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Ever considered consuming cannabis before you exercise? While it might seem counterintuitive, many people actually prepare for their workout with cannabis. It begs the question: what’s the connection between consuming cannabis and exercise? And why are more and more people making a routine of combining the two?
There are various reasons consumers have found marijuana and working out to be a worthy combination.
In fact, emerging research from the University of Colorado found that cannabis consumers “reported engaging in more minutes of aerobic and anaerobic exercise per week.” According to the study, consumers “who endorsed using cannabis shortly before/after exercise reported that doing so enhances their enjoyment of and recovery from exercise, and approximately half reported that it increases their motivation to exercise.”1
Whether you decide to consume cannabis before or after your workout is a matter of personal preference. It will depend on the effects you’re seeking and what you are trying to achieve. Mixing cannabis and exercise is different for everybody. Your routine will most likely take some fine-tuning, so be patient with yourself while you determine what is right for you.
Does cannabis help with weight loss?
Although it’s still early days, interesting findings have emerged connecting cannabis with reduced body weight. A 2013 adjusted epidemiological study found that “the prevalence of obesity […] is much lower in cannabis users compared to non-users.”2 Another study found that regular cannabis consumers had “16% lower fasting insulin levels […] and smaller waist circumferences” compared to those who did not consume.3
Terpenes – compounds that give strains their aromatic diversity – have also been found to affect appetite. In particular, Limonene, which has a sweet citrus odour and can be found within the peels of various citrus fruit, has been linked to a “decrease in food intake” in rats.4
Now before you ditch exercise and healthy eating for a steady diet of cannabis, it’s important to understand that the causality in these studies have yet to be determined. It’s unclear what role, if any, cannabis plays in reducing body weight; there simply isn’t enough data to draw any definitive conclusions.
The bottom line
Although the link between cannabis consumption and weight loss is still hazy, what we do know is that physical activity remains one of the most important ways of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Given that many people don’t exercise as much as they would like to, cannabis could play a role in how a person chooses to work out.
All this to say – if the stereotype that cannabis consumers are lazy is still prevalent, we hope this finally puts that misconception to rest!
Remember that doses will vary based on personal preference, and the same applies when pairing cannabis with exercise. It’s important to always “start low and go slow.” If you’re unsure what dose is right for you, please reference this Health Canada fact sheet for guidance.
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Wearable technology is no longer just for humans. Fitness trackers for dogs and cats like SUGA’s Petble, are becoming increasingly popular, especially among pet owners in Hong Kong.
Ava Lui, an owner of three cats, bought a Petble smart tag for each one. Siu Wong, her 7-year-old Exotic Shorthair is the heaviest, which is why Lui is watching what he eats.
“(My) cats are super picky when it comes to food. So when I change the type of food, I know how many calories they take in. Then I’ll know whether my cat is too fat or too skinny,” she said.
With all the data synced from the smart tag to an app on her phone, she’s able to track Siu Wong’s activity levels, food and water consumption, as well as his sleeping habits.
The Petble comes at a price of nearly 900 Hong Kong dollars (US$115). But for the 33-year-old IT specialist, spoiling her cats is worth it.
“I just always wish that they would never get sick, that they don’t ever get hurt. The less I take them to see vets the more time I can spend playing with them. That would be the best,” Lui said.
Once banned by Communist leader Mao Zedong as a bourgeois pastime, having a pet has now become a symbol of financial success in China, where according to Euromonitor consultant group the pet product sector—including health care—is expected to grow 5 percent annually to $1.2 billion in 2019.
And it’s because of China’s growing affluence that Hong Kong manufacturer SUGA has launched its own pet health care business, which includes products like Petble that hit the shelves last August.
“Back in the day, Chinese pet owners used to just feed their pets leftovers, now they’re more conscious about the pet’s health—they’re buying proper pet feed. We’ve noticed this change so we’re now producing goods aimed toward those very health conscious Chinese consumers,” said SUGA Chairman Ng Chi Ho.
Ng said there’s a huge demand for technology looking after the health of pets. They even have a smart bowl that measures the amount of food and its nutritional value. Currently they’re working on developing technology to detect and record pets’ emotional states.
The global market for wearable technology for pets is expected to reach US$2.5 billion by 2024, from an estimated US$1.0 billion at the end of 2016, according to Transparency Market Research.

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By Lita Shon-Roy, President / CEO, TECHCET and Bonnie Glick, Director, Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue
Passage of the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act should alleviate semiconductor chip shortages that have increased prices and reduced supplies of cars, medical devices, and consumer electronics. But it would be premature to declare victory. Russia’s war on Ukraine has squeezed the market for rare gases like helium and neon that are vital to semiconductor production – highlighting our continued vulnerability in an unstable world.
The CHIPS and Science Act will bolster U.S. semiconductor research, development, and production, making critical investments in domestic production of the building blocks of all modern technology. But the legislation does not solve the quandary of sourcing rare earth materials and gases from China, Russia, and other geopolitical rivals. There is a vital need for more financial support for materials producers. Without it, building a semiconductor gases and chemicals plant in the United States will be prohibitively expensive for most chemical manufacturers – forcing us to continue to rely on imports from unstable regions. Additionally, the aftermath of COVID-19 will continue to increase production uncertainty and risk of logistics interruptions, putting U.S. supply-chain imports at further risk.
Figure 1. Currently, Helium is on Allocation to Chip Fabs because of Inadequate Supply;
by 2026 Helium Supply will Run 24% Short of Demand without Russia
TECHCET and the Critical Materials Council have been actively tracing supply chain origins and disruptions emanating from Russia and elsewhere. The Russia-Ukraine disruptions are especially alarming since both countries are major global sources of semiconductor-grade rare gases. To put this into perspective, TECHCET estimates that 40-50% of the world’s semiconductor grade neon comes from Ukraine. Additionally, Russian state-owned Gazprom, one of the world’s largest natural gas and helium providers, ramped up production in response to global helium supply concerns following COVID-19. This put Russia on track to produce a third of the world’s helium. However, sanctions on Russia have made it much more difficult to obtain helium from Gazprom and other material suppliers.
Furthermore, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management is scheduled this month to dispose of the Federal Helium System, which will cause severe delays in the delivery of helium located in BLM stores. As a result, the helium supply in the U.S. barely outpaces demand, which has caused higher prices and longer lead times. As shown above in Figure 1, without Russia sources, TECHCET predicts a shortage in helium of approximately 1.5 Billion cubic feet (BCF) by 2026.
China presents its own complications. Due to tariffs on Chinese exports, the ongoing effects of the pandemic on global commerce, and sporadic price spiking, the flow of materials such as chemicals and metals from China has become irregular. In the past, Chinese material companies have unexpectedly lowered their prices in order to gain market share, while increasing prices for raw/starting material as illustrated with phosphate used for phosphoric acid in Figure 2 below. This practice, sometimes characterized as dumping, often damages the profitability and viability of competitor companies, causing chipmakers to be more dependent on materials from the Chinese market. Today, China is a leading supplier of raw materials needed for chip manufacturing.
Figure 2. Unstable Chinese Pricing on Phosphate Rock and Phosphoric Acid (H3PO4)
(Phosphor rock is a mineral used to make phosphoric acid.)
Asia also dominates the market for Ultra-High Purity (UHP) wet chemicals that are used to oxidize the silicon in semiconductor chips. Currently, all of the UHP purity sulfuric acid in the United States is imported from Asia– and many of the material supply chains in Asia are dependent upon raw materials from China. For all semiconductor grade wet chemicals, TECHCET estimates that there needs to be a 37-49% increase in supply over the next four years to meet projected needs for U.S. chip expansions. Without adding capacity to produce ultra-high purity chemicals, the U.S. will have to import 97% or more of the ultra-high purity chemicals needed for chip fabricators.
All of these challenges converge on a single point: the need for more local and dispersed production of these vital components of semiconductor production. When unexpected problems hit – such as war, pandemics, and trade complications – supply chains strain and cannot successfully keep up with required demand. This is especially problematic given that chip demand is only expected to keep growing in 2024-2025 and beyond.
Fortunately, there is an alternative to our reliance on problematic foreign sources. It starts with increasing materials production expansion efforts in the U.S., which must draw on support from the CHIPS and Science Act. By taking the right steps today, we can ensure that our domestic semiconductor industry continues to power innovation and economic growth for decades to come.
Lita Shon-Roy is President/CEO of TECHCET CA LLC, an advisory services firm expert in market analysis and business development of electronic markets and supply-chains for the semiconductor, display, solar/PV, and LED industries. Bonnie Glick is the director of the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue and former Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development.


