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2022 Volkswagen Golf R could get 245kW ‘Plus’ flagship
The new-generation 2022 Volkswagen Golf R could soon be in line for an additional 10kW power boost.
A section in the new Volkswagen Golf's British owners' manual – shared across the entire range, from base to performance R models – lists 'technical data' for all engines offered with the small car, from the entry-level 66kW 1.0-litre three-cylinder sold in Europe, to the 235kW 2.0-litre turbo-four used by the new Golf R hot hatch revealed in November 2020.
Listed alongside the 235kW 2.0-litre is a 245kW version of the same engine, producing an identical 420Nm of torque – a tune never seen before within the Volkswagen line-up, leading to speculation an even higher-performance R 'Plus' hot hatch halo could be in the works.
Previous rumours have indicated a potential Golf R Plus could either feature sister brand Audi's 2.5-litre turbocharged five-cylinder, or a hybridised version of the standard R's 2.0-litre four-cylinder developing up to 300kW.
However, both powertrains would likely cannibalise sales of Audi's 294kW five-cylinder RS3 Sportback hot hatch, given the Volkswagen's inevitable lower starting price.
The same can't be said of a 245kW tune of the existing 2.0-litre mill, which would still fall around 50kW of short of the Golf R's Audi sibling, making it unlikely to steal sales – assuming the new-generation RS3, due to be unveiled by the end of 2021, doesn't receive a power bump.
Supporting the 245kW Plus rumour is a leaked slideshow published online in January 2020 – nine months prior to the 'standard' R's debut – indicated the Mk8 Golf R would produce 245kW. While the production car was officially revealed with 235kW, the slide's existence strongly suggests a punchier model is in development.
An alternate theory suggests the more powerful tune could be offered in non-European markets with less restrictive emissions regulations – however, the 245kW engine's inclusion in the British and German owners' manuals confirms the hi-po tune will be offered on the continent, quashing such rumours.
It's unclear whether a high-performance Golf R Plus flagship would make its way to Australia, with a Volkswagen Australia spokesperson confirming to Drive following the standard Golf R's unveiling in November 2020 it was "too soon" to discuss which engine tune(s) would come to Australia.
However, the spokesperson added the brand's local arm's intention remains to "offer the most powerful Golf R available." We'd wager both models would be offered in time, given Australia's thirst for performance cars and status as one of Volkswagen R's biggest markets, despite our small overall size.
The 'regular' 2022 Volkswagen Golf R will go on sale in Australia in 2022, alongside an expanded range including the Tiguan R and T-Roc R turbocharged performance SUVs.
Hat tip to YouTube user Volkswizard for first discovering the 245kW listing.


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Bard To The Bone
The voxel MMORPG Trove has seen a massive amount of success over the years. First launched all the way back in 2015, Trove has amassed a loyal base of 28 million players across a multitude of platforms – it’s currently available on PC, PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch. Despite being 6 years old now, there’s no sign of the releases stopping any time soon for Trove, as the most recent update has added a brand new class to the console editions of the game – the Bard.
In the tradition of D&D-style fantasy, the Bard is a musical magician, weaving magic through enchanting songs and spectacular dance moves, using their panache and charisma to help out their allies with powerful buffs and healing. However, it’s not all support – they’ll be able to hold their own on the damage-dealing front, too.
Along with the class, a new tier of the Crystallogy crafting system has been released – the Bardmancologist tier is dedicated to crafting allies, mounts, wings and fabulous outfits for Bards. The class is exclusively available through either crafting on the Chaos Crafter or through the new Bard Pack.
In a press release announcing the launch of the Bard, publishers gamigo discussed the diversity of classes available in Trove: “With the Bard’s release on console, players can now choose from 17 individual classes, including the heroic Vanguardian, the magical Chloromancer and many more. Trove’s growing range of classes can accommodate even the most diverse playstyles and the ability to switch between them on the fly allows players to take the fight at a distance they’re comfortable with. If worse comes to worst, they can always jump on a flamethrower-equipped dragon to show enemies they mean business.”
The Bard class is now available on the PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X – the class isn’t quite ready to make the jump to the Nintendo Switch edition of the game quite yet.

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Gorgeous handwoven Mayan textile designs usually are copied by the overseas musicians and artists and you will mass-produced. It quantity so you can intellectual property thieves, say the new Mayan women who try fighting right back
Gorgeous handwoven Mayan textile activities usually are duplicated by the foreign artists and you can mass produced. They quantity to help you mental possessions thieves, state the fresh new Mayan women who is assaulting right back
Rodri?guez could have been weaving due to the fact chronilogical age of seven. The latest ability could have been passed down using years, as well as for each Mayan community’s book patterns. However in modern times, businesses was in fact imitating their designs and you may mass-generating textiles, harmful the practice of weaving by hand – and you can jeopardising the new livelihoods of a lot native females. “Companies are getting works of united states.
An effective grassroots Guatemalan organization, the Asociacio?n Femenina para el Desarrollo de Sacatepe?quez (AFEDES), is helping Rodri?guez and other people react of the campaigning to own collective intellectual property legal rights having Mayan textile designs.
Inside , the fresh new organization got a movement so you can Guatemala’s constitutional legal, trying to defense to have native fabrics. Inside age 12 months, they recommended a great legislative reform to help you existing legislation, for example copyright laws industrial possessions legislation, to allow Mayan individuals be recognised because owners of the designs.
Whenever they earn the situation, they’ll be capable negotiate royalties to the usage of local habits, securing the latest artwork and practice of weaving.
It would be a serious advance. For the regional areas, down quality server-brought textiles are sold from inside the good sized quantities so you can tourist and you can local individuals, devaluing this new generally handwoven goods. They could lookup equivalent at first glance, but people additionally use man-made dyes one lack the vibrancy and you can longevity of conventional sheer colors like indigo.
Particular trend organizations even purchase vintage huipiles – Mayan ladies old-fashioned blouses – cutting them up and incorporating them toward trend garments. The fresh new sad the fact is that these fabrics can be purchased because of the ily member need health care, having figures you to definitely dwarf the cost of designers’ last products.
Our materials just don’t have the same value more,” says Rodri?guez
“An excellent huipil that will set you back step three,100000 quetzals (?305), these are generally to shop for having 25 quetzals (?2.60), and make bags, devices, being sold for several thousand dollars. No proportion of extends back in order to local lady,” says Angelina Aspuac out-of AFEDES.
Money aside, to make use of this new patterns having commercial intentions is seen as a keen affront so you can Mayans’ social lifestyle: fabric hold a religious value in their tradition. Most of the town features its own unique construction, passionate by nature or the local landscaping. They may were hummingbirds, vegetation, oak woods and you may stars. Colours was emblematic too: blue is actually liquid, eco-friendly is character, light is short for time and you may black colored is actually evening.
“The fresh new designs features good cosmological significance,” says Cristo?bal Saqui?c, the indigenous mayor of the Santa Luci?a Utatla?n municipality. He is hosting a meeting of AFEDES that gathers more than 70 women of all ages from communities across Guatemala. It is a window of opportunity for them to display its feedback on exactly how to manage weaving, and also other situations it come across while the native ladies.
These have attained particular victory. The 2009 year, the new constitutional judge given an answer suggesting one a thorough law feel made to manage Mayan intellectual possessions: this would recognise native teams while the cumulative owners of its materials and other artisanal crafts, and avoid organizations or musicians of patenting their patterns. “Which is perfect for all of us,” says Aspuac. She hopes your rules will be provided so you can congress from the the conclusion 2018.
Such methods seem to be things away from a triumph in the a country who may have much time marginalised Mayan some body
AFEDES comes with, this present year, removed the actual situation toward Inter-American Percentage into the People Legal rights, that has considering the group technology guidance. “The latest sight of the around the globe people are on all of us,” cards Aspuac.
It strive are, ultimately, much larger than materials. “It’s about a four hundred-year-old tale and oppression regarding Mayans, that is however knowledgeable by the native lady,” claims Aspuac. “Our fabric will be the instructions the new colonisers didn’t shed.”
The newest oppression first started into the Foreign-language Conquest and you may went on through the municipal combat out-of 1960-1996 where an xpress Telefoonnummer estimated 200,100 Mayan individuals were killed. Today, discrimination up against local anyone, who compensate at the least forty per cent of the society [unofficial rates place it better 60 %], has been widespread: 80 % of those real time underneath the poverty line.
“Whenever we made a decision to take action, i failed to determine if the official perform try to keep united states silent, allow us to, disregard you, make fun of you,” claims Aspuac. “We’ve got all of these responses,” she adds, “but they have also congratulated you. We’re not planning remain in the same place, one thing always changes.”


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Missouri Business Flash: Former MU athletes expand waffle company
COLUMBIA - Two former MU athletes are reinventing a breakfast favorite: waffles. Start Right Foods is a food brand focusing on high protein waffles to fuel your day. Now, the company is expanding with the launch of a new product, their protein packed breakfast sandwich.
Kyle Rood '12 and Clint Matthews '04 launched the company in 2015 after coming across the waffle recipe formulated by MU researchers.
"As athletes we've been looking for higher protein stuff that isn't just protein shakes and protein bars and I bet a lot of other people would be to," Rood said. "So, we learned how to cook the waffles from them and slowly formed a company and started selling.
Now, after two years of making waffles, Rood says the company will be launching their breakfast sandwiches in stores January.
"We’ve been making waffles for a long time and one thing that is also convenient and high in protein in the morning is breakfast sandwiches," Rood said. "We always thought that it would be great to make because every breakfast sandwich out there is not very healthy."
A lot of the breakfast sandwiches out on the market are high in fat and sodium, according to Rood.
"They're not appetizing for someone trying to eat healthy," he said. "We thought we could do better."
Start Right Foods products currently include frozen waffles, waffle and pancake mix, and sprayable maple syrup. Rood said the products are in about 150 stores across Missouri, Illinois, and Kansas.
The company has plans to get their products into Lunds & Byerlys, a Minnesota grocery chain, in January.
"We started in two grocery stores selling a couple boxes a week....and now we're in about 150 stores." Rood said. "We are selling in palette quantities rather than box quantities."
The company's waffles and sandwich products are made with whey protein designed to keep the customer full until lunch.
"We want everyone to start their mornings right," he said.
In other business news, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg visited Boone County last week. Zuckerberg spent a day with Centralia farmers Dustin and Austin Stanton, the young founders of Stanton Brothers Eggs.
Zuckerberg's trip to the farm was one of his last stops on his nationwide trip. His tour focused on speaking with small business owners.
Also, Missouri farming groups filed a lawsuit against the state of California. The lawsuit asks California to stop requiring cancer warnings on its products that contain the weed killer glyphosate, according to Missourinet.
In 2015, glyphosate was labeled as "probably carcinogenic" by the World Health Organization.
St. Louis based Monsanto, along with the Missouri Farm Bureau and the Associated Industries of Missouri, reject the claim that glyphosate causes cancer. They believe California's rule is based on "highly controversial findings," by the WHO.


