text:
Almost half (49.7%) of U.S. mobile subscribers now own smartphones, as of February 2012. According to Nielsen, this marks an increase of 38 percent over last year; in February 2011, only 36 percent of mobile subscribers owned smartphones. This growth is driven by increasing smartphone adoption, as more than two-thirds of those who acquired a new mobile device in the last three months chose a smartphone over a feature phone.
Overall, Android continues to lead the smartphone market in the U.S., with 48 percent of smartphone owners saying they owned an Android OS device. Nearly a third (32.1%) of smartphone users have an Apple iPhone, and Blackberry owners represented another 11.6 percent of the smartphone market. Among recent acquirers who got their smartphone within the last three months, 48 percent of those surveyed in February said they chose an Android and 43 percent bought an iPhone.
MacDailyNews Take: Three iPhone models versus uncountable Fragmandroid dreck. The tide has turned.
2011 best-selling smartphones in USA: Apple iPhone models take top 3 spots – February 23, 2012
Aftershocks from Android market share dive rumble through mobile market – January 31, 2012
Legendary judge hands Apple key patent interpretation victory against Android – January 30, 2012
ABI: Apple iPhone tops smartphone market as Android suffers its first decline in share – January 27, 2012
Apple overtakes Samsung to take world’s largest smartphone vendor crown – January 27, 2012
These charts will make the Fandroids want to puke – January 26, 2012
AT&T sold 7.6 million iPhones and fewer than 1.8 million Android phones in Q411 – January 26, 2012
Apple’s iOS passes Google’s Android to take U.S. smartphone market share crown – January 25, 2012
Analyst: Verizon’s record iPhone sales signal waning demand for Google Android phones – January 24, 2012

domain: news


text:
Fashion bloggers are squealing that Google's going into the fashion business, following an invitation for a swanky NYC launch event this Wednesday, where "high tech fuses with high fashion." Supposedly, they'll be using image-recognition software from their Like.com acquisition.
After spotting the whispers on Twitter, I looked up the domain registrant of Boutiques.com, which appears to be Like.com. Google bought the fashion site, which uses image-recognition software to find similar items, back in August. The domain changed hands to Like.com on 19th July, and is obviously now owned by Google too.
A fashion site might seem like an odd choice for Google, but for anyone who's got a girlfriend, sister or friend who's addicted to online shopping it only figures that Google would want a slice of that big, financial pie. I myself buy most of my clothes online now—so a one-stop destination to major fashion brands (said to be 19 high-end American designers, as well as retailers such as Net-a-Porter, Nordstrom, Selfridges and Shopbop) certainly interests me (and my lack of time). [Frockwriter via @LDNFashion]


text:
As great as LineageOS and other ROMs are, they wouldn't be possible without a custom recovery available for the device. TWRP is usually pretty quick to support new devices, with older phones and tablets being added to the list frequently too. Since our last post, TWRP has added support for 17 more devices, including the LeEco Le Pro 3 and Xiaomi Mi 6. Read More
It wouldn't be fair to call the Razer Forge TV a failure. No, that simply wouldn't be right. If I did that, I'd miss the opportunity to call it a half-baked, poorly-supported product that lags behind even the limited field of Android TV devices like a three-legged dog chasing a nitrous-powered mail truck. Almost a year after its US launch the set-top box is still inexplicably incompatible with Netflix, the promised PC game streaming software feature has disappeared, and even after being injected with the decrepit soul of OUYA the Forge is basically a dead platform. But there's one last thing to report on before we can finally lay it to rest: the Turret. Read More
The dream of OUYA was not to be. It turns out that overturning a decades-old industry by disrupting it with mobile hardware and open-source software is a tough row to hoe, and adding on a semi-exclusive game market (you know, that thing that consoles do that's already universally hated) wasn't the best opening move. So OUYA floundered in the maturing set-top box market until Razer snapped it up in the hopes of bolstering its own Forge TV, which had been on the market for months and was already known as the worst option in an extremely limited field.
Huh. Maybe they just wanted some company to commiserate with. Read More
The saga of OUYA is a cautionary tale of how hard it is to build a new gaming platform. After an initial crowdfunding success, OUYA had trouble attracting developers and keeping gamers interested. The company was gobbled up by gaming giant Razer earlier this year, and now the OUYA store is back as Cortex for the Android TV-powered Forge TV. Read More
Razer never seemed to really get behind its Android TV device. As far as we can tell, review units for the Forge TV were never sent to any of the tech media (not that we're bitter or anything. Razer. Not at all), and after brutal user reviews were splattered all over the Internet, the device still doesn't support the Android TV version of Netflix. Razer never released the neat-o mouse-and-keyboard combo designed specifically for couch gaming, the company's alternative to NVIDIA's PC game streaming software still hasn't materialized, and there have been no mentions of software updates or even notable game releases since the Forge TV launched in April. Read More
Razer, PC gaming accessory maker and recent Android TV also-ran, bought Ouya. That left a lot of people hanging, and not just Ouya employees or customers. Those Android game developers who had taken the company up on its "Free The Games" funding offer for extra development money in exchange for timed exclusivity to the Ouya platform, and who hadn't yet been paid, got stung by a "bankruptcy or buyout" clause in the contract. Since Ouya was bought by an outside company, the matching funds from the original deal no longer have to be provided. Read More
The second Android TV device to be available directly from Google is also the second Android TV device to be sold, period: the Forge TV from gaming peripheral maker Razer. The Forge TV bundle is now on sale in the Google Store. This $149.99 USD package includes the Forge TV itself and one Serval Bluetooth controller. Oddly, the stand-alone Forge TV (which sells for $100 and requires an Android phone, since it has no remote) isn't listed on the Google Store. It's shipping to the US and Canada.
The Serval controller is also available as a stand-alone purchase for a whopping $79.99. Read More
There hasn't been much news out of OUYA for the last year or so, and Razer's first effort at mobile hardware, the Android TV-powered Forge TV, hasn't exactly been lighting the world on fire either. Would combining forces make either of these products better? Probably not. But according to a recent post on TechCrunch, at least someone thinks it might be a good idea.
TechCrunch reports that premium game accessory maker Razer is interested in purchasing OUYA, or at least what's left of it now that the "mini console" fad has come and gone. OUYA has tried numerous strategies to gain back the excitement of its initial Kickstarter campaign, including the addition of a subscription service and farming out its game library to competitors like MadCatz. Read More
Razer's Forge TV, one of the only third party stand-alone Android TV devices announced since the platform launched, is already available as a pre-order from Amazon. Now you can get it straight from the serpent's mouth: Razer is accepting pre-orders for both the Forge TV and the bundle with a Serval controller. The set-top box alone is shipping out on April 29th, with the bundle coming a little later on May 5th.
The Forge TV is a standard Android TV device with a Snapdragon 805 system-on-a-chip, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and support for USB 3.0 hardware and gigabit Ethernet on top of the usual Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Read More
Let's be honest here: there hasn't been much movement for Android TV since the Nexus Player was released way back in November. Though Sony has committed to using ATV in its upcoming smart TVs, the actual availability of Google's latest set-top box is depressingly low. But two gaming-centric Android TV units are on the horizon, and one of them is from veteran PC accessory vendor Razer. The Forge TV now has an unconfirmed release date (May 1st) and at least one pre-order retailer (Amazon).
The only thing available at the moment, and indeed, the only hint of the Forge TV we've seen since its unveiling at CES in January, is the "Forge TV Bundle." Read More


