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Australian scientists have announced that they are developing a new type of battery. This lithium sulfur battery is said to be able to charge a smartphone for 5 days (about 120 times) or to provide an electric vehicle with a range of 1,000 kilometers.
Scientists have been working on battery technologies for a long time. The aim is to develop batteries that are much more advanced than traditional lithium-ion batteries and have a low rate of wear, and use them in both smartphones and other technological products. Although there have been several studies on the subject to date, the latest study of Australian scientists seems to be the most exciting development for the industry.
Statements by Australian scientists state that a new type of battery has been developed, and this battery can charge a smartphone for 5 days (about 120 times), or offer a full range of 1,000 kilometers to an electric motor vehicle.
Continuing to work at Monash University in Melbourne, the team states that the battery they developed has a lithium sulfur structure. It is stated that lithium sulfur batteries, which scientists consider as the most efficient batteries in the world, offer at least 4 times better performance than conventional batteries. The new type of battery developed according to experts is on the verge of being a commercial product.
Batteries with a lithium sulfur structure have been a favorite of scientists for a while. Because these batteries have more energy density and power output capabilities. Moreover, the active use of these batteries is of great importance for the fight against climate change, which is our biggest problem in recent years.
Lithium sulfide batteries still suffer huge problems. So much so that; the lifetime of these batteries is very short. Although it has been used in various automobiles and planes in the past, lithium sulfur batteries have not been fully put into mass production yet.
Australian scientists state that they will overcome all the difficulties associated with the battery they have developed and will commercialize this battery. Professor Mainak Majumder, the chief researcher who wants to show how serious they are in their speech; He states that he will revolutionize Australia’s electric motor market and provide a cleaner energy market to all of Australia.


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LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Struggling teen clothing retailer American Apparel will cut jobs and shut down stores in a $30 million cost-cutting effort, according to reports Monday.
The downtown Los Angeles-based company is expected to launch a restructuring plan to trim costs despite warnings that funding requirements could fall short over the next year, Reuters news service reported.
Since 2010, American Apparel has posted successive annual losses and saw its market value plunge from $540 million to about $90 million, according to Reuters.
The company, which has about 10,000 employees, announced about 200 layoffs in April, with a majority of the job losses coming from the company’s manufacturing operations in Southern California.
“We are committed to turning this company around. Today’s announcements are necessary steps to help American Apparel adapt to headwinds in the retail industry, preserve jobs for the overwhelming majority of our 10,000 employees, and return the business to long-term profitability,” said CEO Paula Schneider.
Last year, American Apparel fired founder Dov Charney and named longtime fashion executive Schneider as its next CEO, citing allegations of misconduct.
Officials did not disclose how many jobs would be cut or the number of planned store closings for the current cost-cutting effort, according to Reuters.
(©2015 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)

domain: news


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Formby Cycles has updated its web offering as part of a longer term revamp of the business.
Formby Cycle became became part of the Taskers group in 2003 and since then, millions have been funnelled into the retailer, the firm said, moving to new superstore premises and the newly developed website.
The new, easy to use and navigate online bike store is now live and will offer customers an overall more enjoyable online shopping experience.
Formby Cycles teamed up with North West digital marketing agency YOMA and specialist e-commerce consultants Transaction Partnership to launch the new online shop in time for Christmas.
Phil Harvey, Management at Formby Cycles said “As a family-run business, we recognise that progress is always needed. As a leading player in the cycles market, we hope that the launch of our new online store will show our customers that we are committed to deliver the very best services and products at the best possible prices. By reaching out to a larger UK audience, we are ensuring that the passion, expertise and dedication which have been built up over the last 50 years do not go to waste."
Ian Fredson, commercial director at YOMA added: “Our creative, technical and integration teams worked collectively with Formby Cycles to successfully deliver a website that portrayed the business’s vision and ambition for the future.”


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Cloud computing has created a cost-effective platform for businesses to upgrade their systems and enhance the functionality at their practices, eventually simplifying their digital transformation journey.
The rising market opportunity has led cloud players like AWS, Google Cloud Platform, IBM Cloud and Microsoft Azure to partake in a series of competitions based on the software and infrastructure they offer.
IBM has estimated that the combined revenue of Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, Salesforce, SAP, Oracle and Google, in 2018, will surpass $100 billion. IBM, in particular has been upgrading their systems to allow their customers to increase their investments by synching with IBM Cloud Private.
According to Synergy Research Group, Amazon Web Services (AWS) remains the global market leader of public cloud services at 33 percent, followed by Microsoft Azure at 13 percent and Google Cloud Platform at 6 percent.
Due to its leading private cloud services, IBM market share stands at 8 percent but it remains unsure as to whether the big giant stands a chance against the other three, said Synergy Research Group.
Further, IBM’s shares fell 3 percent to $149.15 in the last year. The revenue generated from its technology and cloud platforms business also dropped 5.1 percent, bringing it down to $8.41 billion.
Although, IBM still generates a good amount of cloud revenue, it is severely lacking in other categories pertaining to public cloud services, which is giving rise to other companies.
With this decline in IBM’s market shares, Alibaba, due to its prominence in the Chinese market has reportedly ranked fourth worldwide overtaking IBM, Salesforce and Tencent who has been placed fifth.
The major reason to this usurp is because AWS, Microsoft’s Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and Alibaba Cloud all offer IaaS/PaaS solutions, which are gaining more demand due to their accessible servers. They also have implemented other features analytics and AI to these platforms to produce faster and more efficient results to companies who are relying on their services. IBM however, is still hesitant about upgrading its services and is currently sticking to it IBM Cloud Platform suite.
In addition to this, IBM being a forerunner of using non virtualized infrastructure, has smaller scalability as compared to public cloud servers used by AWS, Microsoft’s Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and Alibaba Cloud. The Public IaaS and PaaS servers being used by the top companies contribute the important segments that add to their revenue, hence giving IBM that much more of a disadvantage and is causing the big giant to lose its customers.
Also, IBM Cloud Private, who reported last year that it was developing into a more interactive system to promote its hybrid cloud growth, needs to upgrade its tools by implementing automatic and accessible packages for its services.
IBM Cloud being known for its expensive services and less partnership deals is also lacking in its core infrastructure. Perhaps, the company has not fully invested in other companies or upgrades that could bring a boost to its market shares. They need to expand their deals and gain productivity by implementing AI into their systems and not only for the development of apps.
Companies like IBM who have so much control over their ownership and underlying infrastructure often fail to provide their customers with the assurance and services that they need.
When customers turn over to cloud applications, they expect the performance of the cloud servers and applications to be at par with their expectations. Failing to do so, will cause customers to lose confidence in them and pave a way for other companies that do provide such systems, a position at the top.


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The Samsung Galaxy S7 duo is just around the corner. Only a week remains and we all have our fingers crossed until then. This is because the case makers and accessory manufacturers are preparing in full swing too. However, it seems that Samsung Galaxy S7 is going to be the Smartphone of superheroes.
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For those who don’t know, last year Samsung Galaxy S6 had a Marvel Avengers-themed lineup. Now we have been hearing something related to the Superheroes for Samsung Galaxy S7, too. As per the recent rumors, the upcoming Samsung duo will come in a Batman v Superman costume. As per the leak, the Batman v Superman Smartphone will debut on March 24.
How To: Buy a Pokemon Go Plus
The data is just the day before the premiere of the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice movie. The upcoming movie is DC's answer to the Avengers. Moreover, Samsung is also expected to continue its Olympics line. For the previous year, the North Korean company had a Galaxy Note 3 Sochi edition. This time, Samsung will celebrate the summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in August. The device will come with an Olympics-themed Home button. The launch dates for both the renditions are not cleared yet. However, it is expected that the Olympic-themed version will launch before the BvS S7 version.


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Nexen Tire announced the launch of the Roadian MTX (Mud Terrain Xtreme), a versatile mud-terrain tire that is suitable for both on-and off-road driving. This tire has been enhanced to maximize load and towing capabilities without sacrificing any of the ruggedness or on-highway driving comfort that is expected from the Roadian line of tires.
A consumer-advocacy group is calling on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to investigate complaints of stalling in 2017 Chrysler Pacificas and order a recall of 150,000 of the vehicles. The nonprofit Center for Auto Safety issued a news release Monday saying more than 50 people have reported that their Pacifica minivans have stalled without warning and said the center has filed a petition with NHTSA requesting the recall.
Zeetex has announced the release of the ZT4000 4S all-season tire. The ZT4000 is designed to perform well even in the harshest conditions.
The tread pattern is specially engineered with all-weather compounds to help ensure outstanding performance and safety year-round. The tire has also been tested in subzero temperatures (down to -7 degrees C) and is designed for strong performance in severe winter conditions.
NASCAR and The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company today announced a renewed sponsorship agreement that ensures Goodyear is the exclusive tire of NASCAR’s top three national series.
The newly signed agreement continues Goodyear’s designation as the “Official Tire of NASCAR” and extends an uninterrupted relationship that started in 1954. Goodyear and NASCAR’s six decades of partnership is one of the longest-running sponsor programs in any sport. In addition, Goodyear has been the exclusive tire supplier for the sanctioning body’s top three series since 1997.
Nominations have opened for the 2018 Tire Technology International Awards for Innovation and Excellence – the world’s biggest celebration of endeavor in the field of tire development and manufacturing. Nominations are open in the following five categories until December 1, 2017:
Environmental Achievement of the Year
In recognition of environmental advances in the tire industry
Tire Technology of the Year
In recognition of important advances in technology
Tire Industry Supplier of the Year
Falken Tires has announced that it was selected as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for the sixth-generation Volkswagen Polo. Available October 2017, the brand will supply its premium tire models AZENIS FK453, SINCERA 832AECORUN, ZIEX ZE914A ECORUN and winter tire EUROWINTER HS449 for factory fitting.
Toyo Tires is rolling out six new sizes of its Proxes RR DOT competition tire including the first 20-inch sizes in the two-groove DOT competition tire segment.
The Toyo Proxes RR is designed for dry tracks. With consistent lap times and predictable handling, it is ideal for NASA and SCCA road racing, track days and high-performance driving schools.
PITTSBURGH, Nov. 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Did you know that at 45 degrees you can begin to see your breath? And that very same temperature is when the all-season tires on your car can start to lose traction and grip? As temperatures begin to drop in Pennsylvania, the neighborhood…
Toyo Tires and the National Auto Sport Association (NASA) announced the creation of the Toyo Tires GT Challenge. This new class features equally prepared Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport and GT4 Clubsport MR race cars competing on 18-inch Toyo Proxes RR DOT competition tires. The inaugural race will take place during the 2017 NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill presented by Hawk Performance.
Clermont-Ferrand, France – Groupe Michelin has acquired two European tire pressure control systems suppliers as part of its bid to become a “total solutions provider” in the agriculture segment and improve its central tire inflation systems (CTIS).
The French tire maker announced 13 Nov that it had acquired German PTG Tire Inflation Systems and France-based Téléflow SAS, both specialised in tire pressure control systems which allow users to monitor and adapt tire pressures according to the terrain and conditions of use.
The move, explained the…


