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The New Enviro-Guilt: Water Footprints
Now that you've figured out how to reduce your carbon impact, another
global problem is emerging. Environmentalists see a future in which
everyday items will be labelled with the amount of H20 required to
Products labelled with their carbon footprints are slowly making their
way into the marketplace for example, Timberland Co., a U.S. footwear
maker, has identified the environmental impact of many of its shoe
But imagine buying an apple with this label: It took 68 litres of
water to produce this fruit.
Water footprints may soon be coming to a store near you.
As global leaders scramble to reach a deal on climate change this
week in Copenhagen, environmentalists are hoping a topic that isn't
on the agenda water scarcity will be the next big issue to capture
the world's attention. For the consumer, that means pointing out just
how much water is needed to produce items we use every day.
“I think personally that water footprints are much more tangible for
people than the concept of a carbon footprint it's amazing to see
people's reactions when they see that 25,000 litres of water go into
making a pair of shoes,” says Karen Kun, co-founder of Waterlution,
a Toronto-based non-profit organization for water education.
“People would respond very well to products being clearly labelled
with their water footprint consumers are crying out for mainstream
products to have the right information so they can make their own
The movement to label water footprints saw its first victory this
year when Finnish food conglomerate Raisio launched the first voluntary
example 101 litres of water for each 100 grams of its oat flakes
And over the past few years, about 60 large companies have signed
on to the United Nations' CEO Water Mandate, an informal pledge to
lower their water footprints. They include Coca-Cola, Bayer, Cadbury,
Dow Chemical, Heineken, Unilever and Siemens.
“All over the world, we consume products that don't include the cost
of the water, and this needs to be changed,” says Arjen Hoekstra,
creator of the water footprint concept. Dr. Hoekstra is a professor
at the University of Twente in the Netherlands and scientific director
of the Water Footprint Network.
“This is why the concept of a water footprint is useful, to try and
show the link between consumption and the creation of those products,
and show the consumer's responsibility for the waste.”
Some surprising statistics: A cup of coffee typically needs more than
140 litres of water to produce. For one kilogram of beef, it's about
Food usually accounts for about 70 per cent of each person's total
footprint, but consumer products, such as jeans, cellphones and eyeshadow,
require far more water per purchase. A cotton T-shirt soaks up 2,700
litres of water, a microchip needs 30 litres and a car requires more
than 150,000 litres.
Of course, footprints can vary from product to product. Beef from
cattle raised on soy will carry a different water footprint than meat
from cattle fed on grain, and leather jackets made by different designers
will vary from one another, which is why many environmentalists are
calling for the development of a standardized label.
Dr. Hoekstra is wary of all the corporate interest in the water footprint:
“They are all embracing the concept of the water footprint for the
same reason they embraced the carbon footprint because there is
a lot of money to be made, not because they are serious about water
conservation,” he says. “There has been a great deal of hype made
over carbon footprints, and you will see the same thing happen with
the water footprint as it moves up the political agenda.”
In fact, experts say climate change and water scarcity are inextricably
linked: Higher temperatures and changing precipitation patterns
along with population growth, deforestation and diversion of water
for dams, urbanization and industry will mean that by 2025, more
than two-thirds of the world's population will have to deal with chronic
water shortages, according to the UN World Water Assessment Program.
According to the UN, one-third of the world's population currently
suffers from water scarcity, when less than a decade ago it was thought
the world would not reach that point until 2025.
Dr. Hoekstra says he hopes a labelling standard for the water footprint
will avoid the mistakes made with carbon footprints, which use language
that makes it easy “to confuse people and for vested interests to
appear as though they are doing something substantial when it is the
least effort they could make.”
For instance, carbon offsets have been fraught with problems: Any
individual, company or country can claim to be “carbon-neutral” by
purchasing offsets rather than implementing carbon-reducing strategies
first. And not all offsets are created equal. They vary widely in
quality and impact investment in renewable-energy projects in developing
nations are considered superior to tree-planting schemes, for example.
“Already we are hearing people talk about water offsets because
it's cheaper to spend the money on some nice project somewhere than
on reducing the operation's actual water footprint,” Dr. Hoekstra
Even so, helpful and clear water-footprint labels won't tell the whole
story. Listing the volume of water used to grow an orange doesn't
tell a consumer anything about the agricultural or water systems in
the place where it was grown. For example, would an apple grown in
rainy British Columbia carry as high an ecological price as one in
an irrigated grove in California that piped water in and depleted
groundwater sources hundreds of kilometres away?
And water footprints combined with carbon footprints could become
even more confusing for harried shoppers: Which is more important?
“You cannot convey all information in a label about water and its
complexities in an easy way,” Dr. Hoekstra concedes. So even the creator
of the water footprint acknowledges that for consumers, it won't be
easy being blue.
Zoe Cormier is a London-based writer specializing in science and
FAIR USE NOTICE. This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. India Resource Center is making this article available in our efforts to advance the understanding of corporate accountability, human rights, labor rights, social and environmental justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.


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A couple of days ago Amazon showed off its new Kindle Fire HD tablets, but to everyone's surprise all of them are part of Amazon's "Special Offers" program, which means these devices show ads on the lock screen and main home page. Due to negative reports about this "feature", Amazon decided to offer an opt-out option, but this will cost users an extra $15.
"I wanted to let you know that with Kindle Fire HD there will be a special offers opt-out option for $15. We know from our Kindle reader line that customers love our special offers and very few people choose to opt out. We're happy to offer customers the choice," Amazon says.
The option to skip ads is available on both the Fire HD and $159 entry-level Fire model.
After Amazon’s product launch, tech watchers assumed users would be able to choose whether they wanted ads and a cheaper device, or a more expensive ad-free tablet -- which is the way it works with Amazon’s current line of Kindles. But it quickly became apparent that wasn't Amazon's plan and as a result critics complained.

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March 09, 2022
A ship with 1 million barrels of Russian crude oil originally destined for Philadelphia is headed toward France instead.
The Beijing Spirit was the first tanker carrying Russian oil to change destinations as a result of the new U.S. ban on Russian oil imports, David Wech, the chief economist at Vortexa – an energy analytics firm, told Bloomberg.
President Joe Biden enacted the ban Tuesday in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Though the ban has received bipartisan support, the move is expected to exacerbate the rise in gas prices, which has been felt by drivers in the Philadelphia area.
Gas prices have hit record-highs, with the average prices per gallon at $4.32 nationwide and at $4.44 in Pennsylvania, according to AAA's national gas prices map.
In Southeastern Pennsylvania, a gallon is going for $4.49, which is up from $3.92 one week ago. Prices are somewhat better in the South Jersey suburbs, where a gallon costs $4.31 on average, up from $3.69 last week.
Industry insiders – including Patrick DeHaan, an analyst at GasBuddy, an app that helps consumers find low prices – expect oil prices to continue rising well into 2022 as the conflict in Ukraine rages on.
"Nobody's going to be able to escape this, and it's going to be real bad and ugly for several months," he told 11 Alive, a television station based in Atlanta.
The tanker was chartered by Lukoil, Russia's second-largest gas producer. The company has franchised 230 fueling stations in the U.S., mostly in the Northeast, including dozens across the Philly area.
It's one of many Russian-linked brands some American consumers are boycotting in an effort to support Ukraine. But the U.S.-based owners of individual stations, many of whom don't support the invasion, say the boycott is hurting them, as well.
Many of these small-scale owners never chose to be associated with Lukoil in the first place, Sal Risalvato, the executive director of the New Jersey Gasoline, C-Store, Automotive Association, told the New York Times. Many originally owned Getty or Mobil stations, which were purchased by Lukoil in the early 2000s.
The Beijing Spirit was loaded up over the weekend at Murmansk, a port city in Northwest Russia located a few hours from its borders with Norway and Finland, and headed to Le Havre in France. The boat left Russia last Sunday and is expected to arrive in France this Sunday.


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Ford Motor Co. has shipped environmentally friendly electric bicycles to Vietnam.
The six-speed bicycle is a product of Think Group, an independent brand that makes environmentally responsible products; it was unveiled by the No. 2 automaker in January.
The bike is powered by a 24-volt direct drive system supplied by Currie Technologies for the Vietnamese market. Ford said it will disclose the bike's price when it goes on sale later this year.
Lexus said it will offer buyers of its new LS 430 sedan the option of the OnStar satellite communications system, marking the first use of General Motors' in-vehicle satellite communications system by the Japanese automaker.
Lexus will try the service on the new sedan, due in dealer showrooms next month, and then possibly roll it out throughout the Lexus lineup, depending on customer feedback, Lexus spokeswoman Rachael Green said. The service then could be adopted by the Toyota division, she said.
Lexus expects 5,000 to 8,000 of the sedan's buyers, or 20 percent to 35 percent, to opt for the service, Green said. "By working with OnStar, Lexus is showing that we will use the best technology and capability available from around the globe to satisfy our customers' needs."
At the touch of a button, or if an air bag deploys, the service combines global positioning satellite and cellular-phone technology to connect customers with advisers at any time. OnStar will provide emergency and concierge service via advisers in its call centers, OnStar said. Those advisers will be trained by Lexus.
However, Lexus owners will get some features GM's OnStar owners don't, including notification of vehicle battery power loss, memo recording capability and a backup battery for the system.
SUBARU'S U.S. OPERATIONS TO EXPAND WITH NEW VEHICLE
Subaru plans to build a new vehicle blending the best attributes of a car and pickup at its assembly plant in Indiana and add an engine plant there, boosting employment by 255 people.
The automaker said the new crossover vehicle will be based on the ST-X concept vehicle shown in January at the Los Angeles Auto Show. The ST-X was essentially a stretched version of the company's Outback sport wagon with a pickup truck bed.
Production of the new vehicle will begin in the third quarter of 2002 with an annual target of 24,000 vehicles.
"Subaru invented the crossover category with the introduction of Outback," said Subaru President and Chief Executive Takao Saito. "Now, Subaru has taken this concept a step further."
Subaru also said Fuji Heavy, in which General Motors owns a 20 percent stake, will build a new facility to build four-cylinder engines for Subaru. The engine plant is scheduled to make up to 114,000 engines a year, Subaru said.
Subaru owns the plant in Lafayette, Ind., which employs 3,150 people, with Japan's Isuzu Motors Ltd., in which GM owns a 49 percent stake.
The plant now builds the Outback and Subaru Legacy sedan and wagon, as well as Isuzu's Rodeo and Amigo sport-utility vehicles.
FIELDS BMW MAY BE IN LINE TO SELL THE NEW MINI
Fields BMW in Winter Park is in the running to sell the new version of the Mini. General Manager John Mantione said that Fields is expanding to add showroom space and extra service bays and could meet BMW's requirements to sell the retro-styled small car.
BMW plans to select about 75 U.S. dealers for the tiny British-made sporty car. It won't be sold under the Austin name as it was in the 1960s. And it won't be a BMW, either. Instead, the Mini will be its own brand sold through BMW dealers.
It has a 1.6-liter engine and a price tag of about $18,000. The car gets its first public viewing next week at the Paris Auto Show.
BMW plans to crank up production at the British Mini factory in Oxford, England, early next year. The car is to reach the United States in the first quarter of 2002.
Fields won't accept deposits for the Mini until BMW officials grant it the rights to sell the car.


