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Have you transitioned to a being vegan yet?
Even as a vegan, do you make an effort to decrease the number of animal products you are taking in regularly?
If so, it is people switching to being vegan that 500 million animal lives have been spared this year, and with ongoing awareness, that number continues to rise.
It has actually become clear that everyone is not going to stop eating meat anytime quickly, but as a growing number of awareness has been made to the treatment of animals, and about the health effects of a traditional diet plan and environmental factors that come from eating excessive meat, more people are starting to at least think about the choice of taking in much less meat.
Although, many vegans would argue that it’s all or absolutely nothing which the only method to make an effect is to give up meat entirely.
We can plainly see the distinction that has actually come from individuals merely being more conscious about their meat usage.
Personally, I do not eat meat or animal items, for the most part, however, I likewise do not consider myself a vegan, primarily because I don’t feel the need for a label or to define myself in this way– anymore.
In the past, I was a vegan, a stringent one at that, and I recognized that putting labels on yourself and preaching your beliefs isn’t really necessarily an efficient method to develop change. Now, educating people on the ethical, environmental, and health concerns that work together with a traditional diet, and just how much being more conscious about the amount of meat and animal items you are taking in and motivating the concept of consuming less of these products and avoiding products originating from agriculture, now that was a more efficient way to set about it.
Informing someone that they are wrong and you right normally do not discuss so well, in my experience anyways.
We Are Consuming Less Meat
Meat consumption has actually been steadily on the decrease since 2007.
In fact, it has actually dropped 10% per capita in the United States inning accordance with data from The Humane Society of the United States.
That year, the United States raised and slaughtered around 9.5 billion land animals for food.
Since 2014 that number fell by 400 million. This is inning accordance with Paul Shapiro, Vice President, Farm Animal Protection for The Humane Society of the United States.
” What that implies is that compared with 2007, in 2015 almost half a billion fewer animals were subjected to the torment of factory farming and commercial slaughter plants and that’s despite the boost in the U.S. population.”
More Great News
That number continues to drop, and truly 500 million lives spared in a matter of just 10 years is really quite excellent.
If animals being mass-produced and slaughtered for intake continued to plummet half a billion every ten years then it wouldn’t be long before animal suffering is eradicated.
Animals used for food could be treated with much more respect and raised ethically and have an actual life before their last massacre, which is still by no means humane.
Is It Because More People Are Becoming Vegan?
Not necessarily. More people are becoming aware of the benefits of a plant-based diet plan, they are making more ethical and conscious choices about exactly what they are consuming.
This does not immediately indicate going vegan, however, individuals are deciding to eat less meat. This is definitely ending up being obvious by the increasing number of vegetarian and vegan dining establishments that appear to be opening up everywhere all the time.
In the past years, we have also seen a large range of plant-based alternatives to meat products that put the standard veggie burger to embarrassment.
There are many sensible, and surprisingly yummy options and individuals appear to be more unbiased to giving these a possibility.
Possibly since subconsciously they understand that it might be time to make a shift.
Numerous athletes are going vegan and swear by this kind of lifestyle for achieving optimum outcomes. We are even seeing many medical professionals adopting this type of way of life also.
Times Are Changing
This functions as an effective pointer that with enough awareness, and particularly with the help of the Internet, things can and will change.
If someone is deciding to stay oblivious, they won’t alter, but the Internet has actually made this a challenging thing to do.
No one wishes to see animals suffer and I’m sure that the majority of sane individuals on the planet would choose if no animal ever needed to suffer again.
When we realize just how much of an impact we ourselves can make, it helps us to make more ethical choices.
Never forget that “little acts of compassion, increased by millions will transform the world.” I believe that this is exactly what has triggered this drastic decline in the number of animals that were slaughtered for food.
We can all do our part to actively produce the type of the world we wish to live in and really understand that if we are not part of the option, we are part of the problem. What can you do to minimize your effect?


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- The European Family Business Barometer shows that 71% of respondents (more than 710 companies across 18 EU countries took part) have a positive outlook for their business, an increase of 17% from the last edition in December 2013.
- Family companies have highlighted the decline in profitability and the ‘war for talent’ as their major obstacles over the next 6 months.
- A majority of family businesses surveyed have maintained or increased their turnover and staff numbers.
EFB and KPMG launch their second edition of the European Family Business Barometer, which seeks to measure the confidence levels of family-owned businesses across Europe.
The latest figures from the euro zone may be predicting uncertain growth, but for family businesses the future appears bright. Our survey indicates that a decline in profitability has increased as a concern with 49% of respondents (compared to 38% in 2013) classifying it as their biggest challenge. The survey also shows that family businesses have a huge potential to fully exploit the benefits of doing business internationally; and many have a lack of movement in their internationalisation. Yet, despite these pressures family businesses remain confident.
There has been a noticeable increase inthe positive indicators with respect to increasing or maintaining both turnover and staff numbers; the percentage of businesses signalling a decrease in turnover and staff numbers reducing from 31% to 24% and 23% to 11%, respectively. Also with an increase in respondents willing to state their view as positive, as opposed to neutral, all the signs point to returning market confidence.
The war for talent continues to be a big influence on future success and has become an increasing trend across the last two Barometers. The warning signs are that attracting the right people with the right skills is becoming an increasing challenge and one which may require intervention if we are to mitigate it having a negative impact on the future of family businesses.
Quote Roger Pedder, EFB President:
‘The results of this second edition reinforce the assertion that family companies are a stable and responsible platform for growth in Europe. We must not ignore the other results from the Barometer, namely the challenges that remain. The pressures on profitability and the worrying trend surrounding the ‘war for talents’ is something that must be monitored and mitigated to ensure the continued success of family businesses. ’
Quote Christophe Bernard, Global Head of KPMG’s Family Business Practice:
‘Six months on from our first Barometer, it is really pleasing to see that Family Businesses are becoming increasingly confident in their future. Nevertheless, they express a clear concern on profitability which may balance their positive feelings. This is a key point to keep a close eye on in the near future.’
The European Family Business Barometer is based on the responses of an online survey from 710 finished questionnaires which were received from family businesses across 18 European countries; this second edition was open from 31 March to 4 May 2014. The survey will be conducted twice a year to measure the changing issues facing family businesses. The 3rd edition of the Barometer will be published in late-2014.
European Family Businesses (EFB) is the federation of national associations representing long-term family owned enterprises, including small, medium-sized and larger companies. EFB represents 1 trillion euros in aggregated turnover, which is 9 per cent of European GDP. EFB’s mission is to press for policies that recognise the fundamental contribution of family businesses in Europe’s economy and create a level playing field when compared to other types of companies.
KPMG’s Global Family Business Centre of Excellence is designed to leverage KPMG member firms expertise on Family Businesses, enabling them to offer specialized insight to clients. This cross-border initiative aims to position KPMG member firms as leading advisors to family businesses. KPMG operates in 155 countries and have 155,000 people working in member firms around the world. The independent member firms of the KPMG network are affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity.
Contact: Demetris S. Vakis, Board Member

domain: news


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In the latest example of a publisher blurring the line between advertising and editorial, Details is tapping its , a collective of 150 men’s style bloggers who share their work with the magazine’s website, to create content for advertisers.
In what Details is calling its version of native advertising, where ads are designed to look and feel like editorial content, the magazine tapped nine bloggers from the network to style outfits featuring fall 2013 apparel from advertisers like Gucci, Prada and Versace. For this Style.Feed campaign, stories written by the bloggers that feature their outfits are appearing as posts on the Details Network site (like from blogger Scout Sixteen) and the , and on the fashion brands' own promotional and social channels. Photographs and excerpts from the bloggers' stories were also aggregated into a that readers can find on Details’ Facebook page or on , Details' promotional site. READ THE FULL STORY
Many people are claiming that these new Meganews Magazines autonomous newstands could save the print industry. That's maybe a bit optimistic, but at the least they'll help reduce the mountains of wasted paper from unsold magazines since the over-sized vending machine only prints publications when they're ordered, in just two minutes. The kiosk has access to a remote server where publishers upload the latest editions of their periodicals, and using a touchscreen interface customers can browse more than 200 different magazines, newspapers, or journals. READ THE FULL ARTICLE
There are more ways than ever to consume media, and more media than ever to consume. But as the landscape becomes ever more fragmented and advertising revenue continues to stall, Bob and Brooke ask the question: is the Golden Age of content sustainable, or just a supernova, a dying star burning exceptionally bright?
Posted by Ami Sedghi
Observers say move is attempt to secure future generation of readers in industry suffering endemic declines in print sales. Miss Vogue: there are plans for a second issue next year, though details have not yet been confirmed
With parted blonde locks, bubblegum pink lips and a knitted jumper thrown over a denim shirt, 19-year-old model Tigerlily Taylor has the perfectly stylised look that befits the front cover of Teen Tatler.
But despite the baby pink background, Taylor represents a new type of teen: fashion-savvy, confident and with the power to spend. And high-end women's magazines are desperate to appeal to this new generation of reader.
In May Vogue launched youth-targeted spinoff Miss Vogue, and the September issue of Tatler was accompanied with a glossy teenage supplement.
At first glance, the newly launched magazines may look like a revival of the teenage print market. But industry observers describe the move as an attempt to secure a future generation of readers in an industry suffering endemic declines in print sales.FULL ARTICLE


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A new and rather strange problem is hitting Xbox 360 owners these days, as sources confirm that an email problem via Microsoft has already caused the deletion of some Gamertags and it could be possible that even more will follow.
Apparently, there is absolutely no fix for this problem and Microsoft is working madly to find out the causes and a possible way of stopping more Xbox Live accounts to be deleted. But until they do so, many people could consider their achievements from the past four years in deep danger. We do hope for all the best, though.
Gamesindustry details the problem: “The problem stems from the Windows Live ID email address that’s required to set up a Gold membership, and specifically those which are automatically set to expire after a period of inactivity, such as Hotmail.
If a user allows their Windows Live ID email to expire – perhaps because they use an alternative such as Gmail on a day-to-day basis – the email account is deleted, along with any Gamertag that may be associated with it, even if the user has set up additional non-Hotmail addresses in the meantime.”
So I guess it’s time you signed in into your email ASAP!


