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Quantum Break Is Also Coming To PC!
Remedy Entertainment‘s latest adventure will be coming to Windows on April 5th, the same release date as the Xbox One version. It is not yet known whether or not this was developed in-house or if Remedy shipped the port out to another studio. It does demonstrate Microsoft’s commitment for more Xbox games to come to PC — ReCore, Scalebound and Fable Legends will all be getting a Windows release. As part of today’s announcement was confirmation that the Xbox One version of Quantum Break will come with a download code for Remedy’s last game, Alan Wake. Apparently people on the internet are getting angry that the game is now coming to more than one platform?! Of all the things for people to get angry about, I feel this is right up there with the most pathetic. This is a good thing people! If more people have access to the game it increases the potential for sales, and the more units sold the more money the studio makes, which in turn will help fund future projects! Get over yourself, I’m almost embarrassed to be associated with these so called Xbox “fans.” I am very happy that Remedy has decided to include Alan Wake in the Xbox One bundle, I never had a chance to play the game last time round.
Titanfall 2 has been in the news recently when it was confirmed that the game would have a single-player campaign. Now, according to McFarlane Toys, the game will be releasing in winter 2016. The toy company made the comment in a press release where it was announced that they have partnered with Respawn Entertainment to deliver seven inch figures that will feature “the same meticulous level of detail that McFarlane has become known for over the last two decades.” Todd McFarlane — founder of McFarlane Toys — described the partnership as “a perfect fit.” It will be interesting to see if this report is true, it would conflict with my earlier thoughts after EA‘s latest earning report.
I keep saying that 2016 is the year of VR but today there was some news that could be disconcerting for Sony fans. Dave Ranyard, one of Son’y leading developers on PlayStation VR, has left the company after 17 years. According to Gamasutra, Ranyard was head of Sony London Studio: the studio behind The London Heist. While stating that it was a “tough decision” to leave, Ranyard said:
“2016 is going to be the year of VR, so it’s the perfect time for me to take this step into independent development. The emergence of a new medium like VR doesn’t come along very often and I really want to be a part of this new world.”
I like the cut of this man’s jib! I can’t very much understand his desire to go independent, and the likelihood is he will still work on a PlayStation VR title anyway so hopefully us gamers won’t lose out.
It has been two years since we saw Telltale‘s The Walking Dead: Season Two and it appears that we will have to keep waiting for Season Three. Luckily fans of the universe won’t have to wait long for the Michonne spin-off as Telltale has announced that Episode One will release on February 23rd. Titled In Too Deep, the episode will follow Michonne as she joins up with Pete and his squad on a ship named The Companion as sail the coast searching for survivors. In Too Deep will be the first of three episodes coming in this new miniseries. My interest is king of waning on Telltale games right now, I think I will wait until the Batman series arrives!


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If you’ve been paying attention, Marvel is ready to prove that they can make quality super hero games, too. Bill Rosemann and his mighty team have assembled an all-star squad of third-party developers to help create AAA titles based on Marvel’s greatest heroes. Spider-Man PS4, Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series, Square Enix’s Avengers 2018 project are just a few of the titles headed to the PS4.
Marvel dropped another bombshell today, as Marvel Heroes is making its way to the PS4 as Marvel Heroes Omega. Oh yes. Marvel fans, ASSEMBLE FOR THIS ANNOUNCEMENT TRAILER!
Free to play Marvel MMO action on the PS4?! Yes, please!!! Look forward to playing as your favorite Guardian, Inhuman, X-Men, or Avenger this Spring, with a beta coming soon!
Stay tuned to The PlayStation Brahs for all your Marvel Heroes Omega news!

domain: news


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Sungwoo Hitech to expand its battery plant in Nuevo Leon
NUEVO LEON – Sungwoo Hitech, a Korean manufacturer of batteries and hydrogen storage devices for vehicles, will expand its plant in Nuevo Leon, thanks to an investment of US$300 million, announced the Governor of the state, Samuel Garcia.
From Busan, Korea, where he is on a working tour, the Governor informed that he held a meeting with company executives, where he finalized the investment.
Garcia pointed out that, in addition to the expansion of the Sungwoo Hitech plant, he is looking to attract technology with hydrogen-based cars in the near future.
“It is a transnational company from here in Korea. They produce batteries and components for electric cars, and the most important thing,” said the president
Sungwoo Hitech was founded in 1977 and is dedicated to the development of new technologies for the auto parts industry. It assembles battery systems, as well as hydrogen containers, thermal imaging cameras and LiDAR.
The company also designs and assembles hydrogen tank systems, which feature plastic coating and carbon fiber winding forming technology.


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How brands can win in ‘the age of the shopper’
The Visualise Shopper Marketing Conference 2014, held this morning (26 September) in the Guinness Storehouse, examined how an investment in shopper marketing can help manufacturers both attract new customers and improve brand loyalty
26 September 2014
With only 2% of shoppers doing their full grocery shopping in one store, retailing in Ireland is undergoing its greatest revolution since the birth of the supermarket, with the balance of power firmly shifting from the retailer to the shopper.
That was the message behind the annual Visualise Shopper Marketing Conference 2014, held in the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin on Friday, 26 September.
The event, now in its fourth year, was attended by some of Ireland’s leading retailers and industry figures, and featured a number of speakers. These included world leading shopper marketing expert, Mike Anthony, founder and CEO of engage, a global management consultancy. He highlighted the fact that 70% of promotions actually lost money for the manufacturer. However he added that promotions could be beneficial if they “helped make a dramatic shift in shopping behaviour”, siting the example of a Guinness promotion whereby consumers could receive a fridge specifically for storing beers, helping to generate greater sales.
Sue McVie, shopper marketing director at Kerry Foods also gave a thought-provoking presentation. McVie has responsibility for the Category Management, Shopper Marketing and Format Development teams within GB and Ireland across Kerry Foods’ cheese, spreads, sausages, cooked meats and pastry categories. She outlined how brands could drive online supermarket sales by ensuring “brilliant basics” were met, such as ensuring online product listings had good photography and search engine optimised product descriptions. She also outlined how Kerry Foods conducted a successful ‘back to school’ campaign by listening to key insights from mums, such as focusing strongly on teatime and snack occasions, instead of solely on lunchbox options.
TheMC for the morning was consumer and shopper behaviouralist and marketing thought leader, Ken Hughes. Commenting on this year’s conference, Eoghan Phelan, general manager, Visualise said: “Brand proliferation and ongoing price wars between rival supermarkets have meant that Irish shoppers have become more demanding, so it’s now more challenging for brands to effectively communicate with their target shoppers. Therefore, it’s critical that they understand shoppers and adapt their marketing to reflect this.”


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Reuters: Trump administration announces plans to ban flavored e-cigarettes12 September 2019 | 00:37 | FOCUS News Agency
President Donald Trump and top U.S. officials expressed concern about data showing that flavored vaping products had drawn millions of children into nicotine addiction.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told reporters that, with Trump’s blessing, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was working on a “guidance document” that would lead to a ban of all vape flavors aside from tobacco flavoring.
“Once the FDA would finalize this guidance, we would begin enforcement actions to remove all such products from the marketplace,” Azar told reporters during a meeting with the president and first lady Melania Trump in the Oval Office.
The ban would include mint and menthol flavoring as well as bubble gum, candy, fruit, alcohol and other flavors, he said.
Tobacco flavoring would be allowed to remain, subject to companies’ filing for approval from the FDA. Even that would be at risk if the government determined children were attracted to it or that it was being marketed to them, Azar said.
The move is the most sweeping action yet by the U.S. government to crack down on e-cigarette usage.
The FDA in March formally proposed guidelines that would prohibit the sale of flavored e-cigarette products, except mint and menthol, in traditional retail outlets. Under that proposal, which had not been finalized, e-cigarette makers could still sell flavored products online and in age-restricted stores, such as vape shops.
Wednesday’s proposal goes much further, banning the sale of all flavored e-cigarette products across all retail channels, aside from tobacco-flavored products.
Six deaths have been linked to vaping and U.S. public health officials are investigating 450 cases of potential vaping-related lung illness across 33 states and one U.S. territory.
“We have a problem in our country, it’s a new problem ... and it’s called vaping, especially vaping as it pertains to innocent children,” Trump said. “There have been deaths and there have been a lot of other problems.”
© 2019 All rights reserved. Citing Focus Information Agency is mandatory!


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Bloomberg reported on July 11 that Toray Industries Inc. (Tokyo, Japan) plans to increase borrowing this fiscal year to help fund expansion of carbon fiber manufacture.
Toray, the world’s largest producer of carbon fiber, will seek financing of as much as ¥70 billion ($879 million) in the year ending March 2013, from ¥60 billion in the previous period, according to Mitsuharu Mano, the company’s general manager at the finance department. Toray sold ¥20 billion of 10-year bonds on July 11 in its first offering of non-convertible notes in nine years.
Bloomberg says Demand for light-weight materials for cars and airplanes will boost Toray’s annual sales to ¥2 trillion in about three years, up 16 percent from the forecast for the current period, the company said in May.
“Aggressive capital spending is at the center of our current business plan,” Mano said in an interview with Bloomberg. “We need money to fund expansion of facilities.”
According to the report, Toray on July 11 sold ¥20 billion of 0.925 percent 10-year notes, according to a statement from SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. This was the first time the company tapped the market for a straight bond since a ¥10 billion offering of 1.61 percent 10-year securities in September 2003, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Toray in April began a three-year ¥350 billion capital spending plan aimed at boosting sales of carbon fiber and its mainstay synthetic fiber.
Click here to view original Bloomberg report.


