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In Chinese cities will see road signs that read in ‘Low-carbon, warmth, love’ for people to give away their unwanted clothes on a big green metal bin, into which big cities like stuff there unwanted, old clothes for charity and donation.
In the country that makes more than 5 billion T-shirts a year, there is a dishonor to trying old or second-hand clothes and millions of tons of garments go to waste every day. Leading to a mammoth 26 million tons of clothing waste every year, less than 1% of which is reused or recycled, according to state news agency Xinhua.
China’s growing middle class booming in e-commerce has turned China into the world’s biggest fashion market, overtaking the U.S. last year. Greater China accounts for a fifth of Japanese retail giant Uniqlo’s global revenue and the company’s sales in the region rose almost 27% in the 2017-2018 fiscal year to more than $4 billion. Most of China’s purchases are fast fashion – mass-produced, cheap, short-lived garments.
The ecological cost of this waste is enormous. The fashion industry accounts for around 10% of global carbon emissions, more than is produced by all flights and maritime shipping combined, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
By one estimate, reusing 1 kilogram of clothing saves 3.6 kg of carbon dioxide, 6,000 liters of water, 0.3 kg of chemical fertilizers and 0.2 kg of insecticides, compared with making garments from virgin resources.
Portion of the problem in China is that recycling clothing is unprofitable by law. Non-charitable sales of used apparel are banned for health and safety reasons. In China, used clothes are considered unhygienic, even unlucky. And Covid-19 has reinforced that bias.
To mitigate this China authorizes government-approved organizations to collect and sort donated clothes that are in ‘excellent condition,’ Few do.
The time and effort aren’t worth it in a nation where used clothes are unpopular even in relatively poor regions. “Sometimes too many just pile up” at collecting sites, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs says. “It’s difficult to deal with.”
So high-quality garments that are collected are usually sold overseas. China’s exports of used clothing rose to 6.4% of the world total in 2015, from less than 1% in 2010, according to the latest data from the U.K.-based Textile Recycling Association.
Many go to Africa. Ten years ago, the U.K. supplied a quarter of the used clothing shipped to Kenya. Now China is the biggest supplier, accounting for about 30%, while the U.K.’s share has dropped to 17%.
Some Chinese exporters rely on the collection bins in residential neighborhoods, but many now use e-commerce sites like Alipay to solicit donations.
About 70% of the clothes collected by Hangzhou-based Baijingyu, or White Whales, are sold in overseas second-hand clothing markets, while 15% are down-cycled for use in construction, agriculture, or gardening, or sent to waste-to-energy incinerators, said Chief Executive Officer Jason Fang.
With its main markets in Southeast Asia and Africa, most of its exports are summer apparel. Only about 15% of donations are given to poor regions in China.
But the massive majority of China’s discarded apparel goes straight into the trash, exacerbating one of the country’s major environmental headaches.
Most of the nation’s 654 giant landfills filled up ahead of schedule. The nation’s biggest dump in Jiangcungou, Shaanxi province, is the size of 100 football fields but filled up 25 years earlier than designed after receiving almost four times the amount of daily waste predicted. As a result, China dumped more than 200 million cubic meters of waste into its coastal waters in 2018, according to the environmental ministry.
That’s promoted perhaps the fastest-growing solution for China’s unwanted garment problem: burn them. Cut and shredded pieces of cloth are added to wet waste in trash-to-energy incinerators to make them more efficient.
China considers such plants a form of renewable power, despite the emissions they produce and has tried to double their capacity in the past five years.


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For these simply getting into the industry, adoption of digital processes may not be that tough. It’s the one method manufacturers and creatives can compete and win on this new demand mannequin. On the contrary, the Harvard Business Review notes the trade Fashion & Online Shop News is definitely shifting backwards, with reports indicating the call for sustainable fashion hasn’t translated through the past two decades.
From Streetwear To ‘Street Couture’: Hip-hop Reworked Fashion Like No Different Before It
Seemingly drawing inspiration from folklore and tribal design, SS24 encapsulated the very essence of future fashion designers, centering round themes of freedom, self-expression and inclusivity. In a photoshoot with Variety, the actress donned a sequence of gorgeous appears including a Versace pink cut-out swimsuit and XL platform heels to channel Barbie. Carol Vorderman wore a scorching pink prime and beige leather-based skirt with fishnet tights as she joined a party for her good pal’s 60th birthday on Wednesday.
Top brands including Versace, Jimmy Choo, Michael Kors and Kate Spade will be introduced together beneath one roof in a £7billion luxury mega-merger. A HIGH avenue fashion chain has launched a large closing down sale as it prepares to bring the shutters down on some shops for good. Singer Dua Lipa, 27, hit the red carpet for the Barbie premiere in LA wearing a silver chainmail costume that left very little to the imagination within the squashed-boob division. Love Island viewers hit Twitter to express concern for 22-year-old winner Jess Harding’s cleavage when she wore an ill-fitting red bikini on the present that didn’t accommodate her boobs adequately. Scheffler started the week at No. 2 within the FedEx Cup and is projected to stay there after the primary day of the playoffs.
Extra From The Times And The Sunday Times
(VLGE isn’t the one one banking on an SDK strategy. Crucible, a metaverse company that creates instruments for game developers, recently launched its Emergence software improvement package for Unreal Engine, for instance). Exclusible is also a web3 associate for manufacturers — as VLGE aspires to be — and it has a digital collectibles platform, tailored toward luxury brands. It’s raised a €2.2 million seed spherical funding co-led by Tioga Capital, White Star Capital, and Indico Capital Partners. “My dream is to push the boundaries of the digital experiences that all of us interact in.
The fashion label has been valued at about A$1.76bn after having a majority stake acquired by personal equity agency Advent International. It turned out to be greater than a chat-up line; he was a fashion photographer, at all times on the hunt for new and exciting areas. When the couple moved to Edinburgh to marry and begin a family, Owen took a profession break and the concept for what turned LS Productions took maintain.
But others have been hit so hard they’ve been left on the point of administration. High power prices and a shift to shopping online after the pandemic are additionally taking a toll and a lot of high road outlets have struggled to keep going. “BUT… 20% off all full value gadgets together with the brand new soccer strips restricted stock in, but said they have been getting more in.” But Frasers can be set to shut its Sports Direct store in Newcastle to make method for a new retailer opposite the present one. However, the closure comes as Frasers, plans to open a model new division store in the identical shoppoing which will comprise retail space for Sports Direct. Sports Direct is closing two stores this Autumn and has marked down all full price gadgets by at least 20%.

domain: news


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Monday, February 1, 1999 Published at 08:59 GMT
Going down: 'Grace Bros' store closes
You have been watching. . .
The department store which inspired the sitcom Are You Being Served? served its last customers this weekend.
Simpson of Piccadilly - the London store where comedy writer Jeremy Lloyd once worked - is to become a bookshop.
Although Mr Lloyd's stint as a Simpson's employee was very brief, it proved to be fertile territory for his later career.
Since 1936, the emporium and purveyor of "quality clothes for the well-heeled" has welcomed customers to its Piccadilly Circus base.
But its owners have decided the premises are uneconomic, although its line of suits will carry on.
In 1929, it moved to North London and in the early 30s created the DAKS brand. The DAKS trouser, with its patented self-supporting waistband, became a worldwide best-seller.
And in 1936, the company opened its own eight floor speciality store in Piccadilly.
Jo Smith, a spokeswoman for the firm, said: "We are keeping the closure pretty low key, as the DAKS brand will continue its strong presence with the opening of two new men's and women's shops in February."
The comedy was bawdy and quintessentially British.
John Inman camped it up as a tape measure-brandishing men's sales assistant - always ready to take an inside leg measurement.
The innuendo was loud and clear
Before he was offered the part in Are You Being Served? he was already working in a department store - selling toys in London's Selfridges.
Gay rights groups initially reacted with outrage to Inman's character.
Although Mr Humphries was never explicity called a homosexual in the show, the innuendo was loud and clear.
Molly Sugden's violently coiffed Mrs Slocombe regaled viewers with tales of her pussy.
And the banter between Miss Brahms and Mr Lucas bordered on Benny Hill.
So successful was the TV show, that in 1976 - the year of Britain's most memorable drought - the production took to the stage in Blackpool. A movie followed shortly.
The phenomenon did not escape the attention of overseas programme commissioners and makers.
By 1979 the Americans had created their own version of the show, called Beanes of Boston.
The following year the Australians came up with Bone Brothers, which starred John Inman as Mr Humphries.
Fifteen episodes were adapted by Jeremy Lloyd for Aussie audiences.
But the huge American love affair with the British shop assistant hierarchy was about to begin in earnest.
In 1987, a total of 24 public service channels began screening the British version of the show.
It scored a hit with American audiences, who formed fan clubs, flocked to meet the stars of the show on their visits to the States, and snapped up souvenirs and mementoes.
So even though Simpsons of Piccadilly closd its doors for the last time on Saturday, the memory of the store looks set to live on - on TV screens across the world.
TV and Radio


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Cabela’s is now open.
The national outdoor outfitter opened its doors this morning to a crowd of thousands, many of whom had been waiting outside since yesterday.
Cabela’s opening ceremony included a flag raising and a concert from Nashville country star Lucas Hoge before a Cabela’s archery expert shot a clay pigeon, cutting the ribbon.
Shortly after, the store was flooded with excited customers, the first hundred of whom received Cabela’s gift cards.
“We are very excited for Legacy @ Journal Center,” said Kurt Browning, chief development officer for Titan Development. “I think it will be a great anchor retailer and a destination retailer for Albuquerque.”