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Are you a Galaxy Nexus user who wants Android 4.1 Jelly Bean but wasn’t able to attend Google I/O? You’re in luck. Rootz Wiki, a popular Android hacking website, has released a leaked ROM for Android 4.1, which works with the GSM Galaxy Nexus as well as the LTE version. While it was previously thought that LTE wouldn’t work with the leaked ROM, Rootz has confirmed that LTE will indeed work.
If you’re unaware, Jelly Bean is the latest version of Google’s Android operating system. Jelly Bean brings many new features to Android such as Google Now and a lightly revamped notification bar. Google announced Jelly Bean at yesterday’s Google I/O event where multiple new products were announced such as the Nexus Q and Nexus 7. As of now, only developers who attended Google I/O have official access to Jelly Bean.
What are the risks of installing this Jelly Bean leak? If you screw up, it’s your fault as this ROM comes without a warranty and will probably void your existing warranty. Most Nexus users who have attempted to install the ROM have reported success, so if you’re itching to try Jelly Bean a bit early, now’s your chance.


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All latest stories
The Commission adopted today guidelines to facilitate food donation in the EU, a key deliverable of the Circular Economy Action Plan. The aim is to clarify relevant EU legislation and help lift barriers to food donation.
The Council reached a political agreement on fishing opportunities in the Baltic Sea for 2018 and agreed with the Commission’s assessment that agricultural markets were in the process of recovering.
Today the Commission issued a set of guidelines on the application of EU food and consumer laws to dual quality products, as announced by President Juncker in this year's State of the Union speech.
Farmers, citizens and other interested parties are invited to share their views on the functioning of the food supply chain through an online consultation that runs until 17 November.
The Council discussed the latest developments in trade and the EU efforts to opening up new world markets and to promoting EU agricultural products.
The Council held an orientation debate on the legislative proposal for a new regulation on organic production and labelling of organic products.
MEPs advocate efforts to halve by 2030 food waste in the EU, by lifting existing restrictions on food donations and eliminating confusion about “best before” and “use by” labels.
The Council had an exchange of views on the Omnibus regulation, which proposes updates to legislation in several areas, including the common agricultural policy, and is part of the review of the multi-annual financial framework.
Plans to tighten up official food inspections, from farm to fork, were adopted by Parliament. The new rules, already informally agreed by MEPs and the Council, aims to improve food traceability, combat fraud and restore consumer trust in the integrity of the food chain.
Trade agreements can help increase sales and support jobs in the EU agri-food sector, a new study shows.
The European Commission today launched the first phase of the modernisation and simplification of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) with the opening of a three-month public consultation.
The Council was updated on the latest developments in the main agricultural markets and discussed the findings of the second report on the implementation of the so-called Milk package, as well as those of the EU Sheep meat forum.
The Council reached a political agreement on the fishing opportunities for deep sea stocks for 2017 and 2018. Ministers were briefed by the Commission on the results of the work of the agricultural markets task force and its final recommendations.
The global ocean economy is estimated at €1.3 trillion. Climate change, poverty and food security are some of the global challenges that can be effectively addressed, if oceans are better protected and sustainably managed.
The Commission has presented a proposal for a Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area - PRIMA. The first partnership of its kind in the Mediterranean basin aims to develop much-needed novel solutions for sustainable water management and food production.


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I’ve always wanted my own domain name for a blog and now I have one. From now on new posts will be at http://dualsub.com
I don’t even know where to begin when it comes to Michael Dell and Dell computers. I will admit that I have a deep hatred for all things Dell and it was owning a Dell computer that turned me to building my own computers. I hate Dell. There.
Mike Dell, the same Mike Dell who in 1997 famously said in answer to a question from C|Net about what he would do if he were running Apple:
“What would I do? I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders,” Michael Dell said before a crowd of several thousand IT executives.
That Mike Dell. He’s at it again when it comes to taking swipes at Apple. He had this to say to the Wall Street Journal:
Not tomorrow. Not the next day. But again, if you look at 18 months ago, Android phones were like, “What is that?” And now there are more Android phones than iPhones. I don’t see any reason why the same won’t occur with Android tablets.
Now, you know, it’s not the thought behind his quote that I take issue with, it’s the idea that Michael Dell said it. Nothing that Dell has done with Android has been worth a mention. Their past Android based devices haven’t been received very well and their upcoming 10″ model doesn’t give me the tingles either.
Dell has been shipping what to me are shit computers, laptops and now tablets for a really long time, but that isn’t stopping Michael Dell from stating that Android devices will out ship iPads soon-ish. He’s likely right, based on the number of devices that are or will soon be available Android tablets will likely out ship iPads in the not-so-distant future. You’re just not going to find Dell tablets anywhere near the top of the Android sales leader chart.
Mike, leave the trash talking to the CEO’s of companies that are actually in the game.
If this deal happens it simply must be a purchase and not a contract. Google cannot have what would be one of the featured Android services controlled by a third-party and by nature available for sale to someone else.
At the time of the buyout by Apple, LaLa provided the featured content for the failed Google Music OneBox product. It really isn’t much of a leap to assume that one of the things that made LaLa attractive to Apple was scuttling this Google service. Google Music OneBox was growing in popularity and assumptions were made that Google wanted LaLa for themselves if they could work out a deal that allowed LaLa’s licenses with the labels to survive a buyout. Apple had no interest in LaLa’s licensing deals as they never intended to maintain LaLa’s business as a separate product.
Now, back to Spotify for a minute. Let’s say that Google announces their cloud music strategy and the logo says “powered by Spotify” down in the corner. Would it not make total sense for Apple or Amazon to call the Spotify people up and offer more billions than can be declined to buy Spotify out and shut it down?
Spotify would have a contract with Google but either Apple or Amazon would see the cost to buy Spotify and settle a breach of contract claim from Google as money well spent if it totally derailed Google music.
I’m aware that a buyout of Spotify would hinge on the deals that are signed with the labels. If a sale voids the licenses that Spotify has to stream music then a buyout won’t happen. Then again, if a buyout voids the licenses that Spotify holds to stream music this would only increase the danger of another company like Amazon, Apple or even Microsoft strolling in and cutting a deal to buy Spotify.
Given that Google was very close to a $1 billion deal last year it is reasonable to assume that those licenses would survive a buyout. Google doesn’t need Spotify’s streaming media technology, they could easily create their own storage and streaming solution.
This cannot be a handshake deal with Spotify, there are too many big name, deep pocket companies that would love nothing more than to stab Google in the chest on Google Music launch day. Google must own whatever technology is used to power Google cloud music.
You either have or will soon see the story of the Lenovo Android Honeycomb tablet leak on all of the various Android news blogs. The stories are all based on this article at thisismynext.com. It looks like a very interesting tablet, but that’s not what this is about.
Last week I wrote this post at androidheadlines.com making the case for Amazon branded tablets and in it I speculated about the tablets having Netflix style streaming video from the new Amazon Prime Instant Video service.
Returning for just a moment to the Lenovo story, I found this image in their story about that tablet:
See that little highlighted area there? It says “Amazon Media – Movies/TV (US Only)”, which is not currently a service provided by Amazon for Android. I doubt that any of the news stories that you read about this Lenovo tablet will say much if anything at all about this reveal, but it is further evidence in support of my theory that Amazon branded Android tablets are coming.
There are rumors making the rounds that Google is once again trying to acquire Spotify to power its online music product. I can’t even keep count of the number of times Google has been rumored to be chasing after Spotify, is this the third time?
It almost did happen last year with a rumored purchase price of $1 billion but infighting at Google killed the deal. It seemed that there were multiple groups inside the plex that each wanted to control the product and put their own spin on the outcome.
The current version of this rumor has Google wanting to either buy Spotify or enter into an agreement for Spotify to power the Google Music service. Partnering with Spotify is not the answer here. Google either needs to buy Spotify or choke it down with the music labels.
Amazon’s Cloud Player is available right now. Apple’s cloud music product is coming very, very soon. Time is up and Google needs to have an actual plan for a real release for the product that the announced and showed at Google I/O last year.
Source: Business Insider
It may have taken Apple three years to invent copy/paste but did they ever invent it well. The Android implementation of this Apple invention had always been a real letdown for me, until I got my Thunderbolt.
Thank you HTC for implementing a clean, functional copy/paste function. It seems so simple, but the HTC implementation on Froyo is far better than than the AOSP implementation in Gingerbread.
Posted from WordPress for Android
I was asked over the weekend “if you could have one iPhone feature ported over to Android what would it be?”. At the very least it is a thought provoking question. Would it be Air Play? Facetime? What about the iTunes Music Store? Or maybe the volume of “quality” apps? Nope, wasn’t any of those. I could have just as easily bought an iPhone if I had wanted those things.
If I could have one feature ported from the iPhone to Android it would be to have all OS updates pushed from Google. I’m not talking about carrier crapware updates or updates to Sense or Blur, those could still be pushed from the carrier outside of the OS update and could be uninstalled by the user without root access. I’m talking about core OS updates and upgrades that fix bugs or exploits that device manufacturers and carriers seem to enjoy ignoring. How would you like to get Gingerbread pushed to your phone straight from Google without delay? It works for the Nexus, why not my Thunderbolt?