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(Bloomberg) -- Renault SA agreed to sell its majority stake in Russian carmaker AvtoVaz to a state-run automobile research institute in what is essentially a nationalization of the unit by government.
The Central Research and Development Automobile and Engine Institute, known as NAMI, which reports to Russia’s industry ministry, will receive the stake. Renault also sold its Avtoframos car plant near the capital to the Moscow City government, the company said Monday.
The carmaker, who confirmed its annual outlook, has the option to buy back its interest in AvtoVaz during the next six years.
“We are making a responsible choice towards our 45,000 employees in Russia, while preserving the group’s performance and our ability to return to the country in the future,” Chief Executive Officer Luca de Meo said in a statement.
The agreement marks the end of an era for Renault in Russia, where the automaker owned 68% of AvtoVaz -- maker of the best-selling Lada brand. Renault’s roots in the country, which grew to become its second-biggest market, stem from a $1 billion deal sealed in 2007 between former leader Carlos Ghosn and a top ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Read more: A $1 Billion Deal With Putin Traps Renault in Russia Quandary
Withdrawal will carry financial pain. Renault cut its outlook in March for this year both for profit margin and free cash flow due to the risks posed by the war on its Russian operations. The company on Monday confirmed it will take a writedown in the first-half for the value of the Russian business, which was 2.2 billion euros ($2.3 billion) at the end of last year.
Moscow’s Mayor Sergei Sobjanin said Renault’s plant near the city will start to produce Moskvitch cars there, a model that dates back to Soviet times, according to his blog. AvtoVaz’s Togliatti plant will continue to make Ladas, Russia’s Industry and Trade Ministry said in its Telegram account.
Read more: Renault Shuts Down in Russia and Weighs Quitting Venture
The Russia debacle comes at a bad time for the carmaker, which was already struggling to turn around following the crisis stemming from Ghosn’s 2018 arrest in Japan and the pandemic.
The French carmaker came under strong pressure from investors during the first weeks of the war as the most exposed vehicle manufacturer to Russia. It was also called out by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for supporting Putin’s “war machine” by delaying a pullout.
Renault had 45,000 staff in Russia so the transfer will leave a big hole in the automaker’s operations. The Lada -- a model dating back to the Soviet era -- was part of Chief Executive Officer Luca de Meo’s strategy for affordable passenger cars along with the Dacia brand.
De Meo is now considering a structural overhaul of Renault by hiving off electric-vehicle and combustion-engine entities.
The other partner in the AvtoVaz venture is Rostec State Corp., a Russian government-owned defense conglomerate headed by Sergey Chemezov, a close Putin ally.
In the months since the start of the war, Renault along with other foreign manufacturers have halted plants, blaming their inability to get crucial imported parts needed for production.
(Updates with Renault CEO comment in fourth, Russia mayor comment in eighth paragraph)
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.


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Volvo Cars invites you take part of the reveal of its first fully electric car; the electric XC40. At this event, Volvo Cars will also present the company’s strategic direction towards a more sustainable future.
Volvo Cars is fundamentally rethinking infotainment in the forthcoming fully electric Volvo XC40. Powered by Android, the new infotainment system offers customers unprecedented personalisation, improved levels of intuitiveness and new embedded Google technology and services.
With the introduction of the forthcoming fully electric Volvo XC40 SUV next month, Volvo Cars is not just launching its first fully electric car – in true Volvo tradition, it is also introducing one of the safest cars on the road, despite a fresh set of challenges presented by the absence of an internal combustion engine.


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Friday, 8th June 2018, Velenje, Slovenia
Panasonic accepts the takeover offer by Hisense
On June 8, 2018, Gorenje d.d. received from the company Panasonic Corporation a notification that the Panasonic Corporation accepted the takeover offer by the company Hisense Luxembourg Holding and will on such basis dispose all of its shares of the company Gorenje d.d.
The takeover offer was accepted for a total of 2,623,664 shares, representing 10.7419% of all Gorenje shares. After the closing of transaction, the Panasonic Corporation will no longer hold any ownership share in the company Gorenje d.d.


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Manchester's food and drink scene is continuing to boom - despite a recent spate of high profile closures and the ongoing casual dining crunch.
The city's bar and restaurant scene is growing at a faster rate than anywhere in the country, outstripping London three times over.
The net number of new openings in the city centre has increased by 22% over the last five years, research by food and drink analytics company CGA reveals.
Northern cities including Liverpool and Leeds were close behind, with net growth of 18% and 17% respectively over the same period, from 2013 to 2018. In London, the figure stood under 7%.
The figures were analysed by the team behind hospitality trade exhibition Northern Restaurant and Bar, which takes place at Manchester Central next week.
CEO Thom Hetherington said the findings reflected the ambition and confidence of the north.
“Obviously we’re based up here, so we’ve seen the development first hand, but it’s been clear that the epicentre of the northern food and drink scene has kicked on at an unprecedented rate of knots, with a direction and velocity of travel which has left other regions trailing in its wake," he said.
"It’s no surprise to see Manchester take the ‘medal position’ with an extraordinary rate of growth; the ‘M62 corridor’ is developing its own centre of gravity, pulling in new residents, businesses and tourists drawn to its unrivalled combination of culture, lifestyle and opportunity."
Manchester's growth comes despite more than one in 10 of its restaurants and bars closing in the last year. Separate figures from CGA showed 11% of the city's total licensed premises shut in 2017/18.
Thom said the figures showed the resilience of Manchester's restaurant scene, compared with cities such as Cardiff and London where the closure rate was at 14%. Leeds topped the table with a closure rate of 15%.
“Everyone knows running restaurants or bars can be a tough business, particularly in the current climate, but I was impressed to see the resilience of the northern food and drink sector," he said.
"I’m not surprised by the recent struggles in the capital; costs and risks can be astronomical for prime sites, and in my opinion that is part of the reason we are seeing more interesting, successful operators choice to stay in, or move to, the north."
High profile closures in Manchester last year included Manchester House, which has since reopened under new ownership as Restaurant MCR with chef Aiden Byrne back in the kitchen. Spinningfields restaurant and bar Artisan, which closed alongside it when parent company Living Ventures put the two venues into administration, remains closed.
Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs' fine dining restaurant The Rabbit (formerly The Rabbit in the Moon) also shut last autumn amid a wave of closures that included Northern Quarter bars including Hula, Rosylee, Tusk, Walrus and The Blue Pig, which shut as owner MAD Ltd went into liquidation. Several of the venues have since reopened or been taken over.
The city also welcomed some notable newcomers including Tast Catala , the King Street Catalonian restaurant financed by Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, with a menu created by five-Michelin-star chef Paco Pérez; D&D London's skyscraping Spinningfields restaurant 20 Stories ; Irani-Indian restaurant group Dishoom at Manchester Hall ; London brasserie chain The Ivy's huge Spinningfields site ; and Ancoats fine dining restaurant Mana.


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TOKYO, Japan — Scientists have created an anti-microbial lining that can wipe out body odor thanks to some sweet-smelling chemicals in wine and chocolate. Researchers at the University of Tokyo say the invention opens the door to making clothes that don’t have to go in the washing machine all the time.
The material zaps underarm sweat, which gives garments a nasty odor. The new coating is a cocktail of silver and plant compounds (polyphenols) called tannins. They are found in many common foods and drinks including tea, coffee, wine, and chocolate.
“As kids often do, my son stained his shirt with chocolate one day, and I couldn’t scrub it out,” says project leader Dr. Joseph Richardson in a university release. “Professor Hirotaka Ejima and I have studied polyphenols for over a decade, but this chocolate incident got me thinking about using tannic acid to bind silver to fabrics.”
“We think we’ve found two methods to apply our antimicrobial silver coating to textiles, suitable for different use cases,” Richardson adds.
The metal is a safe anti-microbial which can also treat wounds. It does not interact with human skin. The team says consumers could wash an item with this anti-microbial coating multiple times without it losing its ability to destroy odors.
Chemicals that cause “B.O.” build up in fibers over time and stubbornly resist flushing out, leading to a persistent stench. The coating, called AgTA, is both cost-effective and convenient, according to the Japanese team. This means people working from home could continue wearing the same shirt without stinking it up.
The coating lasts for over 10 washes
Dr. Richardson notes that it may be winter for half the world right now, but the weather will warm up eventually. That will bring back beach trips, sunny outdoor events, and (of course) sweat! Study authors say commercial clothing or fabric producers could simply bathe textiles in AgTA to create odor-fighting garments. Individuals may also end up spraying garments with the coating, adding it to their existing wardrobe.
“What’s most exciting is not the ease of application, but how effective the coating is,” Dr. Richardson explains. “We wanted to study the effect of the antimicrobial coating not just on odor-causing bacteria, but also on fungi and pathogens like viruses.”
“With so many variables to control, it was a challenge of time and complexity to test variations of compounds against variations of microorganisms,” the study author continues. “But through carefully optimizing our testing methods, we found that the coating neutralizes everything we tested it on. So Ag/TA could be useful in hospitals and other ideally sterile environments.”
The strength of AgTA, which is described in the journal Scientific Reports, was demonstrated in a series of tests. Cotton, polyester, and even silk maintained anti-microbial and odor-fighting properties for at least 10 washes.
“This isn’t just a hypothetical situation limited to the lab, I’ve tried it on my own shirts, socks, shoes, even my bathmat,” Dr. Richardson concludes. “We’d like to see what other useful compounds polyphenols might help bind to fabrics. Antimicrobial silver might just be the start.”
There are many kinds of products that people can wear or apply to their bodies which combat body odor. However, they are often expensive and offer limited choice and comfort.
South West News Service writer Mark Waghorn contributed to this report.


