 2020 The Square and Morton's go into administration. See this account in Hot Dinners.
20 January 2018 A slightly shorter version of this article is published in the Financial Times magazine, a companion piece to this news article. See also OW Loeb – a history lesson.
On the afternoon of 16 November last year, Christie’s did a very unusual thing. Part way through a sale entitled ‘Finest& Rarest Wines from a Superb Collection Part 1’, it announced that all further lots were being withdrawn. ‘Today’s wine auction was being conducted on behalf of a secured creditor of the owners of the private collection offered. Christie’s has just received notice that this debt has now been paid.’
The wine collection, the second half of which was supposed to have been auctioned in Hong Kong a few days later, had been offered as security against a personal cash loan to London restaurateur Marlon Abela (see Nick's rather prescient 2004 profile of him), owner of The Greenhouse, Umu, Morton’s and now The Square, a collection sporting no fewer than five Michelin stars. It is generally acknowledged in the restaurant business that the higher the ranking, the harder it is to make a profit. (Abela also acquired a share in Simon Parker Bowles' St James's wine bar Green's; it is no longer operating.)
Abela, son of a hugely successful Middle Eastern businessman, a knowledgeable wine and food lover and a regular feature on The Sunday Times Rich List, likes to spend time in his luxurious dining empire. But he has proved less enthusiastic about visiting the premises of his wine companies – at least that has been the experience of his former employees at OW Loeb, the wine merchant he bought at the end of 2014.
OW Loeb is one of the great names of the international wine trade and will be a name familiar to many wine lovers today. In the 19th century Sigmund Loeb was one of Germany’s most celebrated wine merchants and president of the Moselle Trade Association (see Jewish heritage in German wine culture in your Oxford Companion to Wine, 4th edn for more). His son Otto made London his home from the 1930s and played an important part in the early years of Glyndebourne Opera for instance, introducing the company to the delights of German wine.
In the 1950s, OW Loeb sought financial backing from Yorkshire businessman and connoisseur David Dugdale, who finally took over the company in 1976. He and managing director Anthony Goldthorp had picked out the plums of the Rhône and Burgundy so effectively, from the very early 1960s, that OW Loeb was the second-oldest export customer (after Frederick Wildman of New York) of Domaine Armand Rousseau, whose wines the world’s burgundy lovers would practically kill for nowadays.
In 1997, David Dugdale passed on the company, also dealing in fine Bordeaux and German wines, to Christopher Davey and Brough Gurney-Randall, wine lovers who had long worked together and enjoyed being the bridge between top growers and appreciative private customers. Recently, well into their sixties, they decided to sell OW Loeb and Abela seemed the ideal owner. He gave every impression of having the deepest of pockets and seemed well-positioned to take the venerable company to the next stage.
Abela already had a wine trading company that supplied his restaurants, MARC Fine Wines run by Patrick Headlam since 2005. The plan was for Headlam, Davey and Gurney-Randall to work together in Loeb’s Bermondsey premises, which they did most effectively for the first year or so, assembling a crack team of almost 20.
Cynics like me, knowing Abela’s personal penchant for the finest of wines, thought that his motivation for buying Loeb might be to get his hands on the company’s precious allocations of some of the wine world’s greatest names, wines MARC Fine Wines could only dream about. What we didn’t foresee was that this once-great company would quickly hit controversy with a spate of resignations and disputes over payment.
In January last year, OW Loeb held its annual en primeur burgundy tasting as usual, showing off the popular 2015 vintage. Orders from the swelling ranks of burgundy lovers flooded in, along with cash from those expecting to take delivery of their 2015s in the next few months. A similar tasting and offer of German 2016s was made in June.
But as the year progressed it became increasingly apparent that some growers, the producers of these wines, were not being paid as usual. The frequency of emails and calls from worried growers increased to such a pitch, and working at OW Loeb became so demoralising, that by the autumn the majority of staff, including the three most senior principals, had resigned. There seemed to be no reaction to these resignations from the MARC group’s head office above Abela’s Japanese restaurant Umu in Bruton Place.
One of the last to leave was Nicola Franklin who had been with OW Loeb for 10 years and was impelled to stay by a sense of loyalty to the growers she had come to regard as friends. ‘I felt absolutely powerless,’ she says now. ‘The problem was the reluctance of head office to release cash to pay growers – and the fact that there were so many resignations... We had no way of knowing who had been paid and who not. I also felt huge loyalty to my customers and tried to push as much wine as possible into customers’ reserves.'
Some of the producers were owed five-figure sums. The worst hit were the least grand. Some in the less glamorous Mâconnais region worried they might not be able to afford to pick the 2017 harvest. A number resorted to threatening litigation.
Eventually, at the beginning of last November, worn down by the stress of dealing with distressed growers, Franklin too resigned.
One of the company’s brightest young stars, admired taster Jack Chaddock, has in the last few weeks been working from his kitchen table, doing his best to unite customers with their orders – even though he has been offered a job by a rival firm and is no longer on the Loeb payroll.
The legal situation is that once wine is moved to a customer’s personal reserve in a UK warehouse and identified with their name, it is their property. OW Loeb’s customers’ reserves are kept at London City Bond’s Dinton site outside Salisbury in a reconditioned munitions store. (See our free international guide to Where to store wine, fully updated last year.)
Last autumn Abela was so keen to continue the tradition of offering samples of the latest vintage of burgundy to drum up new orders that Vintners’ Hall in the City of London was booked for the Thursday of last week’s Burgundy Week, as he assured me in mid-November. When I was in Burgundy late last year, those I spoke to said that no one from Loeb had set foot there for months, so no wines had been tasted and chosen for an en primeur offer of 2016s. (Abela says that his team have recently been tasting there.) The Loeb 2016 burgundy tasting was eventually cancelled.
There is still an enormous amount of 2015 burgundy sitting in producers’ cellars waiting for payment.
The week before Burgundy Week this January, there appeared to be no one at the Bermondsey premises and the Loeb phone number rang off the hook. According to Abela this was because an office move was under way. Once concern about the state of en primeur orders from Loeb began to be expressed in this thread on our members’ forum, an answering machine was put in place – although it rapidly filled up with messages. Abela recently installed a handful of staff at head office, following this up with a public announcement that ‘OW Loeb returns to Mayfair’. His grasp of either the company’s history, or London geography, appears a little shaky. (OW Loeb have been based successively in the Adelphi, Jermyn Street in St James's, Southwark and Bermondsey.)
He has been busy. He emailed OW Loeb suppliers last week to update them on developments and inform them of his unusual policy of holding back a portion of some of the wines bought en primeur. Indeed, the most recent price list on the Loeb website, dated September 2017, offers vintages 2013, 2014 and 2015 from certain even quite renowned domaines.
During Burgundy Week, it was apparent that some producers were already forming alternative alliances with other UK wine importers.
Abela has generally rejected the criticisms levelled at Loeb. He says he has invested significant sums in the business and pursued a change in strategy to introduce wines to new restaurant clientele in what he considers to be the interests of the domaines. He added: ‘We have every intention of continuing our commitment to OW Loeb. In particular we have no intention of defaulting on payments and as far as we are aware all payments are being processed to be paid.'
He later added by email, 'OW Loeb intends to honour its commitments, is in the process of doing so and if it cannot deliver a particular wine for any reason it will offer suitable alternatives or reimbursement. I say this because, as you know, not all 2015s have been delivered across the market. We are still waiting to land some of our wines and our team will be in touch with our private clients once we have received all the wine, to arrange for delivery or transfer as per their instructions.'
The tip-top domaines are unlikely to suffer anything more than inconvenience; they could sell any wine allocated to Loeb 10 times over. I sincerely hope that individual customers who thought they had bought specific wine futures from Loeb will be as fortunate. But the reputation of a once-great wine company seems severely challenged by the business practices of a particularly privileged outsider. And none of this will inspire confidence in buying wine en primeur, handing over cash many months before likely delivery, a system on which so many wine merchants depend.