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John Lewis has delivered weekly sales up 9.7% as the cold weather drove a “strong seasonal uplift in trade”.
Sister grocer Waitrose also reported a strong week, up 10.6% due to an increase in customer transactions and items sold.
For the week ending October 23, John Lewis said fashion reacted the most to the cooler weather, up 14%. Home and entertainment continued at a steady up 8%.
The department store group also reported the start of Christmas shopping, with Christmas trees closing the week at up 80%.
It said customers were also kitting out for the winter, with sales of outerwear, hats, scarves and gloves all strong. A return to tradition saw sales of Barbour jackets more than double over last year.
Toys surpassed £1m sales a week earlier than last year.
This week John Lewis opened another Home store in Swindon.
Waitrose reported home baking had a good week, with cake mixes and baking mixes up 23% and 17% respectively.Shoppers also stocked up on kitchen and bakeware, with sales up 20%.
The cold weather meant comfort food was on the agenda, with diced stewing beef reporting sales up 500%.
And sales of Halloween spooky accessories were up 53% in readiness for this weekend’s parties.
Overall, the John Lewis Partnership reported sales up 10.2% for the week.


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Delhi : Mercedes-AMG GT3, the meaner and track-only version of the road-going AMG GT, has recently been filmed testing its racing skills around the... ...http://www.cardekho.com/india-car-news/mercedesamg-gt3-hits-the-nurburgring-race-track-video-inside-15704.htm
Automobile industry is hitching towards green cars, and many major players are investing billion dollars on electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid... ...http://www.cartrade.com/blog/2015/greens/magna-mila-plus-1290.html
BANGALORE: The fourth month of 2015 April, began with two prominent events for car manufacturers and car lovers. One is New York International... ...http://www.siliconindia.com/news/life/9-HeadTurners-From-The-Seoul-Motor-Show-nid-181280-cid-51.html
Home / Home / By / 8 April 2015 / 0 comments The winners of the prestigious World Car of the Year Awards were announced at the new York... ...http://carindia.in/world-car-awards-winners-announced/
Would 2015-16 be the fiscal when the automobile industry would shift gears and help India regain its position as the fastest growing market in the... ...http://m.hindustantimes.com/htauto-topstories/cars-to-look-out-for-in-2015-16/article1-1333519.aspx
At Xtreme Xperience, youâÂ€Â™ll hop...


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The NFC chip in Amazon’s new Fire phone is NXP’s 47803, an NFC controller and embedded secure element package based on the chipmaker’s PN547 controller, a teardown by iFixit of the online retail giant’s first smartphone has revealed.
- Apple Pay launches in Norway
- Beijing metro looks to biometrics to speed up payments at turnstiles
- Bankwest wins new customers with NFC payments ring
- Paytm integrates games, TV, sports and news into its mobile wallet app
- Spanish banks to build blockchain customer identity verification platform


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Tech Business Recap: Everyone Loves Amazon, Nokia in Egypt
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) pushes forward with its patent war, but it may end up hurting shareholders if they don’t make preemptive IP deals with competitors. When Apple wins a court case, competitors often create a plan B. But when Apple loses, it lacks the necessary wiggle room for a workable settlement.
Investing Insights: U.S. Retail Sales Rose 4.5% in Week Before Christmas.
Online shoppers placed Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK) at the bottom of the heap for holiday season customer service in a survey conducted by research firm ForSee. Gap (NYSE:GPS) had the second-lowest score, and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) showed the largest year-to-year decline. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) came out on top with a score of 88/100.
Goldman Sachs has high expectations for Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), raising estimates and its price target from $660 to $685. This inflated forecast follows research that shows Google again topping query volumes with 125.2B and a 68.6% share. Goldman believes Google’s core search business has the potential to post better-than-expected FQ4 results and ups EPS estimates for the next three years.
Don’t Miss: Looks Like End of 2012 for Apple TV Launch.
Eastman Kodak (NYSE:EK) shares slip after an SEC filing shows that two directors from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (NYSE:KKR) have resigned from the company’s board. The resignations come two years after the PE firm helped Kodak refinance debt.
After yesterday’s decline of 10.64%, Emcore (NASDAQ:EMKR) takes off today. Though results missed estimates, and the company’s FQ1 revenue guidance of $36M-$38M is well below a $51.2M consensus, investors are optimistic that optical and cable component production capacity lost to Thai flooding will be regained between March and May.
Don’t Miss: Netflix: Investors and Customers Agree.
To contact the reporter on this story: Lindsey Grossman at email@example.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Damien Hoffman at firstname.lastname@example.org


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Daletec and Sapphire spent the week at the Enforce Tac trade fair in Nuremberg.
Daletec and Sapphire have had a good week at Enforce Tac with dozens of meetings and fruitful discussions.
Whilst this has been going on, we are experiencing a very special situation in the global political stability, which gives a clear sign that products for defence sector (unfortunately) will be needed in the coming times.
Highlight of the week at the fair
A new potential client stated that meeting Daletec and Sapphire for the first time and seeing what we can offer – of pioneering CORDURA® Brand Fabric based NYCO stretch materials, high quality camo prints, and massive capacity – was worth the whole trip to Germany.
Daletec and Sapphire are thankful to everyone they met this week, and excited to have visited Nuremberg for their first meeting there!
On behalf of Daletec and Sapphire, we wish you all a great weekend!


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Continuing on Sony’s strategy of announcing products before NAB even starts, last night saw the announcement of the DJI Ronin, the Atomos Shogun, the AJA CION, and another Black Magic Camera that will ship sometime in 2016. I honestly have no idea why Black Magic announced another camera. Just like a lot of folks, I was totally blown away when Black Magic announced the Cinema Camera two years ago. It had crazy specs for it’s price and more importantly marked the start of companies that don’t make cameras buying off the shelf products and cobbling together their own camera. Everybody knows it never shipped in volume – they had cut the price before the preorder list was even filled. When they announced the Production camera and the Pocket Camera, it seemed like BMD was doubling down and really trying to get a foothold in the production market. The Production Camera still hasn’t shipped in volume and by the time both the Pocket Camera and the Cinema Camera, BMD had earned itself a reputation of announcing products it couldn’t deliver. So, I find it hard to believe anybody really expects to pick up one of these Studio cameras in the next six months.
As much as I love the disruptive nature of a company like Black Magic entering the camera market and offering the full potential of their sensors their including in their cameras at a lower price point, the reality is a company like BMD and their suppliers don’t have the infrastructure or corporate experience to ship these things in bulk. Both the Cinema Camera and the Production Camera have been plagued with manufacturing issues. Companies like Canon don’t have that problem because they’ve figured out their supply chain management. They sell millions of Rebels every year and that means when they announce a camera it’s going to ship because they’re not also figuring out to mass produce at the same time their designing it.
This brings me to the AJA CION. Specs wise it looks great. Form factor looks right. I’m interested, but honestly I’m skeptical that’ll be able to ship in large numbers for exactly the same reasons Black Magic hasn’t been able to. It’s great more companies are getting into the camera game, Canon needs to be prodded into innovation, but I wish they’d include their manufacturing plan in addition the specs when they announce these cameras because it’s one thing to make 15 cameras custom order and something entirely different to ship thousands in bulk with high quality control.
These announcements can be exciting, especially to give consumers insight to what is technologically possible for a camera. But, they’re just words on a page. They’re not a shipped product and before you get super pumped about shooting everything with a camera that’s just been announced it’s probably wise to consider the cameras manufacturing history and ask yourself: will this ship?
Just as I’m finishing up this post Black Magic has announced the Black Magic Ursa, an obvious replacement to the Production Camera – a camera that still hasn’t shipped.


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#AfricaNext: Jessica O. Matthews Is Bringing Energy to Communities Worldwide With 'Uncharted Power'
Award-winning tech entrepreneur Jessica O. Matthews talks renewable energy and being a millennial in the business space in the latest video for our Africa Next series brought to you by Samsung Next.
Sponsored content from Samsung Next
When she was just 22 years old, Nigerian tech entrepreneur Jessica O. Matthews founded Uncharted Power, and award-winning renewable energy company that harnesses kinetic energy, created from the motion of everyday objects into ecosystems that can power everyday devices. Her creation has helped bring power to communities across African and the diaspora.
Matthews, who has been featured in Forbes and was named one of OkayAfrica's 100 Women in 2017, is the latest tech entrepreneur to be featured in Samsung Next's "African Next" series. In a short video, she discusses her journey into becoming an African leader in the tech world, and what it's like being a millennial in that space.
"I feel so confident about what we're building at Uncharted Power," says Matthews. "I know that it is going to change the way we think about energy, and in particular the way we consume energy."
Watch the video below, and revisit the previous African Next feature with Kela Ivonye and his innovative app that's helping ensure that our mail doesn't go missing.
Africa Next' is a video series profiling young tech entrepreneurs throughout the African diaspora who are innovators in their fields. These young pioneers are achieving excellence through their work and are NEXT in line to change their communities and the world for the better.