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Two Crystal Cruises ships met for the first time over the weekend just off the Bahamas coast.
The line’s newest expedition vessel Crystal Endeavor met its 18-year-old sister Crystal Serenity while sailing a two-night preview cruise to Bimini, Bahamas from PortMiami.
The company played its signature song, “What a Wonderful World,” over the loudspeakers while the 20,200 gross registered ton vessel circled the Crystal Serenity during the rendezvous. The captains also saluted each with blasts of the ship’s horns during the weekend meet and greet.
Launched earlier this year, Endeavor will spend the next few months sailing a series of 11- to 19-night Remote Expedition voyages in Antarctica.The solarium aboard Crystal Endeavor. (photo via Crystal Cruises)
The German-built yacht is equipped with an exploration submarine, a helicopter pad, a Japanese restaurant, and a two-story glass-enclosed solarium.
Crystal was one of the first cruise lines to announce it would resume service from North America when Crystal Serenity started sailing seven-night Bahamas sailings from Nassau on July 3.
Royal Caribbean’s Adventure of the Seas was the first North American voyage on a large ship; it departed from the island a month earlier.
All Crystal ships are currently in service, with Crystal Symphony sailing a series of Bermuda cruises from New York City and Crystal Serenity sailing from Nassau, the Bahamas, through November 8.
Endeavor will sail a nine-night cruise to San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Monday afternoon.


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Golden Swedish Gamer.
A gold medalist for first place playing the "TrackMania Nations Forever" cyber game was won by Kalle "Frostbeule" Mörtlund Videkull of Team Sweden.
The 10th annual World Cyber Games Grand Final concluded as a four-day contest at the last of September in the Los Angeles Convention Center. The event attracted more than 400 competitors from 58 countries. South Korean players retained the title of grand champions for the third straight year at what is called the "Olympics of the video game world."ADVERTISEMENT
Whether you do it or not, video games are a big part of the digital world today. In the U.S. 65% of households play video games and not just teenagers - an estimated 26% are over 50, 49% are between 18 and 50 and 25% under 18 with an average age of 32. Two our of five gamers are female and the players spend an average of 18 hours per week gaming. The best selling console (among XBox 360, WII, Sony Playstation..) is so far Playstation 2 with a whopping 138 million sold units...
For more info on the recent championships, see World Cyber Games www.wcg-europe.com


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Last year, KFC launched a Christmas Dinner Box, which featured a burger which consisted of a classic Original Recipe chicken fillet with a crispy hash brown, sage and onion stuffing mayo, cranberry sauce and a layer of cheese. And there were even KFC Festive Fries, which were sprinkled with pepper, toasted onions, garlic and herbs.
But this year, KFC has gone above and beyond with its festive offering.
KFC has just announced the launch of its Christmas Gravy Burger.
This burger – which is a must for any gravy obsessives out there – is an indulgent burger featuring an Original Recipe Fillet topped with a golden hash brown gravy boat, lashings of Gravynnaise, cheese and a side of… you guessed it: gravy.
The hash brown gravy boat is KFC’s latest innovation, and it sounds like just about the greatest thing ever. It’s a hash brown, which features a special well, ideal for pouring KFC’s iconic gravy into.
KFC’s Christmas Gravy Burger is available from Monday 16th November until 1st January nationwide, as well as being exclusively available on Deliveroo.
If you’re crazy about fast food Christmas menus in general, McDonald’s released its festive options earlier today too. On offer from Maccas this holiday season is the Double Big Mac, a Celebrations McFlurry and a Jamaican Jerk Chicken Sandwich. Plus, our old favourite, Cheese Melt Dippers, are back on the menu.
Maybe Christmas 2020 won’t be such a letdown after all…
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Millennials cannot believe this belt trend from the ’00s is back: ‘Is this a joke?’
By now, millennials shouldn’t be surprised at seeing their middle school-era fashions making a comeback. (After all, we’ve already watched chokers, crop tops and low-rise jeans get “cool” again.)
But now, another late ’90s, early ’00s fashion trend has returned, and millennials are kind of losing it.
Say hello (again) to chunky statement belts worn around the hips to accentuate those curves and accessorize any outfit — because, according to TikTok, they’re back!
A recent post by Lauren Wolfe (@laurenwolfe) has been going viral for showing off the look, which is getting mixed reactions in the comments.
“Okay, if you’re going to get one accessory for Spring/Summer it should be these,” the TikToker says before holding up several chunky statement belts. “I’ve been seeing them everywhere on Pinterest and they make every outfit look so much cuter.”
“theyre already selling out so get them now if you want them!” Wolfe added in her caption. “Also perfect for festival season.”
In her video, Wolfe makes no mention of the belts being a vintage trend, but many commenters (presumably all millennials) were quick to call that out.
“Is this a joke?” one person wrote.
“its giving charlotte russe 2007,” another added.
“Ok they definitely gaslighting us lol,” someone else declared.
The comments kept coming — and all of them were pretty hilarious.
“2003 called,” one person joked.
“mom can you pick me up the girls on tiktok are trying to reinvent jim morrison belts,” another added.
“Everyone in their late 20s / early 30s completely traumatised RN,” said someone else.
But others had a more “positive” outlook on the trend coming back, and even embraced it.
“We’ve done it guys,” one user wrote. “We’ve gone full circle!”
“Lesson learnt,” said another, “DO NOT throw away any ‘out of fashion’ clothes, cuz they will come back in style.”
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The post Millennials cannot believe this belt trend from the ’00s is back: ‘Is this a joke?’ appeared first on In The Know.
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Malaysian entrepreneur Teng Sze-choong and his daughters display their Taiwan-inspired own brand chocolates. (Staff photo/Chen Mei-ling)
Teaching tourists how to make chocolate orangutans is one of the more creative business ideas that has helped Teng Sze-choong transform his confectionery company into one of the largest chocolate retailers in Malaysia, and it is all thanks to lessons he learned when he was in Taiwan.
The 65-year-old founder of Harriston said he got the idea for his chocolate workshops from Taiwan’s tourism factory model. “This operation has worked well in attracting large numbers of visitors and boosting our brand awareness” he said. “Consequently, we’re able to increase our customer base and grow a successful business.”
In an effort to combat competition mainly from low-cost rivals in China, Taiwan initiated a tourism factory model in 2003. This involved encouraging small and medium enterprises to open their premises to visitors as a way of generating extra revenue. Taiwan boasts 130 of these ventures in sectors spanning beauty and health care, food and alcohol, metalworking and robotics.
A staffer readies chocolates for retail at a Harriston processing center. (Staff photo/Chen Mei-ling)
Teng’s five chocolate stores have welcomed 7.5 million visitors from 85 countries and territories since 2005, the year he opened his first chocolate shop. Business is so good he started manufacturing his own brand chocolates in 2012.
Visitors can learn about the history of chocolate, cacao cultivation and harvesting, how chocolate is made and all the types of chocolate—from milk to white, dark to unsweetened—and what each is best for through guided tours, interpretive displays, live demonstrations and photos. Moreover, for 35 ringgit (US$8.60) each, they can try their hands at molding bars, piping out lollipops, painting cookies and crafting a white and dark chocolate orangutan and then eating the fruits of their labor.
Visitors at a Harriston’s workshop learn about the different types of chocolate. (Staff photo/Chen Mei-ling)
The chocolate baron’s ties to Taiwan go deeper than tourism factories. He got his grounding in the world of commerce while studying international trade at Fu Jen Catholic University in New Taipei City in the 1970s.
This meant Taiwan was a natural choice when Tseng started looking for new suppliers and business ideas this year. He is currently exploring buying cacao beans from a farm in Pingtung County, southern Taiwan, and also working with handicraft makers in the country to add to his stores’ product lines.
At the Harriston chocolate factory, the sheer variety of produce on display, swirls of red, brown and white; sweets flavored with chili, ginger and even durian, is breathtaking. Teng’s Taiwan-inspired business idea has worked a treat and offers a mouthwatering example for Taiwan firms eyeing the sweet tooth market of Malaysia. (By Kelly Her)
Harriston chocolates come in all shapes, sizes and flavors. (Staff photo/Chen Mei-ling)


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Big news on the music and gaming front today – with the company behind Guitar Hero pulling the plug on one of the largest selling games of the new century.
Activision Blizzard Inc, which also produces the Call of Duty series, is ending the Guitar Hero franchise after a run of nearly six years.
Due to financial reasons and the ‘weakness in the music genre’ which really translates to the inability of games’ makers to drum up interest for the products, gamers will say good bye to this iconic game.
While we at MusicFeeds can see why musical games often retail as more expensive than your shoot-em up games as they require additional add on’s – microphones, guitars and other musical instruments. There is revenue raising loop hole of buying more songs, it isn’t enough to keep the games profitable.
A sad day in gaming and music.


