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Home-grown food incubator, Urban RetrEAT will complete one successful year of supporting up and coming food businesses across the UAE through its space at Yas Mall in Abu Dhabi.
Founded by local foodpreneur, Dana Alsharif, this unique food pop-up concept helps new food concepts to boost their business by creating a community and offering them a space to cook and sell their dishes to interested customers.
“Urban RetrEAT was created to give local food start-ups a platform for exposure. We aimed to provide a space where new food concepts could come in, cook their signature dishes and serve them up to customers in an affordable space, where they might not have previously had the chance to do so. As the first concept of its kind in the UAE we were thrilled to have secured a great spot in one of the best malls in Abu Dhabi at Yas Mall,” says Alsharif.
In the course of the past one year, Urban RetrEAT has housed 52 different food vendors on a 3-6-month rotation, and served up to 16 different types of international cuisines. More than 80,000 meals have been served at Urban RetrEAT over the past year and over 150 applications have been submitted by local food start-ups for a spot at Urban RetrEAT.
“As we look to the future, we have been having interesting conversations about potential expansions across the UAE. The format of Urban RetrEAT is such that there is a constant rotation of vendors meaning that there is an ever-changing dining experience. We’ve had some great success stories in our first year with one vendor even being offered a permanent location in Yas Mall to operate from,” she added.
One of the most popular home-grown food concept launched at Urban RetrEAT, Off The Hook, has now been given an independent location in Yas Mall to operate, following high demand from local customers.
Currently on their fourth rotation, Urban RetrEAT also supports local creative talent such as musicians and artists by offering them a platform to showcase their work and perform for customers within its space.
J Lindeberg was started by Johan Lindeberg in 1990s with the aimSeptember 2, 2022 | By Shruthi Nair
Majid Al Futtaim has made significant strides toward environmental, social, and corporateJuly 5, 2022 | By RetailME Bureau
Locally-owned supermarket Spinneys and pharmacy retailer Aster Pharmacy have joined forces to
Majid Al Futtaim has announced its audit reviewed operational and financial results
Dubai’s largest developer Emaar has announced that it will sell it’s online
Walmart announced this week that it will offer Paramount Global’s streaming service
Employee retention has been on every company’s minds, especially since the fears
The Frozen Chicken’ as Spinneys was fondly referred to back in the
Veppy.com, a Q-Commerce marketplace startup just announced their go live date in the
GMG, a global well-being company retailing, distributing, and manufacturing a portfolio of leading
Lulu Group International recently introduced the world’s first AI-powered Food Delivery Robot
Eid Al-Fitr is an occasion to gather with your friends and family
Leading retailer LuLu Group further strengthened its presence in the Emirate of
Jones the Grocer, the Australian gourmet grocer and café chain, announces further
Word by Shaunne Cordier, Executive Chef at Cassette Cafe 2023 will be
A nuclear physicist and a college freshman came together over 50 years
Maristo Hospitality, a newly established hospitality group with QSR, premium casual dining
Business and government leaders at the Harvard Business School GCC Alumni Club’s
Dubai Chamber of Commerce has revealed that over 27,100 companies joined as
Danish concept brand Joe & The Juice’s has officially opened its doors
Global real estate advisor CBRE has announced the appointment of Pedro Ribeiro
The story of a not-so-fast, yet-so-fresh food joint that is bringing a
F&B concept MAIZ is all set to open soon at Matal Al Bujairi,
Gates Hospitality, a global brand and the owning company of well-known homegrown
Prime members on Amazon.ae will have incredible savings across top brands including
Amazon and Deliveroo have announced that Amazon Prime members in the UAE


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The RL sheds its copycat Lexus image thanks to a new all-wheel-drive platform that’s in keeping with the inventive spirit that all things Honda should have. The RL’s new awd system not only distributes torque fore and aft according to driving conditions but also actively splits the torque from side to side to the rear wheels, and our sources say the result is a real breakthrough in high-performance handling. Acura has decided to stick with the fuel efficiency of a 3.5-liter V-6 engine, although VTEC variable valve timing helps boost the power curve on the way to a peak output of 300 hp, and a paddle-shift, five-speed automatic enhances drivability. Elsewhere, the Acura also incorporates new technologies for the chassis structure, navigation system, and DVD audio system.
ON SALE: October 2004
PRICE: $48,000 (est.)
ENGINE: 300-hp, 3.5-liter V-6
BOTTOM LINE: A high-style, high-performance RL shows that Acura is serious at last.

domain: news


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Virtuos - Highlights of 2018 (Dec. Edition)
Virtuos - Highlights of 2018 (Dec. Edition), a great showcase of the highlights of our client work for the past 18 months across Games, Movies & TV series. Let us know what you think! We are pretty proud of the breadth of work we have completed!
VIRTUOS CONTRIBUTES TO UBISOFT’S FAR CRY® NEW DAWN
Virtuos was involved in building Far Cry® New Dawn's environment production pipeline by producing top quality scenes and assets.
E3 2019: VIRTUOS PARTICIPATED IN 24 MAJOR TITLES WITH 3 IGN WINNERS
We were thrilled to witness the reveal of the many games that Virtuos was involved in producing and developing at E3 2019: a record 24 of these riveting games, to be exact. A hearty round of congratulations and thanks to all Virtuosi involved.
Virtuos Studio partners with Riot Games to develop League of Legends skins
3D Graphics and Animation studio Sparx*, a Virtuos studio in Vietnam, announces today a new partnership with Riot Games to develop new skins for the online multiplayer battle arena game League of Legends (LoL).
ZHANG CHONG SPEAKS ON SHOOTING GAME ART AT CGDC 2019
Zhang Chong, Talent Development Director of Virtuos Chengdu Studio has been invited to attend the 2019 Chinese Game Developers Conference (known as CGDC 2019) as one of the speakers of the Shooting Game Session to share his insights and practical experience.
VIRTUOS CONTRIBUTED ART TO CAPCOM’S DEVIL MAY CRY 5
Virtuos is proud to continue our strong relationship with Capcom by contributing to Devil May Cry 5 key art assets.
GILLES LANGOURIEUX TO LEAD ROUNDTABLE ON CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGIES AT D.I.C.E. 2019
Virtuos, as hosts of the Round Table sessions will be on the stage at D.I.C.E. 2019, with other experts to share their insights into the hot topics in game development, with a focus on what might be ‘Next’ or even ‘Now, such as AI, Cloud gaming, VR and AR.
VIRTUOS CO-DEVELOPING FINAL FANTASY TITLES WILL DEBUT ON NINTENDO SWITCH AND XBOX ONE IN 2019
Singapore – October 2018 – Virtuos is very proud that Square-Enix last month announced some exciting news for the legendary Final Fantasy® franchise.
BATTLEFIELD™ V OFFICIALLY LAUNCHES - VIRTUOS ART TEAM’S WORK FEATURED
BATTLEFIELD™ V, officially launched on Xbox One, Playstation®4, and PC on November 20th. Virtuos was involved in the Art work for the game.
SPARX* HEAVILY FEATURED IN THE NEW WASTELAND OF FALLOUT 76
Singapore – November 2018 – Fallout® 76, the 9th title in the Fallout® series, was released on November 14th on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One after a successful open beta. This is the first time Bethesda has launched an online multiplayer action role-playing game.
CLASSIC GAMES: SPYRO™ REIGNITED TRILOGY FEATURES REMASTERED ENVIRONMENTS BY VIRTUOS
Singapore – November 2018 – Developed by Toys for Bob and released by Activision, one of the kids' favorite games from late '90s, the SpyroTM series officially launched its SpyroTM Reignited Trilogy on PS4 and Xbox One on November 13. The trilogy is a collection of remasters of the first three games in the classic SpyroTM series.
VIRTUOS APPOINTS CYRIL LABORDRIE AS DIRECTOR OF R&D CENTRE IN SINGAPORE
Virtuos recently announced that Cyril Labordrie has joined its headquarters in Singapore as R&D Director to lead the new R&D Team.
CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 4 BREAKING THE SALES RECORD WITH VIRTUOS CONTRIBUTION IN ART
Singapore – October 2018 – Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 was released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on October 12th. Virtuos’ Art team was involved from the outset, and created a ton of amazing environmental assets, character clothing, and monsters.
VIRTUOS HIGHLIGHTS OF 2018
Since 2004, Virtuos has been dedicated to providing outstanding digital content and being the No.1 solution provider for the games, TV and movie business.
NBA 2K19 RELEASES WITH MASSIVE ART PRODUCTION FROM VIRTUOS
Singapore – September 2018 – Virtuos is delighted to celebrate the latest release of NBA 2K series -- NBA 2K19 on September 11, and the 20th Anniversary of this critically acclaimed basketball franchise published from 2K sports.
ELIJAH FREEMAN SPEAKS ON GAME DEV. AT AUTODESK UNIVERSITY CHINA 2018
Singapore – September 2018 – Elijah Freeman, the General Manager of Virtuos Shanghai was invited to attend the 11th Autodesk University China (AU 2018) as the keynote speaker to share insight and practical experience.


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Sale Date Ended
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Aakar Exhibitions announced The edition of Tent Decor Asia 2019. Which is being held from 19-20-21 August 2019 at Pragati Maidan New Delhi, India.
Tent Decor Asia have array of new and innovative products on display from leading manufacturers & importers from across the globe. This will enable the Tent industry, catering industry and event industry to meet the market leaders personally and compare the best products in the industry.


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Want to join the conversation?
Sunnyvale, California-based $YHOO expects 2016 revenue to be in the range of $4.4-4.6Bil. The company believes its strategic plans to simplify the company by realigning the business and reducing the current workforce by 15% will result in savings in short term operating expense of $400MM in 2016.
$PYPL jumps 6% in after hours on strong results. I am bullish on this stock.
$TSCO stock remained active in the after hours trading and rose more than 2% after the retailer posted better than expected 1Q17 results.
Instagram has reached 700 million monthly active users. Looks like it will hit 1 billion soon. That would make it $FB’s fourth billion-user platform.