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Entrepreneur and innovative global tech leader, Nicolas Darveau-Garneau, joins to support the company’s hyper-growth in Total Experience Management
Alida, a leader in Total Experience Management (TXM), announced the appointment of Nicolas Darveau-Garneau to its Board of Directors.
Marketing Technology News: Majority of Consumers Will Actively Help Companies Improve Their Customer Experience, but Believe…
A strong entrepreneurial spirit coupled with a passion for tech has made Darveau-Garneau a fierce business leader in the tech space for over 25 years. In his role as Chief Evangelist at Google, Darveau-Garneau oversees 65 global evangelists to help guide some of the company’s largest advertisers in improving their profitability and optimizing their marketing investment. With extensive experience in tech leadership, Darveau-Garneau brings an inspired energy to the Alida Board of Directors as the company continues to grow its presence in the global Customer Experience Management (CXM) market. Darveau-Garneau is also on the board of directors of the Toronto Stock Exchange and Industrial Alliance Group.
“We’re very excited to have Nick joining our leadership team,” said Ross Wainwright, CEO of Alida. “As a powerful and innovative leader in the global tech space, we look forward to working together to push forward a strong growth agenda that will cement Alida as an undeniable force in the CXM market. In addition to his extensive expertise, Nick exudes Alida’s bold spirit and passion for innovation. We are proud to have him join us on our Board of Directors.”
Previous to Google, Darveau-Garneau has been a major player in co-founding several tech companies and has also advised numerous companies. Along with his passion for tech and innovation, Darveau-Garneau also invests his time in helping shape the bright minds of tomorrow as a guest lecturer at Kellogg’s Northwestern School of Business.
”I’m excited to join Alida’s board and incredible management team,” said Darveau-Garneau. “Alida’s great products help companies understand and delight customers, win market share, and increase NPS and customer lifetime value. When a company creates this much value for its customers, it’s going to go places”
“Nick brings boundless tech expertise and knowledge to the Board,” said Philip C. Deck, Chairman of the Alida Board of Directors. “His entrepreneurial and strategic mindset will be invaluable as the Alida team continues to steadily move forward on our expansion in CXM. We’re thrilled to welcome Nick to support Alida’s ongoing strategic direction.”
Marketing Technology News: Intuit Commits to Helping 1 Million US Small Businesses Cut Emissions in Half By 2030


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HP's planned $2.7bn (£1.6bn) acquisition of 3Com looks set to boost competition in the global networking and data services market, but will it benefit end-users?
The acquisition, which is due to close in the first half of 2010, has raised concerns that HP will absorb 3Com's networking switch, router and security technology, leaving existing 3Com products and end-users with reduced support.
The deal is central to HP's strategy to offer converged infrastructure to IT departments that brings together servers, storage, management software and networking to challenge rival Cisco.
It will give HP the ability to extend its own products into 3Com's strongest markets in China and South America and to develop new products using 3Com technology.
HP will become a formidable competitor in the enterprise networking market, says Mark Fabbi, analyst at Gartner. "Enterprises will benefit as HP brings new economics to enterprise networking," he says.
Better products, lower prices
IT departments also stand to benefit from increased competition between Cisco and HP. This should lead to better products and lower prices, say analysts.
Having multiple vendors for any given type of product is always a good source of protection, says Dan Kuznetsky, vice-president operations at analyst house 451 Group.
"If one supplier does not offer reasonable upgrades, pricing, terms and conditions, the customer can use the competition to motivate the supplier or simply move to the other supplier," he says.
Under the deal, HP customers should have access to better security through 3Com acquisition Tipping Point and a broader product line with input from the huge R&D facility of 3Com subsidiary H3C in China.
What about 3Com customers?
But some commentators are concerned that the deal could have an adverse impact on 3Com's customers.
"3Com customers are likely to see more funding going into 3Com's products that compete directly with Cisco's offerings, which may mean others see less investment," says Kuznetsky.
This could spell disaster for existing 3Com customers if overlapping products are withdrawn or left unsupported once the deal is finalised, says telecoms equipment maintenance firm Comtek.
Others are more optimistic. HP may not maintain the 3Com brand, but this does not mean 3Com customers will be left in the lurch, says Keith Humphreys, managing consultant at networking analyst EuroLAN.
There will be some rationalisation of the 25% of overlapping products, but HP will probably give 3Com customers an easy transition to existing or new products at economic prices, he says.
This acquisition is good for 3Com end-users because it gives them the reassurance that 3Com has the backing of a big company like HP," says Humphreys.
3Com customers may even be in a position to get concessions if they have products that will be discontinued in the near term, says Steve Steinke, senior analyst at 451 Group.
"HP is likely to be most receptive to proposals for service agreement extensions or hardware upgrades right after the deal goes through," he says.
Adam Jura, senior analyst at Ovum, says Cisco's response to HP's acquisition of 3Com will be interesting to watch.
Cisco is holding in excess of $4bn in cash on its balance sheet, giving it the opportunity to make acquisitions. "Although Ovum does not expect anything immediately, the logical choice would be EMC," he says.
The competition between HP and Cisco will continue to intensify, particularly with the emergence of cloud computing and other network-centric technology. IBM and Dell are likely to pitch in next, providing more choice for end-users.
3Com was a keen competitor with Cisco before the company switched focus away from the enterprise to small and medium-sized businesses in 2001.
The move hurt the business, say analysts, with 3Com's annual revenues now around $1.3bn, compared with Cisco's $36.1bn.
Although it is currently a smaller player, HP is acquiring the technology, expertise and customer bases it needs to challenge Cisco, say analysts. 3Com is also no longer a competitor.
3Com is a leading network supplier in China, with 30% share of the general market, but 80% of government and military business.


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Four Susquehanna Valley hhgregg’s set to close
Eighty-eight hhgregg stores nationwide will be shut down as the electronics retailer tries to improve its bottom line, the company announced Thursday.
News 8 has learned that four stores in the Susquehanna Valley are affected. The following store locations are slated to close:
- Lower Paxton Township
"Current inventory in the affected stores will be sold over the coming weeks, with the final closings expected to be complete by mid-April," reads a statement on the company's website.
Other hhgregg locations near Philadelphia are also set to close.
Bloomberg Business News reported last week that hhgregg is preparing for bankruptcy.
The retailer has been dealing with dropping sales for nearly two years.


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Between two markets
11 Jan 2016
Berita Minggu, 10 Jan 2016 - Article investigated how youth were seen to frequent supermarkets more than wet markets. SP’s Diploma in Media and Communication student, Syafil Yusof, noted that wet markets usually operate in the mornings while supermarkets operate for longer hours and even up to 24 hours a day. Youth are busy with work or school in the day and tend to sleep in on weekends, making supermarkets a natural choice. TP student, Farah Nadhirah Sazali, further opined that supermarkets are a one-stop shop with a wide variety of products; instead shoppers at wet markets have to go from shop to shop to get what they want.


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TORONTO, Aug. 31, 2023 /CNW/ – Frontline grocery workers at Metro have ratified a historic new collective agreement, ending a month-long strike that started on July 29, 2023.
“What a time to fight for workers. This is a historic collective agreement that sets a new bar for grocery store workers. It was achieved thanks to our members’ perseverance and unwavering solidarity, as well as incredible community support,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. “As a union we know the unique time we are experiencing in our fight for workers and we determined to seize that moment as we continue to organize for better for workers everywhere.”
Full-time and senior part-time workers will receive an unprecedented pay increase of $2.00 per hour within months. With all workers, full and part-time, receiving an immediate, upfront wage hike of $1.50/hour.
Front-loaded wage improvements were achieved in this historic agreement to get more money in workers’ pockets faster and to ensure that future annual wage improvements significantly compound over time—a key priority for this round of negotiations. This translates into more than $33,000 in new earnings for a full-time clerk over the lifetime of the agreement, example.
The new deal contains an overall wage improvement of $4.50 per hour for full-time and senior part-time workers and $3.20 for non-senior part-time workers, over the duration of the contract. New hourly rates will reach $25.05/hour for full-time clerks and significantly higher wages for part-time clerks —improvements that some frontline grocery workers describe as “life-changing.”
This unparalleled contract sets a precedent for further grocery store bargaining. The agreement covers 3,700 frontline grocery workers at 27 Metro stores spread across the GTA.
“Workers made it abundantly clear that they needed to see real wage gains in the first year of the agreement to address the affordability issues they currently face, which is exactly what we accomplished in this new contact,” says Gord Currie, Unifor Local 414 President. “I am extremely proud of our bargaining committee and all Metro workers for their bravery and determination.”
The new agreement also includes a new part-time sick leave program, improved benefits and pensions, a new standardized work week for full-time workers, more stable scheduling including additional guaranteed weekends off for some classifications, and job protection from the implementation of self-check-outs.
Unifor is Canada’s largest union in the private sector and represents 315,000 workers in every major area of the economy. The union advocates for all working people and their rights, fights for equality and social justice in Canada and abroad and strives to create progressive change for a better future.


