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Caroline Giuliani S Shoplifting Arrest Rudy Daughter
Former new york city mayor rudy giuliani’s daughter was arrested for allegedly shoplifting wednesday at a manhattan beauty store. caroline giuliani, 20, a student at harvard university who lives in. Cops said caroline giuliani, 20, a student at harvard university, was arrested after security cameras caugh her stuffing makeup into her jacket pocket at a sephora store at e. 86th street and. Aug. 4, 2010 — the daughter of rudy giuliani, the former federal prosecutor and one time presidential candidate, was arrested today when she allegedly tried to shoplift cosmetics, according to police. Rudy giuliani's daughter was arrested wednesday on a misdemeanor shoplifting charge at a beauty supplies store after she was seen on security video pocketing makeup, the police said. Former mayor rudy giuliani's daughter was arrested wednesday afternoon for allegedly shoplifting at an upper east side beauty store, police said.
Rudy Giuliani S Daughter Arrested For Shoplifting New
The daughter of former new york city mayor rudy giuliani was arrested wednesday for allegedly shoplifting $100 of beauty products in manhattan. caroline giuliani, 20, was caught stuffing expensive. New york (cbs/wcbs/ap) caroline giuliani, the daughter of former new york city mayor rudy giuliani, was arrested wednesday on a misdemeanor shoplifting charge after she was seen on security video. Rudy giuliani made his name in new york city by being tough on crime. one can only wonder how he reacted to the news that his 20 year old daughter was caught stealing cosmetics from sephora. rudy giuliani's daughter, caroline giuliani, a harvard student, was arrested wednesday after employees at the 86th street sephora allegedly saw her putting. “rudy giuliani’s daughter busted for shoplifting at sephora” [caroline giuliani, the daughter of former new york city mayor and a senior at harvard, had been arrested for shoplifting.] typical ne’er do well pampered offspring. wake me up when she outshines her dad. Tmz has learned rudy giuliani 's daughter caroline will be walking away from a shoplifting arrest with nothing more than a ticket. law enforcement sources tell us that the former mayor's 20 year.
Caroline Giuliani Reports For Community Service Ny Daily
Caroline giuliani, the obama supporting thespian daughter of rudy—and a senior at harvard—has been arrested for shoplifting from a skincare and beauty store on the upper east side. but why. Rudy giuliani's daughter arrested for shoplifting telegraph rudy giuliani's daughter arrested for shoplifting the daughter of rudy giuliani, the former mayor of new york famously tough on crime,. The only other time caroline giuliani really made the news was in 2010, when she was arrested for shoplifting. at the time she was 20 years old and attending harvard university. according to abc. The daughter of former mayor rudy giuliani was led out of an upper east side store in handcuffs and is accused of shoplifting. cbs 2’s dave carlin reports 20 year old caroline giuliani was processed and charged at the 19th precinct stationhouse following her arrest earlier in the day. Former new york city mayor rudy giuliani's daughter caroline is caught with a bag of stolen cosmetics. virginia woman arrested for shoplifting and child neglect. "rudy giuliani's daughter.
Giuliani Daughter Arrested For 'shoplifting'
New york (cnn) the daughter of former new york mayor rudy giuliani was arrested after police said she shoplifted items at a cosmetic store. caroline giuliani, 20, was charged with one count of. New york: the daughter of former new york city mayor, rudy giuliani was arrested on wednesday on a misdemeanour shoplifting charge at a beauty supplies store after she was seen on security video. Rudy giuliani’s daughter caroline tweeted a photo of herself with kamala harris and the hashtag #removetrump, calling this election “a matter of life or (many) death(s).”. Rudy giuliani‘s daughter arrested for shoplifting. member this? offsite link. by anonymous: reply 2: 11/28/2019: what?! shocking to hear that someone with the name giuliani would do something illegal or immoral. by anonymous: reply 1: 11/28/2019: even the best of us slip up. keep boosting, girl! by anonymous: reply 2:. The hypocrisy was remarkable even by rudy giuliani's standards. "it's a private matter," he said after his 20 year old daughter was arrested for shoplifting. "and, it's going to stay that way.".


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Mikhail Metzel/Getty Images
- Russia’s economy could face more pressure as the EU eyes sanctions loopholes, the Financial Times reported.
- It could involve sanctioning countries that re-export banned products into Russia.
- Meanwhile, the US proposed a full export ban on Russia, but found little support in the G7.
The Russian economy could come under more pressure as the European Union reportedly looks to close sanctions loopholes.
EU officials are discussing new measures that would penalize countries for re-exporting banned products to Russia, sources told the Financial Times.
The proposal would give the EU power to restrict specific products from nations participating in prohibited trade with Russia. Under the mechanism, such states would be given a warning, after which they would be targeted by export controls.
However, some EU members are concerned about the proposed sanctions, citing a risk to geopolitical relations while the mechanism’s legality would also need to be reviewed, the FT reported.
“How do you avoid the unintended side-effects of pushing certain countries in a different direction to where you want them to go? You have to be very careful on how you use carrots and sticks,” one diplomat told the FT.
If implemented, the measure would add extra pressure to Russia’s economy, which has already been squeezed by sanctions on its oil exports.
The EU has already tried to persuade countries in Central Asia as well as Turkey and the UAE to get tougher on Russian efforts to evade sanctions, the FT said.
Meanwhile, the US has urged the G7 to apply an all-encompassing export ban on Russia, given the loopholes. Other members have not joined such calls, but indicated willingness to deal with the re-exporting issue in the G7’s upcoming meeting.
Official statistics from the Kremlin have suggested that Russia’s economy has proven far more resilient in the face of Western sanctions than expected.
But other signs point to a record worker shortage as the war in Ukraine adds pressure on the labor force. Other dim views on Russia’s economic prospects have piled up lately too.
Russia’s economy is becoming increasingly primitive as its war in Ukraine drags on, and the repercussions could push it down the same path the Soviet Union endured three decades ago, according to Russian economist and University of Chicago professor Konstantin Sonin.
And an adviser to Finland’s central bank said Russia is experiencing “reverse industrialization” as Western sanctions and its continued war on Ukraine weigh on long-term economic growth.

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It isn’t easy out there. Over the past quarter, some resellers have hit the wall and consolidation is rife at all levels of the channel, according to key industry players who also expect to see more big deals like the Dicker Data takeover of Express Data and a further squeezing of margins, the latter contributing to some poor results for some tier-one resellers.
But it’s not all doom and gloom despite some experts predicting the “death of the traditional reseller”. Business confidence is picking up after an election year, while Cloud, analytics, security, storage, mobility and converged infrastructure in the datacentre are all driving the market to a solid result in March after a modest start to 2014.
But with players like Atlassian packing up and heading for the greener pastures of the UK, many in the channel are still lamenting a lack of government incentives to drive investment in the sector. Channel leaders also are urging the government to get on with the construction of the NBN.
Distribution Central managing director, Nick Verykios, said he was surprised to see so many businesses hitting the wall, despite them being in the right parts of the market. But he was optimistic about the outlook for the next quarter.
“Everyone’s predicting that the ‘traditional’ reseller is dead or dying but I don’t see any of them going bust right now,” he said. “If you are getting at least modest revenue growth and better profit growth then you are in line with the healthier part of the market right now.”
He said the consensus for the channel was that a lot of resellers were calling it a very soft January-February. Much of the slowdown in billed revenue is being attributed to the unseasonably massive October-December quarter.
“The big winners for us have been contemporary threat management solutions, all technologies related to accelerating and optimising applications and data access and movement, solutions stacks based on multi-vendor storage-based reference architectures, video, mobility data analytics,” he said.
“Cloud is still threatening to be significant but the reality is it hasn’t been overwhelming yet.” Verykios predicted the key profit sectors in the next six months would be: Machine and human generated data analysis and security; Application acceleration, availability and security; Data analytics and “storage, storage and storage”; Contemporary threat management solutions; Application/data performance/optimisation; Mobile workforce integration.
Cull marketing speak But he urged the industry to cull the tidal wave of oversimplified marketing speak. “The political, social and economic environment in Australia has been quite stable and sober,” he said. “However, businesses are struggling with what to believe in when it comes to how to solve their contemporary business problems and there is confusion with all the buzz words and crap being thrown around.
“The industry is hurting the industry, not the economy. The economy is strong. Very strong. The industry needs to learn to shut up and talk to their customers in a sensible way again, not paraphrase ridiculous nomenclatures that don’t even make grammatical sense, that make the deliverer sound stupid, and the customer feel stupid. It’s a nonsense.”
WhiteGold Solutions commercial director, Leigh Howard, said resellers needed to be prepared to be innovative if they want to thrive in a “flat” market. “Some resellers have gone into receivership and some have reported the poorest results they ever had,” he said. “Looking at that you would think it’s all doom and gloom, but resellers are beginning to figure it out.
“Gen-Y is becoming the future decision makers and it’s those new fresh resellers that are prepared to work with challenger brands that will succeed. The losers are any resellers that continue to sell the same stuff from legacy tier-one vendors which no longer offer as much value or technology leadership as they once did.”
The winners are …
In the winners' margin, Howard notes the usual suspects: “Big Data, mobility, and storage are not going away but people need to find better ways of managing storage and better ways of analysing Big Data. “All the early players in MDM are struggling big-time and they missed the big opportunity of merging apps. Hot for us is converged infrastructure in the datacentre.”
Howard said consolidation would permeate the industry in the coming months and joined the chorus of tech leaders calling for acceleration of the NBN, while keeping a watchful eye on a return of the tech bubble after some very big valuations.
“We will see more consolidation at every level,” he said. “More vendors buying vendors, more distributors buying distributors and more resellers buying resellers or going out of business,” he said. “And the NBN continues to be a bit of schmozzle.”
Anittel managing director, Peter Kazacos, said it was interesting to see telcos posting generally strong results, while hardware and software providers had not fared as well.
“The other interesting thing to see was in the datacentre space,” he said. “It was surprising not that profits hadn’t increased but that the increase in revenue was quite small. We may get into a position of oversupply in the datacentre co-locations space.”
Kazacos was pleased to see Telstra chief executive, David Thodey, indicate that he would look to make the company a worldwide player.
“It’s important to have Telstra match it with some of our American counterparts. It’s a sound move.” In the ever-growing area of Cloud, Kazacos does not see a direct leader. “With Cloud, it’s not a situation of if, but when, and how do we store it?,” he said. “You can also host apps in the Cloud and telephony as well, and Voice over Internet Protocol [VoIP] will take off. The key is in providing a full service rather than just a commodity. I like the fact that Cloud providers from overseas won’t get too much of our market space unless they can provide the integration.”
Kazacos pointed to the loss of software developer Atlassian to the UK and the NBN construction slowdown as examples of lost opportunity for Australia.
“In reality if all that money heaped into manufacturing was put into the technology space we would not have a problem,” he said. “But I can’t see that on either the Liberal party or the Labor party agendas.” Channel Dynamics director, Cam Wayland, said resellers needed to scrap the jargon and look for a return-on-investment.
“It is not sexy stuff, but having a conversation with your client will flesh out where the weaknesses [security] are and customer satisfaction is what it’s really all about. Technology is an enabler of business outcomes, so how can they use technology to get better business outcomes for their clients.”
Brennan IT managing director, Dave Stevens, said the year had begun slowly, but March was looking like a “cracker”. “We had a record Q2, which was a great result,” he said. “The first half of Q3 is always tough, March to June for us is always massive and we’re looking for more record revenue and sales months”.
Stevens said products which allow clients to rationalise costs through efficient use of capital or productivity gains would be hot over the next six months as the market remained conservative. “The big shocks that have been factored in to the market haven’t materialised and if the ASX is anything to go by we are seeing new all-time highs in the market,” he said.
Intel A/NZ channel manager, V.R. Rajkumar, said the 2014 calendar year would be a strong year overall for the channel, with the Next Unit of Computing [a small form factor PC], Galileo and SSD storage playing a key role in driving sales for channel partners.
“Intel is broadening its SSD offering and the channel has key role in addressing this space,” he said. “I am also seeing a growth in the Next Unit of Computing and, similarly, we are seeing significant growth of tablet take up in the channel. With our channel access program and Android-based original device manufacturer [ODM], this gives a great opportunity for channel to play a bigger role.”
Infoready managing director, Tristan Sternson, said the start of the year had been mediocre, but his company had exceeded expections due to 2013 projects spilling over into the new year.
He said analytics and marketing would cross over to drive demand from businesses who want to use their data. However, he described the economic outlook as uncertain and bemoaned further job cuts and movement of companies off shore.”


