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Ancillary cannabis-related businesses are primed for explosive growth
The growth of the cannabis market into a multibillion-dollar legal industry has had massive implications for a range of ancillary cannabis-related businesses. First among these is the market for cannabis accessories. Pipes, grinders, rolling papers and a world of other products that, prior to legalization, were socially relegated to the local head shop.
Today, the legalization of adult-use recreational cannabis has allowed retailers to finally dispense with the pretense that a bong is “for tobacco use only”. The legitimization of cannabis now involves not only breaking stigmas and taking previously viewed niche products into the mainstream but also creating opportunity and driving demand for unprecedented growth in the cannabis accessories space.
From provincial government-operated outlets to franchised retail networks, there are now hundreds of new cannabis retail stores expected to open across Canada. On top of selling dried flower and oil extracts, each of these shops needs to carry a wide selection of accessories, in a variety of styles, from a range of brands. Any new cannabis customer coming into a dispensary is likely to also pick up a vaporizer (aka ‘vape’), a water pipe (aka ‘bong’), or at least a package of rolling papers and a lighter. Therefore, each dispensary is likely to see 10 to 20 percent of its sales coming from cannabis accessories.
On top of storefront retail, the online world of cannabis accessory sales is heating up, as smoking accessories are subject to fewer branding restrictions when sold through e-retailers. With cannabis now out of the shadows and its associated stigma waning, cannabis accessories are becoming a viable gift item for both the cannabis connoisseur and amateur alike.
To Read The Rest Of This Article On Investing News, Click Here


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Back in 2013 Ed Miliband proposed a 17-month energy price freeze. David Cameron suggested it was Marxist and a gimmick. Boris Johnson called it meddling jiggery-pokery. Yet in 2017 the Conservative election manifesto promised an energy tariff cap. It was introduced in 2019 until 2023 at the latest. And now a reportedly free-market Conservative secretary of state is proposing to extend its life. How can this be?
The answer is that in 2016 the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) claimed excess profits and inefficient costs in the energy market cost customers £1.4bn per year on average, and £2bn in 2015. Ofgem and the CMA itself advised against a tariff cap. But the £2bn “detriment” featured heavily in the 2017 election, and a tariff cap was unavoidable.
The CMA calculation was quite simply a mistake. The CMA compared actual costs against “a hypothetical construct” that was essentially “an idealised perfectly competitive market” with unrealistic costs. This was inconsistent with conventional economic analysis, with previous competition authority practice, and with the CMA’s own guidelines.
So there is not, and never was, a detriment of £1.4bn to £2bn a year. Consequently, the tariff cap is simply a mistake. Rather than looking to extend it, the Government should be looking to remove it. The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is worried about customers paying a “loyalty penalty” if they don’t switch supplier repeatedly.
That also harks back to the CMA’s world view of 2016 too, and the coalition government’s steer to the CMA in 2013 that “markets sometimes fail to work effectively because consumers struggle to compare products”. The CMA could not understand why many customers did not switch to lower priced suppliers.
But customers are more rational than the CMA realised. They see differences in energy product – fixed or variable, more or less green, with or without exit penalties, paper or online. They see differences between suppliers – in customer service, complaint rates and resolution times, vulnerability commitments, business experience, financial backing and reputation.
And they read stories along the lines of “more than a million households have seen their energy firm go bust in the last few years”. Cornwall Insight found that, on average, four of the 10 lowest priced suppliers subsequently went out of business. After accounting for these differences, available price savings may be rather small.
Low income and other vulnerable customers, wishing to avoid worry by being loyal to their present supplier, are not being irrational. Reluctance to switch, and the claimed “loyalty penalty”, are not the problems that they previously seemed.
Nevertheless, BEIS now proposes opt-in and opt-out switching. Even setting aside data protection issues, which are not negligible, price is not the only factor for customers, and different customers have different priorities. Is Ofgem to choose one supplier that is suitable for all customers? Should customers reluctant to switch be urged to move to suppliers with poor service records or a dicey financial situation? Or, worse still, be transferred unless they opt out? This may increase switching numbers but it doesn’t seem to be in customers’ own interests.
Moreover, more switching will not eliminate any “loyalty penalty”. Price differentials are driven by competition. Companies have to cover their overhead costs wherever they can.
If more customers are persuaded to switch supplier, that could well increase prices to those that don’t. And regardless of the amount of switching, competitive markets will not produce whatever prices a regulator thinks are “fair” (or convenient for regulators).
Repeated switching is surely inconsistent with customer loyalty. Why should firms try to provide good service and new products if Ofgem is constantly trying to take their customers away? Why should companies invest in this sector, and seek to build up relationships with customers to assist them with energy efficiency and low carbon heating, if BEIS and Ofgem are repeatedly urging them to move to another lower priced supplier? Again, it doesn’t make sense.
The tariff cap has had significant adverse effects. Even before the Covid downturn, it seems to have halted the steady increase in switching since 2015. Essentially all energy suppliers are now loss-making. Suppliers are leaving the market rather than entering, often with the bailouts of their customers paid for by other customers. And this is ongoing: a recent forecast is that “a massive train crash is about to happen” with “a raft of insolvencies”.
In sum, the tariff cap was a mistake. It was not the solution to a problem, and it has now become the problem. It is reinforcing a misunderstanding of the sector, limiting competition, increasing financial pressures, imposing bailout costs on other customers, and making the sector uninvestable. Opt-in or opt-out switching is not the answer: such policies could divert customers to less suitable suppliers, and will discourage investment, innovation and energy efficiency.
The aim should instead be to remove, not renew, the tariff cap, and to achieve other policy aims in more appropriate ways.
Stephen Littlechild is a former UK electricity regulator (1989-98)

domain: news


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After a 15-year “love affair”, CEO Philip Mountford is leaving lingerie chain Hunkemöller. The underwear brand is renewing its management under new ownership.
A fresh start after Covid
Mountford will be leaving Hunkemöller on 31 January, having led the lingerie chain for fifteen years. Although it has been “the most enjoyable time of his professional career”, and even – in his own words – “a love affair”, the Brit is handing over to a new CEO, he announced himself on LinkedIn.
The company has not yet revealed who will be taking over. It is worth noting, however, that there have already been several changes at the head of the company this year. In February, Nick Grensham became Chief Financial Officer and a member of the Board of Directors. In 8 March, Samantha Swain was appointed Director of Global Merchandise and Planning.
Under Mountford’s leadership, Hunkemöller has grown from 350 shops in the Benelux countries and France to almost 1,000 shops in more than twenty countries. The chain now has an “ultra-fast omnichannel ecosystem”, according to the outgoing CEO. During the Covid crisis, however, the group fell on hard times and even almost went bankrupt. In March 2022, the chain passed into the hands of two new Dutch owners, who may well want to start afresh.


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Bilal Ahmed, a resident of Sanat Nagar, Srinagar, has made a solar powered car. It took 11 years for Bilal to build his dream car. Bilal said, “When I started the project and even after completing it, nobody gave me any financial support. Had I been supported, I would have probably been the Elon Musk of India. It cost Bilal Rs 15 lakh to build this car.
Back to the Future’s Car Inspired by DeLorean
Bilal Ahmed is a maths teacher by profession but has always been fond of cars. He enjoys studying cars and reading about how manufacturers make these machines. One car that inspired him the most is the car DeLorean seen in the movie Back to the Future. Seeing this car, he has designed his dream car. It has been made by modifying Maruti 800.
Panels that generate more energy in less light
Keeping in mind the rising prices of petrol and diesel, Bilal decided to make a solar powered car. For this, he got solar panels from a manufacturer in Chennai and selected such panels which can generate more power even in low light. He said that the sunlight in Kashmir is very less. So I used monocrystalline solar panels which are known to produce maximum energy.
Solar panels are installed in the door of the car
Solar panels are also installed in the doors of this car. These doors open upwards which makes the car stylish. Talking about his inspiration to make this car, Ahmed said, “Cars like Mercedes, Ferrari, BMW are just a dream for common people. Few people can afford it while for others driving and driving such cars remains a dream. I want to give luxury feel to such people also.
Ahmed is getting a lot of praise on social media for his innovation. Most sports cars have a seating capacity of only two people, they have designed their car to seat four people.
Credit: www.bhaskar.com /


