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Farhi Sold (Vogue) "Nicole Farhi is on the cusp of a new wave of business expansion after private equity group Kelso Place Asset Management acquired a majority stake in the company. Kelso Place, which sold British luxury leather goods company Smythson in 2009, bought the stake from OpenGate Capital, which only acquired Farhi in 2010 for £5 million."
High-End Brands Are Missing the Boat on Mobile, Study Finds (Mashable)
"In a ranking of 100 well-recognized fashion, beauty, hospitality, watch and jewelry, and retail brands, nearly half were deemed 'feeble' in their efforts. Only two-thirds of indexed brands have mobile-optimized sites, and yet a full third of those don’t allow consumers to shop from those sites, L2 noted. Many also fail to provide the full range of content available on their desktop sites, including product search and user ratings, to mobile audiences."
Nike factory to pay $1m to Indonesian workers for overtime (Guardian) “A Nike factory has agreed to pay $1m in unpaid overtime to Indonesian workers in a move that could force other suppliers of multinational companies to follow suit. Nearly 4,500 employees at one of the sportswear group’s suppliers, the PT Nikomas shoe plant in Banten province, will be compensated for close to 600,000 hours of overtime clocked up over the past two years.”
Virtual dressing room eliminates need to take off your clothes (LA Times)
“At the Consumer Electronics Show this week, a Calabasas company was giving demonstrations of Swivel, a real-time virtual dressing room that takes a lot of the hassle out of shopping — no more long waits in the fitting room line loaded down with an armful of clothes, or the tedious process of getting dressed and undressed several times during one trip to the mall.”
‘Can I Help You?’ Irks the Web-Savvy Customer (NY Times)
"Self-service has long infiltrated the consumer experience, most recently with self-checkout at grocery stores. But the biggest factor affecting attitudes toward salespeople may be the amount of time people spend shopping online, which tends to be a solitary experience. In 2011, online shopping on Cyber Monday was up 22 percent over the previous year, according to comScore, which tracks Internet traffic."


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Tanya Taylor Is Swapping The Runway For Funny Fashion Films
The designer is opting out of New York Fashion Week, and will debut her Fall 2020 collection online instead
Another designer is switching things up this New York Fashion Week. While some brands seem to be fleeing New York en masse for Paris and beyond, Tanya Taylor is forgoing the runway altogether, opting for a digital presentation of her Fall 2020 collection, made up of five short films and an accompanying lookbook.
Taylor is hoping that the digital experience, titled "FASHUN WEEK," will make customers feel more included during the mostly industry-facing fashion week. Before taking on the challenge, she posed a question to them over Instagram: What do you think is funny about fashion/fashion week? From there, she tapped a slew of talented and funny women — Jane Krakowski, Gillian Jacobs, Sasheer Zamata, Zosia Mamet, and Michelle Buteau — to bring those ideas to life, as well as showcase her new collection.
"I think the funniest thing about fashion week is how important it is to the industry but how confusing it is to those outside of the industry," Taylor tells NYLON. "To a brand during New York Fashion Week, that's all you focus on and it's easy to think that everyone is focused on it, too. But in fact the world keeps on spinning and people don't really understand New York Fashion Week. It's that mentality that we tried to poke fun at with the videos so it felt more like everyone is invited this season to our show. Fashion shouldn't be in a bubble. It should be fun, playful, and for everyone to enjoy."
Preparing for a 10-minute runway show in front of industry insiders is challenging enough, but creating something entirely new from scratch posed different hurdles for Taylor and her team.
"We did not know what we were getting ourselves into when we decided to make five films," she admits. "From the staff and casting, to location permits and dealing with SAG, every day posed a new challenge. Luckily, we equipped ourselves with an amazing team that was able to lead us through the obstacles, and we ended up having more fun than we ever have preparing for a show. It was a real team-bonding experience."
The new project allowed Taylor to exercise new creative muscles, from working on the scripts to creating last-minute looks for each actor. It also provided an opportunity for the designer to work more closely with her own customers while thinking about her fashion week presentation.
"For the films we had to cast six women that represented our brand, and for a show we would have needed to cast 25 women," explains Taylor. "The difference was these were actresses that brought such talent and individuality to their roles and we were inspired to create new looks for them and collaborate on the process and scripts with them. It's very different than hiring and dressing models. We were in a sense working with customers. All of these actresses believe in and wear the brand and that inspired our team in a new way. When you do anything for the first time it's always going to come with hurdles but it was worth it."
Taylor isn't the only designer making changes to her New York Fashion Week experience. Jeremy Scott recently announced that he's taking his eponymous brand to Paris this season, while other New York mainstays like Tom Ford and Alexander Wang have also decided to either leave the city or stray from the usual February schedule. Taylor's hope for the future of New York Fashion Week isn't necessarily that designers keep their shows there, though, but rather, that they pay closer attention to the people who will be shopping what they're presenting.
"I'm hoping to see designers continue to take risks in how they show during fashion week and to do what's right for their individual brand," she says. "At the end of the day, we design for the customer and I'd like to see New York Fashion Week reflect that mentality and focus on inspiring a broader audience."
See more of Tanya Taylor's "FASHUN WEEK" and Fall 2020 collection, below.

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The news just dropped that Facebook acquired virtual reality headset developer Oculus for 2 billion USD, $400 million in cash and 23.1 million in Facebook shares (as in shares in the company, not sharing on their timeline). Oculus management released the following statement on their blog:
Today, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve joined forces with Facebook to create the best virtual reality platform in the world.[...] Facebook understands the potential for VR. Mark and his team share our vision for virtual reality’s potential to transform the way we learn, share, play, and communicate. Facebook is a company that believes that anything is possible with the right group of people, and we couldn’t agree more.
Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg also released a statement via his official Facebook page:
After games, we're going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences. Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face -- just by putting on goggles in your home.
This is really a new communication platform. By feeling truly present, you can share unbounded spaces and experiences with the people in your life. Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire experiences and adventures.
These are just some of the potential uses.
Reactions from the gaming community are mixed, some see it as a great opportunity for growth and product development, some see it as a hijack of a much coveted technology. Notch is the latter and has pulled the plug on his Oculus Rift ready version of Minecraft. He stated in a passionate blog post:
Facebook is not a company of grass-roots tech enthusiasts. Facebook is not a game tech company. Facebook has a history of caring about building user numbers, and nothing but building user numbers. [...].
Don’t get me wrong, VR is not bad for social. In fact, I think social could become one of the biggest applications of VR. Being able to sit in a virtual living room and see your friend’s avatar? Business meetings? Virtual cinemas where you feel like you’re actually watching the movie with your friend who is seven time zones away?
But I don’t want to work with social, I want to work with games.
Just last week, Sony unveiled Project Morpheus, a prototype reality headset for the PlayStation 4. As consoles are now entertainment media hubs that are also really good for gaming, it's only natural that Virtual Reality headsets follow the same trend. These headsets may be a gaming accessory first but they're aiming at eventually being part of any media consumption and most of our digital interactions.


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Sabtu, 5 Jun 2010
HAPUSKAN CUKONG - HAPUSKAN JUDI
VINCENT TAN HENDAK DERMA RM525 JUTA DUIT JUDI
In a bid to quell a growing uproar over his sports betting licence, tycoon Tan Sri Vincent Tan today said he will donate the entire RM525 million from the sale of the stake to charity.
The money is proceeds from the 70 per cent stake in Ascot Sports Sdn Bhd that is being sold to his listed Berjaya Corp Berhad.
“I will get zero from this deal,” he told reporters, saying the money will go to his Better Malaysia Foundation.
The Berjaya Corp chairman and chief executive officer said this to dispel unsubstantiated claims that the money from the deal would go the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN).
Tan also lashed out at fugitive blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin for raising the allegations.
KAH KAH KAH..
woit… BANYANGKAN BERAPA BANYAK HARTA RAKYAT CUKUNG INI SUDAH REMBAT…kah kah kah..
woit… JANGAN KENA TIPU…. SEMUA INI DUIT TUAN TUAN YANG DI ROMPAKNYA…. kah kah kah..
woit… MACAM MANA CUKONG INI KATA RAYA …kah kah kah..
woit... NEGERI JOHOR... BERHUTANG... kah kah kah..
woit.... NEGERI PERAK BERHUTANG...kah kah kah....
kah kah kah... NEGERI SEMBILAN…. KELANTAN, GANU ….SEMUANYA BERHUTANG … kah kah kah..
woit… MACAM MANA CUKONG INI KAYA RAYA… WAL HAL NEGARA JUAL BOND CARI DANA… kah kah kah..
woit… DI BELAKANG KEKAYAAN INI ADALAH JENAYAH…. kah kah kah


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The incoming 2020 D-Max has inadvertently shed light on what to expect from the next-gen Mazda BT-50, with Isuzu's executive team telling CarsGuide Mazda has had no involvement in the D-Max's development, with the rival Japanese brand to essentially be handed a finished ute.
Mazda and Isuzu have joined forces on each brand's next-gen ute (in the same way Ford and VW have teamed up on the next Ranger/Amarok), with both brands hoping to save on development costs by sharing the vehicle.
Isuzu global spokesperson, Eiji Mitsuhashi, told CarsGuide the new D-Max, which will launch in Australia this year, was "developed solely by Isuzu" and that the finished truck would then be provided to Mazda.
"This was developed solely by Isuzu, and we have decided to supply or provide this vehicle to Mazda as an OEM. But it was developed purely by us," he said from the floor of the 2019 Tokyo Auto Show via a translator.
"We independently developed this D-Max. We tried to strike a balance between passenger use and more off-road demand. We understand the increasing demand on the D-Max as a passenger car."
Mazda has so far kept quiet on what to expect from its updated BT-50, which is widely expected to launch some 12 months after the D-Max arrives in Australia towards the end of next year.
We do know the brand will share the Isuzu's architecture, and it is expected the engine choices (either a turbocharged 3.0-litre diesel engine now producing 140kW at 3600rpm and 450Nm at 1600rpm, or a 1.9-litre diesel engine that, as we understand it, is unlikely to make it to Australia in the D-Max) could travel across brands, too.
Mazda has, however, promised that the BT-50 will look substantially different, with the brand's chief designer promising it would be more "masculine and tough" than the current model.
"The rear area of the truck itself is very difficult to use this (Kodo) design language, but I could try," the company's design boss, Ikuo Maeda, told us in 2018.
"I myself think the truck should look masculine and strong, and really like a truck. It might be difficult to try this kind of design, with all the light reflections, to a truck. It's tough."
Maeda went on to promise that, despite the Isuzu partnership, Mazda's version will have it's own unique design and presence.
"It will have to," he said.
The news follows reports in 2017 that Mazda would be injecting more of its engineering know-how into the the new BT-50, so don't rule out Australia-specific tuning just yet - something that is missing from the D-Max.