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December 7, 2022
Ingredient solutions are needed that give companies the power to more quickly try new formulations, reformulate, document and collaborate with all supply chain partners.
Those were themes discussed during a fireside chat at SupplySide West in Las Vegas between TraceGains executives Gary Iles, senior VP of marketing and business development, and Paul Bradley, senior director of product marketing.
While “unprecedented” times seem here to stay, Iles and Bradley encouraged companies to cope by building and leveraging stronger supplier relationships to create a dynamic and agile ingredient program.
Agility, especially regarding ingredients, is not “consultant speak,” Bradley said during the session on the SupplySide Stage. Instead, it’s an “essential, core competency for all brands, despite disruptions in the supply chain in recent years.”
Iles and Bradley dismissed the pervasive idea that the current supply chain is broken. Instead, it’s been rattling for decades.
“Fundamentally, the supply chain evolved—especially in our industry—into something linear, very static, something very optimized for costs, something optimized for efficiency, not optimized for resiliency, not optimized for adaptability with mounting consumer pressure,” Bradley said.
Thousands of years of a linear supply chain coupled with evolving technology like the internet and social networks created a model that was “out of sync,” Iles said.
“Consumers that operate within networks ubiquitously through mobile devices, through social channels have the ability to self-form very quickly,” Iles said. “Consumer preferences change. They can migrate. They can form communities.”
Iles contended the supply chain isn’t about providing materials; it’s about responding to the market. Bradley added fast-forming markets clash against a traditional supply chain that was never designed to handle such pressure.
The last few years have shown that it’s difficult to re-create the reliability of the old supply chain system, and it’s time for a new, dynamic one to emerge.
Bradley recommended brands get “up close and personal” with their competition and customers in a dynamic and data-driven ecosystem.
One way to do that, Iles said, is developing a networked ingredient marketplace. Most companies view their ingredients as a core competence, like the nucleus of an atom of their brand. Factors like sustainability, ESG (environmental, social and governance), alerting and adulteration risks form a halo around the ingredient, but it’s invisible. However, a networked ingredient marketplace changes the traditional supply chain model.
“It’s having information you can access and apply it to your supply chain, to your ingredients, to any step in the process that you’re focused on—whether it’s formulation or you’re just trying to remain compliant,” Iles said.
Iles and Bradley cited clients whose competitive advantage improved by 75% through using digitized information in sourcing and employing a networked ingredient marketplace throughout their supply chain. But unfortunately, the current system has become a maze that doesn’t serve the frontline consumer.
“You have to find a different way to work with one another through the brands and across the industry as a whole,” Iles said.
Winner of the New York Times Award for Outstanding Journalism, Kerra Bolton is a versatile storyteller across digital and traditional platforms and film. Kerra's work has been featured on CNN, Ebony, The Times of Israel, New Worlder Magazine, Eat Your World Blog and Now Magazine in Toronto. Her first job was in the world-renowned photography department in National Geographic magazine.
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Yanmar Produces 10 millionth vertical water-cooled engine
April 8, 2019
Yanmar Co., Ltd.
Osaka, Japan (April 8, 2019) - Yanmar has announced the production of its 10 millionth vertical water-cooled engine.
Yanmar started production of vertical water-cooled engines - the main product of Yanmar's industrial power products business, at its former Nagahama factory in 1968 with most production currently taking place at the company’s Biwa factory - the so-called “mother factory” for this type of engine. Ibuki factory in Japan and Yanmar Engine (Shandong) Co., Ltd. in China also produce the engines. As the first company to succeed in making a compact diesel engine of a practical size in 1933, Yanmar has long been a leader of innovation in the industry. With the introduction of ever stricter emissions regulations, Yanmar has met the various environmental regulations, while pursuing lower fuel consumption and higher output, pioneering industry-leading industrial engine technology.
Yanmar regards the achievement of this 10 millionth unit as a major milestone and will continue to work on development and production of high-quality, highly reliable engines that meet the diverse needs of our customers.
With beginnings in Osaka, Japan, in 1912, Yanmar was the first to succeed in making a compact diesel engine of a practical size in 1933. Then, with industrial diesel engines as the cornerstone of its enterprise, Yanmar has continued to expand its product range, services, and expertise to deliver total solutions as an industrial equipment manufacturer. As a provider of small and large engines, agricultural machinery and facilities, construction equipment, energy systems, marine equipment, machine tools, and components, Yanmar’s global business operations span seven domains.
On land, at sea, and in the city, Yanmar’s mission of "providing sustainable solutions focused on the challenges customers face, in food production and harnessing power, thereby enriching people's lives for all our tomorrows" is a testament to Yanmar's determination to provide us with "A Sustainable Future."
For more details, please visit the official website of Yanmar Co., Ltd.:
Press Release Download
- Note: The contents of this news release reflect what was mentioned in the press announcement. Please be aware that the contents of this release may differ with new information and developments.


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At SAP TechEd 2012, Taulia was featured in Vishal Sikka’s keynote as the first SAP HANA startup live in production on AWS (Amazon Web Services). But what problem do they solve for customers? And is there something SAP HANA can do for them that other solutions can’t?
To find out, Dennis took a trip to Taulia world headquarters in San Francisco and came back with this video. Joe Hyland, Senior Director of Marketing for Taulia, gives the lowdown on CloudFinance and how the solution can make big businesses more profitable via the automation of discount capture. Markus (Max) Ament, Chief Product Officer, chimes in during the second half of the shoot to provide more context on why reinventing discounting means big data. Screen shots are included.
:40 How big businesses can be more profitable by automating discount capture
1:15 Detecting invoices that can be paid early at a discount – if the supplier is hungry for cash and eligible for early payment
1:50 A company’s most critical asset is its suppliers – why not get better returns on your money versus T-bills?
3:40 Where HANA fits in – screening thousands of suppliers and millions of invoices means big data
4:00 A cloud based solution – live on AWS
Disclosure: This video is part of a project commissioned by SAP to amplify startup activity and developer innovation on HANA, mobile, and the SAP cloud.