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What is Tempest 3D AudioTech?
According to Sony, Tempest will transform the gaming experience and will allow listeners to hear where individual raindrops are landing in a game's environment. Similar to that of Dolby Atmos, Tempest is designed to allow the listener to hear sounds as if they were happening around them.
The way it works is that the 3D audio technology deploys timed effects – using a host of audio algorithms – to create natural, true-to-life soundscapes that trick the user’s brain into pinpointing the precise location of each and every sound.
An expansion of the technology used in the PSVR virtual reality headset – which is capable of replicating 50 sound sources – Sony says that the PS5 uses object-based spatial sound technology to create some of the most advanced 3D audio available.
The PS5 boasts hundreds of intricate sounds – and in better quality when compared to the PSVR audio tech.
Sony has been clear in the past about wanting to focus on delivering 3D audio through headphones first, however, PS5 lead architect, Mark Cerny has said that the console will also be capable of delivering 3D audio through a regular set-up – whether it be television speakers, soundbars or surround sound systems.
Tempest Engine uses a completely reengineered AMD graphics chip to process audio from hundreds of in-game sound sources, thus delivering elevated 3D audio without the need for an expensive multi-speaker set-up.
The Tempest Engine creates 3D audio using something called a head-related transfer function, or HRTF – which is used to decipher how an individual's ear receives sound.
Sony has created five HRTF profiles for the launch of the PS5, based on data from over 100 people. The PS5 will help user’s find the best profile and personalise it to get the optimum 3D audio effect for their ears, although Sony says that it hopes to find a way to gather individual HRTF data in the future.
That would allow the PS5 to provide each and every gamer with 3D audio that would be unique to the shape of their ear.
While beta access will be limited to invited participants in select countries, Sony plans to release the update globally later this year.
If you’re selected to participate in the beta, you’ll receive an email invitation when it’s available to download. Some features available during the beta phase may not make it into the final version or may see significant changes.
The beta also includes more options to quickly find games and console tips, new ways to connect with other players and customise multiplayer sessions, and support for larger-capacity M.2 SSDs (up to 8TB).System UI Haptic Feedback.
Users also now have the option to turn on haptic feedback effects while navigating a PS5 with your DualSense controller, DualSense Edge controller or PS VR2 Sense controller, and can now mute or adjust the volume of the PS5’s beep sound when turning it on or off, or putting it in rest mode.


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Olsen Sisters Take Stake in BeachMint
Ashley Olsen, Mary-Kate Olsen, BeachMint, StyleMint, ShoeMint, IntiMint
Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen have taken a minority stake in BeachMint, the Santa Monica based e-commerce company and signed on to be cochairs of its advisory board. The stylish twins will have both creative and consulting roles that extend their existing roles with StyleMint where they began as designers and partners in 2011, as well as ShoeMint and IntiMint.
"In our expanded roles as cochairs of the advisory board, Ashley and I will work closely with BeachMint's management team in this strategic phase of growth to establish the Mint brands as the leading online destination for all things fashion," said Mary-Kate Olsen.
BeachMint's furthering relationship with the Olsens reinforces the company's strategy of focusing on its fashion offerings that have shown the most potential.
"Mary-Kate and Ashley are a natural choice to advise on key business, merchandise and design areas as we further scale our women's fashion divisions," said Josh Berman, cofounder and chief executive officer of BeachMint.
Berman said having the Olsens as part owners of BeachMint is a prelude to a series of efforts to push the company's growth. "The agreement with Ashley and Mary-Kate is the first of a number of significant partnerships we have had in development for some time now," he said. "The deals coming to fruition in Q4 will allow us to deliver an even stronger experience for our members in 2014, including broader product assortments, efficiencies in production translating to greater value, new innovative designs and more opportunities for discovery."


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On March 23, Oregon Governor Kate Brown issued an executive order calling for Oregonians to stay home, closing specific retail businesses, and requiring social distancing in most cases, immediately and until further notice. Social gatherings with people from outside of your household are not allowed until further notice.
Friday, June 14, 2019 at 6:00pm to 8:00pm
Beall Concert Hall
961 East 18th Avenue, Eugene, OR
MBA commencement takes place together with the PhD graduation ceremony in Beall Hall. A livestream will be available. For details, please visit business.uoregon.edu/mba/commencement


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Share fell to 28.4 per cent according to latest figures from Kantar as users awaited the release of the new models
Apple iOS market share in the US reached its lowest point in 12 months prior to the release of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus last month.
This is according to the latest smartphone sales data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech for the three month ending August 2015, which attributed the fall to consumers waiting for the new models.
At the end of the three month period, iOS share in the country stood at 28.4 per cent – down 2.1 per cent year-on-year.
Kantar said that 11 per cent of iOS owners told it in August that they planned to replace their current phone in the next three months, while 87 per cent of these said Apple is their preferred brand.
Android continued to dominate the US market by accounting for more than two thirds (66.9 per cent), which was up by 2.5 per cent from last year.
Kantar chief of research Carolina Milanesi said it is to be expected that in the three months proceeding the launch of the new products, Apple iPhone sales would be weaker.
In April through August – the months following the launch of Samsung’s Galaxy S6 flagship models – 29 per cent of the manufacturer’s installed base in the US upgraded to new devices. Among those, 23 per cent changed to a Galaxy S5, four per cent to a Galaxy S6 and one per cent to a Galaxy S6 edge.
In the UK, Android continues to lead the market with share of 54.1 per cent, despite a fall of 5.2 per cent from a year ago.
In contrast to the US, iOS share rose 5.8 per cent to account for over a third of the market (33.7 per cent), while Windows saw its share rise marginally to 11.3 per cent.
Across Europe’s five big markets, which Kantar classes as the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, Android accounts for nearly three quarters (72.2 per cent), despite seeing share fall 3.3 per cent year-on-year.
Share for iOS increased 2.4 per cent to 16.2 per cent, with Windows share up 1.6 per cent to 11 per cent.


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The metaverse has taken 2022 by storm.
This futuristic world is the latest buzzword in business. But is it living up to the hype?
Why the metaverse keeps making headlines
Everyone relied on video calls and the online channel during COVID-19. Brands moved to digital platforms to connect with consumers. This period led to a boost in AR and VR usage to virtually try out products, according to Euromonitor’s Voice of the Consumer: Digital Survey.
In some ways, the metaverse is an extension of the virtual, augmented and mixed reality technologies in use today.
The metaverse, though, is more complex. It combines the aforementioned technologies with social media, livestreaming, cryptocurrencies and gaming platforms to create a more advanced virtual world where consumers outfit their avatars and explore.
The promise of this better connected, shared, holistic 3D space could further transform brand experiences and take online shopping to the next level.
Advanced technologies in the metaverse could add dimension to the online experience, including more accurately recreating the interactions and emotions associated with an in-person experience.
In fact, digital consumers are most interested in using virtual technologies for that very reason. But newer applications of such tech like purchasing NFTs are still nascent.
43% would try out a new product or service in a virtual world before buying
31% would invest in a digital asset like non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or buy digital clothing to outfit an avatar
Source: Euromonitor International Voice of the Consumer: Digital Survey 2022
Companies are starting to pay closer attention to the metaverse.
The concept became part of everyday discourse when Facebook announced massive investments to build a metaverse during a midyear earnings call in 2021. Soon thereafter, the social media conglomerate rebranded to Meta.
Almost simultaneously, other tech giants like Microsoft
Cashing in on this 3D world
Many brands are focused on building equity among metaverse pioneers, but activity is shifting toward commerce.
Interest in digital assets and cryptocurrencies spiked in 2021. Burberry partnered with Mythical Games for an NFT collection in Mythical’s flagship game. And Coca-Cola auctioned its first NFT collectibles last year.
Beauty and fashion companies have been the biggest players in the metaverse so far. These products—makeup, apparel, accessories and beyond—are natural fits for this digital environment as advanced technologies enhance the virtual try-on experience.
Moving forward, several brands plan to expand digital retailing efforts, but approaches differ widely, from maintenance to significant expansion. While 2022 will be for the frontrunners, all brands will likely need a metaverse strategy within a few years.
Making moves in the metaverse
Brands will have to embrace the metaverse to reach up-and-coming shoppers like Generation Z who are shunning traditional mediums in favor of gaming or social platforms.
In fact, these consumers—who use online games and video-first social media for streaming and socializing—are laying the groundwork for the shift toward metaverse platforms.
There will be opportunities for retailers and brands to interact with consumers in these immersive environments beyond initial use cases. That being said, brands do not need to pivot overnight.
Innovative companies should continue to integrate AR and VR technologies into their commerce strategies.
First, focus on brand engagement. Then, pursue and invest in more complex use cases like replicating a physical experience online or creating a virtual showroom. These applications will serve as a natural precursor to more dynamic touchpoints.
Once these technologies become more mainstream, consumers will likely demand such experiences. But to make an impact, retailers and brands need to engage consumers across these platforms in a meaningful and authentic way.


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Alibaba steps up efforts to remove Taobao from Notorious Markets blacklist
Alibaba has been on a long-running public-relations campaign to demonstrate its commitment to intellectual property protection. The endgame for the Hangzhou-based internet giant is to get its Taobao marketplace removed from the U.S.'s Notorious Markets blacklist. Taobao returned to the list in December 2016 after a four-year hiatus.
In a letter submitted to the U.S. Trade Representative October 2, Alibaba's Head of International Government Affairs Eric Pelletier highlighted the company's recent brand protection efforts. Pelletier noted that takedown requests fell 25% from September 2016-August 2017 compared to the same period a year earlier, even as registered accounts in the company's IP protection system rose 11%. During the 9/2016-8/2017 period, Taobao "proactively took down 28 times more listings than the number of listings it removed reactively in response to complaints from rights holders," Pelletier noted.
The letter also points out Alibaba's cooperation with law enforcement in China. From September 2016 to August 2017, Alibaba provided the police with 1,573 leads. As a result of those leads, Chinese authorities arrested 1,009 suspects and shut down 982 manufacturing and distribution locations.
Additionally, Pelletier describes Alibaba's initiation of civil litigation in China against counterfeiters: a lawsuit against a seller infringing on Mars Inc's trademarks and two sellers of fake Swarovski watches. "To our knowledge, these lawsuits are the first legal actions brought in China by an e-commerce company against infringing sellers operating on its platform," he wrote.
Alibaba appears to be more engaged than in years past in the battle against counterfeiters. Even skeptics of the company's commitment to fighting fakes have to admit that it's putting on a sterling performance - at the very least. Chief executive officer Jack Ma has been careful of late to not publicly laud counterfeiters' manufacturing acumen, as he did last year in Hangzhou.
Instead, Ma has done an about-face, calling on Chinese authorities to punish counterfeiters with stiff fines and jail time. In an open letter published on the Sina news portal in March, Ma said: "The existing laws are lagging, failing to impose actual threats on the behavior of counterfeiters and leave far too much room for cheating...For example, if the penalty for even one fake product manufactured or sold was a seven-day prison sentence, the world would look very different."
The Alibaba chief has a point. "IP rights remain hard to protect because of the low fines for infringements," Zhao Zhanling, a scholar at China University of Political Science and Law, told the state-run China Daily in a September interview.
According to the China Daily report, only a fraction of the people involved in the 4,495 counterfeiting cases Alibaba found last year in which the volume of fake goods surpassed the threshold for criminal prosecution were punished appropriately. Most of the offenders received suspended sentences or light fines.
Meanwhile, an October report in World Trademark Review suggests Alibaba may have reason for optimism about Taobao's chances of omission from the Notorious Markets blacklist. Just one public comment - from the Autocare Association - recommends Alibaba marketplaces (AliExpress, Alibaba and Taobao) to be placed on the list. In contrast, the American Apparel & Footwear Association, an influential organization and previously a harsh critic of Alibaba, commends the e-commerce juggernaut for its recent anti-counterfeiting initiatives.