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Blizzard is tweaking the business model for its upcoming StarCraft 2 release in Korea. IGN reports that the RTS will be free for Korean subscribers to World of Warcraft there, as Blizzard reportedly wants to bolster the MMO's player base overseas. Other players will be able to buy the game outright...
Posted on Jan 26th 2015 11:00AM
Posted on Jan 26th 2015 10:00AM
Posted on Jan 23rd 2015 7:00PM


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Eco-shame or needed convenience? The Seattle City Council will consider a proposal to ban plastic bags. Photo: Getty Images.
After Seattle waged war on phone books last year, the latest target to land in the crosshairs of the City Council is a bird-menacing, sea-fouling thing you’ve probably used a lot of.
That’s right, plastic bags. You might as well be clubbing sea turtles and other marine cuties every time you carry out your groceries in one of them.
Many Seattleites already consider plastic bags uncool and bring their own reusable bags. But the Council decided that that wasn’t enough and has proposed a ban on all plastic shopping bags.
And not just plastic bags from grocery stores, where the whole “paper, plastic or nothing” question still feels like a morality quiz. No, the Council has proposed outlawing plastic bags from drug stores, department stores, home-improvement stores and restaurants. (But you’d be able to buy a paper bag for 5 cents).
Already, the proposal has drawn the usual nanny-state alarmists and liberal-agenda haters panicked at any government attempt that forces them to ride a bike, take the bus, or lug around canvas bags as if they were big weights around the neck. Continue reading →
Giving Grey Goose a run for its money? Kirkland Signature vodka (photo courtesy Costco)
If you’re a Costco or Trader Joe’s shopper, you’re probably already familiar with the individual quirks of their private labels.
There’s Costco’s Kirkland Signature toilet paper, which comes in the unglamorously huge bundle of 36 rolls. There’s Trader Joe’s Charles Shaw wine, a bargain-priced drink known as “Two-buck Chuck” for its original $2 price (it’s a little more expensive now).
But in the wake of Tuesday’s passage of Initiative 1183, which killed the state’s Prohibition-era liquor system, the retailers are getting ready to stock their shelves with booze. That will likely include private labels previously off-limits to local consumers.
I-1183, largely bankrolled by Costco, ended Washington’s near 80-year liquor monopoly, by letting stores larger than 10,000 square feet sell tequila, bourbon and other hard alcohol.
For the state, the sweeping change means laying off more than 900 people and shutting down its state-run liquor stores. For consumers, it means being able to go to Safeway and buying some vodka, as of June 1.
So will bulk-retailer Costco stock its shelves with gallon-sized bottles of booze? Will Trader Joe’s stock a two-buck tequila?
Forget tiny, leafy shacks. With a cornucopia of foliage and no shortage of tree lovers, the Northwest has become an epicenter for large, heavy, high-end, Architectural Digest-worthy treehouses.
Much of that is due to one man, Pete Nelson, a renowned treehouse builder who’s written five books on the subject, leads workshops for other builders, and has built a collection of lofty, arboreal homes around the world.
Nelson lives in Fall City, where his wooded property, Treehouse Point, offers meticulously cobbled, forested nests for overnight stays. Nelson is also the author of the 2009 New Treehouses of the World, a richly illustrated treatise on grand wooded dwellings from the United States to India, Thailand, Japan and Brazil.
“Everybody loves trees,” Nelson said this week. “They’re just amazing.”
Capitol Hill Seattle has the interview everyone’s been looking for. To recap: Bartender Victoria Liss had waited on a man who tipped her nothing and told her on the receipt that she needed to lose weight.
Liss, who was working at Bimbo’s Cantina, then named the customer, Andrew Meyer, and posted on Facebook a picture of whom she thought she had served. The story went viral with a lot of name-calling.
But it turned out to be the wrong Andrew Meyer, a man who had once lived in Seattle but now lives in Texas. Liss has since apologized on Facebook, and new sites that used the photo have taken it down.
But that didn’t stop hate mail and threats from reaching the Texan Meyer, Capitol Hill Seattle reported.
The tip heard around the world. Via Victoria Liss. Click for original photo.
When it comes to online attacks, it’s hard to track accountability and rare to see remorse. But after a Seattle bartender shamed the wrong man over an insult and bad tip, major apologies have surfaced.
Victoria Liss had been tending bar at Bimbo’s Cantina Friday night, when a customer stiffed her on a tip and scrawled this insult on the receipt:
“P.S. You could stand to loose (sic) a few pounds.”
Angry, she posted a picture of the receipt and the man’s name, Andrew Meyer, on her Facebook page. An online mob soon began hunting for the man Liss called “yuppie scum” and soon a man’s photo and Facebook page were found, posted and reposted. News sites used the photo, and strangers sent him fuming emails.
Except it was the wrong Andrew Meyer.
On Wednesday, it was unclear how the mistake happened or was discovered. But Liss has apologized several times.


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- News tagged "intel"
Monday, 21 May 2012
The P8Z77-V Premium is the first motherboard in the market to be Thunderbolt certified by Intel. For those who're looking for a more mainstream option, the company also announced the P8Z77-V Pro/Thunderbolt edition. More details inside.
Tuesday, 15 May 2012
Rumors have it that the first Windows 8 Tablets, featuring chips from Intel, should be available for public consumption in November of this year. Will the new OS for the smart device be a game changer?
Tuesday, 8 May 2012
Word on the street is that Apple wants to gatecrash Intel's Ultrabook party by releasing a cut-price MacBook Air.
Thursday, 3 May 2012
These ASUS desktops offer a range of features including (but not limited to) Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0, Intel Quick Sync Video Technology, and LucidLogix Virtu MVP, which speeds up graphics performance by up to 60% and triples video conversion speeds.
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Reports have come about saying that Samsung's Series 5 and series 7 notebooks will be receiving an upgrade to Intel's Ivy Bridge processors.
Monday, 30 Apr 2012
Intel has officially released its new 22nm Ivy Bridge series that comprises both desktop and mobile computing processors. Besides releasing the official prices for the Ivy Bridge CPUs, read on to find out if there were any price reductions for the 2nd generation Intel Core processors.
Monday, 23 Apr 2012
ASUS is enabling ThunderBolt connectivity on selected ASUS Z77 and H77 motherboards soon with the help of a special expansion card.
Friday, 20 Apr 2012
Ever wondered why Intel's upcoming 3rd generation Core processors are codenamed Ivy Bridge? Arie Harsat, the strategic planning manager behind several of Intel's prominent codenames, explains the naming process behind Ivy Bridge.
Friday, 13 Apr 2012
Ingram Micro and Intel have collaborated to provide this service as an option to customers purchasing selected laptops which are powered by the 2nd gen and 3rd gen Intel Core processors, including Ultrabooks.
Thursday, 5 Apr 2012
Intel has launched its new SSD 313 series of SSDs built with caching in mind. This new series of SSDs have been updated with Intel's newest 25nm SLC NAND flash memory and is meant to replace the current SSD 311 series.


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Commodity prices fell in November, with energy commodities plunging 15,4% and non-energy commodities falling 1,3%.
Featuring 28 members prior to the United Kingdom’s planned exit on March 29, 2019, the European Union (EU) shipped US$5.719 trillion worth of goods around the globe in 2017. Pre-Brexit the EU is the world’s most powerful trade partner, responsible for almost a third (32.5%) of globally exported goods valued at $17,581 trillion.
The equation to make the inorganic compound combines a lead-free double perovskite with sodium.
Commodity prices mostly rose in October, with energy commodities rising 1,3% and non-energy commodities rising 1,2%.
The nascent collaborative robot market is set to grow by more than 60 percent this year according to an upcoming research report from Interact Analysis. The industry was worth less than $400m last year but is set to grow to nearly $600m in 2018.
Globally, computer accessories exports by country totaled US$124 billion in 2017.
Commodity prices in the third quarter of 2018 were buffeted by geopolitical and macroeconomic events. Energy prices gained 3 percent in 2018 Q3 (q/q), partly in response to the impending re-imposition of sanctions on Iran by the United States along with continuing declines in production in Venezuela.