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Has Lady Gaga finally gone gaga?
Oh dear. Here is Lady Gaga tipping her extreme sense of fashion right over the edge.
The singer surprised onlookers when she attended a press conference for the Isle of MTV Malta Special. Dressed in a tight-fitting black frock, she finished off her look with a pair of gloves, and an unusual face mask which she described as a a "contemporary art piece".
At least she has a sense of humour about it all. At the conference, she said: "Right now I'm having a very strong obsession mostly with, um, clothing found in sex shops. I would venture to say all that clothing was designed by gay men."
Watch video after the jump...
Unfortunately, I don't think her kooky style has resonated this time, with many wondering has Gaga gone gaga for real this time? Poker face or otherwise, who'd know the difference?


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Japanese insurers buy stakes in Chinese agent
Japanese insurers Sompo Japan Insurance Inc and Aioi Insurance Co Ltd have each taken a 3 percent stake in a company formed by People’s Insurance Company of China Property and Casualty Co (PICC), the largest non-life company in China.
Each insurer has invested around $72,500 in the agent, to set up the Chinese insurer.
A Sompo spokesman said an insurance broker would be able to directly sell products to customers without going through agencies. "PICC has an extensive sales network throughout China. We believe the tie-up will help expand our China business," a Sompo spokesman said.
Aioi, owned 34.4 percent by Toyota, plans to provide insurance policies to Japanese corporations operating in China and in future sell products to Toyota car users there, a company spokesman told Reuters.


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This retailer used Salesforce to build apps that give online shoppers a highly personalized experience. By getting to know customers in the digital space, ALDO makes in-store visits more personal, too.
For nearly three years Cartrawler has relied on the Salesforce Marketing Cloud to coordinate B2C email campaigns and customer engagements. But despite their success, Cartrawler suspected they were only scratching the surface. When it came to maximizing the potential of Marketing Cloud, they didn’t know where to start.
“By creating customer journeys with Marketing Cloud, we give every single one of our 1.5 million donors an experience that in the past was reserved only for million-dollar donors,” said CMO Katie Bisbee.
More than 10 million people cross the Channel every year on Eurostar trains. Connecting London with major tourist and business destinations in France and Belgium, Eurostar’s 27 high-speed trains offer a fast, convenient, and environmentally-friendly alternative to flying.
This furniture designer launches more effective campaigns with Salesforce’s extensive testing abilities. Its last holiday sale saw a 200% increase in email revenue and a 100% increase in email conversions.


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Property prices holding up
THE Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has confirmed the housing market is proving resilient to global economic turbulence with house prices in England and Wales moving up again in April.
RICS' latest report on the residential housing market showed the net percentage of surveyors reporting price rises stood at a seasonally adjusted 37% in April, against 39% in March, but above its long-term average of 22%.
'Buyer enthusiasm remains firm and is expected to support market activity despite a cooler economic outlook and the foot-and-mouth crisis,' said RICS housing spokesman Ian Perry.
The number of sales recorded by surveyors stabilised in the past three months, but have risen by 12% since November, and the RICS said prices could be squeezed further by short supply. Barring late 1999, it said, stocks are close to their lowest in more than 20 years.
'The rate at which new houses are coming on the market is being significantly outpaced by the increase in the number of households,' it said.
In London house prices are expected to continue rising in the next three months but global economic worries have begun to send jitters through parts of the market.
'Sustained increases in agreed sales this year indicate healthy market conditions, though strength in buyer enquiries has begun to wane. The outlook for both sales and prices for the next three months is positive, though confidence has slipped in recent months,' the RICS report says.
RICS said price rises in the capital in the three months to April were moderate, with 22% of its respondents reporting rises of less than 2%, and 13% reporting increases above that. The market in the North is now outperforming the South, the study shows.
The British Bankers Association said that loan approvals for house purchases fell slightly in April from the previous month.
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Pizza Patrón threw a Gracias Mi Barrio (Thanks to the Community) blowout celebration on August 28, and nearly 15,000 people turned out to enjoy the festivities.
Leading up to the event, the popular pizza chain gave away free tickets with free parking at all Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio locations to thank customers for its 30 years of success. Entertainment was provided throughout the day and culminated in the evening as the crowd sang loudly along with headliner Tigres Del Norte.
Held at River Ranch Park, just a couple miles south of the original Pizza Patrón, the festivities also included the unveiling of a 6-foot tall bronze statue of “El Patrón”—commissioned to commemorate the 30th anniversary. Two of Pizza Patrón’s earliest employees, Raquel Finley and Alex Garza, thanked the crowd for their loyal patronage and the success of the chain. Both started as employees, became franchisees with one store each, and are now multi-unit Pizza Patrón owners. Juan Reyes, corporate marketing manager for Pizza Patrón, also spoke to the crowd. He loved the chain as a kid, was a loyal customer most of his life and now runs the marketing department for the entire franchise system.
“I wake up every day thankful for the support the Latino community has shown Pizza Patron over the last 30 years. That support along with the hard work of our franchisees and corporate team have made my life a dream come true,” says Antonio Swad, founder of Pizza Patrón. “However, it was on this day that we were able to give something back other than great pizza. The crowd was huge, the bands were incredible and the place was filled with a positive energy that’s really hard to describe. Being a Patron is about looking out for each other and pulling others up to prosperity. It’s also about enjoying the ride along the way, and I believe we achieved that today.”
The 30th Anniversary event was sponsored by Mountain Dew, Univision 23, 49 Unimás, Qué Buena 94.1, La Jeffa 99.1, MetroPCS, State Farm, Supermercado El Rancho, and the law offices of Domingo Garcia.


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This news may not come as a huge surprise: the history-hopping, conspiracy theory-laden "Assassin's Creed" games are headed to the big screen.
After all, the best-selling video game franchise — soon to see its fourth installment — is filled with the kind of action-filled cinematic moments, colorful characters and vivid locations that big Hollywood films are made of. And so Sony Pictures is in the midst of finalizing a deal to adapt the games and bring them to movie theaters, according to Variety.
Sony Pictures landed the film rights in a bidding war that took place over the last several months beating out Universal Studios and others, according to Variety.
The highly anticipated "Assassin's Creed: Revelations" is the fourth game in the series and due to launch on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 Nov. 15. It's likely to be one of the year's biggest games. And just one look at the most recent trailer for the game makes it clear why Hollywood studios would be trying to out-bid each other to get their hands on the adaptation:
Of course, the question remains: Just how badly might Hollywood fu ... er ... mess up this adaptation?
Well, there is some good news: Ubisoft – the "Assassin’s Creed" developer/publisher – recently launched Ubisoft Motion Pictures as a way of keeping more creative control over these kinds of developments. So one can guess that, with a game property as big and beloved as "Assassin's Creed," they'll be making sure this adaptation doesn't go the way of, say, "Super Mario Bros."
Then again, another Ubisoft game — "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" — found itself made into a film that was, well, meh ... for lack of a better word.
With so many excellent games — "Mass Effect,""Uncharted,""Dead Island" and now "Assassin's Creed" — all in various stages of movie adaptation, I'm not sure whether I should feel hopeful or downright terrified.
But surely, at least one of these game-to-film adaptations will finally be truly great. Right ... right?
For more game news, check out:
- Harrison Ford channels Indiana Jones for 'Uncharted 3'
- 'FarmVille: The Movie' might happen ... no really
- 'Mortal Kombat' fights its way back to the silver screen
- 'Dead Island' zombie game coming to life on silver screen
Winda Benedetti writes about games for msnbc.com. You can follow her tweets about games and other things here on Twitter or join her in the stream here on Google+.And be sure to check out the In-Game Facebook page here.


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A Georgia lawmaker has filed a bill in the state Senate that aims to repeal a number of Prohibition-era regulations that brewers have said are overly burdensome and restrictive.
As filed by State Sen. Hunter Hill (R-Smyrna), SB 63 would lift the limits currently imposed on the retail privileges of brewpubs and production breweries alike.
The Beer Jobs Bill, as its dubbed, would allow for breweries to sell up to 72 ounces of beer per person for on-premise consumption and up to 144 ounces of packaged product to go. Currently, breweries are expressly prohibited from selling direct to consumers for both on- and off-premise consumption, though they can give away free samples. Likewise, brewpubs would be granted the right to sell beer for off-premise consumption under the same quantity limitations, should the bill pass as written.
“In spite of the craft brewing industry booming nationwide, Georgia craft brewers are lagging behind the national trend,” said Hill in a press statement. “Unfortunately, Georgia’s craft brewers are at a competitive disadvantage compared to their counterparts in the Southeast and the rest of the country – and this bill addresses that.”
In all, the bill has 18 co-sponsors.
Nancy Palmer, executive director of the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild, praised the legislative effort and its goal of bringing brewery retail rights more in line with those enjoyed by other small businesses in and out of Georgia.
“It’s high time that Georgia’s breweries be afforded the same rights that craft brewers across the Southeast have enjoyed for years,” she said. “Direct to consumer sales are the lifeblood of any growing business, this bill will make or break several of Georgia’s craft breweries.”
The Guild further contends that the passage of the bill would boost the beer industry’s economic impact by 50 percent, or to more than $1 billion, but not everyone is in favor of changing the status quo.
Martin Smith, a lobbyist with the Georgia Beer Wholesalers Association, which represents the state’s independent beer distributors, believes such legislation would compromise the integrity of the three-tier system that ensures brewers, distributors, and retailers operate separately.
“It fractures a very functional, working program,” he said. “The Georgia Beer Wholesalers fully supports the growth of brands and marketing of brewers. That’s what our business is – we do that. If there’s an opportunity to do that without fracturing the system, that’s great.”
Smith said the organization also worries that such reform would lead to a slippery slope that ultimately resulted in brewers demanding more privileges, such as self-distribution and other franchise carve outs that would further threaten the three-tier system. He also pointed to the current growth of the industry as proof that the norm isn’t broken.
Nonetheless, brewers are eager for change.
“We’re excited about taking the next step in the process with Senator Hill at our side,” said Roger Davis, owner of Red Hare Brewery in Marietta, in the statement. “We’re focused on marketing, tourism, and creating jobs and this bill will help us do all three.”
The bill is scheduled for hearings in two committees before moving to the Senate floor for vote.