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We know it’s hard to figure out how to protect your business and your employees’ health during the Covid-19 crisis. We’ve put together this one-stop guide of resources to help your business navigate these unprecedented times.
The Government advice that affects businesses
In brief, here’s the latest on what the Government has said that might affect your business. Please note, we will be updating this as frequently as possible:
23rd June 2020
- The Prime Minister has announced that restaurants, pubs and hairdressers will reopen in England from 4 July. Cinemas, museums and other attractions will also be allowed to reopen, but not "close proximity" venues like indoor gyms.
- The 2m distancing rule is being reduced to 1m plus, but we are still advised to keep 2m distance where possible.
15th June 2020
- Non-essential retailers can open from today, with social distancing measures in place. Some businesses and venues must still remain closed though. Find out more here.
26th May 2020
- The Government have announced a timeline for retail businesses to reopen in June, once they are COVID-19 secure and can show that their customers will be kept safe. Outdoor markets and car show rooms can open from the 1st June if they meet these measures. All other non-essential shops selling clothes, shoes, toys, all furniture stores, books, electronics, tailors, auction houses, photography studios and indoor markets will expected to be able to reopen from the 15th June if the Government's 5 tests are met, and they meet the the measures put in place.
- The Reopening High Streets Safely Fund has been announced to help councils prepare for the safe reopening of high streets across England.
- Changes have been made to the insolvency law, to relieve burden on businesses and support recovery.
- Businesses can claim back Statutory Sick Pay paid to employees due to Corovavirus.
- The Government have put together a hub page around the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to help businesses claim it.
12th May 2020
11th May 2020
- The Government launched a 50 page document outlining their plan to rebuild the country with their COVID-19 recovery strategy, which you can read here.
- They also released new 'staying alert and safe (social distancing)' guidance, which you can read here.
- Guidance to help employers, employees and the self-employed understand how to work safely during the coronavirus pandemic has also been released here.
10th May 2020
- The Government have announced that we must stay alert, which means you must stay at home as much as possible, work from home if possible, limit contact with other people, keep 2m apart from people if you do go out and to continue to wash your hands regularly. This still means that many businesses need to stay closed.
16th April 2020
- The Government announced that lockdown restrictions are staying in place for at least another three weeks. For this reason, many businesses need to stay closed and many workers can only work from home.
23rd March 2020
- The Government announced that the public is only allowed outside for health reasons, to buy food, or for essential work. For general information about what you need to do, visit the government coronavirus (Covid-19)
- All non-essential shops have been closed to limit the spread of Covid-19. The Government has published guidance on further businesses and premises to close to help you figure out if you are affected.
Ways to deal with finance issues
The Government has announced measures to help limited businesses through, including a small number of provisions self-employed people, which you can learn more about on the Covid-19: support for business page. They include:
- Deferring VAT payments for three months – VAT deferral will automatically apply from 20th March 2020 until June 2020 and means you’ve got until the end of the 2020 to 2021 tax year to pay any liabilities gathered during the deferral.
- Deferring Income Tax payments for three months – If you’re self-employed, your Income Tax Self-Assessment payments will be deferred from 31st July 2020 to 31st January 2021 – no need to worry about interest on late payments for this deferral period.
- Business rates holiday for retail, hospitality, and leisure businesses – This is for businesses in England and will last for the 2020 to 2021 tax year. The business rates calculator can show you how much you won’t be paying.
- Grants for businesses in retail, hospitality, and leisure – This is also available to businesses in England within this sector. Your local authority will write to you about it.
- Coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CBILS) – The British Business Bank is offering loans of up to £6 million, and lasting for up to six years, to help small businesses struggling with cashflow in the wake of the pandemic. Check the CBILS page to find out if you’re eligible.
- Self-employment Income Support Scheme – For the self-employed, the Government is offering to cover 80% of profits, up to £2,500 per month, for the next three months. Find out if you’re eligible and how much you’ll get on the government page on the coronavirus (Covid-19) Self-employment Income Support Scheme.
- Future Fund – Starting in May, the government will be offering convertible loans from £125,000 to £5 million for businesses facing financial trouble because of the pandemic.
- Small Business Grant Fund – To help meet operating costs, small businesses could get grants of up to £10,000 if they’ve been affected by coronavirus. Speak to your local authority if you want to apply.
- Bounce Back Loans - This government scheme will help small and medium-sized businesses to borrow between £2,000 and £50,000. The government will guarantee 100% of the loan and there won’t be any fees or interest to pay for the first 12 months. The loan terms will be up to 6 years. The government are working with lenders to agree a low rate of interest for the remaining period of the loan.
Support for your business
Keeping your business up to date on the legal side of things remains vital, but some stresses might have been lifted.
- Companies House previously announced a 3-month extension to file accounts to help businesses affected by Covid-19. It has now said it’s pausing the strike off process so that companies don’t get dissolved.
Help for your employees
Besides handling money, you might be worrying about your employees. Fortunately, there’s government support for that, too, as well as handy information.
- Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme – To encourage businesses not to lay staff off, this scheme gives support to pay part of workers’ salaries. If there is a case where your employee is unable to do their current role, you can use ‘furlough’ and you’ll need to tell both them and HMRC what you’re doing. This scheme was launched to reimburse up to 80% of employees’ wages up to £2,500 per month. Here’s more information about furloughed workers.
- The cut-off date for who is eligible for furlough has been extended from 28th February to 19th March, which means anyone starting employment before that date can now receive it.
- Since social distancing is expected to continue for a fair while, the scheme has been extended to cover furloughed employees until the end of June.
- On 20th April, this scheme opened for applications, so business owners can now claim back 80% of furloughed employees’ wages.
- Small to medium-sized businesses will be able to reclaim Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) for employees who catch Covid-19. It covers up to 2 weeks’ SSP for each employee who’s off work with this virus. Here are more details on who’s eligible for SSP support.
- The Government has advised that employees work from home, where possible. With this in mind, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has published advice: Getting the most from remote working.
- CIPD also offers an employer response guide for ensuring smooth communication with your workforce and planning to protect your employees and your business.
What to do on health and safety
It’s important you know how you and your employees can keep safe.
- The NHS page about coronavirus (Covid-19) details what symptoms to look out for, to call 111 rather than going to a surgery or hospital if you think you might have it, who classes as a high-risk person, and what it knows about the virus so far.
- ACAS’s coronavirus guide outlines safety measures in the workplace for helping employers and employees limit the spread, how to protect vulnerable workers, what to do if someone has coronavirus symptoms, and handy best-practice steps.
- If you’re wondering ‘how much is my area affected by the virus?’ then you can find out online. Public Health England is releasing its data tracking coronavirus cases, showing how many cases have been confirmed in each area.
- If you have symptoms of coronavirus, you have to self-isolate for at least 7 days, but everyone in your household must self-isolate for 14 days. If they develop symptoms during this time then they must self-isolate for an additional 7 days, even if it goes over the 14-day period. The NHS has further advice on self-isolation.
- The government have updated their guidance on social distancing in the workplace for businesses who are continuing to trade during the COVID-19 period. You can read it here.
The situation keeps evolving, so there may well be more changes to come for your employees and your business. But this advice will help. And if you’re an existing customer in need of support for your account or billing then please get in touch with us.