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The City’s glass recovery revenue is about to get a boost thanks to two new purpose built glass collection trucks.
The new trucks will begin work in January and will mean an increase in glass recovery from 34% to 90%.
Rubbish and recycling asset engineer Natasha Simmons said that currently glass is handled up to five times before it reaches the Recycling Centre and the frequent handling results in unwanted contamination.
"When the new trucks start work, the glass will be handled only once, which means that 90% can be recycled leading to greater revenue when it's on-sold."
The new trucks will be driven and operated by a sole operator and have a sorting platform built into them. The operator will empty the kerbside glass recycling crates onto the platform and sort into designated bins on the truck. This ensures the glass arrives at the Awapuni Resource Recovery Park already sorted.
Proceeds from the sale of surplus trucks are expected to be approximately $190,000.
Natasha says that the biggest change will relate to residents who add prohibited items such as lids and light bulbs, Pyrex, mirror glass and window glass to their crate.
"Crates containing non-recyclable glass items will have a sticker put on them to let the resident know that their crate has not been forgotten, but that the items in it are not recyclable," Natasha said. "This is because the glass sorted into the new trucks goes directly from there to the processor with no further sorting, and any loads with contamination higher than 2% will be rejected. There is no facility on the new trucks to store waste."


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Bad actors are imitating high-level executives in the shipping industry to launch BEC attacks that could lead to credential theft or worse – system compromise.
A business email compromise campaign cost the Save the Children Federation $1 million.
The report also found that simply protecting employees in sensitive departments is not sufficient to protect against BEC.
Hardest hit were organizations using Office 365, with incidents costing more than $2 million each.
The operation also resulted in the seizure of nearly $2.4 million and the recovery of about $14 million in fraudulent wire transfers, said the FBI.
Tech-support scams took off during the year, while whaling/business email compromise was the main threat, accounting for losses of more than $675 million.
Researchers have identified a hacking group behind several widescale maritime shipping industry business email compromise (BEC) attacks since June.
Flashpoint warns of a new business email compromise campaign targeting organizations in various industries with the aim of harvesting credentials.


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The emergence of digital technologies and the government's Thailand 4.0 initiative towards innovation and automation has set a new chapter for the country's advertising and creative industry.
Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn of The Nation talks to On-Usa Lamliengpol, president of the Advertising Association of Thailand, and Veradis Vinyaratn, chairman of Judge Committee for Adman Awards & Symposium 2017, on how the advertising industry and creative people adjust and cope with the challenges amid transformation of the media landscape.
With the emergence of digital technologies and social media, what are major challenges confronted by creative people of today and in the future?
“Changes” is the key words which creative people need to embrace. Changes in way “people” or “consumer” do, think, feel and behave in digital era. This will affect the way creative people do business. Understanding people is not just about the general information anymore. Creative people needs to know in depth about how they live their lives, how they consume media, their attitude in lives, who they associate with or trust, believe in.
In essence, understanding people to be able to engage them with "content" that turn Thai heads via the platforms or “contact channels” that can reach them efficiently.
What are the key strategies initiated by creative people to overcome such challenges?
Content creation is still the key but with understanding of “netiquette” scenario. How creative can story-telling be in capturing people attention and engage them via the right platforms.
The winning strategy is still |the “idea” as creativity has the power to transform people's behaviour.
Story -telling must have the “idea” and idea must lead or connect to the brand essence.
What should be the characters of qualified creative people today? Why?
Amid several challenges, the key characters of qualified creative people should be:
lOpen minded, willing to accept and adapt to the changes
lUnderstand the brand as well as understand people the way they act, think and feel in the content of today digital era
lPassion of "idea" which will move the brand to sustainable growth
lMost importantly, the commitment to being responsible to the society. This is crucial as social media is very hard to control. It must be the "ethic" that creative people must realise at all time for the work they create.
How local advertising and creative industry can comply themselves with Thailand's 4.0 initiative and creative economy?
Thailand 4.0 key words are technology, innovation and creativity. The way the country moves forward to join the first world league is to utilise innovation/ technology with “creativity”.
Creative industry in digital era will still focus their work on the “idea”which evolve around Innovation and Technology.
What is your projection for this year’s advertising expenditure, both in term of value and growth? The major shift of contribution will be in which media and how?
Thailand's advertising expenditure in the first three quarters of 2017 dropped by 8 per cent, compared to the same period last year. So, the projection set for the whole year is a decrease of between 10 per cent and 11 per cent to about Bt100 billion. This is the effect from last year's loss.
All media have suffered drop in their advertising revenues except internet/online advertising which has increased 25 per cent annually over the past five years according to Digital Advertising Association of Thailand. Print media posted the biggest drop. Advertisng spending on TVs have also fallen, and it is the main item in a advertising budget. Every medium is transforming themselves into digital platform. So the 3Cs criteria: Content, Creativity and Crossed Platforms will be the key strategy to survival for advertising and creative agencies in the digital era.


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Cryptocurrencies pose a competitive threat to Bank of America‘s business, the company said in a regulatory filing Thursday.
“Clients may choose to conduct business with other market participants who engage in business or offer products in areas we deem speculative or risky, such as cryptocurrencies,” the bank said. Such increased competition may “negatively affect our earnings” or affect “the willingness of our clients to do business with us.”
The comments were part of an annual 10-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission about the bank’s operations and business risks. The bank said it had no further comment.
Bank of America’s filing added that widespread adoption of new technologies in financial services, including cryptocurrencies, “could require substantial expenditures” in order to adapt to evolving industry standards and consumer preferences.
Popular interest in digital currencies has taken off in the last several months, helping send bitcoin from less than $1,000 at the beginning of 2017 to a high above $19,000 in mid-December. The surge of interest led to the launch of bitcoin futures by CME, the largest futures exchange, and its competitor, Cboe, in December as well. Bitcoin was trading well off its record highs Friday, at around $10,000.
However, Bank of America has not embraced the rise of interest in cryptocurrencies. The firm’s Merrill Lynch wealth management arm banned its roughly 17,000 financial advisors from buying bitcoin-related investments for clients. The bank also said earlier this month that customers cannot use its credit cards to buy cryptocurrencies.
The SEC filing also noted that digital currencies limit the bank’s ability to track movement of funds and comply with laws such as anti-money laundering regulation.


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A new study details how to create lab-grown meat that has a more natural taste and texture. The process will also allow more control over the structure of the meat, so consumers will be able to pick the exact amount of fat content or marbling they want.
Steakhouses today may ask customers how they’d like their meat to be cooked, but a new paper from McMaster University could mean they’ll soon ask how we’d like it “tuned”. Their paper describes how a more natural feeling and tasting type of lab-grown meat can be produced. According to the authors, this will provide a more “real meat” experience and allow people to have as much fat or marbling on their cut of meat as they want.
Sheets to slabs
“We are creating slabs of meat,” co-author Ravi Selvaganapathy says in a media release. “Consumers will be able to buy meat with whatever percentage of fat they like – just like they do with milk.”
The authors, both from McMaster’s School of Biomedical Engineering, developed a new technique to create lab-grown meat. It involves stacking thin sheets of cultivated muscle and fat tissues, then merging them together. It’s similar to the approach we use to grow human tissue for transplants, the authors explain.
Each of these sheets is as thin as a sheet of paper, and they’re made from cells first grown in a lab culture. They naturally bind to one another while the cells are alive, says Selvaganapathy. This process helps impart the improved texture to the meat. The team tested their approach with cells harvested from lab mice. They didn’t eat that one, but they did eventually grow, cook, and taste a sample from rabbit cells.
“It felt and tasted just like meat,” Selvaganapathy reports.
Although their experiments didn’t include these types of cells as well, the team is confident that beef, pork, or chicken will be growable using this approach in the future. The stacking-sheets approach is also easily scaled-up for industrial production, they add.
The global demand for meat is putting a heavy strain on nature, as it takes a lot of food, water, and land to grow our livestock — and they also produce ample methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Factory farms also need to feed their animals antibiotics constantly to avoid disease, which is helping bacteria develop resistance to drugs. Lab-grown meat can help address this demand much more cleanly and efficiently.
“Meat production right now is not sustainable,” Selvaganapathy contends. “There has to be an alternative way of creating meat.”
The McMaster team is currently working on a start-up company that can produce meat using this technique and sell it commercially.
The paper “Engineering Murine Adipocytes and Skeletal Muscle Cells in Meat-like Constructs Using Self-Assembled Layer-by-Layer Biofabrication: A Platform for Development of Cultivated Meat” has been published in the journal Cells Tissues Organs.


