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Did you enjoy this year’s E3? What favorite games you were anticipating seeing at E3 2021, but didn’t appear? Let’s have a look at the biggest absents of this year.
Despite Sony’s absence, most of the publishers who usually attend E3, held a press conference this year as well. Even we had some new showcases this year, including the Gearbox and Capcom events.
- 12 MINUTES PREVIEW: Mystery Adventure Dripping in Atmospheric Time Bending
Running from June 12 to 15, Hundreds of games have been showcased at E3 this year, however, there were still a lot of games that missed E3 2021.
Some publishers like EA and Sony will have their own events in the near future, but among the ones that attended at E3 2021, we might’ve expected a little bit more.
Below, we will have a look at the biggest, most anticipated games that we would love to see at E3.
Although this year’s Xbox + Bethesda E3 2021 showcase was something near to incredible, the event still had a number of big absents. If we had the list below inside the show, the Xbox E3 2021 showcase would probably be the biggest E3 press conference ever in history.
Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga
Originally revealed later in 2019 as the very first Xbox Series X|S console exclusive, Hellblade 2 developers have been tight-lipped about the game since then.
No new trailers or gameplay videos have been shared from Ninja Theory’s upcoming sequel to Senua’s Sacrifice so far. Despite some rumors, the game skipped another big event.
It’s likely that Gamescom 2021 or The Game Awards 2021 will be our next chance to get an update on Hellblade 2: Senua’s Sacrifice this year.
Unlike Hellblade 2, it was almost obvious that we wouldn’t get a new update on the Perfect Dark reboot. Last year, the developers revealed that the game was at the early stages of development.
Announced with a cinematic trailer in 2020, it’s hard to believe that we would get the first gameplay footage from this first-person shooter anytime earlier than 2022.
Avowed is going to be the beginning of a new adventure in the world of the Pillars of Eternity series. As an upcoming first-person RPG, Avowed is the other big project from Obsidian Entertainment next to The Outer Worlds 2.
Avowed was premiered with a brief teaser last year, but it was expected to be at this year’s event as the rumors around the game’s strong and speedy development process are strong.
Similar to Perfect Dark, Fable is the other first-party project at Xbox Game Studios that won’t be available anytime soon. The game is still in the early stages of the development process.
Fable is the first non-Forza title from Playground Games and also a very important IP for Xbox. No details around this reboot are available, but it will likely skip Xbox One.
Although Rare’s Everwild didn’t appear at E3 2021, soon after the Xbox press conference we received some info on its development process.
According to some trustworthy sources like VGC, Everwild’s development has been completely rebooted since when Gregg Mayles was appointed as the creative director behind the game.
Apparently, the game is now targeting a 2024 release, which means we might not see anything from the game even at next year’s E3.
State of Decay 3
The third instalment in the State of Decay series was revealed with an exciting cinematic trailer back in 2020.
As per reports, the game has a long way to go until release, which means we probably wouldn’t hear anything new about it anytime soon.
Indiana Jones Game
Announced with a brief teaser, the new project from the developers of Wolfenstein is early in development like most of the other Xbox Game Studios titles.
We have nothing to share about the game at this moment, and it doesn’t seem like a project for the near future. Besides, there are some rumors that Machine Games is also working on Wolfenstein 3.
While Playground Games Forza Horizon 5 had a great night at the Xbox E3 2021 showcase, there was nothing about its bigger brother, Forza Motorsport.
Usually, there is a few years gap between a Horizon launch and a Motorsport launch. So, we might be lucky enough to see more about the next Forza Motorsport game at E3 2022.
Similar to Xbox, Nintendo sure pleased its fans with the latest showcase at E3 2021. A long line-up of new Nintendo Switch titles has been revealed during the show, along with some brilliant new trailers from first-party games. However, you might still feel a bit disappointed after the show, if you are a fan of the titles below.
The anticipation for the new entry of the Bayonetta series has been longer than expected. The game received nothing new after its announcement teaser trailer back in 2017.
Earlier this year, Platinum Games assured fans that the game is still in development, but when it could be ready for launch is anyone’s guess right now.
The follow-up to Nintendo’s popular multiplayer experience was announced in February this year. Splatoon 3 is one of the biggest upcoming Switch exclusives that will launch in 2022 alongside the sequel to Breath of the Wild.
The fans were expecting a more detailed look at the game and its new gameplay elements, however, it was yet another big game missing E3 2021.
Metroid Prime 4
Similar to Bayonetta 3, Metroid Prime 4 is the other Nintendo Switch title that has been long in development. The game was handed over to a new studio a few years earlier.
Although Nintendo confirmed that the development process of Metroid Prime 4 is still active, it didn’t showcase anything new from the game. That being said, Metroid Dread was still a great surprise.
Aside from the Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora announcement, Ubisoft had quite a predictable showcase, especially with all the leaks around Sparks of Hope before the event.
The French publisher could have delivered a much entertaining showcase if only one of the titles below would be presented.
Beyond Good and Evil 2
Ubisoft Revealed three major projects at E3 2017, and none of them have been released yet.
Beyond Good and Evil 2 was probably the most ambitious one. It was a huge surprise back then, but it hasn’t received any new updates since a cinematic trailer back in 2018.
With the recent Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora announcement, we might be lucky to see something new from Beyond Good and Evil 2, finally.
Skull & Bones
When sailing in the Assassin’s Creed series was quite a new and interesting feature, Ubisoft announced a new IP with a complete focus on Pirate wars.
Skull & Bones was first shown at E3 2017 and gameplay footage was shared a year later at E3 2018. However, the game never received any updates for a few years.
Eventually, Ubisoft confirmed that the development process for Skull & Bones was rebooted and the game would be premiered when it was ready. And… it’s not ready yet.
The Division Heartland
Announced earlier in Spring, I really hoped to see a full announcement from the next chapter of The Division series. However, it seems the game is still far away from launch.
Heartland is supposed to be a free-to-play spin-off from The Division series, combining the franchise’s core gameplay mechanics with some brand new ideas.
Massive Entertainment’s Star Wars Game
If you ask me, this one is going to be absent for a long time. Back in 2017, Ubisoft announced that an Avatar project is on the way from Massive Entertainment.
Now, the same story happened for a Star Wars title as well. With Massive’s focus on Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, it wouldn’t be fair to expect the first look at their Star Wars project anytime soon.
Other Big Games
Aside from the publishers above, we had some other press conferences at E3 2021, some of which could deliver new updates on big, anticipated projects, but at the end of the day, they didn’t.
Final Fantasy XVI
As a PS5-only title, the absence of Final Fantasy XVI at E3 2021 was pretty predictable.
You’ll probably have to wait until the next big PlayStation showcase to see something new from the next chapter of the Final Fantasy series.
The latest project from Luminous Productions is a fantasy open-world RPG, coming exclusively to PS5 and PC.
Forspoken was announced at the first PS5 showcase as Project Athia and then received a gameplay trailer earlier this year.
The game was expected to have a significant share of Square Enix’s showcase at E3 2021, but it will probably be saved for the next PlayStation event.
As the closest Alien experience to launch, Fireteam is supposed to be available this Summer, and we would expect to see more from the gameplay elements during the Summer Game Fest showcase.
That being said, it seems the developers are thinking of something different. Aliens: Fireteam is a co-op-based shooter adventure, sharing all the horrifying elements from the Alien movie franchise.
The Callisto Protocol
For every Dead Space fan out there, The Callisto Protocol is likely a highly anticipated game. In development from Dead Space creator, Glen Schofield, The Callisto Protocol seems just like a spiritual successor to the horror series.
The game will be published by PUBG Corp. and we would expect to see something new at Summer Game Fest or the Xbox showcase, but it seems we need to wait for more.
Announced with a brief teaser earlier last month, the next big project from Paradox Interactive in the strategic and simulation genre is Victoria 3.
The game will be launched directly on Xbox Game Pass, and it could be premiered as one of the many titles showcased during the Xbox E3 event, however, it seems the game is in the early stages of development.
Games That We Knew Would Be Absent
Aside from the titles above, there are some other big projects that missed this year’s E3. However, the development teams behind the games below made it clear before the event that they wouldn’t have any new premiers at E3 2021.
- Saints Row 5
- Dead Island 2
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Gotham Knights
- Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
- All Sony’s first-party games
What game did you anticipate to see at E3 2021 the most?
The post The 20 Biggest Games That Were Not Featured at E3 2021 by Mehrdad Khayyat appeared first on DualShockers.