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How to Boost Database Development Productivity on Linux, Docker, and Kubernetes with Microsoft SQL Server 2017 REGISTER >
With mixed signals coming from Nokia, the latest news from one of the worlds largest smartphone companies stated today that we wont see Nokia phones running Windows Phone 7 until early 2012. However in a news release last week, Stephen Elop, CEO of Nokia, stated the company would release a phone running on Microsoft Windows Phone 7 before the end of this year.
So you heard the news and want a new Nokia Phone with Microsoft Windows Phone 7. But you'll have to wait
MongoDB has the flexibility, adaptability and extensibility to embrace widely varying data types and rapid design/deployment cycles. Combining MongoDB with our 5100 ECO Enterprise SSD brings amazing results in smaller, simpler deployments compared to legacy storage.
In this technical brief, we compare two MongoDB test clusters, each using the Linux Logical Volume Manager (LVM) for RAID configuration:
5100 ECO 3-node cluster: Two Micron 5100 ECO (1.92TB) per node configured as a software RAID 0 (LVM)
In this era of Big Data, enterprise applications create a large volume of data that may be structured, semi-structured, or unstructured in nature. Application development cycles are also shorter and application availability is a critical requirement. As such, enterprises are forced to look beyond traditional relational databases to NoSQL databases, such as MongoDB and Apache Cassandra, to onboard these next-generation applications. This guide discusses the backup and recovery challenges for distributed and …


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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1999:
ProAnimal, providing independent coverage of animal protection in Israel twice a year since 1992, and of visible influence in building the Israeli humane movement, is considering whether to continue as a printed publication, or convert to an electronic format, circulated via the World Wide Web. Editor/publisher Suzanne Trauffer welcomes input at 2211 N. Berkshire Rd., Charlottesville, VA 22901; fax 804-296- 1096; e-mail >>firstname.lastname@example.org<<.
Because “The cost of publishing a periodical has become prohibitive for a small ministry like ours,” Viatoris Ministries, of Sarasota, Florida, has ceased publication of the Humane Religion newsletter. “We will continue to function,” founder Jackie Hyland added, “as a resource ministry for the animals, and will publish books and pamphlets, which are less expensive to produce and distribute.”
>>Ebay.com<<, an online auction house, on December 16 suspended the participation privileges of 14 members who e-mailed protests to the Ebay electronic bulletin board against dog auctions. The suspension drew extensive coverage from Tina Kelley of The New York Times, who noted that “The American Kennel Club h a s decided that as of April 1999 it will not register dogs sold via auction or raffle, online or otherwise, unless they have tattoos or microchips as a form of permanent identification prior to being sold.”


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Swedish audio maker Urbanista has lifted the lid on a new pair of true wireless headphones with a charging case that can only run on solar power.
Following the launch of Urbanista Los Angeles in-ear headphones last year, the brand has applied a similar design philosophy to its new wireless Phoenix headphones, which promise to do away with the need for restrictive cords and charging cables thanks to a case that continuously recharges when exposed to all forms of external or internal light.
Given how effective the Los Angeles charging technology proved to be in testing, we’re less skeptical about the Phoenix’s claim to be the first true wireless headphones powered by solar power than we could have been. Still, it is worth mentioning that the need to expose their case in sunlight (i.e. the part that normally sits in your pocket) is a big disadvantage compared to the Los Angeles setup where the headband houses the most important solar panels.
The headphones themselves aren’t sloppy, though. Phoenix features hybrid active noise cancellation and noise reduction microphones that filter out ambient sounds – including an Apple-like transparency mode AirPods Pro headphones – while they also boast a playtime of eight hours and a total battery reserve of 32 hours (which are pretty good numbers in today’s market).
They also have an auto-off feature, as well as touch controls, voice assistant support, IPX4 sweat resistance, and USB Type-C charging (in case you find yourself on a solar eclipse).
As for its appearance, the Phoenix comes in two colors: Midnight Black (black) and Desert Rose (pink). And while they’re not the most inventive-looking headphones, their AirPods shape and custom-fit silicone tips are very contemporary.
Price-wise, the latest Urbanista buttons will retail for $149 / £129 (about AU$220), which puts them well in the mid-range, in line with the tastes of Beat Studio Buds — but their novelty value as the world’s first solar-powered wireless headphones could give them an edge over the competition.
We will be testing Urbanista Phoenix as it becomes available so that we can make a proper assessment of its value. When that will happen, however, nobody knows. There is still no official word on when the new headphones will hit the market, but Urbanista has opened a signup page on your website (opens in new tab) if you want to follow the ads.
For more things related to Urbanista, check out our reviews of Miami urban planner over the ears and Stockholm city planner true wireless headphones.


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It’s evident: The traditional retail industry must adapt or end up like the dinosaur. The retail-store bubble has burst, and — as store space has become more burdensome — businesses are looking for omnichannel strategies to keep up with consumers’ evolving shopping habits.
A burst bubble
As shopping continues to gravitate online, physical store locations can become a drain on businesses. With the reduction of foot traffic, businesses that once viewed multiple store locations as a benefit now see it as an albatross. You don’t have to look far to see examples: Sears, JC Penny, and Macy’s are just a few major retailors that are closing hundreds of locations because they no longer make economic sense.
The head of Urban Outfitters, Richard Hayne, described the problem, as he sees it, on a call with analysts: “Thousands of new doors opened and rents soared. This created a bubble, and like housing, that bubble has now burst.” It stands to reason that this model of opening so many brick-and-mortar locations could not be sustainable, especially now with foot traffic in stores being replaced with web traffic.
46,000 shoppers cant’ be wrong
E-commerce sales are cutting severely into traditional retail’s bottom line. Creating an omnichannel strategy to adapt to consumers’ purchasing habits is not only smart, it’s a necessity for many retailers feeling the burden of their brick-and-mortar location(s).
While online sales have continued to show growth — a 23% increase in 2015 — e-commerce retailers need to look at omnichannel strategies as well. A recent study of 46,000 shoppers showed that only 7% preferred to shop solely online. However, the overwhelming majority of individuals in this study — 73% — preferred an omnichannel approach to their purchases.
A major factor that led to purchase decisions were touchpoints. The more places a shopper could interact with a retailer during their purchase-decision process, the more likely they were to make a purchase.
The “click-and-collect” method — in which a purchase was made on a mobile device or online, and then picked up in store — was particularly popular. This type of consumer behavior only enhances the importance of providing omnichannel solutions.
How e-commerce retailers can take advantage
This trend is not going away. E-commerce retailers must leverage their growing market position and adapt to changing demands. By offering omnichannel solutions to their consumers, a business is more likely to attract shoppers who want to be able to shop in multiple ways.
One option that has gained popularity is managed customer pick-up centers. These brick-and-mortar locations have become an attractive option for businesses because they help solve the need for an omnichannel solution, but are not as taxing. Businesses can even bypass traditional real estate investment and development by partnering with a third-party vendor, who will also staff and manage the centers.
By incorporating a multichannel strategy, such as managed customer pick-up centers, where customers can pick up items to avoid costly shipping (and sometimes theft), your e-commerce business helps address consumers’ desire for multi-touchpoints.
- 5 Reasons Why E-Commerce Businesses Fail
- E-Commerce's Newest Twist: the Cross-Channel Shopper
- How Your 3PL Strategy Fits into Your Omnichannel Puzzle


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Thursday, September 29th 2016, Forbes will formally organize Business Forum 2016 & 50 Best Vietnamese Listed Company Award Ceremony in Hotel InterContinental Asiana Saigon. Business Forum 2016 with the theme "Overcoming Challenges" is the largest business event in Vietnam which will gather top minds among policy makers and business community, to discuss business opportunities, leadership experience and corporate social responsibilities.
Mr Johan Nyvene, CEO of HSC, attend this event and present the topic “Opportunities for Vietnamese businesses” in a panel discussion at 4pm. Prior to this session, there will be a networking session at the 2nd floor lobby where HSC has an information desk with our brand exposure collaterals.
This is the fourth consecutive year HSC is voted in Forbes Vietnam based on Forbes global ranking policy with a twist for Vietnam market particularity. Forbes has ranked the company according to its business growth, effective corporate governance and sustainable development.


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The iPad has dominated the tablet market, but if Amazon introduces a new Kindle it may steal away some of Apple's market share.
SAN FRANCISCO — One after another, like moths to a flame, technology companies have been seduced into entering the market for tablets. Apple made it look so irresistible, with 29 million eager and sometimes fanatical consumers snapping up an iPad in the device’s first 15 months.
None, however, could beg or borrow any of Apple’s magic. Now comes what might be the best-placed challenger of all: Amazon.com. The retailer is on the verge of introducing its own tablet, analysts predict, a souped-up color version of its Kindle e-reader that will undercut the iPad in price and aim to steal away a couple of million in unit sales by Christmas.
Most tech companies like to keep their cards close to their vest, but Amazon, like Apple, strives to keep the whole deck invisible. It has, though, scheduled a news conference Wednesday in Manhattan, and the speculation on technology blogs and among analysts is that the tablet will be unveiled.
The Amazon tablet, analysts believe, will most likely sell for about $250, half the price of the basic iPad. Its screen will be 7 inches as opposed to the iPad’s 10 inches. Unlike the current Kindle, it will operate by touch. A second tablet, with a bigger screen, is expected next year.
Amazon’s willingness to sell the Kindle e-reader at a loss will doubtless be duplicated with its tablets. By concentrating on direct sales from its own Web site, Amazon does not have to share margins with another store.
‘’The No. 1 thing consumers do on tablets is email,” said Sarah Rotman Epps, a Forrester analyst. “The No. 2 thing is look up stuff on the Web. Then playing games and watching video. Amazon will offer all the tablet that many consumers need.” She estimated initial sales of as many as 5 million devices.
One thing, however, that could hold back the first version of the Amazon tablet is the smaller screen. Steve Jobs, then chief executive of Apple, said last year that it would never make a device that size “because we think the screen is too small to express the software.” Apple also has a lead in design that will be difficult to surmount.
Barclays analyst Anthony DiClemente is another Amazon skeptic who estimated the tablet would sell 2 million units this year. “The great thing about the Kindle is that it was really the first e-reader,” he said. “With the tablet, Amazon is a follower. That’s never as good.”
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- Discovery partners with Verizon to distribute new streaming service December 2020


