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Cauli Rice has announced plans for its first television and digital advertising campaign.
Kicking off on 19 April, the push comes after the startup brand asked its social media followers for recipes that made use of its rice alternative.
Activity will roll out nationwide across ITV and digital platforms including YouTube, featuring London food & fitness bloggers Hannah & Emily of Twice the Health; Myles Hopper, founder of healthy recipe kit brand Mindful Chef; and food writer Katherine Brook – all of whom responded to the social media callout.
Each of the three ads will showcase a quick and easy recipe using Cauli Rice as a key component, aimed at providing busy viewers with convenient and nutritious meal ideas.
The £270,000 drive comes after Cauli Rice raised £1.4m from a massively oversubscribed crowdfunding campaign – more than £1m higher than its initial target. Launched in May 2015 by former Unilever brand manager Gem Misa, the brand has seen its value sales reach £1.7m as Brits seek low-carb alternatives [Nielsen 52 w/e 15 October 2016].


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DETROIT — Most of the time the Motor City doesn't go in for quick fixes.
But after an accident in Utah last summer in which five girls died after they accidentally locked themselves in a passenger-car trunk while at play, automakers moved swiftly to see whether they could find a way to help even preschool-age children escape a luggage compartment.
The resulting anti-entrapment systems being introduced this spring also should make it easier for adult victims of crimes such as carjacking or kidnapping to escape from the trunk, where temperatures can quickly reach nearly 140 degrees on a hot day, automakers note.
The first system on the market comes from General Motors Corp., which began distributing kits to dealers March 26 costing $50 that will fit on the passenger cars made since 1990. That's more than 18 million cars, says GM spokesman Kyle Johnson.
GM plans to offer the release in 2000 cars, Johnson said, but has not decided whether to make it standard or an option.
"GM wants to help prevent tragedies like those that claimed 11 young lives during the summer of 1998," said Ron Zarrella, GM executive vice president and President of GM North America.
Zarrella said GM's engineers worked closely with child psychologists to find a device that could be manipulated by a trapped child even if he was excited or panicky.
GM enlisted the aid of experts from Exponent/Failure Analysis in San Francisco, which helps Fisher Price make its toys and other products for children, Zarrella said. They came up with a trap-resistant latch and an escape handle.
Christine Woods, one of the Exponent/Failure Analysis engineers who worked on the project, said they found limits on devices children would use.
GM engineers had initially proposed a pull-cord similar to the ones used by commuters to stop a bus. "It was very appealing to adults, but we found that young children believe that they shouldn't touch things that looked electrical," Wood said.
A light-switch type approach didn't work either because the trapped children figured the switch was for a light not for getting out of the trunk.
So the GM team settled on a lever, similar to a door handle, that proved to have a very good success rate with children. The lever, recessed into the trunk wall, is illuminated by a low-wattage light-emitting diode connected to the car's battery that will glow for up to an hour but gives almost no heat, GM officials said.
Zarrella said the GM system focuses on prevention as well as escape. The kits include a latch that has to be reset to close each time the truck is opened. The reset feature is easily manipulated by adults but requires more dexterity than most young children possess, Zarrella said.
GM also is offering a special strap over the pass-through, the seat back that folds to accommodate cargo such as skis or ladders, to prevent children from climbing into the trunk from the car, Zarrella said.
GM has offered the technology to other automakers, which has been delined because of competitive reasons. And an industry organization that includes representatives from domestic manufacturers as well as Toyota, Honda and Nissan is studying a common solution but hasn't come up with any specific recommendations.
Ford Motor Co. will concentrate on modifying new vehicles instead of offering retrofit kits like GM. It has announced plans to put child-proof trunks on the 2000 Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable and then on all of its 2000 model-year passenger cars as they roll out.
The Ford system includes a cable-operated release that can be triggered from the inside by pulling on a T-shaped handle. Depending on the car, the handle hangs from the trunk lid or is near the tail-lamp assembly, says Ford spokeswoman Jennifer Flake.
The handle requires a minimal effort to trigger, added Flake, who said Ford also consulted with child psychologists and discovered that very young children prefer to pull on a handle rather than push a button or a lever.
If a child crawls into the trunk and uses the escape handle to pull down the trunk lid, it will disable the lock, she says.
"We hope parents will tell their children not to climb into the trunk or will not leave the trunk open and unattended, " Flake added.
To make the handle is visible in a dark trunk, Ford has treated it with a phosphorescent material that glows for several hours after it has been exposed to light, Flake added. The handle also comes with a picture label, showing yanking it opens the trunk.
Honda is studying using the rear-seat pass-through, which is designed to be pushed out from the trunk, says spokesman Andy Boyd. The Japanese automaker plans to make it more noticeable as a way into the car.
"It wasn't designed that way but it does serve a dual purpose," Boyd said.
DaimlerChrysler AG expects to have a technology in place by start of the 2000 model year. "We're evaluating the approach we're going to take," said spokeswoman Sonya Bultrynck.

domain: news


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The speaker line up is headed by Doug Adams who has build up an international practice in training corporate management on leadership skills.
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Adams has worked with many top local companies like JKH and MAS Holdings and expected to use his knowledge on local management traits to stimulate a change in mindset.
rnrnAdams has titled his presentation-Leadership in the rapidly changing world; the challenge for Sri Lanka. The presentations from the other speakers include, ldblquote From vision to action
dblquote , ldblquote High touch leadership for high tech world
dblquote and ldblquote Visionary leadership
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rnrnDian Gomez, president of CIMA
quote s local chapter said the conference is the first of a series of seminars focusing exclusively on leadership for the local managers.
rnrnldblquote Sri Lankan management style still tends to be traditional and top down, owing to their colonial roots. But, the current environment requires a paradigm shift towards leadership based concepts
dblquote , he said.