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It’s been an exciting few days for us at the MyGlamm-POPxo-Plixxo-BabyChakra HQ, and we can’t wait to reveal what’s been cooking. We are so thrilled to announce the formation of the Good Glamm Group, which consolidates MyGlamm’s position as a ‘Digital House of Brands’.
The brands that fall under the umbrella of the Good Glamm Group will be able to leverage a large digital audience to power its content-to-commerce strategy. This includes 88 million POPxo annual users, 220,000 Plixxo influencers and BabyChakra’s community of 20 million mothers & 10,000 doctors network. When combined with MyGlamm’s 20,000 offline points of sale, it gives the Good Glamm Group an unprecedented scale. This is further amplified by the group’s unparalleled expertise in DTC growth, new product development, and technology and data science.
“The purpose of the Good Glamm Group is to transform the beauty journey of millions of women, through great content and innovative products from the Group’s house of brands. Under the Good Glamm Group umbrella are fast-growing brands that solve key needs in every part of a woman’s life stage, from a tween to an adult,” said Darpan Sanghvi, Group Founder and CEO, Good Glamm Group.
It’s been a year since the POPxo-Plixxo was acquired by MyGlamm, and what an incredible ride it’s been so far! Priyanka Gill, Co-Founder, Good Glamm Group, said “Converting content users to buyers has always been the holy grail in the direct-to-consumer industry. Darpan showed massive foresight when he merged MyGlamm, a beauty company with POPxo and Plixxo, a content and influencer company. This successful merger laid the foundation of what is proudly announced today as the Good Glamm Group. Investors have shown great confidence in our innovative model and we are excited to build and scale the Digital CPG Conglomerate of the Future .”
This phenomenal development comes just a month after the company joined forces with BabyChakra. The baby-mom vertical is a new feather to the cap, and we are looking forward to this exciting new journey as a group. This phenomenal development comes just a month after the company joined forces with BabyChakra. The baby-mom vertical is a new feather to the cap, and we are looking forward to this exciting new journey as a group. “The Good Glamm Group is setting new standards in D2C not just in India but globally. It is unprecedented for brands, consumers & experts to come together virtually at this scale under one umbrella, leverage communities & conversations powered by-product, tech & data, to co-create care & beauty products for the new generation of Indian women.” said Naiyya Saggi, Co-Founder, Good Glamm Group.
And that’s not all! The company has also topped up its Series C fundraise with a Rs 255 crores funding led by Trifecta Capital. Yup, you read that right! This means the Good Glamm Group has earmarked Rs 750 crore worth of funding to invest in innovative beauty and personal care brands. The company was recently in the news for scoring the largest investment raised by any beauty brand in India. In March 2021, the Good Glamm Group also became the fastest beauty brand to cross the $100 million valuation milestone in India.
What does this mean for our Glamm fam aka you? Well, the group is currently working on creating high-efficacy products made with good-for-you formulations, including make-up, skincare, haircare, personal and soon-to-be-launched baby-care products. Thank you for your endless, enthusiastic support! We look forward to sharing every step of this exciting new journey with you.


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Sina Technology news Beijing time January 14 news, Microsoft announced that the Xbox One game console has been discontinued, the company will focus on the next generation of game consoles.
Before the end of 2020, Microsoft has shut down all the Xbox One console, concentrate on producing the Xbox Series X | S. Microsoft plans to discontinue the Xbox One X and digital Xbox One S until the Xbox Series X launches in 2020.
Microsoft launched the Xbox Series X in November 2020, seven years after its predecessor was released. Due to the shortage of chips, some models of the old product delivery delay. (star)


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WATCH: Thieves steal PC parts in Pasay
MANILA – A closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera captured two men stealing parts of a personal computer inside an Internet shop in Pasay City.
The CCTV footage shows one of the suspects tinkering with one of the PC units inside the shop, while his cohort served as a lookout.
After some 30 minutes insde the shop, the suspects managed to steal two memory cards, a hard disk drive, processor, and DVD writer, all worth about P20,000. – report from Jerome Lantin, ABS-CBN News


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Riverside was recently ranked No. 19 on MSN Money’s list of the best cities to grow a business.
The list, “30 Cities Where Small Business Owners Are Thriving,” highlights places where entrepreneurs are thriving using GOBankingRates, a personal finance resource, which in turn uses data from the Kaufman Index to determine which city is providing the most promising environment for entrepreneurs. The study took into account the rate of new entrepreneurs, startup density, the cost of living, projected job growth for the area and a variety of other factors.
Riverside ranked ahead of big cities such as Atlanta, Sacramento, Orlando, Charlotte and Nashville. According to the list, Riverside has a startup density, the number of newly established employer businesses to the total employer business population (in 1,000s), is higher than more than half of the other cities on the list. Riverside has 92.4 startups for every 1,000 businesses. Riverside’s rate of new entrepreneurs is 0.36 percent of the adult population.
Riverside’s ranking is enhanced by ExCITE, a partnership between business leaders, UCR and the city and county of Riverside. This startup accelerator helps support new technology businesses through funding, professional resources, and access to lab space and specialized equipment.
According to their website, ExCITE’s mission is to facilitate the successful acceleration of startup companies engaged in entrepreneurial research and development of advanced technologies with the intent to create high-tech jobs in the county of Riverside. They attempt to do so through facilities, networks, mentorship, management and access to financial resources, in turn creating diversified high paying careers in Riverside County.
Riverside’s entrepreneurship could also potentially be linked to the Entrepreneurial Proof of Concept Center (EPIC) Small Business Development Center (SBDC), which is a UCR and Riverside County initiative. EPIC SBDC provides innovators and entrepreneurs with guidance on the development of their SBIR proposal, a program intended to help small businesses conduct research and development, and STTR proposal, a program that expands funding opportunities in the federal innovation research and development arenas. EPIC SBDC also assists innovators and entrepreneurs throughout the phases of the grant process.
UCR’s Office of Technology Partnerships has also been credited for Riverside’s ranking on MSN’s Money list. The Office of Technology Partnerships supports innovation and entrepreneurial activities on campus through EPIC and Create’R”Lab, which is an innovative learning environment in which students, faculty and researchers can experiment with tools and technologies that will allow them to deepen their knowledge and extend their research.


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By Canon DSLR News
| May 3, 2017 |
CIPA has released their sales numbers for the first quarter of 2017 and the news is better than we’ve seen over the last couple of years.
The sales if interchangeable lens cameras (Mirrorless & DSLR) saw a 6% increase over the same quarter in 2016. A big boost coming from mirrorless cameras, which according to CIPA, now account for 36% of all ILC’s shipped.
The sales of compact/fixed lens cameras have gone flat, which is good news after 21 straight quarters of decline in the segment. The focus by Canon on its G series prosumer cameras seems to have helped raise the value of compact camera shipments by 7%.
For the moment, the decline in camera sales may have reached the bottom and we may see a little bit of growth in 2017.
You can see all the CIPA data here and here.
By Canon DSLR Rumors
| May 1, 2017 |
Now that NAB is over (did anyone notice it was on?), we can get back to what’s coming next. Unfortunately we don’t really have too much new to report at this time. We know that’s going to be changing soon as this summer (northern hemisphere) should be a good one for a lot of Canon shooters.
We expect the EOS 6D Mark II, EF 85mm f/1.4L IS and EOS Rebel SL2 to be announced before September hits.
On the cinema side, we expect the Cinema EOS C200 body, a 4K little brother to the EOS C300 Mark II. We haven’t confirmed the name “EOS C200” yet, but all signs are pointing that way. We hope to confirm this soon.
We don’t know for certain what other EF lenses are coming in 2017 at this time, but we expect there will be at least one more after the EF 85mm f/1.4L IS.
We haven’t heard anything about new G series PowerShot cameras, but suspect there will be at least one coming before the end of the year.
We’re just reminding you of what’s coming as we continue to get questions from some very eager EOS 6D Mark II potential buyers.
By Canon Business General
| April 30, 2017 |
Canon USA has introduced new instant rebates on select DSLRs, mirrorless cameras, PowerShot cameras and added new lenses to the instant rebate program.
Full Frame DSLRs
This latest round of instant rebates will expire on June 3, 2017.
By Canon Lens Rumors
| April 28, 2017 |
PetaPixel has posted a nice piece about a Canon PE 300mm f/1.8 with an EF mount. We have to admit that we had no idea such a lens existed and it may be even rarer than the EF 1200mm f/5.6L. Apparently there are only 4 known copies of the Canon 300mm f/1.8 and the lens was mainly used for photo finishes in horse races according to Emil Wiik Larsen of @canongearnerd.
We have been unable to find any more information on the lens around the web and it doesn’t even appear in the Canon Museum.
Photographer Jim Anderson who has been lucky enough to use this lens tells PetaPixel:
The lens is used for “strip, or slit, photography, With this system we can record up to 10,000 ‘strips’ or lines per second. That is how I came to work with this lens. I started doing photo finishes in 1986.”
“Back then it was done with filmstrip or timing negative film,” he continues. “I would develop immediately after the race it would take about 8 seconds using dektol at 140 degrees and dip and dunk by hand. When digital took over film things became so much more advanced and so did the lenses.” Read the full story and see more images over at PetaPixel
We do love learning about new Canon gear, thanks to PetaPixel, Jim Anderson and CanonGearNerd for letting us know about it.
By Canon Firmware
| April 28, 2017 |
Canon has released new firmware for the EOS 7D Mark II.
Firmware Version 1.1.1 incorporates the following improvement and fix:
- Enhances reliability of communications when transferring images using Wireless File Transmitter WFT-E7 (A/B/C/D/E).
- Corrects the phenomenon of Err70 which occurs with certain combinations of settings.
- Corrects the phenomenon in which in very rare cases the shutter can no longer be released.
- Enhances reliability of operations for specific custom function settings.
- If using a Wi-Fi adapter/W-E1, the camera’s nickname will be reset to default when you perform this firmware update, so please reset the nickname before using the camera.
Download firmware v1.1.1 at Canon USA


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DoubleTree launched its latest integrated marketing campaign, “Your Warm Cookie Awaits” which has refreshed creative, PR, social media, digital and other activations to inspire a more welcoming world.
Anyone interested in 2017 hotel trends and connecting with independent hotel leaders would be remiss to not consider this event! Independent Lodging Congress is in Brooklyn October 4-6.
This is the first generation of digital natives and their buying and spending habits will be heavily influenced by how you appeal to them. Here’s what you need to know about marketing to Gen Z.
What are the most important elements of branding to bear in mind if you run a hotel, and how should you go about implementing them? Let’s explore.
Don’t miss the Independent Lodging Congress (ILC) taking place October 4-6 at the William Vale Hotel in Brooklyn. ILC is a place of discovery, collaboration and idea generation for owners and operators of independent hotels.
Travel gadgets enhance your travel by making it simpler, safer, and more enjoyable. Often, gadgets can be a burden due to constantly requiring power and an internet connection. But, it ...
Comfort Suites Alamo/River Walk found a better way to increase direct bookings on their own website. Using Vizzly, they generated $7,700 in additional revenue and are looking at an estimated 24x ROI in 1 year.
This infographic from Aria walks through the evolution of the unique technological innovation in Las Vegas. Find out how Vegas hotels have upgraded virtually everything through automation, and what is to come.
Check out these quick tips to ensure your social media presence is cohesive and attracting the widest possible audience.
Hootsuite, the most widely used platform for managing social media, today announced partnerships with six leading technology and services solutions for social advertising.
In an effort to emphasize its position as a critical tool in delivering top-notch customer service, Twitter recently introduced new display options and tools.
When it comes to the hotel industry, generating direct bookings and nurturing a base of loyal repeat guests is key to surviving and thriving. Email marketing is one of the ...