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New Delhi, Dec 02, 2016 : Aadhaar cardholders would soon be able to use their cards to credit or debit money. The move comes in the wake of the government’s efforts to encourage cashless transactions in the country.
To avail the service, cardholders will have to enter their Aadhaar ID number and go through a fingerprint or iris scanner verification for electronic transaction. Briefing reporters, Ajay Bhushan Pandey, CEO of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), said that the biometric authentication capacity of Aadhaar will be increased from the current 10 crore to 40 crore a day.
"We will create capacity for 40 crore authentications. Yesterday, 1.31 crore Aadhaar-enabled biometric authentications were reported," Pandey said, adding that awareness would be created about this service.
He assured that there would be utmost privacy for all Aadhaar-related transactions. The Aadhaar card can be linked with bank accounts and the Aadhaar-Enabled Payment System (AEPS) can be used for funds transfer, balance enquiry, cash debits, credits etc.
NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said that an Android mobile app will be launched soon to enable cashless transactions for Aadhaar cardholders.
He said that the app will be available in the next 15 days, and it would allow cell phones with external or in-built retina and fingerprint scanners to allow the transactions. Cell-phone manufacturers, he said, will be asked to see if mobiles made in India can have in-built iris and thumb identification system.
The government will soon bring in four other options for cashless transactions – Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) for GSM phones, e-wallets and Unified Payments Interface for smartphones, and debit, credit and prepaid cards for PoS machines.
He said the government is also working on incentivising cashless transactions and disincentivising cash transactions.
Information Technology Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said that the department is providing an incentive of Rs 100 for every merchant enrolled through over 2 lakh common service centres across India.
On Thursday, the first meeting of the Committee of Chief Ministers to examine and implement the digital payment systems was held. The meeting was organised by NITI Aayog through videoconferencing. The 13- member committee comprises the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Puducherry, Odisha and Sikkim and the CEO and Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog and other experts.
While MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan spoke about a massive education campaign at the grassroots level to popularise digital payments, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis spoke on making cashless instruments more accessible.


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Day 1 customers storm pot stores across Winnipeg
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/10/2018 (1692 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Winnipeggers were keen to buy legalized cannabis Wednesday online and in line.
Cannabis prohibition in Canada ended as of Wednesday morning, but the stigma around using marijuana persisted for many people lined up outside Winnipeg’s new, legal cannabis stores on a brisk, clear day.
Shoppers of all ages tended to be shy about giving their names to inquiring reporters. But when the doors finally opened, those Manitobans ran the gauntlet of cameras for their first chance to buy weed without breaking the law.
Here’s what happened on Wednesday at four legal cannabis outlets across the city.
An hour before the Tokyo Smoke cannabis store at 55 Goulet St. in St. Boniface opened, about 20 shoppers were lined up outside. Some hid their faces behind big sunglasses and tuques that were pulled down low.
“A lot of people just are so taboo against it, a lot of people are still against it — I’ve been against it for my whole entire life,” said a customer who works in law enforcement, and would only agree to an interview if he wasn’t identified.
The 37-year-old, who had only used marijuana three times, was looking for some cannabis to help him sleep at night.
“Anyone who works in law enforcement, we all work shift work, and honestly, it takes a toll on your body.”
By opening time at 10 a.m., the line had swelled to at least 50 people. After a quick ID check at the doors, they were off — browsing the descriptions of a variety of cannabis strains in a bright, open space and writing down their purchases on shopping lists. (Only five kinds of cannabis were available for sale, with more promised soon.)
Educational material on the walls walked novices through the basics of cannabis lore, and staffers were available for advice at every turn.
Store manager Andrew Sniatkowski guided 26-year-old Eric Bachmann through his first legal purchase.
“Regulatory actions are actually really great for cannabis, because we know what we’re getting — you know what’s in it, it’s been tested,” Sniatkowski told Bachmann, who agreed.
In the end, Bachmann spent $28 on a gram of Serious Kush and a gram of Cold Creek Kush. The shopping experience, he said, was a big step up from the last time he bought weed.
“You’re always worried about being caught, and I don’t want to worry about it. I don’t want to have the stigma attached to it — I don’t feel like I’m a criminal, so this is very nice.”
Before it opened at 10 a.m., 150 cannabis customers lined up outside Delta 9’s retail store on Dakota Street in St. Vital.
“Merry legalization day!” said one young man who’d been waiting since 5 a.m. with two friends, each of whom requested anonymity.
“There’s still a stigma,” said the 23-year-old female in the trio, a university student. “It’s history in the making,” said the third 20-something, who was shivering in the dark and identified himself as a health-care worker. “We want to support cannabis culture,” he said, noting they have the day off.
When it opened, 30 customers at a time were allowed inside the gleaming bud boutique.
“It’s a high-class kind of shop,” said Sam, 25, who didn’t want his last name used. “It’s like an Apple store.”
A sensory bar along the back wall allows customers to see and smell the cannabis strains before placing an order. Sam spent close to $100 on weed and accessories, including grape-flavoured rolling papers. His buddy, Carl, spent almost as much. The two young men said they’ll use cannabis recreationally instead of booze.
“I feel much more in control,” said Sam. “And there’s no hangover,” said Carl.
Online, Delta 9 sold out an hour after it began taking orders at midnight. “We had 400 orders in the first hour,” said CEO John Arbuthnot. “I went online at 12:01 (a.m.) and I was the 90th order,” said the 28-year-old, who runs the company. A new shipment arrived by 6 a.m. The store’s vault was packed with cardboard boxes filled with strains such as Sensi Star, Diesel, Keats and Galiano.
“We’re hoping that’s going to last a few days,” said Arbuthnot. “Hopefully, we’ll get through the weekend.” Another “few hundred kilograms” of cannabis is expected to arrive in the next few weeks, he said, trying to keep in mind the historic importance of the day, and likening it the end of Prohibition in 1933. “This was kind of surreal.”
For the crowd at Tim Hortons next door, the legalization of marijuana wasn’t a big deal.
“I’m not concerned,” said Nissa Chmilowsky, 49. “The only ones it affects are people who already smoke cannabis,” she said.
At Canopy Growth Corp.’s Tweed store on Regent Avenue, at least 50 shoppers were lined up as of 11 a.m. — only to face another long line when they got in. One customer said the entire shopping process took him two hours.
“I definitely think it will speed up, just as stores hit their stride,” said Dan Larocque, whose job title with Canopy is “cannabis subject matter expert.”
“A lot has gone into planning how this is going to be done, but when it comes down to it, today is the first day that the wheels hit the road.”
Eleven kinds of dried cannabis were available for shoppers at the Tweed store Wednesday morning, with more on the way.
“We’ve already received three shipments — there’s stuff rolling in the door,” said Canopy Growth corporate trainer Kate Moody.
As with shoppers at other cannabis stores, the vast majority of Manitobans in line at the Tweed store weren’t willing to talk on the record with reporters as they waited.
Winnipeggers Al and Susan Altomare were a rare exception — Susan had never used cannabis, and Al figures the last time he used it was 40 years ago, “at least.” Wednesday was his 61st birthday.
“My wife is making me a special birthday dinner, so if we smoke first then we’ll be really hungry,” he said, laughing.
Jokes aside, Altomare felt legalization might be a step forward for Canada.
“If it works the way they’re planning for it to work, getting rid of criminal activity, protecting a certain number of younger kids from getting easy access to it, I think it’ll be good.”
National Access Cannabis waited until 5 p.m. to open its Meta Cannabis Supply Co. retail storefront, not that the delay seemed to matter.
About 100 people lined up outside the strip mall location at 584 Pembina Highway were in a festive mood, chatting amicably under a setting sun.
Security guards allowed access to small groups, as customers made their purchases and made room for others.
Inside, a lobby separated the store from the street, and the retail space had the polished feel of a mall computer store.
“We’re not comparing ourselves to that fruit product,” NAC vice-president Matt Ryan said with a chuckle.
He gestured to the central round bar, and then to display cases set into the walls around it. “We designed the store to look like a jewellery store meets a bakery.”
Store consultants, about a dozen of them, were on hand to act as concierges.
“Cannabis is a complex product,” Ryan said. “We call (staff) ‘friendly guides,’ and they help people as they go on their journey and learn about cannabis.”
Chief Christian Sinclair of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation was the first customer. OCN owns 10 per cent of NAC.
“I had no clue what I bought,” Sinclair said.
His guide was a store employee who’s also a member of OCN. Melissa Constant suggest two hybrids with mid to high levels of THC: the Ultra Sour and Girl Scout Cookies brands.
Both were tucked discreetly away in a small white paper bag. The sales receipt was for $167 and change.
It won’t be consumed. The purchase is headed back to OCN.
“We’re going to put this into frames and keep them as mementoes,” Sinclair said.
OCN is a member of the “Big Five” group of First Nations with plans to retail pot in Manitoba.
Three retail outlets are expected to open on reserve lands between the end of October and mid-November: on Long Plain’s Madison Street site in Winnipeg, at OCN’s mall adjacent to The Pas, and on Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation property in Thompson.
This bud’s for them
Meet some of Manitoba’s first pot customers
Matthew Dahl was the first retail customer to purchase cannabis at the Delta 9 store on Dakota Street.
“I said, ‘Give me one of those and one of those’ — I wasn’t picky,” said Dahl, who was in a hurry. He had been waiting in line in the cold since 7 a.m. and had to go to the bathroom.
He spent about $25 on a gram of “Keats” and a gram of “Galiano.” He was looking forward to sampling his purchases at home.
“I have the day off,” he said.
Dave Watson drove from his home in Morris to buy weed Wednesday.
“I’ve been waiting for this day for 27 years,” said Watson, 45. He said he placed an online order on Delta 9’s website when it became legal just after midnight, then decided to drive in to buy some at the St. Vital store.
“I think every little town should have (a retail outlet),” said Watson, who has used cannabis medicinally after hurting his back a few years ago. Now he uses it for migraine headaches and anxiety.
Kim Cayer didn’t want to miss the moment when legal pot went on sale in Canadian stores.
“I wanted to be here,” the 58-year-old Toronto resident said in line, waiting for Delta 9 to open its doors.
Ontarians have to purchase recreational weed online through the Ontario Cannabis Store, which does not operate any retail outlets. The provincial government expects to introduce a private retail model, but not until next spring.
Cayer, who performs as a magician and clown in Toronto, wanted to buy some in the flesh. Her mother Joyce Cayer, who lives in Steinbach, was in line with her; Joyce said she has tried marijuana, but didn’t care for it.
Kim said she’s looking forward to having a puff at the end of a workday, just as some people enjoy a glass of wine, without raising eyebrows.
“Now I can sit on my deck,” she said. “And I don’t have to go into a back alley to buy it.”
Kim Talaga, who has a prescription for medical marijuana, drove into Winnipeg from Beausejour to visit Delta 9, where she has a prescription on file.
When she saw the line out the door and around the building, she asked one of the security guards outside the store if there was an express lane for medicinal marijuana users.
“There’s no priority for patients? I have to wait in line? It doesn’t make any sense,” said Talaga, who had adenoid cystic carcinoma that affected her trachea and left her with scar tissue and pain.
“This is my medicine,” said the 49-year-old, who decided not to wait. “You shouldn’t have to line up.”
“I just wanted to see what it’s all about and be part of the experience,” said Dan Niles, a 59-year old Winnipegger who has used cannabis for about four decades, as he waited in line at the Tokyo Smoke store on Goulet Street.
“It’s kind of like the end of Prohibition, in a way, but with an unenforceable law to start with. If people want to smoke, they’re going to find a way to smoke.”
Niles said the success of legal cannabis will depend on quality and price.
“If it’s going to be more than, say, $10 a gram, then I can simply go to my guy down the street and buy some.”
St. Boniface resident Hubert Bergeron was happy to give his full name to media as he waited to buy weed at Tokyo Smoke.
“There’s two factors there: I’m old, and I don’t give a s–t,” joked the 72-year-old. “And it’s legal, so why not?”
Prices at the store did seem “a bit high,” he said.
“But I wanted to come here today because it’s quality-controlled and I can choose what I want, so I’ll be doing it for today. But in the future, we’ll see what happens with the black-market competition.”
Bergeron has waited 50 years for legalization, and was excited about government regulation. Was he willing to pay extra for the legal stuff?
“Oh sure, yeah — a couple of bucks. But other than that, people will be looking for the best price in Canada, and that’s going to put some pressure on the retail.”
Claudine Bergeron accompanied her husband to his first legal pot deal, even though marijuana’s not her thing.
“I tried it when I met him 50 years ago, but it wasn’t for me,” she said.
Still, she’s in favour of legalization, because cannabis users “should know what they’re getting.”
“I think this is a good step,” she said. (You) shouldn’t go to jail for this, and people should really feel at ease what they’re taking is protected, it’s quality-controlled. Some people want it for medicinal reasons, and I think that’s really going to be interesting for us seniors.”
Winnipegger Steven Garner uses marijuana “maybe twice a year” with his significant other. But he was still willing to spend his Wednesday morning waiting in line for some legal bud at the Tweed store on Regent Avenue.
“We just feel that it’s kind of a momentous occasion, we should probably contribute to the free rights and open rights for Canadians to do what they want to do,” he said.
As he waited, Garner had plenty of time to reflect on the store itself, which was mostly occupied by high-end accessories and Tweed-branded apparel.
“It seems like a lot of wasted space for something like this,” he said.
“They could do this whole thing with half the retail space. Nothing’s been purchased off the shelves; you don’t see anyone buying T-shirts…. It should just be like a Tim Hortons.”
Gary and Heather met while they waited in line at the Regent Avenue Tweed store, and neither wanted to share their last names with the Free Press. But they were both happy to share their thoughts on legal weed.
Gary, a retiree from The Pas, is accustomed to buying from “a guy, who knows a guy, who knows a guy.”
The opportunity to buy marijuana in a store has been “a long time coming,” he said, adding he was planning to get 3.5 grams — an eighth of an ounce — and was willing to spend as much as $60 for the privilege.
“It’s only a weed, it’s just a plant,” he said.
Heather usually gets her weed from friends, and was prepared to spend about $50 for “a little bit” of the legal stuff.
“It’s like buying an expensive bottle of wine, or a cheap bottle of wine,” she said.
Like Gary, Heather said she was willing to spend a bit more for government-controlled product.
“Because you don’t know what you’re getting with a local dealer — who knows what? Do they spray it with Off to get the bugs off it it, or, who knows?”
Still, she would have preferred to see cannabis sold in government-owned liquor stores, as opposed to private stores.
“I just think that the government control would be better that way.”
After 20 years of reporting on the growing diversity of people calling Manitoba home, Carol moved to the legislature bureau in early 2020.