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The situation of European cognac is under the spotlight as trade tensions with China intensify. The Middle Kingdom’s recent anti-dumping investigation into brandy imported from the European Union has raised concerns about the repercussions on the cognac market and the sector’s major companies.
Following the Trump administration’s measures in 2019, China is now taking its turn to target French brandy, exacerbating trade tensions between the European Union (EU) and China. On January 5, 2024, Beijing announced the opening of an anti-dumping investigation into brandy imported from the EU, primarily directed against France. This decision follows a complaint lodged by the China Alcoholic Beverage Association on behalf of the domestic brandy industry.
The Chinese investigation is a direct response to the anti-dumping investigation launched by the European Commission in December 2023 on biodiesel imports from China. These trade disputes are part of a series of mutual accusations of unfair competition and protectionism between the two parties.
China imported $1.60 billion worth of distilled wine-based spirits in the first eleven months of 2023, 99.8% of which came from France. This demand, largely driven by cognac, represents a significant share of French exports, with nearly 50 million bottles sold in 2022 in East Asia.
Three major companies share the Asian cognac market: Rémy Cointreau, Pernod Ricard and Hennessy, owned by the LVMH group. Pernod Ricard generates 10% of its sales in China, with cognac accounting for over 50%.
Immediate economic impact
Following the announcement of the Chinese investigation, the share prices of French spirits companies fell significantly. Rémy Cointreau fell 11 points, Pernod Ricard 5 points and LVMH 2 points. Italy’s Campari Group was also down 2%. Last month, Campari acquired the French cognac brand Courvoisier in a bid to expand its presence in China, where it generates around 9% of its revenues.
The Association of Cognac Producers in France has said it is cooperating fully with the Chinese authorities, while believing the investigation is linked to a wider commercial dispute. “We are confident that our products and business practices fully comply with Chinese and international regulations,” said the Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac (BNIC), which represents French producers.
If China were to drastically reduce its imports of hard liquor, this would have a major impact on the French spirits industry, which is heavily dependent on exports. Recent events underline the fragility of this market and the need for European players to diversify their commercial partnerships.
The European Commission has stated that it is assessing the documentation it has received and will intervene in the investigation, where appropriate, in close cooperation with the European industry concerned.
Wines and Spirits are not enjoying their best day in Asia. Last April, Pernod Ricard had to deal with the Indian justice system. The group was prosecuted for violating the alcohol policy of the Indian capital, New Delhi, and suffered considerable financial losses. More recently, the world leader in premium wines and spirits was investigated for alleged collusion with retailers in South India.
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Under a partnership between International Enterprise (IE) Singapore and the Singapore Food Manufacturers' Association (SFMA), the Tasty Singapore Tmall Global Flagship Store was set up on Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's Tmall website.
The International Enterprise (IE) Singapore and the Singapore Food Manufacturers' Association (SFMA) jointly establish a Tasty Singapore Food Product Centre in the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city.
Singapore Food Manufacturers' Association (SFMA) has tied up with ExxonMobil to offer all SFMA members 20% off Diesel & 17% off Petrol on Esso Fleet Card Programme.
The Food Innovation Product Award (FIPA) 2016 is organised with the aim to bring together food manufacturers and tertiary students to collaborate and co-create new and innovative food products.
HIPS is a free online tool developed for companies to gauge how well they are performing in terms of productivity against their peers in the same industry.
The SME Portal (formerly known as EnterpriseOne Portal) is the first stop for Singapore SME owners and aspiring entrepreneurs looking for government and commercial information and services.
P-Max, an enhanced Place-and-Train programme (PnT Programme) will help participating SMEs to better cope with the challenges of talent recruitment, development and retention in a tight labour market.


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July 26, 2022
Extreme inflation can be a negative force for farm profitability, but Nelson Neale, vice president of CHS global research, shares how farmers can weather uncertainty to manage margins.
All consumer are feeling inflation’s effects. But what do rising costs mean for farmers and ranchers? Nelson Neale, vice president of CHS global research, says that while inflation can undoubtedly threaten profitability potential, farmers may see relief with near-record commodity prices.
Inflation impacts economic volatility
“External factors like inflation can play an outsize role and even outshine some of the market fundamentals that historically have driven price,” he says. He urges farmers to work closely with agronomic and financial advisors to develop a crop production and marketing plan that accounts for the current market uncertainty.
Rising commodity prices are a silver lining
While there is significant market volatility in crop inputs, which can threaten farm profitability, Neale says rising corn and soybean prices are helping hedge the risk. Prices for the commodities are near record highs, so inflation is playing out on both sides of the crop production financial equation. That helps create more balance from an operational cost perspective, Neale says.
According to Neale, farmers should pay close attention to their input costs and look for opportunities for more prescriptive management approaches to optimize efficiencies and reduce operational expenses. He also recommends keeping a close eye on the market to lock in favorable futures prices.
“There are opportunities for farmers and ranchers to secure reasonable profit margins if they have a true understanding of input and output prices,” he says.
For those who want to learn more about price volatility and risk protection, CHS is hosting an Around the Table Live online event on August 4, 2022. Join the virtual event to hear a panel of experts explain what all this means for your farm operation. Sign up at chsinc.com/markets.


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According to the Department of Trade and Industry, they said that the purchase was justifiable since it falls under the limit set for official government car purchase;
“The dti is of the view that the purchasing of the two vehicles for Minister Davies at the tune of R1.26M does not amount to extravagance.
“R1.26 million for two official vehicles to serve the official duties is well below the amount as prescribed by the ministerial handbook”, the R1.26 million for the two official vehicles is within the limit of the purchase of one vehicle”
“The vehicles that Minister Davies were using, had exceeded the 120 000 kilometres and one had done nearly 200 000kms and its use…” …was deemed to be in violation of security regulation and transport policy for Executive Authorities”
“In the process leading up to the purchase of the two vehicles, care was taken to ensure that there was no extravagance……associated with the purchase of the official vehicles for Minister Davies.”
“Minister Davies choice of the vehicles purchased promoted local content as both vehicles are manufactured locally.The dti is therefore of the view that the purchasing of the vehicles does not amount to extravagance”


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KBC: Donate blood, get a $10 gift card
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – Kentucky kids are getting ready to head back to school, and Kentucky Blood Center wants to help those parents with their back-to-school-shopping needs.
“We know the end of summer vacation is a busy time for parents and students, and it can be an expensive time, too, shopping for new clothes, new shoes and those long lists of school supplies,” said Martha Osborne, Executive Director of Marketing and Recruitment for Kentucky Blood Center (KBC).
“It’s also a difficult time for blood centers for the same reasons – people are busy with end of the summer activities or with school preparation and blood donations can slow down. That’s why KBC is offering parents the chance to help the community blood supply while also taking a bite out of those back-to-school expenses,” said Osborne.
Anyone who registers to donate blood July 23-29 at any Kentucky Blood Center donor center or mobile blood drive will receive a $10 gift card, perfect for those pens and pencils or bottles of hand sanitizer.
In addition, anyone who registers to donate will also be automatically entered to win a Toyota Tacoma 4X4. The Toyota giveaway runs June 1-Aug. 31. For more information about the truck giveaway, visit kybloodcenter.org.
To make an appointment to give at a donor center (listed below) or mobile blood drive, visit kybloodcenter.org or call 1-800-775-2522. Walk-ins are always welcome.
Andover Donor Center – Lexington
3130 Maple Leaf Drive
Beaumont Donor Center – Lexington
3121 Beaumont Center Circle
Middletown Donor Center – Louisville
12905 Shelbyville Road
Pikeville Donor Center
472 S. Mayo Trail
Somerset Donor Center
10 Stonegate Center


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Montana's labor force saw another month of growth in June, adding 1,789 workers.
Hundreds of millions of people struggled to keep cool amid a sweltering summer heat wave as cities across the U.S. and mainland Europe experienced record-high temperatures.
A Goldman Sachs economist says there is a 30 percent probability of the U.S. entering a recession within one year and 48 percent within two years.
Kansas is the second cheapest state to live in, according to a recent CNBC ranking.
Nearly half of American small business owners say they are at risk of closing this fall, according to new survey data.
A growing number of households in the Rocky Mountain region report "difficulties" meeting their monthly expenses because of inflation, according to a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
Average food prices climbed an annualized rate of 10.4% in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on July 13, 2022. The gains were driven primarily by the cost of groceries, which jumped the most since the 1970s, by 12.2%.
Producer prices soared by 11.3 percent in June over a year ago as consumers continue to struggle with skyrocketing prices for just about everything.
Americans are more pessimistic about coming inflation than ever recorded, new survey data shows.
Strangely enough, climate change does produce jobs and boost the economy. How does that work?


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Rolls-Royce teases one-off Phantom built to celebrate its 115-year anniversary
The bespoke luxury motor will be sold via an online-only auction later this year
A one-off version of the Rolls-Royce Phantom will be auctioned later this year to celebrate the luxury British marque’s 115th anniversary.
May 4, 1904 saw the first meeting in Manchester, UK, of the Honourable Charles Rolls and Sir Henry Royce, which gave birth to what would become one of the most iconic luxury brands ever made.
This week, at a dinner at Sotheby’s newly expanded galleries in New York celebrating the anniversary, the two companies announced a collaboration that would see a bespoke Rolls-Royce auctioned online later this year.
Details about the car are relatively thin on the ground, with a design sketch the only image that hints at the styling. There’s a red paint job on the outside, while inside will be an original hand-crafted leather “work of art” on the dashboard.
Martin Fritsches, president and CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Americas, said: “While Rolls-Royce motor cars have a history of crossing the block at RM Sotheby’s, tonight we are looking to the future of the brand.
“The eighth generation Phantom will carry the longest running name in luxury motoring into a new era. Built on the ‘architecture of luxury,’ this new Phantom commission offers one special owner the chance to enjoy a motor car that is bound to be a classic over the next 115 years”.


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The index of coincident economic indicators in Japan, which consists of a range of data including factory output, employment, and retail sales, was at 88.7 in September 2021, compared with a flash figure of 87.5 and a final 91.3 a month earlier. This was the lowest reading since November 2020, falling for the third straight month with the government cutting its view on economic conditions for the first time in more than two years, amid ongoing disruptions caused by the coronavirus. source: Cabinet Office, Japan
Coincident Index in Japan averaged 92.76 from 1985 until 2021, reaching an all time high of 107.40 in August of 2007 and a record low of 71.70 in March of 2009. This page provides the latest reported value for - Japan Coincident Index - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news. Japan Coincident Index - data, historical chart, forecasts and calendar of releases - was last updated on December of 2021.
Coincident Index in Japan is expected to be 92.00 by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. In the long-term, the Japan Coincident Index is projected to trend around 101.00 in 2022 and 106.00 in 2023, according to our econometric models.