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Back in March, it became incredibly clear COVID-19 had stopped being polite and started getting very, very real, which led to people flocking to stores to clear the shelves of canned goods, toilet paper, and basically every other product that would help them weather the storm that continues to rage.
Hand sanitizer was also virtually impossible to track down but I was much more concerned with acquiring alcohol-based substances that are fit for human consumption and subsequently devoted the vast majority of a Saturday afternoon to making multiple trips to various liquor stores to purchase as much booze as I could carry in case the powers that be didn’t consider them an essential business.
Much to my relief, they were given the all-clear to remain open as the pandemic increased in ferocity, as my initial stockpile disappeared at a much more rapid pace than I’d anticipated thanks to a notable uptick in my overall consumption. I purposefully didn’t keep track of exactly how much my drinking had increased because I had enough shit to worry about already but the same can’t be said for the 1,540 Americans who were the subject of a study that was recently conducted by researchers at Indiana University in conjunction with the RAND Corporation.
While the fact that people started drinking more since we entered the bizarre new reality we now inhabit was a foregone conclusion, we now have an idea of exactly how much more they’ve imbibed, as the average respondent reported they’d been drinking 14% more frequently compared to the previous year over the course of a 30-day period between April and June.
Interestingly enough, there wasn’t a notable rise in the overall number of drinks consumed over that period (people had an average of around 18 of them during the month they spent monitoring their intake). However, Americans are going a bit harder than usual, and while men have been drinking heavily (defined as five or more in a single sitting) 7% more frequently, women have seen that number rise a fairly staggering 41% (although, as Time notes, it’s worth noting the numbers show they’ve limited themselves to going H.A.M. an average of just one time per month).
In the end, the overall results of the study are basically the definition of a “No Shit” conclusion, but with that said, it’s nice to take solace in knowing you’re not alone.


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The nonprofit group plans to advocate legal and regulatory action to challenge the iPhone maker’s App Store practices.
For those who don’t know Apple charges a commission of between 15-30 percent for apps that use its in-app payment system and sets out extensive rules for apps in its App Store, which is the only way Apple allows consumers to download native apps to devices such as the iPhone. Those practices have drawn criticism and formal legal complaints from some developers.
Dubbed the Coalition for App Fairness, structured as a nonprofit based in Washington DC and Brussels, it plans to advocate legal changes that would force Apple to change.
Other members include smaller firms such as Basecamp, Blix, Blockchain.com, Deezer, and Tile, along with developers from Europe including the European Publishers Council, News Media Europe and Protonmail.
Epic is suing Apple over antitrust claims in a US federal court in California, while Spotify has filed an antitrust complaint against Apple in the European Union. Sarah Maxwell, a representative for the group, declined to comment on how much funding the Coalition for App Fairness has raised and from whom.
Mike Sax, founder of The App Association, a group sponsored by Apple, said in a statement that the new coalition’s “big brands do not speak for the thousands of app makers that are the foundation of the app economy”.


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P kicked off their Global Online Meet UP '21 with Mr Motivator, the UK TV celebrity trainer, leading a warm up exercise for all 100 plus UP attendees from around the world.
Day one of the three day event was all about the different services, business sectors and geographies UP now works in. UP saw record sales in 2020, despite the coronavirus pandemic and the company is on target to beat that in 2021.
The online meeting has replaced this years scheduled physical meet up in Palma, Mallorca. CEO & Founder Julian Stubbs promised 'they would all be meeting UP in Palma as soon as possible'.
With presentations coming from several business leaders within UP, the hour and a half session touched on some of the creative and digital campaigns the company has created over the last twelve months.
Also unveiled at the meeting was an exclusive first play of a song called Look UP, Never Down, composed by Jools Stubbs and sung by UK singer Catrina McTigue.
See the video of the song here.
Day two and three of the meeting will follow on Wednesday the 5th and Thursday the 6th of May.
Exclusive first play of the song called Look UP, Never Down.
The UK's Mr Motivator was on hand to warm everyone UP.


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In September, the World Health Organization and eight other organizations issued a statement about the infodemic (not the pandemic).
What is an infodemic? An overabundance of information that includes deliberate attempts to share wrong information, to polarize perspective and to advance alternative agendas, among other things.
The statement noted, “the technology we rely on to keep connected and informed is enabling and amplifying an infodemic.”
One way technology amplifies the infodemic is through algorithms, a set of instructions technology is programmed to follow to achieve a certain result. For example, if you are online shopping and place an item in your cart, the retailer might have an algorithm that suggests other products. You may see, “People who purchased this item also considered these items.”
This example really isn’t much different than a server asking if you’d like “fries with that.” It’s upselling to achieve the goal of more sales.
Upselling also works to advance ideologies and misinformation. For example, if you are on social media, and you like, comment or share a post that includes something racist, sexist, that is a conspiracy theory or that touts fiction as fact, then algorithms will continue to show you similar content to achieve the goal of more activity. In other words, “People who liked this post also engaged with these other posts.” Why? Activity is the basis for advertising revenue.
While you may think the content you are seeing on digital platforms is random, it’s not. Every search, swipe and share makes the algorithms you encounter smarter.
The infodemic isn’t new to the internet. Similar conversations may have happened with the invention of the printing press and the publishing of the penny press, when news and information of the day could easily be made available to the masses and not rely on oral tradition or the wealthy who could afford to print or purchase books and newspapers.
In the 1980s, another monumental shift occurred when cable television and the 24-hour news cycle forever changed the way news was presented and consumed. This in turn, led to the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, which had required media outlets to present unbiased, fair coverage of key news. The repeal was made because people could seek out multiple perspectives from many media outlets, rather than just the big three that had been around for decades.
Furthermore, local news stations are being purchased by large businesses. Sinclair Media Group is one that owns nearly 300 television stations, or more than 70 percent of local news stations, across the country. Sinclair pushes a specific agenda through what is still largely the most trusted news source: local news. Sinclair anchors are told what to say and who to interview.
The bottom line is this: much like the pandemic, we have to take responsibility for our mental and intellectual health in the infodemic. We must commit to seeking out a variety of sources from the right, left, center and non-partisan to determine fact from fiction.


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Maple seed pod-inspired drone increases flight timeMarie Donlon | May 29, 2022
Researchers from the University of Hong Kong have developed a tiny drone inspired by the maple seed pod.
To increase the flight time of tiny — under 100 grams — drones, the team mimicked the helicopter-like design of the maple seed pod, which when falling from a tree, spins like a helicopter rotor without an engine and increases its distance from the tree as it blows away.
As such, the team designed the new tiny drone to spin like the maple seed pod so as to keep aloft and fly for roughly twice as long as drones with a conventional four-rotor design. The researchers tested the drone and determined that it was capable of hovering in the air for as long as 24 minutes.
Like most traditional drones that feature spinning rotors to provide lift, the maple pod seed-inspired drone also features two tiny rotors at the drone’s wing tips to enable the drone to spin.
Additionally, the drone also features electronics and a battery at its core, resulting in a device that weighs just under 35 grams and spins at an estimated 200 rpm.
Likewise, the researchers claim that the drone can carry a small payload such as a camera, making it appropriate for mapping and surveillance applications.
The article, A bioinspired revolving-wing drone with passive attitude stability and efficient hovering flight, appears in the journal Science Robotics.
For more on the tiny drone, watch the accompanying video that appears courtesy of the University of Hong Kong.


