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Target Expands Offerings, Invests in Digital for Back-to-School
With the critical back-to-school and back-to-college season looming, Target is expanding its offerings for students as well as doubling down on digital experiences and campus events.
The season marks the second-biggest shopping period of the year, accounting for $84 billion in sales and ranking behind only the winter holidays. Between June and August, Target spends about $160 million on measured media, according to Kantar Media.
"We are very excited and optimistic going into the back-to-school season," said Rick Gomez, Target's senior VP-marketing. "Looking at the assortment, it's broader than we've ever had before. …So we're well positioned."
Target says it has added about 200 additional items to its school-themed area in more than half of its U.S. stores, compared to a year ago. In store, there's an emphasis on apparel and matching accessories, as well as fashion-forward school supplies, like glittery calculators and slap-ruler bracelets.
The retailer said it plans to invest heavily in broadcast TV -- it has six ads -- followed by print and radio. There will also be a program with Instagram. Ads focus on celebrating kids' sense of style, a departure from the campaign that has run for the last two years featuring teachers and opening with a salutation to parents. The ads, created by 72andSunny, will air in select markets beginning July 14 and roll out nationwide on July 28.
For back-to-college, there will be a significant presence in digital. "The most important thing we can do is reach millennials where they are, and where they are is the digital space, so we invest quite a bit of our marketing across digital, social and mobile," said Mr. Gomez. "On-campus events are fun, but really the back-to-college marketing cornerstone is digital."
In the digital space, Target will offer online tools to help students create dorm décor and organize lists. The retailer will also host Bullseye University. Conceived out of Deutsch, L.A., it will place five popular YouTube personalities in a dorm, created on a set in Los Angeles, between July 15 and 18. Consumers can shop online for products they spot in the dorm by mousing over the item. They can also interact with the "roommates," as well as participate in online events ranging from music performances to workouts.
Target will also expand its presence on campus with five Live Dorm Rooms, located at Texas A&M, Auburn, Georgia State, George Mason and UCLA. The pop-up spaces will be occupied by a student ambassador and fully furnished with Target products featuring QR codes for online shopping. Target After Hours, a longstanding event that buses freshman to a local store after hours, will also be held at 100 campuses.
"It's a really important season, because if we can get this young adult millennial who is going into a new life stage, it's a way to get a loyal guest for a lifetime," Mr. Gomez said. "We invest a lot to make sure we have the right merchandise. There's a lot of research toward knowing what the millennial customer is looking for."


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says a big yellow ad campaign and a hot new phone are setting the scene for a strong fourth quarter.
Operating chief Len Lauer told investors Tuesday at the UBS Global Communications Conference in New York that the company expects to add 1.4 million net new wireless users in the quarter ending Dec. 31. Lauer also emphasized that Sprint is on track to recognize some $14.5 billion worth of so-called synergies from this year's merger with Nextel, in part related to a decision not to build Nextel's third-generation wireless network. Those figures are in line with guidance Sprint has offered in the past.
But Lauer saved his strongest praise for the Samsung Blade, the razor-thin fold-out phone whose imminent release could boost Sprint on the customer-addition front this holiday season. The Blade is black and barely half an inch thick, and it comes chock full of features like a 1.3-megapixel digital camera and the crucial Bluetooth connectivity technology. Lauer suggested Sprint expects the Blade to bolster Sprint's standing among wireless trendsetters the way
Razr helped rival Cingular. The Blade is expected to be released within weeks.
Lauer said the Blade isn't the only weapon in Sprint's possession. He was optimistic about a new advertising push and about what he called a stronger relationship with retailer
. Lauer also spoke highly of Sprint's Power Vision video-over-phone offering, which claims to offer 20 channels of live TV.
On Tuesday, Sprint shares fell 19 cents to $24.99.

domain: news


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Sony has confirmed to gaming industry news site MCV (UK) that it will be launching a PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita combined ‘Ultimate’ bundle in time for the Christmas holidays. The twin console pack will also be helped along with a £2.5 million Vita focussed TV ad campaign showing the handheld and living room consoles integrated, functioning as a compliment to one another.
The PlayStation 4 is a hot topic right now, having recently been launched in some regions and coming to the UK a week from now. It looks like Sony want to capitalise on the renewed interest in its wares, hoping that some of the PS4 frenzy will rub off onto its PS Vita and help shift some more units of the powerful handheld console.
Vita hasn’t been a big seller in comparison to its nearest rival the Nintendo 3DS and VentureBeat recently reported that a single 3DS game sold more than the top 22 best selling Vita games combined. However keener pricing, an updated Vita 2000, a surge in indie development and good integration with the new shiny PS4 could help Vita to a comeback.
The new £2.5 million ad campaign for the Vita is called ‘The Best Way to Play” and will co-promote the PS4 and new exclusive games title ‘Tearaway’ by the creators of LittleBigPlanet, as seen below.
Talking to MCV senior product manager at Sony, Ben Law, said “We're really excited for Vita as we move into Christmas.” He added that “We've got a great campaign with key messaging around new releases like Tearaway, the ever-growing game catalogue and the Remote Play service.” At the time of writing the new cross promotional ad campaign is yet to be made available except for the 'Tearaway' promo video, above, released just minutes ago.


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It has been revealed that Renault will be unveiling an all-new Koleos SUV in the not-too-distant future.
Speaking to CarAdvice in Australia, Renault Australia managing director Justin Hocevar stated that a second generation of the Koleos is in the works. This is good news, since the SUV is in need of a replacement. It was originally launched in 2008, and although it has received some updates, it is starting to show its age.
However, Hocevar also revealed that we won’t be seeing the new Koleos this year – or even next year, for that matter. The second-gen model is apparently still two years away (2016), so the current Koleos will still need to soldier on for quite some time.
Like the current version, the new Koleos will be heavily based on the Nissan X-Trail thanks to the Renault-NIssan alliance.
* 2014 Renault Koleos pictured.


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Tim O’Connor, executive director of the National Christmas Tree Association, which represents 38 state and regional associations of growers of Christmas trees and annually provides the White House and the vice president’s residence with a Christmas tree, advised anyone interested in purchasing a fresh tree to visit the farm lot as soon as possible.
“Good Morning America” quoted O’Connor as saying, “You really have to go early if you want to shop the Christmas tree farm.” They have whatever trees they have available for that season and then they’re done. And they have been selling out every year early.”
The American Christmas Tree Association, whose members are Christmas tree manufacturers and retailers, is also encouraging shoppers to buy early as prices will rise as Christmas nears.
“Because inflation impacts absolutely everything, the industry is seeing increases in shipping costs, fertilizer, trucking, everything you can possibly think of, whether it be real or artificial trees. So I think consumers can expect to see anywhere from 5% to 20% increases across the board on artificial and live Christmas trees this year,” American Christmas Tree Association executive director Jami Warner told “GMA.”
Warner also said that shoppers may also see fewer tree options this holiday season.
“People are used to abundance and choice and again, the choices will be limited but choose the tree that fits your lifestyle the best, be it real or artificial,” she said.
Inflation isn’t the only major issue affecting the Christmas tree industry this season. In some parts of the country, shoppers may notice there are fewer fresh trees due to drought conditions and climate change.
At Kadee Farm in Greenville, Texas, a town about 35 miles northeast of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan region, owner Woody Woodruff said a drought that started in the spring decimated over 1,000 trees on his 53-acre farm, which grows Virginia pine trees.
“There’s gonna be a lack of trees this year. In the South, which includes Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, there’s some tree growers that are all down in those states that experienced drought conditions and therefore it’s gonna be a little more difficult to get the trees that we needed,” Woodruff told “GMA.”
Both the NCTA and ACTA representatives say there should still be plenty of Christmas trees for everyone interested at the end of the day, real or artificial. “We always say there’s a tree for every family,” O’Connor said. “There are trees for different budgets too. So if you really are concerned about price, you know, yes, it won’t be the most beautiful tree on the lot perhaps but there’ll be a tree that fits your price range, that when you bring it home, you’ll enjoy it in your home.”


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Electrical appliance group Philips reported a setback in its switch to focus on healthcare technologies on Monday, revealing that overall net profit slumped by nearly a quarter in the last three months.
Exoskeletons helping the paralysed to walk, tiny maggot-inspired devices gnawing at brain tumours, machines working tirelessly as hospital helpers: in many respects, the future of medicine is already here.
Malaysian professionals value workplace relationships more than any other Asian country, says professional network LinkedIn’s Relationships @Work recent study
In a presumed effort to face off against the dynamic duo of Nike and Apple, which have honed a solid partnership with increasing success, Korean tech giant Samsung is rumoured to be joining forces with American sportswear maker Under Armour to create a wearable fitness tracker.
Like a well-trained dog, the HEXO+ follows you faithfully wherever you go. But it doesn't walk besides you — it's airborne.
In the booming world of smart watches, pendants and bracelets that let people track sleep and steps, wearable computing pioneer Jawbone is out to win hearts through stomachs.
Google and Novartis have announced plans to bring the tech giant's smart contact lenses to market, and no, they're not the intraocular version of Google Glass.
Swiss drugmaker Novartis has struck an agreement with Google to develop "smart" contact lenses that would help diabetics to track their blood glucose levels or restore the eye's ability to focus.
Sport-specific wearables are burgeoning, although basic trackers are taking on the role of overall health and fitness coach.
A new beta version of the Apple health tracking platform for iOS 8 boasts of a pedometer and the capacity to track caffeine intake.