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It’s farmers market season, and that means outlets for locally grown goods are cropping up throughout the area. Chances are good that there’s a market of farm-fresh fruits and veggies in or near your neighborhood.
Here’s a list of some farmers markets in the region—if we missed one, please add it in the comments section! What are some other great places to shop locally this season?
The Verona Farmers Market begins today, June 14, at the Verona Municipal Park, 736 E. Railroad Ave. It will be held every Thursday through October 11 from 2 to 6 p.m. For more information, click here.
The Monroeville Lions Farmers Market is held on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. through Nov. 20 at Monroeville Community Park, 2399 Tilbrook Road. Click here for more info.
Pittsburgh Mills—Frazer Township
The Pittsburgh Mills Farmers Market at the Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills, 167 Pittsburgh Mills Circle in Frazer Township, is held every Thursday through Oct. 25 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the JCPenney parking lot.
The Tarentum Farmers Market, held at the First United Presbyterian Church lot at Lock Street and East 10th Avenue, is every Wednesday through October from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Click here for more information.
The Aspinwall Farmers Market is held every Sunday through October from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The market is at the municipal parking lot along Freeport Road (in front of the borough building, 217 Commercial Ave.).
The Export Farmers Market is held from 4 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday evenings at 5960 Kennedy Ave.
The Forest Hills Farmers Market is held at Forest Hills Presbyterian Church and runs from 4 to 7 p.m. every Friday through Oct. 26. For more information, see .
The Dormont Farmers Market starts June 25, and has a new location this year. The market will be held Mondays through September or October from 4 to 7 p.m. in the parking lot of Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church at the corner of West Liberty Avenue and Alabama Avenue.
The Mt. Lebanon Uptown Farmers Market runs every Saturday through October from 9 a.m. to noon. Vendors selling fresh meats and cheese, breads, flowers, produce and more can be found along Washington Road in Mt. Lebanon. For more information, see the Uptown Farmers Market website.
The 2012 Citiparks Farmer's Market begins June 14, and will run Thursdays from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. The market is in the parking lot at Broadway and Beechview Avenues and features outside vendors as well as Beechview businesses. For more farmers markets in Pittsburgh neighborhoods, click here.
The Carrick Farmers Market runs Wednesdays from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. It’s held in the Carrick Shopping Center at Brownsville Road and Parkfield Street. For more farmers markets in Pittsburgh neighborhoods, click here.
The Green Tree Borough Farmers Market in the Park will be held at Green Tree Park, behind , every Thursday from 4 to 7 p.m., June through September. The market will continue into October, when it stays open until 7:30 p.m. A list of vendors is now available at the Green Tree Farmers Market website.
The Scott Township Farmers Market can be found in Scott Park off of Lindsay Road. It runs every Monday, 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., through Sept. 24. New vendors interested in joining are asked to call Scott Township at 412-276-5300. More info can be found in .
The is in the parking lot off of Washington Avenue. It runs every Tuesday, 4 to 7 p.m., from June 19 to Sept. 25. There will also be a weekly flea market at the same time at the borough Triangle Park next to the train station and caboose. For more information, go to www.facebook.com/pages/Bridgeville-Farmers-Market.
The Original Farmers Market is located on Parks Road off of Route 50. It’s open every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from June until November. Selling begins at 5:30 p.m. For more information about the market, see The Original Farmers Market website.
Upper St. Clair
The Upper St. Clair Lions Club Farmers Market will be held in the parking lot of Westminster Presbyterian Church every Thursday through Sept. 27, from 4 to 7 p.m. More information can be found on .
Those in the North Hills are treated with three farmers markets this season. Farmers' Market, is at 920 Perry highway (in the parking lot across from the church). It's on Wednesdays from 3 to 7 p.m. through October. The West View Farmers Market is Tuesday from 4 to 7 p.m., in the parking lot of , at 456 Perry Highway. The Bellevue Farmers Market is Wednesdays from 3 to 7 p.m. at Hawley Avenue & the municipal lot.
The St. James Church Farmers' Market is open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays from April through November. Farm-fresh produce, aged beef products, herbs and more are available. For more information, see .
- Beginning June 15, a farmers market will be held from 3:30 to 6 p.m. every Friday through October in the parking lot behind the on Rochester Road. Starting Saturday, June 16, there also will be a farmers market from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays at the on Route 19.
- Streets of Cranberry—Join local food vendors near the fountain at the center of the shopping complex for fresh produce and more. Starting June 14, a farmer’s market will be held from 1 to 7 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday.
- —Held in the parking lot across from Mars Post Office from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. This farmers market opened in May and—depending on the growing season—may extend through October.
- —The Harmony's Farmers Market will be held from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. every Thursday through September. Occasional wine and beer tastings also will be offered at the market, which is located in the Harmony town square. The event also features art exhibits and live music.
- Kretschmann Farm and Community Supported Agriculture—Located on 80 acres near Zelienople, Kretschmann Farm provides Pittsburgh area customers with organically grown produce, fruits, and meats. The family-run farm offer subscriptions to be delivered to your neighborhood or business—an arrangement known as Community Supported Agriculture. Every week from the first of June to Thanksgiving, a subscriber receives a box of produce containing whatever is in season. Delivery days are Tuesday through Friday, depending on location.
Did we miss any local markets? Tell us about them in the comments section!