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Research suggests that the majority of Americans adults, 65 percent, consume alcoholic beverages. After a long and hard work week, do you prefer to kick off the weekend with a cold bottle of beer or a nice glass of red wine? Depending on how your week went, maybe you might even need to drink something harder. The majority of Americans have a thirst for one beverage in particular. According to a recent poll published by Gallup, beer is still the nation's alcoholic beverage of choice.
That wasn't always the case, however. In 2005, wine dethroned beer as the nation's favorite alcoholic beverage, by Gallup's polling, and it drew close again in 2011 and 2013. In the years since, however, beer has recovered strongly. In July 2016, 43 percent of drinkers said they prefer beer compared to 32 percent for wine and 20 percent for liquor. The choice of beverage does depend on gender with half of female drinkers preferring wine with beer and liquor tied as their next most favored beverage, according to Gallup.
*Click below to enlarge (charted by Statista)


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As more and more consumers look for vegan and vegetarian options, plant-based meats have filled a void on supermarket shelves. People who avoid meat usually have strong opinions about whether or not plant-based options such as veggie burgers taste as good as the real thing, but their nutritional value — plastered right on the label — isn’t up for debate.
Eating a plant-based diet can help lower carbon emissions and reduce your environmental footprint, making it an ideal option for those looking to conserve natural resources. However, when you grab soy substitutes and other plant-based meats, you may be consuming an unnatural amount of chemicals. Margie Saidel, RD, LDN, MPH — vice president of nutrition and sustainability for Chartwells K12 — tells Real Simple that, “Plant-based meats are more popular and accessible than ever, which is great news because a reduction in industrial meat production is a win for the environment. But these processed meat alternatives may not, however, always be a healthier alternative.”
The outlet cites higher content in fat, sugar, and salt that may be to blame when it comes to the fewer number of health benefits of certain plant-based meats. It’s best to consult the food label and read the ingredient list to ensure that you aren’t consuming a slew of chemicals, sugars, and other additives which can be difficult to digest.
It's best to avoid processed foods in general
Food companies have responded to consumers’ desire for greater ease when it comes to their meal options. Essentially, by processing the items at the factory, they eliminate the need for you to prepare them in your kitchen. Unfortunately, in order to prolong the shelf life of these foods and to make them tasty, they have to add various preservatives and sweeteners. One Green Planet labels plant-based meats as highly processed products, meaning that they hold a large amount of additives and concentrates that many have trouble digesting.
High levels of saturated fat and sodium characterize these types of meats, the outlet also notes. While some are made with pure vegetables, the high levels of processing can undermine the integrity of the nutrients from the beans, grains, or soy that the meat is made from. The healthy compounds can lose their nutrient value after being processed and drowned in preservatives and chemicals, the outlet notes.
It’s best to look for plant-based options that are made from whole foods, with little additives. As always, checking the nutrition label before you add products to your cart can make a big difference in the way your body feels and your health later in life.
Source: Read Full Article


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For the long-awaited step, the U.S. company gave a price range of between 44 and 50 dollars per share.
for this price, the securities are sold to investors. Uber wants to dispose of first, seem to only be a small part of his share, in total it comes to around 10 billion dollars. The stock exchange debut in New York is expected at the beginning of may. It is the largest stock exchange would be the gang since 2014, as the Chinese Amazon-rival Alibaba collected $ 25 billion.
established in 2009, The Startup has made in many regions of the world, the taxi industry on its head and changed the way people are mobile on-the-go: It provides Rides through an App. Most recently, Uber was one of according to information 91 million customers per month.
Uber-Chef made again and again in the headlines
The company earned in the intermediation fees that are due when a driver receives an order via the Online platform. The group is also investing heavily in new business fields such as Autonomous Driving, the delivery of food, electric bicycles and scooters, as well as cargo offers.
Under the company’s founder and longstanding CEO, Travis Kalanick, Uber had stood again and again in the headlines, the allegations ranged from sexual abuse to Theft to bribery. Those days are gone but, since 2017 Dara Khosrowshahi from the Online travel provider Expedia, Uber, and the Chairman took over.
He established a new culture, but still has no answer to Autonomous Driving, which could threaten Uber’s business model, because it makes the driver needlessly. Uber itself is active in this area, but competition with companies like Tesla, Google, a subsidiary of Waymo and the traditional car manufacturers is very large, and predominantly financial.
May never be in the black
for particularly competitive regions, has pulled Uber back last. The big rivals in the case of the driving services are Didi in China, and Ola in India, and Lyft in the United States. Whether Uber will post the gains.
recently, the group itself had declared, in the face of significantly rising costs, it’ll probably never be in the black. In the balance sheet for 2018, a loss of approximately $ 1.8 billion, after 2.2 billion in the previous year. Sales rose in 2018, 42 percent to 11.3 billion dollars. In 2017, the Plus had amounted to 106 percent.
Uber announced on Friday an Overview of the expected financial figures for the first quarter of 2019. Therefore, will be incurred in this period, a loss of around a billion and a turnover of approximately three billion dollars. In addition, it was said, the payment service Paypal to get in with Uber and invest in $ 500 million.
become a a few months Ago had shown About are even more optimistic about his market value, and $ 120 billion estimates. In the meantime, one is cautious, not least because of the fall in the Price for the smaller rival Lyft, according to its IPO in March.
Lyft had placed its stock for $ 72 per piece, which assessed the company with $ 24 billion. On the first day of trading scho, the papers shoot up to 88.60 dollars in the amount, in the meantime, but they cost around 56 dollars.


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Thursday, January 14, 2010
Alaska pollock fishery recommended for MSC recertfication
The Alaska pollock fishery has been recommended for MSC recertification as part of a mandatory 5 year review of its original approval in 2005 as a sustainable and well-managed fishery. The recertification assessment, which has been carried out by the certification body, Moody Marine, and a team of three independent experts, is now open to public comment. There has already been stakeholder consultation as part of the re-assessment process and the report has been peer-reviewed by 2 independent experts. The fishery has been evaluated and approved on 3 MSC principles: the sustainability of the fish stocks; ensuring the structure, productivity, function and diversity of the ecosystem on which the fishery depends; and the effectiveness of the fishery management system to respond to changing circumstances and maintain sustainability. Many environmental NGOs are opposed to the fishery's recertification, claiming that it is overfished and has by-catch problems.


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Blue Santa was such a hit last year, he decided to return to San Juan this year and SJU Crewmembers and Customers alike had fun with the special holiday visitor. This time, Blue Santa visited the Iglesia y Centro Comunitario de Caguas, which is part of the Salvation Army with more than 300 gifts that were donated by JetBlue Crewmembers, Business Partner Prime Flight and our neighboring airline US Airways. Blue Santa and the Santa Helpers represented JetBlue and Mr. Grinch and his helpers represented US Airways.
Vacation season is in full effect, and two Florida cities in particular offer completely different takes on how to experience local in the Sunshine State. Whether you’re along the northern Florida coast in Jacksonville or the southern coastal edge in Miami, here are a few locally recommended places from our friends at Localeur.
Treat yourself to treasured Creole traditions in the French Quarter and nearby Tremé neighborhood.
We are proud to have our very own Head of Sustainability, Sophia Mendelsohn featured along with Nestlé USA’s Chairman and CEO Paul Grimwood and Starwood Vice President Sustainability, Global Citizenship Andrea Pinabell in this Mediaplanet roundtable discussion on the importance of sustainability in business. Presented here is her portion of the conversation with Mediaplanet GREEN BUSINESS New studies show that businesses that develop goods and services that reduce


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Qype has announced that it cut more than 2,000 fake reviews last month as it seeks to clean up its listings.
It said that around 3% of new reviews have been deleted since it declared war on unethical listings last year.
The move comes after TripAdvisor was banned from claiming all its hotel and restaurant reviews could be trusted, following complaints that hoteliers were posting fake comments to promote their own business and undermine the competition.
After a four month investigation, the Advertising Standards Authority stated that as it was possible for reviews to be posted without any verification TripAdvisor could no longer claim all the comments were honest or from real people.
Qype’s press release took a swipe at its competitors saying: “Unlike some other reviews sites, Qype does not rely solely on an obscure algorithm to weed out fake reviews.”
Instead it uses “up-to-date” technology to flag suspect items and a team of people to evaluate the evidence and ensure reviews are deleted if necessary.
But while this move should be commended, it is also surely the least its users should expect.
You would think that most savvy web users treat review sites with a degree of caution and probably use the likes of Qype as a starting point for their research before looking for further information elsewhere.
With a review posted to Qype every 30 seconds there will inevitably be some that slip through the net, and what of those that already exist within its database of 13.5m online listings?
Have they all been weeded out as part of Qype’s ‘war on unethical listings’? It’s unlikely, but it is good to see that Qype is taking the problem seriously – and proactively.


text: 2016 saw two big events that brought millions of first-time users to the World Wide Web. Namely, the launch and rapid adoption of Reliance Jio 4G and PM Modi’s demonetisation move, which forced people to adopt cashless financial transactions.As India moves ahead to meet the ambitious Digital India objective of ubiquitous connectivity, the threat of cyber fraud, theft and data breaches is beginning to raise its ugly head.According to ASSOCHAM, mobile fraud cases in India will witness a 65% rise in 2017. Credit/debit card frauds and data theft through mobile phones will top the list of digital crimes, ASSOCHAM said.Digital wallet companies like Paytm are seeing an unprecedented surge in usage and transactions as people opt for cashless transactions. But what about the safety of your money in these virtual vaults? Cyber law advocate Pavan Duggal voices the fears we don’t even know we should have. The unpreparedness of India’s legal machinery to address issues such as cyber crime and online fraud is disturbing.All online activities are governed by the Indian Information technology Act that came into effect in 2000. This cyber law has only amended once in the last 16 years. Which puts it at a huge risk of being ill-equipped with recent technological developments.Pavan Duggal, Cyber Law AdvocateVideo Editor: Mohd Ibrahim We'll get through this! Meanwhile, here's all you need to know about the Coronavirus outbreak to keep yourself safe, informed, and updated. The Quint is now available on Telegram & WhatsApp too, Click here to join.