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Recent happenings that further diversity, inclusion in the natural products industryRecent happenings that further diversity, inclusion in the natural products industry
Here are recent efforts in the natural and specialty foods industry to advance and integrate diversity and inclusion in America’s food system.
April 28, 2021
This roundup of news items focus on recent efforts in the natural and specialty foods industry to advance and integrate diversity and inclusion in America’s food system. You can learn more and explore how to get involved in these efforts by visiting the J.E.D.I Collaborative, www.jedicollaborative.com.
J.E.D.I Collaborative seeks to expand diversity in the natural products industry
In a Compass Coffee Talk conversation in April, Carlotta Mast, co-founder of the J.E.D.I Collaborative, announced that the organization,dedicated to expanding Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the natural and organic products industry, will soon be appointing a new Executive Director. The organization recently engaged Ryan Pintado-Vertner, founder of Smoketown, a Chicago-based agency dedicated to expanding diversity and social impact in the CPG industry, to help further J.E.D.I’s reach, focus and influence in the natural products market. “We’re standing on the shoulders of a lot of effort and work, and with the Black Lives Matter movement, we’ve hit an inflection point. The 15% pledge is the reason companies like Target and Fresh Market have taken these initiatives,” said Pintado-Vertner, referring to an initiative launched in 2020 calling on major retailers to commit to a minimum of 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned businesses. The J.E.D.I Collaborative was founded by One Step Closer (OSC), an industry organization dedicated to zero waste packaging, reversing climate change, conscious leadership and a just and regenerative society. Compass Coffee Talk is produced by Compass Natural Marketing.
How natural companies can turn societal upheaval into better branding
In the recent issue of Nutrition Business Journal, featuring guest editor Emerald-Jane Hunter of the myWHY Agency, writer Rick Polito outlined lessons marketers and brand executives learned in the past year that they are taking into the future. One is to commit to Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (J.E.D.I) (see above). “If you don’t have a diversity strategy, you don’t have a growth strategy,” one industry veteran said. For the natural products industry, that means “figuring out how to move beyond a primarily white and affluent audience, how to support Black-owned businesses and how to embrace diversity within its own corporate teams,” he wrote. According to a Natural and Organic Industry Benchmarking Survey, in the boardrooms of natural products brands, only 2% of leadership positions are occupied by Black professionals. Samantha Flynn, who works with the myWHY Agency, emphasized that authenticity means more than posting supportive messages, especially to Gen Z. “They believe in the power of their dollar and no purchase is too small for them to be examining what the company stands for,” she said.
Natural products industry fund to provide scholarships, networking for HBCU students
The Organic and Natural Health Association (ONHA) recently announced a partnership with the Williams-Franklin Foundation to raise a minimum of $50,000 over the next five years to provide scholarship funds for students attending historically black colleges or universities (HBCU). The Organic and Natural Health Scholarship Fund will support students in financial need, and ONHA also committed to support networking opportunities for HBCU students, graduates and natural health executives with the purposes of creating internships and career opportunities, while helping to create a more diverse and inclusive industry.
“This is an Organic and Natural Health initiative, but it’s not ours to own,” said Karen Howard, executive director of ONHA. “We want to make this an industry-wide initiative for diversity and inclusion, and we want it to be as big and as noteworthy as what Vitamin Angels has achieved for dietary supplement distribution to countries in need. Exposure to our industry is the biggest barrier to lack of diversification in our organizations. Together, as an industry, we can proactively work to change this dynamic.” The Williams-Franklin Foundation is a 501(c)(3) incorporated nonprofit that provides academic scholarships, business/career networking, and mentoring opportunities to HBCU students with extreme financial need. Led by husband and wife team, Dwight and LaShelle (Williams) Franklin, both HBCU graduates used their own seed money to launch the foundation in 2014.
Leaders and companies within the natural products industry who want to donate a tax-deductible gift directly to the Williams-Franklin Foundation’s Organic and Natural Health Scholarship Fund select “Organic and Natural Health Fund” in the dropbox when donating here.
The Fresh Market appoints new head of diversity
Specialty grocer The Fresh Market has named one of its senior leaders, Gerald Walden, to a newly created position within the retail chain as Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Head of Diversity. As Head of Diversity, Walden will oversee The Fresh Market’s efforts to advance and integrate diversity, equity and inclusion values and practices across the company and with business partners and customers, the company said in a statement. Walden previously served as Vice President, Head of Legal for The Fresh Market, which operates 159 stores in 22 states. Walden currently serves on The Fresh Market’s Diversity Action Board and, for a decade, has overseen the retailer’s legal internship program, which provides exclusive opportunities to minority law students. Walden also has an extensive background in inclusive leadership, having served as the Chair of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Minorities in the Profession Committee, the President of the Guilford County Association of Black Lawyers, and currently Walden serves as a Board Member of the National Employment Law Council and two historically Black universities, the company said.
Dr. Bronner’s issues statement against hate crimes toward Asian Americans
Asian-American and Pacific Islander employees at Dr. Bronner’s, together with the company’s BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) taskforce, have issued a statement against hate toward Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders amid reports that anti-Asian hate crimes rose nearly 150% in America’s largest cities last year. “We have unfortunately seen this over and over again in human history: when a nation struggles with problems, its citizens look for a group to blame, a group they can scapegoat or attack—and often that group is one that is already considered to be outsiders, illegitimate, or somehow less deserving. We recognize that many in the U.S. are truly hurting—devastated by the multiple health and economic crises brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic. But the healing of this pain will never be found in the oppression of other people. It is incumbent on all of us to speak up and intervene if we witness this kind of harassment or racism. It is also imperative that we speak up against the use of phrases like ‘China virus’ or ‘Wuhan virus’ to describe the Covid-19 pandemic, as that sort of language unfairly casts Asians as responsible for the pandemic and creates the conditions for the kind of racist abuse that has been on the rise. This kind of scapegoating of a particular racial group runs directly counter to our grandfather’s All-One vision and is against everything we practice and promote as a company. Dr. Bronner’s speaks out categorically against all harassment or victimization of members of our Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community,” the statement said. Dr. Bronner’s customers can opt in to donate 10% of sales proceeds—at no additional cost—to Asian Americans Advancing Justice through June 30.
Natural Industry Survey: Smaller companies are more diverse than larger ones
Leadership teams and boards of directors in the natural products industry lack diversity and are predominately comprised of white men, according to a survey of 220 industry leaders conducted by the J.E.D.I Collaborative and New Hope Network. According to the benchmark survey, Black and Latinx membership on natural products industry boards is only 2%, while Black and Latinx representation on leadership teams is 2% and 6%, respectively, according to New Hope Network. Smaller companies are more diverse than larger ones: companies with fewer than 10 employees have more women and people of color in management positions, the survey found. According to New Hope Network, today’s natural and organic consumer is primarily white (73%), yet the U.S. population is headed toward a white minority population by 2043. “The U.S. is becoming increasingly diverse and it is imperative that manufacturers and retailers serve the changing population,” the editors of New Hope said. “Becoming a more diverse community will allow us to be able to serve the people who could benefit most from health-promoting food and products and contributes to the long-term costs that all of society pays when we support an unjust food and agricultural system.” Companies can make the J.E.D.I commitment toward inclusion and diversity here.
Target to spend more than $2 billion with Black-owned businesses by 2025
Target Corporation in April announced it has committed to spending more than $2 billion with Black-owned businesses by the end of 2025. In a statement, Target said it is pledging to add products across multiple categories from more than 500 Black-owned companies and is introducing resources to help its Black-owned vendors grow and successfully scale their businesses in mass retail. Building off of the retailer’s Target Accelerators, a program that supports entrepreneurs to drive innovation, the company is introducing a new program called Forward Founders. This program will engage Black entrepreneurs earlier in their startup journey to help them navigate the critical stages of ideation, product development and scaling for mass retail, Target said. With increased access to subject matter experts and educational workshops earlier in the startup process, Forward Founders is designed to help Black-owned businesses increase their potential for long-term success in retail, said the company. For more information, visit Target’s Supplier Diversity page.
Molson Coors invests in TRU Colors, founded by rival gang members
Molson Coors, which has been expanding its portfolio beyond beer to include hard seltzer, spirits, energy drinks and nonalcoholic functional beverages, in April announced it has made an equity investment in TRU Colors Brewery, a Wilmington, NC-based company founded by a tech entrepreneur and rival gang leaders from the Bloods, Crips and GD. TRU stands for Truth, Responsibility and Unity, according to company founders, and the brand has a mission to provide employment and to unify rival gangs, Molson Coors said in a statement. In addition to an equity investment, Molson Coors will serve as a strategic partner to assist the company with distribution strategy, brand positioning, supplier relationships, marketing and advertising consultation and product formulation. Molson Coors said the move is not only a strategic investment, but also marks the latest in a series of actions designed to foster a more inclusive and diverse culture. The company announced a goal of increasing representation of people of color in its U.S. operations by 25% by the end of 2023 and committed to donating a cumulative $3 million to 26 local and national organizations dedicated to equality, empowerment, justice and community building from 2020-2021.
Campbell Soup Company flipping the script on diversity and inclusion
By taking a stand on social issues and social justice, companies can attract and maintain talent and investors, said Campbell Soup Company CEO Mark Clouse in a recent webinar. “Our employees want to know where we stand on these things, and it’s also great to see investors starting to ask me those questions,” Clouse said, according to Food Navigator. “The idea of inclusion coming first is really about wiring comprehensively a broad scope plan and strategy that will change culture that make it conducive to attracting and retaining diversity,” he said. According to Clouse, Campbell in October 2020 appointed Camille Pierce as Senior Vice President and Chief Culture Officer to help ensure its diversity and inclusion efforts become embedded in the company’s leadership and culture. Campbell has developed strategies around three pillars, said Clouse: capabilities and education, advocacy and accountability. These pillars serve as a framework for metrics—not quotas—he said, and outcomes that “are placed on a time continuum.“ Then Campbell “measures the heck out of them. We may not get it right every time, but we try to be thoughtful” and learn from experiences to create a more inclusive and diverse workplace, he said. For more information, visit here.
Organic and regenerative agriculture has roots in Black, Native American farming
Dr. George Washington Carver was one of the founders of the organic and regenerative agriculture movements. A researcher, inventor, scientist and professor at Tuskegee University, Carver was among the first to spread the word about caring for soil and community, inspiring a generation of organic farmers in the late 1800s and early 1900s, writes Leah Penniman in Civil Eats. Penniman is co-director and program manager at Soul Fire Farm in Petersburg, New York, a community organization that serves more than 10,000 people each year with food justice initiatives, farm training for BIPOC growers and more. Through “Afro-Indigenous” farming and forestry practices, Soul Fire has been regenerating 80 acres of land, while providing training, workshops and mentorship to underserved communities. “My ancestral grandmothers in West Africa braided seeds of okra, molokhia and levant cotton into their hair before being forced to board transatlantic slave ships. They hid sesame, black-eyed peas, rice and melon seeds in their locks,” writes Penniman. “With the seed, our grandmothers also braided their eco-systemic and cultural knowledge. They braided the wisdom of sharing land, labor and wealth.” However, Penniman notes, Black farmers once owned 16 million acres of land in the U.S. after emancipation, yet “almost all of that land is now gone,” she said. “In 2010, Soul Fire Farm was born with a mission to reclaim our ancestral belonging to land and to end racism and exploitation in the food system. What began as a small family farm is now a community organization committed to this systemic and ancestral change. And we pray that the words from our mouths, the meditations in our hearts, and the work of our hands are all acceptable to our grandmothers who passed us these seeds.”
USDA Secretary: Creating equitable opportunities for Black farmers lifts all boats
Provisions of the recently enacted American Rescue Plan that seek to acknowledge and address systemic racism perpetuated against generations of Black farmers will benefit the entire agriculture sector, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack told stakeholders at a House Agriculture Committee hearing held in late March. President Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief plan earmarked nearly $5 billion for Black farmers impacted by decades of discrimination made worse by the pandemic, NBC Washington reported. “Creating more equitable opportunities for Black farmers is a rising tide that can lift all boats,” Vilsack said at the hearing, Food Navigator-USA reported. “As one study found closing racial gaps in wages, housing credit, lending opportunities, and access to higher education would amount to an additional $5 trillion in gross domestic product and six million jobs to the American economy over the next five years,” Vilsack said in defense of “socially disadvantaged farmer provisions in the American Rescue Plan,” that have come under fire by some legislators and critics of the plan. “While Black farmers receive about $60 million in annual commodity subsidies, white farmers annually receive about $10 billion in commodity subsidies,” Vilsack said. He also noted that 97% of coronavirus food assistance payments went to white farmers, Food Navigator-USA reported. “More need to be done to drive our efforts deeper,” Vilsack told the House Agriculture Committee. He emphasized the necessity to “make clear that prosperous farmers of color means a prosperous agriculture sector and a prosperous America.”
Steven Hoffman is managing director of Compass Natural, providing brand marketing, PR, social media, and strategic business development services to natural, organic and sustainable products businesses. Contact [email protected]
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Thriftcon will be Sunday 8/28 at The Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks. Tickets are $12.
OAKS, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- With inflation at an all-time high, there's one industry that's helping Americans get creative with shopping or earning money - thrifting.
The second-hand clothing industry is exploding, and this weekend the Philadelphia area will be home to one of the largest traveling vintage and thrifting collections in the country.
It's called Thrift Con. It's not only a chance to get Philadelphia area vendors and small businesses in front of thousands of people, but also a chance for residents looking to save as sticker shock continues with inflation.
"When things like this happen in the economy. People try to find more ways to make money, so we have seen demand for the vendor booths," said Ken Meade, co-founder of ThriftCon. "Our event in Philly last year took six weeks to sell out all the vendor booths, and this year it took six hours."
They're expecting to have about 150 vendors at the event this year, showcasing rare vintage gems and loads of steals.
A trend that's always been popular, is now in demand since the pandemic.
"During 2020, 2021, there was an immense spike of people selling things in their closets. Going to thrift stores, then selling that second-hand. Then starting a small business," said Mario Conti, co-founder of ThriftCon
Thriftcon will be this Sunday at The Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks. Tickets are $12.