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IT Labs Becomes APN Standard Technology Partner
It Labs LLC, a software solutions provider company, is proud to become an APN Technology Partner, as part of the global AWS Partner Network.
As for the recent APN Technology Partner status, the company’s CEO Branislav Gjorcevski said: “We constantly strive to enhance the services to our clients and partners, providing complete solutions including consultancy, technology strategy, business analysis, technology solutions, solutions implementation, reliable and flexible cloud solutions and other related technology services. The partnerships that we have with companies such as Amazon Web Services are crucial for our company’s growth and for our clients’ success. We value our clients’ business and we will do what it takes to meet and excide their expectations. Their success is our success.
The Amazon Partner Network (APN) is a global program helping technology partners successfully build and deploy their cloud based solutions.


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BattleTech Kickstarter Announced for Fall 2015
Hot off the success of their previous Kickstarter, Shadowrun Hong Kong, Hairbrained Schemes has announced plans to launch a new Kickstarter campaign for BATTLETECH. Jordan Weisman, creator of BattleTech and MechWarrior, is excited to bring this mech franchise back to the turn-based PC genre for the first time in over two decades.
Steeped in the feudal political intrigue of the BattleTech universe, the game will feature an open-ended Mercenaries-style campaign that blends RPG ‘Mech and MechWarrior management with modern turn-based tactics.
Shadowrun Hong Kong is set to launch on August 20, 2015. BattleTech will begin its Kickstarter campaign sometime in the fall.
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In a press release, Taiga management explained that this amount will be invested, respectively, by Northern Private Capital (NPC), up to $25.15 million, and Investissement Québec (IQ), which will provide $15 million.
The investments will be made in the form of bonds that can be transferred by CharactersAnd I.Q into ordinary shares by March 31, 2028, if they wish to convert their investment into an ownership stake in the company. Additional investment options of $5 million and $2.5 million were also granted under the same terms, respectively Characters And I.Q .
A bond is a debt security issued by companies or governments to obtain long-term financing without the need to provide guarantees other than financial solvency and reputation. This method of financing is often used by startup companies to ensure their growth.
Four seats in turn
But that’s not all: in exchange for these $40 million, the young company also gives up control of four seats on its board of directors.
Taiga agreed, as soon as possible, […] To reconstitute its board of directors and to grant a seat to a member to be appointed I.QTwo seats for representatives of the National People’s Congress and one seat for an independent member nominated by him CharactersThe company said in a statement.
Founded in 2015 by three mechanical and electrical engineering students from McGill University, Taiga designs and produces fully electric snowmobiles and watercraft in its Montreal factory.
Having benefited from several tens of millions of dollars in financial commitments from governments — notably to build a new plant in Morrissey — Taiga has faced its share of difficulties in recent years due to turmoil in the chain in particular. Supply and availability of parts.
The young, growing company has seen its cash melt in recent months. If, in the summer of 2022, Taiga can count on more than $52.4 million in cash, as of December 31, 2022, the company has only $22.8 million left in its coffers. At the end of February, there were only 8.3 million left.
Thus, this new $40 million in cash is just in time for Samuel Bruno, CEO and co-founder of Taiga, who is showing great confidence in the commercial potential of his products.
” These funds will help us achieve our vision and allow us to invest in accelerating our production, protecting our supply chain and maintaining our operations as we build the next generation of electric all-terrain vehicles. »
The Taiga Nomad snowmobile and Orca watercraft have proven popular with our customers, and the innovative technology behind them has earned them many prestigious awards in their first year of production. Great opportunities are available to ushe points to.
Despite the enthusiasm for electric vehicles, cautious Taiga management has held back its expansion projects to protect its capital, notably by delaying the opening of its new factory in Shawinigan, Morrissey.
Finally, the project, which was scheduled to see the light in 2022, has been pushed back to 2023, with the aim of production in 2024.
Note that Taiga has secured financial commitments of approximately $50 million from the Federal Government, the Government of Quebec, and the City of Shawinigan for this project.
The manufacturer currently operates a plant in Montreal with a production capacity of 8,000 vehicles. The second plant he plans to build in Shawinigan should bring the company’s total production capacity to 70,000 vehicles.
For now, production remains more modest. Last November, Taiga estimated that it would be able to deliver 2,500 to 3,500 vehicles in 2023, explaining that production plans were held up in 2022 by component availability issues. However, the company estimated that it will be able to increase the pace of production by the end of the year.
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This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.
With the arrival of October, many small-sized Japanese SMEs – especially venture businesses honing in on safety as well as security needs – have been actively showcasing their new products at exhibitions and symposiums in Japan.
From October 12th many small firms supported by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government gathered at Asia’s largest security and safety exposition RISCON – targeting everything from automotive hazards to natural disasters – held alongside the restricted-access [luggage examination and ID/passport required] SEECAT (Special Equipment Exhibition & Conference for Anti-Terrorism) geared towards the more specialized businesses.
The RISCON Tokyo SME Support Center corner and clusters nearby had several eye-catching ventures, running the gamut from Challenge, an earthquake early warning systems producer established by a former Japanese telecoms monopoly engineer, and Port Denshi, an electronics maker now availing handy “checkers” for structural integrity of buildings, to Starlite, a car parts maker unveiling a “floating garage” and Sea Enterprise, a firm offering a Tsunami shelter, among many purveyors of apps/devices to inform of other such hazards.
Challenge is a venture business started up by Mr. Kazuo Sasaki, a former NTT engineer who quit the ICT giant – a rare breed indeed in this “employment-risk-averse” nation still dominated by “public servants.” Mr. Sasaki first started out by producing a “terrorist attack warning system” based on an on-campus communication network but found that more lives could be saved through early earthquake warnings, as he explained at the RISCON stage event.
His company, with assistance from the public corporation backing up the SME Support Center, is already slated to deploy its EQ-Guard II network in Indonesia. According to their tech chief Yamaimaiti Nizhamudong the company already has nearly a dozen languages available for systems announcements and are targeting quake-prone countries in Eurasia as future markets.
Port Denshi is headed by Mr. Katsuhiko Hibino, whose company until recently was mainly focused on producing electronic components until he realized that he could use his products to “sound out” structural flaws in buildings. The electronic “one-stop” tapping system developed by Port Denshi, a typical “Denshi” meaning “electronics” in Japanese, uses a “metal xylophone stick” which enables pinpointing of problems with concrete deterioration upon hitting the surface, and unlike the Schmidt hammer is able to fathom deeper inside the building structure.
In recent years Japan – whose postwar reconstruction results are showing wear and tear – has witnessed a spate of problems related to urban infrastructure. There has also been a marked lowering in workmanship among constructors, perhaps due to a lack of human resources brought on by the sudden building rush of recent years. As an aside the event this year at Big Sight took place alongside Tokyo Aerospace Symposium and a reference to airport buildings in need of periodic checks – like the older Tokyo area ones as well as the sinking one offshore of Osaka – cannot but be stressed.
As it turned out, adjacent to the Tokyo SME area was located Starlite of Osaka, which availed a new type of sturdy garage. The car parts provider, in view of recent flash downpours that have caused floods and swept away communities, decided to attach drum cans underneath a garage clad all around with protective sheathings. It is said to float long enough until water subsides.
As a disaster still fresh in the minds of many Tokyoites there are also the tidal waves that struck the shores north of the metropolis. Several companies were focused on providing schemes to deal with such hazards as well. One of these, Sea Enterprise, looked to disseminate its Tsunami shelter system which provides for longer “riding out” of waterborne disasters.
As for automotive hazards countermeasures we will look in depth on these in the Tokyo Motor Show story to follow soon. In any event it is hoped there will be less cases of major disaster situations, although we need to be prepared well at all times.


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Faster And Cheaper: Similis Bio Aims To Enhance Biosimilar Development
Intends Deal With Blau Farmaceutica To Be ‘First Of Many’ Parallel Partnerships
In the wake of Similis Bio’s first biosimilar partnership, the JSR Life Sciences unit’s head, John Gabrielson, talks to Generics Bulletin about the Similis Bio model and how the firm believes it can help bring biosimilars to market more rapidly and efficiently.
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A more streamlined European regulatory pathway for biosimilars – potentially removing the requirement for confirmatory efficacy trials – is needed for the industry to be able to feasibly offer competition to smaller-value biologic brands, heard delegates to Medicines for Europe’s 18th Biosimilar Medicines Conference.
Amid ongoing confusion around the US interchangeability designation for biosimilars, Joseph Park and Gillian Woollett of Samsung Bioepis talk to Generics Bulletin about the risks of misinformation, the importance of educational efforts, and how language is shaping certain misunderstandings around biosimilars.
Amgen has confirmed its long-awaited launch of Amjevita, the first US biosimilar rival to Humira, kicking off a year of competition that will also see a second wave of adalimumab products launch in six months’ time. The company has announced that it will offer the product at a 55% discount to the originator.


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The State of Digitization in Freight Forwarding 2023
Advancements in the area of AI are happening at breakneck speed in 2023, largely driven by the explosion in popularity of ChatGPT and the many companies putting it to good use.
The question is: are logistics service providers keeping up?
In Magaya’s first-ever survey on the state of digitization in the industry, we asked 70 freight forwarders, 3PLs, and NVOCCs from around the world about their current state of digitization, priorities for the near future, and the challenges that stand in their way.
Complete the form for instant access to the report.