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Posted by Sheila Shayon on December 13, 2012 02:01 PM
Following in the wake of Zara's capitulation, Levi’s is now the 11th brand to bow to pressure from Greenpeace's global Detox campaign. The denim giant has committed to eliminate releases of all hazardous chemicals throughout its supply chains and products. Still being pressured: Calvin Klein, Gap, and Victoria’s Secret as part of the green campaigner's goal “to expose brands until the use - and abuse - of hazardous substances is totally eliminated.”
The world’s largest denim brand, has agreed to eliminate all releases of hazardous chemicals throughout its entire supply chain and products by 2020. The commitment comes eight days after Greenpeace launched its “Toxic Threads: Under Wraps” report targeting global fashion brands releasing toxins in Mexico's rivers, resulting in a digital groundswell with more than 210,000 people calling on Levi’s to Detox, tens of thousands taking action on Facebook and Twitter, and over 700 people protesting outside Levi’s shop fronts in over 80 cities worldwide.
As part of its Zero Discharge Commitment, Levi’s (as outlined in a blog post) will start requiring 15 of its largest suppliers in China, Mexico and elsewhere in the Global South to disclose pollution data as early as June 2013, followed by compliance from 25 additional major suppliers by the end of 2013.Continue reading...
Posted by Sheila Shayon on December 13, 2012 12:11 PM
The two billion people who watched the 12-12-12 concert for Hurricane Sandy relief at New York’s Madison Square on Wednesday night may have tuned in (or streamed) for the chance to see music legends — Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Eric Clapton, the Who, Roger Waters, Chris Martin, Michael Stipe, Dave Grohl, Alicia Keys, Eddie Vedder — but the heart of the show was the stories of people whose lives were impacted by Sandy, and who were asking the world to care and help.
As the Los Angeles Times commented, “Critiquing the broadcast of the 12-12-12 Sandy benefit concert on Wednesday night is like assessing the food at a bake sale: Maybe the muffins are oversalted or the cookies are stale, but that's not the point. The point is charity and drawing attention to the cause.”
So kudos to Madison Square Garden (and New York Knicks) owner Cablevision, not to mention Clear Channel, Miramax's Harvey Weinstein, Chase, State Farm and other sponsors and volunteers for putting on a story-driven night of music and social compassion (the #121212concert hashtag is still lively on Twitter) to raise proceeds for the Robin Hood Relief Fund.
And in a similar (if less glitzy) vein, the American Red Cross has some stories it would like to share with you, too.Continue reading...
Posted by Sheila Shayon on December 12, 2012 10:18 AM
In April, GODIVA Chocolatier launched its Lady Godiva Program, honoring inspirational women on a local and national level who embody the original Lady Godiva’s selflessness, generosity and leadership as seen above.
Every two years, GODIVA selects a National Lady GODIVA Honoree and this year its first recipient is Lauren Bush Lauren, Co-Founder of FEED Projects, whose non-profit has provided over 60 million school meals to children living in 62 countries throughout the world through the United Nationals WFP since the launch.
GODIVA committed to sell one-of-a-kind FEED 10 bags, with each providing 10 school meals to children in cocoa-producing regions, and most recently, launched exclusive limited edition products like the FEED 8 Origins Collection of chocolates, where for each box sold, 8 meals will be donated to children in Ecuador and Uganda.
“The Lady GODIVA Program takes this notion of giving one step further. With the creation of the Lady GODIVA Program, we will honor outstanding women that make a difference both on a national and local level as well as the causes that matter most to women,” says Jim Goldman, President & CEO, GODIVA Chocolatier.Continue reading...
Posted by Sheila Shayon on December 11, 2012 12:19 PM
Who said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? Meet Monty, Porter and Ginny — three dogs trained by Mark Vette to drive cars in a novel partnership between a local SPCA branch in New Zealand and the automaker that puts a whole new spin on "adoption drive."
The cruising canines were selected by SPCA Auckland as the first crew for the Driving Dogs campaign, and started training two months ago with MINI New Zealand's instructors. Beginning with mock car controls, Monty (the Neil Armstong of the group) graduated to a real car where he spent hours behind the wheel – much like any nervous teenager, practicing his driving skills, while accompanied by a human instructor.
This week, Monty drove the car on his own on Campbell Live on New Zealand television, and social media exploded.Continue reading...
Posted by Sheila Shayon on December 10, 2012 12:57 PM
When UNIQLO CEO Tadashi Yanai set his sights on the US in 2007, the fast-fashion retailer that combined the back-to-basics approach of American Apparel, the competitive pricing of Old Navy, and the foreign edge of a Zara or H&M, was already "a retail juggernaut in Japan, with 760 stores in six countries, 20,000 employees, and earnings of US$ 3.5 billion in 2004," as we noted.
The Fast Retailing Co.-owned brand, whose name is derived from "unique clothes," is now the leading global Japanese retail holding company (and Yanai its richest citizen), posting global sales of 820 billion yen for its 2011 fiscal year, making it the world’s fourth largest apparel retail company and a true innovator thanks to its Heattech heat-generating fabric.
That innovation is now being turned to help individuals affected by Super Storm Sandy as the northeastern US braces for winter cold. The brand announced today that it has just kicked off United in Warmth to bring about just that. The 10-week program will donate and distribute 100,000 Heattech items to men, women and children and 10,000 Ultra Light Down jackets to adults affected by Sandy through a 10-week volunteer program on Saturdays, holding true to its brand commitment of “changing clothes, changing conventional wisdom and change the world.”Continue reading...
Posted by Sheila Shayon on December 7, 2012 03:21 PM
As countries like Bangladesh move up the food chain from aid to trade, the global eco-system fueling the fire, literally and figuratively, is largely the retail fashion industry, feeding the western world’s insatiable appetite for fashion.
The November 24th factory blaze that killed 112 garment workers in an illegal factory in Bangladesh showed the world, as Reuters puts it, that “pressure from big Western brands to produce huge volumes of apparel fast and at rock-bottom prices, [is making] Bangladeshi suppliers routinely sub-contract their orders.”
As the victims — many of them young women and mothers, all of them poor — are mourned and the Clean Clothes Campaign organizes vigils at C&A and beyond as part of a bigger shame campaign for brands whose labels were found in the ashes, what’s really on trial, as the New York Times points out in a scathing article today, is ethical sourcing and a severely out-of-balance equation claiming the lives of impoverished workers with no options.Continue reading...
Posted by Sheila Shayon on December 7, 2012 12:25 PM
Having taken Zara to task as part of its Detox/Toxic Threads campaign, Greenpeace is now turning the spotlight on the Levi’s brand.
This week, the eco-activists rolled out a multimedia campaign that included bringing 16 living mannequins to stage a protest outside the brand’s flagship store in San Francisco. Their demand: that the world’s largest maker of jeans (with sales of $4.8 billion in 2011) eliminate hazardous chemicals from their supply chain. The tactics: turning the denim giant's global Go Forth "marketing platform"— which was inspired by Walt Whitman's "O Pioneers" poem — against the brand.
Campaigners are using the language of "Go Forth" against the brand. Greenpeace is mimicking its graphic style and hashtag (#goforth) with its own #detox tag for a "#GoForth and #Detox!" message. The platform's "This is our time" tagline has turned into "Now is Your Time," in addition to co-opting other Levi's brand attributes (see the Pinterest/Facebook-ready "501 reasons to detox" infographic, below) to encourage the company to live up to its high-minded, noble mesaging.
Levi's is listening.Continue reading...
Posted by Sheila Shayon on December 6, 2012 06:15 PM
Fashion retailers are embracing sustainability with ever-widening arms, becoming increasingly accountable for the byproducts their industry creates. With their latest moves, H&M and Marks & Spencer (M&S as it's better known) are leading the rack-pack.
Following in the footsteps of the UK-wide recycling push launched by M&S earlier this year, H&M is planning to launch the world’s first global clothing collective initiative, to be introduced in all of its 48 markets in February.
According to the fast-fashion retailer's press release, “Any pieces of clothing, from any brand and in any condition are accepted. In return, the customer will receive a voucher for each bag brought. The collected clothes are then handled by H&M’s partner, I:Collect, which provides the infrastructure in which consumer goods are repeatedly reprocessed and made available for new use."
“Our sustainability efforts are rooted in a dedication to social and environmental responsibility. We want to do good for the environment, which is why we are now offering our customers a convenient solution: to be able to leave their worn out or defective garments with H&M,” stated H&M CEO Karl-Johan Persson.
No value was stated for the voucher H&M is offering in return for donations to in-store collection boxes to be processed by I:CO, as its Swiss recycling partner is branded; its tagline is "Rethink. Recycle. Reward."Continue reading...


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BEIJING, China (AFP) — China Friday swiftly retaliated by imposing “equal” tariffs on US products following a decision by Donald Trump to slap duties on US$50 billion of Chinese products.
“We will immediately launch tax measures of equal scale and equal strength,” the commerce ministry said in a statement on its web site which also called on other countries to “take collective action” against this “outdated and backwards behaviour”.
China would also negate agreements it had reached with the US during previous consultations over the penalties, it said.
The statement followed closely on the announcement that Trump would target US$50 billion in Chinese imports with tariffs, making good on a pledge to punish the alleged theft of US intellectual property.
In a statement, he warned of “additional tariffs” should China hit back with tit-for-tat duties on American goods and services exports.
“Launching a trade war does not accord with global interests,” the Chinese commerce ministry said.
“China definitely does not want a trade war, but in the face of the US’s malicious, harmful and short-sighted conduct, China has to impose powerful countermeasures and resolutely defend the national interest and the people’s interests,” it said.
Trump’s announcement capped months of sometimes fraught shuttle diplomacy between Washington and Beijing, in which Chinese offers failed to assuage Trump’s grievances over the soaring US-China trade imbalance.
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Friday the United States would begin collecting duties on 818 Chinese imports valued at US$34 billion as of July 6.
A second tranche of 284 goods valued at US$16 billion – which would bring the total to US$50 billion – will undergo an additional process of review and public comment, according to the trade representative’s office.
The Chinese commerce ministry did not provide details of how it planned to implement the new duties.
China previously issued a list of US products it would hit with tariffs in the event of a trade war, from big products like soybeans and beef to more niche items such as bourbon and ginseng.


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Beats 1 radio station announced. Worldwide radio station. “All the ways you love music. All in one place.”
Apple Music announced.
Siri can now display certain glances on Watch.
Siri on Watch can control HomeKit devices.
Reply to emails on Watch now.
Watch now has nightstand mode and an alarm.
Time Travel on Watch. See future and past events, weather, etc.
App developers can add “complications” for watch faces.
New watch faces including photos and albums. Time-lapse faces.
Native apps for Watch now possible thanks to new version of Watch OS.
100 billion apps downloaded from App Store now.
iOS 9 public beta signup available at beta.apple.com.
Swift 2. Swift is now open source.
Carplay now supports apps made by automakers. Carplay is going cordless for the future.
New health metrics can be tracked in HealthKit including water consumption and reproductive health.
Upgrading to iOS 9 takes far less space.
New two-factor authentication for iCloud.
With new iOS, iPhone users should get about an hour of additional battery. New low power mode for iOS — can extend battery life for an additional 3 hours.
Split view only available on latest iPad.
New picture-in-picture video capabilities on iPad.
New iPad multitasking capabilities. New task switcher. Multi-app, multi-touch. 4-finger swiping. Adjustable screen split.
New shortcuts added to iPad’s QuickType keyboard. iPad keyboard now acts like a trackpad.
Local news and bloggers won’t be left out of News app.
New News app designed for privacy from the ground up.
Explore feature in News will show personalized publisher/channel suggestions.
Media organizations can build articles specifically for News. Can bookmark articles to read later.
Apple’s Flipboard competitor.
New personalized News app.
Maps will now tell you which merchants support Apple Pay.
Can now get walking directions within buildings such as train depots.
Public transit maps now available.
Notes sync across all devices via iCloud.
Checklists, sketches, photos and hand-drawn notes for Notes.
New Notes for iOS toolbar.
Passbook has been renamed Wallet.
Can now use loyalty and rewards cards using Apple Pay. Including Kohls, JCPenney, Dunkin Donuts and more.
Apple Pay now coming to UK. London commuters will be able to pay for their rides using Apple Pay.
Soon Pinterest will launch Buyable Pins using Apple Pay and only on iOS.
New apps that work with Apple Pay.
New Square readers that will work with Apple Pay for small businesses.
New merchants supporting Apple Pay ...