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Mobile patents war shifts to email
Major IP landgrab
Analysis In the enterprise technology world, we increasingly see large vendors donating at least a token sample of key patents to the open source process for free in order to accelerate uptake of their favored platforms. The same trend will undoubtedly come to mobile communications eventually, driven by the increasing interest in Linux, Java and other open or semi-open systems.
However, for now ownership of intellectual property remains critical to the balance of power among the vendors, and an increasingly important focus of the battles between them. When margins are falling on equipment and competition is rising, a strong patent store not only provides a very high margin revenue stream, but also a barrier to entry for would-be challengers with no such patents.
Thus the emphasis on royalty issues is intensifying as mobile vendors come under pressure, and is particularly marked in Europe, the region that has generated the greatest wealth from cellular services, and stands to lose the most to competition from the US and Asia. This was seen when a group of vendors, including European giants Nokia and Ericsson, grouped together to accuse Qualcomm, the most successful exploiter of mobile intellectual property, of anticompetitive practises, and to petition the European Union for support.
Then, last week, the major European operators joined the battle, with a group of cellcos, led by Vodafone, T-Mobile and Telefónica, calling on the European Commission to protect them and their customers from huge royalty bills.
They demanded an overhaul of how ETSI, the European standards maker, agrees standards, to avoid intellectual property traps where companies contribute technology to a standard and then later reveal patents and claw back huge royalties. This is a looming issue for broadband wireless, with nobody certain whether, and how, companies like Samsung may seek to derive revenue from their patents in emerging technologies like WiMAX and fast Wi-Fi.
According to a document leaked to the Financial Times, Vodafone and its allies suggest that IPR terms should be agreed before a standard is even set, and state: “Cumulative patent royalties or ‘patent stacking’ can raise the licence burden to an extent unbearable to our industry. IPR licence fees have become a commercial issue that is limiting the industry’s ability to continue to drive down costs. The issue has the potential to limit competition through direct and indirect impact on pricing.” The operators are acting against a backdrop of various battles – not just the Qualcomm battle but also the recent debacle of the Open Mobile Alliance’s standard for digital rights management, which produced an unexpectedly large license fee.#
Royalties in the handset cost
Mobile handset makers get hit with patent payments for processor technology, radio modulation schemes, codecs, storage designs, interfaces, development kits, Java, DRM and many others, all in a device that is made for between $100 and $400, and that needs to get far cheaper for poor nations. For handset makers like Nokia, with significant patent holdings, the figure is considerably less, and they also have a revenue stream to compensate for some of the pressure on phone margins. At some point, the giants will be unable to make the margins they require from basic handsets, no matter how efficient their supply chains and cost structures, but they will still be able to collect revenue on every phone sold by their low cost rivals from China and elsewhere.
In complex 3G, royalties are a greater slice of the cost of production than in earlier technologies, giving Nokia and other patent owners an even greater cost advantage – estimated at around 15% over rivals with no patents of their own. That could give Nokia a $30 buffer on a $250 handset, which can be used to maintain its margins or cut its prices to gain market share. This factor alone prompted Paul Sagawa of Sanford Bernstein recently to recommend buying Nokia shares, since most analysts have misunderstood the value of the intellectual property and the barriers it creates for challengers.
He estimates that patent holders – mainly Nokia, Ericsson and Qualcomm in W-CDMA – will trade rights and so will end up with a total royalty bill of 7% of costs or less. By contrast, a nonpatent holder could pay 25% of the wholesale price in GSM and W-CDMA royalties.
However, the royalty payments that are incurred are passed on to the operator in terms of higher overall handset costs. In addition, cellcos are frustrated because they want to buy more of their devices from second tier phonemakers, which tend to be more amenable to making heavily operator-defined models, but which, without the benefit of patents to trade, are less able to be flexible in their pricing than their larger competitors.
The group of operators wants to see ETSI rules on intellectual property rights tightened up or they say Europe risks losing the benefits of standardization. They suggest that intellectual property terms must be agreed before a standard is set, rather than after it, and want to see caps on maximum royalties, something that Nokia has made a lot of noise about, and has been rebuffed by Qualcomm. The proposal is also apparently being backed by Alcatel, Hutchison Europe, Orange, Portugal Telecom, RIM, SFR, Swisscom, TDC, Telecom Italia, Telenor and TeliaSonera.
Battle for mobile email
Behind all these debates over the principles of royalties, there is a major landgrab going on for patents in areas that are seen as critical to revenue growth in mobile systems. Vendors are seeking intellectual property not just to generate new revenues but to disadvantage their rivals as they race after new and lucrative markets. Most prominent among these is currently mobile push email, and beyond that, cellphone-based integrated messaging incorporating email, voicemail, instant messaging, presence capabilities, SMS and future techniques like videomail, under a single telephone directory and user interface.
This is seen as a major driver of mobile data revenues in both the enterprise and consumer markets and is being hotly chased by the handset majors and by the companies that are extending integrated messaging strategies from other platforms such as the internet PC. Microsoft, in both its Windows Mobile and MSN guises; the internet players Google, Yahoo! and AOL; Nokia with its quest for the mobile enterprise space; Qualcomm seeking to make its CDMA platform more attractive to operators; and the specialist RIM are all fighting for the sector from different angles (see Wireless Watch November 21st issue). One key element of their battle, and one that highlights the more general issues surrounding patents in the mobile world, revolves around intellectual property.
So, earlier this month we saw Nokia acquiring Intellisync for its push email technology. There were some obvious motivators – allowing the Finnish giant to sideline RIM and control its own platform in this crucial market being the key one. Since Intellisync is mainly implemented by carriers, with Verizon Wireless its largest customer, it also gave Nokia a welcome foothold in its weakest base, the CDMA operators, which could drive future sales of high end CDMA handsets. But as an added bonus, and helping to justify the $430m purchase price, Nokia not only gains Intellisync’s store of 60 patents to add to its existing hoard in this market, but also wins control of the platform on which archenemy Qualcomm has built its own mobile email offering, Eudora2Go. Nokia could potentially force its rival to re-engineer Eudora2Go around a different technology, losing it valuable time to market, or charge it high fees for licensing.
The patent holders
But there are other patents in this area that are up for grabs. Of course, there is the long running saga of RIM’s battle with patent hoarder NTP over some core push email intellectual property. RIM claims it has devised a workaround, and if it has, this would certainly boost its value and potentially, the likelihood that a larger company will acquire it as it sees its huge market share start to dwindle. RIM has leveraged its own patents to try to keep other minor players out of the space it pioneered, and its IP remains attractive if it can be freed of legal burdens.
Then there is Wireless Science, the intellectual property sister company to mobile content specialist Wireless2Web. This company claims to have 1,600 patents or pending patents, including the LinkPush user-controlled content mechanism, and has indicated that it is keen to gain an acquirer or exclusive licensee for them. It works in areas including push email, mobile multimedia, voice-email integration, music download and others.
Microsoft could be on the look-out for acquisitions in this area, although it is relying on its own market weight rather than patents to spread its integrated communications platforms, including its new DirectPush email function – now the basis of future offerings from the other surviving major independent alongside RIM, Palm. The giant has no significant patents in this market, but does, of course, license its Windows Mobile Media Audio and Video technologies to third parties, such as Qualcomm and various phonemakers, which use these partly to underpin multimedia messaging and other data services.
If Wireless Science’s patents are as valuable as the company claims, they could be a good purchase for a handset maker, providing a headstart in an increasingly pivotal and competitive market and a way to keep other rivals out. All of which shows that patents are becoming more, not less, important to the way that vendors compete in the mobile market, and that the royalties issue will not be easily solved. Rather than relying too heavily on the slow processes of the European Commission and standards bodies, the cellcos may do better to emulate Japan’s NTT DoCoMo and Korea’s SKT and acquire some IP of their own, so that they too have something to trade with the increasingly royalty- dependent equipment makers.
Copyright © 2005, Wireless Watch
Wireless Watch is published by Rethink Research, a London-based IT publishing and consulting firm. This weekly newsletter delivers in-depth analysis and market research of mobile and wireless for business. Subscription details are here.