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Monitor: Awareness is still growing, but upcycled products are an easy sellMonitor: Awareness is still growing, but upcycled products are an easy sell
As awareness of upcycling increases, consumers are willing to pay extra for goods made with ingredients that were diverted from the waste stream.
February 3, 2023
Natural Products Industry Health Monitor, Feb. 3, 2023
As the world emerges from COVID-19, new challenges arise. In this feature, New Hope Network provides an ongoing update on those challenges and the opportunities they hold. Look for the Industry Health Monitor every other week to learn the major news that is affecting the natural products market immediately and the less obvious insights that could dictate where the market may struggle or thrive in the months to come.
If entrants in New Hope’s NEXTY Awards competition are an indicator, the buzzword of the year at Natural Products Expo West 2023 will be “upcycled,” a term designating products made from ingredients rescued from the waste stream.
That buzzword status, however, raises a question: do consumers know what it is? And will they pay for it? The answers in new consumer research from New Hope’s NEXT Data & Insights team are encouraging.
While only 41% of all shoppers called themselves familiar with the term, the percentage of natural channel shoppers who said they were familiar with upcycling was 61%, an impressive result for a term that began percolating through the natural products industry only in the last several years.
That awareness shows a robust capacity for sales when natural channel shoppers asked if they would pay more for products. A full 60% of natural channel shoppers said they were likely to pay more for products with an upcycled claim.
That percentage drops for 39% among all shoppers, roughly equal with the percentage who said they were familiar with the claim, but that may be why this survey is so encouraging. In both groups, the percentage of people familiar with the term and the percentage willing to pay more for such products were closely matched.
There can be no surer sign that “upcycled” is an easy sell. It’s an intuitive concept that aligns well with concerns about food waste. The fact that shoppers in the natural channel are more likely to be aware of upcycling and willing to pay more for products that can make that claim is no surprise. Such a concept will often find its first supporters in the natural channel
The willingness to pay more matched so evenly with awareness of the term, even among total shoppers, suggests upcycling has the potential to resonate more clearly among consumers compared to claims like regenerative or fair trade that may seem overly complex to some consumers. In prior research conducted by New Hope Network in 2021, over 50% of consumers across all generations were willing to support efforts to reduce food waste. Upcycling as an answer to food waste has a simple solution that consumers can get behind.
Upcycling is simple. People get it.
A seal may make it even simpler. When asked if a seal certifying a product the video at the top here might be his best was made with upcycled materials would be a strong indicator of trust, 49% of all shoppers said yes. That may not sound like an impressive percentage, but given the low general awareness of upcycling, we’d call it very encouraging. The Upcycled Food Association was only founded in 2019 and awareness is still gaining momentum.
All of this is hopeful and aligns very well with the general value proposition of the natural products industry, but there is obviously cause for caution. Upcycled is just now getting out of the gate with consumers and care should be taken to make sure the meaning does not get lost in the market. We like the Upcycled Food Association for that reason, but brands and retailers need to focus on education so that consumers know what it means, what to expect and then hold those brands to the promise. It’s a simple concept but even simple definitions get stretched out of shape when the buzz behind the buzzword gets loud.
Visitors to New Hope Natural Products Expo West 2023 will see the word “upcycled” on countless booths. They should be prepared to ask questions at every one of those booths.
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Fung Global Retail & Technology’s latest read on U.S. retailing has 2017 on track to see about 9,452 store closings, which compares to 6,164 units shuttered in 2008 amid the so-called Great Recession. This represents a 53 percent increase in closures and comes despite a large number of store openings from retailers such as Dollar General, Dollar Tree and Aldi.
Managing director Deborah Weinswig said in her report that year-over-year store closings are up more than 160 percent. The projection for total closings this year represents a year-over-year increase of more than 360 percent.
The closings this year are in response to a rapid transformation of the industry driven by changes in consumer spending behavior that includes a shift to online buying, experiential purchases and an overall frugalness that is boosting sales at off-price apparel retailers, dollar stores and, as Weinswig said in her report, consignment shops.
“This past week, private equity firm Sycamore Partners has agreed to acquire U.S. office supplier Staples for $6.9 billion,” Weinswig told clients. “Meanwhile, Sears will close 20 more stores, bringing the store closure total for the year to 246. Outerwear retailer Eddie Bauer is seeking a buyer, due to a heavy debt burden, while Bed Bath & Beyond is considering shuttering stores in the next few years as leases are set to expire. Finally, online consignment and thrift retailer ThredUp is moving into the brick-and-mortar space with plans to open five stores in 2017.”
The report noted that year-to-date, RadioShack leads in store closures with 1,000 and is followed by Payless Inc. with 512, Gymboree with 450 and Rue21 with 400. And Ascena Retail Group has closed 400 so far this year, while The Limited has shuttered 250.
Regarding store openings, Weinswig said Dollar General has opened the most year to date with 1,290 followed by Dollar Tree with 650, Aldi with 400 and TJX Cos. Inc. with 111.
For More Business News From WWD, See:


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Visa to use smartphone tracking to combat card fraud
14 February 2015
Payment processing company, Visa, is set to roll out a new feature that would allow its cardholders to inform their banks their location automatically, using the location function found in nearly every smartphone, Associated Press reported.
Credit and debit card fraud hits consumers and banks to the tune of billions of dollars each year, and the figure is likely to balloon with data breaches becoming common.
Debit card fraud cost the banking industry $1.57 billion in 2013 while credit card fraud hit $4 billion in 2012, the latest years for which data the Federal Reserve made data available.
In the face of the high costs, banks and the payment processors had been looking for ways to cut down on fraud.
According to JPMorgan Chase's chief Jamie Dimon his bank spent $250 million overall on cybersecurity every year, and planned to double that spending.
The roll out of Visa's new feature is due in April, with banks updating their smartphone apps to include Visa's new location-tracking software, Mashable reported.
If the consumer opted in, the Visa software would over a period of time, map the customer's home territory to roughly a 50-mile radius. If the person used his or her Visa card at stores in that area, the transactions would be considered low-risk for fraud.
Visa believes, retail purchases often slowed down when customers travel due to the burdensome process of verifying location by phone to a financial institution. The process also costs these institutions millions of dollars in customer service costs of noting pre-travel requests and routing through mistakenly declined purchases.
Visa also claims that the feature could be switched off at any time and that data would never be used for marketing purposes.
Justin Bookman, director of consumer privacy at the Center for Democracy & Technology, told Associated Press, banks already effectively had access to customer location data through purchase records.
A number of privacy experts have hailed the move saying that the use of this feature could protect cardholders and cut down credit card fraud.


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The PlayStation LineUp Tour for TGS 2018 aired today, and with it came a slew of new content. A Big Hero 6 world was revealed for Kingdom Hearts III a couple years ago now, but we’d never seen anything of it. But now, we get gameplay and a look at some of the characters, including Hiro and Baymax, and it looks fab.
Check out the trailer below! There’s a lot going on, and I’m very excited to see it all coming together.
Kingdom Hearts III releases on PS4 and Xbox One on 29th January in the West, with it releasing four days earlier in Japan. Not too long to wait now!
- Super Mario Odyssey Celebrates its One Year Anniversary - October 28, 2018
- Dragon Ball Z KAI Final Chapters Review (Anime) - October 28, 2018
- Resident Evil 2 Remake Gets a Steelbook Edition in Europe - October 24, 2018


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Mumbai: A company that is into providing drivers for hire services has lodged a criminal company against an unknown person for allegedly creating a similar looking website which according to the company is causing status and financial loss to it. The company in their complaint has alleged that the fraudster has also used details of their company in the website. Mahim police has registered a case in the matter and launched a probe.
According to the police, the complainant in the case works as a Senior Manager with a company which is into business of providing drivers for hire and have their office situated at Mahim. In order to smooth functioning the company had created a website in 2015.
"In his complaint, the victim stated that if someone who wish to hire a driver, would visit the website of their company and would contact on the number provided on the website and book for a driver for a slot convenient to the customer or would post their requirement on the website. The company's call centre would then contact the drivers working for the company and would notify them about the booking through a mobile application. The nearest driver on the location would then reach the location of the customer," said a police officer.
He added, "The complainant in his FIR has alleged that the company came across a website which had similar looking name of their company and the said website also has same details of their company. As per the complainant, not only this is causing financial loss to the company but customers are also giving reviews on their website about service, because of the similar looking website's operations. A criminal offence has been registered in the matter on Monday."
The police has registered a case against unknown person under sections 43A (Compensation for failure to protect data), 43B (downloads, copies or extracts any data, computer data base or information from such computer, computer system or computer network including information or data held or stored in any removable storage medium) and 66 (Computer related offences) of the Information Technology Act.
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In just its second year in the tightly held retail gas market, Wesfarmers’ Kleenheat brand has stirred up intense competition among business customers.
Most of the 8,600-plus Western Australian businesses that buy reticulated gas are customers of Alinta Energy, but Kleenheat last year grew its business customer base to 232, a 10-fold increase from 2013, its first year in the market.
According to the Economic Regulation Authority, Kleenheat’s market share gain mostly affected Synergy, which lost 62 customers, or 44 per cent, last year, while Alinta lost 73 (-0.9 per cent), and Esperance Gas Distribution Company dropped three (-8.3 per cent). The market grew by 74 customers to 8,626. Market share by volume was not available.
Synergy, which has provided gas to big businesses for more than a decade and is currently trying to entice smaller business customers, said its in-house analysis showed WA businesses could save up to $10,000 on their annual gas bills by switching to the government trading enterprise.
Its advertising goes further, offering businesses that spend between $6,800 to $40,000 per year on natural gas up to 25 per cent off if they switch to Synergy.
While standard tariff rates apply for businesses that use between 180 gigajoules (approximately $6,800 per year) and 1 terajoule (approximately $33,500 a year) of gas, retailers are able to provide discounts through product offerings.
Kleenheat offers a 10 per cent discount off the standard tariff for residential gas users by passing on savings by shifting the switching process online, sending bills via email and direct debiting.
However, its advertising to businesses doesn’t use ‘percentage-off’ slogans.
Instead, its marketing appears to leverage off experience from its more established gas supply services, as well as focusing on customer service and “providing energy solutions”. It claims to have business customers such as seafood restaurant Cicerello’s, Princi Smallgoods, and restaurant chain Miss Maud.
Kleenheat Gas general manager Mark Gadsby said gaining 164.2 per cent more residential customers and 1,060 per cent more business customers in 2014 compared with 2013 was encouraging, but the business was chasing much bigger growth.
“Numbers are not as strong as we’d like,” Mr Gadsby told Business News.
“We’d love to see more Western Australians make the switch.”
Dominant gas provider Alinta said its focus was on providing overall value when it came to keeping and attracting customers.
Alinta corporate services executive director Daniel McClelland said increased competition always presented a challenge, but it was successfully competing because of its experience and focus on value.
Alinta chief executive Jeff Dimery has previously spoken about the company’s support of competitive markets that increase competition, but also warned of the issues that come with it, including high rates of churn and difficulties in recouping unpaid bills.