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(MoneyWatch) Delighted drivers are finding lower gas prices at the pump. The national average price for regular is $3.63, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge. Even gas in California, where refinery problems drove the price above $4.50 a gallon, was down to $4.36 -- a 21-cent drop in a week.
So how should you react? That's a silly question, you say. You are going to enjoy the lower total when you fill up at the pump. And so you should. But with gas prices potentially as volatile as ever, don't be too quick to shift gears on what car you might buy next or good habits you have developed to help save on gas.
Part of the current price decline results from refiners' switch from summer blend gasoline, required to help curb air pollution, to the cheaper winter blend. But to state the obvious, in a few months they will be switching back to the more expensive version. The U.S. Energy Information Adminstration projects that regular gas will average $3.44 a gallon next year compared with $3.65 for all of 2012. But filling up a 15-gallon gas tank at $3.44 will still cost you over $50.
And, as we have all become aware, events such as oil supply disruption from a flare-up in the Middle East could send gas prices soaring again.
If you are shopping, keep high gas mileage in mind
High gas prices prompt consumers to buy high-mileage cars. The family of Toyota Prius hybrids was the best-selling vehicle line in California this year through September, according to a report just issued by the California New Car Dealers Association.
You don't have to buy a hybrid. A combination of federal regulations and potential buyers' desire for higher mileage has produced a generation of new comfortable small cars with lots of features and high MPG. And as dealers continue to clear out their 2012 models, you can take advantage of rebates and financing deals.
For instance, the 2012 Chevrolet Cruze carries a $500 rebate or 0 percent financing for up to four years. The Cruze base model is rated at 22 MPG in city driving and 35 on the highway but the Eco version is rated for 42 MPG on the highway.
And even if you need a larger mid-size car or a small crossover SUV, higher mileage versions are now plentiful.
Don't drop your gas-saving routine
If you have developed gas-saving habits like consolidating trips for errands so as to use less gas, don't change now. When you are driving, paying attention can boost your mileage significantly. Here is a reminder of some of the most effective techniques to increase fuel efficiency:
- Slow down and calm down. By cutting speed from the mid-70s to 65 mph and avoiding lane changes and bursts of acceleration, test drivers at auto site Edmunds.com got a 33 percent to 38 percent mileage improvement in various vehicles.
- Don't tailgate. Not only is it dangerous to drive close to the car ahead of you -- it also means you need to brake and re-accelerate when cars in front slow down. So even in stop-and-go rush hour traffic, leave yourself enough room to drive smoothly and save gas.
- Avoid idling. While shopping or doing errands in the city or suburbs, shut off the engine if you are stopping for more than a minute. When you sit with the motor running, you are basically getting zero miles per gallon.
- Check your tire pressure. Like tailgating, under-inflated tires are both dangerous and detrimental to gas mileage. Keep the tires at the pressure stipulated by the manufacturer -- usually on a plaque on the driver's door visible when the door is open. Having tires inflated 25 percent less than the recommended pressure can cut gas mileage 3 percent to 5 percent.
Following these simple steps will help you save money even if gas prices head back up early next year.


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Hyderabad and Atlanta-based Internet TV provider, YuppTV, is slowly making inroads into the local markets with its mobile and TV app. The company, which is presently providing free subscription of news channels for Indian users, has announced that it will broaden its service here in the next quarter and start charging for subscriptions.
According to company sources, the number of domestic users of this service is increasing. YuppTV, presently provides access to 170 Indian channels live over Internet along with a dedicated movie library and has a subscriber base of one lakh. Keeping in mind the large expat population of South East Asians living across the globe, YuppTV is also planning to provide Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Nepali content.
“We want to expand and provide content of channels from South-East Asia region. In the next quarter, we will be providing live content of about 30 channels of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. More channels may be added in the near future,” said Uday Reddy, chairman and CEO, YuppTV India private limited.
On Friday, YuppTV announced that Sashi Reddi, founder and managing partner, SRI Capital had invested $2.5 Million (Rs. 16 crore) for a 10 per cent stake in the company. YuppTV is presently valued at $25 Million, or Rs 160 crore, and has significant market in North America, Europe and Australia.
“Internet TV is a fast growing business and YuppTV is very well positioned to become a dominant force in providing Indian content. I believe that YuppTV is the most dynamic media company to emerge out of India,” said Mr. Sashi Reddi.
With an employee size of 140, YuppTV’s revenue in 2013 was reportedly Rs. 70 crore. The company generates 90 per cent of the revenue through subscription while 10 per cent is through advertisements.


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It’s October — the leaves are changing colour, the cool weather is upon us and the summer of 2013 is a fading memory. The arrival of fall brings a sense of renewal and excitement as the kids head back to school and the workplace teems with productivity. But, along with the change of season comes a change in eating habits for millions of Canadians as the transition from backyard barbecues, cottage weekends and patio season marks an end to the indulgent meals of summer.
For many, the generous meals of summer may have resulted in a few unwanted pounds. So, it’s no surprise that healthy eating is top of mind for many Canadians’ this fall, a fact substantiated in key findings from NPD’s recently released annual “Eating Patterns in Canada” report.
According to the 16th edition of the “Eating Patterns in Canada” report — which shows attitudes, behaviours and motivations about Canadians’ eating habits (in home and out of home) — key concerns influencing healthy eating include weight, high cholesterol and high blood pressure. The report was designed to find out Canadians’ familiarity with various dietary attributes as they relate to their food choices while also determining whether consumers are willing to pay more for food that represents these attributes.
According to the report, low-calorie food is most commonly incorporated into Canadian eating habits, followed by 100 per cent all-natural and preservative-free products. And, although only 16 per cent of Canadians incorporate gluten-free food into their diets, 70 per cent are familiar with it, making gluten the most recognizable dietary attribute (even though many Canadians are not yet restricting it).
The findings also reveal that most Canadians are indeed willing to spend more money on food that promotes a dietary attribute. They’re “willing” to pay more for foods that feature whole grains, are 100-per-cent natural, have Omega 3 or are antibiotic-free/hormone-free or gluten-free. Canadians indicate they are less willing to pay more for foods that are promoted as peanut-free and Halal.
Clearly, healthy eating trends are shaping restaurant menus across Canada, especially since Canadians’ food knowledge is centred on health, wellness and better-for-you eating habits. During the past 12 months, Canadians consumed 341 million menu items they perceived as better-for-you. In fact, many foodservice chains have caught onto the trend and are focusing on the better-for-you concept: McDonald’s has its signature McWraps, Tim Hortons has its smoothies and Boston Pizza has its gluten-free menu items.
Today, Canadians spend a record $2.8 billion at restaurants offering menu items that they associate with healthy eating. And, it appears that number is going to increase since spending on better-for-you items at restaurants has jumped four per cent annually during the past three years. The bottom line is Canadians want foods associated with healthy eating, so restaurateurs should include a selection of better-for-you items on their menus if they want to capture a piece of the billions associated with this key consumer trend.


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This week, the fashion industry saw a variety of news ranging from business reports to an environmental initiative and even another destination fashion show.
Leading the charge was
Elsewhere, adidas’ Q2 sales were down due to the Yeezy collaboration cancellation; Balenciaga revealed its Fall 2024 runway show will be held in Los Angeles, California, and Roger Federer and JW Anderson announced their forthcoming Uniqlo collaboration.
Below, Hypebeast has rounded up the top fashion stories of the week so you can stay up to date on trends in the industry.
Extending its sportswear partnerships, adidas has now signed a 10-year $1.2 billion USD deal with Manchester United. The new arrangement extends their previous shirt-sponsorship deal for another decade.
To note, adidas has been the official kit partner for the English football club since 2015. The 2015 deal marks the two entities’ reunion after 23 years, during which Manchester United worked with Nike. Additionally, the Glazers, Manchester United’s American owners, are considering selling the football club despite its Champions League return.
In an effort to combat the environmental problem that is an excess of fashion waste, France has announced its new “repair bonus” program, which gives customers cash to fix their clothes instead of discarding them.
With its new initiative, France has become the first country to create a program of its kind. French citizens who bring in their garments for repair will receive between €6 to €25 EUR based on the fabric and restoration complexity. Aside from individual citizens, the program will allow stores like tailors and shoemakers to enter free of charge.
Additionally, the local government is set to pay all bonuses from its €154 million EUR sustainability fund over the next five years in hopes to continue the effort throughout the future.
On Thursday morning, adidas showcased its second-quarter financial results, which revealed a decline in sales due to its canceled Yeezy collaboration. adidas earned €5.34 billion EUR in Q2, which is down from the €5.6 billion EUR that the company reported during the same period last year. As such, the figure brought adidas’ total revenues for the first half of 2023 to €10.62 billion EUR.
“We are happy with the way the second quarter developed. 2023 is not about trying to show short-term results,” said adidas’ CEO Bjørn Gulden. He added that he did not expect the company to return to “good and profitable” until 2025.
Balenciaga is returning to the States with the announcement of its next show in Los Angeles, California. The last time the house showed in the U.S. was in New York City for its Spring 2023 runway show at the New York Stock Exchange.
With the new announcement, Balenciaga follows behind Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Dior, CELINE, Saint Laurent and Versace who have all shown in the beach-side city in recent years. Set for December 2, the runway show will reveal Balenciaga’s Fall 2024 men’s and women’s co-ed collection.
Rodger Federer has teamed up with JW Anderson for a Uniqlo collection – which marks a first for the famed tennis star and the popular British label. With the new collection, expect to see a blend of Federer’s athletic experience with JW Anderson’s signature design sentiments.
“I’ve always wanted to have a collection perfect for playing tennis while also versatile for the other parts of daily life,” said the tennis star. “I’m fortunate that Jonathan shared this vision. Together we were able to create a stylish and comfortable line rooted in a classic tennis style. Jonathan is talented, creative and incredibly down-to-earth. It has been a pleasure to work with him on this collection.”
The Roger Federer x JW Anderson Uniqlo collection is set to release in-store and online on August 28.