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BURLINGAME, Calif., Nov. 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Halo Labs, a life science instrumentation company developing tools for biologics researchers, announced today that Rick Gordon has been named Chief Executive Officer. He will assume day-to-day leadership of the Company and will also serve as a member of the Board of Directors.
Mr. Gordon has 20 years of experience in the life science tools market and has held senior positions at ForteBio, Phasefocus, and Unchained Labs. Most recently, he served as the Vice President of Global Sales for Halo labs where he oversaw both sales and customer support. He lead the commercial launch of their popular Horizon® and AuraTM instruments, built a global sales and distribution network, and expanded Halo Labs’ customer base to include virtually every major global biopharmaceutical company.
“Rick has a proven track record and is the right leader for Halo Labs,” said Dr. Joe Keegan, Executive Chairman of Halo Labs. “He understands our customers and with Rick’s strategic vision, the company is in a great position to execute on the market opportunities ahead.”
“Halo Labs is one of the most innovative companies in our industry and I’m excited about our future,” said Rick Gordon. “Thanks to the efforts of our team, our products have reduced therapeutic development timelines and have revolutionized stability testing across the industry. The Horizon and Aura systems have become the standard for high-throughput, low-volume particle analysis, and they are now considered the technology of choice in cell and gene therapy.”
About Halo Labs
Halo Labs in Burlingame, CA, is a venture-backed scientific instrumentation and consumable company that commercializes high throughput biopharmaceutical formulation and quality control tools for subvisible particle analysis using state-of-the-art custom optics and image processing techniques. Researchers around the globe depend on Halo Labs for unprecedented insights into aggregates and subvisible particles present in their drug products via optical imaging on membranes. Halo Labs has been the recipient of many prestigious awards and research grants from agencies including DARPA, FDA, NSF, NIST, and NIH. For more information, visit www.halolabs.com.
Aura, Aura BMI, and Aura CL are trademarks of Halo Labs in the United States. All rights reserved.


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Opening today and part of a major expansion of the hospital, the Discovery Zone, located in full view as soon as families walk into the new, majestic 5-story atrium, is comprised of a 50-ft.-wide by nine-ft.-high NEC digital video wall where up to 30 kids, teens and adults can interact at one time. Magical creatures and blooming plants appear on the digital canvas. Using Microsoft Kinect2 technology, the Discovery Zone lets kids interact with these objects and expand their imaginations.
“We are so looking forward to watching kids and families play in the Discovery Zone,” said Dr. Neil Izenberg, Chief Executive of Nemours Center for Children’s Health Media. “We know this experience is going to be transformative for many children, their siblings and parents.”
The Discovery Zone was designed by Kinesis Studio of San Francisco, which creates large scale gestural technology experiences frequently deployed as entertainment and therapeutic stations in children’s hospitals. Feedback from Nemours educators, nurses, doctors, therapists, kids and others helped bring the digital canvas to life.
“The Discovery Zone is a marriage of gesture technology, animation and creative story-telling, the biggest install of its kind in a hospital,” said Greg Richey, Kinesis CEO. “We wanted displays capable of delivering brilliant imagery, and NEC Display fulfilled that promise.”
The X464UN direct LED-backlight LCD displays deliver improved brightness uniformity, reduced power consumption and mercury-free components.
The UN displays also have a bezel gap of just 5.7mm. With DisplayPort 1.2 multi-streaming, they are capable of delivering ultra-high definition resolutions across the entire canvas of displays.
“We are delighted to be a part of such a worthwhile initiative, especially one that will bring joy to children during their hospital stays,” said Ashley Flaska, Vice President of Marketing for NEC Display. “This combination of video wall and gesture technology expands all our imaginations, and underscores the commitment that Nemours and Kinesis Studio have made to creating something spectacular.”
Nemours is an internationally recognized children's health system that owns and operates Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Delaware and Nemours Children's Hospital in Orlando, Fla., along with major pediatric specialty clinics in Delaware, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
About NEC Display Solutions of America, Inc.
Headquartered in Itasca, Ill., NEC Display Solutions of America, Inc., is a leading designer and provider of innovative desktop LCD monitors, commercial- and professional-grade large-screen LCD displays, a diverse line of multimedia and digital cinema projectors, and integrated display solutions. NEC Display Solutions develops leading-edge visual technology and customer-focused solutions for a wide variety of markets, including enterprise, healthcare, education and digital signage. For additional information about NEC Display Solutions of America products, call (866) NEC-MORE, or visit the website at www.sharpnecdisplays.us. For digital images, please visit https://www.sharpnecdisplays.us/digital-media-library. Follow us on our social media channels: Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn.
VUKUNET, from NEC Display Solutions of America, is the engine that powers the digital out-of-home advertising business. VUKUNET is the only universal ad serving platform that drives ads to any digital out-of-home network, regardless of content management system. VUKUNET makes the buying, flighting and reporting of digital out-of-home ad campaigns easy. For additional information about VUKUNET, visit www.vukunet.com, or call (877) 805-VUKU. For VUKUNET logos and digital images, please visit http://www.vukunet.com/pressresources.aspx.