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Shanghai Super Plant is fully in production and delivery mode. Five years into the Chinese market, Tesla has the most important moment. On December 30th Tesla delivered the Chinese-made Model 3 to 15 employees at its Shanghai Super plant, marking the shanghai super plant’s full entry into production and delivery mode. It is hard to imagine that the Model 3 only entered the Chinese market in February this year, less than a year after Tesla completed the “domestication” of the Model 3, which has the power of Tesla’s Silicon Valley spirit behind it and the firm determination of China’s auto industry to open up to the outside world.
China made Model 3 delivery site. Photo: Tesla Official Weibo
“I want to make Tesla’s Shanghai plant a global example. “On January 9, this year, Premier Li Keqiang’s first foreign affairs event at the beginning of the new year was scheduled to take place in Ziguangge, Zhongnanhai, and Tesla founder Elon Musk said at the meeting that Tesla would strive to build the Shanghai plant into one of the most advanced factories in the world, while localizing its products in accordance with Chinese market demand. Better to achieve mutual benefit and win-win situation.
What is a global paradigm? When Musk teamed up with “infrastructure mania”, the shanghai superfactory was reduced sharply from 30 months to 485 days, and its production line costs were 65% lower than in the U.S., reflecting China’s manufacturing advantages.
As the first foreign-owned domestic enterprises, the official completion of the Shanghai super factory marks the domestic new energy vehicle industry into an inflection point stage: on the one hand, Tesla into China to drive the common progress of the domestic new energy vehicle industry, on the other hand, represents the determination of China’s automotive industry to open up to the outside world. The Chinese market welcomes more foreign-funded enterprises to do business in China.
Shanghai Super Factory “Acceleration”
Also producing model 3, the Shanghai Super Plant has improved significantly in production line construction after learning from the climbing experience of the Fremont, California, plant.
The Model 3 was launched by Tesla in April 2016, when Musk announced that the Model 3 would sell for $35,000, far more than the Model S and Model X, and get a lot of subscribers. But the Model 3’s capacity has been slow to climb because of supply problems with Panasonic’s batteries, coupled with more automation than ever before, with Tesla’s target of 5,000 Model 3s per week by the end of December 2017. But it won’t actually be reached until July 2018.
Berstein, a Wall Street investment bank, has questioned Tesla’s automated production, arguing that while automated production can save people money, it will cost a lot of capital, which has led Tesla to make far less money from automated production.
“The Japanese approach is to get the process right and then introduce robots, which is the opposite of Musk’s. Max Warburton, an analyst at Berstein, estimates that Tesla will spend about $2 billion on the new Model 3 production line, which is equivalent to Tesla’s overall investment in its Shanghai superplant.
In response, Musk also admitted on Twitter that “over-automation at the Tesla plant was a mistake.” It was my mistake, to be exact. Humans are undervalued. “
To speed up production of the Model 3, Tesla had to reduce the automation of its production lines and increase its production capacity by increasing staff. However, that led to a 30 percent increase in Tesla’s 2018 workforce, outstripping the company’s capacity, so Musk announced 7 percent of the job cuts earlier this year, leaving Tesla with only the most critical temporary workers and contractors.
After learning a series of lessons, shanghai super factories are building much faster than expected. After 10 months of construction, the current Shanghai Super Factory (Phase I) has four workshops of stamping, body, coating and assembly, and is expected to be put into operation by the end of this year.
In addition to the speed of construction, the Shanghai Superplant has also significantly reduced construction costs, which Tesla says are 65 per cent lower than in the US (in terms of capital expenditure per unit capacity).
In addition, Tesla’s Model Y production line, which is being installed at its Fremont, California, plant, is expected to cost 50 percent less than the current Model 3 production line in the United States, after learning from the experience of building the Shanghai Super plant.
Model 3 Capacity Climbing
For Tesla, the shanghai super plant’s primary significance is to help the company’s total production reach 500,000 vehicles. According to Musk’s forecast, the Shanghai Super plant is expected to produce 3,000 Model 3s per week, plus 7,000 units at its Fremont, California, plant, and by the end of the year Tesla will have achieved its model 3-week production target of 10,000.
Based on the model 3’s successful build-up, Tesla earlier this year expected to produce 500,000 Model 3 strains between the fourth quarter of this year and the second quarter of 2020.
In fact, as early as May 2016, Musk said he wanted Tesla’s production capacity to increase to 500,000 in 2018 and 1 million in 2020, but tesla’s capacity this year is only 400,000 vehicles due to poor climbs.
Now, with the completion of the Shanghai Super plant, Tesla’s production capacity will be directly increased. At present, the Shanghai Super Plant has completed only one phase of construction, with an estimated annual production capacity of 150,000 Model 3, but the plant will also produce Model Y as the second phase of construction begins, when the annual production capacity is expected to reach 500,000 vehicles.
When the Shanghai Super plant goes into production, the domestic version of the Model 3 will be exempt from import duties and even enjoy new energy subsidies, which will help Tesla further open up the Chinese market. Tesla’s entire range of models in China has been exempted from the purchase tax, which accounts for 10% of pre-tax vehicle prices, which is good news for Tesla.
But while Musk continues to reiterate his target of 360,000 Deliveries to Tesla this year, the Shanghai Super plant will struggle to help – the second batch of domestic Model 3 will be delivered before the Spring Festival, meaning the domestic Model 3 will not contribute to the company’s results until at least the first quarter of next year.
First Beneficiaries of China’s Auto Opening
To the outside world, Musk is looking at the Chinese market, which is indeed a very important source of revenue for Tesla. In the first three quarters of this year, Tesla’s auto sales in China were $2.318 billion, up 48 percent from $1.445 billion a year earlier. In the third quarter, Tesla’s sales in China reached $669 million, second only to the U.S. continued tesla’s second-largest market. In its just-released third-quarter results, Tesla even predicted that China would become the model 3’s biggest market.
As a result, Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei said at a high-level forum on China’s development in March that Tesla was one of the first direct beneficiaries of China’s further expansion of the opening of cars. On April 17 last year, the National Development and Reform Commission announced a specific timetable for the development of the automotive joint venture stock ratio, determining that the automotive industry will be opened in a transitional period, from the abolition of the foreign-owned share ratio limit for special vehicles and new energy vehicles in 2018, to the elimination of the foreign-share ratio limit for commercial vehicles in 2020, and to the lifting of the limit on foreign-funded shares in passenger cars in 2022. The NDRC said the auto industry would lift all restrictions through a five-year transition period.
Subsequently, on June 28, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce jointly issued the “Special Measures for The Administration of Foreign Investment Access (Negative List) (2018 Edition)”, which added “except for special vehicles and new energy vehicles” on the basis of the original provision signed that “the ratio of Chinese shares in vehicle manufacturing is not less than 50%”, Clearing the way for Tesla’s investment in China.
But it’s easy to overlook that China’s new energy car industry also needs Tesla to get into China. As the global leader in the new energy vehicle industry, Tesla has a clear advantage in the “three electric” (electric drive, battery, electric control), is expected to reverse the new energy vehicle enterprises, including new forces, including rapid progress, especially in the subsidy de-slope new energy vehicle sales slump in time, Tesla’s domestic impact is greater than expected.
Shanghai super factory settled in Port, Lingang is also interested in building a new energy vehicle industry cluster around Tesla, the formation of an advanced upstream and downstream industrial chain, radiation port new area industry. On September 24, Lingang New Area signed a total of 24 key projects on smart net-linked new energy vehicles, including four types of manufacturing, application, service and functional platforms, involving a total investment of nearly 8 billion yuan, including St. Gobain Safety Glass (China) Co., Ltd., a supplier of supporting glass for Tesla.
In return for China, Tesla has pledged to start generating tax revenues by 2023, paying 2.23 billion yuan ($323 million) a year in taxes and investing 14.08 billion yuan ($2 billion) in its Shanghai super plant over the next five years.


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09 Nov, 2016Blockchain and identity
Will the vastly-hyped tech solve the digital ID challenge?
It’s difficult to remember a technology that has been more heavily hyped than blockchain. More than $1 billion has already been invested in startups and established companies working with distributed ledger technologies. Identity and blockchain are receiving a lot attention as some think the technology can solve many of the digital identity woes.