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Trial delayed in poultry exporting fraud case
Published: February 5,2013
GULFPORT — Trial has been delayed for three men accused of falsifying temperatures of poultry exported to Russia from Pascagoula.
The Sun Herald reports 38-year-old Terry White, of Ocean Springs, 39-year-old Gerald Miller, of Gautier, and 55-year-old Patrick McClain, of Pascagoula, were set for trial this week in U.S. District Court in Gulfport. They are accused of authorizing the release of poultry products in 2009 by circumventing a trade agreement while working for Gulf Coast Cold Storage at the Port of Pascagoula.
They face trial on a five-count indictment alleging they conspired to increase productivity in ways that included instructing workers to remove poultry from blast freezers before the poultry reached the required temperature.
The delay was approved because a prosecuting attorney had two different trials scheduled elsewhere.
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May 2, 2000
Civic Leaders and Public Citizen Tell Wal-Mart
“DO NOT SELL IRRADIATED FOOD,
Arkansans wont buy meat treated with radiation!”
(Fayetteville, AR) Civic leaders, concerned citizens and Wal-Mart customers todayjoined Public Citizen in a news conference urging Wal-Mart not to test-market irradiatedmeat in its Supercenters. The event took place at the Fayetteville Hilton.
Food irradiation is a process where food is exposed to high levels of radiation inorder to kill bacteria and extend shelf life for up to 35 days. While proponents of theprocess state that irradiation will make food safer, no one really knows the healthimpacts of eating irradiated food. New chemicals called unique radiolytic products arecreated in the irradiation process and no testing has been done to identify thesechemicals, much less to determine if they are safe. The evidence indicates thatchromosomal damage and reproductive dysfunction (among other problems) could occur as theresult of consuming irradiated food. Known carcinogens such as Benzene and Toluene arealso produced by irradiation.
“We oppose food irradiation because it merely masks the problem of poor meatprocessing practices that leave meat contaminated with feces, urine and pus,” saidMarquette MyCue, a local community leader in health related issues. “At a minimum,Wal-Mart should warn consumers of the dangers of irradiated meat with labels that stateirradiation does not kill all bacteria, that it destroys important vitamins and enzymes,and that it leads to the formation of potentially carcinogenic chemicals in food.”
“Irradiation translates into big profits for Wal-Mart, but something entirelydifferent for consumers,” said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public CitizensCritical Mass Energy Project. “Corporate agribusiness has convinced the government toabandon its protective role, allowing companies like Wal-Mart to use food irradiation toextend the shelf life of meat beyond what is appropriate and mask the unhygienicconditions in which animals are raised, slaughtered and processed.”
Most American consumers share the views expressed at the news conference. A 1999 pollcommissioned by the American Association of Retired Persons and Center for Science in thePublic Interest found that 88.6 percent of Americans want labels to indicated food hasbeen irradiated. A 1997 CBS News poll found that 77 percent of Americans would not buyirradiated food.
Another problem with irradiated meat is the threat to small farmers in the UnitedStates as well as around the globe. Family farmers and small food producers are finding itimpossible to compete economically with corporate factory farms. The extended shelf liferesulting from irradiation will enable foreign meat producers to drive the small Americanfarmer out of business.
The body of research on irradiated food is sketchy at best and has yielded conflictingresults. There are no studies on the long-term health effects of irradiated food onhumans. Among the unknowns: whether irradiation has different effects on frozen food ascompared to fresh food; how irradiation affects irregularly shaped foods; its effects onhelpful bacteria; and the effects of irradiation on plant workers who oversee thetreatment of food.
According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) documents, a 1982 FDA review of 413studies found 344 to be inconclusive or inadequate to demonstrate either the safety ortoxicity of irradiated foods, while 32 indicated adverse effects and 37 showed theprocedure to be safe.
In February, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) legalized theirradiation of raw meat and meat products such as ground beef, steaks and pork chops. Thegovernment declared food irradiation safe by using mathematical calculations supported byjust five animal studies conducted primarily in the 1960s and 1970s that were ofquestionable quality.
Under the USDAs labeling requirements, meat served in such places as restaurantsand cafeterias will not have to be labeled, so consumers will have no idea when they areeating irradiated meat. However, irradiated meat sold in stores must be labeled as such.


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The Lexington Candy Shop in New York City has been serving burgers, fries, and milkshakes to hungry customers for decades. Last remodeled in 1948, the restaurant is the definition of old-fashioned. But that hasn’t stopped it from gaining a wave of new fans. In August 2022, this old-school business met the new world when Nicolas Heller, a TikToker and Instagrammer with 1.2 million followers known as New York Nico, showed up to enjoy a traditional Coca-Cola soft drink: syrup Coca-Cola, sparkling water and ice cream. Naturally, he recorded a video. It went viral and got 4.8 million likes.
“The next day (after the video was posted), the lines started forming at 8 in the morning,” John Philis, the restaurant’s third-generation co-owner, recalls with amazement. “And it was like, huh!”
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When a smaller restaurant unexpectedly goes viral on TikTok or other social media, the sudden demand can be overwhelming. Owners have to adapt on the fly, revamping operations to quickly serve a crowd of people. But smart business owners who are able to adapt can take advantage of the newfound fame to generate lasting momentum for their businesses.
Ali Elreda opened Fatima’s Grill in Downey, California, in 2016, attracting customers with an eclectic variety of tacos, wraps and burgers.
He sprinkled Flamin’ Hot Cheetos on some of them, inspired by his daughter’s love of hot chips. In 2020, Elreda had worked hard to develop her restaurant’s presence on social media, recording videos set to music. But after a TikToker nicknamed @misohungry posted a video of Elreda’s Flaming Hot Cheeto Fusion burger in August, things suddenly “went crazy.”
The lines to enter the restaurant increased to two or three hours, for months. At first, the store was not prepared for the influx.
“We just couldn’t adapt,” he said. “We would stay late to prepare for the next day and then the lines would go on and on and on and on.”
The opening of two nearby restaurants helped alleviate the pressure. Elreda now has 10 locations, including recently opened restaurants in Detroit and Brooklyn, an expansion sparked by a viral video.
“Social media can make or break you,” he said. “It catapulted us to start franchising and get the name out there. “It has been a blessing.”
When Kevin Muccular opened Aunt Bill’s soul food restaurant in Katy, Texas, last year, crowds were thin at first because Katy is a suburb about a half hour from bustling Houston. That all changed when a TikToker who goes by the name Mr. Chimetime posted. video in July praising Aunt Bill’s brisket hot dog, waffles and customer service.
The floodgates opened and didn’t stop.
“People came from everywhere, from every seat occupied, from the lines, from the street and around the corner, a wait of three or four hours, time waiting in line in the middle of the Texas summer,” Muccular said.
He rushed to prepare the food and put his vendors on alert, but the demand was overwhelming. He bought all the ingredients he could find at nearby Sam’s Club and Walmart stores, and had his friends check out the stores in his area. The fire chief was called out twice by the crowd.
“We were ill-prepared for exactly what happened over the next two weeks of our business,” he said. “We were hiring on the spot. I cooked more than I ever had in my entire life. “
Muccular hired a consultant to help it figure out how to revamp its business to serve crowds efficiently. Among the changes: He moved takeout orders to an online system and created a table reservation system.
Two months later, the restaurant is still bustling with activity. The restaurant now serves 800 to 1,000 people a day, up from 200 to 250. In the long term, Muccular plans to open a food truck to serve people throughout Texas.
“We refer to everything as before and after Chimetime,” he said. “What Mr. Chimetime did for our small business forever changed the essence of who we are.”
At Lexington Candy Shop, Philis thought the madness of last August would calm down after Labor Day or during the holidays. But a year later, the crowd is still going strong.
On a recent weekday, Australian tourist Max Ferfoglia, 32, stopped by the restaurant to catch a float. He said he had found the restaurant through social media.
“We were trying to find out what are the things to do in this beautiful city,” he said. “And the restaurant was one that was constantly recommended as iconic across YouTube and TikTok. So we had to come and try it.”
For Philis, the boost in business is a welcome relief after the restaurant suffered a sharp drop in customers during the pandemic. Before Nico’s visit, he sold 10 Coca-Cola sodas a day. Today it is 200 on weekdays and 500 per day on weekends. It has not raised its prices. A float costs $12.50, including tax. Additionally, people who come to see a float can order a burger, fries or another menu item.
“Every day we come home and we’re tired,” he said. “But it’s a good tired.”
One person who knows what it’s like to go viral is Dominique Ansel. In 2013, before most people knew the term “going viral,” the French pastry chef created the “Cronut,” a cross between a croissant and a donut, at his newly opened bakery in New York. The Cronut created a fashion the old-fashioned way, through newspaper reports and television news.
Ansel remembers the hectic first days, when the bakery had to hire security to control the line:
“It was chaos in the morning. People were lining up at 2 in the morning and hitting each other. The neighbors were calling the police,” he recalled.
Ten years later, Ansel has many other best-selling cakes and shops in Hong Kong and Las Vegas. But there’s still a line outside Dominique Ansel’s original bakery to buy the Cronut. These days the line is cheerful. The bakery even hands out umbrellas when it rains and roses on Valentine’s Day.
“I think the most important thing is not to overreact at first,” he said. He was approached to make arrangements for mass production of the Cronut, but he refused.
“You don’t want to kill the idea because you want to make money,” Ansel said. “You want to build something real and you want to invest in the longevity of the product.”
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Singapore – This festive season, StarHub TV customers can look forward to an exciting round-the-clock shopping destination right at their fingertips. Starting tomorrow, StarHub TV, in partnership with Astro Malaysia, will be launching Go Shop (StarHub TV Channel 110), a 24-hour, Mandarin shopping channel. Go Shop will also be made available on StarHub Go, StarHub’s video streaming service, by early next year.
Customers in Singapore can now immerse themselves in a shopping experience that is differentiated, hassle-free and convenient, anytime anywhere. Through Go Shop’s fun and informative TV demonstrations, customers can understand the benefits of each product in-depth as well as the value of the offer. The well-researched product demonstrations are specially tailored to cater to the preferences and lifestyles of Singapore’s consumers.
- Disney+ officially starts streaming in Singapore on 23 February 70 views | posted on February 24, 2021
- Colors Kannada launches ‘BIGG BOSS Kannada’ Season 8 68 views | posted on February 26, 2021
- Fremantle acquires multi-territory production rights for ‘Good With Wood’ 53 views | posted on February 25, 2021
- VOOT launches interactivity for Colors fiction shows 37 views | posted on February 24, 2021
Asian Television Awards
- Here are your winners for the 25th Asian Television Awards – Day One by Monina Eugenio | posted on January 16, 2021
- The 25th Asian Television Awards ends on a high note with Entertainment and Performance Category winners announced by Monina Eugenio | posted on January 17, 2021
- 25th Asian Television Awards spotlight: ATA Director S.S. Vikneshwaran by Monina Eugenio | posted on December 28, 2020
- The 25th Asian Television Awards receives nominations from across the Asia Pacific by TVA Editor | posted on December 16, 2020