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Target Opposes Certification Of Financial Institutions Class In Data Breach Suit
Mealey's (August 10, 2015, 2:14 PM EDT) -- MINNEAPOLIS — In an Aug. 5 memorandum in Minnesota federal court, Target Corp. opposed a motion for class certification by a group of banks and financial institutions (FIs) related to 2013 breaches of the retailer’s network, stating that the FI plaintiffs “fall short of virtually every requirement to certify a class” (In re: Target Corporation Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, No. 0:14-md-02522, D. Minn.).
(Memorandum opposing class certification available. Document #97-150827-022B.)
In April 2014, more than 80 proposed class action lawsuits against Target were...


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“We’re pleased to partner with Beijing Vision Strategy Technology,” said Darin McKinnis, CEI’s vice president of marketing and sales. “Their understanding of the local market and strong technological expertise will serve us well as we continue to build our presence in China.”
Beijing Vision Strategy Technology provides solutions for computer-aided engineering (CAE), virtual reality, and high-performance computing, and is a leading distributor of top CFD applications. Among its recent achievements, the company recently implemented China’s largest and most sophisticated virtual reality system.
“We are really excited to have the honor of distributing CEI’s products in China,” said Jack Zheng, president and CEO of Beijing Vision Strategy Technology. CEI’s pioneering products are ideal for our CAE customers, and we see this as a true win-win partnership.”
CEI (www.ensight.com) offers a complete suite of engineering and scientific visualization tools, from meshing to plotting to animation, on all major operating systems. The company’s products can be run on everything from laptops to workstations, clusters and supercomputers, with animations displayed in stereo and in immersive VR. CEI has corporate headquarters in Apex, N.C., and authorized distributors around the world.


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The Microsoft Company is moving ahead with plans to launch the Xbox Series X in November, the company confirmed its commitment to a November launch on Tuesday at almost an equivalent time a tweet from 343 Industries confirmed that Halo Infinite wouldn’t be releasing alongside the console.
Instead, the subsequent chapter within the Halo series will arrive sometime in 2021.
The decision to shift our release is that the results of multiple factors that have contributed to development challenges, including the continued COVID-related impacts affecting us all this year, » the statement reads.
It isn’t sustainable for the well-being of our team or the general success of our game to ship it this holiday.
A handout from Microsoft that went out at almost an equivalent time that the Halo news surfaced emphasizes the upcoming console’s support for « thousands of games spanning four generations.
And that is true, The new Xbox features backward compatibility together with your Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One games library.
There’s also the upcoming slate of fall 2020 releases, which incorporates Assassin’s Creed and Watch Dogs games from Ubisoft and therefore the new, as-yet-unannounced Call of Duty game. So it isn’t just like the Series X will just sit under your TV until Infinite arrives.


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(Bloomberg)—Pacaso, a startup that offers shared ownership of residential properties, has raised $75 million in new capital at a valuation of $1 billion -- just six months since its launch.
The San Francisco-based company, founded by Zillow Group Inc. co-founder Spencer Rascoff and Dotloop founder Austin Allison in October, said it reached so-called unicorn status faster than any other U.S. company.
“Second-home ownership was already a dream for families pre-pandemic, but that interest has only amplified with Covid-19 shifting the way people work and live,” Allison, Pacaso’s CEO, said in an interview.
The company acquires homes then sells shares in the properties, with a minimum investment of a one-eighth slice of the residence. Owners get to stay in the home for a set number of weeks depending on the size of their ownership, and Pacaso ensures their belongings are switched out upon arrival and departure.
Pacaso’s funding round was led by Greycroft Partners and Global Founders Capital, with participation from Acrew Diversify Capital Fund, First American Financial Corp. and Shea Ventures. Angel investors taking part include Amy Weaver, president and CFO of Salesforce.com Inc.; Jeff Wilke, former CEO of Amazon Worldwide Consumer; Elie Seidman, former Tinder CEO; and Dollar Shave Club founder Michael Dubin.
“Pacaso is creating a new category that will dramatically change how people approach buying and owning a second home,” said Greycroft partner Dana Settle, who’s joining the company’s board as an observer, in an emailed statement.
The company works with local real estate agents and holds a brokerage license in more than 12 locations including Lake Tahoe, Napa and Palm Springs in California; and Park City, Utah. It has about 50 listings, including a one-eighth share in a house in Malibu, California, listed for $812,000. The site also lists properties that aren’t actively for sale but where owners may be willing to transact.
While the majority of its shares range from $250,000 to $1 million, Pacaso plans to add inventory at lower price points. Allison said he expects the bulk of shares to cost $100,000 to $400,000 within 12 months.
The startup, inspired by the artist Pablo Picasso and named in part so owners can claim to own a “Pacaso,” offers financing, interior-design and property-management services. Pacaso earns a 12% service fee on the sale of a share, and an ongoing monthly asset-management fee.
Pacaso separately obtained $1 billion in debt financing, Allison said, declining to name the lenders. About 60,000 potential buyers have contacted the company on its website, and more than 100 families have purchased a share. The firm is “years ahead” of where he expected it to be by this point, he said.
The new funds will be used to expand into states including Florida and the Carolinas, as well as into the U.S. Northeast, said Allison. International expansion is also planned.
© 2021 Bloomberg L.P.


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Tapping data from Facebook, Pinterest, and its own network of social influencers, Ahalogy launches Muse, category trend software that tracks conversations and uncovers emerging consumer trends. Marketers will gain key insights to drive daily content decisions and guide future campaign strategy.
From the release: “Ahalogy Muse was born out of the company’s years of work in helping marketers use data to optimize social media campaigns. “We continued to see that the top driver of performance was creating content that matches the timing and volume of what topics people are interested in,” said Ahalogy Co-Founder and CEO, Bob Gilbreath.
Link Business Wire
Visit Ahalogy on CabinetM.


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Jewelers are getting in on bitcoin, but what is this all about?
Why do jewellers like us keep selling London jewelers
Jewelers have been trying to capitalize on bitcoin’s success by opening stores and buying bitcoin to sell them online.However, a couple of weeks ago, it was reported that a couple in the Chicago area were selling their jewelry for about $10,000, or about 2 percent of their entire market value.In some cases, they were selling […]
How to buy a new book without the help of a bookseller
LONDON – The jewelers of London’s jeweler’s district are being left to fend for themselves against a resurgent local black market.In the capital, there are more than 50 shops, with many shuttered, with more still on the brink of closure, and the local black-market ringgit has tripled.“We are at the end of our tether.We are […]
The Crescent Jewelers of the Emerald City is closing its doors
The internet is a fantastic tool for finding the best of the best, but it also makes finding the perfect book even more important.We have to trust that the author’s voice and the book’s title is what you’re looking for, even if it’s just for the book.Book sellers can help you find the best books […]
The Crescent Jewellers of Seattle has closed its doors after 35 years in business.Owner and owner-operator Harold Harkins, a man who has owned the shop for almost 40 years, was fired on Tuesday.He was a key part of the local jewelry scene, and has long been known for his love of crescent and amethyst.In 2018, […]


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Apple Pay to reportedly land in UK by summer
A report on Saturday claims Apple is finalizing plans to launch Apple Pay in the UK later this summer, which would mark the in-house payments service's first international offering since rolling out in the U.S. last October.
Sources familiar with the matter told The Telegraph Apple intends to announce upcoming UK Apple Pay availability at the Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, with an official start of services to follow in about two months.
According to the publication, contactless spending in the UK jumped to 2.3 billion pounds (about $3.51 billion) last year despite a generally uninterested consumer base. Conflicts within the finance and mobile industries have resulted in disjointed platform offerings, but with a 40-percent share of all UK smartphone sales, the Apple Pay-enabled iPhone could be catalyst for change.
Importantly, many UK retailers field point-of-sale terminals equipped with NFC transceivers capable of communicating with iPhone and Apple Watch. Infrastructure was an issue when the service debuted in the U.S., as a good portion of merchants were in the process of rolling out compatible POS hardware.
Some companies in the UK — and beyond — are already accepting Apple Pay in an unofficial capacity. For example, overground train and Tube operator Transport of London is processing Apple Pay transactions for American tourists through existing Oyster smart card gateways.
Although Apple has yet to provide a detailed timeline, it's a foregone conclusion that Apple Pay services will be extended beyond U.S. borders. Initial evidence came last December in the form of job listings calling for interns to help with a rollout in the EMEIA region. Subsequent reports specific to the UK suggested Apple Pay would launch in early 2015.