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Apple’s iPod line: A $7.5 billion business that gets no respect
FORTUNE — You might think that after tracking them for nearly a dozen years, the analysts who follow Apple (AAPL) would have a better handle on the company’s quarterly iPod sales. But Apple analysts tend to focus on the product lines that are still growing like gangbusters — chiefly the iPad and the iPhone — and they offer iPod estimates almost as an afterthought.
That may explain the wide discrepancy in iPod unit sales numbers submitted by our panel of 62 analysts — 28 from Wall Street and 34 independents. The estimates ranged from a low of 5 million from Janney Capital Market’s Bill Choi, to a high of 7.5 million from Bullish Cross‘ Andy Zaky.
There was no particular pattern to distinguish the pros from the independents. Both groups — as you can see from the table below the fold — were all over the lot.
There was, however, something of a consensus. The average estimate among the professionals was 6.38 million units, and the average among the indies was nearly the same: 6.36 million.
Because Apple doesn’t break out sales numbers for the original iPods versus the iPod touch (except to say that the touch these days represents more than half of iPod sales), we’ve relied in the chart above on Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster, who estimates the split to be approaching 64/36 in favor of the iPod touch.
Below the fold: The analysts’ individual estimates, with the pros in blue and the amateurs in green. We’ll find out who was closest to the mark when Apple reports its earnings a week from today (Tuesday, July 24).


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A new report by short seller Hindenburg Research took aim at electric-truck startup
Lordstown Motors Corp.
, saying the company misled investors about the strength of its truck preorders and the progress it is making toward putting its first model into production.
Lordstown Motors Chief Executive
responding in an interview, said the report contained half-truths and lies, and that the short seller has a motivation to hurt the stock before the company reports its first quarterly update as a publicly traded entity next week.
The startup is named for the Ohio town where the company purchased a dormant former
General Motors Co.
assembly plant in 2019. As a result of that deal, GM acquired a small stake in Lordstown Motors. A GM spokesman declined to comment immediately.
The Wall Street Journal hasn’t been able to verify independently the accusations in Hindenburg’s report.
Shares of the Ohio-based company closed down 16.5% following the report’s release Friday morning. Hindenburg—which last year targeted another electric-truck startup,
—disclosed in its latest report that it holds a short position in Lordstown Motors, meaning it stands to profit from declines in the company’s share price.
Hindenburg’s report described Lordstown Motors’ order book as a “mirage” and, among other accusations, said it paid an outside consulting group to generate preorders for its truck in advance of its deal to go public in 2020. The report cited documents and conversations that the firm said it had with former employees and business partners.
Mr. Burns confirmed the company paid consultants to generate preorders that were understood to be nonbinding as a way to assess market demand, but denied it misrepresented its preorder book.
“We are not stating these are orders and have never stated that,” he said.
Lordstown Motors is among several clean-transportation startups that have become public over the past year amid growing investor interest in electric vehicles. The company listed last year through a deal with special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, DiamondPeak Holdings Corp. that valued the company at $1.6 billion.
The company, which had a market value of $2.9 billion as of Thursday, has yet to sell a vehicle. It is targeting the commercial-truck market, vehicles typically used by fleet operators in business or government settings.
Lordstown Motors and Mr. Burns have regularly pointed to its preorder book to underscore the strength of demand for its forthcoming commercial pickup truck, the Endurance, and promote its business to investors. “Most of them are signed by the CEOs of these large firms,” Mr. Burns said of the preorders in a CNBC interview in November. “They’re very serious orders.”
In a regulatory disclosure in December, Lordstown Motors said it didn’t have any current customers or pending orders, and there was no assurance the nonbinding preorders will be converted to sales. In a January news release, Lordstown Motors said the more than 100,000 reservations for its Endurance truck were nonbinding.
Hindenburg said those orders weren’t only nonbinding but also “largely fictitious” and didn’t represent “genuine demand.” The New York-based research firm, led by
said it talked to several businesses and municipalities that the company counts as having placed preorders.
Some preorders for 1,000 or more trucks came from businesses that didn’t operate commercial fleets, Hindenburg said. Others with preorders told the firm that they didn’t have the means or intention to purchase the number of trucks tied to the reservation, the report said.
Responding to these claims, Mr. Burns said the company is confident there is demand for its trucks and the preorders were a way to gauge interest as it preps the factory to build for certain volumes. He also said some of these businesses aren’t fleet operators but intermediaries.
“If a guy signed a piece of paper that said ‘I think I can move x-thousand of them,’ we believe them. But it’s not in blood. It’s a nonbinding letter…


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WICHITA — Stacy Edmundson is back to selling Nimlok products for trade show exhibits, this time with her own new company, Red Door Three.
Edmundson used to be with another company selling Nimlok products before venturing into an unrelated business.
"I went a different direction and truly missed the industry," she says. "It's just very creative."
She's now an authorized Nimlok dealer. Nimlok is a global company that makes a variety of display products.
"Everything is pretty much a one-of-a-kind," Edmundson says.
The bulk of her work will be with trade shows, she says, but she'll also do some interior design. That could be such things as custom cabinets to show products in retail outlets.
"So many people know the Nimlok brand because I've already sold it," Edmundson says. "It's not just like a cookie-cutter kind of company."