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SHELL ON WHEELS: Florida Man shellacks classic car with seashells from the seashore
WHEN DAN TURTURRO FIRST acquired the 1965 Dodge Dart, he had no intention of ever shell shocking the neighbors.
The old car was in good shape, tan with a few minor rust spots and an engine that started right up. Turturro happily paid $2,800, which he considered a bargain for a classic car found on craigslist.
But after keeping it in his Long Island garage for five years, he decided the old car needed a makeover.
“I thought, 'I’m just going to paint this a Florida color,'’’ Turturro said, recalling the first steps in March 2020 in the transformation of a car about to lose its tan.
“I hand-painted it blue.’’
The new paint job was nice enough. But the more he looked at it, the more he knew the bright blue wasn’t quite the bold “Florida” makeover he had in mind.
So the Lake Worth Beach snowbird decided to go full Florida on the car. He started covering it in a conchy coating that unmistakably screamed Sunshine State.
Lots of seashells.
And some Florida kitsch.
First, he fastened a few metal signs — one warns against feeding alligators, another is a 1950s orange juice ad — on the doors and sides.
Then came the seashells, a scattering on the front and back doors. Turturro liked what he saw.
But like a car engine on the cold winter Long Island mornings he grew up with, he was just getting warmed up.
Bucket by bucket, he started collecting seashells by the seashore a few miles from his Lake Worth Beach house.
Like a rising tide, the shells started washing across his ride one by one, bumper to bumper, fender to fender, with equal amounts of Gorilla Glue and patience.
A year later, Turturro’s seashell collection on wheels remains a creative labor of love, a never-ending work in progress that turns heads, sparks smiles and looks like it belongs not in a garage but in an art museum
“I just do it for my own amusement,’’ said Turturro, who started the project at his home in St. James, New York, as the pandemic was taking hold.
Seven months ago, he had the car shipped to Lake Worth Beach. Since then, he has sat on a folding chair on the side of the street outside his home gluing shells to the body of his conchmobile.
Mostly the car wears seashells. But a closer look reveals some surprise accessories, like the empty bottle of rum on the front hood.
“This guy,’’ he said, pointing to a large alligator on the roof of the car, “the top of his head was broken off when he arrived. I was so distraught. Then I had to get another one.’’
There are four alligator heads on the roof now, along with a ceramic octopus, a glass lizard, a treasure chest overflowing with coins, a small army of plastic turtles and some coral.
The other day, a Parrot Cove neighbor dropped off a novelty photo of a “Florida reindeer” — a crab on top of an alligator head raising its claws.
“The next day she comes back and says to me, ‘Did you see that little card I left for you?’ Not only did I see it. It’s got a home. I stuck it right here!’’ he said, pointing to a corner of the windshield near a rooster made of seashells.
Many of the decorations are sentimental.
A ceramic pipe-smoking sailor on the hood was made by Turturro’s mother when he was 11. A stained glass surfboard, made by his father, rides along a rear side window. Just above the handle of the driver’s side door are a few shells painted by his daughter, now 22, when she was 5.
Before long, the knickknacks invaded the interior, too.
A mermaid and green parrot dangle from the roof. A row of plastic oranges, looking freshly picked from a tree, line the top backs of the front seats. A ceramic Florida-themed dinner plate anchors the center of the steering wheel.
And circling the door handles are — what else? — seashells.
“I find it strangely therapeutic,’’ Turturro said as he applied glue to the back rims of a shell with the concentration of a jeweler setting a stone.
“And I enjoy that people enjoy seeing it. It brings smiles to most people’s faces.’’
And just how many seashells are on the car?
“I have no idea,’’ he said with a laugh. “One of these days I’m going to do an estimate!’
Turturro said he left room near the back bumper for the license plate — a New York plate commemorating the 1964 World’s Fair — so he can drive the car around the neighborhood, to Bryant Park and to the shell-covered car’s favorite destination, “a shell shop on Lantana.”
The odometer, under a dashboard full of seashells, reads 87,987. But he thinks that’s too low for a 50-year-old car.
“I think it has turned over,’’ said Turturro, who works with adults with learning disabilities and volunteers at an animal shelter.
Every time he works on the car, he’s always interrupted by shellshocked passersby offering compliments.
“This guy pulled up in this beautiful convertible Mercedes the other day. Looked brand new. He says, ‘You want to trade?’’’
The seashell mobile is not for sale.
When it’s not on the street being shelled, it sits inside a garage safe from the Florida sun and rain.
And that’s where it will stay for the next six months starting at the end of April when Turturro heads back to Long Island for the summer.
Until then, he can be found most days, when it’s not raining, on Lakeside Drive just south of Seventh Avenue North.
He’ll be hard to miss.
He’ll be the guy gluing seashells to a car covered in seashells.
© 2021 ByJoeCapozzi.com All rights reserved.
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IN CASE YOU MISSED my previous blog: CHEERS TO 80 YEARS: COVID-19 helps cure clutter in Lake Worth Beach public library’s latest chapter.
MUSIC FROM OTHER KEYBOARDS
Joel Engelhardt of OnGardens.org: Plant Based Mafia makes vegan lovers an offer they can't refuse.
Noah Bierman in the Los Angeles Times: Politicians dread the sting of #KHive, the fervent online fans of Kamala Harris


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Green & Tonic LLC, one of Connecticut’s fastest growing food and beverage brands closed a $1 million round in Series C funding. The round was led by Julian Mack, senior partner at Catterton Partners; The Back 40 Farm Group; Andrew Sweet, managing director of Rhone Capital LLC; along with the support from investors Joseph Signorile and Daniel Patchod. This funding comes on the heels of the company’s April 2014 funding, bringing Green & Tonic’s total funding to nearly $3 million.
The Greenwich-based company’s latest round of funding will be used to primarily support its expansion plans as it prepares to construct its fifth location. The next restaurant is scheduled to open later this spring in the heart of downtown Westport, Connecticut. Current locations are in Cos Cob, Darien, Greenwich, and New Canaan. Green & Tonic will also use the new funding for a series of technology-driven initiatives designed to enhance the customer experience through web and mobile interaction.
“This latest funding round will help further grow our position in the rapidly growing health-casual space and allow us to bring our brand to more consumers through new retail units and innovative technology” says Jeffrey Pandolfino, CEO and cofounder, Green & Tonic. “We always knew these opportunities were in our future, but now we can pursue them much faster thanks to the generous support of our investor partners. This Series C round brings us one step closer to our mission of building communities of mindful eaters who enjoy the simple pleasures of a plant-based lifestyle.”
Before Green & Tonic, Jeffrey and Cai Pandolfino started Plum Pure Foods & Catering in Cos Cob, building it into a thriving operation. After selling Plum, the couple opened Green & Tonic in Cos Cob in 2011, eventually adding locations in Greenwich, Darien, and New Canaan, Connecticut. Green & Tonic's focus on serving pure health food—green drinks, smoothies, grains, vegan soups, and sandwiches—started with the Pandolfinos' own conversion about nutrition-conscious eating.
"We want people to feel better," says cofounder and owner, Cai Pandolfino. "Food should be like medicine. I've really spent the last several years focusing on exercise and eating the right kind of foods. It's been a fun ride so far. I think there’s a huge need for this in Connecticut. Now they’re opening their fifth location in the heart of downtown Westport, an easy spot for the post-work out crowd and Main Street shoppers alike. The Pandolfinos have said they found the perfect location.
Green & Tonic was founded with a spirited heart and an ambitious goal: to offer the purest, cold pressed juices, delicious superfood smoothies, and nutritious, plant-based food that help toward a happier mind, body, and soul, while leading the way for socially conscious initiatives. Green & Tonic hopes to engage the community in discussions about health and wellness with plans to start hosting "healthy happy hours" this summer, bringing in health professionals to address topics like nutrition, energy healing, and massage therapy.


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There’s no such thing as a free launch.
Ikea will discontinue its universal free water taxi service and begin charging riders $5 each way to travel by sea on weekdays to the Red Hook megastore if they don’t spend $10 in the home-furnishings and Swedish-meatballs palace.
The Aug. 3 fare hike is part of a summer transit shuffle at the one-year-old store that will extend the hours of the daily water taxi from 11 am to 9 pm between store’s private dock and Pier 11 in Manhattan.
“We cannot continue … a commuter service for those who are not Ikea customers,” said manager Mike Baker.
Weekend ferry service will remain free of charge to all comers and the shuttle bus service to subway stations, now running from 1 to 9 pm daily, is also complimentary.
The water taxi and shuttle bus service became instantly popular when the store opened last year and boats were actually so crowded at one point that Ikea caused an uproar when its customers were allowed to board the water taxis before non-shoppers.
Ikea provided the mass transit options in order to win public support for the big-box retail store that many hostile critics thought would clog Red Hook’s quiet streets. A recent report found that Ikea-related traffic was less than predicted.
Under the new ticketing system, everyone boarding in Manhattan must pay the $5 fare, but passengers who spend more than $10 in the store will have the round-trip fare deducted from their total.
As expected, no one is eager to shell out $10 for the ride and some warned it will be bad for Red Hook overall.
“Nobody would come here if the ferry wasn’t free,” said Jonay Winters, a visitor waiting for the ride back to Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon. “Red Hook is out of the way. People aren’t going to take a bus or a train to get here.”
Others simply don’t like the congestion-pricing solution that Ikea is imposing.
“They shouldn’t charge more, they should just have more ferries,” said Flavia Walters.