text:
For technology demos and testing, the "first true Wayland LiveCD" has been released that can start Wayland directly without depending upon an X.Org environment.
In preparation for the upcoming release of LLVM 3.3, here is an extensive round of C/C++ benchmarks from GCC 4.8.0, LLVM Clang 3.2, and LLVM Clang 3.3-rc1 to look at the Linux compiler performance. Benchmarks happened from three different systems bearing Intel Core i7 3960X, AMD FX-8350, and Intel Core i3 3217U processors for a diverse look at the performance.
Canonical's Kevin Gunn shared a status update for the advancements made by their team this week on the Mir Display Server and next-generation Unity 8 interface.
The release of LLVM 3.3 along with its sub-projects like the Clang C/C++ compiler front-end and Compiler-RT is imminent. A second release candidate was posted just prior to the weekend to usher in some last minute testing.
The open-source AMD RadeonSI Gallium3D driver is beginning to work when it comes to running simple OpenCL programs on the Radeon HD 7000 series graphics cards.
At the Tizen conference this week in San Francisco, Intel showed off an Intel Ultrabook running their next-generation Tizen 3.0 platform that's using a shell/desktop derived from GNOME 3.x.
Wine 1.5.31 has been released as the latest bi-weekly development milestone.
The security researcher that uncovered a host of X.Org security issues went beyond just evaluating the X.Org libraries and looked at other Linux desktop packages too. There's many security-related bugs outstanding within the Linux desktop ecosystem and Ilja van Sprundel believes "things could be better by several orders of magnitude."
For those that didn't hear already, KDE 4.11 will be the last Plasma Workspaces feature release in the KDE4 series and this upcoming version will be maintained for a period of two years.
NVIDIA released today the 319.23 Linux graphics driver, which supports the just-released GeForce GTX 780 graphics card. There's also a couple of other changes to this certified Linux driver update, including 4K HDMI support.
This week's release of the Google Chrome 27 web-browser was made known by its faster load-times. While now in beta form, Chrome 28 will also bring greater speed improvements to Google's web-browser.
Digia has announced a new commercial endeavour that pairs a lightweight Qt stack atop an Android kernel/base operating system.
It was just last month that there was an X.Org Server security issue dealing with hot-plugging of input devices. Being announced today is a new round of security problems, this time multiple issues dealing with X.Org client libraries.
While Fedora 18 has been out for months and so has Fedora 18 for ARM, an ARMv6 spin of Fedora 18 targeting the popular Raspberry Pi development platform has finally been released.
Besides a new Raspberry Pi renderer for Weston, another interesting set of Wayland patches today is for providing output scaling support with Weston when using the X11 and DRM back-ends.
After working on the Raspberry Pi support for Wayland/Weston, Pekka Paalanen has announced a new "rpi-renderer" for the low-cost ARM development board.
Google has announced the release of their Chrome 27 web-browser, which most notably provides faster load times of web-pages.
While it wasn't part of the Debian 7.0 Wheezy release earlier this month, the GNU non-Linux folks have now put out Debian GNU/Hurd 2013. This operating system pairs the Debian user-land with the GNU Hurd kernel.
For those that were turned on by the recent Radeon Gallium3D performance improvements found in Mesa 9.2 but are Intel Linux graphics users rather than AMD, there's good news too. Here's some benchmarks showing off nice Intel OpenGL performance improvements found with Mesa 9.2 for an ASUS Ultrabook with HD 4000 "Ivy Bridge" graphics.
In working to enhance the performance of the Btrfs file-system in cases where certain data/files are frequently used, a set of patches for providing hot relocation support has been posted.
Phoronix Test Suite 4.6.0 (codenamed "Utsira") has been officially released today with compiler improvements, support for the HHVM virtual machine, BSD support improvements, and other hardware/software improvements.
With the public launch of Intel's beautiful Haswell CPU being imminent, Intel has released the xf86-video-intel 2.21.7 DDX driver that should support all of the Haswell PCI IDs.
Mesa 9.1.3 was released today to address some outstanding bugs back-ported from the current Mesa 9.2 development code.
SQLite 3.7.17 was released yesterday. What makes this new release of the popular lightweight SQL database software noteworthy is that it introduces support for memory-mapped I/O.
In revisiting the OpenGL graphics and gaming performance for an older Intel Core i5 "Sandy Bridge" Apple system, the Ubuntu 13.04 performance with Intel's open-source graphics driver is now easily surpassing Apple's OpenGL driver found in OS X 10.8.3.
Microsoft has finally done the Skype for Linux 4.2 update, which rolls in a bunch of bug-fixes but still doesn't put the Linux Skype client on par with OS X or Windows.
Just two weeks after talking about a Qt 5 tool-kit port for the Tizen platform being worked on, the first release is now available.
Version 0.1 of KTAP has been released to provide a new scripting dynamic tracing tool for the Linux kernel.
The second release candidate for the Linux 3.10 kernel is now out there. Torvalds released 3.10-rc2 on Monday with a few extra pulls that he wouldn't have accepted later on in the release cycle.
Just three months after the exciting QEMU 1.4 release, QEMU 1.5 is now available with many exciting and new features for those using this open-source software in a virtualized world. There's the VFIO VGA pass-through support, USB 3.0 improvements, and much more.
The Handbrake open-source video transcoder program now supports using OpenCL for accelerating certain operations along with introducing other new features to its brand new 0.9.9 release.
One month after Rob Clark began developing his Freedreno Gallium3D stack for Qualcomm's Adreno A3xx hardware, he's beginning to achieve visual success. While the code hasn't yet been merged into mainline Mesa, on an A320 as found on the Google Nexus 4 he has es2gears (the OpenGL ES version of glxgears) successfully running on this open-source code.
The ex-Nokia developers that formed Jolla to work on Sailfish OS to work on a new range of Linux-based smartphones to start where MeeGo left off, have announced their first smartphone.
It's been a while since last running any Ubuntu Linux disk encryption benchmarks, but thanks to recent encryption improvements within the upstream Linux ecosystem, it's time to deliver some new Linux disk encryption benchmarks. In this article are results comparing Ubuntu 13.04 without any form of disk encryption to using the home directory encryption feature (eCryptfs-based) and full-disk encryption (using LUKS with an encrypted LVM).
At long last the third major version of Mageia, the popular community fork of Mandriva Linux, is now available. There's a lot of new stuff to Mageia 3 like a new version of RPM and updated systemd, but the distribution is still not shipping GRUB2 by default.
The NetBSD project has announced the simultaneous releases of NetBSD 6.0.2 and NetBSD 6.1, with the latter introducing new features to the open-source operating system.
Linux graphics drivers have come a long way in recent years for both the open and closed-source solutions from AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel. In this Sunday article, a Phoronix reader has shared his experiences in going from failing to setup two monitors under Linux just a few years ago with NVIDIA to now successfully driving six monitors on a single system using the AMD Linux driver.
On Friday there was the controversial news about the Linux "ondemand" cpufreq governor no longer being fit for best performance and power-savings on modern processors. Fortunately, for better handling the CPU frequency stage changes on modern Intel CPUs, Intel recently introduced the new P-State kernel driver.
The FreeBSD camp continues to develop pkgng, a next-generation binary package manager for the operating system.
Taking a break from our usual Linux hardware coverage and performance benchmarking this weekend is a look at the Sumo Emperor, a comfortable basis for lounging or working from a laptop.


text:
The Debt Ceiling Crisis Should Scare You Because of This
For those of us at the ground level, the first casualty would be employment.
"If the credit market freezes up all of a sudden, businesses are not going to have access to money," explained Thomas Hungerford, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute. "So small businesses and startups are not going to be able to get credit to expand or to hire."
"A lot of large businesses, they fund their investments more through debt than equity," Hungerford added. "If people don't have access to , they stop buying durable goods. That kind of dries up. Well, who makes durable goods? Our manufacturing sector. If they're not selling, they lay off workers."
What's more, companies without credit lose purchasing power. As sellers lose business, they could lay off even more workers, who in turn then lose purchasing power at the individual level. Together it creates the vicious cycle of an economic recession, all starting at the top. An electrician with absolutely no stake in the market can still lose his job, because a business failed to open when it couldn't get a . When it comes to the economy, were all in this together.
Interest rates could also go up across the board.
"If we had a deliberate breach, if we just defaulted at least temporarily on our bonds, could go up," Hungerford said. "And people are going to see that in their already-too-high interest rates on credit cards, their auto loans, things like that which could go up."
It may seem bizarre that the interest on your car payment could rise because somebody else failed to pay their bills, but that's what happens. Commercial interest is often pegged to a central rate known as Prime. Generally a (such as a credit card or homeowner's loan) will have an interest rate set to Prime plus "x." That central rate, according to Hungerford, fluctuates based on the interest payments on what the market considers riskless assets.
Chief among them? Treasury bonds.
This is because interest goes up as an asset becomes riskier, offering investors a higher return as incentive to take on the extra risk. So if timely payment is no longer assured on Treasury bonds, interest on them will rise. They'll take the Prime, and therefore the rest of the marketplace, with them, and just like that, we're all paying more for our student .
Direct payments will drop off too, sucking cash out of the economy at a very perilous time.
It bears repeating that the debt ceiling isn't just about making sure that investors and foreign governments get their loans repaid. The U.S. government owes far more money to its own citizens in the form of bills for services, purchase agreements and entitlement checks. If the government breaks its debt ceiling, it won't be able to honor those agreements, leading to a nation of doctors, engineers and retirees who suddenly have a lot less money to spend.
"Some of the immediate effects, it depends on what we can and what we can't pay," Hungerford said. "November 1, we're supposed to be sending out Social Security checks. Are we going to be able to cover that? Doctors getting repaid for Medicare, that could be affected immediately. Then just paying off contractors, paying off our bills for goods received; some things we'll be able to pay, some things we won't and that's going to end up affecting businesses."
"If it's going to be a long delay," he added, "firms are going to start laying off workers."
Exactly how bad this could get remains to be seen. As Hungerford mentioned, there is simply no precedent for an intentional, modern default.
"Under what I would consider the best scenario, we'll end up seeing higher ," he said. "If it goes on and the credit markets seize up, it could throw us back into another nasty recession. And we are starting out at an unemployment rate that's over 7%."
Beyond the politics and the talk of high-finance market fluctuations is the price that will be paid by voters on the ground: , soaring interest and insecurity. While the terms of the debate may seem vague and academic, the impact will be anything but.
If you're not scared by now, you're not .