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Blog: Peace at last for Puma and Adidas
Leonie Barrie | 17 September 2009
Shaking hands, kicking a football about and catching a movie…It’s what you’d expect from a couple of old pals, but when employees of Adidas and Puma get together next Monday, it will end a 60-year-old family feud.
In support of the Peace One Day initiative, workers from the two companies will put aside old grievances and shake hands, play football, and then watch the film “The Day After Peace”, directed by the initiative’s founder, Jeremy Gilley.
And in the process, they will end a family feud which has divided the medieval Bavarian town of Herzogenaurach since the 1940s, and a mysterious argument between brothers Rudolph and Adi Dassler, then makers of sports shoes under the Gebrueder Dassler Sportschuhfabrik banner.
Nobody knows for certain what the two argued about – some say a woman, some say their respective attitudes towards the Nazis – but Adi went on to found Adidas, while Rudolph’s Ruda venture was quickly renamed Puma.
And little Herzogenaurach has been split down the middle ever since.
Next Monday’s joint activities, the first since the companies were founded, are in support of Gilley’s Peace One Day initiative, which aims to promote peaceful cohabitation around the world.
They will also include half-time activities during two German premier league football matches this Saturday (19 September).
“We firmly believe that sport can bring the world together,” said Puma chairman and CEO Jochen Zeitz, voicing a commitment to “performance and passion, teamwork and fair play”.
Meanwhile, Herbert Hainer, Adidas CEO and Zeitz’ new best mate, added: “Our unity… is a small step in a positive direction, as well as an expression of the united power of sport in a world which we are all responsible for.”
But next Monday will not be the first time that an olive branch has been offered during the long-running conflict.
For that, you have to go back to the 1980s, when Hainer shocked little Herzogenaurach by enticing one of Puma’s employees across to Adidas.
And the worker in question was none other than Frank Dassler, Rudi’s grandson.
By Richard Woodard.
Over the past month, Donald Trump and his team failed to offer any clear plan to ensure Americans would "Buy American, Hire American" - while the British government's attempts to clarify the specifics...
The Bangladesh government was forced to respond late last week to pressure over its crackdown on labour activists after a number of global brands and retailers, including H&M and Inditex announced pla...
Fresh from their disappointment at seeing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade deal abandoned last month with an executive order by President Donald Trump, the US apparel and footwear sector...
With the ultimate aim of ensuring all the cotton in its products is sourced sustainably, value clothing retailer Primark is adamant that having a business model focused on offering the lowest prices o...
- Unlocks for the future fashion sourcing landscape
- EU eyes mandatory due diligence for apparel supply
- Digitalisation and data to disrupt supply chains
- What TTIP might mean for US, EU textiles & apparel
- Where next for Corporate Human Rights Benchmark?
- Li & Fung forms supply chain partnership with PVH
- US Q4 in brief – Finish Line, Oxford Industries
- Sears has "substantial doubt" of future
- Adidas mulls roll-out of in-store customisation
- Brands urged to empower women in sub-Sahara Africa
- Central and East Europe Report Package
- Central America strategic sourcing review - a focus on Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras
- Southeast Asia strategic sourcing review – a focus on Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar
- When Things Go Wrong - A Practical Guide to Managing Common Problems in Apparel Sourcing
- Outdoor performance apparel 2016: A broader perspective


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Suffolk residents can now get better value than ever from drainage experts, Drainage Suffolk, as the company is working to a new financial and business model. “Drain repairs tend to be emergencies that immediate attention by experienced professionals”, said a spokesperson for Drainage Suffolk at a brand awareness programme they held in Suffolk.
The spokesperson, the brand awareness programme had been held in order to highlight Drainage Suffolk’s triple brand promise of FIRST RATE SOLUTIONS, SPEED AND AFFORDABLE RATES. He stated that their three-in-one brand value proposition makes them the leading drainage company in the region. Cheap service charges from drainage companies have often equated to poor quality services, poor processes, and staff that are not equipped with the latest technology. There are few concerns over quality with Drainage Suffolk though, as they have a history of delivering excellent services, delivered by qualified professionals with the latest technology at hand.
Providing quality at market leading prices!
“The certified and skilled professionals at Drainage Suffolk use the latest and most effective industry methods and technologies to provide their clients with quality drainage solutions,” said the spokesperson. “We are the go-to drainage company to work on both residential and commercial properties in Suffolk, because our expert services cover pipes, drains, and sewers, and we are extremely efficient,” he said. The Financial Director of the company said “After several years of evolution, and fine tuning, we now have a financial model to offer market leading prices and quality services; it is all about technology and efficiency”. He added that the company has a stronger service culture than ever, and that it was always the goal to leave customers 100% happy with the service delivered. He said “We are all about YOU, the client”.
He said that they made it a point of duty to never treat their clients as if they were just mere figures and statistics on their balance sheet, like some other companies do. “Every client resident that has opted to trust that we can provide the solutions needed for their drainage problems matters to us, not the size of the project”. He concluded by saying that, service is what keeps motivating every member of staff of Drainage Suffolk to excel.
Drainage Suffolk history
Drainage Suffolk has built a reputation as one of the leaders in the drainage market over the last ten years. Their marketing department has recently announced a new pricing structure. Drainage Suffolk services include unblocking sewers, drains, pipes, gutters, baths and sinks, CCTV drain surveys, and repairing damage to drainage networks. Our drainage website is https://drainagesuffolk.uk.
Get in touch –
Website – https://drainagesuffolk.uk
Business Contact – Paul Jackson
Company Name – Drainage Suffolk
Phone Number – 0800 061 4703
Email Address – firstname.lastname@example.org


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The Intel Core i9-12900K Alder Lake CPU is a 16C/24T beast which “brings the chip veteran right back into the high-performance desktop PC conversation with a bang,” concluded Club386 in one of the first reviews here on the new site. We are all very aware that this chip will be squarely in AMD’s sights as it launches the 3D V-Cache-equipped Ryzens in January. So, rumours of a swift Intel answer to any challenge aren’t a surprise, as it intensely covets the “top gaming CPU” crown.
Tech leaks-centric site VideoCardz cites its own sources for rumours about how exactly Intel will strike back against AMD when the time comes. It reveals a simple but probably quite effective plan, where Intel will take the wraps off the Core i9-12900KS processor. The new ADL-S chip will be following in the footsteps of the Special Edition Core i9-9900KS release, which was a pre-binned 8C/16T chip capable of an all-core Turbo Boost of 5.0GHz. Now, three generations later, the Intel Core i9-12900KS is said to achieve a 5.2GHz all-core boost.
The Club386 Core i9-12900K sample wouldn’t have made the grade for the “KS” bin. It didn’t respond to coaxing beyond 5.1GHz on the P-cores (and 4.1GHz on the E-cores). The editor basically dismissed the worth of OCing this CPU, as performance gains were slight, but power consumption and waste heat generation ratcheted up rather quickly. It would be easy to be miffed that Intel has probably been squirrelling away all the best overclocking samples for itself – for this KS launch a few months later.
VideoCardz says that while the 12900K was found to easily hit between 4.85 and 4.90GHz all-core boost with stock settings, and 5.0GHz with minimal manual tweaking it isn’t a far reach for pre-binned samples to guarantee 5.2GHz all-core boost.
Intel appears to have a wide and varied smorgasbord of products lined up for CES 2022. It is thought to be preparing the rest of the ADL-S series, ADL CPUs for laptops, as well as the first Arc Alchemist GPUs for launch. With AMD expected to launch Ryzen CPUs with 3D V-Cache and 15 per cent faster gaming performance, Intel’s Core i9-12900KS 5.2GHz all-core boost CPU could snatch away/limit any AMD boast of being the ultimate choice for PC gaming desktops.


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NEW TRADE DEAL HAS LIMITED IMPACT ON GRAIN FARMERS
THE TRANS-PACIFIC Partnership (TPP) is billed as the most comprehensive trade agreement in the world. It’s designed to foster trade and economic ties within the Asia-Pacific region. It involves trade agreements amongst 12 countries (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam). Nearly 800 million people and a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of $28.5 trillion are represented within the agreement.
The TPP will eliminate tariffs on almost all of Ontario’s key exports and provide access to new market opportunities. Ontario’s key export sectors are agriculture and agri-food, forestry, industrial goods, and metals and minerals. According to information provided by the Government of Canada, “the gains from tariff elimination and improved market access for Canadian agriculture in the TPP are especially significant in the markets of Japan, Malaysia, and Vietnam. These are markets where Canada faces high tariffs and no preferential access.”
The Government highlights the TPP agreement offers new market access opportunities for Canadian wheat and barley. From 2012 to 2014, Canada’s exports to the Asia-Pacific region of these crops were on average $2.8 billion per year. With the trade deal, feed wheat will be duty-free in Japan and there will be a Canada-specific quota for food wheat. Wheat tariffs imposed by Vietnam will be eliminated. Barley for food and feed entering Japan will also face fewer restrictions and Canada will have access to a TPP-wide quota for food barley.
However, given the strong domestic use of Ontario wheat and the limited acres of barley grown in the province, these changes are not relevant to Ontario growers. So how, specifically, do Ontario grain farmers stand to benefit from this agreement? An analysis by Grain Farmers of Ontario’s government relations team indicates that the TPP is of limited direct value to farmer-members.
“There has been some strengthening of the rules around which countries can use unjustified phytosanitary (plant disease) actions to impede trade — as occurred with Canadian exports of soybeans to Malaysia earlier this year,” explains Gord Pugh, Grain Farmers of Ontario’s federal government liaison. “Japan and Vietnam have also eliminated tariffs on corn. These may be of some value in the future as production grows in Canada.”
Pugh does note that grain farmers could see indirect value if feed sales increase with beef and pork industries achieving a significant growth in market access to a number of key markets, especially to Japan.
“The Ontario grain industry is becoming more export-oriented for some commodities and agreements like the TPP that increase access to export markets are always encouraged,” said Mark Brock, chair of Grain Farmers of Ontario, when the agreement was signed in October. “While this is a useful step forward, we need the new federal government to demonstrate a commitment to risk management programs for grain farmers.”
Grain Farmers of Ontario believes that the compensation offered to the supply-managed industries for concessions that Canada made on imports of dairy and poultry products are extremely generous.
“This level of generosity is quite interesting given that funding of federal Business Risk Management programs has been cut significantly in recent years,” says Pugh. “If Canada ratifies the TPP agreement and the accompanying compensation programs, this is a precedent for the new government to substantially strengthen safety net programming for Ontario grain farmers.”
The negotiations of the TPP were finalized by the Conservative government before the election and it will now be up to the new Liberal government to ratify the deal. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during the election campaign that his government would carefully evaluate any trade deal negotiated by the Conservatives, opening up the potential for delays in signing onto the agreement. The same ratification process must also occur in the 11 other countries involved in the trade agreement.
U.S. FARM GROUPS BACK TPP
Major U.S. commodity groups were on record applauding the successful negotiation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, even before they had access to all of the agreement’s details.
The National Corn Growers Association expressed hope that the TPP continues the tradition of past free trade agreements and reaffirmed its commitment to “open trade policies that give farmers greater access to markets and level the global playing field.”
The American Soybean Association (ASA)?applauded trade ministers for reaching an agreement, noting that more than half of the U.S. soybean crop is exported. “From the outset of these negotiations, the ASA has been supportive of a TPP,” ASA wrote. “Everything we’ve seen and heard makes us feel very positive [about the TPP].”
“This agreement has the potential to increase economic opportunity and wheat demand, even in countries where we already have duty free access,” said Alan Tracy, president of the U.S. Wheat Growers, a non-profit market development association.
Craig Hill, Iowa Farm Bureau Federation president, predicted TPP will “open up incredible markets for us, especially in pork, beef, and dairy, and that will help our feed grain growers”.
In market year 2014/15, U.S. exports to its TPP partners totaled 26.1 million metric tons (mmt) of corn, 7 mmt of soybeans, and 2.1 mmt of wheat. •