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see if you find out how much has really been bet and continues to be bet
“It’s a question of whether it’s really a legitimate trade in many respects,” said Cirami, a co-manager of the $7.3 billion Eaton Vance Global Macro Absolute Return Fund. “Is it something that could ultimately pay off in the end? If you’re thinking about an end game and the U.S. having a credit event, you wonder about your counterparty then.”
Doesn’t he realize I am a taxpayor and I am standing ready to make sure his ass is covered?????


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Business thrives online — but commercial carriers have been slow to launch digital experience direct-sales platforms. Meanwhile, customers demand more personalized attention from their insurers than ever before.
Fortunately, both issues share a common solution. A robust commercial insurance platform makes direct sales efficient and effective, and also creates a more enjoyable customer experience that enhances the customer-insurer relationship.
Customer Demands in Commercial Insurance
Personal lines in property and casualty insurance have benefited from a focus on customer experience in direct sales. Commercial insurance, however, has been slower to embrace the practice of placing coverage online: About 85 percent of commercial policies are still written by independent agents, says Marty Agather at Trusted Choice.
The predominance of agent-customer relationships in commercial insurance has slowed the growth of direct commercial sales online. It has also postponed the moment when commercial insurance companies realize that online shopping generally has changed the expectations and demands customers bring to the table.
Prompt responses and demonstrated value for money used to define a high-quality customer experience insurance. Today, however, customers’ expectations have changed. Efficient and personalized service has climbed to the top of customers’ priority lists.
While customers’ expectations about the experience have changed, their reliance on experience as a measure of their insurer has not. In fact, more than 70 percent of consumers base their opinion of a business on the quality of its customer experience (CX), write Dorian Stone and John Devine at McKinsey.
Businesses, including commercial insurers, are increasingly aware of the shifting pressures of customer experience. One Gartner study found that 81 percent of businesses expect to compete mostly or completely on the basis of customer experience.
Customer experience becomes even more important when the underlying product or service being sold is standardized across companies — as is the case with many commercial insurance policies. When the purchase is basically the same from any seller, buyers place more emphasis on unique features of the customer experience to differentiate between sellers and justify their loyalty to a particular one.
Commercial insurers will need to meet customers where they are by emphasizing the points of customer experience that matter to insurance buyers. To improve customer experience, “validate the business value of CX and lead through collaboration or risk losing budget and influence over the drivers of customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy,” says Augie Ray, VP of customer experience at Gartner.
What Do Customers Want in an Insurance Digital Experience?
Small business insurance customers want to buy coverage online. Overall, 51 percent of small business owners are likely to buy business coverage directly from insurers, according to Michelle Canaan and fellow researchers at Deloitte. The percentage increases among customers under age 35 and those with company revenues under $1 million per year, making direct sales of small business insurance a big opportunity for commercial insurers.
The Deloitte study also found that small businesses that had already purchased coverage online were substantially more likely to do so again. For example, 48 percent that had purchased a general liability policy online were “very likely” to do so again, and 43 percent were “somewhat likely.”
“With generally high satisfaction rates, it’s not surprising that those who’ve tried shopping on the Internet for commercial insurance were far more likely to say they would conduct business that way in the future,” say Canaan et al.
How can commercial insurers reach first time-customers? One Accenture study provides insight. In exploring why small business owners don’t buy coverage online, the study found that lack of information, clarity and personalization frustrated first-time commercial coverage buyers, pushing them toward agents and away from direct-sales channels.
Accenture estimates that 25 percent of total small business insurance premiums will be digitally underwritten by 2020. Also, Accenture estimates that 60 percent of small businesses are owned by those in the 25-55 age group—the generational cohort most interested in making online insurance purchases.
Customers are interested in buying commercial insurance online, according to the Accenture study. But merely offering the option isn’t enough. Insurance platforms “must also craft customer-centric experiences that address all of the small business owners’ insurance challenges and frustrations,” says Michael Reilly, managing director of insurance at Accenture.
Choosing the Right Platform
Customers’ experiences with other forms of online shopping shapes their expectation of online business insurance purchases. They’re used to features like omnichannel browsing via Amazon, for instance, and so are more likely to expect a similar feature from their insurance company.
Delivering the digital experience customers expect, however, hasn’t been easy for P&C insurance companies. “Customers expect carriers to deliver a seamless, omnichannel and highly personalized experience but organizational and industry obstacles, including data silos and evolving data privacy policies, create a barrier between these expectations and services delivered,” says Clark Wooten, group vice president of insurance services at Acxiom.
The first step to choosing a direct-sales platform for commercial insurance, then, is to determine the specific challenges or frustrations your customers face. Then, look for digital tools that help insurers and customers work together to overcome those challenges.
Avoid the impulse to simply purchase new tech in order to build a digital sales channel. The goal of direct sales should be to extend the best parts of your relationship with customers into a digital environment — not merely to be online.
“Technology is not an end in itself; integrating it to improve CX is where the value happens,” explains Eugene Khazin, principal at technology modernization consultancy Prime TSR.
Explore ways to build out a digital environment to meet various customers’ needs. For example, Accenture found that many small business insurance customers became frustrated when they couldn’t easily find answers to their insurance questions online. A library of informative content could help build a more welcoming commercial insurance platform, suggests Cara McFarlane at PropertyCasualty360.
Building a digital insurance ecosystem is another option currently underutilized by commercial insurers in comparison to personal lines. In a digital ecosystem, several businesses partner together to provide services; their common goal is to offer a complete solution to a customer’s specific problem. An ecosystem partnership in which a commercial insurer provides coverage for a vehicle fleet and a mechanic provides maintenance repairs for those vehicles offers one illustration.
Digital ecosystems benefit commercial insurers in two ways. First, they allow the insurer to provide a more personalized, frictionless experience to customers, building loyalty and rapport. Second, they allow the insurer to offer more value to customers in the form of easily-accessible services and support, without requiring the insurer to build the infrastructure necessary to each offering.
Ultimately, the goal of any commercial insurance platform is to reach beyond the traditional insurance relationship in which customers have no contact with their insurer unless they’re paying a bill or filing a claim.
“Insurers have always struggled with the fact that their main customer interactions after purchase are submitting a claim or paying a bill, which tends to be a negative, stressful experience. Using these new digital channels is about creating an ongoing long-term relationship with the insured outside of bill paying and claims submission,” says Jeff Goldberg, executive vice president of research and consulting at Novarica.
With the right tools, commercial insurers can build a platform that meets the customer’s needs and desire for a digital experience. Customers are eager to buy business insurance online. It’s up to commercial insurers to build an efficient, enjoyable purchasing environment.
Images by: rido/©123RF.com, kasto/©123RF.com, dotshock/©123RF.com


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A couple of weeks after the inauguration, Hillary Rodham Clinton complained to a New York Times reporter that her husband had gotten an "unfair rap" about his passion for junk food. The president, she said, always pays a great deal of attention to nutrition.
Asked what the first family typically eats for dinner, she replied, "Broiled chicken breast."
The Clintons are hardly alone. Nearly half the Americans responding to a recent Gallup poll said they now eat chicken at least twice a week. Most said they choose chicken because they consider it more nutritious than other foods or lower in fat or cholesterol. A mere decade ago, less than a third of Americans ate chicken more than once a week. Why the burgeoning appetite for poultry?
"People have been so heavily blitzed with the message that they should eat less fat that they have actually changed their diets," says Walter Willett, chief of nutrition at the Harvard University School of Public Health in Boston. "But instead of replacing fatty animal foods with grains, beans, vegetables and fruit-as they should-they're eating more low-fat animal foods. A huge chunk of chicken breast has replaced the 12-ounce steak in our culinary repertoire."
Sure enough, between 1981 and 1991, as American shoppers absorbed the message that fat is bad, the amount of beef and pork we ate each year fell by 11 percent. But at the same time our taste for chicken grew by 31 percent. We ate 17.5 billion pounds of chicken in 1991-that's 1 1/3 pounds weekly for every American. And as more of us select the leaner white meat, sales of chicken breasts are surging.
The choice seems sensible. Loading up on chicken breast and other lean meats is the easiest way to cut back on fat without radically changing the way we shop, cook and eat, as was shown by a recent study at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Researchers there taught 184 women with high-fat diets how to calculate the fat content of foods, then asked them to trim the fat from their daily meals. The women could eat whatever they wanted, as long as fat made up no more than 25 percent of their calories. They succeeded admirably, lowering the fat calories in their diets to an average of 23 percent.
But the women didn't eat more vegetables, beans, breads or pasta. Instead, they cut way down on red meat and ate more chicken and fish. The result? As the percentage of fat in the women's meals fell, the researchers saw a marked rise in the percentage of another key nutrient: protein. In light of the chicken data, a parallel trend seems to be building nationwide.
This shift to a poultry-heavy, protein-rich diet has ruffled the feathers of public health nutritionists, who sense they're winning only part of the battle to persuade people to eat foods that will keep them healthy into old age. Americans, they say, already were eating way more protein than they needed; and mounting evidence suggests that a diet too heavy in protein-and particularly animal protein-carries its own set of risks.
People who have turned to chicken breast as a safe haven in the war against heart disease may be surprised to learn that pure animal protein has its own strong effect on blood cholesterol, an effect entirely apart from that of saturated fat.
"A number of studies have shown that when animal protein in the diet is replaced gram for gram by vegetable protein, cholesterol levels decline," says nutritionist Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington. This effect is seen chiefly in people with high cholesterol, Jacobson adds.
Cancer creeps in, as well. The protein in meat or poultry cooked at high temperatures, especially if it's browned or charred, forms carcinogens believed to promote the growth of human intestinal tract tumors. "This may help explain why heavy meat eaters are so vulnerable to colon cancer," says epidemiologist John Potter of the University of Minnesota.