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National Animal Supplement Council hosted its inaugural awards dinner at its annual conference on May 12 in San Diego, California, USA.
Fifteen companies and individuals were honored for going above and beyond in their commitment to quality, education and improving the standards of the animal health supplement industry.
NASC presented Susan Domizi, president and founder of Source Inc., with a lifetime achievement award for her dedication and major contributions to the animal health supplement industry. Petco received a superior partnership award for education about animal health supplements in the retail channel, promoting the NASC Quality Seal. Pharmore Ingredients and TSI Inc. both received MVP supplier awards in recognition of the companies' commitment to quality at the ingredient level.
In addition, 11 NASC-audited member companies received a visibility award for efforts above and beyond in promoting the goals of NASC and the NASC Quality Seal. The recipients included Arenus, Bomac Vets Plus Inc., Food Science Corp., The Garmon Corp., Genesis Ltd., Grand Meadows Nutritional Products Inc., In Clover, Med-Vet Pharmaceuticals, Nutri-Vet, Response Products and Silver Lining Herbs.
While cat trends continue, the pandemic has added to overall slow-growth treatment of the cat food market.
Premiumization and humanization, as well as automation, fueled continued operation growth in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic.


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Tomato season is over for most of the United States, so it’s time to start shifting our tomato thoughts to canned, dried, and jarred tomatoes. Although tomatoes can be grown in all 50 states of the union, odds are 10-to-1 that a tomato found in a can, jar, or processed product was grown in California. An article in the San Francisco Chronicle presented some incredible statistics about the level of concentration in the processed tomato industry.
Before World War II, there were commercial growers and canners in many states — including Delaware, Virginia, Utah, New Jersey and New York — and California produced only 20% of the nation’s tomatoes. Thanks to the development of both mechanical harvesting equipment and tomato varieties that can be picked by machine, the number rose to 50% in 1953, and reached 95% in 2007. (The 20% and 50% figures are from the “Oxford Companion to American Food,” the 95% figure is from the Chronicle.) There are several reasons for California’s dominance in the processed tomato business, with the biggest one being a climate that allows a far longer harvest period (90 days vs. 45 days) and is less hospitable to disease because of its low humidity and lack of summer rain.
Concentration in the tomato industry goes beyond the farm, into the seed business, where just three companies — Heinz, Bayer CropScience and Monsanto — control 90% of the market.
Running a huge tomato farm — the average size is about 1,000 acres — is expensive. After the cost of equipping yourself with the necessary harvesting, spraying, and irrigation equipment (or paying rental fees), add annual expenses for diesel fuel, seed, water, chemicals, and labor, which run about $2,700 per acre. Plenty of volatility in the diesel and water markets make things exciting. The payoff for this investment? An average price of 3.5 cents per pound.
Another, probably minor, reason for California’s dominance is USDA regulations that stifle vegetable growers in the Midwest and Great Plains. During the Farm Bill debate, Philip Brasher at the Des Moines Register (via FarmPolicy.com) and Minnesota farmer Jack Hedin (in the New York Times) wrote about rules that penalize those who currently receive commodity subsidies if they plant “specialty crops” (fruits, nuts, vegetables, and flowers) with fines and a ban on receiving future subsidies for crops grown on the land. Despite vigorous opposition from specialty crop growers in California, Florida, and other temperate states, Congress is slowly chipping away at the restrictions. The latest Food and Farm Bill authorized a pilot program in seven Midwestern states that lets farmers plant tomatoes and six other crops on “base acres” (i.e., land used for “program crops” like corn and soy in the past) without penalty. This provision and many others are summarized in a report on the 2008 Food and Farm Bill from the Congressional Research Service.
Today’s processed tomato industry exemplifies a few features of our food system. First, it shows how much it has changed in just a few decades: not too long ago, there were tomato processors all over the nation. Second, it highlights the role of national policies on local food systems. Farmers in Indiana or Iowa — especially those who lease their land — face significant obstacles in meeting demand for locally grown produce. Although it can be tough to inspire grassroots activity around slogans like “Eliminate the penalty for planting specialty crops on base acres,” I’m hopeful that the change in leadership in Washington will inspire new efforts to chip away at the distrubing level of concentration and centralization of much of this nation’s food system.


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The stockpiling was prompted by an expectation that the price will have an apparent and sustainable rebound in two to three years, Tony Southgate from Stratton Metals said during a panel discussion on Friday April 12.
The international cobalt benchmark price rebounded for the first time in five months at the end of March, and the momentum continued into April.
Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt price rose to $15.35-16.75 per lb on April 12, up from $13.30-14.20 per lb on March 22, which was just before the price rebound. The benchmark cobalt price had been under pressure since late November. The price started to trend lower to $33.25-33.95 per lb on November 21, according to Fastmarkets data.
“Some traders held the opinion that if they can buy below $15 per lb, in a two-to-three-year time scale, they are pretty much guaranteed to make some money from it,” Southgate said.
Traditional and western producers had been building up inventories ahead of the price rebound, and some producers lowered their offer prices for the material to lock in sales revenue ahead of the end of the financial year. This meant some traders were able to take the opportunity to secure cheap units.
Cobalt metal price likely to test new low during summer However, this stockpiling activity and resulting price rise is temporary, and the price will be vulnerable to a backswing because metal producers are persistently building up inventories, according to Southgate.
“There is a subtle change in the demand,” Southgate said.
Although demand from the electric vehicle sector has strengthened as time goes on, there is a decline of demand from the mobile phone sector, Southgate told conference delegates.
“Some producers of raw materials for mobile phones are big consumers of metal and such demand is dropping,” Southgate said, adding that such traditional metal consumers now choose to feed on cheap hydroxide instead of metal.
Fastmarkets’ monthly cobalt hydroxide index, min 30% Co, came to $9.81 per lb, cif China on March 29, and payables were assessed at 66-68% against Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt price (low end) on the same day. This is in comparison to the monthly average of Fastmarkets’ low-end price of the standard-grade cobalt price of $14.04 per lb in March.
Although recent restocking may take away some producers’ inventory that was built up over the past few months, stocks are likely to continue to grow in the near future, Southgate said.
“My concern is these producers who had developed inventories will continue to develop inventories,” Southgate said.
In addition, demand is likely to weaken further in the summer, which is a traditionally weak consumption season.
“We could see price falling again, potentially testing a new low again,” Southgate said.


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(CHICAGO) — It’s no surprise Americans are feeling the impact of the country’s worst inflation in 40 years. In fact, the Federal Reserve is already considering raising interest rates again, according to Chairman Jerome Powell. They raised rates by a quarter-point just last week.
Americans feeling the financial strain are now finding creative ways to save. Enter The Swap-O-Rama in Alsip, Illinois, on the south side of Chicago.
The self-declared oldest flea market in Chicago is advertised to be home to hundreds of vendors, selling thousands of different products at affordable prices.
“You get a lot of stuff in bulk and it’s a lot cheaper.”
That’s Marquita of Gary, Indiana. She told ABC News’ Perspective podcast that she’s seen her dollar getting stretched further and further as she shops for her family of six.
“If I go to the store and I get a meal, I want to say it’s been like $100 for a whole meal. And that’s just like if I get like 10 things […] I try to go to the store, even the cheaper stores, it’s now become $100 for a full meal.”
Sherman is a local vendor and sells all the things you’d normally find at CVS or Walgreens, but for a fraction of the price. He understands why people come to the flea market looking to save.
“They figure I’m at the flea market, I should be able to get it cheaper than store.”
But consumers aren’t the only ones feeling the sting of inflation.
Clay is a bracelet vendor at Swap-O-Rama. He says he’s struggling to turn a profit. What cost him $40 in supplies a year-and-a-half-ago is costing him closer to $100 today. Now, he has to charge shoppers more, which some aren’t willing to pay.
“The last month, people are actually looking to negotiate more. You know, I guess because they’re paying more for everything else. So everyone’s pretty much looking for more of a deal now.”
Listen to the rest of this past week’s highlights in the Perspective podcast.
Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.


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Is there a “best” sleeping position?Apparently so. According to a new study, back sleepers slept better and woke up happier and more motivated than people who slept in other positions. (The Ladders)
Short sighted …According to a recent survey byCosmo, 67 percent of women say they won’t date a guy who is shorter than they are. Sadly, a recent study confirms these findings. Height tops the list of traits a woman looks for in a man.
Cheesy Easter egg …A supermarket in the U.K. is selling an Easter egg made entirely of cheese. The “Cheesalicious” egg is 100-percent cheddar cheese and is apparently soft and creamy.Perfect for spreading on Easter crackers?(Insider)
Too busy to clean?A new survey found that one-third of adult respondents say they are just too busy to clean their homes. Only 50 percent of those surveyed said they set aside time each week to do chores and 30 percent say they only manage to do a few chores on the weekend. 38 percent said the tradition of an annual “Spring Cleaning” is dying out and 45 percent believe that previous generations had more time for housework. (SWNS)
Warm weather is coming … and Corona is ready.Corona isintroducing a line of tropical fruit-flavored beer. Forget just putting a lime in your Corona. Now you can choose from Passion Fruit Lime, Guava Lime and Coconut Lime. (Daily Meal)