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Google already sells a line of smartphones and tablets through the Google Play Store. While technically these devices are made by Samsung, Asus, and LG, they’re sold under the Google name.
According to the China Times, Google could be preparing to do the same thing with an upcoming Chromebook.
Chromebooks are basically laptops that run Google Chrome OS instead of Windows, OS X, Ubuntu, or other operating systems. In other words, they boot and shut down quickly and feature an operating system designed primarily around a web browser.
Up until now, Google has partnered with Samsung and Acer to release Chromebooks, with prices ranging from $200 to $550. While they’re listed in the Play Store, these laptops are actually sold through retailers such as Amazon and Best Buy.
But the China Times report suggests Google could work with Taiwanese equipment maker Compal to produce a Chromebook that would be a pure Google device, from head to toe.
That would allow Google to have even more control over the hardware, price, and physical design than it does over the latest Chromebooks.
China Times suggests that the Chromebook could have a touchscreen, which makes sense since the Chrome browser can run on the touch-friendly Android operating system as well as Windows, OS X, Linux, and Chrome OS.
That’s about it for the hardware specs revealed in the report though. There’s no information about the processor, storage, or other features.
Chrome OS can run on a range of chips including ARM-based processors and Intel or AMD chips with x86 architecture. While most Chromebooks to date have shipped with 16GB of flash storage, Acer’s latest Chromebook has a 320GB hard drive, so there’s no telling what kind of hardware a Google-branded Chromebook might feature.


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The strong 2010 results - Ford up 19 per cent, Chrysler up 17 per cent and General Motors up six per cent -- come as overall industry sales recover from the worst downturn in decades which thrust GM and Chrysler into government-backed bankruptcies.
They also come at the expense of Toyota, which saw sales remain at depressed 2009 levels after its once-stellar reputation was damaged by a series of mass safety recalls.
Total US auto sales rose 11.1 per cent to 11.59 million vehicles in 2010 from 10.43 million in 2009, according to Autodata.
However, that is still significantly below the 15 to 17 million vehicles sold every year from 1994 through 2007.
Ford, which managed to survive the economic downturn without government aid, was the biggest winner as its sales rose 19 per cent to 1.94 million vehicles.
Ford regained the number two spot from Toyota as it expanded US market share for the second year in a row to 16.7 per cent -- the first back-to-back market share increase since 1993.
"With our balanced line of high-quality, fuel-efficient products, we have a solid foundation to deliver more sales and improved results in 2011," said Ken Czubay, Ford vice president for US marketing, sales and service.
"Consideration for Ford is increasing beyond our traditional areas of strength -- signaling that the seeds of growth already have taken hold."
Ford said it expects global auto sales to reach record levels of 75 to 85 million vehicles in 2010 with US auto sales in the range of 12.5 to 13.5 million.
GM had a more robust forecast for 2011 US sales -- 13 to 13.5 million vehicles -- and said it was well positioned for gains after sales rose 6.3 per cent to 2.2 million vehicles in 2010.
GM, which emerged from bankruptcy in July 2009 and launched the world's biggest initial stock offering in November, noted that its four remaining brands sold 118,435 more vehicles this year than the company' eight brands in 2009.
However, its market share nonetheless slipped 0.7 points to 19.1 per cent, according to Autodata.
"Our sales this year reflect the impact of GM's new business model," said Don Johnson, vice president of US sales operations.
"The consistency of results that we achieved demonstrates the focus on our brands, dealers and customers, and how we compete aggressively for every sale, every day."
Chrysler attributed its solid gains to the business plan developed by Fiat's Sergio Marchionne, who took the helm after Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy in June 2009.
"We are extremely proud of the sales strides we made during this transition year," said Fred Diaz, Chrysler's lead executive for US sales.
The automaker launched 16 all-new or significantly improved models last year, most of them during the fourth quarter.
Chrysler's sales rose 17 per cent to 1.09 million vehicles in 2010 after posting nine straight months of growth culminating in a 16 per cent year-on-year gain for December. Its share of the US market rose 0.5 points to 9.4 per cent.
Toyota's share of the US market dropped 1.8 points to 15.2 per cent after 2010 sales shrank by 0.4 per cent to 1.76 million vehicles after falling 5.5 per cent to 177,488 in December.
"We're coming off what was arguably the most challenging time in our 53 year history," in the United States, said Don Esmond, senior vice president of automotive operations for Toyota Motor Sales, USA.
"I know we've never headed into a new year with as much excitement and anticipation as we are in 2011."
Toyota had a more conservative forecast for 2011 US sales of just 12.5 million vehicles, but expects 2012 sales to reach 13.7 million.
Esmond said he expects Toyota to outpace the industry in sales growth next year and noted that Toyota managed to hang onto the top position for US retail sales despite a brief suspension in sales in the wake of the recalls.
While Ford and GM outpaced Toyota on total sales, Esmond said that was largely due to their reliance on lower-margin fleet sales.
Honda saw US sales rise 7.3 per cent to 1.23 million vehicles, which allowed it to maintain the number four spot in terms of overall sales even as its share shrank 0.4 points to 10.6 per cent.
Nissan's sales rose 18 per cent to 908,570 vehicles as its share grew 0.4 points to 7.8 per cent.
Hyundai cracked the half-million mark for the first time as sales rose 24 per cent to 538,228 vehicles and its share rose 0.4 points to 4.6 per cent.


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Motorola leaks some of the devices that have already been revealed. Apart from these smartphones, a flagship smartphone Moto Z5 can also be launched at MWC 2020. This smartphone has recently been listed on the FCC certification site.
Apart from these smartphones, a flagship smartphone Moto Z5 can also be launched at MWC 2020. This smartphone has recently been listed on the FCC certification site.
This smartphone is listed under the model number XT2055-1. According to the listing, a strong battery of 5,000 mAh can be given on the phone. At the same time, it can also be given a turbo fast charging feature.
Motorola is going to launch its smartphone on 23 February this month. This smartphone can also be introduced in this event. Talking about the features of the phone, Qualcomm’s flagship chipset processor can be used in it.
Motorola launched Moto Z4, the last smartphone of its Z series, last year. This smartphone was launched with Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 chipset processor. The phone has a 6.4-inch full HD Plus LCD. The phone has 4GB RAM + 128GB storage.
The camera features of Moto Z4, a 48-megapixel primary has been given in its back. The phone has a battery of 3,600 mAh. Magnetic pogo pins have been provided with this smartphone, with the help of which Moto Mods can be attached.
At the same time, the features of Moto Z3, Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset processor has been used in it. It will now be seen which processor will be used in the Moto Z5.


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Apple finally stole a design
Apple has spent the last three decades or so waging a series of legal battles to fend off copycats who have lifted its innovative designs—from Microsoft, who originally copied Apple’s desktop interface for Windows, all the way through Samsung, who copied the iPhone and iPad pretty shamelessly. There was no point of pride Steve Jobs defended more bitterly or more passionately than innovative, original design.
But now it seems Apple has finally stolen a design of its own, and has been caught red-handed.
Granted, it’s a very small design feature. Gizmodo reports that in the new iOS 6, the iPad has a clock app, and the clock design is a flagrant ripoff of the iconic Swiss Federal Railway clock by Hans Hilfiker. First designed during World War II, the Railway still holds a trademark and copyright on the clock design, and licenses it out to watch makers for fancy watch designs that you can buy in the MoMA Design Store, among other places.
The Swiss Federal Railway will be seeking compensation for Apple’s use of the design. According to Mac Rumors “the aim is a legal, as well as a financial solution.”
Considering how bonkers everyone went over the iPhone 5, the company seems to be getting along fine without Jobs. But while this is a tiny little design feature, one has to wonder if the rip-off would have happened under Jobs’ tutelage.


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Quintura, the visual search engine, has just launched a couple of new features, starting with a Hot News search cloud. This gives you quick access to items that are being searched the most on the web. If you're one to care about popular web searches (for blogging purposes, perhaps?), then you may appreciate Quintura's other new feature—embeddable search clouds.
We first heard about this feature a while back, when Quintura announced its plans for embedding options, after receiving additional funding from Mangrove. With this new option, you can embed a search cloud for any set of results you'd like, such as your own name, topics covered on your blog, etc.
Lastly, there's a version of Quintura that's gotten into the Halloween spirit. This search cloud has been designed just for the upcoming holiday, and the search company is hoping it can garner a bit of extra attention as a result.


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The Caylee Anthony “tribute” dolls are back up for sale, according to the company’s “tribute” website. So far, we can’t find a way to actually buy them. We’re loaded up with “Caylee Sunshine” bracelets and tees, however. That should creep out all the parents in Park Slope. [CayleeDoll.com] (Thanks to Craig!)
Now you too can be a part of the Caylee Anthony saga unfolding on cable news networks! What’s that? This is a grotesque commercialization of what should be a private tragedy? Don’t be such a downer! “We want it to be a tribute,” Showbiz Promotions prez Jaime Salcedo told the Orlando Sentinel. Heck, he’s even thinking of donating $3 per purchase to some good cause or another.
The usual cast and crew of operation greymarket are out of luck with the iPhone, according to the Boston Globe. Unlike Nintendo and their still-scarce Wii, Apple appears to be meeting demand. From the Boston Globe:
David Flashner thought he had it wired: Buy two iPhones last Friday when they first went on sale, keep one, and sell the other at a profit so big it would pay for most of the first one.
FEMA has some used trailers (41,000 of them) to sell and so far, they’ve been netting “about 40 cents on each dollar spent by taxpayers,” according to the Washington Post.
The understocked PS3 has become the Paris Hilton of the gaming world. Demand is so fever-pitched that several opening day sales have resulted in violence and political defamation.
We had a lot of fun last night watching crazy people on Ebay fuck with the douchebags trying to sell their PS3s for thousands of dollars. We bet the Ebay fraud team is going to have fun cleaning up auctions like this one. They were the norm last night, believe it or not.