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The Business Case for Free Wi-Fi
So for all those business execs who now see Wi-Fi as a critical piece of the "enriching the customer experience," as is so often said, the next question becomes: Who should pay for it? At McDonald's, for instance, customers pay $2.95 for two hours of service. And many other restaurants, hotels and airports still charge for Wi-Fi connectivity today.
But that may soon have to change. A recent In-Stat report on global hotspots found that Wi-Fi service has become commonplace and customer "resistance to paying for access remains high. Over the last 12 months hotspot operators have gone through some profound changes to survive in a market where demand increases while willingness to pay for the service decreases," notes the report.
At Panera Bread, CIO Tom Kish says via e-mail that Panera has offered free Wi-Fi in all its bakery-cafes since 2003. "We were the first major concept to offer it free," he says, "and have established one of the largest free Wi-Fi networks in the U.S. with approximately 1,200 cafes providing the service."
To Kish, free Wi-Fi ties into Panera's strategy of enriching the customer experience. "We see it as another amenity for our customers," he says. "Free internet access is one of a series of Panera's innovations designed to engage, connect and support our customers."
"We believe we raised the bar in customer service by offering free Wi-Fi," he adds.
One of the more well-known studies on free Wi-Fi's effect on consumer behavior is from Free-Hotspot.com, an operator of 3,000 free hotspots in 18 European countries. The 2006 survey of more than 1,000 Wi-Fi users in six European countries found that: 84 percent of respondents said they were more willing to purchase goods and services from businesses that offered a free Wi-Fi service; almost all (96 percent) said they would return to the hotspot location because of the free Wi-Fi; and half of the Wi-Fi users surveyed came to the hotspot location specifically for the free Wi-Fi. (Due to Free-Hotspot.com's business model, the results should be taken with several grains of salt.)
To many businesses, notes Schatt, free Wi-Fi is already or will soon become seen "as just another cost of doing business and an operational expense, rather than as a profit center."
Complimentary Wi-Fi, With a Catch
One of business owners' main arguments against offering free Wi-Fi service is simple: "You charge something so that you don't have people camping out all day and essentially taking up table space," says Schatt.
The Borders bookstore chain charges for Wi-Fi through T-Mobile, which takes care of the backend IT and network management. The amount that customers pay varies according to the length of service they want, notes spokeswoman Mary Davis. Borders customers can pay $9.99 for a day pass, which offers 24-hour, unlimited access from all T-Mobile hotspots. Hourly rates are also available.
Starbucks offers a number of payment options for its Wi-Fi service. At the base level, two hours will cost customers $3.99. However, the coffee purveyor has recently announced ways to get "complimentary" Wi-Fi service, taking great pains to not use the word "free."
The most notable method is that customers who registered their Starbucks Rewards card and agreed to receive four marketing e-mails per year from service provider AT&T can receive 2 free consecutive hours of free Wi-Fi access per day. Customers must use their rewards card-to make a purchase or load more money on it-at least once a month. Also, AT&T's more than 12 million DSL customers can get free Wi-Fi at Starbucks. (To read how IT can help Starbucks' companywide transformation, see "How IT Systems Can Help Starbucks Fix Itself.")
Schatt says that Starbucks' move from a paid Wi-Fi hotspot business model to a "virtually free" one is a bellwether event for the industry. Most significant is that Starbucks' change is emblematic of a phased approach that businesses will mostly likely take in the near future, he says, from charging for Wi-Fi, to almost free with ties to a loyalty program, and then eventually to free for everybody. (Interestingly, McDonald's recently announced a partnership with Free-Hotspot.com to offer free Wi-Fi hotspot service in Belgium, which stands in stark contrast to its U.S. strategy right now.)
A big reason hotspot owners will be willing to move toward this business model, Schatt contends, is the recognition that "charging for service is counter-productive in the long run because the real money will be in value-add content downloads." Again, one can see evidence of that at Starbucks: Customers can wirelessly buy and download music to their laptops or iPhones via the iTunes Music Store at Starbucks.
And the accumulated CRM data will prove to be a boon to businesses. "If they know something about their customers," Schatt says, "then [the business] can build up a database on people and offer very targeted and customized offerings, and probably have a much higher hit rate." In contrast, Borders, for example, does not have a Wi-Fi tie in with the more than 27 million members of its Borders Rewards loyalty program.
Wayport's McKeand says that when he begins working with a new partner, the executives always ask whether their company should charge customers for the Wi-Fi service. "If the [business] can create some other form of value, we just don't see the need to give it away unnecessarily, but we're also saying they don't necessarily need to charge for it," McKeand says. "We're just saying: Don't give it away for free without trading off some kind of value because it's not free to the property. We think they should get something in return for it."
This story, "Is Free Wi-Fi Good Businesss?" was originally published by CIO.


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(This post originally appeared on LinkedIn Pulse back in Oct 2016)
Last week I’ve had the pleasure to attend Steam Dev Days, Valve’s gathering of their worldwide developer and publisher community, so I boarded the plane to Seattle with the promise to write a straightforward blog post on Dev Days while sharing meaningful insights and learnings with you at the same time. So being straightforward, I will start on a negative note regarding the opening talks, which surprisingly were quite disappointing. No, I’m not going to join the choir of complaints from fan-boys about Gabe Newell not being on stage this year. I believe in content over personality, but in regards to content I found the keynotes to be quite poor.
For example, Valve’s Marketing and Business Development guru DJ Powers confirmed a major update coming to Steam Store UI, which is set to release in the coming weeks. Very little has been leaked on this in recent weeks, but there were hints on a full visual refresh for the store front page, new navigation, a new top selling new release section or smart visibility for new releases and updates based on user preferences. Well, that would mean some pretty big changes, but guess what? Valve didn’t show any of this on stage — no preview, no mock-up, not even a few words on the details of what and when exactly the update will ship! Now, if you ask me, that’s kind of awkward for a conference designed for those who distribute their games on the Steam platform, don’t you agree?
But enough of that! A lot of the talks were full of actionable insights that made the conference more than worth attending. Here are the three most important ones you should take away:
The marketplace gets packed, the discovery game is heating up
One of the anthems of Steam Dev Days was this: “It’s a great time to be a PC developer!”. No doubt, Steam is providing a powerful set of tools for developers, from small indie to major studios, to develop, launch and sell their games. From a pure numbers standpoint, it’s a massive success: DJ Powers announced that Steam’s concurrent user base has tripled compared to 2011. At the same time, the number of new releases has sky-rocketed since 2014: The number of games shipped per month has increased to more than 500 in September 2016 vs. “just” 140 in September 2014. The revenue growth is not one bit less impressive: Steam-generated revenue in North America grew by 80% over the last two years, while Western Europe isn’t too far behind and in the 60% range. Outstanding growth comes from Asia, putting the market in the spotlight with a growth of almost 500% from 2014 to 2016, making the Asia region the third biggest market on Steam. For the longest time, most of us thought the Asian market to be insignificant for PC games — guess we were wrong!
While these are great news for Valve, they also raise some serious challenges that we need to address: as the Steam store gets more and more packed, discovery is becoming an ever-increasing concern. Steam has made big improvements to the UI which currently allows 4,800 games to be featured in the main capsules, and it’s quite likely that the upcoming new Steam Store UI with its smart visibility will improve this even further. But algorithms based on user preferences also mean that popular genres will get even more attention. Arty or niche genres, on the other hand, while finding a better targeted audience, will face less broad visibility. This isn’t exactly news to me — I’ve seen it all happening on the app stores, where huge parts of the user acquisition happens on Facebook, Google and in mobile ad networks, simply because the clutter in the stores is so massive. In my opinion, it’s crucial for you to increase visibility outside the Steam ecosystem as well.
Discovery is not over on launch day or as Valve’s Tom Giardino phrased it: “Launch day is not the finishing line, it’s the starting line.” Have a plan, view your game as a service that needs updates, new content and non-stop communication with your community and it will pay back in visibility. Robin Meijer from Ronimo Games showed a great example of this in his “Games as Service” talk: their title Awesomenauts outperformed launch sales and the winter sale in the second year by far. In fact, they made 69% of their Steam revenue past year 1. How did they achieve this? By designing the game with replayability in mind, expanding content with updates every two or three months and listening closely to player feedback. So take a close look at e.g. the most successful F2P games and how their community is being treated post-launch. Learn from their treating games as a service attitude and figure out how to apply these lessons to your game.
VR is the (un)known frontier
Steam is doubling down on VR without a doubt. They’re investing heavily and also hinted on original VR content coming directly from Valve next year. The VR theme has been around for a while and now Steam will finally be adding VR support to SteamOS, MacOSX and Linux. Even more intriguing is the fact that Valve invested in a company called Nitero, which is developing wireless tech for VR and AR. To me that sounds like the door-opener to another mass market-ready VR technology after PlayStation VR, as it should allow to make VR hardware cheaper. Combine that with the open VR platform (Lighthouse) that Valve covered in various talks, and we’re talking about a trouble-free VR gaming experience without the constraints of wired headgear.
At the moment, about 1,000 new VR players join Steam every day. That’s not a huge number just yet as it would only mean 365,000 new players a year compared to the hundreds of millions of regular PC gamers. That said, I firmly believe that this is just the beginning and I seem to share this opinion with those devs who have already put out more than 600 VR experiences on Steam. One more thing that encourages this belief is that Steam Link now allows others to watch you playing VR games. If you think that this doesn’t sound like a big deal, let me share two thoughts:
It’s the only way to make the VR experience accessible for Social gaming, be it with friends in the living room or streaming to the public
The Steam Link will be built-in all future Samsung TVs, thus it’s going to be available to a mass audience in just a few years’ time.
It should come to no surprise that Epic’s Tim Sweeney has voiced hope that a majority of the VR profits will be made in high-end PC VR experiences in the next five years. In other words, if you’re already considering developing a VR game, just do it!
Controllers do matter for Steam gamers
Next to VR I think it’s worth to spend some thoughts on enabling controller support for your game. Back in June Valve announced that they sold 500,000 controllers, and just four months later they are on track to sell a million by early next year. While these numbers aren’t that impressive and it’s not quite clear how many of those controllers are being actively used, Valve is definitely upping the controller game for PC. Since the first Steam Controller preorder units have shipped, a staggering 72 updates have been released — each one of them specifically targeting the controller functionality.
But it doesn’t stop there. One of few product announcements coming from Dev Days is a soon-to-come update that adds full configurability to third-party controllers. More precisely this will allow players to pair their PS4 controller directly to their PC and use all the configurability options available to the Steam Controller, including the use of the PS4 touchpad and gyro. And that’s a real game changer, considering the massive console player community who will have a much easier time getting their feet wet in the PC gaming universe.
Circling back to the discoverability of games, Valve also hinted about Steam going to introduce new logics that will increase the visibility of games that play well with a controller as well as more of focused promotions on Steam “that highlight hand-picked, controller-friendly titles” coming soon. So yes, controller support definitely does make an impact for games released on Steam.
Summing things up, Steam Dev Days definitely were about much more than just a decent gathering of friendly developers, beers and good spirit. If you’re working on a PC game right now, take away that you should…
…adapt to the new race for discovery in the Steam Store, not only on the store itself but also through external channels
…think profoundly about VR-readiness of your game. It’s Steam’s ultimate focus in the coming year or even longer and is set to create a lot of traction and attention
…have a second look at your controls. Are you ready to enable them for Steam Controller and third-party controllers? If the answer is “yes”, it might work well with it, then give it a go!


