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CSL’s shares hit an all-time high yesterday after the company issued a bullish outlook statement on top of a very solid 2018-19 result and higher dividend (which was made a lot fatter by the slide in the value of the Aussie dollar in recent weeks).
CSL shares rose more than 8% to an all-time high of $235.755 a share before profit-taking took them back down again where they ended the day up 6% at $234.
The blood products and biotech group forecast its 2019-20 net profit would be up 7% to 10% which was a bit stronger than some investors had been thinking.
The company said it was expecting the 2019-20 profit to be in the range of $US2.050 billion to $US2.110 billion.
Coming on top of record earnings in 2018-19 when full-year profit jumped 17% to $US1.91 billion ($2.81 billion), it’s no wonder the shares bounded ahead yesterday.
The company said revenue in the year to June 30 jumped 11% to $US8.41 billion, from increased demand for its blood-based therapies and its flue fighting products.
In fact, CSL’s seasonal flu vaccine sales jumped 19% in the year.
The dividend is up sharply as well. A final of $US1.00 (or around $A1.48) was declared, taking the total for the year to $US1.85 a share, a rise of 8%. In Australian dollars, the full-year payout will be around $A2.68, up 18% (illustrating the boost from the weaker Aussie currency).
In Wednesday’s statement CEO Paul Perreault said, “Demand for CSL’s plasma and recombinant products continues to be strong. We expect to again outpace the market in growing plasma collections and plan to open around 40 new collection centers in FY20.”
“Investors should note that, as previously announced in June, CSL will transition to a direct distributor model in China, bringing distribution into line with our global operating model for major markets. This will have a one-off financial effect on FY20 albumin sales, which are expected to reduce by approximately $340 – $370 million.”
“Seqirus is expected to continue to perform well and deliver in line with prior guidance, benefiting from product differentiation and process improvement.”
“CSL’s net profit after tax for FY20 is anticipated to be in the range of approximately $2,050 million to $2,110 million at constant currency, representing growth over FY19 of approximately 7-10%. This growth takes into account the one-off financial headwind of transitioning to a new model of direct distribution in China.” Mr. Perreault added.


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Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos and Michael Kors Holdings Ltd.’s John Idol both found a home on Sydney Finkelstein’s first list of best chief executive officers of the year.
Finkelstein, professor of management and associate dean at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, has long issued an annual worst ceo’s list. This year, both former J.C. Penney Co. Inc. chief Ron Johnson and Sears Holdings Corp. ceo Edward S. Lampert qualified for worst-of mentions.
Hermès is launching a Laundromat pop-up shop in NYC - dubbed Hermèsmatic - where customers can bring their old scarves to be dip-dyed by an expert. Get all the details on WWD.com. #wwdnews (📷: @donstahl)

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As many industry professionals and peanut fans likely already know, Planters suspended their #RIPeanut campaign after the tragic death of NBA legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven others in a helicopter crash last weekend.
If you haven’t seen the #RIPeanut campaign yet, the snack brand killed off its iconic mascot, Mr. Peanut, in a teaser for its official ad during the Big Game. The brand even went as far as to temporarily change the name of Mr. Peanut’s twitter account to The Estate of Mr. Peanut in an effort to drum up social engagement and buzz ahead of the Super Bowl.
Following the news of NBA legend Kobe Bryant’s untimely death, Planters announced that it “has paused all campaign activities, including paid media, and will evaluate next steps through a lens of sensitivity to those impacted by this tragedy” per a statement cited in AdAge last week.
This decision by executives was likely fueled by the fact that the promoted #RIPeanut tweets juxtaposed against tweets about Kobe were not a great look for the brand. However, unlike other campaigns, such as the Kendall Jenner Pepsi ad released in 2017, Planters proactively paused the campaign ahead of any public backlash.
This quick reaction displayed a genuine understanding of the sensitivities surrounding Kobe’s death. Perhaps more importantly for Planters, the speedy response resulted in a positive reaction from the public which has kept what was meant to be a funny and lighthearted campaign from becoming a PR blunder.
On Sunday, Planters aired the #RIPeanut commercial as originally planned, featuring Mr. Peanut’s funeral and the “birth” of Baby Nut, who is expected to become the next mascot for the brand.
So far, public sentiment around the campaign has remained positive, which is likely the result of Planters’ quick reaction and sensitivity following last week’s tragedy.
Increasingly, we see consumer brands creating topical ads to insert themselves into social/timely conversations – like this 2017 Anheuser- Busch/Budweiser ad about immigration – in an effort to increase brand recognition and reach new stakeholders. The Kobe news is no exception.
A recently published New York Times article comments on just how many brands have put out statements about Kobe in the last week. Most brand reactions have been tactful, but a few have been called out for being opportunistic in the face of a tragic moment in time.
All of this connects us back to a critical discussion within the industry:
Where do brands fit in when tragedy strikes?


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A Detroit man who came to the Valley to steal iPhones was arrested in Gilbert.
Gilbert police report that an alert Apple associate tracked down a Detroit man who used fake AT&T accounts to purchase eight Apple iPhones from three Valley Apple stores.
On May 19 police say 26-year-old Anthony Jackson went to the Apple Store near 24th Street and Camelback Road and used a stolen AT&T account to finance two iPhone 7's. He later went to the Apple Store at the Arrowhead Mall where he used a similar scheme to buy four more iPhones, according to police.
Police say the next day Jackson went to the Apple Store at Chandler Fashion Square to get more phones but was interrupted during the transaction and left before getting the phones. However, an Apple Loss Prevention Associate heard what was going on and realized this was part of a, "nationwide series of fraud."
The associate contacted the real account holder who confirmed she was a victim of identity theft and Jackson had no authority to purchase phones using her account. The associate followed Jackson to the Apple Store in Gilbert near the Loop 202 and Williams Field Road, where he again bought two more phones.
The associate continued to follow Jackson until Gilbert police stopped him. Police say they found eight iPhones in the vehicle.
Jackson reportedly explained to police that he is part of "larger scam" where people are paid by a "boss" to travel from town to town and use fraudulent identities to purchase phones. Jackson allegedly admitted that he had done this in four states and "the boss" pays for his travel expenses. He expected to make about $1,200 for the eight phones worth nearly $8,000.
So far Jackson has been charged with fraudulent schemes, but other charges of identity theft are expected.


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Today, the American Car Rental Association (ACRA), a lobbying group for the car rental industry, is wrapping up its annual Washington, D.C. "Legislative Conference," during which it plots its political agenda and schmoozes lawmakers to help make it happen.
But some of its battles against consumer protections have already been won on the state level. AutoSlash, the discount car rental aggregator, reports that in Illinois, the ACRA has just succeeded in removing the legal cap on how much it's allowed to charge for Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) insurance. That's the insurance that essentially gets customers off the hook for any damage to the car, and in Illinois, companies may price it at $100 a day—or more—if they're in the mood. The sky's the limit.
Before the ACRA lobbying, state law said car rental companies were not allowed to charge more than $13.50 a day. Now, that limitation is erased. Or, as AutoSlash put it with its report, "Illinois car rental companies can now charge whatever the heck they damn well please."
Illinois is not alone. Writes AutoSlash: "California, Nevada, and New York are now the only states to cap damage waiver prices. New York is a downright bargain at $9 per day for most vehicles. California comes in at $11 per day for smaller/older cars, and $18 per day for larger/newer/more expensive vehicles, so not too bad either. The state of Nevada caps CDW at $26.88 per day... They're not doing you any favors here, since at $26.88 per day, it's more than you'll pay in many locations that are not capped by state law."
So far, AutoSlash says, the big renters are sticking with the $13.50-per-day cap in Illinois, and market forces are likely to keep the CDW charge from going insane—but they won't keep it from being a rip-off.
The car rental industry wants to be able to charge you the moon for insurance, but so far, there's still a loophole for you: CDW charges are not mandatory. You may refuse them when you begin your rental.
In fact, the credit card you already use to pay for the rental may include CDW as part of its standard benefits. Check with your card issuer if it does, because once you know, you can strike back at these lobbying groups by never paying CDW charges at the rental car counter again.
If you own a car, also ask your home insurance issuer whether your policy covers you for rentals.
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Qualcomm (QCOM) provides chips to all of the major smartphone manufacturers, benefiting from the massive global adoption of smartphones regardless of which company emerges victorious from the battle for mobile device dominance, says Christopher C. Grisanti, Owner, Co-Founder and Co-Portfolio Manager at Grisanti Capital Management.
“We basically view Qualcomm as the arms dealer to the whole smartphone industry today. They don’t care who wins in the marketplace — if Apple (AAPL) wins, they sell Apple chips. If Samsung (005930.KS) wins, they sell Samsung; they sell Motorola (MSI). When I own Qualcomm, all I care about is that the pie is growing as quickly as possible, and we think that that’s true,” Grisanti said.
Grisanti says QCOM doesn’t have to worry too much about whether smartphones are affordable in emerging markets, because different clients sell at different price points, making the stock a real play on smartphones. He also says smartphones is a trend that has had its profitability underestimated by some of the investor world.
“Qualcomm reported [recently], and it was up 5%. So even though it is not a particularly cheap stock, it’s one that: A, the market likes, but B, is not that expensive compared to the growth of the pie. It’s one of the few areas of technology these days that continues to grow by leaps and bounds,” Grisanti said.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS INTERVIEW CLICK HERE.


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Funcom has removed The Secret World‘s subscription requirement, allowing players to play the full game after buying the box.
There will be “optional” paid content packs released, with the first expected in January. Anyone who signs up to the game before the end of December will get the first pack for free. There will also be the usual free issue updates as well.
A Membership option is available for $15 a month (bulk discounts available) which will grant users a Time Accelerator–doubling the amount of experience gained for one hour, one every 16 hours–$10 worth of points to spend in the cash shop a month, a mystery gift on the first patch day of every month, and a 10 percent discount on all items in the store except content packs.
Grand Master Lifetime subscribers will get all this plus an increased 20 percent discount in the cash shop. Anyone who is currently a subscriber will be granted 1200 bonus points to use in the shop and can claim the Time Accelerator for free.