text:
- Subscribe NowLimited Time Offer
Sign Up for the South Florida Business Journal Afternoon Edition Newsletter
Send this story to a friend
(Page 2 of 3)
Palm Beach funds can pursue $1B Ponzi case
On Aug. 23, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Paul Hyman denied GE Capital’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit in Palm Beach County bankruptcy court.
Michael Budwick, of Meland Russin & Budwick, said Palm Beach Finance intends to seek punitive damages.
Louis Vuitton wins $16M counterfeit judgment
Fashion house Louis Vuitton Malletier won a $1.6 million default judgment Aug. 27 against counterfeiters in Miami federal court. It is the latest in a trend of Italian and French designers filing litigation in South Florida to defend their brands.
Attorney Stephen Gaffigan obtained the judgment against 67 website domains that sold 13 types of merchandise. The order, by U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke, also orders PayPal to freeze and turn over funds in accounts for the website sales.
Psychic scam on trial?
A jury trial opened Aug. 28 in Palm Beach County federal court for self-proclaimed psychic Rose Marks.
Marks used the name Joyce Michaels in running a small business with several locations that allegedly fleeced people of $17 million.
One of the star witnesses is romance novelist Jude Devereaux. Marks says she provided a service, was an inspiration to Devereaux and is a victim of discrimination against Romani people, otherwise known as Gypsies.
Theodule indicted in Haitian Ponzi scheme
Four years after his Ponzi scheme was uncovered, George Louis Theodule was arrested and indicted for scamming $30 million from members of South Florida’s Haitian community.
Paul Brinkmann covers venture capital, technology, energy and environment.
- Most popular
- BankUnited reveals picks for board overhaul
- JetBlue to launch new route from Fort Lauderdale
- Investment fund star Berkowitz’s Fairholme seeks to form trust company
- Schlesinger family regains control of Mayfair Hotel
- US Airways' X-rated Twitter blunder is historically bad
- 2 reasons to use credit cards to pay your taxes (and which ones to use
- Turnberry Associates reveals plans for 52-story condo
- Lehman Brothers sells repossessed Miami Beach hotel
- Rothstein's former CFO charged by feds
- Tommy Hilfiger closes deal to buy Raleigh Hotel
- Multimedia Consultant Jacksonville Business Journal | Jacksonville, FL
- Managing Editor Dent Research | Delray Beach, FL
- ELECTRONIC DISCOVERY LEGAL COORDINATOR Office of the Attorney General | Tallahassee, FL
- International Business Manager Crush Cosmetics, LLC | Miami, FL
- Graphic Designer Wallis Enterprises, Corp | Fort Lauderdale, FL


text:
Out of the 30 companies from Kerala participating in the global technology exhibition GITEX, which will be held in Dubai next month, 21 are from Kozhikode. GITEX is an annual technology event attended by hundreds of IT companies from different countries.
This is the first international tech event where the companies have the opportunity to participate directly after a gap of one and a half years due to the emergence of Covid 19. In addition to the opportunity to present products and services, the companies also have the opportunity to discover new markets and partners during the GITEX. It is also a gateway to the international market for smaller IT companies in Kerala.
Most of these companies are from Govt-run Cyber Park, Kozhikode. In addition, 19 startups from Kerala are also participating in the event. Various companies have been participating in this fair under the leadership of Kerala IT for the last 20 years. John M Thomas, CEO of Kerala IT Parks will also be in Dubai to attend GITEX.
“Gitex is the most people-connected tech event in the region. It is an excellent opportunity for the tech companies in Kerala, primarily because of its geographical attributes and proximity to the Middle East. Gitex will be a perfect avenue for the Kerala startups seeking funds to scale or meet potential customers for their services and products,” said Vijith Sivadasan, a participant and Cofounder and Promoter of Codelattice.


text:
Optus customers travelling to New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, the United States and the United Kingdom with a pre-paid mobile device can now slash their international roaming costs by activating a new $20 data roaming bundle on their account.
Valid for five days from the time of activation – that's $4/day on a five-day trip – the add-on unlocks a generous 10GB of data for use in those five countries, although doesn’t offer other inclusions like voice calls or SMS.
Still, that works out to just $0.02 per MB using the add-on, versus the regular pay-as-you-go rate of $0.50 per MB for Optus pre-paid customers, where $20 would otherwise buy just 40MB of data, or about 0.04GB.
Staying abroad for another five days, or need even more data? Just activate another $20 roaming add-on once the first has expired or been depleted, by visiting optus.com.au/recharge.
For pre-paid customers travelling to these five select countries, Optus’ $20 roaming add-on could prove compelling over competitor Telstra’s pre-paid International Roaming Browse Packs, priced at $29 for 100MB, $85 for 300MB and $160 for 600MB.
However, Telstra’s packs are each valid for a longer 30-day window – suiting travellers on longer trips and who don’t need as much data – and with that data being usable in a wider variety of countries including throughout much of Europe, Asia, parts of the Middle East, and places closer to home like Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.
Rival Vodafone also sells Pre-paid Roaming Add-on packs for use in 50 countries, and mixes data with other inclusions.
$25 buys 100MB, 30 minutes of voice calls and 30 SMS to use over three days, with the option of ditching that talk and text in favour of double data (200MB) – or, pay $35 for a longer seven-day validity, and a choice between 250MB of data, 60 minutes of voice and 60 SMS, or a flat 500MB of data.


text:
Showtime is sponsoring the official SXSW app for the fourth year in a row and, this time, the app has exclusive content tied to its new Cameron Crowe series, Roadies. While waiting in line for events, SXSW attendees can now also play an addictive, casual game tied to the show’s premise surrounding a group of music roadies.
“Each year we have taken an approach that was different than simply running program promotion banners across the app,” Brian Swarth, Showtime’s senior vice president and group director of digital media, told The Drum. “This year, we are promoting our new series Roadies across all Showtime tactics at SXSW. We have built a Roadies-themed casual game for the app where users will ‘Shut the Truck Up’, by loading up a truck with gear from a band on tour. There are multiple levels to the game, with a chance to win prizes each day of the festival. The trailer for the show is also available in the game. We partnered with the agency Potion on the design and build of the game.”


text:
It's no secret that Hollywood has yet to tire of the pink hair trend. And the latest star to jump on the hair color bandwagon is one who normally loves going against the grain: Nicole Richie!
The Fashion Star mentor showed off her bright fuchsia, dip-dyed ends in a photo posted on her official website on Tuesday with "Tickled pink!" as the caption.
She follows in the footsteps of January Jones, Ashley Tisdale and Lauren Conrad, who all tried out the trend earlier this year.
Candy-colored locks aren't the only way the 30-year-old mom of two is getting beauty focused. She's also set to launch her debut fragrance this fall.
"It's an extension of my fashion brands Winter Kate and House of Harlow," she told Us Weekly last month. "I grew up a very Southern girl; my mother was from the south and in addition to telling me to never go out without clean underwear, she instilled in me to never go out without fragrance and lotion -– she was big on layering fragranced stuff."


text:
Valentine’s Day comes with a great chance for brands to connect with their customers by sharing the spirit of love, inclusiveness, and overall appreciation. Coming with a fresh concept for this Valentine’s season, Big Bazaar – one of India’s leading hypermarket chains is promoting inclusiveness with #LoveSabKeLiye campaign.
As a part of this campaign, Big Bazaar has created two heartwarming stories that convey deeper meaning of love shared between different individuals.
The first campaign narrates a special bond shared between an old married couple showing how with nothing but love and a little nok-jhok the couple share a timeless bond.
The second campaign features a story with a much deeper message. It showcases a special marriage where the wife is hearing and speech impaired. The video beautifully shows how the husband plans a sweet surprise to celebrate Valentine’s Day with his wife.
What makes this campaign special
Unlike most Valentine’s Day campaigns, Big Bazaar has not narrowed the love season for a particular audience. With #LoveSabKeLiye, as the name suggests, the brand wants to convey that from young, elders to specially-abled, everyone has a love story.
Such campaigns must reach maximum people and for that, Big Bazzar digitally shared real-life stories of couples where either one or both couples have a disability.
Not only this, Big Bazaar has organized a Love Walkathon that will be held 15th February with over 10,000 young elders and persons with disabilities to participate. Also, on the weekend of Valentine’s Day (14th-16th Feb), Big Bazaar stores will be giving exciting discounts and gifting offers to ensure that customers can celebrate the occasion in the best possible ways.


text:
By Mark Gillespie
January 28, 2021 – 2020 was not a good year by virtually all measurements, but the U.S. distilled spirits industry managed to squeak out gains despite the economic impacts from the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing trade war between the United States and the European Union. The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States reported industry-wide growth of 5.5 percent in revenue and 5.3 percent in growth for 2020 over 2019, with consumers spending more money in the “off-premise” retail sector as many of the nation’s bars and restaurants were forced to close or scale back operations during the pandemic.
Liquor stores and other retailers nationwide showed a 16.3 percent increase in sales during the year ending December 27 over the previous year. The “off-premise” sector usually accounts for about 80% of distilled spirits sales in normal years, and DISCUS chief economist David Ozgo told reporters during the Council’s annual economic briefing that growth helped mitigate some of the impact from a 44% decline in “on-premise” sales at bars and restaurants. “In addition to not spending on spirits at bars and restaurants, they weren’t dining out, we weren’t traveling nearly as much…this gave the consumer a lot of disposable income – if you were still fortunate enough to have a job, of course,” Ozgo said.
Listen to the Distilled Spirits Council’s economic briefing:
Overall sales of American whiskies grew by 7% over 2019 to the equivalent of 28.4 million 9-liter cases by volume, with revenue up by 8.2 percent to $4.3 billion. Blended whiskey sales grew by 8 percent, while Canadian Whisky recorded one of its strongest gains in recent years with a 4.4 percent increase and Irish Whiskey sales grew 2.9 percent.
The impact of the trade war becomes clear when looking at Scotch Whisky sales. Between 2010 and 2019, imports of Scotch whiskies grew by 94 percent. However, the Trump Administration imposed a 25% import tariff in October of 2019 on single malt Scotch whiskies, and during 2020, imports of all Scotch whiskies fell by 37 percent over 2019. Blended Scotch sales not subject to the tariff showed a 1.3% gain over 2019, while single malt sales fell by 6.5% during 2020.
On the export side, American whiskey also suffered again in 2020 because of the European Union’s 25% tariff imposed in June 2018. Since that tariff went into effect, overall global exports of American whiskies are down 28.9 percent. The European Union nations account for 52% of total U.S. whiskey exports, while the UK accounts for 16%. Since the imposition of the tariffs, exports to the EU nations are down 53% and UK exports are off by 38%. The situation could become even worse this year, since the EU’s tariff is automatically scheduled to double to 50% this June unless the two sides resolve their differences.
“We do have a new administration that has a new approach to trade, and we are hopeful and we have seen some comments from key officials that they are looking to solve these disputes and hopefully reset the relationship with some of our allies,” DISCUS public policy chief Christine LoCascio told reporters. The council joined with more than 70 other industry groups in the U.S. and Europe Monday in asking U.S. President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyden to suspend the tariffs on both sides.
This story will be updated with additional information.
Links: Distilled Spirits Council