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LITTLE ROCK, Ark.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Acxiom, the global leader in customer intelligence, today unveiled a comprehensive study that underscores the paradox of modern customer intelligence: While many businesses recognize its importance, few realize its full potential to create truly differentiating, market-leading experiences.
The study, Customer Intelligence: How Well Do You Understand Your Customers?, provided an in-depth assessment of US and UK brands’ customer intelligence (CI) maturity – how well these businesses use data-driven CI to understand and engage with people across the entire customer journey.
The findings revealed a startling reality. Only a tiny fraction of brands (4%) have become masters of customer intelligence, seamlessly integrating CI across their organizations. This accomplishment sets these businesses apart, giving them a distinctive edge over their competition.
Challenges and Contradictions
The report also highlights the main challenges and contradictions that brands face in their data-driven strategies, such as:
- While 56% of businesses align their CI function with company objectives, only 7% report CEO-level advocacy.
- Although 46% of businesses use a blend of first-, second-, and third-party data, just 9% utilize an identity resolution to unify customer signals into a single view, impacting their ability to deliver meaningful experiences.
- While 60% of businesses claim to use advanced CI analytics, only 23% integrate artificial intelligence or machine learning into their analytics capabilities.
- Despite 63% of businesses establishing CI Centers of Excellence to share best practices, only 22% have implemented real-time collaborative data platforms accessible to all teams.
- Data quality, integration issues, skill and resource shortages, organizational silos, privacy concerns, and technology complexities are common barriers impeding CI maturity.
“Customer Intelligence is the essential catalyst that drives brand growth and success,” said Tate Olinghouse, Chief Client Officer at Acxiom. “Our research indicates without deep CI, businesses risk falling behind the competition and losing market share.”
The report, commissioned by Acxiom and independently conducted by international strategy and research agency MTM, is based on a survey of 200 senior decision-makers from US and UK brands across various sectors. To access the complete report, please click here.
Acxiom partners with the world’s leading brands to create customer intelligence, enabling data-driven marketing experiences that generate value for people and for brands. The experts in identity, the ethical use of data, cloud-first customer data management, and analytics solutions, Acxiom makes the complex marketing ecosystem work, applying customer intelligence wherever brands and customers meet. By helping brands genuinely understand people, Acxiom enables experiences so relevant and respectful, people are willing to explore new brands and stay loyal to those they love. For more than 50 years, Acxiom has improved clients’ customer acquisition, growth, and retention. With locations in the US, UK, China, Poland, and Germany, Acxiom is a registered trademark of Acxiom LLC and is part of The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. (IPG). For more information, visit Acxiom.com.
MTM is a global research and strategy agency specializing in technology, media, and entertainment. For more information, visit wearemtm.com.


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LOS ANGELES -- Lexus knows that the target audience for its redesigned IS 250 and IS 350 sedans routinely skips TV commercials with devices such as TiVo. So it is taking an interactive approach to launching the cars.
Lexus will create a mosaic of photographs of people that will become a giant picture of an IS sedan. The company will broadcast the mosaic image online at lexus.com and show it on a giant screen in New York's Times Square.
People who submit photos to Lexus will be told where their picture is located in the mosaic. As part of the display, they can ask Lexus to broadcast their photo at a specific time in Times Square.
The mosaic program goes live Sept. 3. Visitors to the Lexus Web site who express interest in the car get first crack at submitting photos.
The redesigned IS sedans go on sale in October.
Lexus also will market the car with chalk drawings that create three-dimensional images on sidewalks. Starting this month, Lexus will use artists' drawings of the IS in conjunction with product placement of the car at the U.S. Open tennis championships in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. Lexus says the chalk drawings will appear in other venues but did not provide details.
These efforts are aimed at 30- to 45-year-old professionals who want to own an "aspirational sport sedan," says Bob Carter, Lexus Division's general manager. By Lexus' definition, it's a car trendy enough that cool people know about it, but one that not everyone is aware of.
Lexus will not ignore traditional media to market the IS. To direct the car's TV campaign, the luxury brand has enlisted Francois Vogel, who made award-winning ads for the HP Photosmart Printer that appeared to create photographs out of thin air.
The Lexus commercials will show the IS "living in multiple environments simultaneously," Carter says. "The look will have an upscale fashion-designer feel while still clearly being about the car."
The campaign's print ads will be less about displaying the car and more about hooking readers. The ads will have catchy headlines such as "I was living a lie," "I cheated," and "It all started innocently enough."
The ads feature pictures of hip 30-somethings who look vaguely compromised. They will describe how these consumers strayed from their faithfulness to their previous cars - typically German sport sedans - when they drove a Lexus IS.
Lexus' marketing also will take potshots at competitors that try to straddle the divide between performance and entry-level luxury. Lexus says it can provide the IS sedans for the former and the ES 330 for the latter.
Lexus faces a big challenge in launching the IS sedans. Lexus wants to sell 40,000 of the cars annually in the United States. That's a big jump from last year, when Lexus sold 9,972 IS 300 units. The IS 300 peaked in 2001 with 22,486 U.S. sales.
You may e-mail Mark Rechtin at


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The NAMM Foundation is accepting applications at www.nammfoundation.org for its 2014 President’s Innovation Award to support undergraduate and graduate students pursuing careers in the music products industry.
The cash award supports qualified college students’ travel to attend NAMM’s annual global music products trade show in Anaheim, Calif., Jan. 23-26, 2014. At the show, awardees will be invited to participate in a special collegiate program offering information, mentoring and the opportunity to network with industry laureates and professionals.
Awardees will have the opportunity to visit the more than 1,400 exhibits during the four-day event, representing the product offerings available from the industry’s top-tier global music product manufacturers. They are also encouraged to attend the “Generation Next” program at the NAMM Show, which offers college students seminars, networking and career-ready learning experiences.
“NAMM’s Innovation Award helps students glean the experience to kick off a successful career path in the music-products industry,” said Joe Lamond, president and CEO of NAMM. “The networking opportunities available to students at the NAMM Show and the experience of seeing the music industry in action are unparalleled. We hope this award encourages bright, young minds to become part of a vibrant and exciting industry, fostering its future growth and continuity.
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Trendy FC bucks the trend
Shares in fashion retailer French Connection soared 75p to 455p as results showed it is continuing to buck the gloomy High Street trend and chief executive Stephen Marks promised more to come this year.
>Profits for the year to end January jumped 27% to a record £10.4 million, on sales 25% higher at £117.3 million. Like-for-like sales were up by 11%. Current trading remains good and Marks says French Connection is entering the new year "with great optimism".
He said: "We can do the same thing this year and next. There's a lot to go for and we are going for it."
While the controversial fcuk advertising campaign remains at the core of the group's success, Marks said the key factor was the product range.
The fcuk slogan will soon be seen on underwear, watches, hoisery and skin-care, as the group further expands its licensing operations.
The dividend total is raised by 31% to 4.25p.
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Brand new fintech Upstart is actually attending work on finance companies and borrowing unions giving a product who has heretofore started rare: small-buck consumer fund at the yearly commission cost less than 36%.
For example funds are generally very costly – pay-day loan providers will costs triple-little finger annual percentage rates – but Upstart claims their phony cleverness underwriting models have a tendency to permit fund which have APRs below thirty-six%.
Upstart expectations to start providing the tool, that is nevertheless in the invention, so you can financial institutions and you may credit unions towards the end out of next season.
“It’s practical rates to those to own quick-name loans, and that is a thing that nearly doesn’t exists online,” Upstart co-originator and Ceo Dave Girouard said into the an interview.
Most banks have steered clear from offering emergency loans of a few hundred dollars, particularly since the new death off put-advance finance during the Obama administration.
Federal bank regulators last year nudged banks to get into the small-dollar loan market, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau gave banks a template for doing so without fear of a supervisory crackdown. The National Credit Union Administration has also sought to encourage funds that help consumers manage their short-term cash flow.
If instance finance are way too pricey, it risk a beneficial backlash away from user organizations and authorities, but banks have traditionally insisted you to definitely relatively higher rates was must go profits
Whenever inquired about just how regulatory traditional could possibly get progress, Girouard said bodies try supporting from quick-dollar financing if they try affordable plus don’t “direct people down a risky road” out of constantly moving over obligations.
Banks offering such loans could help consumers save “enormous amounts of money” by giving them a cheaper option than a payday loan, said Alex Horowitz, principal officer at The Pew Charitable Trusts‘ consumer finance project. Pew has established a set of advice for banks and credit unions interested in entering the market.
Though some banks possess mainly based short-dollars mortgage software – Lender out-of The usa, U.S. Bancorp, and you can Fifth 3rd Bancorp every promote such fund – fintech businesses may help smaller organizations overcome the latest technical obstacles away from doing this, Horowitz said.
“To build out an automated program therefore the systems must underwrite centered on membership record and cash disperse is a bona Tennessee payday lenders fide test for smaller than average average-size of banks,” Horowitz said.
Upstart has said that its software takes into account step 1,600 studies circumstances to determine a prospective borrower’s creditworthiness, including the college the applicant attended, the degree the person obtained and the profession he or she is entering.
Upstart, which went public last year, works with banks and credit unions to offer automobile financing and personal loans of at least $1,000. The company says that it currently partners with 31 financial institutions. Since September, Upstart has announced partnerships with Berkshire Hills Bancorp in Boston and Delaware-based WSFS Financial.
Desire certainly Upstart’s bank and you can borrowing from the bank connection lovers from inside the offering faster financing could have been “off of the maps,” Girouard told analysts in the a profit turn to Saturday.
Of many people whom have confidence in expensive quick-term finance has actually subprime credit scores, that will avoid them out-of accessing lesser choice.
The fresh new San Mateo, California-mainly based providers, which already partners which have banks and borrowing unions to your installment loans and you may auto loans, launched arrangements Saturday to aid supply credit so you can customers who require disaster dollars
Upstart’s purpose will be to give much more People in america on “traditional economic industry,” Girouard told you, helping her or him rating cheaper borrowing and eventually permitting finance companies to provide them antique playing cards, mortgage loans or other items.
Nonetheless, Girouard asserted that certain users probably cannot be eligible for money with APRs less than thirty-six%. “But our very own purpose is always to promote as many of them inside even as we can,” the guy said.