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UniCredit Bank Austria Business Indicator:
Growth forecast for Austria in 2017 increased from 1.8% to 2.3%
- UniCredit Bank Austria Business Indicator climbs in June to 3.5 points, the highest figure since March 2011, thanks to the buoyant mood in industry
- Continuing high rate of growth in the second quarter lifts rise in GDP to an estimated 2.5% in the first six months of 2017
- International momentum promoting investment activity, consumer dynamism remains high - growth forecast for 2017 therefore raised from 1.8% to 2.3%
- Unemployment rate drops to 8.7% as an annual average for 2017; further easing anticipated in 2018
- Raw material-related slowdown in inflation in the second half of the year dampening price hikes to 1.8% as an annual average for 2017: ECB under no pressure to act
The Austrian economy is starting the second half of 2017 under excellent general conditions. "The economic mood in Austria has improved constantly since the beginning of the year. It has actually reached a 6-year high since the start of summer. The strong upturn in Austria will continue in the second half of the year. This is underlined by the rise in the UniCredit Bank Austria Business Indicator to 3.5 points in June", said Stefan Bruckbauer, UniCredit Bank Austria Chief Economist, with confidence. In the second quarter of 2017 the Indicator attained a substantial average value of 3.2 points. It therefore suggests a further slight rise in economic growth compared with the start of the year. "The continuing upward trend in our Business Indicator in the second quarter of 2017 points to another increase in economic momentum. The Austrian economy therefore experienced the highest upward movement since 2011 with an increase of around 2.5% in the first six months of the year", said Bruckbauer.
The improved economic mood at the start of summer is attributable almost entirely to the positive growth in industry. As a result of the good international conditions, which have led to a revival of global production and trade for some months, industrial companies in Austria are enjoying a strong tailwind. The prospects are regarded as more optimistic, a fact that is reflected in the highest level of industrial confidence since 2010. Whereas the mood in the construction industry is consolidating at a high level, confidence in the service sector has increased once again. "The economic mood in Austria in the middle of the year is characterised by greater optimism for the most part among entrepreneurs. Industry and service providers, but also the construction industry are still experiencing a boost. However, consumer confidence has declined compared with the previous month for the first time since autumn 2016. But Austrian consumers are also still very optimistic", said Bruckbauer.
Buoyed by the good mood, the Austrian economy will largely be able to maintain the rate of growth from the last few months in the second half of 2017. Economic growth in Austria will remain dynamic because global trade has developed positively thanks to newly industrialising countries and is stimulating the economy in Europe and Austria. Although international support is likely to stop increasing, it has been well-consolidated. Investment will also therefore be boosted, especially since capacity utilisation in Austria has reattained the long-term average level for the first time since the financial crisis.
The positive trend in equipment investments, especially in vehicles, and the increase in building investments should continue assisted by the still favourable financing conditions. In spite of the advantageous export situation, domestic demand will remain the major growth driver in the second half of the year since private consumption has not yet shown any indications of a slowdown in the pace of growth.
"We have substantially increased our GDP forecast for 2017 from 1.8% to 2.3%. Firstly, the strong support for exports due to the global recovery is proving to be stable. Secondly, the improvement in the situation on the job market can compensate for the decreasing impact of last year’s tax reform on private consumption more significantly than we originally expected", said UniCredit Bank Austria Economist Walter Pudschedl. According to the estimate by the economists of UniCredit Bank Austria, the economic risks have fortunately been reduced in the last few months, especially at the political level.
Unemployment decreasing in spite of structural problems
The strong economic upturn will lead to a further improvement in the situation on the Austrian job market in the second half of the year. The growth in employment will continue at a high rate after the average increase of 1.8% in the first six months of the year and will reduce unemployment in Austria.
"We are anticipating a decrease in the unemployment rate to at least 8.7% as an annual average for 2017. Backed up by recently adopted measures such as the employment bonus and the 20,000 Campaign, the improvement will still continue provisionally in 2018 to 8.5%. However, the unemployment rate will still be more than 2.5% higher than at the start of the financial crisis", said Pudschedl. The recent positive development on the job market is, however, accompanied by signs of structural problems and imbalances in qualifications. The qualifications that are being sought on the job market differ from existing qualifications, a fact which is reflected, for example, in the disproportionately high increase in the number of vacancies in some subareas during the last few months in spite of a large labour pool.
Lower inflation expectations hinting at a cautious reduction in bond purchases by the ECB
After an average rate of 2.0% in the first half of the year, inflation in Austria will slow down slightly in the next few months. Energy prices will probably dampen inflation towards a figure of 1.5% with the result that it will decrease to 1.8% as an annual average for 2017. In spite of the positive economic situation, very little pressure on prices can be seen on the demand side on account of the existing output gaps. Only in some service sectors, e.g. tourism, culture and leisure, and housing are prices tending to rise more in Austria.
Especially as an average in the eurozone, inflation is moderate at less than 1.5% for the current economic situation in the middle of the year on account of the output gaps that still have to be closed. "The ECB will choose a cautious exit scenario from the current bond purchase programme on account of the moderate inflation rate. In September 2017 the ECB could therefore announce a reduction in the monthly purchases to €40 billion for the first six months of 2018 and aim at a further reduction to €20 billion per month in the second six months of 2018. Only after the discontinuation of the programme will the zero interest policy of the ECB end in the first few months of 2019", concluded Bruckbauer.
Tables (PDF; 233 KB)
Enquiries: UniCredit Bank Austria Economics & Market Analysis Austria
Walter Pudschedl, Tel. +43 (0) 50505 - 41957


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THELOGICALINDIAN - Popular USbased cryptocurrency barter Coinbase Inc has been accustomed approval by the US Balance and Barter Commission to access three companies acceptance it to account balance tokens and accommodate a broader ambit of banking services
Coinbase has fabricated amazing advance in legitimizing cryptocurrency investments and carrying accompanying casework to the accessible in an attractive, accurate package. In aboriginal June, Coinbase appear that it would access Keystone Capital Corp., a California-based banking casework company, in an accomplishment to become an SEC-regulated broker-dealer. Coinbase COO Assiff Hiriji commented:
After over a ages of anticipation, the SEC and the Banking Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) accept clearly accustomed Coinbase to move advanced with the acquirement of Keystone Capital, as able-bodied as the acquirement of two added banking companies — Venovate Marketplace Inc. and Digital Wealth LLC — according to Bloomberg.
The acknowledged acquisitions will admission Coinbase licensing to be a registered broker-dealer, advance advisor, and another trading arrangement — awfully addition the ambit of casework it can accommodate and the bill it can account for trading.
The SEC blank will additionally accredit Coinbase to account blockchain-based securities, a appellation which will acceptable beset all antecedent bread offerings.
Coinbase now has an absolute cardinal of startups to “explore” in accession to the cryptocurrencies it hinted at advertisement on Twitter over the weekend (Cardano, Lumens, Basic Attention Token, Zcash, and 0x). It additionally apparently increases the affairs of the barter advertisement Ripple (XRP), afterwards abounding accept speculated that Coinbase has appropriately far alone the third better cryptocurrency by bazaar assets due to apropos surrounding it potentially actuality accounted a security.
Proper regulation, forth with Coinbase’s careful account appear beforehand this month, removes the best adverse barriers for the eagerly-awaited institutional investors to flood into the currently brackish bazaar and additionally helps authorize Coinbase as one of the best trusted portals into the apple of cryptocurrency investments.
What do you anticipate of the SEC acceptance Coinbase to account securities? Will it be a agitator for institutional investments? Let us apperceive in the comments below!
Images address of Shutterstock.


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muhlow – Kerstin Mühlow Blogg
Moral dilemma essay conclusion - SolEl.eu
Three years after the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh that killed more than 1,100 factory workers, the rights and safety of workers are in greater focus, but progress in fixing problems in the The eight-storey Rana Plaza factory building near Dhaka collapsed on 24 April with an unknown number inside. The authorities say about 2,500 people were injured in the accident and 2,437 people Rana Plaza took less than 90 seconds to collapse, the number of new unions registered fell to the lowest levels since before the disaster. The events of December 2016 have had a chilling effect. The Rana Plaza collapse, which killed over 1,100 garment workers, led to much better labor conditions. Now that legacy could be in jeopardy, as a power struggle unfolds over factory safety. The Rana Plaza building collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh, was one of the world's deadliest industrial disasters.
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Fordham University School of Law vid Lincoln 57 procent av de överlevande i Rana Plaza-tragedin har varit arbetslösa Original: What disaster means to garment workers in Bangladesh An expose of high-street fashion labels' inhumane working conditions. Following the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory building in April 2013, a team of lawyers av M Dahl · 2017 — -En kvalitativ fallstudie av EU:s agerande efter Rana Plaza-olyckan following the recent factory fires and building collapse in Bangladesh”. were injured, making it the fourth largest industrial disaster in history. There were five garment factories in Rana Plaza all manufacturing Changes in the Governance of Garment Global Production Networks: Lead Firm, Supplier and Institutional Responses to the Rana Plaza Disaster” is a novel, retailers after the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013, which contributes to safer working conditions in the garment industry for millions of workers. Supplier and Institutional Responses to the Rana Plaza Disaster (endast på engelska). Organisering och implementering av förnybar energi Hämta den här Bangladeshs Worst Ever Factory Disaster bilden för Dhaka, Bangladesh - April 29, 2013: A view of collapsed Rana Plaza building in April 24, 2020 marks the 7th anniversary of the tragic collapse of Rana Plaza which Thousands more were injured and even more impacted by this disaster. 1 129 människor omkom i rasmassorna när Rana Plaza- fabriken i taken by Dagens Arbete reveal that a new catastrophe is in the making.
Rana Plaza Disaster - Savar, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh. 2,280 likes. On 24 April 2013, an eight-story commercial building called Rana Plaza, in Savar, 30 km (19 miles) outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, The Rana Plaza disaster, Savar, Bangladesh On 24 April 2013, the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which housed five garment factories, killed at least 1,132 people and injured more than 2,500.
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More than 1,100 Apr 26, 2016 Bangladesh, garment workers, Rana Plaza, job safety and health, Solidarity Meherunnesa, 70, lost her son in the 2013 Rana Plaza collapse. Watch Thousands protest on an anniversary of Bangladesh Rana Plaza disaster Video Online, on GlobalNews.ca.
Dying for Fashion - Prime Video
The 2013 Dhaka garment factory collapse (also referred to as the 2013 Savar building collapse or the Rana Plaza collapse) was a structural failure that occurred on 24 April 2013 in the Savar Upazila of Dhaka District, Bangladesh, where an eight-story commercial building called Rana Plaza collapsed. Seven years ago, the glamorous facade of the global fashion industry was shattered following the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh. The catastrophe thrust the subject of ethical On 24 April 2013, an eight-story commercial building, Rana Plaza, collapsed just outside Dhaka. The building contained five clothing factories: most of the people in the building at the time were A court in Bangladesh has formally charged 38 people with murder in connection with the 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza building which killed 1,135 people in the country’s worst industrial The Rana Plaza collapse, which killed over 1,100 garment workers, led to much better labor conditions.
After more than 1,100 people were killed in the horrific building collapse, hundreds of factories in Bangladesh were shuttered. Activists formed a human chain on London's Oxford Street to mark the first anniversary of the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh and expose the failure of maj
Whilst the Rana Plaza disaster has prompted improvements in the textile industry, progress and reform has been slow. Often companies have complex supply chains dispersed internationally, therefore it is difficult to monitor suppliers. There is a lack of transparency since some companies do not disclose information about their supply chains. After the Rana Plaza disaster, Anjuman Mufidul Islam, the non-government charity organisation, initiated a programme to rehabilitate the children of workers who had died in the incident.
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Date: 21 Apr 2016 Content Type: Article With over 2,500 injured and 1,134 dead, the Rana Plaza factory collapse remains the garment industry’s biggest tragedy to date. This Friday marks the seventh anniversary of the disaster, and as we remember the events of that fatal day, we come to reflect on how the industry has since changed, and how far it has to go. Germany. The collapse of the Rana Plaza textile factory in Bangladesh five years ago, with more 1,100 dead and nearly 2,500 injured, galvanized both the industry and policy-makers.
The eight-storey Rana Plaza factory building near Dhaka collapsed on 24 April with an unknown number inside. The authorities say about 2,500 people were injured in the accident and 2,437 people
A Bangladeshi mourner and relative of a victim of the Rana Plaza building collapse takes part in a protest marking the first anniversary of the disaster at the site where the building once stood
Before Rana Plaza, efforts by workers to organize were crushed by an alliance between the state and local employers. Keeping factories humming was considered to be in the national interest.
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In Helene responding to societal challenges to preparing for societal collapse. Book review: stitched up: the anti-capitalist book of fashion by tansy e hoskins The Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh in 2013 brought ethical pay and safe The opening night was the same date as the Rana Plaza disaster in Dhaka 2 years ago.
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The factories in the building supplied garments to companies including Benetton, Primark, and Walmart. Cranes were brought in… It was on this day five years ago that cracks began to appear in the walls of Rana Plaza, the ill-fated complex of clothes factories and shops in Savar, 15 miles outside the Bangladeshi capital of Responsibility – following the Rana Plaza disaster "In the meantime, much has been learned about security issues, but the treatment of workers, especially women, is still looking bad", says a textile worker six years after the Rana Plaza disaster. Dozens face murder charges over Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza disaster. Building’s owner and 40 others accused of homicide in tragedy that killed 1,100 people. However, Rana Plaza disaster is an issue that since in the past has faced lots of controversies concerning ethics. The crash remains the most hazardous disaster in the history of the garment industry from all around the world (Bolle 2014, p.
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628x471 ap-bangladesh-building-collapse-4_3_r536_c534. För fjorton år sedan var jag i Bangladesh. Jag bodde bland annat 3 veckor i Savar, htmlThe New York Times: After Factory Disaster, Bangladesh Made Big Safety .nytimes.com/2020/03/01/world/asia/rana-plaza-bangladesh-garment-industry. I april två år sedan störtade textilfabriken Rana Plaza samman. “Vi har fortfarande inte lärt oss läxan efter Rana Plaza”, konstaterade FN:s arbetsgrupp för outsourcing grievously exploits laborers (as evinced by the devastating collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, where many U.S. companies Datum. Tider.
Apr 27, 2014 The nightmare continues for many of those who survived the collapse of the Rana Plaza building on the outskirts of Dhaka, the Bangladeshi Jun 1, 2015 The collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, considered the deadliest disaster in the history of the garment industry, killed more than 1,100 Nov 24, 2015 This paper analyzes the stock market reaction to the Rana Plaza disaster in the Bangladeshi ready-made garment industry. Sufficiently Apr 23, 2014 Today marks the one-year anniversary of the building collapse at Rana Plaza in Dhaka, Bangladesh that claimed over 1,100 lives and injured Apr 24, 2014 Some 1,135 garment workers died and over 2,500 were injured in the biggest disaster the Bangladeshi garment industry has ever seen. The Apr 10, 2014 On 24 April 2013, an eight-story commercial building, Rana Plaza, collapsed just outside Dhaka. The building contained five clothing factories: The Rana Plaza factory and office building collapsed early in the morning on April 24, 2013. 1 134 people lost their lives in the disaster. In 57 percent survivors of Rana Plaza tragedy have remained unemployed, and the pandemic is now taking a heavy toll on Bangladesh, Hitta perfekta Rana Plaza Collapse bilder och redaktionellt nyhetsbildmaterial hos Getty Images. Välj mellan 806 premium Rana Plaza Collapse av högsta Hitta perfekta Fourth Anniversary Of The Rana Plaza Disaster bilder och redaktionellt nyhetsbildmaterial hos Getty Images.