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Huawei Technologies is looking to take advantage of the converging communications and information technologies to build a community around its wide range of products and to continue its push into the U.S. enterprise market.
At the Interop 2013 show in Las Vegas this week, Huawei officials launched ICT Nation, an initiative to build a community of tech vendors and channel partners that will help the company create broad strategies and solutions around the trends that are quickly transforming enterprise data centers, such as cloud computing, mobility, big data and converged infrastructures.
At the same time, Huawei unveiled a number of new offerings and efforts that touch on a range of areas, from software-defined networks (SDNs) and cloud data centers to bring-your-own-device (BYOD) and broadband networks.
The massive Chinese tech vendor offers a broad portfolio of products and solutions, putting it in a strong position to help enterprises develop integrated data center strategies that enable them to take advantage of the ongoing changes, officials said.
"We're creating an instrument for the community to help with that transition," Jane Li, chief operating officer of Huawei Enterprise USA, told eWEEK.
The ICT (information and communications technology) is already recognized and well under way in other regions, and Huawei is playing a role in helping businesses, partners and other vendors address it, Li said. Company officials want to do the same in the United States, she said. Enterprises and other customers have any number of vendors who can sell them good data center gear, from servers to switches, but what they need is help adapting to such trends as ICT, BYOD and mobility, Li said.
"Right now there is no common place they can turn to," she said.
Many of the conversations Li has had at Interop with partners, developers and other vendors have been around Huawei's ICT Nation effort. The transformation is happening, and all those involved are trying to find a way to address it, she said, adding that a community like ICT Nation will give them that avenue. The hope is that in a year there will be solutions on the market that have come out of ICT Nation and that are helping customers in various verticals.
"ICT is big," she said. "We're just at the tip of the iceberg."
The company established the Huawei Enterprise USA unit in 2011 to help it make inroads into the enterprise technology market in the country. Huawei is a well-known vendor overseas, and sees the United States as a growth market for its broad range of products, from networking switches and routers to storage, smartphones and other mobile devices, and software.
Over the past year, much of the attention Huawei has received in the United States has been about its dispute with the government over the use of Huawei equipment in U.S. carrier networks. A congressional report last year indicated that lawmakers saw Huawei and fellow Chinese tech vendor ZTE as national security threats because of their close ties to the Chinese government.
Both companies disputed the findings, but U.S. officials still cautioned U.S. carriers about using the companies' equipment in their networks and reportedly in March made not using Huawei gear a precondition to approving the deal between Sprint and Softbank. The ongoing dispute led Eric Xu, Huawei executive vice president and one of Huawei's rotating CEOs, to say last month that the company was "not interested in the U.S. market anymore."


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Fonterra suspends Sri Lanka consumer operations
Public protests outside Fonterra's offices in Sri Lanka have spurred the New Zealand dairy company to suspend its consumer operations in one of its most important markets.
Chief executive Theo Spierings said the move was to ensure Fonterra's 755 staff in Sri Lanka were "safe".
It comes as Fonterra Sri Lanka is subject to a court "enjoining order" after claims the company's milk powder contained traces of DCD, a nitrate inhibitor.
Fonterra has denied the claims. The Sri Lankan court order had shut down the company's ability to sell product, advertise it or make public statements in any way with customers or consumers in Sri Lanka, Spierings said.
Legal action is underway aimed at resolving the order, he said.
"The temporary suspension is the right thing to do. It is a precautionary measure to ensure our 755 people working there are safe.
"We have closed our plants and office in Sri Lanka, and have asked our people to stay at home.
"At the same time, we must do all that we can to protect our farmer shareholders' investment in Fonterra's Sri Lanka manufacturing and commercial operations."
Fonterra had provided every possible assurance to the Sri Lankan authorities about the safety and quality of Fonterra's products, he said.
"Recent events, however, have made it difficult to maintain day-to-day operations, and we need to get them resolved.
"We are also working with Sri Lankan and New Zealand government authorities on a long-term sustainable solution for our Sri Lankan customers, communities and dairy sector."
Acting Trade Minister Steven Joyce said it was difficult to make a judgment about the problems facing Fonterra from afar. However, some of the issues in Sri Lanka were "legitimate".
He had spoken to Foreign Minister Murray McCully by phone, who was working with officials in Sri Lanka to attempt to resolve the issues.
McCully was committed to working through the issues, and Trade Minister Tim Groser would also work on it when he returned from overseas at the weekend.
"There are some legitimate issues that have been raised in terms of DCD and so on, so I think from our government perspective, it's our job just to work through these with the Sri Lankan Government, with Fonterra, provide the opportunity to get the parties working together to seek a resolution for the benefit" of both Sri Lanka and Fonterra, Joyce told reporters in Parliament.
"Obviously, there's quite a lot of political discussion in Sri Lanka about the development of their dairy industry but Fonterra has a long association with that market.
"It's been there for 35 years, it collects milk and processes milk from, I understand, several thousand farmers, it has several hundred staff in Sri Lanka, it's a longstanding Sri Lankan brand," Joyce said.
Joyce's office said it understood about 4500 Sri Lankan dairy farmers supplied Fonterra's operations there.
Fonterra this year launched a farmer training and education programme to help develop dairy farming skills in Sri Lanka.
Industry insiders say the claims against Fonterra products are politically motivated. They had escalated since the New Zealand exporter's problems this year with a string of food safety scares and alerts.
- © Fairfax NZ News
Do you agree that New Zealand's sheepmeat industry needs a Fonterra-style setup?Related story: Candidates advocate sheepmeat 'Fonterra' setup


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Back in April, EPA told eight technology companies – including Facebook, Ebay and Shopify -- that “unscrupulous dealers are using their platforms” to sell illegal disinfectant products and advised them take action against the scam marketers and immediately remove the illegal products from their sites. Now, the EPA has taken a step further, and has ordered Amazon and Ebay to stop selling a wide range of such products. The EPA’s announcement notes that, despite EPA’s earlier discussions with these sellers, “[they] have thus far failed to consistently keep unregistered, misbranded, or restricted-use pesticides, and pesticide devices off their websites.” The EPA also expressed its particular concern about products falsely claiming to be effective against COVID-19.
The announcement highlights some of the products triggering EPA’s action. For example, product listings on eBay.com included 55-gallon drums of methylene chloride that were marketed for use as a coronavirus disinfectant and paint stripper. EPA’s announcement notes that not only is methylene chloride unapproved for use against the novel coronavirus, but EPA had banned the retail sale of methylene chloride to consumers for paint removal purposes due to acute fatalities that resulted from exposure to the chemical. EPA also noted products on Amazon containing chlorine dioxide with "unprovable" claims of sanitizing and disinfecting hospitals, offices and homes.
EPA’s authority to issue the stop sale order derives from Section 13(a) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). This section authorizes the EPA to issue a Stop Sale, Use, or Removal Order to any person with a pesticide or device in their ownership, custody, or control whenever there is reason to believe that such pesticide or device is in violation of any provision of FIFRA, or that such pesticide or device has been, or is intended to be, distributed or sold in violation of any provision of the Act.
The order remains in effect unless and until revoked, terminated, suspended or modified in writing by EPA.
“The proliferation of unregistered pesticides in the e-commerce marketplace, especially during this unprecedented time, poses a significant and immediate health risk to consumers, children, pets, and others exposed to the products.” ~ EPA Region 10 Administrator Chris Hladick.


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Coinbase first listed XRP on its retail-facing platforms in February 2019. Beginning now, XRP buying and selling “will transfer into restrict solely,” Coinbase wrote. It is going to be absolutely suspended on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021 at 1 p.m. ET.
“We are going to proceed to watch authorized developments associated to XRP and replace our prospects as extra data turns into obtainable,” Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief authorized officer, wrote in a blog post shared prematurely with CoinDesk.
Coinbase stated customers’ XRP wallets will “stay obtainable for obtain and withdraw performance after the buying and selling suspension.”
Notably, the trade stated it might nonetheless help an upcoming airdrop of Spark tokens to XRP holders. XRP will nonetheless be supported by Coinbase Custody and within the self-custodial Coinbase Pockets.
Coinbase declined to remark past its written assertion.
For Coinbase, the issue maintaining XRP as a traded asset was clear: As the corporate seeks to go public, changing into a platform for one thing that’s doubtlessly a safety would imply including extra paperwork so it may be legally allowed to let retail prospects purchase and promote this one cryptocurrency.
The SEC claimed last week that XRP is a security, and that Ripple has been promoting it with out registering or searching for an exemption for seven years, elevating $1.3 billion within the course of. The authorized battle itself is simply starting, and litigation would possibly take years if Ripple fights the cost in court docket, because it has indicated it might.
Coinbase turns into the most important trade to behave and will function a bellwether for different platforms. On Friday, Bitstamp announced it might halt XRP buying and selling and deposits for all U.S. prospects on Jan. 8.
Equally San Francisco-based OKCoin acted earlier on Monday, saying its XRP suspension for Jan. 4.
Coinbase – and different exchanges – that proceed to checklist XRP with out registering as a securities trade with the regulator face potential penalties additional down the road, together with the specter of future enforcement actions. Nonetheless, ought to Ripple prevail in its protection, Coinbase can doubtless re-list XRP pretty simply.
Alex Kruger, a dealer and analyst, stated, “Crypto exchanges are unregistered with the SEC (by selection, as registering carries on many burdens and elevated prices) and thus it’s of their greatest curiosity to not supply buying and selling of securities. It’s for his or her safety, not their prospects’.”
Gabriel Shapiro, an lawyer with Belcher, Smolen & Van Bathroom LLP, advised CoinDesk earlier this week that the query of whether or not exchanges ought to delist is a complicated one, with each enterprise and authorized issues.