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President, Editorial Director
A journalist for more than 30 years, Evan Schuman's background includes news reporting for radio networks (including CBS Radio News, National Public Radio, AP Radio and CNN Radio), consumer news organizations (including The New York Times
, USA Today
, Baltimore Sun
, Philadelphia Inquirer
and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
), wire services (Reuters, AP and UPI) and technology/business publishers. He served as an editorial manager for 11 years at CMP Media, where his posts included News Editor at InformationWeek
, News Editor at TechWeb, Editor of The Internet Business Report
and Editorial Director for the Custom Publishing division. In the online arena, Schuman has been actively involved in the launch of more than 40 corporate Web sites and has consulted with dozens of Fortune 1000 companies on marketing and content strategy.
Before launching The Content Firm, Schuman served as VP/Editor in Chief of Triangle Publishing Services Co. Inc., a Massachusetts company that also creates business content. After that, he spent four years as the Retail Editor for Ziff-Davis (eWEEK
, among other titles) before creating his own retail technology site called StorefrontBacktalk
grew to more than 50,000 subscribers and morphed into a Premium publication, with subscribers paying for Premium content—many from the top global retailers, including Starbucks, Amazon, Walmart, Lowe's, Walgreen's, Macy's, Sears, Home Depot and Target—and with site license agreements from many other top chains, including Costco and JCPenney. Premium subscribers were not only retailers, venture capitalists, payment brands, major media and the largest consumer goods manufacturers also found our exclusive stories worth the investment—among them Visa, Microsoft, Oracle, PayPal, Nike, Whirlpool, Boy Scouts of America, Facebook and The Wall Street Journal
. Schuman sold StorefrontBacktalk
to FierceMarkets in December 2012.
Evan Schuman can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org
and at 973-993-8098.


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Smartphone market is dominated by three key players, Apple, Nokia and RIM. Many new players are using Google’s Android to run their system. Google and Apple have together annihilated Nokia’s market. Apple’s iPhone is now bigger than Nokia’s market share. RIM’s blackberry was initially looked upon as an office goers’ phone but now many teenagers are using cause of their Chat service. The chances of people giving up Apple for blackberry are bleak. Now, Google and Apple are the front runners of the smartphone market with Samsung, Nokia, and blackberry trying to play catch up. Who will win? Read on.
The race for a bigger market share is what that is driving the manufacturers to find ways to entice consumers. The consumers are the winners as they are forcing firms to develop better and better devices. Blackberry started the race long time back in 1999 when they launched their smartphone, and the business world loved it. Now, they could chat, check their mails drinking bear in the suburbs of the city. And then Apple bared its fangs in 2007 and since then it has been a downslide for every other smartphone maker. Apple has caught hold of the market in such a way that the iPhone has become a status symbol. And how can Google lag behind in anything to do with software coding. They released the Android platform for smartphones in October 2008, and many manufacturers around the world are more than happy to use it. Nokia has come up with many Smartphone but they are just like a cracker. They burn brightly at the start but fizzle out after sometime. The handset market is still ruled by Nokia though.
Google’s Android may outnumber Apple’s iPhone in numbers as it has a wider reach. But Apple is still the desirable phone for millions and billions around the globe. IT Research Company IDC has stated that one third phones sold in Europe in the first quarter of 2011 were Smartphone. Google has 28 % of the Smartphone market share, and Apple has 26 %, slightly less than Google. RIM has half of Google, 14 %. Rest encompasses Nokia, Microsoft Windows phone and all others. iPhone is greater in form and feature but Android has better reach due to the reason that many firms are using it as their working platform. But come what may, it is very difficult to play with Apple’s market.
But who is the real winner here? F5 networks and Riverbed are responsible for allocating bandwidths and allowing users to use cloud services for storing and accessing data. The phone makers may fight tooth and nail for the better market share, but its companies like these two and developers who develop apps who will surely laugh their way to the banks.
Each Smartphone is suitable for a different bandwidth of users. Apple though is seen as the holy grail of Smartphone, and the feeling of holding a Apple in your hand is unmatched. So, Steve is the name, Apple is the game.


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The EU is bringing in new laws to stamp out counterfeit medicines, but they might wipe some of the most commonly used drugs, such as antibiotics, off the market too.
Drug manufacturers will from Saturday be required to add new security features to packets of medicines, such as unique serial numbers and two-dimensional barcodes. The rules, brought in under the EU’s Falsified Medicines Directive, are designed to allow every pack to be traced and prevent repeats of past frauds, such as the 2014 scandal when the Italian mafia was found to be reselling tampered vials of Roche’s cancer medicine Herceptin stolen from hospitals in Italy.
But these requirements come with a significant price tag, and the EU hasn’t made extra money available — prompting generic manufacturers, particularly those who produce older and lower-cost drugs, to warn about the impact on their margins.
As well as fronting the money to develop EU and national databases, companies have to redesign packaging and buy new hardware and software that can add expenses of around €500,000 per packaging line, according to the generics drug lobby Medicines for Europe.
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In the Netherlands, where prices are low in part because health insurers are allowed to pick the cheapest version of a drug, these additional costs are affecting business decisions. “There’s not enough margin in our prices to overcome these costs,” said Martin Favié, chairman of Bogin, the Dutch association for generic drugmakers.
"If there is no solution for these extra costs, there will be the risk that the companies will withdraw their products" — Martin Favié, Bogin chairman
Bogin commissioned a report that put the average cost of compliance with the EU directive at €0.17 per package of medicine for the first five years. Older generics that have been on the market for decades and are sold for pennies, such as many antibiotics, could be hit particularly hard — as could medicines made by smaller companies producing less than 100,000 units.
“These costs are serious and if there is no solution for these extra costs, there will be the risk that the companies will withdraw their products from the market,” Favié said.
The Dutch health ministry already said it will change its maximum pricing law to allow drugmakers to request the prices for certain medicines be revised upward if they cannot sell their products with a “reasonable profit,” starting in April. But health insurers need to be convinced to agree to the increases, and to renegotiate multiyear pricing contracts already in place — effectively subsidizing some of the costs.
While concerns have been particularly pronounced in the Netherlands, the directive could affect other national markets in the same way.
“There are between 10 and 14 billion packs of medicines that will be serialized and checked out per year. It’s a massive project in terms of its scale,” said Adrian van den Hoven, director general of Medicines for Europe.
“We’re not complaining. We’ve done this, we’ve invested in this,” van den Hoven said. “But we just highlight the fact that for really, really inexpensive generics … there’s no profit in this in Europe. So these kind of costs have an impact and you’re leading to fewer companies supplying.”
The European Commission’s spokesperson for health Anca Paduraru said that drug pricing remains a national issue, but noted companies have known for eight years they would have to add security features, and about the technical requirements for three years.
“While it is correct that the introduction of the safety features creates additional costs for the pharmaceutical companies, those costs can be absorbed over time by the normal upgrade and digitalisation of the supply chain,” she wrote in an email.
“The falsification of medicines represents a threat for public health and the protection of public health prevails over the commercial interest,” she said.
The new rules have been in the works since a series of high-profile counterfeit incidents in the 2000s, including tainted batches of the anticoagulant heparin in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, prompted the EU to examine how it could better guarantee medicines circulating in the bloc.
While the estimated number of falsifications is small — 400 incidents were reported in the EU between 2013 and 2017 — the consequences for patients, especially those undergoing treatment for serious conditions, could be significant and even deadly.
The directive, adopted in 2011, set the framework of the electronic verification system that will enter force this week, under which pharmacists and hospitals must scan and verify the codes on each medicine pack before it is dispensed to patients. It also toughens up rules on importing active pharmaceutical ingredients and sets a new verification logo for online pharmacies.
The building and maintenance of the online database was left to the various trade associations across the supply chain: branded and generic pharma companies, pharmacies, hospitals and wholesalers.
There will be a lengthy period of transition when pharmacies and hospitals will be stocking old packs of medicines alongside the new packs.
“For the industry, we’ve spent well over a billion euros already. But on top of that we’re going to be spending between €100 [million] and €200 million per year to manage the system itself," van den Hoven said.
As the implementation deadline approaches, concerns have been raised about the varying degrees of preparedness among the many players.
Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis in December asked national health ministers “to continue working with stakeholders to make sure they are ready for this fast-approaching deadline,” at a Health Council in Brussels. “Patient safety is very high on our agenda. Let’s do our best,” he said.
In a letter to the Commission a few days later, Andreas Walter, general manager of the European Medicines Verification Organisation (EMVO), which coordinates the databases, flagged multiple potential issues ranging from technical problems among contract manufacturers to hospitals not being ready to connect.
He said the “system will be in its infancy on the implementation date” and it’s possible a high number of alerts for potential falsifications could be generated at first due to technical or procedural problems. Walter wrote that the various members of the associations that make up EMVO are ready “to receive guidance and insights, on a case by case basis, on how to overcome the initial challenges which might affect the regular functioning of the supply chain in this new paradigm.”
There will be a lengthy period of transition when pharmacies and hospitals will be stocking old packs of medicines alongside the new packs, since the new rules only apply to packs that enter the market on or after February 9. In anticipation of the changes, some pharmaceutical companies have been flooding the supply chain so as to head off any potential shortages caused by technical issues down the line.
"This is something that just needs to be dealt with," — Adrian van den Hoven, director general of Medicines for Europe
Andriukaitis said the date will mark a "milestone for patients’ safety in the EU."
“While some more work will need to be done after the launch of the system to make sure that the new system functions properly across the EU, I am positive that we are providing another safety net for citizens to protect them from the dangers of unauthorised, ineffective or dangerous medicines," the commissioner said in a statement.
Van den Hoven said other countries need to follow the Netherlands' lead in taking action if and when there are issues surrounding generic supplies.
“We hope other governments will recognize [the problems],” he said. “Otherwise companies may withdraw their products because they’re selling at a loss ... This is something that just needs to be dealt with.”
This article is part of POLITICO’s premium policy service: Pro HealthCare. From drug pricing, EMA, vaccines, pharma and more, our specialised journalists keep you on top of the topics driving the health care policy agenda. Email [email protected] for a complimentary trial.