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Saturday, February 11, 2017
M.I is blessing 2017 with a brand new album
Prepare yourself for a legendary 2017, because a new M.I album is coming!
The Chocolate City boss took to Twitter to make the announcement, and according to the rapper, this is his 8th studio album.
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Online auction of fancy numbers for vehicles from Jan 7
Bhubaneswar: Fancy numbers for vehicles in Odisha will be auctioned online by the government from January 7, said Commerce and Transport minister Ramesh Majhi.
Informing newsmen here Ramesh Majhi said, “Online auction process of fancy numbers for vehicles will start from January 7 and people will have to take part in the auction process to get the number of their choice.”
“Advertisements about the available fancy numbers will be published in different mass media. People can check it and apply for it online,” Majhi added.
According sources, the fancy numbers will be auctioned under four categories. For the first category the base price has been fixed at Rs 1 lakh, while the base prices of the second, third and fourth category has been fixed at Rs 60, 000, Rs 40,000 and 20-10,000 respectively.
RTOs have been asked to inform the people about the online auctioning process in their respective areas, the sources added.
Notably, the Commerce and Transport department has issued a draft notification seeking changes to the Section 14 of the Motor Vehicle Rule – 1914 in this regard.


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Fitness entrepreneur Tracy Anderson, known for training celebs like Gwyneth Paltrow and Tracee Ellis Ross, will bring her cult-followed Tracy Anderson Method workout classes to The Colony Palm Beach for the first time this holiday season.
Early this summer, The Colony Palm Beach began working with Tracy Anderson Method president Steven Beltrani to develop this partnership — both said they felt the brand missions were synergistic. The Colony Palm Beach partnered with fitness instructor Isaac Boots earlier this year for a fitness residency as well. Anderson noted her brand has “had a really big demand in South Florida” over the years.
As the fitness partner, Anderson’s classes will be available at the resort starting Nov. 3 and will run through the end of January. Each 90-minute, muscle-focused class will feature Anderson’s newest choreography and fitness research.
Anderson herself will teach classes at the resort on Dec. 16 and 17 and Jan. 20 to 24, as part of two Vitality Weeks, a special program she periodically offers at select locations. During these two Vitality Weeks, Anderson’s new wood-based, sustainable fitness box MyMode, which includes an array of equipment, and additional programming will be implemented into the classes.
“One of the things that was so appealing to me about this opportunity with The Colony is that the room offers so much space,” Anderson explained. “There’s something next level about being able to have a connected fitness piece,” she said in reference to the MyMode.
Through January, the $75 Tracy Anderson Method classes will be held twice per day and can accommodate up to 30 people. Guests will be able to register for classes and the special Vitality Week events on TracyAnderson.com. While the residency at The Colony is temporary, Anderson is using this experience to inform if South Florida may be suitable for a permanent studio.
“I’ve always thought it was a great place for us to have a studio, and doing a partnership like this allows us to really see if it’s right for us,” Anderson explained.


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Commercial areas generate a wave of sales tax money for whatever local government collects it. Here's how it works:
Local sales tax is 8.1 percent. The city and county collect that money from businesses in their jurisdictions and send it to Olympia. State government returns a portion. A city gets 1 percent of the sales tax back -- but has to send 15 percent of its take to the county to reimburse it for countywide services like courts, the county prosecutor and the regional health district.
So the county makes one buck for every $100 spent at businesses in unincorporated areas -- plus a take of the city's sales tax portion. Given that same $100 of business, the city of Spokane makes 84 cents.
Those pennies add up to an estimated $25 million for the city's general fund in 2001. If allowed to annex commercial areas like the Division strip and other places, the city stands to gain millions. The county, of course, would lose most of that money.


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February 22, 2022, Mumbai: RP tech India, the fastest-growing B2B IT solutions company recently organized the first-ever networking meet for its champions to provide them with in-depth knowledge on the networking vertical and brainstorm on the go-to-market strategy (GTM) for the networking business. Themed ‘Together Towards Tomorrow’, the objective of the two-day conference was to connect with reconnect champions and guide them on the present future roadmap for networking business. Champions from across 50 branches participated in the two-day conference held on the 18th and 19th of February at Hotel Sahara Star in Mumbai.
RP tech division heads and brand representatives conducted training sessions for champions to outline strengths, challenges, and areas of improvement in the existing sales and marketing strategies. The conference also provided champions with a platform to connect with their product managers and vendors’ team. The participants brainstormed on the topics such as increasing the strength of networking partners, exploring upselling/ cross-selling opportunities, and Partners’ training. Vertical heads and product managers also shared their vision for the expansion of the networking vertical.
Highlighting the aim of the event, Mr. Harish Agarwal, Business Manager – Networking at RP tech India said, “It was the first physical event post-pandemic and we leveraged this platform to reconnect with our champions and vendors. The networking vertical showed promising growth during the lockdown and we expect the same momentum for FY 2022-23. We will continue to invest in knowledge sharing and training to offer the best solutions to consumers.”
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered the demand for distance learning and remote working solutions paving the way for the growth of the IT hardware industry. The demand for networking solutions such as Wi-fi routers and switches, cables, Wi-fi Access points, etc. also witnessed a steady growth during the pandemic. As Corporates and Educational Institutes adopt the hybrid model of physical and virtual work setup, the demand for networking solutions is set to grow. RP tech India has a strong networking solutions portfolio of renowned global brands including TP-Link, Mercusys, Ubiquiti, Aten, Belden, Cambium, Asus Networking, and Cornelis Networks. “We are very bullish on the networking business. We have a strong brand portfolio and we will add more brands to offer comprehensive networking solutions to B2B and B2C consumers through our strong distribution network”, said Mr. Rajesh Goenka, Director, of Sales and Marketing, RP tech India.
Sharing his feedback, a champion said, “The RP tech TTT Networking conference was very informative. We had an opportunity to meet and interact with representatives of OEMs and discuss with them the roadmap for FY 2022-23. The event provided me with clarity on business approach, product positioning, and channel outreach.”
To know more, please visit www.rptechindia.com
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The carrier says it will start offering the service in "certain neighborhoods" within those cities starting October 1, and will provide the first three months at no charge.
How much will it cost? After that, Verizon 5G Home will cost $50 per month for Verizon Wireless customers and $70 per month for non-customers. The company plans to "rapidly expand" Verizon 5G Home coverage, but doing so will require it to install new equipment from vendors.
The service, Verizon 5G Home, will be built on Verizon's Ultra Wideband 5G Network. There are no data caps with Verizon 5G Home.
For customers outside of those four initial cities, signing up for Verizon's 5G home internet service will grant them early access to Verizon's 5G Home service when it becomes available. At the time, that made sense because it would potentially allow Verizon to launch services years before other companies could.
5G is the successor technology to today's 4G wireless, promising faster data transmission and lower latency. "We appreciate the partnership of network equipment makers, device manufacturers, software developers, and chip makers in reaching this critical milestone".
Verizon has launched that this is probably going to be expanding its 5G Labs to four unusual areas all the draw in which by the USA, with Los Angeles, Washington DC, Palo Alto, and Waltham to win companies and products that may perchance be angry about creating and making an strive out 5G technologies and use conditions.
Here's everything you need to know about the Verizon 5G Home Broadband Internet service that will go live next month in some major parts of the United States. The company said Tuesday that it's rolling out 5G Home with its own proprietary standards as some of the industry-wide technical standards are still being worked out.
Early users of the service in those four cities will get it for free for the first three months. As VentureBeat reports, the confirmation and availability detail puts an end to two of the biggest mysteries around Verizon's fixed 5G broadband service.
At the beginning of this year, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam clearly said that "we're very comfortable with being able to deliver a Gigabit of service to everyone that we're providing service to".


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Company: Chipotle Mexican Grill
Team size: Seven
What's new: Chipotle seeks to shed the company's and sector's reputation with purpose-driven messaging
In addition to the breakneck growth of Denver-based Mexican restaurant chain Chipotle over the last several years, the communications team says its biggest daily challenge is changing the perception of what people think of when they hear "fast food."
"The more purposeful we are in changing how people think of and eat our food, maybe that 'fast food' stigma will go away," says communications director Chris Arnold.
The PR team manages media and government relations, overall company messaging, and crisis management. It also leads work for the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation, which was created last fall to expand philanthropic work surrounding sustainable agriculture. Arnold also assists IR on communications materials and earnings reports.
A consumer awareness campaign on sustainability, which launched last September, will continue this year with music and food events, among other activities. A commercial featuring a two-minute animated video and performance of the song "The Scientist" by Willie Nelson, which illustrates the difference between industrial and sustainable farming, dominated Twitter in its debut during the Grammy Awards on February 12. The video also got play on Chipotle's Facebook page, its website, and YouTube, as well as a "coming attractions" slot in 5,700 theaters nationwide.


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Paid Downloads on the Way to Extinction: Ads and Subscriptions are the Future
The paid video download market is a dead end according to a new report by Forrester Research. Forrester estimates that paid video downloads will peak in 2007, generating $279 million in revenue, up from $98 million last year. Instead, advertising models will drive the online video market.
In the past year, companies such as Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Wal-Mart have begun offering consumers the ability to download television programs and movies to own or rent. But a recent Forrester survey showed that only nine percent of online adults have ever paid to download a movie or TV show. Furthermore, an analysis of these consumers showed they are a niche of media junkies willing to spend heavily on such content; they do not represent the vanguard of a rush by mainstream consumers. Without mainstream viewers joining the party, the video download market will not grow fast enough to support the ambitions of all the companies involved.
"The paid video download market in its current evolutionary state will soon become extinct, despite the fast growth and the millions being spent today,” writes well-respected Forrester analyst James McQuivey. "Television and cable networks will shift the bulk of paid downloading to ad-supported streams where they have control of ads and effective audience measurement. The movie studios, whose content only makes up a fraction of today's paid downloads, will put their weight behind subscription models that imitate premium cable channel services.”
I don't agree with McQuivey's take on this -- I think media companies that crank out TV shows and movies enjoy being able to charge for them a la carte, on DVDs or as downloads, and I think they're going to do what they can to preserve that model, alongside advertising and subscription programs. They'll try to sell new, premium content as paid downloads (on Apple's iTunes and elsewhere), and make available slightly older stuff in subscription services, or free and supported by ads.