text:
For more information or to arrange an interview, contact Larry Carpenter at 615-472-1128 or at firstname.lastname@example.org
TEANECK, NJ- March 2, 2011– Two companies with a unique understanding of gang violence and how to engage teen imaginations are joining forces to stem the tide of rising fascination with “fantasy violence” found in video games and other materials marketed to teens. Creation By Design is a company that, at its heart, creates Biblical images using “cutting edge” technology via computer generated images (CGI). K.O. T-shirts is an apparel company that traces its roots back to a founder who lost his mother to gang violence. Both companies share the goal of taking the Gospel to young people. So it is only natural that the two companies are working together to bring to market a line of t-shirts for Christians who want to make a statement.
Founded in 2006 by Steven Kaye, Creation By Design was a response to a televangelist who felt that Christianity can’t keep up with the rapidly expanding technology of today’s youth. Kaye, an artist and a parent, developed over 200 Biblical images using the CGI technique that kids see in their movies, video games and computer images. In 2009, their first product, a line of Bible trading cards called ‘My Bible Cards’, was launched. In 2010, the company developed a line of children’s chapter books called the Xander Nash series and a line of activity books, posters, artwork and postcards. Today, the company markets over 50 products with more rolling out in the spring.
K.O. T-shirts was founded by Nathan Cabrera and his Youth Pastor Frank Ambrosino. At 15 years of age, Nathan lost his mother to gang violence. While he and his siblings slept in their beds, a group of gang members entered the house to execute a revenge killing. They lost their mother that morning, September 10, 2007 through a single gun shot to the head. It was her temptations which lead to this awful event. He and his siblings were unfortunately separated throughout all this hardship, Nathan never wavered in his faith. Pursuing the calls of ministry, Nathan and Frank launched K.O.T-shirts and Ministries.
A chance meeting at last year’s ICRS trade show introduced the companies to each other and helped them to realize the common goal of both companies. According to Creation By Design founder, Steven Kaye, “It was just a natural marriage. People of all ages love to wear t-shirts. Christians love to use their shirts to proclaim their faith. But it takes great looking images to make a great looking t-shirt. That’s what we brought to the party. We are proud of our Biblical images and want to get them out to people as much as we can. We appreciate the opportunity to work with K.O. T-shirts to make this happen”.
Nathan Cabrera said, "I am really excited for the partnership and am grateful that God has opened the doors in spreading the message of ‘Knockin Out Temptation’. There are many people who need love and inspiration and God is using both K.O.T-shirts and Creation by Design to draw us all closer to him in a victorious walk”.
His partner, Frank Ambrosino, further commented, "God gave us a vision 3 years ago that the message of "Knockin Out Temptation" would spread around the country inspiring people of all ages to take a stand against those things which attack our Christian walk and tear down our families. We are proud and excited to be partnering with Creation By Design in promoting our individual as well as our combined goals and visions."
The products are launching with nine designs, in all sizes, priced between $19.99 and $24.99. They will begin shipping in the spring. The t-shirts can be purchased through Creation By Design’s sales rep group, Genesis Marketing Group or from STL Distributors.
K.O.T.shirts is a Christian T-shirt and custom design apparel company that promotes the theme "knockin out temptation." K.O.T. Ministries is geared toward reaching out to not only young people, but people of all ages across the country. Their website is kotshirts.com.
Creation By Design’s mission is to create educational Biblical products that help children connect with God’s word in an exciting and fun way. For more information about Creation By Design, please visit www.creationbydesign.com.


text:
Send this profile to a friend
Cruise Lines International Association
News from The Business Journals
Sep 16, 2014, 7:18 am EDT
The number of people boarding cruise ships within the nation dropped last year for the first time since the recession.
Sep 15, 2014, 11:00 am EDT
Florida remains the center of cruising in the U.S., with its five cruise ports accounting for nearly 62 percent of all U.S. embarkations in 2013, according to new data data released by the Cruise Lines International Association.
Apr 18, 2014, 6:00 am EDT
Economic Development: Carnival Dream sails out of the Big Easy
Apr 15, 2014, 1:16 pm EDT
Carnival Dream left for its inaugural cruise from New Orleans on Monday.
Feb 28, 2014, 6:00 am EST
The Port of Galveston has contracted a Los Angeles-based architecture firm to build a potential 150,000-square-foot cruise terminal between piers 23 and 29.
Jul 19, 2013, 8:32 pm EDT
Hawaii received $386 million in direct spending from the cruise industry in 2012, according an independent study commissioned by the Cruise Lines Inte ...
Jul 19, 2013, 4:30 pm EDT
Despite some very public mishaps this year, the cruise industry is still growing, especially in Galveston.
Jul 19, 2013, 6:48 am EDT
Port Canaveral officials are looking at a site within the Cove entertainment district to build a new cruise terminal, Florida Today reports.
Jul 18, 2013, 6:43 am EDT
Florida remains a key player in the cruise industry with about 60 percent of the nation's embarkations beginning in the Sunshine State, the South Flor ...
Jul 17, 2013, 12:30 pm EDT
Florida remains a key player in the cruise industry with about 60 percent of the nation’s embarkations beginning in the Sunshine State.
Jul 17, 2013, 7:15 am EDT
Florida remains a key player in the cruise industry with about 60 percent of the nation's embarkations beginning in the Sunshine State.
Jul 16, 2013, 8:11 pm EDT
Here’s a statistic you weren’t expecting: Colorado and its lack of oceanfront ranked 11th in the U.S. in 2012 in cruise industry expenditures, totalin ...
Jul 16, 2013, 2:19 pm EDT
Port Canaveral wasn’t Florida’s busiest port in 2012 — that claim still belongs to Miami — but it was the most-improved.
Jun 26, 2013, 1:54 pm EDT
How much bad publicity does it take to force out a chief executive officer? In the case of Carnival Corp. CEO Micky Arison, the answer is five inciden ...
Mar 21, 2013, 7:00 am EDT
The cruise industry’s main trade group is closely monitoring calls for a cruise ship passengers’ “bill of rights,” as U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y ...


text:
Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa announced plans this afternoon to open LCBO locations in grocery stores.
The pilot will begin with 10 LCBO Express kiosks to open by the end of the year, and each LCBO location would include Ontario craft beer and VQA wines.
Sousa noted the LCBO Express stores would operate under the same LCBO hours of business, but a separate checkout location would be in place for those purchasing LCBO products versus other grocery fare.
Families typically stop off on their way home to pick up dinner, said Sousa. “This makes it easier to pick up a bottle of wine as well.”
READ: In Ontario, debate continues over liquor sales at the grocery store
The LCBO issued a Request for Proposals today for up to seven Express stores. Retailers interested must be able to accommodate at least 2,000 square feet of space within their store — standard LCBO stores are about 15,000 square feet. Proximity to other LCBO locations would be taken into account, said Sousa.
While retailers still need to be chosen, we can expect locations to open in Toronto, Ottawa, Mississauga and London.
Preliminary plans for the project were set in motion in late 2012 when Finance Minister Dwight Duncan announced the LCBO was given the go head to open 10 LCBO Express locations within supermarkets.


text:
11/11/2013 3:03amThe United States and the European Union, which already enjoy the world's biggest business relationship, are resuming talks on a deal to further grow two-way trade and investment.
11/11/2013 4:01amPharmaceutical company Novartis says it is selling part of its diagnostics business to the Spanish health care company Grifols for $1.68 billion.
11/11/2013 4:41amJapan switched on the first turbine at a wind farm 20 kilometers (12 miles) off the coast of Fukushima on Monday, feeding electricity to the grid tethered to the tsunami-crippled nuclear plant onshore.
11/11/2013 5:26amOil driller Transocean has agreed to a deal with billionaire investor Carl Icahn after a months-long proxy fight.
11/11/2013 8:32amTarget Corp. is the latest retailer to open earlier on Thanksgiving this year.
11/11/2013 5:08pmNews Corp.'s revenue unexpectedly fell in its first quarter since being spun off as a publishing-focused company, as revenue from its Australian newspapers plunged. The results Monday were short of analysts' forecasts and the company's shares fell more than 2 percent.
11/11/2013 10:03pmFive years after a global financial crisis erupted, the world's biggest economies still need to be propped up.