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British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to make a final attempt at persuading lawmakers to back her "new" Brexit deal on Wednesday but the agreement — and May's...Europe Politicsread more
Consumers in China are taking to social media to express their support for Huawei as the U.S. government looks to ramp up pressure on the Chinese smartphone maker.Technologyread more
Tensions between the two parties have heightened in recent months as the campaign for seats in the Brussels and Strasbourg-based parliament has crescendoed.Europe Politicsread more
Shares of Saudi shopping mall operator Arabian Centres were trading at 24.34 riyals ($6.49) in early deals in Riyadh.IPOsread more
There is at least one thing in common between the U.S. and Russia – their willingness to weaken the European Union, a top EU official said.Politicsread more
U.S. President Donald Trump's latest tariff increase — and Beijing's plans to counter them — are hitting U.S. companies in China, according to a joint survey this month by...China Economyread more
"We are also constantly watching whether the trade war will turn into a tech war," Ma said Tuesday, according to a CNBC translation of his Chinese remarks published by a locak...China Economyread more
TransferWise, the money transfer start-up, was valued at $3.5 billion after investors bought $292 million of shares in a secondary sale.Technologyread more
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's likely return to power for a second term will likely be positive for his country's growth, according to economists and investors.Asia Economyread more
Kohl's, J.C. Penney and Nordstrom release disappointing earnings news, putting a damper on their sector.Retailread more
"Pretty much the entire suite of apps that 'talk' over the internet could be vulnerable," said Tom Uren, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's...Cybersecurityread more
Delta Air Lines apologized on Thursday after a couple said they
Delta Air Lines Inc said in a statement it was "sorry for the unfortunate experience," a day after Brian and Brittany Schear posted a video online showing them being told to leave a flight or be arrested during a dispute over a seat they had bought for their teenage son.
"Delta's goal is to always work with customers in an attempt to find solutions to their travel issues. That did not happen in this case and we apologize," said the airline.
It said it had contacted the couple to refund their travel and provide additional compensation.
The apology came the same day members of a U.S. Senate committee held a hearing on the industry's customer service failures and issued harsh criticism of airline fees, disputes with passengers and the lack of competition in the heavily consolidated sector.
The video posted on YouTube by the California couple shows Brian Schear arguing with a police officer and a Delta employee as he sat on Flight 2222 waiting to depart from Maui to Los Angeles.
The dispute was about whether Shear was allowed to use a seat he had originally purchased for his teenage son for his toddler son and whether the toddler needed to be in a car seat or sit on the lap of an adult.
"You will hear them lie to me numerous times to get my son out of the seat. The end result was we were all kicked off the flight," Shear wrote in the caption.
"They oversold the flight. When will this all stop?"


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Meatless revolution surges on: Plant-based partnerships pave way for diversification and distribution opportunities
07 Apr 2022 --- With the plant-based revolution in full-swing, meat and dairy alternative brands such as Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, Oatly and Plant Based Foods have made significant headway through powerful industry partnerships. Plant-based options are more available to a wider demographic due to their tie-ups with restaurants, fast-food chains and multinational food producers.
According to the Plant-Based Foods Association (PBFA), plant-based food retail sales in the US are expected to be driven up further, growing 6.2% in 2021. This brought the overall plant-based market value to an all-time high of US$7.4 billion.
Prompted by this sustained demand, Innova Market Insights pegged, “Plant-Based: The Canvas for Innovation” as its second Top Trend for 2022, underscoring that consumers largely see plant-based alternatives as healthier and better for the environment.
The PBFA report highlights that 62% of US households (79 million people) now buy plant-based goods, up from 61% previously (77 million in 2020).
“More consumers are turning to plant-based options that align with their values and desire to have a positive impact on personal and planetary health,” says Julie Emmett, senior director of marketplace development, PBFA.
With consumers desiring diversity, this year has seen a rapid expansion of vegan offerings hitting the market, targeting adventurous consumers with cravings for grilled Middle Eastern meats, Asian satays and the Mediterranean palate.
Collaborations are diversifying meat-free menus
Beyond Meat and PepsiCo collaborated for the debut of Beyond Meat Jerky, making the product available in stores nationwide. The convenient plant-based jerky is the first product from the two companies’ joint-venture, Planet Partnership.
“The nationwide launch of Beyond Meat Jerky will make plant-based meat accessible to millions of households. It tastes great, it’s a good source of protein and it’s convenient to eat whether you’re on the go, at the office or out on adventures,” says Dan Moisan, CEO of Planet Partnership.
Additionally, Beyond Meat partnered with McDonald’s and Yum! Brands – the corporation that owns KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. As a result of this collaboration, plant-based foods are set to increase on fast food menus.
German railway group partners with Oatly
Meanwhile, Impossible Foods’ Impossible Burger was made available at more than 350 Sprouts Farmers Market stores across 23 states in the US.
“The data shows that, despite the challenges of the past two years, retailers and food service providers are meeting consumers where they are by partnering with brands across the entire store to expand space, increase assortment and make it easier than ever to find and purchase plant-based foods,” adds Emmett.
In Germany, Oatly Group cooperated with Deutsche Bahn. The resulting Oatly Barista Edition oat milk product will be available in the on-board catering of local ICE and Intercity trains beginning in January as the first-ever plant-based milk replacement for customers.
“The potential impact of these initiatives extends far beyond the store shelf: By taking consumer concerns to heart, industry is actively embracing its role as a key driver of change that moves us closer to a secure and sustainable food system,” she continues.
Expanding plant-based offerings in the US
Planet Based Foods announced a new distribution collaboration with US Foods, a leading provider of foodservice products in the US.
“As our new distribution partner, US Foods will be debuting the Planet Based Foods brand to their customer base, highlighting our offering in their substantial plant-based and healthy-eating portfolio,” says Braelyn Davis, president and CEO of Planet Based Foods.
“We are working with one of the US’ leading food distributors and look forward to expanding our product reach through this evolving partnership.”
Two of US Foods’ divisions, La Mirada and Corona, will be the first Plant-Based Foods’ plant-based options in the Southern California region, supplying various products to restaurants, commerce and industry, healthcare and other multi-unit operators.
Both divisions will offer the Original Burger, Mild Breakfast Sausage Patties, and The Italian Sausage Crumble. The Green Chili Southwest Burger and Hot Breakfast Sausage Patties are accessible only on special orders.
In other US market moves, Benson Hill unveiled TruVail, a new line of domestically derived plant-based protein components with sustainability benefits.
The TruVail brand’s initial product line includes high-protein soy flour – a less-processed version of soy protein concentrate (SPC) – and texturized proteins that can be used in both traditional soy protein applications and the fast-increasing alternative plant-based protein sectors.
By Nicole Kerr
To contact our editorial team please email us at email@example.com
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Implantable medical systems maker Kyocera Medical said today it won FDA 510(k) clearance for its Initia total hip implant system.
The Japanese company’s Initia total hip system includes Bioceram Azul zirconia-toughened alumina ceramic femoral heads, or can be requested with cobalt chrome femoral heads.
The system includes a total 16 tapered-wedge stem sizes, with 12 available in the US, according to a press release.
In late 2013, Amedica Corp. entered into an agreement with Kyocera to manufacture Amedica’s silicon nitride biomaterial at Kyocera’s Vancouver, Wash., facility.
The FDA-cleared silicon nitride has the potential to promote bone growth defend against infection. Devices made from silicon nitride are semi-radiolucent with clearly visible boundaries, enabling an exact view of intra-operative placement and postoperative fusion assessment via common imaging modalities, according to a press release.
The deal is expected to help Amedica meet demand for the technology, including spinal interbody devices. Amedica has sold over 14,000 of these devices worldwide, according to a company statement.