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Perhaps one of the most iconic lines in The Lion King, Disney turned the saying into a trademark back in 2003 for use on clothing, footwear and headgear.
But now, that trademark is competing with the application of Chinese company Qianhai Qisheng Supply Chain Management Shenzhen Co, which aims to trademark HakunaMatata in the US for party supplies like balloons, confetti and infant toys.
Disney has apposed the application by stating that what they are attempting to register is “identical in sound, appearance, connotation, and commercial impression” to its own mark, in addition to being closely related to the film, whose trademarks are used continuously by the company in many products including balloons, party supplies and children’s toys.
With this in mind, Disney believes the approval of such a trademark will cause confusion and damages, and should therefore be denied.
However, this is not the first time that this particular trademark is under attack. Last year, Shelton Mpala, a Zimbabwean-Canadian activist, initiated a petition for Disney to get rid of its trademark explaining that “it can’t be allowed to trademark something that it didn’t invent.”
The phrase or saying comes from Swahili, one of the most widely spoken languages in East Africa, and means, as the film explains time and time again, “no worries” or “no problem”.
Brands Protection News


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Stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market:
Ford Motor Co., up 60 cents at $6.98
The country's No. 2 automaker posted an unexpected second-quarter $2.3 billion profit because of debt reductions and labor cost cuts.
Safeway Inc., down $1.59 at $18.35
The grocery store cut its profit outlook for the year, saying same-store sales will be weak throughout 2009 as prices fall.
EMC Corp., up 59 cents at $15
The data storage technology company said second-quarter profit was down, but some customers had stopped constricting tech budgets.
D.R. Horton Inc., up 79 cents at $11.17
A government report showed an increase in home sales, signaling a housing recovery, and an analyst upgrade buoyed the homebuilder.
Medarex Inc., up $7.49 at $15.89
Drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb bought the biotechnology drug company for $2.1 billion, which was a big premium over the stock price.
Fifth Third Bancorp, up $1 at $8.01
The regional bank posted a second quarter profit due to income from an asset sale, and its adjusted profit also topped expectations.
eBay Inc., up $2.07 at $21.52
Analysts said they saw positive turnaround signs in the online marketplace's second quarter Web site and sales statistics.
SanDisk Corp., down $2.07 at $16.92
The flash memory card maker said it posted a profit in the second quarter, partly thanks to higher prices, but sales fell 10 percent.


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The CEO of online retailing platform Shopify has asked DeFi Twitter for ideas on Shopify’s role in the DeFi space.
Consulting DeFi Twitter
Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke has taken to Twitter to consult the decentralized finance (DeFi) community on Shopify’s potential role in the space.
In the tweet, Lutke asked what commerce-related opportunities for the DeFi space the decentralized finance community is most excited about, as well as requested suggestions for Shopify’s role itself.
The questions attracted a number of responses, including a request to support BTC (BTC) Lightning payments, as well as stablecoin integration for Shopify-based payments.
There were also several partnership proposals with top DeFi projects, including Compound Finance (COMP) and Aave (AAVE).
However, Shopify did not convince all respondents of their seriousness. Twitter user, Paul Everton, argued the DeFi space may not be “relevant” for companies that operate in the “real-world” like Shopify, citing high transaction fees.
DeFi enthusiasts quickly pointed out that this was only true if you ignored layer two solutions and that most were actually much cheaper than 99.9% of Shopify’s transactions.
The Seal of Approval
In any case, Shopify’s pondering of a future role in not only the cryptocurrency space, but the DeFi space is an endorsement of the space from a major company in the online retail world.
Shopify also joined the Facebook-led Libra Association last year, despite a number of high-profile step-backs for the association. Facebook revealed Libra in 2019 as its attempt to use blockchain-based technology to serve the underbanked.
It drew fierce confrontation from governments and regulators worldwide, as they raised concerns regarding the company’s potential influence on the global financial system. Indeed, the international community set up task force, led by the G7 countries, in direct response.
The New Normal
Nevertheless, interest in cryptocurrencies from industry giants is growing at a rapid pace. PayPal recently revealed a cryptocurrency payments solution for its checkout service.
The solution named “Checkout with Crypto” will let users pay with BTC (BTC), ETH (ETH), BTC cash (BCH), and litecoin (LTC). This comes after the payments giant enabled crypto trading on its platform towards the end of last year. This resulted in PayPal users trading over $242 million worth of cryptocurrencies in just 24 hours .
Indeed, PayPal competitors such as Visa, Mastercard, and Circle are all now integrating cryptocurrency payment solutions in trend that is becoming the new normal.
The post Shopify CEO Asks Twitter For Advice on Firm’s DeFi Role appeared first on BeInCrypto.


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Brown 'has extra £48bn to spend'
The healthy state of Britain's public finances means Chancellor Gordon Brown could splash out an extra £48bn in spending plans to be announced later this month, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. The extra spending would represent a real increase of around 5% a year.
Brown is currently working on his second Comprehensive Spending Review, which will set levels for Government departments for the next three years. He has already pledged to increase spending on health by 6.1% above inflation for each of the next four years.
But PwC said its analysis started from the fact that total Government spending was set to increase by about £70bn, from about £370bn in the current financial year to £440bn in 2003/04, according to plans set out in the March Budget.
PwC economists calculate that annually managed expenditure will have to rise by around £22bn over the next three years, an average real increase of around only 1.5% a year. The modest growth is due to a fall in real spending on debt interest because of the healthy state of public finances.
Social security spending is seen at about 1.5% a year in real terms, given that most benefits are linked to prices rather than earnings. This is based on economic growth averaging 2.25% and unemployment staying at low levels over the next three years.
PwC estimates this leaves scope for an increase in departmental expenditure limits of around £48bn over the next three years in cash terms.
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EDGE has not given many perfect 10 scores for games in its history. However, Super Mario Odyssey seems to be one of them. This month’s issue of EDGE was originally supposed to be with subscribers at this point. However, the magazine was delayed “to accommodate an exclusive embargo.” Subscribers will have the issue tomorrow, but we’re hearing that it’s already showing up in stores – and Super Mario Odyssey is apparently on the cover.
We don’t have any images just yet, but Mario is shown in a white tuxedo according to sources. But more importantly, EDGE appears to have the very first review of the game.
What we know at the moment is that EDGE awarded Super Mario Odyssey with a perfect 10. This image from the magazine was snapped:
In its history, EDGE has given 19 other games a perfect score. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which was released earlier this year, is one of them. Check the list down below for the full overview:
Read more Nintendo News Here:


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National Egg Price Surge is Affecting a Local Bakery
JACKSON, Tenn. - The national increase in egg prices has affected many bakeries, including Floral Cakes in Jackson.
The rising cost of eggs is denting household and even business budgets.
Some businesses mostly affected by this are local bakeries.
Data from the Consumer Price Index reports egg prices have gone up sixty percent from last year.
“We know pretty much how many eggs we typically use in a day, so we’ve kind of had to double that said amount to put aside and kind of cut back to make sure we don’t have any waste.”
Owner of Floral Cakes Bakery, Genevieve Dupree, is making adjustments to still provide the community with freshly baked cupcakes amidst the egg shortage.
“If this does continue, there will be a slight height rate in our prices, but we will let our customers know exactly where we are with this.”
Dupree has budgeted the cost of eggs since she opened her bakery almost one year ago but is now budgeting egg costs in her household as well.
“It’s very simple as to being able to budget for eggs at home, less omelets for the husband.”
Dupree is expecting to make adjustments for her customers as the egg prices change.