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It was the holiday season in San Francisco in 2013. Office parties were in full swing, and people were boozing and reveling. It was a good night for Uber drivers to make extra cash picking up passengers.
Peter Ashlock was driving for Uber that night, as he is on most Friday nights, and got a passenger heading to the airport. The typical fare for an airport ride back then was about $65. But this passenger ended up being charged $179 due to Uber's surge pricing, which is the company's practice of raising prices for rides when demand is high.
"I felt really embarrassed for him and could only stammer that it was not my doing," Ashlock said. "I am among those who seriously question the whole rationale behind surge pricing. How can it be seen as anything but opportunistic?"
While Uber has built a multibillion-dollar business by connecting passengers with drivers via a smartphone app, few topics court more controversy than surge pricing, which typically happens during rush hour, bad weather, big events or on certain holidays. The company says this practice is critical to getting more drivers on the road when demand is at its greatest.
But most Uber riders despise surge pricing. They've complained about running up bills totaling hundreds of dollars and have criticized the company for using surge pricing during emergencies, like Hurricane Sandy and the Sydney hostage crisis. The San Francisco Better Business Bureau gave Uber the grade of an F because of complaints related to surge pricing. And New York lawmakers have even proposed legislation to put limits on how high fares can go. Now some drivers, like Ashlock, are also having second thoughts on surge pricing.
His sentiment runs counter to Uber's long-stated position that surge pricing is a bonus for drivers because it lets them make more money. Besides helping drivers, Uber also says it does all it can to warn passengers when surge pricing is in effect, so no one gets caught off guard.
"Almost no other company does as much as Uber to make sure users are aware of price changes, including multiple warnings, requiring riders to confirm they are accepting a higher rate, and sending automatic notifications when prices drop," said Uber spokesman Matthew Wing.
'Hide and seek'
Suleman K., who didn't want to use his full name, has been a full-time Uber driver in New York City for the past two years. When he first started, he used to hustle over to surge areas only to find the high prices had stopped or moved to another zone. Now he doesn't bother driving to neighborhoods that are surging since the notion of constantly shifting fares can be frustrating.
"Many drivers I know would rather rely on a steady rate where they can make a living instead of chasing the surge," Suleman K. said.
A glance through driver forums on websites like Reddit, Quora and Uber People shows that driver reaction to surge pricing is mixed. Some drivers appreciate surge pricing and say higher rates help them make ends meet -- especially since Uber has instituted price cuts throughout the US over the last year. Other drivers say passengers agree to the rates, so there's no reason for the riders to be surprised by trips that cost hundreds of dollars.
But many drivers say they don't like the practice. And it's more than just feeling guilty about high prices. Drivers like Suleman K. say a fixed pay rate, rather than relying on periods of demand, would make their earnings more reliable. Others say that when they get a low rating from a passenger, it's likely during surge pricing. Some, like Ashlock, say surge pricing could also mean fewer rides.
"Often enough when they turn it on, business drops because people see it and either switch to Lyft or find another way to travel," Ashlock said. "I have had passengers who say they would be happy to pay a higher overall fare that was stable rather than the fluctuating fares caused by surges."
Customers have complained that they'll request a ride, it will unexpectedly be canceled, and when they request another ride surge pricing appears. Ashlock said this happens on his end too.
"I accept a fare and suddenly it is canceled and surge prices fire up," he said. "It irritates the hell out of me."
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University released a study (PDF) in April, in which they interviewed 21 US drivers, and concluded that more than half weren't motivated to go to surge pricing zones. The surges changed too quickly and unexpectedly and didn't guarantee them rides, according to the drivers.
"[Drivers] felt like they were playing a game of hide and seek," said postdoctoral fellow Min Kyung Lee, who led the study.
Uber has more than 1 million drivers and typically takes a 20 percent to 30 percent flat commission for each fare. So not only can surge pricing reportedly help drivers make extra money, it can also mean more cash for Uber. But the world's largest ride-hailing service says profit isn't what it's after.
"It's not about money, but about providing transportation that is as reliable as running water," Wing said.
With surge pricing, drivers can see in the app when an area is having high demand. The idea is to give them incentive to head to that zone. As more drivers pick up passengers from that area, demand is supposed to go down and prices will drop.
Alternately, the more demand there is, the higher the surge. So the fare can be anything from double the original price, which Uber denotes as 2x, to eight times the original fare, or 8x. Theoretically the number could keep going up, but Uber says surge pricing rarely gets higher than 2.8x. The company also says that if passengers don't want to pay the higher price, they don't have to accept the ride. Uber's rival Lyft has a similar feature called Prime Time, but it's capped at 3x.
Uber often uses the argument that this type of dynamic pricing is used in all sorts of industries. Hotels raise fares during the holiday season, as do airlines. Restaurants also charge more on certain days, like New Year's Eve and Valentine's Day. Uber says that in a big city like New York, less than 10 percent of trips have surge pricing.
"Airlines and hotels are more expensive during busy times. Uber is as well," co-founder Travis Kalanick wrote in a 2013 Facebook post that was a response to a passenger who was angry about surge pricing. "We don't just charge to make a buck though, we take a small fee of the transaction, but the vast majority goes to the driver so that we can maximize the number of drivers on the road. The point is in order to provide you with a reliable ride, prices need to go up."
A push for limits
Not everyone agrees with Kalanick. Lawmakers in New York proposed two different bills in the last year to address the issue. The first, introduced in the state legislature by Assemblyman Felix Ortiz in December, seeks to ban surge pricing.
"This is nothing more than price gouging," Ortiz said in a statement at the time. "Alternatives for transportation in busy cities are always welcome but this practice of spiking fares is unfair and is simply bad business."
The second, introduced by New York City Councilman David Greenfield in January, intends to cap surge pricing at 2x, or twice the base fare.
"Just because it rains outside doesn't mean you should pay $500 for a $50 ride," Greenfield said, noting that taxis can't charge more than 20 percent over their base fare. "The yellow cabs are regulated, it only seems fair that we should regulate all the others."
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is reviewing the legislation, according to his deputy press secretary, Wiley Norvell. And this isn't the first time the city has taken a stance on surge pricing. The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission approved regulations in June that require Uber and Lyft to display the dollar amount of a surge price in the app before a ride is requested. The ride-hailing services are also required to give passengers a total fare estimate, ensure riders accept the surge price and provide passengers with an itemized receipt.
Capping surge pricing is likely the next step around these consumer protection measures. Greenfield said that paying drivers double during high demand seems fair and will still encourage them to get on the road. And some drivers say they would welcome such caps.
"It will help the consumer because they won't feel like they're being price-gouged and take it out on the driver by giving him a bad rating," Suleman K. said. "It's nice to make extra per trip but there should be a limit."


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Navigon is upgrading the traffic features of its navigation app for the iPhone while introducing an iPhone-friendly car kit that lets users mount their smartphones to their cars’ windshield. The navigation software maker announced these moves Thursday at Macworld Expo in San Francisco, where it’s showcasing its wares at the annual Mac conference.
Traffic Live is a feature available to Navigon MobileNavigator users via an in-app purchase for the GPS-based navigation app. The latest update will boost road coverage by 76 percent to more than 200,000 miles of North American roads, according to Navigon. More significant, the update includes more than 87,000 miles of secondary roads like city streets. That enhances the Traffic Live feature’s ability to provide alternate routes; Traffic Live can now detect and reroute local and city traffic, determining which route will get you to where you want to go faster.
Traffic Live gets its data from Inrix, which is pulling real-time speed data from more than four million drivers. Inrix relies on driver reports of congestion, along with data from traffic cameras, speed sensors, and radio reports; its system also uses historic traffic data to help it predict road conditions when calculating routes. As part of the update to Live Traffic, Navigon will use a more comprehensive traffic feed from Inrix.
The new feed will be available automatically to MobileNavigator users who’ve bought the Live Traffic feature; there’s no activation or download required.
Navigon’s other big news Thursday is the introduction of the Navigon Car Kit, which works with the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4 models. The kit includes a mounting device and suction pad holder for easy attachment as well as a connection cord and car charger.
The Navigon Car Kit costs $50, though Navigon is knocking $5 off the price through February 3. The company also cut prices on its iPhone apps as part of a Macworld Expo promotion. The $60 North American version of MobileNavigator is on sale for $50 through January 30 while the price of the U.S. version has been dropped from $50 to $40. Other regional versions of MobileNavigator are on sale as well for the rest of the week, while the Traffic Live add-on is selling for $15—a $5 discount—through Sunday.
In addition to showing off its navigation apps and new car kit at its booth on the Moscone West showfloor, Navigon is also demonstrating its help2park app, the first in a series of free single-feature offerings the company plans to roll out this year. Released last month, help2park finds nearby parking spots based on your GPS position. When used in conjunction with MobileNavigator, drivers will be guided directly to a parking space.
iPhone 4 Design Car Mount Kit
Read our full iPhone 4 Design Car Mount Kit review