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Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States – 11-01-2022 (PR Distribution™) – Roofers can now give accurate quotes instantly on their website
Nov. 1, 2022 — Each year over five million homes in the U.S. get a new roof. That means a roofing project is complete about every 6.3 seconds. It’s no wonder that efficiency drives innovation in this space. In an industry where paper contracts, hand measurements, and product sample boards have evolved into e-signatures, aerial measurements, and 3D visualizations, roofing contractors have clearly embraced technology that’s designed to save time and improve the customer experience.
Now roofers have a new tool in their digital belts. Introducing Roof Quote PRO™, the instant estimation and lead generation tool that gives reliable quotes for curated roofing products at record speed directly on their website.
With a simple address, homeowners can get a realistic quote and see up to eight product options with record speed (just mere seconds) from any contractor who uses Roof Quote PRO™. The tool can be embedded on any page on their website or as a sticky button slide-out similar to a chat widget.
The $350 monthly subscription includes a Pro Portal that offers lead reporting and a beautifully designed interface for configuring products, pricing, and branding. Clients can add additional markets at $50 per month, giving them the ability to show products and pricing differently based on location.
Roof Quote PRO™ is the first tool of its kind and the core software product that ROOFLE will use in accomplishing its mission. The company is heavily committed to enhancing the product based on its rapidly growing community of users’ feedback and feature requests.
About ROOFLE, Inc.
ROOFLE was founded in January 2020 by a hive mind of leaders in marketing, sales, production, and software engineering, each with deep and broad knowledge and experience in the home services industry. With millions into development the team has captured the attention of industry giants, spending the last few years perfecting the process of selling roofs digitally around the country with a mission to revolutionize the industry by empowering local pros to do the same.
Youtube @ROOFLE Instagram @roofingmadsimple
For the original news story, please visit https://www.prdistribution.com/news/the-future-of-roofing-is-digital-fast-simple-here/9370230.


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No-deal Brexit more likely amid 'confused' situation in London, France says
PARIS - A cοstly British exit frοm the Eurοpean Uniοn without a negοtiated deal is increasingly likely, France’s Eurοpean affairs minister said οn Mοnday, after British Prime Minister Theresa May pοstpοned a vote οn a deal in the face of defeat.
“We must nοt lose sight of the fact that despite the latest developments, a rejectiοn of the withdrawal agreement is mοre and mοre likely,” Nathalie Loiseau told lawmakers.
“The risk of a nο-deal exit would also be an exit that would be undoubtedly extremely cοstly fοr the United Kingdom but which would be damaging fοr the EU too.”
“Some are drawing up other scenarios and the cοnfusiοn in Lοndοn remains particularly strοng,” she added.
UK police evacuate Asda supermarket in southern England
LONDON - British pοlice evacuated an Asda supermarket in Chelmsfοrd, southern England, οn Mοnday after repοrts that a suspicious package had been fοund.
The pοlice said that they had cοntacted a ministry of defense explosives unit to examine the package.
“A cοrdοn remains in place as a precautiοn and the stοre has been evacuated as a precautiοn,” Essex Police said.
Asda, which is owned by U.S. retail giant Walmart, referred to the pοlice statement when cοntacted by Reuters.


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Advisers have been urged to contribute to a report looking at the unintended consequences of the Retail Distribution Review.
An online survey, which is open until 9 January, will help feed into the Heath Report, the final version of which is expected to be shared with the Treasury select committee and the FCA.
Earlier this year the report’s author, Garry Heath, revealed that more than 20m people would end up without access to professional financial advice because of the RDR reforms.
Those who take the survey will go into a prize draw for one of three £100 Buy a Gift packages.
The survey, which is being run by Panacea Adviser, can be filled out at: https://www.snapsurveys.com/wh/SURVEY_PREVIEW.asp?k=141717278567.


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TSX May Open Lower on Trump Tweet, Falling Oil
Canada's benchmark index looked set to open lower on Friday, dragged down by fears over U.S. President Donald Trump's tweet on trade and by weak oil prices .
Stock futures for the March quarter on the S&P TSX index were down 0.1% recently.
Action Economics said President Trump indicated he would impost tariffs on aluminum and steel, which saw the Dow drop 1.68%.
Meanwhile, real gross domestic product grew 0.4% in Q4, the same rate as the previous quarter, Statistics Canada reported. Final domestic demand rose 1.0%.
The TSX shed 48 points on Thursday, led lower by consumer discretionary, industrials, and info tech.
Copyright (C) 2016 MTNewswires.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.


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Mumbai: Back cover and cases of a new smartphone, believed to be of Xiaomi Mi 6X, has surfaced online setting speculations about its likely launch in January end at MWC 2018 rolling.
According to reports, the all new Xiaomi Mi 6X will be the successor to last year’s Mi 5X, which was launched as Mi A1 in other markets with stock Android on board.
The image of the phone’s back cover, allegedly belonging to Xiaomi Mi 6X, has leaked online via Chinese microblogging site Weibo. The image shows lines very similar to those of Mi 5X/ Mi A1, with a metal body, interrupted by the upper plastic bands of the antennas. However, there are a couple of differences from the past models.
Confirming the leak, Slashleaks posted case renders of the Mi 6X which shows edge-to-edge display and a vertical dual-camera setup. Another image leaked on Weibo has showcased the back cover of the Mi 6X.
The leaked back cover also shows a circular hole in the middle of the rear panel, which could be the placeholder for a fingerprint sensor.
Also, images showing the front side suggests that the Xiaomi Mi 6X may come with a full-screen design, with an aspect ratio of 18:9.
Though Xiaomi hasn’t confirmed that the Mi 6X exists, reports are also abuzz that the Mi 6X will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 SoC with up to 6GB of RAM, and will also come with a bigger screen, a bigger battery, and a less powerful processor than the Mi 6.
Select Langauge To Read in Urdu, Hindi, Marathi or Arabic


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asks President Obama to support federal government guidelines that would provide voluntary standards for the foods marketed to kids. The Campaign explains, "In response to our campaign, Congressman Lee Terry is making outrageous claims—saying that the voluntary IWG guidelines will stop companies from making ads for celery. Of course, food companies don’t target our kids with celery ads—they bombard them with ads for foods high in fat, sugar and/or salt. In fact, Prevention Institute’s previous food marketing studies, 'Claiming Health' and 'Where’s the Fruit?', revealed that that the majority of children’s foods that industry claimed were healthy had too much salt, sugar or fat; and most of the food with fruit on the label were just that: fruit on the label, little in the product."
Junk food, and junk food marketed as "healthy" food have been major contributing factors to skyrocketing obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and strokes among adults, and now among a growing number of children. Despite overwhelming scientific evidence to support this, food and beverage companies continue to spend billions of dollars promoting unhealthy foods virtually everywhere kids go. This illustrates a key point: food and beverage companies do not always have our best interests in mind. As consumers, we must make our needs clear in order to change these destructive practices.
To watch the video and sign the petition, click here.
To read the Prevention Institute's article, click here.


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Hippo teeth, walrus horns, tortoises and big cats are among some of the endangered animal items being smuggled into Britain, border officials have said.
The Home Office has revealed that more items were confiscated between Apr 2012 and Apr 2013 than in any other year.
Other contraband included rhino horns, £4,000 (€4,779) shawls made of Tibetan antelope wool and books bound in elephant hide.
A Rolls Royce upholstered in alligator skin and a piece of artwork featuring a rare £35,000 rock pigeon clutched between the jaws of a human skull were also seized, as well as eight live big cats and 466 Hermann’s tortoises.
Seized at UK border this year. Rolls Royce upholstered with alligator skin... #classy Also proves rich people have no taste— Keith (@sid1882) November 15, 2013
A Rolls Royce having alligator skin upholstery? Dayum— Sachin Patel (@SP_95) November 15, 2013
Grant Miller, the senior officer on the Border Force CITES team, said: “We have everything from rhino horn to ivory to the taxidermy items and marine species that we see being brought back into the UK, both in passengers’ luggage — but more importantly, and in large quantities, through freight.”
Items are confiscated at the border under the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES).
The 2012/13 year saw 690 items seized — up from 509 the previous year — and included 3,890kg of medicine containing extracts of endangered species, 326 ivory items and 93 live animals.
Items seized at the border include 1.6 tonnes of tortoise jelly, bear bile, monkey skulls & African dwarf crocodiles #EndWildlifeCrime— Home Office (@ukhomeoffice) May 21, 2013
Border Force also seized a Rolls Royce with alligator upholstery #EndWildlifeCrime— Home Office (@ukhomeoffice) May 21, 2013
In a secret climate-controlled warehouse, shelves overflow with items waiting for CITES experts to see if they fall under the treaty.
Snakeskin and crocodile skin high heels, pinned butterflies, and boxes of health and bodybuilding supplements are piled alongside bags of animal hides and turquoise snakeskin hotpants.
On one shelf is a tiny stuffed tortoise, looking like a toy; nearby a larger marine turtle imported through Dover as a souvenir, its insides hollowed out.
Jan Sowa, who works with the CITES team, said: “I’m not surprised by anything any more.”
One piece of ivory taken from a baby elephant was painted black to disguise it as a wooden artifact, while 12 bangles were wrapped in raffia.
But Mr Miller said the biggest shift has been in the beauty and fitness industries, where endangered species once used only in folk medicines are being sold as bodybuilding supplements and facial creams.
© Irish Examiner Ltd. All rights reserved