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Allergan plc announces it has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to market NATRELLE INSPIRA SoftTouch Breast Implants for women undergoing breast reconstruction, augmentation, or revision surgery.
With this recent granting, Allergan notes in a media release that the NATRELLE line now offers three levels of gel firmness for differing levels of form stability.
“Adding NATRELLE INSPIRA SoftTouch breast implants to our already robust line of offerings gives Allergan the most extensive variety of implants in the industry and provides doctors with a wide range of options,” says David Nicholson, Chief R&D Officer of Allergan plc, in the release. “Now, the INSPIRA line of breast implants helps physicians to better meet diverse, patient-specific needs based on available breast tissue and desired outcomes.”
For more information, visit Allergan plc.
[Source(s): Allergan plc, PR Newswire]


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In light of the ongoing crisis that has been disrupting the supply chains, PLDT is reportedly cutting its capital expenditures by Php20 billion as well as delay the launching of 5G technology in 2020.
PLDT big boss, Many Pangilinan, made the announcement during a virtual briefing last Thursday, May 7.
According to Pangilinan, the initiative was in response to lockdown constraints that will see the capital index falling from Php83 billion to Php60 billion.
Further, the PLDT exec also claims that rollout of 5G technology is pushed for later in the year.
Despite the adverse effect of the coronavirus to many businesses, PLDT seems to be profiting from consumers still.
SEE ALSO: How to get the FREE PLDT SpeedBoost
Within the first quarter of 2020, the PLDT saw an increase in its revenue by Php41.5 billion or a rise of 9%.
The income growth came from the consumers’ augmented use of data as many people are forced to be cooped up in their homes due to the lockdown.
With many people opting to video stream, indulge in social media, and bring their work at home, the PLDT’s revenue from the mobile space saw a surge by 40%.


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I was just thinking the other day that several of my favorite Disney movies had been adapted for the stage, but for some reason Aladdin had never gotten any love. Well, turns out I’m just a big stupid head, because there is a stage adaption of Aladdin and it has been touring the country for several years. So that’s news enough, at least for me. The big tidbit, however, is that the show is getting a serious overhaul in preparation for a move to Broadway. There goes any hope of me being able to see it any time soon!
Disney is making room by closing Marry Poppins in March, with an estimated premiere of Aladdin placed sometime next year. It seems logical to think the show will be updated mostly in the visual department, though it’s entirely possible there may be a new tune or two thrown in to compliment the classic repertoire of songs. Here’s some info courtesy of The Wrap:
The version of “Aladdin” that hits Broadway next year will be substantially overhauled and will not be a transfer of the 5th Avenue production…That show was seen as a pilot production, designed to test the new book and additional score material. The Broadway production will involve a major new key player on the creative team.
I’m sure Disney will spare no expense, especially if Aladdin is taking the place of Mary Poppins, one of the company’s serious earners on Broadway. Better start pinchin’ those pennies now, all you stage-show lovin’ New Yorkers![The Wrap, New York Post via /Film]


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A new music platform, Uppbeat, aims to make it easier for YouTubers and other content creators to find quality free music to use in their videos. The system, which is designed to navigate the complexities of copyright claims while also fairly compensating artists, offers an alternative to existing free music platforms, including YouTube’s own Audio Library and Creative Commons’ legal music for videos, for example.
The idea for the startup comes from Lewis Foster and Matt Russell, the U.K.-based co-founders of another music-licensing company, Music Vine, which has been operating for about six years.
Last year, the co-founders realized there was a growing opportunity to address the creator space with a slightly different product.
“We were realizing, more and more, was that the creator space — YouTubers, streamers, podcasters — has become enormous, but there wasn’t a music platform that was doing a nice job for those type of users,” explains Foster. “So we sat down and thought about what the perfect music resource would look like for creators. That led to deciding to build Uppbeat,” he says.
They began developing the Uppbeat website in September 2020 and launched it to the public on Monday.
On the creators’ side, Uppbeat’s key focus is on eliminating headaches over copyright claims, particularly on YouTube.
Currently, if a YouTuber gets a copyright claim over music in their video, it can cause them to lose income. Though YouTube has worked to address this problem over the years with new features and changes to its Content ID match system, it’s still an issue.
“If a YouTuber gets a copyright claim, [YouTube] can de-monetize their video. And if they go through YouTube’s dispute system, it can take as long as 30 days for it to get resolved. It’s a pretty big frustration for YouTubers,” Foster says.
Uppbeat’s music will instead almost instantly clear the claims.
Similar to Spotify, the Uppbeat website leverages a freemium model, To get started, creators can sign up for a free account that provides access to about 50% of the site’s roughly 1,000-track music catalog and 10 downloads per month. The paid plan offers full catalog access and no download limit.
Free users simply add a credit to their YouTube video description to clear copyright claims, while paid users are added to an approved list, eliminating this extra step.
Because the tracks have to be fingerprinted to fight off unlicensed usage, a copyright claim will still occur. But instead of taking days or weeks to resolve, it will be cleared within about five minutes, the company says. The Uppbeat system clears the claim by checking the video description for the necessary credit and by checking the claim against its list of paid users. This is all automated, too, which helps to speed things up.
Meanwhile, on the artists’ side, Uppbeat pays as their music is used — even by the free users.
The revenue from the premium subscriptions, and soon, advertising, is divided between the artists on a monthly basis, in proportion to the number of downloads the artist receives.
“What that means from the artists’ perspective is, on average, they’re going to make the same amount from tracks on the premium side as they do on the free side,” says Lewis. “It means, even for free usage, they will get paid,” he adds.
The site will also monetize through audio ads that play as you browse the tracks and listen to the music. (However, these are just promoting the paid plan for the time being.)
Browsing Uppbeat’s catalog is easy, too. The music is organized by genre, theme and style in colorful rows that aim to introduce all the different types of music and beats a YouTuber may need. For example, there’s music customized for use in the background and other tracks that cater to different moods like inspiring, calm, happy, dramatic and more. A catalog of SFX (sound effects) is expected to be added in a few months, too.
Uppbeat believes its existing music industry connections with producers, composers and songwriters via Music Vine will help them to source higher-quality tracks than other free music services.
At present, the startup is self-funded through revenues from Music Vine, but Foster says they’ve had some VC interest. For now, though, the founders are looking to keep the ownership in-house, for the most part.
However, Uppbeat is experimenting with both a referral program and a profit-sharing scheme. The latter will allow YouTubers who bring Uppbeat new customers, then take the full revenue from those customers for two years’ time.
“We’re taking a massive sacrifice,” Foster admits. “But from from our perspective, the faster we can get Uppbeat out there and well-known in the YouTuber space, then we’re happy to share that [revenue]. We think it’s a cool idea to share that within the YouTuber community, rather than [take] a big private investment,” he notes.
The startup is also considering making shares in the company available to some larger YouTubers, Foster adds.
Today, Uppbeat is a team of eight employees and 12 freelancers, based in Leeds, U.K.


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04 Apr 2020
India is almost half-way through the 21-day lockdown which began on March 25, but the days haven't been easy. With rocky transportation and disruption in supply chains, wholesale prices of vegetables, fruits, pulses, and sugar have increased in the last fortnight of March, a report in Indian Express said.
17 Nov 2019
Tap water in Delhi is the most unsafe for drinking among several metro cities and state capitals, a government study has found.
29 Sep 2019
The Centre on Sunday banned the export of onions with "immediate effect" in a bid to keep the rising price of the vegetable under check.
28 Jun 2019
The Centre, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is taking concrete steps to minimize corruption and ensure welfare schemes reach the last person in the queue.
30 May 2019
Who will be a part of Narendra Modi's Cabinet, is a question which has kept political analysts busy since BJP got a thumping victory in 2019 general elections.
18 May 2019
If you are in Delhi, you might want to steer clear of dairy products, for now, that is if you wish to avoid a health risk.
19 Apr 2019
A leading shoe firm has been asked to pay Rs. 9,000 to a customer for deficiency in services.
25 Jul 2018
Every year, September would be celebrated as the National Nutrition Month to mark India's fight against malnutrition, the Ministry of Women and Child Development has said.
05 Jun 2018
The SC today permitted the Center to continue with reservation for SC/ST employees in promotions for now, and agreed to hear a petition against quashing of the practice.
20 Mar 2018
The Jammu and Kashmir State Vigilance Organization registered a case against two government officials for alleged misappropriation of over Rs. 19L in Kishtwar district.
27 Feb 2018
The Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution on Monday said that during the three years of NDA government, at least three crore fake and duplicate ration cards were canceled.
13 Dec 2017
The SC has rejected the Centre's argument that selling of mineral water at above MRP is illegal, ruling hotels/restaurants can legally charge customers over the printed price.
12 Dec 2017
If you buy a bottle of water at any hotel or restaurant, chances are you would have been charged much more than the MRP.
24 Nov 2017
The GST Council, in its 23rd meeting in Guwahati, reduced the Goods and Services Tax rate for restaurants to 5% from 18%, which was expected to make eating out cheaper.
31 Aug 2017
Looks like the government's awareness drive on the voluntariness of paying service charge at restaurants as well as the new GST regime are producing results.
09 Jul 2017
The Department of Consumer Affairs has urged people to move consumer courts if they find any restaurant slapping service charges, which is now illegal.
21 Apr 2017
Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan stated that the government has approved guidelines on service charge, clarifying that it is entirely voluntary.
14 Apr 2017
Food lovers rejoice! The Modi government has asked for the removal of the service charge voluntary component which hotels levy.
11 Apr 2017
Attempting to reduce food wastage, government of India is preparing to legally notify portion sizes served in restaurants and star hotels.
17 Jan 2017
Fake cops at railway station in Mira Road making a living by forcing people to pay fines have been unmasked.