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The saying goes, "If all you have is a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail." They only sell one hammer in Hoa's Tool Shop, but luckily a psychological hammer is a pretty cool tool to wield.
The Stockholm-based startup has been doing a few things we've found worth writing about lately. Their creativity newsletter gets me thinking about fostering my entrepreneurial creativity every morning. Their main product, Viary, has been shown to dramatically cut down on face-to-face time needed with psychologists. And now, with the help of some people from Hyper Island, they've taken a look at the dance floor through a side-project app of theirs.
Venturebeat has a story out on 2010 and how game fundings and acquisitions developed compared to 2009. Growth was spectacular and in terms of percentages, the size of the fundings and acquisitions rose by 130% compared to 2009. Thus in 2009 the overall size of the market in these terms was $819 million. The data is provided by IHS and is said to cover international markets. According to IHS, the numbers cover funding and acquisitions activity in all areas of gaming except mobile gaming.
Finnish Ministry of Employment and the Economy yesterday announced their first study (better late than never) into the growth company ecosystem in Finland. Like said, it is first of its kind, but this will become an annual look into the effect these companies play for the Finnish society. The study is downloadable online (in Finnish) for free, but we'll go through the main points here and what this might potentially mean in the political sense. The focus of the study is on employment and how many people these so called growth companies can employ. It turns out that during 2006 and 2009, 691 companies created around 50 000 jobs. 50 000 jobs in Finnish terms in just three years is huge, but 691 growth companies by any standards isn't a lot.
Futureful is a Finnish, research based startup that is developing a predictive discovery engine. In essence, they want to help you discover more interesting content on the internet, based on your behaviour and liking. The company was founded by Marko Anderson and Jarno Koponen and they pitch themselves as "imagine if Hunch and Flipboard bootstrapped a lovechild."
QAim, a Finnish mobile analytics and Customer Experience Management (CEM) startup, has released a new study (announcement available in Finnish) on the share of different mobile operating systems (OS) among users of mobile services in the Nordic countries. QAim's study shows strong increase in Android's popularity among the active mobile services users, and the firm estimates that Android will become the most widely used mobile operating system among the Nordic mobile service users in the summer of 2011.
Daniel Blomquist of Creandum, a Swedish early stage venture capital company, has posted an excellent post to their blog analysing the differences between the Nordic countries to other countries as well as analysing the differences within themselves. In essence, Daniel goes on to confirm what Will Cardwell said some time ago.
Creandum has gathered a lot of knowledge about the Nordic venture capital market over the last two years to understand the ecosystem better and thus be able to work in it better. They now share some of this knowledge with us. Their main findings from the report were:
Kauppalehti reports on some fascinating results from research conducted by Balance Consulting on the effects of growth companies in the Finnish economy. While I realise this data is very Finland centric and might not be of that much interest to others - I am sure these results will resonate in similar manner in other countries. We wrote about this in 2008 as well and it seems that the data, some one and a half years later is still very valid. The study was conducted by looking at companies whose revenue is above 1,7 million euros annually and belong to the Balance Consulting corporate databse. While the database is very thorough, it does leave a lot of the younger startups out.


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According to Fars News Agency’s community group, the closing ceremony of the third round of the National Cultural Industries Packaging Design Award was attended by Maryam Jalali, Deputy Minister of Handicrafts and Traditional Arts of the country, Rezai Far, Deputy Minister of Technology and Innovation of the Ministry of Science, Mohammad Reza Imani Khoshkho, Head of the National Science and Soft Technologies Park and Cultural industries and packaging designers of cultural industries were held in the conference hall of Tehran University of Science and Culture.
In this ceremony, Maryam Jalali thanked the organizers of this event and said: In the age of information and technology, soft power is in storytelling.
He continued: If the identity is the principle of permanence and the body is the principle of transit and displacement, we at the Vice-Chancellor of Handicrafts Economy pursue the identity of the foundation and turn consumer goods into capital goods.
Jalali stated: In addition to packaging techniques and knowledge, our designers need to acquire the knowledge of storytelling and narration, and the combination of these two pillars will make sense.
Emphasizing the wisdom of handicrafts, he said: by revising the indicators and evaluation, we can restore the existence of handicrafts in the literature of development and connect them to the fields of technology and technology.
He pointed out: Each of the world’s handicraft cities and villages has its own special and unique narrative and identity, which is reflected in luxurious packaging.
The Deputy Minister of Handicrafts announced the formation of a working group for the organization of national souvenirs of Iran in the Deputy Minister of Handicrafts and said: Stories and narratives are part of the country’s cultural industries, which have become handicrafts.
In the end, Jalali said: I am grateful to the designer community for paying special attention to identity elements, and every product with diverse packaging can express a new story and narrative.
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Be it prattish patrons or snooty staff, there's no excuse for bad restaurant etiquette - it's a two-way street that can sometimes lead to dreadful dining experiences.
It was a busy Wednesday night at a popular Indian restaurant, when a male customer picked up his plate of freshly served lamb shank, stormed up to the waiter and yelled: "Taste it!" Head chef Gaurav Sakhuja looked up from his open kitchen as the red-faced patron pushed the plate into the waiter's face while spraying verbal abuse: "Taste it! Is it hot? Taste it!"
Sakhuja, owner of Bayleaf Brasserie in Crows Nest, had cooked nalli ka gosht for five years, and was certain the shanks were "spicy hot" as requested. "I put more chilli into it. I eat chilli, I know how hot it has to be." He placated the man in his late 40s with a new plate - with extra chilli sauce on the side - and a complimentary dessert - not because the customer is always right, but to promptly resolve a situation that had astounded and unnerved everyone in the room.
Rude customers can be the bane of restaurant owners' and workers' existence, lowering staff morale, causing profit losses and even triggering brutal fights. In April, a chef at Red Chilli in Lakemba plunged a long metal skewer into the hand of a man who had complained about slow service.
But while difficult customers are a perennial, the rapid growth in food blogs and review websites has placed restaurants under even greater pressure to deliver all patrons great food and flawless service, at a time when Australians are eating out more than ever before. Figures from Restaurant & Catering Australia show that the average person visits restaurants and cafes 2.8 times a week, up from 1.8 a decade ago.
A common complaint from the restaurant industry is that customers now have multiple online platforms to vent their spleen, while the chefs must still suffer disagreeable visitors in silence. "There should also be a place for restaurants to have a go at customers," says Rick Baccaglia, owner of Zenja Cafe in North Strathfield, who claims to have been unfairly attacked online by disgruntled customers. "A woman ordered a cup of tap water and we served it in a classic Coke glass. She complained [on a website] that her water came in a McDonald's freebie soccer giveaway glass. It's a joke. They're so uninformed."
This article affords the food-service industry a rare chance to reveal why, sometimes, the customer is not always king, and there is no shortage of chefs willing to spill the beans.
Dublin-born kitchen whiz Colin Fassnidge has ejected customers for groping staff, resting their feet on tables and ripping tablecloth at his two-hatted Four in Hand restaurant in the back streets of Paddington. Bad behaviour is usually fuelled by alcohol, he observes. "You see the best and worst in people in restaurants."
His well-rehearsed floor manager, Oliver Tucker, has witnessed one diner poke fun of the size of an Asian waitress' eyes and a Don Juan unleash tales of sexual conquests. Diners at nearby tables often share his horror. A more common form of poor etiquette is when customers whistle, clap, click with their fingers or madly wave to grab his attention. "We are not dogs. Just look up and you'll catch the waiter's eye."
While the use of mobile phones at the table doesn't irk him, customers who consult Google when stumped by an obscure term on the menu can be frustrating. "Ask us. It's our job. We are more than happy to help," he says.
Rising allergy rates have also forced restaurants to adapt to a host of new dietary requirements. Food-induced anaphylaxis has doubled in the past decade, the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy reported in July, and 20 per cent of people have an allergic disease.
Food requests have been a bugbear for Matt Fitzgerald, head chef of Bondi's Eastern Hotel, home to Mexican joint El Topo. Fussy diners have conceded to him, after some curious prodding, that in order to avoid smelly breath, they don't want onion or garlic in their meals. "I have to explain, yes, onions and garlic are in the mole. But in 10 litres of mole, there are six onions, and you'll get 20 grams of mole on the plate. So the amount is minute," says Fitzgerald. "And, no, we can't take it out."
The deft handling of tricky requests can be a measure of a chef's ability to be flexible, but some requests simply destroy a dish. A woman at El Topo once ordered a scallop ceviche without the lime, chilli and coriander. "Without the integral components you've lost the heart and soul of it."
Noisy and unruly children are another issue, and can ruin the eatery's atmosphere. Sensing the annoyance of guests at children screaming and throwing cutlery on the floor, Gaurav Sakhuja offered to shift a family to a corner table at the back of the Bayleaf Brasserie. He was surprised by their refusal. "Customers should indicate whether they're bringing children while booking."
Online group-buying deals have been a boon, but also a major source of frustration. Sakhuja has dealt with bargain-hungry people armed with Cudo and Spreets vouchers trying to squeeze out extra value. Four people once turned up with one voucher which offered two courses for two people. "It says clearly on the voucher that additional people have to pay as per menu prices. They were so adamant."
But some customers have legitimate gripes when it comes to eating out. Earlier this year, Lorraine Elliott and four friends entered Mojo, Luke Mangan's warehouse-style wine bar on Danks Street, after waiting for four weeks since its opening. "I usually wait ... because they're still finding their feet," she explained on her blog, Not Quite Nigella. "Menus change, service becomes more assured and processes smooth out."
From the raw kingfish at the start to the soft Swiss meringue for dessert, Elliott thought that each dish delivered on taste and quality. But snooty attitudes and snarky comments from some of the wait staff almost ruined the mood of the night. Enter "Mojo" and "Mangan" in a search engine, and Elliott's review appears on the first page of results. Click and scroll down and comments from loyal readers emerge. "Oh dear. The food looks good but the service sounds appalling - no thanks," wrote a user named Cakelaw.
The blog Not Quite Nigella amasses 250,000 unique visitors each month, and Elliott knows her words wield considerable influence. "If I do receive bad service at a place, I mention it as it's important as the food," says Elliott. "If there was poor service, I'd be unlikely to return." And there has been "plenty" of it. She was made to pay for a chicken dish that had string in it, and forced to listen to a restaurant owner crack sexist jokes at her table.
Any signs of a dying service culture can be linked with the immense skills shortage in the hospitality sector, says John Hart, head of Australia's peak restaurant industry body. More than 36,000 people are required to fill gaping holes in the tourism sector, and the figure is expected to jump to 56,000 in two years.
The vast majority of the jobs fall into the food-service category. "Businesses are now opting for a different service delivery, one that is less labour intensive. I wouldn't say there is less staff training, but rather, less people in the training system," observes Hart.
Fassnidge says Australians view wait jobs as merely a stepping stone. "When I was in Michelin restaurants, waiters travelled from France and Italy to become commis waiters and chef de rangs. It was a career."
Sydney blogger Billy Law, the man behind the A Table for Two website, has noticed a decline in customer service over the years. "I've noticed a lack of friendliness. And at some places there's pressure to eat quickly, to get in and get out so they can feed more customers. If one person finishes a meal and the other person hasn't, the waiter will come and clear your table. That's a very negative sign."
At Fairfield RSL, chief executive Anthony Sobb has instructed staff to not retaliate against posters of negative comments on websites. "It's just too dangerous and it's a no-win situation. It's a bloggers opinion and that's their opinion. To enter any kind of spar with them is not healthy."
But no matter poor etiquette or negative customer comments; the restaurant industry still knows it cannot survive without their precious dollars. Providing a positive customer experience is still the cornerstone for successful food businesses.
Pip Whitting, sommelier at the Merivale group's Ivy bar, says when she see a table of rowdy diners on the brink of drunkenness she has a plan that will keep staff, fellow diners and clients happy.
"It's easier to have a friendly chit chat. I will constantly top up their water to slow them down. Put more bread on the table. The cellar is also downstairs, so if they're ordering another bottle, I'll tell them it will take some time to grab it from the cellar. We're not going to let them get to a bad state."
Going beyond customer expectations can also bring unexpected dividends. Tawnya Bahr, a food-industry consultant, celebrated her mother-in-law's birthday at Muse restaurant in the Hunter Valley in April last year. At the end of lunch, she noticed her trouser leg had been frayed by a rogue nail that poked out of her wooden chair.
"The manager was horrified and straight away she asked me for my bank details and how much they were worth. She promptly sent me more than $100 for new pants. I'll continue to go back," says Bahr, who continues to rave about the service to this day.
This story originally appeared in The (Sydney) Magazine, October 2013 issue.
Correction: An earlier version said the Not Quite Nigella blog received 50,000 unique visitors each month. This was incorrect. It is 250,000.