text:
(SOUTHERN PINES, N.C.) - Before the first shot is struck at the 2014 Ryder Cup Matches, Power management company Eaton announced today that its Golf Pride Grips Division was already the clear winner. In fact, Golf Pride was the grip of choice by a margin of 21-3 (88%) over all other competing brands combined.
“Arguably, the Ryder Cup is the most exciting event in golf,” said Brandon Sowell, global sales and marketing director for Golf Pride. “Because of the international pride on the line, many players consider their performance in the Ryder Cup as defining moments of their career. We are pleased to know that when the pressure of a nation or a continent falls on these players’ shoulders, overwhelmingly, they choose Golf Pride.”
To view Golf Pride’s entire 2014 product line, visit www.golfpride.com.


text:
Ashleigh Scopas was unemployed and on the benefit when she started her crystal business. Now, just over a year later the business is making $25,000 a month and is expected to double its sales in coming months.
Scopas turned to crystals in 2018 to practice mindfulness through meditation during her struggles with mental health as a recommendation by her therapist.
When Covid-19 hit and the pandemic sent workers home and businesses closed, Scopas, 31, was looking for large crystals for her home when she found a gap in the market.
It wasn't until the former personal assistant for a bank returned home to New Zealand from Sydney at the end of 2020 and struggled to find employment that she took the plunge to start the business.
"I had nothing to lose, I was really struggling to find work, and I had this concept and I knew there was a market for it so I gave it a crack," Scopas tells the Herald.
The Ministry of Social Development helped Scopas get on to a business Start Me Up programme when she was on the Jobseeker benefit to see if her idea was feasible, and she was later able to secure $10,000 in funding to set up Ash & Stone.
She received funding the second time she applied for the Small Business Grant after her first application was declined. As part of the initiative they paid her a Flexi Wage for six months - a wage to support her living expenses while she established the business.
Scopas began selling crystals at community markets each weekend. "I was in Christchurch at the time and through the markets we sold stock I had purchased from the grant and I really hustled.
"Everyone who came to my table, I asked to follow us on social media, and we started to grow rapidly. Our online business started to kick off. In the beginning it was the markets where I was getting most of my profit from, but it was my goal to see online sales take over markets so I could eventually move away from them."
After two months that goal was realised, and in January she moved up to Auckland and invested in a space to dispatch e-commerce orders, and, unknown at the time, a retail store.
Scopas initially had no plans to open a retail store, but the commercial space she had secured in Auckland's Kingsland was next to a cafe, tattoo studio and clothing shop that she thought a physical store could work well in.
It opened in early June, and store sales overtook online sales within weeks.
The business turns over on average $20,000-$25,000 each month and in the last financial year made $200,000 in sales. It hopes to double its sales over the Christmas trading period.
Ash & Stone sells more than 30 variations of crystals. Its biggest sellers are rose quartz and amethysts, and it specialises in large 10kg-plus decorative crystals. It imports most of its stones from Brazil and India.
"When I started this I remember being terrified of spending $300 to get a few crystals to start with, but we have built up the stock over the last year and had help with the grant.
"I didn't have heaps of savings, that [stock] has been bought just on our sales. We're reinvesting everything," she says.
Scopas placed her first two overseas orders of crystals - 200kg from Brazil and 400kg from India in January, and is set to order another 800kg from Brazil shortly.
What a sale is worth
Crystals are big business on both sides of the Tasman. It is not known how much the crystal market in New Zealand is worth, but Scopas says it is lucrative.
Margins are high and profits are huge.
Australia's leading crystal retailer is said to turn over A$70,000 (NZ$80,000) a month. Scopas is hopeful Ash & Stone can replicate that success this side of the Tasman.
"There is definitely a lot of money to be made. It is a big business," she says.
"It is a belief system. Some people just want crystals for interiors and some people want them for what they feel is a healing property, whereas we angle more from interiors and bringing a mindful piece for your home that creates a peaceful space.
"You can usually go to a crystal shop and they'll tell you what physical benefits a crystal will have but we choose not to talk about that because I feel that would be irresponsible. But it is a massive industry."
Ash & Stone is able to mark its prices up significantly. Scopas has asked the Herald to keep these figures confidential.
"To really see us making a profit, the goal is to get 90 per cent of our stock from overseas because then we can mark it up much higher and that's when we'll start to see good profit margins coming in," says Scopas.
"From November to December, we're hoping to be bringing in at least $40,000-$50,000 a month, and then from next year I'd like to start doubling our budget. I'm manifesting it."
Ash & Stone has already surpassed $100,000 in sales since inception and Scopas is now paying herself a wage. She has a casual employee who helps out on Thursdays.
Scopas also has help from her mum, who is a director, and plans to employ her in two to three years' time.
Eventually, Scopas has aspirations for Ash & Stone to become the country's largest online crystal business and have another physical store, before expanding into Australia.
In recent years crystals have had something of a comeback, back in fashion in part through social media, influencer marketing, and the pandemic.
Scopas says a handful of online crystals shops have popped up since Ash & Stone began last year. She puts growing demand for crystals down to extended lockdowns having forced society to look inwards and re-evaluate what is important.
"People were stuck at home and really thought about life and I think a lot of people started to bring mindfulness to their space and life. From there I think it has been a natural progression.
"Most people that are getting into meditation or yoga and mindfulness practice tap into crystals, and that's why I think sales have taken off. Covid was terrible, but I think that this industry has benefited from people being at home and tapping into their mental wellbeing," says Scopas.
Scopas says she never expected the business to take off to the extent it has.
"Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to have a shop now - I planned to spend two years building it online and see how we go, and we've grown really fast."
She believes part of Ash & Stone's success has been down to it being a "personable brand" as she has been open on social media about how she has used crystals as part of her own mental health journey.


text:
Sometimes all it takes to learn a juicy bit of product news is a little bit of controversy.
In response to Donald Trump's attack on Ford Motor Company [NYSE:F] for moving production of its Focus, C-Max and C-Max Energi compact cars to Mexico, the Blue Oval has said that zero jobs will be lost in Michigan, and the Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne will get two new vehicles. This past February, Ford announced plans for four new SUV nameplates in the next four years.
While Ford hasn't been specific about what vehicles Michigan Assembly will get, Bill Johnson, chairman of UAW local 900 that represents workers in Michigan, let that bit of information slip when talking to the Detroit Free Press last week. "We hate to see the products go to Mexico, but with the Ranger and the Bronco coming to Michigan Assembly that absolutely secures the future for our people a lot more than the Focus does."
If anyone would know what vehicles will be built in Michigan, it is the chairman of the UAW.
This really isn't a surprise, as we learned last November that the Bronco was coming prior to a UAW vote on a new labor agreement. At the time, we learned that the Ranger was coming for 2018 and the Bronco would be built there by 2020.
It's taken quite some time for Ford to reach this decision. A concept Bronco (shown above) appeared at the 2004 Detroit auto show, but it led to nothing. That's understandable given the high fuel prices and new emissions standards that followed.
Now, however, SUV sales keep rising and the auto industry has made all vehicles more efficient.
Given that the Chevrolet Colorado-rivaling Ranger is scheduled to be built at the Michigan Assembly Plant, we can assume that the Bronco will be based on that body-on-frame platform. To be a true Bronco descendant, that's how it should be. Let's hope that it's off-road tough, too, and, heck, Ford should let us take the top off.
Ford has shared no plans to announce the Bronco or the Ranger for the U.S. market. However, we wouldn't be surprised to see one or both at next year's Detroit auto show.


text:
Beloved donut chain Duck Donuts is slated to open new locations in Arlington and Fairfax this summer.
The Fairfax branch will open in the “first or second week of June” in the Boulevard Shopping Center at 10694 Fairfax Boulevard, said a Duck Donuts employee today by phone.
The Arlington franchise, which currently has no opening date, will be located in the Lee Harrison Shopping Center according to a brochure distributed May 12 by the development company that owns the center. It appears as though the new branch will open in the space formerly occupied by a Baskin-Robbins.
Duck Donuts specializes in made-to-order donuts coated in toppings like peanut butter icing, bacon, and rainbow sprinkles.
Earlier this month, the donut company opened a branch in Herndon. Duck Donuts also plans to open new locations in Newark, Del., Charlotte, N.C., and Bristow, and Virginia Beach, Va.
Photo via Facebook.com/DuckDonuts


text:
Why investors suddenly care about saving the environment
June 16, 2022 /
Here’s a big number: $44 trillion.
That’s how much of the world’s total economic output is dependent on animals and ecosystems, according to the World Economic Forum. Insects pollinate commercial crops, coral reefs protect coastal buildings, wetlands purify water, and all of those services — and more — help fuel economic growth.
Biodiversity loss could flatten corporate profits. Investors are scrambling to figure out which firms hold the most risk.
Posted in: Montana Business, Montana Business and Govt. Agency Collaboration Success, Montana Economic Development, MEDA -Montana Economic Developers Association, Montana Ambassadors, Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana, Funding and Building your Business, Regional Economic Development, Regional Business News, Idaho News & Events, Wyoming Business, Rural Communities, Government News & Events, Non-Profit News, North Dakota Business and Economic Development, Oregon Business, Oregon Economic Development, South Dakota News & Events, Utah Business and Economic Development, Washington State Business
Sorry, we couldn't find any posts. Please try a different search.
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.