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In his 2003 book, Smart Mobs, futurist Howard Rheingold predicted the next social revolution would be triggered by the ubiquity of mobile phones and computers. Their ability to send and share text messages, photographs, videos, and other instant data directly, he predicted, would give people a powerful new way to organize themselves on the fly, battle social ills as they are happening and ultimately transform cultures and communities—for better or worse.
We're not there yet, but we're getting much closer. Social media, still in its infancy, is evolving—from social networking to mobilization. The rise of self-organized groups into cause-focused swarms is just beginning to chip away at the economic and political order of things. The first stirrings of this became evident last summer, during the Obama campaign; this week's mega-conference in San Francisco, SoCap09, convenes 800-plus social entrepreneurs bent on using social media to invent a new economy—one focused more directly on global problem-solving. "Americans are hungry to engage," says Jonathan Greenblatt, a SoCap presenter and president of All for Good, an open source platform that exists to press more people into service, and brands are only too happy to oblige.
The biggest driver of this shift toward mobilization, though, is not commerce—nor altruism. Historians and futurists suggest it's more about our increasing discomfort with the mass proximity we may now feel to communities and classes of people that previously lived outside our direct spheres of experience or influence. Thanks to social media, says Greenblatt, the old buffer zones of neglect or disengagement are shrinking—fast. "We have never been nor felt so adjacent to others," he told a group of online activists Friday at Mashable's Summer of Social Good conference in Manhattan. With mass globalization, we can see the same brands being advertised in central Dubai as in Manhattan; our closest neighbors are more likely now to be found online, everything can be googled, and we have never been so mobile. "There is more computing power in our Blackberries than there was in the control room in Houston that put a man on the moon," Greenblatt says.
All of this, of course, presents both opportunity and burden. "In a networked world where everyone is adjacent and everything can be known, we are seeing increasing evidence of the inequities around us," Greenblatt says. "When you are actually adjacent to these people—the have-nots (and when the have-nots know what we have)—it puts a burden on the 'haves' [in society]."
Indeed, says Greenblatt and others, we are compelled to invent new alternatives. "Twestival? What was that but a self-organized swarm?" Scott Henderson of Media Sauce told attendees at Mashable's event. "It's just the beginning." [Mark Pesce (see Collision Course) predicts a dangerous time ahead, with new, Web-strong "adhocracies" eroding—like sand against rock—our traditional systems and institutions.]
For SoCap's part, many attendees heading for San Francisco this week believe there is, already, a new "economy of integrity" in the making—fueled by social media. "It's like shoots growing out of the ground," Greenblatt says. "It's giving us different answers than the ones we've heard before to the questions we are facing" as a society. Think Zipcar, he says—the Netflix for cars. Or Living Homes, a Los Angeles-based construction business that is building homes that generate more power than they consume. Or Tom's Shoes, which will donate a pair of shoes to someone in need for every pair purchased. Or Revolution Foods, which is offering healthier meals to kids around the nation as an alternative to junk food in public schools. "This new economy of integrity is animated by these ethical brands driving values and creating values, and social media will allow this economy of integrity to take off," Greenblatt says. Social media, he says, will both "cohere this moment of opportunity and catalyze it...We have opportunities before us that were never before possible."
"Social media is not just about reading a story online and deciding whether to reddit or propeller it or digg it. This is noise. Noise. For me, social media is Wikipedia, with 10 million members all across the planet with a mission to be the repository of human knowledge, accessible to every person alive. It's Twitter and what happened in Iran. Did Twitter change the course of that election? Maybe not. But far more significantly, it changed forever how Iranians think of themselves. Twitter didn't change the outcome now... But it will."
For more on SoCap, check out this interview with Kevin Jones, a co-founder of the conference, which runs September 1-3. To follow it on Twitter, the hashtag is #SOCAP09.
—By Marcia Stepanek
(Illustration, Net Working, by Miroslaw Pieprzyk for istock.com)


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Freehold-based smoothie chain Frutta Bowls has been acquired by Centre Lane Partners LLC, parent company of Saladworks, and along with one other fast casual restaurant has formed a new outfit called WOWorks.
“Today, we welcome both Garbanzo Mediterranean Fresh and Frutta Bowls to the WOWorks family,” said Saladworks CEO Kelly Roddy is now also WOWorks’ chief executive.
“Like Saladworks, we believe Garbanzo and Frutta Bowls are complementary brands—all sharing a core DNA based upon fresh, flavorful and healthy food along with a heart for hospitality served through convenient business channels, which appeals to our millennial family and Gen Z guests,” Roddy said in a prepared statement. “We are excited to leverage the appeal of these unique and differentiated brands—along with the added size, scale and shared resources—to benefit all stakeholders including our team members, guests, business partners and communities.”
Roddy’s team will take over both brands’ infrastructure and operations. Garbanzo CEO James Park will stay on following the acquisition as special advisor to the CEO.


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Firaxis and 2K have spent the last couple of weeks shining the spotlight on individual characters in Marvel’s Midnight Suns one after the other, starting with Captain America and then moving on to Iron Man. Both of those are done and dusted though, so now, it’s Spider-Man’s turn.
Though he wasn’t part of the initial roster of characters that was revealed when the game was first announced, Spider-Man was confirmed to be featured in the upcoming tactics RPG with its showing last month (along with others). Check out his trailer below, showcasing glimpses of combat and, of course, Spidey being Spidey.
Both Captain America and Iron Man also received gameplay deep dives following their hero spotlight trailers, and both characters also got history-focused videos, so be on the lookout for that stuff for Spider-Man in the coming days as well.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns launches on October 7 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC. A Nintendo Switch version is also in development.


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Soggy weather affecting businesses, tourism
As gray skies and scattered rain storms hung over South Florida for yet another day, the weather continued causing problems for tourists and for businesses.
Greg Hagedus and his girlfriend, Anett Kolluth, spent the day shopping in West Palm Beach, clutching umbrellas they didn't know they'd need when they flew here from England.
"Well, it's ruined our vacation," Hegedus said. "This is the second day it's rained since we are here."
The rain has caused the most drastic cutback in business at Unlimited Auto Wash in North Palm Beach since the recession began in 2008, said manager Abraham Moran. "This month is bad for us, for the weather. You see a few cars here but normally we're making 300 cars a day, every day.”
Moran business is down by almost 50 percent.
"When it rains and rains every day, yeah, it slows everything down," said Taryn Owsley, horticulturist at Art By Nature in North Palm Beach.
Owsley said the rain is causing some of their plants to yellow, wilt and drop leaves, and customers are not thrilled.
"So people come and we have these $200 gorgeous plants that look like sticks, and I'm like, ‘I promise they'll come back,’" Owsley said.
Many restaurants with outdoor patios reported they don't have customers on rainy days.
“The rain really affects us," said Maggie Rivera, a hostess at Don Ramon's in West Palm Beach. "The customers don't want to get wet."


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Luxury car sales in India surge to record high, up 20% YoY
Luxury car sales in India reached a record high of 42,731 units in 2023, up 20% YoY. The increase is attributed to a lifestyle change after Covid-19, with younger professionals opting for high-end cars.
The trend is expected to continue due to rising disposable income levels. The growth potential of this segment is significant, given the low penetration of the segment.


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After a successful release on Xbox Live Arcade (it is among the top ten all-time best -selling XBLA games), followed by additional versions on PC and PS3, Limbo developer Playdead has made enough money to buy its full share of the company back from their early investors.
While Limbo was in very early development, Playdead co-founders Dino Patti and Arnt Jensen funded development themselves, along with some help from a grant given by the Danish Government. As the scope of the project increased, it became obvious that they would need additional funding, so they brought in some outside investors to help fund the project to completion.
While extra money can certainly help a studio like Playdead fully realize their projects, outside investors can threaten the creative independence of game developers. Now that Playdead is entirely independent, they can move on with their next project having full control over the direction.
CEO Dino Patti has made it seem like they had to pay quite a bit to free themselves from the investor’s part-ownership. “We are really happy about how it turned out even though the cost was higher than we had hoped” he has said in an interview with Edge Magazine.
Playdead is already hard at work on their next title, and has said they will be using a 3rd party engine instead of a proprietary one like was used in Limbo. Though there are many people that will be keeping a close eye on the latest project, it may be a while before we actually see it. Dino has also stated he believes the new game will take at least three and a half years to complete.


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GENETICALLY modified food should be grown and sold widely in Britain, according to Environment Secretary Owen Paterson.
In an interview with a national newspaper he accused opponents of GM technology of talking humbug and said it offered real benefits.
Advocates argue that the techniques increase crop yields, avoid the need for pesticides, and could be essential in assuring Britain’s future food security.
The Coalition has allowed small-scale cultivation trials for GM food but widespread use is effectively banned.
Some GM products are contained in imported foods, but most supermarkets have banned the ingredients from their own-brand products because of public unease.
However, the Government has recently run a consultation exercise about new agritech measures to increase the efficiency of British farms. A formal ministerial response is due next year.
A spokesman for the PM said that GM foods, as long as they were used safely and responsibly, could deliver benefits and help address the challenge of global food security.
The spokesman said the Government supported efforts to speed up the regulatory system which was run by the EC.
He said: “We think this should be based on the science and we need to ensure public safety. If we can speed up a slow system, we should do.”
However, the Soil Association said Mr Paterson was wrong to claim GM crops were good for the environment.
Peter Melchett, policy director, said: “The UK Government’s own farm-scale experiment showed that overall the GM crops were worse for British wildlife. US Government figures show that overall pesticide use has increased since GM crops have been grown there, because superweeds and resistant insects have multiplied.
“The recent British Science Association survey showed that public concern has not changed, and the number of people saying that GM food “should be encouraged”
dropped from 46 per cent in 2002 to 27 per cent in 2012.”