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Meet the new influencers. They are the social media stars, the taste-makers, the judge and the jury. Here, we look at how luxury brands are increasingly leveraging them for millennial appeal.
Last week, Luxury Society published a revealing insight into the future of advertising, tackling the options and challenges faced by luxury brands as they move into the digital era.
However, while new formats of traditional advertising are shifting marketing mixes on a global scale, another emerging trend is rapidly sweeping the industry with no signs of slowing down.
Enter the new influencers. Once celebrities, ‘It Girls’ and socialites, it is now key opinion leaders (KOLs) or experts in their field, and of course – the ever-increasing band of bloggers, who have taken over as the unequivocal voice of the next generation.
Armed with social media savvy, sharp opinions, purchasing power and swathes of followers on social media channels, these players are quickly changing the game and pushing brands and marketers to rethink the way they communicate their messages to consumers.
“ Marketers are facing a major shift and change in practice ”
This “major shift” is something Daniel Saynt, CEO & Chief Creative Officer at Socialyte – The Influencer Casting Agency, can attest to, as head of the world’s largest influencer casting agency providing curated talents and qualified stats for over 10,000 creators.
His firm works with media partners such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, Nylon, Glamour, Allure, and Refinery29, amongst others, to cast and create influencer campaigns and encompasses a talent pool ranging from international fashion, beauty, mens and lifestyle influencers, photographers, to Instagram stars, Viners, Youtube celebrities, SnapChat personalities, Young Hollywood, DJs, musicians, dancers, wellness gurus, travelers, fitness advisors, video gamers, stylists, videographers, creative directors and designers.
Most interesting, however, is Socialyte’s 99.9% success rate – displayed proudly on its website for any patron to gawk at. So sure is it of the influencer pull for brands that Socialyte ensures that all campaigns reach predicted results guaranteeing the success of every influencer program they develop and oversee.
But Saynt modestly explains his business’s bravado as symptomatic of a basic changing of the tides which has been a long-time coming.
“Marketers are facing a major shift and change in practice,” he confirms simply.
“This new generation of consumers no longer trust traditional advertising or even traditional celebrities. They’ve lost faith in marketing campaigns which over glamorize, over promise, or seem like they are coming from someone who doesn’t feel authentic, another paid endorser trying to get them to spend, another perfectly photoshopped advertisement featuring impossible to achieve beauty standards on young, thin pixies.
“Digital influencers, which include Youtube celebrities, lifestyle bloggers, and Instagram stars as well as a growing number of creators across popular social networks are real people who are democratically selected by this fickle group of money spenders. With the growing presence of social media taking a hold of the attention of the largest group of spenders since the baby boomers, it’s really only a matter of time before we begin to see influencer marketing take a hold as the largest spend for brands looking to reach this coveted group of shoppers.”
“ 33% of millennials surveyed said they rely mostly on blogs before they make a purchase ”
For luxury brands in particular, these influencers also present a unique opportunity to embellish their brand image and simultaneously cut through the social media noise with curated and engaging content or imagery – essentially “fuelling the luxury dream” which is critical for their continued survival, as brand strategist Jean-Noël Kapferer once noted.
“The internet is a chance for luxury, because in order to maintain the dream value of the brand, you have to permanently refuel that dream. Refuelling the dream means creating content, content, content.”
Furthermore, it’s these influencers who hold the keys to persuading and accelerating the path to purchase for an ever-increasing and crucial set of consumers – the millennials.
As Forbes magazine reported earlier this year, only 1% of millennials surveyed said that a compelling advertisement would make them trust a brand more, and 33% rely mostly on blogs before they make a purchase, compared to fewer than 3% for TV news, magazines and books.
“Older generations rely more on traditional media, whereas millennials look to social media for an authentic look at what’s going on in the world, especially content written by their peers whom they trust.”
Jeff Fromm, President of FutureCast, a marketing consultancy that specialises in millennial trends and a contributing writer at Forbes.com agrees with the trend, and adds that brands which can successfully leverage influencers are more likely to positively connect with millennials and their path to purchase.
“Millennials are the largest consumers of branded and original content. Not only are they more likely to post their own content, but they are also more likely to be influenced by what they see other posting online,” he says.
“Through our research we found that millennials are more likely to trust what their peers are saying through user-generated content than branded content. Great brands have adapted to this mindset and started encouraging more user participation as a form of marketing rather than traditional techniques.”
For luxury brands, whose products are highly priced, and therefore represent a more significant investment and more scrutiny before purchase, leveraging leaders which will influence savvy millennials is arguably increasingly crucial.
Faced with these facts, several luxury brands have already followed suit and have been steadily testing the waters by joining forces with influencers across the globe to boost their brands and engage the millennial set.
The last few years alone have seen a raft of luxury brands launching initiatives – spanning sponsored content, collaborations and marketing campaigns – to leverage influencers, with fashion, beauty and jewellery labels leading the way.
“ Moving to target the millennial set this year, beauty giant Clinique tapped a trio of young bloggers for its latest campaign ”
In a bid to stretch its social media reach in 2013, Italian fashion house Ermenegildo Zegna linked with street style blogger Scott Schuman to shoot looks from its spring 2014 couture collection as part of the brand’s latest store opening.
More than just a brand endorsement, the initiative, promoted on Schuman’s popular style blog The Sartorialist also served to introduce the menswear brand to his fashion-savvy followers who may have been previously unaware of the menswear label.
In March 2014, Swarovski joined forced with four international fashion bloggers in a bid to grow its global appeal.
The interactive partnership #SwarovskiLook initiative included tutorialized videos produced by the fashion bloggers, user-generated content on Instagram and a contest which spanned over four weeks, with one week assigned to be curated by each individual blogger.
That same year, British department store Harrods teamed with eight fashion taste makers for a photo shoot in London as part of its first Digital Fashion Summit.
As part of the tie-up, each blogger created top five lists of their must-have spring items from Harrods, culminating in a photo shoot in London as part of its first Digital Fashion Summit.
“ Some retailers are also now leveraging influencers to guide their consumers directly to the check-out ”
French beauty brand Guerlain also recently partnered with seven influencers from Style Coalition, a network that connects brands with influencers and bloggers to create branded content.
The partnership saw each taste-maker showcase different beauty products, allowing the brand to promote its various cosmetic offerings and appeal to consumers connecting with these influencers with different ages, ethnicities and skin tones.
In June this year, German fashion label Hugo Boss also launched its latest eyewear collection via its #MasterTheLight initiative with the help of bloggers Bryan Yambao of Bryanboy, Rumi Neely of Fashion Toast and Mariano di Vaio of MDV Style.
Moving to target the millennial set this year, beauty giant Clinique has also tapped a trio of young bloggers, including Australian taste-maker Aussie Margaret Zhang along with Tavi Gevinson and Hannah Bronfman, for its latest campaign – #FaceForward – to promote its classic 3-Step Skin Care System.
Jessie Bush, founder of fashion blog ‘We The People Style’
But far from just creating branded content, boosting brand endorsement and scaling their social media channels, some retailers are also now leveraging influencers to guide their consumers directly to the check-out via affiliate links.
Aided by sites like RewardStyle and ShopStyle, affiliate links can used on blogs to link directly to products that the blogger is wearing or buying in photos and posts.
Some retailers have even taken matters into their own hands.
Department store Harrods provided a perfect example of this when it partnered with Jessie Bush of ‘We The People Style’.
Showcasing pieces from various collections available at the British retailer, the popular blogger reviewed the season’s latest trends, with Harrods adding links to the items in each of the photographs on her blog to persuade fans to purchase with ease.
“ People relate to ‘their influencer’ more than they have ever done with any media outlet, media channel or similar ”
Alluding to the emotional connection consumers feel with their chosen influencer, Daniel Kjellsson, Co-founder of creative talent agency Sydney Stockholm and Editor-at-Large of FELLT, a monthly magazine about the creative economy, says the success from this kind of formula is proven, and relatively simple.
“In general, people relate to ‘their influencer’ more than they have ever done with any media outlet, media channel or similar. The initial impulse being: ‘If he or she looks awesome in that dress, I can too.’ It’s also a way of including a brand into a selected lifestyle and making the consumer not only want a certain piece, but to play a part in the entire brand sphere,” he explains.
But while the trend to leverage influencers is undoubtably growing, Kjellsson, adds it wasn’t always this way – and luxury brands in particular have been slower to move – although understandably so.
“At first it was the shift from traditional to digital, and that move too was a respected one. Some luxury brands did not trust the digital environment overall – and certainly not some individual blogger. All of us had been so used to the print environment in which content felt ‘controlled’ and ‘verified’. The internet was just too instant at first and it just wasn’t ready.”
“Today, however, technical abilities totally support a high-quality online presence. As eyeballs moved online so did influence. We saw the first luxury brands properly experiment with digital influencers soon after 2008, yet the evolution was more on a region-per-region basis, rather than a global one. And it is still young in certain markets.”
The FELLT platform
Part of the reason for the slower unfurling of influencer leveraging in the case of luxury brands, is also that choosing the right influencer and the right way to collaborate with them, is crucial – for fear of wreaking more brand damage than benefit.
As Kjellsson explains, it can be a minefield, as brands have the choice of “everything from banner ads and affiliate links to sponsored content, proper campaigns and similar”; but he says “it’s a two-way conversation” and there are certain questions luxury brands have to ask themselves before launch.
“Ask yourselves: What do we want done, what is our ambition? And what does the influencer want to create, what is natural and organic to him/her? Unless those two align it’s the wrong thing to do anyway.”
“At Sydney Stockholm we look at our responsibility as to put brands in the centre of culture. The benefit of working with influencers is just that, you create culture yourself. You make the brand relevant to more fellow humans. Then again: there are lots of ways of doing that. Not everything is placing a give-away bag on some Instagram personality. It can be done more professionally than that.”
Saynt agrees and says that for brands looking to work with influencers, the structure of the deal always varies based of what they are trying to get out of campaigns.
“If a brands looking for sales, we suggest talents which are known to drive response. If they are looking to enhance their image, we align them with talents who may be front row fixtures or street style stars who we know will elevate the brands. If they are looking for compelling content, we’ll commission talents which create social ready images that the brand can repurpose for their profiles, he says.
“That marriage between the right influencer for the campaign is what drives the sale. It’s more than just throwing money at the space. Brands really need to be strategic in how they choose talents to align with their message and what deliverables they should expect to best reach the social consumer.”
Kjellsson adds that there are also some basic guidelines that luxury brands can follow to ensure they choose the right influencer and the right kind of collaboration through which to push their message.
“The traditional way, one that still works great, is to work with the influencers you already follow yourself (the ones that align with your brand, obviously). If you have an existing relationship with from a content consumer perspective, the due diligence is already done and you can vouch for content quality and overall personal brand,” he says.
“The more modern way is through agencies like Sydney Stockholm. Since we have so much data we can immediately guide you and your brand to thousands of relevant influencers, and even down to regions – and local influencers – surrounding certain stores. We see total influence, the value of that influence (an influencer with 500k followers can be more relevant and valuable to you than someone with five million followers), readership engagement on various types of content and so forth. All the data needed to make a professional investment decision. We can also tell you what people are not yet known digital influencers but are creating fantastic content, are growing exponentially – and will be stars soon.”
On the note of rising stars, one market – where “courting online influencers or key opinion leaders (KOLs) has long been an effective, albeit expensive, strategy” – is now experiencing an interesting shift in the influencer sphere, as Jing Daily reports.
Moving away from popular Weibo or WeChat personalities, in China, it’s “Micro-influencers” which are expected to be the next big thing.
Rather than boasting millions of mass fans through their channels, these micro-influencers have carved an exclusive niche for themselves via their writing skills, editorial viewpoint, or knowledge of a certain subject, and are followed by “a relatively small, but devoted and—perhaps more importantly—authentic audience”.
“ ‘Micro-influencers’ are hiding in plain sight and underused by brands ”
According to Jing Daily, these taste-makers are cut from a different cloth, but still hold much sway amongst their tribes, and, more importantly – could be the answer for brands lacking exorbitant marketing budgets, or aiming to test the waters in China.
“Micro-influencers,” who carve out small but devoted audiences by remaining focused on one area of emphasis, are hiding in plain sight, underused by brands who have spent far too much time and money chasing self-proclaimed KOLs,” the paper reports.
However, whatever the final choice of influencer for luxury brands, Kjellsson says one thing is certain – these new leaders are the way of the future to tap into the rising generation of affluents and a tool luxury brands can not afford to not to leverage.
“People like people. It’s really as easy as that. How you chose to work with that, is up to you. But imagine a brand with no visible staff or designer, no models, no store staff, no influencers, nothing. That’s a dead brand because there is nothing to relate to.”
To further investigate marketing, advertising and the millennial consumer on Luxury Society, we invite your to explore the related materials as follows:


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Houseparty has become popular among people during lockdown or those self-isolating due to the coronavirus. It has now achieved some 10 million in downloads from Google Play alone and daily downloads have shot up to 650,000 in late March.
But its success may be fading as a growing number of users have begun to blame the app for their PayPal, Netflix and Spotify accounts being hacked.
As the number of hacking complaints continues to grow, there’s very little evidence that Houseparty had anything to do with it. Users are simply going on the last app they installed, which may often have been Houseparty.
Developer Epic Games has vehemently rejected these claims and is now offering a $1 million (yes $1 million) reward for the first person to offer proof of this being a “smear campaign” against Houseparty.
Whilst the app may be safe, it has recently been criticised for collecting user data automatically for marketing purposes.
Further, Forbes recently hired security expert Lukas Stefanko to take a closer look at the app and determine if it was safe. He said:
“I analyzed the app’s permissions usage and since the app provides video chats with your friends it is logical that requested permissions are necessary. I haven’t found any shady misusing of them by the app. The app doesn’t provide a lot of in-app options and settings, which creates less scenarios for exploiting security issues.”
Instead, it’s more likely that a rise in hack attacks is due to a) more people spending time online throughout the day due to the lockdown, and b) people using the same passwords for all their accounts. Once a hacker cracks one account, they’ll try the same password across the remaining ones.
Anyone with actual proof of this being a smear campaign against Houseparty can send it to email@example.com.


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“ANY brand can win at the Effie Awards,” says Effie Worldwide advisory board member Judd Labarthe. “You may be Joe’s chicken stand on the corner competing with bigger brands, but the Effie is a competition where you are actually competing against yourself.”
Norwegian Internet browser maker Opera Software expects its data-light mobile phone browser will play a central role in a Facebook-led project aimed at bringing Internet access to third-world consumers, Opera's CEO told Reuters.
KUALA LUMPUR: Bonia Corporation Bhd’s earnings jumped more than three-fold to RM5.076mil in the fourth quarter ended June 30, 2013 from RM972,000 a year ago.
WELLINGTON/SHANGHAI: However much China and other big customers strive to rely less on Fonterra after a global food contamination scare this month - now downscaled to a 'false alarm' - the New Zealand firm's grip on the global dairy trade is unlikely to be loosened.
PETALING JAYA: Coffee shop owners are vehemently objecting to a proposed move by the Government to ban the open display of cigarettes and other tobacco products in their premises, citing security reasons.


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The Seattle-based VR company, Pixvana, offers immersive workflow solutions powered by cloud-based technology. The company is just a startup right now, but already has some big-name clients including Microsoft and Comcast.
Pixvana recently announced a new suite of VR business solutions called SPIN Guide. The tools allow for centralized control of large-scale immersive presentations.
What Are Immersive Presentations?
The field of virtual presenting is huge right now. Ford recently used large-scale immersive presentations to announce a new car model at an American car show. Athletic company Adidas has started using digital spaces for employee collaboration and education.
This promising technology is more complicated than it may seem. Individual VR solutions are one thing, but multiple people using the same experience is another. Pixvana isn’t the only or the first VR company to tackle this problem, but they do offer a unique solution.
What Makes Pixvana Special?
“At Pixvana, we are dedicated to bringing new and powerful VR-native technology to market to help fuel the growth of the entire ecosystem,” Pixvana Vice President of Product, Beverly Vessella, said in a release they sent us. “SPIN Guide is a trailblazing VR functionality that makes it effortless to lead entire groups of viewers on life changing adventures — guiding them, watching them respond, learning from them, and improving their experience along the way. This is a game changer for everything from corporate trainings to sales enablement and marketing presentations.”
Most large-scale immersive video solutions work by connecting multiple VR headsets together on the same network. This allows one console to control the experience for everyone, but limits the abilities of individual users.
What Else Can Pixvana Do?
Pixvana’s SPIN Studio uses cloud-based services so that multiple users can independently access the content simultaneously. This allows an administrator to control the overall experience but gives individual users greater freedom to interact with the content. It also means that users don’t all need to have the exact same hardware, as long as they can all log into the same platform.
This isn’t the only area where SPIN Guide has strengths over other solutions. In addition to controlling the group experience, the administrator can see how users are interacting with the content. Metrics include which parts of a presentation an audience is looking at.
“SPIN Guide also provides key insights, including where the audience is looking (via heat maps), how they navigate the content, and how well they understand the content they consume,” explains the VR company. “Additionally, administrators can monitor VR headset battery levels, observe content downloads, drop-off rates, and make immersive VR content playable on the web – saving organizations from the expense and distribution of headsets.”
SPIN Guide has huge potential for use in virtual focus groups, education, usability testing, and more. The tools haven’t been available for long but we look forward to seeing how it is adopted. We also look forward to watching Pixvana grow into a preeminent VR company. With innovations like this, it won’t take long.


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Lam Dong People’s Committee Vice Chairman Pham S said Vietnam had high-quality coffee but it had failed to build a recognisable brand internationally.
“Japan’s UCC Ueshima Coffee Co., Ltd. and the US Starbucks Corporation have bought coffee from Lam Dong Province for years,” he said. “Starbucks collaborated with the co-operatives in Lam Dong Province to grow coffee trees. Vietnamese coffee is used to make drinks by the UCC Ueshima Coffee.”
He said Vietnamese coffee needed a better funding in order to increase brand awareness.
Luong Van Tu, president of the Vietnam Coffee-Cocoa Association, said building an easily recognisable brand for coffee or other agricultural products was important, especially when Vietnam was joining various trade agreements. Vietnamese coffee will have more chance to be introduced to a market of 180 million people via the free trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union or the 600 million customer market with the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement.
Pham S announced that the people’s committee, with the help of Japan International Co-operation Agency, had developed a USD500,000 plan to promote agricultural products under the Da Lat brand name. This would also help increase the recognition of Lam Dong’s coffee.
The multi-sectoral agricultural development project is intended to improve the investment environment, and the Arabica coffee is the focus of the investment. The parties will hold regular meetings to determine the future of Lam Dong’s coffee and decide on the most suitable investments.
They have also researched such investment in other countries. A steering committee has also been set up to develop the agriculture products in Da Lat as well as the brand.