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Latest move for Chewy co-founder and billionaire Ryan Cohen
Ryan Cohen’s stock is rising – again. He is slated to be taking on the position of chairman of the board of GameStop after the company’s annual meeting in June, the South Florida Business Journal reported. The new role comes amid a management and board shakeup since the Reddit-charged stock surge earlier this year. Last month the board formed a committee, chaired by Cohen, to “identify initiatives that can further accelerate the company’s transformation.” Cohen has been a director since earlier this year when his firm RC Ventures took a stake in the company.
Cohen was also in the news for another reason this week. The Bal Harbour resident made the Forbes’ World’s Billionaire List with a cool $1.6 billion. He was among more than 50 South Floridians making the list. Who was number one? Former homeboy Jeff Bezos, who graduated from Miami Palmetto Senior High.
Cohen founded Chewy in 2011 and stepped down as CEO in 2018 soon after the company was acquired by PetSmart for more than $3 billion, the largest e-commerce transaction at the time. The Dania Beach -based company recently posted its first profitable quarter as a public company amid a pandemic-accelerated surge in new customers.
Speaking of billionaires, Larry Ellison buys in North Palm Beach
Larry Ellison, the$100 billion man according to Forbes list out this week, purchased an $80 million 7-bedroom, 15,514-square-foot oceanfront mansion in North Palm Beach. No word yet whether the new abode will become the Oracle co-founder’s permanent residence, but the tax advantages would be substantial.
REEF’s delivery robots take to Miami streets
Miami’s REEF Technology and robotics startup Cartken jointly announced the arrival of self-driving delivery robots in Miami. The autonomous robots will use their sophisticated mix of sensors and cameras to navigate busy sidewalks, crosswalks and curbs.
After a successful pilot launch, the electric-powered robots are now delivering dinner orders from Reef’s network of delivery-only kitchens to recipients located within a ¾-mile radius in Downtown Miami. REEF will be rolling out more Cartken robots in additional locations and neighborhoods within the next few weeks. The robots were designed to make short-distance deliveries of small orders more efficient, all while helping to reduce road congestion and pollution. Long term, REEF and Cartken expect many new jobs to be created surrounding the maintenance and technology of the robots.
“Delivery continues to be the driving force behind supporting many of our beloved restaurants while staying safe during this pandemic. However, the rising demand for delivery has created a bottleneck during peak dining hours that slows efficiency,” said Matt Lindenberger, Chief Technology Officer at REEF. “We’re looking at our robot delivery service as a long-term solution that can advance the delivery ecosystem by offering speed, quality and scale while reducing congestion and carbon emission.”
Consumers who order from a REEF partner brands such as Della Bowls, Krispy Rice, BurgerFi, Sam’s Crispy Chicken and others using either Postmates, UberEats, DoorDash, or GrubHub may be prompted with the option of a robot delivery. When the robot arrives at a house or apartment building, it waits outside and sends a text message alerting the customer that the delivery has arrived, typically within 30 minutes or less. While it makes its delivery, the robot’s compartment is locked so that no one but the recipient can access the food.
Co-living coming to Wynwood
The Collective has unveiled plans for its first co-living project in South Florida within a mixed-use building at 2825 N.W. Second Ave. in Wynwood. The building –351,443 square feet over 12 stories along 29th Street and eight stories on 28th Street – would have 108 apartments, 70 hotel rooms, 9,508 square feet of commercial space, and 163 parking spaces, the South Florida Business Journal reported.
Forget about the bunk houses in San Francisco — this is high-end co-living. The Collective Wynwood would have 82,000 square feet of co-working space, meeting rooms, rooms with physical games, virtual gaming rooms, a communal kitchen, a library, a fitness center, an artist workshop/studio, a garden, a pool deck atop the 8-story building, and a roof deck on the 12-story building.
Opportunity knocks: Pareto Fellowship seeking applicants
Offered by Pareto Holdings, a new firm founded by Shutterstock founder Jon Oringer and investor Edward Lando, the Pareto Fellowship is a free week-long event June 7-11 during which Pareto Holdings will invite aspiring founders to build new companies with the Pareto Fellowship team and friends including SoftBank’s Marcelo Claure, REEF’s Ari Ojalvo and of course Mayor Francis. Founders who are selected for the fellowships receive access to workshops, office hours, and interactive sessions with the Pareto team and other leading entrepreneurs, operators, investors, and community leaders. Select participants will receive direct funding and support to launch their companies after the Fellowship.
Applications close on Saturday, May 15th, 2021. Find out more here.
Got news? Email Nancy Dahlberg at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @ndahlberg
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Take control of your energy future and start saving with SirajPower, contact us today!
UAE, Dubai; 29 October 2022: Line Investments & Property LLC, the shopping mall and management division of Lulu Group announces the launch of a 1MWp solar carport and 4 Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Stations at Silicon Central, installed early this year by SirajPower, the UAE’s leading distributed solar energy provider as part of the mall’s sustainability initiative.
The solar carport project covers 5,500 sqm and will produce 1.7 GWh of clean energy annually, offsetting more than 1,205 metric tons of CO2 emissions equivalent to nearly 20,000 tree seedlings grown for 10 years. The brand-new Silicon Central boasts a GLA of 80,000 sqm of retail, F&B, and cinemas, including a 9,000 sqm Lulu Hypermarket and department store spanning 7,800 sqm totaling 16,800 sqm.
Salim M.A., Director of Lulu Group International, said: “With the solar carport as an environmentally friendly project at Silicon Central, we are committed towards a healthy and sustainable future and fully support the region’s vision to mitigate carbon emissions to create a more sustainable economy. The solar plant system is a testimony to our commitment to sustainable development and to reducing its carbon footprint, in line with Dubai’s vision to transform into a carbon-neutral economy by 2050.”
Laurent Longuet, CEO at SirajPower, said: “We are delighted to support Silicon Central with their sustainability and environmental benefits and their commitment to reducing their environmental impact through innovative and effective solar solutions starting with the solar carport. It is refreshing to witness the retail giant being a catalyst for positive change and placing emphasis on sustainability initiatives and Silicon Central has been at the forefront of environmental awareness to reduce their carbon footprint.”
“This initiative will help us transition to clean energy via our innovative solar carport solution and we will continue working towards reducing our greenhouse gas emissions using state-of-the-art technologies for waste management, energy savings and electrical charging stations in the car-parking area,” added Salim.
Other than providing energy for the day-to-day operations of the Lulu Group’s Dubai Silicon Central Mall, the Dubai Silicon Central Mall’s Solar Carport will also provide shaded car parking for cars alongside charging slots for electric cars. The facility will help reduce the mall’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
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BERLIN — Achieving group-wide profitability for the first time in 2014, Zalando, Europe’s largest fashion and footwear online platform, is eyeing continued growth and active expansion of its fashion assortment and staff in 2015.
In final 2014 figures released today, the Berlin-based group reported net profit of 47.1 million euros, or $62.6 million, compared to a loss of 116 million euros, or $154.1 million, in 2013.
Dollar figures are converted at average exchange for the period to which they refer.
Zalando also confirmed preliminary figures released last month, with earnings before interest and taxes of 62.1 million euros, or $82.4 million, compared with a loss of 114 million euros, or $151.4 million the year previously. Group sales rose 25.7 percent to 2.21 billion euros, or $2.94 billion.
The group affirmed its 2015 forecast, which calls for revenue growth of between 20 and 25 percent with an adjusted EBIT margin at about 2014’s level, or approximately 2.8 percent.
“We are not taking our foot off the gas,” management board member Rubin Ritter emphasized in a conference call Thursday morning.
Although Zalando is currently Europe’s largest online player, with 2014 sales of 2.21 billion euros, or $2.94 billion, Ritter noted that in the total European fashion market of 420 billion euros, or $558.39 billion, “we’re still small. If we capture 2 to 3 percent of market share, that would make us a 10 billion euro [$11.04 billion at current exchange] company. I don’t know when we’ll get there,” he added, but the goal looking forward “is to be able to compare ourselves to the large-scale players like Amazon, Google and Alibaba.”
Zalando closed 2014 with 14.7 million active customers, adding about 600,000 new active customers in the fourth quarter. Mobile traffic hit an all-time high in the period, and for the year, the share of mobile traffic rose to 42 percent from 27 percent in 2013.
Active in 15 European countries, the group’s most mature market, the DACH region of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, grew sales 17 percent to 1.23 billion euros, or $1.64 billion, and achieved an adjusted EBIT (excluding equity-settled stock-based compensation costs) of 83 million euros, or $110.3 million, compared with 8.2 million euros, or $10.9 million, in 2013.
Sales in Zalando’s remaining European markets rose 36.9 percent to reach 862.6 million euros, or $1.15 billion.
However, on an annual basis, these markets are still operating in the red, although adjusted operative losses were pared down to 11.6 million euros, or $15.4 million, compared with a loss of 99.1 million euros, or $131.6 million, the year previously. In the fourth quarter, EBIT for these European markets hit 14.5 million euros, or $18.1 million, compared with a loss of 11.7 million euros, or $15.9 million, for the fourth-quarter 2013.
In the year ahead, Ritter said Zalando plans large-scale hires, especially in technologym but also in the fashion sector, with staff growing from 8,000 to 10,000 toward the end of the year. Although the group’s three state-of-the-art logistic centers in Germany have the capacity to handle the next 12 months’ growth, Ritter said Zalando is evaluating more local logistics hubs, not necessarily operated by the group, in more far-away markets such as Italy, Spain, the U.K. and Scandinavia.
The group’s private-label offer, estimated at about 15 percent, will also be intensified, as will partnerships such as last year’s engagement with labels such as the Gap and Topshop.
The biggest task, Ritter summed up, is to “get a better personalized offer.” He said in the past, the customer’s goal was to browse a great assortment with quick and convenient delivery.
“But in the future, it will be, ‘how do I get a black-tie look like James Bond in the next three hours?’” said the executive.


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DAVID McNEW / Getty Images
Hundreds of concerned customers lined up yesterday at the IndyMac Bank headquarters branch in Pasadena.
Depositors descend on IndyMac
Customer claims may take years to sort out, FDIC says
PASADENA – Worried customers with deposits in excess of insured limits flooded IndyMac Bank branches yesterday, demanding to withdraw as much money as they could or get answers about the fate of their funds.
All eyes on Fannie-Freddie rescue plan
Spread of financial crisis could cost billions more
WASHINGTON – Now that the federal government has thrown a lifeline to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, taxpayers could be on the hook for billions more if the crisis of confidence spreads.
There were encouraging signs yesterday for the rescue plan, but also signs of concern – notably on Wall Street, where shares of the two companies slumped further – that the plan won't be enough.
GM to cut jobs, slash SUV, truck production
Auto giant seeks ways to halt losses, raise cash
DETROIT – General Motors is expected to cut several thousand salaried jobs and further slash truck production in response to falling U.S. sales and Wall Street's demands for more action to stem its losses, according to two people briefed on the plan.
Microsoft gets game face on for Xbox 360
LOS ANGELES – Microsoft, whose technology allows millions of video game players to talk smack on its Xbox Live service, had some trash talk yesterday for Sony, whose Play-Station 2 system strongly outsold Microsoft's original Xbox.
To keep Bud brand intact, other cuts likely
ST. LOUIS – The King of Beers, the folks who spent lavishly to bring you the Bud Bowl, the Talking Frogs, the Whassup Guys and the Clydesdales, is being swallowed by a Belgian brewer known for its frugality.