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Government allows duty free maize and rice import in 2023
The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development has taken over the importation of duty free maize and milled rice from the Ministry of Trade and Industry that was initially engaged with the matter and even went ahead to issue tough guidelines to importers.
In a notice issued yesterday, the Agriculture ministry headed by Mithika Linturi noted the import duty waiver will be granted to millers and importers to import 900,000 metric tons of white grain and 600,000 metric tons of rice from February to August next year to enable the country have adequate stocks to last until the next harvest from July - August 2023.
The ministry said the duty waiver shall apply to white maize and milled rice imported in the county by August 6, 2023, by millers and traders.
“It is notified for the general information of the public that pursuant to section 114 (2) of the East African Community Customs Management act 2004, read with provisions of items 20 Part B of the Fifth Schedule to the Act and in consequence of the notification of an impending food crisis in the country by the ministry of agriculture and livestock development an import Duty waiver will be granted for millers and traders to import a total of 900,000 metric tons of while maize grain and 600,000 metric tons of milled rice from February 2023 to August 2023,” reads the notice.
Importation of GMO Maize
The ministry’s decision to take over the importation process comes after Linturi distanced himself from the importation of GMO maize following an announcement by his Trade counterpart Moses Kuria who had threatened that the government would allow importation of 10 million bags of duty free maize.
“GMO and non-GMO maize will be imported in the next six months,” Kuria said.
Linturi, who had remained mum as the debate on maize importation raged, came out to state he was not aware of any plans to ship into the country genetically modified maize.
“I am the custodian of the ministry and am not ready to answer to what is being reported in social media,” he said during a press briefing in his office.
Linturi’s clarification on the issue came after Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi said the order to import maize should have originated from the Ministry of Agriculture and not the Trade docket.
“This issue of importation of maize should be guided by a survey from the Ministry of Agriculture which will find out if there is a deficit of grain. That is a policy that must be well elected. It is the Agriculture docket that will issue an importation order after looking at the food situation,” Mudavadi said.
Assorted food products
During Jamhuri Day celebrations at Nyayo National Stadium, President William Ruto said the government would import 10 million bags of assorted food products including maize beginning next year.
And yesterday, the Principal Secretary in charge of Crop Development revealed they shall allow white imported maize while in the case imported milled rice it should be Grade One.
On imported white maize, the ministry has given five conditions which should be met including ensuring that moisture content does not exceed 13.5 percent as provided under the laws of Kenya, aflatoxin levels should not exceed 10 parts per billion as provided for, the maize shall be accompanied by a certificate of conformity issued by the Kenya Bureau of standards and it should be imported by August 6, 2023.
As for imported rice, it should be the dried mature grains of edible Oryza SPP, should be clean, wholesome, be uniform in size colour and shape, should be safe and suitable for human consumption, should be free from abnormal flavours, musty , sour or other undesirable odor, obnoxious small and discolorations, should be free from microorganisms and substances originating from micro organisms fungi or other poisonous substances.
In addition, the milled rice which should be imported by August 6 should have additional requirements such as broken particle five percent, heat damage one percent, damaged rice 1.5 percent moisture content 13 percent, other contrasting varieties 1 percent, paddy grains, 0.3 percent and Chalkya 2 percent.
Last year, Kenya banned the importation of maize from two neighbouring countries including Tanzania and Uganda
In a letter by the acting Director-General of the Agriculture and Food Authority, Kello Harsama to Pamela Ahago, the Commissioner of Customs in the Kenya Revenue Authority, the imports should stop after a survey conducted indicated maize from the two countries is not fit for human consumption.


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- About Us
- Nano-Social Network
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- My Account
December 3rd, 2003
Last year, $3 billion was invested in nanotechnology. Furthermore, the National Nanotech Initiative (NNI) 2004 budget increased by nearly ten percent. These investments will soon pay off in the form of big screen displays.
According to Dr. James Jaskie, chief scientist at Motorola’s Microelectronic and Physical Sciences Labs, Nano-emissive Display (NED) technology is not only viable, it’s affordable. In a year or two, the general consumer might be able to afford a 60-inch or larger display.
|Related News Press|
Cutting-edge nanotechnologies are breaking into industries November 18th, 2016
STMicroelectronics’ Semiconductor Chips Contribute to Connected Toothbrush from Oral-B That Sees What You Don’t: Microcontroller and Accelerometer help brushers clean their teeth more effectively October 4th, 2016
Particle Works launches range of high quality magnetic nanoparticles August 31st, 2016
Nanotubes that build themselves April 14th, 2017
Intertronics introduce new nanoparticle deagglomeration technology March 15th, 2017
New stem cell technique shows promise for bone repair January 25th, 2017


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RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) - Two woman are convicted in a Christmas Eve robbery at a Henrico toy store - but the case isn't over yet.
More trial dates are set after police say one of the women convicted used her 11 and 12 year old kids to commit the crime!
The crime spree on Christmas Eve ended up with 77 toys taken out a Toys R Us store in Henrico, totaling more than $2,700.
According to the Times-Dispatch, this happened at the Toys R Us store on Quioccasin Road. That's across the street from Regency Square Mall.
Witnesses said the two kids involved ended up bringing out nine cartloads of toys during the robbery, including two Justin Bieber singing dolls worth $26 each.
A police officer said the kids' mom told him she only had $50, not enough for Christmas, and then told her daughters to go into the store and get what they want.
The papers say the kids were charged with grand larceny as juveniles.
The two adults involved were convicted of two counts each of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Grand larceny charges were also sent to a grand jury.
Reports say the two women are appealing.


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South-Korean Samsung’s Galaxy S4 is ready to capture the market share with its new features and price difference.
The Galaxy S4 support a 5-inch screen, compared to the iPhone 5’s 4-inch screen, and offers functions including ‘Smart Scroll,’ which enables users to scroll without touching the screen. It tracks the users’ face to tell where they are looking.
Macquarie, for example, is forecasting Galaxy S4 sales to average 20 million per quarter in 2013. Another report from the Hong Kong-based market researcher Counterpoint Research reveals that Samsung has sold an estimated 25 million smartphones each month this year, which is expected to drive its quarterly sales to over 70 million units.
It’s almost confirmed now that as a company, Samsung is not holding back any punches, and in the S4 their aggression is directed at Apple.
“You can argue the S3 has already done some damage to Apple, it was a very successful device, and the S4 is probably going to follow in its steps,” said Van L. Baker, research vice president, mobility at Gartner.
Finland’s Nokia and U.S. Microsoft’s joint venture Lumia 920 is also there and as per the Data, less claim from the manufacturer, it seems successive in attracting the Smartphone users.
Since the launch of the dynamic new phone from the recently rebranded BlackBerry, the Z10 has been fraught with supply issues and, more than that, the unveiling of newer offerings from rivals, including the HTC One, the Sony Xperia Z and the Samsung Galaxy S4.
It might come as no surprise, then, that the device that showed a lot of promise during its not-so-distant launch, seems to be now headed downhill – including its price. So we can assume that BlackBerry has been out of the race and now it’s no more threat for iPhone 5s or iPhone 6.
Although with the iPhone 5, Apple consolidated their position as the leading smartphone designer of 2012. While many thought that the handset was lacking in innovation, it captured enough mind share and sales to be regarded as the best single handset of the year.
While Apple’s product cycles are becoming a little bit unpredictable, the expected iPhone 5S update isn’t expected until the end of Q3 this year.
In all this situation the question is how iPhone 5S or iPhone 6 can maintain its “innovative and Lifestyle” product’s position in the market? Will Apple be able to retain its market share in competition with Samsung’s Galaxy S4 and Nokia’s Lumia 920?


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With a new law on cow slaughter coming into existence, the price of beef has gone up in Bengaluru by Rs 100.
Earlier this month, the Karnataka Assembly passed a law against cow slaughter. The bill awaits approval in the Legislative Council.
But the government is planning to bring in an ordinance to speed up the implementation.
Traders say both supply and demand have already taken a beating. Boneless beef, priced at Rs 200 a kilo last month, is now going for Rs 300.
Many in the business have lost their customers because of the pandemic. The new law could throw them out of the business and render them penniless, says Khasim Aijaz Quraishi, president of the Beef Merchants’ Association of Karnataka.
The ban will affect thousands of traders across Karnataka, he reckons. “Beef is consumed by low-income groups. Half a kilo of beef can easily feed a large family. It’s cheap and easily available,” says Quraishi.
Khan Saheb, a meat trader in Johnson Market, says, “This is a job we have been doing for generations. If this law is enforced, we have to look for other jobs. Some traders have already left the city.”
Naim, owner of Blue Bell cold storage in Kammanahalli, gets his supply of meat from Johnson market, Russell Market and Tannery Road.
“Our vehicles transporting meat have been stopped at checkpoints and held up. We will oppose this law because it will affect the livelihoods of many involved in this trade.”
Restaurant owner Mathew Thomas, who runs Ma Baker, says the busiest time of the year is the Christmas and New Year season.
“But this year, business has dropped by 50 per cent. Many of our fast-moving dishes, such as shepherd’s pie and lasagna, are made with beef. We will have to close our business if the supply of beef is hit,” he says.
The government doesn’t understand the far-reaching implications this bill can have on the lives of farmers, feels Kodihalli Chandrashekar, president Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha.
“On what basis have they passed such a bill? Do they know anything about cattle rearing or trade?” he says.
The law benefits neither the government nor the farmers, feels Chandrashekar.
“Will the government come up with measures to ensure the upkeep of cattle? Looking after cattle if they come down with any infection is a huge challenge,” he says.
After cows stop giving milk, they are usually sold to the slaughterhouse for Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 each.
“This is the natural process. It is impossible to look after them after a time,” he says.
What the new law says
The Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Bill (2020) has been passed by the Assembly. The latest bill is an extension of the 1964 cow protection legislation that had prohibited the slaughter of cows. The definition and scope have been expanded to include “cow, calf of a cow and bull, bullock and he or she buffalo”. The new law proposes jail terms from three to seven years for those transporting, smuggling, and slaughtering cattle below 13 years. The penalty varies from Rs 50,000 to 5 lakh for the first offence.
Better regulation required
Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwathnarayan says the new law only extends the scope of a 1964 law to include a more detailed definition of cattle.
“The idea is to make the rules more stringent. This will prevent misuse and add more strength to the efforts to prevent slaughter of cattle,” he told Metrolife. The government is building a system to regulate and address concerns arising from the new law, he says.
The police are vested with powers to penalise anybody found smuggling and illegally transporting cattle. To prevent misuse, police officers will have to “explain under what circumstances a detention was made.”