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Cyber@BGU Launches New Website at Cybertech Tel Aviv
The epicenter of Cybertech Tel Aviv 2018 was Beer Sheva’s pavilion which has turned into a magnet for executives from abroad, researchers from around the world and promising youngsters with a spark in their eyes coming to see the magic.
Cyber @ Ben-Gurion University led a powerful display of advanced research, alongside multinational companies such as EMC and IBM and the young generation of cyber companies nurtured by Jerusalem Venture Partners’ Cyber Labs incubator.
In addition to showcasing their latest research, Cyber@BGU launched a newly redesigned and rebranded website, which features the latest news on partnerships and collaborations, media articles, presentations, information about publications, and proof of concept videos. The site can be found at: https://cyber.bgu.ac.il/.


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Pfizer Inc. (PFE:US), the world's biggest drugmaker, won a court ruling that may help it persuade a judge to order generic versions of the epilepsy drug Neurontin off the U.S. market and to require compensation for three years of lost profit.
A federal judge ruled in 2005 that generic Neurontin made by companies including Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA) wouldn't infringe the patent. A court of appeals in Washington disagreed today, returning the case to the lower court for a trial.
The decision may allow Pfizer, if it wins, to ask the court in Newark, New Jersey, to take the generic medications off the market. The company might also seek compensation for billions of dollars in profit lost to the low-cost rivals. Neurontin, once a $2 billion a year drug for Pfizer, had $496 million in sales in 2006.
``We'll seek all remedies to which we're entitled,'' said Jack Cox, spokesman for New York-based Pfizer.
The generic-drug companies can again argue that their versions aren't covered by the patent. Teva will pursue its contentions that the patent is invalid and not infringed, it said in a statement.
``This is a potential negative for Teva,'' Marc Goodman, an analyst at Credit Suisse in New York, said in a note to clients. There is ``potential onetime payment for damages that it could owe Pfizer and the potential that Teva will choose to take less risk with `at risk' launches going forward.''
Teva, the world's biggest generic-drug maker, has been selling a version of Neurontin since 2004, before the judge issued his ruling. Other companies followed suit beginning in 2005, including Novartis AG (NOVN)'s Sandoz unit, the second-biggest generic-drug company.
The patent, to expire in 2017, is for a process to make gabapentin, the active ingredient in the drug, with fewer contaminants. Warner-Lambert Co., which Pfizer bought in 2000, originally obtained the patent.
The two sides offered conflicting expert opinions on whether Teva used the patented process. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said today the trial judge was too hasty in siding with Teva without holding a trial.
``We agree with Warner-Lambert that genuine issues of material fact exist in the record, and thus that the court erred'' in ruling for the generic-drug companies, the three-judge panel said.
Lauren Carhart, a spokeswoman for Basel, Switzerland-based Novartis, said Sandoz officials are reviewing the opinion. Calls to Patty Eisenhaur, a spokeswoman for Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc., and David Myers Jr., a spokesman for Actavis Group HF, weren't immediately returned. Those companies also make generic Neurontin.
The generic competition caused sales of Neurontin to plunge to $91 million in the first half of 2005 from $1.2 billion in the first six months of 2004. Pfizer was able to recoup some of the lost sales by selling its own generic version of Neurontin.
The medicine is used by patients for approved and unapproved uses like seizures, migraines, nerve pain from diabetes, and other nervous system disorders. Pfizer is now moving patients to a newer variation of the drug called Lyrica, which had $1.2 billion in sales in 2006 and is more effective with fewer side effects, the company said.
Pfizer pleaded guilty to criminal charges in 2004 and paid more than $430 million to settle claims that it illegally promoted Neurontin for unapproved uses.
Warner-Lambert paid doctors to attend conferences in Hawaii, Florida and the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, where Neurontin was promoted for ailments including migraine and bipolar disorders.
Pfizer shares rose 7 cents to $24.59 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Teva American depositary receipts, each representing one ordinary share, fell 38 cents to $43.26 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading.
The case is In Re Gabapentin Patent Litigation, 06-1572, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Washington). The lower court case is Warner-Lambert Co. v. Purepac Pharmaceutical, 00cv2931, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey (Newark).
To review the disputed patent through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Web site, search for patent number 6,054,482 at http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html.
To contact the reporters on this story: Susan Decker in Washington at firstname.lastname@example.org; Shannon Pettypiece in New York at email@example.com.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Patrick Oster at firstname.lastname@example.org; Robert Simison at email@example.com.


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Cross posted from John Cook’s Venture Blog
Greg Linden, who founded the personalized online news service Findory and spent five years at Amazon.com helping to develop the retailer’s shopping recommendation service, has joined Microsoft’s Live Labs group as a principal research SDE.
I called Linden this morning to get his take on the Microsoft-Yahoo deal, but due to his role at the software giant he couldn’t comment. (He’s also toned down some of the critical commentary on his informative blog.)
Linden joined Microsoft about two weeks ago after working in a consulting role at Vulcan Capital for a few weeks and shutting down Findory last fall.
Linden said he’s always wanted to work within Microsoft’s research group, adding that he will be working on various search products. Those could include ideas such as “refinding” — helping people discover information online that they had previously viewed.
“It is a little bit of a change after being at a small company for so long and starving for resources,” he said.
Linden said he will give a startup a try again some time in the future, but after predicting the demise of the Web 2.0 bubble in a blog post last month he have may wanted to seek refuge in a more stable company.


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The electronics industry may still be reliant on human workers to assemble products, but Apple supplier Foxconn Technology Group is hopeful that robots will take over more of the workload soon.
Apple has forced its suppliers to end a form of "bonded labor" that saddled assembly line workers with unnecessary hiring fees, and put them in debt to third-party recruiters.
Foxconn Technology Group, a key Apple supplier, is setting a bad example for industry by overworking its staff, according to a Chinese trade union.
The vocational school in Chengdu, China, offers courses in car repair, mechanics and electronics manufacturing, among others.
Already a major manufacturer of electronics, China is preparing to bolster its presence in robotics with the help of government support and investments.
About 1,000 workers at a factory of manufacturing giant Foxconn Technology Group went on strike on Wednesday demanding better wages, after production orders from Hewlett-Packard were cut, according to a labor protection group.
If you want to see where your old electronics go to die, take a trip to Guiyu. For two decades, PCs, phones and other electronics have been shipped to this town on the southeast coast of China, where locals in thousands of small workshops pull them a...
Guiyu is the town in China where your old electronics go to die. For years, it's been one of the main locations in the world where PCs, phone and other discarded products are shipped in to be pulled apart and recycled. The work is dirty and even haza...
A labor protection group is accusing one of Samsung's suppliers in China of hiring over 10 underage workers to build company components. But the Korean electronics giant was quick to dismiss the allegations, and said it had no "child workers" at the ...
Apple is banning the use of two toxic chemicals from final assembly processes for its products, after watchdog groups demanded the company replace the substances with safer alternatives.
Samsung Electronics is lifting its suspension of a Chinese supplier found using child labor, after local authorities determined that the factory had not intentionally hired the underage workers.
Chinese authorities have so far found no underage workers at a local Samsung Electronics supplier accused of using "child labor," but have started a campaign to crack down on the illegal activity.
Samsung Electronics has temporarily suspended business with one of its Chinese suppliers, after a labor watchdog group accused the factory of hiring five underage workers.
Dozens of China-based suppliers to Samsung Electronics violated various labor regulations last year, including failing to pay overtime wages and provide proper safety equipment for workers, according to recent audits.
Four years after a string of suicides brought unwanted attention to his company, Foxconn Technology Group's CEO said none of the deaths had to do with poor working conditions at its factories.
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First impression on unpacking the Q702 test unit was the solid feel and clean, minimalist styling.
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Need a last-minute ugly Christmas sweater? Here are 12 ideas
Let’s face it — you’re probably going to be expected to wear an ugly Christmas sweater this holiday season.
Whether it’s for an office party or a gathering of friends, the gaudy pullovers are a common theme for festive celebrations.
If you don’t already have such a sartorial disaster, or are just bored with what you’ve got, check out the gallery above for 12 ideas.
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Currents News Staff
If you step inside Brooklyn Bicycle Company’s New York City showroom, you’ll see the unintended consequences of a trade war.
Shop owner Ryan Zagata’s bikes are assembled in China using foreign-made components to keep the cost down for the consumer.
But in September of 2018, the Trump administration’s ten percent tariff hike on nearly 200 billion dollars in Chinese goods forced Zagata to raise some prices.
Like many of America’s small to medium-sized businesses, the Brooklyn Bicycle Company is already dealing with the negative consequences of the increased import tariffs.
Then this past Friday, the White House announced that that ten percent will increase to 25, a change that will result in yet another price hike on the showroom floor.
“It’s difficult for me. I can’t call the customer and say, ‘guess what? you’re getting a better wheel set, you’re getting better grips and this luxurious leather saddle.’ That’s not what you’re getting,” said Zagata on how the tariffs will continue to affect his sales numbers and customer service.
“Effectively, this money is going to the government,” he said.
It’s been a rough ride for many business owners since President Trump waged his trade war with China. Zagata blames the uncertainty that comes with negotiations.
“It’s not difficult for us as a business to decide what to do. We’ve built financial models where we can punch in different variables regardless of the different scenario, and the models will effectively decide, ‘this is what you need to do.’ The challenge with the model now is we’re missing a variable. We don’t know what the final duty is going to be with these trade talks still ongoing,” he said.
“I think the tariffs are a great tool, and I applaud the administration for what they’re doing. I just think that six months, nine months in, it’s becoming really difficult. Come on already with these negotiations, let’s move ahead,” Zagata added.
Despite these setbacks for some business owners, optimism is coming from the President, who on Friday took to Twitter, saying tariffs will make the country “much stronger.”
“Just sit back and watch,” he wrote.
That may be hard for U.S. importers to do, as China now vows to strike back after Friday’s tariff hike.