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Betty Crocker fruit snacks are as unhealthy as gummy bears and are widely advertised to children. Please join us today in sending a message to General Mills today to ask them to stop marketing Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks to kids.
The anti-menu labeling bill, the so-called Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act (S.261/HR.772), is neither common sense nor provides more nutrition information. The industry-backed bill would make it harder for customers to understand and obtain calorie and other nutrition information at many restaurants and similar food establishments.
Soda and other sugary drinks are leading promoters of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Sugar-sweetened beverages are the largest source of calories in children’s diets and provide nearly half of their added sugar intake. Drinking just one sugary drink every day increases a child’s odds of becoming obese by 60 percent. With one in three children overweight or obese in the U.S., it no longer makes sense to include sugary beverages as part of meals for young children.
We have until January 29 to stop the Trump Administration from delaying and weakening policies that are reducing salt in school meals to healthier levels. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's proposal to delay planned sodium reductions for three years (and stop future reductions) will mean American kids will eat 84 more teaspoons of salt.
Take Action: Tweet at the FDA Commissioner to ensure there's no animal feces on the food you bring home to your family.
Chili’s is the “winner” of the first-ever Lifetime Achievement award at the MilliGrammys—awards recognizing ridiculous amounts of sodium in restaurant meals. Most of us should limit ourselves to about 1,500 to 2,300 milligrams of sodium daily. But some meals at Chili’s, like its Crispy Fiery Pepper Crispers—with 6,240 milligrams— double or almost triple that amount. Contact Chili’s President Wyman T. Roberts and ask him to support sodium reduction!
The retail food environment should support shoppers’ health, not undermine it. Starting with checkout—one of the most profitable and unhealthy areas of the store, where extra calories are pushed on shoppers (they’re called impulse purchases for a reason)—CSPI is asking Walmart, Kroger, Publix, and Walgreens to rethink the foods and beverages that are sold near the cash register and instead offer products that support shoppers’ efforts to eat well.
We, the undersigned citizens, strongly urge the Food and Drug Administration to ban synthetic dyes from food and beverages given the substantial evidence that the dyes harm susceptible children.
Did you know that food and chemical companies can decide for themselves whether a chemical is safe for use in food?


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Pictured accepting the TSIA award are Murali Krishnan, Vice President of Consumer Support within Dell’s Support and Deployment Services Organization and Denis Kelly, Senior Vice-President for Consumer Services at Dell EMC.
Dell EMC wins TSIA award for innovation in consumer services
Dell EMC yesterday announced that the company’s consumer services team has won the Technology Services Industry Association 2017 STAR award ( TSIA award) for innovation in leveraging social support for services excellence at the association’s annual conference in Las Vegas recently.
Now in its 27th year, the STAR award is one of the most sought-after accolades in the technology and services industry, acknowledging the contribution of companies to the continual improvement of technology services delivery worldwide.
As the leading global professional association of the technology services industry, TSIA has been benchmarking the international technology sector for over twenty years and incorporates over 80% of the Fortune 100 companies across 65 countries.
In welcoming the announcement Denis Kelly, Senior Vice-President for Consumer Services at Dell EMC, said: “This is a fantastic achievement by our global team. The contribution of innovation and thought-leadership by our team is a reflection of their commitment to enhancing our customer’s experience of our services. The Social Media Support Operation has 36 million annual visitors, a social listening platform, analysing more than 20 million social conversations each year.”
The citation from TSIA is a reflection of how Dell EMC and its consumer services are leading the way in innovation as it states “Dell EMC’s impressive application reads like a Harvard Business Review case study in how to leverage social support, including a high volume social media support operation, and a powerful online community.
“The intellectual property of our team members in Limerick and across Ireland is a key contribution to shaping our strategy, leading not just to the awards, but to meaningful, tangible customer improvements, with a 26% reduction in Customer Effort, a 25% improvement in Customer experience and a 98% reduction in the cycle time of getting issues resolved through the medium of Social Support” added Denis Kelly.
Today’s announcement comes amidst a positive year for the Global Consumer Customer Team at Dell EMC, having won a total of 14 international services awards. The company’s Global Customer Support network is lead out of the company’s site in Limerick by Denis Kelly with the support of Murali Krishnan who drives the strategy, design and the deployment for the Social Media Support out of India.
Murali Krishnan has been part of Denis Kelly’s Global Consumer Support team for five years and currently serves as Vice President of Consumer Support within Dell’s Support and Deployment Services Organization.
In this role, he leads the Consumer Services Transformation and Social Media Support Strategy and Delivery across Support and Deployment Services Organization. The team looks at leveraging Digital Transformation for enhancing Support Experience, enabling Consumer Services Revenue and optimizing Cost of Delivery leveraging technology.
To find out more about the TSIA award and the STAR awards 2017 click here
To read more of our stories on Business awards click here
To find out more about Dell EMC click here


text: UPS Franchisees Appeal after Judge Decertifies Class - Blue Maumau The UPS Store / Mail Boxes Etc franchisees filed a notice of appeal last week while still licking their wounds from a devastating blow from a California court. The judge decertified their collective claims as a “class” group. In the franchisees’ lawsuit against franchisor United Parcel Services, they claim The UPS Store business model presented to them after UPS took over in 2001 was flawed, causing irreparable harm to their stores. Last month, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William F. Highberger granted summary judgment to the shipping giant, ruling that franchisees who owned Mail Boxes, Etc. stores that later converted to The UPS Store system, had not proven to the court that they were harmed by the conversion. A year ago, he had granted 3,500 MBE franchisees class-action status in the lawsuit.


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Jordan Brand announces 20-year partnership with Howard University
The GIST: Jordan Brand is now officially outfitting Howard University’s student athletes. The Nike subsidiary announced a 20-year partnership with the school’s athletic department yesterday, aimed at deepening the impact of all Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) on college sports. Legendary, indeed.
The details: The parties will collaborate on more than just uniforms, with the first set slated for an August 27th reveal. Jordan Brand has also committed to providing an assist to the university’s recruitment process, aiming to boost Bison experiences both athletically and academically.
- Both Howard and the Jumpman are seeking to increase HBCUs’ impact on global culture and Black excellence.
The context: HBCUs are notoriously and systemically underfunded compared to predominantly white institutions and, as a result, are overlooked in the college sports world — including the name, image and likeness (NIL) marketplace.
- Brands and other stakeholders are arguably leaving money on the table. A 2021 report valued untapped Black American consumer buying power at a cool $300 billion each year. Inclusivity will always win.
Zooming out: By design, the NIL era is about returning the massive sums of money in college sports back to the industry’s top laborers — the athletes. Jordan Brand’s deal with Howard takes the initiative to the natural next step by increasing opportunities for Bison athletes — and the athletic department — to finally realize their potential.


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Australian Almonds trade stall at the Japan Supermarket Show
F EBRUARY 2020 has been a full month for our Australian Almonds Export Development Program. We have exhibited Australian almonds at the Japan Supermarket Show in Tokyo, the Gulfoods Trade Fair in Dubai and at the Goifex Fitness Exhibition in Jakarta. The trading context for our Australian almonds during February has been difficult. This is because a global pricing correction has occurred due to the fundamental ‘supply and demand’ forces in the almond industry. The production volume of the 2019-20 Californian crop was confirmed to exceed 2.5 billion pounds in contrast to the earlier objective estimate of 2.2 billion pounds. The 2020-21 new season Californian crop is also widely forecast to be larger than 2019 as more bearing acres are harvested. Compounding the difficulty of gaining pricing stability has been the uncertainty generated through the spread of the Coronavirus. However, demand for almonds has remained strong. This is providing an important level of buyer confidence.
Japan Supermarket Show
Our February program commenced with a seminar and trade exhibition at the Japan Supermarket Show. This trade show ran from February 12 to 14 at the Makuhari Messe in Tokyo. The feature of our Australian almond program during this exhibition was a seminar held at the Exhibition Center on the first afternoon of the trade show. More than 50 Japanese almond industry trade representatives attended the seminar. As in previous years, the Austrade Tokyo office and the Food South Australia Japan office assisted with the seminar and trade exhibition. Damien Houlahan, Olam Orchards Australia, Tim Jackson, Almondco Australia and Joseph Ebbage, Almond Board of Australia participated in the seminar which included an industry update followed by a Q&A session.