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(EDITORIAL) CloudApp is simple yet powerful for any sized business, keeping your productivity at an all-time high.
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Anti-IR35 campaigner the Professional Contractors Group is going head-to-head with the Inland Revenue in an effort to have the legislation repealed.
Gerald Barling QC, representing the PCG, told the court: ‘The IR35 legislation is as misconceived as it is wide-ranging.’
He said the measure is likely to adversely affect tens of thousands of genuine small businesses – precisely the kind of businesses which successive governments have purported to encourage.
The regulations will create ‘enormous uncertainty’ as to the status of each and every contract entered in to. It would load companies with an additional and unfair tax burden not imposed on their competitors, undermine their ability to compete and impede continuation or commencement of businesses in the UK, he said.
Barling added IR35 deprives ‘owners of such companies of the fruits of their work in building their businesses’.
He claimed it was legislation which could not lawfully be applied in that it constituted unapproved state aid for some larger companies, infringed European regulations relating to free movement of workers and breached the European Convention on Human Rights.
The hearing, which is expected to last three days, continues. Judgement is then expected to be reserved.
Crowe Clark Whitehill , the top 20 accountancy firm, has announced the promotion of Chris Mould to partner
The latest opinions from Accountancy Age on Making Tax Digital, and outline plans to evolve the UK's corporate governance regime
Five million taxpayers are ow using digital personal tax accounts (PTA) as part of the making tax digital strategy, HMRC said
UK-based non-doms have paid ten times more tax than the average taxpayer, raising concerns over the Brexit impact on non-dom contributions and therefore, the economy


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Almost a quarter of top brands use online video advertising
By analyzing data from their Online Video Measurement service, Kantar Media found that almost a quarter of top brands now include online video advertising as part of their overall marketing strategy.
Of the more than 4,100 brands that advertised through national television and online video sites in October this year, almost a quarter (23%) used online video, reveals Kantar Media. Of those, 11% used online video exclusively.
However, the vast majority (77%) continue to advertise on national television exclusively while 12% use a mixture of online video and television advertising.
Restaurants and automotive brands were found to be the most likely to use both channels, found Kantar Media, at 43% and 30% of brands respectively.
Internet communications and content companies, as well as resort and travel companies, were the most likely to use online video advertising exclusively, at 39% and 28% respectively.
"Consumer interest in online video is surging, but to date companies have had little insight into how this important channel is being used for marketing and advertising campaigns," says George Carens, President of Kantar Media Intelligence North America. "Our new service enables detailed tracking of information for the ads playing within online videos, providing a glimpse for the first time into the dynamics that are making online video one of the fastest growing digital advertising segments."
comScore's recent video viewing figures show that, in September this year, more video content was viewed online than ever before. Internet users watched over 39 billion online content videos during the month of September, cruising past the record of 27 billion in August, 2012.
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Online food delivery service Deliveroo says it now has more than 1,000 partner restaurants through its Marketplace+ service that allows restaurants to expand their delivery service by combining their own rider fleet with Deliveroo’s rider network.
Food delivery service Uber Eats is changing its contracts with restaurants following an investigation by the competition regulator, the ACCC.
Online giant Amazon is leading a new US$575 million Series G preferred shared funding round in food delivery service Deliveroo, as the company embarks on further expansion of its services worldwide.
Hi Peter, I made a video summarizing my CyberCon experience. Hope you'd check it out: https://youtu.be/mTdeBx0I7do
The USA seems to be having more of its friends suggest to it that using security issues as an excuse[…]
"“We have concerns that NBN Co’s wholesale pricing has resulted in unfair outcomes for those consumers who have no need[…]
Pleased to see that NBN Co is going to co-operate with the ACCC.Do they have a choice?If there is a[…]
Interpretation - The telco sector in Japan is continuing to grow satisfactorily.Or at least that is what I think was[…]


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Petfood Forum 2017 and Petfood Innovation Workshop: Taste of Pet Food’s Future marked the 25th year for the Forum. Although the event is over, pet food industry professionals can still learn from Petfood Forum articles and videos.
At both the 2014 and 2017 events, speakers discussed top concerns in the pet food industry. While many of the same topics continued from 2014 to 2017, such as pet food marketing and sales, new technologies and trends have altered the focus on those issues. Petfood Industry recently reported on Petfood Forum by the numbers, and those numbers reveal changing trends.
Petfood forum speakers in both 2014 and 2017 discussed marketing, but now social media has become a dominant trend in pet food marketing. While 2014’s speakers discussed the use of videos online to sell pet food, 2017’s keynote speaker was a central player in the birth of social media giant Facebook.
While marketing strategies have adapted to new technologies between 2014 and 2017, the average price of the pet food itself continued the same trend - up.
Petfood Forum has grown dramatically over its history, as shown by a comparison of the 2014 event to this years.
Tim Wall covers the dog, cat and other pet food industries as senior reporter for WATT Global Media. He hold a master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri - Columbia and a bachelor's degree in biology. Wall served in the Peace Corps in Honduras from 2005 to 2007. His work has appeared in Scientific American, Discovery News, Honduras Weekly and other outlets. Contact Wall via https://www.wattglobalmedia.com/contact-us/
By Lindsay Beaton
Pet owners have blurred the line between their health and the health of their animals, and are responding to both with the same product label demands.
By Lindsay Beaton
Sustainability has become more entrenched in the pet food packaging world than ever, as manufacturers and end users alike look for modern solutions to today’s needs.


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Executive Vice President
In 1996, when Ted Clouser was 18, he left his family’s dairy farm in Pennsylvania and, with $400 in his pocket, drove to Little Rock, where he had a friend.
He wanted a change from the farming lifestyle, and he relied on his experience working for a computer company and briefly owning a small business after graduating from high school. Those experiences paid off: After three weeks of sending his resume to every tech firm in the city, PC Assistance CEO Ben Thomas took a chance on the young entrepreneur.
Since then, Clouser has helped maneuver PC Assistance through the rapidly changing IT world. “Our industry is constantly evolving,” he said. “We have had to adapt since our formation in 1994 numerous times. Our industry doesn’t look at all like it did 15 years ago, or 20 years ago.”
But through that time, PC Assistance, which has grown from three employees in 1996 to 20 in 2013, has maintained its core client base and kept turnover low.
“We still have our core employees and clients we’ve had since the late ‘90s,” Clouser said. “We’ve had lots of business recognition over the years, but at the end of the day that stickiness is what I’m most proud of.”
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The recording industry is making more money from fan-made mashups, lip-syncs and tributes on YouTube than from official music videos.
“It’s a massive growth area. We’re very excited about the creativity of consumers using our repertoire and creating their own versions of our videos,” said Francis Keeling, the global head of digital business for Universal Music Group.
With one billion users worldwide, YouTube is the most used music service in the world, according to the annual Digital Music Report released Tuesday by IFPI, an organization that represents 1,300 record companies around the world.
“All record companies make their repertoire available to YouTube,” Keeling explained.
The video website, owned by Google, tracks uploaded videos and alerts record companies when a YouTube user uploads content that uses a copyrighted song.
Rather than order the video removed for copyright infringement, the record company can instead choose to run ads before and during the video, making money off the video’s views.
For example, a video of American comedian Steve Kardynal wearing a bikini and lip-synching Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” for unsuspecting viewers on Chatroulette racked up more than 14 million views, which earned ad dollars for the record label behind Jepsen’s hit single.
User-generated content, which includes mashups and fan-made music videos, are actually generating more money for record labels than the official music videos posted by record labels, Keeling said.
“A lot of that is due to consumers putting more and more repertoire and new versions up there, but also it’s YouTube getting better at advertising,” he said.
New advertising formats and an expansion of ads to more than 50 countries have increased the amount of money generated by ads on the video sharing site.
YouTube is expected to roll out a premium subscription service in 2014, providing another source of revenue, the IFPI report says.
That’s good news for the music industry, which saw a global decline in revenues of 3.9 per cent to about $15 billion (U.S.).
Streaming services such as YouTube are one of the key changes in the way the world is listening to music.
Online subscription services such as Rdio, Spotify and Deezer generated more than $1 billion in revenue in 2013, growing more than 50 per cent worldwide since last year.
Money generated by advertising-supported streaming services such as YouTube and Vevo grew 17 per cent.
Streaming services are helping to encourage more listeners to pay for music instead of pirate it. In 2013, 28 million people paid for subscription services, a dramatic increase from only eight million in 2010.
While music downloads through services like iTunes still make up two-thirds of the industry’s total digital revenues, they actually declined slightly in 2013.
Old-fashioned CDs and records aren’t dead just yet. Though global revenues from physical music sales declined last year, they still make up half of total revenues.
And in some countries, such as the U.S. and the U.K., sales of vinyl actually increased by as much as 100 per cent.