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Taylor, who has 30 years' experience in wine production and was speaking on accreditation issues for growers entering the market, said he is seeing people making mistakes in what they plant and the processes they are following.
"Mistakes are happening in the world of English wine at the moment because people are going into it a little bit blindly," said Taylor - who in the past six months has seen half a dozen producers throw out wine that has gone off due to poor production practices.
Taylor advised delegates to choose carefully when considering accreditation paths, as not all were necessary depending on the kind of business they wanted to run.
For anyone growing grapes to sell to an established winery, "accreditation issues are minimal", he said. If you get an established winery to produce wine for you, many accreditation issues become their responsibility. But if you choose to do it yourself, accreditation issues become "several magnitudes more difficult", he added.
In addition, he said that if growers intend to supply major multiples, accreditation issues will become even more complex and wine producers would be likely to need to employ a dedicated quality-control manager.


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This is the first blog in a series evaluating the challenges associated with single-use food packaging waste. We made a list of food packaging chemicals, provided advice for companies to “start clean” on food packaging, designed step-by-step guidance with a new interactive tool for companies to act on ingredient safety.
This week Walmart joined a growing number of companies that are trying to advance the circular economy for packaging. Like previous commitments from Nestle, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, Walmart is stepping up its efforts to use more recyclable packaging, incorporate more recycled content, and accelerate development of collection and recycling infrastructures. EDF has a long history fighting for greater and smarter plastics recycling, so we are pleased to see more companies working to eliminate plastic packaging waste from our environment. However, something is often missing from their statements: commitments for safer packaging free of toxic chemicals.


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Motorola’s upcoming smartphone Moto G100 Hincabadindi Will launch worldwide on March 25th. The Moto G100 has the model number XT2125, which is expected to be rebranded Motorola Edge S For global markets. So far, the Moto G100 specifications identified On the geekbench. We also have Spotted The device on the Spanish retail website, Paratupsi, which revealed the European prices of the smartphone. Today, however, we have the full Moto G100 features and rendered, Courtesy The famous tipster, Evan Blas.
Moto G100 Full Features and Render
According to Evan Blass, the Moto G100 has a 6.7-inch display. As you can see in the pictures shared by Tipster, the Motorola Moto G100 has two punch-hole cutouts in the upper left corner of the screen.
Tipster claims that the Moto G100 will be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 SoC, making it the most powerful G-Series device in Motorola’s lineup to date. The smartphone comes with 12GB RAM, 256GB storage and microSD card slot support cards up to 1CT. According to the leak, the Moto G100 will have two front-facing cameras, a 16MP unit and an 8MP unit. On the back, the device is said to feature a quad-camera setup with 64MP, 16MP, and 2MP cameras and a 3D ToF sensor.
Moto G100 Specs:
- 6.7-inch AMOLED 120Hz display
- Snapdragon 870 SoC
- 12 GB RAM
- 64MP quad camera
- 5,000 mAh battery (20W fast charging)
The Moto G100 will have a 5,000 mAh battery and 20W fast charging, Blas said. Tipster says it will sell this smartphone with HDMIs, which will allow you to connect the Moto G100 to an external display and enjoy a PC-like experience on it.
The device shown in the pictures Iridescent ocean color, Blas stated. The display of the smartphone is expected to have an AMOLED panel and a 120Hz refresh rate. Spanish retail website Motorola has listed the Moto G100 at Euro 479.77 (approximately Rs. 41,600). However, the price of the smartphone is expected to be very low in the Indian market. The launch date of the Moto G100 in India is not yet known.


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UNICEF, Infant-Formula Makers Mired in Ethical, Political ControversyUNICEF and infant-formula makers are embroiled in an "incendiary" debate over whether and how formula should be donated to HIV-positive pregnant women in developing countries to prevent transmission of the virus to babies through breastfeeding, the Wall Street Journal reports in a front-page story. Between 1.1 million and 1.7 million babies have been infected via breastfeeding, mostly in Africa, but most hospitals in the developing world do not supply the formula, which can be used in place of breast milk. In addition, most women in developing countries cannot afford the formula that is sold in local shops. Two major formula manufacturers -- Nestle SA and Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories Inc. -- are willing to donate free formula to HIV-infected women, but UNICEF has turned down their offers "because it doesn't want to endorse an industry it has long accused of abusive practices in the developing world." UNICEF and the industry have butted heads since the 1970s, when Nestle and other formula makers "blitzed" developing countries with ads displaying "fat formula-fed babies" and distributed free samples in maternity wards to draw women to the formula. Women eventually became dependent on the free samples, and by the time samples ran out, women's breast milk had dried up. A majority of women could not afford to buy additional formula, and resorted to diluting formula to make it last longer -- starving their babies in the process. The ordeal spawned a worldwide boycott of Nestle products and formula industry donations were turned away by UNICEF. In addition, UNICEF and WHO in the 1980s devised a "voluntary marketing code" restricting advertising and specific labeling, and prohibiting free distribution of baby formula anywhere in the world. The heart of the current debate stems from this code.
Cracking the Code
UNICEF and formula makers have continued to battle over the code, with UNICEF accusing the industry of non-compliance in several instances. Nestle reported that despite African hospitals' "desperate" requests for free formula, it is hesitant to donate the product in fear of violating the code, which in turn might spark another round of bad publicity and boycotts. But the Wall Street Journal points out that the code was drafted "long before anyone ever contemplated the ravages of AIDS in Africa," and some U.N. officials have acknowledged that the organization's "decades-old distrust of the formula industry should yield to a moral imperative to get formula to destitute, HIV-infected mothers." Peter Piot, UNAIDS executive director, said that UNICEF is "having difficulty accepting that the world has changed." But UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said that the formula still poses risks that may outweigh its benefits. If prepared with inadequate sanitation, formula "can expose infants to diarrhea and other traditional killers of the developing world, while breast milk contains antibodies to help ward off such illness." Therefore, Bellamy notes that even if the formula could prevent transmission of HIV through breastfeeding, "it could prove deadly later on." UNICEF officials have also voiced concern over a potential "spillover" phenomenon -- providing free formula to HIV-positive women might "undercut support for breastfeeding among healthy women." And Bellamy is concerned that UNICEF should focus on the "vast majority" of infants "for whom breast milk is unquestionably the safest food." Bellamy said, "We continue to advocate that breast is best."
Wyeth, Nestle Enter the Fray
Although UNICEF continues to lead the "crusade for breastfeeding" in the developing world, it has somewhat softened its stance on baby formula since the outbreak of AIDS, endorsing an "informed choice" policy that encourages empowerment of women to choose the best method to feed their babies, including formula. But the organization has not embraced offers from Wyeth and Nestle to donate "tons" of formula to afflicted nations, and health workers in Africa are calling the "informed choice" policy a "cop-out" because most women can't afford the formula alternative. Wyeth had proposed in November 1998 donating formula to HIV-positive women in Africa, citing an exception in the marketing code that permits formula donations to women who have to feed their babies on breast milk substitutes. Following lengthy negotiations, the company in April 1999 was poised to provide six months' worth of free formula to 100,000 babies in a UNICEF pilot program. Wyeth had agreed that the formula would not carry a brand name to ensure that the formula was not exploited for marketing purposes. But when Wyeth requested a press release, thank-you letter and photo opportunity with UNICEF, the deal fell through. UNICEF spokesperson Liza Barrie explained, "It seemed that everything [Wyeth executives] were proposing could lead to a misunderstanding of our relationship with the company and our view of its practices." Meanwhile, Nestle had been negotiating for a similar donation deal with UNAIDS, but Nestle halted communication with the organization after the Wyeth deal fizzled out.
UNICEF Pilot Program Fraught With Issues
UNICEF decided to pursue a baby formula pilot program in Africa by taking on the costs of the "relatively small amount of formula" needed for the program. UNICEF chose to buy the formula from Jammet Dietetique Nouvelle SA, a French dairy cooperative, which agreed to package the product in generic containers. The program launched in Uganda in February, but was soon fraught with numerous problems. Warning labels on formula containers were only written in English and French, although most of the Ugandan women in the program speak local dialects. Women in Uganda, where like much of Africa an "enormous" stigma surrounding AIDS exists, were fearful that the donated generic tins would reveal their HIV-positive status. Kampala midwife Joyce Matovu explained, "Because this UNICEF package isn't anywhere in the shops, the moment people see it, they start suspecting." But UNICEF officials said they decided on the generic packaging and a "deliberately unattractive box" to discourage healthy women from using it. The pilot program now benefits 25,000 mothers in 11 countries, "a drop in the bucket of the HIV-infected female population," Wall Street Journal reports. But the paper warns that "if the UNICEF official in charge of the pilot program prevails, not many more African women will have the same opportunity." Program director Urban Jonsson, UNICEF's regional director for eastern and southern Africa, said that despite the program's accomplishments, it will not continue to use baby formula as an alternative to breastfeeding. "Infant formula is not the best alternative, even if it's free of charge." Instead, Jonsson advocates "home food alternatives," such as pasteurized breast milk or nursing by another noninfected women. Furthermore, Jonsson and some UNICEF colleagues are "pinning hope" on a recent study that suggests exclusively providing breast milk to babies for six months may protect infants against the AIDS virus. Anna Coutsoudis, the study's lead author at the University of Natal in Durban, South Africa, explains that feeding infants substances other than breast milk during this crucial period "alters the digestive tract of babies, potentially making them more susceptible to disease." Although the study has gained an "enthusiastic following" among UNICEF officials because it would provide support to their crusade for breastfeeding, educating women to provide their babies with breast milk exclusively would be a difficult endeavor. In addition, it would take at least two years before the study is confirmed (Freedman/Stecklow, Wall Street Journal, 12/5).