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NWFA Submits Official Comments on Petition Mandating Uniform Labeling on Floor Coverings
ST. LOUIS, August 9, 2018 - The National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) submitted official comments on the petition to mandate a “Uniform Labeling Method for Traction of Floor Coverings, Floor Coverings With Coatings, and Treated Floor Coverings.”
In conjunction with other organizations, including the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the NWFA recommends that the proposed mandatory rule (83 FR 26228) be rejected by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
“As a trade association representing all facets of the wood flooring industry, we felt it was necessary to make official comments to share the negative impacts this rule could create for hard surface flooring and the misrepresentation of hard surfaces to the U.S. public at large,” says Michael Martin, NWFA President & CEO.
For more information regarding this petition, visit https://www.federalregister.gov/ documents/2018/06/06/2018-12074/resubmission-of-petition-to-mandate-a-uniform-labeling- method-for-traction-of-floor-coverings-floor.
The National Wood Flooring Association is a not-for-profit trade organization, with more than 3,500 member companies worldwide, dedicated to educating consumers, architects, designers, specifiers and builders in the uses and benefits of wood flooring. NWFA members receive the best in educational training, benefits, technical resources and networking, to advance their professionalism and success. The NWFA is located at 111 Chesterfield Industrial Boulevard, Chesterfield, MO 63005, and can be contacted at 800.422.4556 (USA & Canada), 636.519.9663 (local and international), or online at www.nwfa.org.
ST. LOUIS, Jan. 8, 2019 - The National Wood Flooring Association has announced that Matthew Luhn, a former animator and storyteller with Pixar Animation Studios, will be the keynote speaker for the...read more
ST. LOUIS, November 28, 2018 - The National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) has announced that Lauzon Distinctive Hardwood Flooring in Papineauville, Quebec, has earned the NWFA/NOFMA Mill Certification...read more


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The FINANCIAL — Visa announced on May 7 that Americans modestly increased their spending in April, with growth across most major purchase categories, according to Visa’s Retail Spending Monitor (RSM), a quarterly report that tracks retail spending patterns based on real-time purchase data.
Retail spending in April was up 4.5 percent from the prior year, excluding automobile and gasoline purchases. Amid a strengthening housing market and renewed confidence in the economy, Americans continue to open their wallets for restaurant meals, hotel stays, household goods like appliances and furniture, and other more day-to-day needs. Eleven of the fourteen major spending categories that Visa tracks showed growth from the prior year.
“Across the country, we’re seeing consumers continue to spend as their confidence in the economy grows,” said Wayne Best, Visa’s Chief Economist. “With spending increases over the prior year from retailers and restaurants as well as a more robust travel sector, this broad-based growth is making an important contribution to the economic recovery.”
Several discretionary categories showed solid increases in April from the prior year, with some eclipsing their March growth rates. The increase suggests that American households with incomes greater than $100,000, who generally are more likely to be able to contribute to discretionary spending and less likely to be impacted by swings in gas prices, may be driving the increase in spending. For instance:
Restaurant spending rose 9.5 percent from the prior year in April, compared to a 7.6 percent increase in March.
Hotel spending was up 9.4 percent from the prior year in April, compared to a 9.2 percent increase in March.
Household good spending, at places like electronics, appliance, and furniture stores, increased 5.1 percent in April from the prior year, compared to 1.5 percent in March.
Impact of Gas Prices
Gas prices continue to affect consumers’ mind set and spending behavior. Prices have fallen 30 percent over the last year, averaging $2.47 per gallon in April. Consumers received an unexpected windfall on average of $1.19 per gallon compared to a year ago, or between $50 and $75 a month in average household savings.
However, a recent Visa survey found that, amid the increase in gas prices that began in February, more than half of respondents (52 percent) said that they planned to save the unexpected windfall from lower prices at the pump, while nearly a quarter (24 percent) said they planned to use it to pay down debt. Only 30 percent said they planned to spend more at other places.
These survey results are evident in Visa’s RSM data. Although April retail spending (excluding autos and gas) was up 4.5 percent from the prior year, it has slowed significantly since the first three months of 2015. In January, when gas prices hit their recent lows, retail spending was up 6.0 percent from the year before. There was also a noticeable impact in consumer spending in several major categories. Some changes include:
Home improvement spending growth, at places like building supply, hardware, and garden stores, slowed to 4.5 percent in April from the prior year, compared to a 9.4 percent increase in March.
Clothing store spending increased just 0.1 percent in April from the prior year, after growing by 3.7 percent in March.
Warehouse and general merchandise spending growth, such as at big-box retailers, slowed to 4.8 percent in April from the prior year, compared to 6.7 percent in March.
Non-store retail spending growth, such as at online retailers, slowed to 4.6 percent in April from the prior year, compared to 5.5 percent in March.
“What matters is not the price at the pump today, but where consumers see gas prices headed,” noted Best. “After gas prices rose every single day in February, 70 percent of consumers said they expected them to keep rising over the next three months – and not surprisingly, they modified their spending habits. We saw that trend again in April when gasoline prices steadily ticked upward in the latter half of the month, causing consumers to spend more cautiously and pocket much of the savings from lower prices at the pump.”