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Small businesses pop up for the holidays
Here today, gone in weeks — pop-up shops and temporary stores are back for the holiday season.
At Christmas Lights Etc.’s Atlanta showroom, the public gets to shop for about month-and-a-half, browsing the high-end Christmas trees, lighting and other holiday decorations. The temporary store pulls in additional sales and the company finds it’s good marketing for its core business of selling online and to commercial and wholesale customers.
The yearly sale draws families from far and wide. Some drive five hours to see Christmas trees as tall as 25 feet (customers can order taller trees). Workers clean, freshen the paint and bring in new inventory for their holiday guests.
“If customers have a good experience here, like the product, like the people, they’ll come back next year when they need lights or a tree and they’ll recommend you to their friends,” says marketing director Hillary Zody.
The sale at Christmas Lights Etc., is one of many temporary stores that open during the holidays. These shops, often called “pop-ups” sometimes produce extra income, but small business owners increasingly use them as promotional tools and test labs for merchandise. Manufacturers, designers and online retailers use them to decide whether to open an actual store.
A pop-up store was part of the startup plan for Zady, an online clothing and home goods retailer that launched in late August. Owners Maxine Bedat and Soraya Darabi chose a high-profile location, in the Delta Airlines terminal at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. The store operates from Nov. 4 until Jan. 4. They wanted to get feedback about their merchandise, which includes $395 sweaters and $225 jeans.
“We have all sorts of metrics to see what customers are doing on the website, but nothing compares to actually seeing them interact with our products,” Bedat says.
So far, they’re getting food feedback. It’s too soon to tell now if the season will be a success, but if it is, Zady’s owners say they’ll consider more pop-ups, and perhaps a permanent store.
Janet Holian opened a pop-up in Boston to see if Gemvara, her online custom jewelry business, would succeed with a physical location. The shop opened in a vacant store on Nov. 3 and will operate until Feb. 15, longer than most pop-ups, to take advantage of Valentine’s Day.
“I wanted to see whether people needed to actually touch or feel the jewelry or meet us,” Holian says.
Her instincts were right. Women want to see the merchandise and meet the people selling it. Men who are shopping for jewelry that can cost in the thousands of dollars want to be sure they’re buying from someone reputable.
Jeanne Chinn chose dog-friendly Century City Mall in Beverly Hills, Calif., for a kiosk for the upscale dog accessories she designs. Chinn, who sells carriers, coats, beds and toys to retailers and online, opened the kiosk Nov. 18 near the mall’s dog park and will be there until Dec. 31.
“I’m trying to capture holiday sales and make people aware of the brand,” Chinn says. Her Chihuahua, Mr. Truffle, is by her side during 12-hour days.
Chinn is also getting more visitors to her website. She credits that uptick to being in the mall. One customer bought a dog T-shirt at the kiosk, then looked at her website and returned to the mall to buy a bag.
Retailers are rotating through pop-up shops at the Alki Arts Gallery in downtown Seattle. Each week, nine merchants will set up shop for seven days in space paid for by American Express and Delta Air Lines. Susan Wheeler is selling antiques and vintage clothing this week. She’s hoping the pop-up will introduce her three-year old store, Susan Wheeler Home to new customers.
Linda Walsh, who has owned Clementine, a West Seattle store, since 2006, will run her temporary shop from Dec. 4-9, selling women’s clothes and accessories. Her inventory includes $475 sweaters and $350 tops.
“It would be awesome if we bring in more revenue,” Walsh says. “I don’t expect it — I am doing it primarily for advertising and promotion.”


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According to a study by Economic Intelligence (AEI), New York and Singapore are jointly the most expensive cities in the world.
It is the first catalog with the largest volume in Oxford. Tel Aviv, last year’s No. 1, is now third.
Overall, the average cost of living in the world’s major cities rose 8.1 percent this year, according to the EIU.
The war in Ukraine and the impact of Covid on the supply chain were cited as reasons for the increase.
Istanbul recorded the highest price, with prices rising by 86 percent – followed by Buenos Aires (64 percent) and Tehran (57 percent).
New York ranks among the highest cost of living in the United States.
Los Angeles and San Francisco are also in the top 10 – earlier this year, prices in the US were the highest in more than 40 years.
The strength of the dollar in US cities is also a factor.
Moscow and St. St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg rose from 37th and 73rd to 88th and 70th, due to Western sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In this study, prices of goods and services are measured in US dollars. At 173. Kyiv was not included in this year’s analysis.
EIU has collected more than 400 human values for 200 products and services from 172 countries around the world.
Upasana Dutta, who led the study, said the war in Ukraine, Western sanctions against Russia and China’s zero-covid policy had a “broad causal mechanism”.
This resulted in rising interest rates and fluctuating trade prices, as well as a global cost of living crisis.
The average price increase is “the highest we’ve seen in 20 years of digital data” in an EIU survey of 172 countries.
The biggest city
- First link – New York and Singapore
- 3 Tel Aviv
- 4 of them are connected to Hong Kong and Los Angeles.
- 7 Geneva
- 8 San Francisco
- 9 Paris
- 10. Sydney and Copenhagen
And it’s easy.
- 161. = Colombo, Bangalore and Algeria
- 164 Chennai
- 165 Ahmedabad
- 166 Almaty
- 167 Karachi
- 168 Tashkent
- 169 Tunisia
- 170 Tehran
- 171 Tripoli


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Rialto Sells Former Sears in Northeastern Philly for $29M
- Nov 24, 2020
Rialto Capital Advisors has sold Great Northeast Plaza, a 237,151-square-foot retail asset in Philadelphia, for $28.8 million. A partnership of Abrams Realty and Development and Bock Development acquired the former Sears location in a deal brokered by Colliers Retail.
The new owner plans to reposition the property as a new retail center, under the “Court at Cottman” signature, preserving the existing three-story building. Sears Holdings Corp. closed its store at Great Northeast Plaza in 2018, when the company terminated more than 100 Sears and Kmart locations across the U.S.
The property is located at 2201 Cottman Ave., in Northeast Philadelphia and is part of a Macy’s- and Target-anchored retail area adjacent to Roosevelt Boulevard. The asset sits 10 miles from Center City, while Interstate 95 is less than 3 miles away. SEPTA bus routes 58, 70 and 77 include stops at the location.
The Colliers Retail team included Jon Kieserman and Todd Sussman, who will also be in charge of leasing efforts. Earlier this month, the brokering firm arranged the sale of a 56,000-square-foot retail center in Virginia. Rafinia Property Group purchased the asset in a $2.2 million deal.


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Enid News & Eagle
Danny Thornton has been named Associate of the Year for 2012 at Northcutt Chevy-Buick-Toyota, 3201 W. Garriott.
Danny has been with the GM sales department for 19 years. His professional work ethic and product knowledge always exceeds the highest of standards, according to a press release.
This is Danny’s second time to receive the honor, and he truly is worthy of the recognition, owner Leonard Northcutt said.


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BehavioSec boosted by $17.5m funding
The Series B round was led by Trident Capital Cybersecurity with Cisco Investments, ABN Amro, and existing investors Octopus Ventures and Conor Venture Partners also contributing. The Sweden-based firm will use the funds to expand operations and relocate its headquarters to the US. This comes after BehavioSec’s expansion to the US last April.
Since it was founded in 2009, BehavioSec says it has secured billions of transactions for 40+ million users. The company’s flagship offering technology leverages machine learning to verify a user’s identity by how they interact with their device. This layered and continuous approach takes place in the background so as not to interfere with the user experience.
Alberto Yépez of Trident Cybersecurity cites two main reasons for the firm’s investment in BehavioSec: “We decided to invest in BehavioSec given production deployments authenticating user sessions for some of the most sophisticated financial institutions and governments around the world. In addition, the company continues to lead the innovation in behavioural biometrics through close partnership with leading cybersecurity vendors and government agencies, including DARPA.”
However, there will be increased competition. Last October, Zighra launched a continuous authentication solution that leverages behavioural cues. Additionally, companies such as BioCatch, NuData Security, and IBM Security Trusteer all have offerings similar to BehavioSec’s solution.
Last November, BehavioSec teamed up with Crossmatch to add keystroke capture to Crossmatch’s authentication platform.


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A total of £23.9bn was invested last year, according to the Investment Management Association (IMA) - just below the record £25.9bn recorded in 2009. The figures were driven by strong sales of tax-free ISAs, which hit their highest level since 2001 with net investments of £3.9bn.
Elsewhere, equity sales hit a 10-year peak, reaching £7.5bn. Bonds also remained popular with savers, who invested £7bn in them during the year.
Richard Saunders, chief executive at IMA, said: "Consumers continued to increase their investments at record rates in 2010, which was the second highest year on record for fund sales.
"Faith in equities strengthened, with 2010 showing the highest equity net retail sales since 2000. While investors showed a strong bias towards UK and European equities a decade ago, investors have now diversified their equity exposure, with 20pc of gross sales going into global funds in 2010."
The strong annual performance saw funds under management at UK-domiciled companies grow to £577.69bn from £480.6bn a year earlier.
The upturn comes against a backdrop of low interest rates, which remain at 0.5pc, and rising equity markets. The FTSE100 has risen by 13.57pc over the past year, helping alternative sources of investment, such as stock markets, become a more attractive than many conventional savings products.
In December, net retail sales hit £2.5bn - above the monthly average of £2bn recorded over the past 12 months. This meant monthly net sales have now been at or above £2bn for 14 out of the past 18 months.
The leading asset class was equities with net retail sales of £1.7bn in December, the highest since April 2000. However, net retail sales of bond funds only reached £196m, below the monthly average of £591m recorded over the past 12 months.
Mr Saunders added: "Strong sales of tracker funds also helped the UK All Companies sector to its best sales in 2010.
"Investors continued to diversify their portfolios geographically, with the Global Growth sector reporting its highest sales on record."
The Investment Management Association is the trade body for the UK's £3 trillion asset management industry. The money its members manage include pension funds and stocks and shares ISAs.
Discover the top-selling ISAs and get 0% commission when you order online with Telegraph ISA-fund Supermarket.


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Everything is NOT Awesome as Lego hides its head in the sand
I am intrigued by the ongoing Shell / Lego saga that rages as Greenpeace puts pressure on the toy company to end it’s partnership with the oil giant which began in 1966 and was rekindled in 2011.
In my opinion Greenpeace is winning this PR war. They have been very clever in how they have approached the issue and are specifically looking to engage parents and their children in the campaign. I, like Greenpeace, can see the benefits for Shell in this partnership but am struggling to understand why Lego are keen to continue to be associated with them.
Large companies have always been targets for campaigners but the internet has made it a lot easier to hit big brands…hard. Utilising this medium Greenpeace has created a parody video entitled ‘Everything is NOT awesome’. It is a dark video which depicts Lego figures getting drowned in a sea of oil with a lamenting version of ‘Everything is Awesome’, from the Lego movie used as the soundtrack, and it is REALLY effective. This has been used alongside a petition and a number of Greenpeace demonstrations happening round the world.
The only response Lego has made during this whole campaign came from their president and CEO Jørgen Vig Knudstorp who said, “The Greenpeace campaign focuses on how Shell operates in a specific part of the world. We firmly believe that this matter must be handled between Shell and Greenpeace. We are saddened when the Lego brand is used as a tool in any dispute between organisations. We expect that Shell lives up to their responsibilities wherever they operate and take appropriate action to any potential claims should this not be the case. I would like to clarify that we intend to live up to the long term contract with Shell, which we entered into in 2011.”
Apart from this statement they seem to have taken an old fashioned ‘no comment’ approach which is never a good idea. Their Facebook page is being inundated with comments urging them to dump Shell and asking questions about why they are continuing to work with them – all of which are going unacknowledged and without answers.
If Lego were my client I would advise them to think carefully about the story they wanted to tell and how they wanted to respond. They should start being responsive to claims by Greenpeace and also the interactions on their social media pages. If these interactions and responses to the petition are anything to go by it looks like customer sentiment for the beloved Lego brand is shifting and gaining momentum. Stakeholder reassurance is key now, something needs to be done and fast as it doesn’t look like Greenpeace is going to let them off the hook anytime soon.