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Shares of mobile ad firm Millennial Media nearly doubled in their debut yesterday, closing at $25. Baltimore-based Millennial Media priced its shares Wednesday night at $13. The company sold 9.2 million shares, while selling shareholders sold 1 million shares.
New York City’s economy may generate 163,600 more jobs over six years than forecast by the state Labor Dept., the Independent Budget Office said. The revision calls for job gains of 435,000 from 2011 through 2016, up from 271,400.
Canada’s government announced it was going to withdraw the penny from circulation because it costs more to produce than its face value.
Zynga’s secondary offering — intended to boost the amount of stock available to the public, reduce volatility and enable insiders to cash out — priced at $12 per share.
The Commerce Department said real disposable income rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $11.73 trillion, $10.6 billion more than previously estimated.


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The theft occurred while Hebert was attending a fitness class at
"I took (them) from the locker room of the gym at CRMC," Reese said in court on Monday. "I just bought some stuff."
According to court documents, Reese used the credit cards and checks to buy massages, eyelash extensions, a manicure and pedicure, spa gift cards, an iPhone 5 and a case of Bud Light beer.
In all, the total was nearly
Reese made her purchases
She further admitted the bulk of the illegal purchases she made, though she originally denied that the iPhone she owned was the same one she bought using Hebert's credit card. She said she already had resold the latter phone online.
Gay was able to look up the phone's serial number and confirmed the illegally purchased phone was the one in Reese's possession. She later admitted to lying about the phone, adding that she no longer had it since she "lost it and could not find it."
Reese initially faced 15 counts of forgery, each carrying a possible maximum sentence of 10 years and a
Reese also pleaded guilty to another, separate charge of credit card fraud on Monday.
She said she had stolen a credit card belonging to another Health and Fitness patron and used it to buy clothing, lingerie and contact lenses on
Reese told Sharpe that her glasses were broken at the time and she had just gotten a new job and needed new work clothes.
Prosecutors are recommending a prison term of four to eight years for each guilty plea, all to be served concurrently, or at the same time.
Her sentencing will be set once a pre-sentencing investigation has been done, a process that usually takes two months.
(c)2014 Wyoming Tribune-Eagle (Cheyenne, Wyo.)
Visit Wyoming Tribune-Eagle (Cheyenne, Wyo.) at www.wyomingnews.com
Distributed by MCT Information Services


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Read the article on Material Handling & LogisticsLast modified on Saturday, 12 August 2017
Estimated reading time: 0 minutes, 14 seconds
Tech Will Change the Supply Chain
Knoxville's Global Supply Chain Institute has identified five technologies that will impact supply chains, reports Material Handling & Logistics. In the next five years, robotics, drones, wearable tech, 3-D printing and driverless cars will vastly change the supply chain.


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Parking services provider Parkopedia has introduced a new system designed to help EV owners easily find, manage and pay for charging sessions from within their vehicles.
“Parking and charging are interconnected experiences,” Parkopedia points out. “A car must be parked to charge. Only a solution that successfully combines both services can create the complete user experience required by drivers. With an existing database of 70 million parking spaces globally, Parkopedia’s high-quality data will provide a unique and comprehensive service of parking and charging.”
The company’s new Park and Charge service is designed to help drivers find chargers, including those located within indoor facilities out of reach of GPS, and to enable in-vehicle charger activation and payment, regardless of service provider.
Parkopedia aims to bridge the gap between parking providers and charging providers. The company launched in-car parking payments in 2014 in partnership with Volvo. Earlier this year, it announced a payment platform that includes other products and services, including fueling, tolls and now, EV charging.
“Our current parking data and payment services means we are ideally situated within the industry to tackle the huge task of simplifying the EV charging network for drivers,” said Parkopedia founder and CEO Eugene Tsyrklevich. “With Park and Charge, we have created a service that not only solves the pain points for existing EV drivers, but provides automakers with the necessary elements to entice further drivers into electric vehicles.”


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Polyverse raised $8 million to expand the reach of its cybersecurity technology that is used by government organizations and security-minded companies.
The Bellevue, Wash. company — a member of CNBC’s top 100 startups list — says it stands out from other cybersecurity providers because it helps customers prevent attacks rather than react to them. Polyverse’s main product is “Polymorphing for Linux,” which scrambles open-source code without affecting its operation, shielding it from hackers looking to exploit weaknesses in the code.
Polyverse has been validated by the U.S. Department of Defense for mitigating zero-day attacks, intrusions that occur just as a vulnerability becomes public, such as the infamous WannaCry ransomware and hacks of companies like Equifax. The company says its technology is “running on millions of servers.”
“Reactive approaches fundamentally leave companies vulnerable for large periods of time — sometimes years or more,” Polyverse CEO Alexander Gounares told GeekWire. “With our Polymorphing technologies for operating systems and scripting languages, we are able to stop attacks before they start.”
The company has increased its headcount by about 50 percent over the last year, and it now has approximately 30 people on staff. Polyverse plans to use the cash infusion to expand in current markets — North America and Japan — and enter new territory, including the U.K. and Singapore.
Japanese security giant Soliton Systems KK and existing investors were involved in the funding round. The 4-year-old company, which is led by academics and engineers from Amazon, Microsoft and Google, also announced some recent hires.
- Early Microsoft architect and computer hacker Mark “Zibo” Joseph Zbikowski joined the company. He was a designer of the MS-DOS executable file format.
- Vice President of Enterprise Sales Phillip Cockrell came over from SUSE, maker of an operating system built on top of Linux. Cockrell led sales relationships with partners such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, IBM and more.
- New Chief Marketing Officer Joanne Harris also came over from SUSE. She was global vice president of marketing there, responsible for at marketing strategy and planning across the company.
Source: Geek Wire


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Dec 1, 2012
In the spirit of the Holidays, Handmade Artists’ has decided to give away one free month to all new vendors that sign up in the month of December 2012.
Click Here > First Month Free! December Love
This promotion is only available to new vendors that sign up for a monthly subscription, new annual subscribers are not eligible.


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Why does fraud end up becoming a credit risk problem for online lenders? Join our CEO, Jack Alton, Aite Group’s Julie Conroy and Alex Johnson of FICO for a compelling conversation around First Party Fraud, synthetic identity and addressing the challenges of the “Black Hole Problem.”
We're pleased to share a nice article by Flathead Beacon's Tristan Scott, where he interviews our CEO, Jack Alton, delving into the roots of Neuro-IDand how we are helping companies and the customer experience in the digital transformation.
"A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step." - Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching) For digital transformation, that first step starts with measuring your customer experience. Join our CEO, Jack Alton and FICO's Tom Johnson as they discuss the fundamental need to understand the ups and downs of your customers' journey. Neuro-ID's Friction Index® solution that does just that.
PaymentsSource's latest article features our CEO, Jack Alton, discussing how neuroscience gives banks a chance to detect both fraud and friction.
Some excerpts from the article, written by David Heun:
The advancement of neuroscience as a security layer is showing early positive results, said Julie Conroy, research director and fraud expert with Boston-based Aite Group.
“In looking at the cadence at which data is being entered and how fast the applicant is doing things…that is not just helping catch fraud, but also addressing channel abandonment,” Conroy said.
“This is very useful in application flow today, but these technologies are growing and there is room for improvement and other use cases,” she added. “I think it is great we are seeing positive results already.”


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The world is growing exponentially in the use of technology products and their continual replacement is generating mountains of hazardous waste. The UN estimates are of 20-50 million tons of electronic waste produced each year.
These wastes, known as WEEE (Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment), are the type of hazardous waste in the fastest growing globally. In Europe, for example, increases from three to five per cent per year. Their danger is due to the presence of toxic and persistent, which represent a risk to the environment and human health in various stages of treatment, recycling and disposal.
Even today, you lose track of 75% of technological waste products in the European Union. This is a “hidden flow” which in part remains in our homes, basements and garages, or is disposed of in landfill or incinerated. Much of this waste, however, is exported – often illegally – to end up in landfills or recyclers in Africa, uncontrolled illegal in Asia. In places these workers, often children, are exposed to risks associated with the cocktail of chemicals that contain the waste and give off when treated in a rudimentary way, and without protection.
Did you know?
- The televisions, which are the products of the industry’s most commonly disposed of in China, India and Africa, will be subject to further due to rising exports and the current change in the market towards the use of digital TV.
- The world market for video game console is the fastest growing sector in the electronics industry, as well came to 62.7 million units sold in 2006 (representing an increase of 14.9% in a year).
- In 2004, 183 million computers and 674 million mobile phones were sold worldwide, respectively 11.6% and 30% more than in 2003.
- In 2010 it is estimated that 716 million new computers will be placed on the global market, 178 million of them in China, 80 million in India.
- In industrialized countries, the average lifespan of a computer has fallen from 6 years in 1997 to 2 in 2005, while mobile phones have a life span of less than 2 years.


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Detroit – general motors Expects full-year adjusted pre-tax earnings to be around $14 billion, higher than previous forecasts, Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson He said during a show on Wednesday.
GM had previously forecast full-year pretax earnings of $11.5 billion to $13.5 billion.
Jacobson said GM’s financial performance benefits from strong consumer demand, higher prices for new cars and More stability of semiconductor supplies.
Jacobson warned that GM’s semiconductor supply and production of vehicles won’t return to normal until late 2022. GM’s vehicle stockpiles at dealerships will not return to normal soon.
“We haven’t fully recovered yet, and I don’t think we expect to be in 2022,” he said, but the chip situation was starting to stabilize.
Jacobson expects the crisis to improve in the second half of next year. “We are optimistic that we can reach a full employment rate by the end of next year,” he said.
General Motors is also struggling with rising costs for the goods used in its cars. “We see inflation everywhere,” Jacobson said.
So far, Jacobson said the company doesn’t see a significant impact of the novel coronavirus variant, Omicron.
“We’re continuing with the protocols we’ve put in place that have worked,” Jacobson said.