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Google knows a lot about the future of news — more than many publishers. It’s evident in Google’s new product, Fast Flip, which allows news consumers to “flip” through news stories. What’s striking about Fast Flip is that Google is innovating precisely where publishers used to lead innovation.
Fast Flip is a new package for news.
The publishing business has always been about packaging content. Newspapers. Magazines. Newsletters
In digital media, on the web, the news package is now a function of software — which is why Google is innovating precisely where publishers are not.


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Looks like the attention given to 3-D TVs is waning.
According to Macworld last week, “The big TV makers… are noticeably grounded in 2-D here at CES.”
You see, although the idea of an immersive three-dimensional environment in your living room sounds attractive, it’s not exactly easy to pull off. And so far, no one has.
Even Sony’s (NYSE: SNE) latest glasses-free 3-D technology – although impressive – left some viewers wanting more.
Like Gizmodo says, with Sony’s TV, “objects emerge organically from the screen – more convincingly than anything we’ve seen before. [But] as with earlier versions of glasses-free 3-D, the overall effect isn’t quite good enough to be immersive. The TV works best if you look at the screen straight on, and as this straight-on view moves towards 45-degrees, the effect becomes distorted and blurry.”
A New Level of Thin
Like most electronic devices, thin is definitely in for TVs this year. And OLED technology has a lot to do with it.
OLED isn’t new. The technology has already been used on smaller-screen devices like mobile phones.
But the technology attracting TV manufacturers, as well. Because OLEDs don’t require backlighting like LCD displays you see on the market today, which results in a much thinner product.
LG, for instance, has created a 55-inch OLED TV that comes in at an ultra slim 4.8mm, or about the same thickness as three credit cards stacked together.
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But slimming down televisions isn’t the only benefit OLEDs offer…
Unmatched Display Quality
Like LG, Samsung showed off a 55-inch OLED TV at CES this year. Coming in at 7.6mm, it’s a bit thicker than LG’s model (but still amazingly thin, considering an iPhone 4 measures 9.3mm).
That’s because Samsung decided to focus on picture quality by changing the way the display emits color.
According to PCWorld, “Unlike standard OLED technology [Samsung’s] Super OLED sets don’t use a color filter… Instead, each OLED pixel unit is comprised of self-emitting RGB sub-pixels laid directly on the display panel, each emitting its own light.”
In other words, each pixel is essentially given its own color filter and light source, which results in better contrast and detail.
According to the company, it eliminates motion blur, too. Which, if you own an LCD TV, you know is a pretty huge deal.
Ready for Consumers Later This Year
Needless to say, both products were certainly showstoppers at CES this year.
LG took home CNET’s Best in Show award. And Samsung won Best of CES Innovations in the video display category and Popular Science’s Best of CES award.
And by the time both TVs hit the market in the second half of the year, my three-year-old Samsung LCD will have officially become prehistoric.
Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be purchasing an OLED variant anytime soon.
Neither company has released exact prices yet, and LG assured Marketnews that “there is not going to be sticker shock.” But estimates heard around the CES floor suggest that these TVs could reach upwards of $6,000. I don’t know about you, but that’s pretty shocking to me.
Of course, that’s just speculation. But anything near that price range would be hard to swallow for the average consumer.
However, considering OLED actually makes TV displays better, you can bet that the market potential for this technology is going to prove vastly superior to 3-D.


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At Medium, Robin Sloan writes an appreciation of Nerdhaven, the archetypal shop in Everytown "catering to comic book readers, the D&D players, the gatherers-of-Magic."
“I walked in and the lady at the front counter said hey you’re too big to be in this store, I need you to leave,” said Buster. ... After Shelby’s mom contacted us, we contacted the store. The Rue 21 district manager told us over the phone that they’re aware of the situation and are currently looking into it.
The Newsstand is a subway shop inside Brooklyn's Lorimer/Metropolitan station that specializes in zines. Great idea! (And yes, it's already been nicknamed the "hipster newsstand.") Paper magazine interviewed the proprietors:
Lele Saveri: I think the zine idea was also because of the location. You're in the subway and people are used to grabbing something to read for the train ride. If it's not a newspaper or magazine, you just download [something] on your phone. [Zines] are something people can get for cheap and a unique thing. Also, you're [physically] underground and zines have always been about the underground world.
Jamie Falkowski: I think that space is really interesting because it's so different from going into a regular newsstand. You have to spend time and look at all the different titles and find the thing that speaks to you.
LS: Everyone who works at the stand are people who have been related to the zine world forever. They know exactly what they're selling. It's not like a dude who sells magazines and doesn't even look at them. Every day there's a new person and every day the person is curating or moving things around. I swear you'll see new stuff every day.
The severed head of a deer was left on a self-service supermarket checkout, prompting a police investigation. The innards of the animal were found in one of the aisles of the Tesco shop in Saffron Walden, Essex, police said. ... A spokesman for Essex Police said nobody had been arrested. A spokeswoman for Tesco apologised for "any distress caused".
I don't know what the big deal is. Don't we all do the same when the stupid self-checkout won't beep something?
The researchers say the (simple) scent is more easily processed, freeing the customer’s mind to focus on shopping. But when that "bandwidth” is unavailable customers don’t perform cognitive tasks as effectively, says (Eric) Spangenberg, (dean of the College of Business)..."WSU researchers tie simple scent to increased retail sales"


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Smarter.com announced last week the dual launch of their Chinese and Japanese comparison shopping search engines for the respective country markets. With all the recent focus on search technologies, we asked Smarter.com co-founder Talmadge O'Neill about how he plans to tackle the Chinese online market.
1) How old is Smarter.com and what is your corporate background?
Mezi Media–the corporate parent–was founded in late 2002. We loved saving money when we shopped online, and the principal goal of Mezi Media is to help online consumers save money when they shop.
We do that today through three internet divisions including comparison shopping in 3 countries (Smarter.com), online coupons in 10 countries (CouponMountain.com) and cash-back rebates (MoreRebates.com). We have offices in Shanghai, Tokyo and Los Angeles and have more than 90 employees. The company was self-financed, and has been profitable every quarter since inception.
Smarter.com was launched in July 2004 in the U.S., and our first international expansion was into Japan and China in November 2005.
The two co-founders were previously at Overture Services.
2) When was the decision to come to China made and how long did it take to finally get on the ground and launch a product here?
We established an office in Shanghai in August 2003, and have built a wholly owned engineering center with more than 70 employees here in Shanghai.
In May 2004, we launched our first Chinese website at dahongbao.com as part our of our online coupon division. This was a test to identify the online potential in China.
In November 2005, we launched Smarter.com.cn. We believe that it is relatively early for Chinese ecommerce, but since we already had a presence in China, we felt that it was important to launch our product.
3) What have been some of the obstacles to opening your business in China? How and where is the company registered in China? Why did you choose that location?
Mezi Media is a U.S. company with a Wholly Owned Foreign Enterprise in Shanghai. The decision to locate in Shanghai rather than Beijing was based largely on our network of contacts here in Shanghai.
4) What are your revenue creation plans on the Mainland? Please elaborate.
Merchants pay us on a per-click basis for traffic that we send to their sites. If we send merchants high-quality clicks where consumers have already made a decision on which product to buy, and chosen that merchant from a list of many, then the consumer is more likely to convert into a buyer and be a much more valuable lead than a click from a search engine.
Over 50,000 advertisers participate on Baidu.com – a portion of those are online stores that should advertise on Smarter.com.cn. And if our leads convert at a higher rate than Baidu, merchants will compete for attention on Smarter.com.cn and pay more for a lead from Smarter.com.cn than they would from Baidu.
5) How do you see the search scape in China and what sort of competition will be coming in the next year?
We believe there are more searches in China than in the U.S., and that the Chinese market is growing much more rapidly than in the U.S. In the U.S., there are about 200-400 million searches a day (this is about 1-2 searches/person per day as there are about 200 million internet users in the U.S.).
In China, Piper Jaffray has reported 360 million searches a day (this is about 3-4 searches/person per day as there are about 100 million internet users in China). Piper Jaffray suggests that this will grow to over 800 million searches a day by 2007.
Given that internet penetration in China is about 8% while it is about 68% in the U.S. We don't seem a major catalyst in the U.S. to significantly increase search volume, but in China any increase in internet penetration results in growth in internet searches.
Competition will grow as the market matures, and as the economic potential of each search vertical becomes more apparent. At the moment, it appears that everybody can grow and that only as growth slows will there be a fight for market share.
We suspect that there will not be a substantial number of foreign entrants into comparison shopping in China at this stage. Recently Become.com publicly announced that they thought it was too early to enter China.
6) For the Chinese product searches, about how much of the content is scraped and how much is provided through feeds from Chinese partners? How many Chinese sites will you be canvassing and providing to your users?
At launch, we are taking data feeds directly from merchants, and crawling and indexing other merchant websites. Our intention is to create an index of quality tier 1 merchants in all of the major Chinese cities for our online users. The number of merchants in the index will grow as we launch additional categories outside the 3C categories.
7) Are there any technical differences between operating a comparison search site in China from Japan and North America?
The biggest difficulty revolves around double-byte search, and nobody has really perfected a Chinese search engine. Because of the nature of the language (similar problems in Japanese), it is incredibly difficult and most foreign companies have to completely rebuild their search technology to launch in China.
8) Globally, how will you continue to differentiate?
One level of differentiation has been to build an international presence in Asia (currently Japan and China). A second level of differentiation will be technology as we roll out additional products and features that will help consumers better decide what products to buy, and where to buy them.