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It’s been a little more than a year since the global pandemic changed the way we conduct business and the way we live. As we head into what we hope will be the final phase of pandemic life, once again, we find ourselves asking: What’s next?
Of course, none of us can predict the future, but we can explore local business trends and track economic forecasts for the remainder of 2021. Between March 2020 and March of this year, we noted some interesting growth in the downtown Scranton business district. During this period, four businesses closed, while eight new businesses opened and at least one expanded to accommodate growing clientele. It’s always encouraging to see new businesses open, but it’s even more inspiring to witness new development during a global pandemic.
When it comes to national trends, the retail and restaurant industries are of particular interest as they play such an important role in our downtowns and main streets. According to the National Retail Federation, “retail sales in 2020 grew 6.7 percent over 2019 to $4.06 trillion, nearly doubling NRF’s forecast of at least 3.5 percent growth, which did not account for the impact of a global pandemic. This figure compares with 3.9 percent growth in 2019.”
The foundation’s annual forecast predicts the upward trend to continue through 2021, projecting retail sales to grow between 6.5 and 8.2 percent, with e-commerce sales expected to continue to trend upward. That’s promising news for local retailers and a reminder to all of us to continue to support local. A complete list of downtown Scranton retailers can be found in our downtown shopping guide at www.scrantontomorrow.org/downtownshopping.
The restaurant industry will continue to need our support this year, too. Nationwide, restaurants are among the businesses suffering the most economic hardship during the pandemic. The National Restaurant Association estimates that “during the first 12 months of the pandemic, restaurant and foodservice sales were down $270 billion from expected levels.”
In support of local restaurants, Scranton Tomorrow will continue to promote dining local initiatives through the Electric City Connection project and through our partnership with Lackawanna College’s Rally for Restaurants. We will also continue to promote our downtown Scranton dining guide at www.scrantontomorrow.org/downtowndining, featuring links to more than 60 restaurants and bars in the Business District.
While there is much to look forward to this year and statewide restrictions are easing, businesses must still adhere to health and safety standards established by Pennsylvania’s Department of Health during COVID-19. Scranton Tomorrow will continue to help members of the business community stay current on the latest guidelines, funding opportunities, and local sources for personal protective equipment. We encourage everyone to subscribe to our mailing list by contacting Liz Baldi, project coordinator, Scranton Tomorrow, at firstname.lastname@example.org, follow us on social media, and bookmark our business resources web page at https://www.scrantontomorrow.org/businessresources. We will continue to update this section in support of the local business community as long as there is a need.
Leslie Collins is the President and CEO of Scranton Tomorrow, a nonprofit economic development group.


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Scholastic Launches K-3 E-Book Resource
- By Michelle Rutledge
Children's book publisher Scholastic has announced Scholastic BookFlix, an online literary resource for children in grades K-3. Children's fiction and non-fiction titles will be paired in an e-book format. According to Scholastic, 80 pairings will be available for the launch with 20 Spanish language pairings.
The online resource is designed for school and public libraries and classrooms through a subscription; home use will be available through education institutions and public libraries, according to Scholastic.
E-book features will include:
- Read-along options;
- Narrated text and key-word definitions;
- Educational games;
- Biographies and interviews with authors; and
- Web links for book topics.
Click, Clack, Moo, Where the Wild Things Are and Goodnight Gorilla are a few of the fiction titles to be included in the e-book library. According to scholastic, the online resource is accessible with password via the Internet. The company has plans for future e-book releases as well.
READ MORE DAILY NEWS
Proposals for articles and tips for news stories, as well as questions and comments about this publication, should be submitted to David Nagel, executive editor, at [email protected].


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At a time when the economy is gradually reopening and companies are bringing some workers back
Washington.- About 1.5 million people applied for benefits for unemployment last week in United States, as the economy gradually reopens and companies bring some workers back, it was released Thursday.
The most recent figure of the work Department It marks the 11th consecutive weekly decline in claims since it peaked at nearly 7 million in March when the coronavirus shut down most of the economy and caused dozens of layoffs. The decline, however, was much less than in recent weeks – just 58,000.
The total number of people receiving help for unemployment It also fell slightly, reflecting the return of many to their previous jobs.
The labor market has started to recover slowly. In May, companies added 2.5 million jobs, an increase that indicated the market had bottomed out. The unemployment it fell from 14.7% to 13.3%, still high.
Even with May hires, nearly 21 million people are classified as unemployed. And if you include the people the government said had been misclassified as employees in May and those who lost jobs but did not look for new jobs, 32.5 million people are unemployed, economists estimate.
Thursday’s report also showed that another 760,000 people applied for benefits for unemployment under a new government program for self-employed and contract workers that makes them eligible for aid for the first time. Those figures are not seasonally adjusted, so the government does not include them in its official account.
The decline in aid calls follows other encouraging reports that the lifting of restrictions has sparked pent-up demand from consumers, whose spending is a crucial driver of the economy. Most economic indicators remain well below pre-epidemic levels, however, and some analysts question whether recent gains can be sustained, especially if infections rise again.
Last month, retail and restaurant sales rose nearly 18%, the government said Tuesday, after record crashes the previous two months. Still, minority veins remain 6% below year-ago levels.


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$1.2M To Rev-up Drive Oregon & Hire New Director
Legislature Funds Drive Oregon to Promote Growth in Electric Vehicle Industry
News from Drive Oregon
August 10th, 2011
SALEM, ORE. – With the support of Governor John Kitzhaber and the Oregon Legislature, the Oregon Innovation Council has awarded $1.2 million in funding for Drive Oregon, an initiative to energize that state’s emerging electric vehicle industry and take advantage of the federal government’s goal to have a million plug-in vehicles on the road in the next four years.
“Drive Oregon embodies the kind of organization that can help position our state to leverage its leadership in the electric vehicle sector and to grow solid family- and high- wage jobs and keep money in the local economy,” said Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogen, and chair of the Governor’s Transportation Electrification Executive Council (TEEC).
Funding is expected to be in place by the end of this year that will allow Drive Oregon to move forward with plans to nurture the economic development potential of the electric vehicle, transportation electrification and energy storage industries. See full article…
Some of that funding will go to hire a new director.
Position: Drive Oregon – Executive Director
Posted: Sep. 1, 2011
Closes: Sep. 23, 2011
Drive Oregon, the state’s industry association for electric vehicles (EVs) and components, is seeking an Executive Director (ED). This is a full-time position, and the ED reports to the Board of Directors. Drive Oregon is a coalition of companies and interest groups engaged in the EV industry and transportation electrification. Drive Oregon consists of companies that develop and produce vehicles and components, perform conversions, and provide consulting services for hybrid and electric vehicles and energy storage technologies.
Drive Oregon’s mission is to catalyze the growth of Oregon’s electric vehicle industry to ensure Oregon develops and maintains its competitive advantage and maximize the economic development potential of this emerging industry. To learn more about the job, go here…


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Hyderabad: Mango aficionados will have to shell out more money to buy their favorite fruit this season because the arrivals to the city have come down heavily. Unfavorable climatic conditions during the flowering stage of the mango crop resulted in the loss of the crop.
“Arrivals to the Koheda market in Hayathnagar have come down by about 60 percent compared to the previous year. It is because at the flowering stage the temperatures were high and it turned unfavorable for the crop, so yield is less,” said an official of the agriculture department.
On average, around 600 truckloads of mango arrive at the Koheda market on the city outskirts from different parts of the state. “Now only 300 truckloads of mangoes arrive every day. We don’t have hope of any increase in the arrivals in the future,” the official explained.
Usually, the mango flowerings start between December and March months in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra. The temperatures were high when the trees were at the flowering stage so the crop was damaged. “In Maharashtra also the crop suffered huge damage, so we can’t get good arrivals from the adjoining State as well,” the official pointed out.
Telangana markets get mangoes from Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh every year.
A kilogram of mango now costs Rs. 100 a kilogram in the retail market, the prices will remain the same in the next couple of weeks.
The retail vendors on the street point out that other than the low supply and great demand at the market, the prices of fuel increased forcing them to increase the cost of the commodity as well. “Can’t help the prices at the wholesale market at high, again we spent huge amounts for transportation and then storage. So we have to keep all in mind before fixing the price,” said a fruit vendor.


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LINCOLN, Neb. – Lincoln Police said a 33-year-old man fell victim to a scam when he was looking for a roommate online.
According to LPD, the victim placed an ad on Craigslist looking for a roommate, and received a reply from a woman in India.
The woman sent the victim a check for $2,960. The woman asked the victim to deposit the check and to send a MoneyGram back to India.
The scammer also asked the victim to include an iTunes gift card.
The victim suffered a total loss of $2,810 before realizing it was a scam.


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Win Vaping gear! The ECF 15 Millionth Post contest
We are fast approaching the 15 millionth ECF post and we have a contest to celebrate this huge landmark and amazing prizes to give out to our members! Head over to the official contest thread to see the rules and check out the prizes generously pledged by our registered suppliers on the prize announcement thread.
News and discussion of medical research and surveys related to health issues.
Not for personal health issues.


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Facing hundreds of lawsuits by everyone from consumers to state governments, Purdue Pharma is keeping the bankruptcy option on the table.
Purdue produces the opioid painkiller OxyContin, which has been prescribed for years but has also proved to be highly addictive. In recent years, pharmaceutical companies that make opioid drugs have come under fire for allegedly misrepresenting their drugs’ addictive properties.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Purdue CEO Craig Landau said no decision has been made, but it’s a prospect that could be considered if Purdue becomes an increasing target of litigation.
“It is an option,” Landau told the Post. “We are considering it, but we’ve really made no decisions on what course of actions to pursue. A lot depends on what unfolds in the weeks and months ahead.”
Declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy could shield the company from massive court judgments should it be found liable for deaths, injuries, and medical costs. At least 22 states and several Indian tribes have already sued the company seeking damages.
Purdue denies the allegations
After six states sued the company last May, Purdue noted that its products are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and accounted for only 2 percent of all opioid prescriptions. To date, it has vigorously denied allegations leveled in all lawsuits.
Meanwhile, the Raleigh News & Observer reports North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein may be maneuvering to prevent Purdue Pharma from escaping all financial penalties connected to the opioid crisis.
Stein is reportedly pressing Purdue for documents related to money received by the family that owns the company. The newspaper suggests that money received from the company by the owners, in the form of salaries and bonuses, might not be covered by bankruptcy.
“Our office is looking for more information about Purdue’s finances,” Stein’s spokeswoman, Laura Brewer, told the newspaper.
Court case could limit states’ rights
Late last year, Stein filed an amicus brief to uphold the rights of states to sue pharmaceutical companies that mislead consumers about the potential side effects of their products. The brief was filed in a case against Merck, claiming that drug company can be held liable under state law for misleading and misrepresenting the side effects of a drug
“When drug companies deceive patients or prescribers about their products, they put patients’ health on the line,” Stein said.
Stein has already filed lawsuits against several drug companies he accuses of fueling the opioid epidemic in his state.