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'I played Rudy Huxtable, and I own this mall': Woman’s bizarre Cosby Show claim to avoid shoplifting arrest
Most people would say anything to avoid being locked up, but a Utah woman served up a doozy for officers who suspected her of shoplifting.
Police said Leah Efay Davis had about $600 worth of stolen items when she was approached by officers outside a J.C. Penny store in Provo on New Year's Eve.
When asked what her name was, she reportedly told officers she played Rudy Huxtable on The Cosby Show, and that she owned the mall.
Spitting image? Police said they were told by Leah Efay Davis, left, that she was the actress who played Rudy Huxtable, Keshia Knight Pulliam, right
But unfortunately for Davis, the role of the Huxtables' young daughter was played by Keshia Knight Pulliam.
In addition, Davis was known to cops. She was arrested twice last year for numerous charges that including shoplifting and trespassing.
She had been banned from the Provo Towne Centre Mall due as a result of her previous run-ins with the law.
The officers brought Davis back into the store and allegedly found the stolen items in a shopping bag, which included purses and four pairs of pajamas.
Child star: Keisha Knight Pulliam got her start as Rudy Huxtable, but has gone on to other film and TV roles
The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Davis also told cops she was eight months pregnant.
Davis, charged with retail theft and criminal trespass, was booked into the Utah County Jail and held on $5,000 bail.
After The Cosby Show went off the air in 1992, Miss Pulliam acted in several films, including Beauty Shop and Madea Goes to Jail.
She now appears on the Tyler Perry sitcom House of Payne, and does not own any shopping malls.
Sitcom stardom: Keshia Knight Pulliam appeared in 179 episodes of The Cosby Show
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To get your week started off and the ideas flowing, we thought we’d share some of what we’ve been reading and recommending to one another here at Monzo.
Recently, @leah from our People team recommended at our All Hands meeting this article by the founder of LinkedIn about “Tours of Duty” — and how the employee-employer relationship is no longer one based on a concept of lifetime loyalty (and how everyone involved can, and should, adapt to this).
@francisco_araujo in Scalers shared this article demystifying myths about what being a “product manager” means.
He also recommended this piece on how start-up Gusto thought about retaining its company culture while scaling up significantly in size — something on our minds here at Monzo, too.
Ignacio, who’s working on scaling as well, suggested reading this piece that argues that millennials are facing the “scariest financial future of any generation since the Great Depression.”
@bea , our Content Manager, has been thinking about this piece by the same author about how the way we as a society have approached obesity is wrong, cruel, and opposed to what we already know is true about weight and health.
Finally, @cookywook recommended this article about how the moderators of the Mumsnet forum are struggling with drawing the line between free speech and allowing transphobia. It’s part of an interesting, ongoing series at Wired about how “gatekeepers of different online communities… approach being the arbiter of what is and isn’t allowed on the internet.”
What are you reading at the moment?


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TikTok star, Addison Rae, will be launching a makeup brand, Alicia Keys does skincare, and other beauty news
1. TikTok star, Addison Rae, will be launching her own makeup brand.
The second most followed person on TikTok is branching out into beauty. Titled Item Beauty, the brand's first drop comprises six products: jelly eyeshadow, brightening powder, brow definer, lip oil, a contour duo, and a lengthening mascara. All products are made using clean, cruelty-free ingredients that are meant to enhance rather than mask your features. According to Rae, the concept of Item Beauty is also centered around instilling "confidence, self-love, and self-expression." A good message to disseminate to Gen Z, we say.
2. Alicia Keys will be debuting a new lifestyle beauty brand with E.L.F.
E.L.F.'s chairman and CEO, Tarang Amin, has stepped up to make a statement on their latest venture with Keys. "We are beyond thrilled to leverage our strengths to help realize Alicia's vision, as it not only aligns with our mission to make the best of beauty accessible, but infuses it with an even deeper dimension," he stated. Not much else has been disclosed about the label, except that it will offer dermatologist-developed, cruelty-free products at affordable prices. Sign us up.
3. Megan Thee Stallion is named as Revlon's new global ambassador.
It's Hot Girl Summer season, indeed. Stallion will be featured in the brand's latest campaigns, and has already assured fans via an Instagram post that she has "hot things coming soon." According to Revlon's global brand president, the decision to bring Stallion to the Revlon family has been in the works since 2019. "When we first approached her about a partnership nearly a year ago, we were drawn to her confidence and fierce ambition as much as her power to hold nothing back," he said in a press release.
4. Selena Gomez announces a launch date for Rare Beauty.
Gomez broke the news via the official brand's Instagram page, where she released a video of herself addressing the brand's philosophy. Priding itself as "makeup to feel good in", the full line-up will be coming your way 3 September on Rare Beauty's official site as well as on Sephora.
5. Beyoncé's makeup artist will be releasing his own line of falsies.
Meet Rokael Beauty. The soon-to-be launched label already considers celebrities such as Beyoncé, Demi Lovato, and Normani as fans, with the songbirds having rocked falsies from their 'The Sun, Moon, and Stars' collection for various projects. The full range comprises lash styles suited for the day to day, sultry nighttime activities, as well as individuals and clusters.
6. Ouai and Byredo have partnered up to release a dry shampoo.
This limited edition drop takes Ouai's cult-favourite Super Dry Shampoo and infuses it with Byredo's Mojave Ghost scent. It was a project conceived amidst quarantine, with Ouai founder, Jen Atkins, sliding into Ben Gorham's (Byredo's founder) DMs, to kick start the endeavour. "I joke that this is the only good thing to happen in 2020," Atkins states in an interview with Allure. She's not wrong.
7. Philosophy is releasing an oil-free version of their fan-favourite cleanser.
That's the Purity Made Simple One-Step Facial Cleanser. The new version not only provides a mattifying effect, it also comes with bamboo extract that gently removes all manner of dirt, debris, and oil with ease. To sweeten the deal, the brand has also come up with a moisturiser to go with it — a gel-type formula packed chockful with vitamins designed to hydrate and brighten skin.
8. Tatcha celebrates the launch of their Rice Wash Cleanser via... Animal Crossing.
Beginning 14 August, you will be able to visit Tatchaland Island, the brand's virtual pop-up. According to Tatcha founder, Vicky Tsai, this allows fans to "discover The Rice Wash in a new, fun way" while also learning more about the brand as a whole. Built to mimic the lush greenery of Kyoto, Tatchaland includes onsen spas, green tea mazes, and the like so users can engage in an "elaborate, relaxing beauty ritual".
9. Clarins is helping raise awareness on rheumatoid polyarthritis by working with the Arthritis Foundation.
This was done in conjunction with Clarins's decision to tap tennis champion, Caroline Wozniacki, as their latest ambassador. This posed as a natural fit seeing how Woziniacki has been suffering from the disease since 2018. Users can contribute to their fundraising efforts by purchasing the Clarins Tonic Body Treatment Oil set: a pouch comprising the Clarins Tonic Body Treatment Oil and a Tonic Bath & Shower Concentrate. The sale of each set sees Clarins making a donation to the Arthritis Foundation.


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London - Afound, the new off-price marketplace from the H&M Group, is set to open several locations in Sweden later this year.
The first physical store from the new retail concept to open will be located on Drottninggatan in Stockholm City, next to its sister brands Arket and H&M later this year. The debut store opening is set to occur simultaneously with the online launch of Afound in Sweden. Afterwards, Afound aims to open stores in Malmö as well as Skärholmen, Sweden.
Ahead of its debut store openings, set to take place throughout the year, Afound has launched an online referral scheme to boost consumer awareness. When shoppers refer a freind to sign up, they are automatically entered into a competition to win an outfit worth 5000 SEK (430 pounds).
Aiming to offer a curated selection of fashion and lifestyle products for women and men, Afound will offer seasonless products from both Swedish as well as international brands in a broad price-segment both online and in-store. The new concept is described as a "style- and deal-hunting paradise" which will offer the H&M's Group own brands as well as other leading brands.


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LOS ANGELES — SugarDVD announced today that it has expanded its TV streaming delivery network with server points in a number of new cities.
The added points include Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Phoenix, Seattle, Washington D.C., and Toronto.
In addition to more locations, the company said its bandwidth now incorporates intelligent route control technology to make the service run up to four times faster.
As a result of the changes, customers will experience less buffering time and be able to fast-forward through movies quicker using their PS3 or Roku.
"One of the best things about this service is the immediacy of having hundreds of full-length movies ready to go on your TV. By expanding our server network, our customers will be able to find things they like quicker than ever," said spokespersonRebecca.
Unlimited TV streaming on Roku and PS3 is included with all of SugarDVD's DVD rental plans at no additional cost.
An unlimited streaming only plan is also available for $7.95 a month, along with a 10-day free trial is for new customers.
SugarDVD offers TV apps for Roku, Playstation3, Boxee, and Google TV devices.
To help promote its PS3 app the site is running a Cosplay Giveaway with performers Misti Dawn and Aria Aspen where gamers vote on the what they want to see the stars wear.
Three photo sets of the girls dressed as game vixens, and behind the scenes videos have been posted on the Giveaway site. The contest will conclude on March 30 with a Playstation 3D display prize.
For more information on SugarDVD’s TV streaming visit SugarDVD.com/Roku.