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Chipotle is replacing its queso with a newer, spicier option.
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The restaurant chain announced Wednesday that Queso Blanco will roll out nationwide Feb. 27 in place of its current queso option.
The dip has 13 “real” ingredients, Chipotle said in a news release, including aged Monterey Jack, white cheddar and serrano, poblano and chipotle peppers “to create a smooth queso with just the right amount of spicy kick.” It has no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives.
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The recipe, which was tested in 52 locations in 2019 across Dallas, Detroit and San Diego, is the third new menu item to go through Chipotle’s stage-gate process, where the company tests dishes and listens to feedback before moving toward a national launch.
"Feedback on Queso Blanco in the test markets exceeded our expectations and it quickly became clear that we needed to give all of our guests access to this delicious queso,” Chris Brandt, the chain’s chief marketing officer, said in the release. “Our culinary team perfected a recipe of real, responsibly sourced ingredients, helping to advance our mission.”
Chipotle’s financials have been on the up, too. In 2018, average restaurant sales were more than $2 million, up from $1.9 million in 2017. Its stock has gone up 5 percent in the last three months of 2020 and is up more than 43 percent on the year.


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Apple has announced two new sustainability projects in China this Wednesday, hoping to begin offsetting the carbon footprint of their entire supply chain.
The company has already completed the construction of a 40 megawatt solar project in Sichuan, which the company claims produces more than the total electricity of their China offices and retail operations.
The newly announced projects include the construction of a 200 megawatt solar projects across China’s north, east and southern regions. The will also partner with suppliers to build a further 2 gigawatts worth of clean energy projects in the coming years, hoping to avoid a total of 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gas, roughly equivalent to removing 4 million vehicles from the road for one year.
It comes at a time when China itself is stepping up its commitment to clean energy. The country is the world’s largest polluter, but has taken an active role in setting climate goals ahead of the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris starting this November. This September they rolled out plans for their own emissions trading scheme, capping emissions and allowing the trade of carbon credits.
“Climate change is one of the great challenges of our time, and the time for action is now,” said Apple CEO tim Cook in a statement on their latest projects.
Among the company’s partners involved in the project is Taiwan-based iPhone manufacturer Foxconn, who will build a 400 megawatt solar project in China’s Henan province with a deadline of 2018, looking to make the final production process carbon neutral.
“We are excited to embark on this initiative with Apple. Our companies share a vision for driving sustainability and I hope that this renewable energy project will serve as a catalyst for continued efforts,” said Foxconn CEO Terry Gou. Foxconn recently revealed plans to spend $5 billion USD to build new manufacturing operations in India.
Apple’s U.S. operations are already carbon neutral, as are their office and retail operations in China, though offsetting the the carbon emissions of their entire supply chain – a large part of which is in China – is a much more complicated process. Like many global tech hardware brands, Apple struggles to control the entire supply chain. In December last year a BBC documentary claimed that Apple had failed to adequately protect factory workers, while in 2013 Apple themselves had discovered 106 cases of child labor in their supply chain through an internal audit.
Despite the challenges of monitoring a complex supply chain throughout several developing countries, Apple is committed to offsetting more than just their own carbon footprint. “These projects go beyond Apple’s operations in China to help our suppliers adopt clean renewable energy,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives.
Apple expects they will meet their goal of removing 20 million metric tonnes of carbon in China by 2020.
Image Credit: pio3 / Shutterstock.com


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Nothing in the 2016 deeming regulations treats flavored cigars any differently than non-flavored cigars, but it doesn't mean FDA didn't try.
As part of the documents released around 2016, one document showed what FDA submitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), an executive agency that oversees any new rule proposed by an executive agency like FDA. That proposed document shows that FDA wanted to introduced stricter requirements and timelines for flavored tobacco products. Ultimately, these changes were removed before the deeming regulations went into effect.
In March 2019, then FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb announced the agency would begin to take steps to regulate flavored tobacco products differently than non-flavored cigars.
The first of those steps will be requiring flavored tobacco products to go through the approval process before the Aug. 8, 2021 deadline that applies to all tobacco products.
As of May 2019, FDA has not formally initiated this process. Furthermore, a U.S. District Court threw out the August 2021 date, further complicating the approval process for all products.
Regardless, FDA has made its intentions clear, it believes that flavored tobacco products are more dangerous than flavored products and it wants to regulate them more aggressively.
Last Updated: May 24, 2019.


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Hun Students Explore the Science of OLED Lighting at Technology Company
As part of the Hun School’s emphasis on experiential education, Hun students recently visited a company that develops the technology of OLEDs, which lights computer screens, TVs, and smartphones all around us.
Fourteen Hun honors chemistry students visited Universal Display Corporation in Ewing, New Jersey, on November 16. The company, which was born in a Princeton University laboratory in 1994, is a world leader in the invention, research, development, and commercialization of Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs).
The students toured the facility, learned how OLEDs work, and saw chemistry and engineering laboratories where the technology is developed and refined before it is sold to manufacturers. The students also visited a demonstration room where products that use OLED lighting were on display. They included Samsung phones and watches, IPhone X, Apple watches, and flat and 3D televisions and an interactive OLED mirror, which doubles as a mirror and a touchscreen.
The Hun School of Princeton is an independent, coeducational, private day and boarding college preparatory school. Student-centered, hands-on learning prepares students for the global community in which they will live and work.


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The benefits of medicinal marijuana have been extolled by United States residents for a while, and now it’s Australia’s turn.
After passing legislation in February, this Sunday saw the Narcotic Drugs Amendment Bill 2016 come into being. This means people or organisations in Australia are now able to apply for a license to cultivate and manufacture medical cannabis in Australia.
How does one apply? (We hear you asking.) Well don’t get too excited, recreational weed-smokers. The Office of Drug Control will accept applications for cannabis cultivation from people deemed “fit and proper.”
Interested people and businesses will have to pass a security test set by the office, and show the proposed location they’d be growing medicinal marijuana in, to ensure it’s not shady (metaphorically, and perhaps literally).
Last week, Apple finally revealed its grand plan to conquer your TV: a new Apple TV app that brings all your shows and movies together in one place and serves you recommendations.
The idea makes sense. Apple thinks apps are the future of TV, and that eventually you will have separate subscriptions to Netflix, HBO, Showtime, Hulu, and so on — maybe you already do.
In that world, it will be annoying to have to navigate a bunch of different interfaces and menus. So Apple will do it for you with a new app called TV, which not only works on your Apple TV, but also on your iPhone or iPad.
Immunotherapy that helps kids fight cancer without chemo. Automated cars that reduce accidents and hospitalizations. Virtual reality systems that help surgeons carry out procedures more safely. These are some of the medical innovations that could transform health care in 2017, according to the Cleveland Clinic, a large nonprofit hospital system.
In April 2013, when the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh crumbled and killed more than a thousand garment workers, Western clothing executives were chastened. They were the ones, after all, who’d been pressuring Bangladesh’s apparel factories to cheaply reproduce runway trends for consumers in the U.S. and Europe who’d grown used to $10 dresses. Following the accident, H&M, Zara, Walmart, Gap, and other major brands announced they’d fund and oversee factory inspections in Bangladesh, demanding improvements from facilities that fell short and cutting off business with those that didn’t get better. Bangladesh, with the help of the United Nations’ International Labour Organization (ILO), created its own inspection program and vowed to shut down unsafe facilities. Better vigilance, everyone figured, would be central to preventing similar accidents from happening again.
A recent study on easing anxiety for stressed-out customers looked at “high-emotion services” (the purchase of a new home or car, computer repair or airline travel, for example) that elicit intense feelings even before the product is purchased or the service begins. The problem the researchers found? These types of companies often fail to sufficiently address emotional triggers in their business models.
Certain product and service providers, it seems, make enduring impressions on distressed customers. If you’re such a provider and you can’t adequately respond to those buyers’ concerns and feelings, your customers will remember (and share) that your service left them feeling overwhelmed, helpless, neglected or, even worse, frightened. Those notions don’t exactly add up to top customer satisfaction scores.
So, what can you do?
CLIMATE PREDICTIONS—KIND OF like romantic comedies—are full of will they/won’t they suspense. Like this year’s La Niña. In September, the National Weather Service cancelled its months-long lookout for the climate phenomenon—which, as a counterpoint to El Niño, is associated with cooler overall global temperatures. Then, last week, the agency reversed. Its Climate Prediction Center predicted a 70 percent chance of La Niña forming, and folded that prediction into its Winter Weather Outlook. If true, that means the next few months will be warm and dry in the southern half of the US; wet and cool in the north.
This is a modified Spontan magazine rack. We attached them to the walls outside the bathrooms at work so that you have somewhere safe to leave your laptop (rather than on the basin inside!).
The Spontan is made of metal (with an enamel coating). While it is designed for magazines and newspapers, it is quite strong, and can hold a laptop fairly easily. One of the problems though is that the metal surfaces may scratch the body of our precious laptops. We needed a padding solution.
For the “inside” of the rack, the part that you can’t see, we cut pieces of high density foam to size. It has self adhesive on one side. We stuck it on the “inside” surfaces of the rack. This must extend down to where the bottom edge of the laptop will rest.
“31 Days to Financial Independence” is an ongoing series that appears every Thursday on The Simple Dollar. You might want to start this series from the beginning!”
Last time, we started looking at the average American family budget, going through each category and examining how one could trim the cost of typical expenses in that category.
Today, we’re going to take a look at food spending. As you can see from the budget above, the average American family spends $6,602 per year on food. That averages out to $550 per month. Remember, however, that this “average American family” includes single adults, married couples without children, and families with children, too. In other words, a single person is probably coming in below that, whereas a large family (like ours) is probably coming in above that.
Twitter is cutting 9% of its workforce – about 350 jobs – after reporting a sharp slowdown in revenue growth.
In the three months to September, revenues rose 8% to $616m. That was better than forecast, but lower than the 20% rise in the previous quarter.
The number of average monthly active users rose 3% to 317 million.
Last month, Twitter hired bankers ahead of a possible sale, but bids from potential suitors such as Google and Salesforce failed to materialise.
Shares in Twitter fell 7% earlier this month after Salesforce – considered to be the most likely bidder – said it had walked away from talks.
Jack Dorsey, chief executive, said he saw a “significant opportunity to increase growth” as the company improved the platform.
Being able to work remotely, or even build a company that’s remote, is not easy, but it’s possible today. Some of today’s most notable companies, including Basecamp, Buffer, Virgin, and WordPress are building companies with over 100+ employees all around the world. How did they do it?
They found the right ‘tools’. When your team members are living on opposite sides of the continent and in different time-zones, effective tools are vital to your team culture, productivity, and success. We’ve tested hundreds of online tools to maximize how we stay connected, productive, and happy. Here is a list of top 14 online tools that you will find useful for yourself and your team. The first four deal with connectivity while the last four help to make your team happier. The remaining six tolls help to increase your team’s productivity.