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U.S. feed use of DDGs climbs to record high
Demand for the dried distillers grains (DDGs) is strong both in domestic and export markets, said an official with the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA).
"We are looking at record numbers of hogs and poultry in the U.S., and obviously those animals eat a fair amount of distillers grains," said Geoff Cooper, senior vice president of RFA.
On the export side, Cooper says the industry is exporting about 12 million tons, or one-third of the distillers grains produced now, with just 10 countries making up the bulk of that.
"We’ve seen dramatic growth in exports in the last decade, but a lot of that has been tied to the Chinese market," said Cooper. China accounted for as much as half of DDGs exports two years ago, but that has fallen dramatically in...
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FINALLY, a patriotic video site that filters out the spam, RINOs, and click-baiters. Discern.tv
Here’s a bold claim: One lie about climate change stands out as the biggest. It’s bold because there are so many climate change lies being disseminated by the Globalist Elite Cabal and their many puppets in government, media, and the “scientific” community. Nonetheless, one is a real “Whopper” in both the literal as well as the Burger-King-Sense of the term.
They claim gas that comes from cows is the biggest threat to the environment. One could easily write an entire book debunking this claim, but the real tell that should make everyone question the entirety of the narrative is that fact that lab-grown meat — the supposed “green” replacement for real meat — is up to 25-times worse for the environment than the natural stuff.
If the intention was really to save the environment, wouldn’t this fact make replacing beef with frankenmeat a non-starter? It’s not like this data is coming from some “fringe” site or “right-wing” scientist. It was initially reported in a study by the University of California in Davis. As they noted:
The scientists defined the global warming potential as the carbon dioxide equivalents emitted for each kilogram of meat produced. The study found that the global warming potential of lab-based meat using these purified media is four to 25 times greater than the average for retail beef.
If replacing the pasture with the petri dish as the origin of beef has nothing to do with saving the environment, what do the Globalist Elite Cabal members really want? For that answer, we turn to the recently deceased Godfather of Modern Globalism, Henry Kissinger. He detailed three rules for their agenda:
- “Who controls the food supply controls the people.”
- “Who controls the energy can control whole continents.”
- “Who controls money can control the world.”
That first tenet is the relevant one here. Controlling the food supply is a primary goal of the Globalist Elite Cabal. It’s exponentially easier to simply outlaw real beef rather than trying to take over every ranch in the world.
To those who may be skeptical about the intentions of the Globalist Elite Cabal, I urge you to dig deeper into all three Kissinger tenets. Watch what’s happening to the food supply with the frankenmeat push, unprecedented bird flu, food production plants being destroyed, laws being passed to harm farmers, and massive inflation at the grocery stores and restaurants.
Then, repeat the process for energy and money. One does not have to become a full-blown conspiracy theorist questioning the moon landings in order to see the machinations of the Globalist Elite Cabal unfolding before our eyes. One simply has to realize that the “elites” (I hate using that term but it’s what everyone else uses so I’ll invoke it here for clarity) really are engaged in a depopulation and control agenda that spans the aforementioned governments, media, and “scientific community.” Add in academia, federal law enforcement, Big Tech, central banks, Hollywood, and a dozen other influential industries and the scope of our dilemma becomes more clear.
Over the weekend, these “elites” met in Dubai to further plot our demise at COP28. There were some representatives from the real meat world who tried to talk sense into them, but they were not only met by a reluctant audience but also eco-cultists. As The Gateway Pundit noted:
Vegan eco-terrorists are outraged that meat lobbyists descended on the COP28 climate conference in Dubai to counter the attack on meat consumption in first-world countries.
The climate change zealots (Communists) are not only coming for your gas-powered vehicles, they want to destroy the cattle and farming industry under the guise of reducing carbon emissions with a ‘net zero plan.’
The ‘net zero plan’ will lead to famine. Of course, this is the plan and it isn’t the first time junk science will be used to starve millions (or billions) of people. The Soviet Union used Communist pseudo-scientist Trofim Lysenko to starve millions in the 20th century.
The United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) rolled out its food guidance for first-world countries in an effort to reduce carbon emissions.
The message to ‘rich’ countries? Consume less meat.
“Nations that over-consume meat will be advised to limit their intake, while developing countries — where under-consumption of meat adds to a prevalent nutrition challenge — will need to improve their livestock farming, according to the FAO.” Bloomberg reported.
There is no way to change the minds of those who have already determined they must eliminate real meat from our diets. We know this because the facts presented by UC Davis should have made them reverse course if that were possible. It’s not. The only things we can do are:
- Continue fighting the good fight by opposing any actions taken by governments and corporations against real food industries.
- Prepare ourselves, our families, and when possible our communities for a future in which real food is outlawed and only government-supplied rations are used to control the masses.
For transparency, my freeze-dried beef company is obviously very much embedded in action #2. We are trying to supply high-quality long-term storage all-American beef to people. It is my sincere hope that my readers do not think I’m “fearmongering” for the sake of sales. I would be talking about this existential threat even if I had no interest in feeding people. In fact, the whole reason we started the company in the first place was to fight exactly what we’re seeing unfolding around us.
Do not let anyone gaslight you. Attacks on real meat have nothing to do with climate change. The powers-that-be have weaponized climate change as their universal boogeyman to justify destructive actions so people don’t recognize them as crimes against humanity. What they’re doing to meat is 100% about control. They’re just following what Kissinger told them to do decades ago.
Sound off about this article on my Substack.
Controlling Protein Is One of the Globalists’ Primary Goals
Between the globalists, corporate interests, and our own government, the food supply is being targeted from multiple angles. It isn’t just silly regulations and misguided subsidies driving natural foods away. Bird flu, sabotaged food processing plants, mysterious deaths of entire cattle herds, arson attacks, and an incessant push to make climate change the primary consideration for all things are combining for a perfect storm to exacerbate the ongoing food crisis.
The primary target is protein. Specifically, they’re going after beef as the environmental boogeyman. They want us eating vegetable-based proteins, lab-grown meat, or even bugs instead of anything that walked the pastures of America. This is why we launched a long-term storage prepper beef company that provides high-quality food that’s shelf-stable for up to 25-years.
At Prepper All-Naturals, we believe Americans should be eating real food today and into the future regardless of what the powers-that-be demand of us. We will never use lab-grown beef. We will never allow our cattle to be injected with mRNA vaccines. We will never bow to the draconian diktats of the climate change cult.
Visit Prepper All-Naturals and use promo code “veterans25” to get 25% off plus free shipping on Ribeye, NY Strip, Tenderloin, and other high-quality cuts of beef. It’s cooked sous vide, then freeze dried and packaged with no other ingredients, just beef. Stock up for the long haul today.


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BY PALLAB BHATTACHARYA
It has finally happened. The trade conflict between India and the United States has broken out as New Delhi ended its almost year-long wait for a negotiated settlement and came up with a retaliatory step imposing higher tariffs on import of 28 high-value agricultural items from the US with effect from June 16. It was in June last year that the US set off the conflict by hiking the duties on import of goods from India including steel and aluminium.
The delay in India’s reciprocal measure is not difficult to understand. India wanted to give trade negotiations with the US a chance. But not only did that not happen, but what killed the prospects of a breakthrough was the announcement by President Donald Trump in March this year about the withdrawal of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), a special trade facility the US has given to nearly 120 developing countries, including India, permitting them to sell a portion of their goods in the US market free of import duty. India was the biggest beneficiary of the GSP which Trump terminated for India’s refusal to lower tariff barrier to import of American medical devices, particularly stents, dairy products and Harley Davidson motorcycles. Under the GSP, India exported goods worth USD 6 billion to the US last year. Trump had often termed India the “tariff king.”
That the retaliatory tariff move by India was on the cards had been indicated by Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal the week before last when he hinted that New Delhi is not going to pursue a solution to the GSP withdrawal problem and is ready to move on without the trade concession from the US. Goyal said the discontinuation of the GSP was not a matter of life and death for Indian exporters. “India is now evolving and moving out of the crutches that we thought we needed to export. India is no more an underdeveloped or Least Developed Country that we will look at that kind of support. We believe we can be competitive in exports on our own strength,” he said.
This is reflective of a bold new approach by India and Goyal’s words are part of a new diplomatic lexicon in New Delhi in its dealing with the US for two main reasons: 1) India’s economic heft makes it ready to stand up to the US without any rancour, and 2) India is prepared to be transactional in handling bilateral relations. Such a stance was waiting to be adopted by India for quite some time now, discarding the traditional rhetoric about shared values of democracy and freedom in conducting international relations. The US never carried any ideological baggage in its foreign policy and its only guiding principle was national interests. Why should India be bogged down by any ideology in pursuing its own interests? As the Indian commerce ministry had asserted in its reaction to the US decision to scrap the GSP for India: “We have significant development imperatives and concerns and our people also aspire for better standards of living.”
India’s initial refusal to hit back at the US with tariff hikes was apparently viewed by the US as a sign of itching for a compromise. India’s retaliatory tariff measure can now alter the terms of trade engagement between India and the US. The two countries can now go to the negotiating table as equal partners, according to Biswajit Dhar, a professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University. He said it was untenable that Washington would want greater market access in India on the one hand, and end the GSP facility on the other. While India’s exports to the US amounted to USD 52.4 billion in the fiscal year 2019, imports stood at USD 35.5 billion.
India’s clamping higher tariffs on American imports is expected to cast a shadow on the proposed meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, on June 28-29, and prior to that on the bilateral talks between Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and American Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, when the latter visits New Delhi on June 25-26. This would be the first meeting between Modi and Trump after the former assumed power as prime minister for a second consecutive term on May 30, following the Indian parliamentary elections, and the Jaishankar-Pompeo talks would be doing the spadework for the summit-level interaction.
The trade issue is likely to figure prominently in Modi-Trump talks in Osaka. Ahead of his travel to Osaka, the Indian prime minister articulated what Trump can expect to hear from him. In his speech at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on June 13, Modi attacked unilateral trade protectionism saying it did not benefit anyone and highlighted the need for a rule-based global trading arrangement.
In trade, the US is miffed about India imposing price caps on certain medical devices from the US for the benefit of poor patients in India. This has hit American multinationals like Abbot and Boston Scientific. The US companies consider India a lucrative market, estimated at around USD 5 billion, for their medical devices. Analysts say the costly medical devices, particularly stents, may affect the flourishing medical tourism in India. Secondly, India’s recent changes in e-commerce rules have raised the hackles of US giants Walmart and Amazon, which run India’s top two online market places. The rule changes prevent the two behemoths from forcing sellers to bring products exclusively on their platforms. Thirdly, India’s insistence on digital payment service providers storing data on Indian consumers on servers located in India, as protection against data breach, has become another bone of contention. The US considers the data localisation as discriminatory and trade-distorting. Analysts feel the US unhappiness about online trade rules change and data localisation has prompted the Trump administration to withdraw the GSP benefit to India.
However, to put the India-US tariff tiff in a proper perspective, one needs to take a much larger picture of the sticking points in bilateral relations beyond trade. True, India and the US have convergence of views about a rising China. The Trump administration’s putting more and more heat on Pakistan on the issue of cross-border terrorism and prompting China to give up its veto on the designation of Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group founder Masud Azhar in the UN list of terrorists were welcomed in New Delhi. But there is a divergence of opinion between India and the US in some other areas. The US has indicated at a threat of sanctions on India if New Delhi goes ahead with the purchase of S-400 missile defence system from Russia and buys crude oil from American sanctions-hit Iran.
On the other hand, the US hopes to secure big defence deals with India estimated at USD 10 billion. These, according to Indian media reports, include 24 multi-role helicopters, 30 weaponised Sea Guardian drones and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missiles to protect the national capital city of Delhi. On June 13, US Senators John Cornyn and Mark Warner moved an amendment to the American National Defence Authorization Act (NDAA) to include India along with NATO allies for sale of sensitive defence hardware. Obviously, Washington sees India as a lucrative market.
It remains to be seen how the India-US trade friction plays out and if it impacts other areas of cooperation in the coming months. It looks unlikely that Trump will go back on restoring the GSP status to India or roll back import duty hikes on Indian steel and aluminium ahead of the US presidential elections next year. India, for its part, must brace for switching over to transactional diplomacy with the US.
(The Daily Star, Bangladesh)