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Serial entrepreneurs are always thinking of new ideas and starting new businesses. This is different from the typical entrepreneur, who comes up with one idea, starts a company and remains involved in the daily operations of that company. Serial entrepreneurs are constantly moving to the next big thing, sometimes leaving successful businesses behind. It’s not a lifestyle for everyone, so we asked three serial entrepreneurs for their best tips to being successful in a fast-paced working environment.
Take on Unwanted Tasks
Do what others aren’t willing to do, says Levi King, who has founded seven businesses ranging from manufacturing to technology. He is the founder of Nav, which is dedicated to guiding business owners on credit scores and how to finance a business.
In his manufacturing business, King discovered he found his greatest success in finding new customers through cold calls. While it’s true that salespersons and consumer alike hate cold calls, King knew that if he spent most of his time on the calls, he would not only get better at them, but he would gain new business as well. “If you want to be successful, you have to get out of your comfort zone and relentlessly pursue the types of activities that lead to growth,” King says.
Take Care of Your Team
Kris Thorkelson says it’s important to take care of your team before you take care of yourself. Thorkelson started his career as a pharmacist in Winnipeg, quickly acquiring a chain of four pharmacies, two of them with medical clinics attached. But he also found success in online sales, as the founder of Canada Drugs in 2001.The company acquired brand name and generic drugs from around the world and sold them at competitive prices, helping millions of patients along the way. Today, Kris Thorkelson is the owner of a successful property management and real estate firm in Winnipeg, called My Place Realty.
“Ensuring that your employees are happy and able to thrive is essential to running a successful business,” he said in an interview. “Taking care of your team will enable your employees to be more productive and efficient and in turn, grow your business in the long run.”
Take Advantage of the Gig Economy
Entrepreneur Chidike Samuelson, who is also a lawyer and an author, suggests paying others to market your business and take care of social media. “The internet revolution has created a lot of ease within different industries,” Samuelson says. “Platforms and freelancers are now fast becoming the norm, especially in areas like marketing and social media management.”
Samuelson says there are numerous platforms available that will help you position and market your business for a minimal fee. Too busy to set up a LinkedIn page for your company? Hire freelancers to help you with such tasks. “There is really no need for you to do everything yourself,” he notes. “The advantage is that starting a new business may not take as much attention away from your already existing business.”
And that’s important for serial entrepreneurs, who are always looking to start a new business, without taking away from what they have already accomplished.


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IF you want to rub elbows with automobile designers, there's no place like a car show to see the men and women who shaped the look and feel of the car in your driveway. But what do the designers themselves look at when they stroll the exhibition hall?
The New York International Auto Show opens to the public on Friday at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Earlier in the week, industry movers and shakers (and more than a few designers) will be on hand to unveil their latest dream cars (and real cars) to the press.
For many New Yorkers who also happen to be car enthusiasts -- taxicabs and stretch limousines don't count -- the Javits show will provide a first opportunity to see car and truck designs that made their debuts earlier this year at other shows, including those in Geneva, Los Angeles, Chicago and Detroit.
With cars as with art, beauty is often in the eye of the beholder. The cars that impress people in the industry may not be the same ones that draw crowds to revolving turntables in the show hall. And the people who design cars for a living have their own critical eye.
After the Detroit show, The New York Times asked six prominent designers which cars they found most significant -- aside from their own, of course -- and why. Here are some of their selections and explanations.Continue reading the main story


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SEBREE, Ky. (AP) - Voters in Sebree have decided against allowing restaurants to sell liquor by the drink with meals.
The Gleaner reports that that the measure on Tuesday's ballot in the Webster County city failed by a 3-2 margin. The final vote was 270-180. The proposal would have allowed the sale of alcoholic beverages by the drink only in restaurants and other dining facilities, and only if they had a seating capacity of at least 50 people and derived at least 70 percent of their gross receipts from the sale of food. Drinks would have been served only in conjunction with meals.
Webster County Clerk Valerie Franklin-Newell said paper ballots ran out in some precincts and electronic voting machines had to be used.


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Paris: Arthur D. Little, the world's oldest consulting firm, has returned to a global partnership.
It completed a Management Buy-Out from Altran Technologies on 30th December, 2011.
The deal involves all of its offices worldwide and includes the Arthur D. Little brand.
Altran, the European high-tech engineering group, gave notice that it intended to dispose of Arthur D. Little in October.
Altran says that given the investments it has made Arthur D. Little (ADL) since the company's acquisition in 2002 and the sale price of between €13m and €20m, this disposal will represent a net accounting charge of between €60m and €90m to Altran, of which €38.6m have already been booked in its accounts for the first half of 2011.
Altran is making a funding line available to the ADL partnership of up to €15m, to be reimbursed by the end of 2015 at the latest and guaranteed by the Arthur D. Little brand.
ADL will be led by a newly elected global CEO, Ignacio Garcia Alves, the Brussels-based leader of the MBO team.
"I am honored by the trust and confidence of the partners and am very excited by the prospect of leading this firm into the next stage of its rich history. Our objective with the MBO is twofold: 1) Taking the firm's destiny and governance back in the hands of the partners; 2) Accelerating growth by attracting key talents or aggregating smaller firms in targeted industries, functions and countries", said Garcia Alves.
ADL says it will still be focused on its historical proposition of linking Strategy, Innovation, and Technology. In the current global economy, it says, "This value proposition is the only way companies and countries can improve their sustained competitiveness. This is true in Europe and the USA where new growth platforms are desperately needed as well as in fast growing economies, such as BRIC countries, that seek to catch-up and move into innovative, added-value products and services."
The firm says it will continue to launch new proprietary Innovation Labs that explore future technology rends from a multi-disciplinary point of view. The first such lab has recently released its research report into The Future of Urban Mobility.


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Dreaming of a Toxic-Free Disney
By Mike Schade
Last Saturday, I stood outside of Disney’s iconic flagship store in Times Square, calling on them to make our dreams come true, by getting poisonous phthalates and vinyl plastic out of children’s school supplies.
I organized the action with Penelope Jagessar Chaffer, a mother of two young children (who also came along for the fun), and director of the fantastic new environmental health documentary, Toxic Baby.
With me and Penelope and other concerned NYC residents were the voices and dreams of more than 65,000 parents and Disney customers, who had signed petitions calling on the company to do what’s right for our children’s health.
Hidden Hazards in Disney School Supplies
It all started with our recent report on toxic school supplies, that I researched and authored this past summer. Our investigation found Disney branded school supplies, like Disney Princess lunchboxes and Spiderman backpacks, loaded with hormone disrupting phthalates, toxic chemicals linked to asthma and early puberty that are getting into our children’s bodies.
The levels of Disney school supplies were off the charts, up to thirty times higher than what’s legal for toys. We couldn’t believe it!
The report led to massive press coverage across the country and inspired Lori Alper, a mother of three school-aged boys from Bedford, Massachusetts, to launch a petition on Change.org calling on Disney to eliminate these harmful chemicals. MomsRising.org joined in the campaign and also posted the petition on their site.
Since launching the petition, Change.org and MomsRising.org together have mobilized more than 65,000 parents to call on Disney to make our dreams come true and get these dangerous substances out of our lunchboxes and backpacks once and for all.
Unfortunately, Disney has ignored these protests and calls, so we knew we had to ramp up the pressure.
Dreaming of a toxic-free Disney in Times Square
So last Saturday, braving the cold NYC weather, we bundled up with our box full of petitions to deliver them to Disney’s flagship store in NYC's Times Square.
We passed out flyers to customers walking in and out of the store, as well as tourists that were strolling by. Many were shocked to discover Disney sells school supplies laced with chemicals that have been linked to asthma, birth defects and ADHD.
We held signs that read, “Disney: Make Our Dreams Come True—Dump Your Toxic Lunchboxes.” After educating hundreds of tourists and customers, we walked into the store, asked to speak to the store manager, and attempted to deliver our box full of petitions, along with this letter. The store manager unfortunately refused our petitions, directing us to talk to the corporate headquarters, but that was OK. We knew our message had been delivered.
As we were delivering our petitions in NYC, hundreds of miles away, Lori Alper and the Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow were doing the very same at a Disney store outside of Boston, which you can read about in this great post by Lori.
In conjunction with these actions, we and our allies at MomsRising.org also launched a social media campaign calling on Disney to address our concerns. The response to this has been amazing. Within only a few days of launching this campaign, it’s been shared by more than 1,600 people across the country.
Help us keep up the momentum!
Today is of course “Cyber Monday”—so join us online in calling on Disney to make our dreams come true—by sharing this post with your friends on Facebook and Twitter today.
This post originally appeared on CHEJ’s Backyard Talk blog.
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
By Jason Bittel
It's that time of year again: Right now, monarch butterflies are taking wing in the mountains of northwestern Mexico and starting to flap their way across the United States.
At EcoWatch, our team knows that changing personal habits and taking actions that contribute to a better planet is an ongoing journey. Earth Day, happening on April 22, is a great reminder for all of us to learn more about the environmental costs of our behaviors like food waste or fast fashion.
To offer readers some inspiration this Earth Day, our team rounded up their top picks for films to watch. So, sit back and take in one of these documentary films this Earth Day. Maybe it will spark a small change you can make in your own life.
On Friday, Seal Rescue Ireland released Sesame the seal into the ocean after five months of rehabilitation at the Seal Rescue Ireland facility. Watch the release on EcoWatch's Facebook.
By Jordan Davidson
Guinness is joining the fight against single use plastic. The brewer has seen enough hapless turtles and marine life suffering from the scourge of plastic.
People of all ages are spending more of their day looking at their phones, computers and television screens, but parents now have another reason for limiting how much screen time their children get — it could lead to behavioral problems.