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Rumors on the internet are operating in full force that project “Titan” will soon be producing the first Apple electric car. It is apparent that this rumor was first circulated, in part, by an article published in the Wall Street Journal. The article references the top secret code name “Titan” and claims that 100’s of Apple employees have been assigned to this project, which took form about a year ago. The vehicles received their first exposure, however, in places like San Francisco and Brooklyn. Several eyewitnesses reported seeing white caravans with self driving devices through out the city.
A recent article in Forbes, contributed by Chuck Jones, sheds light on some of the rumors and gives interesting and plausible alternatives to the popular speculation that Apple is producing an electric car.
Is it merely vehicle compatible software they are working on? Is Apple gathering photos for their own ‘street view’? Are they improving Apple Maps’ accuracy? Obviously we will need to wait and see, but we’d be inclined to agree with Chuck Jones, the idea that Apple is designing an electric car seems to be a stretch. Designing an electric vehicle would be a massive undertaking in a very new direction. Apple is known for consistent innovation within an established field. To be suddenly veering into another market would be, well, kind of Google-ish.


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Lucasfilm has been spotted registering domains for something called Star Wars: Identities.
The domains - StarWarsIdentities.com, StarWarsIdentites.com [sic], and sw-id.com - were registered on 7th November, according to Fusible.
Being Lucasfilm, the implication is that a new Star Wars film - perhaps animated - is on the way. That a new, grandiose movie is in development to succeed Return of the Jedi will is harder to believe.
Or, Star Wars: Identities could be a video game. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed developer LucasArts was seen hiring for an openworld role-playing game in August this year.
Two months earlier, LucasArts made it clear that the studio plans to make more Star Wars games - and better ones, at that.
"In recent years, LucasArts hasn't always done a good job of making games," boss Paul Meegan said. "We should be making games that define our medium, that are competitive with the best of our industry, but we're not.
"That has to change."
The next Star Wars game to be released will be gargantuan MMO project Star Wars: The Old Republic, on 20th December. Following that will be motion-sensing game Star Wars Kinect.
LucasArts hasn't commented officially on the Star Wars: Identities domain registrations.


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Three leading hamburger chains in Israel, McDonald's, Burger King and Burger Ranch, have announced they are dropping their prices.
Burger King's Whopper Junior and "Star Meal" and Burger Ranch's Burger Extra Ranch meal will now cost NIS 27 (about $6.9) instead of NIS 35 ($9) – a NIS 8 ($2) drop in the price of a meal.
The new prices in these two chains will go into effect on Sunday, January 11.
McDonald's offers slightly less impressive discounts. A children's Happy Meal that used to cost NIS 26 ($6.7), will now be offered for the price of NIS 24.5 ($6.3).
Since the chain has recently removed applesauce from the Happy Meal, purchasing it separately will cost an extra Shekel, and along with the price of a small ice cream cone, the price of such a meal could reach NIS 27.4 ($7.1), adding up to a total discount of NIS 1.6 (40 cents).
The price of a McDonald's Big Mac was reduced by NIS 2.1 (54 cents), from NIS 32 ($8.3) to NIS 29.9 ($7.7), and the cost of a Chicken McNuggets and Chicken Select meal dropped by half a shekel (about 10 cents), from NIS 38 ($9.8) to NIS 37.5 ($9.7), while the chicken portions in both meals has grown by 33%.
A new Chicken McNuggets meal includes 8 nuggets instead of 6, and a Chicken Select meal now includes four pieces of chicken instead of three.
The most significant discount of NIS 6.5 ($1.68) can be found in a large Chicken Select meal including five pieces of chicken and a large Chicken McNuggets meal including 10 nuggets. Both meals have dropped from NIS 48 ($12.4) each to NIS 41.5 ($10.7).
All three chains announced they offer an array of products and combinations for the price of NIS 10 ($2.5) a piece.
McDonald's has 14 combinations at the price of only NIS 10, while Burger King and Burger Ranch each only offer eight NIS 10 – combos.


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- The Straits Times
The end of Singapore’s circuit-breaker period is approaching, but the Government has made clear that many of its restrictions will continue to be enforced for the safety of the community.
On Tuesday (May 19), the multi-ministry taskforce said that while it has decided to allow the circuit-breaker to end on June 1, business operations and social activities will only be allowed to resume gradually in three phases.
It also cautioned that with more activities and interactions, Singapore is “likely to see a rise in new community cases”.
“What is critical is our ability to detect and contain these cases quickly, and prevent large clusters from forming,” the taskforce said, adding that re-opening will not mean returning to life as it was before the pandemic.
Under the first phase, which starts on June 2, re-opening will involve the progressive lifting of measures applicable to economic activities that do not pose high risk of Covid-19 transmission.
“Everyone should continue to leave home only for essential activities, and should wear a mask when doing so. As seniors are a particularly vulnerable group, they should continue to stay at home as much as possible,” the taskforce said.
Employees should still work from home as much as possible
Besides the essential businesses that are already operating during the circuit-breaker, businesses that operate in settings with lower transmission risks will also be allowed to resume operations from June 2.
However, the taskforce said telecommuting should still be adopted to the maximum extent, and employees should go to the office “only where it is demonstrably necessary”.
Employers must also put in place and enforce safe management measures at the workplace, and employees must adhere strictly to them, it added. Workplaces where rules are not followed will be closed.
Businesses with lower transmission risks include most manufacturing companies, motor vehicle servicing, aircon servicing, basic pet services, school bookshops and retail shops selling school uniforms. Hairdressers can also start offering all hairdressing services beyond basic haircuts.
It does not include most retail outlets and many personal services. Dining in at eateries is also still not allowed in phase one.
Here is the full list of business types that may re-open their workplaces once the circuit-breaker ends.
You can also check if your workplace is allowed to re-open on June 2 via this website.
- Singapore’s 55th NDP will carry on despite the coronavirus – but the fireworks are coming to you instead
- Singapore’s 570 new Covid-19 infections on Wednesday include 2 Singaporeans or PRs
- Singapore authority finds over 1,700 product listings that misleadingly claim to diagnose, treat or prevent Covid-19