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We’re only halfway through January and there have already been a number of announcements made that will have abig impact on the automotive industry in the near future. Imogen Pierce reports.
January normally proves a fruitful time for gathering technology and automotive gambits. Partly driven by the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which this year has continued virtually, the events of these past few weeks have proved that January 2021 is no exception.
Kia and General Motors (GM ) started the year by revealing their new logos. Kia has opted for an (almost) ambigram, which was revealed in this bonkers firework and drone display. GM – or rather gm – elected to combine lowercase letters and some kind of hp/Intel Inside mash-up [we’ve also heard it looks like an elephant sitting on a grate, or a new app that a teenage visionary hasn’t yet launched –Ed.].
The response has been mixed to the logo but not to its motivation. The m and line underneath, according to the company, represent a plug. This is to point to the automotive manufacturer’s commitment to its electric future, which will start with 30 EV variants by 2025 and a $27 billion investment in autonomous and electric technology.
The logo was not the only news from GM that captured headlines. The company also revealed its e-VTOL vehicle concept at CES and (perhaps more excitingly) a new business unit, BrightDrop, which will focus on creating an integrated ecosystem of electric commercial vehicles and supporting services. The first product will be an electric pallet, the EP1 which will be followed by the 250-mile range EV600 van later this year. 500 vans have already been promised to FedEx with general sale expected in 2022.
Effective cost management, diversification and scale is a requirement for a sustainable business, and moving outside of the traditional sell-to-customer automotive model is proving to be a necessity for carmakers. Groupe Renault recently showcased its own ambitions in this space. More on that later.
CES delivered some other highlights, including Caterpillar’s mammoth autonomous mining vehicle, a plethora of rollable screens, transparent screens, 8K screens, round screens and dual screens. In a time lived largely online, CES has generated a new type of screen fatigue. Robots have of course featured, with Samsung’s wine-pouring-table setting-dishwasher-loading “Bot Handy” causing the biggest stir.
Outside of CES, the EV world has continued to provide far juicier and more imminent nuggets. Lordstown announced it has 100,000 (albeit non-binding) orders for its Endurance EV pickup truck. Kyte, a contract-free car rental platform, raised $9 million. Based in San Francisco, Kyte doesn’t own the fleet, it partners with car rental companies and other fleet providers to put their inventory on the platform. Amazon is ordering 2,500 EV trucks from Lion while its Rivian delivery van was recorded operating with an almighty pedestrian warning noise.
Collaborations between companies are another big trend as businesses see the benefit of not going into new ventures alone. Earlier this week, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) announced a partnership with eVTOL manufacturer Archer. The agreement will help the California-based start-up to streamline production costs and scale. Archer aims to unveil its first eVTOL aircraft – which will include cockpit design elements from FCA – in early 2021 and begin volume manufacturing in 2023.
Just yesterday, Groupe Renault announced a massive strategic plan led by incumbent CEO Luca de Meo that not only outlined future plans for Renault, Dacia and Alpine (which now has a memorandum of understanding for cooperation with Lotus) but also unveiled a new business unit called Mobilize. While all eyes were on the Renault 5 Prototype electric car and the Dacia Bigster Concept, Mobilize unveiled a purpose-designed vehicle for shared urban mobility called the EZ-1 Prototype. The new business unit will also offer mobility, energy, and data-related services to other brands and partners.
Meanwhile, the Apple – Hyundai – Canoo rumor mill has churned. Reportedly Canoo and Apple were in discussions for Canoo to provide their electric vehicle platform as the basis for the Apple Car, codenamed ‘Project Titan‘. However, the partnership (apparently) fell by the wayside when discussions turned to Apple investing in Canoo.
The Hyundai tie-up seems a little more concrete, with speculation that the Apple Car could be manufactured in Kia’s Georgia plant. The rumor mill’s turbulence has been reflected in both Hyundai’s and Canoo’s share price over the past week.
The Apple Car has been an automotive Ross & Rachel – will they-won’t they – since 2014. In its narrative, it is possibly in Season 9 of 10 with the heartbreak of the job in Paris still to come. Watch this space for the saga to unfold.
In the UK, Vauxhall is considering manufacturing the e-vivaro in Luton and BYD plans to build electric buses in the UK. Alexander Dennis Limited (ADL) will start assembling BYD’s electric solo and double-decker buses for the UK market in the second half of 2021.
Vertical integration in the automotive industry is not new, Ford even owned mines for raw materials. However, 100 years on and only Great Wall, BYD and Tesla have nailed battery vertical integration. The next wave of EV mania will see competitors desperately try to follow suit.
If you’re in need of a change of scenery from your lockdown setup then open a window somewhere else in the world via window-swap (thank you Angus Dick).
Founded in 2012, Form Trends tirelessly covers the automotive design industry in all corners of the globe to bring you exclusive content about cars, design, and the people behind the products.


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The future of the smartphone industry continues to pass through the folding mobiles, although at the moment they are not having the desired start of the stage. Last year Samsung launched the Galaxy Fold and a few weeks ago the Galaxy Z Flip, a device that we have already tested in first impressions. However, other brands are also working on their folding devices, such as Huawei with its new Mate Xs; or Microsoft, which has proposed in a patent
What will the folding screens of the future be like?.
Yes recently TLC presented new prototypes of folding phones and tablets, now it has been Microsoft who, with a patent, has proposed what the flexible screens of the future will be: they will have a third panel to cover the hinge. There is currently a problem with the latest dual screen implementations: the hinge that joins, at the same time splits the two screens. However, Microsoft has an idea of what the future of these terminals will be, since the company’s latest patent shows a folding device whose hinge becomes a third screen.
We recommend you | The one who was president of Windows tells how the iPad affected Microsoft and the computer market.
The space between the two screens of the devices that have this feature has a number of limitations due to current display technology, so that often leads to unusable space occupied by bezels. There’s even a prominent area that cuts the image in half, like in the LG V50 ThinQ 5G. So far, since Microsoft’s new patent turns that same area – the hinge – into a third screen, which could be really useful when using a folding device.
A patent that turns the hinge of a folding phone into a third screen
In this way, the device would have three screens, instead of two. A third panel covering the hinge and that acts as the “backbone” of the device. In the patent it can be seen that, when the phone is deployed, this third screen visually continues content from one screen to another, so it eliminates any visual space between the two main screens and allows the content not to be cut.
It should also be noted that the Microsoft patent provides for a flexible device that can be folded outas if it were the Huawei Mate X, so the hinge would remain outside. In that case, the hinge would become a third screen that could serve to display notifications and important information in a faster way.
What is clear is that the new Microsoft patent could change the way a foldable phone behaves and manufactures by making the hinge act as a third screen. Of course, for the moment you have to treat the information for what it is -a patent-, since it may said device never see the light or that it does, but with a different design.
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Noted: Weekend Vibes
- Newport Folk Festival streams. In case you missed it. (NPR)
- 3D printing is not the miracle we were promised (Quartz)
- Google’s Drone Boat. Made for mapping. (Marine Link)
- Finally someone taking the air out of all that internet inspo. (Medium)
Above photo from a recent trip to Maine. Follow along on Instagram here.


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U.S. Senate candidate John Hickenlooper released a series of Facebook ads Monday that draw attention to ads run last week on the social media platform by his Republican opponent, U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, featuring President Donald Trump — only the Democrat's versions of the ads are appearing only in Colorado, while Gardner's ads were seen by Facebook users in every state but Colorado.
"This is the ad Cory Gardner doesn’t want Colorado to see," says one of the Hickenlooper ads, above an image of Trump and Gardner raising their hands triumphantly.
"He ran it all across America, but not here. What’s Cory Gardner hiding?"
But instead of linking to a brief video extolling the "REAL results" Gardner had advertised the Republicans' "pro-growth conservative agenda" had delivered, Hickenlooper's ad links to a HuffPost story by Amanda Terkel, the news site's Washington bureau chief.
Terkel reported Friday that the Gardner ads highlighting his bond with Trump appeared to be showing up in front of Facebook's U.S. users everywhere except in his home state, according to Facebook data.
Other versions of the Hickenlooper ads that began running Monday featured maps of the United States with an empty spot where Colorado should be.
"Cory Gardner has been running ads outside of Colorado featuring Donald Trump and his border wall, but HID those ads from Coloradans," one of those ads read. "This is typical of Gardner: He says one thing in Colorado but outside the state he’s all Trump’s."
The Gardner campaign on Friday vehemently denied it was concealing Gardner's Trump ties from Coloradans, instead pointing the blame at Facebook's ad algorithm, which amplifies ads among populations that are responding to "similar content."
“Colorado is not suppressed,” Gardner spokeswoman Meghan Graft told Colorado Politics. “Facebook’s algorithms are just optimizing based on people who engage with similar content, which also factors in population and demographics, so obviously Texas, California and Florida are going to be amongst the top three.”
Anyway, the ad hadn't been hidden from Coloradans, the Gardner campaign protested, pointing to an almost identical version that ran for about four months earlier in the year that was solely targeted at Facebook users in Colorado. What's more, while the new ad reached about 20,000 users, the original ad was viewed by around 850,000 users, Facebook data showed.
If the Gardner campaign told Facebook to avoid showing the ad to people who were already on Gardner's mailing list, a Republican strategist said, that could leave Colorado Facebook users out in the cold, since Gardner had likely already milked that group for all it was worth.
Democratic digital strategists and the Hickenlooper campaign scoffed at the Gardner campaign's explanations.
“Not only is Senator Gardner trying to hide his unwavering support for Trump from Coloradans, his campaign actually claimed that even Gardner’s own Facebook audience dislikes Trump!” Hickenlooper spokeswoman Alyssa Roberts said Monday.
“Once again, Senator Gardner has failed to be straight with Coloradans because he’s too afraid of the president he has stood with 100%.”
Gardner, considered one of the most vulnerable senators up for election this year, appeared on stage with Trump at a February rally in Colorado Springs, where he lavished praise on the president and Trump echoed the sentiment.
“You are going to help us get Cory Gardner across that line because he’s been with us 100%,” Trump told the crowd. “There was no waver. He’s been with us."
Friday afternoon, Trump reiterated his support for Gardner, tweeting that the Republican had his "Complete and Total Endorsement."
The Gardner campaign declined to comment Monday on its challenger's new ad campaign.