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Bangladesh Cement Manufacturers Association (BCMA) has urged the government to reduce the customs duty on ‘clinker’, the main raw material of the cement industry.
They also urged the government to reduce the advanced income tax (AIT) to a maximum of 0.50 per cent at the import and sale stage.
Currently, cement producers have to pay a duty of Tk 500 per tonne on the import of clinker. In the proposed budget for the next fiscal year, the government proposed to increase the duty to Tk 700.
Addressing a press conference at a city hotel on Monday, BCMA President Md Alamgir Kabir said they have been demanding for reduction of the customs duty from Tk 500 per tonne to Tk 200 per tonne for a long time.
“But in the current budget, instead of reducing customs duty, the government has proposed to increase the duty from Tk 500 to Tk 700 per tonne, which is very disappointing,” said Md Alamgir Kabir.
The cement industry was already under stress due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the logistics problems stemming from the Russia-Ukraine war, and the increase in shipping fares for transporting goods.
He said, “Additional duty is a blow for the sector which is already reeling from a high tax burden, energy crisis, increase in transport fares, and dollar shortage.”
Customs duty on key raw materials of an industry is usually around 5 per cent of the import value, said Mr Kabir, who is also the chairman of Crown Cement.
“But the customs duty on ‘Clinker’ stands at around 12 per cent to 13 per cent of the import value because of the recent budget announcement on “Clinker” levying a customs duty of Tk 700 per metric tonne”.
“Thus, 12 per cent to 13 per cent customs duty on the import value of key raw materials is considered disproportionate to the cement industry owners and its detrimental effect may put additional pressure on the consumer-general in the cement market and may lead to a slowdown in overall construction activity,” he said.
“We have been demanding for a long time that at the import stage, primarily advanced income tax can be levied at a maximum of 0.50 per cent, but it would not be appropriate to consider it as a final settlement. Therefore, we have been applying to open up the opportunity to adjust the AIT,” said Mr Kabir.
Cement manufacturers have been demanding for a long time that a maximum of 0.50 per cent may be levied at the primary level of the sale stage, but it would not be appropriate to consider it as a final settlement.
“We are requesting to have the opportunity to adjust AIT. Also, since cement manufacturers have already paid AIT on raw materials at the import stage, paying AIT at the sale stage is equivalent to double taxation,” Kabir pointed out.
The dollar crisis is making it more difficult to import raw materials, leading to import costs higher while the ongoing energy crisis and gas shortage enhanced their production costs higher.
Considering the current situation, he urged the government to treat the cement sector as a “priority sector”.


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Signalling the arrival of competition in the mobile wallet market, the country's largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Friday tied up with US-based online taxi aggregator Uber, entering a domain rival Paytm had a monopoly on till now.
Signalling the arrival of competition in the mobile wallet market, the country’s largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Friday tied up with US-based online taxi aggregator Uber, entering a domain rival Paytm had a monopoly on till now. The tie-up is comprehensive in the sense that not only can consumers using Uber cabs pay through Airtel’s mobile wallet called Airtel Money, they would also get to use free 4G-speed WiFi in the cabs. This service begins in Mumbai and would slowly be rolled out in other cities by Uber.
While there was no exclusive arrangement between Uber and Paytm and similarly there’s no exclusivity in the Airtel-Uber tie-up with regard to the payment aspect part, it means that very shortly other mobile wallet service providers — telcos like Vodafone and Idea Cellular are present in this segment — would sign up with cab hailing or other e-commerce apps, heightening competition in the segment, which would lead to consumers enjoying a plethora of benefits.
Any e-commerce-related offer has to come with added freebies and, therefore, new Uber riders who top up their Airtel Money wallet will get a chance to earn up to R500.
For Bharti Airtel, which on August 6 launched its 4G service across 296 cities, the move also offers it another competitive edge over Reliance Jio which plans to launch similar services from December. Under the agreement, the company has become the official telecom partner of Uber across the country, whereby it would support Airtel’s growth by offering mobile, data and device plans to Uber driver-partners. By providing 4G WiFi experience to the travellers for free, the telco would bank on word-of-mouth publicity for its newly launched services.
When asked how the Airtel-Uber arrangement would impact its prospects,Paytm founder CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma declined comment.
But surely, the fight is going to be interesting if certain facts are taken into account. Paytm has around 85 million mobile wallet subscribers, and while Airtel does not share its Airtel Money subscriber base, the fact that its total mobile subscriber base is around 230 million gives it a distinct advantage over any rival. Further, for standalone wallet service providers like Paytm, cash can be loaded into the subscribers’ wallet only through credit cards, debit cards or internet banking, while in the case of a mobile operator like Airtel, there’s an additional choice — to load it through cash by hopping into any of its retail outlets.
“Our partnership with Uber is directly in line with our commitment to offer innovative and relevant services for our customers. Now, Uber riders can enjoy the convenience of paying through their Airtel Money wallets, while also experiencing the power of blazing internet speeds with Airtel 4G on the move. We are excited that Uber has chosen Airtel to fulfil its telecom needs, and look forward to supporting the company’s rapid growth across India,” Srini Gopalan, director, consumer business, Bharti Airtel, said.
“We are thrilled to join forces with Airtel to deliver solutions that elevate the Uber experience for riders and drivers throughout India. This unique partnership is built on our shared visions and strengths of broad, reliable networks and connecting people to their world, anytime, anywhere,” said Amit Jain, president, Uber India.


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Starting today, the senior vice president office within Mazda U.S. Operations Group will have a new name written on the door, Robert Davis’ one.
Mazda North America appointed Robert Davis to this position in order to have somebody more competent oversee the “Group” and all the actions the Japanese will need to see it have done.
At his new position, Robert Davis will report to Jim O’Sullivan, CEO of Mazda North America Operations about everything he does.
Speaking of which, Davis will be taking care of Mazda U.S. and everything related including sales, marketing, dealer development, owner loyalty initiatives and even public relations.
Davis is 47 years old and getting to such a venerable age and position, isn’t exactly easy to do without undergoing previous jobs of similar prestige within the same company.
Before being appointed as leader of U.S. Operations Group for Mazda he’s been North America’s senior vice president of product development and quality.
The new appointment isn’t related to Mazda simply being interested in a better person for the job, that may be part of the whole concept but the new separation of activites.
Whereas before Mazda North America has also covered Mazda Canada Inc. and Mazda Motor de Mexico, that’s not happening any more.