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Batteries that use silicon extracted from sand, lasting three times longer that current batteries, are said to replace graphite batteries. These batteries are being developed by researchers at the University of California in the United States. The study was published in Scientific Reports and a patent has been filed for.
Scientists have been trying to find a substitute for the anode of lithium-ion batteries so that batteries can last longer. They considered silicon which has the capacity to store 10 times the energy than current products but is hard to be produced in large quantities.
Graduate student Zachary Favors once noticed that sand is made of silicon dioxide and he thought that this silicon could be extracted to make batteries. He and his team worked to make the silicon into a coin-sized lithium-ion battery which increases battery life three times that of conventional batteries.
Darren Quick of Gizmag's explained, "Favors started milling the sand down to the nanometer scale before putting it through a series of purification steps that gave it a similar colour and texture to powdered sugar. He then ground salt and magnesium into the purified quartz and heated the resulting powder. In this very simple process, the salt acted as a heat absorber while the magnesium removed oxygen from the quartz, resulting in pure silicon."
Favors and his team have said that the improved performance of the nano-silicon electrode could be expected to equate to a threefold increase in battery life for devices such as mobile phones, which would only need to be recharged every three days rather than every day, and electric vehicle batteries that last three times longer, cutting down on expensive replacement costs.
Favors and his team are hoping to produce the nano-silicon in larger quantities and make them into pouch-sized batteries similar to those used in mobile phones.


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In addition to officially announcing its special event to be held on September 9th where two new iPhones and the long rumored wearable device is expected to debut, Apple has begun to build some sort of structure at the Flint Center for Performing Arts in Cupertino, California, as noted in our previous post. Additional images of the venue and mysterious structure have been shared by The Loop which reveal more sides to the structure as you can see above…
The Loop notes that security around the structure is “very tight” as you might expect, and the size suggests it will serve as a hands-on area for allowing event attendees to demo the new products and services to be announced at the event.
The Loop also mentions the last time Apple held an event at the Flint Center: 1998.
As readers probably know, Apple is expected to announced two new, larger display iPhones, 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch, as well as its entry into the wearable market with the product so far referred to (though not by Apple) as iWatch.
As for the building being constructed at the venue by Apple, The Loop shares a few additional angles that show its scale and the ongoing construction around it as you can see below.
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Annual inflation rate in Luxembourg decreased to 1.2 percent in October 2019 from 1.3 percent in the previous month. It was the lowest inflation since April of 2018, as cost slowed for transport (1.2 percent from 1.3 percent in September); miscellaneous goods & services (1.5 percent from 1.6 percent); food & non-alcoholic beverages (0.6 percent from 0.9 percent); alcoholic beverages & tobacco (2.1 percent from 2.3 percent) and communication (1 percent from 1.7 percent). On the other hand, prices advanced faster for furniture & household equipment (1.8 percent from 1.4 percent); recreation & culture (2.1 percent from 1.6 percent); restaurant & hotels (2 percent from 1.9 percent) and clothing & footwear (1.2 percent from 1 percent). Meanwhile, inflation was steady for health (at 0.9 percent) and education (at 1 percent) while prices fell for housing & utilities (-0.1 percent from 0.6 percent). Inflation Rate in Luxembourg averaged 2.13 percent from 1991 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 4.99 percent in October of 2005 and a record low of -1.35 percent in January of 1999.
Inflation Rate in Luxembourg is expected to be 1.40 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Inflation Rate in Luxembourg to stand at 1.50 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Luxembourg Inflation Rate is projected to trend around 2.10 percent in 2020, according to our econometric models.


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New and improved Aldi opens in Trussville
From The Trussville Tribune staff reports
TRUSSVILLE — The new ALDI in Trussville is now open. The store will host a ribbon cutting ceremony April 4, followed by the Golden Ticket Giveaway. Gift cards will be given to the first 100 customers.
The new location will be at 5485 Patrick Way, replacing the Chalkville Mountain Road location, which closed March 31. The new store design includes a more open floor plan, an increased inventory with organics and more fresh food offerings.
The new Aldi concept has been the talk of the grocery industry. Business publications have been buzzing about a head-to-head competition in the grocery industry between Aldi and Whole Foods. According to the Bloomberg Business article, Whole Foods Is Getting Killed By Aldi, Whole Foods launched the new 365 concepts with fewer frills in order to win over millennials.
Aldi’s new design concept matches the Whole Food 365 plan step-for-step, but still wins the price war with pricing as much as 30 percent below Walmart, according to Business Insider.
Aldi hours are 9 a.m. – 9 p.m. Monday through Sunday. The Mount Juliet Vice President for Aldi, Troy Marshall, said they are excited to open the new store.
“We want to make grocery shopping the best it can be, especially for our loyal customers in Trussville/Birmingham,” said Marshall.
Aldi offers a streamlined grocery shopping experience by offering only the best options at the best prices. Operations are simplified by asking customers to bag their own groceries and a 25 cent cart rental.


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An Italian entrepreneur with a passion for ice-cream has come up with a technical solution to address the nation’s sweet tooth.
This summer, Nicoletta Conficconi, an app developer in Bologna, launched ‘AppGelato’, a free app which lists the locations of Italy’s many gelateria.
The app, which is the first of its kind that provides an exhaustive list of Italy’s ice-cream parlours, allows users to search both by location and according to the flavours on offer.
“Each [ice-cream parlour] can organize their own ‘shop window’ on the app with all of their available flavours,” Conficconi tells The Local. “So the consumer can search for a gelateria or a particular flavour of ice-cream and even vote for their favourite gelateria.
“The gelateria can also use the app to contact customers through push notifications about new flavours, promotions and events.
“And the more a gelateria is clicked on, the more visibility it will have on the app – so the ones with the most clicks will be listed at the top.”
Conficconi says the inspiration for the app came to her while conducting market research at SIGEP, the International exhibition for the artisan production of gelato, pastry, confectionary and bakery in Rimini.
“In my survey I found that, while there were already other apps dedicated to ice-cream and locating ice-cream parlours there were none which listed their flavours and products and which covered the whole of Italy.”
Although the app is currently only available in Italian, Conficconi says she hopes one day to translate it into English in a bid to attract tourists visiting the country.
Nicoletta Conficconi, creator of AppGelato


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The Central Bank of UAE’s new rules for Stored Value Facilities (SVF) will facilitate the issuance of licenses to organizations that offer such service in the country, as per the regulator’s statement.
The SVFs are instruments through which users can keep their money digitally and use it for payment of goods and services like e-wallets on mobile phones or other wearable technology, top-up cards, smart cards and gift cards.
“The CBUAE aims to facilitate fintech firms and other non-bank payment service providers’ easier access to the UAE market while continuing to safeguard the customers’ funds, ensure proper business conduct and support the development of payment products and services,” it said earlier in a statement.
The initial regulatory framework for store value and electronic payment services came into action three years ago and in early November the central bank launched a set of new rules governing SVFs to enhance the digital payment system in the country.
This year, UAE witnessed a surge in the number of consumers relying on digital payments especially due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and health concerns related to it.
The new regulations formulated by CBUAE aims to offer a secured platform to market participants and promote competition and innovation in stored value and retail payment products and services by eliminating certain restrictions on licensing.
According to the new rules, non-banking payment services can procure a license without partnering with any licensed bank and making it a major shareholder. The regulation also has reduced the capital requirement to $4.08 million from $13.6 million and enables a digital customer on-boarding process instead of physical verification.
Some publications have falsely claimed that CBUAE has implicitly legalized cryptocurrencies in the region, however, the authority has cleared that currently, it is not accepting crypto or virtual assets as legal tender in the country and “the only legal tender in the region is the UAE dirham,” it added.
As defined in the regulation, “SVF is a facility that accepts a sum of money or money’s worth [that may, among others, include crypto assets or virtual assets] in exchange for the storage of the value of that money or money’s worth,” the bank said in a statement.
Since the central bank is not accepting crypto assets as legal tender in the region such assets will not be considered as a means of payment by regulators and can only be used for investment with a high risk.
Currently CBUAE is working on the Retail Payment Services Regulation, which will define regulations regarding cryptocurrency assets. The rules will bring the concept of payment tokens, which are defined as crypto-assets backed by a fiat currency.