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Local Brisbane resident Amelia Salmon and her organisation Just Earth have been chosen to participate in Dreamstarter 2015, an online crowdfunding platform supported by ING DIRECT, the School for Social Entrepreneurs and Start Some Good.
Just Earth, a fair food café, fair trade coffee roaster and physical and online retail store that creates jobs for disadvantaged women in the labour market, is among seven social change projects selected through a national shout-out to take part in Dreamstarter.
Amelia said “Just Earth creates positive social change by creating employment for women who are most disadvantaged in the labour market, as well as directing profits towards micro-enterprise development training and No-Interest-Loan schemes for Indigenous women and refugee women entrepreneurs”.
The first stage of the Just Earth project will be to the fit-out and launch the new business premises complete with coffee roastery, cafe, retail store and community hub space. The enterprise aims to provide employment to 22 disadvantaged people in its first year.
David Breen, Head of Corporate Affairs commented: “Just Earth is led by an inspirational businesswoman who is on a mission to contribute to social-economic inclusiveness for disadvantaged women. It’s great to have Amelia on board for Dreamstarter 2015.”
Since the launch of Dreamstarter in 2013, ING DIRECT has provided more than $117,000 in project funding to help 31 Dreamstarters leverage crowdfunding of up to $371,230.
Visit www.ingdirect.com.au/dreamstarter to support the Amelia and Just Earth in Dreamstarter 2015.


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Some stocks worth watching today, from the our colleagues at Dow Jones Newswires:
- American Superconductor sharply cut its guidance for the fourth quarter and year after its largest customer refused to accept some shipments of components and parts. Shares dropped 40% to $14.82 in after-hours trading.
- Cephalon’s board rejected Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.’s $5.7 billion takeover offer, saying the proposal “significantly undervalues” the biopharmaceutical company. Cephalon shares fell 1.8% in after-hours trading to $76.
- Dollar Financial Corp. said it plans to sell at least 5 million shares in an offering to the public, the latest company looking to tap equity markets for capital. The company didn’t say at what price it planned to sell the stock.
- Shares declined 5.3%, to $20.61 after hours.
- AngioDynamics Inc.’s fiscal third-quarter profit jumped 14%, topping Wall Street’s expectations, as the company reported continued strong growth in oncology sales.
- Eastman Kodak Co. said it completed the sale of some of its microfilm-products and equipment-business assets to Eastman Park Micrographics Inc., moving to sell a non-core asset to generate cash as the company seeks to fund its transformation to a digital company.


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Dow Ends Lower for 6th Time in Seven Sessions
Stocks ended mostly lower as an upbeat reading on housing prices was offset by a dour report on consumer confidence. Brendan Conway has details on The News Hub. Photo: Reuters.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... the the ... while it was such a policy on Wall Street today this tells all about legal Brendan Conway in ... Athens ... it's it's time to ... so ... the six downed a glass of ... in the Dow the ... Dow ended down yes yes things have been a little they rose year and technology seen the Nasdaq was up this was a slowdown in twenty oh what's not a huge amount down now but I'm you know ... continue going down the Nasdaq up that I'm presuming ... aam you know ... that some even large cap tech stocks had a big influence on a ... here you know of them are discrediting the in addition to the holding period right now ... means that this this this is still a central bankers market ... at the end of the week ... the Fed is going to convene in Jackson Hole him ... he may unveil a big ... new stimulus plan that he may know that's one of the base of the ... well being debated based on some of the economic data we got today Consumer sentiment is relieved and ready quite quite bad the monopoly on some chalk ... it said in a reading of sixty and I was down considerably from from the previous ratings and and it's the domino levels that ... we seem right through this financial crisis ... I mean me certainly survey that consumers not feeling good meaning the average energy ... diplomat said ... is that the average American is not feeling good idea I just think that that's the way to put ... on people are still spending now keep in mind that a sentiment surveys just how people say they feel the need is certainly an element of the TV out there ... this week we got a couple of earnings reports from some high-end companies to ... Tiffany ... not as bad as feared to that stock show how people are spending with frivolous by Madrid the motorists traveling on and on to write about that


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DLF Brand, a subordinate of DLF Ltd, has come up with its presence in fashion retail trade by collaborating with the Spanish Brand Mango. This happened since the brand announced its two other new retail trends, including a multi-brand showroom chain, of its own. The DLF group company had also launched, for the first time, its own brand, Pure Home and Living, a premier home decor and furnishing brand of retail showrooms. The first of the showroom opened in Delhi two months back competing with Future Group’s Home Town and Landmark Group’s Home Centre.
Mango, the Spanish Fashion Brand, with over 1,700 showrooms worldwide, decided to sign up DLF as partner to fast track its expansion after nearly a decade of operations in India. The Spanish Brand of clothing has been majorly in partnership with Major Brands through which it released almost 15 stores. DLF will be leading the new showrooms openings. DLF, which has already opened Mango’s travel retail showroom at the new terminal (T3) of New Delhi airport and plans to add another six more stores in the current year, said DLF Brands CFO Dipak Agarwal.
“The major collaborations are now looking to grow assertively here in India having been around for so long. The company wants to concentrate on brand-building and designate the expansion to its franchisee,” Agarwal added. DLF also operates other universal fashion names such as Armani, DKNY, Ferragamo and Mothercare.
DLF is set to launch a multi-brand retail store chain of international fashion brands, the company official said. These showrooms will also store brands that are not part of DLF Brands and will be competing with the high-end retail formats like The Collective, a unit of Aditya Birla Nuvo.
“The multi-brand showrooms will be like a premium discount showrooms keeping high-end fashion labels but at lower price, as there is an opportunity in the market for such showrooms which are highly internationally popular. These stores will be done up gracefully and won’t look like the second stores or factory outlets which are available at present,” Agarwal said. The first of the multi-brand showroom is spread across 10,000 sq. ft which will open in Gurgaon.
DLF group spreads across 16,000 to 18,000 sq. ft is looking to open more 4-5 stores in Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune by end of this year.


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Two days after Facebook announced that users would be seeing loads more adverts appearing on their homepage, the site's been defeated by new ad-blocking software.
Facebook claimed that it would force ads through to the social network, but a new line of code has been revealed that allegedly stops those pesky pop-ups appearing.
As CNET reports, Adblock Plus has come up with a solution, and suggests that users of the software can bypass the advertising by adding the following line to their filters:
In a blog post on Tuesday, Facebook confirmed it was going to begin forcing ads on people who are currently trying to avoid them, saying the revenue was essential to the site.
Andrew Bosworth, Facebook's Vice President of Ads and Business, explained: "When they're relevant and well-made, ads can be useful, helping us find new products and services and introducing us to new experiences - like an ad that shows you your favourite band is coming to town or an amazing airline deal to a tropical vacation.
"But because ads don't always work this way, many people have started avoiding certain websites or apps, or using ad blocking software, to stop seeing bad ads."
Sorry, Zuckerberg - looks like Facebook might have to try a bit harder to beat ad-blocking software.


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Indian Railways has unveiled a new facility, which will allow passengers to book railway tickets through their mobile phones and use the text message received on their mobile phones by Indian Railways as a valid ticket according to The Mobile Indian.
With this new facility Passengers don't have to carry paper printouts of their e-Tickets anymore and passengers will now get a ticket through SMS in 20 minutes.
This new facility was unveiled by West Bengal chief minister and former railway minister, Mamata Banerjee who launched this public friendly facility in Kolkata.
The m-ticket service is part of the new website www.indianrailways.gov.in launched recently, which will provide all enquiries like train alert, PNR status, train status, seat availability, train schedule, time table and fare on a single website.
A passenger has just to show the SMS to the ticket collector, backed up by a photo ID to travel on train. The facility of booking tickets through the web portal will be available between 12.30 am and 11.30 pm on a daily basis. Railway officials said the newly launched e-ticketing facility bars travel agents and such bulk customers from using the service.
Recently, the Railway reservation site irctc.co.in blocked over 460,000 fraudulent user IDs and since March 2011, IRCTC has enhanced its cyber surveillance and has been disabling IDs which are found to be violating laws.
Indian Railways were first introduced to India in 1853, is the fourth largest railway network (running length of 64,000 km) and 7,083 stations in the world and ferries two million passengers a day.


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- India is working on a set of policy measures to combat the economic impact of the coronavirus and that may include some cash transfers to workers in the informal sector, Krishnamurthy Subramanian, chief economic advisor to the Indian government said.
- Subramanian said that tests found there is still no evidence of community spread of the virus in India.
- He added there will be a trade-off between containing the spread of infection and the consequent impact of that on the economy.
India is working on a set of policy measures to combat the economic impact of the fast-spreading coronavirus and that may include some cash transfers to workers in the informal sector, the country's top economic advisor said.
The virus, which causes a respiratory disease known as COVID-19, has infected more than 207,800 people and killed over 8,600 people globally, according to the World Health Organization. India has reported at least 151 cases, out of which 14 have recovered and three died, according to the health ministry.
Health officials worldwide have urged countries to step up measures that can keep the daily number of reported cases at a level manageable for health-care systems, a concept known as "flattening the curve."
Countries like Italy, where the infection is spreading rapidly, are struggling to keep up and medical care facilities are being stretched to their limits. But many of those required actions, such as shutting down public places like shopping malls or banning tourists, are predicted to have an adverse economic impact — in service sectors like retail, leisure, and travel.
"There is actually an essential trade-off between flattening the curve, from the health policy perspective, and the consequent impact of that on the economy," Krishnamurthy Subramanian, chief economic advisor to the Indian government, told CNBC's Tanvir Gill.
He explained that India anticipates possible disruptions to the supply chain and a decrease in demand that could, in turn, affect businesses. As such, the government is working on both fiscal and monetary measures.
"On the fiscal side, (to) try and see if there could be some cash transfers that would be done," Subramanian said. "India has a very large informal sector and the informal sector may be particularly impacted by the lockdown because there are people who don't necessarily have a permanent job."
Some experts have estimated that India's informal sectors account for roughly 94% of total employment in the country and contribute about 45% of output.
Subramanian said the government is also thinking about the banking sector, which is slowly recovering from a major bad debt crisis; New Delhi wants to ensure there is no additional impact of the coronavirus on India's lenders due to a potential slowdown in demand. The Reserve Bank of India this week introduced measures to pump more rupee liquidity into the banking system. What could work in India's favor is the fact that oil prices have plummeted recently, which is expected to lessen the country's oil import bill.
Last week India temporarily suspended almost all travel visas, restricted visa-free travel for foreigners of Indian origin, and closed its land border with Myanmar.
Though India's first cases of COVID-19 were detected in January, stringent measures including self-isolation orders, travel restrictions and screenings at airports initially kept India's reported numbers low until the number of cases outside China imploded.
Still, Subramanian said that tests found there is still no evidence of community spread of the virus in India.
"I would continue to remain cautious, but at the same time, what I would say is that the number of cases so far has only been growing linearly," he said. "Based on the data, the cases seem to be in control, but, that said, it is important for us to continue responding to the evolving situation."
The impact of COVID-19 on India's economy is still relatively mild. But even before the outbreak, quarterly expansion rates were already off previous levels that made it one of the fastest-growing major economies due to other factors.
Subramanian contended that the growth rate could take a hit in the first three months of this year — which is also India's fourth-quarter for the 2020 fiscal year — but he also said that the magnitude is hard to predict. Though economic indicators have shown signs of improvement in recent months, March is likely to be a drag on the quarter due to the outbreak.
"Q4 growth, actually, may be lower than 5% because of the impact of one month," Subramanian said, adding that reports indicated the adverse impact could continue into April, when India begins its new fiscal year.
Economists have warned that if India faces an out-of-control epidemic like Italy, for example, then the impact is likely to be more severe.