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Brands have been quick to sign up for Facebook pages or broadcast their views on Twitter. But many businesses are failing to capitalise on the valuable data revealed by their customers’ ’social graph’ or ’open graph’, which could allow them to reach a greater number of consumers with personalised messages.
The social or open graph is a way of mapping people online and how they relate to each other. An individual’s social graph may include their Facebook friends, Twitter followers and LinkedIn connections – anyone involved in their interactions and content sharing. It is not confined to one social network or business. The social graph applies to the entire internet.
Finance brand American Express is testing importing Facebook data into its credit card system in the US to help deliver targeted offers based on social information. Alex Tait, director of international digital acquisition at American Express and chair of the ISBA digital action group, explains: “We are using social data for offers. In the US, you can sign up via Facebook and get offers based on your ’Likes’ and social data.
“Our view is that what feels right for the consumer should be the point of reference,” he adds. “It is no different to being customer-oriented. It is like the traditional marketing aim: a relevant message at the right time.”
The benefits of targeting people’s social graphs or friends of friends online as a means of expanding brand reach was recently explored in research by web measurement firm ComScore, which collaborated with Facebook to find out how effective targeting via the social graph could be compared to standard ads.
Using its own data and figures extracted using Facebook’s own analytics, ComScore concluded that the social graph throws up two potential audiences: fans of a brand (or those that have chosen to ’Like’ it); and friends of fans, which you can establish by reading the social data.
Targeting this second group – friends of fans – increased the potential pool of customers by 34 times, according to ComScore’s analysis of the hundred largest brand pages on Facebook. Microsoft’s Bing page had 1.7 million fans on Facebook, but by considering the friends of fans, this jumped to 232 million.
Kodak is using social data as a way to humanise its customer dealings. It uses the social graph via Facebook and its agency Blast Radius to encourage people to print the photos stored on their profiles. The graph has given the photography brand a way to link its online and in-store retail business with an upgrade to its kiosks in stores such as Boots to allow people to download their Facebook photos.
Kodak marketing manager for EMEA Charlie Yianoullou explains: “Tapping into the Facebook social graph has allowed us to reach an entirely new customer base and enter a conversation with them about printed photography.”
However, broadcaster Sky says it is cautious about pushing consumers too far in using their social data. The brand was the first UK advertiser to target consumers using Twitter’s full set of paid advertising solutions to promote the third series of US TV show Glee.
Sky’s social media activity is predominantly around the retention of its 10 million-strong customer base. It has used social media agency Jam to create activity that helps existing customers make better use of the huge range of content they subscribe to. Using digital billboards in commuter stations, the broadcaster asked people to tweet questions about viewing. The brand then replied with a personalised recommendation, also shown on the billboard.
Sky head of digital and social media Katherine Drought says that while this has been a good use of social media for her brand, she does not yet see it being integrated into other Sky services, such as its electronic programme guide (EPG).
“The biggest challenge at the moment is how [social data] equates to business key performance indicators.” she says. “A Nielsen report recently found that a 9% increase in buzz will equate to a 1% increase in people tuning into a show,” she adds. “For us, increasing this buzz or net promoter score is key because it can translate into retention.”
The use of social data for personalisation – whether in ad targeting or content – is a key theme for brands. As Play.com marketing director Adam Stewart explains: “We use Facebook ’Like’ data to capture friends, age, email address and even mobile number. There is a pool of social data that we can create a database out of: CRM, mobile, email and so on. We’re building our personalisation strategy via email at the moment; we can use the social data to learn about our customers as individuals.”
Similarly, charity British Heart Foundation is using data extracted from its Facebook page and is looking to do the same with Twitter to apply to its analytics strategy around other channels.
Roberto Kusabbi, communities and social media manager at British Heart Foundation, says: “We have a data analyst in-house and use both Omniture and Google analytics. We want to link the two together with social spaces, because we know the audience crosses over. You get similar data for Facebook paid ads as the data on Facebook page, so incorporating data from both paid and non-paid activity is also important.
“The more information we have, the easier it is to say ’It works’,” he adds. “We need to show how this engagement data translates to moving from Facebook to our site and then to find out if the user donated or agreed to do an event.”
Recruitment brand Jobsite – a Brand Innovator of The Year finalist at Marketing Week’s Engage Awards in 2010 – uses Facebook’s social games to expand the reach of its recent TV campaign. In return for gaming credits, players select to watch a Jobsite ad, introducing them to the brand with a soft call to action. It then uses ad network Radium One’s technology to retarget them with a stronger ad, encouraging email sign-ups.
Katy Jo Stanton, digital acquisition manager at Jobsite, says using a network via social gaming sites meant that the brand didn’t have to first rely on traffic to its site to be able to retarget.
“The process is around retargeting to people who have interacted with your brand, but it is designed so they do the activities to start the conversation,” she says. “You are not reliant on other channels to bring traffic into Jobsite first.”
The company can also track how people on its network share with their friends, with the ability to see what type of content and with whom.
Through the use of Page Post Sponsored Stories, which increase the distribution of posts among existing fans, engagement with the Love UK Page has also increased significantly
“As well as being able to retarget those that have interacted with your brand, you can also target their social connections,” she says. “The idea is that you can tell a person’s social connections by seeing who they share content with, which can differ between different people.
“For example, with one person, I may tend to share funny videos of cats, but with my boss, I’ll be sharing relevant marketing information and articles. If I then wanted to target with an ad about a marketing product, I’ll be less likely to want to connect with the connection that shared the videos and instead want to reach the boss.”
Being able to understand this contextual layer to content sharing means that brands can be more targeted. “From our perspective, that’s a new way of reaching people,” says Stanton. “The sentiment and meaning you can extract from share data is more human than traditional means of retargeting, which can be very formulaic.”
American Express’ Tait says consumer concern about privacy is very real and that advertisers and marketers need to start understanding the technology behind it.
“The industry needs to raise its game; user choice, convergence and the different technology available means there is so much data,” says Tait. “There is a very real consumer concern about privacy and data collection. ISBA is working with other trade bodies, such as the Internet Advertising Bureau, and the first stage is to have an evolving framework set, so that we won’t be playing catch-up.”
With social media often criticised for failing to offer concrete measurement options, using the data thrown up by the social graph could give brands a justified reason to keep investing in the area. For those businesses that can balance their customers’ privacy needs with the use of their data, the social graph may lead to a wealth of opportunities.
The goal of VisitBritain’s most recent Facebook campaign was to increase the size of the fan base on its Love UK page. The organisation has been active on the social network since 2009, attracting more than 100,000 fans, but to increase this, it turned to targeting friends of friends via Facebook’s Sponsored Stories advertising.
Sponsored Stories allow businesses to increase the visibility of organic Facebook News Feed stories when they relate to their organisation or business. The campaign ran from 25 April to 1 May, and also used Page Like and Page Post Sponsored Stories.
VisitBritain and Love UK head of digital and social media Justin Reid explains: “They are shown to friends of people who had ’Liked’ or commented on our page, which is the real golden area.”
As a result, Love UK increased the number of people who liked its page from 126,173 fans to 255,751 over the course of the seven-day campaign. In one day alone, 42,000 people liked the page.
Through the use of Page Post Sponsored Stories, which increase the distribution of posts among existing fans, engagement with the Love UK Page has also increased significantly. Feedback on Page Posts has increased by 29%.
The results have caused VisitBritain to take a Facebook-focused approach to its marketing, despite the wealth of other social channels available. “Our overall social media strategy is based on Facebook because that’s where our main successes have been,” says Reid. The Love UK page has more than 500,000 fans.
“The company has three more campaigns set up for the coming year; the next one starts in early June and will again centre on Sponsored Stories,” says Reid. “The next major step change will be to embark on an effective Facebook Commerce strategy, moving towards integrating other digital and commercial channels into a Facebook-centred strategy.”
Katy Jo Stanton
Digital acquisition manager
I work in digital acquisition, which is mainly candidate focused. Our core activity tends to be SEO, pay-per-click and display. We’ve put standard display on a backburner, investing instead in dynamic display retargeting. Social targeting is a similar process.
We got interested because we saw people doing this in the US. We also started to get interested in the gamification trend. That is a bit of a buzzword but it essentially means lots of people from a wide demographic using gaming online and combining that with a rewards-based system.
We see an untapped market in those people playing online games because there may be candidates doing that who we haven’t managed to reach elsewhere.
There’s a contextual layer on top of targeting people this way and that’s a new way of reaching them. The sentiment and meaning you can extract from share data is more human than traditional means of retargeting, which can be very formulaic.
We’ve already been doing some really sophisticated retargeting without social data with retargeting technology firm Struq and have seen the benefits from doing so. We have found that while the volume of people in retargeting goes down, the relevance is much higher, so it ends up as a much less scattergun approach to online display advertising.


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Facebook Timeline To Soon Become Standard For All Users
Facebook announced in a blog post Tuesday that Timeline will be coming to all users in the next few weeks.
According to the online social media giant, Facebook users will have 7 days to preview the content that will appear in their timeline profile. "This gives you a chance to add or hide whatever you want before anyone else sees it," Facebook said in the blog posting.
Take A Tour Of The New Facebook Timeline
Facebook says you'll receive a notification at the top of your home page when Timeline has landed in your account.
The new interface and features have been opt-in, until the roll out becomes universal.


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2019 Land Rover Defender - Proper Successor of a Legend
There is an old saying (possibly without much foundation) that goes along the lines of … “the first vehicle seen by nearly 80% of the developing world was a Land Rover”. There is no denying its credibility or history, this really was the vehicle that made the world a smaller place.
When it was announced that Land Rover would be stopping production of the Defender, there was uproar among the die-hard fans, fortunately, Jaguar Land Rover saw sense and are bringing it back to life with the all new 2019 Land Rover Defender.
Defender's main rival could be only one more legendary SUV - Jeep Wrangler.
2019 Land Rover Defender Release date
No information has been released about the 2019 Land Rover Defender, but Dr Ralf Speth, CEO Jaguar Land Rover has admitted that he’s driven a prototype of the new model. This leads us to think that JLR will showcase a concept at one of the large automobile shows next year, and then go for a full roll out in the third quarter of 2018.
2019 Land Rover Defender Price
It’s virtually impossible to guess at pricing for a brand new model, the only indication that we have is the rumor putting the 2019 Defender between the Discovery and the Range Rover. IF that is the case, we can perhaps draw on current pricing; the Discovery starts at around $50,000 and the Range Rover comes in at $85,000, so we could be looking in the region of $70,000 for the base model of the 2019 Defender.
2019 Land Rover Defender Redesign and Changes
Dr Ralf Speth has confirmed that the design has been fixed now, and we believe that the New Land Rover Defender 2019 will come in five different styles; 2 x two-door 1 x four-door and two pickups (perhaps with two and four doors). We also think that it will be built upon the same PLA (Premium Lightweight Architecture) platform from the 2017 Disco and Range Rover.
2019 Defender Specs
There is absolutely nothing (not even rumor!) regarding the powertrain, but looking so far forward means that Land Rover will have to seriously give thought toward emissions and long-term sustainability; the current trend is to offer a small engined variant (sub 2.0 liter) which gives a lower base price and helps toward the manufacturers emissions responsibility whilst then adding a muscular V6 in both gas and diesel – our money would be on a V6 rather than V8, with an 8-speed auto transmission, switchable all-wheel drive.
Land Rover have said that the new 2019 Defender will be an “authentic successor” to the generations gone by.