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While specific details of Apple’s iPhone 6 remain largely scanty, the next generation smartphone from a company that revolutionized the smartphone world is one of the most anticipated new products this year. There have been slow drips of rumors here and there and I managed to catch a few.
In this post, I’ll share with you a few things I’ve ‘heard’ so far.
But first, why is the iPhone 6 so much anticipated?
Without a doubt, this coming iteration of the much-loved smartphone from Apple could very much determine the future of the iPhone, not to mention that of the company itself, at least the near future.
So it’s understandable that there would be a lot of attention and rumors about the iPhone 6 project. It’s also easy to see why Apple would like to keep its flagship smartphone project refreshed more than any other of its premium products.
Enough about the forecasting and the economics; it’s time we got to the meat of this post. Here’s what my snooping cameras have seen and heard about the impending iPhone 6.
A Revamped, Slimmer Design
The vast majority of ‘rumors’ circulating online point to a brand new metal shell with slightly more rounded corners and thinner depth overall.
So far, no leak has discussed the size and appearance of the bezel around the screen. Speaking of the screen, the size is expected to be a bigger 4.7-inch. While there have been insinuations of a bigger 5.5-inch screen, it appears that we’re more likely to see a 4.7-inch iPhone 6.
A Sapphire Crystal Screen
This shouldn’t be a rumor really as it is already known that Apple, along with GT Advanced, opened a facility in Mesa, Arizona that will be manufacturing crystal sapphire components and related products.
Various credible sources have speculated that this was in Apple’s future plans of equipping future iPhones with crystal sapphire screens.
Chances are good that this next iteration of the iPhone will feature a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal screen.
Moreover, scratch-resistant technology is not really new to Apple as it is already featured in the iPhone 5S’ fingerprint sensor.
Higher Screen Resolution
One reliable source of pre-release news from Apple suggested a sharper 1704×960 resolution for the iPhone 6. Fortunately, this increased resolution does not impose additional work for app developers to make their apps work smoothly on larger displays.
Screen size is a crucial aspect for app developers because it minimizes the fragmentation of resolution screen sizes and display, something that has been troublesome for app developers in the past.
There are a bunch of software upgrades and new features expected to ship with iOS8 including a native healthcare app that will provide health tracking for things like blood pressure metrics, heart rate, and fitness tracking, among other things.
Also, Siri is likely to get an upgrade and may now be able to recognize songs. The touch ID software is also expected to be improved based on the improvements it received in the iOS 7.1.1 update.
Support for 802.11ac Networking
The new wireless network standard 802.11ac is said to be capable of speeds of up to 1 Gigabit per second. Thankfully for all you iPhone diehards out there, there are strong suggestions that the iPhone 6 will support this new wireless standard.
All said and done, we continue to eagerly await the arrival of the next iPhone iteration expected around September or a month earlier. Hopefully, we’ll get a much clearer and more concrete idea of what will come with the new phone come early June at Apple’s annual World Wide Developer’s Conference.


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|By Business Wire||
|July 9, 2014 02:52 PM EDT||
Issuu, the world’s fastest growing digital publishing and content discovery platform, today announced the release of Issuu Clip, a new interactive product that will give the readers of millions of digital publications the ability to share any piece of content digitally, anywhere. Clip makes the billions of images and pieces of content on Issuu, instantly shareable. Readers can highlight, comment and engage in conversation with other like-minded readers.
Unlike traditional comments sections and social share links, a “Clip” appears as a highlighted link in a digital magazine or other piece of digital content. Readers can interact with the “Clips” created by other readers and follow an interactive comment stream, or they can create their own. Readers are encouraged to dive deeper into the content that they love, to interact with like-minded readers within an article and share specific points of interest on their own social streams, including Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
Beyond encouraging discussions and sharing of content, publishers can also create Clips that lead to external content, such as specific product shopping pages, advertiser information or related articles within the publication itself.
“At our core, we’ve always been about connecting people to the published content they care about most and enabling publishers and readers to share that content they discover across our platform. Now Issuu Clip allows publishers and readers to share any element of content they love with other readers across the digital landscape,” said Joe Hyrkin CEO of Issuu.
“We’re excited to introduce Issuu Clip. It is a groundbreaking product that enables personalized sharing beyond the generic interest indicators of other sharing services,” Hyrkin continued.
"As JanSport was founded on a culture of innovation which today is applied to every part of our brand, from product design to brand marketing strategies, we are excited to be a launch partner for Issuu's Clip," said Anne Soderstrom, JanSport Director of Brand.
“Issuu will offer an innovative way to communicate a genuine brand voice through content that highlights the amazing work created by street artists in San Francisco and Brooklyn as part of the JanSport Live Outside 2014 campaign. Our consumers are continuing to crave a shareable factor in everything that they do, and we believe that through Issuu Clip we'll be able to deliver a unique brand experience that they'll want to share with friends and their wider social networks."
“We’re thrilled to be involved in the launch of Issuu Clip. We're fans of Issuu's platform because it helps us bring our content to readers across any device,” said Rebecca Dolgin, Editor-in-Chief of XO Group Inc. “And now with Clip, our readers will be able to interact with other users and easily share our content across their social networks.”
"Issuu is the perfect platform for digital publishers. For readers, it provides an accessible platform to discover new publications that cover a wide variety of topics. For publishers, it provides readership, detailed analytics, support and technical features that allow any publication to thrive. No other platform is as user friendly, well designed and economically viable for publishers and their readers alike," Angela Giltrap, Editor in Chief, Heaven Has Heels.
"Issuu has become an integral tool in V's overall digital strategy—allowing us to distribute the content we are producing in print to millions of online readers simultaneously. With the addition of Clip, we are able to increase this audience exponentially—allowing our readers to share V's content in an engaging, organic way,” said Steven Chaiken, Managing Director of V Magazine.
Watch Angela Giltrap, Editor in Chief, Heaven Has Heels, Greg Martinez, Principal Partner of JanSport’s Agency of Record, Steven Chaiken, Managing Director of V Magazine join Issuu CEO, Joe Hyrkin, to discuss the future of digital publishing and talk about how they’ll be using Clip. Link here: https://event.webcasts.com/viewer/event.jsp?ei=1038540
Delivering over 5 billion page views across 17 million magazines,
catalogs and newspapers to over 80 million visitors each month, Issuu is
the fastest-growing digital publishing platform in the world and is
rapidly becoming the place readers go to discover new content and
publishers use to find a worldwide audience.
With over ten thousand new publications added daily and an unparalleled breadth of content on virtually every topic, Issuu reaches readers on tablets, desktops, laptops, and smartphones – with no subscription fees or monthly charges. Publishers can use the Issuu platform to upload visually rich content, and gain granular insight on reader characteristics, preferences, and access to new business models.
Issuu is relied upon by hundreds of thousands of publishers, including major news weeklies like Huffington magazine and retail brands, like JanSport, XO Group Inc.’s The Nest and The Bump, VICE, NASCAR, V Magazine, Bello, and Armani, to deliver a world of content including long-form magazines, luxury catalogues, and stylish lookbooks that cover everything from fashion and parenting to gluten-free cooking. Issuu is headquartered in Palo Alto, California and is backed by Sunstone Capital.
Learn more at Issuu.com.
In their session at 17th Cloud Expo, Hal Schwartz, CEO of Secure Infrastructure & Services (SIAS), and Chuck Paolillo, CTO of Secure Infrastructure & Services (SIAS), provide a study of cloud adoption trends and the power and flexibility of IBM Power and Pureflex cloud solutions. In his role as CEO of Secure Infrastructure & Services (SIAS), Hal Schwartz provides leadership and direction for the company.
Aug. 3, 2015 12:30 PM EDT Reads: 192
Container technology is sending shock waves through the world of cloud computing. Heralded as the 'next big thing,' containers provide software owners a consistent way to package their software and dependencies while infrastructure operators benefit from a standard way to deploy and run them. Containers present new challenges for tracking usage due to their dynamic nature. They can also be deployed to bare metal, virtual machines and various cloud platforms. How do software owners track the usag...
Aug. 3, 2015 12:15 PM EDT Reads: 259
As organizations shift towards IT-as-a-service models, the need for managing and protecting data residing across physical, virtual, and now cloud environments grows with it. CommVault can ensure protection and E-Discovery of your data – whether in a private cloud, a Service Provider delivered public cloud, or a hybrid cloud environment – across the heterogeneous enterprise. In his session at 17th Cloud Expo, Randy De Meno, Chief Technologist - Windows Products and Microsoft Partnerships at Com...
Aug. 3, 2015 11:48 AM EDT
In a recent research, analyst firm IDC found that the average cost of a critical application failure is $500,000 to $1 million per hour and the average total cost of unplanned application downtime is $1.25 billion to $2.5 billion per year for Fortune 1000 companies. In addition to the findings on the cost of the downtime, the research also highlighted best practices for development, testing, application support, infrastructure, and operations teams.
Aug. 3, 2015 11:45 AM EDT Reads: 203
Mobile, social, Big Data, and cloud have fundamentally changed the way we live. “Anytime, anywhere” access to data and information is no longer a luxury; it’s a requirement, in both our personal and professional lives. For IT organizations, this means pressure has never been greater to deliver meaningful services to the business and customers.
Aug. 3, 2015 10:45 AM EDT Reads: 229
SYS-CON Events announced today that MobiDev, a software development company, will exhibit at the 17th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place November 3–5, 2015, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. MobiDev is a software development company with representative offices in Atlanta (US), Sheffield (UK) and Würzburg (Germany); and development centers in Ukraine. Since 2009 it has grown from a small group of passionate engineers and business managers to a full-scale mobi...
Aug. 3, 2015 09:45 AM EDT Reads: 359
There are many considerations when moving applications from on-premise to cloud. It is critical to understand the benefits and also challenges of this migration. A successful migration will result in lower Total Cost of Ownership, yet offer the same or higher level of robustness. In his session at 15th Cloud Expo, Michael Meiner, an Engineering Director at Oracle, Corporation, analyzed a range of cloud offerings (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) and discussed the benefits/challenges of migrating to each offe...
Aug. 3, 2015 07:30 AM EDT Reads: 184
"We've just seen a huge influx of new partners coming into our ecosystem, and partners building unique offerings on top of our API set," explained Seth Bostock, Chief Executive Officer at IndependenceIT, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 16th Cloud Expo, held June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City.
Aug. 2, 2015 10:00 PM EDT Reads: 681
Digital Transformation is the ultimate goal of cloud computing and related initiatives. The phrase is certainly not a precise one, and as subject to hand-waving and distortion as any high-falutin' terminology in the world of information technology. Yet it is an excellent choice of words to describe what enterprise IT—and by extension, organizations in general—should be working to achieve. Digital Transformation means: handling all the data types being found and created in the organizat...
Aug. 2, 2015 06:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,134
SYS-CON Events announced today that HPM Networks will exhibit at the 17th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on November 3–5, 2015, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. For 20 years, HPM Networks has been integrating technology solutions that solve complex business challenges. HPM Networks has designed solutions for both SMB and enterprise customers throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
Aug. 2, 2015 05:45 PM EDT Reads: 516
Chuck Piluso presented a study of cloud adoption trends and the power and flexibility of IBM Power and Pureflex cloud solutions. Prior to Secure Infrastructure and Services, Mr. Piluso founded North American Telecommunication Corporation, a facilities-based Competitive Local Exchange Carrier licensed by the Public Service Commission in 10 states, serving as the company's chairman and president from 1997 to 2000. Between 1990 and 1997, Mr. Piluso served as chairman & founder of International Te...
Aug. 2, 2015 04:00 PM EDT Reads: 431
The Software Defined Data Center (SDDC), which enables organizations to seamlessly run in a hybrid cloud model (public + private cloud), is here to stay. IDC estimates that the software-defined networking market will be valued at $3.7 billion by 2016. Security is a key component and benefit of the SDDC, and offers an opportunity to build security 'from the ground up' and weave it into the environment from day one. In his session at 16th Cloud Expo, Reuven Harrison, CTO and Co-Founder of Tufin,...
Aug. 2, 2015 03:00 PM EDT Reads: 554
With SaaS use rampant across organizations, how can IT departments track company data and maintain security? More and more departments are commissioning their own solutions and bypassing IT. A cloud environment is amorphous and powerful, allowing you to set up solutions for all of your user needs: document sharing and collaboration, mobile access, e-mail, even industry-specific applications. In his session at 16th Cloud Expo, Shawn Mills, President and a founder of Green House Data, discussed h...
Aug. 2, 2015 11:45 AM EDT Reads: 482
For IoT to grow as quickly as analyst firms’ project, a lot is going to fall on developers to quickly bring applications to market. But the lack of a standard development platform threatens to slow growth and make application development more time consuming and costly, much like we’ve seen in the mobile space. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Mike Weiner, Product Manager of the Omega DevCloud with KORE Telematics Inc., discussed the evolving requirements for developers as IoT matures and conducte...
Aug. 2, 2015 11:15 AM EDT Reads: 360
One of the hottest areas in cloud right now is DRaaS and related offerings. In his session at 16th Cloud Expo, Dale Levesque, Disaster Recovery Product Manager with Windstream's Cloud and Data Center Marketing team, will discuss the benefits of the cloud model, which far outweigh the traditional approach, and how enterprises need to ensure that their needs are properly being met.
Aug. 2, 2015 09:00 AM EDT Reads: 1,699