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New official figures revealing a 3% drop in police-recorded shop theft “vastly underestimate” the scale of the problem, according to the Association of Convenience Stores.
The Office for National Statistics’ annual Crime Survey for England and Wales showed that the number of police-recorded incidents of shop theft dropped to 351,874 in the year ending 2019.
ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “The police recorded crime data does not reflect what local shops tells about shop theft and crime they experience in their stores. Shop theft remains prevalent and is the number one trigger for violence and abuse of staff.
“We welcome the government’s rhetoric on being tough on crime and more funding for police forces, but this must now turn into reality, including more police resources into local communities and better funding for the justice system to tackle the root cause of offending.”
The ACS’ 2019 Crime Report confirmed that the issue retailers are most concerned about in their stores is violence against their staff, and showed a clear link between theft and abuse, with challenging shop thieves being the number one cause of aggressive behaviour in stores.
The government has announced an increase of more than £1.1bn to the amount of funding available to the policing system for 2020 to 2021.


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Marketing Predictions for 2020
Marketing teams were not always the analytical beasts that they are today. They used to be the team that helped with flyers, balloons and maybe a sign. But those days are long gone. The acceleration of online technology and the creation of new digital marketing channels has forced marketers to learn how to drive traffic […]
Industry News | Wk of March 4
HOT & RELEVANT TOPICS Multifamily Construction’s 7 Deadly Sins As apartment operators clamor to unveil their new developments in time to beat the competition and capture a hot market, time is a precious commodity.
3 Digital Marketing Trends for Apartment Marketers in 2019
In the world of marketing, there are a lot of platforms and technologies that marketing experts have identified to be major players in 2019. This is a great article about impactful marketing trends to watch this year.


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New laws on tobacco and cigarettes will come into force in May - and it will be illegal to sell cigarettes in branded packs.
Judges at the Supreme Court - the highest court in the land - this week refused to let global giants Big Tobacco appeal the decision.
The law technically came in last year, but there was a grace period so branded cigarettes wouldn't have to be thrown away.
Cigarettes will no longer be available in packs of ten as well as smaller packs of rolling tobacco and there are also changes to the law on menthol cigarettes, vaping and more.
Here is your full guide on when the new laws come into force and what exactly has been happening to Britain's tobacco laws:
No more branded packs
It will be illegal for shops to sell old-style branded cigarette packs from May 21 2017 .
All cigarette packs must now be what the government calls a "drab dark brown", dubbed the "world's ugliest colour" - with no logos, promotional images or indications of the cigarette's flavour.
They cannot have "non-standard noises or smells" and must be 65% covered by health warnings, including graphic pictures such as tar-stained lungs.
The law was prompted by an EU directive and took force on May 20 2016 for manufacturers and importers but there was a grace period for sellers and suppliers to get rid of old stock.
No more packs of 10
All packs must have a "minimum of 20 cigarettes" - this takes full force on May 21 2017 .
The thinking behind this is it'll be more expensive to get hold of a pack in future, with the cheapest costing nearly £9.
It might also put off youngsters who want to give smoking a try.
Big Tobacco tried to stop laws coming in
Tobacco giants, including Imperial and British American Tobacco, fought a large court case to try and stop plain packaging from coming into force.
They complained the government would have a "disproportionate control" over their lucrative trade marks without "compensating" them.
The Court of Appeal dismissed all 17 of their points in November after a week-long case involving 30 expert witnesses.
But the giants appealed to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land.
It was confirmed on Tuesday evening (April 11) the Supreme Court had refused to hear that appeal, clearing the last hurdle to the rules.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he was "delighted".
No more menthol cigarettes
ALL flavoured cigarettes including menthols will be banned from sale in the UK from May 20 2020 . That includes both pre-produced cigarettes and rolling tobacco.
Shops will also be banned from selling tobacco with any flavoured papers, filters, packages or capsules that let you give the smoke a flavour.
Experts say this is needed because menthols' lighter taste obscures how dangerous they are.
Amanda Sandford of the charity ASH - Action on Smoking and Heath - told the Liverpool Echo: "It is an absolute myth that menthol cigarettes are better for you. All cigarettes are harmful and menthol cigarettes are just as dangerous as normal cigarettes.”
No more small pouches of rolling tobacco
Packs smaller than 30g are banned from sale from May 21 2017 .
Just like the minimum pack size of 20 cigarettes, this is to discourage teenagers from buying small amounts then getting addicted.
This law came into force last year but had a grace period.
Offenders can be jailed for 2 years.
Anyone breaching any of the laws above can be jailed for up to two years in the most serious cases.
New restrictions on vaping
Vaping is not being banned.
But a raft of new rules on e-cigarettes was brought in last year. They include:
- New red tape for manufacturers and suppliers
- Refill containers must be limited to 10ml
- Disposable cartridges limited to 2ml
- Vitamins, colourings and additives like caffeine and taurine banned
- E-cigarettes must be 'child-resistant' in design
- Health warnings must cover 30% of each pack surface
- Packs cannot describe e-cigs' "taste or smell" (they can describe flavouring though)
Once again there was a grace period, so it will be illegal for shops to sell products that don't comply from May 20 2017.
Don't smoke in the car with your child
It has been illegal to smoke in a vehicle where there is anyone under 18 present since October 2015.
Both the driver and the smoker, if they are two different people, can be fined £50.
The law applies throughout England and Wales, including to 17-year-olds with a provisional driving licence.
It does not apply to vaping, 17-year-olds on their own or convertibles with the roof fully down.
Keep up to date with the latest news from around the county via the free Get Surrey app.
You can set up your app to see all the latest news and events from your area, plus receive push notifications for breaking news.


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At its MWC 2022 event, OnePlus has confirmed that the OnePlus 10 Pro will reach global audience next month. It also confirms that the OnePlus 10 Pro will be based on OxygenOS 12.1 and not 'UnifiedOS.'
Build 22000.829 (KB5015882)
Windows 11 in Release Preview adds urgent notifications bypass and more
windows 11 insider preview
Windows 11 released to Dev Channel and ISO comes with File Explorer tabs
windows 11 promo


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APN Outdoor Group chief executive James Warburton has announced plans to leave the billboard company less than a year into his role, after a successful takeover by global giant JCDecaux.
The former Network Ten chief executive and V8 Supercars boss has worked at the outdoor advertising business since January 22. APN's share price has increased 45 per cent from $4.60 on the day he started the job to $6.69 on Thursday. The broader sharemarket fell about 1 per cent in the same period.
Mr Warburton told Fairfax Media he would leave the outdoor advertiser at the end of the month, with his sights set on another chief executive role and a directorship.
While he was "very proud" of the APN Outdoor team, in particular a 100 per cent success rate for advertising contracts up for renewal, the acquisition of the company was "fantastic for our staff but for me as CEO it's just a very different role".
He was particularly interested in opportunities at companies facing disruption, saying "business as usual" was not his preferred style.
"I've had several approaches ... There's lots of varying industries and all sorts of points of disruption," he said.
Prior to APN Outdoor, Mr Warburton was the boss of V8 Supercars, where he was widely credited with the company's turnaround.
He has previously worked for media buyers and marketers like DDB Needham and McCann Erickson, but moved into the limelight in 2003 when former Seven Media Group chief executive David Leckie hired him as sales director. He was promoted to chief sales officer in 2008. By the early 2010s, Seven boss Kerry Stokes asked him to be chief executive, however, he instead decided to become CEO of Network Ten in 2011. Ten replaced Mr Warburton with News Corp executive Hamish McLennan in 2013 amid poor ratings.
His latest 10-month stint in the outdoor advertising industry has been a period of rapid change. He joined APN several months after a $1.6 billion planned merger with rival out-of-home business OohMedia was dropped on the basis it wouldn't get past the competition regulator.
Just months later, OohMedia beat APN to the $570 million acquisition of Here There & Everywhere's street furniture arm Adshel.
In June, JCDecaux made the successful $1.2 billion offer to buy APN, on the condition it did not continue to bid for HT&E's asset. This was an unsolicited bid, Mr Warburton said, at a record multiple for the sector in Australasia.
These newly formed advertising companies will be competing in consortiums with telecommunications companies for Australia's biggest outdoor advertising contract. The long-term City of Sydney contract, currently held by JCDecaux, is to provide street furniture, advertising spots and free WiFi and is expected to be worth more than $500 million.
Jennifer Duke is an economics correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based at Parliament House in Canberra.