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- March 9, 2019
- Posted by: admin
- Category: News & Events
In continuation of its quality awareness programme to Stakeholders, the Kano State office of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria visited the Special Education School, Tudun Maliki, Kano.
The Students were educated on the SON mandate, the quality marks and how to confirm the quality status of products from physical inspection.
Addressing the students with the aid of interpretation in sign language by Gambo Danbaba, Senior Master, Administration and Mallam Abdullahi Sa’ad, a Teacher,
SON Director General, Osita Aboloma Esq. enumerated the dangers associated with substandard products, emphasising that they can be life threatening.
Represented by Engr. Musa Bauchi, Chairman Sensitization Committee, the SON Chief Executive explained the dangers associated with food products, electrical/electronic products like bulbs, cables as well as civil/building materials like iron rods and sandcrete blocks in particular.
He warned the students to take maximum caution in ascertaining the quality of products before purchase and use, charging them to always guide others as well.
Aboloma enjoined the students to become quality vanguards by educating those around them on the imperatives of demanding for quality at all times.
During the interactive session, the students were excited to learn that SON also regulates the quality of textiles including their school uniforms.
Responding, the School Principal, Alhaji Rabiu Abba expressed gratitude on behalf of the students and staff of the School to SON Management for choosing the School as one of the beneficiaries of the sensitization program.
Alhaji Abba stated that the Special Education School was established in 1972 with a current enrollment of 1,517 mostly deaf students with a few having sight challenges.


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Cecafe: coffee producer based in peru
CECAFE: Coffee Producer based in Peru
CECAFE brings together 852 farmers in the Amazonas region of Peru, who believe that their coffee is a symbol of wellbeing. The co-operative produces high quality Fairtrade and organic beans, grown amidst rainforest and mountain ranges.
Established in 2006 by a group of 80 coffee producers
from Lonya Grande, the co-operative has grown tenfold,
expanding its geographical coverage to other provinces in the Amazonas and Cajamarca region, directed by Founder and General Manager Elmer Sánchez.
CECAFE has used Shared Interest finance for over ten years, to ensure that farmers from local communities can earn a sustainable income.
Image: Father and son Segundo Garcia (L) and Belver Garcia (R), coffee producers from the CECAFE cooperative in Lonya Grande, Peru.Invest today
COMBINING INTUITION AND INNOVATION
Elmer said: “The financial support provided by Shared Interest has allowed our co-operative to pay farmers on delivery of their coffee.”
This means that farmers like Segundo and Belver Garcia (pictured) can increase production, and have the income needed to manage their land effectively, working in harmony with their surroundings. As production increases, so does the amount of Fairtrade Premium paid to the co-operative. CECAFE has dedicated this additional sum of money to community projects promoting health and wellbeing for
farmers and their families.
A member of CECAFE for 15 years, Segundo said: “Feeling the trust that Shared Interest gives us is something that motivates us a lot; especially if it comes from people whom we have a lot of respect and admiration for.”
A decade ago, Segundo’s son Belver joined the co-operative with his wife Rosita and together they run their family-owned
farm, which has been passed down through generations.
The co-operative also works closely with farmers like the Garcia family, to share soil conservation methods such as
the application of coffee pulp as compost. In their dedication to protect and preserve the landscape, they have also
established a 40-year reforestation project.
Elmer said: “We have also launched projects to strengthen the women's committee, and supporting new technology that helps the sustainability of the industry.”
However, CECAFE has also faced challenges and Elmer explained what has affected the co-operative most: “The consequences of the pandemic had a direct effect on business performance, due to the loss of production.
Achieving positive economic results has been a challenge for the entire team, including producers, managers, collaborators
and our partners.
“On the other hand, coffee exporters in Peru have had to deal with the shortage of containers to send our product abroad.
This has delayed our deliveries; we have incurred increased costs, and even had to look for alternative ports.”
Responding to Climate Change
Shared Interest Head of Lending Paul Sablich said: “Weather cycles are changing and it can lead to severe disruption. An
example is the El Niño phenomenon, a cyclical event that increases the temperature of the Pacific Ocean.”
A few years ago, the northern coast of Peru was severely affected by landslides and flooding.
“Some producer organisations lost everything and we worked alongside them, recognising the uncertainty that they faced. It
was a hugely difficult time for farmers and it has taken years to recover. We want to support businesses, communities and
people through these times of adversity to reach their full potential. After all, this is the true spirit of fair trade. And it is
this way of working together which will help farmers face new challenges, especially those related to climate change.
“It represents an increasing threat to communities in the 49 countries we work across and the rich diversity of products
Protecting Plants and Producers
CECAFE is also working in partnership with our charity, Shared Interest Foundation, to protect their coffee plants against the
destruction of the borer beetle. One of the most harmful pests to coffee plantations, it can attack an entire yield of berries if
no control is applied. Due to the impact of climate change, the tiny insect is thriving in warmer temperatures, which poses
increasing challenges for Peruvian farmers.
Last spring, CECAFE began to produce the Beauveria Bassiana fungus in their onsite laboratory, using local native
strains. The fungus is mixed with water before being sprayed across coffee plantations. Over 100 farmers have now used
this natural method – referred to as Biological Control - to protect their plants.
CECAFE is also producing organic compost from natural waste products including coffee peel and animal manure. The
compost is sold to farmers at the affordable rate of £8 per 50kg bag, which can be purchased through a payment plan
with the co-operative.
A year ago, the commercial cost of a 50kg bag of compost was £15 but prices have since soared to £46 per bag due to
an increase in transport costs and inflation. Elmer told us that without this compost scheme, the majority of farmers would not be able to afford organic fertiliser. This would impact significantly upon their coffee production, sales and income.


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Ration Card update 2022
RATION CARD BIG UPDATES! The biggest problem
The department will issue a RATION
Under this system, if more than one of its designated beneficiaries reaches any ration distributor to obtain rations, such rationers will be given rations from the District Supply Division so that everyone can easily get rations.
RATION CARD UPDATES:
Great news for those with RATION CARD. Under the ‘ONE NATION ONE RATION CARD’ scheme, beneficiaries will now be able to pick up rations from the rationers of their choice. That is, you can now change the ration dealers to your liking.
The government issued a memorandum on this. This means that even if you are not a beneficiary, if you come with a ration card, you will not have to pay back. If the RATION receipt from other dealers comes to you to obtain the RATION, they will in any case be required to issue the RATION.
In fact, all the rationers of all districts have been instructed to do so. The problem with cardholders raising rations is that some ration dealers are so arbitrary. But now that the system has been reinstated, now beneficiaries have the option to stop taking rations from such distributors.
In fact, there are many times in the ration shop. In such a situation, if the beneficiary wishes to take the ration from a particular ration shop, then officially allowed.