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Wait, HOW MUCH did airlines make in fees last year?! (It’s in the billions)
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Flyers hate paying those bag-check and cup-of-coffee fees. But airlines love collecting them.
Airlines worldwide brought in $31.5 billion in revenue from fees last year, according to a new survey. That’s more than 11 times their non-ticket revenue just six years earlier, adjusted for inflation.
Fees grew far faster than ticket prices, and helped airlines stay profitable. Including a 10% decline in 2009 amid the economic downturn, airline ticket prices climbed only 4% in the same period, according to federal data.
The income from fees was collected and analyzed by CarTrawler, a rental car services company, and IdeaWorksCompany, which helps airlines build these non-traditional revenue streams.
Part of the increase is due to awareness — more airlines are breaking out non-ticket revenue in their financial reports. The 2013 data includes 59 airlines, while the 2007 snapshot counted only 23.
Less than half of those fees are paid directly from customers’ pockets to the airline. For a typical U.S. airline, about 25% of the revenue comes from baggage fees and 10% come from other a la carte services, such as early boarding and the sales of soft drinks. About 5% comes from package deals, such as hotels, rental cars and insurance programs.
The largest share — 60% or such revenue — comes from selling frequent-flier program miles to credit card companies and others, who pass out the miles to reward their own customers.
Three leading U.S. carriers — United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines — topped the list for the most non-ticket revenue last year. United, for example, brought in $5.7 billion.
But it was a discount airline that has made fees the largest share of its business. Over 38% of Spirit Airlines’ revenue came from fees — such as the fee for printing your boarding pass at the airport or for a drink (even water) mid-flight.
And this isn’t the peak of airline fees. “We have a fair amount of room to grow yet,” says Jay Sorensen, the president of IdeaWorksCompany. He expects to see baggage fees become even more widespread, especially among European airlines.
TM & © 2014 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.


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Comcast, Verizon and AT&T were down less than 1 percent at market close while T-Mobile rose marginally. The company "just cleaned up", its CEO, John Legere, tweeted. "The FCC and other stakeholders must work together to ensure hasty deployment of this spectrum so that consumers and the entire economy can reap the benefits as quickly as possible", said ITIF.
Comcast and Charter plan new wireless partnerships with Verizon, and presumably could decide to buy a mobile carrier - especially if the likelihood exists that Sprint or T-Mobile could be taken off the market.
Interested parties were celebrating the FCC's release of a raft of data on who won what in the recent broadcast incentive auction, as well as next steps and timelines for repacking TV stations after the auction.
Bellevue, Washington-based T-Mobile won 45 percent of all low-band spectrum sold, covering 100 percent of the United States and Puerto Rico, quadrupling the Un-carrier's low-band holdings. Meanwhile, AT&T spent less than $1 billion on licenses, while Verizon declined to bid.
There's some big wireless news out today, as the FCC has announced the results of the 600MHz spectrum auction that kicked off a year ago. The result? One of the highest grossing auctions ever conducted by the FCC, with a total gross revenue coming in at a whopping $19.8 billion. Verizon's leadership clearly believes the carrier doesn't need low-band spectrum, but could still participate in mergers and acquisitions that are likely to get underway later this month, following the end of the FCC's auction quiet period, according to the same article.
The biggest winners of the auction were T-Mobile, Dish, Comcast, and US Cellular.
The improvements in its cellular network will not happen overnight for T-Mobile though, as the purchased spectrum is now being used by TV stations.
The federal government is hoping the new airwave rights will allow carriers to ease congestion on their mobile networks, which are increasingly overwhelmed by smartphone users watching streaming videos and uploading their own video to social networks like Snapchat and Instagram. That 31MHz amounts to 45% of the available licensed spectrum being auctioned off, which sounds like a lot but for the fact that the FCC put aside 30MHz(PDF) for carriers that didn't already have sizeable low-band spectrum holdings.
T-Mobile said it will begin deploying its new spectrum "later this year in parts of the country". It doesn't have enough nationwide coverage to build out an entirely new network only using the licenses it just picked up, but it could be a piece of the puzzle.
The new spectrum represents T-Mobile's biggest investment in its history. That is because low-band spectrum travels farther and is better at penetrating buildings.


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General Motors stunned Madison Avenue for the second time in a week, saying yesterday it will not advertise during the telecast of the 2013 Super Bowl.
Earlier this week, the car maker said it would discontinue its $10 million ad buy on Facebook.
The company, which went bankrupt and then was bailed out by taxpayers in 2009, said that the football spots were too expensive.
CBS, which is airing Super Bowl XLVII on Feb. 3, is charging around $4 million a spot.
“It’s just getting too expensive,” global marketing chief Joel Ewanick told The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news. “And we’re not just going to do the same thing every year.”
Ewanick, in a statement, added, “We understand the reach the Super Bowl provides, but with the significant increase in price, we simply can’t justify the expense.”
Usually marketers guard their future media plans with the utmost secrecy in order to outfox rivals. Ewanick, it appears, is shooting down conventions.
GM has said it is reviewing its media spending after switching ad agencies from Publicis Groupe’s StarcomMediaVest Group to Aegis’ Carat.
CBS declined comment.
On Madison Avenue, sources said Ewanick has made a host of verbal commitments to media outlets that won’t be fulfilled as the company reviews its media plans.
The outspoken marketing boss caused a stir just days ahead of Facebook’s initial public offering by saying that paid advertising didn’t work.
GM refused to comment on those advertising sector rumors.


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So, Lion Nathan has turned to a man more used to selling Nestle products for a living than sipping a Hahn Premium Light or sniffing a pinot or cab sav like incumbent, Gordon Cairns.
It’s not the first time this Japanese controlled former New Zealand company has looked outside the plonk industry for leadership. In fact, Lion seems to have a fetish for non in-house executives. Ttake the beaten candidate, Andrew Reeve, who heads up beer. He worked at Coca Cola Amatil before coming to Lion several years ago. Walter Bungo, a previous head of beer businesses came from Simplot Australia.
Gordon Cairns had a background in petfood, and who could forget previous CEO of Lion: Kevin Roberts, the bouncy Pom chap who ended up running Saatchis in London.
The Lion approach is very different to the ponderous, but quite apparent, in-house way rival Fosters selected Trevor O’Hoy to replace Ted Kunkel who was newly married on Saturday, March 20.
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Trevor is now off around the world looking at how he can bring his Carlton beer cost-cutting touch to the troubled Beringer Blass group of Foster’s. Iit will be tough as the company has 102 seperate locations where business is conducted, from wineries, to admin offices to cold stores and vineyards.
It’s an unwieldy structure, but one that reflects the distributed nature of wine. Beringer Blass has already spent heavily trimming down wineries and vineyards. Cutting any deeper will be tough if it involves the beer marketing approach being introduced to wine. That strategy already cost one previous heir apparent to Ted his Foster’s job. Wine sales and profits tanked pre-Beringer when the then head of CUB moved to head up wine and looked to market wine in a beer-like way.
Trevor’s one big idea in saving Calton more than $100 million a year was to close and sell off the Broadway brewery in Sydney – a no-brainer if ever there was one.
But the changes at Lion will bring with them the usual demands from analysts for cost-cutting, restructuring and moves to get the wine business ‘ right-sized’ and ‘humming’.
Of course, they will be stunned to learn that the new CEO, like all candidates, went into the year-long process with some interesting handcuffs.
Lion Nathan chairman Geoff Rickets said this week the company would not be making any ‘major u-turns’ under the new leadership. But this doesnt give the complete picture.
When Robert Murray, Andrew Reeve and one other candidate were selected they had to agree to several very important points, before being involved in the long selection process.
All three had to agree that the current strategy in beer was ok (China would continue) and that the slowly developed ‘federation style of wine makers’, centred Petaluma, Knappstein, St Hallets and other brands in Australia and the Wither Hills operation in NZ’s South Island, would continue in its present form.
Any ambitions to change the latter in particular, would see the candidate out of the process. This was not only a key proviso from Gordon Cairns, the departing CEO, who helped (with assistance from Brian Croser of Petaluma and Brent Marris of Wither Hills) to create this loose, federation style business group, but also signed off by the board Murray has been part of the board since 2002 and signed off on that strategy.
In fact in a recent article in the SMH’s Good living section where Croser outlined his new international wine making ambitions he alluded to an early battle with some in the Lion head office when he fought proposals to centralise marketing of wine in Sydney and away from the wineries.
He won (some say with strong support from Brent Marris in NZ’s Marlborough district) and this then helped drive the creation of the federation arrangement – a strategy devised to take into account the strong-willed nature of the principals in each of the four wine making groups acquired).
Now the new CEO will have to make that system work and return money to the company: any move to tinker or alter the structure could very well see the federation implode as key members depart.
Not that Lion needs much in the way of major changes at the moment. Since moving its domicile to Australia about three or so years ago, the share price has risen from around $3.50 to the $6 level it now trades around meaning that controlling shareholder Kirin has gone from a paper loss to a substantial profit.
Fosters, meanwhile, has underperformed in comparison thanks to the dead-weight of Beringer.
Could the big change come at Foster’s with some sort of partial deconsolidation of wine?


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Prometeus partners with The Skinny Food Co for deeper distribution in Europe
The Skinny Food Co has been one of the most impressive functional food brands this year, keeping things fun, fresh, and exciting, despite all that’s been going on. The good news surrounding The Skinny Food Co continues to come in this week, with details on a partnership that should expand the fast-growing brand’s reach even further throughout Europe.
The major European distributor Prometeus has partnered with The Skinny Food Co — who does ship across the continent from its website — to distribute its products to the many stores and stockists it supplies. The company has only picked up a handful of items from The Skinny Food Co, although that does make sense as it has one of the largest functional lineups out there.
From The Skinny Food Co family, Prometeus is now carrying its low to zero-calorie Skinny Syrup and Skinny Sauce, the Barista coffee creamers, Skinny Spices, and the brand’s convenient Flavor Drops. All of the products are available in various flavors and should be hitting stores soon, so if you’re in Europe, be on the lookout for the brand in the coming weeks.