text:
SEC’s “hypocrisy is staggering” expected next week in XRP case
Previously Top Lawyer Had Accused SEC of Playing “Delay Card” Over Ripple Lawsuit
Ripple General Counsel Stuart Alderoty has notified the SEC of his “hypocrisy.” Based on another case before the Ripple case, Alderoty criticizes the regulator, stating that his “hypocrisy was staggering”.
— James K. Filan 🇺🇸🇮🇪96k+ (beware of cheaters) (@FilanLaw) May 20, 2022
Previously, the top attorney had accused the SEC of playing a “delay card” regarding the Ripple lawsuit, while urging the agency to move the case quickly. Despite the SEC delay, Ripple and the court are working hard to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, Alderoty said. However, he believes a solution will not be reached until 2023.
In terms of what the year 2022 will bring, Ripple’s general advisor stated earlier that this year would be a year where all the focus will be on cryptocurrency legislation, with the industry’s future at stake. In the past year, the value of the cryptocurrency industry has nearly quadrupled while hitting key adoption milestones.
While technological innovation is often met with hostility, he added that economic competitors outside the United States are rapidly adopting digital assets, blockchain real-time payments and digital currencies (CBDCs) from the central bank.
In its latest updates to the Ripple case, the SEC has filed a response in support of its letter filed in late April, in which it insisted that Hinman’s emails were protected by attorney-client privilege. The latest response to the Ripple defendants stated that former SEC official William Hinman received legal advice from the SEC’s attorneys and thus the documents were protected by attorney-client privilege and could not be presented in court.
Undeterred by the pending lawsuit, Ripple has teamed up with FINCI, a Lithuania-based online money transfer platform. By scoring this partnership, Ripple plans to create a payment corridor using its ODL platform, which is powered by XRP, so that FINCI customers can send money from Europe to Mexico (business-to-business payments).
Ripple’s ODL network already spans 22 countries and destinations, including Mexico, Japan, Australia, South Korea and the Philippines.


text:
In the past year, we have seen some exciting advancements in shipping technology that are sure to set the standard for the future of the cargo industry. We have talked in the past about the eco-friendly benefits of the containers themselves, but we are now seeing a more environmentally minded approach to how we ship these containers.n
What is it?
nIn January 2018, the Dutch manufacturer PortLiner announced that they had developed a fully electric and emission-free container barge. The innovation is being referred to as the ‘Tesla of the canals’, and will significantly reduce the amount of harmful carbon emissions being released into the atmosphere. About 23,000 diesel-fuelled trucks are expected to be removed from the roads as a result of this new technology. If the cargo industry were a country, it would rank as the sixth largest contributor to global CO2 emissions, nestling in between Germany and Japan. Clearly, it’s about time that we found a more environmentally friendly alternative. n
How does it work?
nThese new cargo ships will use an electric engine powered by a number of power boxes, which can be charged on shore before departure. It is expected that these electric engines can last for around fifty years before they will need to be replaced. The power boxes are stored in containers (after all, containers are great for storage), and can be easily lifted and replaced with fully charged containers while docked. Alternatively, power can be supplied directly to the power boxes on the ship through a power plug installed on shore. n
How big are they?
nWithout the need for a large engine room, these new boats will have up to 8% more space to store containers. In the testing stages, PortLiner are planning on producing five barges that are 52m long and 6.7m wide. These smaller barges will be able to carry 24 20ft containers weighing up to 425 tonnes. In the future, the Dutch manufacturers are planning on building six larger barges that will be able to carry up to 280 20ft containers. nnWhile these ships are considerably smaller than some of the largest petrol powered cargo ships used throughout the world, these innovations can still be valued as a step in the right direction. Following this initial testing period, PortLiner estimate that they would be able to produce around 500 barges a year, while also finding a means of retrofitting the electric motors and batteries into existing container barges. Exciting stuff. n
Any cool features?
nGlad you asked! The barge is set to come complete with a height adjustable wheelhouse (or pilothouse) complete with all the latest technology for inland vessels. Not only does this allow the captain to see above the stacked containers where necessary, but it can also be lowered so that the ship can pass under any low bridges. The barge even has a large luxury living area for cabin crew that is around the size of a duplex apartment. n
Is this the first electric container barge in the world?
nIt’s hard to say, as similar innovations were made by other countries around the same time as PortLiner’s announcement. In December 2017, the Guangzhou Shipyard International Company in China launched a 70m long all-electric cargo ship that can run for 80km after only being charged for two hours. However, these electric cargo ships will primarily be used to transport coal, ironically one of the most harmful fossil fuels for the environment. Therefore, it is debatable as to how eco-friendly this choice really is.nnIn July 2017 Norwegian fertiliser giants Yara announced that they would be teaming up with engineering experts Kongsberg to develop the “Yara Birkeland”, which they have described as the world’s first zero emission, autonomous container feeder. Technically this is correct. The Yara Birkeland will be able to sail without any cabin crew and will be able to unload cargo all by itself, while the PortLiner barge is not automated as of yet. It seems that all of these announcements happened at around the same time, and this doesn’t take into account when exactly development started for each of these projects. Therefore it is hard to pinpoint who had the idea first. n
When will we start to see these electric barges in action?
nThe PortLiner barges are already in action, although not on a large scale. In August, five initial small barges were placed into operation, used to transport cargo between the ports of the Netherlands and Belgium. The Dutch manufacturers are looking to slowly expand and bring the larger barges into play at a later date – however, we have no specific timeframe as to when this might be.nnChina’s electric barge was launched in November 2017, and was put into commercial use throughout the early stages of 2018. The barge travels down the Pearl River towards and towards a local power plant, to which it can deliver up to 2,100 metric tons of coal at a time. nnWe will have to wait a little longer to see Yara’s fully automated electric barge in the flesh. Last year, the ship operated as a manned vessel and in 2019 we will see the Yara Birkeland operate by remote. Yara hope that, after these initial stages, the ship will be capable of fully autonomous travel by 2020. nnHopefully, you’re now as excited about these advancements as we are. If you want to get in on this exciting industry by buying or renting a container of your own, then get in contact with us today.


text:
The goal is to spread the message, not the virus.
Future consumer use of glyphosate-based products unpredictable as lawsuits claim chemical causes cancer.
Lead levels in tap water are not an issue at the U of S campus.
Warnings about vaping have been circulating for years.
he number of syphilis cases is rising in the province, according to a New Brunswick Public Health coordinator. The Student Health Centre at the University of New Brunswick is also dealing with a number of new cases. “Our practitioners at the Student Health Centre have not noticed a change in the rate of STIs, with the


text:
Pepsi and Levi Strauss, two major global brands, told investors this week that they were raising prices to offset inflation, but rising costs of everything from aluminium to cotton signal tighter times ahead for consumer goods companies.
Due to global supply chain disruptions, freight costs and raw material prices have risen across industries this year, squeezing profit margins at companies trying to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Prices for jeans, snacks, and sodas have already been raised by Levi Strauss & Co and PepsiCo Inc, two of the first consumer product firms to report quarterly earnings, in order to make up for the additional costs of raw materials which helped the companies to report better than expected earnings.
Higher prices of raw materials will continue to be a problem until at least the end of the year, according to analysts, even while these companies had been able to pass on the additional costs to their consumers. Analysts predicted some industries will havethe headwind of higher prices until the middle of 2022.
Businesses need to weigh the need to protect margins against the risk that raising prices will reduce demand for their goods even data from the government indicating that inflation has begun to erode consumer spending.
PepsiCo’s exposure to such a wide range of inflation was described as “stunning” by Credit Suisse analysts.
“We expect margin pressure to be the predominant theme through the rest of this earnings season,” they said. J.P.Morgan’s Andrea Teixeira said PepsiCo “is feeling and will continue to feel the impact of inflationary pressures and supply chain challenges.”
Even as the company faces higher packaging material costs and truck driver wages, PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta remains optimistic.
“Across the world, consumer seems to be looking at pricing a little bit differently than before,” Laguarta said in an analyst call, highlighting the strength of the company’s brands and innovations.
Conagra Brands Inc, the maker of Slim Jims, echoed this sentiment. Previous price increases, which helped boost Levi’s gross margins, will be used to offset expected higher cotton prices next year, according to the company.
Some businesses, however, are feeling the pinch more than others.
Higher commodity prices such as aluminium, diesel, and wood will more than offset the benefits of price increases and a cost-cutting programme, said Constellation Brands, the maker of Corona beer, on Wednesday.
However, some companies are feeling the pinch more than others.
PepsiCo has achieved for itself a strong pricing power as it managed to cater to a surge in demand during the pandemic while at the same time also capturing a greater share of the market, while for Constellation, the firm has comparatively less ability to raise prices as it has struggled to keep up supplies, said Markus Hansen, Portfolio Manager at Vontobel Quality Growth, which holds stakes in both PepsiCo and Constellation.
“PepsiCo wasn’t shooting down the idea of price increases in the mid single-digit range – 4% or 5%. That’s a pretty powerful thing,” Hansen said, adding that for Constellation he was looking at a low single-digit range
(Adapted from Reuters.com)
Categories: Economy & Finance, Regulations & Legal, Strategy, Sustainability
Leave a Reply


text:
Over 500 Million Facebook Users’ Phone Numbers and Personal Data Have Been Leaked Online
When you sign up for a Facebook account, you provide certain personal information like your email address, phone number and birth date. According to Facebook’s terms of service, this personal information should be safe and not shared. Hackers say otherwise.
Over 500 million Facebook users now have their personal data easily accessible to hackers. This isn’t exactly a new data leak. It took place in 2019, but just recently, the data was posted for free on a hacker forum which makes it much easier for scammers to access the data.
According to Facebook, they have fixed the issue that caused the data leak in 2019, but that doesn’t exactly solve the problem if your data is already out there. Even Mark Zuckerberg’s cell phone number was leaked, so nobody was safe. Watch the video below to learn more about this situation.
If your data is out there, there’s not really a whole lot you could do, but it would be nice to know whether or not our data was leaked so we could be on the looked for scams and consider identity theft protection. No word if Facebook is going to notify people whose data has been leaked.
Alon Gal is the chief technology officer of cybercrime intelligence firm Hudson Rock. This is the company that discovered the data leak. He told Insider, “Individuals signing up to a reputable company like Facebook are trusting them with their data, and Facebook [is] supposed to treat the data with utmost respect. Users having their personal information leaked is a huge breach of trust and should be handled accordingly.”
Are you concerned about the possibility of your personal data being leaked? Do you think Facebook should notify everyone whose data was leaked? Would it make a difference? Does a data leak like this make you reconsider sharing personal data with a company like Facebook?