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The Mike Burton Group appoints chief commercial officer
By Andrew Merrell | 22nd January 2020
The Mike Burton Group, one of the world's leading commercial sports ticketing businesses, has announced the appointment of a new chief commercial officer.
Justin Hopwood is the man who fills the newly created role at the Gloucester business, which will also see him become a director alongside chairman and founder Mike Burton and chief executive officer Ian Edwards.
The role will lead on the day to day and long-term commercial and new business strategy and work alongside the chief executive officer in the running of the Gloucester-based business.
Mr Hopwood, 45, will also take a position on the boards of Lions Rugby Travel and England Rugby Travel, the two joint venture companies the Mike Burton business operates with The British and Irish Lions and the Rugby Football Union.
Mr Edwards said: "We're delighted to announce Justin's appointment. He will bring a wealth of knowledge and understanding to the business that will complement the ambition that we have for the coming years.
"Justin joins following a hugely successful 2019 and will play a key role in defining and implementing the future commercial strategy and direction that we head in."
Mr Hopwood also worked for The Mike Burton Group between 2005 and 2015 as head of sales and marketing, completing a successful delivery of the official supporter travel programme at Rugby World Cup 2015 in England before moving to Emirates Old Trafford at the turn of 2016.
He said: "I am incredibly excited to be joining the business at this time, with the success of Rugby World Cup 2019 fresh in everyone's minds, and everyone's immediate attentions now on the Olympics in Japan later this year and the Lions Tour in 2021.
"The Mike Burton business is hugely ambitious in what it wants to achieve and I am thoroughly looking forward to working with some great people on the existing high profile projects, as well as looking to grow the business."
Established by former Lions, England and Gloucester legend Mike Burton in 1981, The Mike Burton Group is now a market leader in the commercial ticketing and sports travel industry and employs 70 members of staff at its head office in Quedgeley.
Mr Hopwood will be on the boards of Sports Travel and Hospitality Group (STH Group), the company's joint venture businesses with Sodexo that deliver official ticket inclusive travel and hospitality programmes for rights holders in sport, that currently operates Team GB Live with The British Olympic Association, All Blacks Tours with the New Zealand Rugby Union and ICC Travel and Tours with the International Cricket Council.
He joins The Mike Burton Group after four years at Emirates Old Trafford and Lancashire Cricket, where he was sales and marketing director, responsible for growing the revenues from ticketing, hospitality, partnerships, retail, and the combined product offering across the club's award winning conference facilities and the 150-bedroom on-site Hilton Garden Inn hotel that opened in 2017.
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It’s common for cruise lines to choose a celebrity as godmother of a new cruise ship, but Royal Caribbean took a different approach for its new flagship, Wonder of the Seas, and has revealed the “Wonder Mom” who will headline the ship’s upcoming naming ceremony.
“Wonder Mom” was chosen after a search began in August on the popular social media platform TikTok with a contest using the #SearchForWonderMom hashtag.
Wonder of the Seas Godmother
Royal Caribbean’s “Wonder Mom” is Pennsylvania resident Marie McCrea, who was nominated by her daughter, Allie, in the TikTok contest. McCrea will preside over the ceremony on Dec. 9 at Wonder of the Seas’ new year-round homeport, Florida’s Port Canaveral.
Calling McCrea a devoted mom, wife, and cancer survivor, Royal Caribbean said she “overcame adversity with incredible strength, and at the center of her story are the memories she inspired and made with her family through it all.”
“The search for such an inspiring mom who embodies the spirit of Wonder of the Seas was anything but easy. Marie and her family have a heartening and encouraging story that made us cry and rejoice and hopeful, and throughout it all, she inspired wonder and adventure in those around her,” said Michael Bayley, president and CEO of Royal Caribbean International.
“I want to thank everyone who nominated the Wonder Moms in their own lives. More than 16,000 videos were created, and I was in awe of all the incredible stories of the everyday heroes who are motivating those around them to discover, wonder and make memories,” said Bayley.
McCrea Family To Sail Aboard Christening Cruise
Following the ceremony, McCrea and her family will set sail on the ship’s 7-night Caribbean cruise with accommodations in the ship’s Ultimate Family Suite, which features an in-suite slide, a cinema and karaoke room, game consoles, and a private balcony.
Royal Caribbean also will treat the family to first-class flights to and from Port Canaveral, and provide spending money. The sailing will visit Royal Caribbean’s private island destination, Perfect Day at CocoCay.
A Royal Caribbean panel considered the top submissions before choosing McCrea for the honor. In the cruise line statement, McCrea called it a tremendous honor to be chosen. “I am so excited to have the opportunity to serve as the godmother for Wonder of the Seas,” she said.
The cruise line has also invited the Wonder Moms, who were finalists, to set sail on Wonder of the Seas with their families.
Wonder of the Seas to Sail Eastern, Western Caribbean
Wonder of the Seas is the largest cruise ship in the world at 236,857 gross tons and with a guest capacity of 5,734 at double occupancy. The vessel is the fifth in the popular Oasis class, which introduced the neighborhood concept that includes the Boardwalk, Central Park, Entertainment Place, and Royal Promenade, among others.
It features activity options for all ages, such as strolling through Central Park’s 20,000 real plants, or enjoying performers, aerialists, divers, and the high-tech superheroes of The Effectors II: Crash ‘n’ Burn, which debuts on Wonder of the Seas.
Wonder of the Seas entered service last spring, with a maiden voyage on March 24, offering a short series of Eastern Caribbean cruises from Fort Lauderdale, followed by a summer schedule in the Western Mediterranean, sailing between Rome and Barcelona.
The ship arrived at Port Canaveral on Nov. 13 and will operate one 3-day Bahamas cruise on Dec. 4 before beginning a series of 6- to 8-night Eastern and Western Caribbean sailings.