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In-Depth: Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) introduced this bill to curb abuse of the FDA petition process and increase access to affordable prescription drugs:
“The FDA petitioning process offers the public an opportunity to raise legitimate health and safety issues regarding potential new drugs, but for too long some businesses have been using it to advance their commercial interests at the expense of patients and consumers. Increased competition in prescription drug markets can only happen if we eliminate incentives for bad behavior, like submitting sham petitions that delay safe and effective generics and biosimilars from reaching the patients who need them. The bipartisan Stop STALLING Act will give enforcers increased authority to crack down on these abusive practices, helping to ensure that drug makers will think twice before submitting sham petitions that have more to do with increasing profits than improving patient safety.”
After this bill’s House companion — along with the House companion to another pharmaceuticals-related bill Sen. Klobuchar sponsored, the Preserve Access to Affordable Generics and Biosimilars Act — passed the House Judiciary Committee on April 30, 2019, Sen. Klobuchar said:
“The skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs in our country is an urgent problem, but there are solutions on the table to help Americans access the critical medications they need at prices they can afford. With the passage of my bills out of the House Judiciary Committee today, we are one step closer to ending the unfair practices that drive up prescription drug costs.”
Original House cosponsor Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) adds:
“The Stop STALLING Act prevents brand-name pharmaceutical manufacturers from filing bogus citizen petitions simply to prevent generic options from coming to market. This legislation would help promote competition in the pharmaceutical market and give American families access to more prescription choices at lower costs.”
In floor remarks at this bill’s House Judiciary Committee markup, Rep. Collins added:
“When used appropriately, citizen petitions filed with the Food and Drug Administration allow all Americans to raise legitimate health and safety concerns about prescription drugs proposed for FDA approval. But for too long, drug manufacturers have been allowed to game the system by submitting numerous or baseless, bogus petitions simply so the FDA will delay competing manufacturers’ approvals. As long as the FDA is tied up reviewing petitions, the original manufacturer is shielded from competition – and consumer drug prices remain high. Recently, the Third Circuit’s decision in FTC v. Shire ViroPharma made it harder for the Federal Trade Commission to use antitrust enforcement to stop this anticompetitive behavior. The Stop STALLING Act is sound, bipartisan legislation to make sure that the FTC has effective authority to act against sham petitions. While preserving the rights of citizens to bring legitimate health and safety concerns to the FDA, the Stop STALLING Act should stop in their tracks drug manufacturers that seek only to file baseless petitions to keep competitors off the market and prevent consumers from accessing lower cost alternative medications.”
Consumer Reports, which has long supported efforts to bring down prescription drug prices, supports this bill. In an April 29, 2019 letter to House Judiciary Committee leadership, it wrote:
“[The Stop STALLING Act] would prohibit the abusive use of so-called “citizen petitions” by brand-name drug makers to raise concerns that stall progress on developing generic alternatives. This petition process was established to provide citizens to have an opportunity to bring concerns to the FDA’s attention in a timely fashion. But the procedure has been commandeered by brand-name drug makers to raise dubious concerns, often numerous times, that require the FDA to suspend while it investigates and responds. One brand-name drug company reportedly filed 43 such petitions against a single generic applicant. [This bill] would prohibit submitting a citizen petition for the purpose of preventing or delaying the approval of a generic or biosimilar drug, as an unfair method of competition.”
In response to Sen. Klobuchar’s questions for the record in a Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing, “IP and the Price of Prescription Drugs: Balancing Innovation and Competition,” on May 28, 2019, Rutgers Law School Professor Michael A. Carrier argued that this bill could be strengthened in two ways: 1) by listing sham facts that would indicate a citizen petition and 2) addressing subjective inquiry. With these recommendations in mind, Carrier suggested that this bill be modified to provide that 1) evidence of intent can be shown by both direct and indirect evidence and 2) that experienced actors engaged in objectively baseless conduct could demonstrate a subjective element. However, despite offering these suggestions, Carrier also expressed hearty support for this bill, testifying, “Nearly every one of these citizen petitions is brought by a brand company. None are filed by individuals. I love the legislation. I would go even stronger.”
This bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on a voice vote and has one Senate cosponsor, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), in the 116th Congress. Its House companion bill, sponsored by Rep. Hakeem Jefferies, passed the House Judiciary Committee by a voice vote with six bipartisan cosponsors’ support (including four Democrats and two Republicans).
Of Note: In theory, citizen petitions about drug safety are supposed to serve as a way for anyone to bring their concerns straight to the FDA. However, in March 2017, The Atlantic reported that “[i]n practice, many citizen petitions are filed by none other than pharmaceutical companies themselves—as a way of fighting off a competitor’s cheaper generic drug.” In a 12-year study of such petitions published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that such petitions were often “frivolous or questionable,” serving as a “last-ditch effort to hold off competition.” As The Atlantic article notes, citizen petitions are “a stealthier and innocuous-sounding way for companies to keep out competitors” as part of their efforts to keep out generic competition after their drugs’ patents expire.
Sen. Klobuchar’s office notes that currently, “Although interested parties may file petitions with the FDA in connection with its review of certain drugs, concerns have been raised that pharmaceutical companies file serial petitions or last-minute petitions in attempts to delay generic approval, while imposing significant and unnecessary review costs on the FDA.”
In his opening statement before the House Judiciary Committee voted to approve this bill, Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) cited the cases of Shire VirePharma and Indivior to illustrate the need for this bill. In Shire’s case, the company “abused the citizen petition process in order to maintain a monopoly over Vancocin Capsules, a drug used to treat potentially life-threatening gastrointestinal infections,” inundating the FDA with sham petitions to delay generic competitors’ approval for six years. According to the FTC’s antitrust complaint, Shire’s serial sham petitions “lacked any supporting clinical data,” yet they “succeeded in delaying generic entry at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars to patients and other purchasers.”
In the case of Indivior, the manufacturer engaged in citizen petition abuse and other anticompetitive practices to maintain its monopoly over Suboxone, a treatment for patients addicted to prescription painkillers, heroin and other drugs. Rep. Nadler noted, “Indivior filed a series of sham petitions to prevent a generic competitor from entering the market with the same Suboxone tablets that it sold and marketed for nearly 10 years at a profit of over $2 billion dollars.” By the time the FDA rejected these sham petitions, Indivior had pulled its Suboxone tablet version from the market and converted the market to its newly-patented Suboxone film. Thus, Rep. Nadler concluded, “[b]y abusing the citizen petition process, Indivior reaped monopoly profits from its sale of Suboxone film, and it deprived victims of opioid addiction and medical practitioners the benefits of generic competition.”
Erika Lietzan, a law professor at the University of Missouri who previously specialized in FDA regulation in private practice, says that companies filing petitions regarding their competitors isn’t troubling in itself. In fact, she argues that companies themselves are, indeed, the right people to file petitions for legitimate scientific and legal concerns:
“If it’s an innovative product, it may be the company that developed and has been making it for years is in a position to have insights into the science or manufacturing issues that others wouldn’t. So if anything, I almost think, those are the right people to be filing them.”
In its eighth annual report on delays in approvals of applications related to citizen petitions and petitions for stay of agency action, the FDA reported that petitions delayed two generic drug approvals in FY 2015 (but didn’t specify which drugs’ approvals were delayed). The agency wrote that it was concerned that resources spent responding to petitions by mandated deadlines detracted from its other work.
Summary by Lorelei Yang(Photo Credit: iStockphoto.com / Bill Oxford)

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After witnessing a 30% reduction in its scale during FY21, EatClub Brands (previously Box8) has managed a two fold growth in FY22 while also touching the Rs 210 crore mark at the same time.
EatClub’s revenue from operations spiked 96.3% to Rs 210 crore in FY22 from Rs 107 crore in FY21, according to its annual financial statements filed with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).
EatClub manages nine brands including Mojo pizza, Zaza biryani, Bhatti chicken wings, Globo ice cream, Box8, NH1 bowls, and others. Revenue from these brands formed 98.6% of the total collections which increased 93.5% to Rs 207 crore in FY22 from Rs 107 crore in FY21.
The remaining collections for the Bengaluru-based company came from membership fees of customers’ subscriptions to EatClub Pro. This income was recorded at Rs 3 crore during FY22.
In line with its scale, the cost of procurement surged 107% and turned out to be the largest cost center for EatClub which accounted for 32% of the overall expenses. This cost stood at Rs 83 crore in FY22 as compared to Rs 40 crore in the previous fiscal year (FY21).
EatClub’s employee benefit cost surged 72.4% to Rs 50 crore in FY22 from Rs 29 crore in FY21. With the expansion of influencer marketing and onboarding of actor Raj Kumar Rao and actress Sara Ali Khan as brand ambassadors, its advertising cost ballooned over 6X to Rs 28 crore in FY22 from Rs 4.5 crore in FY22.
The company added another Rs 28 crore as contract labor charges which pushed the overall cost of the company by 103.9% to Rs 259 crore in FY22 from Rs 127 crore in FY21.
Meanwhile, its losses shot up 2.5X to Rs 45 crore in FY22 from Rs 18 crore in FY21. The Tiger Global-led company spent Rs 1.23 to earn a single unit of operating revenue.
EatClub directly competes with Rebel Foods which scaled 116% and surpassed Rs 900 crore in revenue during FY22. Rebel’s losses increased 55% and stood at Rs 564 crore in the same period. Its other direct competitor includes Curefoods which is yet to file FY22 numbers.
EatClub, which started out as Box8 over a decade ago, was one of the early entrants to the cloud kitchen space. With online food ordering on the rise in India, cloud kitchen companies are benefiting, which is reflected in the scale that the company has achieved. And when compared to its peer Rebel Foods (even though their scale is over 4x higher), EatClub has managed to better control its losses.
However, that is no guarantee of its long term success or attractiveness to investors, as many would argue that Rebel Foods has created the more powerful brands, giving it a long term edge.


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Hasbro has released press images for the items they revealed at their Star Wars Celebration Chicago 2019 panel! Click on the thumbnails below to check out high-res photos of the newest addition to the Black Series Role Play line - Luke Skywalker's X-Wing Pilot Helmet!
STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES
LUKE SKYWALKER BATTLE SIMULATION ELECTRONIC HELMET
(HASBRO/Ages Adult/Approx. Retail Price: $99.99/Available: Fall 2019)


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Unless an official announcement from Rockstar Games comes out, it is unlikely that the studio will be releasing “Grand Theft Auto 6” in 2018.
According to a report by Crossmap, the 2018 speculation comes only as a fan theory, which they may have determined using the release pattern of Rockstar Games for previous installments of the franchise.
The report said that if Rockstar was set on developing the following chapter of the game, it should at least start working on the new game by the end of 2016.
It can be recalled that the first “GTA” came out in 1997, and the sequel came in 1999. “GTA 3” was released in 2001, but it took seven years before the actual fourth installment was released in 2008. It then took another five years to release “GTA 5” in 2013.
The report said that ‘GTA 6’ may not be a priority for Rockstar as of the moment because it is focused on developing more content on its most recent offering “GTA Online.”
Meanwhile, there are also rumors that should the game materialize, it could feature the entire U.S. map for the game instead of only focusing on certain locations.
Based on a report by GTA6 Grand Theft Auto website, Leslie Benzies chief of Rockstar games shared the outline of the “GTA 6” development wherein the team will be working on the map, storyline, and missions.
The map, according to the report, will include cities like Los Angeles, Miami, and other major cities in America.
A report by Master Herald also suggested that a female protagonist could be starring in the next game, given the studio’s tendency to spin the norm to deliver a different take.
Aside from new missions, new locations, more vehicles and customizable characters which as on the fans’ wishlist, the report said that “GTA 6” could employ a more realistic approach to the design and feel of the game.
However, the report is leaning more towards a 2020 release window rather than a 2018 launch.