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A new survey reveals how Americans really feel about wearing them, and the revelations are startling.
The poll finds:
- 40% of Americans believe wearing a facemask to protect against the coronavirus is unnecessary and over the top.
- 12% actually think facemasks are pointless.
- 10% of Americans haven’t even tried wearing a facemask at all yet.
- 10% say they’ll refuse to wear a mask anywhere in public, even if it becomes a law.
- Shockingly, 62% of Americans say they won’t wear a facemask to visit family, while 60% won’t wear one to visit friends.
- 42% won’t wear one when visiting a doctor or a hospital, even though there’s an increased chance of infection.
Other places folks won’t wear masks include:
- While exercising (71%)
- A walk (69%)
- On a date (66%)
- A pub/bar (55%)
- To work (53%)
- In an Uber/taxi (52%)
- The cinema (50%)
- A restaurant (49%)
- The hairdressers/barbers (48%)
- On public transport (44%)
- Shopping in general (41%)
- At the supermarket (31%)
As for the top reasons folks don’t want to wear masks, they include:
- They make it hard to breathe (38%)
- They fog up their glasses (30%)
- It will be hard to eat and drink (28%)
- They’re too hot (28%)
- They’re uncomfortable (27%)
- May make them feel anxious (17%)
- Worried about others understanding them (18%)
- Too hard for people to read their facial expressions (18%)
- They look silly (12%)


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Home Depot: People are more nervous about Home Depot's upcoming earnings report than any other time Cramer can recall.
"Why? First, we know the spring was late. The big spring planting season was a bust for many garden stores because the weather was so darned terrible," he explained. "Now, that's not enough to derail this great company on its own, but we are also getting some weaker numbers from many of its suppliers."
The "Mad Money" host cited the underperformance in shares of building supply manufacturers Masco, Fortune Brands Home & Security and Stanley Black & Decker, all of which are Home Depot suppliers.
Cramer warned that their weakness could have hit Home Depot this quarter, and while weather provides a legitimate excuse, Home Depot's stock is still risky having outperformed them this year.
"At this point, stay on the sidelines. Pounce on it if Home Depot gets hit," he said. "This is one of the greatest retailers of all time. Whenever it pulls back, I think you're getting a gift."
Tapestry: The artist formerly known as Coach will also deliver its quarterly earnings report on Tuesday, and Cramer expects "very good" results.
"We know from the department stores that handbags are hot, hot, hot," he said. "I recommend buying some before the quarter and some after."
Canopy Growth: This cannabis play reports earnings after Tuesday's closing bell, and Cramer figured that Canada's recent legalization of recreational marijuana could cause an end-of-Prohibition-like explosion in sales for pot producers when it is put into effect.
The "Mad Money" host also liked Canopy's position given the backing of Constellation Brands, a massive U.S. alcohol distributor that owns a 10 percent stake in Canopy with an option to buy more.
"That said, the stock's been a dog of late, with hot money flowing out of it betting that the pot trade has gone up in smoke. I think that's premature," Cramer said. "Canopy's a full-service player with a tremendous first-mover advantage. I wouldn't be surprised if the stock is charging up to another run at the highs later this year."


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In the most recent debate, Hillary invoked her supposedly strongest talking point against Bernie when she referred to his votes on gun industry immunity. And yes, Bernie did in fact vote against gun manufacturer immunity, but it was based on a cogent argument. Remember, Sanders has a D- record with the NRA – trust me, he is not receiving support from them in this election cycle – because he has supported universal background checks and banning assault weapons. But Hillary, and her cunning campaign heads, are trying to paint Bernie as a Second Amendment obsessed gun-nut.
Hillary has even gone so far as to say, in a Tweet, that Sanders’ votes contributed to the deaths at Sandy Hook. Disgusting, I know. One shouldn’t be surprised however; this is how the Clintons play
ball. As the campaigns heads toward the Convention, the Hillary Camp is becoming more desperate and it’s apparent with her latest low blow tactics. It’s simple really: paint the elderly, surly, democratic socialist man from the rural state of Vermont as a demented, aloof gun lover. With polls showing an incredibly competitive contest nationally, and given the fact that Bernie is attracting crowds near 30,000, Hillary is clearly not comfortable with the unpredictable success of the Sanders campaign. Meanwhile, Hillary is begging her rich and corporate followers at $300,000 a plate dinners for campaign cash. But according to her, she won’t be influenced. Come on Hillary, do you really think that we’re that dumb?
It’s apparent that Hillary does believe that the typical American voter is susceptible to hyperbolic arguments – especially ones devoid of logic. And even if the average voter is in fact uninformed, holding gun manufacturers liable for legal firearms sales is nonsensical. Here’s the scenario where Hillary wants a manufacturer to be held liable: let’s say a gun is sold to a consumer who passes a background check. Let’s also say that his person decides to shoot up a bank and kills people. Should the gun manufacturer be held liable in this instance? The answer is no. The reason being: the gun wasn’t used in a intended manner. One could even say that the gun was used in the intended manner as its fundamental functionality is to kill, whether it be animals or humans. Whichever point you contend is correct, the gun manufacture should not be legally culpable.
Now, contrast this with the weak car analogy. A Hillary supporter will say: “but if we hold car manufacturers liable for cars killing people, why can’t be sue gun manufacturers?” The key difference is that lawsuits are brought in car wreck cases – in the event of an individual committing a crime with the vehicle – if the product is itself defective. If, let’s say, a person was driving recklessly and purposely endangering human life; and in this same instance, the accelerator pedal was to get struck and the reckless driver ended up killing another driver, this would be a case where a lawsuit could be brought against a car manufacturer. Both the driver and the gun manufacturer would presumably become defendants.
Furthermore, the car was not being used in the manner intended by its own functionality. Cars aren’t manufactured to kill. And while cars may be inadvertent killing machines as a product, they are not analogous to firearms. When cases are brought against gun manufacturers, it’s a product defect issue. Holding guns to a different standard just doesn’t make sense as gun manufacturers aren’t selling the guns to be used in a criminal fashion. Setting a precedent of holding gun manufacturers liable for the illegal actions of consumers could present major issues for other industries, such as bat or knife manufacturers. Of course, there may be instances of egregious distribution of firearms and ammunition, whereby the gun seller – the middle man – chooses to sell an unreasonable amount of a potentially dangerous product. The middle man would be held liable in this hypothetical. Moreover, gun manufacturers can be held liable if a child lock or finger print technology doesn’t function correctly as it’s a product defect scenario.
In the end, attempting to hold Bernie Sanders liable for Sandy Hook is ludicrous. Hillary will stop at nothing to have her grand coronation, even if it means misleading followers. Sorry Hillary, the grand coronation crown is still collecting dust in your basement, along with your private email servers. BERN!!!


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CCTV can be added to access control to protect your business
Staff members in South Devon are believed to be the latest victims of a group of men who have been targeting a series of stores in the area with bogus £20 bills. The workers at the Plymouth supermarket later discovered they had hundreds of pounds worth of fake notes from a customer. Investigators believe one of the gang was captured on camera and hope he can assist them with their inquiries. If the public know anything the police urge them to call, or to phone Crimestoppers anonymously.
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(CNN) — Two African-American men whose arrest at a Philadelphia Starbucks sparked protests over racial bias have reached agreements with the coffee store chain and the city, and have pledged to support a $200,000 effort to encourage young entrepreneurs.
The details of the financial agreement that Donte Robinson and Rashon Nelson reached this week with Starbucks are confidential, the company said. The parties agreed to work to “develop specific actions and opportunities.”
The two men will give input to former US Attorney Eric Holder, who is working with Starbucks on its diversity efforts.
Robinson and Nelson also reached an agreement with the city for $1 each, said city spokesman Mike Dunn.
The men will work with the city and a nonprofit organization to develop criteria, review applications and award the $200,000 grant, Dunn said. The grant will establish “a pilot curriculum for public high school students to develop the skills necessary to pursue their dream of being entrepreneurs,” according to Dunn.
The men had initially asked to use the bathroom at the Starbucks on April 12 as they waited for a business meeting, but were told it was for paying customers only. They then occupied a table without making a purchase, which many observers have noted is a common occurrence at the franchise’s locations.
Within minutes of them arriving, a manager called police after the men declined to leave the premises because, they said, they were waiting for their acquaintance. The video of the arrests went viral.
The men were not charged with a crime.
Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson apologized for the arrests, calling them “reprehensible.”
Starbucks, as part of the agreement, is giving the men the opportunity to complete their undergraduate degrees, through a partnership with Arizona State University.
The protests reignited a national conversation over racial profiling. The mammoth coffee chain agreed to close its 8,000 company-owned stores in the United States to educate employees about racial bias on May 29.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross apologized to the men, saying he made the decision worse by initially defending his officers’ actions.
In a statement Wednesday, Johnson said thank the men for “their willingness to reconcile.”
“I welcome the opportunity to begin a relationship with them to share learnings and experiences. And Starbucks will continue to take actions that stem from this incident to repair and reaffirm our values and vision for the kind of company we want to be,” Johnson said.
Mayor Jim Kenney said he was pleased to resolve the potential claims against the city.
“This was an incident that evoked a lot of pain in our City, pain that would’ve resurfaced over and over again in protracted litigation, which presents significant legal risks and high financial and emotional costs for everyone involved,” Kenney said in a statement.