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April 20, 2012 ~ Ask most Americans and they would say that the role of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is to protect us from unsafe food, medications and medical devices.
Congressman Mike Rogers (R-MI) would like to expand the role of the FDA to include jobs promotion and growth for industry, a sort of goodwill ambassador for the corporations he represents in Congress. Rep. Rogers wrote an amendment to the User Fee Act that would expand the agency’s role to “promoting economic growth, innovation, competitiveness, and job creation among the industries regulated by this Act.”
He is taking such a proactive role that Rogers has even posted a video segment on his YouTube channel showing him grilling medical devices chief Jeffrey Shuren M.D. in February during a hearing of the Health subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Shuren was asked if he was concerned that a recent report said 36% of venture firms with the National Venture Capital Association planned to take investments to Europe and 44% planned to invest in Asia?
Fortune Magazine (here) reports that the top industries to donate to Rep. Rogers campaigns since he was elected to Congress in 2000 are health professionals, insurance and pharmaceuticals/health products according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics contributing more than $1.6 million. (See his coffers here).
Despite the fact that 78 percent of high-risk medical devices are reviewed through the FDA's fast track 510(k) process, industry lobbyists have urged Congress to ease federal oversight in order to promote innovation and speed up new device approvals. And according to a March 2012 Consumer Reports poll, 82 percent of Americans believe that preventing safety problems is more important than limiting safety testing in order to prevent delays and encourage innovation.
The amendment is part of the U.S. House version of the FDA’s user fee reauthorization. User fees come from industry to fund medical device reviews and the industry has agreed to pay $595 million if it receives in return faster reviews to get medical devices onto the market. (Background story here.)
The Medical Device User Fee & Modernization Act (MDUFA) must be passed by the last day of September to ensure the continuation of medical device reviews by the FDA. Congress must approval MDUFA and House and Senate Committees will vote next week.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold a mark-up of its bill to reauthorize the Medical Device User Fee Act on Wednesday, April 25. The House Energy and Commerce Committee's Health Subcommittee will mark up its bill on Thursday, April 26.
Where is Patient Safety?
Consumer and patient groups testified and reminded the committee that nowhere was patient safety even mentioned in the MDUFA reauthorization. The House bill wants to speed up approvals and focuses on how quickly medical devices can be made available.
Last year, Rep. Rogers introduced the FDA Mission Reform Act to increase the job promotion efforts by the FDA.
Public Citizen has complained to the subcommittee that promoting innovation overshadows the FDA’s primary mission of protecting the public health calling it a “very bad idea,” and Consumers Union joined in rejecting Rep. Roger’s proposal. #
Here is a news release from Consumers Union
Consumer Reports Poll on Medical Device Safety Oversight, March 20, 2012
Feb. 14 2012 ~ What is MDUFA? Hearings on $595 Million and What Industry Wants
Open Secrets on Rep. Rogers’ funding
Rogers’ YouTube Videos


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Activision and EA settle their lawsuit
Activision and EA have managed to settle their differences over the dispute over the legal battle surrounding the unpleasant departure of the founders of Infinity Ward.
Jason West and Vince Zampella, the former heads of Infinity Ward, launched a lawsuit against Activision over unpaid bonuses after their dramatic dismissal. Activision promptly launched a countersuit and named EA in the suit alongside West and Zampella.
The two publishing giants have agreed to "put the matter behind them" although Activision's request for a delay in the trial against West and Zampella has been denied.
The legal battle between Activision and the two founders of Infinity Ward will still go ahead as scheduled on May the 29th.
Thanks Develop Online.
- Borderlands 2 writer leaving Gearbox to join Freddie Wong's RocketJump production company
- Bloodborne will be harder than Demon's Souls and features procedurally generated dungeons
- Hearthstone users pass the 75 million mark, new expansion on the way says new report
- Square Enix unveils the Final Fantasy Type-0 Collector's Edition
- Life Is Strange arrives today
- SEGA cuts jobs in the biggest strategic shift since they binned the Dreamcast
- Big new update arrives for Frozen Cortex
- Introversion's Prison Architect will see its full launch this year, mobile version announced
- Ken Levine's next game is a first-person sci-fi title


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Artificial intelligence must think and learn, rather than just pour information, in order for humans to fully realise the potential of the technology, Dr I.P. Park, LG Electronics president/chief technology officer, asserted in his CES keynote on Monday evening at the Park MGM.
Park, whose address marked the first time an LG exec has keynoted at CES, outlined how the company will “shape a new future of [artificial intelligence] AI” with devices that will “evolve, connect and open” to provide “an opportunity of our lifetime to open the next chapter in … human progress.”
LG’s ThinQ is “a new language for articulating our user-centric framework for thinking and using AI in all our future innovations,” Park explained. The company’s OLED TVs features its ALPHA 9 AI chip for TV, which automatically optimises the display and sound settings to what you’re watching, he said.
LG has also developed what Park described as the first AI chip for home appliances, which combines voice recognition, visual recognition, WiFi connectivity and sensor interfaces in a single piece that “allow a whole range of devices to learn and evolve.”
LG is developing technologies supporting autonomous vehicles, prompting Park to ask: “What are we going to do with all that time saved from not driving?” LG’s answer? Mobile space. A prototype autonomous vehicle in Seoul, South Korea, illustrates the concept, where passengers change the space of a vehicle into a private cinema, mobile office or a place to shop. It features smart seats that will automatically adjust itself to the passenger’s sitting preferences, and can guide the vehicle around traffic jams, among other things.
Park said LG is looking for collaborators, and is adding its webOS open access to the company’s own AI ThinQ platform for developers all around the world.
One of Park’s key announcements was that LG is working closely with Qualcomm to ensure all the company’s devices and solutions are 5G ready. He also outlined how robotics will soon be used as “a service and as a system to further expand what we’re doing at home and on the road to better manage our lives and the space we live in.”


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For some coffee shop operators, the premise of this feature-film-in-waiting may sound a little too real to be funny: The eternally optimistic owner of a small coffee stand goes undercover to sabotage the national chain competitor who just moved in across the street.
Co-directors Matt Moglia and Eric Wilson are hoping to shoot the 80s-style spy comedy, Save the Grind, in the Bay Area after recently launching a $60,000 Kickstarter for the project. Moglia says the film is based on the real-life experiences of his cousin, who ran a drive-through coffee bar.
“A few years back he told me that a Peet’s moved in across the street and was hurting his business,” says Moglia. “He devised a plan to sabotage the Peet’s but instead I talked him into writing a screenplay with me, rather than get arrested.”
For the crew, Moglia has also enlisted Friday the 13th screenwriter Victor Miller for consultation, storyboard artist Chris Buchinsky (As Good as It Gets, Dodgeball, Office Space), and Wilson has edited dozens of episodes of NCIS Los Angeles.
Here Moglia and Wilson ask for your money while a short trailer shows how very 80s screwbally the film will be:


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Apple fined over repair claim
Apple has been fined $9 million for making false or misleading representations about faulty iPhones and iPads.
The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) took Federal Court action against Apple US and its Australian subsidiary, Apple Pty Ltd, over complaints relating to “error 53”.
This error disabled iPhones and iPads after customers updated their operating system.
Apple admitted to misleading at least 275 Australian customers by telling them they were not entitled to repairs or replacement if their device had been repaired by a third party.
“If a product is faulty, customers are legally entitled to a repair or a replacement under the Australian Consumer Law, and sometimes even a refund,” ACCC Commissioner Sarah Court said.
“Apple's representations led customers to believe they'd be denied a remedy for their faulty device because they used a third party repairer.
“The court declared the mere fact that an iPhone or iPad had been repaired by someone other than Apple did not, and could not, result in the consumer guarantees ceasing to apply, or the consumer's right to a remedy being extinguished.
“Global companies must ensure their returns policies are compliant with the Australian Consumer Law, or they will face ACCC action.”
Apple was also accused of providing refurbished iPhone and iPads as replacement devices, and has now committed to providing new devices as replacements if the consumer requests one.
“If people buy an iPhone or iPad from Apple and it suffers a major failure, they are entitled to a refund,” Ms Court said.
“If customers would prefer a replacement, they are entitled to a new device as opposed to refurbished, if one is available.”


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Samsung just released Galaxy Tab S7+ 5G with model number SM-T976B, but still limited to Germany. Even though the page did not publish the detail about the Tab S7, this information is enough to confirm the availability of this product.
According to sources, the Galaxy Tab S7+ 5G will be power by the Snapdragon 865 chipset. The tab will have 9,800 to 10,000 mAh battery. For the display, it will have a 12.4-inch screen size and 120Hz refresh rate displays.
Samsung is preparing to announce its latest flagship devices series. The South Korean company will host an event in August, announcing the new Galaxy Note20 series. They will also release the innovative flip screen phone, Galaxy Z Flip 5G and the highly-anticipated Galaxy Fold 2.