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The biggest debate of the century is here! The statement might be presumptuous but given the spotlight on the food processing industry, it is justified. Americans and the FDA are staring in the face of their biggest riddle: What is the meaning of natural?
A tough yet important question. The word ‘natural’ has assumed importance of mammoth proportions when it comes to food. So isn’t it a little surprising that the term currently means nothing in the marketing of processed foods? This when several studies reveal that 51% of US citizens spent $40 billion every year to purchase ‘natural’ products. The FDA however, is yet to get around to formally defining the term. This oversight has been best used to advantage by the big names in the food processing industry.
The task at hand is a tough one for the FDA. Here’s what the FDA put up on its website: “From a food science perspective, it is difficult to define a food product that is ‘natural’ because the food has probably been processed and is no longer the product of the earth.” So the authority decided to go forth and request the public to weigh in on what should be described as natural. January was to be the last month in which the public could send in their comments. Due to the overwhelming response received, the period was extended to May 10th. $40 billion worth of chow and just about 24 hours to go.
FDA website has received 4,863 public comments so far. A natural product should ideally be one with natural ingredients, right? But the ingredients that regularly make their way into natural foods are anything but natural. You know those food products of raspberry flavour? Well, the taste is commonly derived from castoreum, a component that is derived from beaver anal glands. A natural amnion acid, L-cysteine key to extending the shelf life of baked products originates from feathers and human hair from barber shops.
Big names in the food industry have been studiously avoiding using the term for the fear of legal disputes. Frito Lay, Pepperidge Farms, Pepsico and Campbell’s Soup are few of the companies that have dropped the name from the packaging, labelling and marketing. In 2009, many food manufacturers were dragged to court for misusing the term natural such as Snapple, Nature Valley, Ben and Jerry’s and Häagen-Dazs.
Since then the food industry has been stressing on the need for the FDA to define the term to avoid endless legal troubles.
Coming back to public comments, many received were theological in nature. One such example, “Natural should be limited to those ingredients that have been created by God.” GMOs, pesticides, chemicals, synthetics seem to be widely perceived as modernity’s sins. Others are of the opinion that natural should be renamed as super organic. Going by this, products that are 100% organic and have zero artificial ingredients. A rather too extreme view? You have 24 hours. That’s ample time to give your 2 cents, right?


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The FBICRC was pleased to participate in World EV Day at Optus Stadium on September 9, 2021– a global event promoting the take up of low emission electric vehicles.
Now in its second year, the Perth event was organised by Gemtek Group and brought together 8MWh of power across 120 EV vehicles of all shapes and sizes. Supported by passionate EV owners and enthusiasts, this years’ event attracted almost double the number of participants than attended the inaugural event, despite the wintry conditions.
FBICRC’s Project Director James Westcott was on hand to chat to participants and industry representatives about how our 15 research projects are contributing to the transition to a cleaner energy future.
“According to the Electric Vehicle Council, sales of EVs in Australia have grown from over 6700 in 2019 to just under 8700 in 2021. While Australia is deriving significant economic benefits from supporting the uptake of EVs around the world, we have a way to go to begin to prepare for and gain the benefits of EV update domestically,” said James.
The FBICRC currently has 15 projects underway with 68 industry, government and research partnerships that are contributing to the body of knowledge across the battery value chain.
“We have a number of projects that address battery recycling, the circular economy and the manufacture and testing of precursor materials to improve battery longevity and performance. Together they are supporting the adoption of battery technologies in domestic and industrial settings and EV use is a key growth area,” said James.


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Parents warned over popular baby food that has ‘more sugar than Coca-Cola’
Parents are being warned that many popular baby food pouches actually contain more sugar than Coca-Cola.
Dentists have issued the warning amid an “epidemic” of tooth decay among young children.
A survey by the British Dental Association (BDA) of 109 pouches aimed at children under 12 months old found that over a quarter contained more sugar by volume than Coca-Cola.
Fruit-based pouches marketed as for infants as young as four months old contained sugar levels the equivalent of up to 150 per cent of the soft drink, according to the findings.
Almost 40 per cent of products surveyed were marketed at babies “four months plus” despite both UK and World Health Organisation (WHO) guidance recommending weaning from six months old.
The BDA said the findings also jarred with marketing claims that the products contained only “naturally occurring sugars” or “no added sugar”, or that they were “nutritionally approved” or in line with infants’ “nutritional and developmental needs”.
Baby food products found to be high in sugar
All products found to be high in sugar adopted so-called “halo” labelling, focusing on their “organic” status or that they were “high in fibre” or contained “one of your five a day”, potentially misleading parents into thinking they were making healthy choices, the report warned.
The BDA singled out “boutique” brands including market leaders Ella’s Kitchen and Annabel Karmel for appearing to have higher levels of sugar than traditional baby food brands or own-brand alternatives.
A spokeswoman for Ella’s Kitchen said: “At Ella’s Kitchen, we take infant nutrition very seriously and, since 2016, building on recommendations from Public Health England, we have been reducing the proportion of higher sugar fruits like bananas in our recipes, as well as introducing lower sugar fruits and 100 per cent vegetable pouches, bringing down sugar on average across the range by 20 per cent.
“Any new products aim to be 10 per cent less sugar than the range average as a commitment to ongoing sugar reduction in stage one recipes.”
A spokeswoman for Annabel Karmel explained: “Annabel Karmel’s organic purees are inspired by her much-loved homecooked recipes.
“They are specially designed for babies and contain 100 per cent fruit with no added salt or sugar. The limited sugar content comes from naturally occurring sugars found in the fruits used.”
Manufacturers said high levels of natural or locked-in sugar was inevitable with fruit-based pouches, but some brands managed to offer similar products containing around half the sugar of the worst offenders, the survey found.
BDA warn parents over infants directly eating from pouches
The BDA also warned that infants often sucked directly from the pouches, for the convenience of caregivers while on the move. This ensured the food spent more time in contact with baby teeth and increased the risk of erosion and decay.
The BDA noted a lack of clear messaging from manufacturers advising that infants should not consume the products directly from the pouch, with Annabel Karmel packaging and the brand’s website explicitly stating “eat straight from the pouch”.
The Ella’s Kitchen spokeswoman added: “We do not advise that little ones consume our purees directly from the pouch, instead recommending that they be consumed from a spoon and eaten as part of a varied diet including lots of homemade foods.”
Calls for changes to labelling of infant food
The Department of Health and Social Care is expected to consult imminently on the marketing and labelling of infant food. Dentist leaders said the excessive levels of sugar in many infant pouches warranted action, including clearer “traffic light” labelling and potential expansion of the Sugar Levy to encourage reformulation.
Analysis by Action on Sugar last year of 73 baby and toddler sweet snacks such as rusks, biscuits, oat bars and puffs found that only six products (eight per cent) would be given a green (low) label for sugars.
BDA chairman Eddie Crouch said: “Disingenuous marketeers are giving parents the impression they are making a healthy choice with these pouches. Nothing could be further from the truth.
“Claims of ‘no added sugar’ are meaningless when mums and dads end up delivering the lion’s share of a can of Coke to their infants.
“Tooth decay is the number one reason for hospital admissions among young children, and sugar is driving this epidemic. These products sadly risk hooking the next generation before they can even walk.
“Ministers need to break the UK’s addiction. They must ensure sugar becomes the new tobacco, especially when it comes to our youngest patients.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman added: “We have challenged businesses to improve the nutritional content of baby food and drink, as our review in 2019 found inconsistencies between national recommendations and the ingredients and nutritional content of these products.”


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Tobacco group Philip Morris International will end the sale of Marlboro cigarettes in Britain in a decade in line with the UK’s ambition to end smoking, according to a report released by Reuters on Monday.
Chief Executive Officer Jacek Olczak stated the Marlboro brand will disappear from British stores alongside other brands, ending over 100-year association with the country.
Olczak, who adopted a more aggressive strategy to diversify the company away from cigarettes, had previously called on Britain to treat cigarettes like petrol cars and banning them in the next 10 years.
Earlier this month, Philip Morris launched a 1.05 billion pound bid for British asthma drug-maker Vectura as part of its evolution into a wider healthcare and wellness company.
The new acquisition strategy will see the company obtain more than 50% of its revenues from smoke-free products and at least $1 billion from non-nicotine products by 2025.
The deal received opposition from anti-tobacco groups causing reaction from the World Health Organization, which called such healthcare partnerships by Big Tobacco as undermining progress in controlling deadly products.


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STMicro: launches new wireless module
(CercleFinance.com) - STMicroelectronics today announced the release of the STM32WB1MMC Bluetooth certified module.
The company said that the new module enables designers to access the benefits of ST's dual-core STM32WB microcontrollers (MCUs), particularly in low-to-medium volume projects.
It simplifies development and speeds time-to-market by combining Bluetooth Low Energy 5.3 certification and global radio equipment approvals with support for the STM32Cube ecosystem, it added.
Copyright (c) 2023 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.


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Apple unveils iPhone 5S and 5C
Published 09/10/2013, Associated Press
UPDATE: The company revealed its latest iPhone models today during an event at its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters.Word count: 739
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Nvidia is having a big event on March 3rd 2015, at a very unfortunate time as it collides with one of the most important events in the industry - the Mobile World Congress 2015. Nvidia is holding its event on the 3rd of March because it wants to do it as a part of Game Developers Conference 2015 that takes the place next week in San Francisco.
Shortly after CES 2015 we wrote that it is all about 4K and Virtual Reality in 2015 and Slash Gear believe that Nvidia might introduce a Shield VR product at the event. We can expect a new Shield Tablet, new Shield 4K capable Tegra TX1 console, but we also do know that Nvidia has been working on VR technology for quite some time. We are not sure if Nvidia will introduce a mass market VR product, but we would not be surprised to see some demos at GDC.
Nvidia introduced VR Direct technology with GTX 980 on September 18 2014. The technology brings low latency, Virtual Reality SLI, VR DSR, MFAA, Auto Asynchronous Wrap as well as Auto Stereo. All these technologies can improve the quality of the virtual reality experience and we cannot stress enough now important low latency is.
We don’t think that Nvidia's virtual reality push is ready for consumers yet. Oculus suffers from high latency, making you dizzy when you use the headset, and it would be very surprising that Nvidia got things that much better than the Facebook-funded VR pioneer. One of our readers suggested that "VR is just not ready yet, it will take 1-2 years till technology catches up and we will be able to get affordable, good quality VR kit." We could not agree more with the reader in question (milkod2001) and the rest of the sceptics in our comment section, as they are enthusiasts like us, and many are involved in the industry in one way or another.
Nvidia research has demonstrated its Near-Eye Light Field Displays that might be a good step forward toward the Virtual Reality dream. This demo was published at Siggraph 2013 in July 2013 and it demonstrated a lot of potential. We are not sure if this is ready for retail, but let's hope Nvidia has what it takes to surprise us and prove us wrong. You can check the video below.