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As the awareness and adoption of bitcoin increased this year, several countries passed laws banning cryptocurrencies or their use. However, most of the countries have not made their minds, and the use of bitcoin is still in the grey area. But some countries have made the use of bitcoin completely illegal.
As bitcoin continues to revolutionize the financial system as we know it, authorities in power are trying everything to suppress the inevitable revolution. One way that regulators are trying to slow down bitcoin adoption is making it illegal.
Following is the list of countries where the use of bitcoin is illegal:
Currently, it is unlawful to possess bitcoin in Afghanistan, and it is not considered as a legal tender in the country. There are no crypto exchanges in the country, and it is prohibited to take part in an ICO.
In April 2018, the central bank of Pakistan announced that bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are banned in the country, and banks will not facilitate any transaction for them.
On 13 August, 2018 Nepal Rastra Bank declared bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as illegal.
4 . Algeria
In December 2017, Algeria passed a law that made bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies entirely illegal. The purchase, sale, use, or even holding cryptocurrency is punishable by the law.
5 . Bolivia
The country banned the use of cryptocurrencies back in 2014. The country banned bitcoin because of its potential use for illegal activities.
6 . Bangladesh
In September 2014, the central bank of Bangladesh announced that anyone caught using cryptocurrency will face jail time under the country’s anti-money laundering laws.
7 . Ecuador
The Ecuadorian government issued a ban on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as the country is planning to roll out its own digital currency that would be backed by the national currency of the country.
8 . Egypt
“Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta, the primary Islamic legislator in Egypt, issued a religious decree classifying commercial transactions in bitcoin as haram (prohibited under Islamic law).
Several countries are planning to make the use of bitcoin in the future or where the use of bitcoin is in a grey area.
Here are some of the countries where bitcoin is banned but not entirely:
1 . India
In 2018, the Reserve Bank of India announced that no bank would provide any service to facilitate cryptocurrencies. But lawmakers proposed a bill that would criminalize the use of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the country.
2 . Colombia
The financial institutes in the country are prohibited from providing any services to crypto-related activities. The Superintendencia Financiera warned financial institutions in 2014 that they may not protect, invest, broker, or manage cryptocurrency operations.
3 . Jordan
The government of Jordan issued a warning discouraging the use of cryptocurrencies and announced that bitcoin is not a legal tender. However, there is no law that prohibits the use of bitcoin or makes it illegal.
4 . Indonesia
Citizens of Indonesia are allowed to trade bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but it is not a legal tender in the country.
Bitcoin is an inevitable revolution as it is decentralized in nature, so it becomes impossible for authorities to ban it. Regulators have cited that bitcoin facilitates illegal activities and is therefore dangerous. Several countries have acknowledged the power of bitcoin and decentralized cryptocurrencies and allowing the space to grow.


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Apple has set a date for its next big reveal event, and this one might be a bit different.
The company has sent out invitations for a March 25 event in San Francisco with the intriguing tagline, «It’s show time.» An accompanying graphic shows the «4… 3… 2…» countdown that is traditionally shown before the start of films and TV shows.
Apple is rumoured to be launching a video streaming service to potentially rival Netflix, Amazon Prime, and others. As GameSpot sister site CNET points out, Apple has in recent months inked content deals for new projects from M. Night Shyamalan, Steven Spielberg, Reese Witherspoon, and Oprah.
GameSpot’s parent company, CBS, recently launched its own streaming service in CBS All-Access. The next original show for CBS All-Access is the new Twilight Zone, which comes to the service on April 1.


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Posted by Shirley Brady on April 2, 2012 12:15 PM
JCPenney introduces Emeril Lagasses as its latest celebrity ambassador in a new TV commercial, above. The Bam-tastic chef is putting his name on his first line of cookware, which will be sold exclusively at JCP, which re-re-rebranded in January and produced a series of commercials featuring Ellen DeGeneres for the Academy Awards broadcast in February.
Posted by Mark J. Miller on March 28, 2012 04:36 PM
American civil rights tourism is starting to be big business. The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis is in the midst of a $27 million reno that’ll be finished in 2013 and the Smithsonian is opening a $500 million National Museum of African American History in D.C. in 2014, the same year that the $100 million National Center for Civil & Human Rights is set to open in Atlanta.
All that said, there are still some places that haven’t quite gotten to the museum-building part yet and are still just trying to just shake their own awful pasts. One Arkansas town that ran most of its black residents out of town back in 1905, burning down homes and shooting out windows, is hoping to let bygones be bygones and recast itself. The small town of Harrison, Arkansas, is now trying to rebrand itself now as a place that’s open to minorities of all stripes, the Associated Press reports.
In a town of 13,000, there are currently only 34 visible minorities that currently live in Harrison, but the town would like to draw more residents and businesses regardless of skin color, the AP adds. Town leaders have created a task force on race relations, invited a civil-rights speaker come in, and printed posters about the city’s past difficulties. But is it all whitewashing?Continue reading...
Posted by Dale Buss on March 21, 2012 01:43 PM
What's in a name? Kraft Foods is about to find out, after announcing today that Mondelēz International is the moniker of the corporate global snack-foods unit that it will spin off by the end of this year, as announced last August.
"Mondelay," you say? Nay, nay! No need to dust off your high school French. The new name — pronounced "Mohn-dah-LEEZ" — is a Kraft-coined word that, the company explained in a press release, is intended to evoke the idea of "delicious world."
"Monde" derives from the Latin (and French) word for "world," the company explained, and "dēlez" is a "fanciful expression of 'delicious.'" And, of course, "International" captures "the global nature of the business."
Even though it won't be consumer-facing, pronunciation will be a challenge ("mon-de-lay," "mon-de-less," or "mon-de-leez"?) for the new name which was, as it turns out, employee-sourced.
Last fall, Kraft invited staffers around the world to suggest names and received suggestions from more than 1,000 employees. The winner was inspired by separate suggestions from two employees, one in North America and one in Europe.Continue reading...
Posted by Michael Waltzer on February 21, 2012 04:28 PM
Friendly technology. It may sound like an oxymoron to some, but through thoughtful branding and visual design, it can be portrayed as exactly that. Nitro, which offers a PDF conversion product, has just rebranded for that very reason.
The brand, which started in Australia in 2005 and is now headquartered in San Francisco, felt its visual identity did not reflect its culture, products, or approach. In short, they wanted a brand "we could be proud of." Below, find out how they rebranded and why.Continue reading...
Posted by Mark J. Miller on February 2, 2012 02:35 PM
The University of Tennessee-Knoxville is currently listed as the 46th best national public university on the highly influential U.S. News & World Report annual rankings, a listing that prospective students and their parents are constantly checking and rechecking while trying to figure out their futures.
For those of you keeping score at home, that puts the school that launched Peyton Manning's football career into a dead tie with the University of Oregon, University of Oklahoma, University of New Hampshire, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Kansas, Florida State, and, if that weren’t enough, North Carolina State-Raleigh.
But who wants to be 46th? Not the University of Tennessee, that’s for sure. Last year, when it was ranked 47th, the university set itself a goal to get into the top 25. Clemson, Rutgers, and the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities can do it so why can’t they? A major rebranding effort that launched this week should help get them there.Continue reading...
Posted by Mark J. Miller on January 26, 2012 03:35 PM
Trying to figure out what’s on sale when and then waiting for the next sale to buy particular items can be frustrating to consumers so J.C. Penney Co. — in its first major overhaul of its retail arm since former Apple exec Ron Johnson took over as CEO in November — is attempting to make things much easier.
The company this week announced that its stores are doing away with having seven kazillion different items on different sales simultaneously and just “marking down all of its merchandise by at least 40% so shoppers will no longer have to wait for a sale to get the lowest prices in its stores.”
The move, including the repositioning commercial above, comes as jcpenney, as the chain rebranded itself at the 2011 Oscars, is re-rebranding with a new logo — following the previous year's rebrand at the 2010 Oscars (check out the logo progression below). What was that about trying to avoid consumer confusion?Continue reading...
follow the money
Posted by Mark J. Miller on January 11, 2012 05:07 PM
Sir Richard Branson is indeed taking over the world. And now he may be taking over your money.
The billionaire Brit and founder of all things Virgin on earth — including Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin Records, Virgin Mobile — and beyond, with Virgin Galactic aiming to talk regular folks into space — is this week pushing Virgin Money, the Virgin-branded bank that's taking over Northern Rock's 75 branches in the U.K. and 21,000 staff members for £747million ($948.3 million), according to the Mirror.
After the Northern Rock acquisition was announced, Virgin moved to add an annual £60 ($78) fee on every account, but then changed course and decided to offer it as an option, the Mail reports. As a sweetener, the bank will likely “offer perks such as discounts on Virgin flights or gym memberships,” the paper notes.Continue reading...
Posted by Mark J. Miller on January 4, 2012 05:07 PM
The Liz Claiborne brand name was sold in November to J.C. Penney so it was inevitable that its parent company, Liz Claiborne Inc., would shed the brand from its name. The inevitable is now official. The 34-year-old fashion company is changing its name to Fifth & Pacific Companies, and will start trading under the ticker symbol FNP in mid-May, in addition to replacing its zippy liz.com corporate domain with fifthandpacific.com.
Claiborne unloaded its Mexx brand in September and then sold its namesake brand to J.C. Penney, along with its Monet brand, two months later for $267.5 million. It also got rid of its Kensie and Dana Buchman brands this fall as it attempted to right its own financial ship. Now FNP is left with three core brands in Juicy Couture, Lucky Brand, Kate Spade, and a sibling in the mens fashion/accessory brand of Jack Spade line, to focus on.
The new corporate identity may recall Gap's Forth & Towne, Gilt's Park & Bond, and Nordstrom's Treasure & Bond, but CEO William McComb argues that the name is a perfect synthesis of the east coast/west coast stable of brands, as it's "where California cool meets New York chic."Continue reading...