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Internet millionaire, Tom Gonzales, is selling his sprawling Lake Tahoe compound for $50 million. Besides the stellar views, the estate has one other key selling point: An underground garage that can house 30 que-home-Tahoe/index.html?iid=ELcars.
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In recent years, investors have feasted on the shares of newly public restaurant chains with the hopes that one day they’ll become just as big as Chipotle or Panera. But one of those promising debuts has largely slipped under the radar.
On Tuesday, Mexican fast-food restaurant chain Del Taco officially became the sole subsidiary of Levy Acquisition Corp. [fortune-stock symbol=”TACO”], after announcing a deal earlier this year to be acquired for $500 million, including debt. That transaction helped Del Taco pay down millions in high interest debt and put the restaurant company in a better position to use the cash it generates to fund expansion and other day-to-day operations.
But shares in the company, whose name changed to Del Taco Restaurants Inc., haven’t seen much trading action and were only up a slim 3% on Wednesday. That goes against the streak of double-digit or greater gains that other restaurant initial…
View original post 328 more words


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Impossible Foods Announces New Leadership
Dennis Woodside joins the food technology startup in the newly created role of President
Tech industry veteran Dennis Woodside has nearly 25 years of professional experience at both startups and publicly traded multinationals.
Woodside most recently served as Chief Operating Officer of Dropbox, where he was responsible for all customer-facing functions and revenue generation. Before that, he was the Chief Executive Officer of Motorola Mobility, a $10 billion mobile device company, after its acquisition by Google. He worked at Google from 2003-2012, overseeing more than $10 billion in sales in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, among other leadership roles.
Woodside currently serves on the boards of ServiceNow and the American Red Cross. He graduated from Cornell University and Stanford Law School.
Woodside is the latest high-profile appointment at Impossible Foods. Earlier this month, Impossible Foods announced the appointment of its seventh board member, Vanessa Wittman, a former public-company chief financial officer now serving as chair of Impossible Foods’ audit committee.


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Table of Contents
Egyptian Institute of Animal Husbandry Creates New Breed of Poultry
Dr. El-Shafei, director of the Institute of Animal Husbandry, revealed the details of the production of a new Egyptian breed of poultry.
The Birth of Tanta 1
Al-Shafei stated in a Masrawi press release that the Institute of Animal Husbandry has created a new breed of Egyptian poultry named Tanta 1. This new breed was produced at the Gemmayzeh Station as part of a group of strains that belong to maternal grandparents. The new variety is a promising breed and cheaper than foreign counterparts, as it consumes less feed than other strains.
Efficient and Affordable
According to Al-Shafei, older breed birds consume 4 kg of feed per every kilogram of meat, whereas Tanta 1 strain consumes only 1.9 kg of feed per kilogram, which makes it even more efficient and cost-effective for breeders. Despite the fact that foreign breeds consume less feed, they require a powerful cooling and protection system that is very costly for breeders. However, the Tanta 1 strain does not require this setup, making it a more affordable option as it is familiar with high temperatures. The strain’s evaluation cycle is also shorter than imported breeds, taking only 50 days compared to 65 days, allowing for an increased number of sessions per year.
A Growing Industry
The poultry production in Egypt is a thriving industry with a volume of 4 million chickens produced per day, roughly equivalent to one billion four hundred million chickens and about thirteen billion eggs annually. The poultry industry is also a significant contributor to the economy, with investment in the industry reaching approximately 90 billion EGP and employing over 2.5 million workers, according to official figures from the Department of Agriculture and Land Reclamation
A Promising Future
The Minister of Agriculture, Al Quseir, expressed the need to distribute this strain to all of the 13 stations of the republic. It will take two years to distribute it, but the future looks bright for this new breed of Egyptian poultry as it is more efficient, cost-effective, and adaptable to the local climate.


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Have you ever wished you could drive from Melbourne to Sydney on a single charge or only have to charge your phone once a week?
Simply by adding sugar, Australian researchers have built a stable, longer-lasting, lighter, more sustainable successor to the lithium-ion batteries essential for smartphones, computers, electric cars and future submarines.
For the past five years, Cleanfuture Energy, an Australian subsidiary of the Enserv Group Thailand and its sister subsidiary, Enserv Australia, have engaged Australian leading researchers in the hope of developing and manufacturing lithium-sulphur batteries to superseded current battery technologies. Adding to the benefit of this technology is Australia being the world’s largest producer of lithium.
The research team, led by Monash University and assisted by CSIRO, report in today’s edition of Nature Communications that using a glucose-based coating on the positive electrode they have managed to stabilise lithium-sulfur battery technology, long touted as the basis for the next generation of batteries.
“In less than a decade, this technology could lead to vehicles including electric buses and trucks that can travel from Melbourne to Sydney without recharging. It could also enable innovation in delivery and agricultural drones where light weight is paramount,” says Professor Mainak Majumder, Associate Director of the Monash Energy Institute, and the lead corresponding author on the paper.
In theory, lithium-sulfur batteries could store two to five times more energy than lithium-ion batteries of the same weight. The problem has been that, in use the electrodes deteriorated rapidly, and the batteries broke down. There were two reasons. The positive sulfur electrode suffered from substantial expansion and contraction weakening it and making it inaccessible to lithium, and the negative lithium electrode became contaminated by sulfur compounds.
Last year the research team demonstrated they could open the structure of the sulfur electrode to accommodate expansion and make it more accessible to lithium. Now, by incorporating sugar into the web-like architecture of the electrode they have stabilised the sulfur, thus preventing it from moving and blanketing the lithium electrode.
Test-cell prototypes constructed by the team have been shown to have a charge-discharge life of at least 1000 cycles, while still holding far more capacity than equivalent lithium-ion batteries. “So each charge lasts longer, extending the battery’s life,” says first author, PhD student, Yingyi Huang. “And manufacturing the batteries doesn’t require exotic, toxic, and expensive materials.”
Enserv Group Founder and Chairman, Mr Tanachat Pochana says, “Enserv’s ultimate goal is to be a world leader in renewable energy innovations. Lithium Sulphur batteries and future evolutions of this technology hold the key to revolutionising energy storage. We are now on the cusp of unveiling a new battery that is more efficient, energy dense and cleaner for the world than lithium ion.”
“We are now on the cusp of unveiling a new battery that is more efficient, energy dense and cleaner for the world than lithium ion.”
Enserv Australia hopes to develop and manufacture the batteries in Australia, the world’s largest producer of lithium. “We would be looking to use the technology to enter the growing market for electric vehicles and consumer electronic devices,” says Mark Gustowski, Managing Director of Enserv Australia. “We plan to make the first lithium-sulfur batteries in Australia using Australian lithium within about five years adding to our sovereign manufacturing capability and developing new skills in the sector.”
The work has also been supported by the Commonwealth Government through the Australian Research Council and the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science.
The Enserv Group
Enserv is an energy research and innovation company headquartered in Bangkok. It comprises two core businesses: Clean Energy Innovation and Clean Energy Generation.
Monash Energy Institute
The Monash Energy Institute is a collective of researchers which aims to find solutions to future energy demands.


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Everyone, especially urbanites, love getting food delivered to their door.
That’s why this news is so exciting — especially for fast food fans: Taco Bell and KFC delivered to your door! Parent company Yum Brands is teaming up with GrubHub in a $200 million deal to bring Taco Bell and KFC directly to you. The company will use GrubHub’s tech and delivery people to oversee online orders.
It’s a deal investors seem to like — GrubHub’s stock shot up more than 27% after the announcement. Other fast food chains are starting to catch on to this delivery-friendly trend. McDonald’s has expended delivery to 5,000 of its 14,000 U.S. locations.
Yum Brands will buy $200 million of GrubHub’s stock and a Yum Exec will join GrubHub’s board. It hasn’t been announced how many KFC and Taco Bell locations will offer delivery and when. Regardless, this news likely has a few fans itching to use the service.


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One of the use cases Facebook is most focused on is customer service.
While there’s still skepticism about social media as a customer service channel, and some businesses have been reluctant to embrace it as such, the reality is that customers are using services like Facebook and Twitter to seek support from the companies they do business with.
In an effort to better support customer service interactions, Facebook has added a number of features to Pages, including…
Response time display
Earlier this year, Facebook began highlighting businesses that, on average, respond within five minutes of receiving a message through their Facebook Pages.
Now, Pages will display average response times even if they don’t meet that standard. To help businesses set expectations, they can also change what’s displayed.
“Average response times for Pages are calculated for each Page automatically and the response time shown on the Page defaults to their average response time, but admins can now control what response time shows publicly on their Page.
So even if a Page typically responds to messages within an hour, they can can set their visible response time to within a day and set customer expectations accordingly,” Facebook explained.
In addition, businesses can configure an Away mode to let customers know that they are not currently available to respond to messages as quickly as usual, and can create Away Messages and Instant Replies, which function like email autoresponders.
A redesigned inbox
One of the biggest challenges companies face in using social media for customer service is that many of the tools they’re given by social platforms were not designed with customer service in mind. Facebook is aiming to change that with a redesigned inbox that provides more context.
The redesigned inbox makes it easy for Page admins to view past messages from a particular user, and to quickly view basic profile information, like location, alongside the user’s message. Additionally, Page admins can tag coversations add notes about users.
According to Facebook, “These changes help Page admins keep up with messages faster and manage conversations more easily.”
New comment tools
Because comments are also commonly used for customer service purposes, Facebook has created a new tool that businesses can use to monitor and respond to comments left on their Pages.
Using the tool, Page admins can identify comments that need to be responded to, quickly view information about the user who posted the comment, and manage workflow, like marking comments as responded to.
So is Facebook now a viable customer service platform?
Clearly, Facebook is attempting to address the customer service interactions that are taking place on its platform.
Its functionality may not do enough for some companies, particularly those that have invested heavily in their own customer service platforms, but with 50m business Pages, many of them operated by small businesses, Facebook’s newest features arguably represent steps in the right direction.
Of course, businesses will need to embrace these features, but the days of arguing that social platforms aren’t suitable for customer service because they don’t support customer service use cases very well are numbered.