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Halloween is just around the corner! Disney shares more information about what we can look forward to this fall!
Halloween Time at the Disneyland Resort will cast its eerie spell Sept. 2 – Oct. 31, 2022. Featuring seasonal décor, Halloween-themed attractions, photo opportunities with favorite Disney characters and villains, plus specialty treats and more, there is something for everyone during this spook-tacular celebration.
Throughout Disneyland park, you may encounter favorite Disney characters in brand-new Halloween looks or wickedly Disney villains looking to stir up mischief. Vibrant seasonal décor will transform Main Street, U.S.A., with whimsical pumpkin displays. The giant Mickey Mouse pumpkin also returns for photo opportunities!
The Haunted Mansion attraction will undergo its annual seasonal transformation to become Haunted Mansion Holiday. You can read Marisol’s thoughts on his overlay HERE.
Every night from Sept. 2 – Oct. 31, 2022, guests may enjoy the return of the supernatural showcase “Halloween Screams,” a vibrant projection and light show. On weekend nights, “Halloween Screams” will take to the skies with fireworks that are sure to waken the Halloween spirits.
Cars Land and Mission Breakout will both transform into their respective Halloween overlays.
On Buena Vista Street, Mickey Mouse and friends don old-fashioned Halloween styles, poised and ready for photos. Festive Halloween décor will add to the ambiance on Buena Vista Street. When the sun sets, the façade of Carthay Circle Restaurant comes alive with Halloween magic.
Also be on the lookout for the 10-feet tall statue of the Headless Horseman!
Plaza de la Familia returns to Paradise Gardens at Disney California Adventure park from Sept. 2 – Nov. 2, 2022. This immersive, limited-time celebration, inspired by the spirit of Día de los Muertos, features live entertainment, festive foods, crafts and more.
If you visit Disneyland park Sept. 2 – Nov. 2, 2022, you can also encounter a vibrant display commemorating the traditions of Día de los Muertos, featuring a musical trio of iconic skeleton figurines, brightly colored flowers and other festive décor that honors the spirit of the season, located in Frontierland.
Oogie Boogie Bash
Everyone eagerly awaits Oogie Boogie Bash at California Adventure! On 23 select nights beginning Sept. 6, through Oct. 31, 2022, the separate-ticket, after-park hours event Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party at Disney California Adventure park will add to the family-friendly fun during Halloween Time.
This limited-capacity event offers kids and guests of all ages the opportunity to enjoy the park’s attractions, unique entertainment, character sightings and more, while dressed in their favorite Halloween costumes. In addition to taking in all the spook-tacular sights and trick-or-treating experiences, guests attending Oogie Boogie Bash will also be able to explore areas inside Disney California Adventure park that remain open during the party, including Avengers Campus.
Highlights of Oogie Boogie Bash include immersive treat trails, “Mickey’s Trick and Treat” show, the “Frightfully Fun Parade,” Villains Grove at the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, and more. Read Marisol’s review HERE. Here are the dates and prices:
- Tues Sept 6, 2022 – $129
- Sat Sept 10, 2022 (D23 Member exclusive night) – $179
- Tues Sept 13, 2022 – $129
- Thurs Sept 15, 2022 – $139
- Sun Sept 18, 2022 – $149
- Tues Sept 20, 2022 – $129
- Thurs Sept 22, 2022 – $139
- Sun, Sept 25, 2022 – $149
- Tues Sept 27, 2022 – $129
- Thurs Sept 29, 2022 – $139
- Sun Oct 2, 2022 – $159
- Tues Oct 4, 2022 – $139
- Thurs Oct 6, 2022 – $149
- Sun Oct 9, 2022 – $159
- Tues Oct 11, 2022 – $139
- Thurs Oct 13, 2022 – $149
- Sun Oct 16, 2022 – $159
- Tues Oct 18, 2022 – $139
- Thurs Oct 20, 2022 – $149
- Sun Oct 23, 2022 – $159
- Tues Oct 25, 2022 – $159
- Thurs Oct 27, 2022 – $159
- Sat Oct 29, 2022 – $179
- Mon Oct 31, 2022 – $179
Will you visit Disneyland or California Adventure during the Halloween season? Let us know!


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Martha Stewart was named as non-executive chairman of the lifestyle, media and merchandising company that she created Wednesday.
Stewart, who rejoined the board of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. in September, at the end of a five-year ban on serving as a board member or as an executive of a public company as part a settlement with federal regulators related to insider trading.
“I look forward to working closely with our directors and our management team as we focus on the future, capitalizing on the strength of our brand and our amazing customer connection to continue building our business so that it realizes its full and considerable potential,” Stewart said.[dmc-related-post-wp numitems=”3″ title=”Also read”]
Stewart was convicted in 2004 on federal criminal charges of lying to prosecutors about selling ImClone shares a day before the Food and Drug Administration announced it declined to review an ImClone application for a cancer drug. She served five months in prison.
In 2006, the Securities Exchange Commission agreed to settle a related civil case against Stewart. Under the agreement, Stewart agreed to pay about $58,000 as well as a civil penalty of about three times the loss she avoided, or about $137,000. She also agreed to a five-year ban from serving on the board or as an officer of a public company
Stewart succeeds Charles Koppelman as non-executive chairman.
Earlier this month Martha Stewart Living reported a smaller-than-expected first-quarter loss on lower expenses.
The company has a merchandising deal with Home Depot. J.C. Penney Co. announced in December that it will develop mini-shops in its stores with Stewart. However, that is being legally contested by Macy’s Inc., which also offers Martha Stewart products.
Stewart’s daily talk show, which aired in syndication before moving to cable’s Hallmark Channel two years ago, is ending this summer.
Shares of the Martha Stewart Living fell 9 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $3.12 in afternoon trading.
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- Chairman of the firm


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Nearly 1,000 people came out to explore and engage with the vintage fashion world March 16 and 17 during the first ever Dallas Vintage Clothing and Jewelry Show. The event, which drew visitors from as far away as Japan and Italy, was held at the Grapevine Convention Center near DFW airport.
“It really was heart-warming to see the support for the show,” says Melissa Sands, co-promoter with Eric Miller. “A lot of people came together in amazing ways to make this happen.”
Chicago-based Sands came with three other dealers from the Windy City. Word quickly spread through the mid-section of the country and Sands is planning to bring several more dealers next time, sharing a large truck filled to the rim with vintage clothing and jewelry.
“The show attracted a relatively young crowd,” says Eric Miller, co-promoter of the show. “Everyone seemed really excited to be there. We engaged a community.”
Many of the patrons arrived dressed in vintage attire. Others commented they didn’t expect to find the quality of merchandise they encountered at the show. The show attracted the bulk of patrons from Dallas and the suburbs around Grapevine, plus others from Fort Worth, elsewhere in Texas, other states including Washington and Oklahoma as well as international.
Feedback from the dealers was almost overwhelmingly positive and the most common response to a survey question indicated they were “very likely” to return for the next show. One veteran dealer described it as her best show in a very long time.