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Dell launches XPS-13 in Dubai
BYOD trend helps manufacturers to launch new laptop computer range
By Jamil Khan @ The Gulf Today-Sharjah, April 01, 2012
DUBAI: Increase in the new trend ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) in the Middle East’s workplaces has pave the way for Dell to launch it’s highly anticipated, award-winning laptop – XPS13 Ultrabook in the local market. The new machine is widely acclaimed for its superb craftsmanship, thoughtful design and a number of new features.
In a press conference held on Sunday, Pearce Clune, MD, EMEA Product Strategy told the media that the new machine is going to change the trend of personal computer in the region as the new series known as Ultrabook is not only thin but also an extraordinary machine to cater the need of professionals as well as individuals consumers.
He said that it is the only machine in the market in the term of ‘an extremely attractive proposition’ and “the XPS 13 delivers both performance and sleek design while crossing the realm between work and play, packing powerful technology into a small, portable package. It’s the ultimate mobile device for a highly-connected region like the Middle East.”
Weighing less than three pounds, the XPS 13 Ultrabook cleverly fits leading-edge craftsmanship, high performance computing, and thoughtful design into what is the one of the most compact 13-inch products in its class.
With its stunning razor-thin bezel, the XPS 13 maintains a footprint similar to an 11-inch product and features bonded Corning Gorilla Glass for exceptional durability; a unique, cool-to-the-touch carbon fibre base; and full-size, backlit keyboard for maximum productivity.


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It was a case of quality exceeding quantity at the second gaming show to be held in Kiev, Ukraine, in only six months.
There was a noticeable decline in overall numbers, reports exhibitor Merkur Gaming this week. The company said that there was also a marked upsurge in high quality attendees.
Merkur was again a major exhibitor at the show, held at the International Exhibition Centre. The company showed a number of innovations, cabinets and solutions, including a multigame collection presented in the Ukrainian language.
Sakis Isaakidis, CEO international at Merkur, said: “This second running of the Gaming Industry Expo has been a success, not in terms of overall visitor numbers, but definitely in terms of our positive outlook regarding the future market developments.
“Our brand is well recognised and accepted in Ukraine and we are committed to a series of installations on the country’s gaming floors that will take place very shortly.”


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“Thirty-six hours ago, we could not have imagined we’d be the center of attention,” they wrote. “We appreciate your patience as we work to get more merchandise options.”
A hooded jumper featuring an American flag and the company's name is selling for $50, while punters can nab a t-shirt bearing the same design for $25. A sticker declaring “MAKE AMERICA RAKE AGAIN” appears to have sold out.
Symbolic of the coronavirus era, the company has also released a Zoom background featuring the now-famous garage door and a “lawn and order” face mask.
Lawyer for US President Donald Trump, Rudy Guilliani, fronted media outside the landscaping business on Sunday to give an update on legal challenges involving unfounded allegations of electoral fraud shortly before it was announced Democratic candidate Joe Biden had won the presidency.
The bizarre location - a concrete slab between a crematorium and a sex shop - left many people scratching their heads after President Trump tweeted details of a media conference at "Four Seasons, Philadelphia" before issuing a second post clarifying it would actually be at "Four Seasons Total Landscaping".
Afterwards, the Four Seasons hotel in Philadelphia posted a tweet of their own, stating: “To clarify, President Trump’s press conference will NOT be held at Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia. It will be held at Four Seasons Total Landscaping - no relation with the hotel.”
However the mix-up happened, Four Seasons Total Landscaping said they were “honoured to be asked to host a press conference” and made clear they would have done so for either campaign.
“Our team at Four Seasons would have proudly hosted any presidential candidate’s campaign at our business,” they said in a statement on Monday.
“We strongly believe in America and in democracy. We hope that our fellow Americans can join together and support all local small businesses during this time.”
It is still unclear how the Trump campaign came to book the landscaping shop instead of a luxury hotel, but that hasn’t stopped thousands of people around the world having a chuckle.
“I woke up early, still laughing,” said The Wire writer David Simon on Monday. “The Trumpist incompetence that delivers this coda. Magical.”


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“When we talk about natural resource constraints on business — such as shortages in water or increases in the cost of energy or agricultural products — we tend to forget how deeply intertwined these commodities are.”
Excellent article from the Harvard Business Review blog showing big business is learning rapidly. Unfortunately most policymakers are at least five years behind.
Very interesting facts in the article:
“… it takes 95 liters of water to produce one kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity; and each year, the US uses 520 billion kilowatt hours — or roughly 13 percent of all electricity consumed — to move, treat, and heat water. With agriculture accounting for roughly 70 percent of water use, you can imagine how complicated it can become to maintain a steady supply of all three to industry, citizens, and municipalities.”


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A Russian association that combined feign accounts and pages purchased $100,000 value of promotion during a US choosing final year, a association said. The Washington Post reported that Facebook traced a feign accounts to a Russian “troll farm” that has a story of compelling Russian propaganda. The ads began using in a summer of 2015, Facebook said, and a tiny series of them mentioned possibilities Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Other ads promoted posts focused on polarizing issues, such as secular tensions or LGBT rights. The tactic, that Russians have also employed on Twitter, is designed to emanate inner groups within a United States and erode trust in a democracy. “The immeasurable infancy of ads run by these accounts didn’t privately anxiety a US presidential election, voting or a sold candidate,” Facebook’s arch confidence officer, Alex Stamos, said in a blog post.
In total, Facebook found about 3,000 questionable ads, that generated $100,000 in revenue, that ran between Jun 2015 and May 2017. The ads were connected to about 470 feign user accounts and pages, that “were dependent with one another and expected operated out of Russia,” Stamos said.
On one hand, $100,000 does not paint a vast promotion debate on Facebook. But Facebook’s avowal provides serve justification that Russia tampered with, and helped to influence, a US election. It also cuts opposite CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s comments in a days after a election, when he pronounced a thought that feign news widespread on Facebook had shabby a choosing was “crazy.”


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Apple: America’s best retailer in Fortune:
That’s what makes Apple such a hard study: The subject won’t sit still for its portrait. “I can’t even remember Apple without the stores,” says Jobs. It’s a statement of how integral they’ve become to the company; 8,000 of Apple’s 20,000 employees, he notes, work in retail. But it’s also a reminder that what we’re glimpsing are his taillights.


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After the untimely passing of Satoru Iwata, the future of Nintendo seemed uncertain. The company was finally signaling a move towards mobile and was still struggling with the flagging success of its console offerings. A relatively unknown president taking over for a beloved outgoing one made its fortunes that much more unstable.
In many ways Iwata's successor, Tatsumi Kimishima appeared the polar opposite of the late Nintendo president. He often appears stern, and he hasn't put himself front-and-center. His management is more traditional, less playful. To many industry watchers, he was seen as a caretaker president, chosen for his ability to stay on course and not rock the boat.
In truth, Kimishima's quiet, steady hand has been at work for quite a long time. He was promoted to Managing Director of Nintendo in 2013, taking over Iwata's old role. It was at that point that Kimishima began mapping out the future of Nintendo.
"Three years ago, all of us together — the previous president, Genyo Takeda (technology head) and Shigeru Miyamoto (creative head) — created a plan to revitalize our business, which included smart devices, our new hardware and maximizing our intellectual property," Kimishima told Bloomberg in October. "Quite simply, the biggest issue was not about whether I change this, but how do I execute these projects? Now the critical period is finally here."
Far from a mere caretaker, Kimishima has been instrumental in the plans we're now seeing come to fruition. While we should recognize Iwata's role in overseeing this plan, Kimishima's contributions shouldn't be underestimated either. He helped create the modernization of Nintendo of late, from smart phones to the Switch, and in his new role he's in a position to personally oversee the execution of the plan he helped create.
So far it has been working brilliantly. Pokemon Go was a bona fide phenomenon, breaking records and raising the profile of an already beloved series. Super Mario Run debuted as a top grossing app, and received plenty of mainstream attention from the Apple stage to The Tonight Show. The Nintendo Switch has attracted a striking amount of hype based on one brief sizzle trailer. Nintendo is also currently licensing its properties to appear in theme parks, signifying one possible avenue of Kimishima's third pillar.
For guiding the company with a calm and reserve in the face of overwhelming shifts, Tatsumi Kimishima is Shacknews' Person of the Year.