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Folks looking to get a bit of Christmas shopping done while helping out Dance Images by BJ will have the perfect opportunity to do so over the next few days.
And if you’re searching for a fun night out filled with socialization at the beginning of the holiday season? Dance Images has you covered this Saturday evening.
The local dance studio is currently in the midst of their All That Glitters online auction and will be hosting their annual gala event of the same name on Saturday, Dec. 3 at Sahara Spa.
“It’s a big fundraiser for the studio and our troupe, for sure, and it supports local businesses, too, because everything is from businesses in the community,” said Barb Jackman with Dance Images by BJ. “It’s been going really well, so we’re happy to see that.”
The events are in support of the Dance Express troupe, which features the two oldest groups of performers at the studio, The high-level competitions they take part in all come with a cost, and All That Glitter aims to offset some of those expenses.
“It helps us make sure that no dancer is left behind because of their financial situation,” Jackman explained. “We pay for the bus, the hotels, the entry fee, and that enables all families to afford for their dancer to go.”
The online auction began last weekend and features a host of interesting and unique items. Folks can visit the All That Glitters Facebook page by clicking here, check out each item and place their bids in the comments. Winning bidders will be contacted for payment and pick-up options.
Anyone interested in checking out the auction items in person can do so by visiting Sahara Spa during regular business hours. The auction wraps up at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 4,
“It’s a lot of work to put it together, but it’s successful and we’re really happy with how it’s turned out,” Jackman said. “We’re really grateful for all the businesses that have donated items, it’s all profit for our troupe and it all really helps.”
That all leads into the All That Glitters gala event, which began a few years ago as a stand-alone fundraiser.
Tickets are $25 and cover the full evening of activities, including food catered by the Crushed Can, a host of vendors on site for shopping, Christmas carols and plenty of socialization.
“This is the first one we’ve had in three years and we’re really looking forward it,” Jackman said. “It’ll just be a really nice night out. All the mothers and daughters or grandmas and aunties can get a little bit dressed up and start the Christmas season with a nice evening bonding together.”
Only a handful of tickets are left for the All That Glitters evening, and they’re available by visiting the Dance Images by BJ studio at 177 Iroquois St. W, or by messaging (306) 681-0584.


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Whilst June flew by in a flash of bunting, cakes and picnics in the park, it didn’t fall short on delivering yet more weird and wonderful tech news stories for us to sink our teeth into. Here are a few of my personal favourites:
Giving tech the human touch
Having children sound like too much responsibility? According to Catriona Campbell, babies that exist in the metaverse will be indistinct from those in the real world in 50 years’ time. Parents will be able to subscribe to a digital child that resembles them physically but exists entirely in a digital realm. These ‘Tamagotchi babies’ will be able to interact with their parents and have minimal cost and environmental impact. Will make nappy changes less daunting too I imagine!
From turning real life into tech to turning tech into real life, scientists have developed an artificial skin that gives robots the ability to have a sense of touch. This will enable them to ‘feel’ objects, as well as sense specific chemicals such as explosives.
Speeding towards a tech-driven future
If we move into the transport sector, a new fleet of driverless taxis have been given the go-ahead in San Francisco. With top speeds of 30mph you may not get to your destination in record-breaking speed, but this is certainly a huge step towards autonomous vehicles becoming the norm.
From cars to planes, NASA is nearing the test flight of its first all-electric aeroplane, which is due to take place next month. Instead of being powered by aviation gasoline, aircrafts would run on lithium-ion batteries. If all goes to plan, this could mark the beginning of a greener, cleaner and quieter aviation industry.
Tech is also helping to treat people with life-changing injuries. Rehab centres all over the world are using computer games to aid in the recovery of serious illness. These games are designed to get patients to move instinctively by mimicking real-life scenarios, such as reaching for something in a kitchen cupboard.
This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to health tech news this month. A woman who was born with a birth defect became the first person in the world to receive a 3D-printed ear made from her own cells. Moving forward, scientists believe that 3D printing could be used to remedy other conditions involving cartilage for nose or knee injuries as examples.
A final farewell
And to conclude , I think it’s only right that we bid farewell to our dear old friend, Internet Explorer. It’s been a wild ride, and we wish you all the best in your retirement.
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It is estimated that there are between 3.2 and 37.8 million social media influencers. That’s millions of individuals relying on their personal brand to gain followers, secure brand deals and increase engagement on their relative platforms. Although many choose to turn their nose up at those who label themselves as ‘influencers’ and ‘content creators’, we can’t deny that those who are doing it right are reaping the rewards.
Logan Paul, for example, started making YouTube videos from the age of 10. His success on YouTube and Vine has since catapulted him into fame and he is now worth $35 million at the age of 26. Not too shabby for a few videos and a strong personal brand, right?
With the age of digitalisation upon us (any one fancy a virtual beer after work?), perhaps companies could learn a thing or two from those that have had such success with their online personal branding. Personal brand upkeep isn’t so dissimilar to maintaining a strong company brand after all; it’s about keeping up with trends, keeping content relevant, and appealing to your target audience.
It’s clear that there are many similarities between those individuals trying to monetise their online presence, and a company seeking to establish a strong online brand. Although technology has revolutionised marketing, companies must be aware of how they sell themselves online and what their messaging is truly saying.
Influencers have always seized the opportunity to glamourise their realities, editing photos and posts to make their lives seem perfect and unattainable. While these posts may be nice to look at, they can actually alienate your following into a sense of ‘me’ and ‘them’. If what you’re posting is entirely unrelatable, you can only really achieve a surface-level connection with your following.
Recently, we have seen an influx of influencers who are doing away with filters and photoshop, and instead portraying an honest representation of their lives, good and bad. These more genuine posts create instead a notion of ‘us’. Followers are able to relate to the posts, inspiring open discussions and driving engagement.
So, what can brands learn from this?
That honesty is the best policy. If a brand is not transparent, customers will be hesitant to take the risk that comes with giving the benefit of the doubt to an unfamiliar company. As much as aesthetic and image hold a great deal of importance, companies shouldn’t rely solely on looks to engage their customers.
As we transition into this digital future, it seems that companies could have a lot to learn from influencers and content creators. Companies and individuals alike must keep their brands focused, genuine and consistent – you need to know who your target audience is and how to appeal to them. So, why not hold a mirror up to your brand and see what it is you’re really saying? And if you’re falling short, it might be worth heading to the wonderful world of influencers for some creative inspiration!
With December on our doorsteps, Christmas fever is about to take over the nation. But before you dust off your baubles and start roasting your chestnuts, let’s have a look back at our favourite tech stories from November.
The month started off with fears of the chip shortage stealing the Grinch’s thunder this Christmas, leaving us with a distinct lack of electronic gifts sitting under the tree. As a result of the shortage, Nintendo warned the nation that they won’t be able to meet the demand for their popular Switch console after it was crowned the most successful game of all time.
Whilst games console production slows, advancements in electric cars accelerate. Envision Virgin Racing have released the first electric Formula race car able to go from 0-60mph in just 3.2 seconds. Apple is expecting to release a fully autonomous car as soon as 2025. With no need for pedals or a steering wheel, you’ll have plenty of room for all your new sustainably made clothes – all you have to do is scan the QR code on the label and you’ll be able to find out where the item was made and which materials were used.
Climate and sustainability continue to be hot topics in the news, with world leaders announcing a global plan to boost green tech. Whilst some of the industrialised nations are accused of dragging their feet on climate actions, for others, the sky is the limit – literally. Airbus’s solar-powered aircraft successfully delivered wireless internet from the stratosphere down to Arizona on its 18-day long flight.
To finish off, we have to talk about the new way of communicating with your dog. If your pooch is feeling lonely and fancies a quick chat, all it has to do is pick up its new ball containing a special device. This sends a signal is to your laptop and launches a video call. Just imagine delivering that important presentation and on pops Scruffy to tell you he’s eaten your favourite slippers!
That’s all for our November roundup. Want to receive a daily news roundup of the biggest tech stories? Sign up to our Firewire here.
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The Swiss hospitality industry is economically challenging years on the road to recovery, but not everywhere. In the year 2018, more guests and more Places has been registered, but less sales. This was said on Thursday in Bern at the annual media conference of Gastrosuisse, the industry Association for hotels and restaurants.
Due to the good economy and positive consumer sentiment have been in the restoration in the past year, against 10'000 new work (including part-time). Approximately one-third of the decline was since 2008, compensated.
The consumption of hotel and catering services has increased, 2018, the annual Per capita expenditure in the out-of-home consumption and sales per overnight stays are decreased.
The Inn out-of-home consumption in 2018 was, according to extrapolations to a total of 22,917 billion Swiss francs. In comparison to the previous year, this corresponds to a decrease of 702 million francs (- 3 percent). Despite the increasing number of guests in the restoration ( 2.4 percent) dropped out-of-home consumption.
New record in the accommodation
The lodging was recorded in 2018 with 38.8 million overnight Stays, a new record ( 3.8 percent). Revenues per overnight stays, however, been declining for years, and has also declined in 2018 (- 0.1 percent).
To the issues which concern the industry, is also one of the development of the operation. The differences between the regions are large. Especially low population municipalities recorded a decline. In the largest Swiss cities, however, the number of farms increased.
The industry is around 29'000 hotels and restaurants recorded a total of. The hospitality industry is one of the largest employers in the country. The industry is about 260'000 persons employment and against 8000 learners. Gastrosuisse is the largest catering industry employer Association, with nearly 20'000 Members, of which around 2500 Hotels. (fal/sda)
Created: 25.04.2019, 16:19 PM