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The Balearic Islands have decided to ban “intoxicating tourism”. This term refers to a visit to the Spanish archipelago for the sole purpose of consuming alcohol.
Also eliminated are the so-called “drunken tours” during which local bars are toured, especially in popular parts of Majorca and Ibiza.
Local authorities have approved the implementation of a single law, which restricts alcohol consumption in the islands. This law also allows hotels to evict practicing guests balkoningjumping into the pool from the hotel room balcony. Eight foreign visitors died last year alone because of the balcony.
The law, which prescribes fines of up to € 60,000, bans any alcohol advertising, “drunken tours”, outdoor bars, happy hours at restaurants, “buy one, drink three” promotions and self-service alcohol. Boat parties will also be in the throes of the new law, and liquor sales will be banned between 9.30pm and 8am. Implementation of the measures will start immediately and they will be effective for five years.
New tourist model
Iago Negueruela, Minister of Economy, Tourism and Employment of the Balearic Islands, said the new measures are aimed directly against over tourism. They aim to promote polite and cultural behavior and the Balearic Islands as a quality destination. “We are dedicated model of sustainable tourism, and we want to enable the understanding and coexistence of tourists and locals, “the minister said.
The Balearic Islands are a popular tourist destination in Spain, with around 13 million visitors a year. The tourists are mostly young Europeans, mostly from the United Kingdom and Germany.
Balearic Islands – synonymous with cheap travel
Cheap flights and affordable prices on the islands attract young people eager for fun, which with their behavior provokes resentment and tension among the locals. The new law seeks to establish a new form of sustainable tourism and show due respect for the destination and its inhabitants.
more about the wild parties and the rich heritage of Ibiza and the fashionable Marbella. Find out which tourists are not desirable in well-known world destinations.
more interesting news


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If you're in the market for a Zune, you might as well go to the store that's completely dedicated to everyone's favorite portable media player.
Steve Ballmer's recent statements about the Zune seemed to imply that it didn't have much of a future as a hardware product. Microsoft has responded to such suspicions: "Poppycock! Codswallop! FLAPDOODLE!"
In what may seem like a late start to the iPod race, Haier America is updating their Rhapsody Ibiza line with 2 new MP3 players: the Mini and the Touch. Sound familiar?
Right, so this is a weird one: we're getting tons of reports—tons—about failing Zune 30s. Apparently, the players began freezing at about midnight last night, becoming totally unresponsive and practically useless. Update: The easy official fix here.
Microsoft's just slapped together a pair of special edition Zunes for both the Republican and the Democratic National Conventions and they look pretty damn great. The one for the DNC is awarded for the winner of the "Green Delegate Challenge", which is contest for delegations that "demonstrate the highest level of…
A veteran NYPD detective is in danger of losing his job. A murder suspect gets his sentence reduced to a slap on the wrist, even though he was caught on surveillance camera shooting a man in the face in a Bronx elevator. Why? A little red MP3 player that was stashed in the shooter's pocket during the interrogation.
Today Rhapsody and Haier launched the Ibiza Wi-Fi music player, which lets you download Rhapsody tracks via Wi-Fi without connecting to a PC first. This is really good news for Rhapsody users, until now there was no true portable device for managing tracks, though Apple, Microsoft and SanDisk (with Yahoo) have…


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YouTube’s controversial “restricted mode” setting may soon be a thing of the past.
Following days of backlash over the setting, which many LGBTQ creators realised hides some of their videos, the video giant on Monday night issued an actual apology on its blog.
SEE ALSO: YouTube still needs to actually apologize for (and fix) ‘restricted mode’
“The bottom line is that this feature isn’t working the way it should,” Johanna Wright, YouTube’s Vice President of Product Management, . “We’re sorry and we’re going to fix it.”
Big digital influencers ranging from Tyler Oakely to unofficial YouTube voice of reason Hank Green, as well as musicians such as Tegan and Sara (whose videos were also affected), spoke up about the policy over the weekend. Read more…
More about Online Video, Tegan And Sara, Tyler Oakley, Lgbtq, and Digital Influencers


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Young people who regularly use payment cards to pay for 99-cent smartphone apps and MP3s are increasingly choosing to use cards for small, in-person transactions, such as coffee. This activity will only be further encouraged as smartphone payments become commonplace.
The popularity of plastic is predicted to continue to grow, with projections estimating 10.7% growth for credit and 8.5% of signature debit from June 2011 to June 2012. The use of checks during the same time period is predicted to decrease by 12.6%.
Businesses who continue to limit their payment methods to just cash or check are likely to see a decrease in customers over time as consumers start to view these payment methods as inconvenient.
Currently, the most common method of payment for in-person transactions under $20 is cash, $20-100 is debit and over $100 is credit.


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Fri Mar 14, 2014 9:01am
(Reuters) – Economic activity in Brazil grew more than expected in January as strong retail sales offset most of the prior month’s sharp downturn, the central bank said on Friday.
The Brazilian central bank’s IBC-Br economic activity index rose 1.26 percent in January from December in seasonally adjusted terms, above market forecasts and nearly enough to offset a 1.40 percent drop in December.
Still, the index, a rough proxy for gross domestic product, continued to point to subpar growth. It rose a non-seasonally adjusted 0.93 percent over the same month a year ago.
Brazil’s economy has struggled with weak growth and high inflation since 2011 despite countless attempts by the government of President Dilma Rousseff to boost activity with stimulus measures. The country’s economy grew just 2.3 percent last year and is expected to slow in 2014, according to private estimates.
The partial recovery in economic activity in January follows a surprise increase in retail sales, which defied expectations for a drop as unusually hot weather sent families buying air conditioners and beverages.
Nevertheless, the recent string of positive news about Brazil’s economy, which also included a faster-than-expected rebound in industrial output in January, has not prompted economists to change their outlook for soft growth this year.
“We see this better growth movement in January as a partial bounce back from a very depressed December and not a new upward trend. But it does dampen risks that the economy was stalling or moving into a recession,” Barclays economists Bruno Rovai and Marcelo Salomon wrote in a client note.
“To be sure, February should not be so bright.”
The IBC-Br index, a gauge of activity in the farming, industrial and services sectors, has proven to be an imperfect barometer of official GDP data compiled by statistics agency IBGE, which provides a broader reading of economic activity.
The index pointed to a technical recession in the second half of 2013, whereas official GDP figures showed a surprise rebound in economic output in the final months of last year .
The median estimate in a Reuters survey of 26 analysts was for a rise of 0.7 percent in the IBC-Br index from December.


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When Mike and Jan Sullivan opened up their now-famous Guns and Guitars, 1085 Pioneer Boulevard Suite 170, in April of 2011, they never thought that life would throw them so many curve balls. But this past year has reminded them just how short life is and that it is time to take a step back and enjoy it while it lasts.
So, to keep their store and dreams alive, they have recruited Mike’s son, Chris, to take over the well-known store and carry it into the future. Moving to Mesquite just a few weeks ago, Chris Sullivan took the long trek with his girlfriend, Jenny Perry, from Sullivan, New Hampshire all the way to Mesquite, Nevada, to work around the things he has loved his whole life.
It was really a win-win scenario from the start. “Being able to help them out as well as spending time with them is something that just felt right,” Chris said. “It’s something that we haven’t been able to do much of the last ten years.”
The details are still in the works, and official dates for the full transition have yet to be determined, but Chris has some big plans for the future of Guns and Guitars while maintaining the quality of products they have offered for the past four years.
“I would like to be able to grow the business and online as well, to fill in the gap. Hopefully, we’ll be able to increase the amount and types of firearms we carry.”
Chris comes with an impressive resume, working with guns for the past 15 years, with six of those being with the ATF department for Dick’s Sporting Goods. He also has over 20 years in customer service experience, something he boasts about, coming off of eight years with Ford Motor Company as a Service Manager for them.
“They are delightful to have here,” said Jan. “It’s been a good move. We’re still here and better than ever. “We’re still open and soon to be a Family Owned Business that will hopefully be here for many years to come. We love Mesquite.”
“My intention is to carry on what they have already created here,” said Chris. “That wonderful, homey feeling you get when you walk in the store is something we plan to keep.”
Chris said that he plans to keep as much of the business the same as possible, which includes the assistance of Mike Wilbur, most commonly known as Jersey Mike, who also carries with him in both the guns and music industry. Their hours of operation may also be extended in the future.
“My old boss always told me, ‘If you want to be happy, find something that you would do for free everyday, and find a way to make money at it.’” With that philosophy, it is almost guaranteed that Guns and Guitars will be here in Mesquite for many, many years.
Guns and Guitars is currently open 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. for the summer, Wednesday through Saturday. Their hours will change towards the end of September as snowbirds return and business picks up. For more information, check out their website at www.gunsguitars.com or call them at 702-346-4867.


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Popular Fried Chicken Joint Opening New Location in Mississauga
Calling all fried food lovers - a brand new joint that specializes in deep frying is set to open soon right here in Mississauga!
This place already has one location in Mississauga at Derry and Goreway, one location in Scarborough, and it’s opening a location in Oshawa, too.
It’s true - Yumys Chicken and Seafood is opening a brand new location in Mississauga.
The new spot is located on Hurontario, just north of Dundas, and it’s gearing up for a June 17, 2018, opening.
Yumys boasts “deep fried heaven” according to their Instagram page, serving up indulgent fried meals.
Chicken wings, crispy fried chicken, and fried chicken wraps and sandwiches are on the menu, alongside classic sides like cajun fries, poutine, mac and cheese, garlic bread, and even fresh biscuits.
Deep fried shrimp is also an option - it’s called Yumys Chicken and Seafood, after all.
Kids meals and party packs are also available depending on what you’re looking for.
Happy eating, Mississauga!
Cover photo courtesy of Yumys on Instagram
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2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the James Bond film series. To celebrate, it looks like Omega is releasing a special edition James Bond 50th anniversary watch (despite the fact that fifty years ago, Bond was not wearing an Omega at all).
The watch is in theseries, uses a “007” theme on the black lacquer dial with “50” filled in with red on the outer bezel, and uses Omega’s caliber 2507 co-axial movement. The winding rotor looks like a bullet and is inscribed with “50 years of James Bond.” The Omega Limited Edition James Bond 50th Anniversary watch is sized at 41mm and will be available some time early this year.
Oh, and just how limited will this limited edition be? Omega will be making 11,007 of them, which is, to give you some context, roughly 2.5 times the yearly production of A. Lange & Sohne, worldwide.