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Just a week after we first heard about developers starting to get successful at jailbreaking the new kid on the smartphone block – Windows Phone 7 – comes the news that the first WP7 app for jailbroken handsets has now been developed. This application is courtesy Kevin Marshall; a Windows Phone 7 developer. Marshall has created an application that is a rudimentary copy of the Augmented reality based Google Goggles app. It uses information pulled from the camera into a publicly-available Silverlight toolkit to render information on to real-world objects.
A similar functionality is already available on LG Optimus 7 phone. However, the tools necessary to build such an app is not available for third party developers. Consequently, similar apps can be installed only after a jailbreak.
Check out a demo of this app in the video embedded below


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In the Media
Fiksu’s Mobile Audience Platform was used to acquire loyal paying users for Topps’ baseball app Bunt. Potentially receptive audience segments, particularly fans of various baseball teams, were targeted with ads encouraging in-app activity and purchases, driving up downloads by 146 per cent overall, and the number of users making in-app purchases by 33 per cent.
With the shortlist announced, the countdown to our 2015 Effective Mobile Marketing Awards has begun. There’s less than a month until the ceremony on 26 November in London, and between now and then, we’ll be taking a closer look at each of the nominees in our 32 categories.
Today, we’ll be focusing on the finalists for Most Effective Programmatic Campaign.
Indeed, more than four and a half years after it hit the market, the iPad 2 is still the most popular iPad in terms of usage, according to Fiksu, representing about 20% of iPad usage.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) just wrapped up its best year ever. Revenue leaped 28% higher, reaching a staggering $233.7 billion, and driving 43% year-over-year growth in earnings per share. This rapid growth came from a single source: the iPhone.
While iPhone revenue surged more than 50% in the 2015 fiscal year, iPad revenue dropped 23% on a 19% decline in unit sales. This performance has pundits even more demoralized about the iPad's long-term prospects than they were after the prior year's 4% decline in iPad shipments and 5% iPad revenue decline.
Fiksu said that its App Store Competitive Index, which tracks the average aggregate daily downloads of the top 200 free iOS apps, had the lowest volume on iOS since September of last year.
User acquisition costs for mobile games and apps rose again in September, according to mobile marketing firm Fiksu. That means that life will continue to be hard for small app makers who don’t have highly viral apps and games.
Fiksu said that the cost per loyal user index (which measures the cost to acquire users who open an app three or more times) rose to $4.14 in September, up 2 percent from August and up 84 percent from a year ago.
The most recent app marketing indexes from Fiksu found that advertising costs associated with promoting an app install have skyrocketed, partly due to the overcrowded nature of the app market.
The Google Play app store is getting a brand new layout in what is likely part of a long-term effort by Google to increase app discoverability. While the revamped store layout has not yet been officially released or announced, a preview was published by Google employee Kirill Grouchnikov. The update has started trickling out to some consumers, according to Digital Trends.
“‘Mobile’ is no longer about a screen size, or even actually moving around,” he proposed. “It’s about tying a person’s digital activities together,” said Craig Palli, CSO of Fiksu.
It’s not TV. It’s a new app platform.
Following yesterday’s announcement from Apple that it is making its TV a full-fledged app platform, we checked in with companies who make their living through apps and their ads to see how — or if — it mattered.
Last year’s release of iOS saw Apple reach a 21% share in less than two weeks (as charted by Fiksu), it has taken forty-three weeks to reach the same level of adoption.
Google has released its monthly survey of active Android handsets passing through its Google Play store, which illustrates the current market share of each version of the mobile operating system. The various versions of Android Lollipop (Android 5.x) now have a combined market share of 21%, up less than 3% on last month’s numbers.
Android 4.4 (KitKat) is still the biggest player in the Android ecosystem with a 39.2% share, followed by the previous version of Android (4.x Jelly Bean) on 31.8%.
The iPhone 6 represents nearly a third of iPhone model market share, according to the Fiksu data, while the pricier iPhone 6 Plus is the third-most-popular phone with a 12.7% share. The cheaper 5s is also still incredibly popular with 22.5% share.
Apple is expected to announce two new iPhones on Wednesday, an annual update to its most successful product lines.
This will mark the ninth year that Apple has introduced a new set of iPhones. The company has sold 10 different variations of the iPhone, from the 2007 original (which launched without the App Store) to last year’s supersized iPhone 6 Plus. In total, Apple has sold more than 700 million iPhones since 2007.
"Mobile should be at the center of how all brands engage with their consumers," said Micah Adler, president, CEO and founder of Fiksu.
The Fiksu Mobile Audience Platform gives brands the ability to use both Fiksu Personas and third party data as a targeting strategy; it also uses data that is independent of any one channel so that brands get a sense of customer behavior.
“June’s results reflect the ongoing evolution of the mobile marketplace, as marketers continue their struggle to gain screen time with users. Increased competition for limited attention is causing a rise in overall costs,” said Micah Adler, CEO of Fiksu.
New data from Fiksu has shown that marketers are continuing to spend more to connect with mobile app users and mobile app downloads are increasing.
In June of this year, the cost per loyal user (CPLU) rose 30 percent to $3.21 compared to May of this year. The figure makes up a 44 percent increase year-on-year.
“Increased competition for limited attention is causing a rise in overall costs. It is incredibly important for today’s advertisers to recognise and precisely target their audiences, and market to a more focused pool of engaged users," said Micah Adler, CEO of Fiksu.
Marketers are spending more to connect with users on mobile devices, even as app usage increases, with the cost per loyal user (CPLU) up 44 per cent year-on-year in June to $3.21 (£2.06).
The figures come from the Fiksu Indexes, which show CPLU is up 30 per cent month-on-month, even as app downloads increase 24 per cent in the same period, with the top 200 free iOS apps seeing 8.3m total downloads.


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Helpful money saving tips for your Christmas shopping as almost one in three begin
It may only be September, but some people are already getting into the Christmas spirit despite temperatures outside still topping 20C.
When it comes to Christmas shopping, there are certainly two camps that people put themselves into. You're either an early bird who gets everything done before December hits, or you like to give yourself a week off just before Christmas Eve to get presents for your son, mum and dog.
However, a survey has found that three in 10 (30%) adults who celebrate or shop for Christmas have already started buying items for the festive season.
Some 2,000 people across the UK were surveyed by Opinium for the research.
Gifts for others were the most common items that people said they had already bought, followed by wrapping paper and gift bags, Christmas cards, decorations, and long-life food or snacks.
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Those who have started their seasonal spending have already spent £94 on average on gifts, the research, carried out for American Express, found.
This increases to £110 when taking into account everything they have bought for Christmas, such as food, drink, travel and decorations.
Nearly four-fifths (79%) also feel it is important to support local businesses when shopping.
Andrei Ciripitca, vice president at American Express, said: “The festive period is an important time for businesses and shoppers alike, and we continue to see many people spreading their Christmas shopping throughout the year.”
Four in 10 (41%) shoppers said that deals and offers would influence their decisions to purchase gifts for family and friends, compared with 16% who said gift guides and 14% who said they were swayed into making purchases by Christmas adverts.
With the cost of living crisis still very much impacting people's financial decisions across the UK, here are some tips from the Money Saving Expert website on how to save money this Christmas.
Don't try to plan the perfect Christmas
Work out what you can afford to spend before planning a huge Christmas meal or lavish presents for everyone. Christmas is one day – don't ruin the whole of the next year for it.
Take discounts when you see them
No matter the time of year make the most of discounts when they stand out.
Use the web to hunt
The web usually beats the high street on price. To help, comparison sites search the net to find the cheapest books, games or anything else. Google Shopping is highly recommended by the Money Saving Expert.
Sell unwanted gifts
If you have gifts that are collecting dust in your house, why not sell them to boost your Christmas cash pot.
Additional reporting by PA Media.


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Nexus 6 Release Date: Will Device Sport HTC One (M8) Looks?
By Raymond Ronamai | April 10, 2014 2:22 AM EST
An interesting concept design of Google Nexus 6, which looks similar to the recently released HTC One (M8), has surfaced online as speculations on the release date of the device continue to do the rounds.
Screenshot from Google website
The concept Nexus 6, prepared by designer Aleksander Tesic, sports the looks of HTC One (M8), including the basic lines, curves and front bezel, according to a report by Gadget Insiders. Slim, sexy and sporty looks of the concept image is in line with HTC. It also features an edge-to-edge display and a metal body, with HTC proprietary BoomSound stereo speakers.
However, the concept design can be completely wrong if the device is based on LG G3, as speculated.
Conflicting reports on the release date of Nexus 6 have surfaced with some claiming that it would be unveiled after Google's I/O Developers Conference on 24 June or early July, while others say it would happen only in the final quarter of the year. Google's VP Sundar Pichai had hinted at the Mobile World Congress 2014 (MWC 2014) that the device would be announced perhaps only in October.
The release date of the device could be pushed further to November or even December as the Nexus series smartphones have been released only during that time of the year in the past, except the HTC Nexus One.
Several features of Nexus 6 have surfaced, despite Google not making any announcement. The device is expected to sport a 5.2-inch full HD curved LCD display, protected by Corning Gorilla Glass. It is expected to be powered by a 64-bit version of its Snapdragon 800-series chipset with 3GB RAM and run on Android OS (4.5), dubbed as Lollypop. It may also have a 13MP camera (main) and a 5MP front camera and come in three storage variants - 32GB/64GB/128GB.
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Virginia will offer a tax amnesty program sometime between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2018.
Seattle, Washington is the latest city to consider a tax on sugary beverages.
Many disaster preparedness supplies are exempt from Alabama sales tax during the Disaster Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday.
Pennsylvania wants retailers to remind consumers that use tax may be owed if sales tax wasn't collected at the point-of-sale.
A list of states offering tax-free periods in 2017.
In step with several other states, Colorado is now considering legislation that would exempt tampons and similar products.
A tax-free period for guns and ammunition is under consideration in both Arkansas and Tennessee.
As of January 1, 2018, candy and soft drinks will no longer be subject to the Arkansas reduced food tax. Digital goods like ebooks will also be taxed.
Massachusetts looking to close loophole that allows tax-free Airbnb rentals. Also under consideration: having credit card companies remit collected sales tax on a daily basis.
Shortly after North Dakota legislators voted down a proposed tampon tax exemption, Michigan lawmakers introduced one.