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Motor industry giant General Motors reported its third-quarter revenue rose by more than $4 billion year-over-year, which CEO Mary Barra credited to higher sales and higher prices for GM’s new car models.
But the company missed Wall Street’s expectations on its bottom line, as lower sales of its light trucks and gas guzzlers in the U.S. pushed gross profit down by more than 30 percent. Analysts were expecting GM to generate $1.22 billion in adjusted earnings per share on $40.9 billion in revenue.
GM’s third-quarter revenue of $40.7 billion was $1.5 billion higher than the previous quarter, and 6 percent higher than last year’s third quarter, although that was largely due to the impact of the company’s 2015 acquisition of Ally Financial, according to GM. Sales in North America were down 0.9 percent from last year, while they were up by roughly 2 percent in China and 2.3 percent internationally.
GM said it continues to boost sales of its new electric Chevrolet Bolt. The company has said that it sold more than 4,000 electric Bikes over the last year through a new program that includes a program in which buyers can get discounts by swapping their old vehicle for one that has been fully charged for 30 days. The company said it plans to roll out the program to other vehicles next year.
Barra said GM, like the rest of the industry, continues to be under pressure from a supply chain squeeze due to the lack of memory chips that manufacturers can use for computer chips. GM also has not been able to pass the lower price of gasoline to consumers in a meaningful way. The company is hoping the introduction of more EVs will help mitigate that industrywide problem.
GM’s stock price dropped nearly 3 percent on Wednesday, but it rose back up on Thursday in anticipation of Friday’s earnings report.


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YOUNGSTERS in South Tyneside are being hoodwinked by glitzy cigarette adverts, say anti-smoking campaigners calling for plain packaging to be introduced.
More than 13 per cent of 12 to 25-year-olds surveyed by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) say they believed a branded cigarette pack was less harmful than a plain one – despite the reality being that the contents of both packages are as dangerous as each other.
Findings from the BHF’s report have been published ahead of a Government consultation on whether the UK should adopt plain packaging for tobacco products.
The report revealed that 79 per cent of young people in the North East thought selling cigarettes in ‘plain packs’ – with no colourful branding or logos, and larger health warnings – would make it easier for people to smoke less or quit.
Almost a fifth (18 per cent) said they’d consider the pack design when deciding which cigarettes to buy.
Betty McBride, director of policy and communications for the BHF, said: “As informed adults, we know that smoking is a deadly addiction.
“But young people are not always fully aware of the risks, and the power of branding holds more sway. Tobacco advertising is rightly banned in the UK.
“Yet glitzy packaging clearly still advertises tobacco on the cigarette box. It’s an absurd loophole the tobacco industry takes full advantage of to lure in new young smokers.
“We must act if we really want to protect younger generations from taking up this fatal habit.”
Eighty-five per cent of those questioned in the North East thought plain packs were less attractive than branded ones, and 63 per cent of those surveyed agreed that cigarette packaging was a form of advertising.
Ailsa Rutter, director of tobacco lobbying group Fresh, said: “We are fully supporting the call for plain tobacco packaging as branded packaging is one of the tobacco industry’s leading promotional tools, recruiting children and young people to a lifetime of addiction.
“The majority of North East smokers start around 15-years-old and we are particularly seeing smoking become prevalent among young women, who are being targeted by the tobacco industry with new slimline cigarettes in a bid to exploit and encourage an obsession with fashion and staying slim.
“Glamorous packaging helps to attract new customers. If it didn’t the tobacco industry wouldn’t spend millions of pounds developing new designs.”
In November, the Australian Government agreed cigarettes need to be sold in standardised plain packs of the same colour without any logos or branding imagery. They will also include large picture health warnings on the front and back of the packs, which will be mandatory from December next year.
The British Government is now due to launch a public consultation on whether the UK should adopt plain packaging for tobacco products.
The BHF will be asking for a plain packaging bill to be introduced into Parliament, and for ministers to seek amendments to the EU Tobacco Products Directive, enabling large front-of-pack picture health warnings.
The charity is sending copies of its report to all MPs inside Australian-style plain cigarette packets in the new year, and is asking members of the public to register their support for plain packaging at www.bhf.org.uk/plainpackaging.


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Cryptocurrency has made its way to the professional esports scene. Level Up Coin (LUC) is offering up to $100,000 as the first place reward for a CSGO event. The event is placed on February 25th, organized by Play2Live.
Out of the eight teams, seven will be directly invited to compete along with a team coming through open qualifiers. The tournament will be hosted in the Falcon Club in Minsk, Belarus.
Play2Live – Live streaming platform
“We encourage all gamers and esport fans to become P2L early adopters to test the new ecosystem and high Internet speed delivered by peer-to-peer CDN technology,” Alexey Burdyko, CEO, and Founder at Play2Live said in a press release. “We are even more excited to host the world’s first ever esport tournament with a crypto prize: an event, that will become a milestone in the further integration of the blockchain technology into the gaming industry.”
Other than hosting events, Play2Live is a full-time streaming platform community. It hosts famous streamers and awards them with LUC, which can be conveniently converted into other Cryptos.
Alongside the live streams of the games played, viewers can bet on the game live as it is being played, a feature which is yet exclusive at Play2Live.


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“We’re all paying for poor design. We know how to improve it but we don’t implement it.” Ergonomics expert Alan Hedge discusses ergonomics in the workplace.
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ADR chats to McDonough, founder of cradle-to-cradle, over the phone from the US to find out about some of his latest endeavours, including a newly rereleased carpet collection with Shaw Contract.
In a first for Australian paint companies, Dulux Australia has published and released in-depth environmental documentation, Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), on its products.
Image above, Little Bean Roasters by More Design Office, photo by Raphael Oliver. Written by Sarah Hetherington. The movement towards clean living and well-being has, according to Sarah Hetherington, amplified the current trend of transporting nature indoors. Whether inspired by Japanese gardens, tropical rainforests or the Australian bush, there has been a proliferation of greened […]


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Story | Dec 9, 2013 | 12:09 PM
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Column | Feb 6, 2014 | 2:48 PMWith all the news recently about data breaches at major U.S. retailers — Target, Neiman Marcus, Michaels — many consumers might wonder if they should subscribe to an identity theft "protection" service.
Story | Oct 29, 2013 | 9:32 PM
The blessing and curse of modern car keys Wednesday's print column Earlier this week, we traded my wife's old sedan for the key to a brand new car Literally. In the course of final negotiations with the salesman, I said...
Column | Aug 14, 2013
Story | Apr 3, 2013 | 8:05 AM
Edward Hospital & Health Services and Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare today announced that the two healthcare providers have signed a definitive agreement, a major step toward a merger to become one of the larger integrated health systems in the state....


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Looking within a short-term horizon, the outlook for container shipping over the next 2-3 months appears relatively well-known, although certainly not well-liked by shippers. In essence, we will continue to see a situation of bottleneck problems, capacity shortages and high pressure on rates. This is, hopefully, not a surprise to anyone now.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has just published their new global economic outlook, and they have revised economic growth projections for 2021 and 2022 upwards. They now expect global GDP to grow 6.0% in 2021 and 4.4% in 2022. For the U.S, the growth expectation for 2021 is higher at 6.5%, while for China and India it is much higher at 8.4% and 12.5% respectively.
This means that strong container demand growth is anticipated to persist through not only 2021 but also 2022 based on these economic projections.
The very high freight rate level presently is sustained by severe bottleneck effects, and the problematic issue is that the ripple effects from the Suez incident will further postpone the ability to re-balance container flows as well as handle port congestion. In all likelihood, the bottlenecks might not be removed until sometime during Q3 2021 at the earliest and this might not be until Q4 2021.
Carriers do have more vessels on order and have placed orders for basically a million TEUs of vessel capacity over the past couple of months. However, these new orders will only be delivered in 2023-2024. This has caused charter rates for container vessels to grow rapidly. This implies that carriers expect a tight market for vessels in the next couple of years.
For Q3, and possibly into Q4, we will continue to see a very tight market in terms of capacity and freight rates will see a continued pressure to remain at very elevated levels. The main driver is shippers who in the present environment prioritize supply chain resilience more than transactional freight costs.
Coming into late 2021 and further for 2022 the bottlenecks will disappear, and a more normal supply/demand environment will emerge. This will cause a reduction in freight rate levels, but due to the continued strong demand growth and modest delivery of new vessels the reduction is unlikely to be at the same levels as seen before the pandemic.
Given the evolving on-ground situation and newer variant-led infections, the pandemic is far from over. In such a scenario, for businesses to stay relevant, we will need to be flexible and more adaptable to the changes that need to be embraced to keep core business growth drivers resilient.
As the chemical industry moves into 2022, strong demand for both commodity and specialty chemicals should keep prices robust throughout the year. The industry could face margin pressures amid raw material cost inflation, which will likely remain high through the first half of 2022.
Blackouts and power cuts in the world’s second-largest economy have drawn attention to fuel supply problems that could complicate the country’s pandemic recovery.
The Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO), an apex body of Indian export promotion organizations, has urged the government to provide freight support to all exports including pharmaceuticals till 31st March 2022, as freight rates have skyrocketed and are likely to somber by March 2022.
Science keeps winning! Scientists recently transplanted a pig’s kidney into a human being without immediate rejection by the immune system.
In a landmark announcement, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended the use of the first-ever malaria vaccine for children. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus endorsed the RTS,S/AS01 malaria or Mosquirix – a vaccine developed by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
China’s power shortages hit growth in the world’s second-biggest economy, threatening more pain for global supply chains, while Europe’s gas squeeze looked set to continue as Russia’s Gazprom showed no sign of hiking exports to the region in October.
The fact that 22 such molecules are going to come out of their patent period will substantially expand the offerings of the Indian companies to people at home and abroad alike and may help fetch extra revenue.
“Current data indicates that neither food nor food packaging is a pathway for the spread of viruses causing respiratory illnesses, including SARS-CoV-2,” according to a new guidance document from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO): “In other words, SARS-CoV-2 is not a direct food safety concern.”