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Posted by: Danielle Moore at February 01, 2022
There is some good news for businesses still grappling with the financial impact of COVID-19 lockdowns in New South Wales and Victoria. Late last year the federal government announced an extension to the SME Recovery Loan Scheme through to the end of June this year.
This revamped lending initiative is aimed at SMEs with a turnover of up to $250 million, including self-employed and not-for-profits. It builds on earlier loan schemes introduced during the pandemic, which were due to expire at the end of December 2021.
Who can benefit from the scheme
According to business.gov.au, the SME Recovery Loan Scheme enables small and medium-sized businesses to access funding to get through the impact of the coronavirus, recover, and invest for the future. The government will work with lenders to help them provide cheaper credit and ensure that eligible businesses have access to finance to maintain and grow their business.
The original scheme was aimed at businesses that received the JobKeeper payment for the March 2021 quarter and was extended the include those hit hard by the March 2021 floods. The new proposal helps businesses economically affected by COVID-19 from 1 October last year.
What the scheme offers
It provides access to 50% government-backed loans of up to $5 million from participating lenders. Repayments can begin up to 24 months after the loan was issued, with interest capped at 7.5% per annum. Finance is supported by outstanding invoices, not real estate security.
Lenders determine the actual rates, based on factors like the loan term and if repayment holidays apply.
Types of loans offered
Note: Credit, debit, charge, or business card facilities are excluded.
Note: You will need to sign a SME Eligibility Declaration.
How Rebus can help
This scheme is unique and much more flexible than a regular business loan. It can be used for many different business purposes, like covering daily overheads, refinancing debt, buying non-residential property, acquiring another business, or supporting investment.
Lenders are now more willing to support businesses affected by COVID-19 due to the extension of this government backing. Talk to us about how to benefit from this very favourable scheme. We can advise you and make sure you’re set up correctly to take advantage of this unique financing offer.
The Trustee for the Rebus Capital Partners Unit Trust ABN 88 452 904 420. Authorised Credit Representative 523233 under Australian Credit Licence 536100.


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The new issue of Digger magazine features stormwater management and a deluge of educational opportunities.
The May 2017 issue of Digger looks at three of the major issues facing the horticulture industry’s future.
A is for April — and Annuals.
Wholesale nurseries must consider many factors when it comes time to consider a price hike.
The goal of NICH (National Initiative for Consumer Horticulture) is to get 90 percent of U.S. households gardening by 2025.
OAN President Leigh Geschwill discusses the economic dilemma posed by raising Oregon’s minimum wage.
Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian announced last week that the minimum wage will remain unchanged next year because the consumer price index (CPI), a measure of inflation and a key economic indicator, was almost unchanged. By law, Oregon’s minimum wage is tied to the CPI. The CPI rose .02 percent, according to annual economic numbers released by the federal government, […]
Oregon’s gross nursery sales look like they will exceed $800 million in 2014, and they could very well go even higher than that in 2015, Bob Boyle told OAN members at the November 21 meeting of the OAN Willamette Chapter, which took place in Salem. “I think I’m as bullish now on the industry as […]
Although the agriculture community is well aware of invasive pests and pathogens — including the emerald ash borer, sudden oak death, the giant African snail, the citrus psyllid, the Asian longhorned beetle and many others — agriculture cannot fight them alone. These pests can be transported unwittingly by the general public; therefore, public awareness is needed to […]
Hot off the press, the April issue of Digger showcases the nearly limitless planting possibilities when gardening in pots, boxes and hanging baskets. Click here to read the article (PDF). Other articles in the issue include: • “For the birds” (PDF) — Mike Darcy calls for a common-sense response to the recent controversy surrounding Nandina domestica […]


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BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A committee was set up in Beijing Friday to coordinate the development of freight rail services between China and Europe.
The committee was initiated by China Railway Corporation and includes seven companies that operate freight rail services.
As an enterprise-level coordination platform, the committee will stick to the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits to solve challenges in operating China-Europe freight rail services, further lower logistics costs and improve services, China Railway said in a statement.
China now has freight rail services to 29 European cities. Since March 2011, when the service was launched, more than 4,000 trips have been made, and the figure is expected to rise to 5,000 in 2020.


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JWT, the WPP-owned agency, has published a report on marketing in Afghanistan which claims that advertising and communications are “pillars” of the country’s reconstruction, and “fuelling social revolution”. The report also says that Afghans welcome advertising and marketing.
Comparing the award-winning campaigns against a database of 80,000 ads reveals that, in many cases, they were leaving viewers “utterly cold”, says System1 CMO Jon Evans.
L’Oréal’s chief digital and marketing officer explains how the house of brands is mitigating inflation and investing in Web3 amid a post-pandemic “return of colour”.
Although the concept of ‘brand love’ was overused and went out of fashion, it remains an insightful way to consider consumers’ attitudes towards brands.
Attracting sponsors from Lego and Starling Bank to Pandora and LinkedIn, women’s sport is revving up for a record year fuelled by the return of the Euros.


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The indoor biophilic plant paradise next to Transmitter Park will hold a sidewalk sale this weekend with a variety of vegetables and herbs to mark the (almost) start of summer.
Greenery Unlimited (91 West St.) celebrated its grand opening in February 2019 awing plant lovers with an indoor irrigation mist machine and a gigantic living wall, not to mention an impressive array of plants available for purchase.
Following a brief hiatus of the brick-and-mortar store while focusing on home delivery during the coronavirus pause, Greenery Unlimited returns Saturday from 11 a.m. – 7 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. with a sidewalk sale.
Edible plants and products that will be for sale include organic chard, arugula, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, mint, rosemary, basil, thyme and catnip. You can also expect to see indoor tropical plants, flowering perennials, planters, gardening essentials and a special sale section.


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Dec 21, 2015 08:57 AM EST
The San Francisco startup, Lumoid, offers the consumers an opportunity to test the latest gadgets including digital cameras, wearable technologies, drones, as well as audio devices for small rental fees. It also offers try-to-buy option, which the consumers can buy the gadgets they test with 30 percent post rental purchase discount.
Lumoid was founded in 2013 by a former Microsoft Product Manager and Netflix Product Manager. The company started with renting digital cameras and other photography devices and branched to drones in 2014.
In January 2015, Lumoid started renting wearable technologies, including Apple Watch. According to Forbes, Apple Watch has been showing great traffic on Lumoid's site. The company's founder Aarthi Ramamurthy said that the company has just now cleared the wait list of 600 people who wanted Apple Watch for rent.
Lumoid has about 45 different wearable gadgets now on the site. The company's founder and CEO said that there is at least one new wearable every week on the Lumoid's site and there are so many sometimes, especially in the holiday seasons.
Last month, Lumoid expanded its rental services to audio brands. The company now has offerings that include more than 50 audio products including headphones from Audio Technica, Beats, Bose, Sony and Sennheiser.
Aarthi Ramamurthy told CNBC that audio is the potential area for the business. She said that lots of people would like to test drive audio devices, especially when it comes to headphones.
Ramamurthy said that the company works directly with the manufacturers to get the latest audio units. Lumoid's staffs also get fully trained by the manufacturers on how to set up and troubleshoot the installation of devices.
Lumoid's audio branch offers three categories, according to TechHive. The first category is the home audio, which focuses on in-home speaker systems. The second is portable audio, including portable Bluetooth and wireless speakers. The third is personal audio, which features headphones.
Lumoid's data showed that the most popular audio devices among pre-Christmas shoppers include a $2,000 Devialet Phantom wireless speaker, the Master & Dinamic headsets that retail for $399, and the Beats wireless speaker.
The customers can test the latest gadgets on Lumoid for $8 to $18 a day plus shipping. There is also an offer to test three selected devices over two week period for just $30. If the customers want to keep the tested products, Lumoid credits 30 percent of the rental cost for the past year toward the purchase price.
The company has seen a boost in traffic since it launched the audio branch, but the CEO said it might be attributed to the holiday season in November and December.
When Nick Collins was just 14 years old, he started his first business, which included around-the-clock phone calls and numerous questions from his parents. In fact, he began building his stout portfolio in the seventh grade by doing web design, incorporating creative content with brand strategies and plugging in a then-fledgling tech Flash.
Barry Gabster is the founder of InitiateU and is a leading proponent of the marketing mailer revolution, having already taken his company to 10x growth in 2021, alone. In fact, the exponential growth has seen the company rise from $800K-$8.5M just on word-of-mouth referrals.
If you think that the micro accounts are useful only for beginners who may not be able to cope with the fast dynamics of changing quotes on trading platforms, then this is not so. Professionalism grows out of these cent accounts.
Journalists love their jobs because they get to interact with people from all sorts of backgrounds and expertises, then turn around and share their knowledge with the world.
Rustam Gilfanov is a famous IT businessman, a founder of a large IT company, and a partner of the LongeVC Fund.
Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general guarantee some amazing profits if invested correctly.
In the currency trading business, many individuals make mistakes. Since most individuals join this profession with too much excitement, they forget about efficient strategies. Instead of controlling their investment and execution process, most individuals make poor choices for trading.
In today's digital world, more and more people are investing in cryptocurrencies. These digital tokens have exploded into popularity over the past few years, and have grown to the point that there are now nearly over 6,000 of them, according to Statista.