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LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — Black Book (div. Hearst) released its updated Used Vehicle Retention Index. The index ticked up 113.9 in July, a 0.5% improvement from June (113.3) and a 0.7% increase from the same month a year ago (113.0).
The Black Book Used Vehicle Retention Index is calculated using Black Book’s published wholesale average value on two- to six-year-old used vehicles, as percent of original typically equipped MSRP. It is weighted based on registration volume and adjusted for seasonality, vehicle age, mileage, and condition.
Leading the July index increase were subcompact cars, which enjoyed a 1% increase from June. Sporty cars, premium sporty cars, compact, mid-sizers, and full-sizers all had gains over 0.5%, while the full-size and pickups and full-size luxury SUV segments showed declines.
“The Black Book Index strength over the last year is a clear reflection that there is strong demand for many segments of used vehicles — particularly for cars,” said Executive Vice President of Operations Anil Goyal. “While we are forecasting typical seasonal depreciation pattern through the remainder of the year, dealers and remarketers should continue to see increasing sales volume on used vehicles, driven by continued employment growth and high consumer confidence.”
Originally posted on F&I and Showroom


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How Apple invites facile analysis
For those of us not directly invested in Apple, the stock’s trajectory over the last six months has been a thrill ride to rival anything you’ll find at Magic Mountain.
Since hitting an all-time peak of $705 in mid-September, the shares have been on a long slide, reaching $419 before recovering a bit to almost $462 last week. At the peak, learned Wall Street analysts were speculating about how high Apple could go and whether the sky really was the limit; at the current trough, they’re all but proclaiming the end of the Apple era.
Here are the questions on everyone’s lips: Who’s right? And where does it go from here?
And here are the answers: I don’t know. You don’t know. Nobody on CNBC knows. And if they try to tell you they do know, run for the hills with your hand on your wallet.
What we can say, however, is that the sentiment and stock action related to Apple offer a perfect study in how conjecture and misunderstanding can trump actual knowledge when it comes to evaluating a company. When the company is as much the focus of worldwide attention and as uncommunicative about its own plans as Apple, the effect is even sharper.
The peculiar stock market action and the vacuum in information have combined to generate a wave of news articles and market reports suggesting that Apple has lost its zip and is running as fast as it can just to keep up with Samsung, the maker of its own line of popular smartphones. Yet the notion that Apple is “ceding its crown” (Reuters’ words) in smartphones to Samsung or anyone else, however, is wrong or, at the very least, hopelessly premature.
I should stop here to declare my interests. I don’t own Apple shares. My household is 100% Mac, including three MacBook Airs, but we’re atypical Apple customers. None of our four smartphones is an iPhone. We don’t own iPads or any other tablets (Kindles don’t count); I’m still waiting for Apple to make the case that I need one. I’ve written about Apple in all its various incarnations since 1995. In that time I’ve read a lot of valid reporting about Apple, and a lot of hooey. The hooey usually gets more widely circulated.
A few notable points should be kept in mind when pondering Apple’s stock market behavior. One is that the slide in its shares coincided with a period in which it became the most profitable company in the United States, and by no small margin. In the last quarter of 2012, Apple racked up more than $13 billion in net income. The next two names on the list were ExxonMobil and Chevron, oil companies that rise and fall with the price of crude. To find another industrial company you had to go to No. 4: Microsoft, which reported profit less than half of Apple’s.
Over the longer haul, Apple’s profit growth has been stupendous. In 2009 its bottom line was $5.7 billion, the following year $14 billion, and in 2011 it was $26 billion. You won’t find a company Apple’s size with a trajectory anything like that. Until the September 2012 stock peak, profit growth and the stock price moved in parallel, although profits grew rather faster than the shares.
Yet it’s fair to say that on the way to the peak as well as to the trough, the punditry — indeed, even the purportedly “factual” reporting on Apple — has been little more than myth-making. Financial commentators need stories to tell or their audiences get jaded. The prevailing yarn about Apple through mid-September 2012 was that it was a juggernaut. Could do no wrong. Would eventually grow to consume the entire Earth and everything on it. Yet even stories of world domination begin to pale after time, so this one was duly succeeded by another: Apple knocked off its perch. Its best days were visible only in a rear-view mirror. No longer “cool.”
One persistent variety of magical thinking confuses the real Steve Jobs with the haloed version that exists, if anywhere, only in Ashton Kutcher’s publicity file. It’s fashionable to think of Jobs as a visionary executive with an invariably “laser-like” focus on the user experience, who was never wrong, who would never have deigned to pick fights with Apple’s lowly rivals, etc., etc.
The subtext of all these assertions is that Jobs’ successor, Tim Cook, has done all these things so he must be failing. Myth-making requires a short memory: All these assertions about Jobs, and many more invoked as a reproach to Apple’s present-day regime, are demonstrably wrong.
The main focus of the latest crop of facile but questionable Apple analyses is on the rise of Samsung, which last year shipped 216 million smartphones, including its high-end Galaxy models, compared with Apple’s sales of only 136 million Apple iPhones. (The figures are from IDC Worldwide.) In the same vein, Google’s Android operating system, which powers the Galaxy phones, widened its lead in market share over iPhone, capturing nearly 70% of the smartphone market in the fourth quarter of last year, according to the Gartner Group, compared with Apple’s 21%.
A key error here is the notion that a Samsung or Android user is the equivalent of an iPhone user. The latter are willing to pay more for their phones and use them far more vigorously than the former. They buy more apps and spend more time with them. Market analysts figure that the iPhone, despite being outsold, generates roughly 70% of all operating profit in the mobile device industry, Samsung’s devices almost all the rest.
This imbalance confuses pundits. “Rather than see Apple as being in a strong position, and being very good at what it does, a lot of people look at these numbers and think Apple’s just had fluke good luck,” John Gruber, a technologist and former software developer who blogs about Apple at his website daringfireball.net, told me by email.
Of course it’s possible that the discrepancy in market share between Samsung/Android and Apple will soon bear fruit for the former — developers will write more apps and users will use them. But Apple has an advantage in bringing out innovative new products that won’t go away soon: It controls much more of its own technology than Samsung or Google.
“A technology breakthrough, to be commercially viable, has to be integrated in a very complex way,” says Horace Dediu, a former analyst for the mobile phone company Nokia who now runs his own industry analysis firm, Asymco. “All companies have the same approach, but Apple is the only company on the planet that can fit all the pieces together” — software, hardware, apps, content, you name it. Samsung can manufacture a phone, but it needs Google to run it. (And last year Google bought its own hardware company, Motorola.)
Dediu observes that Apple does have to run harder to compete today than it did when it introduced the iPhone in 2007. Its rivals are getting faster and better at bringing out popular competing products — the market was swamped with rival tablets within months of the iPad’s introduction. Android will attract more and better apps. A cheaper iPhone may be needed to keep Samsung from monopolizing the mid-price and low end of the smartphone market. An Apple that stands still isn’t in the cards.
And it won’t be long now before the myth-makers in the press and on Wall Street shift gears again. They’re already stirring up speculation about Apple’s next big thing — a smartwatch? The long-awaited Apple TV? A wearable computer a la Google’s glasses?
These conjectures always sound bloodless, because none of them can answer the question posed by the late social critic Neil Postman about any bruited technology “breakthrough”: “What is the problem to which this is a solution?” After all, what’s wrong with TV as we use it today? With our wristwatches? With our eyeglasses? Until we know, there’s no basis for claiming that any of these “solutions” will be life changing. (Most aren’t.) But the fact that the pundits are on tenterhooks wondering what Apple’s version of any of them will be tells you that, while Apple may cede its crown someday as the premier marketer of consumer technology, that day hasn’t yet dawned.
Michael Hiltzik’s column appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Reach him at firstname.lastname@example.org, read past columns at latimes.com/hiltzik, check out facebook.com/hiltzik and follow @latimeshiltzik on Twitter.
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Despite their potential to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and fuel consumption, electric and hybrid cars and trucks struggled for years to find a solid customer base. Much of the reason came down to cost and convenience: Electric car batteries are expensive, and charging them requires plug-in infrastructure that’s still sparse in the United States.
Now MIT spinout XL Hybrids is upfitting (and retrofitting) gas and diesel commercial vans and trucks with fuel-saving “add-on” electric powertrains whose batteries are charged through energy generated by braking.
According to tests conducted by the startup, the $8,000 system — which has been incorporated into hundreds of vans in the commercial fleets of Coca-Cola and FedEx, among others — can provide a 20 percent reduction in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.
“The goal is to reduce oil consumption with cost-effective electric drive technology, where fleets don’t need additional infrastructure and don’t need a large battery,” says Tod Hynes ’02, co-founding president of XL Hybrids and a lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
The system’s powertrain includes an electric traction motor, a lithium-ion battery, advanced power converters, and other connecting components that attach to the powertrains of traditional General Motors and Ford cargo, delivery, and shuttle vans, as well as cutaway trucks.
When the vehicles brake, a process known as “regenerative braking” captures the kinetic energy (usually dissipated as heat through friction) and converts it into electricity that charges the battery — which, in turn, releases the energy to the electric motor during acceleration.
Custom software reads the driver’s braking habits and optimizes the system. The startup also collects operational data from the vehicles to inform fleet managers of the best vehicles for the technology — usually ones traveling in the stop-and-go traffic of urban areas.
Over the past year, XL Hybrids — co-founded by Clay Siegert SM ’09 and Justin Ashton GM ’08, who Hynes met through MIT’s entrepreneurial network — has seen its revenue grow twentyfold.
Last month, Fast Company ranked the startup No. 35 on its list of the world’s 50 most innovative companies, and third in energy-specific companies, trailing only Tesla Motors and General Electric. This week, the company was named an Energy Innovation Pioneer by the global analytics company IHS at CERAWeek, a leading international energy conference.
Benefits by the numbers
Hybrids themselves have been around for decades, and other companies have started retrofitting vehicles with electric powertrains.
But XL Hybrids’ innovation comes from targeting commercial fleet vehicles with “a good value proposition all around,” Hynes says — offering low-cost equipment, quick installation, savings on gas and oil, and easy integration.
“At the end of the day, it’s about making the economics work to compete against the price of fuel,” Hynes says, adding, “We’re able to do a lot with a little.”
Electric or hybrid fleet vehicles traditionally run on large batteries — sometimes more than 100 kilowatt-hours (kWh) in capacity — that cost upward of $40,000. XL Hybrids installs small, 1.8-kWh lithium-ion batteries that provide a 20 percent fuel savings, Hynes says.
To determine the extent of the savings, XL Hybrids conducted a dynamometer test, which involves running a vehicle on treadmill-like rollers to estimate fuel mileage in urban driving. They first ran a 5-ton vehicle through the test without XL Hybrids’ system and then with the system, observing a 21 percent savings.
With this savings, companies can expect to save 4,000 gallons of fuel over the life of an XL Hybrids system, Hynes says. Since the system costs $8,000, companies essentially pay $2 for each gallon saved. “Why pay $3 or $4 for a gallon, when you can pay $2 to save a gallon?” Hynes says.
Additional benefits to the system, Hynes says, include reducing brake wear and maintenance, and the time employees spend filling up at gas stations. Also, downsizing engines: An XL Hybrids electric motor adds torque to an existing powertrain, meaning a customer can reduce the size of the engine from, say, a 6-liter to a 4.8-liter, and get better acceleration — which can save hundreds or thousands of dollars upfront, Hynes says.
“When a fleet customer looks at the numbers, they want to see benefits based on fuel savings and engine downsizing,” Hynes says. “These other benefits are just gravy.”
While the system can be added as a retrofit, it’s generally installed as part of the modifications that most commercial fleet vehicles go through. This ease of integration helps set the company apart from the competition, Hynes says.
“The vehicles literally roll of the line and go to facilities where they’ll be modified anyway,” he says. “Manufacturers don’t need to change their manufacturing processes.”
For Hynes, the path to entrepreneurship, alternative energy, and XL Hybrids revolves around his alma mater.
As an MIT undergraduate in management in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Hynes became “very passionate about startups.” With the Internet boom in full swing, he co-founded a couple of dot-coms, but began viewing “climate change and energy as the real challenges of my generation.”
After graduating, he co-founded the consulting and engineering services firm Strategic Energy Systems with two MIT alumni before taking a position as director of alternative energy at Citizens Energy in Boston.
Over five years, a few things came together: Alternative energy became a focus at MIT, which had launched, among other things, the MIT Energy Club (2004) and the MIT Energy Initiative (2006) — both of which Hynes became involved with. “I got more engaged with MIT as MIT got more engaged with energy,” he says.
At the same time, across the nation, clean energy ventures became much more profitable: For example, the wind industry grew from a $500 million industry to a $15 billion industry in five years.
But Hynes noticed that the nation didn’t have an electricity problem. “It has an oil problem,” he says. “We’re very dependent on oil: We rely on imports, and more than 95 percent of transportation fuel is oil.”
So he quit his job in 2008, with the aim of starting a company to cut oil consumption. With rising innovations in batteries and advanced power inverters and motors, Hynes “backed into a technological solution” with retrofitted electric powertrains.
Reconnecting with former mentor Bill Aulet, now managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, Hynes put the final pieces into place.
Hynes and Aulet co-founded MIT’s Clean Energy Prize in 2008; via the competition, Hynes met Ashton, his XL Hybrids co-founder. Through Aulet, he then met Siegert, a supply chain and logistics expert who had already founded a few startups.
The trio began “grinding away” in a garage in Somerville, Mass., conducting early trials on the Ford Crown Victoria and tweaking the specs. In 2011, they relocated to their current headquarters in Brighton, Mass., where they have ramped up production and are expanding their technology to fit different makes and models.
“A benefit of the design is we can make slight modifications to the system and incorporate it onto other vehicle makes and models, and rapidly scale across the industry,” Hynes says.
Coming full circle, Hynes now teaches at MIT, helping to walk students through the process of launching alternative-energy startups. Back on campus, he says the energy landscape has certainly expanded since he was an undergraduate — and even since he started XL Hybrids.
“MIT has done a tremendous job at becoming a world center for energy innovation,” he says.