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Hub Group has announced financial results showing income of $16.5 million for the fourth quarter of last year or earnings per share of 45 cents, compared to $18.8 million or 51 cents per share the same time a year ago.
Income for the year was $69.1 million or earnings per share of $1.87, compared to $68 million or $1.83 per share during 2012 for the Illinois-based asset light freight transportation management company that intermodal, truck brokerage and logistics services.
Revenue rose to $885.2 million in the fourth quarter from $801 million a year earlier while it increased to $3.4 billion for all of last year versus $3.1 billion during 2012.
The company’s income was hurt by a non-cash impairment charge of $2.9 million related to changing the trade name of Comtrak Logistics to Hub Group Trucking. Excluding the effect of this item, earnings per share was increased to 50 cents per share for the final quarter of 2013.
More details are on the Hub Group website.


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AOL continues its display advertising turnaround, reporting an 8% jump in third quarter advertising sales, thanks to a dual strategy of third-party network sales and enhanced premium display advertising sales related to its so-called “Project Devil” initiative. While the ad revenue surge came amid a third quarter earnings release showing a 6% decline in AOL’s total revenues, the drop came mainly from non-advertising sales related areas, especially its Internet access subscriptions business, which is part of a longer-term shift of users from dial-up to broadband services.
"AOL grew global advertising by 8%, driven by 28% and 15% growth in third party network and global display advertising revenue, respectively, substantially closing the gap to revenue and eventual profit growth," Chairman-CEO Tim Armstrong said in a statement, adding, "We continue to build strong consumer experiences as we execute our strategy to build the premium branded media company for the Internet.”
A key component of AOL’s consumer experience strategy has been focused on the amount and type of display advertising it serves to its users, and especially Armstrong’s ambitious Project Devil initiative, which dramatically reduced the number of ads sold per AOL page, but created new super-premium advertising units that the ad industry generally calls “portrait units.” The rise in AOL’s display ad sales indicates the strategy is paying off, amid a rapid deterioration in AOL’s other revenue streams, particularly subscription revenues, which declined 22% during the quarter.
As a result, AOL’s total revenues fell 6% to $531.7 million from $564.2 million during the third quarter of 2010.
However, advertising now accounts for 59.8% of AOL’s total revenues, up from 52.0%, which is a pretty significant gain amid a volatile period in the advertising marketplace.


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FLOOR coverings retailer Carpetright says its financial performance is improving steadily, though its UK division continues to prop up weaker European performances.
The firm said UK like-for-like sales increased 6.1 per cent for the 13 weeks to July 26, with total sales rising 5.2 per cent.
Bosses said it was helped by growth in May, June and July, as the firm benefited from comparisons against last year’s prolonged spell of hot weather.
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However, the group, which owns Sunderland-based Storey Carpets, revealed its European business remains difficult, with like-for-like sales across the Netherlands, Belgium and the Republic of Ireland falling by 3.6 per cent.
Total sales declined by 3.9 per cent, though bosses said that drop has reduced.
Last month bosses revealed pre-tax losses of £7.2m for the year to April 26, compared to a £5.1m deficit 12 months earlier.
A statement said: “The UK business saw small but steady improvements, and sales across the rest of our Europe business have shown signs of improvement with a reduction in the rate of decline.
“It is encouraging to report our businesses in the Netherlands and Belgium have returned to profit in the first quarter.
“Notwithstanding the continued tough trading conditions, our expectations for the current year are unchanged.”
The company added Wilf Walsh is now chief executive, taking over from founder Lord Harris of Peckham, who is now non-executive chairman.


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On the afternoon of September 5th, Henan Theme Day Seminar for Trade in Services, 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services was held at the Marco Polo Parkside Hotel in Beijing. He Jinping, Vice Governor of Henan Province, Wei Xuebin, Deputy Director of the Management Committee of the Zhengzhou Airport Economy Zone, heads of the Henan Provincial Commerce Department, the Culture and Tourism Department of Henan Province, and the Education Department of Henan Province, important guests and businessmen at home and abroad, and representatives of the signed projects attended the conference.
30 service trade and major investment promotion projects were signed at the conference, including 3 projects, such as the cooperation framework agreement between Cambodia 7TRIP and Xing Gang Investment Group reported by the Zhengzhou Airport Economy Zone.
Co-sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce and the Beijing Municipal Government, the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services is the largest comprehensive exhibition in the global service trade and a leading exhibition in China’s service trade. It was held in Beijing from September 4th to 9th. The Henan Theme Day, involving the exhibitions of the theme province and Henan Theme Day Seminar for Trade in Services, presented the achievements of service trade in our province in an all-round way and built a platform for service trade opening and cooperation.
© 2015 Zhengzhou Airport Economy Zone all rights reserved.


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Walmart and other stores received onions linked to salmonella outbreak - FDA
The Food and Drug Administration has released a partial list of retail establishments that may have sold onions from Mexico that have been implicated in an ongoing outbreak of Salmonella Oranienburg.
However, the list may not be accurate, according to the agency.
“This list represents the best information currently available to the FDA; however, it may not include all retail establishments that have received the recalled product or may include retail establishments that did not actually receive the recalled product,” the FDA’s outbreak update states.
In addition to checking the retailers list — which includes a number of Walmart stores along with other retailers — the FDA is urging consumers to check any onions they have on hand to see if they are from Mexico.
It is believed the implicated onions came from the Mexican state of of Chihuahua, but packaging likely just says Mexico if a place of origin is indicated.The FDA reports that the onions were distributed in AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, FL, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, NE, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA and WI, as well as Ontario and Quebec, Canada.
If consumers cannot determine whether they have onions from Mexico that were purchased in recent weeks, they should throw them away or return them to the place of purchase. The FDA update says onions can last for three months or more, depending on storage conditions.
As of Oct. 29, the outbreak had sickened at least 808 people across 37 states and Puerto Rico. For 505 people with the information available, 157, or 31 percent, have required hospitalization, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. No one has died.
Advice for consumers
“It is important that you use the product-specific information, available on the ProSource Produce LLC recall announcement, in addition to this list of retail stores, when you check the food you have to see if it has been recalled,” according to the FDA.
The agency has posted a list of additional recalls being conducted by companies that may have received recall onions from two importers, ProSource Produce LLC and Keeler Family Farms. This list includes recalls conducted by companies that further processed the onions by using them as ingredients in new products or by repackaging them.
ProSource Produce LLC has voluntarily recalled red, yellow, and white onions imported from the State of Chihuahua, Mexico, with import dates from July 1, 2021, through Aug. 31, 2021. Additional descriptors used for these onion types may include, but are not limited to, jumbo, colossal, medium, summer and sweet onions. Additional recall information will be made public as soon as it is available from ProSource Inc., according to the FDA.
The onions were distributed to wholesalers, broadline foodservice customers, and retail or grocery stores in:
- 50 lb., 25 lb., 10 lb., 5 lb., 3 lb., and 2 lb. mesh sacks
- 50 lb., 40 lb., 25 lb., 10 lb., and 5 lb. cartons
And by the following distributors and/or under the following brands:
- Big Bull
- Peak Fresh Produce
- Sierra Madre
- Markon First Crop.
- Markon Essentials
- Rio Blue
- Rio Valley
- Sysco Imperial
Keeler Family Farms has recalled red, yellow, and white whole, fresh onions imported from the State of Chihuahua, Mexico, with import dates from July 1, 2021, through August 25, 2021. The onions were distributed in 25-pound and 50-pound mesh sacks. They contain a label that is marked as “MVP (product of MX).” Additional details regarding the recalled products are available on the Keeler Family Farms recall announcement.
Recalls have also been initiated by companies that sold recalled onions or products containing the recalled onions.


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HALEWOOD’S top selling Range Rover Evoque has driven 2012 sales figures for Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), the luxury car maker revealed today.
Retail sales soared by 19.17% to a total of 68,586 vehicles, and Land Rover achieved a record year with more vehicles sold last year in its history.
The XF saloon and Sportbrake models led to a strong performance from the Jaguar marque.
The Land Rover brand sold 54,480 vehicles in the UK, up almost 25% on the previous year and taking a 27% share of its market segment.
The success was driven by the first full year of sales for the Range Rover Evoque, which sold 18,119 UK units making it Land Rover’s biggest selling product in this market.
The Land Rover Discovery continued to sell well with sales up 7.4% and the brand’s flagship product, the Range Rover, posted an excellent performance for its run out year by retailing almost 4,000 units.
UK registrations for Jaguar vehicles increased 2.4% to 14,105 units, despite increasingly competitive market conditions.
The revised Jaguar XF saloon led the charge with a 10% increase in sales compared with 2011.
And JLR says it is a positive 2013 outlook for the company in the UK with a full year of XF Sportbrake sales, the launch of the XFR-S saloon and the highly anticipated F-Type two-seater sports car.
Jeremy Hicks, JLR UK managing director said: “2012 was a successful year for Jaguar and Land Rover in the UK despite an increasingly competitive market.
“We look forward to building on this performance in 2013 with the introduction of more new products – including the All-New Range Rover and the Jaguar F-Type.
“Our product portfolio is becoming stronger each year as we respond to the needs of the market and introduce additional derivatives and engine options as well as all-new vehicles.”
He added: “Both brands are supported by two of the best dealer networks in the UK and our corporate business is growing.
“This is certainly an exciting time to be leading the Jaguar and Land Rover brands in our home market.”