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For years, governments and tech firms have been locked in a delicate dance.
Lawmakers pull the companies into the spotlight of public antitrust hearings, and their CEOs gracefully spin the narrative into one of falling prices and happy customers. Prosecutors swing the firms into courtrooms, and their attorneys gamely pirouette around the harshest penalties.
But in recent months, regulators have begun stomping on Big Tech’s toes. In 2020, American prosecutors launched two major legal salvos against Google and Facebook, and are preparing to follow up with even more lawsuits. British and European lawmakers proposed new rules explicitly forbidding tech firms’ core business practices. Prosecutors in India and South Korea have piled on as well.
The music has stopped, and the former partners are spoiling for a years-long fight that will make US v. Microsoft pale in comparison. Like the Microsoft battle, this one might end in a whimper. But in the year ahead, there’s also a very real chance that governments could rediscover their zeal for trustbusting—and rulemaking. The year 2021 could bring some of the reigning tech barons down to earth.
As we enter the new year, the stakes of the antitrust fight are undoubtedly higher than they were when Bill Gates was the chief antagonist in 2001. “The difference today is that it’s not only Microsoft,” says Michael Cusumano, a deputy dean at MIT’s Sloan School of Management who has written several books about the inner workings of Silicon Valley businesses. “There are several of these powerful digital platforms that in many ways are even more present in our lives than Microsoft was.”
So far US prosecutors have only announced lawsuits against Facebook and Google, but Apple faces its own antitrust suits from game developer Epic and class action plaintiffs, and Amazon is under the gun in Europe. Collectively, these companies serve billions of people.
It’s not just about scale. “People are starting to realize this is actually the entire future of the economy we’re talking about,” says Michelle Meagher, a senior policy fellow at University College London who studies antitrust. Antitrust enforcement has broad implications, she says, “because more and more of the economy is going to be digital and shaped by the investments and technological pipeline of these companies.”
Meagher argues that the fate of democracy has also become part of the antitrust conversation. In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which political operatives misused Facebook data in an effort to sway 2016 election outcomes, and social media’s growing role in amplifying election disinformation, members of the public have started to agree.
“The antitrust agencies have taken note of the academic literature that says this is a growing problem, and the larger public discussion in which people are saying, ‘You didn’t do your damn jobs,’” says William Kovacic, a former chair of the US Federal Trade Commission who now teaches law at George Washington University.
With public opinion souring on once-idolized Silicon Valley CEOs, regulators have become emboldened to take on bigger, more ambitious antitrust cases. And lawmakers are finally giving them the political cover to swing big. “The attitude of a number of elected officials seems to be: If you win, that’s terrific. If you lose, that just makes the case for new legislation,” says Kovacic.
On Dec. 9, prosecutors from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and over 40 states did something unusual: They asked a court, in no uncertain terms, to break up Facebook. Among its proposed remedies, the FTC complaint lists the “divestiture or reconstruction of businesses (including, but not limited to, Instagram and/or WhatsApp).”
“There’s not much fuzz on that picture,” says Kovacic. “In a way that you rarely see in a government monopolization case, [a breakup] is unmistakably a core remedial aim.”
For those not steeped in legalese, the prosecutors’ language may, in fact, appear a little fuzzy. But compare the wording in the Facebook complaint to the US Department of Justice’s Oct. 20 complaint against Google, which merely asks for “structural relief as needed to cure any anticompetitive harm”—a phrase that with a little squinting could be read as a request for a breakup, but not necessarily. The Facebook complaint, on the other hand, clearly names Instagram and WhatsApp as the companies to be jettisoned.
If any court is going to dismember US-based tech giants like Facebook, it’ll have to be an American one. While European prosecutors have led the world in bringing antitrust cases against Big Tech companies, they’ve been extremely reluctant to pursue breakups. Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition czar, said in December that restructuring companies is a “nuclear option” of last resort.
But even now that American prosecutors have thrown down the breakup gauntlet, it won’t be easy convincing judges to go along with their request. Decades of US jurisprudence have steadily narrowed what courts consider harmful anticompetitive behavior, leaving government lawyers with a very narrow path to make their case. And just as the FTC is preparing for its biggest fight of the century, it faces budget shortfalls that have left it with little money to wage a protracted legal battle.
Big Tech companies, on the other hand, have virtually limitless legal resources and are highly motivated to fight and delay any breakup attempt. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that splitting the company up represents an existential threat—and it would certainly frustrate his plans to cash in on WhatsApp via a new payments feature.
“How much do you think Facebook is willing to spend to hang onto Instagram and WhatsApp?” asked Kovacic. “They will marshal the finest powers that the private bar and the economic consultancies can provide and they will be relentless and skillful in defending their conduct.”
No matter the outcome, Facebook and Google’s legal battles will drag on for years, as lawyers sift through mountains of documents, economists meticulously lay out competing analyses of the tech sector, and the companies lean on stalling tactics perfected in EU courts. “The experience of Europe, if it tells you anything, is that these companies have every incentive to delay the process,” says economist Cristina Caffarra, who heads the European competition wing of the consulting firm Charles River Associates.
While lawsuits tend to command much of our attention, they’re just one anti-anticompetitive tool governments have at their disposal: They also have the power to craft new legislation and issue regulatory rules, which might be a quicker and cheaper way to achieve similar goals.
On the regulatory front, Europe clearly leads. The EU proposed a new set of tech-specific antitrust rules, dubbed the Digital Markets Act, on Dec. 15, which specifically outlaw tactics like spying on competitors who sell their products on a marketplace you control. The post-Brexit UK proposed its own version a week earlier.
Lawmakers in the US House antitrust subcommittee have called for Congress to follow suit. Updating antitrust laws to address new kinds of anticompetitive business practices used to be routine, according to Stacy Mitchell, co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which urges legislators to curb corporate power. After passing the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890, American legislators tweaked the law in 1914, 1936, and 1950.
“There was this rhythm of Congress investigating monopoly power and adopting new legislation to ensure that the original vision of antitrust was intact,” Mitchell says. “It’s an ongoing, iterative process by nature. We just haven’t had any iterations in a long time.”
If Europe’s proposed competition rules become law, they would make life easier for prosecutors and antitrust enforcement agencies looking to challenge tech companies’ behavior. Armed with new legislation that explicitly bans tech giants’ most problematic practices, government lawyers would have solid ground to stand on while arguing their cases. Currently, they just have the precarious toehold of a few narrow laws and legal precedents.
But the impact of the European laws will probably be limited to a new round of fines, given the bloc’s reticence to enforce its breakup power. It’s unclear how many billions of dollars you need to fine a major tech company before it changes its behavior. So far Google has run up nearly $10 billion in European fines, and has yet to make any major changes to its business practices.
US lawmakers might be able to tighten the screws even further, by reforming the way that courts consider antitrust cases. Since the 1980s, American courts have followed the so-called “Chicago School”’ of legal thought, which maintains that monopoly power is only a problem if it hurts consumers—not individual competitors. That means proving a case involves commissioning extensive economic analyses to lay out the indirect links between, say, one company’s dominance in the digital ad market, and the average consumer’s wallet.
Living up to the Chicago standard is a difficult and expensive proposition—and it makes winning a US antitrust case very hard. But Congress could override that court precedent by passing European-style competition laws banning specific practices Big Tech companies use to squash smaller rivals.
“Unless the way we see antitrust changes, we’ll just get more cases that are ineffective,” says Meagher, who previously worked with regulators in the US, the UK, and in private antitrust firms. “If we were to just give regulators more funding to bring cases under the current paradigm, they would probably continue to lose—they would just lose more cases.”
If Congress doesn’t pass new laws, the FTC could use its rulemaking power to ban certain anticompetitive practices by decree. So far the regulators have avoided that option. “The rulemaking power is like a big knife that they keep tucked away in a drawer,” says Mitchell. She argues regulatory rules would be a relatively cheap and fast way to check companies’ power.
But Kovacic, the former FTC head, argues there’s a reason for regulators’ reluctance. “I think the rulemaking advocates greatly underestimate the complexity involved,” he says. Between public comment periods, legal opposition from companies, and appeals up to the US Supreme Court, Kovacic estimates the process could take four or five years—and in the end, conservative judges on the high court might just strike the new rules down.
No matter which new steps regulators try out in the coming years, there might be a whole new dance to learn by the time the process plays out. When Microsoft’s legal drama finally ended in 2011, the company had already been supplanted by the new generation of tech giants that dominate the industry today. If they, in turn, are replaced with another crop of titans, we’ll probably be hearing the same song again in a decade or two.
Correction: Cristina Caffarra is an economist with Charles River Associates, not an antitrust attorney.