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The Bodi released two new figures in 1/35 scale covering a very unique subject.
SKP Model has informed us of its new set of 1/35 lenses and taillights, designed for the Canadian M113A2.
AK Interactive expands its Figure Series with additional paint sets.
Christos Apostolopoulos of WAR kindly informed us about the new figures of company.
We introduce the first type of products from VMS, nine different pigment binders including a reversible one that allows to go back after it dries.
A mixed bag of diorama and accessory items from Plus Model.
Coming soon: new figures from Qing Yi Miniatures, this time in 1/32 scale.
Two days ago Armorama reported an announcement of a new diorama accessory item from Replikant Technologies. Now Replikant is adding a very similar item to their catalogue.
Djiti Production released two new figure kits in 1/35 scale. Check them out!
Both the Model T 1914 Firetruck and the Japan Infantry, which were recently announced as upcoming, are now available for selling.
The new figure from Corsar Rex is a British Infantryman from Second World War.
Meng Model collaborates with Roqovan Studio for a new line of model kits.
Another huge vehicle from Takom, the Krupp Räumer S, a WWII German mine clearing monster.
Another news from Takom, who will be releasing an V-2 rocket alone and with its transport.
Takom presents a new model of the Mark IV tank, which can be built as either Male or Female variants.
Coming your way soon, a French Republican Guard Officer from ICM Holdings.
Akritis announces the availability of three new small bases for vignettes
Vantage Modelling Solutions (VMS) is a new company that has kindly informed us about their products.
They focus on technical fluids such as cleaners, removers and thinners, AFV weathering pigments and binders, cements and diorama products.
Replikant Technologies is a company utilizing CAD technology and high-resolution 3D printing to produce vehicle and diorama accessories in 1/35 scale, some of which are reviewed here on Armorama. Replikant now announces the new addition to their modern day diorama catalogue.
Ace Model has announced the availability of its Leichter Radschlepper Laffly W15T.
IBG Models announces that three new kits are now available: The Rosomak with OSS turret, the Chevrolet C30A and the Type 89.
Master Box presents a new figure box with two soldiers from the First World War, including their horses.
Earlier this month Leopard Workshop announced its latest upgrade set for the Leopard 1.
Andrea Miniatures announced their new line of WWII character figures, Eisernes Kreuz. The first release in this line is German Fallschirmjäger, produced in two scales, 1/35 and 1/16.
RMG has just released a set of metal cables for the StuG III


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Spin Master, maker of the new droid, is set to introduce its 16-inch tall, remote-controlled BB-8 during the 2016 New York Toy Fair this weekend, according to Gizmodo.
It's not quite the robot JJ Abrams used in the film, but it will actually stand closer to 19-inches, thanks to antennas atop its head, meaning it will tower over Sphero's tiny droid, which is no bigger than an orange. But unlike Sphero's app-controlled droid, Spin Master's BB-8 is controlled by a handheld remote.
Most impressive about Spin Master's BB-8 droid, however, is that it will be the first to recognize voice commands, responding when you say its name. It also includes a "Follow Me" setting, which will have BB-8 rolling beside you as if you were Rey, Finn or Poe in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and has a smart tracking system, so that it can find you when you call to it.
This BB-8 is expected to cost $180 (about £124.50,AU$253.68), which is about $40 more than what you need to pick up Shpero's smaller droid, but it won't be available until the fall.
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JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) – The Johnson City Board of Commissioners announced they will hold a special called meeting on Tuesday to consider details of expansion by Crown Laboratories.
Crown Labs is a leading skincare company based in Johnson City.
Just last year, the company announced it added to its consumer portfolio by getting the rights to different top dermatology medication.
More details will become available following the meeting.
Stay tuned with News Channel 11 on-air and online for updates.


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Limited to just 15 units. SUPER73 has just unveiled a new limited edition e-bike that was made thanks to a collaboration with Period Correct, the popular clothing brand known for its automotive capsule collections. Giving this special edition SUPER73 e-bike its own identity are a few special touches that the two brands came up with. […]
The post Limited Edition Period Correct x SUPER73 E-Bike Revealed appeared first on duPont REGISTRY Daily.


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Posted by mLearnCon StaffCategories: Academic , Apple/iPhone/iPad , Tablet
The Virginia Department of Education is phasing in the second wave of a pilot program that uses Apple’s iPad tablet computers as the centerpiece of a social studies curriculum that blends online and face-to-face learning.
The Chicago school system is expanding a pilot program that last fall awarded a classroom set of 32 of the devices to 23 schools in the 409,000-student district.
And Irving, Texas, school officials are exploring weaving the iPad or another tablet-computing device into their district’s 1-to-1 high school computing program.
Every day seems to offer another story about a district or school that’s buying iPads—a development that astonishes some ed-tech experts since the device is less than 15 months old, and K-12 educators are traditionally slow adopters of new technology. And they’ve adopted it for classroom use despite the fact that Apple is still revising its product, with the second version of perhaps several issued in March, while many other manufacturers had only released their tablet competitors at the beginning of this year. Further, Apple products are not compatible with Adobe Flash Player.
Excluding the fad factor, experts say there are legitimate reasons for educational interest. With a battery life of eight to 10 hours and a weight of just over a pound, the iPad offers more portability and less startup time during the full school day than laptops or netbooks, while its screen size facilitates more flexibility using the Web and easier input than smartphones.
Read more from EdWeek.org here.


text: TJX Companies TJX, -0.77% announced Monday a 2-for-1 split of its common stock, to be effected in the form a stock dividend. The discount retailer's stock was down 0.7% in afternoon trade. If approved at the shareholders meeting scheduled for Oct. 22, the stock dividend will be distributed on Nov. 6 to shareholders of record on Oct. 30. Separately, the company declared a regular quarterly dividend of 39 cents a share, on a pre-split basis, to be payable Dec. 6 to shareholders of record on Nov. 15. "TJX has a long and successful track record, and this stock split underscores our great confidence in the continued success of our company," said Chief Executive Ernie Herrman. Earlier, shoe retailer Steve Madden Ltd. SHOO, +0.20% had announced a 3-for-2 stock split. The stock has soared 46.5% over the past months, closing at a record $111.44 on Sept. 4. In comparison, the SPDR S&P Retail ETF XRT, -1.01% has rallied 24.8% and the S&P 500 SPX, -0.14% has climbed 15.8%.


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Email this article from PlasticsNews.com
Reliance to open research center in Mumbai
MUMBAI, INDIA (Dec. 17, 2:15 p.m. ET) — Reliance Industries Ltd., India’s largest private company, is setting up a research and technology center in Mumbai in the first quarter of 2013.
More Events > Upcoming Events
Rapid changeover is the new frontier for W&H
NEWS Saturday, October 22
How well do you understand Industry 4.0?
POLL Wednesday, October 12
Bumper to Bumper: Supplier uses in-house 'university' to advance skills
MULTIMEDIA01 Wednesday, October 19
Material Insights: Materials firms use K 2016 to announce projects, technology
MULTIMEDIA01 Monday, October 24
Magna shows strong presence at SPE Central Europe auto awards
NEWS Sunday, October 23


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Fine Print and the Frankenstorm
Hurricane Sandy, dubbed as the “Frankenstorm,” has citizens hauling out their insurance contracts right now and trying to understand what is covered in the fine print.
The losses are in the billions, depending on who is doing the assessing. And insurance companies often try to push costs on the federal government or individuals.
What will consumers be able to recover? An informed consumer will stand a better chance.
A number of sources offer pointers:
- J. Robert Hunter, Director of Insurance at the Consumer Federation of America, provides tips on how to get fair claims payments at CFA’s website, here.
- Nolo.com also also provides tips for what homeowners should know about hurricanes and flood insurance, here.
- The Federal Trade Commission discusses how to avoid getting ripped off in home repairs on their website, here.
- And a number of state Attorney Generals offices have tips or brochures on home repair; check your state AG’s website for basic provisions to include in a contract or of which to be wary.


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A moveable concrete barrier on the M20 to keep Kent’s roads moving during cross-channel disruption won’t be fully completed until 2022, according to Highways England (HE). A specialist ‘zipper’ machine will enable the barrier to be deployed quickly on the motorway and is seen as a method of ensuring congestion-free traffic flows when the Brexit transition process ends at the end of 2020. HE said the new scheme, costing £60m, is designed to ensure that the M20 can be kept […]
Wincanton has said it is ready to tackle any changes in legislation or the economic climate Brexit might have on the industry.
The logistics industry is calling for urgent action to prepare for a no-deal Brexit after the government confirmed this week that there will be trade barriers post-Brexit for both exports and imports.
Meachers Global Logistics has warned operators to prepare for changes to importing animal products from the European Union to avoid more delays at the border.


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Adidas Still Dealing With $1.3B Of Unsold Yeezy Sneakers
View Source | May 12, 2023 1:11 pm
Click to read full article
- Adidas’ top boss said Friday that the company is still deciding what to do with the piles of unsold Yeezy shoes that are mounting in its warehouses.
- The German sportswear company is still trying to figure out what to do with the $1.3 billion worth of merchandise that’s been sitting idle since the company ended its partnership with Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, seven months ago.
- Representatives for Adidas did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for comment.
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According to UploadVR , the PlayStation 5 editions of Hitman 3 and No Man’s Sky will not support PlayStation VR devices, unlike the PlayStation 4 versions. According to a Sony spokesman , the company has not yet announced VR games for the PlayStation 5.
To use VR mode, players must purchase Hitman 3 on PlayStation 4. PSVR operates in Backward Compatible mode, but PlayStation 5 games can be played through a headset using Kinematic mode.
As we already know, the new console will not support PlayStation 4 era controllers such as the DualShock 4 and Aim. And for PSVR helmets you will need a special adapter, which Sony gives out to owners for free .
The company has yet to announce the next generation of PlayStation VR.