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Automate Your Builds and Testing with Bitrise
2020 Release candidates are out
November 05, 2020 · 1 min read
It is an exciting day!
We got Xcode 12.2 release candidate along with macOS Big Sur 11.0.1 Release Candidate. The later can now be used to submit apps to the App Store which is always a good sign.
Whilst not a complete surprise that these have dropped before the next Apple event, it does suggest that the new Apple silicon based Mac’s will be released very soon.
We also got iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS 14.2 final releases.


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COLUMBUS, OHIO — The 60-year-old Drumstick Co. here is proving that quality and nostalgia can be a lucrative combination.
By reverting to 1930s` recipes in the booming ice cream markets of the 1980s, retail sales of Drumstick sundae cones have almost doubled in the last three years. They are expected to have jumped just about threefold from the 1985 level by the end of this year.
That record has been compiled against fierce competition from major food companies that have invaded the field with vastly greater marketing muscle.
``We`ve returned to the old ways, the best ways,`` said Ralph A. Denisco, sales and marketing vice president for the Drumstick Co. here.
``We`ve added a few refinements to what this company used to do best. And consumers are responding well. By the end of this year, Drumsticks will be one of the top three novelty ice creams in America. And that`s in a field of nearly 70 competing brands.``
Denisco concedes that such talk may sound boastful, coming from a firm that had just about lost control of its product because its 55 dairies nationally each observed its own version of uniformity.
But its old formula, combined with a marketing strategy that includes its first print and electronic media advertising campaign, is working again.
The original Drumstick ice cream sundae cone was created in 1929 by I.C. Parker, a Ft. Worth businessman.
A blend of chocolate and ice cream in a cone topped with nuts, the product quickly captured the palates of Depression-weary Americans and soon was being made by hand and distributed by about 400 dairies around the country.
``In essence, this company has historically marketed an idea-a product concept-with dairies manufacturing, distributing and selling the product,``
Denisco said. ``Drumstick provided the cones and the packaging.``
In the 1930s, the family-owned company relocated in Columbus as Big Drum Inc. In the 1950s, automation was introduced to dairy production lines. By the 1960s, the business had evolved into a manufacturer of packaging and equipment for producing its sundae cones.
But stagnation set in, and sales went flat.
``As the firm grew, we lost control of the product,`` Denisco said. ``By 1984, 55 dairies were producing Drumsticks, with no consistency of
manufacturing standards from dairy to dairy.
``There were 26 different types of packaging, most of which carried the Drumstick label, but a few even used their own brand name.``
With no controls, quality slumped, Denisco said. Instead of fast-freezing the cones to zero degrees Fahrenheit in 20 minutes, dairies resorted to less costly 24-hour freezing.
That technique created larger ice crystals and made the ice cream grainier. There were complaints about declining taste and soggy cones.
Denisco said the firm was bought in 1980 by Alco Standard Corp., of Valley Forge, Pa., a conglomerate of 80 companies with annual sales of $4 billion in food service, office products and paper distribution.
A new management team began arriving in 1983. Plans were mapped for a return to the manufacturing processes that made Drumsticks a Depression-era favorite.
Automation remained. But the number of dairies was trimmed to 11, and I.C. Parker`s recipe was improved to make it creamier, crunchier and richer.
Instead of merely topping the ice cream-filled cone with chocolate and nuts, product developers decided to restore crispness by coating the inside of the cones with chocolate, creating a moisture barrier.
``The consumers love the last bite,`` Denisco said as he finished a Drumstick to display the last inch or so, a solid chunk of chocolate. ``But just to make sure they enjoy the rest of the cone, we`re providing 11 grams of peanuts and seven grams of chocolate.``
``Get to the Bottom of the New Drumstick`` was the theme of the national television advertising campaign the firm launched in 1986, Denisco said.
The regenerated ice cream novelty was test-marketed in Houston and Omaha in February, 1986. By August, it had become the No. 1 selling ice cream novelty in those markets, according to surveys.
``Marketing research showed the greatest change (in consumer reactions)
was in value received for money,`` Denisco said.
Last year, Drumstick expanded distribution throughout the nation`s heartland to cover nearly 50 percent of the population. This year, all 48 continental states will be covered.
With 60 percent of its sales in supermarkets, the company began last year to extend its reach to convenience stores, street vendors and major league baseball parks in Chicago, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Cleveland and Dallas.
It has budgeted $5 million for national advertising this year. The firm last year started sponsoring sports-oriented entertainment on ballpark video boards. It expects to pitch its products to audiences in at least 16 ballparks this summer.
``The ballparks provide a great environment for our products,`` Denisco said. ``You know, an image of Americana, like mom and apple pie and Drumsticks.``


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Legal Pot Is More Popular than Bread and Milk, Barely Beaten Out by Beer
Everyone expected legalized marijuana to be popular, but maybe not this popular. New data suggest that, in Spokane County, Washington, the amount of pot sold per household is greater than the amount spent on basics like milk and bread. Even wine falls behind legal weed when it comes to last year’s expenditures. In fact, one of the few things that trumps pot is another casual intoxicant: beer.
According to sales numbers from the Washington Liquor and Cannabis Bureau, Spokane County marijuana sellers reported over $43 million in sales last year – or the equivalent of $225.64 per household. That’s over double the $109.71 households spent on bread last year, the $154.85 spent on wine or the $155.37 spent on milk. Beer just barely edged out pot, with reported retail sales in the county averaging out to $232.70 for every household.
Of course, these numbers are averages, meaning that not every household spent over $200 last year on pot. A spokesman for the Washington Liquor and Cannabis Bureau pointed out that typically about 20 percent of people account for about 80 percent of the sales. Additionally, not all the marijuana was actually bought by residents of or consumed in Spokane County: People can come to Spokane, buy their legal dope and then depart with it.
Still, sales are projected to continue growing. According to The Seattle Times, the money spent on pot in Spokane could soon eclipse the amount spent on arts, entertainment and recreation – things like live music and museums – combined. Maybe if they get high enough, they’ll get the munchies and even start buying more bread.


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Google X Phone pictures leak online
Update: May 3 5.30pm
New Google X Phone pictures have appeared online, this time courtesy of Vietnamese gadget blog Tinthe.tn and showing it in all its glory.
Several Google X Phone pictures leaked online this morning, but it was shrouded in a black non-disclosure case that only allow a blurred glimpse of the device’s back panel.
Now these new pictures show the Google X Phone to be a black, slimline handset with a large screen. In fact, the screen looks to nearly touch the edges of the device due to a very slim bezel not dissimilar to the Samsung Galaxy S4.
However, looking at the rear of the phone in these pictures, the handset doesn’t seem to have the same texture, but seeing as the Google X Phone is tipped to come in over 20 colours and protective skins, it could be possible that this could mean different textures too.
Google is reportedly giving a three-hour long Google I/O keynote speech at its annual conference this month, so we could learn more about the phone then.
See the bottom of this post for all the pics
Apparently legitimate pictures of the new Google X Phone handset in production by Google and Motorola have leaked online.
According to fairly reliable tipster @evleaks, the Google branded Motorola X Phone is currently codenamed Ghost, similar to the way the Google Nexus 4 was Mako and the Google Nexus 7 was Grouper.
From the leaked pictures you can’t actually see much of the handset’s body as the Google X Phone is hidden by a black non-disclosure case, but @evleaks’ sources confirm that the images are legitimate.
However, the blurred image of the rear of the Google X Phone (shown below) is said to be the official rear panel used for the device. Apparently made from polycarbonate, the rear isn’t Motorola’s usual Kevlar choice, as with the Motorola Razr HD, or even the glass used for the Google Nexus 4.
The label on the back of the phone is practically illegible, but lists the device’s model number as “XFON ATT”. The sources confirm that the Google X Phone will be released on American network providers AT&T and Verizon as well as all major carriers worldwide.
Tipped to launch without the Motorola branding seen on this prototype, the Google X Phone may reach store shelves sooner than expected. According to the sources, a Google X Phone release date is supposedly scheduled for early July, rather than the previously rumoured August or later launch.
Although the sources were unable to confirm an accurate screen size, they said it looks to be a 4.7-inch display that will eventually have Full 1080p HD resolutions, 32GB of internal storage and 2GB of RAM.
In March, Google X Phone specs leaked online offering similar screen specifications, but also tipping the handset to run on Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie on a quad-core Tegra 4i processor.
With a 16-megpixel camera in the rear and 5-megapixels up front, the Google X Phone could also be just 7.9mm thick.
Are you a Google fan? Get the most out of your handset with our Google Nexus 4 tips and tricks.