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April was a busy month for the Nassau County District Attorney’s office and the state Department of Taxation and FinanceRead More »
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Windows Phone 8.1 will bring support for the Bluetooth LE (Low Energy) when it launches. But Windows Phone 8.1 won’t come until sometime next year, meanwhile Nokia is preparing to rollout support for Bluetooth LE with the upcoming Black Update for Lumia phones running Windows Phone 8.
Nokia Black Update will come with the Lumia 1520 phablet, launched last month at Nokia World it is expected soon. The firmware includes several improvements to the camera, new features to the glance screen and also include Bluetooth LE support.
If you are wondering what is Bluetooth LE standard, it allows small accessories like heart rate monitors, or accessories like Fitbit to constantly in Sync with the phone but do not drain the batteries of those accessories.
Bluetooth LE support for Lumia 520, 620, 625, and 720 is already pushed with the Amber update according to Nokia. With the Black update all other Lumia’s running Windows Phone 8. The update is expected to roll out before the end of the year or early next year.
Bluetooth LE allows you to connect your phone with special accessories like heart rate monitors. While doing that, thanks to Bluetooth LE connection, the accessory battery will last much longer, up to months.
It is already available for 520, 620, 625, and 720 with Amber. With Lumia Black software update, Bluetooth LE will be enabled across the full WP8 Lumia range.


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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3
Sponsored: The industry is facing a fork in the road, it has the chance to be on the right side of history by contributing to a sustainable, carbon-neutral future.
December 1, 2020 by Chris Cooper
Sponsored: Any green recovery plan requires a closer look at smart-city infrastructure investments. Part of this requires taking a closer look at raw materials, such as copper, in order for smart cities to reach their full potential while improving their environmental performance.
September 29, 2020 by Steve Kukoda
Sponsored: Sustainability was a critical component of the innovative technologies shared at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. Here are three takeaways.
January 20, 2020 by Surya Panditi


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The Pakistani Clothing brand ‘Rang Rasiya‘ has announced cancellation of Contract with actress Sana Javed after several models and make-up artists accused her of wrongdoing.
Actress Sana Javed, who rose to fame with her hit sequels ‘Pyare Afzal’, has been heavily criticized on social media by a slew of makeup artists, actresses and models over the past few days, revealing a shocking story about Sana’s Harassment and Cruel Treatment on set.
Models Manal Nadeem, Umair Waqar, Ikram Gohar, Ryan Thomas, Anila Murtaza, Wajid Khan, Hanish Qureshi, and many other entertainment figures has highlighted Sana Javed rude behaviour, saying the actor’s attitude towards them on set was “bad.”
Actress Sana Javed has also filed a complaint with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Cyber Crime, which has decided to take legal action against complainants after repeated allegations.
However, due to all the controversy, the Pakistani brand has now announced their split from Sana Javed. The brand has released an official statement announcing its departure from Sana Javed. The brand issued comments that it has distanced itself from Sana Javed, the brand’s homepage for its Eid campaign.
The announcement said it was in talks with model Sana Javed for the Eid advertising campaign. All these incidents are also impacting the brands. And that is the main reason for the breakup with Sana Javed.
“The Eid campaign was repeated with other celebrities. because we respect trust in society,” the circular added. The statement called on the fashion community to take heed of brands spending millions on photos like this. In addition to time and effort
It should be noted that a few days ago model Manal Saleem said without naming Sana Javed that she would no longer work with any actress. Because these actors see belittle Many makeup artists and Manal Saleem called the behavior of Sana Javed inappropriate.
Sana has been face of many Beauty and Clothing brands. She was recently spotted in Advertisement of Jazmin Online.


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Funko has spared no expense with their newest collection of Pop! figures. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the iconic film, Funko has announced that they will be releasing “Jurassic Park” Pop! series.
The new collection will be bringing not just your favorite characters, like Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ian Malcom, but also your favorite dinosaurs, like the Tyrannosaurus Rex and the Velociraptor.
Be sure to keep an eye out for exclusives like the wounded Dr. Malcom Pop! only at Target…
And the Nedry and Dilophosaurus 2-pack available only at Entertainment Earth.
The “Jurassic Park” Pop! collection will be available this February.


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Apple product launches have always been a huge deal and the iPhone 7 is no exception. Techies and regular consumers alike tune in to see what new features and innovations will be available to them next. When Apple products are finally released, people come out in droves to purchase the new products. More often than not, eager Apple enthusiasts line up overnight.
Rumors about the forthcoming iPhone 7 have been floating around the internet for months. What will it look like? How Read more [...]
While many people in Vancouver may be rejoicing at the idea of unseasonably hot weather, the residents of Northern Alberta and British Columbia are praying for rain.
While dozens of fires are burning along the Alberta/BC border, the city of Fort McMurray has been hit particularly hard.
In what is the biggest evacuation in Alberta history, over 80,000 people have been displaced since the fire in Fort McMurray began to rage uncontrollably as of Monday, May 2.
Unfortunately, the fire is Read more [...]
Our last blog post discussed the importance of using checklists to avoid making mistakes. These lists can be used for your personal life, but are especially important in the workplace and when posting online content.
The key to a successful checklist is to remember that not all checklists are created equal. Do not do any extra work to create your checklist or make them overly cumbersome. Keep your checklist short and to the point and if you have several big tasks, subdivide them into smaller Read more [...]
Checklists: mostly used as a reminder to get milk. Yet, one study found that surgical checklists were directly responsible for cutting deaths by 40%. Even the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that surgeons employ checklists when operating on a patient.
Checklists Work Because They Get the Dumb Stuff Out of The Way
A surgeon is responsible for the life and death of another human being and cannot afford to forget any steps or procedures. As complicated procedures are fraught with opportunities Read more [...]
With a population of around 84,000, the BC tech industry is now larger than the mining, forestry, and oil and gas industries combined (source) in the province. With tech booming, it’s no wonder when you consider that upgrading your internal technology is the best way to improve overall efficiency. Just imagine doing anything today without email or the internet? Many can since it’s only in the last 2 decades that the online world has become omnipresent. Given that time scale, what do you think Read more [...]


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Grand Theft Auto 6 development is underway at Rockstar, and dozens of new job listings for the company have recently gone live.
As noted by PCGamesN, 70 new Rockstar positions have been posted in the last 24 hours or so. In total, there are 227 open positions, with the jobs ranging everywhere from an associate designer responsible for “open-world events” to an associate dialogue designer to help create “ground-breaking interactive narratives.”
The job listings also include calls for animators, engineers, testers, and more. The jobs are across a number of Rockstar studios, including Rockstar New York, Rockstar North, Rockstar San Diego, Rockstar New England, and Rockstar India.


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In the Wake of His Wife’s Death, Adtech Founder Finds New Energy in Austin
After the death of his wife Rachel in February of 2020, Gabe Lozano took a couple of months to regroup until one day in July he decided to leave St. Louis with the hope of finding “the energy to participate again,” he said.
More than five months, 15,000 miles and 25 cities later, Lozano said he found that renewed sense of energy within the first couple hours of setting foot in Austin. Now, his adtech company is opening an office here.
“It is really hard to describe, other than I felt energetic,” he told Built In.
The next day, he bought a laptop and a keyboard and got to work. With a renewed sense of creativity and some new perspective, Lozano began to rethink the possibilities of his online advertising company.
Lozano founded Lockerdome in 2008 as a sports-oriented social media platform, but it evolved into an online advertising company that uses data to determine where it should embed its clients’ interactive advertisements. Lockerdome rebranded to Decide in February.
With a new name and a new vision, the remote company is now launching its first office space outside of St. Louis. The 18,000-square-foot St. Louis office is currently used by half of the company’s employees.
Decide will soon launch its Austin hub in a two-story, 4,000-square-foot building at 1408 E. 6th St. Seven of the company’s 80 employees now live in Austin, and Lozano said that number may rise in the near future.
Although the company is remote, Lozano said he would like a place for people to get together for social events and technical meetups on the first floor, where there is a bar, kitchen and “hangout space.” The second floor is reserved for people who want a productive space.
Lozano said he wants to create an environment that people will “opt in to,” similar to the way many remote professionals have opted to move to Austin.
“People have asked me if the Austin office is about accessing talent, but that’s not really why we have an office here,” he said. “I want people to feel what it’s like to be in a small city that is surging.”
Lately, Lozano has been thinking about ways that machines could help people make more-informed decisions. This inspired him and his team to improve upon their AI models by crowdsourcing from multiple AI models.
“Instead of a couple of people in the company building our AI models, we wanted to create a platform where a lot of people can contribute models that compete against each other at the same time,” he said. “Now we have our full applied [machine learning] team that is working on this product collectively.”
Lozano’s team can now build, train, test and deploy a new AI model in a few minutes, although more novel models may take days. By crowdsourcing from multiple models, Lozano said the technology is able to make smarter decisions.
“It is difficult to build end-to-end AI models that work in the real world without human oversight,” he said. “But when you crowdsource a bunch of different models and make them compatible with human knowledge, then the collective system begins to work really well.”
Lozano and his crew have since built what they called the Decision Marketplace, which is used to run a large portion of its ad platform. In the future, Lozano said he hopes to explore the potential of crowdsourced AI decision-making technology in other industries.
“Having a machine navigate the last mile from a predictive knowledge state to a real-world decision — that’s something that we’re very interested in, in any capacity,” he said.