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A new restaurant concept designed by elBulli’s Ferran Adriàis to open in the Italian city of Turin this summer.
Housed in the new Lavazza headquarters in the Aurora neighbourhood, Condividere, meaning ‘sharing’, will offer Italian haute cuisine, served in a sharing style – no tasting menus – with a menu that takes the Italian family Sunday lunch as its inspiration.
Chef Federico Zanasi, previously of the Principe delle Nevi Hotel in Cervinia, will oversee day to day kitchen operations. He has also worked under Moreno Cedroni and at Relae in Copenhagen.
"We wanted to bring something new to Italian gastronomy – a gastronomy that has already offered thousands of ideas. It was going to be difficult. Opening a restaurant is the most difficult thing to do in the world,” Adrià told Food and Wineat a special event to launch the project.
The Spanish chef has a number of ambitious projects underway currently, including Bullipedia, a 35-volume food encyclopedia to be drip released over the next four years, and elBulli 1846, a cooking and research centre, which will be constructed, finally, after opposition from locals and environmentalists, on the site of the famous elBulli restaurant in Roses, Catalonia.
Condividere opens 8 June. Take a look at dishes below.
Geranium's Rasmus Kofoed has decided to stop serving meat at the restaurant currently ranked number two on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list. But the Danish chef isn't yet willing to go purely plant-based.


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Many traditional retailers are struggling amid stiff competition from online players such as Amazon.com Inc. and the economic impact of the new coronavirus. So why is Aritzia Inc.’s share price up 31.2 per cent so far this year?
The Canadian women’s apparel retailer and designer has been around since 1984, when it opened its first shop in Vancouver. But the stock has been available to retail investors only since 2016, when Aritzia completed an initial public offering at $16 per share.
The ride hasn’t always been smooth, particularly in the first year of trading. And the shares fell 0.8 per cent Monday, closing at $25.
Nonetheless, the stock has delivered the second-best gains on the S&P/TSX Composite Index in 2020, behind Ballard Power Systems Inc. Aritzia deserves a closer look, especially as the retailer sets its sights on U.S. expansion.
David Ian Gray, principal at DIG360, a national retail advisory firm based in Vancouver, pointed out that part of Aritzia’s success is due to its strong foundation: It avoided the emerging fast-fashion trend, defined by low prices and quick turnover. Instead, it focused on the sizable niche of second-generation young Asian women in Vancouver with money to spend.
“This was the base that carried tremendous word-of-mouth – influencing before the rise of social influencers. More importantly, demand grew from non-Asians and a wider age range as the fashions were versatile enough to look good in professional jobs, as well as socially,” Mr. Gray said in an e-mail.
Aritzia designs its own clothing under a number of brand names, such as Babaton, Wilfred and TNA, underscoring its exclusive offerings. It has also been investing in e-commerce, which the company expects will generate 25 per cent of net sales in fiscal 2021.
The success of this approach was clear in its fiscal third quarter financial results, released last month. Profit increased 6.8 per cent year over year. Net revenue increased 10 per cent. Sales at stores open for at least 56 weeks increased 5.1 per cent, marking 21 consecutive quarters of growth. And the gross profit margin, though down slightly year over year because of currency headwinds and the rising cost of raw materials, was nonetheless impressive at 42.6 per cent.
Not bad for a retailer. And investors are catching on. After Aritzia reported its quarterly results on Jan. 9, the share price jumped 17 per cent in one day.
All eight analysts who follow the stock have buy recommendations. Among them is Mark Petrie at CIBC World Markets, who in January raised his price target (or where he expects the stock will trade within 12 months) to $27 from $23.
Part of the hike rests on the analyst’s belief that the shares will attract a higher valuation. He now expects the shares will trade at 25 times estimated fiscal 2021 earnings, up from 24.
But that’s not cheap. What’s more, the stock trades at 33 times trailing earnings, according to Bloomberg. So why bet on a stock that’s hardly a bargain?
The bullish argument rests on Aritzia’s strong growth prospects – particularly in the United States, where the company currently operates just 27 stores (compared with 67 in Canada) but sees strong demand for its products.
“We are still grossly undersized there compared with our Canadian business,” said chief executive Brian Hill on a conference call with analysts last month.
Though Aritzia has identified 100 suitable locations for stores in major metropolitan areas, the rollout is likely to be slow: Its five-year plan is based on just five to six store openings per year, which is in line with its previous steady pace of expansion.
Its 94 stores in Canada and the U.S. are up from 74 in 2016.
“There is a managed pace to the growth that has enabled the incredible string of positive gains,” Mr. Gray said.
U.S. expansion raises the usual questions about whether a Canadian company can succeed in a more competitive environment. But Aritzia has been in the country for years and has never closed a store, suggesting it has found a receptive market. The stock’s rise this year is a clear bet that the winning streak will continue.


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In the first hour, it wasn’t just new laptops and tablets Microsoft unveiled at their latest event. Now they have plans for their own folding phone. Plus, Tesla’s newest feature is meant to add convenience, but instead it’s leading to a number of fender benders. And, more than 200 million accounts of this popular gaming app have been exposed.


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Promise Emmanuel, the Chief Press Secretary to the Deputy Governor of Kogi State, Chief Edward Onoja on Saturday, declared that Nigeria can take the lead for Electric Vehicles (EVs) in Africa.
Emmanuel made the declaration while delivering a presentation at TEDxBudon in Lokoja on the topic: The Nigerian Automobile Industry: The future of Electric Cars.
Emmanuel who is popularly known as ‘Kogi Rebel’ with the Instagram handle, @Kogi_rebel, stated that Nigeria is a very important market where EVs can thrive.
His words: “As a country, Nigeria can take the lead for Electric Vehicles in Africa. But the market has not kickstarted because of lack of policy and regulation. Nigeria still has key structural issues that prevent the mass adoption of EVs.”
On how the government can create a suitable and holistic policy that will create the enabling environment for electric cars to be produced in the country, Emmanuel said:
“For the government to do this, there are several aspects of the Electric Vehicle Ecosystem and value chain that must be taken into consideration.
“There need to be sufficient and workable charging stations put in place before people buy EVs. Investors also need to know that there is a demand for EVs before they invest in the construction of charging stations across the country. Right now, there are too few EVs in the country to convince investors to key in.
“Another issue that can’t be overlooked is the lack of power supply. According to the US Department of Energy, most EV charging happens at home and not at the designated charging stations. So, how will Nigeria adopt the use of electric vehicles?
“Nigeria intends to adopt the fleet method of adoption of EVs, which involves individuals or businesses buying them and investing in charging stations. We have seen this with a few companies.
“This fleeting idea has been adopted by GIG logistics and delivery company, with its recent launch of an EV charging station in Gbagada, Lagos State. This fleeting system is beneficial as it will gradually encourage people to adapt to EVs before bigger investments.
“Nigerians also need answers to how much time and electricity it takes to fully charge these cars. For example, the Kona takes 10 hours to charge and has a power rating of the 7.2-kilowatt hour. This is a lot depending on the different parts of Nigeria. It can also be cheaper than fueling a petrol-powered car.
“But Nigeria has been known over the years to have a bad track record on electricity. Many areas and states can’t boast of 12 hours power supply, electricity isn’t constant and also very expensive. How then can Nigerians charge their EVs?
“For this mass adoption to be possible, there is a need for the government and investors can boost renewable energy in form of solar energy and make it affordable for people.”
He added that electric vehicles will be of great benefit to the country, saying:
“If adopted, will increase the quality of air, which in turn will improve the quality of life in Nigeria through reduced emission of Carbon monoxide gas from the exhaust pipes in cars.
“The advantage of electric vehicles will relieve the country of problems caused by fuel-powered cars including the increasing cost of petroleum.”


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Barclays UK Retail Banking (UKRB) has announced today that it will become the Official Retail Bank of The O2, London, considered as one of the world's most popular music venues, from 2 January, 2011.
The arena's parent company AEG has also appointed Barclays Corporate as its Lead UK Bank.
More than 7.5 million people visit The O2 every year, providing Barclays with a platform to showcase its brand under the three-year sponsorship agreement.
Through the sponsorship, Barclays will:
- Have access to one-twelfth of all digital and static on-site advertising at The O2
- Become the sole supplier of ATMs at the venue
- Install contactless-only food and beverage lanes
- Launch dedicated lounge facilities for UKRB's mass affluent Premier customers.
The sponsorship aims at improving brand awareness and consideration while recognising and rewarding Barclays customers.
Deanna Oppenheimer, Chief Executive, UK Retail Banking and Vice-Chair, Global Retail Banking, said: "The O2 is one of the premier indoor venues in the world and attracts world-class music, sport and the arts.
"We see this as an innovative way to promote our brand in a city where we have our global headquarters and will benefit our customers and colleagues."