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PARIS -- Indiegogo, a site that lets people fund projects and companies in exchange for assorted products and perks, is expanding internationally.
Co-founder Danae Ringelmann announced today at the LeWeb conference here that the company today started accepting payments in euros, British pounds, and Canadian dollars, not just U.S. dollars, and has versions of the Web site in German and French.
"Thirty percent of our business is outside U.S., but it's all been in English in U.S. dollars," Ringelmann said. Internationalization of the business will make Indiegogo work more easily elsewhere. "If you're in Germany and you go to Indiegogo, it'll all be in German."
The company also will offer people with campaigns on Indiegogo to describe them in English, German, and French by the end of 2013, she added.
Ringelmann, who worked in banking, co-founded Indiegogo after realizing how hard it was for self-starters. "You had to have a rich uncle or a trust fund, so all these ideas were going unborn," she said.
It's a curious choice of words, given one of Indiegogo's projects from 2011: "Last year we had a baby crowdfunded on Indiegogo," where parents raised funds for in vitro fertilization. The baby was born this year.
Initially, the startup's co-founders conceived of the idea of raising money in exchange for equity -- an ownership stake. But securities regulation barred that approach, so Indiegogo let people offer only "perks" such as products or acknowledgements on Twitter.
Now, regulatory changes mean that equity exchange is possible.
"Equity crowdfunding is incredibly exciting," she said. "This is what the original idea was."


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IAR Systems acquires Secure Thingz
Uppsala, Sweden—March 21, 2018—IAR Systems® has today entered into a share sale and purchase agreement to acquire 100 percent of the shares in Secure Thingz Inc., a provider of advanced security solutions for embedded systems in the Internet of Things (IoT). With the acquisition, IAR Systems secures its position as a frontrunner in offering solutions for security in embedded systems.
Founded in 2016, Secure Thingz develops and sells products and services for implementation of embedded security in connected devices. The company has provided security solutions for the development platform Renesas Synergy™ Platform through its Secure Deploy™ platform offerings, which is developed in order to solve the major security challenges faced by companies developing for the IoT. A renowned security expert and an Executive Board Member of the IoT Security Foundation, the company’s founder Haydn Povey has held senior management roles at leading global technology companies for over 20 years, including more than 10 years within marketing and business development at Arm®. Haydn Povey will continue to head Secure Thingz as CEO.
According to the report “IoT Global Forecast & Analysis 2015-2025” from Machina Research, there will be 27 billion IoT connections in 2025. This rapidly growing market is facing major security challenges, enabling attacks such as IP theft, counterfeiting and overproduction, as well as data theft and potentially life threatening sabotage. Despite these threats, secure products today constitute only 4 percent of the total number of IoT products available on the market, according to ABI Research (IoT Perspective - From Design to Life Cycle Management). According to ABI Research, the total market for secure microcontrollers for IoT can reach 1.2 billion dollars in value in 2022. The same year, secure IoT products are predicted to represent almost 20 percent of new IoT units. The supply of secure microcontrollers is so far limited, but the processor manufacturers have acknowledged this demand and for example Renesas Electronics, NXP and STMicroelectronics have recently launched secure microcontrollers. These microcontrollers are characterized by for example cryptographic accelerators and protected memory areas for key and certificate storage, and the product launches will multiply during the next few years. To fully leverage these features to minimize the risk of security breaches, and to protect information and intellectual property, companies need to ensure that security is implemented throughout the development and manufacturing process.
In April 2017, IAR Systems announced that it was taking an initial 10 percent equity stake in Secure Thingz, and the stake subsequently has been expanded to approximately 20 percent. In February 2018, the product Embedded Trust™ was launched. Developed in partnership between IAR Systems and Secure Thingz, Embedded Trust enables secure development and makes security part of the development workflow. Embedded Trust enables companies to safeguard intellectual property against overproduction and counterfeiting, manage software updates in a robust way, and protect end users from malware intrusion and theft or loss of data.
“With the increasing number of connected devices, our customers are facing new challenges. One of the major challenges is how to deliver secure products in a world where even minor failures can lead to major consequences,” comments Stefan Skarin, CEO, IAR Systems. “As a first step, our customers need help mainly protecting themselves against overproduction and IP theft, and we are responding to this need with a new offering that provides possibilities to create modern workflow where security is included from start. The acquisition of Secure Thingz is a step in our increased ambition for future growth through new technology, new markets, new business models, and new relationships. It also secures our position as a frontrunner in a changing industry.”
”We are very excited to become a part of the highly competent IAR Systems team,” says Haydn Povey, founder and incoming CEO, Secure Thingz. “We have already established a smooth cooperation with the development of Embedded Trust, and our combined resources within technology, sales and customer support will enable us to accelerate the development of the innovative security solutions that the digital products market so desperately needs.”
Krishna Anne, outgoing CEO, Secure Thingz added, “This strategic partnership with IAR Systems will enable Secure Thingz to provide a wide-ranging solution for secure development, secure provisioning, programming, and secure lifecycle management in partnership with the silicon device vendors, market channel partners and programming partners. Secure Thingz has expanded rapidly over the last two years, and we are extremely proud of the team we brought together and the industry impact achieved.”
“The acquisition of Secure Thingz enables us to provide new solutions for security in embedded systems and help our customers make security part of an integrated workflow,” says Anders Holmberg, Director of Corporate Development, IAR Systems. “Our joint technical capacity and skillset will be unprecedented in the industry and we are building a strong foundation for future growth in the security segment.”
Completion of the transaction is expected to occur on April 11, 2018.
Editor's Note: IAR Systems, IAR Embedded Workbench, Embedded Trust, IAR Connect, C-SPY, C-RUN, C-STAT, IAR Visual State, IAR KickStart Kit, I-jet, I-jet Trace, I-scope, IAR Academy, IAR, and the logotype of IAR Systems are trademarks or registered trademarks owned by IAR Systems AB. All other products names are trademarks of their respective owners.


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Intel has completed its $1.4 billion acquisition of Infineon Technologies' wireless solutions business.
Now that the deal is done, Intel said today, Infineon's former business will be called Intel Mobile Communications and will operate as a standalone business in Intel's Architecture Group "to enable continuity of existing customer sales, projects and support, including ARM-based products."
Intel reported that the division will help bolster the company's existing Wi-Fi and 4G WiMAX products with Infineon's 2G and 3G business. Together, Intel hopes to "accelerate 4G LTE." The new division will work on solutions for both Intel- and ARM-based mobile devices.
Intel announced thein August. At the time, Intel said the acquisition would help it capitalize on the wireless solutions market that "continues to grow at an extraordinary rate."
Infineon has had some success in the wireless connectivity arena for smartphones and tablets and, in 2009, had 10.7 percent market share in cellular-baseband shipments, the Linley Group reported last year. Infineon sold baseband chips to Nokia, Apple, and several other device makers.


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A down economy almost always pushes up the economy segment in a service industry. That certainly appears to be the case with the airline industry as fliers opt for a seat class termed by some airlines as "premium economy". The notion of premium, though, is stretched as the seats, in some cases, offer a mere 5" extra in "pitch" which is the distance between rows. In many instances, the seats are barely recline anymore than a regular coach seat and the service standards, such as they are, seldom exceed that of coach. Nevertheless, that has sparked interest among business travelers and several airlines report erstwhile business travelers taking up cabin space in that category.
The erosion in premium travel has naturally affected the hotel industry as well with customers looking for lower rates but, unlike the airline industry, hotels do not have the luxury of trimming offerings to match the decline in rate. That has resulted in severe rate erosion in the upscale segment with the New York Times reporting that some boutique hotels offering rates comparable to economy brands. The Times article notes that the "Honua Kai Resort & Spa, scheduled to open Jan. 28, is offering rooms from $195 — 50 percent off published rates. Near Miami,
the Blue, a 240-room resort that opened in September, has extended its
opening price of $189 a night through April, down from listed rates of
$360. And the Nines, a new Starwood Luxury Collection property in Portland, Ore., is offering rooms for an attention-getting $99 a night for 99 days through mid-April".
The flood of new hotel rooms in principal cities at the trough of economic activity has not helped. The Times article notes that Phoenix, AZ, saw 36 new hotels in the past 12 months resulting in a 10% drop in hotel occupancy levels. Developers unleashed hotel inventory in New York City as well with the "most openings for the 12 months ending in November" as 54 new hotels added nearly 8000 rooms kicking Manhattan's inventory up by 10%.
The Chicago Tribune has a report along the same lines saying that "Hotel operators have seen room reservations fall drastically as business travelers and vacationers cut down on trips". Once again, rate erosion is evident from the article which notes that "many hotels will give travelers a break by lowering prices or offering
incentives, such as free meals, in hope of enticing more business".
But as in the aftermath of 9/11, many travelers seem to be shunning the lux for the staid. Another NYT article notes that hotel guests seem to be going for "budget hotels" with major national brand names. The depth of this downturn may well cause the penchant for boutiques amongst developers and owners to be curtailed.