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Visitors can get a chance to see La Sagrada Familia, the stunning but still unfinished Catholic basilica, like never before after a visit by Pope Benedict XVI in November spurred progress on the interior of the site, Frommer said.”For the first time in years, most of the scaffolding there is gone,” she said. “Everybody knows how astounding it is on the outside. The inside is just as glorious.” Foodies have their own reasons to visit Barcelona and the surrounding region. El Bulli, chef Ferran Adria’s famous restaurant, closes for good next year. But even if you can’t snag a reservation at the notoriously hard-to-get-into eatery, Barcelona is dotted with restaurants inspired by Adria’s cutting-edge cuisine, like Moo, which Frommer called “astounding.”
Make your hotel reservation now, If planning to visit the city in 2011.
Here are recommendations from three travel experts: Robert Reid, U.S. travel editor for Lonely Planet; Pauline Frommer, creator of Pauline Frommer’s guidebooks; and Martin Rapp, senior vice president of leisure sales at Altour.Here are nine of their top destinations for 2011:
1. New York
A huge tourist destination in any year, the city will be especially unforgettable as it marks the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks next year.
Visitors who have been flocking to ground zero are finally expected to get a chance to pay their respects to the victims at the National September 11 Memorial, which is scheduled to open in time for the anniversary.
“It’s going to be a massive moment for New York,” Reid said. “It feels like the healing begins.”
Visitors also shouldn’t miss the High Line, once an abandoned elevated railway track that’s been turned into a popular park. It expands in the spring, to the delight of New Yorkers.
“It was like a secret garden in the middle of New York,” Frommer said. “It’s become a park that other urban centers are studying because it’s brought new life, a new vitality into the area below it.”
No wonder the Big Apple tops Lonely Planet’s list of top 10 cities for 2011.
2. New Zealand
The Rugby World Cup will be held next fall in New Zealand, adding excitement to an already popular destination.
Wellington, which brands itself as the “coolest little capital in the world,” will host some of the activities and hopes to attract fans who want to explore other parts of the country.
“It’s a great kind of springboard,” said Reid, who is planning a visit and is determined to learn the haka, the fierce Maori dance used to unsettle opponents before matches.
Wellington is known as “Wellywood,” thanks to a thriving film industry and director Peter Jackson, who is now working on “The Hobbit.” Indeed, fans of the “Lord of the Rings” films already know New Zealand for some of the stunning sites used in the trilogy.
Rapp also recommended the country for its “most fantastically luxurious lodges,” including The Farm at Cape Kidnappers, Huka Lodge and Otahuna Lodge.
3. Peruvian Amazon
When many people think of the Amazon, they think of Brazil, but Peru offers a great base for exploring the region: Iquitos, a metropolis of almost half a million people in the heart of the Peruvian jungle.
Iquitos is a fitting destination for 2011, which has been declared by the United Nations as the International Year of Forests.
“You can create your own adventures when you’re there,” Reid said.
It’s the biggest city you can’t drive to in the world, he added. You have to fly in or take a boat.
To experience the region in a unique way, Rapp recommended taking an Amazon River cruise from Iquitos on Delfin or Aqua Expeditions.
4. Barcelona, Spain
Visitors can get a chance to see La Sagrada Familia, the stunning but still unfinished Catholic basilica, like never before after a visit by Pope Benedict XVI in November spurred progress on the interior of the site, Frommer said.”For the first time in years, most of the scaffolding there is gone,” she said.
“Everybody knows how astounding it is on the outside. The inside is just as glorious.”
Foodies have their own reasons to visit Barcelona and the surrounding region. El Bulli, chef Ferran Adria’s famous restaurant, closes for good next year.
But even if you can’t snag a reservation at the notoriously hard-to-get-into eatery, Barcelona is dotted with restaurants inspired by Adria’s cutting-edge cuisine, like Moo, which Frommer called “astounding.”
For lovers of the outdoors, Norway offers an especially outstanding experience, Rapp said. Adventurous travelers can go heli-skiing, paragliding and bungee jumping. (Rapp was considering a bungee jump himself during an upcoming summer trip to Norway.) For a more mellow experience, hire a private boat on the fjords and go to little hotels that you can’t get to by road, or stay at the Amot Opera Farm for an unusual combination of accommodations and music. “All of Scandinavia is really underestimated,” Rapp said. “People [usually] go to the major cities, Copenhagen, Stockholm or Oslo, but the countryside is extraordinary. Truly majestic mountains, and the fjords are just unbelievable — they seem endless when you’re there.”
The top pick on Lonely Planet’s list of top 10 countries for 2011 may be a surprise for many people, but Albania gives travelers a taste of the Mediterranean without the crowds and the prices, Reid said.
The real rising destination is Gjirokastra, a city whose historic center is a UNESCO World Heritage site, he added. “It’s this cobbled town with Ottoman-era mansions,” Reid said. “It’s a very atmospheric place that has a lot of history.” With picturesque beaches, good food and a number of heritage sites, Albania won’t be off the beaten track for much longer, Lonely Planet says in its review.
Many people still have the misconception that Japan is too expensive to visit, but once you get there, it can be more affordable than a vacation in New York, Reid said. Why go in 2011? The country is ramping up its tourism marketing efforts after some recent disappointing years, so the number of visitors is expected to rise soon. “We think that the crowds are going to get worse. Maybe it’s time to think about it now,” Reid said.
For help with booking an affordable stay, he recommended visiting the International Tourism Center of Japan and looking into minshuku, traditional guest houses that offer very simple but clean and inexpensive accommodations. You might pay $40 a night in Tokyo, for example.
More than 10 years after the end of its civil war, Guatemala is coming into its own as a tourist destination, Frommer said. The country is an appealing alternative for people looking to travel south of the border and trying to branch out beyond popular places like Costa Rica, she added. Once there, you’ll be amazed by the sites — and the low prices. “Lake Atitlan is one of the most beautiful places in the world. In fact, Aldous Huxley said it was more beautiful than Lake Como. I was there in March, and I would agree,” Frommer said.
She called the destination “a bargain wonderland.” A round-trip flight from New York cost Frommer 50, “decent hotels” charged as little as $35 a night, and a meal at a sit-down restaurant might set you back just $3, she said.
Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Soviet Union, sparking interest in former Soviet bloc countries. Reid’s favorite choice on that list is Bulgaria, which has the best Black Sea coastline for beach enthusiasts and offers great skiing in the mountains in the winter, he said. “I love doing road trips in Bulgaria. It begs for it. It’s beautiful, and there’s not much traffic. It feels very safe,” said Reid, who rode around the country last year in a Soviet-era 1972 Moskovich, which he bought for $500. Reid recommended visiting Veliko Târnovo, an ancient capital, and the picturesque city of Plovdiv, home to Roman ruins.


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US iPod users can look forward to new downloadable videos as media companies make online an integral part of their strategy.
Apple has sold three million videos since the video iPod's debut in October.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs told USA Today the figure: "Far exceeds our initial expectations."
He added that video iPod sales are strong: "It's no secret that we're shipping a lot."
Expect more from NBC
Apple also revealed a new deal with NBC Universal in which many new shows were made available through iTunes earlier this week.
NBC intends making even more video available through the service, company president Jeff Zucker told Variety: "You are going to see a series of announcements in the coming weeks," he said. "Eventually, a goal is to get all of our shows up there."
The Variety report confirms Apple began speaking with NBC in spring. The report also confirms that part of NBC's rationale for the deal was an attempt to provide a legal alternative to illegal TV show downloads. "NBC estimates that there are 430,000 illegal downloads of 'Battlestar Galactica' each week," the report adds.
"It proves there is tremendous interest in it and good people have developed bad habits by illegally downloading it. Now they will have to develop good habits," Zucker said.
It's thought some highlights from 'Bravo' will appear on iTunes in the coming weeks.
More networks will sign-up
Analysts believe Apple is likely to ink similar deals with a plethora of partners. Shaw Wu of American Technology Research said: "We do not believe we are anywhere near the end for content partnership; we foresee future deals potentially from CBS, Fox, and others."
Wu had been expecting new partners for the iTunes service, but observed that the "timing and magnitude" of the NBC deal was faster and broader than he had anticipated.
Wu estimates iTunes will see video sales grow to about 80,000 video downloads per day versus 50,000 per day in the first month.
Fox preps The Family Guy
Many reports have looked at Fox, suggesting that company will also make movies available online. Media Week this week confirms the broadcaster's plans.
Fox will soon make original episodes of cult US series 'The Family Guy' available for Internet distribution. Downloadable shows will be available by early next year on MySpace.com and IGN.com and will cost $1.99 each. It's unlikely Fox will leave market-leader iTunes in the cold, but any iTunes plans have not been confirmed.
Curiously, 'The Family Guy' was one of the most traded shows on peer-to-peer networks.
A subsequent DVD release containing episodes of the show generated huge sales, which some analysts speculate means that the file-sharing activity helped build interest in the show.


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Three strategies for SMES to capitalise on Black Friday
BEN BIERMAN Bierman is a managing director at Business Partners Limited (www. businesspartners.co.za)
BLACK Friday, which takes place next week, was traditionally an American shopping phenomenon brought on by a stock market crash in 1869. Since then, it has grown in popularity throughout the world.
On this day, consumers flock to shopping malls to...
Read latest Sunday Tribune online.
Newspapers from South Africa
Newspapers in English


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Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct and JD Sports are thought to be among those considering a bid. Torquay-based Lovell, the world’s largest online rugby store, is owned by Graham and Myra Lovell.
Sports Direct and JD Sports have continually sought to consolidate their position as sports retail heavyweights through acquisitions.
Last year JD, which also owns Blacks and Millets, took stakes in online sportswear firm ActivInstinct and Scottish outdoor clothing and equipment retailer Tiso.
Sports Direct has acquired retailers Republic, Flannels and USC over the past few years and also owns the Slazenger and Dunlop brands.
Adding Lovell to its portfolio of companies would allow Sports Direct access to an array of new brands associated primarily with rugby.
A previous attempt by Sports Direct to create a bonus scheme for Ashley in 2012 was shelved after it failed to win shareholder support
Meanwhile, investors in Sports Direct will vote on a new bonus scheme this Friday that could net the firm’s founder and controlling shareholder Mike Ashley more than £65 million.
Shareholders will be told that the billionaire should receive 8 million shares in 2018, if specific targets are met.
Ashley, who owns Newcastle United, will receive the bonus if the group achieves profits of £330 million in 2014 and £410 million in 2015. It made a record profit of £287.9 million last year.
The FTSE 100 group has boomed thanks to its cut-price offerings.
A previous attempt by Sports Direct to create a bonus scheme for Ashley in 2012 was shelved after it failed to win shareholder support.
However, the company’s largest institutional shareholder, Odey Asset Management, has come out in favour of the latest proposal.


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Capgemini and Salesforce have collaborated to usher in a new era of customer experiences powered by generative AI. Leveraging its robust momentum in generative AI and its extensive customer experience (CX) expertise, Capgemini introduced the Generative AI for CX Foundry, tailored for Salesforce clients.
The Generative AI for CX Foundry will empower Salesforce clients to enhance the customer lifecycle, offering personalized experiences and driving added value. The duo will work to enable a new era of generative AI-powered customer experiences.
Jean-Marc Gaultier, Head of Group Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships at Capgemini, commented, “Our new Generative AI for CX Foundry, designed for Salesforce clients, leverages Capgemini’s profound CX and AI proficiency, coupled with Salesforce’s CRM platform. This enables clients to efficiently provide scalable solutions using the capabilities of generative AI.”
(This news was originally published on ReadITQuik)


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FAIR TRADE FASHION
Fair Trade Fashion Event Raises $31,000 for Anti-Trafficking Organization
The Fair Trade Fashion Show, held July 29 at CTRL Collective in downtown Los Angeles, raised $31,000 for Free the Slaves, an international nonprofit organization that helps anti-trafficking efforts in Haiti, Ghana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Nepal and India.
The event featured a runway show hosted by ethical boutique Bead & Reel as well as a panel discussion sponsored byEcoSessions and featuring Mike Farid, president of Nature USA; Hoda Katebi, founder of JooJoo Azad; and Jeff Denby, cofounder of The Renewal Workshop and PACT Apparel. Kestrel Jenkins, founder and producer of Conscious Chatter, moderated the panel.
Guests at the sold-out event enjoyed fair-trade cocktails and vegetarian and vegan treats. There were also vendor pop-up shops hosted by Maggie’s Organics, Malia Designs, Heshima Kenya, Kishé, Ten Thousand Villages, Elisha C., Lucy & Jo, International Sanctuary, Hipsters for Sisters, Action Kivu, Fair Trade LA and rHope.