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Shares in Zoom (opens in new tab) have dropped sharply despite the company recording encouraging financial results once again.
The video conferencing (opens in new tab) giant's share price fell by more than 11% in after-hours trading despite the comapny beating Wall Street's predictions on revenue and EPS (earnings per share). What appeared to have triggered the sell off was the guidance for the third quarter for earnings per share (between $1.07 and $1.08, compared to $1.09 based on an analyst consensus poll) and just 15% growth for the fiscal fourth quarter.
The company, which became the poster child for the work-from-home (opens in new tab) pandemic era, saw its market capitalization shoot up by nearly nine times in 2020. At its peak, its stock hit $559 -but it's now worth just under $350.
- We've curated a list of the best IP phones (opens in new tab) around today
- Here's the best online collaboration tools (opens in new tab) too
- And that of the best business phone systems (opens in new tab)
Now, nearly two years after the pandemic began, sales have hit a buffer with the company acknowledging that its core business is decelerating, which in turn, has caused Zoom to look for growth elsewhere.
It has already started its transformation from being a product into a platform with the $14.7 billion acquisition of Five9 (opens in new tab), a major call-centre-as-a-software (opens in new tab) player, and significant investment in building its own apps environment, Zoom Apps (opens in new tab).
Zoom also faces the same foe as Slack: Microsoft Teams. But the popular text-based collaboration tool was ultimately acquired by Salesforce before it could fully transition to a platform. Zoom, given its size, may have a harder time finding a potential suitor as hybrid working becomes the de facto working agreement for agile workforces.
Teams (opens in new tab) remains Zoom's biggest threat as the company hasn't been able to attract as many organizations with more than 10 paid seats as analysts had expected. Why? Perhaps because Microsoft has assiduously pushed Microsoft 365, which includes Teams, for as little as $8 per month per user. Zoom costs almost twice the price and doesn't come with Office 365 apps or OneDrive.
- Best hybrid working tech (opens in new tab): Everything you need for the return to the office


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When business travel increases, it is likely good news for companies. Recent research shows that across the globe, travel buyers are more optimistic about business travel. The biggest cause of this optimism? Stronger economies. But how optimistic are travel managers, and do they expect this increased business travel spend to be a regular aspect of their organizations?
According to AirPlus International’s third annual Trend Letter, companies expecting a positive outlook on business travel increased by 5 percent to 17 percent. Additionally, 23 percent expect more frequent business trips, while 18 percent expected that in September.
AirPlus interviewed 1,500 travel managers worldwide for their views on how the current economic situation will affect business travel for their organization. The company first asked this question in September 2013 and repeated in then again in February 2014 before the Crimean Crisis had escalated, according to the report.
In the most recent findings, 45 percent of respondents said they expect longer business trips, compared to 35 percent in September 2013.
“More than one-third of the optimistic travel managers anticipate the relaxing of the travel guidelines in their own organization, as well as higher individual travel budgets,” the report said.
However, the findings also showed that 82 percent of respondents perceived that the economic situation will have a negative impact on business travel. Of those travel managers, 82 percent cited reduced travel activity as a consequence and 68 percent said that tighter travel guidelines would occur.
“Almost half of the surveyed travel managers connect the negative effects with a decline in trip length,” the report said. “Only 3 percent associate the negative effect with an entire discontinuation of travel. A complete termination of travels is generally used in very few companies, and distinctly fewer than in September 2013.”
This same travel optimism can also be seen in the increase in travel spend in developing countries. Earlier this week, PYMNTS.com reported on findings from Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) and the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) that showed Russia will have the highest percentage increase in business travel spend in 2015 compared with other countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
“Growth will be led by expansion in emerging markets such as China, India, and Brazil,” the report said. “Advanced economies will also strongly contribute as economic growth improves and pent-up demand is released. Meanwhile, muted advances in travel supply will begin to put upward pressure on rates, particularly in high-demand travel markets.”
However, the report also stated that economic issues could have an effect on business travel spend – just like the AirPlus study found. According to the CWT and GBTA research, the high growth potential is offset by the risk of further turmoil in the Ukraine and economic sanctions against Russia, which would be detrimental to travel demand and air prices in the region.
Even so, neither study reported that business travel would stop entirely because of economic issues. With that in mind, global travel buyers need to keep themselves updated on economic situations across the globe so they can make the right spend decisions for their business.


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Samsung debuted its Z series with the launch of the Z1 back in January last year. This was followed by the release of the Z3 in October. And now, it looks like the South Korean company will soon fill the gap by launching the Z2.
A new Z series device with model number SM-Z200F - which in all likelihood is the Z2 - has received Wi-Fi certification from the WiFi Alliance (WFA).
The model has already received certification from the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), so it won't be a stretch to expect the device getting official sooner than later. Its rumored specs include quad-core CPU, 4.5-inch display, 1GB RAM, Tizen 3.0 OS, and 2,000mAh battery.
I swear none of GSMArena's commentators finished primary school before being given internet privileges.
Who is this stupidhead? What do you know about Linux? A lot of OS based on Linux. You call that android too? It just like saying we all are apes. So you are a gorilla too.