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The sale of the first Spanish Hass avocados has started this week, although volumes are still limited and there won't be a more stable supply until next week.
The avocado campaign kicked off about a month ago with the Bacon variety, which has enjoyed good sales in the first weeks. Now sales are stagnant and there's growing uncertainty as the pandemic keeps spreading around the world and containment measures are getting stricter in every country and region.
“The first 20 days of the smooth-skinned Bacon avocado campaign have been very good, with high demand and unprecedented prices. However, as of October 20, sales began to decline until they stalled almost completely. At the moment, there is hardly any demand for avocados,” says José Antonio Alconchel, manager of Alcoaxarquía, which, in addition to organic avocados and mangoes, also produces and markets organic clementines and oranges. "We have also experienced a drop in citrus fruit sales, but they have not stagnated as in the case of avocados," he says.
For the manager of this Malaga-based company with a subsidiary in Peru, the cause of this market situation is the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
"I believe that the impact of this health crisis is already being felt in the pockets of consumers. Many people are losing their jobs or living with great uncertainty. The turnover has dropped by more than 40% in the last 10 days. We don't know for how long the lockdowns will last and if stricter measures will follow, but this time consumption could be very different to that of March and April,” he says. “Some predict that the situation in November could be even worse than that of the first wave. Business during these winter months will be very different to that of the last 20 years.”
This year, avocado volumes are expected to be around 10% smaller in Malaga, the main producing area of this subtropical fruit in Spain, although this could be offset by the entry into production of new plantations in other producing areas in Granada, Cádiz, Valencia, Huelva or even in Portugal, according to José Antonio Alconchel.
“The quality has so far been better than last year, when the fruit was affected by many problems in the skin due to the friction of branches caused by strong winds. In the past season, therefore, a lot of fruit had to be allocated to the processing industry, but this year more will be suitable for the fresh market.”


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Nudestix Launches To China With Cruelty-Free Status Intact; CEO Explains How
This article was originally published in The Rose Sheet
The Canadian company’s experience launching to China confirms that foreign and domestic cosmetics brands are competing in the country on a more level playing field these days, with less harm to animals.
You may also be interested in...
Australian company Subtle Energies and UK-based 7th Heaven round out the group of cruelty-free cosmetics brands selected for participation in CFI’s pilot program, which organizers say is not only greasing the skids for aspiring China market entrants that want to avoid animal testing, but also spurring discussion about alternative testing methods.
Cruelty Free International CEO Michelle Thew aims to set the record straight following reports that might seem to refute the NGO’s earlier statements about the program. Ultimately the “tightly controlled” pathway to China’s cosmetics market remains a promising opportunity for companies that have shied from taking the plunge for fear of tarnishing their animal-friendly creds.
NGO has partnered with Shanghai-based consultancy Knudsen&Co, with the support of Chinese authorities, for a pilot program to shepherd foreign cruelty-free companies through the country’s registration process for non-special-use cosmetics without animal testing.


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Splash offers a complete range of products across categories like women's wear clothing, men's wear clothing, accessories and footwear.
Splash, a leading high street fashion brand, has launched its fifth store at Phoenix Market City, Mumbai. The brand opened the new store after receiving success from the store launched in Pacific Mall, Delhi.
Spread across 6,225 square feet of area, Splash offers a complete range of products across categories like women's wear clothing, men's wear clothing, accessories and footwear. The brand is targeting the young, confident, and stylish generation of today who is always looking at reinventing and experimenting with their fashion sense.
Abhinav Zutshi, COO, Splash said, "Ever since the inception, we have been working towards making the brand big and easily available at major locations. We are excited to launch our latest store in Mumbai and hoping to enable our customers nearby for a seamless shopping experience."
Splash presently has 5 stores in Mumbai and 20 stores across pan India.


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Hey there, and welcome to my one time fill in as Alex Williams partakes in strippers, gambling, and whatever else in Sin City for the time being. Lucky bastard. So, yeah, with that said I’m A.J. and welcome to the Friday Fill-in. I have some news to pass along to everyone, and after spending an afternoon searching for this stuff I really have a new respect for the guys who do the news around here. Anyways, enough of me, because what you’re really here for is the news, so let?s get right to it.
Nintendo brings us some more Custom Robo
Nintendo plans to unveil a new entry in the Custom Robo series shortly, the Custom Robo Japanese website reveals today. The new title will be for the Game Boy Advance. Aside from this, nothing is known about the title.
Well, after playing the Gamecube addition of Custom Robo (and reviewing it for Inside Pulse), I have some mixed feelings about this game. If indeed it does come here to the States, I sure it will do well, but I hope Nintendo goes the extra mile and makes some improvements to this series. I am a Gameboy addict myself, and I’m interested to see the transition Custom Robo will make from the ‘cube, but I’m not getting my hopes up. Still, for you mech fans out there this game is probably going to be right up your alley.
Pokemon Emerald? The jewel themed titles just keep on coming.
In a recent issue of CoroCoro Comic, Nintendo revealed the next generation of Pokemon in the form of Pokemon Emerald for the Game Boy Advance. The upcoming title will follow in the footsteps of Ruby and Sapphire by building on those games and adding a few new touches. The story of Pokemon Emerald follows the adventures of the same male and female trainers seen in Ruby and Sapphire as they set out to stop the schemes of Team Aqua and Team Magma. The two trainers also have new green accessories to fit the theme of the new game, and a new green Legendary Pokemon, Rayquaza, will be introduced.
The battle system remains the same, but with some new twists. Trainers can attack simultaneously, and NPC opponents can call in others to help them fight the player as well. Audacious players can enter Battle Frontier, which features seven different competitions. One of these competitions, Battle Dome, allows players to bring only three Pokemon. The game will support the Wireless GBA Adapter for multiplayer action, and the Japanese version of the game will be bundled with the device. Pokemon Emerald will be released in Japan on September 16, but Japanese Pokemon fans will be able to play a demo at the Pokemon Festa on July 17. A North American release has not been announced.
As a pretty big Pokemon fan (not at Lucard levels, but still pretty high) this is pretty exciting news. The news here is pretty sketchy, but I am hopeful Emerald is as good as Ruby and Sapphire, while also adding some of the things Ru/Sp desperately needed. For instance, seeing Pokemon from R/B/Y and G/S/C as wild, catchable Pokemon would be a plus. At the very least it seems a safe bet that Emerald will act much like Yellow and Crystal did for previous generations of Pokemon games, being a bridge of sorts for the games in terms of Pokemon you can catch, and other aspects. I would also venture to say that it’s a pretty safe bet that Emerald will see a US release when you consider the series popularity here; however, it will probably take awhile since Nintendo will want to cash in on Fire Red and Leaf Green before putting another GBA title out there.
Violence in games is ok! Really! Look, a judge even said so!
The long story of the state of Washington’s controversial law banning the sale of violent games to minors came to an end today–with an important victory for the game industry. Judge Robert Lasnik of the US District court in Seattle ruled the law unconstitutional under the First Amendment’s protection of freedom of speech.
Rejecting the state’s argument that violence in games should fall under the state’s obscenity law, Judge Lasnik noted that similar portrayals of violence can be seen in literature, art, and the media, and that “there is no indication that such expressions have ever been excluded from the protections of the First Amendment.”
Common sense prevails here, and I agree 100% with the judge?s statements here. Limiting the sale of video games like this, in essence, opens things up for limiting of other similar items. I mean if you, for example, not let someone under 18 purchase a Grand Theft Auto title, then shouldn?t you (using that logic) also not allow them to purchase many DVD’s, books, etc. That doesn’t make any sense from any vantage point, and I’m just glad someone who doesn?t see video games as a scapegoat finally saw that and made the right decision. Hopefully this will set some precedent for other cases around the country that deal in similar matters.
Yes, I know there really isn’t that much news. It’s the summer though, and generally a down time for the gaming industry so let’s just get right to the plugs before I wrap this up with some closing comments.
Thank God It’s Thursday News Report – Bryan Berg
The Casual Gamer’s News Report – Matt Yeager
The Angry Gamer – 7-15-04 – Liquidcross
That’s about it folks. Next week Alex will be back in his normal slot and I’ll be back doing reviews. Have a good weekend.


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Spirit Group has been appointed by Texaco Lubricants to handle two pieces of pan-European business, worth several million dollars.
The agency has been handed a brief to relaunch Havoline motor oil to consumers and the trade market. The account will initially be worth $1m (&£700,000) in the UK, but the budget is likely to increase when advertising is rolled out across Europe.
The campaign will focus on Havoline Energy, an oil which the company claims “offers complete engine protection with improved fuel efficiency and power output”.
Texaco has also appointed Spirit to handle a pan-European, &£500,000 business-to-business campaign for its Ursa engine oil brand. The through-the-line campaign will be aimed at hauliers and truck fleet owners in Europe this spring.
Texaco Lubricants global marketing manager Ahmad Zareh says: “We have asked Spirit to help us build long-term success for Ursa in a highly competitive market.
“We chose Spirit because of its innovative perspective, understanding of our target market and ability to respond to our requirements.”
Spirit Advertising founder and managing partner Richard Hammond adds: “We’re working closely with the Texaco team to develop the full potential of this product range, which has a clear advantage over the competition.”


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Hokkaido, Jul. 18 – Hokkaido Prefecture’s 22 agricultural cooperatives (JAs) began exporting sweet potatoes cooperatively. They plan to ship approximately 550 tons a year through a new joint sweet potato sorting facility, one of Japan’s largest, established in the coastal city of Tomakomai by the Hokuren Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives and a local private company. Their initial primary market is Southeast Asia, where baked sweet potatoes are booming. In the future, they’ll expand the production volume further.
The current coverage of the 22 JAs is large, from the northernmost area of Okhotsk to the Southern regions of the island. Their production area has reached 35 hectares, up significantly from 10 hectares in 2022, the year 11 JAs started their trial shipment. To boost production for export even further, they decided to join a government-led project, the Global Farmers/Fishermen/Foresters/Food Manufacturers Project (GFP), in the fiscal year 2023.
One of their key schemes is the creation of a large-scale product sorting system by Hokuren and Tomakomai Futo, Co., Ltd., a local port operating company, in November last year. It is one of the biggest facilities of this kind in Japan and can sort 6 tons of sweet potatoes a day. It’ll also start handling curing processes in the future. Being one of Japan’s largest logistic hubs, the Tomakomai Port is a good place for developing a sweet potato export base.
Their high potential markets are Singapore and Thailand, where baked sweet potatoes and other sweets are becoming increasingly popular.
Growing sweet potatoes is beneficial in terms of agricultural management. In Hokkaido, where dry-field farming is popular, farmers avoid replanting failures by producing different products. Sweet potatoes will be a good new option as they are in high demand and help them boost their field crops.
“There is a demand for sweet potatoes in Japan and abroad, and there is a growing demand for the products of Hokkaido. We want to help farmers to introduce more machines, establish growing methods, and increase their production area,“ a person in charge of the development of distribution channels of Hokuren said.