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Glamour Nepal, Kathmandu – The Himalayan Times TGIF Nepal Fashion Week 2014 is getting closer. And as it is getting nearby it is creating buzz all around with style. The event to be organized by APCA Events in association with IEC is right now in the promotional campaign through the print media. With two phase of the audition rounds for the model selection, finally 18 models including male and female were been selected some time ago. The event scheduled for April 23rd to 26th, four day affair of fashion, style and glamour will be showcased at Hyatt Regency, Boudha.
Right now the promotional campaign is in its high note with the pictures been captured by the glamour photographer Kishore Kayastha, featuring the selected models for the fashion week itself and dressed up with outfits designed by some of the popular fashion designers. So far the promotional campaign has been presented in various moods and themes entitled as Fusion, Tress belle, Made in Nepal, Ethnic Chic and Up Town Girl with one common tag line fashion is what you want it to be.


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Tesla meldet Rekordproduktion
January 3, 2019 -- Teslas Produktion und Auslieferung von Elektroautos erreichte 2018 die Rekordzahl von 244.920 Stück, eine Steigerung um 138 Prozent gegenüber 2017. Mit dem Erfolg wird aber auch die Steuergutschrift von $7.500 für den Kauf von EVs wegfallen.
The tax credit is halved to $3,750 once manufacturers reach a 200,000 delivery threshold, a point that Tesla reached in July 2018. Tesla’s chief executive Elon Musk announced a $2,000 price cut to all its vehicles in the U.S. amid concerns that sales of its $35,000 Model 3 would suffer. Analysts estimate that the Model 3 costs as much as $42,000 to build.
Alongside Tesla, General Motors is also facing the loss of the valuable tax credit as the carmaker battles political fallout triggered by its plans to close five North American factories and shed 15% of its workers -- a move that provoked President Donald Trump to declare that he was “looking at cutting all GM subsidies, including for electric cars.”
Preserving the incentive for buyers is crucial for GM as it helps make plug-ins such as the $36,000 Chevy Bolt more affordable.


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The prime ministers of the four Eastern European countries at the centre of the food products dual standards row have met with EU Commissioners at a summit in Bratislava.
The leaders of the so-called Visegrad group of countries – Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary – met with Vera Jourová, the European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, as well as Vytenis Andriukaitis, the Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, on Friday (13 October) in the Slovakian capital.
EU member countries from the former Communist Bloc in Eastern Europe have complained for some time about poorer quality food items being sold in their markets by western companies – often the same brands and products sold in higher quality versions in western Europe.
The European Commission has expressed sympathy with the complaints but has yet to make, or suggest, legislative changes to outlaw such practices.
Instead, it has introduced guidelines on the implementation of existing EU consumer law in dual standards cases.
Friday’s summit – entitled For Equal Quality Of Products For All – was intended to present the Commission’s work against unfair practices in the single market which also includes creating a “methodology to improve food products testing”.
Ahead of the summit, Jourová said: “My main goal for the Bratislava summit is to give what the Commission promised – to help the national authorities to deal with a problem of dual standards of food. It is time to put an end to this practice. Our single market is not a double-standards market.”
Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydblo said at the meeting: “Deliberate discrimination against consumers based on their country of origin is unacceptable and we have the right to expect the equal treatment we deserve from other partners in the EU, including EU institutions. We have welcomed a European Commission decision to start work on clarifying the problem of two standards in food quality.”
Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka reiterated calls for a change in law.
“The current EU law does not allow for proper prosecution of misleading practice. We need to amend it,” he said.
A number of western food companies that have become embroiled in the dual standards row have taken unilateral action to deal with the problem.
German cookie and biscuit maker Bahlsen has moved to unify its production standards in Europe while Swiss-headquartered baby food firm Hipp is to relaunch one of its products in Croatia.


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Pando goes to the NRA convention to find the Mark Zuckerberg of guns
It’s 2:30 am and I’m on the red-eye toward Indianapolis, Indiana, staging ground for the biggest and baddest gun rights powwow in the known world -- aka the National Rifle Association’s annual convention. A guy next to me in an army camo sweater has passed out. His elbow is in my ribs. He’s wheezing deeply, a thick stench of mouth-rot wafting out of his mouth.
While most attendees will be salivating at seeing keynote speaker Ted Nugent, or lining up for panels with names like "Sheepdogs! The Bulletproof Mind for the Armed Citizen," I’m going there to hunt down the biggest next Internet of Things device in Silicon Valley: the "smart gun."
Ron Conway*, the godfather of Silicon Valley’s angel investors, recently launched a foundation and a $1 million competition to find the inventors who have the best idea for a gun technology that prevents unauthorized use of a firearm by tying it to a specific user/users.
The competition – the winners of which will be announced this summer – is open to all types of technologies: biometric grips, RFID bracelets, Bluetooth gun-pairing smartphone apps, and whatever else people come up with… Winners will be awarded with prizes of up to $200,000 to develop the technology to the point that they can get the first round of investors – one of whom may or may not be Ron himself.
Conway launched the challenge after Sandy Hook – he was appalled by the slaughter of innocents and a lack of action by pols in DC. Luckily, he saw a way to get around and past broken DC politics: free markets and technology.
The Smart Tech Challenges Foundation is organizing a series of challenges aimed at encouraging the creation of free-market solutions to reduce gun violence. We can speed up the discovery of innovative technologies to make America safer without encroaching upon our Second Amendment rights.The solution is brilliant in its simplicity: gun violence is caused by a technological tool – namely, a gun. So what better way to solve the problem than with another technology. It’s like fighting fire with fire. Or taking an eye for an eye. And who better to light the fire or poke out an eye than Silicon Valley, which has been making the world a better place through tech and free markets for… well, for at least a decade or two.
“We’re going to be able to point to the Mark Zuckerberg or Larry Page innovator for gun safety, who made their fame by inventing around gun safety,” Conway said at a press conference that announced the launch of the smart gun challenge.
The people at Smart Tech Foundation’s launch event stressed that smart guns technology isn’t about gun control. Jim Pitkow, Conway's partner in the foundation, said “We believe in the free market and the democratic process... This is about examining the current realities of gun violence and the systematic market failures in terms of innovation and active capital. This is not about gun control. In no way do our efforts challenge the right to bear arms."
Mr. Conway’s smart gun challenge might be all about making the world a better place and saving kids. But that doesn’t mean it can’t make a bit of money, too. It is a free market solution, after all. So there’s got to be a profit motive lurking around somewhere.
And sure enough, there’s already a massive captive market for smart gun technology for anyone who brings it to mass market first.
How massive? Well consider that the state of New Jersey already has a smart gun law on the books that mandates all guns sold in the state be equipped with smart gun technology – no later than three years after such technology becomes available on the consumer market.
The law was passed more than a decade ago.
Here is the New York Times reporting on it back in 2003:
After five years of debate, the state Assembly had passed the most significant gun legislation since the ban on assault rifles more than a decade ago. Then, a week before Christmas, the same measure – which urges the creation of a new type of handgun breezily labeled the ‘‘smart gun’’ – moved easily through the state Senate.
Governor McGreevey signed the legislation, the first of its kind in the nation, on Dec. 23, to the cheers of supporters and despite protests from gun owners and sellers alike.
…New Jersey’s law is novel in several respects. It directs that retail dealers of handguns sell only state-approved, child-proof pistols and revolvers as soon as smart gun technology comes on the open market. The National Rifle Association points out such high-tech guns have hardly reached the testing stage, and that the state law – which gives gun manufacturers five years to find a solution – is open-ended and legislates a product that does not even exist. Translation: If Ron Conway’s smart gun challenge produces a viable product, he’d automatically have a captive market — and an entire state.
Other states may be joining New Jersey. A similar law is winding its way through California, which would mandate smart gun tech be integrated into guns 1.5 years after such technology becomes available.
There’s also a federal push for smart gun tech as well.
Massachusetts Democratic Senator Edward Markey recently introduced the Handgun Trigger Safety Act of 2014. It’s unlikely that it’ll pass, but it’s serious about smart guns:
Beginning on the date that is 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, no person may manufacture in the United States a handgun that is not a personalized handgun.It also calls for putting up $2 million to fund private and state efforts to develop smart gun tech. $2 million might not be enough, but it seems to be just the beginning of a bigger federal push.
Just the other day, Attorney General Eric Holder budgeted $2 million as part of “the Administration’s challenge to the private sector to develop innovative and cost-effective gun safety technology."
The more I think about it, the more Ron Conway’s smart gun challenge looks like an investment cloaked as philanthropy. Then again, it doesn’t matter what I think. Because Conway freely admits it:
“We need the iPhone of guns,” Conway told the Washington Post. “The entrepreneur who does this right could be the Mark Zuckerberg of guns. Then the venture capitalists like me will dive in, give them capital, and we will build a multibillion-dollar gun company that makes safe, smart guns.”
A free market investment into a tech that will be required by law by the government. Brilliant. You can’t think of a better business climate.
Finding the next Zuckerberg who’ll make the iPhone of guns? Surely, Conway meant the next Steve Jobs to make the iPhone of guns. But then, Conway was an early investor in Facebook: Imagine how much richer he would have been if the government had laws forcing everyone on the Internet to use Facebook.
And so off I go to the NRA convention to see if I can track down the Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs of guns. With all the recent interest in smart gun tech, I'm assuming smart businessfolk have been rushing to get into the market. To be first and dominate. And I'm hoping there'll be rows and rows of gun-loving entrepreneurs innovating not just in smart gun tech, but pushing the frontier of the “Internet of Guns-Things.” Israel is already way ahead in the iPhone-of-guns arms race. America must close the gap!
To be continued...
[illustration by Brad Jonas for Pando]