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Gamers are snatching up the latest installment of the video game Grand Theft Auto at a furious' pace. Racking up one billion dollars in sales in just the first week. But critics of the game are concerned it may be getting into the wrong hands.
It's a video game so violent it shocks even some of the most seasoned of gamers.
You have to be 17 to buy Grand Theft Auto, but past studies show some stores may not be complying.
It's a world where you can do almost anything, parachute from a mountaintop, ride dirt bikes atop trains and fly planes through a valley.
But there's also a dark side, hijacking military aircraft, setting off explosions and shooting at police officers.
Dan Isett with the Parents Television Council says,” It's essentially a game that is every testosterone fueled fantasy imaginable.”
Grand theft auto is rated 'M' for mature. Meaning you have to be 17 to buy it.
But Isett, director of public policy for the PTC takes issue with that rating.
And he's concerned about kids younger than 17 being allowed to buy it.
A secret shopper operation conducted by the Federal Trade Commission 6 months ago found stores sold M rated video games to 16 and under 13% of the time.
That is an improvement over a similar survey done by the PTC in 2008 that found stores selling M videos 36% of the time. Those findings are celebrated by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), "We applaud video game retailers for once again demonstrating our industry's ongoing commitment to parents."
Isett, however, says it's still too much, “Let’s think about that for a minute... If we'd had 20% failure rate we wouldn't celebrate that at all. It’s abject failure.”
We sent a 16 year old into Best Buy in northwest D.C. and into the Game Stop in Westfield Shopping Mall in Bethesda. Both times he was turned away, unable to buy Grand Theft Auto V.
Isett says,”Good for the store today for enforcing the rule. Wish that were always airtight... But it's not.”
In its first week, Grand Theft Auto has sold more copies than the launch week sales of all other GTA versions combined.
The PTC is urging retailers to make sure they comply with the ratings system and parents to be fully aware of the video games their kids are playing.
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The DDR5 shortage is potentially just as bad as the graphics cards shortage, and as we’ve charted out below, that means that some 32GB kits are being scalped for $2,500. The more lenient scalpers (via PCMag) are selling DDR5 memory kits on eBay for twice and sometimes up to three times their cost. Luckily, only Intel’s 12th-Gen Alder Lake processors currently make use of DDR5. However, Alder Lake processors, which are some of the best CPUs for gaming on the market, are equally happy with the best DDR4, so early adopters aren’t forced to pay ridiculous prices for DDR5
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Cyber Monday software deals are here and AppleInsider has rounded up the best software discounts, including $320 off a Babbel lifetime subscription, 70% off Adobe Creative Cloud, and more!
Software isn’t always the most budget-friendly purchase, but these Cyber Monday discounts can make even the most expensive items affordable. We update this page regularly, so check out today’s deals and keep coming back for more.
Up to 70%
Today’s quantum computers are complicated to build, difficult to scale up, and require temperatures colder than interstellar space to operate. These challenges have led researchers to explore the possibility of building quantum computers that work using photons — particles of light. Photons can easily carry information from one place to another, and photonic quantum computers can operate at room temperature, so this approach is promising. However, although people have successfully created individual quantum “logic gates” for photons, it’s challenging to construct large numbers of gates and connect them in a reliable fashion to perform complex calculations.
A large-scale malware campaign on Huawei’s AppGallery has led to approximately 9,300,000 installs of Android trojans masquerading as over 190 different apps.
The trojan is detected by Dr.Web as ‘Android.Cynos.7.origin’ and is a modified version of the Cynos malware designed to collect sensitive user data.
The discovery and report come from researchers at Dr. Web AV, who notified Huawei and helped them remove the identified apps from their store.
However, those who installed the apps on their devices will still have to remove them from their Android devices manually.
Trojan disguised as game apps
The threat actors hid their malware
Mark Cerny, the lead system architect of the PS5, has explained the process of creating the console in a new video.
The legendary developer whose credits include Marble Madness, Crash Bandicoot and Marvel’s Spider-Man sat down with Wired to discuss his role in creating the PS5 and bringing its systems to life.
The video gives an insight into the pre-production process of the PS5, as well as the feedback the team received from the game development community.
“We’d been getting requests for an SSD
What just happened? The Golden Joystick Awards took place yesterday, where some of this year’s best games were honored. We also saw the winners of two very interesting categories revealed: the greatest ever piece of hardware and game of all time. It should come as little surprise to learn that the former was won by the PC, and none other than Gabe Newell himself accepted the award. In the case of the latter, Dark Souls was declared the Ultimate Game of All Time.
This year’s Golden Joystick Awards—the world’s longest-running game awards ceremony, having started in 1983—celebrated ’50 years of
Sometimes, you come across some photography experiments that are so unique you just have to share them. And this project from Andrew Eckel is one such experiment. He’s a musician, artist and software engineer. Before covid, he would regularly play shows in Boston, but with most of the planet being largely shut down for almost the last two years, he’s had a lot of time to explore other pursuits.
He wanted to have something to sell besides CDs and started working on a book of lyrics. He decided to fill the book with colourful artwork and remembered a programming
There is a huge global effort to engineer a computer capable of harnessing the power of quantum physics to carry out computations of unprecedented complexity. While formidable technological obstacles still stand in the way of creating such a quantum computer, today’s early prototypes are still capable of remarkable feats.
For example, the creation of a new phase of matter called a “time crystal.” Just as a crystal’s structure repeats in space, a time crystal repeats in time and, importantly, does so infinitely and
Many of our readers have been asking us about which Nokia smartphones are eligible to get the Android 12 update. As it happened with Android 11, Android 12 roll-out to Nokia smartphones may start later this year and get completed in 2022.
Android 12 is supposed to bring lots of UI changes, new animations and features. You can read the official details about Android 12 Beta UI changes and new features by clicking here.
Most of the Nokia smartphones (G-series and X-series) come with guaranteed 2 and 3 years of Android OS upgrade promise. Hence by that rule, if a
The big picture: Intel for the past few years has been collecting and cataloging its legacy hardware at a warehouse in Costa Rica, but not for a museum or other historical purpose. To ensure that customers across generations of hardware are protected against newly discovered attacks, Intel needs examples of its older hardware on hand to test with. As it turns out, this was a bit of a challenge for a while consider the company didn’t have a formal method of cataloging and storing legacy hardware until recently.
The chipmaker churns out lots of new and updated hardware each year,


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US disputes China's trade sanction of chicken
Updated: 2011-09-21 10:55
By Chen Weihua (China Daily)
NEW YORK - While US President Barack Obama is traveling across the country selling his jobs program, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk announced on Tuesday that it has filed a case with the World Trade Organization against China in a bid to protect American agricultural jobs.
Up to 300,000 jobs are being threatened by China's imposition of duties on imports of American chicken products, Kirk claimed, urging China to "live up to its commitments and play by the rules to which it has agreed".
On Sept 27, 2009, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce initiated anti-dumping and countervailing investigations of US imports of chicken broiler products, which are various cuts of chicken. It imposed duties one year later.
The duties were based on China's findings that the chicken products had been sold for less than fair value in the Chinese market as well as subsidized. An investigation also showed that the US subsidized soybeans and corn for its poultry industry, hurting Chinese producers, the ministry said.
Prices of chicken broiler products in China were below the cost of production for a long time, suppressing domestic producers' profit margins, a direct result of the large volume of cheap imports, the ministry said in its September 2010 statement.
WTO rules permit member countries to impose duties on imports of merchandise that are found to be dumped or subsidized, if those imports cause injury to the domestic industry.
Under the filing, the US is requesting dispute settlement consultations - the first step in a WTO dispute - to challenge China's imposition of anti-dumping and countervailing duties against the import of US chicken broiler products.
A news release from the Office of US Trade Representative (USTR) says the US is addressing its concerns that China's duties appear to be inconsistent with WTO rules. Under WTO rules, parties that don't resolve a matter through consultations within 60 days may request the establishment of a WTO dispute settlement panel.
USTR said before the imposition of the duties, the US was China's largest chicken broiler products supplier with over 600,000 tons of broiler products exported in 2009. But US exports of these products to China are down 90 percent since the duties have been enforced.
It cited industrial sources as saying that the US poultry industry will have lost some $1 billion in sales to China by the end of this year.
The chicken case is the latest of a series of enforcement steps the US has taken against China. The US has filed WTO cases against China in steel products, industrial raw materials, electronic payment services and wind power equipment as well as actions in the US to address rapidly increasing Chinese tire imports, according to the USTR.
"To be clear, the US does not arbitrarily seek disagreements with China. However, we will not stand still if we believe that China has violated its commitments as a WTO member and is therefore threatening American jobs - in this case hundreds of thousands of American poultry industry jobs," Kirk said.
Meanwhile, the US-China Business Council (USCBC) pointed out on Tuesday that blaming widespread US job losses on trade with China distracts from the real challenges facing the US economy and the trade relationship with China.
Referring to an updated study released on Monday by the Economic Policy Institute's (EPI), "Growing US Trade Deficit with China Cost 2.8 Million Jobs Between 2001 and 2010", USCBC Vice-President Erin Ennis said that the report "is still based on the faulty assumption that every product imported from China would have been made in the US otherwise. As USCBC has said in response to previous versions of EPI reports, this assumption is still decades wrong."
"The key is to make sure our companies and workers stay competitive and remain global leaders in manufacturing - and that means sensible innovation, education, tax, healthcare, and energy policies," Ennis said. "The answer is not to build walls around the US to isolate ourselves from our growing export opportunities with China - especially given the continued difficulties facing the US economy," Ennis said in a statement.
US exports to China in 2010 were a little more than $90 billion, up 32 percent from the previous year. China remains the third-largest export market for US goods, after Canada and Mexico, and has been the fastest growing market for US goods over the past decade.
Edward Alden, from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), is one of the authors of the Task Force Report on US Trade and Investment Policy released by the Council on Foreign Relations on Monday. Alden said the CFR Task Force called for the US government to use the available trade enforcement tools in cases where trade agreement partners, including China, appear to be violating their commitments. Clear and consistent enforcement of trade rules is needed to increase the confidence of Americans that open trade is working to their benefit.


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, The Bogner clothing manufacturer has found a new watch partner. Switching Junghans by Bogner future Junghans will be responsible for the production of the clock line.
Bogner “Willy” Chronoscope by Junghans
As a top model of the new partnership will come this spring the Chronoscope “Willy” model in the stores, named after Wilhelm “Willy” Bogner, skier, and founder of the clothing company. His son – also named William “Willy” – shaped in recent years from the father’s company of one of the most successful German lifestyle companies in terms of exclusive sportswear and designer fashion, with many licenses. The Tübingen watch manufacturer Junghans is also active in the sporting area for many years and developed a pioneering time measurement technology, for example, for the Olympic Games in 1972 in Munich.
The new Chronoscope is “Willy” with the automatic calibre J880. 1 equipped, that works in a 44.5 mm stainless steel case measuring, pressure-resistant to 10 bar. The models in the line addition to the 1840-euro top model “Willy “ automatic, that there are 37 and 42 millimetres in different versions, the diameter.” Distinctive B-logo of the Bogner brand adorns the dial of all watches in the collection alongside the Junghans Signet.