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Reddit Sync is one of the numerous apps Android users can grab in the Play Store to keep up with the site from a mobile device. With the release of version 10, the UI has been hit with a dose of Material Design, just like the Android subreddit before it. The menu button's been detached from the edge of the screen, the side menu now covers up the action bar, and the status bar has turned a tinted shade of blue.
|Bertel King, Jr.||Born and raised in the rural South, Bertel knows what it's like to live without 4G LTE - or 3G, for that matter. The only things he likes sweeter than his tea are his gadgets, and while few objects burn more than a metal phone on a summer day, he prefers them that way anyway.|
Our Nexus phones and tablets may have tasted Lollipop now, but we're still waiting for other devices to get to the sweetness of Android 5.0. This update brings the most significant changes we've seen since Ice Cream Sandwich, only much of Google's visual overhaul will disappear behind various manufacturers' custom UIs. That leaves us to wonder just how much of Lollipop folks will get to see on devices such as the HTC One M8.
Netflix has announced that its TV and movie streaming service is coming to Australia and New Zealand in 2015. The wait shouldn't be long either—we're talking a period of just a few months, with Netflix set to go live Down Under sometime in March.
At that point, folks living in Australia and New Zealand will also get the ability to stream content to their Android phones and tablets. They can also use other devices, such as laptops and TVs, where they can pump their stream up to 4K in places that support doing so.
So you know that mixtape that Peter Quill, excuse me—Star-Lord, dances to throughout Guardians of the Galaxy? Well those tunes are currently available on Google Play for free (Update: to people who live in the US). So if you want to be an earthling who feels like a space-traveling superhero who uses these songs to remind him of Earth, now you can do so without spending any money.
Amazon is branching off into all sorts of media. Not content to provide you solely with digital books (through text or audio), magazines, TV shows, movies, and whichever apps it can offer alongside the Play Store, it's working with game developers to bring folks exclusive games as well. The latest product of this effort is Tales From Deep Space, which has landed in the Amazon Appstore for $6.99.
When you've already created a browser-based interactive experience that lets players explore a 3D recreation of various locales spread throughout Middle-earth, how do you up your game? You add multiplayer. At least, that's what Google's decided to do. The company has updated its "A Journey Through Middle-earth" Chrome experiment with the ability for players to challenge each other to a bout of Hobbit-inspired fun.
Google developers designed the game using web technologies such as WebRTC and WebGL.
Facebook knows the future is in mobile. It just isn't entirely sure what to do about it. The company has experimented with creating its own home launcher and marketing a dedicated Facebook phone, but neither found all that much success. It created a news app called Paper, which has yet to make it to Android. Then it followed up with a Snapchat clone (we got that one). Now the social giant is releasing an app that goes back to its roots.
Update: The promo has ended.
For a limited-time, Google is willing to pay people to invite their friends to use Wallet. The tech giant will provide you and the recipient with $5 in credit whenever a friend who doesn't already have a Google Wallet balance receives money from you. Any amount is fine, including as little as a penny. All that matters is that you both live in the US and that they don't already have an account.
A lot has happened in the world of Minecraft since the last big update came around. For starters, Microsoft purchased developer Mojang for $2.5 billion. That sums it up pretty well, actually. But don't fret, Minecraft Pocket Edition is still alive and kicking on Google Play.
The folks at Mojang have been hard at work, and they're now pushing out version 0.10. The changelog for this one is going to blow your mind.


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We may be seeing it soon, too.
Toyota is getting ready for the Tokyo Motor Show later this month, and to tease us, the Japanese automaker has released photos and information about the concept vehicles it'll be bringing to the show. In all, there'll be four world premieres from Toyota (five if you split the Voxy and Noah minivan concepts), including some vehicles that'll be released in the near future, and others that need more time to incubate.
Toyota has undeniably carved out a niche for itself as the industry's leader in hybrid propulsion. What started out with the original Prius in 1997 has, over the past sixteen years, ballooned to what Toyota reports as a global hybrid portfolio of 23 models. But few (if any of them) are particularly exciting.
Details are decidedly scarce – which, judging by the company in question, is surely by design – but Toyota has announced that it will be unveiling a new compact concept car at the 10th Auto Expo automobile show in New Delhi on January 5. And ... that's about all we have on the subject. See, we told you details were slim. Expect the machine, which is likely bound for production in emerging markets only, to slot below the Yaris in size and price.
- Most and least efficient car companies
- Fastest-depreciating cars in the United States
- Find and compare 2017 Models


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FLIR AX8 wins the NMMA Innovation Award at the Miami Boat Show
Thursday, February 11, 2016
We're excited to announce that the FLIR AX8 has won the 2016 Innovation Award at the Miami International Boat Show. The Innovation Award honors manufacturers and suppliers who bring new, innovative products for the boating industry to market.
The FLIR AX8 Marine Thermal Monitoring System gives you an entirely new view of your vessel's mechanical system. Using patented MSX® technology, the AX8 combines thermal and visible cameras to allow you to keep an eye on critical equipment such as engines, exhaust manifolds, and more. The AX8 integrates with your Raymarine multifunction displays and sends audible and visual alerts spotting problems before they leave you stranded on the water.
Learn more about the FLIR AX8


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Has Starbucks turned the corner?
The coffee giant reports earnings Thursday, and investors will be looking to see the impact of the Verismo coffee maker and further global expansion.
Starbucks (SBUX), which Jim Cramer on Tuesday recommended buying on weakness, is scheduled to report its fiscal fourth-quarter results Thursday after the closing bell. Among other things, investors will be looking to see whether Starbucks "had turned the corner" with its European restructuring, as CEO Howard Schultz told CNBC recently.
Analysts on average predict that Starbucks will report that revenue for the quarter rose more than 11% year over year to $3.39 billion. Per-share earnings are expected to come to 45 cents, up from 37 cents a year earlier. That consensus EPS estimate has remained steady over the past 60 days. But Starbucks fell short of EPS estimates in the previous quarter, ending a streak of four quarterly positive surprises.
Despite the third-quarter miss, EPS and revenue both had double-digit percentage growth, while domestic same-store sales rose 7%. The company said it was the 11th consecutive quarter of record results. Still, shares plunged more than 17% in the week following the third-quarter report.
For the full fiscal year, the analysts' consensus forecast calls for $1.78 per share in profit on sales of $13.32 billion. That would be up from $1.52 per share and $11.70 billion in the previous year.
Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse operator in the world, with nearly 20,000 stores in 60 countries, including more than 10,000 in the United States. It also produces premium ice cream and markets books, music, and films. It is a component of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index ($INX), headquartered in Seattle, and its market capitalization is more than $34 billion. The company was founded in 1971, and Schultz has been CEO and chairman since 2008.
Competitors include Caribou Coffee (CBOU), Dunkin' Brands (DNKN) and McDonald's (MCD). Caribou is expected to report modest declines in earnings and revenue when it shares its third-quarter results. Last week, Dunkin' posted a better-than-expected third-quarter profit, but its revenue disappointed. McDonald's posted disappointing earnings earlier this month due to increased competition and currency effects.
During the three months that ended in September, Starbucks opened its second Evolution Fresh store, found a mobile payments partner, debuted its Verismo coffee maker for consumers, set a deal to bring coffee to office workers in Switzerland, announced a strategic partnership that would open coffee shops in Scandinavia and said it and a partner would soon open their first shop in India.
Starbucks' long-term EPS growth forecast is more than 18%, and the return on equity is more than 28%. The 25.0 price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is in line with the industry average. The dividend yield is about 1.5%. Short interest is less than 2% of the float. Of 30 analysts surveyed by Thomson/First Call who follow the stock, 21 recommend buying shares. The analysts' mean price target signals more than 23 percent potential upside, though the target price is more than four percent less than the multi-year high reached last spring.
The share price has not recovered from the response to the third-quarter report, and in fact it has retreated more than 10% in the past month. Shares are trading in the same neighborhood as at the beginning of the year. That is below the 50-day and 200-day moving averages. Over the past six months, the stock has outperformed Caribou Coffee, but underperformed Dunkin' Brands, McDonald's and the S&P 500.
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SARATOGA NY, January 16, 2009 – Saratoga.com and Saratoga Today Newspaper announced a new partnership this week. Saratoga.com is now the official website for the Saratoga Today Newspaper, replacing the newspaper’s former online website with a new, dedicated location on Saratoga.com at www.Saratoga.com/Today.
“Saratoga Today is a valuable resource for our community,” said Sara Mannix, Founder and President of Mannix Marketing, Inc. “I have great admiration for the community spirit and the quality of this truly local newspaper. Combining their news with our highly trafficked Saratoga.com website is a win for everyone. More people will now be exposed to Saratoga Today’s online news and the visitors to Saratoga.com can keep abreast of what is happening in the community.”
Readers of the newspaper can go to the new Saratoga Today section on Saratoga.com for their local news, sports and entertainment, or type in the SaratogaTodayOnline.com domain, which will automatically forward them to the new Saratoga.com website. The newspaper is hoping to expand their readership through this new partnership.
“Joining with Saratoga.com will give us immediate exposure to a larger audience,” said Chad Beatty, Publisher of Saratoga Today. “With over 3,700 unique visitors per day, partnering with Saratoga.com will allow us to quickly and efficiently expand our inline presence and better serve our customers.”
For more information, contact Chad Beatty at 518-581-2480. Visit the new section at Saratoga.com/Today.
Saratoga.com is a city guide to Saratoga Springs NY and the surrounding region, reaching over 3,700 unique visitors per day with an audience of both locals and visitors. Saratoga.com is owned by Mannix Marketing, Inc., a Glens Falls based, full-service Internet marketing company offering website design, hosting, database-driven content, search engine optimization, pay-per-click campaigns, link building, tourism marketing and 27 online travel guides. Saratoga.com’s sister sites include LakeGeorge.com, Albany.com, NewYorkStateDestinations.com, Adirondack.net and many others. Mannix Marketing is an official member of the Associated Cities network.