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Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - 6:23am
Event from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. at Alliant Energy Center Olin Av Lot
The City of Madison and Dane County will hold their annual home compost bin sale on Saturday May 3rd. This one day only sale will feature the Earth Machine Home Composter. The Earth Machine will be on sale for $39, plus tax.
"The bin sale is a very popular event," Madison recycling coordinator George Dreckmann said.
The compost bins will be sold at the Alliant Energy Center from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. People should use the Olin Av entrance.
The bins sale will be held rain or shine and bins are sold on a first come first served basis. The sites will accept cash or checks only, no credit cards.
"You do not need to be a Madison or Dane County resident to purchase a compost bin," Dreckmann said. "You can also purchase as many bins as you would like."
Additional information is available by calling 267-2088 or by going to the City of Madison's web site, www.cityofmadison.com/streets.
Rain Barrels Also On Sale
In addition to compost bins, Sustain Dane will be on hand selling their Rain Reserve rain barrels. These popular systems will be on sale for $89.99 plus tax for a single barrel system and $125.99 for a dual barrel system. For more information on rain barrels go to www.rainfordane.org or call Sustain Dane at 316-6844
- George Dreckmann267-2626


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Decrypt’s Art, Fashion, and Entertainment Hub.
British authorities are set to auction off half a million pounds worth of cryptocurrencies that were seized from Elliot Gunton, a 19-year old hacker from Norwich, UK.
The seized cryptocurrencies confiscated from Gunton—who was found guilty of illegally supplying online personal data and hacking services last month—included Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP. He was sentenced to 20 months in prison and ordered to repay more than £400,000.
The loot contained a multitude of different crypto assets that have now been collected by the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit and sent to the UK-based auction house Wilsons Auctions.
Wilsons Auctions are selling the currency with no-minimum reserve. The first sale begins at noon GMT on September 25, running for 24 hours, and the second will take place at 6pm GMT the following day. In total 15 lots of bitcoins are going on sale to bidders in person and online.
The digital asset listing is also a first from the UK police. However, it wasn’t a first for the auction house that managed the first public auction of bitcoins on behalf of the Belgian Government in March 2019. The sizeable loot of 315 bitcoins (worth $1.1 million back then) was sold in an auction that had bidders participating from more than 90 countries.
Speaking ahead of the auction, asset recovery director at Wilsons Auctions, Aidan Larkin said, “Following the success of our world-first public auction of bitcoin, which achieved global attention, we are excited to continue to roll out this secure service to both our public and private sector clients.”
In July this year, it was reported that UK police were receiving training on how to handle cryptocurrencies. It looks that training came in handy.


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Chevrolet making some changes
May 24, 2019 10:22AM CDT
Do you buckle up while driving? You may not have a choice depending on what your next new car will be. Chevrolet is bringing back the seat belt interlock. The safety feature was first introduced in the 1970s, and prevents a car from shifting into drive until the seat belt is fastened. Chevy will launch the new feature this year on the 2020 Malibu, Colorado, and Traverse.


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Asus has just unveiled its new ZenFone Go-series smartphone, the ZenFone Go 5.0 LTE (ZB500KL), in India.
And since it has been launched the smartphone is also now available to buy via Amazon India. The smartphone is priced at Rs. 8,999, the new Asus ZenFone Go 5.0 LTE (ZB500KL) is also available via offline retail stores according to various reports.
While it can sometimes get confusing with Asus' smartphone lineup, the new Asus ZenFone Go 5.0 LTE (ZB500KL) is an upgraded version of the Asus ZenFone Go 5.0 LTE (T500), which was launched last year in India and was priced at Rs. 7,999.
As for the smartphone, the Asus ZenFone Go 5.0 LTE (ZB500KL) features a 5-inch HD (1280x720 pixels) TFT display. Powering the device is a 1GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916) processor coupled with 2GB of RAM. The Asus ZenFone Go 5.0 LTE comes with 16GB of inbuilt storage and it can be expanded via microSD card (up to 64GB). Under the hood, the smartphone packs a 2600mAh battery.
Further, Asus is also offering 5GB of free lifetime Asus WebStorage to anyone who buys the Asus ZenFone Go 5.0 LTE (ZB500KL).
On the photography front, Asus ZenFone Go 5.0 LTE (ZB500KL) include a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and 5-megapixel front-facing camera. While connectivity solutions include dual SIM, 4G LTE, 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, and other standard connectivity options.
However, the Asus ZenFone Go 5.0 LTE (ZB500KL) will run Android 6.0 Marshmallow with the company's ZenUI on top. Additionally, the smartphone will come in several colors including Black, Red, Gold, Silver and Blue.


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Zespri takes action against illegal Chinese SunGold plantings
Zespri will take a civil case in China against growers who have illegally planted the gold kiwifruit variety Sungold, reports local media Stuff.
It said there could be as many as 2,000 to 2,500 hectares of the variety planted in China.
In comparison, there are 6,500 hectares of Sungold in New Zealand, and 1,100 hectares licensed overseas.
The variety is considered premium and is sold at a higher price than most.
While Zespri chief grower and alliances officer Dave Courtney said that sales of the fruit have not yet impacted the co-op, it wants to protect its intellectual property. China buys more than NZ$500m of kiwifruit a year from Zespri, says Stuff.
"We're aware that the variety has been grown by smaller household growers but what we're noticing is there are a couple of bigger, more commercial players picking it up which has made us step in," Courtney was quoted saying.
Previously, Zespri launched a case in New Zealand against the person who allegedly sent Sungold plants to China.
Illegal planting in China has affected Zespri in the past as well. In the early 2000s, Chinese growers planted over 1,000 hectares of the gold variety Hort16a.
Courtney also told Stuff that it has had success pursuing trademark infringement as a criminal charge. The organization is working with a law firm in China.
To read the full article, click here.


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Exports by Wyoming businesses totaled $1.4 billion in 2012 and over the past five years exports have grown by more than 30 percent. Wyoming as one of 11 states that saw double digit growth from 2011 to 2012.
While being home on the range is great in Wyoming, the state is making a name for itself well outside its borders.
Exports by Wyoming businesses totaled $1.4 billion in 2012, and over the past five years, exports have grown by more than 30 percent. Wyoming is one of 11 states that saw double-digit growth from 2011 to 2012.
The state’s major exports include chemicals, machinery, oil and gas products, and minerals. More than 63,000 Wyoming jobs are tied to international trade, and nearly 20 percent of all manufacturing workers depend on exports for their jobs.
Wyoming is gaining in export volume annually and laying a foundation for future growth with aggressive programs that help small and large businesses alike crack international markets.
Many of those efforts are being spearheaded by the Wyoming Business Council, a state agency that facilitates economic growth.
A relatively new program, ExporTech, is administered through the Business Council, and provides a boost for smaller companies that want to get into international trade. Over the past two years, ExporTech has worked with 11 Wyoming companies in the manufacturing, agribusiness, retail and technology industries, and many of them are already seeing new or expanded export activity.
“We are interested in providing a value-added service to companies in the state. We have been able to assist companies with targeting foreign markets for their products,” says Cindy Garretson-Weibel, director of agribusiness for the Wyoming Business Council and program manager for ExporTech.
A grant from the Small Business Administration’s State Trade Export Promotion program, helped Wyoming businesses offset ExporTech training costs. ExporTech was conducted in part by the Business Council, Manufacturing Works and the Wyoming Small Business Development Center.
“Our mission is to provide Wyoming companies with opportunities to expand their markets overseas,” Garretson-Weibel says. “A lot of what we do is training; we have found this not only helps them in product development and marketing overseas, but even enhances their domestic market plans.”
Tom Balding, owner of Tom Balding Bits & Spurs in Sheridan, is a recent graduate of the ExporTech program. Balding’s company makes bits and spurs used extensively by the equine industry.
“Being part of the program was a great opportunity,” Balding says. “For several years, we had considered exporting, but we didn’t have all of the tools and know-how to do it.”
Balding said he is seeing some early results from participating in the program and has added customers in Australia, Europe and Japan.
Bruce King, chief executive officer, of AristaTek in Laramie, says the ExporTech program helps his company focus on the right international customers for his business. AristaTek has developed a software program to assist first responders in dealing with hazardous materials incidents.
“We hadn’t considered exporting, and decided it was time to do that,” King says.
ExporTech Boosts Wyoming Trade
Larry Stewart, an ExporTech program manager and director of Manufacturing Works, says ExporTech helps companies look at their products or services and match them to overseas markets. Manufacturing Works provides technical assistance, engineering solutions, general business assistance, marketing advice and financial counseling to manufacturers.
The Business Council also helps Wyoming companies get insurance guarantees and export funding through Export-Import Bank programs. Another helpful program is the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Market Access Program, which gives food producers in the state technical assistance in exporting.
Wyoming’s agriculture-related companies are making inroads into international markets. In 2012, Jessen Wheat Company, in Pine Bluffs, became the first U.S. wheat producer to export organic proso millet and wheat to China.
The ExporTech program offered a host a lot of worthwhile ideas for Sue Osborn, a principal at EMIT Technologies.
“We had already been doing some exporting, but we feel the ExporTech program helped us enhance our export business,” says Osborn, whose Sheridan-based company makes catalysts and other emission control products used in the natural gas and other industries. “The classes gave us some additional learning and resources to go deeper into the export business,” Osborn says.
Peggy Drury, owner of Crazy Woman Water Co. in Buffalo, Wyo., said she received expert advice on her overall business plan from the training, which could lead to an expansion of her artesian water products business into Canada in the near future.
“They helped me understand the mechanics of the export business,” Drury says.


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Amazon.com wants “.joy,” Google wants “.love” and L’Oreal wants “.beauty.”
Big brands are behind hundreds of proposals for new Internet addresses, including scores for generic terms such as “cruise,” “.kids” and “.tires.”
If approved, Amazon could use “.author” in an attempt to dominate online bookselling, while Google could use “.love” to collect registration fees from its rivals.
Amazon and Google also are vying for “.app” and “.music,” while the wine company Gallo Vineyards Inc. wants “.barefoot.”
It’s all part of the largest expansion of the Internet address system since its creation in the 1980s, a process likely to cause headaches for some companies while creating vast opportunities for others.
The organisation in charge of Internet addresses, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, announced the proposals for Internet suffixes Wednesday (US time). A suffix is the “.com” part in a domain name.
The bids now go through a review that could take months or years. Up to 1,000 suffixes could be added each year.
There were 1,930 proposals for 1,409 different suffixes. The bulk of proposals that met the May 30 deadline came from North America and Europe. About 100 were for suffixes in non-English characters, including Chinese, Arabic and Thai.