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AUGUSTA, ME State lawmakers in Maine are moving forward with a legislative proposal to significantly amend various provisions of the states 2016 voter-approved cannabis law: The Marijuana Legalization Act.
Members of the Marijuana Legalization Implementation Committee havevoted16 to 1 in favor of overhauling the law, which has yet to be fully implemented. Lawmakers had initially voted last year to delay the enactment of provisions regulating the retail production and sale of cannabis.
Then in November, Republican Gov. Paul LePagevetoedlegislation that sought to license and regulate marijuana businesses and sales, stating: Until I clearly understand how the federal government intends to treat states that seek to legalize marijuana, I cannot in good conscience support any scheme in state law to implement expansion of legal marijuana in Maine. Lawmakers voted in favor of sustaining LePages veto.
Now lawmakers are pushing a plan toamend and repealnumerous provisions of the law, including provisions that have already taken effect. Specifically, language in the new proposal would limit the quantity of mature marijuana plants that an adult may legally grow in a private residence from six to three. Legislators are advocating for this change despite the fact that no regulated, commercial market yet exists for cannabis leaving adults reliant exclusively upon home cultivation operations. Further, no data has been presented indicating that the states existing plant quotas are either being abused or that home-cultivated marijuana is being diverted into the criminal market. NORMLopposesthis proposed amendment.
A majority of Maine voters decided in favor of legalizing and regulating the use of marijuana by adults, NORMLs Political Director Justin Strekal said. It is time for lawmakers to implement the will of the people, not undermine it.
Other language in the new proposal would repeal language permitting for the operation of state-licensed social use facilities, and would eliminate provisions redirecting portions of marijuana-related tax revenue to localities that explicitly permit such operations. Separate language in the bill seeks to impose a new 21.5 percent excise tax on wholesale marijuana transactions. The bill also makes it easier for communities that wish to ban adult use operations to do so.
A finalized version of the bill is anticipated to go ...


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The Instagram co-founders, who departed Facebook in 2018 amid tensions with their parent company, have formed a new venture to explore ideas for next-generation social apps. Their first product is Artifact, a personalized news feed that uses machine learning to understand your interests and will soon let you discuss those articles with friends.
Artifact — the name represents the merging of articles, facts, and artificial intelligence — is opening up its waiting list to the public today. The company plans to let users in quickly, Systrom says. You can sign up yourself here; the app is available for both Android and iOS.
The simplest way to understand Artifact is as a kind of TikTok for text, though you might also call it Google Reader reborn as a mobile app or maybe even a surprise attack on Twitter. The app opens to a feed of popular articles chosen from a curated list of publishers ranging from leading news organizations like The New York Times to small-scale blogs about niche topics. Tap on articles that interest you, and Artifact will serve you similar posts and stories in the future, just as watching videos on TikTok’s For You page tunes its algorithm over time. Users who come in from the waitlist today will see only that central ranked feed. But Artifact beta users are currently testing two more features that Systrom expects to become core pillars of the app. One is a feed showing articles posted by users that you have chosen to follow, along with their commentary on those posts. (You won’t be able to post raw text without a link, at least for now.) The second is a direct message inbox so you can discuss the posts you read privately with friends.
In one sense, Artifact can feel like a throwback. Inspired by TikTok’s success, big social platforms have spent the past few years chasing shortform video products and the ad revenue that comes with them.
Meanwhile, like a social network from the late 2000s, Artifact has its sights set firmly on text. But the founders are hopeful that a decade-plus of lessons learned, along with recent advances in artificial intelligence, will help their app break through to a bigger audience.
Systrom and Krieger first began discussing the idea for what became Artifact a couple years ago, he told me. Systrom said he was once skeptical of the ability of machine-learning systems to improve recommendations — but his experience at Instagram turned him into a true believer.
“Throughout the years, what I saw was that every time we use machine learning to improve the consumer experience, things got really good really quickly,” he said.
So why come back now? Technically, this isn’t the duo’s first project since Instagram; in 2020, they teamed up to create the website Rt.live to track the spread of covid.
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But Systrom told me they didn’t want to start a new company until three things happened: One, a big new wave in consumer technology that he and Krieger could attempt to catch. Two, a way to connect that wave to social technology, which he and Krieger continue to feel invested in emotionally. And three, an idea for how their product could solve a problem — Systrom has long considered technology design from the standpoint of what jobs it can do for its customers.
The breakthrough that enabled Artifact was the transformer, which Google invented in 2017. It offers a mechanism for systems to understand language using far fewer inputs than had previously been required.
The transformer helped machine-learning systems improve at a much faster pace, leading directly to last year’s release of ChatGPT and the attendant boom in interest around AI. (Transformers are the “T” in ChatGPT.)
It also created some new possibilities for social networks. At first, social networks showed you stuff your friends thought was interesting — the Facebook model. Then they started showing you stuff based on the people that you chose to follow, whether you were friends or not — the Twitter model.
TikTok’s innovation was to show you stuff using only algorithmic predictions, regardless of who your friends are or who you followed. It soon became the most downloaded app in the world.
Artifact represents an effort to do the same thing but for text.
“I saw that shift, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s the future of social,’” Systrom said. “These unconnected graphs; these graphs that are learned rather than explicitly created. And what was funny to me is as I looked around, I was like, ‘Man, why isn’t this happening everywhere in social? Why is Twitter still primarily follow-based? Why is Facebook?’”
The question is whether personalized recommendations for news articles and blog posts can drive the same viral success for Artifact that video has for TikTok. It’s not a slam dunk: in 2014, a wave of personalized news apps with names like Zite and Pulse came and went, dogged by their inability to create deep habits in users. And earlier this month, Tokyo-based SmartNews, which uses similar AI technology to personalize recommendations, laid off 40 percent of its workforce in the United States and China amid a declining user base and challenging ad market.
Like most startups at this stage, Artifact has yet to commit to a business model. Advertising would be an obvious fit, Systrom said. He’s also interested in thinking about revenue-sharing deals with publishers. If Artifact gets big, it could help readers find new publications and encourage them to subscribe to them; it may make sense for Artifact to try to take a cut.
Systrom also told me Artifact will take seriously the job of serving readers with high-quality news and information. That means an effort to include only publishers who adhere to editorial standards of quality, he told me. For now, the company won’t disclose every publisher in its system, but you can search for individual outlets within the app.
Both left- and right-leaning publishers were included; you’ll find Fox News there, for example. But Systrom isn’t shy about the fact that the company will be exercising its own judgment about who belongs and who doesn’t.
“One of the issues with technology recently has been a lot of these companies’ unwillingness to make subjective judgments in the name of quality and progress for humanity,” he says. “Right? Just make the hard decision.”
Artifact will also remove individual posts that promote falsehoods, he says. And its machine-learning systems will be primarily optimized to measure how long you spend reading about various subjects — as opposed to, say, what generates the most clicks and comments — in an effort to reward more deeply engaging material.
For now, Systrom and Krieger are funding Artifact themselves, though I imagine they will soon have investors beating a path to their doors. A team of seven people is now working on the app, including Robby Stein, a top product executive at Instagram from 2016 to 2021.
Having sold Instagram to Facebook for $715 million, Systrom and Krieger had no pressing need to get a job. So what’s driving them this time?
“We fundamentally like building,” Systrom said. “There’s no other place in the world we’d rather spend our time than writing code and building products that people enjoy. I just love it.”
Advances in AI have also captured their imaginations, he said.
“I think machine learning is undeniably the coolest thing to work on right now,” he said. “Not because it’s hip, but because when it knows you’re into a certain topic, and it totally gets you, you’re like, ‘How is it that just some numbers multiplied together did that?’ The CTO of OpenAI said that machine learning is basically many months of things not working, and then suddenly it works, and then it works scarily well. I resonate with that.”
I’ve only used Artifact for a few hours now, and many of the features that the company plans to build remain in the planning stages. As you would expect from Systrom and Krieger, the app already shows a good deal of polish. Read an article inside the app, and when you return to the feed, it will suggest more stories like it in a handsome carousel. The app automatically switches to dark mode at night. And when you post a link, you can choose whether to let everyone comment, limit comments to people you follow, or shut them off entirely.
In many ways, I think the time is ripe for this kind of product. AI really is making new things possible in consumer apps, and the collapse of Twitter under Elon Musk has created an opportunity for a team with genuine expertise in this space to take a run at text-based social networking again.
To succeed on a grand scale, I suspect Artifact will have to do more than simply show you a collection of interesting links. Even in the current depressed state of digital publishing, the web remains rich with stories of interest, as anyone who has ever glanced at the list of clickbait headlines below the Google search box these days can attest. Few people spend much time complaining that they can’t find anything good to read on the internet.
Yes, AI represents a huge part of TikTok’s success. But like Twitter before it, TikTok also succeeded because of the way it captures conversations about the core feed — more than a few tweets have gone viral noting that the comments on TikTok are often better than the videos themselves. Similarly, Twitter endures as a primary source for breaking news in large part because it’s where elites go to discuss the news in public.
That aspect of Artifact remains under construction. But if Systrom and Krieger can bring the same craftsmanship to that part of the product that they brought to Instagram, it might not be long before they have me once again forgetting my Mastodon login.