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International Publishers Association president outlines promising strategies to fortify the future of global publishing
Bodour Al Qasimi concludes key engagements with industry professionals at Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2022 where Sharjah was celebrated as Guest of Honour
Bologna, Italy, March 25, 2022
Highlighting the various new initiatives through which the International Publishers Association (IPA) is trying to sustainably level up global publishing and empower its stakeholders as they rebuild in the post-pandemic era, Bodour Al Qasimi, IPA President, has engaged in key discussions with industry professionals representing diverse markets during the Bologna Children’s Book Fair (BCBF) 2022.
Among these plans is the establishment of the IPA Academy which will offer multilingual training to publishing professionals in online selling, social media marketing, and e-book & audiobook production


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“We’re in the middle of an incredible development cycle for next-gen consoles, and it’s all about finding the best games to build for them,” said Matt Fowler, senior director of EA Sports and publisher of the Polygon Game Awards.
“The big challenge is to find great games that work for next generation consoles.”
This is not to say that next-generation consoles will never have great games.
The PS4 and Xbox One have plenty of potential, for example.
But there are a lot of big names on the horizon and a lot to do.
EA is building up its catalog of franchises, which are currently in development and have yet to be released on the platform.
EA’s first next-Gen game, Battlefield: Hardline, was a critical and commercial hit, with more than 40 million copies sold.
EA has already revealed a new game in the series, Star Wars: Battlefront II, and announced plans for a next-Generation game called Star Wars Battlefront.
The studio also announced a new Star Wars game called Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
And a sequel to The Last Jedi, Star Trek Beyond, is slated for a release in 2019.
There are plenty of great games on the market, but the best of 2016 has been made possible by EA and the publishers of other upcoming games.
It is a true testament to the strength of the next-generation platform.
We’re also looking forward to the next generation, and this year, we’ve focused on building on the strengths of next- generation games, including the next great entry in the Star Wars universe.
For the first time in years, we’re building a new franchise for the next wave of consoles, one that builds on the core Star Wars story and will allow players to experience a new generation of Star Wars characters in a whole new way.
This year, Polygon will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the publication of Polygon.
We’re looking forward, this year as well, to our 50th Anniversary celebration.


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A joint report put together by a research firm and a financial institution has shown over 40 percent of households in Nigeria own and use generators to meet their electricity requirements.
According to the report it stated that the affected households spent about $14 billion annually to fuel their generators, as the power supply from the national grid continued to falter.
The June 2022 report by Stears and Sterling, titled, “Nigeria’s State of Power: Electrifying the Nation’s Economy,” stated that the cost expended on diesel and petrol for electricity generation by Nigerians was having severe economic impact on households and businesses.
It read in part, “Nigerian households, on average, have electricity in their homes for 15 to 18 hours each day. Of that, 44 per cent (or 6.8 hours) is self-supplied by generators. And this differs by geography. In a state like Taraba, only 19 per cent of households report having electricity.
“First, the cost of purchasing generators – an estimated $500m between 2015 and 2019, higher than the proposed capital expenditure in Nigeria’s 2022 budget.
“There is also the cost of powering these generators. Sources and estimates vary widely, but the African Development Bank estimated that Nigerians spend $14bn fuelling petrol or diesel powered generators.”
It added, “While PMS (Premium Motor Spirit) or petrol prices have been kept artificially low for the consumers through subsidies, variations in AGO (Automotive Gas Oil) or diesel prices can have a severe impact on households and businesses as Nigerians are currently experiencing.”
The report stated though the National Bureau of Statistics diesel price watch for February 2022 showed a less than 10 per cent rise in the price of fuel from the beginning of the year, diesel was widely sold at prices 200 to 300 per cent up from the end of last year.
This, it said, had made it incredibly difficult for households or businesses to plan and manage themselves.
The analysts noted in their report that while petrol prices appeared more stable, prices were kept artificially low by government subsidies which were generally acknowledged to be unsustainable even in the near to medium term.


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North Rift farmers face huge losses as maize rot in fields
HARVEST: Maize farmers in the North Rift have started recording huge losses because of the heavy rains.
The grains in the farms and those which have already been harvested are rotting as farms remain inaccessible and due to poor or lack of adequate storage.
“We will lose a lot if it continues to rain. This rain is unusual because long rains end in early September every year.
Most maize have not been harvested and those already in our homes have not been spared because of lack of storage,” said John Kolum, a large- scale farmer in Moi’s Bridge, Uasin Gishu county.
He said yesterday that the absence of good prices is compounding the problem, observing that if prices were reasonable, most farmers would have sold them.
“If prices were good, those who have already harvested would have sold them,” he said and added that farmers have been left on their own by the government which has failed to open National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) to stabilise prices and for storage.
He wondered what became of the Warehouse Receipting System which if it had been implemented, farmers would have stored their produce until prices in the market improved and to avoid post- harvest losses.
Traders and middlemen are buying a 90 kg bag of the grain in the country’s breadbasket at between Sh2,100 and Sh2,000, which farmers say is little compared to the production cost of the same.
The NCPB stores outside Eldoret, farmers said lack functional dryers and asked the government to intervene and install them in all stores and the board management to allow farmers to dry their produce free of charge.
“NCPB stores have been neglected by the government for decades now. Dryers are not working while the silos are leaking.
It’s time to focus more on grains preservation for the country to get out of borrowing for food handouts,” said Ernest Tormoi, an official of the Kenya National Farmers Union, Eldoret branch and a large- scale maize farmer in Ziwa area.
This season, he said, North Rift would record the lowest harvest in the recent years because of poor seeds, post harvest losses and ill preparation of seed beds early.


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Jeff Bezos will step down as CEO of Amazon, which is a shocking change in its own right, but the move has also highlighted his successor, an unknown CEO named Andy Gacy who runs the company’s cloud computing unit.
Andy Gacy’s new CEO
Gacy is currently CEO of Amazon Web Services, the lucrative cloud computing arm of the e-commerce giant, which accounted for 67% of the company’s entire operating profit in the fourth quarter, supported by increased demand during the COVID-19 period.
Gacy joined Amazon in 1997, and worked as a technical assistant to Bezos before eventually helping to launch Amazon Web Services in 2006.
Bezos, the world’s richest person, has also said he also wants to focus on his commercial space company Blue Origin and on the Washington Post business, which he has owned since 2013.
In September, the Washington Post announced that Gacy was the likely “successor” after the retirement of another Bezos deputy, Jeff Wilk, last August, Wilk had been running Amazon’s consumer business around the world and was seen as the best option to replace Bezos.