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Microsoft announced that 4 new games are coming to Game Pass today including Metro Exodus. Find out what the new E3 Game Pass titles are and what Game Pass Ultimate is inside.
Nine new games have been announced for Xbox Game Pass May members. All subscribers can get their hands on Wolfenstein II, Wargroove and loads more this month!
Six new games have been announced for Xbox Game Pass April members. All subscribers can get their hands on Monster Hunter World and more this month.
Four new games have been announced for Xbox Game Pass March members. If you’re a subscriber, you can get your hands on Just Cause 4 and more to play right now.
Xbox February Game Pass members are getting three new titles to play this month. Alien Isolation and more will be coming to members before the month is up.
The free February games for Game Pass members has finally been revealed! Games include Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Crackdown 3 so we can’t wait to get started.
Over the next two weeks, four new titles will be added to Xbox Game Pass – we know what they are and so can you in our blog post at CDKeys.com
The January additions to Xbox Game Pass have been announced! Just the other day we were looking back on the 5 best games added to the subscription service in 2018, and there are already some serious contenders for 2019’s list….
December was an amazing month for Xbox Game Pass members, and according to Microsoft’s corporate vice president, January is going to be great as well. Had a chance to review the @XboxGamePass line-up for January (coming soon!) – and it’s…
December has become one of the best months ever to be an Xbox Game Pass Member. When Microsoft added three new games to the Game Pass catalog earlier this month, they also let us know that there would be more…


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Call it the end of a fashion era, or the day good taste prevailed. Mambo is ditching its signature range of rude and raucous shirts because they are no longer seen as trendy by its target audience.
After 20 years of defying fashion trends the Mambo marketers have decreed that the iconic designs by artists such as Reg Mombassa are no longer cool.
"The shirts were great in their heyday but we've got to evolve," said CEO Sarah Paykel, who is spearheading the drive to reinvent the brand for a new, younger audience. "Part of that process is to move on and that's what we are doing."
From August, well-known designs such as Mombassa's Australian Jesus, the two-horned spacemen and artist Richard Allan's range of farting dog T-shirts will be removed from stores across Australia and around the world.
The company has recognised that the only way it can compete in the surf clothing market is to haul itself out of the 1980s and project itself as a modern brand to younger shoppers.
Trendier ranges will be pushed to the fore and Mambo's "brand identity" overhauled for a relaunch by the end of the year.
Mombassa said yesterday that he was a "little disappointed" but added: "I'll always find places to stick my paintings ... I'm an artist. It's been a bonus to have my designs on the back of people's T-shirts and on their backsides."
For a generation of Australians the shirts fused politics, art and humour and came to typify the cutting edge. Now they account for less than 10 per cent of sales.
But it was the decision to dress Australian athletes at the Sydney Olympics that the company admits might have killed off its street cred. It immediately became a must-have for tourists.
Ben Lilley of the youth marketing agency Smart, who advised Mambo to ditch the line, said the larrikin element would remain. "Other brands are doing the art and surf well but none have really captured Mambo's scoundrel quality. We've got to communicate that to a new audience."
Mambo began life in 1984 in the back of an Alexandria screen printing business. Co-founder Dare Jennings, who left the company last year after having sold it for $9.8 million in 2000, originally made clothes for surfers and built the company into a $60 million business with stores in Europe and Asia selling everything from bags and watches to books and sunglasses. But Mambo was always best known for its loud shirts.
Peter Holder, editor of Men's Style, won't mourn their passing. "When you're trying to target the youth market you can't afford to have a look that your uncle wears at the barbecue because he thinks he is still being outrageous."


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Isilon Systems has made a name for itself as a pioneer in the field of clustered storage systems. Now, the company feels that 2008 will be the year when unstructured data becomes a pressing issue for most enterprises.
But what exactly is unstructured data? Well, according to Jeff Alsford, technical director at Isilon, traditional storage was designed for transactional, well understood blocks of data. "That is not what we do," said Alsford. "We do unstructured data, which is rich content like photos, Mp3s, and even seismic images like cancer or DNA research. That is very different to data like Word files, databases, email etc."
He cites IDC figures, saying that unstructured data represents 60 percent of newly created content, and it is doubling every year.
Techworld talked to Isilon's founder and CEO, Sujal Patel, to find out more about unstructured data and how he realised its potential all those years ago.
How it all began
"Isilon was founded in 2001 on the premise of unstructured data was going to grow at a very rapid rate and that traditional storage architectures would not keep up," said Patel.
Patel and several of his colleagues used to work at Real Networks from 1996. "We saw that customers couldn't keep up with the storage required," he told Techworld.
"We realised that initially it would be mostly media, post production, special effects companies etc that would buy into unstructured data, but in ten years time we knew it was going to spread to most of the enterprise. This year has been the crossover year for unstructured data."
Isilon began by selling into the digital content, media, film, entertainment, and then web industries, and then expanded from there into life sciences, engineering, and to the enterprise space in general.
Outside the US, Isilon's next largest markets are Asia (Japan, South Korea etc) and Europe. "Unusually, we expanded first to Japan, which had a year head start over Europe, but Europe is catching up quickly," said Patel.
The UK is Isilon's largest European market, followed by France. This is because media and special effects are bigger in the UK than in France. In France, Isilon says that demand has been driven by web 2.0 demand such as Daily Motion. In Germany, demand is more driven by research.
The financial picture
"In the five years of selling products, we have transformed the company from zero sales, into a company with a $100 million run rate, $80 million in cash, and no debt," explained Patel.
"We are concentrating on innovating rapidly, and becoming a thought leader in our sector. To this end, we are investing heavily to increase our footprint in the unstructured segment," he said. "We will continue to expand, and OK we are not profitable at the moment, but our main focus is on growth and not profitability. After all, we have $80 million in the bank."
Patel feels that Isilon occupies a sweet spot in the storage industry. "Right now, all vendors are looking at clustering, but for them it is a major problem. HP, EMC etc all have got plans in this area."
"As a company focused on building a sustainable business, we are looking at unique and large opportunities to create a rival storage player that is sizable and focused on our piece of the storage industry."


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Wrigley has added a new, blue coloured sweet to its Skittles rainbow.
Available for eight weeks, the limited-edition ‘Once In A Blue Moon’ packs will see a cherry cola flavoured blue sweet join existing flavours; blackcurrant, lemon, strawberry, green apple and orange. The packs will be available in both 55g single bag and 175g sharing pouch formats.
The launch will be supported by social media and the ‘Touch’ television campaign which will run for a further 24 weeks throughout 2015, as part of the brand’s multi-million pound investment for the year.
Wrigley European confections business unit director Tony Lorman said: “Blue is the only colour in the rainbow that is not a permanent member of the Skittles fruit family and the introduction of this limited-edition pack will enable consumers to truly ‘taste the rainbow’ and provide an additional sales opportunity to retailers.”