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The March 6th-9th gathering will be chaired by Mika Brzezinski, and encompass the Forbes 30 Under 30 and 50 Over 50 lists
Forbes announced its first-ever Forbes 30/50 Summit, a global event gathering generations of women from both the “30 Under 30” list and “50 Over 50” list in Abu Dhabi in March 2022 to mark International Women’s Day. The news was announced during a special “50 Over 50” list celebration event featuring a keynote conversation with U.S. First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and “Morning Joe” co-host and “Know Your Value” founder Mika Brzezinski, who will chair the new event.
In 2011, Forbes launched “30 Under 30,” the world’s most influential list of young leaders, and it’s now a global phenomenon and community of 10,000 disruptive innovators across 50 countries. A decade later, in 2021, Forbes and Mika Brzezinski with “Know Your Value” launched another initiative called “50 Over 50,” celebrating age defying leaders and entrepreneurs. Now, Forbes will bring together all these inspiring leaders in 2022 for the greatest gathering of women ever.
Over the next three years, this unique summit will be hosted in Abu Dhabi, a global city with ambitious plans to become a sustainable world class capital and knowledge economy. This event will be a powerful catalyst for change, in a region that has lagged in gender equality. The summit will bring together the most powerful global leaders, including honorees from Forbes’ 30 Under 30 and 50 Over 50 lists, with the mission of forming world-changing alliances. The Forbes 30/50 Summit will focus on creating cross-generational mentorship opportunities to provide leadership, guidance, and insights to women at every stage of their career. It will also offer diverse perspectives focused on women in leadership and entrepreneurship, and will provide rich cultural immersion opportunities, including programming at the Louvre Abu Dhabi and a day of service at Zayed University, which was founded to educate and empower future generations. On International Women’s Day itself, hundreds of Summit participants will reveal their most important lessons, which will then be shared on the Forbes platforms, “Morning Joe” and others, to empower women across the world.
“Over the years, Forbes created a global community with thousands of innovators, gamechangers and rulebreakers around the world through its 30 Under 30 list,” said Mika Brzezinski, founder of Know Your Value and co-host of MSNBC's Morning Joe. “This year, in partnership together, we introduced 50 Over 50 to shine a bright light on the women who are rewriting the rules for success and shattering the prevailing misconceptions about age and gender in the workforce. By merging the two communities, we’re in a unique position to activate a worldwide, multigenerational community of leaders who can bring about meaningful change that benefits women everywhere.”
“For so long, International Women’s Day was celebrated virtually and through a hashtag, but now we’re giving a true home where conversations can drive change,” said Randall Lane, Chief Content Officer and Editor, Forbes. “This is the first time that International Women’s Day will have a physical headquarters where women leaders can build something together and pay it forward to future generations. And we’re doing it in a way that allows insights to be shared with women around the world.”
Forbes Under 30 Franchise
Forbes’ Under 30 franchise is a global platform, which comprises Forbes Under 30 lists featuring young game changers published in print and online all over the world; live summits in the U.S., Asia, Europe, Israel and Africa; and an Under 30 channel on Forbes.com.
About Forbes x Know Your Value “50 Over 50”
The “50 Over 50” platform was developed in partnership with Forbes and Mika Brzezinski with Know Your Value to shine a light on women over the age of 50 who have achieved significant success later in life, often overcoming formidable odds or barriers. In early 2021, Forbes and Know Your Value unveiled its inaugural 50 Over 50 list, and that list soon expanded into different lists showcasing how women are wielding their influence in politics and social entrepreneurship, STEM and the arts, finance, and beyond. It recently expanded globally with 50 Over 50 Asia and 50 Over 50 Europe lists.
Forbes champions success by celebrating those who have made it, and those who aspire to make it. Forbes convenes and curates the most influential leaders and entrepreneurs who are driving change, transforming business and making a significant impact on the world. The Forbes brand today reaches more than 150 million people worldwide through its trusted journalism, signature LIVE and Forbes Virtual events, custom marketing programs and 44 licensed local editions in 77 countries. Forbes Media’s brand extensions include real estate, education and financial services license agreements.
Forbes recently announced plans to go public through a business combination with Magnum Opus (NYSE: OPA), a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), which is expected to close in Q4 of this year or Q1 of next year.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211216005274/en/
Laura Brusca, Forbes, firstname.lastname@example.org


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Maritz Selection for New President Underscores Focus on Science
Maritz Motivation Solutions has reached outside the industry for its new President to replace John MacArthur, who left that position earlier this year. Reflecting the company’s apparent focus on behavioral science, new President Drew Carter was a Managing Director at Alix Partners and co-founder of the firm’s digital division. According to the Maritz statement, he helped companies increase top- and bottom-line growth through data analytics. He also held executive positions with analytics software provider Opera Solutions, where he managed strategic consulting engagements, and with McAfee, where he was in charge of consumer products and the mobile security business line. “I am excited that Drew is joining us to lead the Maritz Motivation Solutions team,” says Chairman and CEO Steve Maritz. “He is a skilled business leader with a long and successful career advising companies and implementing growth strategies to navigate disruption and change. Drew’s background in analytics, loyalty and sales growth makes him uniquely positioned to lead the business and enhance the solutions we provide clients.” For more on recent changes at Maritz, click here.


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The Bank of Thailand is growing a prototype funds system which might depend on a central financial institution digital forex (CBDC).
The central financial institution introduced Thursday that it could goal companies, and would design a cost system that may very well be built-in with the procurement and monetary administration system of Siam Cement Group, Thailand’s oldest cement producer, and its suppliers.
The financial institution mentioned the digital forex prototype is being developed by Digital Ventures, a fintech-facing enterprise capital wing of the Siam Commercial Bank that invested in Ripple in 2016.
According to the assertion, the venture may also embody a feasibility research on the funds system. The CBDC venture will start subsequent month and is predicted to conclude by the tip of the 12 months.
“The venture marks an essential step in broadening CBDC’s scope and adoption to wider audiences, beginning with giant corporates,” mentioned the press launch revealed on the Bank of Thailand’s web site.
The Bank of Thailand mentioned that it expects the CBDC prototype to construct on the information put collectively underneath Project Inthanon. Inthanon was launched in 2018, and is a collaborative venture between the Bank of Thailand, and eight main Thai monetary establishments, to bolster technological readiness in Thailand’s monetary sector.
The chief in blockchain information, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the best journalistic requirements and abides by a strict set of editorial insurance policies. CoinDesk is an unbiased working subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.


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And, while local Great Wall products have been Sydney-based distributed by importer Ateco, the Chinese giant is making a statement on its commitment to the Haval brand in Australia by opening its own offices in outer Melbourne.
The factory-backed brand’s first model to hit Australian roads will be the H2, a compact SUV that will be aimed at the likes of Mitsubishi’s ASX and the new Honda HR-V. Pricing is expected to fall in the same circa-$20,000 bracket.
The brand will initially skip the midsized SUV market in Australia, pairing the H2 with the big seven-seat H9 from launch.
The H8 will follow, entering as a more road-focused large SUV in the same vein as the Toyota Kluger, Ford Territory and Hyundai Santa Fe. The H8 will give away one key point to those rivals, however, in being a five-seater only.
A contender for the medium-SUV segment will arrive in early 2016, in the form of the curiously named H6 Coupe, its latest form revealed in Shanghai this week.
Boasting a tapered Range Rover Evoque-like roofline, the H6 Coupe’s styling is the work of a team led by former BMW designer Pierre Leclercq.
Leclercq, responsible for the look of models like the first X6 SUV and a number of M performance models, was installed as the head of design at Great Wall in 2013.
However, the new H6 is understood to be the first production model to showcase Leclercq’s influence.
The local range will be rounded out in 2016 with the H7, a more conventional SUV wagon that slots in between the H6 and the large H8.
In China, Haval has sold more than 162,000 SUVs in the first quarter of 2015, in a market that saw 474,100 SUV sales overall for the period.
In March alone, Haval sold nearly 32,000 units of the current H6 SUV, outselling foreign rivals like the Volkswagen Tiguan and Toyota RAV4.
Haval is expected to start small in Australia, building its dealer network to around 10 to 20 retail points in the years ahead. Details of that rollout are still to come, however.
Five-year warranties are expected, and the company expects top 5-Star ANCAP safety ratings for all models.
Watch for full details and pricing to come closer to Haval’s June launch in Australia.
- Interested in buying HAVAL ? Visit our HAVAL showroom for more information.