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What’s changed about the new USDA Dietary Guidelines?
Every five years, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture release updated nutritional guidelines that encourage Americans to adopt science-based recommendations to improve how they eat to reduce obesity and prevent chronic diseases like Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. While some feel that the recommendations are still too pro-meat and dairy and should do a better job promoting vegan diets, these are recommendations that fit the majority of diets for the general public.
Previous Dietary Guidelines for Americans focused on recommended portion sizes and how many per day in each food group. The newly released eighth edition (for 2015-2020) focuses more on teaching the public to understand the importance of choosing to eat healthy now and through ones’ lifetime. This current edition also diminishes the emphasis on single foods and their nutrients individually and encourages inclusion of a variety of foods (and beverages) to create overall healthy eating patterns to promote long-term improvements in individual and general population health. The following are excerpts taken from the on-line news release and actual document.
The general recommendations fit into five overarching guidelines in the new edition
•Follow a healthy eating pattern across the lifespan. Eating patterns are the combination of foods and drinks that a person eats over time.
•Focus on variety, nutrient-dense foods, and amount
•Limit calories from added sugars and saturated fats, and reduce sodium intake
•Shift to healthier food and beverage choices
Support healthy eating patterns for allFurther, the recommendations for healthy eating patterns include encouraging a variety of nutritious foods like vegetables, fruits, grains, low-fat and fat-free dairy, lean meats and other protein foods and oils, while limiting saturated fats, trans fats, added sugars and sodium. Such patterns should be adapted to a person’s preferences, traditions, culture and budget.
Specifically, the guidelines familiarly suggest Americans should consume
•A variety of vegetables, including dark green, red and orange, legumes (beans and peas), starchy and other vegetables
•Fruits, especially whole fruits
•Grains, at least half of which are whole grains
•Fat-free or low-fat dairy, including milk, yogurt, cheese, and/or fortified soy beverages
•A variety of protein foods, including seafood, lean meats and poultry, eggs, legumes (beans and peas), soy products, and nuts and seeds
Oils, including those from plants: canola, corn, olive, peanut, safflower, soybean and sunflower. Oils also are naturally present in nuts, seeds, seafood, olives, and avocados.
Included in the current guidelines is acknowledgment that parts of the U.S. population have a more difficult time accessing fresh produce and a large selection of other grocery items. This may be due to location of where they live or a lack of transportation. Beyond influencing school lunch menus, the guidelines include a call to improve access to food in communities whether it is by improving selection at the corner market or creating financial programs encouraging grocery stores to be built in local neighborhoods and rural communities.
Household Food Insecurity
According to the guidelines, about 48 million individuals live in households that run out of food and dollars to purchase more food before the end of the month or before the next paycheck arrives. This is labeled as Food Insecurity. Programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Food Stamps) and the educational program associated with educating families that qualify for it (SNAP-Ed) is just one avenue identified to reduce this issue.
Recognition of the increasingly diverse population due, in part, to emigration/immigration, the guidelines also stress flexibility to accommodate traditional and cultural foods. This has not been highlighted in previous dietary guidelines.
This overview of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans is just a brief picture of the overall document. For a detailed view, go to health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/ .
Kathleen Riggs is the Utah State University Extension family and consumer sciences professor for Iron County. Questions or comments may be sent to firstname.lastname@example.org or call 435-586-8132.


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Around 3 in 4 Brits now see rising costs of food as a major cause for concern according to a survey done by the FSA, but does the new online discount retailer Motatos provide the solution we all need?
We are all starting to feel the pinch, as the rising costs of living keep on rising with inflation hitting 9% in April 2022 and food and drink prices alone rising by 6.7%. In fact the FSA found that not only has the number of people using food banks increased from one in ten to one in six in March 2022, but in fact 22% or one in five people surveyed have even said they skip meals simply because they cannot afford to buy enough food.
So what is the answer to this growing crisis? Online-only discount retailer Motatos may be it.
Hailing from Sweden, previously named Matsmart, Motatos founded in 2013 and was founded by three friends who united around a singular passion around eradicating food waste. Skip forward a few years and they have since taken Europe by storm, as their claim to be 60% cheaper than Aldi and Lidl have seen them expand operations across Denmark, Finland, Germany and now the UK.
Motatos promise is to stock well known products that would otherwise end up in land-fill, by selling surplus food from wholesalers, oh and they also only sell “Save-the-planet-stuff”.
“The Motatos’ strategy is to keep our costs at a competitive level…We offer top quality brands for up to 60% less than leading supermarkets, so this is where we differ from Aldi and Lidl.”” UK country manager Christabel Biella said.
Motatos isn’t the first or only one to find innovative solutions to combating food waste, mobile app Too Good To Go have also been fighting the good fight for a few years now, by allowing retailers to offer discounted packages on products that might have to get thrown out at the end of the day
In more recent news, Spain's government have now announced that new legislation will allow fines to be placed upon supermarkets for leftovers in bins and even restaurants and bars must now provide ‘doggy bags’ for customers to take home their leftovers, as they try to tackle the 1,300 tonnes of food wasted every year across the country, similar efforts have been seen across France and Italy.


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Cruise ships implementing new technologies to combat COVID-19
Cruise ships are due for a high-tech upgrade.
Like many other industries, cruise companies are making long-term plans to keep customers safe from the coronavirus pandemic (and other possible outbreaks). Due to the nature of cruise ships, however, special technology may need to be implemented to keep the boats safe.
Two technologies being considered for cruise ships include using UV lights to disinfect travelers and a tracking program that uses signals from mobile devices to track movement, USA Today reports. While cruise companies are reportedly in talks with various companies to implement these concepts, nothing has been publicly confirmed as of yet.
ROYAL CARIBBEAN MAY ELIMINATE BUFFETS WHEN CRUISING RESUMES
Nadir Ali is CEO of Inpixon, an indoor data intelligence company. He spoke with USA Today, describing how his company’s technology can collect data from Wi-Fi, Bluetooth signals and cellular signals through radio frequencies. According to him, some cruise lines are in talks to implement this technology on their boats.
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Using this data, cruise companies could reportedly track the crowd-density levels on each deck and area of the ship and monitor where crowds aren’t following social distancing protocols. This technology could also be used to track the movements of passengers who show symptoms of COVID-19 or, any other infectious disease.
Another technology that may be implemented onto cruise ships uses UVC light to sterilize spaces, or even people, to some extent. According to one expert who spoke with USA Today, UVC light doesn’t pose a risk to humans but can be used to kill bacteria and viruses.
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Multiple cruise companies are reportedly in talks to install these devices in areas where large groups gather and other high traffic locations, such as entranceways, greeting counters and even in elevators, though the names of the specific operators had not yet been made public.


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Shares of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD 0.19%) were falling today, as much as 5%, before settling into a 4.6% loss as of 12:30 p.m. ET.
One can chalk up today's decline to two things: First, the 10-Year Treasury bond continued its ascent, reaching 2.77% today -- that's up more than an entire percentage point since the beginning of the year. Rapidly rising long-term rates tend to hurt high-multiple growth stocks, and at 38 times earnings, AMD is certainly that.
Second, AMD rival Nvidia (NVDA -0.01%) was downgraded by analysts at Baird today. Although the downgrade wasn't about AMD, the factors driving the Nvidia downgrade affect AMD as well.
Baird analyst Tristan Gerra took a hatchet to Nvidia today, lowering his rating from overweight to neutral and slashing his price target on the stock from $360 to $225. That's a pretty big downgrade, and unfortunately for AMD shareholders, it's not due to an Nvidia-specific problem.
Gerra believes these companies' customers are canceling orders for graphics processing units (GPUs), amid falling prices for these chips in both Europe and China. The declines seem to be primarily centered around consumer devices, he notes.
Gerra also sees the recent embargo on chip sales to Russia being more impactful than some believe. Although Russia is a very small percentage of overall global chip sales, Gerra thinks there is an outsize percentage of gamers and crypto miners there -- two big applications for GPUs. And with the Russia-Ukraine conflict potentially leading to a European recession and China recently implementing COVID-19-related lockdowns, it's not a great picture for consumers to go buy deluxe PCs with high-end graphics, especially since many loaded up on new PCs earlier during the pandemic.
This downgrade didn't come out of the blue, either. Last week, analysts at Truist Financial also downgraded Nvidia, and included AMD and Intel in their downgrade as well for similar reasons: a sudden sharp decline in consumer demand for electronic devices.
Amid its decline today, AMD shares are down nearly 30% on the year and 37% from their all-time highs.
Has the hate gone too far? Analysts seem to think so, as AMD shares now sit below every sell-side analyst's price target. Yet as is the case with basically all semiconductor stocks, AMD will be at the mercy of macroeconomic events, as well as a potential softening cycle as the world transitions to the next iteration of the COVID-19 pandemic.
One silver lining is that these downgrades don't mention data center growth, which occupies AMD's enterprise, embedded, and semi-custom segment. Last quarter, the enterprise segment grew 75% to $2.2 billion, while the consumer-centric segment grew 32% to $2.3 billion. With AMD's Epyc data center chips growing fast and AMD's enterprise segment about to surpass the computing and graphics segment in size, data center growth is becoming more important to the company relative to the struggling consumer segment.
So far in this downturn, no analyst that I've seen is seeing a slowdown in enterprise or cloud spending. That being said, if consumer demand weakens further, weakness could creep into enterprise spending as well, so it's something for investors to keep an eye on.
After its decline, AMD looks reasonably valued here; however in the near term, the picture is highly uncertain, given the mix of geopolitical, virus-related, and inflationary factors that are largely out of the company's control.