text:
Hightimes Holding Corp., the parent company of this publication, announced Monday that Stormy Simon has been named its new CEO.
Simon joins the company after previously serving as president of the online retailer Overstock.com, and will succeed Kraig Fox, who has stepped down as CEO and president.
“I’m honored to take on this role at such a pivotal time for this iconic brand,” Simon said in a statement.
“Like millions of other people, I have trusted High Times for years and I can’t wait to use my experience to help develop the next iteration of our business: delivering the best products into consumers’ hands,” she added.
Along with its ownership of the eponymous pot publication, Hightimes Holding Corp. has also shifted into hosting events such as the Cannabis Cup, while also providing licensing deals and producing merchandise. In her statement, Simon hinted at plans to capitalize even more on the High Times brand.
“The cost of customer acquisition has plagued the cannabis industry thus far, but utilizing the High Times brand’s global audience, we should be able to monetize our traffic by connecting consumers to cannabis products at an unprecedented scale,” she said.
Hightimes executive chairman Adam Levin, who will


text:
METALLICA is making a deluxe vinyl edition of its 1983 debut album, "Kill 'Em All", available for order online on Thursday (July 15), beginning at 10:00 a.m. ET. The two-platter set comes in heavyweight 180-gram red vinyl, packaged in a gatefold sleeve and remastered from the original album master tapes. Only 1,000 copies are available and can be ordered by METALLICA fan club members at MetClub.com.
Originally issued on July 25, 1983 through the independent label Megaforce Records, "Kill 'Em All" was recorded in two weeks on a miniscule budget in upstate New York. Although only 1,500 copies were initially pressed, the album was reissued by Elektra Records after the band signed to that label in 1984 and has since been certified triple platinum for sales of more than three million copies.
The original title of "Kill 'Em All" was "Metal Up Your Ass".
The album's opening cut, "Hit the Lights", was the first song that frontman James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich wrote together after forming METALLICA. An early version of the track appeared on the 1982 compilation "Metal Massacre".
Lead guitarist Dave Mustaine was replaced by Kirk Hammett shortly before recording commenced, although Mustaine still has several writing credits on the disc and went on to form MEGADETH.
A number of songs from the album are still part of METALLICA's set list to this day, including "The Four Horsemen", "Seek and Destroy" and "No Remorse".
METALLICA has since gone on to become one of the biggest rock bands in the world, selling tens of millions of copies of its eight studio albums, including 15 million alone of 1991's self-titled "black album." The band's ninth effort, "Death Magnetic", arrived in September 2008.
Metal Blade Records owner and CEO Brian Slagel recently conducted interviews with James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich of METALLICA to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the band's debut album, "Kill 'Em All". Watch the interview in two parts below.


text:
At the end of November, the British Potato Industry Event (BP2021) was held in Harrogate, Yorkshire, to bring together everyone in the industry from growers and buyers to machinery and technology manufacturers. Following last year’s COVID-19 event cancellations, there was eager anticipation to attend this one; a lot has happened over the past 2 years, with increasing challenges in our supply chain and new environmental targets coming in.
The great atmosphere at the event showed everyone was keen to reconnect and had a healthy appetite to see the latest in this fast-paced industry. There is always a lot going on in this sector so it was great to see familiar faces, meet new ones and continue to learn the upcoming improvements; from on-farm agronomy and machinery developments as well as packing, processing and packaging.
Some impressive kit was on display as the attendees entered the event, which included a SAM self-propelled sprayer, a range of Grimme products, the Ploeger four-row potato harvester (pictured below), a planter and harvester from Dewulf and Scanstone bed tillers, formers and soil prep machinery.
“At the root of all this support for the event, and anticipation for getting the doors open, is its track record as a potato-specific, business-focused show” explained Potato Review, who organised the National Potato Industry Awards on Wednesday 24th November at The Old Swan in Harrogate. The judges were made up of several industry experts and the categories for the awards included: agronomy, environmental, grower, innovation, machinery and marketing.
Our customers, Burgess Farm Produce, were shortlisted as a finalist in the Innovation category. Andrew Hayter, Head of Procurement at Burgess Farm Produce explains:
"From using KisanHub we have greater visibility for planning and managing stock across multiple sites. This has helped us to win and maintain contracts and provide a better quality of service to our customers."
Giles Barker, CEO & Co-Founder at KisanHub described: “We attended a few years back and again, this event didn’t fail to deliver. It was brilliant to nominate our customers Burgess Farm Produce for the Innovation category for the National Potato Industry Awards. They have been extremely dedicated to adopting new practises which will help their operations in the future, such as Paperless Load Passports (shown below) which is our digital trading system to remove the paper from the system - it’s simply not required anymore."
“We believe data should be only entered once and then be able moved around to the people that need to see it and can make more informed decisions which benefit margin and resources. In comparison to the monster spreadsheets they Supplier Groups are using where data has be re-entered several times and one mistake in a cell can mean catastrophe! It simply no longer has to be that way and we support these busy teams by providing a simple cloud-based solutions, where their data is always accessible any time, from anywhere.”
The exhibitors ranged from potato businesses across Europe, the latest in potato agronomy and machinery, to buyers and suppliers across the whole supply chain.
“It was a fantastic event, it was brilliant to meet new people, many of whom are KisanHub users. We look forward to having a stand next year to share the great software products we have been building for the past few years. Our product has moved on leaps and bounds so it was great to have conversations with various exhibitors who were in a similar space or could see the value in what we’re providing for Suppliers.” Jonny Kerley | Head of Product at KisanHub
“The Awards were the main highlight for me, being able to finally celebrate the industry’s achievements was brilliant and well hosted by comedian Rob Woodward! I really enjoyed networking with everyone at the event, everyone was really friendly and the speeches really made the event. It was such a well organised event so thanks again to the hardworking team who made this all happen. We look forward to seeing you all there in 2023!” Charlie Lacey | Business development at KisanHub
Georgie Knock in the Marketing team at KisanHub described: “This was my first time attending the event and I knew this sector is a friendly bunch, but I was bowled over as to how many approachable people attended, from growers to Buyers. Plus, a thanks to McCains, who were handing out hash browns, chips and even cakes with potato being one of the main ingredients! We had some fascinating and insightful conversations over the 2-day event and I would recommend it to anyone thinking of attending!”


text:
Large scale robberies used to be regulated to hard commodities, high-end collectibles or straight up cash. As we ducked into 2013, the stripping of the Paris Apple Store has proven this wrong. In a full scale casing, bandits came away with an estimated total of $1.32 million in merchandise. This was not simply through designer items, but a mass of retail devices such as notebook computers and iPhones. The event mimicked a traditional ban robbery, with the criminals heading in as the store was closing and intimidated the staff with threats of violence. Paris police were busy wrangling in large crowds as 2012 came to a close on New Year’s Eve, and the thieves eventually made away with one of the largest retail snatches in history.
This is by no means the first time an Apple Store has been stormed by violence. Ever since their popularity skyrocketed over a diversity of platforms, the stores have been a target because of their hyper concentration of such high-demand devices with such portable sizes. In 2009, a New Jersey store was robbed in just over thirty seconds. 23 Macbook Pros and 14 iPod Touches and iPhones were taken, a value in the tens of thousands of dollars. In a recent Westlake, Ohio Apple Store robbery over $30,000 in Macbook Pros were taken in even less time than the New Jersey robbery. One of the most memorable plots on an Apple Store involved the thieves driving through the doors of the mall location with their BMW and snatching as many iPhones as they could get their hands on. Unfortunately, this was a week before the iPhone 5 was released so their pool wasn’t exactly hot on the market. One of the largest robberies took over $75,000 in Apple products from an Albany, New York store in late 2011.
What separates the recent Paris job from this history is that this was a calculated effort that came away with the kind of reward that is usually associated with art museum or bank casings. The four or five people that stormed the Apple Store intended not just to do a quick grab of whatever they could sell or pawn, but instead clean out the store entirely. The perception of a simple retail location as a possible high money score is anything but traditional in organized crime, but with the massive popularity of Apple devices mixed with the small size for their relative price leads them to be densely wealth containing objects. Similar to stealing diamonds or gold, stealing a lot of iPhones will end up with more ammassed wealth than other consumer items. This makes the store locations that have a strong hold of these a target, especially when the time it takes to clear out the majority of the merchandise is next to nothing. This should also be matched with the ease of transport and sale for these items, which have a lot more possibilities than rare commodities like collectible art pieces.
Though most people were fine after the incident, it was frightening to those who work in similar retail locations. The custodian was sent to the hospital with some minor injuries and the on-site security guard was completely overpowered. These all come as a result of the willingness for the perpetrators to commit violence, which is the sign that this is much more than organized shoplifting or a casual robbery. The store had been closed for a full three hours already, which means that it must have been staked out for quite some time to minimize customer inferference and to ensure that there were still employees present. After taking the store they took forty minutes to clear it out of all expensive items, which really separates it from the “drive through” robberies we have seen before. This was not, however, a complete steal of all available products, though it looks as though the store would not have enough merchandise to simply resume business. With just a few hours left in the day, they stormed in fully-armed and took full advantage of the light police precense in the consumer areas.
There are currently no suspects associated with the robbery and many estimates state that this may be the first of many similar operations in western Europe. The likelihood is that it will extend even beyond here, seeing organized operations to intersept shipments in Asia.