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Drive-through pickups, online orders, club shipments.
Wine might not be essential in the strictest sense, but people are still drinking plenty of it during this pandemic, and wineries are going to great lengths to get their products to customers in 2020.
The challenge for the U.S. wine industry is that COVID-19 dramatically shifted where consumers bought their wine, swapping grocery delivery or shipments for the usual sipping in restaurants and tasting rooms. Travel to wine country vanished.
“It’s a huge retraction in the amount of wine all of us are used to moving,” said Phil Cline, owner of Naches Heights Vineyards in Washington, in May. “There’s so much uncertainty.”
The uncertainty continued into the growing season: When tasting rooms and restaurant patios reopened at limited capacity in the summer, customers were eager to return, but the lost months — and a future with lost events and lost capacity — mean many wineries are looking to cut back.
Growers will feel the impact at harvest.
“Many growers are struggling to find buyers for their fruit,” said John Aguirre, president of the California Association of Winegrape Growers. “Wineries want to renegotiate prices, delay payment or not renew contracts. It’s pretty clear wine grape growers will be affected.”
Despite this, Aguirre said, the organization couldn’t get growers qualified for federal relief provided to other agricultural producers in the $16 billion Coronavirus Food Assistance Program Congress passed in April.
The pandemic will cost California wine grape growers at least $437 million in lost sales from this year’s harvest, an 11 percent decline in crop value, according to an impact assessment the industry’s trade association conducted. The assessment puts the overall loss to the California wine industry at $3.6 billion over 12 months. While supermarket and liquor store sales increased 10 percent, sales in tasting rooms and restaurants were forecast to be down 60 percent over the year.
In Washington, the growers’ association also hired economists to assess the impact of the pandemic, but it was still in progress in August when this issue went to print.
“We definitely need some type of relief package,” said Shane Collins, chair of the Washington Winegrowers Association’s board. At Rocky Pond Winery in Chelan, where he serves as both the director of viticulture and winemaking, wine sales were booming in July with tastings open at limited capacity, but the vineyard’s contracts with other wineries were delayed and down.
“People are taking less fruit; they didn’t move much besides wine club members this spring,” Collins said of his clients who cut back their contracts, ranging from 5 to 50 percent. “They anticipate having wine they would have sold this year carry into next year.”
With the unsold grapes, he plans to experiment in his own winery and look for opportunity in the bulk wine market.
“We farm it like we are still going to make a deal on it up until we pick it,” Collins said. “It’s hard to walk away from it when you’re invested.”
Smaller wineries that sell directly to consumers from their tasting rooms or supply local restaurants — which have been the bright spot in Washington’s wine industry in recent years — were hit the hardest because they didn’t have other supply channels to pivot product into.
“Wineries that are big enough to have distributors, they are not feeling it as bad as wineries that are relying on walk-in customers and wine club members,” said Mark Tudor, a Yakima Valley grower.
One of his clients, the Martinez and Martinez Winery — owned by his daughter and son-in-law — turned to weekly drive-through hours during the shutdown so customers could pick up orders without leaving their cars. They offered shipping discounts and partnered with a local caterer for wine pairing dinners too, said co-owner Monica Martinez.
“We’ve been able to generate a little cash flow, but thoughts about the rest of the year are pretty dire with a prolonged shutdown,” she said. Midsummer, she was still debating taking their regular crop or cutting back.
“When the shutdown first happened, it was really scary and dire, so I canceled a bottling order,” she said. Now, they are sold out of one of their most popular reds. “When things open up, we want to have the wines available to sell.”
In July, California’s congressional delegation sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture seeking to have wine grape growers added to the list of producers eligible for direct payments under the pandemic response program Congress passed in April. The program initially offered direct payments only to growers who could demonstrate market loss or price loss from January to April of 2020. That left grapes, California’s most valuable crop at $6.25 billion, out.
“It’s incumbent on Congress to make sure future programs are inclusive of wine grape growers and other commodity sectors that weren’t deemed eligible” in the first round of aid, Aguirre said. “The impact of COVID-19 makes the existing supply issues a lot worse.”
The pandemic hit as both California and Washington’s wine industries faced oversupply due to flattened growth in consumption, pushing down prices and stranding some growers without contract renewals.
Growers have experience weathering the industry’s demand cycles, Aguirre said.
“But when you have the sudden shutdown of market channels, that’s not something a grower can prepare for,” Aguirre said. “We need assistance. These are government-imposed shutdowns of markets and we are going to argue strongly for aid.” •
—by Kate Prengaman


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The increasing use of e-cigarettes has been cautiously welcomed by health advocates. The hope is that these devices offer a safe means to deliver nicotine without the array of carcinogenic compounds found in cigarettes. However, there is increasing disquiet over the disconnect between these health objectives and the way in which e-cigarettes are being advertised. Most importantly, new evidence released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Sept 6, 2013, shows that use of e-cigarettes by children and teenagers has more than doubled in the past 2 years. There is a real danger of the devices becoming a gateway product, attracting more young people to begin smoking, undoing years of public awareness campaigning on the dangers of smoking.
The safety of e-cigarettes versus regular cigarettes is an ongoing debate
. Certainly, smokeless inhalation systems do not have many of the carcinogenic compounds present in traditional cigarettes. Some evidence also exists that e-cigarettes are as effective
in helping smokers quit as are other nicotine delivery devices, such as nicotine patches. However, in the USA, a legal case between Sottera (an importer and distributor of e-cigarettes) and the US Food and Drug Administration ruled that e-cigarettes should be regulated as “tobacco products” unless explicitly marketed for therapeutic purposes.
While this legal wrangling continues, the range of available e-cigarettes continues to expand, and they are not being advertised as smoking cessation devices. Instead they are being marketed aggressively as lifestyle-choice consumables. By contrast with traditional cigarette advertising—outlawed in many countries—e-cigarettes can be advertised via any medium. Increasingly, this takes the form of prominent sponsorship deals. In the USA, blu eCigs sponsor an IndyCar team, while in the UK, Merthyr Town football club has renamed its stadium the Cigg-e Stadium in light of a sponsorship deal, and E-lites have gone into partnership with Scottish football team Celtic.
Most disturbingly, these promotions will attract the attention of younger consumers, as will other aspects of e-cigarettes' marketing. Indeed, e-cigarettes are currently available in flavours that read like the contents of a sweetshop—bubblegum, chocolate, and popcorn are just some on offer. Further, e-cigarette companies are actively soliciting their consumers to become brand managers to promote their products through social media—a cynical attempt to appeal to a younger target audience. These promotional tactics are working. Tom Frieden, Director of the CDC, commented: “The increased use of e-cigarettes by teens is deeply troubling. Nicotine is a highly addictive drug. Many teens who start with e-cigarettes may be condemned to struggling with a lifelong addiction to nicotine and conventional cigarettes.”
The addictive nature of nicotine is where the inherent flaw in e-cigarette advocacy lies. Irrespective of the safety of the delivery mechanism, regular use of addictive substances causes users to become acclimatised to their current dosage and seek other ways to increase it. With nicotine, this will most probably lead to use of traditional cigarettes. It is telling that major tobacco companies are increasingly moving into the e-cigarette market through the purchase of small, independent companies. For example, according to the 2012 annual report of US tobacco firm Lorillard, blu eCigs accounted for most of their 4·2% growth last year, and British American Tobacco recently acquired e-cigarette company Vype to expand their portfolio of products. Thus we find ourselves in an ironic position where tobacco companies are manufacturing devices that are being touted as aids to smoking cessation.
Finally, e-cigarettes also pose a serious danger of renormalising smoking. Given that most e-cigarettes are designed to mimic cigarettes in as many ways as possible, being around people lighting up—electronically or otherwise—will once again become socially acceptable. Tireless campaigning has drawn attention to the dangers of secondhand smoke to others; the normalisation of e-cigarettes will confuse those efforts.
E-cigarettes may yet prove to be an effective way of delivering nicotine safely and a means by which some people can quit their addiction. But in their present unregulated state, manufacturers are free to promote the devices in any way they choose. E-cigarettes should be regulated as medical devices, and their promotion should come under the ordinance of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Such regulation would prevent tobacco companies from adopting their usual cynical and devious tactics to hook young people to a product that serves as a gateway to their main business interest—the sale of regular cigarettes.
© 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
- Harm reduction and e-cigarettes: not evidence-based
We read with interest your Editorial about the need to regulate e-cigarettes,1 and the response by Riccardo Polosa and Pasquale Caponnetto,2 calling for regulations to be evidence-based. US figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Youth Tobacco Survey3 are mentioned in both pieces. In 2012, 20·3% of middle-school students (aged 11–14 years) and 7·2% of high-school students (aged 14–18 years) who had ever tried e-cigarettes reported that they had never smoked conventional cigarettes.
- Time for evidence-based e-cigarette regulation
The alarm bells being rung in your recent Editorial1 on e-cigarettes are unsupported by present data. The Editorial points to a recent US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report ,2 which claims that e-cigarettes usage in teenagers has doubled from 1·1% in 2011 to 2·1% in 2012, to support the statement that e-cigarettes are “becoming a gateway product, attracting more young people to begin smoking”.


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Washington—Three big electronics manufacturers—LG Display Co. Ltd., Sharp Corp. and Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd.—are going to pay $585 million in criminal fines for engaging in price fixing in the sale of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.
LG will pay $400 million of the total amount, making it the second highest criminal fine ever imposed by the Department’s Antitrust Division.
“Today’s charges and criminal fines emphasize the commitment of the Department of Justice to crack down on international cartels,” Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said in a prepared statement.
In a statement, DOJ said that in 2006, the LCD panel market was approximately $70 billion. Firms hurt by the LCD price-fixing scheme included some of the largest "computer, television and cellular telephone manufacturers in the world, including Apple, Dell and Motorola."
LG Display Co. Ltd, a South Korean corporation, and its wholly-owned subsidiary, LG Display America Inc., a California company (LG), agreed to plead guilty.
Sharp Corp., a Japanese consumer electronics manufacturer, is going to pay a $120 million fine for its participation in the scheme. Chunghwa, a Taiwanese LCD panel manufacturer, is going to pay $65 million.
“These price-fixing conspiracies affected millions of American consumers who use computers, cell phones and numerous other household electronics every day,” Thomas O. Barnett, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department’s Antitrust Division, said.
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The Chinese government has recently approved a strain of genetically engineered rice – an important step in becoming the first country producing biotech rice commercially. Following international safety concerns, China had stopped the commercialization of new GM varieties in 2000 – more than 100 GM rice varieties remained in field testing.
It is no secret that China has significantly invested in genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the past 20 years. Not surprisingly, the emphasis has been on improving the output, quality and resistance of rice varieties – China produces 31% of the world’s rice and 20% of its corn but only has 7% of the world’s arable land.
A recent survey in China has shown that more than half of the respondents ignored they were buying transgenic produce. While this seemed to cause few problems for most food, GM rice appears much more controversial in China. Issues ranging from the impact on farmers’ income to China’s agriculture technological trajectories are debated in the chatrooms with, seemingly, little political interference. This is good news: GM deserve a broad discussion among all strands of society.