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Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Air-Conditioners Australia Pty Ltd (MHIAA) has once again been recognised by consumer comparison group Canstar Blue as the 2021 Most Satisfied Customer award winner in the air conditioners category.
This is the third year in a row that MHIAA have been awarded this prestigious honour by Australian consumers, making them one of the most awarded brands of air conditioners in Australia by taking out the award in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
This announcement follows the company’s recent win securing Australia’s Best Brand of Air Conditioners in 2021 by CHOICE for the fourth year in a row.
Canstar Blue prides itself on being rated as Australia’s Most Trusted Comparison site and helps Australian consumers make better purchasing decision by focusing on three elements of the consumer buying pattern including price monitoring, consumer research and expert ratings.
As part of their methodology, Canstar Blue asks respondents to rate their experience with air conditioning brands across six categories including: overall satisfaction, value for money, reliability, ease of use, functionality and features, noise while operating and connectivity.
Users are asked a qualifying question to determine if they have purchased an air conditioner within the last three years, before they can access the full survey.
Canstar Blue focuses on highlighting the voices of those customers with the most recent experience of engagement with each air conditioning brand to give Australians an up-to-date picture of how each brand continues to perform each year.
In the 2021 review, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries once again outperformed all other brands of air conditioners across all six categories to be awarded the 2021 Most Satisfied Customer Award.
Along with this, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was also the only brand to receive a 5-star rating for five out of the six categories including: overall satisfaction, reliability, ease of use, noise while operating, value for money and functions and features.
The Canstar Blue results have highlighted that once again reliability is a key driver for overall customer satisfaction from an air conditioning brand, one that managing director for MHIAA, Mr. Yuji Ito highlights as a driver for the company’s overall performance in Australia.
“Here at MHIAA we are proud to bring a reliable and high performing product to the Australian market and as a company we remain committed to this promise and delivery throughout Australia,” he said.
“The Canstar Blue 2021 Most Satisfied Customer award is an exceptional honour for all of us at MHIAA as it has been awarded to us by the Australian consumer who has tried and tested our products.”
As part of the results, Canstar Blue surveyed respondents from various age groups, household income levels and genders to provide a holistic review of Australia’s most reliable and satisfactory brand of air conditioners.
For managing director, Mr Yuji Ito, this acknowledgement of merit from Australian consumers is an incredible honour for the company who have since become Australia’s most awarded Brand of Air conditioners in just over 20 years.
“While the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries group and our parent company in Japan have over 300 years of excellence, the company itself has only been operating on this level for just over 20 years within Australia,” he said.
“To see the results of the Canstar Blue research and the response of Australian consumers to our product is an incredible honour. On behalf of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, I would like to thank Canstar Blue and Australian consumers for recognising us with this honour for the third year in a row.”


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In May of 2011, a political evangelist for the Swedish Pirate Party, Rick Falkvinge, posted that he was putting all his savings into Bitcoin, which was trading at the time for $8.30 USD per coin.
People thought he was crazy, but history has shown it was an astonishingly smart move, with Bitcoin trading at $18,000 a coin today in November of 2020, roughly a 2,100x on his initial investment.
What really caught -my- attention was what he wrote in June 2011, outlined below, which looked at the long term strategy for Bitcoin, and the things it needed to overcome to be adopted.
First, the drivers. What is it making people interested in a crypto currency, why were people using it, what was the motivation?
Bitcoin’s Four Drivers:
- Unlawful Trade – https://falkvinge.net/2011/06/16/bitcoins-four-drivers-part-one-unlawful-trade/
- International Trade – https://falkvinge.net/2011/06/18/bitcoins-four-drivers-part-two-international-trade/
- Merchant Trade – https://falkvinge.net/2011/07/03/bitcoins-four-drivers-part-3-merchant-trade/
- Investment – https://falkvinge.net/2011/07/05/bitcoins-four-drivers-part-4-investment/
9 years later, the world is a different place. Illegal usage, which at one time was more than 80% of the transactions, thanks to Silk-Road and others, has dropped to an estimated 5% or less. International trade hasn’t caught up, but Merchant trade has risen sharply, with merchants like Bitpay (https://bitpay.com/) doing millions of dollars a day for big names like Microsoft, Newegg, Twitch, etc. Even Paypal got in on it, announcing the ability to buy/sell Bitcoin via their service. (https://news.bitcoin.com/paypal-crypto-service-venmo/)
Investment has also exploded, with Wall Street investment firms offering funds, like Grayscale, who, as of this article, holds more than $5 billion in Bitcoin. The Chicago Mercatile Exchange (CME) even sells Bitcoin Futures (https://www.cmegroup.com/trading/equity-index/us-index/bitcoin.html)
With the price threatening the ATH of $20k, even the top 0.1% have noticed. According to a poll this month, 73% of billionaires will invest in Crypto before the end of 2022, or already have. (https://news.bitcoin.com/millionaires-fomo-73-own-bitcoin/)
Another set of challenges that Falkvinge outlined were the hurdles to adoption:
Bitcoin’s Four Hurdles:
- Usability – https://falkvinge.net/2011/06/04/bitcoins-four-hurdles-part-one-usability/
- Transactions – https://falkvinge.net/2011/06/06/bitcoins-four-hurdles-part-two-transactions/
- Escrow – https://falkvinge.net/2011/06/08/bitcoins-four-hurdles-part-three-escrow/
- Exchanges – https://falkvinge.net/2011/06/10/bitcoins-four-hurdles-part-four-exchanges/
While Usability and Transactions raised some valid points, Escrow and Exchanges are far stronger today than they were in 2011.
Escrow Services haven’t taken off as much as exchanges, but there are several active ones today.
- IBC Group
- ItBit Escrow
So the questions of the day.. Should I buy Bitcoin? How do I buy Bitcoin? If you made it this far, you deserve short answers. 🙂
Unless you have a clear use-case, Cryptocurrency should be looked at as an investment. And like any investment, you shouldn’t risk any money you can’t afford to lose. Don’t mortgage your house, don’t raid your kids college fund, only play with money you won’t miss. At this stage in the game, investing in crypto is just like investing in a stock. There are really smart people who have spent years learning market movements, staring at screens 18 hours a day, who still lose massive amounts of money in the stock market. Trading is a skill you refine with education and practice.
Important – Bitcoin (and others) can be sub-divided down to 8 decimal places. That means you can buy 0.00000001 BTC – which today is $0.00018 USD if you want. you do NOT have to buy a complete coin.
Should you decide you’d like to by some Crypto, you have multiple ways to do it, from the exchanges listed above, to Bitcoin ATM’s. Bitcoin ATM’s?? Yep – there are more than 12,000 ATM’s planet wide, buying and selling Crypto. You’ll pay more in fees than using an exchange, but check the Bitcoin ATM Map, you might be able to just walk into the local mall, insert some cash, and leave with a some fractional coin. Sit on it, watch the market, and enjoy the ride.


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The Met Ball is this Monday, and obviously we can't wait to see who will be in attendance and what everyone will be wearing to fashion prom.
Excitement reached a fever pitch at last night's fancy Balmain dinner, where we got to rub shoulders with the label's young designer Oliver Rousteing, Anthony Vaccarello, and models Arizona Muse, Constance Jablonksi, Kasia Struss and Karlie Kloss. Of course, all anyone could talk about was Monday's big event--though both Vaccarello and Rousteing said they were "nervous" to walk the red carpet amidst such a media frenzy.
We got the dish on who Rousteing and Vaccarello will be taking and what they'll be wearing, but we're not the only ones who've been doing our detective work: Over the past few days, lots of tidbits have been filtering in about the big event.
So, without further ado, here is everything we know (so far) about the Met Ball: • Balmain's Oliver Rousteing is taking Joan Smalls. As for what she'll be wearing, Rousteing tells me that, after a long fitting they decided they would choose the dress on the day of the event. "I'll let her choose, because everything looks good on her anyway," he said. "So it's a surprise for me too [what she'll be wearing]!" The designer, himself, says he "will wear a bow." [ed. note: We're pretty sure the adorable Parisian means bow-tie.] "Which is a big statement for me, I think," he continued. "I think I have not worn one since I was four years old." Aw.
• Anthony Vaccarello is taking Anja Rubik, who will no doubt look stunning in his slit-to-there dresses.
• Erdem Moralioglu is taking Arizona Muse, whose hair, btw, is much better IRL.
• Rachel Zoe and Rodger Berman are taking Karolina Kurkova
• Thakoon Panichgul is taking Christina Ricci
• After all that brouhaha yesterday, it turns out that (shocker!) Kate Upton did not buy her own Met ticket after all. Yeah, models don't generally buy their own tickets to the Met ball. According to Elle.com, the model-of-the-moment will be attending the big event on the arm of Michael Kors. Jessica Alba, Hillary Swank and Liu Wen will be there in Kors as well.
• Donna Karan's date is surprisingly flat--literally. The designer will be taking a cartoon as her date to the Met Ball: Cartoon supermodel Polly Bean, who is the creation of famed cartoonist Neil Kerber, will wear a custom "curve-enhancing" red dress and will sit top table with Donna Karan and her guests, according to a press release. "To be invited to attend the Met Ball as one of Donna Karan's special guests and to be dressed by such an icon (like myself)....what more could any girl want?" Bean told us. "I did a fitting with DKNY PR GIRL at the Donna Karan headquarters and we connected straight away...This is just what tends to happen when two incredible personalities meet up....it's chemistry!" We can't wait to see how this turns out!
• Derek Lam is taking Katharina Harf, cofounder and executive vice president of DKMS Americas, an organization that hosts the largest bone-marrow-donor center in the world. Harf is apparently nine months pregnant--so let's just hope she doesn't go into labor over all the sartorial excitement at the Met Ball!
• Coco Rocha is bucking the trend of going as a designer's date and will instead, be on the arm of hubby James Cochran, according to the Post's Alexa magazine. Rocha will wear a vintage Givenchy dress that she bought a couple of months ago. "This is actually the first time I’ve ever worn something that wasn’t fitted by the designer himself,” she told Alexa. “I did take the vintage Givenchy piece to my friend Zac Posen and to Vogue and they all agreed that it fits perfectly, no need for tailoring!" As for her beauty look, Rocha says it will be "all about Schiaparelli pink."
• It's not just models and designers who will be suiting up for the big event: Star ballplayers like Victor Cruz, Tim Tebow, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony, are all expected to attend, according to Alexa.
• Lauren Santo Domingo will wear an Oscar de la Renta dress, according to Moda Operandi Magazine.
• Heidi Klum will wear a "very very lacy and very very see-through" Escada dress, according to Hello.
• Alexander Wang is taking Azealia Banks, who will also perform.
• The Proenza Schouler boys are taking Isabel Lucas, according to The Cut.
• The Vogue editors will all wear pink.
Click through for photos from last night's Balmain dinner, courtesy of KCD.