text:
Today, Congressman Adam Smith (WA-09) released the following statement regarding his vote in favor of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act:
“It is clear that our financial system is in dire need of reform. The serious abuses that have come to light in the last few years are of great concern and we must change how Wall Street does business. Today, Congress passed the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act - a strong step forward in reforming our financial regulatory systems.
“The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act provides significant protections for the American consumer and gives federal regulators the tools they need to reign in the irresponsible actions by Wall Street that did so much damage to our economy. The legislation establishes a new independent watchdog with the authority to ensure American consumers are offered safe, non-predatory products when they shop for mortgages, credit cards, student loans, and other financial products.
“The bill reforms the mortgage lending industry by eliminating many of the abusive practices that helped lead to the recent massive spike in foreclosures. Additionally, for the first time this legislation also limits some of the riskiest activities of banks and regulates the multitrillion-dollar market of over-the-counter derivatives. These are key reforms.
“Assessing the impact of institutions on our financial markets as a whole is a crucial piece of the needed reforms. This legislation creates a council of regulators to watch for systemic risks, authorizes regulators to impose restrictions on large, troubled financial companies and creates a process for the government to liquidate failing companies and banks at no cost to taxpayers.
“The irresponsible behavior in our financial markets inflicted serious pain on the American people, costing millions their jobs, incomes, savings, investments and homes. This is unacceptable and the system must be reformed. It is vitally important that we have a strong financial system which can spur economic growth, jobs and American ingenuity. It is also equally important that we ensure transparency and accountability within that system to prevent the abuses that severely damaged our financial system and brought our economy to its knees. The legislation passed by Congress today is a strong step forward toward achieving these goals. “


text:
£58 billion — that will be the business cost of Brexit if the EU27 and the UK revert to a World Trade Organisation (WTO) trading relationship with each other, according to an assessment by Oliver Wyman and law firm Clifford Chance which calculates the impact of tariffs and non-tariff barriers.
- The annual 'red tape', or tariff and non-tariff, costs of Brexit for EU27 exporters is around £31billion and for UK exporters is around £27billion even after initial steps to mitigate costs have been taken. This is proportionately 4 times larger for the UK as a percentage of Gross Value Added (GVA ).
- 70 percent of the aggregate impact falls in just five sectors in both the EU27 and UK.
- Disproportional impacts in specific regions such as Bavaria in Germany and London in the UK.
- A future customs arrangement equivalent to The Customs Union reduces the EU27 impact to around £14billon and the UK impact to around £17billon. Mitigating the costs of Brexit are non-trivial and impacted firms need to be taking steps now. Small firms will be least able to mitigate these costs and in turn pose risks to their supply chain.
The 'red-tape' cost of Brexit estimates that the direct costs will total around £31billon for EU exporters and around £27billon for UK exporters, with non-tariff barriers accounting for more of the effect than tariffs.
Oliver Wyman's report focuses only on the direct impacts of the UK's exit from the EU which are of immediate importance to companies for Brexit planning. It does not model additional impacts such as migration, pricing changes or third country Free Trade Agreements, which are likely to increase the overall impact.
In the EU27 the hardest hit sector will be automotive, where the direct impact will be around 2 percent of current GVA.
Country level differences will vary considerably, with Ireland's agricultural sector's exposure to UK consumers, for example, a particular pinch point. In Germany, four of the sixteen states — Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Baden -Wuerttemberg, and Lower Saxony — will shoulder around 70 percent of the country's direct impacts as a result of exports to the UK that arise from their leading global positions in automotive and manufacturing.


text:
Virtual reality helps social workers and others engage more effectively with vulnerable children
Posts Categorized: children
UK group’s 3D printer makes pills that match individual needs
3D printing could help kids simultaneously learn more about technology and expand their creative skills.
A design school graduate has created a series of 12 objects to support sensory development in children with autism.
A new app for parents allows them to monitor their children’s screens and teach them responsibility.
A silent discrete breast pump that fits into a nursing bra enables mothers to pump with convenience and privacy.
Our latest Top 5 showcases the top of the class in innovations for children.
A co-working company is adding children’s education to its spaces to allow parents more flexibility.
Wearable tech company launches dedicated chipset for 4G kids’ smartwatches to meet the evolved needs of connected families.
A Belgium based company is creating circular furniture designs for children to help encourage them to recycle.
A free classroom tool connects students around the world through empathy building activities.
A new startup is reinventing the piggy-bank with a cryptocurrency designed to help teach children the value of money
A new tool uses VR to help young patients understand and be less afraid of undergoing medical procedures
A new software uses AI and eye-tracking technology to quickly facilitate an early diagnosis of dyslexia in children.
Children are taught the digital skills needed to resolve online conflicts before they escalate to violence and cyberbullying.
A new easy-to-carry kit includes a temporary tattoo and a pen designed to make it easier for children to manage the daily administration of insulin into the body.
Using smart sensor technology, this new car seat design aims to improve car safety for children.
A stylish new suitcase turns into a high chair to make it easier for parents to travel with small children.
Lego-compatible, six-sided blocks makes creating interactive toys, games and instruments easy and fun and does not require access to a screen.
Innovative and affordable product helps young visually impaired children to learn braille
Young Dutch designer wants to give new life to the cardboard boxes used to transport relief packages.
Chinese startup has created an instant, mixed reality experience for children to take them away from constant electronic device use.


text:
A massive Indonesia ride-hailing application, called Go-jek, is recruiting experts in Vietnam to set foot in this ideal market and break the dominance of Uber and Grab, according to newswire DealstreetAsia.
With a dense population of almost 93 million and approximately 45 million motor-riders, Vietnam is considered to be one of the most attractive and profitable markets in ride-hailing services in Asia. It features in low-priced operating expenses compared to other Asian countries such as Singapore and Malaysia.
Last year, Go-jek determined Philipines as the first overseas market to enter. A representative of Go-jek said in Reuter’s interview: “Almost all Southeast Asian countries are on the radar over the next three, six to 12 months”
In October 2017, Nadiem Makarim – founder of Go-jek declared their expansion plan in 4 member countries of ASEAN without mentioning specific countries.
Currently, this Philippine’s ride-hailing firm has taken up a minority stake in Pathao – a Dhaka-based ride-sharing platform.
In Vietnam, while Uber and Grab have dominated Vietnam phone – based motorcycle ride-hailing service market, several companies have started to participate in this potential and lucrative market. Viettel Corporation has officially joined competitive ride-hailing market by signing Strategic Cooperation Agreement aimed at possessing 30% Gonow’ stock.
Penetrating into Vietnam is a wise step of Go-jek to open up various opportunities to develop their cashless payment platform, the so-called Go-pay.
In terms of finance, Go-jek is flush with funds to progress their ambitious plan. In the latest fundraising round, they were successful in adding roughly $1,5 billion USD and valued at $ 5 billion.


text:
Good news for fans of the Boulevard Farmers’ Market: The number of markets being held on the Richmond Heights site will increase from six to 32 this year, switching from a monthly to weekly basis beginning in 2019.
The Tower Grove Farmers’ Market launched the suburban spinoff last year.
The Boulevard Farmers’ Market will run every Sunday from May 5 to Nov. 24, with hours from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., according to its website.
The increase in the number of markets follows a successful first year of operations in Richmond Heights, with more than 1,000 attendees at each event in 2018.
“The Boulevard Shopping District was the perfect setting for our second market,” Patrick Horine, co-founder of the Tower Grove Farmers’ Market, said in a press release. “As they expand in the future, we will eventually be able to host more than 100 vendors in the space. We are excited about the opportunity the additional market brings to our vendors and to the community.”
The Tower Grove Farmers’ Market has received numerous awards since its creation in 2006, including a Best Farmers’ Market award from the Riverfront Times
In addition to the Boulevard Farmers’ Market weekly occurrences, special events including a Spring Festival and Holiday Market are also planned.


text:
Kodak, which we again remind you invented the consumer photography business, says it isn't interested in getting into consumer-level SLRs because it can't make enough money. Says marketing guy Philip Scott:
The decision to stay out of the digital SLR market is primarily driven by a business model that doesn't necessarily lend itself to a company that's not going to be in the glass, lens part of the business. All the profits… are in the lens part of the business.
Instead, Kodak expects to stay afloat selling commodities like budget consumer cameras and digital photo frames. But then world domination is so been-there-done-that.
DSLR cameras are not worth making, says Kodak [Amateur Photographer]