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The owners of three downtown Grand Junction hotels who have committed to building a fourth hotel said this week they’ll erect a fifth property should voters sign off on a tax increase next month to build an event center.
Kevin and Steve Reimer have designs on a six-story, roughly 100-room hotel with a rooftop restaurant and bar that would be similar in size and scope to a Tru by Hilton hotel they intend to build on the south side of Colorado Avenue between Second and Third streets.
The J.C. Penney store in Mesa Mall will remain open — at least for now. … more
One of the perks of writing about Vintage Overland’s custom teardrop trailers is the possibility of going camping with owners Britton and Ami Purser. At least, that was the case for an editor and photographer with “Popular Mechanics” who this month … more
It wasn’t that long ago that a quickly growing, fast-casual restaurant chain opened three locations in the Grand Valley, only to close all of them within a couple of years. … more
Perhaps because they do not understand the consequences, we have seen many people take “shortcuts” to avoid probate. Last column, we gave the example of parents who transfer their home to a child so that the home could be sold, after the parents pass, … more
The owners of three downtown Grand Junction hotels who have committed to building a fourth hotel said this week they’ll erect a fifth property should voters sign off on a tax increase next month to build an event center. … more
The big purple placards are already up at what will eventually be Planet Fitness, at 2401 North Ave., in the Teller Arms Shopping Center. … more
Passengers catching flights out of Grand Junction Regional Airport can now get a drink and snack with friends and family before entering the secured area of the airport. … more
The smoky saga of Pink’s BBQ — the restaurant at 1014 N. Fifth St. catering to carnivores since June 2015, which ran afoul of at least one residential neighbor because of barbecue smoke — has taken a turn southward, so to speak. … more
Grand Junction has a second barre studio, with the opening of Barreology at 627 Grand Ave. in the cottage behind Salon Capelli, this week. … more
Beware of overspending … more
Though the days of walking into a small shop may seem extinct, we are here to say look again. The connections that were once made with a shopkeeper are not lost, they merely appear in a new form. A solid brand and brand strategy are the cornerstone of connection in the age … more
Online booksellers like behemoth Amazon triggered the downfall of big bookstore chains like Borders and Barnes & Noble. Locally owned, independent bookstores feel the crunch, too. But they are adapting and carving out a niche in the Grand Valley as much more than … more
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By Ere-ebi Agedah
Health advocates under the umbrella body National Action on Sugar Reduction, NASR have condemned recent actions taken by the beverage industry in an attempt to exorcise the 10 naira per litre sweetened beverage tax from the Finance Act noting that Sugar-sweetened beverages are harmful to health and consumption must be discouraged.
In a statement signed by President, Nigeria Cancer Society and Co-Chair, National Action on Sugar Reduction, NASR Coalition, Dr Adamu Alhassan Umar explained that leaders from the beverage industry appeared before Senate President Ahmad Lawan making claims that the tax is jeopardising their industry.
According to Umar, the beverage industry is going to great lengths to protect its profits, and the claims that the excise taxes will collapse it are utterly unfounded.
He noted that despites the negative effect of soft drinks on the body, the soft drink industry has long avoided paying excise taxes, even though other health-harming commodities like tobacco and alcohol have been subject to taxation.
‘‘Sugar-sweetened beverages are harmful to health; taxes will encourage people to consume less and protect their health. Soft drinks are the major source of added sugar in the diet. They are packed with calories and provide no nutrition to the body. In fact, they negatively affect the body’s health by increasing obesity and the risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
‘‘It is only right that the beverage industry pays taxes to cover the negative externalities that the health system is forced to bear as a result of their products’ NCD-inducing qualities.
‘‘NCDs account for one in three deaths in Nigeria. One of the biggest problems with NCDs is that when they strike, they usually last for the remainder of the patient’s life. A person who has suffered a stroke, or who is living with type 2 diabetes or heart disease, must purchase medicines regularly or risk disease complications. People living with diabetes, for instance, risk limb amputation, blindness and kidney failure.
‘‘The beverage manufacturers mentioned none of this during their presentation to the Senate. The issue on the table was profit, industry profit. In making unsubstantiated claims of economic losses, the beverage industry has firmly established that it bears little regard for public health. There is no evidence that sugary drink taxes lead to economic losses or falling profits. In places where sugar-sweetened beverages have been taxed, the industry has continued to generate profits. South Africa and Mexico offer clear examples. Even Nigeria’s alcohol industry, in spite of taxation, posted enormous profits in the past quarter.’’ he said.
The statement however noted that Sugar-sweetened beverage taxes make sense for public health as the National Action on Sugar Reduction coalition called on Senate President Ahmad Lawan to priorities the nation’s public health by supporting the increase of the tax on sugar-sweetened beverages.
‘‘Nigeria is the 5th cheapest place for soft drinks in the world. Soft drinks are accessible and affordable. It is these factors that make them dangerous. With no forces to restrain consumption, it will occur in excess and endanger public health.
‘‘Beverage manufacturers refuse to admit their products have catastrophic effects on health, and continue to market them without concern for the negative effects on public health and on the economy. If SSB taxes are removed, Nigeria’s urban poor will come out the worst because they will continue to buy soft drinks that harm their health and end up with diseases that neither their meagre personal funds nor the country’s underfunded health system will be able to afford.
‘‘The National Action on Sugar Reduction coalition calls on Senate President Ahmad Lawan to prioritise the nation’s public health by supporting the increase of the tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. The health benefits that accrue from this will undoubtedly serve the nation’s poorest and foster economic prosperity’’


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The holiday shopping season is upon us...
...and retailers are busy rolling out a range of data-driven strategies to optimize sales. After all, the November to December period is by far the largest shopping season of all, accounting for approximately 20 percent of all annual sales for retailers, according to the National Retail Foundation. And things are looking bright this year, with the NRF forecasting holiday sales to increase 4.1 percent in 2014, to $616.9 billion.
One especially promising space for the holiday shopping season is mobile, with IBM predicting record mobile shopping for 2014. eWeek reports that IBM expected mobile browsing to make up 48.2 percent of all online traffic over the Black Friday-Thanksgiving weekend window, an increase of 23 percent from 2013. Strong data-driven strategies are responsible for a good portion of this surge, from an expansion in digital couponing to improved promotional email click-through rates. Jay Henderson, director of strategy at IBM ExperienceOne breaks down this exciting shift, stating that, “Without question, this will be a strong holiday shopping season, supported by the power of big data and analytics, which are helping brands better understand their consumers and make crucial decisions in real-time.”
Also expected to experience a boost this holiday shopping season are gift cards, with the NRF’s Gift Card Spending Survey finding that total spending on gift cards will likely exceed $31 billion this year—that’s $172.74 per average gift card buyer as compared to $163.16 in 2013. USA Today recently took a closer look at this trend, noting in particular the rise of the e-gift card—which has a special appeal for the millennial demographic that is more apt to shop using mobile devices and mobile shopping applications. Smart retailers are tracking purchases made with e-gift cards and regular gift cards to understand consumer behavior related to spending. This data can be used for targeted marketing efforts and new customer acquisition later on.
Whether it’s leveraging your data to improve customer engagement through such methods as expanded gift card offerings, or unleashing the power of location-based data-driven insights to avoid stock-outs during the extremely busy and important sales period, a streamlined mobile data collection application is truly your company’s best friend.


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At the end of last week, Chinese state media published information according to which the number of citizens whose income is at a middle level in this country amounted to more than 500 million people.
Currently, Beijing is taking measures aimed at increasing the level of economic activity in the consumer environment. This is a logical effort. Currently, China is betting on consumer activity as a factor in stimulating economic growth, which has slowed down.
The media, citing an insider associated with the Communist Party’s Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission of the Asian country, report that Beijing, as part of actions to ensure the mentioned growth, intends to focus on introducing innovations in the technology sector, intensifying the urbanization process and increasing the purchasing power of the population. According to the authorities, the specified factors will collectively become the driving force of a positive dynamic of the economy.
Currently, Chinese state media are increasingly publishing articles stating Beijing’s intention to take measures to maintain relatively rapid economic growth, which has a long-term character. The authorities of this country are striving to increase market confidence. After the slowdown in the growth of the world’s second-largest economy, the mentioned indicator is on a negative trajectory of gradual downturn.
Chinese state media, referring to the theory of growth stages by American economist Walt Rostow, argues that the current reality for the Asian country is a phase of high levels of mass consumption. Articles on this topic also note that the local market has a huge potential for development and global appeal.
In 2019, there were 400 million middle-income people in China. This data is an official estimate. At the same time, information about the increase in the mentioned figure to 500 million people was published without specifying the source of the information. Also, the media did not give a clear definition of this group of people in terms of economic indicators.
Beijing hopes that the purchasing power of Chinese residents, whose total population is 1.4 billion people, will become a factor in economic growth. Recently, the Asian country has been trying to overcome the negative impact of circumstances such as the protracted crisis in the real estate sector and a drop in external consumer demand for products produced by local companies.
In February, Vice Minister of Commerce Sheng Qiuping announced several measures by the Chinese government to stimulate consumer activity. Beijing intends to encourage citizens to make renovations to their homes and update household appliances, cars, and furniture. The latest incentives of a similar nature were unveiled last week in Shanghai. The authorities reported subsidies of up to 10,000 yuan ($1,389) for the purchase of new cars. It also became known about the similar financial support measure of 1,000 yuan for the buying of home appliances.
It is worth noting that in 2023, consumption was the main factor in the growth of the Chinese economy. The share of the relevant sector accounted for 82% of the increase in gross domestic product last year. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that disposable income per capita in China in 2023 was fixed at 39,218 yuan. This figure is 6.1% higher than the indicator for 2022.
At the same time, some analysts warn of the risk that Beijing may face a continued slowdown in economic growth before the situation in this area improves. Zhang Wenkui, a researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council, mentioned this warning in December while talking to media representatives. According to the expert, Beijing urgently needs to ensure annual economic growth of more than 5%.
Zhang Wenkui, mentioning the experience of mature economies such as Japan and Western European countries in the post-World War II recovery, noted that in this case, when the pace of the positive dynamic was reduced to about 4% or 3%, GDP per capita was relatively high. The expert stated that the mentioned states became relatively wealthy during the period of the specified tendencies.
In 2023, China’s economy showed growth of 5.2%, as evidenced by official data, which not everyone trusts, believing that the real result may be lower. GDP per capita in this country last year was 89,358 yuan. The mentioned indicator is about 17% of a similar figure in the United States.
Zhang Wenkui says that over the next two to three years, China will not be a truly wealthy country even if income growth is achieved.
As we have reported earlier, Standard Chartered CEO Says About China’s Biggest Problem.


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After its sensational global launch last month, the first new Mercedes-Benz S-Class has rolled off the production line at Daimler’s Sindelfingen factory in Germany.
Continuing a tradition spanning 40 years, the S-Class remains the byword for automotive luxury, and the world’s best-selling saloon. Pushing the boundaries of engineering excellence, it offers unparalleled comfort and style as well as revolutionary safety features.
A multitude of new systems make the 2013 S-Class even safer and more comfortable than ever.
The result of Damiler’s €1 billion investment in its Sindelfingen factory can be seen in the redeveloped ‘Intelligent Drive’ technology, which now features 360-degree all-round vision to detect potential dangers early, provide warnings and intervene where necessary.
With its BlueTEC HYBRID engine, the S-Class continues to be a leader in efficiency, with the powerplant achieving an astonishing 64.2mpg. A further highlight is the total absence of light bulbs both inside and out, with the S-Class the first car in the world to totally utilise energy-saving LED technology, inside and out.
The ‘ENERGIZING’ massage function has been joined by active seat ventilation, individually adjustable fragrancing, and executive rear seats with a revolutionary, fully-reclined position.
“2013 is the year of the S-Class. We are driving forward our model offensive in the luxury segment. The new S-Class is opening up additional opportunities for us in the market,” said Dr Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars.
For more information about the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class and its arrival in the UK, contact your local Mercedes-Benz dealer.


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SMB Profile: Small Minnesota Manufacturer Plays to its Strengths, Recognizes Opportunities
For some small businesses, the key to success is all about marketing –through internet ads, social media and/or radio and television spots. For Minnesota-based Tjernlund Products, a manufacturer of HVAC products and now EV chargers for electric vehicles, the key has always been having strong distribution, as well as the ability to jump on economic trends before they escalate.
Tjernlund Products, which is 84 years old and has slightly fewer than 50 employees, is one of Amazon’s largest industrial suppliers and now the Midwest’s largest EV charger distributor, although that side of the business is still getting off the ground.
“My company’s a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster,” joked Andrew Tjernlund, owner. Tjernlund inherited the manufacturing company eight years ago, and in that time transformed its distribution capabilities so that the company now sells orders worth six figures directly to Amazon on a weekly basis. Tjernlund said revenues from the company’s HVAC business have remained steady despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last year the company recognized a gap in Amazon’s ability to distribute EV chargers for electric cars and decided to expand by taking advantage of its existing manufacturing capabilities and getting into the business of manufacturing car chargers.
All-in-all, because of the necessity of the products Tjernlund produces, the company has been able to weather the storm of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We sell needs, not wants, so we’ve had the same revenue for 35 years,” said Tjernlund. “In the financial crisis of 2008, we had the same kind of sales as we’ve had in boom times.”
Don’t Overlook Distribution
Distribution is basically the method in which a company puts its products into the hands of the right customers, and is an aspect of marketing that Tjernlund said is often overlooked. When he took over the company, he made it a point to focus on ways to modernize distribution.
“I think the hidden thing about marketing and sales is the distribution channel,” he said. “I mean, people focus on price – be it a low price or a premium price – people will also focus on promotion such as really good Facebook ads or really good endorsements and things like that, but to me, the distribution part is really underrated,” said Tjernlund.
“A lot of the success we’ve had is through our specific distribution channels, and we have had products that actually fit that customer base of that distribution channel and the nuances around that. With Amazon, a lot of the stuff that we sell is very oversized. For example, I sell four-by-six-foot white boards, and the only reason those work for eCommerce is because Amazon has crazy logistics costs in a good way – they are low.
“So, if I had to sell those myself, I’d have to charge $300 more than I normally would, but with Amazon, I can take advantage of their network. So, I think the distribution method or partner [method] is really kind of key from a marketing standpoint and is often overlooked by core marketers,” he added.
Recognize Opportunities; Expand on Your Strengths
Tjernlund said that the company decided to get into the EV charger manufacturing business because Amazon sees electric cars as the future and sought a way to sell more EV chargers. He added that because his company’s strength is manufacturing products that use similar materials, it seemed like a natural extension of the business.
“I think there was a little bit of serendipity on getting into the EV charging business,” he said. “We have a really good relationship with Amazon, and we sell them hundreds of thousands of products. One of the things we noticed was that there was a selection gap with Amazon –they wanted access to more EV chargers. So we knew that if we got into that space, we could fulfill a need for one of our distribution partners,” said Tjernlund.
Go All Out With Expansion
Tjernlund emphasized that as a company, if you decide to expand, there’s no going halfway.
“You know, if you decide there’s an opportunity in a space to go all out, you do it,” he said. “We knew that we were already developing products within our manufacturing to support EV chargers, and that we were producing a bunch of accessory products that we were already manufacturing and that we already rented out space for. So once we decided to go into that space, we decided to use all of our different arms, including our distribution and manufacturing capabilities, and push those all in the same direction towards EV chargers.”
Taking it a Day at a Time
It’s no secret that today’s climate for small businesses is fraught with challenges – no one seems to be immune to inflation, supply chain disruptions and worker shortages, and Tjernlund is no different.
“We’ve definitely had to deal with today’s business challenges,” said Tjernlund. “We’re just taking it day-by-day. I wish I could say we were on the other side of it, but really, the challenges persist. We’ve had to deal with supply shortages, I mean, stuff I ordered in July I’m not going to get until March in terms of the EV chargers – they use the same kind of chips that the automakers use. We’ve had to raise salaries, especially in our warehouses, of up to 30% over the last six months,” he added.
Recognize Trends Early
Tjernlund said that the company made the wise decision to stock up on inventory when inflation just began to rise.
“We’ve done some price increases, I mean that’s the simplest thing to offset,” said Tjernlund. “But really, we’re trying to keep it as painless as possible. The one thing that we did do well was to recognize early that the supply shortage was going to happen, and that’s when we bulked up on raising wages for employees.
“We bought extra inventory, so even though prices had already gone up 30%, we bought a lot of inventory before it went up 90%, and so we are able to weather that fairly well rather than being an ostrich with our head in the sand. We decided to face it head on and face the dragon head on before it grows too big and it’s unconquerable.”
Double Down on Your Strengths
The advice Tjernlund has for other SMB owners – no matter how small – is to analyze what your company is good at and expand upon it.
“The biggest overall thing for small businesses is to play to their strengths,” he said. “Meaning, look at what you’re good at and try to double down on it. In our case, we were really good at distribution, so we tried to expand that into other sides of the business and we decided to get into a new space like EV chargers, and we used all of our capabilities to do that.”


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Kim Kardashian is ON ONE right now, fashion-wise. I mean, she’s always turning heads with her style choices, but in the last week alone, she has worn two similar looks and I need an explanation ASAP, pls.
The first was a high fashion gimp look at New York Fashion Week, observe:
Kim Kardashian stepped out in this all leather look for NYFW. What’s it giving? 🧐 pic.twitter.com/Z47s6kDDQd
— TheShadeRoom (@TheShadeRoom) September 12, 2021
And now, Kim Kardashian has arrived at the Met Gala 2021 in a similar freaky-ass get-up (head here for our full fashion round-up, BTW).
Kim Kardashian arriving at the Met Gala 2021. Credit: Getty.
At one point on the red carpet, Kim appeared alongside a bloke who was roughly the same height as her, wearing a similar black American Horror Story-eqsue look, along with a black hoodie.
Based on the height and the hoodie, folks were convinced that it was Kanye West and the couple had surprised their fans with a reunion on the red carpet.
Kim Kardashian and who???
We did some digging online and we regret to inform you that it was just a ruse and Kanye West did not attend the Met Gala 2021.
An insider confirmed the news to E! News, saying “his presence will be felt on the carpet.”
So who the bloody hell is that in the pic, you ask? The insider says it was actually Demna Gvasalia, the creative director of Balenciaga who designed the bizarre outfit.
“It was [Kanye] who introduced Kim to Demna and was instrumental in the newly formed relationship between her and Balenciaga,” the source explained, who added that it’s a new fashion era for Kim.
“This look on Kim is like a new subculture and fashion statement. No logo, no face, but everyone knows it’s her,” they said.
Congratulations… I guess?


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Researchers have genetically modified two kinds of apples to resist browning, and the USDA just gave the produce a green light. Reuters reports:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) approved two genetically engineered apple varieties designed to resist browning that have been developed by the Canadian company Okanagan Specialty Fruits Inc.Okanagan plans to market the apples as Arctic Granny and Arctic Golden, and says the apples are identical to their conventional counterparts except the flesh of the fruit will retain a fresh appearance even after it is sliced or bruised.
The USDA was able to determine that these new varieties will not pose a risk to humans or other plants, paving the way for their eventual roll-out in American grocery stores. The apples will be marketed with an “Arctic” moniker, and will be gradually introduced to test markets starting next year.Greens won’t be happy to hear the news, though it’s hard to understand why. No one likes looking at browned apple slices, and the genetic modifications made to these apples prevent that; moreover, they’re safe. Study after study has shown genetically modified organisms to be safe for human consumption, but a dogmatic resistance to the “unnatural” qualities of these products has environmentalists blind to their potential benefits.These new apples will sell because they’re more convenient, but there are many more genetic modifications that increase yields and produce hardier crops in more extreme weather—exactly the kinds of conditions we’ve been told climate change will bring. GMOs are a smart, safe solution to the problem of world hunger, and apparently now an answer to brown apples.We live in interesting times.


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After the massive global diesel-gate recall, Volkswagen has now called back 389 units of the Polo hatchback in India due to handbrake issues.
Panic struck yesterday when a ton of messages popped up on WhatsApp, asking us as to why Volkswagen has stopped sales of the Polo with immediate effect. Is it the diesel-gate issue? Or is it something else? Owners of the Polo pinged us. We got an update from a reliable source that the issue pertained to the brakes. Now Volkswagen has sent out an official note stating the issue. The company is calling back 389 units of the Polo from a single batch of September 2015 production for inspection and repair of the handbrake.
The company states that their ‘Quality Assurance’ department has found out that under certain conditions, the handbrake would lose its effectiveness. The real issue is with the handbrake cable retention levers in the rear brake liner which might break under certain conditions. Dealers have already started contacting owners whose car is affected and the company has shared repair instructions with their service centres. The issue will take an hour to fix and will naturally be done free of cost.
Volkswagen had put deliveries of the Polo on hold yesterday but has commenced sales now, with cars from the affected batch being held till inspection and repair is carried out. The company has been quick to find out the issue and thus the number of cars affected isn’t large. The automaker states that it is recalling the Polo under SIAM’s voluntary recall code.
Meanwhile in other VW news, German police has raided the company’s headquarters and other offices in a bid to investigate about the emission cheating scandal. The company is finding it tough to recall vehicles in the States as owners aren’t very willing to get their cars fixed. This is because the vehicles are polluting more as they are less restricted but are thus more fun to drive and also more frugal.